DSS exhibition coming to Houston

COMING SOON: Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition returns to Houston in November. Members gain early access on November 20, while a discount is offered to the first 1,000 general admission tickets purchased (Rachel Estrada, CW39 Houston).

There are currently few details on the specifics of the exhibition.

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

AUC day conference on Coptic studies

COPTIC WATCH: AUC Hosts Global Dialogue On Coptic History And Heritage With International Conference (AUC press release).

Cairo, October 18, 2026 - The American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted From Tomb to Text: Talks on Coptic History, a one-day international conference on Coptic archaeology that brought together leading scholars from Egypt, Europe and the United States to showcase the latest research in Coptic art history, heritage, textiles, settlement archaeology and archaeobotany. The conference was supported by the Gratus Foundation by Mary and Bishoy Azmy, founded by AUC Trustee Bishoy Emad Azmy ’02 and Mary Habib ’05.

[...]

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

Fitzgerald, Women in Greco-Roman Jewish Novels (300 BCE–100 CE) (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Women in Greco-Roman Jewish Novels (300 BCE–100 CE)
Katharine L. Fitzgerald

ISBN 9781918358261
Status Available
Publication Date February 2026

Hardback
$98.00

This monograph offers the first sustained study of female protagonists as central agents in the construction of Jewish identity in early Jewish narrative literature. Focusing on the Greek texts of Esther, Judith, Susanna, and Aseneth, Fitzgerald demonstrates that these narratives do more than entertain—they participate in complex discourses about what it meant to be Jewish in the Greco-Roman world.

Drawing on literary-critical and gender-informed approaches, this monograph examines four key dimensions of identity—foodways, sexuality, kinship, and community—to illustrate how Jewish authors used female characters to negotiate cultural boundaries and articulate forms of belonging. Rather than treating women as marginal or merely symbolic figures, Fitzgerald argues that these protagonists function as primary sites through which Jewish authors imagined, contested, and maintained Jewishness in literary texts.

By situating these texts within their broader Greco-Roman and Second Temple contexts, the book challenges longstanding assumptions about the androcentric nature of Jewish identity formation. It demonstrates that narratives centered on women are not peripheral to discussions of Jewishness but are essential to understanding its diversity and fluidity in antiquity.

Engaging critically with major scholarship on Jewish identity, diaspora, and ancient gender systems, Women in Greco-Roman Jewish Novels bridges the gap between studies of Jewishness and gender in antiquity. It offers a new framework for reading early Jewish literature—one that takes seriously the literary construction of women and the interpretive possibilities these figures open for reconstructing ancient Jewish thought.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students of early Judaism, biblical studies, gender studies, and ancient Mediterranean literature.

SBL Press is the North American distributor for Sheffield Phoenix Press. ...

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

Lam, Divinised Humans in Ancient Judaism (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Divinised Humans in Ancient Judaism

Daniel Lam (Author)

Hardback
$120.00 $108.00

Ebook (PDF)
$108.00 $86.40

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$108.00 $86.40

Product details

Published Sep 17 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 232
ISBN 9780567729477
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Second Temple Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

Exploring the fluidity of divine–human boundaries in ancient Judaism, Daniel Lam challenges the assumption of a rigid divide between God and humanity. Drawing on prototype theory and texts from across millennia of Jewish and Christian literature, Lam argues that divinity was conceived as a graded category rather than an absolute state, suggesting that figures such as Adam, Enoch, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus were imagined as crossing the divine threshold through immortality, metamorphosis, and exaltation. By situating these traditions within their wider Mediterranean context, Lam reframes debates on monotheism, deification, and early Christology.

Lam engages deeply with primary sources, including Genesis and Psalms, Wisdom of Solomon, and the Life of Adam and Eve; Enochic writings such as the Book of the Watchers and Book of Parables; and New Testament passages like Philippians 2 and Hebrews 1. In addition, he examines lesser-known materials such as the Testament of Abraham, Qumran fragments, and 2 Enoch, highlighting motifs of angelomorphism, luminous transformation, and enthronement. These case studies illuminate how ancient authors negotiated divine identity and challenge the notion that divinisation was exclusively a “pagan” concept, offering a fresh methodological framework for understanding divinity as a fluid and multivalent phenomenon.

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

Cutino & Cerami (eds.), The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Twelve Tribes of Israel

Jewish-Christian Interpretations between Ruptures and Continuities (1st–5th centuries)

Series: Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, Volume: 44

Volume Editors: Michele Cutino and Calogero Cerami

The theme of the twelve tribes of Israel is one of the key points for observing the continuity and discontinuity between Judaism and Christianity, which derives from it. It is therefore a very sensitive topic of ‘the parting of the ways’, which surprisingly has not aroused much interest among critics. This volume aims to fill this gap by first placing the twelve tribes of Israel in their historical context within Jewish culture, then moving on to the various, often contradictory, interpretations that Christians have given to this concept since the early centuries, before finally using this model to refer to the Church as the new Israel.

