Feldt, Ancient Mythologies of the Wilderness (CUP)

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Ancient Mythologies of the Wilderness

Narrative, Nature, and Religious Identity Formation from the Babylonians to the Late Antique Christians

Author: Laura Feldt, University of Southern Denmark
Published: April 2025
Availability: Available
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781009574549

£90.00 GBP
Hardback

Description

Ancient wilderness mythologies have been criticised for their role in forming anthropocentric outlooks on the natural world, and idealising human separateness from the rest of the living world. Laura Feldt here challenges these ideas and presents a new approach to the question of the formative role of ancient wilderness mythologies. Analysing seminal ancient myths from Mesopotamia and ancient Jewish and Christian texts, she argues that these narratives do not idealise the destruction of and dominion over wildlands. Instead, they kindle emotions like awe and wonder at the wild powers of nature. They also provide a critical perspective on human societies and power and help form identities and experiences that resonate with the more-than-human world. Feldt also demonstrates how ancient wilderness mythologies played a decisive role in shaping the history of religions. As a sphere of intense emotion and total devotion, wilderness generates tendencies towards the individualisation and interiorisation of religion.

• Surveys theories of religion and wilderness, offering readers a fundamentally new approach to ancient wilderness mythologies
• Offers in-depth narrative analyses of ancient wilderness mythologies stretching from the 19th century BCE to the 6th century CE
• Argues that wilderness narratives play vital roles in articulating, framing and forming wild resonance experiences and the opacity of nature for humans

Product details

Published: April 2025
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781009574549
Length: 354 pages
Dimensions: 229 × 152 × 24 mm
Weight: 0.625kg
Availability: Available

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Hein, The Prophet Is the People (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Prophet Is the People: An Answer to "Why Elijah?" in Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian Literature

Series: Vetus Testamentum, Supplements, Volume: 199

Author: Alicia R. Hein

The question of why the prophet Elijah comes to hold such enduring significance in early Jewish and Christian tradition has previously remained largely unaddressed. Why is it Elijah, as opposed to any other prophet of the Hebrew tradition, who is associated with Israel’s future restoration? Why is his return predicted by the book of Malachi? Why are both Jesus and John the Baptist associated with Elijah in the New Testament Gospels? This study argues that Elijah’s literary character is portrayed and received throughout early Jewish and Christian literature as the paradigmatic prophet who simultaneously embodies the righteous people of God, and thereby, by his ongoing life, ensures a remnant’s survival and restoration.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73469-2
Publication: 28 Apr 2025
EUR €109.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-72976-6
Publication: 08 May 2025
EUR €109.00

This book is Dr. Hein's revised Ph.D. thesis completed at the University of St. Andrews.

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Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: May 2025

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year Part 10: May 2025.

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

Tony reports that in May he visited Athens and Santorini, etc., he attended the annual meeting of the North American Patristics Society in Chicago, and he was briefly detained by the U.S. Government, out of abundance of caution, as a possible like-named "criminal mastermind or something."

For earlier posts in the series and more on Tony's work, see here and links.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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Hamernik, ... 4QWords of Ezekiel in Its Broader Context (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Ezekiel Traditions in the Second Temple Period

4QWords of Ezekiel in Its Broader Context

Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 151

Author: Anna Shirav Hamernik

This volume offers a fresh perspective on the composition 4QWords of Ezekiel found at Qumran, and the development and transmission of the textual traditions associated with the prophet Ezekiel during the Second Temple period. As the first comprehensive monograph on this composition, it explores the intricate relationship between WoEzek and the scriptural Book of Ezekiel. The study suggests that WoEzek, through its unique structural framework and selected oracles, reflects how Ezekiel’s visions were interpreted during the Second Temple period. By placing WoEzek within its broader literary and historical context, the analysis challenges traditional views on this composition and highlights the significance of Ezekiel's prophecy in the evolution of apocalyptic literature. This resource is ideal for scholars and graduate students in Biblical Studies and Second Temple literature, especially those interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ezekiel’s prophetic writings.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-72558-4
Publication: 28 Apr 2025
EUR €124.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-72557-7
Publication: 01 May 2025
EUR €124.00

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Be'er Shema mosaic exhibition

DECORATIVE ART: Spectacular Early Christian Mosaic Presented to the Public in Israel. Discovered 25 years ago, the huge mosaic carpet of a monastery shows life in the Holy Land 1,600 years ago, plus lion (Unattributed, Haaretz).

Exactly 25 years ago, in the year 1990, a mosaic was discovered on a farm near the ruins of Be'er Shema, south of Kibbutz Urim, and it was extraordinarily beautiful.

