More on the Green Collection papyri from Nongbri

AT THE VARIANT READINGS BLOG, Brent Nongbri continues to cull new information from the DVD of lectures for the "Passages" exhibition of the Green Collection.

A “Second Century” Papyrus of Matthew in the Green Collection. A second-century fragment of the Gospel of Matthew? That would be nice. I'll believe it when I see good evidence for it.

The Green Collection Sappho Papyrus: Some New Details. I wouldn't make too much of the contradictions in the various accounts about who did what with this papyrus and when. Human memory about such things is notoriously unreliable. So unreliable that people often misremember whether they did something or someone they know did it.

I noted the story of the Sappho papyrus here. For later posts on it, see here and follow the links back.

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Review of Dulk, Between Jews and Heretics

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Matthijs Den Dulk, Between Jews and Heretics: Refiguring Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho. London; New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 174. ISBN 9780815373452. $140.00. Reviewed by Judith M. Lieu, University of Cambridge (jml68@cam.ac.uk).

In this, apparently substantially reworked, version of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Chicago in 2015,1 Matthijs den Dulk argues that Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho the Jew should be read as in large part shaped by its author’s desire to demonstrate the superiority of his form of Christianity over other competing forms that characterised the diversity of the second century. Den Dulk identifies these alternatives as ‘Christian demiurgists’ or ‘demiurgical Christians’, that is those who distinguished between the creator (identified with the Jewish God) and the highest God, who sent Jesus Christ; chief but not alone among these was Marcion ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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The archaeology of scourging?

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: What Do We Know about the Scourging of Jesus? (Andrea Nicolotti). I'm surprised to see this one published now, instead of in the Easter season.

The short answer to the headline's question is that we know very little about scourging in the first century. But that hasn't stopped people from trying to answer the question. This essay surveys their efforts. Not surprisingly, the Shroud of Turin comes up.

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When was Jesus born?

'TIS THE SEASON: When Was Jesus Born—B.C. or A.D.? How the divide between B.C. and A.D. was calculated (Megan Sauter, Bible History Daily). This essay was first published in 2017, but I missed it then.

The current chief editor of BAR, Robert Cargill, published a related essay some years ago. See here. And remember, as per my comments there, that we really have very little idea when Jesus was born.

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Recontextualizing Qumran archaeology?

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Qumran in a Mediterranean Context (Dennis Mizzi).

For a small site, Qumran has generated big debates. For one thing, despite the general scholarly consensus that ties the settlement with the group(s) behind the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essenes, there remain a number of dissenting voices. But here I want to underscore the benefits of studying Qumran in the wider context of the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean, leaving behind the idyllic, romantic notion of a site thriving in splendid isolation.

[...]

This essay reframes the archaeological context of the site of Qumran in what looks like a productive way. It is based on a recent scholarly article in Dead Sea Discoveries. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

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On translating the Joseph story into English

PROF. EVERETT FOX: Torah in Translation: Rendering the Story of Joseph in English.

Translating the Torah from Hebrew into a different language is a huge challenge: What is the right balance between composing a text that reads smoothly while capturing the flavor of its original language? When I translated the Torah and the Early Prophets, I navigated this tension in favor of keeping the Hebrew flavor.

For more on Professor Fox and his translation work, see here.

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Review of Whitmarsh, Dirty Love

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Tim Whitmarsh, Dirty Love: The Genealogy of the Ancient Greek Novel. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xviii, 201. ISBN 9780199742653. $45.00. Reviewed by David Konstan, New York University (dk87@nyu.edu).

Whitmarsh’s analyses of the hybridizing precursors to the novel, or more strictly to the exogamous subset of the novels, are wide-ranging, subtle and imaginative.

Also, on Joseph and Aseneth:

There is an interesting twist, however: Joseph is gorgeous and “all the women and daughters of the Egyptians used to suffer terribly on seeing Joseph, on account of his beauty” (7.3, quoted on p. 111). I would have wanted more on this unusual reversal of the object of the erotic gaze: in this text Joseph has been thoroughly “Helenized.”

