I'M BACK IN ST. ANDREWS, after a long trip that was improved by my being upgraded to Business Class on the transatlantic leg. I have lots of blog-intended notes from the conference, plus a backlog of other items. Let's see how far I can get this afternoon.

On Sunday morning I heard Byron McCane speak on the "Ya'acob bar Yosef ahui di Yeshua' (i.e., the text of the "James Ossuary") in the Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World Section (S23-3). One of the concepts we ancient historians take for granted, yet have immense difficulty getting across to laypeople, is that there is a large range of "theories" that we or our subspecialties agree to be quite impossible and not worth talking about (because they are obviously grossly flawed methodologically or the evidence put forth for them is obviously wrong or for various other reasons). There are lots of other theories that are somewhere between barely possible and quite likely, and it is this latter category of the possible that we spend so much time arguing about, while we tend to ignore the impossible theories except when, say, a crank manages to get them some media attention, in which case we say that they're impossible and the crank complains about ossified mainstream scholarship which can't appreciate his or her grand breakthrough.

What I'm leading up to here is that Professor McCane and every other archaeologist who opened his or her mouth in this session clearly put the genuineness of the full inscription on the "James Ossuary" in the first category: impossible, disproved, and not worth discussing. I'm not an archaeologist myself, let alone a geologist or whoever it is who decides if patinas have been cut through or not. But I'm pretty impressed with this consensus and am disinclined to take the inscription seriously after seeing their united front. Still, I would like to see the refutation published in a peer-review journal in more detail than has been presented so far.

Late in the morning, Bob Kraft presented his paper "Exploring Greek Jewish Scribal Practices: The Evidence from the Earliest LXX/OG Fragments" in the Hellenistic Judaism Section (S23-9). Follow the link to get the full text of the paper on his website.

Bob also gave a paper on "Pursuing Papyrology via the Web" in the Computer Assisted Research Section (CARG - S23-58). Some of the sites he surveyed included:

The American Society of Papyrology
APIS
ABZU
Texts, Manuscripts and Palaeography (Jay Treat)
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (literary texts, but includes magical papyri)
John Muccigrosso's Papyrology Home Page (stops at the year 2000)
University of Michigan Papyrus Collection
Duke Data Bank of Documentary Papyri
Oxyrhynchus Online
Kraft's gopher papyri page
Unidentified Jewish and Christian Papyri (Kraft)
Kraft, "Textual Mechanics of Early LXX/OG papyri"

On Monday morning I gave my paper, Is the Story of Zosimus Really a Jewish Composition?" in the Pseudepigrapha Section (S24-20). One person asked if we shouldn't take the line that for Pseudepigrapha transmitted in Christian circles the burden of proof is on anyone making a claim about their origin, rather than on anyone wanting to move backwards to a Jewish text. This is true in a sense, but the point I was trying to drive home was that we actually have the physical manuscripts of a certain date and provenance. The MSS are physical facts and our starting point should be that the text made sense to someone as a Christian work at that date in those circles. The burden of proof is on anyone who wishes to move backwards from there. Sometimes it will be relatively straightforward to work backwards to a Jewish origin around the turn of the era (e.g., for 4 Ezra or the Psalms of Solomon). But in many cases, such as that of the Story of Zosimus and its sources, it is very difficult to make such a case. Another person cautioned that we have to be careful not to confuse composition with transmission, since they are not the same thing. I agree. But the starting point is the manuscripts and we need to work backwards from them as required by the evidence and only as required by the evidence.

On Monday afternoon I heard Joe Zias and Emile Puech speak on "The 'Tomb of Absalom' and the People of the Book: A Question of Literacy!" (S24-53). The point of the last clause was that for centuries in the late Middle Ages and early modern period people followed the custom of stoning the monument because they thought it was Absalom's. If any of them had been able to read the prominent inscriptions on the front of it, they would have realized that it wasn't. Zias and Puech also discussed the newly recovered Simeon inscription on the tomb, which I mentioned a few days ago.

Later on Monday afternoon I attended the session on "Massive Scholarly Data Projects: Perspectives and Experiences" (S24-120). The following projects were discussed:

Stephen Kaufman: Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon

Steve Tinney: Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary

Traianos Gagos: APIS (Advanced Papyrological Information System, on which see also above)

Gregory Crane was unfortunately not able to be present to discuss the Perseus Digital Library.

Also, Patrick Durusau spoke on "Lost in a Data Sea? Navigating with Topic Maps," and gave a number of websites on the subject. According to my notes, he said to see the technology section on the new Society of Biblical Literature website for the links. But I must have misunderstood something, because I can't find a technology section on the new Society of Biblical Literature website. I did write down one URL he mentioned: http://www.coolheads.com.

I went to other interesting papers and took notes on some of them, but it's nearly supper time here and I imagine my family would like to see a little of me, so I think this will have to suffice. Overall, a very good conference.

By the way, Mark Goodacre is also blogging the conference. I'm glad I'm not the only one who wandered around like a lost soul looking for the e-listers at the Gramcord booth in the book displays. The lower level of displays was remarkably well hidden, with no elevator access and access by only one escalator at the back of the building.

MY INTERNET TIME runs out soon and I want to get downstairs to the book display before lunch, so this will be my last Atlanta post. But I do want to mention what an energizing and reaffirming experience this conference is. I've spent most of the last few months in a room by myself slaving over a book that deals with extremely difficult historical problems - the longer I work on them the more I realize how difficult they are. Sometimes I've felt discouraged. So it's been great to be here and to have conversations on the plane, in the PSCO session, and in the hallways with people who know the subject and who see the point of what I'm doing and why I'm doing it the way I am. As I said earlier, they have alerted me to texts I didn't know about. Also, the process of talking through a project with other people who are working in related areas is in itself helpful: verbalizing and summarzing what I'm doing makes me think it through again and distil the important points for myself in ways I hadn't before. And hearing about their projects sometimes gives me new angles on mine.

That's the real point of conferences (which, of course, is not to say that drinking and gossiping are entirely irrelevant), and it's something you can't get just by posting the papers online, much as I approve of doing that too. For that reason I don't think we'll reach the point of fully virtual conferences any time soon, if ever. At least I hope not.

By the way, I haven't had the patience to correct the time given in these entries, so they still reflect the Scottish time zone. Subtract five hours from all Atlanta entries to see what time I was actually posting them.

Look for me again on Wednesday.

IN OTHER NEWS, the Guardian. reports on a BBC2 program that takes apart the Bible Code nonsense. The Yale Daily News reports that American Sign Language, Arabic, and Hebrew are the languages whose study is growing the fastest in the USA. And according to Eonline the New York Post reviewed Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ based on a pirated rough cut that fell into their hands.

Sorry, you'll have to find the URLs yourself but, armed with the information above and Google, this shouldn't be difficult.

THE PSCO SESSION last night had something over 30 attendees. Here's some of what happened, based on my hastily scrawled notes. I shall try to represent accurately what I heard (and in one or two cases I asked people after the session to make sure I had it right), but if I get something that you said wrong, drop me an e-mail and I will correct it. As always, I will refrain from quoting anyone who asked not to be quoted.

Bob Kraft opened with some observations on the Seminar and the history of the study of the "parabiblical literature." He noted in passing that Montague Rhodes James, best known in our circles for being a prolific publisher of parabiblical literature, is known in wider circles mainly for his ghost stories. A Google search of his name verifies this.

The first panelist was George Nickelsburg (University of Iowa - retired), who spoke on Enoch and Abraham. I missed the first part of his comments on Enoch in my notes, but he did say that Enoch is interesting for being in competition with the Moses tradition and even "stealing" from it (e.g., opening lines of the Book of the Watchers, where material from the Moses tradition is put in the mouth of Moses. As for Abraham, there's lots of later interest in the Aqedah (binding of Isaac): Paul and James duel over its meaning (does it show his faith or his works?) and the Testament of Abraham uses him as an example of someone who doesn't have faith. Traditions migrate among the stories of the patriarchs (e.g., Job traditions are applied to Abraham in Jubilees). Curiously, although Enoch has no real biography, he becomes typified as a model righteous person.

My comments went according to script and you can read them in Wednesday's entry below.

Brannon Wheeler (University of Washington) spoke about traditions about the prophets in the Qur'an and early Islamic exegesis. The Qur'an and early Islam grow out of late antiquity and the full range of traditions about the prophets should be looked at - they can be mutually illuminating. He had three main points, with examples. (1) Qur'anic material sometimes gives a different perspective than that of Jewish or Christian exegesis. (2) One could argue that later texts sometimes have traditions ealier than what we find in earlier texts. Pseudepigrapha and parabiblical literature in some cases are post-Qur'anic. (3) Jews and Christians also borrowed from Muslims.

