Frevel & Nihan, Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions ... (Brill, open-access)

THE AWOL BLOG: Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism.

I noted the publication of this Brill volume when it came out a decade ago. But now you can get the e-book version for free. For you, special deal!

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Tov on the evolution of the biblical DSS

THE ETC BLOG: The Evolution of the Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls (Anthony Ferguson).

Emanuel Tov is the most well-known textual critic of the Hebrew Bible and for good reason. Under his leadership, thirty-three volumes of the authoritative series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD) were published in less than twenty years. Before his tenure, only seven volumes were published in nearly forty years. Despite this impressive feat, Tov is probably most well-known for his work Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible.

The book is now in its fourth edition, and it is the go-to work for those interested in textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. One aspect of the fourth edition, among many, worth discussing is his categorization of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls. A comparison of these categories across his four editions shows a certain evolution in how he views the text of the Hebrew Bible in the Second Temple period.

[...]

A detailed breakdown for all you textual criticism nerds.

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The "Tomb of Absalom"

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: The “Tomb of Absalom”: The Earliest Judeo-Christian Place of Pilgrimage in Jerusalem (Joe Zias).

Jews and Christians alike would have been aware of the fact that the monument, apparently lacking inscriptions, was known by the local population as the Tomb of Absalom, as suggested by Josephus and the Copper Scroll. By converting it into a Christian martyrium and a dwelling, monks would simply have to rename it the Tomb of Zacharias, add three inscriptions, holy water and baptismal fonts, modify its architecture, and break down parts of the northern, western, eastern and southern walls for light and air.

I still would like to know what the structure was originally for. I see that it has been proposed that it is the tomb of the Herodian ruler Agrippa I.

I followed the discovery of the inscriptions in 2003. Most of the links have rotted, but some substantive posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The structure was damaged by fire in 2016.

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Ezekiel's Babylonian-inspired temple?

DR. TOVA GANZEL: Ezekiel’s Temple Plan Draws on Babylonian Temples (TheTorah.com).

During the Babylonian exile (6th c. B.C.E.), Ezekiel prophesies the building of a future temple in Israel that is unlike the Tabernacle or First Temple, but that incorporates elements familiar from Babylonian temples, including the Ezida temple of Borsippa.

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Antiquities-smuggling arrests in West Bank

APPREHENDED: Security forces thwart illegal antiquity trade in West Bank. "The suspect knew the provisions of the law but chose to ignore them and act against the law in order to make money," said Amir Ganor (Jerusalem Post).

Military officials intercepted an antiquities-smuggling ring in the West Bank, IDF officials said in a statement released early Wednesday.

Following a large-scale investigation conducted in secrecy, the Israeli Civil Administration arrested three antiquities smugglers who had hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of rare archaeological finds in their possession.

[...]

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More on those Turkish Esther scrolls

ANALYSIS: How the removal of Jewish scripture from Turkey marred Israel’s rescue operation. ZAKA volunteers brought back and showcased 2 Scrolls of Esther said to be decades old, sparking frenzied allegations of ‘archaeological theft’ in the Turkish media (CANAAN LIDOR, Times of Israel).

The scrolls are now "decades old" instead of centuries.

Background here and here.

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Temple menorah coin on display in Jerusalem

NUMISMATICS: Coin with oldest depiction of Temple menorah displayed for first time. New renovation of the Davidson Center in Jerusalem utilizes interactive tech and augmented reality to highlight history and archaeology of Temple-era Jerusalem (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

The coin dates to around 40 BCE, during the Roman times and the reign of the last Hasmonean king. “This is the oldest known artistic depiction of the menorah, created 107 years before the destruction of the Second Temple,” says Dr. Yuval Baruch, head of archaeology and administration at the Israel Antiquities Authority, who was one of the excavators of the site and led the archaeological curation of the Davidson Center. The coin was donated to Israel sometime during the 1940s, during the British Mandate period, and it’s unclear where or when it was found.

That is, it's unprovenanced. Just saying.

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Codex Sassoon going on display in Tel Aviv

FOR SALE: Oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible to be displayed at Tel Aviv museum. Thousand-year-old Codex Sassoon manuscript is expected to fetch up to $50 million at Sotheby’s (ETGAR LEFKOVITS).

(March 12, 2023 / JNS) The oldest near-complete edition of the Hebrew Bible, a manuscript from a millennium ago, will be on display on March 23-29 at the ANU—Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, the museum announced on Sunday.

