THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS from Nag Hammadi have apparently been adapted into a musical:

Mary of Magdala” a thought-provoking musical

by Elysia Conner (Casper Journal)
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 4:54 PM MST

As the apostle Peter lowers his friend from the cross, he should show understanding and redemption, playwright James Olm said. No, director Richard Burk countered, the redemption shouldn’t come for another three days. A theological discussion ensues, with a few opinions from other collaborators.

It’s just another night of rehearsal for “Mary of Magdala,” written by Casper College music professor James Olm and New York actor Shad Olsen.

They aren’t just rehearsing for the performance; they are creating the piece in a developmental workshop.

The musical depicts the life of Mary Magdalene and Jesus based on the Gnostic Gospels found in Egypt in 1945, Olsen said.

[...]

That said, there is very little about the content of the musical:

The play will be controversial, Olm predicted.

“I would just want audiences to come with an open mind and an open heart and be ready to think differently about things that you’ve thought for a long time,” Olsen said.

According to the lead actors, it’s a love story, a love through God’s love and through wisdom.

“It’s about unconditional love,” Susan Burk said, who plays the wise midwife who mentors Mary as a young woman and encourages her to follow her destiny.

It’s also a story about the patriarchal society and how unjust it was to women and how unjust it was to history.

“She almost lives in me now,” Olm said “She has suffered for 2,000 years unjustly, being unjustly portrayed.”

We also learn that – besides Mary – Jesus, the apostle Levi (i.e., Matthew?), Pilate, the high priest Annas, the soldier who crucifies Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and some demons are among the cast of 14. I see nothing much of the actual content of the Gnostic Gospels in the description and it may be that it has been homogenized away into a p.c. God-is-love-and-hates-patriarchy message. It would be fun to see a performance that took the demiurgic anti-cosmism and docetism of the Gnostic texts seriously, but that may be too much to ask.

Related item on The Last Temptation of Christ (which does play with such themes) here.

NEWS ON AN OYXRHYNCHUS FRAGMENT that was sold to a private collector in 2003:

New artifact added to Ink & Blood

By Andy Powell
[Gadsden] Times Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 8:03 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 8:19 p.m.

For archaeologists, at least, one generation’s trash can be a future generation’s great treasure.

What is considered to be the third oldest portion ever found of the Gospel of John has been added to the Hardin Center’s exhibit, “Ink & Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to Gutenberg,” on exhibit through Dec. 23.

The fragment, which is the size of about half a page, is a portion of the Gospel of St. John 8:14-22.

It has Greek writing on the front and the back and has the number “74” on one side.

Exhibition director Dillon Poss said, “It is the oldest document in the world with a page number that we know of.”

He said the fragment was found in a third-century trash dump that was uncovered in Egypt in the late 1800s.

“That’s really the gold mine for archaeologists,” Poss said. “When they have that, they have everything in the community.”

The fragment originally was owned by Colgate University. It was sold to raise funds.

Poss said the fragment was found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and is know as the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus or P39. Poss said when it was found, it was the oldest known fragment of the Gospel of John

[...]

Poss said the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus had been part of the exhibit at its last stop. It had been returned to its owner on the West Coast before being brought here for the remainder of the exhibit’s stay.

[...]

I first reported on the sale of the fragments here in 2003 (not sure why the numbering of the John fragment is different there) and noted the surfacing of the John fragment in the Ink and Blood exhibition here in 2005. Others were sold to Macquirie University in Australia (see here). At least the whereabouts of this important fragment of the Gospel of John is still known, and I hope that means that scholars will still be able to study it when they need to.

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Here's news on the 7th International Congress on Phoenician and Punic Studies which recently was held in Tunisia (noted earlier here).

Hammamet hosts 7th International Conference on Phoenician and Punic studies

TUNISIAONLINENEWS- The coastal town of Hammamet is hosting these days the 7th international congress of “life, religion and death in the Phoenician and Punic world”.

The event is organized by the National Heritage Institute (INP) and the National Agency for Revival of Heritage and Cultural Development as well as the Research Unit: Punic Carthage and culture dissemination.

[...]

More than 300 researchers and experts from 22 countries representing 52 universities from Western and Arab countries namely Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Greece, Lebanon, Libya, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Japan, the United States, Spain, and Italy took part in the event.

[...]

The event will be an occasion to reveal new heritages discovered by archeologists in the Punic site in the Sahel region of Kerkouane and statues of pottery were discovered in EL Djem dates back to the Punic era.

Tunisia - Participants in International Congress on Phoenician and Punic Studies congratulates President Ben Ali

(Isria)

Participants in the 7th International Congress on Phoenician and Punic Studies paid tribute to President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali for the attention he lavishes on material and intangible heritage, historical monuments, archaeological sites, museums and researches, as well as culture and youth centres, the 8th point of the Head of State's new electoral programme.

[...]

Phoenician historical research center opens in US

[Lebanon] Daily Star staff
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

BEIRUT: A new body has been established in the US to research ancient Phoneician history. Habib Chamoun, president of the newly incorporated Phoenician International Research Center for The Study Of Canaanite, Phoenician And Punic History (PIRC), announced the official establishment of the group during his address to the 16th World Lebanese Cultural Union World Congress in Mexico City, that ended on October 26. ...

The website is at http://phoenicia.org/ and the full press release about this Center is here. This looks to be a popular rather than specialist enterprise.

Italian 3 D movie re-enacts Trasimeno battle between Rome and Carthage

TUNISIAONLINENEWS- A remarkable 3D movie screened on Tuesday at the 7 th international conference on Phoenician and Punic studies in Hammamet, retraces Hannibal’s journey through the Alps and his victory at the Trasimemo Battle in 217 BC where he defeated the Roman army led by Flaminius.

The film dubbed “Annibale al Trasimeno” was directed by Luca Palma and Ernesto Vigneri. The film was followed by a debate on the latest theories concerning the battle, which was used as a platform for a scientific documentary featuring the costumes and armors used at the time.

[...]

A trailer for the film is at the bottom of the article as well as here. Note also the Vin Diesel movie on Hannibal which is currently in the works.

Finally – tangentially related – here's a recent travel piece in the Financial Times on Tunisia and its Phoenician and Punic heritage:

History’s mark on Tunisia

By John Julius Norwich

Published: November 6 2009 23:23 | Last updated: November 6 2009 23:23

Everybody, perhaps, has their own Tunisia. For many, it is the sheer exoticism of north Africa, hundreds of miles further to the west yet infinitely more oriental than the Middle East: the brilliant blue doorways set in dazzling white walls, the elderly gentlemen with their little round red hats and long robes – which always seem to stop a bit too high, revealing anticlimac­tic ankle-socks. For some, the lure may be the cobalt sea of the Barbary Coast, home to the great corsair captains of the 15th and 16th centuries. Others feel the call of the desert in the far south, or of the west’s oases and palm groves, or the beaches of Hammamet and Cape Bon. But for us, Tunisia began with Carthage.

Virtually nothing remains of the old Phoenician Carthage of Hannibal and the Punic Wars. The city had cost Rome perhaps one-quarter of a million of her best men; no wonder the statesman Cato the Elder ended every speech he made with the words Delenda est Carthago, “Carthage must be destroyed”. In 146BC it was; not one stone was left atop another.

[...]

ERIC CLINE'S RECENT BOOK, Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction, is featured in a London Times article:

Evidence for kings David and Solomon
Until 15 years ago, there was no extra-biblical documentary mention of even the House of David as ruling in Judea

Norman Hammond, Archaeology correspondent

“King David and King Solomon lived merry, merry lives,

With many, many concubines and many, many wives.

But when old age crept after them, with many, many qualms,

King Solomon wrote the Proverbs and King David wrote the Psalms.”

There are several versions of this anonymous rhyme, but the problem, some biblical archaeologists argue, is that there is little evidence that either king existed: archaeological remains have been assigned to their reigns on the basis of cryptic verses in the Old Testament, and then used to “prove” the date of similar buildings at other sites.

Until 15 years ago, Professor Eric Cline notes in a new book, there was no extra-biblical documentary mention of even the House of David as ruling in Judea. The fragmentary Tel Dan Stele, found reused as building material at a site in what is now northern Israel in 1993-94, provided the first evidence outside the First Book of Kings.

[...]

Professor Cline has a recent online essay on the same topic, which is noted here.

(Times article via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

ANCIENT JEWISH QUOTATIONS AND ALLUSIONS:

Introduction

This webpage is a partial publication of the work of a research project (“The Meaning of Ancient Jewish Quotations and Allusions for the Textual History of the Hebrew Bible”) which is sponsored by the Jubiläumsfonds der Österreichischen Nationalbank and is conducted at Vienna University’s Institute for Jewish Studies by Armin Lange (director) and Matthias Weigold. We would like to take the opportunity to express our gratitude to both the Jubiläumsfonds for financing our work and to the staff of Vienna University’s Institute for Jewish Studies for supporting us.