Kim Haines-Eitzen (Cornell) spoke on the female figure of Thekla in early Christianity. This is not an area I know much about (I don't think i've even read the Acts of Paul and Thekla) and so my notes on her comments are not very coherent. Her (Kim's, not Thekla's) interests are in religious identity as seen through the lens of "textual communities," and in the preservation, copying, and transmission of particular texts, and in what the material form of books can tell us about their use, interpretation, and production. The earliest fragments of Thekla material are often in miniature codices, perhaps for use in pilgrimage. She also mentioned an episode in which Thekla baptized herself when she was thrown into a tank of killer seals. I think I heard that right.

My jet lag was catching up with me fast at this point and most of the discussion didn't make it into my notes. I did get a few things on the discussion of Enoch. George floated the idea that there was a developing tendency in late antiquity to focus sacred traditions on persons, unlike in the Bible. He also said that Enoch is a name looking for a tradition. He also asked why certain figures disappear from the traditions, citing as an example the the way that the Watchers story and Enoch are dropped from the fourth centuries on in Christian circles as an explanation for the origin of evil, with the Adam and Eve story replacing them for that subject. This led to a discussion of Augustine's need of an anthropological explanation as part of the reason, the question of whether there was already discomfort with Enoch in Christian circles before the fourth century (e.g., Origen), whether Enoch was entirely dropped in the Greek traditions, and what kinds of interest n Enoch there were in Egypt.

A number of people also gave me leads for additional material relating to the Rechabites, for which I am grateful.

That's about all I can squeeze from my notes. The PSCO secretary also taped the session, so maybe we can look forward to a more thorough summary in due course.

MARK GOODACRE gives us some preliminary thoughts regarding his paper on his "All-n-One Biblical Resoures Guide." To read them, go to the links section on the right, click on the "Weblogs etc." link and you will find there a link to his New Testament Gateway blog.

Mark notes the acroynym "CARG," which came about back when the Computer Assisted Research "Section" was still a "Group" (the two terms have technical meanings in SBL parlance). I've always been amused by the acronym and I was glad they kept it when the name changed. Science fiction readers will recall that in Keith Laumer's classic novel Dinosaur Beach the "Kargs" were evil Terminator-like robots from the future who came back in time to carry out dastardly deeds to change the course of history.

I'm sure the similarity in name is just a coincidence. Of course, I have presented a CARG paper myself iin recent years, so I would say that, wouldn't I?

BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That's enough from me today. (Probably more than enough.) The PSCO session is this evening. Scroll down for my preliminary comments for the panel discussion. I'll aim to give you a brief report on the session tomorrow morning.

ROGER WIECK, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts for the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, will be lecturing on "The Medieval Bible" at the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Forbidden Book Exhibit on Saturday, 6 December, according to Yahoo News. Again, try using some of the key words above as search terms in Google News or in Yahoo News's seach engine to access the article.

OKAY, THE BIG NEWS is that a second inscription has been found on Absalom's Tomb in the Kidron valley. (Unfortunately, my hotel-room TV system doesn't even show you URLs, let alone let you copy them so you can link to something. Grrr. So no links in Atlanta posts: well have to try a lateral approach instead.) Regular readers will recall that Absalom's Tomb (so-called, much later than Absalom actually) has a Byzantine-era inscription referring to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. (Try entering the search term "Absalom" into my search engine, down and to the right, to access the relevant posts in the archive).

The new inscription refers to Simeon, who according to Luke blessed the baby Jesus in the Temple. The inscription is actually part of the text of Luke 2:25. The article appears in dozens of news sites, but the best coverage I found was on the CNN site, which includes an image of drawings of both inscriptions. Enter the article title "Biblical clue found on ancient shrine" either into Google News or the CNN website itself and this should get you the article.

Please excuse typos. I'm trying to catch them but, as I said, conditions are primitive.

I'M IN ATLANTA, blogging in my hotel room from a woefully inadequate television system. I got here yesterday evening and managed to get most of a night's sleep, although I've been up since 5:00 am. Downtown Atlanta seems to lack a single Internet cafe, which is, well, primitive. I wouldn't be blogging at all, but I promised my mother I would e-mail her and she would fret if I didn't. So I have television Internet access through tomorrow morning. Right now it's early afternoon local time and I need a nap. I"ll try to dig up some blog goodies for you later.

I LEAVE FIRST THING TOMORROW MORNING for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta. I am slated for two presentations there. First, on Friday evening, I'm on a panel discussion for the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins. I have some brief preliminary comments on myself and on "The Rechabites in Patristic and Parabiblical Literature," which premium subscribers to PaleoJudaica.com (meaning anyone who clicks on the link) can read now. And here's the handout that goes with the presentation.

Then on Monday morning I present a paper in the Pseudepigrapha Section on "Is the Story of Zosimus Really a Jewish Composition?" which, again, you can read here in advance along with it's handout.

There is a great deal going on at the AAR/SBL meetings, including many papers on ancient Judaism. I can't hope to attend anything like all of them (many are scheduled in conflict with one another), but I'll do the best I can and, if I can find a convenient cyber caf� and enough energy, I'll do my best to comment on a few of them here during the conference. The Cambridge SBL meeting was in a single building, but this conference is in two different hotels some distance from each other in downtown Atlanta so, assuming I do attend some papers, I may not have much time for blogging.

A while ago Mark Goodacre pointed out the SBL Program Pages site, which links to the home pages for a number of the SBL program units. Many of these already have conference papers posted. For ancient Judaism note especially the Josephus Seminar, which has links to the following papers for this year:

John M G Barclay (University of Durham) "Josephus and his Audiences: Exploring Reading Options in a Commentary" (Response: James S Mclaren [Australian Catholic University])

Jonathan J Price (Tel Aviv University), "Josephus' reading of Thucidydes: A test-case in the BJ," (Response: Honora H Chapman [California State University, Fresno])

Miriam Ben-zeev (Ben Gurion University), "Josephus' Ambiguities: His Comments on Cited Documents,"

Claude Eilers (McMaster University), "Josephus' Caesarian Acta: History of a Dossier"

Tessa Rajak (University Of Reading), "Who needs charters? Josephus in the light of Greek historiographical practice"

(Response: Erich S. Gruen [University of California Berkeley])

There's also the Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism Group (to whose main page, mysteriously, there is no link). Papers for this year include:

Jonathan Knight - The mystical understanding in the Ascension of Isaiah

Andrei Orlov - Ex 33 on God's Face:A Lesson from the Enochic Tradition

Christopher R. A. Morray-Jones - The Exegete Goes to Heaven: How Visionaries Read Visions (This is dated 2000 and the book has been published - included on the Program Pages page by mistake?)

Charles A. Gieschen - Baptismal Praxis in the Book of Revelation

These and other groups have papers from past years on their websites as well. Mark Goodacre has also been listing papers of New Testament interest this week (just keep scrolling down). If you can't get to the conference this year, there's plenty online which will give you a good virtual experience, even if it still lacks the networking in the halls between sessions and drinking at the receptions.

As I said, I'll try to do at least a little blogging while I'm there. I'm scheduled to be back in St. Andrews on Wednesday, the 26th. Have a good week.

IT'S NOT OVER YET:

Scholar says inscription about 'brother' of Jesus may be genuine (Society of Jesus USA website)


By Bronson Havard

IRVING, Texas (CNS) -- An ancient Holy Land burial box with the controversial inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" may be authentic, Jesuit Father Joseph Fitzmyer, a noted Scripture scholar, said in a lecture at the University of Dallas.

Father Fitzmyer questioned a finding by the Israel Antiquities Authority, a government agency, that the inscription was fake.

The Israeli agency known as the IAA has failed to settle the issue, he said Nov. 8 to nearly 300 people at the university located in Irving.

Father Fitzmyer sided with Andre Lemaire, a Scripture scholar at the Sorbonne University in Paris, in disputing a conclusion by the antiquities authority that the inscription on the burial box, called an ossuary, is a fake.

[...]

Read it all.

THREE NEW BOOKS ON GENESIS are reviewed by Walter Brueggemann in Christianity Today. All of this long review is interesting and it's hard to decide what to excerpt. My main interest is in the third book:

Gary Anderson offers a discussion that is limited to Genesis 1-3, a study that is remarkable in its reach�not least in its recovery of early readings of the text. In The Genesis of Perfection: Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination, Anderson, recently gone to Notre Dame, takes up these chapters by reference to the Life of Adam and Eve, an ancient post-biblical document much used by Christians in the early centuries of the church. (Anderson offers a translation of the document in an appendix.) Anderson's concern is to study the way in which early Christian interpreters made use of the Genesis text "in conformity with an evolving interpretive tradition." That interpretive tradition was rooted in Judaism, as Anderson respectfully acknowledges; his focus, however, is upon the Christian practice of interpretation, which moves in quite distinctive and imaginative directions.

