COLLOQUIUM ANNOUNCEMENT:

A Covenant to the People, A Light to the Nations:
Universalism, Exceptionalism, and the Problem of Chosenness in Jewish
Thought http://jewishthought.mcmaster.ca

Sponsored by Canada Research Chair in Modern Jewish Thought, Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University

Convened by Dana Hollander (http://univmail.mcmaster.ca/~danahol)
and Annette Yoshiko Reed (http://www.annettereed.com)


COLLOQUIUM - May 18-20, 2005

The Colloquium will consider the ongoing reflection about the concept of Israel as a "light to the nations" (Isa 42:6; 49:6) in ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish thought, together with its relevance for Christianity and contemporary philosophy and theory. This and other biblical attempts to reconcile the election of Israel with the universality of Israel's God will serve as a starting point for exploring the range of ways in which Jews past and present have negotiated the nature and boundaries of their collective identities (ethnic, religious, cultural, political) in relation to other nations and peoples. Inquiries into the historical development of concepts such as chosenness, Jewish exceptionalism, and Jewishness, and the history of their reinterpretation in different socio-cultural contexts, will be combined with philosophical and theoretical explorations of their continued contemporary relevance.

Speakers include Idit Dobbs-Weinstein (Vanderbilt), Willi Goetschel (U of Toronto), Dana Hollander (McMaster), Andrew Jacobs (UC Riverside), Joel Kaminsky (Smith College), David Novak (U of Toronto), Gesine Palmer (FESt, Heidelberg), Randi Rashkover (York College of Pennsylvania), Annette Yoshiko Reed (McMaster), Kenneth Reinhard (UCLA), Peter Sch�fer (Princeton/Berlin), Yossef Schwartz (Tel Aviv University), and Susan Shapiro (U of Massachusetts, Amherst)

In the coming months, further information (e.g., paper titles, abstracts, schedule) will be posted at http://jewishthought.mcmaster.ca

PRE-COLLOQUIUM SEMINAR, May 17, 2005

This special daylong Seminar, geared toward graduate students in Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and related fields, will involve intensive discussion of key texts on the theme of chosenness, including classical works such as the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature and works by modern and contemporary authors. Sessions will be led by Dana Hollander, Joel Kaminsky, David Novak, and Annette Yoshiko Reed.

Seminar participants will be selected through application and will be granted stipends to cover the costs of travel, meals, and accommodations during both the Seminar and the Colloquium. Interested students should submit a CV and a letter detailing their relevant academic background and research interests to Dr. Hollander (danahol@mcmaster.ca) by DECEMBER 15, 2004. The Seminar is geared towards graduate students but open to post-docs and other interested scholars.


FURTHER INFORMATION

These events are the first in a series to be sponsored by the recently established Canada Research Chair in Modern Jewish Thought at McMaster University. McMaster's Department of Religious Studies has been distinguished by a long tradition of studying Judaism and Christianity in concert, as equally significant yet intertwined religions, and in conjunction with philosophy and political thought. Building on this scholarly profile, the conference aims to promote a vision of the study of Jewish thought traditions as engaged in an ongoing conversation with philosophy and theory, political thought, and the study of Christianity, both classical and contemporary.

For more information about the Seminar and Colloquium, please contact Alisha Pomazon (pomazoaj@mcmaster.ca) or see our website:
http://jewishthought.mcmaster.ca/

CONFERENCE ALERT:

The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East: Reflections on Culture, Ideology, and Power

An International Conference
November 7-10, 2004
At the University of Michigan
and the Toledo Museum of Art

Given its topic, this conference has a surprising number of papers on ancient Judaism.

(Heads-up, Justin Winger.)

THE TERRORIST WHO MURDERED DUTCH FILM DIRECTOR THEO VAN GOGH left a five-page letter fixed to Van Gogh's corpse with one of the murder weapons. The letter includes Talmud libels, the like of which we have encountered before. The translation below is from the Dutch blog Zacht Ei. The relevant passage, addressed to (former Muslim) Dutch M.P. Ayaan Hirshi Ali, reads:

I would like to ask you the following questions:

How do you feel about the fact that Van Aartsen (leader of the VVD) subscribes to an ideology where non-Jews are considered as non-humans?

Baba Mezie 114a-114b: Only Jews are people ("Only you are called people"). Also see Kerlthoth 6b under subtitle ("Oil of anointing") and Barakath 56a, where gentile (non-Jews) females are called animals ("female-donkeys")

Yebamoth 92a: All Gentile children are animals.

How do you feel about the fact that a mayor is leading Amsterdam, whom subscribes to an ideology where Jews can lie to non-Jews?

Baba Kamma 113a: Jews may lie ("listen") to mislead a Gentile.

How do you feel about the fact that you are part of a government that supports the state with an ideology that proposes genocide?

Sofarim 15, line 10 (Minor Tarcctates): These are the words by rabbi Simom ben Yohai: Tod shebe goyyim herog ("Even the best of the Gentiles should be killed").

Since you are a fighter for equal rights, you will probably (after learning this knowledge) ask with your Jewish masters in chambers to reject the teachings of the Talmud. You will also probably make work of asking the Jewish community in Holland to reject it.

I'm familiar with most of these accusations and proof-texts; you can find the same claims on various anti-Semitic websites. I noted similar and partly overlapping material last year in an Al Jazeerah article. Obviously the murderer had been steeped in such sources. These Talmudic etc. passages are taken out of context � often grossly so � or otherwise twisted to get these bizarre results. For example, sometimes the passage is rejecting the quoted view and other times the quoted phrases are scriptural allusions in detailed halakhic discussions that have very different points than implied here. You can find full analysis of all these passages at David Maddison's website and "Gil Student"'s Real Truth about the Talmud page.

If you're ever tempted to think that ancient history isn't "relevant," think again. These lies about ancient Judaism are being put to the very modern, practical use of inciting Islamist terrorists to murder people in Western Europe.

THE ETHIOPIC ALPHABET MAY GO WIRELESS:

Progress in an Ancient Tongue

By Andrew Heavens (Wired News)

02:00 AM Nov. 05, 2004 PT

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- For centuries, its letters have covered the pages of goatskin manuscripts, illuminated Bibles and the chronicles of ancient kings.

Now one of the world's oldest living alphabets could be about to make its debut on a mobile phone, if a group of Ethiopian academics gets its way.

Professors and research students here in the Ethiopian capital have just released a piece of groundbreaking research that they hope will open the door to SMS messaging in Ethiopic characters.

[...]

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN ISRAEL HAS BEEN VANDALIZED:

Controversial archeological excavation site vandalized
By Jackie Khoury and David Ratner, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service

An archeological excavation site on the Acre-Safed road was vandalized by unknown assailants on the night between Thursday and Friday.
The director of the excavation site, Yotam Tefer, said the vandals destroyed archeological findings and damaged digging equipment and bulldozers.

The excavations were initiated six months ago in order to salvage an ancient Roman cemetery unearthed in Acre's city center during works on a new two level underpass on the Acre-Safed road.

The diggings raised the fury of orthodox Jews who claimed that the cemetery contained Jewish graves, despite archeologists' contrary findings, and should thus remain untouched.

[...]

(Heads-up, Jim West.)

THERE IS A CONFERENCE ON JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM in Grand Rapids on Wednesday. Arthur Green and Bernard McGinn are the speakers.

SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL-NAHYAN, President of the United Arab Emirates, died this week at the age of 86. He has been mentioned before on this blog in connection with his founding of the Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up, which he later shut down because of its promoting of anti-Semitism, and for his unsuccessful attempt to fund a chair of Islamic studies at Harvard University. Here is an obituary in the Telegraph. But to me the most interesting recent comments on him come from an article published on 19 October, shortly before his death, "Mayo builds on $25 million gift from sheikh" (Minneapolis Star Tribune), about his financial aid to the Mayo Clinic:

Controversial center

Sheikh Zayed also has contributed money to other institutions, sometimes generating controversy.

In 1999, the sheikh helped fund the Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-up, a think tank in Abu Dhabi that soon drew criticism from around the world for anti-Semitic language on its Web site and speakers who promoted anti-Jewish and anti-American views.

The following year, the sheikh gave $2.5 million to Harvard Divinity School to create a professorship in Islamic studies in his name -- a gift that triggered further criticism from a Divinity School student and others. Harvard put the professorship on hold, and the sheikh later withdrew the gift with Harvard's blessing.

Amid all the controversy, however, Sheikh Zayed's government shut down the think tank, saying in August 2003 that it "starkly contradicted the principles of interfaith tolerance." The center's Web site also was closed.

That action by Sheikh Zayed earned him praise from one of the center's early critics: the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and promoting religious tolerance.

"Give the guy credit for what he did," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, "and the implications of what he did are not small. ... He is the only Arab head of state who has explicitly dealt with and condemned this sort of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism."

True enough, and worth saying. But the point would have more force if the U.A.E. government hadn't tried in September to deny that the Zayed Centre was ever involved in anti-Semitic activity.

It's interesting to note that not one of the more than 600 online articles covering the Sheikh's death mentions the Zayed Centre.

(All this bears on ancient Judaism inasmuch as the Zayed Centre promoted the views of Jewish-Temple deniers.)

