Qumran Digital: Text and Lexicon

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Reinhard Gregor Kratz
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 465277421

After 2.25 years, the long-term project Qumran Digital is well on its way to achieving all the goals set out in the time and work plan for funding phase 1. At the current stage, the lexicon, the text of the corpus including parallels as well as background data, i.e. morphological and syntactic analyses, variant readings and related commentaries, bibliography, and select commentaries from the project editors concerning palaeography and language, are available in open access on a well-functioning website (beta version) created by the project itself: https://lexicon.qumran-digital.org/. The use of the site and its data is explained there under the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) in both German and English. Usage statistics provide the project with feedback on the website's distribution to date. As of 11/2023, 451 dictionary articles have been edited. Together with the articles already in print along with other, older articles that had not yet been published, a total of 1742 articles have been published to date. In the last 9 months of phase 1, the remaining 161 articles envisaged in the plan for the first funding phase are to follow up to the letter Lamed. The user feedback functionality, which is already under development, will be added to the website at the beginning of 2024, so that users will have a stable, well-tested website at their disposal by the end of phase 1. The fact that the objectives of the first phase have largely been achieved within the planned timeframe – despite the reduction of one staff position (50%) and of other resources – is due to an unexpected increase in preparatory work from the previous project, an extremely high level of commitment from the team, and additional, temporary funding for the project from applicant's chair. The funding requested for the project is urgently required for successful completion of the work planned for phase 2. The important personnel reorganisation that lies ahead in phase 2 – Ingo Kottsieper will be entering retirement – has been well prepared. The main plan for this funding phase is to edit and publish 1119 new lexicon articles in accordance with the plan from the initial project proposal. Basic German definitions are to be made searchable on the website so that researchers from neighbouring disciplines and interested laypersons with no knowledge of Hebrew can also access the lexicon. Users will also be able to display a bibliography for each individual manuscript on the website.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants