On biocodicology

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: How DNA forensics is transforming studies of ancient manuscripts. Scientists are exposing the biological information hidden in ancient parchments without leaving a mark (Marla Broadfoot, Scientific American, reprint from Nature Magazine). HT Drew Longacre's OTTC Blog.

In May 2006, Tim Stinson travelled to England to tour the libraries of London, Oxford and Cambridge. ...

Nearly two decades later, that curiosity has helped to give rise to a new field. The development of non-destructive sampling methods, alongside advances in genomics and proteomics, have made it possible to extract biological information from ancient parchments without visibly damaging them. The emerging discipline — known as biocodicology — combines molecular biology with codicology, the study of books as material objects.

The results are transforming how scholars understand human history. By analysing parchment, researchers are uncovering evidence of trade networks, animal husbandry, medical and ritual practices, climate change, epidemics and floods.

In the process, they have found that ancient parchments preserve more than just words.

All of the examples in the article involve analysis of medieval manuscripts, the earliest from the eighth century. But applying the process to more ancient manuscripts sounds possible, assuming researchers can find a non-destructive way to harvest the samples.

I noted a recent unrelated project (at pre-print publication stage) which applied such methods to the Shroud of Turin here. I see that Scientific American has also published a response to it:

DNA analysis claiming new origins for the Shroud of Turin doesn't hold up, experts say. A metagenomic study of this cloth, controversially purported to bear the imprint of the body of Jesus Christ, has little to say about the relic’s origins (BY STEPHANIE PAPPAS EDITED BY JEANNA BRYNER).

Cross-file under Paleogenetics.

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More on that Ark of the Covenant docudrama

CINEMA: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: 'Legends of the Lost Ark' docudrama: Archaeologist Chris McKinney investigates fate of the biblical artifact. McKinney discusses the history, legend and mystery surrounding the Ark of the Covenant (All Israel News).

A key element of “Legends of the Lost Ark” is its effort to move beyond modern speculation and instead reconstruct the conversation around the Ark through ancient traditions and early textual sources. McKinney emphasized that the goal is not to chase sensational theories, but to understand how ancient communities themselves wrestled with the Ark’s disappearance after the destruction of the First Temple.

In the interview, McKinney explained that the film is anchored in three early post-exilic traditions that consistently connect the prophet Jeremiah to the Ark’s concealment. While the sources differ on where it was hidden, they converge on several core ideas – including that the Ark was hidden before Jerusalem’s fall and that it is destined to be revealed in the future.

That sounds like a prudent approach.

The trailer is overdone, but trailers often are. I do not have time to listen to the whole interview now. This article has excerpts, plus links to trailer and interview.

I noted the film as upcoming here. Follow the links from there for many posts on the Ark of the Covenant and the many places where it is claimed to be. The film is currently, briefly, in the cinemas. I believe today is the last day.

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U of Iowa project funded to reconstruct ancient manuscripts

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: UI professor repairs damaged ancient manuscripts with AI. Paul Dilley received a $500,000 grant from Schmidt Sciences to develop AI tools that can reconstruct missing sections of ancient manuscripts (Jacob Calvin, The Daily Iowan).

Dilley said even as multispectral imaging continues to advance, there is a limit to what it can decipher.

“If the manuscript has already been damaged, imaging obviously doesn’t help you see the missing parts,” he said. “That’s where AI comes in.”

Dilley said editors will train the AI to perform a process called infilling, or suggesting restorations for letter fragments. Generative AI will also be used to infer and suggest new text for lacunas, or portions of manuscripts where all text is missing.

For his current study, Dilley said the AI will be trained to perform infilling and restore lacuna for Greek, Latin, and Celtic languages.

“The plan is to publish the models open access and to make it extendable to other languages,” he said. “The basic pipeline should be extendable to other languages.”

The funding of this project is very good news.

The article mentions the Herculaneum papyri and the Dead Sea Scrolls in passing, but it does not specify which texts or manuscripts the project will work on.

Cross-file under Algorithm Watch.

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What's in the Herculaneum papyri? What might be?

HERCULANEUM WATCH: The Latin Problem: BYU's Roger Macfarlane on What We Have — and Haven't — Found in the Herculaneum Papyri (Utah TechBuzz News).

BYU classicist, Roger Macfarlane, who has spent more than three decades hunting for lost Latin literature in carbonized scrolls came to UVU with an honest assessment: most of the discovered Herculaneum papyri is barely readable. But what we might still find could change everything.

