What are we to imagine when Gen 6:1–4 describes heavenly beings as entering into a sexual relationship with human women, from which liaisons giant children are born? Such seems rather to belong to the realm of Greek mythology, but hardly fits within the biblical tradition.
It was while skimming through the prospectus for Oxford that I came across Oriental Studies. Oriental Studies covers an extraordinarily wide variety of cultures and languages, with more and more being absorbed into the roster all of the time. When I turned the page, I found Egyptology. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Cross-file under Coptic Watch
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A podcast about Arabic and Hebrew language learning, linguistics, and Near Eastern archaeology and history.
I can read much faster than I can listen, so I don't take the time to listen to many podcasts. But some of those in this series do sound well worth listening to.
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Editors: Stanley E. Porter and Christopher D. Land
In Paul and Scripture, an international group of scholars discuss a range of topics related to the Apostle Paul and his relationship(s) with Jewish Scripture. The essays represent a broad spectrum of viewpoints, with some devoted to methodological issues, others to general patterns in Paul’s uses of Scripture, and still others to specific letters or passages within the traditional Pauline canon (inclusive of the disputed letters). The end result is an overview of the various ways in which Paul the Apostle weaves into his writings the authority, content, and even wording of Jewish Scriptures.
Publication Date: 19 March 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-39151-2
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It was just under 150 meters above the lunar surface when problems began. There was trouble with the main engine. They lost contact with the probe shortly afterward. As far as I can find out, they never regained contact. Presumably the probe crashed and was destroyed.
You can see the recording of the broadcast in the video below. Things start to go wrong around 35 minutes in. In minute 36, there is an announcement that there is a problem with the main engine. They reset the spacecraft and the engine comes on again to applause. But another voice seems to protest that all is not yet well. An announcement comes at 37:19 that contact with the spacecraft has been lost. Then at 39:30 the announcement comes that the probe failed to land.
This was still a great achievement. Space travel is hard. It is impressive that the project got so close to full success on such a small budget. Let's hope that next time (and all indicators are that there will be a next time) they will achieve a soft landing.
Meanwhile, the Space X Prize is still awarding the project $1 million for reaching the surface of the moon.
Background here, with commentary on the name Beresheet, "In the beginning."
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RELIGION PROF: Paul’s Story of Jesus. James McGrath uses Mike Bird's summary of Paul's teachings about Jesus as a launching point for a discussion of the question with a lot of other links.
I think Professor Bird's two summaries are good, but they could include more on the teachings of Jesus (Paul's logia of the Lord). The article by F. F. Bruce is especially good on that topic.
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VARIANT READINGS: Kenyon’s Editions of the Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri Online (Brent Nongbri). The online edition makes available valuable photos of the biblical and Enochic manuscripts at the Chester Beatty Library. The edition was published in 1933, so the photos are of the manuscripts when they were nearly a century younger than today.
This tomb in Akeldema is also near the first-century "Tomb of the Shroud" (not the Shroud of Turin!). Akeldema was also in the news last year with reference to a looting arrest.
Earlier posts in Carl Rasmussen's Easter season series are noted here and here
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Aaron Yefet, a member of a Karaite family, died in 2014 and is buried in the community's ancient cemetery in the Hinnom Valley, abutting the Old City walls. His widow and children submitted a formal reservation last week to the cable car plan.
“It is most aggravating to see that the attitude of the authorities to the Karaites and their cemetery has been one of total disregard – not to mention the contempt and serious, shameful and outrageous offense done to the deceased and their families,” stated the complaint, which was submitted by attorney Eitan Peleg on the family’s behalf.
The protest by the Yefets and by others in their community was spurred by the discovery that the project's planners were aware of the cemetery and had even intended to build a roof over it to serve as a barrier so that kohanim – members of the Jewish priestly class, who are not permitted to enter cemeteries due to the fear of ritual impurity – would be able to use the cable car.
To be fair, the Jerusalem Development Authority tells the story somewhat differently. Read the whole article for details.
Background here and links. And for many other posts on the Karaites, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.
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THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: Place of Peter’s Denial of Jesus? (Carl Rasmussen). There is a Byzantine-era tradition that the church is at or near the site of the house of Caiaphas the High Priest. And there does seem to have been Second-Temple-era architecture there.
The Torah prescribes the observance of festivals on very specific dates, but does not explain how the calendar must be reckoned: Is it lunar? Is it solar? Does it follow some other scheme? And why is the Torah silent on this?
There's no particular reason that either the Bible or the Torah have to have a single answer to this question. There were competing Jewish calendars in the Second Temple Period (as the essay discusses).
Some past posts on ancient Jewish calendars are here and follow the links. And I have collected posts on the somewhat related question of the chronology of the Gospel Passion narratives here.
