HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PALEOJUDAICA! My first blog post, one year ago today, was a welcome message, a later version of which is now the About PaleoJudaica.com file in the links to the right. The second was on Saddam and Nebuchadnezzar. As far as I can tell, the subject I've blogged on most frequently is Aramaic (49 posts). (I've mentioned Hebrew more often [52 posts], but many of these were focusing on other things.) Both Aramaic and Hebrew have been addressed from many different angles. The next most frequently discussed topic has been Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (34 posts), although I've dealt with it less since Mark Goodacre started intensive coverage of it in his New Testament Gateway blog. The next is Iraq (30 posts), especially the looting of the Baghdad Museum and the country's archaeological sites. I covered that area a lot initially but nowadays only note things that especially catch my eye and leave the rest to the IraqCrisis list and Francis Deblauwe.

The post that drew the most hits in the last year was the August 5th entry "More on Mel and The Passion," which reported Frank Rich's Dowdification of Gibson (still uncorrected, at least by the Times) and which received about 7000 hits over twenty-four hours thanks mainly to a link from Glenn Reynolds's Instapundit. There's a recent important update on the story here. The second biggest hit grabber was my fisking of David Klinghoffer in "Leviticus and the Gay Marriage Debate," with about 1700 hits in a day or so, thanks mainly to a link from Andrew Sullivan.

My personal favorite post of the last year is "When Scholars Cry Wolf," which dealt with the overreaction of academics to the hysterical initial press reports about the looting of the National Museum of Iraq. This didn't get as many hits as some others, but I put more time and effort into it than into any other post and I still stand by it. The companion piece to this post, "About that Hague Convention", is a close second. Another important story has been the ongoing denial in the Arab world (and sometimes pandered to in the Western media) of the existence of Jewish temples on the Temple Mount in antiquity. Follow the links in these posts and see also entries on "Jewish temple deniers" and the Zayed Centre.

Some other interesting stories include the "James Ossuary", the "Jehoash Inscription", the Absalom's Tomb inscription, and the first-century burial shroud from Jerusalem.

I've learned a great many things from blogging. I'll just mention a few of them that stick in my mind. First, I've made a rule for myself that when I disagree with someone, I always try to imagine that I'm in the same room with the person, speaking to them face to face, when I compose the entry. That helps me keep to the point, stick to the facts, and avoid personal attacks. Second, I've learned that even that first rule doesn't necessarily work when it comes to sarcasm. Talking to someone in real life is different from making a blog entry. One can (and I'm afraid I do) make sarcastic comments that generally simply evaporate in normal conversation. They're accompanied by a context of expression, tone, day-to-day interaction, etc. that generally keep them in perspective. They don't evaporate in the Blogosphere, they get archived, and that context isn't there either. So sarcasm comes across much more harshly in blogging and I've had to learn to watch myself and ratchet it back.

The other main thing I've learned is that the mainstream media is generally pretty uninformed about our field and they tend to make a lot of errors. This is no doubt an occupational hazard of journalism: journalists have to cover a lot of things they don't know about and do it in a hurry. I would be more sympathetic about this if they would do two things. First, journalists and newspapers should make corrections when informed of errors and do it promptly at the bottom of the online version of the article in question. This used not to be possible and so corrections ended up in a small box on page 25 a week later, but technology has changed things and the mainstream media needs to catch up, at least to the standards of the Blogosphere. Happily, Daniel Okrent, the public editor of the New York Times has recently noted the problem too. (I'm talking here about substantive corrections; there's no need to flag spelling corrections, but they should be corrected!) Second, journalists should stop pushing their own political and other agendas outside the editorial pages and stop kidding themselves that we don't notice them doing it. The carelessness has been treated in any number of postings (see, for example, the Book of Revelations and the Magi and this and this and this). For examples of media bias (aside from the "Cry Wolf" and "More on Mel" posts noted above) see Time Magazine's pandering to the Jewish-temple deniers and follow the link in that post for an unattributed, historically inaccurate, and blatantly political insertion by the BBC into an article on Hezekiah's Tunnel.

Movies are, of course, often grossly irresponsibly inaccurate on historical matters. See my review of Stigmata and this posting on errors in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Novels frequently are as bad. See this posting on The Da Vinci Code. Despite all this, I rather enjoyed the film version of The Last Temptation of Christ.

All this is not to imply that I never make mistakes. No matter how careful I try to be, I still do sometimes. But every mistake I'm aware of has been corrected as soon as I found out about it.

At the moment PaleoJudaica has 67 incoming links from 57 other blogs. The counter stands at 42609 individual hits over the last year, during which time I have posted 332,691 words, apart from this posting. There have been more than 1100 individual hits and more than 2100 page views in the last week. That's close to a tenfold increase since the first month or so of PaleoJudaica. Will we see another tenfold increase in the next year? Well, no, I don't suppose so. But I hope you will keep on telling friends about the site. I'm still enjoying blogging and I'll keep doing it as long as it's fun.

That's enough introspection. Thanks for reading PaleoJudaica. Please keep coming back, keep sending me things, and keep telling me when you think I'm wrong. Onward!

UPDATE: Regarding newspaper corrections, reader David Mackinder points me to the Guardian's correction page and "homophone corner" at http://www.guardian.co.uk/corrections/story/0,3604,1176288,00.html. I say good for them, but they still should post individual corrections online at the bottom of the original piece in which the error occurred. As far as I know, no major newspaper does this, but it's standard in the Blogosphere.

SANHEDRIN BASILICA IN TIBERIAS?

Researchers say Tiberias basilica may have housed Sanhedrin (Ha'aretz, via Archaeologica News)
By Eli Ashkenazi

Antiquities Authority excavations in Tiberias may have uncovered the site of a structure used by the Sanhedrin, researchers believe. The excavations began in March in the central part of the city and in recent days have moved eastward toward route 90. The main finding in the new excavation area is a basilica structure.

Excavation director Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld from Hebrew University of Jerusalem says the basilica, which was built during the third century C.E., could have been used by the Sanhedrin, which at the time was called Beit Hava'ad. Identical structures, such as one at Beit Sha'arim, were also used for judicial purposes. In Tiberias the site could have also be used for writing the Jerusalem Talmud, researchers believe.

[...]

The excavators have also found a mosaic at the entrance to the bath house.

A PANEL OF EXPERTS will be convened tomorrow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to discuss the historical accuracy of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Here's the news release. The panelists are:

* Ronald Troxel, a senior lecturer in the UW-Madison Religious Studies Program and Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies. He has developed a three-course sequence on Christian scripture and will discuss how Gibson's film treats the Gospels.

* Judith Wimmer, vice president for academic affairs and professor of religious studies at Edgewood College. A historian of American Catholicism, she will explain the place of Gibson's sect within the contemporary Roman Catholic Church.

* Leonard Kaplan, Mortimer M. Kaplan Professor of Law, and professor of religious studies and Jewish studies at UW-Madison. He will comment on the film's theology from the Jewish perspective.

PROFESSOR JAMES KUGEL, one of my teachers, gave a lecture earlier this month at the University of Utah:

Professor from Tel Aviv delivers Divine Lecture (Daily Utah Chronicle)

By Steve Gehrke
Published: Friday, March 12, 2004

James L. Kugel, a former professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University and current professor of the Bible at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, spoke at the U yesterday about perceptions about God across religious bounds Thursday afternoon.

While at Harvard, Kugel's course, "The Bible and Its Interpreters," frequently attracted more than 900 students.

"His research on various interpretations of the Bible, including Jewish and Christian, has expanded centuries-old views and understandings of the Bible," said U professor of Hebrew Harris Lenowitz.

[...]

The lecture was a summary of Kugel's book, The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible, which was published last year.

Kugel's main topic of focus revolved around the biblical passage that reads, "A person cannot see me and go on living."

"That's why, when he does come down to Mount Sinai or elsewhere, he's surrounded by a protective cloud...to protect us from dying," Kugel said. "Very often he'll send angels or messengers."

Kugel centered the remainder of the lecture on divine messengers.

[...]

I was a teaching assistant for "The Bible and It's Interpreters" back in the old days when it only had about 250 students.

THERE'S A REVIEW of Simi Peters, Learning to Read Midrash (Urim, 2004) in the Jerusalem Post. Excerpts:

Maimonides exhorted readers not to take midrash literally, but was also forceful in advising people to read carefully between the lines, to find the meaning and allegorical intent.

His brief recommendations have been significantly expanded in Simi Peters's book, Learning to Read Midrash.

Peters's book comes after years of teaching the Hebrew Bible and trying to make sense of rabbinic literature that often defies explication. She bemoans the fact that it was difficult to offer students the tools to study midrash independently. This book seems to be a corrective for that problem.

[...]

Unlike more academic guides, Peters's book is pedagogically grounded. A teacher may find him- or herself using the chapters as classroom units to study various types of midrash - from analyzing biblical dialogue to resolving textual discrepancies.

[...]

DELAYED PASSION: Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ opens in Britain on Friday and I had planned to take a group from St. Mary's College to see it. Alas, it develops that the cinema in St. Andrews won't be getting the movie until at least a couple of weeks after the premier. I still hope to take the group, but it won't be until after our spring break, which means in mid-April. So no review from me anytime soon. Not that the world is short of them.

