NO ESSENES? Rachel Elior has a proposal that will doubtless generate some discussion:

Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll 'authors,' never existed
By Ofri Ilani (Haaretz)
Tags: Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel news

Scholarship suggesting the existence of the Essenes, a religious Jewish group that lived in the Judea before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, is wrong, according to Prof. Rachel Elior, whose study on the subject will be released soon.

Elior blasts the predominant opinion of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars that the Essenes had written the scrolls in Qumran, claiming instead that they were written by ousted Temple priests in Jerusalem.

"Sixty years of research have been wasted trying to find the Essenes in the scrolls. But they didn't exist, they were invented by [Jewish-Roman historian] Josephus. It's a history of errors which is simply nonsense," she said.

In his book "The Jewish War," Flavius Josephus describes the Essenes as an ascetic, mystical religious sect that lived in abstinence from worldly pleasures, including sex.

[...]

Elior says the Sadducees, a sect descending from the high priest Zadok, who anointed Solomon as king, are the true authors. The scrolls belonged to the Temple and were brought to the Dead Sea to protect them, she says.

"The scrolls speak in clear Hebrew of the priests, sons of Zadok. So why call them Essenes?" asked Elior. "That's a distortion of history. It's like saying that the State of Israel wasn't established by Mapai, but by the Greens."

[...]

This has some similarities to Larry Schiffman's proposal that the Qumran sectarians were "Sadducees" or at least came from a "Sadducean" background (Ironically, Schiffman is one of those supposedly mainstrean scholars who were supposedly silencing Norman Golb. See here.) I have more on Schiffman's theory here at the (currently on-hiatus) Qumranica blog. My own take is to maintain a "hold on loosely" approach to the Essene hypothesis. It's probably right on some level, but it isn't necessarily very useful for understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, and I prefer to use the term "sectarians" rather than "Essenes" most of the time when dealing with the Scrolls. I have some related thoughts here, again at the Qumranica blog.

Regarding Elior's proposal, I do have a question not covered in the article. She is quoted as saying that Josephus made up the Essenes, yet Philo of Alexandria, who lived a generation before Josephus, and the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, who was an older contemporary of Josephus and wrote before he did, both discuss the Essenes - Philo at some length. So what about Philo and Pliny? But an informal media treatment is not the place to expect a full defense of her position.

And one quibble. Hanan Eshel is quoted (as usual, I make no assumption as to the accuracy of the quote) as saying:

"Almost 70 scholars accept the statement that one of the Essenes' groups lived in Qumran and some say we're all morons and only they understand," he said.

The fact that there is a consensus position is not in itself an argument in favor of the consensus. A consensus is just the current state of the question, the place where we have to start if we want to advance the discussion. And that's what Elior is trying to do.

For more on Elior's work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, see here.

(Geza Vermes sent this to me yesterday, but I wasn't able to get to it until now.)

UPDATE (15 March): Rachel Elior responds to criticisms here at Jim West's blog.

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TO THE WORLD-WIDE WEB.

A TENURE-TRACK JOB in Old Testament and Early Judaism is being advertised at Groningen University:

The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen invites applications for a tenure track position in the field of Old Testament and Judaism in the ancient world, to begin 1 January 2010. The successful candidate will carry out his or her research and teaching activities at the Faculty of the Theology and Religious Studies within the Department of Biblical Studies. Preference will be given to a candidate who has a strong interest in the reception historical research of the Old Testament, especially within early Judaism, and with special attention to Qumran.

Further particulars and application instructions are here.

(Via Deborah Rooke on the SOTS List.)

A BYZANTINE-ERA MONASTERY with cool mosaics has been found by some Israeli farmers:

Farmers find monastery beneath Israeli soil

By Deb Krajnak
CNN

(CNN) -- After a group of Israeli farmers sought last year to expand their property in the hills near Jerusalem, they discovered an archeological gem beneath the dirt.

A team led by Daniel Ein Mor barely had to scratch the surface before finding the remains of a Byzantine monastery, he told CNN on Wednesday.

"The excavation at Nes-Harim supplements our knowledge about the nature of the Christian-Byzantine settlement in the rural areas between the main cities in this part of the country during the Byzantine period," including Jerusalem, Mor said.

