Saturday, November 07, 2020

Climactic chiasm with Akedah alliteration?

PROF. GARY RENDSBURG: Abraham’s Spiritual Journey – A Chiasm that Climaxes with the Akedah (TheTorah.com).
Why does the binding of Isaac story use the unique term ע.ק.ד (ʿ.q.d)?
Could be. But chiasm is a flexible tool. You can get pretty much what you want out of it. And the alliteration is not very close. Still, it's an interesting analysis.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Aqedah (the Binding of Isaac in Genesis 22) see here and links. As noted there, I have published strong evidence that Genesis 22:14 originally named the place as "Elohim Yir'eh," not "YHWH Yir'eh." Cf. Prof. Rendsburg's point 8.

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

Brosius, A History of Ancient Persia

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: A History of Ancient Persia: The Achaemenid Empire. Notice of a New Book: Brosius, Maria. 2020. A History of Ancient Persia: The Achaemenid Empire. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

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Is buried treasure still out there?

MORE PLEASE: Hidden Hoards and Buried Treasure Troves Are Real and Still Being Discovered (Madeleine Muzdakis, My Modern Met). Okay, strictly speaking, none of the hoards listed involve ancient Judaism. But we can hope, right?

The seventh-century Staffordshire hoard (see here and here) included a gold strip bearing a biblical quotation from the Latin Vulgate.

To be clear, I will happily take a hoard of manuscripts. Precious metals, gems, coins. etc. are welcome, but optional.

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

Peras Gorgias – translating Hebrew monographs into English

FROM GORGIAS PRESS: PERAS GORGIAS.
Peras Gorgias – פרס גורגיאס

Gorgias Press launched Peras Gorgias – פרס גורגיאס in 2018-2019. Peras Gorgias facilitates the publication in English of exceptional monographs by Hebrew-speaking author sin order to expand their readership. Based on the decision of an internationally renowned panel of judges, every two years, Peras Gorgias will recognize three exceptional contributions to the fields of Bible, Ancient Near East, and Jewish Studies by Hebrew-speaking scholars who face barriers to publishing their work in English and who are in the early stages of their career.

Applications for the 2020-2021 cycle of Peras Gorgias are now open. Hebrew-speaking emerging scholars are invited to apply for this prize. Winners will receive a book contract and academic editing of their unedited, English-language book draft.

We strongly encourage applications from scholars from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds.

[...]

The deadline for the current cycle is 31 December 2020.

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Friday, November 06, 2020

The IAA's coin collection

NUMISMATICS: WATCH: Israel Antiquities Authority coin head displays treasures from the vault. Dr. Donald T. Ariel joins the ToI Community’s exclusive Behind the Headlines series for a deep dive into early and rare coins found in excavations in Israel (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).
The IAA collection spans from the beginning of coinage at the end of the 7th century BCE until today — with some registered coins dating to the 1970s and 1980s. The bulk of the coins date to the Hellenistic-Seleucid-Hasmonean period of the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, and there’s a second peak in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, the early Byzantine period, says Ariel.
The video is behind the ToI subscription wall, but this well-illustrated article gives lots of highlights from it.

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HB/ANE job at Brandeis

ACADEMICJOBSONLINE: Brandeis University, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
Position ID: Brandeis-NEJS-ASST [#17461]
Position Title: Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible
Position Type: Tenured/Tenure-track faculty
Position Location: Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, United States [map]
Subject Area: Hebrew Bible
Appl Deadline: 2020/12/11 11:59PMhelp popup (posted 2020/11/04, listed until 2021/05/04)
Position Description:

Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible

The Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible in the historical and textual context of the ancient Near East. A candidate will have command of relevant philological and critical approaches to the text as well as of pertinent languages and literatures of the ancient Near East used in biblical study. Knowledge of post-biblical exegetical literature and theoretical approaches used in the Humanities as well as an ability to build connections with other areas of the department are also desirable. The Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies offers a variety of courses in the religion, literature, history, and culture of the ancient Near East, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The candidate will be expected to teach undergraduate and graduate courses, including biblical Hebrew text courses, and to supervise MA and PhD students. Only applicants with the Ph.D., or who expect to have the Ph.D. by August 2021, will be considered. Pending budgetary approval, employment will begin July 1, 2021.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars.

