What does "Lord of Hosts" mean?

PHILOLOGOS: Why Does the Hebrew Bible So Often Refer to God as "Lord of Hosts"? Host means army, but who were God’s armies? (Mosaic Magazine).

Past PaleoJudaica posts that deal with this expression are here (scroll down) and here.

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Eschner, Essen im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Essen im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum

Diskurse zur sozialen Bedeutung von Tischgemeinschaft, Speiseverboten und Reinheitsvorschriften

Series:
Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Volume: 108

Author: Christina Eschner

In Essen im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum untersucht Christina Eschner die Auseinandersetzungen zum jüdischen Gesetz innerhalb des Urchristentums vor dem Hintergrund vergleichbarer Diskurse im antiken Judentum. Ziel ist es, die urchristliche Praxis des Gesetzes in ihrem größeren Kontext darzustellen und ihr gegebenenfalls einen bestimmten Platz im facettenreichen Bild der zeitgenössischen jüdischen Strömungen zuzuweisen. Dabei finden Schriften aus Qumran, dem griechischsprachigen und dem rabbinischen Judentum Berücksichtigung. Der Fokus liegt auf Vorschriften zu verbotenen Speisen, zur Tischgemeinschaft und zur erlaubten Art und Weise der Nahrungsaufnahme. Auch pagane Traditionen werden einbezogen. Damit ist diese Studie besonders interdisziplinär ausgerichtet. Sie bewegt sich an der Schnittstelle zwischen Themenfeldern der neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft, der Altphilologie, der Alten Geschichte und der Judaistik. Sie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die urchristlichen Diskurse zum Essen nicht auf eine vollständige Abschaffung der entsprechenden jüdischen Gesetzesanordungen zielen.

In Essen im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum Christina Eschner examines the Early Christian disputes about the Jewish law against the background of Ancient Jewish discourses on commands of the law, in order to situate the Early Christian practice of the law within its broader context. Jewish sources include the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish writings in Greek and early rabbinic texts. This study focusses on rules concerning prohibited food, table fellowship and the permissible way of food intake. Pagan traditions are also considered. Thus, the work has an interdisciplinary orientation, discussing issues at the junction of New Testament studies, Classics, Ancient History and Jewish studies. It concludes that Early Christian food discourses do not aim for the complete abolition of the law.

Publication Date: 1 July 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-39190-1

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Tu B'Av 2019

THE FESTIVAL OF TU B'AV begins this evening at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating.

Tu B'Av (which just means the 15th day of the month of Av) is an ancient matchmaking festival. Its first mention is in the Mishnah (Ta’anit 4). It has been revived in recent years as a kind of Jewish Valentine's Day. For past posts on it, see here and links.

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Senate building excavated in Pelusium

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Ancient Senate Building Found in North Sinai. In the Roman provincial capital of ancient Pelusium (Jonathan Laden). As the essay notes, the Book of Ezekiel mentions the city of Pelusium.

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The Talmud and speech acts

LAST WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: THE RULES OF THE SWAP. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ drawing a distinction between what is permitted and what is legal.

But what if you consecrate one animal to the priests, and then decide you would rather keep it and give up a different animal in its stead? Maybe you want to keep a big, valuable sheep for yourself and give the priest a skinny one; or maybe the reverse is true, you want to make sure God gets the best animal possible. Is this kind of substitution allowed? Or is consecration a permanent state, so that once a specific animal is designated, it cannot be replaced by a different animal, even if the two are equivalent?

This turns out to be a more complicated question than it might seem, because the Torah seems to contradict itself. ...

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Star Trek and Rabbinics?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Using Star Trek to Teach Rabbinics (Rebecca Kamholz).
Good, creative pedagogy. I like it.

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Ancient synagogue mosaic in Greece on exhibit

DECORATIVE ART: RACE TO PRESERVE RARE MOSAIC OF ANCIENT GREEK SYNAGOGUE. A special exhibition of the 4th Century CE mosaic was opened last week on Aegina Island (Ilanit Chernick, Jerusalem Post).

In a press release, EcoWeek described the geometric mosaic floor as “the most rare and significant finding of Jewish archaeology discovered in Aegina Island in the 19th century. The mosaic is at a dangerous state of damage and neglect and requires urgent preservation and protection.”

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Gold jewelry found in Jerusalem's Babylonian destruction layer

ARCHAEOLOGY: Rare Jewel Found on Mt. Zion Reveals Babylonian Destruction of Jerusalem. First Temple-era Jerusalem was bigger than thought, archaeologists say, adding: ‘Nobody abandons golden jewelry and nobody has arrowheads in their domestic refuse’ (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz premium).

Cross-file under Ancient Bling.

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Review of Berman, Inconsistency in the Torah

REVIEWS OF BIBLICAL AND EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES:

2019.3.4 | Joshua A. Berman. Inconsistency in the Torah: Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 9780190658809.

Review by Lindsey A. Askin, University of Bristol.

Excerpt:

... We have always known the Pentateuch repeats itself but historically we have been less certain about why it does so. Berman’s Inconsistency in the Torah demonstrates that the repetition of incongruous laws and “unnecessary” repetitions have their own setting and context in the ancient traditions of common-law, an insight that should have reverberations in Pentateuchal criticism.

Earlier reviews of the book etc. are noted here and links.

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SOTS Book List 2019

IN THE MAIL:

John Jarick (ed.), Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2018 (= JSOT 43.5) (London: Sage, 2019).

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Tisha B'Av 2019

TISHA B'AV (THE NINTH OF AV) begins this evening at sundown. An easy fast to all those observing it.

