Late-antique oil-lantern lamp excavated in Sepphoris

JUST IN TIME FOR HANUKKAH: Rare, intact 1,500-year-old ceramic lantern discovered in Galilee. Small clay lantern uncovered in Tzippori National Park dated to the 4th-6th centuries CE, was likely used by flourishing Jewish community there, archaeologists say (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

The small round lantern, dated to the Byzantine period (4th to 6th centuries CE), is just 18 centimeters in diameter and 19 centimeters high (4.1×4.5 inches) and could be rested on a flat surface or hung. It has a rectangular opening in the front, into which an oil lamp would be placed, and some 55 small openings or “light slits” around the body to radiate light, the notice said.

For more on the archaeology of Sepphoris (Zipori//Tzipori/Tzippori/Zippori), start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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

James Ossuary on display in Atlanta

CONTROVERSIAL ARAMAIC EPIGRAPHY: Ossuary inscribed with the words ‘brother of Jesus’ now on display in Atlanta. In 2003, its owner, Oded Golan, was accused of forging the inscription. Golan was later acquitted of all charges (Ami Matthew Bonder, Jerusalem Post).

An ancient ossuary inscribed with the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" in now on display at Pullman Yards in Atlanta, sparking renewed controversy and debate over its authenticity and historical significance. The 2,000-year-old limestone box is part of an exhibition featuring 350 historical artifacts from the time of Jesus.

PaleoJudaica has followed the James Ossuary story from nearly the beginning. For the posts, start here and keep following the links. The authenticity of the second part of the inscription, "brother of Jesus," remains highly debated.

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

Those legs of the Queen of Sheba

PROF. JILLIAN STINCHCOMB: The Queen of Sheba’s Hairy Legs (TheTorah.com).

In the Bible, the Queen of Sheba is an unnamed foreign visitor to Solomon’s court. How did she later become a paradigmatic religious convert, Solomon’s wife, and the mother of Nebuchadnezzar and Menelik I, the founding figure of the Ethiopian royal court? The answer begins in the Qur’an.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Queen of Sheba and the legends about her, including about her legs, start here and and follow the links. And for posts on the the medieval Ethiopian national epic, the Kebra Negast, follow the links from there too.

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

Forderer & Schumann (eds.), Antiocha I (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Antiochia I. Frühchristliche und diasporajüdische Identitätsbildung im Ausstrahlungsbereich einer antiken Großstadt. Edited by Tanja Forderer and Daniel Schumann. [Antioch I. Early Christian and Diaspora Jewish Identity Formation in the Sphere of Influence of an Ancient Metropolis.] 2024. VIII, 502 pages. Civitatum Orbis MEditerranei Studia (COMES) 8. Published in German. €159.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-163900-5. Also Available As: eBook PDF €159.00.

Summary

Antioch on the Orontes is of great importance for the formation of Hellenistic Judaism in the Diaspora and the emergence of Christianity. This volume shows the factors that influenced the shape and development of both religious communities from different specialist perspectives and emphasizes the religious-historical significance of Antioch.

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

Simkovich, Letters from Home (Eisenbrauns)

NEW BOOK FROM EISENBRAUNS:

Letters from Home

The Creation of Diaspora in Jewish Antiquity

Malka Z. Simkovich

“An excellent and thought-provoking analysis of Hellenistic period Jewish literature.”—Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, Catholic Books Review

$74.95 | Hardcover Edition
ISBN: 978-1-64602-274-8

$24.95 | Paperback Edition
ISBN: 978-1-64602-275-5

Available as an e-book

230 pages
6" × 9"
1 map
2024

Description

The announcement by the Persian king Cyrus following his conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE that exiled Judahites could return to their homeland should have been cause for celebration. Instead, it plunged them into animated debate. Only a small community returned and participated in the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. By the end of the sixth century BCE, they faced a theological conundrum: Had the catastrophic punishment of exile, understood as marking God’s retribution for the people’s sins, come to an end?

By the Hellenistic era, most Jews living in their homeland believed that life abroad signified God’s wrath and rejection. Jews living outside of their homeland, however, rejected this notion. From both sides of the diasporic line, Jews wrote letters and speeches that conveyed the sense that their positions had ancient roots in Torah traditions. In this book, Malka Z. Simkovich investigates the rhetorical strategies—such as pseudepigraphy, ventriloquy, and mirroring—that Egyptian and Judean Jews incorporated into their writings about life outside the land of Israel, charting the boundary-marking push and pull that took place within Jewish letters in the Hellenistic era. Drawing on this correspondence and other contemporaneous writings, Simkovich argues that the construction of diaspora during this period—reinforced by some and negated by others—produced a tension that lay at the core of Jewish identity in the ancient world.

This book is essential reading for scholars and students of ancient Judaism and to laypersons interested in the questions of a Jewish homeland and Jewish diaspora.

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

What is "Late Antiquity?"

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What is “Late Antiquity”? (Michael L. Satlow). After a detailed and informative discussion, he concludes:

My own conception of Late Antiquity emerges from my background as a historian of Jews and Judaism. It thus covers the years 70 CE – 620 CE, with special attention to the third through sixth centuries (the rabbinic period). There has been much scholarly discussion, due to its relevance to the question of Christian origins, about whether there was a “common Judaism” when the Jerusalem Temple stood. Less attention has been paid to the time after the Temple’s destruction. Chronology, though, is only one component of Late Antiquity. Late Antiquity also gestures toward a shared culture. Jews are part of this fabric, neither central nor marginal. The evidence that they left can thus be seen as reflecting this wider culture, not as the parochial writings of an isolated community.

PaleoJudaica's focus is on the Second Temple Period to the end of Late Antiquity, so this question is of interest. I think everyone agrees (I know, I just jinxed it) that the Second Temple Period runs from the building of the Second Temple in the late 500s BCE to the destruction of its Herodian restoration in 70 CE. This overlaps with the Hellenistic and Roman Periods.

My conception of Late Antiquity is similar to Professor Satlow's. I would start it in the early third century CE (when the Mishnah was assembled) and like him take it to the rise of Islam in the early seventh century. Some would end it with the fall of Rome c. 400, others with the Carolingian Renaissance c. 800. I use the latter occasionally, when it suits me.

In any case, focus is not mandate. I try to maintain some relevance to ancient Judaism and not veer off into, e.g., politics and latest-thing current events. Within that range, I post on what I think is interesting. Anything pertaining directly to ancient Judaism, of course. But also most news involving Northwest Semitic epigraphy, many stories dealing with the broadly-construed biblical period, and some about the Middle Ages. Even an occasional modern story.

For more details see my About PaleoJudaica page.

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

Joseph and those Egyptian women

DR. RABBI EDWIN C. GOLDBERG: Egyptian Women, Captivated by Joseph’s Beauty, Cut Their Hands Slicing Citrons (TheTorah.com).

Potiphar’s wife sets up her friends to learn about Joseph’s beauty for themselves, the hard way, in a story that appears in both rabbinic midrash and the Quran. Sefer HaYashar, a 16th century midrashic work, dramatizes this story in a way sympathetic to her character, even giving her the name Zuleikha, borrowed from Islamic sources.

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

Preview of Narsai: Selected Sermons

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Publication Preview | Narsai: Selected Sermons (Andrew Younan).

Andrew Younan. Narsai: Selected Sermons. Paulist Press, 2024

Cross-file under Syriac Watch and New Book.

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

Samaritan Decalogue tablet sells for more that $5m

SOLD! Oldest known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments sells for over $5m. Winning bid is far higher than predicted; anonymous buyer will donate Samaritan-linked slab to Israeli institution, while some question its authenticity ("Agencies" and Times of Israel).

All right then. The market has spoken. For more on those specialist reservations about the object's authenticity and date, see here. And follow the links from there for more posts on it, going back to its earlier sale in 2016.

I'm glad the new owner intends to donate it to an Israeli museum. I hope he or she follows through with that. Then there will be better opportunities to address questions of date and authenticity.

