The Canaanite general Sisera is killed by Yael in her tent but in an older version of the story, he died in battle at the hands of the Israelite general, Barak. The story was revised as part of a broader theme in Judges, to weaken the image of male military heroes through women and give the power to God.Could be. Redaction criticism is fun too.
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The Voynich manuscript is famous for being indecipherable. The 240-page text is written in an unknown language, in an unknown script, scrambled by an unknown code, as CTVNews put it. It's a puzzle with no way in. Even the Bletchley Park cryptographers, renowned for cracking the Enigma code used by the Nazis during World War II, couldn't make any headway.Supposedly "carbon dating" places the manuscript in the early fifteenth century. But carbon dating would be pretty imprecise for such a recent manuscript. In any case, this is what the AI came up with:
Now, Greg Kondrak, a computer scientist in the AI lab at the University of Alberta—the same one behind the DeepStack system that made waves last year by beating professional poker players—claims he's begun to crack it open.
Step number one, Kondrak told CTVNews, was figuring out what the language is. The statistical algorithms he and his co-author designed proved about 97-percent accurate when translating the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (into 380 languages). The same process, applied to the Voynich manuscript, suggested the language was Hebrew. As for the code, they believe that it involves the letters in each individual word being shuffled, and their vowels dropped.The speculation is that the text deals with "women's health," partly, I guess, from the supposedly decoded text, and partly because of the many illustrations of naked women bathing.
According to their algorithms, the manuscript's first complete sentence reads, "She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and people." They also believe the text includes the words "farmer," "light," "air" and "fire," according to CTVNews.
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Barclay, John M. G. Pauline Churches and Diaspora Jews. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2016. 454 pp. Pb; $48. Link to Eerdmans
This collection of essays published between 1992 and 2011 was originally published by Mohr Siebeck. Chapter 1 was written as an introduction to that volume and chapters 18 and 19 appeared for the first time. The remaining sixteen essays appeared in various journals and Festschrifts. The Eerdmans edition is essentially the same, only a few typographical errors have been corrected. The volume concludes with a bibliography, Indices of Sources, Authors and Selected Topics.
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DESCRIPTIONOut in April of 2018.
Basics of Greek Accents by John A. L. Lee is a compact, student-friendly, and practical guide to accents for students of both classical and biblical Greek. In eight simple lessons students will learn the basics of ancient Greek accentuation.
Ideal for beginners who are just learning the language or for intermediate students who have learned some Greek but are unsure of their accents, this handy resource avoids theory and concentrates on taking the learner through the essentials in a natural sequence and reinforces learning by means of simple exercises.
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We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Michael Lyons to a new lectureship in Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, starting September 2018.And yes, we are truly delighted to have Michael joining us in September.
Dr Lyons completed his PhD at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has held a position at Simpson University for the last ten years. His areas of research include the investigation of compositional strategies in the prophetic corpus of the Hebrew Bible and the dynamics of text-referencing in ancient Israel, Second Temple Judaism, and early Christianity. He is the author of several volumes on the book of Ezekiel, and has published in Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, and Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages.
He'll be working alongside Prof. Jim Davila, Dr Bill Tooman, and Dr Madhavi Nevader in our Old Testament / Hebrew Bible section.
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In January 2018, I had the privilege to interview Dr. Gabriele Boccaccini, director of the Enoch Seminar.This interview is illuminating and informative, not only about the Enoch Seminar and the current state of Second Temple Jewish studies and related fields, but also about Professor Boccaccini himself.
Even in the midst of a personal tragedy, Boccaccini was kind enough to give thoughtful consideration to a number of questions about his work and motives.
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We’re in Carthage, Tunisia’s best known and most visited Roman site. Perched on the Mediterranean coastline, a visit is worth it for the spellbinding views alone, but in truth, the development of the modern city, combined with centuries of neglect, hasn’t left Dido’s ancient citadel in its best possible state.Cross file under Punic Watch.
Instead, [tourguide] Chaouki [Latrache] wants to show me some of the country’s lesser known ruins, all within a couple of hours of Tunis, meaning you can comfortably manage them in day trips from the capital. We start with Dougga, a Unesco-designated site in the north-west of the country, and find we have the place almost to ourselves. Chaouki reckons it’s seven years since he last brought an English tourist here.
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The Syrian government is making efforts to promote the country as a tourist destination following a civil war that has devastated much of its area.And there's this too:
This week the Syrian government is publicizing Aleppo, along with other destinations in Syria, at the Fitur International Tourism Trade Fair in Madrid, AFP reported.
