On the Arch of Titus

ANCIENT ICONOGRAPHIC PROPAGANDA ARCHITECTURE: Arch of Titus: The monument that celebrated Jerusalem’s fall but became a Jewish emblem. Rome’s most famous ruins hold a Jewish story that many visitors, Jews included, never hear (Asaf Peled, Pittsburg Jewish Chronicle).

A nice tourism overview.

There are many PaleoJudaica posts on the Arch of Titus. For some of them, see here, here, and here, and follow the links

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Biblical Job in Early Christianity and Beyond (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Biblical Job in Early Christianity and Beyond

Series:
Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements, Volume: 193

Volume Editors: Nienke M. Vos, Paula Rose, and Albert C. Geljon

This volume focuses on close readings of the biblical book of Job and its reception in early Christianity. It offers thought-provoking research: from the Bible in Hebrew and Greek to Job’s impact on Christian traditions in East and West, on Judaism and Islam. The sources include the fascinating Coptic Testament of Job as well as texts in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Latin. Intriguing and complex material is presented, such as a mēmrā by Narsai, a homily by Basil of Seleucia (first edition), midrashim, and Islamic storytelling. Thus, Job emerges as an engaging and multifaceted figure of imaginative and religious reflections.

Copyright Year: 2027

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-77192-5
Publication: 22 Sep 2026
EUR €164.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-77191-8
Publication: 22 Oct 2026
EUR €164.00

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Shih-En Kuo, The Golden Calf Narrative in the Book of the Twelve (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

THE GOLDEN CALF NARRATIVE IN THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE
Inner-Biblical Allusions to Exodus 34:6–7

By Shih-En Kuo

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-5020-1
Formats *
Hardback (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-5020-1
eBook PDF (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-5021-8 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Bulletin for Biblical Research Dissertation Series 4
Publication Date: Sep 29,2026
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 385
Languages: Englishv ISBN: 978-1-4632-5020-1
Price: $95.00 (USD)
Your price: $57.00 (USD)

OVERVIEW

A simple question repeatedly emerges when reading the Book of the Twelve as a collection: Why do echoes of the Golden Calf Narrative (Exod 32–34), especially the Attribute Formula (Exod 34:6–7), surface at multiple points across these prophetic writings, and what do those echoes accomplish for their readers? Biblical research on the Twelve has offered a range of accounts for its coherence, while scholarship on inner-biblical allusion has continued to refine how textual reuse should be identified and evaluated. This study brings these conversations into direct contact by tracing its resonances across the Twelve and asking how they contribute to the collection’s literary and theological unity.

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Malta's catacombs are now a European Heritage Site

FUNERARY EPIGRAPHY: Malta’s Ancient Catacombs Become Country’s First European Heritage Site (Iuliia Tore, RusTourismNews).

St Paul’s Catacombs in Rabat have become the first site in Malta to receive the European Heritage Label, recognising an ancient underground burial complex where Jewish, pagan and Christian communities left evidence of their shared history over more than a thousand years.

The recognition, awarded earlier in 2026, places the catacombs among European landmarks selected for their contribution to the continent’s history and cultural identity. Heritage Malta celebrated the distinction in October with guided tours, Roman funeral re-enactments and educational activities, while announcing plans to improve the visitor experience.

Dating from at least the fourth or third century BC, the catacombs contain more than 30 underground burial areas spanning the Punic, Roman and Byzantine periods. Their unusual combination of religious traditions makes the complex one of the Mediterranean’s most significant early burial sites.

[...]

This is very good news. For PaleoJudaica posts on the catacombs of Malta, start here and follow the links.

Incidentally, I was in Malta last summer and I have photos of the Jewish inscriptions in the Rabat catacombs.

And, yes, I also did locate that supposedly Iron Age, supposedly Jewish or Phoenician inscription at the Neolithic Ġgantija temple complex in Gozo. It really is there and it really is an obvious forgery. I have photos of it too.

I will share some photos of both sites with you when I get a chance. Maybe not soon. I am very busy and will be for some time.

