As we close July and embrace the heat in August (as well as the rain), it is that time of the year again to start getting ready for the fall semester, to prepare your syllabus, and order text-books. In the spirit of back-to-school, this issue’s Acquisitions column features the current Gorgias textbooks with some suggestions from our editor Katie Stott. It is also my pleasure to announce the 2009 Gorgias Book Grant winners. While this announcement has been several months in the making, we have been struggling with this decision. We finally decided to award two first-prize grants in the amount of $500 in Gorgias Books, and two second-prize grants in the amount of $250 in Gorgias books. First Prize Gorgias Book Grant Awardees: - Annette Niemejer of Leiden University
- Adam McCollum of University of Cincinnati
Second Prize Gorgias Book Grant Awardees: - Kate Liszka of University of Pennsylvania
- Kenneth Scott Parker of University of London
We congratulate the winners. We will feature the grant awardees and their choice of books in the August issue of e-Gorgias. Please stay tuned. This month's Gorgias Enthusiast of the month is a rather unusual character in the sense that she is actually part of the Gorgias Staff. We'd like to introduce you to Ms Flo Chart, our newest workflowholic. More in the enthusiast column...
In addition, we are happy to announce that Gorgias Press is now on Facebook. Become a fan and tell your friends, so you can get the latest updates from our production editors and staff. We look forward to connecting with our readers, authors, and friends through Facebook. You can find us by searching for Gorgias Press from your facebook page.
- Recently Released:List of the 19 new July releases.
- Coming Soon: Select list of Forthcoming titles from Gorgias Press
- From the Acquisitions Desk: Growing list of Gorgias Text-books and some new suggestions
- Enthusiast of the month: Introducing Ms Flo Chart (our new workflow specialist)
- Reviews Report: multiple reviews in various subject areas
Included below is a select list of books released since the May issue of eGorgias. For the complete list please visit our Just Published page.  | Christians under the Ottoman Turks
By Hélène Pignot
ISBN 978-1-59333-922-7
Hardback, $105 (BiblioPerks™ $84.00)
| In the 17th century, only the most intrepid and passionate travellers ventured into the faraway lands of the Ottoman Empire. Their narratives provide a valuable but also entertaining testimony on the everyday life of Orthodox Christians in Greece and Anatolia. |
|  | Transcribed Proper Names in Chinese Syriac Christian Documents
By Hidemi Takahashi
ISBN 978-1-60724-039-6
Paperback, $29 (BiblioPerks™ $23.20)
| Christianity reached China in its Syriac guise in the seventh century. Christian documents written in Chinese which have come down to us from the period of the Tang Dynasty contain a large number of proper names which are, or appear to be, transcriptions of Syriac names. In this paper, originally published in Malphono w-Rabo d-Malphone: Studies in Honor of Sebastian P. Brock, the author provides a list of the transcribed proper names with their modern and reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciations, together with the suggestions made by scholars in the past for the original forms of these names. |
|  | The Archaeology of Cult in Middle Bronze Age Canaan
By Jill Katz
ISBN 978-1-59333-791-9
Hardback, $110 (BiblioPerks™ $88.00)
| Canaanite public religious practice during the Middle Bronze Age centered on the temple and its courtyards. The evidence from Tel Haror (biblical Gerar), Israel, suggests a multi-sensory, dynamic, experience including animal sacrifices, incense burning, and ritual feasting. |
|  | Divine Manifestations in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha
By Andrei Orlov
ISBN 978-1-60724-407-3
Hardback, $110 (BiblioPerks™ $88.00)
| This volume explores the formative theophanic patterns found in such pseudepigraphical writings as 2 Enoch, Apocalypse of Abraham, and the Ladder of Jacob where the traditions of the divine Form and the divine Name possibly come to their most paradigmatic expressions. |
|  | Aphrahat the Persian Sage and the Temple of God
By Stephanie Jarkins
ISBN 978-1-59333-679-0
Hardback, $115 (BiblioPerks™ $92.00)
| This books examines Aphrahat the Persian Sage’s views of asceticism, sacramental theology, Christology, and ecclesiology and concludes that Aphrahat, a mid-fourth century Christian author, uses themes with ancient roots, including Merkabah traditions of the temple and applies these traditions to the Christian experience of God. |
|  | Varia Aethiopica
By D. Nosnitsin
ISBN 978-1-60724-081-5
Hardback, $134 (BiblioPerks™ $107.20)
