Why does Elohim, and not YHWH, create the world? Philo and the rabbis—though in opposite directions—each read the two names as two divine attributes, one beneficent and one that judges. The kabbalists see these as the sefirot דין Judgment and חסד Lovingkindness—while Ramchal further unites them as two colors in the prism of the divine crystal.
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Rome put down one Jewish uprising in Judea that lasted from 66 to 74 CE, called the First Jewish Revolt. It culminated in the burning of the Jerusalem Temple by the then-general (future emperor) Titus. Afterward, tensions over taxation, sacrifice, and imperial policy still plagued the province, and erupted again in 132 in the Bar-Kokhba Revolt.For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Bar Kokhba Revolt see the links collected here (cf. here).
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Yep, there's an app for that too.
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Explore Ashoka the Great's reign, including his Kalinga War, Dhamma policy, administration, edicts, and efforts to promote Buddhism. Learn about his economic policies, societal reforms, and cultural contributions to ancient IndiaThese study notes for the 2026 UPSC Civil Services Examination in India give a good detailed account of the reign of Emperor Ashoka the Great, including, of course, his Aramaic Dhamma edicts.
Earlier PaleoJudaica posts on or involving Ashoka and his Aramaic are here (but links rotted), here, here, here, and here.
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Notice of a New Book (with open access): Hezser, Catherine / Willems, Constantin (eds.). The Talmud Yerushalmi’s Civil Law in Its Ancient Legal Context: Rabbinic Law – Roman Law – Hellenistic Law. Harrassowitz, 2026.
Follow the link for abstract and access link.
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The song “Babylon” is a meditation on leaving home, having success, and coming to appreciate what you had only in hindsight. The chorus turns on the realization: “You never knew that it was Babylon ’til it was gone.”For many PaleoJudaica posts on the archaeology, history, and legends of ancient Babylon, see here and links, here, here, and here and links.
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Jewish Scriptures in Earliest ChristianityPosted by the British New Testament Society. Follow the link for further particulars and instructions for paper proposals.
Call for Papers
18 March to 20 March 2027
Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham
Deadline: 11 December 2026The 2027 Seminar for the Jewish Scriptures in Earliest Christianity will meet at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, UK, B15 2QH (www.queens.ac.uk), from the evening of Thursday 18th March (starting with dinner at 6pm) to the afternoon of Saturday 20th March 2027 (finishing with lunch at 1pm). ...
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Penn named its inaugural Georgia and Jesse Feldman Associate Professor of Jewish Studies last week following a $3 million gift.Congratulations to Professor Gross and to the University of Pennsylvania. For more on his work, see here and here and links, and here.The School of Arts and Sciences received the donation from 2000 College graduate Georgia Feldman and her husband, Jesse Feldman, to expand its Jewish Studies program. Simcha Gross — an associate professor of Ancient Rabbinics — was appointed to the professorship role, according to an Oct. 13 announcement. ...
His research focuses on Jewish communities during the first millennium of the Common Era — specifically focusing on their relationships with the Roman, Persian, and Islamic empires. Gross explained that his studies examine how Jewish people are “categorized and treated in different eras and different societies.”
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YHWH declares that His spirit will not endure forever among the Nephilim—demigods born from the union of divine beings and human women—בְּשַׁגַּם הוּא בָשָׂר beshagam hu basar (Genesis 6:3). What does this phrase mean?This explanation is possible. But it requires emendation of the text on the basis of a hypothetical cognate, with limited payoff.
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There are currently few details on the specifics of the exhibition.
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Cairo, October 18, 2026 - The American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted From Tomb to Text: Talks on Coptic History, a one-day international conference on Coptic archaeology that brought together leading scholars from Egypt, Europe and the United States to showcase the latest research in Coptic art history, heritage, textiles, settlement archaeology and archaeobotany. The conference was supported by the Gratus Foundation by Mary and Bishoy Azmy, founded by AUC Trustee Bishoy Emad Azmy ’02 and Mary Habib ’05.[...]
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Women in Greco-Roman Jewish Novels (300 BCE–100 CE)
Katharine L. FitzgeraldISBN 9781918358261
Status Available
Publication Date February 2026Hardback
$98.00This monograph offers the first sustained study of female protagonists as central agents in the construction of Jewish identity in early Jewish narrative literature. Focusing on the Greek texts of Esther, Judith, Susanna, and Aseneth, Fitzgerald demonstrates that these narratives do more than entertain—they participate in complex discourses about what it meant to be Jewish in the Greco-Roman world.
Drawing on literary-critical and gender-informed approaches, this monograph examines four key dimensions of identity—foodways, sexuality, kinship, and community—to illustrate how Jewish authors used female characters to negotiate cultural boundaries and articulate forms of belonging. Rather than treating women as marginal or merely symbolic figures, Fitzgerald argues that these protagonists function as primary sites through which Jewish authors imagined, contested, and maintained Jewishness in literary texts.
