PIETER W. VAN DER HORST is complaining that the University of Utrecht censored his farewell lecture. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency summarizes the story:

Dutch issue focuses on Muslim anti-Semitism
A Dutch professor accused the president of his university of suppressing free speech by cutting out parts of a talk on Muslim anti-Semitism.

Pieter W. van der Horst, a professor of New Testament and Judaism, made the accusations after Willem Gispen, president of Utrecht University, cut passages from a van der Horst speech. Gispen said the passages are “offensive to a Muslim audience” and “unscholarly.”

Van der Horst was allowed to deliver the first half of the speech, which focused on Christian anti-Semitism.

The Dutch press has covered the dispute between the two men, which also may have been influenced by van der Horst having to resign his position after budget cuts.

I'm quoting the whole story, since I'm doubtful that the link is a permanent one. (It's currently under "Breaking News" at the JTA website.)

In addition the Dhimmi Watch blog translates a longer and more informative article from the Dutch newspaper Trouw. (I don't know Dutch and cannot vouch for the accuracy of the translation.) Excerpt:

The text of the lecture landed quite some time ago on the desk of Prof. Dr. W.H. Gispen, rector magnificus of Utrecht University. Van der Horst was called to justify himself before a commision of four. In the Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad he says: “The Muslim students might make trouble, the rector could ‘not even guarantee my safety’, the lecture was ‘below scholarly standards’.”

In his farewell lecture ‘The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism’ Van der Horst wanted to call attention among other things to “a great global problem, namely that part of the Islamic world has taken over the torch of hatred for the Jews from the nazis and is carrying it forward enthusiastically. The Islamisation of European Antisemitism is one of the most horrendous developments of the last decades.”

In the incriminated passage the professor foresaw he would be accused of ‘islamophobia’. “But one should never close one’s eyes to matters one does not like to see or which don’t fit a picture of the world that is often determined by ideological blinkers.”

The University is replying that they urged rather than ordered him to delete the passages. Professor van der Horst's work focuses on ancient Judaism (some of it is listed here) and I am well acquainted with a good bit of it. I should be very surprised if he produced something below scholarly standards in a public lecture. I don't think that the possibility of students protesting should be a factor in such situations. And if it's true that the University could not even guarantee his safety, then they have a serious problem that extends far beyond this single incident.

Some excerpts from the speech and more coverage in the Dutch media are posted in a comment to another post on the same blog. There seems to have been an earlier version of the lecture in circulation which contained things that van der Horst says he would not have presented in the actual lecture, which makes it more complicated. In the version intended for presentation it seems he included some severe criticisms of the policies of the University of Utrecht and suggested that University appointments in Islamic studies should go to people who are willing to address the negative ("sinister") side of the subject as well as the positive. I hope someone translates the whole address into English. I want to see for myself what it says in full context and also which specific parts the University wanted him to cut.

(Heads-up, Ellen Birnbaum.)

UPDATE (1 July): More here.

A MUNICIPAL GARBAGE DUMP from Second Temple-era Jerusalem:

The view from the garbage
By Ran Shapira (Haaretz)

The secrets of life in Second Temple-era Jerusalem can be found in a trash heap

Two discs made of bone, which apparently served as buttons, are among the objects found in the municipal dump that served Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple era. These buttons were intended to be not only practical, but decorative as well. In addition the dump has yielded a handful of glass fragments, which testify to the use of prestigious objects.

However, the vast majority of finds at the dump were very much everyday objects: fragments of household utensils including cooking pots, storage jars, pottery and lamps, coins of low denominations and a large number of animal bones. The dump is located on the eastern slope of the hill where the City of David is located. It was first unearthed in 1867 by Charles Warren, and many other archaeologists excavated there after him, but they did not realize they were digging through garbage. Only in 1995 did Professor Ronny Reich, of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, and Eli Shukron, of the Antiquities Authority, who directed the dig at the site, realize it was a dump.

[...]

A garbage dump is a very exciting find. Kilogram for kilogram, few other kinds of strata contain as many artifacts.

The article also discusses a wealthy house from the same period which is being excavated nearby.

CARTHAGE from on high.

(Via Rogue Classicism).

SAMUEL L. JACKSON is prophesied in biblical apocrypha? That would explain a lot.

And lo, unto the land of Babel shall come a man, one like unto the Son of man, clothed with rich garment down to the foot, and girt about the ears with a Kangol cap. And he shall be called Samuel, son of Jack, with an "L" in there somewhere, and speaking with a great voice, as of a blasphemous trumpet, he shall banish yon serpents from the sky�

THE COPTIC MUSEUM at Misr Al Qadim, Egypt, has reopened after three years of renovations.

ANTIQUITIES AS TERRORISM COMPENSATION? Here's the latest on this story:

Iranian antiquities may be seized in suit

CHICAGO, June 27 (UPI) -- A federal judge has ruled the University of Chicago cannot protect Iran's ownership rights to a collection of Persian antiquities.

U.S. District Judge Blanche Manning's ruling means a group of people injured by a terrorist bombing in Israel can seize the tablets from Persepolis, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. They sued Iran in the United States and won a $71 million judgment.

Lawyer David Strachman, who represents the plaintiffs, said collectors are interested in the antiquities.

[...]

I have commented already here and here.

THE PULSA DE-NURA CEREMONY, YET AGAIN:

Extremists curse Olmert with Pulsa Denura (YnetNews)

Right-wing extremists hold mythical Kabbalistic ‘death curse’ against prime minister, exactly one year after identical ritual against then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Efrat Weiss

Exactly one year after carrying out a “Pulsa Denura,” an ancient Kabbalistic death curse, against former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Right-wing extremists held a similar ritual targeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Channel 10 reported Tuesday.

One of the participants related, “The ceremony took place exactly one year after the one for Ariel Sharon. If, God forbid, Olmert continues to hold his position, we will pay a heavy price.”

[...]

I suppose Sharon's stroke has encouraged them. It's worth noting, however, that former mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek is still alive at age 95, more than twenty-five years after a pulsa de-nura ceremony was carried out against him.

UPDATE: Dead link now fixed. Sorry about that.

A SYRIAC SYMPOSIUM is to be held in Berlin in July. (Via Martin Lang on the Hugoye list.)

A RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD from the Second Temple era has been discovered in the City of David according to Arutz Sheva. There's not much detail at this point. (Via the Agade list.)

THE GULF COAST EXPLOREUM, which had a highly successful exhibition on the Dead Sea Scrolls last year, has a new exhibition coming on Pompeii:

Pompeii exhibition is coming in January
Sunday, June 25, 2006
By THOMAS B. HARRISON
Arts Editor (Mobile Register)

Mobile has heard the rumblings, but the molten lava really starts flowing in six months, when the Gulf Coast Exploreum opens "A Day in Pompeii."

The multimedia exhibition, replete with artifacts, a virtual tour and an IMAX movie, will be the Exploreum's third major international show in two years.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls" drew 205,000 visitors in 2005, and "Mummy: the inside story" might draw more than 90,000 before it closes July 31.

[...]

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS are now an advertising point for a Beaufort, SC, engineering company:

Local company helps protect ancient scrolls
BY JASON RYAN, The Beaufort Gazette
Published Sunday, June 25, 2006

BEAUFORT -- The Dead Sea Scrolls have been hardy enough to last more than 2,000 years, much of that time spent stashed in clay jars within a secluded cave in Qumran, Israel.

Beaufort Engineering Services has helped keep that survival streak going the past two years, creating climate-control systems for two museums that exhibited the prized ancient texts.

The company's most recent work was modifying heating and air systems for the Discovery Place in Charlotte, which hosted 10 of the scrolls and other artifacts from February to May.

[...]

WITH REFERENCE TO Manchester University's grant to digitize its Cairo Geniza collection, Manuscript Boy writes:

The article seems to say that the library has 30,000 fragments, all written by Maimonides.

Of course, this is a mistake. And I am sure that it was the journalist who misunderstood.

Actually it says 300,000 fragments, but he's right that it doesn't make any sense that all of them should belong to Maimonides. Curiously, I can't find any reference to the award at the website for Manchester's Centre for Jewish Studies or at the AHRC's awards listings website. The John Rylands University's web page on its Hebrew Manuscripts collection mentions "almost 10,600 [Geniza] fragments in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic," including "several autograph fragments of Maimonides." There must be some garbling in the article, but I'm not sure what the actual story is. If I see Philip Alexander at the International SBL Conference a week from now, I'll ask him.

Manuscript Boy goes on to tell an interesting anecdote about the Cairo Geniza and Maimonides, so have a look at his posting.