It is a primary thrust of the book to insist that the Genesis narratives are too terse and underdeveloped to be taken by themselves; they require ongoing work in an interpretive community. Given that premise, Anderson then proposes that taken canonically, the Genesis narratives must be read in terms of their ending, a culmination�in Christian practice�in Christology and with particular reference to Mary, who is the new Eve. The assumption of the book then is "canonical" in a most expansive sense, an insistence that the text must be read in a faith community and with respect for "the domain of the Creed as much as the territory of the dispassionate literary historian." The outcome is a canonical reading through the imagination of the early church, a reading that is so daring as to make even the erudite canonical approach of Brevard Childs seem timid and anemic.

Brueggemann concludes:

It strikes this reviewer as most important that these books move quickly beyond the characteristic categories of 20th century-criticism. Borgman, in his centrist approach, is less explicit about context. Kass yields a quite Jewish reading that culminates in appreciation of a community committed to holiness. Anderson's reading is powerfully Christian (Catholic!) in his comprehension of the old and deep tradition. The sum of these books invites critical reflection on the older presuppositions of scholarship, especially concerning (a) source analysis and the question of authority and (b) cultural parallels and the issue of distinctiveness, issues that became a huge battleground over the relation of faith and criticism. The new directions suggest an important unlearning in the field. Critical scholars may unlearn the deep focus on criticism for the sake of the text itself. Resisters to criticism may unlearn the vigorous energy used to defeat criticism. Both critics and resisters might rather turn to the text itself and find common ground there.

These books are especially important in Old Testament studies at a moment when the mostly British "minimalists" have exhaustingly sought to dismiss the text as "historically" unreliable. As these books make clear, such an obsession with "history" as propels the "minimalists" is hardly worth the effort. The text does not depend upon "history" nearly as much as it depends upon serious readers who both take the reading tradition of faith seriously and move on imaginatively. It is a splendid time to be a serious, imaginative reader!

It is indeed.

"ANCIENT JEWISH VILLAGE UNCOVERED IN JERUSALEM" (Jerusalem Post):

The remains of a heretofore-unknown ancient Jewish
village dating back nearly two thousand years has been uncovered on the northern rim of Jerusalem, the Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.

The first century Jewish community was stumbled upon in late May near the entrance to the present day Shuafat refugee camp, in the wake of infrastructure work which the city was carrying out at the site for the Jerusalem's light rail-system, which is still under construction.

A three-month long archaeological excavation at the site - which archaeologists date back to the second temple period and was abandoned during the days of the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans -- uncovered the remains of homes made of ashlar stone, courtyards and three bathhouses in the village.

Read it all.

THE LOOTED SEPHER YETZIRAH MS HAS BEEN RETURNED:

Stolen Jewish manuscript returned after 65 years (CNN)
Nazis looted 14th century document from collection in Austria

From Chris Strathmann
CNN
Tuesday, November 18, 2003 Posted: 5:56 PM EST (2256 GMT)
A rare 14th century Hebrew manuscript was returned to the Vienna Jewish community by U.S. Customs officials Tuesday.



NEW YORK (CNN) -- Nearly 65 years to the day after it was stolen by the Nazis, a rare historical Hebrew manuscript has been returned to the Austrian Jewish community.

At a ceremony in Manhattan, officials with the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement presented the letter-size parchment to Erika Jakubovits, executive director of the Jewish Community Organization of Vienna.

Agents recovered the document in June 2002 after it was smuggled into the United States and slated for sale at auction.

The 14th century manuscript is one of the oldest versions of a Kabalistic text known as Sepher Yetzirah. It's one of the first texts to mention the ancient Jewish mystical movement, according to Ori Soltes of the Holocaust Art Restoration Project. The document is valued at $68,000.

[...]

Not to be snarky or anything, but I do wish reporters would learn to spell "Kabbalah" and its derivatives, especially since the subject seems to be in the news a lot these days. Two Bs, one L. Or, if you must, the older (in English, that is) spelling "Cabala," which looks to me to be Latinized, perhaps via the Christian Kabbalists. Anybody know?

Congratulations to the Vienna Jewish community on the return of the manuscript. Kudos also to the U.S. customs department for recovering it. And boo to Kestenbaum & Company for trying to go through with the sale.

A BOOK ON THE QUMRAN CALENDAR AND THE BIBLE is being self-published on the Web. Here's an excerpt from the Yahoo News press release:

'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' Sheds New Light on Questions of Old Testament Chronology
Tuesday November 18, 8:18 am ET

BRISBANE, Australia, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- After ten years of research into the chronological inconsistencies of the Bible's Old Testament - primarily the books of Kings and Chronicles - theologian R.P. BenDedek has uncovered the millennia-old mystery that, he believes, was intended to result in an inflation of the chronological history of ancient Israel. Now BenDedek has published his findings in a new book, "The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran," on the Web at www.kingscalendar.com.

"For over a century, the chronological history of ancient Israel has remained problematic for theologians, archaeologists and historians alike, by virtue of biblical chronology that exceeds the known parameters of ancient Near Eastern history," BenDedek explained. "But when I stumbled across a common mathematical thread running through biblical chronology, the records of Josephus, and the Damascus Document of the Dead Sea Scrolls, I knew I had found something of great significance."

That something turned out to be an artificial calendar year. When BenDedek substituted a 336-day year (twelve months of four seven-day weeks) for the Essene 364-day solar year (thirteen months of four seven-day weeks), he found that the chronological inconsistencies in I and II Kings and Chronicles disappeared.

The first third of the book is free but you have to pay for the rest, when the rest becomes available.

I am extremely skeptical of this sort of anonymously self-published attempt to solve a huge problem that has been occupying scholars for many years. In this case, I'm not at all sure that this problem has a solution, at least of the straightforward type the author envisions. If the author wants to be taken seriously, he or she should go public, present their credentials, and convince a reputable academic publisher to publish the book. This is not an area I have a lot of interest in, but a quick look-through doesn't turn up anything to allay my skepticism. For example, I can find nothing in chapter one on the numerous, extremely difficult, calendrical texts from Qumran or the burgeoning secondary literature on them. In general, knowledge of the secondary literature looks quite sketchy. If any specialists in Qumran or Israelite calendrical problems want to take the time to have a look and e-mail me their comments, I'll consider posting them here.

Meanwhile, I would advise you to save your money for something more credible.

UPDATE (19 November): "R.P. BenDedek" and I have had an e-mail exchange that is recorded in part here. This is the full text of my reply to his/her message (BenDedek's words in italics, mine in Roman font):

Hello R. P. BenDedek,

Thank you Mr. Davila for your posting. That was the aim, and I'm indebted to you.

1. Could you tell me why it is that you feel that 'purchasing' the book from an author makes it unworthy of sale, but giving your money to an academic publisher is fine? (This is rhetorical - I'm not looking for you to post this email).

Because the publisher puts the book through a peer review process that weeds out books that don't reach at least a reasonable control over the primary and secondary sources and the relevant methodologies. I am generally suspicious of self-published efforts for that reason. In the specific case of your book, it looks to me as though it would not have made it through the peer review process. Thus I don't think my readers would get their money's worth by buying it.


2. Please note that my work is anything but simple.

I never said it was simple. I said it did not control the relevant primary and secondary literature.


3. However everything that one needs to examine it, is free online, so there really is no need for 'academics' to buy it. The tools are provided free for them to 'scientifically' test the hypothesis and check the results against known history.

Fair enough.


4. Thank you for recommending it to qualified academics. That was much appreciated.

Best Wishes.


Best wishes,

Jim Davila

I wasn't precisely recommending it: I was drawing it to their attention. But if they want to take the time to look at it I'd be interested in their reactions.

WANT TO ACE THE SAT? Take Hebrew or Latin, in that order:

Students who took Latin outscored every other language-studying group on the verbal portion of the SAT except those who took Hebrew, according to the College Board's most recent profile of college-bound seniors.

A KABBALAH MS LOOTED BY THE NAZIS HAS BEEN RECOVERED.

Manuscript Looted by Nazis to Be Returned (Acron Beacon Journal)
JENNIFER FRIEDLIN
Associated Press

NEW YORK - A 14th-century Jewish manuscript seized by the Nazis from a library in Vienna 65 years ago will be returned to Austria after it turned up in a New York auction house.

The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division is scheduled to present the rare Kabbalistic manuscript valued at over $68,000 to Jewish Community Organization of Vienna at a news conference on Tuesday.

[...]

A description from the auction catalogue says the Hebrew manuscript is an early version of a form of the Sepher Yetzirah, or "Book of Formation," described as the "oldest and most esoteric of all Kabbalistic texts." Kabbala is an ancient Jewish mystical tradition.

[...]

The oldest certainly: specialists date the Sepher Yetzirah to anywhere from the Mishnaic period to something like the ninth or tenth century. But I wouldn't want to try to decide which Kabbalistic work is the most esoteric.

JERUSALEM THROUGH COINS is a very interesting website by amateur collector Sandy Brenner which has lots of information on coins in ancient Judaism, lavishly illustrated with photographs.