The church is believed to have been built in the late fifth or sixth century, and is decorated with "breathtakingly beautiful mosaics," according to a description from the Israel Antiquities Authority, which hired Mor.

He said studying coins and pottery pieces will help determine the church's age more accurately. Other monastic sites have been excavated in the region, which was part of the Byzantine Empire.

[...]

Various people have sent me this. Thanks.

MORE ON THE GOLB ARREST:

Dead Sea Scrolls scholar defends son arrested for impersonating rival
By Ofri Ilani (Haaretz)
Tags: israel news, dead sea scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls scholar whose son was arrested last week on suspicion of impersonating an rival scholar says his son understood his opponents were trying to silence him.

Professor Norman Golb, of the University of Chicago, believes that the Dead Sea Scrolls were not written by the Essenes, as mainstream scholarship holds.

"Raphael, my son, is very devoted to my research. He realized years ago that there was an effort to close the door on my opinions. And so he started debating bloggers who were against me, using aliases. That's the custom these days with blogs, as I understand it," Norman Golb said.

No it isn't. At least not among serious academic bloggers - or serious political bloggers either. Making up aliases to give the impression your views have lots of supporters is known as "sock-puppetry" and people caught doing it are rightly ridiculed.

This is an odd situation, where the son denies the impersonations and the father defends the son for doing them. But this could be the result of media garbling or misunderstanding and I wouldn't make too much of it.

Raphael Golb's arrest is the latest in a long saga of conflicts among Dead Sea Scrolls scholars. Although researchers have condemned Raphael Golb's alleged acts, some scholars in Israel accept Norman Golb's contention that some of the most prominent Dead Sea Scrolls academics do silence their opponents.

[...]

I have not found that to be true at all. Golb's theory is not accepted because it isn't convincing. The key problem with it in my view is that it claims that the Qumran texts are not a sectarian library, and anyone who reads them carefully will see that this just doesn't work (i.e., the library clearly is sectarian). But I have always found Golb's work interesting and have said nice things about it from time to time. He did raise the very useful point that the number of scribal hands in the Scrolls corpus was too large for the manuscripts all to have been produced locally. My own working hypothesis is that the Qumran library consists of a number of sectarian ("Essene" or whatever) libraries that were brought to Qumran, presumably for safekeeping during the war with the Romans. These may well have been consolidated with a library that was already there.

Background to the arrest story here (dead link now fixed!) and follow the links back. Earlier comments on Golb's work are collected here.

A PERSIAN LOVE POEM (the Rubaiyat, by Omar Khayyam) is quoted on a pottery fragment recently excavated in Jerusalem:

Jug Inscribed with a Persian Love Poem Discovered in Excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority

(ArtDaily.org)

JERUSALEM.- A fragment of a pottery vessel of Persian provenance that dates to the Middle Ages (12th-13th centuries CE) was discovered in an archaeological excavation directed by Dr. Rina Avner, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the Old City of Jerusalem, prior to construction by a private contractor.

The fragment is treated with a turquoise glaze and is adorned with floral patterns and a black inscription. While studying the artifact prior to publication, Rivka Cohen-Amin of the Israel Antiquities Authority discerned that the inscription on the neck of the vessel is written in Persian. The inscription consists of a line that was taken from a quatrain. The inscription, which was translated by Dr. Julia Rabanovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads: “Was once the embrace of a lover that entreat”.

[...]

Somewhat outside PaleoJudaica's usual time frame, but too cool not to mention. Already noted by Lauer and Sasson, but I'm struggling this week to find any time for blogging. This article also has a very nice photograph.

A SYRIAC CONFERENCE at Yale for graduate students:

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and The Program in Judaic Studies at Yale University, in cooperation with Beth Mardutho's Dorushe graduate student association, will host the 2009 Dorushe Graduate Student Syriac Studies Conference. Date: Sunday, March 29, 2009

Follow the link for the full program and abstracts.

A REBUTTAL to the comments of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the Silwan land controversy has been published in the Jerusalem Post. Excerpts:

The Jerusalem Municipality, moreover, has acted with utmost care and in legally airtight fashion. It has, if anything, conducted this affair with greater circumspection, moderation, tolerance and restraint than would any American municipality given similar circumstances.

