Guide to ethnographic passages in Tacitus

ETHNIC RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: Guide to Tacitus. (Philip Harland).

Includes some substantial passages on the Judeans.

For more on this blog, see here and here and links.

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Septuagint Theology and Its Reception (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Septuagint Theology and Its Reception: Stellenbosch Congress on the Septuagint, 2022
Johann Cook, Wolfgang Kraus, Martin Rösel, editors

ISBN 9781628375770
Volume SCS 78
Status Available
Publication Date November 2024

Paperback $79.00
eBook $79.00
Hardback $99.00

In this follow-up to Toward a Theology of the Septuagint: Stellenbosch Congress on the Septuagint, 2018 (2020), contributors demonstrate what a theology of the Septuagint should look like. Essays address questions of methodology, and case studies from different books show the relevance and benefits of a theological approach. Examples are drawn from Exodus, Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Job, Tobit, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Hosea, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Ben Sira. Contributors include Nicholas Peter Legh Allen, Bryan Beeckman, Alma Brodersen, Johann Cook, Beate Ego, Karin Finsterbusch, Pierre Jordaan, Wolfgang Kraus, Jean Maurais , Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé, Mogens Müller, Jacobus A. Naudé, Peter Nagel Larry Perkins, Martin Rösel, Barbara Schmitz, Frank Ueberschaer, Jan Willem van Henten, and Michael van der Meer

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Shocker: Jesus wasn't called "Jesus?"

ARAMAIC WATCH!! Scientists reveal Jesus' REAL name - and say it wasn't 'Jesus' after all (Wiliam Hunter, Daily Mail).

The Mail has noticed that the name "Jesus" would have been pronounced differently in first-century Aramaic:

Jesus, as we would say it today with a hard 'J', wasn't a name that existed at the time of Jesus' life.

Instead, Jesus himself would have used a name in his native language of Aramaic.

Professor Houtman says: 'His name would probably have been in Aramaic: Yeshua.

'It is likely that this is also how he introduced himself. Another possibility is the shorter form Yeshu which is the form used in later rabbinic literature.'

Yes, all well and good. And the article includes some useful background information.

The amusing part is the way the Mail, and the media who have picked up the story, are treating this as a groundbreaking new discovery. The headlines especially, but the articles themselves leave that impression.

Experts Have Discovered Jesus’ Real Name, Which Was Not Jesus (Nathan Falde, Ancient Origins)

Jesus’ real name wasn’t Jesus, scientists claim — here’s why (Ben Cost, New York Post)

Scientists claim to have discovered the real name of Jesus Christ and it's not what we thought. The real name, according to the language Jesus spoke, could be Yezhua (AUSTIN CALDWELL, Marca)

As I said, the information is generally accurate. But the media's sensationalist framing is both funny and sad.

UPDATE: Richard Bauckham has written to point out that I could have clarified that the name Jesus/Yeshua is Hebrew, not Aramaic, and that most ancient Aramaic-speaking Jews had Hebrew names.

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Exodus and Atrahasis?

JOHANNA MARKIND: Exodus Reworks the Atrahasis Flood Epic (TheTorah.com).

The biblical authors polemicize against the Mesopotamian Atrahasis epic, not only in Noah’s flood story, but in the account of the exodus as well

Could be. The biblical authors were certainly aware of Mesopotamian Flood traditions.

I don't know of any evidence that the full story of the Atrahasis epic reached ancient Israel, but a Flood story fragment from Ugarit does name the Flood hero Atrahasis (rather than Utnapishtim, as in the Gilgamesh Epic, or Ziusudra, in the Sumerian Flood story). But the Ugarit tablet did not include the prequel material in the Atrahasis epic involving the creation of people and the plagues from the gods.

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The Lying Pen of Scribes Project

VARIANT READINGS: The Lying Pen of Scribes Project: An Appreciation (Brent Nongbri).

Over the last few years, I have had a number of occasions to mention The Lying Pen of Scribes, a project on the Dead Sea Scrolls funded by the Research Council of Norway. In fact, it may not be quite right to say “project on the Dead Sea Scrolls.” While the Scrolls have been the focus of the project, it has touched many wider issues: the trade in antiquities, fakes and forgeries, the relationship of the physical sciences to manuscript studies, and more.

[...]

I have had a number of occasions to link to the project's useful blog and otherwise to note Årstein Justnes's important work. I wish him the best for whatever comes next.

