Aramaic Incantation Bowls in Their Late Antique Jewish Contexts (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Aramaic Incantation Bowls in Their Late Antique Jewish Contexts
Alexander W. Marcus, Jason S. Mokhtarian, editors

ISBN 9781967013067
Volume BJS 376
Status Available
Publication Date August 2025

Paperback $80.00
Hardback $100.00
eBook $80.00

Outside of the Babylonian Talmud, the Aramaic incantation bowls inscribed with elaborate magical texts are the only major extant written corpus produced by Jews during the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods (ca. 500–700 CE). Contributors Siam Bhayro, Anne Burberry, Shira Eliassian, James Nathan Ford, Tal Ilan, Reuven Kiperwasser, Dan Levene, Alexander W. Marcus, Jason Sion Mokhtarian, Ortal-Paz Saar, Harriet Walker, and Daniel J. Waller approach the amulets through a variety of methodological approaches, including social history, gender studies, linguistics, and digital humanities. The volume includes an up-to-date survey, introductory essay, map of known excavation sites, and bibliographical resources for the vast and diffuse corpus of Aramaic incantation bowls that served a number of purposes, including warding off evil spirits and diseases, overturning curses from human adversaries, and achieving success in court cases, childbirth, or livelihood. The fascinating artifacts presented here transform our understanding of Jewish culture, interreligious interactions, and the varieties of Jewish identity and religion that existed during this formative era.

For more on the ancient Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls, see here and links, plus here.

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William Ross on flouted LXX translation conventions

WILLIAM A. ROSS: NEW PUBLICATIONS: PART 1.

Highlighting an article entitled “Flouted Conventions in Septuagint Translation” in the Robert Hanhart Festschrift, Das Erbe der Göttinger Septuaginta (Vandehoeck & Ruprecht 2025).

Cross-file under New Book.

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Cleopatra’s siblings

PTOLEMAIC SOAP OPERA: Who Were Cleopatra’s Siblings? A royal soap opera with sibling rivalries, questionable marriages, and enough Ptolemys and Cleopatras to make counting rather complicated (Mandy Nachampassack-Maloney, The Conversation).

Trying to unravel the knotted webs of Cleopatra’s family drama is a Herculean task. The Ptolemaic Dynasty was not just about ruling the land of the Nile—it was about keeping their family tree nice and circular by marrying their siblings. Cleopatra VII, the queen we all know and whose mystique continues right on to today, came from a family so tangled that historians need flowcharts just to keep the players straight. Her siblings weren’t just family—they were also frenemies, co-rulers, and, occasionally, barely tolerated spouses. The fact is, no one is even quite sure how many siblings there actually were in Cleopatra’s generation. Here we’ll take a look at the ones we know (or think we know) about.

[...]

Cleopatra here is Cleopatra VII, the Cleopatra.

Nearly five years ago, when the question of Cleopatra's genetic background came up, I pulled together all the available, rather ambiguous, evidence here. The current article goes into her family background in even greater detail. That does not make things less complicated.

Gal Gadot's Cleopatra movie is still not out, but as of this summer she says it's still on.

For many other PaleoJudaica posts on Cleopatra VII, who reportedly spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, start here and follow the links.

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Aromatic Phoenicians?

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Phoenician Oil Bottles Carried ‘Scents of Home’ Across the Med (Ancient Origins reprint of a University of Tübingen press release).

The team examined the composition of the ceramics to determine the origin of the vessels. Further analysis of the organic residues preserved within the vessels provided insight into their original contents and intended use. Their results point to a production origin in southern Phoenicia, specifically between present-day Beirut and the Carmel region. Organic residues were detected in eight of the 51 vessels, revealing traces of plant-based lipids, as well as pine and mastic resin, which are strong indicators of fragrant oil preparations.

