Another review of López-Ruiz, Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean

AJA BOOK REVIEW: Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean, by Carolina López-Ruiz (Hédi Dridi, translated by David L. Stone). Open access.

I noted another review of the book here. Cross-file unde Phoenician Watch.

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Kaizer (ed.), A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East (Wiley)

NEW BOOK FROM WILEY:

A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East

Ted Kaizer (Editor)
ISBN: 978-1-444-33982-6 | January 2022 | Wiley-Blackwell | 576 Pages

E-BOOK From £140.00
PRINT From £159.00

DESCRIPTION

Discover a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary handbook exploring several sub-regions and key themes perfect for a new generation of students

A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East delivers the first complete handbook in the area of Hellenistic and Roman Near Eastern history. The book is divided into sections dealing with interdisciplinary source material, each with a great deal of regional variety and engaging with several key themes. It integrates discussions of the classical Near East with the typical undergraduate teaching syllabus in the Anglo-Saxon world.

All contributors in this edited volume are leading scholars in their field, with a combination of established researchers and academics, and emerging voices. Contributors hail from countries across several continents, and work in various disciplines, including Ancient History, Archaeology, Art History, Epigraphy, Numismatics, and Oriental Studies.

In addition to furthering the integration of the Levantine lands in the classical periods into the teaching canon, the book offers readers:

• The first comprehensively structured Companion and edited handbook on the Hellenistic and Roman Near East
• Extensive regional and sub-regional variety in the cross-disciplinary source material
• A way to compensate for the recent destruction of monuments in the region and the new generation of researchers’ inability to examine these historical stages in person
• An integration of the study of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East with traditional undergraduate teaching syllabi in the Anglo-Saxon world

Perfect for undergraduate history and classics students studying the Near East, A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East will also earn a place in the libraries of graduate students and scholars working within Near Eastern studies, as well as interested members of the public with a passion for history.

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Interview with new IES director

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Looking to the Future. BAR Interviews Rona Avissar Lewis of the Israel Exploration Society. Video interview on YouTube.

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Review of González-Salinero, Military service and the integration of Jews into the Roman empire

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Military service and the integration of Jews into the Roman empire.

Raúl González-Salinero, Military service and the integration of Jews into the Roman empire. The Brill reference library of Judaism, 72. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2022. ISBN 9789004506756 $127.00.

Review by
Jonathan Roth, San Jose State University. jonathan.roth@sjsu.edu

... Anyone interested in ancient Jewish history, the Roman army, or indeed the question of the intersection of ethnicity and military service will benefit from reading this book. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Coin of Antiochus IV recovered

APPREHENDED: Rare coin from Hanukkah story villain era found in theft suspect’s home. Antiochus IV, referred to as "Evil Antiochus" in Jewish lore, is remembered as a major villain and persecutor in Jewish history, particularly the story of Hanukkah (Jerusalem Post).

He preferred to be known as Antiochus Epiphanes ("Antiochus the manifest (god)"). This was not an unusual level of arrogance for rulers of that era.

For more on the coins of Antiochus IV Epiphanes see here and here. Cross-file under Numismatics.

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Toloni, The Story of Tobit (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Story of Tobit

A Comparative Literary Analysis

Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 204

Author: Giancarlo Toloni

The story of Tobit builds on various themes derived from myth, legend and folktale. Tobiah’s journey recalls Homer’s Odyssey, the suffering of the righteous brings to mind the legend of Job, and the narrative around a disgraced and then rehabilitated official evokes the story of Ahiqar. The author of Tobit seeks to exploit his readers’ knowledge of these stories in order to convey his message more effectively: he encourages them to trust in divine providence that intervenes on behalf of the faithful.
This volume, based on essays previously published in Italian, charts Tobit’s narrative sources through comparative literary analysis, firmly placing the story in the genre of the didactic and edifying religious novel.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €129.00

Copyright Year: 2022

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51945-9
Publication date: 26 Sep 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51944-2
Publication date: 14 Nov 2022

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Indiana Jones 5?

INDIANA. INDIANA ... LET IT GO: Harrison Ford to be ‘de-aged’ for new Indiana Jones film (Hollywood Reporter via Independent TV).