Ancient Jewish texts often quote or allude to Scriptures. The research project “The Meaning of Ancient Jewish Quotations and Allusions for the Textual History of the Hebrew Bible” tries to study the textual history of the Hebrew Bible before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 c.e. in light of quotations of and allusions to passages of the Hebrew Bible in Second Temple Jewish literature. One of the main tasks of the project is to identify and locate the quotations of and allusions to scriptures in ancient Jewish literature. While we continue to search for quotations and allusions, this webpage makes first results of our work available to the scholarly public. Feedback is warmly welcome (please refer to ajqa.judaistik@univie.ac.at).

(Via the Agade list.)

CAMBYSES' LOST ARMY FOUND? David Meadows takes this one apart over at Rogue Classicism.

THE TALMUD on Dangers of bathing:

What was so dangerous about a bathhouse? Roman bathhouses had a hot room, the caldarium, which was built on pillars. The area below the caldarium, called the hypocaust was connected to a furnace and heated the floor of the caldarium. If the floor of the caldarium collapsed, the bathers would fall into the hypocaust and die.

This was a real danger as is apparent from the continuation of the talmudic passage: Rabbi Abahu entered a public bathhouse and the floor beneath him gave way. Fortunately for Rabbi Abahu and the other bathers, a miracle happened and instead of falling into the hypocaust below, he was left standing on one of the pillars. From that perch, Rabbi Abahu managed to save 101 men with his one arm.

Plus, strategies for outwitting the Satan.

UPDATE: Reader Sarah Roberts e-mails:

Mention could also be made of the statement in Irenaeus via Polycarp of Smyrna regarding John of Ephesus encountering the "heretic" Cerinthus in a public path: "Let us flee, lest the bath fall in while Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is there".

Yes it could. I hadn't thought of that one.

BOOK REVIEW/TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Unusual Partners Study Divisive Jerusalem Site

By ISABEL KERSHNER (NYT)
Published: November 14, 2009

JERUSALEM — At the heart of this contested city, the holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, has become, for many, the epicenter of the conflict between Israel, the Palestinians and the wider
The mere mention of the place stirs passions and memories of centuries of bloodshed. Its alternative names evoke the depth of religious devotion and the competing claims.

Many of those contradictions are encapsulated in a new book, “Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem’s Sacred Esplanade,” to be published here on Monday. The book is a collection of essays by renowned scholars on the history, archaeology, aesthetics and politics of the place that Jews revere as the location of their two ancient temples, and that now houses the Al Aksa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

The illustrated 400-page book, in English, appears at a time of heightened tensions over the coveted site. Most extraordinarily, its authors and co-sponsors include Israeli and Palestinian experts and institutions, giving an unfettered platform to Muslims, Christians and Jews.

[...[

This is quite a remarkable cooperative project.

Then there's this:

The book was years in the making and required exceptional tact on the part of the co-editors, Oleg Grabar of Princeton University, and Benjamin Kedar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Mr. Kedar came up with the neutral term “sacred esplanade” in the title. “It was the compromise,” he said. “It should be acceptable to all.”

Sacred Esplanade Watch?

BOOK REVIEW: This book has been getting controversial press for a while. I haven't read it so I can't comment either way.

The Invention of the Jewish People

Review by Simon Schama (Financial Times)

Published: November 13 2009 23:34 | Last updated: November 13 2009 23:34

The Invention of the Jewish People
By Shlomo Sand
Translated by Yael Lotan
Verso £18.99, 398 pages
FT Bookshop price: £15.19

From its splashy title on, Shlomo Sand means his book to be provocative, which it certainly is, though possibly not in the way he intends. Its real challenge to the reader is separating the presentation of truisms as though they were revolutionary illuminations and the relentless beating on doors that have long been open, from passages of intellectual sharpness and learning.

Sand’s self-dramatising attack in The Invention of the Jewish People is directed against those who assume, uncritically, that all Jews are descended lineally from the single racial stock of ancient Hebrews – a position no one who has thought for a minute about the history of the Jews would dream of taking.

... But it is a long time since any serious historian argued that following the destruction of the Second Temple, the Romans emptied Judea. But what the Romans did do, following the Jewish revolt of AD66-70 and even more exhaustively after a second rebellion in AD135, was every bit as traumatic: an act of cultural and social annihilation – mass slaughter and widespread enslavement. But there was also the mass extirpation of everything that constituted Jewish religion and culture; the renaming of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, the obliteration of the Temple, the prohibition on rituals and prayers. Sand asserts, correctly, that an unknowable number of Jews remained in what the Romans called Palestina. The multitudes of Jews in Rome had already gone there, not as a response to disaster but because they wanted to and were busy proselytising.

All this is true and has been acknowledged. But Sand appears not to notice that it undercuts his argument about the non-connection of Jews with the land of Palestine rather than supporting it. Put together, the possibility of leading a Jewish religious life outside Palestine, with the continued endurance of Jews in the country itself and you have the makings of that group yearning – the Israel-fixation, which Sand dismisses as imaginary. What the Romans did to the defeated Jews was dispossession, the severity of which was enough to account for the homeland-longing by both the population still there and those abroad. That yearning first appears, not in Zionist history, but in the writings of medieval Jewish teachers, and never goes away.

[...]

One comment:

Scholarly consensus now places the creation of the earliest books of the Old Testament not in the 6th or 5th centuries BC, but in the 9th century BC, home-grown in a Judah which had been transformed, as Israel Finkelstein has written “into a developed nation state”

I think it's a stretch to talk about a "scholarly consensus" on this subject at all. There are certainly scholars who think the books in the Hebrew Bible originate in the exile and later, while others still think in terms of a pre-exilic origin for some of them. I think at least some of the texts have their basis before the exile, chiefly because the Hebrew they are written in looks more pre-exilic than not in comparison to epigraphic Hebrew. With the possible exception of some poetic texts (and this too is controversial), I think it is difficult to make a philological argument for origins of any of the texts as early as the the ninth century BCE, although I wouldn't rule the possibility out either.

HOW MCGILL UNIVERSITY SAVED THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS. Lots of them, anyway.

From the Dead Sea to McGill

Saga of the scrolls

By MARIAN SCOTT, The [Montreal] Gazette November 14, 2009 10:20 AM

“In the early summer of 1947, where the hot sun beat down relentlessly on the grim and silent cliffs overlooking the northern end of the Dead Sea, the casual act of an Arab shepherd led to the finding of a treasure trove of manuscripts from the time of Christ and earlier.”

– R.B.Y. Scott, Treasure from Judean Caves: The Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1955

MONTREAL – It is nearly 9,000 kilometres from McGill University's Roddick Gates to the desert caves at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered from 1947 to 1956.

But the distance is not as great as it might seem, according to a forthcoming book chronicling McGill's role in one of the greatest archaeological sagas of all time.

In 1954, the university became the first institution outside the Middle East to buy a share of the biblical manuscripts. Its $20,000 purchase rescued the scrolls from being scattered on the market and represented the largest collection of the biblical treasures outside government hands.

But McGill's "Big Biblical Bargain," as the Toronto Star Weekly dubbed it, would never reach Montreal. In 1961, Jordan cancelled the sale and barred the priceless manuscripts - which had remained in Jerusalem for study - from leaving the country. McGill's footnote to the history of the scrolls was soon forgotten.

Jason Kalman and Jaqueline du Toit seek to remedy that in Canada's Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls, to be published next spring by McGill-Queens University Press.

The story also receives a mention in the popular exhibition on the Dead Sea Scrolls on until Jan. 3 at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum.

[...]

Read on for a short version of the whole story. Note also this 2005 Dead Sea Discoveries article by the same authors.

SPEAKING OF MAIMONIDES, Dr. Zahi Hawass writes in Asharq Alawsat about:

A Visit to the Maimonides Synagogue

13/11/2009

By Dr. Zahi Hawass

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- There is a ridiculous story being circulated by malicious and biased media organs that claim that a group of Jews had informed UNESCO that the floor of the Maimonides synagogue in the ancient Al-Jamaliyah district of Old Cairo is covered with garbage.

This group of Jews falsely claimed that Egypt does not look after its Jewish artifacts, and said that work to restore the Jewish synagogues had only begun in order to strengthen the position of Arab candidate Farouk Hosny with regards to being appointed head of UNESCO. Of course this campaign itself was only launched for ulterior motives prior the recent UNESCO elections.

On account my of position [as head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities], I had no choice but to visit the Maimonides synagogue with members of the press and news reporters in order to show the reality of what was taking place inside the synagogue. ...

