Jones, Priesthood, Cult, and Temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Priesthood, Cult, and Temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran

Analyzing a Pre-Hasmonean Jewish Literary Tradition

Series: Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 145

Author: Robert E. Jones

The Hellenistic period was a pivotal moment in the history of the Jewish priesthood. The waning days of the Persian empire coincided with the continued ascendance of the high priest and Jerusalem temple as powerful political, cultural, and religious institutions in Judea. The Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran, only recently published in full, testify to the existence of a flourishing but previously unknown Jewish literary tradition dating from the end of Persian rule to the rise of the Hasmoneans. Throughout this book, Robert Jones analyzes how Israel’s priestly institutions are represented in these writings, and he demonstrates that they are essential for understanding the Jewish priesthood at this crucial stage in its history.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €139.00

Copyright Year: 2023

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54616-5
Released online: 05 Jun 2023

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54287-7
Publication date: 06 Jun 2023

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On the Epic of Gilgamesh

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Epic of Gilgamesh. A Mesopotamian story of longing and loss (Marek Dospěl).

A good overview of the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, its Sumerian antecedents and Mesopotamian transmission, its importance for biblical studies, and modern translations of it.

For more on the later survival of the figure Gilgamesh, notably in the Book of Giants, and also in modern popular culture, see here and links. And for many other PaleoJudaica posts on Gilgamesh and his epic, see here and links, plus here.

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Edwards, In the Court of the Gentiles (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

In the Court of the Gentiles: Narrative, Exemplarity, and Scriptural Adaptation in the Court-Tales of Flavius Josephus

Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 209

Author: David Edwards

Edwards explores how Josephus in Antiquities adapts the scriptural stories of Joseph and Esther in unexpected ways as models for accounts of more recent Jewish figures. Terming this practice “subversive adaptation,” Edwards contextualizes it within Greco-Roman literary culture and employs the concept of “discourses of exemplarity” to show how Josephus used narratives about past figures to engage Roman elites in moral reflection and pragmatic decision-making. This book supplies analysis of frequently overlooked accounts as well as Josephus’ broader literary strategies, and shows how ancient Jews appropriated imperial historiographical conventions and forms of discourse while countering Greco-Roman claims of cultural superiority.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €110.00

Copyright Year: 2023
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54906-7
Released online: 05 Jun 2023

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54905-0
Publication date: 31 May 2023

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Review of Augé, Field Manual for the Archaeology of Ritual, Religion, and Magic

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY BOOK REVIEW: Field Manual for the Archaeology of Ritual, Religion, and Magic, by C. Riley Augé (Thomas E. Emerson). HT Rogue Classicism.

Field Manual for the Archaeology of Ritual, Religion, and Magic
C. Riley Augé. New York: Berghahn 2022. Pp. 188. ISBN 978-1-80073-504-0 (ebook) $27.95.

... While Augé addresses her volume to archaeologists, it seems to me that it has value also for those involved more tangentially, such as researchers in material culture studies, epigraphers, historic site inter-preters, and members of the general public with interests in the spiritual side of the material world.

The review is open access.

This book would be of interest for a number of ancient sites in Israel, including Arad and, recently, the Te’omim Cave.

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The Jerusalem Pilgrimage Road excavation

ARCHAEOLOGY: A new excavation of an ancient Jerusalem road expected to draw modern-day pilgrims. Inside City of David’s excavation of the ancient Pilgrimage Road, which once led directly to the Second Temple (Gabby Deutch, JewishInsider).

Known as the “stepped street,” or the “Pilgrimage Road,” the wide stone slabs that make up this pedestrian street were believed to be built by the Romans. The road was rediscovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority in 2004, after a sewage pipe burst. Archaeologists expect visitors to be able to walk the length of the road in two years, following the completion of an intricate excavation process.

For more than a decade now, archaeologists have overseen an underground excavation of the road, using heavy iron beams to prop up the above-ground infrastructure while they hollow out everything that has accumulated on top of the road over the past two millennia. Historians and archaeologists assert that the road connected the Pool of Siloam, a Roman-era pool used by Jewish pilgrims as a ritual bath, to the Second Temple.

PaleoJudaica posts on the Pilgrimage Road excavation and its discoveries are here (and links), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and links.

