As we write this current issue of eGorgias, we are enjoying a sunny 60-degree December in New Jersey. Snow or no snow, we are in full holiday spirit here at Gorgias Press. In honor of the season, we are running our annual holiday sale with 40% off all BiblioPerks titles until December 31, 2012! More details can be found in our News section.

We just finished up an exciting conference season exhibiting at SBL/AAR in Chicago, MESA in Denver, and la Société d'Études Syriaques in Paris, France. Be sure to read our Conferences section for reportbacks and pictures!

There is never a dull moment at Gorgias Press, and we are always working around the clock to bring you the newest and best books possible. Be sure to check out our quarterly column under Acquisitions for more on upcoming GP titles. We are also pleased to bring back our Enthusiast of the Month column to highlight exceptional Gorgias Press friends. This month, we are excited to introduce you to Fr. Stephen D. Ryan, O.P. of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. We are also pleased to announce that Gorgias Press President George Kiraz gave an interview in Syriac on Suroyo TV last week. Please read our News section for more.

I am pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2013 Gorgias Book Grant in any subject area that Gorgias publishes in. Eligible candidates must be enrolled in a graduate program (Master's or Ph.D.) in an accredited university or an institution of learning in the field of the grant, and must have the equivalent of a GPA of 3.0 or higher. The application deadline is Thursday, January 31, 2013; winners will be announced in March 2013. For more information on how to apply, please visit our Book Grants page.

If you haven't already, be sure to sign up for our amazing, limited-time only 50%-off Antioch Bible deal. Only the first 100 individual subscribers will be able to lock the price of all future volumes at half off the list price (orig. $150/volume, now $75/volume with subscription discount). Hurry and subscribe now!

Finally, if you no longer wish to receive emails from us, we now have a more effective unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. We apologize that the previous issues of eGorgias did not provide accessible unsubscribe links - we hope this will be more user-friendly.

We here at Gorgias wish all of you a happy, and prosperous new year.

Happy reading,

Christine Kiraz

• Recently Released
• From the Acquisitions Desk
• Coming Soon
• GP News
• Enthusiast of the Month: Fr. Stephen D. Ryan, O.P.
• Conferences

Below is a select list of recent releases. For the complete list, please visit our Just Published page.

	Syriac Orthography (A Grammar of the Syriac Language, Volume 1) By George Kiraz ISBN 978-1-4632-0183-8 Cloth, $247 (BiblioPerks™ $148.20)
This volume, the first in a comprehensive grammar of the Syriac language, is a thematic presentation of orthography in the Syriac grammatical tradition, bringing the study of Syriac writing closer to modern linguistic accounts of writing systems.
	The Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation By Donald Walter ISBN 978-1-4632-0177-7 Cloth, $150 ($75/volume with subscription)
This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshiṭta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Greenberg and Walter have produced an annotated translation of the Peshiṭta version of The Twelve Minor Prophets, while Kiraz and Bali have edited the Peshiṭta text. The English translation and the Syriac text are shown on facing pages so that both can be studied together.
	The Gospel of Mark According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation By Jeff Childers ISBN 978-1-61719-561-7 Hardback, $150 ($75/volume with subscription)
This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshiṭta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Childers has translated the Peshiṭta of Mark, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.
	Notables, Merchants, and Shaykhs of Southern Iran and Its Ports By Thomas Ricks ISBN 978-1-59333-957-9 Hardback, $196.69 (BiblioPerks™ $118.01)
Unlike the traditional 18th and early 19th century historical narratives, the present work focuses on the trade and politics of local merchants and port rulers as a way of understanding the continued stability of Persian, Arab, Armenian, Jewish and Indian communities during a period frequently described as one of “anarchy” and “piracy.”
	Portraits of a King Favored by God By Mishael Caspi ISBN 978-1-61143-405-7 Hardback, $182.455 (BiblioPerks™ $109.47)
David the king when studied against the backdrop of existing material cultural remains from the ancient Middle East scarcely seems to have been there. Excavations in Jerusalem have turned up nothing concrete about his existence. The literature concerning him is fraught with problems and generally takes on a legendary-mythological character. Even his name is unclear as to meaning. If he is mentioned at all by his contemporary monarchs against whom he would have fought or over whom he would have ruled, it is only obliquely or only intimated by omissions or partial spellings in context. This volume attempts to advance scholarship addressing these concerns.
	Job of Uz By Mishael Caspi ISBN 978-1-61143-420-0 Hardback, $174.46 (BiblioPerks™ $104.68)
Job finds himself in a situation similar to that experienced by everyone at some point in his or her life. He wants answers to questions concerning what has happened to him, especially since he has lived his life according to the traditional wisdom and rules of conduct. He rails against his misfortune, asking what has gone wrong and why?

