The Testimonium Flavianum Canonicum: Josephus as a Witness to the Biblical Canon, 1566–1823

I acknowledge support from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 295463.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12138-016-0408-4

Solomon Schechter: a Jewish scholar in Victorian England (1882–1902)

November 2015 marked the centenary of the death of Solomon Schechter, one of the most original, accomplished and wide-ranging Jewish scholars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To explore Schechter’s life, work and legacies, the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (CAJS) at the University of Pennsylvania joined forces to convene a pair of conferences. One conference, at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, focused on the American chapter of Schechter’s life (1902–15), framed in large part by his stewardship of the Jewish Theological Seminary and his role in the emergence of Conservative Judaism and in American Jewish life generally. The other conference met at the Old Divinity School, St John’s College, Cambridge, built on the site of the Church of All Saints in the Jewry (the pre-expulsion Jewish quarter).This second conference focused on the English chapter of Schechter’s life (1882/3–1902) and especially his work as a scholar in Cambridge (1890–1902). Five of the seven essays in this special issue of Jewish Historical Studies were delivered as lectures to the Cambridge conference; a sixth, by Mirjam Thulin, is a revision of the lecture she delivered at the Philadelphia conference; and a seventh, by David Starr, builds on his lectures at both conferences

Las dos versiones de la De Psalterii Anglicani exemplari animaduersio de Benito Arias Montano en la Biblia Políglota de Amberes

En el octavo y último volumen de la Biblia Regia de Amberes Benito Arias Montano publicaba un breve texto titulado De Psalterii Anglicani exemplari animaduersio. En el marco de su defensa del original hebreo del Antiguo Testamento, su autor consideraba necesario advertir al lector de que algunos de los manuscritos más apreciados por los llamados «misohebreos» de su tiempo carecían de todo valor. Para ello, Arias Montano examinó un manuscrito hebreo del salterio elogiado como muy antiguo y relevante por el poderoso obispo Guillermo D. Lindano, y concluía que el códice era reciente y de escaso valor, cargando de paso contra la reputación científica de este. El ataque, fundamentado en parte en una falsa denuncia, sería el punto de partida de una controversia personal y científica que se extiende durate más de quince años. El presente artículo llama la atención sobre el hecho de que en los ejemplares conservados de la Políglota se pueden leer dos versiones de la Animaduersio montaniana muy diferentes entre sí. Con objeto de aclarar las circunstancias y motivos que las originaron, el autor propone: (1) reunir en un único estudio, por vez primera, el texto latino y la traducción al español de las dos versiones de la Animaduersio; (2) investigar, a la luz de la correspondencia privada de Arias Montano y de Lindano, las razones que propiciaron la existencia de dos versiones tan distintas de este prefacio; (3) y conjeturar una datación aproximada para cada una de las versiones

Markers for Major Complications at Day-One Postoperative in Fast-Track Metabolic Surgery:Updated Metabolic Checklist

Introduction: In fast-track metabolic surgery, the window to identify complications is narrow. Postoperative checklists can be useful tools in the decision-making of safe early discharge. The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of a checklist used in metabolic surgery. Methods: Retrospective data from June 2018 to January 2021 was collected on all patients that underwent metabolic surgery in a high-volume bariatric hospital in the Netherlands. Patients without an available checklist were excluded. The primary outcome was major complications and the secondary outcomes were minor complications, readmission, and unplanned hospital visits within 30 days postoperatively.Results: Major complications within 30 days postoperatively occurred in 62/1589 (3.9%) of the total included patients. An advise against early discharge was significantly more seen in patients with major complications compared to those without major complications (90.3% versus 48.1%, P &lt; 0.001, respectively), and a negative checklist (advice for discharge) had a negative predictive value of 99.2%. The area under the curve for the total checklist was 0.80 (P &lt; 0.001). Using a cut-off value of ≥3 positive points, the sensitivity and specificity were 65% and 82%, respectively. Individual parameters from the checklist: oral intake, mobilization, calf pain, willingness for discharge, heart rate, drain (&gt;30 ml/24 h), hemoglobin, and leukocytes count were also significantly different between groups. Conclusion: This checklist is a valuable tool to decide whether patients can be safely discharged early. Heart rate appeared to be the most predictive parameter for the development of major complications. Future studies should conduct prediction models to identify patients at risk for major complications. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].</p

