Joshua Alfaro
@joshuaalfaro
Septuagint studies, Hebrew Bible, and all things Esther. Available for proofreading and editing academic publications. All memes handcrafted by me.
Seminar mit Exkursion nach Äthiopien.Termin voraussichtlich 20. Juni - 4. Juli 2027, unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Jörg Frey und Dr. Moritz Adam, Universität Zürich. Infoveranstaltung am Di., 22. September 2026, 18 Uhr
Just published: Parallel Paradigms of Bohairic and Sahidic Coptic by Kyrillos Wannes (Coptic Compass: 2026). www.amazon.com/dp/B0H882L1T2
Idan Dershowitz has just launched two new websites: 1. Etnachta - for biblical cantillation study with syntactic parsing & advanced searches: etnachta.org 2. Masoretica - locate any biblical verse in manuscript images and compare them: masoretica.org
Historian in the year 4026: "The names Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Miami University of Ohio (supposedly in 'Oxford') are almost certainly unhistorical. The tradition has conflated separate locations."
Like a true bard, the Muses have inspired a variant formula over at the other place.
Haman: rehabilitated✅ Ahasuerus: still an easily manipulated drunken buffoon❌ Thank you, biblical scholars!
If you ever worry that you're running out of Homeric adaptations to criticize, simply pick up Philip Young's The Printed Homer which has over 400 pages discussing and listing printed editions and translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey from 1470 to 2000.
Call for Papers: Ephrem Greek, Latin, and Beyond. Oxford Patristics Conference, 2-6 August, 2027. Abstracts due 10 August, 2026.
Song of Songs in Hebrew micrography depicting Solomon, 1819. Codex Levy 45, Carl von Ossietzky State and University Library, Hamburg.
This is not really how I pictured the Angel of Death would look, but okay.
Call for Papers: Sobria Ebrietas: Transformations of Spiritual Intoxication from Philo to Medieval Christianity, 26–27 November, 2026, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.
Yale University Renewed Philology Working Group: The Book of Esther in Modernity, July 7 – 28, 2026.
Workshop: Cairo Genizah, September 2–3, 2026, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt.
When writing a book review, it’s important to establish your credibility at the outset by admitting to your most embarrassing unfounded prejudices.
Someday I hope to make it to the People Will Pay to Go on a Cruise with Me level of biblical scholarship.
If you’ve been an archaeologist for long enough, they just let you title your lectures whatever you want.
Cours Été 2026 (en présentiel / en distanciel direct / en différé) : La Septante dans le judaïsme et le christianisme naissant, donné par Jean Maurais, mai–juillet 2026, mardi 13h–16h. www.fteacadia.com
Incredibly ironic that when the studies of the psychologists who authored When Prophecy Fails failed to support their theory, they altered the evidence to confirm it.
Summer school: Old Georgian language, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 4-14 August, 2026. abelao.be/cours/old-ge...
Call for Fellowship Applications: Person-Centered Messianism and Emergence, Käte Hamburger Center for Messianic Studies (CEMES), University of Würzburg. Applications due May 15, 2026.
It's finally here! I have an essay in this volume arguing that the Greek Esther Additions were originally composed in Greek, not Hebrew, based (partly) on... Hebraisms.
“The essays in this volume represent a diverse range of perspectives, backgrounds, and methodologies.”