The King James Bible at 400

THE KING JAMES BIBLE AT 400: Bernard M. Levinson and Joshua A. Berman have published a fascinating brief article on the historical background of the publication of the King James Bible and its subsequent influence. It is posted at Academia.com.

Levinson, Bernard M., and Joshua A. Berman. "Scripture, Statecraft, and the American Founding: The King James Bible at 400." History Channel Magazine, supplement, November 2010, pp. 1-11.

Lawrence Schiffman accepts vice provost post at YU

CONGRATULATIONS TO LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN, who has accepted a post as vice provost at Yeshiva University. YUNews:

President Joel Appoints Vice Provost

Lawrence Schiffman Will Lead Effort to Create a Unified Undergraduate Faculty and Improved Student Experience at Yeshiva University

President Richard M. Joel has announced the appointment of Lawrence H. Schiffman as vice provost for undergraduate education at Yeshiva University. Schiffman joins the University from New York University where he served as the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies.

[...]

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

Professor Schiffman is, of course, a world-renowned expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls. His own website is here.

Sarah Palin's use of "blood libel"

SARAH PALIN is widely being taken to task for her use of the phrase "blood libel" to describe accusations from the left that incendiary political rhetoric from the right influenced the man accused of the horrific shootings in Arizona. Video here and transcript here. The relevant paragraph:

Vigorous and spirited public debates during elections are among our most cherished traditions. And after the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.

My emphasis. The concept of "blood libel" comes from accusations against Jews of the ritual murder of non-Jews, mostly Christians and especially Christian children, and such accusations go back to antiquity. Time Magazine has a summary of some of the historical evidence. One of the earliest examples is cited by Josephus in Against Apion II 92-96 (or II 8 in the old citation system). One of Apion's claims:

Antiochus found in our temple a bed, and a man lying upon it, with a small table before him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of the] sea, and the fowls of the dry land; that this man was amazed at these dainties thus set before him; that he immediately adored the king, upon his coming in, as hoping that he would afford him all possible assistance; that he fell down upon his knees, and stretched out to him his right hand, and begged to be released; and that when the king bid him sit down, and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what was the meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him the man made a lamentable complaint, and with sighs, and tears in his eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in; and said that he was a Greek and that as he went over this province, in order to get his living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and brought to this temple, and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody, but was fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him; and that truly at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him matter of great joy; that after a while, they brought a suspicion him, and at length astonishment, what their meaning should be; that at last he inquired of the servants that came to him and was by them informed that it was in order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and that they did the same at a set time every year: that they used to catch a Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up every year, and then lead him to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails, and take an oath upon this sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity with the Greeks; and that then they threw the remaining parts of the miserable wretch into a certain pit." Apion adds further, that" the man said there were but a few days to come ere he was to be slain, and implored of Antiochus that, out of the reverence he bore to the Grecian gods, he would disappoint the snares the Jews laid for his blood, and would deliver him from the miseries with which he was encompassed.

Ms. Palin's use of "blood libel" has generated objections, exemplified by the statement of Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League:

It is unfortunate that the tragedy in Tucson continues to stimulate a political blame game. Rather than step back and reflect on the lessons to be learned from this tragedy, both parties have reverted to political partisanship and finger-pointing at a time when the American people are looking for leadership, not more vitriol. In response to this tragedy we need to rise above partisanship, incivility, heated rhetoric, and the business-as-usual approaches that are corroding our political system and tainting the atmosphere in Washington and across the country.

It was inappropriate at the outset to blame Sarah Palin and others for causing this tragedy or for being an accessory to murder. Palin has every right to defend herself against these kinds of attacks, and we agree with her that the best tradition in America is one of finding common ground despite our differences.

Still, we wish that Palin had not invoked the phrase "blood-libel" in reference to the actions of journalists and pundits in placing blame for the shooting in Tucson on others. While the term "blood-libel" has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history.