ARAMAIC WATCH: A new translation of the Syriac Bible (the Peshitta) is in the works at the Peshitta Institute in Leiden. It's called The New English Annotated Translation of the Syriac Bible. There's an abstract of an article on it in Aramaic Studies 2.1: "The New English Annotated Translation of the Syriac Bible (NEATSB): Retrospect and Prospect". A conference was held on it in Leiden in 1999 and there is a conference report on the Hugoye website. And there will be a seminar on the translation ("The Bible of Edessa") at the eighteenth congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament in Leiden this August. Bas ter Haar Romeny has details in a post on the Hugoye list.

YASSER ARAFAT ON MEL GIBSON'S THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST:

President Arafat: Passion of the Christ 'Impressive' (International Press Center - Palestine)

RAMALLAH , March21 , 2004 (IPC + Agencies)-- The Palestinian President Yasser Arafat watched Mel Gibson's �The Passion of the Christ� on Saturday in his office in Ramallah City, after a his key advisor compared Jesus' pain during crucifixion to the suffering of Palestinians in the conflict with Israel.

Nabil Abu Rudeneh, one of Arafat's closest advisors, watched the film along with the Palestinian President and a group of American and European men of cloth and Palestinian Muslim clerics.

"The Palestinians are still being daily exposed to the kind of pain Jesus was exposed to during his crucifixion," Abu Rudeneh said in a statement after he watched the movie.

President Arafat, who watched the film on a small TV set in his Ramallah office, said the movie was "historic and impressive."

[...]

Does that mean there was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in first-century Jerusalem after all?

IN DEFENSE OF LATIN: Here's a Scotsman editorial decrying the barbaric decision to eliminate the one remaining vocational course for classics teachers in Scotland and explaining why the decision is, well, barbaric. Lege totum et lacrima.

Latin joins procession to the cultural graveyard

Gerald Warner

EHEU! O me miserum! And all that sort of thing. The announcement that Strathclyde University is to abolish its vocational course for classics teachers has been greeted with an outbreak of lamentations of the kind that the Scottish establishment does so well, whenever some cultural asset that it has sedulously neglected for decades is finally pronounced to be in a terminal condition. For centuries, Latin and Greek were the mainstays of Scottish education; if they are lost to the schools curriculum (NB Latin noun, neuter, second declension), that will not be a sign of modernisation, but of grave intellectual decline.

This crisis is hardly unexpected. Greek became a fatality in Scottish state schools decades ago; now Latin is on the danger list. Yet the complacency with which the educational establishment has watched this decline is matched only by the fatuity of the comments with which it has responded to the announcement by Strathclyde. While rightly deploring the demise of classics, Judith Gillespie, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, claimed: "These subjects are not seen as having market value. This is the market economy in action."

La Gillespie is talking nonsense (so, no change there). There is no free market in Scottish state education, which is where the collapse in classics is taking place. It is in the free-market sector of the independent schools that Latin and Greek are relatively flourishing. In the academic year 2000- 2001, official figures show that, of pupils presenting for examinations at SCQF Levels 3, 4 and 5, although only 3.8% came from independent schools, they supplied 37.2% of entries for Latin. The market is no enemy of the classics; it is in the state school sector, manipulated by social engineers, Utopians and fanatics for �inclusion�, that rigorous disciplines such as Latin and Greek are sidelined as ��litist�.

[...]

Today, millions are flocking to see Mel Gibson�s Passion, whose dialogue is in Latin and Aramaic. Perhaps that will help. At the most trivial level, it is alleged that the Harry Potter phenomenon, with its many Latin allusions, has caused the 80% increase in American school pupils taking Latin for college credits over the past six years. The publication, in Latin, of Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis may intensify this trend. In Scotland, however, the growing lack of provision makes pupils� interest irrelevant. O tempora, O mores!

THE-MEL-GIBSON-AS-HOLOCAUST-DENIER MEME rears its ugly head again. In The Nation, Katha Pollitt has an essay on The Passion of the Christ which is provocatively titled "The Protocols of Mel Gibson" (via Bible and Interpretation News). It includes the following paragraph (my emphasis):

You'd think it was impolite to make anything of the fact that Gibson's father is a Holocaust denier who claims the European Jews simply moved to Australia. True, we don't choose our parents, but Mel Gibson has not only not dissociated himself from his father's views but indirectly affirmed them ("The man never lied to me in his life," he told Peggy Noonan in Reader's Digest; pressed to affirm that the Holocaust was real, he replied that many people died in World War II and some were Jews--the classic Holocaust-revisionist two-step). Nor would it do to dwell on the "traditional" (i.e., ultra right-wing) Catholicism Gibson practices, which specifically rejects the reforms of Vatican II, presumably including its repudiation of the belief that "the Jews" are collectively responsible for the death of Christ.

As has been pointed out in the link in the header to this post, Gibson has explicitly affirmed in his interview with Diane Sawyer that the Holocaust happened:

MEL GIBSON: Do I believe that there were concentration camps where defenceless and innocent Jews died cruelly under the Nazi regime? Of course I do, absolutely. It was an atrocity of monumental proportion.

DIANE SAWYER: And you believe there were millions, six million, millions?

MEL GIBSON: Sure.

Now Pollitt has a lot of criticisms of the movie that are correct (and a lot that I suspect are correct but won't know for sure until I see it myself). Why couldn't she stick to those? Why does she have to be so eager to find some reason to make Gibson a Holocaust denier as well? The inaccuracy in this paragraph undermines an understanding of the movie that otherwise is supported with some good arguments.

UPDATE: I should add that The Nation seems not to have e-mail addresses for communicating with its editors or individual writers. Instead it has a form for letters to the editor which demands an intrusive amount of personal information. That's not a good way to encourage feedback and corrections. If anyone out there has an e-mail address for Katha Pollitt, I'll be happy to drop her a note to alert her to my comments in this post.

UPDATE (21 March): Mark Goodacre points out some additional flaws in the article and concludes "This is a very poor piece of journalism."

TWO ARCHAEOLOGISTS (Andrea Berlin and Jodi Magness) comment on historical questions relating to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (posted on the Archaeological Institute of America website, via Bible and Interpretation News). They discuss language, costumes, torture methods, crucifixion, and historical context, and conclude:

As director of The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson was compelled to make narrative choices: when and where to start the story, what to emphasize, how to draw out each person�s essential characteristics. The end result is a movie that conveys a tremendous amount of pain and suffering, but also one that is, in many major and minor respects, unmoored from documented realities. Gibson strives to convey a theological message by recreating a convincing ancient context. The message that people take away from the movie should not, however, be mistaken for verifiable historical fact.

Amen to that.

A MAIMONIDES CONFERENCE begins tomorrow at Yeshiva University and NYU to commemorate the 900th anniversary of his death. (Via Protocols.)

UPDATE: Sorry, that should be "800th anniversary."

THE NEW YORK TIMES CORRECTS Frank Rich's Dowdification of Mel Gibson in its Columnist Corrections page!

A Frank Rich column entitled "Mel Gibson's Martyrdom Complex" from August 3, 2003 quoted Director Mel Gibson out of context regarding whether Jews might be upset by Gibson's movie "The Passion of The Christ." The quotation was taken from an interview by Bill O'Reilly on the Fox News Channel on January 14, 2003. The full text of his remarks follows: "It may. It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible. But, when you look at the reasons behind why Christ came, why he was crucified, he died for all mankind and he suffered for all mankind, so that, really, anybody who transgresses has to look at their own part or look at their own culpability." The use of a partial quotation created the false impression that Gibson held Jews responsible for the death of Jesus.

Actually the Times hasn't made the correction. I'm afraid this is a parody. In reality, the New York Times doesn't have a columnist correction page, so it's been left up to Robert Cox to create and maintain one for them on his The National Debate website. I'm afraid the Times didn't like it. Go here and then just keep scrolling up to read the appalling and amusing story of their heavy-handed legal threats and embarrassing climbdown once they discovered they were facing a real and very public fight.

I am grateful to Mr. Cox for taking notice of this error. For the record, I e-mailed Frank Rich about it quite some time ago and never received an answer. I also e-mailed Daniel Okrent, the Public Editor for the Times, a few days ago and received a prompt and polite response from his assistant that Okrent had decided not to take on corrections of anything that was published before he took up his office on December 1st. He and his staff have been doing a fine job since then and that decision is perfectly reasonable. Nevertheless, corrections need to be made and, if the Times and other mainstream media won't or can't do it, the Blogosphere is ready to help out.

By the way, Robert Cox is the one who broke the original "Dowdification" story.

THE ZOHAR, volume 1, is reviewed by Jacob Neusner in the Jerusalem Post. Excerpt:

The Zohar, the apex of Jewish mysticism, has been dismissed by modern Jewish scholars, represented by German-Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz as nonsense, and rehabilitated by Israeli and European experts on Judaism as substantive.

Here the pendulum swings back: the Zohar is at best impenetrable, at worst nonsense. This translation proves that even those who know the text best cannot make it accessible, either in translation or in explanation.

