More on Nabonidus the royal archaeologist

ANCIENT SCHOLARS AND SCOUNDRELS: Royal Antiquarians (Archaeology Magazine).

I have already noted the archaeological interests of the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus and his daughter. But it's news to me that the priests of Shamash fooled him with a forged ancient inscription that favored them. It seems antiquities forgers have been around for as long as archaeology has.

For King Nabonidus as portrayed in the Aramaic Prayer of Nabonidus, with connections to Nebuchadnezzar's madness in Daniel chapter 4, see here (cf. here) and links.

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Hawass on the world of Cleopatra

AHRAM ONLINE is publishing a four-part series on the world of Cleopatra by Zahi Hawass, whom we haven't heard from in a while. The first in the series is out:

The world of Cleopatra — I.

This essay gives an overview of Egypt under Persian rule, the conquest of Alexander the Great, the rise of Ptolemy I, and politics and culture during the Ptolemaic period.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Ptolemaic empire, including its coins and its importance for biblical and ancient Jewish studies, start here and follow the links.

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Fishbane, Biblical Text and Exegetical Culture (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Michael Fishbane. Biblical Text and Exegetical Culture. Collected Essays. 2022. XI, 620 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 154. 184,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-152049-5.

Published in English.
In this wide-ranging collection, Michael Fishbane investigates the complex and diverse relationships between the 'biblical text' and 'exegetical culture.' The author demonstrates the multiple literary dimensions and interpretative strategies that came to form the Hebrew Bible in the context of the ancient Near East, the Dead Sea Scrolls in the context of an emergent biblical-Jewish culture, and the classical rabbinic Midrash in the context of an emergent rabbinic civilization in late antiquity. Within each study, and in the collection as a whole, the author shows a broad range of creative methods, always with a scholarly concern to illuminate the religious ideas of Scripture as it was perceived through diverse hermeneutical lenses and exegetical methodologies. The studies range from the purely literary to the highly analytic, from myth to law, and from studies of symbols to the study of exegetical methods.

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Assyrian New Year 2022

THE ASSYRIAN NEW YEAR 6772 is celebrated today: Masoud Barzani congratulates Assyrian and Chaldean Christians on Akitu (Mustafa Shilani, Kurdistan24).

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masoud Barzani congratulated Assyrian and Chaldean Christians on the holiday of Akitu on Thursday.

The Assyrian New Year, known as Akitu, marks the beginning of the year 6772 for both denominations. The event is celebrated annually by members of the Christian community across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

[...]

The festival is also known as Kha b-Nisan, the First of Nisan. It is today connected with the ancient Mesopotamian New Year Akitu Festival. Memory of the latter was lost until the decipherment of cuneiform in the modern period, so I am not sure when the connection was made or reaffirmed. For more on the modern festival, see here. Follow the links from there for more on the ancient Akitu festival.

Best wishes to all those celebrating either one!

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Biblical Studies Carnival 193

THE AMATEUR EXEGETE: BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL #193 (MARCH 2022) (Ben).

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The earliest Jesus inscription in Arabia?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Earliest Evidence of Christianity in Arabia? A rock inscription from the Jordanian desert invokes Jesus (Marek Dospěl).

This BHD essay summarizes an article by Professor Ahmad Al-Jallad in the current issue of BAR. The article itself is behind the subscription wall.

The inscription is written in the Safaitic dialect of pre-Islamic Arabic. The editor dates it to the fourth century CE. It was found in the Wadi al-Khudari in northeastern Jordan.

For more on Safaitic Arabic, see here and here.

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Another Judeo-Syriac fragment from the Cairo Geniza

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (FEBRUARY 2022): A New Judaeo-Syriac Fragment from the Genizah: ENA 3846.2 (Alan Elbaum).

