Is the Siloam Tunnel Inscription an accident memorial?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Was the Siloam Inscription a Message for the Dead? Rethinking the Siloam Tunnel with Ariel Cohen (Lauren K. McCormick ).

In the Spring 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Ariel Cohen, Professor of Linguistics at Ben-Gurion University, has a new and highly original interpretation of the Siloam inscription. He calls much into question with a simple flip of the audience: He asks whether the Siloam inscription was written for the living, as has always been assumed, or if it was written for the dead.

That does explain some problems. But if it is a memorial inscription, it seems oddly allusive to me. It just describes the accident. No naming of those killed in it or any expression of mourning. But this interpretation is thought provoking. It could be right.

Unusually, the full BAR article is available at the link above. So read it and see what you think.

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Recovering biometric data from ancient bullae?

HEBREW EPIGRAPHY AND ANCIENT MATERIAL CULTURE: Fingerprints of Artisans and Officials Discovered on the Backs of Clay Seals from Ancient Jerusalem (Guillermo Carvajal, LBV).

Among the most personal findings revealed by this approach are fingerprints. The clay, while still wet and malleable, retained the ridges of the person who pressed the bulla against the cord that sealed the package. Uziel and Shalev’s team has managed to recover and individualize these impressions using photogrammetry and transformed reflectance techniques.

Although the age of the remains prevents matching them to specific identities, their morphology makes it possible to estimate the age and sex of the artisan or official who handled each piece, as well as the force applied in sealing. These traces, which no written record could have preserved, turn the bullae into somatic testimonies of the past.

I have already noted this new Israel Science Foundation project here. But this article has accessible coverage of the story, with emphasis on how the project is recovering the abovementioned biometric data, along with information about the material the bullae were attached to and what that might tell us about their function.

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Digitizing ancient inscriptions.

MICHAEL L. SATLOW: How Do You Teach a Computer to Read a Broken Ancient Inscription? It's complicated.

Digitizing an inscription into EpiDoc is not a trivial task. Information about an inscription, such as its context, size, find location, current location, language, place, etc., all must be entered into special fields in some database system (or directly given strict, uniform tags). This takes time and expertise. Even more laborious, though, is the digitization of the inscription’s text, even at its most simple level. Epigraphers typically (and ideally) transcribe an inscription in two formats. The first is called a diplomatic transcription, and seeks to record the inscription as it appears, with all the gaps, misspellings, etc. The second is sometimes called a normalized transcription. Both employ a specialized set of typographical markers.

Cross-file under Algorithm Watch and Epigraphy.

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Klein, Between the Lines (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

Between the Lines
The Literary and Ideological Shaping of Judah’s Genealogies in the Book of Chronicles

By Neriah Klein

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4813-0
Formats *
Hardback (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-4813-0
eBook PDF (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-4814-7 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)
Publication Status: In Print
Series: Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts 38
Publication Date: Feb 19,2026
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 507
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4813-0
Price: $114.95 (USD)
Your price: $68.97 (USD)

The book of Chronicles has received a revival in recent scholarship, making it one of the most studied books, and this is especially true from 1 Chronicles 10 onwards—often ignoring the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1–9. The Chronicler’s genealogies contain seemingly endless lists of names, with neither intriguing plot nor sublime poetry, and thus hardly generate interest in the reader. Yet this was not the Chronicler’s intention. When he incorporated these lists into his book, he shaped them with a deliberate and sophisticated literary design, serving distinct ideological and narrative purposes.

In Between the Lines, Klein takes the reader deep into the genealogies of the tribe of Judah (1 Chr 2:3–4:23) to expose these designs in all their glory and show the great richness inherent in seemingly boring texts. Through close literary analysis, the book uncovers structural patterns, thematic messages, and theological ideas embedded within the lists—revealing unexpected insights about identity, kingship, intermarriage, and the future envisioned by the Chronicler.

