The Sifting Project needs help to continue

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING BLOG: FORCED TO PAUSE: THE SIFTING SITE FACES CLOSURE AFTER HANUKKAH.

Now, more than a year since the war began, and in light of the IDF’s remarkable achievements, it seems that the existential threat to the State of Israel is behind us. In contrast, the Temple Mount Sifting Project now faces an existential threat of its own. Donations to the project have dropped by approximately 70%, and government funding processes have been frozen. These challenges, combined with a significant decline in visitors to the sifting site, force us to dramatically scale back our activities. Consequently, starting next month (after Hanukkah), we are regrettably compelled to suspend operations at the sifting site until appropriate funding is secured.

If you are feeling generous this holiday season, they could really use a contribution.

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

Review of Hopkins & McGill (eds.), Forgery beyond deceit

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Forgery beyond deceit: fabrication, value, and the desire for ancient Rome.

John North Hopkins, Scott McGill, Forgery beyond deceit: fabrication, value, and the desire for ancient Rome. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. 464. ISBN 9780192869586.

Review by
Rebecca Menmuir, Lincoln College, Oxford. rebecca.menmuir@lincoln.ox.ac.uk

Forgery Beyond Deceit is an excellent volume, immediately securing a place as required reading for anyone interested in fakes and forgeries across disciplines and chronological boundaries. At its heart is an insistence that forgeries are valuable objects which are worthy of study in and of themselves; no longer should the forgery be consigned to Philology’s growing pile of discarded works, deemed inauthentic and therefore worthless. In this way the volume represents a fundamental shift in authenticity studies of the late-twentieth and twenty-first century, and holding this belief as the book’s core allows contributors to explore avenues beyond deceit, as the title has it. ...

Follow the link for a preview and list of authors and titles.

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Apocryphal Christmas again

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Christmas Stories in Christian Apocrypha. The birth of Jesus in the apocryphal gospels (Tony Burke).

Yep, time to note this one again. For more on the Protevangelium of James, see here, here, here, and links.

And here's something new. James McGrath argues that the whole of the Protevangelium of James is a reworked John the Baptist source. (Scroll down a bit to find the discussion.)

Cross-file under 'Tis the Season.

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Langton, The Womb and the Simile of the Woman in Labor in the Hebrew Bible (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

The Womb and the Simile of the Woman in Labor in the Hebrew Bible
Embodying Relationship with YHWH

By Karen Langton
Copyright 2025

Hardback
£101.25

eBook
£29.99

ISBN 9781032834474
178 Pages
Published October 30, 2024 by Routledge

Original Price£135.00
Sale Price GBP £101.25

Description

This book explores figurative images of the womb and the simile of a woman in labor from the Hebrew Bible, problematizing previous interpretations that present these as disparate images and showing how their interconnectivity embodies relationship with YHWH.

In the Hebrew Bible, images of the womb and the pregnant body in labor do not co-occur despite being grounded in an image of a whole pregnant female body; the pregnant body is instead fragmented into these two constituent parts, and scholars have continued to interpret these images separately with no discussion of their interconnectivity. In this book, Langton explores the relationship between these images, inviting readers into a wider conversation on how the pregnant body functions as a means to an end, a place to access and seek a relationship with YHWH. Readers are challenged and asked to rethink how these images have been interpreted within feminist scholarship, with womb imagery depicting YHWH’s care for creation or performing the acts of a midwife, and the pregnant body in labor as a depiction of crisis. Langton explores select texts depicting these images, focusing on the corporeal experience and discussing direct references and allusions to the physicality of a pregnant body within these texts. This approach uncovers ancient and current androcentric ideology which dictates that conception, gestation, and birth must be controlled not by the female body, but by YHWH.

The Womb and the Simile of the Woman in Labor in the Hebrew Bible is of interest to students and scholars working on the Hebrew Bible, gender in the Bible and the Near East more broadly, and feminist biblical criticism.

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Hays (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Book of Isaiah

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Companion to the Book of Isaiah

Part of Cambridge Companions to Religion

EDITOR: Christopher B. Hays, Fuller Theological Seminary, California
DATE PUBLISHED: November 2024
AVAILABILITY: AvailableFORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108471862

£ 80.00
Hardback

Other available formats:
Paperback

Description

Few writings have shaped the world as much as the Book of Isaiah. Its lyricism, imagery, theology, and ethics are all deeply ingrained into us, and into Judeo-Christian culture more generally. It has been a cultural touchstone from the time when it was formed, and it influenced later Biblical authors as well. The Book of Isaiah is also a complex work of literature, dense with poetry, rhetoric, and theology, and richly intertwined with ancient history. For all these reasons, it is a challenge to read well. The Cambridge Companion to Isaiah serves as an up-to-date and reliable guide to this biblical book. Including diverse perspectives from leading scholars all over the world, it approaches Isaiah from a wide range of methodological approaches. It also introduces the worlds in which the book was produced, the way it was formed, and the impacts it has had on contemporary and later audiences in an accessible way.

