UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGIST BEVERLY GOODMAN is profiled in Israel21c:

Israel's freshest face in archeology works underwater
By Karin Kloosterman
February 06, 2008

Before the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami hit Asia, Beverly Goodman had an impossible time explaining her research to peers. Since the catastrophic tidal wave struck, she has been able to remove about 10 slides from her presentation.

She makes no light of the event, but was surprised to see how overnight the world had educated itself about this unique force of nature, which was then, and remains today, an important focal point of her research.

Goodman, 33, is an underwater archeologist who has invented new underwater coring methods to better understand climatic events at sea and in lakes. Her research tracks historical changes in the environment - such as tsunamis - and how these changes have impacted people and coastlines.

Her research may give science new clues about the coastal environment in the context of global warming. Are the seas rising? Could a melting glacier break off and create a tsunami? Will storms and floods increase as the earth warms?

Goodman's questions might be more local in nature, but her work has global significance by adding to the information science holds about earth events and climate change.

Sifting through broken shells and sediment from coring samples, she has determined that at least three ancient tsunamis struck Israel's port of Caesarea in the past. Concurrently, she also works in the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba to determine how local flood cycles and sea levels have changed over time.

[...]

TWO BLEGS: Both regular and recent readers will be aware that I'm translating a Hebrew text for the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project which contains legends about the hiding of the treasures of Solomon's Temple before it was destroyed by the Babylonians. It's called Massekhet Kelim, the Treatise of the Vessels. I'm currently writing the introduction, and two questions have come up which I think are worth asking PaleoJudaica readers. One is easy and one is a long shot.

1. The easy one is this. Josephus gives a date for the completion of Solomon's Temple in Antiquities 8.61: three thousand one hundred and two years after the creation of Adam. The Treatise of the Vessels gives a similar, but not identical date from the creation. Can any readers tell me if any rabbinic texts also give a date for the building of Solomon's Temple in relation to the creation? How about Josippon?

2. This is the hard one. One of the two textual sources for the Treatise of the Vessels is inscribed on two marble plaques that seem to have been made in Beirut. (The other source is Jellinek's Bet ha-Midrasch, II, xxvi-xxvii and 88-91.) J. T. Milik in his article "Notes d'épigraphie et de topographie palestiniennes," RB 66 (1959): 550-75 writes the following:

Un doublet de ce "Traité des vases sacrés" se lit sur les plaques de Beyrouth. C'est M. l'abbé Jean Starkey qui m'en a raconté l'histoire. Il y a un bon nombre d'années, on lui montra dans une maison de Beyrouth plusieurs plaques de marbre gravées de lettres en relief. Il semble qu'elles étaient destinées à une synagogue de Syrie ou du Liban. Elles contenaient le texte entier d'Ézéchiel mais sur les deux dernièrs plaques se trouvaient inscrites l'histoire d'un trésor du mont Carmel et les descriptions d'autres cachettes sacrées. M. Starkey photographia l'avant-dernière plaque (pl. XIV) et copia quelques lignes de la dernière. Il m'a passé aimablement ces matériaux et j'ai réussi à identifier une grande partie du texte des deux plaques avec le Traité des vases susmentionné.

That translates more or less into:

A doublet of this "Treatise of the Holy Vessels" is read on the "plaques of Beirut." It was his Reverence Jean Starkey who recounted to me the story. A good number of years ago someone showed him in a house in Beirut several plaques of marble engraved with letters in relief. It seems that they were intended for a synagogue of Syria or Lebanon. They contained the entire text of Ezekiel, but on the last two plaques were found inscribed the story of a treasure of Mount Carmel and the descriptions of other sacred caches. Mr. Starkey photographed the next-to-last plaque (pl. XIV) and copied some lines from the last. He has kindly passed these materials to me and I have succeeded in identifying a large part of the text of these two plaques with the above-mentioned Treatise of the Vessels.

Milik then published Starkey's photograph and transcription of the plaques.

My question is, have any PaleoJudaica readers ever encountered these plaques or any word of them? I would be grateful for any information anyone can supply about their whereabouts after 1959 and especially now.

As I said, this is a long shot, but it seems worth a try. Incidentally, I have already checked the catalogue of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts in Jerusalem and the only manuscript of this text they have on record is copied from a printed edition I already knew about. So any possibility of getting new textual information for this document seems to depend on locating those marble plaques.

If anyone has an answer to either of these blegs, please drop me a note at the address in the masthead.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE (9 February): Thanks to reader Menachem Brody for pointing me to Seder Olam Rabba 15 for the first bleg. As for the second, another reader has given me a promising lead, which I shall follow up. I'll let you know if something comes of it.

RENAISSANCE CHRISTIAN KABBALIST Pico della Mirandola was murdered.

Medici philosopher's mystery death is solved

By Malcolm Moore, Rome Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:35am GMT 07/02/2008 (The Telegraph)

After 500 years, one of Renaissance Italy's most enduring murder mysteries has been solved by forensic scientists.

Ever since Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, a mystical and mercurial philosopher at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, suddenly became sick and died in 1494, it has been rumoured that foul play was involved.

Scientists display the bones of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Medici philosopher's mystery death is solved
Scientists display the bones of
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Pico's fame has faded, but he was a celebrated figure at the Medici court.

He gained notoriety when, at the age of 23, he offered to defend 900 of his opinions on philosophy and religion against all-comers.

His subsequent tract, The Oration on the Dignity of Man, has been called the "manifesto of the Renaissance".

However, he died aged 31 - two years after Lorenzo - together with a man who might have been his lover, Antonio Ambrosini, who was also known as Poliziano.

Last July, a team of scientists from the universities of Bologna, Pisa and Lecce exhumed the two corpses and subjected them to a battery of tests.

The scientists used biomolecular technology and scanning equipment as well as DNA analysis to find a cause.

Yesterday they concluded that both men had been poisoned with arsenic, after finding a toxic quantity in their bones.

[...]

Lorenzo was charmed by Pico, who was essentially a Platonic philosopher influenced by Oriental mysticism.

He became famous for his incredible memory and his knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic.

However, Pico's close friendship with Girolamo Savonarola, the fanatical Dominican friar, appears to have earned him the enmity of Lorenzo's son, Piero de' Medici.

The forensic scientists believe it was Piero who ordered Pico's death.

Savonarola, who was invited to Florence by Pico, repeatedly preached against the Medicis, urging Florentines to reject the excesses of the Renaissance.

Works by Botticelli and Michelangelo were burned during the "Bonfire of the Vanities" in 1497, when the monk's followers set fire to lavish furniture, mirrors, pagan books and immoral sculptures in the Piazza della Signora.

[...]

Not a nice bunch for a hapless philologist and philosopher to get mixed up with.

MCCAIN AS JUDAH MACCABEE?

Other analogies thrive. Joe Lieberman, who was at John McCain's side Tuesday night, thinks his colleague might be Judah Macabee, a reference to the warrior whose victory over the Greeks is commemorated in the celebration of Hannukah. "He's got that spirit," Mr. Lieberman told the Forward, the Jewish daily newspaper in New York. The Connecticut senator is credited with helping not only with the Jewish turnout for Mr. McCain in Florida, but for helping with the Cubans, who aren't Jewish, too.

I wonder who gets to be Antiochus Epiphanes.

THE GREEK TEXTS OF THE MASSIVE MIGNE EDITION OF THE GREEK FATHERS is available online, as noted by Andrew Criddle at Hypotyposes. This caught my eye because several of the texts being translated for the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project are included in this corpus and thus are now available online in their original Greek. These include the following. Click on the links to download the pdf files.

The Story of Melchizedek is incorrectly attributed to Athanasias: Historia de Melchisedech. Another Melchizedek story is preserved in the Chronicon paschale.

The story of Zechariah and King Joash is summarized (from an ancient Hebrew writing reportedly found by a monastic superior of a community at Gerari) in Hermias Sozomenos, Historia ecclesiastica 9.17 (PG 67.1269b).

The story of The Rich Man and the Precious Stone is summarized in Georgius Monachus Hamartolos, Chronicon (not sure of the reference) and also in Georgius Cedrenus, Compendium historiarum 1.193-94 (PG 121.226-228).

UPDATE: Alex Panayotov e-mails:

Just a note on your posting about the Greek site with the PG. The site has been around for about three years, but they published only the core texts, the introductions, notes, Latin translations, addenda, corrigenda, etc, are not included.

The full edition is available only on CDs (in PDF and TIFF format) from different Chrisian organisations. Some of the volumes are also uploaded on Google Books.

I thought it had been around for awhile, but I've not mentioned it before. I noticed that it only contains the Greek texts; perhaps I should have pointed that out.

THE MORE OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA PROJECT got some media coverage today in a nice article in the Scottish Daily Express. Unfortunately it's not online, but I'll type out the first part:

Scots Scholars unlock ancient texts' secrets

by Tom Fullerton

THEY'RE not light reading, but they are tomes worth persevering with since they reveal warnings of the Apocalypse and mysteries of the Final Judgment and Hell.

