The CSULB Jewish Studies Program is deeply honored to welcome Professor Amy-Jill Levine back to Southern California. She will be discussing “Jesus’ Parables as Jewish Stories” via Zoom at 6 pm on Monday, April 7th. ...Follow the link for the Zoom link and more on the lecture and the lecturer.
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This post is aimed at providing a guide for reading through ethnographic passages on this website from Poseidonios’ lost works (first century BCE):Poseidinios passed on some dodgy ideas about ancient Judeans, and perhaps some comments on Dead Sea asphalt harvesting.
For more on this blog, see here and here and links.
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Follow the link for description and link to the publisher's page.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
SIMI VALLEY, CA. – The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute will introduce the Ten Commandments Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls to its exhibit, “Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition.” This new addition offers visitors a rare opportunity to explore one of the most significant texts in religious history. The Ten Commandments Scroll will be on display from April 11 to 24, 2025, with a media day to witness the installation on April 10.I noted in February that new scrolls were coming to the Reagan Library exhibition. But at the time I didn't know which ones they would be.Never before toured in California and not seen in the U.S. since 2013, the Ten Commandments Scroll will be on exclusive display at the Reagan Library, the only stop on this tour to feature them. The Scroll, known as 4Q41, was discovered in 1952 in Qumran Cave 4 and contains Deuteronomy 8:5–10 and Deuteronomy 5:1–6:1. It is believed to be the oldest existing copy of the Ten Commandments and is permitted for display only two weeks every two years.
[...]
4Q41 (also known as 4QDeutn or the "All Souls Deuteronomy" manuscript) was published by my good friend and fellow doctoral student Sidnie White Crawford in her Harvard PhD thesis and then in DJD 14 (1995). It contains selections from Deuteronomy, one of which is the Decalogue.
The last I heard of this scroll, it was on display in Israel in 2015. See my comments at the link qualifying the claim that it is the oldest copy of the Ten Commandments. For more on the 2011-13 exhibition in the USA, see here and links.
For more on the current Reagan Library exhibition, see here and links.
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Some of you are familiar with Jack Sasson’s brilliant email list called Agade. ...PaleoJudaica refers to the Agade List often. And Phil Long, the coordinator of the Biblical Studies Carnival, has more on it here.This month’s carnival is in honor of Jack’s astonishing work on his list, his lifetime of amazing scholarship, and his collegiality and friendship over many years. The carnival is organized according to Jack’s email list categories. He sent out a LOT more links and such but since they were not particularly related to biblical studies I didn’t include them.
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Bentley Layton, the pre-eminent scholar of his generation of the late ancient Egyptian language, Coptic, died on March 26 at his home in New Haven from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 83.Requiescat in pace.Layton, the Goff Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and professor of Near Eastern languages and civilizations at Yale, made immeasurable contributions to the study of major textual corpora, including the gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi, and the writings of the Egyptian monk Shenoute of Atripe.
[...]
Cross-file under Coptic Watch.
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One of the most treasured artifacts in the collections of the Coptic Museum in Cairo, the so-called Pillow Psalter, is back on display. Dating to about 400 CE, this oldest complete Coptic manuscript of the Book of Psalms returned to public view in February, following almost five years of restoration work. As reported by several Egyptian outlets, including the State Information Service, the ancient codex has been fully restored and documented and is now presented in a newly designed permanent exhibit, ready to awe and inspire many more generations of visitors to the Coptic Museum.This essay gives a good overview of the Coptic Mudil "Pillow Psalter" codex. But the above paragraph could use some editing. The essay was published a year ago, so the mentioned "February" is February of 2024. In other words, the psalter has been on display for the last year.[...]
Nevertheless, the essay is worth reading, BHD has re-posted it, and I missed it last year. So here it is. PaleoJudaica posts on the codex are here, here, and here.
Cross-file under Coptic Watch.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The President of the Republic said in a tweet on the (X) platform, followed by the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "On the occasion of the Akitu holiday, the Babylonian-Assyrian New Year, we congratulate our Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac people, wishing them a happy holiday in which everyone enjoys goodness, prosperity, and blessings."The current Akitu Festival is a modern revival of the ancient Mesopotamian New Year festival with the same name. The Christian groups mentioned above still use Aramaic as their liturgical language.
For more on the modern festival, see here and links. And for the ancient one, here and links (cf. here).
Happy New Year to all those celebrating!
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In a study published in the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, researcher Sabine Kleiman argues that the biblical Rephaim Valley, traditionally located near Jerusalem, may instead lie “east of the Elah Valley” — closer to Philistine Gath — and may derive its name from “the local Gittite elite” rather than legendary giants.I have no view on the geographical question. The biblical exegesis is more or less consistent with what I wrote here. But I think the two above possibilites are not mutually exclusive. That is, it could be that the Rephaim were ancient (to the Israelites) elite Canaanites, some of whom still may have been around in biblical times, and some of whom were remembered as legendary giants. Follow the latter link for my speculations.[...]
The underlying SJOT article is open access:
Identification of the Rephaim Valley
Sabine Kleiman
Published online: 18 Nov 2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2024.2425081ABSTRACT
The Valley of Rephaim is usually located in the direct vicinity of Jerusalem. However, a fresh look at the history of research reveals the uncertainty surrounding this identification and shows that the displayed geography rather points to a setting east of the Elah Valley. At this location, the Rephaim Valley was of utmost interest to the communities of the lowlands, who were during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE under the control of Philistine Gath, which is significantly featured in the books of Samuel. This paper highlights the relationship between the city and the Rephaim Valley accounts and further suggests, that the place owes its name to the local Gittite elite and not to an association with past mythical giants.
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Identified in Trent four fragments of the Senemnetjer papyrus, an extremely rare Book of the Dead from Saqqara. The discovery, of exceptional importance for Egyptology, enriches the collection of the Buonconsiglio Castle, which will reopen its Egyptian section at the end of the year.2023 was a big year for the Egyptian Book of the Dead, with two new manuscripts discovered, a new edition of another manuscript published, and a museum exhibition on a fourth.
2024 was quiet on that front, but 2025 is starting out well with the discovery of new fragments from an important already-known manuscript. Another fragment is in the Archaeological Museum in Florence and another is apparently lost, but a drawing of it survives.