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

On the influence of Indy

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Indiana Jones and Archaeology. The good and bad of the Indiana Jones franchise (Nathan Steinmeyer). A timely and thoughtful essay.

No, digging up a 4,000-year-old lamp is not the same as finding the Holy Grail, but at that moment, you would not be able to tell the difference. The rush of your trowel hitting the earth, knowing that soon you will be uncovering clues to the daily life and activities of ancient people, is very much the same emotion of watching Indy unravel one of his ancient mysteries, discovering the lost object, and thwarting the villain.

Indy was a career inspiration for many of this generation's archaeologists and even biblical scholars. For me, somewhat earlier, it was Erich Von Däniken, for similar reasons.

Related recent post here.

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

Why so many stories in the Talmud?

TALMUD WATCH: Why Does the Talmud Include So Many Stories? The stories in the Talmud demonstrate the important difference between the law and the application of the law (Paul Socken, Jewish Journal).

The subtitle answers the question in the headline. But the article illustrates the point with — of course! — a story.

Why would volumes of intricate discussions of law include stories that are anything but legal? Stories that tell of demons, recount interpersonal relations, and often delve into the realm of the mystical are seemingly out of place in such a context. A fascinating example is found in Kiddushin 29b. The rabbis are discussing who should be sent to study at the yeshiva, the father or the son. The rabbis decide, surprisingly to the modern mind, that it should be the father unless the son is unusually gifted.

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Be careful with fasting!

PROF. RABBI HERBERT BASSER: Ascetic Fasting and the Dangers of Piety (TheTorah.com).

To meet Yofiel, the angel of Torah, to ward off the devil, or to pronounce God's name are some reasons for ascetic fasting. But beware: Publicizing your fast not only negates your act of piety but can bring down divine wrath. Just ask Miriam daughter of Onion Leaf.

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Donor list and more Samson mosaic excavated at Huqoq

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY AND DECORATIVE ART: UNC-Chapel Hill-led archaeological dig in Galilee uncovers mosaics of Samson and commemorative inscription. The 11th season of excavations in the 1,600-year-old synagogue at Huqoq reveals a panel with an inscription commemorating the donors who funded the mosaic or the artists who made it (UNC-CH press release).

The newly discovered mosaic consists of a large panel, in the center of which is an enigmatic Hebrew inscription framed within a wreath. To the sides and below the wreath, an Aramaic inscription lists the names either of the donors who provided funding for the synagogue’s mosaics or the artists who made them, asking that they be remembered for good. The wreath is flanked on either side by lions resting their forepaws on bulls’ heads. The entire panel is surrounded by a decorated border showing animals of prey pursuing other animals.

This summer’s excavations also exposed additional sections of mosaic panels that were discovered in 2012 and 2013, which depict the episodes of Samson and the foxes as mentioned in Judges 15:4 and Samson carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders referenced in Judges 16:3.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the archaeological discoveries at Huqoq, including the synagogue and the mosaics, see here and links plus here and here. For the Samson mosaic, see here and links.

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

Late-antique underworld portal excavated near Jerusalem?

SPELUNCIC, CHTHONIC, NECROMANTIC ARCHAEOLOGY? ‘Oracle of the dead’ cave was used for rituals in Israel — likely by witches, study says (Irene Wright, Miami Herald).

The combination of the deep pit in the cave, the skulls for necromancy, the lamps for divination and the weapons for protection suggest to the researchers that the Te’omim Cave was used as a portal to the underworld.

The underlying article in the Harvard Theological Review is open access:

Oil Lamps, Spearheads and Skulls: Possible Evidence of Necromancy during Late Antiquity in the Te’omim Cave, Judean Hills

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2023

Eitan Klein andBoaz Zissu

Abstract

The Te’omim Cave is a large karst cave located in the Jerusalem Hills. Since 2009, the cave has been explored by our team as a joint project of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University and the Cave Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Over 120 intact oil lamps were collected in the 2010–2016 survey seasons from all sections of the cave; most of them were dated to the second to fourth centuries CE. All of these lamps had been deliberately inserted in narrow, deep crevices in the main chamber walls or beneath the rubble. Some crevices contained groups of oil lamps mixed with weapons and pottery vessels from earlier periods or placed with human skulls. This article discusses the possibility that the oil lamps, weapons, human skulls, and other artifacts were used as part of necromancy ceremonies that took place in the cave during the Late Roman period, and that the cave may have served as a local oracle (nekyomanteion).

