Chi-Kin Lei, 1 Peter and Christ's Descent to the Dead in Its Early Christian Reception (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Chi-Kin Lei

1 Peter and Christ's Descent to the Dead in Its Early Christian Reception

2025. 260 pages.
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe (WUNT II) 636

€79.00
including VAT

sewn paper
available
978-3-16-164041-4

Also Available As:
eBook PDF €79.00

Summary

In the Christian Bible, there is a mysterious text in the First Epistle of Peter (1 Peter 3:19) which speaks about »Jesus preaching to the spirits in prison«. Traditionally, this text has served as the major scriptural support for the doctrine of Christ's descent into Hades (the so-called descensus) in Christian theology. Present scholarship, however, has rejected this traditional understanding and tends to detach 1 Peter 3:19 from the descensus. Such a critical judgment, unfortunately, remains insufficiently examined. Indeed, no previous study has specifically focused on how and why 1 Peter 3:19 came to be associated with the descensus in history, nor what bearing the descensus could have on the text of 1 Peter 3:19 itself. Thus, Chi-Kin Lei fills this lacuna by studying 1 Peter's early reception in relation to the descensus, ultimately challenging the current scholarly consensus on this issue.

For more on the history of the Descensus ad Infernos tradition, see here, with a couple of comments on the arguable relationship of the 1 Peter passage to the Enochic literature.

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Judaïsme ancien – Ancient Judaism, 12, 2024

NEW JOURNAL VOLUME FROM BREPOLS: Judaïsme ancien – Ancient Judaism, 12, 2024.

Judas le Galiléen : l’homme et sa place dans l’histoire du judaïsme ancien – Judas the Galilean: the Man and His Significance in the History of Ancient Judaism

Pages: 265 p.
Size: 156 x 234 mm
Illustrations: 1 tables b/w.
Language(s): French, English
Publication Year: 2025

€ 87,00 EXCL. VAT
RETAIL PRICE
ISBN: 978-2-503-60839-6
Paperbackv Available

Forthcoming
E-journal
Forthcoming

Follow the link for the Table of Contents.

Looks like I haven't noted this journal before. There's more on it at the About this journal link.

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The Ancient Books Website

THE OTTC BLOG: Johnson and Wagner on Material and Scribal Features of Greek Bookrolls (Drew Longacre).

Notice of a new online database that looks useful. Peter Gurry has additional commentary at the ETC Blog.

The site itself is here.

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Kowalewska (ed.), Second Temple Period Jewish Ritual Baths at Nesher-Ramla Quarry (Zinman Institute, open access)

THE AWOL BLOG: Second Temple Period Jewish Ritual Baths at Nesher-Ramla Quarry.

Second Temple Period Jewish Ritual Baths at Nesher-Ramla Quarry

A. Melamed

The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, Haifa 2025 A. Kowalewska – Editor

The book is in English, 294 pages, plates in full color, size: 21×28 cm, ISBN978-965-7547-09-0.

There is a downloadable free PDF of the volume. A print version is also for sale.

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Brody & Chen, Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future (Brepols)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future.

Notice of a New Book: Brody, Lisa & Anne H. Chen (eds.). 2025. Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future. Turnhout. Brepols.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on and involving the ancient city of Dura-Europos, especially its synagogue and its decorative art, start here and follow the links.

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An AI-Based Analysis of a Jewish Textual Corpus

MICHAEL L. SATLOW: A Full Citation Network of Jewish Legal Literature.

There are essentially three goals of the project:

1. To develop AI techniques and tools that abstract citations from an enormous and complicated corpus of rabbinic texts that span from antiquity to the modern day. These techniques should also be useful to scholars who similarly want to mine very different corpora to build their own citation networks.
2. To use these extracted citations to construct a network, and then to develop a viewing tool that allows users to navigate (and filter!) this network.
3. To begin the scholarly analysis of this network for new scholarly insights. We are especially interested in using it to trace how knowledge moves through space and time.

Congratulations on the funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities.

Cross-file under Algorithm Watch.

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Aramaic in Tasmania?

SYRIAC WATCH: New Tasmanian MP George Razay sings ancient Aramaic prayer in parliament (Pulse Tasmania).

New Independent Bass MP George Razay has broken out into song during his maiden speech to the Tasmanian parliament today.

George Razay recited the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.

[...]

Well it was in Syriac, which is a rather different (Edessan) dialect from Jesus's Galilean Aramaic. But still Aramaic.