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JiSeong James Kwon, Wisdom Discourse and Torah in Second Temple Judaism (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Wisdom Discourse and Torah in Second Temple Judaism: Challenging the Integration Paradigm
JiSeong James Kwon

ISBN 9781628377781
Volume AIL 52
Status Available
Publication Date November 2025
Hardback $105.00
Paperback $85.00
eBook $85.00

Did wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible develop over time from secular to religious, as many early modern scholars believed? Did it develop in reaction to historical events or out of conflict with other traditions, including Torah? In Wisdom Discourse and Torah in Second Temple Judaism, JiSeong James Kwon moves beyond this impasse by applying a discourse-critical method to intertextual readings of Proverbs, Ben Sira, the Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Deuteronomy. Kwon’s study reveals that wisdom literature maintained an independent identity and theological orientation distinct from the legal traditions of the Torah. Rather than wisdom being subsumed into legal material, Jewish intellectual production remained pluralistic in form, genre, and theological orientation throughout the Persian and Hellenistic periods.

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Reconstructing a very old Torah scroll

THE GENIZA FRAGMENTS BLOG: What’s My Line? Reconstructing CUL T-S NS 3.21+ (Marc Michaels).

Likely the oldest Torah in the Cairo Genizah, CUL T-S NS 3.21+ is also one of the oldest manuscripts in the whole collection. This blog details a reconstruction for part of this scroll, involving three adjacent fragments.

This essay is technical, especially in the first part, but keep reading (or skip) to the part dealing with the compute reconstruction of the manuscript. Fascinating.

I noted a of Genesis fragment of T-S NS 3.21 back in 2015, referring to a 2010 Geniza Fragment of the Month post. That post is gone now, but it seems that another fragment, T-S NS 4.3, came from the same scroll. And other fragments of it have been located since, so that its siglum is now T-S NS 3.21+.

For more on the oldest Torah scroll fragments apart from the Dead Sea Scrolls, see here (alas, the main link is gone) and here and links. Also here, although I have heard no more about the Bologna scroll.

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AI translations of the letters of Procopius of Gaza

ROGER PEARSE: Procopius of Gaza, Letters – machine translation now online with notes..

When I started to work on Procopius, the first thing I did was to make a working tool to orient myself, to find my way around the text before I started into the Greek, but using an existing translation. The one chosen was the 2010 Italian translation by Federica Ciccolella, which I ran through Google Translate, and came to think was rather impressive. I don’t suppose the result of the machine translation is very accurate. But skimming through it does give a very nice idea of the size and shape of the letters, and allows you to find your way around the Italian.

Procopius of Gaza "was a sophist living in the early 6th century, after the end of the Origenist disputes, and before the rise of Islam. Only three of the letters are addressed to priests, and the tone is secular. But he lived in a period when the traditional Roman upper class was starting to be replaced by the ecclesiastical dignitaries, themselves rich and powerful and full of patronage. In other words, he lived at the changeover period between the Roman and Byzantine periods." He is not to be confused with the better-known Procopius of Caesarea, his later contemporary. His letters have been an area of longstanding interest for Roger. PaleoJudaica has mentioned him here.

In some of his letters, Procopius of Gaza refers to the late-antique city of Elusa (Halutza) in the Negev, where a correspondent named Jerome resided before moving to Egypt (not Jerome of the Latin Vulgate). PaleoJudaica has posted on Elusa here, here, here, and here.

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Bohak, The Sentencing of Jesus (Gzar-dina de-Yeshu) (OpenBook, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM OPENBOOK PUBLISHERS:

The Sentencing of Jesus (Gzar-dina de-Yeshu)
The 'Authentic' Jewish Protocols of the Trial of Jesus

Gideon Bohak (author)

This monograph offers a rich and insightful study of The Sentencing of Jesus, an ancient Jewish polemical narrative describing the trial and execution of Jesus, which is the earliest of all the Toledot Yeshu texts. The volume includes a substantial historical introduction, carefully edited synopses of the Aramaic, Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew versions, detailed philological and exegetical notes on the text and its transmission history, and an English translation. In his comments, Bohak explores recurring themes in Late Antique literature—such as the apologetic and polemical uses of authentic or forged protocols of trials and executions, envisioning an enemy hanged on an unexpected tree, the humiliation of dragging a corpse through the streets for all to see, and the use of magical handbooks and of spells to heal or harm—shedding new light on the cultural and literary resonances of these motifs. Detailed linguistic analyses trace translations and mistranslations across Aramaic, Hebrew, and Judaeo-Arabic traditions.