Judaeo-Syriac was a significant albeit never widespread phenomenon. We have long known of medieval Jewish scholars from Baghdad to Aleppo to Girona who made use of the Peshitta for exegetical purposes. But until now, we have not had direct evidence of how Jews would have learned Syriac from Christians nor any extant specimens of Peshitta manuscripts in Hebrew characters like those that Masnūt and potentially Naḥmanides would have consulted. Despite its modest dimensions, ENA 3846.2 provides crucial evidence for a previously unattested stage of Jewish engagement with Syriac and hopefully heralds further discoveries and publications of Genizah fragments in Judaeo-Syriac. I conclude with an edition and commentary.

The Cario Geniza produced another Judeo-Syriac fragment back in 2013.

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McKnight on the Pharisees and Evangelical Preaching

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Pharisees and Evangelical Preaching (Scot McKnight).

AJR continues its series of papers from a 2021 SBL session on the Pharisees. Earlier posts in the series are noted here and here.

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Vanilla-flavored wine in ancient Jerusalem?

ANCIENT VANILLA VINTAGE? 6th century BCE Jerusalemite oenophiles had a taste for exotic vanilla-spice wine. New research based on First Temple City of David pottery sherds dating to the Babylonian destruction shores up theories of international trade with Kingdom of Judah (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

Judahite Elite in Jerusalem Drank Wine Flavored With Vanilla 2,600 Years Ago. Analysis of smashed wine jars in Jerusalem houses destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. finds unexpected flavor in jars that the rich reused (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The underlying article at PLOS ONE:

Residue analysis evidence for wine enriched with vanilla consumed in Jerusalem on the eve of the Babylonian destruction in 586 BCE
Ayala Amir , Israel Finkelstein, Yiftah Shalev, Joe Uziel, Ortal Chalaf, Liora Freud, Ronny Neumann, Yuval Gadot Published: March 29, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266085

Abstract

The article presents results of residue analysis, based on Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) measurements, conducted on 13 ceramic storage jars unearthed in the Babylonian destruction layer (586 BCE) in Jerusalem. Five of the jars bear rosette stamp impressions on their handles, indicating that their content was related to the kingdom of Judah’s royal economy. The identification of the original contents remains is significant for the understanding of many aspects related to the nutrition, economy and international trade in the ancient Levant. The study shed light on the contents of the jars and the destruction process of the buildings in which they were found. The jars were used alternatively for storing wine and olive oil. The wine was flavored with vanilla. These results attest to the wine consumption habits of the Judahite elite and echo Jerusalem’s involvement in the trans-regional South Arabian trade of spices and other lucrative commodities on the eve of its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.

Last I heard, there was some skepticism about whether traces of vanilla were really found at c. 1600 BCE Megiddo. That was a few years ago. I see that there has been a formal publication of the evidence since them. I don't know what, if any, response there has been to it.

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Reception history of the Pharisees

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW continues its series of papers from a 2021 SBL session on the Pharisees:

Pharisees Part Two: Reception History (Elena G. Procario-Foley).

Earlier essays in the series are noted here.

Incidentally, PaleoJudaica has a number of posts on the Pharisees and stereotyping of them. Start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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Rollston on the Mount Ebal amulet

ROLLSTON EPIGRAPHY: The Mount Ebal Lead ‘Curse’ Inscription in Late Bronze Age Hebrew: Some Methodological Caveats. A good, cautious analysis of the evidence, such as it is, by a specialist in this area of epigraphy.

For my own comments on the claims about this object, see here. For earlier posts, see the links there.

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Springing the Megiddo Jesus mosaic?

ARCHAEOLOGY, EPIGRAPHY, DECORATIVE ART: Earliest mosaic in Israel dedicated to Jesus may soon be sprung from prison. 3rd-century Christian structure and 3 mosaics with inscriptions – including ‘to the God Jesus Christ’ – were uncovered at Meggido jail in 2004-08; it may now become a tourist site (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

I have been following the story of the Megiddo prison excavation and mosaics since the first announcements in 2005. For posts, start here and follow the links. As you will see, there is debate about whether the "God Jesus Christ" mosaic is as early as the third century.

The proposal to make the site an archaeological park has been around for years. See here.