The press release links to the underlying open-access article published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory:

Scents of Home: Phoenician Oil Bottles from Motya

Research Open access Published: 06 August 2025
Volume 32, article number 59, (2025)

Adriano Orsingher, Baptiste Solard, Irene Bertelli, Erika Ribechini, Lara Maritan, Kamal Badreshany & Silvia Amicone

Abstract

Olfactory cultures shape how societies perceive, value, and use scents in daily life, ritual, and social practice, embedding specific smells within collective identity. Mobility exposes these cultures to new environments, where scents may act as markers of heritage and belonging for migrants while also prompting diverse reactions—ranging from appreciation to disruption—within host or newly established communities. The Iron Age Mediterranean, marked by intense cultural encounters, offers key insights into how fragrances contributed to an increasingly interconnected world, with the Phoenicians playing a central role in disseminating Near Eastern aromatic practices westward. Despite the frequent association between the Phoenicians and scented substances, the contents of vessels traditionally assumed to have held unguents remain largely unknown. This study presents the first systematic, interdisciplinary analysis of the composition, technology, and contents of over fifty “Phoenician oil bottles” from the island of Motya, off the west coast of Sicily, Italy. This assemblage represents a significant sample of these plain-ware, slow-pouring juglets that circulated throughout and beyond the Mediterranean. The results suggest that aromatic unguents were likely produced and bottled in southern Phoenicia during the eighth–sixth centuries BCE and circulated to the western Mediterranean. While focused in scope, this evidence contributes to broader discussions of Phoenician involvement in the production, trade, and consumption of fragrant substances. The study also highlights the potential for such vessels to inform future research into the sensory, social, and cultural dimensions of mobility and interaction in the ancient Mediterranean.

Cross-file under Aromatic Archaeology.

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Gemara Words Academy

ARAMAIC WATCH: New Digital Resource Ready for Yeshiva Year: Gemara Words Academy (CrownHeights.info).

Gemara Words Academy offers over 400 essential Aramaic terms organized into key categories including terminology, common words, teachings, questions, answers, and proofs.

This web resource appears to be available for free.

Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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Plato's grave located? I doubt it.

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY? Deciphered Herculaneum Papyrus Reveals Location of Plato’s Grave, Archaeologist Claims (Tasos Kokkinidis, Greek Reporter).

An Italian archaeologist said recently he has found the exact location of Plato’s grave in the Platonic Academy in Athens after deciphering the Herculaneum papyri.

[...]

I'm pretty sure there's nothing new in this article, but I note it just in case. I think that Professor Ranocchia was just saying that the recently recovered biography of Plato by the first-century BCE philosopher Philodemus gives a somewhat more precise tradition of where Plato's grave was at the Academy. We already knew that.

But the article heavily implies, without quite saying it, that Ranocchia has located the exact physical location of this grave in the ruins of the Academy. I doubt that. If so, I want photos and a geolocation. A fourth-century BCE Greek inscription saying "R.I.P. Plato" would be nice too, but I don't want to be greedy.

My discussion of the new Plato biography and its implications is here. Related posts are here and here.

Cross-file under Vesuvius Watch and Technology Watch.

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Congratulations to Simcha Gross

H-JUDAIC: ANN: AAJR Baron Prize Winner Recipient.

The American Academy for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the winner of its annual Salo Baron Prize for the best first book in Jewish studies published in the calendar year 2024. The prize honors:

Simcha Gross
Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity
(Cambridge University Press)

I noted the publication of the book here and here. And AJR did a seven-part review series on it. See here and links.

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

Biblical Studies Carnival 228

READING ACTS: Biblical Studies Carnival #228 for July and August 2025 (Phil Long).

A summer double issue.

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

The first museum

ANCIENT EXHIBITION: The First Museum Was Established By a Babylonian Woman 2,500 Years Ago (Nick Kampouris, Greek Reporter). HT Rogue Classicism

This very first museum was inside a temple precinct, scented with baked clay and incense, and was run by a woman with an incredible love for history. Around 530 BC, in the shadow of the great ziggurat of Ur, Babylonian princess and high priestess Ennigaldi-Nanna assembled a collection that included objects already ancient in her time. ...

