THE BOOK OF ESTHER'S ORIGIN is explained by Oxford Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley in a new book reviewed in BMCR:

Stephanie Dalley, Esther's Revenge at Susa. From Sennacherib to Ahasuerus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. xvi, 262; maps 4, figs. 53. ISBN 978-0-19-921663-5. $99.00.

Reviewed by Gary Beckman, University of Michigan (sidd@umich.edu)
Word count: 936 words

The Book of Esther is perhaps the oddest work included within the canon of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The story is set in Iranian Susa--far away from ancient Israel and Judah, and the biblical God is not mentioned even once in the text. Rather, we encounter a folkloristic narrative in which a murderous plot against the Jews of the Persian Empire is thwarted and turned back upon its originator without the aid of divine intervention, solely through the efforts of a virtuous, beautiful, and courageous woman. While there is still much debate among practitioners of biblical studies as to the historical veracity of many of the tales contained in the Books of the Pentateuch, Samuel, and Kings, few outside of fundamentalist circles seriously maintain that the widespread massacre of anti-Semites described at the conclusion of the Book of Esther--and mentioned in no independent ancient source--actually took place. And it was already recognized more than a century ago that the names of the protagonists of the work, Esther and her uncle Mordecai, are not ordinary Hebrew personal designations, but rather mutations of the names of the Mesopotamian divinities Ishtar (goddess of love and war) and Marduk (patron deity of the city of Babylon).

In this ambitious book, Stephanie Dalley, a cuneiform scholar from Oxford, sets herself the task of explaining just how this work came into being and why it entered the sacred literature of the Jews. She is well prepared to tackle this problem, having over the past decade devoted particular attention in her research to the precipitation of Assyrian and Babylonian traditions in both Classical Greek and biblical sources, discussing, for example, the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon," Semiramis, and the wives of Sargon II of Assyria (see bibliography, pp. 230-31).

[...]

The theory in brief:

... In a nutshell, she speculates that in Assyrian religion, significant historical incidents could be translated to the divine plane, incorporated into mythology, and reenacted in turn by humans in ritual, as documented in the obscure Akkadian-language liturgical scripts known to scholars as "Cultic Commentaries" (113-20). In particular, Dalley further postulates that the wars of Assurbanipal against the Elamites, whose capital was at Susa, were reflected in a festival of Ishtar of Nineveh (156). Consequently, the cultic calendar pertaining to this avatar of the goddess and various elements of her worship were passed on in oral and written tradition after the fall of Assyria, to reappear in altered form in the story of Esther. The resultant narrative entered the lore of the Jews as an aetiology for the festival of purim "lots," the etymology of whose designation unquestionably points to an Assyrian origin (167).

It will be interesting to see how convincing other Assyriologists find the reconstruction of this cultic calendar. The reviewer registers a very Scottish verdict of "not proven."

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: A new effort to unroll those carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum.

Computer scientist to 'unroll' papyrus scrolls buried by Vesuvius [BC-SCI-VESUVIUS-SCROLLS:LX]

(Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) LEXINGTON, Ky. _ On Aug. 24, 79 A.D., Italy's Mount Vesuvius exploded, burying the Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii under tons of super-heated ash, rock and debris in one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history.

Thousands died. But somehow, hundreds of papyrus scrolls survived _ sort of _ in a villa at Herculaneum thought to have been owned at one time by Julius Caesar's father-in-law.

The scrolls contained ancient philosophical and learned writings. But they were so badly damaged _ literally turned to carbon by the volcanic heat _ that they crumbled when scholars first tried to open them centuries later.

The remaining scrolls, stored away in Italy and France, haven't been read _ or even unrolled _ since 79 AD.

Now, a computer scientist from the University of Kentucky hopes that modern digital technology will allow him to peer inside two of the fragile scrolls _ without physically opening them _ and unlock secrets they have held for almost 2,000 years.

Brent Seales, the Gill professor of engineering in UK's computer science department, will use an X-Ray CT scanning system to collect interior images of the scrolls' rolled-up pages. Then, he and his colleagues hope to digitally "unroll" the scrolls on a computer screen so scholars can read them.

"It will be a challenge because today these things look more like charcoal briquets than scrolls," Seales said. "But we're using a non-invasive scanning system, based on medical technology, that lets you slice through an object and develop a three-dimensional data set without having to open it, just as you would do a CT scan on a human body." The two scrolls that Seales and his team will work on are stored at the French National Academy in Paris. The UK group will spend July working there.

[...]

Seales sees other potential applications for the system, including deciphering otherwise unreadable written materials for homeland security purposes. But, he also admits that there are other ancient tests he'd like to examine.

"There are pieces of the Dead Sea scrolls that still haven't been opened yet," he said. "I've talked with some members of teams that work with those materials, and I'd love to see what more we could wring out of them.

"I guess I just like solving mysteries."

Indeed. Non-invasive scanning techniques are the way of the future. For a similar project in the United Kingdom, see here. For more on technological efforts to recover the text of ancient manuscripts, see here. (The University of Kentucky project is also mentioned briefly.)

A NEW COMMENTARY ON 2 MACCABEES is reviewed in BMCR:

Daniel R. Schwartz, 2 Maccabees. Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. Pp. x, 617. ISBN 9783110191189. $158.00.

Reviewed by Frank Shaw, Cincinnati, Ohio (feshaw72@email.com)
Word count: 3053 words

The publication of a full-length commentary in English on 2 Maccabees is a rare occurrence (the only other one was a quarter century ago), so the appearance of Schwartz's tome is both needed and welcome. His mentor Menahem Stern had just begun work on a 2 Macc. commentary when he was murdered during the first intifada in 1989, and the task of continuing the project fell to Schwartz. Originally published in Hebrew in 2004, the book has undergone significant changes in the English version. General comments between his translation and the verse-by-verse commentary have been added; the bibliography has been improved and updated; statements only related to modern Hebrew have been dropped; various revisions and corrections have been made, some stemming from reviewers of the Hebrew edition. Important too is Schwartz's claim of an "English translation [that] is not only new but also qualitatively different from the Hebrew one." Here he means it is "freer and, consequently, more idiomatically English" (vii). Naturally the English version will be far more widely read than the Hebrew one.

[...]

Via the Agade list.

THE SYRIAC MOR GABRIEL MONASTERY in Turkey has won the first of four land dispute cases currently under litigation:

Christian monastery in Turkey wins back land
Fri May 22, 2009 11:28pm IST

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - One of the world's oldest functioning Christian monasteries has won a legal battle to have land it had owned for centuries restored to it, after a Turkish court ruled on Friday it could not be claimed by the state.

The dispute over the boundaries of Mor Gabriel, a fifth-century Syriac Orthodox monastery in eastern Turkey, had raised concerns over freedom of religion and human rights for non-Muslim minorities in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country and European Union aspirant.

In a statement, the Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA), a leading Syriac group based in Sweden, said a Turkish court in Midyat had reversed an initial decision by the land registry court to grant villages some 110 hectares (272 acres) of monastery land.

[...]

ARAMAIC WATCH: Turnabout is fair play?

Arameans call for reversal of place names

(Today's Zaman)

The Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA), an umbrella organization for Aramean federations, appealed to Minister of Interior Beşir Atalay on Monday for the “reversal of the Turkification of ancient Aramaic place names” and for Arameans to be given the right to replace their Turkish surnames with their original Aramaic family names.

[...]

IMPRESSIVE:

College degree awarded to high school student

By Judy Harrison
BDN Staff

HAMPDEN, Maine — Amaris Temoso Buchanan was awarded a college degree before earning her high school diploma.

The 17-year-old senior at Bangor Christian Schools on Sunday received an Associate of Arts degree in biblical languages from Grace Evangelical College and Seminary in Bangor. She won’t be handed her high school diploma until June 5.

“Learning languages always intimidated me,” she said at Grace’s intimate graduation ceremony at Community Church of the Open Door on Main Road North, “but once I began studying, I just fell in love with it.”

The languages the Southwest Harbor student learned have not been spoken regularly for centuries. She studied ancient Greek, Hebrew and Syriac — the languages in which the books of the Torah and the Bible were written.

[...]

The reporter is a little confused: Syriac is the post-biblical Aramaic dialect of Edessa, but parts of the Bible are written in Aramaic. In any case, very well done, Amaris!

THE USE OF UNPROVENANCED ARTIFACTS is defended by Dorothy D. Resig in Biblical Archaeology Review:

The Valuable Contributions of “Worthless” Artifacts

by Dorothy D. Resig

A trend has developed recently in the archaeological establishment: Ignore all unprovenanced artifacts. This approach is especially popular among field archaeologists, who believe that objects without a stratified context are worthless. The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) have even banned the publication of articles and the presentation of papers about unprovenanced objects from their journals and conferences.

