Leviticus 4-5: sin, guilt, and rhetoric

PROF. JAMES W. WATTS: Leviticus’ Rhetorical Presentation of the Sin and Guilt Offerings (TheTorah.com).

The transition from the chatat (חטאת) sin offering in Leviticus 4 to the asham (אשׁם) guilt offering in Leviticus 5 is sudden, even seeming to collapse them into one offering. The history of these offerings, when and why they were introduced into the Temple service, sheds light on the interpretation and structure of these chapters.

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Review of Bull, The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima, vol. II

BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Robert J. Bull, The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima, vol. II. American Schools of Oriental Research archeological reports, 25. Bristol: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2017. Pp. xiii, 100. ISBN 9780897570978. $74.95. Reviewed by Kevin Stoba, University of Liverpool (k.stoba@liverpool.ac.uk).

The mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima was constructed within an existing horreum, one of several such warehouses which had been built by Herod the Great at the end of the first century BC. There have already been several brief publications on this mithraeum (p. xi), but the present volume, edited by Jane DeRose Evans, provides much more thorough and comprehensive analysis of in situ Mithraic activity, which dates from the beginning of the third century AD to the beginning of the fourth century. ...

For a recent photo essay on the Mithraeum at Caesarea, see here.

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Aries 19.1 (2019) on Practical Kabbalah

CURRENT ARIES (19.1, 2019) SPECIAL ISSUE: PRACTICAL KABBALAH. Contents:

Practical Kabbalah
Guest Editors’ Introduction
By: J.H. (Yossi) Chajes and Yuval Harari
Pages: 1–5
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2019

How Jewish Magic Survived the Disenchantment of the World
By: Gideon Bohak
Pages: 7–37
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2019

“Practical Kabbalah” and the Jewish Tradition of Magic
By: Yuval Harari
Pages: 38–82
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2019

Intentionality and Kabbalistic Practices in Early Modern East-Central Europe
By: Agata Paluch
Pages: 83–111
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2019

Kabbalah Practices / Practical Kabbalah
The Magic of Kabbalistic Trees
By: J.H. Chajes
Pages: 112–145
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2019

Review Essay
New Lights on Oracles, Platonists, and Esotericism in Late Antiquity
By: Dylan M. Burns
Pages: 147–158
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2019

The Siblys of London: A Family on the Esoteric Fringes of Georgian England, by Susan Mitchell Sommers
By: Christine Ferguson
Pages: 159–162
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2019

Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture, by Per Faxneld
By: Michele Olzi
Pages: 163–166
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2019

At the Brill website, but, alas, requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access. But I'm pretty sure you can see the abstracts without one.

HT Dylan Burns at the NSEA Blog.

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Koskenniemi, Greek Writers and Philosophers in Philo and Josephus

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Greek Writers and Philosophers in Philo and Josephus

A Study of Their Secular Education and Educational Ideals

Series:
Studies in Philo of Alexandria, Volume: 9
Author: Erkki Koskenniemi

In Greek Writers and Philosophers in Philo and Josephus Erkki Koskenniemi investigates how two Jewish writers, Philo and Josephus, quoted, mentioned and referred to Greek writers and philosophers. He asks what this tells us about their Greek education, their contacts with Classical culture in general, and about the societies in which Philo and Josephus lived. Although Philo in Alexandria and Josephus in Jerusalem both had the possibility to acquire a thorough knowledge of Greek language and culture, they show very different attitudes. Philo, who was probably admitted to the gymnasium, often and enthusiastically refers to Greek poets and philosophers. Josephus on the other hand rarely quotes from their works, giving evidence of a more traditionalistic tendencies among Jewish nobility in Jerusalem.

Publication Date: 26 February 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-39192-5

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“The World Between Empires” at the Met

EXHIBITION: See Ancient Trade Route Treasures at the Met. “The World Between Empires,” linking present and past, celebrates the distinctive art from all the cultures of the Middle East (Holland Cotter, New York Times).

Finally, through their arrangement of those objects — around 190, which date roughly from 100 B.C. to 250 A.D. — the curators make clear why imperial Rome and Parthia were so invested on asserting control of the Middle Eastern “world between”: because one of the most extensive and lucrative trade routes on earth stretched across it, and, gallery by gallery, culture by culture, the exhibition traces its path.

This begins in Southwestern Arabia (modern-day Yemen) and moves north to the kingdom of Nabataea — an ally of the Roman Empire — with its rock-cut capital at Petra (now in Jordan). From there the route continues through the rebellious territory of Judaea (Israel and Palestine), to the ritual center of Heliopolis-Baalbek in present-day Lebanon. Finally come the route’s grand, easternmost cities, until very recently well-preserved ruins: Palmyra and Dura-Europos in Syria, and Babylon and Hatra in Iraq. In the art at each stop, imperial influence is evident, if only as an overlay, and local traditions hold their own.