Well, I imagine she wishes that too now, if for no other reason than that the commentary on her use of the phrase is swiftly overshadowing the larger point she was making.

That said, Alan Dershowitz and others quickly took her side, pointing out that the phrase has long been applied to baseless accusations that any group of people (or more rarely, an individual) has committed serious crimes:

The term “blood libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People,its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusations against the State of Israel by the Goldstone Report. There is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic in Sarah Palin using the term to characterize what she reasonably believes are false accusations that her words or images may have caused a mentally disturbed individual to kill and maim. The fact that two of the victims are Jewish is utterly irrelevant to the propriety of using this widely used term.

Numerous uses of the phrase in this "broad metaphorical" way in the last decade or so by people holding a wide range of political positions are collected by Jim Geraghty at National Review Online.

Where does that leave us? It would have saved trouble and discomfort if Ms. Palin had said something like "false accusations" in that paragraph instead of "blood libel." But at the same time, as Mr. Foxman says, she was well within her rights to defend herself against the inappropriate attacks against her and others, attacks that shamefully sought to score political points off a tragedy. And however discomfiting her use of "blood libel" is, that use is entirely within the norm for political discourse in the twenty-first century.

As for the broader issues around this story, I would like to see political discourse in America become less incendiary, more irenic, and more thoughtful. At the same time, both sides of the aisle use martial imagery and provocative language, and that's just politics. I don't see any reason to get too upset by it. And in this case the accused attacker seems to have been dangerously mentally imbalanced. It is a work of futility to try to censor everything that has a remote chance of setting such a person off, and there is no evidence so far that anyone's political rhetoric had that effect on him.

My heart goes out to the victims of this senseless crime and to their families.

UPDATE (14 January): Haaretz: U.S. Jewish leaders slam Sarah Palin's blood libel accusation. Excerpt:

President of Jewish Funds for Justice Simon Greer said in a statement that "the term 'blood libel' is not a synonym for 'false accusation.' It refers to a specific falsehood perpetuated by Christians about Jews for centuries, a falsehood that motivated a good deal of anti-Jewish violence and discrimination. Unless someone has been accusing Ms. Palin of killing Christian babies and making matzoh from their blood, her use of the term is totally out-of-line."

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in the Wall Street Journal: Sarah Palin Is Right About 'Blood Libel'. Excerpt:

Despite the strong association of the term with collective Jewish guilt and concomitant slaughter, Sarah Palin has every right to use it. The expression may be used whenever an amorphous mass is collectively accused of being murderers or accessories to murder.

The abominable element of the blood libel is not that it was used to accuse Jews, but that it was used to accuse innocent Jews—their innocence, rather than their Jewishness, being the operative point. Had the Jews been guilty of any of these heinous acts, the charge would not have been a libel.

Update on Cyrus Cylinder loan extension

UPDATE ON THE CYRUS CYLINDER LOAN EXTENSION: After some confusion, the British Museum has issued the expected announcement:

4 January 2011

Extension of Cyrus Cylinder loan

Following a request from the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), the Trustees of the British Museum have agreed to extend the loan of the Cyrus Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran until 15 April 2011. This decision has been taken in recognition of the fact that the exhibition has proved to be very popular to date, and the extension will give an opportunity for people from the provinces including school groups to visit the exhibition during the Norouz (New Year) holidays around 20 March 2011.

The Trustees are delighted that the loan has been such a success and look forward to continuing the Museum’s collaboration with colleagues in Iran in the future.

I've only checked the British Museum website today, but the the previous press announcements (first link above and background link below) imply that it was not posted until well after 4 January.

Background here.

Meditation in the Hekhalot Literature and Kabbalah?

