Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Title: Name of God & the Angel of the LordAnother in Baylor's new Library of Early Christology reprint series, on which more here and links.
Sub-title: Samaritan & Jewish Concepts of Intermediation & the Origin of Gnosticism
Series: (Library of Early Christology Series)
By (author): Jarl E. Fossum
ISBN10-13: 1481307932 : 9781481307932
Format: Paperback
Size: 230x155mm
Pages: 391
Weight: .650 Kg.
Published: Baylor University Press (US) - August 2017
List Price: 38.50 Pounds Sterling
Availability: In Stock Qty Available: 8
Subjects: History of religion : Church history : New Testaments : Biblical studies & exegesis : Christian theology
The relationship among Judaism, Gnosticism, and Christianity perpetually eludes easy description. While it is clear that by the second and third centuries of the Common Era these three religious groups worked hard to distinguish themselves from each other, it is also true that the three religious traditions share common religious perspectives. Jarl Fossum examines this common heritage by proposing that the emergence of an anticosmic gnostic demiurge was not simply Gnosticism's critique of the Jewish God or a metaphysical anti-semitism. The figure of the gnostic demiurge arose from Judaism itself. Fossum demonstrates that the first gnostic versions of the demiurge constituted a subordinated dualism. Fossum then turns to Judaism, in particular Samaritanism's portrayal of a principal angel. In distinction from non-Samaritan Jewish examples -- where the Angel of the Lord bears the Divine Name but is not a demiurge, or examples where the Divine Name is said to be the instrument of creation but is not an angel or personal being -- Fossum discovers a figure who bore God's name, was distinct from God, and was God's instrument for creation. Only in Samaritan texts is God's vice-regent personalised, angelic, demiurgic, and the bearer of God's name. In the end the book reveals that not all gnostic speculation was anti-Jewish and, indeed, emerging gnostic and Christian traditions borrowed as much from Judaism as they criticised and rejected.
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Thus the Museum of the Bible, opening on November 17 not far from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., appears at a critical time. How do you engage the citizens of an increasingly secular country, whose founding was nevertheless indelibly marked by principles found in this book, with its history? How do you create a space that acknowledges the cultural primacy of the Bible while also respecting the heterodox religious past and present of the United States? How can an institution talk about one of the world’s most controversial texts without itself becoming a flashpoint for controversy?Washington’s Bible museum won’t touch political hot potatoes. Funded by evangelical Christian Steve Green, the controversial Hobby Lobby head, institution claims 'non-sectarian' mission (MAGGY DONALDSON, AFP/Times of Israel).
The short answer: It can’t.
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The Aramaic dialects within their Late Antique environment;
The development of the Targums within their wider interpretative milieu.
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Included in the sales are treasures such as the will of Louis XVI, the original 39ft-long manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom, fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a 15th-century translation in French of Alexander the Great’s biography by Quintus Curtius.I've been following this story since 2015, because of the report that there are fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the collection. I have not been able to find any specific information on these. The story of how we got here is complicated and involves an alleged "Ponzi scheme." I have gone over it in more detail here. Follow the links there for past coverage.
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In a way, the Museum of the Bible will open as a work in progress: while all of its exhibition spaces and interactive rooms will be ready for visitors, museum leaders give the impression that the museum’s approach to displaying artifacts—especially problematic ones—is subject to change. This does not detract from the spectacular experience the visitor is bound to have—especially the nearly overwhelming experience of the grand entrance and the appreciation of the efforts of faithful scholars who over the centuries tirelessly produced the Biblical manuscripts in the History of the Bible exhibition. But the Museum of the Bible has also inadvertently yanked the debate over the ownership of history and the dark underbelly of the antiquities black market into the public realm, which will hopefully inspire visitors to pause and reflect on how “Biblical” artifacts are properly acquired, researched, and displayed.Background on the Museum of the Bible, Hobby Lobby, and the Green Collection is here and many links.
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Soli Deo Gloria?Background on those dubious Dead Sea Scrolls fragments is here, here, here, and links.
The Scholars, the Market, and the Dubious
Post-2002 Dead Sea Scrolls-like Fragments
Meanwhile, however, since the early 1990s, researchers in fields like archaeology and heritage studies have expressed growing concern about the role of academics as facilitators of illicit trading in ancient texts and objects from countries suffering from extensive looting and unlawful removal of prehistoric material. Despite this widespread awareness, reflected in a growing number of laws, regulations and international policies to prevent looting, smuggling and illegal trade in cultural objects, many scholars in the field of biblical studies continue to receive unprovenanced material with enthusiasm.
By Årstein Justnes
Professor, Department of Religion
University of Agder, Norway
Leader of the Lying Pen of Scribes Project
Josephine Munch Rasmussen
Ph.D., lecturer
University of Oslo
November 2017
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Almost all travelers to Israel will visit the justly famous synagogue at Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee—and some will even visit the one at nearby Chorazin. However, the best preserved of the “Galilean Type” synagogues is the one located at the not-too-frequently visited site of Baram. It is located in Upper Galilee, about 1.2 mi. [2 km.] south of the Israeli Lebanese border.Nice photos, as usual. An earlier PaleoJudaica post on the Baram Synagogue is here. Sorry about the bad link
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Adam M. Kemezis, ed. Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity: Remains and Representations of the Ancient City. Leiden: Brill, 2015.Jerusalem, both New and otherwise, receives its due.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Betuel, Rebekah’s father, mysteriously appears and disappears in the negotiations over Rebekah’s marriage.It seems that many solutions to the problem have been proposed. Redaction criticism has, not surprisingly, gotten involved too.
