Byzantine News

American archaeologists have recently found what they believe to be the first non-biblical scene in a synagogue mosaic. The report mentions three mosaics with very different iconographic models found in the 5th c. synagogue at Huqoq, in Israel’s Lower Galilee. In particular, what struck the researchers was the image of an elephant, an animal which can be rarely found in the Hebrew Bible but it was generally associated with Alexander the Great. Click here to read the full report

Nestle Novum Testamentum online: http://t.co/rSc374prm8 #byzantium #texts #bible — Byzantine Philology (@byzantinephil) June 20, 2013

2013 Byzantine Symposium The New Testament in Byzantium Co-Symposiarchs: Robert Nelson and Derek Krueger April 26 – 28, 2013 Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Dumbarton Oaks is pleased to announce the annual Byzantine symposium, to be held in the Music Room of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., from Friday, April 26 – Sunday, April 28, 2013. Please note that the symposium will be two full days and one partial day session: sessions will begin at 9 am on Friday, and conclude Sunday afternoon. The New Testament lay at the center of Byzantine Christian thought and practice. Scribes copied its gospels and epistles. Lectionaries apportioned much of its contents over the course of the liturgical calendar; its narratives structured the experience of liturgical time and shaped the nature of Christian preaching. Quoted, alluded to, and expounded, it inspired and fueled the genres of hagiography and hymnography. Patrons and illustrators brought scenes from the life of Christ and ...

--> A book on the Byzantine books of Job: Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Book of Job . A Preliminary Study of the Miniature Illustrations. Its Origin and Development. Of all the Old Testament books, the Book of Job remains acutely contemporary today. Written between the 6th and 3rd c. B.C., it deals with subjects such as the presence of evil in the world, the misery, the quest for justice, the faith, and the behavior of people when they face sudden twists and turns of life. It seems that the ancient text had been illustrated since the Early Christian period because of its fascinating novel-like narrative style. In her own study on the Book of Job, Stella Papadaki-Oekland probes into all the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts of the illustrated Greek text. The number of miniature illustrations included in these fifteen manuscripts, dating from the 9th to the 16th century, comes to more than 1800 of which 2/3 of the about 380 illustrated herein are previously unpublis...