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.

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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.

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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.

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On AI, golems, and the Pope

ALGORITHM WATCH MEETS GOLEM WATCH: AI, Magnifica Humanitas, and the Law of the Golem (Seth C. Oranburg, Public Discourse).

The Talmudic and rabbinic tradition diverges from the latest encyclical, and the divergence highlights a paradox in the papal logic. Leo XIV’s strongest move, his categorical prohibition against the use of AI to make “lethal or otherwise irreversible decisions,” demands a more principled distinction between the Switchblade and the CyberKnife

A thoughtful examination of the moral agency of Artificial Intelligence, interacting with the Talmud, the golem legend, and Catholic theology.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the golem tradition, start here and follow the links.

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Ḥadashot Arkheologiyot Volume 138 (2026)

HADASHOT ARKHEOLOGIYOT–Excavations and Surveys in Israel has a new volume out with articles in English and Hebrew.

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How the Hebrew Bible became Christian Scripture

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

How the Hebrew Bible Became a Christian Book

Medieval and early Christian biblical traditions developed through centuries of copying, translation, correction, and interpretation. The Bible’s history is less like one tree branching outward and more like rivers flowing together, as Hebrew, Greek, and Latin textual streams shaped Christian Scripture through the Septuagint, Jerome’s Vulgate, Hebraica Veritas, canon debates, and Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

See also Shared Scripture – Divided Faiths: The Medieval Jewish-Christian Encounter over the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (Brill, 2026).

By Frans van Liere
Calvin University
Professor of History
June 2026

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Scrolls or unidentified rectangular objects?

VARIANT READINGS: The Iconography of Jewish Scrolls in the Roman Era (Brent Nongbri).

As far as I know, that is about the extent of the visual range of depictions of scrolls in Jewish sources: a spiral showing the frons or end, the closed roll showing the height of the scroll and perhaps some perspective with one or both of the ends depicted as well, and the partly open scroll shown in the Dura Europos image and the Salutia inscription.

What about other images in Jewish inscriptions that may more closely resemble the Castricius rectangle?

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The first (bad) book on an apocryphal gospel?

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Finding The First Book Ever Written On A Hidden Gospel (Philip Jenkins).

The Gospel of the Hebrews thus mattered greatly in the scriptural tradition, and in 1866, Hilgenfeld had collected the 33 surviving fragments in his survey of all available extra-canonical New Testament texts. The work also earned the attention of the versatile scholar Nicholson, the long-serving head of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Amply acknowledging his debt to Hilgenfeld, Nicholson surveyed all the available fragments of Hebrews as well as Patristic references and likely parallels, and hypothesized that the work had the same author as Matthew’s canonical gospel. That argument is almost certainly incorrect, and in modern times it has been dismantled by such scholars as Bart Ehrman.

Professor Jenkins is trying to determine whether Nicholson's 1879 book is the first published monograph on a non-canonical gospel. If you know of an earlier one, drop a comment to his post.

For earlier posts in his Lost and Found Scriptues series, see here and links. Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha and Lost Books.

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Was there a real Tower of Babel?

MYTHOLOGICAL MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE? Was there a real Tower of Babel? This temple is the leading contender. Many archaeologists believe the famed tower from the Book of Genesis may have had a real historical counterpart in ancient Mesopotamia (National Geographic).

The answer could be yes—both archaeologists and historians believe the Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis actually had a historical counterpart in ancient Mesopotamia: Etemenanki.

But though modern research has revealed plenty of potential evidence that such a structure not only existed but was known throughout the ancient world, the case for a real-life Tower of Babel is far from closed.

No historian thinks that a Tower of Babel as told in Genesis 11 ever existed. But the legend of the Tower many have been based on an actual very ancient temple-tower (a "ziqqurat") in ancient Babylon.

It seems likely enough that Judean exiles who saw the ruins of Etemenanki in Babylon inferred the Tower of Babel story from it. There was also a Sumerian version of the story of the confusion of tongues. It is possible that some version of it was still in circulation during the Exile. See also here and here.