THE OLDEST STUDENT AT OXFORD is studying an interesting subject:

In a class of her own

Gertrud Seidmann finished her first degree in 1943. Today she is working towards another - at the age of 86. Laura Barton asks her about alcohol, archaeology and the appeal of academia

Friday June 23, 2006
The Guardian

Age has always been something of a matter of pride for Oxford University - it is, after all, the oldest university in the English-speaking world. But a tussle for the title of "Oxford's oldest student" began recently, when an article in the Daily Telegraph declared 78-year-old former High Court judge Sir Oliver Popplewell, currently an undergraduate at Harris Manchester College studying politics, philosophy and economics, to be the wearer of the crown. Erroneously, according to Professor Michael Vickers, of Jesus College. "I am the supervisor of Miss Gertrud Seidmann of Wolfson College," he wrote to correct the newspaper, "who is studying for a [higher degree] at the age of 86."

Indeed, since October 2004, Seidmann has been at Wolfson College pursuing an M Litt on the life and achievements of Greville Chester, a 19th-century clergyman "who became an assiduous traveller to Egypt and the near east, and an expert on archaeological artefacts which he collected for museums". ...

Among many other things, Rev. Chester acquired both Cairo Geniza fragments and Aramaic Elephantine papyri during his career. I hope I get the chance to read Miss Seidmann's M.Litt. dissertation.

EGYPTIAN BLOGGER ALAA is finally free. However, the administrative process of being released from police custody seems to have involved him getting beaten up a good bit. The Sandmonkey reported his release yesterday (scroll down to bottom of post and read the first part only if you want to feel sick), but I thought I would sit on it until I was sure it was true.

Many thanks to all those readers who wrote to the Egyptian Embassy or signed the petition.

THE JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA has a new issue out (15.3, May 2006). Here's the table of contents:

Siam Bhayro
Noah’s Library: Sources for 1 Enoch 6-11
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2006 15: 163-177.

Wayne Baxter
Noachic Traditions and the Book of Noah
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2006 15: 179-194.

Kristine J. Ruffatto
Polemics with Enochic Traditions in the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2006 15: 195-210.

David C. Mitchell
Firstborn Shor and Rem: A Sacrificial Josephite Messiah in 1 Enoch 90.37-38 and Deuteronomy 33.17
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2006 15: 211-228.

Basil Lourié
Book Review: Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha: Toward the Original of the Apocalypse of Abraham
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2006 15: 229-233.

James C. VanderKam
Book Review: On Earth as in Heaven: The Restoration of Sacred Time and Sacred Space in the Book of Jubilees
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2006 15: 233-237.

(Via Café Apocalypsis.)

THE COPTIC PAPYRI found recently at Al-Gurna near Luxor have been identified:

The Book of Isaiah under the sands of Egypt

(Science and Scholarship in Poland)

The archaeological mystery has been solved! The latest research shows that the manuscript found by Polish archaeologists in the village of Gourna (Sheikh abd el-Gourna) near Luxor in Upper Egypt contains the entire biblical book of Isaiah in the Coptic translation. “This is the first complete translation of this book in Coptic” – says Prof. Ewa Wipszycka-Bravo of the Institute of Archaeology at Warsaw University.

In February last year, Tomasz Górecki heading the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the Warsaw University mission in Gourna, made a unique find in the rubbish heap of a monastery. It consisted of two papyrus books in leather covers and a collection of parchment sheets bound by two bits of wood. This was the first discovery of Coptic manuscripts in Egypt since 1952, which are well preserved and supported by a well-researched archaeological context.


One of the books is the “Code of Pseudo-Basili” – the only preserved full text in Coptic, which is a collection of rules regulating Church life. The other contains the life of St. Pistentios, one of the Coptic bishops. Both texts date back to the 7th/8th centuries.

[...]

The Isaiah manuscript is dated to the ninth or tenth century and its binding includes fragments of a text called “The suffering of St. Peter.” This is reported to be the first complete Coptic manuscript of Isaiah to be recovered, although I wonder if that is correct. Maybe the first to be excavated? There is a complete Coptic Old Testament, isn't there?

(Via the Agade list.)

NEIL ALTMAN'S FELLOW "RESEARCHER" Peter W. Pick is profiled in the Petaluma Argus-Courier and comes up with predictable misinformation and conspiracy theorizing. Excerpt, with my comments interspersed:

Your research is leading you to believe that the Dead Sea Scrolls, or at least some of them, did not all come from the time originally proposed, which was 300 B.C., before the birth of Jesus. This is revolutionary?

The Dead Sea Scrolls are generally dated between the third-century BCE (not 300 BCE) and the first century CE on paleographical and radiocarbon-dating grounds

"Journals will not accept articles written about an alternative date for the scrolls. There's a conspiracy. Not only was the material kept away from the public for a long time, there is not an open and free discussion [now].

When crank research is rejected by peer-review journals, the crank response is to cry "conspiracy!" The simple fact of the matter is that the ideas Altman and co. are peddling are so poorly supported that they are not even in the ballpark of what is publishable in a serious journal. Hence their appearance in gullible newspapers instead.

What has your research shown? "The dating of all of the manuscripts is not pre-Christian, but has medieval, Middle Age indications or signs, everything from numbers to Masoretic vowels [in Hebrew] which only came in the fifth and sixth century, A.D. We're finding a lot of medieval material, whether it's numbers, foreign languages, or Masoretic vowels. That is the most important discovery we've made.

What we're pointing out is that these scrolls traveled, because they had foreign languages on them, and they traveled as far as central Asia, if not China, and had Chinese words on them.

For responses to these claims, go here and follow the many links in that post and the links in the linked-to posts. Briefly, no one who specializes in these areas accepts these claims and Altman is in the habit of publishing seriously distorted accounts of interviews with specialists to give the misleading impression that they do accept them.

The 800 or so manuscripts, all in relatively fragmentary condition, weren't just written in Hebrew, as Jewish scribes would write them. They had Aramaic in them, and also Greek and Arabic, and a number of other languages. And they were not all sacred texts, but had astrological information and so forth.

This is very misleading. Jewish scribes regularly wrote in Greek and Aramaic as well as Hebrew, in this period and long afterwards. They also wrote other things besides sacred texts (as one would expect) and some of them had some interest in astrology. Comments like these from the Altman circle are one of the best indicators that they don't know what they are talking about.

As for the Arabic, I believe that one or two much-later Arabic texts were found in the Judean Desert caves, but these are separate finds from the Dead Sea Scrolls. This may be what Pick is thinking of. Or it may just be made up. Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Hebrew, some in Aramaic, and a few in Greek.

And the caves, everyone thinks were just across from [the Qumran settlement, upon which the pre-Christianity dating is based]. But there were also caves four miles away that were put under that same rubric, and people still insisted that this was all a homogeneous collection.

I don't know what he is talking about here. According to this map of the Scroll-bearing cave sites, Cave 3 is the farthest away from the Qumran site, perhaps a mile and 1/8 north of it.

Now ideas have come up that this collection was put there to shelter it from the Roman attack of 70 A.D., and the destruction of the Second Temple, a repository, a safe place for texts, supposedly. That's not the accepted theory, that's the new one that finally braved its way, after 40 or 50 years, into the thinking of scholars."

This is not very clearly expressed, and is what most scholars actually think; that the people who lived at the site, perhaps with co-sectarians from elsewhere in Judea, hid the Scrolls in these caves in advance of the Roman invasion. But perhaps Pick is alluding in a very unclear way to Norman Golb's theory that the Scrolls come from literary archives in Jerusalem rather than from the inhabitants of the site of Qumran. Golb has been publishing this theory for many years, so it is hardly new. In any case, neither theory has anything to do with Altman and Pick's preposterous ideas about the medieval origin of the Scrolls. Their idea was in fact suggested in the early years after the Scrolls were discovered and it was properly discredited many decades ago.

Altman and his friends are making fools of a good many journalists and newspaper editors, who don't have sense enough to vet their claims independently with real specialists.

LEONARD GREENSPOON ponders different English translations of Numbers 13-14 in The Forward.

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE! I've been celebrating, as is my wont, by reading by sunlight in our living room until just a few minutes ago. I have a cold and am not in top form, so I think I'll turn in soon.

PALESTINIAN DENIAL of Jewish historical connections with Jerusalem is discussed in the Jerusalem Post (appeared first in the New York Sun?) by Daniel Pipes ("What Jewish ties to Jerusalem?"). Excerpt:

Palestinians now claim that Canaanites built Solomon's Temple, that the ancient Hebrews were Bedouin tribesmen, the Bible came from Arabia, the Jewish Temple "was in Nablus or perhaps Bethlehem," the Jewish presence in Palestine ended in C.E. 70, and today's Jews are descendants from the Khazar Turks.

Yasser Arafat himself created a non-existent Canaanite king, Salem, out of thin air, speaking movingly about this fantasy Palestinian "forefather."

Palestinian Media Watch sums up this process: By turning Canaanites and Israelites into Arabs and the Judaism of ancient Israel into Islam, the Palestinian Authority "takes authentic Jewish history, documented by thousands of years of continuous literature, and crosses out the word 'Jewish' and replaces it with the word 'Arab.'"

