Olivero, 1 Enoch: An Ethiopic Reader’s Edition (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

1 Enoch: An Ethiopic Reader’s Edition
Vladimir Olivero

ISBN 9781628377606
Volume RBS 110
Status Available
Price $50.00
Publication Date August 2025

eBook
$50.00
Paperback
$50.00
Hardback
$70.00

The book of 1 Enoch is one of the most remarkable literary products of Second Temple Judaism. Attributed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, the text provides details about how some early Jews understood the cosmos, angels, the corruption of humanity, and coming judgment. Despite 1 Enoch’s importance for understanding early Jewish and Christian eschatology, its complicated textual history has left the work largely inaccessible in its original languages. With the tools provided in this volume, Vladimir Olivero takes intermediate students of Ethiopic through 1 Enoch in one of its primary languages, Ge‘ez. Students not only gain greater facility in language but prepare themselves for more advanced textual study of this important text across its various witnesses. Olivero parses all the verbs and provides English glosses for the verbs and nouns that appear in 1 Enoch. A convenient lexicon and concordance at the end of the volume provide the range of translations available for each word occurring in 1 Enoch and a list of passages in which the term occurs. This volume is perfect for independent learning, classroom settings, or as a refresher to Classical Ethiopic.

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

Did the prophets have a plan?

JUST LIKE THE REST OF US: Prophets Figure It Out as They Go (Rabbi Peretz Rodman, TheTorah.com).

Samuel must piece together YHWH’s intention to anoint David. Elisha’s plan to save a widow and her sons unfolds in fits and starts.

Dovetails nicely with the AJR review series on Yosefa Raz's The Poetics of Prophecy.

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

Review of Schroer & Wyssmann (eds.), Images in transition

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Images in transition: the southern Levant and its imagery between Near Eastern and Greek traditions

Silvia Schroer, Patrick Wyssmann, Images in transition: the southern Levant and its imagery between Near Eastern and Greek traditions. Orbis biblicus et orientalis. Leuven: Peeters, 2024. Pp. xi, 272 pages. ISBN 9789042954410.

Review by
Noa Ranzer, Tel Aviv University. noarantz@gmail.com

This edited volume presents the proceedings of an international conference that took place in Bern, Switzerland, in 2017. The articles present a diversity of subjects, approaches, regions, periods, and scopes of case studies, briefly summarized by the editors in the introduction. All contributions examine the interconnectivity between various cultures in the southern Levant in the Persian and Hellenistic periods, with most studying pictorial depictions to better understand the processes of influence and interference between social agents. As such, this volume contributes to the study of visual culture in the Persian and Hellenistic periods, revealing a complex picture comprised of various ethnicities and religions of the peoples living in the southern Levant and beyond.

[...]

The focus is on Phoenicia, Israel, and the Levant in general, with some attention to Egypt.

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

Dressing for justice in the Letter of James

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Public Trials in the Letter of James. Wardrobes and matters of justice (John Drummond).

In the article “Ancient Courts and the Letter of James” in the Fall 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Alicia J. Batten argues that the setting of James’s story was likely a court of law or perhaps a local synagogue where such legal disputes were also heard and discussed.

The BAR article is behind the subscription wall, but this essay summarizes it.

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

Plato and the prophets?

BACK TO THE CLASSICS:

Beyond “Athens and Jerusalem”: Integrating Classical Philosophy into the Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East

October 2025・Harvard Theological Review 118(3):381-406
DOI:10.1017/S0017816025100850
License・CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Authors Ethan Schwartz

Abstract

Biblical studies is currently seeing resurgent interest in comparing the Hebrew Bible and ancient Greek literature. However, classical philosophy has been underrepresented in this work. This article argues that this underrepresentation stems from historical-critical scholars’ suspicion of “Athens and Jerusalem,” the essentialization of classical philosophy and the Hebrew Bible as, respectively, “reason” and “revelation”—the “twin pillars of Western civilization.” Such essentialism violates the historical-critical principle of cultural continuity. Wariness of it is therefore justified. However, avoiding classical philosophy only exacerbates the problem. If Greek literature is a legitimate historical-critical comparandum for the Hebrew Bible, then classical philosophy should be as well. Through case studies in the biblical prophets and Plato, this article shows how this comparison may contribute on two levels: first-order comparison, in which classical philosophy provides new data for understanding the Hebrew Bible in its ancient context; and second-order comparison, in which scholarship on classical philosophy raises metacritical questions about biblical studies itself.

HT Rogue Classicism. This article is open access.