For another ancient underworld portal active at the same time (the Plutonium at Hierapolis in Turkey), see Carl Rasmussen's recent post at the Holy Land Photos' Blog: The Gate to Hades is Now Open!

Yet another underworld portal — a Zapotec one now under a church in Mitla, Oxaxa, Mexico — appears to have been rediscovered recently using non-invasive ground-penetrating technology: Archaeologists may have found ruins of fabled entrance to Zapotec underworld. Spanish missionaries deemed Lyobaa to be a "back door to hell" and sealed all entrances (JENNIFER OUELLETTE, Ars Technica).

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Moses' broken tables and the Temple Mount potsherds

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: EVEN THE SHATTERED FRAGMENTS OF THE TABLETS CONTAIN MEANING. With reference to the minor fast of 17 Tammuz, which took place on 6 July this year.

Usually, the emphasis on this day is on the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem, an event that ultimately led to the destruction of the Temple. But the words of the Sages, who attribute this day to breaking of the Tablets of the Ten Commandments imply a substantial connection between them. ...

For years now we too have been engaged on a daily basis in collecting fragments from the site of the holy Temple. Dr. Gabriel Barkay likens the soil that was removed from the Temple Mount to a corpse. That is, even though it no longer has the value it had when it was alive (and life is sacred), it must still be treated with the proper respect and dignity.

For this reason, we not only collect the pottery shards and various other artifacts that come up in the sifting, but also meticulously sort, document and conduct in-depth research on them. This, despite the fact that they were found out of their stratified context and exact location. If found in any other location, they would have likely be considered as having little archaeological significance and no efforts would have been put forward to salvage them. In our case however, since these are fragments of artifacts originating from the Temple Mount, they indeed have meaning. And moreover, with the proper effort, these small fragments we uncover can reveal a more comprehensive archaeological and historical meaning that wouldn’t have been revealed had we conducted a traditional archeological excavation upon the Mount.

The essay also reports a new discovery about the Temple Mount in the First Temple Period. A scientific article is in preparation.

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

How did we get variant David and Goliath stories?

PROF. JEREMY M. HUTTON: Why Is David and Goliath’s Story 40% Longer in the MT Than in the LXX? (TheTorah.com).

The version of the story of David’s triumph over Goliath (1 Samuel 17–18) in the Septuagint (LXX) is missing many details present in the Masoretic Text (MT). The explanations provided by the Addition and Omission Hypotheses do not fully account for the differences. Taking into account how ancient scrolls were written and repaired offers a new approach.

For PaleoJudaica posts on this fascinating textual problem, see here and here.

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

Review of Tourraix, L'empire perse, les Grecs et le politique

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: L’empire perse, les Grecs et le politique.

Alexandre Tourraix, L'empire perse, les Grecs et le politique. Institut des sciences et techniques de l'Antiquité, 1544. Besançon: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté, 2021. Pp. 436. ISBN 9782848678610

Review by
Steven W. Hirsch, Tufts University. steven.hirsch@tufts.edu

... In the end, this is a book for those who already have considerable background regarding Persians, Greeks, and other peoples of the Near East. Whether looking at Tourraix’s treatment of a specific problem or evaluating his more general theses, they will find his discussions stimulating and, at times, provocative.

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War in Yemen and (maybe) the Queen of Sheba's capital

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Sheba on the Front Lines. Protecting Yemen's Ancient Capital (Glenn J. Corbett).

Marib, the capital of the ancient South Arabian kingdom of Saba and home to the legendary Queen of Sheba, now finds itself on the front lines of one of today’s most protracted and devastating conflicts, the Yemeni civil war. ...

Marib is one possible site for the kingdom of the Queen of Sheba. The other main possibility is Axum/Aksum in Ethiopia. In any case, Marib is an important ancient South Arabian site.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Queen of Sheba and the possible sites of her kingdom, start here and follow the links. A couple of posts on Marib are here and here.

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