I BELONG IN THE SECOND LEVEL OF HELL according to the Dante's Inferno Test (heads-up, Torrey Seland). Apparently I scored well for level five too. I'm surprised I didn't score better for level six, though. I'm a historical-critical biblical scholar, after all. Go figure.

For a long time I've hoped I could just squeak by into Limbo. At least I'm close.

Enjoy the test, but don't blame me if they keep your answers and blackmail you.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

HERE'S AN ARAB PERSPECTIVE on the Petra exhibit in New York, published in the Daily Star, Lebanon:

Petra exhibit in New York strives to alter perceptions
Most visitors viewing artifacts displayed in museum associate works with ancient history, not current Arab culture

UPDATE: And here's an account of a yoga and New Age spirituality retreat at Petra attended by Jordanians and an Iraqi, with a German teacher. Now is that multicultural or what?

HERE'S A WEBSITE on archaeological dating techniques (via Anita Cohen William's Archaeology Online blog). Includes some cool animation.

HERE'S A STATEMENT ON NORTH AMERICAN STUDENTS STUDYING IN ISRAEL (via the H-Judaic list):

Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 14:38:08 -0500
From: Ariella Brown
Subject: Statement on North American Undergraduate Study in Israeli Universities

The American Academy for Jewish Research, the Association For Jewish Studies, and the National Association Of Professors Of Hebrew have issued a statement expressing their concern over the restrictions imposed by numerous American and Canadian universities on undergraduates who wish to participate in "semester abroad" programs of study in Israel and asking university administrators to review their policies and remove impediments
to such study.

Please publicize and disseminate this statement widely.

The statement follows:

American Academy for Jewish Research
Association for Jewish Studies
National Association of Professors of Hebrew

Statement on North American Undergraduate Study in Israeli Universities


Over the past three years, the sharp decline in the number of North
American undergraduate students in "study abroad" programs at Israeli universities has had a severe and deleterious impact on academic Jewish Studies Programs in the United States and Canada. Students in such programs have been shown to benefit greatly from the language study and other subject specialization opportunities that can be found only at Israeli universities.

As presidents of the three major academic organizations of Jewish Studies faculty in North America, we wish to express our alarm at the policies of North American universities that serve to dissuade, discourage, prevent or even prohibit students who decide to study in Israel from doing so.

We recognize legitimate concerns for safety and the cautionary advice given by the State Department about travel in Israel. But we believe that, rather than cancel programs or prohibit study, universities should base the decision to award university credit for academic work done elsewhere solely on academic criteria and that no penalty should be imposed on students who have chosen freely and of their own volition to participate in such programs.

We call upon the administrations of American universities to review their policies on study in Israel in order to remove obstacles created by administrative decisions that are not germane to academic standards, so as to allow students to pursue their legitimate academic goals.

Shmuel Bolozky
(University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
President
National Association of Professors of Hebrew
(413) 545-2550

Lawrence H. Schiffman
(New York University)
President
Association for Jewish Studies
(212) 998-8980

David B. Ruderman
(University of Pennsylvania)
President
American Academy for Jewish Research
(215) 238-1290
The statement may also be viewed on the
AJS Website at
http://www.brandeis.edu/ajs/Study%20Abroad%20statement%20NAPH-AJS-AAJR.html

Yours sincerely,

Aaron L. Katchen
Executive Director
Association for Jewish Studies

HERE'S A BOSTON GLOBE REVIEW by Scott Bernard Nelson of two new books by Bart D. Ehrman on early Christian noncanonical literature and traditions (via Bible and Interpretation News). Excerpts:

In "Lost Scriptures," Ehrman provides English translations -- many of them his own -- of 47 nonbiblical texts written by early Christians and later unearthed by theologians, historians, and archeologists. In each case, he provides a short explanation of when and where the writing was found and how he believes it compares and contrasts with the New Testament. Virtually all were, at various times by various Christians, considered sacred.

It can be a fascinating exercise to, say, read the "Apocalypse of Peter," considered canonical by a number of early churches and thought to be the inspiration for Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy," alongside the biblical revelation of John. Or to puzzle your way through the "Gospel of Thomas," discovered in an Egyptian grave in 1945 and attributed to Didymus Judas Thomas, who some believe was Christ's brother. The text claims to record 114 direct quotes from Jesus, and some scholars have sparked controversy by saying those might be closer to what Christ actually taught than anything in the New Testament.

Perhaps most interesting, Ehrman includes five lists from early Christian writers discussing which books should and should not be counted as scripture. The variety of suggestions shows that the specifics of what we know today as the New Testament were in flux well into the fourth century. The first author to claim that the 27 books of the New Testament were, in fact, the one and true scripture was the bishop of Alexandria in AD 367 -- almost 3 1/2 centuries after Christ's crucifixion.

[�]

But who made the decisions about which books to include in the canon and which to exclude? And why? The Apostles themselves -- and anyone who knew anyone who knew the Apostles -- were long gone by the fourth century.

An analysis of these questions fills Ehrman's companion volume, "Lost Christianities." In it, he presents the major strains of early Christianity and explains how each feuded bitterly with the others. He also discusses how and why the group representing the closest thing to modern-day Christianity ultimately won out, leading to a statement of beliefs at the First Ecumenical Council in AD 325, which dictated that followers were to believe that there is one God, that he created the world, that Jesus his son is both human and divine, and that Jesus' death brought the world salvation, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.

Read it all.

HYPOTYPOSEIS is a new blog on biblical studies (so far New Testament and patristics) by Stephen C. Carlson (via Mark Goodacre). Recently he has discussed, inter alia the Secret Gospel of Mark, scholarship and copyright law, and ancient forgeries.

BE PAID TO GET A PH.D. AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN!

Three PhD-positions at the University of Groningen
Jewish and Christian Traditions

The Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies of the University of Groningen announces a search to fill three Ph.D. positions.
The Faculty runs three research programmes, among which a programme in Jewish and Christian Traditions. Excellent and suitable candidates, who have finished a relevant MA, are encouraged to apply. The research group consists of Professor Ed Noort (OT, Archaeology & Biblical Theology), dr Jacques van Ruiten (OT & Early Judaism), Professor Florentino Garc�a Mart�nez (Early Judaism & Qumran), dr Eibert Tigchelaar (Early Judaism & Qumran), Professor Gerard Luttikhuizen (NT & Gnosticism), and dr George van Kooten (NT & Hellenism).

At this stage, candidates should only send their curriculum vitae, a title of proposed research, a brief research proposal including a presentation and definition of the principal questions and problems, a brief general outline of the prospective table of contents, and a specification of referents, altogether certainly not exceeding two pages. Please send your application to Professor Ed Noort, Email e.noort@theol.rug.nl, before November 10th, 2003. After initial screening, the most suitable candidates will be invited to submit a full-scale proposal. For further enquiries, contact Professor Noort, Telephone 0031-50-363 55 67 (office); 0031-598-35 07 54 (home), or Email e.noort@theol.rug.nl.

The PhD appointments entail a 4-year fixed term contract, pay award rising over the years from EURO 1,683 to 2,258 per month. After one year an assessment takes places.

The University of Groningen is a strong, interdisciplinary university in the Netherlands. There is a direct connection between London Stansted and Groningen Airport (Ryanair).

(Via Mark Goodacre on the British New Testament Society information list.)

HERE'S MORE on the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Forbidden Book Exhibit in Dallas.

PHILOLOGOS discusses the Hebrew word Metsiya, which means both a good find and a rip-off, and is part of the title of a Talmudic tractate.

UPDATE: Edward Cook e-mails:

Good link on metsiya. The Hebrew word and Aramaic words are different though -- the Heb. is from mem-tsade-alef "to find" and the Aramaic (as in Baba Metsiya) is from mem-tsade-ayin "middle". The linked article doesn't really bring this out clearly.

A NEW PATRIARCH OF BABYLON OF THE CHALDEANS is being elected. The liturgical language of the Chaldean Church is Aramaic.

ANCIENT JEWISH NOVELS: AN ANTHOLOGY, by Lawrence M. Wills, is reviewed by Mark Jay Mirsky in the Forward. The book deals with Joseph and Aseneth, Judith, the Testament of Job, the additions to Esther, etc.

BLOGGER HAS BEEN DOWN this morning for scheduled maintenance. The Blogosphere reels.

ERICH VON DÄNIKEN has opened a "Chariots of the Gods" theme park in Switzerland (via Archaeology Magazine News). You just can't make this stuff up.

Despite the fact that he's a nut, I have a soft spot in my heart for von Däniken: at an impressionable age I read his books and they got me interested in ancient history and archaeology. So in a roundabout way you have him to thank (or blame) for this blog.

