Schuller & Wacker (eds.), Early Jewish Writings

RECENT BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Early Jewish Writings
Eileen Schuller (Editor), Marie-Theres Wacker (Editor)

ISBN 9781628371833
Status Available
Price: $47.00
Binding Paperback
Publication Date June 2017
Pages 316

New from the Bible and Women Series

This collection of essays deals with aspects of women and gender relations in early Judaism (during the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires). Some essays focus on specific writings: the Greek (Septuagint) version of Esther, Judith, Joseph and Aseneth, and the Letter of Jeremiah. Others explore how certain biblical texts are reinterpreted: Eve in the Life of Adam and Eve, the mixing of the sons of God with the daughters of men from Genesis 6:1–4, the Egyptian princess at the birth of Moses, and how Josephus retells biblical stories. The third group of essays explore specific social contexts: Philo's views of women in the Roman empire, the Sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls, and women philosophers of the Therapeutae in Egyptian Alexandria.

Features

• An International team of contributors from Europe and North America
• A breadth of materials covered, including many lesser-known early Jewish writings
• Focus is on a gendered perspective and gender specific questions

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TC 25 (2000)

THE ETC BLOG: TC Journal vol. 25 (2000) is up (Tommy Wasserman). TC stands for Textual Criticism. Most of the articles and reviews in this volume pertain to the New Testament, but there is some material on the Septuagint and on ancient Jewish scriptural exegesis.

For a full list of TC volumes, see this post at the AWOL Blog.

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Review of Bauer & Möllendorff (eds), Die Briefe des Ignatios von Antiochia

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Die Briefe des Ignatios von Antiochia: Motive, Strategien, Kontexte.

Thomas Johann Bauer, Peter von Möllendorff, Die Briefe des Ignatios von Antiochia: Motive, Strategien, Kontexte. Millennium-Studien zu Kultur und Geschichte des ersten Jahrtausends n. Chr. 72. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. Pp. 288. ISBN 9783110604467 €89,95.

Review by
Judith Lieu, University of Cambridge. jml68@cam.ac.uk

**********

For many anglophone scholars, debate about the authenticity of the so-called middle-recension of the letters attributed to Ignatius of Antioch, their composition on his way to Rome where he suffered martyrdom under Trajan, and their subsequent collection together by Polycarp, had been settled by J. B. Lightfoot in his monumental study of the Apostolic Fathers (second edition, 1889). As a consequence, Ignatius has been taken as providing evidence from the first two decades of the second century for a variety of questions about the development of the early church, from ecclesial structures to Jewish-Christian relations and to ideas and forms of “heresy,” even where there has been a growing acceptance that his views may have been more aspirational than reflective of fact. In German scholarship, however, a tradition of dissent has become increasingly vocal over the last twenty years, to the extent that any discussion of early Christianity in the second century appealing to Ignatius is duty bound to explain and justify its position on the origin of the letters. It is, therefore, particularly welcome to have this collection of essays ...

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The Sogdians

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Sogdians. Notice of an online exhibition: The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads, by the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

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 the Sogdians and their language ("Sogdian"), see here and links (cf. here).

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Who was Nimrod?

DR. YIGAL LEVIN: Nimrod, Mighty Hunter and King - Who Was He? (TheTorah.com).

Nimrod’s bio begins in the 23rd century B.C.E. with King Sargon of Akkad and his grandson Naram-Sin.

Some connection between Nimrod and Sargon/the Agade dynasty has always sounded plausible to me. This is the first time I recall someone laying out the case in detail.

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Barmash (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law

RECENT BOOK FROM OUP:

The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law

Edited by Pamela Barmash

Oxford Handbooks

$150.00
Hardcover
Published: 07 November 2019
560 Pages
6-3/4 x 9-3/4 inches
ISBN: 9780199392667

• Examines source materials and the discipline with fresh eyes
• Offers a critique of the state of the art of the field
• Addresses the reinterpretation of biblical law in emerging Jewish and Christian communities
• Articulates questions that scholars ought to explore in the future

Description

Major innovations have occurred in the study of biblical law in recent decades. The legal material of the Pentateuch has received new interest with detailed studies of specific biblical passages. The comparison of biblical practice to ancient Near Eastern customs has received a new impetus with the concentration on texts from actual ancient legal transactions. The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law provides a state of the art analysis of the major questions, principles, and texts pertinent to biblical law. The thirty-three chapters, written by an international team of experts, deal with the concepts, significant texts, institutions, and procedures of biblical law; the intersection of law with religion, socio-economic circumstances, and politics; and the reinterpretation of biblical law in the emerging Jewish and Christian communities. The volume is intended to introduce non-specialists to the field as well as to stimulate new thinking among scholars working in biblical law.

