The Anu Museum and the Codex Sassoon

IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM AND THAT'S WHERE IT IS: Inside the new home of the Codex Sassoon - the world's oldest Hebrew bible. The Anu Museum acquired the bible after it was sold by Sotheby's for $38m (Jonathan Sacerdoti, The Jewish Chronicle).

When it opened in 2021 it was hard to know which audience Tel Aviv University’s Anu museum was aimed at. Anu means “we” and the museum, which replaced its 1978 predecessor, the Beit Hatfutsot Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, had undergone a $100 million revamp. After a decade of planning, it relaunched itself as “the Museum of the Jewish People”.

[...]

For the recent sale of the Codex Sassoon and it's acquisition by the Anu Museum, start here and follow the links.

CORRECTION (4 October). It seems the manuscript is still in New York, but is coming to Israel soon.

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

Editionen und Studien zum Testamentum Salomonis (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Editionen und Studien zum Testamentum Salomonis. Herausgegeben von Felix Albrecht unter Mitarbeit von Jan Dochhorn. [Editions of and Studies on the Testamentum Salomonis.] 2023. X, 289 pages. Parabiblica 1. 129,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-162443-8.

Published in German.
This volume offers ten contributions on the Testament of Solomon dealing with the Greek and Oriental tradition around King Solomon as exorcist and temple builder. It provides new and unstudied Greek, Arabic and Coptic material in critical editions and modern translations (English, German, and Italian).

The articles are in German and English.

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

Sukkot 2023

THE SEVEN-DAY FESTIVAL OF SUKKOT (BOOTHS, TABERNACLES) begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those observing it.

Last year's Sukkot post is here. More recent relevant posts are here, here, here, here, and here.

For the biblical background to Sukkot, see here and here.

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

Did Eve give Adam an etrog?

FOR SUKKOT: The Etrog: Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Prof.Rachel Adelman, TheTorah.com).

The etrog tree, according to midrash, fulfilled God’s command in creation, such that the tree tasted like its fruit. It was also the tree of Knowledge from which Eve ate. By taking the etrog on Sukkot along with the other species, we atone for this primordial sin.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the etrog (citron) and its relation to Sukkot, see the links collected here.

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

Sukkot sifting prize

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: SUKKOT AT THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT.

This Sukkot holiday we will be raffling off (at no extra charge) among all those who make sifting reservations and share this post, two professionally produced replicas of an ancient Jewish coin from the end of the Second Temple period. ...

Plus a birdwatching expedition!

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

Hyrcania excavation yields a 6th-century Greek Psalms quote

GREEK EPIGRAPHY: Byzantine Greek Inscription Of Psalms 86 Found In Hyrcania: Unearthing Ancient Faith. A rare inscription paraphrasing part of Psalm 86 in the Greek used in the New Testament has been unearthed by a team of Hebrew University archaeologists working at the Hyrcania Fortress, a Second Temple-era structure situated atop a forbidding hilltop in the Judean Desert, about 17 kilometres southeast of Jerusalem. (Greek City Times).

A community of Byzantine Christian monks founded in the 5th century CE is likely responsible for the adapted Psalm 86 inscription. Dr. Avner Ecker of Bar-Ilan University, who helped decipher the inscription, noted that the writing contains small grammatical errors, indicating that “the priest was not a native Greek speaker, but likely someone from the region who was raised speaking a Semitic language.”

[...]

The article reports that an additional Psalms quote, also written on stone, has been discovered at the site. The latter "is still awaiting analysis."

Last June I noted that an excavation was beginning at Hyrcania.

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

More on that courtesan's tomb

UPDATE: Israeli Archaeologists May Have Found First-ever Grave of Hetaira From Time of Alexander the Great. Buried 2,300 years ago on the road to Jerusalem, with grave goods consisting of nails and a mirror from the time of Alexander of Macedonia, archaeologists surmise this woman was a Greek courtesan (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The highly specific interpretation of her manner of life is based on the convergence of several lines of evidence, explain Dr. Guy Stiebel of Tel Aviv University and Liat Oz of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in a joint paper to be published in the journal New Studies on Jerusalem (Hebrew).

In archaeology, the range of interpretative possibilities is generally wide, Stiebel tells Haaretz by phone. “But there are times the stars align and the anomalies ultimately converge to one scenario. There are rare cases where you have to say: that’s what it is.”

This article is a little more cautious, and it lays out in more detail the process of inference that led the archaeologists to conclude that this was a tomb of a hetaira courtesan.

Background here.

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

On writing about demons

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: AJR Conversations | Writing about Demons. by Sara Ronis and Travis Proctor in Articles.

S: Yeah. So, for the Rabbis, [they] really believe that demons are capricious, dangerous, but not ultimately malevolent, as part of a way of understanding the whole world as created by a God who is not malevolent, at the very least. But I was really struck, in reading your book, about how so many of the early Christian writers really think that the world is fundamentally dark or bad. And what does it mean that they think that? What does it mean for their understanding of God, each other, and the environment in which they live, to encounter the world as malevolent?

