THE MOSES OF HISTORY AND MYTH is the subject of an essay by Professor Brian Britt on the Bible and Interpretation website:

The Moses Myth, Beyond Biblical History

�Research on the myth of Moses may not resolve anxieties about whether Moses existed, but it does suggest that across centuries and continents, Moses has retained strong links to written tradition and polemics about group identity.

The piece is effectively a long blurb for his forthcoming book, Rewriting Moses: The Narrative Eclipse of the Text (Continuum/ T &T Clark International), which sounds quite interesting. Excerpts from the essay:

But while the divide between minimalists and maximalists threatens gridlock, an entirely different approach to Moses has begun to flourish. The subject of these studies is the myth of Moses: legends, retellings, and elaborations of the biblical figure. In hagiography, midrash, sermons, popular novels and films, the mythic Moses neither accepts nor rejects the historicity of the biblical text. Instead, the strands of this myth have proliferated by adapting the biblical Moses to many purposes, from Jewish, Hellenistic, and Muslim identity to liberation from slavery and oppression.

[...]

Debates on the historical Moses will continue, but in the absence of startling new interpretations of the evidence, this work will likely reach a standstill. Research on the myth of Moses may not resolve anxieties about whether Moses existed, but it does suggest that across centuries and continents, Moses has retained strong links to written tradition and polemics about group identity. Sorting this evidence in light of biblical scholarship promises to yield insights into complexities of myth, memory, and biblical tradition.

Reception history is where it's at.

CONFERENCE REPORT: I am very grateful to Jacques van Ruiten and his lovely family for inviting me and my family to stay at their home in Haren during the International SBL/IOQS conferences. (We all met last year at the Venice Enoch Seminar and our sons became good friends.) Jacques also very kindly gave me access to the Groningen libraries so that I could photocopy about 300 pages of articles I needed.



I saw and heard much too much to comment on here. What follows are a few brief observations on whatever happened to stick in my mind. Apologies to all the presentations to which I wasn't able to go or which I can't find the energy to describe.


Florentino Garc�a Mart�nez gave an excellent opening IOQS lecture on "The Study of the Texts from Qumran: A Groningen Perspective." His University of Groningen colleague Ed Noort introduced him, noting that that he had planned to say something about Florentino's publications, but when he got the 25-page list, he decided not to go into detail. He also pointed to Florentino's impressive Google profile.

A good bit of my time went into attending the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha sessions, which Pierluigi Piovanelli now adminsters and which he expanded into four sessions this year. I presented a paper in one session and chaired another and heard at least some of the papers in all four.


Pierluigi Piovanelli, University of Ottawa
"Why Peter? The Authoritative Role of Peter in the Monophysite Collections of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles"

I went to many papers in various different sessions and I don't have the time or energy to comment on them all. But I will note the following specific papers which had to do with newly discovered texts or new editions and information about texts we already had.

Dan Levene, University of Southampton
"'Just as the fire did not touch them so too may the demons not afflict ...'" This was a paper in one of the Magic sections which presented a new Aramaic incantation bowl that dealt with the story of Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace.

Gideon Bohak, Tel-Aviv University
"Cracking the Code in Genizah Magical Texts." This paper, from the same Magic section, presented an unpublished text written in Hebrew in a substitution cipher. In it a woman invoked the angels to reveal to her (presumably in a dream) where a stash of gold coins were buried in her house.


Tobias Nicklas, University of Regensburg
"The Death of Peter." Tobias has just published a new edition of the Apocalypse of Peter. (Unfortunately, I can't remember the publisher, but if someone can send me the publication information, I'll post it. [Now see update below.]) His paper in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha section drew on this and other legendary material about the death of Peter and Tobias reported that the edition has new photographs of the Greek Akhmim papyrus (which also contains fragments of the Gospel of Peter and 1 Enoch) but that the manuscript itself was lost when being transferred to the new Alexandria Library.

Note to the Egyptian authorities: This manuscript is tremendously important and you should be very embarrassed to have misplaced it. FIND IT!

St. Andrews was well represented. Five of our doctoral students presented papers. [Sorry, I had missed one originally and said four.] I was only able to be at two of them, so my photographic record is not complete. Given my skill as a photographer, that may not be a great loss. The presentations were:

Daniel M. Gurtner
"Functionality, Identity, and Interpretation: The Tearing of the Temple Curtain (Matt 27:51 par) in Light of Pentateuchal Tabernacle Texts" (Synoptic Gospels section)

Edward ("Mickey") Klink
"'What concern is that to you and to me?' The OT as a Tutor for Reading John 2" (Johannine Literature section)

Darian Lockett
"The Eschatological Wisdom of the Epistle of James and 4QInstruction: An Initial Investigation" (Pastoral and Catholic Epistles)


Grant Macaskill, "Creation and Eschatology in 4QInstruction." ( IOQS )


Ian Werrett, "Ritual Purity in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Severity or Particularity?" (IOQS)


I was very happy, delighted even, with the reception of both of my papers. If anyone thought I'd taken leave of my senses with either (and I admit I had some apprehensions along those lines), they were kind enough not to tell me. And lots of people had very positive responses.