Other scholars reject this view, however. As Swiss Biblical scholar and religious historian Othmar Keel said in an interview with BAR, “I don’t think we can write a history of the ancient Near East without relying on unprovenanced material.”* That prompted us to take a look at several unprovenanced artifacts—all published in BAR—that have contributed significantly to our understanding of the Biblical world.

[...]

Some thoughts.

1. There are two problems with unprovenanced artifacts. First, their authenticity is not obvious, as in the case of an excavated artifact, and so they must be authenticated by other means and this may not always be possible. Second, important information has been lost when the archaeological context of the artifact is severed from it and discarded. The first is a reason not to use unprovenanced artifacts, or at least to use them with considerable caution. The second is regrettable, but is not a reason not to use them.

2. I don't think the Amarna tablets or the Dead Sea Scrolls are good examples to use here, because subsequent excavations at the relevant sites demonstrated their provenance and confirmed their authenticity. Thus the second problem above still applies, but much less the first.

3. The bullae and, to a lesser degree the incantation bowls, are quite problematical because they are comparatively easy to forge (unlike, say, the Moabite Stone).

4. We've been warned that a Monster Forgery Machine has been polluting Hebrew and Aramaic epigraphy for decades, making the market in unprovenanced inscriptions highly unreliable, although so far the Israel forgery trial has not produced compelling evidence that this is so. Still, starting just from first principles, there is reason to worry about this possibility. But meanwhile, as a rule of thumb, I suggest that the cooler and more exciting the unprovenanced artifact, especially if it relates closely to already known and treasured texts such as the Bible, the more we should suspect it is a forgery and demand convincing authentication.

TWO NEW INSCRIPTIONS from the pre-Exilic period have been found in Jerusalem. This Arutz Sheva article summarizes and has photos:

Ancient First Temple Artifacts Uncovered in Jerusalem

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists from Israel’s Antiquities Authority (IAA) have revealed two important artifacts recently discovered in Jerusalem, both dating from the First Temple Period (8-7 BCE).

The first, a bone seal engraved with the name “Shaul” was found in an excavation being conducted under the auspices of the IAA, in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park, located in the City of David.

The dig, which is underwritten by the “Ir David Foundation” (City of David) is being carried out under the direction of Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the IAA.

[...]

The second artifact, an ancient jar handle bearing the Hebrew name “Menachem” was uncovered in the neighborhood of Ras el ‘Amud during an excavation prior to construction of a girls’ school by the Jerusalem municipality.

[...]

There's a more detailed treatment of the Shaul seal on the IAA website (temporary URL), with a downloadable photo here. (Via Lauer and Sasson.)

I'm doing better, but am going back to my nap now.

SORRY - Have a cold and am too muzzy to blog today.

PROFESSOR MOSHE WEINFELD passed away recently, and there is now an obituary by Nili Wazana posted at the SBL site. It opens:

Moshe Weinfeld, 1925–2009

But Where Can Wisdom Be Found?
Prof. Moshe Weinfeld passed away on April 29, 2009, on Israel’s 61st Independence Day. Weinfeld’s wisdom was biblical in its breadth and depth, both “a plastered cistern, which loseth not a drop,” and a “welling spring.” Like the biblical hakham, his knowledge was all-encompassing, encyclopedic, “from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall.” True to his name, “Moshe was a very humble man,” and his modesty accompanied his approach to every person, both in his personal and in his academic dealings. In his scholarship, he “sought to discover useful … truthful sayings,” yet he did not present them as the only, final, and definitive word, always leaving room for further discussion. ...

May his memory be for a blessing.

(Via the Agade list.)

JACOB NEUSNER AND THE POPE DEBATE JESUS:

CAN THE TORAH BE AMENDED?
Pope & Rabbi Square Off Over the Teachings of Jesus

May 2009By Hurd Baruch (New Oxford Review)

Hurd Baruch, a retired attorney living in Tucson, Arizona, is the author of Light on Light: Illuminations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the Mystical Visions of the Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich (MaxKol Communications, 2004).

Lives there a man who actually deplores Jesus' Sermon on the Mount? Yes, there does. His name is Jacob Neusner, and he is a highly esteemed and scholarly orthodox rabbi and professor, with more than 900 books to his credit, including several that take Jesus to task for His teachings. Rabbi Neusner views the teachings of Jesus as contrary to the Torah, which he regards as the ultimate and final expression of God's will and commandments. (The Torah is God's revelation to Moses at Mt. Sinai as set forth in the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.) Neusner considers that measuring stick fair and appropriate, given Jesus' statement that He came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them (Mt. 5:17-20).

The culmination of Neusner's negative analyses, A Rabbi Talks With Jesus, drew the comment from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger that it was "by far the most important book for the Jewish-Christian dialogue to have been published in the last decade." That was in 1993 -- so why bring it up now? Because Cardinal Ratzinger is now our Holy Father, and he has written his own book, Jesus of Nazareth, in which he frames his sixty-page analysis of the Sermon on the Mount ("the new Torah brought by Jesus") partially as a rebuttal to the imagined dialogues Neusner would like to have had with Jesus and His disciples, had he been alive in their time. Referring to Neusner's dialogues from A Rabbi Talks With Jesus, Pope Benedict writes, "More than other interpretations known to me, this respectful and frank dispute between a believing Jew and Jesus, the son of Abraham, has opened my eyes to the greatness of Jesus' words and to the choice that the Gospel places before us."

[...]

UPDATE (18 May): One correction to the above: Rabbi Professor Neusner was ordained a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the seminary of Conservative Judaism, in 1960 and therefore is not an Orthodox rabbi. Also, there's another review of the two books here. (Heads up, Joseph I. Lauer.)

PROFESSOR EMANUEL TOV has won the Israel Prize! Here's the Hebrew University press release:

Hebrew University Prof. Emmanuel Tov Wins Israel Prize for Research in Bible

February 26, 2009 - Hebrew University Prof. Emmanual Tov will be awarded the Israel Prize 2009 for his research in the Bible, the Education Minister Prof Yuli Tamir announced.

In explaining their decision, the awarding panel stated that, Prof. Emmanuel Tov of the Hebrew University's Department of Bible Studies and the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies is ''a leading researcher of international renown in the research of early versions of the Bible and its formation in ancient times. He made the most important contributions to research of the Septuagint and research of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Prof. Tov wrote the fundamental books on using the Septuagint in Bible research and on textual critique of the Bible. He has published most of the complex material of the Dead Sea Scrolls and created databases for the research of Greek translations of the Scrolls.''

Prof. Emmanuel Tov was born in Amsterdam in 1941. When the Germans occupied Holland, his parents sent him, at just one year old, to be cared for by a Christian family. At the end of the war, in which his parents perished, Emmanuel moved to his uncle's house in Amsterdam where he studied at the Classical Gymnasium and at Talmud Torah. From the age of 14, he became active in the youth movement 'Ichud HaBonim' in Holland and then went to Israel for a year where he coordinated the movement's activities, programs and training.

In 1961 he immigrated to Israel, settled in Jerusalem and studied Bible and Classics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his master's degree at the department of Bible Studies and traveled to the United States to attend a program at the department of Near Eastern Studies at Harvard University. While he was in the United States, he worked as a teaching assistant and began writing his doctoral thesis. On his return to Israel, he began working as an assistant at the University Institute in Haifa and at the Department of Bible Studies at the Hebrew University. He became a professor at the Hebrew University in 1986 and has taught there until today. In 1990, he was appointed the J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible, and since 1991 he has served as head editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project, preparing all the fragments from the Judean Desert for publication in a forty-volume series.

Prof. Tov is married to Lika. They have three children - Ophira, Ariel and Amitai - and four grandchildren.

Sorry to be so late on this one, but it got less press than it deserved and I was way too busy this semester. Belated congratulations to Professor Tov! A well-deserved honor.

Congratulations also to Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar, who was also a winner of the Israel Prize this year.

ROBERT DEUTSCH has published an article on an epigraphic mystery in Biblical Archaeology Review:

Tracking Down Shebnayahu, Servant of the King
How an antiquities market find solved a 42-year-old excavation puzzle

You can read the article yourself, but it concludes:

Thus, the Shebnayahu seal impression found at Lachish can now be positively identified as belonging to the “servant of the king,” who is very probably the same person against whom Isaiah prophesied and whose tomb still overlooks the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem. He probably sent a letter from King Hezekiah’s court written on papyrus to an official at Lachish. After wrapping the papyrus letter in string, he placed a blob of clay on the string and stamped it with his seal. What the letter said, we will never know.

