Ancient Samaritan Decalogue for sale

WHAT, AGAIN? The Oldest Stone Tablet Carved With the Ten Commandments Is Up for Sale. The single-lot sale is estimated to fetch at least $1 million (Adam Schrader, Artnet News).

The oldest stone tablet depicting the Ten Commandments of Jewish and Christian faiths will be auctioned, more than a hundred years after it was first discovered.

The marble tablet, which weighs 115 pounds and measures about two feet in height, will go on display at Sotheby’s New York beginning December 5. It will then hit the block in a single-lot sale on December 18, with an estimate of $1–2 million.

[...]

As the article notes, this same artifact was sold in 2016 for $850,000. This article says that the buyer is unknown, but this Daily Mail article (which also has more photos) names a buyer:

It was sold again in 2005 and then bought by its current owner, collector Dr Mitchell Stuart Kappell, in 2016.

The 2005 IAA approval of the object's export to the USA requires it to be on public display.

As always, I very much encourage the new buyer to donate it to a museum.

Background on the tablet, its discovery, and its previous sales is here (cf. here) and links. Cross-file under Samaritan Watch and Hebrew Epigraphy.

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Trees in the Hebrew Bible

DR. ADRIANE LEVEEN: And They Spoke of Trees (TheTorah.com).

The cedar and cypress, among other trees, occupy a prominent place in the Bible—representing life, sustenance, and wisdom. The prophets draw on their deep knowledge of trees to convey messages of hope and destruction.

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Review of Coşkun & Wenghofer (eds.), Seleukid ideology: creation, reception and response

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Seleukid ideology: creation, reception and response.

Altay Coşkun, Richard Wenghofer, Seleukid ideology: creation, reception and response. Seleukid perspectives, 1. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2023. Pp. 390. ISBN 9783515134781.

Review by
Marco Ferrario, University of Trento / Universität Augsburg. marco.ferrarrio@unitn.it / marco.ferrario@uni-a.de

Seleukid Ideology heralds a new series devoted to studying several aspects of the Empire’s history. It grew from a monthly Seleukid Lecture Series, an informal network of established scholars and upcoming researchers, and it represents another welcome outcome of the Seleukid Study Days, several proceedings of which have already been published in the last few years.

[...]

Lots of interesting-looking articles in this volume, notably:

12. Benjamin E. Scolnic, Śar Wars—How a Judaean Author in the 160’s BCE Transformed a Ptolemaic View of Hellenistic History into a Theology for His Time
13. Eran Almagor, “To All Parts of the Kingdom”: The Book of Esther as a Seleukid Text.
15. Altay Coşkun, The Efficacy of Ideological Discourse: Loyalty to the Seleukid Dynasty in Babylonia, Judaea, and Asia Minor

For additional PaleoJudaica posts on the Seleukid (Seleucid) dynasty and its importance for the Bible and Second Temple Judaism, start here and follow the links.

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

Review of Schniedewind, Who Really Wrote the Bible

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Who Really Wrote the Bible’ by William M. Schniedewind review. Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes by William M. Schniedewind asks what authorship meant to the hidden hands behind the Old Testament (Alec Ryrie, History Today 74, vol. 11).

His scope is exclusively the Hebrew Bible, the ‘Old Testament’. There are also questions about the authorship of the New Testament, but that was written in Greek and Schniedewind sees ‘authorship’, in the modern sense, as a Greek idea that was a latecomer to Jewish culture. Almost none of the books of the Hebrew Bible claim to have an author, simply because that’s not how books were written in ancient Hebrew. They were the product of scribal communities, not individuals.

Cross-file under New Book (Princeton University Press, 2024).

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The Mazzarón II has been raised

PHOENICIAN WATCH: The Mazzaron Phoenician Boat is successfully raised from seabed. The keel of the shipwreck is the last of the 22 sections to be recovered after two months of painstaking work (Murcia Today).

For some years I have been following the planning for and raising of the Mazarrón II shipwreck in Murcia, Spain. The excavation work is finally done.

The ship is now to be reassembled and restored at nearby Cartagena. It remains to be decided whether it will go on permanent public display there or at Mazzarón.

Background here and links. Note the variable spellings Mazzarón (Mazzaron) and Mazarrón (Mazarron).

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Sifting Project presents analysis of its First Temple-era pottery

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: MILESTONE ACHIEVEMENT IN OUR RESEARCH: QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD POTTERY.

Last Thursday, we reached a significant milestone in our research and publication process. At the annual New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region conference, organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University, and Tel Aviv University, we presented key findings from the quantitative analysis of pottery from the mid-late First Temple Period (Iron Age IIB-C). Our study focuses on comparing these artifacts with finds from other Jerusalem sites, particularly the Ophel area.

[...]

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Labahn, Lamentations: A Commentary Based on the Text in Codex Vaticanus (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Lamentations

A Commentary Based on the Text in Codex Vaticanus

Series: Septuagint Commentary Series

Author: Antje Labahn

This commentary on Greek Lamentations is based on the Codex Vaticanus, and includes an introduction, Greek text and English translation. LamLXX presents a new interpretation of the past, creating its own conceptual idea about loss and destruction, grief and suffering. In varied vivid images, metaphors and pictures, LamLXX retells past experiences as present life, invoking conditions reminiscent of Exodus. Hope is reduced to a limited amount, suffering seems endless. Only through prophet Jeremiah’s mediation, a new perspective for future life appears at the horizon. Contemporary readers, or readers of any period, may find therein representations of their own experiences in life.

Copyright Year: 2024

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70168-7
Publication: 02 Oct 2024
EUR €110.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69958-8
Publication: 04 Oct 2024
EUR €110.00

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Luther, Hiob in Qumran (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Hiob in Qumran

Der Beitrag der Hiobhandschriften aus Qumran zur Text- und Literargeschichte des Hiobbuchs

Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 148

Author: Rebekka Luther

The six manuscripts from Ḥirbet Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99, 4Q100, 4Q101, 4Q157, 11Q10) are the oldest textual witnesses of the Hebrew Book of Job, which received its final redaction during the 3rd century BCE. But their different characteristics and fragmentary condition make it hard to draw a picture on what these textual witnesses actually testify to. This study combines Text- and Literarkritik while considering their individual features. The results unveil a history of reception of the image of Job, which goes hand in hand with an ongoing production and reworking of the text.

In dieser Studie werden die sechs fragmentarischen Hiobmanuskripte aus Ḥirbet Qumran in text- und literarkritischen Einzelanalysen untersucht. Die Ergebnisse geben Einblick in die früheste Rezeptionsgeschichte und zeigen, welche Themen nach dem Abschluss der Großkomposition im 3. Jh. v. Chr. die weisheitliche Debatte um das Schicksal Hiobs prägten.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70886-0
Publication: 02 Oct 2024
EUR €125.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70881-5
Publication: 10 Oct 2024
EUR €125.00

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