The political implication is clear: Jews lack any rights to Jerusalem. As a street banner puts it: "Jerusalem is Arab." Jews are unwelcome.

He traces the phenomenon back to the early 1990s. I've been watching it closely here for the last few years. It is held more widely in the Muslim Arab world than just among the Palestinians. See, for example, my posts on the same propaganda coming from the UAE and the Egyptian Government. But it does seem now to be the official line of the Palestinian Authority, which does not provide a very constructive starting point for serious negotiations with the Israelis.

I have discussed the historical evidence for the Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount here and here.

EGYPTIAN BLOGGER ALAA is reportedly about to be released from prison. I was just thinking it was about time to e-mail the Egyptian Embassy again, but now, with luck, it won't be necessary. I'll celebrate when he's actually free, but this sounds like very good news. Apparently all those who were arrested with him have already been freed.

AN OWNERSHIP DISPUTE has arisen over the Tomb of the Kings in East Jerusalem:

Doubt cast on French ownership of J'lem's Tomb of the Kings
By MICHAEL FREUND (Jerusalem Post

An essay appearing in the latest issue of a prominent Israeli journal raises new questions about the ownership of the Tomb of the Kings, an ancient Jewish holy site in east Jerusalem which has been under French control for 120 years.

The paper, which appears in Et-mol, a bimonthly periodical of the Yad Ben-Zvi Institute, was authored by Eyal Ben-Eliyahu of Hebrew University's Department of the History of the Jewish People. It cites an array of new evidence indicating that France's acquisition of the site in 1886 may not have been fully legal.

[...]

Located on Salah a-Din Street, the Tomb of the Kings dates back to the Second Temple period. It is considered the largest burial ground in Jerusalem, and includes a huge courtyard adjoining an entrance to several underground chambers.

According to the Jewish historian Josephus, it was built by Queen Helen of Adiabene in Kurdistan, who converted to Judaism along with her family and then moved to the Land of Israel.

Historians believe that it later served as a burial site for the queen and her offspring. Jewish tradition, however, identifies it as the grave of either Nakdimon ben-Gurion, a prominent Jerusalemite, or Kalba Savua, the father-in-law of Talmudic sage Rabbi Akiva, both of whom lived at the time of the Roman occupation over nineteen centuries ago.

[...]

Read it all for the details of the dispute.

UPDATES: I have updated posts from Saturday and Thursday. The latter includes a correction. Please have a look.

JUDAISM OR JUDAISMS? Mark Goodacre writes, in part:

Is it just me or is there something rather annoying about the trend over the last twenty years or so to talk about early Christianity as "Christianities" and early Judaism as "Judaisms"? I must admit that I am hoping that this is going to prove to be just a fad and something that we will look back on in twenty years time as an odd terminological aberration that characterized a particular kind of scholarship at the turn of the millennium.

I understand, of course, the anxiety people feel about attempting to convey just how varied Judaism and Christianity were in this period, and it is natural to want to stretch language norms when one is examining emerging Judaism and Christian origins. But I can't help feeling that there is nothing helpful, interesting or insightful about this particular terminological oddity. If the variety of Christianity is not properly understood as "Christianity", then I don't see how calling it "a" Christianity in any way advances the discussion. It is either a variety of Christianity that might legitimately be described as a variety of Christianity, or it is not. Calling it "a" Christianity simply doesn't change anything. Likewise Judaism.

These are all good points. I think Neusner, who seems to have originated this usage, was trying to come to terms with a legitimate difficulty: the varieties of Judaism are so varied that sometimes it seems that some seem to have scarcely anything in common with some others, leading one to wonder what it is that makes them all Judaism. Nevertheless, I think he overcompensates. The fact that he uses the plural implies that there is some connection between the forms of Judaism, no matter how varied, and this requires explanation and description.

My favored solution is to apply Jonathan Z. Smith's "polythetic" approach to Judaism, which I summarized in a 2002 conference paper that you can read in full here:

In short, we come to an impasse: a "monothetic" definition of common Judaism in antiquity does not seem to work. That is, no definition of Judaism based on a sine qua non or core essence can be formulated. But Jonathan Z. Smith, in his article, "Fences and Neighbors: Some Contours of Early Judaism," has pointed to a way forward.[10] He proposes that classification of religions should follow a "polythetic" rather than a monothetic approach. Polythetic classification is an idea borrowed from biology. Rather than attempting to find an essence common to every member, it is based on a broad grouping of characteristics or properties. A member of the class being defined must have many of these characteristics, but no single characteristic is possessed by every member. Most members share characteristics with many other members, but some members have nothing in common with others. There will also be some borderline cases, which have a few of the characteristics but not enough to justify accepting these cases as members of the class. With a polythetic classification, the best we can do is to look for some general trends shared in antiquity by many or most Jews. Some important ones would include: worship of the God of Israel alone; acceptance of certain books as Jewish scriptures given as revelation by this God; the following of Jewish customs, laws, and rituals; participation in or support of the Temple cult in Jerusalem; self-identification with the Jewish nation; membership in and acceptance by a particular Jewish community; and acceptance of Palestine as the holy land. One can perhaps reasonably speak of a "common Judaism" and frequently shared elements, but there is no sine qua non. Some types of Judaism, notably the Enochic form, had very little overlap with common Judaism.

Mark continues in the same post quoted above:

And is it not the case that Christianity is far more diverse today than it was in the first two centuries? Many Christians within particular traditions do not recognise those in other competing traditions as Christians; there are Christian sects that are not called Christian by their founders; there are Christian sects that are not called Christian by their critics. We have every possible variety of belief and practice within contemporary global Christianity yet we don't feel the need to use the term Christianities. And likewise Judaism. Why, then, do we feel it necessary for the early centuries?

Again, all true. Superficially, Christianity seems to have a more obvious center than Judaism, because Jesus is centrally important to it. But on a closer look, people who consider themselves Christians often have disagreed widely (and violently) about who Jesus actually was and why he is important. A polythetic approach can be useful here as well.

In addition, as is becoming more and more widely recognized, the dividing line between Christianity and Judaism was very fuzzy to begin with and there was considerable overlap for a long time. And even after the "parting of the ways" Christians and Jews continued to talk to each other and influence each other from antiquity to the present. In all these cases there are continuums of variation rather than sharp demarcations.

For much more on all this, see the first chapter of my book The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha: Jewish, Christian, or Other? (link above in the right-hand sidebar).

ELAINE PAGELS is doing a three-part lecture series on The Da Vinci Code in Portland. She is quoted with this interesting positive take on the book:

"What is compelling about Brown's work of fiction, and part of what may be worrying Catholic and evangelical leaders, is not the book's many falsehoods," Pagels told the San Jose Mercury News this spring.

"What has kept Brown on the best-seller list for years and inspired a movie is, instead, what is true -- that some views of Christian history were buried for centuries because leaders of the early Catholic Church wanted to present one view of Jesus' life: theirs."

I suspect there is a certain amount of slanting or misunderstanding of the first lecture, since Pagels is made to appear something of a Gnostic herself:

Pagels and others have come to interpret the Nag Hammadi texts as "advanced-level teaching" that Jesus communicated to a select group of disciples.

"In the Gospel of Thomas, there's a passage that says 'these are the secret words of Jesus,' things he said privately," said the scholar, who threads her speeches with examples from the gnostic gospels as well as Luke, John, Matthew and Mark.

I don't know of anyone who actually thinks that the Gospel of Thomas has secret teachings delivered to select discipes, although that's what it claims. Much of the material, after all, overlaps with the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Some scholars do think that the basic work goes back to the first century, and perhaps somewhat more scholars (but still by no means all) think that, whatever its date, it contains Jesus traditions that were transmitted independently of the Synoptics.

Finally, here is her view (at least as the reporter understood it) on early orthodox Christianity:

Irenaeus and Athanasius declared all other gospels to be heresy -- a Greek word that means choice. "That is something the leaders did not think people should have," the scholar said wryly.

Irenaeus deemed the gnostic authors "evil interpreters" and ordered their works to be found and destroyed.

"It took 200 years to get rid of them," Pagels said, a campaign finally concluded when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and church leaders had "police power behind them."

But the monks of St. Pachomius escaped the religious dragnet. They gathered the forbidden, leather-bound gospels, put them in a clay vessel and buried them in the hills.

For centuries, Christians believed the sanitized versions of Jesus's teachings.

"When I went to graduate school, I had this fantasy of early Christianity, what really happened back then, as the Golden Age, unified, simple and pure," Pagels said. "A kind of play Bibleland."

The author, who speaks and writes with respect for both history and faith, said she can understand why Irenaeus and Athanasius did what they did.

"They were facing brutal persecution," she said. "I'm grateful that they preserved Christianity."

