RACHEL ELIOR'S THEORY that there were no Essenes is covered by the Daily Princetonian. Princeton Professors James Charlesworth and Martha Himmelfarb weigh in and are unconvinced.

Background here.

PHILOLOGOS Gets Roasted – And Eaten. Cicero is involved.

A BYZANTINE-ERA BATHHOUSE:

A Byzantine Bathhouse was Uncovered Close to Kibbutz Gevim

(Art Daily)

JERUSALEM.- A bathhouse that dates to the Byzantine period was exposed in an archaeological excavation undertaken by the Israel Antiquities Authority near Kibbut Gevim (at the site of Horvat Lasan) and underwritten by the Israel Railways, prior to laying a railroad track from Ashkelon to Netivot.

[...]

HOME WITH A COLD. Sorry for the dearth of blogging. I've been sleeping most of the time for the last couple of days. I'll be back as soon as I can.

RON HENDEL thinks he has located the missing walls of Jericho. Giants are involved. Highly speculative, but interesting.

More on Og the giant here.

HAPPY SIXTH BLOGIVERSARY TO PALEOJUDAICA! My first (introductory) post is here and the first substantive post is here. Past anniversary posts: 2004 (1st), 2005 (2nd), 2006 (3rd), 2007 (4th), 2008 (5th).

Here are some of my favorite posts over the last year. For subjects that got a lot of coverage, I've just picked posts in which I had something substantive (if sometimes brief) to say.

Enema instructions in ancient Aramaic?

Doctor Who meets the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

David Noel Freedman 1922-2008

Tutela Valui
(Most popular post of the year, receiving several thousand hits. Must be the Latin.)

Good snow here

The Vision of Gabriel: here, here, here, and here.

The Gedalyahu ben Pashur seal: here and here

British New Testament Conference 2008

The Khirbet Qeiyafa inscription: here, here, and here. Is that thing published yet?

SBL 2008

Rosslyn Chapel

Ralphies 2008

The Kilduncan Stone in St. Andrews

Martin Luther King Jr. and biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha

Ancient Neoplatonist libraries and the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

The Persepolis Cuneiform Archive controversy

The Dead Sea Scrolls sock puppet scandal and the Golb arrest: here, here, here, and here.

Rachel Elior's theory that there were no Essenes: here, here, and here.

I have meetings all day today (the 24th) until late afternoon, so I'm preposting this the evening before. But I'll try to add some annual statistics at some point on the day.

UPDATE: This is posting number 5960 for PaleoJudaica (905 posts this year). The counter stands at 593,295 total individual hits (and 832,415 total page views) and PaleoJudaica is currently ranked at number 41,812 by Technorati. That's 117,404 individual hits in the last year and an ascent of 23,756 places in the Technorati ranking. A year ago Technorati indexed 112.8 million blogs. I can't find the current number, but it had gone up to 133 million still in 2008.

As always, please keep sending me items of interest and please do keep reading PaleoJudaica.

THE RENOVATION (RENEWAL) OF THE ISRAEL MUSEUM is back in the news:

$100 million renovation of Israel Museum to double display space for art and artifacts

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, March 22, 2009

FROM WIRE REPORTS Gwen Ackerman, Bloomberg News

JERUSALEM – The Israel Museum, with a collection that includes Picasso sculptures, Chagall paintings and the Dead Sea Scrolls, is barely visible behind a jumble of cranes dotting its campus on Jerusalem's Hill of Tranquility.

The 20 acres of galleries, sculpture gardens and research facilities are getting a $100 million facelift to make the museum's collection more accessible.

[...]

The price has risen by $20 million since June of 2007 and has doubled since April of 2006. I hope they're getting their money's worth!

ANOTHER REVIEW of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks has been published by Regis Schilken in Blogcritics Magazine. Haven't seen one of these for awhile. Excerpt:

I would recommend People of the Book to those who enjoy a series of individual short stories. By this I mean the fanciful Haggadah journeys in between most chapters.

Each of these tales is well-written but predictable in this sense: the reader discovers early that each Haggadah journey involves some kind of terrifying threat to the book, often to the lives of those who rescue it. Finally, the tale would be more compelling if the exaggerated, painful, daughter-mother relationship were left out entirely.