A few observations:

1. The bulla inscription that provided the solution comes from the antiquities market. A smart forger would produce just this sort of fake, which seemed to solve a longstanding problem. That said, presumably it would be quite difficult to forge a second seal impression when a genuine impression was already available, and this may rule out forgery. But I would like to know more about the authentication of this bulla and I wish Deutsch had addressed the issue.

2. This story well illustrates the antics of Carol Newsom's angel Lacunael, whose divine vocation is to go around smiting ancient inscriptions at just the spots that will leave maddening ambiguities for epigraphers.

3. Robert Deutsch himself is a somewhat controversial subject at present, since he is one of the accused in the (seemingly endlessly) ongoing Israel forgery trial. A BAR promotional e-mail says:

In the current issue of BAR, editor Hershel Shanks explains why we published "Tracking Down Shebnayahu, Servant of the King" by Robert Deutsch, a scholar and antiquities dealer in Israel who has been indicted for forgery. Shanks explains that not only is Deutsch eminently qualified as a scholar but that the Israeli prosecution has failed to produce any evidence of his guilt at the trial that is now entering its fourth year. "Now it is time to apply the rule that a man is considered innocent until proven guilty," says Shanks--and certainly we all benefit from Deutsch's scholarship.

Shanks's editorial in defense of publishing Mr. Deutsch is here. Some background to the forgery trial is here.

MORE ON THE SCROLL BUST: Joseph I. Lauer notes that most of an article in Hamodia ("published in Brooklyn and dated 19 Iyar 5769 - May 13, 2009") has been posted online and it contains new information about scholarly discussion of the document of Miriam Barat Ya‘aqov:

It was written by Miriam bas Yaakov, probably a widow, declaring to her brother-in-law, a brother of her former husband Shaul, that she received all the money promised in her kesubah.

Dr. Chagai Misgav, of Hebrew University, told Hamodia that details in the document reveal much about the way Jews wrote documents in those times. It is dated for Kislev, arba lechurban Yisrael, year four to the destruction of Israel, which Misgav says means the churban of the second Beis Hamikdash.

"This is interesting, since in all other documents written at that time, the year is dated to the rule of the Roman Caesar at the time," says Misgav. "However, since this is not a regular document but a receipt, they didn't write it according to the regular customs but instead wrote the date according to the churban Beis Hamikdash."

Indeed, the Rambam in hilchos Gerushin writes that in those days they would usually write the date on a get according to the years of the king, although there were some who had the custom to refer to the number of years since the churban Beis Hamikdash.

Amir Ganor, director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Theft in the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), believes that four years after churban Yisrael alludes to the fall of Bar Kochba.

"Since we don't have any other evidence of the Jews dating after the churban Beis Hamikdash yet we have found coins and other evidence of them counting to the years of the Bar Kochba rebellion, this document may be dated to four years after the fall of Bar Kochba," Ganor told Hamodia.

The document is still in the process of being authenticated. The end of the article (Joe says it's five more paragraphs) is only available in the print edition.

Background here.

ARAMAIC WATCH: A University of Queensland museum has just acquired a Palmyrene stele bearing an as-yet undeciphered Aramaic inscription:

Artefact a prized addition to UQ antiquities museum
Published: 13 May 2009

The R.D. Milns Antiquities Museum at UQ has just welcomed an ancient carved funerary column or 'stele' to their collection, which originally stood at Palmyra in present-day Syria.

Museum Director Dr Sonia Puttock said the museum's $18,000 big purchase for the year was "very significant".

[...]

The museum previously purchased a fragment of a similar stele around 20 years ago, but the latest purchase is of a whole male bust that is from the late second to third century AD.

[...]

"The stele is of a man wearing a toga, but it is very much in the local style, so it is likely a native man aspiring to a Roman lifestyle. He has also got a funerary garland in his hand, similar to Egyptian mummy paintings."

The limestone stele, which is associated with a male funeral, also contains an Aramaic inscription that hasn't yet been translated, however Dr Puttock says that will happen soon.

"One of our previous trainee workers, a woman from Northern Italy who received a scholarship from her university, Udine, to come and work at the museum for nine months, will be translating it. She is also doing some research on it for us," Dr Puttock said.

The stele, originally from what is now central Syria, was purchased from well-known London dealer Charles Ede.

[...]

Do antiquities laws really allow the sale and transport of inscribed stelae from Syria (to London?) to Australia? I'm surprised. Although if it's on the antiquites market, I would rather it end up in a museum than in private hands.

BORIS JOHNSON, the Mayor of London, approves of the upcoming Aramaic and Latin production of Ben Hur:

Boris Johnson, a long-time supporter of the continuation of Latin studies, gave his approval to the show.

"Ave! This is a fantastic idea. Cives londinii spectabunt et mirabuntur," (The citizens of London will look on in wonder) he said.

"We have much to learn from the Romans, not least since the horse is the ultimate low-carbon vehicle," he added.

Background here.

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS and its School of Divinity both have come in at third place - just after Oxbridge - in the new Guardian league tables. Details:

University League Table 2010

University Guide 2010: Religious Studies and Theology

Just thought you'd like to know, especially if you are a current or prospective St. Andrews student.

Mark Goodacre has further commentary here.

ARAMAIC WATCH: More on the Ben Hur production coming live to London. The Independent sounds a bit skeptical:

Ben Hur: The blockbuster no one will understand

Stage show of Ben-Hur to use ancient languages of Latin and Aramaic

By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

On-stage chariot races, herds of horses, camels, vultures, eagles, 400 performers and a supporting cast which includes Jesus Christ, Tiberius Julius Caesar and Pontius Pilate ... What else to do but set Ben-Hur the stage show in Latin and Aramaic? The £5m production will show at the 20,000-seat O2 arena in London from 15-19 September.

Only one song in the score – written by Stewart Copeland, formerly a rock drummer for the Police – will be composed in English.

Actors will learn their lines in the ancient language of the Romans and the Jews. A narrator will explain the action in the native language of whichever of the seven countries the play is touring, among them France and Germany, as well as England.

[...]

As with The Passion of the Christ, there really should be Greek in there as well.

MORE ON THE SYRIAC MOR GABRIEL MONASTERY and the land dispute associated with it:

Arameans want prime minister to mediate over Mor Gabriel
Arameans have appealed to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a letter seeking his mediation in a land dispute between the Mor Gabriel Monastery and the surrounding villages that has already been heard in court.

[...]

The Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA), a worldwide umbrella organization of national federations of Aramean people, in their letter to Erdoğan, indicated that they wanted him to mediate in the conflict. The SUA also asked the prime minister to “ensure that the decisions of the relevant Turkish authorities are reversed and relevant cases are resolved to the benefit of the Aramean people in order for the current public condemnation of Turkey to end.”

[...]

12 May 2009, Tuesday (Today's Zaman)
AYŞE KARABAT ANKARA

Related article here. And AINA has a long article by Nuri Kino (translated from Swedish) on the whole controvery and court case.

Background here.

POPE BENEDICT XVI is currently on a visit to the Holy Land. I've been following the story but so far haven't seen much of interest for PaleoJudaica. But here is some AFP coverage.

LAG B'OMER began last night at sundown.

THE BIBLIOBLOG TOP 50 – APRIL 2009 has been out for awhile and I've been meaning to note it.

A CONFERENCE ON CODEX SINAITICUS is taking place at the British Library in July:

Codex Sinaiticus Conference
British Library Conference Centre, 6-7 July 2009

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world's outstanding manuscripts. Together with Codex Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest extant Bibles, containing the oldest complete New Testament. This treasured codex is indispensable for understanding the earliest text of the Greek Bible, the transmission of its text, the establishment of the Christian canon, and the history of the book. Over 400 leaves survive and are held across four institutions: the British Library, Leipzig University Library, St Catherine's Monastery and the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg.

To celebrate the virtual re-unification of all extant leaves of Codex Sinaiticus, on 6-7 July 2009, the British Library is hosting an academic conference on topics relating to Codex Sinaiticus. A number of leading experts have been approached to give presentations on the history, text, conservation, paleography and codicology, among other topics, of Codex Sinaiticus. Selected conference papers will be edited and published as a collection of articles.

For background on Codex Sinaiticus, go here and keep following the links back.

I'LL BE BACK:

Hard Times Give New Life to Prague’s Golem

By DAN BILEFSKY (NYT)
Published: May 10, 2009

PRAGUE — They say the Golem, a Jewish giant with glowing eyes and supernatural powers, is lurking once again in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue here.

