TECHNOLOGY WATCH:

Algorithms help unravel the secrets of ancient documents

By HANNAH FISHER (Jerusalem Post)

Computer science and humanities departments have joined forces at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba to decipher historical Hebrew documents, a large number of which have been overwritten with Arabic stories.

The texts include fragments of Jewish prayer books from the Land of Israel.

The unique algorithm being used to determine the wording was developed by BGU computer scientists. The documents are searched electronically, letter by letter, for similarities in handwriting which help determine the date and author of the texts.

The documents being deciphered at BGU are degraded texts from sources such as the Cairo Geniza, the Al-Aksa manuscript library in Jerusalem, and the Al-Azar manuscript library in Cairo.

All together, the base consists of "100,000 medieval Hebrew codices and their fragments [that] represent the book production output of only the last six centuries of the Middle Ages," BGU computer science professor Klara Kedem said this week.

[...]

The article is not entirely clear, but it sounds as though the algorithm is being used as an epigraphic tool to establish readings; some form of computer enhancement to remove the top layer of writing on a palimpsest and highlight the lower layer.

For other manuscript imaging and conservation projects see here.

AN ANCIENT JEWISH "TEMPLE" (SYNAGOGUE?) has been found in southern Turkey:

Jewish temple found in ancient port city at Lycian site

(Today's Zaman)

Ongoing excavations at the ancient port city of Andriake in Lycia -- located in Antalya's Demre district -- have uncovered a centuries-old Jewish temple.

Site chief Dr. Nevzat Çevik, an archaeology professor at Akdeniz University, told the Anatolia news agency that his team believes the temple is from around the third century. Located on a choice spot facing the sea, the temple was likely built following a law instituted in 212 that allowed Jews the right to become Roman citizens, Çevik said.

The find is important as it is the first archaeological trace of Jewish culture found in Lycia. ...

PHILIP DAVIES has an essay at the Bible and Interpretation website in which he calls for a Dictionary of Biblical Studies:

Watch Your Language!

By Emeritus Professor Philip Davies
University of Sheffield, England
August 2009

About twenty years ago, I gave a conference paper called “Do Old Testament Studies Need a Dictionary?”1 In those days, “Old Testament” was unselfconsciously used—but so were biblical categories of description. I was railing against “Academic Bibspeak,” in which key terms were not translated into meaningful modern equivalents but remained fossilized within biblical scholarship. My argument was that to be “critical” we had to analyze one kind of vocabulary by using another, and not in its own—and thus be able to offer a “judgment” by translating the vocabulary.

Rereading this old piece recently—for the first time since its publication, I think—I expected symptoms of youthful brashness and was not disappointed. Did I also recognize how far the discipline had progressed since? Just a bit.

[...]

I do take his points, but personally I think Ark of the Covenant has a much better ring to it than Treaty Box. But maybe that's just me.

I'M VERY BEHIND on noting TOCs of online journals (i.e., most of them, these days). I'll try to get started catching up. Here are some recent TOCs for the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha. A paid personal or institutional subscription is required to download the whole articles, although the abstracts are free.

September 2007, Volume 17, No. 1

J. Allen
Ezekiel the Tragedian on the Despoliation of Egypt
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2007 17: 3-19.

J.R. Dodson
Locked-Out Lovers: Wisdom of Solomon 1.16 in Light of the Paraclausithyron Motif
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2007 17: 21-35.

Brent A. Strawn
Why Does the Lion Disappear in Revelation 5? Leonine Imagery in Early Jewish and Christian Literatures
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2007 17: 37-74.

Sarah L. Schwarz
Book Review: KLUTZ, TODD E. Rewriting the Testament of Solomon: Tradition, Conflict and Identity in a Late Antique Pseudepigraphon. London: T&T Clark, 2005. Cloth. Pp. 176. USD 130.00. ISBN 0567043924. Paper. Pp. 192. USD 55.00. ISBN 0567081877
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2007 17: 75-78.

January 2008, Volume 17, No. 2

Micah D. Kiel
Tobit and Moses Redux
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 83-98.

Bradley C. Gregory
The Death and Legacy of Leah in Jubilees
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 99-120.

Kristine J. Ruffatto
Raguel as Interpreter of Moses' Throne Vision: The Transcendent Identity of Raguel in the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 121-139.

Dries De Crom
The Letter of Aristeas and the Authority of the Septuagint
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 141-160.

May 2008, Volume 17, No. 3

Arye Edrei and Doron Mendels
A Split Jewish Diaspora: Its Dramatic Consequences II
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 163-187.

David Shepherd
What's in a Name? Targum and Taxonomy in Cave 4 at Qumran
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 189-206.

Marcus P. Adams
The Alexandrinus Text of 4 Maccabees
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 207-231.

Carla Sulzbach
Book Review: FRANCES FLANNERY-DAILEY. Dreamers, Scribes, and Priests: Jewish Dreams in the Hellenistic and Roman Eras. SJSJ 90. Boston/Leiden: Brill, 2004. 327 pp. ISBN 9004123679
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 233-236.

June 2008, Volume 17, No. 4

David Rothstein
Text and Context: Domestic Harmony and the Depiction of Hagar in Jubilees
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 243-264.

Fiona Grierson
The Testament of Moses
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 265-280.

[Grierson's article started its life as a seminar paper in my and Grant Macaskill's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha course.]

Erkki Koskenniemi
Moses—A Well-Educated Man: A Look at the Educational Idea in Early Judaism
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 281-296.

James F. McGrath
History and Fiction in the Acts of Thomas: The State of the Question
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 297-311.

Jan Dochhorn
Book Review: J. TROMP, The Life of Adam and Eve in Greek: A Critical Edition. Pseudepigrapha Veteris Testamenti Graece, 6. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2005. Cloth, viii + 208 pp. Euros 77.00, $104.00 USD. ISBN: 9004143173
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 17: 313-319.

September 2008, Volume 18, No. 1

John Byron
Cain's Rejected Offering: Interpretive Approaches to a Theological Problem
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 18: 3-22.

Daniel M. Gurtner
The `Twenty-Fifth Year of Jeconiah' and the Date of 2 Baruch
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 18: 23-32.

Andrei A. Orlov
`The Gods of My Father Terah': Abraham the Iconoclast and the Polemics with the Divine Body Traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 18: 33-53.

Steven Richard Scott
The Binitarian Nature of the Book of Similitudes
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 18: 55-78.

December 2008, Volume 18, No. 2

Lorenzo Ditommaso
Pseudepigrapha Notes II: 3. The Contribution of the Manuscript Catalogues of M.R. James
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2008 18: 83-160.

March 2009, Volume 18, No. 3

William `CHIP' Gruen, III
Seeking a Context for the Testament of Job
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 163-179.

David C. Mitchell
A Dying and Rising Josephite Messiah in 4Q372
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 181-205.

Helen R. Jacobus
The Curse of Cainan (Jub. 8.1-5): Genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 and a Mathematical Pattern
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 207-232.

Daniel C. Olson
'Enoch and the Son of Man' Revisited: Further Reflections on the Text and Translation of 1 Enoch 70.1-2
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 233-240.

June 2009, Volume 18, No. 4

Benedikt Eckhardt
Reclaiming Tradition: The Book of Judith and Hasmonean Politics
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 243-263.

Ronald Charles
A Postcolonial Reading of Joseph and Aseneth
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 265-283.

Michael Avioz
The Incineration of Saul's and His Sons' Corpses according to Josephus
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 285-292.

Michael E. Stone
Two Unpublished Eschatological Texts
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 293-302.

Robert Phenix
Book Review: DEBIÉ, MURIEL, ALAIN DESREUMAUX, CHRISTELLE JULLIEN, and FLORENCE JULLIEN, eds. Les apocryphes syriaques. Études syriaques 2. Paris: S. N. Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner S. A., 2005. ISBN 2-7053-3771-7. 231 + 2 pp. Paperback. 40 Euros
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 303-310. [PDF] [Request Permission]

Noah Hacham
Book Review: JOHNSON, SARA RAUP. Historical Fictions and Hellenistic Jewish Identity: Third Maccabees in Its Cultural Context. Hellenistic Culture and Society, 43; Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press, 2004. Pp. xix + 253. ISBN 0-520-233070-7
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 310-315. [PDF] [Request Permission]

Matthew J. Goff
Book Review: COLLINS, JOHN J., GREGORY E. STERLING and RUTH A. CLEMENTS (eds.). Sapiential Perspectives: Wisdom Literature in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. STDJ 51. Brill, 2004. ISBN: 9004136703
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2009 18: 315-319.

