Michael Langlois

The course of Old Testament Textual Criticism that I teach at the School of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Catholic University of Paris starts tomorrow!

This discipline consists in the comparison and evaluation of biblical manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Syriac, and so on. In what way do they differ? Can we retrieve the original biblical text? Answer: tomorrow at 4 PM!

The course of Old Testament Textual Criticism that I teach at the School of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Catholic University of Paris starts today! This discipline consists in the comparison and evaluation of biblical manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Syriac, and so on. In what way do they differ? Can we retrieve the original biblical text? Answer: today at 1 PM!

The latest edition of the Introduction to the Old Testament features a new section on the Eastern Churches’ Old Testament, with a general introduction followed by individual presentations of the main books included in the oriental canons.

I was asked to write this section, in which I proposed to include the following books: 3–4 Maccabees, 3–4 Esdras, Jubilees, Enoch, and the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs.

Here is a list of my contributions in PDF format:

Read the rest of this entry »

At the editor’s request, I wrote in Le Muséon a critical review of Jean-Claude Haelewyck’s Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages (Safran, 2006).

The unusual length of this recension (16 pages!) is due to the numerous problems encountered at the reading of this volume. J.-C. Haelewyck is aware of these problems and answered me with these nice words: “I wish all authors to receive such critique. You go into details while always remaining nice and constructive.”

Here is the article in PDF format:
Read the rest of this entry »

Olivier Artus, Director of the School of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Catholic University of Paris, has invited me again to teach Old Testament Textual Criticism.

This course, which I already taught last year, aims at comparing ancient witnesses of the Hebrew Bible — mainly Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Syriac and Latin. A true journey back to the sources of the biblical text! Join us next Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 13:00 for our first session.