That gives you the flavor of the review. I haven't read the Zohar in Aramaic or seen Matt's translation, so I can't comment on most of Neusner's criticisms. But I don't understand this one:

First, the text that is translated does not exist outside of Matt's own study: "If I could have located a complete, reliable manuscript... this would have provided a starting point." He ignores the standard printed text, but has composed what he calls "a critical text," which is "based on a selection and evaluation of the manuscript readings."

That means his translation correlates only loosely with the available printed versions.

It's standard practice to produce a critical, eclectic text, based on evalution of the manuscripts, when working on an ancient document. Often earlier printed texts of ancient documents are based on late and corrupt manuscripts and reflect the original text very imperfectly. If Neusner has criticisms of the specific critical text Matt has reconstructed, fine, and tell us more, but the concept of a critical text isn't new or controversial. It's the proper way to proceed if the objective is to produce a translation of (the best approximation of) the text that Moses de Leon wrote.

"MASADA" � THE MUSICAL:

"Masada," the musical slated for a pre-Broadway run at Chicago's Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, Sept. 19-Oct. 24, has announced the principal members of its artistic team.

[...]

The show, set in Warsaw during World War II, spins around the efforts of a troupe of actors to perform a musical version of the ancient Jewish legend of Masada.

Sounds kind of interesting.

THE MACCABEES IT IS:

Gibson plans second biblical epic -19/3/04 (Ekklesia, UK)

Mel Gibson has revealed he is planning another Biblical epic � based on a Jewish revolt in 200BC, told in ancient Greek texts, the Apocrypha and mentioned in the book of Daniel.

Having conquered the US box office with "The Passion of the Christ," about the last hours in the life of Jesus, he is now turning his attention to the story of the Maccabean uprising.

[...]

"The story that's always fired my imagination ... is the Book of Maccabees," Gibson said. "It's about Antiochus, the king who set up his religion in the temple, and forced them all to deny the true God and worship at his feet and worship false gods.

"The Maccabee family stood up, and they made war, they stuck by their guns, and they came out winning," he said. "It's like a western."

[...]

The Maccabean revolt actually started in 167 B.C.E., which the story correctly notes in a part I haven't quoted. Other reports, like this one by Ananova, don't take such pains.

UPDATE: Maybe not. This Ha'aretz article (via Bible and Interpretation News) quotes the same exchange but concludes, "Gibson did not say he was planning another biblical film."

MORE ON THE AKRON EXHIBITION (of From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Forbidden Book). Some comments from an interview with Hanan Eshel:

I had the opportunity this week to meet with Hanan Eshel, an archaeologist and leading expert on the scrolls from Bar-Ilhan University in Israel. He attended the opening of the exhibit this week in Akron.

Eshel pointed out, for example, that in Chapter 22 of Genesis, God tells Abraham to take ``Isaac your son'' and offer him up as a sacrifice. That is what most of us read when we study Genesis.

But in one of the scroll fragments in the exhibit, God appears to be calling Abraham not to hurt ``Isaac my son'' at the moment before the sacrifice is to be carried out.

``Is Isaac being called the son of God?'' Eshel asked. ``Is God saying, `Don't hurt Isaac, MY son?' If so, it's outstanding.''

Such an interpretation would strengthen the connection between Isaac and Jesus.

The scrolls were composed from the second century B.C. to A.D. 68. Most predated the life of Jesus. Eshel said that ideas from the scrolls appear in the teachings of Jesus and St. Paul.

``The influence on Jesus was not direct,'' he said. ``But Paul was quoting the scrolls.''

Myself, I doubt that Paul can be shown to be quoting any of the nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls and I wonder if that's what Eshel was saying or if there's a misunderstanding somewhere. It is true, though, that sometimes the Scrolls are a useful backdrop to Paul's thought.

UPDATE: Stephen Goranson comments on the g-Megillot list.

VIGILIAE CHRISTIANAE has a new issue (58.1, 2004) online. Articles of interest include:

The 'Teachers' of Mani in the Acta Archelai and Simon Magus 1
Eszter Sp�t

In Quest of the Third Heaven: Paul & his Apocalyptic Imitators 24
J.R. Harrison

The Good Samaritan in Ancient Christianity 56
Riemer Roukema

Requires paid personal or institutional subscription to access.

BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches has a new issue (12.1, 2004) online. Table of contents:

Articles
THE FIGURE OF EVE IN ROMANS 7:5-25 1
Austin Busch

Ironic Representation, Authorial Voice, and Meaning in Qohelet 37
Carolyn J. Sharp

The Transfiguration: an Exercise in Markan Accommodation 69
Candida R. Moss

Book Reviews 90

Requires paid personal or institutional subscription to access.

NOVUM TESTAMENTUM has a new issue out (46.1, January 2004) with the following table of contents:

JESU ANNAHME DER KINDER IN MATTH?US 19:13-15 1
Karl-Heinrich Ostmeyer

ISA 5:1-7 LXX AND MARK 12:1, 9, AGAIN 12
John S. Kloppenborg

THE AROMATIC FRAGRANCES OF PARADISE IN THE GREEK LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE AND THE CHRISTIAN ORIGIN OF THE COMPOSITION 20
Rivka Nir

BIBLIOGRAPHIA GNOSTICA: SUPPLEMENTUM II/7
46
David M. Scholer

BOOK REVIEWS 78
BOOK NOTES 100
ERRATA 104

Requires paid personal or institutional subscription to access.

THERE'S A REVIEW in Brin Mawr Classical Review of:

Menachem Mor, Aharon Oppenheimer, Jack Pastor, Daniel R. Schwartz, Jews and Gentiles in the Holy Land in the Days of the Second Temple, the Mishna and the Talmud. Jerusalem: 2003. Pp. 200. ISBN 965-217-205-7.
Reviewed by Matthew Kraus.

ARAMAIC WATCH. In the article "Jim Caviezel's risky sacrifice" (BBC, also noted by Mark Goodacre) we are told:

Caviezel had to learn Aramaic, the ancient language that Christ would have spoken, and often spent 10 hours in make-up.

Caviezel may have been struck by lightning and he may have been blessed by the Pope, but he did not have to "learn Aramaic." He had to memorize some lines in Aramaic, which is not the same thing. Sheesh.

"MEL'S JESUS: A 'Real Man' or Just a Toon?" Paul Flesher reviews Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ for Bible and Interpretation. Excerpts:

Jesus� determination not to simply give in to his situation but to defy the cruelty with which it takes place constitutes a key aspect of Jesus� character in this film. Jesus has agreed to God�s plan for humanity�s salvation, but he has not given in to the human agents who carry it out. He is not a weak, passive, or spineless figure who gives up his pride when he gives up his body. His defiance of the Roman soldiers forms an implicit judgment on their actions. In broader theological terms, his continually resurfacing determination to defy his tormentors shows that he has not lost his inner strength. Although he is the victim, he is the strongest person there. He actively carries out God�s will, using his strength to ensure those around him do what needs to be done even as he defies the cruel means by which they do it. This is not the feminized Jesus the twentieth-century inherited from the Victorians, but a male Jesus who displays his macho strength to the end.

So how is the audience who views Jesus� suffering supposed to react to this macho Jesus? They are supposed to be changed. Gibson makes this clear by adding non-biblical scenes in which bystanders in the film are changed, perhaps even converted into followers, by witnessing Jesus� suffering and his reaction to it.

[...]

Finally, to people who get immersed in the film�s story--both believers and others--this is an effective and compelling portrayal of the Passion. In the context of modern filmmaking, however, the continual beating of Jesus constitutes part of the �more! more!� character of its portrayal of violence. It reduces the man to a cartoon rather than elevating him to his divine nature. In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, cartoon characters (�toons�) are depicted as living actors, not drawn characters, who pursue lives off the set. Their value to the film industry in Roger Rabbit is that they can absorb without effect large amounts of beating, pain, and injury. In the past couple of decades, the increasing sophistication of special-effect technology has given human actors in film the same ability. That is, the effects enable them to become like toons; they can survive car wrecks, explosions, falling from high buildings, being shot, and then just shrug it off and continue to fight. Has Gibson�s twenty-first-century Jesus become a toon? Several times in the film Jesus undergoes beatings and physical torture each of which would kill a person. He not only does not die, but he continues to be conscious, to be mobile, and to struggle with his fate. Does this film present Jesus as a �real man,� or has it reduced him to a human, live-action toon?

I'VE UPDATED yesterday's "Abortion and the Torah" post with some readers' comments.

ZOHAR TRANSLATION WATCH: Somehow I missed this Chicago Tribune article on Daniel Matt's ongoing new translation of the Zohar, but it's reprinted by the Fort Wayne News Sentinel. It is very long and not only tells about the project, it gives a fascinating profile of Margot Pritzker, its patron, and a good overview of the scholarly study of the Zohar. A definite Read It All.

Heiress sponsors scholar translating ancient Jewish text

BY RON GROSSMAN

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO - (KRT) - Every weekday morning, Daniel Matt turns on his computer, stares at the tree-lined slopes outside his study window and waits for the words to come with which to describe the indescribable.

