Joshua Alfaro
@joshuaalfaro.bsky.social
Septuagint studies, Hebrew Bible, and all things Esther. Available for proofreading and editing academic publications. All memes handcrafted by me. https://gastrosophie.academia.edu/JoshuaAlfaro
"What is concealed in the name Esther?" (Homicide, 1991).
November 6, 2025 at 5:16 PM
"What is concealed in the name Esther?" (Homicide, 1991).
Cambridge University theological exam from 1884 includes questions on (1) the textual problems of 1-2 Samuel; (2) text from the hexapla, Aquila, and Symmachus; and (3) the translation "revised [!] in 1611" (i.e., the King James Version), and the Complutensian Polyglot.
November 5, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Cambridge University theological exam from 1884 includes questions on (1) the textual problems of 1-2 Samuel; (2) text from the hexapla, Aquila, and Symmachus; and (3) the translation "revised [!] in 1611" (i.e., the King James Version), and the Complutensian Polyglot.
31 Oct Lyon/online: « Jérôme et les sources juives et chrétiennes de la
Vulgate » avec Paul Rodrigue, à 13h au 22 rue Sala, Lyon 2e, 1er étage, cnrs.zoom.us/j/99701628112?…
ID de réunion: 997 0162 8112
Code secret: h7VMUv
Vulgate » avec Paul Rodrigue, à 13h au 22 rue Sala, Lyon 2e, 1er étage, cnrs.zoom.us/j/99701628112?…
ID de réunion: 997 0162 8112
Code secret: h7VMUv
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.
https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/99701628112?…
October 27, 2025 at 5:49 PM
31 Oct Lyon/online: « Jérôme et les sources juives et chrétiennes de la
Vulgate » avec Paul Rodrigue, à 13h au 22 rue Sala, Lyon 2e, 1er étage, cnrs.zoom.us/j/99701628112?…
ID de réunion: 997 0162 8112
Code secret: h7VMUv
Vulgate » avec Paul Rodrigue, à 13h au 22 rue Sala, Lyon 2e, 1er étage, cnrs.zoom.us/j/99701628112?…
ID de réunion: 997 0162 8112
Code secret: h7VMUv
The majority of biblical scholars know that appeals to “the majority of biblical scholars” so often mask complex debates, crucial assumptions, and the incidental nature of evidence.
October 27, 2025 at 12:13 PM
The majority of biblical scholars know that appeals to “the majority of biblical scholars” so often mask complex debates, crucial assumptions, and the incidental nature of evidence.
Remember the Panbabylonianism of the late 19th/early 20th century? We’re now living in an era of Pan-Persianism, where everyone wants to date everything to the Persian period. I can only express my surprise that more papers aren’t titled “Like a Persian.”
October 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Remember the Panbabylonianism of the late 19th/early 20th century? We’re now living in an era of Pan-Persianism, where everyone wants to date everything to the Persian period. I can only express my surprise that more papers aren’t titled “Like a Persian.”
Did you know that if you simply ignore the difference between Classical Biblical Hebrew and Late Biblical Hebrew, you can date a biblical text to any period you want?
October 23, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Did you know that if you simply ignore the difference between Classical Biblical Hebrew and Late Biblical Hebrew, you can date a biblical text to any period you want?
At a Coldplay concert reading the 8th volume of Gerhard Kittel’s Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament and shaking my head the whole time so the people who see me on the Kiss Cam know I disagree with it.
October 11, 2025 at 5:16 PM
At a Coldplay concert reading the 8th volume of Gerhard Kittel’s Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament and shaking my head the whole time so the people who see me on the Kiss Cam know I disagree with it.
Hybrid meeting: Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Biblical Hebrew, 7 November 2025, 9:30–17:00 (CET), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/online. Register here: networkinstitute.org/2025/10/03/e...
October 7, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Hybrid meeting: Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Biblical Hebrew, 7 November 2025, 9:30–17:00 (CET), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/online. Register here: networkinstitute.org/2025/10/03/e...
Call for Papers: 2026 Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies, March 13-15, 2026 Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN. Submissions due January 9, 2026 mailchi.mp/283c7c7cfe58...
September 17, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Call for Papers: 2026 Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies, March 13-15, 2026 Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN. Submissions due January 9, 2026 mailchi.mp/283c7c7cfe58...
It was an honor to contribute an essay to this festschrift for Robert Hanhart, whose edition of Septuagint Esther has been a constant companion on my desk for many years.
September 15, 2025 at 1:33 PM
It was an honor to contribute an essay to this festschrift for Robert Hanhart, whose edition of Septuagint Esther has been a constant companion on my desk for many years.
Chiasm-haters need to read Teeter's essay "Biblical Symmetry and Its Modern Detractors," which deals with *why* scholarship became skeptical but also finds that "biblical compositions appear designed to be read and understood as a fractal-like hierarchy of recursively embedded structural levels."
September 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Chiasm-haters need to read Teeter's essay "Biblical Symmetry and Its Modern Detractors," which deals with *why* scholarship became skeptical but also finds that "biblical compositions appear designed to be read and understood as a fractal-like hierarchy of recursively embedded structural levels."
I'll be presenting for the EABS Graduate Seminar on September 18th at 7:00pm CEST on "A More Ethical Esther? Violence in the Versions of Esther 8–9." Message me if you would like the Zoom link.
