Docherty & Smith (eds.), The Scriptures in the Book of Revelation and Apocalyptic Literature (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY (T&T CLARK):

The Scriptures in the Book of Revelation and Apocalyptic Literature
Essays in Honour of Steve Moyise

Susan Docherty (Anthology Editor), Steve Smith (Anthology Editor)

Hardback
$115.00 $103.50

Ebook (PDF)
$103.50 $82.80

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$103.50 $82.80

Product details

Published Jul 13 2023
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 272
ISBN 9780567695895
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of New Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This volume addresses one of the key issues in the study of the Book of Revelation and the apocalyptic genre more broadly – the re-use within these texts of the Jewish Scriptures. A range of expert contributors analyse specific themes and passages, and also explore wider methodological questions, aiming particularly to engage with the ground-breaking work in this field of Steve Moyise.

Divided into three sections, the book first focuses on hermeneutical questions, such as the role of 'typology' in interpretation, and the relationship between the 'original meaning' of a scriptural text and the sense it acquires in a new literary context. In the following section, a series of chapters offers detailed exegetical engagement with the Book of Revelation. These probe the scriptural background of some of its major theological themes (e.g. time, sounds and silence) and significant passages (e.g. the Song of the Lamb and other hymns), and highlight fresh aspects of its reception by both ancient and modern audiences. The final section considers the place of scripture and its interpretation in a selection of other early Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic writings (including 1 Enoch, Paul's Letters and the First Apocryphal Apocalypse of John).

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There was almost a third Temple?

BELATEDLY FOR TISHA B'AV: How the Jews almost built a Third Temple. Roman Emperor Julian, who rejected Christianity and possibly sought to oppose it, proposed the Jews rebuild the Temple, however, the construction was halted, and the dream was buried after an earthquake; Dr. Yonatan Moss explains why the Jewish canon almost completely disregards this chapter in history (Itzchak Tessler, Ynet News).

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Nero's theatre found in Rome?

ARCHAEOLOGY: Ruins of ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater unearthed in 'exceptional' discovery in Rome. Archaeologists in Rome think they may have found Nero's theater during a hotel excavation (Jennifer Nalewicki, Live Science).

Archaeologists in Rome think they may have found the ruins of Nero's theater, a first-century imperial performance space that was widely described in ancient Roman texts but whose whereabouts had remained largely elusive.

The theater is named after Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, who served as Roman emperor from A.D. 54 to his death in 68. Officials are calling the discovery of the theater, located just east of Vatican City, "exceptional." It was likely where Nero rehearsed poetry and put on musical performances, according to ABC News.

[...]

For past posts on Nero, whom PaleoJudaica finds interesting for a number of reasons, start here and follow the links.

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

Archaeomagnetic reconstruction of a fire in ancient Jerusalem

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Examination of ancient pottery shards reveals how a building burned during siege of Jerusalem in 586 BCE (Bob Yirka, Phys.org).

The work involved analyzing shards of pottery collected from a dig site identified as the base of an ancient two-story building. Prior researchers had named it Building 100. The team followed procedures of modern fire marshals—they wanted to know where the fire started in the building and how it progressed. To find out, they studied magnetic signals hidden in the pottery shards.

The underlying article in the Journal of Archaeological Science (Volume 157, September 2023) is behind a subscription wall, but you can read excerpts at the link:

Destruction by fire: Reconstructing the evidence of the 586 BCE Babylonian destruction in a monumental building in Jerusalem

N. Shalom, Y. Vaknin, R. Shaar, E. Ben-Yosef, O. Lipschits, Y. Shalev, Y. Gadot, E. Boaretto

Abstract

Evidence of fire is one of the most important features for identifying and characterizing destruction events. Analysis of microscopic remains of fire has developed exceedingly in recent years, enabling archaeologists to examine new questions relating to the intensity of destruction events and to the circumstances of the creation of destruction layers. One of the most crucial events in the history of the Southern Levant is the Babylonian destruction of Judah and its capital Jerusalem in 586 BCE, which shaped the biblical narrative and theology for generations to come. Building 100 was an extraordinarily large and rich elite building, thoroughly destroyed during the Babylonian campaign. This paper presents a study of the destruction layer excavated within the rooms of the building. FTIR spectrometry and archaeomagnetic analysis were combined in the micro-archaeological study of the remains in order to create a detailed reconstruction of the destruction event. This reconstruction sheds new light on how the Babylonian destruction was manifested in reality in the elite buildings of Jerusalem.