AN OBITUARY FOR GRAHAM STANTON has been published in the Telegraph.

(Via Mark Goodacre.)

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: The angelic Enoch as cosmic eschatological scribe? According to TradingMarkets.com:

Metatron to acquire 100% of Just Data

Compare Jubilees 4:19-20:

And what was and what will be he saw in a vision of his sleep, as it will happen to the children of men throughout their generations until the day of judgment; he saw and understood everything, and wrote his testimony, and placed the testimony on earth for all the children of men and for their generations.

(I love this new company. They give me lots of material.)

THE RAMAT RACHEL EXCAVATION is getting some attention from Arutz Sheva:

Remains from Period of King Hezekiah Discovered

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The most recent dramatic archaeological find in Israel is that of a luxurious administrative center from the period of King Hezekiah, over 2,700 years ago. The center was discovered in Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, just south of Jerusalem

Over 100 students and volunteers from Israel and abroad are taking part in the dig, which is a joint project of Tel Aviv University’s Archaeological Institute and Heidelberg University in Germany.

[...]

Apparently the dig has started a 2009 season, although so far there's no activity on its blog. Background here.

ARTIFACTS GALORE! One Million Archaeological Artifacts on Display in Israel.

BLOGGERS AT SBL are listed at the Hebrew and Greek Reader blog.

BREAKING NEWS: Barack Obama is not the Antichrist.

CONGRATULATIONS TO BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW, which is publishing its 200th issue this month.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE EMPEROR VESPASIAN may have been discovered in Italy:

'Roman emperor's villa' unearthed

(BBC)

Archaeologists at a villa in Italy believed to be the birthplace of the Emperor Vespasian, 5 August 2009

Archaeologists in Italy say they have unearthed the remains of a sumptuous villa thought to be the birthplace of the Emperor Vespasian.

The ruins were found in the Roman city of Falacrine, about 80 miles (130km) north-east of Rome.

The villa's location and luxury suggest it was probably Vespasian's birthplace, an archaeologist said.

Vespasian lived from AD9-79. He was emperor from AD69-79, restoring peace after a period of civil war.

[...]

He was also proclaimed to be the messiah by Josephus.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

IN THE MAIL:

Gesa Schenke (mit Beitragen von Gesine Schenke Robinson), Der Koptische Kölner Papyruskodex 3221: Teil I: Das Testament des Iob (Abhandlungen der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künst, Sonderreihe Papyrologica Coloniensia 33; Paderborn, Germany: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2009)

The long-awaited edition of the Coptic fragments of the Testament of Job. An English translation of the fragments will be included in the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project.

THE BYU-CUA SYRIAC REFERENCE LIBRARY has been updated with some 35 additional PDF resources. Note also the article and lectures on Syriac and the smaller collection of Coptic resources.

Via Kristian Heal on the Hugoye list. Mentioned earlier at PaleoJudaica here.

ROBERT CARGILL responds at the Bible and Interpretation website to Palestinian protests of the ROM Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition:

On the Curious Protests of the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition in Toronto

By Robert R. Cargill
Center for the Digital Humanities,
Qumran Visualization Project

UCLA

August 2009

Excerpt:

The pro-Palestinian protesters outside the ROM claim that the Dead Sea Scrolls were “illegally moved” from the Rockefeller Museum to the Israel Museum. The PNA claims the scrolls are looted “Palestinian” artifacts. However, this claim intentionally overlooks the fact that prior to 1967, the Kingdom of Jordan controlled east Jerusalem and the West Bank, not the PNA, which wasn’t officially formed until the Oslo Accords of 1994. Thus, there could be no realistic “Palestinian” claim to the Dead Sea Scrolls, since they were discovered prior to the existence of any recognized Palestinian governmental body. If anyone other than Israel can make a claim on the scrolls, it is Jordan, not the PNA. The PNA’s claim that the scrolls belong to them is a creative attempt to politicize archaeology and interject an anachronous revision of history into the present day dispute between Israel and Palestine.

Further evidence that the Toronto ROM protests are not about archaeology, but rather politically motivated attempts to unfairly chastise Israel is the fact that there have been no such protests against the Jordanian government. The Copper Scroll is presently on display in the Jordan Archaeological Museum in Amman. Yet, we do not see pro-Palestinian protests against the Jordanian government across the street from the Jordan Archaeological Museum demanding the return of the “looted” Copper Scroll to the PNA. The PNA vociferously demands the return of scrolls in Jewish hands, but not of those in Arab hands. This double standard betrays the underlying reality that the Toronto protests are nothing more than a hypocritical attempt to use archaeology to advance the PNA’s agenda against Israel.

One small point: the bulk of the Dead Sea Scrolls remained at the Rockefeller Museum at least until the early 1990s, when I worked there on the ones I was editing.

Background to the protests is here.

For more background to the exhibition, see here, here, and here.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: More on that new scale model of the Jerusalem Temple, with video:

World’s Largest Temple Model Inaugurated next to Temple Mount

by Yehudah Lev Kay

(IsraelNN.com) The world’s largest model of the Holy Temple was inaugurated Wednesday only a few hundred meters away from the Temple Mount, the site where the Temple existed up until 70 CE.

The model, built at a scale of 1:60, was built by Michael Osanis for the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva in Jerusalem’s old city, and is displayed on the roof of its new museum, which at seven stories above the Western Wall plaza has a breathtaking view of the Temple Mount.

[...]

Do keep in mind that our information about the architecture and appearance of Herod's Temple is limited and that a project like this would involve a considerable amount of inference and guesswork.

Background here.

UPDATES on the ROM Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition:

A scroll of the Ten Commandments is going on display for a short time in October:

ROM shalt not display it for longer than a week
Fall showing set for copy of 10 Commandments

Aug 06, 2009 04:30 AM

Adrian Morrow
Staff reporter (The Star)

It is older than the Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta. It was written by hand before the printing press was invented. It is even thought to pre-date Jesus Christ by a few years.

For a single week, Torontonians will get a glimpse of one of the oldest copies of one of the most ancient sets of laws in existence.

The Royal Ontario Museum has scored the rights to add one of the earliest existing copies of the Ten Commandments to its Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, the museum announced yesterday.

[...]

Dr. Hindy Najman is interviewed about the exhibition in the Jewish Tribune:

Similarities between ancient and modern Jewish communities evident at Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit U of [Sic]
Written by Atara Beck
Wednesday, 05 August 2009

TORONTO – The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) “shows that Judaism was as varied in its prayer, its interpretations and its politics then as it is now,” stated Professor Hindy Najman, director of the Centre for Jewish Studies at University of Toronto (U of T) and a scholar of ancient Judaism.

[...]

THE IAA is registering private antiquities collections:

Israel Antiquities Authority to register antiquities collections held by the general public in Israel
4 Aug 2009

Estimate: In Israel there are at least 100,000 people who can be considered ‘collectors of antiquities’.

(Communicated by the Israel Antiquities Authority Spokesperson)

The Israel Antiquities Authority is embarking on a first of its kind campaign to register the antiquities collections that are held by the general public in Israel. An individual that is listed in the state’s databank as the owner of an antiquities collection will be recognized by the state as a “collector of antiquities”.

Israel is one of the world’s richest countries in archaeological artifacts. As such, over the years private individuals have discovered thousands of archaeological finds during the course of development work, agricultural work, etc.

In 2002 the legal status of a collector of antiquities in Israel was regulated, which is defined as “one who collects antiquities otherwise than for the purpose of trading therein”. The law defines an antiquities collection as: “an assemblage of fifteen antiquities or more.” It is estimated that there are at least 100,000 people in Israel who can be considered by definition “collectors of antiquities”, but only several hundred of them are recognized by the state.

In February 2009 regulations took effect that will enable enforcing the law which was passed in 2002. The IAA is now calling on the public to comply in accordance with the law and report any antiquities they possess. An individual doing so will be granted the status of collector according to law and will be issued a certificate. The antiquities will be registered as the property of the collector and anyone who wishes to sell the collection they own can receive permission from the IAA to do so. Thus on the one hand, the collector can sell the antiquities he possesses, and on the other, the state will know to whom the object was transferred.

[...]

Overall, this sounds like a very positive development to me. I would, however, like to have a clearer idea how the new regulations have been formulated to avoid encouraging people to buy looted artifacts and then register them. Or is that battle now a lost cause?

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

LOST BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE are noted by Daniel Hopkinson, the "Knoxville Evangelical Examiner" for The Examiner:

The other books mentioned within the Bible pages:
August 3, 5:07 AM

The very King James Bible (among other translations as well) that so many insist is complete and having no need of other books to be included in it, mentions several other books over the course of the 66 books contained in the official canon that at one time were evidently prominent in that particular author’s thought that mentioned it, a few of which may actually refer to books already included in the canon.

