SOME NEW BOOKS FROM PHOENIX PRESS:

Joseph H. Hellerman
JESUS AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD
Reconfiguring Ethnic Identity
Drawing upon his background as a social historian, Hellerman proposes that a clue to the success of the Christian movement lay in Jesus' own conception of the people of God, and in how he reconfigured its identity from that of ethnos to that of family, functioning as a kind of ethnic entrepreneur, breaking down the boundaries of ethnic Judaism. xii + 381 pp. Published October 2007/
Individual Discount Price £27.50 / ¤41.25 / $50.00
List Price £55.00 / ¤82.50 / $110.00
ISBN 978-1-906055-21-9 (hardback)

J. Harold Ellens (ed.)
TEXT AND COMMUNITY
Essays in Memory of Bruce M. Metzger (2 volumes)
These wide-ranging and often innovative volumes honour the multifaceted work of this doyen of New Testament textual critics, formerly Emeritus Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Princeton Theological Seminary. Volume 1 is Interpretation of the Text for the Community (The Nature of the Bible, and Understanding the Bible: Hermeneutics). Volume 2 is Implementation of the Text in the Community (The Church and the Bible: Pulpit and Parish, and The Academy, Science, Culture, Society, and the Bible. 348 + 244 pp. Published October 2007.
£25.00 / ¤37.50 / $47.50 each
List Price £50.00 / ¤75.00 / $95.00 each
ISBN 978-1-906055-15-8, 978-1-906055-18-9 (hardback)

Calvin J. Roetzel and Robert L. Foster (eds.)
THE IMPARTIAL GOD
Essays in Biblical Studies in Honor of Jouette M. Bassler
Jouette M. Bassler, Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, is honoured by the 19 contributions to this Festschrift. Authors are Cousar, Fee, Fiore, Foster, Frolov, Furnish, Heller, Jewett, Elizabeth Johnson, Ila Bovee Kraft, Kraftchick, Mitchell, Nelson, Neyrey, Rensberger, Roetzel, E.P. Sanders, Tyson, Yarbrough. 288 pp. Published November 2007.
Individual Discount Price £27.50 / ¤41.25 / $55.00
List Price £55.00 / ¤82.50 / $110.00
ISBN 978-1-906055-22-6 (hardback)

Anselm C. Hagedorn, Zeba A. Crook and Eric Stewart (eds.)
IN OTHER WORDS
Essays on Social Science Methods and the New Testament in Honor of Jerome H. Neyrey
Jerome H. Neyrey, Professor of New Testament at Notre Dame since 1992, is widely recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to social-scientific criticism of the Gospels and the Epistles. In this Festschrift the contributors (including David Aune, John H. Elliott, Philip Esler, Bruce Malina and John Pilch, Halvor Moxnes, Carolyn Osiek, Gerd Theissen) notably advance the same cause. xii + 263 pp. Published August 2007.
Individual Discount Price £25.00 / ¤37.50 / $47.50
List Price £50.00 / ¤75.00 / $95.00 each
ISBN 978-1-905048-39-7 (hardback)

Zeba A. Crook and Philip A. Harland (eds.)
IDENTITY AND INTERACTION IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN
Jews, Christians and Others. Essays in Honour of Stephen G. Wilson
The sixteen contributors to this Festschrift include Kim Stratton on curse rhetoric, Adele Reinhartz on Caiaphas, Willi Braun on meals and social formation, Philip Harland on meals and social labelling, Richard Ascough on missionizing associations, John Barclay on Judaean identity in Josephus, John Kloppenborg on the recipients of the Letter of James, Laurence Broadhurst on ancient music, Larry Hurtado on manuscripts and identity, Edith Humphey on naming in the Apocalypse, Michele Murray on the Apostolic Constitutions, Roger Beck on the Late Antique 'Horoscope of Islam', Graydon Snyder on the Ethiopian Jews, Alan Segal on Daniel Boyarin, Robert Morgan on theology vs religious studies, and William Arnal on scholarly identities in the study of Christian Origins. xvi + 292 pp. Published November 2007.
Individual Discount Price £25.00 / ¤37.50 / $50.00
List Price £50.00 / ¤75.00 / $95.00
ISBN 978-1-906055-17-2 (hardback)

Barry D. Smith
WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?
Paul Parts Company with his Jewish Heritage
How can one escape God's wrath and gain eternal life? On this crucial theological question, Paul differs from other members of the Second Temple Jewish community. Contrary to the current consensus, Smith argues that while their soteriology is synergistic, the divine and the human co-operating, Paul knows only of a salvation independent of all human effort. xiv + 285 pp. Published May 2007.
Individual Discount Price £25.00 / ¤37.50 / $45.00
List Price £50.00 / ¤75.00 / $95.00
ISBN 978-1-905048-82-3 (hardback)

