Tutty, The Monks of the Nag Hammadi Codices (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Monks of the Nag Hammadi Codices

Contextualising a Fourth-Century Monastic Community

Series:
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, Volume: 107

Author: Paula Tutty

This work tells the story of a community of fourth-century monks living in Egypt. The letters they wrote and received were found within the covers of works that changed our understanding of early religious thought - the Nag Hammadi Codices. This book seeks to contextualise the letters and answer questions about monastic life. Significantly, new evidence is presented that links the letters directly to the authors and creators of the codices in which they were discovered.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69908-3
Publication: 02 Oct 2024
EUR €130.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69574-0
Publication: 10 Oct 2024
EUR €130.00

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal: Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies.

It's been quite a while since I mentioned this journal, so this is a good opportunity to do so again. It deals with Judaism from all periods, but antiquity is well represented.

Unfortunately, it looks like there has not been a new volume since 2019.

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Häberlein, Speaking to Job in Greek (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Speaking to Job in Greek
Text, Translation Technique, Literary and Theological Profile of OG Job 38:1-42:6

Maximilian Häberlein
Volume 560 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111399003

Institutional price £110.00

eBook
Published: September 23, 2024
ISBN: 9783111399003

Hardcover
Published: September 23, 2024
ISBN: 9783111397443

About this book

This study investigates the Old Greek translation of Job regarding its text, Vorlage, translation technique, literary contexts, and theological profile.
To situate OG Job within its ancient contexts, both the strategies employed by the translators and the literary profile of the translated text have to be taken into account. Thus, an approach is employed encompassing a thick description of translational strategies; and a reading of the translated text in its own right. This framework is applied in an investigation of God’s answer to Job in OG Job 38:1-42:6. The results show that the translators worked from a Vorlage similar to, but not fully identical with MT, and produced a coherent, stylized text. The transformations undertaken, including double translations, intertextual renderings, minuses, small-scale rewritings and paraphrases, can be situated in an environment influenced by Greek educational and philological practices, but are also deeply indebted to Jewish scribal traditions. While not introducing sweeping theological changes, the translation nevertheless shows a tendency to emphasize divine sovereignty. The study thus contributes to a deeper understanding of this important witness to the book of Job an Jewish literature in the Hellenistic period.

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Late-antique Coptic Psalms fragments for sale

VARIANT READINGS: Additional Items from the Schøyen Collection on Sale (Brent Nongbri).

Brent reports that three Coptic parchment folios with material from the Book of Psalms are being advertised for sale on a rare book dealer's website. The sale site dates them all to the first half of the fifth century. Two look like they are from the same codex. The third less so, but it's hard to be sure.

Follow the link for more from Brent, including on the question of provenance.

As usual with these things, if these manuscripts must be sold, I encourage the buyer to donate them to a museum. Or, failing that, at least to make them available freely for scholars to study.

For more on the sale of the Crosby-Schøyen codex, mentioned in the post, see here links. For the sale and fate of the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, sold at the same auction, see here and links.

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The Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project

TEXTUAL CRITICISM: Welcome to the Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project The first eclectic and digital critical edition of the first 50 Psalms.

This Virtual Manuscript Room digital workspace will support the three-year NEH-funded project “‘I Shall No Longer Want’ (Psalm 23:1): The Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter” (CEHP) to produce the first full eclectic and digital critical edition of the Hebrew Psalms 1-50, as well as the printed volume for Psalms 1-50 for the Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition series. The project is co-directed by Prof. Brent Strawn and Dr. Drew Longacre at Duke University/Divinity School.

[...]

Follow the link for additional details. The project also has a blog: Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter.

HT Drew Longacre.

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Is the "Passover" Papyrus really about a Zoroastrian rite?

ELEPHANTINE WATCH: New Study of 'Passover Letter' May Change What We Know About the Birth of Judaism. The 2,400-year-old papyrus from Elephantine, touted as the earliest evidence for Pesach, may in fact reference Zoroastrian-influenced rituals, Israeli scholar concludes (Ariel David, Haaretz).

The so-called 'Passover Letter' is a tattered papyrus written in Aramaic during the Persian period. It is thought by scholars to contain the first extrabiblical reference to the rituals of Pesach, thus proving that this festival was already well established more than 2,400 years ago.

Not so, says a new study by an Israeli researcher, which calls into question a century of scholarship on the seminal document and claims the text has little or nothing to do with Passover as we know it. Instead, the letter was most likely discussing Zoroastrian-inspired rituals that were commonly observed by Jews in the Persian Empire, says Dr. Gad Barnea, a lecturer in Jewish history and biblical studies at Haifa University.

[...]

The underlying article is published in the open-access Shaked Festschrift, to which I linked here. Gad Barnea has also published the full volume, including this article, at his Academia.edu site.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Aramaic "Passover" Papyrus from Elephantine, which doesn't actually mention Passover in its surviving text, see here and here and follow the many links. For another argument that the papyrus did not mention Passover at all, see here.

