The life of an (aspiring) lost-language decipherer

AMBITIOUS HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS: The lonely life of a glyph-breaker. The heroic days of deciphering hieroglyphics and cuneiform make for great stories, but will we ever see that happen again? (Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, Aeon).

Rather than trying to amass oceans of scientific papers listing self-evident results and futile findings, instead of inserting AI and unnecessary technologies into the most human of activities, like teaching, universities and research institutions should value and support their people (something that, nowadays, happens more and more rarely) and be especially inclusive of the ones among them who are able to think outside the box, to go the extra mile towards the achievement of what is believed to be unattainable or, simply, impossible – like the decipherment of undeciphered writing systems.

There’s no question that challenges remain. Linear A, the Phaistos Disc, the Indus Valley script, the Rongorongo writing system, the Singapore Stone and many other mysteries still await their codebreakers. Their decipherment seems unlikely – especially for scripts with very few surviving texts – but so too did the breakthroughs in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Linear B.

I agree with all of the above, not least the reservations about AI matching human creativity in the foreseeable future.

This long article has a good discussion of the challenges of deciphering lost languages, a challenge that is more difficult today because most of the remaining lost-language remnants survive in such sparse samples. It also includes detailed accounts of Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian hierogyphics and Ventris's decipherment of Linear B.

The headline mentions the decipherment of cuneiform, but the article says little about it. For more, see here, here and (especially) here.

For a test-case of AI decipherment from some years ago, using Ugaritic, see here and here. For more comments on the use of AI for various aspects of ancient language decipherment and analysis, see here, here (especially), here, and here.

For the importance of the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian and cuneiform languages, see my post Why we need Akkadian (and the humanities!), again from some years ago, but still relevant. See also here.

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

Review of Regards croisés sur la pseudépigraphie dans l’Antiquité / Perspectives on pseudepigraphy in antiquity

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Regards croisés sur la pseudépigraphie dans l’Antiquité / Perspectives on pseudepigraphy in antiquity.

Anne-France Morand, Eric Crégheur, Karine Laporte, Gaëlle Rioual, Regards croisés sur la pseudépigraphie dans l’Antiquité / Perspectives on pseudepigraphy in antiquity. Judaïsme ancien et origines du christianisme, 30. Turnhout: Brepols, 2024. Pp. 304. ISBN 9782503602608.

Review by
Fabienne Jourdan, CNRS. jourdan.fabienne@cnrs.fr

... Fidèle à son objectif, l’ouvrage traite la pseudépigraphie selon ses différents aspects : littéraires, historiques, religieux et politiques; selon ses différents types de réceptions, anciens et modernes, gouvernés par différentes attentes; il redéfinit la notion selon la nature spécifique des textes qu’elle sert à qualifier. La bibliographie est très bien exploitée. Cet ouvrage constituera un maillon essentiel dans la poursuite des recherches sur le sujet.

The volume includes many articles on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

The volume and the review are in French. A Google English translation of the review is here.

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The dogs(?) that didn't snarl(?)

PASSOVER IS COMING: The dogs that didn’t bark at the Exodus. As the Israelites prepare to leave Egypt, the Torah makes a reference to dogs. But why? (Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum, The Jewish Chronicle).

Dogs hardly appear in the Torah, but they do feature in the Pesach story. On the night set for leaving Egypt, God promised that “no dog shall snarl against the Israelites” (Exodus 11:7). It’s an odd thing to mention. Why worry about a few woofs?

An intriguing reading that involves the Egyptian god Anubis. With some midrashic support.

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The City of David, the Temple Mount, and the Givati Parking Lot

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Parking Lot That Determined the Future of Jerusalem’s Past. In the 1860s, a British explorer discovered the City of David. Fifteen years ago, the Palestinian Authority tried to stop those who wanted to follow in his footsteps (DORON SPIELMAN, Mosaic Magazine).

Charles Warren kindled an ongoing quest to uncover Jerusalem as it was during the times of the First and Second Temples. The patient, careful work undertaken since that time has vastly increased the scholarly understanding of the Hebrew Bible (as well as the Christian one) and of Jewish history, and still attracts some of the world’s leading archaeologist, as well as scientists who are constantly developing new methods of exploring these sites.