ON IOUDAIOS-L Steven Mason has posted information on a Josephus colloquium at Trinity College, Dublin and a new postgraduate program at York University in Toronto.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF A RABBINICS CONFERENCE:

Beit Morasha of Jerusalem - Robert M. Beren College
The Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought
Invites the public to attend its Sixth Annual Conference:

How Formative are Polemics to
Rabbinic Thought?

Sunday-Wednesday, December 21-24, 2003
Beit Morasha of Jerusalem, Kiryat Moriah Campus
Talpiot, Jerusalem
For further details please contact: hazal@bmj.org.il

Sunday, December 21
9:30-11:30 Joshua Schwartz (Bar-Ilan University), Chair
Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Beit Morasha), Polemicomania - Methodological Reflections on the Place of Christian-Jewish Polemic in Rabbinic Thought
Reuven Kimelman (Brandeis University), When Are Things Polemical and When Are They Self-Affirmation?

12:00-14:00 Jonah Fraenkel (Hebrew University), Chair
Yaakov Elboim (Hebrew University), Polemics, Disputes and Constant Truths In Urbach's The Sages
Vered Noam (Tel-Aviv University), The Excommunication of R. Eliezer - Between Dispute and Polemics
Yehuda Brandes (Beit Morasha), Fictive Polemics as Representation of Others' Halakhic Opinions

Monday, December 22
9:30-11:30 Daniel Schwartz (Hebrew University), Chair
Ruth Clemens (Orion Center), Lifting Moses' Elbows; or, How Do You Know a Counter-Interpretation When You See One?"
Ron Reissberg (University of Judaism), A Tale of Two Cities: From Caesarea to Nisibis, The Christian Impact on Rabbinic Theology
Ido Hevroni (Bar-Ilan University), Tempting Satan: Multi-Layered Polemic in a Talmudic Story

12:00-14:00 Galit Hasan-Rokem, (Hebrew University), Chair
Israel J. Yuval (Hebrew University), 'All Israel Have a Share in the World to Come' - The Limits of Polemical Interpretation
Gavriel Barzilei (Bar-Ilan University), Anti-Samaritan Polemic in the Early Exegesis of Genesis
Amram Tropper (Hebrew University), Polemic Readings of Tractate Avot: Methodological Considerations

Tuesday, December 23
9:30-11:30 Daniel Sperber (Beit Morasha & Bar-Ilan University), Chair
Avraham Wallfish (Herzog College), Explicit and Implicit Polemics in the Mishna and their Philosophical Implications
Harry Fox (University of Toronto), Explicit and Implicit Polemics in the Amida: A Reconsideration
Avigdor Shinan (Hebrew University), Internal or External Polemics? The Prophet Jonah in the House of R. Yohanan

12:00-14:00 Chana Safrai (Hebrew University), Chair
Tal Ilan (Freie Universit�t, Berlin), Jesus and Joshua b. Perahia: A Jewish- Christian Dialogue on Magic
Eyal Regev (Bar-Ilan University), Anti-Sadducee Polemics as a Shaping Factor in Rabbinic Halakhic Thought
Meir Bar-Ilan (Bar-Ilan University), Polemics between Priests and Sages in the First Century C.E.

Wednesday, December 24
9:30-11:30 Joshua Levinson (Hebrew University), Chair
Chaim Milikowksy (Bar-Ilan University), Concealed Polemics in Seder Olam
Rina Lapidus (Bar-Ilan University), Parallel and Allegory in Rabbinic Polemics
Tamar Meir (Bar-Ilan University), The Live Dog and Dead Lion: An Inter-Cultural Confrontation Concerning the Concept of Leadership

12:00-14:00 Shlomo Naeh (Hebrew University), Chair
Menahem Kister (Hebrew University), A Polemic on the Conquest of Canaan
Gilad Sasson (Bar-Ilan University), Rabbinic Criticism of the Patriarchs in Light of the Jewish-Christian Polemic
Isaiah Gafni (Hebrew University), Rabbinic Representations of the Past - a Counter-Reaction?

A DEAD SEA SCROLL TEXT will be on display at a holiday festival in November and December in Elkhart County, Indiana. The eTruth.com article says:

The month-long festival at the 4-H fairgrounds, expected to open during Thanksgiving week 2004, will feature food, shopping and performances. The centerpiece of the event will be the depiction of the travels by Joseph and Mary, as well as a display of Holy Land artifacts -- including a portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was announced Saturday.

No word yet on which Scroll fragment or text will be on display.

THE FIRST-CENTURY JERUSALEM SHROUD is to be the subject of a lecture by Dr. Shimon Gibson at UNC-Charlotte tonight and then at the American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Meeting in Atlanta, which begins on Wednesday. You can find more on the shroud project here.

UPDATE: I originally incorrectly said the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. I have corrected the post above. Thanks Mark!

I'VE NEGLECTED TO POST any course syllabi for some time, so here's one by Prof. Scott B. Noegel of the University of Washington: "Inscriptions from Biblical Times: HEBR 428." It deals with material earlier that what I usually cover, but there aren't many courses taught on ancient Hebrew epigraphy, so I'll include it.

THE NEW BENGALI TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE has been getting some attention in the Indian newspapers. I've been scratching my head over the following paragraphs from the Hindu News:

Extensively sourced from Books of Greek and Hebrew renditions of Bible translated by Christian Missionary Carey and his successors, "Mangalvarta" contains translations of all Books accepted as an integral part of Bible by the Catholic Church from ancient times, namely Book Of Wisdom and Ben-Sira.

"Besides, Books like Tobit, Judith and Maccabees that offer stirring examples of devotion to God and duty have also been included in the translation," Fr Mignon said here yesterday.

I think what this is trying to say is that the Old Testament Apocrypha/Deuterocanonica (see below, two posts down) are included, but the writer doesn't seem to be too clear on the concept.

Anyhow, congratulations to speakers of Bengali on their first new Bible translation in 200 years.

Now what about the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha?

ELIE WIESEL'S NEW BOOK, Wise Men and Their Tales : Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Masters is reviewed by Avigail Schwartz in the Jerusalem Post. Excerpt:

Wise Men and Their Tales; Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic and Hasidic Masters is devoted mainly to turning the spare prose of the Bible into accessible, sympathetic stories. Later, briefer sections are comprised of character studies of talmudic sages and retellings of hassidic legends.

The commentary, in a rather modern fashion, exposes heroes, and creates a sympathetic case for the underdog. Our forefathers, priests, and prophets were not saints, suggests Wiesel, and the motives of characters such as Hagar, Ishmael, and Esau have been misunderstood. We can learn lessons from the former group's failures, he seems to claim, and perhaps, in the quest to understand the latter set, gain some compassion.

While he is not the first modern commentator to offer this perspective, the book is peppered with interesting new hiddushim (insights). Wiesel adds texture to these by drawing upon both his religious and secular educations.

"APOCRYPHAL WRITINGS ON JESUS, IN ARABIC" is the subject of a Zenit article. Excerpts, with my comments interspersed:

CORDOBA, Spain, NOV. 12, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Among the texts the early Church had to decide on were apocryphal writings in Arabic.

In this interview, Juan Pedro Monferrer, professor of Arabic language and literature at the University of Cordoba, explains what apocryphal Arabic writings are and why they are not part of the canonical writings accepted by the Church.

[...]

Q: What are the Christian apocrypha?

Monferrer: The word "apocryphal" comes from the Greek "apocryphos," which means "hidden," "secret." The term identifies a vast gamut of writings of Jewish and Christian origin that, with but a few exceptions -- as is the case of the Book of Enoch in the Coptic Church -- did not become part of the canon of the sacred books of the Bible.

The book of 1 Enoch is accepted in the Ethiopic canon but not, to my knowledge, in the Coptic canon (although Coptic fragments of it do exist).

These works, composed in the manner of biblical books, are usually classified by critics as "Apocrypha of the Old Testament" and "Apocrypha of the New Testament."

The Old Testament Apocrypha are canonical in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions but not to Jews or Protestants. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha are Bible-like books that aren't accepted in any of these major canons.

Q: Do they exist also in Arabic?

Monferrer: Not just in Arabic. The languages in which these books have come to us are very varied: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Coptic, etc. And also in Arabic, which has been the language of Christians of the Middle East since the sixth century, when Islam occupied the territories formerly belonging to Christian communities that lived under the Byzantine and Sassanid Persian empires.

I think he means the seventh century.

Q: What aspects of Jesus Christ underlie these writings?

Monferrer: The fundamental element contributed by the "apocrypha of the New Testament" is the information they give which does not appear in the New Testament.

All that area of which we know nothing, or perhaps very little from the Gospels -- for example, the birth of Jesus, the journey and sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt; the 18 "hidden" years of Jesus, that is, from 12 to 30, prior to his public life -- is the material developed by the apocrypha, with the intention of making available to the Christian communities all that information they wanted on Jesus.