Normative Judaism? Jews, Judaism and Jewish Identity: The Proceedings of the British Association for Jewish Studies 2008
This collection of short case studies considers the issue of normatively in Judaism and Jewish identity. The questions of how and why certain aspects of Jewish life and thought come to be regarded as authoritative or normative, rather than inauthentic or marginal, have been and continue to be contentious ones. Topics include the philosopher Moses Maimonides, the composer Felix Mendelssohn, the self-perception of communal leadership in Manchester during the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries, sermons of Jewish Reform rabbis during the Second World War, Orthodox rabbinic debate about war in general, representations of Jews in photographic exhibitions, the idea of Jewish music, and the academic study of Judaism itself.
ISBN 978-1-60724-161-4, Paperback, $56.03 (BiblioPerks™ $33.62)

Cultural Memory in Biblical Exegesis
The present collection of essays is the first product of the research program Cultural Memory in Biblical Exegesis at the European Association of Biblical Studies.
ISBN 978-1-61719-165-7, Hardback, $207.805 (BiblioPerks™ $124.68)

A History of the Syrian Community of Grand Rapids, 1890-1945
Provides the first history of the old Syrian community of Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1890-1945, focusing on the slow process of ethnic acculturation during which community members developed a hybrid culture, drawing on elements of the old and the new.
ISBN 978-1-61719-028-5, Hardback, $153.4 (BiblioPerks™ $92.04)

Les derviches balkaniques hier et aujord’hui
This book is a collection of articles by Alexandre Popovic on the Muslim mystic orders of the Balkans during the period after the fall of the Ottoman Empire through to the modern era.
ISBN 978-1-4632-0044-2, Hardback, $202.735 (BiblioPerks™ $121.64)

Foundations for Syriac Lexicography V
This volume is the fifth published colloquia of the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP). In this volume, editors Jonathan Loopstra and Michael Sokoloff present papers from an international team of authors working to develop contemporary, interdisciplinary approaches to linguistics and lexicography.
ISBN 978-1-61719-027-8, Hardback, $157.3 (BiblioPerks™ $94.38)

Gorgias is pleased to announce the publication and forthcoming publication of the following titles in the fields of Semitic linguistics, biblical interpretation, Jewish studies, theology and philosophy.

In 2012, we established the series Perspectives on Linguistics and Ancient Languages, which focuses on the theory and practice of ancient-language lexicography and subjects relating to it, including socio-cultural inquiry. The first two volumes in this series, Studies in the Historical Syntax of Aramaic (by Na’ama Patel) and A Comparative Dialectical Study of Genitive Constructions in Aramaic Translations of Exodus (by Mark Meyer) are now available, and more volumes in this series will go to press in 2013. This month, two titles will go to press in the series Perspectives on Philosophy and Religious Thought (formerly Gorgias Studies in Philosophy and Theology), which focuses on different theistic or philosophical traditions and their development in historical perspective. The next two volumes in this series, now available to order, are Seeing the God: Ways of Envisioning the Divine in Ancient Mediterranean Religion (edited by Jeffrey Pettis) and The Filioque Impasse: Patristic Roots (by Michelle Coetzee). We also have the next monographs available in the Biblical Intersections series: Narratology and the Pentateuch Targums (by Simon Lasair), and in the Judaism in Context series, First Came Marriage: The Rabbinic Appropriation of Early Jewish Wedding Ritual(by Susan Marks).

Best wishes,
Melonie Schmierer, Acquisitions Editor

Studies in the Historical Syntax of Aramaic By Na’ama Pat-El
This book reviews syntactic change in Aramaic, from its first attestation to its modern dialects. It concentrates on adverbial subordination, nominal modifiers and direct speech marking, and establishes that historical syntax is a viable tool for Semitic subgrouping and dialectology.
ISBN 978-1-59333-645-5, Hardback, $180.31 (BiblioPerks™ $108.19)

A Comparative Dialectical Study of Genitive Constructions in Aramaic Translations of Exodus By Mark Meyer
The purpose of this book is to “mine the gold” in multiple Aramaic translations of the biblical book of Exodus. The pages within reveal important similarities and differences between five Aramaic dialects in the use of genitive constructions: the Syriac Peshitta, Targum Onkelos, three corpora of the Palestinian Targum, the Samaritan Targum, and fragments of a Christian Palestinian Aramaic translation of Exodus.
ISBN 978-1-61143-002-8, Hardback, $218.75 (BiblioPerks™ $131.25)

Seeing the God: Ways of Envisioning the Divine in Ancient Mediterranean Religion By Jeffrey Pettis
Seeing the God: Ways of Envisioning the Divine in Ancient Mediterranean Religion is a collection of essays exploring the concept of how the ancients “envisioned” the deities within various ancient religious traditions, including Judaism, Gnosticism, Syriac Christianity, Byzantium, and Classical Greco-Roman religion and philosophy.
ISBN 978-1-61143-251-0, Hardback, $175.63 (BiblioPerks™ $105.38)

The Filioque Impasse By Michelle Coetzee
A fascinating study of the underlying reasons for the disagreement over the clause “and the Son” in the Western version of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed, which contributed to the tragic schism between Eastern and Western Christians in the 11th century.
ISBN 978-1-60724-585-8, Hardback, $181.87 (BiblioPerks™ $109.12)