Finally, I understand that Francis Schmidt of the EPHE submitted a statement during the IOQS business meeting on Wednesday afternoon which protested the reported cutting of funding to REJ and RevQ. I had to miss the meeting, but I did sign the statement and I assume it was approved by the membership. If anyone who was at the meeting can report on what happened, I would be grateful to hear. I would also like to post the statement here if someone can send it to me.

UPDATE: Bev Diaz points me to the Apocalypse of Peter edition mentioned above, which is published by de Gruyter:

Das Petrusevangelium und die Petrusapokalypse

Die griechischen Fragmente mit deutscher und englischer �bersetzung. Neutestamentliche Apokryphen I

Hrsg. v. Kraus, Thomas J. / Nicklas, Tobias

2004. 24 x 17 cm. X, 153 Seiten. 27 Faksimiles. Leinen. Euro [D] 49.95 / sFr 80.00 / approx. US$ 60.00. *
ISBN 3-11-017635-1

THE $2.5 MILLION GIFT to Harvard University from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, is being returned to him.

Arab's Gift to Be Returned by Harvard (New York Times via Mystical Politics)
By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: July 28, 2004

Harvard University is returning a controversial $2.5 million gift to its donor, the president of the United Arab Emirates.

Harvard said in a statement Monday that the president, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, recently asked to withdraw the gift, which was to endow a chair in Islamic religious studies, before it was subjected to a formal deliberation this summer by the university.
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Abdulla Alsaboosi, a spokesman at the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington, said negotiations between the university and Sheik Zayed's representatives had been going on for several months. "The negotiations were conducted in an atmosphere of cordiality and mutual respect," Mr. Alsaboosi said, "but in the end, since no decision was taken by the university, we felt regretfully that we had no option but to retract the gift."

Students and Jewish organizations had criticized the Harvard Divinity School for accepting the donation, which was made in 2000, because they objected to the sheik's support for a policy research organization, the Zayed International Center for Coordination and Follow-Up in Abu Dhabi, one of the seven states in the United Arab Emirates.

[...]

I suspect (and hope) that the decision to withdraw the gift was made because the writing was on the wall that Harvard wasn't going to keep it. In any case, I'm pleased with the outcome.

For more on the Zayed Centre controversy, have a look at these entries.

TERRORISM ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT BY JEWISH RADICALS has been a major fear during Tisha B'Av this year. Meron Benvenisti has some comments in "The looming Temple Mount catastrophe" in Ha'aretz. Excerpts:

Among the hundreds, indeed perhaps the thousands, who participate in the symposia and conferences that deal with the practical preparations for the establishment of a Third Temple, there are those who make no attempt to hide their plans to "remove the abomination." Ministers and senior officials - known to dine on non-kosher shellfish - demonstratively demand the right of every Jew to pray on the Mount and condemn the weak hand of their government, "which allows the PLO to rule the Temple Mount."

Those very same people are the ones who are warning against the actions of those who take their own incitement seriously. The chorus of inciters "against the Waqf" is joined by archaeologists, who loudly protest the activities of the Muslims, "meant to erase any evidence of the existence of the sanctuary," and thus encourage, without meaning to, of course, those who plot to erase any Muslim connection to the place.

It seems the only obstacle to catastrophe is the sweeping ban by the rabbinical establishment over praying on the Mount, a prohibition that is being undermined; and the day is not far off when it will collapse, "at least regarding that part of the Mount that was outside the Temple."

[...]

The UN Security Council has intervened in less dangerous situations, and sent in international forces to prevent far lesser catastrophes than the destruction of the mosques. Internationalizing the security on the Temple Mount and the presence of international forces skilled in counter-terrorism and resistant to nationalist and religious incitement are preferable to a police force which experience shows won't always know how to respond correctly and efficiently. Maybe internationalization of the Mount is really in Israel's interest; if a disaster happens, the blame won't be on us.

THE CURRENT EXCAVATORS OF QUMRAN are challenging some of the establishment views about the site and its relation to the Dead Sea Scrolls:

Archeologists claim Essenes never wrote Dead Sea Scrolls
By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent

Located on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, Qumran is famous throughout the world as the place where the Essenes, who have been widely described in studies, conferences and exhibitions as a type of Jewish "monk," are said to have lived and written the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, based on findings soon to be published, Israeli archaeologists now argue that Qumran "lacks any uniqueness."

The latest research joins a growing school of thought attempting to explode the "Qumran myth" by stating that not only did the residents of Qumran live lives of comfort, they did not write the scrolls at all.

Two Israeli archaeologists, Yuval Peleg and Itzhak Magen, have recently completed 10 seasons of excavations at Qumran, sponsored by the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria. These are the most extensive digs since those conducted by Roland de Vaux half a century earlier. Among the finds were numerous pieces of jewelry, imported glass and expensive stone cosmetics containers.

"It's impossible to say that the people who lived at Qumran were poor," said Peleg. "It is also impossible that de Vaux did not see the finds we saw. He simply ignored what didn't suit him."

[...]