[...]

Mr. Hopkinson has been writing a lot lately about apocrypha and pseudepigrapha -- apparently unaware of even the most basic and foundational secondary literature (e.g., the Charlesworth edition of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha), so I haven't been noting his articles. But this one interests me particularly, since I've done a lot of research on these lost books and am publishing a translation of their surviving fragments for the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project ("Quotations from Lost Books in the Hebrew Bible").

His list is fairly complete, but leaves out some things, such as the other two quotations in Numbers 21:16-18, 21-25; another possible quote from the Book of Jashar in the LXX of 1 Kings 8:53 (cf. 1 Kings 8:12-13 MT); a book by Samuel on the conduct of kingship in 1 Samuel 10:25; the Book of the Acts of Solomon in 1 Kings 11:41; the Book of the Chronicles of King David in 1 Chronicles 27:23-24; King David's plan from YHWH for the Temple in 1 Chronicles 28:19; and the Laments (over King Josiah) attributed to the prophet Jeremiah in 2 Chronicles 35:25. It is likely on various contextual grounds that the apparent prophetic books quoted in 1-2 Chronicles are actually references to passages in the Chronicles of the lost Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, which in turn is likely a digest of the lost Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah cited in 1-2 Kings. It is interesting also that Ezra 6:18 attributes material to "Moses" which is not found in our Pentateuch.

There are also other references to lost OT pseudepigrapha in the New Testament: the Testament of Moses in Jude 9, and perhaps the Apocalypse or Apocryphon of Elijah in 1 Corinthians 2:9 and the book of Eldad and Modad in James 4:5. Richard Bauckham will be providing contributions dealing with all three of these in MOTP. The quote in Ephesians 5:14 may also be of a lost apocryphon. (There are other NT quotes of OT pseudepigrapha that are not lost, or not entirely so: 2 Timothy 3:8 refers to Jannes and Jambres and Jude 14-15 quotes from the Book of Watchers [1 Enoch 1:9]).

For more on all of this, see the relevant MOTP chapters, which should be going to press soon.

I am not a specialist in the Pauline letters or the NT Apocrypha, but those who are agree unanimously that the Epistle to the Laodecians is a forgery from well after Paul's time. As Mr. Hopkinson says, you can make up your mind for yourself.

For more on lost books, see here and follow the links.

THE ROM DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION is reviewed in the Democrat and Chronicle:

Rare look at Dead Sea Scrolls in Toronto
Toronto museum offers rare look at the biblical writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Mary C. Kenessey • Contributing writer • August 2, 2009

The Dead Sea Scrolls bring us the earliest recorded writings of the Bible, as well as of the prophets and patriarchs revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. So this major exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum, which runs through Jan. 3, affords us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view, firsthand, words that changed the world.

[...]

Located in the spectacular Lee-Chin Crystal extension, this important exhibit first takes the visitor on an absorbing and informative journey through the exotic sites and history of the Holy Land. It's a journey enriched by displays of jewelry, exquisite glassware, pottery, ossuaries, genuine silver shekels — and a breathtaking video re-creation of the magnificent Temple Mount.

Inside the actual scroll exhibition area, the ROM has taken extraordinary security and temperature-monitoring measures to ensure the protection and well-being of these delicate treasures, as evidenced by the controlled and dimmed lighting. Each scroll segment is ensconced in its own deeply recessed and specially illuminated case, backed by tall display stands clearly outlining the translated text. However, the truly amazing aspect of this exhibit is the tiny size and fragility of these remnants of writing, causing one to marvel how they ever managed to survive for so many centuries.

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Unique Temple Model to Overlook Kotel

by Maayana Miskin

(IsraelNN.com) On Wednesday this week, the Aish HaTorah center in Jerusalem's Old City plans to unveil a one-of-a-kind model of the Temple. The model will be located in the Aish headquarters, overlooking the Kotel (Western Wall) and the Temple Mount.

The model will be unveiled at 11 a.m. It will be the focal piece in a museum dedicated to Judaism and the Jewish idea, "Aish" directors said. The museum will be open to all.

The model is unique in two ways, its designers say. For one thing, it is the largest of its kind. In addition, it will be the first to provide a view inside the Outer Sanctuary. An elevator system will move parts of the model, allowing visitors to view depictions of the Holy of Holies, the menorah and the Ark of the Covenant.

[...]

Other scale models of the Jerusalem Temple are noted here.

BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL 44 ("the Funhouse Edition") has been published this month by Jim West.

JOSEPHUS AND HIS MASADA NARRATIVE are the subject of an essay at the Bible and Interpretation website:

"The Irony of Masada"

These last Judean rebels were either very brave to take their own lives or cowards in doing so. They acted irrationally or as those who carefully deliberated the best course of action. Their action was either a horrendous crime or a noble plan. Such effective use of irony allows Josephus to loudly proclaim at Masada that the Roman “victory” was after all not really their victory but God’s punishment upon the Judean stasis and that these Judeans have a nobility that even surpasses that of the Romans.

Essay based on The Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War (Society of Biblical Literature, 2008).

By Mark Andrew Brighton
School of Theology,
Concordia University at Irvine
August 2009

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Augustine of Hippo was a native speaker of Punic, as the late Henry Chadwick reminds us in an about-to-be-published-posthumously biography:

Both Augustine’s parents are likely to have been of Berber stock, but Romanized and Latin-speaking. Numidian peasants of the fourth century spoke not Latin but Punic, inherited from the Phoenician settlers who came from Tyre and Sidon a millennium before to set up their trading station and maritime power at Carthage. In Hannibal they had once offered a frightening threat to Rome’s ambitions to conquer the Mediterranean. As Romans settled in their North African provinces, many took Berber- or Punic-speaking wives. In the second century ad Apuleius, of Madauros near Thagaste, author of the Golden Ass, had a Punic-speaking wife. In Augustine’s time the Punic-speakers retained a consciousness of their old Phoenician forefathers, and could manifest a lack of enthusiasm for the Roman administration of their country now established for over five centuries. Latin culture was a veneer; those who had it tended to despise those who had not. Augustine acquired a conversational knowledge of the patois, and never speaks of Punic language or culture with the least touch of scorn as the pagan Maximus of Madauros did. But his parents and nurses spoke to him in Latin, and education at the Thagaste school was principally in Latin language and literature, a subject which ancient men called ‘grammar’, taught by the grammaticus.

PHOENICIAN WATCH: The site of Baalbek, with its annual festival currently in progress, is reviewed in the WSJ:

What the Romans Wrought in Lebanon

Shadowed by Hezbollah, a visitor finds Baalbek’s temples to Jupiter and Bacchus an intoxicating sight

By MELIK KAYLAN

These days, if you visit the Roman ruins of Baalbeck in Lebanon you will likely be followed by Hezbollah before, during and after the visit. On the Bekaa Valley main road that runs into the town of Baalbeck, your car is likely to be tailed by nippy little BMWs with blackened windows. Aggressively antennaed opaque vans sit parked along the road every few miles—they are Hezbollah surveillance vehicles. Stretched overhead, banners depicting Hezbollah leaders multiply. Entering Baalbeck itself, you will pass by a garishly tiled blue-and-turquoise mosque built recently with Iranian help.

Nevertheless, a first glimpse of Baalbeck’s six 72-feet-high Corinthian columns will instantly raise your spirits and turn unease into adventure. Like the Parthenon or the Pyramids, the Baalbeck complex is one of the glorious monuments of history. No matter which angle you look from, the two lofty temples—to Jupiter and to Bacchus—seem to ride the sky and will intoxicate your faculties. You will know how it feels to be a besotted idolater.

[...]

THE MT. ZION CUP INSCRIPTION has come to the notice of the Los Angeles Times:

2,000-year-old ritual cup found in Old City of Jerusalem

The 10 lines of Aramaic or Hebrew script on the artifact is 'unprecedented,' an archaeologist says. Researchers are not yet able to decipher it.

By Thomas H. Maugh II
August 1, 2009

U.S. archaeologists have found an extremely rare 2,000-year-old limestone cup inscribed with 10 lines of Aramaic or Hebrew script near the Zion Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Such ritual cups are common, especially in areas that were inhabited by priests, but usually they are unmarked or bear only a single line of text, such as a name, said archaeologist Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who led the dig along with James Tabor of the same school.

"To have 10 lines of text is unprecedented," he said in announcing the find Wednesday.

