Coptic manuscripts exhibited in Manchester

EXHIBITION: John Rylands Library takes centuries-old Coptic treasures into the heart of the community. More than 400 Coptic Christians examine manuscripts at a Stockport church in rare opportunity to connect with their cultural and religious heritage (University of Manchester).

The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library has taken a selection of its historic Coptic and Ethiopian manuscripts out of the library and into the community, giving hundreds of people the rare opportunity to encounter their heritage first-hand.

The special exhibition - held on 1 November at St Mary & St Mina Coptic Orthodox Church in Stockport - attracted more than 400 visitors and their children, many of whom travelled from across the UK to see manuscripts dating back as far as the tenth century. ...

Among the manuscripts on display were biblical texts, Coptic liturgies and a Holy Week lectionary, alongside two parchment manuscripts from Egypt’s White Monastery containing sermons by St Shenoute of Atripe, a hugely influential fifth-century monastic leader.

Visitors were also able to see fragments of an ancient Coptic translation of the Gospel of Matthew, written on papyrus, and an eighteenth-century Ethiopian manuscript recounting the life and miracles of St George. ...

For more on the work of Sarah Parkhouse, see the links collected here some time ago.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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Review of Schwartz, Flavius Josephus: translation and commentary. Volume 8: Judean Antiquities, books 18-20

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Flavius Josephus: translation and commentary. Volume 8: Judean Antiquities, books 18-20.

Daniel R. Schwartz, Flavius Josephus: translation and commentary. Volume 8: Judean Antiquities, books 18-20. Leiden: Brill, 2024. Pp. xxiv, 386. ISBN 9789004703681.

Review by Carson Bay, University of Austin. cbay@uaustin.org

... But this work is far, far more than a translation. On many pages, a few lines of text sit above what is effectively a full page of detailed footnotes. For both English translation and interpretation, then, this work is now the standard resource for Books 18–20 of Josephus’ Antiquities, replacing Louis Feldman’s 1965 Loeb volumes.

On the issue of the Testimonium Flavianum, see here most recently and follow the links. For more on Schwartz's book and Schmidt's and how they deal with the TF, see here and here.

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Falla Festschrift (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

I SAY IT JUST BEGINS TO LIVE THAT DAY
Essays in Honour of Terry Falla

Edited by Charbel El-Khaissi, Janet Dyk & Daniel King

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4992-2

Formats *
Hardback (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-4992-2
eBook PDF (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-4993-9 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Perspectives on Linguistics and Ancient Languages18
Publication Date: Sep 22,2026
Interior Color: Color
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Page Count: 503
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4992-2

Price: $114.95 (USD)
Your price: $68.97 (USD)

OVERVIEW

This Festschrift is published in honour of Professor Terry C. Falla on the occasion of his 86th birthday. A Founding Professor of the University of Divinity, Falla is widely known in Australia for his devotional best-seller, Be Our Freedom, Lord (1982), and internationally for his pioneering work on A Key to the Peshitta Gospels (KPG). He is co-founder with Beryl Turner of the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP), an international, interdisciplinary research group that has been advancing the study of ancient-language lexicography and linguistics for over two decades.

Celebrating the breadth of Falla’s intellectual interests, this collection includes twenty original essays by scholars around the world on topics of lexicography, linguistics, textual analysis in Syriac, Greek, and Hebrew, and theology. The Festschrift features a sugitho (Syriac poem) recounting Falla’s life and work, a photo section documenting his scholarly journey since the 1980s and a special foreword by his right hand and decades-long collaborator, Beryl Turner. The volume is edited by Charbel El-Khaissi, former Syriac student of Falla’s at the University of Melbourne, Janet W. Dyk, a founding member of the ISLP, and Daniel King, Series Editor of the ISLP’s Perspectives on Linguistics and Ancient Languages series.

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Bay, Contesting Jewish History in Late Antique Christianity and Early Medieval Judaism (Brill, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Contesting Jewish History in Late Antique Christianity and Early Medieval Judaism

Flavius Josephus’ Jewish War between the Latin On the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Hebrew Book of Yosippon

Series:
Études sur le judaïsme médiéval, Volume: 105

Author: Carson Bay

The open access publication of this book was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

On the Destruction of Jerusalem, an anonymous Latin Christian text from Late Antiquity (c. 375 CE), paraphrased Flavius Josephus’ Greek Jewish War (ca. 75 CE) to reinterpret the Roman-Jewish War (66-70 CE) and the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple (70 CE) as proof that God had abandoned the Jews (because they had rejected Jesus Christ). No Jewish alternative to this supersessionist historiography existed for hundreds of years. Then, around 900 CE, the anonymous Hebrew Book of Yosippon rewrote this history anew, based on the narrative of On the Destruction Jerusalem. This monograph provides the first extensive comparison of these texts, showing how the Book of Yosippon biblicized, theologized, and Judaized its Latin source, overwriting the Christian narrative of late-Second Temple Judaism and underwriting a new version of that story. In so doing, the Book of Yosippon resurrected the spirit of Hellenistic Judaism, reclaiming Jewish history for the Jews in the Early Middle Ages.

Copyright Year: 2026

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75911-4
Publication: 22 Sep 2026

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75910-7
Publication: 14 Oct 2026
EUR €101.00

For PaleoJudaica posts on Pseudo-Hegesippus' De excidio Hierosolymita ("On the Destruction of Jerusalem"), including posts on Carson Bay's previous work on the subject, see here and links. Posts on or involving Sefer Yosippon are here, here, and here.

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Jodi Magness profiled

THE DAILY TAR HEEL: UNC Professor Jodi Magness has led an excavation of an ancient synagogue for over a decade. The archaeological site is located in Huqoq, Israel, and offers an unexpected trove of preserved mosaics (Sam Stavchancsky).

Across the world from Chapel Hill, hidden mosaics in an ancient synagogue in Huqoq, Israel, now sit at the forefront of a new project led by UNC professor and archaeologist Jodi Magness.

Magness, the Kenan distinguished professor for teaching excellence in early Judaism at UNC, serves as the archaeological consultant for the next phase of development for the Huqoq site, an excavation she led from 2011 to 2023.

Magness said she first came to Huqoq — a historic site just north of the Sea of Galilee, which previously was a Jewish village — to answer research questions surrounding Jewish settlements under Roman Christian rule. She said there were signs that a synagogue was in the area, and her team succeeded in finding and excavating one.

[...]

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Professor Magness and her wide-ranging work, including the remarkable Huqoq excavation, see here and links, plus here, here, and here.

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

Patmore obituary

CHURCH TIMES: Obituary: The Revd Professor Hector Patmore. ‘His ministry was marked by gentleness, encouragement, and care’.

Professor Josef Lössl, the Revd Chris Burr, Canon Peter Sedgwick, and Canon Jack McDonald write:

HECTOR PATMORE, who died after an accident on 13 September, aged 45, was one of the most brilliant young academics of his generation. An expert in the field of Judaism in the time of Jesus, he was also an Anglican priest and much loved by congregations wherever he served.

[...]

Background here and here.

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

The Testimonium Flavianum in the news

AND ONCE AGAIN: Study Asks What Josephus Really Wrote About Jesus’ Resurrection (Bill Giannopoulos, Greek City Times).

A new study of the Testimonium Flavianum argues that the Jewish historian Josephus may have recorded early reports of Jesus appearing alive after the crucifixion. The researcher stresses that his reading is plausible, not proven.

Independent Spanish researcher Jesús Fernández-Pedrera Correa set out his case in a preprint, which has not yet passed peer review. The Daily Mail reported on it this week.

[...]

This GCT article has a good summary of the Mail article. There isn't a lot of news in this story, but the Mail piece has drawn some attention to it, so I will comment briefly.

The unpublished essay looks like a good description of the textual evidence, which has already been discussed endlessly in the critical literature. It has sensible observations, and may have some original formulation of them. It ignores a lot of recent secondary literature. In its conclusions I see no substantive new proposals about what was and wasn't in Josephus' autograph text. Whether its contribution merits peer-review publication would have to be decided by reviewers. At minimum I would say it needs some revision to take into account more recent publications and to clarify what the original contribution is.

