IN THE MAIL - a gift from the author:

Richard Bauckham, The Jewish World around the New Testament: Collected Essays I (WUNT 233; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008)

A BYZANTINE-ERA MOSAIC FLOOR in Israel has been removed from its site at an ancient synagogue, restored, and returned to its original location:

1,500-year-old Mosaic Floor Unveiled in Ancient Synagogue Ruins

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) A spectacular 1,500-year-old mosaic floor in an ancient synagogue in the western Negev was unveiled to the public on Monday.

The mosaic, which is part of a synagogue from the Byzantine period (fifth and sixth centuries in the Common Era) is located in the community of Ma'on-Nirim.

A stunning portrayal of symbols from the period, the 3.70 x 7.80-meter Byzantine work of art is decorated with a seven-branched menorah and the images of various animals common to the area, among them the Lion of Judah.

Scenes of everyday life, including wine production from the surrounding vineyards, grace the medallions that dance along a vine winding around the floor.

[...]

The mosaic also includes an Aramaic dedicatory inscription. And dozens of amulets (language not stated - presumably Hebrew and/or Aramaic) and other small artifacts were found in the vicinity. The article has pictures. The original IAA press release (via Joseph I. Lauer) is at a temporary URL here. The photos are available in a zip file here.

THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY EXHIBITION at the Houston Museum of Natural Science is profiled by Suzanne Ryan in the Houston Examiner. The piece includes video of Matthias Henze, Rice University specialist in ancient Judaism and early Christianity and Guest Curator of the exhibition.

THE GOOD SHIP PHOENICIA is recruiting new crew:

Opportunity for young sailors seeking adventure

(Sail-World.com UK)

Young aspiring sailors will have the opportunity for a memorable adventure when the round-Africa Phoenicia Expedition begins again in August this year, or you could be part of a one week adventure in May to move the boat from its current location to Aden in Yemen.

[...]

Background here.

HUGOYE: Journal of Syriac Studies has just published a new issue online (12.1, Winter 2009).

RACHEL ELIOR'S THEORY that there were no Essenes is covered by the Daily Princetonian. Princeton Professors James Charlesworth and Martha Himmelfarb weigh in and are unconvinced.

Background here.

PHILOLOGOS Gets Roasted – And Eaten. Cicero is involved.

A BYZANTINE-ERA BATHHOUSE:

A Byzantine Bathhouse was Uncovered Close to Kibbutz Gevim

(Art Daily)

JERUSALEM.- A bathhouse that dates to the Byzantine period was exposed in an archaeological excavation undertaken by the Israel Antiquities Authority near Kibbut Gevim (at the site of Horvat Lasan) and underwritten by the Israel Railways, prior to laying a railroad track from Ashkelon to Netivot.

[...]

HOME WITH A COLD. Sorry for the dearth of blogging. I've been sleeping most of the time for the last couple of days. I'll be back as soon as I can.

RON HENDEL thinks he has located the missing walls of Jericho. Giants are involved. Highly speculative, but interesting.

More on Og the giant here.

HAPPY SIXTH BLOGIVERSARY TO PALEOJUDAICA! My first (introductory) post is here and the first substantive post is here. Past anniversary posts: 2004 (1st), 2005 (2nd), 2006 (3rd), 2007 (4th), 2008 (5th).

Here are some of my favorite posts over the last year. For subjects that got a lot of coverage, I've just picked posts in which I had something substantive (if sometimes brief) to say.

Enema instructions in ancient Aramaic?

Doctor Who meets the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

David Noel Freedman 1922-2008

Tutela Valui
(Most popular post of the year, receiving several thousand hits. Must be the Latin.)

Good snow here

The Vision of Gabriel: here, here, here, and here.

The Gedalyahu ben Pashur seal: here and here

British New Testament Conference 2008

The Khirbet Qeiyafa inscription: here, here, and here. Is that thing published yet?

SBL 2008

Rosslyn Chapel

Ralphies 2008

The Kilduncan Stone in St. Andrews

Martin Luther King Jr. and biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha

Ancient Neoplatonist libraries and the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

The Persepolis Cuneiform Archive controversy

The Dead Sea Scrolls sock puppet scandal and the Golb arrest: here, here, here, and here.

Rachel Elior's theory that there were no Essenes: here, here, and here.

I have meetings all day today (the 24th) until late afternoon, so I'm preposting this the evening before. But I'll try to add some annual statistics at some point on the day.

UPDATE: This is posting number 5960 for PaleoJudaica (905 posts this year). The counter stands at 593,295 total individual hits (and 832,415 total page views) and PaleoJudaica is currently ranked at number 41,812 by Technorati. That's 117,404 individual hits in the last year and an ascent of 23,756 places in the Technorati ranking. A year ago Technorati indexed 112.8 million blogs. I can't find the current number, but it had gone up to 133 million still in 2008.

As always, please keep sending me items of interest and please do keep reading PaleoJudaica.

THE RENOVATION (RENEWAL) OF THE ISRAEL MUSEUM is back in the news:

$100 million renovation of Israel Museum to double display space for art and artifacts

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, March 22, 2009

FROM WIRE REPORTS Gwen Ackerman, Bloomberg News

JERUSALEM – The Israel Museum, with a collection that includes Picasso sculptures, Chagall paintings and the Dead Sea Scrolls, is barely visible behind a jumble of cranes dotting its campus on Jerusalem's Hill of Tranquility.

The 20 acres of galleries, sculpture gardens and research facilities are getting a $100 million facelift to make the museum's collection more accessible.

[...]

The price has risen by $20 million since June of 2007 and has doubled since April of 2006. I hope they're getting their money's worth!

ANOTHER REVIEW of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks has been published by Regis Schilken in Blogcritics Magazine. Haven't seen one of these for awhile. Excerpt:

I would recommend People of the Book to those who enjoy a series of individual short stories. By this I mean the fanciful Haggadah journeys in between most chapters.

Each of these tales is well-written but predictable in this sense: the reader discovers early that each Haggadah journey involves some kind of terrifying threat to the book, often to the lives of those who rescue it. Finally, the tale would be more compelling if the exaggerated, painful, daughter-mother relationship were left out entirely.

I think the book is worth reading. As fiction, it gives the reader a non-fictional sense of the terrors of past Jewish history. The Haggadah's survival down through six-plus centuries is remarkable. During that long period of time, I feel certain it has undergone countless narrow escapes with destruction similar to that detailed in People of the Book.

BOOK REVIEW: Sisters of Sinai by Janet Soskice is reviewed by James McConnachie in the London Times. Excerpt:

In 1892, the twins travelled from their home in Cambridge to Cairo, then made their way for nine days on foot and by camel across one of the world's more inhospitable deserts. Arid plains gave way to limestone ridges, maze-like wadis and, finally, the brutal 7,000ft peaks of the Mount Sinai range. Agnes, the travel writer of the pair, had no complaint to make about the journey other than that the camel's rolling gait disturbed her reading of the Psalms in Hebrew.

Since Tischendorf's escapades, the monks had tended to greet visitors with a volley of stones, thrown down from the vast fortified walls. But Agnes saw only a spiritual oasis; she likened it to a dove hiding in a cleft of the rocks. Respect for the sisters' sex ensured a welcome, and their tents were soon pitched in the monastery garden, close to “the well of Moses” and the original burning bush.

Agnes dared to ask to see the oldest Syriac manuscripts and, in a dimly lit chamber, she found the promised chests. One harboured a dirty, damaged volume whose parchment pages had to be steamed apart using the twins' travel kettle. Faint beneath the main 7th-century text were two columns of older underwriting. Agnes's Syriac studies meant that she could read the headings: “Of Matthew”, “Of Luke”.

Agnes had found and recognised one of the earliest New Testament manuscripts yet discovered, its text dating to the 2nd century. ...

I don't believe the second century date. I doubt that the earlier Syriac text would be any earlier than the fourth century, and this seems to be right.

Cross file under Aramaic Watch.

UPDATE (24 March): Stephen C. Carlson e-mails:

It is not super clear, but perhaps the author is making a distinction between the age of a manuscript and the age of its text. The manuscript itself is late fourth / early fifth century, but its text could be as early as the late second depending on when the translation into Syriac was made.