The oldest of the texts being pored over by Scots experts was written between 700 and 800 BC and and has a "vision of the gods" portending disaster and the overturning of human institutions.

For two years, 40 academics from eight countries, led by experts from St. Andrews University, have been translating more than 60 ancient documents in order to understand early religious thinking.

The papers have titles such as Apocalypse of the Seven Heavens, Queen of Sheba, Visions of Heaven and Hell, and the Cave of Treasures.

One even claims to provide clues to the treasures of the Lost Ark, gold and silver tables and vessels sacked from Solomon's Temple by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.

[...]

The text with the "visions of the gods" is the Balaam Text from Deir Alla, edited for the MOTP Project by Ed Cook. The one about the Temple treasures is the Treatise of the Vessels, which I am editing. The article names both texts, and it does make clear that the clues about the Temple treasures are only legends!

THE NEW READING OF THE SHELOMIT SEAL has reached the attention of the media:

Archeologist revises read of ancient seal inscription
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

A prominent Israeli archeologist said Monday that she has revised her reading of an inscription on ancient seal uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David after various scholars around the world critiqued her original interpretation of the name on the seal.

[...]

THE APOCRYPHA RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED:

Yet not every restaurateur in Needham has met with great success. Keith Bernhard and Jodi Geiser closed Apocrypha on Chapel Street - an easy stroll from Great Plain - in December, 10 months after opening their high-end establishment. At Apocrypha, entrees ranged from $27 to $42, featuring such offerings as rabbit and pheasant. When asked why his restaurant closed, Bernhard declined comment.

Too bad.

GERALDINE BROOKS, author of The People of the Book, is interviewed in the Detroit Free Press about the history of the Sarajevo Haggadah:

14th-Century manuscript survives under incredible circumstances

February 3, 2008

By CONNIE OGLE

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Novelist Geraldine Brooks cannot forget her first glimpse of the Sarajevo Haggadah.

The book -- a 14th-Century, illustrated Hebrew manuscript that miraculously survived religious purges, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust and the Bosnian War -- is housed at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It "comes into the room, and they put it on the table," Brooks recalls. 'It's very small, maybe 12-by-6; maybe not even that big. It's a ratty-looking thing. You wouldn't look twice at it. The cover is old and worn out and discolored ... and you think, 'The fuss is about this?' And then you open it, and boom! There's just this explosion of color and richness and imagination."

The mysterious history of the ancient codex, with its traditional text of the Passover Haggadah and gorgeously vivid illustrations of key scenes from the Bible, fired a Big Bang of creativity in Brooks. She turned her interest in the manuscript's fascinating past into "People of the Book" (Viking, $25.95), in which she reimagines the Haggadah's hazardous, centuries-long journey from Seville, Spain, to modern-day Bosnia.

[...]

Also, there's another review of the novel in the Eagle Tribune (MA). Excerpt:

People of the Book" starts out slow; so slow, that I wasn't sure I could make it through almost 400 pages. There's a lot of setup to make the story work, and not much happens for the first couple segments. In the end, I was glad I stuck it out.

With time-framing reminiscent of "Pulp Fiction," some factual history, the existence of a real book and a fictional character who is increasingly easy to like, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Brooks takes you on a five-century trip from Bosnia to Venice, Vienna to Spain, and inside mosques, churches and torture chambers.

If you like historical mysteries, antique-hunting or "The DaVinci Code," pick up "People of the Book." This book about a book is a double delight for anyone who craves the written word.

THE SHELOMIT SEAL (formerly the Temech seal) gets a brief but useful discussion in the Baptist Press. Key paragraph:

Following critiques from scholars such as the ones associated with the Biblical Archeology Society, Mazar now acknowledges the letters should read Sh-l-m-t. (Hebrew had no vowels.) If that's the case, then scholars believe it could refer to Shelomith, a man mentioned in Ezra 8:10 who also returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, or to Shelomith, the daughter of Zerubbabel mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:19.

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: A virtual tour of the Temple Mount is now available online.

BOOK MEME: I've been tagged by Airton José da Silva with the book meme. I do these things or not at my whim, but I'll give this one a go. The rules:

• Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more (no cheating!)
  
• Find page 123
  
• Find the first five sentences
  
• Post the next three sentences
  
• Tag five people

It chances that I'm sitting in my chair in the living room with bookcases on either side of me, so it's difficult to decide for sure, but arguably the closest book to me is Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (CUP, 2005). The requested sentences are:

In the Philosophy for 'Arudi Avicenna justified his identification of the necessary of existence of itself with the uncaused, and his identification of the necessary of existence through another with the caused, by asserting that the necessary of existence in itself, unlike the necessary of existence through another, is not divisible into two modes or states (halatayni). His reasoning was that whatever is divisible into two modes or states will be a composite of those two modes or states, and since every composite requires a composer and is therefore caused, everything divisible into two modes or states will be caused. By contrast, everything simple - here meaning not even conceptually divisible - will be uncaused.

Sorry you asked?

I don't tag people, but if any bloggers reading this feel so moved, consider yourselves tagged.

BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL XXVI has been published by Kevin Edgecomb at Biblicalia.

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, by Geraldine Brooks, is in the number 3 slot of the Publisher's Weekly hardcover fiction besteller list.

ADOLFO ROITMAN, the curator of the Shrine of the Book, lectured recently in Ottawa on the Dead Sea Scolls:

Providing a window into the past
On a month-long world tour, Bible scholar Adolfo Roitman brings both his personal and professional fascination with the Dead Sea Scrolls to Ottawa tonight, reports Katie DeRosa.
Katie DeRosa, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, February 02, 2008

They embody the real-life story of a hidden treasure that, once uncovered, would provide a glimpse into the origins of the most powerful yet mysterious narratives of our time, the Bible.

Yet after more than 60 years since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Adolfo Roitman, one of the world's leading Bible scholars, says that the mystery continues to unfold as researchers and scholars pore over the meaning hidden in the 2,000-year-old fragments.

But, Mr. Roitman says, the most important story is behind the scrolls, and the reason they retain their relevance is as simple as one of human beings.

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

UNESCO chief: We are trying to mediate over Temple Mount bridge
By Assaf Uni, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Jordan, Mugrabi Gate, Israel

PARIS - UNESCO is attempting to mediate among Israel, Jordan and the Waqf Muslim religious trust over construction at the controversial Mugrabi Ascent in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Koichiro Matsuura, discussed the efforts in an interview with Haaretz this week. Matsuura is visiting Israel next week.

atsuura said that although a three-way meeting in Jerusalem two weeks ago ended without progress, the talks were "conducted in a positive atmosphere" and he is very optimistic about the next meeting, scheduled to take place in the next few weeks.

Last month the Jerusalem planning and building council approved the government's construction plan for the area, which includes expanding the women's section of the Western Wall plaza as part of the building of a new bridge leading to the Temple Mount. The Waqf and Jordan are continuing their vehement opposition to the Israeli plan.

"It's too early to say whether the solution will be a compromise between Israel's bridge plan and Jordan's demands," Matsuura said. "We see our role as a facilitator and mediator, and our aim is to arrive at an agreed solution."

[...]

Background here and here. Note alternate spellings Mugrabi and Mughrabi.

COPTIC BOOK BINDING for high school students:

SMITH, Esther K. How to Make Books: Fold, Cut & Stitch Your Way to a One-of-a-Kind Book photos by David Michael Zimmerman. illus. by Lindsay Stadig. 128p. index. Potter Craft 2007. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-307-35336-8. LC 2007014216.

Adult/High School–From the letter-press cover on thick cardboard to the simple, step-by-step instructions that are accompanied by illustrations and photos of finished products inside, this how-to will be the favorite of anyone who wants to make a book. Absolute beginners can be successful from the first page with an instant book–all that is needed is a sheet of paper. Besides paper, most projects call for the same three materials: awls, curved needles, and waxed thread. The most complicated one involves Coptic binding, which might take a couple of tries to get right but, even so, is doable. A resource list is included, as well as a bibliography of titles the author recommends. It is easy to see that bookmaking could become addictive. Crafty teens as well as those who create their own zines will want to take a look.–Charlotte Bradshaw, San Mateo County Library, CA (reviewed in the School Library Journal)

Related post here.

A DEAD SEA SCROLLS LECTURE on 5 February by Professor Alex P. Jassen at the University of Minnesota: "Prophecy after The Prophets?: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Prophecy in Judaism."

(Via the Agade list.)

ANCIENT JEWISH LAMPS IN VIET NAM? On display, that is. See the last sentence below.

Fine Arts Museum keeps the lamps on

(31-01-2008) [Viet Nam News)

HCM CITY — Antique aficionados are in for a treat with an exhibition of more than 300 ancient lamps from the personal collection of Nguyen Huu Triet, bishop of Tan Sa Chau Parish in HCM City’s Tan Binh District.

