Speakers

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Felix Albrecht (Dr theol., born 1981) started his research on the Septuagint at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony in 2008. Since the beginning of 2020, he is in charge of the Academy project "DieEditio critica maiordes griechischen Psalters". He is also Secretary of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies. His interests focus on the Greek Bible in the context of Hellenistic Judaism with its reception and transmission history

University Affiliation:  Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen

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Stefan Attard read for a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, a Bachelor in Sacred Theology and a Licentiate in Pastoral Theology at the University of Malta and was ordained a Catholic priest. After two years of full-time ministry in a parish, he specialized in Scripture studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, defending his doctoral thesis entitled The Structural Scheme Ordering Book II of the Psalter (Psalms 42–72)–A Synchronic Analysisin 2013 at the same Institute in Rome after spending several months doing research at the École Bibliqueet Archéologique Française de Jérusalem. He is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sacred Scripture, Hebrew and Greek of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Malta where he has been engaged in teaching since 2013. He is presently Head of Department of Sacred Scripture, Hebrew and Greek and the Dean of the Faculty of Theology.

University Affiliation: University of Malta

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Egbert Ballhorn studied Catholic theology (and chemistry) in Bonn, Vienna and Jerusalem from 1988-1994. He completed his studies in 1994 with a diploma (Catholic theology) and in 1995 with a state examination (chemistry/Catholic religious education). In 2001, he received his doctorate in theology from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. In 2009, he habilitated there in the subject of Old Testament. From 2002-2012, he was a lecturer in Biblical Theology at the Episcopal Seminary in Hildesheim and director of the Hildesheim Bible School. Since 2012, he has been Professor of Exegesis and Theology of the Old Testament at the Institute for Catholic Theology at the Technical University of Dortmund. Ballhorn ist chairman of the association “Katholisches Bibelwerk e.V.”Ballhorn's research focuses on the biblical books of Psalms, Joshua and Baruch

University Affiliation: Technische Universität Dortmund

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Eberhard Bons has studied theology, philosophy and Romance languages at theuniversities of Mainz, Tübingen, Rome (Gregorian University), and Frankfurt(Faculty of Sankt Georgen). In 1988 he obtained a PhD degree from the University of Mainz. In 1993, he also earned a doctoral degree in theology (biblical exegesis) from the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule St. Georgen, Francfort. He received his habilitation in 2000 from the University of Strasbourg (France),where he taught as a Professor of Old Testament Exegesis from 2004 to 2023. Bons is a member of the editorial board of Septuaginta Deutsch (Stuttgart:Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2009–2011) and co-editor of the Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint (Mohr Siebeck) as well as of the book series The Septuagint in Its Ancient Context (Brepols). Moreover, he has edited several books on Septuagint studies, Old Testament prophetism, and biblical monotheism. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Accademia Ambrosiana (Milan), “Classe di Studi sul Vicino Oriente,” sezione ebraica.

 University Affiliation: Université de Strasbourg

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David Davage, PhD, is Director of Studies and Associate Professor in Biblical Studies at ALT School of Theology, Umeå, Sweden. His work on the psalms includes the monograph The Formation of the Book of Psalms(Mohr Siebeck, 2016) and a number of articles and book chapters on paratextual activity, especially in the Second Temple period. His latest book, How Isaiah Became an Author(Fortress, 2022), discusses ancient notions of authorship in dialogue with the paratextual framing of the book of Isaiah. Davage is the editor-in-chief of the interdisciplinary academic journal HYBRID, and editorial secretary of Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok. For a full CV, see: https://altutbildning.academia.edu/DavidDavage.

University Affiliation: ALT School of Theology

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Sue Gillingham (D.D.) is Emeritus Professor of the Hebrew Bible at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, where she has lectured, tutored undergraduates and supervised graduates for over forty years. She has published some ten books and some eighty papers. Psalms through the Centuries (2008,2018,2022),which has taken up twenty-five years of her life, is a reception history study of the Psalter as a whole, from Qumran to the present day, looking at Jewish and Christan representations of the psalms not only through translation and the commentary tradition but also through art, music, literature, liturgy, and film. She is currently writing another Psalms commentary in the Penguin World Classics Series, arguing that the Book of Psalms is justifiably a‘World Classic’ and of universal value in what it says about God and humankind. Sue was ordained to the Permanent Deaconate in the Church of England in 2018 and serves in the parish of St Barnabas in Jericho, Oxford. She is also a Canon Theologian at Exeter Cathedral.

