This is a good list. You will find PaleoJudaica posts on most of the sites (see the search engine).
I didn't know about the "Finger of Og" (the giant). Cool. For posts on Og, see here and links, plus here, here, and here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
It appears to be open access: The Past Decade in Septuagint Research (2012–2021) (William A. Ross, Currents in Biblical Research 21 [2022]).
Abstract
This article overviews the very active past decade in the discipline of Septuagint scholarship, including publications dating from the beginning of 2012 through the end of 2021. It organizes and discusses this activity within numerous categories, beginning with a brief overview of previous disciplinary surveys before moving on to the many new publications that have appeared, including primary texts, commentaries, general introductions, handbooks and companions, and reference works. Further sections give attention to important trends and publications in the main disciplinary journal, as well as in the major conference volumes and series. The second half of the article gives attention to several important areas of development and debate in the discipline, with attention to how it has developed globally over the last ten years. In the course of this discussion, this article, while not exhaustive in scope or coverage, also contributes to the tradition within modern Septuagint scholarship of compiling a bibliography of scholarly publications in the discipline.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Of course, if the question is “could these restorations be correct?,” the answer is yes. But there is a vast difference between suggesting something is “possible” and suggesting it is “probable,” “compelling,” or “certain.” Someone might say, “well, is it plausible?” The answer to that may be yes as well. But there is also a lot of distance between something being “plausible” and something being probable, compelling, or certain.Background here.
And while we're on the subject, Bible History Daily has republished a 2009 BAR article on the fragment by Hershel Shanks, originally published when it was first announced: Hezekiah’s Monumental Inscription? Revisiting an inscription from the pages of BAR.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Memory in a Time of Prose: Studies in Epistemology, Hebrew Scribalism, and the Biblical Past by Daniel D. Pioske. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.... In this tight, readable book, Pioske weaves together related but distinct studies of scribalism and memory with newly discovered material evidence to give a useful insight into the study of early biblical narratives. ...
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The Cave of Letters is quite literally a cave of secrets. Rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1960s, its contents told of uprisings as well as everyday life in ancient Israel.This essay ably demonstrates the importance of the Cave of Letters for ancient Jewish history. But I am still going with Qumran Cave 4 as the most important.What at first appeared to be an unassuming cave located in a cliff face in the Judean desert actually turned out to be a perfectly preserved time capsule, full of letters and documents from the 1st and 2nd centuries. Archaeologists have worked hard to pick apart these letters and the other items found in the cave in order to understand who used the cave and why.
[...]
For PaleoJudaica posts on Richard Freund's work on the Cave of Letters, see here, here, here, and here. For some posts on the Babatha archive, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. And for more on the Cave of Letters, see here and links.
For additional posts on the Bar Kokhba Revolt and the texts and artifacts (mostly coins) associated with it, follow the links collected here, and see also here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
A new multi-faceted project by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies introduces the Samaritans to a wide and varied audience, and explores how they have managed to survive for millennia despite efforts by conquering powers to erase them. Crucially, the project asks how the Samaritans plan to continue to survive into the future when today they number a mere 862. ...For more on the project and its various elements, see here and links.The Samaritans Project features a book of academic essays, a full-length documentary film, and an exhibition at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. All three share the same title: “The Samaritans: A Biblical People.” A Samaritan cookbook and artworks created through a collaboration with the Jewish Art Salon are also part of the project.
Cross-file under Cinema.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Found in 2017 in the biblical city of Lachish, the artifact joins the pantheon of ancient combs assumed to be for lice that have been found up and down the Holy Land. But this one is different.The object was found in a scientific excavation. And epigrapher Christopher Rollston says the inscription is real. It looks like this is the real deal.This one bears the earliest sentence ever found in Israel, seven words in the world’s first alphabet, archaic proto-Canaanite: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”
This is an important discovery. Also, Eww.
UPDATE: Amanda Borschel-Dan has a characteristically thorough article on the comb and inscription: Ivory lice comb – a dating head-scratcher – may hold earliest Canaanite sentence. With a paucity of contemporary Bronze Age examples for comparison, scholars believe relatable 7-word inscription is first recorded complete proto-Canaanite sentence in Holy Land (Times of Israel).
Among the extras in the article is the story of how "the world has a camera thief to thank for this discovery" (of the inscription).
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Archeologists in Egypt have uncovered a vast underground tunnel near the city of Alexandria, and hope it may lead them to the long-lost tomb of Egypt’s last pharaoh and possibly its most famous ruler, Queen Cleopatra VII.This sounds like the logline for a new Mummy movie.
Be that as it may, I hope something interesting comes of the the discovery. Presumably the tunnel was built to lead to something.
For PaleoJudaica posts on Queen Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra) and on the excavation at Taposiris Magna, start here and follow the links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Rodney A. Whitacre, A grammar of New Testament Greek. Eerdmans language resources. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2021. Pp. 522. ISBN 9780802879271 $49.99.Review by
Erich Merkel, University of Virginia. em7ec@virginia.eduIt is worth emphasizing at the beginning what this book is not. It is not, on the one hand, an exhaustive reference grammar of Koine Greek. Nor, on the other, is it an introductory textbook. It rather occupies a somewhat ambiguous middle position, that of a “pedagogical grammar” aimed at beginning and intermediate students, and intended both for “occasional reference” as well as “reading through” from cover to cover (ix). Its stated purpose is to help beginner-intermediate students to read the Greek of the New Testament (ix-x). To a lesser degree it also covers Koine Greek generally; but its aim and its focus are narrowly tailored to reading and interpreting the NT. ...
