Saturday, December 31, 2022

Haaretz's Jewish archaeology stories for 2022

END OF YEAR LIST: King Solomon’s ‘Throne’ and Other Biblical Jewish Archaeology Stories of 2022 (Ruth Schuster).
Jews take collective pride in having sustained their faith over some 2,000 years in the Diaspora, and in sharing rituals the world wide. In fact, we aren’t sure when Judaism as we think of it was born, and many of the rituals taken for granted today also began in the shadows of history. Which means we no longer know when or how. The year 2022 was rich in new theories of old finds and new finds too – including a second administrative center in Iron Age Jerusalem. Why they needed one remains a mystery. Still, at least we now know where King Herod bought his bathroom.

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

Thursday, December 29, 2022

Allen et al. (eds), New Approaches to Textual and Image Analysis in Early Jewish and Christian Studies (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:
New Approaches to Textual and Image Analysis in Early Jewish and Christian Studies

Series: Digital Biblical Studies, Volume: 5

Volume Editors: Garrick V. Allen , Sara Schulthess , Paul Dilley , and Peter Phillips

The digital world pervades the everyday lives of most people, and online tools have become an essential part of academic research in many disciplines. This reality is true also for biblical studies and related disciplines, areas that work with complex literary traditions, multiple manuscript cultures, and many methodological approaches to the problems at the centre of our discussions. This book shines a light on multiple new and emerging approaches to big disciplinary questions in biblical studies and beyond by highlight projects that are using digital tools, crafting computer-assisted approaches, and re-thinking the resources fundamental to the history of research.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. shipping): €123.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51511-6
Publication date: 17 Oct 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51813-1
Publication date: 27 Oct 2022

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

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Blogging

THINGS HAVE GOTTEN BUSIER, rather than less busy. I will blog when I can. Posting may be irregular for some time. Thanks for your patience.

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

Sensational claims about new inscription discoveries

I'M SKEPTICAL TOO: Bible scholar’s sensational Hezekiah inscription claims prompt researchers’ outcry. Academics publish open letter calling for scientific treatment of ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ claims after new round of unsupported popular press headlines regarding Jerusalem ‘discovery’ (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).
[Prof. Emeritus Gershon] Galil’s most recent announcement, first published in a television report 12 days ago, says he has successfully deciphered five new royal inscriptions of King Hezekiah of Judah, including hundreds of letters and dozens of lines of text. According to Galil, the inscriptions he found alongside archaeologist Eli Shukron are etched into the walls of the City of David’s Hezekiah Tunnel in Jerusalem.

Galil’s announcement has brought a flurry of media headlines in some publications — and a deafening silence in others that generally cover Israeli archaeological finds. (The Times of Israel, which has covered some of Galil’s findings in the past, did not report on his latest Hezekiah inscription claims, among other of his recent claims, because they were not peer-reviewed and lacked accompanying scientific documentation.)

I saw this announcement on Facebook and elsewhere when it came out. Like most others, I decided not to comment on it in the absence of good photographs or peer-reviewed scholarly studies.

I refer you to my longstanding Lottery Rule. If a reported new discovery is the scholarly equivalent of our having won the lottery, we should be skeptical of it unless and until we have strong evidence that it is real.

So far, such evidence for these claims has not been produced. Should more be advanced, the scholarly world will certainly consider it.

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

Monday, December 26, 2022

Wigand, Achikar in Elephantine (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Ann-Kristin Wigand. Achikar in Elephantine. Die aramäische Achikarkomposition im Kontext des perserzeitlichen Elephantine. [Achikar in Elephantine. The Aramaic Achikar Composition in the Context of Persian Period Elephantine.] 2022. XII, 268 pages. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 50. 119,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-161021-9.
Published in German.
Ann-Kristin Wigand interprets the Aramaic Achikar composition against the background of Persian Egypt. She combines historical-critical methods with an intertextual approach in order to work out under which conditions the text can be read and understood in its Egyptian setting and which function the text assumes in its multi-ethnic context.
The English spelling of Achikar is Ahiqar (Aḥiqar) or Ahikar. More on him here and links, plus here, here, and here.

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

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Christmas 2022

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all those celebrating!

For posts of Christmases past, see my 2021 Christmas post and links.

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

I have been really busy and have had little time to blog. I hope to get back to it more regularly sometime next week.

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

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Paz, From Scribes to Scholars (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Yakir Paz. From Scribes to Scholars. Rabbinic Biblical Exegesis in Light of the Homeric Commentaries. 2022. XVI, 372 pages. Culture, Religion, and Politics in the Greco-Roman World 6. 149,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-161630-3.
Published in English.
Yakir Paz argues that ancient Homeric scholarship had a major impact on the formation of rabbinic biblical commentaries and their modes of exegesis. This impact is discernible not only in the terminology and hermeneutical techniques used by the rabbis, but also in their perception of the Bible as a literary product, their didactic methods, editorial principles and aesthetic sensitivities. In fact, it is the influence of Homeric scholarship which can best explain the drastic differences between earlier biblical commentaries from Palestine, such as those found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the scholastic Halakhic Midrashim (second to third century CE). The results of the author's study call for a re-examination of many assumptions regarding the emergence of Midrash, as well as a broader appreciation of the impact of Homeric scholarship on biblical exegesis in Antiquity.

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

Friday, December 23, 2022

McClellan, YHWH's Divine Images (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:
YHWH's Divine Images: A Cognitive Approach
Daniel O. McClellan

ISBN 9781628374384
Volume ANEM 29
Status Available
Publication Date October 2022
Paperback $45.00
Hardback $65.00

A reevaluation of Yahwistic divine images in the Hebrew Bible

In YHWH’s Divine Images: A Cognitive Approach, Daniel O. McClellan addresses the longstanding question of how it is that divine images could be referred to as if they both were and were not the deities they represented. Drawing insights from the fields of cognitive linguistics and the cognitive science of religion and applying them to the remains from first-millennium BCE Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Israel, and Judah, McClellan develops a theoretical framework for divine agency and divine images in ancient Southwest Asia that explains this apparent paradox. He then applies that framework to the Hebrew Bible to show that the presence of the God of Israel was similarly manifested through material media devoted to communicating the divine.

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

Thursday, December 22, 2022

Lecture on the Newark Holy Stones

NEW WORLD HEBREW FORGERY (OR SOMETHING) WATCH: Newark Holy Stones remain significant despite hoax. Presentation at Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum details history and place of fake artifacts today (LEONARD L. HAYHURST, Coshocton Tribune).
Museum Director Jennifer Bush and archeologist Brad Lepper of the Ohio History Connection recently gave a presentation on the stones and what we can learn from their history at the museum. Bush and Lepper, along with Reba Kocher, had the article "The Newark Holy Stones: Touchstones for the Truth" published in the Public Historian earlier this year.
There's a video of part of the presentation and a summary of all of it

I have been following the story of the nineteenth-century Newark Stones hoax for a long time. For my brief summary of what we know and can reasonably infer about the stones, see here. And follow the links from there for more.

The links to past media seem to have rotted, but you can find good photos of the objects at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum website.

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

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

A high-priestly Hasmonean calendar?

FOR HANUKKAH: The Hasmonean Calendar Begins with the Rule of Simon the High Priest, 142 B.C.E. (Rotem Avneri Meir, TheTorah.com).
Chanukah commemorates the rededication of the Temple by Judah Maccabee in 164 B.C.E. But the war continued for another 22 years until the Seleucid King Demetrius appointed Simon as High Priest of Judea. To mark their new autonomy, the Judeans use the high priest’s regnal years, like that of a biblical king, to date their documents.

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

Kids find a Roman-era oil lamp in the Galilee

FOR HANUKKAH: Children out for a stroll in north discover 2,000-year-old lamp in the ground. Clay item found at Kibbutz Parod; location provides new insights into size of ancient Jewish community that lived there (Times of Israel).
Israel Antiquities Authority director Eli Eskosido suggested seasonal rains helped uncover the lamp and noted the find came just days before the Hanukkah festival, which began on Sunday night.

