Saturday, March 31, 2018

Egyptian place names in Exodus

PASSOVER IS HERE: What We Know about the Egyptian Places Mentioned in Exodus (Dr. David A. Falk, TheTorah.com).
Egyptian records and archaeological findings shed light on the toponyms (place names) that appear in the exodus account: Ramesses, Pithom, Pi-Hahiroth, Baal-Zephon, Migdol, Sukkot, and Yam Suf.
Cross-file under Topography.

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Review of Quinn, In Search of the Phoenicians

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Book Review: ‘In Search of the Phoenicians’ — Josephine Quinn (LISA KAAKI, Arab News).
In this provocative, brilliant and original book, Josephine Quinn not only sheds new light on the ancient civilization of Phoenicia but actually questions its very existence. Quinn argues that while the Phoenicians as a people certainly existed, as did the Phoenician language, there is no historical evidence that they ever constituted an ethnic group or nation or that they ever claimed to.

[...]
Past posts on the book are here (with some substantive comments) and here. And follow the links for more on Professor Quinn's work

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Settlements in Judah in the Persian Period

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Persian period settlement in the territories of the former kingdom of Judah. Notice of a new article: Faust, Avraham. 2018. Forts or agricultural estates? Persian period settlement in the territories of the former kingdom of Judah. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 150 (1), 34-59. Follow the link for an abstract and a downloadable PDF of the article.

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Hurtado on the Mary Magdalene film

LARRY HURTADO: “Mary Magdalene”: The Film. He thought it was historically dubious, anachronistic, and boring.

Background here and links.

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Friday, March 30, 2018

Passover 2018

HAPPY PASSOVER TO ALL THOSE CELEBRATING! The festival begins this evening at sundown. Last year's Passover post is here and it has many Passover links. Relevant biblical texts are collected here. Some Passover-related posts from the last year are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

More on the Mellaart forgery accusation

IT'S COMPLICATED: Researcher Makes Controversial Allegation of Archaeological Fraud at Renowned Turkish Site. Eberhard Zangger alleges that the prominent British archaeologist James Mellaart forged artifacts. The accusations are difficult to evaluate (Lydia Pyne, Hyperallergic).
Zangger claimed that, in a note found after his death, Mellaart encouraged colleagues to publish these translations and artifacts after his death — and said that anyone following through with Mellaart’s request was being duped and perpetrating archaeological fraud. “I feel abused,” Zangger told LiveScience. He said that Mellaart “had no scruples when it came to harming other people’s careers.”

These accusations are difficult to evaluate. Mellaart died in 2012, and Zangger, whose allegations have not appeared in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, is cited as the only source in the story. Zangger did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement sent to Hyperallergic after publication, he said, “Publishing a peer reviewed article on this might have taken years, if a journal is at all willing to cover the subject.”
This article has some new information on the case. The accusations remain to be verified, if they can be.

Background linking to the Live Science article that broke the story is here.

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Ancient Books Blog

ASSIMILATED TO THE BLOGOSPHERE: The Ancient Books Blog.
The project ‘Romans, Christians, and their Books, 300-486 CE’, explores how readers and writers in the late Latin west were affected by the change in book format from scroll to codex. Literary scrolls were the norm until the third or fourth century CE, but by the fifth century the codex had become the default format for books. This project explores the extent to which this change in format affected how people in late antiquity thought about literature. ...
The project is run by Dr. Cillian O’Hogan and his team at the University of British Columbia. He is also teaching CNRS503, “The Ancient Book this semester.

This project does not involve ancient Judaism explicitly, but it is highly relevant for understanding the transmission of many ancient Jewish texts in late antiquity.

HT AJR.

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Review of Lipton, From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey

BOOK REVIEW: What the Torah talks about when it talks about food. In 'From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey,' Diana Lipton compiles an extensive commentary on the themes of sustenance in the Bible (Jessica Steinberg, Times of Israel).
Background here and here.

