They speak of a Teacher of Righteousness and a pierced messiah, of cleansing through water and a battle of light against darkness.
But anyone looking to the Dead Sea Scrolls in search of proof, say, that Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah presaged by the prophets, or that John the Baptist lived among the scroll's authors, will be disappointed.
What the scrolls provide instead, scholars say, is a window into a world of religious ferment 2,000 years ago that gave rise to Judaism and Christianity as we know them today.
To understand how the Dead Sea Scrolls influenced early Christianity, just turn to the New Testament.
Take, for example, the Great Isaiah Scroll, a facsimile of which is on display as part of the Milwaukee Public Museum's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Written around 125 B.C. and the only scroll to emerge virtually intact from the caves at Qumran, its messianic message is quoted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke, the earliest of which wasn't written until around A.D. 65.
[...]
Also, more Scrolls events around this exhibit are noted here.
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: Qumran, Dead Sea
For the past two and a half months, Tania Treiger, a conservator with the Israel Antiquities Authority, has been pouring over a piece of parchment about 20 centimeters square. It began with a microscopic examination of the fragment to gauge its condition, and continued with the placement of special paper over the writing to very slowly remove the circa 1970s adhesive tape.
Treiger, whose tools include Q-tips, tweezers and lots of patience, is one of four "guardians" of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These four women, all from the former Soviet Union, are the only people in the world permitted to touch the scrolls.
First paragraph: I really do hope the author means "poring."
Second paragraph: it's kind of cool that I seem to be one of the last few people who were permitted to touch the Scrolls, around 1987-90 when I was working on the Genesis-Exodus material in my dissertation, which later came out in DJD 12. Although I suppose it would have been better for the Scrolls if we hadn't been permitted.
This is news to me:
The first of the Dead Sea Scrolls, among the most important archaeological finds in the world, were discovered in the mid-1940s in the Dead Sea area, and have been making headlines ever since. This week, the Hebrew daily Maariv reported that the IAA had decided to stop sending the scrolls abroad to exhibitions for fear of legal complications, after the Jordanian government demanded that Israel return scrolls to Jordan. ...
Not a good development, although perhaps understandable. Background on the Jordan demand is here.
The work of these four conservators is exceedingly important and I am glad to see them getting some public recognition for it.
By Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 22, 2010 10:57 p.m.
The ink on the 2,000-year-old parchments has faded. But for visitors at the opening of the Milwaukee Public Museum's "Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible" exhibit Friday, the power of the ancient writings remains.
The museum sold more than 1,500 tickets to the first day of the largest temporary exhibit it has ever produced. The exhibit displays more than 200 artifacts, including actual fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls from the third century B.C. to first century A.D., carrying biblical texts from such books as Genesis, Exodus and Deuteronomy. Medieval and modern Bibles also are on display.
UCL History Department is distinctive for the breadth of its expertise, stretching from the fourth millennium BC to the contemporary world. We are seeking a researcher to work within the framework of a comparative project under the direction of Dr Caroline Waerzeggers studying Second Temple Judaism and the Neo-Babylonian temple cult, specifically focusing on the post-exilic temple community of Jerusalem. The postholder will also be expected to do a moderate amount of teaching.
The post is funded by the European Research Council for 4 years from 1 September 2010.