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The Scribes of Qumran (Part 1) With Emanuel Tov
... In the beginning, when the scrolls were found in 1947-1948, people thought that all these scrolls found at Qumran in a dry region at the shore of the Dead Sea were actually copied on the spot.Did Scribes Copy the Bible Correctly? (Part 2) With Emanuel TovNow we have become more wise, and according to my own theory, one-third of the scrolls that were found near the Dead Sea were copied on the spot, and two-thirds were imported by the people who lived in Qumran from outside Qumran. So, when we talk about the scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it’s a little bit misleading, because these are really not the scribes of Qumran. These are the scribes of ancient Israel, of ancient Palestine that we get to know from this wonderful treasure of scrolls that were found at Qumran, it’s the whole world of ancient Israel that we learn from these scrolls that were found at one spot.
I think this is a wonderful new avenue of research about the identity of scribes. But at the same time, you should realize that we haven’t found answers to the main question. Namely of those 950 different papyri, in very few cases, were we able to find the identity of scribes that wrote more than one scroll. It’s too bad that all the scribes remain anonymous, because in ancient times, at least in this part of the world, unlike in Mesopotamia, these scribes are anonymous. They don’t say, I’m called Moshe, the son of Aaron who writes this scroll. They don’t say anything.
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The Method-Image (Roland Betancourt)
Beyond all its groundbreaking contributions to the secondary literature, this book also presents a model for how different rhetorical forms and artistic skills can be mobilized in academic communication to reformulate how we present our arguments to our audiences, what we are able to communicate, and what audiences we can create with more varied forms of storytelling and methodological play.Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash: A short response to Rafael Rachel Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven (Catherine Michael Chin)
It is energizing, if a little vertiginous, in the case of Neis’s work, to be drawn in as a participant in looking at likenesses in a book that is about the act of looking at likenesses, and about the act of deciding just how alike those likenesses are. What does it mean for the offspring of a human to look like a raven? Just how much like a raven do they actually look?I noted the earlier essays in the series here and here.
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Kenneth A. Kitchen was a giant in the field of Near Eastern studies. His academic interests spanned the languages and histories of the entire Near East, from Anatolia and South Arabia to Mesopotamia and across the Fertile Crescent, with Egyptology being his passion and primary focus. Throughout his career, he was also fascinated by how ancient texts, iconography, and archaeology could contribute to the study and interpretation of the Bible.Background here.[...]
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Mareike SchmiedAnklage Gottes im Midrasch zu den Klageliedern
Eine Studie zu den Transformationen der Gottesbilder im Midrasch Echa Rabbati
[Accusation of God in the Midrash on Lamentations. A Study on the Transformations of the Images of God in the Midrash Echa Rabbati.]
2024. XIII, 421 pages.
Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism (TSAJ) 191Published in German.
€129.00
including VATcloth
available
978-3-16-159325-3Also Available As:
eBook PDF
€129.00Summary
In this study on the history of reception, Mareike Schmied analyses the treatment of the problematic images of God in the Lamentations in rabbinic midrash. How do the rabbis deal with the renewed destruction of the temple and the resulting crises of faith and life and once again manage to hold on to their God, who could not or would not prevent their downfall?
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The Victorians and the Holy Land
Adventurers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in the Lands of the Bibleby Allan Chapman
Imprint: Eerdmans
280 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in
PAPERBACK
9780802884091
Publication Date: February 6, 2025
$34.99
£26.99EBOOK
9781467468206
$34.99
Publication Date: February 6, 2025DESCRIPTION
Why were people in the Victorian age fascinated with the archaeological mysteries of the Holy Land?
In this engaging study, Allan Chapman shows how the Holy Land took on new meaning for Europeans during the Victorian era. Previously, most Europeans had viewed the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern bank of the Jordan River as a literary backdrop for biblical narratives. During the nineteenth century, however, they began to take interest in this region as a literal, physical place. Technological inventions such as steam-powered travel, telegraphy, and photography made the Holy Land more accessible. In public museums, ordinary people could view artifacts ranging from Egyptian mummies to statues from Nimrud and Nineveh. In linguistics, translations of Egyptian hieroglyphs and Assyrian cuneiform broadened Europeans’ awareness of myths, legends, and history. These discoveries in archaeology and linguistics brought new energy to nineteenth-century debates about whether the Scriptures were based on factual history.
In addition to explaining how Holy Land studies changed during the Victorian era, Allan Chapman identifies key people who facilitated those changes. He introduces readers to a diverse demographic that includes adventurers, astronomers, missionaries, ministers, learned women of independent means, and Queen Victoria’s eldest son. Driven by a wide range of professional and personal motives, these individuals had a powerful impact on the Victorian public’s understanding of the Holy Land.
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A 1,200-year-old clay jug painted in bright colors and ringed with camels and a mystery beast was unearthed by archaeologists at the Horvat Anim site in the Yakir Forest, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday.Cool jug. Notably also:[...]
The jug was unearthed during conservation and preparation efforts by IAA and KKL-JNF preceding the public opening of the Horvat Anim site.For more on the history and archaeology of the site of Anim, including that synagogue, see here.Once open, visitors will also be able to access the synagogue remains, originally discovered some 40 years ago.
“Around 1,500 years ago, the Yatir region was part of an area known as the ‘Daroma,’ where Jewish and Christian communities lived side by side,” Shmueli said. “There is no doubt that the synagogue discovered in Anim served as the religious center for the Jewish population living there.”
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I noted the dispute some time ago here. This article related some further developments:
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber echoed his sentiment [i.e., in Rabbi Rabinowitz's letter], stressing that such religiously significant stones should not be treated as museum artefacts. Both the chief rabbis are expected to issue a formal declaration in the coming days regarding their position on the matter.However, the IAA is standing firm in its decision to exhibit the stone, pointing out that it was previously displayed at the Knesset without objection.
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Recently declassified CIA documents reveal that in 1988, the CIA conducted an experiment as part of a secret project called Sun Streak, aiming to locate the lost artifact using remote viewing techniques.Is this real? If so, my psychic powers say that Remote Viewer No. 032 had seen Raiders of the Lost Ark.[...]