THE JEWISH LANGUAGE RESEARCH WEBSITE IS NOW COMPLETE:

From Sarah Bunin Benor: We are pleased to announce the completion of the Jewish Language Research Website: http://www.jewish-languages.org/

This website is designed to be a resource for Linguists, Jewish Studies Scholars, and the general public to learn about the speech and writing of Jews throughout history and around the world. It provides information about 14 Jewish languages: Hebrew, Jewish Aramaic, Jewish English, Jewish Malayalam,Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-French, Judeo-Greek, Judeo-Iranian, Judeo-Italian, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Portuguese, Judeo-Proven�al, Judeo-Spanish/Judezmo/Ladino, and Yiddish

The site presents short descriptions and bibliographies of these
languages, written by top researchers, and it provides contact information for over 50 scholars from 10 countries. It also provides information on computing in Hebrew and Jewish languages, as well as links to several other resources.

Please contact the editor, Sarah Bunin Benor , if you have suggestions or questions.

(From the H-JUDAIC list.)

THE JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES has a new issue out (62.4). Not only that, it appears that I failed to note the previous issue in July (62.3). There are no articles of direct paleojudaic interest in either issue (well, maybe JOHN C. POIRIER. "Generational Reckoning in Hesiod and in the Pentateuch" in 62.3) but there are many relevant book reviews (you have to download the complete PDF file of reviews for each issue in order to access any one review).

In issue 62.3 see the following reviews:

FLORENTINO GARC�A MART�NEZ and EIBERT TIGCHELAAR, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition. Vol. 1. 1Q1�4Q273. Vol. 2. 4Q274�11Q31 (Michael O. Wise)

ROBERT A. KUGLER and EILEEN M. SCHULLER, The Dead Sea Scrolls at Fifty: Proceedings of the 1997 Society of Biblical Literature Qumran Section Meetings and LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN, EMANUEL TOV, and JAMES C. VANDERKAM, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty Years after Their Discovery: Proceedings of the Jerusalem Congress, July 20�25, 1997 (Michael O. Wise)

EUGENE ULRICH, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (Michael O. Wise)

ZIPORA TALSHIR, I Esdras: From Origin to Translation (Ralph W. Klein)

M. P. WEITZMAN, The Syriac Version of the Old Testament: An Introduction (Tawny L. Holm)

ZE'EV BEN-HAYYIM and ABRAHAM TAL, A Grammar of Samaritan Hebrew: Based on the Recitation of the Law in Comparison with the Tiberian and Other Jewish Traditions. Rev. ed (Joseph Malone)

And in issue 62.4 see:

SAMUEL KOTTEK and MANFRED HORSTMANSHOFF, From Athens to Jerusalem: Medicine in Hellenized Jewish Lore and in Early Christian Literature: Papers of the Symposium in Jerusalem, 9�11 September 1996 (Robert D. Biggs)

GEOFFREY H. PARKE-TAYLOR, The Formation of the Book of Jeremiah: Doublets and Recurring Phrases (Christopher A. Rollston)

JOHN F. KUTSKO, Between Heaven and Earth: Divine Presence and Absence in the Book of Ezekiel (Christopher A. Rollston)

ANDREW G. VAUGHN, Theology, History, and Archaeology in the Chronicler's Account of Hezekiah (Christopher A. Rollston)

HERE ARE MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE FAKE LOST-TEN-TRIBES ARTIFACTS, which are to go on display in the Michigan museum to which they were donated. The forger seems to have made quite a cottage industry of the fakes in the late nineteenth century.

BRYN MAWR COLLEGE is hosting a forum on November 6-7 entitled "Jews and Christians Reading the Bible," which will be webcast live with participation from readers online. For more information follow the link. (Heads-up, Bob Kraft on the PSCO list.)

PROFESSOR JOHN RUSSELL has e-mailed Francis Deblauwe with some updates on the situation with antiquities sites in Iraq.

OUT FOR THE COUNT: My Bravenet counter has vanished! Their website won't open my account either. I'm not aware of having done anything to my blog's template, so I assume the problem is with Bravenet and not with me.

UPDATE: It's back now.

ANDRE LEMAIRE critiques the IAA's report on the" James ossuary" for Biblical Archaeology Review. The current issue of BAR also has snippets on biblical archaeological items currently in the news (Hezekiah's Tunnel, "James ossuary," Absaloms Tomb & Zacharias inscription," etc.) here and some thoughts and information on the upcoming Society of Biblical Literature conference in Atlanta here.

HERE'S A PRELIMINARY REPORT on the fourth season of excavations at Hippos Sussita, near the Sea of Galilee (Bible and Interpretation News).

A WARNING SHOT? Jim Caviezel, who plays Jesus in Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ, has been struck by lightning during the filming. Fortunately, he and assistant director Jan Michelini (who was struck for the second time in this incident) were not seriously injured.

The film is scheduled to be released in the U.S.A. by Newmarket Films on 25 February (Ash Wednesday). (Thanks to Jim West for this reference.) Gibson's own Icon Productions will distribute it in Australia and the U.K.

Not taking into account, of course, any further acts of God.

TOBIT DELETED: Here's a New York Times article on an etching of "Tobias and the Angel" by Hercules Segers which Rembrant reworked into an image of "The Flight Into Egypt."

SOME FAKE ARTIFACTS, produced in the late nineteenth century as proof of presence of the lost ten tribes in Michigan, have been donated by the Mormon Church to the Michigan Historical Museum.

A BATHHOUSE FROM THE TIME OF JESUS IN NAZARETH? By now you've probably heard of this one, but here's the article about it in The Guardian.

UPDATE: Christine at Mirabilis.ca notes this Ananova article from last December which cites an archaeologist and a biblical scholar who argue that the bathhouse should be dated to a millennium later than the time of Jesus. David Meadows of Rogue Classicism has been following the story since the beginning and also has comments (via Mark Goodacre).

I'M BACK IN ST. ANDREWS and, thanks to the time change, with only seven hours of jet lag instead of the normal eight. I'm not feeling particularly alert, but I'm here in my office, and I'll see presently what I can blog up.

NEH SUMMER SEMINAR IN ARAMAIC:

Aramaic in Post-Biblical Judaism and Early Christianity

NEH Summer Seminar
June 14-July 23, 2004
Duke University

In this six-week seminar, participants will study the Aramaic language and literature of post-biblical Judaism and early Christianity. In the mornings, participants will receive intensive instruction in three dialects of Aramaic: Jewish Literary Aramaic of first-century Judea and Qumran, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of Galilee in the third century and later, and Syriac, used extensively in Eastern Christianity. The Seminar is structured so that participants, upon successful completion, will have mastered at least one dialect for use in their personal research.

In the evenings, there will be seminars discussing the literature written in these dialects and analyzing how that literature can be used in historical and religious studies of ancient Judaism and Christianity. Topics will include: Dead Sea Scrolls, Bar Kokhba, synagogue and ossuary inscriptions, the language of Jesus, Targums and Peshitta, rabbinic literature, and Dura Europos, as well as Ephrem and Aphrahat. One week will be devoted to seminars on the history and development of the Aramaic language.

The six-week program will be organized to give participants support to do original research in Aramaic on a topic of their choice and to compose a publishable paper on it.

The organizers and principal teachers are: Eric M. Meyers, Paul V.M. Flesher, and Lucas Van Rompay.

Guest teachers and seminar leaders: Michael Sokoloff, Bar Ilan University (Israel); Douglas Gropp, Catholic University of America; Hayim Lapin, University of Maryland; Tina Shepardson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Participants will be selected from applicants who have completed their doctoral dissertation. Knowledge of Hebrew as well as elementary knowledge of (any type of) Aramaic are a prerequisite. Successful applicants will receive a stipend of $3700.

For application information, please contact:

Nancy Hurtgen
Department of Religion
NEH Seminar
Box 90964
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0964
919/660-3500
nhurtgen@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/web/nehdas

SORRY FOR THE LIGHT BLOGGING. I spent more than nine hours at the UCSD Library yesterday and lugged home about nine hundred photocopied pages (to go with the 175 from San Diego State from last week). I have no idea how I'm going to fit it all in our luggage. The last two weeks have been very busy and the last several days especially stressful. I have lots of things lined up to post but very little time for posting. Bear with me.

THE ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTRY has been accused by the Antiquties Authority of damaging a Christian archaeological site - a 1500-year-old Byzantine monastery - during the contruction of the controversial security barrier. It denies the charge.

FURTHER TO MY POST BELOW on favorite Jesus movies, Mark Goodacre likes Jesus Christ Superstar the best - unless we allow The Life of Brian, which is really a satire of first-century Jewish messianism rather than a Jesus movie per se. If we're including The Life of Brian, I would put it second. Very funny and very quotable: "That halibut was fit for Jehovah!" "Romans go home!" "Crucifixion? Yes. Good!" "Bloody favoritism!" And so on.