It is a routine he is pledged to maintain for the next 15 years or so, thanks to what has to be every scholar's dream come true: a wealthy patron, Margot Pritzker, who has freed him from the grunt work of the academic life. He has no more blue books to grade, and he no longer sits through endless faculty meetings at the Graduate Theological Union, whose campus lies just below Matt's home in the hills of Berkeley, Calif.

Now his sole responsibility is to convey the insights of a medieval Jewish mystic who wrestled with a truly heavyweight problem, a paradox that has troubled believers of many faiths: How can the limited human intellect possibly grasp the infinite nature of God?

Even the automobile parked in Matt's driveway bears witness to his single-minded focus on the question. Its license plate reads ZOHAR.

That is the title of a sprawling, multivolume work by long-ago author Moses ben Shem Tov de Leon, whose doctrines shaped Kabbalah, Judaism's mystical tradition. Such are the vagaries of history that a knockoff version of Moses de Leon's ideas is currently faddish in Hollywood, with Madonna and Dolly Parton announcing themselves disciples of Kabbalah.

Yet though the range of its influence runs from the pious to the trendy, there was no adequate English translation of the Zohar before Matt's long-awaited version. The first two volumes have just been published to choruses of scholarly praise. "Masterful," gushed Elie Wiesel. "Superbly fashioned," added Harold Bloom, America's veritable dean of literary studies.

Still, when the cheering dies down, that will leave Matt with 10 volumes to go. "On a good day," he says, "I can do 20 lines."

[...]

Taking the rabbi's suggestion to heart, Pritzker not only studied alongside her son, she kept at it afterward. She learned Hebrew and, over the years, she and Poupko worked through the Torah and read Midrash, the ancient rabbis' biblical commentaries.

"One day, Margot asked if there was a mystical tradition in Judaism and could we study some," recalls Poupko, whose current title is Judaic scholar, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. "I said yes, but there's a problem."

The problem was that the Zohar wasn't written in Hebrew but Aramaic, a related but distinct Semitic language from antiquity. By general consensus, the existing English version, more a paraphrase than a translation, didn't begin to capture Moses de Leon's voice. Wooden where it should be poetic, that earlier version was marred by a prudish toning-down of the sensual images he employed to convey his understanding of the Almighty.

For instance, Matt's translation renders one such passage with language intended to preserve the erotic quality of the Zohar's word picture:

"When He flings and streams seed, He does not woo the female, since She abides with Him."

The earlier version, made in England in the 1930s and known as the Soncino edition, says merely:

"When the seed flows forward, He does not court the Female."

Pritzker resolved to sponsor a fresh translation of the Zohar that was more faithful to the spirit of the original. Poupko consulted scholars in the field and the nearly universal verdict was that Matt was the only one for the job.

"He has the voice of a poet, the soul of a mystic and the intellect of a computer geek," Poupko says. The latter virtue enables Matt to toggle back and forth as he translates, comparing obscure terms in the Zohar with a huge database of Jewish religious literature he has downloaded.

[...]

MORE ON THE SILVER AMULETS from Ketef Hinnom:

Archaeologist recounts 1979 discovery of tomb that held oldest fragments of the Bible (Salt Lake Tribune)

By Bruce Nolan
Religion News Service

��� NEW ORLEANS -- As often happens in other fields, the find of Gabriel Barkay's career as a biblical archaeologist rose at the intersection of careful calculation and happy accident -- provided in his case by a bored 12-year-old helper who whacked the stone floor of an Israelite burial vault with a heavy hammer.
��� His name was Nathan. Too scattered and mischievous to be of much help, he had been dispatched to clean a worked-over corner of Barkay's dig just outside the old city of Jerusalem, a largely overlooked archaeological site that Barkay thought might yield material for his dissertation.
��� But the stone floor turned out to be the ceiling of a concealed void beneath. And Nathan's hammer blow punched through to a repository containing hundreds of vessels of pottery, personal jewelry and other effects untouched for 2,600 years.
��� Among them was the find of finds -- two tiny, tightly rolled silver scrolls.
��� Carefully unpeeled over time, they revealed faint scratchings that took Barkay's breath away:
��� YHWH. The earliest appearance in Jerusalem of the unspeakable Hebrew word for God.
��� That find came in 1979 and still ranks on many scholars' lists as one of the most remarkable in modern biblical archaeological history.

[...]

ABORTION AND THE TORAH: Irwin N. Graulich argues in the Jerusalem Post ("On abortion, a Jewish compromise,") that the Torah takes a particular position on abortion.

But if abortion is neither cosmetic nor murder, then what is it?

Exodus (21: 22-23) states, "If men shall fight, and they collide with a pregnant woman, and she miscarries, but the woman lives, the punishment on the men is financial, as determined by judges. But if the woman dies, there should be capital punishment."

These verses clearly illustrate that the fetus is not a full life. If it were, capital punishment would be called for, as mentioned in the second sentence. We are also shown that the fetus is not a worthless piece of tissue, since financial remuneration is required by the offenders. In addition, there are later references to the health of the mother taking precedence to the life of the fetus.

This biblical approach is the Jewish position, and it is equidistant between the pro-choice and pro-life stances. It states that abortion is not murder � and not nothing! The only way to enforce this compromise is to allow an immoral act, while at the same time to discourage it strongly, which is exactly what is done in Israel in the majority of cases.

This is perhaps a possible interpretation but I'm afraid the exegesis of the passage is not so straightforward. A key phrase is the one he translates "and she miscarries, but the woman lives." This is a paraphrase. A literal translation of the Hebrew would be "and her offspring comes out but there is no harm." (There are variants for the word "offspring" but the general idea is clear.) Now this could mean what Mr. Graulich says it means, but it could also mean something like "and she gives birth prematurely but there is no harm (to mother or child)." Then in v. 23, Mr. Graulich freely paraphrases, "But if the woman dies, there should be capital punishment." A literal translation would be "But if there is harm, then you shall require life for life," (and vv. 24-25 goes on to add, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, ..." etc., i.e., the lex talionis). This puts the matter in a rather different light. It seems to me that the most natural reading of the passage is that if two men fight and cause a woman to give birth prematurely, but there is no harm to mother or child, there is a monetary fine. But if either mother or child are harmed, the lex talionis is invoked and the men are to be punished with the same injury they inflicted (on either mother or child), up to and including death. Mr. Graulich's interpretation is not impossible, but it seems difficult to reconcile with the fact that the "offspring" or "child" is mentioned along with the mother and that there is eye-for-eye punishment for any kind of "harm" inflicted, without explicitly distinguishing between mother and child.

I'm not saying that Mr. Graulich's position on abortion isn't perfectly defensible in itself, but it certainly isn't clear that that's what Exodus is saying.

UPDATE (16 March): Reader Tobias Robison e-mails:

I'm sure you're aware that orthodox rabbis rule differently on abortion, and even your "literal" translation of this obscurely worded sentence is only one of several possibilities. I think it is more telling that the torah, despite its massive number of specific commandments, never says anything explicit about abortion, nor about how to determine when life begins. Abortion is certainly not explicitly included in any specific list of major crimes.

Yes, I'm aware the passage can be and has been read in different ways. I was giving the interpretation that makes the most sense to me in context. I think it works better than Graulich's reading.

Reader Raphael Malyankar e-mails:

I am no Torah scholar, but your reading of Exodus 21 is non-traditional in at least two ways: first, the accepted meaning of 21:22-23 has long been injury to the woman; second, your interpretation of vv. 24-25 as lex talionis (punishing with the same injury they inflicted) is also non-traditional. Additionally, your alternative exegesis seems a bit awkward, because conflating v. 24-25 with v. 22-23 leads to the rather odd interpretation that lex talionis applies only in the specific circumstances of the woman who miscarries or goes into labor as a result of an inadvertent blow during the course of a fight between two men.

In a second message he adds:

For "meaning of 21:22-23" below, read "meaning of injury/harm in 21:22-23". Miscarriage (or, if we adopt the alternative exegesis, labor) is clearly a tort.

Let me take those points in order. Since Graulich was arguing from the authority of the biblical text, I was aiming for the best exegesis of the original sense of the passage in Exodus. For my purpose, traditional interpretations are only relevant in so far as they may give a better understanding of the original. If Graulich has been arguing from, say, Talmudic authority, that would be a different matter.

As for the relation of vv. 24-25 to vv. 22-23, the passage is clearly a unit; there's no conflating involved. This doesn't mean that the lex talionis applies only to this particular case, but rather that it is applicable to this case. The basic principle is assumed in the Pentateuch and is applied here to this case; to bloodshed/murder in Genesis 9:6 and Exodus 21:12; to injury in general in Leviticus 24:19-20, and to consequences of perjury in Deuteronomy 19:16-21. It is a limiting principle well known in ancient Near Eastern law but applied more fairly in the Pentateuch than, say, in the Code of Hammurapi ## 196-205, where it is restricted along class lines. For more, see the "Lex Talionis" article by H. B. Huffmon in the Anchor Bible Dictionary 4:321-22.