Narratology and the Pentateuch Targums By Simon Lasair
In this innovative book Simon Lasair explores some of the potentials of applying narratology to the Pentateuch Targums. Lasair argues that when the targums present coherent narratives, they largely carry the major structures of the Pentateuch over into an Aramaic context. This book calls for a wide ranging rethink of the methodologies used to study targumic literature, as well as how to place the targums within their original historical contexts.
ISBN 978-1-61143-489-7, Hardback, $172.9 (BiblioPerks™ $103.74)

First Came Marriage By Susan Marks
Competing ritual and historical perspectives each provide only a partial view of early Jewish weddings. Combining these approaches allows for a new look at practices rejected or highlighted by early rabbis and their successors, and First Came Marriage: The Rabbinic Appropriation of Early Jewish Wedding Ritual investigates the process by which early Jews married and the various moves they used to minimize, elaborate or codify these practices.
ISBN 978-1-59333-585-4, Hardback, $176.8 (BiblioPerks™ $106.08)

The Gorgias Holiday Sale is in full swing!

Season's greetings, Gorgias Press enthusiasts! Have you checked out our ANNUAL WEBSALE yet?

From now through December 31, 2012, enjoy all Gorgias publications at an amazing 40% off discount. Simply add your items to the cart and the discount will be applied.* This is your opportunity to shop and save for the season!

Don’t know what to get? Download our 2013 Gorgias Press catalog and browse our latest new books.

* A few items are excluded from the sale due to pricing restrictions. These will be marked with * in the cart. No returns; all sales are final.

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Gorgias on TV!

Gorgias Press President/Editor-in-Chief George Kiraz's recently appeared on the Sweden-based satellite channel Suroyo TV! See below for a screenshot:

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Check out the Gorgias Press Facebook fan page!

Thanks to you, we now have over 500 fans! Already many have won free books through our Gorgias Trivia games and have seen updates on the weekly best sellers. Our wonderful Gorgias staff has been updating the Gorgias Press Facebook fan page daily. So if you are on Facebook, be sure to become a fan of Gorgias and discover special deals, offers and prizes before anyone else!

Gorgias Enthusiast of the Month: Fr. Stephen D. Ryan, O.P.

Father Stephen Ryan was born and raised in Boston, studied Religion at Trinity College, and entered a Catholic religious order, the Dominicans, in 1987. He began studying Syriac in 1991 and completed a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard in 2001, writing a dissertation on Dionysius bar Salibi under the direction of James Coakley. He is assigned to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where he teaches the Old Testament, as well as Hebrew, Greek, and Syriac. He recently won a $100 Gorgias Press coupon from a drawing at the Society for Biblical Literature conference. Congratulations, Fr. Ryan!

As a Gorgias enthusiast, Fr. Ryan had the following comments to offer:

Gorgias Press is a great academic resource and the first place I look for new titles in the field of Syriac Studies. I’m particularly grateful for the reference works and text editions, and for the new printings of old classics and forgotten treasures.

Conference Report: Middle Eastern Studies Association's Annual Meeting (MESA) 17-20 November 2012, Denver, CO

Hoda Mitwally, GP's Editorial & Acquisitions Assistant, shares the following report:

Never did I think I'd visit Colorado one day, but this year's MESA at Denver presented just that opportunity. Gorgias Press's booth was abuzz with old and new friends alike, all enthusiastic to learn more about Gorgias Press's latest offerings. Our most popular titles were James T. Monroe's Hispano-Arabic Poetry: A Student Anthology, Michael Sokoloff's A Syriac Lexicon, and the just-released Notables, Merchants, and Shaykhs of Southern Iran and Its Ports by Thomas Ricks.

Sadly, this will likely be my last MESA for a while, but I am honored to have spent it representing Gorgias Press. Until MESA 2013 in New Orleans, best wishes to all and Happy New Year!

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Conference Report: Society of Biblical Literature/American Academy of Religion (SBL/AAR) 17-20 November 2012, Chicago, IL

Jamey Walters, GP's conference representative, shares the following report:

Gorgias Press exhibited at the national convention for the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature (Nov 17-20, 2012) in Chicago, IL. Although Gorgias has been to SBL/AAR many times, this was the first time that we took up three whole booths of exhibit space. Needless to say, there were a lot of books on display. Most notably, this was the first conference appearance for the two newest volumes in the Antioch Bible series (Mark and The Twelve Prophets) and for George Kiraz's new Syriac Orthography. Each of these titles garnered a great deal of interest. We look forward to exhibiting again next year in Baltimore.

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Gorgias Press also exhibited books at the Société d’études syriaques, held on the 16–17 November in Paris, at the Institut protestant de théologie. This year’s meeting of the Société focused on the architecture of Syriac churches, and the Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage was a popular sale item, as were the bilingual editions of Jacob of Sarug’s homilies.

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