I think he should make it clearer that the Christian apocrypha, with the possible exception of the Nag Hammadi Gospel of Thomas, give us no new information on the historical Jesus. They have lots of legends about the childhood of Jesus and the "hidden" eighteen years, but no reliable historical data.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS TO THE FORBIDDEN BOOK EXHIBIT will move to Huntsville, Alabama at the end of the year, opening there on 5 January.

HERE'S AN UPDATE on the PSCO session a week from Friday at the SBL meetings in Atlanta. Probably most of you have seen it on one e-mail list or another, but in case anyone missed it, here it is:

[[please cross-post as appropriate: originally sent to: PSCO list, ioudaios-l@lehigh.edu (ioudaios), ELENCHUS@mercury.cc.uottawa.ca (Elenchus List), LT-ANTIQ@LISTSERV.SC.EDU (Discussion List), H-JUDAIC@H-NET.MSU.EDU (H-Judaic List), medieval-religion@jiscmail.ac.uk (Discussion List), orion@mscc.huji.ac.il]]

PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS

in its 41st year
an Interdisciplinary Humanities Seminar
under the auspices of the
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Department of Religious Studies
201 Logan Hall
with support from
the Penn Humanities Forum


TOPIC FOR 2003-2004: Parabiblical Prosopography (in the footsteps of Lost Apocrypha by M. R. James,)

Chair and Coordinator: 12 November 2003
Robert Kraft (University of Pennsylvania) kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

Secretaries and Special Assistants:
T.J.Wellman (University of Pennsylvania) twellman@sas.upenn.edu
Harry Tolley (University of Pennsylvania) htollaol@yahoo.com
Justin Dombrowski (Westminster Theological Seminary) jedombrowski@msn.com

As previously announced, the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins is scheduled to meet just prior to the SBL/AAR annual meetings in Atlanta, on Friday evening 21 November 2003, 7:00-8:30 pm, at the Atlanta Mariott Marquis Hotel, Amsterdam Room (Convention Level). So far, we have had no luck in scheduling a group dinner beforehand that would fit our time-schedule, but are open to suggestions from those who know the Atlanta scene.

The topic for the current year, and for this meeting, is "Parabiblical Prosopography," which is a fancy and brief way of indicating interest in the names associated with early Jewish and early Christian parabiblical literature (both as authors and as primary subjects), and with the traditions that developed around those names (persons or groups) over time. The inspiration for such a topic is the little volume on "Lost Apocrypha" by M. R. James (1920), which has spawned the following web sites as part of the larger PSCO project:

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/735/Parabiblical/jamesnew.htm
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/735/Parabiblical/NTParabib.htm

Building on the model from last years PSCO meeting at the SBL/AAR conference, we will have a panel of participants, each of whom has a special interest in this material and will introduce themselves very briefly as a springboard to broader discussion. A basic question to be considered is "To what extent do popular narratives/reports about parabiblical identities (supposed authors and focal figures or groups) assist us in understanding how the 'parabiblical' literature was read/understood and transmitted/preserved in the course of its history up to the modern period?" The panelists will include:

*George Nickelsburg (U Iowa, Emeritus), Enoch, Abraham, et al.
*Jim Davila (St. Andrews, SCOTLAND), "Rechabites" Traditions
*Brannon Wheeler (U Washington) Moses & others in Islamic Tradition
*Kim Haines-Eitzen (Cornell), Thekla as Subject and Scribe

I'd still like to include one or two additional panelists, especially someone with a focus on another major early Christian figure, if there are any volunteers. In the remaining PSCO schedule, the exact dates of which have not yet been decided, we hope to arrange for the following presentations -- additional suggestions and/or volunteers are also welcome:

On Solomon (especially "magic" associations), Sarah Schwarz
On Philip (also with "magic" connections), Debra Bucher
On the Watchers, Annette Yoshiko Reed
On Elijah, David Frankfurter
On Mary, Ann Matter
On the Maccabee Martyr Mother, Sigrid Peterson

For further information about PSCO, please consult the web site

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/psco/


--
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827
kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html

THE STUDIA PHILONICA ANNUAL WEBSITE is moving soon from here to here. Be sure to update your bookmark. (Heads-up, Torrey Seland.)

The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly Journal devoted to the furtherance of the study of Hellenistic Judaism, and in particular of the writings and thought of the great Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (circa 15 B.C.E. to circa 50 C.E.). The Journal appears annually in November.

HERE'S A READING OF THE AQEDAH (the story of the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22) and it's later interpretations in light of both its ancient Near Easter context and current events (Jerusalem Post). Excerpt:

Even in our generation, we in Israel are witnesses to hundreds of parents who are forced to change the natural order of the world and to bury their children - sacrifices of a cruel terrorist enemy.

The Talmud records just such a harrowing tale concerning a woman whose seven children were murdered by the Roman emperor because they refused to bow down to an idol. The distraught mother cried out: "My children, go and say to Abraham your father, you sacrificed before one altar, whereas I sacrificed before seven." Then the mother threw herself off a roof and died. A voice came down from heaven, crying out: "The mother of the children rejoices" (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 57b).

For many parents who are faced with the agony of seeing their children's lives snuffed out in sanctification of God's name, the biblical model of the parent who has passed such a challenge is Abraham, in accordance with the plain meaning of God's first command.

Indeed, so powerful was this Abrahamic model that an ancient tradition had it that Abraham actually slaughtered Isaac and God brought him back to life. Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra makes reference to it in his commentary on the verse, "And Abraham returned to the lads... and Abraham dwelt in Beersheba" (Genesis 22:19), where he writes: "Isaac isn't mentioned because he was still under Abraham's jurisdiction; the one who says Abraham slaughtered him and left him and afterwards he returned to life is saying the opposite of what the text teaches."

Nevertheless, the Midrash Hagadol states that God brought Isaac to Eden for three years - until he came back to earth to marry Rebekah - and the Ashkenazi prayers for the morning before Rosh Hashana make reference to the "ashes" of Isaac on the altar which constantly evoke divine mercy.

The midrashic tradition that Isaac was actually sacrificed is explored by Shalom Spiegel in The Last Trial.

THE MEDICAL WORKS OF MAIMONIDES (RAMBAM) are being translated into English by Gerrit Bos, chair of the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne. The article also notes that next year will be the 800th anniversary of the death of Maimonides (his dates are 1135-1204). Excerpt from the Jewish Week article:

Bos, chair of the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne, has spent the last decade translating the bulk of Maimonides� medical writings into English. �All the rest should take another five years,� he says.

[�]

�I discovered that all his medical works had not been translated into any modern language,� he says. He decided to do it. He found a publisher, BYU Press, affiliated with the Mormon school in Utah, which specializes in ancient medicine.

Much of Maimonides� medical advice, while dated, is �important today,� Bos says. �People should eat a healthy diet. You should not neglect physical exercise.�

�People today,� Bos says, �see these things as useful.�

BLOGGER HAS BEEN DOWN for maintenance again this morning.

"BAD WRITING": Ophelia Benson takes on pretentious, self-flattering, bad academic writing and calls it to account (Butterfliesandwheels.com via Arts and Letters Daily). Excerpt:

There are several of the defense mechanisms at work in that one brief passage. The 'project' of theory is 'unsettling,' it brings assumptions into question. Ah - so that's it. It's not that the writing is bad, it's that the readers who think it's bad are 98-pound weaklings who turn pale and sick at unsettling projects. They are 'frightened off,' the poor cowardly things, by the 'difficulty' of theory - not the ineptitude, mind you, or the slavish imitativeness, or the endless formulaic repetition of repetition - no, the difficulty. So as a result they 'can dismiss' theory - not laugh at, not hold up to scorn and derision, or set fire to or thrust firmly into the bin or take back to the shop and loudly demand a refund - no, dismiss. And dismiss 'as an effort to cover up in an artifically difficult style the fact that it has nothing to say.' Well - yes, that's right, as a matter of fact. We couldn't have said it better ourselves. That is exactly what it looks like to an impartial outsider. And then even though theory is 'difficult' which being interpreted means 'badly written,' we mustn't assume it's all like that (fair enough, and if you show us the good stuff, we'll greet it with a hug and tickets to the Icecapades) because that keeps us 'from confronting the real questions that theory raises.' Oh does it really. Surely that would only be the case if 'theory' were the only discipline raising such questions. But you know what? It isn't. One can confront such questions just as well by reading people who do know how to write as by reading ones who don't.

Be sure to look at the links at the bottom of the page, especially the "Bad Writing Contest." There is also a place to add comments on the piece, if you are so inclined.

In my experience, most of those who apply Theory to ancient Judaism (I'm using it a fair bit myself in the book I'm writing now) tend to do a good job of stripping off the pretension and deliberate obfuscation and getting at the useful elements, of which (and Benson doesn�t clearly acknowledge this) there really are quite a few. (Of course, maybe I'm just not reading the right - or wrong - people.) Maxine Grossman's book Reading for History in the Damascus Document is an excellent recent example of cutting-edge Theory applied in clear prose.