Not that the circumstances anywhere else can compare to those of Emek Hamelech (King's Valley or Silwan). This area, part of a First Temple royal enclave, perhaps King David's own, is of matchless historical significance and includes sites holy to all three monotheistic religions.

[...]

WHAT THE spokesman did not specify is that the area is a prime archeological site and that the illegal construction, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority, has already wrought considerable, often irreversible damage to some of the world's most unique biblical-era relics.

Paradoxically, Arab illegal construction in this particular area is recent and wouldn't have been possible without Israeli technological improvements. King's Valley was regularly flooded each winter, until the municipality devised means to drain it some 20 years ago. Since then, Arab squatters flocked to the reclaimed land and illegally constructed a variety of structures on what was earmarked as an archeological park.

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

Background here.

MORE ON THE GOLB ARREST: Haaretz has some details on the Raphael Golb/Dead Sea Scrolls case which look new.

The younger Golb, who denies the allegations, is charged with identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment, and faces a maximum of four years in prison if convicted.

Schiffman contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation when he found out someone was sending e-mails in which he appeared to confess to plagiarism, but was told the case fell under New York State jurisdiction.

"People can write books and agree or disagree, but what Golb's son did is a criminal act," Schiffman said. "It goes beyond the research dispute."

So the younger Golb denies the charges. Interesting.

Background here.

PURIM begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating.

SOME DEAD SEA SCROLLS are coming to a Milwaukee museum:

Milwaukee Public Museum planning to host exhibit of Dead Sea Scrolls

1 day ago (The Canadian Press)

MILWAUKEE — The Dead Sea Scrolls are coming to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Public Museum officials say it will put the scrolls on display late this year or early next year.

[...]

"I ASSUME WE'LL GET LESS MAIL NOW." Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and curator Risa Levitt Kohn is interviewed by the National Post about the Golb arrest. Excerpt (but worth reading in full):

NP: What do you think of this dispute — what one might expect to remain an academic dispute or a ‘battle of ideas’ — now heading into a criminal court of law?

RLK: This is not an academic dispute. The allegation is of an attempt by one individual to promote Dr. Golb’s views in a manner implying that they are gaining widespread acceptance. Dr. Golb is not the only individual with a theory that disputes Qumran-Essenes or that a sectarian group lived at Qumran. There are different theories, which have varying degrees of acceptance. It’s the nature of academic life that you have scholars in disagreement. They tend to debate in academic publications such as books and peer-reviewed journal articles, and sometimes at academic conferences.

The National Post also has an article on "The Curse of the Scrolls" in which Larry Schiffman is interviewed:

"I don't know what caused the transition from the proper intellectual discourse," Prof. Schiffman said in an interview with the National Post.

"What seems to have happened is his son decided to take up the cudgels of his father and the way he took up the cudgels is this whole series of actions.

"Usually these things happen because someone hates their ex-wife. But this? Who would do this?

"But there is something called the curse of the Dead Sea Scrolls because it would happen quite often that people just go overboard regarding the scrolls."

Over the decades, some scroll scholars have become alcoholics, gone from sound research to fringe theories and suffered other crisis, Prof. Schiffman said.

That's the first I've heard of a curse, although I agree that the Dead Sea Scrolls have a remarkably disturbing effect on some people.

Also, Norman Golb is quoted in the Chicago Tribune, apparently acknowledging that the e-mails came from his son:

Norman Golb, a professor of Jewish history and civilization at the U. of C., on Friday described his son's arrest as another twist in the ongoing, often heated debate about the ancient scrolls.

"The fact of the matter is that if I understand it, Raphael was responding to the attacks on me," Golb said from his university office. "I suppose my son felt it was important to get things straight."

He added, "This has everything to do with the politics of the scrolls."

And finally, another blogger has contacted me to say that he received similar e-mails, evidently from the culprit in this case. April DeConick reports that she got some too. (And April is right that we should have notified Larry Schiffman at the time. I'm used to just ignoring crank e-mails, but this was a little different. Sorry Larry. Live and learn.) And Claude Mariottini gives me yet another reason not to enable comments.