I suppose that could be what it means. But if so, then no, it isn't very clear.

ARAMAIC WATCH: Ancient Aramaic inscriptions in the UAE:

Where hidden treasures await
Posted on: Sunday March 22 , 2009 12:03:32 PM (GMT+4) (Eye of Dubai News)

From rusty cannons and ancient manuscripts to majestic fishing ships and tombs housing the oldest traces of life in the country, museums across the UAE are home to hidden treasures unknown to most of the country’s residents and citizens.

“Each museum has something special and visitors always leave the museum knowing something new about this country,” says Nasser Hashim Mohammed, the curator of Sharjah Archaeology Museum.

[...]

Artefacts from all parts of the country are on show in museums in Sharjah, Al Ain and Dubai, featuring some of the oldest examples of the written word, including Aramaic, Hasaean and Greek inscriptions that have survived on jewellery and pottery that pre-date the Arabic language.

[...]

No more information is given, but sounds intriguing.

THE SCHECHTER HAGGADAH, edited by Joshua Kulp, is reviewed by Rachel Pezzlo in Ynetnews.com. Excerpt:

The Schechter Haggadah presents a compilation of sources and commentary, and not a pre-chewed presentation of material to be shared at the seder for inner spiritual reflection as many other recent popular family-participation haggadahs are. With its heavy textual basis, the haggadah may be most easily digestible for readers with a background in Jewish textual learning, though it still can be appreciated and enjoyed by a particularly curious and adventurous beginner.

THE SILWAN LAND DISPUTE is discussed by the Mayor of Jerusalem:

Barkat may relocate Silwan residents

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat hopes to reach an agreement on the relocation of Arab residents living in illegally constructed homes in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood, to make way for a planned archaeological park adjacent to the City of David.

"This is one of the most strategic sites in the city, on an international level, which must be an open public area," Barkat said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "It is certainly much more important than Central Park in New York."

The 49-year-old self-made hi-tech millionaire-turned-mayor said that he was determined to reach a solution to the problem in the coming months, together with both city residents and the government, after the issue is thoroughly planned by a municipal committee and deliberated in public.

"It is inconceivable that we will not follow the rule of law in the city," he said. "The question is, how do you get from the current situation to the desirable one."

He said it was fair to assume that deliberations between the two sides would lead to a solution - such as an exchange of land, or monetary compensation for Arabs living illegally at the site - and noted that a senior municipal official had held a recent meeting with local residents to discuss the issue.

[...]

While he praised the dialogue with Silwan residents, the new Jerusalem mayor insisted that the issue of house demolitions in the city was about law and order, and not about politics.

"The two issues need to be decoupled," he said. "I would like to see what [New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg would say about illegal building in Central Park. Would he give up Central Park because there is illegal building there?"

[...]

Background here and follow the links back.

He also touched on the Museum of Tolerance controversy:

Earlier this week, Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Pepe Alalo of Meretz, which opposes any Jewish construction in east Jerusalem, conceded during a tour of the site by party officials that there was a tremendous amount of disinformation about the house demolitions in Silwan, and urged local residents to work with the city to reach a solution to the issue.

In the interview, Barkat also said he would honor a past city agreement with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center for the construction of a Museum of Tolerance at a central Jerusalem site that partially covers a Muslim cemetery, even though he would have preferred that it be built at a different location.

Background here and, again, keep following the links back.

THE DROUGHT IN IRAQ has an up side for archaeology:

Drought Reveals Iraqi Archaeological Treasures

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro (NPR)

All Things Considered, March 20, 2009 · Iraq is suffering one of the worst droughts in decades. While this is bad news for farmers, it is good news for archaeologists in the country.

The receding waters of the Euphrates River have revealed ancient archaeological sites, some of which were unknown until now.

[...]

Flooding Covers Sites

In the mid-1980s, Saddam Hussein's government dammed the Euphrates in the area, flooding a 120-mile-long stretch of land near Iraq's border with Syria.

What once was an enormous reservoir that stretched as far as the eye could see has shrunk an astonishing 90 percent since summer, officials say.

Ratib [Ali al-Kubaisi, the director of Anbar province's Antiquities Department] says that at least 75 archeological sites had been partially excavated before the area was flooded. They ran the gamut of civilizations — from 3,000 B.C. to the Sumerian and Roman periods. Ancient Jewish settlements were also submerged in the area. But because of the receding waters, Ratib has been able to access some sites for the first time — including, for instance, a cliff with a series of pre-Christian tombs carved into its face. Though they have been heavily damaged by the water, Ratib says they still have value.

"I wish we could excavate these sites again. If we had the money and the resources, we could complete the work we began all those years ago," he says.

[...]

My emphasis. As always, there are looting worries as well.

HAPPY VERNAL EQUINOX to all those celebrating. Almost forgot.

A LIVE PERFORMANCE OF BEN HUR in Aramaic and Latin - and including the chariot race - is coming to the O2 Arena (in the former Millennium Dome in London):

Ben Hur premiere will thrill O2 audiences
By Simon Hayes on March 19, 2009 1:00 PM | (Warf.co.uk)

Michael Jackson might be stealing all the headlines at The O2 this summer but there's another show heading to the venue that promises to be equally spectacular.

Ben Hur, the story of a Hebrew prince who falls from grace and ends up a slave, will have its world premiere at the arena on September 15.

The story, which features live animals and a cast of hundreds, has been transformed into a two-hour theatrical show by producer Franz Abraham.

[...]

THE SABEAN MANDEANS (SABAEAN MANDAEANS) still have a hard lot in Iraq:

Dozens of men and women dressed in five pieces of fine white cloth inch their way barefoot into the muddy waters in ancient rites of purification.

They are joyously celebrating the "five white days" when Al-Rab or God created earth -- the biggest festival in the Sabean religious calendar.

Also known as Mandaeans, the Sabeans traditionally speak a variety of Aramaic, the language of Christ.

They call Adam their prophet and revere John the Baptist -- "saba" is Aramaic for baptise, "manda" means knowledge.

They trace their roots to pre-Christian times and some scholars believe the sect was a heretical branch of Judaism that spread south through the land of the two rivers or Mesopotamia in the second century AD.

However today the reality is post-invasion modern Baghdad and a fight to survive persecution, war and hardship.

The Sabeans are a dying community in Iraq. Their numbers have dwindled from 35,000 before the US-led war of 2003 to just 7,000-8,000, says the sect's leader Sheikh Sattar Jabbar al-Hulu.

"It has been a disaster for the community," the "rais" or chief tells AFP. While many have been killed in the sectarian bloodshed that swept the country, most have fled into exile. The diaspora today numbers between 32,000 and 33,000.

More here, here, here, and here.

A VISIT to the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. This synagogue was the home of the Cairo Geniza, although these visitors seem not to have known that.

RACHEL ELIOR'S THEORY that the Essenes had nothing to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in fact never existed, has caught the full attention of the media and is now being covered in numerous articles. The one from the London Times seems to merit the most comment, by way of having the most muddled coverage.

Scholars in uproar over challenge to Dead Sea Scrolls

James Hider in Jerusalem

For more than 60 years scholars have believed that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic Jewish sect called the Essenes, who lived in the 1st century in the mountains and recorded their religious observances on parchments.

Now a new theory challenging the broadly accepted history is sending shockwaves through the archaeological community, even leading to the arrest of one prominent scrolls scholar’s son in the United States.

That's pretty misleading. First, I've not seen all that much scholarly reaction to her theory so far, perhaps because most of us are waiting until we actually read her new book when it comes out. True, it seems to be sending shock waves through the media. But let's not confuse the two please. In due course scholars (mostly philologists and historians, although some archaeologists too) will digest her argument and respond to it in critical reviews, articles, etc. By then the press will have mostly forgotten about the whole thing.

As for Golb's theory, it's been around for decades and has yet to pick up a scholarly following. Hence the sock puppetry defense of it that led to the current scandal. Elior's theory is related to Golb's, but Golb never claimed that the Essenes didn't exist, so it's not the same.

Rachel Elior, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, claims in a forthcoming study that not only were the 930 scrolls written by Jewish priests living in Jerusalem but that the Essenes as a sect did not exist.

In her new book Memory and Oblivion, Professor Elior says that the scrolls were written by the Sadducees, a class of Jewish priests dating back to the time of King Solomon.