For many, many PaleoJudaica posts on the Ark of the Covenant, start with the links collected here and just keep going. I have seen many wacky Ark stories. This one is a contender for wackiest.
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Ancient manuscripts detailing the events during the Roman Empire are believed to contain 'first hand' evidence about the life and death of Jesus Christ.Aside from some pedantic details, this article gives a pretty good account of Tacitus's comments on "Christus" and the early Christians.The Annals, written by the Roman historian Tacitus only 91 years after Jesus's death, begins with the death of Emperor Augustus in 14AD and finishes with Nero's suicide 54 years later.
In Book 15, the historian discusses the Great Fire of Rome in 54AD, shortly before Nero's death, which the emperor blamed on a class 'called Christians.'
The second sentence reads: 'Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.'
'Christus,' the Latin version of 'Christ,' means 'the Anointed One' or 'the Messiah,' and comes from the Hebrew word Mashiach (Messiah).
[...]
Tacitus's history is indeed ancient, from the early second century CE. But, alas, the earliest surviving manuscripts of his work date to the early Middle Ages. Roger Pearse has comprehesive details here.
I'm not sure why the Mail has noticed Tacitus's comments. The article says:
While the manuscripts have long been known, the details in them recently surfaced online and have been welcomed by those of Christian faith.No link, so I don't know where they surfaced. But it's nice to see the Mail drawing the attention of a wider audience to the passage. For more on the works of Cornelius Tacitus, see here.
The article also briefly covers the "Testimonium Flavianum" (the comments about Jesus in the surviving manuscripts of the Antiquities of Flavius Josephus. More on that here and links.
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The Reception of Philo of AlexandriaEdited by Courtney J. P. Friesen, David Lincicum, and David T. Runia
£143.00
Hardback
Published: 04 February 2025
688 Pages | 11 black-and-white figures
246x171mm
ISBN: 9780198836223Description
Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish statesman, philosopher, and religious thinker. A significant amount of his literary corpus was preserved by Christian hands and thereby came to resource numerous theologians in the Christian tradition. After passing into obscurity in Jewish circles in antiquity, Philo was rediscovered in the Italian Renaissance and came to feature in Jewish tradition once again. Philo's works straddle an interest in exegesis and philosophy, and the multi-faceted contents of his thought ensured a long history of reception among readers with their own agendas. This authoritative and systematic collection of essays by an international team of experts surveys Philo's reception from the time of his immediate contemporaries to the present day. The book unfolds over six sections: the first centuries, late antiquity, the middle ages, the renaissance and early modern period, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, and contemporary perspectives.
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This article on the recently announced discoveries at the Nahal Zohar excavation covers the earlier information and also interviews excavator Dr. Eitan Klein. It has some new thoughts about what the pyramid was for:
“The heap is five or six meters high above the surface of the hill, made of huge stones,” Dr. Eitan Klein told The Times of Israel over a phone interview. “We immediately noticed that someone had dug at the top of the structure, probably looters who had identified the grave.”And more on the scroll fragments:“At first, we thought the site could be just a tomb, but later, we noticed the shape of the original walls, and we understood that the structure was a building,” he added. “Eventually, we identified it as a tower or fortress dating back to the Hellenistic period, or 2,200 years ago.” ...
“We know that the main road linking Edom — modern-day Jordan — to Gaza passed directly beneath our structure,” said Klein, co-director of the excavation for the IAA alongside Matan Toledano and Amir Ganor. “We believe the building served to safeguard the road and may have been used by Ptolemaic officials to collect taxes from travelers.”
Although looters reached it first, archaeologists still managed to recover a wealth of organic and inorganic findings, such as papyri fragments inscribed in Greek, wooden tools and fabrics.I don't know if that is based on already deciphered content or just on the suggested purpose of the building.While additional research is required to decipher the content of the papyri, Klein said that they might have been part of tax documents.
There is also more discussion of the coin finds.
Background here.
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This is a guide to ethnographic passages from Alexander Polyhistor’s (early to mid-first century BCE) works on this website, as well as a separate outline of noteworthy passages from his ethnographic works generally. All fragments or citations of his works (F#) are from FGrHist 273 (link to FGrHist).
The first-century BCE historian Alexander Polyhistor compiled an impressive collection of quotations and information from earlier, now lost, works. Unfortunately, his works are lost too. They only survive in quotations from later authors. Still, what is left preserves much of interest.
These include passages on ancient Israel and ancient Judaism, as well as an excerpt from the Babyloniaca, a compendium of Babylonian religious traditions written in Greek by Berossus, an early Hellenistic, Babylonian-Chaldean priest of Bel.
For more on the Ethnic Relations and Migrations blog, see here and here and links.
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I've been around so long that I remember when that first issue of BAR came out.
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A massive pyramid-shaped structure and a roadside station dating back approximately 2,200 years — to the era of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid rulers in Judea — are being unearthed north of Nahal Zohar in the Judean Desert. The excavation, led by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Heritage Ministry, includes volunteers from across the country.Wow. This excavation is just getting started and it's already producing exciting discoveries. I look forward to hearing more. If you are in the area, they are recruiting volunteers.At the Zohar Fortress site, near the Dead Sea, archaeologists have discovered fragments of written papyrus documents, bronze coins from the reign of Antiochus IV and Ptolemaic kings, weapons, wooden artifacts and pieces of fabric.
A smaller Maccabean-era pyramid has been excavated at Khirbet Madras (Hirbet Madras, Horvat Midras) near Jerusalem. It appears to be a tomb. I don't know if the Nahal Zohar has the same function.
It sounds like this project is part of what was once called Operation Scroll (scroll down to links).
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Archaeologists found four Armenian inscriptions in Jerusalem’s Musrara neighborhood. These writings are from the sixth or seventh century.Oddly, the rest of the article refers to Professor Stone as "E. Stone," which makes me wonder if an AI was involved in its writing. Be that as it may, although unmentioned, it looks as though its basis is a technical article published in the current volume, 116 (2025), of the open-access peer-review journal ‘Atiqot. As usual, this volume has a lot of goodies in it. (See immediately previous post.)Experts say the discovery offers clues about early Christian life in the city. Scholar Michael E. Stone says the findings bring “completely new historical information concerning the Christian, and particularly Armenian, settlement in Jerusalem in the seventh century CE.”