HERE'S NEWS ON SOME SYRIAC INCANTATIONS from Kurdistan, located at Harvard University and being edited by John Brolley, a scholar at the University of Cincinnati.

TODAY IS SIMCHAT TORAH (also spelled "Simkhat," "Simhat," or "Simchas").

"WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE 'JESUS' MOVIE?"

LATER: I think my favorite is The Last Temptation of Christ, because I like its development of "Gnostic" themes (follow the link for some details). Which ones do other history bloggers like best? And why?

THE WORLD MONUMENT FUND has released a list of the one hundred most endangered archaeological sites. Ten of them are in the Middle East. (Scroll down and - mostly - up to see the other ninety. Via Archaeology Magazine News.)

MEDITATIONS ON THE TEMPLE LIBRARY for Simchat Torah (which is coming up on Sunday).

FOLLOW THE LINK for some images from the "Dead Sea Scrolls to the Hidden Book" exhibit in Dallas (heads-up, Stephen Goranson).

HEBREW POSITION AT PENN STATE (via G-Megillot):

Rank-open
Penn State is seeking candidates for a rank-open, tenure-line appointment in Hebrew. Tenure-track or tenured according to rank and qualifications. Starting date: August 2004 preferred. Ph.D. in Hebrew, Comparative Literature, Near Eastern Studies, Jewish Studies, or related field, and relevant teaching experience required. Candidates must have broad knowledge of the Hebrew language: areas of further specialization and research program may include (but are not limited to) Classical, Rabbinic or Modern Hebrew, comparative approaches to Hebrew texts (including ancient, medieval, and/or modern), comparative Semitics, classical Hebrew elements in later literatures, literatures of the diaspora and Israel, Israelite or Jewish texts, parshanut or Jewish thought. Ability to teach Hebrew at all levels of the curriculum required. Knowledge of additional languages a plus. The successful candidate will help direct and develop our Hebrew language curriculum. S/he will hold an appointment in the Jewish Studies Program, with a tenure home, as appropriate, in the Department of Comparative Literature or the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies or another unit. Salary competitive. Our tenure-track teaching load is 4 courses per year (2 per semester). Applications received by November 17, 2003, will receive full consideration; however, all applications will be considered until the position is filled. Send letter, c.v., and names and addresses of 3 references to Chair, Hebrew Search Committee, c/o Cindy Bierly, Box CB, Department of Comparative Literature, 311 Burrowes Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA. Applications may also be sent by email to or by Fax to (814) 863-8882. Penn State is committed to Affirmative Action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cindy Bierly (cqb2@psu.edu)
Administrative Assistant I
School of Languages and Literatures
College of the Liberal Arts
311 Burrowes Building
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802-6203
(814) 865-1168
FAX: (814) 863-8882
http://www.la.psu.edu

MEL GIBSON'S MOVIE RENAMED: it's now The Passion of Christ.

HERE'S AN ACCOUNT of a visit to the reputed tombs of the prophet Nahum and his sister in an Aramaic-speaking Christian town in Iraq.

HERE'S A COMPLETE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMS TARGUM by the well known Aramaist and Qumranologist Edward Cook.

THE "PETRA: LOST CITY OF STONE" EXHIBIT at the American Museum of Natural History opens Saturday (via Rogue Classicism).

AN EARLY PAPYRUS FRAGMENT OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN has become the subject of a big lawsuit.

JESUS IN THE TALMUD: Mel Gibson's The Passion and Sanhedrin 43a have been generating some debate among Jews, started by an article by Steven Bayme. The article has been taken down, but you can read the Google cache copy here. More rabbinic passages that deal with Jesus, or may deal with him, can be found at Alan Humm's Ancient Jewish Accounts of Jesus website. The Talmud, of course, gives no new useful historical information about Jesus but, for what it's worth, it does tell us what kind of spin Babylonian rabbis c. 400 C.E. wanted to put on the Jesus story. How much should that inform the current discussion? I blog, you decide.

PRETTY QUIET on the PaleoJudaic front in the media, and I'm pretty busy here, but ancient Aramaic is represented in the current news by roundup articles on Mel Gibson's The Passion and the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble.

AN ISRAELITE HOUSE IN 12TH CENTURY B.C.E. EGYPT? Maybe. Does it prove the Exodus happened? No. (Via Archaeologica News.)

THE UNOFFICIAL "GENEVA ACCORDS" would grant sovereignty of the Temple Mount to the Palestinians. According to the New York Times:

On another delicate issue, the plan calls for the Palestinians to have ultimate control over Jerusalem's most important and contested holy site, the mosque compound in East Jerusalem, called the Noble Sanctuary by Muslims. Israel would relinquish its claim of sovereignty over the site, which Jews call the Temple Mount. Israel would keep full control of the Western Wall, the Jewish place of prayer that borders the compound.

More here in the Guardian.

Sorry for the light posting lately. Family things are not leaving much time for blogging.

MARK GOODACRE has redesigned the main page of his vast New Testament Gateway website. This is a trial-run page, not the real main page, as he explains here (and scroll up to the next post too). He's asking for feedback, so have a look and let him know what you think. Looks great Mark.

THE TEMPLE MOUNT and Islamic, Christian, and Jewish eschatology: a potentially explosive mixture.

Ariel Sharon: Messenger of Abrahamic Apocalypse? (Beliefnet, via Bible and Interpretation News)
Consider his controversial visit to a contested Jerusalem holy site from a Muslim end-times perspective.

By Gershom Gorenberg

Excerpts (but read it all):

Fa'iq Da'ud was expecting trouble at Jerusalem's Temple Mount in 2000--or as he'd say, at al-Haram al-Sharif.

In fact, the violence that exploded at the world's most contested holy site this fall, and which ignited ongoing battles between Israelis and Palestinians, is only a pale glimmer next to Da'ud's apocalyptic visions--visions that shed light on a dangerous, often-ignored side of the Mount's place in the religious imagination of three faiths.

For Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, the 36-acre hilltop plaza is not only at the center of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, it is also center stage for the Last Days.Da'ud's book, "The Great Events Preceding the Appearance of the Mahdi," was on sale at Islamic bookstores around the West Bank last year. The cover of the Arabic tract shows an aerial photo of the Haram--Dome of the Rock mosque at the center, Al-Aqsa mosque to one side.Next to it is a picture of a model of the Jewish Temple, superimposed on the same site, replacing both mosques. Inside, Da'ud portrays a vast conspiracy of Jews and Christians that, he says, intends to build the Third Temple to prepare the way for the arrival of their shared messiah, who he says is the Antichrist. Yet he finds hope in the threat to Islam's shrines: It heralds history's final battles and the coming of the Mahdi, the true redeemer.

It's a dark fantasy but hardly unique.

[...]

To make sense of all this, picture apocalyptic believers seated in a triangular theater around the stage of Jerusalem. All agree that history's last act is being played out, but they hold different programs. Jewish Temple activists--bit players in real life--have starring roles in the Christian play; Jews and Christians alike unknowingly play in the Muslim script. Hope and fear are the sound system, wildly amplifying every word, every footstep. Small actions at the Temple Mount take on significance that nonbelievers--such as secular politicians and analysts--neither expect nor understand.

[...]

Viewing Jerusalem as the stage of the End warps perception of political events, creates expectations of absolute victories, makes battles glorious instead of tragic. But it is certainly not the only religious view of Jerusalem's sorrows.

Those who regard life as more sacred than soil, who believe that God commands us "to seek peace and pursue it," must reject the apocalyptic vision and insist that the faiths can live together in the Holy City.

VICTORIAN SEMITIC PHILOLOGIST MAKES GOOD: becomes the editor of the O.E.D. A New York Times review by William F. Buckley Jr. of THE MEANING OF EVERYTHING: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. By Simon Winchester. Illustrated. 260 pp. New York: Oxford University Press. $25.

Excerpts:

''I possess,'' the schoolteacher [James Murray] had written straightforwardly, ''that general lexical & structural knowledge which makes the intimate knowledge'' of any language ''only a matter of a little application. With several I have a more intimate acquaintance as with the Romance tongues, Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, Latin & in a less degree Portuguese, Vaudois, Provencal & various dialects. In the Teutonic branch, I am tolerably familiar with Dutch (having at my place of business correspondence to read in Dutch, German, French & occasionally other languages), Flemish, German and Danish. In Anglo-Saxon and Moeso-Gothic my studies have been much closer, I having prepared some works for publication upon these languages. I know a little of the Celtic, and am at present engaged with the Sclavonic, having obtained a useful knowledge of Russian. In the Persian, Achaemenian Cuneiform, & Sanscrit branches, I know for the purposes of Comparative Philology. I have sufficient knowledge of Hebrew & Syriac to read at sight the Old Testament and Peshito; to a less degree I know Aramaic Arabic, Coptic and Phenecian to the point where it was left by Gesenius.'' Enough said? No. There was the itchy problem of the absent college degree. So it was discreetly arranged, by an advocate of Murray among the Philological Society's members, that he receive one, an honorary LL.D. from Scotland.

