The ANE Myth of the Servant

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: The Myth of the Servant: A New Tale of Kingship from the Ancient Near East (Christopher Metcalf).

This is where the mythical element becomes relevant: the central claim of the “Myth of the Servant,” I argue, is that the newcomer originally served as a servant of the existing king. This claim is embedded in a longer story-pattern, which in its fullest version extends all the way back to birth. To summarise in abstract terms: the future ruler is born in a situation of tension, and is separated from his natural parents; he is then rescued and adopted by a palace servant, and begins a career at court that eventually introduces him to the immediate entourage of the existing king; in the end, the new man takes the throne himself, typically with divine support. One notable feature is that the incumbent king (the future ruler’s master) is usually an invented figure, in the sense that we rarely possess independent historical evidence for his existence.

Cross-file under New Book:

Christopher Metcalf, Three Myths of Kingship in Early Greece and the Ancient Near East: The Servant, the Lover, and the Fool (CUP, 2026)

The book title sounds Jungian.

Our first surviving exemplar of the ANE Myth of the Servant is for the third-millennium BCE founder of the Old Akkadian empire, Sargon of Agade (Akkad). But the myth applies to a greater or lesser degree for many other ancient figures, including biblical figures, among them Jesus.

This myth has some similarities to Lord Raglan's old typology of the Myth of the Hero. On that, see here. Unfortunately, the original article is no longer up, but for more on his typology, see here and for a post on other hero typologies, see here.

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When was the Book of Daniel written?

THE IS THAT IN THE BIBLE? BLOG: Why Scholars Date the Book of Daniel to the Second Century BCE (Paul D.).

Is That in the Bible? is back with a comprehensive post on the arguments for a late dating of the Book of Daniel. Long, but well worth a read.

I have commented myself on key reasons for the late dating of the book in the links collected here.

Also, some years ago, Phil Long posted a series on the Book of Daniel at Reading Acts. I noted it as it came out and I commented on many of the issues covered in Paul D.'s new esssay. See here and here and follow the links back.

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Römer Festschrift (De Gruyter)

NEW OPEN-ACCESS VOLUME BY DE GRUYTER:

The Ancestors of Genesis and the Exodus Traditions

A Festschrift for Thomas Römer

Published by De Gruyter

Book 568 in the Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft series

Christophe Nihan, Jean-Daniel Macchi (eds.)

The volume comprises various studies about Israel’s origins in Genesis and Exodus by a broad range of international scholars. The volume is divided into five parts of similar length. Parts One and Two are devoted to the stories about Abraham, Jacob and Joseph in Genesis from a literary and historical perspective. Part Three deals with the connection between Genesis and Exodus. Part Four is devoted to the Book of Exodus and includes contributions dealing with the origins of the Exodus traditions as well as various key themes and figures found in this book. The final section addresses the early reception of Genesis and Exodus outside of these books, in the Prophets, the Psalms, Chronicles and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Overall, the volume opens several new perspectives for the discussion on Genesis and Exodus and their significance for the construction of Israel’s origins. Combining archaeological, historical and textual perspectives, it provides in-depth discussion of a wide range of key topics, including the composition of these books, their social, historical and religious background, as well as their overall role in the shaping of the Hebrew Bible.

HT the AWOL Blog.

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Ulmer, ... Studies in Pesiqta Rabbati (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Sing and Rejoice, O daughter of Zion (Zechariah 2:14)

Studies in Pesiqta Rabbati

Series:
The Brill Reference Library of Judaism, Volume: 80

Author: Rivka Ulmer

Pesiqta Rabbati is a midrashic collection of homilies derived from the Hebrew bible related to Jewish observance of festivals, fast days, and special Sabbaths. The book underscores the importance and purpose of Pesiqta Rabbati: to explain the centrality of midrash in the life, culture, and ethnicity of Jewish belief and practice, as well as the importance of practice sustaining the continuity of Jews and their identity. Textual details are drawn from contemporary events (5th- 11th century) and Jewish ethics. Topics include apocalyptic thought, the suffering Messiah ben Ephraim, the Jerusalem Temple, and reactions to Christianity and Islam. Methods applied are text linguistics, borderland theories, halachic discourse analysis, semiotics, and literary criticism.