It happens that I have been re-reading Plato's and Xenophon's Socratic dialogues lately. I agree that they have potential for illuminating aspect of biblical studies (Hebrew Bible and New Testament). There has been some comparative work in recent years, but, perhaps surprisingly, there's more to be done.

By the way, yes, I said Xenophon's Socratic dialogues. The Greek general Xenephon is best known for his Anabasis, the account of his leading thousands Greek mercenaries back from Persia to Greece after their failed attempt to put Cyrus the Younger on the Persian throne.

But did you know that Xenophon was also a disciple of Socrates and he too published Socratic dialogues? They present a somewhat different Socrates than Plato's. It's surprising how many people don't know this.

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

Raz's "weak prophecy" and secularization

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Weak Prophecy As A Critique of Just-So Secularization Stories (Raphael Magarik).

... Raz’s book takes aim at precisely Krista’s friend’s dichotomy, in which the ancient, religious source, which is understood to be authoritative, muscularly assertive, and second only to God is opposed to modern, secular poetry, characterized as self-conscious instead of self-assured and constantly hedging the bombastic claims of the primitive, prophetic original. As an alternative, Raz explores what she calls “weak prophecy,” emphasizing the ways in which biblical prophecy is tentative and confused, marred by failure and anxiety—hardly authoritative in any straightforward way.

This is the third AJR essay on Yosefa Raz's The Poetics of Prophecy. The earlier essays are noted here and here.

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

Review of Grassi, Die semitischen Personennamen in den griechischen und lateinischen Inschriften aus Syrien und dem Libanon

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Die semitischen Personennamen in den griechischen und lateinischen Inschriften aus Syrien und dem Libanon

Giulia Francesca Grassi, Die semitischen Personennamen in den griechischen und lateinischen Inschriften aus Syrien und dem Libanon. Etymologischer Kommentar zu IGLS I–VII, XI, XVII/1, sowie I. Tyr I und I. Tyr II. Fontes et subsidia ad bibliam pertinentes, 13. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024. Pp. x, 382. ISBN 9783111331058.

Review by
Yang Han, University of Chicago. pascalh@uchicago.edu

... In summary, the author is to be congratulated for this invaluable collection and analysis of Semitic names from the Greek and Latin inscriptions of Syria. It presents useful data to aramaicists, arabists and semiticists who might not be familiar with Greek epigraphy, and to classicists who might not be versed in comparative semitics. I hope that the author and their team can keep collecting and analyzing these fascinating onomastic data from the Greco-Roman Near East, and further expand the project to include data from papyri, curse tablets, and literary sources, both Classical and Christian. ...

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

Fake French Phoenician

FORGED PHOENICIAN WATCH: The Glozel affair: A sensational archaeological hoax made science front-page news in 1920s France (Daniel J. Sherman, The Conversation).

Certain characteristics of the [Golzel tomb] site placed it in the Neolithic era, approximately 10,000 B.C.E. But [amateur archaeologist Antonin ] Morlet also unearthed artifact types thought to have been invented thousands of years later, notably pottery and, most surprisingly, tablets or bricks with what looked like alphabetic characters. Some scholars cried foul, including experts on the inscriptions of the Phoenicians, the people thought to have invented the Western alphabet no earlier than 2000 B.C.E.

Was Glozel a stunning find with the capacity to rewrite prehistory? Or was it an elaborate hoax?

Epigrapher René Dussaud concluded that "the so-called Glozel alphabet was a mishmash of previously known early alphabetic writing" and the archaeological commission that investigated concluded that "the site was 'not ancient.'"

Prof. Sherman has a New Book out with the University of Chicago Press which delves into the Glozel controversy:

Sensations
French Archaeology between Science and Spectacle, 1890–1940
Daniel J. Sherman

Delves into two controversies from the French archaeological world to illuminate the tension between the discipline’s scientific ambitions and its hunger for media attention.

For well over a century, from Heinrich Schliemann’s sensational discoveries at Troy in the 1880s, through the Tutankhamun excavations of the 1920s, to the recent LIDAR-aided uncovering of lost Maya cities, archaeology has made headlines. In this new history of archaeology and its archival traces, Daniel J. Sherman treats the friction between science and spectacle as constitutive of the field. By exploring two long-running controversies that roiled the French archaeological world and its wider public in the first third of the twentieth century, he gives the science/media relationship a unique place in the history of archaeology—and its present.

