A NEW INTRODUCTION TO THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS is coming out, authored by a Comparative Lit professor at Arizona Western College (Pam Kuhlken) and by senior biblical and Scrolls scholar David Noel Freedman.

THE CAIRO GENIZA gets a nice little profile in the Canadian Jewish News. Excerpt:

As with other major discoveries discussed in this column, it was locals who first brought the material to the attention of the outside world. At first, Europeans noticed something new in the Cairo antiquities market. It was thanks primarily to the efforts of two sisters, Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson, residents of Cambridge, that the renowned university there obtained the bulk of the collection.

This was indeed quite fortuitous, since they brought the material to the attention of the man who would be forever associated with the Genizah documents, the redoubtable and legendary Rabbi Solomon Schecter, who at that time was the reader in talmudic and rabbinic literature and keeper of the collection of Hebrew manuscripts at Cambridge.

Fortunately, Rabbi Schecter was probably the one man in the world who would be able to fully appreciate and analyze the material. One of the first documents he came across was the Wisdom of Ben Sira, popularly known as Ecclesiasticus, which he published. His study of the material is still a landmark of scholarship.

But Rabbi Schecter realized that he would have to go to the source, to the genizah of the Ben Ezra synagogue itself. What he found there astounded both him and the world. It contained more than 100,000 documents, which have since given us a unique and unparalleled look into a prominent Jewish community of 1,000 years ago.

The article also discusses recent Canadian contributions to Geniza research, including the refurbishment of the Ben Ezra synagogue, a ditigization project on the texts, and a possible upcoming conference.

MEETINGS AND EXAM MARKING all day today. I'll try to post something tomorrow.

MANUSCRIPT COLLATING FOR DUMMIES. Really.

A 7TH-CENTURY CE SCROLL FRAGMENT OF EXODUS, apparently from the Cairo Geniza, is on display at the Israel Museum:

Rare scroll fragment to be unveiled
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

A rare Torah scroll fragment from the Book of Exodus dating back to the 7th century that includes the famous Song of the Sea will be unveiled Tuesday at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the museum announced Monday.

The manuscript, which is a fragment of a Torah scroll from the Book of Exodus (13:19-16:1), comes from the six-hundred year period from the 3rd through 8th centuries known as the "silent era," from which almost no Hebrew manuscripts have survived.
[...]

The Song of the Sea manuscript is one of a kind in terms of its historical and literary significance," said Israel Museum Director James S. Snyder. "It bridges the gap in the period of history between the Dead Sea Scrolls [1st-2nd century CE] and the Aleppo Codex [10th century], both of which are permanently housed in the Shrine of the Book."

[...]

HAPPY SHAVUOT (FESTIVAL OF WEEKS, PENTECOST) to all those celebrating. It begins this evening at sundown.

THERE'S AN OBITUARY OF DAME MARY DOUGLAS in The Times:

Professor Dame Mary Douglas
Challenging and wide-ranging social anthropologist whose ideas and influence reverberated far beyond her discipline

Dame Mary Douglas was one of the outstanding British social anthropologists of the latter half of the 20th century. Her books, Purity and Danger (1966) and Natural Symbols (1970), were seminal for anthropologists and were widely appreciated in other disciplines.

A Sunday Times survey of “Makers of the 20th Century” in 1991 listed Purity and Danger among the 100 most influential nonfiction works since 1945; only four women and four anthropologists made the list.

Starting as an Africanist, she branched out to cover contemporary Western society, addressing such topics as risk analysis and environmentalism, and food and consumption. Old Testament religion was another interest, first in her famous discussion of the “abominations of Leviticus”, in Purity and Danger, and latterly in studies of Numbers and Leviticus.

[...]

The obit is quite interesting and informative.

(Via the Agade list.)

HANNIBAL'S ROUTE through the Alps is under investigation by a Classics Lecturer at Stanford:

"Few historical problems have produced more unprofitable discussion than that of Hannibal's pass over the Alps," said the mid-20th-century historian F. W. Walbank, whom Patrick Hunt, a lecturer in the Classics Department, quotes in acknowledging the difficulty and exhilaration of researching the subject. Hunt, director of the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project, estimates that 20 major studies and articles have focused on it in the past century alone.

He has been investigating the question for the past decade. Now, he hopes he may have found the answer.

"It may be hubristic and definitely ambitious of me to think I might be able to prove that route," he conceded. His most notable predecessor was Napoleon Bonaparte, who reputedly carved his name under Hannibal's on rocks he found in the Alps.

But Hunt has new scientific tools to assist his investigation, and with them have come a profusion of evidence. As the first geoarchaeologist to tackle the question, Hunt has employed methods as diverse as analyzing rock weathering rates, scrutinizing lichen growth, studying pollen records and modeling historical glaciation on computers to help him envision how the land today might be different from that described in ancient texts. Ultimately, the tools will help him comprehend how feasible it was that certain paths were taken by Hannibal and his army traversing the mighty Alps.

[...]

The next leg of his investigation is to look for hard evidence in the form of artifacts. "You have to assume that an army of 25,000 people plus elephants is going to leave a record of its passage," Hunt said. "But to date, not one Carthaginian coin has been found in the Alps proper."

And so he proposes new methods. "I think the topography has sufficiently changed over several millennia so that if the evidence is there, it's not going to be on the surface. I would look not on the direct route, but down the precipices," he said. Also, he said, efforts should be focused where the geology is stable, where rapid erosion would not have buried remains deeply.

Hunt and his team have identified 19 sites to excavate and are awaiting from the European governments the permits that are required before any evidence can be removed from the land. Hoping to be at the cusp of a breakthrough, Hunt and his research have attracted attention and funding from Helen and Peter Bing and the National Geographic Society.

[...]

I hope they get funding and find something.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS go on display in San Diego next month.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Jerusalem's Temple Mount: Historic Preservation with 3D Laser Scanning
Thursday, 01 March 2007

A 1.851Mb PDF of this article, complete with images, is available by clicking HERE

The Temple Mount is a 35-acre historic site in the Old City of Jerusalem which is of central importance to Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It was the site of the first and second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem and is currently the site of two major Muslim shrines, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mount is hemmed in by an enclosure wall that was erected to create a level platform on which Herod the Great could rebuild the Jewish Temple in the first century B.C. In February 2004 an earthquake displaced a portion of the mount's eastern wall ( cover photo and Figure 1). To analyze the deformation and determine whether remediation was needed, the Israel Antiquities Authority engaged Mabat 3D Technologies, Ltd., of Tirat-Carmel, Israel to document and measure the displacement using 3D laser scanning.

[...]

The bulge in the southern wall was also scanned.

(Cross file under Technology Watch.)

THE POPE'S NEW BOOK ON JESUS is reviewed by Geza Vermes in The Times:

Jesus of Nazareth
The scholar Ratzinger bravely declares that he and not the Pope is the author of the book and that everyone is free to contradict him
By Pope Benedict XVI, reviewed by Geza Vermes

I LEARNT ABOUT the imminent appearance of Pope Benedict XVI’s book on Jesus at the University of Princeton about four weeks ago. I attended there an international conference on methodology in the quest of the historical Jesus where I was to give the opening address. The title, Jesus of Nazareth, not “Jesus, the Son of God” or something similar, seemed to imply that the Pope was one of us, a seeker after historical truth. Indeed, his preface explicitly states that his study incorporates modern historical criticism, and is intended to portray Jesus as an “historical” figure “in the strict sense of the word”. I must confess, however, that my initial reaction was overoptimistic.

[...]

There follows a summary of historical-Jesus scholarship from the nineteenth century to the present. Then there is a discussion of the book. Here's an excerpt:

Yet I must protest against the reiterated papal claim that the divine Christ of faith – the product of his musings – and the historical Jesus – the Galilean itinerant healer, exorcist and preacher – are one and the same. In the absence of a stringent linguistic, literary and historical analysis of the Gospels, especially of their many contradictory statements, the identification is without foundation. One must declare groundless Benedict’s appeal to “canonical exegesis”, an exercise in biblical theology whereby any text from the Old or the New Testament can serve to explain any other biblical text. Such an approach to biblical studies would force back Catholic Bible experts, already the objects of frequent papal disapproval in Jesus of Nazareth, to a preCopernican stage of history.

As a final comment, may I, after a lifetime of study of Judaism and early Christianity and in the light of hundreds of letters inspired by my books, voice the conviction that the powerful, inspirational and, above all, real figure of the historical Jesus is able to exercise a profound influence on our age, especially on people who are no longer impressed by traditional Christianity. While scholarly exegesis removes some of the mystery enveloping the church’s Christ, it does not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Contrary to Pope Benedict’s forebodings, the world would welcome this authentic Jesus.

Read it all.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBIT IN KANSAS CITY was a great success. Can't say I'm surprised.