“Every year, thanks to the timing of rains that hit us before and close to the Hanukkah holiday, we receive ‘Hanukkah miracles’ and amazing surprises, glimpses coming from the ground,” he said referring to the theme of Hanukkah which tells of a small amount of oil for lamps in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem that miraculously lasted for eight days instead of the expected single day.

Good for the kids and the parents for being responsible citizens and turning the lamp over to the IAA.

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

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Between 1 and 2 Maccabees

FOR HANUKKAH: The Maccabean Victory Explained: Between 1 and 2 Maccabees (Prof. Katell Berthelot).
1 and 2 Maccabees have different understandings of why the Maccabean revolt succeeded. 1 Maccabees emphasizes the zealous killing of sinners as the element that wins God's favor, while 2 Maccabees emphasizes the tragic death of righteous Jewish martyrs as bringing about God's mercy and compassion.
For some other treatments of 1-2 Maccabees together, see here, here, here, and here.

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

Jesus and Hanukkah

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Jesus at Hanukkah: A Storm is Coming (Philip Jenkins).
That Jesus would celebrate all Jewish feasts, including Hanukkah or Sukkot, is no surprise whatever, and as Craig Keener points out, any suggestion to the contrary wrongly diminishes and distorts his Jewishness. But the question does arise of, why mention Hanukkah? Judaism has many high and holy days, and Hanukkah was not a particularly important one. Only in modern times has it achieved its great visibility in Western countries, as a kind of counterpart to Christmas.

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

Monday, December 19, 2022

Traditional site of Jesus' baptism - big bucks for "glamping" development

BIBLICAL TOURISM: Jordan unveils $100 million master plan for the second millennium of Jesus’ baptism. 'We decided on a biblical village theme that attempts to re-create a 2,000-year-old experience,’ said an official in charge of developing the site. (RNS).
AMMAN, Jordan (RNS) — Jordan has launched a $100 million master plan aimed at attracting 1 million Christian pilgrims to celebrations of the second millennium of the baptism of Jesus in 2030.

The ambitious plan was unveiled by a not-for-profit foundation created by the Jordanian government to develop the “Bethany beyond the Jordan” area, on the east bank of the Jordan River, long venerated as the place of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. Archaeological discoveries of an ancient monastery at Al-Maghtas, Jordan, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

[...]

That's a lot of money!

This site, al-Mahgtas, is the traditional site of Jesus' baptism. It is on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River. Qasr al-Yehud, the other side, is the main competitor. For background on both and their competing claims, start here and follow the links.

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

Hasmonean-era arrowheads found in box in Tower of David

CARDBOARD BOX ARCHAEOLOGY: Surprise Maccabean-era arrowheads discovered while cleaning house at Tower of David. Some 60 bronze and iron arrowheads were forgotten in a box for decades, but will take center stage in newly renovated museum during Hannukah (MELANIE LIDMAN, Times of Israel).
The Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem recently unearthed dozens of bronze and iron arrowheads dating from around the time of the Maccabees. But the stunningly preserved artifacts weren’t hidden under meters of dirt and carefully excavated by veteran archaeologists. Instead, they were sitting in a dusty cardboard box behind an old air conditioner in one of the guard towers at the Tower of David, which is undergoing a massive renovation.

[...]

Oops! How many boxes of important artifacts are lying around in this place? For another, found last year, see here. Keep looking!

The article also has some good coverage of the Tower of David Museum.

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

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Hanukkah 2022

HAPPY HANUKKAH (CHANUKKAH, CHANUKAH) to all those celebrating! The eight-day festival begins tonight at sundown.

Last year's Hanukkah post is here. It links to past Hanukkah and related posts. Some more recent posts on Hasmonean-era stories are here, here, and here.

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

Digitally reconstructing Dura-Europos

VIRTUAL DATA CLOUD AND 3-D MODELING: Digitally rebuilding a lost city. Yale computer scientists, archaeologists, and historians are teaming up to uncover long-lost clues from the ancient city of Dura-Europos (William Weir, Yale News).
... The city, founded in 300 BC and abandoned in the third century AD, wasn’t considered a major metropolis, but historians say its artifacts could tell volumes about the everyday lives of people from that time and region. But because these artifacts are located in numerous locations and are often unmarked or have multiple labels, it is extremely difficult for researchers to study them.

Holly Rushmeier, the John C. Malone Professor of Computer Science, and Anne Chen, a postdoctoral associate at ARCHAIA, an interdisciplinary program at Yale for the study of ancient and premodern cultures, are working to change that. They recently received a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop a digital archive of materials related to the archaeological site of Dura-Europos. They will create a virtual data cloud known as “linked open data” to bring together the disparate materials from this region. This will create a user-friendly interface that allows researchers to access the data, as well as add their own contributions.

I noted this project and its NEH funding here. This Yale press release has more information. Follow the links from there for a great many posts on Dura-Europos and its connection with ancient Judaism.

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

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Review of Arnold, Deuteronomy 1-11

READING ACTS: Bill T. Arnold, The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapters 1–11 (NICOT) (Philip Long).
Arnold, Bill T. The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapters 1–11. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2022. xxxix+660 pp. Hb; $60.00

... Conclusion. Many surveys of “top commentaries on Deuteronomy” consider Peter Craigie’s commentary one of the best available. Bill Arnold’s new volume is a worthy replacement in terms of additional depth and broad engagement with both the text of Deuteronomy and a vast secondary literature. As is usually the case, Arnold’s volume is far more detailed than the Craigie volume it replaces. Arnold devotes 660 pages to the introduction and first eleven chapters of Deuteronomy; Craigie’s commentary was 424 pages for the entire book of Deuteronomy. Will Peter Craigie’s popular commentary in the NICOT move to the Eerdmans Classic Commentary series? ...

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

What was the sin of Onan?

PROF. MICHAEL L. SATLOW: Does the Torah Prohibit Male Masturbation? (TheTorah.com).
Onan son of Judah “would let [his seed] go to waste on the ground, so as not to provide offspring for his brother. This was wicked in the eyes of YHWH, who killed him” (Genesis 38:9–10). What was Onan’s sin?

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

Friday, December 16, 2022

The Book of Enoch

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: The Book of Enoch: What is the famous biblical Apocrypha? - explainer. The Book of Enoch is one of the most well-known examples of biblical Apocrypha, but it isn't accepted by almost any Jews or Christians. Here is what you should know (Aaron Reich, Jerusalem Post).

This is a well-researched article on the Second Temple-era collection of apocalyptic works generally known as the Book of 1 Enoch.

I would take with a grain of salt the sweeping claim that angels have no free will or autonomy in Judaism. Generally true, yes. The Watchers myth, found in 1 Enoch and elsewhere (e.g., the Book of Giants) is an important counter-example. I see nothing gained by claiming the story isn't meant "literally."

We might have a conversation too about Belial and his angels in the Qumran texts.

But that is a quibble. Overall the article is quite good and informative.

There are many, many PaleoJudaica posts on 1 Enoch. Too many to link to here. Some recent ones on a range of topics are here, here, here, here, here and here. And follow the links for still more.

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

Silver half-shekel coin from Great Revolt excavated at the Ophel

NUMISMATICS: Rare silver half-shekel, minted by rebels against Rome in 69 CE, found in Jerusalem. Coin found in remains of building from the Second Temple era, was likely used to pay annual tax for worship at the site; most coins of this type are bronze (Times of Israel).
A rare half-shekel silver coin, minted by Jewish rebels nearly 2,000 years ago during the Great Revolt against Roman rule, was recently found during excavations in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday.

It was only the third such coin of its type found during excavations in the capital, and among only a handful found in other locations, the IAA said in a statement.