Of course, those who have been involved in the project that Warren began have brought with them various religious, ideological, and scholarly agendas. But a different kind of agenda has emerged over the past several decades: an attempt to stop further exploration and destroy the archaeological record, in order to throw into doubt the connection between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland. In what follows, I will look at those who have in recent years continued what Warren began, and how their progress was almost thwarted.

Charles Warren and his shaft, Herod’s Water Channel, Hezekiah's Tunnel and its inscription, and the back story of the Givati Parking Lot excavation.

This long article is fascinating and informative. Well worth the read.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Givati Parking Lot excavation, see here and links, plus here, here, and here.

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Jodi Magness

PROFILE: The Archaeologist’s World: Jodi Magness and Her Ancient Discoveries (Laurie Paolicelli, The Chapel Hill Local Reporter).

It was just another day for Jodi Magness: breakfast with her husband, a walk around her Chapel Hill neighborhood, and then a call from Austria. A documentary producer wanted to meet her in Jerusalem to discuss the Shroud of Turin — a linen cloth bearing the image of a man some believe to be Jesus Christ. For the average person, this might require a quick internet search to recall what the Shroud even is. For Magness, it was simply one of many calls from experts worldwide seeking her expertise on Jesus and ancient Jerusalem.

As the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 2002, Magness has established herself as a preeminent authority on the historical landscapes of modern Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories from the time of Jesus through the tenth century.

[...]

A nice, brief biography of Professor Magness and overview of her work.

For more on her work, including the remarkable Huqoq excavation, see here and links, plus here and here.

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Avi Hurvitz (1936-2025)

SAD NEWS FROM H-JUDAIC: Passing of Avi Hurwitz (1936-2025) (Elena Beletckaia).

H-Judaic is greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Avi Hurwitz (1936-2025), Professor Emeritus of Bible and Hebrew Language at the Hebrew University.

Born in Israel, Prof. Hurwitz specialized in the linguistic analysis of the Hebrew Bible. His effort to distinguish early and late biblical Hebrew was widely discussed.

[...]

May his memory be for a blessing.

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Masotti, But the Wise Shall Understand (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Felipe A. Masotti

But the Wise Shall Understand

Reuse of Prophecies, Chronotope, and Merging of Eschatological Horizons in Daniel 10-12

[»Aber die weise sind werden's verstehen.« Wiederverwendung von Prophezeiungen, Chronotopos und Verschmelzung von Eschatologiehorizonten in Daniel 10-12.]
2025. XXIV, 414 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 157

€109.00
including VAT

sewn paper
available
978-3-16-163402-4

Also Available As:
eBook PDF
€109.00

Summary

Felipe A. Masotti demonstrates how the closely related phenomena of literary reuse of prophecies and time-space representation are employed in Daniel 10-12 to describe the ultimate end. Adopting Bakhtin's chronotope concept, Masotti shows how prophetic texts from Numbers, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk are strategically reused to build a narratological architecture emphasizing the eschatological expectancy of an impending divine intervention. This volume illustrates how Daniel 10-12 creates a tension between conservatism and innovation regarding older eschatological expectations. Consequently, it unveils how the chronotopical architecture of Daniel 10-12 grounds a theology of God's sovereignty over classical prophetic time, and how the merging of eschatological horizons between its apocalyptic discourse and the reused prophecies is intentionally achieved through textual saturation.

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Purity in Ancient Judaism (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Purity in Ancient Judaism
Texts, Contexts, and Concepts

Edited by Lutz Doering, Jörg Frey and Laura von Bartenwerffer

[Reinheit im antiken Judentum. Texte, Kontexte und Konzepte.]
2025. VIII, 427 pages.
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 528

€154.00
including VAT

cloth
available
978-3-16-159329-1

Also Available As:
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Open Access

Summary

Purity plays a central role in ancient Judaism. It is relevant in the encounter with the sacred, especially at the Jerusalem Temple, but also in the context of sacred communities, for example the Qumran yaḥad. Ancients Jews, however, also strove for purity far away from the Temple, both in the land of Israel remote from Jerusalem and in the Diaspora. Yet, means, procedures, and conceptualizations in relation to purity and purification varied. While purity therefore seems to be »everywhere« in ancient Judaism, it is not everywhere the same. The present volume explores different texts and material evidence in relation to purity, impurity, and purification, from both the historic land of Israel and the Diaspora. It adduces comparative evidence from Greece, probes and refines concepts of moral and ritual (im)purity, and traces the relevance of purity debates in nascent Christianity.