Union Station hits jackpot with Dead Sea Scrolls
The display of the artifacts netted nearly $3 million and far exceeded expectations.
By MATT CAMPBELL
The Kansas City Star

The lines were long on Feb. 8, the opening day of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Union Station, and the interest never waned for the duration of the event, which ended Sunday. A total of 177,782 people saw the scrolls, an average of 1,975 a day.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit was the most successful ever at Union Station, selling so many tickets that the station could edge into the black for the first time.

The show closed Sunday after averaging nearly 2,000 visitors a day and netting nearly $3 million, according to preliminary figures released Thursday. The 90-day exhibit far exceeded projections.

[...]

DAME MARY DOUGLAS, I am sorry to report, has died earlier this week. Jack Sasson relays the sad news on the Agade list in an e-mail forwarded from Mark Geller, which I take the liberty of copying here:

Dame Mary Douglas (1921-2007) passed away yesterday evening (16 May), after receiving her knighthood at Buckingham Palace last week. Her contributions to anthropology and biblical studies will be of lasting importance. On the day she passed away, she received proofs of her introduction to a new volume, Imagining Creation, which will appear within the next few months.

Jack also points to this notice about Professor Douglas regarding an honorary degree she received in 2000 at the University of Pennsylvania.

Requiescat in pace.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE SIEGE OF TYRE: There's new geological information on Alexander's siege of Tyre, which siege is alluded to cryptically in the Bible in Ezekiel 26. If you're not familiar with the details of the event, the Livius article "Alexander takes Tyre" is informative. Here's the news from the National Geographic Society:

Alexander the Great Conquered City via Sunken Sandbar
Kate Ravilious
for National Geographic News
May 15, 2007

Changing sea levels and shifting sands helped Alexander the Great conquer the ancient island city of Tyre in one of his most famous military victories, new research shows.

In 332 B.C. the Greek military commander invaded the island just off the coast of modern-day Lebanon, then part of ancient Phoenicia.

New geological findings and computer models show that the growth of agriculture on the island caused sediment runoff, which spurred the formation of a long, thin submerged sandbar between Tyre and the mainland.

Alexander and his men cunningly exploited this sandbar, the findings suggest, to build a 0.6-mile (1-kilometer) raised path, or causeway, out of wood and stone.

[...]

MORE BIG-SCREEN ARAMAIC: Babylonian and Sanskrit too.

Alexandra Maria Lara has 'Youth'
Attracting the eye of Francis Ford Coppola
By KATJA EICHINGER (Variety)

Given her lineage, Alexandra Maria Lara just might have the acting gene stamped in her DNA. Her father, Romanian actor Valentin Platareanu, had been running Bucharest National Theater before emigrating to Berlin, where he founded the Charlottenburg Acting Academy. Lara soon followed in her father's footsteps, attending classes there and eventually landing a part in a German TV series at the age of 16. She has never looked back.

"My first part came along by accident and then everything happened really fast," recalls Lara, now 28. "I've never tried to force anything. So far I've been very fortunate to get some great parts, but maybe it's exactly because I never pushed too hard."

While she's played significant roles in such miniseries as "Napoleon," "Der Wunschbaum" and "Doctor Zhivago," it wasn't until she held her own as the personal secretary Traudl Junge to Bruno Ganz's Hitler in "Downfall" that her career experienced a dramatic upswing and attracted the attention of Francis Ford Coppola.

For the filmmaker's much-anticipated "Youth Without Youth," Coppola's first directing effort in 10 years and based on a WWII-era novella by Romanian writer Mircea Eliade, she had to master speaking ancient tongues such as Aramaic, Sanskrit and Babylonian.

[...]

My emphasis. By "master speaking" I assume they mean "learn to pronounce words in." I doubt very much that she really learned any of these languages. Nevertheless, a movie adaptation of a novel by Eliade with ancient languages sounds pretty interesting.

GOAT DNA AND THE SCROLLS:

How goat skin DNA solved Dead Sea scrolls mystery
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH (Jerusalem Post)

Scientists at the Hebrew University's Koret School for Veterinary Science near Rishon Lezion are helping to piece together some of the 10,000 fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls found decades ago in Qumran by examining the DNA profiles of the goats whose skin was used to make the parchment and reducing the number of possible matches.

Dr. Galia Kahila Bar-Gal said during a journalists' tour at the nearby Hebrew University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where students learn and treat animals, that she and colleagues were looking at genetic forms from each fragment to know which came from specific animals. Once they know that two pieces came from the skin of the same animal, it is easier to piece them together, she said.

[...]

A NEW TESTAMENT JOB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS:

School of Divinity

Lectureship/Senior Lectureship/Readership in New Testament

Salary - £33,101 - £47,194 per annum
We are seeking applicants committed to excellence in teaching and research in New Testament. You will contribute to the School's existing strengths in exegetical, literary and historical scholarship. Specialism within the canon of New Testament is open, though a research interest in the interface between biblical studies and Christian theology and/or the history of interpretation is highly desirable. You will teach both NT content and Greek to students from undergraduate to doctoral level. You are a team player who will be fully involved in the School's research, supervisory and administrative roles.

While applications to the Lectureship are welcome from junior scholars, you will be expected to hold a PhD when you take up the position, you will need to demonstrate a capacity and commitment to research and publication as well as teaching, and you should have at least one to four major publications in print. If appointed at the level of Senior Lecturer or Reader, you would be expected to come with a strong international research profile.

This appointment is similar to an assistant or associate professorship in North America. The position will begin on 1 September 2007 or as soon as possible thereafter. Appointment at Grade 7 or Grade 8 may be considered depending on the level of appointment made.

Informal enquiries to Dr Jim Davila (Tel. +44-1334-462834; email: divhos@st-andrews.ac.uk). Further information about the School of Divinity can be found at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity.


Please quote ref: PS225/07
Closing date: 1 June 2007
Application forms and further particulars are available from Human Resources, University of St Andrews, College Gate, North Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, (tel: 01334 462571, by fax 01334 462570 or by e-mail Jobline@st-andrews.ac.uk. The advertisement and further particulars and a downloadable application form can be found at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/recruitment/vacancies.

The University is committed to equality of opportunity.

Please note the early closing date (1 June). If you applied to the earlier NT post and wish to apply now for this one, please send a new application aimed at this job description. The further particulars web page is malfunctioning at present, but you can have the application form and further particulars sent to you by contacting the Joblines e-mail address above.

UPDATE (16 May): Typo corrected (paragraph above should have read "earlier NT post"). Also, the malfunctioning website is now functional again.

AN OLD TESTAMENT/HEBREW BIBLE JOB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS:

School of Divinity

Lectureship/Senior Lectureship/Readership in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible

Salary - £33,101 - £47,194 per annum/
We are seeking applicants committed to excellence in teaching and research in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. You will contribute to the School's existing strengths in philological and historical scholarship. Specialism within the canon of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible is open, though a research interest in the interface between biblical studies and Christian theology and/or the history of interpretation is highly desirable. You will teach both Old Testament/Hebrew Bible content and Hebrew language to students from undergraduate to doctoral level. You are a team player who will be fully involved in the School's research, supervisory and administrative roles.

While applications to the Lectureship are welcome from junior scholars, you will be expected to hold a PhD when you take up the position, you will need to demonstrate a capacity and commitment to research and publication as well as teaching, and you should have at least one to four major publications in print. If appointed at the level of Senior Lecturer or Reader, you would be expected to come with a strong international research profile.

This appointment is similar to an assistant or associate professorship in North America. The position will begin on 1 September 2007 or as soon as possible thereafter. Appointment at Grade 7 or Grade 8 may be considered depending on the level of appointment made.

Informal enquiries to Dr Jim Davila (Tel. +44-1334-462834; email: divhos@st-andrews.ac.uk). Further information about the School of Divinity can be found at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity.

Please quote ref: PS226/07
Closing date: 1 June 2007
Application forms and further particulars are available from Human Resources, University of St Andrews, College Gate, North Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, (tel: 01334 462571, by fax 01334 462570 or by e-mail Jobline@st-andrews.ac.uk. The advertisement and further particulars and a downloadable application form can be found at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/recruitment/vacancies.

The University is committed to equality of opportunity.

Please note the early closing date (1 June). If you applied to the earlier OT/HB post and wish to apply now for this one, please send a new application aimed at this job description. The further particulars web page is malfunctioning at present, but you can have the application form and further particulars sent to you by contacting the Joblines e-mail address above.

UPDATE (16 May): The malfunctioning website is now functional again.

THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR.