[...]
Sixth–Seventh-Century CE Armenian Inscriptions of a Monastic Community in JerusalemAlthough this article has just been published, according to a footnote, it was written in the early 1990s shortly after the discovery of the inscriptions. They have been published elsewhere in the meantime.Michael E. Stone, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem
Abstract
Excavations in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem uncovered four Armenian inscriptions within a monastic complex founded in the fifth–sixth centuries CE. The inscriptions were found on a mosaic floor, on tombstones and on a large pottery bowl, and together with the Birds Mosaic, they probably formed part of one monastic complex, in which Armenians played a significant role. As there is no hint in the historical sources of the existence of this complex, the archaeological discovery contributes new historical information concerning the Christian, and particularly Armenian settlement in Jerusalem in the seventh century CE.
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An excavation report from the Israel Antiquities Authority reveals the discovery of a well-preserved Byzantine-period monastery and farmhouse at Naḥal Peḥar, within the modern settlement of Giv‘ot Bar, north of Beersheba.The underlying technical articles have just been published in the open-access peer-review journal ‘Atiqot 116 (2025):According to excavator Nir-Shimshon Paran, “The monastery was well-preserved, attesting to the daily life of the monks in the Negev in the Byzantine period. It was paved with poorly executed mosaic floors, probably laid by the monks themselves.”
[...]
A Byzantine-Period Monastery and Farmhouse in Nahal Pehar (Giv‘ot Bar), in the Northern NegevNir-Shimshon Paran, Israel Antiquities Authority
Abstract
A Byzantine-period monastery and farmhouse were uncovered on the southwestern bank of Naḥal Peḥar, within the modern settlement of Giv‘ot Bar, in the northern Negev. The monastery was well-preserved, attesting to the daily life of the monks in the Negev in the Byzantine period. It was paved with poorly executed mosaic floors, probably laid by the monks themselves. Most of the finds in the monastery were uncovered on the floors, attesting to its orderly abandonment in the late Byzantine or beginning of the Umayyad period (sixth–seventh centuries CE). The monastery seems to have belonged to the widespread ecclesiastical system documented in the Be’er Sheva‘ Valley and the southern Judean Shephelah. It is possible that the monastery was abandoned in the transition to the Early Islamic period due to a deterioration in the security situation in the region.
**********
Three Greek Inscriptions from the Monastery at Nahal Pehar (Giv‘ot Bar), in the Northern Negev
Leah Di Segni, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Abstract
Three Greek inscriptions were discovered within a small coenobium at Giv‘ot Bar in the northern Negev. One was set in a mosaic pavement in the chapel, and the other two were painted in red ink on building blocks found in the debris near the entrance to the chapel. The mosaic inscription mentions a string of names, probably of the monks who cared for the laying of the mosaic pavement in the chapel, or perhaps for the foundation of the coenobium. The two other inscriptions are epitaphs, indicating that the chapel was also used for burial. One epitaph mentions a date that demonstrates that the monastery was still active in the seventh century CE.
**********
The Glass Finds from the Monastery at Nahal Pehar (Giv‘ot Bar), in the Northern Negev
Tamar Winter, Israel Antiquities Authority
Abstract
The glass finds distributed throughout the monastery at Giv‘ot Bar include vessels that denote the religious nature of the building: bottles, juglets, several types of lamps and windowpanes. These finds are characteristic of ecclesiastical complexes of the late Byzantine period, and attest to an active Christian community at the site.
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“Low stone walls were erected, and the space between them was filled with dirt,” said Stasolla. “The archaeobotanical findings have been especially interesting for us, in light of what is mentioned in the Gospel of John, whose information is considered written or collected by someone familiar with Jerusalem at the time. The Gospel mentions a green area between the Calvary and the tomb, and we identified these cultivated fields.”A long, detailed article with coverage of the excavation results through the late antiquity. For some PaleoJudaica posts on the recent renovations and excavations in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre), and much more on the Church, see here and links.
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I suggest that Neis’s work itself takes part in making worlds, despite demarcating their project from SF strategies.I noted the first essay in the series here.
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Where did Jesus turn water into wine? Where is Cana of Galilee? There are at least five candidates for Cana in the Bible, but, according to archaeologist Tom McCollough in “Searching for Cana: Where Jesus Turned Water into Wine” in the November/December 2015 issue of BAR, only one site offers the most compelling evidence.The article itself is behind the subscription wall.
They have been excavating for quite a while. Twenty years ago David Meadows and I noted some dogdy media coverage.
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Ideas of PossessionInterdisciplinary and Transcultural Perspectives
Edited by Nicole M. Bauer and J. Andrew Doole
£88.99
Hardback
Published: 18 December 2024
456 Pages
235x156mm
ISBN: 9780197679920Also Available In:
Oxford Scholarship OnlineDescription
The idea that an external force can enter an individual and possess their body is prevalent in most cultures across the globe and throughout history. This possession can last for varying lengths of time, and its effects can be considered positive—when a "spirit" provides the individual with powers, abilities, knowledge, or authority—or negative—when the individual suffers and the "spirit" should ideally be cast out, usually through a ritual performed by someone with a designated role.
The study of possession remains marginal in most academic disciplines, but current public discourses indicate that the topic remains relevant across modern and postmodern societies. A globalized world has brought about an unprecedented situation in which decidedly different ideas about possession influence one another, and people attribute a wide variety of experiences and behaviors to spiritual possession. There are those who describe themselves as possessed, sometimes as an inherent element of their identities, and those who are labelled as possessed by others, though this label often comes with a stigma.
Ideas of Possession brings together scholars of various disciplines to consolidate an ongoing academic discussion on how possession is understood within different cultural contexts. Essays present ideas of possession from Antiquity, Biblical Studies, Religious Studies, History, Ethnology, Anthropology, and Psychology, demonstrating how each field's approach to this subject can benefit from interdisciplinary dialogue as we attempt to make sense of such a broad range of interpretations.