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Thursday, March 29, 2018

Coins from Great Revolt excavated in Jerusalem

EXCAVATION NUMISMATICS: COINS FROM DESTRUCTION OF SECOND TEMPLE FOUND IN TIME FOR PASSOVER. “A discovery like this—ancient coins bearing the words ‘Freedom’ and ‘Redemption’—found right before the Jewish Festival of Freedom—Passover—begins is incredibly moving” (Lidar Gravé-Lazi, Jerusalem Post). The coins were excavated with pottery in a large cave:
[Dr. Eilat] Mazar explained that there is a significant difference among the bronze coins, as in the first year when the rebels had hope and faith in their success, the inscription on the coins in ancient Hebrew script read: “For the Freedom of Zion.”

However, during the fourth year and before the destruction of the Temple, the rebels conveyed their despair by inscribing on the coins the inscription LeGeulat Tzion, meaning “For the Redemption of Zion.”

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AJR reviews Sanders, From Adapa to Enoch

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylon (Mark Lester).
Seth L. Sanders. From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylon. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 167. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.
The essay opens:
Seth L. Sanders’s recent book, From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylonia puts forward a new history of cultural contact between Mesopotamian and Judean scribal cultures that culminated in the Second Temple Period. Sanders revisits the question of the shared features between Judean and Mesopotamian literature (such as ascent to heaven, heavenly visions, in addition to distinctively Babylonian astronomy and metrology), but he also offers two pointed methodological correctives for the study of ancient Near Eastern scribal cultures. The first corrective addresses the question of how to write a history of scribal culture; the second, addresses the question of how to approach religious experience in the ancient world.

[...]

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Following Josephus in Rome

THE WORLD IS FULL OF HISTORY: Rome, Through the Eyes of Flavius Josephus. Where, but in the Eternal City, is it possible to map a 2,000-year-old eyewitness account of history onto an intact urban fabric? (DAVID LASKIN, New York Times).
Turncoat? Asylum seeker? Pragmatic visionary? Historians have long debated Josephus’s motives and character. What’s indisputable is that most of what is known about the violent encounter between Rome and Judea during this period comes out of his work. What’s astonishing is that, with a sharp eye and a bit of research, you can still walk in Josephus’s footsteps in contemporary Rome. Where but in the Eternal City is it possible to map a 2,000-year-old eyewitness account onto an intact urban fabric?
For many past PaleoJudaica posts on the Arch of Titus, start here (cf. here) and follow the links. Also, a notable link on the Arch and ancient Rome is here (scroll down).

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The Talmud on mixtures, mice, and math

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Grapes of Math. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ the Talmudic calculations that make forbidden wine and food into permitted meals for religious Jews.
Of all the subjects treated in Tractate Avoda Zara, the one that takes up the most space is wine. The rabbis state as a general principle that Jews are not allowed to have anything to do with wine belonging to gentiles. Not only may Jews not drink such wine, they are not allowed to buy or sell it; nor can Jews have anything to do with wine that has been in the custody of a gentile, even briefly, or that a non-Jew has stirred or handled. The ostensible reason for this wide-ranging ban has to do with idol-worship: the rabbis are concerned that a pagan will use wine to pour out a libation to his god, thus rendering it abhorrent to Jews. The ban is also, of course, an effective way of discouraging business and personal relationships between Jews and non-Jews, which is also a goal of the rabbis in this tractate.

In Chapter Five of Avoda Zara, the subject of wine leads the rabbis to take up the issue of mixtures. ...

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Amirav, Grypeou, and Stroumsa (eds.) Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity

NEW BOOK FROM PEETER'S PRESS:
Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity
Encounters in the Abrahamic Religions, 6th-8th Centuries


Series:
Late Antique History and Religion, 17

Editors: Amirav H., Grypeou E., Stroumsa G.G.

Year: 2017
ISBN: 978-90-429-3537-2
Pages: XVIII-363 p.
Price: 94 EURO

Summary:
This volume includes papers on ancient apocalypticism and eschatology in the crucial period prior to the advent of Islam in the Mediterranean basin, and through the period (the sixth to the eighth centuries) when this new religion took roots and established itself in the area. As these were important social, religious, and cultural phenomena, the contributors to this volume - specialists in Late Antique and Byzantine, Syriac, Jewish, and Arabic studies - have investigated them from a variety of angles and foci, rendering this volume unique in terms of its interdisciplinary approach and broad scope. In this regard, Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity should be read as complimentary to the previous volume in the series, New Themes, New Styles in the Eastern Mediterranean, where similar goals were set and met, namely to understand not only how the Christian and Jewish populations responded to the dramatic political and military changes, but also how they expressed themselves in existing, reinvented, and new literary means at their disposal.