THE JOURNAL OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES has a new issue out (54.2). Most of the articles don't seem to pertain directly to ancient Judaism (although it's a bit hard to tell sometimes: for some reason only the titles are given; no full texts yet). But one article (one of the two with even an abstract) looks interesting:

The 'Embarrassing Syntax' of Ps. 47:10: A (Pro)Vocative Option
Keith Bodner
pp. 570-575

Ps. 47:10 (v. 9 in many English translations) has perplexed commentators and proved elusive for translators. M. D. Goulder wryly describes the syntax of v. 10a as something of an 'embarrassment', no doubt because of the theological implications which arise. This short note surveys several opinions and argues that the impasse can be resolved if 10a-beta is translated as a vocative. This proposal has the advantage of preserving the MT and poetically coheres with the larger structure and drama of the psalm.

In addition there are many relevant book reviews:

Joachim Schaper : Priester und Leviten im ach�menidischen Juda. Studien zur Kult- und Sozialgeschichte Israels in persischer Zeit.
Reviewed by H. G. M. Williamson
pp. 615-620

Reviews
John Kessler : The Book of Haggai. Prophecy and Society in Early Persian Yehud.
Reviewed by Janet E. Tollington
pp. 621-624

Gabriele Boccaccini : Roots of Rabbinic Judaism. An Intellectual History, from Ezekiel to Daniel.
Reviewed by Lester L. Grabbe
pp. 629-630

Reviews
Martin Hengel and Translated by Mark E. Biddle : The Septuagint as Christian Scripture. Its Prehistory and the Problem of its Canon.
Reviewed by Alison Salvesen
pp. 631-634

Reviews
George W. E. Nickelsburg : 1 Enoch 1. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36; 81-108.
Reviewed by Christopher Rowland
pp. 634-641

Reviews
Paulson Pulikottil : Transmission of Biblical Texts in Qumran. The Case of the Large Isaiah Scroll 1QIsaa.
Reviewed by H. G. M. Williamson
pp. 641-646

Reviews
Stephen J. Pfann Miscellanea. Part 1. By Philip Alexander et al : Qumran Cave 4. XXVI: Cryptic Texts.
Reviewed by Jonathan Campbell
pp. 646-647

Reviews
Timothy H. Lim et al , ed. The Dead Sea Scrolls in their Historical Context.
Reviewed by Jonathan Campbell
pp. 647-649

Reviews
Gershon Brin : The Concept of Time in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Reviewed by Daniel K. Falk
pp. 649-652

Reviews
Stefan Enste : Kein Markustext in Qumran: Eine Untersuchung der These: Qumran Fragment 7Q5 = Mk 6, 52-53.
Reviewed by Peter M. Head
pp. 652-654

Reviews
Ingrid Hjelm : The Samaritans and Early Judaism: A Literary Analysis.
Reviewed by S. J. K. Pearce
pp. 654-656

Reviews
Anders Runesson : The Origins of the Synagogue. A Socio-Historical Study.
Reviewed by Stefan C. Reif
pp. 656-659

Reviews
Lutz Doering : Schabbat. Sabbathalacha und -praxis im antiken Judentum and Urchristentum.
Reviewed by William Horbury
pp. 659-661

Reviews
David T. Runia : Philo of Alexandria. On the Creation of the Cosmos according to Moses. Introduction, Translation and Commentary.
Reviewed by Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer
pp. 661-663

Reviews
Eric Eve : The Jewish Context of Jesus' Miracles.
Reviewed by A. E. Harvey
pp. 664-665

Reviews
Steven M. Bryan : Jesus and Israel's Traditions of Judgement and Restoration.
Reviewed by Hanna Stettler
pp. 665-669

Reviews
Martin Hengel and Anna Maria Schwemer : Der messianische Anspruch Jesu und die Anf�nge der Christologie. Vier Studien.
Reviewed by Larry W. Hurtado
pp. 669-673

Reviews
Paul Copan and Craig A. Evans , ed. Who Was Jesus? A Jewish-Christian Dialogue.
Reviewed by M. Bockmuehl
pp. 673-675

Reviews
Maurice Casey : An Aramaic Approach to Q. Sources for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
Reviewed by C. M. Tuckett
pp. 681-686

Reviews
Michael Lattke : Oden Salomos. Text, �bersetzung, Kommentar. Teil 2. Oden 15-28.
Reviewed by Alison Salvesen
p. 760

Reviews
Isaac Kalimi : Early Jewish Exegesis and Theological Controversy. Studies in Scriptures in the Shadow of Internal and External Controversies.
Reviewed by Edward Kessler
pp. 760-762

Reviews
Ed Noort and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar : The Sacrifice of Isaac. The Aqedah (Genesis 22) and Its Interpretations.
Reviewed by Edward Kessler
pp. 763-764

Reviews
Huub van de Sandt and David Flusser : The Didache. Its Jewish Sources and its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity.
Reviewed by Stuart G. Hall
pp. 773-776

Reviews
Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley : The Mandaeans. Ancient Texts and Modern People.
Reviewed by R. McL. Wilson
pp. 776-777

Short Notice
James Charlesworth : Miscellaneous Texts from the Judaean Desert
Reviewed by Timothy H. Lim
pp. 874-875

Short Notice
Christopher Rowland : Christian Origins. The Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism
Reviewed by Judith Lieu
pp. 875-876

Access to the full texts of the articles and reviews, assuming they do post them, is by paid individual or institutional subscription only.

BELATEDLY, here's a Beliefnet essay by David Klinghoffer on the eschatological elements traditionally associated with Sukkot. Excerpt:

In contemporary Judaism, Sukkot tends to be disentangled from this disturbing apocalyptic element. But recognizing Sukkot's end-of-the-world theme is essential to understanding its place among the High Holidays--this theme actually ties it to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holidays that immediately precede it on the Jewish calendar. The three festivals form a unit, a dramatically coherent structure, as Jewish law makes clear when it emphasizes the importance of getting to work on building your sukkah just as soon as Yom Kippur is over. The yearly sequence--Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur, then Sukkot--sets out, in miniature, a narrative of the history of mankind.

It is a drama in three acts. First comes the Jewish New Year, commemorating the beginning of God's creation, the conception of the world. Sandwiched in the middle there is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which stresses the struggle of every person to overcome the thoughtlessness, selfishness, indeed the evil in himself. This represents the phase of history in which we live now. While man travels down the corridor of time--proceeding from the beginning to the end, whether of his life or of the life of humankind as a whole--the main object of his struggles must be to strengthen the good, which means overcoming evil.

At the conclusion comes Sukkot, with its references to the end point of the human experience. Without Sukkot, we would have only the one-two sequence of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, suggesting that a struggle must go on forever, with no hope of an ultimate victory--a depressing prospect. But there is indeed hope. Each Sukkot is a preview of what it will be like to experience the culmination and conclusion of the historical process, lending the festival the atmosphere of joy for which it is known.

THE CALL FOR PAPERS for the 2004 International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Groningen is now available. The deadline for proposals is 31 December.

THE SAN ANTONIO VOCAL ARTS ENSEMBLE is back in San Antonio after a tour, and one of their recent live performances is reviewed here. I've mentioned them a number times in the past: they attempt to recreate ancient music in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic. You can hear some of it by going here and following the link.

"ASSOCIATIONS, SYNAGOGUES, AND CONGREGATIONS" is a website by Philip A. Harland, Assistant Professor of Religion at Concordia University.

This site brings to life the social world of ancient associations, Jewish synagogues, and Christian congregations using inscriptions, monuments, archeological finds, and literary texts from the Roman empire, especially Asia Minor (Turkey). It includes an interactive discussion of ancient associations and guilds, photos of ancient sites including the Sardis synagogue, links, and publications by the author.

He also has a book of the same title out with Fortress Press.

COLUMBIA ELECTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA has short biographies of figures in ancient Roman history (via N. S. Gill's Ancient History/Classics blog). Some figures important for ancient Judaism include:

Claudius

Hadrian

Nero

Pompey

Titus

Vespasian

Incidentally, I just ran across De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors, which is a much more detailed and comprehensive source for Roman emperors. See, for example, the entries for:

Claudius

Hadrian

Julian the Apostate

Nero

Titus

Vespasian

Curiously, neither encyclopedia mentions the Nero Redivivus myth (scroll down to section V) in its "Nero" entry.

A NEW TORAH SCROLL has been completed for a synagogue in Greensboro. The article has lots of interesting details on how it's done.

REBECCA LESSES has posted the abstract of her upcoming SBL paper, "Divine Weeping and God�s Right Arm: A vision of eschatological sorrow in Sefer Hekhalot (3 Enoch)" (scroll down) on her Mystical Politics blog. I plan to post my entire paper here on PaleoJudaica.com just before I leave for the conference. If we're lucky, maybe others (Rebecca? Mark?) will do likewise on their blogs.