Obviously the views of the excavators will have to be judged on the basis of which they publish, which one certainly hopes will be far more extensive than De Vaux's publications on Qumran. But here are a few preliminary thoughts on what is said in this article (with no particular presumption that it reflects completely or accurately what Peleg and Magen said). I too a skeptical of the idea that there was a sectarian Jewish monastery at Qumran which kept the Dead Sea Scrolls in its library. Various problems: the anachronism of the term "monastery"; the striking lack of references to celibacy in the sectarian scrolls; the variant versions of allegedly key sectarian works like the Community Rule, which makes me wonder if a good bit of the sectarian consciousness wasn't based on utopian speculations rather than the practices of an actual community.

That said, I'm not sure what it means to say that the site lacks "uniqueness": everything is "unique" in some way or else it would be something else. I don't find the term "unique" to be very useful in an absolute sense. The question is how is the site unique and how is it the same as other sites and what does that tell us? (Okay, I guess that's three questions.) Also, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that high value items were found at the site of a monastery. Monastic orders can be poor on the individual level but rich on the collective level. But the jewelry and cosmetics containers do imply a significant presence of women, which, if it hold up, could cause further difficulties for the idea that the site was a celibate monastery.

As for whether the inhabitants wrote the scrolls, I'll just have to see what the evidence is that makes the excavators doubt this. My own working hypothesis, to which I hold pretty lightly, is that at least a good many of the scrolls were brought in for hiding by Essenes/sectarians living in Jerusalem and Judea when the war with the Romans was underway.

UPDATE: Stephen Goranson e-mails:

You wrote of "the" current excavators. Actually, there are several excavators, including Hanan Eshel, Magen Broshi, recently Randall Price, and others.

The second volume in the NTOA series (ed. J.-B. Humbert and J. Gunneweg) increases the links between the Essenes the Khirbeh and the Scrolls and caves. It even reports an yet another Qumran inkwell in a locus with a long inscription. Humbert, who knows all de Vaux's results, affirms Essene presence, as does S. Pfann, de Vaux's new editor.

For Qumran we needn't use the term "monastery," but, for the record, "monasterion" first appears in Greek in Philo, De Vita Contemplativa 25 & 30.

Some of the "luxury" items evidently are from Period III, that is, after 68 CE, after Essene habitation, as Joan E. Taylor writes in PEQ (2004) 81-87.

Hirschfeld's quotation--that finds "contradict everything we know about every aspect of the Essenes"--may I suggest, is over the top in perfect tendentiousness.

I have more on recent Qumran excavations here. As you can see, this is an area on which people tend to have strong views.

LOOTING OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES isn't just a problem in Iraq:

In the company of grave robbers (Jerusalem Post)
By LAUREN GELFOND FELDINGER

Ransacked West Bank antiquities turn into black-market gold

[...]

Ron Kehati, the commerce inspector for the Israel Antiquities Authority, whose staff hunts antiquities thieves, estimates that illegal digging in the Palestinian areas is up more than 50 percent.

"Since the Palestinian Authority is over there, many people trade in illegal antiquities. After the PA or Palestinian police or whoever finds it, it all gets sold - it never gets to a Palestinian museum," he says. "Palestinians have histories as we do; [so] if they keep the land, they should also preserve the history of the land."

While the IAA worries about antiquities disappearing, archeologists cringe as amateurs ignore the rules of digging, recording and preserving historical sites.

"In the next generation we won't be able to see and enjoy what's there. It is an archeologically magnificent site that has a lot to offer tourists and archeologists," says archeologist and tour guide Ronen Bitan. "Who rules the land doesn't matter, as long as it is being preserved. It's a shame as an archeologist, regardless of political opinion, when my legacy is being ruined: that's a real tragedy."

The PA did set up an Antiquities Authority after Oslo, but Israeli officials say it disintegrated in recent years. The PAA head, Dr. Hamdan Taha, was in Morocco at press time and could not be reached for comment.

Palestinian archaeologists have protested that the closures preventing Palestinians from working in Israel has led the unemployed to take-up illegal digging. Bir Zeit University's Institute of Archaeology head, Hamed Salem, who was also abroad at press time, presented a paper recently to the World Archeological Congress saying that "Palestinian heritage work faces internal and external difficulties due to shortage of well-trained staff, limited funding and lack of authority to implement a comprehensive archaeology program under occupation and thus protect archaeological sites from plundering and destruction."

"Jewish antiquities will be lost," charges [Israeli buyer of antiquities] Tal, who likes to believe that he - with the help of his Palestinian accomplices - is redeeming Jewish history by carting it piece-by-piece back across the Green Line, where it will be preserved.

[...]

Then there's this:

The legacy of Tal's family - a long line of regional traders with a relationship to antiquities and to the earth - has left him obsessed with discovering the ancient Jewish history still buried. After recent purchases from Ahmed, and a description of where they were found, Tal has become convinced that the grave-digger has stumbled onto a mass grave of Jewish priests massacred in the First Temple period.

He knows that if he reports his suspicion to the IAA, the digger, the dealer, and he may be arrested, and their wares confiscated. And so he has come out on his own to investigate, venturing beyond the safety of Ahmed's home.

Read it all and weep.

AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS have been returning in larger numbers to Israeli archaeological digs this year:

Israeli archeological excavation sites help educate American students (Israel21C)
By Mark Schulman July 25, 2004

Indiana Jones would have never let travel bans and terror threats stand in the way of a good archeological dig. Especially if the field work was among some 35,000 known archaeological sites in Israel, ranging from small areas containing only loose pottery shards to large, fortified, walled cities like Masada and the City of David in Jerusalem.

That was the conclusion drawn by dozens of American volunteers, students and amateur archeology buffs who joined their Israeli counterparts and additional volunteers from Europe at eleven major excavations being conducted in Israel this summer.

By and large, security concerns and dwindling funding for large-scale digs have kept many American institutions and universities away, including hundreds of students and volunteers who are an essential part of any archeological project. A four-year old U.S. State Department travel advisory warning Americans against visiting Israel and the region has certainly not helped, resulting in some excavations being suspended in 2002 and 2003, amid the post-September 11 security concerns.

But this year, the wannabe discoverers are back with a vengeance - scattered throughout the country with trowel and pickaxe in hand in an attempt to make sense of the country's rich layers of history hidden beneath the ground.

"After 9/11 it became almost impossible to come, people were hesitant because of the security situation and insurance companies weren't willing to cover us," said Dr. Ron Tappy, professor of bible and archaeology at the Pittsburgh Theological and director of excavations at Tell Zeitah (Tel Zayit in Hebrew), an ancient village believed to be biblical Libnah in ancient Judah (Joshua 10; 2 Kings 19:8).

"It's good to be back again in the field," Tappy said. "We had about 45 professional staff and volunteers this summer, but I could have used twice as many people. Hopefully we'll see more come out and dig with us next year."

[...]

THE TEN LOST TRIBES IN . . . IRELAND?

Did you know that the Irish are the descendants of the Tribe of Dan? That many Irish names have a Hebrew root and that Irish landmarks like Mount Kappure and Mount Tara are really Hibernia's commemoration of Yom Kippur and the Torah? Even the word Hibernia, the Roman name for Ireland, could have its root in the word "Hebrew."

Yeah, yeah, everybody and his grandfather around the world believes that they are one of the lost tribes. No matter where you go, you're bound to find some legend or bizarre, unexplained custom that the locals say is proof that they are the descendants of the ancient Israelites.

Take Mt. Tara for example. This is the place where in the days of lore the high kings of Ireland would gather to make the laws of the land. Legend has it that the Ark of the Covenant can be found there too. Did Tara come from the word "Torah"?

Then there is the strangely named Mount Kappure in County Wicklow. Legend holds that one of King Hezekiah's daughters fleeing the Assyrians washed up on Ireland. The princess married an Irish king. Once a year she would disappear to the mountain to pray and fast, just like on Yom Kippur.

Need more proof? Take the churches in west Galway. Unlike the other churches in Ireland, men and woman sit separately. Why? Well that's just the way it's been for hundreds of years. The Irish of the west coast are generally darker with black curly hair, further "proof" they descended from wandering Dan tribesman.

The more likely explanation is that they may have a touch of Mediterranean blood from the sailors of the Spanish Armada who swam to its shores after their fleet was sunk 400 years ago. History tells us that many Marranos had joined the Spanish fleet. This may explain the plethora of Cohan's and Levi's in Ireland. That's obvious. But what about Murphy, the most common family name in Ireland? The story goes that many of the Armada's ship surgeons were Jews and likely went by the name Mar'peh (Hebrew for "healers") and that became Murphy.

If you think that's a stretch, how about McCabe? Was it once Maccabi? Was Brennan originally Ben-Nun? I started thinking maybe I should change my name back to its original: O'Solomon.

All this is told to me by Raphael Siev, the director of the Jewish Museum in Dublin.

Just to be clear, this is not meant seriously. But it is amusing.

I'M BACK. Five days with no blogging and even no e-mail was very refreshing. I'll try to report on the conferences in the next couple of days. It's late here and I'm tired, but here are a couple of interesting items noted briefly by Chuck Jones on the IraqCrisis list (in a message that does not seem to have been archived in its original form), both from Monday's Iraqi Press Monitor:

Rights of Jews 'under study'
(Al-Mutamar) - Minister of Migrants and Displacement Bascal Ishu Werde said Iraq was to study the possibility of granting passports to Jews of Iraqi origin and to compensate those who lost their properties. She said they would grant passports to those residing inside Iraq first. Israeli sources said the passport issue was of "great importance" because it would enable Jews to travel freely within the Arab States and would allow them to participate in the Iraqi elections.
(Al-Mutamar is issued daily by the Iraqi National Congress.)

Authorities end restriction on travel to Israel
(Asharq Al-Awsat) - The Manager of Passports Sabbar al-Atiya said the authorities have cancelled the prohibition to travel to Israel. He said new Iraqi passports would be issued without the famous note of "Bearer is allowed to travel to the entire world except Israel". He added that they started issuing the new passports, which would be valid for one year, on July 15 to replace the travel documents, which were no more valid, issued by the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority.
(London-based Asharq al-Awsat, a Saudi independent paper, is issued daily.)

I hope this means that the question of whether Jewish scholars will now be allowed into Iraq to do reseach is on the agenda and will be clarified soon.

