"I bore you on vultures' wings?"

BIBLICAL ORNITHOLOGY: Biblically mislabelled, Israel's griffon vultures get new lease of life (Reuters). Reuters also has a photo essay on the griffon vulture here.

The reference alluded to in the article is Exodus 19:4.

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Alexander's ancestors

NUMISMATICS: CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: Macedon Before Alexander (Mike Markowitz).

Alexander the Great comes up now and then on PaleoJudaica. He is connected to ancient Jewish tradition in various ways, including mentions by the Book of Daniel and by Josephus, and in traditions in one recension of the Alexander Romance. One rarely hears of his predecessors, apart from his father, Philip. But Alexander descends from a long Macedonian dynasty. Our Alexander is Alexander III — two previous kings in the dynasty were also named Alexander.

For detailed background on the Macedonian dynasty, along with nice photos of its coins, read this article.

For background on Alexander's connections to ancient Jewish tradition, start here and follow the many links.

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Why a second Passover?

PROF. STEVEN FRAADE: The Paradox of Pesach Sheni (TheTorah.com).

As a historical commemoration, Passover is tied to a specific date. Nevertheless, the Torah gives a make-up date for bringing the offering a month later. Gerim, non-Israelites living among Israelites as equals, are also allowed to bring this offering, even though it wasn’t their ancestors who were freed. How do we make sense of these anomalies?

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The mark of the beast and its number

READING ACTS: What is the Mark of the Beast? – Revelation 13:16-18. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation, concentrating on the seven sights of chapters 12-15. We are on the third sight, the beast that rose from the earth and its number.

I promised you more links when we got to this point. The meaning of the number of the beast to John is pretty clear. It applies to Nero. "Nero Caesar," when the Latin is transliterated into Hebrew letters, has the numerical value (gematria) of 666 in one spelling and 616 in another spelling. The manuscripts of the Book of Revelation have two variant values of the number of the beast: 666 and 616.

You can find past posts on the subject here and links. That post leads to a photo of a coin bearing the Latin phrase NERO CAESAR. That spelling in Hebrew letters would add up to 616. The same spelling appears on a gold coin, noted here (alas, no photo).

The other Latin spelling is NERON CAESAR. The Hebrew spelling of this name has the value 666. This spelling of the name in Hebrew letters actually appears on an ostracon from Murabbaat from Nero's time.

I have noted earlier posts in Phil's series on the Book of Revelation here and links. That post has more on the Book of Revelation and the Nero tradition.

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Canaanite ancestry of Jews and Arabs?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Jews and Arabs Descended from Canaanites. DNA analysis, from bodies found at several sites, explains more than half of ancestry (Jonathan Laden). This study has been in the news for a while. This essay explains the main issues clearly and concisely.

There have been many DNA studies in recent years. For more on Jewish DNA, see here and links. For more on Canaanite/Phoenician DNA, see here, here, here, and here. For Philistine DNA, see here. For Ethiopian DNA, see here. For the DNA of speakers of Aramaic, see here. And for Druze DNA, see here. For more on the study of human DNA in general, see here and links.

And it's not just human DNA! For the DNA of domesticated cats, see here and links. And, of course, for the DNA analysis of manuscripts, see here, here, here, and links.

For still more posts on various aspects of DNA analysis, run "DNA" through the PaleoJudaica search engine.

As usual, I make no claims about the accuracy or comprehensiveness of any of these studies or their coverage by the media. I blog, you decide.

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Klaus Berger, 1940-2020

SAD NEWS: Reports have been coming in that Professor Klaus Berger, New Testament scholar at Heidelberg University, passed away on 8 June 2020. In addition to his many contributions to New Testament studies, he also published extensively on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I cannot find any English notices of his death, but there are two German articles in the Die Tagespost:

Klaus Berger gestorben. Der Heidelberger Neutestamentler Klaus Berger ist gestern plötzlich gestorben

Klaus Berger: Gelebte Ganzhingabe. Zum Tod des deutschen Exegeten (Barbara Stühlmeyer)

His brief English Wikipedia page is here. The German Wikipedia page (here) is much fuller. I was mostly familiar with his work on the Aramaic Qumran texts in Die aramäischen Texte vom Toten Meer (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984, 1994).

Requiescat in pace.

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Kleczar, Ha-Makdoni, Images of Alexander the Great ...

NEW BOOK FROM ARCHEOBOOKS:

Ha-Makdoni, Images of Alexander the Great in Ancient and Medieval Jewish Literature

25,00 $
ISBN: 978-83-65080-98-1
Description: softcover, 184 pages (24x17)
Condition: new
Weight: 295g.