Jacqueline C.R. de Roo
WORKS OF THE LAW AT QUMRAN AND IN PAUL
At Qumran, the 'works of the law' are deeds of obedience to God's law, and are ultimately inspired by God. For Paul, on the other hand, they are quintessentially the works of Abraham, the good deeds of a sinful man, and so incapable of making atonement. This closely reasoned study proposes an alternative both to traditional interpretation of Paul and to the 'New Perspective on Paul'. xiv + 280 pp. Published March 2007.
Individual Discount Price £30.00 / ¤45.00 / $47.50
List Price £60.00 / ¤90.00 / $95.00
ISBN 978-1-905048-30-4 (hardback)

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND ... DATA STORAGE? A prolonged and convoluted analogy.

Mad Dog 21/21: Recovering Lost Prophets

Published: February 18, 2008

by Hesh Wiener (IT Jungle)

If you ask computer professionals who they thought were the leaders in data storage, chances are you'll hear names like IBM, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Network Appliances, and Hitachi. If you asked these storage companies, you might get a different list that included some outfits that were largely unknown in the end user world. But end users probably don't have to worry that they will miss out on some important new vendors. The Storage Establishment is buying up many of the emerging suppliers. This high-profile interest in the new crop of vendors makes all the contenders a lot more visible.

Still, the computer business is huge. It's possible that some of the storage system developers with the very best ideas will still for the most part be overlooked for a considerable time, like the caves of Qumran. Data recorded on parchment and other media sat in these caves for a couple thousand years until 1947, when a shepherd stumbled on some of the documents, beginning a process of archeological discovery that lasted about nine years and yielded several hundred items.

[...]

However the market unfolds, it seems likely that old and new vendors will be pushing larger and less costly arrays to satisfy what for now seems to be an unquenchable appetite for storage capacity across every industry sector and in every geographic region.

It points to what will be a necessary future development, perhaps the next big opportunity for storage system vendors: creating archival technology that can keep pace with services using gobs of online and nearline storage. It would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of tomorrow's storage systems and the information they will house. Somewhere in Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, or another social networking site there might or might not be some Web pages belonging to prophets, but it's a safe bet that those sites and their huge file libraries of will generate plenty of profits. And that says nothing about a related business that is expected to become pretty big, pretty fast, storage as a service delivered via the Internet, a business in which the storage device makers might also be the vendors. What is less certain than the prospects for the storage business is whether the information stored on these sites will be around in 2,000 years, and whether it might be a good thing if it's not.

ED COOK is dream-blogging Lost like a good apocalyptic prophet.

Years ago I had a dream (under the influence of a bad case of flu and rather a lot of Nyquil) in which I became omniscient for a few minutes and started a list of The Twenty Most True Things. Alas, I couldn't remember any of them when I woke up.

THE LOST SYRIAC PAGE recovered in the Deir al-Surian Monastery library is covered much more thoroughly by the Art Newspaper:

Fragments of world’s oldest Christian manuscript found in Egyptian monastery

Written in 411 AD, the text was hidden for over 1,000 years in a vault used to store olive oil

Martin Bailey | 18.2.08 | Issue 188

Fragments of the earliest dated Christian literary manuscript have been found at Deir al-Surian, an ancient monastery in the Egyptian desert. Dating from 411 AD, these were discovered under a collapsed floor of a ninth-century tower. The fragments are from the final page of a codex written in Syriac (an Eastern Aramaic language) which was acquired by the British Museum library in the 19th century.

[...]

The story of the discovery of the manuscript is told in detail. Excerpt:

Lord Curzon’s acquisitions whetted the appetite of the British Museum, and two years later it sent scholar Dr Henry Tattam to Deir al-Surian. Among the several hundred manuscripts he purchased was the one that Lord Curzon had been forced to leave behind. Back in London, the note made by the monk in 1086 was spotted.

The note on folio 239 read: “Behold my brethren, if it should happen that the end of this ancient book should be torn off and lost...it was written at the end of it thus.” The monk had then copied out the colophon, which stated that the manuscript had been written at Orrhoa (Edessa, now Sanliurfa), by Jacob, in the year 723 (in the Greek calendar, or 411 AD).

Ditto for the recent discovery of the last page:

There the matter rested for a century and a half. In 1998, the ninth-century tower of Deir al-Surian was renovated, and several hundred fragments of ancient manuscripts were discovered by the monastery’s librarian Father Bigoul under a wooden floor which had probably collapsed as long ago as the 14th century.