DID THE HEKHALOT LITERATURE AND KABBALAH INVOLVE MEDITATION? I would say yes, more or less. Simon Holloway discusses the question in The Silent Mind: A Jew’s Views on Meditation in Galus Australis. Excerpt:

That the story of the four rabbis [who entered the garden/paradise] should be sandwiched between two laws that forbid teaching and meditating upon mystical realia only reinforces the mystical nature of this orchard, and the story seems to function as a cautionary tale. In fact, Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzhak (“Rashi”) comments upon this passage as it appears in the Babylonian account, by noting that “entering the orchard” means “ascending to the firmament by means of a [divine] name”. This accords with an extra detail found in the Babylonian version (although found in neither the Palestinian Talmud nor in the Tosefta), in which Rabbi Akiva warns his comrades about what to say when they “reach the stones of pure marble”. It also accords with a genre of extra- and post-Talmudic literature that is known as Heikhalot (“palace chambers”), in which Rabbi Ishmael guides the reader through the various chambers of God’s divine palace, before arriving at the throne room and beholding his majesty.

So much for Rashi’s interpretation; significantly, the “Tosafot” disagree. Nobody knows with certainty which of these scholars were responsible for Tractate Hagigah, but with the majority of the Baalei haTosafot being from France, there may be good reason for suggesting one of the French academies. They stress in their commentary that the four sages didn’t really ascend to the firmament, but that “by means of a divine name” they made it appear to themselves as though they had. And so it is worth asking the important question: were the Tosafot suggesting that Rabbi Akiva and his three colleagues were meditating?

This question is not so strange. Contemporary with the later generations of the Tosafot was a rabbi in south-eastern France known as Yitzhak the Blind (Yitzhak “Sagi Nahor” – “Too Much Light”). The son of Rabbi Avraham ben David (“the Raavad”), Yitzhak the Blind contributed greatly towards early kabbalistic philosophies that pertain to the sephirot: divine emanations that bridge the distance between the transcendent godhead and his finite creation. Unsurprisingly for a man who was completely blind, Yitzhak believed that one could ascend these sephirot and approach his creator through mystical contemplation. This idea was to prove very influential amongst later generations of kabbalists – most notable Nachmanides, whose teacher was Yitzhak’s disciple.

But it wasn’t until the expulsion from Spain that these ideas gained widespread currency. Almost grudgingly, European scholars admitted the sanctity of a 13th century Iberian text called Sefer haZohar, which was attributed to the authorship of a second-century Palestinian rabbi named Shimon ben Yohai. Ben Yohai’s transformation is recorded in Tractate Shabbat of the Babylonian Talmud, and served Jews of the sixteenth century with an origin story for the Zohar. A collection of mystical midrashim on the Torah, the Zohar not only constitutes a development of the sephirot philosophy of Yitzhak the Blind, but a profound testament to the development of experiential, introspective Judaism.

The Hekhalot texts to a large degree consist of instructions for ritual practices that promise to give the user access to and some control over the spiritual realm. This is pretty close to the generally accepted understanding of meditation as a mental or spiritual discipline. There is an influential school of modern scholarly thought that regards the Hekhalot texts as exegetical tractates rather than practical ones, but I think (and have argued extensively in print) that this is correct in what it asserts but wrong in what it denies. The Hekhalot literature, like all meditation traditions, is deeply rooted in exegesis of its native scriptures and mythologies, but it is also much concerned with spiritual ritual practices. For more on this and related issues, see my earlier posts here, here and here.

I am not a specialist on the Kabbalah, which is a much larger corpus than the Hekhalot literature, and I cannot speak to the balance in the Kabbalah between exegesis, mythology, and ritual praxis. It seems to vary a great deal from text to text and from author to author. Praxis seems especially important, for example, in the work of Abraham Abulafia. For past posts on the Zohar, the best-known and probably most influential Kabbalistic document, see here.

Revisionist Purim and the (traditional) Tomb of Esther

REVISIONIST PURIM IN IRAN:

Iran revises story of Esther, labels Purim a day of mourning

Monday, January 10, 2011 | Ryan Jones (Israel Today Magazine)

In a couple of months, Israelis and Jews around the world will celebrate Purim, marking the deliverance of the Jews of the Persian Empire from extinction 2,300 years ago. In Iran, the center of the ancient Persian Empire, the date will be marked with mourning and anger.

