The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters

Edited by Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead

Oxford Handbooks

£127.50

Hardback
Published: 18 August 2025
480 Pages
248x171mm
ISBN: 9780197565056

Description

The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters brings together the work of world-renowned scholars in Bible, theology, religion, and cultural studies to explore the monsters that rampage through the biblical text. Essays provide in-depth analysis of the Ancient Near Eastern background of these creatures, explore how they have continued to live on after the biblical text, and discuss how they remain impactful through art and literature today. The chapters not only study where monsters came from, but continually focus on what they mean, and how these meanings are generated.

These chapters work to bridge the perspectives of traditional scholarship and more postmodern ideas of monsters as cultural and rhetorical constructions. There are chapters on the Ghosts of Mesopotamia, Leviathan, and the Giants, but also on the Monstrous Jew in the Gospels and the Monstrosity of the Crucifixion. They serve both as foundational pieces of research for scholars looking to familiarize themselves with monsters and discourses of monstrosity, but also as creative and provocative examinations of how these monsters generate meaning. While working to summarize the research that has been done on biblical monsters up to the present day, this Handbook points the way forward towards new and exciting studies in unnatural creatures and the rhetoric of horror.

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

Megiddo centenary exhibition

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Celebrating 100 Years of Megiddo Excavations. Special exhibit at Chicago’s ISAC Museum (Nathan Steinmeyer).

Through March 15, 2026
Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) Museum
Chicago, IL
isac.uchicago.edu

Since the shovel hit earth, excavations at the site of ancient Megiddo in northern Israel have, in many ways, defined biblical archaeology. With 2025 marking the centennial of the first major archaeological expedition to Megiddo, the ISAC Museum at the University of Chicago is marking the occasion with a special exhibit, Megiddo: A City Unearthed, A Past Imagined.

[...]

Follow the link for details and a link to the exhibition website.

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

Paris exhibition coming: “Byblos, Eternal City”

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Jack Lang: Byblos Exhibition to Spotlight Role of Phoenician Port (Sawsan Abtah, Asharq Al-Awsat).

“Byblos, Eternal City”

Lang [President of the Arab World Institute in Paris and former French Minister of Culture] said the large-scale exhibition, titled “Byblos, Eternal City,” is being prepared in collaboration with the Louvre Museum in Paris and “will shed light on still-mysterious aspects of the Phoenician port of Byblos, which played a pivotal role in the Mediterranean and maintained a unique relationship with the Pharaohs.”

The project involves the same curators who designed the Institute’s acclaimed exhibitions “Christians of the East: 2,000 Years of History” and “On the Roads of Samarkand: Wonders of Silk and Gold”.

“We will see magnificent and impressive pieces brought from Lebanon thanks to cooperation with the Directorate General of Antiquities,” Lang said, adding that further projects are being planned focusing on Sidon, Tyre, and Tripoli.

During his stay in Lebanon, Lang toured Byblos’ archaeological sites and met with local cultural figures as part of preparations for the exhibition, which will feature around 400 items, including treasures discovered in the royal necropolis and city temples dating back to the early second millennium BC, as well as newly unearthed artifacts to be displayed for the first time.

The article does not give an opening date for the exhibition.

UPDATE (11 November): A reader informs me that the exhibition runs from 24 March to 23 August 2026. The exhibition website (in French) is here.

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

Laughter for Isaac and Aqhat

UGARITIC WATCH: Laughter! Between Isaac and Aqhat’s Birth Pronouncements (Dr. Noam Cohen, TheTorah.com).

In the Ugaritic Aqhat Epic (ca. 14th cent. B.C.E., Syria), Danel laughs with unrestrained joy at El’s promise of a son. Why do Abraham and Sarah respond with nervous, uneasy laughter when YHWH makes the same promise?

A question occurs to me.

Isaac's name means "he laughs" (that same root ṣḥq). At first glance it looks like the laughter episodes in his birth story involve a pun on his name. But if the laughing is part of a set epic scene—an ancestor's reaction to divine news of a coming son—it was part of the tradition before the Isaac story. Given the parallel in the Aqhat epic, that looks likely. There are a number of such set epic scenes in the patriarch stories, some with parallels in the Ugaritic texts (quest for a bride, vision in which ancestor requests an heir, etc.).