It is unfortunate that such drastic restoration of an ancient building was done so casually (surprisingly, it was authorised by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities). No trained archaeologists sifted through the rubble, although Father Bigoul did his best to save what he could. Modern building materials were used in the reconstruction.

Nevertheless, the work did result in the discovery of the manuscript fragments. Analysing the find has taken time, but in 2005 two Syriac scholars, Sebastian Brock (Oxford University) and Lucas van Rompay (Duke University, North Carolina), recognised four small fragments which appeared to be in the same neat handwriting as the 411 manuscript.

In London they consulted the codex, and found that the four fragments were indeed from the final page. These wrinkled pieces have now been conserved at the monastery by London paper specialist Elizabeth Sobczynski.

[...]

And there's information of the contents of the library and the ongoing conservation efforts:

For most of the 20th century, Deir al-Surian’s manuscripts were hidden away—and relatively neglected. The monks were understandably reluctant to show them to outsiders, since their collection had been denuded in the 18th and 19th centuries by European bibliophiles.

But despite these losses, Deir al-Surian still retains 1,000 manuscripts, of which 49 are in Syriac. It also has 150 ancient Coptic manuscripts and 15 Ethiopic texts. Recent cataloguing has uncovered the world’s oldest dated Biblical manuscript in any language, a Syriac version of Isaiah, from 459 AD.

[...]

Read it all.

The Art Newspaper also has an article on the monastery itself:

Noah’s Ark in the desert

18.2.08 | Issue 188

The ancient Egyptian monastery of Deir al-Surian is traditionally said to have been modelled on Noah’s Ark, since the outline of its walled buildings looks like a ship.

But Deir al-Surian resembles the Ark in another sense, as it has preserved unique examples of very early Christian art, dating back 1,600 years. Its isolation, together with its 12-metre-high walls, has helped protect this little oasis and its precious contents.

[...]

Background here and keep following the links back.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Earthquake damages Temple Mount. Waqf says Israel is to blame.

Israel Earthquake Damages Only Temple Mount and Shechem

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) An earthquake shook Israel at 12:37 PM Friday. The only damage reported in Israel was on the Temple Mount and near Shechem (Nablus).

The earthquake measured 5.3 on the Richter scale; its epicenter was located in northeastern Lebanon. Earlier last week a quake measuring 4.1 was felt in northern Israel, also originating from Lebanon, near its northern city of Tyre.

A large hole opened up on the Temple Mount during the quake, which was soon covered by officials from the Wakf Islamic Authority that administers the mosques built atop Judaism’s holiest site.

[...]

Wakf Officials Blame Israel
Wakf officials tried to blame Israel for the 6-foot by 5-foot hole, which is about three feet deep, claiming it was caused by Israel, which it accuses of tunneling beneath the Temple Mount. They demanded an end to all Israeli excavations in the area.

Though several excavation projects are taking place around the Western Wall Plaza, none of them entail tunneling past the wall itself and beneath the mount. ...

THE GOSPEL OF BARNABAS is a major source for an Iranian Jesus-movie. Rick Brannan is on the case.

SYRIAC IS GROOVY. And gutteral. But not grunt-work. Good luck to Kelli in her studies.

CRIME DOESN'T PAY when you neglect the cuneiform:

ARTFUL CODGERS

How a high-school dropout and his elderly parents fooled the world

Robert Fulford, National Post
Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The fake Amarna Princess sculpture made by Shaun Greenhalgh that was bought by the Bolton Council for £439,767.ReutersThe fake Amarna Princess sculpture made by Shaun Greenhalgh that was bought by the Bolton Council for £439,767.

Shaun Greenhalgh, an Englishman whose furtive career has been unfolding in courtrooms, newspapers and museums for the last three months, may well be the most versatile art forger in history. He can do a convincing Gauguin, an 18th-century bronze portrait, a Barbara Hepworth sculpture or a broken chunk of Assyrian wall art. He finds it just as easy to do ancient Egyptian.

A high-school dropout at 16, Shaun taught himself painting, drawing, stone carving and several other techniques. Then, with the enthusiastic support of his family, he became an art criminal.

His story has been mostly ignored in North America because journalists here fail to see it as a saga of British craftsmanship and enterprise performing in a world where these qualities are insufficiently appreciated. In their lower-middle-class home at The Crescent, Bromley Cross, Bolton, Greater Manchester, Shaun's family has for many years operated a traditional cottage industry.