There is a video of his recitation.

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Redactional mysticisim in Deuteronomy?

PROF. DOV SAMET: The Enigma of YHWH’s Hidden Matters: Mysticism or Redaction? (TheTorah.com).

“The hidden matters belong to YHWH our God,” declares Deuteronomy 29:28, “but with overt matters, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Torah.” This verse stands in isolation, prompting mystical speculation about the nature of the “hidden” and “overt” matters… until we realize that the passage has been redacted, and that the verse has been detached from its original context, which explained its meaning clearly.

Redaction criticism is always fun.

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Those 53 confirmed Bible people again

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: 53 People in the Bible Confirmed. A web-exclusive supplement to Lawrence Mykytiuk's BAR articles identifying real Hebrew Bible people (Lawrence Mykytiuk).

I have noted this list before, in both its 2104 and 2017 versions. I don't know whether this BHD post has anything new in it or is just a recycle. But in any case, it's good to see the story getting some outside attention here, here, and here.

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

Rodrigue, Jerome’s Sources in His Translation of the Hebrew Bible (Open Book)

NEW OPEN-ACCESS BOOK FROM OPEN BOOK PUBLISHERS:

Jerome’s Sources in His Translation of the Hebrew Bible
Paul Rodrigue (author)

At the close of the fourth century CE, Jerome of Stridon—renowned Latin scholar, theologian, and priest—undertook the monumental task of translating the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible into Latin. The result of this effort, now known as the Vulgate, has long been regarded as a foundational text of Western Christianity. In this volume, Paul Rodrigue investigates the sources that Jerome may have drawn upon in the process of translation.

Far from being just a rendering of the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible, the Vulgate emerges as a layered and multifaceted translation, shaped not only by the Hebrew-Aramaic text but also by a broad array of additional sources. Through a series of carefully chosen case studies, Rodrigue analyses a number of verses from the Joseph narrative in Genesis, as well as from Daniel and Esther. Each Vulgate passage is meticulously compared with its equivalents in the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible, the Septuagint, the Latin translations of the Septuagint, the Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and—where applicable—the Targumim and rabbinic writings.

This comparative approach reveals Jerome’s engagement with texts in four languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin—and highlights his responses to both Jewish and Christian exegetical traditions. Importantly, the selected translations span Jerome’s career as a translator of the Hebrew-Aramaic Bible: Daniel at its outset (392–393), Genesis mid-career (late 390s), and Esther at its close (404–405). As such, Rodrigue’s analysis offers a chronologically nuanced study of Jerome’s evolving translation method (sensus de sensu), providing invaluable insight for scholars of biblical studies, late antiquity, translation theory, and the transmission of sacred texts.

You can also buy the book in paperback or hardback.

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

A submerged port at Taposiris Magna

EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY: Submerged port discovery could lead to Cleopatra’s lost tomb. Archaeologists have discovered a submerged ancient port near the ruins of the Taposiris Magna temple complex west of Alexandria, Egypt (Mark Milligan, Heritage Daily).

In a groundbreaking study led by archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, working in collaboration with RMS Titanic discoverer Bob Ballard and a team of underwater archaeologists, a vast submerged port was discovered offshore from Taposiris Magna at a depth of 12 metres.

It seems like just about everything except Cleopatra's tomb has been found at Taposiris Magna. But perhaps that is coming.

Meanwhile, for notices of the many fascinating discoveries there, start here and follow the links. And for posts on or involving Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra), who reportedly knew Hebrew and Aramaic, see there and links plus here and links.

HT Archaeologica News. Cross-file under Maritime (Marine, Underwater) Archaeology.

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

Another helmet from the Battle of the Aegates

PUNIC WATCH: Extraordinary' Roman helmet from war-ending battle found in the sea off Sicily. Archaeologists recovered the "Montefortino"-style helmet in an underwater excavation in the Aegadian Islands off the coast of Sicily (Kristina Killgrove, Live Science).

The helmet was likely lost in the Battle of the Egadi Islands (also known as the Aegates Islands) in the First Punic War in 241 B.C.

In August 2024, a team of divers from the Society for the Documentation of Submerged Sites discovered the helmet, along with about 30 other metal artifacts, while investigating the area where the ancient battle occurred, according to a translated statement published Sept. 5 by the Sicilian Region, the regional government of Sicily.

Another helmet was recovered from the same site, presumably lost in the same battle, in 2017. And for lots more on the archaeology of the Battle of the Aegates, start here and follow the links.