[...]

Shakespeare, [Winchester] reminds us, ''was the first to employ a great many'' unusual words. High purposes were served. ''By doing so he offered actors the chance to enrich the language of those who came to see his plays. In 'Othello,' for example, the Moor entreats the Duke of Venice to offer his wife Desdemona 'Due reference of place and exhibition, With such accommodation and besort as levels with her breeding,' and thereby offers the first known usage . . . of the word 'accommodation.' ''

But don't run away with the impression that Shakespeare's neologisms were orthogenetically validated. ''It has to be said that Shakespeare did advance the cause of a number of words -- like 'besort' -- that never made it, or which staggered along lamely for only a short while. Among those he used, but he almost alone, were 'soilure,' 'tortive' and 'vastidity,' which mean, as one might expect, staining, twisted and big. In these cases, and a score of others, his clever Latinate constructions fared rather less well than the simpler old synonyms from northern Europe.''

Actually, I strongly suspect that "vastidity" means not "big," but "bigness."

INSCRIPTIFACT! (via Miribilis.) I was the research assistant for the West Semitic Research Project when it was founded twenty years ago. The Inscriptifact Project's website is here.

HOW DO YOU SAY "IRISH" in Scots Yiddish? According to Philologos, it involves the Hebrew word for testicles. Really.

UPDATE (11 October): Okay, to speak more precisely, the basic meaning of the Hebrew word is "egg," but it has the extended colloquial meaning of "testicle." The meaning "testicle" is the basic meaning of the word when borrowed into Yiddish (according to Philologos: I don't know Yiddish myself), but the Yiddish pun presupposes the basic Hebrew meaning "egg." Got all that? If not, just read the essay: it's entertaining.

I know this doesn't have anything to do with ancient Judaism, but how often to I get to blog on Scots Yiddish?

CAN WAQF BE TRUSTED? The Forward thinks not (via Bible and Interpretation News).

EASTERBLOGG (which is new to me - it's part of the New Republic website) comments on Mel Gibson's The Passion. Gregg Easterbrook says that Mel shouldn't market The Passion merchandise for Christmas if he's sincere. He also discusses evidence that Mel blew it in the portrayal of the events and he (Easterbrook) has harsh words for the ADL, Paula Fredriksen, and (interestingly) the New Republic, and he trashes the Jesus Seminar in passing. The post is more constructive than it sounds from my summary, but it doesn't pull its punches for anyone. (Via Glenn Reynolds, who has tried crucifixion, sort of, and didn't like it.)

GREGORY L. DOUDNA has a piece in Bible and Interpretation News:

4Q Pesher Nahum and the Teacher of Righteousness

The true identity of the Teacher of Righteousness�ironically missed in prior discussions and never even considered as a possibility in any prior secondary literature�points to Hyrcanus II.

Greg's theory, which he has published recently in a massive book, is that the Dead Sea Scrolls were actually deposited in the Qumran caves in the first century B.C.E., not 68 C.E. I'm not aware that he's convinced any other Qumran specialists about this, but he's always an interesting read.

Excerpts are going to be scarce for awhile unless the AOL system turns out to be friendlier than my first impression indicates.

"SHADE AND MOONLIGHT": Sukkot from antiquity to the present according to the Jerusalem Post. Too rich to excerpt, especially when I'm not used to the AOL browser. Read it all.

ANCIENT SYNAGOGUE IN ALBANIA:

Remnants Of Ancient Synagogue In Albania Revealed (Science Daily News)

Impressive remnants from a synagogue dating from the 5th or 6th century, C.E., have been revealed in the city of Saranda, a coastal city in Albania, opposite the Greek island of Corfu.

[...]

Particularly noteworthy among the finds are two mosaic pavements.

One features at its center a seven-branched candelabrum (menorah) flanked by a citron (etrog) and a ram's horn (shofar), symbols associated with the Jewish holidays.

The other mosaic pavement, in the center section of the structure (the basilica), contains a number of representations, including a variety of animals, trees, symbols alluding to Biblical lore, and the facade of a structure resembling a temple (perhaps an aron kodesh (Torah shrine). Other mosaic pavements at the site preceded the building of the synagogue.

[...]

WE'VE ARRIVED and the computer is working, but I'm too jet lagged to blog. Look for more tomorrow.

WE'RE OFF TO SAN DIEGO first thing tomorrow morning for a two-and-a-half week holiday. My mother's computer is on the blink and blogging will depend largely on whether it is fixable. It's likely to be at least a day or two before I know, maybe more. But if I can, I will try to blog reasonably regularly. If not, I'll try to say hi now and again from an Internet caf� or a friend's house.

Meanwhile, do have a look at the many blogs and news sites listed at the bottom of the links bar to the right. And speaking of links, in the last few days I've added close to thirty new ones in various parts of the links page.

If you just must have another big link to tide you over, go to Daniel Boyarin's A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994). This is the complete text of the book online for your delectation.

Also, happy Sukkot, which begins on the evening of the 10th.

I expect to be back at my desk on the 27th. Have a good October.

TIME MAGAZINE PANDERS TO THE JEWISH-TEMPLE DENIERS:

Here is the first paragraph of an article on the Temple Mount in the current issue, with my emphasis in bold font:

The Peacemaker
An Israeli colonel tries to keep Jerusalem's Temple Mount, sacred to Muslim and Jew, from exploding

By ROMESH RATNESAR | JERUSALEM


REUTERS
HALLOWED GROUND: At the site of al-Aqsa Mosque Shacham is tasked with preventing violent incidents

The shouting echoed across the Temple Mount, a roar of anger in a holy place. On a brilliant fall morning, a group of devout Jewish men strolled slowly along the site's ancient stone walls, escorted by armed Israeli police, toward the base of the gleaming Dome of the Rock, where Jews believe Solomon and Herod built the First and Second Temples. To Muslims, the Temple Mount is known as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), home to al-Aqsa Mosque and the place where Muhammad is said to have been carried to heaven by the angel Gabriel. The Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount are managed by the Wakf, an Islamic trust, and for the last three years Jews had not been allowed here.

I did a double-take when I read this in the print edition today. Jews believe? Jews believe? I've been trying to parse this sentence somehow to say something different from what it says. Could it be saying that Jews believe the temple was under the Dome of the Rock while others think it was elsewhere on the Temple Mount? No, that doesn�t work. The only thing I can make it say is that Jews believe there were temples on the Temple Mount and someone or everyone else believes they didn't exist or only existed elsewhere. In reality, Jews, Christians, Muslims who know the Qur'an (17.4-7) and their own traditions, and historians all "believe" that these temples existed on this site. This is not a contested view among historians, because the evidence for it is overwhelming. Who doesn't believe? Only the Jewish-temple deniers, known from the now defunct Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up and elsewhere, whose beliefs have recently been ably refuted by Ronald Hendel in his article "Was There a Temple in Jerusalem?" in which he summarizes the evidence. To see more about the deniers, keep following these two links as far back as they go.

This sentence is on the level of saying "Muhammad, the Prophet of Muslims, whom they believe to have lived in the early seventh century . . ." or "George Washington, whom Americans believe to have been their first President . . ." If historical evidence means anything, there was a Jewish temple on this site in antiquity. I'm all for being open minded about differing opinions held by historians who use credible methods, but this is bogus historical revisionism for a political purpose. I'm not judging the political issue here, which is a complex one outside the scope of this blog, but I will say that to use this kind of propaganda only weakens the case of the users.

The media's pandering to this view seems to be on the increase (David Nishimura of Cronaca noted another case from the BBC recently). They need to be called on it.

The same sentence in the Time article has another egregious error, but this one is probably merely careless rather than pandering: the Second Temple was built by the returning exiles in the late sixth century B.C.E. Herod, five centuries later, only restored and expanded it.

UPDATE: Seth Sanders e-mails:

Hendel's much-needed refutation of Temple-deniers has one defect, which is that it refers to an "iron-age inscription" mentioning the "Temple of YHWH" that may well actually date from the 90's (the Pardee/Bordreuil/Israel ostracton), and unfortunately Hendel doesn't mention that it's unprovenienced, let alone that its authenticity has been called into question by good epigraphers. No need to pile tiny bits of unreliable evidence on top of mountains of good evidence in order to add an inch to the mountain.

The inscription is an ostracon pub in Semitica by Pardee et al; it's probably a prime example of the smart forgeries Naaman shrewdly analyzes in your entry. There is a fiery and much-needed Jeremiad by Alex Joffee in the latest JNES against Mousaieff and those who sail with him. He puts the issues as sharply and clearly as they can be put. On a more analytical front, Chris Rollston has recently written the definitive article on methodology for dealing with forged inscriptions for the latest Cross Fs. (what is this, number 4?).