PaleoJudaica has posted on Ennigaldi-Nanna here, here, and here. It's good to have this new article, since the old link on her museum has evaporated.

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More on that dolphin weight

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: A Looted Hellenistic Weight. IAA identifies rare object during antiquities raid (Nathan Steinmeyer).

“Heliodorus son of Apollonios, Agoranomos” reads the first part of an inscription on a rare lead weight seized by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) during a raid on an antiquities shop in Jerusalem’s Old City. Dated by its inscription to the year 165 of the Seleucid era (148/7 BCE), the weight may be connected to a powerful family from the ancient city of Maresha in the Shephelah region. Unfortunately, since the weight originates from the antiquities market, there is no way to know exactly where it came from.

[...]

I have already noted this discovery, but this essay includes some new informed speculation about the possible provenance of the object. Assuming, that is, that it is a genuine ancient artifact. The essay underlines the fact that it is looted and unprovenanced, but does not go on to ask the next question. It would be helpful if it became normal procedure to present the positive case that an unprovenanced artifact is genuine.

For lots more on the site of Maresha, see here and links.

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Letters from the Biblical World: Amarna and Lachish

AT BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY REPORT, Brian Windle has started a new series on Letters from the Biblical World. Two essays are up so far. HT the Bible Places Blog.

Letters from the Biblical World: The Amarna Letters

I very much doubt that the Amarna letters refer to the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites.

For more on the Amarna letters see here and links and here.

Letters from the Biblical World: The Lachish Letters

For some PaleoJudaica posts on the Lachish letters, see here and links.

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Was Deuteronomy the inspiration for constitutional government?

PROF. BERNARD M. LEVINSON: The Origins of Constitutional Thought—Found in Deuteronomy.

In a striking departure from prevailing notions of kingship in both the ancient Near East and early Israel, Deuteronomy introduces the separation of powers among distinct branches of government and subjects all political actors—including the monarch—to the rule of Torah. In effect, Deuteronomy provides a blueprint for the modern concept of the rule of law. These principles rest on an even more revolutionary idea: the establishment of an independent judiciary.

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

Fire at Tyre archaeological site

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Large fire engulfs archaeological site in Tyre (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International). HT Rogue Classicism.

Lots of wildfires this summer at archaeological sites. No word on what caused this one.

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

New edition of Jerome's commentary on Zechariah (Brepols)

NEW BOOK FROM BREPOLS PRESS:

Hieronymus

Commentarius in Zachariam

Roger Gryson (ed)

BOOK SERIES Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, vol. 76A bis 4

Pages: 316 p.
Size:155 x 245 mm
Language(s):Latin, French
Publication Year:2024

Buy print version
€ 230,00 EXCL. VAT
RETAIL PRICE
ISBN: 978-2-503-61464-9
Hardback
Available

Cette nouvelle édition fait ressortir la profonde originalité de Jérôme et sa position unique dans l’histoire de l’exégèse patristique

SUMMARY

Le commentaire sur Zacharie est le seul, parmi ceux des Douze prophètes, pour lequel la principale source d’inspiration de Jérôme est conservée. Pour les autres, ce sont les commentaires d’Origène, aujourd’hui perdus. Comme ils ne couvraient pas l’ensemble des Douze, Jérôme, de passage à Alexandrie en 386, demanda à Didyme de commenter pour lui Osée et Zacharie.

Un exemplaire du commentaire de Zacharie figurait parmi les papyrus découverts à Toura en 1941. Son éditeur a présenté le commentaire de Jérôme comme une « copie conforme » de celui de Didyme. En réalité, la confrontation fait plutôt ressortir la profonde originalité de Jérôme et sa position unique dans l’histoire de l’exégèse patristique. Contrairement à son devancier, il se soucie d’abord d’établir exactement la lettre du texte et d’en préciser le sens, en le situant dans son contexte et en recourant, si nécessaire, aux exégètes hébreux. Alors que l’Alexandrin se complaît dans des allégories dont le rapport au texte est souvent lointain et cultive une exégèse en quelque sorte hors sol, Jérôme prend soin de poser solidement le fondement de l’histoire avant d’exposer le sens spirituel qui s’en dégage. Il n’hésite pas à critiquer Didyme et se montre réservé à l’égard de l’allégorie, qu’il juge superflue là où le sens de la prophétie est manifeste. Il constate que ceux qui donnent à croire ainsi qu’ils en savent plus que les autres en affaiblissent souvent la portée en compliquant inutilement les choses.