THE IDENTIFICATION OF HEROD'S TOMB is not going unchallenged. Newsweek has an article (BeliefWatch: Entombed) which notes the following from James Charlesworth:

As with all such discoveries, however, there's almost no proof, and already some of Netzer's colleagues are raising questions. Herod, says James H. Charlesworth, of Princeton Theological Seminary, was a ruthless leader—so paranoid that he had his own sons and his wife killed for allegedly betraying him. Why would a king who knew he was hated, a leader fully aware of the perils of grave-robbing and desecration, not hide his tomb away? "He certainly wouldn't put his tomb on the hillside where everybody would see it," says Charlesworth. "I would think he would put the tomb in the base. There are massive tunnels down there."

THE POPE has now published a book on Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth. Newsweek has an article on it (A Portrait of Faith). Excerpt:

One can almost hear Pope Benedict XVI roaring with frustration at this multiplicity of interpretations. Benedict, a theologian by training with an expertise in dogma, has been fierce in his condemnation of the creep of Western secularism, and the promiscuity of recent Jesus scholarship must seem to him another symptom of the same disease, all ill-founded and subjective claims. "We are building a dictatorship of relativism," he declared at the beginning of the 2005 enclave that elected him pope, "that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires." Benedict's answer to secularism is Christ, and this week the American publisher Doubleday releases "Jesus of Nazareth," Benedict's portrait of his Lord. It is an orthodox biography—one that acknowledges the role of analytical scholarship while in fact leaving little room for a critical interpretation of Scripture. This approach is not surprising, given Benedict's job description, but in a world where Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and other proponents of secularism credit belief in Jesus as one of the sources of the world's ills, Benedict offers an unvarnished opposing view: belief in Jesus, he says, is the only thing that will save the world.

Newsweek also has an excerpt of the book itself, here.

THE SACRED EXHIBITION at the British Museum is covered in a Times article from Apri:

The writ and wisdom of the Almighty
The British Library’s collection of books and manuscripts from three of the world’s great religions demonstrate what divides us, but also what should unite us
undefined
Rachel Campbell-Johnston

[...]

British Library curators can draw on rich resources. An unparalleled archive includes treasures that range from papyrus scraps rescued from an Egyptian rubbish dump to the most sumptuously ornamented of manuscripts. These are supported by loans of key texts from other museums, including a Dead Sea scroll fragment (one of several pieces never before shown in this country), and by objects from private collections, from an exquisite silver set used during the Jewish ceremony of Passover through the richly decorated curtain that once hung over the door of the Kaabah (the cube-shaped stone structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca that forms the focal point of all Muslim worship) to the shalwar kameez that Jemima Khan wore at her wedding.

But at the heart of the show are the manuscripts: those most precious survivors of centuries of pogroms and wars and oppressions, of years of neglect and accident. To- gether they tell a story as vividly intriguing as psalter illuminations, as intricately complex as an Islamic carpet, as minutely detailed as the masoretic notes that weave their patterns around the writings of a Jewish Pentateuch.

The more ostentatiously dramatic of these texts seem more like objects than mes- sages, more like spiritual icons than mere books. Admire the wonderful calligraphy on a leaf of the Lindis-farne Gospels, for instance. This manuscript was far more than a practical text. Transformed by the artistic talent of its maker, it attained a symbolic power. It was not there to be read. It was meant to be glimpsed from a reverent distance by those who queued up to bear witness to this piece of solid proof of Christianity’s strength. Jewish scriptures took on a similar totemic importance. They became a sort of substitute for the Temple of Jerusalem after it was razed by the Romans in AD70. “Where two or three study the Torah together,” explained the rabbis, “the Shekhinah [divine presence] is in their midst”.

[...]

Some of the most fascinating displays are the most visually unappealing. A page of inscrutable scribbling, it turns out, is the Diatessoron — an attempt to combine the four Gospels into one narrative account that was so ruthlessly suppressed that no single complete manuscript sur- vives. And yet curators are keen also to show off their most exotic treasures, the most sumptuously ornamental of their manuscripts. Here are Korans in pure sweeps of burnished gold, Hebraic texts scrolled about with extravagant creatures, Christian stories illuminated with a vig-our that brings them springing to life.

[...]

THE BYU ARABIC TRANSLATION PROJECT is profiled in the Deseret News:

Arabic texts translated — thanks to Bennett
By Suzanne Struglinski
Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — Historical Islamic books and other works previously only available in Arabic have been translated into English through a program at Brigham Young University that receives funding from the Library of Congress.
Andrew C. Skinner, executive director of BYU's Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, gave Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, copies of the several translated volumes in Washington Tuesday as a way to thank him for helping secure the federal funding needed to produce them.

[...]

Since its inception in 1992, the initiative has published 13 English translations from Arabic or Syriac writings by Middle Eastern philosophers, theologians, scientists and physicians through its four projects: The Islamic Translation Series, the dual-language Eastern Christian Texts, the English-only Library of the Christian East, and the Medical Works of Moses Maimonides. Peterson said 10 of the books have been financed by the university and private donations, but he has a goal of translating and publishing 100 works.
Bennett described the translated works as "not ancient" but "very old."

[...]

I noted the project previously here and here. I've worked closely with a couple of the volumes and, from my nonspecialist perspective, they seem excellent.

JOSEPHUS gets a nice little profile in the Texas Monitor online:

Josephus — traitor or scholar?
William McGee
Special to The Monitor
May 9, 2007 - 7:24PM


Students of early Christianity or Second Temple Judaism are sure to encounter the writings of Josephus Flavius, the most important non-biblical historical source for the First Century CE. His writings are dramatic and full of those details that provoke debate among modern historians. At the same time, he is a controversial person whose life and writings are filled with contradictions.

Recently, while discussing these articles with a Jewish friend, we talked about Josephus as a non-biblical source of information. He commented, “To us, Josephus is the Jewish Benedict Arnold.”

To me, his life and work is as worthy of study as are those about whom he wrote.

[...]

HANAN ESHEL is claiming that the Leviticus scroll was improperly handled by the Israel Antiquities Authority, according to Haaretz:

Antiquities Authority manhandled Leviticus scroll, says archaeologist
By Yair Sheleg

Professor Hanan Eshel, the archaeologist who two years ago uncovered scroll fragments of the Book of Leviticus, says the Israel Antiquities Authority, which now has the finds, has cut out large chunks of the scroll on the pretext that its dating needed to be examined.

This was not a necessary procedure, says Eshel, since "experts say it was possible to test the dating without an intrusive examination and in the worst case scenario by cutting a tiny, peripheral portion of the scroll."

[...]

Amir Ganor, director of the unit for the prevention of theft in the Antiquities Authority, said in response that "in order to carry out the examination we could not avoid making certain cuts in the scroll itself. This is acceptable in every examination of this sort. We cut only two small parts, one-half centimeter each, from the end of the scroll. At no stage was there any thought of cutting letters, only to scrape off some ink in order to examine it. The minute it became clear to us that we could not have unequivocal results from such an examination, we did not do it."

However, the photographs published here suggest the scroll cuts are significantly more extensive than what Ganor acknowledges and encompass nearly all the part of the scroll that has no writing on it.

Ganor said examinations of the scroll have undermined Eshel's claim that the finding is authentic.

[...]

Eshel disputes this.

YES, BUT DID THE ANGELS SMITE HIM? Haaretz reports on an interesting inscription currently being displayed at the Israel Museum:

Ancient Greek inscription, dating to 178 B.C.E., goes on display at Israel Museum
By Amiram Barkat

A recently deciphered ancient Greek stele (inscribed stone slab) is currently on display at the Israel Museum. The stele was produced in 178 B.C.E. in Israel at a time when the region was ruled by the Hellenistic Seleucid empire.

The inscription depicts events that preceded the Hasmonean rebellion. It mentions King Seleucus IV, who occupied the throne before Antiochus IV, the target of the Maccabean revolt, and the king's chief minister Heliodorus, who sparked the first open conflict between Greeks and Jews by attempting to seize funds from the Second Temple.

Researchers are unsure where exactly the inscription was discovered, and examinations commissioned by the museum failed to uncover any signs the inscription was inauthentic. The stele was deciphered by two leading ancient inscription researchers: Hannah Cotton-Paltiel of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Professor Michael Woerrle of the German Archaeological Institute in Munich. American-Jewish philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who acquired the stele a few months ago, gave the stele to the museum on an extended loan.

Failing "to uncover any signs the inscription was inauthentic" is a less robust conclusion than I would like. I hope they are really more confident than that of its authenticity.

The inscription appears on the uppermost part of a stone column engraved with three letters. To date, this is the second stele from this period to be found in the region. The inscription describes King Seleucus IV's appointment of senior Greek clerk Olympiodorus to oversee sanctuaries in Israel and surrounding areas. In the first letter, King Seleucus IV informs his deputy Heliodorus of the appointment and the second and third announces more minor appointments.

[...]