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

Still more on those 3rd-millennium alphabetic (?) inscriptions

ALPHABETIC NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY? A claim that the earliest alphabet was found in Syria sparks a media maelstrom – finally. A Johns Hopkins archaeologist recycles a 20-year-old hypothesis that small clay cylinders found in an ancient tomb reset the genesis of letters by 500 years. Why are people listening now? (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

Numerous experts have expressed support, sometimes tentatively, for Schwartz and his theory. Schwartz declined an interview with The Times of Israel and would not comment further about his theories. However, a former student was willing to weigh in.

“The writing on these cylinder seals seems to me to be alphabetic writing, and I don’t really have any doubt about that,” wrote Prof. Christopher Rollston, department chair and professor of Biblical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University, in an email exchange.

A long and informative article.

Background here and here.

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

Does the Tel Dan Stele prove there was a King David?

HISTORY AND EPIGRAPHY? This ancient archeological marvel celebrates the defeat of King David — does it prove he existed? The Tel Dan stele, currently on display at the Jewish Museum, is the oldest non-biblical mention of the House of David (Olivia Haynie, The Forward).

Although the stele is significant for being a non-biblical reference to King David, it is not indisputable evidence that he existed. In The New York Times, Dr. Jack M. Sasson, a former religious studies professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, argued David may still only be a mythical ancestor for those who created the stele, a figure they used to legitimize their rule.

I haven't seen the NYT article, but, yes, this is possible. Also, if there was an actual King David, which is how I think I would bet, it does not necessarily follow that the stories about him in the Deuteronmistic History have much basis in fact. Maybe, but we have too little information and too few external controls in our data to know.

Background on the Tel Dan Stele, a fragmentary Aramaic inscription from roughly the late ninth century, see here and links. It is currenly on display at the Jewish Museum in New York.

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

White, The Poetics of Visuality (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Justin J. White. The Poetics of Visuality. Ekphrasis, Material Agency, and the Visual Imagination in Biblical Antiquity. 2024. XV, 279 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament (FAT) 182. €129.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-163344-7. Also Available As: eBook PDF €129.00.

Summary

Justin J. White explores the nature of images in ancient Israel through a reconceptualization of the relationship between image and text. He proposes that in ancient Israel, texts evoked images as a core part of their rhetoric. Rather than conceptualizing texts and images as ontologically or functionally distinct media, he argues that both media are mixed media even while neither medium is reducible to the other. In order to make this argument, he focuses on the visual aspects of textual rhetoric—what he terms »the poetics of visuality.« He builds his argument across three text-specific axes of visual rhetoric: ekphrasis, the visual imagination and material agency. He makes the claim that each of these three axes are endemic to Israelite literature, and mutually contribute to the formation of a robust ontology of visual representation in ancient Israel.

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

Collins, The Apocalypse and Apocalyptic Topics (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Adela Yarbro Collins. The Apocalypse and Apocalyptic Topics. Collected Essays II. 2024. VI, 371 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 524. €149.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-163669-1. Also Available As: eBook PDF €149.00.

Summary

In this volume of collected essays, Adela Yarbro Collins provides a wide-reaching insight into her work on the Apocalypse that spanned her professional career from 1973 to 2021. Emphasizing the variety in form and content of the early and late antique Christian apocalypses within the genre, she focusses on the apocalyptic Son of Man sayings in the Synoptic Gospels and raises questions about the impact of Revelation on its ancient and modern audiences regarding ethical norms and the problem of violence. Also examined in detail are a range of themes in the Apocalypse, feminine symbolism, the role of the city of Pergamon in the work, its use of vivid description (ekphrasis), its millennial themes, portraits of rulers, and time and history, especially the author's contemporary history. The collection is rounded off with a discussion of the challenge of apocalypticism to the project of creating a New Testament theology.

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

Elgvin, My Lips Play Flute for the Highest (Cascade)

NEW BOOK FROM WIPF & STOCK:

My Lips Play Flute for the Highest
Jewish Hymns and Prayers before Jesus

by Torleif Elgvin
Imprint: Cascade Books
244 Pages, 5.50 x 8.50 x 0.49 in

Paperback
9781666770018
Published: November 2024
$31.00 / £25.00 / AU$48.00 DESCRIPTION

My Lips Play Flute for the Highest presents fifty-five poetic texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls and other early Jewish writings: hymns, psalms, liturgies, petitions, visions, and end-time scenarios. In psalms and prayers we may come close to the souls of ancient Judeans, who pour out their sufferings, laments, hopes, and praises to their God. We encounter a plurality of end-time hopes, with or without messianic actors on earth. Jewish piety from the last two centuries before the turn of the era emerges vibrant and powerful, but also sensitive and full of hope. Introductions to the various scrolls and writings inform readers about how scholars understand these texts and where scholarship locates them in time and space. This book provides a moving and vital entry into early Judaism, before the emergence of the Jesus movement and rabbinic Judaism.

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

"Josephus, Translated and Transformed" at USC

EXHIBITION: Flavius Josephus, Lion Feuchtwanger and the Eternal Struggle with History (JACOB WIRTSCHAFTER, Moment Magazine).

In the hushed, book-lined halls of the Doheny Memorial Library at USC, visitors are greeted with a provocative question: How do you write history when you’re part of it—and when the world around you is crumbling?

The library’s new exhibit, “Josephus, Translated and Transformed: From the 1st to the 21st Century,” runs until December 18 and pairs Flavius Josephus, the first-century chronicler of a doomed Jewish revolt, with Lion Feuchtwanger, the 20th-century German-Jewish novelist who fled Nazi persecution. Two men separated by nearly two millennia, yet linked by their ability to record catastrophe from the eye of the storm.

[...]

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

Rollston on the Samaritan Decalogue tablet - Caveat emptor

EPIGRAPHIC DOUBTS? Sotheby’s Samaritan 10 Commandments and the Antiquities Market: Caveat Emptor (Christopher Rollston, Times of Israel).

Am I certain the Sotheby’s Samaria Ten Commandments were forged some 75 to 100 years ago? No. But am I convinced these are genuine ancient Samaritan inscriptions from 1000 or 1500 or 2000 years ago? Absolutely not. In short, Sotheby’s seems to be making a number of problematic assumptions, and I do not find that to be useful. Thus, I would simply conclude with these words: caveat emptor.

Northwest Semitic epigrapher Christopher Rollston raises some signficant points in this essay.

Background here and here, with links to posts on its previous sale in 2016. The object goes up for auction on 18 December.

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

Did Bar Kokhba come late to the revolt?

REVISIONIST HISTORY: The Bar Kokhba Revolt Against the Romans in 131 CE Was Initially Led by Jewish-Origin Legionaries (Guillermo Carvajal, LBV).

A recent study led by Haggai Olshanetsky, a researcher at the University of Warsaw, has changed the historical perception of the Bar Kokhba Revolt or Second Jewish Revolt (sometimes also called the Third Jewish-Roman War) against the Roman Empire between 132 and 136 CE.

According to this analysis, Simon Bar Kokhba, traditionally regarded as the undisputed leader of the uprising, assumed control amid the conflict by displacing or eliminating the original leaders. This revelation challenges the narrative established by Roman and Judeo-Christian sources and sheds new light on the events of this historic rebellion.

[...]

Bold-font emphasis in original.

The open access, underlying article in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly is available online:

The Identity of the Leaders of the Second Jewish Revolt and Bar Koseba's True Role in the Insurrection
Haggai Olshanetsky
Published online: 09 Dec 2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2024.2435788

ABSTRACT

This paper demonstrates that Bar Koseba was not necessarily the only leader of the uprising at its inception; the insurrection's leadership possibly included Jews who had previously served in the Roman army. The theory that there were numerous leaders in the beginning agrees with Dio's description and explains why, unlike Jewish-Christian sources, no Roman author named Bar Koseba occurs in any of the accounts. This interpretation answers further questions regarding the archaeological evidence from the war, such as how the revolt could have lasted so long despite the limited geographical area in which rebel coins were discovered, and why there are hidden complexes in the Galilee but no rebel coins or destruction layers. This is owing to the likely withdrawal of numerous provinces from the uprising once, or in the following months after, Bar Koseba came to power, a theory that fits well with the scrolls discovered in the Judaean Desert that are linked to the conflict.