Aleksandra Kleczar, Ha-Makdoni, Images of Alexander the Great in Ancient and Medieval Jewish Literature, Krakow 2019

Alexander the Great is an unexpected yet important hero of a number of ancient and medieval Jewish narratives. He appears in historical works, prophecies, moralizing parables and in a number of fantastic stories retelling his life and deeds. These legends were in circulation very early on: the earliest written accounts on Alexander in Jewish tradition are older than the ones preserved from the Greco-Roman world.
This book is devoted to the analysis of the image of Alexander in Jewish literature. By tracing his image as an exemplary foreign king, a leader chosen by God, an object of moral critique and a traveller in far, imagined lands we can shed some light on a number of interesting features of Jewish-Graeco-Roman cultural exchange. The book should be of interest for those studying Jewish culture and classical reception as well as scholars dealing with the development of the legendary image of Alexander the Great.

I noted a few recent books on related themes here, here and here. Follow the links from those posts for many other posts on Alexander. And for past posts on the Alexander Romance, one recension of which connects Alexander to Jewish traditions, see here and links.

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Revelation as anti-imperial counter-propaganda?

READING ACTS: Who is the Lord of Earth and Sea? – Revelation 13. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation, concentrating on the seven sights of chapters 12-15.

This post involves the second and the third sights, the beasts rising from the sea and from the earth. It includes discussion of a Roman imperial propaganda inscription from Pergamum.

I have noted earlier posts in Phil's series on the Book of Revelation here and links.

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Online conference on provenance of the DSS

UNIVERSITY OF AGDER, NORWAY: THE LYING PEN OF SCRIBES: On the Origin of the Pieces: The Provenance of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Virtual Conference 15th–16th of June, 2020. This event is free to join and open to the public. Follow the link for the conference programme and registration information.

HT Joseph Lauer.

For more on Professor Justnes and the Lying Pen of Scribes Project, see here, here, here, and links.

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In memory of Francis I. Andersen

OBITUARY: Died: Francis I. Andersen, Scholar Who Used Computers to Study the Bible. He found ‘awesome reality of a living God’ in the grammar and syntax of Hebrew Scripture (DANIEL SILLIMAN, Christianity Today).

Background here and links.

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Did prophecy require celibacy?

PROF. RABBI MARTY LOCKSHIN: Did Moses Become Celibate? (TheTorah.com).

The Israelite men are commanded to separate from their wives before the revelation at Sinai. The rabbis learn from this that Moses permanently separated from his wife (Num 12), to be available to speak with God at all times. Joseph ibn Kaspi (14th c.), however, claims that this distorts the plain meaning of the text and that celibacy is an affront to Jewish values.

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A Behemoth of a Beast

READING ACTS: The Beast out of the Earth – Revelation 13:11-15. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation, concentrating on the seven sights of chapters 12-15. We move to the third sight, the beast rising from the earth.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts involving Leviathan and Behemoth are here, here, here, and here.

I have noted earlier posts in Phil's series on the Book of Revelation here and links.

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What's in a (biblical) name?

ONOMASTIC HISTORY: Names Reveal What’s History and What’s Myth in the Bible, Researcher Says. Study of naming traditions shows First Temple-period biblical authors knew a lot about what was going on in Judah, but were less informed on the neighboring kingdom of Israel (David Israel, Haaretz premium). HT Joseph Lauer.

The Biblical Archaeology Review article mentioned in the above is in the current (Spring 2020) issue: What’s in a Name? Personal Names in Ancient Israel and Judah (Mitka R. Golub). It is behind the subscription wall.

For Lawrence Mykytiuk's work on 53 people in the Hebrew Bible who also appear in ancient inscriptions, see here and links.

Cross-file under Northwest Semitic Epigraphy.

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EMET Prize for Dimant and Greenstein

KUDOS: 2020 EMET Prize winners announced. The EMET Prize is known as Israel's Nobel Prize, awarded for excellence which make significant contributions to Israeli society (Alan Rosenbaum, Jerusalem Post).

In the Humanities, the winners are Prof. Devorah Diment [sic - should be Dimant] of the University of Haifa and Prof. Eliezer (Ed) Greenstein of Bar-Ilan University, in the area of Biblical research.

Congratulations to Professor Dimant and Professor Greenstein (and to all the recipients in all fields)!

