I am delighted to announce that my book, An Enchanted World: The Shared Religious Landscape in Late Antiquity, will be released in the United States on February 3. The U.K. release is March 31, and an Italian edition is in the works.It is now out in both countries, published by Princeton University Press. The publisher link is here.[...]
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While parts of the early Roman built world survive in exceptional sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, Roman architecture is unevenly preserved across the empire. Recent excavations at Piazza Andrea Costa in the Italian city of Fano (ancient Fanum Fortunae) provide an opportunity to recover the architecture of a mid-sized Italian city, one not subjected to the constant rebuilding that took place in the capital. Archaeologists believe they have identified the remains of a Roman basilica in Fanum Fortunae built by the late first-century BCE architect Vitruvius.There's not a very direct connection between this discovery and the New Testament, but it's always good when new evidence improves our material feel for life in the ancient world.
As it happens, the Penguin translation of Vitrivuis' On Architecture has been sitting on my coffee table for some time, glaring at me to be read. I suppose that's the main reason the story caught my eye. Maybe I will get to it soon.
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A vivid photo essay on the ruins of this important Phoenician city in Lebanon. For some PaleoJudaica posts on Baalbek, see the links collected here.
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The Reception of Exodus Motifs in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Writings
Edited by Agnethe Siquans and Beate Kowalski2026. 256 pages.
History of Biblical Exegesis (HBE) 9€89.00
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978-3-16-164303-3Also Available As:
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€89.00Summary
The Exodus story ranks among the most influential narratives of the biblical tradition. As Israel's foundational story of origin, it has shaped Jewish identity in profound ways, while also exerting major influence on Christianity and Islam. The contributors to this volume trace the diverse strategies by which interpretive communities have appropriated the Exodus for their own identity-formation, theological reflection, and social orientation. While received as a normative and authoritative text, the Exodus account has also posed significant challenges. Difficult passages - such as the hardening of Pharaoh's heart or the ambivalent portrayal of Moses - have demanded interpretive responses, ranging from neglect to creative re-interpretation, as exemplified by the Qur'anic representation of Moses' »white« hand. Beyond textual analysis, the contributors emphasize the cultural settings in which these readings emerged: rabbis and church fathers, Paul and early Muslim thinkers interacted, influenced each other, or sharply demarcated their positions. Thus, the reception history of Exodus not only illuminates theological debates but also offers insights into interreligious relations, processes of identity formation, and the dynamics of cultural boundary-drawing
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A Jewish ArchaeologyThe Christian Discovery of Jewish Catacombs in Rome
Series: Jews, Judaism, and the Arts, Volume: 6
Author: Jessica Dello Russo
This study examines how various catacomb networks in Rome were eliminated and subsequently restored to the historical record as specifically Jewish sites. By exploring the evolution, interpretation and presentation of these catacombs from ancient times to the present, it offers fresh insights into their historical significance and the impact they have had on later generations. Understanding how this situation relates to the broader context of archaeological activity in Rome also highlights important changes in the study of catacombs during the nineteenth century that led to the identification of additional Jewish catacombs and other material evidence of Jews in Ancient Rome.
Copyright Year: 2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73538-5
Publication: 22 Sep 2025
EUR €135.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-53291-5
Publication: 02 Oct 2025
EUR €135.00
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In biblical archaeology, there are the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran, and then there are the silver scrolls of Ketef Hinnom. The former are quite important; they include biblical texts over 2,000 years old. The latter are also important, containing the earliest biblical text archaeologists have ever discovered.A long memorial that interviews a number Professor Barkay's students and archaeological colleagues. Background here and links.The two silver amulet scrolls date to 600 BC and are inscribed with the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24–26. They were discovered in a Jerusalem excavation in 1979 by Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, who passed away January 11, 2026. He was 81.
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The book of Ezra–Nehemiah records Nehemiah’s mid-fifth-century B.C.E. attempts to enforce Shabbat, and for the first time in the Bible, the name שַׁבְּתַי, Shabbethai, appears. In this period, similar names derived from Shabbat are also first attested in Babylonian cuneiform tablets, as well as ostraca and papyri from Elephantine, suggesting that Shabbat became a recognized reference within the Judean community.For some PaleoJudaica posts on the reconstructed origins of the Sabbath, see the links collected here. One of them links to an open-access specialist article by the above two authors on the same subject as this essay.
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Bobby Duke thinks many of the world’s treasures belong in a museum for everyone to see. In that way, he is similar to some of the silver screen’s famed history lovers — but he’s no Indiana Jones.“I don’t wear a fedora. I don’t have a whip, and I don’t have this John Williams theme music in the background,” Duke said.
Even with a name fit for a hero, Duke spends most of his adventures as chief curatorial officer of the Museum of the Bible studying and teaching about the priceless artifacts in its collection.
