Halbertal, ... Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS;

The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature
Moshe Halbertal

$20.30 – $57.40

Series: Brown Judaic Studies
Volume: 366

Publisher: Brown Judaic Studies
Publication Date: 2020
ISBN: 9781951498757

Description

In the history of halakhah, the treatment of uncertainty became one of the most complex fields of intense study. In his latest book, Moshe Halbertal focuses on examining the point of origin of the study of uncertainty in early rabbinic literature, including the Mishnah, Tosefta, and halakhic midrashim. Halbertal explores instructions concerning how to behave in situations of uncertainty ranging from matters of ritual purity, to lineage and marriage, to monetary law, and to the laws of forbidden foods. This examination of the rules of uncertainty reveals that these rules were not aimed at avoiding but rather at dwelling in the midst of uncertainty.

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Putthoff, Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near East

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near East

AUTHOR: Tyson L. Putthoff, University of Oklahoma
DATE PUBLISHED: November 2020
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108490542

$ 99.99 (C)
Hardback

Description

In this book, Tyson Putthoff explores the relationship between gods and humans, and between divine nature and human nature, in the Ancient Near East. In this world, gods lived among humans. The two groups shared the world with one another, each playing a special role in maintaining order in the cosmos. Humans also shared aspects of a godlike nature. Even in their natural condition, humans enjoyed a taste of the divine state. Indeed, gods not only lived among humans, but also they lived inside them, taking up residence in the physical body. As such, human nature was actually a composite of humanity and divinity. Putthoff offers new insights into the ancients' understanding of humanity's relationship with the gods, providing a comparative study of this phenomenon from the third millennium BCE to the first century CE.

• Explores multiple Ancient Near Eastern views on divine aspects of human in a single volume in a way that no other work has done
• Introduces each region of the Ancient Near East in a way that allows non-specialists and specialists alike to engage with the material in each chapter
• Will appeal to scholars and students interested in the history, philosophy, theology and anthropology of the Near Eastern or biblical world

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Muraoka, A Biblical Aramaic Reader (2nd, revised edition)

NEW BOOK EDITION FROM PEETERS:

A Biblical Aramaic Reader
With an Outline Grammar. Second, Revised Edition

AUTHOR:
Muraoka T.

YEAR: 2020
ISBN: 9789042943971
E-ISBN: 9789042943988
PAGES: X-85 p.
PRICE: 19 euro

SUMMARY:
This reader is for anyone very eager to read the story of Daniel in the lions' den and many other fascinating stories in their original language, Aramaic.

A brief outline of Biblical Aramaic grammar is followed by a verse-to-verse grammatical commentary on the Aramaic chapters in the books of Daniel and Ezra. Both the outline grammar and the grammatical commentary presuppose basic knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew. Constant references are made in the commentary to relevant sections of the outline grammar. The commentary is written in a user-friendly, not overtly technical language. Some grammatical exercises with keys and paradigms conclude the Reader. Also suitable for self-study.

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A visit to Khirbet Qumran

TRAVEL: A visit to the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What is it like to see the site where the Qumran Scrolls were found in 1946? (MEITAL SHARABI, Jerusalem Post).

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How are Kanye West and King Nebuchadnezzar alike?

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Nebuchadnezzar Explained: Warrior King, Rebuilder of Cities, and Musical Muse (Louise Pryke).

Kanye West’s first operatic work, Nebuchadnezzar, has just premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Set in the 6th century BCE, the opera is based on the biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar II, a powerful ruler and the longest-reigning king of Babylon.

[...]

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A magic gold bead from the Temple Mount?

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: FIND AND FINDER OF THE MONTH: A RARE GOLD BEAD FROM THE FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD. Found by a nine-year-old sifter working in archaeologist Gaby Barkay's back yard. Scroll all the way to the end of the post for good photos.

The object may have been part of an apotropaic warding artifact or a priestly ornament or both.

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Review of Fishbane, The Art of Mystical Narrative

H-NET (H-JUDAIC) REVIEW:

Eitan P. Fishbane. The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. xiii + 520 pp. $125.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-19-994863-5.

Reviewed by Mark Verman (Wright State University)

Published on H-Judaic (November, 2020)

Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz (Jagiellonian University)

This is a long and fascinating review of what sounds like a fascinating book. The review itself amounts to an introduction to the Zohar and its back story.

UPDATE: Cross-file under Zohar Watch. For many posts on the Zohar, start here and follow the links.

