MORE ON DHUL QARNAYN (and Moses' horns make a cameo appearance):

WORD FOR WORD: Zulqarnain � Alexander or Cyrus? �Khaled Ahmed (Pakistan Daily Times)

Alexander is a curious word. The �ander� part in it means �man� and comes from �aner� through a grammatical change. We know that �nar� in Persian and Sanskrit means �man�. Name Andrew means �manly�. Alexander means �he who saves men�. Alex is a negative of �leg� meaning �to join�. Root �lg� appears in �lex� (law) and �religion�

We all believe that there was once a good king called Zulqarnain whom Allah made powerful on earth. The Quran says (18:83-94) he travelled to where he sun set in a muddy well, after which he went east where the sun rises. He then went north where he built a wall to protect the world against Yajuj-Majuj or Gog and Magog.

Zulqarnian is another transliteration of Arabic dhul qarnayn. They are the same phrase, which means "one (masc. sing.) who possesses two horns".

Zulqarnain means man with two horns. Although old tradition says Moses had two horns, Muslims have largely identified him with Alexander the Great. In Rome, the statue of Moses has two horns.

[...]

Archaeological discovery showed that Cyrus was the great king who rescued the Jews from their exile in Babylon. The king with two horns is mentioned by prophet Daniel. He wore the two horns to indicate his control of two countries: Pars and Medea.

But Alexander was the "he-goat from the west" in this vision. I take it that Khaled Ahmed is proposing that the Qur'an means Cyrus here, which I suppose is possible. I don't know whether there is any precedent for this idea in the early Muslim commentators. The "ram with two horns" is interpreted in Daniel 8:20 as follows: "As for the ram which you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia," so the original meaning is clearly the Persian Empire rather than a specific king.

A bit later we read:

The �qrn� root is curious. It appears in Greek as �kr� and in Latin as �krn�, which makes me think that it is one and the same thing. The origin of the word must be Syriac from where many words have radiated to the Semitic and Indo-European group of languages.

Greek �kr� became �sr� since Latin had no �k� sound. So we have rhinoceros meaning horn on the nose. The mythical horse unicorn has one horn because corn here means horn. (Note the transformation of Latin corn into horn in English.)

This is a little confused. The Greek word for horn is keras and rhinoceros is a Greek derivative meaning "horned-nose." What Ahmed means to say, I think, is that the Greek word was adopted into Latin (whose "c" was pronounced as "k" in antiquity), but the Latin "c" is generally pronounces as "s" in English. Hence the pronunciation "rhinoseros" rather than "rhinokeros." [Note: I have corrected the Greek word for "horn," for which I gave the wrong form originally.]

BOOK OF ENOCH MEDIA WATCH: The Book of 1 Enoch has been mentioned in the media a couple of times in the last few days. First of a letter in defense of Rastafarianism was published on Thursday in City Vision South Africa. The author comments at one point on Rasta scriptures:

Rasta uses the bible, apocrypha, book of Enoch, the hiden books of Eden, the other gospels and most, importantly, the Holy Piby (the black man's bible) - the Royal scroll of black supremacy; the promised Key; the utterances and testimony of the Binghi ancients; the epistles of Ras Marcus; The Kebra Negast; the Fetha Negast; The Egyptian and the Ethiopian book of the Living; and the Testament of the Living I, by Ras Tesfa.

You will recall that 1 Enoch (which is really a library of 5+ second temple Jewish texts) survives complete only in an Ethiopic translation, although Aramaic fragments were recovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls and translations of some of the book survive in Greek. I don't know some of the other texts, but I have mentioned the Kebra Negast here recently.

Second, a Q & A column in today's Allentown Morning Call addresses the question "Do Jews believe in hell? Where is it found in the bible?" and comments:

Hell, like paradise, was created by God. In the Apocryphal Book of Enoch and in the post-biblical work called the Talmud, more speculations were added to this rather minimal reference in the Hebrew Bible.

Some of these ideas are also found in the writings of the Persians and Greeks. In those legends, the entrance to hell in the valley near Jerusalem is considered one of three on earth; another is under the sea, a third is in the desert. The valley entrance is between two palm trees, down a hole that's always filled with smoke. The mouth of the entrance to hell is narrow and keeps the smoke from rising and revealing the exact location of the place.