MORE ON THE AKRON EXHIBITION: The From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Forbidden Book exhibition reopens in the John S. Knight Center in downtown Akron tomorrow. And, according to this article, "Akron exhibit draws back veil that surrounds scrolls," in the Akron Beacon Journal, it has some new objects on display.

But the Akron show will have something the other cities didn't -- everyday items from the time of the people in the Second Temple period.

The items are on loan from the permanent museum collection in the Flora Archaeological Center at Ashland Theological Seminary.

Ashland is also acquiring one of the scroll fragments by partial donation from Bath Township art dealer Bruce Ferrini, who owns the scroll fragments and most of the ancient writings and manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments on display at the Knight Center.

The Ashland items include a limestone ossuary, similar in style and shape to the so-called ``James ossuary,'' which had been widely held out as the possible burial box of Jesus' brother.

They also include an ancient foot-washing basin with a prominent foot rest and alabaster anointing jar; more than a dozen ancient ceramic lamps that cover a 2,500-year period from the time of Abraham to the early Christian Church; everyday cosmetic pieces used by women of antiquity; a marble tombstone of a Roman woman believed to be from the 4th century; and flasks that people in ancient times used to carry water, olive oil, ointment and wine.

``The written material is the most exceptional, but the items from our collection illuminate life among the people of the ancient world,'' said O. Kenneth Walther, curator of the Flora Center and a professor of Greek and New Testament at Ashland.

``Our objects, most of which would have been used in everyday life, complement the exhibit because they give you a fuller picture of life in those times. Rarely do people get an opportunity to see this type of display -- this kind of comprehensive history of writing with the complement of ancient artifacts.''

Kind of careless of them not even to mention that most scholars think the "James Ossuary" is a forgery.

PONTIUS PILATE IN THE NEWS. New Testament Professor Warren Carter gives his take on the historical evidence in "A Place for Pontius Pilate" (Kansas City Star). Looks pretty balanced to me. Also includes some material on Pilate in later Christian tradition. Excerpt:

Pilate and the Jerusalem leaders are allies. Making alliances with local leaders was a common strategy Rome used to rule its empire. Along with taxes and military power, it was an effective way of establishing control. Mutual interests of wealth, power and status held these alliances together under Roman control.

The Roman governor appointed the high priests in Judea. The chief priest, Caiaphas, was a political appointment who held power at the pleasure of his Roman masters. Of course, there were tensions and struggles within these alliances. Together they sought to maintain a system in which 3 percent of the population ruled for their own benefit at the expense of the rest.

Maintaining this alliance required good political skills. If the Jerusalem leaders viewed Jesus as a threat to their power, Pilate knew to take their concern very seriously. Their interests are Pilate's interests.

But there are other political games to play. On one hand, Pilate needs to keep them happy by granting their request to remove Jesus. On the other hand, he needs to show them that as the Roman governor he is their superior and they are dependent on him.

The Gospel of John's account especially highlights this dimension where Pilate seems to taunt them about their dependent status. In Luke's account, Pilate can be seen making them beg him to execute Jesus.

THIS CHRISTIAN VILLA from late antiquity, found in Netanyahu, has been in the news lately. It has some nice mosaics, but unfortunately this article in News 24 South Africa, doesn't have photographs. Excerpt:

The villa, dated to between the 5th or 6th centuries AD, is the first to be found in the area, said archaeologist Marwan Massarwa of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Remains of other Byzantine settlements dot the Mediterranean coast.

The site, discovered by road workers building a highway off-ramp, includes two rooms with well preserved mosaic floors. The foundations of walls of adjoining buildings were also discovered.

The first room, apparently a central courtyard, has a mosaic with faded black and red leaves coming off a wavy branch and surrounding a black, red and yellow geometric design on a white background.

In a second room - which is still being excavated - the archaeologists found a mosaic made of small stones depicting red flowers surrounded by grey, red, white and yellow parallel lines.

NAZARETH VILLAGE, a living-history recreation of life in first-century Nazareth, is discussed in this article, "A Window to Jesus' World," in the South Bend Tribune. Excerpts:

In Nazareth Village, the sheep stray in the streets, weeds grow among the wheat in the donkey-plowed furrows, and you can see the lights from a city on a hill four miles away.

A synagogue, a wine press and some houses are already built with scrupulous faithfulness to first-century materials and methods. A watch tower for the fields is under construction.

People from all over the world are coming to visit the real-world reproduction of life in Jesus' Nazareth, about 500 yards from the traditional site of his boyhood home.

"Up to now, there has never been an authentic setting you could step into of the world Jesus knew," said Michael Hostetler, executive director of the project, in a telephone interview from Nazareth. "What we have now is a living laboratory of what Jesus saw and knew."

[...]

"In the daytime, our staff will cook and weave and do carpentry work," Hostetler said. "They will be out plowing with donkeys.

"Last year we added the olive press building," Hostetler said. "There's none other in the world like it. This year we hope to build a watchtower, which is part of the agricultural way of life. Around harvest time, the people would come to the watchtower and sleep over. They wanted to protect the harvest from animals and from possible theft."

"There's sheep and mules roaming around," Troyer added. "We follow the harvest season. It makes the Bible come alive."

The setting provides, among other things, real-life experience of sowing seed, seeking sheep, and keeping oil lamps burning, images Jesus used in his parables.

"This is, as close as we know, an exact replica of housing in Nazareth in the Galilee area in the time of Jesus," Troyer said. "We worked with the top archaeologists on this.

The project has a website at www.nazarethvillage.com.

"THE WORD TO WATCH." CBC News reports:

According to its website, the Global Language Monitor "analyses and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices." It bills itself as "a worldwide assemblage of linguists, professional wordsmiths, and bibliophiles."

The group named "Aramaic" as its "word to watch." Aramaic is the nearly-dead language used in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Some of us have been watching it. It's good to see that others are catching up.

A CAPSULE HISTORY OF ARAMAIC: Christianity Today has one in "Christian History Corner: Rediscovering the Language Jesus Spoke".

NOT A DEAD LANGUAGE: Chaldean Christians hope Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ will help efforts to preserve Aramaic as a living language. I think I may have linked to a version of this Knight Ridder article earlier, but this version includes a few everyday phrases in spoken Aramaic:

A FEW COMMON PHRASES TRANSLATED

I love you (said to a woman). - K-haibinnakh.

What's for dinner? - Ma ittan ta ashaya?

Where's the bathroom? - Aika iyle betha d-maya?

Do you come here often (said to a woman)? - Kul gaha k-athyat akha?

Happy Birthday (said to a woman)! - Brykha aidha d-hwaithakh!

Source: Suad Gorial, who teaches a modern Aramaic dialect at St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in Troy, Mich.

TERRORISM IN MADRID: Let me join with Mark Goodacre in extending sympathy, prayers, and shared outrage for our Spanish friends, including blogger Rub�n G�mez, concerning the cowardly terrorist attacks in Madrid. It still seems to be up in the air whether the perpetrators were ETA or Al Qaeda, but, whoever they are, we must hunt them down, bring them to justice, and smash their organization without mercy.

UPDATE: I've just e-mailed a note of sympathy to the Spanish Embassy in London. If you are in Britain and would like to do the same, follow the link for contact information. If you're in the United States, Glenn Reynolds has links to contact information there.

UPDATE: The Spanish Embassy replies:

Muy agradecido por sus palabras de p�same en estos tr�gicos momentos.

Se convoca a las personas interesadas a un minuto de silencio el viernes 12 de marzo de 2004, a las 13.00 horas delante de la puerta de esta Embajada (24 Belgrave Square; London SW1X 8QA)

La misa en memoria de las victimas del atentado terrorista se celebrar� en la Catedral (no la Abad�a) de Westminster (Victoria Street, Londres SW1) hoy 12 de marzo, a las 20.00 horas, habi�ndose cancelado la misa prevista en la Capellan�a Espa�ola.

El Embajador de Espa�a


We are most grateful for your sincere condolences during these tragic moments.

For anyone who wishes to express their condolences there will be a minute's silence at 13.hrs on Friday 12th March outside the main entrance of the Spanish Embassy at 24 Belgrave Square; London SW1X 8QA

The Westminster cathedral (Victoria Street, London SW1) will conduct a service in memory of the victims of this terrorist attack on the 12th March at 20.00 hrs.

The Spanish Ambassador

ARAMAIC WATCH. An article on Lasagna in Tandem says the following (my emphasis):

No one is absolutely certain where and when pasta came to be. But there are certainly a slew of theories. There are some highlights throughout history. Etruscan archaeological findings, (found mainly in near present-day Rome) display stucco relieves of several tools used for home pasta-making.
The first certain record of noodles cooked by boiling is in the Jerusalem Talmud, written in Aramaic in the 5th century AD.
Naples became Italy's pasta centre in the 1500s. The King of Naples, Ferdinand II hired an engineer who devised a system where a machine took over the job of kneading and cutting.
It's considered common knowledge that lasagna is an Italian invention and probably got its start during the Ancient Roman era.
That claim went undisputed for centuries until last year, when the BBC reported news that stunned the culinary world: lasagna is British.

Is the bit about the Talmud true? Typically, the article does not give a reference. Does anyone have it?