Although the script itself is not eroded or otherwise degraded, he said, researchers are not yet able to decipher it because the text is in an informal cursive script and is apparently deliberately cryptic. They know it contains the Hebrew word for God, YHWH or Yahweh, indicating it was probably important to the priests who used it in rituals. Gibson expected it to take two to six months to understand its meaning.

[...]

There's not much new in the article, apart from the guess about how long the decipherment might take (which sounds reasonable, but it's only a guess), but it looks accurate overall.

ON STAGE – Josephus and the Dead Sea Scrolls:

Kadmos establishes bridges among cultures via theater

(Today's Zaman)

The world knows about mythological Phoenician Prince Kadmos from the ancient texts of Greek mythology in which he is sent to rescue his sister, Europa, from Zeus, who kidnapped her from the shores of Phoenicia.
Now, the spirit of Kadmos, the founder of the Greek alphabet and the ancient Greek city of Thebes, is being revived in a multinational project that brings four Mediterranean countries together around the same ambition: theater.

A pan-Mediterranean production of renowned Israeli director Amos Gitai's “The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness,” the first-ever project by the newly established international theater network Kadmos, will be staged tonight and tomorrow night at the historic Rumeli Fortress on the Bosporus coast. The play's cast brings French, Greek, Spanish, Israeli, Palestinian and Turkish theatrical actors together on the same stage and most notably features veteran French stage and screen actress Jeanne Moreau as its narrator.

Kadmos was formed by France's Avignon Festival, the Grec Festival of Barcelona, Athens' Epidaurus Festival and the İstanbul International Theater Festival with the aim of strengthening cultural ties across the Mediterranean.

[...]

Prominent Turkish stage actor Cüneyt Türel plays the Roman Emperor Titus in Amos Gitai's “The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness,” in which Jeanne Moreau plays the narrator, Josephus Flavius, and Jerome Koenig plays the role of Emperor Vespasianus.

In the play, Flavius narrates the horrors of war, which has become a destiny for all peoples in the Middle East. Besides the story of how Jerusalem was conquered by the Romans, based on accounts by Flavius in the A.D. first century and the Dead Sea scrolls, the play also features quotes from Rainer Maria Rilke and Oscar Wilde. The play recalls a multilingual oratorio as it combines a number of languages, including French, Turkish, Arabic and Hebrew.

“The play is a work of historian Josephus Flavius about the war which the Roman Empire started in order to stamp out the uprisings of the Jews,” notes Dikmen Gürün. “The play, which focuses on concepts such as a nation's homeland, war, oppression and domination, in fact stands against all wars throughout the world. While questioning the violence experienced [in the Middle East] throughout history, Amos Gitai's political stance can clearly be observed in this play.”

[...]

ARAMAIC WATCH? Arutz Sheva has an article on the new stone-jar inscription excavated on Mt. Zion and raises doubt on whether the inscription is in Aramaic or Hebrew:

Stone Vessel with 'Priestly Inscription' Uncovered In Jerusalem

by Hana Levi Julian and Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) A rare 2,000-year-old ritual vessel made of limestone and inscribed with 10 lines of text has been discovered in an excavation near the Zion Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is an unprecedented find, according to Dr. Shimon Gibson, the archaeologist who heads the University of North Carolina team conducting the dig.

Inscription found on Mt. Zion. Israel news photo: UNC

"Such stone vessels were used in connection with maintaining ritual purity related to Temple worship, and they are found in abundance in areas where the priests lived," Gibson reported. "We have found a dozen or more on our site over the past three years. However, to have ten lines of text is unprecedented. One normally might find a single name inscribed, or a line or two, but this is the first text of this length ever found on such a vessel," he said.

Although the letters are clearly visible it will take some time before their meaning can be discerned due to the style of the writing. Gibson estimated in his preliminary report that it could take up to six months to translate the inscription. "It is written in a very informal cursive hand and is quite difficult to read," he explained.

Initially, Gibson thought the inscription was written solely in Aramaic. However, a group of experts consulting on the matter was not convinced; they say there is a possibility that the text contains the sacred name of G-d and is deliberately cryptic.

"Stephen Pfann, of the University of the Holy Land, is leaving open the possibility that it is Hebrew. He has also suggested that the text might have had meaning within a closed circle of priests, similar to texts at Qumran," said Dr. James D. Tabor, co-director of the dig.

[...]

If they are not yet sure what language it is in, that's a good sign that it's a difficult text and decipherment is still at an early stage.

There's also this bit of context:

Also uncovered were at least half a dozen Murex snail shells with holes drilled through them. "Prior to our excavation one or two such shells had been found in all of Jerusalem," Gibson said. "That so many would be found at our site further supports our supposition that we are in a priestly residential area."

Also, Joseph I. Lauer has noted a larger version of that photo of the two lines of the inscription, this at the Mt. Zion excavation website.

Background here.

THE NEW YORK TIMES has been dissing the Pharisees and Philologos calls them out on it in The Forward:

The New York Times: Ignorant and Antisemitic?

On Language

By Philologos
Published July 29, 2009, issue of August 07, 2009.

‘Pharisees on the Potomac” is the headline from a July 18 attack by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd on what she considers to be the moral hypocrisy — “the ancient political art of Tartuffery,” as she calls it — of Republican Party leaders on Capitol Hill.

Let’s stay away from politics. Let’s even stay away from Maureen Dowd, being it’s likely that her column’s headline was written by the editors of the Times’ op-ed page rather than by the columnist herself. Headlines of newspaper and magazine articles are generally an editorial prerogative.

Let’s stick to the word “Pharisee” in its common English sense of a hypocrite who preaches morality to others without practicing it himself. Is this a usage Jews should be up in arms about? Should we be bombarding The New York Times, and others who resort to it, with our protests?

There certainly would seem to be good reasons for doing so. After all, the Pharisees were not just another ancient sect of Jews, like the Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots, who lived toward the end of the Second Temple period; they were the founders of rabbinic tradition and the direct spiritual and intellectual ancestors of the rabbis of the Mishnah and the Talmud who came after them — that is, of normative halachic Judaism as we know it. To perpetuate the English language’s equation of them with self-righteous hypocrites is to perpetuate the belief that Judaism is a self-righteous and hypocritical religion.

Philogos concludes that such usages should be challenged and I agree. One nitpick, though:

The original source of this belief is, of course, Jesus’ remarks about the Pharisees in the New Testament — remarks that owe no small part of their venom to the fact that Jesus was a maverick Pharisee himself who shared many of the Pharisees’ assumptions and values. We rebel most strongly against our own predecessors, and when Jesus is quoted as saying things like, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness… you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God,” he is venting his anger and disappointment on those to whom he is religiously closest. A loyal Jew in his fashion, it never would have occurred to him that such statements would form the basis of rabid anti-Jewish sentiments in a new religion he had no intention of founding.

[...]

We know very little about the Pharisees: they are mentioned in the New Testament and by Josephus, both of which have their own not-entirely-reliable agendas. And we can squeeze some more information from the earliest stratum of the oral traditions of the Mishnah, but that still doesn't add up to a complete or clear picture. So it is not at all clear that Jesus was "a maverick Pharisee" or any kind of Pharisee. But the point Philologos is making is valid in a more general sense: Jesus (and also his first-generation followers who transmitted and likely augmented these sayings) was a first-century Jew who shared a great many assumptions with his opponents, who was engaged in an internal dialogue with them, and who would have been horrified at the use later made of these sayings about the Pharisees.

MORE on Martin Abegg's recent lecture at the ROM Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition:

Dead Sea Scrolls almost identical to Pentateuch, Haftorahs

Written by Rick Kardonne (Jewish Tribune)
Tuesday, 28 July 2009

TORONTO – For the most part, the Torah and Jewish prophetic portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which can be seen at the Royal Ontario Museum, are identical to the traditional Pentateuch and Haftorahs. But their authorship remains a topic of scholarly debate.
So said Dr. Martin Abegg, Ben Zion Wacholder Professor of Dead Sea Scrolls Studies at the religious studies department at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, and co-director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute.

Professor Abegg delivered an enthusiastic speech at the Royal Ontario Museum Signy and Cleophee Eaton theatre last Thursday as part of the Anne Tannenbaum Dead Sea Scrolls lecture series, which coincides with the ROM Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.

[...]

More background to the exhibition here.

PETRA AND THE NABATEANS are discussed in a BAR article:

Solving the Enigma of Petra and the Nabataeans

by Joey Corbett

For every tourist who visits the ancient city of Petra in modern day Jordan, there is one breathtaking moment that captures all of the grandeur and mystery of this city carved in stone. After passing the final bend of the tortuous narrow canyon that leads into the site (the Siq), one is confronted by the awe-inspiring spectacle of a towering rock-cut façade, its sun-struck sandstone gleaming through the darkness of the canyon.