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Roman coins of the Second Punic War

NUMISMATICS: Roman Coins From the War Against Hannibal (Michael Shutterly). With a capsule history of the Second Punic War and Hannibal's rise and fall. As usual with ancient coinage, some of these coins are mixed up with contemporary politics. Cross-file under Punic Watch.

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Calderon appointed president of WZO

POLITICS: Ruth Calderon appointed WZO president  (World Jewish Congress). What she's doing when she's not lecturing and writing on Talmud.

Backgrouund here and links. Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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Thursday, November 05, 2020

The PEACE Project (Jewish funerary culture)

EPIGRAPHY AND MATERIAL CULTURE: PEACE – Portal of Epigraphy, Archaeology, Conservation and Education on Jewish Funerary Culture.
PEACE Project

What is PEACE?

PEACE stands for Portal of Epigraphy, Archaeology, Conservation and Education on Jewish Funerary Culture.

When studying the history of a people one may learn a myriad of details from the ways in which they chose to remember—and consequently immortalize—their dead. These details, best summarized by the term “funerary culture”, are found at the heart of this project. The PEACE portal explores Jewish funerary culture through the ages. In this initial phase, it focuses on epigraphical aspects: the inscriptions recorded on stone, plaster, or gold-glass. The other aspects, namely archaeology, conservation, and education, will be added to the portal in the coming years.

[...]

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BAR, Winter 2020

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Biblical Archaeology Review, Winter 2020, In homes and online, mid-November (Michele Barasso). Topics inlcude the palace-fortress of Machaerus, that figurine that at least one scholar thinks may be of YHWH, and the bullae archive from Mashera. BAR is for paid subscribers, but BHD usually has some good summaries of the articles.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 176

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: The Pandemic Super Stupendous Biblical Studies Carnival: October Edition (Posted 1 November) – Now With More Puppies (Jim West). I'm not convinced that the big one with horns is a puppy.

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Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Review of Rosen-Zvi, Between Mishna and Midrash

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Between Mishna and Midrash (Yakov Z. Mayer).
Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Between Mishna and Midrash: The Birth of Rabbinic Literature
(The Open University of Israel, 2020).
(in Hebrew)

... The book faithfully represents the current scholarly developments, supplies every student and interested reader with the relevant tools to navigate the texts, to ask the right questions, and to answer them properly. But it also represents an innovative voice of an original scholar, that couldn’t be voiced by anyone else. ...

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SBL 2020: Christian Apocrypha

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2020 (Tony Burke).
The 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, which runs from November 29 to December 10, will take place online. The form of delivery may be entirely new but take comfort, because Apocryphicity continues its tradition of aiding readers plan their SBL schedules by compiling a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha. See you on Zoom. [...]
Tony has collated an impressive collection of papers. Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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Meadowcroft, Like the Stars Forever

NEW BOOK FROM SHEFFIELD PHOENIX PRESS:
Like the Stars Forever
Narrative and Theology in the Book of Daniel

Tim Meadowcroft

This anthology of Meadowcroft’s essays (all but one previously published) coheres around three claims he makes about the book of Daniel. The first is that Daniel should be understood primarily as a wisdom figure, and that the first chapter of the book of Daniel is programmatic in that regard. The second is that the vision of the one like a son of man represents a theological hinge that guides an understanding of both the tales and the visions as expressions of participation in the divine life on the part of the wise Daniel and his people. The third claim is that the final chapter of Daniel, as the capstone of the wisdom story of Daniel, shows the aim of wise participation in the divine life as an enduring legacy of righteousness in those who encounter this wisdom.

These claims are supported by a close reading of aspects of the narrative art on display in the book of Daniel; an exegetical appreciation of the interpretative impact of understanding the faithful wise as expressive of the hopes placed in the temple by the ancient people; and a theological and contextual reading of the experiences of Daniel and his friends—in the daily routines of life in the Babylonian and Persian courts, and in those strange apocalyptic encounters of the later chapters. From such reading there emerges the paradoxical nature of faith as certain hope and ethical clarity alongside mystery and uncertainty and the call to patient endurance. This delicate dance between certainty and patience, clarity and mystery was a feature of the experience of Daniel and his people in their time of exile, of later readers suffering under the heel of Antiochus Epiphanes, of those resisting the claims to lordship on the part of Rome, and still today of readers of the book of Daniel wherever empire is encountered and resisted.