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Pottery production in Roman-era Jerusalem

MATERIAL CULTURE: Ancient pottery reveals secrets of Roman rule over Jerusalem – new study. Before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the potters operating the workshops were Jewish (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

This article is based on an article published in the current issue (383, May 2020) of the Bulletin of ASOR: Pp. 33-59: “On the Raw Materials in the Ceramic Workshops of Jerusalem, Before and After 70 c.e.,” by Anat Cohen-Weinberger, Danit Levi, and Ron Beʾeri

A large area of pottery workshops was exposed west of the Old City of Jerusalem. This industrial area was operated by Jewish potters during the Hellenistic (Hasmonean) and Early Roman periods. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 c.e., the workshops were placed under the authority of the Xth Legion of the Roman military, who later established another workshop in close proximity to the previous ones. In this study, we examine whether and to what extent those historical and cultural changes are reflected in the production organization, manufacturing processes, and products. The research is based on new petrographic results of 129 ceramic products that were manufactured throughout the chronological sequence of this industrial area. The petrographic results indicate a significant change after 70 c.e. New pottery types (e.g., dolia, mortaria) and building materials (roof tiles, bricks, and tubuli) were produced in association with a new “recipe” and a different geological unit. This change in recipe included the intentional addition of quartz grains to the paste, in order to significantly increase the toughness of the products. We also discuss the reason for exploiting a different geological unit. This study may help in attributing vessels and building materials from other sites in the area to these workshops and provide insights into the nature of the workshops’ activity.

The BASOR article is behind a subscription wall.

Cross-file under Petrography.

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Orion Center Research Scholarships 2020/2021

THERE'S STILL TIME TO APPLY: Orion Center Research Scholarships 2020/2021

The Orion Center invites applications for its research scholarships. The scholarships are for research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and associated literature in all relevant disciplines. We particularly encourage integrative studies involving the Scrolls and other aspects of Second Temple studies. Preference will be given to junior scholars (M.A. students in the process of writing the thesis, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral students).
Research connected with the scholarship must be carried out in Israel. Scholarship recipients will be associated with the Orion Center and participate in Center programs; they will present their research in an Orion Center research seminar. The amount of the grant will be up to $4000.

Deadline: June 15, 2020

Follow the link for application requirements. Don't dawdle!

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More on the Jezreel Winery

FURTHER TO YESTERDAY'S POST ON THE JEZREEL WINERY, Dr. Norma Franklin has kindly sent me offprints of several articles on the winery excavation. One of them is online for free:

The Story of Naboth’s Vineyard and the Ancient Winery in Jezreel (Dr. Norma Franklin, TheTorah.com)

What light can archaeology shed on the significance and location of the vineyard?

You can also read this one in Biblical Archaeology Review for free, but you need a paid subscription to see the full version with images:

Have We Found Naboth’s Vineyard at Jezreel? Norma Franklin, Jennie Ebeling, Philippe Guillaume, and Deborah Appler November 01, 2017

If you have access to JSTOR, you can also read this one:

An Ancient Winery at Jezreel, Israel

Norma Franklin, Jennie Ebeling, Philippe Guillaume and Deborah Appler
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies
Vol. 8, No. 1 (2020), pp. 58-78

I am grateful to Dr. Franklin for the references.

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Using the Digital Syriac Corpus

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Using the Digital Syriac Corpus for Online Syriac Instruction (James Walters).

I have posted on the Digital Syriac Corpus here and here. This essay is a useful introduction to it.

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Mapping a Roman city with GPR

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Archaeologists map complete Roman city without lifting a shovel (Brooks Hays, UPI). The name of the city is Falerii Novi. It is a little north of Rome.

For a similar story from a couple of days ago, see here. As with the magnetometry in that one, this GPR technology has wide applications for future archaeology.

Indeed, as I have said before, non-invasive and non-destructive technologies are the future of archaeology. This post in particular is aging well.

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An anniversary for the Beast?

READING ACTS: The Beast Who Lived – Revelation 13:3-4. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation, concentrating on the seven sights of chapters 12-15. We are still on the second sight, the beast rising from the sea.

For a couple of past PaleoJudaica posts on the Nero rediturus ("Nero will return") myth and the Nero redivivus ("Nero will come back to life") myth, see here and here (links to one of Phil's posts). I will give you some more links when Phil gets to the end of chapter 13.

Meanwhile, by a remarkable cosmic synchronicity, today is the 1952nd anniversary of Nero's death.

I have noted earlier posts in Phil's series on the Book of Revelation here and links.

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Have they found Naboth's vineyard?

ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeologists might have identified Jezreel winery featured in Bible. The winery was first discovered in 2013 and exposed in several seasons of excavations in the following years. It presents several installations carved into the bedrock (Rosella Tercarin, Jerusalem Post).