AS YASSER ARAFAT LIES IN A COMA, seemingly close to death and perhaps already on life support, the Palestinian leadership is so far declining to make funeral arrangments. This AP article summarizes the state of play regarding where he might be buried and how the Temple Mount fits into the picture.

Arafat Could Be Buried in Gaza or Ramallah

By ARTHUR MAX
Associated Press Writer

November 5, 2004, 2:45 AM EST

JERUSALEM -- Though Yasser Arafat lies gravely ill in a Paris hospital, Palestinians have refused to begin planning for his funeral or coordinate with Israel on the movement of attending foreign dignitaries, officials say.

Arafat's burial place also is uncertain, after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ruled out Jerusalem. Arafat had expressed a wish to be buried there at a hotly disputed holy site in the Old City.

Muslims call the hilltop Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, Islam's third-holiest shrine, where the Al Aqsa Mosque compound is built over the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples.

Jews call the site the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. Disputes over control and sovereignty there have scuttled several rounds of peace talks.

Arafat could be buried in the Gaza Strip, where his family has a plot. An alternative would be the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Arafat made his headquarters and which became his prison after Israel besieged his compound more than two years ago.

Palestinians refuse to discuss arrangements as long as Arafat is alive.

[...]

PROFESSOR HUGH WILLIAMSON recently gave a lecture at Johns Hopkins University:

Oxford prof. examines Bible
By Rebekah Lin
November 05, 2004

The Near Eastern Studies Department's 18th annual Iwry Lecture hosted Oxford professor and Biblical history expert Hugh Williamson on Monday, who spoke on the development of the Hebrew Bible.

[...]

The article, which is in the Johns Hopkins News-Letter, summarizes the lecture and is an interesting read. Excerpt:

According to Williamson, an emic study of history takes its meaning from the participant's point of view, and seeks meaning from what is being studied. An etic approach takes its meaning from the causes of an observer, and seeks causes and explanations for what happened.

Williamson expressed fear that if emic and etic approaches are not both recognized and understood, they would become "two sides of that coin in danger of being undervalued."

Currently, studies of Judaism from the time are considered to be too emic, since the Bible is the only source. However, "now the pendulum is swinging too far in the other direction."

NORMAN GOLB AND THE NEW QUMRAN EXCAVATIONS:

Excavations reinforce Golb�s contention of where Dead Sea scrolls originated
(University of Chicago Chronicle)
By William Harms
News Office

Discoveries in Israel now reinforce the view of Norman Golb that the Dead Sea Scrolls were not written exclusively or even largely by the Essene sect of antiquity, famous for its abstemious celibacy. Golb, the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor of Jewish History and Civilization in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and the College, contends that the scrolls were the product of many hands and represent a broad range of perspectives rather than just the thinking of a tight-knit religious group.

[...]

Read it all. I think Golb's theory that the Scrolls are not a sectarian ("Essene") collection and that they come from literary archives in Jerusalem is wrong, but I also think he's been asking the right questions and raising some important and useful points. For more on his ideas see The Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Hebrew MSS Project web page at the University of Chicago.

ANNOUNCING A NEW POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP AT ST. ANDREWS:

THE BLACK-BEST SCHOLARSHIPS
IN NEW TESTAMENT / CHRISTIAN ORIGINS
The School of Divinity
University of St Andrews, Scotland

The School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews intends to offer up to two doctoral scholarships in New Testament / Christian origins. Outstanding students with stimulating thesis proposals are encouraged to apply.

The scholarships are offered in memory of Matthew Black and Ernest Best, who are cherished for their longstanding service to the University of St Andrews.
Each scholarship will provide full funding for tuition for the duration of the three-year doctoral program. The Matthew Black scholarship will provide an additional �2000 per annum to cover further expenses.

The School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews is a thriving theological community, with over 80 students working at masters and doctoral levels in the fields of biblical studies, systematic theology, ethics and practical theology, theology and the arts, and Jewish studies. Residential doctoral students are provided with their own research desks in a fully furnished postgraduate building (the Roundel). The library offers substantial holdings in NT and Christian origins, and further resources are made readily available to students. Research seminars are offered in four fields of study.

The successful Scholarship applicants will work under the supervision of one of following scholars who make up the NT / Christian origins team at St Andrews:

Professor Richard Bauckham, with interests in NT Christology, Gospel of John, early Jewish context of the NT, Gospel origins / audience, and NT theology.

Professor Philip Esler, with interests in social-scientific approaches to the NT, Paul, early Christian identity, the Bible and art, and NT theology.

Professor Ron Piper, with interests in the Gospels, Q, the historical Jesus, wisdom traditions in the NT, and social-scientific approaches to the New Testament.

Dr Bruce Longenecker, with interests in Paul, ancient rhetoric and the NT, social concern in early Christianity, the imperial order and the NT, and Luke-Acts.

Dr Jim Davila, with interests in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Jewish context of Christian origins, and Christian transmission of Jewish literature.

Applications for the Black-Best Scholarships must be received by 4 January 2005, and the scholarships are expected to commence as of September 2005. Applications for entry to the New Testament PhD programme that are received from within the European Community will automatically be considered for the Black-Best scholarships. Applications for entry to the New Testament PhD programme that are received from outside of the European Community will not be considered for the Black-Best scholarships unless they are accompanied by an application for Overseas Research Students (ORS) funding. For application forms and information regarding ORS funding forms, please contact Margot Clement at mc41@st-andrews.ac.uk. For further details about the School, see the website at: http://www.st-and.ac.uk/divinity.

Please pass this announcement on to anyone you know who might be interested.

THERE'S A PAGE DEVOTED TO THE JAMES OSSUARY AND THE JOASH INSCRIPTION at the Biblical Archaeology Society website, as noted by Mark Goodacre. This Update � Finds or Fakes? page has lots of papers, editorials, notes, etc. from BAR and elsewhere.

I'm pretty sure that the Joash inscription is a fake, for reasons I've already given, and I have yet to be convinced that the full inscription of the James ossuary is genuine. Granted, I haven't invested a lot of time in either, since neither has been relevant to my research over the last couple of years. As I think I've said before, anyone who wants to defend the authenticity of either needs to do it in the realm of the peer-review journals and the professional monographs. If defenses appear in specialist journals or monographs, I would be grateful if readers would draw my attention to them. Meanwhile, I'm inclined to ignore the issue � unless, of course, a whim to do otherwise seizes me.

IF DANIEL COULD DO IT . . .

Man Survives Jump Into Lion's Den
46-Year-Old Reportedly Trying To Convert Lions To Christianity



A man was attacked and injured after jumping into a lion's den at the Taipei Zoo and trying to convert the lions to Christianity.

The 46-year-old man leaped into the den of African lions and shouted "Jesus will save you," according to the report. He also said, "Come bite me" before one of the male lions attacked and bit the man.

[...]

Another one for the You Couldn't Make This Up File.

STOLEN ARTIFACTS SEIZED IN ISRAEL: It's hard to tell exactly what the loot consisted of, but evidently antiquities were included.

Police seize Ben-Gurion letters, other stolen artifacts
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent

Police on Tuesday confiscated dozens of historical documents and artifacts that had apparently been stolen, including correspondence by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and its first president, Chaim Weizmann.

[...]

Among the artifacts found were ancient coins, Torah scrolls and menorahs.

[...]

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION WEBSITE is once again on hiatus, this time until January. I hope very much that they do come back.

NEW TROUBLES FOR BRUCE FERRINI:

Indiana couple sues local artifacts dealer

EVANSVILLE, IND. - Two Evansville residents are suing Akron antiquities dealer Bruce Ferrini because they say he's taken three of their valuable artifacts and has neither returned them nor given them the proceeds from their sale.

[...]

Ferrini, who is the only private holder of pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ran into trouble in Akron this spring over a fight with business partners over the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit he brought to town.

This, you may recall, was the From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America exhibition, which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment.

THE MYSTERY OF THE HORNY CUCKOLDS: This week in the Forward, a reader asks Philologos if Yiddish has a word for "cuckold." The only one Philologos can come up with is the Hebrew phrase ba'al-qarnaim, which in Hebrew means something like an "owner of two horns."

Ba'al-karnayim first occurs in medieval Hebrew � specifically, in the Mah.barot Emanuel, a large and sometimes bawdy work of poetry and rhymed prose by the late 13th-and-early-14th-century Italian Jewish writer Emmanuel of Rome. (References to cuckolded husbands as having or growing horns occur in Hebrew sources even earlier, one of them being a letter written in the 12th century by Maimonides.) Emmanuel was translating the Italian cornuto, "horned," which means cuckold in Italian and has close equivalents in other European languages ...

The first statement is not strictly correct: the phrase ba'al-qarnaim first appears in the Hebrew Bible in an apocalyptic prophecy in Daniel 8. In v. 20 the phrase is applied to a ram which represents the Medo-Persian empire (cf. v. 3), which is to be destroyed by the "he-goat from the west," which represents Alexander the Great. In the Qur'an (Surah 18:84-99) the Arabic phrase dhul-qarnayn seems to come from the Danielic passage, albeit with a little confusion, since it is taken by commentators to refer to Alexander the Great.