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Review of Liverani, Imagining Babylon

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Mario Liverani, Imagining Babylon: The Modern Story of an Ancient City. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER), 11. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2016. Pp. xviii, 488. ISBN 9781614516026. $182.00. Reviewed by Felipe Rojas, Brown University (felipe_rojas@brown.edu).
How has the ancient Near Eastern city been "imagined and visualized, studied and reconstructed" (p. vii) over the past two hundred years? That is the question at the core of this wide-ranging book, originally published in Italian in 2013. According to Liverani, the answer should excite not only his fellow historians and archaeologists of the ancient Near East, but also many other scholars, including those studying the history of the city, the dynamics of colonialism and its aftermath, and, more generally, anyone interested in the biography of the cultural constructs called "East" and "West." To that list I would add historians of archaeology and ancient history.

[...]

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Beaulieu, A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75

NEW BOOK FROM WILEY:
A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75
Paul-Alain Beaulieu

ISBN: 978-1-405-18899-9

Feb 2018, Wiley-Blackwell

312 pages

Description

Provides a new narrative history of the ancient world, from the beginnings of civilization in the ancient Near East and Egypt to the fall of Constantinople


Written by an expert in the field, this book presents a narrative history of Babylon from the time of its First Dynasty (1880-1595) until the last centuries of the city’s existence during the Hellenistic and Parthian periods (ca. 331-75 AD). Unlike other texts on Ancient Near Eastern and Mesopotamian history, it offers a unique focus on Babylon and Babylonia, while still providing readers with an awareness of the interaction with other states and peoples. Organized chronologically, it places the various socio-economic and cultural developments and institutions in their historical context. The book also gives religious and intellectual developments more respectable coverage than books that have come before it.

A History of Babylon, 2200 BC – AD 75 teaches readers about the most important phase in the development of Mesopotamian culture. The book offers in-depth chapter coverage on the Sumero-Addadian Background, the rise of Babylon, the decline of the first dynasty, Kassite ascendancy, the second dynasty of Isin, Arameans and Chaldeans, the Assyrian century, the imperial heyday, and Babylon under foreign rule.

• Focuses on Babylon and Babylonia
• Written by a highly regarded Assyriologist
• Part of the very successful Histories of the Ancient World series
• An excellent resource for students, instructors, and scholars
A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75 is a profound text that will be ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses on Ancient Near Eastern and Mesopotamian history and scholars of the subject.
I confess myself baffled by the reference to the fall of Constantinople, which happened in 1453 (CE!). If that event is mentioned in the book, it can't be covered very thoroughly. But in any case, the volume looks like a useful resource. The history of Babylon is important for many periods in Jewish history.

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Verheyden et al. (eds.), Docetism in the Early Church

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Docetism in the Early Church.The Quest for an Elusive Phenomenon. Ed. by Joseph Verheyden, Reimund Bieringer, Jens Schröter, and Ines Jäger. [Doketismus in der frühen Kirche. Auf der Suche nach einem flüchtigen Phänomen.]
2018. XI, 289 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 402. 134,00 €. cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-154084-4
.
Published in English.
This volume studies the ways modern research has tried to detect traces of Docetism in ancient sources, including the gospels and the Johannine epistles and several second-century authors. As a concept, Docetism is often used in scholarly literature for denoting loosely connected or even quite different phenomena or doctrines that all have to do with defining the nature of Christ and the reality of the incarnation and passion of Jesus. The essays presented here approach the topic from a new angle by focusing on the ancient documents themselves instead of staying on a purely theoretical or dogmatic level, while at the same time critically re-examining the historical contexts in which these were produced and first circulated. In some cases, this serves to once more reveal the hidden agendas that have guided modern scholars in their discussion of these topics.
Cross-file under Gnosticism Watch.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Review of Czajkowski, Localized Law