By reconstructing an ancient polemical text that has previously been known only in a fragmentary manner, and by situating it both within its Late Antique context and in the context of previous scholarship, this book makes a significant contribution to the study of Judaism, and of Jewish-Christian relations, in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

The PDF version is open access and downloadable for free.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Toledot Yeshu (Toledoth Yeshu), start here and follow the links. The earliest (Aramaic) version is arguably as old as the third or fourth century.

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The 24 angelic elders in the Coptic magical papyri (Angels, part 2)

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Angels in Coptic Magic II: The Twenty-Four Presbyters.

In sum, whether they were invoked for healing and protection, as prescribed in the homily attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem, or for more aggressive purposes, it seems that the most important thing was to know the names of the Twenty-Four Presbyters. Due to their holy origin, and for increased magical efficacy, it was also better to write them down, rather than speak them aloud. And while there was variety in the names used in Coptic magical texts, some lists and naming conventions, as well as the physical descriptions of the angels with their thrones and crowns, were shared across literary genres and iconography, showing that magical practices were not isolated from wider traditions about the Twenty-Four Presbyters.

I noted the first post in the series here. Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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The mythological background of Revelation 13

THE "IS THAT IN THE BIBLE?" BLOG: The Jewish and Pagan Mythological Origins of Revelation 13: The Beasts from the Sea and the Earth and the Fear of Nero’s Return (Paul D.).

John may claim to have been shown these things in divine visions, but the data shows otherwise. John’s real skill was not that of a seer, but that of a writer who was able to mix and match bits of Jewish and Greco-Roman mythology to promote his own political and theological viewpoints. In this article, I examine some of the most famous elements of Revelation to see what they mean and where John really got them from. I also look at the ancient conspiracy theories about Nero’s death and expectations of his future return — a social phenomenon that explains some of the stranger passages in Revelation associated with the Antichrist.

Presumably divine visions would make use of contemporary imagery. But a theological defense of John's visions is outside my remit. This essay has a thorough review of the mythological background of this chapter.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Leviathan and Behemoth, see here and links. For more on the Number of the Beast, see here and links, notably here. For more on the Nero-Rediturus and Nero Redivivus myths, see here.

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Review of Bonura, A Prophecy of Empire

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: A Prophecy of Empire: The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius from Late Antique Mesopotamia to the Global Medieval Imagination (Evan Bradley Schafer).

Christopher Bonura’s new monograph, A Prophecy of Empire, offers a comprehensive study of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius within its Syriac literary, theological, and political context. On this foundation, Bonura traces the trajectory of its reception from its original Mesopotamian milieu and its gradual transmission and translation westward.

The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius is on the borderline of PaleoJudaica's period of interest, but it's high time it got a mention here.

This "Methodius" is not to be confused with Methodius the brother of Cyril. These two brothers invented the Glagolitic alphabet

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Taxation and evasion in the Roman empire

ANCIENT ECONOMICS: The Art of the Unpaid Denarius: Tax Evasion in Ancient Rome (Terry Madenholm, Haaretz).

The cat-and-mouse game intensified as the centuries wore on. The Roman government constantly tried to fight back, introducing a more professional bureaucracy and implementing fixed tax quotas for provinces to reduce the systemic abuse by tax farmers. In certain periods, they even resorted to harsh penalties, including the outright confiscation of property. However, enforcement remained uneven, especially in distant provinces where central oversight was weak.