I think the book is worth reading. As fiction, it gives the reader a non-fictional sense of the terrors of past Jewish history. The Haggadah's survival down through six-plus centuries is remarkable. During that long period of time, I feel certain it has undergone countless narrow escapes with destruction similar to that detailed in People of the Book.

BOOK REVIEW: Sisters of Sinai by Janet Soskice is reviewed by James McConnachie in the London Times. Excerpt:

In 1892, the twins travelled from their home in Cambridge to Cairo, then made their way for nine days on foot and by camel across one of the world's more inhospitable deserts. Arid plains gave way to limestone ridges, maze-like wadis and, finally, the brutal 7,000ft peaks of the Mount Sinai range. Agnes, the travel writer of the pair, had no complaint to make about the journey other than that the camel's rolling gait disturbed her reading of the Psalms in Hebrew.

Since Tischendorf's escapades, the monks had tended to greet visitors with a volley of stones, thrown down from the vast fortified walls. But Agnes saw only a spiritual oasis; she likened it to a dove hiding in a cleft of the rocks. Respect for the sisters' sex ensured a welcome, and their tents were soon pitched in the monastery garden, close to “the well of Moses” and the original burning bush.

Agnes dared to ask to see the oldest Syriac manuscripts and, in a dimly lit chamber, she found the promised chests. One harboured a dirty, damaged volume whose parchment pages had to be steamed apart using the twins' travel kettle. Faint beneath the main 7th-century text were two columns of older underwriting. Agnes's Syriac studies meant that she could read the headings: “Of Matthew”, “Of Luke”.

Agnes had found and recognised one of the earliest New Testament manuscripts yet discovered, its text dating to the 2nd century. ...

I don't believe the second century date. I doubt that the earlier Syriac text would be any earlier than the fourth century, and this seems to be right.

Cross file under Aramaic Watch.

UPDATE (24 March): Stephen C. Carlson e-mails:

It is not super clear, but perhaps the author is making a distinction between the age of a manuscript and the age of its text. The manuscript itself is late fourth / early fifth century, but its text could be as early as the late second depending on when the translation into Syriac was made.

I suppose that could be what it means. But if so, then no, it isn't very clear.

ARAMAIC WATCH: Ancient Aramaic inscriptions in the UAE:

Where hidden treasures await
Posted on: Sunday March 22 , 2009 12:03:32 PM (GMT+4) (Eye of Dubai News)

From rusty cannons and ancient manuscripts to majestic fishing ships and tombs housing the oldest traces of life in the country, museums across the UAE are home to hidden treasures unknown to most of the country’s residents and citizens.

“Each museum has something special and visitors always leave the museum knowing something new about this country,” says Nasser Hashim Mohammed, the curator of Sharjah Archaeology Museum.

[...]

Artefacts from all parts of the country are on show in museums in Sharjah, Al Ain and Dubai, featuring some of the oldest examples of the written word, including Aramaic, Hasaean and Greek inscriptions that have survived on jewellery and pottery that pre-date the Arabic language.

[...]

No more information is given, but sounds intriguing.

THE SCHECHTER HAGGADAH, edited by Joshua Kulp, is reviewed by Rachel Pezzlo in Ynetnews.com. Excerpt:

The Schechter Haggadah presents a compilation of sources and commentary, and not a pre-chewed presentation of material to be shared at the seder for inner spiritual reflection as many other recent popular family-participation haggadahs are. With its heavy textual basis, the haggadah may be most easily digestible for readers with a background in Jewish textual learning, though it still can be appreciated and enjoyed by a particularly curious and adventurous beginner.

THE SILWAN LAND DISPUTE is discussed by the Mayor of Jerusalem:

Barkat may relocate Silwan residents

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat hopes to reach an agreement on the relocation of Arab residents living in illegally constructed homes in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood, to make way for a planned archaeological park adjacent to the City of David.

"This is one of the most strategic sites in the city, on an international level, which must be an open public area," Barkat said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "It is certainly much more important than Central Park in New York."