For the discovery of a silver half-shekel coin from the Great Revolt by the Temple Mount Sifting Project in 2008, see here. For diplomatic replica trinket half-shekel coins, see here. For the embarrassing incident of the "discovery" of the children's toy mistaken for an ancient half-shekel coin, see here, here, and here. For the ancient half-shekel Temple tax, see here and links.

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

Recent discoveries in the Western Wall tunnels

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH (SUBTERRANEAN EDITION): Recent archeological discoveries at the Western Wall – What lurks beneath the surface. A recent tour of the area with researcher and archeologist Dr. Avi Solomon, revealed some of the most fascinating finds in recent years (Alan Rosenbaum, Jerusalem Post).
What lies beneath the surface is a treasure trove of archeological finds that shed light on Jewish life in Jerusalem from as far back as the time of the First Temple (10th century BCE-586 BCE) that continues to the time of the Second Temple as well.
The Iron-Age four-room house and its epigraphic contents are new to me.

For more on the Western Wall tunnel complex, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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

Coin hoard from time of Maccabean Revolt found in Murabba‛at cave

NUMISMATICS: 2,200-year-old coin hoard gives hard proof of Book of Maccabees, say archaeologists. Trove of silver coins – two months’ average salary – documents bloody persecution preceding the famous Hanukkah revolt when Jews fled to the desert, as written in I Maccabees 2:29 (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).
Since 2017, the IAA has spearheaded an ambitious survey of some 500 caves in the Judean Desert — in part to look for more Dead Sea Scrolls, in part to beat antiquities looters to priceless archaeological artifacts. The pristine wooden box was discovered in one of the four Muraba’at Caves where, some 70 years after the first scientific excavations took place in the 100-meter cave near the Dead Sea, exciting new objects are still coming to light, including glimpses of scroll fragments and amazingly preserved textiles.

[...]

The newly discovered round wooden box looks almost fresh from the ancient lathe that would have made it. Inside were the 15 silver coins, as well as a piece of purple-dyed cloth and some wool stuffing. The dry desert climate, combined with the cave’s protected atmosphere, preserved these organic materials in excellent condition, the IAA’s Naama Sukenik, director of the Laboratory of Organic Materials, told The Times of Israel.

The inference that the box was left by someone fleeing home during the Maccabean Revolt is speculative, but plausible.

In any case, Operation Scroll has produced another discovery that is exciting in itself. The coins are great, but I am especially intrigued by the wooden box and the textiles inside. That box could just as well have held scrolls. Maybe next time.

For PaleoJudaica posts on tetradrachm (tetradrachma) coins, see here, here, and here.

Cross-file under Speluncic Archaeology.

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

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Hauptman, Halakhic Anecdotes in the Babylonian Talmud (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:
THE STORIES THEY TELL
Halakhic Anecdotes in the Babylonian Talmud

By Judith Hauptman

In this engaging book of commentary on the Talmud, the author upends the long-held theory of the immutability of halakhah, Jewish law. In her detailed analysis of over 80 short halakhic anecdotes in the Babylonian Talmud, the author shows that the Talmud itself promotes halakhic change. She leads the reader through one sugya (discussion unit) after another, accumulating evidence for her rather radical thesis. Along the way, she teases out details of what life was like 1500 years ago for women in their relationships with men and for students in their relationships with mentors. An eye-opening read by one of today’s leading Talmud scholars.

Formats Harback

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Judaism in Context 32
Publication Date: Sep 7,2022
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 326
Languages: English, Hebrew
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4456-9

The online price as of this posting is $44 USD.

Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Hartenstein & Schmid (eds.), Farewell to the Priestly Writing? (SBL)

NEW(LY TRANSLATED) BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:
Farewell to the Priestly Writing? The Current State of the Debate
Friedhelm Hartenstein, Konrad Schmid, editors

ISBN 9781628372656
Volume AIL 38
Status Available
Publication Date November 2022
Paperback $43.00
Hardback $63.00
eBook $43.00

Now available in English

In discussions of the origin of the Pentateuch, the Priestly source traditionally constitutes an undisputed reference point for different source-critical models, and it is the only literary layer with concise terminology and a theological conception that can be extracted from a non-Priestly context. This English translation of Abschied von der Priesterschrift? Zum Stand der Pentateuchdebatte revisits the scholarly debate surrounding the Documentary Hypothesis and the so-called Priestly material’s position either as an independent written source or as a redaction within the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy. Contributors include Christoph Berner, Erhard Blum, Jan Christian Gertz, Christoph Levin, Eckart Otto, Christophe Nihan, and Thomas Römer.

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

Monday, December 12, 2022

"Ancient Yemen" at the Smithsonian

EXHIBITION: In ancient Yemen, a booming economy sparked cultures rivaling the Greeks and Romans. A newly-opened Smithsonian exhibit holds 2,000-year-old artifacts revealing a civilization in its golden age, with an incense trade that spanned the known world from Rome to India (RICH TENORIO, Times of Israel).
Ancient Greece and Rome are well represented in museums across the world, but the contemporaneous civilizations of Yemen — including a mysterious Jewish community — have received far less recognition. A new exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, seeks to correct this historical prejudice.

[...]

For the late-antique Jewish kingdom of Himyar, see here and links.

For Matthew's Magi and their gifts, including frankincense, currently seasonally of interest, see here and links.

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

Fialová & Kitzler (eds.), Hellenism, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:
Hellenism, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity
Transmission and Transformation of Ideas

Edited by: Radka Fialová , Jiří Hoblík and Petr Kitzler
Volume 155 in the series Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110796285

PDF & EPUB £100.50
Hardcover £100.50

eBook
Published: November 7, 2022
ISBN: 9783110796285

Hardcover
Published: November 7, 2022
ISBN: 9783110795073

About this book

Papers collected in this volume try to illuminate various aspects of philosophical theology dealt with by different Jewish and early Christian authors and texts (e.g. the Acts of the Apostles, Philo, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus), rooted in and influenced by the Hellenistic religious, cultural, and philosophical context, and they also focus on the literary and cultural traditions of Hellenized Judaism and its reception (e.g. Sibylline Oracles, Prayer of Manasseh), including material culture ("Elephant Mosaic Panel" from Huqoq synagogue). By studying the Hellenistic influences on early Christianity, both in response to and in reaction against early Hellenized Judaism, the volume intends not only to better understand Christianity, as a religious and historical phenomenon with a profound impact on the development of European civilization, but also to better comprehend Hellenism and its consequences which have often been relegated to the realm of political history.

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

Sunday, December 11, 2022

... Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity (De Gruyter)

THE AWOL BLOG: City of Caesar, City of God: Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity. Notice of a New Book from De Gruyter, edited by Konstantin M. Klein and Johannes Wienand.

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

Hasselman, Konstruktion sozialer Identität (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:
Konstruktion sozialer Identität: Studien zum Reinheitsverständnis im antiken Judentum und im Neuen Testament

Studien zum Reinheitsverständnis im antiken Judentum und im Neuen Testament

Series: Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Volume: 115

Author: Milena Hasselman

Why do questions of purity play a minor role in the New Testament when the majority of the texts are of Jewish origin and character? To answer this question, the present study analyses the forming of identity as a central function to purity in ancient Jewish sources. Using the theory of social identity according to Henri Taijfel and John Turner, Milena Hasselmann examined the importance of purity texts in the New Testament and in other ancient Jewish sources for the construction of social identity. On a broad basis of sources and with the help of Hebrew-language literature, which is little received in the German and English-language scientific context, it becomes a meaningful picture that places the purity texts of the New Testament in its wider environment. In doing so, she shows that the New Testament's handling of questions of purity is to be seen in continuity rather than discontinuity with other ancient traditions.

