Last year's Hanukkah post is here. It links to earlier and some subsequent Hanukkah/Hasmonean-era-related posts. And see also here, here, here (follow-ups here and here), here, and here. And more is coming!
Posting was light last week because I've had the flu. I'm still a little under the weather, but I aim to catch up this week.
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Reading Psalms with the ScribesUsing Ancient Manuscript Evidence to Inform Biblical Studies
John Screnock
£99.00
Hardback
Published: 18 November 2025
304 Pages
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780198853640Also Available As:
E-bookDescription
Reading Psalms with the Scribes argues for a new approach to the study of the Hebrew Bible, “reading with the scribes,” which puts variation in the ancient witnesses at the center of the endeavor. With a focus on texts from Psalms, Reading Psalms with the Scribes explores how ancient manuscript evidence can impact scholars' thinking about poetics, composition, and interpretation. Whereas most biblical scholarship keeps textual criticism distinct from other kinds of analysis — as a preliminary step that provides one correct version of the text to be studied, for example — the practice of reading with the scribes leverages moments of variation for their insights into the thoughts, practices, and work of scribes. The scribes of the Second Temple period were much more than copyists; they were practiced readers who paid close attention to the poetic features of psalms, competent editors who polished the existing strengths of psalms, talented authors who could add new elements to psalms without altering their compositional unity, and skilled interpreters with robust understandings of the text. Though current scholarship has extensive knowledge of these ancient texts in all their facets, there is much we can learn from the scribes of the Second Temple period. When we focus our attention on the places in the text where the scribes were at work and explore the elements of the text involved in that work — when we explore some of the paths that scribes have made in the text — we can glean methodological insights and consider psalms and other ancient Hebrew texts in new ways.
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Religious Experience and Divinization in the Sectarian Dead Sea ScrollsLiving in the Liminal
Series:
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of JudaismAuthor: Rebecca L. Harris For members of the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls movement, participation in the group would have granted an individual special privileges, including present, unmediated access to otherworldly realities. This understanding of the present as a type of liminal space is rooted in the group’s constructions of time and space. Drawing on theories of liminality and anthropological research on religious consciousness, this study seeks to demonstrate how sectarian identity and ritual and liturgical practice might have cultivated an experience of present communion with divine beings that was also aspirational and aimed to achieve the human worshiper’s permanent incorporation into the heavenly realm.
Copyright Year: 2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74804-0
Publication: 24 Nov 2025 EUR €121.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74803-3
Publication: 20 Nov 2025
EUR €121.00
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This is the first part of an exclusive Bible History Daily series on historical texts that are important for understanding the history and world of the Bible.The Kurkh Monolith recounts the Battle of Qarqar, on which a bit more is here.When discussing historical references to ancient Israel outside of the Bible, many note the famous Tel Dan Inscription or the Mesha Stele, but there are two important Assyrian texts that are often forgotten: the Kurkh Monolith and the Black Obelisk.1 These inscriptions contain not only two of the oldest mentions of ancient Israel, but also describe events not mentioned in the Bible.
[...]
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The Roman-Jewish historian of dubious reputation, Yosef ben Matityahu or Josephus, who would be captured by the Romans in the battle over Yodfat, wrote in detail about the mighty Jerusalem wall and its gates, calling it "impregnable" with no less than 60 guard towers along its length.Maybe it was impregnable. "It is clear that it was systematically destroyed and razed to the ground. This is predetermined destruction – not the result of the ravages of time, nor of enemy attack," says [excavation director Dr. Amit] Re'em. "This raises questions about who was responsible for the wall's destruction."
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Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day was created in 2007 by Senna Diaz, author of the webcomic Dresden Codak, but the dream of the human race one day being able to travel through time is much older than that. The first known mention of such a concept is in ancient Hindu mythology.Now an established annual tradition that I have egregiously neglected for some years.
One of the original announcements is here. The original Facebook page is long gone, but the X hashtage is #PretendToBeATimeTravelerDay.