The Ninth of Av is not specifically a biblical holy day. Rather, it commemorates a number of disasters that happened to the Jewish people, traditionally all on that same day. These include the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Babylonians, the destruction of the Herodian Temple by the Romans, and the fall of Betar during the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Last year's Tisha B'Av post is here with links.

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Louden, Greek Myth and the Bible

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Bruce Louden, Greek Myth and the Bible. Routledge monographs in classical studies. London; New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. viii, 241. ISBN 9781138328587. $140.00. Reviewed by James J. Clauss, University of Washington (jjc@uw.edu).

Bruce Louden makes his position on the relationship between Greek Myth and the Bible loud and clear, and it will doubtless take many by surprise: “Israel’s oral traditions and scribal culture were not only acquainted with but also influenced and shaped by ancient Greek culture” (p. 2). I will state up front that I am not ready to go as far as Louden wants to take us, but readers will see first-hand that behind the Biblical passages discussed lurk traditional tales from polytheistic cultures. And the connections he points out are many and truly astonishing.

[...]

Some of what this review reports of the book sounds like parallelomania to me. But I haven't read the book, so I shall try to keep an open mind. Perhaps I would find the full arguments more convincing.

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Scialabba, Creation and Salvation

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Daniela Scialabba. Creation and Salvation. Models of Relationship Between the God of Israel and the Nations in the Book of Jonah, in Psalm 33 (MT and LXX) and in the Novel »Joseph and Aseneth.« 2019. XIV, 354 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 106. 84,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-156261-7.

Published in English.
In recent decades, the debate on monotheism and religious pluralism has been strongly influenced by the idea that monotheism originating in the Old Testament is the root of intolerance and violence. In this study, Daniela Scialabba investigates inclusive tendencies in Old Testament monotheism, in particular theological principles motivating and supporting the possibility of a positive relationship between non-Israelites and the God of Israel. Thus, she examines three texts thoroughly: the Book of Jonah, Psalm 33 (MT and LXX), and the novel »Joseph and Aseneth«. Despite their difference concerning genre, date of origin and provenance, these texts have important ideas in common: the relationship between the God of Israel and non-Israelites as well as the concept of God as a universal creator who has pity with all his creatures.

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On the Geonim

MICHAEL SATLOW: The Geonim: An Introduction. The Geonim were "the rabbis who lived at the very end of the Talmudic period and the shift to the Middle Ages." Professor Satlow now has a video series on them.

Some related PaleoJudaica posts are here and links.

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Schwartz, Rewriting the Talmud

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:Marcus Mordecai Schwartz. Rewriting the Talmud. The Fourth Century Origins of Bavil Rosh Hashanah. 2019. XI, 151 pages. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 175. 99,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-154123-0.

Published in English.
In this study, Marcus Mordecai Schwartz argues that there were two distinct periods in which traditions from Rabbinic Palestine exerted their influence upon extended passages of B. Rosh Hashanah. This doubling of influence resulted in a Babylonian-born text with two distinct Palestinian ancestries. This oddly mixed parentage was responsible for Bavli texts that both resemble synoptic passages in the Yerusalmi and differ from them in substantial ways. The main project of this book is to trace the dynamics of this doubled Palestinian influence and to account for the mark it left on passages of B. Rosh Hashanah.

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Dibon-Gad or Dibon and Gad?

PROF YIGAL LEVINE: Dibon-Gad: Between the Torah and the Mesha Stele (TheTorah.com).

In the southern Transjordanian Mishor (plateau), an area that changed hands between Israelites and Moabites, there once lived two neighboring tribes, Gadites and Dibonites…

For many past posts on the Mesha Stele, start here and follow the links.

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The Shekel (journal)

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal: The Shekel. Includes many articles on ancient Jewish coins. Cross-file under Numismatics.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Josephus on Phinehas

DR. YONATAN MILLER: Sedition at Moab: Josephus’ Reading of the Phinehas Story (TheTorah.com).

The Torah describes Phinehas as a zealot, who kills Zimri in an act of vigilante fervor, and is rewarded by God with eternal priesthood. Anticipating the rabbis’ discomfort with Phinehas’ vigilantism, Josephus transforms Phinehas into a military general and Zimri’s sin into a dangerous sedition requiring a military response.

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New translations of NT Apocrypha

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Years in the Making: The Debut of NASSCAL’s Early Christian Apocrypha Series (Tony Burke, Apocryphicity Blog).

The North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL) is celebrating the release of the first two volumes in their Early Christian Apocrypha series: The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary, by Brandon W. Hawk, and The Protevangelium of James, by Lily C. Vuong. To be clear, the two books are numbered volumes 7 and 8 because NASSCAL is continuing a series that was begun by Julian V. Hills, who edited six volumes of texts for Polebridge Press.

[...]

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Review of Dhont, Style and Context of Old Greek Job

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Marieke Dhont, Style and Context of Old Greek Job. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 183. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. Pp. 410. ISBN 9789004358485. €138,00. Reviewed by Patrick Pouchelle, Centre Sèvres (patrick.pouchelle@gmail.com).

This excellent book offers clear and nuanced conclusions. The application of PST to the OG of Job is productive, as it asks one to consider the OG of Job for itself. The recent renewal of the studies of the Septuagint follows two different paths: treating it as the Old Testament of early Christianity, or as the product of a Greek-Hebrew Jewish translator. This last approach produced the interlinear paradigm in which the LXX is understood as a resource intended to be read alongside its Hebrew original. The PST offers another approach. As a cultural artefact of the Greek-speaking Jewish world, the OG of Job should be studied not against the Hebrew source text, but against the literature of the Greek Jewish communities. ...

I noted the publication of the book last year.

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