Warum nehmen Reinheitsfragen einen verhältnismäßig geringen Stellenwert im Neuen Testament ein, wenn die Texte mehrheitlich jüdischen Ursprungs und jüdischer Prägung sind? Dieser Frage geht die vorliegende Studie nach und setzt zu ihrer Beantwortung bei einer zentralen Funktion, die Reinheit in anderen antiken jüdischen Quellen zukommt, ein: Reinheitsbestimmungen sind identitätsstiftend. Mit der Theorie der Sozialen Identität nach Henri Tajfel und John Turner untersucht Milena Hasselmann, welche Bedeutung Reinheitstexte im Neuen Testament und in anderen antikjüdischen Quellen für die Konstruktion sozialer Identität haben. Auf einer breiten Quellenbasis und unter Hinzuziehung hebräischsprachiger Literatur, die im deutsch- und englischsprachigem Wissenschaftskontext wenig rezipiert wird, entwirft sie ein aussagekräftiges Bild, das die Reinheitstexte des Neuen Testament in dessen weitere Umwelt einordnet. Sie zeigt damit, dass der neutestamentliche Umgang mit Reinheitsfragen in Kontinuität zu anderen antiken Traditionen zu sehen ist.

Copyright Year: 2023

Prices from (excl. shipping): €145.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52465-1
Publication date: 19 Sep 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52464-4
Publication date: 15 Sep 2022

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

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Review of Foss, Pliny and the eruption of Vesuvius

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Pliny and the eruption of Vesuvius.
Pedar W. Foss, Pliny and the eruption of Vesuvius. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2022. Pp. 352. ISBN 9780415705462 $160.00.

Review by
Margot Neger, University of Cyprus. neger.margot@ucy.ac.cy

... One would expect that by now everything important has already been said about these letters, but Foss succeeds in showing that there are still several aspects which deserve further discussion and analysis. An archaeologist, he examines the two Vesuvius letters from an interdisciplinary perspective, choosing a “multifaceted” approach, “from volcanology to verb forms; from chiasmus references to retracing coastlines”, as the preface announces (xv). ...

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the eruption of Vesuvius and its destruction of Pompeii and Heculaneum, as well as the younger Pliny's two letters about the eruption and the Elder Pliny's rescue mission into the conflagration, start here and follow the links.

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

Archaeology and Biblical ceramics

DR. NAVA PANITZ-COHEN: Biblical Cookware and Crockery (TheTorah.com).
The Bible contains numerous references to ceramic pots, bowls, jugs, and other types of dishes. What do we know about these vessels?
A comprehensive overview. Cross-file under Material Culture.

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

Friday, December 09, 2022

Hasmonean-era sling bullet found at Yavneh

ANCIENT ARTIFACT: Greek Sling Bullet From Hasmonean Period Found in Yavne Reveals Case of Ancient Psychological Warfare. The bullet was inscribed with the slogan ‘Victory of Heracles and Hauronas,’ showing that emblazoning ammunition with threatening words isn’t a solely modern-day practice. Archeologists say ‘it’s not impossible’ that it was used in the conflict between the Greeks and the Hasmoneans. (Ofer Aderet, Haaretz).

"It's not impossible" is not exactly conclusive, but the object is an important find whether or not it has any connection with the Maccabean Revolt (or, perhaps not coincidentally, Hanukkah).

For the Tryphon sling stone from Tel Zif, see here.

The site of Yavne (Yavneh, Yavneh Yam) had produced many notable archaeological discoveries dating from the Iron Age to late antiquity and beyond. Some PaleoJudaica posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and follow the many links.

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

Jenkins, He Will Save You from the Deadly Pestilence (OUP)

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: My Latest Book! On “The Many Lives of Psalm 91.” Philip Jenkins has a New Book coming out imminently with Oxford University Press on the reception history of Psalm 91.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Psalm 91, some interacting with earlier posts by Professor Jenkins, see here and links.

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

The Gaza Roman cemetery is being excavated

ARCHAEOLOGY: Gaza: excavations begin at Roman cemetery (Middle East Monitor).
The director-general of the ministry, Jamal Abu Rida, pointed out that details about funerals during the Roman era have been discovered through the initial excavations. He said that the way that the remains of the bodies are arranged suggest that the people buried in the cemetery were high-ranking Romans. Abu Rida explained previously that "several discoveries" have been made in the past, but this is the "most important" archaeological discovery in the past ten years.
HT Rogue Classicism.

I noted the discovery of the cemetery by a construction crew earlier this year. Originally twenty graves were located, but they were expecting to find many more. The number is now estimated at "up to 100."

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

Thursday, December 08, 2022

Hartog & Perrin (eds.), The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Context of Hellenistic Judea (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:
The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Context of Hellenistic Judea

Proceedings of the Tenth Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies (Aberdeen, 5–8 August, 2019)

Series: Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 142

Volume Editors: Pieter B. Hartog and Andrew Perrin

Approaching the Qumran scrolls as an intrinsic part of Hellenistic and Roman antiquity, this volume shows how the authors and collectors of the Scrolls shared the interests of other inhabitants of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and engaged in the same debates and dialogues as others in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Thus, this volume offers an invitation to both Scrolls scholars and academics working on other disciplines to create opportunities for interdisciplinary research and exchange.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €121.00

Copyright Year: 2023

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52244-2
Publication date: 17 Oct 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52245-9
Publication date: 15 Nov 2022

I noted the CFP for the conference here.

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

Wednesday, December 07, 2022

Meta-archaeology at the Sifting Project

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ARCHAEOLOGY.
About once a year, the soil stored on-site at our Mitzpe HaMassuot sifting facility runs out, and we must bring more from the Temple Mount soil reserves which are still stored in the Emek Tzurim National Park. This time we chose a storage area which we had always preferred to postpone for the future. Namely, a large quantity of Temple Mount soil that had been placed in landscaping terraces within the National Park.
Also, they still need contributions for the work.

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

Conference volume on Arrian's Alexander

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The World of Alexander in Perspective. Forthcoming book: Rollinger, Robert & Julian Degen (eds.). 2022. The World of Alexander in Perspective: Contextualizing Arrian (Classica et Orientalia 30). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Alexander and his connection with ancient Jewish traditions, notably in the Alexander Romance, start here and follow the links.

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

Tuesday, December 06, 2022

E. P. Sanders, 1937-2022

SAD NEWS: Professor E. P. Sanders passed away in November.
Remembering E.P. Sanders, a New Testament scholar who offered a new look at Judaism. Sanders forcefully called on fellow New Testament scholars to reject caricatures of Judaism (Mark Chancey, RNS).

... From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Sanders turned out a series of massive tomes, including “Paul and Palestinian Judaism,” “Jesus and Judaism” and “Judaism: Practice and Belief 63 BCE–66 A.D.,” exploring the relationship between early Judaism and early Christianity. In his work and personally he forcefully called on fellow scholars to reject caricatures of Judaism and to immerse themselves more deeply in ancient Jewish sources. ...

Requiescat in pace.

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

Saint Nicholas Day

'TIS THE SEASON: The REAL Saint Nicholas! December 6 (Carl Rassmussen, Holy Land Photos' Blog).

For more on the late antique, Anatolian, historical St. Nicholas, who hasn't much in common with Santa Claus, see here and links.

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

Monday, December 05, 2022

Section of Roman road discovered in Galilee

ANCIENT INFRASTRUCTURE: ‘Highway of ancient world’: Part of an 1,800-year-old Roman road found in Galilee. Antiquities Authority says it was paved during the reign of emperor Hadrian; excavation works also unearth pottery shards, metal vessels and coins (Times of Israel).

For more on the Sanhedrin Trail, start here and follow the links.