The 49-year-old self-made hi-tech millionaire-turned-mayor said that he was determined to reach a solution to the problem in the coming months, together with both city residents and the government, after the issue is thoroughly planned by a municipal committee and deliberated in public.

"It is inconceivable that we will not follow the rule of law in the city," he said. "The question is, how do you get from the current situation to the desirable one."

He said it was fair to assume that deliberations between the two sides would lead to a solution - such as an exchange of land, or monetary compensation for Arabs living illegally at the site - and noted that a senior municipal official had held a recent meeting with local residents to discuss the issue.

[...]

While he praised the dialogue with Silwan residents, the new Jerusalem mayor insisted that the issue of house demolitions in the city was about law and order, and not about politics.

"The two issues need to be decoupled," he said. "I would like to see what [New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg would say about illegal building in Central Park. Would he give up Central Park because there is illegal building there?"

[...]

Background here and follow the links back.

He also touched on the Museum of Tolerance controversy:

Earlier this week, Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Pepe Alalo of Meretz, which opposes any Jewish construction in east Jerusalem, conceded during a tour of the site by party officials that there was a tremendous amount of disinformation about the house demolitions in Silwan, and urged local residents to work with the city to reach a solution to the issue.

In the interview, Barkat also said he would honor a past city agreement with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center for the construction of a Museum of Tolerance at a central Jerusalem site that partially covers a Muslim cemetery, even though he would have preferred that it be built at a different location.

Background here and, again, keep following the links back.

THE DROUGHT IN IRAQ has an up side for archaeology:

Drought Reveals Iraqi Archaeological Treasures

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro (NPR)

All Things Considered, March 20, 2009 · Iraq is suffering one of the worst droughts in decades. While this is bad news for farmers, it is good news for archaeologists in the country.

The receding waters of the Euphrates River have revealed ancient archaeological sites, some of which were unknown until now.

[...]

Flooding Covers Sites

In the mid-1980s, Saddam Hussein's government dammed the Euphrates in the area, flooding a 120-mile-long stretch of land near Iraq's border with Syria.

What once was an enormous reservoir that stretched as far as the eye could see has shrunk an astonishing 90 percent since summer, officials say.

Ratib [Ali al-Kubaisi, the director of Anbar province's Antiquities Department] says that at least 75 archeological sites had been partially excavated before the area was flooded. They ran the gamut of civilizations — from 3,000 B.C. to the Sumerian and Roman periods. Ancient Jewish settlements were also submerged in the area. But because of the receding waters, Ratib has been able to access some sites for the first time — including, for instance, a cliff with a series of pre-Christian tombs carved into its face. Though they have been heavily damaged by the water, Ratib says they still have value.

"I wish we could excavate these sites again. If we had the money and the resources, we could complete the work we began all those years ago," he says.

[...]

My emphasis. As always, there are looting worries as well.

HAPPY VERNAL EQUINOX to all those celebrating. Almost forgot.

A LIVE PERFORMANCE OF BEN HUR in Aramaic and Latin - and including the chariot race - is coming to the O2 Arena (in the former Millennium Dome in London):

Ben Hur premiere will thrill O2 audiences
By Simon Hayes on March 19, 2009 1:00 PM | (Warf.co.uk)

Michael Jackson might be stealing all the headlines at The O2 this summer but there's another show heading to the venue that promises to be equally spectacular.

Ben Hur, the story of a Hebrew prince who falls from grace and ends up a slave, will have its world premiere at the arena on September 15.

The story, which features live animals and a cast of hundreds, has been transformed into a two-hour theatrical show by producer Franz Abraham.

[...]

THE SABEAN MANDEANS (SABAEAN MANDAEANS) still have a hard lot in Iraq:

Dozens of men and women dressed in five pieces of fine white cloth inch their way barefoot into the muddy waters in ancient rites of purification.

They are joyously celebrating the "five white days" when Al-Rab or God created earth -- the biggest festival in the Sabean religious calendar.

Also known as Mandaeans, the Sabeans traditionally speak a variety of Aramaic, the language of Christ.

They call Adam their prophet and revere John the Baptist -- "saba" is Aramaic for baptise, "manda" means knowledge.

