Levine et al., Ancient Synagogues Revealed 1981-2022 (IES)

NEW BOOK FROM THE ISRAEL EXPLORATION SOCIETY:

Ancient Synagogues Revealed 1981-2022

300,00₪ Price

Author Lee I. Levine, Zeev Weiss, Uzi Leibner (eds.)

Year 2023

Publisher
Israel Exploration Society, The Institute of Archaeology- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jeselsohn Epigraphic Center of Jewish History

This companion volume to Ancient Synagogues Revealed, published in 1981, apprises the reader of the latest archaeological and historical data culled from the excavations of ancient synagogues since that date. The articles, written by the excavators of these sites, reveal a plethora of synagogue buildings, artistic remains, inscriptions, and small finds that shed light on many aspects of this ancient institution and increase the number and range of scholarly interpretations and theories regarding the synagogue in the first millennium of its existence. Diverse aspects of the ancient synagogue—archaeology, history, art, epigraphy, language, and literature—allow for new and creative interpretations of these intriguing archaeological finds.

HT Todd Bolen at the Bible Places Blog

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Monsters of the biblical world

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Biblical Monsters. Seven mysterious creatures of the biblical world (Nathan Steinmeyer).

I'm not sure why we have a Halloween essay in July. But this is a good list, if incomplete.

I have collected many PaleoJudaica posts on biblical monsters here (and add here, here and here). For Beelzebul/Beelzebub and other manifestations of the diabolical one, see here and links, plus here.

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Hensel et al. (eds.), Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions. Identity Perspectives from Egypt, Transjordan, Mesopotamia, and Israel in the Second Temple Period. Edited by Benedikt Hensel, Bartosz Adamczewski, and Dany Nocquet. 2023. VIII, 267 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 167. 129,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-161887-1.

Published in English.
Is the Hebrew Bible purely a product of Jerusalem or were there various social groups who each played a role in its development during the Second Temple period? This is the guiding question of the present volume, which fills a crucial gap in recent research by combining current literary-historical, redactional and text-historical analysis of the Hebrew Bible with the latest results pertaining to the pluriform social and religious shape of early Judaism. For the first time, the thirteen articles in this volume address the phenomenon of religious plurality by bringing together archaeological, (religious-) historical, and literary-critical approaches. The articles by internationally renowned scholars cover the panorama of currently known social groups of Yahwistic character and the impact of this phenomenon on the making of the Hebrew Bible – from the Persian period to the time of Qumran.

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Schmid, The Scribes of the Torah (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Scribes of the Torah: The Formation of the Pentateuch in Its Literary and Historical Contexts

Konrad Schmid

ISBN 9781628375237
Volume AIL 45
Status Available
Publication Date May 2023

Paperback $110.00
Hardback $130.00
eBook $110.00

A revised view of the Pentateuch with consequences for the broader literary history of the Bible

This collection of thirty-one studies on the Pentateuch represents more than twenty years of Konrad Schmid’s research and publications advocating for a new view of the Pentateuch’s formation. Schmid’s essays present the case for a Persian period Priestly document that provided a basic narrative thread to the Torah, which included separate, pre-Priestly components of narratives in Genesis and the Moses story. Schmid’s open discussion includes evidence from various fields, such as literary history, comparative cultural history, historical linguistics, epigraphy, and archaeology. The essays are divided into eight sections usefully structured around the themes of the Pentateuch in the Enneateuch, the history of scholarship, the formation of the Torah, Genesis, the Moses story, the Priestly document, legal texts, and the Pentateuch in the history of ancient Israel’s religion.

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Review of Waters, King of the World: The Life of Cyrus the Great

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: Drowned in a Bowl of Blood (Josephine Quinn).

King of the World: The Life of Cyrus the Great
by Matt Waters.
Oxford, 255 pp., £21.99, September 2022, 978 0 19 092717 2

... Why should we care? Cyrus has received almost universal praise since his own time, and in ancient traditions is famed as a just ruler. Plato presents him as a guardian of free speech and reasoned argument, Cicero as a model of righteous empire. According to Isaiah, he was destined to ‘make justice shine upon the nations’. In the 20th century, Iranian shahs put him at the centre of national ideology, as an emblem of the country’s pre-Islamic past. Cyrus has long held out an alluring prospect of benevolent tyranny, and of liberty through order and imperial subjection.