Fair enough, and thanks for pointing this out, Seth. I don't pretend to keep on top of Iron Age epigraphy any more, although I do try to dabble a bit in it. I've blogged before on the problem of forged unprovenanced inscriptions, the entry Seth refers to above (and note correction here in Cronaca), so I try to be cautious about accepting evidence from them.

But the mountain of evidence remains and denial that there was a temple on the Temple Mount simply isn't a viable position.

I WAS GOING TO POST THIS, but Mark Goodacre has saved me the trouble.

BLOGGING HAS BEEN LIGHT LATELY and is likely to be lighter soon. It's been a slow news period and I've been preoccupied with a big trip coming up.

But here's an amusing and philologically rich article from Ha'aretz which asks "Why Was Shammai So Angry?" (via Mark Goodacre).

Also, Eugene Volokh weighs in on why so many bloggers are academics and how to get an academic to blog. Bet you weren't lying awake at night over the latter.

Blogger has been generating doubled entries for some of my posts, and it looks like it's happening to other blogs too. Sorry for any confusion.

NEOT KEDUMIM is a biblical nature reserve in Israel. The Jerusalem Post has an article on it. Excerpt:

IN the 1930s, Hannah and Ephraim Hareuveni founded and developed the Museum of Biblical and Talmudic Botany at Hebrew University on Mount Scopus (sadly destroyed during the War of Independence.) But their dream of creating a "Garden of the Prophets and the Sages" was not destroyed.

They died in the 1950s and didn't live to see this garden created, but they had instilled the dream in their son Nogah Hareuveni, and due to his drive and persistence, it was eventually planted. Though almost 80, he can still be found every day at the Reserve alongside the enthusiastic team who continue to invest time and energy in this still-developing project.

[...]

Although all the plants you will see in Neot Kedumim are indigenous to Israel, they have been painstakingly transplanted here over the decades, transforming 625 acres of barren land in the Modi'in area into the flourishing reserve it is today. The very soil was returned to the slopes, bringing with it its hidden treasure of flower and plant seeds.

Features of ancient times have been restored or added, such as the terraces, olive presses, threshing floors, cisterns and watchtowers. You will come across domestic and wild animals as well as plants as you wander along the paths - bees in hives, doves in cotes and sheep in their folds. Graceful fallow deer have their place, too.

The reserve also offers a microcosm of Israel, with its desert area, Jordan River thickets and the Jericho Valley date palms.

Recommended for weddings and Sukkot outings.

NEW BOOK REVIEWS FROM THE REVIEW OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE:

Berlin, Adele
Lamentations
Reviewed by Mark McEntire

Levitt, Risa
A New Heart and a New Soul: Ezekiel, the Exile and the Torah
Reviewed by Dalit Rom-Shiloni

Niehoff, Maren
Philo on Jewish Identity and Culture
Reviewed by Kenneth A Fox

"LEARN ABOUT THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS" is an Amazon listmania list by FrKurt Messick, "Priest, Historian, Theologian." The list is pretty good (and I don't just say that because he put one of my books in it, with five stars even), but I'm not sure what the Nag Hammadi Library is doing in there (do read it though, just on general principles), and I don't think Dever's book has anything to do with the Scrolls (but read it too; no harm, right?). I'm not complaining: there's nothing bogus in the list, which is more than can be said for some of Amazon's lists. But I would add Garcia Martinez's The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated and Schiffman's Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls. Fr. Messick is quite prolific, with more than 500 Amazon reviews to his name.

THE ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY is considering selling potsherds to shore up its budget. (Via Anders Bell, who doesn't like the idea.)

I've talked about this idea before. It's not an easy issue. The arguments in favor are that museums are stuffed enough with artifacts that are of little or no individual value and it does not harm to clear some space and raise some money for more digging and conservation. And selling such things could undercut the unprovenanced antiquities trade, since people would be more inclined to buy artifacts that were actually excavated and officially provenanced than to buy something off the street that could be a fake. (The latter argument works a lot better if the authorites sell more exciting things than sherds, things like coins and oil lamps, which also are common in excavations. A lot of archaeologists would be horrified by this, but there are some who would go for it. The idea of selling antique glass is floated in the article.)

The arguments against are that every sherd is of potential value, both because useful patterns of data can (and do) emerge in studying lots of individually unimportant bits and because new types of physical analysis will in the future (near future, even) almost certainly make it possible to extract valuable new information even from, say, common potsherds.

I see the force of both views. At some point there may have to be a trade-off between the ideal (all artifacts of any type should always remain in museums for further study) and the harsh reality that people want to buy ancient souvenirs and where there's a market someone will fill it. Actually, this trade-off already exists, emerging out of these market forces, in that dealers sell people antiquities whose provenance is generally then lost to archaeologists, even if the archaeologists (sometimes!) get to study the actual object. And provenance is important: if you lose the stratigraphic context of an artifact, you lose information about its date, its geographical placement, its connection to other artifacts in the same site, the same building, the same room, and the same locus. Such data, cumulatively, provide us with a lot of the useful information from archaeology.

So then should we give up on saving even scrap of potential information from the most trivial artifacts in order to focus on preserving the more important ones and the basic context and provenance of all of them? I don't know. But I guess I do give the IAA points for at least starting an open discussion about the problem.

STILL NO DISTRIBUTOR for Mel Gibson's The Passion outside Australia. This article from MSNBC discusses the things that are putting the distributors off and evaluates some facile comparisons to the release of The Last Temptation of Christ. It concludes:

The top contender now appears to be Newmarket, which released �Memento.� They have made a formal bid, but will not confirm if they have seen the film. Two higher-profile independents, Lions Gate and Miramax, have expressed interest in the film and have asked to see it. They have yet to be invited. The film could prove problematic for Miramax, as its parent company, Disney, dislikes controversy.

Gibson�s camp would not comment about the potential sale, beyond saying it could happen in the �near term.� It�s possible, though remotely, that Icon, which distributes most of Gibson�s films in the U.K. and Australia, may opt to put �The Passion� in U.S. theaters itself. Meanwhile, the press surrounding the film�in particular a New Yorker profile that delineated Gibson�s rigid religious beliefs�has done some damage to his reputation. While he remains one of the most bankable stars in history, his occasionally strident public statements have not played well in an industry predominantly liberal and significantly Jewish. �People think Mel�s crazy now,� says one top producer. Adds a studio head, �People feel like his character in �Lethal Weapon� isn�t that far from who he is. It�s like, �Wow, he�s way out on a limb�.� We should know very shortly who�s going to get out there with him.

Slow news day.

STARTING WITH ALEPH is a multimedia website that will teach you the Hebrew alphabet and some Hebrew words. Requires Flash and the download is slow for a 56K modem, so I've only looked a bit at lesson 1 (of 4). But it looks like it would be fun for kids. (Via Mirabilis.)

YOM KIPPUR (the Day of Atonement) begins tonight at sundown. I wish my Jewish readers a healthy fast.

THE DEAD SEA IS DRYING UP:

The Dead Sea is dying as its dark salty waters retreat (The Telegraph)
(Filed: 04/10/2003)

Human exploitation is forcing the surface level down by three feet each year, reports David Blair

The jagged cliffs of the Judaean desert mountains, where John the Baptist wandered and Jewish fighters made their last stand at Masada, once sloped directly into the Dead Sea.

Today, many of those cliffs descend into ugly mudflats covering much of the basin marking the lowest point on Earth. For the Dead Sea is in retreat as human intervention forces the water level downwards by more than three feet per year.

Over the last 50 years, the Dead Sea has shrunk by a third and its surface has fallen 88ft, from 1,280ft below sea level to 1,368ft. At this rate of decline, the salt waters between Israel and Jordan will disappear completely within the next century.

[...]

"THE OTHER JESUS MOVIE" is, of course, The Gospel of John. This Beliefnet article (via Mark Goodacre) is by Professor Alan F. Segal (Barnard College, Columbia University), a Jewish specialist in early Christianity and ancient Judaism who was on the committee of academic advisors for the movie. He is one of my colleagues on the steering committee of the Society of Biblical Literature's Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism Group. As Mark says, it's encouraging to see academics and filmmakers working together on a project like this. Alan's next book, coming out in the spring, is Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion.

"WAS JESUS MARRIED?" asks Deborah Caldwell, Beliefnet's senior religion producer. Answer: well, maybe. Maybe not too. We'd expect that he would have been but there's no positive evidence he was. We've been over this before, but this article spells out the relevant evidence in some detail and consults a number of specialists about the problem.

"CUNEIFORM AND THE BIBLE" is a new essay, by Leslie Adkins, at the Bible and Interpretation website. It appears to be a summary of Adkins's book, Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon, a review of which I noted in August. The essay is more about the decipherment of cuneiform - in itself a very interesting topic - than about connections between cuneiform and the Bible.