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Gaza archaeology exhibition in Paris

NOW OPEN: New Gaza archaeology exhibit opens in Paris, as most sites in enclave severely damaged. Artifacts on display include findings from Franco-Palestinian excavations initiated in Gaza in 1995, as well as items from the collection of Gazan real estate magnate Jawdat Khoudary (ROSSELLA TERCATIN, Times of Israel).

Titled “Rescued Treasures of Gaza: 5000 Years of History,” the exhibition is hosted by the Institut du Monde Arabe (Institute for the Arab World) and organized in partnership with the Museum of Art and History of Geneva (MAH) and the Palestinian National Authority.

Running from April 3 to November 2, 2025, the Institut du Monde Arabe is exhibiting what it calls “an exceptional collection featuring 130 archaeological masterpieces, each bearing witness to the vibrant and millennia-old history of this Palestinian enclave,” in a statement provided to The Times of Israel (the Institute did not respond to multiple requests for an interview with one of its representatives).

For PaleoJudaica posts on this collection and on this exhibition as upcoming, see here and links.

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Albert Pietersma (1935–2025)

SAD NEWS: Obituary for Albert Pietersma (1935–2025) (Robert Hiebert, IOSCS).

Albert Pietersma
Professor Emeritus of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
September 28, 1935 – March 25, 2025

Albert Pietersma passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at the age of 89. ...

He was a remarkable scholar whose contributions to the discipline of Septuagint Studies were stimulating and impactful, not least in his capacity as Joint-Editor-in-Chief (along with Benjamin Wright) of A New English Translation of the Septuagint (OUP, 2007) and of the forthcoming Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint series (SBL Press). Included among his numerous publications were monographs and essays dealing with Greek and Coptic papyrus texts of Genesis, Psalms, The Apocalypse of Elijah, The Acts of Phileas, and The Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres, as well as with topics pertaining to the textual criticism, exegesis, and hermeneutics of the Septuagint. ...

Reqiescat in pace.

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Review panel on Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven (5)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has published another essay in its review panel on Rafael Rachel Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven:

The Theory of the Raven (Sarah Pierce Taylor)

In responding to Rafael Neis’ book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven, I write as a scholar of premodern South Asian religious literature focusing on affect, embodiment, and gender and sexuality. Being an outsider to the field means that the finer strokes of Rabbinic law and the like are impenetrable, but it is also a position of privilege for the ways in which it makes readily apparent the broader strokes and interventions of Neis’ project. ...

I noted the earlier essays in the series here and links.

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Zoom lecture by Prof. Amy-Jill Levine on Jesus' parables

CAL STATE LONG BEACH COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS: Zoom Event- Dr. Amy-Jill Levine: "Jesus’ Parables as Jewish Stories"

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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Guide to ethnographic passages in Poseidonios of Apameia

ETHNIC RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: Guide to Poseidonios of Apameia (Philip A. Harlan).

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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Aliyari Babolghani, The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection (Brill)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection. Notice of a New Book: Aliyari Babolghani, Salman. 2024. The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection: Trilingual Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions of Susa I (DARIOSH STUDIES III/1) (Ancient Iranian Series 17). Leiden: Brill.

Follow the link for description and link to the publisher's page.

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Ten Commandments Scroll coming to Reagan Library exhibition

SCROLL ROTATION: Ten Commandments Scroll To Be Featured At The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (Reagan Foundation press release).

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.

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.

[...]

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.

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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Biblical Studies Carnival 226

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: The March Carnival: A Special Edition- Agade (Jim West).

Some of you are familiar with Jack Sasson’s brilliant email list called Agade. ...

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.

PaleoJudaica refers to the Agade List often. And Phil Long, the coordinator of the Biblical Studies Carnival, has more on it here.

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

Bentley Layton (1941-2025)

SAD NEWS: Bentley Layton, distinguished Coptic linguist and scholar of ancient Christianity (YaleNews).

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.

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.

[...]

Requiescat in pace.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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

On the Coptic “Pillow Psalter”

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The “Pillow Psalter” Returns. The Oldest Complete Book of Psalms is Back on Display (Marek Dospěl).

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.