This is, of course, an illusion. The peaceful capture of Babylon is remembered over the brutal battle for Opis a few weeks earlier. The return of the exiled Israelites is commemorated, but not the plight of the Phokaians, who fled a Persian siege of their city. The evangelicals are closer to the mark: Cyrus didn’t do things because they were good, but because they worked. What we make of that tells us more about ourselves than it does about him.

PaleoJudaica posts on the book are here and here.

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More on that "underworld portal" cave

SPELUNCIC, CHTHONIC, NECROMANTIC ARCHAEOLOGY UPDATE: New finds show cave near Beit Shemesh may have been seen as a door to the underworld. Oil lamps and fragments of human skull lead archaeologists to believe Teomim Cave was used for necromancy, or communication with dead, some 1,700 years ago (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

Zissu said one of the things that was so strange about excavating the archaeological discoveries from the cave was that there was so little digging. Instead, it was more like fishing the finds out of cracks in the rocks. The digging happened later, during the research phase, as the archaeologists sifted through research about ancient rituals and religions.

“Only later we became aware of other possibilities, that these could be the remains of necromancy rituals,” said Zissu. “We put our finds together with archaeological data from other digs and made this suggestion.”

I noted the announcement of the discovery of the cave, with link to the underlying HTR article, here. A potentially related post is here. This ToS article has some additional background information.

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Another lead sarcophagus in Gaza?

ARCHAEOLOGY: 2nd Roman-era sarcophagus uncovered at Gaza's cemetery site (huaxia, Xinhua).

In February I noted the excavation of a lead sarcophagus at the Roman-era cemetery in Gaza. According to this Xinua article, a second one was found there in March. This is the first I have heard of it.

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

On marine archaeology

UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY: Marine excavations offer glimpse into ancient history preserved under the sea. While much of Israel’s land has already been dug up and explored, archaeological discoveries underwater are just beginning to surface (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

But for those still searching for the swashbuckling sense of adventure and discovery of uncovering ancient artifacts à la Indiana Jones, [Prof. Assaf] Yasur-Landau believes there’s no greater place to dig than underwater. There are hundreds of archaeologists in Israel, including more than 100 working at various academic institutions, and dozens working at the Israel Antiquities Authority. But only seven — five from universities and two at the IAA — are experts in underwater archaeology, he said. It’s one of the last unexplored frontiers in a country where archaeology regularly makes the news.

For PaleoJudaica posts on ancient shipwrecks, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and follow the many links.

There are also many posts on Marine (Maritime, Underwater) Archaeology more generally. For some relatively recent ones, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, with links. For many more, see the archive.

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

West Bank archaeology initiative

ARCHAEOLOGY AND POLITICS: Netanyahu on West Bank archaeology initiative: We’re deepening our roots. There are some 3,000 antiquity sites in the West Bank, of which 80% are in Area C, which is under IDF military and civilian control (Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post).

The government approved an initial NIS 120 million to embark on a wide-ranging plan to preserve archaeological sites in Area C of the West Bank, including the remains of the Maccabean palaces on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Jericho.

[...]

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Covenant – Concepts of Berit, Diatheke, and Testamentum (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Covenant – Concepts of Berit, Diatheke, and Testamentum. Proceedings of the Conference at the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, Texas, November 2019. Edited by Christian A. Eberhart and Wolfgang Kraus in collaboration with Richard J. Bautch, Matthias Henze, and Martin Rösel. 2023. X, 720 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 506. 179,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-161773-7.

Published in English.
The topic of covenant is as important to the study of ancient Near Eastern religions, Second Temple Judaism, early Christian literature, and the early Christian Church and Rabbinic Judaism as it is complex and disputed among ancient and modern scholars. It permeates much of biblical and cognate literature throughout many centuries. The essays in this collection explore the diverse spectrum of covenant concepts that emerged during this time period in different parts of the ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean. They also discuss theological implications and later applications in mostly religious texts from different scholarly perspectives. The result is a detailed, comprehensive, and thorough presentation of the tremendous range of covenantal concepts and their complexities in biblical and cognate literature throughout the ages, together with a keen look at the history of pertinent scholarly research.

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

Tyrian coins in the reign of Elagabalus

NUMISMATICS: Long Table 145. Tumultuous Times: Tyre in Phoenicia Under the Emperor Elagabalus (American Numismatic Society video).

Cross-file under Phoenician Watch.

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John the Baptist and the Mandaeans at SBL 2023

RELIGION PROF: New SBL Consultation on John the Baptist! Mandaean Convention in San Antonio! (James McGrath).

For many posts on Professor McGrath's work on John the Baptist and on the Mandeans (Mandaeans), see here and links, here, here, here and here

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