Background here.

UPDATE: I see that Mark Goodacre was a recipient too.

UPDATE (8 March): Rebecca Lesses too.

UPDATE: Robert Cargill thoroughly documents the actions of the "puppet master" at Who Is Charles Gadda? (Via דברים בבלוגו.)

THE LATEST on the Silwan land controversy:

Palestinians dig in their heels in face of demolition

By Richard Boudreaux (LA Times)
March 7, 2009

[...]

The dispute is an early test for the Obama administration as it tries to foster peace in the region. Visiting Israel and the West Bank this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the demolition plan was "unhelpful" and a violation of Israel's international obligation to refrain from encroachment on disputed land.

If carried out, the plan would cause the largest swath of demolitions in East Jerusalem since its postwar annexation by Israel, which has not been internationally recognized.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called Clinton's criticism "a lot of hot air" and said the U.S. was trying to interfere with his authority to control zoning and his plans to promote tourism.

"If you build illegal houses, you pay the consequences," he told a group of American correspondents, saying he had expressed that view personally to Clinton. "I expect people to obey the law."

The experience of three generations of Jalajels, however, sheds light on the complex and volatile realities that make any Israeli-Palestinian turf battle here much more than a legal issue. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of an independent state for them; the mayor and the right-wing Likud party, which is expected to lead the next government, insist on keeping all of Jerusalem under Israeli control.

[...]

Background here.

THE LAND DISPUTE around the Mor Gabriel Monastery in Turkey is covered by AINA in a long article:

Battle Over a Christian Monastery Tests Turkey's Tolerance of Minorities
Posted GMT 3-7-2009 6:53:12

KARTMIN, TURKEY -- Christians have lived in these parts since the dawn of their faith. But they have had a rough couple of millennia, preyed on by Persian, Arab, Mongol, Kurdish and Turkish armies. Each group tramped through the rocky highlands that now comprise Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq and Syria.

The current menace is less bellicose but is deemed a threat nonetheless. A group of state land surveyors and Muslim villagers are intent on shrinking the boundaries of an ancient monastery by more than half. The monastery, called Mor Gabriel, is revered by the Syriac Orthodox Church.

Battling to hang on to the monastic lands, Bishop Timotheus Samuel Aktas is fortifying his defenses. He's hired two Turkish lawyers -- one Muslim, one Christian -- and mobilized support from foreign diplomats, clergy and politicians.

Also giving a helping hand, says the bishop, is Saint Gabriel, a predecessor as abbot who died in the seventh century: "We still have four of his fingers." Locked away for safekeeping, the sacred digits are treasured as relics from the past -- and a hex on enemies in the present.

The outcome of the land dispute is now in the hands of a Turkish court. Seated below a bust of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey's secular founding father, a robed judge on Wednesday told the feuding parties that he would issue a ruling after he visits the disputed territory himself next month.

The trial comes at a critical stage in Turkey's 22-year drive to join the European Union. When it first came to power in 2002, the ruling AK party, led by observant Muslims, pushed to accelerate legal and other changes demanded by Europe for admittance into its largely Christian club. But much of the momentum has since slowed. France has made clear it doesn't want Turkey in the EU no matter what, while Turkey has seemed to have second thoughts.

A big obstacle is Turkey's continuing tensions with its ethnic minorities, notably the Kurds, who account for more than 15% of the population and are battling for greater autonomy. Also fraught, but more under the radar, is the situation confronting members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, one of the world's oldest and most beleaguered Christian communities. The group's fate is now seen as a test of Turkey's ability to accommodate groups at odds with "Turkishness," a legal concept of national identity that has at times been used to suppress minority groups.

[...]

No pressure.

Background here.

MORE ON THAT TORAH SCROLL from the Lower East Side. The NYT has taken notice:

Even Among Venerable Texts, a Torah Like No Other

Unlocking the secrets of a document that predates Columbus.

By SOPHIA HOLLANDER
Published: March 6, 2009

THE weathered brown parchment with its frayed edges and inked Hebrew letters seemed beautiful but unremarkable.

Itzhak Winer, a 34-year-old Torah scribe turned Judaica seller, considered the item a nice find, but just one of the 30 or more Torahs he buys and sells in a year. From his Jerusalem dealer, he learned that the Torah had been owned by a family in Morocco and was in excellent condition.

