On Herod the Great

IT'S COMPLICATED: Herod’s Complicated Relationship with Judaism. Herod was a controversial figure. As king of Judea he reconstructed the Second Temple, but as a puppet of Rome was distrusted by his people. (Mark Shiffer, Aish.com). This essay also links to an earlier, more detailed Aish.com essay by Rabbi Ken Spiro:

History Crash Course #31: Herod the Great. A madman who murdered his own family and many rabbis, Herod was also the greatest builder in Jewish history.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Herod the Great (and the other Herods), see here and links.

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On Josephus

THE FIRST-CENTURY JEWISH HISTORIAN, FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, is the subject of a couple of popular articles by Mitchell First at the Jewish Link:

First Century CE: Biography of Josephus

The Last Work of Josephus: ‘Against Apion’

For a couple of recent overview essays on Josephus, see here and here. And for that dodgy-sounding suicide pact at Jotapata (Yodfat) (a.k.a. the "Josephus Problem"), see here and links.

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Sanders on who invented the alphabet

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Who Really Invented the Alphabet? (Seth Sanders).

There are two parts to this. First is whether the early alphabet shows any evidence that its creators knew how Egyptian writing worked. ... Second is whether the early alphabet was systematized and taught carefully, or casually and chaotically transmitted—a script of scribes or of the people. ...

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In memory of Amnon Ben-Tor

OBITUARY: In Memoriam: Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor, King of Hazor (1935–2023). Israel loses another archaeology giant. (Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology).

Professor Ben-Tor was a giant in his field and leaves behind a significant legacy—and now void—in the world of biblical archaeology. This modern-day king of Hazor will be missed.

PaleoJudaica also receives a mention. Background here.

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LXX conference in honor of Jim Aitken

WILLIAM A. ROSS: THE SEPTUAGINT WITHIN THE HISTORY OF GREEK CONFERENCE (2023).

I am very pleased to draw attention to the upcoming Septuagint with the History of Greek Conference, which will take place this coming September 13th-15th at Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. As is fitting, this event is to be held in memory of Jim Aitken, who was very much a part of its planning and vision.

For more on the late Professor Jim Aitken, see here and links.

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

Cartagena Festival 2023 is coming

PUNIC WATCH: Visit Cartagena, Spain, in September for ancient battle reenactments and costumed revelry (Anna Kaminski, Lonely Planet).

The reenactment of the Battle for Qart-Hadasht from the Second Punic War (218–208 BCE) is one of the highlights of the Fiestas de Carthagineses y Romanos (Festival of Carthaginians and Romans) that take place in Cartagena, Murcia, in the second half of September. The festivities put the Spanish city in full party mode, as it celebrates its historic roots.

Cartagena, Spain, was a Punic town (Carthago Nova - New Carthage) founded in the third century B.C.E. The ten-day festival begins on the third Friday in September (this year the 15th).

For earlier posts on the festival, as well as on the history and archaeology of the city, see here and links. More recent posts on the archaeology of Cartagena are here and here.

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

Jerusalem: the upturned archaeological layer cake

ARCHAEOLOGY: Evidence of Jerusalem’s Destruction at the Hands of Babylonians, Then Romans Now Revealed on Mount Zion. Jerusalem was destroyed twice, in 586 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. New archaeological work at Mount Zion reveals evidence of both horrors, a new theory for Nehemiah's walls, rare weights from the First Temple period – and a magical rib bone (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Mount Zion might be considered a stratigraphic nightmare studded as it is with enough pottery pieces and small finds to sink a trireme. “Reverse stratigraphy” with chronological layers out of order, is commonplace here. It’s enough to make any archaeologist shudder.

Pottery is usually useful for dating purposes. But here, for example, Iron Age pottery from the eighth to sixth centuries B.C.E. pops up in almost all the layers through to the Ottoman era, which is spectacularly unhelpful. A Roman layer emerges superimposed above a (later) Byzantine layer, which isn’t supposed to happen: they're supposed to be the other way around.

A long and informative article.

Another recent article on the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem is noted here. For more on Nehemiah's wall, see here and links.

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Hadrianic aqueduct arch collapses at Caesarea

DETERIORATION: Ancient Aqueduct Arch Collapsed on Caesarea’s Beach (David Israel, Jewish Press).

“Luckily, no bathers were killed here,” said a frustrated Eli Escozido, the IAA director. “We have been warning, presented documents and plans, pointed out that the situation is catastrophic and there is a real fear of collapse, met repeatedly met with the owners of the land, even offered to finance some of the work with the understanding that it is simply a disaster waiting to happen. I believe that now we will finally find a listening ear.”

The IAA is warning that the aqueduct to Acco could be next.

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Amnon Ben-Tor, z'l'

SAD NEWS: Archaeologist and Israel Prize laureate Amnon Ben-Tor dies at 88 (Arutz Sheva).

I noted the awarding of the Israel Prize to Professor Ben-Tor in 2019. Not mentioned in the notice above, but he is also well known for taking over the efforts to recover the cuneiform archive at Hazor after the passing away of Yigael Yadin. See here and links for details. They are still looking for that archive.