UPDATE (28 July): Joseph Lauer points me to the full text of the article, posted at Academia.edu.

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Mason, Jews and Christians in the Roman World (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Jews and Christians in the Roman World
From Historical Method to Cases

Series: Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Volume: 116

Author: Steve N Mason

Roman Judaea, Christian origins, and Roman-Judaean-Christian relations are flourishing fields of endless fascination. Amid the flurry of new research, however, which uses ever new methods in the humanities and social sciences, basic questions about what happened and how people then understood events are easily obscured. This book argues that a simple but consistent historical method can throw new light – and challenge entrenched views – on such familiar topics as Roman provincial governance, the Jewish War, Flavian politics, Judaea after King Herod, Jewish and Christian historiography, Pharisees and Essenes, John the Baptist, the apostle Paul, and Luke-Acts.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €190.00

Copyright Year: 2023

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54596-0
Publication: 10 Jul 2023
EUR €190.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54387-4
Publication: 13 Jul 2023
EUR €190.00

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Tisha B'Av 2023

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 of the year. 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. Another recent post is here.

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

Half-shekel Great-Revolt coin found near Ein Gedi

NUMISMATICS: Half-shekel coin from revolt against Romans 2 millennia ago uncovered in desert cave. Hebrew coin minted by rebels as part of underground Jewish economy and used to pay tax at Temple in Jerusalem is discovered during six-year survey mapping area of Dead Sea Scrolls (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

IAA inspectors discovered the coin in the area around the Ein Gedi oasis during an intensive survey of all of Israel’s caves in the Judean desert, in an attempt to discover and document archaeological finds before they are stolen by looters — especially additional Dead Sea Scrolls. Inspectors have spent the past six years canvassing the caves, both by foot and by rappelling down steep cliffs to reach caves tucked into the mountainside. The survey is a joint initiative from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Ministry of Heritage, and the Civil Administration Archaeology Unit in Judea and Samaria.

Just in time for Tisha B'Av.

For more on half-shekel coins and their use for the annual Temple tax, start here and follow the links.

For more on Operation Scroll, see here and links.

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

Reconstructing ancient engraving techniques

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Shining new light on ancient engraving techniques in Israel (unattributed, St Louis Jewish Light).

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) have developed new 3-D software, called ArchCUT3-D, that they have used to extract and analyze engravings from ancient Israel and that could lead to a better understanding of the engravers’ background and skills.

[...]

The two engravings are from the late second millennium BCE at Timna Valley Park. The graffito, from the same area, is modern.

For much more on the Timna Valley excavation, especially its important organic remains, start here and follow the links.

The underlying open-access article is available from the journal Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications:

Recognizing technique variation in rock engravings: ArchCUT3-D for micromorphological analysis

Lena Dubinsky, Marcelo David & Leore Grosman
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 10, Article number: 316 (2023)

Abstract

Ancient rock engravings evoke the interest of archeologists and art historians as an important remnant of human cultures. Traditionally, engraved images are studied based on iconography, iconology, and stylistic characteristics, with little emphasis on execution technology. In contrast, the research method presented in this study strives to characterize the techniques adopted for making rock engravings in ancient times, with technological variations considered as indicators of the engraver’s production process. 3-D scans of two ancient engravings and contemporary graffiti were obtained from Site 25 in Timna Park, Southern Israel. The models were analyzed with ArchCUT3-D, a software specifically developed to precisely evaluate the 3-D micromorphological characteristics of the incisions making up the engraving. The software analyzes the surface micromorphology by extracting 3-D slices of the incisions using an accurate and repeatable method. Our results indicate that different incisions were executed by remarkably distinct techniques of stroking the rock surface with a sharp tool. The identification of discriminant characteristics enabled us to demonstrate the particularities of the engraving operations, such as ergonomic conditions and the level of consistency of the engraving gesture. ArchCUT3-D thus provides a computational method for incision technique recognition through micromorphology specifications, and the reconstruction of engraving gestures and individual production procedures.