“He knew that it’s old, but he didn’t really know — and neither did I — how special it was,” said Mr. Winer, who works out of his home in Willowbrook, Staten Island.

Curious about the item’s origins, Mr. Winer took it to a Lower East Side rabbi named Yitzchok Reisman, an expert in identifying antique Torahs, the scrolls containing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

[...]

Rabbi Reisman quickly realized that Mr. Winer’s Torah was unique. The materials and calligraphic style identified it as Spanish, which meant that it was written before 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Spain. In addition, the strong swirls on the top of certain letters matched the style favored in kabbalah, the Jewish mystical movement.

“There are very, very few manuscripts and pieces of manuscripts that are older than the 1400s,” Rabbi Reisman said on a recent day in his ramshackle office as Mr. Winer looked on. And the kabbalistic flourishes, the rabbi added, make it “the only Spanish Torah known done in that way.”

[...]

There's a nice photo too.

HEBREW BIBLE JOB at UCSD: I've been meaning to note this since Jack Sasson mentioned it a couple of weeks ago.

Full Professor, Endowed Chair in Hebrew Biblical Studies
University of California, San Diego
The Judaic Studies Program of the University of California, San Diego, invites applications for the Endowed Chair in Hebrew Biblical Studies. Besides the Hebrew Bible, candidates should have expertise in one or more of the following fields: ancient Near Eastern history, historical biblical archaeology, Assyriology, Egyptology, Northwest Semitic epigraphy, and Jewish biblical interpretation. Applicants should be at the rank of Full Professor; Associates on the verge of promotion will also be considered. Income from the Chair's endowment will be available for the support of research.

Proof of U.S. citizenship or eligibility for U.S. employment will be required prior to employment (Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986). Applicants who are not U.S. citizens should state their immigration status at the time of application.

Please reference position number 5-177-H on all correspondence.

Salary will be commensurate with experience and publications and in accordance with the published salary schedules of the University of California.

Review of applications will begin 03/13/09 and will continue until the position is filled.

Nominations and applications, including curriculum vitae and the names and addresses of three referees, should be sent to:

Prof. William H. C. Propp
Chair, Hebrew Biblical Studies Search Committee
Dept. of History, MC 0104-HW
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0104
Job Listings | MyJobs |

THE GOLB ARREST has been taken up widely in the media overnight. From the NYT article:

The professor, Norman Golb, has stood behind his theory despite significant criticism. His son, Raphael Haim Golb, has been one of his greatest allies.

But prosecutors said on Thursday that Raphael Golb took defending his father’s theory too far. Mr. Golb is accused of using stolen identities of various people, including a New York University professor who disagreed with his father, to elevate his father’s theory and besmirch its critics, Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, said at a news conference.

Mr. Golb, 49, was arrested Thursday morning and charged in Manhattan Criminal Court with identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors said Mr. Golb opened an e-mail account in the name of Lawrence H. Schiffman, the New York University professor who disagreed with Mr. Golb’s father. He sent messages in Professor Schiffman’s name to various people at N.Y.U. and to others involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls debate, fabricating an admission by Professor Schiffman that he had plagiarized some of Professor Golb’s work, Mr. Morgenthau said. Raphael Golb also set up blogs under various names that accused Dr. Schiffman of plagiarism, Mr. Morgenthau said.

Golb defends his son and says these charges are "another attack on his work." The BBC quotes a statement from Schiffman:

Mr Schiffman issued a statement after Mr Golb's arrest thanking the authorities for taking action.

"Reasoned intellectual discourse relies on integrity," the statement said.

"When an individual, in seeking to advance a particular view, engages in impersonation and falsehood, he or she undermines the precepts of higher inquiry."

Incidentally, I recalled overnight that I got one of those fraudulent e-mails back in August. The address of the e-mail had "not been verified" and the site it linked to also looked dodgy, with more "not verified" commenters who looked suspiciously like sock puppets. And, of course, the charges had no merit. So I ignored it.

Background here (immediately preceding post).

UPDATE: Joe Lauer points to this Washington Square News article, which has copies of some of the forged e-mails.