For more on Joseph and Aseneth, see here and links. And for more on the Alexander Romance, see here, here, and here.

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More on the 1 Samuel papyrus from the Green Collection

VARIANT READINGS: More on the Curious Green Collection 1 Samuel Papyrus (Brent Nongbri). Dr. Nongbri relates some more information on this manuscript. I have noted his earlier posts on it here.

In the first of those he said (provisionally) that the handwriting of the manuscript looks to date to the second to fourth century C.E. Things now become complicated. There is now a photo of the mummy mask that supposedly produced the manuscript, and a photo of some exposed text on it. Brent dates them "at first glance" to the Ptolemaic period (first to third century B.C.E.). But it may be that the Samuel material comes from more than one manuscript, so both dates could be correct.

I am summarizing here, so go and read his new post for all the details. If you are like me, you won't feel much the wiser. But it is good that more information about the manuscript seems to be trickling out and that Brent is keeping us appraised of it.

UPDATE: After I posted this, I saw a new post at Variant Readings: The Green Collection 1 Samuel: A Place of Purchase. Read the post to find out where and, in a general way, from whom.

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Deadline extended for St Andrews NT Chair applications

THE CLOSING DATE for applications for the New Testament Professorship at the University of St Andrews has been extended by a month, to 14 January 2019.

Background here.

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That "star in the east"

'TIS THE SEASON: Can astronomy explain the biblical Star of Bethlehem? Experts weigh in on whether the Gospel account of Jesus’s birth, including the wise men who were guided by a ‘star in the east,’ has any scientific merit (The Conversation via the AP via David Weintraub, Times of Israel). This story usually comes up in the Christmas season, usually with the same range of explanations. The one given here is as plausible as any.

If you want to see a planetary "star in the east right" now, look to the east at sunrise. That bright star in the sky is the planet Venus on a very close approach to the earth. For a while it was so close I was pretty sure I could see a disk (which looked more like a crescent with binoculars). I don't know what it's current astrological significance is, but I'm sure there's something.

For my own view about Matthew's star, see here. For the earliest surviving reference, after the Gospel of Matthew, to the Star of Bethlehem (in a letter by Ignatius of Antioch), see here. Another early mention is in the Revelation of the Magi, on which more here and links. And for many other past posts on the Star of Bethlehem, start here and follow the links.

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A hint of Iraqi Jewish archive news?

UPDATE? JIMENA and others ask Pompeo to safeguard Jewish artifacts in Middle East (JTA). This article deals with matters that go beyond the Iraqi Jewish archive, but the latter is mentioned in the final paragraph:

Last year, JIMENA protested an agreement that the U.S. reached with Libya, saying it did not exclude Jewish artifacts. The State Department later told JTA that certain Jewish artifacts were exempt from the deal. Earlier this year, the organization fought to keep an archive of tens of thousands of Iraqi Jewish documents and artifacts discovered in 2003 by U.S. soldiers from being returned to Iraq (the fate of the archive is still undecided).

(The bold font and italics are mine.)

At the beginning of October, I noted that the September deadline for the return of the archive to Iraq had passed and I asked for any news about it. There was none.

Sometimes the story is the absence of the story. Sherlock Holmes's dog that did not bark in the night. This looks like one of those cases. Until today, "Iraqi Jewish archive(s)" has produced nothing new in Google News searches. The State Department and White House websites are silent. Now, finally, we have an unsourced hint that "the fate of the archive is still undecided."

I don't know whether JTA has information or they are drawing an inference. But I have been drawing the same inference. The silence in the news sounds as though the archive is still in the United States and the negotiations with Iraq still continue. I say that because if the archive had been returned to Iraq, that would have been news and it would have been covered.

I emphasize that all this is inference. I don't have any actual information, unless the JTA comment counts as information. I think the inferring is sound, but your mileage may differ.