This post is available from 1 September 2010 (or as soon as possible thereafter) and will be offered on a permanent contract
Applications are invited for a Chair in Jewish Studies. Candidates should have an outstanding record of research in some area of Jewish studies, and a sufficiently high international reputation to attract research students and research grants. The successful candidate will contribute to the Department’s teaching programme, and play a role in the administration and leadership of the Department. Applications are welcomed from any area within Jewish studies, ancient, medieval or modern, and from those whose approaches are textual, historical, philosophical or theological
This full-time, permanent post is available from 1 September 2010
Applications are invited for the above post in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Candidates should hold, or be near completion of, a PhD. Candidates should be able to demonstrate a good research record and potential in religious studies, preferably with expertise in the Jewish tradition, but applications are also welcome from those whose specialism lies in the sociology or anthropology of religion, or comparative religion, or from those with an interest in the Islamic tradition. The successful candidate will be responsible for teaching undergraduate and postgraduate modules, for supervising postgraduate research and for contributing to departmental administration
SAD NEWS: the Agade list reports that Abraham Malamat has passed away:
From Shmuel Ahituv ahituvs@013.net came this very sad message: ===================================================
I am sorry to convey the sad message that Professor (emeritus) Abraham Malamat of the Hebrew University has passed away today January 21 at the age of 87.
The funeral will take place at Har Hamenuchot cemetery, Jerusalem on Sunday. For further details as known, contact 02-5631587.
Shiv'a will be at the Malamats' residence: 1 Rashba Street, Jerusalem.
Charles Halton collects some information about Professor Malamat's publications over at Awilum. May his memory be for a blessing.
MORE ON THE TALPIOT TOMB: the tomb from which the Jerusalem Shroud came and the one that some have argued to be the burial place of Jesus and his family. A Bible and Interpretation essay offers replies to various refutations of the statistical evidence that has been brought forth to prove a connection with Jesus:
We have noted that a number of scholars have misstated facts in analyzing the statistics of the tomb. We also acknowledge that despite these errors, the Talpiot tomb might not be the Jesus family tomb. Nevertheless, an analysis on the calculations of the names in the tomb should at least be accurate and based on acceptable statistical methods.
By Kevin Kilty Department of Physics and Engineering LCCC, Wyoming With Mark Elliott Editor, Bible and Interpretation
I think all I can say here is that such debates belong in peer-review journals. It's helpful to have a popular essay from time to time which summarizes the discussion in the journals, but the discussion itself isn't going to be advanced in popular essays.
For some past coverage of the Talpiot Tomb see here, here, here, here, and here. For the Jerusalem Shroud see here and follow the links.
SILVIU BUNTA is giving a public lecture at Illinois Wesleyan University in March:
Monday, March 8
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Silviu Bunta from the University of Dayton will present “Whose Son was Cain Anyway?: Genesis 4:1 as a Case of Textual Insinuation.” The story of Cain and Abel can be found in many religions, appearing in the Bible, the Torah and the Qur’an. Some versions allege Cain was the son of the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Bunta, a native of Romania, holds a doctorate from Marquette University (Wisconsin). He specializes in the study of Judaism and Christian origins, focusing particularly on mystical trends in early literature not included in canon writing, but attributed to biblical figures. Bunta has recently published several articles in the field of Jewish and Christian mysticism in volumes and scholarly journals such as Henoch, the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Catholic Biblical Quarterly and the Journal for the Study of Judaism.
Professor Bunta is also involved with the Society of Biblical Literature's Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism Group.
In a display of what might be called ironic chutzpah, burglars broke into an Ashdod museum this week and stole silver coins from the Hellenistic period and other archaeological finds that were part of an exhibit called "Antiquities Thieves in Israel."
The exhibit, at the Korin Maman Museum, displayed artifacts that the Israel Antiquities Authority had previously recovered from antiquities thieves. Now it seems the authority will have to begin its hunt all over again.
STOCKHOLM, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- A Danish archaeochemist and an international team of researchers have found a way to enable scientists to precisely date the Dead Sea Scrolls, according to reports reaching here from Copenhagen on Wednesday.
"For more than a decade we've been saying that there was no point in dating the scrolls before we found a method to remove the oil. Now we have found just such a method," Kaare Lund Rasmussen, Associate Professor and Archaeochemist of the University of Southern Denmark, was quoted as saying by the Danish newspaper Politiken online.
Treatment of the scrolls included being spread out using plant oil, which in turn made precise carbon dating of the scrolls almost impossible, said Politiken.