Copyright Year: 2026

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74830-9
Publication: 26 Jan 2026
EUR €199.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74829-3
Publication: 26 Feb 2026
EUR €199.00

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Grabbe, When Israel Was Young (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

When Israel Was Young

A History of the Jewish People from the Beginnings to the Roman Conquest of Jerusalem

Lester L. Grabbe (Author)

Paperback
$34.95 $31.45
Hardback
$100.00 $90.00
Ebook (PDF)
$31.45 $25.16
Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$31.45 $25.16

Product details

Published Oct 30 2025
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 432
ISBN 9780567714329
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 10 x 7 inches
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

The traumatic history of Israel in the past 2000 years is widely known, but the Jews of ancient Israel and the Mediterranean world also have an exciting history that is less well known. It includes the first references to Israelites in an early Egyptian inscription, the kings of Israel, the Persian province of Yehud, the Greek and Roman rule of Judah, the kingdom of the Maccabees, and the Jewish diaspora in Babylonia and the Greco-Roman world.

Lester Grabbe brings together all the historical information and synthesizes it in an understandable way for those with an interest in the early history, culture, and religion of the Jews. Grabbe also explains what has been discovered by archaeologists, Egyptologists, and Assyriologists that is important for understanding the history of ancient Israel. This is not a brief survey, rather an in-depth overview of the history of Israel from one of the most significant scholars of his generation. Serious readers and history and students alike will find this a helpful pathfinder through the history of one of the most fascinating and influential regions in the world.

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BIAJS Book Prize 2026

BRITISH AND IRISH ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH STUDIES:

BIAJS Book Prize 2026

We are pleased to announce that the 2026 BIAJS Book Prize competition is now open. The book prize initiative was launched in 2018 to recognise and promote outstanding scholarship in the field of Jewish Studies.
Each year BIAJS awards a prize of £1000 for the best monograph submitted, with the focus alternating between books on the ancient to medieval period and early modern to modern period. For the 2026 prize, we invite submissions focused on topics relating to the ancient and medieval periods. The winner will be announced at the annual BIAJS conference in July 2026. ...

Follow the link for eligibility criteria and submission instructions. The deadline is Friday, 27 March, so don't dawdle.

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Did the British Museum change a display due to UKLFI objections?

ONOMASTIC POLITICS, CONTINUED: British Museum did not remove Palestine from labels due to pressure campaign, museum sources say—as backlash continues. Some scholars however have questioned the wording used in the new labels in the Ancient Levant and Egyptian galleries (Melissa Gronlund, The Art Newspaper).

The Art Newspaper understands that the Ancient Levant wall labels were amended in early 2025, following staff changes in the Middle Eastern department. According to interviews with multiple former curators and individuals affiliated with the museum, the labels were updated according to the most recent scholarship, such as the move to use the terms for ancient people by which they were known at the time, and to refresh a display that had grown tired.

The letter that was sent to the British Museum from UKLFI came a year after these changes. ...

Of couse, not all scholars are happy with the changes. This article has a good discussion of the details of the debate.

For an earlier post on this story, see here. There I discuss the complexities of the terminology used to refer to this region, with special attention to emic usages in the Second Temple Period.

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Stanley, A Ram for Mars: A Slave's Story, Book 3

RECENT NOVEL FROM NFB PUBLISHING:

A Ram for Mars: A Slave's Story, Book 3

by Christopher D. Stanley (Author)

What would you do if you were pressured to support a rebellion that you believed was misguided and doomed to failure? What if the safety of your family and business depended on your answer?

Marcus and Miriam, recently freed slaves from Asia Minor, arrive in Israel buoyed by hopes of finding Marcus’s long-lost mother and starting a new life together. They discover that the land is seething with social and political unrest, with anti-Roman parties in the ascendancy.

Marcus, who grew up in a Roman colony and owes his present prosperity to a Roman master, finds these anti-Roman sentiments perplexing. His uncertainty increases when war breaks out and he’s asked to ship supplies to the rebel army, including a newfound cousin who protects the northern front.

As his entanglement with the rebellion deepens, Marcus is torn between loyalty to the world in which he was nurtured and the need to secure his family’s safety. Then his adopted son runs off to join the rebels. What is he to do?

Fans of Conn Iggulden, Ken Follett, and Robert Graves will be captivated by this richly detailed and compelling exploration of the Jewish revolt against Rome (66-73 AD/CE) through the lens of a pro-Roman Jew in the rural district of Galilee.

This is the third book in an historical-novel trilogy by a biblical scholar. For notices and reviews of the first two, see here and links. The author's website is here.