Dr. Barnea's argument involves technical aspects of ancient Zoroastrian worship outside my expertise, so I take no position on it. But I have made a case here that Passover as we know it was known, and perhaps well-known, in Judea no later than the third century BCE and quite possibly as early as the late seventh century BCE.

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A Josephus apocryphon on Hades

ROGER PEARSE: Pseudo-Josephus, “A Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades” – an investigation AND More on Pseudo-Josephus, “Discourse to the Greeks on Hades.”

The discussion is technical, but Roger includes a link to a translation of the text. It is worth reading as a late-antique, clearly Christian, treatise on Hades addressed to "the Greeks." It looks like attribution to Josephus is a transmission error rather than the intent of the author (who may have been Hippolytus).

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Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: October

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year Part 3: October 2024.

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany. This is his most recent update. With the latest on Thecla and on the dormition of Mary tradition.

For earlier posts in this series, see here and links. For more on Tony's work and related matters, see here and here.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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A cat kneaded an unfired pot 1,200 years ago in Jerusalem

FELINE-EMBELLISHED MATERIAL CULTURE: Archaeologists Find First-ever Evidence of a Cat Kneading, in Jerusalem. Combing through excavation material from Mount Zion in Jerusalem, lab director Gretchen Cotter noticed something unusual on an Abbasid-era clay jug (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

It is the claw marks that whisper of the ancient cat's contentment. It didn't just walk on the raw jar, which is absolutely a thing a cat would do. If it had just been strolling on the jug – first, cats have retractable claws in their front feet and do not stroll about with their front claws extended. There would not be any claw marks. Second, we wouldn't see the imprint of its foreleg.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 221

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: The ‘Thank Heaven October is Over’ Biblical Studies Carnival (Jim West).

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Carr, Essays on the Study of the Pentateuch (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: David M. Carr. From Sources to Scrolls and Beyond. Essays on the Study of the Pentateuch. Forschungen zum Alten Testament (FAT) 177. €159.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-163223-5. Also Available As: eBook PDF €159.00).

This volume collects thirteen essays by David M. Carr which join the study of the formation of the Pentateuch with research on other topics, from material history to animal studies. It begins with a detailed history of the last half-century of scholarship on the formation of the Pentateuch along with more general essays on the rationale for such study and on other methodological issues in Pentateuchal research. Two subsequent sections collect essays on intertextuality and on the material history of the five-scroll Pentateuchal collection. The volume concludes with essays linking such research with other areas, e.g. the question of the »author« in literary studies and questions about relations between humans and other animals in animal studies. Each chapter is prefaced with an introduction providing background on the context and problems addressed in the essay.

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Kratz, »Väterliche Gesetze« und das Gesetz des Mose (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Reinhard Gregor Kratz. »Väterliche Gesetze« und das Gesetz des Mose. Die Rolle der Tora im judäischen Aufstand gegen Antiochos IV. [»Ancestral Laws« and the Law of Moses. The Role of the Torah in the Judean Revolt against Antiochos IV.] 2024. XII, 284 pages. Tria Corda (TrC) 16. Published in German. €34.00 including VAT. sewn paper available 978-3-16-162741-5. Also Available As: eBook PDF €34.00.

Reinhard Gregor Kratz addresses the question of the role the Torah played in the Maccabean revolt against Antiochos IV in the second century BCE and how the Law of Moses relates to the »ancestral laws« mentioned in Seleucid and Jewish sources.

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Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries: Mapping the Second Century

Series:
Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, Volume: 18

Volume Editors: Matthijs Dulk, den, Joshua Schwartz, Peter J. Tomson, and Joseph Verheyden

The second century is a crucial period for the formation of both Judaism and Christianity, but remains in important ways terra incognita. This volume brings together specialists in Jewish studies and Christian studies, two closely related disciplines that nonetheless continue to operate in relative isolation. Taking into consideration the full panoply of Jewish and Christian identities, the volume proposes fresh ways to map the interrelated histories of Jews and Christians. Contributions by leading scholars offer new insights into this period informed by a rich variety of perspectives, including theoretical, literary, thematic and material approaches.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70440-4
Publication: 16 Sep 2024
EUR €199.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70439-8
Publication: 12 Sep 2024
EUR €199.00

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Review of Manekin-Bamberger, Seder Mazikin

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Seder Mazikin: Law and Magic in Late Antique Jewish Society (Sarit Kattan Gribetz).

Avigail Manekin-Bamberger, Seder Mazikin: Law and Magic in Late Antique Jewish Society (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben Zvi, 2024). [Hebrew]

... Seder Mazikin is meticulously researched and generously written, such that both experts in the field and those who are just getting started will learn a tremendous amount about the [Babylonian Aramaic incantation] bowls, their legal dimensions, and their relationship to rabbinic sources. The book takes seriously the technical aspects of the bowls while drawing far-ranging conclusions about the social, intellectual, and material world in which they were produced....

Unmentioned in the review is that the more recently published incantation bowls (after Montgomery's publication) are mostly (entirely?) unprovenanced. Is it possible to forge one convincingly? It would be very difficult, but it would become easier as more of them are published. I discuss the issue further here.