Meanwhile, if you want a good overview of the complicated textual evidence for the Testimonium Flavianum, the essay is open access and is worth a look.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Josephus's Testimonium Flavinum, see here and links, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

Greek-style Tetradrachms excavated in Israel are mostly from Athens

NUMISMATICS: 2,400-Year-Old Greek Coins Found in Israel Reveal Surprising Links to Ancient Athens (Abdul Moeed, Greek Reporter).

The origins of ancient Greek coins found in Israel are clearer after a new study traced much of their silver to Athens and territories it once controlled. Researchers say many of the coins, long suspected of being local copies, were likely genuine Athenian currency carried east during a costly war more than 2,400 years ago.

[...]

This article links to the underlying open access article in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports:

When is an owl not an owl? An analysis of Attic tetradrachms circulating in the southern Levant in the late fifth and fourth centuries BCE

Liesel Gentelli, Gillan Davis, Francis Albarède, Janne Blichert-Toft, Haim Gitler

10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105634

Abstract

This article, dedicated to the memory of the late Prof. John H. Kroll, focuses on late fifth century BCE Athenian-style tetradrachms found in the southern Levant, to shed new light on whether they are genuine Athenian issues or local imitations. To address this important yet vexed historical question, we analysed the Pb isotope compositions of 22 coins from ten controlled archaeological excavations in Israel and compared them against the ∼ 7,000 galena samples in the Lyon Pb isotope database. Nineteen of the coins are of the “three-quarter profile eye” variety conventionally dated mid to late fifth century BCE. We found that they match Attic or Athenian-controlled silver sources, suggesting they are authentic Athenian issues and not imitations as some of them were originally categorised. We argue that these coins likely entered the Western Asian money supply during Athens’ massive naval campaigns in the eastern Aegean in the third and final phase of the Peloponnesian War, and that the series should be refined to end with the city’s defeat and loss of silver sources in 404 BCE. The fact that three of the coins are plated supports the contention that they were part of the series minted when Athens was under extreme financial duress. The remaining two coins are of the pi-style series struck in the early 340 s BCE, as proposed by John H. Kroll (personal communication and cf. also Flament, 2023). The Pb isotope data indicate that our examples were not struck from Athenian silver casting doubt on the current theory that they were restruck Attic coins. These overall findings call for a reassessment of monetary sources, coin circulation, and local minting in the fourth century BCE in the southern Levant. This study also highlights the need for independent archaeological dating beyond reliance upon numismatic typology.

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Teenager finds Bronze Age Egyptian amulet at Tel Gezer

ANCIENT ICONOGRAPHY: US teen discovers 3,300-year-old Egyptian amulet during Israel tour. 17-year-old Shiloh Attoun spots the small scarab-shaped seal while visiting Tel Gezer National Park with his class (Zev Stub, Times of Israel).

Shiloh Attoun, a student on the Jewish National Fund-USA’s Muss High School in Israel study-abroad program, was visiting Tel Gezer National Park in the Judean lowlands when he spotted the small scarab-shaped seal lying on the ground. The amulet, decorated with two cobra motifs, dates to the Late Bronze Age, according to an examination by Prof. Ido Koch of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures.

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

Another review of Eisenstock, Talmud Chronicles

BOOK REVIEW: Recreating the story of the sages in Talmud Chronicles. Rabbi Zalman Eisenstock’s new book aims to bring the era of the rabbis to life, writes Simon Rocker (The Jewish Chronicle).

But even if the Talmud’s dense walls of Aramaic remain impenetrable to many, there are ways to appreciate its content. Rabbi Zalman Eisenstock’s new book, Talmud Chronicles, offers an entertaining glimpse into the history and culture of the sages.

He has taken episodes from the second century CE and presented them in the form of newspaper articles – not only as news stories, but features, interviews, advice columns, cartoons and even adverts (for dream interpreters, succah builders or camel drivers). He has clearly had a lot of fun along the way. But then the Talmud recognised the value of humour. The Babylonian master Rabba reputedly opened his classes with something light-hearted to bring a smile to the faces of his students.

I noted the publication of the book here and a recent review here.

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... Unveiling the ancient Iranian language of eschatology (Brill)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Final Frontier.

Notice of a New Book: Rezania, Kianoosh, Neda Mohtashami & Yusef Saadat (eds.). 2026. The final frontier: Unveiling the ancient Iranian language of eschatology (Dynamics in the History of Religions 18). Leiden: Brill.

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Carthago excavanda est

PUNIC WATCH: Carthage begins a new archaeological mission on 15 October. Carthage in Tunis is hosting a Tunisian-Chinese archaeological mission, with excavations and surveys continuing until 8 January 2027 (Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS).

The project was launched by Tunisia's National Heritage Institute, known as the INP, in cooperation with China's National Centre for Archaeology, or NACA. The mission brings together researchers, specialists, heritage conservators and students from both countries.

The programme includes excavations at the Punic ports and studies of the remains and their immediate surroundings. Teams are also carrying out geometric and topographic surveys with modern technology, while archaeological collections found during the work are being studied and inventoried. Details of the mission published by Le Quotidien place the start on 15 October 2026 and the planned end on 8 January 2027.

Glad to hear it. There has also been recent archaeological work by the INP at the Carthage Tophet.

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

The Sibyls in the Renaissance

THE KIWI HELLENIST BLOG: Sibyls and Sibylline oracles. 4. The Renaissance.

The Sibyls were thoroughly christianised after Lactantius finished with them. He successfully reimagined them as virtuous pagans of the distant past. Most later readers imagined the Sibylline oracles poems were authentic predictions of Christ and the end times.

Their reputation continued to expand in late antiquity and the Mediaeval period. According to Finn Schulze-Feldmann (2017), they were integral to a wave of Christian apocalyptic literature: they were an ideal hook to hang new prophecies on.

[...]

The fourth and (I think) final post in this informative series. Earlier posts are noted here (with links to earlier PaleoJudaica posts), here, and here.

In both late antique and Renaissance Christianity, Hermes Trismegistos and the Sibyls sometimes were associated as venerably ancient pagan prophets. See here and links (cf. here) for more.

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

CFP: Problematic Prophecies (CAC Annual meeting)

CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA: Call for Papers: Problematic Prophecies, CAC Annual meeting (Deadline: January 15). HT Rogue Classicism.

Classical Association of Canada, May 4th–6th, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador ...

This panel is envisioned as a forum to discuss the abnormal unfolding of prophecies and invites proposals for papers centered on case studies describing fake, false, falsified, misinterpreted or otherwise problematic prophecies and oracles in literary texts. ...

Follow the link for further particulars.

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

Bellum Punicum exhibition at Cartagena, Spain

PUNIC WATCH: Roman Theatre of Cartagena hosts Bellum Punica until 15 November. Roman Theatre of Cartagena in Cartagena presents Bellum Punica until 15 November, with Francano's terracotta sculptures exploring the Second Punic War (Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS).

The Spanish city of Cartagena was an important player in the Second Punic War. It was founded by Hannibal Barca's brother-in-law, Hasdrubal the Fair. Hannibal commenced his march across the Alps from Cartagena.

Sorry to miss this exibition. I visited Cartagena in 2025 for its annual Festival of the Carthaginians and Romans. Subsequent posts on Cartagena's history and archaeology are collected here.

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CFP: Rutgers Rabbinic Conference, 1 December proposal deadline

H-JUDAIC: One month till deadline: CFP for Rutgers Rabbinic Conference 2027 due December 1.

Submission deadline: December 1, 2026

Papers may be on any topic related to classical (Late Antique) rabbinic literature, culture, or history. Papers from adjacent fields that are in dialogue with rabbinics are also welcome.

The 2-day conference will include panels of short papers that will be grouped thematically and include scholars of different ranks. In addition there will be book presentations by authors of new or forthcoming books on rabbinics.