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The Samaritan PentateuchAvailable in hardback and paperback printed editions (see link for prices) and an open-access electronic edition.
An English Translation with a Parallel Annotated Hebrew TextMoshe Florentin (author) Abraham Tal (author)
This new translation into English seeks to introduce the reader to the character of the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, while emphasising the fundamental differences between it and the Masoretic version.
The translation is based on a grammatical analysis of each and every word in the text according to its oral pronunciation, informed by examination of the Samaritan translations into Aramaic and Arabic as well as other Samaritan and non-Samaritan sources.
One of the most ancient and important Samaritan manuscripts of the Pentateuch, MS Nablus 6, copied in 1204 CE, serves to represent the Samaritan version. The English translation is placed in the left-hand column of each page, while the Samaritan original is displayed in the right-hand column. For the reader’s convenience, differences between the Samaritan and Masoretic versions are marked in red.
In addition to translating the Hebrew text and highlighting the differences between it and the Masoretic text, each difference is explained in a brief note in an apparatus at the bottom of the page. Where expansion is appropriate, the reader is referred to extended notes at the end of the edition.
Cross-file under Samaritan Watch.
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Instead of full-scale plaster casts and squeezes forgotten in the store rooms of individual museums, our initiative will provide digital files of individual stelae that can be viewed on screen or 3D printed at any scale. Instead of expensive and outdated volumes found only at certain exclusive institutions, our digital initiative will offer an open access resource accessible anywhere at anytime. Finally, our project will allow for reconstruction of the entire Regulus-Salammbô sector in the precinct dedicated to Tinnit and Ba‘l which, when combined with legacy archival data, can provide long–sought–after context for the vast majority of the Phoenician epigraphic corpus.This is a great project. CIS is a wonderful resource, but it needs updating badly.
This essay amounts to a brief history of Carthaginian Punic epigraphy.
For more on the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE), formerly the Harvard Semitic Museum, see here and links. For more on the early work of Wilhelm Gesenius on deciphering Phoenician and Punic, see here (cf. here and here).
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Pilate’s Legal Path to Crucifying JesusThe book has just come out.“He died on the cross for having done the wrong thing (caused a commotion) in the wrong place (the Temple) at the wrong time (just before Passover). Here lies the real tragedy of Jesus the Jew.”[1]
See also Killing the Messiah: the Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus (New York: Oxford University Press, 2025).
By Nathanael Andrade
Chair, Department of History
Binghamton University
March 2025
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A hybrid zoom lecture on 2 April at UCLA by Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina: "Zoroastrian Hermeneutics in Late Antiquity: The Sūdgar Nask of Dēnkard Book 9."
Follow the link for full details. Looks like it's free, but registration is required.
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Full bibliographic information: Rafael Rachel Neis. When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species. University of California Press, 2023.
The first essay in the series is up:
Classification for Networks of Care (Beth Berkowitz)
Here is my question. We see from Rafe’s book that the world of the rabbis is one in which a woman can give birth to a raven, a cow can give birth to a donkey, a donkey can give birth to a horse, and so on. But what happens afterwards?For an essay on the book by the author, see here.
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A medieval manuscript, believed to be the oldest Jewish book in the world, is now on view in New York City.The Jewish News Syndicate has additional details: An extraordinary rarity’: Exhibit of oldest Hebrew book opens at JTS library. “There is something magical about being in the presence of a historically significant object, the oldest Hebrew book ever discovered,” David Kraemer, director of the JTS Library told JNS. (Vita Felling).The Afghan Liturgical Quire, which dates to approximately the year 700 CE, is on display at the Jewish Theological Seminary Library in Morningside Heights as part of an exhibit, “Sacred Words: Revealing the Earliest Hebrew Book” that opens Wednesday and runs until July 17.
Also known as the Afghan Siddur, the diminutive prayer book measures five inches by five inches and “is comprised of prayers, poems, and pages of the oldest discovered Passover Haggadah, which was mysteriously written upside down,” according to a JTS press release.
[...]
The exhibition was previously at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.
Recent PaleoJudaica posts on the Afgan Liturgical Codex are here, here, and here (and follow the links for more). The last of those posts gives my best understanding of the book.
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A good, very brief guide to the writings of the first-century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.
I have noted other posts in the series here and here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
A long, informative article.
For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Magdala stone and the ancient city of Magdala, start here (cf. here and here) and follow the links. The stone is currently on display in the Reagan Library Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition.
For the recently-discovered second ancient synagogue in Magdala, see here. Some PaleoJudaica posts noting discussions of the meaning of the stones iconography are here, here, here, and here.
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Whatever you think about the historicity of the Book of Esther, this post provides lots of cultural and visual background to the book.
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This post is a guide for reading sequentally through ethnographic passages in Strabo of Amaseia’s Geography (early first century CE):Includes passages on the Judeans, the Phoenicians, the Assyrians/Babylonians, the Egyptians, and many more.
For more on this blog, see here and here and links.
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This was published in 2023 by Mohr Siebeck, written by Holger Michael Zellentin. Looks like I missed it then. The electronic version is open access.
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The article has a nice, brief account of the life and death of Julius Caesar. And the links have photos of the coins.
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The Cambridge Companion to Biblical NarrativePart of Cambridge Companions to Religion
EDITOR: Keith Bodner, Crandall University, Canada
PUBLICATION PLANNED FOR: February 2025
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108841290Other available formats:
PaperbackDescription
The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative offers an overview and a concise introduction to an exciting field within literary interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament. Analysis of biblical narrative has enjoyed a resurgence in recent decades, and this volume features essays that explore many of the artistic techniques that readers encounter in an array of texts. Specially commissioned for this volume, the chapters analyze various scenes in Genesis, Exodus and the wilderness wanderings, Israel's experience in the land and royal experiment in Kings and Chronicles, along with short stories like Ruth, Jonah, Esther, and Daniel. New Testament essays examine each of the four gospels, the book of Acts, stories from the letters of Paul, and reading for the plot in the book of Revelation. Designed for use in undergraduate and graduate courses, this Companion will serve as an excellent resource for instructors and students interested in understanding and interpreting biblical narrative.