For years already, Iran has been teaching schoolchildren that Purim marks the massacre of 75,000 Persians by the Jews under the command of Queen Esther. It is presented today as an ancient Iranian holocaust perpetrated by the Jews.

The Iranian version leaves out the part where Haman, the royal advisor, convinces the Persian king to sign a decree permitting the wholesale slaughter the Jews of the empire. When Esther reveals her Jewish background to the king and reveals that Haman was tricking him, the king issues a second decree, allowing the Jews to defend themselves. By God’s grace, the Jews are largely spared, while their enemies are slaughtered.

This year, Iran may go further than simply revising the biblical account. Iranian authorities have decided to downgrade the status of the “Tomb of Esther and Mordechai the Jews” in the city of Hamadan in central Iran. The tomb had previously enjoyed that status of an official pilgrimage site.

Following the downgrading, the Iranian news agency Fars began pushing the idea that Esther and her uncle Mordechai were responsible for a massacre of Iranians, and that their burial place had merely been tolerated until now.

The Iranian news agency MEHR reported reported that a couple of weeks ago, a group of 250 militant Iranian students gathered at the tomb and threatened to tear it down.

I have mentioned the (traditional) tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Iran here and here. The story of Esther is a legend, and a pretty brutal one, but if the Iranians want to make something out of it, they should take it on its own terms. The Persians don't come out very well in that case. But everyone would be better off if we just take it as a story. And if we must find a moral to it, the lesson that small ethnic groups under threat in a larger nation have the right to protect themselves against persecution seems to fit.

Arutz Sheva has more on the threats to the shrine here. Excerpt:

According to the official Iranian news agency MEHR, a group of about 250 student-members of the Basij militia gathered in front of the tomb in December and threatened to tear it down The Basij members sent to threaten the landmark were students from Abu Ali Sina University. They said they were responding to alleged Israeli plans to damage the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem

"Muslims, be aware that [the Israelis] have started the destruction of Al-Aqsa mosque while their second sacred site in Iran, the Esther and Mordecai tomb, is at peace and no Muslims make a sound," the protesters stated. "We, the student basijis... warn Zionist regime leaders if they assault the Al-Aqsa mosque in any way we will destroy the tomb of these lowly murderers," they said.

If the Iranian government suddenly finds it politically expedient to tolerate, let alone encourage, threats to an historic shrine tied to a Jewish legend, it will only make itself look barbaric.

I was aware of these developments in Iran and I was sure I had noted this story before, but if I did, I can't find the post now. There is a somewhat related post here.

Noah's Ark shocker

NOAH'S ARK SHOCKER. You mean it was a hoax?

Background here.

News on 2nd-4th-century Christian manuscripts

LARRY HURTADO has posted a list of Christian Literary Texts in Manuscripts of Second & Third Centuries (pdf file) in the Essays section of his blog. It is an updated version of the list in his 2006 book. Many Jewish manuscripts are included as well. The list includes Old Testament and Apocrypha manuscripts; New Testament manuscripts; manuscripts of Philo, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, New Testament Apocrypha, Apostolic Fathers; and more.

Via Evangelical Textual Criticism.

And on a related note, from Unreported Heritage News:

A flax merchant from Egypt! Owner of 4th century New Testament papyrus identified

This papyrus contains the first seven verses of Paul's Letter to the Romans. Beneath the scripture a different author has scribbled in random phrases. It has been suggested that this papyrus may have been a writing exercise. New research has identified the owner of this document - a man named Aurelius Leonides.

Evidently this is the only ancient New Testament manuscript for which we have a named owner. And quite a bit of information about Aurelius Leonides survives.

Cyrus Cylinder to stay 3 more months in Iran

CYRUS CYLINDER UPDATE:

Cyrus Cylinder will stay in Iran for another three months
PostDateIcon Saturday, 08 January 2011 11:50 | PDF Print E-mail

By Shimon D. Cohen - CAIS

LONDON, (CAIS) -- Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation (ICHTO) has announced this morning, the Cyrus the Great Cylinder will remain in Iran for another three moths.