I have not heard this claim about the Maimonides Synagogue before (and I usually hear about these things). In April of 2005 I did note an article in Egypt Election Daily News which discussed, inter alia, the Maimonides Synagogue and which claimed that most of the Egyptian synagogues were in disrepair, some direly so.

Dr. Hawass's article is worth reading in full, but here are a couple more excerpts:

The undisputable truth is that all Jewish historical monuments, including synagogues and historical sites are part of Egypt's larger history. Any attempt to destroy or abuse this heritage would be nothing more than an attempt to remove part of Egypt's history. Any country which attempts to forget or ignore its own history is committing a crime against its future generations, and will unmistakably face a number of historical problems that cannot be solved other than by reviving the history that has deliberately been excluded.

[...]

There are 9 registered synagogues in Cairo, along with a Jewish cemetery in the Al-Bassatin district. These ancient Jewish sites are preserved by the Council of Antiquities, in addition to a synagogue located in the city of Alexandria. These 10 Jewish temples have been part of an integrated restoration project since 2002. The restoration process is always preceded by scientific studies and research carried out by consultant engineers and researchers. These studies take around 2 years to be completed during which a comprehensive study on the site's soil topography is taken, along with groundwater analysis and other tests. Following this, the restoration process begins, although depending upon the condition of the site in question, this may take years to complete.

[...]

I am pleased to hear Dr. Hawass's very constructive view on this matter (especially in light of some of his other recent comments) and also to learn more about the Egyptian synagogue restoration project. More on the latter here.

ANTIQUITIES DEALER SHLOMO MOUSSAIEFF has a long interview with Lauren Gelfond Feldinger ("The genuine article") in the Jerusalem Post. Worth reading in full, but here's an excerpt from the end:

Did you only collect or did you also sell?

I sold to Narkiss, Reifenberg and Sukenik and they taught me what everything is, all the years until I left Israel. [E.L. Sukenik, the father of archeologist Yigael Yadin, was one of the premiere early state archaeologists. Adolf Reifenberg was a renowned archeologist and numismatist, and professor of art history. Bezalel Narkiss was the first director of Hebrew University, anIsrael Prize winner and the founder of an index of Jewish art, antiquities and architecture.] When I left Israel, around age 35, I stopped selling and now I only collect.

[...]

Why do you snub Israel's antiquities laws?

These are ridiculous laws from the time of the Turks. The Antiquities Authority should be teaching and not torturing. They should ignite history. Instead, they find Arab shepherds and beat them and take what they have. What do they have, broken clay pieces? Bravo. All day they sit with a telescope to see who is going in the field to look for something, it's ridiculous. For a 500-millimeter piece of parchment, they will put a man in jail.

If you build a building, you have to stop work, you have to pay for the excavation - not them. This is torture. The laws don't make any sense. This is what they do with their budget? The law should allow more freedom, let anybody display anything in his house, and not make a coin collection worth $10 illegal. They have 600,000 coins in storage, what do they display? A few pieces.

I have artifacts from the time of Abraham. I have artifacts from the second our people were born. They call me a looter. They call me an antiquities thief. Nobody wanted to publish my things [that were not found in situ]. But the museums could only pray to have such acollection as I have. Now that they realize that how much I have and that it is not fake, they all love me, they all want my collections.


What will happen to your 60,000 artifacts after you?

Museums put everything in storage. My wife should auction my collections to people who will not put them in cellars but will love them like I do. n

He also talks about the forgery trial, selling fine jewelery to the stars, being a WWII prisoner of war, and says that his precious gem business can be traced back twelve generations to David the brother of Maimonides.

MAUREEN DOWD is taken to task by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield at Beliefnet for some unfortunate comparisons in a column on Goldman Sachs:

Is Maureen Dowd an Anti-Semite?

Thursday November 12, 2009
Categories: Judaism, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion

The short answer is almost certainly not. But after yesterday's column in the New York Times, many people are asking, and not without some justification. In writing about Goldman Sachs, the famously/infamously successful investment bank, Dowd dredged up ancient and dangerous motifs which have inspired hatred of Jews for two thousand years.

Comparing the employees of Goldman Sachs to "the same self-interested sorts Jesus threw out of the temple", and also linking blood lust and GS bankers' lust for money, Ms. Dowd stepped over a very important line -- one which when crossed in the past cost thousands, if not millions of lives. At the very least she demonstrated how deeply the metaphors of hate are rooted even in the lives of some well meaning people, and that alone is deeply disturbing.

[...]

I think the headline goes a bit over the top and I don't think there's any question that Ms. Dowd is not an anti-Semite. Nor is criticism of Goldman Sachs out of line. But it wouldn't hurt for her to rein in some of her images and comparisons.

I see that Robert G. Sugarman, the National Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, has raised the same issue in a letter to the NYT. I can find no other references to it through Google News or Technorati.

UPDATE (18 November): More here.

NAZIS. I HATE THESE GUYS:

Bible That Vanished on Kristallnacht Is Heading Home

By C. J. HUGHES (NYT)
Published: November 9, 2009

On Nov. 9, 1938, a two-volume black-leather-clad Hebrew Bible vanished from a library in Vienna after that city’s Jewish community came under assault from soldiers during Kristallnacht, the start of the Nazi pogrom against Jews.

As is the case with much art looted during World War II, the Bible’s location during the following few decades was mostly unknown.

But last winter, the two volumes, printed 493 years ago, were smuggled into New York City, according to federal authorities, who noticed them advertised in a catalog of a New York auction house and confiscated them.

On Monday afternoon, at a repatriation ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, the historic Bible began its journey home, 71 years to the day after it was seized.

[...]

THE STAFF CUTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE now have a website devoted to them: TRS and RPE at the University of Gloucestershire.

Background here.

FR. WILLIAM FULCO, S.J., is interviewed by the Los Angeles Loyolan in connection with an archaeology exhibition at Loyola Marymount University. The exhibition sounds good, but the really interesting bit is where Fr. Fulco (who served as Aramaic consultant for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ) talks about his consultancy work:

... Fulco claims that several film students take archaeology classes to prepare for working on films set in ancient time periods. Fulco himself has consulted on several films and TV series such as “Passion of the Christ” and “True Blood.” He is currently working with Vin Diesel on a film about Hannibal the Conqueror.

“I’ve also provided a tattoo for Angelina Jolie,” he added nonchalantly, explaining that she wanted him to translate the words “God is love” into Aramaic.

I pleased to hear that the Vin Diesel project, which involves Latin and Punic dialogue, is still proceeding. I hadn't known about True Blood or about Ms. Jolie's tattoo.

Background to the Hannibal movie is here.

MORE CUTS LOOMING: Although the dismantling of the biblical studies program at the University of Sheffield has been averted, serious new staff cuts are now looming at the Humanities Department at the University of Gloucestershire. Indeed, my understanding is that quite a few staff are facing redundancy, one of them being New Testament scholar Lloyd Pietersen, who is very well known in British New Testament studies circles. Mark Goodacre, Helen Ingram, and Simon Wood have said what needs to be said and I let their eloquence speak for itself. These short-sighted moves for short-term gains need to be resisted and the institutions that undertake them need to be reminded vigorously that such decisions have a grave cost not only in staff morale, but in reputation and (as a result of both) student recruitment. I hope the University of Gloucestershire will reconsider sending itself in what could be a rapid downward tailspin.

JAMES D. TABOR argues (at the Bible and Interpretation website) that the Gospel of John preserves a Jesus tradition independent of the Synoptics:

The Gospel of Mark: Priority Does not Mean Primacy

By James D. Tabor
Department of Religious Studies
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
November 2009

For Christian believers, general readers, and scholars alike the most dramatic and riveting section of our N.T. Gospels is the “Passion Narrative,” found in three versions in the Synoptics (Mark, Matthew, Luke), as well as in the gospel of John. Whether John’s Gospel offers an independent version of the narrative is a sharply disputed point among the scholars. When Dom Crossan recently addressed my students in Jerusalem he began his talk on “The Last Days of Jesus” with that very question, one he considers to be absolutely fundamental to any historical reconstruction. Is John’s account simply an edited expansion of the core account we have in Mark, our earliest gospel, or is it an independent production? Crossan is convinced that John is simply recasting Mark, just as Matthew and Luke do, taking out things here and there, expanding in other places, with each contributing their own theological perspectives and emphases relevant to their times and to the tradition and communities from which they come.