Quant à la tradition manuscrite, complexe et mouvante, elle est ici plus souvent en faute que dans les six commentaires précédemment édités. Cela tient sans doute pour une part à l’état précaire des exemplaires de l’antiquité tardive que les copistes carolingiens ont reproduit, et pour une part au fait que Jérôme a dû travailler vite pour remettre son ouvrage au messager chargé de le faire parvenir à son dédicataire.

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Syfox, Constructing Femininity in the Book of Jubilees (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Constructing Femininity in the Book of Jubilees

Series: Biblical Interpretation Series, Volume: 230

Author: Chontel Syfox

A striking feature of the book of Jubilees is the visibility it gives to women in comparison to Genesis, with the matriarchs especially seeming to play an outsized role in the rewriting. Utilising approaches drawn from the fields of gender and feminist studies, Constructing Femininity in the Book of Jubilees interrogates the motives and priorities that guided the rewriter in his re-presentation of the matriarchs, asking to what extent the treatment of these characters was unique to this text and its author’s attitude towards women or typical of the then literary Zeitgeist.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73483-8
Publication: 21 Jul 2025
EUR €109.00

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73482-1
Publication: 24 Jul 2025
EUR €109.00

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The history of Paradise

HORTICULTURAL PHILOLOGY: Almost unimaginable beauty and opulence: the paradise pleasure gardens of ancient Persia (Peter Edwell, The Conversation). HT Rogue Classicism

Some of the most enduring ancient myths in the Persian world were centred around gardens of almost unimaginable beauty and opulence.

The biblical Garden of Eden and the Epic of Gilgamesh’s Garden of the Gods are prominent examples. In these myths, paradise was an opulent garden of tranquillity and abundance.

But how did this concept of paradise originate? And what did these beautiful gardens look and feel like in antiquity?

[...]

The subject is near to my heart, so I will comment a bit.

The Garden of the Gods in the Epic of Gilgamesh doesn't have any direct linguistic connection to the much later Persian paradise gardens.

The Garden of Eden is called paradeisos in the ancient Greek translation of Genesis (the Septuagint). The Greek work is an attempt at transcribing the Persian word.

An Aramaic transcription of the word also appears in the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 28:3) referring to a place to the far east containing "the tree of wisdom," from which Adam and Eve ate. In other word, the Garden of Eden again.

In the Talmud there is a story, the story of the Four Who Entered Paradise, in which four Tannaitic rabbis enter the "pardes" (same Persian word in Hebrew transcription) and three of them come to a bad end. There is debate about whether the use of pardes is metaphorical or mystical, The Jewish Hekhalot mystical literature retells the story and elsewhere uses the word to refer unambiguously to the the celestial Garden of Eden.

Even as far back as the Second Temple period, the Garden of Eden sometimes received a mystical, celestial locus (notably 1QHodayot^a 16.4-26).

Some PaleoJudaica posts on the term paradise and its biblical and Jewish connections are here, here, here, and here. For posts on the story of the Four Who Entered Paradise, start here and links, notably here.

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

They thought the Shroud of Turin was fake in the Middle Ages too

CONTROVERSIAL MATERIAL CULTURE: Newly uncovered medieval document adds evidence that Shroud of Turin is fake. Medieval theologian Nicole Oresme claims Shroud is deception by ‘clergy men’ (Vishwam Sankaran, The Independent). HT Archaeologica News.

A newly uncovered medieval document is the earliest known to suggest that the Shroud of Turin, widely believed to have been used to wrap Jesus’ crucified body, is not authentic.