The priceless artefact was loaned by the British Museum to Iran on September 10, 2010 for a period of 4 months to be displayed on a special exhibition at the National Museum of Iran (NMI).

[...]

A statement from the British Museum is expected on Monday.

Background here.

Arbel and Orlov (eds.), With Letters of Light

IN THE MAIL:

Daphna V. Arbel and Andrei A. Orlov (eds.) With Letters of Light: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Jewish Apocalypticism, Magic, and Mysticism (Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011)

This is a Festschrift in honor of Rachel Elior. I have an article in it on "Scriptural Exegesis in the Treatise of the Vessels, a Legendary Account of the Hiding of the Temple Treasure." (More on The Treatise of the Vessels [Massekhet Kelim] here and follow the links. And, no, I haven't yet tracked down the whereabouts of that marble plaque.) I've had a chance to skim through the volume and it looks very good.

Review of Sacred Treasure

SACRED TREASURE, a new popular book on the Cairo Geniza by Mark Glickman, is reviewed in the Seattle Times:

'Sacred Treasure' tells engaging story of early Hebrew documents

Everybody knows about the Dead Sea Scrolls, but Seattle rabbi Mark Glickman tells the story of another treasure trove of early Hebrew documents from Egypt in his new book, "Sacred Treasure: The Cairo Genizah."

By Irene Wanner

Special to The Seattle Times

Seven Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 in a cave above the ancient desert outpost of Qumran, on the Dead Sea's West Bank. By 1956, more than 900 documents dating from 150 BCE to 70 CE had been found in 11 caves. Soon world famous, these copies of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts became a source of international contention. They were kept inaccessible for many years, then moved to the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem after the 1967 Six-Day War, and are now available for study there and digitally.

By contrast, the world's largest trove of 10th- to 13th-century documents from the Cairo genizah (storage room) of Ben Ezra Synagogue number in the hundreds of thousands. Until now, they attracted mainly scholarly attention. But as Seattle-area Rabbi Mark Glickman observes in his fascinating new book, "Sacred Treasure — The Cairo Genizah: The Amazing Discoveries of Forgotten Jewish History in an Egyptian Synagogue Attic" (Jewish Lights Publishing, 255 pp., $24.99), the potential knowledge in so many medieval texts is cultural wealth beyond compare. Anyone who loves reading mysteries and travel with a dash of archaeology and ancient history will find Glickman's tale both entertaining and educational.

[...]

Background here.

Brent Landau interviewed

BRENT LANDAU is interviewed by ksl.com about his book The Revelation of the Magi. Video and transcript here.

More reviews here.

Happy Orthodox Christmas

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to Orthodox Christians, who celebrate it today. And special good wishes to the Coptic Church, which like other Middle Eastern churches, has been subjected to horrific persecution by Islamists. The extremists managed to cancel Christmas in Iraq, so it is good to see that both Christians and Muslims are standing up to them in Egypt.

A modern Jewish mystic speaks

A MODERN JEWISH MYSTIC discusses his experiences in an article in The Foward:

The Problem of Spiritual Experience
Is Mysticism in the Mind of the Beholder?
By Jay Michaelson

The article is difficult to excerpt and is worth reading in full, but here are a few passages:

I’ve been thinking about these questions for quite a while. In college and grad school, I read hundreds of testimonies, tracts and accounts of mystic quests; accounts of visionary ascents, ecstatic unions and divine theophanies. Eventually, I moved beyond theory to try contemplative practice for myself.

What can I report? I can say, in my own limited experience, that if you do what some mystics and contemplatives say, you can experience the results they promise: dissolving of the sense of self; rapture in concentrated joy; feelings of immense bliss; and, for religious souls, a certainty that one is held and loved and engulfed by the Divine. And I think it is worth the effort.