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75769-1
Publication: 18 Aug 2026
EUR €135.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75768-4
Publication: 16 Sep 2026
EUR €135.00

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

Shapira, The Discourse of Rites (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Hananel Shapira

The Discourse of Rites

Shaping and Reshaping the (Counter-)Priestly Rituals Conducted Outside the Tabernacle

2026. 342 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 179

€109.00
including VAT

sewn paper
available
978-3-16-200495-6

Also Available As:
eBook PDF

Summary

Hananel Shapira investigates a series of anomalous rituals within the Priestly literature of the Pentateuch that take place outside the sacred precinct of the Tabernacle. While biblical scholarship frequently characterizes the Priestly corpus as a monolithic system dedicated to cultic centralization and the absolute authority of the Aaronide priesthood, the author argues that the base layer of the Priestly corpus contains a subversive undercurrent. This »Counter-Priestliness« is manifest in rituals such as the purification of the healed leper in Leviticus, the burning of the red heifer in Numbers, and the release of the scapegoat into the wilderness.
The author uses philological and diachronic analysis to identify distinct textual layers, revealing how these external rituals originally bypassed the professional priesthood. In the earliest layer, the rituals are performed by laypeople or commoners, allowing for a degree of individual agency and personal expression that the standard, sanctuary-centered system typically suppresses. The theoretical framework for this analysis draws an analogy between the standard Priestly system and the Enlightenment's quest for universal, reductive order, while the external rituals reflect a spirit akin to the Counter-Enlightenment's emphasis on the particular and the untamed. The author posits that the standard system functions as a universal language of ritual, whereas external rites address the fractured particularity of human experience, especially when confronting the realities of death and physical impurity.
Shapira shows that the priest's active role in these external rituals is largely a product of later editorial interventions. These restorative attempts to tame unconventional practices and align them with the standard sacrificial system unintentionally triggered broader transformations within the ritual system itself. By analyzing the interplay between legal stipulations and their narrative contexts, the author shows that ritual innovation often stems from internal, prosaic forces and restorative impulses rather than solely from external cultural shifts or foundational historical events.

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

NEH funding restored for Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project

THE OTTC BLOG: CEHP Restart (Drew Longacre).

Background here and here. This is great news. As I said when the funding cut was announced, there was a strong case for restoring it.

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

Sifting Project to publish the Asayahu seal

HEBREW EPIGRAPHY: Groundbreaking Temple Mount seal find to be published. Temple Mount Sifting Project faces a backlog, with tons of debris still awaiting examination (Dave Gordon, JNS).

A study of a First Temple-period seal impression that may be connected to an official in the biblical account of King Josiah is expected to appear in the Israel Exploration Journal by the end of 2026, according to Temple Mount Sifting Project co-founder and director Zachi Dvira.

The clay impression, recovered by the project, bears the name “Yeda‘yah (son of) Asayahu.” Researchers have tentatively linked the father’s name to Asaiah, an adviser to King Josiah mentioned in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. The identification remains a possibility, not an established match.

The article also gives background on the Temple Mount Sifting projects, its previous discoveries, and a discovery still being processed. I link often to the project's blog, which is here.

I noted the discovery of the Asayahu seal in 2025 here.

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

A New Quest For Paul? We'll see.

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

A Farewell to the New Perspective on Paul – The Start of the New Quest For Paul

The New Perspective on Paul is challenged for underestimating differences between Jewish and Pauline understandings of human agency. Paul’s contrast between “letter” and “Spirit” is interpreted as locating salvation and fulfillment of the law entirely in Christ and the Spirit rather than human ability.

See also Paul and Judaism: An Anthropological Approach (2nd edition; CPH, 2026).

By Timo Laato
Senior Lecturer
Lutheran School of Theology in Gothenburg
October 2026

Cross-file under Revised Book. The first edition was published in 1995.

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

Manuscript mythwashing mysteries

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Mythwashing and the Two Meanings of Mystery in Manuscript Discovery Stories (Eva Mroczek).

Hidden Scrolls, Buried Bibles: How We Discover the Sacred Past. Yale University Press, 2026.

... The discovery story is a genre with conventional tropes: animal guides, abandoned caves, untrustworthy locals who know the way but threaten the discoveries, and a new world of ancient revelation. The cultural and mythic preconditions that shaped our modern scholarly folklore have developed over hundreds of years of storytelling. And as a robust genre, discovery stories have often overshadowed discoveries themselves. For most people, for example, the interesting thing about the Dead Sea scrolls was not the texts, but the fact that they were hidden for two thousand years in a remote cave, and providentially discovered by a stray goat. That story became their “real meaning,” told as a religious or mythic narrative. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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

Israel returns 22 unprovenanced artifacts to Greece

REPATRIATION: In first, Israel returns artifacts to Greece amid push to secure return of antiquities. Israel hands over 22 recovered ancient objects that were apparently illegally taken, with both countries hailing increasingly close cooperation in a range of spheres (THANASSIS STAVRAKIS and DEREK GATOPOULOS, AP via Times of Israel).

