Day Festschrift (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Religion in Ancient Israel

Essays in Honour of John Day

Katherine E. Southwood (Anthology Editor) , Stuart Weeks (Anthology Editor) , H.G.M. Williamson (Anthology Editor)

Hardback
$120.00 $108.00

Ebook (PDF)
$108.00 $86.40

Product details

Published Dec 11 2025
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 328
ISBN 9780567713001
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This volume intersects with the work of John Day to illuminate major aspects of the religion of Ancient Israel in its geographical and historical context as well as by attention to the literatures of neighbouring peoples (especially, though not exclusively, Ugaritic). The introduction to the volume uses Day's scholarship as a framework within which the individual studies can be contextualized, whilst also describing broader developments within the field during the course of Day's career (such as arguments over the dating of texts, and questions about the very nature of 'ancient Israel') in order to sketch the history of scholarship in this period and discuss its directions of travel.

The chapters are organized into sections covering 'private' and 'public' religion and, whilst the volume does not seek to provide a comprehensive overview of ancient Israelite religion, it does provide a snapshot – by leading scholar scholars – that can stand as an overview of the current state of scholarly enquiry into the religious landscape of ancient Israel.

Congratulations to Professor Day!

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Paul the "Prancer?"

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: When Did Saul Become Paul? Did the apostle really change his name from Saul to Paul? (John Drummond).

In terms of names, there probably was no conversion of Saul to Paul. Saul was most likely called Paul at birth. Contrary to popular belief, Saul did not drop his Jewish name to fully embrace his new life and vocation as a Christian missionary to the Gentiles. ...

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Bar-Asher & Brown, Light is Sown (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Light is Sown

The Cultivation of Kabbalah in Medieval Castile

Avishai Bar-Asher and Jeremy Phillip Brown

Oxford Studies in Western Esotericism

£64.00
Hardback

Published: 28 November 2025
248 Pages | 10 color illustrations
235x156mm
ISBN: 9780197744819

Also Available As:
E-book

Description

In a pioneering monograph-length study of the theological journey of Moses ben Shemtov de León of Guadalajara—self-proclaimed "Light of the West" and presumed writer of the Zohar, the kabbalah's crowning literary achievement—Avishai Bar-Asher and Jeremy Phillip Brown reach bold new conclusions about the kabbalah's prominence in medieval Castile. Through rigorous examinations of fragmentary texts inaccessible to scholars previously, the authors unearth critical insights about de León, specifically his regimens of pious living, discourse on gender, understanding of the Hebrew language, and signature thirteen-fold speculation. Bar-Asher and Brown correlate the large body of de León's Hebrew writings with the canonical Zohar, charting the parallel paths of their growth. They also reveal, with unprecedented clarity, the reciprocally interreferential character of the twin corpora at the heart of Castilian kabbalah.

Through the exploration of a variety of alternative contexts offering new interpretations of de León's remarkable creativity, Light is Sown offers extraordinary access to the intellectual history of the Zohar and its worlds. Ranging from those of Alfonsine Castile, where the innovation of ancient linguistic theories went hand-in-hand with imperialism and cultural annexation, to Renaissance Italy—where Christian apologists preserved kabbalistic writings that, if not for their intervention, would have otherwise been lost to time and history—the key discoveries and thematic insights offered in Light is Sown yield a timely analysis of one of the most glorious fruits of Jewish theology.

Cross-file under Zohar Watch.

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Review of Buckley, 1800 Years Of Encounters With Mandaeans

RELIGION PROF: Review: 1800 Years Of Encounters With Mandaeans (James F. McGrath).

Jorunn Buckley begins her book 1800 Years of Encounters with Mandaeans with a bold claim right in the first sentence. “The Mandaean religion can be traced back to the 1st century, directly related to John the Baptist” (p.ix). I am not sure why the next statement is to concede that this “is not the regular scholarly view” since so few scholars have made this a focus of their attention. Buckley, on the other hand, has dedicated her life to the study of this tradition, and her conclusion should carry appropriate weight....

The book is Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, 1800 Years Of Encounters With Mandaeans (Gorgias, 2023).

The "review" is actually an AI digest of Professor McGrath's full review in Review of Biblical Literature, which is behind the subscription wall. Welcome to 2026!

James McGrath is also an expert on the Mandeans and on John the Baptist. For more on Professor Buckley's work, see here and links. Cross-file under Mandean (Mandaean) Watch.

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Is AI replacing archaeologists? Nope.

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Replacing Archaeologists with AI. Archaeologists create a semi-autonomous detection system (Nathan Steinmeyer, Bible History Daily).

This BHD essay is a good overview of some issues arising from a story I posted on here. Despite the overblown headline, AI will not be replacing archaeologists any time soon. But it will be making their job easier.

Cross file under Algorithm Watch.

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Another review of Conybeare, Augustine the African

PUNIC WATCH: Augustine’s African heritage. Catherine Conybeare’s new biography reveals a bishop formed by two worlds, two languages, and a church struggling to define itself (Margaret R. Miles, The Christian Century).

