Purim 2026

HAPPY PURIM to all those celebrating! The festival begins tonight night at sundown. Stay safe!

Last year's Purim post is here, with links.

PaleoJudaica has nothing specifically on Purim more recently, but posts on the Book of Esther are here and here.

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

Israel's museums are back in safeguard mode

BACK TO THE BUNKERS: Moving Isaiah: For fourth time since October 7, museums pack up artworks for safekeeping. As sirens sound throughout Israel and Iranian missiles rain down, curators and staff get to work, putting away valuable artifacts and art (Jessica Steinberg and Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

Thursday morning, Israel Museum guards carefully counted off 25 visitors to enter the climate-controlled gallery holding the seven-meter-long Great Isaiah Scroll, the oldest near-complete biblical book ever found, near the beginning of several-month exhibit.

Two days later, the entire scroll and other pieces of ancient parchment and books were relocated to a secure location as sirens sounded, warning of incoming missile attacks from Iran, a spokesperson for the Israel Museum told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

[...]

More on the Israel Museum's display of the Great Isaiah Scroll, now on indefinite hiatus, is here and links.

Earlier safeguarding closures of Israels museums were noted here and here.

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

Animating Maimonides?

EXHIBITION: Maimonides from Scratch? Manchester exhibition opening 11 February 2026 (Iona Hine and Anastasia Badder, Geniza Fragments Blog).

A new exhibition is opening at Manchester Jewish Museum this month, exploring the legacy of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, aka Maimonides.

Maimonides from Scratch began as an interdisciplinary effort to explore Jewish and Muslim presence and place in Manchester and Marseille through creative practices. The team come from backgrounds in art, anthropology, literature and religious studies. Over the last couple of years, through workshops at the Manchester Jewish Museum, in schools, and at the Marseille city museum, the team has developed a stop-motion film about the life of Maimonides, scholar, physician, philosopher and community leader. Though more than 800 years have passed since his death (1204), Maimonides’ work continues to resonate in and beyond Jewish spaces.

[...]

Some of the Cambridge fragments of Maimonides' works are also be on display. The collection hold some autograph fragments, but I don't know if any are display items.

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

Another review of Belief and Unbelief in the Ancient World

THE CHURCH TIMES: Book review: Belief and Unbelief in the Ancient World, edited by Taylor O. Gray, Ethan R. Johnson, Martina Vercesi. Melanie Marshall finds proof of the elusive character of beliefs.

The study of belief and unbelief in the ancient world is an exercise in methodology: what counts as evidence, how it can be interpreted, and which theoretical frameworks apply. All the contributors to this collection handle these questions in more or less detail, and Thomas Harrison proves a particularly illuminating guide. The methodological dimension gives some unity to an otherwise eclectic volume. Subjects range through the Hebrew Bible, St Paul, and St Augustine, to archaic Greek art, Aramaean epigraphy, and, of course, Judaean figurines.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the book and the St. Andrews conference behind it, see here and links.

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

Göppinger, ... Exempla in Flavius Josephus' Antiquitates Iudaicae (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Moribus antiquis res stat Iudaea virisque. Exempla in Flavius Josephus' Antiquitates Iudaicae

Series:
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 222

Author: A. Judith Göppinger

Josephus’ Antiquities retell the entire Jewish history from the creation of the world to the outbreak of the Jewish War. But who makes this history? This study examines the literary construction of Moses, David, Judas Maccabee, and Agrippa I. through the lens of Roman exempla, showing that Josephus created these four Jewish protagonists in shape and form compatible with them, without turning the Jewish heroes into Romans. In this way Josephus proves not only the similarity of Jewish and Roman exemplary men, but he outdoes the Romans in their own categories of superiority, old age, and flawless virtuousness.

Josephus’ Antiquitates erzählen die gesamte jüdische Geschichte von der Entstehung der Welt bis zum Ausbruch des Jüdischen Kriegs. Aber wer macht diese Geschichte aus? Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die literarische Charakterkonstruktion von Moses, David, Judas Makkabäus und Agrippa I. auf Basis römischer exempla und kann zeigen, dass Josephus die vier jüdischen Protagonisten römischen exempla gleichend konstruiert, ihnen aber „ihr“ Judentum belässt. Damit beweist Josephus nicht nur die Vereinbarkeit von jüdischer und römischer Tradition, sondern kann die RömerInnen hinsichtlich Überlegenheit, langer Tradition und tadelloser Tugendhaftigkeit sogar in den Schatten stellen.

Copyright Year: 2026

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74835-4
Publication: 08 Dec 2025
EUR €133.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74834-7
Publication: 10 Dec 2025
EUR €133.00

The volume is in German.

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