LITERACY IN IRON-AGE JUDAH: This is a thoughtful and intriguing, if speculative, article in Haaretz which applies reader-response criticism to key texts in the Hebrew Bible. I'll excerpt a little to give you the flavor, but do read it all.

A literary circle in Judah
By Yaacov Shavit

Modern scriptural research deals, among other subjects, with the questions of the modes of writing and methods of redaction and editing of the books of the Bible, on the one hand, and with the sources the authors availed themselves of, on the other hand. More recently this research has also focused on the questions of what need prompted the writing of the books, who their readers were and how they read them.

[...]

Even if we assume that a few copies of the Deuteronomist composition existed, this is a work whose complexity can be grasped only by individual reading, which was not customary in the ancient world (in Greece, for example, it did not start before the fifth century B.C.E. ). Even if we assume that in Judah individual reading began earlier, it is clear that such a reader does not resemble an author, who draws for his work on earlier sources and conducts a conscious dialogue with them. A contemporaneous individual reader could read only five or six lines and would find it very difficult to read ahead or refer back - as could be done in later generations in the codex.

For this reader to grasp the intertextual connections which are found by readers of later periods, he would have had to reread the entire text. Moreover, to identify parallels to and passages borrowed from the different books, or a later commentary on early books - the reader would have had to be in possession of all of them. Individual reading of this kind and the realization of the text in this form are like the expositor and exegete of later generations, or of readers and researchers of recent generations, but were certainly not available to a reader of the First Temple period. That reader did not reread the texts in order to decipher properly their secrets and their intertextual relations, and he did not approach the books equipped with sophisticated techniques and theories about reading and interpretation.

It seems likely, then, that if the authors and editors of the Deuteronomist text wished to imbue the public of Judah with a common consciousness of the past, they could easily have found a more effective and simpler way, and would not have created a text meant only for the cognoscenti. Certainly they would not have made do with a small group of ideal readers who were capable of appreciating the modes of textual shaping, the stratagems, the parallels, the refinements and the contradictions between different and distant literary units, or the rhetorical devices and the existing overt and covert polemic that informed the text.

What we have is a wonderful and singular phenomenon: A large disparity existed between the rare quality of the scriptural work and the reading public for which it was in theory intended at the time of its composition, but which it could not reach. If so, it is impossible not to wonder whether the Deuteronomist composition (and not only it) was not written for its time, but with thought for future generations, and whether it indeed became the formative text of the consciousness of the past only generations after the return to Zion and not "in the present" - that is, in the First Temple period. It was only then that the people of Israel became a community of the book; that is, a community whose world is constructed and shaped by one compilation of texts, which became a "book."

[...]

UPDATE (19 June): Duane Smith comments at Abnormal Interests.

UPDATE: My colleague Richard Bauckham e-mails:

About the piece by Shavit on your blog - It is possible for literature to be written to work on more than one level. A very clear case seems to me the Book of Revelation, which itself implies it is to be read aloud to a group of people, but which has all kinds of intricate cross-referencing, biblical allusion and so forth. It is an exquisitely detailed composition packed with meaning. I suppose that a listening audience could make something of it, and a local skilled exegete would explain more of it to them, but then it must also be meant for Christian prophets or exegetes who would study it in the way the author himself studied the OT prophets.

Deuteronomy would not be unintelligible to a listening audience (which would be anaudience trained to listen) but would also offer more to those who might study it.

MOSHE DAYAN, the Israeli general, is accused of decades of archaeological looting in an A.P. article:

Dayan is accused in antiquities plunder
AMY TEIBEL
Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Stunning military victories made Israeli general Moshe Dayan an iconic figure on the international stage, but his reputation for looting antiquities is little known outside the country where his myth was born.

Across three decades until his death in 1981, Dayan, of the trademark eye patch, established a vast collection of antiquities acquired through illicit excavations. He also traded in archaeological finds in Israel and abroad, antiquities experts say.

"Moshe Dayan didn't deal in archaeology. He dealt in antiquities plundering," said Uzi Dahari, deputy director of the Israel Antiquities Authority. "He was a criminal. He knew he was breaking the law. He knew that all his activity was against the law, and he did it nevertheless."

[...]

The piece refers to an article in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures which you can read here or download as a PDF file here. This is the abstract:

Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 4: Article 5 (2003)

Raz Kletter, A Very General Archaeologist - Moshe Dayan and Israeli Archaeology

Abstract

This article is a preliminary investigation of three decades of robbery, collection and trade in antiquities by General Moshe Dayan, perhaps Israel’s most famous commander and politician. In trying to separate facts from the many rumors that follow his name, this contribution is mainly based on written sources, some never published before. They prove that, since 1951, Dayan was involved in large-scale robbery of antiquities in dozens of sites in Israel and the occupied territories. Dayan used army equipment and personnel for robbery and transfer of antiquities; established a vast collection of stolen and bought antiquities, and exchanged and sold antiquities in Israel and abroad. He became a negative model for others and damaged the cause of Israeli archaeology as a whole. Although Dayan was caught in person at least four times during robbery, he was never brought to justice. After his death, his collection was sold by his widow to the Israel Museum for 1 million US$. Though Dayan’s activities are a sort of a known secret in Israel, they were never investigated from an archaeological perspective. Many facts remain unknown since they appear in remote Hebrew sources, hence writers about Dayan, including some of his biographers, often follow the wrong, romantic view of him as the ‘good guy’- a sort of an Israeli Robin Hood that fights stupid bureaucracy and social rules. This article brings a representative sample of Dayan’s deeds and tries to evaluate them and to ask how they were possible, and what has changed since those “good old days”.

POPE'S SERMON ON ST. ANDREW: Not strictly relevant for PaleoJudaica, but since I live in St. Andrews I notice these things. The Pope preached a sermon a couple of days ago on "St. Andrew, the First Called."

ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE has published its July/August 2006 issue. Highlights include "Seductions of Pseudoarchaeology: Pseudoscience in Cyberspace," by Kristin M. Romey, and "Untold Stories," by AIA President Jane C. Waldbaum. The latter explains how important contextual information is lost when artifacts are looted, and why it matters.

OKAY, NOW IT IS OFFICIAL:

Egypt: Da Vinci Code based on Zionist myths

Authorities to confiscate copies of best-selling novel, ban film based on book from showing in Egypt
Reuters

Egyptian authorities will confiscate copies of the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code and ban the film based on the book from showing in Egypt, the culture minister told parliament on Tuesday.

To applause from members of parliament, minister Farouk Hosni said: "We ban any book that insults any religion... we will confiscate this book."

[...]

Georgette Sobhi, a Coptic member, held up a copy of the book and the Arabic translation and said it contained material which was seriously offensive.

"It's based on Zionist myths, and it contains insults towards Christ, and it insults the Christian religion and Islam," she said.

[...]

Given the persecution her own community has suffered, I would think Ms. Sobhi would think twice before spouting anti-Semitic nonsense like this. The Da Vinci Code is silly and annoyingly -- even offensively -- ignorant, but it can hardly be accused of containing "Zionist myths." As for insults to Christianity, Islam, or whatever, I refer the Egyptian MPs to the "sticks and stones" principle. In a civilized society freedom of religion and freedom of speech include the right to criticize and even insult people's cherished beliefs of any kind. Otherwise, it's not worth much. Related reflections here.

UPDATE (16 June): The Sandmonkey has a rant on the subject. And Ben Witherington notes that the film is now banned in China - after a highly successful three-week run! I wonder if this means that The Da Vinci Code will be disappeared from Google China.

SUPERMAN AS CHRIST-FIGURE: The new movie is reviving theological reflection on the Superman myth. CNN gets the prize for the best headline for this A.P. piece:

Jesus Christ Superman
Superman seen in many ways through eyes of beholders -- us

Wednesday, June 14, 2006; Posted: 11:44 a.m. EDT (15:44 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- First there were the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Now, for many Christian moviegoers comes another gospel.

As the hype machine shifts into high gear for the upcoming release of "Superman Returns," some are reading deeply into the film whose hero returns from a deathlike absence to play savior to the world.

"It is so on the nose that anyone who has not caught on that Superman is a Christ figure, you think, 'Who else could it be referring to?' " said Steve Skelton, who wrote a book examining parallels between Superman and Christ.

[...]

Mark Goodacre comments on the article here.

This reminds me a little of James K. Brower hilarious article "The Hebrew Origins of Superman," published in Biblical Archaeology Review 5.3, May/June 1979, p. 23-26. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be online.

UPDATE (16 June): Christopher Heard summarizes the BAR article over at Higgaion.

THE HERPES-CIRCUMCISION SCARE has led New York State to intervene:

State Issues Guidelines for Metziza B'peh

By: Jewish Press Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

After months of discussion, Orthodox rabbis and New York State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello signed a protocol on Monday that will regulate mohels’ use of metzizah b’peh.