I have written about both demons and angels, mostly angels. The latter are at least as dangerous and frightening as the former.

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

Boyes (ed.), ... The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit (Oxbow, open access)

NEW FROM OXBOW BOOKS:

Script and Society
The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit

Philip J. Boyes (Editor)

Description
By the 13th century BC, the Syrian city of Ugarit hosted an extremely diverse range of writing practices. As well as two main scripts – alphabetic and logographic cuneiform - the site has also produced inscriptions in a wide range of scripts and languages, including Hurrian, Sumerian, Hittite, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Luwian hieroglyphs and Cypro-Minoan. This variety in script and language is accompanied by writing practices that blend influences from Mesopotamian, Anatolian and Levantine traditions together with what seem to be distinctive local innovations. Script and Society: The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit explores the social and cultural context of these complex writing traditions from the perspective of writing as a social practice. It combines archaeology, epigraphy, history and anthropology to present a highly interdisciplinary exploration of social questions relating to writing at the site, including matters of gender, ethnicity, status and other forms of identity, the relationship between writing and place, and the complex relationships between inscribed and uninscribed objects. This forms a case- study for a wider discussion of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of writing practices in the ancient world.

Language
English

License Type
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

ISBN
9781789255867

Category
Social Science / Archaeology, Language Arts & Disciplines / Alphabets & Writing Systems

Publisher
Oxbow Books

Collection Information
KU Open Services

HT the AWOL Blog.

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

Ancient courtesan's tomb excavated near Jerusalem

FUNERARY SPELUNIC ARCHAEOLOGY: Archeologists 'for first time' unearth tomb of Ancient Greek hetaira courtesan. Discovered alongside a perfectly preserved rare luxury mirror, the remains were also 'the earliest evidence in Israel of cremation in the Hellenistic period' (i24 News).

The Ancient Greek hetairas were courtesans that accompanied senior figures in the Hellenstic world, in this case the tomb was dated from the late 4th century to early 3rd century BC. It was discovered in excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority on Via Habron in Jerusalem.

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

Greek oracles and biblical prophets

SEERS, DIVINERS, AND PROPHETS: Ancient Greek Oracles vs Jewish Prophets (Philip Chrysopoulos, Greek Reporter). An interesting and fairly informative comparison of apples and oranges.

Not mentioned in the article, but the biblical figure of Daniel, who is not called a "prophet" in the Book of Daniel, operated more as a mantic sage than an Israelite prophet.

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

A sorcerer's cache on the road to Mecca?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Magic on the Road to Mecca. Cache of Ottoman period ritual objects discovered in Eilat (Nathan Steinmeyer).

Every religion has its unofficial folk magical traditions.

I have been following this story for a while. It involves Israel, but not antiquity or Judaism, so I haven't noted it until now. But I've decided to file it as "too interesting to ignore."

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

An inscription fragment related to King Hezekiah? Caution urged.

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: King Hezekiah's riddle: Has the ancient royal inscription finally been cracked? Using advanced tech, Israeli expert decodes stone inscription found in Jerusalem 40 years ago, linking it to Judean King's water project, highlighting his power; ‘After the king's death, his opponents deliberately damaged his inscriptions, in an attempt to tarnish his memory and erase his achievements’ (Yitzchak Tessler, Ynet News).

The technology sounds interesting, but there isn't much inscription to use it on. At best it may illuminate a couple of broken letters and show that another possible letter is not there. (The English version incorrectly says that the last letter of line 3 is an aleph. The Hebrew article correctly says it is a he.)

The rest of the new material is Professor Galil's conjectural restoration of completely lost text. As always, one should be cautious about such conjectures.

You can see the Hebrew text in question in the Hebrew version of the article here. (HT Joseph Lauer.)

For previous discussions of Professor Galil's readings of other ancient lapidary Hebrew inscriptions that have or may have some connection with King Hezekiah, start here and follow the links. The evidence for some of these inscriptions remains to be published.

Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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

Review of Strange, Excavating the Land of Jesus

READING ACTS: James Riley Strange, Excavating the Land of Jesus (Phil Long).

Strange, James Riley. Excavating the Land of Jesus: How Archaeologists Study the People of the Gospels. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2023. xvi+192 pp. Hb; $29.99.

... Conclusion. Excavating the Land of Jesus is a fascinating look into the science of archaeology. Strange introduces readers to the technical aspects of archaeology without being overly technical. With clear prose and helpful illustrations, this book is enjoyable to read! Readers interested in how archaeology illuminates the New Testament will enjoy many of his conclusions, although that is not the book’s purpose. ...

I noted the publication of the volume here.

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

Paul within Judaism (Mohr Siebeck; open access)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Paul within Judaism. Perspectives on Paul and Jewish Identity. Edited by Michael Bird, Ruben A. Bühner, Jörg Frey, and Brian Rosner. 2023. VIII, 363 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 507. 154,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-162325-7.

