THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBIT IN KANSAS CITY was a great success. Can't say I'm surprised.

Union Station hits jackpot with Dead Sea Scrolls
The display of the artifacts netted nearly $3 million and far exceeded expectations.
By MATT CAMPBELL
The Kansas City Star

The lines were long on Feb. 8, the opening day of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Union Station, and the interest never waned for the duration of the event, which ended Sunday. A total of 177,782 people saw the scrolls, an average of 1,975 a day.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit was the most successful ever at Union Station, selling so many tickets that the station could edge into the black for the first time.

The show closed Sunday after averaging nearly 2,000 visitors a day and netting nearly $3 million, according to preliminary figures released Thursday. The 90-day exhibit far exceeded projections.

[...]

DAME MARY DOUGLAS, I am sorry to report, has died earlier this week. Jack Sasson relays the sad news on the Agade list in an e-mail forwarded from Mark Geller, which I take the liberty of copying here:

Dame Mary Douglas (1921-2007) passed away yesterday evening (16 May), after receiving her knighthood at Buckingham Palace last week. Her contributions to anthropology and biblical studies will be of lasting importance. On the day she passed away, she received proofs of her introduction to a new volume, Imagining Creation, which will appear within the next few months.

Jack also points to this notice about Professor Douglas regarding an honorary degree she received in 2000 at the University of Pennsylvania.

Requiescat in pace.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE: There's new geological information on Alexander's siege of Tyre, which siege is alluded to cryptically in the Bible in Ezekiel 26. If you're not familiar with the details of the event, the Livius article "Alexander takes Tyre" is informative. Here's the news from the National Geographic Society:

Alexander the Great Conquered City via Sunken Sandbar
Kate Ravilious
for National Geographic News
May 15, 2007

Changing sea levels and shifting sands helped Alexander the Great conquer the ancient island city of Tyre in one of his most famous military victories, new research shows.

In 332 B.C. the Greek military commander invaded the island just off the coast of modern-day Lebanon, then part of ancient Phoenicia.

New geological findings and computer models show that the growth of agriculture on the island caused sediment runoff, which spurred the formation of a long, thin submerged sandbar between Tyre and the mainland.

Alexander and his men cunningly exploited this sandbar, the findings suggest, to build a 0.6-mile (1-kilometer) raised path, or causeway, out of wood and stone.

[...]

MORE BIG-SCREEN ARAMAIC: Babylonian and Sanskrit too.

Alexandra Maria Lara has 'Youth'
Attracting the eye of Francis Ford Coppola
By KATJA EICHINGER (Variety)

Given her lineage, Alexandra Maria Lara just might have the acting gene stamped in her DNA. Her father, Romanian actor Valentin Platareanu, had been running Bucharest National Theater before emigrating to Berlin, where he founded the Charlottenburg Acting Academy. Lara soon followed in her father's footsteps, attending classes there and eventually landing a part in a German TV series at the age of 16. She has never looked back.

"My first part came along by accident and then everything happened really fast," recalls Lara, now 28. "I've never tried to force anything. So far I've been very fortunate to get some great parts, but maybe it's exactly because I never pushed too hard."

While she's played significant roles in such miniseries as "Napoleon," "Der Wunschbaum" and "Doctor Zhivago," it wasn't until she held her own as the personal secretary Traudl Junge to Bruno Ganz's Hitler in "Downfall" that her career experienced a dramatic upswing and attracted the attention of Francis Ford Coppola.

For the filmmaker's much-anticipated "Youth Without Youth," Coppola's first directing effort in 10 years and based on a WWII-era novella by Romanian writer Mircea Eliade, she had to master speaking ancient tongues such as Aramaic, Sanskrit and Babylonian.

[...]

My emphasis. By "master speaking" I assume they mean "learn to pronounce words in." I doubt very much that she really learned any of these languages. Nevertheless, a movie adaptation of a novel by Eliade with ancient languages sounds pretty interesting.

GOAT DNA AND THE SCROLLS:

How goat skin DNA solved Dead Sea scrolls mystery
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH (Jerusalem Post)

Scientists at the Hebrew University's Koret School for Veterinary Science near Rishon Lezion are helping to piece together some of the 10,000 fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls found decades ago in Qumran by examining the DNA profiles of the goats whose skin was used to make the parchment and reducing the number of possible matches.