The Fine Arts Museum organised the exhibition in celebration of Tet (Lunar New Year).

The collection features more than 180 lamps that use vegetable oil, animal oil and kerosene, and many of which date back to the 12th and 13th centuries.

There are baked earthen jars with characteristics of the Dong Son and Oc Eo eras, Viet Nam’s oldest known cultures dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries.

Many of the lamps came from Viet Nam’s well-known pottery kilns, such as Bat Trang in northern Viet Nam and Lai Thieu in the south.

The collection includes ancient lamps made in China, France, India, Japan and Israel.

[...]

APOCRYPHA WATCH: The opera Tobias and the Angel is to be performed in Baltimore.

If The Yellow Wallpaper is confined to a bedroom, British composer Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel was written for a sacred space; it will be performed in the nave of Mount Vernon’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church in late February.

The Opera Vivente production is the North American premiere of the work, which is based on the Old Testament Book of Tobit. (Regarded as apocryphal by Protestants and Jews, the book was probably written in the 2nd century B.C.)The opera follows Tobit’s son Tobias on a mission to collect money; he is accompanied by the angel Raphael in disguise, who helps him see the divine in all things. General director John Bowen describes this production as “a communal event,” involving the children’s chorus of the Handel Choir of Baltimore, student dancers from the Baltimore School for the Arts, and members of local chorales along with professional opera singers, including acclaimed countertenor David Walker as the angel Raphael.

“The Apocrypha is equally claimed—or disclaimed—by both Judaism and Christianity,” Bowen says. “It’s very much an interfaith story.”

A VALENTINE'S DAY CONTEST:

With apologies for the cross-posting:

Love is in the air! We're looking for a few good scholars to display both eros and erudition in our first (and possibly last!) Ancient Near Eastern Valentine's contest.

We want no more than three of your original[*] compositions, in any ancient Near Eastern language (we'll bend the rules a bit and allow Greek), accompanied by an English translation. Artwork is similarly welcome. All entries should be sent via e-mail to akerr at eisenbrauns dot com before noon on Wednesday, February 13.

The decisions of the judges will be final and, most likely, extremely arbitrary. Prizes will be given. Winners will be announced on February 14, 2008, and winning entries will be showcased on the Eisenbrauns website. Submitting an entry constitutes permission to reproduce your work.


[*] We have memorized the entire corpus of Near Eastern poetry, and will be watching for cheating. OK, we haven't -- but someone out there will catch you at it if your words are not your own, and that wouldn't be good. So don't.

Have fun with it!
James
________________________________
James Spinti
Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
Fax: 574-269-6788

Philologists need love too.

(From the Aramaic list.)

EILAT MAZAR has revised her reading of the new Hebrew seal inscription. "Shelomit" it is. This from the BAS website:

I accept the suggestion made by Peter van der Veen and followed by many other scholars to read Sh l m t. Actually, I love it. For the time being, this reading is preferable to my reading of t m h or h m t. This is an opportunity also to thank the many scholars who took part in the various blogs contributing their knowledge on the subject.

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list. Background here.)

A PUNIC NECROPOLIS has been discovered in Tunisia, apparently on the site of a museum while it was undergoing renovations:

Tunisia: Major Archeological Discovery of Necropolis in Sousse Sheds Light on Punic Life in The 4th century BC

Tunisia Online (Tunis)

28 January 2008
Posted to the web 29 January 2008

Tunis

A Punic necropolis dating back to the 4th-5th century BC has been recently discovered at the museum of Sousse during extension and refurbishing works that started last May and are due to be completed by the end of the current year.

[...]

The vault which is being restored by the INP, contains 2 tombs with the remains of some 13 members of the same family buried together along with sacred ceramic vessels.

[...]

No word on whether there was any inscriptional material in the vault.

OLD TORAH SCROLLS FOR SALE:

Antique Scrolls: Pieces of History Up for Sale

By Leah Hochbaum Rosner (The Forward)
Wed. Jan 30, 2008

When a Torah scroll is so faded or damaged that it can no longer be used, Jewish law states that, like the dearly departed, it is to be buried. But Spiritual Artifacts, a California-based company, hopes to bring new life to presumed-dead Torahs by putting them on display for all to see and offering them up for sale.

Run out of the Los Angeles home of Australian-born computer programmer and educator Sam Gliksman, 50, and his wife, Deborah, 49, a graphic designer, the new company takes fragments of ancient Torah scrolls and then frames them in handmade museum cases using acid-free, museum-quality archival materials.

[...]

After consulting with a number of sofrim to find out how to get their hands on the scrolls, the Gliksmans have amassed a collection of roughly 50 pieces. Some of them are whole books from the Torah; others are just small sections. Most are between 200 and 400 years old, but some are more than 500 years old. The scrolls cost anywhere from $375 to $1,250, depending on country of origin, age, theme and number of panels in the piece. Popular portions include the Ten Commandments, the Ten Plagues, the Exodus From Egypt and Creation. The most expensive piece they currently offer is a 250-year-old, three-panel Ten Commandments-themed piece from pre-Holocaust Europe that goes for $1,250.

[...]

When asked if he thought that some Jews might be opposed to the idea of taking a Torah that should be buried and instead putting it on display, Gliksman was adamant that Spiritual Artifacts is adhering fully to Jewish law. “Part of our research was speaking with rabbis and making sure that we weren’t offending anyone by doing this,” he said. “I understand that some might say that a Torah’s not something that should be hung on the wall. But others love it. We were very careful to make sure that halachically we’re not doing anything wrong.”

According to Jewish law, it is forbidden to destroy documents, such as prayer books or bibles, that contain the name of God. Gliksman said that the rabbis he consulted saw no problem with framing pieces of the Torah, as long as they are preserved and respected and show kavod (Hebrew for “respect”) for the Torah. In keeping with this, Gliksman and his wife are exceedingly careful not to tear the fragments. “Pieces are sewn together when a scroll is created,” he said. “We just undo the stitches.”

[...]

JAMES VANDERKAM will be lecturing on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Missouri State University:

MSU hosting public lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Missouri State University religious studies department and the College of Humanities and Public Affairs will host a public lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Plaster Student Union Theater.

The lecture, entitled “So What’s Happening with the Dead Sea Scrolls Today?” will be presented by Dr. James C. VanderKam, professor of Hebrew Scriptures at the University of Notre Dame.

[...]

TWO MORE CONFERENCES:

Gender and Hebrew Bible conference
A QUESTION OF SEX: EMBROIDERED GARMENTS
Monday August 4th to Wednesday August 6th 2008

Keynote Speakers: Professor Athalya Brenner (University of Amsterdam and Tel Aviv University), Dr Tarja Philip (Hebrew University), and Dr Deborah Rooke (King's College London).

Other participants include Prof. Claudia Camp and Dr Alicia Ostriker.

Proposals are warmly invited for papers on sex and gender in biblical and post-biblical texts with a priestly worldview or concerns. Programmed events include 'Group Texts', a creative Hebrew reading session, and 'Comparing Notes: Ancient Sex and Gender in the British Musem', a tailor-made tour of the collections, followed by a guided discussion.

To register or propose a paper, please complete the form on the link by 29th February.

Conference Fee: UK £90 (includes meals but not accommodation, which may be arranged via King's: Phone 020 7848 1700, E-mail stopover@kcl.ac.uk).

ONE DAY GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE ON THE HEBREW BIBLE AND EARLY POST-BIBLICAL TEXTS

Graduate student day conference on Hebrew Bible/post-biblical texts On Thursday 15th May 2008, 11-5.30, King's, in partnership with SBL, is hosting its first day conference on the Hebrew Bible and early post-biblical texts specifically for graduate students throughout the UK (and beyond). This is an opportunity for PhD students, and MA or MPhil students intending to continue, to meet their peers, acquire experience giving papers, get feedback on their research, and spend a day at King's College in the heart of London. Proposals are invited for 20 minute long papers, which will be followed by 10 minutes of audience questions and constructive feedback from a small panel of highly supportive professionals: Drs Lutz Doering (KCL), Charlotte Hempel (Birmingham), Diana Lipton, (KCL) and Deborah Rooke (KCL), and Professor Hugh Williamson (Oxford). Prof. David Clines will speak at a reception.

*All graduate students registered will receive a complimentary one year SBL student membership.*

To register or propose a paper, please complete the form on the link by 15th February.

(From Deborah Rooke on the SOTS list, with minor formatting adjustments.)

THE X SYMPOSIUM SYRIACUM and the Conference on Arab Christian Studies will be held in Granada (Spain) on September 22th-27th, 2008. For details see the letter of invitation from the President of the Foundation ICSCO, which can be downloaded from here.

(Via George Kiraz on the Hugoye list. More details at that link.)