They trace their roots to pre-Christian times and some scholars believe the sect was a heretical branch of Judaism that spread south through the land of the two rivers or Mesopotamia in the second century AD.

However today the reality is post-invasion modern Baghdad and a fight to survive persecution, war and hardship.

The Sabeans are a dying community in Iraq. Their numbers have dwindled from 35,000 before the US-led war of 2003 to just 7,000-8,000, says the sect's leader Sheikh Sattar Jabbar al-Hulu.

"It has been a disaster for the community," the "rais" or chief tells AFP. While many have been killed in the sectarian bloodshed that swept the country, most have fled into exile. The diaspora today numbers between 32,000 and 33,000.

More here, here, here, and here.

A VISIT to the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. This synagogue was the home of the Cairo Geniza, although these visitors seem not to have known that.

RACHEL ELIOR'S THEORY that the Essenes had nothing to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in fact never existed, has caught the full attention of the media and is now being covered in numerous articles. The one from the London Times seems to merit the most comment, by way of having the most muddled coverage.

Scholars in uproar over challenge to Dead Sea Scrolls

James Hider in Jerusalem

For more than 60 years scholars have believed that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic Jewish sect called the Essenes, who lived in the 1st century in the mountains and recorded their religious observances on parchments.

Now a new theory challenging the broadly accepted history is sending shockwaves through the archaeological community, even leading to the arrest of one prominent scrolls scholar’s son in the United States.

That's pretty misleading. First, I've not seen all that much scholarly reaction to her theory so far, perhaps because most of us are waiting until we actually read her new book when it comes out. True, it seems to be sending shock waves through the media. But let's not confuse the two please. In due course scholars (mostly philologists and historians, although some archaeologists too) will digest her argument and respond to it in critical reviews, articles, etc. By then the press will have mostly forgotten about the whole thing.

As for Golb's theory, it's been around for decades and has yet to pick up a scholarly following. Hence the sock puppetry defense of it that led to the current scandal. Elior's theory is related to Golb's, but Golb never claimed that the Essenes didn't exist, so it's not the same.

Rachel Elior, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, claims in a forthcoming study that not only were the 930 scrolls written by Jewish priests living in Jerusalem but that the Essenes as a sect did not exist.

In her new book Memory and Oblivion, Professor Elior says that the scrolls were written by the Sadducees, a class of Jewish priests dating back to the time of King Solomon.

The scrolls were found by a shepherd in a cave at Qumran, on the edge of the Dead Sea, in 1947. One of the most important archaeological finds of the century, their significance was enhanced by the discovery of an untouched version of the Hebrew Bible dating back to 300BC.

[...]

Oh, if only! Sorry, no "untouched" (what does that mean?) Hebrew Bible from 300 BCE. Instead, many manuscripts of individual books of the Hebrew Bible. These, alas, were very much touched by two thousand years of lying around in caves, being eaten by worms, being made into rats' nests, etc. Most of them are just a handful of fragments, although the information they give us about the ancient text of the Hebrew Bible is very precious. They date from the third century BCE (very few of those) to the first century CE. I know of none dated to as early as 300 BCE.

The rest of the article looks okay, although it's very odd that there's no mention of Larry Schiffman, whose theory that the Qumran sectarians were an apocalyptic offshoot of the Sadducees also has a good bit of overlap with what Elior seems to be arguing. Although, again, Schiffman has not argued that the Essenes never existed.

There's better coverage by the AP in "Theory combats accepted wisdom on Dead Sea Scrolls" and Arutz Sheva in "Scholar Blows Up Theory on Dead Sea Scroll Authors."

Background here.

UPDATE: Douglas Mangum summarizes and adds to the current discussion in the Biblio-blogosphere at the Biblia Hebraica blog.

THE INSCRIPTIONS OF ISRAEL/PALESTINE PROJECT:

The Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine project seeks to build an internet-accessible database of published inscriptions from Israel/Palestine that date between ca. 500 BCE and 614 CE, roughly corresponding to the Persian, Greek, and Roman periods. The purpose of this database is to provide a tool that will make accessible the approximately 10,000 relevant inscriptions published to date, and will include substantial contextual information for these inscriptions, including images and geographical information.

