I don't suppose you've ever been sitting at home on an evening, quietly reading away, when you're struck by the urgent need to read part of Jubilees. That's exactly what happened to me last night, and I was pleased to find Peter Kirby's Early Jewish Writings online, disappointed that his link to the text had rotted, but was happy again to find a different host of the R. H. Charles translation. (The advantage of this site over the link provided on Wikipedia, which appears to be the new destination for Kirby's link, is that it has page numbers, so can be cited in a pinch.)

My emotions have stabilized this morning, back at my desk, now that I have have the O. S. Winermute translation (in Charlesworth, Vol 2) for comparison. Still, I feel somewhat chastened at the thought of: (a) the link rot I must have caused when I rashly deleted my old blog at the start of this month, and (b) the upkeep involved in making a good web page. Kirby's page is still an impressive online resource, but the internet is a volatile medium. And given the limits of public domain, understandably even with translations of ancient texts, online resources like these are almost invariably out of date.

Ah, the joys and perils of the world wide web.

Tags: PhD