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

Syriac poetry: "the original Christian Rock"

SYRIAC WATCH: Video: Theology Professor Jeff Wickes on The Formation of Syriac Christian Culture Through Poetry (Margaret McVeigh, University of Notre Dame, Department of Theology).
Jeff Wickes, associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, focuses on the interplay between Syriac literature, theology, and liturgy in the context of late antique Christianity. Building projects that work from close readings of Syriac texts, he gravitates in his work towards larger questions of genre (especially poetry), religion, and theology as they play out within the historical horizons of late antique Christianity, and as those horizons meet our own in the contemporary world. ...

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

Sunday, December 04, 2022

Money for Cartagena's archaeological heritage

PUNIC WATCH: Cartagena to spend 5.4 million euros on archaeological heritage in 2023. The Roman Amphitheatre and the Despeñaperros fortress are among the sites where Cartagena Town Hall will be concentrating its efforts (Murcia Today).

Cartagena, Spain, was a Punic town (Carthago Nova - New Carthage) founded in the third century B.C.E. It was important in the history of the Second Punic War. It is best known today for its annual Carthagianians and Romans Festival in September. For more, see here and links.

It is good to see that citizens of Cartagena are investing in the important archaeological heritage of their town.

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

Sokolskaya, Die griechische Bibel in Alexandrien (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:
Die griechische Bibel in Alexandrien

Ihre Legende und die exegetische Praxis im hellenistischen Judentum

Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism

Author: Maria Sokolskaya

The translation of the Torah into Greek in Alexandria is an intriguing puzzle. Why was it undertaken at all? Was it a need of the Alexandrian Jews? Or did the Jewish wisdom intrigue the Egyptian ruler? Is the legend of the miraculous creation of the Septuagint a manifesto of cultural assimilation into the Hellenic culture? Does the Alexandrian Greek biblical exegesis, especially that of Philo, aim to break with the Hebrew tradition? According to this book, Philo, although not fluent in Hebrew himself, moves in the same shared Hebrew-Greek Torah universe that a closer look on the Septuagint legend reveals as well.

Die Übersetzung der Tora ins Griechische in Alexandrien ist ein intrigierendes Rätsel. Warum wurde sie überhaupt unternommen? War sie ein Bedürfnis der alexandrinischen Juden? Oder machte die jüdische Weisheit den ägyptischen Herrscher neugierig? Ist die Legende über die wundersame Entstehung der Septuaginta ein Manifest der kulturellen Assimilation an die hellenische Kultur? Bezweckt die alexandrinische griechische Bibelexegese, vor allem diejenige Philons, den Bruch mit der hebräischen Tradition und die Anpassung an die hellenistische Philosophie? Nach Ansicht dieses Buches bewegt sich Philon, obwohl selbst des Hebräischen nicht mächtig, in demselben gemeinsamen hebräisch-griechischen Tora-Universum, welches die Septuaginta-Legende bei näherer Betrachtung beschreibt.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €129.00

Copyright Year: 2023

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52316-6
Publication date: 19 Sep 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52317-3
Publication date: 21 Oct 2022

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

Saturday, December 03, 2022

Persian inscriptions at Persepolis

ANCIENT PERSIAN EPIGRAPHY: Magnificent ruins and clues about Persian script evolution (Tehran Times).
TEHRAN– Apart from matchless royal arts and architecture, the UNESCO-designated Persepolis, which was once the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550– 330 BC), holds treasured clues to the Persian writing and script as well.

[...]

This article has a good brief overview of the evidence, especially from Persepolis, for the Persian language, from Old Persian in cuneiform to the late-antique Middle Persian form called Pahlavi, written in a version of an Aramaic script.

For a recent post on a probably-Jewish graffiti inscription in the Aramaic language but written in the Pahlavi script, see here. I know; it gets complicated.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Persepolis and its inscriptions, start here and follow the links.

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

Bickart, The Scholastic Culture of the Babylonian Talmud (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:
THE SCHOLASTIC CULTURE OF THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD
By Professor Noah Benjamin Bickart

The Scholastic Culture of the Babylonian Talmud studies how and in what cultural context the Talmud began to take shape in the scholastic centers of rabbinic Babylonia. Bickart tracks the use of the term tistayem ("let it be promulgated") and its analogs, in contexts ranging from Amoraic disciple circles to Geonic texts, and in comparison with literatures of Syriac-speaking Christians. The study demonstrates increasing academization during the talmudic period, and supports a gradual model of the Talmud's redaction.

Formats Hardback

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Judaism in Context 31
Publication Date: Oct 4,2022
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 263
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0657-4

The online price as of this posting is $69 USD.

Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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

Friday, December 02, 2022

Lecture on the Judean Babylonian cuneiform archive

THE AL-YAHUDU ARCHIVE: Babylonian Tablets Unearth Insights into Judean Life in Exile. We shouldn’t rush to conclusions on details they do not reveal, expert says (Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review).
Beyond what the Bible says, mentions of Judean life during the Babylonian exile have generally been scarce throughout history. All of that changed in 2014, when archaeologists discovered about two hundred tablets written in cuneiform script that reveal aspects of the life of Jews who lived in Babylon at the time of the exile.

On November 16, at the 2022 Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting in Denver, Colorado, United States, Assyriologist and expert in Mesopotamic archaeology George Heath-Whyte discussed what the ongoing translation of the tablets reveals, what it doesn’t say, and what conclusions we can and cannot derive from those findings.

[...]

The article gives a good summary of what the tablets do and do not tell us.

For many posts on the Babylonian-Jewish cuneiform archive of Al-Yahudu, start here and follow the links.

The tablets are unprovenanced. For most inscriptions, that should make us dubious whether they are genuine. I have taken cuneiform tablets to be an exception to this rule, since they seem prohibitively hard to forge. But that may no longer be true.

In any case, cuneiform specialists take this archive to be unambiguously genuine. The question is outside my expertise.

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

Biblical Studies Carnival 201

READING ACTS: Biblical Studies Carnival 201 for November 2022 (Phil Long).

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

Thursday, December 01, 2022

Review of Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean (Alexiana Fry).
Sara Parks, Shayna Sheinfeld, and Meredith J.C. Warren. Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean. New York: Routledge, 2022.

... If it hasn’t already been said before, Parks, Sheinfeld, and Warren make it easy to use this book as a full-fledged textbook for courses. Not only is the information within the book well formed, so too, are the many activities and discussion questions that are found within it for both pedagogical and even devotional purposes. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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

Rituale und Magie in Ugarit (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Rituale und Magie in Ugarit. Praxis, Kontexte und Bedeutung Herausgegeben von Reinhard Müller, Hans Neumann, Reettakaisa Sofia Salo unter Mitarbeit von Clemens Steinberger [Rituals and Magic in Ugarit. Practice, Contexts, and Meaning.] 2022. XV, 341 pages. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 47. 139,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-156724-7.
Published in German.
Rituals and magical practices were a central aspect of the everyday life in the Ancient Near East and played a decisive role in all areas of life. They also influenced the history and culture of the Bronze-Age Ugarit, which can be seen through the textual and material evidence. The volume takes the diversity of these phenomena into account and surveys their social and cultural historical contexts.
The articles are in German and English.

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

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

The Khirbet Midras pyramid etc.

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Khirbet Midras pyramid and Archaeological Site in Israel (Leman Altuntaş, Arkeonews).
Khirbet Midras (Arabic) or Horvat Midras (Hebrew) is one of several antiquities sites located within the Adullam Grove National Park, an Israel Nature Reserve south of Beit Shemesh. Khirbet Midras dates from the 10th century BC to the 4th century AD.

Excavation at the site has uncovered a Byzantine-era church, burial caves and tunnels used by rebels during the Bar Kochba revolt, a columbarium cave, and a burial pyramid.

[...]

For more on the pyramid, caves, church, and mosaic at Khirbet Midras (Horvat Midras, Hirbet Madras), see here and follow the links

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

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

A Pahlavi-Aramaic inscription from Beit She’arim

ARAMAIC WATCH: Researchers Crack Secret of 1,400-year-old Inscription From Catacomb in Israel. Exaltation my mouth? Graffito from Beit She’arim cemetery confounded scholars for decades – until they figured out it was written in Aramaic using a Persian alphabet. But its true meaning remains inscrutable (Ariel David, Haaretz).

