The Oxford Interfaith Forum has posted a video recording of a book panel reviewing Hindy Najman's new book on Scriptural Vitality.Follow the link for the link to the video.
I noted the publication of the (open-access) book here.
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Teaching and Research Associate in Herculaneum PapyrologyFollow the link for further particulars. Note: "The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Monday, 16 March 2026. Only applications received before this time can be considered."
Two-year post at OxfordThe Faculty of Classics – University of Oxford seeks to appoint a Research Associate in Herculaneum Papyrology to join the Humanities and AI Virtual Institute–funded project ‘Meeting the Vesuvius Challenge’, a collaboration between the Faculty of Classics and the Vesuvius Challenge. The postholder will conduct advanced papyrological research on texts extracted from the Herculaneum scrolls and contribute to the refinement of innovative AI-assisted text extraction techniques. The role combines high-level scholarship, graduate teaching, and collaborative research within an internationally significant interdisciplinary initiative.
This is a full-time, fixed-term post (24 months) from October 2026 to September 2028, based in the Faculty of Classics. The post is Grade 7: £39,424 – £47,779 per annum.
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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 (additional posts collected here) and follow the links.
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Purim is itself a strange mixture of the deadly serious and the wildly playful: a story of a thwarted genocide celebrated with carnival antics, including costumes, a raucous reading of the Book of Esther interrupted by noisemakers, and even a tradition of getting drunk. For millennia, it was often a release for a beleaguered minority in strange and often hostile lands. But as Israel emerged as a military power, scrutiny from within and without the Jewish community has often focused on the real-life implications of the story’s purported lessons.It was hard not to notice the timing of the strike, intentional or not. This article has a good overview of the range of the comparisons with the Book of Esther.
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From a shadowed queen in the third-century synagogue frescoes of Dura-Europos to a defiant heroine recast in the shadow of the Holocaust, Esther’s image has never stood still. Across centuries of Jewish art—medieval manuscripts, early modern megillot, linocuts, mosaics, and mystical modern paintings—artists have reshaped her image from demure beauty to decisive leader. Each generation paints the Esther it needs.The Dura-Europos synagogue frescoes are the example from antiquity.
For many PaleoJudaica posts on and involving the ancient city of Dura-Europos, especially its synagogue and its decorative art, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.
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Last year's Purim post is here, with links.
PaleoJudaica has nothing specifically on Purim more recently, but posts on the Book of Esther are here and here.
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Thursday morning, Israel Museum guards carefully counted off 25 visitors to enter the climate-controlled gallery holding the seven-meter-long Great Isaiah Scroll, the oldest near-complete biblical book ever found, near the beginning of several-month exhibit.More on the Israel Museum's display of the Great Isaiah Scroll, now on indefinite hiatus, is here and links.Two days later, the entire scroll and other pieces of ancient parchment and books were relocated to a secure location as sirens sounded, warning of incoming missile attacks from Iran, a spokesperson for the Israel Museum told The Times of Israel on Sunday.
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Earlier safeguarding closures of Israels museums were noted here and here.
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A new exhibition is opening at Manchester Jewish Museum this month, exploring the legacy of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, aka Maimonides.Some of the Cambridge fragments of Maimonides' works are also be on display. The collection hold some autograph fragments, but I don't know if any are display items.Maimonides from Scratch began as an interdisciplinary effort to explore Jewish and Muslim presence and place in Manchester and Marseille through creative practices. The team come from backgrounds in art, anthropology, literature and religious studies. Over the last couple of years, through workshops at the Manchester Jewish Museum, in schools, and at the Marseille city museum, the team has developed a stop-motion film about the life of Maimonides, scholar, physician, philosopher and community leader. Though more than 800 years have passed since his death (1204), Maimonides’ work continues to resonate in and beyond Jewish spaces.
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The study of belief and unbelief in the ancient world is an exercise in methodology: what counts as evidence, how it can be interpreted, and which theoretical frameworks apply. All the contributors to this collection handle these questions in more or less detail, and Thomas Harrison proves a particularly illuminating guide. The methodological dimension gives some unity to an otherwise eclectic volume. Subjects range through the Hebrew Bible, St Paul, and St Augustine, to archaic Greek art, Aramaean epigraphy, and, of course, Judaean figurines.For PaleoJudaica posts on the book and the St. Andrews conference behind it, see here and links.