The conference seeks applicants from all academic ranks. Senior scholars, junior and unappointed scholars, and graduate students are all encouraged to submit proposals for short papers and/or for book presentations.

The conference will provide kosher meals, but cannot offer funds for travel or accommodation.

Follow the link for further particulars.

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Burke on Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2026

THE APOCRYPHICTY BLOG: Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2026 (Tony Burke).

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

Review of Ewan, Fountain of Living Water

SYRIAC WATCH: Book review: Fountain of Living Water: Poetry, prayers, and hymns of the mystics of the Early Church of the East, edited and translated by Robert Ewan. Here is a rich tradition of the Eastern Church, says John Binns (Church Times).

There are 31 writers whose work is included. Most come from the “golden age” of Syrian literature from the fourth to sixth centuries, beginning with the hymn-writer Ephrem the Syrian, and then on to others who followed him; and there is one modern poet included. There are patriarchs, bishops, abbots of monasteries, ascetics, and teachers in the schools. There are short biographies of each writer, which introduce the poems and also the life of the Church. ...

Fountain of Living Water: Poetry, prayers, and hymns of the mystics of the Early Church of the East
Robert Ewan, editor and translator
Gracewing £12.99
(978-1-78182-201-2)
Church Times Bookshop £11.69

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

The Bible of Edessa: Ezekiel (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Bible of Edessa: Ezekiel

Series:
The Bible of Edessa: An Annotated Translation of the Syriac Peshitta, Volume: 2

Editors / Translators: Jerome A. Lund, Godwin Mushayabasa, and Herculaas F. van Rooy

Authoritative, Based on the Best Syriac Text, and Fully Annotated

This extensively annotated translation offers an accessible introduction to the Peshitta of Ezekiel. It evaluates variant readings and explains the preferred text, enabling students and scholars to engage confidently with the Syriac Bible. Notes on the relationship between the Syriac and Hebrew texts support research on Ezekiel’s textual history and its ancient translations. Members of the Syriac/Assyrian churches will value its use of the oldest and most reliable manuscripts, as presented in the Leiden–Amsterdam Peshitta edition, together with references to Syriac interpreters. The Bible of Edessa is authorized by the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) and published by the Amsterdam Peshitta Institute.

Copyright Year: 2027

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-77012-6
Publication: 29 Sep 2026
EUR €153.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-72252-1
Publication: 29 Oct 2026
EUR €153.00

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Milco (ed), Beall Festschrift (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

“TEACHER, MOTHER, GIVER OF ALL GOOD ADVICE”
Essays in Memory of Judith Beall

Edited by Katherine E. Milco

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-5032-4
Formats *
Hardback (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-5032-4
eBook PDF (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-5033-1 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Perspectives on Philosophy and Religious Thought23
Publication Date: Sep 15,2026
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Page Count: 225
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-5032-4

Price: $95.00 (USD)
Your price: $57.00 (USD)

OVERVIEW

This volume commemorates the life and work of Dr. Judith Beall (1945-2025), a popular professor and the Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with contributions from scholars in the disciplines of theology, history, classics, science, and literature. The essays reflect the major themes of her research and teaching, such as the interpretation of history as a praeparatio evangelica, the recovery of ancient Jewish and early Christian texts, the role of ressourcement in the self-understanding of the Church, and the relationship between suffering and sanctity.

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

Uusimäki, Women, Travel and Transformation from the Bible to Bar-Kokhba (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Women, Travel and Transformation from the Bible to Bar-Kokhba
By Elisa Uusimäki
Copyright 2027

Open Access content is available for this title

Hardback
£137.59

ISBN 9781041139744
350 Pages
Published September 18, 2026 by Routledge

Description

This book provides a novel, cultural-historical perspective on travel in the ancient world by exploring a wide range of women’s (in)voluntary journeys and relocations, such as can be derived from passing references, short sections, and extended narratives found in the early Jewish corpora that remain to us.

The book delivers a more nuanced notion of the past by challenging and demonstrating the need to move beyond the binary idea of “female stayers” and “male movers.” In doing so, it foregrounds a previously overlooked aspect of travel history: female mobility, its many facets and inherent complexity as a sociocultural phenomenon, and its multiple transformational effects. The selected sources include a large body of literary texts from the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo of Alexandria, Flavius Josephus, and the New Testament, together with some documentary sources indicating the existence of certain types of travel up until the early second century ce. They reveal a variety of mobile girls and women, such as brides, businesswomen, captives, diplomats, diviners, economic and forced migrants, knowledge-seekers, midwives, musicians, nurses, pilgrims, refugees, sages, (semi)nomads, slaves, tourists, and war leaders.

Women, Travel and Transformation from the Bible to Bar-Kokhba is of interest to students and scholars working on travel history, early Jewish literature, and women in antiquity, as well as those in biblical studies, religious studies, ancient history, and classics.

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On the Arch of Titus

ANCIENT ICONOGRAPHIC PROPAGANDA ARCHITECTURE: Arch of Titus: The monument that celebrated Jerusalem’s fall but became a Jewish emblem. Rome’s most famous ruins hold a Jewish story that many visitors, Jews included, never hear (Asaf Peled, Pittsburg Jewish Chronicle).

A nice tourism overview.

There are many PaleoJudaica posts on the Arch of Titus. For some of them, see here, here, and here, and follow the links

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

Biblical Job in Early Christianity and Beyond (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Biblical Job in Early Christianity and Beyond

Series:
Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements, Volume: 193

Volume Editors: Nienke M. Vos, Paula Rose, and Albert C. Geljon

This volume focuses on close readings of the biblical book of Job and its reception in early Christianity. It offers thought-provoking research: from the Bible in Hebrew and Greek to Job’s impact on Christian traditions in East and West, on Judaism and Islam. The sources include the fascinating Coptic Testament of Job as well as texts in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Latin. Intriguing and complex material is presented, such as a mēmrā by Narsai, a homily by Basil of Seleucia (first edition), midrashim, and Islamic storytelling. Thus, Job emerges as an engaging and multifaceted figure of imaginative and religious reflections.

Copyright Year: 2027

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-77192-5
Publication: 22 Sep 2026
EUR €164.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-77191-8
Publication: 22 Oct 2026
EUR €164.00

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Shih-En Kuo, The Golden Calf Narrative in the Book of the Twelve (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

THE GOLDEN CALF NARRATIVE IN THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE
Inner-Biblical Allusions to Exodus 34:6–7

By Shih-En Kuo

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-5020-1
Formats *
Hardback (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-5020-1
eBook PDF (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-5021-8 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Bulletin for Biblical Research Dissertation Series 4
Publication Date: Sep 29,2026
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 385
Languages: Englishv ISBN: 978-1-4632-5020-1
Price: $95.00 (USD)
Your price: $57.00 (USD)

OVERVIEW

A simple question repeatedly emerges when reading the Book of the Twelve as a collection: Why do echoes of the Golden Calf Narrative (Exod 32–34), especially the Attribute Formula (Exod 34:6–7), surface at multiple points across these prophetic writings, and what do those echoes accomplish for their readers? Biblical research on the Twelve has offered a range of accounts for its coherence, while scholarship on inner-biblical allusion has continued to refine how textual reuse should be identified and evaluated. This study brings these conversations into direct contact by tracing its resonances across the Twelve and asking how they contribute to the collection’s literary and theological unity.

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Malta's catacombs are now a European Heritage Site

FUNERARY EPIGRAPHY: Malta’s Ancient Catacombs Become Country’s First European Heritage Site (Iuliia Tore, RusTourismNews).

St Paul’s Catacombs in Rabat have become the first site in Malta to receive the European Heritage Label, recognising an ancient underground burial complex where Jewish, pagan and Christian communities left evidence of their shared history over more than a thousand years.

The recognition, awarded earlier in 2026, places the catacombs among European landmarks selected for their contribution to the continent’s history and cultural identity. Heritage Malta celebrated the distinction in October with guided tours, Roman funeral re-enactments and educational activities, while announcing plans to improve the visitor experience.