Further:

From the moment European scholars learned that a library had been buried at Herculaneum, the speculation about what it might contain has been almost comically ambitious. A letter from 1753 — before serious attempts to open the scrolls had even begun — already expressed hope for a portion of Livy's history of Rome, most of which has been lost to time. By 1739, a German scholar was wishfully cataloging the texts he hoped to find: Diodorus Siculus, Berossus on Babylon, Megasthenes on India, Livy, Sallust, and, in a note that Macfarlane clearly relished, "the Five Books of Sallust, although in that event all the labor I have already expended in attempting to reconstruct them would itself be rendered futile."

The list has only grown since. ...

An informative article asking important questions about the Herculaneum library: What is in it? What might be? With some answers to both. I've posted my own wish list of Herculaneum books here and here.

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 Lost Books (also here).

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Reports of bombed antiquities sites in Israel and Lebanon

THIS IS WAR: There are reports of the bombing of antiquities sites in northern Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah rocket hits remains of 1,500-year-old Byzantine church in northern Israel. Israel Antiquities Authority says modern-day structure preserving the mosaic in Nahariya was damaged but the ancient floor is intact (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

“Today, a meeting was held on site with the participation of archaeologists and conservators from the Israel Antiquities Authority [and] representatives of the municipality and the Property Tax Authority,” an IAA spokesperson said in a statement. “An on-site assessment indicates that the mosaic was covered by debris from the modern structure in which it had been preserved, but was not damaged.”

For more on the mosaic and on another significant discovery in Nahariya, see here and here.

Israeli airstrikes hit southern Lebanon and Tyre’s ancient citadel (Middle East Monitor).

Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Monday, targeting the town of Qantara and the outskirts of Tibnin, while artillery shelling struck the ancient citadel of Tyre, a site listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.

According to the Lebanese National News Agency, the citadel area includes the shrine and tomb of Prophet Simeon the Just, raising concerns over damage to cultural and historical heritage.

[...]

Some PaleoJudaica posts on the history and archaeology of the city of Tyre are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and links. There was a big fire at the site last year.

It sounds as though the bombing damage was to post-Phoenician remains.

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39 more Lebanese sites under enhanced cultural protection

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: 39 Sites in Lebanon Gain UNESCO Protection. Why it matters for biblical history and beyond (Lauren K. McCormick).

In a decision prompted by a request from the Lebanese government, UNESCO granted enhanced protection status to 39 sites across Lebanon under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The designation places these sites under the highest level of legal safeguarding during armed conflict, meaning that any intentional damage could be considered a war crime. UNESCO has committed over US$100,000 for measures on the ground, including training for staff and military personnel.

[...]

Lebanon has lots of biblical connections. Also, cross-file under Phoenician Watch.

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Review of The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East.

The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East Rubina Raja, The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Oxford handbooks. New York: Oxford University Press, 2025. Pp. 944. ISBN 9780190858155.

Review by
Céline Debourse, Harvard University. cdebourse@fas.harvard.edu

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]

This impressive collection of essays brings together a wide range of scholarship dealing with the Near East under Hellenistic and Roman rule, from Alexander’s death in 323 BCE into the eighth century CE. Its overarching aim, in the editor’s words, is to apply “both local as well as global lenses” to bring “new perspectives on this central region” (abstract). In fifty chapters covering 940 pages, Rubina Raja and her contributors do indeed deliver a breath-taking overview of topics in sectors as diverse as geography, climate, economy, religion, politics, and culture.

[...]

Apparently the volume does not include Egypt and it oddly neglects Mesopotamia. But in the TOC I see many articles of interest to PaleoJudaica: on Judea and the Galilee (several), Edessa, Europos-Dura (sic), Palmyra, Phoenicia, Petra, and more.

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

Eight 3,000-year-old scrolls excavated in Egypt

YET ANOTHER SCROLL DISCOVERY: Valuable discovery in Egypt reveals 3,000-year-old scrolls with secret messages still unread. Cache of coffins also found stacked in a rock-carved funerary chamber nearby (Andrea Margolis, Fox News).

Excavators found the ancient scrolls in a large pottery vessel, with some even bearing their original, 3,000-year-old clay seals.

"They vary in size and are considered a valuable source of information, with the world awaiting the results following their restoration and translation," the translated release said.

The coffins of Amun chanters — temple singers dedicated to the god Amun — were found stacked in a rock-carved rectangular funerary chamber [on Luxor's West Bank].

Fox News appears to have broken the story in the English-speaking world. No word yet on the contents of the scrolls. Reading the texts will be a laborious and painstaking process.