King Seleucus IV was assassinated in 175 B.C.E., three years after the appointment described in the stele. He was replaced by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the "Shining One" in Greek), who ruled during the Maccabean revolt. The first instance of open tension between both sides took place when Heliodorus entered the Temple and attempted to confiscate money. He was expelled in disgrace. The Maccabean rebellion actually began in 167 B.C.E. in response to grave, religious edicts imposed by Antiochus IV.

[...]

"Expelled in disgrace" doesn't really do justice to the story as it appears in 2 Maccabees 3 (RSV quoted here):

22: While they were calling upon the Almighty Lord that he would keep what had been entrusted safe and secure for those who had entrusted it,
23: Heliodorus went on with what had been decided.
24: But when he arrived at the treasury with his bodyguard, then and there the Sovereign of spirits and of all authority caused so great a manifestation that all who had been so bold as to accompany him were astounded by the power of God, and became faint with terror.
25: For there appeared to them a magnificently caparisoned horse, with a rider of frightening mien, and it rushed furiously at Heliodorus and struck at him with its front hoofs. Its rider was seen to have armor and weapons of gold.
26: Two young men also appeared to him, remarkably strong, gloriously beautiful and splendidly dressed, who stood on each side of him and scourged him continuously, inflicting many blows on him.
27: When he suddenly fell to the ground and deep darkness came over him, his men took him up and put him on a stretcher
28: and carried him away, this man who had just entered the aforesaid treasury with a great retinue and all his bodyguard but was now unable to help himself; and they recognized clearly the sovereign power of God.
29: While he lay prostrate, speechless because of the divine intervention and deprived of any hope of recovery,
30: they praised the Lord who had acted marvelously for his own place. And the temple, which a little while before was full of fear and disturbance, was filled with joy and gladness, now that the Almighty Lord had appeared.
31: Quickly some of Heliodorus' friends asked Onias to call upon the Most High and to grant life to one who was lying quite at his last breath.
32: And the high priest, fearing that the king might get the notion that some foul play had been perpetrated by the Jews with regard to Heliodorus, offered sacrifice for the man's recovery.
33: While the high priest was making the offering of atonement, the same young men appeared again to Heliodorus dressed in the same clothing, and they stood and said, "Be very grateful to Onias the high priest, since for his sake the Lord has granted you your life.
34: And see that you, who have been scourged by heaven, report to all men the majestic power of God." Having said this they vanished.
35: Then Heliodorus offered sacrifice to the Lord and made very great vows to the Savior of his life, and having bidden Onias farewell, he marched off with his forces to the king.
36: And he bore testimony to all men of the deeds of the supreme God, which he had seen with his own eyes.

Unfortunately it seems that the inscription does not mention this event. But, to be fair, it would have no particular reason to, and it's not clear whether it was produced before or after Heliodorus' visit to the Temple.

UPDATE: Nice photo at the Art Daily. (Via Rochelle Altman on Ioudaios-L.)

HEROD'S TOMB: By now, everyone must have heard of the reported discovery of Herod's tomb at Herodium, confirming what Josephus said. But how could PaleoJudaica not cover it too? Here is the Hebrew University press release:

Tomb of King Herod discovered at Herodium by Hebrew University archaeologist

The long search for Herod the Great’s tomb has ended with the exposure of the remains of his grave, sarcophagus and mausoleum on Mount Herodium’s northeastern slope, Prof. Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology announced today.

Herod was the Roman-appointed king of Judea from 37 to 4 BCE, who was renowned for his many monumental building projects, including the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the palace at Masada, as well as the complex at Herodium, 15 kilometers south of Jerusalem. .

Herodium is the most outstanding among King Herod’s building projects. This is the only site that carries his name and the site where he chose to be buried and to memorialize himself -- all of this with the integration of a huge, unique palace at the fringe of the desert, said Prof. Netzer. Therefore, he said, the exposure of his tomb becomes the climax of this site’s research.

The approach to the burial site - which has been described by the archaeologists involved as one of the most striking finds in Israel in recent years - was via a monumental flight of stairs (6.5 meters wide) leading to the hillside that were especially constructed for the funeral procession.

The excavations on the slope of the mountain, at whose top is the famed structure comprised of a palace, a fortress and a monument, commenced in August 2006. The expedition, on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was conducted by Prof. Netzer, together with Yaakov Kalman and Roi Porath and with the participation of local Bedouins.

The location and unique nature of the findings, as well as the historical record, leave no doubt that this was Herod’s burial site, said Prof. Netzer.

[...]

The sarcophagus was smashed to bits, apparently by Jewish rebels during the Great Revolt of 66-72 C.E., which I guess shows that Herod wasn't any more popular in the first century than he is today.

This SBL Forum article ("Herod's Tomb Discovered at Herodium") doesn't have any new information, but it does have some good photographs of the site. And here's a slide show of the site from Der Spiegel. There has also been lots of discussion on the Ioudaios-L list. The recent archive of this thread is here.

SAMARITAN NEWS: Reader Sharon Dufour Sullivan e-mails the following:

I am writing to you because I have noticed through the years of following your blog that you have on occasion posted information about the Israelite Samaritans. I wanted to let you know about some exciting news. For the past five years I have been working with Israelite Samaritan Elder, Benyamim Tsedaka in the first English translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch. The project was completed one month ago, gracefully accepted by Logos to soon be published electronically. (I would be happy to send you a sample, if you are interested.) Along with the English translation of the Torah, Logos will be recording the oral chanting done by one of the leading Israelite Samaritan vocalists and choir member, Yefet Tsedaka (hopefully ready in one year from now). Mark Shoulson will also play a part in the Logos package, with the Hebrew parallel of the SP and the MT.

Benny and the choir are traveling to London, arriving Sunday, May 13. Benny will be staying an additional week after the choir performance.

I thought you might find both items of interest: The first ever English translation of the complete Samaritan Torah, and the soon arrival of the Samaritan Choir to perform in London.

Indeed.

Also, Benny Tsedaka e-mails with more information:

Following Sharon letter, yes, we are coming to perform
first time in the British Isle, four times in London.

I will bring with me the last draft of the Israelite
Samaritan Torah Translation, first time in English,
looking for high reputation publisher, as it ought to
be as an explosion in the field of Biblical research
to be in any place where it is studied, all over the
world.

[...]

... The Israelite
Samaritan Choir will perform next week as follows:

May 13, at 7:30 p.m in North Western Reform Synagogue,
Golders Green.

May 15, at 6:00pm in St. Ethelburga's Center for Peace
and Conciliation, Near Liverpool Tube station.

May 16. at 7:00PM at Spiro Ark Center for Jewish
Culture.

May 17, at 7:00pm at Spitz, London

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to London next week. But if you will be there, you may want to attend one of the performances. I wish I could.

I'M BACK, at least for the present. Sorry for the long hiatus, but I did need the break to take care of other things. I hope to continue blogging regularly now, but there may be other unscheduled breaks.

Sorry also about the missing archive. It's still in the system, but for some reason the new Blogger system doesn't show it on the blog page. I'll try to figure out how to get it back, time permitting.

Finally, let me just mention that St. Andrews did not fill the two positions for New Testament and Old Testament/Hebrew Bible chairs (i.e., full professorships). So we are about to relaunch the search for both at a more junior level, with a range from Lectureship to Senior Lectureship to Reader. British readers will understand these titles. North Americans and some others may not, but they should think of this as in the range of assistant professor to associate professor. The adverts are cycling through our system, but I will post them as soon as I can.

It's good to be back.

NO BLOGGING FOR A WHILE. I'll be back when I can.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Turkish delegation's report on the Mughrabi Gate excavation should be out in a few days, according to Today's Zaman.

Al-Aqsa report to be presented to PM Erdoğan within days
A report that is being drawn up by a group of technical experts, following an April visit to Jerusalem where they surveyed archeological work near the revered al-Aqsa Mosque, is expected to be finished and introduced to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a few days, Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman said Wednesday.

The Israeli archeological dig near the Muslim holy site sparked widespread protests amid fears that the work could damage the site. The Turkish delegation’s visit to Jerusalem, inspection of the site and eventual preparation of a report are all the result of an agreement reached in early February between Erdoğan and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert, during the latter’s visit to the Turkish capital.

[...]

ARCHAEOLOGIST JODI MAGNESS is profiled by UNC Chapel Hill's Daily Tar Heel:

Students enraptured by Magness' teaching style
By: Deborah Neffa, Staff Writer

While some people have a hard time memorizing a five-minute speech, professor Jodi Magness can talk passionately about religious studies for more than an hour - without using so much as a note card.

About 200 students, some of whom resorted to sitting on the floor of Murphey 116, listened intently Tuesday as Magness narrated a tale about the Roman siege of Masada, a site of ancient palaces in Israel.