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Another fake "Hebrew Bible" in Turkey

AN EVERGREEN STORY: Hebrew Bible thought to be historic artifact turns out to be fake (Yeni Şafak).

A Hebrew Bible that was seized following an operation by Turkey’s Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Branch in the southern province of Gaziantep and thought to date back to the era of Jesus Christ (Prophet Isa in Islam) with an alleged worth of one million dollars has turned out to be a fake.

[...]

The writing isn't even Hebrew. It's Syriac. It looks a lot like other fakes circulating in Turkey in recent years.

It's disquieting that this same story keeps coming up with minor variations. Smugglers in Turkey were trying to sell a "Torah" or a "Bible." The manuscript is really old. And they say it's "priceless" or worth a million dollars or more. See here, here, here, here, and here. That takes us back to 2013. There may be more, but I have other things to do this morning.

For other stories of fake or dubious manuscripts seized in Turkey, start at that last link and keep following the links. Again, I commend the Turkish police for their diligence in tracking down smugglers and forgers.

This sure happens a lot. And, of course, these cases are just the ones the police catch. How often does the grift work and we never hear about it? I hope not often.

Cross-file under Apprehended.

For a real ancient Syriac text discovered recently in Turkey, see here and here.

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Metso, The Community Rule: A Critical Edition with Translation

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Community Rule: A Critical Edition with Translation
Sarianna Metso

ISBN 9780884140566
Status Available
Price: $29.00
Binding Paperback
Publication Date November 2019

An authoritative critical edition

The discovery and translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls transformed our understanding of the life and history of ancient Jewish communities when both rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity were emerging. As part of this rich discovery, the Community Rule serves to illuminate the religious beliefs and practices as well as the organizational rules of the group behind the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, there is no single, unified text of the Community Rule; rather, multiple manuscripts of the Community Rule show considerable variation and highlight the work of ancient Jewish scribes and their intentional literary development of the text. In this volume, Sarianna Metso brings together the surviving evidence in a new edition that presents a critically established Hebrew text with an introduction and an English translation.

Features:

• A critical apparatus and textual notes LI>All the surviving evidence of the Community Rule
• A new method for presenting complex developments and transmission history of ancient texts

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Reading Ancient Greek Coins

NUMISMATICS: Reading Ancient Greek Coins (Mike Markowitz, CoinWeek). Another informative essay by Mr. Markowitz. In this one he take readers who do not know Greek through some of the basics of reading ancient Greek-inscribed coins. He looks at titles, names, and dating systems. He gives examples from Greece, Syracuse, Pontus, Parthia, Judea, and Axum (Aksum).

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Review of Dainese & Gheller (eds.), Beyond intolerance

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Beyond intolerance: the Milan meeting of AD 313 and the evolution of imperial religious policy from the age of the tetrarchs to Julian the Apostate.

Davide Dainese, Viola Gheller, Beyond intolerance: the Milan meeting of AD 313 and the evolution of imperial religious policy from the age of the tetrarchs to Julian the Apostate. Studi e testi tardoantichi 14. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018. Pp. 220. ISBN 9782503574493 €100,00.

Review by
Maijastina Kahlos, University of Helsinki. maijastina.kahlos@helsinki.fi

**********

... Francesca Zanetti’s article explores the relations between Jews and the Roman Empire from Diocletian to Constantine. ...

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Mummies galore at Saqqara!

EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeologists uncover huge new cache of unopened sarcophagi dating back 2,500 years at Saqqara - two weeks after they recovered 59 coffins from the ancient necropolis (Joe Pinkstone, Daily Mail).

• Authorities announced the coffins were discovered at the famed necropolis near ancient capital of Memphis
• The 80 sarcophagi are believed to be more than 2,500 years old, according to preliminary analysis
• Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly toured the area and viewed the finds earlier this week

I have been following the story for weeks, watching the mummy coffins pile up. I finally decided to mention it just on general principles.

