Redacting Moses' "radiant" face?

PROF. RABBI DAVID FRANKEL: Moses’ Radiant Face: Holiness Unveiled (TheTorah.com).

Why does Moses’ face radiate only after receiving the second tablets of the Decalogue? Did Moses really cover his face before speaking to the people? And why does the story of the veil describe a Tent of Meeting that hasn’t even been constructed? A closer look at the story reveals that some biblical authors found Moses’ radiant face problematic.

Redaction criticism is always fun. But this essay starts with the assumption that Moses' face becoming "radiant" is the correct interpretation of the passage in Exodus 34. It is a possible interpretation, but there are others. There are many PaleoJudaica posts on the topic, generally under the rubric "Moses' horns," which is perhaps the best known and most discussed interpretation. For an overview and links to previous posts, start here.

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Punic bus fare?

NUMISMATICS, PUNIC WATCH, AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: Coin used as bus fare was 2,000‑year‑old currency (Alex Moss, BBC News).

A coin once used to pay a bus fare in Leeds was created by an ancient civilisation more than 2,000 years ago, researchers have confirmed.

The rare currency came into the hands of James Edwards in the 1950s, when during his job as a chief cashier for Leeds Transport Company, he would gather fares from bus and tram drivers.

Putting aside any fake or foreign coins he came across, he would pass them on to his young grandson Peter, who for more than 70 years kept them safe.

Curious about its origin, Peter traced the coin's history and discovered it was made by the Carthaginians - an ancient Mediterranean civilisation with Phoenician roots - in the Spanish city of Cádiz during the 1st Century BC.

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A reused ancient menorah relief in Rome

VARIANT READINGS: The Reuse of a Sarcophagus with a Menorah (Brent Nongbri).

Another very interesting item in the epigraphic collection at the Baths of Diocletian in Rome is a portion of a sarcophagus that contains a nice depiction of a menorah. It is typically assigned to the third or fourth century CE, and it is often used as an illustration in books.

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Weitzman, Disasters of Biblical Proportions (Princeton)

NEW BOOK FROM PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Disasters of Biblical Proportions: The Ten Plagues Then, Now, and at the End of the World

Steven Weitzman

How people have reimagined the story of the ten plagues of Egypt, from antiquity to our own era of relentless catastrophe

Hardcover

Price: $29.95/£25.00
ISBN: 9780691270463
Published (US): Feb 3, 2026
Published (UK): Mar 31, 2026
Pages: 352
Size: 6.13 x 9.25 in.
Illus: 16 color + 23 b/w illus.

ebook (EPUB via app)
ebook (PDF via app)

People have been telling and retelling stories about disasters for as long as they have been telling stories. One of the oldest of such stories is the ten plagues in the book of Exodus, the series of disasters that forced the Egyptians to liberate the Israelites. These plagues packed enough catastrophe to fill a series of summer blockbusters—rivers of blood, invasions of frogs and insects, mass disease, fiery hail, smothering darkness, and a midnight massacre of the firstborn.

The story of the ten plagues resonates today, as we try to make sense of such calamities of modern life as pandemics, climate change, and war. In Disasters of Biblical Proportions, Steven Weitzman explores how people of later ages—artists, writers, activists, philosophers, believers and unbelievers alike—have reshaped the story of the ten plagues to give expression to their own trauma, outrage, guilt, humor, and hope.

Tracing the interpretation and retelling of each plague across time and space, Weitzman uncovers how this ancient tale found new meaning among Jews, Christians, and Muslims and continues to shape how people today understand the present and envision the future. Even as it recounts the history of how the ten plagues have been reimagined, Disasters of Biblical Proportions is also a history of people’s search for shelter from the calamities of their own times—and of humanity’s striving for justice, freedom, and redemption.

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