By situating these texts within their broader Greco-Roman and Second Temple contexts, the book challenges longstanding assumptions about the androcentric nature of Jewish identity formation. It demonstrates that narratives centered on women are not peripheral to discussions of Jewishness but are essential to understanding its diversity and fluidity in antiquity.
Engaging critically with major scholarship on Jewish identity, diaspora, and ancient gender systems, Women in Greco-Roman Jewish Novels bridges the gap between studies of Jewishness and gender in antiquity. It offers a new framework for reading early Jewish literature—one that takes seriously the literary construction of women and the interpretive possibilities these figures open for reconstructing ancient Jewish thought.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students of early Judaism, biblical studies, gender studies, and ancient Mediterranean literature.
SBL Press is the North American distributor for Sheffield Phoenix Press. ...
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Divinised Humans in Ancient JudaismDaniel Lam (Author)
Hardback
$120.00$108.00Ebook (PDF)
$108.00$86.40Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$108.00$86.40Product details
Published Sep 17 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 232
ISBN 9780567729477
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Second Temple Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury PublishingDescription
Exploring the fluidity of divine–human boundaries in ancient Judaism, Daniel Lam challenges the assumption of a rigid divide between God and humanity. Drawing on prototype theory and texts from across millennia of Jewish and Christian literature, Lam argues that divinity was conceived as a graded category rather than an absolute state, suggesting that figures such as Adam, Enoch, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus were imagined as crossing the divine threshold through immortality, metamorphosis, and exaltation. By situating these traditions within their wider Mediterranean context, Lam reframes debates on monotheism, deification, and early Christology.
Lam engages deeply with primary sources, including Genesis and Psalms, Wisdom of Solomon, and the Life of Adam and Eve; Enochic writings such as the Book of the Watchers and Book of Parables; and New Testament passages like Philippians 2 and Hebrews 1. In addition, he examines lesser-known materials such as the Testament of Abraham, Qumran fragments, and 2 Enoch, highlighting motifs of angelomorphism, luminous transformation, and enthronement. These case studies illuminate how ancient authors negotiated divine identity and challenge the notion that divinisation was exclusively a “pagan” concept, offering a fresh methodological framework for understanding divinity as a fluid and multivalent phenomenon.
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The Twelve Tribes of IsraelJewish-Christian Interpretations between Ruptures and Continuities (1st–5th centuries)
Series: Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, Volume: 44
Volume Editors: Michele Cutino and Calogero Cerami
The theme of the twelve tribes of Israel is one of the key points for observing the continuity and discontinuity between Judaism and Christianity, which derives from it. It is therefore a very sensitive topic of ‘the parting of the ways’, which surprisingly has not aroused much interest among critics. This volume aims to fill this gap by first placing the twelve tribes of Israel in their historical context within Jewish culture, then moving on to the various, often contradictory, interpretations that Christians have given to this concept since the early centuries, before finally using this model to refer to the Church as the new Israel.
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75769-1
Publication: 18 Aug 2026
EUR €135.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75768-4
Publication: 16 Sep 2026
EUR €135.00
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Hananel Shapira2026. 342 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 179€109.00
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978-3-16-200495-6Also Available As:
eBook PDFSummary
Hananel Shapira investigates a series of anomalous rituals within the Priestly literature of the Pentateuch that take place outside the sacred precinct of the Tabernacle. While biblical scholarship frequently characterizes the Priestly corpus as a monolithic system dedicated to cultic centralization and the absolute authority of the Aaronide priesthood, the author argues that the base layer of the Priestly corpus contains a subversive undercurrent. This »Counter-Priestliness« is manifest in rituals such as the purification of the healed leper in Leviticus, the burning of the red heifer in Numbers, and the release of the scapegoat into the wilderness.
The author uses philological and diachronic analysis to identify distinct textual layers, revealing how these external rituals originally bypassed the professional priesthood. In the earliest layer, the rituals are performed by laypeople or commoners, allowing for a degree of individual agency and personal expression that the standard, sanctuary-centered system typically suppresses. The theoretical framework for this analysis draws an analogy between the standard Priestly system and the Enlightenment's quest for universal, reductive order, while the external rituals reflect a spirit akin to the Counter-Enlightenment's emphasis on the particular and the untamed. The author posits that the standard system functions as a universal language of ritual, whereas external rites address the fractured particularity of human experience, especially when confronting the realities of death and physical impurity.
Shapira shows that the priest's active role in these external rituals is largely a product of later editorial interventions. These restorative attempts to tame unconventional practices and align them with the standard sacrificial system unintentionally triggered broader transformations within the ritual system itself. By analyzing the interplay between legal stipulations and their narrative contexts, the author shows that ritual innovation often stems from internal, prosaic forces and restorative impulses rather than solely from external cultural shifts or foundational historical events.
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Background here and here. This is great news. As I said when the funding cut was announced, there was a strong case for restoring it.
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