Michael Langlois

After a year-long gestation, the new series I submitted to Éditions du Cerf is ready to be born!

Sous la plume de biblistes, philologues, épigraphistes et historiens des religions, cette collection nous invite à un voyage au Proche-Orient antique, à cette époque énigmatique et fascinante où le scribe est aussi rédacteur, où le texte est encore fluide, et le canon, indéterminé.

Siècles après siècles, les traditions du judaïsme ancien et du christianisme naissant sont partagées et enrichies. Leurs textes évoluent au gré du temps, transmis en d’anciennes langues sur des manuscrits évanescents. Leur autorité varie selon les communautés : certaines les qualifieront de bibliques, d’autres, d’apocryphes.

Ils s’offrent à nous aujourd’hui : voici « L’écriture de la Bible ».

Stay tuned for the announcement of the first volume…

L’écriture de la Bible (PDF)

Update: The first volume is out!

• Mystères et connaissances cachées à Qumrân (Valérie Triplet-Hitoto, édité par Michael Langlois)

I have been invited as a jury for the PhD in French and Comparative Literature prepared by Claire Placial at the University of Paris–Sorbonne with the following title:

For a Close History of Translations. Bibliographical, Historical and Linguistic Study of the Translations of Song of Songs Published in French since the Renaissance.

The defense will take place on Friday, December 2, 2011 at 9:00, at the Maison de la Recherche, room D223 (28 rue serpente, 75006 Paris). The defense is public.

I have been invited to speak at an international conference on the Targums (Aramaic versions of the Hebrew Bible) in the light of ancient Jewish traditions from the Second Temple period (i.e. until the beginning of the common era).

My paper will address the question of a possible Second Temple origin for the critique of power in the targumim. If you’re interested, the conference will take place in Strasbourg on June 27-28, 2011.

Here is the meeting program: Read the rest of this entry »

After the holidays, it’s time to got back to class! This semester, I’ll continue my first-year Hebrew course, while teaching an Advanced Hebrew class designed for second- and third-year students in the Bachelor’s program. We’ll look at a number of texts of various literary genres from the Hebrew Bible, focusing on syntax and structure — essential elements of a sound exegesis!

See you tomorrow, January 18, 2011 at 8 AM!

At the editor’s request, I wrote in Le Muséon a critical review of Jean-Claude Haelewyck’s Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages (Safran, 2006).

The unusual length of this recension (16 pages!) is due to the numerous problems encountered at the reading of this volume. J.-C. Haelewyck is aware of these problems and answered me with these nice words: “I wish all authors to receive such critique. You go into details while always remaining nice and constructive.”

Here is the article in PDF format:
Read the rest of this entry »