The IAA's top-10 discoveries for 2021

THE FRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY: TOP IAA DISCOVERIES IN 2021.

PaleoJudaica has kept track of all of these stories. For the Solomonic-era purple cloth from the Timna Valley excavation, see here and here. For the lucky half-face lamp, whose other half turned up in Hungary, see here, here, and here. For the Arbel amulet, see here. For the unbreached wall in Jerusalem, see here, here, and here. For the intact chicken egg (eggshell, really), see here. And for the silver shekel found in Jerusalem, see here.

I have collect PaleoJudaica links for the other stories in in this post on Christianity Today's 2021 top-10 biblical archaeology list and in this top-10 archaeology list by the Greek Reporter. I also linked to an excellent list of lists by the Bible Place Blog here.

And that, my dear readers, is 2021 for PaleoJudaica. 2022 is nearly upon us. Celebrate well and safely tonight.

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

Review of Lawler, Under Jerusalem

HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY: 150 years of excavating Jerusalem: A rich layer cake. Book: Under Jerusalem by Andrew Lawler (RANDY ROSENTHAL, Jerusalem Post).

In Under Jerusalem, American author Andrew Lawler tells the story behind a century and a half of excavating the world’s most contested city, paying as much attention to the aboveground politics as to the subterranean discoveries. Part history, part journalism and part adventure story, the book is nearly as fun to read as exploring the underground passages it describes.

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

Moses more than mortal?

DR. ALEXANDRIA FRISCH: A Not-Quite Mortal Moses (TheTorah.com).

Moses transformed into an angel, sat upon the divine throne, and was an instantiation of the Greek God, Hermes: These are some of the ways Second Temple authors reimagined Moses.

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An algorithm to index Judaism?

ALGORITHM WATCH: Science Ministry issues grant for historical Jewish texts algorithm. A Holon Institute of Technology (HIT) research team has received a grant to program an algorithm that will identify links from across Jewish source texts (Jerusalem Post).

I'm not sure exactly what this algorithm is supposed to do, but it sounds ambitious.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the application of algorithms to the study of antiquity, see here and here and follow the links.

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

Calderon nominated to head Jewish Agency

A NEW ROLE? Lapid nominates Ruth Calderon to head Jewish Agency (J-Wire).

Dr Calderon is an educator and Talmud scholar who holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in Talmud from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 2013-2015, she was a Knesset Member from the Yesh Atid Party, where she was Deputy Speaker, member of the education and state control committees, and Chairperson of the Lobby for Jewish Renewal.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Ruth Calderon and her wide-ranging work, see here and here and links.

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

Neglected ancient burial caves in Jerusalem

UNHEEDED HERITAGE: Turning over in their graves. (Nadav Shragai, Israel HaYom).

Dozens of ancient heritage sites in Jerusalem, some located in the heart of residential neighborhoods, are suffering from long-term neglect. Doctoral student Yosef Speizer has submitted a list of 120 key sites to the city, and Mayor Moshe Leon says he plans to address the issue.

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Hadrian's Wall is turning 1900

COMMEMORATION: 1900 FESTIVAL: Join us as we celebrate 1900 years since the building of Hadrian’s Wall. 2022 will see hundreds of events and activities taking place in a yearlong festival across Hadrian’s Wall.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Hadrian's Wall, some with photos, see here and links. For posts on Vindolanda, an ancient Roman fort in Northumbria near the wall, see that post and links, plus here and here. Vindolanda is best known for the vast archive of Latin documentary tablets found there, sometimes known as the Dead Sea Scrolls of Britain.

In ancient Jewish tradition the Emperor Hadrian is mainly remembered for his role in the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 132-135 CE. Some posts on him are collected here. If you want an educated guess at what he looked like, see here. One of his outrages was the rebuilding of Jerusalem as a pagan city named after him: Aelia Capitolina.

I will keep an eye on the Wall commemorations in 2022 and will keep you posted on any interesting developments.

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

Bible Places top 10 lists

THE BIBLE PLACES BLOG: Top 10 Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology in 2021 (Todd Bolen).

This top 10 list is my own, reflecting what I judge to be of greatest interest for biblical archaeology and history. I tend to attach greater significance to stories more closely related to the biblical lands and biblical time periods. Following the top 10, I have included several lists of noteworthy stories from Jerusalem, Israel, and elsewhere.

In addition, I’ve compiled lists of the top stories related to tourism, notable resources of 2021, and a review of some we lost this year. A final section provides links to other top 10 lists of 2021. I am of course greatly indebted to many, including the archaeologists who made the discoveries, the journalists who reported them, and many friends who sent links. In terms of archaeological discoveries, 2021 was a very good year.

This is an excellent array of lists.

For other 2021 top-ten archaeology lists, see here and here. At both posts I have linked to PaleoJudaica posts on many of the same stories.

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Jones, Translation and Style in the Old Greek Psalter (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Translation and Style in the Old Greek Psalter

What Pleases Israel's God

Series: Septuagint Commentary Series Septuagint Monograph Series

Author: Jennifer Brown Jones

While some describe the Greek Psalter as a “slavish” or “interlinear” translation with “dreadfully poor poetry,” how would its original audience have described it? Positioning the translation within the developing corpus of Jewish-Greek literature, Jones analyzes the Psalter’s style based on the textual models and literary strategies available to its translator. She demonstrates that the translator both respects the integrity of his source and displays a sensitivity to his translation’s performative aspects. By adopting recognizable and acceptable Jewish-Greek literary conventions, the translator ultimately creates a text that can function independently and be read aloud or performed in the Jewish-Greek community.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €124.00 / $149.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-47230-3
Publication Date: 15 Nov 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-47125-2
Publication Date: 11 Nov 2021

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Late-antique synagogue excavated in Turkey

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Excavations reveal ancient synagogue in Turkish town near tourist hotspot. Excavations reveal ancient synagogue in Turkish town near tourist hotspot of Antalya. Synagogue dates back to 7th century (David I. Klein, JTA via Arutz Sheva).

The synagogue was found recently in the town of Side, not far from the tourist hotspot of Antalya, in southern Turkey.

Among the remains was a plaque with a menorah motif and an inscription in Hebrew and Greek stating that it was donated by a father in honor of a son who passed away at a young age. The plaque ends with the Hebrew word “Shalom.”

In 2009 there was a report of the discovery of another synagogue, dating to the third century CE, in the same region. According to Acts 13:13-15, there was a Jewish community with a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, near Pamphylia (in Antalya Province) in the first century CE.

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Looting picnic at Horvat Zaak?

APPREHENDED: Antiquities thieves busted plundering ancient cave in southern Judea. Seemingly innocent picnic revealed to be an antiquities robbery with five suspects from the Negev arrested (Israel HaYom).

A group of antiquities thieves were caught red-handed as they were allegedly plundering an ancient archaeological site in southern Judea, the Israel Antiquities Authority reported last week.