• Provides up-to-date and focused explanations of current scholarship on the history, nature, and legacy of The Book of Isaiah
• Offers insight into the Book of Isaiah as a cultural touchstone and how its influence has perpetuated since antiquity
• Contains numerous interdisciplinary essays by internationally recognized authorities on Isaiah

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Review of Matsangou, The Manichaeans of the Roman east

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Manichaeans of the Roman east: Manichaeism in Greek anti-Manichaica and Roman imperial legislation.

Rea Matsangou, The Manichaeans of the Roman east: Manichaeism in Greek anti-Manichaica and Roman imperial legislation. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies, 105. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2023. Pp. xxii, 580. ISBN 9789004542846.

Review by
Martin Devecka, University of California at Santa Cruz. mdevecka@ucsc.edu

... Matsangou makes a fairly compelling case that some Greek Christians writing against Manichaeanism did so with access to genuine Manichaean documents (mostly lost to us). She effectively punctures the myth that later writers in this tradition build their images of Manichaeanism mostly out of borrowings from the fourth-century Acta Archelai, and she also draws attention to the valuable evidence offered by the various abjuration statements to which Manichaeans were subject when they wanted to convert to Orthodoxy. ...

I noted the publication of the book here. Cross-file under Manichean (Manichaean) Watch.

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Reviews of the Reagan Library's DSS exhibition

TWO REVIEWS of the new Dead Sea Scrolls (etc.) exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library:

A Journey Back in Time at the Reagan Library: The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit. “Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition” opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on November 22. The exhibit includes 200 artifacts dating back to around 250 BCE to 68 C.E. (Ayala Or-El, Jewish Journal).

“Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition” opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on November 22. The exhibit includes 200 artifacts dating back to around 250 BCE to 68 C.E.

One of the artifacts is the Magdala Stone, which dates to the Second Temple Period and features intricate carvings of the Temple. The stone served as ceremonial furniture on which sacred scrolls were placed. There’s also the Sea of Galilee Boat, a 1st-century CE fishing boat made from oak and cedar. The Psalm Scroll, the most substantial and well-preserved manuscript of Psalms, which contains several Psalms not found in the Hebrew Bible, is on display. Ossuaries, small stone receptacles used for secondary burial and Objects from Masada including small potsherds bearing writing in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin ostraca can be found at the exhibit as well.

[...]

Fragments of antiquity. Hebrew history comes alive at Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit ( Michele Willer-Allred, Thousand Oaks Acorn).

Journalists at the preview stood in hushed awe as the historic artifacts were shown, as did the curators who had traveled from Israel to set up the display in Simi Valley.

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

Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: November

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year Part 4: November 2024.

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

In this most recent update he tracks down some Mary of Magdalene traditions and gives us a preview of what to expect in his forthcoming Anchor Yale volume on the Christian apocrypha. There's plenty of New Testament apocrypha and Old Testament pseudepigrapha in this post.

For earlier posts in the series and more on Tony's work, see the links collected here.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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AJR reviews Hamori, God’s Monsters

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible (Ethan Schwartz).

Esther J. Hamori, God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible. (Minneapolis: Broadleaf, 2023).

... Some readers might find Hamori’s combination of seriousness and frivolousness to be incoherent. However, I would argue that it’s a faithful reflection of what she’s talking about. Monsters themselves are both serious and frivolous. If we aren’t open to this duality, then we’re going to miss crucial dimensions of how the Bible presents God. Hamori’s goal is to encourage that openness. ...

I noted the publication of the book here and another review of it here. See the links collected in the latter post, plus here, for more on monsters in the biblical world.

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

A MOOC on ancient Israel

ONLINE COURSE: Jerusalem: A Journey Through Time: Bar-Ilan launches new course on ancient Israel. Students will study ancient Jerusalem starting from the prehistoric period through key historical phases (Raquel G. Frohlich, Jerusalem Post).

A new online undergraduate-level course, titled “Jerusalem: A Journey Through Time,” was recently launched by Bar-Ilan University, the institution announced in a Sunday statement.

The course, available as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the edX platform, is taught by Prof. Aren Maeir, who specializes in the archeology of ancient Jerusalem and the southern Levant, the statement said.

[...]

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Candida Moss to head the Anchor Yale Bible Series

PUBLISHING NEWS: Candida Moss to Lead Anchor Yale Bible (Cathy Lynn Grossman, Publisher's Weekly).

Thirty years ago, a British schoolgirl had a unique request for her 16th birthday present. Candida Moss wanted scholar Raymond Brown's 1971 commentary on the Gospel According to John from the illustrious Anchor Bible Series, then published by Doubleday. That treasured book is still on her home bookshelf today as Moss, now a well-published New Testament scholar and professor of theology at the University of Birmingham, prepares to become the fifth general editor, the first New Testament scholar, and the first woman to lead the 68-year-old series, now known as the Anchor Yale Bible Series, in May 2025.

[...]

Congratulations to Professor Moss and to Yale University Press.

