Zellentin, Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature (Mohr Siebeck, open access)

THE AWOL BLOG: Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature.

This was published in 2023 by Mohr Siebeck, written by Holger Michael Zellentin. Looks like I missed it then. The electronic version is open access.

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For the Ides of March

NUMISMATICS: Heritage to Hold Twelve Caesars Ancient Coin Showcase Auction March 15 (Heritage Auctions, CoinWeek).

The article has a nice, brief account of the life and death of Julius Caesar. And the links have photos of the coins.

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Bodner (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative

Part of Cambridge Companions to Religion

EDITOR: Keith Bodner, Crandall University, Canada
PUBLICATION PLANNED FOR: February 2025
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108841290

Other available formats:
Paperback

Description

The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative offers an overview and a concise introduction to an exciting field within literary interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament. Analysis of biblical narrative has enjoyed a resurgence in recent decades, and this volume features essays that explore many of the artistic techniques that readers encounter in an array of texts. Specially commissioned for this volume, the chapters analyze various scenes in Genesis, Exodus and the wilderness wanderings, Israel's experience in the land and royal experiment in Kings and Chronicles, along with short stories like Ruth, Jonah, Esther, and Daniel. New Testament essays examine each of the four gospels, the book of Acts, stories from the letters of Paul, and reading for the plot in the book of Revelation. Designed for use in undergraduate and graduate courses, this Companion will serve as an excellent resource for instructors and students interested in understanding and interpreting biblical narrative.

• Provides readers with an overview of the Old & New testament
• Written in a user-friendly style with a pedagogical approach
• Readers are acquainted with the best recent scholarship in the field

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Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Vol. 2!

MY RULE IS: A BOOK ISN'T FINISHED UNTIL I HOLD A COPY IN MY HAND.

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2, is finished:

My first copy, the jacket a bit battered by the international journey, arrived a few minutes ago.

For the same moment for volume 1 in October of 2013 , see here.

The link to the Eerdmans page is here. You can pre-order it now. The official publication date is 24 April 2025.

Background here and links. Cross-file under IN THE MAIL and MOTP2.

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Conference: The Bible in its Ancient Iranian Context

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Bible in its Ancient Iranian Context.

International conference at UCLA on March 13-14, 2025. This is an in-person conference, but there is also a Zoom link.

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Review of Ophir, In the Beginning Was the State

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Review | In the Beginning Was the State: Divine Violence in the Hebrew Bible (Emily Filler).

Adi Ophir, In the Beginning Was the State: Divine Violence in the Hebrew Bible (Fordham University Press, 2023).

... By “Job’s questions,” Ophir means the ones readers tend to ask whenever the God of the Hebrew Bible enacts, authorizes, or declines to intervene in the text’s frequent killings, wars, and genocidal campaigns: why is this God so violent? Where is the justice here? How can we still understand this God as good? How shall we as readers respond?

But while Ophir’s book is also about divine violence, his questions are blessedly less conventional queries. Rather, he writes as a political philosopher observing a governmental system and seeking to understand how it works, for better or worse. ...

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Obituary: Ze’ev Meshel (1932–2024)

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Milestones: Ze’ev Meshel (1932–2024). Leading archaeologist of Israel’s desert regions (Lily Singer-Avitz).

Ze’ev Meshel, renowned Israeli archaeologist, exemplary guide, passionate desert lover, and explorer, passed away on December 14, 2024, at his home in Givatayim, Israel. He was 92 years old.

[...]

Among his accomplishments was the excavation of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in 1975-76. For many PaleoJudaica posts on the discoveries there, especially the epigraphic ones, see here and links plus here.

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Purim 2025

HAPPY PURIM to all those celebrating! The festival begins tonight night at sundown.

Last year's Purim post is here, with links. More recently, see here and here.

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Who Wrote the Book of Esther?

FOR PURIM: Who Wrote the Book of Esther? Tradition says Mordechai wrote the Book of Esther, but surely he wouldn't have gotten the timing of his own expulsion a century wrong? (Elon Gilad, Haaretz).

Why would a Jewish scribe writing in Shushan in the 4th century B.C.E. write about events that settled the score between Saul and God in the preceding century? Jona Schellekens, a sociologist at the Hebrew University, came up with a theory for this, which he published in a paper in 2009.

The Jewish propaganda theory

According to Schellekens' interpretation, the Book of Esther is a fanciful family history of a rich and powerful Jewish family in 4th century B.C.E. Shushan, a legendary account of how the family's ancestor Mordechai gained power in court, and of the source of the family's wealth and authority.

This Haaretz article is a good survey of the historical-critical issues for the Book of Esther. It was published originally in 2015 and I linked to it then, with comments.

Schellekens's hypothesis, which I did not comment on in my earlier post, strikes me as a plausible, but speculative, reconstruction.

