Dr. James Walters joined HMML in 2020 as a Cataloger of Syriac Manuscripts and in 2022 became the Lead Cataloger of Eastern Christian Collections. Walters holds a BA in Political Science from Harding University, Searcy, AR, a MA in New Testament and MDiv from Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX, and a PhD in Early Christianity from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ. Prior to joining HMML, Walters was on faculty at Rochester University, Rochester Hills, MI, as an associate professor of Religion, Director of the Honors Program, and an online teaching specialist. He has presented at conferences and is widely published, with two books currently under contract.

In his role at HMML, Walters focuses on the cataloging of Syriac manuscripts as part of the 2020 grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The NEH grant funds a three-year project to catalog 53,000 digitized manuscripts and create an online database of authors and titles originating from under-represented or little-known literary traditions.

What he enjoys most about his work: “The opportunity to play a small role in the preservation of ancient texts for generations to come; and, in so doing, join a long line of readers who have treasured and shared these manuscripts.”

Stories by Dr. James Walters

•   The Frozen Tigris and Other Remarkable Weather Events Described in Syriac Colophons
•   Arthur Vööbus: Preserving a Legacy
•   Instructions for Burial: The Last Will and Testament of Ephrem the Syrian
•   Postscript — A Swedish Saint in Syriac
•   Tracing Scribal Genealogies in Syriac Manuscripts: The Naṣro Family
•   Identifying Syriac Fragments in the Digital Age
•   Books that Survived the Ban — Syriac Manuscripts in India
•   Postscript — King Solomon the Gynecologist, a Forgotten Tale From the Syriac Book of Medicines
•   A Syriac Poem on Wine
•   Postscript — Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel
•   The Book of Laughable Stories — A Medieval Joke Book
•   An Anonymous Syriac Medical Compendium