You are cordially invited to the first session of the CSTT Lecture Series, to be held this coming Thursday, 11 February, from 16-18 in the Faculty Room (5th floor), Faculty of Theology, Helsinki. 

Drew Longacre, a postdoctoral researcher with the CSTT, will present:

“When Did the Pentateuch Become a Book?”

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has shed new light on the age-old question of when the five books of the Pentateuch first came to be copied together in large Torah scrolls. The fragmentary remains from the Judean Desert suggest that complete Torah scrolls were common already in the late Second Temple period, far earlier than is commonly assumed by book historians. This evidence establishes the terminus ante quem for the compilation of the Pentateuch into one physical “book”.

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The purpose of the new CSTT Lecture Series is to provide a forum for individual members and guests of the CSTT to communicate their research to one another, and to the larger community of ancient scholars at the University of Helsinki.  We welcome all who are interested to attend!