The Codex Sassoon—which was shown to the public only once before, four decades ago—will then be displayed in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York before being auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on May 16. It is expected to fetch an estimated $30 million-$50 million, making it potentially the most expensive book or historical document ever to be sold at auction.

[...]

Background here and here.

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Halivni, Zevahim, Menahot, Hullin (Magnes)

NEW BOOK FROM MAGNES PRESS (IN HEBREW):

Sources and Traditions
A Source Critical Commentary on the Talmud Tractates Zevahim, Menahot, Hullin

By: David Weiss Halivni

Synopsis
This volume - Zevahim, Menahot, Hullin - is the ninth in the series Sources and Traditions: Commentaries on the Talmud. Like its predecessors, it distinguishes between sources (the original sayings in the Talmud) and traditions (sayings that have been changed in the course of transmission).

More details

Publisher: Magnes Press
Year: 2023
Catalog number : 45-131161
ISBN: 978-965-7790-52-6
Pages: 316
Language: Hebrew
Weight: 750 gr.
Cover: Hardcover

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TC 27 (2022)

THE ETC BLOG: TC Journal vol. 27 (2022) Is Out (Tommy Wasserman). With articles on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Old Latin and Septuagint.

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The Coins of Carthage from the Second Punic War

NUMISMATICS: The Coins of Carthage During Hannibal’s War With Rome (Mike Markowitz, CoinWeek). With rampaging elephants! And maybe with Hannibal's portrait, sort of.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Hannibal Barca and the Second Punic War, see here and links.

Cross-file under Punic Watch.

This seems like a good time to link to this post, which explains why PaleoJudaica pays attention to the Phoenicians, the Phoenician language, the Carthaginians, and Punic and Neo-Punic

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Review of The Routledge handbook of the senses in the ancient Near East

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Routledge handbook of the senses in the ancient Near East.

Kiersten Neumann, Allison Thomason, The Routledge handbook of the senses in the ancient Near East. Routledge handbooks. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2022. Pp. xxix, 739. ISBN 9780367235284

Review by
Nassos Papalexandrou, University of Texas. papalex@austin.utexas.edu (with Amir Abou-Jaoude and Marina Schneider)

The volume gives some attention to the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism.

I noted its publication here.

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Does Hebrew have a "reduced alphabet?"

COMPARATIVE SEMITICS: Hebrew Has a ‘Reduced Alphabet’ (Mitchell First, Jewish Link).

It's true! This is a good, accessible (if you know some Hebrew) account of comparative Semitic phonology in relation to biblical Hebrew. It solves a good many mysteries.

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A Persian-era city in Nahariya?

ARCHAEOLOGY: Israel unveils 2,500-year-old Mediterranean Persian city.

JERUSALEM, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Israeli archaeologists uncovered an ancient Persian city from 2,500 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said Thursday.

The ruins, situated in today's Mediterranean city of Nahariya in northern Israel, include residential areas with buildings and streets, a commercial and industrial area, worship buildings, and a large storage area, said the IAA.

[...]

I can't find the IAA announcement anywhere, but Xinhua sometimes does come up with the first English annoucement about archaeology stories in Israel.

For another ancient city recently unveiled by archaeologists (this one in Egypt), see here.

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Career retrospective: Sidnie White Crawford

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Retrospective | My Journey with the Dead Sea Scrolls (Sidnie White Crawford).

I have always acknowledged that the Dead Sea Scrolls have been very good to me. I was very fortunate, as a young graduate student, to have the opportunity to work on the Scrolls at the moment when scrolls scholarship was breaking open. I was also fortunate to work with a close circle of fine colleagues, who freely shared ideas and supported each other’s work.[14] The Dead Sea Scrolls captured my intellectual interest very early in my development as a scholar, and they have held it ever since.

Professor Crawford and I were PhD students of Frank Moore Cross at the same time in the 1980s.

I noted a review of her 2019 book, Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran, here. Last year she published another book, The Text of the Pentateuch, with De Gruyter, noted here.