Now after being dug up again, cleaned, restored and relocated, the Be'er Shema (or Birsama) mosaic with no less than 55 medallions has been presented to the public in all its glory for the first time. It can be experienced at the Merhavim Regional Council complex, located in the western Negev, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday.

[...]

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Schmidt, Josephus and Jesus (OUP, open access)

NEW OPEN-ACCESS BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Josephus and Jesus

New Evidence for the One Called Christ

T. C. Schmidt

£99.00

Hardback
Published: 03 June 2025
336 Pages | 14 Illustrations
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780192866783

Also Available As:
E-book Open Access

Description

This book brings to light an extraordinary connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the Jewish historian Josephus. Writing in 93/94 CE, Josephus composed an account of Jesus known as the Testimonium Flavianum. Despite this being the oldest description of Jesus by a non-Christian, scholars have long doubted its authenticity due to the alleged pro-Christian claims it contains. This book, however, authenticates Josephus' authorship of the Testimonium Flavianum and reveals a startling observation: Josephus was directly familiar with those who put Jesus on trial. Consequently, Josephus would have had access to highly reliable information about the man from Nazareth. The book concludes by describing what Josephus tells us about the Jesus of history, his miracles, and his resurrection.

An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

Roger Pearse has already posted some preliminary comments on the book and the problem it addresses: T. C. Schmidt, “Josephus & Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ”

T. C. Schmidt has bravely added to the bibliography on the so-called Testimonium Flavianum in Josephus, with a new book through Oxford University Press, titled: “Josephus & Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ.” The author makes the case that this much-discussed passage is “substantially authentic.” In doing so he responds to recent scholarship on the subject, some of which has been unduly sceptical. ...

The most recent substantial work on the Testimonium Flavianum of which I was aware before this was by Ken Olsen, who argued that it was composed entirelyby Eusebius. Now T. C. Schmidt argues that it is "substantially authentic." And others have argued for many possibilities in between.

My own working hypothesis has become that we haven't a clue how much, if any, of the paragraph is genuine. And, barring welcome but unlikely new manuscript discoveries, we probably never will know.

PRE-POSTING UPDATE: I understand from a note from reader Stephen Goranson that, in a new commentary on Antiquities 18-20, Daniel R. Schwartz takes a intermediate position, finding some Christian interpolations in the paragraph. I'm really busy now, but I will noted Schwartz's book in more detail when I get a chance.

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Review of Glas, Flavius Josephus’ self-characterisation in first-century Rome

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Flavius Josephus’ self-characterisation in first-century Rome. A historiographical analysis of autobiographical discourse in the Judaean War.

Eelco Glas, Flavius Josephus' self-characterisation in first-century Rome. A historiographical analysis of autobiographical discourse in the Judaean War. Historiography of Rome and its empire, 19. Leiden: Brill, 2024. Pp. 285. ISBN 9789004697638.

Review by
William den Hollander, Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary. wdenhollander@crts.ca

... Eelco Glas rightly treats the Judaean War as a sophisticated work of literature that has been carefully crafted to communicate to a concrete historical audience in a unique cultural context, first-century Rome. His careful historiographical analysis of Josephus’ autobiographical discourse makes it abundantly clear that Josephus’ writings need to be understood as complex rhetorical texts with their own structure, themes, and purposes, and that, consequently, they cannot simply be looked or sifted through to discover the ‘historical Josephus,’ an approach that has usually resulted in condemnation of his character. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Should publications of forged fragments be formally retracted?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Case for Retraction of Academic Authentications of Forged Fragments (Jonathan Klawans).

Abstract: This position paper issues a call for editors and publishers with oversight over peer-reviewed publications of inauthentic post-2002 Dead Sea Scroll-like fragments to embark on the processes that would consider (and likely result in) retraction. By common consent, findings in the publications identified in this essay are unreliable at best; many present material subsequently deemed falsified. Retraction is the proper and justified measure to take regarding these publications in order to correct the academic record and alert any and all potential readers to the untrustworthy nature of their content.

For related PaleoJudaica posts regarding biblical-related forgeries and the like, follow the links here and here, and see also and here.

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Egypt promises no interference with Saint Catherine's monastery?

SAINT CATHERINE'S MONASTERY: Egypt Affirms Saint Catherine Monastery’s Status After Court Clarification (Tasos Kokkinidis, Greek Reporter).

Egypt has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to safeguarding the Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai, emphasizing that a recent court ruling has further solidified its protected status.

Cairo said that the court ruling, which was mistakenly interpreted as a prelude to the seizure and closure of the world’s oldest continuously functioning Christian monastery, does the exact opposite: It safeguards its future.