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The classic, heroic figure of King David is the most dominant of many different figures we have of David. The story of the shepherd boy David’s rise from his rejection and flight in to the wilderness to become king of all Israel reflects a long tradition of ancient Near Eastern royal inscriptions from the Bronze Age to the Persian period.
By Thomas L. Thompson
Professor Emeritus
University of Copenhagen
April 4, 2019
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Past posts on the Chester Beatty Library, which I visited in 2017 during the British New Testament Conference in Maynooth, are here and links. I also noted the Library's manuscript digitization project in 2017 here. If you go to their website you can see lots of images of fascinating biblical, Bible-related, and other manuscripts in many languages. For example, here are the Library's fragments of an important Greek manuscript of 1 Enoch.
In conclusion, Neoplatonic Demons and Angels will be a useful resource for scholars working on ancient demonology and angelology, offering detailed information and insightful thoughts on specific authors and issues, together with awareness of the most recent scholarly debate. The book could have engaged more with the philosophical potential of the notion of a mediating entity, but it nonetheless marks a significant advance in reconstructing the discussions around demons and angels, and will provide useful insights for future scholars to work on.
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Hanna is from Jerusalem and has lived there all her life. She composes original songs that she publishes through YouTube, which have garnered millions of views. She sings in Hebrew, and in 2015, Forbes listed her as one of Israel’s 50 most influential women. Hanna also sang at the 2017 Maccabiah Games, the third largest sporting competition in the world.
Hanna’s talk focused on the correspondence between saying letters of the Hebrew alphabet and moving one’s body in a space.
For more on Ms. Hannah's music, which is influenced by Jewish esoteric writings such as Sefer Yetsirah, see yesterday's post and links.
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BOOK REVIEW: Quarried in Air (Shai Secunda, Jewish Review of Books). The book is:
Sefer Yeṣirah and Its Contexts: Other Jewish Voices
by Tzahi Weiss
University of Pennsylvania Press
208 pp., $59.95
Excerpts:
In the introduction to hisSefer Yeṣirah and Its Contexts: Other Jewish Voices, Tzahi Weiss quips that after a century and a half of research, we know almost everything there is to know about Sefer Yeṣirah except the identity of its author, the time and place of its writing, the shape of the original text, and, also, its meaning.
Yes, that about sums it up.
Weiss contends that Sefer Yeṣirah applies the Syriac Christian alphabetology to the singular language of Hebrew. He argues that the text emerged from a barely known northern Mesopotamian Jewish community at some remove from rabbinic Babylonia, located to the south. If this is right, then Weiss has done more than locate the true origins of Sefer Yeṣirah, he has recovered the “Other Jewish Voices” of his monograph’s subtitle, voices that had been drowned out by the rolling waters and gasping wind of the talmudic sea.
Intriguing. Past posts on Sefer Yetsirah) are here and here and links. Variant English spellings include Sepher Yetsirah, Sefer Yetzira, and Sefer Yesira.
The second part of the article reviews the self-titled 2017 album by Israeli musician Victoria Hanna. It was heavily influenced by Sefer Yetsirah. Notably the song "22 Letters." You should listen to it. Also to "The Aleph-bet Song (Hosha'ana)." For more on her work, see here.
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THE ANXIOUS BENCH: The Mocking of Carabas. Philip Jenkins notes a story related by Philo of Alexandria which has striking parallels to the accounts of the pre-crucifixion mocking of Jesus in the Gospels. I don't remember encountering it before. Professor Jenkins also has some informed speculation about what to make of the parallels. I can't do any better.
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HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: Palm Sunday and “Holy Week.” In this post, Carl Rasmussen begins a series with photo links for Palm Sunday (which is this Sunday, 14 April) and the following week.
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Publisher: Magnes
Categories:
Jewish Studies, Jewish Thought, Religion
Publish date: February 2019
Language: Hebrew
Danacode: 45-171080
ISBN: 978-965-7763-77-3
Cover: Paperback
Pages: 296
Format: 15x22.5 cm
Weight: 600 gr.
This study is the first monograph on the meanings given to the divine name YHWH in the Jewish tradition. It seeks to trace the interplay between the motivation to speak about God and the wish to speak to Him through the meanings given to the name YHWH, in three central stages of Jewish thought: the Hebrew Bible, rabbinic literature, and medieval philosophy and mysticism. From a textual perspective, the current study offers a close reading in a variety of Jewish texts and genres, including the Old Testament, Mishna, Midrash, Philo’s writings, Jewish medieval philosophy, biblical exegesis and various mystical texts. There is hardly an exegetical or contemplative Jewish text that does not in some way deal with the name YHWH. Accordingly, almost every scholarly field related to Judaism discusses it in some capacity. However, despite the immensity of the literature, YHWH and its status as a proper name have not been the focus of a comprehensive scholarly work. None have yet attempted to paint a picture of YHWH’s meaning over a spectrum of periods and genres, while offering conceptual and textual discussion. This study seeks to fill that gap
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The Temple Mount Sifiting Project Blog also has a post with additional details: Two Important Announcements. But the bad news is that the prospective funding by the Israeli Government has not (yet) appeared.