[...]

It's a nice and nicely illustrated article, although I think it's a little odd that it never mentions that the language of the Nabateans (at least their official written language) was Aramaic.

TISHA B'AV (the Ninth of Av) started last night at sundown. An easy fast to all observing it.

ARAMAIC WATCH: The inscribed stone cup found recently at the Mt. Zion excavation turns out to be written in Aramaic:

J'lem: Rare 2nd Temple inscription found
By JPOST.COM STAFF

A unique ten-line Aramaic inscription on the side of a stone cup commonly used for ritual purity during Second Temple times was recently uncovered during archaeological excavations on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, it was announced Wednesday.

Inscriptions of this kind are extremely rare and only a handful have been found in scientific excavations made within the city.

[...]

The new Aramaic inscription from the first century CE is currently being deciphered by a team of epigraphic experts in an effort to determine the meaning of the text, which is clear but cryptic. The dig also produced a sequence of building remains dating back to the First and Second Temple periods through to Byzantine and Early Islamic periods.

[...]

No word yet on what the inscription says, but the article includes a photo of two lines of it, so I'm sure Aramaists, including blogging Aramaists, will be having a go at it. (I don't have time right now.)

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

Background here.

THE SHROUD OF TURIN has Aramaic and Hebrew on it?

Traces of Aramaic on Shroud of Turin

Published: July 29, 2009 (CathNews)

As Pope Benedict confirmed his intention to visit the Shroud of Turin next year, French scientist Thierry Castex has revealed that he has found traces of Aramaic on the Shroud.

Pope Benedict confirmed his intention to visit the Shroud of Turin when it goes on public display in Turin's cathedral April 10-May 23, 2010, Catholic News Service reports.

[...]

A recent study by French scientist Thierry Castex has revealed that on the shroud are traces of words in Aramaic spelled with Hebrew letters.

A Vatican researcher, Barbara Frale, told Vatican Radio on July 26 that her own studies suggest the letters on the shroud were written more than 1,800 years ago.

She said that in 1978 a Latin professor in Milan noticed Aramaic writing on the shroud and in 1989 scholars discovered Hebrew characters that probably were portions of the phrase "The king of the Jews."

Count me as interested, but very skeptical. I've not heard anything about this before and I've been following Shroud of Turin news for quite a while. I don't know Thierry Castex, what kind of "scientist" he is, or who this Latin professor in Milan is, or who the unnamed other scholars are. I don't know where this recent study has been published, if it has been. Barbara Frale is a specialist in the Templars and has just published a book on them.

Castex's recent discovery of the word "found" with another word next to it, which still has to be deciphered, "together may mean 'because found' or 'we found'," she said.

What is interesting, she said, is that it recalls a passage in the Gospel of St Luke, "We found this man misleading our people," which was what several Jewish leaders told Pontius Pilate when they asked him to condemn Jesus.

I wouldn't base too much on one word that is still of uncertain meaning.

She said it would not be unusual for something to be written on a burial cloth in order to indicate the identity of the deceased.

I don't know what the basis for this statement is. We have very few Judean burial shrouds from the first century. The only one I know of is the Jerusalem Shroud (see here and here) and it is not inscribed. There is at least one other that is several thousand years older (and of course is not inscribed either). Are there other surviving Roman-era shrouds?

As I said, I am quite skeptical of this report, but I would be happy to read the evidence (with good photographs please) in a scientific (peer-reviewed) publication.

BOOK REVIEW:

Reconstructing a fragmented past
By DAVID SCHONBERG (Jerusalem Post)

Adama Shehora (Black Earth)
By Natalie Messika
(in Hebrew)
Dofen
338 pp.,
NIS 78 (recommended price)

This gripping historical novel, set in the first century CE in Judea, Galilee, Rome and Pompeii, focuses upon two events: the siege and fall of Yodfat (67 CE) in Galilee during the Great Revolt and the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy several years later (79 CE) that engulfed the surrounding area, unexpectedly ending in a dramatic moment the lives of many, including the inhabitants of Pompeii.

[...]

The author is an Israeli archaeologist.

JUDAS ISCARIOT in recent scholarship and popular perception (especially as fueled by the Coptic Gospel of Judas) is the subject of a long article in the New Yorker:

Betrayal
Should we hate Judas Iscariot?
by Joan Acocella August 3, 2009

[...]

For two thousand years, Judas has therefore been Christianity’s primary image of human evil. Now, however, there is an effort to rehabilitate him, the result, partly, of an archeological find. In 1978 or thereabouts, some peasants digging for treasure in a burial cave in Middle Egypt came upon an old codex—that is, not a scroll but what we would call a book, with pages—written in Coptic, the last form of ancient Egyptian. The book has been dated to the third or fourth century, but scholars believe that the four texts it contains are translations of writings, in Greek, from around the second century. When the codex was found, it was reportedly in good condition, but it then underwent a twenty-three-year journey through the notoriously venal antiquities market, where it suffered fantastic abuses, including a prolonged stay in a prospective buyer’s home freezer. (This caused the ink to run when the manuscript thawed.) The book was cracked in half, horizontally; pages were shuffled, torn out. By the time the codex reached the hands of restorers, in 2001, much of it was just a pile of crumbs. The repair job took five years, after which some of the book was still a pile of crumbs. Many passages couldn’t be read.

[...]

Acocella concludes:

All this, I believe, is a reaction to the rise of fundamentalism—the idea, Christian and otherwise, that every word of a religion’s founding document should be taken literally. This is a childish notion, and so is the belief that we can combat it by correcting our holy books. Those books, to begin with, are so old that we barely understand what their authors meant. Furthermore, because of their multiple authorship, they are always internally inconsistent. Finally, even the fundamentalists don’t really take them literally. People interpret, and cheat. The answer is not to fix the Bible but to fix ourselves.

Now there's a thought.

Some background to the Gospel of Judas is here.

WHEN CHIASMUS IS OUTLAWED, only outlaws will use chiasmus.

BOOK REVIEW IN BMCR:

Jörg Rüpke, Fasti sacerdotum: A Prosopography of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian Religious Officials in the City of Rome, 300 BC to AD 499. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. viii, 1107. ISBN 9780199291137. $399.00.

Reviewed by Linda Zollschan (zollschan@yahoo.com)
Word count: 2575 words

[Table of Contents below]

Scholars of ancient Rome will be delighted that Rüpke's monumental work, Fasti sacerdotum, has been translated into English and thus become accessible to a wider readership. The work of translation was done by David Richardson who has faithfully rendered the original German into English.1 For those unfamiliar with the German edition, its aim was to construct annual lists for the city of Rome of attested priests, cult officials and followers from 300 BCE to 499 CE, lists that included not just pagan priests but also the officials from Jewish and Christian groups. The work falls into two main parts: a compilation of annual lists of priests and religious functionaries and a set of alphabetically arranged individual biographies. Understandably, the whole work was 14 years in the making and required a team of assistants.

[...]

THE VISION OF GABRIEL INSCRIPTION is the subject of a popular article by John J. Collins in the Yale Forum. He thinks that, despite its lack of provenance, "for now, the text's authenticity must be given the benefit of the doubt." He also is very skeptical of Israel Knohl's theory about a reference to a dying and rising messiah in the text.

Background here and follow the many links back.

ANOTHER REVIEW of the ROM Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, this one in Dawn.com:

Fragments of history

Maheen A. Rashdi
Sunday, 26 Jul, 2009 | 09:47 AM PST |

The Dead Sea lies between Israel and the West Bank on one side and Jordan to the east, with Jordan River as its main tributary. Known as the deepest and saltiest of lakes, at 1,385 feet below sea level, it is also said to have been the refuge of King David; the place where Herod went for health reasons and from where the chemicals to mummify the Egyptian royals were brought.

Most importantly though, it is the surrounding area of the caves at Qumran from where the most ancient archaeological objects were discovered, namely, The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran is a dry plateau bordering the Dead Sea in the West Bank.

[...]

The ROM exhibition is an exhilarating and awe-inspiring experience. The build up to the actual display of the Scrolls is most skillfully executed and it leaves one saturated with every piece of information on the worth, discovery, origin and geographical detail of the Scrolls’ resting area. The artefacts include numerous shards and complete pottery vessels, glass and stone vessels, coins that signified the various stages of the site, jewelry, ostraka and organic materials. Objects found were from the Iron Age and from the Second Temple period.