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Busts of "Lycurgus" and his shaggy friend found in salvage excavation

ANCIENT STATUARY: 'Once-in-a-lifetime Discovery': Intact 1,700-year-old Roman Busts Found in Israel. Buried in a disused Roman-Byzantine winepress near Binyamina, one of the marble busts may depict Sparta's legendary founder, Lycurgus. 'There was a feeling we were about to discover something that was not supposed to be there,' an archaeologist said (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

The statues were carefully concealed inside a wine-collection pit of a Roman-Byzantine winepress long after it had gone out of use, where they remained buried for nearly 1,700 years. "They were buried when the winepress went out of use. At this stage, it is not known why the statues were hidden here, perhaps to protect them," the Israel Antiquities Authority, which carried out the excavation, said in a statement.

Cross-file under Salvage Archaeology.

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Sifting Project lectures at the 50th Archaeological Congress

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT: THE SIFTING PROJECT AT THE 50TH ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONGRESS: A SEAL IMPRESSION FROM THE DAYS OF JOSIAH AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE EASTERN TEMPLE MOUNT.

Last Thursday, the 50th Archaeological Congress was held in Israel, featuring two important presentations by the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

Both presentations are avaiable on YouTube. The post above has the link.

I noted the Sifting Project's discovery of the Asayah bulla last year here.

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Online Oxford LXX Seminar: Synagogues and the Septuagint in the Late Second Temple Period

WILLIAM A. ROSS: (VIRTUAL) OXFORD SEPTUAGINT SEMINAR, 17 JUNE.

Details for the next seminar, available virtually, are as follows:

Oxford Septuagint Seminar

17 June | 2:00 PM (BST)

“Translating the Word of God: Synagogues and the Septuagint in the Late Second Temple Period”

Prof. William Schniedewind is Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies & Northwest Semitic Languages and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA.

Follow the link for a description and the Zoom link.

As I have noted, Dr. Ross has been announcing these seminars, but usually too late for me to flag them in advance. I appreciate the early notice for this one.

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Di Vito Festschrift (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

“Where Were You When I Founded the Earth?”
Essays on Primeval and Deuteronomistic History and their Reception in Honor of Robert A. Di Vito

Edited by Dr Olegs Andrejevs, Najeeb T. Haddad & Mark Lester

Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4979-3
Formats *
Hardback (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-4979-3 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)
eBook PDF (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-4980-9 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)
Publication Status: In Print
Series: Biblical Intersections 21
Publication Date: Mar 5,2026
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 439
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4979-3
Price: $134.95 (USD)
Your price: $80.97 (USD)

OVERVIEW

This collection of essays is dedicated to Robert A. Di Vito, a veteran member of the Department of Theology at Loyola University Chicago, where he has taught courses on the Pentateuch, the Prophets, classical Hebrew, and Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition to academic publications, Di Vito’s contributions to the guild include service as an associate editor of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, along with long-term involvement in the complete translation of the New American Bible Old Testament, as one of its Editors-in-Chief. At Loyola University (which does not offer a PhD in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament), Di Vito has served on numerous dissertation committees of students who have received degrees in New Testament and Early Christianity.

The eleven contributors (a mix of colleagues and students from Loyola University Chicago and beyond) are delighted to present this volume to Professor Di Vito on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The collection reflects some of Di Vito’s principal interests, a number of areas in which he has made contributions to scholarship, and – perhaps above all – his career-defining commitment to keeping Loyola’s New Testament and Early Christianity program in conversation with biblical and second temple Judaism.

The authors focus on translation (Deirdre Dempsey); Deuteronomistic History (Mark Lester); and reception of Genesis 1–11 in the Sibylline Oracles (Olivia Stewart-Lester), the canonical gospels (Christopher W. Skinner; Olegs Andrejevs; Jeffrey M. Tripp), Paul’s letter to the Romans (Hans Svebakken), the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies (Joshua T. King), and contemporary contexts (Hille Haker; John McCarthy; Steven L. McKenzie). As this overview shows, reception of Genesis 1–11, in the New Testament and beyond, emerges as the central theme of the volume and is the focus of most essays here. To that end, the authors engage with: Genesis 1 (Stewart-Lester; Skinner); the LXX translator’s formula βίβλος γενέσεως (Andrejevs); Genesis 3 (Stewart-Lester; Svebakken); Cain and Abel (Haker; Tripp); the Nephilim story (Stewart-Lester; King); the measurement of Noah’s Ark (McCarthy); violence against animals in Gen 9:2–3 (King); the so-called “curse of Ham” (McKenzie); and the tower of Babel (Stewart-Lester).

The volume is primarily intended for an academic audience.

Congratulations to Professor Di Vito.