The robbers were digging at Horvat Zaak, an ancient Jewish village dating back to the Second Temple period.

[...]

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Apocryphal Christmas continued

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE: The Magi, Herod, and A Flight to Egypt.

Continuing the series of excerpts from the Gospel of James (the Protevangelium of James).

This story sounds more familiar. It is basically an imaginative retelling of Matthew chapter 2, with a cameo appearance of two charactes from Luke chapter 1 toward the end.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch and (still) 'Tis the Season.

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Stone, Armenian Apocrypha from Adam to Daniel (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Armenian Apocrypha from Adam to Daniel
Michael E. Stone ISBN 9781628374162
Volume EJL 55
Status Available
Publication Date December 2021
Paperback $59.00
Hardback $79.00
eBook $59.00

This latest book by Michael E. Stone is the sixth volume in a series of translations from Armenian to English, which he began with the publication of Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Patriarchs and Prophets in 1982. His initial aim, to search unstudied Armenian manuscripts for works dating back to the Second Temple period, developed into a career-long search for reworkings of biblical traditions, stories, and persons in the Armenian tradition. In this collection Stone focuses on texts related to heaven and hell, angels and demons, and biblical figures from the Hebrew Bible and apocrypha. Texts, introductions, translations, annotations, and a critical apparatus make this collection a key resource for students and scholars of apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature.

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Holladay, Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Carl R. Holladay. Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament. Collected Essays. Ed. by Jonathan M. Potter and Michael K.W. Suh. 2021. XXI, 714 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 468. 189,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-154789-8>.

Published in English.
Like Philo and Josephus, as well as those who earlier produced the Septuagint and the Hellenistic Jewish fragmentary texts, the writers of the New Testament were Jews writing in Greek. They may have been articulating and promoting a particular form of Jewish messianism that eventually became a distinctive form of religious belief, but in the first and early second centuries, those Christ-followers who were writing in various genres operated with many of the same assumptions as their Jewish counterparts in the land of Israel and in other places such as Alexandria and Rome. This collection of essays, spanning the scholarly career of Carl R. Holladay, investigates the Hellenistic Jewish writings in their own contexts and explores how they illuminate the writings of the New Testament. Included are six new essays on such topics as Hellenistic Judaism, the Beatitudes, and Luke-Acts.

For more on Professor Holladay, see here.

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Porter, Johannine Social Identity Formation after the Fall of the Jerusalem Temple (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Johannine Social Identity Formation after the Fall of the Jerusalem Temple

Negotiating Identity in Crisis

Series: Biblical Interpretation Series, Volume: 194

Author: Christopher A. Porter

In Johannine Social Identity Formation after the Fall of the Jerusalem Temple Christopher Porter reads the Fourth Gospel through the lens of social identity theory as means of reconciling the social dislocation and trauma of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Analysing the Fourth Gospel in conversation with other temple-removed texts of Qumran, Philo, and Josephus the gospel’s intent to renegotiate cultic life without the temple can be seen. Through this analysis it is argued that the Fourth Gospel primarily functions as an intra-mural Jewish text, attempting to negotiate the formation of a Jesus-follower social identity in direct continuity with earlier Jewish shared social narratives. Finally, this work reviews the Johannine Community as an outcome of the Gospel identity formation.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €106.00 / $128.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46982-2
Publication Date: 25 Oct 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46981-5
Publication Date: 28 Oct 2021

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Dumped ancient sarcophagus lid recovered at Ashkelon

DISCARDED DISCOVERY: Antiquities inspectors find 1,900-year-old sarcophagus lid in dump (Israel HaYom). HT the Bible Places Blog.

There was a similar episode in 2016, also at Ashkelon, involving an ancient sarcophagus found at a building site.

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

Aramaic magic bowls in the Kyprianos Database

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Kyprianos Update (22 December 2021). The Kiprianos Database now includes Aramaic incantation bowls. This seems to have been the case for a while, but I just noticed.

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Visit virtual Babylon

THE AWOL BLOG: Digital Model of Babylon.

I have a feeling this wrbsite will be useful when I next teach my upper division course on the Book of Daniel

Last spring I noted a recent book on Babylon by the owner of this site, Olof Pedersén (also via the AWOL Blog). Other posts on the history and archaeology of ancient Babylon are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

Christmas 2021

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all those celebrating!

For posts of Christmases past, see my 2020 Christmas post and links.

More recent Christmas posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

The Cave of Treasures etc.

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: The Magi and the Cave of Treasures (Philip Jenkins). Some more Christmas apocrypha!

The Cave of Treasures presents itself as an extended prequel to the New Testament account of the gifts of the magi. It was composed, apparently, in Syriac. It survives also in various derivative translations.

We published a translation of it by Alexander Toepel in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 1 (ed. Bauckham, Davila, and Panayotov; Eerdmans, 2013), pp. 531-84. But one could also make a case for including it among the New Testament Apocrypha.

I have collected links on the Cave of Treasures, including to an old German edition and an old English translation here, with more here, here, and here.

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch, More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Christian Apocrypha Watch, New Testament Apocrypha Watch, Syriac Watch, and 'Tis the Season.

UPDATE: Please pardon the glitched links above. I have unglitched them!

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

Jesus' birth in the Gospel of James.

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE: Virgin Birth in the Wilderness: The Apocryphal Gospel of James for Christmas Eve.

Continuing the series of excerpts from the Gospel of James (the Protevangelium of James). More on it here and follow the links.

This is quite a different version of events from Luke chapter 2. No inn or manger (or whatever), no angel choir, and no shepherds. Instead a grotto, a cloud, a midwife, the angel of the Lord, and a burned and healed hand.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch and 'Tis the Season.

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

Apocryphal Christmas, once again

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Christmas Stories in Christian Apocrypha. The birth of Jesus in the apocryphal gospels (Tony Burke). I have linked to this essay before, but this is a good time to do it again.

For more on the Protevangelium of James, see here and links. For more on the infancy gospels, see the links collected here.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch and 'Tis the Season.

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

Demythologizing the Cairo Geniza?

GENIZA FRAGMENTS BLOG: Q&A Wednesday: Deconstructing Genizah mythology, with Rebecca Jefferson (Melonie Schmierer-Lee and Rebecca Jefferson).

The discovery of the Cairo Geniza involve mored people than just Solomon Schechter. I learned a great deal from this blog post. I look forward to Rebecca Jefferson's book: The Cairo Genizah and the Age of Discovery in Egypt: the History and Provenance of a Jewish Archive (I. B. Tauris, 2022).

For PaleoJudaica posts on Solomon Schechter and his relationship with the Cairo Geniza, see here and links, plus here and here.

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

A stop in a grotto

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE: Travel Plans for the Holidays: On to Bethlehem with the Protoevangelium of James.

Another excerpt. The more common spelling of the title of this work is the Protevangelium of James.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch and 'Tis the Season.