The article has good photos of many of the remarkable objects in the exhibition. Looks well worth a visit.

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The architects side with the Karaites

KARAITE-AND-CABLE-CAR-CONFLICT WATCH: Internationally renowned architects add opposition to Jerusalem cable car plan. Ron Arad, Moshe Safdie, Santiago Calatrava among 27 figures charging that ‘powerful interest groups’ are putting tourism and politics above safeguarding cultural treasures (Sue Surkes, Times of Israel).

The article only mentions the opposition to the cable car plan by the local Karaite community at the very end. But more on that here.

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On mistranslations of biblical words

BELIEFNET: Biblical Translations We Keep Screwing Up. You keep using that word. It does not mean what you think it means (Stephanie Hertzenberg).

Two comments. First the section on the word Asherah is correct that it means more than just a "sacred pole" and that it is associated with the Canaanite goddess Asherah. But the Hebrew word is used with the definite article, which means it refers to an object rather than directly to the goddess herself. (Personal names cannot take definite articles.) So perhaps translate "Asherah's sacred pole" or some such?

For many past posts on Asherah and the asherah, see here and here and links.

Second, "Lo Tirtsah does mean "you shall not murder" in certain contexts, but the range meaning is wider than that. It also refers to when someone accidentally kills someone else (which we call "manslaughter"). The verb means something like "to kill without provocation" or "to kill in cold blood." Additional details are here.

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Opening Jerusalem's Nea Church to the public?

PETITIONED BY EMEK SHAVEH: Decades after discovery, Jerusalem’s Byzantine masterpiece may open to public (Ilan Ben Zion, Al-Monitor). The article reports that the Nea Church was founded by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century. It was excavated in the 1970s by Nahman Avigad, but most of its subterranean vaults still remain closed to the public.

But Daniel Shukrun, secretary of the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter, told Al-Monitor that the Nea Church vaults are presently unsafe for the general public. In late 2017, the company conducted a major clean-up operation inside the subterranean chambers to clear out years of accumulated bat droppings and refuse, but the area remains unsuitable for tourists, he said.

“The sanitation problems were so severe down there that we couldn’t even understand what we were up against,” he added. Nonetheless, Shukrun said that in light of Emek Shaveh’s petition, the company has gotten the ball rolling on evaluating a development plan for the Nea Church ruins.

But he says that it would cost a lot of money.

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Halutza ("Elusa") inscription

EPIGRAPHY: Archaeological Excavations Reveal 1700 Year-Old Inscription of City Named ‘Elusa’ (Halutza) in the Negev (Jewish Press News Desk).

The name of the city of Elusa appears in a number of historical documents and contexts, including the Madaba mosaic map, the Nessana papyri and other historical references. However, this is the first time that the name of the city has been discovered in the site itself. The inscription mentions several Caesars of the tetrarchy which allow to date it around 300 CE.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Halutza is also one of two possible sites for the biblical city of Ziklag.

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Pi Day 2019

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Origins: 3.14159265… Why did the ancients invent increasingly subtle and ingenious methods to arrive at an exact value of pi? Human curiosity (Kim Jonas).

For more on Pi Day and Pi and Judaism, see here and here and links.

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Fishbane on poetics of the Zohar

THE BOOK OF DOCTRINES AND OPINIONS BLOG: Eitan Fishbane on The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar.

Alan Brill interviews Professor Fishbane on his new book, The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar (Oxford University Press, 2018). There is also a survey of recent scholarship on the Zohar. Excerpt from the long interview:

12) If this is the Zohar, then why read Zohar instead of Lord of Rings, Harry Potter, or Game of Thrones?

Certainly, it is a unique literary world unto itself, which is not reducible to these later instances of fantastic storytelling. But it does share certain features with the magical classics you mention here, the creation of a paranormal universe in which characters are transported beyond the bounds of our normal expectations within natural law.

I noted a panel discussion on the book here. And for many, many past posts on the Zohar, start there and follow the links. Cross-file under Zohar Watch.

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Judaism and Coptic Magic

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri IX: Judaism and Coptic Magic (Korshi Dosoo). A wide-ranging post that starts with background on the history of Judaism in Egypt and goes on to specific magical traditions and texts, including a new Coptic magical papyrus involving Solomon.

I have noted the previous posts in the series here and here.

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Dos and don'ts: cooking for the Sabbath

DR. SARIT KATTAN GRIBETZ: Shabbat with Food: From Biblical Prohibitions to Rabbinic Feasts (TheTorah.com).

Biblical prohibitions against preparing food on Shabbat are further developed in the Second Temple and rabbinic periods. At the same time, a new emphasis emerges: celebrating Shabbat with festive meals.