- Provides readers with an overview of the Old & New testament
- Written in a user-friendly style with a pedagogical approach
- Readers are acquainted with the best recent scholarship in the field
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Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2, is finished:
My first copy, the jacket a bit battered by the international journey, arrived a few minutes ago.
For the same moment for volume 1 in October of 2013 , see here.
The link to the Eerdmans page is here. You can pre-order it now. The official publication date is 24 April 2025.
Background here and links. Cross-file under IN THE MAIL and MOTP2.
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International conference at UCLA on March 13-14, 2025. This is an in-person conference, but there is also a Zoom link.
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Adi Ophir, In the Beginning Was the State: Divine Violence in the Hebrew Bible (Fordham University Press, 2023).... By “Job’s questions,” Ophir means the ones readers tend to ask whenever the God of the Hebrew Bible enacts, authorizes, or declines to intervene in the text’s frequent killings, wars, and genocidal campaigns: why is this God so violent? Where is the justice here? How can we still understand this God as good? How shall we as readers respond?
But while Ophir’s book is also about divine violence, his questions are blessedly less conventional queries. Rather, he writes as a political philosopher observing a governmental system and seeking to understand how it works, for better or worse. ...
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Ze’ev Meshel, renowned Israeli archaeologist, exemplary guide, passionate desert lover, and explorer, passed away on December 14, 2024, at his home in Givatayim, Israel. He was 92 years old.Among his accomplishments was the excavation of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in 1975-76. For many PaleoJudaica posts on the discoveries there, especially the epigraphic ones, see here and links plus here.[...]
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Why would a Jewish scribe writing in Shushan in the 4th century B.C.E. write about events that settled the score between Saul and God in the preceding century? Jona Schellekens, a sociologist at the Hebrew University, came up with a theory for this, which he published in a paper in 2009.This Haaretz article is a good survey of the historical-critical issues for the Book of Esther. It was published originally in 2015 and I linked to it then, with comments.The Jewish propaganda theory
According to Schellekens' interpretation, the Book of Esther is a fanciful family history of a rich and powerful Jewish family in 4th century B.C.E. Shushan, a legendary account of how the family's ancestor Mordechai gained power in court, and of the source of the family's wealth and authority.
Schellekens's hypothesis, which I did not comment on in my earlier post, strikes me as a plausible, but speculative, reconstruction.
His methodology has similarties to the approach of the TheTorah.com essay by Prof. Rabbi Reuven Kimelman to which I linked yesterday. Both trace structural similarites in the Book of Esther to earlier biblical stories. It's interesting that the latter thinks the parallels to the Ruth story are centrally important, whereas the former ignores them.
The article by Schellekens underlying the Haaretz piece is "Accession Days and Holidays: The Origins of the Jewish Festival of Purim" Journal of Biblical Literature, 128. 1 (Spring, 2009):115-134. https://doi.org/10.2307/25610170.
The links are to JSTOR and to the JBL website, respectively. The article is behind the subscription wall in both.
For more on the historical background of the Book of Esther, see here.
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About the roleFor full details and application information, follow the link. The closing date for applications is 27 April 2025.The Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College London is seeking to appoint a permanent Lecturer in Hebrew Bible.
You will contribute to a department that has a long and distinguished tradition of contribution to Biblical and Jewish Studies and that is known for, among other things, its excellence in the integrated study of Theology, Religious Studies and the Arts.
You will contribute to undergraduate modules including a first-year one on Religious Texts and to a Biblical Hebrew class. You will contribute to other BA and MA modules as appropriate to your expertise. You will have expertise in teaching and research in Hebrew Bible, including Hebrew language, ancient Israelite, Judahite and Judaean literature, history and customs. You will play an active role in the administration of the department, and will be research active.
This consists 40% teaching, 40% research, 20% administration. Appropriate support and training will be provided in the context of a supportive department and faculty.
This post will be offered on a full-time, indefinite contract.
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The phenomenon of simple and neat corrections is a modern reality, not an ancient one. In this post, I’d like to highlight some techniques scribes used to correct the biblical text.
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Why are the Books of Ruth and Esther so much alike?Both books are about female protagonists successfully navigating a male world. That seems to me to explain the parallels. Beyond that, the books are quite different. But I can't say I understand this distinction between narratology and emplotment vs narrative and plot. And I am wary of neologistic literary criticism. So maybe it's just me.
[ UPDATE (13 March 2025): Additional commentary here.]
On a less serious note, TheTorah.com has another Purim essay by "Dr. Rav Alechem Shalom": Strategic Questionnaire: Your Opinion Matters to the Torah!
As TheTorah.com approaches its 12th anniversary, I am honored to have been hired to oversee its first-ever Strategic Questionnaire. Rest assured, your feedback will be taken with the utmost seriousness and will play a vital role in shaping the future of TheTorah.com
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A study by Harvard University’s David Reich Lab has found that the Punic people, traditionally believed to be a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Central and Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age, had only a minority contributor of ancestry from the Levant.According to the article, this study is not yet published. But its reported results fit in with other genetic studies, such as this one. The Phoenician colonies were around for centuries and it would not be surprising that the colonizers interbred with the native population, which would have diluted the original genetic profile over time.[...]
Whoever the Punic peoples were, they wrote in, and presumably spoke, Phoenician and they worshipped Phoenician gods.
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Behind the subscription wall, that is. But the H-Judaic post summarizes the issue, and if you follow the link to the journal's website you can read brief abstracts of the articles. Ancient Judaism is well represented.
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The investigations focused mainly on the so-called Area A, located in the central area of the city, near the ancient course of the Tiber River. The area is bounded on the west by the Great Horrea, on the south by the sanctuary of the Four Temples, the Mithraeum of the Seven Spheres and the Domus of Apuleius, and on the east by the Piazzale delle Corporazioni. Despite its strategic location, the area had never been explored and was a perfect stratigraphic basin that was still intact.Bold-font emphasis in original.During the excavations, within a large and sumptuous building discovered here and already extensively unearthed, a small semi-hypogeous space with an underlying well for rising or otherwise drawing groundwater, in which a mikveh, or Jewish purifying ritual bath, can in all probability be recognized, among the remains of its component rooms and some black-and-white tile floor mosaics. This semi-hypogean space, rectangular with a semicircular apse on the east side, shows several construction phases. ...