I had heard years ago that pasta was brought to Italy from the Far East by Marco Polo, but this article says nothing about it and I have no idea if it's really so.

UPDATE: A reader who doesn't give a name points me to messages 441, 448, and 462 on the Apicius (ancient Roman cookery) list. According to the last of these, noodles are mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud in Betza i, 60d; Nedarim vi,39c; and Hallah i, 59d.

UPDATE (13 March): The reader was Justin, The Mad Latinist.

THIS IS A PARODY:

Mattel Toys is currently negotiating with Mel Gibson and his production company to put out a set of toy dolls of Jesus Chris, Mary, Mary Magdalena, Caiphas and Pontius Pilate.

"The toys will be very tasteful," stated a VP of Mattel who wished to remain anonymous, "Kids will be able to play out at home the final hours of Jesus' death. It is very educational and entertaining. We think kids, regardless of their religion, are going to love these toys. For example, you can actually pull a string behind Jesus' back and he speaks to you in Aramaic."

But, sad to say, so is this:

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, the company which makes Webster's dictionary, is publishing a new "Aramaic Dictionary" for those with the interest in learning how to speak Aramaic.

"We are seeing a renewed interest in Aramaic," stated Bill Spelitrite, "People really want to either learn the language or understand what Jesus was saying in Mel Gibson's movie. Therefore, in response to market demand, we are publishing a new set of Aramaic dictionaries and translators to help people. We are already sold out of the translators. We are working on new versions that cover not only English, but also Spanish, French, Italian and German."

WAQF WALL TAKEN DOWN, but not the concrete structure behind it. So Arutz Sheva reports:

[...]

Today's incident concerns a concrete structure and a wall around it that the Moslem Waqf constructed illegally just to the south of the Temple Mount. [Archaeologist] Dr. [Eilat] Mazar says that the Waqf is continuing its program of "turning the entire Temple Mount compound into a large mosque, with absolutely no Jewish, Christian or other presence there. The archaeology there absolutely does not interest them; they merely want to cover up all signs of Jewish history there. The wall they built there in just a few hours this week was designed to hide the beautiful Herodian walls at the majestic south-east corner of the Temple Mount, and erase all vestiges of Jewish presence."

Waqf workers in fact removed the wall this morning - but Dr. Mazar says that the struggle is not over: "Behind the wall stands a concrete structure, which they have not removed, but which is equally illegal - and it also must be taken down."

ARSON IN BEIT SHE'AN:

Fire destroys antiquities warehouse in Beit Shean (Jerusalem Post)
By DAVID RUDGE

A treasure trove of artifacts excavated from the ancient site of Beit She'an has been destroyed in a blaze � apparently started deliberately � at an old building on the edge of the national park that had been used to store secondary finds.

The fire in the building, itself dating back to the eighth century CE, began on Wednesday and caused parts of the roof and walls to collapse, crushing many shards of pottery, marble, glassware, ceramics and other remains from various periods of history.

[...]

"What we had stored in the building were all the other finds excavated over the years since the project began in 1986. These were primarily from the Hellenistic period [circa 250 BCE] until the ancient city of Beit She'an was destroyed in an earthquake in 749 CE," said [excavations director Gaby] Mazor.

"These thousands upon thousands of finds formed the basis for our scientific research � everything we have written and are writing about the site since excavations began. Now all these discoveries are gone.

"The building has been gutted by fire and all the finds are destroyed. To stand there and see all this cultural destruction is just heartbreaking.

[...]

Indeed.

THE MICHIGAN RELICS: The Michigan Historical Museum has a very full online exhibit, "Digging up Controversy: The Michigan Relics," with lots of photographs. (Via Anita Cohen-Williams's Museum Guru blog.) These are nineteen-century, quasi-biblical/ANE forged artifacts which were recently donated to the museum by the Mormon Church. I noted articles on the relics here and here, but both links have rotted away. This is why I try to excerpt articles whenever I have the time.

UPDATE: Cached versions of the articles mentioned above can be found here and here.

PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGIST JOE ZIAS now has a web page that includes some of his published articles. (Heads-up, Mark Goodacre.)

MORE ILLICIT TEMPLE MOUNT CONSTRUCTION according to Arutz Sheva:

Wakf Temple Mount Devastation Continues Unimpeded

[...]

The current project began this morning, in the southeastern end of the Mount. Wakf officials report the new wall is intended to strengthen the ancient Herodian stones and nothing more. The new wall is two meters high and about 20 meters in length and creates a division between the Muslim cemetery and the eastern wall.

Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archeologist and member of the Committee Against Temple Mount Destruction rejects the explanation of the so-called strengthening wall, explaining the new wall totally blocks the Herodian and Byzantine period stones behind it, as well as antiquities dating back to the First and Second Temples.

Jerusalem City Hall stated it is unaware of any building request or permit being issued for the wall. Antiquities officials are referring inquiries to Israel Police. Jerusalem district police stated there is no new construction, but just scaffolding and a structure intended to fortify the ancient wall.

[...]

THOMAS THOMPSON ONLINE. Jim West e-mails:

Beginning on March 24th (two weeks from today) there will be a colloquium with Professor Thomas L. Thompson concerning his book, "The Mythic Past" on the Biblical Studies discussion list. If you would like to participate, just sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biblical-studies.

THE JOURNAL BIBLICA has a new issue (85.1, 2004) online (noted by Mark Goodacre). You can access the articles on the web page in either HTML or PDF formats. Here's an article of interest:

Rick STRELAN, �Who Was Bar Jesus (Acts 13,6-12)? � , Vol. 85(2004) 65-81.
In Acts 13, Bar Jesus is confronted by Paul and cursed by him. This false prophet is generally thought to have been syncretistic and virtually pagan in his magical practices. This article argues that he was in fact very much within the synagogue and that he had been teaching the ways of the Lord. He was also a threat to the Christian community of Paphos and may even have belonged inside of it. Luke regards him as a serious threat to the faith because of his false teaching about righteousness and the ways of the Lord.

Note also the following "Animadversiones" (critical notes):

Elie ASSIS, �The Choice to Serve God and Assist His People: Rahab and Yael� , Vol. 85(2004) 82-90.
This paper presents a series of analogies between Rahab and Yael, both gentiles, who unexpectedly choose to assist Israel against the Canaanites. The analogies are designed to illustrate the surprising and unanticipated means through which divine providence operates. Noteworthy differences between the two heroines indicate the specific significance of each story. Rahab�s conduct is motivated by her recognition of God�s absolute power. Yael�s motives, however, are unclear. Their concealment is meant to detract attention from Yael�s appealing character and focus on the prophetic role played by Deborah who had predicted Yael�s behaviour.

Paul SANDERS, �So May God Do To Me!� , Vol. 85(2004) 91-98.
In the Hebrew Bible we find the self-imprecation "So may God do to me and more also!" (2 Sam 3,35, 1 Kgs 2,23, etc.). In many cases, the phrase is immediately conditioned: "So may God do to me and more also, if you will not be the commander of the army" (2 Sam 19,14). God may punish the speaker, if the latter fails his promise. Ancient Mesopotamian sources suggest that the word "So" in the Hebrew expression originally referred to a gesture in use when taking an oath: the touching of the throat. The biblical passages where the expression occurs do not display any resistance to the use of the formula as such, even though it was often pronounced inconsiderately. However, the textual alteration in 1 Sam 25,22 shows that there was opposition to the idea that the pious king David failed a promise that he had reinforced using the self-imprecatory phrase.

Dominik MARKL, �Hab 3 in intertextueller und kontextueller Sicht� , Vol. 85(2004) 99-108.
The investigation of intentional intertextual references carried out in this article is based on the criteria introduced by the Anglicist Manfred Pfister. I arrive at the conclusion that Hab 3 refers to preceding biblical texts: In vv. 3.19 the prophetic prayer alludes to Deut 33 and 2 Sam 22 in order to assume the function of authoritative vicarious prayer, while avoiding martial ideology. If one approaches the book as a whole, Hab 3 stands in antithetical relationship to Hab 1, especially due to the fact that the theophany constitutes a counterattack against the Chaldean offensive described in Hab 1,5-11. This latter text seems to be given the form of a bitter ironical parody of Jer 5,15-17.

Simone PAGANINI , �'Ich bin ein Knecht des Herrn'.Bemerkungen zur LXX- �bersetzung des Wortes (BRY in Jon 1,9� , Vol. 85(2004) 109-114.
La frase pronunciata da Giona alla domanda dei marinai in 1,9 sembra voler rispondere all�ultimo quesito da loro posto: a quale popolo lui appartenga. Giona risponde con (BRY )NKY e usa la designazione tipica per un israelita che si trova a discutere con persone non appartenenti al suo popolo. La traduzione della LXX, DOULOS KURIO EGO EIMI, fa per� nascere un problema che non � risolvibile unicamente con il presupporre uno scambio tra R e D. (BRY viene tradotto altre volte con termini diversi da HEBRAIOS ma in Gio 1,9 il traduttore aggiunge di suo il termine KURIOU. Ci troviamo di fronte ad una traduzione interpretativa, fondata su un�idea teologica del libro di Giona secondo la quale, sin dall�inizio gli � chiara la sua missione, il suo esito e anche la sua realt�: lui � un servo di JHWH. [I have reformatted the Hebrew and Greek in this abstract � JRD.]