The scrolls were found by a shepherd in a cave at Qumran, on the edge of the Dead Sea, in 1947. One of the most important archaeological finds of the century, their significance was enhanced by the discovery of an untouched version of the Hebrew Bible dating back to 300BC.

[...]

Oh, if only! Sorry, no "untouched" (what does that mean?) Hebrew Bible from 300 BCE. Instead, many manuscripts of individual books of the Hebrew Bible. These, alas, were very much touched by two thousand years of lying around in caves, being eaten by worms, being made into rats' nests, etc. Most of them are just a handful of fragments, although the information they give us about the ancient text of the Hebrew Bible is very precious. They date from the third century BCE (very few of those) to the first century CE. I know of none dated to as early as 300 BCE.

The rest of the article looks okay, although it's very odd that there's no mention of Larry Schiffman, whose theory that the Qumran sectarians were an apocalyptic offshoot of the Sadducees also has a good bit of overlap with what Elior seems to be arguing. Although, again, Schiffman has not argued that the Essenes never existed.

There's better coverage by the AP in "Theory combats accepted wisdom on Dead Sea Scrolls" and Arutz Sheva in "Scholar Blows Up Theory on Dead Sea Scroll Authors."

Background here.

UPDATE: Douglas Mangum summarizes and adds to the current discussion in the Biblio-blogosphere at the Biblia Hebraica blog.

THE INSCRIPTIONS OF ISRAEL/PALESTINE PROJECT:

The Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine project seeks to build an internet-accessible database of published inscriptions from Israel/Palestine that date between ca. 500 BCE and 614 CE, roughly corresponding to the Persian, Greek, and Roman periods. The purpose of this database is to provide a tool that will make accessible the approximately 10,000 relevant inscriptions published to date, and will include substantial contextual information for these inscriptions, including images and geographical information.

Looks useful.

(Via the Agade list.)

THE JOURNAL OF SEMITIC STUDIES has a new issue out (Spring 2009; Vol. 54, No. 1). TOC:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Articles
----------------------------------------------------------------

Jan Keetman
Wechselwirkung Von Vokalen Und Gutturalen Im Semitischen Unter Dem Einfluss Anderer Sprachen: Die Beispiele Des Akkadischen Und Hebraischen
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 1-17; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn038.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/1?etoc

Na'ama Pat-El
The Development of the Semitic Definite Article: A Syntactic Approach
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 19-50; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn039.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/19?etoc

Gordon J. Hamilton
A Proposal to Read the Legend of a Seal-Amulet from Deir Rifa, Egypt as an Early West Semitic Alphabetic Inscription
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 51-79; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn040.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/51?etoc

Vincent Decaen
Theme and Variation in Psalm 111: Phrase and Foot in Generative-Metrical Perspective
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 81-109; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn041.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/81?etoc

Robert D. Holmstedt
Word Order and Information Structure in Ruth and Jonah: A Generative-Typological Analysis
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 111-139; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn042.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/111?etoc

Francois Bron
Notes Sur Les Inscriptions Neo-Puniques De Henchir Medeina (Althiburos)
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 141-147; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn043.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/141?etoc

Tzvi Novick
The Modality of Sarik in Tannaitic Hebrew
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 149-160; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn044.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/149?etoc

Shlomy Raiskin
Talmudic Aramaic Fauna Names: Murzema and Shaqitna
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 161-167; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn045.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/161?etoc

Nadezhda Vidro
A Newly Reconstructed Karaite Work on Hebrew Grammar
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 169-178; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn046.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/169?etoc

Gerrit Bos and Y. Tzvi Langermann
The Introduction of Sergius of Reshlhringaina to Galen's Commentary on Hippocrates' On Nutriment
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 179-204; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn047.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/179?etoc

Alessandra Avanzini
Origin and Classification of the Ancient South Arabian Languages
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 205-220; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn048.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/205?etoc

Aaron D. Rubin
The Functions of the Preposition K- in Mehri
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 221-226; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn049.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/221?etoc

Hilla Peled-Shapira
From Conventional to Personal, or: What Happened to Metaphor Under the Influence of Ideology - the Case of Gharhringib TulhringMa Farman
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 227-249; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn051.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/1/227?etoc

----------------------------------------------------------------
Reviews
----------------------------------------------------------------

Edward Lipinski
GEORGES BOHAS and MIHAI DAT, Une theorie de l'organisation du lexique des langues semitiques: matrices et etymons (Collection Langages). * PHILIPPE CASSUTO and PIERRE LARCHER (eds), La formation des mots dans les langues semitiques (Langues et langage 15).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 251-252; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn052.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/251?etoc

David M Stec
AARON D. RUBIN, Studies in Semitic Grammaticalization (Harvard Semitic Studies 57).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 253-254; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn053.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/253?etoc

Jon Taylor
JEAN-JACQUES GLASSNER. Translated and edited by ZAINAB BAHRANI and MARC VAN DE MIEROOP, The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 254-255; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn054.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/254?etoc

J.N. Postgate
J.A. HALLORAN, Sumerian Lexicon: A Dictionary Guide to the Ancient Sumerian Language.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 255-257; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn055.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/255?etoc

Wilfred G.E. Watson
STEFANIE U. GULDE, Der Tod als Herrscher in Ugarit und Israel (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2 Reihe 22).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 258-259; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn056.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/258?etoc

Bob Becking
HALLVARD HAGELIA, The Tel Dan Inscription: A Critical Investigation of Recent Research on its Palaeography and Philology (Studia Semitica Upsalensia 22).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 259-261; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn057.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/259?etoc

Martin F.J. Baasten
ERNST JENNI, Studien zur Sprachwelt des Alten Testaments II.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 261-265; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn058.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/261?etoc

Eveline J. Van Der Steen
ROBERT D. MILLER II S.F.O., Chieftains of the Highland Clans: a History of Israel in the 12th and 11th Centuries B.C. (The Bible in its World). * ANN E. KILLEBREW, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: an Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel 1300-1000 B.C.E. (Society of Biblical Literature Archaeology and Biblical Studies 9).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 265-270; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn059.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/265?etoc

Jeffrey Stackert
BERNARD S. JACKSON, Wisdom Laws: A Study of the Mishpatim of Exodus 21:1- 22:16.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 270-272; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn060.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/270?etoc

Jenni Williams
HILARY LIPKA, Sexual Transgression in the Hebrew Bible.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 272-273; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn061.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/272?etoc

K.A. Kitchen
KEVIN A. WILSON, The Campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I into Palestine. (Forschungen zum Alten Testament, 2. Reihe, 9).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 274-276; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn062.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/274?etoc

William Johnstone
THOMAS B. DOZEMAN and KONRAD SCHMID (eds), A Farewell to the Yahwist? The Composition of the Pentateuch in Recent European Interpretation (Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series 34).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 276-278; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn063.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/276?etoc

Deborah Rooke
ALICE HUNT, Missing Priests: The Zadokites in Tradition and History (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 452).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 278-281; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn064.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/278?etoc

Deborah Rooke
LENA-SOFIA TIEMEYER, Priestly Rites and Prophetic Rage: Post-Exilic Prophetic Critique of the Priesthood (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 19).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 281-283; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn065.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/281?etoc

Robert D. Holmstedt
NICHOLAS P. LUNN, Word-Order Variation in Biblical Hebrew Poetry: Differentiating Pragmatics and Poetics (Paternoster Biblical Monographs).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 283-285; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn066.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/283?etoc

Doron Mendels
D. GOODBLATT, Elements of Ancient Jewish Nationalism.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 285-287; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn067.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/285?etoc

Simon Adnams Lasair
BEVERLY P. MORTENSEN, The Priesthood in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Renewing the Profession (Studies in Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 287-289; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn068.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/287?etoc

Gunter Stemberger
ALEXANDER SAMELY, Forms of Rabbinic Literature and Thought: An Introduction.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 289-292; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn069.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/289?etoc

Steven Kaplan
EMANUELA TREVISAN SEMI, Jacques Faitlovitch and the Jews of Ethiopia.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 292-294; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn070.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/292?etoc