The Golem, according to Czech legend, was fashioned from clay and brought to life by a rabbi to protect Prague’s 16th-century ghetto from persecution, and is said to be called forth in times of crisis. True to form, he is once again experiencing a revival and, in this commercial age, has spawned a one-monster industry.

There are Golem hotels; Golem door-making companies; Golem clay figurines (made in China); a recent musical starring a dancing Golem; and a Czech strongman called the Golem who bends iron bars with his teeth. The Golem has also infiltrated Czech cuisine: the menu at the non-kosher restaurant called the Golem features a “rabbi’s pocket of beef tenderloin” and a $7 “crisis special” of roast pork and potatoes that would surely have rattled the venerable Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Golem’s supposed maker.

[...]

The surge in popularity of the Golem also anticipates the 400th anniversary in September of Rabbi Loew’s death in 1609, at nearly 100. A Jewish mystic and philosopher who a leading scholar of the Talmud and kabbalah and wrote at least 22 books, he was known widely as the Maharal, a great sage.

Few here dispute that the Golem, who is often depicted as either a menacing brown blob or an artificial humanoid, has become a lucrative global brand. But it is also a profound irritation to Prague’s Jewish leaders that Rabbi Loew’s legacy has been hijacked by a powerful dunce whom the Talmud characterizes as a “fool.”

“I am frustrated by the legend of the Golem in the same way I am frustrated that people buy Kafka souvenirs on every street in Prague but don’t bother to read his books,” Rabbi Karel Sidon, the chief rabbi of the Czech Republic, lamented. Alluding to the recent rise of neo-Nazis in the Czech Republic and elsewhere, however, he hastened to add, “We like the Golem because he protected the Jews.”

Rabbi Barash emphasized that in the Talmud, the Golem was considered a dumb klutz because he was literal-minded, could not speak and had no “sechel,” or intellect. “If in school,” he said, “you didn’t use your brains, the teacher would say, ‘Stop behaving like a golem.’ ”

[...]

Background here and here.

ARAMAIC WATCH: The APF reports on more efforts in Israel to preserve Aramaic as a spoken language, combined with yet another land dispute. Excerpt:

"Shlomo malfonito" -- "Hello teacher" -- intone some 20 pupils in the Arab-Israeli village of Jish, where half the population is Maronite, a people who for centuries have lived in the mountains of Lebanon and nearby.

The children get free lessons in Aramaic, an ancient tongue spoken during the time of Jesus Christ and kept alive down the centuries by fellow Maronites.

Shadi Khalul, 33, organised the lessons and teaches the language of his ancestors along with his brother, sister-in-law and three others so the young people in the northern village remember their roots in Biram some four kilometres (2.5 miles) away.

That village was razed by Israel in 1953, nearly five years after the authorities of the then six-month-old Jewish state evacuated its 1,050 residents in November 1948. They said it would be a temporary measure.

SCROLL-BUST UPDATE: Joseph I. Lauer notes that the IAA press release is now at a permanent URL here. Here's the opening again:

A Rare 2,000 Year Old Hebrew Document Written on Papyrus was seized in an Operation (5/5/09)

A document thought to be an ancient text written on papyrus was seized yesterday (Tuesday) in an operation led by the Intelligence Office of the Zion Region and the Undercover Unit of the Border Police in Jerusalem, in cooperation with the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery and the Archaeological Staff Officer in the Civil Administration.
The document is written in ancient Hebrew script, which is characteristic of the Second Temple period and the first and second centuries CE. This style of the writing is primarily known from the Dead Sea scrolls and various inscriptions that occur on ossuaries and coffins. The document itself is written on papyrus. The papyrus is incomplete and was in all likelihood rolled up. It is apparent that pieces of it crumbled mainly along its bottom part. The holes along the left part of the document probably attest to the damage that was caused to it over time. The document measures 15 x 15 centimeters.

[...]

Also, the Art Daily has an article based on the press release with the full-sized photograph included. It's nice that a good photo has been published so quickly. And hats off to the Israeli police for catching this one.

Background here.

ANOTHER PHOENICIAN-SHIP REPLICA sets sail:

Phoenician replica readies for Mediterranean crossing

(Hurriyet)

FOCA, Turkey - A team of 20 rowers will next week aim to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a replica Phoenician-style "bireme" ship from Turkey to France.

The Kybele boat -- named after an Anatolian goddess -- will leave the Turkish village of Foca near Izmir and travel 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) to the ancient port of Marseille in southern France.

[...]

Related story here.

HARRISON FORD Accepts AIA's Bandelier Award:



(Via Chuck Jones on Facebook.)

RACHEL ELIOR'S NEW BOOK is summarised in a long article in the Jerusalem Post. Excerpts:

In her recently published (Hebrew) book, Memory and Oblivion - The Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, she offers a bold and coherent narrative to explain events about which scholars have long held contrary views.

The short reason for the canon/Apocrypha divide, she suggests, was a dispute over the calendar. The more profound explanation involves a power struggle between the old priestly order that believed its rulings to be divinely inspired and an emerging class of rabbis espousing a different narrative, one which gave human reason and laws a role in shaping the religion. Elior demonstrates how mystic notions like cosmic calendars and heavenly chariots were part of a power struggle whose outcome would affect how Judaism is practiced to the present day.

For centuries the Israelites had marked time according to a solar calendar drawn up by the priestly caste but regarded as divinely inspired. The calendar emulated the pattern set by God when He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The number seven would become a mystic measure of Jewish time. The Israelites adopted a seven-day week, apparently the first people in the world to do so, and they too rested on the seventh day.

[...]

In a game-changing move, the rabbis declared that the age of prophecy had long since ended and that the priesthood had been severed from ongoing access to higher authority. According to one rabbinic tradition, prophecy had ended with the destruction of the First Temple in the sixth century BCE. According to another, it ended when Alexander the Great and the Hellenizers arrived two centuries later. The priests vigorously rejected this downsizing.

The rabbis favored a lunar calendar, says Elior, because they saw it symbolically freeing the nation from dependence on a closed priestly caste locked into the solar calendar and claiming divine authority. They wanted to symbolize instead man's share in the determination of time and of his own fate. "They declared that human understanding of sacred writings was a legitimate source of authority." The month would now not commence according to a solar calendar precalculated for eternity but by mortals scanning the sky for the new moon, perhaps disagreeing about the sighting among themselves, perhaps even erring.

Read it all.

Background here.

UPDATE (11 May): Bad link now corrected. Sorry.

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: The Wall Street Journal has a good survey article of recent developments in the digitization of ancient and medieval manuscripts. It's difficult to excerpt, but well worth reading in full:

The Next Age of Discovery

By ALEXANDRA ALTER

In a 21st-century version of the age of discovery, teams of computer scientists, conservationists and scholars are fanning out across the globe in a race to digitize crumbling literary treasures.

In the process, they're uncovering unexpected troves of new finds, including never-before-seen versions of the Christian Gospels, fragments of Greek poetry and commentaries on Aristotle. Improved technology is allowing researchers to scan ancient texts that were once unreadable -- blackened in fires or by chemical erosion, painted over or simply too fragile to unroll. Now, scholars are studying these works with X-ray fluorescence, multispectral imaging used by NASA to photograph Mars and CAT scans used by medical technicians.

A Benedictine monk from Minnesota is scouring libraries in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Georgia for rare, ancient Christian manuscripts that are threatened by wars and black-market looters; so far, more than 16,500 of his finds have been digitized. This summer, a professor of computer science at the University of Kentucky plans to test 3-D X-ray scanning on two papyrus scrolls from Pompeii that were charred by volcanic ash in 79 A.D. Scholars have never before been able to read or even open the scrolls, which now sit in the French National Institute in Paris.

By taking high-resolution digital images in 14 different light wavelengths, ranging from infrared to ultraviolet, Oxford scholars are reading bits of papyrus that were discovered in 1898 in an ancient garbage dump in central Egypt. So far, researchers have digitized about 80% of the collection of 500,000 fragments, dating from the 2nd century B.C. to the 8th century A.D. The texts include fragments of unknown works by famous authors of antiquity, lost gospels and early Islamic manuscripts.

[...]

For the work of Father Columba Stewart (the Benedictine monk), see here. For the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (the garbage dump) see here and here. For the Timbuktu archives, see here. For projects to digitize the manuscripts of the St. Catherine's Monastery, see here and here. For the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, see here. For the Archimedes palimpsest see here, here, and here.

The article also has a nice slide show. The article concludes:

"It's being called a second Renaissance," says Todd Hickey, a curator of papyri at the University of California, Berkeley, which has some 26,000 pieces of papyrus, many still unread. "It's revealing things that we didn't have a hope of reading in the past."

