Review of Pardes, The Song of Songs: A Biography

H-JUDAIC REVIEW:

Ilana Pardes. The Song of Songs: A Biography. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019. 296 pp. $24.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-691-14606-5.

Reviewed by Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch (Eastern University)

Published on H-Judaic (August, 2020)

Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

... Pardes does not adhere to the over‐ simplified historical narrative that the Song began as a collection of literal love poems and was then subjected to allegorical readings by well-meaning (but misled) Jewish and Christian interpreters until intrepid nineteenth- and twentieth-century schol‐ ars recovered its (original) literal meaning from beneath layers of sacred accretions. Instead, she demonstrates that the line demarcating literal and allegorical readings of the Song has always been ambiguous.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Gnostic Countercultures (ed. DeConick and Lanzillotta)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Gnostic Countercultures

Terror and Intrigue

Editors: April DeConick and Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta

In Gnostic Countercultures, fourteen scholars investigate countercultural aspects associated with the gnostic which is broadly conceived with reference to the claim to have special knowledge of the divine, which either transcends or transgresses conventional religious knowledge. The papers explore the concept of the gnostic in Western culture from the ancient world to the modern New Age. Contributors trace the emergence, persistence, and disappearance of gnostic religious currents that are perceived to be countercultural, inverted, transgressive and/or subversive in their relationship to conventional religions and their claims to knowledge. The essays represent a selection of the papers delivered at the international congress Gnostic Countercultures: Terror and Intrigue convened at Rice University, March 26-28, 2015. The essays were originally published in Gnosis 1.1-2 (2016) and are available for the first time under separate cover.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €59.00 / $72.00

Paperback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-43698-5
Publication Date: 23 Jul 2020

I noted the 2015 conference here and the publication of the 2016 Gnosis volume here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Review of Worthington, Ea's duplicity in the Gilgamesh flood story

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Ea’s duplicity in the Gilgamesh flood story.

Martin Worthington, Ea's duplicity in the Gilgamesh flood story. The ancient word. London; New York: Routledge, 2019. xxxii, 489 p.. ISBN 9781138388925 $140.00.

Review by
Andrea Seri, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. andreaseri@ffyh.unc.edu.ar

PaleoJudaica has posted many times on Gilgamesh, his Epic, and his importance for the study of ancient Judaism. See here and follow the links for many posts. Also, here, here and links, and here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Setting ancient hymns to music?

RELIGION PROF: Israelite, Assyrian, and Babylonian Poetry (James McGrath).

As far as I know, the Canaanite and Aramaic hymns in Papyrus Amherst 63 have not yet been set to music. For more on this fascintting manuscript, see here and links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Persian Period pottery "globalization"

CERAMIC TYPOLOGY: 2,500-year-old pottery shows close ties between ancient Israel and Turkey. A group of Israeli and German archaeologists have recently shed new light on the following chapter of the history of the area and its commercial development (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post). Based on a recent article in the journal Levant.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

The banned city and the vassal treaties

PROF. ADA TAGGAR-COHEN: The Subverted City (Ir Hannidahat) in the Context of ANE Vassal Treaties (TheTorah.com).

Deuteronomy’s requirement to destroy a city whose inhabitants worship another god and to leave it as an eternally desolate mound, can be understood in the context of ancient Near Eastern vassal treaties. Specifically, Hittite texts describe how kings dealt with rebellious vassal cities, by destroying them utterly and dedicating their land to the gods.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

JSTOR special deal through December

THE AWOL BLOG: Free access to 100 JSTOR articles/month through December 31, 2020. Just so you know!

For a helpful listing of journals on antiquity in JSTOR, see here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Hewitt, Messiah and Scripture

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: J. Thomas Hewitt. Messiah and Scripture. Paul's »In Christ« Idiom in Its Ancient Jewish Context. 2020. XIII, 292 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 522 84,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-159228-7.

Published in English.
J. Thomas Hewitt examines Paul's development and uses of the expression »in Christ,« or »in messiah,« with reference to conventions of ancient Jewish messiah discourse. While messiah speculation in antiquity does not evince a widespread, coherent messianic ideology, ancient Jewish messiah texts do share a common trait – the creative reappropriation of scripture for portraying messiahs. Ancient Jewish messiah discourse is thus both traditional, being shaped by the idioms and imagery of scripture, and innovative, as those materials are recast in novel depictions and expressions. As a participant in this interpretative enterprise, Paul found resources in scriptural traditions concerning Abraham's seed and Daniel's heavenly man for generating his own distinctive conceptions of messiahship, conceptions he often articulated with his hallmark expression »in Christ.«

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

List of active open-access journals

THE AWOL BLOG: Active Open Access Journals.