HEBREW WAS A DEAD LANGUAGE for a long time, but Slate Magazine seems to think it was considerably more dead than it actually was. In an article on dead languages and their revival ("How Do You Learn a Dead Language?"), this is what the writer, Christine Cyr, has to say:

For almost 2,000 years Hebrew was extinct, but Jews around the world continued to use it daily in a limited capacity in prayer, religious ceremonies, and writing. The rise of Jewish nationalism in the 19th century spawned the movement to revive Hebrew as a native language. Because no Hebrew dictionary or grammar books existed (the only written documentation was the Old Testament and a few other pieces of literature), people had to borrow words from other languages or create new ones to fill in gaps in the ancient Hebrew.

"The Old Testament and a few other pieces of literature." Those few other pieces of literature would include the 63 tractates of the Mishnah; the 59 tractates in the Tosefta; extensive (Hebrew and Aramaic) commentary on 37 of the Mishaic tractates in the Babylonian Talmud; the Midrashim; countless Geonic responsa; many of the works of the Rishonim (Rashi, Nahmanides, Maimonides, and many others); later responsa, law codes, and commentaries; poetry from all periods; and so on and so on, constantly expanding as we move closer to the present. (Very brief summary here and more detailed treatments [I haven't looked at these closely] here.) And there were numerous grammars and dictionaries of Hebrew going back to the Middle Ages. In short, although Hebrew was technically a dead language in the nineteenth century, a truly vast and much studied and much commented upon literature had been produced in it. It is true that Jews wrote in various other first languages (Aramaic, Arabic, etc.) in addition to in Hebrew as a literary language. It is also true that words like television and telephone had to be improvised as need for them arose in the new spoken language. Nevertheless the basis for a viable spoken Hebrew was already there in the surviving literature.

It would be refreshing if more journalists would do a little elementary research before making these uninformed generalizations.

UPDATE (30 January): Iyov comments here.

AN ANCIENT MOSAIC from Caesarea:

1,400-Year-Old Mosaic Restored in Israel

By RORY KRESS – 11 hours ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — Experts have restored a 1,400-year-old glass mosaic glowing in gold, recovered from a site next to the Mediterranean Sea, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.

The mosaic panel is believed to be the only one in the world, the antiquities authority said, citing the quality of its preservation given its age and its craftsmanship indicating Christian origins.

"It's a unique find, a piece of art," Joseph Patrich, professor of archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "It's in its original state," Patrich said, because the panel fell face down, protecting its green, blue and gold facade from debris and damage.

The mosaic was discovered in 2005 in Caesarea, an ancient city on the Mediterranean coast known for its ancient Roman, Byzantine and Crusader ruins. ...

A SYMPOSIUM AT THE GRONINGEN QUMRAN INSTITUTE in honor of Florentino García Martínez is being held in April. Eibert Tigchelaar e-mails the program:

Honoring Professor Florentino García Martínez’s great achievements for the Groningen Qumran Institute and Dead Sea Scrolls studies and initiating a new series of biennial conferences, the Qumran Institute announces

The Authoritativeness of Scriptures in Ancient Judaism:
The Contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature

A Symposium at the Groningen Qumran Institute, 28–29 April 2008
Organization: Mladen Popoviç (m.popovic@rug.nl)
Program
Monday, 28 April 2008
9.15-9.30 Opening
9.30-10.15 Ed Noort (University of Groningen): The Need of Authority: From Joshua the Successor to the Joshua Apocryphon
10.15-11.00 Julio Trebolle Barrera (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain): Authoritative Scripture as Reflected in the Textual Transmission of the Biblical Books
11.00-11.30 Break
11.30-12.15 Arie van der Kooij (University of Leiden): Authoritative Scriptures and Scribal Culture
12.15-13.00 Émile Puech (École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem, Israel): Quelques observations sur le canon des Écrits
13.15-14.15 Lunch
14.30-15.15 George van Kooten (University of Groningen): The Authority of David and Christ’s Davidic Lineage in Paul (Romans 1.3, 4.6, 11.9)
15.15-16.00 Tobias Nicklas (Universität Regensburg, Germany): “The words of the book of this prophecy” (Rev 22.19): Playing with Authority in the Book of Revelation
16.00-16.30 Break
16.30-17.15 Michael Knibb (King’s College, London, UK): “The Mosaic Torah is Conspicuously Absent in the Early Enochic Literature”: Reflections on the Status of 1 Enoch
17.15-18.00 Hindy Najman (University of Toronto, Canada): Exile, Exemplarity and Revelation in 4 Ezra
18.00-19.00 George Brooke (University of Manchester, UK): The Apocalyptic Community and Rewriting Scripture
19.30 Dinner
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
9.15-10.00 Jacques van Ruiten (University of Groningen): Rewritten Bible and the Authoritativeness of Scriptures
10.00-10.45 Emanuel Tov (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel): From 4QReworked Pentateuch to 4QPentateuch
10.45-11.15 Break
11.15-12.00 Mladen Popoviç (Qumran Institute, University of Groningen): Ezekiel and Pseudo-Ezekiel in the Dead Sea Scrolls
12.00-12.45 Eibert Tigchelaar (Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA): Aramaic Texts from Qumran and the Authoritativeness of Hebrew Scripture
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.15-15.00 Charlotte Hempel (University of Birmingham, UK): Pluralism and Authoritativeness: The Case of the S Tradition
15.00-15.45 John Collins (Yale University, New Haven, USA): Prophecy and the Authority of History in the Pesharim
15.45-16.30 Jan Bremmer (University of Groningen): How Holy are Holy Books? A Comparison of Greece, Rome, Early Judaism and Early
Christianity
16.30-17.00 Break
17.00-18.15 Keynote address: Florentino García Martínez (University of Groningen /Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium): Rethinking the Bible: Sixty Years of Dead Sea Scrolls Research and Beyond
18.15 Reception
19.30 Dinner

ANOTHER REVIEW of Geraldine Brooks, The People of the Book, in the Sydney Morning Herald:

[...]

The survival of the Sarajevo Haggadah, as this fragile illuminated volume is called, from its creation in Spain 600 years ago until today, is a tale to stir the most irreligious, war-hardened heart. Geraldine Brooks is a savvy, almost shrewd storyteller. As a former journalist, she knows she's onto a good story here: an illustrated codex, created in mysterious circumstances in Spain to be read at the table during Passover, miraculously threading its way across southern Europe over centuries to end up safe and sound, the treasured possession of a museum in Bosnia. And there are mysteries as well.

[...

This polyphony, amplified by myriad voices from the vast supporting cast, is satisfying, at times even enthralling. Occasionally there is a whiff of the costume drama about these historical scenes: people "tarry", "mislike" and protest that "no, I cannot speak of it". On the whole, though, these richly imagined cameos are engrossing and, thanks to Brooks's meticulous historical research, convincing.

So exhaustive, however, is the research on everything from neurosurgery to recent Bosnian history, so vividly imagined every detail of the significant stages in the Haggadah's journey, so densely spun the web of relationships and events around every character, that the reader can do little other than admire the performance.

As a result, there is something peculiarly American about this novel, for all the colourful Australian expressions squeezed into it. It comes not just from the religion and violence but from the sense of people constantly acting out redemption rituals for the approval of God or, if He's not looking, a mass of spectators whose job is to sit, be moved and applaud. Towards the end the pace becomes frenetic, as if the saga had mistaken itself for a crime thriller. There's a heist, a lost father is redeemed, love blossoms, we dart between Boston and Sydney, Sarajevo and Jerusalem, and even drop in on Arnhem Land where Hannah (and why is this unsurprising?) has switched to conserving Aboriginal rock painting. The frenzied final pages are not unenjoyable but have a manipulative edge to them that is disenchanting.

The redemptive symbolism of the Sarajevo Haggadah is obvious: a Jewish religious text, illustrated according to the Christian model of a Book of Hours, saved by Muslims in a city almost destroyed by ethnic hatreds. Despite its overeager desire to be a crowd-pleaser, People of the Book reflects this breadth of spirit in compelling and inventive ways. This novel has everything. If it has a fault, that's it.

THE TEXT OF THE COPTIC PSALTER is the subject of a book reviewed in BMCR:

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.01.37

G. Emmenegger, Der Text des koptischen Psalters aus Al-Mudil. Ein Beitrag zur Textgeschichte der Septuaginta und zur Textkritik koptischer Bibelhandschriften, mit der kritischen Neuausgabe des Papyrus 37 der British Library London (U) und des Papyrus 39 der Leipziger Universitätsbibliothek (2013). Text und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 159. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007. Pp. xxviii, 391. ISBN 978-3-11-019948-2. €118.00.