For many past posts on the Temple Mount Sifting Project, start here (cf. here and links and here) and follow the links.
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Series:
Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, Volume: 189
Editor: David Frankfurter
In the midst of academic debates about the utility of the term “magic” and the cultural meaning of ancient words like mageia or khesheph, this Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic seeks to advance the discussion by separating out three topics essential to the very idea of magic. The three major sections of this volume address (1) indigenous terminologies for ambiguous or illicit ritual in antiquity; (2) the ancient texts, manuals, and artifacts commonly designated “magical” or used to represent ancient magic; and (3) a series of contexts, from the written word to materiality itself, to which the term “magic” might usefully pertain.
The individual essays in this volume cover most of Mediterranean and Near Eastern antiquity, with essays by both established and emergent scholars of ancient religions.
In a burgeoning field of “magic studies” trying both to preserve and to justify critically the category itself, this volume brings new clarity and provocative insights. This will be an indispensable resource to all interested in magic in the Bible and the Ancient Near East, ancient Greece and Rome, Early Christianity and Judaism, Egypt through the Christian period, and also comparative and critical theory.
Publication Date: 19 March 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-39075-1
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I see no indication that the looting, let alone who may be responsible for it, has been independently verified by archaeologists or the IAA. But let's keep an eye on the story.
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JSIJ - JUDAIC STUDIES, AN INTERNET JOURNAL has published a new volume. It is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online journal. The TOC of volume 15 is as follows:
1. Robert Brody, “Shamma Friedman’s Treatment of the Story of Rav Kahana”
2. Joseph David, “Belonging and Halakhic Change in Medieval Karaite Law and Adjacent Legal Traditions” (Heb.)
3. Yonatan Feintuch, “Esther and Alexander: A Babylonian Reworking of a Palestinian Aggada” (Heb.)
4. Eli Gurfinkel, “Jacob Bachrach’s Notes and Glosses to the Guide of the Perplexed and the Commentaries of Narboni and Satanow” (Heb.)
5. Lea Himmelfarb, “Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Use of Biblical Accentuation in His Commentary on Psalms”
6. Binyamin Katzoff, “Tosefta Bookbindings from Norcia and their Place in the Textual Tradition of the Tosefta” (Heb.)
7. Nachman Levine, “Rav, Roman Imagery, and Korah’s (True) Colors”
8. Shlomo H. Pick, “The Chazzan in Provencia” (Heb.)
9. Shalom Sadiq, “Human Agency in the Thought of Rabbi Aaron from Nicomedia the Karaite” (Heb.)
10. Avraham Ofir Shemesh, “‘And in the Land of Ishmael They Do Like This And There is No Finer Bread than It’: The Influence of Islamic Cuisine and Diet on Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Biblical Commentaries” (Heb.)
11. Yael Shemesh, “The Sacrifice of Jephthah’s Daughter (Judges 11) as a Reflection Story of Rebecca’s Betrothal and Marriage (Genesis 24)”
12. Amram Tropper, “Revisiting ראשי פספסין” (Heb.)
13. Meirav (Tubul) Kahana, “Numerical Sayings in the Mishnah and Tosefta” (Heb.)
14. Shalem Yahalom, “On the Attributions in the Tosafot of R. Eliezer of Tuch” (Heb.)
15. Chanan Yitzchaki, “Which Editions of the Shulhan Arukh Were Used by the Author of the Pithei Teshuvah?” (Heb.)
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BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Irano-Judaica VII. Notice of a New Book: Rubanovich, Julia & Geoffrey Herman (eds.). 2019. Irano-Judaica VII: Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture throughout the Ages. Vol. VII. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East.
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THE MARKERS OF AUTHENTICITY BLOG has two recent posts with updates on the Forging Antiquity Project at Macquarie University and the University of Heidelberg, supported by the Australian Research Council. (I first noted the project here and have linked to the blog occasionally.)
In one post, Student Internships on the ‘Forging Antiquity’ Project, Malcolm Choat reports that four research internships associated with the project are being awarded at Macquarie University, and a fifth associated with the "“Ancient Egyptian papyri" ARC project.
By the end of the internship, research assistant Vanessa Mawby and I had collected data for 180 forgeries. Among these were compositions and copied texts written on a variety of materials in Greek, Demotic, Hieratic and Coptic.
The project included work on a fake biblical manuscript made by the notorious nineteenth-century forger Constantine Simonides. More on him here and links.
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