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

Surprise sifting soil

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: 22 YEARS LATER… some Temple mount soil shows up at the Project for sifting.

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

Schiffman on Fraade's Damascus Document commentary

PROF. LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: S. D. FRAADE’S THE DAMASCUS DOCUMENT, THE OXFORD COMMENTARY ON THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS. Remarks from the online book launch, December 16, 2021..

I would like to use my opportunity today to take the new volume as a jumping off point and to ask how the Damascus Document fits into the wider questions pertaining to the history of Jewish law.

I noted this event as upcoming here. A related post is here.

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More on the late-antique Caesarea shipwreck

UPDATE: 1,700-year-old coins, Jesus ‘Good Shepherd’ ring, found in shipwrecks off Caesarea. Divers’ discoveries include gold ring with green gemstone carved with Christian image of the ‘Good Shepherd’ – an early depiction of Jesus – and carved image of ‘David’s Harp’ (Amy Spiro, Times of Israel).

I posted on this story yesterday. This article has more photos, notably of the red gem inscribed with an image of a lyre. It was mentioned in yesterday article, but not pictured.

It looks as though the full text of the IAA press release is posted here, along with the accompanying photos.

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

St. Catherine's Monastery in the news

ST. CATHERINE'S MONASTERY IN THE SINAI is getting some media attention this week.

First, the Greek Reporter has a useful orientation article, with a brief history and some information on its manuscripts:

Historic St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai (Philip Chrysopoulos).

Then the Jewish Press reports on a new digitization initiative by the Israel National Library:

Ancient Christian Manuscripts from Mount Sinai Monastery Go Online via Israel’s National Library.

The INL took the 1,600 photos of the manuscripts and the monastery in the 1960s, but they only digitized them in recent years.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on St. Catherine's Monastery, its manuscripts, and their digitization, start here (cf. here) and follow the links. And for other manuscript digitization projects, see here and links.

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

Two shipwrecks found at Caesarea

MARINE ARCHAEOLOGY: Ancient underwater treasure found in Caesarea with Christian gold ring, Maritime archaeologists found several precious artifacts, hundreds of silver coins from two shipwrecks dating over a millennium apart in the ancient harbor (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

I noted another report of a late-antique shipwreck found at Caesarea five years ago. It sounds like the one in the current article is a new one. In any case, there are new discoveries coming from it.

For many other posts on ancient shipwrecks, see here and links and here. Cross-file under Marine (Maritime, Underwater) Archaeology.

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

CT's biblical archaeology top ten 2021

CHRISTIANITY TODAY: Biblical Archaeology’s Top 10 Discoveries of 2021. Evidence of Herod’s green thumb, Roman crucifixion methods, and Philistine bananas add to our understanding of the world of the Bible (Gordon Govier).

As usual, PaleoJudaica has posted on many of these stories. For the Ashkelon basilica, see here. For the inscription of Pharaoh Hophra, see here. For the rediscovered Egyptian city, see here. For the Cambridgeshire crucifixion, see here and here. For the new Dead Sea Scroll fragments recovered in the Cave of Horror, see here, follow the links back from here, and also note the space coin from the same cave. For the recent discoveries at Yavneh, see here, here, and here. For that public building ("banquet hall") in the Western Wall Tunnels, see here. For the Jerubbaal (?) jug, follow the links back from here. And for the second synagogue found at Magdala, see here.

For another 2021 archaeology top-ten list, see here.

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

In memory of Baruch Levine

OBITUARY: Baruch Levine, Bible scholar who grew Judaic Studies at NYU, dies at 91. The Emeritus Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University, Levine passed away on December 16th in Hamden, Connecticut at age 91 (ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL, JTA via Jerusalem Post).

Background here.

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Review of Litwa, Posthuman transformation in ancient Mediterranean thought

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Posthuman transformation in ancient Mediterranean thought: becoming angels and demons.

M. David Litwa, Posthuman transformation in ancient Mediterranean thought: becoming angels and demons. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. 248. ISBN 9781108843997 $99.99.

Review by Tom Mackenzie, University College London. t.mackenzie@ucl.ac.uk

This is an enjoyable, erudite, and informative book, even if the argument could at times be presented with greater precision. ... The method of covering such a wide range of texts in such a short span has the benefit of readability and brings to light some very interesting overarching connections. He provides a wealth of material to support his central historical claim, that Jewish and Christian discourses of angelification were part of the same intellectual tradition as Platonic daimonification. ...

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Baruch A. Levine (1930-2021)

H-JUDAIC WITH SAD NEWS: Passing of Prof. Baruch A. Levine.

H-Judaic is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Professor Baruch A. Levine (1930-2021), Skirball Emeritus Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University, and one of the foremost Jewish biblical scholars of our time. ...

May his memory be for a blessing.

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Runia, Philo of Alexandria: an Annotated Bibliography 2007-2016 (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Philo of Alexandria: an Annotated Bibliography 2007-2016

With addenda for items earlier than 2006

Series: Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements, Volume: 174

Author: David T. Runia

This volume is a further continuation of the annotated bibliographies on the writings and thought of the Jewish exegete and philosopher Philo of Alexandria, following those on the years 1937–1986 published in 1988, 1987–1996 published in 2000 and 1997–2012 published in 2012. Prepared in collaboration with the International Philo Bibliography Project, it contains a complete listing of all scholarly writings on Philo for the period 2007 to 2016. Part One lists texts, translations, commentaries etc. (75 items). Part Two contains critical studies (1143 items). In Part Three additional items up to 2006 are presented (27 items). In all cases a summary of the contents of the contribution is given. Six indices, including a detailed Index of subjects, complete the work.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €183.00 / $220.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-49911-9
Publication Date: 08 Nov 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-47196-2
Publication Date: 11 Nov 2021

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What did Pontius Pilate ever do for Jerusalem?

ANCIENT INFRASTRUCTURE: Notorious Pontius Pilate Is the One Who Built Jerusalem Aqueduct, Study Finds. The researchers, who collected their data while spelunking into shafts and digging through mud and chilly water, also discovered the aqueduct’s 'cutting-edge' method of construction (Nir Hasson, Haaretz premium). HT Joseph Lauer.

You can find the underlying article in Geoarchaeology here, but it is behind a subscription wall.

I was hoping for an inscription that said "Pontius Pilate built this aqueduct." No such luck. I wasn't really expecting one. Such things are exceedingly rare.

The Haaretz headline overstates the certainty of the connection with Pilate. This case for the building of the aqueduct under him rests on archaeological dating correlated with comments by Josephus. The Geoarchaeology article favors the connection but is cautious about it. It keeps a second-century CE dating as a live possibility.

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CT on Obbink and the missing Oxford papyri

CHRISTIANITY TODAY: Missing Papyri Professor Must Return $7 Million to Hobby Lobby. Dirk Obbink has lost a federal lawsuit over the fraudulent sale of Gospel fragments. (Gordon Govier). HT Brent Nongbri.