His methodology has similarties to the approach of the TheTorah.com essay by Prof. Rabbi Reuven Kimelman to which I linked yesterday. Both trace structural similarites in the Book of Esther to earlier biblical stories. It's interesting that the latter thinks the parallels to the Ruth story are centrally important, whereas the former ignores them.

The article by Schellekens underlying the Haaretz piece is "Accession Days and Holidays: The Origins of the Jewish Festival of Purim" Journal of Biblical Literature, 128. 1 (Spring, 2009):115-134. https://doi.org/10.2307/25610170.

The links are to JSTOR and to the JBL website, respectively. The article is behind the subscription wall in both.

For more on the historical background of the Book of Esther, see here.

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Permanent Hebrew Bible lectureship at KCL

KINGS COLLEGE LONDON: Lecturer in Hebrew Bible.

About the role

The Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College London is seeking to appoint a permanent Lecturer in Hebrew Bible.

You will contribute to a department that has a long and distinguished tradition of contribution to Biblical and Jewish Studies and that is known for, among other things, its excellence in the integrated study of Theology, Religious Studies and the Arts.

You will contribute to undergraduate modules including a first-year one on Religious Texts and to a Biblical Hebrew class. You will contribute to other BA and MA modules as appropriate to your expertise. You will have expertise in teaching and research in Hebrew Bible, including Hebrew language, ancient Israelite, Judahite and Judaean literature, history and customs. You will play an active role in the administration of the department, and will be research active.

This consists 40% teaching, 40% research, 20% administration. Appropriate support and training will be provided in the context of a supportive department and faculty.

This post will be offered on a full-time, indefinite contract.

For full details and application information, follow the link. The closing date for applications is 27 April 2025.

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Scribal corrections in the DSS

THE ETC BLOG: Correcting a Dead Sea Scroll (Anthony Ferguson).

The phenomenon of simple and neat corrections is a modern reality, not an ancient one. In this post, I’d like to highlight some techniques scribes used to correct the biblical text.

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Purim essays at TheTorah.com

PURIM IS COMING: Ruth and Esther: Divergent Narratives, Convergent Narratology (Prof. Rabbi Reuven Kimelman, TheTorah.com).

Why are the Books of Ruth and Esther so much alike?

Both books are about female protagonists successfully navigating a male world. That seems to me to explain the parallels. Beyond that, the books are quite different. But I can't say I understand this distinction between narratology and emplotment vs narrative and plot. And I am wary of neologistic literary criticism. So maybe it's just me.

[ UPDATE (13 March 2025): Additional commentary here.]

On a less serious note, TheTorah.com has another Purim essay by "Dr. Rav Alechem Shalom": Strategic Questionnaire: Your Opinion Matters to the Torah!

As TheTorah.com approaches its 12th anniversary, I am honored to have been hired to oversee its first-ever Strategic Questionnaire. Rest assured, your feedback will be taken with the utmost seriousness and will play a vital role in shaping the future of TheTorah.com

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Punic peoples had little Levantine DNA?

PUNIC WATCH: Punic people had Greek genetics and almost no Levantine ancestors, new study finds. A new study has found that the Punic people had a similar genetic profile to populations from Sicily and the Aegean and just little admixture from the Levant (PAUL ANTONOPOULOS, Greek City Times).

A study by Harvard University’s David Reich Lab has found that the Punic people, traditionally believed to be a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Central and Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age, had only a minority contributor of ancestry from the Levant.

[...]

According to the article, this study is not yet published. But its reported results fit in with other genetic studies, such as this one. The Phoenician colonies were around for centuries and it would not be surprising that the colonizers interbred with the native population, which would have diluted the original genetic profile over time.

Whoever the Punic peoples were, they wrote in, and presumably spoke, Phoenician and they worshipped Phoenician gods.

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JJS 76.1

H–JUDAIC: The latest issue of Journal of Jewish Studies is now available online.

Behind the subscription wall, that is. But the H-Judaic post summarizes the issue, and if you follow the link to the journal's website you can read brief abstracts of the articles. Ancient Judaism is well represented.

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Late-antique ritual bath excavated in Ostia (Rome)

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Ancient Jewish ritual bath discovered in Ostia Antica Archaeological Park (Redazione, Finestre sull'Arte).

The investigations focused mainly on the so-called Area A, located in the central area of the city, near the ancient course of the Tiber River. The area is bounded on the west by the Great Horrea, on the south by the sanctuary of the Four Temples, the Mithraeum of the Seven Spheres and the Domus of Apuleius, and on the east by the Piazzale delle Corporazioni. Despite its strategic location, the area had never been explored and was a perfect stratigraphic basin that was still intact.

During the excavations, within a large and sumptuous building discovered here and already extensively unearthed, a small semi-hypogeous space with an underlying well for rising or otherwise drawing groundwater, in which a mikveh, or Jewish purifying ritual bath, can in all probability be recognized, among the remains of its component rooms and some black-and-white tile floor mosaics. This semi-hypogean space, rectangular with a semicircular apse on the east side, shows several construction phases. ...