[...]

This story made a splash last week, but I'm only getting to it now.

I don't really understand what was going on. That is, I don't know whether this legal ruling opens the door to the seizure of the site from the monks (the original media narrative) or closes that door and protect the site. Or whether that depends on its intepretation. I don't know where to read the actual ruling and I doubt I could be confident of understanding all its implications anyway.

But in any case, it appears that the Egyptian Goverment recognized that the story was getting a lot of bad publicity, so they stepped in to assure the Monastery that it was safe. There are more details of the Government's respose here.

I commend the Egyptian Government for clarifying its position. They clearly understand the reputational damage that would result from any effort to interfere with the long-established operations of Saint Catherine's Monastery.

But let's do keep an eye on this and make sure they stick to it.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Saint Catherine's Monastery and its important collection of manuscripts, start here and follow the links.

PRE-POSTING UPDATE: As I was about to post this I found a post by Luke Coppen in his Substack, The Pillar: What’s happening at Egypt’s St Catherine’s Monastery? A controversial court ruling over the ownership of the ancient monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai has caused outcry. He seems to have more information on the Egyptian ruling, based on Greek media. He says:

On May 28, the Egyptian Court of Appeals issued a ruling widely interpreted as declaring the monastery state property, while recognizing the monks’ right to perform their religious duties at the site.

But the 160-page text was of such complexity that even legal professionals struggled to grasp it fully.

I can't vouch for his assessment, having not seen the information directly. But I was worried about this. If the ruling is actually this complicated, then how it is implemented is a matter of goodwill. So, as I said above, let's keep an eye on the situation.

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INL displays the Crowns of Damascus manuscripts

EXHIBITION: Ancient 'Damascus Crowns' unveiled in Jerusalem in tribute to Syrian Chief Rabbi. In a moving ceremony at the National Library in Jerusalem, the public was granted a rare glimpse of the ancient “Damascus Crowns” — Torah manuscripts smuggled from Syria in a daring operation led by Rabbi Avraham Hamra (Israel National News).

The “Damascus Crowns” are some of the oldest Torah manuscripts in existence, featuring cantillation marks, vowel notation, and intricate masoretic commentary. They were preserved for generations in Damascus synagogues and were smuggled out using creative and covert methods.

For more on the Crowns of Damascus—eleven very early vocalized Hebrew Bible manuscripts—see here and links. For a summary overview of their story, see this Chabad essay by Yehudis Litvak: The Untold Story of the Crowns of Damascus.

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Agrippa's Pan place at Paneas

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: New Discoveries in the Pan Grotto in Paneas (Adi Erlich and Ron Lavi).

Travelers who visit the springs of Paneas in the Hermon Stream Nature Reserve in Northern Israel, at the foot of Mt. Hermon, are amazed by the cliff, water, and forest scenery. However, the most impressive feature of that landscape is a big natural cave on the cliff, which, during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, was associated with the cult of Pan, the god of the wild and shepherds.

[...]

For more on Herod Agrippa II and his Pan sanctuary at Paneas (a.k.a. Bania), see here and links.

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Leonard J. Greenspoon (1945-2025)

SAD NEWS FROM H-JUDAIC: Passing of Prof. Leonard J. Greenspoon (1945-2025).

H-Judaic is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Prof. Leonard J. Greenspoon (1945-2025), Klutznick Chair (emeritus) at Creighton University, Omaha, where he also served as Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and Theology.

[...]

Lennie was a great guy, always full of good cheer, and an accomplished Septuagint scholar and expert on the history of Jewish Bible translations. May his memory be for a blessing.

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Shavuot 2025

THE FESTIVAL OF SHAVUOT (Weeks, Pentecost) begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating.

Last year's Shavuot post is here, linking back to previous years' posts. For biblical references, see here.

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Judeophobia and the New Testament (Eerdmans)

NEW BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

Judeophobia and the New Testament
Texts and Contexts

Edited by Sarah E. Rollens, Eric M. Vanden Eykel and Meredith J. C. Warren

Imprint: Eerdmans

372 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

HARDCOVER
9780802882882
Publication Date: April 24, 2025
$44.99
£34.99

EBOOK
9781467466158
Publication Date: April 24, 2025
$44.99
£34.99

DESCRIPTION

An essential resource for understanding the troubling role of the Christian scriptures in anti-Semitism

This eye-opening collection of essays is essential reading for anyone concerned about the ways that Christian scripture has been used—both in the past and the present—in service of anti-Semitism. The authors seek to identify, contextualize, and problematize New Testament “Judeophobia,” a broad heading that encompasses anti-Semitism, supersessionism, and various discriminatory practices against Jews at different points in history.