Dating from at least the fourth or third century BC, the catacombs contain more than 30 underground burial areas spanning the Punic, Roman and Byzantine periods. Their unusual combination of religious traditions makes the complex one of the Mediterranean’s most significant early burial sites.

[...]

This is very good news. For PaleoJudaica posts on the catacombs of Malta, start here and follow the links.

Incidentally, I was in Malta last summer and I have photos of the Jewish inscriptions in the Rabat catacombs.

And, yes, I also did locate that supposedly Iron Age, supposedly Jewish or Phoenician inscription at the Neolithic Ġgantija temple complex in Gozo. It really is there and it really is an obvious forgery. I have photos of it too.

I will share some photos of both sites with you when I get a chance. Maybe not soon. I am very busy and will be for some time.

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

Did God judge Sodom justly?

PROF. GÁBOR BALÁS: Sodom’s Collective Punishment—Shall the Judge of All the Earth Not Do Justice? (TheTorah.com).

Abraham challenges God’s plan to destroy Sodom with two distinct arguments: the innocent must not suffer alongside the guilty, and a righteous minority should suffice to spare an entire city. Why does Abraham stop at ten innocents? Can collective punishment ever be just? The Rabbis sharpen Abraham’s critique of divine justice. Yet the story’s implications extend beyond whether perfect justice is attainable: God chose Abraham to teach his descendants righteousness and justice, even when it means challenging God.

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Reviews of two books on Hellenistic kingship

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Alexander’s successors and the creation of Hellenistic kingship.

Holton, John. Alexander’s successors and the creation of Hellenistic kingship. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. Pp. 232. ISBN 9781350399020.

Holton, John. Royal traditions and the consolidation of power by Alexander’s successors. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. Pp. 232. ISBN 9781350399112.

Review by Caroline Kreutzer, University of Bamberg. caroline.kreutzer@uni-bamberg.de

In these two monographs, John Holton presents new approaches to the development and consolidation of the Hellenistic monarchies following Alexander the Great. Although the basic ideas of both books are not directly dependent on each other, they can be easily combined and complement each other by offering theory-based studies of the early phase of Hellenistic kingship.

[...]

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

On the Sibylline Oracles

THE KIWI HELLENIST BLOG: Sibyls and Sibylline oracles. 3. The Sibylline oracles.

The Sibylline oracles are closer imitations. These are a group of eleven poems and eight fragments, mostly Jewish, with an assortment of Christian additions, in Greek hexameter verse. They range in date from the 2nd century BCE to the 7th century CE. Several of the poems list off dynasties of kings and emperors, framing them as though they’re predictions. In some poems the timeline reaches all the way from the Creation (as in Genesis) up to the end times and the Last Judgement (as in Enoch or Revelation).

I noted the earlier posts in this informative series here (with links to earlier PaleoJudaica posts) and here.

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

Biggerstaff, De-Marginalizing Prophetic Suprahuman Knowledge (2022 PhD thesis)

THE AWOL BLOG: De-Marginalizing Prophetic Suprahuman Knowledge.

De-Marginalizing Prophetic Suprahuman Knowledge
Biggerstaff, Michael
Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

... Prior to the nineteenth century, exegetes never understood prophetic claims of suprahuman knowledge as subordinate to issues of social justice and repentance. ...

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

Why is ancient Greek pronunciation important?

THE OTTC BLOG: Reconstructed Koine Pronunciation (Drew Longacre).

What does a question of Greek language learning pedagogy have to do with OT textual criticism? More than you might think, actually. ...

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

Who was God talking to at creation and why?

WHO IS "US?" The Role of Angels in the Creation of Humankind ("Staff Editors," TheTorah.com).

“Let us make humankind” (Genesis 1:26)—whom is God addressing? Across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, some interpreters have identified God’s audience as the angels but have assigned them strikingly different roles in humanity’s creation: collaborators, creators, or critics who question the wisdom of bringing humans and their corruption into existence.

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

Nicosia, Excerpting History in the Syriac World (open access, De Gruyter/Brill)

THE AWOL BLOG: Excerpting History in the Syriac World: The Miaphysite Collections (6th–10th c.).

Excerpting History in the Syriac World: The Miaphysite Collections (6th–10th c.)
Giorgia Nicosia
Volume 119 | Millennium-Studien / Millennium Studies, 2026
De Gruyter/Brill

Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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Review of Eisenstock, Talmud Chronicles

BOOK REVIEW : ‘Extra, extra!’ New book brings ancient Talmudic texts to life for readers of all ages - review The Talmud Chronicles: Bringing Talmudic Events to Life covers significant historical events from around 100-200 CE and breathes life into characters from the Talmud (Marion Fischel, Jerusalem Post).

TALMUD CHRONICLES:
BRINGING TALMUDIC EVENTS TO LIFE
By Zalman Eisenstock
Urim Publications
112 pages; $35

I noted the publication of the book here. Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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

Rapp, Early Christian Georgian Literature (CUP)

NEW (SHORT) BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Early Christian Georgian Literature

Making Christian Identity in an Iranic Culture

Series: Elements in Early Christian Literature
Author: Stephen H. Rapp Jr, Sam Houston State University
Published: August 2026
Availability: Available
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781009481588

£18.00 GBP Paperback

£55.00 GBP Hardback

$25.00 USD eBook

Description

This Element re-evaluates the genesis and early development of Georgian literature. Sparked by the Christian invention of a Georgian script ca. 400 AD, this literature was a product of the Christianization of the Caucasus region. But to what extent was early Georgian literature a Christian one? What were the ecclesiastical, cultural, and linguistic contexts of Georgian literature? And how did Georgia's, and Caucasia's, existing ties to Iranian cultural world affect the evolution of a distinctly Georgian literature?

For some background on Georgian language and culture (not just Christian, also Jewish), see here and links and here.

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Klawans, Biblical Forgery and Academic Authentication (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Biblical Forgery and Academic Authentication: Persisting Patterns of Guile and Gullibility

Jonathan Klawans

£29.99

Hardback
Published: 29 September 2026
286 Pages
235x156mm
ISBN: 9780197850534

Also Available As:
E-book

• Informs, for the first time, on a wide-range of biblical forgery cases
• Focuses on issues relating to academic authentication: why scholars fall for forgeries and the poor arguments used to authenticate
• Introduces forgery studies and proposes a new "scale of authenticity," from 1 to 5

Description

Biblical Forgery and Academic Authentication describes and decries the roles academics have played in the authentication of biblical forgeries. The most notorious recent incident is surely the 2016 publication of thirteen minuscule Dead Sea Scroll fragments displayed in the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, quickly determined to be clever forgeries. Additional episodes range from Cyrus Gordon's 1970s authentications of supposedly ancient Hebrew inscriptions discovered in America to more recent trusting re-evaluations of the suspicious Deuteronomy manuscripts offered for sale by Moses Wilhelm Shapira in 1883.

While various articles and books have focused on one incident or another, no recent monograph has tried to grasp the larger, repeating dynamic of academic naiveté among biblical scholars. Nor has any work on forgery to date isolated and illustrated the distinct role played by the academic authenticator-a figure who stands between forgers and skeptics, neither forging nor criticizing the artifacts they encounter and endorse. The inherently controversial act of authenticating unprovenanced finds occasionally coincides with other broken norms (undue secrecy, insufficient disclosures, at times with money involved). This book sheds new light on long-resolved forgery cases, to tip the balance in some open cases, and to expose the ethical and intellectual lapses that permit the current situation to persist and fester.

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Tel Shikmona National Park now open to the public

RENOVATED AND REOPENED: Ancient coastal site in Haifa reopens after 3 million shekel restoration. (Ynet News).

Tel Shikmona National Park, home to 3,500 years of archaeological history and remnants of an ancient purple dye industry, welcomes visitors again after a two-year renovation that added walking paths, restored ruins and improved public access

PaleoJudaica posts on the archaeological finds at Tel Shikmona are here, here, and here and links.

