Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
E-mail: paleojudaica-at-talktalk-dot-net ("-at-" = "@", "-dot-" = ".")
The Torah’s prohibition against loaning money with interest addresses a culture of subsistence farmers. Later Jews devised halakhic loopholes to enable them to make use of credit instruments such as the suftaja and to participate in market economies.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
More on the Getty's Palmyra exibition is here. Follow the links from there (cf. here) for many posts on Palmyra, its history, the ancient Aramaic dialect spoken there (Palmyrene), and the city's tragic reversals of fortune, which more recently seem to have been trending for the better.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Sirach and Its ContextsThe Pursuit of Wisdom and Human Flourishing
Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 196
Volume Editors: Samuel Adams, Greg Goering, and Matthew J. Goff
In Sirach and Its Contexts an international cohort of experts on the book of Sirach locate this second-century BCE Jewish wisdom text in its various contexts: literary, historical, philosophical, textual, cultural, and political. First compiled by a Jewish sage around 185 BCE, this instruction enjoyed a vibrant ongoing reception history through the middle ages up to the present, resulting in a multiform textual tradition as it has been written, rewritten, transmitted, and studied. Sirach was not composed as a book in the modern sense but rather as an ongoing stream of tradition. Heretofore studied largely in confessional settings as part of the Deuterocanonical literature, this volume brings together essays that take a broadly humanistic approach, in order to understand what an ancient wisdom text can teach us about the pursuit of wisdom and human flourishing.
Prices from (excl. VAT): €110.00 / $132.00
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-44733-2
Publication Date: 25 Jan 2021Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-44732-5
Publication Date: 25 Mar 2021
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The Solomonic Corpus of 'Wisdom' and Its InfluenceKatharine J. Dell
- A bringing together of the work of a leading expert on wisdom literature, Katharine Dell, with old and new material.
- A fresh synthesis of material relating to definitions of 'wisdom', the canonical corpus of such books redefined, the historical, literary and contextual aspects of Solomon's reign, wisdom influence on psalms and prophets, and the method of intertextuality and its application to texts linking to the Solomonic corpus.
- Includes three new chapters that have not been published before
Description
Solomon is the figurehead who holds the family of 'wisdom' texts together. In this study, Katharine Dell argues that a core of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes forms the inner sanctum of the 'Solomonic wisdom corpus', with the Song of Songs as a close relative, but Job at one remove. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song contain attributions to Solomon and demonstrate key 'wisdom' connections. Solomon is also portrayed as an idealized character in the narratives about him in 2 Sam. 24-1 Kings 11.
He is the embodiment of wisdom, thus linking both the narrative portrayal and canonical memory of his significance. His connections with Egypt and Sheba shed light on how Solomon gained his reputation for wisdom, as do the roles in his court for scribes, sages, and seers. Formative wisdom themes, notably that of God as creator, characterize the book of Proverbs and also influenced certain 'wisdom psalms' and the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, texts which share links to wisdom ideas and contexts. For these prophets criticism of 'the wise' is a key concern. Dell introduces an intertextual method to open up fresh possibilities of ranging together different texts alongside the Solomonic corpus, without the constraints of probing literary or historical linkages: Ruth is considered with Proverbs, Genesis 1-11 with Ecclesiastes and the wider theme of gardens and water in the Hebrew Bible with the Song of Songs. While Solomon probably had very little to do with such readerly text-play, Dell's argument in The Solomonic Corpus of 'Wisdom' and Its Influence is that he is the lynch-pin that holds 'wisdom' in its core texts and wider family together.
£70.00
Hardback
Published: 03 September 2020
272 Pages
234x153mm
ISBN: 9780198861560
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Passion, Persecution, and Epiphany in Early Jewish LiteratureEdited By Nicholas Peter Legh Allen, Pierre J. Jordaan, József Zsengellér
Copyright Year 2020Hardback
£120.00eBook
£33.29ISBN 9780367369828
Published April 27, 2020 by Routledge
292 Pages 3 B/W IllustrationsBook Description
This volume examines Jewish literature produced from c. 700 B.C.E. to c. 200 C.E. from a socio-theological perspective. In this context, it offers a scholarly attempt to understand how the ancient Jewish psyche dealt with times of extreme turmoil and how Jewish theology altered to meet the challenges experienced.
The volume explores various early Jewish literature, including both the canonical and apocryphal scripture. Here, reference is often made to a divine epiphany (a moment of unexpected and prodigious revelation or insight) as a response to abuse, suffering and passion. Many of the chapters deal with these issues in relation to the Antiochan crisis of 169 to 164 B.C.E. in Judea, one of the more notable periods of oppression. This watershed event appears to have served as a catalyst for the new apocalyptic texts which were produced up until c. 200 C.E, and which reflect a new theological dynamic in Judaism – one that informed subsequent Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
Passion, Persecution and Epiphany in Early Jewish Literature will be of interest to anyone working on the Bible (both Masoretic and LXX) and early Jewish literature, as well as students of Jewish history and the Levant in the classical period.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
For more on the history of the interpretation of Psalm 91, see here. And I have just turned in my review of Gerrit C. Vreugdenhil, Psalm 91 and Demonic Menace (Brill, 2020). You will be able to read it in this year's SOTS Book List.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
I have seen the video, but I am not qualified to evaluate it. I have not seen comments on the situation from the Israel Antiquties Authority. The area is not under their jurisdiction, but I image they would be interested.
