More McGrath on the Mandaeans

JAMES MCGRATH is an ever-flowing font of resources for Mandaean (Mandean) studies. His latest: Mandaean Resources Online.

Apocryphicity latest

TONY BURKE has some good new posts over at Apocryphicity.

First, more supplements to Secret Scriptures Revealed:

More Secret Scriptures 5: Pseudo-Memoirs of the Apostles.

More Secret Scriptures 6: The Preaching of Simon Cephas in the City of Rome.

The earlier posts in the series are noted here.

Second, Tony has been posting profiles of speakers for his upcoming conference “Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha in North American Perspectives” (September 26–28, 2013).

2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Brent Landau.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Lee McDonald.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Lorenzo DiTommaso.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Stephen Shoemaker.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: F. Stanley Jones.

The BNTC begins

THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE begins today in St. Andrews, with registration opening this afternoon. Welcome to the 150 delegates arriving from all over Britain, and in a few cases, farther afield!

Petra Papyri II

NEW BOOK FROM ACOR: L. Koenen, J. Kaimio, M. Kaimio, R. W. Daniel edd., Petra Papyri II (P.Petra II) (G.W. Schwendner, What's New in Papyrology). Another important documentary text from late antiquity. One more volume to go and the series will be complete.

Goff, 4QInstruction

NEW BOOK, JUST OUT FROM THE SBL:

Matthew J. Goff, 4QInstruction (22 August, 2013)

Schiffman on studying the DSS

LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN: How to Study a Dead Sea Scrolls Text. This is an article from Bible History Daily, but it was originally a series of recent posts on his blog which I had not yet noted.

Another grant for the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PERSEPOLIS FORTIFICATION ARCHIVE PROJECT, which has just received a $30,000 grant for its work: Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute grant to the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project.

Background on the project and the international legal controversy over the archive is here with many links.

Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch."

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics

NOW PUBLISHED IN HARD COPY BY BRILL:

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (4 Vols.)

General Editor: Geoffrey Khan Associate Editors: Shmuel Bolozky, Steven E. Fassberg, Gary A. Rendsburg, Aaron D. Rubin, Ora R. Schwarzwald, Tamar Zewi Advisory Board: Moshe Bar-Asher, Aharon Maman, Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé, Yael Reshef

The Hebrew language has one of the longest attested histories of any of the world’s languages, with records of its use from antiquity until modern times. Although it ceased to be a spoken language by the 2nd century C.E., Hebrew continued to be used and to develop in the form of a literary and liturgical language until its revival as a vernacular in the 20th century.
In a four volume set, complete with index, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day. The encyclopedia contains overview articles that provide a readable synopsis of current knowledge of the major periods and varieties of the Hebrew language as well as thematically-organized entries which provide further information on individual topics, such as the Hebrew of various sources (texts, manuscripts, inscriptions, reading traditions), major grammatical features (phonology, morphology, and syntax), lexicon, script and paleography, theoretical linguistic approaches, and so forth. With over 950 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.

There is an online version as well.

Noted as forthcoming here.

More on Shenoute

PHILIP JENKINS has two more posts on the ancient Egyptian monastic leader Shenoute: SHENOUTE’S WARS and SHENOUTE AND THE GNOSTICS. From the latter:

Shenoute wrote against both Origenists and Gnostics, and (not surprisingly, being Shenoute) he also undertook direct action. One of his campaigns, against the temple of Pneuit near Akhmim, around 412, was probably directed against still-surviving Sethian Gnostics. He particularly wanted to seize their “books full of abominations” – presumably, a collection very much like what was found at Nag Hammadi in modern times.

[...]

We can understand why Shenoute was hunting for Gnostic books. But the more interesting question might be, why were other monks likely using them? Did they still value them for their religious truth? Or were they mining them for evidence to denounce heresy? Scholars have debated this for years. Increasingly, I think these were books that monks themselves were reading for enlightenment and spiritual revelation, or at least had at some stage in their institutional development.

Background here.

Ugaritic

PHILOLOGOS in The Forward: Cracking the Ugaritic Code: Hebrew and Sister Tongue Grew From Ancient Semitic Language.

The treatment is pretty accurate, but a few comments are in order. First, it is not quite true that the Ugaritic alphabet does not indicate vowels at all. The letter Aleph comes in three forms, each of which attaches a different vowel to the consonant (a, i, or u). Second, it is not clear to me that Yamm or Sea is the same being as Lotan/Leviathan. Yamm is the god of the sea, whereas Leviathan is a sea monster. Third, it should be noted that the Ugaritic phrase quoted in the article appears in Hebrew in almost the same consonantal form in Isaiah 27:1. Finally, Ugaritic does "predate" Hebrew in the sense that it is older than the Hebrew we have in the Hebrew Bible, which (possibly with a rare earlier exception here or there) dates to the Iron Age II (c. 1000-586/7 BCE) and later. But Philologos is correct that Hebrew does not descend from Ugaritic; they are independent branches of Northwest Semitic. Still, whatever ancestor of Hebrew existed in the time of Ugaritic would be rather different from the Hebrew we know from the Bible and it would be a stretch to call it "Hebrew."

Job in Classical Judaism

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON - SEATTLE: Call for Applications: Assistant Professor in Classical Judaism.

The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in classical Judaism. Possible areas of specialization include rabbinics, medieval commentarial literature, medieval philosophy, Jewish mysticism or Jewish law. The ideal candidate will study the Jewish religious and textual tradition within a broader cultural and comparative context. We expect this hire to play an integral role in the Samuel and Althea Stroum Jewish Studies Program, a nationally renowned program whose mission includes community engagement, outstanding scholarship, and exploring the integration of Jewish Studies and digital technologies. In addition, the successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the Comparative Religion program and to the interdisciplinary curriculum of the Jackson School.