Looks useful.

(Via the Agade list.)

THE JOURNAL OF SEMITIC STUDIES has a new issue out (Spring 2009; Vol. 54, No. 1). TOC:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Articles
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Jan Keetman
Wechselwirkung Von Vokalen Und Gutturalen Im Semitischen Unter Dem Einfluss Anderer Sprachen: Die Beispiele Des Akkadischen Und Hebraischen
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 1-17; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn038.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/1?etoc

Na'ama Pat-El
The Development of the Semitic Definite Article: A Syntactic Approach
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 19-50; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn039.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/19?etoc

Gordon J. Hamilton
A Proposal to Read the Legend of a Seal-Amulet from Deir Rifa, Egypt as an Early West Semitic Alphabetic Inscription
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 51-79; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn040.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/51?etoc

Vincent Decaen
Theme and Variation in Psalm 111: Phrase and Foot in Generative-Metrical Perspective
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 81-109; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn041.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/81?etoc

Robert D. Holmstedt
Word Order and Information Structure in Ruth and Jonah: A Generative-Typological Analysis
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 111-139; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn042.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/111?etoc

Francois Bron
Notes Sur Les Inscriptions Neo-Puniques De Henchir Medeina (Althiburos)
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 141-147; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn043.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/141?etoc

Tzvi Novick
The Modality of Sarik in Tannaitic Hebrew
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 149-160; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn044.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/149?etoc

Shlomy Raiskin
Talmudic Aramaic Fauna Names: Murzema and Shaqitna
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 161-167; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn045.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/161?etoc

Nadezhda Vidro
A Newly Reconstructed Karaite Work on Hebrew Grammar
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 169-178; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn046.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/169?etoc

Gerrit Bos and Y. Tzvi Langermann
The Introduction of Sergius of Reshlhringaina to Galen's Commentary on Hippocrates' On Nutriment
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 179-204; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn047.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/179?etoc

Alessandra Avanzini
Origin and Classification of the Ancient South Arabian Languages
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 205-220; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn048.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/205?etoc

Aaron D. Rubin
The Functions of the Preposition K- in Mehri
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 221-226; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn049.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/221?etoc

Hilla Peled-Shapira
From Conventional to Personal, or: What Happened to Metaphor Under the Influence of Ideology - the Case of Gharhringib TulhringMa Farman
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 227-249; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn051.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/227?etoc

----------------------------------------------------------------
Reviews
----------------------------------------------------------------

Edward Lipinski
GEORGES BOHAS and MIHAI DAT, Une theorie de l'organisation du lexique des langues semitiques: matrices et etymons (Collection Langages). * PHILIPPE CASSUTO and PIERRE LARCHER (eds), La formation des mots dans les langues semitiques (Langues et langage 15).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 251-252; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn052.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/251?etoc

David M Stec
AARON D. RUBIN, Studies in Semitic Grammaticalization (Harvard Semitic Studies 57).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 253-254; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn053.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/253?etoc

Jon Taylor
JEAN-JACQUES GLASSNER. Translated and edited by ZAINAB BAHRANI and MARC VAN DE MIEROOP, The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 254-255; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn054.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/254?etoc

J.N. Postgate
J.A. HALLORAN, Sumerian Lexicon: A Dictionary Guide to the Ancient Sumerian Language.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 255-257; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn055.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/255?etoc

Wilfred G.E. Watson
STEFANIE U. GULDE, Der Tod als Herrscher in Ugarit und Israel (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2 Reihe 22).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 258-259; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn056.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/258?etoc

Bob Becking
HALLVARD HAGELIA, The Tel Dan Inscription: A Critical Investigation of Recent Research on its Palaeography and Philology (Studia Semitica Upsalensia 22).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 259-261; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn057.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/259?etoc

Martin F.J. Baasten
ERNST JENNI, Studien zur Sprachwelt des Alten Testaments II.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 261-265; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn058.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/261?etoc

Eveline J. Van Der Steen
ROBERT D. MILLER II S.F.O., Chieftains of the Highland Clans: a History of Israel in the 12th and 11th Centuries B.C. (The Bible in its World). * ANN E. KILLEBREW, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: an Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel 1300-1000 B.C.E. (Society of Biblical Literature Archaeology and Biblical Studies 9).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 265-270; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn059.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/265?etoc