Hell is huge and divided into seven different areas. In hell, a fiery river flows over the heads of sinners, and this fire is 60 times hotter than any earthly fire. There is a smell of sulfur in Gehenna. An angel-prince in charge of Gehenna � the devil, Satan. The basic belief is that sinners go directly to hell after death, while the righteous go directly to paradise olam habah, ''the world to come'').

At birth, a place is reserved for each person in both heaven and hell, and at death, after a final judgment is made by God of our life's deeds, either the space in heaven or the one in hell is given up.

Most souls after death are not sent to heaven or hell immediately, but rather remain in a place of judgment and purification (purgatory for Christians) for up to one year as they learn why they were afraid and why they were cruel. Christians have much more elaborate beliefs about the nature of purgatory.

No specific references for either 1 Enoch or the Talmud are given for these details, but the author seems to have in mind Enoch's tour of the universe in the the Book of the Watchers (the first component book of 1 Enoch) 17-36, esp. chaps. 18 and 27, and also various parts of the Epistle Enoch (= 1 Enoch 91-105). Most of the details seem to come from somewhere other than 1 Enoch. Some come from the Talmud, but I think other sources may be involved as well. There's a fair amount of speculation about hell in Jewish literature, but it never turned into a coherent doctrine, as it did in Christianity.

"CHRISTOPH LUXENBERG" IS NERVOUS:

Low profile for German Koran challenger
Thu 11 November, 2004 12:49 (Reuters)

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) - When a Muslim radical murdered the Dutch director Theo van Gogh for a film criticising Islam, Christoph Luxenberg saw his name ripple through Internet forums 1,000 times and immediately knew why.

"The safety of experts on Islam is topical again," he said -- in a surprisingly detached tone for the author of a critique of the Koran who fears it could one day spark similar anger.

Van Gogh, murdered last week for a film slamming Muslim treatment of women, set out to be provocative. But such is the apprehension among critics of Islam that even an obscure German professor of ancient Semitic languages keeps a very low profile.

"Christoph Luxenberg" is a pseudonym. The professor hides his work from his own students -- even those who recommend it to him, not knowing he is its author. He gives interviews by phone and offers little hint of who he really is or where he lives.

This has served Luxenberg well over the past four years, when his book "The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran" was only available in dense academic German. But he doesn't know what to expect when an English translation appears next year.

"I fear a strong reaction in the Islamic world," he told Reuters late on Wednesday by telephone. "My Muslim friends tell me that many people will jump on this book."

[...]

His thesis doesn't sound very plausible to me, but I do intend to read the book once it's out in English. But even if he's wrong, it's sick that he has to be in fear of his life over it.

THE BETHSAIDA PROJECT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA:

Bethsaida Project has new addition to showcase (UNO Gateway)

by J. Parker Adair
November 12, 2004

UNO's Bethsaida Excavations Project now has several stones on display from the Temple Mount of Jerusalem's King Herod the Great.

The three stones are part of a new exhibit in the Arts and Science Hall, room 343.

"This is kind of an outreach to draw attention to our archeological project at UNO," said Steve Reynolds.

Reynolds is the archivist for the Bethsaida Project, which has been going on at UNO since 1987. While this exhibit is not from the Bethsaida site, nor UNO excavations, it has great historical significance and does draw attention to what UNO is doing, while also sharing displays from other universities.

[...]

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Beit Morasha of Jerusalem - Robert M. Beren College
The Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought

Invites the public to attend its Seventh Annual Conference:

Controversy in Rabbinic Literature:
Its Boundaries, Logic, and Hermeneutic Status

Sunday-Tuesday, December 12-14, 2004
Beit Morasha of Jerusalem
Kiryat Moriah Campus, Talpiot, Jerusalem

Hebrew version (HTML): http://www.geocities.com/okutner/progheb.html

For further details please contact: hazal@bmj.org.il



Sunday, December 12
9:30-11:30 Albert Baumgarten (Bar Ilan University), Chair
Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Beit Morasha), Controversy In Rabbinic Literature: Polysemy and Complex Valuation
Eszter Fuzessy (University of Chicago), Differentiating Inter-religious from Intra-religious Polemics in Rabbinic Literature - Methodological Considerations
Rella Kushelevsky (Bar-Ilan University) The Role of Controversy in Forming the Identity of the Sage