| Scrinium. Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique, established in 2005, is an international multilingual scholarly periodical devoted to patristics, critical hagiography, and Church history. This volume is dedicated to Ethiopian Christianity and Ethiopian linguistics. |
|  | Qumran through (Real) Time
By Robert Cargill
ISBN 978-1-60724-058-7
Hardback, $118 (BiblioPerks™ $94.40)
| This book proposes a new occupation model for the remains of Khirbet Qumran, the site associated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Using the latest in virtual reality technology, the author reconstructs the site of Qumran and demonstrates that the site was initially built as a Hasmonean fortress, and was later expanded into a residence for a self-sufficient community responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls. |
|  | The Theophaneia School
By Basil Lourié
ISBN 978-1-60724-083-9
Hardback, $144 (BiblioPerks™ $115.20)
| Scrinium. Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique, established in 2005, is an international multilingual scholarly periodical devoted to patristics, critical hagiography, and Church history. This volume is dedicated to Jewish Second Temple and early Christian mysticism. |
|  | Universum Hagiographicum
By Basil Lourié
ISBN 978-1-60724-082-2
Hardback, $146 (BiblioPerks™ $116.80)
| Scrinium. Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique, established in 2005, is an international multilingual scholarly periodical devoted to patristics, critical hagiography, and Church history. This volume is dedicated to hagiography of the Christian East and West. |
|  | Dissent and Heterodoxy in the Late Ottoman Empire
By Necati Alkan
ISBN 978-1-60724-092-1
Hardback, $112 (BiblioPerks™ $89.60)
| This is a series of essays on various religious issues from the Late Ottoman period. |
|  | Root-Determinatives in Semitic Speech
By Solomon Hurwitz
ISBN 978-1-59333-627-1
Paperback, $45 (BiblioPerks™ $36.00)
| Suggesting that the Semitic root may be, at least subconsciously, biliteral, Hurwitz launches into a study of this phenomenon. Discussing linguistic phenomena such as pluriliteral forms, root-differentiation, and folk-etymologies, this little study covers significant ground for understanding the underlying structure of biblical Hebrew. |
|  | Sumerian Records from Drehem
By William Nesbit
ISBN 978-1-59333-579-3
Paperback, $45 (BiblioPerks™ $36.00)
| Now a fixture in Sumerian studies, Nesbit’s initial publication of thirty tablets from Drehem is deceptively pedestrian at first glance. As the author demonstrates, a close look at these texts reveals invaluable information on the religious and social life of everyday Sumerians. |
|  | Muhammad and Christ
By Maulvi Ali
ISBN 978-1-59333-726-1
Paperback, $51 (BiblioPerks™ $40.80)
| This book is as timely today as when it was written. Maulvi Muhammad Ali, noted Quran scholar, presented this study of Christian positions about Jesus from a sympathetic Islamic perspective. The concepts of miracles, sinlessness, and the birth, call, death, and second coming of Jesus are all considered. |
|  | The Five Post-Kleisthenean Tribes
By Fred Bates
ISBN 978-1-59333-629-5
Paperback, $38 (BiblioPerks™ $30.40)
| Exploring the important but complex historical period following the rule of Cleisthenes in Athens, Bates provides a handy reference for the tribes that emerged from this early experiment in democracy. The tribes of Antigonis, Demetrias, Ptolemais, Attalis, and Hadrianis are all considered, along with the families (demes) that made up each tribe. |
|  | Bardaisan and His Disciples
By F. Burkitt
ISBN 978-1-60724-130-0
Paperback, $29 (BiblioPerks™ $23.20)
| Originally delivered as one of the St. Margaret’s Lectures for 1904, the contents of this booklet are focused on aspects of the Syriac-speaking Church. Extracted from Burkitt’s book Early Eastern Christianity, the fifth lecture explores Bardaisan and his unique contribution to Syriac Christianity. |
|  | A History of Christian Missions in China
By Kenneth Latourette
ISBN 978-1-59333-786-5
Hardback, $177 (BiblioPerks™ $141.60)
| Starting with the religious background of China, Latourette probes why Christianity appealed to the Chinese and then launches into a detailed history of its development. He considers how Christianity began before and coped under the Mongol Dynasty and then the incursion of the Roman Catholic Missions. Briefly considering the Russian Orthodox interest in Chinese missions, he moves on to what is clearly his main concern in the Protestant influx in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Considering the main events of China’s history in relation to the European powers of the day, he considers how Christianity fared into the early nineteenth century. |