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Assyrian New Year 2025

THE ASSYRIAN NEW YEAR 6775 is celebrated today: President Rashid congratulates the Babylonian-Assyrian New Year (Iraqi News Agency).

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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Relocating the Valley of Rephaim?

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY: Archaeologist proposes new location for Biblical Rephaim Valley. New research suggests the Rephaim Valley may have been named after a powerful Philistine family, not mythical giants (Jerusalem Post).

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/10.1080/09018328.2024.2425081

ABSTRACT

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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More Egyptian Book of the Dead fragments recovered

MUSEUM EXCAVATION: Outstanding discovery in Trento: fragments of a very rare Egyptian papyrus found (Redazione, Finestre sull'Arte).

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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Podcast interview with Emanuel Tov on the scribes of Qumran

THE STONE CHAPEL PODCAST with David Capes has a two-part interview with renowned Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Emanuel Tov. Transcripts included (and quoted below).

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.

Now 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.

Did Scribes Copy the Bible Correctly? (Part 2) With Emanuel Tov

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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Review panel on Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven (3-4)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has published two more essays in its review panel on Rafael Rachel Neis. When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species. University of California Press, 2023.

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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Kitchen obituary

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Milestones: Kenneth A. Kitchen (1932–2025). Leading Egyptologist who connected Egyptian and biblical history (James K. Hoffmeier).

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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Schmied, Anklage Gottes im Midrasch zu den Klageliedern (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Mareike Schmied

Anklage 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) 191

Published in German.
€129.00
including VAT

cloth
available
978-3-16-159325-3

Also Available As:
eBook PDF
€129.00

Summary

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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Chapman, The Victorians and the Holy Land (Eerdmans)

NEW BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

The Victorians and the Holy Land
Adventurers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in the Lands of the Bible

by Allan Chapman

Imprint: Eerdmans

280 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

PAPERBACK
9780802884091
Publication Date: February 6, 2025
$34.99
£26.99

EBOOK
9781467468206
$34.99
Publication Date: February 6, 2025

DESCRIPTION

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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Jug decorated with camels etc. excavated in Negev

THERIO-ORNAMENTAL CERAMICS: Archaeologists in Negev unearth 1,200-year-old jug decorated with camels. Artifact daubed with red pattern and trio of animals, considered advanced for its time, discovered near olive press in Yatir Forest (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

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.

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.”

For more on the history and archaeology of the site of Anim, including that synagogue, see here.

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More on the Western Wall stone airport-controversy

EXHIBITION: Controversy erupts over 2000-year-old Western Wall stone on display at Ben-Gurion Airport. Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has condemned the exhibit but the Israel Antiquities Authority claims it is ‘right and proper’ (Ellie Grant, Jewish Chronicle).

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.

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

The CIA had a psychic looking for the Ark of the Covenant?

THEY HAD TOP MEN WORKING ON IT: Declassified CIA files reveal psychic quest for the Ark of the Covenant. Review the documents: Remote Viewer No. 032 described a container made of wood, gold, and silver, adorned with images of six-winged angels, and similar in shape to a coffin (Jerusalem Post).

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.

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

The Mail on Tacitus on Jesus and Pilate

HISTORY: Firsthand evidence of Jesus' crucifixion is found in ancient Roman manuscript. (Stacy Liberatore, Daily Mail).

Ancient manuscripts detailing the events during the Roman Empire are believed to contain 'first hand' evidence about the life and death of Jesus Christ.

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).

[...]

Aside from some pedantic details, this article gives a pretty good account of Tacitus's comments on "Christus" and the early Christians.

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.

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

The Reception of Philo of Alexandria (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Reception of Philo of Alexandria

Edited 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: 9780198836223

Description

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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More on the pyramid and scroll finds at Nahal Zohar

ARCHAEOLOGY AND EPIGRAPHY UPDATE: Enigmatic 2,200-year-old ‘pyramid’ near Dead Sea may have been fortress for ancient taxman. Excavations by Israeli archaeologists at the mysterious Judean Desert site reveal artifacts suggesting it served as a post for tax collection and later, a Roman-era tomb (Rosella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

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.”

“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.”

And more on the scroll fragments:

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.

While additional research is required to decipher the content of the papyri, Klein said that they might have been part of tax documents.