Blogger seems to be feeling fussy and I'm in no mood to deal with it, so I think I'll call it a night.

UPDATE: Conference report here.

I'M OFF TO GRONINGEN for the joint annual International Society of Biblical Literature meeting and annual meeting of the International Organization of Qumran Studies. I'm presenting a paper in each conference. I've already posted the IOQS paper (see here). The SBL paper is "Did Christians Write Old Testament Pseudepigrapha That Appear to Be Jewish?" the oral version of which you can read by following the link. As noted previously, it is a summary of chapter four of the book I'm writing.

We leave first thing tomorrow (Sunday) morning and should be back on the evening of the 29th. Blogging, if any, will depend on easy access to a computer or a Internet cafe, spare time, and my whim. Meanwhile, have a good week, and check out some of the ancient and biblical history blogs and news sites in the links bar to the right. If you are observing Tisha B'Av on the 26th-27th, I wish you an easy fast.

THE ANCIENT TEMPLE MOUNT (ET AL.) IN VIRTUAL REALITY:

The time machine drops you onto the dusty streets of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. The year is 1211.

A few hundred yards ahead is a Romanesque cathedral, nearly complete after 100 years of construction. It seems to soar toward the heavens. The cathedral's grandeur befits one of Christianity's holiest sites, reportedly containing the remains of the apostle James the Great.

[...]

Goosebumps rise on your arm � and you haven't even left Los Angeles.

Which is the idea behind UCLA's Visualization Portal, a virtual reality theater that re-creates ancient worlds, natural phenomena such as tornados, and the inner workings of the human body � showing, for instance, a fibrillating heart and how experimental drugs might return its beat to normal.

The 3D re-creations are used for research, teaching, attracting grants and outreach to the public. Professors � with disciplines including architecture, chemistry, literature, atmospheric sciences, performing arts and astronomy � and technology experts have worked together to create various virtual realties.

More than 40 architectural computer models have been developed, many of them depicting ancient buildings and towns that allow viewers to virtually stroll down the streets, step inside a home or even fly over the walled cities.

Seated in a comfortable theater that holds about 40 people, you can peek into the 26 buildings and monuments of the Roman Forum in AD 400; study frescoes painted on a bedroom wall in a Pompeii villa in AD 79; and enter the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in AD 70, just before its destruction by Roman troops.

[...]

(L.A. Times: requires free registration)

EUGENE ULRICH will be speaking on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Newman University in Wichita, KS:

Professor to speak on Dead Sea Scrolls

A University of Notre Dame professor will speak on the impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Bible at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at Jabara Theater at Newman University.

Eugene Ulrich, professor of Hebrew Scripture and theology, will also give a slide presentation during his lecture.

The event, which is free, includes a reception afterward.

THE JOURNAL BIBLICA has a new issue out (85.3, 2004). The articles are available in HTML and PDF formats. Here is the table of contents with abstracts:

Commentationes

U. BERGES, �Der Zorn Gottes in der Prophetie und Poesie Israels auf dem Hintergrund altorientalischer Vorstellungen� , Vol. 85(2004) 305-330.
������� The theme of divine anger is not peripheral to Yhwh�s revelation of himself but central to it (cf. inter alia Exod 34,6-7). When the instances of Yhwh�s anger in the OT, particularly in the writing prophets and the Psalms are compared with instances of the anger of the gods in the ancient Near East, four categories can be distinguished: a) the anger that seeks to destroy mankind; b) the anger that intervenes in the destiny of peoples; c) the anger that destroys temple cities with their sanctuaries; d) the anger that plunges the individual into danger of death. The OT speaks of Yhwh�s anger on many different levels, which demands a portrayal that is much more nuanced than has been the case up to now and represents a continuing challenge, not least for the reflection of biblical theology.

Bernard P. ROBINSON, �The Story of Jephthah and his Daughter: Then and Now� , Vol. 85(2004) 331-348.
������� In Judges 11 Jephthah is an anti-hero, his rash vow and its implementation being for the Book of Judges symptoms of the defects of pre-monarchical Israel. The daughter is probably sacrificed; the alternative view, that she is consigned to perpetual virginity, has insufficient support in the text. The story speaks still to present-day readers, challenging them not to make ill-considered judgments that may have disastrous consequences; inviting them too to detect a divine purpose working through human beings in their failings as well as their strengths.

Thomas HIEKE, �Das Alte Testament und die Todesstrafe� , Vol. 85(2004) 349-374.
������� Rather than understanding the Old Testament sanction MWT YWMT ("he shall surely be put to death") as a death penalty edict, one should see it as a parenetic warning. Comparing the verses which contain mot yumat with the few references to death sentences and executions, it is to be doubted whether this condemnation was indeed applicable. The �death edicts� are therefore not �law,� but divine dicta functioning as deterrents. They formulate things that should not happen under any circumstances. Hence, they underscore the most important ethical and cultic maxims.

