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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TC 29 (2024)

THE ETC BLOG: New Volume of TC is Out (Tommy Wasserman).

Volume 29 (2024) of TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism has just been published. This volume contains five articles, four notes and one "pedagogical note" (a new feature). The volume is not yet complete. Some reviews and an extensive review article will be added soon.

[...]

Meanwhile, lots of interesting articles are already there. Follow the link for author-titles, abstracts, and links.

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Crossley & Keith (eds.), The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (Eerdmans)

NEW BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus
Edited by James Crossley and Chris Keith

Imprint: Eerdmans

656 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

HARDCOVER
9780802882707
Publication Date: November 5, 2024
$64.99
£52.99

EBOOK
9781467465786
Publication Date: November 5, 2024
$64.99

DESCRIPTION

A diverse group of scholars charts new paths in the quest for the historical Jesus.

After a decade of stagnation in the study of the historical Jesus, James Crossley and Chris Keith have assembled an international team of scholars to envision the quest anew. The contributors offer new perspectives and fresh methods for reengaging the question of the historical Jesus. Important, timely, and fascinating, The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus is a must read for anyone seeking to understand Jesus of Nazareth.

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