I have struggled with this question for years and my conclusion is different from that of Crossan. Although the final editors of John are likely aware of Mark, the core narrative of John offers an independent account based on materials and testimony the authors (the “we” of John 21:24) attribute to the mysterious unnamed “disciple whom Jesus loved,” who only shows up at the “last supper” and appears again at the crucifixion, the empty tomb, and up on the Sea of Galilee when the disciples had returned to their fishing (John 21:24; 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7 & 20). To what degree this source, independent of Mark, runs through earlier sections of John, is a larger and more complex question that I can not address here, though in general my sense is that the narrative and chronological materials are more likely from this source, and perhaps the “Signs Source” as well, while the extended discourses of Jesus, with the distinct theology, style, and tone we see also reflected in the letters of 1, 2, and 3rd John, are overlaid on this more primitive source. In terms of the Last Days of Jesus that would mean that the “red letter” material that runs so extensively through John 13-17 has little if any connection to the historical Jesus.

[...]

A CONFERENCE ON ASTROLOGY is being held at Bristol University in April. Included in the lineup of speakers is renowned Kabbalah specialist Elliot Wolfson from NYU.

(Heads-up, reader Sigrid Peterson.)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH - from Ynetnews:

A peek into Temple Mount excavations

Western Wall Heritage Foundation holds tour of tunnels in attempt to ward off Muslim claims that al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger of collapsing. Waqf refuses offer for similar tour for Muslims, saying 'settlers won't give us approval to enter a Muslim-owned area'

Ronen Medzini
Published: 11.08.09, 18:56 / Israel News

Background here.

I DIDN'T KNOW that there are:

Traces of Mithras in Malta
by Noel Grima (Malta Independent)

The Mithraic Mysteries was a mystery religion that became popular among the military in the Roman Empire, from the 1st to 4th centuries AD. Information on the cult is based mainly on interpretations of monuments, which depict Mithras as born from a rock and sacrificing a bull. His worshippers had a complex system of seven grades of initiation, with ritual meals and they met in underground temples. Little else is known for certain.

Last week, the Archaeological Society of Malta organised a lecture by Dr Claudia Sagona, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne (Australia), entitled Looking for Mithra in Malta. Dr Sagona is the author of The Archaeology of Punic Malta and her latest publication is Looking for Mithra in Malta. ...

A VERY OLD TORAH SCROLL is up for auction at Sotheby's:

730-year-old Torah scroll on auction this month
By TALI MINSBERG (Jerusalem Post)

The oldest complete Spanish Torah scroll will be up for sale at Sotheby's Judaica auction on November 24.

The scroll, the only Spanish Torah to include the kabbalistic traditions of curved letters, has an estimated worth of $300,000-$500,000.

Yitzchok Reisman, a world-renowned sofer (scribe), discovered the 730-year-old scroll about 10 years ago, and was able to date it and identify its origin.

[...]

Need I say it? It belongs in a museum. In any case, I hope that whoever buys it will make it available to scholars for study. That will only increase its value, which makes access a win-win proposition.

THE UCL ARAMAIC INCANTATION BOWL CONTROVERSY is back in the news:

UK scholars linked to 'stolen' bowls of Babylon

Suppressed report reveals archaeological treasures were dug up after Gulf war

* Vanessa Thorpe and James Doeser
* The Observer, Sunday 8 November 2009
* Article history

A secret report on the chequered history of priceless Aramaic bowls loaned to a leading university has exposed an apparent attempt to cover up UK academic connections to a potentially deadly trade in stolen Iraqi antiquities.

The findings of the study, which was suppressed by a controversial legal agreement in 2007, have at last solved a long-standing archaeological mystery.

Commissioned by University College London in 2005, it confirms the expert view that the bowls were stolen from the historical site of Babylon and should be returned to Iraq or handed over to the police. The report was completed in 2006 but suppressed a year later in a legal settlement made between the university and the putative owner of the bowls, the multimillionaire Norwegian collector, Martin Schøyen.

But a copy of its findings recently placed in the House of Lords library reveals that specialists in archaeology are convinced that the incantation bowls, dating from the fifth to eighth centuries, must have come from Iraq illegally. They believe the rare finds were probably dug up from the remains of Babylon some time after the 1991 Gulf war and were not found in Jordan, as believed by Schøyen. The UCL report concludes that "the bowls are subject to the Iraq United Nations sanctions order 2003 as cultural objects illicitly removed from Iraq after 6 August 1990 and that UCL has therefore a duty to deliver them to a constable".

[...]

It's a little odd to see this surfacing again now. All this was known in 2007 and I don't see anything new here, except perhaps that the report was deposited in the House of Lord library recently. Background here.

THE RAPHAEL GOLB case is covered in the New York Times:

2,000-Year-Old Scrolls, Internet-Era Crime

By JIM DWYER
Published: November 6, 2009

Early one morning in March, the law banged on the door of an apartment on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village. Investigators had a warrant to arrest Raphael Haim Golb and seize his computer. He was caught red-handed.

Mr. Golb is, or was, a guerrilla fighter in a cyberbrawl over the Dead Sea Scrolls, a war about the origins of 2,000-year-old documents that has consumed the energy of academics around the globe.

He was being arrested for fighting dirty.

Mr. Golb is 49 years old and had 50 e-mail aliases. He used pseudonyms to post on blogs. Under the name of a professor he was trying to undermine, prosecutors charged, Mr. Golb wrote a quasi confession to plagiarism and circulated it among students and officials at New York University.

[...]

It appears that Mr. Golb is not challenging the accusation of making the pseudonymous posts [CORRECTION (9 November): This AP article says he does deny sending them]:

In court papers filed last week, Mr. Golb’s lawyers argued that prosecutors were trying to criminalize the commonplace. Both sides in the Dead Sea Scrolls debate, they said, use “sock puppets” — fake identities — on the Internet to make it seem as if scores of people are arguing a point.

“These bloggers marshaled their legion of sock puppets to engage in intellectual combat with the sock puppets allegedly created by Raphael Golb and others,” the lawyers wrote.

[...]

It is true that some bloggers (and commenters) sometimes use sock puppets in comment sections (i.e., make their own viewpoints look more widely held by posting them under multiple fake identities). But this can be detected by people who know what to look for, and when outed the the sock-puppeteers are ridiculed by other bloggers. Sock puppetry is very poor form among bloggers. This defense is rather insulting to conscientious bloggers and commenters, and I doubt that there were "legions" of other sock-puppeteers debating with the author of these posts and e-mails, but it's true that sock puppetry is sometimes used on the Internet. But the issue is surely not the sock puppetry per se, which is pathetic but I can't see anything illegal about it. Rather it is, first, the impersonation of Professor Schiffman and, second, the defamation associated with the impersonation. But I am not a lawyer and I don't know what the legal issues are and I have no idea how the case will turn out.

But what about the injury Mr. Golb apparently tried to inflict on Lawrence H. Schiffman, the chairman of Judaic studies at N.Y.U.? Someone wrote from larry.schiffman@gmail.com to Professor Schiffman’s graduate students and dean, alerting them to an article that suggested he had committed plagiarism. Perhaps two things go without saying: The article was actually written under one of Raphael Golb’s pseudonyms, and Professor Schiffman has been critical of the theories of Golb père.

The defense claims that the e-mail messages were transparent parodies, and that in any event, injury to a reputation is a civil matter, not a criminal violation.

“He writes letters in my names in which I am admitting to horrendous offenses,” Professor Schiffman said Friday. “This is the rough-and-tumble of the Internet?”

[...]

Again, I don't know the legal ins and outs of the offense, but I do know that if someone tried to damage my good name in this way, I would consider it a very serious matter indeed.

Incidentally, I received one of those messages (of accusation, not one claiming to be from Schiffman himself) and it was in no way clear to me that it was a "parody." It seemed entirely serious.

Background here and follow the links back.

UPDATE (9 November): I have revised this post to gather my thoughts a little more coherently and to make a correction.

HOW TO TALK LIKE AN INTELLECTUAL. The epistemology of praxis functions as the conceptual frame for the construction of linguistic transparency.

(Via David Meadows on Facebook.)

RAPHAEL GOLB is reportedly (according to the AP) using a parodies and free speech defense in his trial over the online sock-puppet defamatory impersonations of Larry Schiffman.

Background here.

THE ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY is opening a new exhibition of antiquities this month:

Latest ancient finds to go display in J'lem

By DANIELLE ROTHMAN (Jerusalem Post)

The Israel Antiquities Authority is presenting a new exhibition which includes ancient coins uncovered at the Temple Mount and a 2,000-year-old sarcophagus lid. The new display will open on November 11 at the Davidson Center and in the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden, just south of the Temple Mount. Many of the artifacts have not previously been shown to the public.

The exhibition integrates the most recent research done about ancient Jerusalem. It includes three sections: one features the sarcophagus [funeral receptacle] lid inscribed with the words "Ben HaCohen HaGadol" - "Son of the High Priest."

Another display presents Jerusalem as a metropolis during the late Second Temple Period, while a third exhibits artifacts from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple.

[...]