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Discovering Isaiah

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Isaiah-Prophet, Book, and Message (Andrew T. Abernethy).

The book of Isaiah is a wonderful mixture of ethics, judgment and hope, and divine grandeur and nearness. Although we are 2800 years removed from the prophet, these messages and countless others appeal to people in all generations and draw us in for a closer look at the book of Isaiah.

The author has a new book out on Isaiah with Eerdmans: Discovering Isaiah: Content, Interpretation, Reception (Discovering Biblical Texts (DBT)).

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Big claims for the Mount Ebal amulet

I COUNSEL CAUTION: Archaeologist claims to find oldest Hebrew text in Israel, including the name of God. Scholars date tiny ‘curse tablet,’ found at Mt. Ebal, to 1200 BCE – which would prove Israelites were literate when they entered Holy Land; but findings have not been peer-reviewed (Amanda Borschel-Dan). The podcast interview with Scott Stripling has additional details.

Potentially, this amulet is an extraordinarily important discovery. It reportedly bears an inscription written in something like Hebrew, possibly the earliest recovered Hebrew inscription. This inscription reportedly places YHWH worshippers at the site of the altar on Mount Ebal c. the twelfth century BCE, not far from the date of the Merneptah Stele. The text reportedly invokes some kind of curse, which immediately brings to mind the curses uttered by the Israelites on Ebal according to Deuteronomy 27. If all this is accurate, the discovery is on the lottery-winning level.

But the reports offer us almost no data to evaluate.

The object is folded over and the inscription is not readable (or, at least to me, visible) on the outside. All the claims are based on an unpublished scan of its interior. Only a drawing of three letters (reportedly the divine name) has been released. There is no paleographic analysis. There is not even a transcription of the Hebrew. The editors have only released an English translation. No peer review of these claims has been completed.

I would also like to know more about the provenance trail of the object.

I am going to invoke my Lottery Rule here. 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.

People sometimes win do the lottery. Scholarship sometimes wins the lottery (e.g., the Dead Sea Scrolls). But the bigger the claim, the more we should expect solid evidence and the more carefully we should probe that evidence.

I await more information.

Earlier posts on the discovery are here and here.

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Baal's sacred astronomical pool in Sicily

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Monumental Structure in Sicily Isn’t a Phoenician Harbor – It’s a Huge Sacred Pool of Baal. The kothon of Motya in southern Sicily had first been assumed to be an artificial harbor. It wasn’t, archaeologist Lorenzo Nigro of Sapienza proves (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

For more on the Phoenician remains at Motya, see here, here, here, and here.

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Ross & Runge (eds.), Postclassical Greek Prepositions and Conceptual Metaphor (De Gruyter)

WILLIAM ROSS: BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: POSTCLASSICAL GREEK PREPOSITIONS AND CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR.

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Frohlich, The Relationship between MT and LXX in Jeremiah 39(46):1–41(48):3 and 52 (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: James Frohlich. The Relationship between MT and LXX in Jeremiah 39(46):1–41(48):3 and 52. 2022. XVII, 239 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 133. 79,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-160739-4.

Published in English.
In this work, James Frohlich analyzes the Septuagint translation technique in Jeremiah 39(46)-41(48):3 and 52 in order to determine if the large-scale differences between MT and LXX in these chapters were caused by the LXX translator. Since the Hebrew text of Jeremiah 52 largely parallels that of 2 Kings 24:18–25:30, and Jeremiah 39(46)-41(48):3 has various parallels with 2 Kgs 25:22–26, the author also focuses on the differences between the Septuagint translations in these parallel texts. Along with a study of translation technique, he also considers the nature of the MT pluses and analyzes the agreements and disagreements between Jeremiah 39(46)-41(48):3 and 52 MT/LXX with the parallel text in 2 Kings 24:18–25:30 MT/LXX. James Frohlich concludes that the large-scale differences between MT and LXX in Jeremiah 39–41:3 and 52 are due to a divergent Hebrew Vorlage used by the Septuagint translator.

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