Herod's royal portico

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Royal Portico on the Temple Mount. King Herod's impressive construction project. As usual, this BHS essay summarizes a paywall-protected article from Biblical Archaeology Review. This summary of Orit Peleg-Barkat's 2019 article “Reimagining Herod’s Royal Portico” is quite detailed. It also has a nice illustration.

Cross-file under Temple Mount Watch.

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10 awesome Israeli archeological sites

PALEOJUDAICA READERS HAVE HEARD OF ALL OF THESE: 10 awesome Israeli archeological sites you never heard of (Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c). They are good ones.

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The Silk Road Sogdians

ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE: A Silk Road Renaissance. Excavations in Tajikistan have unveiled a city of merchant princes that flourished from the fifth to the eighth century A.D (Eric A. Powell). The Sogdians are of interest to PaleoJudaica because they preserved the Book of Giants in one or more translations into their language. Fragments of the Sogdian Book of Giants survive today.

For more on Sogdian, see here and links.

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Lo Sardo, Post-Priestly Additions and Rewritings in Exodus 35–40

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Domenico Lo Sardo. Post-Priestly Additions and Rewritings in Exodus 35–40. An Analysis of MT, LXX, and Vetus Latina. 2020. XXI, 307 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 119. 84,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-159586-8.

Published in English.
In this study, Domenico Lo Sardo shows that the section of MT Exod 35–40 dedicated to the construction of the Tabernacle involves textual and literary problems. It has different textual forms according to MT, LXX, and Vetus Latina (Monacensis ms): LXX Exod 35–40 shows a different order of the literary material and its extension is shorter than the MT. One of the most important differences is the absence of MT Exod 36:8b–34 in the LXX. The Monacensis ms is even shorter than the Greek text. In a text-critical analysis, the author demonstrates that the ‘Short Hebrew Vorlage’ behind the Latin manuscript is the oldest text. In the MT there was post-priestly editorial work marked by expansions, rewritings, and reinterpretations. Employing literary criticism, the author proves that with the expansion of Exod 36:8b–34 and the stressed use of the term miškān (Tabernacle), MT points to legitimate the centralization of the Jerusalem Temple.

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Coin smuggling thwarted at Gaza checkpoint

APPREHENDED: 2,400-year-old coins found hidden in Gaza purses. Israeli security forces foil attempt to smuggle ancient coins from the time of Alexander the Great into Israel (Arutz Sheva). Cross-file under Numismatics

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A new translation of the Bundahišn

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Bundahišn: a new translation. Notice of a New Book: Agostini, Domenico & Samuel Thrope (eds.). 2020. The Bundahišn: The Zoroastrian Book of Creation. A new translation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Follow the link for description and ToC. This is a very important work for Zoroastrian studies.

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Coptic Literature in Context (4th-13th cent.)

THE AWOL BLOG: Coptic Literature in Context (4th-13th cent.) : Cultural Landscape, Literary Production, and Manuscript Archaeology : Proceedings of the Third Conference of the ERC Project Tracking Papyrus and Parchment Paths: An Archaeological Atlas of Coptic Literature : Literary Texts in their Geographical Context (PAThs'). Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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The seventh bowl of wrath

READING ACTS: The Seventh Bowl: It is Done! Revelation 16:17-21. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation. We have just reached the seventh and last bowl of wrath.

For notice of previous posts in Phil's series on Revelation, see here and links.

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Drawnel (ed.), Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later

Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24–26 October 2017

Series: Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 133

Editor: Henryk Drawnel

The essays in Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations cover an array of core themes from various areas of Qumran studies, including textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple history, philology, paleography, Wisdom and religious poetry.
Contributors to this volume generally consider these themes from a historical perspective, trying to find new solutions to old questions and entering in constructive dialogue with the opinions of other scholars. Paleographic investigations, textual criticism as well as literary and philological approaches make this volume a valuable contribution to the variegated and often highly specialized directions of inquiry into the contents and historical background of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €132.00 / $159.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-43279-6
Publication Date: 13 Jul 2020
Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-43156-0
Publication Date: 19 Aug 2020

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Smith, Valentinian Christianity

NEW BOOK FROM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS:

Valentinian Christianity
Texts and Translations

Translated by: Geoffrey S. Smith

University of California Press | 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520969803

£64.00 PDF
FORMATS
PDF
ISBN: 978-0-520-96980-3
Published: 22 Jun 2020

OVERVIEW
Valentinus, an Egyptian Christian who traveled to Rome to teach his unique brand of theology, and his followers, the Valentinians, formed one of the largest and most influential sects of Christianity in the second and third centuries. But by the fourth century, their writings had all but disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from the historical record, as the newly consolidated imperial Christian Church condemned as heretical all forms of what has come to be known as Gnosticism. Only in 1945 were their extensive original works finally rediscovered, and the resurrected “Gnostic Gospels” soon rooted themselves in both the scholarly and popular imagination.