THIS IS STRANGE. AND SAD. Norman Golb's son has reportedly been arrested and charged with faking internet identities to discredit his father's scholarly rivals.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY - NEW YORK COUNTY

NEWS RELEASE
March 5, 2009

Contact: Alicia Maxey Greene
212-335-9400

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau today announced the arrest of a 49-year-old man for creating multiple aliases to engage in a campaign of impersonation and harassment relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls and scholars of opposing viewpoints.

The defendant, RAPHAEL HAIM GOLB, was arrested on charges of identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment. The crimes in the Criminal Court Complaint occurred during the period of July to December of 2008.

The investigation leading to today’s arrest revealed that GOLB engaged in a systematic scheme on the Internet, using dozens of Internet aliases, in order to influence and affect debate on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in order to harass Dead Sea Scrolls scholars who disagree with his viewpoint. GOLB used computers at New York University (NYU) in an attempt to mask his true identity when conducting this Internet scheme. He gained access to NYU computers by virtue of being a graduate of the university, and having made donations to its library fund.

The investigation, which included a court-authorized search warrant that was executed this morning at GOLB’s apartment, began in response to a complaint by Lawrence Schiffman, Ph.D., that he was impersonated over the Internet. Dr. Schiffman is a NYU professor, chairman of the Hebrew & Judaic Studies Department and a leading scholar in the field of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[...]

I wish this were a hoax, but it seems to be real. Whoever turns out to be responsible, I'm sorry to hear that Larry Schiffman and others were subjected to this kind of harassment.

I remember back in the late 1980s I met a son of Golb, perhaps this one, at a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls by Magen Broshi at Harvard University. This son was certainly very keen on his father's work (he was passing out copies of one of his articles), but I wouldn't have thought that keen. The investigation is ongoing, so we'll see what comes of it.

The AP at Newsday has a brief notice [update: now considerably expanded] of the arrest and the Village Voice blog has comments.

For background on Norman Golb's somewhat controversial work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, go here and follow the links.

A SYMPOSIUM ON SIGNS AND OMENS at the University of Chicago:

Scholars to interpret signs and omens of the ancient world
By William Harms
w-harms@uchicago.edu
News Office

Leading scholars from around the world will gather at the Oriental Institute to discuss the role of signs and omens in the ancient world. “Science and Superstition: Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World” is a public symposium scheduled for Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7. Amar Annus, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Oriental Institute, organized the event.

All kinds of worldly phenomena were taken as signs that communicate divine messages about future events in ancient Mesopotamian civilization. The first references to diviners in written sources came from the third millennium B.C.

“The study of signs from gods was vitally important for ancient Mesopotamians throughout their history,” Annus said. That study and the literature associated with signs spread throughout the ancient world, as far as Rome and India.

“The concept of sign is found in all ancient cultures, but was first described in ancient Mesopotamian texts. This branch of Babylonian scientific knowledge had great influence, as witnessed by similar texts written in the Aramaic, Sanskrit and Sogdian, among other languages,” Annus said. Ancient Mesopotamians viewed potentially everything in the universe as signs from the gods.

[...]

One of Jesus' parables is invoked as well. Read on.

ONE-YEAR HEBREW BIBLE JOB, from the Hugoye list:

Please help circulate this. Knoxille is a nice and affordable place to live near the Smoky Mtns.
thanks,
-Tina Shepardson

The Department of Religious Studies of the University of Tennessee is seeking a full-time lecturer in Biblical Studies with a specialization in Hebrew Bible to teach courses on ancient Hebraic traditions and Hebrew Bible literature. Also desirable is the ability to teach World Religions and/or the emergence of Christianity/the Second Temple Period and/or critical theory of the study of religion. The applicant will have a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible (ABD acceptable) and will teach four courses a semester, two in Hebraic traditions and two at the lower level. Annual salary is $32,000 plus health insurance. Interested persons should send a cv and three references to Professor Gilya G. Schmidt, Ph.D., Head, Department of Religious Studies, The University of Tennessee, 501 McClung Tower, Knoxville, TN 37996-0450, or email gschmidt@utk.edu. We will accept applications unti! l the position is filled.