What does this have to do with cuckolding? Beats me. The meaning "cuckold" appears in Hebrew as well according to Alcalay's dictionary, but Jastrow lists the phrase only with the meaning a possessor of power, so perhaps the cuckolding sense is medieval or later rather than rabbinic. Philologos adds the following:

Just why horns have been connected so widely with cuckolds is an interesting question. The explanation would seem to lie in the association of horns with male sexuality, no doubt because they accompany sexual maturity in many ruminants, which use their horns and antlers as dueling weapons during the rutting season. (This is why, too, in parts of Asia, the ground horns of various animals mixed into food or drink are considered a powerful aphrodisiac.) Perhaps cuckolds have symbolic horns because they are "horny" � i.e., itching with sexual energy that has no outlet, since as their wives are off consorting with other males; perhaps their horns are not their own but symbolically those of the rivals who have bested them, so that "to give someone horns" originally meant to take away someone's wife in sexual combat.

All that being reasonably plausible, maybe speakers of Hebrew drew on this archetypal image and applied it to the biblical phrase ba'al-qarnaim simply because it was ready to hand and because in the Bible the bearer comes to no good (the horns are smashed by the he-goat from the west). Language does some funny things and that's just a guess at what might have happened. Anyone have any better ideas?

THE STORY OF ESTHER IS GOING TO THE BIG SCREEN:

�One Night With The King� chronicles the life of the young Jewish girl, Hadassah, played by Hollywood newcomer, Tiffany Dupont. Dupont portrays the rags-to-riches heroine who goes on to become the Biblical Esther, the Queen of Persia (400�322 B.C.), who saves the Jewish nation from annihilation at the hands of its arch enemy Haman (played by James Callis; �Helen of Troy,� 2003) while winning the heart of the fiercely handsome King Xerxes, played by Luke Goss, 36 (�Blade II,� 2002; �ZigZag,� 1999).

��One Night With The King� is a multi-million dollar epic teeming with romance and imagery and complete with suspense, political war conspiracies, and religious intrigue,� says the publicist, Susan Zahn of WDC Media. �Having motion picture legends Peter O�Toole (the Prophet Samuel) and Omar Sharif (Prince Memucan) starring on the same bill only adds to the film�s overall mystique,� says Zahn.

STILL MORE ON THE QUEEN OF SHEBA EXHIBITION:

Museum features legendary Queen of Sheba

Disputed existence adds element of allure

By Ben Fox

Associated Press

[...]

�It�s a classic case where everyone has heard of the Queen of Sheba, ... but they know very little more than that,� said St John Simpson, a British museum expert who is the curator of the exhibit at the Bowers Museum.

Sheba�s visit to Solomon appears first in the Book of Kings and merits a handful of other references in the Bible, as well as appearances in Islamic and Jewish texts.

Many archaeologists have felt she was likely mythical, because there is no hard evidence of her existence. But Nicholas Clapp, a consultant to the Bowers exhibit who believes there was a Sheba, says the southern Arabian peninsula is rich in artifacts that might one day prove the case.

The most encouraging sign so far, Clapp said, is that carbon dating of artifacts has shown evidence of an advanced society in the region even before 950 B.C. � the time of Sheba.

�The more archaeology we find, it certainly doesn�t contradict anything in the Bible,� he said. �A lot of times archaeology will just totally take apart an ancient story. It�s quite the contrary with the Queen of Sheba.�

Clapp, author of a book about the search for evidence of Sheba, theorizes that she could have served as a regent if a king died and his son was too young to assume the throne. That would explain a woman ruling a male-dominated society. Whatever the case, she left an impression.

[...]

Well maybe. So far there doesn't seem to be any positive archaeological evidence for her.


(Heads up, Jim West.)

THE FIRST MEDIA MENTION OF THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA IN 2004 comes in, of all places, Al Jazeerah, in an article by Andrew J. Waskey entitled "Who Wrote the Bible?" It is long and thorough and, although I could quibble about a fair number of details, accurate overall. It deals with the Bible (Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Old Testament Apocrypha), the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament Apocrypha, and it touches on Gnosticism and Patristics. I don't know Dr. Andrew J. Waskey, but he teaches courses in philosophy, political science, and religion at Dalton State College in Decatur, Georgia. Follow the link for his web page.

I commend Dr. Waskey for providing this useful summary about the current understanding of the Bible to a predominantly Arab audience that doesn't know much about it. More please!

IN HONOR OF HALLOWEEN, here's a roundup of the "best-known" references to Satan in the Bible. Curiously, it alludes in passing to the mention of him in 1 Chronicles 21 and Zechariah 3, but does not give the references or discuss them.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Yasser Arafat's failing (or at least poor) health has revived the controversy over his wish to be buried on the Temple mount.

Israel won't allow Arafat burial on Mount
By YAAKOV KATZ

"It will never happen," diplomatic officials said Thursday regarding the possibility that ailing Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat will ask to be buried on the Temple Mount.

"We are not dealing with this issue right now but one thing is for sure; Arafat will not be buried on the Temple Mount," the officials said.

Wakf officials, who oversee the holy Muslim sites on the Temple Mount, rejected Israel's right to decide on the matter.

"Nobody will tell us where to bury him and the final decision lies in the hands of the Palestinian people," Wakf director Adnan Husseini told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. ...

Read on. There is a real danger of the situation erupting into chaos when Arafat dies.

A SHIP FROM THE UNITED MONARCHY?

Offshore find dates to King David's time
Archaeologist hopes 3,000-year-old wood is from ancient ship

Matthew Kalman, [San Francisco] Chronicle Foreign Service

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Hof Dor, Israel -- An archaeologist's dog may have discovered the first ship ever found from the period of King David and his son, Solomon, who ruled the holy land 3, 000 ago.

The remains, which have been carbon-dated to the ninth century B.C., include a huge stone anchor believed to be the largest ever unearthed. The wreckage is lying under a few inches of sand off the Mediterranean coast in shallow waters, and has yet to be examined extensively.

If the remains are indeed 3,000 years old, it would be the first archaeological artifact ever found from the era of the first kings of Israel, with the possible exception of several huge stones at the base of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The discovery was made by a dog, according to marine archaeologist Kurt Raveh.

[...]

JERUSALEM'S MILITARY HISTORY is explored at the National Geographic News website:

Jerusalem Strife Echoes Ancient History

Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
October 28, 2004

It may be called the City of Peace, but no other city has been more bitterly fought over than Jerusalem. In the past 4,000 years, it has seen at least 118 conflicts. Jerusalem has been razed at least twice, besieged 23 times, and has had at least five separate periods of violent terrorist attacks in the past century. Eric Cline is a historian and archaeologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and the author of the new book Jerusalem Besieged: From Ancient Canaan to Modern Israel. National Geographic News spoke with Cline about the holy city's turbulent history.

DR. RICHARD FREUND is interviewed in the Connecticut Jewish Ledger about his excavation in the Cave of the Letters near the Dead Sea. Excerpt:

Q: What were your findings in the Cave of the Letters?
A: Unlike Yadin who held that this was a cave used exclusively by the Bar Kochba Rebellion as a final refuge in their tragic battle against the Romans in the second century CE. I proved that the cave was in use during the most critical time in all Jewish history, the first century rebellion against the Romans that resulted in the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jews from Jerusalem. The Cave of Letters was the refuge that the priests and zealots came to as they escaped Jerusalem with the greatest treasures of the Jewish people -- the treasures of the Temple and holy books of Jerusalem� The "secrets" we discovered included new techniques, new coins, pottery that could be identified down to the location of its clay, and that Yadin had only discovered a small part of the story of this cave. Hall C, the final cave opening, (the size of a large auditorium) was where all of the secular documents of Bar Kochba and a woman named Babatha from the Bar Kochba rebellion were discovered. In Hall A, Yadin discovered ritual objects (that I think he misidentified) and a small scrap of a Psalm from the book of Psalms. Since 1961, 30 Psalm manuscripts were identified as coming from that area (and misidentified for 40 years!), making the Hall A, the large entrance hall to the Cave of Letters, a place where religious people from the first century zealot and priestly groups probably gathered. We rediscovered the Niche of Skulls that included 17 people and many of the bones were still perfectly preserved there. Today, we did a DNA study and Carbon 14 dated the bones to discover they were from two different time periods.

A few years ago I heard him give a paper at the SBL annual meeting which argued that the Cave of the Letters is mentioned in the Copper Scroll. I'm looking forward to reading his new book.