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Bellmann, ... An Analysis of the Five Versions of the Book of Esther (German)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Simon Bellmann
Politische Theologie im frühen Judentum
Political Theology in Early Judaism: An Analysis of the Five Versions of the Book of Esther
Eine Analyse der fünf Versionen des Estherbuches

Series: Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 525
De Gruyter | 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674514

OVERVIEW

Each of the five versions of the story of Esther appeared as a separate attempt at early Jewish identity formation in the period between the 4th century BCE and the end of the 1st century CE. This study makes a major contribution to scholarship, especially with regard to the Old Latin version of the Book of Esther, published in an appendix for the first time in German translation.

FORMATS

Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-11-067446-0
Published: 09 Nov 2020

PDF ISBN: 978-3-11-067451-4
Published: 09 Nov 2020

EPUB
ISBN: 978-3-11-067455-2
Published: 09 Nov 2020

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Thanksgiving 2020

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my American readers and to anyone else who is celebrating!

This is a working day in the U.K., so normally I would be in my office. But today I am working at home for the 2020 pandemic edition.

Be thankful, have a great day, and stay safe!

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Teleportation archaeology?

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: How are archaeologists using hi-tech during the coronavirus era? Archaeologists from Haifa and San Diego had to get creative to work on their collaborative excavation without actually travelling due to quarantines (Hannah Brown, Jerusalem Post).

So they were able to work around the disadvantages of the virus restrictions using photogrammetry, where photography and technology create 3D models in a lab. The Israeli divers would record all they did with GoPro cameras and would scan the artifacts they collected at the end of each day and then send these scans to San Diego. The researchers there would then create the objects in the lab, using 3D printers.

“When they take artifacts back to the university, they scan them, send us the objects, and we can just print the object. What’s cool is that I get the object here printed in 3D, so I can hold it in my hands,” said Levy. “Even a 3D image in virtual reality is not the same as holding it in your hand.”

Beam me up, Scotty!

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Where did the Levitical choir sing?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Music in the Temple. The Location of the Music Chamber in the Court of the Women (Leen Ritmeyer). This post is the follow-up to one noted here.

Cross-file under Ancient Architecture.

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Scroll reconstruction again

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Puzzling Limits of Models. An analysis suggests an established technique used on the Dead Sea Scrolls is not as reliable as previously thought (Jonathan Laden). Models are useful, but should be used with caution. Map is not territory.

Background here.

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Finitsis (ed.), Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible

RECENT BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible
“For All Her Household Are Clothed in Crimson”

Editor(s): Antonios Finitsis

Published: 08-08-2019
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 208
ISBN: 9780567686404
Imprint: T&T Clark
Series: The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
Volume: 679
Illustrations: 8 bw illus
Dimensions: 6 1/8" x 9 1/4"
List price: $114.00
Online price: $79.80
Save $34.20 (30%)

About Dress and Clothing in the Hebrew Bible

Built upon the flourishing study of costume, this book analyses sartorial evidence provided both by texts of the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible. The essays within lend clarity to the link between material and ideological, examining the tradition of dress, the different types of literature that reference the tradition of garments, and the people for whom such literature was written.

The contributors explore sources that illuminate the social, psychological, aesthetic, ideological and symbolic meanings of clothing. The topics covered range from the relationship between clothing, kingship and power, to the symbolic significance of the high priestly regalia and the concept of garments as deception and defiance, while also considering the tendency to omit or ignore descriptions of YHWH's clothing. Following a historical sequence, the essays cross-reference with each other to create a milestone in biblical sartorial study.

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Independent Isaac assimilated to Abraham?

DR. RABBI DAVID FRANKEL: Isaac before He Was Abraham’s Son (TheTorah.com).

Abraham and Isaac each dig a well in Beersheba and make a treaty with King Abimelech. Which story came first?

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Review of Biblia Sacra vulgata: Lateinisch-deutsch (5 vols.)

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Hieronymus. Biblia Sacra vulgata: Lateinisch-deutsch.

Andreas Beriger, Widu-Wolfgang Ehlers, Hieronymus. Biblia Sacra vulgata: Lateinisch-deutsch Band 1, Genesis - Exodus - Leviticus - Numeri - Deuteronomium. Sammlung Tusculum. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. Pp. 889. ISBN 9783110440447

Plus four more volumes covering the rest of the Latin Vulgate.

Review by
Matthew Kraus, University of Cincinnati. krausma@ucmail.uc.edu

Not surprisingly, the review is long and thorough. Here's a brief excerpt:

The Vulgata Verein has produced a fine German translation that enables readers to encounter a 4th/5th CE century translator. Despite its limitations, the work demonstrates the need for this kind of close reading of the Latin Bible and will hopefully spawn more monographs and commentaries. This new German translation along with its various annotations advances the study of the Vulgate and Jerome as products and producers of Late Antique society.