Bold-font emphasis in original.

Based on associated artifacts, the initial assessment is that the mikveh dates from the fourth to sixth centuries CE.

Over at Variant Readings, Brent Nongbri notes the discovery, with background and comments: A Newly Discovered mikveh at Ostia.

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More on that excavated chained nun

THE EXTREME ASCETICISM STORY from last month has started getting more media attention, including another article from the Jerusalem Post. That and the Times of Israel article linked to below give some additional information on late-antique ascetic nuns and religious extreme asceticism.

The nun who lived in chains: First-ever evidence of extreme asceticism found near Jerusalem. Asceticism is the practice of denial of physical or psychological desires in order to attain a spiritual ideal or goal, often self-inflicted (JOANIE MARGULIES, Jerusalem Post)

Chained in faith: 5th-century female skeleton may be world’s 1st self-mortifying Christian nun. Cutting-edge technology allows a team of Israeli researchers to determine that mysterious ironclad remains found in a church near Jerusalem belonged to a woman (ROSSELLA TERCATIN, Times of Israel)

Background here.

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Ten years of Bibliographia Iranica

ANNIVERSARY: A Decade of BiblioIranica (Arash Zeini).

As we mark a decade of sharing bibliographic updates and scholarly announcements, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our colleagues, readers and supporters. What began as a small initiative has grown into a platform reaching around 1,200 readers per week. Your engagement, encouragement, and feedback have been invaluable in shaping and sustaining this project. We deeply appreciate your continued interest and look forward to many more years of collaboration, discovery, and shared enthusiasm for Iranian Studies.

[...]

BiblioIranica is a valuable resource. I met Arash Zeini at the Iranian Kingship Workshop at the University of St Andrews in 2014 and began following his blog shortly afterwards. The blog was rebooted and expanded as Bibliographia Iranica in 2015. I check it frequently and have linked to it often.

Congratulations to Arash and his team on this milestone.

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Free online Phoenician and Punic languages classes!

PHOENICIAN AND PUNIC WATCH: Phoenician and Punic language training. Free online short courses (Archaeology Newsroom, Archaeology Wiki).

The Institute of Classical Studies in collaboration with Dr Michele Bianconi, Dr Vladimir Olivero and the University of Oxford Faculty of Linguistics and Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies will offer two free, online semi-intensive courses in Phoenician. These courses are aimed primarily at graduate students and more advanced researchers who will use the language for academic purposes (though not necessarily on dissertation work), but others are very welcome to apply.

One course will be offered at elementary level, while the second course will be at intermediate level. Please find application links and further information on these courses below.

[...]

There is a limit to enrollment numbers. 22 March is the deadline for applications. Follow the link for full information.

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IDF permits Hasidim to visit traditional grave of Talmudic rabbi on Lebanon border

TALMUDIC PILGRIMAGE: IDF Lets Hundreds of Hasidim Pray at Rabbi's Grave in Southern Lebanon. For the first time since the war with Lebanon began, the IDF allowed hundreds of Hasidim to cross the border with Lebanon to pray at the putative grave of a renowned Talmudic figure (Adi Hashmonai, Haaretz).

For the first time since the war began, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Hasidim could enter Rav Ashi's grave site, of which half is located in Israel and half in Lebanon, without sneaking in, clashing with soldiers or being arrested. Instead, this visit was fully coordinated with the Israel Defense Forces, and it was massive – a river of believers who arrived on chartered buses.

Noam, a northern Israeli resident who came with his wife, said he has lived in the area for 20 years, but had not heard about the grave of Rav Ashi – a great Talmudic scholar who was one of the editors of the Babylonian Talmud – until this year. "Suddenly, when they said people could enter, we said we have to come," he said.

Not surprisingly, there is controversy over this move, including about who is really buried in the grave.

A couple of PaleoJudaica posts involving Rav Ashi and the Talmud are here (no. 3) and here.

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Review of Callegher, Coins and economy in Magdala/Taricheae from the Hasmoneans to the Umayyad Period

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Coins and economy in Magdala/Taricheae from the Hasmoneans to the Umayyad Period.

Bruno Callegher, Coins and economy in Magdala/Taricheae from the Hasmoneans to the Umayyad Period. Novum Testamentum et orbis antiquus. Series archaeologica, 9. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2023. Pp. 405. ISBN 9783525501931.

Review by
Amit Gvaryahu, University of Copenhagen. amgv@theol.ku.dk

... Contrary to its title, this book is not chiefly about the economy of Magdala or even the role of coins within it. It is at heart a catalog of all the coins found in the digs. ...

Cross-file under Numismatics.

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How biblical archaeology has developed

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Evolution of Biblical Archaeology. From proving the Bible to exploring everyday lives. That sub-heading about sums it up.

This essay is a summary of an article by Jennie Ebeling, “How Archaeology Illuminates the Bible,” in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. The article is behind the subscription wall.

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