On Israel and Iran

POLITICS, WARFARE, HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY: Regarding the current conflict, I note the following stories relevant to PaleoJudaica's interests:

From Beersheba to Babylon: Netanyahu casts himself as liberator of Iran. Speaking at a hospital hit by an Iranian missile, the Israeli prime minister invoked ancient Persia as he hinted at a historic mission (Julian Borger, The Guardian)

It was in the Beersheba, about 1,000km and 2,500 years from Babylon, that Benjamin Netanyahu suggested on Thursday that the time had come for the Jews to repay their ancient debt to Cyrus the Great and bring liberation to Iran.

[...]

For many PaleoJudaica post on Cyrus the Great, start here and follow the links. Quite a few books about him have been published in recent years. This is far from the first time that his name has been deployed politically by Israel, Iran, or the United States.

Antiquities Authority: No known damage to archaeological sites in Israel (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel)

“To the best of our knowledge, no damage has been caused thus far to archaeological artifacts under the responsibility of the Israel Antiquities Authority, and no reports have been received regarding damage to exhibits in museums,” the statement reads.

As a precautionary measure, the IAA has transferred hundreds of crates containing highly sensitive finds — such as glass and other delicate materials — to protected underground storage at the IAA headquarters in the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus in Jerusalem.

Iran and Israel secure museum treasures ahead of raids (Noemi Capoccia, Finestre sull'Arte)

Museum institutions in Tehran in Iran and Tel Aviv in Israel have activated their respective emergency procedures in recent hours to safeguard their collections amid escalating tensions between Iran and Israel. According to local sources, escalating hostilities in the region, which have already involved airstrikes on high-density urban areas, have prompted both countries to secure archaeological artifacts, works of art and archives of historical and cultural value.

[...]

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Goranson on Schmidt and Schwartz on the Testimonium Flavianum

THE NT BLOG (Mark Goodacre): What, Exactly, Did Josephus Write About Jesus? Guest Post by Stephen Goranson.

Two new books address this question, whether Flavius Josephus, who wrote Antiquities of the Jews, or Judean Antiquities, in about the year 94 of the first century CE, mentioned Jesus of Nazareth. This most famous portion of his book eventually came to be called the Testimonium Flavianum, often abbreviated as the TF. Both books conclude that Josephus did indeed mention this Jesus, though they arrive at that conclusion via somewhat different paths. They significantly differ as to exactly what Josephus wrote about Jesus, as far as we can tell, which may have been partially altered in later manuscripts. Though all available manuscripts of Josephus’ book include the passage about Jesus, there are at least three different camps of thought that interpret this fact: either Josephus wrote it all, or nearly all of it; or Josephus wrote something, but the Jesus section was considerably rewritten and expanded; or Josephus wrote none of it, because it was all added, fully interpolated, later.

[...]

I noted the publication of Schmidt's book here, also noting early comments by Roger Pearse and in this essay by Stephen Goranson, which he had shared with me in advance. And I give my own assessment there.

The other new book which deals with the Testimonium Flavianum is published by Brill:

Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, Volume 8: Judean Antiquities, Books 18-20

Series:
Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, Volume: 8

Author: Daniel R. Schwartz

These last three books of Josephus’s Antiquities detail Jewish history between the establishment of direct Roman rule in Judea in 6 CE and the outbreak of the Judean rebellion against Rome in 66 – a rebellion that culminated in 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Along the way, these books also constitute the main source for the context in which Christianity was born. This volume offers a translation of Josephus’s Greek text, along with a commentary that aims to clarify the history to which Josephus testifies and also its meaning for him as an exiled Jerusalemite and rebel-turned-historian.

Copyright Year: 2025

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70368-1
Publication: 28 Nov 2024
EUR €180.00

Cross-file under New Book.

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Reviewlet of Lied and Nongbri, Working with Manuscripts

THE ETC BLOG: Working with Manuscripts: A very brief review (maybe just a note, really) (Peter M. Head).

I think the key thing about it is that it is written as a basic guide for new graduate students, which assumes they've read some texts in a critical edition, but now are thinking about accessing manuscript resources for their research - but don't really know anything about actual manuscripts (see p. 6).

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Premodern Encounters with Giant Bones

ELISHA FINE, PROF. STEVEN FINE: “There We Saw the Giants”—Premodern Encounters with Giant Bones (TheTorah.com).

Greek, Roman, Christian, and Jewish authors described discovering enormous bones buried just beneath the earth’s surface and interpreted them through their own lenses: Greeks and Romans saw mythic heroes and monsters; Jewish writers identified them as biblical giants, especially Og, king of Bashan. These discoveries reinforced the enduring belief that ancient humans were far larger than those of today.

For more from the Fines on Josephus's giant bones etc., see here. And follow the links from there for still more, including on modern giant-skeleton hoaxes.

And for much more on ancient giant traditions, including the Book of Giants, the Rephaim,and the biblical giants Og and Goliath, start here (cf. here) and follow the many links.

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The Aseneth Home Page Reloaded

THE NT BLOG: The Aseneth Home Page: Revised and Relaunched.

Mark and Viola Goodacre have relaunched Mark's excellent Aseneth Home Page, which I first noted back in 2013.

I am also pleased to see that Mark's NT Blog, which has been quiet for a while, is active again. As is his podcast. I have added the blog back to my Blogroll.

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

Recovering the lost Galen commentaries of Gesius

SYRIAC WATCH: New research set to uncover lost ancient medical texts (University of Manchester).

More than a thousand years ago, Alexandria was one of the world’s great centres of medical learning. Among its most influential figures was Gesius, a renowned professor whose teachings helped shape health practices across the Islamic world and medieval Europe. His writings were thought to be lost, erased and overwritten on parchment, buried beneath layers of later texts.