The article notes that some of the Scrolls were carbon dated in the 1990s, but this new project aims to remove the oil to get a more accurate dating.
THE MILWAUKEE DEAD SEA SCROLL EXHIBITION is reviewed by Jackie Loohauis-Bennett in the Journal Sentinel. Excerpt:
The exhibit offers plenty of spectacles to get visitors into an epic mood. Enter the exhibit through the monumental re-creation of Jerusalem's 1st century B.C. Robinson's Arch, for instance, and you expect Charlton Heston to pop up and lead the way.
Rooms filled with rare artifacts from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem quickly whisk visitors into the same time and space as the scrolls. Some of these artifacts - medical instruments, oil lamps - almost never leave Israel, and they provide insight into the culture that gave birth to the Old Testament.
A limestone plaque made to scare off the devil if he looked in its mirror reveals just how closely the people of Jerusalem lived to the supernatural world every day.
To open up the exhibit even more, the museum quickly gives the scroll saga a human face with a series of amazing artifacts. A sandal and comb were probably owned by one of the legendary Jewish rebels who committed suicide during the Roman assault of Masada. An ossuary box brings to life the biblical figure of Simon of Cyrene, said to have carried Jesus' cross.
The Dead Sea Scroll fragments, of course, star in the exhibit, and they're bound to send shivers down the back of any Bible student. Visitors can follow the English translations of texts from Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus line for line on the scroll fragments as they were set down 2,000 years ago.
The Isaiah text, "Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks," packs a new punch when read in the handwriting of a scribe who believed he was communicating a warning directly from God.
The scrolls' fragments range from the size of a stamp to a book page-sized segment. Here again, the museum staff conquered a difficult exhibition problem: the physical display of such ancient, tiny texts. Specially-built cases and lights make the fragments easy to see and experience.
Like the scrolls themselves, the exhibit does have its share of controversy. Does the Jeselsohn Stone really refer to a Messiah rising from the dead after three days? If so, does the stone itself date from before, during or after the time of Jesus? The museum gives visitors enough information to seek out the answer on their own.
FORT WORTH — Only eight months after the Kimbell Art Museum purchased an exceedingly rare Michelangelo painting, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary dropped its own antiquities bombshell Wednesday — the school has acquired three fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the world’s most important archaeological and spiritual discoveries.
The fragments — appearing to carry verses from the biblical books of Exodus, Leviticus and Daniel — are admittedly tiny, measuring only a few square inches each and protected in a sheath of glass. But because the scrolls are the oldest version of the Hebrew Bible ever discovered, it would be impossible to overstate their importance to religious scholars, not to mention the leadership of the Baptist seminary.
"This is an occasion of considerable consequence," said Paige Patterson, president of the seminary.
The seminary bought the pieces for an undisclosed price from a private collector who had them in a Swiss bank.
[...]
SBTS is looking to buy more Scroll fragments. Last September, Azusa Pacific University also bought some Scroll fragments.
TOMB OF EZEKIEL (TRADITIONAL) WATCH: YNet News has an update on current efforts to stop the turning of this tomb in Iraq into a mosque. The new information:
Manager of the "Justice for Jews" organization Shlomo Alfassa has approached US government authorities in Washington following the reports and demanded to "stop the Islamization of the Jewish prophet's tomb."
An application has also been made to the UNESCO headquarters, which is responsible for maintaining the religious character of holy sites.
QEIYAFA OSTRACON WATCH: Christianity Today has a helpful roundup of scholarly responses to Gershon Galil's proposed translation:
Archaeology: What an Ancient Hebrew Note Might Mean Scholar says five lines of ancient script on a broken piece of pottery confirm Kingdom of Israel's existence in 10th century B.C. Others are cautious. Gordon Govier | posted 1/18/2010 09:59AM
Five lines of ancient script on a broken piece of pottery, first spotted by a 17-year-old excavation volunteer in the summer of 2008, have been proclaimed as one of the oldest known examples of Hebrew writing. An Israeli historian believes they also testify to the formation of the kingdom of Israel and the writing of Hebrew Scriptures.