In the first half of Judeophobia and the New Testament: Texts and Contexts, readers engage with the subject matter through thematic essays. In the second half, readers engage with text-based essays that focus on individual books of the New Testament as well as relevant non-canonical literature. Throughout, the book’s goal is to educate readers about the ways that New Testament texts have been used to engender Judeophobia from the early church to today. While the book is designed primarily as a resource for teachers and students, it also aims to help New Testament scholars account for Judeophobic interpretations, take responsibility for them, and encourage the discipline to work against its own role in rising anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence.

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Benjamin (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Deuteronomy

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Oxford Handbook of Deuteronomy

Edited by Don C. Benjamin

Oxford Handbooks

£97.00

Hardback
Published: 23 April 2025
528 Pages
248x171mm
ISBN: 9780190273552

Description

The Oxford Handbook of Deuteronomy is a gateway to what legal traditions teach about the cultural identity and social world of the people of YHWH — how they thought about themselves, and about their world and how they faced and resolved the challenges of daily life. More than a record of values of a by-gone era, Deuteronomy continues to inspire audiences to take on the challenges of living their values with confidence. The Oxford Handbook of Deuteronomy introduces readers to significant topics in the thriving conversation and the rich diversity in the academic community studying Deuteronomy. An international collection of scholars, the contributors are specialists in a variety of critical methods for understanding and appreciating legal traditions. Considering the literary development, motifs, social world, intertextuality, and reception history of Deuteronomy this Handbook offers a ready reference to anyone wishing to learn more about one of the most formative books of the Hebrew Bible.

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Smithsonian returns Chinese "Dead Sea Scrolls" to China

REPATRIATION: The Smithsonian Transfers Rare 2,300-Year-Old Silk Manuscripts to China. The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts were smuggled into the United States in the 1940s. Scholars say they provide remarkable insights into ancient Chinese philosophy and religion (Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine).

Dating to around 300 B.C.E., the Zidanku Manuscripts are the oldest known silk manuscripts found in China and the only ones from the Warring States period. They’re thought to be a divination guide that offers rare insights into ancient Chinese philosophy and religion.

Volume II, also known as “Wuxing Ling,” contains lunar calendar illustrations and accompanying text that explains “seasonal taboos and auspicious practices,” per the Chinese news agency Xinhua. The texts in Volume III, or “Gongshou Zhan,” are arranged in a rare circular pattern and are read clockwise. They may offer guidance for attacking and defending cities.

“The Dead Sea Scrolls are foundational to understanding the religious roots of Judaism and Christianity,” Li Ling, a scholar of Chinese studies at Peking University, tells the Chinese broadcaster CCTV, perSouth China Morning Post’s Luna Sun. “The Zidanku manuscripts are no less vital to Chinese civilization. They speak to our ancient knowledge systems, our understanding of the cosmos and the details of everyday life.”.

This story has been getting a lot of attention, with predictable emphasis on the parallels to the Dead Sea Scrolls. For example here, with some additional details.

Another famous set of Chinese manuscripts comparable in date to the Scrolls (and also compared to them, e.g. here) is the Ma-wang-tui silk manuscripts of Lao-Tzu's Tao-Te-Ching (and some other works). They were discovered in 1973 in an ancient tomb dated to 168 BCE. Robert G. Hendricks published an English translation of the Lao-Tzu texts in Lao-Tzu: Te-Tao Ching: A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang tui Texts (Classics of Ancient China) (Random House, 1989 with reprints).

And for some other Warring-States-era manuscripts, Confucian texts written on bamboo, see here. They too "have been compared to the Dead Sea scrolls."

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Coptic-era building with mural, inscriptions, etc. excavated in Egypt

COPTIC WATCH: Coptic period structure unearthed in Assiut, Upper Egypt (Nevine El-Aref , ahramonline).

An Egyptian-led archaeological team unearthed the remains of a mudbrick structure in the Monqabad area of Assiut in Upper Egypt, believed to date back to the sixth and seventh centuries AD during the Coptic era in the country. ...

These inscriptions and carvings include a unique depiction of multiple eyes surrounding a central face, which is interpreted as representing spiritual insight and inner vision, key themes in Coptic religious tradition.

Another striking mural features a man holding a child, believed to represent Saint Joseph carrying the Christ Child. The mural is flanked by figures thought to be Jesus' disciples, with inscriptions in the Coptic language.

There are some nice photos in the article, but I can't find any of the face-carving or the mural there, or anywhere so far.