Long-term effect of sleeve gastrectomy vs Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in people living with severe obesity:a phase III multicentre randomised controlled trial (SleeveBypass)

Background: Sleeve gastrectomy is the most performed metabolic surgical procedure worldwide. However, conflicting results offer no clear evidence about its long-term clinical comparability to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. This study aims to determine their equivalent long-term weight loss effects. Methods: This randomised open-label controlled trial was conducted from 2012 until 2017 in two Dutch bariatric hospitals with a 5-year follow-up (last follow-up July 29th, 2022). Out of 4045 patients, 628 were eligible for metabolic surgery and were randomly assigned to sleeve gastrectomy or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (intention-to-treat). The primary endpoint was weight loss, expressed by percentage excess body mass index (BMI) loss. The predefined clinically relevant equivalence margin was −13% to 13%. Secondary endpoints included percentage total kilograms weight loss, obesity-related comorbidities, quality of life, morbidity, and mortality. This trial is registered with Dutch Trial Register NTR4741: https://onderzoekmetmensen.nl/nl/trial/25900. Findings: 628 patients were randomised between sleeve gastrectomy (n = 312) and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (n = 316) (mean age 43 [standard deviation (SD), 11] years; mean BMI 43.5 [SD, 4.7]; 81.8% women). Excess BMI loss at 5 years was 58.8% [95% CI, 55%–63%] after sleeve gastrectomy and 67.1% [95% CI, 63%–71%] after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (difference 8.3% [95% CI, −12.5% to −4.0%]). This was within the predefined margin (P &lt; 0.001). Total weight loss at 5 years was 22.5% [95% CI, 20.7%–24.3%] after sleeve gastrectomy and 26.0% [95% CI, 24.3%–27.8%] after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (difference 3.5% [95% CI, −5.2% to −1.7%]). In both groups, obesity-related comorbidities significantly improved after 5 years. Dyslipidaemia improved more frequently after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (83%, 54/65) compared to sleeve gastrectomy (62%, 44/71) (P = 0.006). De novo gastro-oesophageal reflux disease occurred more frequently after sleeve gastrectomy (16%, 46/288) vs Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (4%, 10/280) (P &lt; 0.001). Minor complications were more frequent after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (5%, 15/316) compared to sleeve gastrectomy (2%, 5/312). No statistically significant differences in major complications and health-related quality of life were encountered. Interpretation: In people living with obesity grades 2 and 3, sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass had clinically comparable excess BMI loss according to the predefined definition for equivalence. However, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass showed significantly higher total weight loss and significant advantages in secondary outcomes, including dyslipidaemia and GERD, yet at a higher rate of minor complications. Major complications, other comorbidities, and overall HRQoL did not significantly differ between the groups. Funding: Not applicable.</p

The Hebrew library of a Renaissance humanist: The bibliography to Andreas Masius\u27 edition of the book of Joshua (Antwerp: Christopher Plantin 1574)

Andreas Masius\u27 1574 polyglot edition of the book of Joshua with copious annotations and commentaries is a monument of Renaissance biblical scholarship. In an appendix - the text presented here - Masius recorded the Hebrew and Aramaic books he consulted in preparing his edition. In spite of the brevity of its descriptions, this bibliography has much to tell us about Christian readership of the Hebrew book in the 16th century. It reveals the depth, breadth, and sophistication of Masius\u27 grasp of Jewish literature. It is a snapshot of his own library, but at the same time also a panorama of the flourishing Hebrew book in the early modern period. It was this flourishing, in Italy above all, that enabled Masius to begin to understand very different worlds of Jewish scholarship, and to put them to scholarly, and strikingly non-polemical, use. Since the workshop, this material has been published in significantly expanded and revised form as Theodor Dunkelgrün, The Hebrew Library of a Renaissance Humanist. Andreas Masius and the bibliography to his Iosuae Imperatoris Historia (1574) with a Latin edition and an annotated English translation , in Studia Rosenthaliana 42-43 (2010-11), 197-252. This presentation is for the following text(s): The bibliography to Andreas Masius’ edition, with commentaries, of the book of Joshua: Iosvae Imperatoris Historia, illustrata atq[ue] Explicata ab Andrea Masio (Antwerp: Christopher Plantin 1574