The ostracon (a piece of pottery with writing on it, the ancient equivalent of note paper) was found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the 3,000-year-old ruins of a city on a ridge above the Valley of Elah. The ruins overlook the valley where the Bible says David slew Goliath roughly 3,000 years ago.
Professor Gershon Galil, the chair of the Department of Jewish History at Haifa University, has released a reading of the ostracon which he says confirms that the Kingdom of Israel existed in the 10th century B.C. (the time of King David), and that the biblical Scriptures were written centuries earlier than many modern scholars believe.
Whether other scholars will accept Galil's reading after it's published in a scholarly journal remains to be seen. Some already believe he has overstated his case.
[...]
Responses follow from Seth Sanders, James Hoffmeier, Chris Rollston, William Schniedewind, and Aren Maier.
VATICAN CITY — U.S. Rabbi Jacob Neusner, a prolific author and professor at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., told the Vatican newspaper that Pope Benedict XVI has finished the second volume of his book on Jesus.
The rabbi says the pope told him so during their 20-minute meeting yesterday.
The fact that the pope would tell a U.S. rabbi that the manuscript is finished isn’t quite as odd as it would appear. In the pope’s first volume, “Jesus of Nazareth,” there were more quotes from Rabbi Neusner than from anyone but the Gospel writers and St. Paul.
MATTHEW AND THE AGE OF PISCES? Professor Jay Williams asks Who Were the Magi? (at Bible and Interpretation) and comes up with a novel answer involving astrology. Excerpt:
Jews, on the whole, officially refused to accept astrology because of the emphasis upon the seven “planets” that were understood to be gods. Nevertheless, it would have been difficult for anyone during the later Hellenistic age not to be aware of the findings and beliefs of astrology. It was, after all, considered by many to be a highly acceptable science. Several centuries later, Jews constructed a synagogue at Beth Alpha that had on its floor an astrological diagram. Another such synagogue existed also in Tiberias.
In any event, it is quite probable that many people at the time of Jesus knew that they were, slowly but surely, entering a new age, the age of Pisces, the fish. Both Aries and Pisces are rather vague constellations and do not have the sharp outlines of the Big Dipper or Orion. Nevertheless, those who watched the heavens carefully could see the first star of Pisces rising in the east at the time of the vernal equinox. The new age was beginning.
It is doubtful that any Persians would have thought that the spiritual power of the New Age was to be born in Judea as the Jewish Messiah, but that is beside the point. The author of Matthew was surely not Persian but probably Jewish in background and it is he who, according to our theory, wished to connect Jesus to the coming of the New Age. Indeed, Jesus is seen by him as the Lord of the New Age, as the reign of heaven becomes a reality.
I'm not sure what "officially" means here. It's hard to pin down an "official" Judaism in this period. The Temple priests? But we don't know what position, if any, they advanced about astrology. And there are astrological texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q186, 4Q534, 4Q561, 4Q318). But, if anything, that strengthens rather than weakens Professor Williams's case. So one more interpretation of the Star of Bethlehem to add to the list. More on the Magi and the Star of Bethlehem here.
SHLOMO SAND, author of The Invention of the Jewish People is interviewed by in the Guardian. Excerpt:
Sand is scathing about accusations made by Jews living elsewhere that his book is anti-Israel. From the comfort of the diaspora they charge him with sedition. Some say his thesis fuels antisemitism. Overseas donors to Tel Aviv University have called for him to be sacked.
But Sand has voted for Israel with his feet. He is not anti-Zionist, he says, but post-Zionist: accepting modern Israel as a fait accompli. Besides, his interest in the country's survival as a democracy is not theoretical. His family lives there.
