Peter Joosse, born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1960. Ph.D. from the VU University, Amsterdam. Research Fellow at the Department of Oriental Studies of the J.W. Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt.
Fellow (1 September 1997 – 30 June 1998)
Being a NIAS Fellow for the year 1997/98 offered me the opportunity to conduct research which would have otherwise been quite difficult to do, and to achieve results which could be realised only in such a setting. The most distinctive aspect of the year was the co-operation of our six-person Diatessaron group, each member of the team working in his own area of expertise. Three goals were achieved: First, a book, entitled “‘The Wedding at Cana’ (John 2:1 11) in the Diatessaron”, is nearly finished, and will be published by Peeters, in Louvain.
Second, most of the first five chapters of the Gospel of John have been converted into a computer readable form, having been excised from about 50 individual sources (including collations of about twenty manuscripts) in more than a dozen languages, ranging from Arabic and Armenian to Middle English and Italian vernacular.
Third, progress was made on various personal projects as well: while during the NIAS year my attention was drawn to the Arabic translation of the gospels by Isal. In the near future I hope to prepare a much needed critical edition of the Velasquez text. This edition will be of major importance for several fields of research (for instance New Testament and Arabic Studies).
While at NIAS I also finished an article on Bar Hebraeus’ Butyrum sapientiae, which will appear in a refereed journal. A book review for a Dutch journal was written in co-operation with Hette Bakker.