The first controversy involves a dispute over the conduct of excavations at Carthage in Tunisia, then under French colonial rule. In the second, accusations of forgery clouded what seemed to be a stunning Neolithic find at a hamlet called Glozel, in the Auvergne region in central France. The affair divided the scholarly community and attracted enormous media attention across Europe and North America. Both controversies occurred at a transitional moment between what has been called the heroic age of archaeology, dominated by explorers and adventurers with little specialized training, and the beginnings of its professionalization. As Sherman shows, the two affairs put the methods, procedures, and networks of archaeology in the spotlight and profoundly shaped its history.

Follow the link for purchasing details.

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

Raz's modern broken(-)prophetic mirrors

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Modern Mirrors (Karma Ben-Johanan).

This essay was adapted from a book launch at the Hebrew University on May 22nd, 2024, and translated from the Hebrew by Amital Stern.

... In other words, while modernists believe that the mirror in which the prophets are reflected to them is obscure, stained, scratched, or even fragmented, these flaws exist not on the mirror at all, but on the prophets themselves, who are scratched, stained, or broken. On the contrary, not only modern readers, but also the great prophets themselves are to blame for these weaknesses that find their way into the nostalgic embrace between the two. This, then, is the middle ground between new and old, between post-Enlightenment poets and the ancient prophets who love them back – a sad, weak love based on loss. ...

This is the second AJR essay on Yosefa Raz's The Poetics of Prophecy. I noted the first here.

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

Marble mask excavated at the Carthage Tophet

PUNIC WATCH:2,300-Year-Old Marble Mask Unearthed in Ancient Carthage, Tunisia (Nisha Zahid)

The mask, carved from fine marble, was found during excavation work at the temple complex dedicated to the god Baal Hammon and the goddess Tanit—two central deities of ancient Carthage. It portrays a woman with an elaborate Phoenician-style hairstyle, a hallmark of cultural and artistic influence that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Experts date the artifact to the late 4th century BC and describe it as one of the most distinctive findings ever made at the site.

The article also gives some background on the new excavation at the Carthage Tophet.

I noted the discovery of gold coins at the site in 2023, mentioned in the article, here. For more on the Carthage Tophet and debate surrounding the evidence for child sacrifice there, see here and links.

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

Another defense of Ge'ez

ETHIOPIC WATCH: Dead or Alive: Rethinking classical Geʿez language in digital age (Keffyalew Gebregziabher, Addis Standard).

This long article takes up the ongoing debate about the ancient Ge'ez language, notably whether it should be re-introduced into the school curriculum in Ethiopia. Ge'ez is, of course, the only language that preserves the complete texts of important ancient Jewish Old Testament pseudepigrapha (especially 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees). The author makes the case and provides some fascinating information on the history and current status of Ge'ez. From the conclusion:

While Geʿez no longer thrives as a mother tongue or a daily medium of conversation, its profound and continuing influence on education, religion, science, and culture undermines any simple declaration of death. The binary of living and dead language proves inadequate to capture Geʿez’s unique status. Geʿez exists in a post-vernacular space, intellectually active, culturally potent, and symbolically rich, even if it is not commonly spoken. Rather than pronounce Geʿez dead and deny its presence in emergent curricula, we might more accurately describe it as immortal, fixed in time, yet ever-present in the consciousness of Horn African civilization.

This view acknowledges the language’s vital cultural, educational, and symbolic functions, as well as its re-emergence through digital technologies and modern pedagogical movements. The revival of other classical or endangered languages through early immersion shows that Geʿez’s future may depend less on historical fatalism and more on how we choose to teach, use, and value it. In a world where both humans and machines are once again engaging with Geʿez, perhaps the real question is not whether Geʿez is dead, but what kind of life we are willing to imagine for it, especially in the context of education.

For another recent defense of Ge'ez as more than a "dead language," see here. And for PaleoJudaica posts on Ge'ez as an ancient scriptural and onging liturgical language, run "Ethiopic Watch" through the search engine.

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

Yosefa Raz’s "Weak prophecy"

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: "Language of the Limp and the Wound" (Yael Fisch).

Yosefa Raz, The Poetics of Prophecy: Modern Afterlives of a Biblical Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Based on a talk given at the book event at Haifa University, May 28th 2024.

... Yosefa charts the modernist reading traditions of “strong prophecy” in science and in poetry, and she also sketches some traditions for herself as a reader for “weak prophecy.” In this effort, she finds in some poetry a language of “pure sound fragmented and broken by history. This language of the limp and the wound,” in the painful words of Nourbese Philip, which Yosefa reads so beautifully. ...

Exodus 15:11 has always been awkward.