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Did God judge Sodom justly?

PROF. GÁBOR BALÁS: Sodom’s Collective Punishment—Shall the Judge of All the Earth Not Do Justice? (TheTorah.com).

Abraham challenges God’s plan to destroy Sodom with two distinct arguments: the innocent must not suffer alongside the guilty, and a righteous minority should suffice to spare an entire city. Why does Abraham stop at ten innocents? Can collective punishment ever be just? The Rabbis sharpen Abraham’s critique of divine justice. Yet the story’s implications extend beyond whether perfect justice is attainable: God chose Abraham to teach his descendants righteousness and justice, even when it means challenging God.

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Reviews of two books on Hellenistic kingship

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Alexander’s successors and the creation of Hellenistic kingship.

Holton, John. Alexander’s successors and the creation of Hellenistic kingship. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. Pp. 232. ISBN 9781350399020.

Holton, John. Royal traditions and the consolidation of power by Alexander’s successors. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. Pp. 232. ISBN 9781350399112.

Review by Caroline Kreutzer, University of Bamberg. caroline.kreutzer@uni-bamberg.de

In these two monographs, John Holton presents new approaches to the development and consolidation of the Hellenistic monarchies following Alexander the Great. Although the basic ideas of both books are not directly dependent on each other, they can be easily combined and complement each other by offering theory-based studies of the early phase of Hellenistic kingship.

[...]

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On the Sibylline Oracles

THE KIWI HELLENIST BLOG: Sibyls and Sibylline oracles. 3. The Sibylline oracles.

The Sibylline oracles are closer imitations. These are a group of eleven poems and eight fragments, mostly Jewish, with an assortment of Christian additions, in Greek hexameter verse. They range in date from the 2nd century BCE to the 7th century CE. Several of the poems list off dynasties of kings and emperors, framing them as though they’re predictions. In some poems the timeline reaches all the way from the Creation (as in Genesis) up to the end times and the Last Judgement (as in Enoch or Revelation).

I noted the earlier posts in this informative series here (with links to earlier PaleoJudaica posts) and here.

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Biggerstaff, De-Marginalizing Prophetic Suprahuman Knowledge (2022 PhD thesis)

THE AWOL BLOG: De-Marginalizing Prophetic Suprahuman Knowledge.

De-Marginalizing Prophetic Suprahuman Knowledge
Biggerstaff, Michael
Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

... Prior to the nineteenth century, exegetes never understood prophetic claims of suprahuman knowledge as subordinate to issues of social justice and repentance. ...

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Why is ancient Greek pronunciation important?

THE OTTC BLOG: Reconstructed Koine Pronunciation (Drew Longacre).

What does a question of Greek language learning pedagogy have to do with OT textual criticism? More than you might think, actually. ...

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Who was God talking to at creation and why?

WHO IS "US?" The Role of Angels in the Creation of Humankind ("Staff Editors," TheTorah.com).

“Let us make humankind” (Genesis 1:26)—whom is God addressing? Across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, some interpreters have identified God’s audience as the angels but have assigned them strikingly different roles in humanity’s creation: collaborators, creators, or critics who question the wisdom of bringing humans and their corruption into existence.

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Nicosia, Excerpting History in the Syriac World (open access, De Gruyter/Brill)

THE AWOL BLOG: Excerpting History in the Syriac World: The Miaphysite Collections (6th–10th c.).

Excerpting History in the Syriac World: The Miaphysite Collections (6th–10th c.)
Giorgia Nicosia
Volume 119 | Millennium-Studien / Millennium Studies, 2026
De Gruyter/Brill

Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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Review of Eisenstock, The Talmud Chronicles

BOOK REVIEW : ‘Extra, extra!’ New book brings ancient Talmudic texts to life for readers of all ages - review The Talmud Chronicles: Bringing Talmudic Events to Life covers significant historical events from around 100-200 CE and breathes life into characters from the Talmud (Marion Fischel, Jerusalem Post).