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

"10 Important Biblical Archaeological Finds"

LISTICLE: 10 Important Biblical Archaeological Finds (J.D. Cohen, Aish.com).

This is a good list. You can find more on most of these items in PaleoJudaica posts. See the blog search engine.

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

Why aren't Torah scrolls vocalized?

DR. ELIAV GROSSMAN: Why Don’t Torah Scrolls Have Vowels? And why do the letters have crowns? (TheTorah.com).

At that precarious moment in the history of rabbinic authority and Jewish textuality, certain rabbis sought to maintain a distinction between the Torah scroll and a codex, protecting the Torah scroll as the privileged ritual object of liturgical reading.

A deep dive into the background of Masoretic vocalization, punctuation, and ornamentation of Torah scrolls.

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

God of justice and mercy or mercy and justice?

PROF. RABBI HERBERT BASSER: YHWH and Elohim: One God, Different Attributes (TheTorah.com).

Why does Elohim, and not YHWH, create the world? Philo and the rabbis—though in opposite directions—each read the two names as two divine attributes, one beneficent and one that judges. The kabbalists see these as the sefirot דין Judgment and חסד Lovingkindness—while Ramchal further unites them as two colors in the prism of the divine crystal.

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

On the Bar Kokhba Revolt

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: What Is the Bar-Kokhba Revolt? Judah’s other great revolt against Rome (Lauren K. McCormick).

Rome put down one Jewish uprising in Judea that lasted from 66 to 74 CE, called the First Jewish Revolt. It culminated in the burning of the Jerusalem Temple by the then-general (future emperor) Titus. Afterward, tensions over taxation, sacrifice, and imperial policy still plagued the province, and erupted again in 132 in the Bar-Kokhba Revolt.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Bar Kokhba Revolt see the links collected here (cf. here).

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

The Israelite Samaritan Torah app

THE AWOL BLOG: The Israelite Samaritan Torah.

Yep, there's an app for that too.

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

On Ashoka and his Aramaic edicts

BUDDHIST ARAMAIC WATCH: Ashoka, History, Edicts, Inscription, Policy of Dhamma, Death (Vajiram & Ravi).

Explore Ashoka the Great's reign, including his Kalinga War, Dhamma policy, administration, edicts, and efforts to promote Buddhism. Learn about his economic policies, societal reforms, and cultural contributions to ancient India

These study notes for the 2026 UPSC Civil Services Examination in India give a good detailed account of the reign of Emperor Ashoka the Great, including, of course, his Aramaic Dhamma edicts.

Earlier PaleoJudaica posts on or involving Ashoka and his Aramaic are here (but links rotted), here, here, here, and here.

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

Hezse & Willems (eds.), The Talmud Yerushalmi’s Civil Law in Its Ancient Legal Context (Harrassowitz)

THE AWOL BLOG: The Talmud Yerushalmi’s Civil Law in Its Ancient Legal Context: Rabbinic Law – Roman Law – Hellenistic Law.

Notice of a New Book (with open access): Hezser, Catherine / Willems, Constantin (eds.). The Talmud Yerushalmi’s Civil Law in Its Ancient Legal Context: Rabbinic Law – Roman Law – Hellenistic Law. Harrassowitz, 2026.

Follow the link for abstract and access link.

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Taylor Swift's Babylon?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Taylor Swift’s Babylon. Excavating the life of a symbol (Lauren K. McCormick ).

The song “Babylon” is a meditation on leaving home, having success, and coming to appreciate what you had only in hindsight. The chorus turns on the realization: “You never knew that it was Babylon ’til it was gone.”

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the archaeology, history, and legends of ancient Babylon, see here and links, here, here, and here and links.

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

CFP: Jewish Scriptures in Earliest Christianity

UPCOMING CONFERENCE:

Jewish Scriptures in Earliest Christianity
Call for Papers
18 March to 20 March 2027
Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham
Deadline: 11 December 2026

The 2027 Seminar for the Jewish Scriptures in Earliest Christianity will meet at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, UK, B15 2QH (www.queens.ac.uk), from the evening of Thursday 18th March (starting with dinner at 6pm) to the afternoon of Saturday 20th March 2027 (finishing with lunch at 1pm). ...

Posted by the British New Testament Society. Follow the link for further particulars and instructions for paper proposals.

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Simcha Gross appointed to named Penn Chair

ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn appoints inaugural named professor in Jewish Studies following $3M gift (Gina Park, The Daily Pennsylvanian).

Penn named its inaugural Georgia and Jesse Feldman Associate Professor of Jewish Studies last week following a $3 million gift.

The School of Arts and Sciences received the donation from 2000 College graduate Georgia Feldman and her husband, Jesse Feldman, to expand its Jewish Studies program. Simcha Gross — an associate professor of Ancient Rabbinics — was appointed to the professorship role, according to an Oct. 13 announcement. ...

His research focuses on Jewish communities during the first millennium of the Common Era — specifically focusing on their relationships with the Roman, Persian, and Islamic empires. Gross explained that his studies examine how Jewish people are “categorized and treated in different eras and different societies.”

Congratulations to Professor Gross and to the University of Pennsylvania. For more on his work, see here and here and links, and here.

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The Nephilim were (Ethiopic) flesh?

PROF. MICHAEL SEGAL: The Nephilim Were Flesh—Beshagam בְּשַׁגַּם, a Biblical Hapax Legomenon (TheTorah.com).

YHWH declares that His spirit will not endure forever among the Nephilim—demigods born from the union of divine beings and human women—בְּשַׁגַּם הוּא בָשָׂר beshagam hu basar (Genesis 6:3). What does this phrase mean?

This explanation is possible. But it requires emendation of the text on the basis of a hypothetical cognate, with limited payoff.

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DSS exhibition coming to Houston

COMING SOON: Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition returns to Houston in November. Members gain early access on November 20, while a discount is offered to the first 1,000 general admission tickets purchased (Rachel Estrada, CW39 Houston).

There are currently few details on the specifics of the exhibition.

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

AUC day conference on Coptic studies

COPTIC WATCH: AUC Hosts Global Dialogue On Coptic History And Heritage With International Conference (AUC press release).

Cairo, October 18, 2026 - The American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted From Tomb to Text: Talks on Coptic History, a one-day international conference on Coptic archaeology that brought together leading scholars from Egypt, Europe and the United States to showcase the latest research in Coptic art history, heritage, textiles, settlement archaeology and archaeobotany. The conference was supported by the Gratus Foundation by Mary and Bishoy Azmy, founded by AUC Trustee Bishoy Emad Azmy ’02 and Mary Habib ’05.

[...]

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

Fitzgerald, Women in Greco-Roman Jewish Novels (300 BCE–100 CE) (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Women in Greco-Roman Jewish Novels (300 BCE–100 CE)
Katharine L. Fitzgerald

ISBN 9781918358261
Status Available
Publication Date February 2026

Hardback
$98.00

This monograph offers the first sustained study of female protagonists as central agents in the construction of Jewish identity in early Jewish narrative literature. Focusing on the Greek texts of Esther, Judith, Susanna, and Aseneth, Fitzgerald demonstrates that these narratives do more than entertain—they participate in complex discourses about what it meant to be Jewish in the Greco-Roman world.

Drawing on literary-critical and gender-informed approaches, this monograph examines four key dimensions of identity—foodways, sexuality, kinship, and community—to illustrate how Jewish authors used female characters to negotiate cultural boundaries and articulate forms of belonging. Rather than treating women as marginal or merely symbolic figures, Fitzgerald argues that these protagonists function as primary sites through which Jewish authors imagined, contested, and maintained Jewishness in literary texts.

By situating these texts within their broader Greco-Roman and Second Temple contexts, the book challenges longstanding assumptions about the androcentric nature of Jewish identity formation. It demonstrates that narratives centered on women are not peripheral to discussions of Jewishness but are essential to understanding its diversity and fluidity in antiquity.