Also, the Arutz Sheva article, "New Exhibit: 2,000 Year-Old Temple Mount Coins," which covers the same story has a lot more information about the coins.

AN INDICTMENT for the Avdat vandalism:

2 Beduins charged in Uvdat archeological vandalism rampage
By YAAKOV LAPPIN (Jerusalem Post)

Two Beduin men, both 22 were indicted in Beersheba Magistrate's Court on Wednesday for going on a vandalism rampage at the UNESCO-recognized Uvdat archeological park last month.

According to police, Hassan and Ahmad Al-Marrak, were motivated by a desire to avenge the state's demolition of illegal structures that belonged to the suspects' clan, police added.

[...]

Background here.

A SYRIAC INSCRIPTION has been found in Urfa, Turkey. The report is in Turkish, but here's a Google translation. Excerpt:

Workers in the field of business lasting Beyazkule plow tractors come into contact with the hard object was noticed.

So the workers gained ground, half a meter below the ground one meter 30 centimeters long, 60 inches wide and weighs approximately 100 pounds came across the stone mass.

Looks like a stone monumental inscription. No word yet on what it says, although the photo looks fairly readable.

Urfa is the site of ancient Edessa, where the Aramaic dialect that became the literary language Syriac developed.

(Via Ozcan Gecer via George Kiraz on the Hugoye list.)

THE BAR KOKHBA-ERA COIN HOARD discovered recently is discussed by Richard Giedroyc in World Coin News. Excerpt:

David Hendin of New York, an expert in ancient Judaean coins, put the find into perspective for this World Coin News article, saying: “Leo Mildenberg reported on several hoards of Bar-Kokhba coins in the 1970s and early 1980s that apparently consisted of up to thousands of coins. Most of those coins ended up in the market. The find you report is extraordinary because it was from a controlled scientific excavation, and therefore it will tell us much more about the coins and the people who used them than the coins alone.”

Hendin added, “[As] far as the market, I do not see many fresh Bar-Kokhba coins coming from Israel. This is probably due to both fewer being found and strict regulations on commerce. There are thousands of Bar-Kokhba bronze and silver coins in collections and in trade, since they have been discovered, bought and sold for nearly 200 years.”

“I had the pleasure to meet Boaz Zissu some years ago and he is a very sharp young archaeologist who has done a lot of work in the caves where Bar-Kokhba’s men hid, and this is an extension of that work,” said Hendin.

Ancient and Judaica coin dealer William Rosenblum of Evergreen, Colo., thoughtfully added, “At the moment the archaeology community seems intent on keeping coins out of the hands of numismatists so it will be interesting to see what becomes of the ‘hoard’.”

Background here.

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS is not sparing academia: Jeffrey R. Zorn, The Economic Downturn Hits Biblical Archaeology. More from Biblical Archaeology Review:

In the current issue's Archaeological Views column, Biblical archaeologist Jeffrey R. Zorn reflects on the negative impact that the current economic conditions have had on academic departments around the country-particularly in the fields of Biblical archaeology and Near Eastern studies. With many senior professors' retirements accounts being hit by the downturn, many are electing to stay on instead of retiring, which means fewer open positions for younger colleagues just emerging on the job market. Combined with departmental budget cuts, a decrease in dig volunteers and fewer funds available for grants, it seems that Biblical archaeology is as susceptible as every other sector when it comes to the impact of the economic difficulties of the times

THE SECRET MARK LETTER attributed to Clement of Alexandria is published in Morton Smith's English translation in Biblical Archaeology Review.

While looking for ancient documents in the Mar Saba monastery library in the Judean Desert, scholar Morton Smith made a discovery that rocked the academic world: Copied onto the end-pages of a 17th-century book was a previously unknown letter from Clement of Alexandria, a second-century church father, that contained passages of a lost "secret" gospel of Mark. More than 50 years after this remarkable revelation, the debate over the authenticity of the document continues. But what did the letter say? What follows is Morton Smith's translation as it appears in his book Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark.

Recent background here.

NEW ONLINE JOURNAL:

Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:36:21 -0500
From: "Mendelsohn, Adam D" MendelsohnA@COFC.EDU
Subject: Oqimta: Studies in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature

From: Peretz Rodman [peretz@alumni.brandeis.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 11:14 AM
Subject: CFP: Oqimta: Studies in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature

We are pleased to announce the establishment of a new online academic journal dealing with Talmud and rabbinic literature, to be called Oqimta: Studies in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature and scheduled to appear annually. Printed volumes will be produced on demand.

Scholars are invited to submit articles in Hebrew or other languages. Long articles and studies offering editions of primary sources are welcome. Short notes and reviews of new books will appear as well.

Articles must meet accepted scholarly standards and will be submitted for outside review. Submissions should be sent by electronic mail to the managing editor at: editor@oqimta.com.

An outline of style requirements is available at the journal's Website:
http://www.oqimta.com

Editor:
- Prof. Shamma Friedman
Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Bar Ilan University

Editoral Board:
- Prof. Isaiah M. Gafni
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Prof. Myron Bialik Lerner
Tel Aviv University
- Dr. Rami Reiner
Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Managing Editor:
- Peretz Rodman
Hebrew College

Oqimta is a publication of Paran Publishing, P.O. Box 10141, Ramat Gan 52001, Israel.

(Again, from the H-JUDAIC list.)

THE CATALOGUE OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS IN THE VATICAN is now online. From the H-JUDAIC list:

Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:48:35 -0500
From: "Mendelsohn, Adam D"
Subject: Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican now online

From: Benjamin Richler [benjaminr@savion.huji.ac.il]=20
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 1:56 AM
Subject: Catalogue of Hebrew MSS in the Vatican, now online (for H-Judaic)


The National Library of Israel is pleased to announce that the catalogue of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Vatican library is now available online on the website of the National Library of Israel: http://jnul.huji.ac.il/heb/vatican-catH.html

The catalogue was published by the publishing house of the Vatican Library which graciously granted permission to display it online. In the near future the catalogue will also be online at the website of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vatican


Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican Library: Catalogue, compiled by the staff of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, edited by Benjamin Richler; paleographical and codicological descriptions Malachi Beit-Ari=E9 in collaboration with Nurit Pasternak. (Citt=E0 del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2008, Studi e Testi 438)


Benjamin Richler

NOSTALGIA over the hoo-haw surrounding The Myth of God Incarnate in the late 70s and early 80s: R. Joseph Hoffmann asks "Does Christology Rest on a Mistake?" at the Bible and Interpretation website. Excerpt:

This is a memorandum to myself as to why I no longer see that period in quite the same way, and why I think I missed the point and the wisdom of the “Myth of God Incarnate-debate.” The Myth of God Incarnate was not (to repeat) a seminar devoted to the historical Jesus. That there had been one was assumed with the same nonchalance as one would say “Well of course I had a grandfather. Where do you think I come from?” What there had not been is an incarnation—presumably also, while there was disagreement on some specifics, not a resurrection, virgin birth, or assorted other signs and wonders either. God had not become man.

Note also Dr. Hoffman's recent essay on the Jesus Project.

CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS has died a few weeks before his 101st birthday:

Claude Lévi-Strauss Dies at 100

By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN (NYT)
Published: November 3, 2009

Claude Lévi-Strauss, the French anthropologist who transformed Western understanding of what was once called “primitive man” and who towered over the French intellectual scene in the 1960s and ’70s, has died at 100.

[...]

Requiescat in pace.

(Via the Agade list, which also notes this obituary in Le Monde.)

THE STORY OF THE SECRET GOSPEL OF MARK is told by Charles Hedrick in a Biblical Archaeology Review article ("An Amazing Discovery"). Read it all, but most interesting to me was his account of the fate of the manuscript after Morton Smith's publications on it came out:

In light of the issues raised by Smith’s two books, efforts were made to see and examine the Voss book containing the letter of Clement, which Smith claimed to have found in the Mar Saba library. In 1976, three years after the publication of Smith’s books on Secret Mark, three Hebrew University scholars (David Flusser, Shlomo Pines and Guy G. Stroumsa, then a graduate student at the Hebrew University), in the company of an official of the Greek Orthodox Church (Archimandrite Meliton), went to Mar Saba and managed to “relocate” the book, after some searching around in the tower library where Smith left it. Because of its significance, all concurred that it should be taken to Jerusalem and secured in the Patriarchate library. They hoped that a scientific test of the ink would demonstrate the date of the inscription of Clement’s letter, but such a test was not permitted. Subsequent scholars who visited the library later were not permitted to see the book.
In 1980 Thomas Talley, a professor at General Theological Seminary in New York, reported in an article that he was not allowed to see the letter because it had been removed from the book and was being “repaired.”13 Shortly after the book was deposited in the Patriarchate library in Jerusalem, the librarian (Kallistos Dourvas) removed the two folios containing the Clement letter in order to photograph it. He then replaced the two loose folios at the back of the book.14 And then the Voss book itself was “misplaced” in the library and could not be located. In June 2000, however, the Voss volume was relocated in the Patriarchate library, but the two folios containing the letter of Clement were missing. They are still missing.