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Van Henten Feschrift (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Tyrants, Heroes, Prophets, and Martyrs

Shifting Images from the Past to the Present

Series: Studies in Theology and Religion, Volume: 39

Volume Editors: Caroline Vander Stichele and Jacqueline Borsje

This interdisciplinary Festschrift for Jan Willem van Henten contains nineteen essays that deal with literature from antiquity to the present, covering Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, Hellenism as well as the reception of the Bible in medieval and modern culture. The contributions to this volume address the rich imagery present in tales and texts that feature tyrants, heroes, prophets, and/or martyrs (male, female, or other), including the, often violent, interaction between them. Tyrants have enormous political power. Heroes are characterized by immense courage. Prophets stand out because of their remarkable insight into hidden things. Martyrs have an extraordinary capacity for self-sacrifice and their lives often culminate in violent endings. In discussing, investigating, and questioning these types, this book contributes to a better understanding of premodern texts, their modern cultural impact, and intellectual history.

Copyright Year: 2026

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75486-7
Publication: 08 Apr 2026
EUR €125.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75485-0
Publication: 07 May 2026
EUR €125.00

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That British Museum lecture was a success

UPDATE: British Museum event on Ancient Israel and Judah draws largest audience of Jewish Culture Month (Board of Deputies of British Jews).

A British Museum talk exploring the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah drew the largest audience of Jewish Culture Month, with around 4000 people joining in person and online.

The lecture, delivered by Dr Paul Collins, Keeper of the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum, explored how objects in the Museum’s collection illuminate the history of ancient Israel and Judah, offering insights into its cultures and societies. Artefacts from across the region bring to life the daily lives and political struggles described in the Book of Kings of the Hebrew Bible as well Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles. The ancient historical events illustrated through the artefacts shape Jewish culture and practice through to the present day.

[...]

British Museum defies intimidation to host ancient Israel lecture. Rescheduled Jewish Culture Month lecture proceeds without interruption (Jenni Frazer, Jewish News).

This time, the museum was taking no chances and had layers of security which ensured that only ticket-holders to the lecture were able to get into the building.

Everyone was then funnelled through a security tent for a first bag search, before being asked to go through a second bag search, immediately outside the lecture theatre.

Before people were allowed inside, about 15 museum staff were given a briefing as to what actions to take if anyone in the 100-strong audience tried to disrupt Dr Collins.

Well done.

Background here and links.

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The rest of the review series on Vidas, The Rise of Talmud

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has continued its review series on Moulie Vidas's book, The Rise of Talmud. I was away for a bit and got behind on noting the rest of the essays. Here they are:

Intellectual Profiles in both Talmud and Midrash (Maren Niehoff)

To conclude, I have greatly benefited from Vidas’ book and am sure that it will inspire further research. The area where my own views differ most distinctly from his pertain to the impact of redaction. Both the individual profile of rabbis and the image of geographical centers of learning seem to me to be more complicated and filtered through cultural and political agendas.

Vidas’ Yerushalmi and the Reputation of the Tannaim (Ishay Rosen-Zvi)

Moulie uncovers a new world of distinctions between the Yerushalmi and the Tannaitic literature. We’ve missed these distinctions because the Yerushalmi is usually studied as a supplement—either as a continuation of the tannaitic literature (revising traditions) or as a precursor to the Bavli (proto-sugyot).

Author Response: Moulie Vidas on the Rise of Talmud (Moulie Vidas)

The Rise of Talmud concludes with the argument that Talmud was distinctive because it centered humans reading other humans, as opposed to humans reading God; let this piece conclude with an argument for humans reading other humans as opposed to machines.

Yes.

I noted the first essay in the series here.

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The Ketef Hinnom silver amulets as ritual texts

DR JEREMY D. SMOAK: The Ketef Hinnom Amulets: Wearing the Priestly Blessing for Protection (TheTorah.com).

Inscribed in silver and rolled into scrolls, the Ketef Hinnom amulets, ca. 6th century B.C.E., contain an early version of the Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24–26). More than an important textual witness, they reveal that protective ritual practices were an integral part of Judahite religion, and show how divine blessing could be worn on the body, transforming sacred words into a tangible safeguard against danger, illness, and misfortune.

For more on the Ketef Hinnom inscribed silver amulets and their relation to the priestly blessing in Numbers, start here (cf. here and links) and follow the links. For more on Jeremy Smoak's work on the amulets, see here and links.

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