What, then, is the significance of Isaac's name? Was it generated from the laughter in the epic scene? I would think that a foundational ancestor's name would be a longstanding tradition predating the story. But does that mean that the shared "laughter" root in the name and the story are a coincidence? Seems unlikely. Question asked. I don't know the answer.

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

Why is The Carpenter's Son "branded blasphemous?"

CINEMA MEETS NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Inside The Carpenter’s Son: What Nic Cage’s Biblical Horror Is Really About — And Why It’s Branded Blasphemous (Leo Hartwell, Scorpio Likes You).

Why people are worked up

The film looks past the traditional Bible canon and mines the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a text a lot of Christians consider heretical. That text paints a complicated portrait of Jesus as a child — quick to anger, capable of things that do not line up neatly with divinity. Nathan is also drawing from his own Coptic Catholic upbringing, which gives the movie a very specific lens you do not usually see in mainstream Bible stories.

So no, it is not pretending to be a traditional Gospel adaptation. That is the point. Whether you find that bold or blasphemous probably depends on how you feel about apocrypha to begin with.

Sort of. The controversial content we've seen so far comes partly from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, but it can't take all the blame. The creepy satanic temptress lady was added by the movie writers. I have a more detailed comparison of the gospel and the long trailer here.

I don't have the impression that everyone discussing this film has actually read the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

Background here and links.

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

Israel Museum displaying the Great Isaiah Scroll for its 60th

ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION: The Israel Museum Celebrates 60 Years: A Historic Display of the Great Isaiah Scroll. Celebrate the Israel Museum's 60th anniversary with the Great Isaiah Scroll exhibition, showcasing this biblical treasure from December 12, 2025, to April 12, 2026 (Hospibuz).

November 2025: To mark its 60th anniversary, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, will open an extraordinary exhibition showcasing the Great Isaiah Scroll —the world’s most complete biblical manuscript —in its entirety. Running from December 12, 2025, to April 12, 2026, this once-in-a-lifetime display offers visitors a rare opportunity to witness one of humanity’s most significant archaeological and spiritual treasures.

[...]

This should be an excellent exhibition. Displays of the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa^a) are usually of replicas (noted, e.g., here, here, here, here and links, here, and here). You can also view it online (note updated link).

Substantial sections of the scroll were on display in the Israel Museum in 2008 to celebrate the State of Israel's 60th anniversary. See the links collected here. I don't know if this is the first time the whole thing has been viewable in person.

A couple of more recent posts on the Great Isaiah Scroll are here and here.

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

Proto-Persian polemic planted in Genesis 14?

PROF. RONALD HENDEL: Abraham Defeats Chedorlaomer, the Proto-Persian King (TheTorah.com).

In Achaemenid royal ideology, the Persian kings saw themselves as heirs to the ancient Elamite rulers, even adopting the old Elamite title “King of Anshan.” Thus, the unusual story of Abram the warrior (Genesis 14) defeating the four kings from the east led by Chedorlaomer of Elam reflects the author’s veiled hope for Israel’s triumph over its Persian overlords: if it happened in the past, it can happen again.

It's fun to try to make sense of Genesis 14. Prof. Hendel's attempt is better than many.

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

Preview of The Oxford Handbook of the Textual Criticism of the Bible

THE ETC BLOG: The Oxford Handbook of the Textual Criticism of the Bible, eds. Crawford & Wasserman (Tommy Wasserman).

Any day now, Oxford University Press will publish The Oxford Handbook of the Textual Criticism of the Bible edited by Sidnie White Crawford and myself. I think we began working on this handbook in 2019, and there were many hurdles along the way, but soon I will hold the volume in my hand. ...

That's always a good feeling. Meanwhile, Tommy gives us a detailed preview of this exciting volume in this post, along with a promotion code for 30% off the volume. For you, special deal!

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

An archaeology PhD at age 81

LIFELONG LEARNING: Haifa retiree proves it’s never too late to learn after earning archaeology PhD at 81. Ami Nadir earned a PhD in archaeology from Ben-Gurion University, decades after studying engineering at the Technion; the former Navy officer says lifelong learning has given his retirement new meaning and purpose (Yogev Israeli, Ynet News).

Congratulations to Dr. Nadir!