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The horns of Moses in Jerome’s Vulgate did not initially represent derision or dishonor; rather they reflected the presence of God. And for centuries after Jerome’s translation, Moses was depicted along with Jesus, performing miracles, also reflecting proximity to the divine. But the horns took a literal turn once they became visible in art. They came to be understood as indicators of devilry and rejection of Christianity. However, this understanding was not entirely uniform.The tradition of Moses having horns has come up in PaleoJudaica periodically, going back to a lot of discussion in 2004. It's been a while, and I haven't noted this essay before, so this is a good time to bring it up again. The essay has a good overview of the history of the tradition.Michelangelo’s Moses, perhaps the most famous statue of Moses with horns, was created in the 16th century for the tomb of Pope Julius II, who likely did not see Moses’s status as ignoble. And more modern artists, such as Marc Chagall, depicted Moses with two ray-like beams on the top of his head rather than physical horns. Artistic representations such as these remind contemporary readers that Moses’s horns are not monolithic in interpretation, and they may not even be horns at all.
For PaleoJudaica posts, see the links collected here, plus here and here.
If I may quote myself from a very early post, this still sums up what I can find about the range of interpretations of the originating biblical passage in Exodus 34. The post is actually about a critical essay on Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, but it generated a lot of discussion and debate about Moses' horns.
Those horns on Moses' head come from a literal translation of Exod 34:30, 35, which describes the skin of Moses' face being changed somehow as a result of seeing God on Sinai, using a verbal form (qaran)of the Hebrew root for "horn" (qeren). One intepretation, going back to the Jewish Greek translation of Aquila, is that Moses grew horns. Jerome's Vulgate also takes it this way. It originated as an artistic motif in 11th century Britain. Some critical scholars today still think this is the correct interpretation (perhaps going back to a ritual mask with horns or the like). Others go with another ancient interpretation that goes back to Pseudo-Philo and Paul (cf. 2 Cor 3:7-18), that "rays" of splendor shown from Moses' face. This is based on a rather unlikely reading of a difficult passage in Habbakuk 3:4. And back in the 1980s, Professor William H. Propp of UCSD argued that Moses' skin was "made horny" or scorched by the divine radiance. For more on this whole subject, see his fascinating article: "The Skin of Moses' Face—Transfigured or Disfigured?" Catholic Biblical Quarterly 49 (1987): 375-86. Bottom line: the portrayal of Moses with horns came about through a particular, not entirely impossible, reading of the biblical text, not as an attempt to demonize him.
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It is with mixed emotions that I announce a new book that will be available this month with Bloomsbury T&T Clark publishers, Language and Identity in Hellenistic Judaism: Essays in Memory of James K. Aitken (here)For more on the late Professor Aitken and his import work, particularly on the Septuagint, see here and links, notably here, and elsewhere in the archives. I am pleased to hear that this volume in his memory is coming out soon.[...]
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Debbie Felton, The Oxford handbook of monsters in classical myth. Oxford handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. Pp. 640. ISBN 9780192896506.Not to be confused with The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters, which came out last year.Review by
Scott G. Bruce, Fordham University. sbruce3@fordham.edu... The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classic Myth is an exceptional resource for those interested in ancient monsters and their reception history in visual and literary media, both premodern and modern. ...
"Classical" here includes the ancient Near East, Egypt, Persia, and sometimes further afield. For more on ancient biblical and other monsters, see here and links.
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As before, the posts are in Dutch, but Google Translate can easily give you an English version.
I have posted on the Roman conquest of Cartagena here and here.
For my visit there last year and related, see the posts collected here, plus here.
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I've not paid much attention to this debate in the pages of BAR over the last several years. The issue is whether the House of David is mentioned in the rather poorly preserved text of the Mesha Stele or Moabite Stone. Anyway, you can go over the discussion at the link: mostly BHD summaries, although one full article appears and the last one, at least at present, is completely 404'ed.
For more on the proposed reading "House of David," see here—although the Haaretz article is now behind the subscription wall—and the links here. For many other PaleoJudaica posts on the Mesha Stele, start here and follow the links.
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The decor of the restaurant has some visual elements to justify the name – a few stone-like embellishments on the walls, and a mural of cave dwellers painted on a brick-colored wall.But for the most part, it’s a modern, streamlined place that offers not just kosher dining but a cabaret later in the evening for the diners’ enjoyment.
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A rare 2,000-year-old stone vessel recently uncovered in the Galilee is on display for the first time as part of the exhibition, “From the Great Assembly to the Knesset” at the Knesset in Jerusalem to celebrate the building’s 60th anniversary, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced in a statement on Monday.The display includes a couple of intriguing inscription fragments.[...]
I keep pretty good track of ancient stone vessel discoveries in Israel, but this one, from "the Pundaka de Lavi site in the Lower Galilee," is new to me. For a couple of stone vessel workshops elsewhere in the Galilee, see here.
For more on ancient Jewish stone vessels and their purity implications, start here and follow the links, notably here.
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It wasn’t until the late Second Temple period—shaped by Greek and Roman legal culture—that Torah law started to function as actual law.
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A tide of books about the Gospel of John are now hitting the shelves, marking a trend that is perhaps worthy of a biblical text that opens with the phrase, “In the beginning was the Word.”Lots of promising-sounding John books have been coming out. I noted Mark Goodacre's last year here. And I hadn't heard that George van Kooten, in his 2025 book Reverberations of Good News: The Gospels in Context, Then and Now (Eerdmans), argues that John's Gospel may be the earliest of the Four. That should be rile things up.These recent and forthcoming books consider new and different theological, historical, and cultural perspectives on the book that is often called “the fourth gospel”—distinct in tone and authorship from the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
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