Obbink was arrested in 2020 and then sued in 2021. Shortly after that, court records show, he moved to a houseboat named the James Brindley and started hiding from the private investigators attempting to serve him summons.

For PaleoJudaica posts tracking the missing-Oxyrhynchus-papyri scandal, start here and follow the links. This story does not seem to be getting any less strange.

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

Top 10 "ancient Greek archaeological discoveries" 2021

ARCHAEOLOGY: The Ten Best Ancient Greek Archaeological Discoveries of 2021 (Patricia Claus, Greek Reporter).

It's end-of-year-list time again!

I have commented on that bronze bull figurine from Olympia here.

Israeli archaeology is well represented. I noted the discovery of the winepress complex at Tzipori/Tzippori/Zippori/Sepphoris back in 2018, so it is not exactly a 2021 story, except that that seems to be when the Greek Reporter covered it. Likewise with the Dionysius mosaic at the same site, which I noted back in 2013. I noted the discovery of the gold coin of Heraclius here and the "Christ born of Mary" inscription here.

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

Ben-Dov & Rojas (eds.), Afterlives of Ancient Rock-cut Monuments in the Near East (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Afterlives of Ancient Rock-cut Monuments in the Near East

Carvings in and out of Time

Series: Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, Volume: 123

Editors: Jonathan Ben-Dov and Felipe Rojas

This book concerns the ancient rock-cut monuments carved throughout the Near East, paying particular attention to the fate of these monuments in the centuries after their initial production. As parts of the landscapes in which they were carved, they acquired new meanings in the cultural memory of the people living around them. The volume joins numerous recent studies on the reception of historical texts and artefacts, exploring the peculiar affordances of these long-lasting and often salient monuments. The volume gathers articles by archeologists, art historians, and philologists, covering the entire Near East, from Iran to Lebanon and from Turkey to Egypt. It also analyzes long-lasting textual traditions that aim to explain the origins and meaning of rock-cut monuments and other related carvings.

Copyright Year: 2021

Prices from (excl. VAT): €158.00 / $190.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46208-3
Publication Date: 27 Sep 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46207-6
Publication Date: 23 Sep 2021

HT Bibliographia Iranica.

The final three essays of this volume are of particular interest to PaleoJudaica:

Chapter 9 Neo-Babylonian Rock Reliefs and the Jewish Literary Imagination
Author: Jonathan Ben-Dov
Pages: 345–37

Chapter 10 Translatio studii: Stelae Traditions in Second Temple Judaism and Their Legacy in Byzantium
Author: William Adler
Pages: 380–401

Chapter 11 The Long History of an Imaginary Inscription: Josephus’ Two Pillars in Early Modern European Histories of Astronomy
Author: John Steele
Pages: 402–426

For more from Jonathan ben Dov on this subject, see here and here.

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Litwa, The Evil Creator (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Evil Creator

Origins of an Early Christian Idea

M. David Litwa

• Interprets the evil creator as a distinctly Christian idea
• Contrasts Judaist readings with Gnostic and Marcionite analysis
• Connects ancient understandings of God to modern theology and atheism

Description

This book examines the origins of the evil creator idea chiefly in light of early Christian biblical interpretations. It is divided into two parts. In Part I, the focus is on the interpretations of Exodus and John. Firstly, ancient Egyptian assimilation of the Jewish god to the evil deity Seth-Typhon is studied to understand its reapplication by Phibionite and Sethian Christians to the Judeo-catholic creator. Secondly, the Christian reception of John 8:44 (understood to refer to the devil's father) is shown to implicate the Judeo-catholic creator in murdering Christ. Part II focuses on Marcionite Christian biblical interpretations. It begins with Marcionite interpretations of the creator's character in the Christian "Old Testament," analyzes 2 Corinthians 4:4 (in which "the god of this world" blinds people from Christ's glory), examines Christ's so-called destruction of the Law (Eph 2:15) and the Lawgiver, and shows how Christ finally succumbs to the "curse of the Law" inflicted by the creator (Gal 3:13). A concluding chapter shows how still today readers of the Christian Bible have concluded that the creator manifests an evil character.

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Larsson (ed.), The Legacy, Life and Work of Geo Widengren ... (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Legacy, Life and Work of Geo Widengren and the Study of the History of Religions after World War II

Series: Numen Book Series, Volume: 174

Volume Editor: Göran Larsson

Professor Geo Widengren (1907–1996), holder of the chair in History of Religions and Psychology of Religions at Uppsala University between 1940 and 1973, is one of Sweden’s best-known scholars in the field of religious studies. His involvement in the start of the IAHR and publications on topics such as the phenomenology of religions, Iranian studies and Middle Eastern Religions make Widengren one of the founding fathers of the History of Religions as an academic discipline. This volume pays tribute to Widengren’s academic achievements and critically discusses his work in light of the latest academic findings and research.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €124.00 / $149.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-49938-6
Publication Date: 01 Nov 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-49936-2
Publication Date: 28 Oct 2021

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Hailu, JEWISH CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TÄWAḤƏDO CHURCH (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

JEWISH CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TÄWAḤƏDO CHURCH
By Afework Hailu

This monograph traces how ‘Jewish’ elements were introduced into and disseminated throughout the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo Church through a series of multi-layered, socio-politico-cultural processes. Drawing on historical and literary evidence, Afework tracks the incorporation of Jewish features into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from pre-Aksumite Christianity, before the fourth century, through the sixteenth century.

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-0717-5

Formats Hardback

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 55
Publication Date: Jul 30,2020
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 369
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0717-5

Price: $118.00
Your price: $70.80

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Bible & Archaeology

NEW PUBLICATION: "BIBLE & ARCHAEOLOGY is a new digital publication covering knowledge, discoveries, and opportunities in biblical archaeology."

About Bible & Archaeology

Bible & Archaeology was founded in 2021 at the University of Iowa by professor Robert R. Cargill and former University President Bruce Harreld. It is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 nonsectarian, nondenominational, educational organization promoting biblical studies, archaeology, and the intersection of the two disciplines in the Mediterranean and Southwest Asia—the areas traditionally called the “lands of the Bible.”

Bible & Archaeology is a popular online website and resource offering visitors an array of news, information, tools, and resources related to the study of the Bible and archaeology. These include original articles written by the very scholars making the discoveries, breaking news stories, articles, videos, and online courses taught by the world’s best scholars, study tours, lexicons, maps, puzzles, games, and trivia.

I noted this site as upcoming earlier this year. You can sign up for updates at the link.

Regular readers will be aware that Robert Cargill is the former editor of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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

PEF funding 2022

THE PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND: Annual Research Grants 2022. HT Rogue Classicism>

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

More on those apprehended Bar Kokhba-era artifacts

DOUBLY LOOTED? Stopping a suspect car, police find ancient items Bar Kochba rebels took from Romans. Detectives searching a vehicle in Jerusalem find box with rare bronze antiquities believed seized by Jewish rebels 2,000 years ago as spoils of war (Luke Tress, Times of Israel).