12:00-14:00 Hanna Safrai (Shalom Hartman Institute), Chair
Yohanan Silman (Bar-Ilan University), "Both Are the Living Words of God"
Harry Fox (University of Toronto), Controversy for the Sake of Heaven or to Annul?
William Kolbrener (Bar-Ilan University), "Chiseled From All Sides": Hermeneutics and Controversy in the Rabbinic Tradition (English)


Monday, December 13
9:30-11:30 Leib Moscowitz (Beit Morasha and Bar Ilan University), Chair
Menahem Kahana (Hebrew University), The Structuring of Controversy in the Mishna and Its Goals
Meir Lichtenstein (Yeshivat Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Dati, Ein Tzurim), Amoraic Invention of Tannatic Controversies
Noam Zohar (Bar-Ilan University), The "Innovative Controversy": Revolution and Respect for Tradition Among Tannaim

12:00-14:00 Galit Hasan-Rokem, (Hebrew University), Chair
Dina Stein (University of California, Berkeley), Domestic Controversies: Everyday Hermeneutics
Nili Ben-Ari (Emek Ha-Yarden College) Rabbinic Controversy in Aggada in the Beit Midrash
Rina Lapidus (Bar-Ilan University), Halakhic and Aggadic Controversies on How To Obey Commandments


Tuesday, December 14
9:30-11:30 Shlomo Zalman Havlin (Bar-Ilan University), Chair
Yehuda Brandes (Beit Morasha), Ideological Background of Amoraic Rules for "Pesak"
Michael Chernick (Hebrew Union College, New York), Controversy in Divine and Celestial Torah
Tamas Turan (Hebrew University), The Imagined Midrashic Controversy in the Talmuds: Its Forms, Assumptions and Development

12:00-14:00 Joshua Levinson (Hebrew University), Chair
Marc Hirshman (Hebrew University), Controversy in Bereishit Rabba and Vayikra Rabba: A Reappraisal
Nachman Levine (Michigan Jewish Institute), Controversy as Metaphor in the Aggadic/Halakhic Story
Daniel Nikritin (Bar-Ilan University), "Torah Without and We're Within?": To Disagree and Belong

14:30-16:00 Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Beit Morasha), Chair
Hemi Avneri (Beit Morasha), Urbanism as a Factor in Halakhic Homogeneity and Heterogeneity
Yitzhak Roness (Beit Morasha), Human Relations During Controversy Chayuta Deutsch (Beit Morasha), Matrona and the Rabbis: Study, Polemic or Controversy?

ARAFAT IS DEAD. According to Reuters the agreement to hold the funeral in Cairo and to bury him in Ramallah seems to be holding:

His body was to be flown to Cairo for a ceremony on Friday and then to the West Bank city of Ramallah for burial at his battered headquarters, Palestinian officials said.

[...]

Israel said on Wednesday it would permit Arafat's burial in Ramallah and allow Arab leaders, even from states with which it remains officially at war, to attend.

[...]

Also, reader Raphael Malyankar e-mails:

There is a judaica-related issue, which you surely know about but missed, in this sentence in the Haaretz report:

At the weekend, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid touched off a furor by declaring that the Temple Mount was a site "where Jewish kings are buried, and not Arab terrorists."

Jewish kings are *not* buried on the Temple Mount and would not be buried there for reasons of religious law. Other news reports quote Lapid as saying "Jerusalem is the city where Jewish kings are buried...".

I didn't notice that sentence but Malyankar is quite right. Doubtless the "Jerusalem" version of the quote is the right one.

UPDATE: Funeral details in this CNN article. The idea of a Jerusalem burial has clearly not been dropped:

Crews in Ramallah are also preparing to construct a moveable monument in which to bury the Palestinian leader -- one that could be transported to Jerusalem one day, Palestinian sources said.

WHAT HAPPENED to the Christian Origins blog?

OF COURSE I live in a castle, Mark. Doesn't everybody in Scotland? Well, at least all academics.



Nothing elaborate, as you can see. Just a nice, down to earth, regular, unpretentious castle. Nothing special. But then again, I'm not a bishop.

What's the big deal?