Moreover, there is a sense of “presence” in these experiences that is more than a sensation of having one’s mind altered. Particularly in meditation, the mind feels perfectly clear, not swooning or drunken or seen through a soft cinematic lens. Yet with that clarity, a great love arises without any prodding or effort, and there is often an obvious certainty that the love is not just a personal wiggling of neurons but some openness to how things actually are. That’s the feeling, anyway.

[...]

Well, I was trained to be a skeptic. The process of education is fundamentally about acquiring the cognitive skills of doubt, especially in volatile contexts such as religion, and learning to take apart assumptions more critically and carefully. So I think it’s important, and possible, to be analytically rigorous about spiritual experience. Here are some ways to do it.

First, it is helpful to distinguish what we know from what we don’t. At the very least, since I have experienced what mystics have described, by following their recommendations, that means that if I’m deluded, generations of mystics are as well. It’s not just me, and it’s not new; it’s ancient, widespread and revered. Moreover, the mystics’ testimony is “expert” testimony. Contemplatives are precisely the people who have devoted the most attention to the mind and the spirit. I wonder what my Seder interlocutor, a dentist for 30 years, would’ve said if I had doubted the foundations of modern dentistry. Who are you inclined to believe more — the doubter who has never explored these pathways or millions of experts who spent their lives doing so?

[...]

A second useful analytical tool is to tease apart experience from interpretation. “I felt a great love” could be interpreted as “I felt the love of Hashem” or “I felt the love of Christ” — or just “I felt a great love.” And that depends not on the phenomenology of the experience but the conceptual frame in which it is understood. So as soon as one moves from experience to concepts, one is no longer entitled to the certainty of one’s spiritual perception.

[...]

And, finally, valuing spiritual experience without determining a set interpretive frame diminishes the allure of particularism. If we suppose that spirituality can prove the mythic assertions of the Bible, we are mistaken. Indeed, the universality of mystical experience is why contemplatives tend more to be universalists than do non-contemplatives. Though there may be phenomenological differences in different spiritual experiences, mysticism makes plain that, if religion is like a finger pointing to the moon, you can see the moon with any number of pointers, even those a particular tradition or text wants to suppress.

Again, read it all. For scholars studying ancient mysticism, the experience of the mystics is a black box. The experiences of modern mystics and intermediaries has the potential to give a peek into that black box and are worth listening to. Some related thoughts are here, here, and here.

UPDATE: Last link now corrected!

Obituaries for Shemaryahu Talmon

OBITUARIES FOR SHEMARYAHU TALMON have recently been published in the JTA Eulogizer column and (in Hebrew) in Haaretz.

Qumran Seminar in Paris

QUMRAN SEMINAR IN PARIS, program from Christophe Batsch:

SEMINAIRE QUMRAN DE PARIS
QUESTIONS ACTUELLES SUR LES MANUSCRITS DE LA MER MORTE

Fondateur : Francis SCHMIDT (Directeur d’études, EPHE)
Responsable : Christophe BATSCH (Université de Lille)

Programme 2010-2011

le mardi de 13h à 15h, salle Pierre-Jean Mariette
INHA : 2 rue Vivienne 75002 Paris
(métro : Bourse, Palais-Royal, Pyramides)

Mardi 7 décembre 2010 : Daniel STÖKL (CNRS), Les grottes et les
bibliothèques de Qumrân

Mardi 11 janvier 2011 : Maria GOREA (Paris VIII), Le targoum de Job

Mardi 8 février 2011 : Francis SCHMIDT (EPHE), Trois textes liturgiques : 4QOrdo (4Q334), 4QPrières du soir et du matin (4Q408), 4QPrières pour les fêtes (4Q507-509)

Mardi 8 mars 2011 : Arnaud SERANDOUR (EPHE), La Nouvelle Jérusalem de
Qumrân

Mardi 12 avril 2011 : Ursula SHATTNER (Catho Paris) et Jörg FREY
(Münich), Les 4QMystères

Mardi 10 mai 2011 : Hedwige ROUILLARD-BONRAISN (EPHE), Les pesharim
continus

Mardi 7 juin 2011 : Giuseppe PAPPALARDO (INFN, Italie), Études
archéométriques des manuscrits de la mer Morte au moyen de techniques nucléaires

I'm slightly behind on this one, but most of the papers are still to come.

