Sofia 2024 Call for Papers
The study of ancient versions has seen a great increase in recent years, with new editions, translations, commentaries and studies appearing not only for the Septuagint (LXX), but also for its daughter versions, the Targumim, and the Vulgate. Apart from the text-critical value of the versions, the identification and evaluation of theological and ethical transformations calls for increased scrutiny. Two main challenges can be identified here: First, the question of whether transformations should be evaluated with an eye on the production process or on the textual strategies of the translated text; second, although especially LXX, Targumic and Vulgate Studies have significantly grown into fields of their own, scholarly exchange among the subfields has been limited. This workshop seeks to address these challenges by discussing and developing methods regarding theological and ethical transformations in an environment where scholars working in different subfields and with different approaches on ancient translations come into dialogue. At the same time, it promotes interdisciplinary exchange between scholars in different subfields of biblical studies.
For the EABS meeting of 2024, this workshop accepts abstracts from scholars who are working on any ancient translation of the Bible (e.g. LXX, Targumim, Vulgate etc.). Since the focus of this workshop is the ethical and theological transformations in the ancient Bible translations and the methods to study such transformations, we accept abstracts which address the following (potential) topics:
- The role of the translator’s intention when assessing transformations
- The linguistic and literary profile of the translated texts and its contribution to the texts’ theology and/or ethics
- Methodologies used in Biblical Studies more generally and their potential for assessing (theological and ethical) transformations, e.g. narratology, intertextuality, rhetorical criticism etc.
The abstracts are expected to specify the methodological approach employed and the particular text it is applied to.