Tim Meadowcroft is Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Head of School: Theology, Mission and Ministry, Laidlaw College, Auckland, New Zealand.

Series: Hebrew Bible Monographs, 90
978-1-910928-80-6 hardback
Publication October 2020

£32.50 / $42.50 / €35
Scholar's Price

£65 / $85 / €70
List Price
Hardback

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Tuesday, November 03, 2020

Special message to my American readers

TODAY IS ELECTION DAY for American readers. But you knew that.

Please vote. It's important.

I did. I am in Scotland. You can do it too.


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Jesus as a mystic?

NEW ARTICLE IN JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE HISTORICAL JESUS:
“I Shall be Reckoned with the Gods”

On Redescribing Jesus as a First-Century Jewish Mystic


In: Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus
Author: Simon J. Joseph

Online Publication Date: 03 Sep 2020
In: Volume 18: Issue 3
Article Type: Research Article
Page Count: 220–243
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-01803001

Abstract/Excerpt
The categorical identification of the historical Jesus continues to be a central challenge in Jesus Research yet the identification of the historical Jesus as a first-century Jewish mystic has long been a popular topic among Western esotericists, Christian mystics, contemporary New Age authors, and some biblical scholars. Taking a critical look at the category and study of mysticism in Jesus Research in light of the ancient etymological origins of modern mysticism, the concept of ‘religious experience,’ and the epistemological problems associated with perennialism as a religionist discourse, this article argues that the comparative study of mysticism still proves to be an explanatorily powerful analytical, theoretical, and interpretative lens in Jesus Research.
The article is behind the subscription wall.

Interesting article. I agree that the idea of Jesus as mystic belongs in the conversation about the historical Jesus.

I was suprised that the author shows little awareness of the discussion of Jewish mysticism from an anthropological approach, notably in my work and that of Rebecca Lesses. Also that he does not note or interact with the work of Pieter Craffert on Jesus and shamanism. Our approaches try to come at the problem from an angle that avoids word-thinking debates over what "mysticism" and "experience" mean. They seem very relevant to the topic of this article.

James R. Davila, Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature (JSJSup 70; Brill, 2001).
For a summary of my argument see my article "The Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism."

Rebecca Macy Lesses, Ritual Practices to Gain Power: Angels, Incantations, and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism (Trinity Press International, 1998).
Related thoughts here. Rebecca's Academia.edu page is here.

Pieter F. Craffert, The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective (Cascade Books, 2008).
Related thoughts here. Pieter's Academia.edu page is here.

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

Salome on a coin

NUMISMATICS: Salome and the Rarity of Coins Featuring People From The Bible (Michael Beall, CoinWeek).
The Armenian king Aristobulus IV (a great-grandson of Herod the Great) struck one of the most fascinating portrait coins from Biblical times in 66/67 CE. His portrait appears on the obverse while his wife, the infamous Salome, who danced for the head of John the Baptist some 30 years earlier–as told in Matthew 14:6-11 and Mark 6:14-29–appears on the reverse. This until recently extremely rare bronze coin is a two-for-one in that it features both a portrait of a member of the Herodian dynasty and one of the most storied women in Biblical history.
It looks like Salome's hair is braided. Otherwise, the likeness on both coins looks worn and perhaps not very skillfully executed.

I don't know the specifics of regulations for the transport and sale of rare ancient coins. But I was surprised at the origin the article assumes for coins that have recently come up for auction:

In tandem with the Salome coin, Aristobulus With Inscription coins are also appearing in auctions with greater regularity. Has a hoard been discovered? My sources believe not; it is more likely an area has been located that is currently being combed with metal detectors. However, a large find remains a possibility.
If anyone can enlighten me about the situation, please drop me a note.