Michael A. Knibb
ALESSANDRO BAUSI e ALESSANDRO GORI, Tradizioni orientali del "Martirio di Areta." La prima recensione Araba e la versione Etiopica. Edizione
critica e traduzione.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 294-296; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn071.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/294?etoc

Hugh Goddard
JOHN C. LAMOREAUX (translator), Theodore Abu Qurrah (Library of the Christian East 1).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 296-298; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn072.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/296?etoc

Andrew Marsham
GARTH FOWDEN, Qusayr lhringAmra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria (The transformation of the classical heritage 36).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 208-302; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn073.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/208?etoc

Ami Elad-Bouskila
PAUL STARKEY, Modern Arabic Literature.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 302-305; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn074.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/302?etoc

----------------------------------------------------------------
Short Notes
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John F. Healey
STEVEN E. FASSBERG and A. HURVITZ, (eds), Biblical Hebrew in its Northwest Semitic Setting: Typological and Historical Perspectives (Publication of the Institute for Advanced Studies 1, The Hebrew University Jerusalem).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 307-308; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn075.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/307?etoc

John F. Healey
HELENE LOZACHMEUR, La Collection Clermont-Ganneau: ostraca, epigraphes sur jarre, etiquettes de bois (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres 35).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 308-309; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn076.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/308?etoc

John F. Healey
KAREL JONGELING, and ROBERT M. KERR, Late Punic Epigraphy: an Introduction to the Study of Neo-Punic and Latino-Punic Inscriptions.
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 309-310; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn077.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/309?etoc

John F. Healey
JEAN-CLAUDE HAELEWYCK, Grammaire comparee des langues semitiques: elements de phonetique, de morphologies et de syntaxe (Langues et cultures anciennes 7).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 310-311; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn078.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/310?etoc

Deborah Rooke
SUSANNE SCHOLZ, Introducing the Women's Hebrew Bible (Introductions in Feminist Theory 13).
J Semitic Studies 2009 54: 311; doi:10.1093/jss/fgn079.
http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/311?etoc

RACHEL ELIOR'S theory about the Essenes has been picked up by Time Magazine:

Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls 'Authors' Never Existed
By Tim McGirk / Jerusalem Monday, Mar. 16, 2009

Biblical scholars have long argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic and celibate Jewish community known as the Essenes, which flourished in the 1st century A.D. in the scorching desert canyons near the Dead Sea. Now a prominent Israeli scholar, Rachel Elior, disputes that the Essenes ever existed at all — a claim that has shaken the bedrock of biblical scholarship.

[...]

Er ... no. Sorry Mr. McGirk, but the bedrock of biblical scholarship remains as solid as ever. Up topside we may be debating whether to fiddle with the landscaping a little, but not for the first time.

There's not much new in the article apart from the bombastic hype. Sigh.

Background here.

MORE ON THE ANCIENT JEWISH BONES IN MALTA:

Bones of contention

Kurt Sansone (Times of Malta)

A written undertaking between the heritage authorities and the Jewish community to reinstate the human bones found in four catacombs in Rabat barely lasted 24 hours after Jewish representatives pulled out of the commitment.

The heritage authorities are still in the dark as to precisely why the Jewish representatives withdrew once the archaeological works had started as agreed with members of the Jewish community observing the operation.

On its part, the Jewish community asked the "political authorities" to intervene in the matter claiming that the archaeological investigations did not respect the agreement reached.

"The heritage authorities wanted to document each and every bone found in the catacombs, measure them, take pictures and then pass them on to us. This process goes against our beliefs and we always objected to it," Lawrence Attard Bezzina, a representative of the Jewish community, said.

Mr Attard Bezzina said the process would have taken ages and "perpetuated the sacrilege".

Controversy has surrounded the tranquil site in Rabat, which forms part of the St Paul's catacombs complex, after the Jewish community asked for the ancient human remains to be given a proper burial according to Jewish rites and traditions.

The site is also an important archaeological area and, even though the heritage authorities have agreed to be respectful to Jewish burial traditions, they are insisting that they be documented and studied.

[...]

The catacombs are reportedly about 1500 years old. The article also has a picture of a menorah that is engraved in one of the walls.

Background here.

VIN DIESEL is now working on a massively multiplayer online game with a Punic Wars theme:

Vin Diesel’s dream is happening and it’s taking the form of an MMO called Barca B.C., a title previously only hinted at by Diesel and his Tigon studio. It’s been in development for some three years, and by Diesel’s estimation, could take another four years until consumers get their hands on it.

"My dream game is something we’ve been working on in-house. We haven’t talked about it much because we’ve been mulling over how to do it just right. My dream game is a game that we’re developing called Barca BC," Diesel said when asked what his dream game would be without the pressure of marketing and finances.

"The reason why it’s my dream game is because it is an MMO and -- remember you said funds were not an issue in this scenario, this is obviously a hugely expensive game -- but, it’s a massively multiplayer online game where you create an avatar that lives in the reality of Hannibal Barca, the Punic Wars and life 200 B.C," he said.

[...]

No word on the current status of his long-delayed Hannibal movie. But there is a web-based comic.

A DEBATE on the Gospel of Thomas:

'Gospel' of Thomas debated at Midwestern

Posted on Mar 13, 2009 | by Tammi Reed Ledbetter

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--With the Easter commemoration of Christ's resurrection only a month away, two Christian origins scholars took to the stage at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to evaluate the Gospel of Thomas as a means of better understanding the historical Jesus.

Most of the dialogue dealt with the date of the manuscript and the degree to which it parallels the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. However, the missing emphasis on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus left many in the crowd doubting Thomas.

Sharing the platform with Midwestern President R. Philip Roberts were Stephen J. Patterson, who sought to glean new insights into the life of Jesus by studying the Gospel of Thomas, and Craig A. Evans, who found little or no early or authentic material beyond what is preserved in the New Testament Gospels.

[...]

Sounds like it was an interesting discussion. And an interesting lecture series.

LOOTING OF ANTIQUITIES remains a ubiquitous problem:

Networks of plunder
Archaeologists tracing the labyrinth of antiquities trafficking hope to shut it down, or at least slow it up
By Bruce Bower (Science News)
March 28th, 2009; Vol.175 #7 (p. 20)

Every day for months, Morag Kersel walked through the streets of Jerusalem to interview researchers, antiquities dealers, museum officials and others about the trafficking of ancient goods: pottery, sawed-off pieces of statues, decorated blocks sliced off the tops of ancient door frames, and biblical coins, to name a few.

One day in 2003, Kersel, then a graduate student in archaeology, came face-to-face with a thriving Middle Eastern trade in ancient, looted coins that had been right under her nose for some time. One of her contacts mentioned that he often purchased such coins from a Palestinian man who shined the shoes of Jerusalem’s pedestrians. Kersel realized that she had been passing by that shoe-shine stand day after day.

Kersel, now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, refers to this street-corner salesman by an assumed name, Mohammed, in order to protect his identity. Mohammed introduced her to a side of the antiquities trade that archaeologists, not to mention law-enforcement officials, rarely see: the chain of secretive relationships that turns looted pieces of the past into scrupulously documented keepsakes for affluent buyers.

[...]

The focus of the article is the biblical region and period, but it covers lots of ground elsewhere as well. The problem remains grim.

NO ESSENES? Rachel Elior has a proposal that will doubtless generate some discussion:

Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll 'authors,' never existed
By Ofri Ilani (Haaretz)
Tags: Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel news

Scholarship suggesting the existence of the Essenes, a religious Jewish group that lived in the Judea before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, is wrong, according to Prof. Rachel Elior, whose study on the subject will be released soon.

Elior blasts the predominant opinion of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars that the Essenes had written the scrolls in Qumran, claiming instead that they were written by ousted Temple priests in Jerusalem.

"Sixty years of research have been wasted trying to find the Essenes in the scrolls. But they didn't exist, they were invented by [Jewish-Roman historian] Josephus. It's a history of errors which is simply nonsense," she said.

In his book "The Jewish War," Flavius Josephus describes the Essenes as an ascetic, mystical religious sect that lived in abstinence from worldly pleasures, including sex.

[...]

Elior says the Sadducees, a sect descending from the high priest Zadok, who anointed Solomon as king, are the true authors. The scrolls belonged to the Temple and were brought to the Dead Sea to protect them, she says.