HAVE I REALLY MISSED a year of the Journal for the Study of Judaism? That doesn't seem possible, but I can't find mention of the last four issue in the archive. Well, just in case, here they are, with tables of contents for articles (but note the book reviews and reviews of articles also):

34.4, 2003
The Impact of Household Slaves on the Jewish Family in Roman Palestine
375
Catherine Hezser

The Dream of Alexander in Josephus ANT. 11.325-39
425
Tae Hun Kim

Die Drei J�dischen Schulrichtungen Nach Josephus Und Hippolyt Von Rom: Zu den Paralleltexten Josephus, B.J. 2,119-166 und Hippolyt, Haer. IX 18,2-29,4
443
Roland Bergmeier

Gender and Divine Relativity in Philo of Alexandria
471
Colleen Conway


35.1, 2004
Purity Ideology in Ezra-Nehemiah as a Tool to Reconstitute the Community
1
Saul M. Olyan

Disjunction of Heavenly and Earthly Times in the Ascension of Isaiah
17
Robert G. Hall

Joseph and Aseneth: Rewritten Bible or Narrative Expansion?
27
Susan Docherty

Der Mensch im Tod nach der Apokalypse des Mose Eine fr�hj�dische Anthropologie in der Zeit des Paulus
49
Stefan Schreiber

Pseudo-Phocylides on the Afterlife: A Rejoinder to John J. Collins
70
Pieter W. van der Horst


35.2, 2004
ABRAHAM AS CHALDEAN SCIENTIST AND FATHER OF THE JEWS: JOSEPHUS, ANT. 1.154-168, AND THE GRECO-ROMAN DISCOURSE ABOUT ASTRONOMY/ASTROLOGY
119
Annette Yoshiko Reed

DOES proseuchas poieisthai, IN JOSEPHUS' ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 14.257-58, MEAN 'BUILD PLACES OF PRAYER'?
159
Stephen Catto

JEWS IN IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR DATING THE JEWISH DONOR INSCRIPTION FROM APHRODISIAS
169
Gary Gilbert

ANOTHER PORTRAIT OF JOSEPHUS' PORTRAIT OF SAMSON
185
Mark Roncace


35.3, 2004
JUBILEES - BETWEEN ENOCH AND MOSES. A NARRATIVE READING
243
Helge S. Kvanvig

THE ABILITY/INABILITY TO EAT: DETERMINING LIFE AND DEATH IN BEL ET DRACO
262
Claudia Bergmann

POSIDONIAN THOUGHTS - ANCIENT AND MODERN
284
Ren� Bloch

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THERE WERE HOBBITS IN THE EARTH IN THOSE DAYS. That's in the Bible, isn't it?

UPDATE: Wieland Willker e-mails:

Yep.
1 Esdras 5:38
... KAI OUC hEUREQHSAN hUIOI hOBBIA ... [i.e., "and the sons of Hobbia were not found"]

I knew they were in there somewhere.

MORE ON ALTER'S NEW TORAH TRANSLATION: Slate has a roundup of online reviews (scroll down to the bottom item).

NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES, 50.4, October 2004, has some articles of interest:

"Jesus als j�discher Gleichnisdichter"
BERND KOLLMANN

Abstract

Die Gleichnisse Jesu und der Rabbinen sch�pfen unabh�ngig voneinander aus dem gleichen Repertoire j�discher Bilder und Erz�hlmuster. Da die rabbinischen Gleichnisse der Schriftauslegung dienen, sind sie oft durch eine Straffheit der Gedankenf�hrung und eine Konzentration auf die wesentlichen Z�ge der Handlung gekennzeichnet. Ihre neutestamentlichen Gegenst�cke spiegeln die soziale Wirklichkeit lebendiger wider und weisen eine ausgepr�gtere Erz�hlstruktur auf, um f�r die Gottesherrschaft zu werben. Dabei wird das Geschick der S�nder im Gegen�ber zum Geschick der Gerechten thematisiert und die Integration von Randgruppen Israels in die Gottesherrschaft verteidigt. Diese unverwechselbaren Z�ge der Gleichnisse Jesu berechtigen nicht zur Abwertung der rabbinischen Gleichnisse.


"A Q Community in Galilee?"
BIRGER A. PEARSON

Abstract

It is often assumed, especially in North American scholarship, that the Q source used by Matthew and Luke reflects a special community different from those reflected in other writings of the NT. This community is located in Galilee, where the �Q gospel� is supposed to have been composed. In this article it is argued that current theories regarding the composition and location of Q are untenable. It is also concluded that there was no significant difference in terms of beliefs and practices between Jesus-believing Jews in Galilee and in Jerusalem.


"Adam and Eve in Romans 1.18�25 and the Greek Life of Adam and Eve"
JOHN R. LEVISON

Abstract

This study identifies several dimensions of the Greek Life of Adam and Eve that provide fresh points of entry to Paul's thought in Rom 1.18�25. Principal among these are the suppression of truth, the advent of divine anger, the onset of death, and, most notably, two related exchanges � God's glory for mortality and natural dominion for unnatural subservience to animals. While such features do not specifically characterize Gen 1�3, they belong to a shared conception of the drama of human sin that characterizes and unites both Rom 1 and the Greek Life of Adam and Eve.

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TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Jordan starts major restoration of Al-Aqsa Mosque

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

AMMAN: As custodian of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jordan has begun the first major restoration in four centuries of the ancient walls of Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam.

The head of the project, Raef Najm, dismisses Israeli warnings that parts of the walls could collapse and says the work that started last week is part of a long-term program, with funds from Unesco.

"What we are undertaking now is the first real restoration of the walls of the mosque since the work done under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century," says Najm. "This is a historic mission aimed at preserving a humanitarian civilization ... which belongs not only to Muslims but to the entire world."

[...]

A spokeswoman for Israel's antiquities authorities, Onat Guez, says the Jordanian work at Al-Aqsa is being carried out in coordination with Israeli police.

But she insists that the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, some 100 meters from the mosque, was in danger of collapsing and needed urgent preservation work.

NEW ON THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION WEBSITE:

How the Bible Became a Book
(Cambridge University Press, 2004)



Writing was an extension of the urbanization of the Judean state in the late eighth century. The evidence of archaeology and inscriptions suggests a spread of writing through all classes of society by the seventh century BCE in Judah.



William M. Schniedewind
Bible and Interpretation

Excerpt:

According to archaeologists (e.g., Carter, 1999), the province of Yehud was largely depopulated and impoverished in the Persian period. These were dark times for Jerusalem and the Persian province of Yehud. In past scholarship, it was "dark" simply because we knew so little about this period of history. Increasingly, archaeology has filled in the void but painted a bleak picture of a depopulated and impoverished region. This hardly makes it a good environment in which great literary accomplishments could flourish. It is also noteworthy that the Aramaic language overtakes Hebrew as the primary Jewish language in the Persian period.

William Schneidewind is Professor of Biblical Studies and Northwest Semitic Languages at UCLA's Department of Near Eastern Languages. Here's more on the book that is summarized in this essay.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The fifth minaret is confirmed.

Jordan to build 5th minaret on Temple Mount (Ha'aretz)
By Arnon Regular

A Jordanian group intends to complete plans for building a fifth minaret on the Temple Mount by the end of the year and begin construction in 2005, said Raef Nijem, deputy chairman of the Committee to Renovate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, over the weekend.

[...]

LOT'S DAUGHTERS SLEPT HERE. WITH LOT. At least that's how the story goes. The Lebanon Daily Star describes the excavation of the Sanctuary of Agios ("Saint") Lot near Ghor al-Safi in Jordan. Excerpts:

Within a year of the discovery and identification of Deir Ain Abata ("Monastery of the Abbot's Spring") an international team of archaeologists was assembled to excavate and study the site. After more than 10 years of excavations and research, the final report is about to be published.

The site is located on a steep mountain slope 3 kilometers southeast of the Dead Sea. At its archaeological center (and historic religious focus) is a cave, discovered in the north aisle of the basilica later erected on the site. Early Christians - drawing on Genesis chapter 19 of the Old Testament - believed Lot and his two daughters lived here after their flight from sinful Sodom and their brief stop at Zoar.

[...]

When the entrance to the cave was revealed, it was preserved to its original height, but had no signs of door fittings. The sandstone pilaster capitals on either side are carved with eight-cornered (Maltese-type) crosses and bore traces of red paint. The lintel had a similarly engraved cross in the center and was flanked by two rosettes, also with traces of red paint. On the south side of the entrance the plastered wall had a number of scratched designs, crosses and graffiti. One such Greek graffito named a local Christian woman as Nestasia Zenobius. Another, in Kufic Arabic, is an Islamic invocation.

Further excavation of the cave revealed a series of steps leading into a 2 by 2.5-meter room, paved with fine white marble slabs, a simple room where early Byzantine Christians evidently believed Lot and his daughters took refuge. As to why the Byzantines venerated this specific cave - there are several in the vicinity - it is assumed it has something to do with ancient oral tradition.

The cave, which is the focal point of the entire monastic complex, had a long sequence of occupation suggesting long-standing use as a refuge. Excavations below the Byzantine-Abbasid floor level in the cave revealed ceramic and glass oil lamps dating from the earlier Byzantine period - circa the 4th-6th centuries. Beneath this were fine Late Hellenistic-Nabataean vessels from the 1st century B.C. to the 1st century A.D. Digging deeper, the team came across a fine ceramic chalice and a copper duck-bill axe-head, belonging to the Middle Bronze Age II period (c. 1900-1550 B.C.).

There are also some Middle Bronze Age tombs, some late antique Greek inscriptions mentioning Lot, and a seventh-century triple-apsed basilica church in the vicinity.