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Rogue Classicism is back

ROGUE CLASSICISM is up and running again. It's good to see you back, David Meadows.

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

Herod Agrippa II's aqueous banqueting cave?

SPELUNKIC ARCHAEOLOGY: In a watery Golan cave, Herod’s great-grandson entertained in the Roman imperial style. An altar dedicated to the cult of Pan was likely converted to a banquet area by Herodian ruler Agrippa II, aligning with the account of Josephus, new research shows (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

The latest excavations at Banias, an archaeological site and national park in the Golan Heights that abuts the border with Lebanon, have shown that a sacred cave long associated with the worship of nature deity Pan was likely repurposed during the late 1st century CE by Agrippa II, the great-grandson of King Herod, as an ancient event hall in the Roman style.

[...]

The underlying technical article is behind a subscription wall. But you can read the abstract for free: Dine and Worship: The Roman Complex in Front of the Pan Grotto in Paneas/Caesarea Philippi (Adi Erlich and Ron Lavi, BASOR 392))

For PaleoJudaica posts on the site of Banias, see the links collected here. For posts on King Herod Agrippa II, see here and links (cf. here).

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

AJR reviews the Berlin Elephantine exhibition

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Exhibition Review | Elephantine: Island of the Millennia (Simcha Gross).

As one of the few fora where academic knowledge is mediated to the general public, museum exhibitions are often revealing windows into the contemporary stakes and concerns that underpin scholarship. The stunning exhibition on Elephantine currently hosted at the James-Simon-Galerie and the Neues Museum in Berlin is no exception. The visitor is expertly guided through a sumptuous display of objects discovered, beginning in the late nineteenth century, on the famous island lying in the middle of the Nile in Upper Egypt. ...

But the review is not without its criticisms. Read on.

For more on the Elephantine exhibition at the Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, see here and here. Subsequent posts on the Elephantine papyri (etc.) are here, here, and here.

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

Biblical Studies Carnival 222

READING ACTS: Biblical Studies Carnival #222 for November 2024 (Phil Long). With lots of SBL 2024 recaps and posted papers.

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

De Martin & Furlan (eds.), Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World

Edited By Sara De Martin, Anna Lucia Furlan
Copyright 2025

Hardback
£135.00
eBook
£35.99

ISBN 9781032778587
236 Pages
Published October 3, 2024 by Routledge

Description

This book moves beyond the debate on ‘wisdom literature’, ongoing in biblical studies, to demonstrate the productivity of ‘wisdom’ as a literary category. Featuring work by scholars of Egyptology, classics, biblical and Near Eastern studies, it offers fresh perspectives on what makes a text ‘wisdom’.

This interdisciplinary volume widens the scope of the investigation into ‘wisdom literature’, chronologically, geographically, and methodologically. Readers are given insights into how the label ‘wisdom’ contributes to our understanding of diverse literary forms across time periods and cultural contexts. In the volume’s introduction, the editors consider ‘wisdom’ as a ‘discourse’, shifting the focus from the debate on whether ‘wisdom literature’ is a genre to the properties of the texts, namely exploring what makes a text ‘wisdom’. This offers a methodological backdrop against which the diverse approaches of the single authors productively coexist. The chapters examine texts that are the products of different ancient cultures, with several of them bridging diverse cultural, social, and chronological contexts. By sampling how different methodologies interact both within individual interpretative efforts and in wider attempts to understand cross-cultural literary phenomena, this volume also contributes new perspectives to the scholarship on ancient literary genres.

Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World will interest both students and scholars of the ancient Near East, Egyptology, classical studies, biblical studies, and theology and religious studies, particularly those working on wisdom literature in antiquity. It will also appeal to readers with an interest in comparative approaches and genre studies more broadly.

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Lauinger, The Labors of Idrimi (SBL, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Labors of Idrimi: Inscribing the Past, Shaping the Present at Late Bronze Age Alalah

Jacob Lauinger

ISBN9781628376135
VolumeANEM 33
Status Available
Publication Date September 2024

Hardback
$78.00
Paperback
$58.00

Since the 1949 publication of the Late Bronze inscriptions on the Statue of Idrimi, scholars have been intrigued by the carefully structured and vividly detailed cuneiform text that recounts the rise of King Idrimi of Alalah. Jacob Lauinger significantly advances prior scholarship through an in-depth historical analysis that combines textual and material perspectives on both the statue and the inscriptions. His study reveals how two distinct inscriptions were added to an originally anepigraphic statue to advance a claim about royal legitimacy long after Idrimi’s death during a time of political upheaval at Alalah. This richly illustrated volume includes a translation, more than ninety-five images, and sixteen composite plates that, for the first time, present each line of the inscriptions in its entirety to scholars and students. The appendix offers a detailed philological commentary treating numerous aspects of the inscriptions that have been the subject of multiple scholarly interpretations.

As the AWOL Blog notes, the book is also available in an open-access pdf version. For a quick introduction to the statue of Idrimi and some of its potential relevance for biblical studies, see this British Museum blog post by James Fraser: Idrimi, the 3,500-year-old refugee.

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