This is a developing list of open access journals currently reviewing papers for publication. It is intended to offer opportunities for scholars interested in publishing openly. ...

Chuck Jones has compiled a very long list.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Wright on Rahab and nationhood

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Rahab: Between Faith and Works

Although widely viewed, especially by its Christian interpreters, as scripture for an emerging religious sect, the Hebrew Bible has, I maintain, a much more ambitious agenda, serving as the blueprint for a new kind of nationhood. The New Testament authors adopted and adapted this blueprint in keeping with their own interest in creating a spiritual community of faith. To state the difference simply: The Hebrew Bible is a project of creating one nation, while the New Testament is a project of creating a community whose members hail from all nations. Likewise, the Hebrew Bible is about creating an identity that is capable of withstanding national defeat, while the New Testament is about creating an identity capable of withstanding Jesus’s death and delayed return.

See Also: War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

By Jacob L. Wright
Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible
Emory University
August 2020

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Dubovský & Giuntoli (eds.), Stones, Tablets, and Scrolls

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Stones, Tablets, and Scrolls. Periods of the Formation of the Bible. Ed. by Peter Dubovský and Federico Giuntoli. 2020. XVI, 576 pages. Archaeology and Bible 3. 159,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-158299-8.

Published in English.
A constant re-evaluation of the new archaeological and textual material unearthed and edited in recent decades is a recurrent duty of ancient and modern scholars. Since the overwhelming amount of available data and the complexity of new methodologies can be competently handled only by specialized scholars, such a re-evaluation is no longer possible for a single scholar. For this reason, archaeologists, cuneiform and biblical scholars as well as classicists joined forces at an international conference in Rome in May 2017 to share their accumulated knowledge. The results of the proceedings are presented here in the oral stage along with the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Greco-Roman periods.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Court rules that the Crowns of Damascus stay in National Library

COURT PRONOUNCEMENT: Jerusalem court rules National Library to keep Medieval Damascus Bibles. Decision ends a protracted legal battle over the ownership of sacred texts that belonged to Syrian Jewish community for centuries, until they were secreted to Israel in the 1990s (Ilan Ben Zion, AP via Times of Israel).

Back in 2014 I noted the litigation over the manuscripts, which are known as the "Crowns of Israel." It was an internal litigation within Israel. Syria was not involved. The link to that article is now dead, but the current article explains the details. Follow the links from my 2014 post for more about some of the manuscripts.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Hebrew Manuscripts going on display at the British Library

EXHIBITION: 16th century ‘spell book’ among Hebrew items on display at British Library. The Hebrew Manuscripts: Journeys of the Written Word exhibition showcases rarely-seen texts, some dating back one thousand years (Mathilde Frot, Jewish News/Times of Israel).

The BBC has an article, with photo, devoted mostly to the spell book: A Hebrew spell book is going on display at the British Library. The manuscript contains 125 spells, including ones for invisibility, escape from prison, and identifying a thief.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Strontium mapping of ancient human etc. movements

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: 1st complete strontium isotope map of Israel tracks ancient human migration. New study of rock and soil samples taken from entire span of Israel provides first comprehensive database for archaeologists to perform ‘forensics’ on movements of people, animals (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

This sounds like it could be an important contribution to the archaeology of Israel. It would be helpful to see some examples of it applied, especially in archaeology of the biblical period.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Still more on that ancient stone table

ANCIENT ARTIFACT: Second Temple Period stone table unearthed near Beit El. The COGAT archaeology unit is in charge of the management, preservation and access to the archaeological sites in the West Bank, and specifically in Israeli-controlled Area C (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

Background on the decorated stone table is here and here. And for more on COGAT, see here and here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Proceedings of 2018 Wuppertal LXX conference published

WILLIAM A. ROSS: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2018 LXX.D WUPPERTAL CONFERENCE PUBLISHED. Notice of a new book from Mohr Siebeck: Die Septuaginta – Themen, Manuskripte, Wirkungen. Dr. Ross gives very full details.

I noted the 2018 conference here. As Dr. Ross notes, the 2020 Wuppertal LXX conference has been postponed due to the pandemic.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Online forum on Second Temple literature

THE AWOL BLOG: Towards a New Map of Second Temple Literature: Revelation, Rewriting, and Genre Before the Bible: A Forum Organized Around New Work by Molly M. Zahn. This online forum takes place on 20 August 2020. Follow the link for details and registration information.

