Stoic (?) scroll recovered from Herculaneum

HERCULANEUM WATCH: AI helps read papyrus scroll burnt to crisp during Vesuvius eruption. Previously hidden text revealed without unrolling scroll discusses stoic philosophy on ethics, art and human behaviour (Ian Sample, The Guardian).

The Vesuvius Challenge has yielded up twenty readable columns of a carbonized Herculaneum scroll:

Much of the Herculaneum library was dominated by Philodemus of Gadara, a Epicurean philosopher and poet in the first century BC. But while the title and author of PHerc 1667 remain unknown, its older age and contents point to another author.

Analysis by Nicolardi and her colleagues suggests the text is a stoic treatise, perhaps authored by the Greek philosopher Chrysippus. He was the third head of the stoic school and has other works in the collection. The text refers to his nephew and pupil, Aristocreon.

“At first, we were saying this could be an Epicurean talking about stoic doctrine,” said Nicolardi. “But then I stopped and said, you know, if this was found outside of Herculaneum, we would categorise it as a stoic work.”

Prof. Brent Seales has been working on recovering the Herculaneum scrolls for a long time.

Seales said the challenge had now shifted from the techniques needed to read the burned scrolls to the scholarly work to understand them. “People now know that this can be done and now we’re exploring what [the texts] actually mean,” he said. “For me that’s the World Cup. I just won the World Cup: that’s my victory.”

Amen to that.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and its destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and on the efforts to reconstruct and decipher the carbonized library at Herculaneum, start here and follow the links. Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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Was Jesus, Son of Panthera, a Christian invention?

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Jesus, the Son of Panthera: The Christian Invention of a “Jewish” Slander

The Panthera legend is often treated as an early Jewish slander against Jesus and Mary, but the evidence points instead to a Christian anti-Jewish construction. Early Christian writers placed the accusation in the mouths of fictional or stylized Jewish opponents to defend the virginal conception, police Christian belief, and portray Jews as hostile outsiders. Rabbinic references to the “son of Panthera” are late, fragmentary, and too ambiguous to support the idea of an organized Jewish anti-Christian polemic.

See also The Panthera Legend and the Conception of Jesus: Rape, Consent and Anti-Judaism (Routledge, 2026).

By Christopher B. Zeichmann
Toronto Metropolitan University
Religious Studies
June 2026

Cross-file under New Book.

I have posts on the Panthera (Pantera, Pandera) legend, and on Jesus in the Talmud, here, here, and here, with links and comments.

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

Review of the reopened Bardo Museum

PUNIC WATCH: The Reopened Bardo National Museum in Tunis, Tunisia (Helen Dixon, American Journal of Archaeology 130.3, open access).

Abstract

This review addresses the reopened (in 2023) Bardo National Museum in Tunis, a government-funded archaeological museum in Tunisia’s capital city. As of June 2025, several galleries had been reorganized or completely redone, but a few rooms remained closed as the renovations continued. Key collections—like one of the world’s largest assemblages of mosaics—are stunning, if perhaps under-interpreted. The updated presentation offers unique insight into the Late Classical and Late Antique Mediterranean worlds, as well as the early history of Islam in the Maghreb. Although labels throughout the museum currently provide uneven guidance for non-specialist visitors, the renovations have established a strong foundation for further improvements in accessibility and interpretive depth, particularly in areas such as women’s history, African history, and the contemporary reception of the past. The complex legacies of Carthage and Rome, as well as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are presented as a pluralist cultural vision, in powerful conversation with grand Western narratives about the ancient Mediterranean and the spread of monotheism. The museum’s dominant metaphor can be said to be the mosaic, an assemblage of meaningful stories, each presented as a medallion in the larger pattern of Tunisian identity.

As I noted in 2023, the museum suffered a terrorist attack in 2015, but it reopened that same year. It was closed during the Covid lockdowns and then again for complicated political reasons. It underwent continued restoration during that closure and reopened in 2023.

This review includes coverage of the museum's substantial Punic collection.

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

Archaeomagnetometry, geomagnetic fluctuations, and the Acra Fortress

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Hellenistic Wine Jars from Rhodes Reveal the Secrets of Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Jerusalem of the Maccabees. An international study uses Hellenistic ceramics with Rhodes stamps to track abrupt changes in the magnetic field and shed light on the Seleucid fortress of Acra in Jerusalem ( Guillermo Carvajal, LBV).

A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University, Ariel University, and the University of California San Diego has managed to extract high-resolution geomagnetic information from 24 ceramic pieces found in three Jerusalem sites: the City of David, the Jewish Quarter, and the Givati parking lot.