The inscription is a grafitto. The article says it was probably left by a Jewish pilgrim. It is written mostly in the Middle Persian Pahlavi script, but its language is Aramaic.

There is lots of Judeo-Persian literature — written in the Hebrew alphabet but in the Persian language. This is the first Pahlavi-Aramaic text I recall encountering, where it goes the other way around. But I don't doubt that there are others. The Pahlavi script is itself based on the Aramaic (Hebrew) alphabet.

UPDATE: For more on Pahlavi, see here.

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

Heinsch, The Figure of Hagar in Ancient Judaism and Galatians (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Ryan Heinsch. The Figure of Hagar in Ancient Judaism and Galatians. 2022. XIII, 262 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 579. 89,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-161789-8.
Published in English.
To date, scholarly study of the allegory of Hagar and Sarah in Galatians 4:21–31 has not paid adequate attention to the way Paul's use of the story – chiefly in relation to the figure of Hagar – can be located within streams of ancient Jewish tradition. In this study, Ryan Heinsch fills this scholarly gap by considering Paul's allegorical portrayal of the figure of Hagar in Galatians 4:21–31 within the context of ancient Judaism. The author argues that Paul stands in continuity with – rather than against – ancient Judaism in that he, like other Jews in antiquity, portrays Hagar and her descendants as non-Jews. As a result, the author demonstrates further that Galatians 4:21–31 is not to be read as a polemic against Jews, Jewish Christ-followers, or the continuing validity of the Jewish law (as is common among interpreters), but rather, that Galatians 4:21–31 is an allegory Paul develops about the experience of gentiles in general and the once pagan Galatian gentiles in particular.

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

Monday, November 28, 2022

New Phoenician ostraca from Kition

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Completion of excavations at Kition-Pampoula, 2022 (gavriella, in-cyprus).
The Department of Antiquities, of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, announces the completion of the 2022 archaeological excavations of the French Archaeological Mission at ancient Kition (Larnaka-Pampoula).

The French archaeological mission conducted a four-week campaign at Kition-Pamboula in October 2022. The objectives were two-fold: firstly, to complete the excavation of a possible pit, which had been identified in 2021 and which, although partially excavated, had yielded a series of Phoenician ostraca of the Classical period; secondly, to enlarge the excavation of the corresponding Classical floors, in order to better understand the context of the supposed pit.

... The supposed pit containing ostraca was a constitutive part of this layer, characterized by a more greyish and sandy soil matrix: additional pieces were found, the total amounting to 99 by the end of the campaign (fig. 3). The new ostraca are similar to the ostraca found during the 2021 campaign: short texts written in black ink on pottery sherds and, more rarely, on stone fragments; they present the same word sequence and contain many numerals that point to accounting operations. They all date to the Classical period, more precisely the 4th century BC.

For more on the excavation at Kition-Pampoula and the Phoenician ostraca recovered there, see here. It appears that the social context of the large collection of Phoenician administrative ostraca from the site remains to be clarified. Kition-Pamboula seems also to be known as Kition-Bamboula.

A cople of older posts also involving the Phoenicians of Kition are here and here.

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

Allen & Doedens (eds.), Turmoil, Trauma and Tenacity in Early Jewish Literature (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:
Turmoil, Trauma and Tenacity in Early Jewish Literature

Edited by: Nicholas P. L. Allen and Jacob J. T. Doedens

Volume 50 in the series Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110784978

PDF & EPUB £94.00

Hardcover £94.00

eBook
Published: August 1, 2022
ISBN: 9783110784978

Hardcover
Published: August 1, 2022
ISBN: 9783110784893

About this book

This volume is written in the context of trauma hermeneutics of ancient Jewish communities and their tenacity in the face of adversity (i.e. as recorded in the MT, LXX, Pseudepigrapha, the Deuterocanonical books and even Cognate literature. In this regard, its thirteen chapters, are concerned with the most recent outputs of trauma studies. They are written by a selection of leading scholars, associated to some degree with the Hungaro-South African Study Group. Here, trauma is employed as a useful hermeneutical lens, not only for interpreting biblical texts and the contexts in which they were originally produced and functioned but also for providing a useful frame of reference. As a consequence, these various research outputs, each in their own way, confirm that an historical and theological appreciation of these early accounts and interpretations of collective trauma and its implications, (perceived or otherwise), is critical for understanding the essential substance of Jewish cultural identity. As such, these essays are ideal for scholars in the fields of Biblical Studies—particularly those interested in the Pseudepigrapha, the Deuterocanonical books and Cognate literature.

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

Sunday, November 27, 2022

The Agade List is archived.

THE AWOL BLOG: Agade List Archives.

Apparently Jack Sasson's e-mail Agade List has been archived for some years. This is first I recall hearing about it. I am glad that this invaluable resource is preserved in a somewhat more permanent format.

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

Patmore & Lössl (eds.), Demons in Early Judaism and Christianity (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:
Demons in Early Judaism and Christianity

Characters and Characteristics

Series: Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Volume: 113

Volume Editors: Hector M. Patmore and Josef Lössl

For Jews and Christians in Antiquity beliefs about demons were integral to their reflections on fundamental theological questions, but what kind of ‘being’ did they consider demons to be? To what extent were they thought to be embodied? Were demons thought of as physical entities or merely as metaphors for social and psychological realities? What is the relation between demons and the hypostatization of abstract concepts (fear, impurity, etc) and baleful phenomenon such as disease? These are some of the questions that this volume addresses by focussing on the nature and characteristics of demons — what one might call ‘demonic ontology’.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €138.00

Copyright Year: 2022

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51814-8
Publication date: 19 Sep 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51714-1
Publication date: 15 Sep 2022

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

Saturday, November 26, 2022

Another review of López-Ruiz, Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean

AJA BOOK REVIEW: Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean, by Carolina López-Ruiz (Hédi Dridi, translated by David L. Stone). Open access.

I noted another review of the book here. Cross-file unde Phoenician Watch.

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

Kaizer (ed.), A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East (Wiley)

NEW BOOK FROM WILEY:
A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East

Ted Kaizer (Editor)
ISBN: 978-1-444-33982-6 | January 2022 | Wiley-Blackwell | 576 Pages

E-BOOK From £140.00
PRINT From £159.00

DESCRIPTION

Discover a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary handbook exploring several sub-regions and key themes perfect for a new generation of students

A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East delivers the first complete handbook in the area of Hellenistic and Roman Near Eastern history. The book is divided into sections dealing with interdisciplinary source material, each with a great deal of regional variety and engaging with several key themes. It integrates discussions of the classical Near East with the typical undergraduate teaching syllabus in the Anglo-Saxon world.

All contributors in this edited volume are leading scholars in their field, with a combination of established researchers and academics, and emerging voices. Contributors hail from countries across several continents, and work in various disciplines, including Ancient History, Archaeology, Art History, Epigraphy, Numismatics, and Oriental Studies.

In addition to furthering the integration of the Levantine lands in the classical periods into the teaching canon, the book offers readers:

  • The first comprehensively structured Companion and edited handbook on the Hellenistic and Roman Near East
  • Extensive regional and sub-regional variety in the cross-disciplinary source material
  • A way to compensate for the recent destruction of monuments in the region and the new generation of researchers’ inability to examine these historical stages in person
  • An integration of the study of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East with traditional undergraduate teaching syllabi in the Anglo-Saxon world
Perfect for undergraduate history and classics students studying the Near East, A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East will also earn a place in the libraries of graduate students and scholars working within Near Eastern studies, as well as interested members of the public with a passion for history.