As always, I hope that collectors will make rare objects like these available for scholars to study.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on Salome are here, here, and here and links.

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

The Weekend helps Toronto's Ethiopic program pass $500K goal

ETHIOPIC WATCH: With support from The Weeknd, U of T's Ethiopic program soars past $500,000 endowment goal (Universtiy of Toronto News).
Tessema Mulugeta, president of Bikila, called it “a pivotal moment in our history here in Toronto” while recently presenting The Weeknd’s cheque together with board member Behailu Atnafu and The Weeknd’s parents, Samrawit Hailu and Walelegne Teshome, to Woodin on a fall day at the Faculty Arts & Science.

“U of T’s Ethiopic studies will illuminate to the world the hidden, untouched millennial scripts in Ge’ez and uncover rich texts of philosophy, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, history, medicine and law,” said Mulugeta. “During this modern age, current and future generations of U of T students can continue to access Ethiopia’s past and unlock tantalizing deposits of wisdom from distant eras of human history.”

Congratulations to the University of Toronto and their Ethiopic program.

Ge'ez (ancient Ethiopic) is of interest for ancient Jewish studies because the texts of 1 Enoch (originally in Aramaic and perhaps Hebrew) and Jubilees (composed originally in Hebrew) are preserved complete only in Ge'ez translation. Fragments of the original of both survive among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Weekend's recent donation was for $30,000. He also donated, $50,000 in 2016. For more recent news about the U of T's Ethiopic program, see here and links.

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

Cook, Aramaic Ezra and Daniel (Baylor Handbook on the HB)

RECENT BOOK FROM BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS:
Aramaic Ezra and Daniel

A Handbook on the Aramaic Text

Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible

by John A. Cook

360 pages, 5.25 x 8.00 in

PAPERBACK
9781481305549
PUBLISHED: MARCH 2019
$39.95

DESCRIPTION

In this volume, John Cook provides a foundational analysis of the Aramaic text of Ezra and Daniel. The analysis is distinguished by the detailed yet comprehensive attention paid to the text. Cook’s analysis is a convenient pedagogical and reference tool that explains the form and syntax of the biblical text, offers guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engages important text-critical debates, and addresses questions relating to the Aramaic text that are frequently overlooked or ignored by standard commentaries. Beyond serving as a succinct and accessible analytic key, Aramaic Ezra and Daniel also reflects the most up-to-date advances in scholarship on grammar and linguistics. This handbook proves itself an indispensable tool for anyone committed to a deep reading of the biblical text.

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Work at the White Monastery

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Pray and Work like an Egyptian Monk. Labor in Monastic Rules of St. Shenoute (4th-5th century C.E.) (Marek Dospěl). A detailed summary of an article by Dana Robinson in the current issue of BAR. As usual, the article itself is behind the subscription wall.

For more on Shenoute and the White Monastery, of crucial importance for the transmission of ancient manuscripts in Egypt, see here and links.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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Monday, November 02, 2020

More crucifixion nails?

COLD CASE REOPENED? Are These Nails From Jesus’ Crucifixion? New Evidence Emerges, but Experts Are Unconvinced. Study of two 2000-year-old nails found in Jerusalem revives claim linking them to the burial of Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest involved in Jesus’ crucifixion (Ariel David, Haaretz). I have been following this story for a while. Here's where it stands.

The researchers report that they has located two ancient nails that had been excavated and then thought lost. It turns out that the nails have fragments of bone and wood embedded in them. If this is correct, it is evidence that they were used to crucify someone.

The material in the nails also has many similarities to material found in ossuaries discovered in the "Caiaphas family tomb," which may (or may not) have included the remains of the High Priest Caiaphas. The researchers think the nails came from the cave. They make no further inferences.

Are the nails those used to crucify Jesus? You can't prove a negative. But the case for that idea rests on an abundance of imagination.