It is currently impossible to date with certainty the remains of the ancient winery that was uncovered not far from Jezreel, a settlement that has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years, the lead author of the study, Dr. Norma Franklin of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, told The Jerusalem Post. However, different factors support the idea that whether or not there was a man called Naboth, whoever authored the story must have been aware of the existence of that winery, the only one in the compatible area, she said.

I haven't specifically mentioned this discovery, although I noted a 2015 report on the Jezreel Expedition which does mention it.

I am generally skeptical about attempts to tie archaeology to specific stories in the Bible. But the excavators know more about the Jezreel winery than I do. I defer to their opinion.

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A soothing odor?

CANDIDA MOSS: Was God a Stoner? Excavations at a 2,700-year-old temple in the Negev desert have uncovered a residue familiar to many a pothead (The Daily Beast). I had assumed that it was the worshippers who were getting high. That still seems right. But Professor Moss makes the case that the rite assumed that God participated too.

Background here.

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Orlov (ed.), Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism

Studies in Honor of Alexander Golitzin

Series:
Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements, Volume: 160

Editor: Andrei A. Orlov

The essays collected in Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism intend to honor Alexander Golitzin, a scholar known for his keen attention to the Jewish matrix of Eastern Orthodox spirituality. Following Golitzin's insights, this Festschrift explores influences of Jewish apocalypticism and mysticism on certain early and late Christian authors, including Irenaeus, Origen, Evagrius of Pontus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Symeon the New Theologian. Special attention is given to Jewish theophanic traditions regarding the beatific vision of the divine Glory (Kavod), which profoundly shaped Eastern Christian theology and liturgy. This volume demonstrates that recent developments in the study of apocalyptic literature, the Qumran Scrolls, Gnosticism, and later Jewish mysticism throw new and welcome light on the sources and continuities of Orthodox theology, liturgy, and spirituality.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €138.00 / $166.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42953-6
Publication Date: 21 May 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42952-9
Publication Date: 23 May 2020

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Ancient controversy over the suspected adulteress

PROF. ISHAY ROSEN-ZVI: Shaming Women Suspected of Adultery - What About Men? (TheTorah.com).

The Mishnah adds further humiliation to the biblical sotah ritual for a suspected adulteress. Other rabbinic texts from the same period critique this expansion, as well as the gender inequality inherent in the ritual itself.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on the Sotah (Sota) rite are here, here, here, here, here (was the rite actually discontinued?), and here.

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McGrath on Gnostic origins

RELIGION PROF: Gnostic Origins and Pre-Exilic Israelite Traditions. James McGrath shares the abstract for his paper, "Deity, Devil, Demiurge: The Shared Origins of Monotheism, the Problem of Evil, and ‘Gnosticism," which is to be presented in the upcoming remote-delivery Enoch Seminar on the problem of evil in Second Temple Judaism.

James also shares the latest program for the Seminar. You will find my name there too.

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Lockdown at a Roman fort

CONSERVATION: Vindolanda Fort: Roman site becomes family's lockdown home. A family spending lockdown living in a Roman Fort have described it as a "surreal experience" (BBC).

As the UK went into lockdown Sonya and Colin Galloway, who both work for the trust that runs Vindolanda Fort, left their home in Hexham to live there.
The couple thought they and their sons Oliver, 15, and Luke, 13, would only be there for three or four weeks.
But they have remained for 11 weeks, sweeping bathhouses and protecting artefacts from wind and badger damage.

[...]

I visited Vindolanda a couple of years ago, and also back in 2006. For PaleoJudaica posts, see here and here and links.

Vindolanda Fort flourished in the late first and early second centuries C.E. and continued into the fourth century. It is best known for the vast archive of Latin documentary tablets found there, sometimes known as the Dead Sea Scrolls of Britain. For details, and for other stories that connect Vindolanda and Hadrian's Wall to ancient Judaism and the Bible in various indirect ways, see the links.

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Magnetic tracing of the wall of Uruk

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Beneath the Euphrates Sediments: Magnetic Traces of the Mesopotamian Megacity Uruk-Warka (Jörg W.E. Fassbinder, The Ancient Near East Today).

This fascinating project was undertaken at Warka, the site of ancient Uruk, the city of Gilgamesh. In the prologue and epilogue of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh points to the wall of Uruk as his enduring achievement. It's still there!

The technology of the project has the potential for wide application to archaeology.

UPDATE: Pardon the bad link. Now fixed!

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The dragon, the horns, and the heads

READING ACTS: A Dragon with Ten Horns and Seven Heads – Revelation 13:1-2. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation, concentrating on the seven sights of chapters 12-15. We are now on the second sight, the beast rising from the sea.

I have noted earlier posts in Phil's series on the Book of Revelation here and links.

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