Alan Bennett should write the movie that must be made about them. Shaun, 46 years old, sounds like a failure-to-launch boy, living with his parents, from the stories Bennett has written for BBC radio. Shaun's Mom, Olive, 83, and Dad, George, 84, are both collaborators -- the Artful Codgers, one London newspaper calls them. Testifying in court, Mom claimed her work was purely routine, like making calls for Shaun because he's too shy to talk on the telephone.

[...]

After many successful years, and scores of sales, the Greenhalghs were caught out by that old devil hubris. Shaun, deeply impressed by his own talent, forgot that serious chicanery requires careful attention to detail. He sent the British Museum what was apparently an ancient Assyrian stone relief showing a soldier and horses with cuneiform writing. It looked great until someone noticed a minor spelling mistake in the writing and someone else said that the harness on the horses was from the wrong period.

The British Museum called Scotland Yard. ...

(Via Explorator 10.43.)

ARAMAIC WATCH: A lost page from a Syriac book has been rediscovered in the floor of the Deir al-Surian Monastery Library in Egypt:

Found at last: the world's oldest missing page

Fifth-century Christian text turns up under floor in Egypt, bringing early church martyrs to light

By Andrew Johnson
Sunday, 17 February 2008 (The Independent)

A year after the Romans packed up their shields in AD410 and left Britain to the mercy of the Anglo-Saxons, a scribe in Edessa, in what is modern day Turkey, was preparing a list of martyrs who had perished in defence of the relatively new Christian faith in Persia.

In a margin he dated the list November 411. Unfortunately for the martyrs, history forgot them. At some point, this page became detached from the book it belonged to. Since 1840, the volume has been one of the treasures of the British Library. It is known only by its catalogue code: ADD 12-150

The missing page has always been a fascinating mystery for scholars and historians. Now, after an extraordinary piece of detective work, that page has been rediscovered among ancient fragments in the Deir al-Surian monastery in Egypt. It is, according to Oxford University's Dr Sebastian Brock, the leading Syriac scholar who identified the fragments, the oldest dated Christian text in existence.

The page is important in itself:

"It is a list of martyrs and it must have been added to the main book at the last minute," he said. "There were three fragments from the last page. It was a distinctive handwriting, and it was very exciting to identify it. It is very important to complete the book. Many of the names on this list we have not come across before. So it gives us a lot of clues about that half of that century. Rome at the time was officially Christian, so the rival Persians would have persecuted Christians."

The fragments were among hundreds discovered beneath a floor in the Deir al-Surian, which is itself a treasure trove of ancient books.

For more on the Deir al-Surian Monastery and its library, go here. I'm really curious about how these pages ended up in the floor, though. In any case, this is all very good news:

Dr Brock and his colleague, Dr Lucas Van Rompay of Duke University in North Carolina, are now working on the first catalogue of the many manuscripts that are more than 1,000 years old.

Elizabeth Sobczynski, founder of the Levantine Foundation, which supports the conservation of the mon-astery's manuscripts, is raising money to build a state-of-the-art library to preserve the remaining ancient books. "I found four fragments, and joined three of them together," she said. "These fragments survived for so many centuries, which is amazing .... They could so easily have been swept away."

Bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.

APOCRYPHA WATCH: Tobias and the Angel is previewed in the Baltimore Sun in an interview with the general director of Baltimore's chamber opera company.

Taking on 'Tobias and the Angel'

By Tim Smith | sun Music Critic
February 17, 2008

British composer Jonathan Dove's best known opera is Flight, a kind of comic-opera Airport movie, but with much more sophisticated plot lines. That colorful work, written in 1998, was followed a year later by Tobias and the Angel, a "church opera" based on the Book of Tobit, a text considered apocryphal in Hebrew and Protestant canon.

While Flight quickly crossed the Atlantic and has been successfully staged in a couple of U.S. cities, Tobias and the Angel is only now being readied for its North American premiere by Opera Vivente, Baltimore's chamber opera company. Heading the cast as the Angel is David Walker, a countertenor and Dove fan more frequently heard at major opera houses. Company general director John Bowen discussed the process of choosing, understanding and staging this unusual work in the darkly beautiful 1895 nave of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Mount Vernon.

[...]

Background here.

REFLECTIONS ON TEACHING GNOSTICISM I: THE SYLLABUS have been posted by Tony Chartrand-Burke. It's good to see courses on these specialized but fascinating topics being taught to undergraduates. Back in 1991 I taught a course on Apocalyptic and Gnostic Literature at Tulane University and it was very well received, but I haven't had the opportunity to teach it again. I look forward to future posts from Tony on his course.

UPDATE (25 February): More here.

HOLY BABA BATRA! Neusner's translation of the Babylonian Talmud comes under scrutiny at Biblicalia and Neusner himself responds.