So apparently a number of people besides Smith have seen the pages in question, but they are now lost. Until they are recovered, I suspect the debate on their authenticity (not to mention the authenticity of Secret Mark) will continue.

Other articles in the same issue of BAR are available only to paid subscribers. April De Conick comments here. No comments yet from Stephen Carlson, but congratulations to him anyway on the recent sixth anniversary of his blog Hypotyposes.

UPDATE (5 November): For Morton Smith's translation of the text of the letter, published by BAR, go here.

A FIND IN HEBRON is reported by the Ma'an News Agency:

Roman-era cemetery uncovered near Hebron
Published Thursday 29/10/2009 (updated) 30/10/2009 14:37
Font- Font+
Nablus antiquities police [MaanImages - Archive]
Hebron – Ma'an – Palestinian tourism and antiquities police uncovered Roman-era cemeteries in the town of Halhul, north of Hebron, on Thursday, according to the department's media office.

[...]

(Via the Agade list.)

THE WEST SEMITIC RESEARCH PROJECT is profiled in the Los Angeles Times:

Messages from the past become easy to read
USC researchers are producing crisp images of inscriptions and artifacts from biblical Israel and other Near Eastern locales and putting the pictures online.

By Duke Helfand

November 2, 2009

[...]

Over the last three decades, the USC project has produced thousands of crisp images of inscriptions and other artifacts from biblical Israel and other Near Eastern locales, making the pictures available to the public in an online archive, InscriptiFact.com.

Among the items shown in the online collection is a Dead Sea Scroll dating to the 1st century that discusses a buried treasure in modern-day Israel. (It's impossible to pinpoint the precise location because landmarks mentioned in the text no longer exist.)

The database also features an Aramaic inscription on a sheet of papyrus written by a group of Jews in Egypt five centuries before the birth of Jesus. In the text -- whose image is so sharp it reveals the grain of the papyrus -- Jews petition distant Persian rulers for permission to rebuild a temple.

"A picture is worth a thousand words," said Bruce Zuckerman, a USC religion professor who founded the research project in the early 1980s. "Sometimes big issues in history can turn on the interpretation of a single letter."

Zuckerman's foray into the world of photography and ancient texts grew out of his frustration over the poor quality of archaeological photos.

Museum photographers, he recalled, often missed important details because they lacked scholarly expertise.

Biblical researchers, meanwhile, typically did not have enough experience with photography to produce compelling images.

Zuckerman wanted to bridge the gap. He turned to his older brother, Ken, a self-taught photographer and former Caltech engineer.

Together, the Zuckermans began taking -- and distributing -- photos of ancient inscriptions.

The brothers combined large-format cameras and multiple sources of light that revealed an object's otherwise hidden details. Digital cameras and computers, introduced into the process about a decade ago, provided more precise images.

[...]

I was there when they started, as Bruce's research assistant in 1982-83. Back then the equipment consisted of a polaroid camera to get the shot set up just right, then a high-quality camera and film to take a perfect image.

Read the rest of the article to learn about their new gizmos. One is actually called "the Gizmo."

For the websites of the West Semitic Research Project and Inscriptfact follow the links. For one of the current projects, go here. There's more on Bruce Zuckerman here (and follow the links back). And there's a post on Marilyn Lundberg here, although unfortunately the main link has rotted.

UPDATE ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SCROLL at the Royal Ontario Museum Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition: Last week while I was in transit from San Diego, reader Daniel A. Machiela e-mailed:

Just a note on your earlier post on the 10 commandments scroll. I was to the ROM twice that week and it was indeed 4QDeutn, and not the Nash Papyrus, that was on display. I gave a tour through the exhibit a week ago Friday and the place was absolute chaos. They were turning away hundreds of people who wanted to see the scroll (including us...) - I guess interest in our line of work has not waned!

Thanks for the clarification.

Background here.

PHOENICIAN WATCH (CONFERENCE):

Tunisia to host 7th international congress on Phoenician and Punic studies

TUNISIAONLINENEWS- The 7th international congress will be held in Hammamet, Tunisia form November 10 to 14, 2009 under the motto “life, religion and death in the Phoenician and Punic world”.

The congress in organized jointly by the National Heritage Institute (INP) and the National Agency for Revival of Heritage and Cultural Development as well as the Research Unity: Punic Carthage and culture dissemination.

250 researchers and historians including epigraphists and archeologist from different Arab and foreign countries will take part in this event.

The program involves architectural constructions, the funeral Neo-Punic lexicon and deities and the Phoenician sanctuaries.

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Al Ahram fans the flames:

Upping the ante at Al-Aqsa
Despite Arab government denials, Muslim officials on the ground confirm Jewish extremists are escalating plans to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

Government-backed Jewish religious extremists have stepped up their efforts to seize a foothold at Al-Aqsa Mosque esplanade in East Jerusalem, ostensibly in order to erect there a Jewish temple.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the three holiest Islamic sanctuaries. The other two are the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet Mohamed's Mosque in Medina in Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, 25 October crack Israeli soldiers stormed the Al-Aqsa site, firing rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters at Muslim worshipers. The troops also savagely beat Palestinian worshipers, including women and children. The paramilitary police, known as the Border Guard, also briefly shut off the Noble Sanctuary (the 141,000-square metre court housing Islamic holy places), barring Muslims from accessing the site.

More than 20 were injured, some badly, and dozens of others arrested. The Israeli occupation authorities also cut off electricity to the Old City of Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Not being in Jerusalem, I can't comment firsthand on what is going on there, but it appears that another account of these same events is covered here. I note also that Khaled Amayreh's account is perhaps nuanced by the photo accompanying the essay, whose caption reads, "Palestinian youths hurl stones towards Israeli riot policemen during clashes in Jerusalem's old city on Sunday."

This paragraph:

Many Jews believe that the ancient Temple of Solomon stood where Al-Aqsa Mosque was built more than 1,300 years ago. Destroying Al-Aqsa Mosque and building a Jewish temple in its place is said by some extremists to be a condition for the second coming of Christ.

is carefully worded to try to leave doubt that there was a Jewish Temple on the site. It's not quite Temple denial, but it is disingenuous. (Cf. "Temple Mount" in scare quotes later on.) This paragraph and the article in general seems to toss around the term "extremist" pretty freely. I would not call someone an "extremist" unless they were taking, well, extreme (i.e., violent or inciting to violence) steps to try to force the rebuilding of the Temple. There are people who are exercising their free speech to call for its rebuilding (e.g., here). I think they are misguided and politically unhelpful, for reasons explained at the link, but it's a little much to call them extremists. Likewise, people on both sides have the right to engage in peaceful protests. Those on either side engaging in violent ones are only damaging their own cause.

As for this:

Earlier, the Israeli media reported that Israel was planning a "major archaeological excavation under Al-Buraq Court", renamed "the Western Wall plaza". Historically, the place had always been part of Al-Aqsa Mosque until the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem in 1967. The excavation, Muslim leaders argue, could seriously destabilise the foundations of Al-Aqsa Mosque and other nearby historic Muslim structures. Israeli officials pay little or no attention to Muslim protests and often invoke the mantra that Jerusalem is Israel's eternal and undivided capital.

Adnan Al-Husseini is the head of the Supreme Muslim Council, the body overseeing and running the Haram Al-Sharif compound. He accuses Israel of "planning to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque by way of digging subterranean tunnels in its vicinity."

There are no plans to dig under the Al-Aqsa Mosque. On this see, for example, here and here.

ARAMAIC WATCH: Ariel Sabar's book My Father's Paradise, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the Spring, has been getting some more media attention lately. The Los Angeles Times notes the book and appears to interview both him and his father, Yona. Excerpt:

Asked to assess the future of the culture that has consumed him, Yona shakes his head. "I felt I was an undertaker, because I felt this was the last stage of the language," he says. "So I felt what I can do to salvage this heritage is by documenting it in books for scholars who are interested. Ariel's book in a way is a monument to that lost life. Because you cannot restore it physically."

What neither man could have anticipated is how the book's success has spurred interest in Aramaic and the Jewish Kurds and helped reconnect those who were raised in that culture.

Yona now hears regularly from friends, colleagues and former students with whom he had lost touch over the decades. He fields inquiries from screenwriters asking for assistance in translating snatches of Aramaic. He gets e-mails from prisoners who've found religion and want to learn Christ's language. He does his best to accommodate them all.