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Moribus antiquis res stat Iudaea virisque. Exempla in Flavius Josephus' Antiquitates IudaicaeThe volume is in German.Series:
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 222Author: A. Judith Göppinger
Josephus’ Antiquities retell the entire Jewish history from the creation of the world to the outbreak of the Jewish War. But who makes this history? This study examines the literary construction of Moses, David, Judas Maccabee, and Agrippa I. through the lens of Roman exempla, showing that Josephus created these four Jewish protagonists in shape and form compatible with them, without turning the Jewish heroes into Romans. In this way Josephus proves not only the similarity of Jewish and Roman exemplary men, but he outdoes the Romans in their own categories of superiority, old age, and flawless virtuousness.
Josephus’ Antiquitates erzählen die gesamte jüdische Geschichte von der Entstehung der Welt bis zum Ausbruch des Jüdischen Kriegs. Aber wer macht diese Geschichte aus? Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die literarische Charakterkonstruktion von Moses, David, Judas Makkabäus und Agrippa I. auf Basis römischer exempla und kann zeigen, dass Josephus die vier jüdischen Protagonisten römischen exempla gleichend konstruiert, ihnen aber „ihr“ Judentum belässt. Damit beweist Josephus nicht nur die Vereinbarkeit von jüdischer und römischer Tradition, sondern kann die RömerInnen hinsichtlich Überlegenheit, langer Tradition und tadelloser Tugendhaftigkeit sogar in den Schatten stellen.
Copyright Year: 2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74835-4
Publication: 08 Dec 2025
EUR €133.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74834-7
Publication: 10 Dec 2025
EUR €133.00
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Join us for an ancient poetry slam featuring four members of the Divinity School and Department of Middle Eastern Studies as they throw down translations of ancient Sumerian, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic poems, followed by an open discussion. Featuring Simeon Chavel (Divinity School), Pamela Klasova (Middle Eastern Studies), Jana Matuszak (Middle Eastern Studies), and Erin G. Walsh (Divinity School). Pizza and drinks will be provided.This event is free. It takes place on 4 March. Follow the link for time and venue information. If you can't make it in person, you can register to watch on Zoom.
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The Oxford Handbook of Textual Criticism of the BibleThe electronic version of this one has been out for a while. But I have been holding off on posting on it until the hardback came out. I blinked and it came out and was sold out. But follow the link to sign up for a notification of when the reprint is available.Sidnie White Crawford and Tommy Wasserman
Oxford Handbooks
£115.00
Hardback
Published: 13 February 2026
736 Pages | 16 illustrations
248x171mm
ISBN: 9780197581315Also Available As:
E-bookDescription
Oxford Handbook of the Textual Criticism of the Bible provides an overview of the disciplines of textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament as practiced in the twenty-first century. This volume first explores overarching issues like the formation of the Jewish and Christian canons; philosophical presuppositions in the methods and goals of textual criticism; the complex relationship between literary criticism and textual criticism; and how related fields of Book History, New/Material Philology, and paratextual criticism pose challenges and enrich traditional biblical textual criticism. Subsequently addressed is the textual criticism of the books of the Hebrew Bible, a field which has undergone a paradigm shift since the discovery of the Judean Desert scrolls. Each chapter discusses this shift in various ways, representing different philosophies of and approaches to the ways in which textual criticism can be practiced in a "post-Judean Desert texts" world. Finally, the text discusses the textual criticism of the New Testament and provides chapters concerned with the Greek manuscripts and the indirect evidence of the text in early versions and citations, as well as past and current methods for evaluating this evidence including the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM).
I noted a preview of the volume here.
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Textual comparison shows the scroll is approximately 95–98% identical to the Masoretic Text in modern Hebrew Bibles. Differences are largely spelling variations or minor grammatical shifts. There are no significant theological additions or deletions.That final sentence needs some clarification. I prefer to think in terms of "variations" rather than additions or deletions, so as not to pre-judge which readings are original and which secondary. Off the top of my head I can think of two variations in the Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) which could count as theologically significant.
The first is in 52:14, where the Masoretic Text says of the servant, "Thus his appearance was marred (משחת) more than a man." 1QIsaa can be understood as saying, "Thus I (the speaker is God) have anointed (משחתי) his appearance more than a man." This could represent the first attested theological reading of the Fourth Servant Song as royal/messianic. I'm inclined to take it as a secondary exegetical variant, but I can't prove that.
The second is in Isaiah 53:11, the same Servant Song. The Masoretic Text reads "He (the servant) shall see (the result?) of the toil of his soul." The object of the verb is unexpressed. But 1QIsaa includes a direct object: "He shall see light (אור) from the toil of his soul." One could make a case either way about the originality of the reading. Some English Bible translations accept it.
I'm not sure that the latter variant is theological exactly, but it does add vividness to the phrase. And arguably it may have influenced the light-darkness imagery of the New Testament Johannine literature.