This long article gives a fascinating account of ancient Roman taxation, and efforts to evade it, until the imperial bureacracy "collapsed under it's own weight." It includes an account of the recently published papyrus covering a pre-Bar Kokhba Revolt tax-fraud and forgery case, on which more here.

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Forthcoming Diodorus Siculus volume

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike. Notice of a Forthcoming Book: Harding, Phillip (ed.). 2026. Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike: Translation, with Introduction and Notes. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Follow the link for description and publisher link. The volume covers books 16-17 of the Bibliotheke.

Diodorus preserves an alternative account of the Maccabean Revolt, some Greek Fantasy Babylon stories, and other material of interest. For more PaleoJudaica posts on his work, start here and follow the links.

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Review series on Vidas, The Rise of Talmud

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has a new review series: The Rise of Talmud Review Forum. It is devoted to Moulie Vidas's book, The Rise of Talmud (OUP, 2025), which I noted here. The first review is posted:

Talmud as a New Intellectual Project (Sarit Kattan Gribetz)

What Vidas suggests in his book is that the ancient rabbis were philologists, and among the earliest philologists and critical scholars at that, who sought to mine earlier rabbinic traditions in order to construct the best versions of them, clarify attributions, draw connections between individuals and texts, discuss textual differences, figure out methods of emendation, and so on. Vidas argues, then, that philology is not (exclusively) a modern, critical, etic tool that we can apply to the study of the Talmud, but rather that it is also an emic approach – and a thoroughly Jewish one – developed as part and parcel of the Talmudic enterprise itself.

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The latest on that British Museum lecture

THE BRITISH MUSEUM has announced that the canceled lecture on ancient Israel and Judah is rescheduled to some time early in June. But I cannot find a specific date given anywhere.

The director of the British Museum has also posted a defense of the decision to postpone the lecture:

Sunday Times – Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE

Critics have framed the postponement, as a retreat from free speech. That misunderstands both the decision and the principle at stake. Freedom of expression does not require institutions to provide a platform for disruption. Nor does it require organisers to knowingly place speakers, audiences or visitors in circumstances where a legitimate event cannot proceed safely and respectfully.

The Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology has posted an essay on the situation and collects other responses:

The Attack on the British Museum and Biblical Archaeology. Ancient Israel and Judah—too controversial for modern-day London (Richard Palmer and Christopher Eames)

A postponed lunchtime lecture at the British Museum on the history of ancient Israel and Judah might seem like a minor episode. But it is only the latest incident among many in the ongoing war for history and truth. And for a renowned establishment such as the British Museum—“the world’s greatest temple of history,” in the words of Montefiore—“this matters.”

Then there was this disturbing incident on Saturday 30 November:

British Museum evacuated after ‘suspicious device’ found days after Jewish event postponed. Police were called to the museum at around 2.50pm and between 12,000 and 16,000 visitors were evacuated as a precaution (ADAM DECKER, Jewish News).

The British Museum was evacuated on Saturday after staff discovered a suspicious device in a visitor toilet and received what it described as “malicious communications”, just days after the institution faced criticism for postponing a Jewish Culture Month lecture on ancient Israel over security concerns.

Whatever was in the toilet turned out to be "non-suspicious." It may be tempting to connect this incident with the canceled lecture, but we really don't know what was going on and we shouldn't jump to conclusions. The museum has declined to comment on the nature of the "malicious communications." I cannot find any indication that the police have released any information about them.

Background here.

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Was Moses the author or the writer of the Torah?

TZIPPORAH MACHLAH KLAPPER: Moses the Lawgiver? Not For the Rabbis (TheTorah.com).

Writers in the Second Temple period portray Moses as the Torah’s author and master lawgiver, attributing commandments directly to him. The rabbis, by contrast, repeatedly depict Moses as forgetful, confused, and sometimes mistaken—downplaying his authority to emphasize the Torah’s divine authorship and elevate the rabbis’ own role as its interpreters.

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