Diaspora Zionists can nurture the Jewish myth of biblical nationhood as dual citizenship alongside their passports from safer states. When they refer to "Israel" and "Jerusalem" in their prayers, they do not have to distinguish between scriptural metaphor and political reality. It is a distinction on which Israel's survival depends.
Otherwise the interview doesn't really address criticisms of the book aired in earlier reviews (for some of which, go here and keep following the links).
IRAQI JEWISH ARCHIVE UPDATE: The AP reports that the Iraqi authorities want the archive back. My own view (based on natural justice, not any expertise in the law) is that ancient cultural treasures belong first to humanity. Claims of the country of origin are certainly important and legitimate to take into account, but the key question is how the artifacts can best be preserved for humanity. In this case, Iraq is not giving the world any reason for confidence in its ability and willingness to care properly for Jewish artifacts, given its current treatment of the (traditional) Tomb of Ezekiel. This point is made rather more vigorously by CAMERA.
Three Muslims accused of gunning down six Egyptian Christians on the Coptic Christmas Eve will stand trial before an emergency security court, the state prosecutor said yesterday. Abdel Magid Mahmud said in a statement that the three men were charged with premeditated murder aimed at harming national interests. ...
Around 30 bloggers and activists were released Saturday after being briefly detained in Qena's Security Directorate. The young men and women were apprehended in Naga Hammadi's train station, southern Qena, after traveling from Cairo to offer condolences to the families of victims of sectarian violence and pay their respect to Bishop Kirollos of the Naga Hammadi Diocese, who was allegedly himself a target in the attacks against Christians there.
[...]
The bloggers, who are on their way back to Cairo as time of writing, were among a group of Egyptians that include politicians like Osama Ghazali Harb of the liberal Democratic Front Party, Kifaya leader George Ishaaq and Cairo university professor and opposition leader Mohamed Abul Ghar, who wanted to visit Naga Hammadi to show solidarity with the town's Christians, whose moves are also stifled. However, the politicians had taken a different route, and were on their way to Naga Hammadi in private cars.
Wael Abbas, prominent bloggerm said he spent "one of the worst nights ever in detention." On his way back to Cairo, he told Al-Masry Al-Youm on the phone that they were left to sleep on the cold floor in jail all night. "When we were transferred to Qena's prosecution, we were told we faced charges of 'illegal gathering, disrupting authorities' work, and shouting slogans that could cause sectarian rifts'," he said, adding that he was questioned in the absence of his lawyers.
The bloggers include Amira el-Tahawy, Mustafa el-Naggar, Ahmed Badawi, Shahinaz Abdel Salam, Mohamed Khaled known by his alias "Demagh Mak" and human rights activist Paula Abdo -- himself an eyewitness to some of the clashes that occurred earlier in Naga Hammadi following the shooting.
[...]
Doesn't sound like the greatest moment for free speech and freedom of expression in Egypt.
By Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 16, 2010
The Dead Sea Scrolls saga is an epic that would have made Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille twitch with envy.
The story has all the elements of DeMille's "Ten Commandments" and more, everything from biblical prophecies and international intrigue to an ancient treasure map.
The Milwaukee Public Museum's exhibit "Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures," running Jan. 22 through June 6, is an epic production in its own right. Five years in the making, it's the largest temporary exhibit ever produced by the museum. The show contains more than 200 items from scroll fragments to pages from medieval Bibles.
The exhibit is designed to explain the importance of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran beginning in 1947. These parchments have shed new light on the Bible itself and on the times in which the Old Testament was created.
Exhibit visitors might find their heads spinning from the scope of the show. Here's our "10 Things You Must Not Miss" guide to the Dead Seas Scrolls exhibit.
[...]
The Vision of Gabriel stone and the Copper Scroll are included.
The exhibit also honors John Trever, as another article, also in the Journal Sentinel, notes:
By Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 17, 2010 3:05 a.m.