The first set currently on display—from June 27, 2009 until October 2009—includes biblical scrolls, non-biblical texts and Apocryphal (i.e. non-verified) Psalms. Intriguing were the fragments from the Book of War (non-biblical text, 1st century AD, Hebrew), which scholars believed contained the text of a blessing describing how God will enable the universe to produce fertility and prevent disease and destruction. It is supposedly a description of the apocalyptic war between good and evil.

The other most astounding scroll display for me was the biblical text from Genesis (150 BC to 68 AD, Hebrew). The details state that approximately 20 manuscripts of the Book of Genesis were uncovered in the caves and this scroll contains some of the oldest fragments of Genesis discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Twelve fragments had to be pieced together to reconstruct this portion of the Scroll.

The displayed fragments contain parts of the story of the death of Jacob’s wife Rachel and of Joseph’s encounter with the wife of Potiphar. To my own amazement reading the text translation in archaic English was almost identical to reading a verse (Surah 12; verse 23-25) from the Quran which narrates the same tale. That was my moment of becoming a believer in the authenticity of the scrolls.

[...]

The article is pretty accurate, although it takes the "theory" that the Dead Sea Scrolls are of Christian origin too seriously. It's also interesting that a Muslim reviewer appreciates the exhibition's efforts to tie the Scrolls to the three Abrahamic religions:

Without doubt though, there is one indelible truth that emerges from the discovery of the Scrolls: that there are more similarities in the origins of the three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—than disparities

Contrast Robert Fisk's sour evaluation here.

Further background to the exhibition is here and here.

A NEW BIOGRAPHY OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS is reviewed in the Jerusalem Post:

Judging Josephus
By MORTON I. TEICHER

Jerusalem's Traitor
By Desmond Seward
Da Capo Press
314 pp.
$28

Among all the tragedies that stain the pages of Jewish history, the cataclysmic events of the first century are an especially dark epic. We owe much of our knowledge of what befell the Jews in this terrible time to Josephus who used his role as a participant-observer to write his book, The Jewish War. His contemporary account of what happened is biased on his identification with the Romans as is masterfully described in this gripping biography.

Scholars have debated the accuracy of Josephus's observations and the issue of whether or not he was a traitor. Desmond Seward, a Cambridge graduate, is a British historian who has written many books, including biographies of numerous historical figures. He has carefully examined the evidence and he offers this narrative for general readers as an introduction to the life and times of Josephus.

[...]

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Sex, lies, and audiotapes - and Phoenician tombs?

Berlusconi in Phoenician tomb flap

Premier asked to explain alleged finds at Sardinian villa

(ANSA) - Rome, July 24 - Premier Silvio Berlusconi must come clean about whether he is 'hiding' 30 ancient Phoenician tombs at his Sardinian villa, a former culture minister said Friday, adding to calls from archaeologists and opposition politicians. The possible existence of the tombs came to light in audio tapes published by left-leaning weekly Espresso this week alleged to be of conversations between Berlusconi and an escort girl, Patrizia D'Addario, who claims she was paid to attend parties at his home in Rome.

In one of the conversations posted Thursday, the male speaker alleged to be the premier appears to be showing D'Addario photos of his Sardinian residence, Villa Certosa, and points out where the 30 tombs, dating to 300 BC, were found.

The Italian media has reported that the Sardinian authorities are unaware of the archaeological find on the premier's private property, which by law must be reported to the authorities to inspect and decided whether to excavate.

[...]

The National Association of Archaeologists said that if the discovery was confirmed it would be ''incredibly important'' for the study of settlements on the island by the Phonecians, an ancient maritime trading people who formed a massive commercial empire throughout the Mediterranean from their bases along the coast of modern-day Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

''Experts have been debating for years about whether the ancient city of Olbia was founded by Greeks or Phoenicians,'' said association president Giuseppina Manca di Mores.

''If the discovery of new Phoenician material is confirmed, it would represent a new detail for the story of the island and would open new channels of research,'' she said.

[...]

However, according to Monsters and Critics, the Premier's lawyer denies the claims:

Berlusconi's lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, has disputed the veracity of the series of tapes that began appearing on left-leaning magazine L'Espresso's site on Monday.

On Friday he slammed what he said were the latest 'unverified reports.'

'Berlusconi would have never spoken of the discovery of 30 Phoenician tombs in his park, because nothing of the sort exists or has been found in the area of Villa Certosa,' Ghedini was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

According to Ghedini, the grounds surrounding Villa Certosa - where Berlusconi often hosts foreign dignitaries - have been inspected by Italian judicial officials in the past.

'Any additional controls can be carried out at any time,' Ghedini told ANSA.

HERODIUM AND HEROD'S (POSSIBLE) TOMB are the subject of a long Smithsonian article:

Finding King Herod's Tomb
After a 35-year search, an Israeli archaeologist is certain he has solved the mystery of the biblical figure’s final resting place

* By Barbara Kreiger
* Smithsonian magazine, July 2009

Shielding my eyes from the glare of the morning sun, I look toward the horizon and the small mountain that is my destination: Herodium, site of the fortified palace of King Herod the Great. I'm about seven miles south of Jerusalem, not far from the birthplace of the biblical prophet Amos, who declared: "Let justice stream forth like water." Herod's reign over Judea from 37 to 4 B.C. is not remembered for justice but for its indiscriminate cruelty. His most notorious act was the murder of all male infants in Bethlehem to prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy heralding the birth of the Messiah. There is no record of the decree other than the Gospel of Matthew, and biblical scholars debate whether it actually took place, but the story is in keeping with a man who arranged the murders of, among others, three of his own sons and a beloved wife.

Long an object of scholarly as well as popular fascination, Herodium, also called Herodion, was first positively identified in 1838 by the American scholar Edward Robinson, who had a knack for locating biblical landmarks. After scaling the mountain and comparing his observations with those of the first century Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, Robinson concluded that "all these particulars...leave scarcely a doubt, that this was Herodium, where the [Judean] tyrant sought his last repose." Robinson's observation was confirmed later that century by Conrad Schick, the famous German architect and archaeologist who conducted extensive surveys of Jerusalem and its nearby sites.

But where precisely was the king entombed? At the summit of Herodium? At the base? Inside the mountain itself? Josephus didn't say. By the late 1800s, Herod's tomb had become one of biblical archaeology's most sought-after prizes. And for more than a century archaeologists scoured the site. Finally, in 2007, Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University announced that after 35 years of archaeological work he had found Herod's resting place. The news made headlines worldwide—"A New Discovery May Solve the Mystery of the Bible's Bloodiest Tyrant," trumpeted the London Daily Mail.

"In terms of size, quality of decoration and prominence of its position, it's hard to reach any other conclusion," says Jodi Magness, an archaeologist in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has excavated at other sites where Herod oversaw construction projects. Ken Holum, a University of Maryland archaeologist and historian who served as a curator for the traveling Smithsonian exhibition "King Herod's Dream," cautions that "it is always wise to be less than certain when there is no identifying inscription or other explicit identification." But he says he personally believes Netzer has indeed discovered Herod's tomb.

[...]

But not everyone is convinced. Read it all.

CANADA and the Dead Sea Scrolls:

Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition gives long-awaited nod to Canada’s contribution, says scholar

(Exchange)

Hamilton - A leading scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls says the hugely popular exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum is helping to foster an appreciation of Canada’s role in the saga of one of the greatest archeological finds in modern times.

Eileen Schuller, professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University, has researched Canada’s involvement and says that from the moment the Scrolls were discovered Canadians have provided money and expertise toward the acquisition and eventual publication of the Scrolls, earning Canada an international reputation in Scrolls study.

Schuller herself has, since 1980, worked on and catalogued a series of thanksgiving prayers and psalmic texts from Cave 4 as well as published the reconstruction of the Hodayot scroll from Cave 1. An author of numerous academic papers on the Scrolls, Schuller is part of the ROM’s lecture series being held in conjunction with the exhibit. She has written extensively on women in the Scrolls and published a more popular series of lectures, The Dead Sea Scrolls: What Have We Learned (2002). Her colleague at McMaster University, Daniel Machiela is publishing a new edition of the Genesis Apocryphon this Fall. Their research has made McMaster a centre for Scrolls study.

[...]

Background here and keep following the links back.

MORE ON THE PALESTINIAN PROTESTS of the ROM Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition:

Palestinians ask Canada to seize Dead Sea Scrolls

Blake Lambert, Foreign Correspondent (The National)

* Last Updated: July 23. 2009 11:31PM UAE / July 23. 2009 7:31PM GMT

TORONTO // A new exhibit featuring the Dead Sea Scrolls at Canada’s largest museum has ignited Palestinian claims of cultural theft.

[...]