ROBERT ALTER'S NEW TORAH TRANSLATION is reviewed by John Updike in the New Yorker. Excerpt:

He sees Biblical Hebrew as a �conventionally delimited language, roughly analogous in this respect to the French of the neoclassical theatre� and significantly though indeterminately distinct from the vanished vernacular of three thousand years ago. (The vernacular vocabulary, according to the Spanish Hebrew scholar Angel S�enz-Badillos, must have exceeded the Bible�s�a lexicon �so restricted that it is hard to believe it could have served all the purposes of quotidian existence in a highly developed society.�) Alter has set himself to create a corresponding English��stylized, decorous, dignified, and readily identified by its audiences as a language of literature,� with a �slight strangeness,� �beautiful rhythms,� and other qualities (suppleness, precision, concreteness) that �by and large have been given short shrift by translators with their eyes on other goals.� Why should not Alter�s version, its program so richly contemplated and persuasively outlined, become the definitive one, replacing not only the King James but the plethora of its revised, uninspired, and �accessible� versions on the shelf?

Several reasons why not, in the course of my reading through this massive tome (sold sturdily boxed, as if to support its weight), emerged. The sheer amount of accompanying commentary and philological footnotes is one of them. The fifty-four churchmen and scholars empowered at a conference at Hampton Court in January of 1604 to provide an authoritative English Bible had a clear charge: to supply English readers with a self-explanatory text. When they encountered a crux, they took their best guess and worked on; many of the guesses can be improved upon now, but no suggestion of an unclear and imperfect original was allowed to trouble the Word of God. Alter�s more academic and literary commission allows him to luxuriate in the forked possibilities of the Hebrew text, in its oldest forms written entirely in consonants, and without punctuation.

Updike spends most of the second half of the review telling us why he thinks the Pentateuch has a strong start, but it deteriorates into a weak finish, which seems to me to be neither here nor there in terms of Alter's translation.

THE JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA has a new issue out (14.1, 2004). Here's the table of contents of articles:

Celestial Choirmaster: The Liturgical Role of Enoch-Metatron in 2 Enoch and the Merkabah Tradition
Andrei A. Orlov

Philo�s Therapeutai: Philosopher�s Dream or Utopian Construction?
Mary Ann Beavis

On Women and Honor in the Testament of Job
Robert A. Kugler and Richard L. Rohrbaugh

I Set a Table before You: The Jewish Eschatological Character of Aseneth�s Conversion Meal
Andrea Lieber

The website includes only abstracts. According to it, the JSP will now be published three issues per year. Good for them. I hope they can keep to that schedule.

JEWS IN BULGARIA: The Sofia Echo has a rundown:

Notes from History - Ancient roots, modern legacy

Part one of a series on the history of Jewish people in Bulgaria
Clive Leviev-Sawyer

THE best-known episode in the epic of Jewish people in Bulgarian history is the escape from the Nazi genocide machine in World War 2.

As important as this part of the story is within the context of the greater whole, it is that greater whole that must be re-discovered, to illustrate for just how long Jewish people have been part of the fabric that has woven itself into today's Bulgaria.

Evidence suggests that Jewish people had settled within the Balkans at least by the 2nd century CE, and perhaps before.

Among this evidence is an inscription on a tombstone near the town of Nikopol on the Danube. These Jews were, according to most historians, known as Romagnotes, (alternatively spelled Romaniots) perhaps displaced during Roman campaigns in the Middle East.

Other historians have written that there was a Jewish settlement in Macedonia in the time of the Roman emperor Caligula, who is believed to have reigned from 37 to 41 CE.

Persecution followed the communities. A fourth century CE decree by emperor Theodosius refers to such persecution, including the destruction of synagogues.

Persecution by Byzantine emperor Leo III (718 to 741) is believed to have prompted an exodus to the territory that is today's Bulgaria.

[...]

They really should have interviewed my former student Alexander Panayotov on this subject.

THE JEWS OF ELEPHANTINE are featured in an Al Ahram article (via Archaeologica News):

Yeb, cradle of feminism?
By Jill Kamil

Little is known of the vibrant Judaic community which already existed on the island of Elephantine when Cambyses invaded Egypt in 525 BC. What we do know, however, is that they had a Jewish temple to serve their religious needs.

[...]

This document attests that a woman could readily divorce her husband, with or without his consent. From other documents, we know that a woman could exercise this right by "standing up in congregation and merely declaring 'I divorce my husband'." Thus we learn that, at least in sixth century BC Yeb, Jewish women were not separated from their men in congregations, had property rights, and could take the initiative in and consummate a divorce simply by declaring publicly their intention. Mitbahiah must have done well in her investments, for other documents refer to the considerable fortune she lent to her father over the course of the next 13 years. In partial payment of his debt to his daughter, Masheiah deeded her a house he had acquired: "I give it to Mitbahiah, my daughter, in return for the goods which she gave me while I was an inspector of the fortress."

The extraordinarily progressive social mores of this ancient Judaic society are confirmed by subsequent documents concerning Mitbahiah. She in fact did divorce Jeremiah, and subsequently married Pi', an Egyptian official in Aswan, even temporarily adopting his religion. The Judaic community evidently disdained to recognise such a marriage, for none of the witnesses to the marriage contract had Hebrew (or Aramaic) names. The marriage lasted for what must have been little more than a honeymoon, and certainly less than 12 months, for Mitbahiah's next marriage was celebrated in the same year. Pi' paid quite a price for marrying a Jewish "princess". All of Pi's property was divided between them, but the property that was in Mitbahiah's name remained with her!

[...]

Interesting. I've wondered for some time what the divorce laws were like in Egypt generally during the fifth century B.C.E. Were the laws of the Elephantine Jews untypically liberal for women? Can anyone tell me?

CHALDOASSYRIAN WATCH:

British Parliamentary Meeting Calls for Assyrian Administrative Region in North Iraq (Assyrian International News Agency)
Posted 10-22-2004 13:50:07 (GMT 10-22-2004 18:50:7)

(AINA) -- The Jubilee Campaign, an interdenominational Christian human rights organisation which has worked with over 150 British parliamentarians on human rights issues worldwide, has issued the following press release:

At a meeting chaired by Stephen Pound MP in the House of Commons on October 21st, the UK branch of Iraq's leading Christian political party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement and the Christian human rights organisation, Jubilee Campaign, called for an Administrative Region for the ChaldoAssyrian Christians of Iraq, which they can administer for themselves. Article 53 (D) of Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law guarantees the ChaldoAssyrians the right to administer their own region. It states, "This law shall guarantee the administrative, cultural and political rights of the Turcomans, ChaldoAssyrians, and all other citizens."

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Still holding:

140,000 Muslims attend Ramadan prayers on Mount
By JPOST.COM STAFF

Some 140,000 Muslim worshippers attended Ramadan prayers on the Temple Mount Friday afternoon.

The government decided not to place any restrictions on the number of worshippers at the site. Thousands of police officers are securing the area.

[...]

So far, so good. Keep your fingers crossed.

THERE'S AN INTERVIEW WITH ELAINE PAGELS in the Memphis Flyer. Excerpt:

I was lucky, yes. I asked my teacher, Krister Stendahl, why, when he'd studied the Dead Sea Scrolls, he never wrote about them for a popular audience. Krister, a Lutheran bishop, looked at me and said, "Well, we and the clergy were afraid it would upset people if they learned that Jesus wasn't who they wanted to think he was." Krister and others thought they were being protective. But I said to him, "That's condescending -- to think that people shouldn't know." So we went to work on the Nag Hammadi manuscripts. Hundreds of people still are. "

Plus, she tells about what she wants to work on next. Should be interesting.

ARAMAIC WATCH:

Syria launches program to save Aramaic language

Correspondents Report - Sunday, 24 October , 2004 (Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
Reporter: Mark Willacy

HAMISH ROBERTSON: In Syria, the government has launched a program to save one of the world's oldest and most important languages from dying out.

Aramaic is believed to have been first spoken in ancient Mesopotamia about 3000 years ago. And scholars say it was the language spoken by Jesus Christ. But it's now only spoken in three villages in central Syria and even these communities need help to pass it on to their children.

Our Middle East correspondent Mark Willacy compiled this report in the village of Ma'aloula in central Syria.

[...]

Well good. Even totalitarian states get it right sometimes.

Also, I am impressed with ABC's time-traveling capabilities.

MEDIA HOWLER ALERT: Something called "Elkhart Truth" announces the following lecture series associated with the From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America exhibition in its Local Digest section:

Elkhart: Leading scholar will lecture at exhibit

ELKHART -- The world's leading scholar on ancient Hebrew, Frank Seekins, will present hourly lectures on the Paleo-Hebrew language at the exhibit "The Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America" at Concord Mall.

Today through Oct. 31 and Nov. 5-7, Seekins will lecture hourly at the traveling collection of ancient biblical manuscripts, which includes fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The popular exhibit, initially scheduled to run until the end of the month, has been held over until Nov. 7.

My first reaction was, who the heck is Frank Seekins? I've never heard of him. A Google search produced a few things. He has written a popular book entitled Hebrew Word Pictures and some other popular books on Hebrew. The premise of the first one looks quite dubious to me and in any case is not aimed at a scholarly audience. There is nothing about him publishing specialist research on ancient Hebrew or holding an academic position, which I suspect is why I hadn't heard of him. If the article had said something like "a scholar of ancient Hebrew," I wouldn't have blinked. I don't know every specialist in Hebrew in the world. But the world's leading scholar? I would be hard pressed to say who that is. Some names do come to mind, but I imagine we could debate about the top half-dozen or so and agree to disagree on first place. The point is that, whatever good Dr. Seekins has done (and I do appreciate the value of popular lectures), the top Hebrew scholar would be well known in the academic world for a large body of cutting-edge published research.