There are countless PaleoJudaica posts involving the Bar Kokhba revolt. For many, not all, of them, see the links collecte here, plus here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, sometimes with additional links.

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

Have the Tel Dan Stele fragments been mis-assembled?

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY AND PALEOGRAPHY: Has the Tel Dan Stele Been Reconstructed Incorrectly? New Research Suggests Yes. A compelling new study reveals the three chunks of the famous stele to be the work of two scribes. (CHRISTOPHER EAMES, Armstrong Institute of Biblical History).

Now, [Prof. Michael] Langlois has turned his attention to the very “House of David” inscription itself—the Tel Dan Stele. It’s an artifact that has become arguably the most famous piece in the world of biblical archaeology. And in the latest issue of the Israel Exploration Journal (Vol. 74, No. 2), Langlois has produced a consequential new assessment of it.

No, the new analysis doesn’t change anything about the reading of the “House of David” phrase on the stele. Rather, it reinterprets how the three main fragments of the stele go together—or, perhaps more accurately, how they don’t go together.

The article in the current issue of IEJ is available only to subscribers.

The Tel Dan Stele is current on exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York. Earlier this year it was exhibited at Armstrong College in Oklahoma. For many posts on the stele, start here and follow the links. For a brief introduction to the stele and its inscription, see here

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

Kilgallon & Mitchell (eds.), Time and Chronology in Creation Narratives (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Time and Chronology in Creation Narratives
Edited By Silvie Kilgallon, Fiona Mitchell
Copyright 2025

Hardback
£97.50
eBook
£29.99

ISBN 9780367481667
158 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
Published August 26, 2024 by Routledge
United Kingdom Flag Free Shipping (6-12 Business Days)

Description

This book explores the ways in which the origins of time, of the gods, and processes associated with time were conceptualised in antiquity, examining a variety of ancient sources from across the ancient world and addressing issues surrounding the sources themselves.

Time is a key framework through which we understand the world around us. Shared structures to measure the passage of time reveal certain cultural and societal values, while time’s less concrete forms are evident across art and literature. This volume examines how the tangible and intangible, direct and complex representations of time are used in ancient sources. The chapters in this book are written by scholars whose work focuses on India, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. Their analyses explore poetic and mythological narratives, philosophical discourse, and representations of the divine, allowing us to see how ideas about time and chronology reveal various cultural understandings of our world. Accessibly written, this volume enables scholars from a variety of disciplines to engage effectively with each chapter.

Time and Chronology in Creation Narratives offers a fascinating interdisciplinary collection suitable for scholars working in ancient literature, philosophy, and religion across Classics, Ancient History, Indology, and Near Eastern Studies.

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Nam, The Theology of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (CUP)

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Theology of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah

Part of Old Testament Theology

AUTHOR: Roger S. Nam, Emory University, Atlanta
DATE PUBLISHED: November 2024
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108423625

£ 70.00
Hardback

Other available formats:
Paperback

Description

In the opening verses of the Book of Ezra-Nehemiah, King Cyrus exhorts the exiled Judeans to return to Jerusalem to restore worship in Jerusalem. It then narrates this restoration through the construction of the temple, the repair of the city walls, and the commitment to the written Torah. In this volume, Roger Nam offers a new and compelling argument regarding the theology of Ezra-Nehemiah: that the Judeans' return migration, which extended over several generations, had a totalizing effect on the people. Repatriation was not a single event, but rather a multi-generational process that oscillated between assimilation and preservation of culture. Consequently, Ezra-Nehemiah presents a unique theological perspective. Nam explores the book's prominent theological themes, including trauma, power, identity, community, worship, divine presence, justice, hope, and others – all of which take on a nuanced expression in diaspora. He also shows how and why Ezra-Nehemiah naturally found a rich reception among emerging early Christian and Jewish interpretive communities.

• Highlights Ezra-Nehemiah as migration literature and thus presents the repatriation as having a totalizing impact on the return Judeans
• Presents the God of Ezra-Nehemiah as distant and absent
• Follows the reception of Ezra-Nehemiah in later Christian and Judaic diasporic settings

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

What's left of Jewish material history in Syria?

SEEKING A RECKONING: What happened to relics of Syria’s Jewish history? Assad’s collapse spurs efforts to assess the damage. Bombardment, looting and disuse have wreaked an uncertain toll on the country’s former synagogues and Jewish sites (Shira Li Bartov).

(JTA) — The fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has opened up a sea of uncertainty about Syria’s future — and about the treasures of its past, including the remnants of its Jewish history. ...

Scholars also worry about the ruins of Roman-era synagogues in Syria’s ancient cities, such as Apamea and Dura-Europos. Satellite imaging has shown that Dura-Europos was heavily looted while being held by Islamic State forces, according to Adam Blitz, a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Remnants from the synagogue of Dura-Europos are treasured by museums, including the Yale University Art Gallery, which displays 40 tiles from the synagogue’s ceiling. But Blitz said other artifacts from the site are feared to have been pilfered by combatants.

“There has been tremendous fear about mosaics being looted,” he said. ...

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Jobar Synagogue in Damascus, which was destroyed in 2014, start here and follow the links. For more on Apamea, see here. And for a great many posts on Dura-Europos, start here and follow the links.

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

Interview: Drew Longacre and the Genizah Psalms

THE GENIZA FRAGMENTS BLOG: Q&A Wednesday: Drew Longacre and the Genizah Psalms.

Author:
Drew Longacre and Melonie Schmierer-Lee

Wed 11 Dec 2024

Drew, you visited Cambridge this summer to look at Genizah Psalms fragments – tell us about your project.

I came to examine a dissertation here, and then stayed for an extra week to work on Psalms manuscripts for a critical edition of the Hebrew text of the Psalms for the HBCE (Hebrew Bible: a Critical Edition) series. Brent Strawn and I have funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a three-year project to produce the printed edition, and it will be accompanied by a digital edition too.

[...]

For more on the Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project, see here.

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

Social Biographies of the Ancient World 12.2

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Social Biographies of the Ancient World.

The latest issue of Journal of Ancient History (volume 12, issue 2) is a special issue: Social Biographies of the Ancient World with Jason M. Silverman as guest editor. Below is the list of articles: ...

The issue has some articles on PaleoJudaic topics. It is behind the De Gruyter paywall.

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

A Hellenistic-era fortress at Ashdod-Yam

ARCHAEOLOGY: TAU researchers discover second-century BCE fortress at Ashdod-Yam. Excavations at Ashdod-Yam reveal a second-century BCE fortress destroyed in conflict, the Institute of Archeology at Tel Aviv University reported (Raquel G. Frohlich, Jerusalem).

A second-century BCE military stronghold was established at Ashdod-Yam, according to excavations and interim results reported by the Institute of Archeology at Tel Aviv University (TAU).

The research, published November 20, focused on the site’s Hellenistic period and used numismatic and ceramic evidence. Ashdod-Yam contains remains of occupations from the Late Bronze Age to the early Islamic period, according to the TAU Institute of Archeology.

[...]

The underlying article is available with open access in the journal Tel Aviv:

Hellenistic Ashdod-Yam in Light of Recent Archaeological Investigations
Alexander Fantalkin, Matasha Mazis, Yaniv Schauer, Donald T. Ariel, Shahar Krispin, Orit Tsuf, Tzilla Eshel & Eli Itkin

Pages 238-278 | Published online: 20 Nov 2024
Cite this article https://doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2024.2385149

Abstract

Ashdod-Yam is an important archaeological site with a history spanning the Late Bronze Age to the early Islamic period. The Hellenistic period marked an important phase for the site, when its acropolis served as a military base. This report presents the interim results of recent excavations that focused on the Hellenistic period at Ashdod-Yam. Based on the numismatic and ceramic evidence, the stronghold was established in the first half of the 2nd century BCE and should be considered within the framework of Seleucid military activity. Although it is difficult to determine under which Seleucid king this military stronghold was initially commissioned, it was most probably reinforced in the days of Antiochus VII Sidetes by his general Cendebaeus and then destroyed by John Hyrcanus I towards the end of his reign. The precision in dating the Hellenistic occupation at Ashdod-Yam offers a rare window into the life of a 2nd-century BCE coastal military settlement, enriching our knowledge of the site and contributing new insights into the region’s historical and cultural developments.