TALMUD SCHOLAR WINS PRIZE:

‘Unconventional scholar’ receives Israel Prize
By Abigail Klein Leichman [New Jersey Jewish Standard]

[...]

[Rabbi David Weiss] Halivni, a Holocaust survivor in his late 70s, is to receive the Israel Prize for his landmark research on the Talmud. The prize, conferred on Israel Independence Day, which falls this year on May 8, has been presented since 1953 to individuals or groups judged to have demonstrated excellence or broken new ground in certain fields. It carries with it an award of 50,000 shekalim (about $14,285).

A prodigy from Ukraine who received ordination at 15, Halivni has been turning out a multi-volume commentary on the Talmud, "Mekorot u’Mesorot: Sources and Traditions," since the 1970s. His non-traditional approach to analyzing the voluminous exposition of the Oral Law is based on deconstructing its divergent parts and surmising where errors may have crept into the text over many centuries.

"I work under the concept that Torah is not only Torah chaim [Torah of life] but Torat emet [Torah of truth]. If you say ‘The Rambam said …,’ you have to be sure that’s what he said. You have to be exact in understanding history."

While "Sources and Traditions" initially caused shock waves in some sectors, its author says it is "almost universally accepted in academic circles today." It is used nowhere as prominently as at the Union for Traditional Judaism, the Teaneck-based institution he founded after leaving JTS when it began ordaining women

[...]

There's also a good story about his teacher, Saul Lieberman.

A TRAILER for Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull is out. It has lots of explosions.

May 22nd. Be there.

THE BOOK OF 1 ENOCH MEETS JEFFERSONVILLE KENTUCKY:

Rare 'Book of Enoch' arrives in Jeffersonville

By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

RELATED VIDEO: Rare book features fallen angels and more

[...]

Now one of the world’s oldest manuscripts of Enoch has found at least a temporary a home in Jeffersonville.

The Remnant Trust — a private collection of rare books and documents with the aim of spurring public interest in culture-shaping works — unveiled the manuscript this week at its East Court Avenue building.

The wood-bound manuscript, written in red and black ink on animal-skin pages, is believed to date from the 15th or 16th centuries.

Two private collectors recently acquired it and loaned it to the trust for at least two years and will consider making it a permanent gift to the trust, said Kris Bex, president of the Remnant Trust. He did not disclose the price but said it was “expensive.”

“It’s one of a kind,” Bex said. “It’s the only Book of Enoch that’s ever been likely to have been sold or put on the market.”

Enoch was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic by ancient Jews, and some ancient fragments of it have been found near the Dead Sea.

But the oldest complete versions are in the ancient Ethiopian language of Ge’ez because Ethiopian Christians are the only enduring church group that revered the book as Scripture.

James C. VanderKam, a professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Notre Dame University and a leading expert on the Book of Enoch, has inspected the book and estimates it’s probably one of the five or so oldest manuscripts of the work.

“We don’t have very many that go back that far,” said VanderKam, who co-authored an English translation of Enoch and is now working on a commentary.

VanderKam estimated the text was about 500 years old because it has similar script and contents to another edition of Enoch in the British Museum, although he said specialists in Ethiopian script could make a more decisive determination.

The manuscript came on the market in the last couple of years from an American owner, and the trust has been able to establish a chain of ownership dating back only to 1924. But VanderKam said it appears authentic.

[...]

Cool. Good article, plus the video has nice images of the manuscript.

THE TOMB OF THE PROPHET DANIEL in Iran is in the news:

Iran Jews celebrate Persian roots, seek to maintain shrinking community
By The Associated Press
Tags: Susa, Prophet Daniel

Members of Iran's tiny Jewish minority gathered at the holy shrine of the Prophet Daniel in the southwest of the country Thursday to celebrate their Persian roots and keep alive a dwindling community.

More than 200 Iranian Jews embarked on the long journey to Susa from cities across Iran to celebrate their Jewishness in an event organized by a local Jewish youth group to support the community.

[...]

"Prophet Daniel is the symbol of our proud Persian roots. The gathering in Susa is to highlight our presence in Iran since ancient times," said Farhad Aframian, the editor of the monthly Jewish magazine, who described the gathering as an opportunity for Jews from all over the country to socialize and keep in touch.

[...]

In addition to the tomb of the Prophet Daniel, Iran is also home to another of Judaism's important sites, the shrine of Mordechai an Esther, who became a Persian queen and persuaded King Xerxes not to slaughter the Jews in an event subsequently celebrated by the festival of Purim

As usual with this sort of thing, any direct connection between these monuments and the figures they honor is to be taken with a grain of salt.