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Horizons of Ancestral InheritanceCommentary on the Levi, Qahat, and Amram Qumran Aramaic Traditions
Andrew B. Perrin (Author)
Hardback
$115.00$103.50Ebook (PDF)
$103.50$82.80Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$103.50$82.80Product details
Published Jul 14 2022
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 272
ISBN 9780567705433
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Second Temple Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury PublishingDescription
In this study of the Aramaic materials at Qumran, Andrew B. Perrin examines the Aramaic Levi Document, Words of Qahat, and Visions of Amram, showing how they exhibit a concentration of priestly concerns/knowledge and exploring new models for evaluating their potential textual or traditional connections. The Aramaic texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls are among the most understudied items in the Qumran collection, and with open questions posed around their origins, transmission, and reception in and beyond the Second Temple period, these writings provide both new materials and fresh insight into the thought, identity, and practice of ancient Judaism.
Perrin's analysis includes a new transcription, critical notes, and translation of the Aramaic Levi, Qahat, and Amram fragments based upon the latest digital images. He pairs them with a comprehensive commentary on the conceptual elements, codicological features, and cultural contexts of the materials, and he concludes with a fresh synthesis regarding the textual formation of these Aramaic, priestly pseudepigrapha as a “constellation” of texts within a larger world or scribal-priestly activity and traditions.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Author’s MusingsCross-file under Talmud Watch.
Bringing Down the Temple House: Engendering Tractate Yoma (Brandeis University Press)
Marjorie Lehman
Professor and Chair of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The primordial man and woman may believe they ate from the Tree of Knowledge, but they actually ate from the Life-Giving Tree. This causes a chain reaction leading to the emergence of sexuality, procreation, and continuity for the human species.Raises some interesting points that I had never thought about, notably the woman's apparent confusion over which tree was forbidden. But I think that to say that they ate from the tree of life goes against the grain of the narrative. For example, in 3:22 God expresses worry that the humans will eat "also" from the tree of life, which implies they had eaten from the other tree. That said, it is hard to make all the details in the story fit together.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
I am please to note that the Greek “Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri” include not only New Testament and Old Testament LXX manuscripts, but also Apocrypha (at least Susanna and Ecclesiasticus) and Pseudepigrapha (Epistle of Enoch and Apocryphon of Ezekiel).
For PaleoJudaica posts on the Chester Beatty (Library), start here and follow the links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Paul Heger, Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran: Fact or Assumption? Posthumously edited by Bernard M. Levinson. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019.... In other words, perhaps the “intrinsic distinction between the various approaches to God” (p. 41) that Heger insists is necessary to understanding ancient Jewish prayer on its own terms is not so intrinsic, after all. It therefore remains to be seen whether we can produce a functional “grammar” or uncover a “native theory” of prayer in ancient Judaism, but Heger’s study, by pushing to apply strict definitions to the terms we employ in describing ancient Jewish prayer, invites us to think about what consensuses we should revisit in order to achieve such a goal, while also displaying for us the potential shortcomings in any scholarly attempt to taxonomize ancient literature.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Meanwhile, Phil Long, the organizer of the carnival, laments the lack of interest in hosting it. He also comments on recent trends in social media platforms and content presentation. If you are interested in hosting a carnival, do drop Phil a note.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Could be. This is not an entirely new story. I noted the fragment as possibly mentioning Hezekiah's name (badly damaged, of course) back in 2009. See here and here. I don't think I knew about the other fragment, discovered by Shiloh in 1978.
The fragments are tantalizingly ambiguous and may or may not belong to the same inscription. The angel Lacunael has been at work here.
It does look plausible that we are dealing with one or two monumental lapidary inscriptions. Those were expensive to produce. It seems likely they came from some official, possibly royal, source. But it is difficult to say more unless we find more fragments.
For more on the Hezekiah bulla, see here and links. For more on the Siloam Tunnel Inscription, see here and many links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Galit Noga-Banai. Sacred Stimulus: Jerusalem in the Visual Christianization of Rome. Oxford University Press, 2018.... Noga-Banai structures her study around repeated journeys between Jerusalem and Rome from the first through fifth centuries, tracing a period from subtle to increasingly assured visual appropriation of memories and tropes, culminating in a self-assured and assertive Rome confident in its identity as the perceived historical center of the Christian movement. ...
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
You can also find a New York Times obituary, but it is behind a subscription wall. His Wikipedia page is here.
Requiescat in pace.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
In Roman times, columns were generally used to support buildings. However, the enormous dimensions of the one discovered at the foot of the Hermon meant that it had to serve as support for a structure much larger than a conventional building.The fact that the remains of walls were found near the column supports this hypothesis.
Inside the walls, archaeologists found flowers, a clay candle, and ancient tools. Researchers believe it may have been a flour mill or other agricultural facility
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
This is my tenth go round at indexing and I have the process down to a science. It is surprisingly old-school. You would think that some electronic search and organization process would get the job done in no time, but as my publisher’s Guide to Preparing Indexes states, “There really is no substitute for rereading the whole work and preparing an index yourself.” Still, I have been able to create a few shortcuts.We look forward to the next MTNA volume.
As an aside, many readers will be wondering what has become of More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha volume 2 (MOTP2).
The volume is well advanced. Most contributions are in. I have a semester of research leave starting in January to finish editing the book. All going well, it will be heading to the publisher by late in 2023.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.