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Prof. Bilhah Nitzan, 1933-2022

SAD NEWS: Reports have been coming in since yesterday evening of the sad news that Prof. Bilhah Nitzan has passed away. The H-JUDAIC notice from this morning is as follows:

Passing of Prof. Bilhah Nitzan

H-Judaic is greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Bilhah Nitzan (1933-2022), Associate Professor emeritus in the Bible Department of Tel Aviv University. Born in pre-state Palestine, Prof. Nitzan was a high school teacher until she became a lecturer at Tel Aviv University at the age of fifty. She received her doctorate seven years later and remained on the faculty there long past retirement, leaving only in 2010. Her well-regarded books, two of which were expansions of her MA and Ph.D., were an edition of Pesher Habakkuk from the original Dead Sea Scrolls, and an influential volume entitled Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry, which appeared in several languages. A volume of her collected articles appeared from Yad Ben Zvi in 2014. For additional information, see the article on Bilhah Nitzan in Hebrew Wikipedia, https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%91%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%94_%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%9F.

We extend deepest condolences to her family, colleagues and legions of students.

Jonathan D. Sarna

Chair, H-Judaic

Her English curriculm vita is also available on the Tel Aviv University website.

Prof. Nitzan's book, Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry (Brill, 1994), and many of her other publications on the Qumran liturgical texts were highly influential on my own research.

May her memory be for a blessing.

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Review of Newsom, The Spirit within Me

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | The Spirit within Me: Self and Agency in Ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism (Rebecca Harris).

Carol A. Newsom. The Spirit within Me: Self and Agency in Ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism. Yale University Press, 2021.

... In this innovative and deeply engaging study, Newsom sparks new ways of thinking about models of moral agency in biblical and early Jewish literature and paves the way for a broader application of the analysis that considers Jewish literature composed in Greek or the literature of other cultures.

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Review of Sievers (ed.), The Pharisees

THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER: Scholars outline history of the Pharisees and roots of harmful anti-Jewish stereotypes (Chris Seeman).

The Pharisees

Edited by Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine

482 pages; Eerdmans

$54.95

... The conference that produced this volume was notable for its ecumenical and interreligious inclusivity. The contributing scholars were Jews and Christians, Protestants and Catholics, women and men, priests and laity. This diversity of affiliation and expertise models the kind of collaboration needed not only to advance knowledge but also to bring that knowledge to bear on an ongoing problem: the (often unintentional) perpetuation of misinformation about Jews by Christians at the pulpit, in the classroom and in cultural discourse generally. ...

I noted the 2019 conference here. Ancient Jew Review published papers from an SBL forum on the book, noted here, here, and here.

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New discoveries at Hippos-Sussita

DECORATIVE ART AND (BAD) GREEK EPIGRAPHY: New Inscriptions in Roman City in Israel Shed Personal Light on Early Christians. While cleaning one set of Byzantine mosaics in Hippos of the Decapolis, the archaeologists found more mosaics. An unknown bishop, a goldsmithing priest and an anxious couple have come to light (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

People of yore were deeply religious, it seems – including in Hippos (Sussita) of the Decapolis, a Greco-Roman city perched high above the Sea of Galilee.

No less than seven churches have been found in the city from the early Christian era. Now, four inscriptions newly discovered in one of its ancient churches – the Martyrion of Theodoros, or “Burnt Church” – during the summer 2022 excavation season shed rare personal light on actual people. So say excavation directors Dr. Arleta Kowalewska and Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, and epigraphist Prof. Gregor Staab of the Institute of Classical Studies at University of Cologne.

[...]

Just to be clear, it is the Greek that's bad, not the epigraphy.

UPDATE: I forgot add that there are many PaleoJudaica posts on the excavations at Hippos-Sussita. See here and links, plus here.

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The Armenian Monastery Museum in Jerusalem

ARMENIAN WATCH: Visit the Old City monastery that holds Jerusalem’s 1,700-year-old Armenian history. A new museum at the Armenian Monastery offers displays of stunning mosaics and artworks, artifacts and architecture, going back to Armenia’s 4th-century roots in the Holy Land (AVIVA AND SHMUEL BAR-AM, Times of Israel).