For a Byzantine-era discovery at Ashdod-Yam some years ago, see here.

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

A Cleopatra bust from Taposiris Magna?

ICONIC ICONOGRAPY? Possible bust of Cleopatra VII found at ancient Egyptian temple. A small statue of a woman wearing a royal crown may depict Cleopatra VII, an archaeologist claims. Other archaeologists think it is likely someone else. (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

If only the ancients had labeled things more diligently. Why couldn't they have put ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑ on the base of the bust and made it easy for us?

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra), who reportedly spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

For more on the site of Taposiris Magna, and the so-far unsuccessful search for Cleopatra's tomb there, see the links collected here, plus here. A recent article in the Jerusalem Post surveys the current situation: Are we getting closer to the elusive tomb of Cleopatra? New discoveries at the Taposiris Magna temple complex west of Alexandria reignited hopes of locating the tomb.

Even though no Cleopatra has turned up so far, the site keeps producing interesting artifacts and architecture.

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

Has Santa's coffin been found?

'TIS THE SEASON: Just in time for Christmas? Sarcophagus possibly belonging to Saint Nicholas discovered in Turkey. Archaeologists assume the sarcophagus was covered by a layer of gravel and sand brought by a flood or tsunami (Jerusalem Post). HT Rogue Classicism.

Archaeologists in Turkey uncovered a limestone sarcophagus in the Church of Saint Nicholas in Demre, Antalya, which they believe could be linked to Saint Nicholas himself, known worldwide as Santa Claus.

[...]

If it is the sarcophagus of the historical Saint Nicholas, it will presumably be empty. Most of St. Nick's bones were nicked (or preemptively saved from the Seljuks, depending on your perspective) in 1087 and are now in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, Italy. The rest were reportedly taken by the Venetians in 1100 and are now in the Monastery of San Nicolò al Lido.

Saint Nicholas Day was 6 December. For more on the historical man, a late-antique bishop in Anatolia, start with the links collected here and keep following them back.

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

Rabbinics & Hebrew Bible jobs at the University of Postdam

H-JUDAIC has post two job advertisements at the University of Potsdam in Germany:

FEATURED JOB: Full Professorship (W 3) for Rabbinic Literature and Halacha, Universität Potsdam

The School of Jewish Theology, created in 2013 as part of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Potsdam, invites applications for the following position to be filled by October 1, 2025:

Full Professorship (W 3) for Rabbinic Literature and Halacha

The successful candidate will represent the field of Rabbinics and have specific expertise in the domain of Halacha, employing both traditional and innovative methodologies. The candidate will demonstrate ability to connect the Talmud and Rabbinics with broader Jewish intellectual history and contribute to the interdisciplinary scholarship.

[...]

Also at the School of Jewish Theology:

FEATURED JOB: Professorship (W 2) for Hebrew Bible and its Exegesis, Universität Potsdam

Professorship (W 2) for Hebrew Bible and its Exegesis

The successful candidate will represent the entire field of the Hebrew Bible and its exegesis in both teaching and research. They will place the Bible in the context of its historical, social, religious, and cultural origins, critically engaging with the text while also addressing traditional Jewish reception and interpretation

[...]

Both jobs include the following requirements:

Applicants must be members of a Jewish congregation. Non-native speakers are expected to acquire sufficient skills to function in the German academic environment over a transition period of two years.

For full particulars and application information, follow the links for both. The deadline for email submission of application materials is 9 January 2025.

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

Review of Mokhtarian, Medicine in the Talmud

H-JUDAIC: Marcus on Mokhtarian, 'Medicine in the Talmud: Natural and Supernatural Therapies between Magic and Science'.

Mokhtarian, Jason Sion. Medicine in the Talmud: Natural and Supernatural Therapies between Magic and Science. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022. xix + 236 pp. $95.00 (cloth), ISBN 9780520389410.

Reviewed by Alexander Warren Marcus (Franklin and Marshall College)
Published on H-Judaic (December, 2024)
Commissioned by Jessica Carr (Lafayette College)

Excerpt:

Mokhtarian’s monograph is an important corrective to earlier apologetic scholarship by non-Talmudists, as well as to more recent studies that emphasize only the supernatural components of Talmudic remedies. He does an excellent job of synthesizing recent contextual scholarship on Babylonian rabbinic healing therapies, pointing to the importance to local contextualization and complicating simplistic distinctions between a supposedly rational West and superstitious East. In situating both “medicine” and “magic” under the umbrella of healing, he successfully recovers the understudied empirical dimensions of Babylonian rabbinic therapeutics.

I noted the publication of the book here, with more on the author's work there and here.

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

Review of Davies, Representing the dynasty in Flavian Rome

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Representing the dynasty in Flavian Rome: the case of Josephus’ Jewish War.

Jonathan Davies, Representing the dynasty in Flavian Rome: the case of Josephus' Jewish War. Oxford classical monographs. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. 256. ISBN 9780198882992.

Review by
Jan Willem van Henten, Universiteit van Amsterdam. j.w.vanhenten@uva.nl

This book offers an excellent, detailed analysis of all the references to the three Flavian emperors in Josephus’s Jewish War. Davies consistently pays attention to Roman and Jewish perspectives and reads Josephus in line with postcolonial theory as a historian who is in between two worlds. His conclusions are well-argued and careful. He rejects the binary oppositions that in his view underly previous scholarship and lead to a one-dimensional interpretation of Josephus’s role as a historian. ...

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Potsherd-core "cave pearls" in a Jerusalem tunnel

SPELUNKIC ARCHAEOLOGY: Study finds first cave pearls containing archaeological artifacts in ancient Jerusalem tunnel (Sandee Oster, Phys.org). HT Rogue Classicism.

A study conducted by Dr. Azriel Yechezkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his colleagues from the Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, published in the journal Archaeometry, discovered the largest known cave pearl deposit in the southern Levant. What makes these 50 cave pearls so unique is that some of them contain archaeological artifacts, making them the first in the world to contain man-made objects.

Cave pearls are a type of speleothem found in caves. They are round, pearl-like formations usually between 0.1 mm and 30cm long. They form around central nuclei, such as sand grains covered in layer upon layer of mineral deposits.

[...]

Cave pearls? Well that's something different. The pottery cores over which they accumulated seem to date mostly from the late-Persian to Hellenistic and the Byzantine eras.

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

Orville S. Wintermute (1927-2024)

SAD NEWS: Official Obituary of Orval Wintermute November 20, 1927 - November 25, 2024.

Noted by the Agade List and Explorator.

Professor Wintermute is known particulary (at least by me) for his translations of the Apocalypse of Zephaniah and the Book of Jubilees in Charlesworth's two-volume collection, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

Requiescat in pace.

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

Review of Briquel Chatonnet & Debie, The Syriac World

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Review: The Syriac World: In Search of a Forgotten Christianity.

The Syriac World: In Search of a Forgotten Christianity
By Françoise Briquel Chatonnet and Muriel Debié, trans. by Jeffrey Haines
(New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2023), 304 pp., 68 b/w figs., 11 maps; $35 (hardcover and eBook)

Reviewed by Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent

... The Syriac tradition, whose literary heritage is almost exclusively Christian, has gained more attention in the Anglophone world in the past three decades due to increased scholarly focus. Despite this growing recognition of the Syriac tradition in academic circles, a comprehensive book was missing—until now.

I noted the publication of the French original here and the English translation here. Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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The Sifting Project needs help to continue

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING BLOG: FORCED TO PAUSE: THE SIFTING SITE FACES CLOSURE AFTER HANUKKAH.