SBL awards for junior scholars

SBL AWARDS for junior scholars:

January 4, 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS January 10 Deadline


Paul J. Achtemeier Award

The primary goal of the Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship is to stimulate the finest and most penetrating work in New Testament studies. In order to compete for the award a paper of publishable quality must be submitted. The paper must not have been previously published or accepted for publication. The awarded paper will be delivered at an SBL national or international meeting with a panel discussion. There is a $1,000.00 monetary award.

The award will be given to a member who has completed the doctorate and been in a teaching and/or research position for at least two (2) years and ordinarily no more than ten (10) years. A person may receive the award only one time. The nominee/applicant will submit a current academic CV and a paper, normally in English, and of no more than 10,000 words in PDF format. Applicants will submit all materials via electronic mail to AchtemeierAward@sbl-site.org.

Applicants should consult the SBL Handbook of Style for guidelines. The subject of the paper is open, but it must advance some dimension of New Testament scholarship. The paper will be evaluated within three categories:

1) persuasive thesis that engages the New Testament,
2) clarity of expression and thought,
3) originality and creativity.

The Achtemeier Award Committee for 2011 consists of Harold W. Attridge, Steven J. Friesen, and Marianne Meye Thompson.

The submission process and calendar is the following:

10 January 2011 Announcement of Intent to submit
1 March 2011 Submit all materials (make sure you receive a confirmation of receipt, if not, contact Sandra Stewart Kruger, sskruger@sbl-site.org immediately)
30 April 2011 Announcement of Awardee

David Noel Freedman Award

The David Noel Freedman Award for Excellence and Creativity in Hebrew Bible Scholarship is open for submissions.

Award
The $1,000 award will be given to an SBL member who submits a paper in Hebrew Bible scholarship. The paper must not have been published or accepted for publication. The awarded paper will be delivered at an SBL annual national or international meeting with a panel discussion.

SBL Members Eligible
The SBL member must have completed the doctorate and held a teaching or research position for a minimum of two (2) years and ordinarily no more than ten (10) years. A person may receive the award only one time.

Submission Requirements
There are two required steps in the process.
First, all intentions to submit a paper for the award must be sent to FreedmanAward@sbl-site.org no later than 10 January 2011. Please indicate in the subject line of all correspondence the last name of the applicant. All of the contact information for the individual should be included in the email. If the tentative title for a paper is available, please indicate it. Include a current copy of your academic CV in PDF format. Name the file with the first and last name of the applicant. Please be certain that the date of the CV is indicated.

Second, by 1 March 2011 the following materials must be attached to an email and submitted to FreedmanAward@sbl-site.org.

1. Update any items on the academic CV that was initially sent.
2. Paper of no more than 10,000 words (double spaced) including footnotes submitted in PDF format and attached to the email. Applicants should refer to the SBL Handbook of Style for guidelines. Do not include bibliographies. Please name the document with the last name of the person applying and the date submitted. Make sure you receive a confirmation of receipt, if not, contact Sandra Stewart Kruger, sskruger@sbl-site.org immediately.
3. A brief statement (no more than 100-250 words) regarding the way the paper advances Hebrew Bible scholarship.

Criteria
The paper will be evaluated on the basis of three criteria:
• a persuasive thesis that engages the Hebrew Bible;
• clarity of expression and thought; and
• originality and creativity.

Award Committee
The 2011 award committee is Susan Ackerman, Dartmouth College; Carol Meyers, Duke University, and William H. C. Propp, University of California San Diego.