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

UPDATE (24 May): For more on the University of Kentucky project (which involves carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum, not Pompeii) go here.

THAT WOULD BE NICE: Will The Coptic Language Rise Again?

Background here.

Although there is great interest in preserving the Coptic literary heritage, I sense no political will in Egypt to preserve it as a living language, unlike the Syrian initiatives and more informal efforts in Israel to preserve spoken Aramaic.

BUSTED - BIGTIME!

From the IAA website:

A Rare 2,000 Year Old Hebrew Document Written on Papyrus was
Seized in an OperationThe director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery in the Israel Antiquities Authority: “It seems we are dealing with rare historic evidence regarding the Jewish people in their country from more than 2,000 years ago”.

A document thought to be an ancient text written on papyrus was seized yesterday (Tuesday) in an operation led by the Intelligence Office of the Zion Region and the Undercover Unit of the Border Police in Jerusalem, in cooperation with the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery and the Archaeological Staff Officer in the Civil Administration.

The document is written in ancient Hebrew script, which is characteristic of the Second Temple period and the first and second centuries CE. This style of the writing is primarily known from the Dead Sea scrolls and various inscriptions that occur on ossuaries and coffins. The document itself is written on papyrus. The papyrus is incomplete and was in all likelihood rolled up. It is apparent that pieces of it crumbled mainly along its bottom part. The holes along the left part of the document probably attest to the damage that was caused to it over time. The document measures 15 x 15 centimeters.
Fifteen lines of Hebrew text, written from right to left and one below the other, can be discerned in the document. In the upper line of the text one can clearly read the sentence “Year 4 to the destruction of Israel”. This is likely to be the year 74 CE – in the event the author of the document is referring to the year when the Second Temple was destroyed during the Great Revolt. Another possibility is the year 139 CE – in the event the author is referring to the time when the rural settlement in Judah was devastated at the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt.
The name of a woman, “Miriam Barat Ya‘aqov”, is also legible in the document followed by a name that is likely to be that of the settlement where she resided: Misalev. This is probably the settlement Salabim. The name Miriam Bat Ya‘aqov is a common name in the Second Temple period. Also mentioned in the document are the names of other people and families, the names of a number of ancient settlements from the Second Temple period and legal wording which deals with the property of a widow and her relinquishment of it.

According to Amir Ganor, director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery in the Israel Antiquities Authority, “Theoretically, based on the epigraphic style, the material the document is written on, the state of preservation and the text, which includes a historic date that can be deciphered, we are dealing with a document that appears to be ancient as defined by the Antiquities Law. Since this object was not discovered in a proper archaeological excavation, it still must undergo laboratory analyses in order to negate the possibility it is a modern forgery”. Ganor adds, “The document is very important from the standpoint of historical and national research. Until now almost no historic scrolls or documents from this period have been discovered in proper archaeological excavations. A historic document that can be definitely dated based on a reference to a historical event such as the ‘destruction of Israel’ has never been discovered. Much can be learned from this document about the names of people, their surnames names and the locations of settlements in Israel during this period. From an initial reading it seems that this document deals with the property of Miriam Bat Ya‘aqov, who was apparently a widow. The deciphering of the entire document by expert epigraphers and historians may shed light on how the people of the period managed their affairs and supplement our knowledge about their way of life. What we have here is rare historic evidence about the Jewish people in their country from more than 2,000 years ago, during the days following the destruction which sent the people of Israel into exile for a very long time – until the creation of the State of Israel”.

For downloading a hight resolution image - click here

Photograph: The Scroll Conservation Laboratory, Israel Antiquities Authority.

For further details, kindly contact: Yoli Shwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority spokesperson, 052-5991888,dovrut@israntique.org.il

From Joseph I. Lauer's list. Note that the URL for this press release is temporary. This AP article may be more durable.

Assuming the text is genuine, this is a very important find, effectively the discovery of a new Dead Sea Scroll. (Okay, if you want to be technical, a Judean Desert Scroll. Same difference.)

For the Bar Kokhba revolt and related scrolls see here (and follow the links back), here, and here.

UPDATE (7 May): Related item? Israeli police bust Palestinians with ancient joke book. I knew those jokes were old, but I didn't know they were that old.

BIBLICAL SCHOLAR JACOB MILGROM'S WIFE, JO, is a midrashic assemblage artist:

Your Trash, Her Treasure
An Octogenarian Artist Finds Biblical Meaning in Discarded Objects
By Daniel Estrin (The Forward)
Published May 05, 2009.

On a recent afternoon, Jacob Milgrom pored over the Book of Ezekiel in his Jerusalem study. The 86-year-old, one of the foremost biblical scholars alive today, took slow breaths and carefully marked the Hebrew text in pencil.

On the opposite side of the house was his 80-year-old wife, Jo Milgrom. She, too, was pondering biblical meaning. In her hands, though, were long, punched strips of old printer paper. “It’s like paper lace,” Milgrom said. “I saw this at the printer’s and said, ‘Don’t throw it out, it’s beautiful.’” Milgrom wanted to set up a fan so that the paper strips would float in the air — a depiction of God’s hovering spirit from the Genesis story of creation.

This is not arts and crafts hobbyism: Milgrom is an assemblage artist. She calls her work “visual midrash,” referencing the Jewish literary tradition of supplementing the biblical narrative with commentary, often in the form of colorful homilies. Traditional midrash was written from the third to the 12th centuries, but Milgrom believes there’s just as much of a place for creative midrash today as there is for the kind of scholarly interpretations her husband writes. She’ll promote artistic approaches to the Bible on May 15 at Temple Israel Center in White Plains, N.Y., when she gives an interactive lesson titled “Through the Looking Glass at Mount Sinai.” And next month, the TALI Education Fund in Israel will launch an online image database of more than 2,000 biblical- and Judaic-themed artworks, collected by Milgrom over several decades.

“Jo’s work is indispensable,” said Jacob, whose Ezekiel commentary is forthcoming in the Anchor Bible series. “He’s the left brain, and I’m the right brain,” Milgrom added. She went on to quote Elie Wiesel: “Midrash is to Bible as imagination is to knowledge.”

[...]

ANNETTE YOSHIKO REED has published an important article in The Journal of Theological Studies:

The Modern Invention of ‘Old Testament Pseudepigrapha’

Abstract

This article explores the pre-history of our present notion of ‘the Old Testament pseudepigrapha’ through a focus on Johann Albert Fabricius’s Codex pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti (1713). It considers Fabricius’s work from four perspectives: as a compendium of knowledge recovered during and after the Renaissance, as a reflection of debates about Scripture in the wake of the Reformation, as a literary artefact of anxieties about authorship in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and as the foundation for nineteenth- and twentiety-century research on the materials collected therein. By revisiting the origins of the concept and category of ‘pseudepigrapha’, the article attempts to bring a broader historical perspective to bear on current debates about the heurism of the label.

(Requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access.) I heard it presented as a paper at last year's SBL meeting in Boston and I'm very glad to have the final version now. For more on Fabricius, see here and here.

VICTOR SASSON has a new Hebrew and Aramaic Epigraphy Blog. But be forewarned that, judging by the initial posts, this is not a general blog on the topic, but one that focuses on the Israel forgery trial and advances a very particular view about it and about various people associated with it in some way.

(Via Jack Sasson's Agade List.)

A LECTURE ON THE OXYRHYNCHUS PAPYRI at the British Academy in London:

New Greek Texts From Oxyrhynchus

7pm to 8.30pm, Wednesday 24 June 2009
British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1

Convenors:Professor Eric Handley, CBE, FBA, University of Cambridge
and Dr Dirk Obbink , University of Oxford

Speakers: Dr Dirk Obbink, Professor Peter Parsons, FBA, University of Oxford and Dr Dorothy Thompson, FBA, University of Cambridge

Just over a hundred years ago, on a site some 100 miles south of Cairo, two Oxford scholars, on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Society, excavated some 50,000 pieces of ancient books and documents that had been discarded in the city dump, and had survived the centuries in the dry climate.

The excavators were Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt. They devoted successive seasons to their task between 1897 and 1907, and gave more years still to publishing some of their significant discoveries. The site, by its Greek name, is Oxyrhynchus—'The City of the Sharp-nosed Fish', as Peter Parsons calls it in the title of a much-admired book that appeared in 2007. More than seventy volumes of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri have so far been published. They continue to reveal texts of Greek literature otherwise lost to the modern world, together with fragments of Christian gospels, technical treatises, tax returns, petitions to the authorities, private letters, wills and a host of other documents that give a unique insight into the life of the city and the Greco-Roman civilization of which it was part.