Now, more than a year since the war began, and in light of the IDF’s remarkable achievements, it seems that the existential threat to the State of Israel is behind us. In contrast, the Temple Mount Sifting Project now faces an existential threat of its own. Donations to the project have dropped by approximately 70%, and government funding processes have been frozen. These challenges, combined with a significant decline in visitors to the sifting site, force us to dramatically scale back our activities. Consequently, starting next month (after Hanukkah), we are regrettably compelled to suspend operations at the sifting site until appropriate funding is secured.

If you are feeling generous this holiday season, they could really use a contribution.

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

Review of Hopkins & McGill (eds.), Forgery beyond deceit

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Forgery beyond deceit: fabrication, value, and the desire for ancient Rome.

John North Hopkins, Scott McGill, Forgery beyond deceit: fabrication, value, and the desire for ancient Rome. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. 464. ISBN 9780192869586.

Review by
Rebecca Menmuir, Lincoln College, Oxford. rebecca.menmuir@lincoln.ox.ac.uk

Forgery Beyond Deceit is an excellent volume, immediately securing a place as required reading for anyone interested in fakes and forgeries across disciplines and chronological boundaries. At its heart is an insistence that forgeries are valuable objects which are worthy of study in and of themselves; no longer should the forgery be consigned to Philology’s growing pile of discarded works, deemed inauthentic and therefore worthless. In this way the volume represents a fundamental shift in authenticity studies of the late-twentieth and twenty-first century, and holding this belief as the book’s core allows contributors to explore avenues beyond deceit, as the title has it. ...

Follow the link for a preview and list of authors and titles.

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Apocryphal Christmas again

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Christmas Stories in Christian Apocrypha. The birth of Jesus in the apocryphal gospels (Tony Burke).

Yep, time to note this one again. For more on the Protevangelium of James, see here, here, here, and links.

And here's something new. James McGrath argues that the whole of the Protevangelium of James is a reworked John the Baptist source. (Scroll down a bit to find the discussion.)

Cross-file under 'Tis the Season.

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Langton, The Womb and the Simile of the Woman in Labor in the Hebrew Bible (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

The Womb and the Simile of the Woman in Labor in the Hebrew Bible
Embodying Relationship with YHWH

By Karen Langton
Copyright 2025

Hardback
£101.25

eBook
£29.99

ISBN 9781032834474
178 Pages
Published October 30, 2024 by Routledge

Original Price£135.00
Sale Price GBP £101.25

Description

This book explores figurative images of the womb and the simile of a woman in labor from the Hebrew Bible, problematizing previous interpretations that present these as disparate images and showing how their interconnectivity embodies relationship with YHWH.

In the Hebrew Bible, images of the womb and the pregnant body in labor do not co-occur despite being grounded in an image of a whole pregnant female body; the pregnant body is instead fragmented into these two constituent parts, and scholars have continued to interpret these images separately with no discussion of their interconnectivity. In this book, Langton explores the relationship between these images, inviting readers into a wider conversation on how the pregnant body functions as a means to an end, a place to access and seek a relationship with YHWH. Readers are challenged and asked to rethink how these images have been interpreted within feminist scholarship, with womb imagery depicting YHWH’s care for creation or performing the acts of a midwife, and the pregnant body in labor as a depiction of crisis. Langton explores select texts depicting these images, focusing on the corporeal experience and discussing direct references and allusions to the physicality of a pregnant body within these texts. This approach uncovers ancient and current androcentric ideology which dictates that conception, gestation, and birth must be controlled not by the female body, but by YHWH.

The Womb and the Simile of the Woman in Labor in the Hebrew Bible is of interest to students and scholars working on the Hebrew Bible, gender in the Bible and the Near East more broadly, and feminist biblical criticism.

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Hays (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Book of Isaiah

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Companion to the Book of Isaiah

Part of Cambridge Companions to Religion

EDITOR: Christopher B. Hays, Fuller Theological Seminary, California
DATE PUBLISHED: November 2024
AVAILABILITY: AvailableFORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108471862

£ 80.00
Hardback

Other available formats:
Paperback

Description

Few writings have shaped the world as much as the Book of Isaiah. Its lyricism, imagery, theology, and ethics are all deeply ingrained into us, and into Judeo-Christian culture more generally. It has been a cultural touchstone from the time when it was formed, and it influenced later Biblical authors as well. The Book of Isaiah is also a complex work of literature, dense with poetry, rhetoric, and theology, and richly intertwined with ancient history. For all these reasons, it is a challenge to read well. The Cambridge Companion to Isaiah serves as an up-to-date and reliable guide to this biblical book. Including diverse perspectives from leading scholars all over the world, it approaches Isaiah from a wide range of methodological approaches. It also introduces the worlds in which the book was produced, the way it was formed, and the impacts it has had on contemporary and later audiences in an accessible way.

• Provides up-to-date and focused explanations of current scholarship on the history, nature, and legacy of The Book of Isaiah
• Offers insight into the Book of Isaiah as a cultural touchstone and how its influence has perpetuated since antiquity
• Contains numerous interdisciplinary essays by internationally recognized authorities on Isaiah

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Review of Matsangou, The Manichaeans of the Roman east

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Manichaeans of the Roman east: Manichaeism in Greek anti-Manichaica and Roman imperial legislation.

Rea Matsangou, The Manichaeans of the Roman east: Manichaeism in Greek anti-Manichaica and Roman imperial legislation. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies, 105. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2023. Pp. xxii, 580. ISBN 9789004542846.

Review by
Martin Devecka, University of California at Santa Cruz. mdevecka@ucsc.edu

... Matsangou makes a fairly compelling case that some Greek Christians writing against Manichaeanism did so with access to genuine Manichaean documents (mostly lost to us). She effectively punctures the myth that later writers in this tradition build their images of Manichaeanism mostly out of borrowings from the fourth-century Acta Archelai, and she also draws attention to the valuable evidence offered by the various abjuration statements to which Manichaeans were subject when they wanted to convert to Orthodoxy. ...

I noted the publication of the book here. Cross-file under Manichean (Manichaean) Watch.

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

Reviews of the Reagan Library's DSS exhibition

TWO REVIEWS of the new Dead Sea Scrolls (etc.) exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library:

A Journey Back in Time at the Reagan Library: The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit. “Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition” opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on November 22. The exhibit includes 200 artifacts dating back to around 250 BCE to 68 C.E. (Ayala Or-El, Jewish Journal).

“Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition” opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on November 22. The exhibit includes 200 artifacts dating back to around 250 BCE to 68 C.E.

One of the artifacts is the Magdala Stone, which dates to the Second Temple Period and features intricate carvings of the Temple. The stone served as ceremonial furniture on which sacred scrolls were placed. There’s also the Sea of Galilee Boat, a 1st-century CE fishing boat made from oak and cedar. The Psalm Scroll, the most substantial and well-preserved manuscript of Psalms, which contains several Psalms not found in the Hebrew Bible, is on display. Ossuaries, small stone receptacles used for secondary burial and Objects from Masada including small potsherds bearing writing in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin ostraca can be found at the exhibit as well.

[...]

Fragments of antiquity. Hebrew history comes alive at Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit ( Michele Willer-Allred, Thousand Oaks Acorn).

Journalists at the preview stood in hushed awe as the historic artifacts were shown, as did the curators who had traveled from Israel to set up the display in Simi Valley.

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

Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: November

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year Part 4: November 2024.

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

In this most recent update he tracks down some Mary of Magdalene traditions and gives us a preview of what to expect in his forthcoming Anchor Yale volume on the Christian apocrypha. There's plenty of New Testament apocrypha and Old Testament pseudepigrapha in this post.

For earlier posts in the series and more on Tony's work, see the links collected here.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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

AJR reviews Hamori, God’s Monsters

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible (Ethan Schwartz).

Esther J. Hamori, God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible. (Minneapolis: Broadleaf, 2023).