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

Lecture: "Syriac Parallels with Lectio Divina: Monastic Reading in the Church of the East (400-700 CE)"

SYRIAC WATCH: REVIDEM GUEST LECTURE: DAVID A. MICHELSON Syriac Parallels with Lectio Divina: Monastic Reading in the Church of the East (400-700 CE) (ÖSTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN ERC-PROJECT REVIDEM).

Datum: 6 November 2025, 18:00.

Raum: Besprechungsraum 4 (4. OG), PSK

Contemplative reading was a spiritual practice developed by diverse Christian monastic communities in the early Middle Ages. In Latin monasticism this practice came to be known as "lectio divina". This talk examines a related practice of monastic reading in sixth- and seventh-century Mesopotamia. Ascetics belonging to the Church of the East pursued a form of contemplation which moved from reading, to meditation, to prayer, to the ecstasy of divine vision. The development of this Syriac tradition can be seen through three phases: its establishment as an ascetic practice, the articulation of its theology based upon “Egyptian” sources, and its maturation and spread beyond Mesopotamia to other regions of Eastern Christianity. The comparison of East Syrian contemplative reading with the Latin tradition of lectio divina is insightful because it allows us to see that parallel branches of ascetic reading developed in both Latin and Syriac monastic practice from roughly the same Evagrian and Egyptian origins.

In-person only, but if you are in Vienna tomorrow, worth attending. I wish I could go.

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

When did Israel become monotheistic?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: When Did Monotheism Emerge in Ancient Israel? (Philip D. Stern).

When did the Israelites first begin to worship YHWH, refusing to worship or even recognize the existence of other deities? Was monotheism part of Israelite religious belief from the beginning, or was it an idea that developed later? While many biblical scholars view monotheism as a relatively late development within Israelite religion, I believe—based on evidence from early Israelite poetry—that the origins of biblical monotheism can be located early in Israel’s history, most likely by early in the first millennium B.C.E.

There is still some debate about the date of these biblical poems, but I accept them as early.

That said, I think the straightforward reading of Exodus 15:11 is that there are other gods, but YHWH, the God of Israel, is by far the greatest in that category.

Deuteronomy 32 is harder to pin down. Verse 39 sounds as monotheistic as anything in Second Isaiah. But who is the speaker? Is it YHWH, or the Most High, or are they the same? Verse 8 pretty clearly allows for a category of divinity called the "sons of god" whose number corresponds to the number of the nations, implying that each is in charge of one nation. YHWH's charge is "Jacob," that is, the people of Israel, so he got the best deal. That seems to put the sons of god as his peers in some sense. If he is the Most High, which is debated, he also did the assigning, which puts him uniquely in charge.

Elsewhere the poem says other gods are demons, not gods, and newcomers (V. 17); that they weren't involved in the wilderness events (v. 12); that Israel made YHWH jealous with their non-god idols; and that the other gods are powerless, but they did eat and drink the sacrifices to them (vv. 37-38).

To make matters more complicated, a line seems to have been deleted in v. 43, and the verse was adjusted in other ways. 4QDeuteronomy^q reads the opening of the verse as "Chant O heavens with him / and worship him all gods." The Septuagint reads the second line as "and worship him all sons of god." The second line is missing in the Masoretic Text and the Samaritan Pentateuch. But the poetry needs a parallel line in that spot. It's pretty clear that someone deleted it because it sounded less than monotheistic.

In short, those early poems regard YHWH as very high in the divine hierarchy, at the top according to Exodus 15 and perhaps also in Deuteronomy 32. But he is not unambigously the only god. That level of monotheism only comes with Second Isaiah.

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

A statement by the director of "The Carpenter's Son"

CINEMA MEETS NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: The Carpenter’s Son Is Coming To Deliver Us From Evil In UK Cinemas (Carl Roberts, Future of the Force).

Writer and director Lotfy Nathan (12 O’Clock Boys, Harka) draws from his Coptic Christian background, delivering a meticulously crafted, genre-bending supernatural thriller packed with unshakeable images of the divine and demonic at war.

There follows a "Director's Statement" by Mr. Nathan. You can read it yourself and see what you think. It looks to me like an attempt at damage control after the negative reactions to the grim trailer for the movie.

I doubt it will have much effect. People either like graphic horror or they don't. The natural target audience for the subject matter likely won't be very interested. But we'll see.

Past posts on the upcoming film and the trailers are here, here, and here, with links for the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

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

Ross on syntax of year expressions in LXX Greek

WILLIAM A. ROSS: NEW PUBLICATIONS: PART 3.