Previous commentators have exhausted the Mummy Movie theme, so I won't go there. But isn't it interesting that there are still substantial archaeological discoveries in the vicinity of the Egyptian Pyramids, one of the most explored antiquities sites in the world? I would have thought that the Saqqarah necropolis would have been utterly depleted by now. But no.

Who knows what important archaeological treasures remain to be found in Egypt and elsewhere?

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Saving the Ethiopic Bible

ETHIOPIC WATCH: Ethiopian Jewry's biblical texts are disappearing. TAU is saving them. The students who have just begun their studies in the 2020-2021 academic year are all Ethiopian Israelis with Bachelor's degrees, who are eager to preserve and study their heritage (Hannah Brown, Jerusalem Post).

The program is attracting Israeli students of Ethiopian descent who are interested in studying the sacred texts of their families’ culture. These texts are written in Ge’ez (an ancient Ethiopian language) and called the Orit. The program is known as Orit Guardians. Administrators and professors hope to expand the program to include BA and PhD studies.

Congratulations to Tel Aviv University! This sounds like a fantastic program. But I hope they are give the Ethiopic Book of Enoch some attention as well. It is part of the Ethiopian biblical canon.

For another recent story about research on the Ethiopic Bible, see here. And for another on a Ge'ez language program, see here. For more on the Book of 1 Enoch (Ethiopic Enoch), see here, here, here, here, and here.

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Second Temple-era jars etc. found at Beit El

CERAMICS: Second Temple period jars and complete clay objects unearthed in Beit El. The ancient jars were discovered inside a water hole at the Khirbet Kafr Mer archaeological site at Beit El (Tobias Siegal, Jerusalem Post).

The water hole was apparently part of a residential neighborhood in a Jewish community that lived in the area roughly 2000 years ago. The jars and other artifacts were founds stored within large plastered niches carved to the sides of the water hole.

What are the other "complete clay objects?" I think I see one or more bowls. Anything else?

For more on that decorated stone table that was recently excavated at Beit El, see here and links.

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Prof. Joshua Blau, 1919-2020

SAD NEWS: Passing of Professor Joshua Blau (Shalom Berger, H-Judaic).

H-Judaic is greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Prof. Joshua Blau (1919-2020), emeritus professor of Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University, past President of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, winner of the Israel Prize, the Ben Zvi Prize and the Rothschild Prize, member of Israel's Academy of Arts and Sciences, and one of the world;s foremost scholars of Arabic, Judeo-Arabic and Semitic languages. Among many other things, Prof. Blau authored an essential collection of Maimonides responsa. [...]

I posted congratulations to Professor Blau on his 99th birthday a couple of years ago, with emphasis on his foundational work on Judeo-Arabic. May his memory be for a blessing.

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Lecture on Collection in the DSS (22 October)

ZOOM LECTURE TOMORROW: Interpreting Collection in the Dead Sea Scrolls (by Institute of Jewish Studies).

Lecture about how the Dead Sea Scrolls were produced, who wrote and copied them and how they did it - materially and intellectually

Date And Time

Thu, 22 October 2020
18:00 – 19:00 BST

About this Event

Lecture by Hindy Najman (University of Oxford) and Eibert Tigchelaar (KU Leuven), chaired by Mark Geller (UCL).

One striking feature is that many of the Dead Sea scrolls consist of collections: of psalms or hymns, prayers, rules, laws, or exegetical interpretations. And frequently texts of different character are connected, for example penal rules with hymns. Often these collections are attested in variant forms: they are similar, but different. By analysing such collections, we try to understand the material and literary production of scrolls. Did these Jewish scribes collect texts in one scroll for practical reasons? Does collection reflect a creative growth of traditions? Or were scribes driven by an anthological temper? Should unique combinations of collected texts be regarded as intentional literary productions? We want to give an overview, and discuss some of the rules of these scrolls, such as the limits or unlimitedness of collection. This is important for the names we give to such scrolls and how we interpret them, but also for our understanding of contemporary writings.

You can register at this eventbrite link. HT the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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Online conference: "The Land that I Will Show You"

UPDATE: Free: NYU Online International Conference on Recent Studies of Ancient Israel (The Jewish Press). I noted the upcoming (25-28 October) "The Land that I Will Show You" online conference here. For the promised additional information, see this article and the link therein to the conference website.