And although many typically consider history lectures dry and trite, Magness' unique teaching style of using vivid anecdotes kept students on the edge of their seats.

[...]

TALPIOT TOMB WATCH: The Jerusalem Post notes changes on the Discovery Channel's website.

Jesus tomb film scholars backtrack
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

Several prominent scholars who were interviewed in a bitterly contested documentary that suggests that Jesus and his family members were buried in a nondescript ancient Jerusalem burial cave have now revised their conclusions, including the statistician who claimed that the odds were 600:1 in favor of the tomb being the family burial cave of Jesus of Nazareth, a new study on the fallout from the popular documentary shows.

[...]

Pfann's paper reported that a statement on the Discovery Channel's Web site, which previously read "a statistical study commissioned by the broadcasters...concludes that the probability factor is 600 to 1 in favor of this being the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family," in keeping with Feuerverger's statement, has been altered and now reads, "a statistical study commissioned by the broadcasters... concludes that the probability factor is in the order of 600 to 1 that an equally 'surprising' cluster of names would arise purely by chance under given assumptions."

Another sentence on the same Web site stating that Feuerverger had concluded it was highly probable that the tomb, located in the southeastern residential Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot, was the Jesus family tomb - the central point of the film - has also been changed. It now reads: "It is unlikely that an equally surprising cluster of names would have arisen by chance under purely random sampling."

[...]

Readers of Mark Goodacre's New Testament Gateway blog will have known about this since the middle of March. Once again the mainstream media comes trailing in behind the Blogosphere.

SAMSON AS SUICIDE BOMBER?

Samson, the Jewish suicide bomber
By israelinsider staff April 10, 2007

This April the Canadian Victoria Philharmonic Choir is performing Handel's Samson, but with a different spin, thanks to Artistic Director Simon Capet. The Irishman managed to transform the biblical story of the Samson into the story of a Jewish suicide bomber in pre-state Palestine.

According to the biblical story, Samson has superhuman strength, but fails to follow God's instructions. After being captured and blinded by his enemy, the Philistines, he prays and repents to God and is able to bring down a Philistine temple, thus killing everyone inside, including himself.

Musically, Capet left Handel's work unchanged. However, in the climactic scene in Capet's version, there is no trace of the Philistine temple. Instead, Samson's mother unbuttons her coat, removes the explosives belt she had concealed, and attaches it to Samson's beaten body. She then helps him put on a shirt and he is led offstage. Moments later there is the blast of an explosion and a burst of light offstage.

[...]

The Samson story is morally repugnant in any number of ways, but it's a big stretch to transform him into a suicide bomber. Besides the fact that, as the article notes, there have not been any Jewish suicide bombers. This sounds to me like one of those artsy modernizing adaptations that regularly ruin Shakespeare and the like.

MORE JEWISH-TEMPLE DENIAL, this time from the Chief Palestinian Justice, according to the Palestine News Network:

Dozens of settlers enter grounds of Al Aqsa Mosque
(Jerusalem) Palestine News Network
Sunday, 08 April 2007

After the Chief Palestinian Justice warned of an impending attempt by Jewish fundamentalists to storm Al Aqsa Mosque on Sunday, dozens did.

Sheikh Taysir Al Tamimi said that the support that the Israeli government gives not only to political, but religious extremists, is an illustration of its own fundamentalism. The military did not try to stop the settlers, but instead provided them protection.

“This provocation, for which the military provides full support and protection, directly wrongs the religious feelings of Muslims."

He continued, "It is sinful to desecrate the sanctity of the Mosque and is a flagrant abuse of the role of worship.”

The Sheikh pointed out the political folly of claims that an ancient Jewish temple exists in the area. He said, “The claims of the alleged temple are pure fabrications which fact, archaeologists and history prove wrong. The work of the extremists is contrary to heavenly and divine laws, and also to international law.”

[...]

My emphasis. I'm not sure what the "storming" of the site by religious extremists is about, but whatever happened seems not to have attracted any attention by the major media outlets.

RICHARD FREUND is lecturing on the Cave of the Letters at Washington University in St. Louis:

Dead Sea cave archaeology is focus of Richard Freund lecture, April 20

By Gerry Everding

April 9, 2007 -- Richard Freund, director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford, will discuss "Temple Treasures in the Dead Sea Caves: New Insights from Archaeology" at 11 a.m. April 20 in Room 301, Lab Sciences Building, Danforth Campus.

[...]

TOO BUSY TO BLOG right now and the news seems to be quiet anyhow. But you might want to have a look at posts on blogging and tenure by Mark Goodacre and April DeConick. Also, happy second blogiversary to Tyler Williams's Codex blog. And Pete Williams is blogging on Sogdian and Middle Persian Psalters.

ST. VERONICA has been deleted from the Via Dolorosa by the Vatican because she comes from apocryphal traditions. Tony Chartand-Burke takes exception.

I have no theological stake in this issue, but, for what it's worth, the New Testament quotes from lost and not-so-lost apocrypha and pseudepigrapha from time to time (see, e.g., 2 Timothy 3:8 and Jude 9 and 14-15). So in purely historical terms the biblical corpus cannot be sharply separated from noncanonical texts.

ANNIE JAUBERT'S THEORY that Jesus celebrated the Last Supper according to the Qumran solar calendar seems to have been mentioned recently by the Pope. The theory, first published half a century ago in French, is being "hailed as radical" by the press.

ANOTHER 60TH-ANNIVERSARY ROUNDUP on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Looks like an accurate and well done summary of the mainstream scholarly views on the Scrolls.

Dead Sea Scrolls fuel imagination

Found 60 years ago, they remain iconic

By Craig Nelson
Cox News Service
April 8, 2007

KIBBUTZ KALIA, Israel -- Whenever fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls are put on exhibition anywhere in the world, throngs of religious believers crowd in front of display cases.

The fragments are faded, some even black, with age and the effects of the amino acids in the animal skins on which they were written. Most are illegible.

Still, the ancient scrolls, discovered 60 years ago this year, have an enduring grip on the imagination and offer important insights of life in ancient Israel at the dawn of Christianity.

[...]

HAPPY EASTER to all those celebrating. More on Easter here.

ANNE WIDDECOMBE on Jeffrey Archer on Judas. Whew!

Excerpt:

Not even the severest critics of Jeffrey Archer can deny his style. Recognising the need for scholastic input to give some verisimilitude to his fiction, he doesn't bother with the local priest, but goes to the Vatican and one of the greatest living scriptural scholars, Professor Francis Moloney, whom he persuades to get heavily involved. If nothing else, it will ensure that The Gospel According to Judas will not endure the indignity, inflicted on The Da Vinci Code, of being greeted with a published rebuttal, whatever heresy it may contain (eg that Jesus was the actual son of Joseph).

Archer wrote this book knowing that everyone would draw parallels with his own life, although I defy anyone to imagine him going off to the obscurity of some latter-day Essenes. Can a reputation be rescued? Can the reviled man be reinvented as a hero? Can the man shunned become the man venerated?

Interesting. But please don't waste your time on Who Moved The Stone?

TWO NEW GUGGENHEIM FELLOWS at Brown University are worthy of note here:

* Susan Harvey, a professor of religious studies, who specializes in late antique and Byzantine Christianity, focusing on Syriac studies. She is widely published in the fields of asceticism, hagiography, women and gender, hymnography, homiletics, and piety in late antique Christianity. Harvey will work on her current book project, “Teaching Women: Biblical Women and Women’s Choirs in Syriac Tradition.”

* Michael L. Satlow, an associate professor of Judaic studies and religious studies, whose specialty is early Judiasm. A member of the board of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and a co-editor of the Brown Judaic studies series, he earned his Ph.D. in ancient Judaism from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Satlow will investigate how the Jews of late antiquity understood their relationship with God, in a project titled “Jewish Piety in Late Antiquity.”

Congratulations to Professors Harvey and Satlow, and to the other Fellows listed as well.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS were discovered sixty years ago this month. More or less. Maybe.

60 years and still scrolls a mystery

Apr 07, 2007 04:30 AM
Stuart Laidlaw
Faith and Ethics Reporter (Toronto Star)

Sixty years ago this month, a poor Bedouin shepherd named Muhammed edh-Dhib cut down a series of parchments hanging in his tent and handed them to his older cousins, who had contacts in the shadowy world of antiquities in nearby Bethlehem.

Convinced they had nothing of real value on their hands, but needing money, Juma and Khalil walked into the shop of Khalil Eskander Shahin, better known by the nickname Kando, and sold the scrolls for £5, or about $10. Kando later resold them for five times that, a tidy profit.

Today, they are priceless and better known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Popular legend surrounding the scrolls says, several months earlier, 16-year-old edh-Dhib was looking for lost sheep and became convinced they were in a cave on the edge of the Dead Sea. Throwing a rock in the cave to scare the sheep out, he heard the sound of breaking pottery.

