The papers delivered at the Fifteenth International Orion Symposium and published in this volume cover a millennium of the textual history of the Bible—from biblical, Second Temple, and rabbinic/early Christian times to the medieval manuscripts in the Vienna Papyrus Collection. This extraordinary endeavor represents the fruits of the special collaboration between the three academic cosponsors of the symposium—The Hebrew University’s Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, The University of Vienna’s Institute of Jewish Studies, and The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem.
The editors of this volume, Dr. Ruth Clements, Orion Center; Prof. Russell Fuller, University of San Diego; Prof. Armin Lange, University of Vienna; Dr. Paul Mandel, Schechter Institute; and Orion copyeditor, Benjamin Frankel, have worked tirelessly as well as professionally to produce this impressive volume. Our thanks to Prof. Bernhard Palme, Director of the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library, Vienna, for facilitating the publication of the photographs of the Vienna manuscripts included here. The academic leadership of Prof. George J. Brooke, the series editor of Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, and the publishing expertise of Brill Academic Publishers, particularly Suzanne Mekking and Marjolein van Zuylen, along with production editor Gera van Bedaf, guided this volume to its successful completion. My sincere thanks, personally and on behalf of the Orion Center and our scholarly community, to each of them and to all of this volume’s authors.
The four-day symposium on which this volume is based was made possible thanks to the generosity of all three academic cosponsoring institutions, as well as that of The Orion Foundation; The Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund; The Federal Ministry for Europe Integration and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria; The Austrian Embassy, Tel Aviv; The Austrian Cultural Forum, Tel Aviv; Hebrew University’s Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies and Authority for Research & Development. Brill Academic Publishers generously sponsored the opening reception, at which Bas van der Mije, Brill; Prof. Armin Lange, University of Vienna; and Prof. Emanuel Tov, Hebrew University, launched the first volume of The Textual History of the Bible. The Hebrew University and the Schechter Institute graciously hosted the symposium on their respective Jerusalem campuses. Thanks are also due to Ariella Amir, who served as the Orion Center office administrator from 1997–2019, for her impeccable handling of the arrangements for the symposium participants and lectures. Shiran Shevah, then Orion Bibliography Assistant, and the 2016 Orion student interns, Amanda Brown, Sharlin Decorato, and Un Sung Kwak, provided essential logistical support.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend our deepest gratitude to Prof. Michael E. Stone for his vision in founding the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, and for his leadership as Orion’s Director during the Center’s formative first years. These proceedings of the Fifteenth International Orion Symposium are a worthy tribute to that vision of broad, integrative research and to the exceptional, collegial cooperation brought to fruition in this volume.
Prof. Esther G. Chazon
Director, Orion Center
May 2021, Sivan 5781