I don't know if that is based on already deciphered content or just on the suggested purpose of the building.

There is also more discussion of the coin finds.

Background here.

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Guide to ethnographic passages by Alexander Polyhistor

ETHNIC RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: Guide to Alexander Polyhistor (Philip Harland).

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.

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

Half a century of Biblical Archaeology Review

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Setting the BAR. The Story of Biblical Archaeology Review.

I've been around so long that I remember when that first issue of BAR came out.

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

A pyramid and scroll fragments excavated in Judean Desert

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE AND SCROLL BITS! Archaeologists discover massive 2,200-year-old pyramid in Judean Desert. Experts uncover a massive pyramid-shaped structure, ancient papyrus documents and rare artifacts from Hellenistic-era rule in southern Israel, shedding new light on the region’s history Yaron Drukman, Ynet News).

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.

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.

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.

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).

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

Four ancient Armenian inscriptions from Jerusalem

ARMENIAN WATCH: Armenian Inscriptions Found in Jerusalem, Revealing 7th-Century Settlement (Abdul Moeed, Greek Reporter).

Archaeologists found four Armenian inscriptions in Jerusalem’s Musrara neighborhood. These writings are from the sixth or seventh century.

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.”

[...]

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.)

Sixth–Seventh-Century CE Armenian Inscriptions of a Monastic Community in Jerusalem

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.

Although 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.

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

Late-antique monastery excavated in northern Negev

ARCHAEOLOGY: Byzantine monastery in Northern Negev reveals monastic life in the desert. Archaeologists uncover rare Byzantine-era structures near Beersheba, including a monastery, winepress, and burials (Jerusalem Post).

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.

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.”

[...]

The underlying technical articles have just been published in the open-access peer-review journal ‘Atiqot 116 (2025):

A Byzantine-Period Monastery and Farmhouse in Nahal Pehar (Giv‘ot Bar), in the Northern Negev

Nir-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.

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

An ancient garden at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher?

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Echoing Gospel account, traces of ancient garden found under Church of Holy Sepulchre. A landmark excavation, set to conclude soon at Old City of Jerusalem church, has offered unprecedented historical insights. ToI gets a sneak peek (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

“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.

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

Review panel on Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven (2)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Rabbinic World-Making and Imagining Multiplicity (Andrea Dara Cooper).

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.

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

Where was Cana of Galilee?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Where Did Jesus Turn Water into Wine? Finding Cana of Galilee, site of Jesus’ first miracle (Robin Ngo).

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.

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

Bauer & Doole (eds.), Ideas of Possession (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Ideas of Possession

Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Perspectives

Edited by Nicole M. Bauer and J. Andrew Doole

£88.99

Hardback
Published: 18 December 2024
456 Pages
235x156mm
ISBN: 9780197679920

Also Available In:
Oxford Scholarship Online

Description

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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Florentin & Tal, The Samaritan Pentateuch (parallel English-Hebrew edition, Open Book)

NEW BOOK FROM OPEN BOOK PUBLISHERS:

The Samaritan Pentateuch
An English Translation with a Parallel Annotated Hebrew Text

Moshe 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.

Available in hardback and paperback printed editions (see link for prices) and an open-access electronic edition.

Cross-file under Samaritan Watch.

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The ASOR Punic Project Digital Initiative

PUNIC WATCH: Putting Carthaginian Stelae Back Into Context: The ASOR Punic Project Digital Initiative (Brien Garnand, The Ancient Near East Today).

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 Jesus

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Pilate’s Legal Path to Crucifying Jesus

“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

The book has just come out.

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

Hybrid event: Zoroastrian Hermeneutics in Late Antiquity

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrian Hermeneutics in Late Antiquity.

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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Review panel on Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven (1)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Review Panel for When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven.

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.

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

"Oldest Hebrew book" on display at JTA NYC

EXHIBITION: The world’s oldest Jewish book is on display in New York City. Dating to the year 700 CE, the Afghan Liturgical Quire is on view at the Jewish Theological Seminary Library’s exhibit, “Sacred Words: Revealing the Earliest Hebrew Book.” (Lisa Keys, JTA).

A medieval manuscript, believed to be the oldest Jewish book in the world, is now on view in New York City.

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 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 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.

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

Gupta on Josephus

SUBSTACK SERIES: Studying Early Judaism: The Writings of Josephus (Nijay K. Gupta, Studying Early Judaism Substack).

