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 Instead of expensive and outdated volumes found only at certain exclusive institutions, our digital initiative will offer an open access resource accessible anywhere at anytime.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.

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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.

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"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.

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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.

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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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