The presentation evening offers an opportunity to preview some of the exciting new texts to come from Oxyrhynchus and to consider such questions as did Euripides write two versions of his play Medea? How do modern methods of image-making work to recover an unknown classical text? How much can a personal letter reveal of the world about the writer? There will also be an opportunity to hear something of the present state and future prospects of the Oxyrhynchus project as a whole. A compact display of papyri, photographs, and other relevant material will also be on view.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please note our registration and seating policy:
This event is free of charge. There is no advance registration for this event and no tickets will be issued.
The rooms for this event will be open from 6.30pm onwards - please do not arrive at the Academy before this time.
The first 100 audience members arriving at the Academy will be offered a seat in our Lecture Room where this event will take place. The next 50 people to arrive will be offered a seat in our Overflow Room which has a video and audio link to the Lecture Room.



The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH Tel: 020 7969 5200, Fax: 020 7969 5300, Web: www.britac.ac.uk

ARIEL SABAR has won a literary award for his book, My Father's Paradise. Dave Rosenthal reports on the Baltimore Sun's Read Street Blog:

Ariel Sabar among NBCC award winners

Ariel SabarCongratulations to Ariel Sabar, a former Baltimore Sun reporter who has won the 2008 autobiography prize from the National Book Critics Circle for My Father's Paradise. Sabar wrote about his relationship with his father, who grew up in a mud hut in Kurdish Iraq, emigrated to Israel with thousands of other Jews and wound up as a professor of Aramaic at UCLA. ...

Background here and here.

GEZA VERMES responds to Rachel Elior's response to his article:

In connection with Rachel Elior’s rejoinder to my essay, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, may I contradict her claim that the classical sources of the Essenes ignore “the priestly context” of the sect. In fact, Josephus, although he wrote for a largely non-Jewish readership unfamiliar with Jewish customs, felt it necessary to allude to the importance of the priests in Essene life. He reported that the Essene food was prepared by priests and that their leaders were priests who presided over the common table and recited the prayer before and after each meal. This is echoed in the Qumran Community Rule where even the smallest congregation of ten men was to be headed by a priest who was “the first to stretch out his hand to bless the firstfruit of the bread...” More indirectly the white garment which, according to Josephus, constituted the Essene uniform was called by him a “sacred robe”. This corresponds to the ceremonial “linen” vestment or “fine white linen”, prescribed for the priests by the Bible as well as by the Qumran War Scroll.

REGARDING EZEKIEL'S TOMB, Tamar Sternthal at CAMERA is suspicious. In response to the APF article quoted yesterday (see first link above), she writes:

The text is maddingly ambiguous; will the Kifl tomb and other historically Jewish sites be renovated to restore and maintain their original Jewish character, or will it be renovated in accord with the Muslim shrines they apparently have become? After all, given the history of Islam, this point requires careful clarification. As noted by scholar Raymond Ibrahim, Muslim conquerers have had a tendency to convert Jewish and Christian holy sites into Muslim shrines. Thus, when the Turks conquered Constantinople in the fifteenth century, the famed Hagia Sophia church, along with 500 other Christian places of worship, were converted to Muslim shrines. The Al Aqsa Mosque is deliberately built atop the ruins of the first and second Jewish temples in Jerusalem. And in more recent days, when the bloodied Israeli army withdrew from Joseph's Tomb in 2000, it was quickly turned into a mosque.

Perhaps Krauss has given away the answer, referring at one point to the revered site in Kifl as a mosque. Yet, the matter is confused when Iraqi spokesman Abdelzahra al-Talaqani is quoted: "The ministry is concerned with all Iraqi heritage, whether it is Christian or Jewish or from any other religion." Does that "concern" translate to the mission of converting abandoned non-Islamic religious sites into mosques, as is apparently the case with Ezekiel's tomb? Krauss does not spell out the answer either way and the discerning reader is left to wonder.

She has other problems with the article's portrayal of events in the twentieth century, but those need not detain us here.

For what it's worth, Arutz Sheva, which is usually quite sensitive to such issues, seems to see nothing sinister in the article. Hillel Fendel writes:

(IsraelNN.com) The American-backed Iraqi government has announced plans to restore the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel, in a small town south of Baghdad.

It is currently an Islamic shrine, but the government announcement implied that its Jewish nature would be emphasized. The interior is shaped like a synagogue, with a Turkish-style dome ceiling, old wooden cabinets that used to hold Torah scrolls, and the remains of a separation between men and women. Large Hebrew letters praising the Prophet and medieval Islamic floral designs adorn the old stone walls.

[...]

From what I've seen so far, the Jewish nature of the shrine is being respected and preserved. For my part, I am willing to give the Iraqi authorities the benefit of the doubt until and unless they give me grounds to think otherwise.

STEPHEN GORANSON responds to Rachel Elior regarding the existence of the Essenes:

If I may reply to Prof. Elior: How many Second Temple Period Hebrew manuscripts include Perushim and Zaddukim? Fewer than include the self-designation 'Osei-haTorah? Prof. Elior asserts "the absence of the Essenes from the Hebrew language" and asserts that that self-designation is "too general and not specific enough to denote a particular group"--and yet, there it is! Defying Prof. Elior's declaration that it does not exist. They knew not her rules. No Hebrew speakers used it? The Qumranites did. Dozens of later scholars did (E.g., Isaak Jost writing in Israelitische Annalen didn't know Hebrew?). That 'osey hatorah and ma'ase hatorah are unique to Qumran in extant ancient Hebrew mss makes these all the more characteristic in self-designating Essenes. Similarly, Essenes existed, though Prof. Elior has established that she would prefer that it were not so. Wanting them to go away may not help historians explain the evidence. Common words have been used for many religious designations; e.g., Amoraim, Tannaim, Haredim, Karaites, Gnostics, Society of Friends, Taoists, Gnostics, Kabbalists, Muslims, Methodists, Cathari... The Essene Teacher was a priest; not all priests were Sadducees; no either/or. Elior first calls Josephus unreliable, then uses absences in Josephus as if proof, as if his Greek readers wanted complicated calendar discussion. Those early scholars got the Essene identity right--of some of the scrolls; they didn't claim Essenes composed all of them. But the Essene "Wicked Priest" was Alexander Jannaeus, rather than the earlier Jonathan that Prof. Vermes proposed. The Essene Teacher was a priest; not all priests were Sadducees. For evidence of that see http://www.duke.edu/~goranson/jannaeus.pdf.

BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL 41 has been published by James McGrath at Exploring Our Matrix.

UPDATE (4 May): James has a supplemental post here.

THE COPTIC MUSEUM ARCHIVES in Cario are undergoing a much needed renovation:

Working on Coptic archives

(Al-Ashram)

Nevine El-Aref reports on the completion of the first inventory to assess the current condition of manuscripts stored for almost a century in the Coptic Museum archives

The Coptic Museum archives, considered to be the world's most important Coptic library and containing more than 5,000 manuscripts and books, are being given a facelift.

Serenity, peace and complete quiet are the overwhelming sensations in the museum library, despite the presence of two dozen experts and restorers who have spread themselves to each corner of the reading room. Since January, the library has been converted into a scientific laboratory so that a comprehensive survey to assess the current conditions of its treasured manuscripts and books can be carried out. Armed with white gowns, masks, small brushes, glass plaques, small pieces of cottonwool and special liquids, junior and professional restorers sit in front of their improvised desks examining the piece of manuscript win their hands. They are looking for parts of each manuscript that show signs of being infected, and then they will identify its causes, take notes and rescue the pieces that are in need of attention.

I wish the article had said more about the contents of the library, but in any case this is a very exciting project. For my part, I hope their new cataloguing project comes up with some new manuscripts of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. There are many Coptic fragments of major Pseudepigrapha, usually from Greek translation and often early copies. These include (off the top of my head) fragments of The Life of Adam and Eve, The Testament of Job, The Testament of Abraham, some Enochic apocrypha, and, of course, most recently discovered, 2 Enoch.

THE BEN HUR CHARIOT RACE for the O2 production coming in September is being choreographed in Germany. Ben Hoyle has the story in the London Times:

As my chariot skidded to a halt in front of them I stood beaming in its prow, the proud race victor accepting the adulation of an imaginary Circus Maximus. Maier looked at me with pity. Lorries rumbled along behind him as he took another puff on his cigarette and wondered what to say. “You were very good,” he lied. “I was convinced that this must be the real Ben-Hur.”