PaleoJudaica posts involving the Iron Age I altar on Mount Ebal (which may or may not have anything to do with Joshua) are here, here, and here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Jennifer Taylor Westerfeld, Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination. Philadephia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.The focus of the book is Christian writers, but it also interacts with Greek, Roman, Hermetic, and Neo-Platonic writers. There is a chapter on the Coptic monastic leader Shenoute.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Cross-file under Numismatics. Some PaleoJudaica posts on Parthia, the Parthian Empire, and Parthian coins, are 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.
The famous and learned James K. Aitken, Reader in Hebrew and Early Jewish Studies in the University of Cambridge, is presenting this year's Grinfield Lectures on the Septuagint and the History of the Book (in the University of Oxford) ...Yes, I know I just posted on this. But I didn't want you to get distracted with International LXX Day and not notice this excellent lecture series. It's free on Zoom, starting 15 February. There is lots more information in the immediately preceding post below.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
This IAA press release (via the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) give an informative factual account of this important discovery. Other articles, such as this one by Naama Barak in Israel21c, tell a more personal story involving the Israeli soldier who found the coin and turned it in: Soldier stumbles on rare coin from two millennia ago. The coin probably disappeared from its owner who was traveling on the road, waiting nearly 2,000 years to be picked up again.
Archaeologists excavated a gold Antoninus Pius coin at "Bethsaida" (et-Tell/e-Tell) back in 2010. See here and here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Hershel Shanks served biblical archaeology with joy (Suzanne Singer, Times of Israel Blogs)
Dead Sea Scrolls liberator Hershel Shanks passes away at 90. (Abigail Adler, Jerusalem Post)
Background here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
State media reported that his body was thought to be among three discovered in Kahloul, east of Palmyra.I hope that they have found his body, so that his remains can be laid to rest.DNA tests will be carried out to confirm their identities.
Background here and links. Many other past posts on Palmyra, its history, the ancient Aramaic dialect spoken there (Palmyrene), and the city's tragic reversals of fortune, now trending for the better, are here and links (cf. here).
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
To recap the story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive(s): a lot of Jewish documents in Hebrew and Arabic were found rotting in the flooded basement of the Iraqi Intelligence headquarters during the Iraq war in 2003. In a few weeks these were frozen to preserve them and they were later shipped to the United States for conservation. Meanwhile, Iraq was asking for them back. They have been conserved for some years and have traveled in an exhibition. There have been negotiations with Iraq about their return. The return deadlines have repeatedly been extended. Some, including some Iraqi Jewish refugees and their descendants, oppose the return to Iraq. There was a rumor of a three-year extension to the most recent return agreement, which would put the current informal return date in September of 2021.
Background here, with links going back to the discovery of the archive in 2003.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
It reads: ‘The fourth consulate of Imperator Vespasianus Augustus.’ ‘Accounts, salary. Gaius Messius, son of Gaius, of the tribe Fabia, from Beirut.’ ‘I received my stipendium of 50 denarii, out of which I have paid barley money 16 denarii. […]rnius: food expenses 20(?) denarii; boots 5 denarii; leather strappings 2 denarii; linen tunic 7 denarii.’ And the total of deductions is 50 denarri – Messius’ entire pay check.Fun extra fact. Gaius Messius was from Beirut. He was a Phoenician in the Roman army. You can read the Latin text of the payslip here.
James Clark wrote an ironically appreciative article on this papyrus in the military magazine Task & Purpose in March of 2019, based on a tweet by Dr. Jo Ball. No one, including me, noticed it at the time. But it was republished yesterday and now the Mail has taken it up.
UPDATE (10 Feb): Richard Bauckham e-mails: "If he belonged to the gens Fabia, surely he must be Roman, not Phoenician."
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Hershel Shanks, who made biblical archaeology widely available, dies. (Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service).
Died: Hershel Shanks, Editor Who Saved Biblical Archaeology from Academics (DANIEL SILLIMAN, Christianity Today)
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
February 9 has officially been declared as International Greek Language Day and is a day for Greeks and non-Greeks to celebrate the important role the Greek language has played in world culture.I didn't know that this was a thing. But since it is, let's celebrate.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
John among the ApocalypsesJewish Apocalyptic Tradition and the 'Apocalyptic' Gospel
Benjamin E. Reynolds
Description
- Draws on modern genre theory to compare the Gospel of John and Jewish apocalypses
- Explains the importance of revelation in John and John's portrayal of Jesus as a figure descending from heaven
- Explores reception history, including Byzantine iconography, to consider historical explanations for the apocalyptic shaping of the Gospel
The Gospel of John has long been recognized as being distinct from the Synoptic Gospels. John among the Apocalypses explains John's distinctive narrative of Jesus's life by comparing it to Jewish apocalypses and highlighting the central place of revelation in the Gospel. While some scholars have noted a connection between the Gospel of John and Jewish apocalypses, Reynolds makes the first extensive comparison of the Gospel with the standard definition of the apocalypse genre. Engaging with modern genre theory, this comparison indicates surprising similarities of form, content, and function between John's Gospel and Jewish apocalypses.