Have fun, but behave yourself.
Past posts on the day are here and links.
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Glass rings were popular in the Roman and Byzantine periods, roughly between the 1st and 7th centuries CE. They were often made by winding molten glass around a rod or using a mold, then smoothing the surface. These rings served as affordable decorative items compared to precious metal jewelry and were widely worn by different social classes.Finding such an artifact at the Temple Mount Sifting Project reflects the everyday life and craftsmanship of people who lived in Jerusalem during these eras. For Irène, sifting through the soil of the Temple Mount is not just an archaeological act, it is a spiritual privilege touching the very center of Jewish and world heritage.
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3-4 Maccabees and the Apocalypse of Baruch According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English TranslationEnglish Translation by Philip Forness & J. Edward Walters; Text Prepared by George Anton Kiraz & Joseph Bali
Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-0588-1Formats *
Cloth (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-0588-1Publication Status: In Print
Series: Surath Kthob 15
Publication Date: Sep 15,2025
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Page Count: 0 [Sic!]
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0588-1
Price: $150.00 (USD)
Your price: $120.00 (USD)Overview
This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Forness and Walters have translated the text, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.
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Proverbs 1–9
Graham S. OgdenISBN 9781914490705
Status Available
Publication Date June 2025Hardback $85.00
Paperback $35.00This reading of Proverbs 1–9 is unique in that it complements Israelite advice by setting alongside it Chinese examples of wisdom from the Confucian Analects, highlighting their fundamental similarity and affirming Wisdom’s human-derived instructions within two very different cultural worlds.
The reading uses the literary and rhetorical features of the Hebrew text to highlight the Sages’ advice encouraging audiences to accept and endorse that advice, emphasizing the potential benefit that Wisdom is able to grant those who follow its path.
The phenomenon of Wisdom is not exclusive to any one community; it is universal or ecumenical and embraces all levels of counsel – that of parents teaching children, of artisans teaching practical techniques to apprentices, of ‘professional’ Sages giving political and personal direction to rulers. Wisdom’s basic concern is for the individual and community to aspire to the highest of ideals, to find the ‘paths’ that lead to personal and communal well-being. Wisdom is never just an intellectual pursuit; it is intensely practical, an ideal manner of living and working within specific religious and cultural contexts. Ancient Israel and a contemporary China arrived at similar conclusions as to what constituted ‘wise living’, expressing their conclusions within their own social and cultural contexts and forms.
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The newly identified palace on the northwestern slope clarifies both the scale and splendor of the hilltop complex. Given Josephus's brief references to Alexandrium, physical evidence is essential for understanding how the Hasmoneans and Herod built and used the fortress.Early this year I noted the decipherment of an Aramaic ostracton excavated at Sartaba-Alexandrium in the 1980s. See here and here. Then a new exavation commenced at the site in March. Already it has discovered a major ancient architectural feature.According to Raviv, the architectural fragments uncovered so far allow archaeologists to reconstruct portions of the palace layout and better understand its function.
This site is also on the West Bank. The article discusses some of the arising issues and complications.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Languages die all the time. Scholars estimate that one language disappears every two weeks.As the article makes clear, "lost" in the headline means languages that no longer have native speakers. I assume that this was to avoid calling them "dead."Most vanish quietly, leaving little trace beyond memories held by the last speakers. But some dead languages cast shadows that stretch across centuries.
They influenced literature, law, religion, and entire ways of thinking about the world. You live in a culture shaped by languages nobody speaks anymore, and most people don’t realize how much these extinct tongues still matter.
[...]
This is quite a good list of such languages, many well known (e.g., Sumerian, Akkadian, ancient Egyptian, Latin), others less so (e.g., Old Church Slavonic and Sogdian). All of them have come up from time to time in PaleoJudaica. Yes, even Etruscan and Gothic!
I could quibble about this or that detail in the descriptions, but they are generally good too.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.