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Milan Fashion Week meets 3 Enoch

INSTALLATION ART: Tod's sensual elegance on show amidst The Seven Heavenly Palaces (Elena Passeri, translated by Nicola Mira, Fashion Network). The location:

Pirelli HangarBicocca is a not-for-profit foundation set up in Milan in 2004, when a disused industrial plant was converted into the home of an organisation that produces and promotes contemporary art. Kiefer’s ‘The Seven Heavenly Palaces’ installation was conceived and presented for the opening of the Pirelli Hangar. It owes its name to the palaces described in the ancient Hebrew treatise ‘Sefer Hekhalot’ (the book of palaces), dating back to the 4th-5th century AD. The installation’s seven towers are made of reinforced concrete. Each weighs 90 tons, and they vary in height from 14 to 18 metres.

I have noted Kiefer's hekhalot installation previously here and his earlier, apparently related, painting here. See those posts for commentary on Sefer Hekhalot (3 Enoch).

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Lioness carving found in the Golan

LAPIDARY ART: College Students Find Ancient Stone Lioness During Field Trip in Northern Israel. Israel is littered with archaeological finds and antiquities, but finding not one but two lioness statues by accident is quite the achievement (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Such is Israel. Take a walk, find a lioness, or at least an ancient statue of one. Discovered by chance at Ein Nashut in the Golan Heights, the lady lion was depicted nursing cubs. The artifact is quite weathered after almost 2,000 years of exposure to the elements and much is missing but the identification is unmistakable, says Prof. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee.

[...]

Does this object count as a provenanced or unprovenanced artifact? Interesting question. It was not scientifically excavated. It was found by a group of archaeology students on the surface. It may already have been moved before they found it.

It would be nice to hear more about the object's relationship to the synagogue. Evidently both were made of the same material. Are there other artistic representations in the ruins of the synagogue? Can we tell if the object was made with the same workmanship?

No one seems to doubt that it is an ancient artifact originating from the site. I am not suggesting otherwise. But surface surveys raise their own questions and we should still be asking them.

I noted the discovery of the other lioness statue at el-Araj in 2017 here.

Cross-file under Numismatics, with reference to the coin of the Roman Emperor Gallienus found by the same student group at Khirbet Majdukiya.

This seems to be lion statue week. Archaeologists have also excavated a Sphinx-like statue, perhaps representing the Emperor Claudius, in southern Egypt.

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Purim 2023

HAPPY PURIM to all those celebrating! The festival begins tonight night at sundown.

Last year's Purim post is here, with links. Another recent (indirectly) Purim-related post is here. The latter is now debunked.

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More on the fake Darius inscription

THE DARIUS OSTRACON INSCRIPTION, which reportedly turned out to be a modern pedagogical exercise that went awry, is receiving a good bit of media attention. I have followed the story with my own comments here and here.

Here are some follow-up articles:

Analysis | The Darius Artifact: How Did We Get From Discovery of the Decade to Disgrace? An inscription mentioning the Persian invader found in the city of Lachish, which had a strong Persian presence, correctly written in the language of the time. What could go wrong? (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz)

Israel Antiquities Authority must rein in enthusiasm before its next find - editorial The Israel Antiquities Authority must curb its enthusiasm and double and triple check its archaeological findings before publication (Jerusalem Post)

The Darius Ostracon: From Real to Fake. How experts authenticated a modern forgery (Nathan Steinmeyer, Bible History Daily)

[Christopher Rollston] added that this lack of scrutiny could have had real implications for our understanding of the ancient past. “What if the archaeologist who made this piece had not come forward?” asked Rollston. “We could end up writing histories and citing inscriptions in those histories, and in part basing some of what we say on something that is a modern forgery.”

It is possible that we already are. I flagged concerns about this almost twenty years ago .

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Review of Greek and Egyptian magical formularies, vol. I

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Greek and Egyptian magical formularies, vol. I: text and translation.

Christopher A. Faraone, Sofia Torallas Tovar, Greek and Egyptian magical formularies, vol. I: text and translation. California classical studies, 9. Berkeley: California Classical Studies, 2022. Pp. xxviii, 531. ISBN 9781939926166

Review by
Sofia Bianchi Mancini, Max-Weber-Kolleg (Universität Erfurt). sofia.bianchi_mancini@uni-erfurt.de

... After Karl Preisendanz’s influential first edition of the magical papyri––Papyri Graecae Magicae (PGM), completed between 1928 and 1931, and revised in 1974 by Albert Henrichs––and Hans Dieter Betz’s 1986 English translation of the Greek and Demotic magical papyri, Faraone and Torallas Tovar have created in Greek and Egyptian magical formularies (GEMF) an invaluable and much needed corpus. ...

The book is open access.

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