I was about to press publish when I noticed this PaleoJudaica post from 2016. The fifth paragraph of my posted response to Catrin Williams's paper notes these two variants and more, all potentially messianic and therefore theological. And this post is also relevant.
For more on this Israel Museum exhibition and on the Great Isaiah Scroll, start here and follow the links.
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According to the IAA, the coin is approximately 2,000 years old and may have fallen from the pocket of a rebel fleeing into the desert during the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome, approximately between 66 and 74 CE.The article also refers to the recent apprehension of real and forged ancient coins in East Jerusalem, already noted here. But I see no new details.“The coin bears the Hebrew inscription 'Half Shekel' alongside a chalice motif, a characteristic symbol found on Jewish coins from the late Second Temple period,” IAA researcher Yaniv David Levy said. “Above it appears the letter Aleph, denoting the first year of the outbreak of the revolt.”
For more on half-shekel coins and their use for the annual Temple tax, see the links collected here, plus here. Also, according to Matthew 17:24-27, Jesus once manifested a shekel coin to pay his and Peter's half-shekel temple tax.
By the way, I commend the Post for going back to having humans write its archaeology articles instead of AI.
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When Jerusalem University College asked me to deliver an online lecture, I wanted to choose a topic that would both engage viewers and draw on what I’ve learned over the years while leading and teaching groups in the lands of the Bible. Many scholars have written about the Imperial Cult and its overtones in the New Testament. But as I reflected on the subject, it became clear that there was something I could contribute that is rarely done: to show it visually.An indexed link to the lecture video follows.The Imperial Cult was not an abstraction. It was embedded in cities, temples, inscriptions, and public spaces—places most people never get to see. My aim in this lecture was to bring those locations together and let the stones speak.
For my notes on a thematically related University of St Andrews Symposium, see:
Report on the St. Andrews Symposium on Divine Sonship (6-8 June 2016)
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Listen to the Sibyl”: The History, Poetics, and Reception of Sibylline Oracles. Brill, February 2026.For almost 1,000 years, Jewish and Christian writers crafted Greek poetic oracles and attributed them to an ancient prophet, a sibyl. From the second century BCE to the seventh century CE, Sibylline Oracles became a space in which these writers interpreted their scriptures, commented on contemporary political and economic events, worked out their theologies, claimed their place within Homeric and Hesiodic literary traditions, transformed Greek mythology, composed hymns, and reflected on the nature of time itself. And all of this was conveyed through the powerful, long-lasting voice of a woman.
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Did Philo Allude to Sadducees and Pharisees?Although Philo never names Pharisees or Sadducees, his brief post-Essenes contrast in Every Good Man Is Free 88–91 (brutal “beastlike” rulers vs. smooth-talking hypocritical advisors) may be an implicit pre-terminological allusion to Hasmonean-era sectarian alignments later described explicitly by Flavius Josephus. If so, Philo’s diaspora lens could provide an additional early witness to how these movements were already being stereotyped and contested before their names appear in his works.
By Stephen Goranson
Independent Researcher
February 2026
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For residents of Jabadeen, one of the last places in the world where Western Neo-Aramaic is still spoken, the decision carries symbolic weight far beyond administrative paperwork. It marks a renewed effort to preserve a language whose roots stretch deep into the civilizations of Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia) and which once served as a lingua franca of empires.Local organizers described the move as the culmination of sustained efforts to formalize and broaden a project that had previously existed on a smaller scale. “There was a museum before, but now we have received the official order from the ministry to reopen it and expand it as well,” sources from Jabadeen told SyriacPress.
The museum, formally known as the Aramaic Language Heritage Museum, aims to safeguard the tangible and intangible heritage of the region, manuscripts, traditional clothing, liturgical artifacts, tools of village life, and audio documentation of spoken Aramaic. Sources say the expanded institution will function not only as a repository of objects, but as a living center for linguistic and cultural transmission.
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UG lecturer of Hebrew Emmanuel Oliveiro was the first person in the world who managed to decipher Cryptic B, a secret code in two of the Dead Sea Scrolls that was considered to be indecipherable. ‘I figured someone had to do it.’I noted this story and the underlying DSD article back in December. This article give additional background, especially about the decipherer.
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Over the last few months I’ve highlighted a number of my own publications, so I thought it would make sense to point out others’ work as well.I just noted one of these books. The Italian one is new to me, but looks interesting. There is a lot going on with LXX Daniel 1-6. And the third one is forthcoming.
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Notice of a 2008 open-access book by Christian Stadel (University of Heidelberg).
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