[...]

More details at Philly.com.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Al Aqsa official: Jewish temples existed
Says proof passed down over the centuries by mosque custodians
Posted: June 14, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Contradicting most of his colleagues, a former senior leader of the Waqf, the Islamic custodians of the Temple Mount, told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview he has come to believe the first and second Jewish Temples existed and stood at the current location of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

The leader, who was dismissed from his Waqf position after he quietly made his beliefs known, said Al Aqsa custodians passed down stories for centuries from generation to generation indicating the mosque was built at the site of the former Jewish temples.

He said the Muslim world's widespread denial of the existence of the Jewish temples is political in nature and is not rooted in facts.

[...]

Well, his evidence doesn't amount to much, but he did come to the right conclusion. Sigh.

(With the usual caveats about the reliability of WND. I haven't seen any cross-verification.)

UPDATE (19 June): Menachem Brody e-mails:

I feel the need to mention again that this is not correct:

The Temples stood at the site that today is partially covered by the Dome of the Rock, in the raised center of the Temple Mount. Al Aksa is built (intentionally) on the Southern addition to the Temple Mount which was added by Herod. The seam of the added Herodian stones is clearly seen near the South-East corner of the Eastern Wall of the Mount.

This is very important to emphasize- since there in NO conflict of location between the Holiest site of Judaism, and the Mosque which is important to Islam. In other words- the Temple can be rebuilt without moving, damaging or impeding access to the Mosque. People who obscure this fact continue to cause senseless bloodshed.

I'm no expert on the topography of the Temple Mount, so I hesitate to say much. But it does seem clear that the Jewish Temples could not have stood at the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and I should have caught that. I guess I was so taken aback at the idea of someone in the Waqf acknowledging that the Temples stood on the Temple Mount that I didn't read the rest carefully. Sorry.

It is much less clear, at least to me, where the Temples stood in relation to the Dome of the Rock, which is also extremely important to Islam and could not be moved for any hypothetical construction projects. In any case, for reasons explained here, I am quite opposed to any further building on the Temple Mount even if it were politically possible.

THE SITE OF BABYLON was the subject of a 30-minute program on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday:

The Battle for Babylon
Sunday 11 June 2006 13:30-14:00 (Radio 4 FM)

The site of the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon lies only about 70km south of Baghdad where recent events have created a threat to its survival. Used as a base camp by military forces, there are reports of serious damage to the archaeological remains.

Jonathan Charles attempts to make the dangerous journey to find out what has happened to Babylon.

At the moment you can still listen to it online, but it won't be there permanently, so don't dawdle if you're interested.

Although Charles doesn't make it to the site, one of his colleagues get to the adjacent village and we get to hear people grumble because they can't hold wedding parties on the archaeological site anymore.

More seriously, the accusations that the US Army behaved irresponsibly while occupying the site are treated at some length and an Army representative replies to them. Basically he says that (1) the damage by looters would have been far worse if they hadn't occupied the site and (2) all the activities (e.g., filling sandbags with debris) were done in consultation with antiquity authorities (it's not clear to me who exactly they were). The program also deals with the importance of the site for history and the damage done to it by Saddam.

Not to wear the point out but, as in the post below, wouldn't it have been more constructive to have had regular (daily or more frequent) helicopter flyovers of the site, from which vantage the army could have doused the looters with refined putrescine water-balloons or aerosol? It would not do any permanent harm to the looters or the site, but it makes a horrific stench and would make looting a highly undesirable occupation and probably also would make looters easy to identify for the next day or two. I'm quite serious, and would like to know if there is some reason this wouldn't work. The problem of the looting of archaeological sites is a massive international one and it seems to me that it calls for a little thinking outside the box.

(Via Chuck Jones on the IraqCrisis list.)

"SMART DUST" may have been used to track down Zarqawi. David Nishimura suggests another creative use for it over at Cronaca.

I still think my putrescine proposal could have helped the latter problem a lot over the last few years. The BBC even lists it as a crowd dispersal measure here.

ARMY OF PHILOLOGISTS WATCH -- Another British university has received a major grant to digitize its Cairo Geniza fragments and make them available online:

Scientists to reassemble Maimonides' works

By SARAH BALL
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

LONDON -- Scientists at a British university hope to use digital technology in reassembling some 300,000 tiny fragments of an 800-year-old Jewish philosopher's oeuvre.

The University of Manchester's Center for Jewish Studies is reassembling the life works of Moses Maimonides, a scholar and writer whose findings were hugely influential on modern Judaic thought.

A British government grant of $670,000 will fund the center's use of digital imaging software, a crucial aid in piecing the hundreds of documents back together.

Maimonides worked as a physician, lawyer and scientist in the Middle Ages, project leader Philip Alexander said. His writings were obtained from a medieval document storeroom - called a "genizah" - discovered in a Cairo synagogue.

[...]

There's a nice photo of a manuscript too and the caption adds some important details:

In this photo released by the University of Manchester, England Tuesday June 13, 2006 is seen a fragment of a manuscript which scholars at the university hope to use digital technology on to help reassemble a 300,000-piece puzzle from tiny fragments of the works of the medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides.The University of Manchester's Center for Jewish Studies is reassembling the life works of Moses Maimonides, a scholar and writer who died eight centures ago, and whose work was hugely influential on modern Judaic thought. A 361,000-pound grant (US $670,000, 530,000) from Britain's Arts and Humanities Research Council will fund the center's use of digital imaging software, a crucial aid in piecing the hundreds of documents back together. Maimonides was one of the greatest minds Judaism ever produced, and worked as a physician, lawyer and scientist in the Middle Ages, project leader Philip Alexander said.

Congratulations to the University of Manchester!

Cambridge University has also received an AHRC grant to digitize its Cairo Geniza collection.

UPDATE (25 June): Manuscript Boy points out that this number of fragments can't all be by Maimonides. More here. Curious.

YESTERDAY'S MASADA POST has been updated [later -- now twice]. To read it, scroll down or click here.

iBOOK UPDATE: Last night I got an e-mail from Apple saying that service had been completed and that the computer was "on its way." And this morning the website says "Product shipped (13-Jun-2006)." So far, so good.

UPDATE (1:27 pm): It's here! That was fast. Now, if (1) it works and (2) it continues to work, we'll be all set.

EPHRAIM ISAAC, the translator of 1 Enoch in the Charlesworth Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, is profiled by the Princeton Packet:

Scholar seeks world peace through understanding of languages

Only through communication will there be peace. And only with language will there be communication. So Ephraim Isaac has dedicated his life to both causes — peace and languages.

[...]

Mr. Isaac first came to Princeton in 1979 as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and later became a visiting professor at Princeton University, where he taught the university's first Swahili class.
After serving as an educator at various universities — in 1969, he helped establish Harvard University's first African-American studies program, and has taught at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Lehigh University, the University of Pennsylvania and others — he said he was motivated to establish the institute after noticing a gap in the study of Semitic languages.
"They are actually overlooked," he said, adding that often when they are taught, it is "in a very superficial way."
Originally from Ethiopia, Mr. Isaac said he has been captivated by language as far back as he can remember.

[...]

CHALDO-ASSYRIAN WATCH:

Assyria: Assyrians Demonstrate in Washington, D.C.
(UNPO, Netherlands)

A united Chaldo Assyrian Suryani front confronted the Iraqi government on its latest resolution to eliminate what the Assyrian Democratic Movement has worked for more than 27 years to establish, which is to be recognized as equal citizens, among other minorities in Iraq. Reminder... 'Al Rafidain' - Slate #740 won two consequtive elections in Iraq's primary election, electing Mr. Younadam Kanna, Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, as their representative in Iraq's National Parliamant. Today, by dismissing the word Assyrian, Chaldean, and even Syriac, the Iraqi government has moved to recognize these minorities as Christians only, by extension stripping them from their national identity and eliminating their legislation powers from the Iraqi parliamant, hence their ability to play an integral role in Iraq's law making processes.

[...]

UNESCO ON ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS:

Maintenance of ancient manuscripts and their transmission to future generations is duty of all – President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation
Source: Trend
Author: S.Agayeva
12.06.2006

The maintenance of ancient manuscripts and their transmission to future generations is the duty of all, MP Mehriban Aliyeva, the President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, UNESCO’s Good Will Ambassador, stated in Baku on 12 June to the opening ceremony of the international conference on “Medicine and Pharmaceutics in the medieval manuscripts”. ...

Amen.

EDOMITES IN THE NEWS: This story has been around for a while, but the New York Times gives a good overview here.

In a Ruined Copper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: June 13, 2006

[...]

The findings, Dr. Levy and Dr. Najjar added, lend credence to biblical accounts of the rivalry between Edom and the Israelites in what was then known as Judah. By extension, they said, this supported the tradition that Judah itself had by the time of David and Solomon, in the early 10th century, emerged as a kingdom with ambition and the means of fighting off the Edomites.

