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School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures

Typology of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature in Antiquity, c. 200 BCE to c. 700 CE

Welcome

Welcome to the website of the research project "Typology of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature of Antiquity, c. 200 BCE to c. 700 CE".

This is a four-year project (2007-2011) at the University of Manchester and Durham University, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. It aims to describe the literary characteristics of a large number of ancient documents important for the development of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

Aramaic Studies Summer 2011 Issue

We are pleased to announce the publication of an issue of Aramaic Studies devoted to the use of the Inventory of Literary Features in profiling ancient Jewish texts.

The issue runs to almost 250 pages, and contains articles by Alex Samely, Philip Alexander, Robert Hayward and Rocco Bernasconi, each of which explores different aspects of the text profiles. The issue also features a number of database profiles, the latest draft of the Inventory and an introduction to the project and the Inventory’s usage.

The issue will be available through the Aramaic Studies website, and some articles are also available for download here:

Inventory of Structurally Important Literary Features

We have recently published the Inventory of Structurally Important Literary Features online and in PDF format. This Inventory is a systematically organized list of all structurally important literary features we have identified as occurring in the corpus of anonymous and pseudepigraphic Jewish literature of antiquity. The corpus is largely co-extensive with the four groups of texts usually known as Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Apocrypha of the Old Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls (but only those that are nearly complete), and rabbinic literature up to the end of the Talmudic period.

The Inventory lists every literary feature that occurs at least once in the Project corpus. Each point is defined in its own terms, but stands in systematic relationship to neighbouring points (of the same level of generality or not). The Inventory is the basis for a "profiling" of the literary surface of hundreds of texts, to be published separately as an online Database. Further information >

Workshop, 11-12 July 2011
The Literary Structures of Ancient Jewish Literature

On 11-12 July this year, a workshop on problems in the literary analysis of post-biblical Jewish literature was held in Manchester. The workshop was be discussion-based, but also introduced the use of the Inventory and of the pre-publication Database for sample texts, including texts suggested by participants. The workshop was attended by colleagues, post-docs and postgraduate research students from around the world. Further information >

Forum

We have also established a forum to facilitate public discussion around the Inventory, Workshop, and other aspects of the Project. Further information >

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