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But what about other kinds of punishments, which are not capable of being so symmetrically applied? Tractate Makkot begins by inquiring about a case in which witnesses falsely testify that a priest is ineligible for the priesthood because he is the son of a divorced woman. If their lie is exposed, does that mean that the witnesses should be declared ineligible for the priesthood? This is what a plain reading of the biblical verse might suggest, but in practice, this would make no sense—what if the witnesses were Israelites, not Kohanim, and therefore ineligible for the priesthood to begin with? To ensure that such conspiring witnesses don’t get off scot-free, the Mishna imposes a punishment of 40 lashes.Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Rebecca, informed by God of her sons’ destinies, thwarts her husband’s effort to bless Esau. The Torah thus portrays an assertive Rebecca in contrast to a weak and uninformed Isaac. Early Jewish interpreters took conflicting approaches to this unusual depiction of a patriarchal couple.
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
It is a mystery who benefitted from the proceeds earned at the November 9 private sale of 209 rare items from the esteemed Valmadonna Trust Library. But as the hammer struck on the final lot — sold for almost four times its estimate at $190,000 in an auction held at New York-based Kestenbaum & Company — the anonymous benefactor was doubtless pleased with the results.This story just keeps getting more complicated. Past PaloeJudaica posts on the fate of the Valmadonna Library are collected here.
Amassed over four decades by the late Jack V. Lunzer, the Valmadonna Library consists of more than 11,000 printed books and broadsheets, as well as some 300 manuscripts. Lunzer, a British industrial diamond merchant and bibliophile, charted the history of Hebrew printing through his collection, which reflects the worldwide dissemination of Jewish culture through the printed word.
After Lunzer’s death in December 2016, the Valmadonna was jointly acquired by the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem and Dr. David and Jemima Jeselsohn, collectors of archaeology, books and Judaica, in a private transaction with the Valmadonna Trust.
As explored in an in-depth Times of Israel article earlier this week, both NLI and the Jeselsohns deny being behind the November 9 auction, with each intimating that it is the other.
[...]
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“I am the daughter of Betuel the son of Milkah, whom she bore to Nahor” (Gen 24:24) – Why the unusual and cumbersome genealogical description?Redaction criticism to the rescue.
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[Wine merchant H. Ronald] Jordan has a full head of silver hair with an equally full silver mustache. We’ve met to discuss DRUNK, an evening of art and performance inspired by Jewish texts, coming Saturday, November 18th, at the 14th Street Y. Jordan is the official sommelier for the event, which was put together by LABA, a kind of incubator for Jewish art and culture sponsored by the Y. (Full disclosure: I was a LABA fellow in the 2016-17 season, and the spiritual guides for the evening are the Tablet’s Liel Leibovitz and noted novelist Ruby Namdar).Hopefully the event will go better than this Talmudic story:
DRUNK combines nine LABA artists with five texts and five wines. Jordan’s letting me taste three wines, in order to “keep a little mystery for the audience.” It also seems prudent to limit the number of tastings, because I had to bring my six-year-old son to the interview.
The next text is less tendentious. It’s the famous Talmudic tale of Rabbi Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira and their ill-fated Purim party. The rabbis get hammered, as you do on Purim. But later that night, Rabbah is so drunk that he slays Zeira. The next morning, Rabbah begs God for mercy, and Zeira is revived. The following Purim, it’s no surprise when Zeira refuses Rabbah’s invitation: “Not every time does a miracle occur,” says Zeira. Meaning: Who knows if Hashem will bring me back the next time, and anyway Rabbi Zeira is a mean drunk.Background here.
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Karl Katz, who was so entranced by an art history lecture in college that he went on to become a founding curator of the Israel Museum, convey the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s vast collection to wider audiences by video, and play a key role in finding a home for the International Center of Photography, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 88.May his memory be for a blessing.
[...]
He earned a bachelor’s degree in art history and Semitic studies and a master’s in fine arts and archaeology at Columbia. He completed his doctoral thesis in early Hebrew manuscripts from Yemen but never fulfilled the language requirement for his doctorate; he said he could not bring himself to learn German so soon after the Holocaust.
[...]
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Exploring Zechariah, Volume 1: The Development of Zechariah and Its Role within the TwelveYou can also download both volumes for free as pdf files here and here.
Mark J. Boda
ISBN 9781628371628
Status Available
Price: $37.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date April 2017
Pages 290
A decade of research on Zechariah
This first volume of Mark J. Boda's two-volume set on Zechariah showcases a series of studies on the development of Zechariah as a book and its role within the development and rhetoric of the Book of the Twelve.
- Examination of the role that the final section of the Book of the Twelve played in drawing the corpus together into its final form
- Articles drawn from a variety of journals
- Ten essays that represent advances into Book of the Twelve research
Exploring Zechariah, Volume 2: The Development and Role of Biblical Traditions in Zechariah Mark J. Boda
ISBN 9780884142003 Status Available Price: $36.95 Binding Paperback Publication Date April 2017 Pages 270
A decade of research on Zechariah
This second volume of Mark J. Boda’s two-volume set on Zechariah showcases a series of studies tracing the impact of earlier Hebrew Bible traditions on various passages and sections of the book of Zechariah: 1:7–6:15; 1:1–6/7;1–8:23; and chapters 9–14. These two volumes showcase a series of studies on Zechariah that Boda wrote over the past decade.
Features:
- Examination of the role that the final section of the Book of the Twelve played in drawing the corpus together into its final form
- Articles drawn from a variety of journals
- Twelve essays that represent advances into Book of the Twelve research
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.