"The scrolls speak in clear Hebrew of the priests, sons of Zadok. So why call them Essenes?" asked Elior. "That's a distortion of history. It's like saying that the State of Israel wasn't established by Mapai, but by the Greens."

[...]

This has some similarities to Larry Schiffman's proposal that the Qumran sectarians were "Sadducees" or at least came from a "Sadducean" background (Ironically, Schiffman is one of those supposedly mainstrean scholars who were supposedly silencing Norman Golb. See here.) I have more on Schiffman's theory here at the (currently on-hiatus) Qumranica blog. My own take is to maintain a "hold on loosely" approach to the Essene hypothesis. It's probably right on some level, but it isn't necessarily very useful for understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, and I prefer to use the term "sectarians" rather than "Essenes" most of the time when dealing with the Scrolls. I have some related thoughts here, again at the Qumranica blog.

Regarding Elior's proposal, I do have a question not covered in the article. She is quoted as saying that Josephus made up the Essenes, yet Philo of Alexandria, who lived a generation before Josephus, and the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, who was an older contemporary of Josephus and wrote before he did, both discuss the Essenes - Philo at some length. So what about Philo and Pliny? But an informal media treatment is not the place to expect a full defense of her position.

And one quibble. Hanan Eshel is quoted (as usual, I make no assumption as to the accuracy of the quote) as saying:

"Almost 70 scholars accept the statement that one of the Essenes' groups lived in Qumran and some say we're all morons and only they understand," he said.

The fact that there is a consensus position is not in itself an argument in favor of the consensus. A consensus is just the current state of the question, the place where we have to start if we want to advance the discussion. And that's what Elior is trying to do.

For more on Elior's work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, see here.

(Geza Vermes sent this to me yesterday, but I wasn't able to get to it until now.)

UPDATE (15 March): Rachel Elior responds to criticisms here at Jim West's blog.

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TO THE WORLD-WIDE WEB.

A TENURE-TRACK JOB in Old Testament and Early Judaism is being advertised at Groningen University:

The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen invites applications for a tenure track position in the field of Old Testament and Judaism in the ancient world, to begin 1 January 2010. The successful candidate will carry out his or her research and teaching activities at the Faculty of the Theology and Religious Studies within the Department of Biblical Studies. Preference will be given to a candidate who has a strong interest in the reception historical research of the Old Testament, especially within early Judaism, and with special attention to Qumran.

Further particulars and application instructions are here.

(Via Deborah Rooke on the SOTS List.)

A BYZANTINE-ERA MONASTERY with cool mosaics has been found by some Israeli farmers:

Farmers find monastery beneath Israeli soil

By Deb Krajnak
CNN

(CNN) -- After a group of Israeli farmers sought last year to expand their property in the hills near Jerusalem, they discovered an archeological gem beneath the dirt.

A team led by Daniel Ein Mor barely had to scratch the surface before finding the remains of a Byzantine monastery, he told CNN on Wednesday.

"The excavation at Nes-Harim supplements our knowledge about the nature of the Christian-Byzantine settlement in the rural areas between the main cities in this part of the country during the Byzantine period," including Jerusalem, Mor said.

The church is believed to have been built in the late fifth or sixth century, and is decorated with "breathtakingly beautiful mosaics," according to a description from the Israel Antiquities Authority, which hired Mor.

He said studying coins and pottery pieces will help determine the church's age more accurately. Other monastic sites have been excavated in the region, which was part of the Byzantine Empire.

[...]

Various people have sent me this. Thanks.

MORE ON THE GOLB ARREST:

Dead Sea Scrolls scholar defends son arrested for impersonating rival
By Ofri Ilani (Haaretz)
Tags: israel news, dead sea scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls scholar whose son was arrested last week on suspicion of impersonating an rival scholar says his son understood his opponents were trying to silence him.

Professor Norman Golb, of the University of Chicago, believes that the Dead Sea Scrolls were not written by the Essenes, as mainstream scholarship holds.

"Raphael, my son, is very devoted to my research. He realized years ago that there was an effort to close the door on my opinions. And so he started debating bloggers who were against me, using aliases. That's the custom these days with blogs, as I understand it," Norman Golb said.

No it isn't. At least not among serious academic bloggers - or serious political bloggers either. Making up aliases to give the impression your views have lots of supporters is known as "sock-puppetry" and people caught doing it are rightly ridiculed.

This is an odd situation, where the son denies the impersonations and the father defends the son for doing them. But this could be the result of media garbling or misunderstanding and I wouldn't make too much of it.

Raphael Golb's arrest is the latest in a long saga of conflicts among Dead Sea Scrolls scholars. Although researchers have condemned Raphael Golb's alleged acts, some scholars in Israel accept Norman Golb's contention that some of the most prominent Dead Sea Scrolls academics do silence their opponents.

[...]

I have not found that to be true at all. Golb's theory is not accepted because it isn't convincing. The key problem with it in my view is that it claims that the Qumran texts are not a sectarian library, and anyone who reads them carefully will see that this just doesn't work (i.e., the library clearly is sectarian). But I have always found Golb's work interesting and have said nice things about it from time to time. He did raise the very useful point that the number of scribal hands in the Scrolls corpus was too large for the manuscripts all to have been produced locally. My own working hypothesis is that the Qumran library consists of a number of sectarian ("Essene" or whatever) libraries that were brought to Qumran, presumably for safekeeping during the war with the Romans. These may well have been consolidated with a library that was already there.

Background to the arrest story here (dead link now fixed!) and follow the links back. Earlier comments on Golb's work are collected here.

A PERSIAN LOVE POEM (the Rubaiyat, by Omar Khayyam) is quoted on a pottery fragment recently excavated in Jerusalem:

Jug Inscribed with a Persian Love Poem Discovered in Excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority

(ArtDaily.org)

JERUSALEM.- A fragment of a pottery vessel of Persian provenance that dates to the Middle Ages (12th-13th centuries CE) was discovered in an archaeological excavation directed by Dr. Rina Avner, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the Old City of Jerusalem, prior to construction by a private contractor.

The fragment is treated with a turquoise glaze and is adorned with floral patterns and a black inscription. While studying the artifact prior to publication, Rivka Cohen-Amin of the Israel Antiquities Authority discerned that the inscription on the neck of the vessel is written in Persian. The inscription consists of a line that was taken from a quatrain. The inscription, which was translated by Dr. Julia Rabanovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads: “Was once the embrace of a lover that entreat”.

[...]

Somewhat outside PaleoJudaica's usual time frame, but too cool not to mention. Already noted by Lauer and Sasson, but I'm struggling this week to find any time for blogging. This article also has a very nice photograph.

A SYRIAC CONFERENCE at Yale for graduate students:

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and The Program in Judaic Studies at Yale University, in cooperation with Beth Mardutho's Dorushe graduate student association, will host the 2009 Dorushe Graduate Student Syriac Studies Conference. Date: Sunday, March 29, 2009

Follow the link for the full program and abstracts.

A REBUTTAL to the comments of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the Silwan land controversy has been published in the Jerusalem Post. Excerpts:

The Jerusalem Municipality, moreover, has acted with utmost care and in legally airtight fashion. It has, if anything, conducted this affair with greater circumspection, moderation, tolerance and restraint than would any American municipality given similar circumstances.

Not that the circumstances anywhere else can compare to those of Emek Hamelech (King's Valley or Silwan). This area, part of a First Temple royal enclave, perhaps King David's own, is of matchless historical significance and includes sites holy to all three monotheistic religions.

[...]

WHAT THE spokesman did not specify is that the area is a prime archeological site and that the illegal construction, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority, has already wrought considerable, often irreversible damage to some of the world's most unique biblical-era relics.

Paradoxically, Arab illegal construction in this particular area is recent and wouldn't have been possible without Israeli technological improvements. King's Valley was regularly flooded each winter, until the municipality devised means to drain it some 20 years ago. Since then, Arab squatters flocked to the reclaimed land and illegally constructed a variety of structures on what was earmarked as an archeological park.

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

Background here.

MORE ON THE GOLB ARREST: Haaretz has some details on the Raphael Golb/Dead Sea Scrolls case which look new.

The younger Golb, who denies the allegations, is charged with identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment, and faces a maximum of four years in prison if convicted.