The result, published in Archaeometry, confirms that the magnetic field suffered a dramatic collapse in the first half of the 2nd century BCE and, moreover, offers an unexpected tool to precisely date the most controversial archaeological contexts of Hellenistic Jerusalem.

[...]

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Givati Parking Lot excavation and the many discoveries there, start here and follow the links.

For more archaeomagnetic (geomagnetic, paleomagnetic, etc.) dating stories, see here and links.

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

Secret Mark—Three times bogus?

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: A Third Novel That Proves “Secret Mark” Is A Forgery.And Another Good Reason Why “Secret Mark” is Bogus (Philip Jenkins).

I must ask for help on one question. Can anyone think of where Graves was getting his idea of a secret gospel transmission, presumably channeled through bishops? Is there any ancient warrant for that at all? Or did he make it up entirely himself? Because if there is no ancient source, I think we have another powerful piece of evidence confirming that Morton Smith forged the letter of Clement of Alexandria in which he describes The Secret Gospel of Mark.

As I've noted before, Professor Jenkins thinks the idea of Secret Mark being genuinely ancient anything is laughable. The possibility that it is a late-antique forgery is still being defended. And I see that, perhaps contrary to my earlier comment, New Testament Apocrypha expert Tony Burke still (as of 2024) thinks that the Secret Gospel of Mark "might be authentic" and "is probably not a forgery," although I'm not sure exactly what that means. I'm also not sure what other positions specialists are still prepared to defend. This is not my area of expertise. I'm just watching. 🍿

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Secret Gospel of Mark debate, follow the links from the link above.

I think this AB post is a continuation of Professor Jenkins's Lost and Found Scriptues series. For earlier posts, see here and links.

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

King Tarhaqa and Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: King Taharqa of the Kingdom of Cush. Did Nubian kings save Judah? (Marek Dospěl).

This essay summarizes a BAR article (behind the subscription wall) by James K. Hoffmeier.

I'm always interested in adding another piece to the puzzle of the events around Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah. I have mentioned King Tarhaqa (Tarhaqo, Tirhakah) here and links, with some comments about 2 Kings 19:9 (//Isaiah 37:9) in the context of the siege here. For many other posts, start here and follow the links.

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

On writing The Magi

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Lessons Learned from the Magi (Eric Vanden Eykel).

If writing about the Magi taught me anything, it is that interpretive certainty is often unfounded. The twelve verses about the Magi in Matthew do not invite final answers; they invite attention, patience, and the persistence to keep digging. In this way, the Magi become less a prooftext about Gentiles and Jews and more a pressure test for our reading and interpretive habits. The history of interpretation for the story of the Magi exposes how easily Christian interpretation drifts into anti-Judaism when “outsider versus insider” dynamics are allowed to stand in for more careful and intentional study.

A very personal account of the writing of the author's book, The Magi: Who They Were, How They’ve Been Remembered, and Why They Still Fascinate (Fortress, 2022), on which more here.

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

Obeid, Le langage métaphorique dans le texte hébreu de Ben Sira (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Charlotte Obeid

Le langage métaphorique dans le texte hébreu de Ben Sira

[Metaphorical Language in the Hebrew Text of Ben Sira.]
2025. 404 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 171

€109.00
including VAT

sewn paper
available
978-3-16-164680-5

Also Available As:
eBook PDF

Summary

Charlotte Obeid analyzes the use of metaphorical language for educational purposes in the Hebrew text of Ben Sira, providing interpretative tools that not only contribute to a better understanding of Ben Sira's message but can be applied to the interpretation of metaphors in other writings as well.

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

Porter & Laird (eds.), The New Testament Canon in Contemporary Research (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The New Testament Canon in Contemporary Research

Series:
Texts and Editions for New Testament Study, Volume: 21

Volume Editors: Stanley E. Porter and Benjamin P. Laird

The New Testament canon remains a major topic in scholarly research. This comprehensive volume provides a forum for scholars from varied backgrounds and perspectives to present major essays on the various dimensions of the topic. The essays are organized around three major foci: the formation of the canon, the components of the canon, and the witnesses of the canon, within which are several sub-sections. Following a treatment of various factors that prompted the formation of the New Testament canon, the subsequent sections include essays that present opposing views on specific questions of current debate.

Copyright Year: 2026

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75107-1
Publication: 17 Mar 2026
EUR €170.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75106-4
Publication: 16 Apr 2026
EUR €170.00

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

Fraenkel on ... Confrontation Stories among Rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Reading Conflict in the Babylonian Talmud: Behind The Fragility of the Mind (Yuval Fraenkel).