CONTINUED CONTROVERSY OVER ARAFAT'S BURIAL:

MK Tibi: In the end, Arafat will be buried in Al Aqsa
By Haaretz Service

Yasser Arafat will ultimately be buried in the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, even if the step is years away, Israeli Arab MK and former Arafat advisor Ahmed Tibi said in remarks broadcast Wednesday.

[...]

At the weekend, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid touched off a furor by declaring that the Temple Mount was a site "where Jewish kings are buried, and not Arab terrorists." Arafat has also angered Jews in past statements dismissing Jewish historical claims to the compound, the site of the ancient temples.

"In the end," Tibi told Israel Radio, "if he is not buried today or tomorrow in East Jerusalem, a day will come when there is a sovereign Palestinian government, a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, and Yasser Arafat will be buried in the mosque of Al Aqsa.

"This is definite. This will be," Tibi said.

[...]

UPDATE: An agreement may be falling into place for a funeral in Egypt and burial in Arafat's Ramallah compound:

Ramallah burial planned for Arafat
Average Palestinians appear unmoved by imminent demise

Matthew Kalman, [San Francisco] Chronicle Foreign Service

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Ramallah, West Bank -- In the West Bank, preparations began Tuesday for Yasser Arafat's funeral, even though Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told a Paris press conference that the Palestinian leader was "very much alive" and discussion of his death was "indecent."

The Abu Ghosh printing house in Ramallah received an urgent order early Tuesday from the Palestine Liberation Organization's public affairs office to print 10,000 large posters. Above the simple script "Yasser Arafat: The president, the leader," a photo of the ailing Palestinian Authority head stared defiantly out over Ramallah for the last time.

Palestinian officials burst into tears when they announced that Arafat would be buried in Ramallah, in the half-destroyed headquarters compound where he defied the onslaught of the Israeli army and spent the last three years of his life under virtual military siege. The officials hope the burial will follow an impressive state funeral in Cairo.

Israeli security officials said Tuesday the government would not object to the Ramallah burial, the Associated Press reported. Israel's Cabinet was to take up the matter today.

[...]

I hope very much that this works. We don't need another fight over the Temple Mount.

UPDATE (11 November): More here, including a correction to the Lapid quote above.

NO GOLDEN GLOBE BEST DRAMA AWARD for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ:

"Passion," meanwhile, cannot compete for best drama because the organization's rules limit that prize for movies in English � while the dialogue of "Passion" is mostly in Aramaic.

"Yes, we know Aramaic is not a spoken language and, yes, we know the film doesn't have a country of origin," said HFPA president Lorenzo Soria.

"But our bylaws state that when a film is in a language that is preponderantly non-English, it's a foreign-language film."

"Passion" can compete in all other categories, including best foreign film and a possible best actor nod for Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ.

ACCORDING TO A RABBI'S WORLD, "Paleojudaica is a funky look into the harrowing world of archeology and academia and Jews who dig."

Maybe I should put that in my masthead.

MANICHEAN RUINS DISCOVERED:

Ruins of Manichean center discovered in West Azerbaijan (via Archaeologica News)

Tehran Times Culture Desk
TEHRAN (MNA) �- The ruins of what is believed to be the center of Mani (216-276 C.E.), the founder of Manicheanism, was discovered during the seventh stage of excavations at the ancient site of Qalaychi Hill in West Azerbaijan Province which began last month.

Experts used to believe that Hasanlu Mound was the major early Manichean center, but the recent excavation seems to prove otherwise.

An inscription found at Qalaychi Hill last year showed that Qalaychi Hill, not Hasanlu Mound, was probably Mani�s early center.

[...]

BLOGGERS BEWARE! So far today, Blogger has eaten two of my posts and I had to reconstruct them. Copy your posts before you press the Publish Post button!

ASHKELON BURIAL CAVE ENDANGERED:

Construction pit and rain threaten to destroy 1,700-year-old burial cave (Ha'aretz)
By Yuval Azulay

A 1,700-year-old burial cave near the beach in Ashkelon is at risk of imminent collapse. Its decorations form quite a collection: Greek goddesses; a naked boy pruning grape vines and picking grapes, which are gathered in a basket; birds pecking at a vine; a boy playing the flute; palm fronds and the implements of war, such as a lance and a shield.