Deadlines
10 January 2011 Nominations or intent to submit
1 March 2011 Submission of the materials required for consideration
30 April 2011 Announcement of Award

Museum exhibit: The Story of Iran and the Jews

MUSEUM EXHIBITION:

The story of Iran and the Jews, now on display in Israel

An exhibition devoted to the history, culture and contemporary life of Iranian Jewry opens at Beit Hatfutsot in Tel Aviv.

By Haaretz Service

An exhibition devoted to the history, culture and contemporary life of Iranian Jewry opened last week at Beit Hatfutsot in Tel Aviv, presenting the first in-depth and comprehensive view of Iranian Jewry through ancient artifacts found in the Persian country.

The story of Iran's ancient Jewish community unfolds over more than 2,700 years, back to when the Jews were exiled from Jerusalem through to today, after most members of Iran's Jewish community have relocated throughout the world. According to Professor David Yeroushalmi, a member of the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University and the exhibition's historical advisor, over 20,000 Jews still live in Iran today, most of them in Tehran.

Among the items exhibited are archeological artifacts, many on public display for the first time, a wide range of cultural artifacts, including ancient manuscripts, talismans, carpets and both secular and religious music.

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Arutz Sheva also has an article on the exhibition, with more pictures. I'm not sure how Haaretz calculates the Jewish exile to be more than 2700 years ago. (Arutz Sheva goes one better, with "more than three thousand years.") The Babylonian Exile happened in 587/586 BCE, which adds up to just a few years short of 2600 years ago. I'm not sure when a Jewish community was founded in Iran, but it was presumably after that.

The Garshuni script explained

THE GARSHUNI SCRIPT is explained by Dr. Adam McCollum in the HMML Chronicle:

Arabic in Syriac Script: Some Garšūnī Basics

This is the inaugural post in a series that will deal with manuscripts and the languages, literature, and history of Christianity in the Middle East. I serve as lead cataloger of Eastern Christian manuscripts at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML), Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota. HMML is a repository of microfilms and high-quality digital images of several thousands of manuscripts in—as far as Eastern Christianity is concerned—Arabic, Armenian, Syriac, and Ge`ez from collections in churches, monasteries, and libraries in Ethiopia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere in the Middle East, along with more in European languages from western collections. HMML has entered into agreements with the owners of these manuscripts 1. to preserve them against destruction, theft, etc., and 2. to make them more accessible for scholars to study.

In this first post, I’d like to talk briefly about an interesting phenomenon in Christian Arabic literature: Garšūnī, also known as Karšūnī (and in older publications even Carshun or Carshunic). Whatever it is called and however it is spelled, it refers to the writing of Arabic in Syriac letters. The earliest continuous examples of this kind of writing appear in the fourteenth century, but there are short notes and colophons dated before that time. It is, however, not a practice only of the past: HMML collections have a number of examples of Garšūnī from well into the 20th century.

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Via Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni on FB.

Much of this will be interesting to nonspecialists, although parts do get technical. Garshuni has been mentioned at PaleoJudaica here and here. The important work of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library has been noted here, with links to previous posts.

Review of Gambetti, The Alexandrian Riots of 38 C.E. and the Persecution of the Jews

BMCR BOOK REVIEW:

Sandra Gambetti, The Alexandrian Riots of 38 C.E. and the Persecution of the Jews: A Historical Reconstruction. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 135. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2009. Pp. viii, 336. ISBN 9789004138469. $169.00.

Reviewed by Torrey Seland, School of Mission & Theology, Norwa (torreys@gmail.com)

Preview

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The present study, dealing with the political problems of the Jews in the fourth decade CE, is one of the most interesting works published in this field in recent years. The monograph developed from a 2003 doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley, supervised by Erich Gruen. After a brief Introduction, the theses of the book are set forth in ten well-argued chapters, followed by a chapter of conclusions, and five appendices, an impressive bibliography, and indexes. The book challenges much of the received view concerning the Alexandrian riots in the thirties CE, and its theses will have to be addressed in future work.

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