... Some readers might find Hamori’s combination of seriousness and frivolousness to be incoherent. However, I would argue that it’s a faithful reflection of what she’s talking about. Monsters themselves are both serious and frivolous. If we aren’t open to this duality, then we’re going to miss crucial dimensions of how the Bible presents God. Hamori’s goal is to encourage that openness. ...

I noted the publication of the book here and another review of it here. See the links collected in the latter post, plus here, for more on monsters in the biblical world.

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

A MOOC on ancient Israel

ONLINE COURSE: Jerusalem: A Journey Through Time: Bar-Ilan launches new course on ancient Israel. Students will study ancient Jerusalem starting from the prehistoric period through key historical phases (Raquel G. Frohlich, Jerusalem Post).

A new online undergraduate-level course, titled “Jerusalem: A Journey Through Time,” was recently launched by Bar-Ilan University, the institution announced in a Sunday statement.

The course, available as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the edX platform, is taught by Prof. Aren Maeir, who specializes in the archeology of ancient Jerusalem and the southern Levant, the statement said.

[...]

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

Candida Moss to head the Anchor Yale Bible Series

PUBLISHING NEWS: Candida Moss to Lead Anchor Yale Bible (Cathy Lynn Grossman, Publisher's Weekly).

Thirty years ago, a British schoolgirl had a unique request for her 16th birthday present. Candida Moss wanted scholar Raymond Brown's 1971 commentary on the Gospel According to John from the illustrious Anchor Bible Series, then published by Doubleday. That treasured book is still on her home bookshelf today as Moss, now a well-published New Testament scholar and professor of theology at the University of Birmingham, prepares to become the fifth general editor, the first New Testament scholar, and the first woman to lead the 68-year-old series, now known as the Anchor Yale Bible Series, in May 2025.

[...]

Congratulations to Professor Moss and to Yale University Press.

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Rogue Classicism is back

ROGUE CLASSICISM is up and running again. It's good to see you back, David Meadows.

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

Herod Agrippa II's aqueous banqueting cave?

SPELUNKIC ARCHAEOLOGY: In a watery Golan cave, Herod’s great-grandson entertained in the Roman imperial style. An altar dedicated to the cult of Pan was likely converted to a banquet area by Herodian ruler Agrippa II, aligning with the account of Josephus, new research shows (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

The latest excavations at Banias, an archaeological site and national park in the Golan Heights that abuts the border with Lebanon, have shown that a sacred cave long associated with the worship of nature deity Pan was likely repurposed during the late 1st century CE by Agrippa II, the great-grandson of King Herod, as an ancient event hall in the Roman style.

[...]

The underlying technical article is behind a subscription wall. But you can read the abstract for free: Dine and Worship: The Roman Complex in Front of the Pan Grotto in Paneas/Caesarea Philippi (Adi Erlich and Ron Lavi, BASOR 392))

For PaleoJudaica posts on the site of Banias, see the links collected here. For posts on King Herod Agrippa II, see here and links (cf. here).

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

AJR reviews the Berlin Elephantine exhibition

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Exhibition Review | Elephantine: Island of the Millennia (Simcha Gross).

As one of the few fora where academic knowledge is mediated to the general public, museum exhibitions are often revealing windows into the contemporary stakes and concerns that underpin scholarship. The stunning exhibition on Elephantine currently hosted at the James-Simon-Galerie and the Neues Museum in Berlin is no exception. The visitor is expertly guided through a sumptuous display of objects discovered, beginning in the late nineteenth century, on the famous island lying in the middle of the Nile in Upper Egypt. ...

But the review is not without its criticisms. Read on.

For more on the Elephantine exhibition at the Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, see here and here. Subsequent posts on the Elephantine papyri (etc.) are here, here, and here.

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

Biblical Studies Carnival 222

READING ACTS: Biblical Studies Carnival #222 for November 2024 (Phil Long). With lots of SBL 2024 recaps and posted papers.

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

De Martin & Furlan (eds.), Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World

Edited By Sara De Martin, Anna Lucia Furlan
Copyright 2025

Hardback
£135.00
eBook
£35.99

ISBN 9781032778587
236 Pages
Published October 3, 2024 by Routledge

Description

This book moves beyond the debate on ‘wisdom literature’, ongoing in biblical studies, to demonstrate the productivity of ‘wisdom’ as a literary category. Featuring work by scholars of Egyptology, classics, biblical and Near Eastern studies, it offers fresh perspectives on what makes a text ‘wisdom’.

This interdisciplinary volume widens the scope of the investigation into ‘wisdom literature’, chronologically, geographically, and methodologically. Readers are given insights into how the label ‘wisdom’ contributes to our understanding of diverse literary forms across time periods and cultural contexts. In the volume’s introduction, the editors consider ‘wisdom’ as a ‘discourse’, shifting the focus from the debate on whether ‘wisdom literature’ is a genre to the properties of the texts, namely exploring what makes a text ‘wisdom’. This offers a methodological backdrop against which the diverse approaches of the single authors productively coexist. The chapters examine texts that are the products of different ancient cultures, with several of them bridging diverse cultural, social, and chronological contexts. By sampling how different methodologies interact both within individual interpretative efforts and in wider attempts to understand cross-cultural literary phenomena, this volume also contributes new perspectives to the scholarship on ancient literary genres.

Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World will interest both students and scholars of the ancient Near East, Egyptology, classical studies, biblical studies, and theology and religious studies, particularly those working on wisdom literature in antiquity. It will also appeal to readers with an interest in comparative approaches and genre studies more broadly.

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Lauinger, The Labors of Idrimi (SBL, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Labors of Idrimi: Inscribing the Past, Shaping the Present at Late Bronze Age Alalah

Jacob Lauinger

ISBN9781628376135
VolumeANEM 33
Status Available
Publication Date September 2024

Hardback
$78.00
Paperback
$58.00

Since the 1949 publication of the Late Bronze inscriptions on the Statue of Idrimi, scholars have been intrigued by the carefully structured and vividly detailed cuneiform text that recounts the rise of King Idrimi of Alalah. Jacob Lauinger significantly advances prior scholarship through an in-depth historical analysis that combines textual and material perspectives on both the statue and the inscriptions. His study reveals how two distinct inscriptions were added to an originally anepigraphic statue to advance a claim about royal legitimacy long after Idrimi’s death during a time of political upheaval at Alalah. This richly illustrated volume includes a translation, more than ninety-five images, and sixteen composite plates that, for the first time, present each line of the inscriptions in its entirety to scholars and students. The appendix offers a detailed philological commentary treating numerous aspects of the inscriptions that have been the subject of multiple scholarly interpretations.

As the AWOL Blog notes, the book is also available in an open-access pdf version. For a quick introduction to the statue of Idrimi and some of its potential relevance for biblical studies, see this British Museum blog post by James Fraser: Idrimi, the 3,500-year-old refugee.

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

Images of the Human Being (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Images of the Human Being. Eighth International East-West Symposium of New Testament Scholars, Caraiman Monastery, May 26 to 31, 2019. Edited by Cosmin Pricop, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr and Tobias Nicklas. 2024. XIX, 580 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 521. DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-160638-0. €169.00 including VAT. eBook PDF available 978-3-16-160638-0. Also Available As: cloth €169.00.

Summary

This collection of essays presents the papers given at the Eighth International Orthodox-Western Symposium of New Testament Scholars in the Caraiman Monastery (Romania). The symposium was a project of the Eastern Europe Liaison Committee (EELC) of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. Main subject matters of the volume are images and stories of the human being according to the New Testament and church tradition. All topics are discussed from a »western« (Protestant and Roman-Catholic) exegetical perspective as well as from an eastern orthodox point of view. In addition, several seminar papers deal with anthropological texts and conceptions in Paul, the synoptic Gospels, and John as well as with Philo and extra-canonical writings. A particular section presents reports on biblical scholarship in Romania, past and present.

