Appel à communications sur « Transmission, Variation, and Transformation of “Deuterocanonical” Literature Over Time » 5-6 November 2025, Metz, France

The manuscripts of the Greek Bible include several books that, for historical reasons, were not included in the Hebrew Bible. These so-called ‘deuterocanonical’ books (or “apocrypha”) form a diverse corpus expressing different genres, from narratives to didactic and sapiential texts. Recent studies have moved beyond analyzing these texts solely in relation to the New Testament background, now examining them as integral expressions of the cultural, literary, religious, and political milieu of Second Temple Judaism.

Although the early rabbinic tradition did not assign these texts the same significance that they later held in the Christian tradition, the history of their transmission testifies to how Jewish communities considered them an integral part of Israel’s cultural heritage. At the same time, the dynamism of the forms and modes by which these texts were transmitted and received in Late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and early modernity reveals a Vibrant tradition that offers new perspectives for inquiry into the linguistic, historical, and religious context in which they were produced and received.

Call for papers:

We welcome papers that explore topics such as:

Transmission and Transformation: Examine how these books were transmitted and how these texts were disseminated and transformed from Late antiquity to modern times.

Textual Variants: Explore the nature of textual variants within the textual tradition of these works and the implications of these differences from both a textual criticism viewpoint and a theological, ideological, and contextual perspective.

Receptions: Examine how these books were received within communities, including through ancient translations (Syriac, Latin …).

Abstracts (up to 500 words), as well as a short academic biography should be sent before the 31st of July to davide.damico@univ-lorraine.fr Acceptance will be communicated by the 10th of August.

Venue and organization:

The conference will be held from the Sth to the 6th of November in Metz, France. All questions regarding the organization should be addressed to davide.damico@univ-lorraine.fr