If anyone has actual information on the current location and status of the archive, I would be grateful if you would share it with me.

For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Iraqi Jewish archives, going back to their discovery in 2003, start here and follow the links. I have given some of my own thoughts on the situation at the links here.

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No vanilla at Megiddo?

ARCHAEO-BIOCHEMISTRY: Did These Ancient Juglets—Found in a Bronze Age Burial in Israel—Contain Vanilla? The finding suggests vanilla was being used 2,500 years earlier and half a world from where we thought, but vanilla experts are skeptical on the findings (Jason Daley, The Smithsonian). There are "vanilla experts?" Of course there are.

Some of these experts have raised objections to the idea that the vanillin compound found in the jars in Megiddo Cave 50 shows the use of vanilla as flavoring. This in response to recent media reports on the ASOR paper presented by Vanessa Linares in November. But Ms. Linares defends her position. The actual research is not even published yet, so it's best to keep an open mind.

Background here.

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A film on the Apollo of Gaza

STATUARY CINEMA: The Mysterious Fate of an Ancient Apollo Statue Pulled From Gaza's Sea. Discovered by a fisherman, the statue garnered world renown before being confiscated by Hamas. The film 'The Apollo of Gaza' raises fascinating questions on the origins and fate of the sculpture (Nir Hasson, Haaretz premium). There isn't a great deal of news about the fate of the statue in this film. Hamas still has it and it has not been seen since they seized it in 2013. But apparently the film does claim to show that forging it would not have been difficult, if enough bronze could be had.

Background on the Apollo of Gaza is here and links.

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Bathing pool with bull idol excavated at Zippori

ARCHAEOLOGY: At Zippori pool where Judah Hanasi may have bathed, a rare tiny pagan bull found Archaeologists believe they can connect a peculiar Talmudic story about the head of the Sanhedrin bathing on a fast day to a recently excavated site in the national park (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

The bull figurine is remarkable. Apparently there are parallel object in the British Museum, but this is the first one I have seen from the Roman period. A bronze and silver bull figurine dating to the first half of the second millenium B.C.E. was found at Ashkelon. And among the gold and lead (?) codices seized from smugglers in Turkey last year, there was a bull figurine made of gold and stamped with a menorah.

For PaleoJudaica posts on earlier discoveries at the site of Tzipori/Tzippori/Zippori/Sepphoris, start here and follow the many links. Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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A very international Biblical Archaeology MOOC

UPDATE ON ONLINE COURSE: Students from Pakistan, UAE, Oman join Israeli online biblical archaeology class. 8-week course, open to applicants worldwide, provides an introduction to biblical archaeology and a deep look at the remains of ancient civilizations in the Holy Land (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

Students from Malaysia, Pakistan, Oman, and United Arab Emirates — countries that do not recognize the modern State of Israel — have joined hundreds of other curious minds from locations as far-flung as the Caribbean’s Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to study the Holy Land’s ancient biblical archaeology.

The class is Professor Aren Maier's MOOC, which was noted here. It sounds as though it is very successful.

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What do Joseph, Daniel, and Ahiqar have in common?

PROF. SUSAN NIDITCH: Joseph Interprets Pharaoh’s Dreams — An Israelite Type-922 Folktale (TheTorah.com).

The story of Joseph in Pharaoh’s court (Genesis 41), like the story of Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar’s court (Daniel 2), is a Thompson Type 922 folktale in which an underdog gains his fortune by answering hard questions that elude his superiors. Paradoxically, viewing the story of Joseph through the lens of folklore studies allows us to appreciate the uniqueness of Israelite cultural religious orientation.

Aarne and Thomson wrote the book on folklore.

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Edmund Wilson on the DSS

CLASSIC REPRINT: The Scrolls from the Dead Sea (Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker, May 14, 1955 Issue). A long article that tells you just how things stood in 1955.