University Affiliation: Oxford University

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Chrysi Kotsifou finished her PhD at King’s College, University of London in Byzantine Studies. Since then she has held a series of research and teaching positions at the Catholic University of America, Princeton University, Columbia University, the American University in Cairo, Oxford University, and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. She specializes in the social and cultural history of late antique Egypt with an emphasis on monasticism and manuscript studies. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the project Digitale Gesamt edition und Übersetzung des koptisch-sahidischen Alten Testaments at the Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. She is in charge of the edition of the Book of Psalms. Some of her publications include ‘Some Considerations on Women and Book Production in Late Antique Egypt,’ in Pharaonen, Mönche und Gelehrte. Auf dem Pilgerweg durch 5000 Jahre ägyptische Geschichte über drei Kontinente. Heike Behlmer zum 65. Geburtstag, eds.D. Atanassova, F. Feder, H. Sternbergel-Hotabi, Wiesbaden, 429-459, 2023;‘Bookbinding and manuscript illumination in Late Antique and early Medieval monastic circles in Egypt’, in Manuscripts, Scribes and Context, ed. J. P.Monferrer-Sala and S. Torallas Tovar, Peeters Publishers, 213–244, 2012; and ‘Books and book production in the monastic communities of Byzantine Egypt,’ in The Early Christian Book, ed.William Klingshirn and Linda Safran, The Catholic University of America Press, 48–66, 2007. Organized conferences and workshops include,C. Kotsifou and S. Rubenson (organizers,workshop): Education and Literary Activity in Early Palestinian Monasticism: the Archaeological and the Manuscript Evidence, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 22–23 October,2014; and C. Kotsifou and E. Iricinschi (organizers, conference): Coping with Change: Adapting Religions and Adopting Transformations in the Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 3–5 June, 2013. From 2006 to 2012 she was the epigraphist and a field archaeologist, at the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project, Monastery of Saint John the Little, Wadi ’n Natrun, Egypt

University of Affiliation: Akademie der Wissenschaften – Göttingen

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Kathrin Liess completed her doctorate at the University of Tübingen with a thesis on life and death in the Psalms. She has been a lecturer at the University of Munich where she wrote her “Habilitationsschrift” on the so-called messianic expectations in the Book of Isaiah. In October 2024, she will take up the professorship for Old Testament and Biblical Theology at Reutlingen School of Theology. Her research focuses on Old Testament theology and anthropology, on the Psalms and Prophets.

University Affiliation: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

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Drew Longacre is a Research Associate at Duke University and co-director with Brent Strawn on the Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition Psalms 1-50, where they aim to create the first digital, eclectic edition of the Hebrew Psalms. Longacre is a specialist in the manuscripts and texts of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles and has spearheaded the use of digital workspaces for the production of critical editions of the Hebrew Bible

University Affiliation: Duke University

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Margherita Matera Since 2021: Mitarbeiterin des Vorhabens at the Project Editio critica maior des griechischen Psalters, Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen.2021: Ph.D. in Greek Paleography and Philosophy, Labex Hastec (EPHE), Paris, with a dissertation focusing on the study of the palimpsest manuscript Parisinus graecus1330 containing the oldest Greek witness to the Corpus Dionysiacum (9th century) together with some ancient and unpublished schemes of Aristotelian logic (5th-6th century): Les textes dionysiens du manuscrit palimpseste Parisinus graecus 1330,avec unexcursussur lesschémas inédits de logique aristotélicienne. Main research interests: Greek manuscripts, especially palimpsests. From 2021 to the present, my research includes also the study of the manuscript tradition of the LXX Psalms and the commentary on the Psalms by Theodoret of Cyrrhus

University Affiliation: Akademie der Wissenschaften – Göttingen

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Marco Pavan (1975) is currently adjunct professor of Old Testament at the Pontifical University St.Thomas Aquinas (Rome) and adjunct of Syriac language and literature at the Roma Tre University. He earned his Ph.D. at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 2014 («He Remembered that They Were butFlesh, a Breath that Passes and Does Not Return» (Ps 78,39). The Theme of Memory and Forgetting in the Third Book of the Psalter [ÖBS 44; Peter Lang, Frankfurt a.M. 2014]). He co-authored two volumes on Psalms exegesis: S.ATTARD–M. PAVAN,«Canterò in eterno le misericordie del Signore» (Sal 89,2). Studi in onore del prof. Gianni Barbiero in occasione del suo settantesimo compleanno (AnBib.Studia 3; Roma 2015); G.BARBIERO–M.PAVAN–J.SCHNOCKS,The Formation of the Hebrew Psalter.The Book of Psalms Between Ancient Versions, Material Transmission and Canonical Exegesis (FAT.2151; Tübingen 2021). He also published some articles on the «politicaltheology» of the Psalms.

University Affiliation: Pontifical University St Thomas Aquinas

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Alison Salvesen is a Professor of Early Judaism and Christianity; Supernumerary Fellow in Oriental Studies, Mansfield College 

Her main research is in the area of ancient interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. This includes the Greek Septuagint, the later Jewish Greek versions, the Aramaic Targums, the Peshitta Syriac version, and St Jerome's Vulgate translation. She also works on the reception history of these versions during the formative periods of rabbinic Judaism and of Christianity.