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

A Mandean baptismal festival in Texas

MANDEAN (MANDAEAN) WATCH: Members of the last surviving gnostic sect prepare for the 'Little Feast' in Texas (RNS) — Mandaeans, who believe they are descendants of the disciples of John the Baptist, have scattered around the globe, fleeing war and persecution in the Middle East..

The two men are priests belonging to an ancient Middle Eastern sect known as the Mandaeans, one of the world’s smallest and least known religious groups. Consisting of about 60,000 members worldwide, Mandaeans are considered by scholars to be practitioners of the last surviving gnostic religion, a faith that may contain pre-Christian origins and reflects the swirling influences of Greek and Middle Eastern thought in the first century A.D.

Mandaeans believe they are descendants of the disciples of John the Baptist, the ascetic preacher who baptized Jesus Christ, according to the Christian tradition, and baptism remains their faith’s central ritual. Unlike Christians, however, the Mandaean religion requires practitioners to perform baptism, called the masbuta, every Sunday, often rebaptizing the already baptized, in flowing, fresh water.

There are lots of PaleoJudaica posts on the Mandeans. The one here links to an introductory essay by James McGrath, who is an authority on them. Another recent post is here.

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

Schiffman on "The Saga of Masada"

PROF. LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: THE SAGA OF MASADA. This post links to his recent article in Ami Magazine, the full title of which is "The Saga of Masada: New research tells us more about the famous fortress." It focuses on new discoveries about the Roman camp and their implications.

I am also happy to see Dr. Jonathan Roth credited with anticipating one of these important discoveries. Jonathan and I taught together in the Classics Department of Tulane University in the early 1990s.

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

Interview with Ra’anan Boustan

YALE NEWS: Office Hours: Getting to know... Ra’anan Boustan (Kim Lawton).

In a Q&A, Yale Divinity School’s Ra’anan Boustan discusses the reason for Jewish Studies at YDS, the archaeological riches at the Huqoq excavation site, and the pleasures of exploring New Haven by bicycle.

I first met Ra’anan at a conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls which I held in St. Andrews in 2001. I was happy to publish his paper in the conference volume (see the bottom of p. 5 of his C.V.). Since then, in addition to the work mentioned in the interview, he has made substantial contributions to the study of the hekhalot literature and Merkavah mysticism.

Over the years I have noted some of his work here, here, here, here and links, here, here, and here.

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

Review of Walter (ed.), The temporality of festivals

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The temporality of festivals: approaches to festive time in ancient Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Medieval China.

Anke Walter, The temporality of festivals: approaches to festive time in ancient Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Medieval China. Chronoi, 10. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024. Pp. vi, 94. ISBN 9783111364865.

Review by
Xianhua Wang, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. wangxianhua@mail.sufe.edu.cn

... Although the volume has compiled chapters on ancient festivals, it appears that not much attention has been given to Temporality, the key concept that presumably integrates all parts into a whole. ...

I noted the publication of the book here. For PaleoJudaica posts on the Akitu festival, the celebration of the ancient Mesopotamian New Year, see here and links. There is now a modern annual festival inspired by the ancient one. For posts on the important manuscript discoveries at Dunhuang and the closely related site Turfan, start here and follow the links.

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

Bakhos, Emerging Judaism, 332 BCE–600 CE (Yale)

NEW BOOK FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 2

Emerging Judaism, 332 BCE–600 CE

Edited by Carol Bakhos

Series: Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization

1360 Pages, 8.00 × 10.00 in, 245 color + 130 b-w illus.

Hardcover
9780300188523
Published: Tuesday, 9 Sep 2025
$150.00

Description

An extensive collection of Jewish texts and visual artifacts, representing the memory, identity, and culture of ancient Jewish life over nearly a thousand years

Volume 2 of the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization covers Jewish life as it evolved in the first several centuries following the biblical period. Jewish identity grew from its Israelite background and took on new dimensions, shaped by cultural exchanges and interactions with surrounding civilizations, including the Greek, Roman, Sasanian, and Parthian Empires. Shifts in Jewish culture during this long period include the rise of sectarianism, the expansion of the concept of Torah, the shift from Temple to synagogue, the disappearance of the priesthood and the emergence of rabbis, and the development of new forms of liturgy.

These years laid the groundwork for the rich tapestry of Jewish identity that would continue to evolve throughout history. Providing a robust collection of written and visual primary resources, Volume 2 affords an unmatched opportunity to discover the forms and movements of ancient Judaism and the institutions around which Jews centered their lives.

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