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More on the Roman Temple of Peace

THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: Rome — Temple of Peace and a Map of Ancient Rome. Carl Rasmussen gives some further background on the Roman temple where the treasures of the Jerusalem Temple were kept after the Great Revolt of 70 C.E.

Background here and here, with Part 3 still to come.

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Purim was regulated in the Theodosian Code

PURIM IS COMING: The Romans tried to ban wild Purim parties in 408 CE – for a very good reason (Henry Abramson, JTA).

An unusual bit of the Theodosian Code (16.8.18) is apparently the first non-Jewish source to document the phenomenon of Purim parties that get out of hand. Specifically, the law prohibited Jews from burning Haman in effigy. For Jews, the practice of symbolically destroying the notorious villain of the book of Esther, the paradigm of anti-Semitism, was considered an aspect of the Purim commandment to “erase the name of Amalek,” Haman’s Jew-hating ancestor.

The issue seems to have arisen over a misunderstanding of the biblical account of Haman's death.

UPDATE (19 March): I see I noted another story on this topic here.

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Blank cartridges and a fake manuscript

APPREHENDED: Turkish police seize ancient manuscript stolen from Syrian museum (Anadolu Agency/Hurriyet Daily News). The Turkish authorities continue to round up fake ancient artifacts before they reach the antiquities market.

This codex bears the hallmarks of a crude modern fake. Most importantly, the writing on the page shown in the photo consists of lines of meaningless sequences of Hebrew letters with frequent repetition.

There are other suspicious features. The letters are written in gold leaf. The material and cut of the pages is similar to other fakes. There is a drawing, in this case of a wyvern-like creature. The drawing doesn't look very old to me, but I'm not an art historian.

The police also recovered (from the car of the suspects) a gun that fires blanks. Metaphor Watch?

The information that the book was stolen from a Syrian museum comes from the apprehended suspects, who may not be very reliable sources for provenance information. It would not surprise me, though, if it did come from Syria.

Many such artifacts have been apprehended recently in Turkey. The only ones I think are likely to be genuine are some coins. For past apprehensions, start here and keep following the links back. And this post on recent Hebrew forgeries from Arab countries seems relevant too.

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Some early Christian women

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY reposted some posts on women in the New Testament and the New Testament Apocrypha, leading up to International Women's Day, which was last Friday.

Anna in the Bible. Luke reveals the prophetess as a Biblical model for aging (Robin Gallaher Branch)

Who Was Thecla? The early Christian saint, rebel, and protagonist of the Acts of Thecla (Megan Sauter)

Some past PaleoJudaica posts on Thecla are here and links and here.

Lydia and Tabitha in the Bible. Women leaders in the early Christian church (Megan Sauter)

For more on Tabitha and Lydia follow the links for posts by Phil Long in his series on the Book of Acts at his Reading Acts Blog.

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The Seleucid coins, Part 3

NUMISMATICS: CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series – The Seleucids and Their Coins: Part III (Mike Markowitz, Coin Week). The Hebrew Bible does not mention any of these Seleucid kings. But all of those covered in this installment appear in 1 Maccabees and some also in 2 Maccabees.

I noted Part I of this series here. Also there, see a link for more on the Seleucids. And I noted part Part II here.

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How Old is the Hebrew Bible? - authors respond to Young and Rezetko

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Flawed Philology

Young and Rezetko’s whole discourse is oriented to the outcome, dictated from the start, that there is no historical linguistics of ancient Hebrew. This is a disingenuous procedure that makes for flawed philology.

See Also: Can the Ages of Biblical Literature be Discerned Without Literary Analysis?
How Old Is the Hebrew Bible?

By Ronald Hendel
Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies
University of California, Berkeley

By Jan Joosten
Regius Professor of Hebrew
University of Oxford
March 2019

Background here. For other posts on the book that was under review (Hendel and Joosten, How Old is the Hebrew Bible?), follow the links there (cf. here).

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On Herod the Great

THE WORLD IS FULL OF HISTORY: Who Was the Real King Herod? (Owen Jarus, Live Science). An excellent capsule history of the life of Herod the Great.

The subheading "Did he kill Jesus?" is odd, because it doesn't fit the contents of what follows. Perhaps it should have read "Did he try to kill Jesus?"

For many past posts on Herod the Great, start here and just follow those links.

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On the Copper Scroll

ON THE SUBJECT OF TREASURE AGAIN: The Lost Treasure of the Dead Sea Copper Scroll (Joanna Gillan, Ancient Origins). As I have noted before, the quality of the essays in Ancient Origins is variable. This one is pretty good. It gives an accurate account of the discovery of the Copper Scroll, its contents, and some possible explanations of its contents. The essay could have added that one interpretation reads the amounts of treasure to be much smaller — and therefore more believable — than the traditional interpretation.