The Hebrew Bible mentioned the Edomites no fewer than 99 times. In Genesis, Esau, Jacob's twin brother, is described as the ancestor of the Edomites, and a reference is made to "the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites." Dr. Levy said this statement showed that the Israelites acknowledged Edom's early political development.

In the context, Dr. Levy and Dr. Najjar wrote, "the biblical references to the Edomites, especially their conflicts with David and subsequent Judahite kings, garner a new plausibility."

Historians and archaeologists who generally endorse the new findings welcomed the more precise dating of ruins in the under-explored region and the attention focused on copper production in Edomite history. But they cautioned against interpretations that might encourage uncritical reliance on the Bible as a source of early history.

Most criticism has come from advocates of a "low chronology" or "minimalist" school of early biblical history. They contend that in David's time Edom was a pastoral society, and Judah not much more advanced. In this view, ancient Israel did not develop into a true state until the eighth century B.C., a century and a half after David.

[...]

JAMES OSSUARY WATCH: Further to Hershel Shanks's' Forgery Bombshell annoucement last month, Mr. Shanks now has an article ("Krumbein's bombshell") covering the same ground in greater detail in the Jerusalem Post. Excerpt:

Faced with this evidence, defendant's counsel consulted Prof. Steve Weiner, director of the Kimmel Center for Archeological Science of the Weizmann Institute for a recommendation as to a scientific expert. Defense counsel wanted the world's most reliable expert in stone patinas. Weiner recommended Professor Wolfgang E. Krumbein of Oldenberg University, Germany.

Krumbein has 15 books and over 400 scientific articles to his credit. He has been a visiting professor at a number of universities, including Harvard, and has engaged in several post-doctorate research projects at Hebrew University.

A copy of Krumbein's report has now been published on the Web site of the Biblical Archaeology Society (www.biblicalarchaeology.org), and it is devastating to the prosecution.

Krumbein found that the patina inside the inscription could not have formed in less than 50 years. Thus, if the inscription is a forgery, it was forged at least 50 years ago.

He also strongly criticizes the IAA team that concluded that the patina was fake.

I assume Professor Krumbein will be testifying in the trial and this will be interesting. But I still don't think the discussion on the James Ossuary is going to get anywhere in the long run unless it moves to the peer-review journals. At that point, if it happens, I shall take a greater interest in it. The popular press is not a serious venue for debating such things.

CHALLENGING THE MASADA NARRATIVE: The History News Network has an essay by Australian freelance writer Kim Stubbs which asks "Is the Truth About Masada Less Romantic?". The answer to this sort of question is almost inevitably yes. In the essay she summarizes recent challenges to the traditional understanding of the story. Excerpt:

There are many apparent anomalies in the Masada story, and many of these can be traced to Yigael Yadin and his interpretation of the archaeological remains. Although a revered figure in Israel, he has been accused of interpreting his finds to fit with the heroic mythos of Masada. As to his motives for doing this, [Nachman] Ben-Yehuda suggests “nationalistic, ideological motivation played a very major part in the decision to excavate Masada”. 12 He also argues that a nation needs myths to help it “shape a central process of nation and state-building….to shape identities and create cohesion by fostering a strong sense of a shared past”. 13 This is particularly true of Israel at the time of Yadin’s dig. Less than two decades old and surrounded on all sides by enemies dedicated to her destruction, Israel needed “a new type of Jew, somebody that was willing to fight and die for his own country”. 14 Yadin interpreted the events at Masada in a way that provided the requisite role model.

Wherever the truth lies, the Masada story still resonates strongly today both as an enduring symbol of the Jewish state’s struggle for existence and of human courage in the face of insurmountable opposition. ...

I have noted reviews of Ben-Yehuda's book Sacrificing Truth: Archaeology and the Masada Myth here. And there's a summary of the book by Ben-Yehuda himself at the Bible and Interpretation website. (I seem not to have noted this before.) I have posted some comments on the Sicarii here and here. I do think it's troubling that the heroic understanding of the Masada story which has developed in Israel is based on the actions of the Sicarii, whom Josephus presents as unsavory characters indeed. See especially Jewish War 4.7.2:

And now a fourth misfortune arose, in order to bring our nation to destruction. There was a fortress of very great strength not far from Jerusalem, which had been built by our ancient kings, both as a repository for their effects in the hazards of war, and for the preservation of their bodies at the same time. It was called Masada. Those that were called Sicarii had taken possession of it formerly, but at this time they overran the neighboring countries, aiming only to procure to themselves necessaries; for the fear they were then in prevented their further ravages. But when once they were informed that the Roman army lay still, and that the Jews were divided between sedition and tyranny, they boldly undertook greater matters; and at the feast of unleavened bread, which the Jews celebrate in memory of their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage, when they were sent back into the country of their forefathers, they came down by night, without being discovered by those that could have prevented them, and overran a certain small city called Engaddi:--in which expedition they prevented those citizens that could have stopped them, before they could arm themselves, and fight them. They also dispersed them, and cast them out of the city. As for such as could not run away, being women and children, they slew of them above seven hundred. Afterward, when they had carried every thing out of their houses, and had seized upon all the fruits that were in a flourishing condition, they brought them into Masada. And indeed these men laid all the villages that were about the fortress waste, and made the whole country desolate; while there came to them every day, from all parts, not a few men as corrupt as themselves.

My bold-font emphasis.

UPDATE (13 June): Stuart Bornstein e-mails:

Why is Josephus a reliable source. Not for the facts on the ground but as to whether the people where Sicarii. That stands alone on his say so. He wrote if I am not mistaken as a guest of the Romans. Would he really have called them wonderful freedom fighters? Would the Romans have stood for that? How do we know that the Romans didn't commit the massacre at Ein Geddi.

As far as Yigal Yadin went, The complaints say that he was trying to install a nationalistic ideological motivation. Come on even if he was wrong; and there have been years to reevaluate the evidence, he could just have made a mistake. That is if he made a mistake. And exaggerations are not the same as mistakes because that would imply that the numbers are as precise as modern statistics, etc. when there are only guesses. Some better some worse.

Last but not least the exaggerations noted were in 2 speeches 10 years apart - 1964-1973. If everyone's words would be parsed to that extent, there would be few people who would not look like a fool.

As I have said elsewhere in print, Josephus is tendentious, self-serving, and frequently self-contradictory. But in this context it cuts both ways. The Sicarii and Josephus' portrayal of them are so closely bound up in his account of the events on Masada that it would be very difficult to separate the two. There are plenty of reasons to doubt the details of his account of the fall of Masada and it's possible that his account of the Sicarii is inaccurate too (although I know of know evidence for the latter and haven't seen it argued anywhere). But the question is not how do we know the Romans didn't do it, but what is the evidence that they did. What is the evidence for a different understanding of the Sicarii?

My point was that the account of Masada in popular culture draws on Josephus' story to make the defenders look like heroes, yet ignores the elements in that same story which make them look like murderous thugs. Granted, we should be cautious about imposing our standards on people who lived in antiquity in a much more violent and cruel world, but if Josephus is accurate, the Sicarii don't come off well even if we make such allowances. In any case, I think the selectivity of the modern popular version, which is not based on any critical sifting of the sources, is troubling.

Regarding Yadin, those who followed the links in this post will see that I have already noted that Ben-Yehuda has been taken to task for impugning Yadin's character. I haven't studied this whole issue enough to have a strong opinion about the matter, but I'd say in his book on Masada Yadin seems sincere, if sometimes too enthusiastic about getting the archaeological evidence to fit with Josephus. This is an occupational hazard we all face.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Pitkowsky e-mails:

A very good treatment of the "Masada Myth" in Israeli culture is Yael Zerubavel's book /Recovered Roots/.

NATFHE BOYCOTT CANCELED:

Academic boycott of Israel cancelled
By TALYA HALKIN (Jerusalem Post)

The boycott of Israeli academics approved last month by members of NATFHE (National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education), Britain's largest academic trade union, expired on Sunday, following the union's merger with the AUT (Association of University Teachers), Britain's second academic trade union, into a new union called the UCU.

On May 29, NAFHE members voted to boycott Israeli lecturers and academic institutions that do not publicly declare their opposition to Israeli policy in the territories. The following day, the AUT announced that it did not endorse the NATFHE resolution and advised its members not to implement it.

In an official statement on its site, the AUT warned that "This tactic is fraught with difficulties and dangers and should not be followed by AUT members."

[...]

No kidding. Nevertheless, the anti-Israel ideologues got to make their pathetic little statement and they didn't care how much damage they did to the reputation of the union. Good riddance for now, but I'm sure we haven't seen the last of them. That's okay. They haven't seen the last of us either.