As I have said before, it is remarkable that Egypt continues to produce substantial scroll discoveries. Several have been found at Saqqara, one of the most thoroughly explored sites in the world. This one was in Luxor, at the other end of Egypt, but comparably explored already. For other recent Egyptian scroll discoveries, see the links at the bottom of this post. If I may quote myself from the first link in this paragraph:

And if there are intact 16-meter ancient scrolls still lying around in Egypt, what does that say about the potential for new scroll finds in Israel? Israel has fewer areas that have the right climactic conditions to preserve scrolls. But there are still promising regions. Besides the Dead Sea region and Samaria, both of which have produced remarkable scroll discoveries, both Megiddo and the Timna Valley have potential. I have discussed the matter here.

Since then, an even earlier textile fragment (c. 1500-2000 BCE) has been recovered from one of the Judean Desert caves. See my commentary at the link for some implications.

The sites in Israel whose climate could preserve ancient scrolls have been extensively explored. But there may still be surprises in them. Keep looking!

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

How old is the layout of the MT Hebrew Bible?

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (FEBRUARY 2026): Scrolls, Stratigraphy and the Song of the Sea: Re-examining Ashkar-Gilson (Kim Phillips).

This fascinating essay is quite technical and hard to excerpt. The main issue is the question of how ancient the layout (as opposed to the text itself) of the Masoretic Text is. The specific examples are the dots placed over some of the words and the division of the five lines preceding the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15.

The answer, the author concludes, is that the the division of the five lines is earlier than the Ashkar-Gilson manuscript, which dates to the seventh or eight century CE. So, very old indeed.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Ashkar-Gilson fragments of Exodus, start here, here, and here, and follow the links.

For many PaleoJudaica posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, start here and follow the links.

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

Arnold, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Testament (2nd ed., paperback)

NEW PAPERBACK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Testament

Edition: 2nd Edition
Author: Bill T. Arnold, Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky
Published: February 2026
Availability: Available
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781009328593

£55.00 GBP
Paperback

£110.00 GBP
Hardback

$72.00 USD
eBook

Description

This textbook offers students who have no prior background in biblical studies an understanding of the lasting contribution of Israel's scriptures. Bringing a literary approach to the topic, it strikes a balance between historical reconstructions, comparative religions, and theology. Among several distinctive features, It traces the legacy of monotheism first emerging in the pages of Israel's scriptures as an enduring contribution for twenty-first century readers. Monotheism gives the volume an immediate relevance because the so-called Abrahamic religions are rooted in this concept. Whether one is Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or secularist, students will gain a new understanding of the origins of monotheism as their common heritage. The Second Edition of this textbook includes expanded discussions within the text and in sidebars, notably on the history of biblical scholarship, modern methods of interpretation, and wisdom literature.

• Addresses the cultural, societal, and philosophical facets of the ancient world in which the Old Testament was written, providing students with proper context for understanding what they read in the Old Testament
• This textbook explores issues of history, comparative religions, and sociology when these topics arise naturally from the text of the Old Testament, introducing students to the wide-ranging and most important aspects of the Old Testament as they are pertinent to today's readers
• It includes 72 illustrations, 20 maps, and sidebar discussions to aid student recall and understanding

I've not noted this book before in any of its previous versions, so here it is.

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

Dever, For Those Who Sleep in the Dust (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

For Those Who Sleep in the Dust: Essays on Archaeology and the Bible
William G. Dever

ISBN 9781628376470
Status Available
Publication Date March 2026
Paperback $56.00
eBook $56.00
Hardback $76.00

A lifetime of essential scholarship from one of biblical archaeology’s most prolific scholars

For Those Who Sleep in the Dust collects thirteen of William G. Dever’s best articles and essays on the archaeological history of ancient Israel. Dever’s work on a range of hotly debated topics, including the origins of the Israelite people, the development of the state, and Israelite religion, gives voice to the ordinary, anonymous Israelites and Judahites hidden in the shadows of the leaders, battles, and religious debates memorialized in the Hebrew Bible. These essays not only illuminate the ancient human experience but also make biblical archaeology accessible to anyone who needs a broad introduction to what archaeology can and cannot reveal about the Bible.

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

Reopenings in Israel

IN ISRAEL, museums and holy sites are starting to reopen during the ceasefire:

Museums begin to reopen in Israel following ceasefire (Jessica Steinberg, Times of Israel)

Amid the fragile ceasefire between Iran and the US, and a pause in Iranian missile strikes that sent Israelis into safe rooms and shelters, museums are planning to reopen for the first time in six weeks, moving artworks and valuables back into galleries and exhibits.

The Israel Museum will reopen on Monday, April 13, although the recently opened exhibit displaying the complete Isaiah Scroll, one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls, will remain closed for now.