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Heilig, Paul the Storyteller (Eerdmans)

NEW BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

Paul the Storyteller
A Narratological Approach

by Christoph Heilig

Imprint: Eerdmans

448 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

HARDCOVER
9780802878953
Publication Date: October 22, 2024
$49.99
£39.99

EBOOK
9781467469074
Publication Date: October 22, 2024

DESCRIPTION

An incisive study of Paul’s use of stories and narratives in his letters

Paul is often thought of as a crafter of numerous and complex arguments, but some scholars, such as N. T. Wright and Richard Hays, have shown that narratives are vitally important in his letters. Through careful examination of the texts, Christoph Heilig demonstrates that Paul is indeed a talented teller of stories—not only explicit narratives but also implicit stories.

In this volume, after a decade of research and writing, Heilig presents his definitive report on narrative in Paul. While Richard Hays and N. T. Wright have argued that Paul’s letters contain implicit narratives, Heilig stresses that a sound methodology requires beginning with text-linguistic investigation of explicit narratives. As Heilig argues, focusing on explicit narratives repeatedly redirects our attention to implicit (“almost”) stories. On this basis, he shows that Hays’s “narrative substructures” and Wright’s “worldview” narratives can also be fruitfully integrated into a narratological approach. Paul is a different kind of storyteller than the gospel writers, for example, but at countless points miniature narratives play a crucial role for Paul’s communicative goals.

Students and scholars of the New Testament will welcome Heilig’s expert guidance through a hotly debated area of Pauline studies.

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J. Cheryl Exum (1946-2024)

SAD NEWS, coming in from many sources, of the passing of J. Cheryl Exum, Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield. Jim West posts Jack Sasson's Agade note: Sad News: J. Cheryl Exum has Died.

Reqiescat in pace.

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Enuma Elish (Bloomsbury Academic, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY:

Enuma Elish

The Babylonian Epic of Creation

Johannes Haubold (Anthology Editor) , Sophus Helle (Anthology Editor) , Enrique Jiménez (Anthology Editor) , Selena Wisnom (Anthology Editor)

Open Access

Paperback
$34.95 $31.45

Hardback
$100.00 $90.00

Product details

Published Oct 31 2024
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 352
ISBN 9781350297197
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Babylonian Literature
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This open access book is the first in a groundbreaking series making Babylonian literature accessible. It presents Enuma Elish in transcription and translation, with an introduction for non-specialist readers and essays from leading scholars in the field.

Acting as a companion to the poem, the book provides readers with the tools they need to explore Enuma Elish in greater depth. Essays cover important historical and contextual information, offer discussions of key topics and explanations of technical terms, as well as suggestions of relevant further reading. The book's interpretive and reflective approach, which pays special attention to questions of poetic style, intertextual resonance, and literary and cultural significance, encourages a greater understanding of the poem as a work of literature while remaining grounded in philology.

The critical essays examine Enuma Elish and the following themes: the poem's rhythm and style; its modern receptions, issues of gender, motherhood and masculinity; Marduk's rise to power; Babylonian astronomy; intertextuality and the poem as counter myth.

Enuma Elish and the Library of Babylonian Literature series will be an indispensable companion for anyone interested in the literature, culture and religion of ancient Assyria.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by LMU Munich and Princeton University.

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Spiritual Transformation in the New Testament and Related Literature (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Spiritual Transformation in the New Testament and Related Literature. Edited by Albert L.A. Hogeterp, D. Francois Tolmie and Jan G. van der Watt. 2024. VII, 358 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 522. €139.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-163519-9. Also Available As: eBook PDF €139.00 .

Summary

The contributions to this volume explore the question of what spiritual transformation means for Early Christianity and beyond, with articles ranging from Old Testament wisdom literature to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Graeco-Roman philosophy, the gospels, epistles, and Johannine literature of the New Testament and other Early Christian literature. The contributions provide reflections on the involvement of the self and agency in spiritual transformation and concern diverse anthropological dimensions of mind, emotions, body, and embodiment related to this phenomenon of metamorphosis. The impact of spiritual transformation may relate to a renewal of the mind, to a therapeutics of emotions, and to material dimensions of bodily posture and physiological metaphors expressing spiritual identity.

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The blessing of Jacob - Were Isaac and God in on the ruse?

DR. RABBI DAVID ZUCKER: Isaac Knows He Is Blessing Jacob: Who Is Really Being Deceived? (TheTorah.com).

Isaac and Rebecca’s relationship appears close and loving, except when Rebecca directs Jacob to deceive Isaac and steal the blessing meant for Esau. The sages suggest that Isaac knew all along that the man before him was Jacob, disguised as Esau. Is it possible that Isaac and Rebecca were both in on the plan from the start?

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More on those third-millennium alphabetic (?) inscriptions

Evidence of oldest known alphabet unearthed among Syrian tomb treasures. Cylinders discovered in 2004 are inscribed with the earliest known examples of letters, say archaeologists (Miryam Naddaf, Nature).

I have already noted this story here. But this Nature article has additional information, including comments from other specialists. It sounds as though the proposal that these are unprecedentedly early alphabetic inscriptions is holding up so far. We'll see how it looks after the formal publication.

Part of the Nature article is behind a subscription wall. But, if you are interested and you dont have institutional access, you can access it through your Google or Facebook account.

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Schniedewind lecturing on "Who Wrote the Bible?"

IN-PERSON EVENT: Who wrote the Bible? In a new book and upcoming lecture, William Schniedewind offers bold new answers (Ashna Madni, UCLA Newsroom).

Who really wrote the Bible? A Dec. 3 lecture by William Schniedewind will offer a bold new answer to that age-old question.

“Although the Hebrew Bible rarely speaks of its authors, people have been fascinated by the question of its authorship since ancient times,” said Schniedewind, the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and a professor of biblical studies and northwest Semitic languages. “But the Bible was not written by a single author, or by a series of single authors.”

Rather, he said, it was written by communities of scribes.

[...]

Follow the link for details on the event. More on the book here.

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Thanksgiving ... Psalms

TIMELY: Thanksgiving: A Genre in Psalms (Prof. Benjamin D. Sommer, TheTorah.com).

The elements of a thanksgiving prayer—praise, description of the crisis, calling on the audience, an acknowledgment of God’s answer, and a concluding thanks—are found in Psalm 30, recited daily in the morning service. The adaptability of this and other biblical psalms helps explain why these Iron-Age prayers are still recited around the world today.

And, of course, happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating the day.

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Hezser on Rabbinic Scholarship in the Context of Late Antique Intellectual Culture

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Why It Is Necessary to Integrate Rabbinic Scholarship Into the Study of Late Antique Intellectual Culture

Rabbinic scholarship, conducted in Hebrew and Aramaic in the eastern parts of the Roman-Byzantine Empire, is commonly excluded from the study of “classical” intellectual practices based on Greek paideia. A broader integrative approach that acknowledges both similarities and differences between rabbinic, Graeco-Roman, and Christian scholarship enables a more variegated assessment of late antique intellectual life.

See also: Rabbinic Scholarship in the Context of Late Antique Scholasticism: The Development of the Talmud Yerushalmi (Bloomsbury, 2024).

By Catherine Hezser
SOAS, University of London
November 2024

Cross-file under Forthcoming Book.

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More on the ancient Jewish site in Phanagoria, Russia

ARCHAEOLOGY: Excavations of Early Synagogue by Black Sea Find Jewish Neighborhood. Phanagoria had a large Jewish community from the first century onward, served by a synagogue that would stand for 500 years – but not be rebuilt with the city (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Ms. Schuster delivers her usual thorough coverage, with new details and photos.

Regarding those manumission inscriptions that I mentioned in my previous post:

In service at the synagogue
Jews may have been in Phanagoria before the first century, but that is the time from which there is proof of their presence – in the form of manumission inscriptions the team unearthed from 16 and 51 C.E., Kuznetsov says. The inscriptions, written in ancient Greek, mention a "house of prayer" and a "synagogue."

"These are marble tablets which document the freeing of slaves," he says. More such records were discovered from the second century. The principle was that the slave could be freed on condition that they continue to serve at the synagogue, he adds.

Background here.