Indeed, anyone prominent in ancient Hebrew studies would be embarrassed to be characterized as "the world's leading scholar on ancient Hebrew," simply because there are so many brilliant people in the field. Now I'm not blaming Frank Seekins for the announcement; I don't doubt that someone else came up with this on his behalf. He probably is mortified, if he's seen it. The thing that bothers me is that the media outlet obviously hasn't a clue what constitutes world-class scholarship or a clue whom to ask about it and they have made themselves and the whole exhibition look pretty silly. I don't mean to be petty, and I realize that this is a very local news source. Still, that doesn't excuse this sort of carelessness, which serves their local audience ill. And especially if they're going to post on the Internet in front of an international audience, they need to put more effort into getting their facts straight and putting them in proper perspective.

I've revised this post a little to make clear that my quarrel is with eTruth, not Frank Seekins. Which is not to say that I endorse his ideas.

I'M ALSO WAY BEHIND ON THE JOURNAL REVUE BIBLIQUE which has published three issues of volume 111 (2004) since I last noted it. Here are some interesting articles in these three issues (only the abstracts are available online):

RB 2004 T.111-2 (pp. 161-192)

Alexis LEPROUX
�cole Cath�drale
75004 PARIS
France
a.leproux@tiscalinet.it
Mo�se, "conseiller de salut" en Sg 16,6? Une question de critique textuelle

Should one turn one's regard to a sign(sumboulon) which no longer saves, or rather listen to the ever actual voice of a salutary advisor (sumboulon) who guides the people. The difference between important manuscripts at Wis 16,6 provides the opportunity to revisit some exegetical debates raised by the book of Wisdom, notably the concept of mediation and the figure of Moses.

RB 2004 T.111-2 (pp. 193-208)

Serge RUZER
Department of Comparative Religion
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mount Scopus 91905
JERUSALEM
Ruzer@h2.hum.huji.ac.il
"Love your enemy" Precept in the Sermon on the Mount in the context of early Jewish exegesis : a new perspective

The article shows that the love-your-enemy precept from the Sermon on the Mount shares a characteristic feature with some other trends in early Jewish exegesis. In order to promulgate the dramatic widening of the scope of the Lev 19:18 love-your-neighbor dictum to include enemies a variety of unharmonized motifs is employed. It is suggested that in addition to the motifs highlighted by previous research a further exegetical undercurrent may be discerned in the Sermon, one connected with a new perception of reward and the double love command pattern of thought both of which were prominent in the late Second Temple period.

RB 2004 T.111-2 (pp. 238-254)

Philippe BOBICHON
I. R. H. T.
40 avenue d�I�na
F-75116 PARIS
Pr�ceptes �ternels et loi mosa�que dans le Dialogue avec Tryphon de Justin Martyr

Several passages of the Dialogue with Tryphon appear to classify the precepts of the Law according to their date (stages of revelation) or their function. These passages, and others which have not been given adequate attention in previous studies, are here examined anew in the light of data acquired in the process of producing a new edition of the Dialogue. At first sight Justin appears to be inconsistent. The seeming contradictions, however, disappear when attention is paid to the precise function and organisation of his text with respect to its intended audiences. In no way does Justin propose an exhaustive classification of the precepts of the Law. What we are given are various interpretative grids which change with the context. For Justin the relationship between �eternal� precepts (intended for all humanity) and precepts of the Law (restricted to Israel) is inclusive. They stem from the same God and serve the same salvific function.

RB 2004 T.111-2 (pp. 255-261)

Ulrich H�BNER
Vorsitzender des DPV
Theologische Fakult�t - Universit�t Kiel
Leibnizstr. 4
D-24098 KIEL
Germany
Der Deutsche Verein zur Erforschung Pal�stinas ein �berblick �ber seine 125-j�hrige Geschichte (1877-2002)

An overview of the history of the Deutsche Verein zur Erforschung Pal�stinas (German Society for the Exploration of Palestine) on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, 1877-2002.

RB 2004 T.111-3 (pp. 321-344)

W. Randal GARR
Dept. of Religious Studies
University of California
SANTA BARBARA, CA 93106-3130
United States
wrgarr@religion.ucsb.edu
"hen"

"hen" is a simple clitic which marks its utterance as an affirmation.

RB 2004 T.111-3 (pp. 345-361)

Oded LIPSCHITS
Department of Jewish History
Tel Aviv University
TEL AVIV
Israel
lipschit@post.tau.ac.il
"From Geba to Beersheba" : a Further Consideration

This article considers Mazar�s theory that Geba, mentioned in the account of Josiah�s reform (2 Kgs. 23:8) should be identified as Kh. et-Tell on mount Ephraim. This theory enjoyed wide support, mainly among Israeli scholars, and some have suggested that this Geba on mount Ephraim also figures in the list of cities of Benjamin (Josh. 18:24). By contrast, in this article I would like to show that at no time throughout the history of the first Temple did Judah's northern border extend beyond the environs of Bethel. Such was the case in the Persian period too. No biblical evidence whatsoever is found for the existence of a settlement called Geba on mount Ephraim, and great historical and geographical logic lies in restoring to Geba in Benjamin region the honor it deserves.

RB 2004 T.111-3 (pp. 362-376)

Marie-Fran�oise BASLEZ
Universit� de Paris XII, ENS
PARIS
mfbaslez@noos.fr
Pol�mologie et histoire dans le livre de Judith

The art of warfare which is displayed in the Book of Judith can help to retrieve the context and circumstances in which this fictious text, commonly dated between 160 and 60 BC, was composed. The description of the weaponry, which emphasizes the value of light units, and, principally, the description of the goals and strategy of the "war in montainous regions" refers to the Seleucid campaigns of the second century, more precisely, and probably, to the battle of Beth Zacharias, lost by Judas Maccabee in 162. It could be a work of counterpropoaganda, from a nationalistic movement of opposition, personified by Judith, which is different from the Hasmonean movement, and that, by some clues, could be linked to the high priest Alcimus.

RB 2004 T.111-3 (pp. 387-408)

Alexis BUNINE
19 rue de l�Aqueduc
B�1060 BRUSSELS
Belgium
avbun@hotmail.com
Paul, Jacques, F�lix, Festus et les autres : pour une r�vision de la chronologie des derniers procurateurs de Palestine, Ire partie

Part One :
Although largely accepted, the chronology of the last Procurators of Palestine, established more than one century ago by Emil Sch�rer, display many obscurities, among them the length of the terms of Felix and Festus. This article aims at a new study of the question, bringing up some new published research. After a short reminder of the basis for the classic chronology, and a point about the precise date of the death of King Agrippa I, we should see, in this First Part, the terms of the two Procurators who followed him, the duration of the term of Cumanus and the date of beginning of Felix, building on the foundations one can find in Josephus, Tacitus and in the Acts of the Apostles..

RB 2004 T.111-4 (pp. 481-497)

Christophe LEMARDEL�
F-75000 PARIS
France
christophe.lemardele@laposte.net
Le verbe p�l� et la pratique des v�ux

The translation of the verb p�l�, in a votive context, is problematic in modern versions like in ancient versions. Three possibilities exist : �to accomplish/fulfil a vow�, �to make an explicit vow� and �to make a special vow�. If we retain the meaning of pl�, it�s the third solution that we have to choose because the vow contains the idea of miracle like this root. We add that the verb appears in the context of the formulation of a vow and not in the context of fulfilment. �To make a special vow� because of the importance of those vows : they are costly. There were many sacrifices which accompanied the Nazirite vow, and the votive offerings of Lev 27 were not common. Moreover, it was used for a sacrifice offered during the pronunciation.

RB 2004 T.111-4 (pp. 499-515)

James H. CHARLESWORTH
G.L. Collord Professor of N.T. Language and Literature
Princeton Theological Seminary
James.Charlesworth@ptsem.edu
Phenomenology, Symbology, and Lexicography, the Amazingly Rich Vocabulary for "Serpent" in Ancient Greek

Virtually unknown to Greek philologists is the fact that there are 41 nouns employed by the ancient Greeks to denote a snake and the various species. The following research is part of the fruit of six-years of research into one question: "What did the serpent symbolize in antiquity? For the first time a list is provided of the 41 nouns employed by the ancient Greeks to signify a reptile that was a type of snake. The list assists translators and exegetes to be more precise and re-present the phenomenological sophistication reflected by Hellenic and Hellenistic Greek, the Greek found in the Septuagint; the Greek Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, the greek N.T. (witch should not simply be branded as Koine), and Patristics. Philologians, historians and N.T. scholars have been ignorant of iconography, symbology, and the numeruos negative and positive meanings of serpent symbolism by the end of the first century CE.

RB 2004 T.111-4 (pp. 516-530)

John C. POIRIER
1100 N. Main St.,
FRANKLIN, Ohio 45005
United States
poirier@siscom.net
Jewish and Christian Tradition in the Transfiguration

The Transfiguration account in the synoptic gospels is a terrific example of a pericope that has been shaped by Jewish and Christian exegetical complexes. Unfortunately, a proper recognition of these precise complexes has been confuted by the universal belief that the Transfiguration is first and foremost an echo of the Sinai theophanies in Exodus. A close reading reveals that the points of contact between the Transfiguration and the Sinai theophanies are merely generic aspects of theophanies in general. A more efficient account of the nongeneric aspects of the Transfiguration can be found in an exegetical complex preserved in Midrash Tehillim, while the distinctively Christian component of the Transfiguration is best understood in the light of the two witnesses tradition in Revelation 11.