[...]

Looks like a pretty good article on the story of the discovery of the Scrolls.

A DIRECTOR has been chosen for NYU's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World:

NYU Antiquities Center Director Is Named
Institutions

By GARY SHAPIRO (New York Sun)
April 5, 2007

New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World has named a classics professor and former Graduate School dean at Columbia University, Roger Bagnall, as its first director.

[...]

For more on the Institute, see here and follow the links back.

TODAY IS GOOD FRIDAY. More info here.

THE BRITISH LIBRARY has announced a forthcoming important exhibition of sacred texts:

Jewish Christian And Muslim Sacred Texts Exhibition At BL

The British Library is proud to announce that HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, are the royal patrons of its forthcoming exhibition, Sacred: Discover what we share, which presents some of the world’s earliest-surviving, most important and beautiful religious texts from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.

[...]

Sacred sees priceless examples of the Torah, New Testament and Qur’an mounted alongside each other – not individually in separate zones. The texts will be treated thematically, exploring points in common, looking at the ways in which they have been produced, interpreted and used. By integrating material in this way, the exhibition will demonstrate how these faiths have interacted and influenced one another, and will enable visitors to learn about all three alongside each other.

The exhibition explores inter faith attitudes in the UK both today and in the past and takes a look at community and schools projects from around Britain.

The exhibition is part of the Library’s long-term plans to feature other major world faiths which are represented within its collections.

Among the treasures to be displayed are:

* Codex London: One of the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, which are central to Jewish worship. The traditional Jewish view is that these five books were written by the Prophet Moses at divine dictation. This rare early copy was made in the Middle East, perhaps Palestine, in the 10th century.

* Codex Sinaiticus: It is the oldest complete manuscript of the New Testament and the earliest and best witness for some books of the Old Testament as well. This copy of the New Testament in Greek is absolutely key in the history of Christian textual scholarship. It was produced around 350 AD, possibly in Palestine, but its name derives from the still active Monastery of Saint Catherine near the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt where it was preserved for many centuries.

* Ma'il Qur'an: One of the earliest Qur’ans in the world to have survived, this dates from the beginning of the 8th century AD. That equates to the 1st century in the Muslim Hijri calendar, which means that this manuscript was penned within 100 years of a key event in the founding of Islam i.e. the hejira or flight of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD to escape his enemies. It was produced on the Arabian peninsula, probably in or near the holy cities of Islam.

* Syriac Pentateuch: The earliest known dated Biblical manuscript. This copy of the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in Syriac is the earliest known dated Biblical manuscript. It was written by Deacon John at Amida (modern Diyarbakir in south eastern Turkey) in 463. Syriac was the language of the Syrian Church which extended across modern Turkey, Syria and Iraq. This version of the Bible (known as the Peshitta or 'simple' version) became important as the origin of most of the translations made into other languages of the Eastern churches, including Armenian.

[...]

And more! This sounds like a superb project. The article has the usual sort of glitches, such as giving the impression that the whole of Codex Sinaiticus will be displayed (only part of it is in Britain and I doubt they are gather all the surviving leaves from the other sites). It also refers to the Book of "Revelations," which should be "Revelation."

HEROD THE GREAT is to be the subject of a lecture at Bryn Mawr:

Archaeologist Brings Historical Perspective
To the Reign of a Biblical Villain

Each year, the C. Denismore Curtis Lecture is presented by a speaker chosen by the graduate students of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology. This year, the students have extended the honor to University of Cincinnati archaeologist Barbara Burrell, who will provide an historical perspective on Herod the Great, a biblical figure long reviled in the West. She will deliver the lecture, titled "Conquering Nature: Herod the Great's Caesarea," on Friday, April 13, at 5 p.m., in Carpenter B21. The lecture is free and open to the public; those who wish to meet Burrell are invited to tea in the Quita Woodward Room at 4 p.m.

ONE OF MY BOOKS with Brill is on sale this month at half price. Marinke de Rooij e-mails the following information. Get 'em while they're hot!

I would like to inform you that your title, Descenders to the Chariot - The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature, published in 2001 by Brill, will be available as the monthly special offer of our Biblical Studies & Religious Studies E-Bulletin in April. In case you are not yet familiar with the Brill E-Bulletins I kindly refer you to the attached March edition of this free monthly newsletter, announcing per subject area new and forthcoming titles, new journal ToCs, book reviews, news about our program and a special offer. And as said, this month your title was selected and will be available at 50% discount from 15 April till 15 May 2007: Special offer price EUR 69 / US$ 93. This offer is open to all E-Bulletin subscribers and any interested parties (no additional discounts apply), so please feel free to spread the word. I of course hope you would then also endorse a subscription to this E-Bulletin, as this is a guarantee of receiving the latest information from Brill plus the opportunity to be the first to profit from any special offers and free trials we have for you.

In addition, I would like to update you on one of the links on your webpage for the Journals Online. As of 2007, the journal Aramaic Studies is available from Brill. Access to the online content from Brill can be found at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/arst
With the transition to Brill, we have seized the opportunity to significantly lower the subscription rates to Aramaic Studies. Individual subscription rates for 2007 are now at EUR 54 / US$ 69. For more information please see www.brill.nl/arst.

BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL XVI has been posted by Brandon Wason at the Novum Testamentum blog. Also, Brandon interviews James Tabor as Blogger of the Month at Biblioblogs.com.

APOCRYPHA WATCH: Juditha Triumphans, by Vivaldi, is playing in Boston.

Baroque delivers a rare Vivaldi in vivid color

By Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff | April 2, 2007

Boston Baroque's current season leans rather heavily on greatest hits of the repertoire such as "Don Giovanni," "Messiah," and Beethoven's Fifth. But music director Martin Pearlman also has a nose for sniffing out music that flies a bit below the radar screen -- not exactly obscure but performed rarely enough to perk up the ears. Last year in the rediscovery department was Cherubini's noble yet neglected C minor Requiem (just out on CD); this season it is Vivaldi's only surviving oratorio, "Juditha Triumphans," which the group performed vibrantly on Saturday night in Jordan Hall.

It is a lovely and somewhat peculiar work, written in 1716 for the girls of the orphanage where Vivaldi worked, and labeled "A Sacred Military Oratorio." It adapts a story from the apocrypha featuring Juditha, a Jewish widow who, in order to save her embattled city, seduces and later beheads Holofernes , a general of Nebuchadnezzar's army. The libretto by Giacomo Cassetti gets pretty gory -- in one recitative, Judith urges her servant Abra to put the general's severed head in a bag as they make their escape -- and Vivaldi's vocal writing sometimes seems more concerned with florid display than with deeply probing the complexities of his characters' plights. But the music is consistently imaginative -- and occasionally breathtaking -- in its use of orchestral color.

[...]

ELAINE PAGELS is interviewed about the Gospel of Judas etc. in the San Francisco Chronicle. Once again, there is no mention of the contrary scholarly reading that Judas is as evil as ever in the Gospel of Judas. But it's still a very interesting interview and well worth the read.

AN ANTIQUITIES EXHIBITION IN DALLAS includes some Dead Sea Scrolls:

Dallas museum exhibits artifacts from Jesus time
April 3, 2007

By ASHLIE YOUNG
Reporter (Baylor Lariat)

The smell of hot lentils and garlic wafts through the air amid scrolls of Biblical text and bone boxes of men who have been dead for centuries.

Wild treasures lay along every wall, scenes of ancient days coming to life.

Clay squishes and forms into pots as sand seeps through fingers digging for artifacts.

For the first time in history, people will have the chance to step back in time and experience life the way it was centuries ago, the way it was when Jesus walked the earth.

Dallas Fair Park is holding "Ancient Treasures of the Holy Land," the largest cultural exhibit of Holy Land antiquities in U.S. history nearly 30,000 square feet.

Artifacts date back from the time of Abraham until after the death of Jesus, laid out in chronological order.

"This exhibit is the culmination of many years of dreaming, planning and conceptualizing," general manager Dennis Malone said.

"Many people want to go to Israel but can't. So we are bringing it to them "Ancient Treasures of the Holy Land" paints the story of Israel and Jewish heritage."

More than 350 priceless artifacts, many never seen outside their native countries, have been brought together to allow viewers to see the real story.

Displayed items include the ossuary, or bone boxes, believed to have contained the bones of both Simon of Cyrenia, who carried the cross of Jesus, and his son Alexander; large portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Leviticus and Deuteronomy; wall decorations from the Ivory Palace of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel; inscriptions more than 4,000 years old from Abraham's home in the city of Ur; ancient coins and weaponry, including a sword dating back to 2200 B.C.; and many other artifacts from Masada, Qumran, the City of David and Egypt.