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

Phoenician Umm al-Amad

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Exploring Phoenician Heritage: The Ancient City of Umm al-Amad Near Naqoura (Waradana).

The Ancient City of Umm al-Amad is one of the paramount sites aiding in understanding southern Lebanon’s history during the late Phoenician period and the Hellenistic era. Through its columns, temples, and inscriptions, the site reflects a society that preserved its language, religious, and cultural traditions despite major political changes in the region.

The Phoenician inscriptions discovered at the site, along with the temples of Melek Ashtart, the eastern temple, and the stone stelae, are among the key pieces evidencing the site's historical value. With its inclusion in the UNESCO list of protected Lebanese cultural properties, preserving Umm al-Amad becomes more significant as a part of Lebanon and the Mediterranean south's archaeological memory.

An informative introduction to this important Phoenician site in Lebanon. Also known as Umm al-‛Amad or ’Umm al-‛Amad.

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

Review of Kaufman, Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean: the other democracy.

Brett Kaufman, Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean: the other democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026. Pp. 320. ISBN 9780198867685.

Review by
Christopher Stedman Parmenter, Ohio State University.
parmenter.14@osu.edu

... Brett Kaufman’s new book is an exercise in flag-planting. Kaufman also makes a bold claim: the people of ancient west Asia invented democracy and the Phoenicians carried it to Europe. Kaufman’s Phoenician history follows well-received work by Josephine Crawley Quinn (2017), Carolina López-Ruiz (2021), and Denise Demetriou (2023), who cast the Phoenicians as the stars of the first millennium BCE. Parts of Kaufman’s argument ring true, for instance his critique of ancient history’s Hellenocentric bias. But much cannot be endorsed. ...

I noted the publication of the book here and a topical essay by the author here. Cross-file under Phoenician Watch and Punic Watch.

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

Forthcoming: Long, 40 Questions about Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (Kregel)

READING ACTS: Book Announcement: 40 Questions about Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (Philip J. Long).

Some regular readers of Reading Acts have noticed I have slowed down a bit this year. Here’s why: I have been writing a book on the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha for Kregel’s 40 Questions series. The book is now finished, edited, (nearly) printed, and will be available mid-November. Kregel tells me they will have copies at ETS and SBL in November, so if you are at the conferences, pick up a copy at a good discount. ...

[...]

Looking forward to it.

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

On the Roman Sibylline Books

THE KIWI HELLENIST BLOG: Sibyls and Sibylline oracles. 2. The Sibylline books.

The Sibylline books weren’t primarily books of predictions: they were instructions for rituals, which also mentioned predictions in passing. The idea seems to have been that, when required, priests might choose a ritual from the books, then perform that ritual, to ensure purity, or ward off evil. Some extracts were made public, but a complete text wasn’t widely known. ...

The most famous thing about the books is the story of how they were sold. ...

An informative introduction to the mostly-lost Roman "Sibylline Books." Not to be confused with the Jewish and Christian "Sibylline Oracles," which were inspired by the idea of the Roman books. The Oracles are the scheduled topic of the next post in the series

I noted the first post here, with links to other posts on the Sibylline Oracles.

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

Greek influence on Coptic

COPTIC WATCH: How Greek Shaped Coptic, Egypt’s Final Ancient Language (Abdul Moeed, Greek Reporter).

A recent study examines how centuries of contact between Greek and Egypt’s native language shaped Coptic, the final stage of ancient Egyptian, influencing both its structure and vocabulary.

In a study published in the Journal of Greek Linguistics, Sonja Dahlgren of the University of Helsinki explores how Greek influence on Egyptian-Coptic transformed everyday language, religious texts, and administrative documents.

[...]

The underlying article by Dalgren is actually an (open access) book review:

Greek Influence on Egyptian-Coptic: Contact-Induced Change in an Ancient African Language, by Eitan Grossman, Peter Dils, Tonio Sebastian Richter, and Wolfgang Schenkel, (eds.)

Eitan Grossman, Peter Dils, Tonio Sebastian Richter, and Wolfgang Schenkel, (eds.), Greek Influence on Egyptian-Coptic: Contact-Induced Change in an Ancient African Language (DDGLC Working Papers 1. Lingua Aegyptia, Studia Monographica 17). Hamburg: Widmaier Verlag. 2017.

... All in all, this book can be highly recommended to anyone aiming to get a grasp of the multilingual situation of Graeco-Roman/Arabic Egypt, including scholars with a background in papyrology, Ancient Greek linguistics, Egyptian linguistics, and general historical linguistics, as well as even linguistic typology. The high standard of this book comes hardly as a surprise, given that it has been compiled, edited and commented on by many of the leading Egyptologists, Coptologists, and linguists in the world. ...

If your are interested in the technicalities of the ancient Coptic language, have a look.

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