Israeli archaeologists believe ancient artifacts recently seized by police were spoils of war taken by Jewish rebels from their Roman enemies nearly 2,000 years ago.

Israel’s Antiquities Authority said Wednesday that the artifacts, including ornamental incense burners and a wine jug, may be battle loot dating back to the Bar Kochba revolt in 132-136 CE.

[...]

I noted the report of the apprehension last week here. Information in the current article seems to indicate that there is a good case for the artifacts being genuinely ancient.

The site has been under recent surveillance after authorities found unauthorized excavations at the site, and launched an operation to capture suspects, but “unfortunately the robbers managed to escape,” said Amir Ganor, director of the Robbery Prevention Unit.

“When they fled, they left behind ancient finds that are similar to those now recovered in the suspects’ possession. We believe that the finds that were recently recovered in Jerusalem were taken from this site,” he said.

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

Egyptian ostraca galore!

EGYTPTIAN EPIGRAPHY: Cache of 13,000 ostraca unearthed in Upper Egypt's Sohag (Nevine El-Aref, Ahram).

A German-Egyptian mission at Al-Sheikh Hamad archaeological site in Tel Atribis in Sohag has unearthed a collection of 13,000 ostraca (clay vessel fragments) which bear engraved text in demotic, hieratic, Coptic, Greek and Arabic, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism said on Wednesday.

Further:

Christian Latis, head of the German mission ... suggests that the text written on the ostraca indicates that the area may have housed a school for teaching demotic, hieratic, hieroglyphic and Greek writing.

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

New English translation of the Talmud Yerushalmi online

(JERUSALEM) TALMUD WATCH: Intimidated by the Jerusalem Talmud? This publisher is offering a more ‘accessible’ translation (Rudy Malcom, The Forward).

Most people who study Talmud go with the Babylonian one, and pay scant attention to its older, more difficult cousin — the Jerusalem Talmud.

But the nonprofit publisher Sefaria released a new, online English translation of it this week in hopes that more people will delve into the challenging compendium of Jewish law.

[...]

For more on the Sefaria website and its Talmud-related publication see here and links.

Some PaleoJudaica posts on the Talmud Yerushalmi (Palestinian Talmud) are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

Brock, The Bible in the Syriac Tradition (3rd ed.) (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK (3RD ED.) FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

THE BIBLE IN THE SYRIAC TRADITION (THIRD EDITION)
By Sebastian P. Brock

This is a basic introduction to the various Syriac translations of the Bible and the ways in which they were used in the Syriac tradition. After an initial discussion of the general problems of biblical translation, the different surviving Syriac translations are outlined, as well as biblical manuscripts, lectionaires, printed editions, and translations. A reception history of the Syriac Bible covers the ways in which it has been interpreted, the commentary tradition, its use in preaching, in liturgy, and in spirituality. An appendix offers some comparative samples (in translation) to illustrate some of the differences between the different Syriac translations.

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4233-6

Formats Paperback

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Gorgias Handbooks 52
Publication Date: Jan 27,2021
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 199
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4233-6

Price: $53.00
Your price: $31.80

Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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Tenth of Tevet 2021

THE TENTH OF TEVET (today) is a fast day commemorating the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:1; Ezekiel 241:1-2). It is also mentioned in Zechariah 8:19.

The fast also commemorates the death of biblical Ezra the Scribe, traditionally on the 9th of Tevet, and (cf. b. Megillah 9a-b) the Septuagint translation of the Torah into Greek.

Previous PaleoJudaica posts on the Tenth of Tevet are here and here. For still more, see the Chabad article here and the one by Aish.com here.

The fast runs today from dawn to sundown. A safe and healthy one to all those observing.

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

Cirafesi, John within Judaism (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

John within Judaism

Religion, Ethnicity, and the Shaping of Jesus-Oriented Jewishness in the Fourth Gospel

Series: Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Volume: 112

Author: Wally V. Cirafesi

In John within Judaism, Wally V. Cirafesi offers a reading of the Gospel of John as an expression of the fluid and flexible nature of Jewish identity in Greco-Roman antiquity. While many have noted John’s general Jewishness, few have given it a seat at the ideologically congested table of ancient Jewish practice and belief. By interrogating the concept of “Judaism” in relation to the complex categories of “religion” and “ethnicity,” Cirafesi argues that John negotiates Jewishness using strategies of ethnic identity formation paralleled in other Jewish sources from the Second Temple and early rabbinic periods. In this process of negotiation, including its use of “high christology” and critique of Ioudaioi, John coalesces with other expressions of ancient Jewish identity and, thus, can be read “within Judaism.”

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €116.00 / $140.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46294-6
Publication Date: 11 Oct 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46293-9
Publication Date: 14 Oct 2021

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

Kiperwasser, Going West (Rabbinic Culture) (SBL Press)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Going West : Migrating Personae and Construction of the Self in Rabbinic Culture

Reuven Kiperwasser

Volume BJS 369
Status Available

Publication Date November 2021

Paperback $29.00
Hardback $82.00
eBook $23.00

This new book by Reuven Kiperwasser examines the social, cultural, and religious aspects of third- to sixth-century narratives involving rabbinic figures migrating between Babylonia and Palestine. Kiperwasser draws on migration and mobility studies, comparative literature, humor and satire studies, as well as social history to reveal how border-crossing rabbis were seen as exporting features of their previous eastern context into their new western homes and vice versa. Through their writing, rabbinic authors articulated the nature and legitimacy of their own scholastic practices, knowledge, and authority in relationship to their internal others.

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

A second synagogue in Magdala

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: 2nd-Temple-period synagogue found where Gospel’s Mary Magdalene was born. The building is the second synagogue from the time uncovered in Migdal, a prominent Jewish settlement that was also the main base of Flavius Josephus, historian and anti-Roman rebel commander (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

“The fact that we have found two synagogues shows that the Jews of the Second Temple period were looking for a place for religious, and perhaps also social, gatherings,” said Zinman Institute head Prof. Adi Erlich. “The stone bearing a relief of the Menorah from the other synagogue at Migdal, suggests that the local Jews saw Jerusalem as their religious center, and their local activities took place under this centrality.”

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the ancient city of Magdala (Migdal today), the other first-century synagogue excavated there, and the Magdala Stone found in the latter synagogue, see here and links, plus here.

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

Aramaic at Adıyaman

MODERN ARAMAIC WATCH: Aramaic as a spoken language! (Mendy Chitrik, Times of Israel Blogs).

During my trips across Turkey, I usually shared a day post, but meeting with Metropolitan Gregorios Melki ÜREK of Adıyaman and conversing with him in Aramaic, deserves a special post.

[...]