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

Friday, November 25, 2022

Interview with new IES director

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Looking to the Future. BAR Interviews Rona Avissar Lewis of the Israel Exploration Society. Video interview on YouTube.

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

Review of González-Salinero, Military service and the integration of Jews into the Roman empire

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Military service and the integration of Jews into the Roman empire.
Raúl González-Salinero, Military service and the integration of Jews into the Roman empire. The Brill reference library of Judaism, 72. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2022. ISBN 9789004506756 $127.00.

Review by
Jonathan Roth, San Jose State University. jonathan.roth@sjsu.edu

... Anyone interested in ancient Jewish history, the Roman army, or indeed the question of the intersection of ethnicity and military service will benefit from reading this book. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Coin of Antiochus IV recovered

APPREHENDED: Rare coin from Hanukkah story villain era found in theft suspect’s home. Antiochus IV, referred to as "Evil Antiochus" in Jewish lore, is remembered as a major villain and persecutor in Jewish history, particularly the story of Hanukkah (Jerusalem Post).

He preferred to be known as Antiochus Epiphanes ("Antiochus the manifest (god)"). This was not an unusual level of arrogance for rulers of that era.

For more on the coins of Antiochus IV Epiphanes see here and here. Cross-file under Numismatics.

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

Toloni, The Story of Tobit (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:
The Story of Tobit

A Comparative Literary Analysis

Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 204

Author: Giancarlo Toloni

The story of Tobit builds on various themes derived from myth, legend and folktale. Tobiah’s journey recalls Homer’s Odyssey, the suffering of the righteous brings to mind the legend of Job, and the narrative around a disgraced and then rehabilitated official evokes the story of Ahiqar. The author of Tobit seeks to exploit his readers’ knowledge of these stories in order to convey his message more effectively: he encourages them to trust in divine providence that intervenes on behalf of the faithful.
This volume, based on essays previously published in Italian, charts Tobit’s narrative sources through comparative literary analysis, firmly placing the story in the genre of the didactic and edifying religious novel.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €129.00

Copyright Year: 2022

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51945-9
Publication date: 26 Sep 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51944-2
Publication date: 14 Nov 2022

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Indiana Jones 5?

INDIANA. INDIANA ... LET IT GO: Harrison Ford to be ‘de-aged’ for new Indiana Jones film (Hollywood Reporter via Independent TV).

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

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Prof. Bilhah Nitzan, 1933-2022

SAD NEWS: Reports have been coming in since yesterday evening of the sad news that Prof. Bilhah Nitzan has passed away. The H-JUDAIC notice from this morning is as follows:
Passing of Prof. Bilhah Nitzan

H-Judaic is greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Bilhah Nitzan (1933-2022), Associate Professor emeritus in the Bible Department of Tel Aviv University. Born in pre-state Palestine, Prof. Nitzan was a high school teacher until she became a lecturer at Tel Aviv University at the age of fifty. She received her doctorate seven years later and remained on the faculty there long past retirement, leaving only in 2010. Her well-regarded books, two of which were expansions of her MA and Ph.D., were an edition of Pesher Habakkuk from the original Dead Sea Scrolls, and an influential volume entitled Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry, which appeared in several languages. A volume of her collected articles appeared from Yad Ben Zvi in 2014. For additional information, see the article on Bilhah Nitzan in Hebrew Wikipedia, https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%91%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%94_%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%9F.

We extend deepest condolences to her family, colleagues and legions of students.

Jonathan D. Sarna

Chair, H-Judaic

Her English curriculm vita is also available on the Tel Aviv University website.

Prof. Nitzan's book, Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry (Brill, 1994), and many of her other publications on the Qumran liturgical texts were highly influential on my own research.

May her memory be for a blessing.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Review of Newsom, The Spirit within Me

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | The Spirit within Me: Self and Agency in Ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism (Rebecca Harris).
Carol A. Newsom. The Spirit within Me: Self and Agency in Ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism. Yale University Press, 2021.

... In this innovative and deeply engaging study, Newsom sparks new ways of thinking about models of moral agency in biblical and early Jewish literature and paves the way for a broader application of the analysis that considers Jewish literature composed in Greek or the literature of other cultures.

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Review of Sievers (ed.), The Pharisees

THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER: Scholars outline history of the Pharisees and roots of harmful anti-Jewish stereotypes (Chris Seeman).
The Pharisees

Edited by Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine

482 pages; Eerdmans

$54.95

... The conference that produced this volume was notable for its ecumenical and interreligious inclusivity. The contributing scholars were Jews and Christians, Protestants and Catholics, women and men, priests and laity. This diversity of affiliation and expertise models the kind of collaboration needed not only to advance knowledge but also to bring that knowledge to bear on an ongoing problem: the (often unintentional) perpetuation of misinformation about Jews by Christians at the pulpit, in the classroom and in cultural discourse generally. ...

I noted the 2019 conference here. Ancient Jew Review published papers from an SBL forum on the book, noted here, here, and here.

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Monday, November 21, 2022

New discoveries at Hippos-Sussita

DECORATIVE ART AND (BAD) GREEK EPIGRAPHY: New Inscriptions in Roman City in Israel Shed Personal Light on Early Christians. While cleaning one set of Byzantine mosaics in Hippos of the Decapolis, the archaeologists found more mosaics. An unknown bishop, a goldsmithing priest and an anxious couple have come to light (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).
People of yore were deeply religious, it seems – including in Hippos (Sussita) of the Decapolis, a Greco-Roman city perched high above the Sea of Galilee.

No less than seven churches have been found in the city from the early Christian era. Now, four inscriptions newly discovered in one of its ancient churches – the Martyrion of Theodoros, or “Burnt Church” – during the summer 2022 excavation season shed rare personal light on actual people. So say excavation directors Dr. Arleta Kowalewska and Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, and epigraphist Prof. Gregor Staab of the Institute of Classical Studies at University of Cologne.

[...]

Just to be clear, it is the Greek that's bad, not the epigraphy.

UPDATE: I forgot add that there are many PaleoJudaica posts on the excavations at Hippos-Sussita. See here and links, plus here.

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The Armenian Monastery Museum in Jerusalem

ARMENIAN WATCH: Visit the Old City monastery that holds Jerusalem’s 1,700-year-old Armenian history. A new museum at the Armenian Monastery offers displays of stunning mosaics and artworks, artifacts and architecture, going back to Armenia’s 4th-century roots in the Holy Land (AVIVA AND SHMUEL BAR-AM, Times of Israel).
One such exquisite [Byzantine-era] floor was discovered in 1894; a family digging foundations for a house near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate was astounded to discover a glorious mosaic floor beneath the rubble. It turned out to be part of a fifth- or sixth-century Armenian church, and further excavations revealed that below one corner of the mosaic lay the remains of an Armenian unit attached to the Roman army (or, perhaps, martyrs who died for their faith).

[...]

This year, the mosaic was meticulously transferred into the Armenian Convent, located in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, and is now the focus of the convent’s brand-new Edward and Helen Mardigian Armenian Museum, which opened this past week. The mosaic covers almost the entire first floor of the magnificent building, constructed in 1853 as Jerusalem’s Armenian Theological Seminary. Its creator was Turkish-Armenian artist Sarkis Balyan, a member of a distinguished family of artists and architects. In fact his father, Garabet Balyan, designed the sumptuous Dolmabahçe Palace, the largest of its kind in Turkey.

For some PaleoJudaiac posts on ancient Armenian literature and archaeology see here and links, plus here, here, and here. Some ancient Jewish literature, notably some of the works of Philo of Alexandria, survive only in Armenian translation.