Engaging critically with major scholarship on Jewish identity, diaspora, and ancient gender systems, Women in Greco-Roman Jewish Novels bridges the gap between studies of Jewishness and gender in antiquity. It offers a new framework for reading early Jewish literature—one that takes seriously the literary construction of women and the interpretive possibilities these figures open for reconstructing ancient Jewish thought.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students of early Judaism, biblical studies, gender studies, and ancient Mediterranean literature.

SBL Press is the North American distributor for Sheffield Phoenix Press. ...

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Lam, Divinised Humans in Ancient Judaism (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Divinised Humans in Ancient Judaism

Daniel Lam (Author)

Hardback
$120.00 $108.00

Ebook (PDF)
$108.00 $86.40

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$108.00 $86.40

Product details

Published Sep 17 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 232
ISBN 9780567729477
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Second Temple Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

Exploring the fluidity of divine–human boundaries in ancient Judaism, Daniel Lam challenges the assumption of a rigid divide between God and humanity. Drawing on prototype theory and texts from across millennia of Jewish and Christian literature, Lam argues that divinity was conceived as a graded category rather than an absolute state, suggesting that figures such as Adam, Enoch, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus were imagined as crossing the divine threshold through immortality, metamorphosis, and exaltation. By situating these traditions within their wider Mediterranean context, Lam reframes debates on monotheism, deification, and early Christology.

Lam engages deeply with primary sources, including Genesis and Psalms, Wisdom of Solomon, and the Life of Adam and Eve; Enochic writings such as the Book of the Watchers and Book of Parables; and New Testament passages like Philippians 2 and Hebrews 1. In addition, he examines lesser-known materials such as the Testament of Abraham, Qumran fragments, and 2 Enoch, highlighting motifs of angelomorphism, luminous transformation, and enthronement. These case studies illuminate how ancient authors negotiated divine identity and challenge the notion that divinisation was exclusively a “pagan” concept, offering a fresh methodological framework for understanding divinity as a fluid and multivalent phenomenon.

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Cutino & Cerami (eds.), The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Twelve Tribes of Israel

Jewish-Christian Interpretations between Ruptures and Continuities (1st–5th centuries)

Series: Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, Volume: 44

Volume Editors: Michele Cutino and Calogero Cerami

The theme of the twelve tribes of Israel is one of the key points for observing the continuity and discontinuity between Judaism and Christianity, which derives from it. It is therefore a very sensitive topic of ‘the parting of the ways’, which surprisingly has not aroused much interest among critics. This volume aims to fill this gap by first placing the twelve tribes of Israel in their historical context within Jewish culture, then moving on to the various, often contradictory, interpretations that Christians have given to this concept since the early centuries, before finally using this model to refer to the Church as the new Israel.

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75769-1
Publication: 18 Aug 2026
EUR €135.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-75768-4
Publication: 16 Sep 2026
EUR €135.00

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Shapira, The Discourse of Rites (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Hananel Shapira

The Discourse of Rites

Shaping and Reshaping the (Counter-)Priestly Rituals Conducted Outside the Tabernacle

2026. 342 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 179

€109.00
including VAT

sewn paper
available
978-3-16-200495-6

Also Available As:
eBook PDF

Summary

Hananel Shapira investigates a series of anomalous rituals within the Priestly literature of the Pentateuch that take place outside the sacred precinct of the Tabernacle. While biblical scholarship frequently characterizes the Priestly corpus as a monolithic system dedicated to cultic centralization and the absolute authority of the Aaronide priesthood, the author argues that the base layer of the Priestly corpus contains a subversive undercurrent. This »Counter-Priestliness« is manifest in rituals such as the purification of the healed leper in Leviticus, the burning of the red heifer in Numbers, and the release of the scapegoat into the wilderness.
The author uses philological and diachronic analysis to identify distinct textual layers, revealing how these external rituals originally bypassed the professional priesthood. In the earliest layer, the rituals are performed by laypeople or commoners, allowing for a degree of individual agency and personal expression that the standard, sanctuary-centered system typically suppresses. The theoretical framework for this analysis draws an analogy between the standard Priestly system and the Enlightenment's quest for universal, reductive order, while the external rituals reflect a spirit akin to the Counter-Enlightenment's emphasis on the particular and the untamed. The author posits that the standard system functions as a universal language of ritual, whereas external rites address the fractured particularity of human experience, especially when confronting the realities of death and physical impurity.
Shapira shows that the priest's active role in these external rituals is largely a product of later editorial interventions. These restorative attempts to tame unconventional practices and align them with the standard sacrificial system unintentionally triggered broader transformations within the ritual system itself. By analyzing the interplay between legal stipulations and their narrative contexts, the author shows that ritual innovation often stems from internal, prosaic forces and restorative impulses rather than solely from external cultural shifts or foundational historical events.

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NEH funding restored for Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project

THE OTTC BLOG: CEHP Restart (Drew Longacre).

Background here and here. This is great news. As I said when the funding cut was announced, there was a strong case for restoring it.

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

Sifting Project to publish the Asayahu seal

HEBREW EPIGRAPHY: Groundbreaking Temple Mount seal find to be published. Temple Mount Sifting Project faces a backlog, with tons of debris still awaiting examination (Dave Gordon, JNS).

A study of a First Temple-period seal impression that may be connected to an official in the biblical account of King Josiah is expected to appear in the Israel Exploration Journal by the end of 2026, according to Temple Mount Sifting Project co-founder and director Zachi Dvira.

The clay impression, recovered by the project, bears the name “Yeda‘yah (son of) Asayahu.” Researchers have tentatively linked the father’s name to Asaiah, an adviser to King Josiah mentioned in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. The identification remains a possibility, not an established match.

The article also gives background on the Temple Mount Sifting projects, its previous discoveries, and a discovery still being processed. I link often to the project's blog, which is here.

I noted the discovery of the Asayahu seal in 2025 here.

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A New Quest For Paul? We'll see.

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

A Farewell to the New Perspective on Paul – The Start of the New Quest For Paul

The New Perspective on Paul is challenged for underestimating differences between Jewish and Pauline understandings of human agency. Paul’s contrast between “letter” and “Spirit” is interpreted as locating salvation and fulfillment of the law entirely in Christ and the Spirit rather than human ability.

See also Paul and Judaism: An Anthropological Approach (2nd edition; CPH, 2026).

By Timo Laato
Senior Lecturer
Lutheran School of Theology in Gothenburg
October 2026

Cross-file under Revised Book. The first edition was published in 1995.

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Manuscript mythwashing mysteries

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Mythwashing and the Two Meanings of Mystery in Manuscript Discovery Stories (Eva Mroczek).

Hidden Scrolls, Buried Bibles: How We Discover the Sacred Past. Yale University Press, 2026.

... The discovery story is a genre with conventional tropes: animal guides, abandoned caves, untrustworthy locals who know the way but threaten the discoveries, and a new world of ancient revelation. The cultural and mythic preconditions that shaped our modern scholarly folklore have developed over hundreds of years of storytelling. And as a robust genre, discovery stories have often overshadowed discoveries themselves. For most people, for example, the interesting thing about the Dead Sea scrolls was not the texts, but the fact that they were hidden for two thousand years in a remote cave, and providentially discovered by a stray goat. That story became their “real meaning,” told as a religious or mythic narrative. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Israel returns 22 unprovenanced artifacts to Greece

REPATRIATION: In first, Israel returns artifacts to Greece amid push to secure return of antiquities. Israel hands over 22 recovered ancient objects that were apparently illegally taken, with both countries hailing increasingly close cooperation in a range of spheres (THANASSIS STAVRAKIS and DEREK GATOPOULOS, AP via Times of Israel).

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Phoenician Umm al-Amad

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Exploring Phoenician Heritage: The Ancient City of Umm al-Amad Near Naqoura (Waradana).

The Ancient City of Umm al-Amad is one of the paramount sites aiding in understanding southern Lebanon’s history during the late Phoenician period and the Hellenistic era. Through its columns, temples, and inscriptions, the site reflects a society that preserved its language, religious, and cultural traditions despite major political changes in the region.