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:
Kimberley Czajkowski, Localized Law: The Babatha and Salome Komaise Archives. Oxford studies in Roman society and law. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. xii, 240. ISBN 9780198777335. $105.00. Reviewed by Tristan Taylor, University of New England (tristan.taylor@une.edu.au)

Localized Law seeks to analyze the famous Babatha and Salome Komaise archives using a different approach than one centered on the oft-examined question of what legal systems are present in the documents. Rather, in a revised version of her doctoral thesis, Czajkowski builds on developments in the analysis of legal pluralism in the Roman empire to consider the ‘varying contributions, considerations and influences that led to the papyri being written the way that they were’ (p 23). As such, the work offers a stimulating study that embraces the legally heterogeneous nature of the documents and highlights the multiplicity of potential influences in their formation—both in terms of individuals and systems—even though the documents rarely provide straightforward answers to the questions asked of them.

[...]
Cross-file under New Book.

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Alkier and Leppin (eds.), Juden – Heiden – Christen?

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Juden – Heiden – Christen? Religiöse Inklusionen und Exklusionen im Römischen Kleinasien bis Decius. Hrsg. v. Stefan Alkier u. Hartmut Leppin. [Jews – Gentiles – Christians? Religious Inclusion and Exclusion in Roman Asia Minor up to Decius.] 2018. VI, 453 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 400. 149,00 €. cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-153706-6.
Published in German.
The triad of Jews, gentiles and Christians seems clearly arranged in the religious world of the Roman Empire. However, a closer look shows that this is too simple a model in that it neither does justice to the diverse descriptions of these groups or those of others, nor to their respective concepts of identity or the varying mechanisms of inclusions and exclusions. This volume illustrates this by way of interdisciplinary individual studies on Asia Minor, but also through conceptional considerations. In summary, the editors offer new terminology suggestions.

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The color of the Capernaum synagogue

LEEN RITMEYER: The Synagogue of Capernaum in which Jesus taught. Was it white or black?. Follow the link to find out.

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New book on Isaac of Nineveh's eschatology

SYRIAC WATCH: Core Fellow Jason Scully Publishes Book (Nancy Enright, Seton Hall University).
Core Fellow Jason Scully recently published a book entitled Isaac of Ninevah's [read "Nineveh's" - JRD] Eschatology (Oxford University Press, 2018) in Oxford's Early Christian Studies series.
Also, some advice for prospective PhD students:
Once I realized how wide open the field of Syriac studies was ("you can pluck a dissertation topic from the ether," my advisor told me), I decided to write on a seventh century Syriac author named Isaac of Nineveh, a figure whose historical importance far outweighs the relative dearth of modern scholarship devoted to his thought."
There is much work to be done in Syriac studies.

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Monday, March 26, 2018

Unleavened bread and the Exodus story

PASSOVER IS COMING: How Eating Matzot became Part of the Exodus Story (Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber, TheTorah.com).
Originally the Festival of Matzot was an agricultural holiday but through its association with the Pesach sacrifice, it became historicized and connected to the exodus story. This shift prompted the redaction of several biblical passages and the question “how indeed does eating matzah commemorate the exodus?”
In case you didn't know, Matzot means "unleavened bread" and the biblical festival that goes by that name. That festival is associated with Passover, but is not identical to Passover.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Butticaz and Norelli (eds.), Memory and Memories in Early Christianity

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Memory and Memories in Early Christianity. Proceedings of the International Conference held at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne (June 2–3, 2016). Ed. by Simon Butticaz and Enrico Norelli. [Gedächtnis und Erinnerungen im frühen Christentum. Tagungsband der internationalen Konferenz vom 2.-3. Juni 2016 an den Universitäten Genf und Lausanne.] 2018. X, 356 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 398. 139,00 €. cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-155729-3.
Published in English.
Bringing together thirteen talks given at the international conference “Memory and Memories in Early Christianity”, held at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva in June 2016, this interdisciplinary volume explores a fresh problem in the study of the origins of Christianity and of the New Testament, namely the “work of memory” undertaken in the discourses and practices of the believers in Jesus. The studies collected here not only apply a heuristic analytical tool – “social memory theory” – to the literature and history of Christian beginnings, but also endeavour to show the socio-religious resonance of this “work of memory” in the language and ideology of the early believers. The historical Jesus, the Pauline writings, the Gospel of John, the Acts of the Apostles, Marcion, ancient Christian epistolography, Hegesippus, Irenaeus, etc. are explored by some of the world's top specialists in “social memory studies” as applied to Christian origins.