Reviewed by Thomas J. Kraus, Hilpoltstein (t.j.kraus@web.de)
Word count: 1718 words

This is a just slightly revised version of Gregor Emmenegger's Th.D. thesis (Theological Faculty Fribourg/Suisse, 2005), enlarged by an index of biblical references. Title and subtitle of the book reveal Emmenegger's (hereafter E.) main concern: a full-scale investigation into the text and context of the so-called Coptic Mudil-Codex, which preserves the complete Psalter in the textual form of the Septuagint, and its implications for Septuagint studies. In addition, E. compares the Mudil-Codex with other codices and their relevant textual passages. In two addenda, both of them standing on their own, E. offers re-editions of Papyrus 37, a Greek codex, and Papyrus 39, a Greek roll. Of course, E.'s editorial work and studies will certainly not attract the attention of readers without (at least some) expertise in textual criticism and consequently will not find a broad readership. This is due to (a) the use of the relevant original languages Hebrew, Greek, and the Coptic dialects (without accompanying translations into German) and (b) the technical language and terminology that is necessary for editing and assessing ancient manuscripts. However, this does not mean that E. did anything wrong.On the contrary, he provides an indispensable tool for all those concerned about the text and textual history of the Septuagint and its manuscript witnesses. Scholars like E. with such a splendid expertise, i.e. scholars who possess the skills to edit manuscripts and the knowledge of ancient languages, are hard to find these days. Thus, E.'s impressively meticulous and learned work is very much welcome, and he must be thanked for taking over the sometimes enervating and tiring work of providing others with text-critical studies of the Mudil-Codex and re-editions of two other important textual witnesses.

[...]

(Via the Agade list.)

METATRON WATCH: A band called The Mars Volta has a track entitled "Metatron" on their new album, The Bedlam in Goliath.

BATMAN IN SYRIAC? I had the same thought when I saw the announcement.

BYU'S DEAD SEA SCROLLS DATABASE receives some recognition:

Maxwell Institute Dead Sea Scrolls database honored as 'outstanding'
Published: Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008 12:25 a.m. MST (Deseret Morning News)

Brigham Young University's "Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library," produced by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and published by Brill Academic Press, is on Choice Magazine's short list of Outstanding Academic Titles from among 7,000 or so reviewed in 2007.

[...]

MANDAEAN (MANDEAN) CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS:

From Shafiq Abouzayd shafiq.abouzayd@orinst.ox.ac.uk
==================================================

ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies is organising its Twenty Sixth International Conference on the theme of The Mandaeans, to held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, 08-10 September 2008.

The conference aims to study Mandaeism and its relationship to Near Eastern religions and gnostic movements, and it will start on Monday 08 September at 9am, finishing on Wednesday 10 September at 6pm. Each speaker's paper is limited to 30 minutes, with an additional 10 minutes for discussion.

If you wish to participate in the conference, please send your answer to the above Aram email address before March 2008. If you know of colleagues who might like to contribute to the conference, please forward this message to them or send us their names and email addresses. Yet, we would like to remind our colleagues that only academics are allowed to present a paper at an ARAM conference.

The conference will start on Monday 8 September at 9am, finishing on Wednesday 10 September at 6pm. Each speaker's paper is limited to 30 minutes, with an additional 10 minutes for discussion. All papers given at the conference will be considered for publication in a future edition of the ARAM Periodical, subject to editorial review.

If you wish to know more about our ARAM Society and its academic activities, please open our website: www.aramsociety.org

If you have any questions or comments at any time, I am always happy to receive them.


Shafiq Abouzayd (Dr.)
Aram Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies aram@aramsociety.org
The Oriental Institute
University of Oxford
Pusey Lane
Oxford OX1 2LE – UKý
Tel: +1865-514041ý
Fax: +1865-516824ý
shafiq.abouzayd@orinst.ox.ac.uk

(From the Agade list.)

VERY BUSY: The good news is that I have six months of research leave starting in about a week. The bad news is that I have at least two weeks of work to get done before then. But for today:

A long Jerusalem Post editorial on the recent Talpiot tomb symposium. I don't have time to read it all, but maybe you will.

A Minnesota NPR audio interview with Geraldine Brooks, author of The People of the Book. I don't have time to listen to it either, but maybe you will.

A brief review in the Jewish Journal of greater LA of James Kugel, How to Read the Bible.

ARAMAIC WATCH:

Ancient Cemetery Unearthed in Syria

10 hours ago

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Archaeologists in northeast Syria have unearthed a 3rd century cemetery in the shape of a cross, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday.

Ten skeletons, along with pottery and coins, were found at the site in Hassaka, 441 miles northeast of the capital Damascus, SANA reported.

Some of the artifacts contained inscriptions in the ancient Aramaic language, it said.

Wednesday's find came a day after SANA reported that archaeologists had found a Roman-era cemetery in Latakia, northwest of Damascus. That cemetery was believed to date back about 1,000 years, SANA said.

[...]

I'm not sure how a Roman-era cemetery could be only 1,000 years old. There appears to be some confusion.

Neither of these cemeteries are the same as the one announced in November.

UPDATE: In response to my comment about the "Roman-era cemetery," reader Robert S. Schwartz writes, "Because what we Westerners call the Byzantine Empire, was called Roman by the Byzantines themselves?" Maybe.

GILGAMESH PUT TO MUSIC:

Shaheen builds musical bridges between cultures
By Alexander Varty (Straight.com)

Although Simon Shaheen has been a professional musician since he was in his teens, his real job is building bridges—between cultures, sonic styles, and listeners of all sorts. At the moment, for instance, he’s writing a concert for oud—the acoustic guitar of the Arab world—and orchestra, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony. And, as Shaheen explains from his Brooklyn, New York, home, there’s more to this than simply waltzing in with an armful of sheet music.

“I am scheduled to go there twice, just to work with the strings on microtonality and certain concepts of ornamentation that we use in Arabic music,” says the Palestine-born musician, a powerful performer on both the oud and the violin. “Now, this doesn’t mean that the composition will be pure Arabic music…but the context will definitely be symphonic.”

Another collaboration, with storyteller Margaret Wolfson, recasts the legend of Gilgamesh, an ancient king of the region now known as Iraq. “The big question was, ‘How does Gilgamesh relate to what’s going on today?’ ” Shaheen notes. “So we want to…connect this historic epic to contemporary Iraq, especially under the circumstances.”

[...]

Actually, I should have said Gilgamesh put to music again.

TRAGEDY IN PETRA.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH (indirectly):

Temple quarry becomes site for new elementary school
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

A Jerusalem elementary school for girls is being constructed on the site of an ancient quarry that supplied enormous high quality limestones for the construction of the Temple Mount, calling into question whether part of the area will ever be converted into a major tourist site, officials said Wednesday.

The site, uncovered last year during a salvage excavation four kilometers northwest of the Old City of Jerusalem in the outlying Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, was used during the construction of the Second Temple, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

According to an agreement worked out by the state-run archaeological body and the Jerusalem Municipality, about half of the five-dunam site, on its northeastern side, will remain an archeological site, while the other half will be used for the school, said Jerusalem regional archeologist Jon Seligman.

[...]

TU B'SHEVAT, the New Year for trees, began last night at sundown.

CORRECTION: It started on the evening of the 21st and ended on the evening of the 22nd. Sorry about that.

KENNETH ATKINSON and his work on the Septuagint are profiled in the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier (Iowa):

UNI prof helps translate ancient scriptures
By KAREN HEINSELMAN, Courier Staff Writer
CEDAR FALLS --- Hundreds of years ago, Jewish scribes wrote out their holy scriptures by hand.

Tediously. Cautiously. Lovingly.

Today, the translation and transcription of religious texts remains a time-consuming yet fulfilling process for many modern scholars with a biblical studies bent, as Kenneth Atkinson can attest.

Atkinson, an associate professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Northern Iowa, recently assisted with a unique and awesome project. Part of an international team of some two-dozen scholars, Atkinson helped complete an English translation of the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the ancient Jewish scriptures from around 250 B.C.

[...]

Actually, the Pentateuch was translated around 250 BCE, but the rest of the books were translated over the next couple of centuries and revisions of the translations continued to be produced for some time aftet that.

Atkinson was responsible for translating one of 41 books in the Septuagint. A book of poetic writings, "Psalms of Solomon" fits between the Old and New Testament. The collection of Psalms, once used in worship, tells the story of a people awaiting a warrior Messiah.

"For Christians, this is a very important book," Atkinson said. "It helps us understand the world that Judaism, Jesus and Christendom emerged from."

So while many people of faith say they are unfamiliar with the Septuagint, actually anyone who picks up a Bible stands to encounter it, Atkinson said.

Early Christians held the Septuagint in high regard and New Testament authors referenced it, Atkinson said. Saint Augustine declared both Hebrew and Greek translations of the ancient scriptures divinely inspired, Atkinson added.

He also said that the Septuagint created a Greek theological vocabulary to convey the meaning of the Semitic languages of Hebrew and Aramaic.