[...]

HAPPY PASSOVER to those celebrating. The Festival of Passover began yesterday evening at sundown. (I meant to note it then, but Blogger was down.) More info here.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The plan of the new Sanhedrin to sacrifice sheep on the Temple Mount has been nixed by the Israeli High Court of Justice.

Court prevents groups from sacrificing live animals at Temple Mount
By Nadav Shargai and Amiram Barkat , Haaretz Correspondent

In their efforts to sacrifice a live animal at the Temple Mount, the New Sanhedrin Council adopted an almost underground modus operandi. Rabbis Adin Steinsaltz, Israel Ariel, Yishai Baved and their associates secretly located a butcher, found a Cohen hailing from a lineage 1,000 years old and worked out a plan to quickly erect an alter on the Temple Mount.

They tried to revive the customs of the ancient Sanhedrin tribunal, which was the highest judicial body for the Jewish people in Israel some 1,600 years ago. They sought to slaughter a sacrificial animal across from the Western Wall.

The activists, who belong to various religious circles such as the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, also petitioned the High Court of Justice for the right to perform the ritual.

Their plans were thwarted on Sunday when the court rejected their request, ruling that "the rights of the petitioners to practice their faith are outweighed by other considerations such as public order and safety."

[...]

MORE ON THE NEW (?) JESUS APOCRYPHON located by Tony Chartrand-Burke. Over at Apocryphicity he writes:

Several weeks ago I posted the beginning and ending of a fragment of a text I referred to as the “Funeral of Jesus” which I recently came across in a manuscript catalogue entry. I have since obtained the manuscript and have begun the process of deciphering the text. This is no easy task. While the manuscript is well-preserved, the proliferation of abbreviations makes reading the text quite difficult. I offer this preliminary report on the text with the hope of generating some discussion on its contents. Though I believe the text has never been published, I am curious whether anyone in the field has encountered it before.

For a description and summary of the text, go have a look.

ASSIMILATED TO THE BLOGOSPHERE: Steve Caruso has a new Aramaic Blog, which has been discussing, inter alia, the epigraphic material from the Talpiot tomb. Plus, he'll sell you an Aramaic tattoo. Don't embarrass yourself with an error-ridden one by a second-rater!

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke.

(Via the New Testament Gateway blog.)

JOHN DOMINIC CROSSAN review a new Gospel of Judas book by Elaine Pagels and Karen King in the Washington Post:

Embracing Judas
A recently translated gospel argues that betraying Jesus was the right thing to do.

Reviewed by John Dominic Crossan
Sunday, April 1, 2007; Page BW11

READING JUDAS

The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity

By Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King

Viking. 198 pp. $24.95

The Christian Gospels are surprisingly ridden with conflict. Each one -- whether officially part of the New Testament or not -- contains a sometimes acrimonious debate about faith or practice, theology or authority, this leader or that one.

In the recently published Gospel of Judas, for example, that archetypal traitor becomes the only true believer, the one who "lifted up his eyes . . . saw the luminous cloud and . . . entered into it." The gospel was discovered sometime in the 1970s along with some other texts in a papyrus book in Egypt. The original 2nd-century Greek text had been translated into Coptic -- the Egyptian language using the Greek alphabet -- in the 4th century. This version was stored inadequately, protected irresponsibly and bartered greedily for maximum profit. Finally, last year, the badly damaged gospel received expert preservation, scholarly restoration and public presentation by the National Geographic Society.

In their slim but excellent Reading Judas, Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King rightly focus on the text's ancient and provocative theology rather than on the codex's modern and tortured history, with King also providing a new and very well annotated translation of this early Christian document.

[...]

Once again, there is no acknowledgment that the Judas-as-a-good-guy interpretation of the text is strongly contested by some specialists.

POEMS RELATED TO ARCHAEOLOGY, including Lord Byron's Destruction of Sennacherib, are being collected by K. Kris Hirst at About: Archaeology.

JAMES KUGEL notes that in the Bible God is not omniscient or omnipresent:

Envisioning a God with a body

The all-knowing, invisible God, we think of today isn't present in early chapters of the Bible, Jewish scholar James Kugel (right) says. Instead, those texts describe a walking, talking deity who travels from place to place

MIRKO PETRICEVIC (Waterloo Record)

(Mar 31, 2007)

Contrary to popular opinion, God in the earliest books of the Bible didn't know all things.

Nor did He exist everywhere, all at once, James Kugel says.

Instead, the God of Israel was a walking, talking deity who needed to seek clarification from time to time, the world-renowned Jewish scholar observed during a recent public lecture at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo.

[...]

God also experiments and sometimes gets it wrong and has to initiate damage control (e.g., Genesis 6), and he sometimes has to be talked out of rash decisions (e.g., Exodus 32).

ANNE RICE'S JESUS NOVEL is being made into a movie in Israel according to this press release:

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt' to Shoot in Israel This October

LOS ANGELES, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT, the motion picture based on Anne Rice's best-selling novel about Christ's early years, will begin shooting in Israel this October. Good News Holdings' decision to make the film in Israel has the full support of the Israeli government and casting has begun in Israel to find the boy who will play Jesus at the age of 7. A theatrical release is planned for Fall 2008.

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TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

First Temple wall found in City of David
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

A wall from the First Temple was recently uncovered in Jerusalem's City of David, strengthening the claim that it is the site of the palace of King David.

The new find, made by Dr. Eilat Mazar, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center's Institute for the Archeology of the Jewish People, comes less than two years after she said she had discovered the palace's location at the site just outside the walls of the Old City.

The monumental 10th century BCE building found by Mazar in 2005 following a six month dig has ignited debate among archaeologists about whether it is indeed the palace built for the victorious David by King Hiram of Tyre as recounted in Samuel II:5.

A 20-meter-long section of the 7-meter-thick wall has now been uncovered. It indicates that the City of David once served as a major government center, Mazar said.

Mazar estimates less than a quarter of the entire wall has been uncovered so far, and says that it is the largest site from King David's time ever to have been discovered.

The dig is sponsored by the capital's Shalem Center, with academic backing from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

There has to be an error here, perhaps just a word inadvertently omitted. Mazar must have said that she found a wall from the First Temple period, not a wall from the First Temple itself. Any surviving wall of the Temple would be buried under the Temple Mount platform and could not be excavated. It sounds as though this wall is actually from the monumental building she found earlier.

I'm extremely busy today and am unlikely to get in much blogging. But I did want to comment on this.

(Via Joseph I. Lauer.)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

First synagogue facing Temple Mount to be built
By ELAZAR LEVIN / BUSINESS POST (Jerusalem Post)

The only synagogue in the world overlooking the Temple Mount will be built in the High Commissioner's Residence neighborhood in the southern part of Jerusalem. The project, titled 'Nof Zion' (view of Zion) is run by the Digal company, owned by Yehuda Levi and Meir Shamir.

The NIS six million investment was made entirely by donations of contractors and others. The synagogue will be built as a part of a neighborhood containing a hotel with 150 rooms and 475 apartments overlooking the Mount.

The synagogue, which will have a dome over it, will be two kilometers from the Temple Mount, but no building will obstruct the prayers from the holy location, and they will feel as if they are standing right next to it. The synagogue will be constructed by the "Bnei Zion Association" led by Yehuda Levi and his wife Betty.

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PETE WILLIAMS, in his new role as Warden of Tyndale House, is profiled in Christian Today (not to be confused with Christianity Today). Pete, who is departing from Aberdeen University, is a prominent figure on the British New Testament scholarly scene and is a frequent contributor to the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog.

MICHAEL BAIGENT AND RICHARD LEIGH have lost their appeal in the Da Vinci Code copyright case and they now face three million pounds in legal fees.

Novelist Dan Brown wins 'The Da Vinci Code' copyright infringement case in London

By Danica Kirka
ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:44 a.m. March 28, 2007

LONDON – Britain's Court of Appeal rejected a lawsuit Wednesday from two authors who claimed novelist Dan Brown stole their ideas for his blockbuster novel “The Da Vinci Code.”

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh had sued Brown's publisher, Random House Inc., claiming he had copied from their 1982 nonfiction book, “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.”

[...]

Such is the fate of over-reachers.

AN APOCRYPHAL COOKBOOK FROM THE TIME OF MOSES!!!

Ancient Israelites Snacked on 'Pizzoh,' Historians Reveal
By Bob Michael March 26, 2007

RAS SASAFEH, Egypt. -- The discovery of an apocryphal cookbook, likely written in the time of Moses, promises to change Passover traditions worldwide.

"The Israelites had a pretty limited menu, and frankly they were bored," said Biblical scholar Ruth Meqabyan. "We have strong evidence that they began to sculpt exotic cuisine in dough in order to alleviate the crunchy boredom of matzoh."