THE WINNERS of the Eisenbrauns Valentine's Day Contest have now been announced: four honorable mentions and third, second, and first place. Awesome! Heaven forfend that any of them ever turn to forgery.

UPDATE: Plus April DeConick gives us a Valentine's Day quote for Valentinians.

Hallmark take note. Lots of material here.

EMANUEL TOV praises the Mac on the Apple website:

Macs Underpin Dead Sea Scrolls Project
Profiles in Success: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Apple technology has played a major role in a worldwide academic project: piecing together and publishing the 2,000 year-old Dead Sea Scrolls. A team of nearly 100 scholars, spread across several continents, used Macs to identify and reconstruct fragments of texts — among which are the earliest biblical writings known to man, and to add their commentaries and notes. As a result, 37 volumes of the scrolls have now been published, 60 years after they were first discovered.

“The Mac played an absolutely critical role in our 16 years of work”, confirms Professor Emanuel Tov, Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project, based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Most important for us was the Mac’s versatility in using different fonts, as we were working in Greek, Hebrew-Aramaic, ancient Hebrew, Syriac and English. We also found the Macs so easy to use, and they literally never crash”.

[...]

(Via Evangelical Textual Criticism.)

I'M NOT SURE I APPROVE OF THIS:

A Sense of Place, Stone by Stone
Art Around Town

By ERICA ORDEN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 13, 2008

The artist Michal Rovner estimates that she has collected more than 10,000 cubic-foot stones on her farm in Israel. There are so many stones that the municipality governing her village wants to investigate what she's up to. The answer, though, can be found easily enough at PaceWildenstein's West 22nd Street gallery in Manhattan. Ms. Rovner used about 1,200 stones from her farm to build a 60-ton archaeological sculpture, "Makom II," which goes on view today.

Ms. Rovner and a team of eight masons spent two weeks in New York constructing the cubic structure, which is made from stones she collected all over Israel and the West Bank, mostly from abandoned homes. To retrieve stones from Palestinian territories, the artist sent a non-Israeli colleague to transport a stone to the border checkpoint, where she would meet him with a truck. Ms. Rovner, a former video artist who received a mid-career retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2002, said she was drawn to work with found or recovered objects because of their varied history and origins. "The intention was to put together all of these places into a coherent structure," she said. "I wouldn't be interested if the stones were all from one place."

[...]

If the stones are from abandoned modern houses, I suppose that's one thing. But I hope none of them are from ancient ruins.

DUELING ARCHAEOLOGICAL TOURS:

Alternative Archaeology: from Shiloah to Silwan

By: Jonathan Mizrahi [ ::: Left Forum ::: ]
Monday, February 11, 2008

Recently a group of archaeologists got together with residents of the village of Silwan in East Jerusalem to create an alternative archaeology. Aware of the ongoing erosion of the meaning of the word "archaeology", and concerned with the political use to which archaeological research has been put, they decided to establish an organization that would try instead to represent a different archaeology. The group is called "From Shiloah to Silwan".

The group offers alternative archaeological tours in the village of Silwan, which is located south of the Temple Mount, just outside the Old city, a few dozen metres from the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. ...

In the 1990s, the "City of David" archaeological garden (which is part of the Jerusalem Walls national park) was transferred to the management of the "Elad" association, a private organization with a right-wing ideology the goal of which is the Judaization of Silwan village. The association made of the national park a part of the campaign to gain control over the village and dispossess its original residents. To that end the association finances all the archaeological excavations that are conducted in public areas in the village, and invested large amounts of money in order to convert the archaeological garden into one of the most visited sites in the country. The Elad association’s tour tells mainly about King David, a little bit about the Second Temple (a historical period that is referred to in archaeological terms as the Early Roman period), the Jews in the 19th century and the settlement in the 20th century – an account that completely ignores scores of archaeological and historical strata and deals mainly with one stratum (the days of King David), which itself has become the subject of many questions. The tour is tendentious and biased, and is intended to cause the visitor to identify with the activities of the Elad association and to impart legitimacy to its activities. Such activities are conducted in opposition to the village residents and even in opposition to the law. The tour teaches hardly a thing about the development of the city, its beginnings and life within it.