RB 2004 T.111-4 (pp. 531-562)

Alexis BUNINE
19 rue de l�Aqueduc
B�1060 BRUSSELS
Belgium
avbun@hotmail.com
Paul, Jacques, F�lix, Festus et les autres : pour une r�vision de la chronologie des derniers procurateurs de Palestine, IIe partie

This second part investigates the proposed arguments in favour of varied datings to substitute Felix for Festus (between 54 and 61 exclusively). The article calls into question the date of 62, universally accepted as that of the martyrdom of James. To clarify the last unreliability, this article checks the chronology of Paul�s last journey to Jerusalem, inquiring into the precise duration of his captivity at Caesarea. A bundle of convergent probabilities allows us to conclude in favour of the date of 56 for the start of Festus�s rule as procurator, which amounts to Paul�s arriving at Rome in 57.

RB 2004 T.111-4 (pp. 563-577)

�mile PUECH (pp.563-577)
DR - CNRS, PARIS
�cole Biblique et Arch�ologique Fran�aise,
JERUSALEM
and Joe ZIAS
Science and Archaeology Group
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Le tombeau de Sim�on et Zacharie dans la vall�e de Josaphat

The squeeze of the other inscription noticed during the decipherment of the inscription of Zachariah in this tomb has confirmed the Old Simeon's burial in this monument in the Josaphat Valley according to local byzantine traditions. The author of the inscription clearly knew Lk 2,25 of the Koin� tradition. But since no testimony of the James'burial has been found there, we must look for their common burial place in, the byzantine chapel in front of the monolith nowadays called "Tomb of Zachariah", location confirmed by the discovery of a graffito.

MORE DEBATE ON THE QUMRAN EXCAVATIONS over at the Bible and Interpretation website:

The Enigma of Qumran

Qumran was not a place of learning and solitude: one can hardly be expected to find the quietude needed to study in the middle of a busy, loud, and dirty factory.

Yaron Ben-Ami
Bible and Interpretation
October 2004

This piece surveys the views of the archaeologists who recently completed ten years of excavation at Qumran and touches on views of other archaeologists. I am surprised to hear that the idea that Qumran was a military fortress is still on the table. I thought all the archaeologists rejected that because of the site's unprotected water supply. The factory proposal is new to me too. I'm not an archaeologist and I don't feel qualified to comment on the merits of the various positions. I'm just noting what the archaeologists say and watching the fur fly. But I do have a comment on the last paragraph of the article:

Dr. Itzhak Magen [one of the excavators] comments on how the scrolls got there: "They were brought here by everybody, including fugitives running away from the Romans. Some of them would have taken a scroll with them, but when they ran away from the Judean hills eastwards, they had to cross the water, which is something they didn�t want to do with a scroll." So the fugitives, Magen claims, tucked the scrolls away in the caves around the recently deserted Qumran. Therefore, these are not sectarian writings, either priestly or Essene. "This is the literature of Second Temple era Judaism. This belonged to everybody," he says, expressing a hope that this realization would throw new light on the scrolls� research.

This is something I do know about and have put quite a lot of thought into. If Dr. Magen's views are being quoted correctly, he's wrong. The Qumran library is a sectarian ("Essene" if you insist) library, it was not "brought here by everybody." There are lots of sectarian texts, often in different versions, and most or all of the rest of the library is compatible with their views. If this were a randomly collected library of Judean literature, we would expect a much wider range of views to be represented (e.g., copies of 1 Maccabees, the Psalms of Solomon, the Letter of Aristeas, and maybe even some early stuff from followers of Jesus). Gabriele Boccaccini has dealt in detail with what's missing in the Qumran library, and what it means, in his book Beyond the Essene Hypothesis. I don't agree with him at every point, but the sectarian nature of the Qumran library is clear.

That said, I don't think that Magen is entirely off base about the library. My own working hypothesis is that sectarians from all over Judea collected their smaller libraries and consolidated them to hide them at Qumran during the war, perhaps because Qumran was a major retreat center or the like for the sect (or perhaps not . . .). That would explain both the sectarian nature of the library and the multiple recensions of the sectarian and biblical texts in the library. More on that here.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA is hold a conference on biblical archaeology:

Biblical Archaeology Conference at UNO (RedNova)

Author and archaeologist James Strange will be the keynote speaker at the sixth annual Batchelder Biblical Archaeology Conference in Omaha.

The conference will be held Oct. 28 through 30 at the W.H. Thompson Alumni Center on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus.

People must register for other conference events using an online form at www.unomaha.edu (click on site index and go to Bethsaida Excavations Project). The fee is $65.

[...]

Or follow this link for the conference web page, which includes the program and a registration form.

VANDERKAM ON THE HIGH PRIESTS: Mark Goodacre has already reproduced this Fortress Press press release, so I'll just link to his posting.

MORE ON THE ANCIENT ALBANIAN SYNAGOGUE in the Jerusalem Post:

Dig reveals more of ancient Albanian shul
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

Excavations at an ancient synagogue in Albania have uncovered additional sections of the impressive structure.

The dig, now in its second season, is being conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University and the Albanian Academy of Sciences at a synagogue that dates from the 5th or 6th century CE and is located in the coastal city of Saranda, opposite the Greek island of Corfu.

[...]

The archeologists have concentrated on revealing additional rooms adjoining the elongated hall whose mosaic floors depict such Jewish symbols as a seven-branched candelabrum (menora) flanked by a citron (etrog) and a ram's horn (shofar). The newly exposed rooms � which in fact were an extension of the hall � contain more of the decorative mosaic paving, including representations of fish, a popular theme in the ancient world.

The joint Albanian-Israeli delegation intends to return soon to the site to continue uncovering the basilica section of the synagogue, which today lies under a main street in Saranda. ...

I SEEM TO HAVE FALLEN BEHIND in keeping track of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries. Here are the two most recent issues:

Volume 11 Number 1 2004

The use of Secondary Biblical Sources in Pesher Nahum
1
Shani L. Berrin


Practical Wisdom in 4QInstruction
12
Joshua Ezra Burns


From Separatism to Urbanism: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Rabbinic Eruv
43
Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert


Free Orthography in a Strict Society: Reconsidering Tov's "Qumran Orthography"
72
Dong-Hyuk Kim


Last Testaments in the Book Of Jubilees
82
David Lambert

Volume 11 Number 2 2004

The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Sciences and New Technologies
133
Magen Broshi


Redating the Radiocarbon Dating of The Dead Sea Scrolls
143
Joseph Atwill; Steve Braunheim; Robert Eisenman


The Royal Conscience According to 4QSAM
158
Keith Bodner


Women At Qumran: Introducing the Essays
167
Rob Kugler; Esther Chazon

Requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access.

VIGILIAE CHRISTIANAE has a new issue out (58.3, 2004). Here's an article of interest:

David T. Runia, "Clement of Alexandria and the Philonic Doctrine of the Divine Power(s)," pp. 256-76

Abstract: The present paper offers a comprehensive examination of how Clement appropriates the Philonic doctrine of the divine powers. It first examines the biblical basis of the doctrine, in which Pauline influence is superimposed on Genesis. It then successively treats the subject in the areas of theology, cosmology and the doctrine of creation, including the creation of humanity. For Clement experience of the divine power (usually in the singular) leads to knowledge of God (to the extent possible) and intimacy with him through the Son. Clement's Philonic heritage has enabled him to develop a positive and above all a dynamic theology.

Requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access.

INTERNET EXPLORER IS HISTORY and so is Netscape � at least on my computers. I've converted to Firefox and pulled the other two browsers from the dock on both my office iMac and my eMac at home. Firefox is more stable, has fewer glitches, and so far hasn't introduced any new problems of its own. Maybe a lot of you already knew all that (I'm often behind the curve on such things), but my counter statistics tend to indicate that many readers are still crippling along with IE or Netscape. If you're not as happy with them as you could be, do give Firefox a try. My thanks to former St. Andrews student and perennial rabble-rouser Alex Singleton for the tip.

REGARDING THE NEW ENOCH PAPYRUS FRAGMENT, Stephen Goranson asked on the g-Megillot list, "In any of the descriptions of the photos of perhaps an Enoch scroll said to be seen by John Strugnell, did he describe it as skin or papyrus?" Matthew Hamilton of Moore Theological College Library in Australia sent Goranson and me this e-mail in response:

My few references to Strugnells' Enoch MSS don't mention if on skin or papyrus, but there may be other references out there that I am not aware of.