I noted the publication of Dr. Zahn's book, Genres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism, here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Gordon on Second Temple priests, temple, and land

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

The Agrarian Priesthood of Second Temple Judaism

Most Judean priests of the Second Temple period lived dispersed throughout the region, coming to Jerusalem for weekly service periods throughout the year. The patterns of social and economic interaction that governed their relationships with villagers resulted from the failures of the temple to adequately provide for them, pushing them into land ownership. The biblical ideal of a priesthood free from the responsibilities of the farming life or working as if in quarantine within the confines of the sacred precinct in the city gives a false impression. These priests were fully entrenched in the Judean landscape.

See Also: Land and Temple: Field Sacralization and the Agrarian Priesthood of Second Temple Judaism. Studia Judaica 87 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2020).

By Benjamin D. Gordon
Department of Religious Studies
University of Pittsburgh
August 2020

I noted the publication of the book here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Runesson & Gurtner (eds.), Matthew within Judaism

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Matthew within Judaism: Israel and the Nations in the First Gospel
Anders Runesson (Editor), Daniel M. Gurtner (Editor)

ISBN 9781628372779
Status Available
Price: $77.00
Binding Paperback
Publication Date July 2020
Pages 600

In this collection of essays, leading New Testament scholars reassess the reciprocal relationship between Matthew and Second Temple Judaism. Some contributions focus on the relationship of the Matthean Jesus to torah, temple, and synagogue, while others explore theological issues of Jewish and gentile ethnicity and universalism within and behind the text.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Arena, Prophetic Conflicts in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Micah

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Francesco Arena. Prophetic Conflicts in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Micah. How Post-Exilic Ideologies Created the False (and the True) Prophets. 2020. XIV, 209 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 121. 74,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-159507-3.

Published in English.
In this volume, Francesco Arena investigates false prophecy and prophetic conflicts, taking Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Micah as the three books in the Bible most concerned with prophesying falsehood and false prophets. By building on the studies of G. Auld, R. Carroll, and G. Garbini, who first posited that the Writing Prophets were not prophets at all, but rather intellectuals or poets, the author puts the vexed question of false prophecy into a new perspective. If we accept that Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Micah were not originally true prophets (or prophets at all) what should we do with their quarrels with the alleged false prophets? Can we still consider prophetic conflicts as expressions of a socio-religious phenomenon? Or should we instead consider them as some later creations to serve ideological purposes?

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

A new, mile-long Dead Sea cave

GEOGRAPHY: World’s Longest Marlstone Cave Discovered in Israel Near Dead Sea (TPS / Tazpit News Agency via the Jewish Press).

There's no report of any scrolls in this cave. But apparently there are lots of such caves and they develop and go away and open and close over time. I don't know what prospects there are for finding ancient artifacts in these caves. Maybe not many. But let's keep an eye on this project just in case.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Propaganda coinage

NUMISMATICS: Ancient and Medieval Coins as Royal Propaganda (Tyler Rossi, CoinWeek).

The sections on Alexander the Great and on the Jewish Wars are of particular interest to PaleoJudaica.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Videos of DSS in Recent Scholarship Conference now available

PROF. LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS IN RECENT SCHOLARSHIP – RECORDINGS NOW AVAILABLE.

I noted the announcement of this groundbreaking, fully-online conference here. Now you can view recordings of the whole thing.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

McGrath interviews Tony Burke

RELIGION PROF: ReligionProf Podcast with Tony Burke. Professors McGrath and Burke discuss More New Testament Apocrypha, volume 2 and Ariel Sabar's new book, Veritas, about the rise and fall of the Gospel of Jesus' Wife.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

More on Sabar, Veritas

ANOTHER REVIEW: How a mystery note proving Jesus was ‘wed’ led to Harvard prof’s disgrace (Michael Kaplan, New York Post).

Again, the headline is misleading. No one ever claimed that the Gospel of Jesus' Wife fragment "proved" that Jesus was married. The claim was that the fragment preserved an apocryphal legend to that effect.

I don't intend to try to flag all the coverage of Sabar's book, Veritas. But I note this one because the author interviewed both Ariel Sabar and Walter Fritz.

I note that there is no interview with Professor King to balance the coverage. I don't know whether Mr. Kaplan asked her. He doesn't say he did.

Background here and links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Biography of the Gabriel Revelation

THE LYING PEN OF SCRIBES: The Gabriel Stone: A Chronological Bibliography (Årstein Justnes).

For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Gabriel Stone (Gabriel Revelation, Vision of Gabriel), see here and here (cf. here) and links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Dead Sea mysteries

WORLDATLAS: Mysteries Of The Dead Sea (Jason Shvili).

HT The Bible and Interpretation.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.