[...]

For more on the Great Isaiah Scroll exhibition and its current safeguarded status, with my own commentary, see here and links.

Holy sites reopen in Jerusalem’s Old City after over a month of closure. Muslim worshipers throng Al-Aqsa gates for dawn prayers; extended ‘Ramadan hours’ remain in place for Jewish visitors to Temple Mount; police gear up for Holy Fire ceremony; Western Wall reopens (Charlie Summers, Times of Israel).

The reopening is just in time for the Holy Fire ceremony, on which more here and links.

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

Revisiting the God-fearer Thesis

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Revisiting the God-Fearers

The widely accepted “god-fearer” thesis rests on weak foundations: the ancient terms are not clear technical labels, the evidence is sparse and often overstretched, and the model relies too heavily on assumptions about synagogue-associated Gentiles supposedly primed for Christian conversion. Early Christianity did not require a large class of literate, well-connected god-fearers to explain its growth, and this thesis has significantly shaped, and likely distorted, modern reconstructions of the movement’s origins, membership, and leadership.

See also Revisiting the God-fearer Thesis in the Development of Early Christianity (T&T Clark, 2025).

By Thomas A. Robinson
Professor Emeritus
History and Religion Department
The University of Lethbridge
April 2026

Looks like I missed the book when it came out last year.

PaleoJudaica posts on the elusive god-fearers (godfearers, god fearers) are here and here (plus here, but the main article is now subscription-only).

In my book The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha (Brill, 2005), I review the evidence for "god-fearers" as part of a continuum of proselytes, godfearers, sympathizers, and syncretistic Jews. It is more useful as an etic term than an emic one. There were gentiles in antiquity who were quite interested and involved in Judaism, but who did not convert. There isn't strong evidence that they were called "god-fearers." I have no particular view regarding importance or not of these people in the development of early Christianity.

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

Review of Goodacre, The Fourth Synoptic Gospel

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Tyler Blaine Wilson).

Mark Goodacre. The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2025.

It has long been asserted within modern biblical scholarship that the author of the Gospel of John did not use the Synoptic Gospels when writing their story of the life of Jesus. This has become so ingrained in contemporary thought that when one talks about the canonical Gospels, they are nearly always categorized as two separate entities: the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John. But in The Fourth Synoptic Gospel, Mark Goodacre challenges this perspective and attempts to demonstrate that the author of the fourth gospel was not only aware of the Synoptic Gospels but also used them in the writing of their gospel text.

[...]

I noted the publication of the book here.

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

"Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia" (JHS special issue)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia. Open-access journal special issue: Joachimsen, Kristin & Jason S. Mokhtarian (eds.). 2025. Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia (The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 25).

Follow the link for a link to the issue.

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

The Jewish Kingdom of Himyar

HISTORY: The Jewish Kingdom of Southern Arabia. The tale of Himyar reminds us of the ongoing Jewish presence in the Middle East, its important history, but also of the danger of religion interwoven with state politics (Lane Igoudin, Jewish Journal).

Two well-documented academic works shed light on the mysterious kingdom: “The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam” by G. W. Bowersock (Oxford University Press) and “The Judaism of the Ancient Kingdom of Himyar In Arabia: A Discreet Conversion” by the French historian Christian Robin in volume 3 of Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures. Their scholarship is based on historical chronicles written in Arabia and Ethiopia, contemporary reports from Indian and Syrian travelers, Byzantine diplomatic dispatches, as well as hundreds of stone inscriptions found on both sides of the Red Sea.

I have added the links. The OUP book is for sale only, but you can read the description and see the TOC. The article by Robin is chapter 7 of the linked-to Openbook Publishers book.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the late-antique Jewish Kingdom of Himyar in Arabia, start here and follow the links.

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

Review of Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition (Museum of the Bible)

EXHIBITION REVIEW: New Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit Is the Real Deal. After an embarrassing snafu in 2020, the Museum of the Bible celebrates an authentic documents display (GORDON GOVIER, Christianity Today).

“These are the oldest biblical texts ever discovered,” explained Robert Duke, the museum’s chief curatorial officer. “Our average guest is just blown away knowing that you’re looking at texts that were from the time when the disciples and Jesus were walking the earth.”

Portions of the Psalms, Numbers, and Lamentations that have never before been exhibited are currently on display, along with five nonbiblical texts. In May they will be swapped with a new set of texts, including a portion of Isaiah, provided by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

I noted this exhibition as forthcoming here and mentioned it briefly again here. This is the first time I recall hearing about it since.

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