It is the first time Syria has attended the trade fair since 2011, before the war broke out.
Along with the ruins of Aleppo, it also encourages people to visit the ancient Roman-era ruins of Palmyra, the UNESCO-listed archeological site that was twice controlled by the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group.
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[Bassam Barsik, director of marketing at the Syrian Ministry of Tourism] argued that religious destinations, such as the historical Christian town of Maaloula, one of the last places on earth where Aramaic is still spoken, are still a draw to tourists.I don't think Syria will be my holiday destination this summer. Maybe someday. This promotion seems a bit premature, but things must be quieter if the Syrian government thinks it can even raise the subject. I hope this augurs some better things for the people of Syria.
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.
This volume contains 14 papers that were presented in 2014 at a conference in Tübingen on a variety of problems concerning Porphyry’s Kata Christianôn and its cultural context. The conference took place in the larger framework of the Sonderforschungsbereich 923, called ‘Bedrohte Ordnungen’ (hence the title of the book). In a short Introduction, the editor presents a concise overview of the recent spate of scholarly work on Porphyry’s polemical treatise 1 and outlines the contributions in the volume. In the compass of this short review it is impossible to discuss all contributions in detail and do justice to them. Hence I will briefly indicate their contents and conclude with some general remarks.Porphyry is of interest for PaleoJudaica because he was reportedly the first to dispute (correctly) the sixth-century authorship of the Book of Daniel. But the chapter by Aaron P. Johnson in the book under review may raise doubt that the passage actually comes from Porphyry. Porphyry also interacted with Christian Gnostics and refers to some Gnostic Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.
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In November 2017, the privately-funded, $500-million Museum of the Bible (MOTB) opened its doors to the public. Situated just blocks from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the MOTB is poised to wield unparalleled influence on the national and popular imagination of the Bible. Despite its connection to evangelical Christian funding, the MOTB officially eschews ties to any religious tradition. Yet, because of the nature of its subject matter, the museum cannot help but present a selective account of both Judaism and Christianity. In December 2017 at the annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies in Washington, D.C. a panel of scholars applied a critical analytical lens to the MOTB as a site of power and politics. The papers interrogated the MOTB and its discursive projects from the combined perspectives of critical biblical scholarship and museum studies with a view to articulating the assumptions guiding the MOTB’s construction of Judaica, the Jewish Bible, and the land of Israel.The first paper was published in AJR yesterday:
This panel sparked further discussion among scholars and the broader public, such as in a Washington Post article. In collaboration with AJR, scholars from this panel will be sharing their work with the larger scholarly community and the public.
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"While making pretenses to neutrality, the Museum of the Bible is fundamentally a political project attempting to define what the Bible is and who owns it."For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Museum of the Bible and related matters, start here and follow the many links.
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.
Images of stunning mosaic panels, uncovered during excavations in Lower Galilee in Israel, are to be shared for the first time in the UK during a lecture at the University of Chester.For more on the Huqoq excavation and the mosaics found there, start here and follow the links. And while we're at it, for some images of the Roman ruins in Chester, see here.
The panels are part of the Huqoq Excavation Project - an astonishingly rare and hugely significant discovery of a late Roman/Byzantine synagogue, which has attracted widespread international media attention.
Archaeologist Dr Dennis Mizzi, from the University of Malta, will be unveiling photos of the panels, which depict an array of biblical scenes.
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Unfortunately, there still is no solid reason to connect this with the Parthenon.Background on the potsherd discovered at E-Tell is here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The black-and-white photograph is part of a treasure trove of ancient pieces of Judaica retrieved from the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's General Intelligence Service during the United States' 2003 invasion of Iraq.The article has its own slant, as article on the subject usually do, but it also provides a useful update on where negotiations on the fate of the archive stand at present. I have presented some of my own thoughts on the subject at the links here.
The heirlooms include documents dating from the mid-16th century to the 1970s and more than 2,700 books in Hebrew, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic, a version of Arabic written in Hebrew letters and spoken by Iraqi Jews.
They cast invaluable insight on Iraq's ancient Jewish community, which dwindled from an estimated 130,000 people to fewer than five today.
But the rich collection is not without its share of controversy as Iraqis have criticised the delay in repatriating the archives to Baghdad and accused the US of benefitting from the spoils of the occupation of their country.
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Archaeologists are excavating a newfound cave in Qumran, with the hope of finding new Dead Sea Scrolls.Presumably there was something about this cave that led the excavators to think it was likely to have more scrolls in it. I look forward to more details.