Crosss file under Marine (Maritime, Underwater) Archaeology.

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

More on that upcoming Jesus horror movie

CINEMA MEETS NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Nicholas Cage Plays the Father of Jesus in New Horror Film ‘The Carpenter’s Son.’ Nicolas Cage stars as Joseph in an upcoming horror film inspired by the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a non-canonical text. The movie reimagines Jesus’ childhood with supernatural and unsettling elements (Milton Quintanilla, Crosswalk).

I have already noted that this film was in the works. But there is now a creepy trailer. It gives the release date, perhaps overly precisely, as "Fall 2025 AD."

For more on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, see the link above, plus here.

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

Rosh HaShanah 2025

HAPPY NEW YEAR (ROSH HASHANAH - Jewish New Year 5786) to all those celebrating. The New Year begins tonight at sundown.

Again, pray for peace in the coming year.

Last year's Rosh HaShanah post is here. A related post is here. For biblical background, see here.

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

The Dura-Europos Synagogue paintings are safe

DECORATIVE ART - IN A MUSEUM: After years of war, world’s oldest synagogue paintings seen intact in Damascus. Dispelling fears for their fate, Dura-Europos synagogue wall paintings shown to Jewish visitors including academic Jill Joshowitz and ToI editor David Horovitz at Syria’s national museum (Grace Gilson, JTA via Times of Israel).

JTA — After studying the world’s oldest synagogue paintings for nearly a decade, Jill Joshowitz had accepted that she might never be able to stand before them as they remained locked away in Syria amid its civil war.

Jewish sites and synagogues suffered lootings and bombardment over the course of the war, which followed the emigration of virtually all Syrian Jews. Could the paintings have even survived?

“I spent almost a decade of my life researching and writing about these paintings, and because they were stored in Syria, I never thought that I would really have an opportunity in my lifetime, as a Jewish scholar and researcher, to see these paintings,” said Joshowitz, a historian of Jewish visual culture based in Pittsburgh.

[...]

That's good news!

For many posts on the Dura-Europos synagogue and its decorative art, see here and links.

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

On making prophetic scripture relevant in antiquity

PROF. JUDITH H. NEWMAN: Haftarot: How Prophecy Became Liturgy (TheTorah.com).

The precise origins of the practice of reading from the prophets in the synagogue are unknown, but early evidence can be seen in the story of Jesus visiting the synagogue in his hometown on Shabbat and reading from Isaiah (Luke 4:16–19). Yet the process of making prophetic scripture relevant to a contemporary audience began even earlier, as we see in the second-century B.C.E. book of Baruch.

Perhaps Daniel chapter 9 is also relevant here.

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Erdogan says no deal on Siloam Inscription

HEBREW EPIGRAPHY AND POLITICS: Turkey will never return Siloam Inscription to Israel, Erdoğan says. " Defending Jerusalem means defending peace and humanity," said Erdoğan, addressing the Israeli government (bianet English).

No surprise. Background here.

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Kruger, Miniature Codices in Early Christianity (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Miniature Codices in Early Christianity

Michael J. Kruger

Oxford Early Christian Studies

£84.00

Hardback
Published: 08 July 2025
240 Pages | 9 Illustrations
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780198940395

Also Available As:
E-book

Description

While there has been renewed scholarly interest in paratextual features of early Christian manuscripts, that interest has rarely extended to the size of manuscripts, particularly the format known as the miniature codex. Such neglect is surprising given that this miniature format was a notable part of early Christian textual culture, emerging as early as the second century and visible well into the seventh century and beyond. So established was this format among Christians during this period, that C.H. Roberts once surmised (incorrectly) that, "The miniature codex would seem to be a Christian invention."

Many of these tiny books were elegant, well-crafted, and could contain a surprising number of pages. Currently, we have over 60 such codices, which contain a wide range of Christian literature including New Testament books, patristic and non-canonical writings (e.g., the Didache, Acts of Paul, and apocryphal gospels), and even liturgical-ritual texts. This volume is the first full-length monograph on the phenomenon of the miniature codex, offering a framework for distinguishing miniature codices from other tiny texts (e.g. amulets), exploring their practical and iconic functions, and, perhaps most importantly, assembling a detailed catalogue of all known Christian and Greek miniature codices. This distinctive book format provides an essential window into the textual, literary, and visual culture of early Christianity, shedding fresh light on how and why Christians were considered people of the book.

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