Dr. Galia Kahila Bar-Gal said during a journalists' tour at the nearby Hebrew University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where students learn and treat animals, that she and colleagues were looking at genetic forms from each fragment to know which came from specific animals. Once they know that two pieces came from the skin of the same animal, it is easier to piece them together, she said.

[...]

A NEW TESTAMENT JOB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS:

School of Divinity

Lectureship/Senior Lectureship/Readership in New Testament

Salary - £33,101 - £47,194 per annum
We are seeking applicants committed to excellence in teaching and research in New Testament. You will contribute to the School's existing strengths in exegetical, literary and historical scholarship. Specialism within the canon of New Testament is open, though a research interest in the interface between biblical studies and Christian theology and/or the history of interpretation is highly desirable. You will teach both NT content and Greek to students from undergraduate to doctoral level. You are a team player who will be fully involved in the School's research, supervisory and administrative roles.

While applications to the Lectureship are welcome from junior scholars, you will be expected to hold a PhD when you take up the position, you will need to demonstrate a capacity and commitment to research and publication as well as teaching, and you should have at least one to four major publications in print. If appointed at the level of Senior Lecturer or Reader, you would be expected to come with a strong international research profile.

This appointment is similar to an assistant or associate professorship in North America. The position will begin on 1 September 2007 or as soon as possible thereafter. Appointment at Grade 7 or Grade 8 may be considered depending on the level of appointment made.

Informal enquiries to Dr Jim Davila (Tel. +44-1334-462834; email: divhos@st-andrews.ac.uk). Further information about the School of Divinity can be found at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity.


Please quote ref: PS225/07
Closing date: 1 June 2007
Application forms and further particulars are available from Human Resources, University of St Andrews, College Gate, North Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, (tel: 01334 462571, by fax 01334 462570 or by e-mail Jobline@st-andrews.ac.uk. The advertisement and further particulars and a downloadable application form can be found at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/recruitment/vacancies.

The University is committed to equality of opportunity.

Please note the early closing date (1 June). If you applied to the earlier NT post and wish to apply now for this one, please send a new application aimed at this job description. The further particulars web page is malfunctioning at present, but you can have the application form and further particulars sent to you by contacting the Joblines e-mail address above.

UPDATE (16 May): Typo corrected (paragraph above should have read "earlier NT post"). Also, the malfunctioning website is now functional again.

AN OLD TESTAMENT/HEBREW BIBLE JOB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS:

School of Divinity

Lectureship/Senior Lectureship/Readership in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible

Salary - £33,101 - £47,194 per annum/
We are seeking applicants committed to excellence in teaching and research in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. You will contribute to the School's existing strengths in philological and historical scholarship. Specialism within the canon of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible is open, though a research interest in the interface between biblical studies and Christian theology and/or the history of interpretation is highly desirable. You will teach both Old Testament/Hebrew Bible content and Hebrew language to students from undergraduate to doctoral level. You are a team player who will be fully involved in the School's research, supervisory and administrative roles.

While applications to the Lectureship are welcome from junior scholars, you will be expected to hold a PhD when you take up the position, you will need to demonstrate a capacity and commitment to research and publication as well as teaching, and you should have at least one to four major publications in print. If appointed at the level of Senior Lecturer or Reader, you would be expected to come with a strong international research profile.

This appointment is similar to an assistant or associate professorship in North America. The position will begin on 1 September 2007 or as soon as possible thereafter. Appointment at Grade 7 or Grade 8 may be considered depending on the level of appointment made.

Informal enquiries to Dr Jim Davila (Tel. +44-1334-462834; email: divhos@st-andrews.ac.uk). Further information about the School of Divinity can be found at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity.

Please quote ref: PS226/07
Closing date: 1 June 2007
Application forms and further particulars are available from Human Resources, University of St Andrews, College Gate, North Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, (tel: 01334 462571, by fax 01334 462570 or by e-mail Jobline@st-andrews.ac.uk. The advertisement and further particulars and a downloadable application form can be found at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/recruitment/vacancies.