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Hebrew University archaeologist Oren] Gutfeld and Randall Price, of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, are now leading an archaeology team that is excavating this newfound cave.
"Dr. Gutfeld and I have been at Qumran since December, working with our team on excavating a new cave in the Qumran area," Price told Live Science in an email. No other details about this "new cave" have been released, but the team will release a statement soon, Price said.
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This week, Daf Yomi readers began Tractate Avodah Zarah, the section of the Talmud devoted to the laws forbidding idolatry. As we already learned in Tractate Sanhedrin, avodah zarah—literally, “strange worship”—is one of the most serious sins in Jewish law. Not only are Jews who worship other gods liable to be stoned to death, but Jews must avoid even mentioning the names of those gods, in accordance with Exodus 23:13: “Make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard out of your mouth.” In the Roman Empire, where images of gods were omnipresent and pagan festivals governed the calendar, this would have presented a constant challenge.Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.
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Truth, Lies, and Language in Ancient Mediterranean Religion
March 11 - 13, 2018
University of California, Davis
“Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech” (Gen. 11:7)
How did Jews, Christians, and others in the ancient Mediterranean world understand each other? What did they think about the possibilities of communication across the different languages and cultures around them? What made something true, believable—or suspect?
The Jewish Studies Program and the Department of Religious Studies at UC Davis are proud to host an international conference on concepts of religious language, particularly issues of credibility, propaganda, and translation between languages and cultures in the ancient world, with a focus on Jewish and Christian texts of the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Local faculty, graduate students, and invited guests will spend three days discussing the possibilities of communication and credibility—issues that seem particularly salient in today’s political climate, but were no less vital in the ancient world.
We would be happy if you would join us. The conference is free and open to the public. To view the list of attendees, find the conference schedule, or contact the organizers, please visit our website:
www.truthliesandlanguage.com
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.
They [the Qumran sect] wrote numerous scrolls, a small number of them in code – including the 60 relics on parchment that Dr. Eshbal Ratson and Prof. Jonathan Ben-Dov of Haifa University’s Department of Bible Studies were able to translate.The JBL article is available on JSTOR, but only to subscribers. The abstract is at the link.
The researchers spent a year painstakingly studying the tiny fragments from the second-to-last scroll, some which measured smaller than one square centimeter.
“The reward for their hard work is fresh insight into the unique 364-day calendar used by the members of the Judean Desert sect, including the discovery for the first time of the name given by the sect to the special days marking the transitions between the four seasons,” the university said in a statement on Sunday.
Although an earlier researcher who examined the 60 pieces postulated that they came from several different scrolls, Ratson and Ben-Dov proved in an article recently published in the Journal of Biblical Literature that the fragments actually constitute a single scroll.
A Newly Reconstructed Calendrical Scroll from Qumran in Cryptic ScriptBit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.
Eshbal Ratzon and Jonathan Ben-Dov
Journal of Biblical Literature
Vol. 136, No. 4 (Winter 2017), pp. 905-936
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The book focuses on a period later than my own competence, and so later than the stated focus of this blog site, but Kyle Harper’s most recent tome is just so good that I have to mention it: The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (Princeton University Press, 2017). The publisher’s online catalog entry here.Cross-file under New Book.
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Few military leaders hold as much allure for historians as Hannibal Barca of Carthage (today’s Tunisia). Born in 247 B.C., he is still studied today because of his unparalleled ability to strategize and get inside the mind of his opponent in battle. Archaeologist Patrick N. Hunt, who had been the director of Stanford’s Alpine Archaeology Project, has written a new book about the legendary figure that is simply titled Hannibal. He joined the Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel 111 to explain why Hannibal was so intriguing and why his story still endures. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.For more on Dr. Hunt's new book and his research, see here and links.
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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.
2017.12.29 | Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, Wolfgang Grünstäudl, and Matthew Thiessen, eds. Perceiving the Other in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. WUNT 394. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.I noted the publication of the book here and here.
Reviewed by Max Botner, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main.
Scholars of religion are becoming increasingly attuned to the ways in which groups represent and conceive of the “other.”
As Johnathan Z. Smith notes, “While the ‘other’ may be perceived as being LIKE-US or NOT-LIKE-US, he is in fact most problematic when he is TOO-MUCH-LIKE-US, or when he claims to BE-US”.[1] The task of the present volume—which grew out of a colloquium at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev—is to explore this “problematic” space in the literary production of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.
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