The argument is summarized as follows:

The problem for Palestinian Authority officials, who contacted ROM executives in April, is that the exhibition contains artefacts illegally acquired by Israel when it annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.

The PA’s archaeological department said it was important for Canadian institutions to be responsible and act in accordance with their country’s obligations.

“I’m not saying those scrolls are not Jewish and Christian in nature,” said Issam al Ahmed, the executive director of Palestine House, an educational and cultural organisation in the Toronto area. “But they were discovered prior to the Israeli occupation and they were exhibited in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem in Palestine.”

After the 1967 war, the Israelis moved the scrolls to the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, a Montreal-based advocacy group, argues that ROM’s partnership with the Israeli body violates Canada’s obligations under the conventions of Unesco, the UN body that helps to conserve mankind’s heritage, regarding the protection of cultural property.

According to its interpretation, Canada cannot import cultural property from an occupied territory and must, if possible, take that property into custody and return it to the competent authorities at the end of hostilities.

The ROM's response:

Notwithstanding the claims of theft, the ROM said it “remained satisfied that the exhibition is lawful”.

Background here.

A TRIBUTE TO GRAHAM STANTON has been posted by Peter Head at the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog. And there's also an obituary at the Cambridge Network as well.

(Via Mark Goodacre at the NT Blog here and here.)

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY also has a Geniza Project, to which Mike Fieschko has alerted me in an e-mail. There's also a recent blog post on Princeton's IT's Academic blog, which links to a podcast of a recent lecture by Professor Mark Cohen and Ben Johnston from the Princeton Humanities Resource Center, with an accompanying pdf document. (I mentioned the project briefly in 2003, but did not give much detail.)

From the project website:

Initiated in the mid-1980s, the Computer Geniza Project of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University seeks to extend the methodologies available to Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic, and Arabic scholars working with the documents found in the Geniza chamber of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo in the late 19th century.

The project is dedicated to transcribing documents from film copies, photocopies, draft texts typed by S. D. Goitein, and printed editions to computer files, creating a full text retrieval text-base of transcribed documents, developing new tools such as dictionaries, semantic categories and morphological aids to further the study of Geniza texts.

Finally, the project is committed to disseminating its materials as widely as possible to the international community of scholars with an interest in the life of the medieval Middle East, as well as to all with an interest in Judaica. Ultimately, we hope to provide links to digitized images of manususcripts in our corpus, as libraries pursue the imaging of their collections..

It is our hope that by making materials from this very esoteric field widely available that new insights can be gained into the interaction of the peoples of the Middle East in past time. Funding has come from Princeton University and from the Friedberg Genizah Project.

AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JUDAEA AND ROME IN COINS, 65 BCE TO 135 CE will be held in London in September. Nikos Kokkinos has posted details and registration information on the Ioudaious-L list.

THE FRIEDBERG GENIZAH PROJECT has a session devoted to it in an upcoming conference in Jerusalem. Nachum Dershowitz e-mails:

Genizah Research Enters the Computer Era

On Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 17:30 - 19:30, at the upcoming Fifteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, there will be a session devoted to "The Friedberg Genizah Project: Objectives and Accomplishments". The congress takes place at the Hebrew University, on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem.

Director of the Friedberg Genizah Project (FGP), Menahem Ben-Sasson, Professor of History and President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will lead off the session.

Yaacov Choueka, Chief Computerization Scientist of FGP and Professor Emeritus at Bar-Ilan University, will speak on "The Computerization of the Genizah World and its Impact on Genizah Research: A Vision and its Implementation". Several exciting developments will be described (see below).

Haggai Ben-Shammai, Professor of Arabic at Hebrew University, will speak on “Judaeo-Arabic Bible Exegesis: Preliminary Mapping”.

Discovered in 1896 in the attic of a synagogue in the old quarter of Cairo, the Genizah is a large collection of discarded codices, scrolls, and documents. These were written mainly in the 10th to 15th centuries, and mainly in Hebrew and Arabic (usually in Hebrew characters). The documents and fragments are now dispersed in over fifty libraries and collections around the world.

The philanthropically-funded Friedberg Genizah Project is in the midst of a multi-year process of digitally photographing (in full color, at 600dpi) most of the extant manuscripts. The entire collections of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris, the recently rediscovered collection in Geneva, and many other collections from Strasbourg, Vienna, Budapest, and elsewhere have already been digitized. They comprise about 90,000 images (recto and verso of each fragment).

All the images are being made available to researchers online at www.genizah.org. That site provides a very convenient web interface, with zoomable images, bibliographic and catalogue data, transcriptions and translations, search facilities, and discussion forums.

In his talk, Choueka will announce three recent achievements of the project:

1. A few months ago, FGP signed an agreement with Cambridge University Library, for a joint three-year project, funded by FGP, during the course of which Cambridge will digitize their entire Genizah collection. This will result in some 400,000 additional images, to be delivered at the rate of 10,000 per month (starting soon), in what is probably one of the largest ever digitization efforts attempted in the world of manuscripts.

2. FGP has begun applying computerized image processing to the digital photographs. This effort -- directed by Dr. Roni Shweka and realized by Rotem Littman -- includes separating the document from its background, segmenting the image into written areas and blank space, straightening the image, and automatically inferring the dimensions of the fragment, the written area, and the individual lines.

3. Because of the unique circumstances of the Cairo Genizah, the leaves of most of the original documents were recovered unbound and are to be found today dispersed among different libraries. Over the past century, scholars have expended a great deal of time and effort on identifying such pages and rejoining them. Despite the few thousands of such joins that have been found by researchers, very much more remains to be done. In this regard, FGP has embarked on an ambitious project -- in collaboration with Professor Nachum Dershowitz and Dr. Lior Wolf of Tel Aviv University and their students -- to use modern machine-learning techniques in a bold computer-aided effort to identify new joins. A highlight of the talk will be a sampling of the hundreds of new joins discovered by the computer in this fashion, based solely on image similarity, including several joins of noteworthy interest.

Background here.

COMMUTER PHILOLOGY?

Studying Ugarit? Start commuting between schools
By Ofri Ilani (Haaretz)

Israel currently has a great many professors of law and business administration, but very few professors of Egyptology. The few students who want to learn about hieroglyphics or the history of Pharaonic Egypt are often forced to make do with the single lecturer, at most, who specializes in this field at each university.

Because of the lack of students and faculty positions, Egyptology, Assyriology, classics and African studies are on the verge of disappearing from the world of academia here.
Advertisement

This week, the nation's universities announced a new initiative aimed at enabling "unpopular" fields of study to continue to exist in an era of budget cuts: four joint programs in which students will take classes from lecturers at several different universities.

Thus an Egyptology student would spend one semester, or one day a week, at Tel Aviv university, and the next he would go to Haifa University or the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The four programs are in ancient Near East languages and culture, Africa studies, Latin in the Middle Ages, and Jewish culture in the ancient world.

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This sounds like a very unwieldy program, but better than no program at all. At least there's some funding for student travel expenses.

MARTIN ABEGG has lectured at the ROM Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition:

Scrolling.
Langley Advance
Published: Tuesday, July 21, 2009

TWU Dead Sea Scrolls expert lectures at the ROM in Toronto.

Langley's own Dead Sea Scrolls expert spoke in Toronto this week, on a topic very dear to his heart. Dr. Martin Abegg, the Ben Zion Wacholder professor of Dead Sea Scroll Studies at Trinity Western University (TWU), gave a public lecture at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto Thursday.

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Abegg's lecture titled, The Stories of the Toronto Dead Sea Scrolls, provided listeners a "behind the scenes glimpse at the past intrigue surrounding the scrolls and what these texts tell us about the ancients that wrote, collected, copied and studied them.

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Background here.

A HEBREW ACADEMY is opening in Poland (AFP):

WARSAW — Roman Catholic Franciscan friars are to open Poland's first privately-run Hebrew academy in October with the approval of the country's chief rabbi and a Polish cardinal, its rector said Tuesday.

"We've started recruiting and there's a lot of interest. We're thinking of accepting 45 students for a start," academy rector Father Maksymin Tandek told AFP.

"During my studies in Israel, I discovered its rich and beautiful history. Jews lived in Poland for a thousand years. My dream is to preserve the wealth and beauty of their society here," he said.

The three-year-long programme at the academy located in Torun, north-east Poland, will focus on Hebrew literature, linguistics, Israeli history, Poland's Jews, and modern, rabbinical and biblical Hebrew as well as Syrian and Aramaic.

"Polish archives and libraries contain a large number of documents with an an enormous wealth of Jewish thought, but now no one is examining them. We need specialists to catalogue them and make them public," Tandek said.