Even though the Gospel of John reflects similarities with the genre of apocalypse, John is not an apocalypse, but in genre theory terms, John may be described as a gospel in kind and an apocalypse in mode. John's narrative of Jesus's life has been qualified and shaped by the genre of apocalypse, such that it may be called an 'apocalyptic' gospel. In the final two chapters, Reynolds explores the implications of this conclusion for Johannine Studies and New Testament scholarship more broadly. John among the Apocalypses considers how viewing the Fourth Gospel as apocalyptic Gospel aids in the interpretation of John's appeal to Israel's Scriptures and Mosaic authority, and examines the Gospel's relationship with the book of Revelation and the history of reception concerning their writing. An examination of Byzantine iconographic traditions highlights how reception history may offer a possible explanation for reading John as apocalyptic Gospel.
£65.00
Hardback
Published: 22 October 2020
272 Pages
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780198784241
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The third and last pre-Islamic Iranian empire was ruled by the Sasanian dynasty from the 220s to 651 CE.For more on the Sasanian (Sassanian) Empire and why it is of interest to PaleoJudaica, see the links collected here (cf. here)
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Published in English.
It is often presumed that biblical redaction was invariably done using conventional scribal methods, meaning that when editors sought to modify or compile existing texts, they would do so in the process of rewriting them upon new scrolls. There is, however, substantial evidence pointing to an alternative scenario: Various sections of the Hebrew Bible appear to have been created through a process of material redaction. In some cases, ancient editors simply appended new sheets to existing scrolls. Other times, they literally cut and pasted their sources, carving out patches of text from multiple manuscripts and then gluing them together like a collage. Idan Dershowitz shows how this surprising technique left behind telltale traces in the biblical text – especially when the editors made mistakes – allowing us to reconstruct their modus operandi. Material evidence from the ancient Near East and elsewhere further supports his hypothesis.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
In Memory of Hershel Shanks (Bas Staff).
Background here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Published in English.
This volume contains the proceedings of two international meetings held by the Minerva Center for the Relations between Israel and Aram in Biblical Times (RIAB) in Ramat-Gan/Jerusalem (March 2017) and Leipzig (May 2018). Most of the papers relate to various aspects of the Aramaic epigraphy in different contexts with a second part of the volume dealing with Idumean ostraca. The papers will be of interest to ancient historians, archaeologists of the ancient Near East, scholars of Semitic and Biblical studies and the ancient Near East.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
H-Judaic: Passing of Hershel Shanks.
H-Judaic is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Hershel Shanks (1930-2021), founder and longtime editor of Biblical Archeology Review and once described in The New York TImes as "probably the world's most influential amateur Biblical archaeologist." ...Bible History Daily: In Memory of Hershel Shanks. Honoring the Founder, Longtime Editor, and Editor Emeritus of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Some PaleoJudaica posts on Hershel and his work are here, here, here, here, and here. You can find links to many of his essays in the archives. And the latest, from last week, on developments regarding the BAR editorship is here and here
May his memory be for a blessing.
UPDATE: Bad link now fixed.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Published in English.
Anat Israeli presents the first feminist commentary in the series on a chapter from the »Order of Women.« She discusses the last chapter of Tractate Qiddushin, devoted to »betrothals.« Chapter 4 deals in general with two major topics: the first is Jewish genealogies (what parts the mother and father play in deciding who is a Jew and who can marry whom). The second topic is about forbidden seclusions between members of the opposite sex (since they can bring about promiscuity, adultery and other unwanted sexual contacts). In this study, Anat Israeli and her collaborators first analyze the Mishnah and show what its authors had considered important about these two topics, and then they show how the emphases had shifted on the way between the land of the Mishnah (Israel) and the land of the Talmud (Babylonia).
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Masculinities in the Court Tales of Daniel
Advancing Gender Studies in the Hebrew BibleBy Brian Charles DiPalma
Copyright Year 2018Paperback
£36.99
Hardback
£125.00
eBook
£33.29ISBN 9780367592660
Published August 14, 2020 by Routledge
172 PagesBook Description
In this volume, Brian Charles DiPalma examines masculinities in the court tales of Daniel as a test case for issues facing the burgeoning area of gender studies in the Hebrew Bible. In doing so, it both analyses how the court tales of Daniel portray the characters in terms of configurations of masculinity in their socio-historical context, and also seeks to advance gender studies in the Hebrew Bible on theoretical, methodological, and political grounds.Masculinities in the Court Tales of Daniel is therefore of interest not only to scholars working on Daniel, but also biblical scholars studying gender in the Hebrew Bible more broadly, including those engaged in feminist criticism, queer criticism, and studies of masculinity, as well as anyone studying gender within an ancient Near Eastern context.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.