Not only that, but "My Father's Paradise" has given comfort to relatives who have wondered how they would be able to pass on the old family stories to future generations.

"Now," they tell Yona, "I can give my children a book to read."

Background here.

Two other books are reviewed by Nick Owchar, again in the LA Times. The first, by Alan Jacobs, When Jesus Lived in India: The Quest for the Aquarian Gospel: The mystery of the Missing Years, supports the baseless notion that Jesus traveled to India in his lifetime. Baseless not because it couldn't have happened – Jesus' contemporary, the philosopher Apollonius of Tyana, is reported to have done just that – but because there is no evidence for it except for very much later accounts from India of the sort that someone would have had to make up sooner or later (plus a modern forgery). More on the subject here.

The second is a review of Janet Soskice, The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels. Excerpt:

Agnes and Margaret Smith turned their passion for exploration into a stunning discovery of an early copy of the Gospels written in Syriac during the heyday of British mania for such artifacts. A theology professor at the University of Cambridge, Soskice has crafted a thoughtful, detailed reconstruction of the lives of two people with unique resources that led to even more unique opportunities.

The Smiths chanced upon this precious object in 1892, locked away in a "dark closet" in St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. Though other treasure-seekers had been there before them, those earlier visitors ignored a filthy-looking, ruined volume with "its leaves nearly all stuck together." This item, the sisters realized, turned out to be a palimpsest text: Long ago, monks had scratched away the older text (the Syriac version of the Gospels) to reuse the pages for something else. But somehow the old text didn't entirely disappear and was "revived by the action of the common air." It bled through the other writing on the pages.

Background here.

HEADING TO EDINBURGH TODAY to give a paper on the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project at New College.

A LEAGUE OF CANAANITE, PHOENICIAN, AND PUNIC CITIES is being founded:

30 Mideastern towns form League of Phoenician, Canaanite, Punic cities
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 15, 2009

TYRE: The International Committee for the Safeguarding of Tyre announced on Wednesday the launching of the League of Phoenician, Canaanite and Punic Cities. The league will be part of the Tyre Foundation, a new international organization that is to include about 30 cities located on the Mediterranean coast. It will aim at reinforcing cooperation between the cities on four main aspects: culture, tourism, preservation of traditional crafts and combating sea pollution. The Tyre Foundation would also be collaborating with more than 40 universities across the Mediterranean.

Head of the International Committee for the Safeguarding of Tyre Maha al-Khalil Shalabi explained that the idea for the league was presented at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris. The goal was to create an association of cities that were founded by the Phoenicians or that had commercial, cultural or human relations with the Phoenicians.

[...]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

TODAY IS CYRUS-THE-GREAT DAY:

Another Iran: King Cyrus Day
by Amil Imani (Arutz Sheva)

October 29th honors Cyrus the Great, a pioneer in promoting human rights who allowed the Jews to return to Israel in 539 B.C.E. Iran's present barbaric Islamic regime is attempting to erase vestiges of its enlightened non-Islamic cultural heritage.

October 29th has been designated as the international day of Cyrus the Great, a matchless king of Persia. Commemorating Cyrus the Great is synonymous with honoring the glorious ancient Iranians and Iranians’ way of life. Palpable reminders to Iranians and all liberty-loving people of the world of this just king’s reign stand in the field of Pasargad.

The International Committee to Save the Archeological Sites of Pasargad has the undying gratitude of the diverse people of the Greater Iran for its work in safeguarding these magnificent symbols of Iran’s luminous past which serve as beacons for guiding all people in their quest for freedom and dignity.

The arduous task undertaken by the Committee to Save the Archeological Sites of Pasargad is all the more difficult in the face of the present Islamic regime’s relentless barbaric attempts to wipe out any and all vestiges of Iran’s proud and praiseworthy cultural heritage. To these barbaric Islamists, any ideals or symbols representing humanity’s non-Islamic enlightenment is good only for the fire of their bigotry.

[...]

The Cyrus-as-human-rights-pioneer is rather overplayed, although, as I've said before, he does look good compared to Iran's current leaders. Background here and follow the links.

THE GOLEM rises again for Halloween in Los Angeles:

Bringing a ‘Golem’ to Life

By Karla S. Blume (JewishJournal.com)

For a scare steeped in Jewish mysticism this Halloween, REDCAT is bringing Paul Wegener’s “The Golem” to the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater on Friday and Saturday night. But the screening of the 1920 silent horror classic, which recounts the Eastern European legend of a large clay figure brought to life to protect the Jews of Prague, will be accompanied by the debut of an improvised musical score by Brian LeBarton.

LeBarton, 30, a keyboardist best known as music director for alternative rocker Beck, will lead a costumed band that includes a cellist and a guest percussionist, Carla Azar of the L.A. band Autolux.

“I’m going to have lots of toys and beastly synths around that night to help make the music sound ancient,” LeBarton said.

[...]

More Golem posts here.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The political flare-up continues. Here is some recent coverage.

• The Boston Globe editorializes against current excavations. Excerpt:

The current crisis originates in Palestinian fear and anger over archaeological excavations near, but not underneath, the Al Aqsa mosque. The digs are under the control of an ultra-nationalist Israeli group intent on justifying a Jewish claim to Jerusalem by locating remnants of what is called the City of David. Those excavations have weakened the foundations of nearby Arab houses and led critics across the Muslim world to warn of a plot to cause the collapse of the Al Aqsa mosque.

For more controversy over the Elad excavations, see here and follow the links back.

• Dr. Eilat Mazar is interviewed by Israel National Radio about the City of David excavations:

What is the most controversial site today in Israel? The City of David. The focus of that fight is the northern top of the hill where a massive structure has been uncovered by Dr. Eilat Mazar, who attributes it to King David! This conclusion is under attack by scholars. Eilat addresses it head-on! The story of what made her dig here is fantastic. She tells the story of how the destruction of Temple Mount remains brought about the adoption of wet sifting, in turn producing 60 percent of her finds including the personal seals of biblical characters. This success influenced Elah Fortress and other digs. Dr. Mazar conducts a wide ranging discussion on archaeology, its importance, new and old methods, the thinking, the implications, and her own story of how she was drawn into this world by her grandfather Benjamin Mazar. This a unique, personable, exciting, and enlightening session with one of the most articulate spokespeople for Israel's history. Really a day seminar condensed into less than an hour.
Dr. Mazar is in the forefront of protecting the site and the remains of the Temple Mount. Eilat asks that you participate in the petition to stop the destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities at http://www.har-habayt.org/what.html, and become familiar with this topic.

• The Israeli Security Minister weighs in on the political situation:

Minister slams both Jews, Arabs over Temple Mount unrest

Internal Security Minister Aharonovitch attempts to calm tensions, avert future riots in capital. 'Stop messing with Temple Mount' he says, addressing both Jews, Arabs

Amnon Meranda
Published: 10.28.09, 18:20 / Israel News (Ynetnews.com)

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch urged on Wednesday both Arabs and Jews to abstain from provocations, in the wake of recent riots in the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.

Addressing the issue of violence in the Old City at the Knesset, the minister said, "I will not allow leaders on both sides, the Arab and the Jewish, to further incite and use the holy sites for their political interests. I will not let the Temple Mount turn into a boxing ring."

Following a brief quiet spell, riots broke out again earlier in the week in Jerusalem's Old City. More than 20 people were detained while members of the Islamic Movement, accused by police of inflaming the crowds, claimed that Arabs only wished to pray at the site and slamming police for provoking the unrest by using excessive force.

Speaking at the Knesset on Wednesday, Aharonovitch said, "I call on both sides – the Jewish MKs, who encourage visits to the Temple Mount and falsely accuse the police, and the Arab MKs, who urge to save the al-Aqsa mosque thus stirring and inciting - you know that al-Aqsa wasn't in danger, is not in danger and will not be in danger in the future."

[...]

ROBERT EISENMAN wants to rebuild the Temple! In a Jerusalem Post Opinion piece, Remember, the Temple was built by Herod, he writes:

The problem is we must start from scratch based on being a territorial people once again.

We need a new approach to religion if, for instance, we are to combat the J Streets, Goldstones or George Soroses of this world, not to mention appealing to the imagination of questioning disaffected youth; and the first step should have been to start rebuilding the Temple.

This does not mean one should revive the priesthood or the sacrificial cult. You need living symbols to move the people. If nothing else, Herod showed us this and the durability of the wall he built is its final proof.

Unfortunately, Rabbinic Judaism can no longer provide us these. Two millennia, yes, and up to the Holocaust. But no further. It cannot provide us with the blueprint for becoming territorial once again. Moshe Dayan was wrong in ordering the Israeli flag taken down, in effect, surrendering sovereignty and giving the Muslim Wakf control over the Temple Mount. No self-respecting people after two victorious wars would have behaved in this way. But he had no guideposts to rely upon, only egocentrism and his own pragmatism - plus he loved the grande geste.