Schiffman contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation when he found out someone was sending e-mails in which he appeared to confess to plagiarism, but was told the case fell under New York State jurisdiction.

"People can write books and agree or disagree, but what Golb's son did is a criminal act," Schiffman said. "It goes beyond the research dispute."

So the younger Golb denies the charges. Interesting.

Background here.

PURIM begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating.

SOME DEAD SEA SCROLLS are coming to a Milwaukee museum:

Milwaukee Public Museum planning to host exhibit of Dead Sea Scrolls

1 day ago (The Canadian Press)

MILWAUKEE — The Dead Sea Scrolls are coming to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Public Museum officials say it will put the scrolls on display late this year or early next year.

[...]

"I ASSUME WE'LL GET LESS MAIL NOW." Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and curator Risa Levitt Kohn is interviewed by the National Post about the Golb arrest. Excerpt (but worth reading in full):

NP: What do you think of this dispute — what one might expect to remain an academic dispute or a ‘battle of ideas’ — now heading into a criminal court of law?

RLK: This is not an academic dispute. The allegation is of an attempt by one individual to promote Dr. Golb’s views in a manner implying that they are gaining widespread acceptance. Dr. Golb is not the only individual with a theory that disputes Qumran-Essenes or that a sectarian group lived at Qumran. There are different theories, which have varying degrees of acceptance. It’s the nature of academic life that you have scholars in disagreement. They tend to debate in academic publications such as books and peer-reviewed journal articles, and sometimes at academic conferences.

The National Post also has an article on "The Curse of the Scrolls" in which Larry Schiffman is interviewed:

"I don't know what caused the transition from the proper intellectual discourse," Prof. Schiffman said in an interview with the National Post.

"What seems to have happened is his son decided to take up the cudgels of his father and the way he took up the cudgels is this whole series of actions.

"Usually these things happen because someone hates their ex-wife. But this? Who would do this?

"But there is something called the curse of the Dead Sea Scrolls because it would happen quite often that people just go overboard regarding the scrolls."

Over the decades, some scroll scholars have become alcoholics, gone from sound research to fringe theories and suffered other crisis, Prof. Schiffman said.

That's the first I've heard of a curse, although I agree that the Dead Sea Scrolls have a remarkably disturbing effect on some people.

Also, Norman Golb is quoted in the Chicago Tribune, apparently acknowledging that the e-mails came from his son:

Norman Golb, a professor of Jewish history and civilization at the U. of C., on Friday described his son's arrest as another twist in the ongoing, often heated debate about the ancient scrolls.

"The fact of the matter is that if I understand it, Raphael was responding to the attacks on me," Golb said from his university office. "I suppose my son felt it was important to get things straight."

He added, "This has everything to do with the politics of the scrolls."

And finally, another blogger has contacted me to say that he received similar e-mails, evidently from the culprit in this case. April DeConick reports that she got some too. (And April is right that we should have notified Larry Schiffman at the time. I'm used to just ignoring crank e-mails, but this was a little different. Sorry Larry. Live and learn.) And Claude Mariottini gives me yet another reason not to enable comments.

Background here.

UPDATE: I see that Mark Goodacre was a recipient too.

UPDATE (8 March): Rebecca Lesses too.

UPDATE: Robert Cargill thoroughly documents the actions of the "puppet master" at Who Is Charles Gadda? (Via דברים בבלוגו.)

THE LATEST on the Silwan land controversy:

Palestinians dig in their heels in face of demolition

By Richard Boudreaux (LA Times)
March 7, 2009

[...]

The dispute is an early test for the Obama administration as it tries to foster peace in the region. Visiting Israel and the West Bank this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the demolition plan was "unhelpful" and a violation of Israel's international obligation to refrain from encroachment on disputed land.

If carried out, the plan would cause the largest swath of demolitions in East Jerusalem since its postwar annexation by Israel, which has not been internationally recognized.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called Clinton's criticism "a lot of hot air" and said the U.S. was trying to interfere with his authority to control zoning and his plans to promote tourism.

"If you build illegal houses, you pay the consequences," he told a group of American correspondents, saying he had expressed that view personally to Clinton. "I expect people to obey the law."

The experience of three generations of Jalajels, however, sheds light on the complex and volatile realities that make any Israeli-Palestinian turf battle here much more than a legal issue. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of an independent state for them; the mayor and the right-wing Likud party, which is expected to lead the next government, insist on keeping all of Jerusalem under Israeli control.

[...]

Background here.

THE LAND DISPUTE around the Mor Gabriel Monastery in Turkey is covered by AINA in a long article:

Battle Over a Christian Monastery Tests Turkey's Tolerance of Minorities
Posted GMT 3-7-2009 6:53:12

KARTMIN, TURKEY -- Christians have lived in these parts since the dawn of their faith. But they have had a rough couple of millennia, preyed on by Persian, Arab, Mongol, Kurdish and Turkish armies. Each group tramped through the rocky highlands that now comprise Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq and Syria.

The current menace is less bellicose but is deemed a threat nonetheless. A group of state land surveyors and Muslim villagers are intent on shrinking the boundaries of an ancient monastery by more than half. The monastery, called Mor Gabriel, is revered by the Syriac Orthodox Church.

Battling to hang on to the monastic lands, Bishop Timotheus Samuel Aktas is fortifying his defenses. He's hired two Turkish lawyers -- one Muslim, one Christian -- and mobilized support from foreign diplomats, clergy and politicians.

Also giving a helping hand, says the bishop, is Saint Gabriel, a predecessor as abbot who died in the seventh century: "We still have four of his fingers." Locked away for safekeeping, the sacred digits are treasured as relics from the past -- and a hex on enemies in the present.

The outcome of the land dispute is now in the hands of a Turkish court. Seated below a bust of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey's secular founding father, a robed judge on Wednesday told the feuding parties that he would issue a ruling after he visits the disputed territory himself next month.

The trial comes at a critical stage in Turkey's 22-year drive to join the European Union. When it first came to power in 2002, the ruling AK party, led by observant Muslims, pushed to accelerate legal and other changes demanded by Europe for admittance into its largely Christian club. But much of the momentum has since slowed. France has made clear it doesn't want Turkey in the EU no matter what, while Turkey has seemed to have second thoughts.

A big obstacle is Turkey's continuing tensions with its ethnic minorities, notably the Kurds, who account for more than 15% of the population and are battling for greater autonomy. Also fraught, but more under the radar, is the situation confronting members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, one of the world's oldest and most beleaguered Christian communities. The group's fate is now seen as a test of Turkey's ability to accommodate groups at odds with "Turkishness," a legal concept of national identity that has at times been used to suppress minority groups.

[...]

No pressure.

Background here.

MORE ON THAT TORAH SCROLL from the Lower East Side. The NYT has taken notice:

Even Among Venerable Texts, a Torah Like No Other

Unlocking the secrets of a document that predates Columbus.

By SOPHIA HOLLANDER
Published: March 6, 2009

THE weathered brown parchment with its frayed edges and inked Hebrew letters seemed beautiful but unremarkable.

Itzhak Winer, a 34-year-old Torah scribe turned Judaica seller, considered the item a nice find, but just one of the 30 or more Torahs he buys and sells in a year. From his Jerusalem dealer, he learned that the Torah had been owned by a family in Morocco and was in excellent condition.

“He knew that it’s old, but he didn’t really know — and neither did I — how special it was,” said Mr. Winer, who works out of his home in Willowbrook, Staten Island.

Curious about the item’s origins, Mr. Winer took it to a Lower East Side rabbi named Yitzchok Reisman, an expert in identifying antique Torahs, the scrolls containing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

[...]

Rabbi Reisman quickly realized that Mr. Winer’s Torah was unique. The materials and calligraphic style identified it as Spanish, which meant that it was written before 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Spain. In addition, the strong swirls on the top of certain letters matched the style favored in kabbalah, the Jewish mystical movement.

“There are very, very few manuscripts and pieces of manuscripts that are older than the 1400s,” Rabbi Reisman said on a recent day in his ramshackle office as Mr. Winer looked on. And the kabbalistic flourishes, the rabbi added, make it “the only Spanish Torah known done in that way.”

[...]

There's a nice photo too.