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Bauckham's "Son of Man" vol. 1 now published

RELEASED TODAY BY EERDMANS:

Son of Man", vol. 1
Early Jewish Literature

Richard Bauckham

HARDCOVER; Published: 7/25/2023
ISBN: 978-0-8028-8326-1
Price: $ 44.99
447 Pages
Trim Size, in inches: 6 x 9

DESCRIPTION

Who is the “Son of Man”?  

In pre-Christian Jewish writings, “Son of Man” was not a title, and it certainly did not indicate divinity. It was simply an expression for a man. Yet the term has held considerable interest among scholars of Christology for its use in describing Jesus in the gospels. And among those studying messianism in Second Temple Judaism, consensus about the valences of “Son of Man” in Scripture remains elusive.

In the first volume of this landmark study, Richard Bauckham pushes the conversation forward, explicating the phrase “Son of Man” as it appears in Jewish interpretations of the book of Daniel and in the apocryphal book of 1 Enoch. With philological precision and sensitivity to his sources, Bauckham attunes us to the realities of early Jewish eschatology.

Thorough and comprehensive, “Son of Man,” vol. 1, offers scholars a solid basis for understanding the context of the messiah in the centuries leading up to Jesus. Along with the forthcoming second volume, which parses the meaning of “Son of Man” in the Gospels, Bauckham’s work is essential for understanding one of the most widely used yet misunderstood phrases in the Bible.

I noted the book as forthcoming here.

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

Now 125 tombs at the Gaza Roman-era cemetery

ARCHAEOLOGY UPDATE: At least 125 tombs discovered at Roman-era cemetery in Gaza (Reuters via Jerusalem Post).

Archaeologists working on a 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery discovered in Gaza last year have found at least 125 tombs, most with skeletons still largely intact, and two rare lead sarcophaguses, the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities said.

[...]

They keep finding more tombs.

I noted the discovery and excavation of the cemetery here and here. For the two lead sarcophagi, see here and here.

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

Schedtler, Royal Ideologies in the Book of Revelation (CUP)

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Royal Ideologies in the Book of Revelation

AUTHOR: Justin P. Jeffcoat Schedtler, Wartburg College, Iowa
DATE PUBLISHED: July 2023
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781009297400

£ 85.00 Hardback

Description

Studies of the Apocalypse have long neglected the royal and messianic dimensions of its portrait of the Lamb. In this volume, Justin P. Jeffcoat Schedtler offers new insights on this topic, arguing that royal and messianic ideologies and discourses are not merely evident in the book of Revelation but also constitute one of its primary organizing principles. Moreover, they shape Revelation's Christology. Schedtler explores ideologies of kingship in the ancient Greek and Roman world, as well as Second Temple Judaism. Making previously unexplored connections in Revelations' ideological portrait of the Lamb, he shows that the portrayal of Jesus as God's chosen viceregent, offers new insights into several of the central Christological tenets in the text. They include the Lamb's reception of the scroll to rule on God's behalf, his place on a heavenly throne, the many benefactions he offers to those who remain faithful to him, and the hymnic praise he receives in response.