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This is a promising development. And I hope they find some manuscripts of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha in those archives and libraries. (I think "Syrian" above should be "Syriac.")

PAULA FREDRICKSEN is interviewed by BU Today:

In her latest book, Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism, Fredriksen returns to her first love by exploring the historical, social, and cultural developments that gave rise to Christian anti-Judaism. The surprise, she says, isn’t just that Augustine espoused the Jews’ rights to their own religion — it’s that different faiths frequently borrowed from one another throughout the early Roman Empire. “In antiquity, all monotheists are polytheists,” she says. “It’s just that they each have heaven structured a certain way.”

Fredriksen spoke with BU Today about what Augustine’s writing reveals about cultural clashes and belief systems, then and now.

MORE ON THE ROM DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION:

First, a related exhibit of specially commissioned art inspired by the Scrolls:

The Power of Words (Then and Now) at the ROM

(Naomi Carniol, Torontoist)

In the basement of the Royal Ontario Museum, the crowds marvel at the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls. They peer at the tiny Hebrew words, which form excerpts from the Bible and the Psalms. Upstairs on the museum’s third floor, an art installation explores the power of the word in a modern context.

The Koffler Gallery and the Institute for Contemporary Culture commissioned New York–based artist Joshua Neustein to create work inspired by the Dead Sea Scrolls. In response, Neustein unveiled Margins, an installation that meditates on the importance of the written word and the yet-to-be-written word.

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Second, more on the Canadian Jewish response to the Palestinian protests and boycott of the DSS exhibition

Jews match boycotts with emails and spending

Sales of kosher wine and Dead Sea Scrolls tickets soar after blasting message to community
Jul 20, 2009 04:30 AM

Stuart Laidlaw
FAITH AND ETHICS REPORTER (Toronto Star)

A liquor store sells out of Israeli kosher wine. The Royal Ontario Museum sees a sudden surge in online ticket sales to its Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.

Not the outcome one would expect from two recent boycotts meant to protest Israel's handling of the Palestine situation, but that's what happened – thanks to the power of the Internet and a change in course by the Jewish community.

Rather than react to the boycotts with counter-arguments and more rhetoric, the United Jewish Appeal and other groups such as the Jewish Defense League have begun responding to boycotts by urging supporters to buy more of whatever is being boycotted.

"The community feels really empowered by it," says Sally Szuster, a spokeswoman for the UJA Federation of Toronto.

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Background here. Background on the exhibition here.

MEDIEVAL PSALTERS are on display at the Getty Museum:

Getty displays medieval manuscripts focusing on King David

The collection of medieval illuminated Psalters and religious texts, on display at the museum through Aug. 16, illustrates the Hebrew king's struggle with good and evil.

By Martha Groves (Los Angeles Times)
July 20, 2009

The story of David, the shepherd boy who slew the Philistine Goliath, became the divinely chosen king of the Israelites and seduced Bathsheba, would be compelling in any era.

But for medieval Christians, the poet, harpist and warrior assumed immense importance as an exemplar of piety and penitence, an Everyman on whom they could model their own commitment to God.

So large loomed his legend that throughout the Middle Ages David was credited with being the author of the 150 Psalms, the deeply affecting "songs of praise" initially composed in Hebrew, that were incorporated into the Hebrew Bible and later the Christian Bible.

The Psalms played a vital role in medieval devotion from about 500 to the 1500s, and David's image appears in lavishly illustrated Psalters, volumes containing the Book of Psalms, and choir books of the period. Many of these manuscripts, painted in brilliant hues and decorated with gold leaf, are on view through Aug. 16 in the Getty Museum's North Pavilion.

In an era of e-books, it is impressive to see the enduring beauty of the 21 manuscripts and leaves, or individual pages, displayed in "Temptation and Salvation: The Psalms of King David." All of the examples -- some large, some tiny -- were drawn from the Getty's own collection of the illustrated texts, inaugurated in 1983 with the purchase of 144 manuscripts owned by German chocolate magnate Peter Ludwig and his wife, Irene.

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SAD NEWS: Graham Stanton has reportedly passed away. Mark Goodacre notes this at his NT Blog but has no further details. Requiescat in pace.

ANOTHER TOURIST returns some nicked antiquities:

Sorry, here's your mosaic back
By Fadi Eyadat (Haaretz)

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority recently received an unusual package in the mail from the United States - nine small bags full of white mosaic stones.

In an accompanying letter, Gail Weeks of Florida wrote that she had been touring Caesarea National Park with her husband when she picked up the mosaic tiles. Only later did they notice in their pamphlet that taking antiquities is forbidden.

Weeks also wrote that she thought there might be more stones in the sand, and asked that they tell her if anything was found.

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This seems to have been a (careless) misunderstanding rather than a deliberate misappropriation.

Background here.

UPDATE (20 July): Arutz Sheva also has an article on this incident, with reference to the earlier one involving a 46 pound stone. I don't see any new information except the following:

In both cases, officials of the two agencies said, there would be no action taken against the individuals who took the items, because they were ultimately returned, and the culprits apologized.

THE CODEX SINIATICUS STORY is covered in an article in the Examiner: "Codex Sinaiticus What? Online Where?" Nothing new in it, but it's an accurate, brief, popular summary.

Background here.

HEROD'S TOMB AT HERODIUM (if that's what it is) is covered in a sort of travel article in Arutz Sheva:

Herodium: Judean Palace where Herod Lived and Died

by Shalom Pollack

(IsraelNN.com) The location of Herod’s tomb remained a mystery until an innovative archaeologist set his sites on an overlooked side of the Judean fortress palace of Herodium. After a 35 year search, Professor Ehud Netzer felt he was able to announce to the world that he finally found what he was looking for – the royal tomb of King Herod the Great (73 BCE – 4 CE). The tyrannical leader who murdered Jewish sages and even his own family members was secretly referred by them as Herod the Wicked.

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These Arutz Sheva travel pieces tend to be a little careless. I don't remember all the details of this tomb story but I did spot the following. The article says:

Although he knew that he was hated for his tyranny, Herod nonetheless made his wish on his deathbed: “Gather all the rabbis to the adjacent room. Announce that when I die, the rabbis will also be killed. Thus, the day that I die will not be a happy one. In fact, all will pray for my health” This last order was not executed, but such was the man’s evil intentions to the very end.

This story is from Josephus (Antiquities 17.6.5) and it actually refers to "all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation," not the rabbis:

He commanded that all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation, wheresoever they lived, should be called to him. Accordingly, they were a great number that came, because the whole nation was called, and all men heard of this call, and death was the penalty of such as should despise the epistles that were sent to call them. And now the king was in a wild rage against them all, the innocent as well as those that had afforded ground for accusations; and when they were come, he ordered them to be all shut up in the hyppodrome, (9) and sent for his sister Salome, and her husband Alexas, and spake thus to them: "I shall die in a little time, so great are my pains; which death ought to be cheerfully borne, and to be welcomed by all men; but what principally troubles me is this, that I shall die without being lamented, and without such mourning as men usually expect at a king's death. For that he was not unacquainted with the temper of the Jews, that his death would be a thing very desirable, and exceedingly acceptable to them, because during his lifetime they were ready to revolt from him, and to abuse the donations he had dedicated to God that it therefore was their business to resolve to afford him some alleviation of his great sorrows on this occasion; for that if they do not refuse him their consent in what he desires, he shall have a great mourning at his funeral, and such as never had any king before him; for then the whole nation would mourn from their very soul, which otherwise would be done in sport and mockery only. He desired therefore, that as soon as they see he hath given up the ghost, they shall place soldiers round the hippodrome, while they do not know that he is dead; and that they shall not declare his death to the multitude till this is done, but that they shall give orders to have those that are in custody shot with their darts; and that this slaughter of them all will cause that he shall not miss to rejoice on a double account; that as he is dying, they will make him secure that his will shall be executed in what he charges them to do; and that he shall have the honor of a memorable mourning at his funeral.

Background here.

AN OBITUARY FOR MARTIN HENGEL in Christianity Today:

The Champion Who Debunked Bultmann

Martin Hengel, giant of New Testament scholarship, established the basis for historical confidence in the early Christian documents.

David Neff

Anyone who passed away between Michael Jackson’s June 25 death and his July 7 memorial service was bound to go unsung. But one scholar whose passing should have been more widely noted was Martin Hengel, who specialized in the intersections between rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. He was Emeritus Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism at the University of Tübingen. After battling cancer, he died in Tübingen, Germany, on July 2 at the age of 82.

Yesterday when I heard the news of Hengel’s passing from Whitworth College’s Jim Edwards, I e-mailed several evangelical New Testament scholars for their comments.

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