The alternative archaeological tour in ancient Jerusalem is intended to present archaeology as a cultural discipline and not as a political instrument. An archaeology that is not concerned with searching for the truth of the Bible or its non-truth. In the opinion of members of this group, it is not the role of archaeology in this country to prove or to refute the existence of one king or another. Archaeology concerns itself with strata and eras and not with historical figures. The group represents the past of Jerusalem in conjunction with the lives of residents of the village in the present. The focus on ancient Jerusalem (the "City of David") was done because in that complex place, where the city began its journey, and near the Temple Mount – an extremely sensitive spot, injustices are being done in the name of archaeology: open areas, roads and paths that had served village residents in the past have been converted in recent years into excavation zones that are closed to the residents, and which complicate their lives. The use of archaeology against the local residents is damaging to archaeological research itself in addition to harming many residents of the village. Members of the group believe that the past of Jerusalem, like the past of every place, does not belong to any specific person or group. The past belongs to all residents and to all who visit the site.

Our tours are conducted by two guides: one is an archaeologist and the other is a village resident. In conjunction with the archaeological story of Jerusalem, its beginnings and its development, the story of today’s villagers is told. The tour will focus on the archaeological findings that are open to the general public starting with area G in the upper part of the park, through part of the excavation areas the along the slope as far as the Pool of Siloah. At other points in the tour residents tell of life in the village, and the difficulties imposed by the efforts of the Elad association to dispossess them.

[...]

The concept sounds good, but given the spin in the article I wonder whether this tourism project is any more objective or apolitical than Elad's. In any case, the more the merrier.

WISDOM BOOKS FROM THE SAINT JOHN'S BIBLE are going on display:

Original folios of Wisdom Books from The Saint John’s Bible on display for first public viewing

02/11/2008

For the first time, original folios from Wisdom Books: The Saint John’s Bible will be on display for public viewing. The exhibition, which includes 28 original pages, begins Feb. 18 and runs through Dec. 31 at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) on the campus of Saint John’s University.

Wisdom Books is the fifth completed volume of The Saint John’s Bible and includes some of the Old Testament’s literary masterpieces, including Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. The volume also includes the much-loved book of Job and two Old Testament works including the Wisdom of Solomon, which was originally written in Greek and Sirach which come to us from the Greek tradition.

[...]

Commissioned by Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn., The Saint John’s Bible is a contemporary work created in the tradition of handwritten medieval manuscripts. The artistic director of the project, Jackson, is one of the world’s foremost Western calligraphers and scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Crown Office at the House of Lords. During the past nine years, Jackson has worked in rural Wales, with scribes and artists to write and illuminate The Saint John’s Bible entirely by hand, using quills and paints hand-ground from precious minerals and stones such as lapis lazuli, vermilion, malachite, on beautiful calfskin vellum. Silver, copper, and 24-karat gold leaf add light and brilliance to the pages.

The Saint John’s Bible, consisting of 1,150 pages in seven volumes, will be completed in 2009. It will be housed permanently at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn., where it will be used in worship and be available to scholars and the public. The Saint John’s Bible will tour to libraries and museums worldwide, offering educational outreach and spiritual programming initiatives

[...]

KENNETH ATKINSON and the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) project are getting more media attention, this time from the AP:

UNI professor helps translate ancient scripture
Professor part of 24 scholars completing translation

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
POSTED: February 12, 2008

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.

[...]

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.

[...]

It's good to see the NETS project - and Ken! - getting this publicity.

APRIL DECONICK begins a new feature: Apocryphote of the Day, a daily quotation from the (NT?) apocrypha.

DR. CHANA SAFRAI, I am very sorry to report, has just died after a battle with cancer. She was a specialist in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Some professional details are here. That is all the information I have at present. Dan Machiela at Notre Dame sent me the news.

UPDATE (12 February): More here.

SOME RECENT REVIEWS FROM SCHOLIA:

Scholia Reviews ns 16 (2007) 45.

Roger Beck, A Brief History of Ancient Astrology. Brief Histories of the Ancient World. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Pp. xiii + 159, incl. 10 figures, 4 tables, notes, bibliography and index. ISBN 1-4051-1074-0. UK£21.95. Further Details.

Robert Hannah
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

This book is a welcome addition to the series of ‘Brief Histories of the Ancient World’ produced by Blackwell. David Young’s A Brief History of the Olympic Games (2004) is at present the only other horse in the stable, but two more are in preparation, on Roman Law and on Ancient Greek. There is also from Blackwell the longer- established ‘Brief Histories of Religion’ and several stand-alone titles with the same ‘Brief History’ remit. The ‘Ancient World’ series as projected seems somewhat eclectic in its choice of topics -- all valuable, but hardly unified -- and one may wonder whether they could have been published as stand-alone titles also, but this impression may change over time as the series develops. Volumes in this series aim to offer ‘concise, accessible and lively accounts of central aspects of the ancient world. Each book is written by an acknowledged expert in the field and provides a compelling overview, for readers new to the subject and specialists alike’ (p. ii). For me, this new book fulfils this broad aim admirably.