TALMUD CHRONICLES:
BRINGING TALMUDIC EVENTS TO LIFE
By Zalman Eisenstock
Urim Publications
112 pages; $35

I noted the publication of the book here. Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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Rapp, Early Christian Georgian Literature (CUP)

NEW (SHORT) BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Early Christian Georgian Literature

Making Christian Identity in an Iranic Culture

Series: Elements in Early Christian Literature
Author: Stephen H. Rapp Jr, Sam Houston State University
Published: August 2026
Availability: Available
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781009481588

£18.00 GBP Paperback

£55.00 GBP Hardback

$25.00 USD eBook

Description

This Element re-evaluates the genesis and early development of Georgian literature. Sparked by the Christian invention of a Georgian script ca. 400 AD, this literature was a product of the Christianization of the Caucasus region. But to what extent was early Georgian literature a Christian one? What were the ecclesiastical, cultural, and linguistic contexts of Georgian literature? And how did Georgia's, and Caucasia's, existing ties to Iranian cultural world affect the evolution of a distinctly Georgian literature?

For some background on Georgian language and culture (not just Christian, also Jewish), see here and links and here.

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Klawans, Biblical Forgery and Academic Authentication (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Biblical Forgery and Academic Authentication: Persisting Patterns of Guile and Gullibility

Jonathan Klawans

£29.99

Hardback
Published: 29 September 2026
286 Pages
235x156mm
ISBN: 9780197850534

Also Available As:
E-book

• Informs, for the first time, on a wide-range of biblical forgery cases
• Focuses on issues relating to academic authentication: why scholars fall for forgeries and the poor arguments used to authenticate
• Introduces forgery studies and proposes a new "scale of authenticity," from 1 to 5

Description

Biblical Forgery and Academic Authentication describes and decries the roles academics have played in the authentication of biblical forgeries. The most notorious recent incident is surely the 2016 publication of thirteen minuscule Dead Sea Scroll fragments displayed in the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, quickly determined to be clever forgeries. Additional episodes range from Cyrus Gordon's 1970s authentications of supposedly ancient Hebrew inscriptions discovered in America to more recent trusting re-evaluations of the suspicious Deuteronomy manuscripts offered for sale by Moses Wilhelm Shapira in 1883.

While various articles and books have focused on one incident or another, no recent monograph has tried to grasp the larger, repeating dynamic of academic naiveté among biblical scholars. Nor has any work on forgery to date isolated and illustrated the distinct role played by the academic authenticator-a figure who stands between forgers and skeptics, neither forging nor criticizing the artifacts they encounter and endorse. The inherently controversial act of authenticating unprovenanced finds occasionally coincides with other broken norms (undue secrecy, insufficient disclosures, at times with money involved). This book sheds new light on long-resolved forgery cases, to tip the balance in some open cases, and to expose the ethical and intellectual lapses that permit the current situation to persist and fester.

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Tel Shikmona National Park now open to the public

RENOVATED AND REOPENED: Ancient coastal site in Haifa reopens after 3 million shekel restoration. (Ynet News).

Tel Shikmona National Park, home to 3,500 years of archaeological history and remnants of an ancient purple dye industry, welcomes visitors again after a two-year renovation that added walking paths, restored ruins and improved public access

PaleoJudaica posts on the archaeological finds at Tel Shikmona are here, here, and here and links.

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

"10 Important Biblical Archaeological Finds"

LISTICLE: 10 Important Biblical Archaeological Finds (J.D. Cohen, Aish.com).

This is a good list. You can find more on most of these items in PaleoJudaica posts. See the blog search engine.

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Why aren't Torah scrolls vocalized?

DR. ELIAV GROSSMAN: Why Don’t Torah Scrolls Have Vowels? And why do the letters have crowns? (TheTorah.com).

At that precarious moment in the history of rabbinic authority and Jewish textuality, certain rabbis sought to maintain a distinction between the Torah scroll and a codex, protecting the Torah scroll as the privileged ritual object of liturgical reading.

A deep dive into the background of Masoretic vocalization, punctuation, and ornamentation of Torah scrolls.

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