The University is committed to equality of opportunity.

Please note the early closing date (1 June). If you applied to the earlier OT/HB post and wish to apply now for this one, please send a new application aimed at this job description. The further particulars web page is malfunctioning at present, but you can have the application form and further particulars sent to you by contacting the Joblines e-mail address above.

UPDATE (16 May): The malfunctioning website is now functional again.

THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR.

THE IDENTIFICATION OF HEROD'S TOMB is not going unchallenged. Newsweek has an article (BeliefWatch: Entombed) which notes the following from James Charlesworth:

As with all such discoveries, however, there's almost no proof, and already some of Netzer's colleagues are raising questions. Herod, says James H. Charlesworth, of Princeton Theological Seminary, was a ruthless leader—so paranoid that he had his own sons and his wife killed for allegedly betraying him. Why would a king who knew he was hated, a leader fully aware of the perils of grave-robbing and desecration, not hide his tomb away? "He certainly wouldn't put his tomb on the hillside where everybody would see it," says Charlesworth. "I would think he would put the tomb in the base. There are massive tunnels down there."

THE POPE has now published a book on Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth. Newsweek has an article on it (A Portrait of Faith). Excerpt:

One can almost hear Pope Benedict XVI roaring with frustration at this multiplicity of interpretations. Benedict, a theologian by training with an expertise in dogma, has been fierce in his condemnation of the creep of Western secularism, and the promiscuity of recent Jesus scholarship must seem to him another symptom of the same disease, all ill-founded and subjective claims. "We are building a dictatorship of relativism," he declared at the beginning of the 2005 enclave that elected him pope, "that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires." Benedict's answer to secularism is Christ, and this week the American publisher Doubleday releases "Jesus of Nazareth," Benedict's portrait of his Lord. It is an orthodox biography—one that acknowledges the role of analytical scholarship while in fact leaving little room for a critical interpretation of Scripture. This approach is not surprising, given Benedict's job description, but in a world where Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and other proponents of secularism credit belief in Jesus as one of the sources of the world's ills, Benedict offers an unvarnished opposing view: belief in Jesus, he says, is the only thing that will save the world.

Newsweek also has an excerpt of the book itself, here.

THE SACRED EXHIBITION at the British Museum is covered in a Times article from Apri:

The writ and wisdom of the Almighty
The British Library’s collection of books and manuscripts from three of the world’s great religions demonstrate what divides us, but also what should unite us
undefined
Rachel Campbell-Johnston

[...]

British Library curators can draw on rich resources. An unparalleled archive includes treasures that range from papyrus scraps rescued from an Egyptian rubbish dump to the most sumptuously ornamented of manuscripts. These are supported by loans of key texts from other museums, including a Dead Sea scroll fragment (one of several pieces never before shown in this country), and by objects from private collections, from an exquisite silver set used during the Jewish ceremony of Passover through the richly decorated curtain that once hung over the door of the Kaabah (the cube-shaped stone structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca that forms the focal point of all Muslim worship) to the shalwar kameez that Jemima Khan wore at her wedding.

But at the heart of the show are the manuscripts: those most precious survivors of centuries of pogroms and wars and oppressions, of years of neglect and accident. To- gether they tell a story as vividly intriguing as psalter illuminations, as intricately complex as an Islamic carpet, as minutely detailed as the masoretic notes that weave their patterns around the writings of a Jewish Pentateuch.

The more ostentatiously dramatic of these texts seem more like objects than mes- sages, more like spiritual icons than mere books. Admire the wonderful calligraphy on a leaf of the Lindis-farne Gospels, for instance. This manuscript was far more than a practical text. Transformed by the artistic talent of its maker, it attained a symbolic power. It was not there to be read. It was meant to be glimpsed from a reverent distance by those who queued up to bear witness to this piece of solid proof of Christianity’s strength. Jewish scriptures took on a similar totemic importance. They became a sort of substitute for the Temple of Jerusalem after it was razed by the Romans in AD70. “Where two or three study the Torah together,” explained the rabbis, “the Shekhinah [divine presence] is in their midst”.

[...]