Current Projects:

She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Hexapla Institute and Project, to create an electronic database of the surviving material from Origen's multicolumnar Old Testament. Her own work for the project is an edition of the Greek fragments of the Book of Exodus. Researching for a monograph on the Syrian Orthodox scholar and bishop, Jacob of Edessa (d. 708), to incorporate selected highlights of his works in modern English translation.

University Affiliation: Oxford University

 

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Daniela Scialabba is Associate Professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In 2021, she qualified as Associate Professor (“National Scientific Habilitation”) in Italy. Co-editor of the second volume of the Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint (Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen/FSCIRE, Bologna/Palermo) and member of the Editorial board of the series “Septuagint and Cognate Studies” (SCS) of the Society Biblical Literature, she collaborates in various international projects on the study of the Septuagint. She is a member of various scientific associations (Abi, Acfeb, EuARe, Ioscs, Sbl)  in some of which she holds positions of responsibility. Her research deals with the Old Testament (Hebrew and Greek) and the Jewish literature in Greek. In 2019, she has published the monograph Creation and Salvation. Models of Relationship between the God of Israel and the Nations in the Book of Jonah, in Psalm 33 (MT and LXX) and in the Novel 'Joseph and Aseneth' (FAT II/106, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck) that has been awarded the “Premio Alberigo”. She is co-editor (with L. Pessoa) of the volume New Avenues in the Exegesis of the Bible in the Light of the LXX (‘The Septuagint in its Ancient Context’, Turnhout: Brepols, 2022). Morover, she co-edited  a short introduction to the Septuagint published in Italian and Spanish as well as of several other volumes on the vocabulary and the Hellenistic background of this ancient version of the Bible.

University Affiliation: Pontifical Biblical Institute

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Johannes Schnocks studied Catholic theology in Bonn and Jerusalem. He was a research assistant to Frank Lothar Hossfeld in Bonn. He received his doctorate in Bonn with athesis on Ps 90 and the fourth book of Psalms and habilitated there with a thesis onatheology of resurrection in the Old Testament. Since 2012, he has been Professor of History and Religion of the Old Testament at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Münster

 

University Affiliation: University of Münster, Institute for Biblical Exegesis and Theology.

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Brent A. Strawn is D. Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law at Duke University. He has edited over thirty volumes to date, including the award-winning The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (Oxford,2015). He has authored over 250 articles, essays, and contributions to reference works, as well as six books, most recently The Incomparable God: Readings in Biblical Theology (Eerdmans, 2023). Strawn is an ordained in The United Methodist Church and has served as a translator and editor for the Common English Bible(2011) and the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (2022)

University Affiliation: Duke University

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Willem Th. van Peursen, PhD Leiden University, 1999 is Professor of Old Testament at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and director of the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC). His publications include the monographs The Verbal System in the Hebrew Text of Ben Sira (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 41; Leiden: Brill,2004) Language and Interpretation in the Syriac Text of Ben Sira. A Comparative Linguistic and Literary Study (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute Leiden 16; Leiden:Brill) and The Two Syriac Versions of the Prayer of Manasseh (with A. Gutman; GorgiasEastern Christian Studies 30; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2011). Currently, his research focuses on the application of computational analysis to ancient Hebrew and Syriac texts, and concerns, among others, the project "A Parser for Biblical Hebrew and SyriacMorphology"

University Affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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Harry F Van Rooy is emeritus professor in Old Testament and Semitics at the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus), South Africa. He received his PhD in 1977and taught Semitics and Old Testament at his alma mater during 1980-2014. He served on the executive committees of the Old Testament Society (1992-2004; chair1998-2004) and the South African Society of Near Eastern Studies (1988-2000;chair 1996-2000). He has served on the editorial board of Old Testament Studies since 1999. He was a member of the steering committee and the Old Testament editorial committee of the 2020 Afrikaans translation of the Bible. His publications include Studies on the Syriac Apocryphal Psalms(1999) and The East Syriac Psalm Headings: A Critical Edition(2013)

University of Affiliation: North-West University – South Africa

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Beat Weber, M.Th. (STH Basel) & Dr. theol. (University of Basel). Author and open for giving some lectures at universities/theological seminaries. He was Reverend of the Evangelisch-reformierte Kirchgemeinde Linden (Emmental, Bern / Switzerland) 1994–2016. Since 2017 he lives in Basel and is doing freelancing. He received the Tobias Beck Award 2011 for  " Werkbuch Psalmen III – Theologie und Spiritualität des Psalters und seiner Psalmen“. Kindly access his CV and Publications 

University Affiliation: University of Pretoria (Dept. of Ancient and Modern Languages and Cultures)


https://www.um.edu.mt/events/psalms2025/speakers/