|  | Analecta Syriaca
By Paul de Lagarde
ISBN 978-1-59333-959-3
Hardback, $114 (BiblioPerks™ $91.20)
| A rare edition of Lagarde’s Syriac ephemera, this volume is a linguist’s delight. Introduced in Latin and Arabic, the descriptions and annotations to Syriac manuscripts that constitute this book will seldom be found elsewhere. The various Syriac codices included in the collection are presented in Syriac without translation. For the student of Syriac who is seeking the authentic experience of reading Syriac materials, this study will be a treasury of material. Over the decades, Legarde’s works have become increasingly difficult to locate, and Gorgias Press is pleased to be able to offer this collectable selection again. |
|  | Grammatik der neusyrische Sprache
By Theodor Noldeke
ISBN 978-1-59333-835-0
Hardback, $136 (BiblioPerks™ $108.80)
| This work of Theodor Nöldeke is an extremely rare find. Its scarcity should not be taken as a reflection on its authority or usefulness, however. In this original 1868 edition, Nöldeke lays out the basics of Neo-Syrian as it was used in Kurdistan and the area of Uremia. This valuable study, essentially unique to this day in its coverage of underrepresented language studies, provides a substantial, German introduction to the dialects described, followed by a thorough study of the languages themselves, also in German. |
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We are excited to announce that the following titles will soon be in print: Click here for a complete list of our soon-to-be-published books. Yours, Mine, or Theirs? Historical Observations on the Use, Collection and Sharing of Manuscripts in Western Europe and the Christian Orient
In the west centuries ago manuscripts were replaced by printed books, and relegated to mostly secular libraries as a result of religious and political upheavals. In the Christian Orient such changes were slower and remain less advanced. Manuscripts have not entirely vanished from regular use, and Christian communities retain ownership of significant collections of their historic manuscripts. The vital connection between manuscripts and religious culture endures, even if attenuated by persecution, diaspora, technology, and other aspects of modernity. This essay provides an historical survey of these issues in both Europe and the Christian Orient (limited here to the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Ethiopia/Eritrea).
ISBN 978-1-60724-059-4, Paperback, $29 (BiblioPerks™ $23.20) East and West
This book traces the rich religious, cultural, artistic, ecconomical, social and historical relations among the Greeks and the Middle East people from the Late Antiquity up to the 17th century.
ISBN 978-1-60724-056-3, Hardback, $130 (BiblioPerks™ $104.00) Al-Farabi and the History of the Syriac Organon
Scholarly study of the transmission of Aristotelian philosophy from Greek late antiquity to medieval Islam is to some extent still influenced by the account in Ibn Abi U?aibi?a attributed to al-Farabi, which served as the basis for Max Meyerhof’s famous essay Von Alexandrien nach Bagdad. The present work, utilising evidence unknown to Meyerhof and still often neglected in more recent scholarship, argues that such a restriction never represented the whole Syriac tradition, but reflects an alternative logical curriculum with deep roots in the ancient world, while Syriac writers who were proficient in Greek adhered throughout to the other strand of this two-strand tradition, that of the full Organon.
ISBN 978-1-60724-041-9, Paperback, $29 (BiblioPerks™ $23.20) Zur Datierung nach christlicher Ära in den syrischen Kirchen
The Christian era in Syriac and Arabic sources does not always correspond with the western calculations. Until quite recently the members of the Syriac churches used the era of the Seleucids (of Alexander the Great; East and West Syrians) as the era of the creation of Adam (Melkites). The use of the Christian era became more common from the 16th century, due to the closer contacts between the Oriental and the Latin churches.
ISBN 978-1-60724-038-9, Paperback, $29 (BiblioPerks™ $23.20) Virtuous Reading: Aphrahat's Approach to Scripture
The epistemology of the mid-fourth-century Christian scholar in Persia, Aphrahat, presumes that the human mind and the task of biblical interpretation are caught up in a dynamic experience of Christian spiritual transformation. In short, for the Persian Sage, good Bible interpretation requires nothing less than the total person—inner and outer, in community and before God. In Aphrahat’s Demonstrations, we encounter a scholar who not only presents this remarkably integrated set of ideals but is also an impressive practitioner of them.