Based on associated artifacts, the initial assessment is that the mikveh dates from the fourth to sixth centuries CE.
Over at Variant Readings, Brent Nongbri notes the discovery, with background and comments: A Newly Discovered mikveh at Ostia.
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The nun who lived in chains: First-ever evidence of extreme asceticism found near Jerusalem. Asceticism is the practice of denial of physical or psychological desires in order to attain a spiritual ideal or goal, often self-inflicted (JOANIE MARGULIES, Jerusalem Post)
Chained in faith: 5th-century female skeleton may be world’s 1st self-mortifying Christian nun. Cutting-edge technology allows a team of Israeli researchers to determine that mysterious ironclad remains found in a church near Jerusalem belonged to a woman (ROSSELLA TERCATIN, Times of Israel)
Background here.
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As we mark a decade of sharing bibliographic updates and scholarly announcements, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our colleagues, readers and supporters. What began as a small initiative has grown into a platform reaching around 1,200 readers per week. Your engagement, encouragement, and feedback have been invaluable in shaping and sustaining this project. We deeply appreciate your continued interest and look forward to many more years of collaboration, discovery, and shared enthusiasm for Iranian Studies.BiblioIranica is a valuable resource. I met Arash Zeini at the Iranian Kingship Workshop at the University of St Andrews in 2014 and began following his blog shortly afterwards. The blog was rebooted and expanded as Bibliographia Iranica in 2015. I check it frequently and have linked to it often.[...]
Congratulations to Arash and his team on this milestone.
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The Institute of Classical Studies in collaboration with Dr Michele Bianconi, Dr Vladimir Olivero and the University of Oxford Faculty of Linguistics and Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies will offer two free, online semi-intensive courses in Phoenician. These courses are aimed primarily at graduate students and more advanced researchers who will use the language for academic purposes (though not necessarily on dissertation work), but others are very welcome to apply.There is a limit to enrollment numbers. 22 March is the deadline for applications. Follow the link for full information.One course will be offered at elementary level, while the second course will be at intermediate level. Please find application links and further information on these courses below.
[...]
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For the first time since the war began, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Hasidim could enter Rav Ashi's grave site, of which half is located in Israel and half in Lebanon, without sneaking in, clashing with soldiers or being arrested. Instead, this visit was fully coordinated with the Israel Defense Forces, and it was massive – a river of believers who arrived on chartered buses.Not surprisingly, there is controversy over this move, including about who is really buried in the grave.Noam, a northern Israeli resident who came with his wife, said he has lived in the area for 20 years, but had not heard about the grave of Rav Ashi – a great Talmudic scholar who was one of the editors of the Babylonian Talmud – until this year. "Suddenly, when they said people could enter, we said we have to come," he said.
A couple of PaleoJudaica posts involving Rav Ashi and the Talmud are here (no. 3) and here.
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Bruno Callegher, Coins and economy in Magdala/Taricheae from the Hasmoneans to the Umayyad Period. Novum Testamentum et orbis antiquus. Series archaeologica, 9. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2023. Pp. 405. ISBN 9783525501931.Cross-file under Numismatics.Review by
Amit Gvaryahu, University of Copenhagen. amgv@theol.ku.dk... Contrary to its title, this book is not chiefly about the economy of Magdala or even the role of coins within it. It is at heart a catalog of all the coins found in the digs. ...
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This essay is a summary of an article by Jennie Ebeling, “How Archaeology Illuminates the Bible,” in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. The article is behind the subscription wall.
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A Prototype Approach to Hate and Anger in the Hebrew BibleThe hardback came out in 2023, but I missed it then. The paperback came out last November.By Deena Grant
Copyright 2023Paperback
£19.99
Hardback
£54.99
eBook
£17.99112 Pages
by Routledge
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Taylor & Francis eBooksDescription
This innovative book applies findings from the field of cognitive linguistics to the study of emotions in the Hebrew Bible. The book draws on the prototype approach to conceptual categories to help interpret emotion language in biblical passages. Contemporary scholarship has come to recognize that biblical emotion terms do not necessarily possess exact equivalents within our modern lexicons, even if some of these terms express (or appear to express) concepts similar to those conveyed by modern emotion language. In particular, the book focuses on sn’ and ḫrh, which are almost always equated in modern English with hate and anger. However, the ancient Hebrew roots evoke varied and robust emotion-scripts that are quite different than their English counterparts. We see how the prototype script model may help to expose the unique nuances of sn’ and ḫrh and put into profile elements of these emotions that may otherwise go unnoticed. Overall, the study demonstrates that even though modern emotion terms cannot fully capture the ancient emotional experience, our shared use of language to evoke meaning offers us entrée into the emotional world represented in the Hebrew Bible.
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Transforming ProverbsSeries:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 150Author: Isabell Christine Hoppe
This is the first published monograph on 4Q185 Sapiential Admonitions B, an enigmatic Dead Sea Scroll’s wisdom text. The author offers a new edition that is based on the IAA images and aided by the Göttingen Qumran-Digital database. In an intertextual analysis, she shows that the text of 4Q185 radically transforms the sapiential discourse manifested in Proverbs, by integrating both eschatological tropes and the discourse on memory and national identity reflected in Pss 78, 105 and 106. Before it was conserved in the manuscript, the text underwent literary growth: the section discussing Isa 40:6–8 proves to be a redactional insertion.
Copyright Year: 2025
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-71622-3
Publication: 20 Jan 2025
EUR €115.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-71621-6
Publication: 23 Jan 2025
EUR €115.00
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Kenneth Kitchen, a giant of Egyptology and lifelong University of Liverpool student and staff member, passed away on 6th February, aged 92.Peter J Williams has an obituary at Tyndale House: Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen (1932–2025).Professor Kitchen was born in Aberdeen, started studying Egyptology at the University of Liverpool in 1951, and never left, becoming a lecturer and in due course being awarded a Personal Chair and then the title of Brunner Professor of Egyptology.
[...]