ANCIENT ASTRONOMICAL COMPUTER -- This is too cool not to note:

Ancient Astronomy Artifact Bears Hidden Text
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

June 8, 2006— A shoebox-sized bronze device scooped out of a Roman-era shipwreck at the dawn of the 20th century has baffled scientists for years. Now a British researcher has stunningly established it as the world's oldest surviving astronomy computer.

A team of Greek and British scientists probing the secrets of the artifact, known as the Antikythera Mechanism, has managed to decipher ancient Greek inscriptions unseen for over 2,000 years, members of the project say.

"Part of the text on the machine, over 1,000 characters, had already been deciphered, but we have succeeded in doubling this total," said physician Yiannis Bitsakis.

Bitsakis is part of a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from universities in Athens, Salonika and Cardiff, the Athens National Archaeological Museum and the Hewlett-Packard company.

"We have now deciphered 95 percent of the text," he told AFP.

[...]

No word on what the inscription says. There's a conference coming up in November on the Mechanism. The website is at http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr. And here's a site on the object from the American Mathematical Society.

Incidentally, here's an interesting essay by Meir Bar-Ilan on "Astronomy and Astrology Among the Jews in Antiquity." I wonder if the Enochian astronomers would approve or disapprove of the Antikythera Mechanism.

(Via Archaeologica News.)

AREN MAEIR is June's Blogger of the Month at the Biblioblogs blog. His blog is The Official (and Unofficial) Weblog of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavations.

MORE INFORMATION on the upcoming Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in Kansas city:

Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit here could sell out, sponsors say
By: Rick Hellman, Editor June 09, 2006 (Kansas City Jewish Chronicle)

One way or another, the Dead Sea Scrolls involve salvation.

When it was formally announced at a press conference Tuesday that some of the scrolls would be exhibited at Union Station Feb. 8-May 13, 2007, Rabbi Morris B. Margolies spoke of the ethical precepts contained in the biblical texts that make up part of the scrolls.
"Love your neighbor as yourself," said the rabbi emeritus, who will serve as the exhibit's on-site scholar-curator. "If you don't, you'll have a world of evil. If you do, you'll have a world of good."
Meanwhile, just days after announcing he would have to lay off one-fourth of Union Station's paid staff to cure a persistent budget deficit, CEO Andi Udris foresaw a blockbuster exhibition with black ink flowing to the station's bottom line.
"We're taking on our financial issues, and, at the same time, producing this internationally acclaimed exhibit," Udris said. "And this is how you do it; with exhibits like this."

I hope this helps with the museum's financial straits. Other similar exhibits have certainly been very successful.

The article includes a detailed lists of scrolls to be exhibited:

Scrolls in the exhibit

Genesis-Exodus (1st century CE)
Among the 14 copies of Genesis and Exodus that were found in the Qumran Caves, only this scroll contains both books. The fragment that will be displayed is parallel to chapters 35-39 of the Masoretic (i.e., standard Jewish) text.
Joshua (2nd century BCE)
The earliest known copy of Joshua. The fragment describes the events that took place after the Israelites' arrival in the Land of Canaan.
Psalms (1st century CE)
Fragment is parallel to Psalms 135-136, which are classified as Hymns of Praise. It extols the Lord for his greatness as creator of the world and as deliverer and redeemer of his people.
Job (1st century BCE)
Fragment corresponds to Chapter 36:7-16 and 23-33 in which Elihu describes to Job how God watches the righteous.
Isaiah commentary (1st century BCE)
Many of the Qumran manuscripts employ a unique style of biblical commentary: the pesher method. The writers quoted biblical text, and after each quote attempted to interpret how the words of the Bible had been realized in contemporary events according to the worldview of the sect. This commentary includes quotes from Isaiah Chapter 11:1-2 and their interpretation.
Community Rule (1st century BCE- 1st century CE)
Rules by which the members of the Qumran sect lived their lives. This fragment describes the need and readiness of the members to worship and praise the Lord by praying at fixed intervals.
Deuteronomy (replica of 1st century BCE scroll)
Contains Deuteronomy 8:5-10, which includes the Ten Commandments.
Aramaic Apocalypse (replica of 1st century BCE scroll)
Similar to the apocalyptic section of the biblical book of Daniel. The manuscript refers to a "Son of God" and "Son of the Most High." The interpretation of this phrase is disputed among scholars: is this a reference to a historic ruling figure or to an apocalyptic sovereign who will establish God's reign on earth?
Damascus Document (replica of 1st century BCE scroll)
The Damascus Document was discovered in the Cairo genizah, a collection of ancient Hebrew texts, in 1896. This replica deals with scale disease and its purification.
Paleo Leviticus (replica of 2nd-1st century BCE scroll)
Written in the ancient Hebrew script known as Paleo-Hebrew, this fragment comprises the last chapters of the book of Leviticus, dealing with laws of worship, of damage and of slaves, as well as the Israelite festivals, the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement.

There is also lecture series with a stellar cast of scholars.

THE BOOK OF LOST BOOKS, by Stuart Kelly, is excerpted and profiled by NPR ("Recovering Literature's 'Lost Books'"). The audio file should be available later today. This is a topic near and dear to my own heart and I'll have to have a look at this book.

SOME GREEK FRAGMENTS OF EXODUS from the same find that brought us the Gospel of Judas have been published in Vetus Testamentum. This according to Wieland Willker on the Textual Criticism list. He writes:

As you probably know, the Gospel of Judas book find did not consist of the Gospel of Judas alone, but also of other books, including Exodus in Greek and Colossians in Coptic.

Some of the Exodus fragments have now been published:

"Seven papyrus fragments of a Greek manuscript of Exodus"
Desilva, David A.; Adams, Marcus P.
Vetus Testamentum 56 (2006) 143-170

[...]

The article is available online here (but requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access).

Weiland has links to info on other fragments as well, so read his whole message.

iBOOK UPDATE: I've not received any e-mail notification, but the repair-status webpage now indicates that the repair is complete and reads "Product return pending (09-Jun-2006)." I suppose that's a good sign.

NEIL ALTMAN, the self-appointed and bogus Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, is at it again. He has some articles in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette which promote his notion that the Scrolls are medieval, have Chinese symbols in them, etc. The links are subscription-only, and I somehow managed to access one, briefly, but couldn't get it back. Thus I haven't commented on the pieces. But now the Union, Trueheart, and Courtesy blog, run by Donna Bowman, has a post on the pieces with alternate, accesible links to two of them, along with relevant other links and trenchant commentary. Excerpt:

Well, thanks to our newspaper's decision to give him an unopposed forum for his Da Vinci Code-esque theories, a bunch of Arkansans who don't know squat about the Dead Sea Scrolls are going to think they come from 1200 and provide no information at all about first century Judaism, Gnosticism, and Christian sectarianism. Anybody who tells them otherwise is going to be dismissed as a puppet of the anti-Christian academic conspiracy. Sigh.

*Link to the stories uses the identical Northwest Arkansas News web version; Dem-Gaz website is subscription only. And this story appears nowhere else in the media. Apparently only Arkansas is interested/gullible enough to print it.

Unfortunately, other newspapers in the United States, Britain, and Canada have served their readers equally ill by publishing Altman's nonsense. Their continued irresponsibility and gullibility is breathtaking.

On the question of red ink in the Isaiah Scroll, last week James Trever, son of the late John C. Tever who took the photos, e-mailed me the following:

Something you might want to note regarding some of Neil's theories is that he points out red dots a various places on the photos in the 1972 "Scrolls from Qumran Cave I". I have the proofs Dad marked up for the printing of the 1972 color volume and he points all those out as something that should be removed, as they do not exist on the original transparencies. So they show up, somehow, from the process that the publisher used to print the color images. Dad was not successful in completely eliminating them, as the editor probably did not think it consequential. Unfortunately, controversy makes money and that is all these guys like Altman are doing.

Altman and his sometime collaborator David Crowder were informed of this, but they seem not to have accepted it.

I have commented at length on articles on the Scrolls by Altman and Crowder here, here, here, and here. And on a different topic here. Note especially that they cannot be trusted to report accurately the opinions of scholars they interview.

UPDATE: Perhaps it's worth reflecting a little on why it is that Altman's scholarship is bogus. We're told he has "done graduate work" at various places and that he has a Master's degree in Old Testament, but not that he has any training in the Dead Sea Scrolls. (Or, one might note, in Chinese!) A Master's degree will orient someone to some of the basic primary and secondary literature in a field and introduce them to some basic methodology, but does not prepare them to do original research in that field, nor is it meant to. (A minority do end up doing original work in a Master's thesis, but this is the exception.) The difference between Master's level work and the Ph.D. is that the Ph.D. is specifically designed to teach someone to do original research in a field and actually guides them through the production of a substantial project that makes an independent contribution to the field. They are guided by one or more specialists in the field who themselves publish original research in peer-review journals, monographs, and specialist conferences.