[...]

Scholia Reviews ns 16 (2007) 42.

Fergus Millar, The Greek World, The Jews, and the East. Volume 3: The Greek World, the Jews, and the East. Studies in the History of Greece and Rome. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Pp. xxvii + 516. ISBN 0-8078-3030-5. US$29.95. Further Details.

Lisa R. Holliday
Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina

The Greek World, the Jews and the East completes a three-part series of the collected articles of Fergus Millar. The previous collections, sub-titled The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution, and Society and Culture in the Roman Empire dealt with the rise of Rome and Roman expansion.[[1]] This volume focuses on the Greek east, covering the period from the conquests of Alexander through the fifth century C.E.

The articles are organized into three groups, 'The Hellenistic World and Rome', 'Rome and the East', and 'Jews and Others'. The topics covered are broad, ranging from studies of individual regions like Phoenicia in 'The Phoenician Cities: A Case-Study of Hellenization' (pp. 32- 50), to the effect of increased trading routes on the east in 'Caravan Cities: The Roman Near East and Long Distance Trade by Land' (pp. 275-99). In all of these works, Millar’s emphasis on the necessity of an expansive historical context is evident in the diversity of sources he utilizes and his ability to look beyond the period in question to later and earlier developments. This approach allows him to explore the period and location in question from new and often insightful perspectives.

[...]

THE POLITICS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF JERUSALEM are treated briefly in this AP article:

Digging up Jerusalem's past is tricky
Posted on Sun, Feb. 10, 2008
By MATTI FRIEDMAN
Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM -- Underneath the homes and ragged streets of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan lie the remnants of a glorious Jewish past: coins, seals, a water tunnel hewn by a Judean king 2,700 years ago, a road that led to a biblical Temple.

But archaeology is hard-wired into the politics of modern-day Arab-Israeli strife, and new digs to unearth more of this past are cutting to the heart of the charged argument over who owns the holy city today.

Israel says it's reconnecting with its ancient heritage. Palestinians contend the archaeology is a political weapon to undermine their own links to Jerusalem.

Lying on a densely populated slope outside the walled Old City, the area is known to Israelis as the City of David, named for the legendary monarch who ruled a Jewish kingdom from this spot 3,000 years ago. It is the kernel from which Jerusalem grew.

But Silwan is in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in 1967 and which Palestinians claim for the capital of a future state.

Palestinians and Israelis are trying again to negotiate a peace deal, one which must include an agreement to share Jerusalem. The collision in this neighborhood - between Silwan and the City of David - encapsulates the complexities ahead.

The organization funding the digs, the Elad Foundation, is associated with the religious settlement movement and is committed to preventing Israel from ever ceding the area in a peace deal. It says it has a yearly budget of close to $10 million, nearly all of it from donations, and is buying up Palestinian homes in Silwan to accommodate Jewish families. Around 50 have moved in so far, living in houses flying Israeli flags and guarded by armed security men paid for by the Israeli government.

[...]

FORGERY TRIAL UPDATE.

INTERNATIONAL SEPTUAGINT DAY: Also from Kevin Edgecomb. Friday was International Septuagint Day and I missed it! I was doing some work on Josephus' account of the building of the Temple on Friday. I guess that will just have to count.

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: Deuterbaruchian Pearls from Kevin P. Edgecomb.

THE NEW ISRAELI TWO-SHEKEL COIN is based on an old model:

New 2-Sheqel Coin Circulates in Israel Dec. 8
By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News
February 07, 2008

Look through the Krause Standard Catalog of World Coins catalog and you'll see Israel's 2-sheqel coins are non-circulating legal tender commemoratives composed of silver.

As of Dec. 8 there is a new kid on the block - a circulating 2-sheqel coin meant to favor consumers rather than collectors. The Bank of Israel issued the new circulating coin through commercial banks in hopes of reducing the cost of issuing future coins and currency. The low value 2 sheqel is hoped to make cash transactions on small purchases more efficient by reducing the number of coins needed.

[...]

The coin is a silver-colored nickel-plated piece designed by Ruben Nutels. The reverse has a theme based on designs appearing on ancient Jewish coins. The reverse of the 2 sheqel mimicks a coin of Hasmonean ruler Jan Hyrcanus (127-104 BC). The 2 sheqel depicts two cornucopia and a pomegranate, the cornucopia filled with fruits and sheaves while being wrapped in ribbons.

That should be John Hyrcanus and his reign begain 134 BCE, not 127. An image of what seems to be the coin referred to is here.

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.

[...]