Gonzalo ROJAS-FLORES, �The Book of Revelation and the First Years of Nero�s Reign� , Vol. 85(2004) 375-392.
������� In this article I try to demonstrate that the Book of Revelation was written in the first years of Nero�s reign, because (a) there is an important patristic tradition in favor of Nero and (b) the internal evidence shows that the text was redacted after Nero�s ascension to the throne in 54 and before the earthquake of Laodicea in 60.

Animadversiones

Jan LAMBRECHT, �The Line of Thought in Romans 7,15-20� , Vol. 85(2004) 393-398.
������� The parallelism between Romans 7,14-17 and 18-20 as it has recently been put forward by O. Hofius is critically examined. It would seem that within this text Paul�s reasoning progresses from vv. 14b-16 to 17-20. The thesis of v. 14b ("I am fleshly, sold into the slavery under sin") gives way to the more sophisticated pronouncement of v. 17 ("as a matter of fact it is not I that do the evil, but the indwelling sin"). Each time motivations follow, vv. 15 and 18-19; finally a conclusion is drawn, vv. 16 and 20.

Peter M. HEAD, �The Habits of New Testament Copyists. Singular Readings in the Early Fragmentary Papyri of John� , Vol. 85(2004) 399-408.
������� After an introduction that discusses the role that singular readings have played in the analysis of scribal habits, including an earlier study of synoptic gospel manuscripts by the same author, this study examines singular readings in the early fragmentary papyri of John�s Gospel. The study confirms earlier research showing that the most common singular readings concern spelling and that word order variations, word substitutions and harmonisations to context are also not uncommon. Omission of words is more common than addition.

Urban C. von WAHLDE, �He Has Given to the Son To Have Life in Himself (John 5,26)� , Vol. 85(2004) 409-412.
������� John 5,26 explains that Jesus is able to give life because the Father has given him "to have life in himself". While previously one could surmise the meaning of this special mode of possessing life, Wis 15,16-17 provides positive proof of the verse�s meaning in its comparison of the ways God and humans possess life.

Gershon GALIL, �The Chronological Framework of the Deuteronomistic History� , Vol. 85(2004) 413-421.
������� This article points out that the series of the minor judges were not included in the deuteronomistic edition of the Book of Judges, and therefore did not form part of the Dtr�s chronology. In the author�s opinion the Dtr constructs a chronological framework spanning 480 years from the Exodus to the establishment ofthe Temple (1Kgs 6,1) and correlates it with the chronological data in Deuteronomy�Samuel.

JOURNAL CRISIS CORRECTION: Oh dear. It seems that the e-mail address that I gave on Tuesday for Jean-Marie Hombert, the director of the "Sciences humaines" department at the CNRS, was incorrect. I did not get an error message, but a few others did, prompting me to double check with Christophe Batsche. He writes:

Concerning the adress of Pr Hombert, I apologize for my mistake. The right one is:
Jean-Marie.Hombert@cnrs-dir.fr
(i.e. with a DOT between dir and fr)
An alternative, lessd personal is :
secr-shs@cnrs-dir.fr
which leads to his assistant secretary.

I am afraid that if you wrote to Professor Hombert to protest the proposed cuts to funding of Revue de Qumran and Revue des �tudes Juives, your message did not get throught (which no doubt explains why he has not replied). Please resend. I am doing so now.

Apologies for the error.

THE FIRST-CENTURY SYNAGOGUE is the subject of an essay on the Bible and Interpretation website:

The Nature and Origins of the 1st-Century Synagogue

�
It is very likely that the institutions referred to as proseuchai in inscriptions dating from 3rd and 2nd century bce Egypt were, in fact, Jewish temples, and not synagogues as is commonly assumed.
�

By Anders Runesson
McMaster University, Canada
July 2004

Excerpt:

We are wise to begin out search with the period when our sources first mention synagogue terms. This happens to be the 1st century bce and ce. Second, analyzing the literary, inscriptional, and archaeological material, we must determine what type(s) of institution is referred to by these terms in the sources and what activities were associated with these institutions. Each type of institution should be investigated separately.

Third, since many of the activities connected with the 1st-century synagogue were common to similar non-Jewish institutions, the search for the origins of the unique Jewish institution as we find it in the 1st-century need to focus on the most characteristic feature of the synagogue: the feature that made it stand out among other institutions.

Fourth, the origins of the synagogue are exposed when this characteristic feature is traced to its beginnings in a setting in which we also find the other activities associated with the later, 1st synagogue. Fifth and finally, an attempt must be made to explain why, where, and how this all came to be at the specific point in time when we found the beginnings of the distinctive feature of the 1st-century synagogue.

IOQS PAPER: Next Tuesday at the International Organization of Qumran Studies conference, I'm scheduled to present a paper entitled "The Odes of Isaiah: A Newly Discovered Syriac Pseudepigraphon � A Thought Experiment." In the interval since the paper was accepted, it has taken a somewhat different turn and it now has a slightly different title and uses a different "newly discovered" document to make the points I want to make. I have now put it online, so, as a special perk only for PaleoJudaica readers (i.e., anyone who reads PaleoJudaica), you can read the oral-presentation version now. Look for my other paper, the one for the International SBL meeting, sometime on Saturday. (I leave for Groningen early Sunday morning.) Here is the slightly revised abstract of the IOQS piece, with a link to the paper itself:

The Apocalypse of Daniel: A Newly Discovered Syriac Pseudepigraphon - A Thought Experiment

Sorry, there isn't really a new pseudepigraphon called the Apocalypse of Daniel. Nor is this paper about the work with the same name published recently by Matthias Henze. Rather, this is a thought experiment to explore in a new way the problem of the transmission of Jewish Old Testament pseudepigrapha in Christian hands and how or to what degree we can hope to know whether such works actually originated in Jewish rather than Christian circles.