Generations of historians have represented Augustine of Hippo as the single most important figure in Christianity’s transition from antiquity to the medieval world. He is usually seen as an intransigent defender of classical values against the inevitable erosion caused by the spread of Christianity to multiple locations and populations. Yet Augustine was not Roman, nor was Latin his native tongue. He was born and raised in North Africa; Punic was the language of his childhood. Catherine Conybeare presents Augustine as a passionate and complex man who, rather than suppressing his loyalty to either Latin- or Punic-speaking churches, remained loyal both to the Roman church that baptized and ordained him and to his African identity.

[...]

It seems that there were still speakers of Punic (more precisely, Neo-Punic) in Augustine's time and that we know something about them. Some of them even constituted an "African church" with its own identity. That's the most interesting aspect of this book for me.

For more on Conybeare, Augustine the African, see here and here.

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Reviewlet of MacDonald, Carthage: A New History

PUNIC WATCH: The Story of Carthage Isn’t Necessarily What the Romans Committed to History. A new book by historian and archaeologist Eve MacDonald paints a more complete portrait of the once-great African society destroyed by Rome (Brandon Tensley, Smithsonian Magazine).

MacDonald takes us from the Phoenicians who founded the city in the ninth century B.C.E., through the myths, and possible truths, about a canny political dissident from Tyre who came to be known as the queen Dido; we learn of the rise of Carthage as a formidable naval power, and, yes, of its eventual sacking. But we also learn about the first century afterward, when the Punic language of the city’s institutions permeated North Africa. “It is believed that Africa was never so Punic as it was after Carthage was destroyed,” MacDonald writes, as surviving Carthaginians “created a kind of Punic diaspora.”

This is a brief review of Eve MacDonald, Carthage: A New History (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026), which is new to me. For another book by Dr. MacDonald, about Hannibal, see here and links.

As I think I've commented somewhere before, few realize how close Europe came to having Punic as its lingua franca instead of Latin.

Oddly, the first paragraph of this review seems to say that there is no physical evidence for child sacrifice at Carthage. Or does that only refer to that specific episode in 310 BCE, for which there's not much evidence in the first place? In any case, for the debate about child sacrifice at Carthage, see here and many links, with my own overview comments here, with links.

Cross-file under New Book. And this seems like a good time to link to this post, which explains why PaleoJudaica pays attention to the Phoenicians, the Phoenician language, the Carthaginians, and Punic and Neo-Punic.

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Huckabee family finds ancient coins & stuff in West Bank caves

SPELUNCIC ARCHAEOLOGY, POLITICS, AND NUMISMATICS: 'Grandpa, look what we found': Huckabee family uncovers ancient coins in West Bank caves. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and his family uncovered ancient coins and jar fragments dating to the Bar-Kochba Revolt during a tour near Na’ale in the Mateh Binyamin region (James Genn, Jerusalem Post).

Well, that was lucky. They also visited Shiloh on the same trip.

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‘Atiqot Volume 119 (2025)

A NEW VOLUME OF THE ONLINE JOURNAL ‘ATIQOT is out: Current Volume: Volume 119 (2025): Archaeological Perspectives on Water Use and Management. The articles are peer-reviewed and open access.

I imagine some of them will recieve media attention in due course. Meanwhile, have a look.

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Armstrong Institute: 2025 biblical archaeology top ten

ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIST WATCH: Top 10 Biblical Archaeology Discoveries of 2025. From an Exodus-period pharaoh’s tomb to a depiction of one of Jerusalem’s greatest kings—here’s the new discoveries that caught our eye (ARMSTRONG INSTITUTE STAFF).

Most of these are familiar from the earlier 2025 lists. For PaleoJudaica overlap, mostly see them. I did not post on "7. Davidic Bronze Production" or on "10. Exodus-Period Fortress in Sinai," although I did note the discovery of a Ptolemaic and Roman-era military fortifications in the North Sinai. Number "1. Assyrian Depiction of Jerusalem and Hezekiah" only appeared in late December, and the other lists missed it. I posted on it here.

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

Temple Mount cedar beams exposed to the elements?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: From Solomon’s Temple to scrap wood: sacred beams treated as refuse on Temple Mount (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel365 News).

Wooden beams that once stood in Solomon’s Temple—timbers that witnessed the glory of the First Temple and survived its destruction—now lie exposed to the elements on the Temple Mount, covered only by a tattered blue tarp and surrounded by garbage.

The Beyadenu movement, which works to preserve Jewish heritage on the Temple Mount, recently discovered that protective coverings had been removed from these ancient beams near the Sha’ar HaRachamim (Gate of Mercy), also known as the Golden Gate. After activists reported the exposure, Beyadenu submitted an urgent request to the Israel Antiquities Authority to ensure the beams were re-covered before winter rains could inflict further damage. The Authority confirmed that the beams—many of which are identified as rare Lebanese cedar—have since been covered.

[...]

For more on these intriguing cedar beams, some of which, as the article notes, have been carbon-dated to the periods of both the First and Second Temples, see here. Whether they came from either of the Temples themselves has not been established. For a 2012 report of some of them being burned as firewood, see here.