Kenneth Anderson Kitchen was a phenomenon, one of a kind, and I felt very privileged to know him. He was someone with a vast knowledge of the ancient world. For parts of his life, he may have been the person who had read a greater variety of ancient Near and Middle Eastern texts than anyone in the entire world.The Egyptian Exploration Society also has a notice:
Kenneth A Kitchen (1932–2025).
The EES, and many friends and colleagues around the world, mourn the death of Ken Kitchen who sadly passed away on Thursday 6th February, aged 92.I am very sad to hear of Professor Kitchen's passing. I never met him, but when I was a teenager I encountered his popular book Ancient Orient and Old Testament. It signficantly influenced my decision to go into biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies.
Requiescat in pace.
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The exceptional influence and popularity enjoyed by DEH from late antiquity through the Middle Ages, and its critical interface with Jewish historiography as a work both based on and source of major Jewish histories, suggest that this work is important for scholars of pre-modern Judaism and/or Christianity to know. DEH’s afterlives represent a treasure-trove of literary-historical data for studying the (largely conceptual) Jewish-Christian interface in premodernity. Perhaps most interesting of all is that DEH commanded concerted and widespread attention from readers, Christian and Jewish, starting just decades after the penning of the work up through the early-20th century, when scholarly interest fizzles out. ...An excellent, brief introduction to Pseudo-Hegesippus' De excidio Hierosolymita, an important, but much-neglected, late-antique, Christian, Latin reworking of Josephus' Jewish War.
I noted Carson Bay's book, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus (CUP, 2023) here with links.
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Lucia F. Carbone, Local coinages in a Roman world: second century BC-first century AD. A catalogue of the Richard B. Witschonke collection of coins in the early Roman provinces. New York: American Numismatic Society, 2023. 2 vols. Pp. 576. ISBN 9780897224000.This chapter is of particular interest for PaleoJudaica:Review by
Corey J. Ellithorpe, University of Central Oklahoma. cellithorpe@uco.edu
35. The Decapolis, Idumaea, and Judaea
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (David Hendin, Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
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One of the goals of the new dig, the first at the site in over 40 years, is to discover more about what happened to Alexandrium during the 1st century CE, especially during the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-73 CE). The excavation is being carried out by Bar Ilan University in cooperation with the Staff Officer of Archaeology at the Department of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria (the site stands in Area C, under Israeli control).I noted a recent epigraphic discovery at Sartaba-Alexandrium here and here. The current article is a broader survey of what is happening at the excavation.
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Beyond individual fragments, there are a few groups of manuscripts whose fame extends beyond the usual audience of Genizah scholars too. Among these, the ‘Second Temple texts’ are pre-eminent. These manuscripts, whose textual origins lie in the period between the construction of the Second Temple in the 6th c BCE and its destruction in 70 CE, have somehow been preserved in the amber of the Fusṭāṭ Genizah, despite largely dropping out of the historical record elsewhere.The article also discusses the apocryphal psalms manuscript Antonin 798, another Cairo Geniza text. More on it here and here.Foremost among these are the fragments of the six Genizah manuscripts of Ben Sira – with copies a thousand years older subsequently turning up in caves 2 and 11 at Qumran, and at Masada. The first Ben Sira discoveries were followed rapidly, thanks to Solomon Schechter’s remarkable eye for the unusual, by the two manuscripts of the Zadokite Work, T-S 10K6 and T-S 16.311 . Later on, numerous fragments of its forebear, the Damascus Document, were found in Qumran caves 4 and 5. Added to these is the single parchment manuscript of Aramaic Levi in the Cambridge, Oxford and Manchester Genizah collections, which preserves a text probably composed in the 3rd c. BCE. Fragments were identified in Qumran caves 1 and 4.
What is the relationship between the Second Temple texts of the Genizah and the fragment under discussion here, Mosseri I.40? The first publication of the Mosseri fragment suggested a thematic and historical link to this group of Second Temple manuscripts. Since then, except for the occasional appearance in footnotes, the Mosseri manuscript had mostly been forgotten, until this year.
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Using ultraviolet (UV) photography, Kessel revealed a lost Bible chapter hidden beneath layers of writing in an ancient manuscript. This practice of reusing parchment was common in medieval times due to the scarcity of writing materials, particularly parchment made from animal skins. Scribes often scraped off existing text to overwrite new content, resulting in palimpsests—manuscripts bearing traces of previous writings.I've been debating whether to post this one, since PaleoJudaica has already posted on the story itself. But the bold-font phrase (my emphasis) is appearing often enough in the media that I think it merits some comment.
The story involves a significant discovery. But it is quite misleading to call it the discovery of "a lost Bible chapter." This phrase and similar have been appearing a lot in the coverage. Usually the Jerusalem Post handles such stories well, so I was surprised to see it here.
The actual story: new technology has allowed scholars to read the erased bottom-layer text of a double-palimpsest section of a Georgian manuscript. Written under the Georgian text was a Greek copy of the Apophthegmata patrum. And under that was an Old Syriac translation of the Gospels dated to the sixth century, which is early. Not much of this layer is left, but part of a chapter of Matthew has been recovered.
That in itself is exciting, but of further interest the text of Matthew 12:1 has a rare variant reading. It adds "and rub them in their hands" after (the disciples) "began to pick the heads of grain." This is not a unique reading. It also appears in another (fifth-century) Old Syriac manuscript called the Codex Curetonianus (British Library, Add. 14451). The two share a number of readings against the text of the Syriac Peshitta.
A notable story overall. Already covered in 2023 in the articles I linked to here.
It is technically true that a Syriac biblical manuscript was lost, and part of a chapter of it has now been found. Let us rejoice. But no chapter of the Bible went missing and has only now been rediscovered. That would be newsworthy indeed.
As I said, the phrase has appeared in many headlines. I don't mean to single out the JP. The rest of its article is substantially accurate. But one more detail is worth mentioning.
The article credits "Jerusalem Post Staff," but at the bottom it adds, "The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system." I take that to mean that someone used an LLM AI to produce the piece. I see more and more articles that have notes like this at the end.
Journalists, please don't try to cut corners with AI. It is unintelligent. It has no judgment. It makes things up. And it propagates bad takes like "a lost Bible chapter." Double and triple check anything it tells you.
Cross-file under Technology Watch.
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