The Greek Orthodox Church, actually, still uses the translation. Septuagint comes from the Greek word for 70.

[...]

The New Englisht Translation of the Septuagint is available online here.

A DEAD SEA SCROLLS CONFERENCE IN VIENNA. First I've heard of it.

The Dead Sea Scrolls in Context: Integrating the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Study of Ancient Texts, Languages, and Cultures
Vienna, 11th-14th February 2008
We are pleased to invite you to the international conference "The Dead Sea Scrolls in Context: Integrating the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Study of Ancient Texts, Languages, and Cultures," which will be held in Vienna from 11th to 14th February, 2008. The conference is organized within the framework of the cooperation between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Vienna.

The aim of the conference is to build a bridge between the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other fields of research. Since the majority of the scrolls from the Judean Desert has been published, scholars now focus more on the interpretation of individual texts than on text editions. As all these scrolls are now easily accessible, it is time for their full integration in the various disciplines that benefit from the discovery of these very important ancient texts. The Dead Sea Scrolls enrich many areas of biblical research, as well as the study of ancient Jewish, early Christian and other ancient literatures, languages, and cultures.

For registration please contact Dara Fischer at dara.fischer@univie.ac.at.

We apologize if this invitation reached you more than once. Nevertheless, we would appreciate if you could forward this invitation to anyone who might be interested.

Best regards,
Dara Fischer

_________________________________
Institut für Judaistik der Universität Wien
www.univie.ac.at/judaistik

Spitalgasse 2/7.3
A-1090 Wien

Tel: +43/(0)1/4277-43301
Fax: +43/(0)1/4277-9433

ANCIENT MUSIC figures in this story too:

Haran offers eclectic blend of world music
By LEE CLARK ZUMPE (Tampa Bay Newspapers)
Article published on Monday, Jan. 21, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS - Haran, the latest release from Pharaoh’s Daughter, features a collection of traditional Eastern and Western songs drawn primarily from textual sources and delivered in confident, rhythmic indie world-beat compositions.

[...]

The CD opens with “By Way of Haran,” a buoyant tune underscored by psychedelic organ. Highlights include “Kah Ribon,” the Arabic song “Samai,” a dramatic retelling of the story of Joseph called “Enpesare” and “Askinu,” sung in Aramaic and based on a Kabbalistic song from the third meal of Shabbat.

Sung in several languages – Farsi, Ladino, Arabic, Aramaic, Biblical Hebrew and English – the collection is frequently spellbinding and hauntingly harmonious. In addition to vocals, Schechter plays oud and saz. Band members include Shanir Blumenkranz, bass, electric and acoustic guitar; Jason Lindner, keyboards and piano; Yuval Lyon, drums; Meg Okura, violin; Daphna Mor, ney and recorder; Mathias Kunzli, percussion; and Uri Sharlin, accordion.

[...]

ANOTHER REVIEW of People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks, this one in PopMatters. Excerpt:

Don’t get me wrong. I wanted to like this book. I finished the New Yorker article longing to read it, hoping for a melding of Mendelsohn’s The Lost, Cooley’s The Archivist, and Vreeland’s Girl in Hyacinth Blue. And Brooks is an eminently capable writer with meticulous research skills and a commendable grasp of history. If only she’d turned her talents to writing a non-fiction account of the Sarajevo Haggadah instead.

Background here.

THERE'S A MUSEM EXHIBITION ON ANE MUSIC IN JERUSALEM:

Sounds of long ago
By GAVRIEL FISKE (Jerusalem Post)

In the 21st century, music has become an ever-present commodity, providing a soundtrack for our daily lives. But before the modern age, while music was still part of daily life, it was perhaps more precious. With the proliferation of cheap MP3 players and easy access to music on the Internet, it's easy to forget that once upon a time music was something only experienced live, or not at all.

A new exhibit at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem illustrates the role of music in the ancient Near East with an elegant display of musical instruments and iconography. Entitled "Sounds of Ancient Music," the exhibit opened on January 7 and features many noteworthy items, including some from as long ago as 12000 BCE.

As well as covering ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia, the display also has a special section examining music during the Second Temple period, and features a cornerstone from the Second Temple compound believed to be from where the priests would blow trumpets to usher in Shabbat. ...

MORE ON THE TALPIOT TOMB SEMINAR: Many of the participants have signed a statement that has been posted by Mark Goodacre on the Duke University Religion Department blog. Excerpt:

The smoking gun at the conference was the surprise appearance of Ruth Gat, the widow of the archaeologist who excavated the tomb in 1980 and died soon afterwards. Mrs. Gat announced that her husband had known about the identification all along but was afraid to tell anyone because of the possibility of an anti-Semitic reaction. However, Joseph Gat lacked the expertise to read the inscriptions. His supervisor and other members of the Israel Antiquities Authority believe that Gat could not have made such a statement in his lifetime since the inscriptions seem to have been deciphered only after he had passed away. Jacobovici now claims that Mrs. Gat’s statement has vindicated his claims about the tomb.

To conclude, we wish to protest the misrepresentation of the conference proceedings in the media, and make it clear that the majority of scholars in attendance – including all of the archaeologists and epigraphers who presented papers relating to the tomb - either reject the identification of the Talpiot tomb as belonging to Jesus’ family or find this claim highly unlikely.

Read it all.

WORD IS THAT CHUCK JONES is moving to the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Jack Sasson writes on the Agade list:

News from New York is that Chuck Jones is the new Librarian of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. He comes there immediately from the American School at Athens, where he headed the library, but had previously choreographed the collections at the Oriental Institute. He is also well know for the many notices sent out out on Agade and other services.

He begins work at NYU in March.

Congratulations Chuck!

GEZA VERMES was also at the Talpiot tomb seminar and he e-mails the following:

Like Jim Tabor, I, too, attended the Princeton symposium held in Jerusalem on "Jewish views of the afterlife and burial practices in Second Temple Judaism", subtitled, "Evaluating the Talpiot tomb in context". Many of the papers delivered on the main subject (afterlife and burials) were illuminating. In my judgement, the arguments advanced in favour of the Talpiot burial chamber being the family tomb of Jesus of Nazareth are not just unconvincing but insignificant. Discounting a handful, headed by Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici, the maker of the documentary, "The lost tomb of Jesus", most of the fifty or so participants shared this opinion. Among them figured leading archaeologists such as Amos Kloner (who published the results of the Talpiot excavations), Eric Meyer, Jodi Magness and Joe Zias. Scholars being scholars, they were bound to ask for further research. However, as things are, the matter is and, short of substantial new discoveries, must remain closed. The press's claim that the experts were deeply divided is a distortion of the truth.

He also points to more information on the Talpiot tomb controversy at Stephen Pfann's JesusTombExposed.com site.

MORE THOUGHTS FROM JAMES TABOR on the Talpiot tomb and historical method.

APRIL DECONICK was also at the Princeton seminar on the Talpiot tomb, and she has posted her observations at the Forbidden Gospels blog. She says it all depends on Mary Magdalene. And here are her conclusions:

7. The results. We didn't take a vote, or anything like that. There seemed to me to be an enormous range of opinions, many of which were connected into theology and why theologically it can't be the tomb of Jesus and his family. There were some that said "No way" for other reasons. Most people I polled during the reception said that there wasn't enough evidence to make a positive identification (for various reasons), so they said they were "very skeptical" or "skeptical." A few people, however, did find it likely if not probable. There were a number of scholars who thought that this might be an early Christian tomb or what Professor Charlesworth called a "clan" tomb, rather than a "family" tomb.

JAMES TABOR was at the Princeton symposium on the Talpiot tomb and he has a report up on his Jesus Dynasty blog here, here and here. Excerpt:

There was no official “conclusion” made by the participants, nor were any polls taken, other than the agreement at the end that there should be further examination of the tomb itself in the future. My sense is that a few would say this tomb can not be the tomb of Jesus, but that the vast majority would say that although it might be possible, there is no compelling evidence, given what we now know or possibly can know, and for some, there is evidence pointing against such an identification. Since there are no bone reports, or apparently, the possibility of full DNA testing, we seem left with what we have. A very few of those who think it might be possible would go on to say it has a probability of being the Jesus family tomb. Still, to be fair here, of those who are not convinced, I would say most find the evidence in favor to be flimsy at best. Language here can be tricky of course. For example, Shimon Gibson said at the conclusion of the conference that based on all the evidence he “does not think this is the Jesus tomb,” but that should not be taken to mean he would say it is impossible, which I have never heard him say. He simply, like most, does not find the evidence compelling enough to move to the “probably” side of things.

For my part, things that "might be possible" (of which there are all too many) are much less interesting to me than things that are supported by the balance of evidence. That said, I fully agree that further work on the tomb as well as on any nearby tombs is worth carrying out. We're bound to learn something interesting.