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On ingesting otherworldly substances

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: SBL 2019 Review Panel | Food and Pharmaka (Barbette Stanley Spaeth).

As a classicist, I found most interesting her ideas about the myth of the Rape of Persephone, as told in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and Ovid’s poems the Fasti and Metamorphoses, as well as Apuleius’ Metamorphoses. In this paper, I will indicate some problems with how Warren’s concept of hierophagy plays out in these texts and offer my own ideas on how this concept can be expanded to fit them more accurately.

I noted the essay introducing this series on Dr. Meredith Warren's book, Food and Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Literature here, the first essay here, the second here, and the third here.

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Hippos-Sussita

HERITAGE DAILY: The Greco-Roman City of Hippos. Hippos, meaning “horse” is an ancient Greco-Roman city in the foothills beneath the Sussita Mountain, located near the present-day Kibbutz Ein Gev in the Northern District of Israel. A brief history of the city with some good photos.

For past posts on Hippos-Sussita, see here and links.

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New online journal: Judaica

THE AWOL BLOG: New Open Access Journal: Judaica. Neue digitale Folge (JNDF). With articles and reviews in German and English.

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Why Did Cain Kill Abel?

DR. RABBI DAVID J. ZUCKER: Why Did Cain Kill Abel? (TheTorah.com).

God rejects Cain’s sacrifice while accepting Abel’s, then in the next scene, Cain kills his brother. Does this mean that Cain killed Abel out of jealousy, or could other factors have been present? Ancient interpreters explore many possible motivations, from the simple to the bizarre.

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Kalimi, Writing and Rewriting the Story of Solomon in Ancient Israel

RECENT BOOK FROM CUP:

Writing and Rewriting the Story of Solomon in Ancient Israel

AUTHOR: Isaac Kalimi, University of Mainz, Germany
DATE PUBLISHED: November 2018
AVAILABILITY: This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
FORMAT: Adobe eBook Reader
ISBN: 9781108622813

$ 100.00 USD

Solomon's image as a wise king and the founder of Jerusalem Temple has become a fixture of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic literature. Yet, there are essential differences between the portraits of Solomon that are presented in the Hebrew Bible. In this volume, Isaac Kalimi explores these differences, which reflect divergent historical contexts, theological and didactic concepts, stylistic and literary techniques, and compositional methods among the biblical historians. He highlights the uniqueness of each portrayal of Solomon - his character, birth, early life, ascension, and temple-building - through a close comparison of the early and late biblical historiographies. Whereas the authors of Samuel-Kings stay closely to their sources and offer an apology for Solomon's kingship, including its more questionable aspects, the Chronicler freely rewrites his sources in order to present the life of Solomon as he wished it to be. The volume will serve scholars and students seeking to understand biblical texts within their ancient Near Eastern contexts.

• Compares the ways that Solomon is portrayed in the Books of Samuel and Kings on the one hand, and in the Book of Chronicles on the other
• Evaluates the significance and limitations of the textual and archaeological materials that are available for reconstructing the period of Solomon
• Provides a sense of how each generation has its own historians and unique descriptions of a historical figure (in this case King Solomon)

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Philo of Alexandria: On the Life of Abraham (ed. Birnbaum & Dillon)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Philo of Alexandria: On the Life of Abraham

Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Series: Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, Volume: 6
Authors: Ellen Birnbaum and John M. Dillon

On the Life of Abraham displays Philo’s philosophical, exegetical, and literary genius at its best. Philo begins by introducing the biblical figures Enos, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as unwritten laws. Then, interweaving literal, ethical, and allegorical interpretations, Philo presents the life and achievements of Abraham, founder of the Jewish nation, in the form of a Greco-Roman bios, or biography. Ellen Birnbaum and John Dillon explain why and how this work is important within the context of Philo’s own oeuvre, early Jewish and Christian exegesis, and ancient philosophy. They also offer a new English translation and detailed analyses, in which they elucidate the meaning of Philo’s thought, including his perplexing notion that Israel’s ancestors were laws in themselves.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €189.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42364-0
Publication Date: 07 Sep 2020

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42363-3
Publication Date: 21 Oct 2020

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The Coptic Dictionary Online updated

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Update to the Coptic Dictionary Online. I noted this Coptic dictionary here back in 2016. Now there is a new and improved version. Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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