I have not blogged on this story before, because I have only just found (linked in the above article) the scholarly study underlying all the media reports:

Petrochemistry of Sediment and Organic Materials Sampled from Ossuaries and Two Nails from the Tomb of the Family of the High Priest Caiaphas, Jerusalem (Archaeological Discovery > Vol.8 No.3, July 2020)

Aryeh E. Shimron1, Yoetz Deutsch1, Werner H. Schoch2, Vitaly Gutkin3

Abstract
We have studied the petrochemistry of degraded bones and sediment from the interior of four ossuaries (burial boxes) discovered in what is (arguably) believed to be the 1st century CE family tomb of the high priest Caiaphas (herewith Cft) in Jerusalem. During the course of the 1990 excavation, among other artifacts (e.g., a coin found in a skull) two iron nails were discovered. One of the nails was inside an ossuary, the other on the floor of one of the nearby “kokhim” (burial niches) which contained Ossuaries 5 and 6. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) everything in the burial cave can be accounted for today except the iron nails “which have been misplaced”, this without being properly recorded or photographed. Investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici believes that he has located the nails in the artifacts collection of the Anthropology laboratory at Tel Aviv University. The IAA, however, has stated that the lost nails from the Cft have nothing to do with the nails found at the university and the latter nails must have a different provenance. Wherever lies the truth, the presence of two nails in the Cft is of profound interest because in the New Testament the high priest Caiaphas was responsible for passing Jesus to the Romans who then sent him to the cross. The possibility that the nails were used in a crucifixion on the one hand and can be connected to Caiaphas the high priest on the other is, to say the least, interesting and potentially monumental. Aware of the controversy but also of the importance of the two unprovenanced nails we have investigated the materials which have invaded the interiors of the Cft ossuaries and in a similar manner materials that have adhered to the two unprovenanced nails. Employing geochemical and petrochemical Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM-EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and δ18O and δ13C isotope analyses we have found that the organic and inorganic materials flushed into the interior of the Cft but also those that have adhered to the two unprovenanced nails possess and display many identical, and what can also be termed unique chemical and physical characteristics. Based on the collective evidence we conclude, with considerable confidence, that the unprovenanced nails are the lost nails excavated from the Caiaphas family tomb in 1990 and furthermore that these nails were used in a crucifixion.

It looks as though the article is open access, so you can read it yourself. This research is outside my areas of expertise. I have no opinion on its claims. The Haaretz article gives some responses by experts in material culture.

As far as I know the only surviving skeleton from antiquity that was undisputably crucified is that of Yehohanan ben Hagkol. There is also another skeleton excavated in Italy that may have been crucified. Background here and links.

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News on the Sappho Papyrus

VARIANT READINGS: More on Dirk Obbink and the Provenance of the Sappho Papyrus. Brent Nongbri summarizes and comments on an article by C. Michael Sampson in the current issue of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists. I don't have access to the article, so I can't comment on it or Brent's summary.

Background on the missing papyri scandal, the provenance of the Sappho papyrus, etc. is here and follow the links.

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Ehorn, 2 Maccabees 1-7 (LXX Handbook)

NEW BOOK FROM BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS:
2 Maccabees 1-7 A Handbook on the Greek Text

Baylor Handbook on the Septuagint

by Seth M. Ehorn

357 pages, 5.25 x 8.00 in

PAPERBACK
9781481313827
PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 2020
$44.95

DESCRIPTION

In 2 Maccabees 1–7, Seth Ehorn provides a foundational analysis of the Greek text of 2 Maccabees. The analysis is distinguished by the detailed yet comprehensive attention paid to the text. Ehorn’s analysis is a convenient pedagogical and reference tool that explains the form and syntax of the biblical text, offers guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engages important text-critical debates, and addresses questions relating to the Greek text that are frequently overlooked by standard commentaries. Beyond serving as a succinct and accessible analytic key, 2 Maccabees 1–7 also reflects recent advances in scholarship on Greek grammar and linguistics and is informed by current discussions within Septuagint studies. These handbooks prove themselves indispensable tools for anyone committed to a deep reading of the Greek text of the Septuagint.

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Moazami, (Zoroastrian) Laws of Ritual Purity

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrian Laws of Ritual Purity. Notice of a New Book: Moazami, Mahnaz. 2020. Laws of Ritual Purity. Zand ī Fragard ī Jud-Dēw-Dād (A Commentary on the Chapters of the Widēwdād) (Iran Studies 19). Leiden: Brill.

