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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

[...]

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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

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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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