On the Agade list, Jack Sasson has also noted his passing. Jack include a link to a long list of Professor Ben-Tor's publications and a link to a video interview about the Hazor excavation.

May his memory be for a blessing.

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Megiddo mosaic: the IAA responds

ARCHAEOLOGY, EPIGRAPHY, DECORATIVE ART, POLITICS: Integrity of Megiddo mosaic the priority, Israel Antiquities Authority says. The State Department has declined to address the controversy around possible loan to D.C.'s Museum of the Bible (Menachem Wecker, Jewish News Syndicate).

“Leaving it in place would be irresponsible due to the large-scale mechanical earthworks that will demolish extensive parts of the prison buildings,” [IAA spokesman Yoli] Schwartz said. “The Israel Antiquities Authority will continue to invest efforts to make archaeology accessible to the public, and we are excited to present the Megiddo mosaic to the public worldwide.”

Background here.

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Becking, Micah (AB Commentary)

NEW BOOK FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Micah
A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

by Bob Becking

Series: The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries

304 Pages, 6.12 x 9.25 in

Hardcover
9780300159950
Published: Tuesday, 27 Jun 2023
$65.00

eBook
9780300160192
Published: Tuesday, 27 Jun 2023
$65.00

Description

A new translation and commentary on the biblical book of Micah that proposes a convincing new theory of its composition history

While the biblical book of Micah is most famous for its images of peace—swords forged into to plowshares, spears turned into pruning hooks—and its passages of prophetic hope, the book is largely composed of prophecies of ruin. The historical Micah, who likely lived in the late eighth century BCE, is the first recorded prophet to predict the fateful fall of Jerusalem, and he also foretells the destruction of the regions of Samaria and Judah, in addition to the more well-known promises of Judah’s eventual restoration.

Bob Becking translates the Hebrew text anew and illuminates the book’s most important elements, including its literary features, political context, and composition history. Drawing on ancient Near Eastern comparative evidence, archaeological notes, and inscriptions, Becking surveys the debates surrounding the book’s interpretation and argues that it be regarded as three separate source texts: the early first chapter; a large middle section containing a proto-apocalyptic, alternating prophetic futurology collected and molded by a later redactor; and an added section advocating for legal reform under Josiah.

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Where did forgers get their ancient blank papyus?

VARIANT READINGS: Notes on a Forger’s Methods (Brent Nongbri).

My attention was drawn especially to his [John de Monins Johnson's] account of the discovery of large amounts of blank papyrus in the rubbish mounds of Antinoopolis: “[Mound] N was remarkable throughout for what is often a feature of late mounds, the quantity of blank papyrus it provided. In this case sacks might have been filled.”

This PaleoJudaica post from some years ago seems relevant.

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Syriac PhD program at Turkish university

SYRIAC WATCH: Turkish uni to offer doctoral program in Syriac language (Daily Sabah).

Mardin Artuklu University (MAU) on Tuesday announced the launch of a doctoral program within the Syriac Language and Culture Department, part of the Institute of Living Languages.

[...]

This is good news! For more on the founding and development of the Syriac program at Mardin Artuklu University, see here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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Review of The Rediscovery of Shenoute

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The rediscovery of Shenoute: studies in honor of Stephen Emmel.

Anne Boud'hors, David Brakke, Andrew Crislip, Samuel Moawad, The rediscovery of Shenoute: studies in honor of Stephen Emmel. Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta, 310. Leuven; Paris; Bristol: Peeters, 2022. Pp. xxii, 546. ISBN 9789042948303

Review by
Ellen Muehlberger, University of Michigan. emuehlbe@umich.edu

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

Shenoute of Atripe was many things: leader of the White Monastery in Upper Egypt from about 385 C.E. until his death some time in the first part of the fifth century; the organizer of an extended group of Christian monastic communities for both men and women; a defender of orthodoxy who was not afraid to break a window or throw a punch; a preacher who indicted everyone from liars, adulterers, and demon worshippers to wage thieves and the merely half-hearted. What Shenoute has not been, though, is well-known to most modern scholars of the ancient world. He wrote in Coptic, a language that has not benefitted from being labeled one of the “classics”; instead of being transmitted and studied in an established discipline, Shenoute’s works, collected and edited at his own monastery, remained there for the most part until the great extractive force of the colonial antiquities market gave those pages value, and thus wings. ...

Some PaleoJudaica posts on Shenoute and the White Monastery are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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Review of Henze & Lincicum (eds.) Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings

READING ACTS: Matthias Henze and David Lincicum, eds. Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings (Phil Long).

Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings collects forty-two essays on topics related to how early Christian writers used the Jewish scripture they inherited. As Henze and Lincicum explain in their introduction, the Scriptures of Israel “forms the cultural encyclopedia necessary to understand what Jesus and his earliest followers did and thought” (1). Not only did the writers of the New Testament interact extensively with Israel Scriptures, they “inherited strategies of scriptural interpretation from their Jewish predecessors” (1). This volume, therefore, expresses the state of the question and presses the field forward into new avenues of scholarship. In doing so, they stand on the shoulders of Krister Stendahl (School of Matthew, 1968) and Richard Hays (Echoes of Scripture in Paul, 1989). However, even though the authors of the New Testament are either “Jews or Judaphiles,” not all New Testament scriptural interpretations are easily illustrated in Jewish literature, nor can all types of scriptural interpretation in contemporary Judaism be illustrated in the New Testament.

[...]

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Megiddo "Jesus" mosaic to be loaned to Museum of the Bible?

ARCHAEOLOGY, EPIGRAPHY, DECORATIVE ART, POLITICS: Israel may uproot ancient Christian mosaic, send it to US Evangelical museum. Megiddo Mosaic could be loaned to Museum of the Bible in Washington; some worry it will be used in ideological, rather than archaeological, context (Ilan Ben Zion, AP via Times of Israel).

For the Megiddo mosaics, including the one that refers to "the God Jesus Christ," see here and links. For more on the Museum of the Bible, follow the links from here, notably here.

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

Gold coins and baby sacrifices excavated at Carthage

PUNIC WATCH: Rare golden gifts — left at a sacrificial site 2,300 years ago — uncovered in Tunisia. (Aspen Pflughoeft; "Google Translate was used to translate the news release from Tunisia’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs and articles from RT and Shems FM").

Archaeologists excavating the tophet [at the site of Carthage] uncovered a collection of offerings, Tunisia’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs said in an Aug. 11 news release. They found five gold coins from 2,300 years ago, tombstones and several urns with the remains of animals, infants and premature babies.

The rare gold coins are about an inch in size and have a design showing the face of Tanit, an ancient goddess of fertility and motherhood, the Tunisian outlet Shems FM reported. Photos show a few of the still-shiny golden treasures.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on ancient Carthage, its history, and its archaeology, start here and follow the links. For a brief history, see here. Also see "Carthage" in the archive. For the gold coinage of Carthage, see here. For ancient Tunisian coinage more generally, see here and links. For the Punic (and Phoenician?) goddess Tanit (Tannit), the "Snake Lady," see here and links. For the issue of child sacrifice at Carthage, see here and links.

Cross-file unde Numismatics.

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

First-century CE synagogue excavated on the Cimmerian Bosporus

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: One of the World's Oldest Synagogues Has Just Been Discovered (Aristos Georgiou, Newsweek)

Archaeologists say they have discovered one of the world's earliest synagogues at the site of an ancient city.

A team of experts made the find during excavations at the archaeological site of Phanagoria, which is on the Taman Peninsula in southwestern Russia. The ancient settlement was founded by Greek settlers around the middle of the 6th century B.C. on the peninsula, which borders the Sea of Azov to the north and the Black Sea to the south.

[...]

Reportedly, two inscriptions identifying the building as a "house of worship" and "synagogue" date to the first century C.E.

For additional background, see Ruth Schuster's article in Haaretz: Synagogue From Late Second Temple Period Found by Black Sea in Russia. Identity of the house of worship from about 2,000 years ago confirmed by menorah engravings and inscriptions calling it a ‘synagogue’, Phanagoria excavation director Vladimir Kuznetsov explains.

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

Briquel Chatonnet & Debie, The Syriac World (Yale)

NEW BOOK FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Syriac World
In Search of a Forgotten Christianity

by Francoise Briquel Chatonnet and Muriel Debie
Translated by Jeffrey Haines

304 Pages, 6.12 x 9.25 in, 68 b-w illus.

Hardcover
9780300253535
Published: Tuesday, 20 Jun 2023
$35.00

Description

A comprehensive survey of Syriac Christianity over three thousand years

Syriac is often referred to as the third main language of Christianity, along with Latin and Greek, and it remains a foundational classical, literary, and religious language throughout the world. Originating in Mesopotamia along the Roman and Parthian frontiers, it was never the language of a powerful state or ethnic group, but with the coming of Christianity it developed into a rich religious and cultural tradition. At the same time that Christianity was making its way through Europe, Syriac missionaries were founding churches from the Mediterranean coast to Persia, converting the Turkic tribes of Central Asia, and building communities in India and China.

This comprehensive work tells the underexplored story of the Syriac world over three thousand years, from its pre-Christian roots in the Aramaic tribes and the ancient Near East to its vibrant expressions in modern diaspora churches. Enhanced with images, songs, poems, and important primary texts, this book shows the importance of Syriac history, theology, and literature in the twenty-first century.

This is a translation of their 2017 French book.

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The Ma'on synagogue mosaic

DECORATIVE ART: Ancient Ma'on synagogue in Israel's southern Negev features mosaic floor. Historic synagogue testifies to existence of Jewish community in the Christian town All Israel News). Nice photos.

I noted the 2009 discovery of the mosaic here. Another post on the site is here.

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