Michael L. BARR�, �'Tarshish Has Perished': The Crux of Isaiah 23,10� , Vol. 85(2004) 115-119.
Isa 23,10 is a long recognized crux interpretum within what is a difficult passage in its own right, Isaiah�s oracle against Tyre (23,1-14). The MT makes no sense. The restoration of the LXX Vorlage reconstructed by P. W. Flint brings us closer to the "original text", to the extent that only several minor errors separate us from what may be the original form of this verse. Once these are corrected the restored bicolon I propose not only makes good sense as a sentence but reads as good Biblical Hebrew poetry and fits the overall context very well.

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Anthropology and the Old Testament
Research Symposium

CALL FOR PAPERS

Following on from the success of last year�s conference on Anthropology and Biblical Studies [the fruits of which are to be published in Aguilar, M. and Lawrence, L., (eds) Anthropology and Biblical Studies: Avenues of Research, Deo/SCM Press, 2004] another research symposium on Anthropology and the Old Testament has been planned for Friday 27th August, 2004. This will be held in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Glasgow. It is anticipated that papers delivered at this event will also be published in an edited volume.

Offers of papers are welcome from both anthropologists and biblical scholars on any aspect of reading or interpreting the Old Testament in light of anthropological and cross-cultural perspectives. Please send provisional titles and a short abstract to Dr Louise Lawrence (L.Lawrence@arts.gla.ac.uk) by the end of May. Any other queries please do not hesitate to contact Louise or Dr Mario Aguilar (mia2@st-andrews.ac.uk).

We look forward to hearing from you.

Last year's symposium was a rousing success, so do come to this one if you can.

NO ARAMAIC OSCAR:

Passion' Can't Win a Foreign Language Oscar
Tue, Mar 09, 2004, 01:03 PM PT
By Mike Szymanski

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Mel Gibson's box office blockbuster, "The Passion of the Christ" won't be eligible for a foreign language Oscar nomination, according to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Although the whole movie is spoken in Aramaic and a form of street Latin, Gibson's company that produced the movie is American.

"It won't be eligible for the foreign language award because it was produced by an American company so it's considered an American film," explains Academy publicist Dawn Newell to Zap2it.com. "Although the film is in Aramaic, it wouldn't be submitted by a foreign country so it wouldn't qualify for the foreign language category."

[...]

THE JOURNAL OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES has a new issue (55.1, April 2004) online. Some articles of interest include:

"On the alleged Aramaic idiom behind the synoptic HLQON-sayings"
Simon Gathercole
pp. 84-91
Full-Text PDF (79 KB)

The Aramaic background of Mark 9:11: A response to J. K. Aitken
Maurice Casey
pp. 92-102
Full-Text PDF (94 KB)

Resurrecting a calf. The origin of Testament of Abraham 6:5
D. C. Allison Jr
pp. 103-116
Full-Text PDF (112 KB)


St Aldhelm on Apocrypha
A. M. C. Casiday
pp. 147-157
Full-Text PDF (80 KB)

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IMPORTANT US LEGISLATION ALERT (from the IraqCrisis list):

From: "Patty Gerstenblith" (by way of Charles E. Jones)
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 12:30:53 -0600
To: Iraqcrisis@listhost.uchicago.edu, ane@listhost.uchicago.edu, anenews@listhost.uchicago.edu
Subject: [Iraqcrisis] Iraq Legislation
Reply-To: iraqcrisis@listhost.uchicago.edu

On March 4, the Senate passed legislation (S. 671) that gives the President the authority to impose restrictions to prevent the import into the United States of cultural materials that have been illegally removed from Iraq since August 1990. Enactment of this legislation is crucial to prevent cultural materials looted from Iraq's cultural institutions from entering the United States and to help combat the looting of archaeological sites.

Lobbyists on behalf of coin collectors and dealers are working to defeat this legislation in the House unless it exempts coins from any import restrictions. Please give your strong support to the Iraq provisions of S. 671 by contacting the following Senators, Representatives, and Congressional staffpersons:

Senator Charles Grassley: fax: 202-224-6020; website email form: grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm
Senator Max Baucus: fax: 202-228-3687; website email form: baucus.senate.gov/emailmax.html
Representative William Thomas: email: bill.Thomas@mail.house.gov; fax: 202-225-8798
Representative Charles Rangel: fax: 202-225-0816; website: www.house.gov/rangel
Representative Phil English: fax: 202-225-3103; website: www.house.gov/english
Representative Phil Crane: fax: 202-225-7830; website: www.house.gov/crane
Representative Sander Levin: email: slevin@mail.house.gov
Representative Jim Leach: email: talk2jim@mail.house.gov; fax: 202-226-1278
Stephen Schaeffer, Senate Finance Committee: fax: 202-228-0554
David Kavanaugh, House Ways and Means Committee: fax: 202-226-0158

You should also urge these Representatives and Senators to include equivalent provisions for the protection of Afghanistan's cultural heritage, which is subject to massive looting and for which the United States also bears a special responsibility.

Please re-post this message where ever it might be of interest

My understanding is that Congressional Representatives and Senators take snail-mail letters and faxes more seriously than e-mails, so if you write, consider faxing rather than e-mailing.

UPDATE (10 March): Jim West e-mails:

You stated-
"My understanding is that Congressional Representatives and Senators take snail-mail letters and faxes more seriously than e-mails, so if you write, consider faxing rather than e-mailing."

My Senator makes clear that because of the slowdown in mail due to anthrax and other threats it is, in fact, best to contact directly through his website. My Senators (and I assume all) have a website which includes a "contact us" page where you simply fill out your information and submit your request/comment. I have used this method a number of times and always receive a snail mail reply to my web posted mail.

The Senate web address is www.senate.gov

ARAMAIC WATCH: Iraq now has a transitional constitution. I haven't had time to read it all yet, but the following bit (my emphasis) caught my attention:

Article 9.

The Arabic language and the Kurdish language are the two official languages of Iraq. The right of Iraqis to educate their children in their mother tongue, such as Turcoman, Syriac, or Armenian, in government educational institutions in accordance with educational guidelines, or in any other language in private educational institutions, shall be guaranteed.

Islam is the state religion, but the constitution also (Article 7) "guarantees the full religious rights of all individuals to freedom of religious belief and practice." Cf. Article 12 and 13 (F).

GUIDE TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIGS: The Biblical Archaeological Society web page has one for the 2004 season which includes both digs in Israel and digs at ancient sites elsewhere.

TOLKIEN AGAIN, but this time not entirely irrelevant to PaleoJudaica. It seems that Aramaic isn't the only language benefitting from movie publicity:

Elvish is hobbitforming (Business Standard, India)

Nilanjana S Roy
Published : March 9, 2004

Lle quena i�lambe tel� Eldalie? The answer to that question �Do you speak Elvish? � is �yes� more often than you might realise.

Lord of the Rings fans trade phrases in Sindarin and Quenya in their online film discussions; linguists, particularly those with a puckish sense of humour, have confessed to occasionally speaking the language Tolkien invented; RPG (role-playing games) addicts often keep a downloadable phrase book handy.

But the Elven languages just took the mainstream world by surprise when a school in the UK announced that it planned to put Sindarin and Quenya on the syllabus.

It sounds like a load of Nevbosh, just another instance of hobbitmania run amok. (Nevbosh, an early language that Tolkien helped invent, stands for �New Nonsense�.)

But the educators who suggested incorporating Elvish into the syllabus suggested that a language, invented or not, that their students might actually be interested in learning, scored far higher in teaching terms than a worthier but dead language.

Every second kid in the playground wants to orate like Aragorn, give commands like Theoden and swear like an Orc; no one wants to go through the veni, vidi, vici routine any more, Gladiator notwithstanding. (It�s always possible that Mel Gibson�s Passion will spark off an Aramaic revival, but then again, we�re unlikely to see it happening in the classrooms at present. LOTR just has more reach.)

[...]

Unfortunately the article doesn't say which school in the U.K. is doing this.

UPDATE: Here's the information. The classes are being offered after hours. (Via Mirabilis.)

MORE ON THE "JEHOASH INSCRIPTION." Today's Ha'aretz reports:

Scholars want 'fake' Jehoash inscription reexamined
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent

The scholarly furor over the so-called Jehoash inscription has broken out again, nine months after an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) committee pronounced it a forgery. Now four leading scientists demand that a new committee evaluate the inscription.

[...]

But four leading scientists have asked Education Minister Limor Livnat for a new committee to be appointed to evaluate the inscription. The group includes Prof. Haim Cohen of the department of Hebrew Linguistics, Bible, and the Ancient Near East of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Prof. Yoel Kronfeld, of the faculty of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences of Tel Aviv University; Dr. Gabriel Barkay of the department of Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University; and Dr. Yoel Elitzur of the departments of Language and Land of Israel Studies at Herzog College in Alon Shvut.

[...]

