Latest information

Exploring Textual Fluidity in Parabiblical Literature (DFG–GAČR 25-16690L), 2025–2028 is collaborative three-year research funded within the Weave initiative by Czech Science Foundation and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The project is led by Charles University and the Universität Regensburg and investigates how parabiblical texts evolved through processes of copying, translation, and adaptation across languages, cultures, and religious communities. Rather than treating textual variation as a problem to be eliminated in the search for an “original” text, the project approaches textual fluidity as a valuable historical process that can reveal how these writings were transmitted, interpreted, and reshaped over time. By combining textual criticism, material philology, and historical analysis, the project aims to develop a new taxonomy of textual fluidity that will provide a methodological framework for future research on ancient Jewish and Christian literature.

The research combines individual case studies (a vertical approach) with collaborative thematic investigation (a horizontal approach). Each team member examines a specific corpus of texts representing different literary genres, manuscript traditions, and linguistic environments. David Cielontko investigates the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, focusing on Greek, Syriac, Ethiopic, Latin, and Slavonic traditions. Tobias Nicklas studies the Gospel of Peter, exploring how its surviving manuscript reflects both its earlier origins and its later reception. Emanuela Valeriani analyses the textual history of the Apocalypse of Thomas, Wolf B. Oerter focuses on the Coptic Apocryphon of John within the Nag Hammadi tradition, and finally, Ansgar Wucherpfennig investigates the Latin traditions of the Acts of Paul and Thecla. Together, these

complementary studies provide a broad comparative basis for identifying recurring patterns and mechanisms of textual change across parabiblical literature. An important integrative component of the project consists of three international workshops, which bring together members of the project team and external specialists. Rather than presenting isolated case studies, these workshops serve to compare findings across different textual traditions, test emerging hypotheses, foster interdisciplinary discussion, and refine the project’s common methodological framework. Their conclusions will contribute directly to the project’s publications and to the development of a comprehensive taxonomy of textual fluidity applicable across the wider field of parabiblical studies.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Nicklas (Universität Regensburg) – hlavní řešitel

Dr. David Cielontko (Univerzita Karlova) – hlavní řešitel

Doc. Wolf B. Oerter (Univerzita Karlova) – spoluřešitel

Dr. Emanuela Valeriani (Universität Regensburg) – spoluřešitelka

Dr. Ansgar Wucherpfennig (Universität Regensburg) – spoluřešitel

A three-year GAČR project (24-13045S), conducted from 2024 to 2026

What is the relationship between the Ten Commandments as presented in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5? How do they connect to other biblical legal collections? Were people genuinely expected to act upon these laws, or were they merely theoretical treatises? What did the author intend to convey through seven chapters of blueprints (Ex 25–31) and another six chapters of a completion report (Ex 35–40) regarding the construction of the Tent of Meeting? And why is the story of the Golden Calf (Ex 32–34) driven like a wedge between them?

These and other questions lie at the heart of Sláma’s project, Cult and Law in the Book of Exodus. Within its framework, Prague hosted two international conferences: The Glory of God in Theological Reflection (October 22, 2024) and The Pattern of the Tabernacle: Functions and Forms of the Biblical Tabernacle According to Textual and Material Evidence (April 23–25, 2025). A collective monograph drawing from these conferences is currently in preparation. The project will also culminate in the second volume of the Czech commentary on the Book of Exodus (Ex 16–40). 

Czech Science Foundation and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (23-04902K), 2023–2026

Research plan – invited sessions dedicated to the following topics:

1) Concepts of Israel in historiographical writings

2) “Nations” and ethnicity in the Hebrew Bible

3) Concepts of Israel in the Pentateuch

4) Concepts of Israel in the prophetic literature

People:

Assoc. Prof. Jan Rückl (PRG), principal invesitagor, research: Prophets

Prof. Dr. Jakob Wöhrle (TÜ)†, research: Pentateuch, esp. Joseph Story

Friederike Neumann, Ph.D. (TÜ), research: Pentateuch

Prof. Dr. Filip Čapek (PRG), research: historiographical writings (esp. Kings)

Kristin Tröndle, Ph.D. (TÜ), research: Jakob Story, XII

Jan Lukáš, M.A. (PRG), research: Psalms