DAVID PLOTZ does the Shrine of the Book, Qumran, and Masada. Here's his take on the Qumran sectarians (whom he identifies with the Essenes without mentioning any of the complexities involved):

There's no getting around it. The Essenes—heroic for saving the book, stirring in how they remind us of the dawn of our civilization—were some very weird cats. The tourist terminology for them is sect, but the right word is cult. They followed a "teacher of righteousness" to this godforsaken slab of barren rock to wait for the apocalypse. They surrendered all their possessions, took vows of celibacy, and engaged in religious practices that are suspiciously reminiscent of obsessive-compulsive disorder. They took ritual baths all the time—Qumran has more bathrooms per square foot than a McMansion in Phoenix. They were freaky about urine and excrement. They did not relieve themselves on the Sabbath—at all! And they wouldn't relieve themselves inside the city walls, meaning they schlepped up the hill behind a big pile of rocks to do their business. This, Ian says, may have been a dreadful mistake. Unlike the Bedouins of the area, who leave their excrement uncovered to dry out in the desert, the Essenes buried theirs in the hill above the town. But because they buried it, the parasites in the feces lived longer. When the rains came, those parasites were washed downslope into the ritual bathtubs. According to recent research, Ian says, the Essenes had much shorter life expectancies than their neighbors, probably because their habitual washing and crazy toilet habits made them so sick. Masada and Qumran were inhospitable, miserable, sulfurous, barren, and terrifying, populated by strange people with stranger ideas, and destroyed by a Roman Empire that was by any measure more civilized. Yet at Qumran and Masada today, we can recognize the beginning of Jewish identity. In Masada, Jews mourning the destruction of their last temple made a final stand and gave modern Jews a model of Jews as warriors. In the caves of Qumran, Jews safeguarded for 2,000 years our rituals and books, the foundations of Jewish civilization. These were defeats that became victories.

For the latrine at Qumran, see here, here, and here.

ANOTHER REVIEW OF PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, in the Globe and Mail:

Saving the Sarajevo Haggadah

AMI SANDS BRODOFF

January 19, 2008

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

By Geraldine Brooks

Viking, 372 pages, $28.50

The craze for memoirs and reality shows suggests a contemporary addiction to what really happened - the private made public before our very eyes - and, perhaps, a failure of imagination. Wrestling with truth in all of its contradictions and complexities demands active imagining, even the creation or transformation of a world: the province of the novelist. Novel, after all, means new.

In her latest work, People of the Book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks parlays her signature gift for marrying history with invention by imagining into the global journey and survival of the Sarajevo Haggadah. This lavishly illuminated Hebrew manuscript, created in medieval Spain, contains the traditional text that accompanies the Passover Seder, the feast commemorating the Jewish exodus from Egypt, and is handwritten on bleached calfskin and embellished in copper and gold. Today, this manuscript is on display in a Sarajevo museum. People of the Book is a fictional account of the Haggadah's provenance and history, including its many close calls with destruction: the Spanish Inquisition's book burnings; fin-de-siècle anti-Semitism in Vienna; the Nazis' atrocities, and the Sarajevo siege of 1992. Of course, it is also the story of the people who created, rescued and preserved this codex.

[...]

Brooks makes her ambitious story accessible, no mean feat considering that the tale weaves back and forth in time and whirlwinds from Sarajevo to Vienna and on to Venice, Boston, Tarragona, London, Seville, Jerusalem and back to Sarajevo. Whoa. To orient readers, Brooks unabashedly tells as well as shows, explaining when necessary through the voice of her trenchant narrator. Sophisticated readers may forgive the obvious, and those jet-lagged by the narrative pace will be grateful for signposts. The result will surely be a wide and diverse readership.

However, a number of wild plot twists and Hollywood-style coincidences threaten to cheapen the novel; the story is too strong to be tricked out with these gaudy contrivances. For readers who wish to tease apart which elements of the story stem from historical reality and which from the author's imagination, Brooks provides a helpful afterword. I confess: I read this first. I'll admit that I too am a victim of the need to know what really happened.

[...]

MORE REVIEWS of The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

By Ursula K. Le Guin in The Guardian. Excerpt:

Full of action but with no leavening of humour, no psychological revelations, no vivid language to focus description, the chapters grind on. Most unhappily for a historical novel, there is little sensitivity to the local colour of thought and emotion, that openness to human difference which brings the past alive.

Brooks expends a good deal of anxious effort in trying to bring a modern sense of justice and ethical judgment into places and ages where it is an anachronism. People sneeringly call such anxiety "political correctness", a term that once had meaning but now reflects only the arrogance of the person using it. Brooks's earnest goodwill deserves respect, but the fact is a novel can get away with anachronism only when it is completely invisible, and these attempts to right old wrongs are all too visible. In the same way, a kindly feminism informs Brooks's efforts to invent women who were important to the creation and existence of the precious book - a tall order, among the old rabbis - but she persists; and so we find that the artist of the lovely illuminations was a woman, and a black one at that. This is not in itself impossible; the explanations are plausible; and I'd like to believe it - but I can't. The person, the artist, the world of the artist, have not been made real enough to allow me to believe it. It's just wishful thinking. It has not taken on the fierce reality of fiction.

So in the end I wonder if this might not have been a better book if, forswearing invention, the author, an experienced journalist, had simply followed the true and amazing story of the Sarajevo Haggadah. I wish someone could make a story or a poem of Buturovic's life and death. I know I will never know the story of the Iraqi with his arms full of books and his face full of anguish.

And anothe brief one by Simmy Richman in the Irish Independent. . Excerpt:

As the action switches from Sarajevo to Vienna, Venice, Barcelona and Jerusalem, Brooks concludes that the world is made up of two types -- those who would destroy books and those who would give their lives to save them.

(Background to the book and to the Sarajevo Haggadah here.)

FREAKANOMICS AUTHORS Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt invoke the Jewish sabbatical year in their NYT column "Unintended Consequences":

How long have such do-good laws been backfiring? Consider the ancient Jewish laws concerning the sabbatical, or seventh year. As commanded in the Bible, all Jewish-owned lands in Israel were to lie fallow every seventh year, with the needy allowed to gather whatever food continued to grow. Even more significant, all loans were to be forgiven in the sabbatical. The appeal of such unilateral debt relief cannot be overestimated, since the penalties for defaulting on a loan at the time were severe: a creditor could go so far as to take a debtor or his children into bondage.

So for a poor Jewish sandal maker having trouble with his loan payments, the sabbatical law was truly a godsend. If you were a creditor, however, you saw things differently. Why should you lend the sandal maker money if he could just tear up the loan in Year Seven? Creditors duly gamed the system, making loans in the years right after a sabbatical, when they were confident they would be repaid, but then pulling tight the purse strings in Years Five and Six. The resulting credit drought was so damaging to poor people that it fell to the great sage Hillel to fix things.

His solution, known as prosbul, allowed a lender to go to court and pre-emptively declare that a specific loan would not be subject to sabbatical debt relief, transferring the debt to the court itself and thereby empowering it to collect the loan. This left the law technically intact but allowed for lenders to once again make credit available to the poor without taking on unwarranted risk for themselves.

The fallow-land portion of the sabbatical law, meanwhile, was upheld for centuries, but it, too, finally gained a loophole, called heter mechira. This allowed for a Jew to temporarily “sell” his land to a non-Jew and to continue farming it during the sabbatical year and then “buy” it back immediately afterward — a solution that helped the modern state of Israel keep its agricultural economy humming.

The trouble is that many of the most observant Israeli Jews reject this maneuver as a sleight of hand that violates the spirit of the law. Many of these traditionalists are also extremely poor. And so this year, which happens to be a sabbatical year, the poorest Jews in Israel who wish to eat only food grown on non-Jewish land are left to buy imported goods at double or triple the regular price — all in order to uphold a law meant to help feed the poorest Jews in Israel.

This is used in support of a critique of unintended consequences they say arise from the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Endangered Species Act.

VERY LITTLE TIME to blog today, but do also check out the updates to yesterday's posts.

JODI MAGNESS will also be lecturing at Columbia University/Barnard College:

Jodi Magness

Archaeologist and Distinguished Professor in Early Judaism
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies at Princeton University

Monday Feb. 4, 2008
6:00 pm
Held Auditorium
304 Barnard Hall

Barnard College

Open to the public

part of

The Underground Lecture Series:
What Archaeology Tells Us About Ancient Israel

sponsored by
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
and LionPAC

ANOTHER HEBREW SEAL INSCRIPTION from Eilat Mazar's City of David excavation:

First Temple seal found in Jerusalem
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

[...]

There's a photo too. The biblical references are Ezra 2:53 and Nehemiah 7:55.

(Via Yitzhak Sapir on the Canaanite list.)

UPDATE (18 January): Again on the Canaanite list, Teodor Bors suggests that the seal reads שלמת (Shelomit, a woman's name?) rather than Temech. The "het" does look strange. What do you think?