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

Ancient Judaism job at Oxford

OXFORD UNIVERSITY:

Job Details

Associate Professor, Jewish History
Clarendon Institute, Walton Street, Oxford

Grade 36S: £48,835 - £65,574 p.a.

The Faculty of Oriental Studies and Wolfson College are recruiting an Associate Professor of Jewish History in the Second Temple and Late Antiquity periods from 1 October 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter. The post provides vital teaching for undergraduate and graduate degrees in Hebrew and Jewish Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and will be attached to Wolfson College. Primarily based in the Faculty of Oriental Studies and Wolfson College, the post offers the potential for teaching and research links with the Faculty of Theology & Religion and the Faculty of Classics (Ancient History). The research focus of the post is the historical study of Jews in Palestine and the Diaspora in the Second Temple and Late Antiquity periods, with a strong focus on textual sources in the original languages.

Follow the link for further particulars and application information. The application deadline is 12 noon on 28 January 2022.

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

Review of Wiśniewski, Christian divination in late antiquity

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Christian divination in late antiquity.

Robert Wiśniewski, Christian divination in late antiquity. Social worlds of late antiquity and the early middle ages. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. Pp. 288. ISBN 9789462988705 €105,00.

Review by
Michael Hanaghan, Australian Catholic University. michael.hanaghan@acu.edu.au

The volume also gives some attention to ancient polytheistic and Jewish divination.

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

Which one is Bethsaida?

THE DEBATE CONTINUES: Is this really the biblical city where Jesus walked on water? Archaeologists debate over the location of the biblical city of Bethsaida (Owen Jarus, Live Science). HT Rogue Classicism.

This is a good summary of the current state of the debate on whether et-Tell or El-Araj is the site of the city of Bethsaida in the time of Jesus. For many PaleoJudaica posts on the subject, start here and follow the links.

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

Jigoulov, The Phoenicians (Reaktion)

NEW BOOK FROM REAKTION BOOKS:

The Phoenicians
Lost Civilizations
Vadim S. Jigoulov

The Phoenicians is a fascinating exploration of this much-mythologized people: their history, artistic heritage and the scope of their maritime and colonizing activities in the Mediterranean.

Vadim S. Jigoulov describes and analyses various artefacts (epigraphic, numismatic and material remains) and considers how historians have derived information about a people with little surviving literature. This includes a critical look at classical, Near Eastern and biblical primary texts, the relationship between the Phoenician and Punic worlds, Phoenician interactions with the Greeks and others, and the repurposing of Phoenician heritage in modernity. Detailed and engrossing, The Phoenicians casts new light on this most enigmatic of civilizations.

25 × 145 × 20 mm
248 pages
Hardback
9781789144789
60 illustrations, 35 in colour
01 Nov 2021
Lost Civilizations

£15.00

Cross-file under Phoenician Watch.

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

On Pentateuchal Targumic poetry

THE GENIZA FRAGMENTS BLOG: Throwback Thursday: Targumic poems of the Pentateuch (reprint of a 1986 article by Michael Klein). Cross-file under Aramaic Watch and Cairo Geniza.

For more on late-antique Jewish Aramaic poetry, see here, here, here, here, and here.

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

On Joseph and Asenath (Aseneth)

PROF. PATRICIA D. AHEARNE-KROLL: Joseph and Asenath (TheTorah.com).

A text from Hellenistic Egypt (ca. 100 B.C.E. to 100 C.E.) tells a romantic story of Joseph and Asenath’s courtship. Initially, Asenath rejects Joseph, but then falls in love with him, only to have Joseph reject her because she is the daughter of an Egyptian priest. It’s only after she repents and changes her allegiance to Israel’s God that Joseph marries her.

I noted the author's book here.

I have commented on the question of the authorship of Joseph and Aseneth here.

For other posts on Joseph and Aseneth, see here and links, plus here and here.

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

Reburbishment of the Carthage National Museum

PUNIC WATCH: Tunisia: Focus On Carthage Museum and Its Surroundings Refurbishment Project in Partnership With EU in Tunisia (Tunis Afrique Presse (Tunis) via AllAfrica.com).

Tunis/Tunisia — The Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the European Union (EU) Delegation to Tunisia announced in detail the broad outlines of the refurbishment project of the Carthage National Museum and its surroundings, under the program "Tounes Wijhetouna, notably 3,000 Heritage and Culture Territory," which allocated an estimated funding of €10 million for studies and works in this regard.

During a press conference organised on Monday at the Cathedral of Saint Louis by the ministry and the EU delegation in Tunisia, the project and the restricted competition for the award of the contract for the refurbishment project were announced.

The of Carthage National Museum is one of the main Tunisian museums along with the Bardo Museum. It hosts the most important collection of archaeological objects from the site of Carthage since the Phoenician period and offering a synthesis of the prestigious history of Carthage (over 100,000 items). Since the end of the first quarter of 2018, the Carthage National Museum has been closed to visitors. Only the nearby archaeological remains can be visited.

I have mentioned the Carthage National Museum here.

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

Does Josephus matter? How much?

THE MARGINALIA REVIEW OF BOOKS: Why Josephus Matters. Steve Mason on Flavius Josephus. Again, HT Rogue Classicism.

If we leave biblical and New Testament authors out of the frame, Flavius Josephus (37–100+ CE) was the most consequential ancient writer in the West. This claim is not provable by statistics, but a process of elimination supports it. Plato was big, Aristotle too. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius had their admirers, and every literate Roman knew Cicero and Livy. But Christian Crusaders did not take Plato into battle in the Holy Land. Thucydides was not rewritten in Latin and Hebrew versions, as Josephus was, amplifying his already huge impact. From the first to the twenty-first centuries, Josephus’ work has mattered to more people and more consistently than any other non-biblical text.

Does that mean that he should matter now? Nothing simply matters. Classical music, stock prices, and American politics matter to some but not others. Things that mattered to us when we were twenty might not at forty or sixty. To ask why Josephus matters is to ask, first, why he has mattered, and second, why he might matter from now on, which is not the same thing.

[...]

It is fair to say that Steve Mason owns Josephus studies. It is great to have an overview essay from him on the topic.

There are many, many PaleoJudaica posts on Flavius Josephus. For some of them, see here and follow the links. For many others, run the search term "Josephus" through the blog search engine.

For more on the siege of Jopata (Yodaft) and that rather complicated mass suicide pact, see my posts on The Josephus Problem. For pseudo-Hegisippus and other Latin translations of Josephus, see here and links. For the medieval compilation Sefer Yossipon (Jossipon), see here and links.

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

Restoration of the St. Hilarion Monastery in Gaza

ARCHAEOLOGY: Ancient Gaza monastery restored by unemployed young Palestinians. For the third year in a row, a Palestinian team under French supervision works on the restoration of St. Hilarion Monastery in Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp (Mervat Ouf, Al-Monitor). HT Rogue Classicism.

For more on the St. Hilarion Monastery in Gaza, see here.