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Sunday, November 20, 2022

Review of Ackerman, Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them

READING ACTS: Susan Ackerman, Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them (Phillip J. Long).
Ackerman, Susan. Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2022. xiii+296 pp. Hb; $59.99

Susan Ackerman is Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Dartmouth. This new book collects ten essays Ackerman has written over the course of her career. Rather than simply reprint the essays, Ackerman has occasionally polished the writing, refined her arguments, and added some additional bibliography. In addition, for most chapters, Ackerman introduces the essay by giving a context for the article and reflecting on the article some years after it was originally published. These introductions are extremely valuable. I wish more authors would add these kinds of updates and personal recollections of the origin of previously published essays.

[...]

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Academic Genealogies of Near Eastern Scholars

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Who Are You? Preliminary Results of the Academic Genealogies of Near Eastern Scholars (AGNES) Project (Rachel Hallote, Diane Harris Cline, and Eric H. Cline).

This project is inwardly facing toward the academic world, but it's fun and informative for us.

I missed this survey, so I am not on any of the charts. But if you are interested, I belong in the generation of Frank Moore Cross's students.

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Saturday, November 19, 2022

The Mysterious Nabataeans

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: The Mysterious Nabataeans and the Greek Influence (Matthew Quest, Greek Reporter).
At its peak, Nabataean influence stretched from modern Yemen to Damascus and from western Iraq into the Sinai Desert—at least according to some historians. It is difficult to say how large the area of Nabataean influence really was, as their caravans traveled widely. It is challenging to ascertain the borders of their dominion. Written records left by the Nabataeans are rare and difficult to find, but much has been found—including links to Greco-Roman history and culture.
This is impressively comprehensive for a popular article. It surveys the whole history of the Nabatean Kingdom, as far as we know it, with special attention to connections with the Greek world. It looks substantially accurate, but I have not fact checked it comprehensively.

The Greek Reporter has been doing some good work on ancient history.

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Eastern Mediterranean Gallery opens at Penn Museum

GALLERY EXHIBITION: New Eastern Mediterranean Gallery opens at the Penn Museum. The completely renovated gallery is the latest in the transformation and modernization of the building that dates to 1899 (Louisa Shepard, Penn Today).
hroughout the gallery are items that range in size and age and purpose, including gems, jewelry, coins, tools, ceramics, figurines of gods, as well as architectural elements such as tops of stone columns, sections of ancient doorways, and portions of a mosaic tile floor. The oldest object dates to 2100 BCE and the most recent to 1800 CE.

[Penn Museum Williams Director Christopher] Woods says that most of the artifacts in the new gallery were excavated by Penn archaeologists, many from the Beth Shean site in Israel in the 1920s and 1930s, which resulted in about 8,000 objects. The Museum has more than a million objects, with a very small percentage on display. “Whenever we can bring those objects out of the storerooms, that's always an exciting endeavor,” Woods says.

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Friday, November 18, 2022

Mystery amulet from Amastris

NORTHWEST SEMITIC (?) EPIGRAPHY: Unique ancient Egyptian amulet seal discovered during archeological excavations in northern Turkey (ArkeoNews).
During archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Amastris in the Amasra district of northern Turkey’s Bartın, an enchanted amulet stamp seal thought to belong to the ancient Egyptians was discovered.

[...]

“We see that there is a figure depicting the god Bes, whom we know from the Egyptian religion, depicted with incised lines at the base of the work. On the upper part of the work, we see that there are letter characters and talismanic words from the ancient Egyptian religion called demotic. The letter characters on the work probably represent this meaning of protection. As a kind of talismanic object, we can define it as an object that a person wears to be protected from evil and diseases or in whatever sense he wants to be protected. We can say that it is the only example of its kind found from the Roman layer in Anatolia during excavations,” Fatma Bağdatlı Çam said.

I don't know Demotic, so take my view with caution, but the inscription sure looks like Phoenician to me. The Egyptian god Bes was widely known outside of Egypt, so his iconographic presence is not an obstacle to a Phoenician origin. The city is Roman-era and this is the sort of object that could easily travel around.

The object is broken and the inscription is incomplete, but I see גתני. (.gtny) on the front face and .מ (m.) on the left side. (The dots are unreadable bits of broken letter. The letter after the mem could be an ’aleph.) There is not enough text to make any sense of it.

I have looked briefly at Demotic scripts and this looks more like Phoenician to me. It is a formal script. It looks early, certainly long before the Common Era. Again, such objects often became heirlooms and traveled around, so it isn't surprising to have it turn up in a Roman-era stratum.

That's my preliminary assessment, but I await the judgment of specialist epigraphers and am happy to be corrected. Christopher Rollston, call your office?

Cross-file under Phoenician Watch (?).

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The Willoughby Papyrus of John is now at UT

RESCUED FROM EBAY: Rare Papyrus Fragment of the Gospel of John Now at the Harry Ransom Center (UT News).
AUSTIN, Texas — A credit-card-size fragment is all that survives of a manuscript scroll of the Gospel of John that was written in Greek circa A.D. 250-350. Once listed on eBay, it is now in the collection of the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. It is on view to the public this fall.

Geoffrey S. Smith, an associate professor and director of UT’s Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins in the Department of Religious Studies, first saw the eBay listing for the ancient fragment in 2015.

[...]

For background on the Willoughby Papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John, see here and here. I'm glad to hear that it is now in a museum, where it belongs. Now it needs formal publication.

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Thursday, November 17, 2022

Review of Hickey & Keenan, Edgar J. Goodspeed: America's first papyrologist

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Edgar J. Goodspeed: America’s first papyrologist.
Todd M. Hickey, James G. Keenan, Edgar J. Goodspeed: America's first papyrologist. California classical studies, 8. Berkeley: California Classical Studies, 2021. Pp. 178. ISBN 9781939926142 $34.95.

Review by
Mills McArthur, Southern Adventist University. millsmcarthur@southern.edu

Edgar Johnson Goodspeed is perhaps best remembered as a pioneering Biblical scholar, a man whose “American translation” of the New Testament provoked lively controversy at the time of its 1923 release. Less widely known—but no less important when assessing his legacy—are Goodspeed’s forays into papyrology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ...

For the Goodspeed Manuscript Collection at the University of Chicago, see here.

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CFP: New Directions in the Study of Rabbinic Texts (EABS)

H-JUDAIC: CFP: New Directions in the Study of Rabbinic Texts (EABS Siracusa/Sicily, July 2023, or hybrid).
Recent years have witnessed significant advances in the research of Rabbinic literature. From the preparation of new critical scientific editions and commentaries of the texts; to the incorporation of methodology from the realm of literary analysis, a greater degree of sophistication is evident in the interpretation of these texts. Significant developments include a closer commitment to exploring the contexts of the rabbinic sources, both within the rabbinic corpus and beyond, the hermeneutic structures of the various compositions; and to probing the interconnectedness between halakhic and aggadic elements in rabbinic sources. Of particular note is the close study of literary phenomena, narratology, topoi, and diverse rhetorical features. This session invites papers that offer innovative readings of rabbinic sources.
Follow the link for submission information. The deadline is 5 January 2023.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Rabbinics job at JTS

H-JUDAIC: FEATURED JOB: Open Rank Faculty Appointment (Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures), Jewish Theological Seminary.
The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) seeks a scholar and teacher for a tenure-track, open rank faculty appointment in the department of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures. While the area of specialization within rabbinics is open, the successful candidate will display familiarity with Midrash, Talmud, Halakhah, and Ancient Jewish History. The successful candidate will have an active research agenda and a passion for teaching the varied student body at JTS, which includes undergraduate, graduate, education, rabbinical, and cantorial students. The successful candidate will be supportive of the academic, religious, and communal mission of JTS and willing to participate in the life of the institution. JTS welcomes applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, age, sex, national origin, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other factors as prohibited by law. Scholars from underrepresented populations are especially encouraged to apply as JTS strives to increase the diversity of its faculty to achieve its ethical and religious goals.

This appointment, with an initial term of three years, begins July 1, 2023. Candidates must have their PhD in hand by May 2023.

Follow the link for additional details and application information. The deadline for first consideration is 5 December.

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