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Stoutjesdijk, A Comparative Study of the Slavery Metaphor in Early Rabbinic and Early Christian Parables (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

A Comparative Study of the Slavery Metaphor in Early Rabbinic and Early Christian Parables

Series:
Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, Volume: 41

Author: Martijn J. Stoutjesdijk

Some of the slavery parables in the New Testament have been called “texts of terror,” as the slaves who are portrayed in them are beaten or even cut in two. Despite – or because – their violence, slavery parables are often used in early Christian and early rabbinic literature to illustrate the unique relationship between God and his people. This study investigates the reasons for and meaning of using the master-slave metaphor in the parables: what does it tell us about early Christian and early rabbinic theology, including possibilities for critique and resistance vis-à-vis the divine, and what does it say about slavery in the ancient world?

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-71310-9
Publication: 16 Dec 2024
EUR €135.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-71309-3
Publication: 18 Dec 2024
EUR €135.00

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Inadvertent animal archaeologists

FAUNAL-ASSISTED ARCHAEOLOGY: 10 Animals That Made Archaeological Discoveries (Ben Gazur, Listverse). Apropos of nothing much, except that I am surprised I didn't know about any of these.

PaleoJudaica has noted such discoveries from time to time. These include two excavations by porcupines, a mole-rat archaeological survey, and an equine figurine recovery that involved heavy rain, and perhaps foxes or (again) porcupines.

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Kudos for the team that raised the Mazzarón II

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Mazarrón places itself as world leader in underwater archaeology following extraction of Phoenician shipwreck. The regional president has highlighted the historical and scientific significance of the removal of the shipwreck from the seabed (Murcia Today).

Background here with many links. Note the variable spellings Mazzarón (Mazzaron) and Mazarrón (Mazarron).

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Lieber, Classical Samaritan Poetry (Eisenbrauns)

NEW BOOK FROM EISENBRAUNS:

Classical Samaritan Poetry

Laura Suzanne Lieber

“Lieber’s informative and readable introductory surveys are groundbreaking.”—Christian Stadel, Bibliotheca Orientalis

$149.95 | Hardcover Edition
ISBN: 978-1-64602-182-6

$21.95 | Paperback Edition
ISBN: 978-1-64602-297-7

Available as an e-book v 250 pages
6" × 9"
2022

Description

This book introduces the evocative but largely unknown tradition of Samaritan religious poetry from late antiquity to a new audience. These verses provide a unique window into the Samaritan religious world during a formative period. Prepared by Laura Suzanne Lieber, this anthology presents annotated English translations of fifty-five Classical Samaritan poems. Lieber introduces each piece, placing it in context with Samaritan religious tradition, the geopolitical turmoil of Palestine in the fourth century CE, and the literary, liturgical, and performative conventions of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, shared by Jews, Christians, and polytheists. These hymns, composed by three generations of poets—the priest Amram Dara; his son, Marqah; and Marqah’s son, Ninna, the last poet to write in Samaritan Aramaic in the period prior to the Muslim conquest—for recitation during the Samaritan Sabbath and festival liturgies remain a core element of Samaritan religious ritual to the present day.

Shedding important new light on the Samaritans’ history and on the complicated connections between early Judaism, Christianity, the Samaritan community, and nascent Islam, this volume makes an important contribution to the reception of the history of the Hebrew Bible. It will appeal to a wide audience of students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, early Judaism and early Christianity, and other religions of late antiquity.

Cross-file under Samaritan Watch.

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From the Magdala Stone to the Syriac Bema (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

From the Magdala Stone to the Syriac Bema

Mutual Influences between the Liturgical Space in the Early Synagogue and Church

Series:
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 218

Authors: Rina Talgam, Dina Avshalom Gorni, and Arfan Najar

This book sheds light on the reciprocal relations between liturgical performance and the physical spaces in which they took place in synagogues and churches in antiquity. The kernel of the manuscript revolves around a decorated stone that was found during the excavations of a synagogue dated to the first century CE at Magdala on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The book displays how this important archaeological discovery radically transforms our understanding of the changes in the shape of the liturgical space and the liturgical furniture in the places of assembly of the two sister faiths, Judaism and Christianity.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70773-3
Publication: 04 Nov 2024
EUR €169.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70772-6
Publication: 21 Nov 2024
EUR €169.00

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Becking, Identity in Persian Egypt (Eisenbrauns)

NEW BOOK FROM EISENBRAUNS:

Identity in Persian Egypt

The Fate of the Yehudite Community of Elephantine

Bob Becking

“A good and stimulating read. It represents an innovative approach to research on Elephantine. The most important strength—construing the ‘fate’ of the Yehudite community in light of the rise and fall of pax persica—makes the book a contribution to the Yehudite community’s history and a microhistorical contribution to Achaemenid studies. Both students and experts will gain from reading the book.”—Gard Granerød, Review of Biblical Literature

$90.95 | Hardcover Edition
ISBN: 978-1-57506-745-2

$34.95 | Paperback Edition
ISBN: 978-1-64602-244-1

224 pages
6" × 9"
2020

Description

In this book, Bob Becking provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the origins, lives, and eventual fate of the Yehudites, or Judeans, at Elephantine, framed within the greater history of the rise and fall of the Persian Empire.

The Yehudites were among those mercenaries recruited by the Persians to defend the southwestern border of the empire in the fifth century BCE. Becking argues that this group, whom some label as the first “Jews,” lived on the island of Elephantine in relative peace with other ethnic groups under the aegis of the pax persica. Drawing on Aramaic and Demotic texts discovered during excavations on the island and at Syene on the adjacent shore of the Nile, Becking finds evidence of intermarriage, trade cooperation, and even a limited acceptance of one another’s gods between the various ethnic groups at Elephantine. His analysis of the Elephantine Yehudites’ unorthodox form of Yahwism provides valuable insight into the group’s religious beliefs and practices.

An important contribution to the study of Yehudite life in the diaspora, this accessibly written and sweeping history enhances our understanding of the varieties of early Jewish life and how these contributed to the construction of Judaism.

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A mythic reading of anthropomorphic mountains?

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION: Rendered Relatable: Using Myth to (Re-)Read Hebrew Bible Landscapes.

Landscapes often appear as backgrounds in scenes that tend to be regarded as mythic. Applying our revised myth theory means that these landscapes can gain more “weight” and our reading can produce new insights that alternate models of myth previously obscured.

See also Personified Mountains in Ancient Canonical Narratives: Spatial and Mythic Studies of Mesopotamian, Greek, and Hebrew Bible Landscapes (Mohr Siebeck, 2024).

By Eric J. P. Wagner
Aquinas Institute of Theology
January 2025

Cross-file under New Book.

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JANES

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal: JANES - Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society.

I was surprised to see how long it's been since I mentioned this excellent journal. Lots of good articles, including one in the current issue (Vol. 37.1, 2024) on the possible influence of Bronze Age megalithic monumental ruins on the biblical giant traditions.

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Diocletian-era boundary stone excavated in northern Galilee

ARCHAEOLOGY: Roman administrative practices revealed in boundary stone excavations. Archaeologists uncover Roman boundary stone in northern Galilee, revealing insights into Emperor Diocletian’s tax reforms during Tetrarchy; Greek inscription mentions unknown villages and imperial official, shedding light on Roman administrative practices and rural life (Yogev Israeli, Ynet News).

Excavations at Tel Avel Beit Ma'akha, located approximately 1.2 miles south of Metula in the northern Galilee, have revealed an extraordinary discovery—a Roman boundary stone from the Tetrarchy period. This ancient basalt stone, originally used to delineate agricultural lands between villages, was later repurposed in a structure from the Mamluk period.

[...]

Another Diocletian-era boundary stone was found in the northern Galilee in 2020. I noted it here and here.

Also the discovery of another, somewhat different, boundary marker here. And others elsewhere, but those links have all rotted.

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Michael V. Fox (1940–2025)

SAD NEWS: On the Agade list, Jack Sasson has reported that Michael V. Fox, the Jay C. and Ruth Halls-Bascom Professor of Hebrew Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has died at the age of 84 (as indicated by his son, Joshua Fox).

Professor Fox's Wikipedia page is here. He was known particularly for his work on biblical wisdom literature.

May his memory be for a blessing.

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Joe Rogan and P52

VARIANT READINGS: P52 on the Joe Rogan Experience: Fact Check. Brent Nongbri fact checks the Joe Rogan show on its coverage of P52, the fragment of the Gospel of John that has been called the oldest surviving fragment of the New Testament.

And see the comments for an interchange between Brent and the interviewee.

For PaleoJudaica posts on P52 and the problems with dating it precisely, see here and links, with some specifics here (final paragraph.)

UPDATE (21 January): the interviewee, Wesley Huff, has issued additional corrections. See here.

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