Having a Master's degree does not qualify one as a specialist in any field, let alone one different from the topic of the degree. Altman is not professionally qualified to do original research in the Dead Sea Scrolls, yet he not only thinks that he can make original contributions to the field, he thinks that all actual specialists in it are wrong in their central understanding of the data and that he can completely overturn the major conclusions of that field. This is the sort of gall displayed by someone who really doesn't understand what he is taking on.

Moreover, look closely at how he is making this supposed contribution. It is not by publishing articles in specialist journals or monographs in specialist series or presenting papers at specialist conferences. Instead he goes to the popular media and presents them with his notions (they don't deserve to be called theories) as though they were real research on the Scrolls. He also validates these notions by misconstruing conversations he had with actual specialists.

These concepts are not particularly difficult, but present evidence seems to indicate that they are beyond a number of newspaper editors. What is so hard about identifying a real specialist or two and vetting Altmanesque ideas with them? What is so difficult about contacting the specialists Altman quotes and asking them if he is reporting their views correctly? There was a day when I assumed that this was how newspapers operated. Long before I started this blog I had learned better, but maintaining PaleoJudaica for the last three years has really opened my eyes to how slapdash and irresponsible the media often are in my areas of expertise. And it is only reasonable to extrapolate that they are just as often equally careless and ill-informed when they report on things I don't know about. Altman is culpable for presenting himself as an expert when he is not, but these newspapers are doubly culpable for being unable to identify a real expert, mainly because they can't be bothered to undertake the most basic verification.

ANOTHER OBITUARY FOR LOU H. SILBERMAN, this one on the Vanderbilt University website:

Jewish studies scholar Lou H. Silberman dead at 91; Played role in James Lawson saga at Vanderbilt 6-7-2006

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Lou H. Silberman, an internationally recognized scholar of the Hebrew Bible and Judaic studies and longtime campus leader at Vanderbilt University, died June 6 in Tucson, Ariz. He was 91.

Silberman taught at Vanderbilt from 1952 to 1980, and was named Hillel Professor of Jewish Literature in 1955. He was chair of the Undergraduate Department of Religious Studies from 1970 to 1976.

[...]

BABATHA is Neri Livneh's heroine:

My heroine, at last
By Neri Livneh (Haaretz)

For years I've been looking for her, the heroine of my life. Whenever I conjure up the moment when some journalistic figure asks me to name my role model, the one who has done the most to get me to my present stage (on the somewhat unlikely assumption that there will one day be such a "stage" upon which I can sit myself, complacent and floral-wreathed, and look back with satisfaction, panoramically surveying the list of people who influenced my life), I discover, to my feminist chagrin, a couple of regrettable facts: it is difficult to find any necessary circumstantial connection between the people I have admired and the person I became - and far worse, the list contains more men than women.

[...]

In the course of a symposium on "The Myth of Beauty," which was held at the Mishkenot Sha'ananim center in Jerusalem, a discussion on "The History of the Myth of Beauty" took place between Dr. Yael Renan, a lecturer in literature, translator and researcher of myths, and Debby Hershman, an anthropologist, archaeologist and curator at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The question they were discussing concerned the earliest evidence for the centrality of the cultivation of beauty.

Hershman related the story of Bavta Bat Shimon, who lived in the second century CE and was a successful merchant - in other words, she was a strong and successful woman, even in the terms of our time - and the daughter of a rich man who left her a large inheritance. This was the period of the Maccabean revolt and a million and a half inhabitants of the country had already been put to the sword by the Romans. Bavta's life was also in danger, and she decided to flee, as a refugee, together with another group of people who were going to hide in caves in the Dead Sea area. Like any refugee, she decided to take along only the most essential items for her survival. A whole collection of letters and documents, which would become a treasure for archaeologists who study the inheritance laws and customs of the period, commercial contracts and coins - but also those things for which she was ready to die, literally, rather than be caught without them; and in the end she in fact died and left them behind in the cave.

What were these things that Bavta took as she was fleeing for her life? A mirror, "perhaps the most beautiful one I have seen," Hershman said, set in a round decorated frame and housed in a polished metal box, a comb, an array of cosmetics and a small bottle of persimmon perfume, which was very expensive in those days. "That is what I mean by preserving one's human image," Renan said and added that she imagines she herself would not flee without lipstick.

So it was that without further ado, I at last found the heroine of my youth in the form of Bavta, the woman who preferred to leave behind, like Sheila Levine (the protagonist of the book "Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York"), a handsome body.

[...]

That's certainly a new perspective. But not an unfitting one.

UPDATE(11 June): Reader Stuart Bornstein has e-mailed to point out that the "Maccabean revolt" in the article should be the Bar Kokhba revolt. Thanks, I should have caught that.

iBOOK BLUES: Please excuse a personal grumble. If you're not in the mood for one, skip to the last paragraph.

Regular readers will recall my travails with my new iBook in February. I lost a week of access to it, but the defective unit was promptly replaced and I had no real complaint. Well, the story continues, and becomes less happy.

From mid-February to the end of April, thinks seemed to go fine, and I got a lot of use out the machine, including on a long trip abroad. But at the end of April, everything changed. The iBook broke down twice in rapid succession and had to be sent to a repair center for two distinct, mysterious hardware problems. I had it back and working for a week in May, but otherwise it has been either broken, in transit, or at the service center. Most recently it arrived at the service center on May 24th, two weeks ago yesterday. On that day I got the message "On hold - Part on order (24-May-2006)." And there it has remained for the last fortnight. On Monday morning of this week I called the support number and they promised me they would give my case high priority status and said the part should be in within 24 hours. That was almost three days ago. The message "On hold - Part on order (24-May-2006)" remains on my Mail-in Repair Status page and no one has contacted me to tell me what is going on.

To put this in context, I have been using Apple computers for almost 21 years. They have generally been reliable and trouble free. The move from the Apple operating system to the Unix-based System X a few years ago was a bit rocky, but nearly all the problems have been ironed out with version 10.4. I have had an eMac desktop machine for more than three years and, apart from a stretch where it had slowness problems that eventually were resolved, it has been reliable and I have been happy with it. And I can add to the plus side that the technical people I have talked to in the last several months have been helpful and polite and reasonably knowledgeable. Also, Apple has shipped the computer back and forth to the repair center without charge.

There's the plus side. But the minus side is that this my second iBook unit in less than four months; I've had this one in working order only for about a week since the beginning of May because it has had critical hardware breakdowns twice; and the second time appears to be nowhere near resolution even after the machine has been at the service center for more than two weeks. I bought the thing to take with me to conferences and I have one today to which I intended to take it. I can't. The most charitable face I can put on this is that Apple's repair centers must be seriously understaffed. And it's hard not to worry that an employee who was working on my computer has quit or been fired and it is sitting on a shelf or in a box somewhere and no one remembers it.

I want to cut Apple all the slack I can, but I'm getting really fed up. Until now I would have recommended Apple computers without hesitation because of their stability and reliability. Now I'm not so sure. Stability and reliability are not what I've been seeing lately.

By the way, is my recent experience with Apple unusual? I would be interested in hearing from Apple-using readers whether their experience in the last year or so has been good or bad. Please let me know if it has been either. It's possible that I have just had bad luck and this case is not representative. I hope so.

To make it all perfect, Blogger suddenly went belly up and was "Down for Maintenance" all yesterday evening "due to an unexpected problem." This post was written then, but I'm just putting it up this morning before I run to catch a train.

I'll keep you posted on what happens with the iBook.


I'll be in Edinburgh all day today at the Scottish Universities' day-conference for postgraduates in Divinity and Theology. I won't have a portable computer with me (grrr...) so additional blogging, if any, will have to wait until this evening.

LOU H. SILBERMAN - 1914-2006. I am very sorry to note that Professor Lou H. Silberman died yesterday, two and a half weeks before his 92nd birthday. There is an obituary here. May his memory be for a blessing.

(Via the Agade list.)

A SECOND TEMPLE ERA SITE has reportedly been located in modern Bethel (Khirbet Kafr Mer). Yitzak Sapir translates a Hebrew article from Arutz Sheva on his Hebrew Bible and ANE History Lists Commentary blog.

(Via the Agade list.)

AN OBITUARY FOR SIMON PARKER has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, although it seems to have been published previously in the Boston Globe:

Dr. Simon Parker -- professor of Hebrew Bible

Gloria Negri, Boston Globe

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

For 25 years, Simon Parker taught Hebrew Bible and Scripture at Boston University's School of Theology, using his vast knowledge, his wit and his talent for storytelling to make scholarly ancient subjects come alive to graduate and doctoral students.

"Professor Parker taught us that some of the most fascinating nuggets of information (in the Bible) were those things that are mentioned in passing," said Dorie Mansen, of Hudson, N.H., one of his doctoral students. "The most interesting thing he taught us was how to use the text as a lens through which to learn about human history."

[...]