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On the formation and reception of the Babylonian Talmud

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: A Dual Agenda for Bavli Studies: Formation and Reception (Alyssa Gray).

The common thread running through all these projects on the Bavli’s adaptation of other sources is the scholarly realization that as creative as the Bavli is, that creativity is at least partly (a big part) expressed through the incorporation and reworking of other sources, whether texts or motifs. There are methodological variations within these various studies, and these variations exhibit both tension and complementarity. If we focus (again, non-exhaustively) on studies of the Bavli in relation to the Yerushalmi, there are methodological variations worth noting.

I noted the introductory essay in this series here.

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Debating diachronic diversity dating for biblical Hebrew

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

“A Relationship Worth Fighting For”: A Response to “Isn’t It Time to Break Up with Linguistic Dating?”

Linguistic dating in Biblical Hebrew research remains a valid scholarly tool despite complications arising from composition, redaction, transmission, and methodological challenges. Although weaker or overly circular approaches deserve criticism, careful, data-driven analysis of Masoretic, non-Masoretic, and extrabiblical Hebrew still reveals meaningful diachronic patterns and can thus contribute to historical periodization.

See also Diachronic Diversity in Classical Biblical Hebrew (Cambridge, 2024).

By Aaron D. Hornkohl
Associate Professor of Hebrew
University of Cambridge, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
March 2026

This essay responds to an earlier Bible and Interpretation essay, noted here. And see also here.

The discussion is somewhat technical and has been going on for a long time. I have comments myself here and here. I think further progress will be difficult unless (hopefully, until) we find a cache of Iron Age II (i.e., pre-exilic) Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls.

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Lots more ghost wheels?

PREHISTORIC MEGALITHIC ARCHITECTURE: Mystery widens: Researchers find Israel’s ‘Stonehenge’ in the Golan is not unique. Remote sensing and AI helped identify 28 sites similar to Rujm el-Hiri, challenging theories about the ancient stone circle’s purpose and pointing to a wider regional phenomenon (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

Rujm el-Hiri is, of course, a very well-known site, and it was always considered to be a very unique site in the area,” [archaeologist Michal] Birkenfeld said. “Most [of the sites we discovered] were not as elaborate and were of different sizes and levels of preservation, but they still have the same type of logic.”

“If this is the case, it also impacts the way we can interpret these sites,” Birkenfeld explained, adding that they have also found that there are similar sites further away, including in the Galilee and in Lebanon.

The question is connected to how to understand the original one at Rujm el-Hiri, which remains surrounded by enigmas.

Last year I mentioned the site of Rujm el-Hiri as one of those pre-Israelite megascale constructions which may have given the Israelites the idea that giants lived in the land long ago. This site is especially fun because its traditional nickname is Gilgal Refa'im, "wheel of ghosts" or, in biblical context, possibly "wheel of giants." The purpose of the site remains debated.

Now it appears that Rujm el-Hiri is far from unique. The new research indicates there were dozens of such prehistoric circular megalitic monuments in the region. No wonder the Israelites thought there used to be giants in the land!

The underlying article is open access at Plos One:

Reassessing Rujm el-Hiri: Aerial imagery and stone circles in the proto-historic Southern Levant

Michal Birkenfeld , Olga Khabarova, Lev V. Eppelbaum, Uri Berger
Published: March 18, 2026
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0339952

Abstract

Rujm el-Hiri has long been considered one of the most enigmatic archaeological monuments in the Southern Levant. Variously interpreted as a funerary, ceremonial, or astronomical locale, it has been the centre of multiple studies spanning over more than 50 years. While traditionally viewed as an isolated protohistoric monument, our study reveals it as the most elaborate example of a widespread regional tradition of large, circular basalt stone structures. This study presents a comprehensive regional reassessment of these large circular stone structures in the basalt highlands surrounding Rujm el-Hiri, revealing over 30 previously undocumented examples within a 25 km radius. Utilizing high-resolution satellite imagery, geophysical modelling, and spatial analysis, we document a consistent architectural tradition characterized by concentric and radial basalt walls, often associated with dolmens, tumuli, and field systems. These structures exhibit similarities in design and landscape placement, frequently located near seasonal water sources and integrated within broader agro-pastoral land-use networks. Our findings challenge the view of Rujm el-Hiri as an isolated monument, instead situating it within a wider phenomenon of protohistoric monumental architecture in this region. This expanded dataset provides new perspectives on landscape organization and monumentality in the protohistoric southern Levant. The application of remote sensing techniques proves crucial in overcoming previous survey limitations, revealing a complex and interconnected archaeological landscape hitherto underappreciated.

