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James D. Purvis Collection of Samaritana
JAMES D. PURVIS. Scholar
and educator. Dr.
Purvis graduated from Harvard University in 1963 with a Doctor
of Theology degree for a dissertation entitled "The Origin
of the Samaritan Sect." His dissertation was published
by Harvard University Press in 1968 as volume two in the Harvard
Semitic Monographs series. He joined the faculty at
Boston University College of Liberal Arts (now the College
of Arts of Sciences) in 1966 as chairman of the Religion Department.
In 1986, he won the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching
at Boston University, and retired from teaching in 1997.
He presented papers on the Samaritans at the Fifth World Congress
of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, 1969), at the Academic Conference
on Hebrew Bible (Hebrew College, Brookline, MA, 1974), and
at the Fifth Congress of the Société d'Études
Samaritaines (Milan, 1996), as well as in festschrifts for
G. Ernest Wright (1977), Frank Moore Cross (1982), and H.
Neil Richardson (1994). He has provided papers on the Samaritians
at regional and national meetings of the Society of Biblical
Literature between 1962 and 1995, as well as primary articles
for The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible Supplementary
Volume (1976), The Biblical Encyclopedia
(Jerusalem, 1982), The Cambridge History of Judaism
(1989), and A Companion to Samaritan Studies (1993).
His reviews of Samaritan materials have appeared in the Journal
of Near Eastern Studies, the Journal of Biblical
Literature, the Journal of Theological Studies,
the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research,
the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, the Critical
Review of Books in Religion, and Religious Studies
Review.
Scope and Content: The
collection contains both primary and secondary materials on
the Samaritans. The primary materials consist of fifty
volumes of Samaritan texts, including thirty-five hand-copied
volumes, mostly collected in the early 1960s, for the most
part anthologies of liturgical materials--service books for
daily and Sabbath prayers, songs and prayer for the liturgical
year, and songs for special occasions--as well as copies of
biblical texts and theological writings, with texts in Samaritan
Aramaic and Hebrew (in Samaritan characters), and less frequently
in Arabic (sometimes in a mixture of Arabic and Samaritan
characters). Included are four antiquarian volumes,
and a substantial run (1981-82, 1984, 1986, 1996-1999, with
some issues from 1991-1992) of Aleph-Beth: The Samaritan
News. Secondary materials include twenty-eight
monographs in English, Hebrew or German, including bibliographies,
mostly published in the 1960s to 1990s, and eighty off-prints
or photocopies of articles on the Samaritans, primarily in
English with a few in German, mostly from the 1950s to 1990s.
Extent: 8 cu. ft.
Access: No access restrictions.
Limitations: No limitations.
Provenance: Gift, 1999,
2001-2002.
Cite as: Purvis Samaritana
Collection, Boston University School of Theology Library.
Processing: Stephen P. Pentek,
January 2000, May 2001, February 2002.
Arrangement: Arranged
and catalogued by Dr. Purvis in six sections: I. Photographic
Reproductions of Hand-copied Samaritan Texts; II. Other Writings
by Samaritans; III. Editions of Samaritan Texts by Western
Scholars; IV. Samaritan Studies and Research Materials: Books
and Monographs; V. Samaritan Studies and Research Materials:
Offprints and Photocopies; VI. Aleph-Beth, the Samaritan
News.
See also the William E. Barton Collection
of Samaritan Materials
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