WHY ARE THERE SO FEW ARAMAIC TARGUMS AT QUMRAN? Just two Job targums (4Q157 and 11Q10) and perhaps one of Leviticus (4Q156) out of 800+ manuscripts. Randall Buth asked this question in "Where Is the Aramaic Bible at Qumran? Scripture Use in the Land of Israel" at the JerusalemPerspective.com website, which article I mentioned here in June. I happened to look again at the JerusalemPerspective.com site today (this wasn't part of my Google search) and I noticed that two more articles on the same subject have been posted. Jack Poirier has written "The Qumran Targum of Job as a Window into Second Temple Judaism: A Response to Randall Buth" and now Buth has replied in "More on the Absence of an Aramaic Bible at Qumran: A Response to Jack Poirier". Enjoy the debate.

HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES is a journal that gives full texts of its articles online, many of which are of interest to ancient Judaism. I have to admit I've never heard of it before. Here's the table of contents for the current issue:

Volume 6, Number 2 (July 2003)

Kudos to Four Outstanding Scholars.
George KIRAZ, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
In Memoriam

Fr. Fran�ois Graffin.
Bernard OUTTIER, Biblioth�que du Caucase.
Papers

Gabriel of Qatar's Commentary on the Liturgy.
Sebastian BROCK, Oxford University

Towards automatic transcription of Estrangelo script.
William F. CLOCKSIN, Oxford Brookes University, and Prem P.J. FERNANDO, University of Cambridge

The Doctrina Addai as a Paradigm of Christian Thought in Edessa in the Fifth Century.
Sidney GRIFFITH, The Catholic University of America

Patriarchal Funerary Inscriptions in the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd.
Amir HARRAK, University of Toronto

Ms. Sch�yen 2530/Sinai syr. 3 and the New Testament Peshitta.
Andreas Juckel, University of Munich

Brief Articles

Some Further Notes on Thecla in Syriac Christianity.
Catherine BURRIS, University of North Carolina and Lucas VAN ROMPAY, Duke University

Publications and Book Reviews

Ephrem-Isa Yousif, Les Chroniqueurs Syriaques.
Amir HARRAK, University of Toronto

Daniel Caner, Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity. The Transformation of the Classical Heritage 33.
Robert KITCHEN, Knox-Metropolitan United Church

Fran�oise Petit, La Cha�ne sur l'Exode I. Fragments de S�v�re d'Antioche. Texte grec �tabli et traduit. Avec un glossaire syriaque par Lucas Van Rompay. Traditio Exegetica Graeca, 9i.
Edward G. MATHEWS Jr.

J.F. Coakley, Robinson's Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar 5th ed..
Robert R. PHENIX Jr., The Institute for the Christians of the Orient

Perrin, Nicholas, Thomas and Tatian: The Relationship between the Gospel of Thomas and the Diatessaron.
Paul-Hubert POIRIER, Universit� Laval

Robert F. Shedinger, Tatian and the Jewish Scriptures: A Textual and Philological Analysis of the Old Testament Citations in Tatian's Diatessaron.
William L. PETERSEN, Pennsylvania State University

Peter J. Williams, Studies in the Syntax of the Peshitta of 1 Kings, Monographs of the Peshitta Institute, Leiden.
Richard A. TAYLOR, Dallas Theological Seminary

Conference Reports

ARAM Society: Twentieth International Conference on Alcohol , 7-9 July 2003.
David G.K. TAYLOR, University of Birmingham

North American Syriac Symposium IV, 9-12 July 2003.
Edip AYDIN, Princeton Theological Seminary

IVth International Forum on Syriac Computing, 11 July 2003.
Thomas JOSEPH, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute

Announcements

IXth Syriac Symposium and VIIth Conference on Christian Arab Studies, 20-25 September 2004.

Gorgias Book Grant in Eastern Christian Studies.

Advertisements

Beth Mardutho Amazon Associates

Gorgias Press

ATLAS Digital Journal Project

There is also an e-mail discussion group called Hugoye-list, which is devoted to the academic study of Syriac.

In case you're wondering, I'm doing Google searches on a Syriac subject at the moment.

HERE'S THE ARAM SOCIETY FOR SYRO-MESOPOTAMIAN STUDIES website:

ARAM is an independent, non-political, inter-religious, non-profit-making society concerned with all aspects of Syro-Mesopotamian cultures. ARAM draws its name from Aramaic, which was a focal point of Ancient Syro-Mesopotamian cultures. However, ARAM does not confine itself solely to Aramaic culture, but attempts to deal with all cultures of the geographical area influenced by Aramaic culture, i.e. the Syro-Mesopotamian region, or the so-called Fertile Crescent. Consequently, ARAM aims to study any subject related to Syro-Mesopotamian cultures, from the beginning of history up until the present time.

The website includes tables of contents of the journal Aram, lists of past and forthcoming conferences, and more.

MORE ON PETER FLINT'S lecturing on the Dead Sea Scrolls in Wyoming:

Dead Sea Scrolls scholar speaks in Kemmerer (Kemmerer Gazette)

ON NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES:

What lies beneath
Oct 2nd 2003
From The Economist print edition

New �non-destructive� sensing technologies are transforming archaeology

SINCE its emergence as a science, archaeology has wrestled with a paradox: discovery involves destruction, and investigation requires intrusion. An archaeological dig cannot be undone. Once a layer has been stripped away, any information not recorded is lost. Most archaeologists have had the experience of trying to discover something new about a site that has been completely excavated, only to find that the question they wanted to ask had not occurred to the original diggers.

So knowing what lies beneath the surface before the trowel hits the soil has long been the dream of many an archaeologist. As well as saving time in determining where to dig, it would enable archaeologists to answer questions with a minimum of destruction�and potentially none at all. This dream is slowly becoming a reality, as a result of improvements in non-destructive surveying techniques. Archaeology has never been a wealthy discipline, but by borrowing tools developed for more well-endowed professions, archaeologists are developing X-ray vision�or, to be precise, infra-red, microwave and magnetic vision, which are even better.

Such tools enable archaeologists to identify and target small areas of interest, and to move away from the complete excavation of sites towards a more selective approach. This method, known as the �conservation model� of archaeology, means that archaeological resources are maintained for future generations, who will be armed both with novel technologies and new questions. As sensing techniques improve, archaeologists are also benefiting from the tumbling price of computing power, which enables them to combine, overlay and analyse data from multiple sources, yielding further insights.

Seeing through new eyes

To demonstrate the potential of such techniques, a group of archaeologists from the University of Arkansas, led by Fredrick Limp and Kenneth Kvamme, have been investigating the site of Army City in Kansas. Established in 1917, it was a bustling town, complete with hotels and theatres. In 1921 it burned to the ground, leaving no trace of its former existence. Or so it appeared. But last year, when the archaeologists began to map what is now an empty hayfield, they found that they could see the precise locations of roads, pavements and rooms of buildings. They could even trace the sewage system. �It was almost as though the soil was transparent,� says Dr Limp.

[...]

Another technology that archaeologists are taking to is thermal imaging. This employs high-resolution cameras that are sensitive to the so-called near infra-red. This part of the infra-red spectrum, with wavelengths close to that of visible light, carries heat energy. Thermal imaging thus records slight differences in temperature. Such differences at the surface are often tell-tales of what lies beneath. A stone foundation, for instance, retains heat differently from a pit that holds moisture.

[...]

Such advances in sensing techniques are certainly welcome, and are helping to change the nature of archaeology. But Dr Limp reckons that there is just as much scope for improvement in using computers to integrate different sorts of observation. He and his colleagues have made a start on this at Army City, where they are creating a system that will swallow, digest and combine data from satellites, aircraft and ground-based sensors, aligning them in a single, computer-based model of the site. The system, he says, should be fully functional next year.

[...]

SECURITY AT NIMRUD:

The Sunday Telegraph published the following:

Why I fear for the safety of Iraq's historic monuments (via the IraqCrisis list and Francis Deblauwe)
By John Simpson
(Filed: 28/09/2003)

Last week, the magnificent and still largely unexcavated ruins at Nimrud, near the Iraqi city of Mosul, were declared a world heritage site. The next day the small detachment of American troops which had been guarding Nimrud from looters was withdrawn. Four thousand years of history and art now lie almost unprotected.

[...]

A neat, white-haired man introduced himself: he was Taha Ahmed Taha, one of the curators of Nimrud, and he showed us around the site. The damage had not been too bad: the curators had managed to rally the watchmen who protected the site, and chased the looters away. But not before the looters had chipped away the massive head of Ashurnasirpal from one of the major reliefs in the palace.

[...]

Now the Americans will be replaced by another group of watchmen. They will know the looters personally and the looters will know them. "They will be back," said Mr Taha. "They are only waiting for the Americans to go. Then they will take everything. And the watchmen will be too frightened to stop them."

