Fellow, Byzantine Studies
The Palaea Historica is a narrative retelling of Old Testament history composed sometime after the ninth century. The only edition of the Greek text currently available is based on two manuscripts, both of which are marred by numerous lacunae and corruptions. Since beginning work on this text, I have discovered and acquired digital copies of 21 manuscripts, the majority of which are relatively complete. The edition, along with introduction and English translation, will be published in Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum (CCSA). Since the lack of a modern critical edition of the Greek has impeded research on the Slavonic translations of the Palaea, specialists in Slavic languages have been especially supportive of the project. Biblical scholars and specialists in Byzantine iconography and hymnography will also find much of value in the Palaea’s extensive use of extra-biblical traditions about various Old Testament personalities.
William Adler is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982. His research and publications deal mainly with Christianity in late Antiquity, Jewish and Christian historiography, Second Temple Judaism, and the Christian appropriation and use of Jewish sources and traditions. He has previously received grants and fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. He has also served as a visiting scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Adelaide, Freie Universität Berlin, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, and the University of Basel.