ISBN 978-1-60724-035-8, Paperback, $29 (BiblioPerks™ $23.20) Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople
Written by one of the most scandalous figures in the beau monde and published just prior to the French Revolution, A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople (1789) transported readers to the most exclusive courts of Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
ISBN 978-1-60724-087-7, Hardback, $132 (BiblioPerks™ $105.60)
With the beginning of the new academic year rapidly approaching, it is again time to take a look around the country at the various Gorgias titles being used as textbooks for courses. Some of the titles that appear on our growing textbook list are: Other forthcoming books that would be suitable as textbooks include: - Fiona Blumfield’s, Further Biblical Hebrew - a coursebook designed for students who have completed at least one year of College study in Biblical Hebrew.
- Thomas Naef’s, Holy Bits: A Guide for Using Computers in Biblical Scholarship - an excellent resource for students, scholars, pastors and other people interested into biblical studies for their daily work at the computer. It can be used as textbook as well as a reference work.
- Eileen Flynn’s, The Handbook of Catholic Morality - suitable as the basic text in a course on Catholic morality for upper level high school or college students. Each chapter ends with Questions for Discussion and Suggestions for Further Reading, making the book especially useful for the classroom.
- The Sacred Text: Artefact, Interpretation, and Doctrinal Formulation Description, (edited by Michael Bird and Michael Pahl) - suitable for introductory biblical studies or “Doctrine of Scripture” courses in universities and seminaries.
If you think one of our titles may be suitable for a course you are teaching or taking please don’t hesitate to contact our customer services representative.
Since no one at Gorgias can surpass Ms. Flo Chart in efficiency and promoting productivity, Gorgiasians have chosen her as this issue's Gorgias enthusiast. Ms Flo Chart was conceived through the Gorgias efforts to implement automation workflow into its Production Processes. As a result Flo was born and has quickly become a personality at Gorgias. At the very young age of 3 digital months, Flo had already matured into an efficient multi-tasking workflow specialist, assisting our various departments streamline their workflow. Her first assignment was the production department where she began creating files, communicating with authors and partners, uploading and downloading data, creating front matter and covers for books, checking the integrity of books prior to printing, creating thumbnail images of book covers, and much more. Within six digital months, she single-handedly increased the productivity of the department by 50 fold. A workaholic, rather a workflowholic working mostly at night, Flo was assigned to streamline the processes of the acquisitions department, customer service, and the marketing department. In her spare time Flo likes to go circuit boarding among the various servers located at Gorgias and under the direction of our IT dept conceive other automation workflows to increase productivity. 
While Flo mostly exists in digital form, we have come to refer to her as she. Flo's portrait was designed by artist, James Stott. James has diplomas in Visual Arts, and Building Design and Technology. He has worked for a number of years in the building industry as an architectural technician and is currently studying to be an architect. In his spare time he works as a freelance artist and has had a number of exhibitions of his own work. James is based in Brisbane, Australia. Like most of us at Gorgias, we think that Ms Chart is very enthused about the notion of technology pushing scholarship to new heights and for that reason we think that titles in the Bible in Technology series would be her favorite: | Qumran through (Real) Time
By Robert Cargill
ISBN 978-1-60724-058-7
Hardback, $118 (BiblioPerks™ $94.40)
| This book proposes a new occupation model for the remains of Khirbet Qumran, the site associated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Using the latest in virtual reality technology, the author reconstructs the site of Qumran and demonstrates that the site was initially built as a Hasmonean fortress, and was later expanded into a residence for a self-sufficient community responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls. |
|  | Information Technology and Egyptology in 2008
By Nigel Strudwick
ISBN 978-1-60724-068-6
Hardback, $106 (BiblioPerks™ $84.80)
| Publication of the proceedings of the 2008 meeting of the Computer Working Group of the International Association of Egyptologists (Informatique et Egyptologie), including papers on databases, complex systems, 3D modelling, textual analysis systems, the uses of the internet for sharing photographs, and bibliography. |