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'Phoenician Identity in the Making' Research Workshop

ISRAEL INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES: 'Phoenician Identity in the Making' Research Workshop of The Israel Science Foundation.

This four-day workshop, hosted by the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies and organized in collaboration with the Israel Science Foundation, brings together two IIAS Research Groups:

• Phoenician Identity in the Making: A Longue Durée Perspective (Prof. Naama Yahalom-Mack and Prof. Alexander Fantalkin) — exploring the processes that shaped Phoenician identity over the long term, across different regions and periods.
• Can We Hear Anymore the Voice of Singing Men and Women? Recovering Phoenician Oral Poetry (Prof. Noam Mizrahi and Prof. Andrea Rotstein) — reconstructing aspects of lost Phoenician poetic traditions and their impact on neighboring cultures in the ancient Mediterranean.

The workshop will convene scholars from archaeology, history, philology, literary studies and exact sciences to discuss new multidisciplinary approaches to Phoenician history, literature, and cultural transmission.

If they can recover some Phoenician oral poetry, I will be impressed.

The workshop takes place on 2-4 February 2026 at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For further particulars, follow the link.

Cross file under Phoenician Watch.

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More on Shaphan Ben Azaliah

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Shaphan Ben Azaliah, Author of the Biblical Historical Saga

This study argues that the Judean scribe Shaphan ben Azaliah orchestrated a palace coup following the assassination of King Amon, enthroned the child Josiah, and engineered a sweeping political and cultic reform through the composition of the “Book of Instructions,” later known as Deuteronomy. Although this monoyahwist, Jerusalem-centered reform ultimately failed politically after Josiah’s death, the texts produced by Shaphan and his circle survived, reshaping biblical historiography and laying the foundations of the Deuteronomistic History. The study reinterprets the biblical canon as the enduring literary legacy of a failed but transformative reformist movement.

Previously published in The Times of Israel.

By Yigal Bin-Nun
Historian and Researcher
Tel Aviv University, Cohen Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas
December 2025

I missed this particular entry in the recent media exchange about Shaphan Ben Azaliah. I noted others here (with earlier links), here, and here.

This hypothesis has connections with Frank Moore Cross's reconstruction of the development of the priesthood in ancient Israel.

Briefly, there were two competing priestly lines, one descending from Aaron and the other from Moses. During the United Monarchy the (inferred) Moses ("Mushite") line, represented by the priest Abiathar, was demoted and retreated to Anathoth. David and Solomon established the Aaronid line in Jerusalem and then in the Temple, but further limited it to the line of the Aaronid priest Zadok. Hence, the Zadokites ran the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple. The other Aaronids were excluded and perhaps led worship at the "high places." Jeroboam II arguably established a non-Zadokite Aaronid priesthood at Bethel.

In this context, Shaphan is inferred to have connections to the historical Mushite center at Shiloh and to the Mushite priests still at Anathoth (the latter perhaps including the prophet Jeremiah). Shaphan produced a proto-Deuteronomy that accepted a Levitical priesthood without specifying further (thus leaving open the option of reintegrating the deposed Mushites [and Aaronids??] back into the official priesthood).

All of this is possible, perhaps even plausible, but it depends on a chain of inferences that we really can't test. And some of the links are speculative. It is a fascinating reconstruction, though.

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A Secret Mark timeline

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Morton Smith: Secret Mark Timeline (Mark Goodacre, NT Blog).

I am grateful to Stephen Goranson for this guest post, and I must apologise that it has taken me so long to post it. I get so busy during term time that I end up neglecting the blog.

If you're interested in the controversy around the supposed letter of Clement of Alexandria to Theodore, quoting a lost, secret version of the Gospel of Mark, this timeline looks like a useful resource.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Secret Gospel of Mark, see here and links, here, and here. Some of my own thoughts on the subject are at the first and third links.

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

Free online Ancient Language Textbooks

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Ancient Language Textbooks, OERs, and Primers. If you want to teach yourself an ancient language, this is the list for you. There are online textbooks for Greek (many varieties), Hebrew, Latin, Sanskrit, Classical Armenian, Akkadian, Sumerian, Manichaean Sogdian, Mayan Hieroglyphics, Old Avestan, Old Persian, Kurdish, Ge'ez, Old Iranian, Ganadhari, Egyptian Demotic, Oscan, Tocharian, and Hieratic Middle Egyptian. I may have missed a few.

Anyway, pick one and go for it. Some will be easier than others!

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Urtext and Variance (Peeters)

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PUBLISHERS:

Urtext and Variance
The Quest for the Texts of the Hebrew Bible

Series:
Contributions to Biblical Exegesis & Theology, 122

Editors:
Rey F.M., Schorch S., Robert-Hayek S.

Price: 105 euro
Year: 2025
Isbn: 9789042954687
Pages: X-388 p.

Summary:
Focusing at “Urtext”, “Variance” and further fundamental concepts of the textual history of the Hebrew Bible, the thirteen chapters collected in this volume provide analyses of their heuristic potential, methodological problems, and implications, proceeding from evidence emerging from a wide range of Biblical texts and textual witnesses.

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