The essay concludes with the current efforts of one Jim Barfield to find the Copper Scroll treasures. I have commented on that here and links. For reasons explained there, I do not find Mr. Barfield's claims to be credible.

For many other past posts on the Copper Scroll, start here and follow the links.

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Feldman, Story and Sacrifice

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Dissertation Spotlight | Story and Sacrifice: Ritual, Narrative, and the Priestly Source.

Liane M. Feldman, “Story and Sacrifice: Ritual, Narrative, and the Priestly Source,” PhD Dissertation, University of Chicago, 2018.

Excerpt:

With these questions in mind, my dissertation centered on the eight-day tabernacle inauguration episode in Exodus 40 through Numbers 8, with an eye to two interrelated issues: 1) the question of the relationship between ritual and narrative in pentateuchal literature, and 2) the issue of identifying stratification within a narrative text. This second issue prompted the development of a new narratologically-based approach for the analysis of composite narrative texts that I use throughout the dissertation, and which, I argue, would prove fruitful for the study of the Hebrew Bible and Pentateuch more generally.

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The latest on the Tomb of Ezekiel

AJAM MEDIA COLLECTIVE: A Jewish Shrine inside a Mosque: the History of Ezekiel’s Tomb in Iraq (Alex Shams). An impressive, comprehensive history of the (traditional) Tomb of Ezekiel in Al-Kifl, Iraq, with many excellent photographs. It includes an update on the restoration work, which was noted here in 2010. According to the article, the "compromise" involved erasing Hebrew inscriptions from the mosque section, which does not sound very satisfactory to me.

I have been following the fate of the (traditional) Tomb of Ezekiel for many years. For other past posts, start here and follow the links.

HT AJR.

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Najman on the DSS at 70

VIDEO: The Dead Sea Scrolls 70 Years On. A lecture by Professor Hindy Najman posted by Chabad at Oxford.

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CFP: ETS LXX 2019

WILLIAM ROSS: 2019 ETS SEPTUAGINT STUDIES CALL FOR PAPERS. The deadline for proposals is 29 March 2019.

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The Temple treasures and the Temple of Peace

THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: A.D. 70 The Destruction of the Temple — Where did the Temple Treasure Go? Part 2. In this installment, Carl Rasmussen tells us the fate of the Temple treasures in Rome. But for what happened to them after that, we have wait for Part 3.

Meanwhile, for Part 1 and additional coverage of the question, see here and links.

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Unpublished Oxyrhynchus biblical papyri

THE EGYPT EXPLORATION SOCIETY: Unpublished EES biblical papyri. In brief, among the unpublished papyrus fragments from Oxyrhynchus, there are 20 New Testament fragments, 80 Septuagint (i.e., Greek Old Testament) fragments, and 10 patristic fragments. Follow the link for a few more details.

I hope they publish a more detailed list of which books the fragments come from. Also, I wonder if they are aware of any unpublished fragments of Old Testament pseudepigrapha? The most recent volume included some of Jannes and Jambres.

HT Brent Nongbri at Variant Readings.

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Hannibal and the Second Punic War

PUNIC WATCH: Who was Hannibal? Sworn by his father to forever hate the Romans, Hannibal staged one of the most legendary attacks in the history of military warfare on the formidable army (National Geographic). Because you should know these things.

For past posts on Hannibal and his remarkably military campaign against Rome, see here and links. If Hannibal's luck had been a little better, the learned language of medieval Europe would have been Punic instead of Latin.

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T&T Clark Handbook to Early Christian Meals in the Greco-Roman World (ed. Al-Suadi and Smit)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

T&T Clark Handbook to Early Christian Meals in the Greco-Roman World

Editor(s): Soham Al-Suadi, Peter-Ben Smit

Published: 21-02-2019
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 416
ISBN: 9780567666406
Imprint: T&T Clark
Series: T&T Clark Handbooks
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
RRP: £130.00
Online price: £117.00
Save £13.00 (10%)

About T&T Clark Handbook to Early Christian Meals in the Greco-Roman World
This handbook situates early Christian meals in their broader context, with a focus on the core topics that aid understanding of Greco-Roman meal practice, and how this relates to Christian origins. In addition to looking at the broader Hellenistic context, the contributors explain the unique nature of Christian meals, and what they reveal about early Christian communities and the development of Christian identity.

Beginning with Hellenistic documents and authors before moving on to the New Testament material itself, according to genre - Gospels, Acts, Letters, Apocalyptic Literature - the handbook culminates with a section on the wider resources that describe daily life in the period, such as medical documents and inscriptions. The literary, historical, theological and philosophical aspects of these resources are also considered, including such aspects as the role of gender during meals; issues of monotheism and polytheism that arise from the structure of the meal; how sacrifice is understood in different meal practices; power dynamics during the meal and issues of inclusion and exclusion at meals.

There is also a lot of discussion of meals in ancient Jewish contexts.

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