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The Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter Reviews Analecta Gorgiana title The Jews in the Works of the Church Fathers In its recent issue (Vol. XXVIII, No. 3), AJL Newsletter published a review of Samuel Krauss' The Jews in the Works of the Church Fathers (Analecta Gorgiana 67), 2007. 91 p. by Suzanne Smailes of Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH. "This monograph brings together in one place three articles that are the bedrock for understanding the early church fathers (Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, Ephraem Syrus, and Jerome). Krauss shows how these writings are important in understanding rabbinic literature of the same time period... This monograph is recommended for all libraries interested in a scholarly approach to the topic," commented Smailes. JSOT Reviews Samuel Jackson's Book Journal for the Study of the Old Testament (2009; 33) published a note of Jackson's book' A Comparison of Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections Prior to the First Millennium BC (Gorgias Dissertations, 35, Near Eastern Studies, 10; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2008), pp. xii + 283. "This is a judicious study," notes reviewer B. S. Jackson (no relations to author Jackson we hope!), "we may anticipate with interest the author‘s future engagement with the biblical law collections." Review of Zammit's Syriac Chrestomathy Journal of Semitic Studies (vol 54, no 2, August 2009) published a review of Zammit's Syriac Chrestomathy by Gillian GREENBERG of University College London. She began her review with these remarks: "This chrestomathy will make an instant appeal to students of Syriac language andliterature. It is beautifully produced, on good quality paper with clear and attractivefonts for the three scripts, and is an aesthetic pleasure." Review of Eastern Crossroads Dorothea Weltecke wrote a German review of Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala's Eastern Crossroads: Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy for http://www.sehepunkte.de. You can read it at http://www.sehepunkte.de/2009/07/14148.html. Dorothea concludes, "Es ist sehr zu begrüßen, dass die christliche Orientalistik in Spanien Fuß gefasst hat und so die hier lebhaft betriebenen Forschungen auf dem Gebiet der christlich-islamischen Beziehungen ergänzen können. Weder die Welt des Islam noch die Welt des westlichen Christentums lassen sich ohne die orientalischen Christen verstehen oder erforschen; dieses im Vorwort von Samir Khalil Samir wiederholte Postulat gilt weiterhin. Das Vorhaben würde vielleicht noch größere Wirkung entfalten, wenn die christliche Orientalistik bei ihren Untersuchungen auch Forschungsinteressen der Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften aufgreifen würde, um sich so stärker in deren Debatten einzumischen und die Relevanz dieser Forschung auch in diesen Bereichen aufzuzeigen." [Google Translation: It is very welcome that the Christian Orientalism in Spain has taken root here, and so vividly driven research in the field of Christian-Muslim relations can be complementary. Neither the world of Islam, nor the world of Western Christianity can be without the oriental Christians understand or explore; this in the preface by Samir Khalil Samir repeated postulate remains. The project would be perhaps even more effective if the Christian Oriental studies in their research interests of history and cultural studies would pick up to be more involved in their debates, and the relevance of this research in these domains.]
 | The Jews in the Works of the Church Fathers
By Samuel Krauss
ISBN 978-1-59333-883-1
Paperback, $37.7 (BiblioPerks™ $30.16)
| In this stellar study of what the works of select patristic authors (Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius Ephraem, and Jerome) reveal about the Aggadah, Samuel Krauss offers an insightful and provocative reading of the sources. |
|  | A Comparison of Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections Prior to the First Millennium BC
By Samuel Jackson
ISBN 978-1-59333-221-1
Hardback, $115 (BiblioPerks™ $92.00)
| This work sets out to compare the pre-first millennium BC law collections of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Hatti. By highlighting and explaining consistent differences in both framing and content it questions the notion of a uniform ancient Near Eastern legal culture. |
|  | `Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo (Bunches of Grapes from the Syriac Vineyard): A Syriac Chrestomathy
By Martin Zammit
ISBN 1-59333-346-3
Hardback, $85 (BiblioPerks™ $68.00)
| `Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo is a chrestomathy intended primarily for students who have covered the essentials of Syriac morphology and syntax, but it should also interest anyone who enjoys Syriac literature in general. The twenty-six selections consist of examples of Syriac prose and poetry from the second until the thirteenth centuries AD. The readings reflect a wide and varied range of subject matter. Inevitably, selections of a religious nature predominate, but historical, ethnographic, chemical, astronomical, and linguistic excerpts produced by famous Syriac authors, as well as less familiar ones, have been included. A Syriac-English glossary and an index of grammatical points are included. |
|  | Eastern Crossroads: Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy
By Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala
ISBN 978-1-59333-610-3
Hardback, $128 (BiblioPerks™ $102.40)
| This volume contains papers from the First International Congress on Eastern Christianity held in Córdoba, Spain, November 2005. The encounter of medieval Christian writers with several linguistic traditions through the Middle Ages produced one of the most important branches of Middle Eastern literature. This encounter not only changed the nature of the respective writings throughout time, but also influenced considerably the development of the legacies transmitted by the writers and the scholars of various Eastern Christian churches. The volume illustrates the strength of Christian cultural life through the Middle Ages under different socio-political situations, including the context of a predominantly Islamic culture. |
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Our next conference will be SBL in New Orleans.
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