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Gold-water, poop-bread, cake-concentrate, and more!

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible (David Moster). Ranging from Sublime to Amazing to "What?" to "Yuck!" to Horrifying.

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Perrin & Stuckenbruck (eds.), Four Kingdom Motifs ...

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Four Kingdom Motifs before and beyond the Book of Daniel

Series: Themes in Biblical Narrative, Volume: 28

Volume Editors: Andrew Perrin and Loren T. Stuckenbruck

The four kingdoms motif enabled writers of various cultures, times, and places, to periodize history as the staged succession of empires barrelling towards an utopian age. The motif provided order to lived experiences under empire (the present), in view of ancestral traditions and cultural heritage (the past), and inspired outlooks assuring hope, deliverance, and restoration (the future). Four Kingdom Motifs before and beyond the Book of Daniel includes thirteen essays that explore the reach and redeployment of the motif in classical and ancient Near Eastern writings, Jewish and Christian scriptures, texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls, Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, depictions in European architecture and cartography, as well as patristic, rabbinic, Islamic, and African writings from antiquity through the Mediaeval eras.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €163.00 / $196.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-44328-0
Publication Date: 23 Nov 2020

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-44279-5
Publication Date: 26 Nov 2020

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More on Hegra and the Nabateans

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: HEGRA, AN ANCIENT CITY IN SAUDI ARABIA UNTOUCHED FOR MILLENNIA, MAKES ITS PUBLIC DEBUT. The archaeological site, now open to tourists, offers clues about the mysterious empire that built it and its more famous sister city of Petra in Jordan (LAUREN KEITH, Smithsonian Magazine).

Once a thriving international trade hub, the archeological site of Hegra (also known as Madain Saleh) has been left practically undisturbed for almost 2,000 years. But now for the first time, Saudi Arabia has opened the site to tourists. Astute visitors will notice that the rock-cut constructions at Hegra look similar to its more famous sister site of Petra, a few hundred miles to the north in Jordan. Hegra was the second city of the Nabataean kingdom, but Hegra does much more than simply play second fiddle to Petra: it could hold the key to unlocking the secrets of an almost-forgotten ancient civilization.

A long, informative, and well illustrated article on one of the most important archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia. It is a major source of information on the ancient Nabateans, still relatively untapped. The Nabateans spoke Arabic, but wrote in Aramaic for commercial, government, and diplomatic purposes.

PaleoJudaica posts on Hegra (Madain Saleh), "Saudi Arabia's answer to Petra," are collected here. For many posts on Petra and the Nabateans and their language, see here and links (cf. here).

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Maiden, Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion
New Perspectives on Texts, Artifacts, and Culture

Part of Society for Old Testament Study Monographs

AUTHOR: Brett E. Maiden, Emory University, Atlanta
DATE PUBLISHED: October 2020
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108487788

$ 99.99 (C) Hardback

Description

In this book, Brett Maiden employs the tools, research, and theories from the cognitive science of religion to explore religious thought and behavior in ancient Israel. His study focuses on a key set of distinctions between intuitive and reflective types of cognitive processing, implicit and explicit concepts, and cognitively optimal and costly religious traditions. Through a series of case studies, Maiden examines a range of topics including popular and official religion, Deuteronomic theology, hybrid monsters in ancient iconography, divine cult statues in ancient Mesopotamia and the biblical idol polemics, and the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16. The range of media, including ancient texts, art, and archaeological data from ancient Israel, as well theoretical perspectives demonstrates how a dialogue between biblical scholars and cognitive researchers can be fostered.

• Offers an accessible introduction to the current state of the cognitive study of religion, especially for biblical scholars and historians of religion
• Provides theoretical discussion and concrete examples, in the form of case studies, of interdisciplinary scholarship in action
• Examines different interrelated topics in the study Israelite religion, including theoretical, artistic, and textual

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The house that Jesus grew up in?

'TIS THE SEASON, ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE EDITION: Is this the childhood home of Jesus Christ? British archaeologist excavates domestic dwelling under ruins of the Sisters of Nazareth Convent (Jonathan Chadwic, Daily Mail).

It could be. I noted the story here back in 2015. I was skeptical then and remain so today. It is clear that when a church was built over the site in the fourth century, there was a tradition that this was Jesus' house. But a lot of legends can start up in two or three hundred years.

Professor Dark has done much good archaeological work on ancient Nazareth, as I have noted here and links. I doubt that we will ever know if he is right on this specific point. But who knows? Conclusive proof might show up someday.

Whatever the merits of the claim, this article has many good photos of the site.

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