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.

What does the Magdala Stone depict?

TEMPLE ICONOGRAPHY? The Magdala Stone: Does It Show God's Chariot in the Temple? Since being found in 2009, the Magdala Stone has divided opinion on both what purpose it served over 2,000 years ago and what is actually depicted on it. What all agree on, though, is it that was a game-changing find (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

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.

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

Top 10 Book of Esther discoveries

BELATEDLY FOR PURIM: Top Ten Discoveries Related to the Book of Esther (Bryan Windel, Bible Archaeology Report). HT the Bible Places Blog.

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 week ...

A VERY BUSY WEEK coming up. Blogging may be light. But I will make sure you have something new every day.

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

Guide to ethnographic passages in Strabo's Geography

ETHNIC RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: Guide to Strabo (Philip Harland).

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.

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

Zellentin, Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature (Mohr Siebeck, open access)

THE AWOL BLOG: Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature.

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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For the Ides of March

NUMISMATICS: Heritage to Hold Twelve Caesars Ancient Coin Showcase Auction March 15 (Heritage Auctions, CoinWeek).

The article has a nice, brief account of the life and death of Julius Caesar. And the links have photos of the coins.

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

Bodner (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative

Part of Cambridge Companions to Religion

EDITOR: Keith Bodner, Crandall University, Canada
PUBLICATION PLANNED FOR: February 2025
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108841290

Other available formats:
Paperback

Description

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, Vol. 2!

MY RULE IS: A BOOK ISN'T FINISHED UNTIL I HOLD A COPY IN MY HAND.

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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Conference: The Bible in its Ancient Iranian Context

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Bible in its Ancient Iranian Context.

International conference at UCLA on March 13-14, 2025. This is an in-person conference, but there is also a Zoom link.

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

Review of Ophir, In the Beginning Was the State

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Review | In the Beginning Was the State: Divine Violence in the Hebrew Bible (Emily Filler).

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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Obituary: Ze’ev Meshel (1932–2024)

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Milestones: Ze’ev Meshel (1932–2024). Leading archaeologist of Israel’s desert regions (Lily Singer-Avitz).

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.

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

Purim 2025

HAPPY PURIM to all those celebrating! The festival begins tonight night at sundown.

Last year's Purim post is here, with links. More recently, see here and here.

UPDATE (18 March): More here.

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Who Wrote the Book of Esther?

FOR PURIM: Who Wrote the Book of Esther? Tradition says Mordechai wrote the Book of Esther, but surely he wouldn't have gotten the timing of his own expulsion a century wrong? (Elon Gilad, Haaretz).

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.

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.

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.

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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Permanent Hebrew Bible lectureship at KCL

KINGS COLLEGE LONDON: Lecturer in Hebrew Bible.

About the role

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.

For full details and application information, follow the link. The closing date for applications is 27 April 2025.

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Scribal corrections in the DSS

THE ETC BLOG: Correcting a Dead Sea Scroll (Anthony Ferguson).

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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Purim essays at TheTorah.com

PURIM IS COMING: Ruth and Esther: Divergent Narratives, Convergent Narratology (Prof. Rabbi Reuven Kimelman, TheTorah.com).

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

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

Punic peoples had little Levantine DNA?

PUNIC WATCH: Punic people had Greek genetics and almost no Levantine ancestors, new study finds. A new study has found that the Punic people had a similar genetic profile to populations from Sicily and the Aegean and just little admixture from the Levant (PAUL ANTONOPOULOS, Greek City Times).

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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JJS 76.1

H–JUDAIC: The latest issue of Journal of Jewish Studies is now available online.

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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Late-antique ritual bath excavated in Ostia (Rome)

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Ancient Jewish ritual bath discovered in Ostia Antica Archaeological Park (Redazione, Finestre sull'Arte).

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.

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. ...

Bold-font emphasis in original.

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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More on that excavated chained nun

THE EXTREME ASCETICISM STORY from last month has started getting more media attention, including another article from the Jerusalem Post. That and the Times of Israel article linked to below give some additional information on late-antique ascetic nuns and religious extreme asceticism.

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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Ten years of Bibliographia Iranica

ANNIVERSARY: A Decade of BiblioIranica (Arash Zeini).

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.

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