Follow the link for details.

HT Carla Sulzbach on Facebook.

Review of Lapin, Rabbis as Romans

MARGINALIA: Ishay Rosen-Zvi on Rabbis as Romans, by Hayim Lapin: In what sense were the rabbis Roman?.

In 2012 I noted the book as forthcoming here.

The Israel Forgery Trial aftermath continues

THE LATEST NEWS arising from the Israel Forgery Trial has been out for a while and I'm just catching up. This Fox News article by Sasha Bogursky seems to cover the basics: Forgery of the century? Israel in decade-long war over biblical artifacts. The key point of interest is this:

The state now maintains that the inscription on the limestone box and the tablet are forged -- but the stones themselves are ancient and therefore belong to the state.

For its part, the IAA declined to comment after several days of repeated efforts by FoxNews.com.

"The IAA does not give interviews on that issue," the agency said.

I think the text of the Joash Inscription (Jehoash Inscription) is a modern fake, for reasons given quite a while ago here. I have the impression that at least most philologists agree on this. More to the point, I am still unaware of any peer-review publication that has argued for the authenticity of the Joash inscription or the full text of the James Ossuary inscription (see below), although I haven't been following the discussion closely and it's possible I have missed something. I am unqualified to have any opinion on whether the stone on which the Joash inscription is written is "ancient" (presumably meaning it is an ancient human-produced artifact, since stones by nature are pretty old). The James Ossuary itself is an ancient artifact, but there is a great deal of debate on whether all or part of the inscription is a modern (or at least later than first century) forgery.

Background on the Israel Forgery Trial is here with many, many links.

Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

THE ETHIOPIAN TRADITION that the Ark of the Covenant is kept in a special sanctuary in Aksum is explored by Paul Raffaele for The Smithsonian: Keepers of the Lost Ark? Christians in Ethiopia have long claimed to have the ark of the covenant. Our reporter investigated. He got to see the guardian of the Ark, but alas, not the Ark itself.

This is one of a number of less than convincing claims to account for the whereabouts (or at least fate) of the Ark of the Covenant, about which PaleoJudaica has posted many times. Start here and follow the many links back.

The DSS in the Netherlands

A DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION is being run by Kossmann.dejong in Assen, the Netherlands: Kossmann.dejong: An Exhibition Takes Visitors 2000 Years Back in Time.

HT Mladen Popovic.

BNTC update

THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE meets here in St. Andrews starting a week from tomorrow (29-31 August). For those attending, the conference program and some travel advice have been posted on the website. Just follow the link and scroll down to "Conference Details."

Local Jewish customs, plus miracles, in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Good Jewish Fences Once Made Good Jewish Neighbors. Do They Still? One of many ancient local customs analyzed in this week’s Talmud study is the habit of separating Jews from gentiles. Excerpt:

I wonder, however, whether the rabbis were also motivated by their general tendency to discourage Jews from mingling too much with non-Jews. In Tractate Eruvin, we saw how the rabbis strongly advised a Jew not to live on his own in a non-Jewish neighborhood, lest he end up getting murdered. In an age when the non-Jew was seldom encountered except as an enemy, the rabbis may have thought it wiser for Jews not to do any business with their non-Jewish neighbors. Happily, I learned from the Schottenstein Talmud’s notes that this ban, like many Talmudic provisions, is no longer in force; so if you have an ox to sell, feel free to put it on Craigslist.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Textus archive

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY now has a full archive online of the textual criticism journal Textus: Studies of the Hebrew University Bible Project.

Mystery word solved in the Apostrophe to Zion?

IT'S NICE when philology gets some attention from the media: Baffling Dead Sea Scrolls text gets new interpretation. A single phrase in the Psalms Scroll bewildered scholars for decades. Then two students had an epiphany. (Ran Shapira, Haaretz). Excerpt:

The verse with the word titbaech appears in a poem called (in English at least) “Apostrophe to Zion” — which appears in the so-called “Psalms Scroll”, together with other poems very much like the biblical Psalms.

Most of the Psalms Scroll had been satisfactorily deciphered and published in distinguished scientific journals. But the mystery verse with titbaech remained obscure.

There were interpretations, to be sure. They just didn’t make much sense.

And then Hanan Ariel and Alexey Yuditsky, doctoral students working on a project at the Hebrew Language Academy, had an epiphany.

[...]

Meanwhile, Ariel and Yuditsky realized - in Arabic, which is as close to Hebrew as say French is to English – the root taph-bet-ayin means “to go after,” “follow,” “overtake.”

Aha, thought the students: what if the mystery verb titbaech bore a rare meaning, not commonly known – not “seek” or “demand,” but “follow,” overtake”?

It's an interesting proposal, but I have reservations about new meanings derived primarily from Arabic cognates. When you start looking for cognates for a Hebrew word in Lane's Arabic English Lexicon, you tend to find a lot of them, and with a wide range of meanings. I wouldn't bet too heavily on any one of them unless there is substantial additional supporting evidence. Perhaps there is here, but we should wait for a full peer-review publication to evaluate the argument fully.

Meanwhile though, as I said, it's nice to find a user-friendly media discussion of a technical philological proposal.

Review of Labendz, Socratic Torah

MARGINALIA: Eva Kiesele on Socratic Torah, by Jenny Labendz: Plato, Bakhtin, and the Rabbis meet again.