But now, almost three generations after the Holocaust and with its memory beginning to fade, we have nothing positive to appeal to our young generations in Israel and abroad. It is poetry and the spirit that provide this. They are the positives, not humiliating renunciations. The reconstruction of a Temple - any Temple - should have begun 40 years ago and we would be well on our way toward achieving these things. This does not mean we should emulate the old design. Its content, shape and operation should be open to investigation, even architectural competitions, and creativity; but the symbol would be there.

It took the Herodian Temple almost 90 years to be completed. Ours and even its early stage - archeological investigation - hasn't even begun. People need a positive historical Judaism to go forward and this does not mean a Roman/Herodian-sponsored Phariseeism. People need positive symbols to rally around. The time is late. There is plenty of room on the Mount for everyone.

In no other manner can we gain the respect of the world and regain our own self-respect, and the world come to understand us - and we come to understand ourselves.

I'm certainly not persuaded that efforts to rebuild the Temple would strengthen Israel's political hand. And as I've said many times before, there should be no digging on the Temple mount apart from scientifically-controlled archaeological excavations, preferably at a (probably not too distant) future time when they can done nonintrusively via molecular technology and the like.

For Herod's Arab background, see here. For the recent discovery (perhaps) of Herod's tomb at Herodium, see here and here. I don't see that Herod's background and character are going to have much effect on the symbolism of the Temple for Judaism.

MORE ON THE BEIT SHEARIM CAVES:

93-year-old architect claims he discovered the Beit Shearim caves, not Alexander Zaid
By Eli Ashkenazi (Haaretz)

A leading interior architect and exhibition designer claims he discovered the burial caves at the ancient necropolis in Beit Shearim 73 years ago, not the famed watchman Alexander Zaid.

[...]

"It was Purim 1936. Three of us went for a hike and entered a large deserted cave, which the Arabs used to keep goats in," Maron, 93, said yesterday.

He says he threw a stone at a wall in the cave and heard an echo, indicating a hollow behind it.

"I looked for an opening in the wall, and entered a cave containing sarcophagi, whose walls were inscribed with drawings and Menorahs," he said.

[...]

Background here.

SOME ANCIENT BURIAL CAVES in Beit Shearim have been restored and opened to the public:

2,000-year-old 'Menorah' burial caves in Beit Shearim opened to public
By Eli Ashkenazi (Haaretz)

Seventy-three years after the famous watchman Alexander Zaid went looking for a stray goat and stumbled upon ancient burial caves, Beit Shearim national park yesterday held a ceremony for two newly opened caves in the ancient necropolis, whose burial vaults date to Mishnaic times, roughly the first two centuries C.E.

Zaid, famous as the founder of the Bar Giora and Shomer self-defense groups active before the founding of the state, was just being a shepherd in 1936 when he found the caves dug out of rock. Conservation work began there four years ago, and the two new caves were discovered. They contain a relief of a seven-branched menorah, and so the newly opened site is being called "the Menorah caves."

[...]

Beit Shearim Menorah Caves Restored

by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin unveiled a huge ancient relief depicting a seven branched menorah at Beit Shearim in the Galilee Tuesday. The menorah, which is 1.90 m. (75”) high, is one of the major tourist attractions at the renovated ancient burial cave site.

The burial caves were discovered decades ago but their recent renovation took place largely thanks to Rivlin's initiative. In 2004, during his first term as Knesset Speaker, Rivlin visited the site and was stirred by the site of the numerous depictions of the menorah, which is the modern State of Israel's symbol as well.

[...]

UPDATE: Incorrect link fixed. Sorry!

NEW BOOK:

The Commentators' Bible (Leviticus)
The JPS Miqra'ot Gedolot: Leviticus
By Michael Carasik PhD (author)

$75.00 · add to cart

Hardcover, 9" x 12", 270 pages
ISBN: 9780827608979


Available October 2009

The second volume of the acclaimed English edition of Miqra’ot Gedolot

First published 500 years ago as the “Rabbinic Bible,” the biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. With this edition, the voices of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Nahmanides, Rashbam, and other medieval Bible commentators come alive once more, speaking in a contemporary English translation annotated and explicated for lay readers.

Each page of this second volume in The Commentators’ Bible series contains several verses from the Book of Leviticus, surrounded by both the 1917 and 1985 JPS translations, and by new contemporary English translations of the major commentators. The book also includes an introduction, a glossary of terms, a list of names used in the text, notes on source texts, a special topics list, and resources for further study.

This large-format volume is beautifully designed for easy navigation among the many elements on each page, including explanatory notes and selected additional comments from the works of Bekhor Shor, Hizkuni, Abarbanel, Sforno, Gersonides, and others.

(Via the H-JUDAIC list.)

ENOCH LECTURE:

The Faculty of Divinity,
The Cambridge Theological Federation and
The Centre for The Study of Jewish–Christian Relations


invite you to a lecture


The Cultural History of Enoch from Antiquity to Christian Thrillers

Prof. Gyorgy Szonyi, Leverhulme Visiting Research Fellow
Central European University and University of Szeged

30 November 2009, 5pm

Runcie Room,
Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge University, West Road.

Drinks served afterwards.

Sent by Richard Bauckham.

I'M BACK IN ST. ANDREWS. Long trip. More tomorrow.

I'M HEADING BACK TO ST ANDREWS later this morning. I expect to get there Tuesday evening.

A REVIEW of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum by Jennifer Merrick in the Buffalo News. Excerpt:

The collection gives you an excellent sense of what life was like at that time, setting the scene before you even catch sight of the scrolls. Videos provide background and introduce some of the mysteries surrounding the documents. One of the greatest riddles is how they ended up in the Qumran caves. In the presentation, three scholars convincingly present their theories as to why they were found in this location.

“The jury is still out,” Rahimi says when asked what his thoughts were on this debate. He says he would rather present the information and let people make their own conclusions.

There suspense builds while going through the exhibits. Anticipation heightens as you finally enter the dimly lighted room that contains the scrolls themselves. The majesty of the writings combined with the lighting and music create a somber and contemplative atmosphere that reflects the weight of these pages’ impact on history.

Each of the eight fragments has its own case with a translation and a commentary putting the material in context. Some are biblical, including texts from Genesis, Psalms and Daniel, while others are secular, like one on papyrus of a property deed. The signature can clearly be seen.

“It’s like having an autograph of people you know about historically,” says Rahimi.

Also, this paragraph, which comes a little earlier in the piece, is odd:

“One of the exhibit’s goals,” says Dan Rahimi, gallery developer and archaeologist, “is to give visitors the context; to show what was going on in 13th century B. C., a time of major, major change.”

I suspect that someone's notes got confused and that "13th" is a mistake for "the first to third."

OH OH!

Tsunami Wave 'Likely' to Hit Israel, Says U. Haifa Researcher

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) A researcher at the University of Haifa says there is a "likely chance" that a tsunami wave could hit the shores of Israel, and that she has uncovered evidence it has happened before.

Dr. Beverly Goodman, a researcher at the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, said following a geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea that "Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence."

Goodman's original intent was to track down the remains of ships while examining the ancient port of Caesarea and its offshore shipwrecks. However, the geo-archaeologist said she was surprised to discover "unusual geological layers, the likes of which we had never seen in the region before."

[...]

The geo-archaeologist found evidence of four tsunami events at Caesarea: in 1500 BC, 100-200 CE, 500-600 CE, and 1100-1200 CE, which she described in an article published in Geological Society of America.

Goodman explained that the earliest of these tsunamis resulted from the eruption of the Santorini volcano, which affected the entire Mediterranean region. The later, more local tsunami waves, Goodman assumes, were generated by underwater landslides caused by earthquakes.

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Lots of unrest lately.

Battle of the Al-Aqsa mosque erupts

Published Date: 26 October 2009 (The Scotsman)
By MATTI FRIEDMAN AND BEN LYNFIELD in Jerusalem

ISRAELI police with stun grenades fought masked Palestinian protesters hurling stones and plastic chairs outside the Holy Land's most volatile shrine, where past violence has escalated into prolonged conflict.

A wall of Israeli riot police yesterday marched towards young men covering their faces with scarves and T-shirts, sending many running for cover into the Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the Islamic structures in the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

[...]

The police accused the Islamic Movement, a fundamentalist group among Israel's Arab citizens, of provoking the violence.

But Zahi Najedat, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement, said tensions had been high because of a leaflet issued by Jewish extremist groups calling on Jews to come to the site, Judaism's holiest place because it housed ancient temples destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans.

[...]

ED COOK AT RALPH: Toward a Theory of Hebrew Poetic Tenses.