HEBREW BIBLE JOB at UCSD: I've been meaning to note this since Jack Sasson mentioned it a couple of weeks ago.

Full Professor, Endowed Chair in Hebrew Biblical Studies
University of California, San Diego
The Judaic Studies Program of the University of California, San Diego, invites applications for the Endowed Chair in Hebrew Biblical Studies. Besides the Hebrew Bible, candidates should have expertise in one or more of the following fields: ancient Near Eastern history, historical biblical archaeology, Assyriology, Egyptology, Northwest Semitic epigraphy, and Jewish biblical interpretation. Applicants should be at the rank of Full Professor; Associates on the verge of promotion will also be considered. Income from the Chair's endowment will be available for the support of research.

Proof of U.S. citizenship or eligibility for U.S. employment will be required prior to employment (Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986). Applicants who are not U.S. citizens should state their immigration status at the time of application.

Please reference position number 5-177-H on all correspondence.

Salary will be commensurate with experience and publications and in accordance with the published salary schedules of the University of California.

Review of applications will begin 03/13/09 and will continue until the position is filled.

Nominations and applications, including curriculum vitae and the names and addresses of three referees, should be sent to:

Prof. William H. C. Propp
Chair, Hebrew Biblical Studies Search Committee
Dept. of History, MC 0104-HW
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0104
Job Listings | MyJobs |

THE GOLB ARREST has been taken up widely in the media overnight. From the NYT article:

The professor, Norman Golb, has stood behind his theory despite significant criticism. His son, Raphael Haim Golb, has been one of his greatest allies.

But prosecutors said on Thursday that Raphael Golb took defending his father’s theory too far. Mr. Golb is accused of using stolen identities of various people, including a New York University professor who disagreed with his father, to elevate his father’s theory and besmirch its critics, Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, said at a news conference.

Mr. Golb, 49, was arrested Thursday morning and charged in Manhattan Criminal Court with identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors said Mr. Golb opened an e-mail account in the name of Lawrence H. Schiffman, the New York University professor who disagreed with Mr. Golb’s father. He sent messages in Professor Schiffman’s name to various people at N.Y.U. and to others involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls debate, fabricating an admission by Professor Schiffman that he had plagiarized some of Professor Golb’s work, Mr. Morgenthau said. Raphael Golb also set up blogs under various names that accused Dr. Schiffman of plagiarism, Mr. Morgenthau said.

Golb defends his son and says these charges are "another attack on his work." The BBC quotes a statement from Schiffman:

Mr Schiffman issued a statement after Mr Golb's arrest thanking the authorities for taking action.

"Reasoned intellectual discourse relies on integrity," the statement said.

"When an individual, in seeking to advance a particular view, engages in impersonation and falsehood, he or she undermines the precepts of higher inquiry."

Incidentally, I recalled overnight that I got one of those fraudulent e-mails back in August. The address of the e-mail had "not been verified" and the site it linked to also looked dodgy, with more "not verified" commenters who looked suspiciously like sock puppets. And, of course, the charges had no merit. So I ignored it.

Background here (immediately preceding post).

UPDATE: Joe Lauer points to this Washington Square News article, which has copies of some of the forged e-mails.

THIS IS STRANGE. AND SAD. Norman Golb's son has reportedly been arrested and charged with faking internet identities to discredit his father's scholarly rivals.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY - NEW YORK COUNTY

NEWS RELEASE
March 5, 2009

Contact: Alicia Maxey Greene
212-335-9400

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau today announced the arrest of a 49-year-old man for creating multiple aliases to engage in a campaign of impersonation and harassment relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls and scholars of opposing viewpoints.

The defendant, RAPHAEL HAIM GOLB, was arrested on charges of identity theft, criminal impersonation and aggravated harassment. The crimes in the Criminal Court Complaint occurred during the period of July to December of 2008.

The investigation leading to today’s arrest revealed that GOLB engaged in a systematic scheme on the Internet, using dozens of Internet aliases, in order to influence and affect debate on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in order to harass Dead Sea Scrolls scholars who disagree with his viewpoint. GOLB used computers at New York University (NYU) in an attempt to mask his true identity when conducting this Internet scheme. He gained access to NYU computers by virtue of being a graduate of the university, and having made donations to its library fund.

The investigation, which included a court-authorized search warrant that was executed this morning at GOLB’s apartment, began in response to a complaint by Lawrence Schiffman, Ph.D., that he was impersonated over the Internet. Dr. Schiffman is a NYU professor, chairman of the Hebrew & Judaic Studies Department and a leading scholar in the field of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[...]

I wish this were a hoax, but it seems to be real. Whoever turns out to be responsible, I'm sorry to hear that Larry Schiffman and others were subjected to this kind of harassment.

I remember back in the late 1980s I met a son of Golb, perhaps this one, at a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls by Magen Broshi at Harvard University. This son was certainly very keen on his father's work (he was passing out copies of one of his articles), but I wouldn't have thought that keen. The investigation is ongoing, so we'll see what comes of it.

The AP at Newsday has a brief notice [update: now considerably expanded] of the arrest and the Village Voice blog has comments.

For background on Norman Golb's somewhat controversial work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, go here and follow the links.

A SYMPOSIUM ON SIGNS AND OMENS at the University of Chicago:

Scholars to interpret signs and omens of the ancient world
By William Harms
w-harms@uchicago.edu
News Office

Leading scholars from around the world will gather at the Oriental Institute to discuss the role of signs and omens in the ancient world. “Science and Superstition: Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World” is a public symposium scheduled for Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7. Amar Annus, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Oriental Institute, organized the event.

All kinds of worldly phenomena were taken as signs that communicate divine messages about future events in ancient Mesopotamian civilization. The first references to diviners in written sources came from the third millennium B.C.

“The study of signs from gods was vitally important for ancient Mesopotamians throughout their history,” Annus said. That study and the literature associated with signs spread throughout the ancient world, as far as Rome and India.

“The concept of sign is found in all ancient cultures, but was first described in ancient Mesopotamian texts. This branch of Babylonian scientific knowledge had great influence, as witnessed by similar texts written in the Aramaic, Sanskrit and Sogdian, among other languages,” Annus said. Ancient Mesopotamians viewed potentially everything in the universe as signs from the gods.

[...]

One of Jesus' parables is invoked as well. Read on.

ONE-YEAR HEBREW BIBLE JOB, from the Hugoye list:

Please help circulate this. Knoxille is a nice and affordable place to live near the Smoky Mtns.
thanks,
-Tina Shepardson

The Department of Religious Studies of the University of Tennessee is seeking a full-time lecturer in Biblical Studies with a specialization in Hebrew Bible to teach courses on ancient Hebraic traditions and Hebrew Bible literature. Also desirable is the ability to teach World Religions and/or the emergence of Christianity/the Second Temple Period and/or critical theory of the study of religion. The applicant will have a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible (ABD acceptable) and will teach four courses a semester, two in Hebraic traditions and two at the lower level. Annual salary is $32,000 plus health insurance. Interested persons should send a cv and three references to Professor Gilya G. Schmidt, Ph.D., Head, Department of Religious Studies, The University of Tennessee, 501 McClung Tower, Knoxville, TN 37996-0450, or email gschmidt@utk.edu. We will accept applications unti! l the position is filled.

MARVIN MEYER is lecturing on apocryphal gospels at the College of the Holy Cross:

Leading Scholar on Early Christianity to Shed Light on Recently Discovered Gospels

WORCESTER, Mass. – Marvin Meyer, one of the foremost scholars on early Christianity, will give a lecture titled "The Gospels of Judas, Mary, and Thomas: The Good News About Marginalized Disciples in Early Christian Literature," on Thursday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture, sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, is free and open to the public.

[...]

ANOTHER CALL for President Obama to prevent the sale of the Persepolis cuneiform tablets as compensation for terrorism, this from Trita Parsi at the Huffington Post. Excerpt:

Under the law, President Obama has the power to issue an executive waiver to stop the seizure of foreign assets if that would further US national security. Considering the importance of the President's efforts to reduce tensions with Iran and solicit its collaboration in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the dire consequences of failure, President Obama should do exactly that. It's not the easiest decision politically, but no one ever said overcoming 30 years of enmity would be easy.