HERE'S A PROFILE OF RABBI ADIN STEINSALTZ, Chabad Hasid and prominent Talmudist (Jewsweek). And here's a Beliefnet review of his translation of the Babylonian Talmud. But note that the review gets a couple of points wrong: the Talmuds were edited some centuries after the date the reviewer indicates (maybe he's thinking of the Mishnah?) and they were written mostly in Hebrew, with some Aramaic. I'm no Talmudist but I do know that much. If anyone knows of a review online by an academic specialist in Talmud, please let me know.

"RASHI AND RAMBAM" - is an article in the Jerusalem Post by Rabbi Berel Wein (via Bible and Interpretation News). Excerpts:

Many consider Rashi (1040-1105) the father of Ashkenazic Jewry. Living at a time when there were probably only 5,000-10,000 Ashkenazic Jews in the world, his teachings reached almost every Ashkenazic family in France and Germany. Rashi was a master teacher. In spite of the demands on his time - he was a vintner, father, husband, teacher, rabbinic judge, and the rabbi of Troyes, France - he wrote the commentary to the Bible and to the Talmud. It is no exaggeration to say that the Talmud would have remained a sealed book, understandable only to a few scholars, had it not been for Rashi's commentary. My teachers in yeshiva often compared Rashi to a mother holding the hand of her child as they crossed a busy street.

[...]

Maimonides (1135-1204) was cut from a different cloth. He lived a turbulent life, escaping from the wrath of the fanatical Almohads, waging a theological and practical battle against the Karaites, and suffering much personal tragedy in his lifetime. He was publicly critical of others' opinions and behavior and took strong stands on controversial issues. He was a physician, philosopher, and person of prodigious talents. He knew sciences and pharmacology, languages and psychology. But above all else, he was the foremost Torah scholar of his time - or any time. For this reason, it is often said of him: "From Moshe until Moshe there arose none like Moshe."

The nine hundredth anniversary of Rashi's death is in 2005 and will be commemorated in the French city of Troyes, his birthplace.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CRONACA!

THE DA VINCI CODE,, in Hebrew translation, is reviewed by a Tel Aviv University Professor of History, Aviad Kleinberg, in Ha'aretz. Contains spoilers and a detailed refutation of historical errors in the book.

UPDATE: More refutations from Christianity Today.

ARABIC, BIBLICAL HEBREW, AND ANCIENT GREEK are being studied more in the United States in recent years. Whatever the reasons (and I don't think 9/11 can explain the Hebrew and Greek), this is good news.

NOW HOW OFTEN do you see a homily that tackles the story of Lot's daughters?

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS TO THE FORBIDDEN BOOK EXHIBIT IN DALLAS is extending its stay for six additional weeks.

HERE'S AN ARTICLE ON JEWISH BLESSINGS AND CURSES from the Jerusalem Post. Excerpts:

Curses can be a powerful thing and weigh heavily upon those who believe they are so afflicted. The idea of curses and blessings pervades the narratives of the Torah. Adam and Eve were cursed when they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. Cain was cursed for the murder of his brother Abel. Lemech was shunned for killing Cain, and Noah cursed Ham and Canaan for their despicable behavior toward him. Joshua cursed anyone who would dare to rebuild ancient Jericho. Elisha cursed the evil youngsters who tormented him.

However, we are taught by the rabbis of the Talmud that the power of good is 500 times greater than the power of evil, and the Torah is replete with narratives of blessings. Abraham is blessed by God and told: "Those who bless you will be blessed and those who curse you will be themselves cursed." Abraham passes on his blessings to Isaac. Jacob receives Isaac's blessing but gains Esau's enmity. The brothers of Joseph begrudge him his father's favoritism and blessing.

Blessings are often bittersweet. All of the great characters of the Bible, from Joshua through Ezra and Mordechai and Esther receive and/or bestow blessings. Blessings are a volatile matter and must be dispensed wisely. In the Torah, we are instructed to bless each other as well as the God that created us.

[...]

The use of amulets to convey blessings is a topic of great controversy in Jewish history. There were amulets prepared for every possible blessing in life and to ward off all imaginable misfortunes. The Talmud discusses the use of these amulets in a halachic sense, such as whether they may be worn in a public area on Shabbat. From many halachic sources, it seems that the use of these amulets had a placebo effect on the people who wore them.

There were great rabbinic disputes regarding amulets, but the Jewish public, especially after the rise of Lurianic Kabbala and Hassidism, adopted their use - and they remain popular among certain sections of Jewry today. The custom of inserting a prayer into the cracks of the stones of the Western Wall is an offshoot of this tradition

OH NO! Another Jesus movie: Cloning Christ - based on this book. Aaarrrggh!

CAN THE CAIRO GENIZA be a bridge between Jews and Muslims?

Princeton University professor has high hopes for a mutual academic interest. (The Princeton Packet)

For hundreds of years, the Jews of Cairo deposited documents and fragments of paper that bear the name of God in a chamber behind a wall on the second floor mezzanine of the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
The documents, both important and mundane, offer an intimate look at everyday medieval Jewish and Muslim life. Written in Hebrew script, but in the Arabic language, some of the Geniza commercial letters offer insights into the earliest trade between the Mediterranean and India.
Princeton University Professor Mark R. Cohen believes that depository, known as the Cairo Geniza, may one day bring Jewish and Muslim scholars together.
"One of my dreams is that the Geniza will be a bridge between Jewish Israeli scholars on one hand and Arab Muslim scholars on the other," said Professor Cohen, who divides his time between the Department of Near East Studies and the Program in Judaic Studies.
Professor Cohen, a specialist in medieval Jewish history, is director of the Princeton Geniza Project, which, since the late 1980s, has been making the documents of everyday life accessible to scholars online.
"It's not going to bring peace," Professor Cohen said. He hopes that one day Jewish and Muslim scholars will meet in a neutral space where the issue of a Palestinian state doesn't play a role.
"It holds interest not only for Jewish scholars, but for Muslim scholars" because it sheds light on the Arab Muslim majority of Cairo, he said.

[...]

For more on the Cairo Geniza go here.

INFO ON THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES is available on the AJS website (and thanks to Ellen Birnbaum for the heads-up).

A CONFERENCE ON RABBINIC LEXICOGRAPHY will be taking place at the University of Pennsylvania (again, via the H-Judaic list):

Sunday, Nov 16, 12:15pm-9pm: Rabbinic Lexicography and Marcus Jastrow
Penn's Jewish Studies Program and Van Pelt Library, along with a number of others, are co-sponsoring an international conference to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the publication of Marcus Jastrow's Talmudic dictionary. (Marcus Jastrow was a Philadelphia rabbi, and his son Morris was both a professor at Penn and the first Director of the University Library.)

Rosenwald Gallery (6th Floor)
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library
3420 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

12:15pm-1:30pm -- Session I: Opening Remarks/Keynote Address Michael Sokoloff, Bar Ilan University, Marcus Jastrow's Dictionary in the Context of Rabbinic Lexicography

1:30pm-2pm -- Coffee and refreshments

2pm-3pm -- Session II
Neil Danzig, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Lexicography in the Gaonic Period
Joanna Weinberg, Oxford University,
The Arukh of Nathan of Rome

3pm-3:30pm -- Coffee and refreshments

3:30pm-4:30pm -- Session III
Stephen Burnett, University of Nebraska, Christian Hebraism and Sixteenth Century Lexicography

Lewis Glinert, Dartmouth College,
Lexicography in Nineteenth Century Europe

4:30pm-5pm -- Coffee and refreshments

5pm-6pm -- Session IV
Arthur Kiron, University of Pennsylvania, A Biographical Sketch of Morris Jastrow
Lance Sussman, Congregation Knesset Israel, Marcus Jastrow and
Nineteenth Century Philadelphia Jewry

6:30pm -- Dinner at Temple Rodeph Sholom (for invited participants only)

8pm -- Evening Address
Temple Rodeph Shalom, 615 N. Broad St.
Michal Galas, University of Cracow, Marcus Jastrow's European Background and the Critical Reception of Jastrow's Dictionary

I wish I could go!

ANCIENT JUDAISM IN THE THEATER (from the H-Judaic list):

Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 22:31:01 -0500
From: Ariella Brown
Subject: FYI: New Play on Salome Alexandra (Donahue)

FYI: New Play on Salome Alexandra by Lauri Donahue
I think the play could be of interest as history (it's based on the works of Josephus, among other sources), literature (it's in iambic pentameter), and for courses in Jewish women's studies.

"Alexandra" is the winner of the 2003 Dorothy Silver Playwriting Award (forplays on Jewish themes) and is being published this fall by Baker's Plays. The catalog listing is at: http://bakersplays.net/alofju.html.