September 5, 2025 at 11:12 AM
I'll be presenting for the EABS Graduate Seminar on September 18th at 7:00pm CEST on "A More Ethical Esther? Violence in the Versions of Esther 8–9." Message me if you would like the Zoom link.
You: I will write a balanced book review with fair critiques where necessary.
Michael V. Fox: Here's a scathing review of a whole academic journal that shouldn't even exist.
Michael V. Fox: Here's a scathing review of a whole academic journal that shouldn't even exist.
September 1, 2025 at 7:52 PM
You: I will write a balanced book review with fair critiques where necessary.
Michael V. Fox: Here's a scathing review of a whole academic journal that shouldn't even exist.
Michael V. Fox: Here's a scathing review of a whole academic journal that shouldn't even exist.
Reposted by Joshua Alfaro
🧵(1) Exciting news regarding the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML) project, which photographed more than 9,000 manuscripts in Ethiopia from 1973 to 1994 and is the largest repository for scholarly access to texts in Geʻez.
hmml.org/collections/...
hmml.org/collections/...
Update: Cataloging progress on the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML)
Update: Cataloging progress on the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML) page
hmml.org
August 12, 2025 at 2:38 PM
🧵(1) Exciting news regarding the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML) project, which photographed more than 9,000 manuscripts in Ethiopia from 1973 to 1994 and is the largest repository for scholarly access to texts in Geʻez.
hmml.org/collections/...
hmml.org/collections/...
My #IOSOT2025 book haul is clearly dominated by Georgian children’s books.
August 15, 2025 at 5:02 AM
My #IOSOT2025 book haul is clearly dominated by Georgian children’s books.
Someone at #IOSOT2025 brought their 2013 Munich bag, still in good shape 12 years later. They just don’t make conference bags like they used to.
August 14, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Someone at #IOSOT2025 brought their 2013 Munich bag, still in good shape 12 years later. They just don’t make conference bags like they used to.
I got my copy of Speaking to Job in Greek signed by the author! @maxavenariolus.bsky.social @dgb-relbibtheo.bsky.social #IOSOT2025
August 13, 2025 at 6:12 AM
I got my copy of Speaking to Job in Greek signed by the author! @maxavenariolus.bsky.social @dgb-relbibtheo.bsky.social #IOSOT2025
Biblical scholars love to find an inscription that says “Only the LORD is God” and say “Actually, that presupposes polytheism.”
August 2, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Biblical scholars love to find an inscription that says “Only the LORD is God” and say “Actually, that presupposes polytheism.”
"wow, you study the Bible, so you must be a pastor or rabbi or something, right?"
July 21, 2025 at 2:12 PM
"wow, you study the Bible, so you must be a pastor or rabbi or something, right?"
Reposted by Joshua Alfaro
Working with high-res medieval manuscript images?
Just published our practical IIIF-based solution that's transformed how we handle manuscript fragments in paratextuality research and manuscript studies overall
digital.csic.es/handle/10261...
#medievalmanuscripts #paratexts #IIIF #codicology #HHDD
Just published our practical IIIF-based solution that's transformed how we handle manuscript fragments in paratextuality research and manuscript studies overall
digital.csic.es/handle/10261...
#medievalmanuscripts #paratexts #IIIF #codicology #HHDD
July 1, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Working with high-res medieval manuscript images?
Just published our practical IIIF-based solution that's transformed how we handle manuscript fragments in paratextuality research and manuscript studies overall
digital.csic.es/handle/10261...
#medievalmanuscripts #paratexts #IIIF #codicology #HHDD
Just published our practical IIIF-based solution that's transformed how we handle manuscript fragments in paratextuality research and manuscript studies overall
digital.csic.es/handle/10261...
#medievalmanuscripts #paratexts #IIIF #codicology #HHDD
Lecture (online and in-person): "Translation as imperialism: Late Greek Poetics and the Hebrew Bible" by Tim Whitmarsh, Durham University, Ritson Room, Department of Classics. 19 June 2025, 5:00pm. Register here: tinyurl.com/43mue34c
June 10, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Lecture (online and in-person): "Translation as imperialism: Late Greek Poetics and the Hebrew Bible" by Tim Whitmarsh, Durham University, Ritson Room, Department of Classics. 19 June 2025, 5:00pm. Register here: tinyurl.com/43mue34c
Publishers: a very simple thing you can do to sell more books is to put the Table of Contents on the website.
June 8, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Publishers: a very simple thing you can do to sell more books is to put the Table of Contents on the website.
I discovered Esther among the Coca-Cola scrolls. I mean bottles.
May 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
I discovered Esther among the Coca-Cola scrolls. I mean bottles.
"From Giant to Pocket Bibles: The Development of the Size of Biblical Manuscripts," 19 June 2025, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Romero Room, COVE 02.10, Sint-Michielsstraat 4, Leuven
May 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
"From Giant to Pocket Bibles: The Development of the Size of Biblical Manuscripts," 19 June 2025, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Romero Room, COVE 02.10, Sint-Michielsstraat 4, Leuven
Book talk (in-person and Zoom): The Book of Esther: Themes and Issues, edited by Kristin Joachimsen and Helge Bezold, MF Norwegian School of Theology, May 27, 11:30-12:00 CET mf.no/arrangemente...
May 7, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Book talk (in-person and Zoom): The Book of Esther: Themes and Issues, edited by Kristin Joachimsen and Helge Bezold, MF Norwegian School of Theology, May 27, 11:30-12:00 CET mf.no/arrangemente...