Valentinian Christianity: Texts and Translations brings together for the first time all the extant texts composed by Valentinus and his followers. With fresh, carefully annotated translations throughout and new transcriptions of the original Greek, Latin, and Coptic on facing pages, Geoffrey S. Smith provides an illuminating, balanced overview of Valentinian Christianity and its formative place in Christian history.

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Intertextual Explorations in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature (ed. Corley & Miller)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Intertextual Explorations in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature

Series: Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies, 31

Edited by: Jeremy Corley and Geoffrey David Miller

De Gruyter | 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110416930

From £72.50
FORMATS
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-11-041592-6
Published: 06 May 2019
PDF
ISBN: 978-3-11-041693-0
Published: 06 May 2019
EPUB
ISBN: 978-3-11-041695-4
Published: 06 May 2019

OVERVIEW
This volume explores the fundamentals of intertextual methodology and summarizes recent scholarship on studies of intertextuality in the deuterocanonical books. The essays engage in comparison and analysis of text groups and motifs between canonical, deuterocanonical and non-biblical texts. Moreover, the book pays close attention to non-literary relationships between different traditions, a new feature of research in intertextuality.

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A new head of the IAA's DSS unit

INTERVIEW: What is the future of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls? The new head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Dead Sea Scrolls Unit, archaeologist Joe Uziel, spoke to ‘The Jerusalem Post’ about his vision for his tenure (Rossella Tercatin).

Indeed, the dilemma of whether to preserve the scrolls for future generations or to advance research is one of the fundamental questions that the staff of the unit faces on a daily basis, considering how some of the most interesting research avenues, such as carbon dating or DNA analysis, involve some damage of the material.

“For example, we ask ourselves if today is the time to conduct radio-carbon analysis on the scrolls, when perhaps in one, three or five years, the techniques might be much more developed and less invasive,” Uziel pointed out.

Without expressing a view on this specific question, I note that I have been saying for some time that non-invasive and non-destructive technologies are the future of archaeology. I have some thoughts on related issues here. For lots of specific cases, start here and follow the links.

I noted the 2020 retirement of Pnina Shor, the former director of the unit, here.

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Helen Bond remembers Jimmy Dunn

THE CSCO BLOG: Helen Bond remembers J. D. G. (Jimmy) Dunn.

Professor Helen Bond, former CSCO Director and now Head of the School of Divinity at Edinburgh, took her PhD at Durham under the supervision of J. D. G. (Jimmy) Dunn, who died on 26 June. Here she recalls her friendship with Dunn.

Background here.

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Schmidt, Wisdom, Cosmos, and Cultus in the Book of Sirach

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

A. Jordan Schmidt
Wisdom, Cosmos, and Cultus in the Book of Sirach

Series: Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies, 42

De Gruyter | 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110600223

From £118.00
FORMATS
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-11-060110-7
Published: 04 Mar 2019
PDF
ISBN: 978-3-11-060022-3
Published: 04 Mar 2019
EPUB
ISBN: 978-3-11-060017-9
Published: 04 Mar 2019

OVERVIEW
Despite the attention that has already been paid to the theme of creation in the book of Sirach, scholarship has yet to provide a comprehensive analysis of Ben Sira's instruction regarding the cosmic order and its role in the divine bestowal of wisdom upon human beings.This book, which consists of two parts, fills a lacuna in scholarship by offering such an analysis. The first part of this study examines Ben Sira's three main treatments of the created world, thus providing a comprehensive description and synthesis of Ben Sira's doctrine concerning the created order of the cosmos. The second part of this work analyzes the place of human beings in general, and the Jewish people in particular, within the cosmic order. This second part includes an analysis of the role of the created order in Ben Sira's wisdom instruction in 1:1-10 and 24:1-34 as well as an elucidation of the way in which his treatments of various kinds of people—civic leaders, wives, doctors, manual laborers, scribes, and cultic personnel—are integral to Ben Sira's doctrine of creation. This study demonstrates that the created order is a fundamental category that Ben Sira relies upon in articulating his instructions about wisdom and wise behavior.

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The mystery of Armageddon

READING ACTS: What is Armageddon? Revelation 16:16. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation. We are on the seven bowls of wrath now, still between bowls six and seven.

For another discussion of the puzzling term "Armageddon," in an Haaretz article, see here. It may be behind the subscription wall, but you can access it through free registration with Haaretz.

For notice of previous posts in Phil's series on Revelation, see here and links.