Adornments included the addition of olives, figs, lentils, medallions of whole-roasted lamb, and grated manna.

The decorated flatbread, called 'pizzoh,' resembled Neopolitan-style thin-crust pizza. Deep-dish variants required over eighteen pounds of flour per serving.

[...]

Another cutting-edge discovery from the Weekly World News.

(Heads-up, Tony Chartrand-Burke.)

MARK GOODACRE has another Talpiot tomb update over at the New Testament Gateway blog. Thanks also to Mark for the blogiversary good wishes.

Also, Mark notes an updated Coptic grammar for those responding to April DeConicks call, as Mark puts it, "for compulsory Coptic for all." My Coptic is rusty these days but, like Mark, I like Lambdin's grammar, which I got back in the 1980s. I'm sorry to hear that it is now hard to find. And a commenter to Mark's post writes plaintively, "By DeConick's reasoning, Latin, Syriac, Greek, and Coptic all need to be compulsory." Well yeah.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Turkish team to present report on excavation this week
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

A group of Turkish experts that went to Israel last week to visit a controversial excavation site will present a report to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday or Friday.

[...]

THE JUDAS NOVEL by Archer and Moloney is already being parodied (in the Guardian). Excerpt:

Chapter 3

1. The treacherous Scribe tried to get Judas to betray Jesus, but he refused.

2. Judas understood the writings of Ezekiel far better than Jesus and the other disciples, but they didn't want to listen. So they never understood the true meaning of the Son of Man.

3. Judas also tried to tell the disciples what Jesus had meant by, "Get thee behind me, Satan." But they did not want to learn the subtleties of ancient Aramaic so Judas said unto them: "Verily, it is your loss."

Verily, verily.

FACILE GRAND HISTORICAL COMPARISON ALERT: Usually these involve America being the Roman Empire. This one in the American Chronicle is at least novel: The EU gets to be the Manichaeans.

50 Years of European Manichaeism

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
March 25, 2007

What European politicians and statesmen, intellectuals and philosophers tried to exorcise with the most ardent fervor is precisely what they have immutably been so far: Manichaean!

[...]

Around the middle of the 6th century, Manichæism seemed to have died out in Western Europe, but in reality it survived through a number of secret societies down to the times of the Paulicians and Bogomili. When the latter were driven out by the Byzantine emperors, they met with groups in the North of Italy and the South of France whereby the quintessence of Manichaean teachings had survived, and they merged with them, giving successively birth to the formidable Cathars, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and the Free Masons.

The Manichaean Nature of today’s Europe

Two diametrically opposed groups of power for various reasons supported the rise of a European Union, trying - each one - to pull the institutions under formation close to their own ideals. We attest these two groups in frontal battle of ideas and concepts, not followers and armies thus far.

The Catholic pledge for Christian Europe clashes with the Free Masonic concept of a secular Europe; associations fight against or in favor of abortion, and issues like Euthanasia have risen to points of discord. Homosexual marriages and homo-parental legislation have become issues of fundamental political determination. Soon or later, Europe – united or not – will have to choose between two diametrically opposed groups that have shaped its History, leading Europeans to battlefields and death.

In parallel with this ideological confrontation between the Catholic church and the descendants of European Manichaeism, another issue should draw more attention; even if eliminated at the ideological level, Manichaean dualism reigns in the sphere of political language and behaviour.

Suffice it that we refer to the highly symbolic Berlin Declaration that is expected to be signed in terms of a 50 years European panegyric, and we are met with an abundance of duplicitous statements that are made to hide realities and to unveil imaginative considerations.

[...]

The essay includes a long summary of the history of the Manichaean movement. Use at your own risk; I'm not familiar enough with the details of this history to be confident of catching errors. I'm not sure I follow the overall argument (the core of which I have tried to excerpt here), but have a look if such things amuse you.

THE NEW JUDAS NOVEL by Archer and Moloney is excerpted by MSNBC:

Novelist pens fourth gospel
New book looks at the story of Jesus through the eyes of Judas

Updated: 6:18 p.m. ET March 26, 2007

"The Gospel According to Judas," published simulataneously in eight languages this month, is a fictionalized account of the life of Jesus purportedly written by Judas’ son, Benjamin. Authored by novelist Jeffrey Archer and biblical scholar Francis J. Moloney, the book follows the style of the gospels to offer what some reviewers say is a more sympathetic portrayal of Judas. Archer and Maloney were invited to talk about their book on TODAY. Here is an excerpt:

Chapters one and two of the book follow.

Note to MSNBC: There are already four gospels.

UPDATE: Speaking of Judas, this is tantalizing. Stay tuned!

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA IRANICA IS UP TO VOLUME "G":

U.S.-funded encyclopedia revels in Iran's greatness

Jim Krane, Canadian Press
Published: Monday, March 26, 2007

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The Christian concepts of heaven and hell originated in Iran. The Jewish holy Talmud is littered with Iranian words and ideas. And some Iranians cherish the Israeli city of Haifa as a sacred place.

These are among the fascinating nuggets in the Encyclopedia Iranica, a sprawling project that since 1973 has sought to distill 5,000 years of Iranian history, geography and life and has produced 45 blue-bound volumes proclaiming Iran's greatness.

"Today more than at any other time we need to keep our Iranian culture alive," Iranica's director Ehsan Yarshater told an audience of 350 Iranians at a fundraiser in Dubai last month. The glitzy dinner, concert and auction raised US$100,000 for a project that will take an estimated $20 million - and another decade or so - to finish.

The Iranian government bitterly opposes the encyclopedia, and the U.S. government backs it. More than half of the encyclopedia's budget comes from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities, which has funded it as a project of major cultural significance since 1979 - the same year Iranian students occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

"Once completed it will be a magnificent gift to our children and the generations to come," said Yarshater, an Iran scholar at Columbia University in New York.

The encyclopedia is Yarshater's life work. Now a frail 86-year-old with Parkinson's disease, he started the encyclopedia 32 years ago, just after leaving Iran. The project threatens to outlast him. Another Columbia Iranologist, Ahmad Ashraf, will take over leadership of the project if Yarshater dies before completing it.

Only 13 volumes of the English-language encyclopedia have yet been published, up to the letter G. It's been so slow that managers have abandoned the one-letter-at-a-time approach and are soliciting all remaining articles at once.

[...]

Concepts such as the survival of a person's soul after death, the Day of Judgment, heaven and hell, and holy angels all derive from Iran's surviving Zoroastrian faith, a 3,000-year-old religion that predates Islam and Christianity, the encyclopedia says. Iran's hard-liners also frown on the Zoroastrian beliefs.

I think that the claims in the article about Iranian influence on Judaism are a bit inflated. Resurrection, Judgement Day, heaven and hell, and angels are all concepts logically flowing out of the religion of ancient Israel, although it is clear that parallel ideas in Iranian religion had some influence on the development of these concepts in Judaism.

I AM DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE that the New Testament Lectureship recently advertised by the University of St. Andrews has now been offered to Dr. Grant Macaskill and he has accepted the offer. Grant is currently a British Academy Fellow at St. Mary's College and we welcome him anew as he prepares to take up the role of Lecturer in September.

TALPIOT TOMB WATCH: Just a couple of blog posts to note. James Tabor summarizes his case for a connection between the Talpiot tomb and Jesus' family in "The Talpiot Jesus Tomb: An Overview." And Tony Chartrand-Burke has a post on "The Jesus Tomb and Christian Apocrypha."

And, as ever, Mark Goodacre continues to post on the subject at the New Testament Gateway Blog.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The self-appointed new Sanhedrin reportedly wants to sacrifice sheep on the Temple Mount for Passover:

Sanhedrin plans for sacrifice of sheep

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

In a donated apartment concealed among the narrow streets of the Jerusalem suburb of Nahlaot, 13 Orthodox Jewish men meet every Tuesday to debate matters of Jewish law. They are the management team of a larger developing Sanhedrin, or religious court, in Israel.

They plan to sacrifice sheep on the Temple Mount on the day before or one month after Passover, which will start at sundown April 2. Either date is permissible under Jewish law. "If the government will not resist," said Rabbi Dov Stein, 68, a member of the group, "we will do it."

As Easter eclipses the last days of Passover this year, Christians will focus again on the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. The Sanhedrin, meanwhile, will literally attempt to resurrect the Passover sacrifice of old.

For these Jews, the sacrificial Passover offering is not their redemption per se, yet it is vital to the process.

The Passover sacrifice is the latest of more than 40 legal decisions issued by the modern Sanhedrin. Seventy-one Orthodox men revived the court more than two years ago in the city of Tiberius, the geographical spot that they believe marked the final days of the Sanhedrin a few hundred years after the time of Jesus.

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I don't think that much of anyone is going to receive this plan with enthusiasm.