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

More on the Cambridgeshire crucifixion

UPDATE: Free Access to Crucifixion in the Fens: Life and Death in Roman Fenstanton.

Exclusively for British Archaeology Magazine, David Ingham & Corinne Duhig report on the excavations, and what they believe to be rare evidence for ancient crucifixion - and the first from northern Europe.

HT Richard Bauckham.

This is the underlying article behind the many media stories, including the Guardian article to which I linked yesterday. Go there for background and more links.

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

Crucified man excavated in Cambridgeshire

OSTEOLOGY: Best physical evidence of Roman crucifixion found in Cambridgeshire Near 1,900-year-old skeleton discovered with nail through heel bone during excavation in Fenstanton (Jamie Grierson, The Guardian). HT Dr. Michael Lyons.

The skeleton of Yehohanan ben Hagko also had a crucifixion nail driven through the heel bone. Another skeleton excavated in Jerusalem in 1970 has been flagged as possibly crucified, but the most recent analysis I know of indicates not. Another apparently crucified skeleton was excavated in Italy. For more on all three, plus additional posts on crucifixion, see here and follow the links.

In addition, there are two ancient nails that may have been used in crucifixions.

UPDATE (10 December): More here.

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

BAR debates the Shapira scroll affair

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Shapira Scrolls—Authentic or Forged? Scholars debate the scrolls’ authenticity in Biblical Archaeology Review.

As usual, the BAR articles are behind a subscription wall. But, also as usual, the BHD essay gives you the background story and some highlights from the articles.

PaleoJudaica has followed this year's renewed debate on the Shapira Scroll fragments, notably here and here, but also start here and follow the links back.

The big problem is that the scroll fragments are now lost, and presumed destroyed, and we have no usable photos of them. All we have are bad drawings and entirely illegible photos. I have suggested a possible way forward here. No one has taken me up on it yet. I remain interested in whether the idea has any merit.

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

Another looting arrest

APPREHENDED: Dozens of artifacts, some from Bar Kochba era, found by police, 3 arrested. While on duty, a team of detectives from the Lev HaBira police station noticed three people in a car who drew their suspicion, so they searched the vehicle (Jerusalem Post).

This article has a photo of one of the recovered objects. It looks like it might be a decorated metal lamp.

Cue the usual cautions about unprovenanced artifacts. The more interesting they are, the more we should keep in mind the possibility of a forgery and look for credible authenication.

UPDATE (16 December): More here.

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

How Joseph Met Mary

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE: How Joseph Met Mary In the [Apocryphal] Gospel of James. HT Rogue Classicism.

Christmas is coming, which means it's time to dust off those infancy narratives in the apocryphal gospels. The Protevangelium of James is a favorite. Earlier posts on it are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Cross-file under 'Tis the Season and New Testament Apocrypha.

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Christmas tidings of ... the Toledot Yeshu?

ZOOM (AND IN-PERSON) EVENT: A Very Jewish Christmas: Toledot Yeshu, A Jewish Anti-Gospel (CT Jewish Ledger).

(New York, NY) – For the fourth year in a row, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will delve into how Jewish culture developed around Christmas.

On Wednesday, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m., both in person and on Zoom, YIVO will present “A Very Jewish Christmas: Toledot Yeshu, A Jewish Anti-Gospel,” a talk by Azzan Yadin-Israel on the history of this ancient book followed by an English-Yiddish bilingual reading of it by Shane Baker and Eleanor Reissa.

[...]

The Zoom event is free. Follow the link for registration information.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Toledot Yeshu, start here and follow the links. Cross-file under 'Tis the Season?

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

Gilgamesh Dream Tablet on display in Iraq

REPATRIATED: Iraq puts on display ancient artifacts returned by U.S. (Reuters).

The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet was returned to Iraq yesterday. Background here and links.

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

More golden tongues, but still no Cleopatra's tomb

EGYTPIAN ARCHAEOLGY: Meet the lawyer-turned-archaeologist leading the search for Cleopatra's tomb. Kathleen Martinez has risked everything in her quest to find Egyptian queen's resting place, she tells 'The National' (Hamza Hendawi, The National).

This article gives a good brief account of Ms. Martinez's background and her archaeological work at Taposiris Magna. But one has to read far along to learn that the only new announcement is that there might be a new announcement soon:

But now, the end may be in sight.

“Sometimes I feel like I would like to update the people on what I am doing,” she said, explaining that only Egyptian authorities, not the relevant archaeologists, announce new discoveries.

“They may announce by the end of this year, that I am now closer to my objective,” she said cryptically.

“It is very improbable that I won’t discover the tomb,” she said, striking a confident note as she sipped a glass of lemonade at the lounge of a Nile-side Cairo hotel.

I hope she's right.

For more on Cleopatra VII (THE Cleopatra) see here and links. Plutarch reports that she knew Hebrew and Aramaic.

For the excavation at Taposiris Magna and the hope that it will lead to the tomb of Cleopatra, start here and follow the links. That link is about the discovery of two mummies there which were equipped with golden tongues. That leads to the other part of my header above. Two more golden tongued mummies have just been discovered, this time at at Oxyrhynchus:

Golden tongues found in mouths of ancient Egyptian couple. Tombs of man and woman dating back 2,500 years found at Oxyrhynchus; male mummy’s sarcophagus still sealed with hundreds of funerary items inside (Times of Israel).

The article also reports that three more golden tongues were recovered "outside the tombs," whatever that means.

The site of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus is best known for its trove of many thousands of ancient papyri found in a trash dump. For many posts on it and them, start here (plus here) and just keep following those links. For the missing Oxyrhynchus papyri scandal, see here and links. Cross-file under Oxyrhynchus Watch.

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

Online lecture on Jewish-Latin Texts from pre-rabbinic times (in German)

H-JUDAIC: EVENT: Online Lecture "Patrologia Judaica? Jewish-Latin Texts from pre-rabbinic times in the Western Diaspora (ca. 400-800 CE)" / Jüdisch-Lateinische Texte der westlichen Diaspora in vorrabbinischer Zeit (ca. 400-800 u.Z.) (December 9, 2021). The lecture, by Prof. Johannes Heil (Heidelberg), will be in German. The event appears to be free, but requires advance registration.

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R.I.P. Father William J. Fulco, S.J.

SAD NEWS: LMU Jesuit archaeologist remembered as a beloved mentor, brilliant scholar (Angelus News).

Generations of Loyola Marymount University alumni are mourning the loss of a Jesuit who could do it all.

Father William J. Fulco, S.J. died Nov. 29 at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos from pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 85.

[...]

Off campus, he was a world-renowned archaeologist and polyglot (fluent in nine languages) whose rare expertise in Aramaic was employed to shape the dialogues of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” and several other films throughout the years.

The article reports that he also did consulting work for Mel Gibson's promised sequel to The Passion of the Christ. He was reportedly also a consult on the Punic language for Vin Diesel's long announced but still awaited Hannibal movie. For PaleoJudaica posts on Fr. Fulco and his work, see here and links. Requiescat in pace.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch and Punic Watch.