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Ancient Galilean mikveh found in salvage excavation

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Second Temple period Jewish ritual bath uncovered, in need of rescuing. The 2,000-year-old facility was revealed during a salvage excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post). They want to move the whole mikveh to another location, if the can find the funding.

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Place names in Targum Onkelos

PROF. MICHAEL AVIOZ: Targum Onkelos and the Translation of Place Names (TheTorah.com).

The standard Aramaic translation of the Torah, Targum Onkelos, usually renders place names in the original Hebrew or leaves them out. However, there are exceptions.

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Testing and Temptation in Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian Texts (ed. Smith & Stuckenbruck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Testing and Temptation in Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian Texts. Edited by Daniel L. Smith and Loren T. Stuckenbruck. 2020. VII, 213 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 519. 79,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-155952-5.

Published in English.
From the Wisdom of Ben Sira to the writings of Paul, many Second Temple Jewish and early Christian texts recognize the inescapable role of testing and temptation in human experience. Though God is often presented as one who tests, testing is also attributed to Satan, Mastema, the people of God, and individual humans. How did ancient interpreters react to texts that depict the God of Israel as testing, tested, or intervening on behalf of those undergoing a test? What assumptions do authors have about the role of testing in human experience? How does the vocabulary used for testing and temptation influence the meaning of the text? The essays in the present volume constitute an opening foray into addressing these questions, and this volume aims to catalyze further research into additional dimensions of testing and overlooked motifs in the relevant literature.

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Job at UNIL: Christian and Jewish Apocrypha

THE UNIVERSITY OF LASAUNNE: Career Opportunities: Maître d'enseignement et de recherche 1 (MER1) 70% en Littératures apocryphes juives et chrétiennes (16212). For work on the Corpus Christianorum, Series Apocryphorum, and related matters. (HT Richard Bauckham.)

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Börner-Klein, Jalkut Schimoni zu Rut

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Jalkut Schimoni zu Rut
Yalkut Shimoni on Esther [sic]

in Jalkut Schimoni

Edited by: Dagmar Börner-Klein
De Gruyter | 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688290

From £72.50

FORMATS
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-11-068825-2
Published: 23 Mar 2020
PDF
ISBN: 978-3-11-068829-0
Published: 23 Mar 2020
EPUB
ISBN: 978-3-11-068834-4
Published: 23 Mar 2020

OVERVIEW
The Yalkut Shimoni is a compilation of rabbinical interpretations of the entire Hebrew Bible. The criteria for selecting the interpretations are not fully understood, nor whether the book was conceived as a comprehensive reference work for exegesis to link with the Biblical interpretation in the Talmud and Midrash, or for reforming the rabbinical tradition of interpretation. Translating this work is a first step toward answering these questions.

I think the English title should read "Ruth" not "Esther." The Esther volume, also edited by Dagmar Börner-Klein, was published in 2019.

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Schiffman lecture on the DSS

PROFESSOR LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: ONLINE LECTURE: RECLAIMING THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS. On Thursday 16 July. Follow the link for registration details.

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A thievish interpolation?

READING ACTS: I Come Like a Thief! Revelation 16:15. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation. We are on the seven bowls of wrath now, still between bowls six and seven.

For notice of previous posts in Phil's series on Revelation, see here and links.

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Kotzé, Images and Ideas of Debated Readings in the Book of Lamentations

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Gideon R. Kotzé. Images and Ideas of Debated Readings in the Book of Lamentations. 2020. XVI, 142 pages. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 38. 84,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-159503-5.

Published in English.
The Hebrew versions of the five poems in the book of Lamentations are riddled with debated readings. Debated readings are words, phrases, or sentences whose forms and meanings modern readers find difficult or objectionable. In this book, Gideon R. Kotzé adopts a text-critical approach to the interpretation of such readings and suggests that some of them make sense as expressions of images and ideas that circulated widely in the cultural and intellectual environment of Lamentations. After surveying examples of passages in Lamentations where the Hebrew wordings show remarkable resemblances to the images and ideas exhibited by cultural products from all over the ancient Near East, the author discusses five case studies of debated readings that can be explained along similar lines. On this interpretation, the readings in question are not corrupt and do not have to be emended for that reason.

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Licht, The Spiritual World of Second Temple Judaism

THE NSEA BLOG: NEW BOOK: JACOB LICHT ON THE SPIRITUAL WORLD OF SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM. The full reference: Jacob Licht, The Spiritual World of Second Temple Judaism (Bialik Institute, 2020). In Hebrew. Collected essays published between 1956 and 1991. Follow the link for a link to the publisher's page.

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NT text-critical commentaries

THE ETC BLOG: New Testament Textual Commentaries (Elijah Hixson). News you can use! Especially if you like New Testament textual criticism.

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