The cave, which served Roman nobles in the third century C.E., was discovered in 1936 near the Ashkelon coastline by an Arab farmer tending his vineyard. Experts describe the site as a particularly valuable archaeological asset and source of information about religion, faith and burial practices during that era. This asset now faces the risk of imminent collapse, ironically, because of earthworks intended to ensure the cave's future by placing it at the center of a new tourism project.

[...]

A NOVA PROGRAM is to feature the theories of Richard Freund regarding the Cave of the Letters. Excerpt from the Jerusalem Post article:

In the hour-long NOVA documentary, airing on PBS stations on November 23, Richard Freund, director of the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford in Conneticut, challenges some of the groundbreaking ideas of famed soldier and archeologist Yigael Yadin.

Freund's most controversial conclusion is that ritual bronze vessels, found by Yadin in the so-called Cave of Letters, were used in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and may be its only surviving items. Yadin, who had discovered them in 1960, believed that the vessels, decorated with a sea goddess and other Roman mythological figures, had been stolen from the Romans.

THE ACRE SITE � NOT A JEWISH GRAVEYARD:

Acre dig finds proof that site wasn't Jewish graveyard (Ha'aretz)
By David Ratner

A day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intervened in a crisis over the archaeological dig near the train junction in Acre, another monument was discovered at the scene proving the area was a Roman graveyard without the presence of any Jewish graves whatsoever.

[...]

Last Friday an unusual marble monument find was uncovered, and yesterday - a day after Sharon's intervention at the request of ultra-Orthodox who were convinced that the bones being uncovered belonged to Jews - the monument was cleaned and discovered to be the tomb of Legionnaire Olfius Martinos, of the Seventh Claudian Legion.

A source in the Antiquities Authority said yesterday that what was amusing about the monument is that ultra-Orthodox Jews and their political allies are fighting against archaeological investigations of legionnaires who oppressed the Bar Kochba rebellion and killed tens of thousands of Jews.

[...]

THE PSCO SESSION AT THE SBL MEETING:

Bob Kraft e-mails:

Yes, it's a bit confusing. We have a PSCO meeting coming up this Thursday, 11 November, here at UPenn -- Jodi Magness on zodiac floors -- then the very next week, at the SBL/AAR conferences in San Antonio, the following program on Friday night (please cross-post as appropriate):

PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS
in its 42nd year
an Interdisciplinary Humanities Seminar
under the auspices of the
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Department of Religious Studies
201 Logan Hall
with support from
the Penn Humanities Forum

TOPIC FOR 2004-2005: The Impact of Astrological (and Related) Traditions on Early
Jewish and Christian Perspective

While astrology today is relegated to dubious status in the back pages of newspapers, in the ancient world there was no question as to the impact of the stars on human beings. The power gained through knowledge of astrology was at times troubling and terrifying, but rarely, if ever, discounted. Astrological ideas are reflected in all manner of Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian traditions, from the vivid Jewish synagogue floor mosaics to the Star of Bethlehem and the attendant arrival of the Magi to Paul's use of technical terminology drawn from astrology and beyond. Given the widespread impact of astrology, then, it is surprising that these traditions have received relatively little scholarly attention. It is our hope to use this year of PSCO to generate an ongoing conversation involving scholars of early Christianity, scholars of early Judaism, and other students of late antiquity in an examination of the role of astrological traditions in the Greco-Roman world, and especially in early Judaism and Christianity.

Co-Chairs:
Todd C. Krulak (University of Pennsylvania) tckrulak@hotmail.com
Sarah L. Schwarz (Haverford College/University of Pennsylvania)
sschwarz@haverford.edu
Secretary:
Harry Tolley (Univ of Pennsylvania) tolleyhw@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

Webmaster:
Jay C. Treat (University of Pennsylvania)jtreat@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

THE THIRD MEETING OF THE 2004-05 YEAR WILL BE HELD on Friday 19 November, in San Antonio just before the AAR/SBL annual meetings. We are scheduled for Conference Room 8 in the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm (presumably we can stay later if we wish). There will be two brief presentations to help spur discussion:

James Davila (St.Andrews University),
"Astrology and the Descenders to the Chariot."