* John Simpson is the BBC's World Affairs Editor

But the following was posted yesterday to the IraqCrisis list in response:

Dear Friends of Nimrud,

In response to the sensationalistic article in Sunday's Telegraph, we did some research into the security situation at Nimrud. Here are our findings:

According to the 101st Airborne�s Public Education Team assigned to
facilitate Ministry of Culture issues in Nineveh Province, where Nimrud is located, the US troops were only moved from the site after ample
alternative security had been arranged. That security consists of 30
Iraqi Facility Protection Service guards, who are well trained and very
reliable, plus the 7 Antiquities Department contract guards already at the site. The site is also checked on by the Antiquities Authority of Nineveh Province and by US Army patrols. I believe that this constitutes ample security, and should problems arise, help is close at hand.

I should also note that John Simpson's Telegraph article did not quote either of the antiquities officials with oversight responsibility for Nimrud, namely Manhal Jabr, Chief Antiquities Inspector for the Nineveh Archaeological Directorate, and Muzahim Mahmud, Overseer of the site of Nimrud. I do not know the authority or responsibilities of the person who is quoted, but I do not believe he is in a position to assess the security situation at Nimrud. Instead, it appears to me that his observations are included primarily in order to publicize the BBC program.

Please distribute this news as widely as you wish.

Best,
John Russell

Deputy Senior Advisor
Ministry of Culture
Coalition Provisional Authority
Baghdad

If I may say it, this is not untypical of the sloppy and biased reporting of the once great BBC. The Telegraph/BBC article is lazy: the writer did not contact the actual authorities in charge of the area to find out the details of the new guard; he simply talked to someone on the site, and on the basis of that person's self-certification and comments, wrote the article.

UPDATE (4 October): Anders Bell also commented on the original news story in his blog Phluzein. In the comments section I noted my post here and this has led to an interchange with a journalist named Rupert. I don't know if we'll ever come to a meeting of minds on this one, but I'm grateful to Rupert for taking the time to disagree with me.

UPDATE: My saving this post briefly as a draft while I added the first update seems to have yanked it from its original spot from a couple days ago and made it a current posting. I think I have it back in the right place now. Sorry for any confusion

THE TRAILER FOR THE RETURN OF THE KING is available at:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/returnoftheking/

(This has nothing to do with ancient Judaism, but I figured many readers would like to know.)

RONALD S. HENDEL takes on the Jewish-temple deniers in his column "Was There a Temple in Jerusalem?", in the October issue of Bible Review, and gives them a well deserved thrashing. Excerpt:

One of the chief negotiators of the Oslo accords, Saeb Erekat, states bluntly the current position of the Palestinian Authority: �For Islam, there was never a Jewish temple at Al Quds [Jerusalem].�1 This is one of the reasons why the Palestinians wouldn�t accept a compromise about Jerusalem during the Camp David negotiations. I was floored when I read this. What a whopper!

To say that there never was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is a breathtaking revision of the past. It means that the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity are a pack of lies, since the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament have abundant descriptions and testimony about the Jerusalem Temple�built by Solomon, restored by various Israelite kings, sermonized at by Jeremiah and other prophets, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and rebuilt by the Jewish returnees from the Babylonian Exile. In the New Testament, Jesus visits the Temple precincts, overturns the tables of the moneychangers and predicts the Temple�s destruction. According to Erekat�s claim, all this is false, and so too the abundant testimony outside of the Bible, including Iron Age inscriptions referring to the �Temple of Yahweh,� Josephus�s detailed description of the Temple, the briefer accounts of Tacitus and other Roman historians, the picture of the Jerusalem Temple on coins of the Second Jewish Revolt, and more.

But, perhaps unacknowledged by the revisers of history, according to this position not only is the Bible a lie, but so is the Quran, the sacred scripture of Islam, and so are the authoritative Islamic commentaries on the Quran.

The current issue also has lots of other goodies, including an article by William H. C. Propp on Who Wrote Second Isaiah? and a review by Sidine White Crawford of James C. VanderKam and Peter Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Go check it out.

UPDATE: Mark Goodacre comments on the issue.

MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL is in the news. The Arlington Catholic Herald has the following column:

St. Michael the Archangel

By Fr. William P. Saunders
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 10/2/03)

I have recently moved to the area, and have noticed that several parishes (including my own) recite the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. Could you explain where this devotion comes from? � A reader in Great Falls

St. Michael the Archangel, whose name means, "one who is like God," led the army of angels who cast Satan and the rebellious angels into Hell; at the end of time, he will wield the sword of justice to separate the righteous from the evil (cf. Rv 12:7).

The early Church Fathers recognized the importance of the angels and archangels, particularly St. Michael. Theodoret of Cyr (393-466) in his Interpretation of Daniel wrote, "We are taught that each one of us is entrusted to the care of an individual angel to guard and protect us, and to deliver us from the snares of evil demons. Archangels are entrusted with the tasks of guarding nations, as the Blessed Moses taught, and with those remarks the Blessed Daniel is in accord; for he himself speaks of �the chief of the Kingdom of the Persians,� and a little later of �the chief of the Greeks,� while he calls Michael �the chief of Israel.�" The Church Fathers would also posit that St. Michael stood guard at the gate of paradise after Adam and Eve had been banished, and he was the angel through whom God published the Ten Commandments, who blocked the passage of Balaam (Nm 22:20), and who destroyed the army of Sennacherib (2 Chr 32:21)..

St. Basil and other Greek Fathers ranked St. Michael as the Prince of all the Angels. With the rise of scholasticism and the exposition of the "nine choirs of angels," some said St. Michael was the prince of the Seraphim, the first of the choirs. (However, St. Thomas Aquinas assigned St. Michael as the prince of the last choir, the angels.)

[...]

Fr. Saunders goes on to summarize the importance of St. Michael in Catholic tradition. For a detailed rundown of Michael traditions in the Jewish and Islamic traditions see the rather good "Michael the Archangel" article in Wikipedia. We just missed the feast day of St. Michael, which was 29 September.

THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA APPEARS IN GOOGLE NEWS AGAIN - and the Apocrypha too. This is a press release from the African News Agency:

From Worldwide Faith News
Date Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:00:52 -0700

ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
P. O Box, 66878, 00800 Westlands,
NAIROBI, Kenya
Tel: 254-2-4442215 or 4440224; Fax: 254-2-4445847, or 4443241;
Email: aanaapta@nbnet.co.ke

AANA Bulletin Bulletin APTA
Editor -Elly Wamari Editor - Silvie Alemba

AANA BULLETIN No. 38/03 September 29, 2003 (b)

FEATURES SECTION

Discovering The Origin And Meaning Of Apocrypha

At the recent state-funeral held for the Late Kenyan Vice-President, Michael Wamalwa, many Kenyans were baffled when a Biblical text was read from the Roman Catholic Bible's book of Wisdom. Understandably in a country where 43 percent of citizens are Protestant, this was bound to cause curiosity. The book of Wisdom is contained in the little known Apocrypha, which our Correspondent Janet Adongo, explains.

In Africa, where Christians are the majority, the major versions of the Bible that are in use are the New International Version, the King James Version, the Revised Standard Version and the Good News Bible.

All these translations exclude the Apocrypha, in which the book of Wisdom is contained. It is in this regard that an attempt is made to discover the origin of the Apocrypha, and why some religions choose to erase them from their versions of the Bible.

According to the Encarta Reference Library, Apocrypha (Greek apokryphos, "hidden"), is a word coined by the 5th Century biblical scholar, Saint Jerome, for the biblical books received by the Church of his time, as part of the Greek version of the Old Testament, but which were not included in the Hebrew Bible.

[...]

Protestants and Jews customarily use the term "Pseudepigrapha" to describe those writings that Roman Catholics would term Apocrypha, that is, late Jewish writings that all scholars consider extra-canonical.

Such works include the Book of Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, the Fourth Book of Maccabees, the Book of Enoch, the Fourth Book of Ezra, the Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, all of which are ascribed to canonical worthies of the Old Testament, and have not been preserved in their original Hebrew or Aramaic.

With the growth of a historical perspective in biblical studies during the 19th Century, the value of the Apocrypha as historical sources came to be generally recognised. Derived from 300 BC to New Testament times, the Apocrypha shed valuable light on the period between the end of the Old Testament narrative, and the opening of the New Testament.

They are also important sources of information on the development of belief in resurrection and other questions of eschatology, as well as the increasing impact of Hellenistic ideas on Judaism.

[...]

Although a lot of attention is paid to the Old Testament Apocrypha, little is known and even mentioned about the "lost books" of the New Testament. The Apocryphal New Testament is a title that refers to more than 100 books written by Christian authors between the 2nd and 4thCenturies.