The approach is to treat demonstrably (mostly by external criteria) ancient Jewish works as if they had been transmitted as pseudepigrapha in Christian manuscripts, and to explore the implications of the "alternate histories" of these works as analogies for works whose transmission histories cannot now be reconstructed by conventional means. The method is informed by poststructuralist and reader-response concerns; the philosophy of counterfactuals and possible worlds; the exploration of counterfactual histories by science fiction writers and by historians; and some conceptual insights and categories formulated by the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum physics.

This paper postulates an "alternate history" for the Qumran War Scroll (as found in the manuscript 1QM) in which, rather than being abandoned at Qumran, this work was transmitted outside sectarian circles, translated first into Greek and then, into Syriac, thence surviving only in a late antique or early medieval Syriac copy attributed to the prophet Daniel. (One can point to the transmission of the Psalms of Solomon as a partial analogy.) To what degree could we show that this text was originally Jewish, and even sectarian Jewish? What literary-critical, prosodic, and linguistic criteria, if any, would be likely to be helpful in tracing its history of transmission and ultimate origin?

It opens:

This paper is a painfully brief summary of part of the third chapter of a monograph I am currently writing on the problem of Christian transmission of Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. You see from the handout that I have taken the liberty of changing the title, for reasons I will explain presently. If you were especially hoping to hear about a new Syriac Odes of Isaiah, I apologize for disappointing you. However, assuming you read my abstract or the online version of this paper before coming here, you will already know that there isn't really an Odes of Isaiah and I hope that you will be content instead with an equally imaginary Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel. I assure you that the overall arguments and their connections with the Dead Sea Scrolls remain essentially the same.

As always, feedback or comments are welcome. Do keep in mind that this is a 25 minute summary of a 161 MS-page chapter.

I have published summaries of other parts of the same book-in-progress online as I have presented them at various conferences. There are oral presentations of chapter one, chapter two, and a bit from chapter six. The International SBL paper will summarize chapter four. Please read them as very preliminary and provisional drafts. For more of my conference papers and online book reviews, see the relevant section of the links bar to the right.

UPDATE (24 July): More, including link to promised SBL paper, here.

JOURNAL CRISIS! Christophe Batsche, at the �cole Pratique des Hautes �tudes in Paris, e-mails:

The french CNRS (centralized administration for intellectual researches in France) is thinking to cut all financial credits to two major publications (at least, I hope, from our point of view) : the Revue de Qumran and the Revue des Etudes Juives. Since that suppression (which would probably mean the death of these two publications) is argumented by a biased system of reviewing quotations in international publications, perhaps could you ring the bell and ask our colleagues to send a few words to the director of the "Sciences humaines" department at the CNRS ?

email : Jean-Marie.Hombert@cnrs-dir-fr [see update below]

He adds:

There is currently a process of evaluation of human sciences reviews financially helped by the CNRS. Not a bad idea per se. You'll find all explanation (perhaps in english also, but I'm not sure) on the CNRS site :

http://www.cnrs.fr/SHS/actions/lettre.php.

The idea is to class all the reviews into three categories : 1. help maintained ; 2. help limited to electronic publication ; 3. help suppressed. The REJ falls in category 2 ; the RQu in category 3.

The evaluation is based on a system of quotations calculations in a number of international "references" reviews, which seems pretty objective and scientific. The problem is :

1) you can't avoid bias in the choice of the "reference" reviews. You dont get the same result whether you privilege history or linguistics. And, obviously, as French we certainly don't privilege religious studies area.

2) a review like RQu can have a real international diffusion and importance, but very few quotations, given the rather specialized field of knowledge it deals with.

I have sent the following e-mail to Professor Hombert:

Dear Professor Hombert,

I have just learned that the CNRS is considering cutting financial support to two critically important journals in Jewish studies: the Revue de Qumran and the Revue des �tudes Juives. These journals are mainstays of the field and it would be a great tragedy were they to be discontinued due to lack of funding. Revue des �tudes Juives is a venerable journal more than a century old which covers the whole range of the history, religion, literature, society, bibliography, and methodology of the study of Judaism. It has an international readership and range of contributors and its loss would leave a major gap in the academic study of Judaism and indeed in the field of Western history in general. Revue de Qumran is another international journal, which focuses on the Dead Sea Scrolls and is one of the major disseminators of scholarly information on the subject. Given the critical importance of the Scrolls for our understanding of the ancient history of Judaism, Christianity, the Bible, and religion in late antiquity, and also the widespread public interest in the Qumran discoveries, the cutting of this journal's funding would not only do great harm to all these academic fields, it would also send a very negative message to the public about the commitment of the CNRS to funding important work in the humanities.