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A new inscribed ostracon from Lachish

HEBREW EPIGRAPHY: Discovered: Lachish Ostracon Bearing Biblical Name ‘Shaphan’. A rare name in the Bible and archaeology (for good reason) (CHRISTOPHER EAMES, Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology).

The sherd dates to the end of the Iron Age—discovered in a layer destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.e. (Level ii)—and though it doesn’t tell us much, as far as content goes, it does bear the rare name of a particular biblical figure also on the scene at the same time: Shaphan.

The article links to the underlying open-access article in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology:

New Hebrew Ostracon from Lachish

Daniel Vainstub, Hoo-Goo Kang, Barak Sober, Iris Arad, and Yosef Garfinkel

Abstract

In an archaeological excavation conducted in 2016 on the northern slope of Tel Lachish, the triangular lower-right corner of a Hebrew ostracon was found. It was assigned to Level II, which was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Despite the very faded condition of the inscription, the following phrase can be cautiously reconstructed for its bottom line: “On the 1[6?] (day of the month) Shapan [son (of) ].” This phrase probably summarizes or closes an administrative document.

For some comments on the Shaphan mentioned in the Bible, the discoverer (composer??) of the book of the law during Josiah's reign, see here. For a discussion of the excavated seal impression belonging to his son, Gemaryahu, see the article by Lawrence J. Mykytiuk linked to here.

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More on the Mount Zion stone-cup cryptic inscription

CRYPTIC EPIGRAPHIC ARTIFACT: Jewish Secrets Scratched in Stone: 2,000-year-old Cryptic Text Found in Jerusalem. Excavating on Mount Zion, Shimon Gibson's team found a bewildering stone mug with a script type only seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Adonai is mentioned (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

In Gibson's mind, the inscribed mug from his Mount Zion dig speaks to the diverse complexity of ancient Judaism that was still finding its way 2,000 years ago. Was ritual prayer something only to be done at the Temple, or could it be done at home? Could chanting be used? Did it use a repetition of words, with an uplifting of the voice, and when was it to be done? The mug is a small piece of evidence pointing to an entire world hidden from view, one we can only glimpse at, like looking through a crack in a wall.

Did the Mount Zion mug have any kind of an association with the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whether they were Qumranite sectarians or perhaps even the Essenes themselves, based on their mutual use of cryptic writing? Maybe cryptic writing was much more common at that time than has previously been thought, and not just among sectarians but also among city dwellers as well? We don't know; the crack we have been peering through simply hasn't widened enough to show us a corpus of texts from every other part of the country; Judaism at the time had certain commonalities, but it was also very diverse, Gibson asserts.

A typically throughly-researched article by Ms. Schuster.

I noted the discovery of the cup in 2009 and followed up with quite a few posts. I talked with Stephen Pfann about it later that year and posted on the conversation here. For the other posts, start here and follow the links.

For more on 4Q186, the cryptic Qumran horoscope text, see here.

Back to the current article, regarding this:

Another expert on ancient Jewish paleography, Dr. David Hamidović of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, noted another similarity, with incantation and curse texts from a somewhat later time, which often feature seemingly meaningless words or letters known as nomina barbara. This mug seems amply blessed with nomina barbara.

As far as I am aware, nomina barbara in esoteric and ritual texts are only currently known in late-antique and later texts. If a ritual cup from the first century CE really does have them, that would be important news.

That said, given the present state of its decipherment, it's possible that the "nomina barbara" are just actual words that the decipherers have not yet figured out. It's hard to tell before a decipherment is published.

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Another gold ring excavated at the Givati Parking Lot

STILL MORE ANCIENT BLING: 2nd gold ring found in City of David sheds light on enigmatic Hellenist era in Jerusalem. The artifacts might have been buried by a young girl on the eve of her wedding, but whether she was Judean, Greek or both remains a mystery (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

n exquisite gold ring set with a red gemstone, dating back some 2,300 years, has been unearthed beneath the floor of a Hellenistic structure in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the City of David announced Wednesday.

Strikingly similar to another ring discovered in the same spot a year ago, the artifact was found in the Givati Parking Lot excavation in the Jerusalem Walls National Park, only steps away from where the ancient Temple stood at the time. Yet, according to the researchers, whether the owners were wealthy Judaeans, Greek elites, or possibly individuals who straddled both cultures remains a mystery.

[...]

PaleoJudaica noted the discovery of that other ring almost exactly a year ago. The current article reports that a bronze earring was previously excavated at the same spot. I didn't know about that one, although another gold earring was found at the Givati Parking Lot in 2018.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Givati Parking Lot excavation and the many discoveries there, see the links collected here.

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