Now, thanks to the discovery of five newly identified palimpsests - manuscripts that were scraped and reused centuries ago - those lost texts may soon be readable again. Hidden beneath newer writings are Syriac translations of Gesius’ commentaries on the works of Galen, one of the most important physicians in history.

Gesius (Gessius) of Petra was a physician and philospher who worked in Alexandria in the fifth to six century CE.

For the research on the Syriac palimpsest of a translation of a Greek work of the Roman-era physician Galen, also at the University of Manchester, see here and follow the links.

For many other PaleoJudaica posts on palimpsest manuscripts, see here and links, plus here and here and links.

Bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.

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

Green & Laato (eds.), ... The Reception of Noah, Abraham and Jacob Stories (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Between Universalism and Particularism: The Reception of Noah, Abraham and Jacob Stories

Series: Studies on the Children of Abraham, Volume: 12

Volume Editors: Stefan Green and Antti Laato

The study deals with Jewish and Christian reception of the Book of Genesis and how the concepts “universalism” and “particularism” are used in Noah, Abraham and Jacob stories before the rise of Islam. As a synthesis of its discussed topics, the volume is a useful resource to understand early development of universalistic and particularistic ideas which became central theological topics in the three Abrahamic religions.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-72812-7
Publication: 19 May 2025
EUR €149.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-72793-9
Publication: 15 May 2025
EUR €149.00

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Review of Altekamp, Karthago: archäologische Stadtbiographie

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Karthago: archäologische Stadtbiographie

Stefan Altekamp, Karthago: archäologische Stadtbiographie. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024. Pp. xiv, 924. ISBN 9783111332178.

Review by
Gregor Utz, Universität Basel. gregor.utz@unibas.ch

... The publication aims to bridge the gap between academic readership and non-experts, which is expressed through detailed passages peppered with technical terms that alternate with more general descriptive sections on archaeological methodology (and thus contribute to a heterogeneous reading experience). Altekamp’s work succeeds in addressing the need of a comprehensive and accessible overview on Carthage for a German-speaking audience. ...

Cross-file under Punic Watch.

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On "fractures" in the Torah

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION: Why We Can Read the Torah, Fractures and All.

I embrace the text with all its beautiful imperfections, and my concern is not to dismiss the idea that it has a history but to understand that history better. I want to encourage us to see the fractures not as barriers to reading but as protrusions of past textual landscapes that prompt us to read in two dimensions at once: vertical and horizontal, historical and literary.

See also The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew Bible: Religion, Politics, and Biblical Interpretation (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

By Angela Roskop Erisman
Independent Researcher
https://angelaroskoperisman.com
June 2025

Cross-file under New Book

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Festschrift for Arie van der Kooij (Peeters, open access)

NEW OPEN-ACCESS BOOK FROM PEETERS:

The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Scribal Scholarship in Antiquity
Studies in Honor of Arie van der Kooij on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday

SERIES:
Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 306

EDITORS:
de Angelo Cunha W., van der Meer M.N., Rösel M.

PRICE: 65 euro
YEAR: 2025
ISBN: 9789042955318
PAGES: XII-299 p.

SUMMARY:
Scholars studying the transmission, translation, interpretation and reworking of ancient Israelite and early Jewish religious literature often get the impression that the manuscripts they study are hampered by a whole range of unconscious or deliberate scribal mistakes and misrepresentations. One scholar who has followed a different path throughout his long academic career in the field of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Septuagint and Peshitta studies is Arie van der Kooij. In his view, the vast corpus of early Jewish and early Christian literature is better understood as the product of scribal scholarship, instigated and authorized by leading circles within different Jewish and related communities in Antiquity.
In the present volume, former students, friends and colleagues, inspired by Arie van der Kooij’s research offer tribute to the octogenarian in the form of studies devoted to examples of scribal scholarship found in the Hebrew Bible, its ancient versions and early Christian reinterpretations. The fifteen contributions all represent original work and add to the study of scribal scholarship in Antiquity and the impact of the work of Arie van der Kooij in this area in particular. They focus on the production and transmission of the Hebrew Bible, the interaction between the Hellenistic world and the Septuagint, or the inner logic behind the Greek and Hebrew versions of Genesis, Kings, Psalms and Isaiah. The impact of ancient scribal scholarship on New Testament writings is examined in Hebrews and 1 Corinthians, as is the impact on Early Christian translations of the Bible in Syriac and Latin.

Follow the link for a link to the free PDF version download.

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Schaser, ... Jesus and Jewish Salvation in Matthew (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

A Ransom for Israel: Jesus and Jewish Salvation in Matthew
Nicholas J. Schaser

ISBN 9781628376654
Volume ECL 35
Status Forthcoming
Publication Date April 2025

Paperback $70.00
eBook $70.00
Hardback $90.00

In this study of the Gospel of Matthew, Nicholas J. Schaser proposes that Matthew intended to narrate the corporate salvation of ethnic Israel rather than its replacement by an ethnically diverse Christian church. Instead of presenting Jesus as a new Israel to replace the old, Matthew highlights Jesus’s salvific value in exchange for the nation of Israel when he dies as a ransom for their sins. This book presents one of the most comprehensive challenges to the prevalent interpretation that Matthew locates Israel in an ongoing exile from which Jesus offers redemption only if they follow him. Rather, the gospel, when read alongside Israel’s Scriptures, presents Israel at risk of an eschatological exile from God’s kingdom, and Jesus removes his people’s exile-inducing sins by being cast out in their place. Schaser’s compelling reading has the potential to open new dialogue between Jews and Christians.

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