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van der Toorn, Papyrus Amherst 63

ARAMAIC STUDIES TODAY BLOG: Papyrus Amherst 63 — Where do we stand? Professor Steve Kaufmann gives us notice of a new book on this remarkable and remarkably difficult text, which is written in Aramaic and Canaanite, but in the Egyptian Demotic script. The book is Karel van der Toorn, Papyrus Amherst 63 (AOAT 448).

Ancient Palymra is involved, so cross-file under Aramaic Watch and Palmyra Watch.

Past posts on Papyrus Amherst 63 are here (cf. here) and links.

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Ephraim Stern - 1934-2018

SAD NEWS: A report that the Israeli archaeologist Ephraim Stern passed away over the weekend has been posted by Jack Sasson on the Agade list. Professor Stern is best know as the chief excavator of the Tel Dor Excavation. He also published extensively on the archaeology of the Land of Israel. I got to know him in my postgraduate days when I served as an assistant square supervisor at Tel Dor in the mid 1980s. May his memory be for a blessing.

Professor Stern's Wikipedia entry is here.

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Sunday, March 25, 2018

A busy week

I SHALL BE VERY BUSY MUCH OF THIS COMING WEEK. I have pre-posted plenty of interesting things, so do keep visiting daily as usual. But I may not get to current stories until the evenings, or even until late in the week.

If any news stories show up which are especially important, feel free to drop me a note to point them out. I will try to attend to such things in the evenings.

Have a good week!

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Torah manuscripts taken from the Jobar Synagogue?

UPDATE: Syria accuses Israel of stealing artifacts from ancient synagogue. Damascus' ambassador to the UN alleges 'terrorist groups cooperated with the Turkish and Israeli intelligence services to loot artifacts and manuscripts from the ancient synagogue'; Israeli ambassador dismisses charges as 'another attempt by Syrian regime to draw attention away from the horrible atrocities it commits.' (Itamar Eichner, Ynet News).
Syria filed an official complaint to the United Nations this week accusing Israel of smuggling Torah books and precious artifacts from the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Damascus in a secret operation with Turkey.

[...]
This article basically covers the same ground as the Jerusalem Post article from last week, noted here. But it specifies that the manuscripts supposedly recovered from the Jobar Synagogue included Torahs. I would have guessed that, but this the first time I've seen it said. And there's also this:
Theft and shelling during the Syrian civil war have damaged the ancient synagogue, one of the oldest in the world. There are conflicting reports about the fate of the artifacts in the synagogue. One report claims the rare Torah books were smuggled out of the synagogue by rebels, but were seized by the Syrian army.
Who knows what the basis is for that report or whether it is credible. But there you have it.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Bricks and straw in ancient Egypt

PASSOVER IS COMING: What Kind of Construction Did the Israelites Do in Egypt? (Dr. David A. Falk, TheTorah.com).
Egyptian sources shed light on the nature of the work described in the Torah.

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Yellowstone and angel sex

REMNANT OF GIANTS: How Yellowstone’s ‘Old Faithful’ became an Angel copulating with a woman. Trust Deane Galbraith to find these things. But, yes, I too can see the sculpture scene in the geyser photograph. Can you?

Hmmm ... The watchers myth says that the angelic watchers descended from heaven and mated with mortal women, producing giants. God disapproved. According to 1 Enoch 67, the burning abyss where the watchers were buried underground to await the Final Judgment became a hot springs. A coincidence? Do you really think so?

Cross-file under Watchers Watch.

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Erskine et al. (eds.), The Hellenistic Court

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Hellenistic Court. Notice of a new book: Erskine, Andrew, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones & Shane Wallace (eds.). 2017. The Hellenistic court : Monarchic power and elite society from Alexander to Cleopatra. Classical Press of Wales.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.