Essentially, my essay is an investigation of how dates are phrased in Greek, specifically dates that state a year. For example:

ἐν ἔτει τριακοστῷ καὶ ἐνάτῳ Αζαρια βασιλεῖ Ιουδα καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν Μαναημ
“In the thirty-ninth year of Azaria king of Iouda, Manaem also ruled” (2 Kgs 15:17)

The essay is technical, but open access.

For previous posts in this series start here.

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

Fox-footprint find at el-Araj

FAUNAL ARCHAEOLOGY: There Was a Fox in Bethsaida. In the dead of night, an unexpected animal walked on the freshly mortared wall of a Byzantine church complex by the shore of the Sea of Galilee 1,700 years ago (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

In the hours after nightfall, as the monks slept in their chambers, a fox came to Bethsaida.

He would have waited for the men to finish their day, to shut out the black night behind doors in order to raid the garbage, as nocturnal wild animals in commensal relationships with humans do. As the fox silently stole through the dark, he walked along the top of a freshly plastered wall in the Late Byzantine church complex.

[...]

I hope he found some leftovers.

For many posts on the archaeology of the ancient town of Bethsaida, mentioned in the New Testament, see here and links. The fox left its footprints at el-Araj, which seems to be the main contender for the site of the city. The other possibility is the nearby site of et-Tell/e-Tel. Follow the links for the details of the debate.

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

Inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum

GRAND OPENING: With pomp and fanfare, Grand Egyptian Museum opens as ode to ancient civilization. Museum, the biggest worldwide dedicated to a single civilization, will exhibit some 50,000 artifacts of pharaohs and Egyptian gods (SAMY MAGDY, AP via Times of Israel).

Egypt’s pharaonic history has long made it a tourist magnet. But it has also long struggled to organize and display the sheer huge amount of artifacts — everything from tiny pieces of jewelry and colorful tomb murals to towering statues of pharaohs and animal-headed gods, with more as discoveries are constantly being made across the country.

Touted as the world’s biggest museum dedicated to a single ancient civilization, the new building, in contemporary style, is a stark contrast. Its large, open halls give space for some 50,000 artifacts on display, along with virtual reality exhibits. It displays the entire collection of treasures from the tomb of the famed King Tutankhamun for the first time since its discovery in 1922.

The museum replaces the Egyptian Museum, housed in a building more than a century old in downtown Cairo that — while elegant in its Neo-Classical style — had become antiquated and was often compared to a warehouse, overpacked with artifacts with little explanation.

I thought the inauguration was going to be tonight, but it seems it was last Saturday night. Background here.

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

Jassen on imagined violence in the DSS

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Publication Preview | Exploring the Violent Imaginary of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Alex P. Jassen).

Alex P. Jassen, Violence, Power, and Society in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.

The Dead Sea Scrolls inhabit a world between texts and ideas, between imagination and lived reality. The texts are carefully constructed literary productions that reflect a wide range of human creativity and imagination, and likely a good deal of anxiety about the world and the authors’ place in it. My goal in this book has been to peek behind the texts to recover the opaque world of the ancient people who created these texts and the impulses that compelled them to do so. In so doing, I also was finally able to answer many of my own linger questions about the Branch Davidians.

I noted the publication of the book here. And here is an old post of mine about the Branch Davidians. Alas, almost all the links have evaporated.

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

Baker, Why a ''New Testament''? (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Why a ''New Testament''?

Covenant as an Impetus for New Scripture in Early Christianity

Series:
Texts and Editions for New Testament Study, Volume: 19

Author: Levi S Baker

Why would early Christians perceive the need for a ‘New Testament’? Unfortunately, most studies on the NT canon concentrate on its development and closing to the neglect of its impetus. Yet NT texts like 1 Tim. 5:18 and 2 Pet. 3:16 reveal that, within the first century, early Christians began receiving recent Christian texts as “Scripture”, on par with their Old Testament scriptural collection. What explains this rapid and remarkable development? Levi Baker traces the connection between Scripture and covenant in early Judaism and early Christianity, arguing that the answer lies in early Christianity’s conviction that Jesus had inaugurated the new covenant.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73542-2
Publication: 22 Sep 2025
EUR €139.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73539-2
Publication: 02 Oct 2025
EUR €139.00

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