A Publication Preview of Yuval Fraenkel, The Fragility of the Mind: Confrontation Stories among Rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud (Magness Press, 2026), [Hebrew].

... Even if these events did in fact occur, this alone cannot explain the immense cultural energy invested in their telling, nor the central place they occupy within the Babylonian Talmud, the canonical collection of Jewish culture. The fact that interpersonal conflict so intensely preoccupied the rabbis compels us to ask: Why did the storytellers of the Talmud choose to depict their heroes precisely in these moments? Why devote so much literary energy to sages who hurt one another, become angry with one another, or suffer humiliation at one another’s hands?

This question ultimately became the foundation of the book.

It says "Publication Preview" above, but Magness Press already has the book available for sale. I noted it recently here.

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

Hendel, Cultural Memory in the Hebrew Bible (CUP, temporarily open access)

NEW (BRIEF) BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE ELEMENTS:

Cultural Memory in the Hebrew Bible

Genesis to Kings

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2026

Ronald Hendel

Summary

The relationship between the biblical representations of the past and the history of the second and early first millennia BCE is best comprehended by the concept of cultural memory. This volume investigates the dynamics of cultural memory in the Hebrew Bible, with case studies on the ancestors, the Exodus, the conquest, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The texts create a monumental past by a mixture of memory, forgetting, revision, and re-actualization, motivated in various measures by religion, politics, the landscape, ethnic relationships, and cultural self-fashioning. The archaeology of the Levant illuminates the complicated pathways between history and biblical memory.

The whole book is available for free until 1 July. For you, special deal!

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

A first-century synagogue at Tel Rekhesh

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Synagogues Jesus and Mary Magdalene Knew. Observing early Judaism at Tel Rekhesh (Lauren K. McCormick).

To date, about ten first-century synagogues have been confirmed across the southern Levant. One of them, located about 10 miles from Magdala on a rural mound called Tel Rekhesh, seems to tell a different version of the same story. As opposed to a bustling lakeside town like Magdala, Tel Rekhesh is a small, rural settlement. Its synagogue is smaller, more plain, and tucked into the edge of a modest farmstead. Yet both buildings come from the decades and region where Jesus of Nazareth—itself a small town in the Galilee—was said to preach in “synagogues throughout all Galilee” (Mark 1:39).

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

A contentious West Bank archaeology conference in Jerusalem

POLITICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY: West Bank archaeology conference unearths controversy as politics takes center stage. Jerusalem event attracts hundreds, including dozens of scholars, but many in the field stay away and international participation is down; attendee calls event ‘highly politicized’ (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

Hundreds of people, including dozens of archaeology scholars affiliated with Israeli universities, on Wednesday attended the first day of a controversial academic conference devoted to antiquities in the West Bank.

Like its first edition, the second international “Archaeology and Site Conservation in Judea and Samaria” — the biblical name for the West Bank — is centered around presenting research and findings of archaeological work across the region, with sessions devoted to excavations in the Hebron area, the Judean Desert, Tel Shiloh and elsewhere. However, political controversies also took center stage at the conference, held at the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem.

[...]

For more on that West Bank and Gaza antiquities bill, see here and links. The article notes the report that work on the bill has been paused by the Prime Minister. For more on the controversial nomination for the head of the IAA, see here and links. Archaeologist Aren Maier has appeared in many PaleoJudaica posts.

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

A mother-of-pearl, Indo-Pacific, Assyrian amulet-seal, oh my!

ANCIENT MATERIAL (MULTI-)CULTURE: Rare mother-of-pearl seal highlights movement of goods and ideas across Assyrian empire. The 2,600-year-old shell used for a tiny seal stamped with an Assyrian-era religious symbol originated in the Indo-Pacific. How did it reach the Holy Land? (Zev Stub, Times of Israel).

A tiny, iridescent stamp seal found at the Tel Hadid archaeological site in central Israel gives some clues into far-flung trade networks and offers a unique glimpse into life in the years after the ancient Kingdom of Israel was overtaken by the Assyrian Empire 2,600 years ago, according to a study published last month in the journal Levant.

Cool.

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

The glorious imaginary Temple(s) in the Dead Sea Scrolls

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Teasing the Temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thinking through the dimensions with Lawrence Schiffman (Clinton J. Moyer).

Given this background, it is unsurprising that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls—some of whom wrote as early as the third century BCE—were intensely interested in this topic. Schiffman examines two detailed plans for the Temple and its environs found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in his article “Sublime Sanctuary: The Jerusalem Temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” published in the Summer 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

The BAR article is behind the subscription wall, but this essay gives an informative summary of it.

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