Actually Ben-Hur was hiding behind me. Nicki Pfeiffer has forearms as thick as lampposts and had just piloted my chariot blind from an unconventional crouched position close to my flapping tunic hem. No wonder he is playing the hero in the climactic sequence of Ben Hur Live.

The show has a sea battle, an orgy and music by Stewart Copeland, the drummer from the Police, but everyone involved knows that success hinges on one scene: what the posters call “The Legendary Chariot Race”.

Franz Abraham, the producer of Ben Hur Live, had dreamt of adapting Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ, for 15 years but realised that it was feasible only when he came to this sleepy corner of the former East Germany and met Pfeiffer.

“I needed someone who could deliver a chariot race that even the Romans would have loved,” Abraham said. “So Nicki was the decision-maker for Ben-Hur. He told me that my vision of an intimate, high-pressure chariot race in a 70-metre by 35-metre arena was not a pure dream. This was the jump of quantum for this project. All other horse people and marketing people and promoters had told me all the time that it was impossible.”

Ben-Hur is the story of a Jewish prince who becomes a galley slave and then a champion charioteer in the early 1st century AD. It was a hit play 100 years ago — the chariot race was depicted with live horses running on a treadmill device — and then an acclaimed silent film. For most people, however, it is indelibly associated with Charlton Heston in the 3½-hour epic released in 1959.

The nine-minute chariot race in William Wyler’s film is a Hollywood landmark and casts a giant shadow over any attempt to remake Ben-Hur. Other live chariot races have been staged over the years but none has evoked the same sense of danger and excitement.

One can't help wondering if the same degree of effort is going into the orgy scene.

Background here.

THE TOMB OF EZEKIEL (traditional) in Kifl, Iraq, is undergoing renovation according to the APF, which is good news:

In the little town of Kifl, south of Baghdad, the shrine of Ezekiel -- the prophet who followed the Jews into Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC -- has long been a part of Iraq's millennia-old religious mosaic.

A 14th-century brick minaret tilts outside the entrance to the shrine, but inside the mosque is shaped like a synagogue, with old wooden cabinets that used to hold Torah scrolls and balustrades that once separated men and women.

Inside the shrine, block-like Hebrew script runs along the old stone walls beneath a Turkish-style dome with medieval Islamic floral designs.

The government has launched a project to renovate the interior of the shrine, and the state ministry for tourism and antiquities says it hopes to eventually repair and renovate other Jewish sites across the country.

"The ministry is concerned with all Iraqi heritage, whether it is Christian or Jewish or from any other religion," ministry spokesman Abdelzahra al-Talaqani told AFP.

"The present plans do not include the synagogues in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Fallujah and other places because of lack of funding, but I think they will be included in future plans."

Falah Abdelhadi, who is overseeing the renovation of the shrine of Ezekiel, hopes it will once again attract visitors of all faiths from around the world.

[...]

Muslims revere nearly all the central religious figures from Judaism and Christianity, including Ezekiel. He is referred to as Dhu al-Kifl in two Koranic verses and is said to have raised the dead.

[...]

The traditional tomb of Ezra in Al-Azair (Al ʿUzair) and the traditional tomb of Daniel in Kirkuk also get a mention.

For more on the Tomb of Ezekiel (pictures, an inscription, legends, and a Lara Croft game), go here and follow the links. For more on the tomb of Ezra and related traditions, see here. For the traditional tomb of Daniel in Susa, Iran, see here.

UPDATE (4 May): More here.

RACHEL ELIOR responds to the criticisms of her theory about the Dead Sea Scrolls recently published by Geza Vermes. This note was first circulated by Joseph I. Lauer and and I am happy to reproduce it here at Professor Elior's request.

I read with interest Dr. Geza Vermes's Standpoint magazine article "The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls" in which he discusses the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and his recollections about the work he and others have done with regard to them.
Dr. Vermes also devoted a few sentences to some of the arguments I have made challenging "the Essene origin of the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls" as described in an Haaretz newspaper article of March 13, 2009. He sums up my arguments as claiming "that the scrolls were written by Jerusalem Sadducee priests and not by Essenes; and that the Essenes never existed, but were invented by Flavius Josephus."
(If I may correct Dr. Vermes's summary, I argue that the content of the scrolls attests to profound priestly interest and distinct priestly language while the sources about the Essenes do not refer to priestly identity or priestly context. I think that Philo invented the Essenes as an ideal society and Josephus was much influenced by him, and the fact that no Jewish source written in Hebrew or Aramaic before or after the Common Era knows anything about a group called Essenes or mentions any group known as celibates denouncing private property and family life raises severe questions about their historical existence in the Land of Israel.)
Dr. Vermes's comments are based on the now-familiar recitation of the fact that Philo of Alexandria, Pliny the Elder, and Josephus refer to the Essenes and describe practices ascribed to them, and Pliny the Elder's assertion "that the Essenes lived on the western shore of the Dead Sea somewhere between Jericho in the north and Ein Gedi and Masada in the south (corresponding to the area where Qumran lies)." Dr. Vermes concludes that "The two unique characteristics (common ownership and male celibacy) and the geographical location remain the solid grounds on which the theory of the Essene identity of the Dead Sea sect continues to stand."
Since the appearance of the Haaretz article, numerous articles have appeared about my arguments in newspapers, magazines, and on the Internet, including responses that I have made to comments and criticisms, including to those now raised by Dr. Vermes. As part of these responses I ask if it is reasonable to believe that the sages, who addressed all aspects of Jewish life, would not have mentioned in any way thousands of people who lived under common ownership and male celibacy.
Dr. Vermes correctly notes that "a proper assessment of Professor Elior's ideas will have to wait until she backs them with scholarly argument in a forthcoming book".
However, as my Hebrew language book on the subject, "Zikaron uneshia : sodan shel megilot midbar yehudah (Memory and Oblivion: The Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls), has been published in March 2009, I hope that comments and criticisms will be based on an examination of its detailed arguments, and I would also refer interested persons to my previous remarks.
For the moment, though, I would just ask a few questions.
In how many of the 900-1000 scrolls are the Essenes mentioned?
The answer is in no scroll, none whatsoever.
Even with respect to Dr. Stephen Goranson's suggestion that "Osei-haTorah" refers to the Essenes, we may ask how many times is "Osei-haTorah" mentioned in the Scrolls? (This is in addition to noting that the suggestion is one that no Hebrew speaker will accept because a word like Osei [=doers] is too general and not specific enough to denote a particular group, and the Torah is never introduced in biblical Hebrew with the idiom "osei" (doers) but with verbs concerned with its observance or study or following or with nouns concerning its divine origin, as any Biblical Hebrew concordance will demonstrate.)
As against the absence of the Essenes from the Hebrew language and from the Dead Sea Scrolls we may ask in how many of the Scrolls are the kohanim bnei Zadok or kohanim bnei Aharon or the Levitical priestly tribe mentioned?
The answer is in quite a few!
In the "Concordance of Proper Nouns in the Non-Biblical Texts from Qumran" in DJD 39 (M.G. Abegg, Jr.; 2002), Aaron and Aaron's sons (bnei Aharon haKohanim=the priests the sons of Aaron) are mentioned more than 100 times; Levi and the Levite are mentioned about 90 times; Zadok and bnei Zadok haKohanim are mentioned 22 times. Among the texts that discuss directly the Zadokite priests, the sons of Aaron, their Levitical origin and their priestly service are The Rule of the Community, The Rule of the Congregation, the Damascus Document, and the Florilegium. The 24 priestly courses are mentioned in the Scroll of Priestly Courses; priestly blessings are mentioned in number of scrolls, among them the Scroll of Blessings and the War Scroll. Levitical priestly heritage is mentioned in Jubilees and in the Testaments of the Twelve Tribes. The priestly solar calendar associated with Temple sacrifices is mentioned in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and in MMT and in column 27 of the Psalm Scroll from Qumran and in 4Q252, the story of the flood and in a number of other places.
So where exactly is the testimony about the Essenes? In what way is the rich biblical context attested to in the scrolls connected to the Essenes?
And what is the significance of the vast testimony on priestly issues that people overlook?
Finally, where exactly in the well-known descriptions of the Essenes do we find the priestly calendar, priestly courses, priestly blessings and liturgy or temple issues -- all of which are amply found in the Scrolls and none is found in the descriptions of the Essenes.
Rachel Elior

UPDATE (3 May): Stephen Goranson responds here.

UPDATE (4 May): Geza Vermes responds here.

UPDATE: John Hobbins comments.