The Phoenician inscriptions discovered at the site, along with the temples of Melek Ashtart, the eastern temple, and the stone stelae, are among the key pieces evidencing the site's historical value. With its inclusion in the UNESCO list of protected Lebanese cultural properties, preserving Umm al-Amad becomes more significant as a part of Lebanon and the Mediterranean south's archaeological memory.

An informative introduction to this important Phoenician site in Lebanon. Also known as Umm al-‛Amad or ’Umm al-‛Amad.

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Review of Kaufman, Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean: the other democracy.

Brett Kaufman, Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean: the other democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026. Pp. 320. ISBN 9780198867685.

Review by
Christopher Stedman Parmenter, Ohio State University.
parmenter.14@osu.edu

... Brett Kaufman’s new book is an exercise in flag-planting. Kaufman also makes a bold claim: the people of ancient west Asia invented democracy and the Phoenicians carried it to Europe. Kaufman’s Phoenician history follows well-received work by Josephine Crawley Quinn (2017), Carolina López-Ruiz (2021), and Denise Demetriou (2023), who cast the Phoenicians as the stars of the first millennium BCE. Parts of Kaufman’s argument ring true, for instance his critique of ancient history’s Hellenocentric bias. But much cannot be endorsed. ...

I noted the publication of the book here and a topical essay by the author here. Cross-file under Phoenician Watch and Punic Watch.

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Forthcoming: Long, 40 Questions about Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (Kregel)

READING ACTS: Book Announcement: 40 Questions about Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (Philip J. Long).

Some regular readers of Reading Acts have noticed I have slowed down a bit this year. Here’s why: I have been writing a book on the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha for Kregel’s 40 Questions series. The book is now finished, edited, (nearly) printed, and will be available mid-November. Kregel tells me they will have copies at ETS and SBL in November, so if you are at the conferences, pick up a copy at a good discount. ...

[...]

Looking forward to it.

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On the Roman Sibylline Books

THE KIWI HELLENIST BLOG: Sibyls and Sibylline oracles. 2. The Sibylline books.

The Sibylline books weren’t primarily books of predictions: they were instructions for rituals, which also mentioned predictions in passing. The idea seems to have been that, when required, priests might choose a ritual from the books, then perform that ritual, to ensure purity, or ward off evil. Some extracts were made public, but a complete text wasn’t widely known. ...

The most famous thing about the books is the story of how they were sold. ...

An informative introduction to the mostly-lost Roman "Sibylline Books." Not to be confused with the Jewish and Christian "Sibylline Oracles," which were inspired by the idea of the Roman books. The Oracles are the scheduled topic of the next post in the series

I noted the first post here, with links to other posts on the Sibylline Oracles.

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Greek influence on Coptic

COPTIC WATCH: How Greek Shaped Coptic, Egypt’s Final Ancient Language (Abdul Moeed, Greek Reporter).

A recent study examines how centuries of contact between Greek and Egypt’s native language shaped Coptic, the final stage of ancient Egyptian, influencing both its structure and vocabulary.

In a study published in the Journal of Greek Linguistics, Sonja Dahlgren of the University of Helsinki explores how Greek influence on Egyptian-Coptic transformed everyday language, religious texts, and administrative documents.

[...]

The underlying article by Dalgren is actually an (open access) book review:

Greek Influence on Egyptian-Coptic: Contact-Induced Change in an Ancient African Language, by Eitan Grossman, Peter Dils, Tonio Sebastian Richter, and Wolfgang Schenkel, (eds.)

Eitan Grossman, Peter Dils, Tonio Sebastian Richter, and Wolfgang Schenkel, (eds.), Greek Influence on Egyptian-Coptic: Contact-Induced Change in an Ancient African Language (DDGLC Working Papers 1. Lingua Aegyptia, Studia Monographica 17). Hamburg: Widmaier Verlag. 2017.

... All in all, this book can be highly recommended to anyone aiming to get a grasp of the multilingual situation of Graeco-Roman/Arabic Egypt, including scholars with a background in papyrology, Ancient Greek linguistics, Egyptian linguistics, and general historical linguistics, as well as even linguistic typology. The high standard of this book comes hardly as a surprise, given that it has been compiled, edited and commented on by many of the leading Egyptologists, Coptologists, and linguists in the world. ...

If your are interested in the technicalities of the ancient Coptic language, have a look.

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A new section of Jerusalem's Lower Aqueduct uncovered

ANCIENT INFRASTRUCTURE: 300-meter stretch of ancient aqueduct uncovered during planning for new Jerusalem neighborhood. (Zev Stub, Times of Israel).

Archaeologists have uncovered a 300-meter (1,000-foot) stretch of a 2,000-year-old aqueduct that carried water from springs south of Bethlehem to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, shedding new light on one of the ancient city’s most ambitious engineering projects.

The discovery was made ahead of plans to build a new neighborhood in southern Jerusalem, where archaeologists and planners hope to incorporate the remains into the future development, according to an announcement Sunday by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

[...]

This section is more of the earlier "Lower Aqueduct." For PaleoJudaica posts on Jerusalem's ancient water supply, substantial parts of which have been rediscovered only in this century, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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Israel Museum: “Tiny Footprints: Childhood in the Ancient Land of Israel”

EXHIBITION: From birth to play, new exhibition explores childhood in ancient Israel. Israel Museum traces the lives of children through 500,000 years of artifacts: ‘What’s amazing about these toys is how similar they are to today’ (Zev Stub, Times of Israel).

The exhibition brings together hundreds of artifacts from 11 institutions, tracing the lives of children in the Land of Israel and neighboring cultures from prehistory through the end of the first millennium CE. It draws on artifacts from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Greece and Rome as well as Israel.

“Overall, we see a lot of things that are really similar to how things are today, even if there are plenty of shocking differences,” [exhibition curator Tali] Sharvit said. “We can see the roots of modern institutions like schools and marriage, and observe similarities in the relationships between mothers and their children. At the same time, though, many of our ideas about children’s roles in the family structure have completely changed.”

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Review of Raja & Seland (eds.), Palmyra, the Roman empire, and the third century crisis

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Palmyra, the Roman empire, and the third century crisis: zooming in and scaling up from the evidence.

Rubina Raja, Eivind Heldaas Seland, Palmyra, the Roman empire, and the third century crisis: zooming in and scaling up from the evidence. Oriens et occidens, 46. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2025. Pp. 323. ISBN 9783515140218.

Review by
Marco Ferrario, University College London. m.ferrario@ucl.ac.uk

... Perhaps the most famous—although, in many respects, quite peculiar—case of a community that turned the more general “crisis” into an opportunity is that of Palmyra. Its power and wealth rose to unprecedented heights precisely during the “crisis”, with its fortunes declining right when the imperial center under Aurelian got a stronger foothold for the first time in decades and decidedly reasserted itself throughout the provinces.

The contributions collected in Palmyra, the Roman Empire, and the Third Century Crisis approach the period innovatively in their attempt to make sense of this and similar (apparently paradoxical) discrepancies. ...

I noted the publication of the book here. Cross-file under Palmyra Watch.