Some of the most fascinating displays are the most visually unappealing. A page of inscrutable scribbling, it turns out, is the Diatessoron — an attempt to combine the four Gospels into one narrative account that was so ruthlessly suppressed that no single complete manuscript sur- vives. And yet curators are keen also to show off their most exotic treasures, the most sumptuously ornamental of their manuscripts. Here are Korans in pure sweeps of burnished gold, Hebraic texts scrolled about with extravagant creatures, Christian stories illuminated with a vig-our that brings them springing to life.

[...]

THE BYU ARABIC TRANSLATION PROJECT is profiled in the Deseret News:

Arabic texts translated — thanks to Bennett
By Suzanne Struglinski
Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — Historical Islamic books and other works previously only available in Arabic have been translated into English through a program at Brigham Young University that receives funding from the Library of Congress.
Andrew C. Skinner, executive director of BYU's Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, gave Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, copies of the several translated volumes in Washington Tuesday as a way to thank him for helping secure the federal funding needed to produce them.

[...]

Since its inception in 1992, the initiative has published 13 English translations from Arabic or Syriac writings by Middle Eastern philosophers, theologians, scientists and physicians through its four projects: The Islamic Translation Series, the dual-language Eastern Christian Texts, the English-only Library of the Christian East, and the Medical Works of Moses Maimonides. Peterson said 10 of the books have been financed by the university and private donations, but he has a goal of translating and publishing 100 works.
Bennett described the translated works as "not ancient" but "very old."

[...]

I noted the project previously here and here. I've worked closely with a couple of the volumes and, from my nonspecialist perspective, they seem excellent.

JOSEPHUS gets a nice little profile in the Texas Monitor online:

Josephus — traitor or scholar?
William McGee
Special to The Monitor
May 9, 2007 - 7:24PM


Students of early Christianity or Second Temple Judaism are sure to encounter the writings of Josephus Flavius, the most important non-biblical historical source for the First Century CE. His writings are dramatic and full of those details that provoke debate among modern historians. At the same time, he is a controversial person whose life and writings are filled with contradictions.

Recently, while discussing these articles with a Jewish friend, we talked about Josephus as a non-biblical source of information. He commented, “To us, Josephus is the Jewish Benedict Arnold.”

To me, his life and work is as worthy of study as are those about whom he wrote.

[...]

HANAN ESHEL is claiming that the Leviticus scroll was improperly handled by the Israel Antiquities Authority, according to Haaretz:

Antiquities Authority manhandled Leviticus scroll, says archaeologist
By Yair Sheleg

Professor Hanan Eshel, the archaeologist who two years ago uncovered scroll fragments of the Book of Leviticus, says the Israel Antiquities Authority, which now has the finds, has cut out large chunks of the scroll on the pretext that its dating needed to be examined.

This was not a necessary procedure, says Eshel, since "experts say it was possible to test the dating without an intrusive examination and in the worst case scenario by cutting a tiny, peripheral portion of the scroll."

[...]

Amir Ganor, director of the unit for the prevention of theft in the Antiquities Authority, said in response that "in order to carry out the examination we could not avoid making certain cuts in the scroll itself. This is acceptable in every examination of this sort. We cut only two small parts, one-half centimeter each, from the end of the scroll. At no stage was there any thought of cutting letters, only to scrape off some ink in order to examine it. The minute it became clear to us that we could not have unequivocal results from such an examination, we did not do it."

However, the photographs published here suggest the scroll cuts are significantly more extensive than what Ganor acknowledges and encompass nearly all the part of the scroll that has no writing on it.

Ganor said examinations of the scroll have undermined Eshel's claim that the finding is authentic.

[...]

Eshel disputes this.

YES, BUT DID THE ANGELS SMITE HIM? Haaretz reports on an interesting inscription currently being displayed at the Israel Museum:

Ancient Greek inscription, dating to 178 B.C.E., goes on display at Israel Museum
By Amiram Barkat

A recently deciphered ancient Greek stele (inscribed stone slab) is currently on display at the Israel Museum. The stele was produced in 178 B.C.E. in Israel at a time when the region was ruled by the Hellenistic Seleucid empire.