Participants might want to look at chapter 3 of my Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature (JSJSup 70; Leiden: Brill, 2001). There is a precis of that chapter in the section "Becoming a Shaman" of my article "The Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism," SBLSP 33 (1994), 767-89, also available online at:

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_sd/hekhalot_shamanism_art.html

Annette Yoshiko Reed (McMaster University),
"Astrology in the Rhetoric of Jewish and Christian Chosenness"

Some examples (Josephus and a couple of later sources such as Justin Martyr and Talmud) of Jewish and Christian sources that use astrology as a foil for describing through comparison/contrast what they see as true "religion" -- all the more interesting a rhetorical twist, since astrology was widely practiced among Jews and Christians no less than "pagans."

If someone would like to organize a pre-seminar group meal, or would like to be included in such, please let me know.

Bob Kraft, coordinator

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

EGYPTOLOGY NEWS is a blog on, well, Egyptology news, by someone named Andie. I just noticed it in this week's Explorator.

MORE ON ARAFAT'S BURIAL PROSPECTS:

Israel takes over Arafat burial plan (London Times)
From David Sharrock in Jerusalem

ISRAEL announced yesterday that it had completed preparations for Yassir Arafat�s funeral to be held in the Gaza Strip, not, as he had hoped, in Jerusalem.

The decision appears to rule out the 75-year-old Palestinian leader�s own wish to be buried in Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem � known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

[...]

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians� chief negotiator, said the Israeli announcement was inappropriate. �I think it�s not for the Israelis to decide and I would urge them to show some sensitivity,� he said.

But an unnamed Palestinian official quoted by Reuters from the West Bank said: �He has liver failure. His condition is not improving.� He added: �One option being considered is moving him to Cairo.�

[...]

UPDATE: This story just keeps getting stranger. First, according to CNSNews, "'They're Trying to Bury My Husband Alive' Suha Arafat Says," in response to the plan of Palestinian leaders to come to France to visit his bedside. Aside from everything that arises from that title, this article is full of interesting gossip about the legal situation for keeping Arafat on life support (if that's what's happening) and about what his illness might be. Note also the following historical tidbit:

Before Suha's outburst, analysts here had speculated that Arafat would be allowed to die on Tuesday, which is Lailat al-Kader, the 27th day and most holy night in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

It is known as the Night of Power, when Muslims believe that Allah revealed the Koran to Mohammed. Arafat's death on that day would take on added significance.

Then, in response to Suha Arafat, one Palestinian official is reported (by Xinhuanet) to be promising that "the ailing President will reject his wife's claims that the visit by Palestinian leaders was to 'bury him alive.'" All I can say to that is, I'll believe it when I see it.

UPDATE: Hmmm... Maybe that last quote was a hasty mistranslation of the Arabic. The Washington Post gives what seems to be the same quote as follows (my bold-font emphasis):

Her accusations infuriated officials already frustrated that Arafat's wife has refused to divulge details of their seriously ailing leader's condition.

"They are angry with Suha and don't want to go," Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a senior Arafat aide told reporters at a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "What came from Suha doesn't represent our people. If the president were to hear that, he would reject it completely."

This makes more sense.

ARAMAIC IN TENNESSEE:

Academy of Nasramit Language & Culture established in Tennessee
(Kentucky Lake Times)
Benton County, TN - The Nasrani Church of the East (world headquarters in Tennessee) announced Sunday evening their plans to open an educational institute known as the Academy of Nasramit Language & Culture for the education of the church's members in the church's liturgical language and to promote awareness of the diverse cultural aspects of the denomination.

Nasramit (referred to as "Nasarani" and "Nazarani" in some regions) is spoken by the majority of Nasrani Church of the East members (St. Thomas Christians) in India, Goa, Portugal, Spain and Southeast Asia with some individuals within North America.

Nasramit is a dialect of Aramaic resembling ancient Biblical Hebrew. In the United States of America and some other countries the language is written with the characters of the English alphabet.

[...]

I'm afraid I've never heard of Nasramit before this. You can find more about the Nasrani Church of the East in America by following the link.

THE VANDALIZED ACRE EXCAVATION has been temporarily suspended:

Sharon defends move to suspend Acre dig (Jerusalem Post)
By TOVAH LAZAROFF

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended his decision Sunday to call a temporary halt to an underpass project in Acre after hearing that a 100,000-person protest was planned for Sunday because haredim believe the project is disturbing an ancient Jewish burial site.

[...]

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.

Requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access.

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.