The findings, published in the Journal of Medieval History, add evidence that even in the Middle Ages, people knew that the Shroud was fake.

[...]

The underlying article is open-access:

A New Document on the Appearance of the Shroud of Turin from Nicole Oresme: Fighting False Relics and False Rumours in the Fourteenth Century
Nicolas Sarzeaud
Received 27 Nov 2024, Accepted 01 Feb 2025, Published online: 28 Aug 2025
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2025.2546884

ABSTRACT

For over a century, the debate surrounding the appearance of the Shroud of Turin has revolved around documents produced in Champagne in 1389–1390, when this now-controversial relic was already caught up in a polemic between supporters and detractors of its cult. This article is the result of the discovery of a new, older source: in a treatise on unexplained phenomena (mirabilia) dated between 1355–82, the Norman scholar Nicole Oresme (d. 1382) refers to the Shroud as a ‘patent’ example of clerical fraud, prompting him to be more broadly suspicious of the word of ecclesiastics. After showing how this new document sheds light on the case for the Shroud’s appearance in Lirey in Champagne, and confirming the thesis corroborated by other fourteenth-century sources that the Shroud is a medieval artifact, the article uses the example of the Shroud to interrogate the role assumed by scholars of the period as verifiers of dubious opinions, and the methods they used.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Shroud of Turin, some of which note arguments in favor of or against its authenticity, start here and follow the links. The vast majority of scholarship views it as a medieval forgery.

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

Forgetting about the rediscovered lost gospels

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: The Rediscovery, And Re-Forgetting, Of The Lost Gospels (Philip Jenkins).

To return to a question I have raised here before. Given this profusion of sources and speculation that was already circulating by 1910 or so, it really is amazing that later generations were so amazed and entranced by the new outpouring of Gnostic- and heresy-related material (and new gospels) from the 1970s onward. It was almost as if the Lost Gospels were lost and forgotten once again. What on earth was happening?

Perhaps amnesia really is an integral part of the popularization of scholarship.

There is nothing new under the sun. That's in the Bible.

For lots more on those increasingly not-so-lost gospels, see here and links.

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Chilton on Aramaic Jesus

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Aramaic and the Making of the Gospels

Recent discoveries of first-century Aramaic texts and advances in linguistic analysis have revolutionized the study of the New Testament. By tracing transliterations, reconstructing possible Aramaic antecedents, and comparing themes with contemporary Jewish Aramaic literature, we see that the Gospels reflect diverse oral traditions shaped by both Aramaic and Greek cultural contexts. Rather than pointing to a single “Aramaic Jesus,” the evidence reveals multiple streams of memory and identity that influenced how Jesus was remembered and written into history.

See also Aramaic Jesus: Tradition, Identity, and Christianity’s Mother Tongue (Baylor University Press, 2025; use promo code 17PROMO for a discount).

See also Writings of Bruce Chilton.

By Bruce Chilton
Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion
Bard College
August 2025

The elusive Aramaic Jesus remains an object of fascination.

Cross-file under Forthcoming Book and Aramaic Watch.

There are many relevant PaleoJudaica posts. Some highlights are here, here (and links), here, here, here, and here. Some of the embedded links have evaporated, but there are lots of others to follow.

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

Carvalho on Portier-Young, The Prophetic Body

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW continues its review series on Anathea Portier-Young’s The Prophetic Body: Embodiment and Mediation in Biblical Prophetic Literature with an essay by Corrine Carvalho:

Whose Body Is It Anyway: A Response to The Prophetic Body

As I have written these descriptions, however, I remain conflicted about whose embodiment we are talking about with prophetic collections. I do not accept that we are describing the embodiment of historical people identified as prophets. These figures function as characters in their texts. So, if they are characters who may or may not replicate the experiences of a tangible historical person, then do they have a body? Are their imagined or projected bodies actual bodies that can be psychoanalyzed or engaged as if they were human? Is a character’s fictional embodiment part of its function as avatar for the audience? ...

Previous posts on the series are here and here.

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