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

Schiffman on the Lachish Forest fortress

PROFESSOR LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: A FORTRESS UNEARTHED.

This is an article by Professor Schiffman on the Hellenistic-era fortress excavated in the Lachish Forest. It was published in Ami Magazine. The fortess protected the city of Maresha. The story was prominent during Hanukkah because the fortress was probably destroyed by the Hasmonean John Hyrcanus. Background here.

With today's four post you now have everything I have found Hanukkah newsworthy this year. There may be another story or two, but I think that's about everything. I will collect links to all the posts at my Hanukkah 2021 post.

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

Hasmonean influence on everyday life?

NEW BOOK IN HEBREW: Did events that inspired Hanukkah create Jewish culture as we know it? In a new book, veteran archaeologist Professor Ronny Rich explores what archaeological evidence says about how the Maccabees' victory influenced the daily lives of the Jews living in the Land of Israel (Moshe Weisstuch, Israel HaYom). HT Joseph Lauer.

"I'm not a historian or a researcher of Jewish history. I examine [archaeological] finds and in this case, Jewish culture according to archaeological discoveries," says Professor Ronny Reich, a former lecturer at the University of Haifa and author of the new book Everyday Life: The daily life of the Jewish community in the Eretz Israel in the Late Second Temple Period in Light of Archaeological Finds (published by Pardes, Hebrew only).

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The Hasmonean Heritage Center

NEW MUSEUM IN ISRAEL: "HASMONEAN HERITAGE CENTER SHARES HISTORY OF HANUKKAH" (i24News):

I found this i24News clip in this article on the recent antiquities apprehension in East Jerusalem. But I can't find anything more about the new Center.

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

Hanukkah antiquities apprehension

APPREHENDED: Ancient Hasmonean artifacts found in east Jerusalem at end of Hanukkah. The items were examined by officials of the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the suspect was arrested and taken in for questioning (Jerusalem Post Blogs).

Among the artifacts were a coin dated back to the time of Antigonus II Mattathias, the last Hasmonean king, as well as a Hasmonean-era oil candle and a biblical-era seal ring with ancient Hebrew inscriptions.

The inscribed seal ring (seal?) sounds like the most interesting of the objects recovered. Oddly, there is no photograph of it.

The "oil candle" appears to be a ceramic oil lamp. I suspect "candle" is a mistranslation from a Hebrew article or press release.

The objects are unprovenanced. If there are a lot of coins, most of them are likely genuine. Coins are not valuable enough to forge unless they are rare. The valuable coin, the pictured ceramic fragment inscribed with a menorah, and the unpictured "seal ring" are a more complicated matter. I will keep an open mind about whether they are genuine until I hear more about their authentication.

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News on the Sardis synagogue

THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: Changes at Sardis — One of the 7 Churches of Revelation (Carl Rasmussen).

The changes include new conservation measures for the late antique synagogue at Sardis.

For more on the ancient Jewish community at Sardis and their synagogue, see here, here, and here.

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Review of Bradshaw & McGowan, Egeria, journey to the Holy Land

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Egeria, journey to the Holy Land.

Paul F. Bradshaw, Anne McGowan, Egeria, journey to the Holy Land. Brepols Library of Christian Sources (BLCS), 1. Turnhout: Brepols, 2020. Pp. 124. ISBN 9782503592817 €45,00.

Review by
Dennis Trout, University of Missouri. troutd@missouri.edu

... For these reasons alone, the Itinerarium is at home in a wide variety of classroom settings and scholarly enterprises. It is an engaging text at several levels and deserves its wide readership. But will this volume help spread the word?...

For more on Egeria and her pilgrimage account, see here.

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Marcus, THE MASORAH OF THE FORMER PROPHETS IN THE LENINGRAD CODEX (1 KINGS) (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

THE MASORAH OF THE FORMER PROPHETS IN THE LENINGRAD CODEX (1 KINGS)
Vol. 5: 1 Kings

By David Marcus

This work represents the first time that a major part of the masorah of the great Leningrad Codex, that of the Former Prophets, is being published with an English translation and commentary. Almost nine-thousand notes are transcribed and annotated with biblical references.

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-0603-1

Formats Hardback

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Texts and Studies (Third Series) 14
Publication Date: Sep 24,2021
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Page Count: 464
Languages: English, Hebrew
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0603-1

Price: $182.00
Your price: $109.20

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Did David and Solomon rule a "State?"

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: David and Solomon’s Kingdom as a State: An Archaeo-Historical Anachronism (Zachary Thomas).

So whatever your view of the historicity of the biblical account may be, it is anachronistic to understand kingdoms like the United Monarchy as states. Is this just a matter of terminology and theory? What does this have to do with the archaeological record of Israel in the 10th century BCE? Quite a lot, because if we uncritically assume that the United Monarchy was a ‘state’ then we are only going to look for elements of a state in our archaeological evidence. This in turn directly affects how assess that archaeological evidence against the biblical text.

For more on this perspective, see here and here.

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Forthcoming book on the Faddan More Psalter

CONSERVATION AND PUBLICATION: ‘It was terrifying’: ancient book’s journey from Irish bog to museum treasure. A new book tells the story of the painstaking process to preserve the 1,200-year-old Faddan More Psalter (Lisa O'Carroll, The Guardian). HT Brent Nongbri at the Variant Readings Blog.

Oddly, nobody links to a page on the book itself. You can find it here on Amazon.

John Gillis, The Faddan More Psalter: The Discovery and Conservation of a Medieval Treaure. Wordwell Books (March 1, 2022).

I have corrected the misspelling of the name in the Amazon entry. Unfortunately, Amazon appears to have indexed the book with the incorrect spelling "Fadden." Needs to be fixed. Hopefully it will be by the time you see this.

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Redding, BIOGRAPHY OF A DREAM (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

BIOGRAPHY OF A DREAM
A Reception-Historical Study of the Fourth Beast in Daniel 7

By Jonathan David Redding

The biblical apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation are, for better or worse, polarizing. Interpreters have long read and searched these books for clues about how their worlds will “end,” which each new interpreter promising to have “unlocked” how Daniel and Revelation work together to uncover a divine plan for prophetic fulfillment. Redding uses the Vision of the Fourth Beast from Daniel 7 as a case study to consider how interpretations of texts take on lives of their own, eventually wedding interpretation with text and prompting the question: what even is a text? Is it what is on the page, something interpreters put there, or a combination of both? Starting with the literature of the Levant, this work traces the use of motifs, images, and themes through Daniel, Revelation, and into pre-Enlightenment Christian thinkers to consider hermeneutical trajectories that shaped (and continue to shape) how modern readers engage biblical apocalyptic literature.

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4243-5

Formats Hardback

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts 34
Publication Date: Jul 28,2021
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 283
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4243-5

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