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Steve Mason lecturing on "The Flavian Celebration of Judaea’s Fall"

LECTURE AT MCGILL UNIVERSITY (MONTREAL) NEXT WEEK:

From Tragedy to the Travesty of a Triumph: The Flavian Celebration of Judaea’s Fall

Prof. Steve Mason

Professor Emeritus of Ancient Mediterranean Religions and Cultures

University of Groningen

10AM–12PM

Tuesday, December 3

Birks Building,

Senior Common Room

HT reader Michael Helfield

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Nicklas, The Canon and Beyond (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Tobias Nicklas. The Canon and Beyond. Collected Essays on the History and Hermeneutics of Biblical and Parabiblical Traditions. 2024. VIII, 382 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 525. €149.00 including VAT cloth available 978-3-16-163756-8. Also Available As: eBook PDF €149.00.

Summary

How did the canon of the New Testament come into being? To what extent can we also speak of a history of the already existing canon? What functions were and are assigned to it in different historical contexts? What is the relationship between canonical writings and extra-canonical writings? What is the relationship between Christian apocrypha and the texts of the Bible from the Old and New Testaments? The number of questions surrounding the canon of New Testament writings and the lasting significance of apocryphal writings and traditions in relation to the canon is almost inexhaustible. This volume brings together contributions by Tobias Nicklas on these topics from the past twenty years. A particular focus is on the reassessment of Christian apocrypha and their relationship to image and rite and on understanding of canon as a dynamic entity.

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Who Was St. Nicholas?

'TIS THE SEASON? ALREADY? Who Was St. Nicholas? Was St. Nicholas jolly or holy? (Mark Wilson, Bible History Daily).

It seems a bit eager to start on this subject before Thanksgiving, but BHD has reposted this, so here it is. I have noted this essay, with comments and links, some years ago here. For an updated Rasmussen link, see here. And don't forget that medieval St. Nicholas ring.

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Longley, Herodotus: Book III (Bloomsbury)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Herodotus: Book III.

Notice of a New Book: Longley, Georgina. 2024. Herodotus: Book III. London: Bloomsbury.

With an introduction, Greek text, translation, and commentary. Follow the link for a link to the publication page.

Book 3 of Herodotus's Histories preserves many traditions about Achaemenid Persia. Some of them are questionable, but we aren't overwhelmed with sources about this period.

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Ancient Epistemologies (Mohr Siebeck, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Ancient Epistemologies. Edited by Jan Dietrich, Annette Schellenberg-Lagler and Thomas Wagner. 2024. X, 318 pages. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike (ORA) 58. €139.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-163866-4. Also Available As: eBook PDF Open Access CC BY-SA 4.0.

Summary

Reflection on knowledge is often assumed to have emerged with Greek philosophy. Earlier and contemporary modes of thinking in the ancient Near East, including ancient Israel, are assumed to be archaic and often left out of the picture. Against this view, the contributors of this volume aim to reconstruct the ancient epistemologies, the »paradigms«, »discourses«, and »episteme«, that developed in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean region and formed the conditions for developing more distinct forms of cultural and scientific knowledge. In doing this, they include the search for second order thinking as part of ancient epistemologies: the capability to think about thinking, to adopt a theoretical attitude that involves the ability to reflect and self-reflect, to criticize and transcend the given, and to anticipate new realms by thinking outside the box. The ancient Near Eastern cultures were not characterized by a 'lukewarm mind' but they were capable, in their own cultural-specific ways, of unfolding epistemologies that included forms of second order thinking that may well be termed 'early philosophy'.

NOTE: I have just posted and then promptly deleted a post on an ancient zodiac coin. I realized the article was from 2022 and I had already noted the story here.

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Review of Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume 5: Galilaea and Northern Regions

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume 5: Galilaea and Northern Regions.

Walter Ameling, Hannah M. Cotton, Werner Eck, Avner Ecker, Benjamin Isaac, Alla Kushnir-Stein, Jonathan Price, Peter Weiß, Ada Yardeni, Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume 5: Galilaea and northern regions. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2023. 2 volumes. ISBN 9783110713565.

Review by
Benedikt Eckhardt, University of Edinburgh. B.Eckhardt@ed.ac.uk

The CIIP, one of the most ambitious corpus projects around, has taken a major step toward completion with the publication of volume 5, which extends its geographic coverage to the Northern fringes of Galilee, the modern border between Israel and Lebanon. ...

For more on the Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (CIIP), including reviews of earlier volumes, see here and links.

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Goff, The Apocrypha: A Guide

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Apocrypha: A Guide

Matthew Goff

Guides to Sacred Texts

Paperback
Published: 19 November 2024
328 Pages | 10 b/w illustrations
210x140mm
ISBN: 9780190060749

Also Available As:
Hardback
Ebook

Description

Many readers of scripture, particularly in North America, are not aware that a substantial number of books were removed from their Old Testament. These books, often known collectively as the Apocrypha, were considered scripture for centuries and for millions of Christians today still are. This book is an introduction to the Apocrypha. It discusses ancient and early modern disputes about scripture to provide context for understanding the formation of the textual category “Apocrypha.” Each chapter focuses on a specific book, examining its core themes and ideas. The cultural and historical context of the composition of each book is analyzed in its ancient Jewish milieu. This historical context is often elucidated by the Dead Sea Scrolls which have only in recent years been published in full. The later reception of this material in rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and other modern cultural contexts such as art and literature, is also discussed. This book is designed to be read along with the texts of the Apocrypha themselves, as presented in the New Oxford Annotated Bible.

The present volume is written not primarily for scholars but rather for anyone who would like to learn more about the Apocrypha. This book was shaped by an overarching conviction-that people who know next to nothing about the writings covered in this volume would enjoy reading them. If you have heard something about the books of the Apocrypha and want to know more about them, this book is for you.

Removed from the Old Testament or added to the Hebrew Bible? Either, both. Depends on your frame.

The paperback is out. The status of the hardback and ebook is not clear to me from the website, but they may be out too..

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Jewish gladiators in ancient Rome?

HISTORY AND CINEMA: There aren’t Jewish fighters in Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II.’ But what about in ancient Rome? The real history of Jewish gladiators, from Reish Lakish to Kirk Douglas (Luke Tress, JTA).

It’s at least as likely that Jews took to the arena in ancient Rome as it was that gladiators fought sharks, a key plot point of Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” the hotly anticipated action movie that landed in theaters this weekend. A sequel to 2000’s “Gladiator,” which ended with the death of Maximus (Russell Crowe), “Gladiator II” casts no light on the possible history of Jewish gladiators; its strongest Jewish connections are the presence of Jewish actors, including Israelis Lior Raz and Yuval Gonen and former “Great British Baking Show” host Matt Lucas, in its cast. They join Kirk Douglas, who starred in 1960’s “Spartacus,” in the ranks of Jews who have portrayed gladiators on screen.

But many have occupied themselves with questions about the role of Jews in ancient Rome’s famous bloodsport, including whether fights took place in ancient Israel and what Jews thought about the activity, whether or not they participated. Here’s what the scholars and evidence have to say.

A long, informative article, which interviews Lawrence Schiffman and other scholars.

For more on that possibly Jewish gladiator's helmet, see here and links. For the more general question of whether there were Jewish gladiators, see here.

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The Cippi pilllars are reunited in Malta

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Ancient pillars back together on Maltese soil after over 240 years. Heritage Malta, Louvre collaborate to showcase historic Phoenician pillars central to deciphering ancient alphabet ( Emma Borg, Times of Malta).

For the first time in over 240 years, two ancient pillars - which are to Phoenician script what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphics - have been reunited on Maltese soil.

The Cippi of Malta are two marble pillars from the second century BC, that are historically significant due to the bilingual Phoenician and Greek inscriptions carved into them.

These inscriptions tell the story of two brothers making a sacred offering to the Phoenician God Melqart. Importantly, they were instrumental in deciphering the Phoenician alphabet, a breakthrough French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélemy achieved in 1758.

[...]

As the article notes, the pillars were also reunited in an exhibition in Abu Dhabi in 2023.

For detailed accounts of the decipherment of Phoenician using the Cippi pillar inscriptions, see here. And see also here.

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