On most anniversaries (but not last year) I have put up a retrospective anniversary post. The most recent one was for 2016 and you can follow the links from there to all earlier retrospective posts. This year you get a double-edition retrospective. I focus on posts in which I had more commentary than usual. I also include a few end-of-year roundup posts and posts on especially important stories, plus a few others I just liked.
2016-2017
• Rabbi Sacks at St. Andrews
• Latest on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife — a major breakthrough? (Yep. see here.)
• Report on the St. Andrews Symposium on Divine Sonship (6-8 June 2016)
• John the Jew (Camaldoli): my response to Williams (Enoch Seminar)
• "John the Jew" (Camaldoli): final comments (Ditto)
• Old editions of the Cave of Treasures
• Back from the BNTC (Photo essay on the Roman ruins at Chester.)
• Archaeology stories for Rosh HaShanah
• A Hebrew papyrus from the 8th century BCE? [Now updated] (There is debate on whether this is genuine or a forgery.)
• Billionaires are trying to escape the demiurgic world
• Review of DeConick, The Gnostic New Age, MEGA, SBL 2016
• Non-deceptive pseudepigraphy?
• Archaeology top 10, 2016
• Biggest 2016 archaeological discoveries
• Two Prophetesses for Burns Night
• Rabbinics and Second Temple Judaism
• Frescoes, not phalluses, are the stars - and no sex toys (The media certainly botched this story.)
• The Jordan Department of Antiquities disavows the lead codices (For much more on the metal codices, see below.)
2017-2018
• Bar Kokhba letters anniversary
• The Talmud on scriptural exegesis
• Josephus, Masada, and archaeology
A four-part review of an important new book:
• Review of Burke and Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1 (part 1)
• Review of Burke and Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1 (part 2)
• Review of Burke and Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha (part 3)
• Review of Burke and Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha (part 4)
• If you like OT Pseudepigrapha, please help! (bumped)
I promised an update on this one. Mainly I found that it's too early to get a sense of the impact of MOTP1. My article will be coming out in 2019 and it will have a little more to say about that then.
• Bible Cat revisited (Because cat!)
• Graduation 2017 (Because philologists!)
• Ezekiel's Merkavah anniversary is today (Because Merkavah!)
• Hurtado on representing the views of others (Good advice from Professor Hurtado and from me.)
Samuel Zinner's full publication on the Jordanian metal codices finally came out in 2017. Here is my four-part review of it:
• The Jordanian lead codices: (1) The materials tests
• The Jordanian lead codices: (2) The inscriptions
• The Jordanian lead codices: (3) The Abgar-Selaman epitaph
• The Jordanian lead codices: (4) Concluding observations
Then some new metal codices showed up:
• Metal codices seized in Turkey. This has been the most visited post since Blogger started keeping records in May of 2010. And on a related note, the Turkish authorities seized many smuggled antiquities in the last year, including a number of other dubious artifacts. See here, here, here, here, and here.
• Bauckham event in St. Andrews
• Judah the Hammer (On why scholars should try harder to think like regular people.)
• A bulla of Isaiah (the prophet?) (Maybe, but maybe not; cf. here.)
• A disquieting case of scholarly forgery?
On 1 March 2018 PaleoJudaica received its largest number of views ever in a single day: 18,630. I don't know what was special about that day, but I hope it keeps happening.
I am still enjoying blogging and my readers seem to enjoy it as well. Thanks for your support! Please do keep coming back and keeping bringing your friends.
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