• Thoroughgoing exploration of kingship ideologies and discourses in the Greco-Roman (including Second Temple Jewish) world
• Provides a survey of Greco-Roman kingship ideologies and discourses as they relate to Revelation's narratives about Jesus
• Connects several elements of Revelation's Christology to the claim that Jesus was God's chosen king

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Rendsburg Festschrift (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Linguistic and Philological Studies of the Hebrew Bible and its Manuscripts

Series: Studia Semitica Neerlandica, Volume: 75

Volume Editors: Vincent D. Beiler and Aaron D. Rubin

This volume honors the extraordinary scholarship of Prof. Gary A. Rendsburg, whose work and friendship have influenced so many in the last five decades. Twenty-five prominent scholars from the US, Europe, Israel, and Australia have contributed significant original studies in three of Rendsburg’s areas of interest and expertise: Hebrew language, Hebrew Bible, and Hebrew manuscripts. These linguistic, philological, literary, epigraphic, and historical approaches to the study of Hebrew and its textual traditions serve as a worthy tribute to such an accomplished scholar, and also as an illustration how all of these approaches can complement one another in the fields of Hebrew and Biblical Studies.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €159.00

Copyright Year: 2023

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54484-0
Publication: 10 Jul 2023
EUR €159.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54485-7
Publication: 06 Jul 2023
EUR €159.00

Congratulations to Professor Rendsburg!

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Levine et al., Ancient Synagogues Revealed 1981-2022 (IES)

NEW BOOK FROM THE ISRAEL EXPLORATION SOCIETY:

Ancient Synagogues Revealed 1981-2022

300,00₪ Price

Author Lee I. Levine, Zeev Weiss, Uzi Leibner (eds.)

Year 2023

Publisher
Israel Exploration Society, The Institute of Archaeology- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jeselsohn Epigraphic Center of Jewish History

This companion volume to Ancient Synagogues Revealed, published in 1981, apprises the reader of the latest archaeological and historical data culled from the excavations of ancient synagogues since that date. The articles, written by the excavators of these sites, reveal a plethora of synagogue buildings, artistic remains, inscriptions, and small finds that shed light on many aspects of this ancient institution and increase the number and range of scholarly interpretations and theories regarding the synagogue in the first millennium of its existence. Diverse aspects of the ancient synagogue—archaeology, history, art, epigraphy, language, and literature—allow for new and creative interpretations of these intriguing archaeological finds.

HT Todd Bolen at the Bible Places Blog

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Monsters of the biblical world

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Biblical Monsters. Seven mysterious creatures of the biblical world (Nathan Steinmeyer).

I'm not sure why we have a Halloween essay in July. But this is a good list, if incomplete.

I have collected many PaleoJudaica posts on biblical monsters here (and add here, here and here). For Beelzebul/Beelzebub and other manifestations of the diabolical one, see here and links, plus here.

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Hensel et al. (eds.), Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions. Identity Perspectives from Egypt, Transjordan, Mesopotamia, and Israel in the Second Temple Period. Edited by Benedikt Hensel, Bartosz Adamczewski, and Dany Nocquet. 2023. VIII, 267 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 167. 129,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-161887-1.

Published in English.
Is the Hebrew Bible purely a product of Jerusalem or were there various social groups who each played a role in its development during the Second Temple period? This is the guiding question of the present volume, which fills a crucial gap in recent research by combining current literary-historical, redactional and text-historical analysis of the Hebrew Bible with the latest results pertaining to the pluriform social and religious shape of early Judaism. For the first time, the thirteen articles in this volume address the phenomenon of religious plurality by bringing together archaeological, (religious-) historical, and literary-critical approaches. The articles by internationally renowned scholars cover the panorama of currently known social groups of Yahwistic character and the impact of this phenomenon on the making of the Hebrew Bible – from the Persian period to the time of Qumran.