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Olanrewaju, The Compositional History of the Book of Kings (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Samson Olanrewaju

The Compositional History of the Book of Kings

An Analysis of the Evaluative Frameworks in 1 Kings 14–2 Kings 25

2026. 286 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 177

€89.00
including VAT

sewn paper
available
978-3-16-200567-0

Also Available As:
eBook PDF

Summary

Samson Olanrewaju investigates the composition of the book of Kings through an analysis of the formal regnal evaluations of Israelite and Judean kings found in 1 Kgs 14-2 Kgs 25*. Using source- and redaction-critical approaches, he postulates that the earliest edition of the book of Kings (Kings Edition0), commissioned by Amaziah's court in early eighth-century Judah, documents the reigns of Judean kings from Rehoboam through Jehoash ben Ahaziah. Kings Edition0 was subsequently updated with the accounts and evaluations of Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, resulting in Kings Edition1.
Kings Edition1, a document produced by pro-Assyrian groups operating within Manasseh's court in seventh-century Judah, retained the Judah-centric orientation of its predecessor (Kings Edition0), concentrating on the reigns of Jehoash ben Ahaziah's successors rather than on synchronized lists of Judean and Israelite rulers. Such synchronizations were introduced in Kings Edition2, a sixth-century Deuteronomistic edition of the book of Kings produced by an exilic editor who was also responsible for the regnal evaluations of Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, and Jehoiakim as well as the northern entries of Nadab, Baasha, Omri, and Ahaziah.
Furthermore, the polemical references to idolatrous Judean bamot found in the regnal evaluations of »good« Judean kings are attributable to the Deuteronomistic editor of Kings Edition2. This early exilic edition of Kings subsequently evolved into Kings Edition3 through revisions and expansions undertaken by late/post-exilic redactors, who incorporated the northern entries of Jehoash, Jeroboam II, Zechariah, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah as well as the southern entries of Abijam, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.

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Fassberg, The Hebrew of Qumran (Ugarit-Verlag)

NEW BOOK FROM UGARIT-VERLAG:

The Hebrew of Qumran (AOAT 482)

Steven Fassberg

Reihe + Nummer: AOAT 482
ISBN: 978-3-86835-352-5
Erscheinungsjahr: Juli 2026
Seitenanzahl: xvii + 356 pp.
£130.00
Taxes included

This grammar owes its existence to Prof. Josef Tropper, at the time editor of the series Lehrbücher orientalischer Sprachen (LOS), who invited me to contribute a short grammar to the series on the Hebrew of Qumran. Because of previous commitments, many years passed before I was able to take up the task. The grammar turned out to be longer than originally intended and Prof. Thomas R. Kämmerer, the head of Ugarit-Verlag, suggested that Alter Orient und Altes Testament (AOAT) might be a more suitable series for the volume. I thank Prof. Kämmerer and the editors of AOAT, Prof. Régine Hunziker-Rodewald and Dr. Ulrike Steinert, for accepting the manuscript for publication.

This monograph does not replace the larger grammar of Elisha Qimron, A Grammar of the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Jerusalem, 2018). All students and scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls are greatly indebted to Prof. Qimron for the massive amount of data he has amassed in his grammar as well as for his countless contributions to the language and the texts of the Scrolls over the past fifty years. It would be amiss not to mention also the pioneering Hebrew work of E. Y. Kutscher, Language and Linguistic Background of the Great Isaiah Scroll (Jerusalem, 1959; English translation Leiden, 1974), which still serves as a beacon to all in the field. The important contributions of many additional scholars are noted throughout the grammar.

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Old photos of late-antique church epitaphs from Shivta

GREEK FUNERARY EPIGRAPHY: Ancient Greek Inscriptions Reveal Secrets of Elite Byzantine Burials in Israel (Abdul Moeed, Greek Reporter).

Ancient Greek inscriptions on grave markers are revealing how Byzantine burials reflected power and family ties at Shivta, a former Christian settlement in Israel’s Negev Desert. Two rediscovered photographs from a 1930s excavation show where tombs were located inside the North Church baptistery, a room used for baptisms.

The graves were apparently reserved mainly for priests and children from influential families, according to a study published in Palestine Exploration Quarterly. Researchers Emma Maayan-Fanar and Yotam Tepper studied two negatives preserved in University College London’s archives. The excavation team led by H. D. Colt photographed the chapel but later removed its inscribed stone markers without leaving a complete record of their positions.

[...]

The underlying PEQ article is open access:

Old Photographs, New Discoveries: Privileged Burials in the North Church Baptismal Chapel in Shivta, Israel

Emma Maayan-Fanarn & Yotam Tepper
Published online: 07 Oct 2026
https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2026.2716943

ABSTRACT

This paper presents new insights into the burial practices of Byzantine Shivta, Israel, based on the analysis of two previously unpublished photographs from excavations led by H. D. Colt in the 1930s. The photographs provide the first documentation of the floor of the North Church Baptistery, revealing the spatial arrangement of the burials. By comparing the visible features of the tomb slabs to individual photographs, three out of seven people were precisely identified. They were members of privileged families and their burials follow a certain hierarchy. Baptistery burials, a distinctive feature found nowhere else in the Negev, were reserved mostly for presbyters but also for special family members who died young. The burial dates, spanning from 612 to 679 ce, coincide with major historical events during the seventh century, such as the Byzantine-Sasanian wars, the Islamic conquest of the region, and the first plague pandemic. This study cautiously proposes that the distinctive ornamentation of some slabs, such as the Golgotha cross motif, may have been a response to these events. The study furthermore expands on the dynamic nature of the gradual decline and abandonment processes in Shivta as evidenced in the North Church burial practices.

For more on the archaeology of the site of Shivta, known notably for its churches and its late-antique viticulture, start here and follow the links.

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Philo's apathetic theology

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Philo of Alexandria’s Theology and Soteriology: Tensions, Ambiguities, and the Experience of God’s Goodness and Mercy

Philo of Alexandria combines Jewish scripture and Greek philosophy in a theology marked by tensions between divine transcendence and intimate human encounter. An apparently unknowable and impassible God also loves, shows mercy, and shares divine attributes with humans. These tensions suggest the importance of transformative religious experience in shaping Philo’s understanding of God.

See also Seeing God in Philo of Alexandria: Contemplative Ascent and Visionary Experience (State University of New York Press, 2026).

By Scott D. Mackie
Associate Fellow
Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge
September 2026

Cross-file under New Book.

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Nabel, "Fake Prostration in Late Antique Literature and the Ambiguities of Domination"

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Fake Prostration in Late Antique Literature and the Ambiguities of Domination.

Notice of a New Article: Nabel, Jake. 2026. "Fake Prostration in Late Antique Literature and the Ambiguities of Domination." Studies in Late Antiquity 10 (3). 265-293.

Follow the link for the abstract and a link to the full text of the article. Yes, ancient Judaism is involved.

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A First Temple-era curse inscription

IRON AGE HEBREW EPIGRAPHY: 2,800-year-old curse reveals surprising detail about Kingdom of Judah (Assaf Golan, Israel HaYom).

Limestone tablet from the Hebron area bears a curse in ancient Hebrew and the earliest known extrabiblical reference to the title "Lord of Hosts". Find indicates the divine name and title were in use in the Kingdom of Judah during the First Temple period. The Stone is now on display in the "Six After the War" exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem.

Not new; this inscription has been known for quite a while. Hagaf son of Hagav must have made someone really angry!

Cross-file under Exhibition.

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Patmore et al., Reading: Performance and Materiality in Hebrew and Aramaic Traditions (Open Book)

THE AWOL BLOG: Reading: Performance and Materiality in Hebrew and Aramaic Traditions.

Notice of a New Book (open access): Hector Patmore et al., Reading: Performance and Materiality in Hebrew and Aramaic Traditions. Open Book Publishers. Cambridge, UK, 2025.

Co-edited by the late Hector Patmore.

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Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty fragments recovered

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Fragment of World’s Oldest Peace Treaty Found. Bringing people—and tablet pieces—together (Lauren K. McCormick).

The Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty was recorded in more than one place. Apparently originally cast in silver, versions of the treaty survive today from both parties on tablets in Hatti and in two temple inscriptions in Thebes (modern-day Luxor).

The best kind of peace treaty is one where both sides can declare victory and go home.

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Monumental tombs on the way to the Temple

ANCIENT FUNERARY ARCHITECTURE: On the Pilgrims’ Path to the Temple: Monumental Tombs (Prof. Boaz Zissu, Dr. Omri Yitzhak Abadi, TheTorah.com).

Jerusalem’s wealthiest families in the early Roman period built monumental tombs along the roads approaching the city, placing their wealth and status on display. Yet pilgrims heading to the Temple had to avoid entering or coming into contact with these tombs, lest they become impure and be barred from the very Temple they came to visit.

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