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Lange et a. (eds.), Volume 2 Confronting Antisemitism ...

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:
Volume 2 Confronting Antisemitism from the Perspectives of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism

in An End to Antisemitism!

Edited by: Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, and Lawrence H. Schiffman
De Gruyter | 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110671773

OVERVIEW

Open Access This volume engages with antisemitic stereotypes as religious symbols that express and transmit a belief system of Jew-hatred. These religious symbols are stored in Christian, Muslim and even today’s secular cultural and religious memories. This volume explores how antisemitic religious symbol systems can play a key role in the construction of group identities.

OPEN ACCESS
£62.50 Hardcover

FORMATS

Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-11-058242-0
Published: 26 Oct 2020

PDF ISBN: 978-3-11-067177-3
Published: 26 Oct 2020

EPUB ISBN: 978-3-11-067188-9
Published: 26 Oct 2020

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Sunday, November 01, 2020

Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity (ed. Belayche & Massa)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:
Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity

Series: Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, Volume: 194
Volume Editors: Nicole Belayche and Francesco Massa

Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity aims to fill a gap in the study of mystery cults in Graeco-Roman Antiquity by focusing on images for investigating their ritual praxis. Nicole Belayche and Francesco Massa have gathered experts on visual language in order to illuminate cultic rituals renowned for both their “mysteries” and their images. This book tackles three interrelated questions. Focusing on the cult of Dionysus, it analyses whether, and how, images are used to depict mystery cults. The relationship between historiography and images of mystery cults is considered with a focus on the Mithraic and Isiac cults. Finally, turning to the cults of Dionysus and the Mother of the Gods, this work shows how depictions of specific cultic objects succeed in expressing mystery cults.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €93.00 / $112.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-44014-2
Publication Date: 26 Oct 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-43932-0
Publication Date: 22 Oct 2020

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Review of We and they: decolonizing Graeco-Roman and Biblical antiquities (ed. Cahana-Blum & MacKendrick)

BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: We and they: decolonizing Graeco-Roman and Biblical antiquities.
Jonathan Cahana-Blum, Karmen MacKendrick, We and they: decolonizing Graeco-Roman and Biblical antiquities. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2019. Pp. 151. ISBN 9788771844436 €35,75.

Review by
Kevin B. Solez, Memorial University of Newfoundland. ksolez@mun.ca

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Lilith once again

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Lilith. Seductress, heroine or murderer? (Janet Howe Gaines). A Bible Review article originally published in 2001 and published by BHD first in 2012. I haven't linked to it for a long time, so here it is again, belatedly for Halloween.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on ancient and modern traditions about Lilith, start here and follow the links.

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

Sandoval & Feldman (eds.), Petitioners, Penitents, and Poets

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:
Petitioners, Penitents, and Poets
On Prayer and Praying in Second Temple Judaism

Series: Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 524

Edited by: Timothy J. Sandoval and Ariel Feldman
De Gruyter | 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110624526

OVERVIEW

This volume contributes to the growing interest in understanding the phenomenon of prayer and praying in the Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism, and nascent Christianity. Papers by the leading scholars in these fields revisit long-standing questions and chart new paths of inquiry into the nature, form, and practice of addressing the divine in the ancient world.

The essays in this volume deal with particular texts of and about prayer, practices of prayer, as well as figures and locations (historical and literary) that are associated with prayer and praying. These studies apply a range of methods and theoretical approaches to prayer and the language of prayer in literatures of Early Judaism and Christianity. Some studies apply the classical methods of biblical studies to Second Temple texts of prayer, including form critical and text critical approaches; others engage in literary and narrative analysis of ancient works that recount discourse directed to the divine. Still other studies draw on anthropological and sociological analyses of prayer or marshal particular theories of discourse, ethics, and moral agency to offer fresh interpretations of address to God in the literature of Second Temple Judaism and earliest Christianity.

FORMATS
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-11-062040-5
Published: 26 Oct 2020

PDF
ISBN: 978-3-11-062452-6
Published: 26 Oct 2020

EPUB
ISBN: 978-3-11-062134-1
Published: 26 Oct 2020

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