One such exquisite [Byzantine-era] floor was discovered in 1894; a family digging foundations for a house near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate was astounded to discover a glorious mosaic floor beneath the rubble. It turned out to be part of a fifth- or sixth-century Armenian church, and further excavations revealed that below one corner of the mosaic lay the remains of an Armenian unit attached to the Roman army (or, perhaps, martyrs who died for their faith).

[...]

This year, the mosaic was meticulously transferred into the Armenian Convent, located in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, and is now the focus of the convent’s brand-new Edward and Helen Mardigian Armenian Museum, which opened this past week. The mosaic covers almost the entire first floor of the magnificent building, constructed in 1853 as Jerusalem’s Armenian Theological Seminary. Its creator was Turkish-Armenian artist Sarkis Balyan, a member of a distinguished family of artists and architects. In fact his father, Garabet Balyan, designed the sumptuous Dolmabahçe Palace, the largest of its kind in Turkey.

For some PaleoJudaiac posts on ancient Armenian literature and archaeology see here and links, plus here, here, and here. Some ancient Jewish literature, notably some of the works of Philo of Alexandria, survive only in Armenian translation.

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Review of Ackerman, Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them

READING ACTS: Susan Ackerman, Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them (Phillip J. Long).

Ackerman, Susan. Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2022. xiii+296 pp. Hb; $59.99

Susan Ackerman is Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Dartmouth. This new book collects ten essays Ackerman has written over the course of her career. Rather than simply reprint the essays, Ackerman has occasionally polished the writing, refined her arguments, and added some additional bibliography. In addition, for most chapters, Ackerman introduces the essay by giving a context for the article and reflecting on the article some years after it was originally published. These introductions are extremely valuable. I wish more authors would add these kinds of updates and personal recollections of the origin of previously published essays.

[...]

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Academic Genealogies of Near Eastern Scholars

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Who Are You? Preliminary Results of the Academic Genealogies of Near Eastern Scholars (AGNES) Project (Rachel Hallote, Diane Harris Cline, and Eric H. Cline).

This project is inwardly facing toward the academic world, but it's fun and informative for us.

I missed this survey, so I am not on any of the charts. But if you are interested, I belong in the generation of Frank Moore Cross's students.

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The Mysterious Nabataeans

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: The Mysterious Nabataeans and the Greek Influence (Matthew Quest, Greek Reporter).

At its peak, Nabataean influence stretched from modern Yemen to Damascus and from western Iraq into the Sinai Desert—at least according to some historians. It is difficult to say how large the area of Nabataean influence really was, as their caravans traveled widely. It is challenging to ascertain the borders of their dominion. Written records left by the Nabataeans are rare and difficult to find, but much has been found—including links to Greco-Roman history and culture.

This is impressively comprehensive for a popular article. It surveys the whole history of the Nabatean Kingdom, as far as we know it, with special attention to connections with the Greek world. It looks substantially accurate, but I have not fact checked it comprehensively.

The Greek Reporter has been doing some good work on ancient history.

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Eastern Mediterranean Gallery opens at Penn Museum

GALLERY EXHIBITION: New Eastern Mediterranean Gallery opens at the Penn Museum. The completely renovated gallery is the latest in the transformation and modernization of the building that dates to 1899 (Louisa Shepard, Penn Today).

hroughout the gallery are items that range in size and age and purpose, including gems, jewelry, coins, tools, ceramics, figurines of gods, as well as architectural elements such as tops of stone columns, sections of ancient doorways, and portions of a mosaic tile floor. The oldest object dates to 2100 BCE and the most recent to 1800 CE.

[Penn Museum Williams Director Christopher] Woods says that most of the artifacts in the new gallery were excavated by Penn archaeologists, many from the Beth Shean site in Israel in the 1920s and 1930s, which resulted in about 8,000 objects. The Museum has more than a million objects, with a very small percentage on display. “Whenever we can bring those objects out of the storerooms, that's always an exciting endeavor,” Woods says.

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Mystery amulet from Amastris

NORTHWEST SEMITIC (?) EPIGRAPHY: Unique ancient Egyptian amulet seal discovered during archeological excavations in northern Turkey (ArkeoNews).

During archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Amastris in the Amasra district of northern Turkey’s Bartın, an enchanted amulet stamp seal thought to belong to the ancient Egyptians was discovered.

[...]

“We see that there is a figure depicting the god Bes, whom we know from the Egyptian religion, depicted with incised lines at the base of the work. On the upper part of the work, we see that there are letter characters and talismanic words from the ancient Egyptian religion called demotic. The letter characters on the work probably represent this meaning of protection. As a kind of talismanic object, we can define it as an object that a person wears to be protected from evil and diseases or in whatever sense he wants to be protected. We can say that it is the only example of its kind found from the Roman layer in Anatolia during excavations,” Fatma Bağdatlı Çam said.

I don't know Demotic, so take my view with caution, but the inscription sure looks like Phoenician to me. The Egyptian god Bes was widely known outside of Egypt, so his iconographic presence is not an obstacle to a Phoenician origin. The city is Roman-era and this is the sort of object that could easily travel around.

The object is broken and the inscription is incomplete, but I see גתני. (.gtny) on the front face and .מ (m.) on the left side. (The dots are unreadable bits of broken letter. The letter after the mem could be an ’aleph.) There is not enough text to make any sense of it.

I have looked briefly at Demotic scripts and this looks more like Phoenician to me. It is a formal script. It looks early, certainly long before the Common Era. Again, such objects often became heirlooms and traveled around, so it isn't surprising to have it turn up in a Roman-era stratum.

That's my preliminary assessment, but I await the judgment of specialist epigraphers and am happy to be corrected. Christopher Rollston, call your office?

Cross-file under Phoenician Watch (?).

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The Willoughby Papyrus of John is now at UT

RESCUED FROM EBAY: Rare Papyrus Fragment of the Gospel of John Now at the Harry Ransom Center (UT News).

AUSTIN, Texas — A credit-card-size fragment is all that survives of a manuscript scroll of the Gospel of John that was written in Greek circa A.D. 250-350. Once listed on eBay, it is now in the collection of the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. It is on view to the public this fall.

Geoffrey S. Smith, an associate professor and director of UT’s Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins in the Department of Religious Studies, first saw the eBay listing for the ancient fragment in 2015.

[...]

For background on the Willoughby Papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John, see here and here. I'm glad to hear that it is now in a museum, where it belongs. Now it needs formal publication.

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Review of Hickey & Keenan, Edgar J. Goodspeed: America's first papyrologist

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Edgar J. Goodspeed: America’s first papyrologist.

Todd M. Hickey, James G. Keenan, Edgar J. Goodspeed: America's first papyrologist. California classical studies, 8. Berkeley: California Classical Studies, 2021. Pp. 178. ISBN 9781939926142 $34.95.

Review by
Mills McArthur, Southern Adventist University. millsmcarthur@southern.edu

Edgar Johnson Goodspeed is perhaps best remembered as a pioneering Biblical scholar, a man whose “American translation” of the New Testament provoked lively controversy at the time of its 1923 release. Less widely known—but no less important when assessing his legacy—are Goodspeed’s forays into papyrology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ...

For the Goodspeed Manuscript Collection at the University of Chicago, see here.

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CFP: New Directions in the Study of Rabbinic Texts (EABS)

H-JUDAIC: CFP: New Directions in the Study of Rabbinic Texts (EABS Siracusa/Sicily, July 2023, or hybrid).

Recent years have witnessed significant advances in the research of Rabbinic literature. From the preparation of new critical scientific editions and commentaries of the texts; to the incorporation of methodology from the realm of literary analysis, a greater degree of sophistication is evident in the interpretation of these texts. Significant developments include a closer commitment to exploring the contexts of the rabbinic sources, both within the rabbinic corpus and beyond, the hermeneutic structures of the various compositions; and to probing the interconnectedness between halakhic and aggadic elements in rabbinic sources. Of particular note is the close study of literary phenomena, narratology, topoi, and diverse rhetorical features. This session invites papers that offer innovative readings of rabbinic sources.

Follow the link for submission information. The deadline is 5 January 2023.

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