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Was the Second Temple ANE or Greek inspired?

DR. LISBETH S. FRIED: Did YHWH Reside in the Temple? (TheTorah.com).

The biblical accounts of the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple reflect ancient Near Eastern ideas of divine residence. Ezra’s account of the Second Temple, however—where the altar is built first—reflects a theology closer to the Greek world, also echoed in the patriarchal stories of Genesis.

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More on the Athribis ostraca and what's on them

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Treasure Trove of Ancient Astrology Unearthed in Egypt. Thousands of ostraca found at Atreps (Lauren K. McCormick).

Atreps is the same site as Athribis/Atribis. I have noted this most recent discovery of thousands more inscribed ostraca here. Follow the links for background and earlier discoveries at the site.

This BHD essay does a good job of answering the questions What do they say? and Why should we care? Excerpt:

Of special interest are more than 100 mainly Demotic-Hieratic horoscopes, which complement earlier discoveries of about 130 ostraca documenting celestial observations and possible astrological charts. Generally speaking, in ancient Egypt, astronomy involved observing and measuring celestial bodies, while astrology interpreted their significance. Horoscopes recorded the positions of stars and planets at specific moments so their meaning could be interpreted. It seems clear that Atreps served as a hub of astrological and astronomical activity.

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Maaloula latest

MODERN ARAMAIC WATCH: This war-torn village is fighting to keep Christ’s language alive. Home to some of the last speakers of Aramaic, Maaloula was attacked in Syria’s civil war. Its residents are determined to rebuild–and preserve their mother tongue from extinction (Ryan Biller, National Geographic).

Poor Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula, Maalula - etc!) has been through a lot. PaleoJudaica has been following the fate of this Syrian city, where Aramaic is still spoken, for more than 20 years. Its situation is already delicate with the fall of Assad and the new al-Sharaa-led transitional government. I hope it and its people stay safe during the current war. They are not in the midst of the action, but they are not all that far away from it.

Background here and many links.

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Mosaic-floor church excavated at Nitzana in the Negev

ARCHAEOLOGY: On the trail of Lawrence of Arabia: 1,400-year-old church found in the Negev. Mosaic-decorated church uncovered at Nitzana National Park sheds light on the scene among pilgrims traveling through the Holy Land to Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt (Rossella Tercating, Times of Israel).

The mosaic-floor church was discovered during the latest excavation season conducted by BGU archaeologists in February.

“It is the most beautiful of all six churches, because it is the only one featuring colorful mosaic floors as opposed to simple stone floors, like the others,” Tchekhanovets said.

The mosaics present intricate geometric and floral patterns.

The archaeologists could date the completion of the church precisely thanks to an inscription dedicating the building to the benefactor who funded it in 601 CE.

You have to read pretty far into the article to get to Lawrence of Arabia, and he is not very important to the story. Cross-file under Decorative Art.

PaleoJudaica posts about discoveries in the Nitzana National Park are here, here, and here, and, under the name Nessana, here, here and (a good overview through late 2024) here.

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"What is the Talmud?" - upcoming roundtable papers

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: What is the Talmud? (Christine Hayes).

In anticipation of the publication of the conference proceedings, the volume editors convened a roundtable discussion at the 2025 Association for Jewish Studies annual conference. At the roundtable, several scholars discussed the question "What is the Talmud?" and considered how diverse answers to that question have shaped and will continue to shape the field of Bavli Studies.

Further details are at the link. The papers are forthcoming.

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Unauthorized West Bank antiquity confiscation?

DETAINED DECORATIVE ARCHITECTURE: High-ranking Israeli Police Officer Entered West Bank Village With IDF Troops to Seize Ancient Stone. Meir Rotter, head of the police's ultra-Orthodox community department, confiscated a carved lintel from a home in Kafr Dhaba without Civil Administration archaeologists present and in an area under Palestinian Authority control; police say the incident will be investigated (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

There is a video of the stone fragment, which an excerpted photo describes as a "carved lintel." You can see the mentioned menorah design and some floral/vine decoration. The second fragment to the left is harder to see, but it looks like it has more floral/vine decoration. I don't know how old they are.

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