I haven't read the book, but based on this review, I think I would agree with its conclusions. I wrote about the incantation bowls in my book Descenders to the Chariot (Brill 2001) and discussed the social background of their composers as non-rabbinic scribes on pp. 245-50. And I propose a specific connection with the Sar Torah hekhalot practitioners on pp. 276-77.

There are many PaleoJudaica posts on the Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls. Start here and keep following the links, and see also here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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BHD on the raising of the Mazzarón II

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Phoenician Ship Raised from the Seafloor. Archaeologists lift nearly complete vessel from Spanish waters (Nathan Steinmeyer).

A team of specialists from the University of Valencia is hard at work lifting a nearly complete Phoenician shipwreck from the seafloor off the Spanish coast of Murcia. While the ship, dubbed Mazarrón 2, has been protected by sand for more than two millennia, recent changes in coastal currents have torn away much of that protective blanket, posing an existential threat to this incredible archaeological wonder.

[...]

For some years I have been following the planning for and current ongoing raising of the Mazarrón II shipwreck in Murcia, Spain. It's good to see the project receiving some wider attention from the Biblical Archaeological Society.

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

Cross-file under Phoenician Watch.

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Professor Ben Outhwaite

THE GENIZA FRAGMENTS BLOG: New Professor of Genizah Studies (Melonie Schmierer-Lee).

We are delighted to announce that Ben Outhwaite, Head of the Genizah Research Unit since 2006, has today [1 October 2024] become Professor Outhwaite – Professor of Genizah Studies. ...

Congratulations to Professor Outhwaite!

The website of the Cambridge University Library Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit is here.

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dy Carlos Araújo, Peacemaking through Blood in Colossians (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Diego dy Carlos Araújo. Peacemaking through Blood in Colossians. An Analysis of the Imagery in Its Graeco-Roman and Jewish Context. 2024. XIV, 216 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe (WUNT II) 615. €84.00 including VAT. sewn paper available 978-3-16-161873-4. Also Available As: eBook PDF €84.00.

The imagery of »peacemaking through Christ's blood« in Colossians 1.20b evokes conceptual frames from both the Graeco-Roman and Jewish thought worlds. To grasp the full significance of the imagery, it is necessary to explore which frames could have been activated by the writer's metaphors. In this work, Diego dy Carlos Araújo applies insights from frame semantics and conceptual metaphor to investigate the multiple frames possibly evoked in the minds of the implied readers by the metaphorical expressions εἰρηνοποιήσας διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ σταυροῦ αὐτοῦ in this passage. Colossians' own version of the message challenges the cultural and theological expectations of the audience concerning peacemaking through blood. The impact of its Christological configuration lies precisely in the incongruity between its message and the frames with which the hearers were familiar.

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Albright shrugged?

INSTITUTE OF HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY, AND EDUCATION BLOG: Albright Shrugged: The Haupt/Albright Relationship (Peter Feinman).

All things considered, therefore, Johns Hopkins under German-born and -educated Paul Haupt, expert in the Gilgamesh epic, was the best place at this particular point in time for student Albright to arm himself with some of the tools of the trade and weapons of war he needed to achieve his goal of illuminating religion through science. On that subject, “[founding JHU President] Gilman believed that research in Semitic languages would significantly aid in the reconciliation of science and religion by clarifying sacred texts.” He was an orientalist who served for many years as the President of the American Oriental Society. Both this organization and “reconciliation” of science and religion would prove to be important in the scholarship of Albright.

I noted the first three posts in this series on Willam Foxwell Albright (the twentieth century's "dean of biblical archaeologists"), with background, here and links.

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Nabatean coinage went its own way

NABATEAN NUMISMATICS: Nabataean kings’ coins defy Roman influence, show 'unique' independence (Saeb Rawashdeh, Jordan Times).

AMMAN – The Roman style was popular among the ruling elites in the client states of the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. However, on their coinage, the Nabataean rulers did not broadcast the Roman imperial imagery, unlike the Herods where the Roman elements are obvious.

[...]

The article also includes information on some of the Nabatean kings.

For more on Nabatean coinage, see here. For some more articles on the Nabateans by Saeb Rawashdeh, see here and links.

Cross-file under Nabatean (Nabataean) Watch.

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New discoveries near Babylon

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Trove of Artifacts Discovered Near Babylon. Tablets, seals, and more (Nathan Steinmeyer). "The team uncovered two houses filled with nearly 500 artifacts dating to the Old Babylonian period (c. 1894–1595 BCE)." With "numerous cuneiform tablets." Sounds exciting.

For much more on the archaeology, history, and legends of ancient Babylon, see the links collected here.

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Review of Boter, Critical notes on Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: .

Gerard Boter, Critical notes on Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Sammlung wissenschaftlicher Commentare. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2023. Pp. viii, 317. ISBN 9783111243658.

Review by
N. G. Wilson, University of Oxford. nigel.wilson@lincoln.ox.ac.uk

The review is technical, but if you are into the Greek text of the Life of Apollonius, you will want to read it.

For more (and more accessible) PaleoJudaica posts on the first-century itinerant sage Apollonius of Tyana, especially in relation to Jesus, see here and links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.