Jeffrey Stackert
BERNARD S. JACKSON, Wisdom Laws: A Study of the Mishpatim of Exodus 21:1- 22:16.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 270-272; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn060.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/270?etoc

Jenni Williams
HILARY LIPKA, Sexual Transgression in the Hebrew Bible.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 272-273; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn061.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/272?etoc

K.A. Kitchen
KEVIN A. WILSON, The Campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I into Palestine. (Forschungen zum Alten Testament, 2. Reihe, 9).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 274-276; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn062.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/274?etoc

William Johnstone
THOMAS B. DOZEMAN and KONRAD SCHMID (eds), A Farewell to the Yahwist? The Composition of the Pentateuch in Recent European Interpretation (Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series 34).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 276-278; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn063.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/276?etoc

Deborah Rooke
ALICE HUNT, Missing Priests: The Zadokites in Tradition and History (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 452).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 278-281; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn064.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/278?etoc

Deborah Rooke
LENA-SOFIA TIEMEYER, Priestly Rites and Prophetic Rage: Post-Exilic Prophetic Critique of the Priesthood (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 19).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 281-283; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn065.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/281?etoc

Robert D. Holmstedt
NICHOLAS P. LUNN, Word-Order Variation in Biblical Hebrew Poetry: Differentiating Pragmatics and Poetics (Paternoster Biblical Monographs).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 283-285; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn066.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/283?etoc

Doron Mendels
D. GOODBLATT, Elements of Ancient Jewish Nationalism.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 285-287; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn067.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/285?etoc

Simon Adnams Lasair
BEVERLY P. MORTENSEN, The Priesthood in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Renewing the Profession (Studies in Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 287-289; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn068.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/287?etoc

Gunter Stemberger
ALEXANDER SAMELY, Forms of Rabbinic Literature and Thought: An Introduction.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 289-292; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn069.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/289?etoc

Steven Kaplan
EMANUELA TREVISAN SEMI, Jacques Faitlovitch and the Jews of Ethiopia.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 292-294; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn070.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/292?etoc

Michael A. Knibb
ALESSANDRO BAUSI e ALESSANDRO GORI, Tradizioni orientali del "Martirio di Areta." La prima recensione Araba e la versione Etiopica. Edizione
critica e traduzione.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 294-296; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn071.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/294?etoc

Hugh Goddard
JOHN C. LAMOREAUX (translator), Theodore Abu Qurrah (Library of the Christian East 1).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 296-298; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn072.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/296?etoc

Andrew Marsham
GARTH FOWDEN, Qusayr lhringAmra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria (The transformation of the classical heritage 36).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 208-302; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn073.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/208?etoc

Ami Elad-Bouskila
PAUL STARKEY, Modern Arabic Literature.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 302-305; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn074.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/302?etoc

----------------------------------------------------------------
Short Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------

John F. Healey
STEVEN E. FASSBERG and A. HURVITZ, (eds), Biblical Hebrew in its Northwest Semitic Setting: Typological and Historical Perspectives (Publication of the Institute for Advanced Studies 1, The Hebrew University Jerusalem).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 307-308; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn075.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/307?etoc

John F. Healey
HELENE LOZACHMEUR, La Collection Clermont-Ganneau: ostraca, epigraphes sur jarre, etiquettes de bois (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres 35).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 308-309; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn076.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/308?etoc

John F. Healey
KAREL JONGELING, and ROBERT M. KERR, Late Punic Epigraphy: an Introduction to the Study of Neo-Punic and Latino-Punic Inscriptions.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 309-310; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn077.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/309?etoc

John F. Healey
JEAN-CLAUDE HAELEWYCK, Grammaire comparee des langues semitiques: elements de phonetique, de morphologies et de syntaxe (Langues et cultures anciennes 7).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 310-311; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn078.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/310?etoc

Deborah Rooke
SUSANNE SCHOLZ, Introducing the Women's Hebrew Bible (Introductions in Feminist Theory 13).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 311; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn079.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/311?etoc