The inscription depicts events that preceded the Hasmonean rebellion. It mentions King Seleucus IV, who occupied the throne before Antiochus IV, the target of the Maccabean revolt, and the king's chief minister Heliodorus, who sparked the first open conflict between Greeks and Jews by attempting to seize funds from the Second Temple.

Researchers are unsure where exactly the inscription was discovered, and examinations commissioned by the museum failed to uncover any signs the inscription was inauthentic. The stele was deciphered by two leading ancient inscription researchers: Hannah Cotton-Paltiel of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Professor Michael Woerrle of the German Archaeological Institute in Munich. American-Jewish philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who acquired the stele a few months ago, gave the stele to the museum on an extended loan.

Failing "to uncover any signs the inscription was inauthentic" is a less robust conclusion than I would like. I hope they are really more confident than that of its authenticity.

The inscription appears on the uppermost part of a stone column engraved with three letters. To date, this is the second stele from this period to be found in the region. The inscription describes King Seleucus IV's appointment of senior Greek clerk Olympiodorus to oversee sanctuaries in Israel and surrounding areas. In the first letter, King Seleucus IV informs his deputy Heliodorus of the appointment and the second and third announces more minor appointments.

[...]

King Seleucus IV was assassinated in 175 B.C.E., three years after the appointment described in the stele. He was replaced by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the "Shining One" in Greek), who ruled during the Maccabean revolt. The first instance of open tension between both sides took place when Heliodorus entered the Temple and attempted to confiscate money. He was expelled in disgrace. The Maccabean rebellion actually began in 167 B.C.E. in response to grave, religious edicts imposed by Antiochus IV.

[...]

"Expelled in disgrace" doesn't really do justice to the story as it appears in 2 Maccabees 3 (RSV quoted here):

22: While they were calling upon the Almighty Lord that he would keep what had been entrusted safe and secure for those who had entrusted it,
23: Heliodorus went on with what had been decided.
24: But when he arrived at the treasury with his bodyguard, then and there the Sovereign of spirits and of all authority caused so great a manifestation that all who had been so bold as to accompany him were astounded by the power of God, and became faint with terror.
25: For there appeared to them a magnificently caparisoned horse, with a rider of frightening mien, and it rushed furiously at Heliodorus and struck at him with its front hoofs. Its rider was seen to have armor and weapons of gold.
26: Two young men also appeared to him, remarkably strong, gloriously beautiful and splendidly dressed, who stood on each side of him and scourged him continuously, inflicting many blows on him.
27: When he suddenly fell to the ground and deep darkness came over him, his men took him up and put him on a stretcher
28: and carried him away, this man who had just entered the aforesaid treasury with a great retinue and all his bodyguard but was now unable to help himself; and they recognized clearly the sovereign power of God.
29: While he lay prostrate, speechless because of the divine intervention and deprived of any hope of recovery,
30: they praised the Lord who had acted marvelously for his own place. And the temple, which a little while before was full of fear and disturbance, was filled with joy and gladness, now that the Almighty Lord had appeared.
31: Quickly some of Heliodorus' friends asked Onias to call upon the Most High and to grant life to one who was lying quite at his last breath.
32: And the high priest, fearing that the king might get the notion that some foul play had been perpetrated by the Jews with regard to Heliodorus, offered sacrifice for the man's recovery.
33: While the high priest was making the offering of atonement, the same young men appeared again to Heliodorus dressed in the same clothing, and they stood and said, "Be very grateful to Onias the high priest, since for his sake the Lord has granted you your life.
34: And see that you, who have been scourged by heaven, report to all men the majestic power of God." Having said this they vanished.
35: Then Heliodorus offered sacrifice to the Lord and made very great vows to the Savior of his life, and having bidden Onias farewell, he marched off with his forces to the king.
36: And he bore testimony to all men of the deeds of the supreme God, which he had seen with his own eyes.

Unfortunately it seems that the inscription does not mention this event. But, to be fair, it would have no particular reason to, and it's not clear whether it was produced before or after Heliodorus' visit to the Temple.

UPDATE: Nice photo at the Art Daily. (Via Rochelle Altman on Ioudaios-L.)