UPDATE: Christopher Heard discusses this and other issues at length at Higgaion.

JODI MAGNESS will be lecturing at Purchase College in New Jersey on "The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls" in February.

DAVID PLOTZ does Herodion and talks about Israeli-Arab politics and questions about antiquities looting.

I certainly understand how such looting disrupts research. One Israeli archaeologist complained to me that two coins that could revolutionize understanding of his subject had appeared on the antiquities market, apparently the result of looting. Since he couldn't confirm where the coins came from, he didn't know whether they were genuine.

Even so, I appreciate the psychic longing to own a piece of the Bible, perhaps because I already do. When we got married 10 years ago, my wife's then-boss, Marty Peretz, gave us a gorgeous Book-of-Kings-era pitcher. I have no idea if it was looted—it comes from a very reputable Jerusalem store—but I find it hard to care too much. I love looking at the pitcher, wondering if any of my ancestors drank from it, and marveling that it has come all the way down through history to us. And then I rationalize it: As any archaeologist will tell you, the Israeli government and Israeli museums have warehouses stacked roof-high with ancient pottery vessels and coins, objects that no one needs to study anymore but that can't be sold, because they're national treasures. So, I confess that I sympathize a bit with the Arab looters and antiquities dealers. Everyone else in Israel is getting something out of the Bible: Why can't they?

A SEMINAR ON THE TALPIOT TOMB has been going on at Princeton:

Archaeologist hid 'Jesus tomb' for fear of anti-Semitism, widow says
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Jesus, Israel, Jerusalem

The widow of the archaeologist who discovered the tomb in Talpiot that some believe to be that of Jesus of Nazareth, explained Wednesday in Jerusalem to a gathering of senior archaeologists and other scholars why her husband kept his discovery a secret.

In an emotional voice, Ruth Gat said that Yosef Gat, a Holocaust survivor, was afraid a wave of anti-Semitism would ensue if he did so. Speaking at the three-day Third Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins at Mishkenot She'ananim in the capital, Gat also said, "I thank God his fears did not come true in light of the discovery of the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth."

[...]

The cave was uncovered in 1980, but was not made public until the mid-1990s. Last year, the story became widely known with the release of the documentary film >"The Lost Tomb of Jesus"

The film presents a cave uncovered in 1980 during construction work on an apartment building in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot. The tomb contained 10 ossuaries. Hebrew letters were inscribed on some, including those Jacobovici says should be read: Yehuda bar Yehoshua, Matya, Yose, Maria, and Yeshua bar Yehosef. The bones of 35 individuals were also uncovered, interred over three to four generations.

"I fell off the chair," Jacobovici said Wednesday following Gat's presentation. "She said the leading archaeologist, who I thought had claimed it was nothing, actually thought he had discovered the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth, and as a Holocaust survivor was afraid it might lead to anti-Semitism."

Although most of those who spoke at Wednesday's seminar said it was possible the tomb was that of Jesus, Jacobovici's film was taken with a grain of salt.

"What Simcha did was good work, as long as it stays in the right perspective," said archaeologist Professor Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina. "We, the archaeologists and the historians, spend our lives trying to evaluate the information collected over time. The journalist, however, makes one film and moves on."

Professor Israel Knohl of Hebrew University said Wednesday that he saw no reason not to evaluate the tomb as Jesus' family tomb, although there was no unambiguous proof. He said surrounding caves should be excavated in order to obtain more proof, and explanations for various contradictions in existing evidence should be sought.

[...]

I have too many past posts on the Talpiot tomb to list them all here, but if you're interested in background, run the search term "talpiot" through the Google search facility at the top left.

For more on Simcha Jacobovici see the update to this post.

UPDATE: The Jerusalem Post has an article on the Princeton seminar too.

UPDATE (18 January): Time Magazine takes up the story. This is amusing:

Charlesworth, who is also a Methodist minister, says that the possible discovery of Christ's tomb will illicit mixed reactions among Christians.

I think the writer means "elicit."

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Jerusalem approves controversial Mughrabi bridge project
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Mughrabi Bridge, Israel

Jerusalem's district planning and construction committee has approved a controversial plan to restore the Mughrabi bridge leading to one of the entrances to the Temple Mount, construction that caused an outcry among Muslims and generated protest from the Jordanian and Turkish governments in June.

The plan, approved two weeks ago, also includes expansion of the women's section of the Western Wall plaza.

[...]

It's not clear to me if this is the final go-ahead or not:

The Jordanian information minister announced progress in talks on restoring the bridge, but a Jordanian official told Haaretz Tuesday that Jordanian authorities are not aware of any change to the status quo, including expansion of the Western Wall plaza.

DAVID PLOTZ does Jerusalem:

To find the house of David, one of the Bible's most vivid heroes, a man who talked to God, killed giants, and unified Israel—that was like winning the Bible lottery.

If, of course, it's really the palace of David. Interesting overview of the current situation.

ANOTHER REVIEW OF PEOPLE OF THE BOOK:

700 Years In the Life Of a Book
Books | Review of: People of the Book

By CLARE McHUGH (New York Sun)
January 16, 2008

A cursory description of Geraldine Brooks's "People of the Book" (Viking, 384 pages, $25.95) might make the novel sound like a distaff, Jewish version of "The Da Vinci Code." That's because Ms. Brooks, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her last novel, "March" (2005), has now produced a historical mystery starring a strong-willed heroine determined to ferret out the truth about a valuable medieval Hebrew manuscript nearly lost and then found again in war-torn Bosnia.

In reality, "People of the Book" is of much more substance than Dan Brown's overwrought, silly, and ultimately distasteful thriller could ever hope to be — yet Ms. Brooks's work is just as entertaining. She has accomplished something remarkable, fashioning a story that is compelling and eminently readable, even as she maintains high intentions and an earnest purpose.

[...]

THE NABATEANS get a nice little capsule history on the website of the Jordanian Government. I don't think I've noticed it before.

JALDABAOTH wants the head of Metatron. Trust those two not to get along.

JACOB'S ICONIC FACE: Manuscript Boy has the latest at Hagahot.

THE SAN DIEGO DEAD SEA SCROLL EXHIBITION was the best ever for the Museum of Natural History:

Nearly 400,000 people view Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition

By Scott LaFee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

January 7, 2008

BALBOA PARK – Make it the Dead Seen Scrolls.

After 192 days on display, the San Diego Natural History Museum's much-publicized exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls – the oldest known copies of the Hebrew Bible – closed yesterday.

It was the museum's most successful show ever.

About 393,000 people visited the exhibit at the Balboa Park museum during its six-month run, organizers said. While that's less than pre-show predictions of more than 450,000 visitors, the figure substantially exceeds the museum's attendance of 289,000 visitors the previous year.

[...]

THE RUMORS ABOUT THE TOMB OF CYRUS continue to propagate:

Iran Plans on Destroying Tomb of King Cyrus, Friend of the Jews

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) Iran is planning on submerging the tomb of King Cyrus (Coresh), the Persian King known for authorizing the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Holy Temple.

According to a report by Omedia, an Iranian organization is demanding that the International Criminal Court take action against those responsible.

The Iranian ayatollahs are planning on destroying the tomb as part of a general campaign to sever the Persian people from their non-Islamic heritage; Cyrus was thought to be a Zoroastrian and was one of the first rulers to enforce a policy of religious tolerance on his huge kingdom. Journalist Ran Porat quoted a young Iranian who said that the measures being taken by the Islamic Republic’s regime include the destruction of archaeological sites significant to this heritage.

“The government is in the final stages of constructing a dam in southern Iran that will submerge the archaeological sites of Pasargad and Persopolis – the ancient capital of the Persian Empire,” the report states. “The site, which is considered exceptional in terms of its archaeological wealth and historical importance, houses the tomb of the Persian King Cyrus.”

[...]

Last year this story was circulating, but it seems to have been refuted. But claims persist that the rise in humidity could damage the tomb (see here and here).

DAVID PLOTZ on doing archaeology in Israel: "It's like opening the door on a blind date and discovering it's Kate Beckinsale."

MORE ON THE RESCUE OF THE SARAJEVO HAGGADAH: Ellen Birmbaum e-mails to note that the Wikipedia article reports:

A full history of the remarkable man, Dervis Korkut, who saved the book from the Nazi officers who sought it, is told in the December 3, 2007 edition of The New Yorker magazine. The article, entitled "The Book of Exodus" also by Geraldine Brooks, sets out the equally remarkable story of the young Jewish girl, Mira Papo, that Korkut and his wife hid from the Nazis just as they acted to save the Haggadah. In a twist of fate the story reveals how Mira Papo , then an elderly woman in Israel, brought about the safety of Korkut's daughter - from the Serbian genocide of the 1990's.

The New Yorker article is not available online, but you can read the abstract here. As Ellen notes, "it would be pretty hard to beat this story, even in a novel!"

Background here and here.