The four scholars calling for the establishment of a new committee to consider the authenticity of the inscription claim that the IAA committee was one-dimensional, and that expert opinions and interpretations from Israel and elsewhere were not brought to bear on the evidence. "Scholars who expressed the clear opinion that the inscription was a forgery were invited to the committee, " Prof. Cohen noted, "while those who believed otherwise, such as the two scientists from the Geological Institute, were disqualified." The four scholars also said that "professional errors were made in dealing with the issue, which led to hasty conclusions. "

[...]

"There is nothing philological in the inscription that attests to its being a forgery," Prof. Cohen, a philologist, noted. "I can categorically refute all the evidence that my colleagues have brought up in concluding that it is a forgery," Cohen stated. "I can explain everything written there from a linguistic point of view as suited to the biblical period, to the period of Jehoash, the ninth century BCE. And I am not the only philologist who thinks so."

[...]

You can find my opinion on some of the philological issues here.

MORE ON THE ARAMAIC AND LATIN in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. (If you're wondering why I keep repeating that phrase, it's to make it easier to find all the references in the search engine.) Three professors from Andrews University Seminary in Michigan comment on this and related matters in "'The Passion of the Christ' brings dead languages back to life" (St. Joseph Herald Palladium, MI). Excerpt:

Roy Gane is an assistant professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Eastern Languages and associate editor of the Andrews University Seminary Studies magazine. Robert Johnston is professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, while Jon Paulien is professor of New Testament Interpretation and New Testament department chairman at the Andrews University Seminary.
Their hope is that the movie will spark interest in learning more about languages that most people are likely to be hearing for the first time.

"The Aramaic in the movie was extremely well done," Johnston said as the three professors sat down for an interview on the Berrien Springs campus last week. "For the actors to be able to learn their lines in an ancient language was an amazing thing. They tried to reproduce the accents of the first century as much as they were able. The Italianate Latin was not as accurate."

All three questioned why Latin was used at all, because the language of administration at the time was usually Greek. It was Greek that would likely have been the language used when the Jewish leaders spoke with Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator who condemned Jesus to be crucified.

Gane noted that the use of Latin in a scene between Jesus and Pilate was probably not accurate. "The use of Latin in that scene was a little strange," he said. "Pilate says 'What is truth?' using the word 'veritas'. It was a nice bridge to the next scene where Pilate is speaking with his wife about truth or veritas, but it's not likely that Jesus knew Latin."

"As far as the Aramaic, it sounded very authentic," Gane said. "We really don't know today how it was pronounced, but for me it was fabulous and wonderful to be able to follow the language."

Gane has first-hand experience in trying to communicate in Aramaic, which is still spoken by an estimated half million people, mainly in the Middle East and in Arab conclaves in cities such as Detroit. He spent time in northern Iraq in 1989 on an archaeological dig near Mosul and tried to speak in Aramaic to the local people because it's their native language.

"I went to a Seventh-day Adventist church there and the people were speaking Aramaic," he said. "I tried to join the discussion speaking old Aramaic and they didn't understand it."

They also think there was too much flogging. But overall, they liked the movie.

UPCOMING CONFERENCE AT YALE UNIVERSITY:

Rethinking Nomos and Narrative
Marking Twenty Years Since Robert Cover's Nomos and Narrative
Sunday, April 25, 2004

(Via Steven D. Fraade on Ioudaios-L.)

PURITY PAPERS ONLINE. The full texts of papers from the �Purity from the Bible to the Mishna� session in the Association for Jewish Studies Annual Meeting in Boston, December 2003 are available on Professor Gary Rendsburg's website for downloading. (Via Ioudaios-L, where you can find more details.)

MORE ON THE ARAMAIC of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ: Geza Vermes e-mails:

In my article in the Guardian I too have referred to an odd mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew in the Passion. The several times repeated "Mashiacha" is surely a phonetical nonsense; it should be "Mshicha". Shame on William Fulco. Jonas Greenfield must be rotating in his grave. Also Jesus should have addressed God, in Gethsemane of all places, as "Abba", not "Adonai". Finally, has anyone detected any sign of Galilean Aramaic? After all, Peter, or should I say "Kefa", was betrayed by his speech in the courtyard of the high priest.

TOLKIEN DIGRESSION: Today is the sixty-fifth anniversary of J. R. R. Tolkien's presentation at the University of St. Andrews of his famous Andrew Lang lecture "On Fairy Stories." Professor Trevor Hart and his Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts at St. Mary's College has arranged a day seminar at the University, Tolkien: "On Fairy Stories" Here and Back Again, commemorating the event. I've just come from a reading by BBC Radio 4 presenter Nigel Ford of a reconstruction of the original lecture. To echo Professor Hart's comments afterward, it was a rare privilege to hear the essay read out as a lecture � the format for which it was originally composed. The oral version of such a skilled reader brings out many nuances that are easily glossed over in a silent reading. Shortly I will going to hear the new Andrew Lang lecture by Professor David Lyle Jeffrey: "The Future of Literary Studies: Was Tolkien Right?"

Many thanks to Professor Hart, his team of helpers and associates, the lecturers, and the University of St. Andrews for making this event happen. Tolkien fans, wish you could all be here.

ARAMAIST EDWARD COOK e-mails:

I went to see The Passion over the weekend. The merits and problems of the film have been covered by others, but I don't remember anyone offering specific assessments of the Aramaic. I have to say that I found the Aramaic very strange. Often Hebrew vocabulary was used; e.g., in the Last Supper scene Jesus speaks of the "new covenant" as "berit hadathah" (instead of "keyama hadatha"); in a flashback, Jesus the carpenter refers to a "tall table" as "shulhan illay". Huh? I would expect "patur ram." On the cross, when Jesus says "ana sameh" (I thirst), again the vocab is Hebrew. And frequently, people say "adoni" for "my lord." I don't want to be pedantic -- maybe William Fulco was aiming at some kind of Hebrew-Aramaic patois in his reconstruction -- but I found it all very distracting.

UPDATE: Seth Sanders e-mails:

Dr. Cook is right that there's a good bit of Hebrew vocabulary in the movie, which I imagine Father Fulco (who studied with Jonas Greenfield, to my mind the greatest Aramaist of the previous generation) is presenting as loan words. For example, Robert Alter complained http://slate.msn.com/id/2095946/entry/2096184/ that mashiakha "messiah", with Biblical Hebrew phonology and the Aramaic determined ending, is a "conflation," but it is plausible as a religious import (cf. terms such as Elyon, with Hebrew morphology, in Daniel). For the everyday lexicon, I imagine he is presenting a language variety basically Aramaic in grammar but which overlaps with Hebrew in vocabulary. It is worth remembering that the neat division between official languages is more a product of schools and political units than it is a product of daily human interaction.

I have bigger questions about the *theology* of this language choice, which I'm preparing for the University of Chicago Divinity School's electronic Sightings op-ed format and which I'll deliver at the SBL or AJS.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE (9 March): More here.

REPAIRS TO THE DOME OF THE ROCK on the Temple Mount are being funded by the U.A.E. I think this Ha'aretz article is saying that the same group built the mosque in Solomon's Stables. The article also reports:

According to Palestinian sources, the Waqf, the Moslem religious trust, has completed repairs on the bulge in the Southern Wall. The work was carried out over the last nine months by Jordanian experts.

DR. NASHAT GABRAIL, an Iraqi Assyrian Christian and a native speaker of Aramaic, comments on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and on the future of the Assyrians and of Aramaic (New Philadelphia Times Reporter, OH):

�It�s very exciting to see a moving picture for the first time in Aramaic,� he said. �I was impressed by the actors. They really learned it.�

Gabrail, an oncologist who has a practice in Dover and is a resident of Stark County, is of Assyrian Christian descent, original natives of Mesopotamia, the current Iraq. His native language is Aramaic.

[...]

Gabrail said the dialect of Aramaic was so ancient in �The Passion of the Christ� that even he had to use the subtitles occasionally, but he said the language was completely accurate.

�I went in with an open mind to criticize, but I didn�t see anything. Mel Gibson should be complimented for what he did. He took Scripture and translated it in an honest way into a movie.�

While 4,000,000 people in the world still speak Aramaic, only 200,000 can read it and write it. Gabrail is one of those 200,000.

He said the language diminished because of the dying Assyrian identity, which was denied under the Iraqi government and rulers of Iraq like Saddam Hussein. As time passed, the Aramaic language became spoken less and less. Assyrians were not allowed to speak it in public and were not taught it in schools. They learned it through family and church.


[...]

Now that Hussein is gone, Gabrail hopes they can teach Aramaic in schools again.

The Aramaic language has been kept alive because of the Assyrians� religious faith. The church insisted that the language of prayer and mass remain Aramaic. However, Gabrail thinks it should not have to rely on the church.

�We want our identity intact based on rights, so individuals can say who they are,� he said.

Gabrail said the United States is concerned about preserving the identity of the Assyrians because the majority of Iraqis are trying to insert the word Islam in the new Iraqi constitution, something Assyrians do not like because they are Christians. Paul Bremmer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, is a supporter of the Assyrians and is trying to prevent this.