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Byzantine-era lamp wick from Shivta

HANUKKAH-RELATED, NOTED BELATEDLY: Tiny 1,500-year-old flax lamp wick illuminates ancient Jewish law. Discovered in hitherto unpublished 1930s excavations in the Negev desert town of Shivta, the wick sheds light on how people banished darkness in the Byzantine era — and before (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

The Shivta excavation has been in the news a good bit lately. See here and links.

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The Ptolemaic coins, Part 3

NUMISMATICS: CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: The Ptolemies, Part III.

So many guys named Ptolemy! But the name everyone is interested in from this dynasty, in this period, is Cleopatra VII, the Cleopatra. More on her here. Supposedly, she knew Hebrew and Aramaic.

As far as I know, no one from the Ptolemaic dynasty mentioned in this article appears in the Bible.

This series comes to an end with this installment. Part 1 was noted here and Part 2 here.

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Which Greek version did John read?

THE ETC BLOG: John’s Bible Version in John 19:37? (John Meade). Not the Old Greek at any rate.

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Browsing the Digital Syriac Corpus

THE AWOL BLOG: Browsing the Digital Syriac Corpus. The recent move of the Digital Syriac Corpus online was noted here. Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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The Gospel of Mark: a rough draft?

CANDIDA MOSS: Are the Gospels Finished Works? An explosive new book from a scholar at Princeton makes the argument that the Gospel of Mark was more like a rough draft or collection of notes than a book (The Daily Beast). That new book is Gospels before the Book (Oxford University Press, 2018) by Matthew Larsen. For more about it from the author, see here.

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Hurtado reviews Fredriksen, When Christians were Jews

LARRY HURTADO: “When Christians were Jews”: Paula Fredriksen on “The First Generation.”

Paula Fredriksen’s latest book is a readable, well-paced narrative of the first decades of what became Christianity, with lots of particular good points made: When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation (Yale University Press, 2018). Intended for a wide readership, the main emphases of the book build upon (and the notes make frequent reference to) her earlier and more detailed studies ...

But he has disagreements.

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The Israel Antiquities Authority

BACKGROUNDER: Welcome to the Israel Antiquities Authority (The Jewish News).

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Why did Genesis like Egypt?

PROF. SUSAN NIDITCH: Why the Joseph Story Portrays Egypt Positively (TheTorah.com).

In the Joseph story, the Egyptian officials, including Pharaoh, are kind and wise. Joseph himself shaves his beard, puts on Egyptian clothes, takes an Egyptian name, and marries the daughter of an Egyptian priest. Nothing in the text implies that the author thinks any of this is problematic.

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van der Toorn, God in Context

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Karel van der Toorn God in Context. Selected Essays on Society and Religion in the Early Middle East. 2018. XIV, 380 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 123. 134,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-156470-3.

Published in English.
In this work, Karel van der Toorn explores the social setting, the intellectual milieu, and the historical context of the beliefs and practices reflected in the Hebrew Bible. While fully recognizing the unique character of early Israelite religion, the author challenges the notion of its incomparability. Beliefs are anchored in culture. Rituals have societal significance. God has a history. By shifting the focus to the context, the essays gathered here yield a deeper understanding of Israelite religion and the origins of the Bible.

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Clement's chronology of antiquity

THE SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE BLOG: An Ancient Chronology from Moses to the First Olympiad (Armand D'Angour). Clement of Alexandria tried to fit Moses into the Classical timeline. I give him points for trying.

Also, this seems to be the first time I have linked to this blog, whose purpose is "to bring you some of the most famous (and also most confounding) quotations from the ancient world."

HT AJR.

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Burke on SBL 2018

AT THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG, Tony Burke chronicles his SBL 2018 experience:

2018 SBL Diary: Day One

2018 SBL Diary: Day Two

2018 SBL Diary: Day 3

Day four also gets a brief paragraph at the end.

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Key according to "Kennicott number" ...

IDAN DERSHOWITZ: Key according to "Kennicott number" with links to Ktiv catalog (and often digitized manuscripts) (Academia.edu). If keeping track of manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible is your thing, then this is the place for you.

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