The books have two characteristics in common. In general form, they
resemble New Testament writings, many of them falling into the literary categories of gospel, acts, letter, and apocalypse. Secondly, they belong neither to the New Testament canon nor to the writings of the recognised Fathers of the Church.

[...]

You never know where this stuff is going to show up.

DOLORES O'RIORDAN of the Cranberries will be singing a Latin song acapella for Mel Gibson's The Passion. Follow the link for the Irish Post article, which quotes her as follows:

"It is sung in Latin, which I feel is going back to my roots, because I did Latin at School."

PHILOLOGOS ON THE SCAPEGOAT:

Goats to the Slaughter (The Forward)

'And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.... And the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him and to let him go for a scapegoat unto the wilderness."

This passage from Leviticus 16 stands at the heart of the Yom Kippur service � both of the Yom Kippur service in the Temple in Jerusalem, at whose climax the high priest slaughtered one goat while releasing a second to the desert, and of the Yom Kippur service in the synagogue, in which Leviticus 16 is read from the Torah and retold in the Musaf prayer in a poetic description of the Temple ceremony.

And yet when you think of it, something isn't logical. Why is the goat that was not slaughtered � "the goote on which the lotte fell to [e]scape," in William Tindale's 1530 English Bible translation, from which the 1611 King James Version coined the new word "scapegoat" � the one that has come to signify an unfairly chosen victim who is made to take the blame for others? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

[...]

The answer, it would appear, lies in the continuation of Leviticus 16, in which we read: "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited." Even though, in other words, the scapegoat was allowed to live, it was banished to the desert because of the sins of others.

It is likely, indeed, that by the 19th century, when our contemporary meaning of "scapegoat" first entered English, readers of the Bible no longer recognized the archaic verb "scape" to be a form of "escape," or else took it to refer not to the goat but to the children of Israel, who "escaped" punishment by means of the goat.

There's more, including how the term is used in other European languages and what Azazel really meant.

AUTHENTIC ANCIENT FRINGE DYE?

Fringe Movement: A Biblical Blue Makes a Comeback (The Forward)
A Dye Born in the Glands of a Snail Colors the Corners of Prayer Shawls
By CHANA POLLACK

The color purple � well, something related to it � is making a comeback, but its significance goes far beyond the favor of frum fashionistas.

� newly recovered biblical process of extracting the purplish blue dye from a Mediterranean mollusk is changing the way the commandment to wear tzitzit � the ritual fringes worn on the four-cornered prayer shawls � is being observed by some Modern Orthodox Jews and chasidim.

After a millennium and a half, it is now once again possible to include a blue (tekhelet) thread among one's fringes, in accordance with God's instructions to Moses in Numbers 15:38-39:

Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of tekhelet [blue] to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the Lord and observe them.

How could a low-lying mollusk become the harbinger of innovation? In the biblical era, tzitzit fringes had one component dyed the color tekhelet. Associated in ancient times with royalty and the priestly caste, tekhelet was one of the few permanent dyes of the biblical era, made from a glandular secretion of the Murex snail called dibromoindirubin, which, after five to 10 minutes of exposure to air and sunlight, turns what's called "biblical blue."

[...]

The dye's revival is due in large part to the initiative and imagination � not to mention networking prowess � of several young Modern Orthodox professionals now living in Israel, mostly graduates of Yeshiva University's science departments. Tekhelet has gained a following numbering in the thousands and the support of a diverse group of religious scholars, scientists and a few deep-sea-diving Croatian fishermen, looking to enhance their local economy.

Dr. Ari Greenspan is a resident of Efrat with a thriving dental practice in nearby Jerusalem and one of the founders of P'til Tekhelet Foundation (www.tekhelet.com), which seeks to promote and distribute tekhelet. He told the Forward that his interest in tekhelet emerged from the desire to meld his creative urges with his interest in hidur mitzvah, or beautifying the ritual practice. Greenspan, an energetic 40-year-old who immigrated to Israel in 1988 from New Jersey, drew a particular pleasure from applying his manual dexterity to the fulfillment of Jewish law.

[...]

After hearing about [Rabbi Eliyahu] Tevger's deep-sea dives along the northern Achziv coastal region in Israel, Greenspan grew excited. In no time, he found himself on a self-described "whim," facedown and up to his elbows in the Mediterranean, searching for the mollusk alongside Tevger and physicist Baruch Sterman.

"To make a long story short," Greenspan said, "we found something." Using earlier historical research as their point of departure, Greenspan and a team of roughly a dozen confirmed that this was the same species of snail from which the original tekhelet dye had been made in biblical times.

Tracing the biological research of medieval dyers and talmudic celebrities such as Pliny the Elder, they were able to produce within a year "the first historical blue dye from the snail in over 1,500 years," Greenspan said.

Today, tekhelet is created by extracting a yellowish "juice" from the Murex snail, which the foundation fishes in Europe. It takes about 10 to 30 snails to make enough dye for one set of tzitzit. The remaining snail parts are given to the local population gratis, to eat.

[...]

Objections to tekhelet fringes tend to fault the foundation's historical research for incorrectly tying tekhelet to the Murex snail. A 2001 article published in the Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society and posted on the www.chilazon.com, says that the Murex-produced tekhelet does not meet the standards set out in the Gemara and faults the foundation's research as "inconclusive."

For his part, Greenspan is quick to note that as a Modern Orthodox Jew, he is "unencumbered by the same fear of integrating the old and the new."

[...]

There's more at the P'til Tekhelet Foundation website.

ANCIENT JEWISH ACCOUNTS OF JESUS is another page of Alan Humm's website. It contains translations of various accounts of Jesus including the Testimonium Flavianum, the Toledoth Yeshu and other Jewish accounts and alleged Jewish accounts in Rabbinic texts and the Church Fathers.

RADIOCARBON DATING OF ANCIENT POTTERY is now possible, thanks to scientists at the University of Bristol, who have developed a technique for dating ancient pottery using the animal fat it contains. Pottery is normally dated by placing it in a relative typological sequence, based on its shape and composition, and establishing absolute dates only when specific pottery types are found in strata that can be dated on other grounds. Cumulatively, typological dating of pottery is very accurate and useful, but this new method could be an important cross-check of the old and could also date potsherds that aren't yet established in a typological sequence. And, as you can see below, it has the potential for dating other artifacts besides pottery. This is an exciting development. Here's one of the articles on the new method (via Bible and Interpretation News):

On the antiquity of pots: New method developed for dating archaeological pottery (EurekaAlert!)

The contents of ancient pottery could help archaeologists resolve some longstanding disputes in the world of antiquities, thanks to scientists at Britain's University of Bristol. The researchers have developed the first direct method for dating pottery by examining animal fats preserved inside the ceramic walls.

[...]

The researchers analyzed 15 pieces of pottery � mostly cooking jars and bowls � ranging in age from 4,000 B.C. to the 15th Century A.D. They assigned a date using the new method and then compared their findings to the historical date verified previously by association with organic artifacts. In all cases, their results were in good agreement with the sample history.

The analysis requires partial destruction of the artifacts, but the researchers didn't run into much opposition along the way. "Museum curators require some convincing before they let you take their pottery away," Evershed says. "However, most of this pottery is not display quality material, but is stored in bags and boxes in the museum archive."

[Richard] Evershed [Ph.D., a chemist at the University of Bristol] and his colleagues also plan to use the technique to study mummies. "A lot of Egyptian mummies were exported out of Egypt by the Victorians, and they often applied modern treatments to preserve them," Evershed says. The researchers hope to distinguish between a modern treatment and the original embalming agent.

The method could eventually be used for a variety of other analyses. "Potentially, you could date any other material that has preserved organic compounds," like pitches from wood products or collagen from bones, according to Evershed. "You could even isolate individual amino acids by this preparative GC approach, but no one's tried that. That's the next step."

CRUCIFIXION AGAIN: Mark Goodacre points to this 1973 article by James Charlesworth, "Jesus and Jehohanan: An Archaeological Note on Crucifixion," which suggests that the hapless Jehohanan was crucified in a crouching position with the nails going through his forearms. (Incidentally, this interpretation seems to be the source of the position in which Willem DaFoe is crucified in The Last Temptation of Christ.) But this more recent article by Joe Zias (who is a specialist in ancient osteology), "Crucifixion in Antiquity: The�Archaeological�Evidence," takes the damage to the forearms to indicate that they were tied, not nailed, and also takes the victim to have been crucified in an upright position with the feet on either side of the cross. Either way, not very pleasant.

SONG OF SONGS INTERPRETATION SAMPLES, a page from the website of Alan Humm, contains excerpts of passages from Jewish and Christian authors which interpret the Song of Songs. And don't miss his link to Jay Treat's Sights and Sounds of the Song of Songs page, which includes Jay's own translation of the Aramaic Targum of the Song of Songs.