A MIDRASH on Canaanites and same-sex marriage? So says David Klinghoffer at Beliefnet:

Canaanites for Same-Sex Marriage
Thursday April 30, 2009
Categories: Culture War
An ancient Biblical tradition, a midrash, relates that the Canaanites wrote marriage contracts between man and man and woman and woman, and that this was one reason the land "vomited" them up in favor of the Israelites who took their place. The historicity of this isn't the point. It's the moral that matters, having to do with the social impact of being libertarian about marriage combinations

[...]

I have no wish to get into the modern controversy here, but I am interested in the midrash. As usual with such pieces, no reference is given. Is there such a midrashic text and does someone have the reference?

UPDATE: A number of replies. From Dorothy King:

I'm guessing the Midrash linked to Leviticus ... and think this is the one they mean: Sifra Acharei Mot, parashah 9:8

From Jeff Wasserstein:

I'm aware of the midrash about writing ketubot for men, and googling it (since it's been years since I saw it inside) suggest it comes from here: Hullin 92b; Yalkut Shimoni, Zekhariah, no. 578;

Vayikra Rabbah 18:13. Article from which I drew these sources is: http://www.bethelsudbury.org/uploads/9407Homosexuality.pdf

From Simon Montagu:

The reference is to the Sifra 8:8, on Leviticus 18:2

ומה היו עושים? האיש נושא לאיש והאשה לאשה, האיש נושא אשה ובתה, והאשה ניסת לשנים. לכך אמר ובחוקותיהם לא תלכו

The Hebrew can be translated as, "And what did they used to do? A man married a man and a woman a woman, a man married a woman and her daughter, and a woman married two men. Therefore it says, By their rules you shall not walk."

From Michael Pitkowsky:

This midrash is found in a number of places: Sifra, Aharei Mot, 9:6-8 (speaks of marriage but no ketubbah); Genesis Rabbah 26:5; Hullin 92a-b. None of them mention the Canaanites by name. You may find the attached article interesting, especially pages 129 ff.

The article is BETH A. BERKOWITZ, "The Limits of ‘‘Their Laws’’: Ancient Rabbinic Controversies about Jewishness (and Non-Jewishness)," Jewish Quarterly Review 99 (2009): 121-57.

Many thanks to those who replied.

UPDATE (4 May): Dorothy King has reflections here.

THE PERSEPOLIS CUNEIFORM ARCHIVE is being digitized. Here's the press release:

Iran's Ancient Story Preserved Digitally

Newswise — The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago is using modern technology to digitally record thousands of tablets that, as they are being pieced together, tell an unusually detailed story of the Persian Empire.

These ancient tablets from the palaces of Persepolis include pieces of language and art from the center of the Persian Empire, all made when it extended from India and Central Asia to Egypt and the Mediterranean. Most have texts in impressed cuneiform characters, many them have inked texts in Aramaic writing and almost all of the tablets have seal impressions.

They are now being recorded and distributed with digital processes that will allow scholars and viewers across the world to examine them as if they had picked them up and rotated under a light.

With a substantial grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a team of researchers began work in 2007. Now, with a second Mellon grant, the team will continue this work through 2010. By that time researchers hope to have about 10,000 tablets and fragments recorded.

[...]

Background on the compensation-for-terrorism controversy is here. Background on the Aramaic material is here.

ARAMAIC WATCH: An Aramaic music video - with penguins.



Rudi Stettner (or Magdeburgerjoe.com? - not clear) comments:

One factor working in favour of Aramaic survival is a body of popular music in that language, including singer Evin Aghassi. I saw a video once when he went on tour in Syria where the crowds went wild as Aghassi inched through the streets of Damascus. As a show of their love and admiration for the famous singer, they picked up his Mercedes with him in it and walked through the streets. It was a unique and priceless display of the fan’s devotion.

The second video that I am including in this posting is a song by Evin Aghassi in Assyrian. It is set to a video from the movie Happy Feet. I show it to friends and tell them that it is a video from my son’s wedding. What is interesting about the video is its fusion of American influences with local culture. It drives home the point that a culture is in a process of evolution. Saving a language does not mean putting it in a sealed container. It means a certain measure of adaptation to new conditions.

GEZA VERMES discusses "The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls" in Standpoint. One of the few living people who has been involved with the Scrolls pretty much since they were discovered, he surveys their discovery, their history of publication, and where the field stands now.

UPDATE: Rachel Elior replies here.

THE HEKHALOT RABBATI, the longest Merkavah mystical text, is now available online here in the hitherto unpublished translation by Morton Smith, revised by Gershom Scholem. I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing yet, but the bits I've seen in the past paraphrased pretty freely. Rebecca Lesses alerted me to the site some months ago, but I was very busy at the time and never got around to looking at it. Michael Miller of Ayin's Razor reminded me of it today.

I'm working on a translation of the Hekhalot/Merkavah corpus myself and I've posted part of my own translation of the Hekhalot Rabbati in the handout that goes with my November 2008 SBL paper here.

THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY is intervening in the land dispute around the Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery:

Erdogan steps into monastery dispute

(Hurriyet.com)

ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has intervened in a land dispute over an ancient Syriac monastery in the southeastern city of Mardin, instructing his ministers to resolve the problem through a peaceful settlement.

"Our prime minister is closely following the matter," Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Mardin deputy Cüneyt Yüksel told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. "We do not want the problem to cause an international crisis." ... The next trial in the case will be held May 6. "The government and the state are not taking sides in the case," Yüksel said, adding that the matter would be settled in a peaceful way.

"Our work to solve the problem continues. We are trying to persuade the villagers to withdraw their complaint," he said.

"The monastery has a history of 1,600 years," he said. "We will settle the conflict and resolve our Syriac citizens’ problem." The Finance Ministry, Forestry Ministry and the Mardin Governorship have already taken action to try and settle the dispute.

[...]

Background here.

THREE DAY-CONFERENCES:

The first, on Temple Music: Meaning and Influence, organized by Margaret Barker, to be held on Saturday 30 May 2009 at the Temple Church in London.

THe second, on the Septuagint at Heythrop College:

LOST IN TRANSLATION: STUDIES OF THE SEPTUAGINT AND BEYOND IN HONOUR OF JENNY DINES

A One Day Conference
Heythrop College, University of London

All papers will take place in the Walker, 2nd Floor, Main Building

Wednesday 24th of June 2009

9:30-10:10: Registration and Tea/Coffee (Walker Room)

The morning papers will be chaired by Dr Ann Jeffers, Heythrop College.

10:10: Introduction

10:10-10:50: Sarah Pearce, University of Southampton.
"Philo's 'Family Values'".

10:50-11:30: Charlotte Hempel, University of Birmingham. The Qumran Yahad in Recent Scholarship.

11:30-12:20: Tessa Rajak, University of Reading.
'Ancestral Laws: What Josephus Made of the Greek
Bible.'

12:20-1:00: Deborah Rooke, King’s College, London
‘Susanna in Handel's Oratorio’.

Lunch – provided (Walker Room)

The afternoon papers will be chaired by Dr Bridget Gilfillan Upton

1:50-2:30: Jim Aitken, CJCR, Cambridge
'The Septuagint and "Alexandrian" scholarship'.

2:30-3:10: Gillian Greenberg, University College London
'Literary Initiative in the Peshitta'.

3:10-3:50: Sean Ryan, Heythrop College.
‘Dislocated Locusts: Re-visions of Joel & Amos in
Revelation 9’

3:50-4:30: Jonathan Norton, Heythrop College. ‘Psuche, Pneuma, and Paul's Rhetorical Surprise’.

4:30 Tea and departure

I can't reproduce the registration form here, but the contact info is:

Ms Mariann Jakab
Heythrop College
University of London
Kensington Square
London W8 5HQ

m.jakab@heythrop.ac.uk
020 7795 4201

Third, a reminder of the Dead Sea Scrolls Conference at Kings College London, for which the registration deadline is 1 May.

All three via Deborah Rooke on the SOTS list.

VERY BUSY writing our School Strategic Plan. Blogging may be light for the next few days.

THE HEBREW INSCRIPTION FRAGMENT recently discovered in the vicinity of Jerusalem is covered by Science Daily:

Fragment Of Hebrew Inscription From Period Of Kings Of Judah Found

ScienceDaily (Apr. 25, 2009) — A fragment of a limestone plaque bearing several letters of ancient Hebrew script was discovered while sifting soil that was excavated in the vicinity of the Gihon Spring, within the precincts of the “Walls around Jerusalem National Park”.

[...]

One of the fragmentary words could be a "-kiah" name, e.g., Hezekiah. This could be a piece of a long-sought ancient Judean royal lapidary inscription. This article doesn't have anything new in it, but it does include a photo, to which I have not yet linked.

Background here.