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Schmid, The Scribes of the Torah (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Scribes of the Torah: The Formation of the Pentateuch in Its Literary and Historical Contexts

Konrad Schmid

ISBN 9781628375237
Volume AIL 45
Status Available
Publication Date May 2023

Paperback $110.00
Hardback $130.00
eBook $110.00

A revised view of the Pentateuch with consequences for the broader literary history of the Bible

This collection of thirty-one studies on the Pentateuch represents more than twenty years of Konrad Schmid’s research and publications advocating for a new view of the Pentateuch’s formation. Schmid’s essays present the case for a Persian period Priestly document that provided a basic narrative thread to the Torah, which included separate, pre-Priestly components of narratives in Genesis and the Moses story. Schmid’s open discussion includes evidence from various fields, such as literary history, comparative cultural history, historical linguistics, epigraphy, and archaeology. The essays are divided into eight sections usefully structured around the themes of the Pentateuch in the Enneateuch, the history of scholarship, the formation of the Torah, Genesis, the Moses story, the Priestly document, legal texts, and the Pentateuch in the history of ancient Israel’s religion.

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Review of Waters, King of the World: The Life of Cyrus the Great

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: Drowned in a Bowl of Blood (Josephine Quinn).

King of the World: The Life of Cyrus the Great
by Matt Waters.
Oxford, 255 pp., £21.99, September 2022, 978 0 19 092717 2

... Why should we care? Cyrus has received almost universal praise since his own time, and in ancient traditions is famed as a just ruler. Plato presents him as a guardian of free speech and reasoned argument, Cicero as a model of righteous empire. According to Isaiah, he was destined to ‘make justice shine upon the nations’. In the 20th century, Iranian shahs put him at the centre of national ideology, as an emblem of the country’s pre-Islamic past. Cyrus has long held out an alluring prospect of benevolent tyranny, and of liberty through order and imperial subjection.

This is, of course, an illusion. The peaceful capture of Babylon is remembered over the brutal battle for Opis a few weeks earlier. The return of the exiled Israelites is commemorated, but not the plight of the Phokaians, who fled a Persian siege of their city. The evangelicals are closer to the mark: Cyrus didn’t do things because they were good, but because they worked. What we make of that tells us more about ourselves than it does about him.

PaleoJudaica posts on the book are here and here.

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

More on that "underworld portal" cave

SPELUNCIC, CHTHONIC, NECROMANTIC ARCHAEOLOGY UPDATE: New finds show cave near Beit Shemesh may have been seen as a door to the underworld. Oil lamps and fragments of human skull lead archaeologists to believe Teomim Cave was used for necromancy, or communication with dead, some 1,700 years ago (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

Zissu said one of the things that was so strange about excavating the archaeological discoveries from the cave was that there was so little digging. Instead, it was more like fishing the finds out of cracks in the rocks. The digging happened later, during the research phase, as the archaeologists sifted through research about ancient rituals and religions.

“Only later we became aware of other possibilities, that these could be the remains of necromancy rituals,” said Zissu. “We put our finds together with archaeological data from other digs and made this suggestion.”

I noted the announcement of the discovery of the cave, with link to the underlying HTR article, here. A potentially related post is here. This ToS article has some additional background information.

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

Another lead sarcophagus in Gaza?

ARCHAEOLOGY: 2nd Roman-era sarcophagus uncovered at Gaza's cemetery site (huaxia, Xinhua).

In February I noted the excavation of a lead sarcophagus at the Roman-era cemetery in Gaza. According to this Xinua article, a second one was found there in March. This is the first I have heard of it.

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On marine archaeology

UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY: Marine excavations offer glimpse into ancient history preserved under the sea. While much of Israel’s land has already been dug up and explored, archaeological discoveries underwater are just beginning to surface (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

But for those still searching for the swashbuckling sense of adventure and discovery of uncovering ancient artifacts à la Indiana Jones, [Prof. Assaf] Yasur-Landau believes there’s no greater place to dig than underwater. There are hundreds of archaeologists in Israel, including more than 100 working at various academic institutions, and dozens working at the Israel Antiquities Authority. But only seven — five from universities and two at the IAA — are experts in underwater archaeology, he said. It’s one of the last unexplored frontiers in a country where archaeology regularly makes the news.

For PaleoJudaica posts on ancient shipwrecks, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and follow the many links.

There are also many posts on Marine (Maritime, Underwater) Archaeology more generally. For some relatively recent ones, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, with links. For many more, see the archive.

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