All this being the case, I encourage you very strongly to resist any movement in the direction of cutting the funding of these journals.

I am posting this message on my weblog, Paleojudaica (address below in my signature), and also copying it to other specialists. If you have no objection, I would like to post your reply on the weblog as well.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

I will report back when I hear from him. In the meantime, if you are a specialist in ancient Judaism or biblical studies, you will already know how important these journals are. I encourage you to e-mail Professor Hombert to encourage the CNRS to continue funding. It is worthwhile to emphasize the international importance of these journals; their significance for the fields of history and linguistic study in general, not just religious history; and the public interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the negative publicity that would result from the loss of RevQ.

If you are a nonspecialist, but are interested enough in the field to be reading PaleoJudaica, I would be very grateful if you too would send Professor Hombert a note expressing concern over this news. You might describe your own interest in these fields and let him know that it would dismay you to see that the CNRS is considering cutting funding for these important resources that help scholars advance our knowledge in these areas.

Anyone is welcome to use my message or any part of it as a template if that would help. I trust it goes without saying that all messages should be polite, respectful, and to the point.

Thanks!

UPDATE: (22 July): The e-mail address given above for Professor Hombert is incorrect. For the correct one go here.

FRANK MOORE CROSS AND ELIE WIESEL are interviewed together and give their views on the Bible in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. The piece is not available online, but you can read a summary of it in this A.P. article:

Cultural titans share thoughts on Bible

Publication links Hebrew professor, Holocaust victim

ASSOCIATED PRESS

They are titans in their respective fields who have taught within miles of each other. But they never met until a journalist brought them together to talk about the Bible.

The talkers were Frank Moore Cross, 82, the distinguished professor of Hebrew literature at Harvard University since 1957 (now emeritus); and Boston University's Elie Wiesel, 75, Holocaust survivor, author and winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. Their chat was arranged by Hershel Shanks for the magazine he edits, Biblical Archaeology Review.

What attracts Wiesel to the Bible?

"I see history in it. I see revealed truth in it. I see in it human holiness as much as divine inspiration. Whenever you open it, any page, you know you are in the presence of something that exists nowhere else."

And Cross?

He said in the classroom and writings he takes a strictly "scientific" approach. "I attempt to deal with the Bible as I would with any work of literature," and to treat the history of Israel the same as that of England or China.

But along with that there's a private aspect Cross doesn't teach or write about publicly. "The Bible is a book that has shaped my life, my beliefs, my ethics, my moral concerns, my religious outlook."

[...]

As I think I've mentioned before, Frank Cross supervised my doctoral work.

UPDATE: Stephen Goranson has pointed me to the location of the BAR article online.

CALENDAR ALGORITHMS GALORE:

Israeli algorithms help you get your dates straight (Israel21c)
By Rava Eleasari July 19, 2004

The e-mail came from a Swede requesting that Tel Aviv University Professor Nachum Dershowitz look into the rules of the Samaritan calendar "since he was already there in Israel."

Thus began the latest odyssey of Dershowitz, a member of the School of Computer Science, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, in systemizing yet another of the world's dating systems - this time of a secretive, traditionalist religious sect of only 1,000 people that live in a radius of about 65 mile radius from the TAU campus.

To date, Dershowitz and his colleague Prof. Edward M. Reingold of the Illinois Institute of Technology, USA, have mathematically analyzed 25 of the world's calendars in the first and only project of its kind. They have provided equations and algorithms for quick and accurate calculation of dates within each system, as well as for conversion of dates between calendars.

The second edition of their book, Calendrical Calculations, encodes the rules for two dozen calendars in mathematical form, and describes how they relate to one another. Among the systems described are the Gregorian (in near universal use today), Islamic, Persian, Coptic, Baha'i, Hebrew, Mayan, Chinese, and modern Hindu. (www.calendarists.com

[...]

NEW BOOK REVIEWS FROM THE REVIEW OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE:

Clifford, Richard J.
Psalms 73-150
Reviewed by Beth La Neel Tanner

Clifford, Richard J.
Psalms 73-150
Reviewed by John Vassar

Creach, Jerome F. D.
Joshua
Reviewed by Ed Noort

Fritz, Volkmar
Translated by Anselm Hagedorn
1 & 2 Kings
Reviewed by A. Graeme Auld

Loretz, Oswald
Psalmstudien: Kolometrie, Strophik und Theologie ausgew�hlter Psalmen
Reviewed by Manfred Oeming

Nam, Duck-Woo
Talking about God: Job 42:7-9 and the Nature of God in the Book of Job
Reviewed by Edward L. Greenstein

Potts, Timothy, Michael Roaf, and Diana Stein, eds.
Culture through Objects: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of P. R. S. Moorey
Reviewed by Beth Alpert Nakhai

Sweeney, Marvin A.
Zephaniah
Reviewed by Mark Wade Hamilton

Carter, Warren
Pontius Pilate: Portraits of a Roman Governor
Reviewed by Richard Bautch

Mayer-Haas, Andrea J.
Geschenk aus Gottes Schatzkammer (bSchab 10b): Jesus und der Sabbat im Spiegel der neutestamentlichen Schriften
Reviewed by Russell Morton