If the President does have the power to stop the seizure and sale of the tablets, I hope he uses it. For my reasons, see here and here. That said, I don't think we should kid ourselves that stopping the sale will make the current Iranian Government like the USA any better, nor do I think that should be a concern in this debate. The tablets should be protected because cultural relics are the heritage of all humanity, they are not financial assets to be exploited for a cause, even a worthy one.

MORE ON THE SILWAN LAND CONTROVERSY:

Arab homes on Jewish historical site stoke strife (AP)

By BEN HUBBARD – 41 minutes ago

[...]

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a written statement last week that the government had issued no new orders for the area, but added that "Illegal construction is illegal construction no matter where it is." Israel's Interior Ministry had rejected residents' permit requests on their private land because the area is intended for "public recreational use," not for residential construction, Barkat said.

Palestinian residents of Silwan worry that the current City of David Museum is just the beginning of a massive redesign of the area to complete the archaeological park. The park land is allocated by the government but developed by the Elad Foundation, an organization associated with Jewish settlers committed to preventing Israel from ceding the area in a peace deal.

Besides financing digs, Elad buys land from Arabs in the neighborhood so Jews can move in. About 70 Israeli families now live in the area, said Doron Spielman, the group's international director of development. Israeli flags mark their homes, and the Israeli government provides armed security.

Spielman called the area "a microcosm of the Arab-Israeli conflict," but said his group will continue to bring in Jewish families and expand the museum, which had 500,000 visitors in 2008.

"The goal is to excavate as much of the City of David as possible and to bring as many visitors to the site as possible," he said.

[...]

And Joseph I. Lauer notes an Haaretz editorial by Nadav Shragai. Excerpts:

Last summer the director general of the Antiquities Authority, Shuka Dorfman, noted in a kind of "post mortem" that the construction in the King's Garden caused significant and irreversible damage to antiquities.

Representatives of the municipality and Dorfman admitted that they had no good explanation for what has happened in this lovely garden, which is described in the Books of Nechemiah and Ecclesiastes, in midrashim (rabbinic Biblical homiletics) and in many historical sources. Dorfman stressed that together with Tel David, the garden constitutes the only complete archaeological garden of first-rate importance.

[...]

When the state comptroller began to look into the matter last fall, a plan for laundering the construction initiated by the inhabitants, leftist elements and human rights organizations had already found its way to the planning commissions. About two weeks ago the plan was rejected and since then the area has been simmering and especially subject to incitement.

The Palestinian Authority and Northern Branch Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Ra'ad Salah have called foreign diplomats to the site, begun demonstrations and initiated an outcry. Last Saturday, the protest over "the intention to carry out the demolition orders in the King's Garden" expanded into a general commercial strike in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and East Jerusalem.

The attempt to kasher the illegal construction in the King's Garden was a grave mistake, and it is good that it failed. Nevertheless, carrying out the demolition orders as written, nearly 20 years after the violation was committed, may be just, but it is not wise.

The solution suggested by Yakir Segev, who holds the East Jerusalem portfolio in the municipality, to evacuate the lawbreakers and to give them compensation and land elsewhere, is more fair.

[...]

Background here.

SETH SANDERS is blogging again at Serving the Word. Note his recent post, The first source-critical Bible goes online, and his newly updated one from 2005, Do we know the Hebrew alphabet? A lesson on the difference between writing and language.

BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL XXXIX has been published by Darrell Pursiful at the Dr. Platypus blog. Good stuff.

MOONLIGHTING IN ANCIENT PHILOLOGY in Blue Mountains NSW, Australia:

Airs and graces

Mandy Sayer | March 02, 2009
Article from: The Australian

At Katoomba, in the heart of the Blue Mountains, the local characters rival the majestic scenery.
I’d heard about the small Blue Mountains town long before I first stayed there. In the ’30s and ’40s my father led a jazz band in “Homesdale”, one of the popular holiday resorts on the main street where the musicians also boarded. As a child I’d listened to many a story about their boyish pranks (stealing road signs and blocking off all traffic access to the resort; carrying the bed of the heavy-sleeping bass player, with him still slumbering naked in it, on to the tennis court at sunrise). Seventy years on, Katoomba, with its history of attracting ­vacationers and honeymooners, is still a fertile place for playful and irreverent behaviour.

[...]

For me, however, the charm of a given town is not only realised through breathtaking landscapes and beautiful buildings, but also through the people who live there year-round. In one second-hand bookstore, my husband discovered the 75-year-old owner sitting by a heater behind the counter, swathed in a blanket, teaching Latin to a teenage boy. The next day, when Louis was mooching between the shelves, he noticed the same man teaching Sanskrit to a buxom woman who turned out to be Katoomba’s resident belly dancer. A fairly accomplished linguist himself, Louis struck up a conversation with the owner (in English) and discovered he also provided informal tuition, as he presided over the store, in Ancient Greek, Coptic, Hebrew and Aramaic. His well-read wife, apparently, spoke even more languages than he did.

[...]

DIGITIZED BIBLE MANUSCRIPTS and other goodies:

From: "Elhanan Adler"
Subject: Digitized Bible Manuscripts
Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 5:44 AM

The National Library of Israel, David and Fela Shapell Family Digitization Project, is pleased to announce the digitization of three of the Library's most important Bible manuscripts:

1. Pentateuch written in Eretz Israel, 10th century. 270 folios, vocalized, with accents and Masora. Known as 'Keter Damesek' (the crown of Damascus)

2. Entire Bible written in Burgos, Spain, 1260. 428 folios, vocalized, with accents and Masora. Also known as 'Keter Damesek'.

3. Entire Bible written in Saragossa, Spain, 1341. 204+206+53 folios, vocalized, with accents and David Kimchi's Sefer ha-Shorashim in the margins.

The manuscripts are presented in the DjVu format which provides high quality, magnifiable images compressed into relatively small files for easy downloading. In order to view DjVu images it is necessary to download and install (once) a special free viewer program.

The manuscripts and their descriptions can be accessed at:

http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/mss/ (Description in Hebrew)
or
http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/mss/index_eng.html (Description in English)

Elhanan Adler
National Library of Israel

From Adam Mendelsohn on the H-Judaic List.

LILITH is profiled in Iranian.com:

Before Adam there was a woman called Lilith!

by ramintork
28-Feb-2009

Remember when you were very small your Mum and Dad would say if you were naughty Lulu would take you away? Well here is her story. Our Lulu is known as Lilith. There are so many versions to her story, she is a female demon, deity, and Adam’s first wife, in some stories born before Adam and in some she is born after him. According to Kabbalah writing she was created before Adam on the fifth day of creation as a water creature. But other writings mention that she was created from the same substance as Adam.

[...]

The ancient Near Eastern stuff sounds garbled to me, but Lilith did originate as an ancient Near Eastern demon.

SOME INTERESTING TORAH SCROLL NEWS from the Lower East Side:

Ancient Torah Discovered

(Grand Street News)

Our favorite local scribe, Rabbi Itzhak Reisman, called us up last month with great news: �I acquired a Torah scroll, written on brownish parchment,� he reported. �The moment I saw it, I recognized it as a Spanish scroll, which means it had to be written before 1492. My estimate was about 1480.�

Reisman says he had a partner in purchasing this scroll, and the partner didn�t trust his expertise so much. So they sent a small sample for carbon dating. The estimate they received was that the scroll was about 1000 years old.

�But my partner was still suspicious, so he took it to another company, for a little more money,� says Reisman, �and they presumably gave a more accurate dating: Between 1290 and 1315.�

[...]

That makes it medieval rather than ancient (the cutoff date for ancient is variously the fall of Rome [c. 400], the rise of Islam [c. 600], or the reign of Charlemagne [c. 800] - take your pick). But it still comes under the technical category "way old," which sometimes attracts the attention of PaleoJudaica. I hope we hear more about this Torah Scroll.

Under the same category, according to Chabad.org tomorrow (6 Adar, 5769) is an interesting anniversary:

First Print of Torah with Onkelos & Rashi (1482)

The first edition of the Five Books of Moses (Torah) with the Targum Onkelos (Aramaic translation of the Torah) and the commentary of the famed commentator Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi, was published on this date in 1482. It was published in Bologna, Italy by Joseph b. Abraham Caravita, who set up a printing-press in his own home.