Published in English.

This conference volume features cutting edge research from an international cohort of scholars on the still-controversial debates regarding Paul's relationship with Judaism. Taken together, the contributions represent a sympathetic but critical assessment of the Paul within Judaism approach to Pauline interpretation. They take up many of the key questions germane to the debate, including different perspectives on Jewish identity, ethnicity, Torah-observance, halakha, the relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Christ, and the contested character of Jewish identity in antiquity. By combining a broad swath of both German- and English-language scholarship, the volume attempts to bring different perspectives into conversation with each other.

There is also an open-access PDF edition of the book.

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

When did the Qumran sectarians observe the Day of Atonement?

FOR YOM KIPPUR: First recorded evidence of Yom Kippur depicts day of affliction as sectarian struggle. Prof. Yonatan Adler, author of ‘The Origins of Judaism,’ cites dramatic passage from the Dead Sea Scrolls that shows Hasmonean-era jostling for religious authority (GAVRIEL FISKE, Times of Israel).

“Imagine you have one people who have Yom Kippur on one day, and one on another,” Adler says. “There will be arguments and fights. It seems the High Priest understood that Yom Kippur was on Sunday, let’s say, and the Qumranites were on a Monday, so he came down there on their day, perhaps with troops… he wanted them to break their observance. It could have been in Qumran, but it could have been somewhere else.”

The interpretation of 1QPesher Habakkuk col. 11 to indicate that the Qumran sectarians observed Yom Kippur on a different day that the Temple priests is not new. It's been around as long as I can remember. But it is a plausible reading of the passage.

For more on the work of Yonatan Adler on the origins of Judaism, see here and links.

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

Horvat Midras

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Horvat Midras (Israel): A Window into Socio-Religious Change in Rural Roman Palestine (Orit Peleg-Barkat and Gregg E. Gardner).

... Horvat Midras was one of the largest rural settlements in the Judean foothills and was inhabited by several ethnic and religious groups from the fourth century BCE to the sixteenth century CE, including Idumeans in the Hellenistic period, Jews in the early Roman period, polytheists in the later Roman period, Christians in the Byzantine period, and Muslims under the Umayyads, Ayyubids, Mamluks, and Ottomans (Figures 1 and 2). As such, the site provides us with a window into social dynamics, interactions between and among ethnic-religious groups, and how rural life was impacted by military conflicts that prompted migration and abandonment, transforming the character of a rural village.

For more on the pyramid at Horvat Midras (Khirbet Midras), see here and links. For that ruin that was not a synagogue, see here. And for many posts on the nearby site of Maresha, see here and here and links.

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

On Moses' and Pharaoh's horns

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Moses as Pharaoh’s Equal—Horns and All (Gary A. Rendsburg).

In these two passages, Moses, the prophet par excellence, is elevated to the level of deity, while Aaron, the first high priest, is elevated to the level of prophet. The exigencies of the moment, namely the impending summit with Pharaoh (Exodus 7:10‒12), require that Moses meet with his opposite as equal. And since the pharaoh in Egypt was considered divine, God promotes Moses to the level of deity, for this singular occasion. Indeed, these passages are remarkable, for they indicate the extent to which the biblical author was willing to reflect the Egyptian background of the story. Thus, literary flavor overrides biblical theology.

There are lots of proposals for how to interpret the biblical reference to Moses' horns. For many PaleoJudaica posts, start here and follow the links.

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

Yom Kippur 2023

YOM KIPPUR, the Day of Atonement, begins this evening at sundown. An easy and healthy fast to all those observing it.

Last year's post on Yom Kippur is here, with links. Biblical etc. background is here and links. For (another) recent post on the Akitu Festival, to which some have drawn parallels with Yom Kippur, see here. Additional recent Yom Kippur-related posts are here and here.

UPDATE: Another relevant post is here.

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

Shifting sifting soil in Jerusalem

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: A GLIMPSE INTO THE DIFFICULTIES OF CONDUCTING ARCHAEOLOGY IN JERUSALEM.

Three weeks ago, we transferred more of the Temple Mount debris piles to our sifting site, which were buried in the upper terraces of Emek Tzurim. Unfortunately, we had to leave a lot of the soil behind to preserve the terraces and the trees.

Here’s the story up to now ...

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

On Trauma Theory

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: AJR Conversations | Trauma Theory, Trauma Story. by Sarah Emanuel and Meghan Henning in Articles.

Meghan Henning: Sarah, I have admired your work since your first book on comedy and resistance in Revelation appeared and so I was eager to read your second monograph, which focuses on trauma, with my graduate students this term.[1] This book engages so many important threads, bringing together trauma theory, queer theory, and trauma-informed eating to read Ezekiel alongside Passover and Eucharist rituals. How did you go from comedy to trauma?

[...]

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