P. Ross in Scientific American, vol.263 no 5 (Nov. 1990) refers to "a nearly compete scroll", but doesn't state if it is of Enoch or another book
A. Katzman in Biblical Archeology Review, vol.XVII no.1 (Jan.-Feb. 1991), p.64,70 mentions a "complete copy of the Book of Enoch"
H. Shanks interviewing Strugnell in Biblical Archaeology Review, vol.20 no.4 (July-Aug. 1994), p.46-47 mentions "the complete book of Enoch" on microfilm and in a rather mixed up conversation also mentions Cave 11.
N. Silberman in The Hidden Scrolls: Christianity, Judaism & the War for the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Putnam and Sons, 1994), p.162 mentions "a complete manuscript of the book of Enoch"
Pfann in a web article, The Visions of Yeshua Ben Padiah Scroll, (1999) mentions a "rather well preserved scroll ... resembling the book of Enoch". It is not clear if this is the same MS as the other Enoch MS which is mentioned by Shanks as being seen by Strugnell on microfilm, rather than the actual MS.

If the above is representative of Strugnell's Enoch scroll, it is unlikely to be the same as the papyrus fragment of Enoch to be published by the Eshels, as Strugnell's Enoch is complete or nearly compete. [However --- what if the photograph provided to the Eshel's is just a sample, perhaps provided by a seller/vendor to test the market or create anticipation so as to inflate the market? This is of course, just my speculation.].

Prior to seeing the post in PaleoJudaica, I had not heard of this papyrus fragment.

It was new to me too.

As for the last reference, follow the link for Stephen Pfann's website on the Ben Padiah (Angel) Scroll. Five years after the partial transcript surfaced, this document - if it exists at all - has not been published or, as far as I know, even shown to a specialist. The mention of the rumor about an Enoch scroll is near the beginning of the "Background" section of the web page.

UPDATE (19 October): Seth Sanders reminds me that he e-mailed the following a few days ago, referring to the same text:

I assume you recall the excitement over the last "other Qumran manuscript of Enoch" the so-called "Angel Scroll" story of 1999. Like this putative Enoch fragment, it was not presented to scholars to examine. Of course, in that case it was even more dubious because there was not even a photograph.

See here for Stephen Pfann's assessment:
http://www.csec.ac.uk/benpadia.html

We have not heard anything further about this text.

The problem, as you know, is that you or I or any other linguistically trained scholar of Second Temple Judaism could produce such a scroll, given enough Chutzpah and the help of a competent manuscript forger.

It could certainly be proven to be genuine (and I hope it is!), but I think the burden of proof is on those arguing for its authenticity.

I blog, you decide. As usual with these things, the authenticity question really needs to be sorted out in the peer-review journals.

As for forging a scroll fragment like this, it would not be easy to come up with something that would stand up to C-14 dating. But perhaps it could be done.

MORE ON THE PETRA EXHIBITION, which is currently in Cincinnati. Ed Cook e-mails:

You mentioned the Petra exhibit slated for Grand Rapids next spring. I wanted to encourage your readers, if they are able, to catch the exhibit in Cincinnati, where it will be till January 30, 2005. It is truly a magnificent exhibition, with many impressive objects and all the inscriptional material that language specialists could want, including a nifty Greek-Aramaic bilingual inscription and one of the carbonized Petra scrolls from the Byzantine era church. The display is worth seeing here because the Cincinnati Art Museum already has a considerable collection of Nabatean antiquities -- many discovered by Nelson Glueck at Khirbet et-Tannur -- which are displayed with the objects from Jordan. Anyone within traveling distance should definitely check it out.

He also forwards a link to an article on the Cincinnati exhibition.

HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS FOR SALE: I thought I had already noted the following from the Forward, but a check in my search engine indicates not.

Manuscripts Worth Millions
ARTIFACTS
September 24, 2004

If you're struggling to find a gift for that person who has everything and you've got a few hundred thousand dollars to spend, then Sotheby's New York has the right auction for you.

On October 27 and 28, the Montefiore Endowment at Ramsgate, England, will auction off a wide array of rare Hebrew manuscripts that Marcia Malinowski, senior vice president of books and manuscripts at Sotheby's New York, touts as "the most significant collection to appear on the market in decades."

[...]

Culled from works across Europe and North Africa, the bulk of the offerings were acquired around 1900 by Moses Gaster, a Romanian scholar who served as principal for the college founded by Victorian gaslighting tycoon, banker and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore.

Gaster acquired the manuscripts from Leopold Zunz, a founder of the Science of Judaism, and book collector Solomon Hayyim Halberstam. Most were donated to Jews' College in London, where they spent the last century.

Today, the Jerusalem Post notes the same sale:

Montefiore manuscripts

[...]

The collection is especially rich in biblical, legal and historical texts. In addition, the liturgical manuscripts, kabbalist works, philosophical and literary texts are unusually diverse. The collection is estimated to sell for $8m./$11m. and the proceeds will be used to fund scholarships and education.

The lots include Bibles, biblical commentaries, sermons, halachic works, talmudic commentaries, responsa literature and prayer books, as well as treatises on kabbala, philosophy, astronomy, and medicine; and volumes of poetry, drama and music.

The manuscripts originate from Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Greece, North Africa, Yemen, and other locations and reflect the traditions and cultures of each geographic area over the course of eight centuries.

[...]

I know nothing about the circumstances behind the sale and it may well be that financial straits are compelling the institution to sell them. But I'm surprised that nobody has remarked on what a pity it is that Gaster's precious manuscript collection is being broken up and scattered like this. It certainly won't make study of the manuscripts any easier.

PROFESSOR BRUCE ZUCKERMAN is profiled the Daily Trojan the student newspaper of the University of Southern California, where he has taught for many years:

Unlocking artifacts of antiquity
Bruce Zuckerman uses the latest photo technology to study ancient texts, providing new findings on the date of their creation.
By Nathan Go
Published: Monday, October 18, 2004



For almost 20 years now, Bruce Zuckerman, professor of Semitic languages, has held the key to some of the world's oldest civilizations in his hands.

From deserts to war-torn areas, Zuckerman has pursued and taken hundreds of thousands of images of ancient inscriptions using the latest technology in photography - usually revealing new, striking information.

Zuckerman's findings last summer on an artifact believed to bear the earliest biblical passage might end the controversy surrounding the date of its existence.

While some scholars question the artifact's age, Zuckerman's high-resolution photographs show that the text is a distinct style of an early Hebrew script. The script was used from the period just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., thus confirming its antiquity.

The images Zuckerman took provide the clearest analysis of the inscriptions ever taken so far, and he hopes they will finally dispel the cloud of doubt hanging over the artifact.

"Until then, most people were just relying on drawings," Zuckerman said.

Most scholars would rank the artifact, which was originally found in 1979, as the second most important archaeological find in Israel, just next to a stone inscription mentioning the House of David, Zuckerman said.

I'm a little confused by this comment and I wonder if the interviewer has gotten it completely right. I think everyone would agree that the most important archaeological find in Israel is the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Judean Desert scroll discoveries in general. Nothing is even a close second. But perhaps Zuckerman was referring to inscriptions recovered in controlled excavations, which would exclude most of the scroll finds. In any case, these silver amulets from Ketef Hinnom (which are the artifact the article is talking about) are the oldest fragments of a text found in the Bible and are extraordinarily important.

But put aside the nit-picking. This is really exciting:

However, Zuckerman emphasized that the findings on the Priestly Benediction artifact is just one of the many items he has photographed, and people often miss the bigger picture of what is being achieved.

The more important thing to ask, he said, is how such tremendously valuable and yet delicate artifacts can be preserved.

To this end, Zuckerman has created an online database system called InscriptiFact. In essence, InscriptiFact is a technological solution that takes the most important texts of the near-Eastern ancient world and preserves them in digital format.

The images can then be distributed worldwide for free, virtually guaranteeing that the artifacts are going to last forever.

"It's a kind of immortality," Zuckerman said. "A lot of times we have to rescue the artifacts before it's too late."

The article concludes with a quote from Lynn Swartz Dodd, curator of USC's Archaeological Research Center:

"Ultimately," she said, "he did for biblical inscriptions what Google did for the Internet."

That sounds about right. Quite a legacy. And he isn't done yet.

I think I've mentioned before that I was the first research assistant to the West Semitic Research Project back when I was a callow Master's student at UCLA in the early 1980s. You can find the InscriptiFact web page by following the link. Oddly, there's no link to it in the Daily Trojan article.

MORE ON THE QUEEN OF SHEBA EXHIBITION at the Bowers Museum in California:

Queen of Sheba Opens at Bowers Museum (Art Daily)

SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA.- The myth, mystery and majesty of the Queen of Sheba is the focus of a new and exciting landmark exhibition at the Bowers Museum. Organized by The British Museum exclusively for the Bowers, Queen of Sheba: Legend and Reality opens October 17, 2004 and runs through March 13, 2005. This is the first time the celebrated Queen of Sheba exhibition has come to the United States.

[...]

Queen of Sheba: Legend and Reality will feature more than 100 spectacular treasures chosen from the breathtaking collections of the 250-year-old British Museum. These treasures, some from the 1st century, will bring to life the history of Queen of Sheba�s fascinating ancient civilization still mostly unfamiliar to a Western audience. In addition to magnificent treasures from the acclaimed British Museum collection, one of the marquee treasures in Queen of Sheba: Legend and Reality is a bronze head of a male that was lent by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The exhibition will begin with the Queen of Sheba as a legend in art through Renaissance and modern representations. Queen of Sheba is viewed as a figure of beauty and seduction who sent a camel train of gold and ivory to King Solomon. According to legend, Solomon married the Queen around 950 BC after she became enthralled by the magnificence and majesty of his palace.

[...]