I'd be happy to email a short sample of the text.
email: editor@yeladim.org

MORE ON THE JAMES OSSUARY:

Indications that the "Brother of Jesus" Inscription is a Forgery (Bible and Interpretation website)
By Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Church History
Brigham Young University
jrchadwick@byu.edu

I haven't had a chance to read this paper yet myself, but here it is.

THE HISTORY NET has a section on Ancient Judaism which I don't think I've noted here yet. It has pages on subject ranging from "Aramaic" to "Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes" and many of these pages contain multiple links to other sites.

THE GEMATRICULATOR (via Protocols), using the ancient and infallible science of gematria, declares:

http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com is
32% evil, 68% good

Now you know.

UPDATE: I just noticed that the graphic for good uses a cross and the graphic for evil uses what appears to be a Star of David. I don't care about the first, but the second makes me distinctly uncomfortable. Am I reading this correctly or is there some deep Kabbalistic symbolism I'm missing?

UPDATE: It's a pentagram. Duh. Very sorry: because it's gematria I guess I was thinking in terms of Jewish symbols and then I missed the number of points. I have no idea why I didn't think of a pentagram. May I plead (hopefully temporary) stupefaction? Today I've been proofreading and fact-checking my upcoming SBL paper and then transcribing a long list of articles for a book review. Both are mind-numbing tasks but I didn't realize my mind was so numbed as that. Apologies to the Gematriculator.

This is embarrassing and I'm tempted just to delete these updates, but I won't. I hope PaleoJudaica provides enough good content and commentary that my readers will allow me an occasional stupid lapse, although I'll try very hard to avoid more lapses as stupid as this one. I'll do my best, but no promises.

SHAMANISM IN JUDAISM: Gershon Winkler has published a book called Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism, which is profiled briefly in the Jerusalem Post. My recent book Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature compares early Jewish mysticism to shamanism. I hadn't heard of Winkler's book before, but I'll have to have a look at it.

"JESUS, MARY AND DA VINCI" is reviewed by Slate Magazine (via Protocols). This documentary, if it even deserves to be called one, sounds pretty lame. This excerpt of the review sums it up nicely:

To Vargas' and the producers' credit, they trot out some impressive scholars to comment, including Elaine Pagels, Jack Wasserman, and Umberto Eco. While many of the interviewees express polite interest in the theoretical ramifications of this notion, they can't shed any real light on the question. Yes, the Catholic Church has had problems dealing with sex and women. And it behaved extremely badly at times, the Crusades and the Inquisition being two shameful examples. But those sad facts do not a conspiracy make. As titillating or shocking as the idea of Jesus having sex might be, we just don't know if he did. The few historical texts we can refer to, including recently recovered ones like the Gospel of Thomas, don't mention Mary's relationship to Jesus, and so they don't bring us closer to the truth.

The film no doubt aims to encourage religious discussion by bringing an incendiary theory to light. But any debate on this topic is bound to be fruitless and frustrating since hard facts simply don't exist to support it. In the end, the film only provides extra (unnecessary) publicity for Brown's best-selling novel.

NEW BOOK REVIEWS FROM THE REVIEW OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE:

Chiesa, Bruno
Filologia storica della Bibbia ebraica
Reviewed by Paul Sanders

Devens, Monica S.
A Concordance to Psalms in the Ethiopic Version
Reviewed by Stephen Ryan

Laurent, Francoise
Les biens pour rien en Qohéleth 5,9-6,6 ou La traversée d'un contraste
Reviewed by James L Crenshaw

DER ZEITSCHRIFT FUR DIE ALTTESTAMENTLICHE WISSENSCHAFT has a new issue out (115.3). Unfortunately, it is not online, but here are some articles of interest in it:

pp. 388-400
Remarks on Ben Sira's >>Instruction on Shame<<, Sirach 41,14-42,8
Reymond, E. D.

pp. 401-422
Questions about the Great Flood, as Viewed by Philo, Pseudo-Philo, Josephus, and the Rabbis
Feldman, L. H.

pp. 433-434
Prov 5,19c: (non-Roman script word)
Zalcman, L.

pp. 435-439
The Righteous Sage: Pleonasm or Oxymoron? (Kohelet 7,16-18)
Shnider, S.; Zalcman, L.

AN OLD TESTAMENT SCHOLAR named Lisa Davison will tell Protestants to pay more attention to the "First Testament" in a lecture at Eureka College tonight. Good for her. She also weighs in on the relevance (or lack thereof) of the Hebrew Bible for the current debate on homosexuality in mainline churches.

NAOMI CHANA OF BARAITA weighs in on Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ, especially the alleged Agreda/Emmerich connections. Turns out she knows something about the works of both authors and she'll be able to tell us if Gibson is using them once the movie comes out. If he is, she's going to protest strenously and so will I. But if I remember correctly, he's denied it, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Also, scroll up for "Signs That You Are A Hopeless Humanities Geek." I'm afraid it sounds all too familiar.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES: David Meadows in Explorator 6.27 notes articles on two new technologies that could become important for ancient history and archaeology. One is a virtual book system that could allow you to have the sensation of holding an ancient manuscript or scroll in your hands. The other is "X-Ray software" that could help map out an archaeological site before a spade of soil is turned. At this point the latter is just being used to see what is under modern houses around Liverpool, but who knows what the future holds?

"JESUS, MARY AND DA VINCI" is a television special inspired by The Da Vinci Code and evidently it suggests that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that perhaps they had childred. I have already discussed this idea here and here. The only thing I can think of to add is that even if Jesus was married, I think it's very unlikely he had any childred, at least who lived to adulthood. The early Jesus movement was interested in the family of Jesus and preserved quite a few traditions about them. I can't imagine that they wouldn't have kept track of the careers of Jesus' children if he had any. For more on the family of Jesus, see my colleague Richard Bauckham's book Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church.

UPDATE: Here's more on the show from the New York Times and the Washington Times. Granted, I haven't seen it, but it doesn't sound very credible.

THE INDIANA JONES TRILOGY DVD is a record-breaking bestseller in the U.S.A. (via Archaeology Magazine News).

MAIA MORGENSTERN, a Romanian Jewish actress, plays the Virgin Mary in Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ (the article is from New California Media). Here are excerpts (but it's worth reading in full):

Critics have denounced the hyper-realistic drama as a modern version of the medieval passion play, blaming Jews for the death of Jesus. But Morgenstern, 41, doesn�t view the film as anti-Semitic.

Yes, the villain is the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas, she said from her Bucharest home. But he clearly represents the regime, not the Jewish people. "Authorities throughout history have persecuted individuals with revolutionary ideas," she said.

Morgenstern feels "The Passion" opposes such oppression. "It is about letting people speak openly about what they think and believe," she said. "It denounces the madness of violence and cruelty, which if unchecked can spread like a disease."

Morgenstern�s family experienced such violence during World War II. Her grandfather disappeared after being arrested in his native Transnistria, a conflicted region near the Ukraine; her father survived Nazi and Stalinist labor camps.

[...]

Morgenstern eventually became a star of Bucharest�s National Theatre and more than 30 Eastern European films. In Maria Meszaros� "The Seventh Room," she played Edith Stein, the Jew who died as a nun in Auschwitz and was canonized in 1998. Between scenes shot just outside the camp gates, Morgenstern � who shaved her head for the role � perused Nazi records and discovered her grandfather had died in the camp.

[...]

Over the course of the production, Morgenstern emphasized, not a single scene struck her as anti-Semitic. Characters such as Mary and John are sympathetic Jews, and Gibson "allowed me to make suggestions based on my Jewish culture," she said. In the scene in which Mary learns Jesus has been arrested, it was Morgenstern�s idea to whisper the Passover question, "Why is this night different from all other nights?"

When visiting reporters asked why a Jewish actress was portraying Jesus� mother, she replied, "I played Clytemnestra in �Oresteia,� and it didn�t mean I killed my husband. And as far as I know, Mary was a Jewish lady, so I think it is very normal."

Incidentally, I know women married very young in antiquity, but is it realistic to have a 41-year-old woman play the mother of a man in his thirties? Or is this just because everyone in a Hollywood movie has to look young and beautiful?

ALL SOUL'S DAY is today. This article from the Manila Bulletin discusses the ancient background (esp. 2 Maccabees 12:39-45) and history of this Catholic holiday. (Scroll down to the Opinion/Editorial link to the All Soul's Day article and click on it. Linking to the article itself doesn't seem to work.) All Soul's Day follows All Saint's Day, yesterday, and All Hallow's Eve, on Friday; the last was also Samhain, the ancient Celtic new year.

UPDATE: The link to the article is http://www.mb.com.ph/news.php?search=yes&art=41715§=3&fname=OPED/2003-11/OE03110141715f.txt. Try it. It may work for you; it's working for me sometimes, but not as a link to a blog entry here. I don't know why.

JIM WEST has just started a Biblical Studies blog that deals with both Hebrew Bible and New Testament and also with related fields such as archaeology.