Delighted to see this in print!
06.03.2026 23:28
👍 1
🔁 0
💬 0
📌 0
Delighted to see this in print!
25 specialised panels at the International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (Bologna, 30th Aug–4th Sept 2027) are seeking proposals of 20-minute papers. Deadline Sept 2026. Lots to choose from! site.unibo.it/epigrafia-gr...
“A Clear Account of the Codex Simonideios:” Ideological Infrastructures of Biblical Vulnerability in the Nineteenth Century In: Philological Encounters Author: Andrew S. Jacobs Online Publication Date: 24 Feb 2026 Abstract Metadata References Metrics Abstract Soon after Constantin Tischendorf (1815–74) publicized his “discovery” of the Codex Sinaiticus, notorious manuscript broker (and forger) Konstantinos Simonides stunned elite literary circles by announcing that Simonides himself had produced this biblical codex in his youth as a gift for the Russian tsar. Simonides claimed that his “Codex Simonideios” was illicitly being passed off as an ancient biblical codex after being mutilated and disfigured. I argue that this brief but explosive debate about manuscripts, forgeries, and “find” narratives produces a biblical text liable to revision and emendation, due to new discoveries or new methods, and so vulnerable to mischievous actors manipulating the possibilities of new discoveries and methods. The iterative process of attack and defense on display in this codicological debate has remained, in various guises, from collegial disagreement to scorched earth campaigns, an ideological component of critical biblical studies.
well helloooooo
brill.com/view/journal...
In this sense – again, speaking as a historian – LLMs produce the *opposite* of scholarly progress. Rather than affording the critical interrogation of evidence, they force new evidence into the inherited assumptions and prejudices of their training data.
Yet how, exactly, are we measuring “better" results? From the standpoint of my field (tested via multiple frontline models) they produce superficially polished text quickly but replicate ethically and historiographically problematic histories of scholarship and lack critical singificance.
What did this yield? The LLMs “cleaned” away the most significant data (based on actual archival work with manuscripts) and regressed to the norm of 1910s and 1920s scholarship.
As part of my work for the AI Research Group of the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education, I recently fed my dissertation data spreadsheets (tens of thousands of rows of data) into different frontline LLMs.
LLMs clean data based on what they are trained to recognize and based on what the prompting user expects and wants to find. Yet a crucial part of scholarly research is to recognize the significance of outliers.
My dissertation research combined qualitative and quantitative research on thousands of manuscripts and tens of thousands of manuscript pages. If I’d offloaded the “cleaning” of that data onto an LLM, I would have missed many of the data patterns that were core to the arguments of the argument.
By the way (contra a post down-thread), this persists in recent LLMs. Recent LLMs are *more* likely to distort evidence in (for example) antisemitic or racialized ways than older models. While LLMs are often black boxes, this seems to reflect the fact that they have digested more flawed scholarship.
Do we actually tolerate any of these things? I think this is disingenuous. We recognize that these problems persist, fair enough. But do we accept them? No, I don’t think we do.
Because I understand *teaching* as central to my professional role, I still think apprenticeship matters. True, research assistants make mistakes. They can also learn.
LLMs make far more mistakes, often by forcing data to conform to problematic assumptions from scholarship 50 or 100 years ago.
I'm a historian, not a social scientist, so disciplinary norms and data are somewhat different, as are scholarly genres. Yet given the inability of the most advanced LLMs to produce even a half-adequate survey of scholarship in my field, I am baffled by what social scientists think they are gaining.
Based on how abysmally front-line LLMs generate a literature review in my discipline, this assertion is indefensible. Yes, students and scholars use LLMs . But, no, in disciplines that depend on complex linguistic data and historical evidence they cannot perform even the most basic research tasks.
It is not too late to apply for the SBL Unit "Ancient Education"
It will host three sessions: Letter-Writing and Education; Magical Texts and Education; Education and Emotion. Send us an abstract!
Don't miss it TOMORROW, Friday, March 6, 12pm EST: this month's First Fridays Workshop with @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social, who will present a paper titled "Uses and Abuses of the Gospel(s) according to the Hebrews."
The latest Pasts Imperfect is out, focused on the closing of humanities depts. & museums. @otavano.bsky.social discusses the U. of Ottawa, @mokersel.bsky.social on the DePaul Art Museum, @meirazk.bsky.social & @vox-magica.bsky.social on shuttering religious studies depts, & Justin Vorhis on U. Iowa.
We love a late-breaking deadline reprieve!
Got a project cooking dealing with provenance of MSS? Hot takes on digital editions? Literally anything remotely close to the SBL ballpark that touches on history of books, authorship, or textuality? Now you have until March 9 to get that abstract in.
The Call for Papers for the 2026 Annual Meeting in Denver, CO, has been extended to 11:59PM ET on March 9. Don't miss this chance to engage the global community of biblical scholarship. buff.ly/4hRL28M
My musings on the extent to which the idea that Perpetua & co were executed at Carthage stems from Christian/colonial fantasies are finally out in JECS. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Jeremiah Coogan, "Uses and Abuses of the Gospel(s) according to the Hebrews." Friday, March 6, 2026 at 12:00 EST. Register at nasscalworkshop@gmail.com.
Join us March 6 for the latest First Friday Christian Apocrypha Workshop with Jeremiah Coogan (Jesuit School of Theology).
Join us on March 6 at noon EST for this month's First Fridays Workshop with @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social, who will present a paper titled "Uses and Abuses of the Gospel(s) according to the Hebrews."
See more about Jeremiah and his work here:
www.scu.edu/jst/about/fa...
Congratulations!
Some more info about the Addison Wheeler postdoctoral fellowship scheme @durham.ac.uk. There will be up to 6 positions across all subjects, and each department can only nominate 3 candidates, so we will need to run a preliminary stage to make our selection. 1/3 www.durham.ac.uk/research/ins...
@zacharyherz.bsky.social explains his new book in this engaging conversation: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
friends! come work with me and the amazing folks on this team at UVA!
happy to answer any questions about the position, feel free to reach out!
jobs.virginia.edu/us/en/job/R0...
For #CoffeeWithACodex on February 26, curator @leoba.bsky.social will bring out a selection of manuscripts from Ethiopia, including a prayer book, an illustrated protective roll, and a liturgical book. (The mss are 19th c but still #medievalsky)
Register here: https://bit.ly/3MAE2oE
Loved the reference back to Langston Hughes in that piece:
Congrats!