The Milwaukee native dodging bullets as he ran through the streets of Jerusalem in 1948 carried a remarkable secret. He knew that if he were hit, the greatest biblical discovery of all time might be lost to the world forever.
John Trever, a student of the Old Testament at the American Schools of Oriental Research, was playing a leading role in revealing the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the Milwaukee Public Museum's upcoming exhibit, "Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible," opening Jan. 22, Trever is honored as a hero in interpreting and preserving the scrolls and their meaning.
[...]
Trever arrived to study at the American Schools of Oriental Research and found himself almost alone there during spring break in February 1948. The original scrolls were then in the hands of the archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, who was trying to identify them in the midst of the violence surrounding the partition of Palestine.
After a series of mysterious phone calls and covert negotiations, the scrolls were brought to the school and shown to Trever and fellow student William Brownlee.
Trever had done his doctoral dissertation on the Book of Isaiah. When the first scroll was unrolled before him, Trever recognized the writings immediately. According to Weston W. Fields' new book, "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Full History," Trever "burst into (Brownlee's) room with the thrilling announcement." The writing on the scroll was, amazingly, from Isaiah.
"Dad recognized it very quickly, and he realized it was very significant. He knew from the writing the scroll wasn't a fake. He realized it would push the origin of the complete Bible text back more than 1,000 years. He was coincidentally the best-suited person in the world for that initial revelation," James Trever said.
John Trever knew the scrolls were priceless. As gunfire and mortars went off around him breaking fragments of the scrolls onto the floor, he knew they must be preserved somehow for future research.
He needed to save the writings through photographic copies. But he was out of film.
A HOARD OF ANCIENT COINS has been found in Gaza near Egypt. The AFP reports that there are 1300 silver coins. No information on what kind of coins they are, but there is reference to fourth-century-BCE architecture in the article as well.
Other ancient coin hoards recently in the news are noted here and here.
As a Tel Aviv University undergrad, Moulie Vidas had no trouble befriending the other students in the Talmud department.
There was only one.
Apparently, not many secular Israelis chose to study the Talmud there, and eventually the department was closed, and folded into a larger one.
But Vidas’ passion for the great compendium of Jewish law never waned, and today, at just 26, he is a young lion in the realm of academic Talmud scholarship.
With his doctorate from Princeton fresh in hand, Vidas is also the latest addition to the Jewish studies faculty at U.C. Davis. His title: assistant professor in religious studies.
“Getting Moulie was quite a coup,” said Diane Wolf, director of the U.C. Davis Jewish studies program. “He had many interviews all over the country last year and several job offers. That he chose U.C. Davis speaks to the quality of our religious studies faculty and burgeoning Jewish studies program. He brings a new perspective that enriches us all.”
The Jewish studies interdisciplinary program at U.C. Davis is a offered as a minor, and includes courses on everything from the Holocaust to the Bible on film.
This quarter, Vidas teaches a class on the Dead Sea Scrolls, with one on rabbinic literature next quarter. Soon, he hopes to add classes in his specialty: how the sages redacted and edited the Babylonian Talmud, as well as the surprisingly vibrant interaction among Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians in late ancient Mesopotamia.
[...]
Congratulations to Professor Vidas - and to U.C. Davis.
Recently "Ur," a local Iraqi news agency, reported that a huge mosque will be built on top of the grave by Iraq's Antiquities and Heritage Authority, while Hebrew inscriptions and ornaments are being removed from the site, all as part of renovations.
Prof. Shmuel Moreh of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, winner of the 1999 Israel Prize in Middle Eastern studies and chairman of the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq, speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, confirmed the report.
"I first heard the news of tomb desecration from a friend of mine who is a German scholar. After visiting the site he called me and said that some Hebrewinscriptions on the grave were covered by plaster and that a mosque is planned to be built on top of the tomb. He told me that he found the changes at the tomb disturbing and warned me that I'd better act quickly, before any irreversible damage will be inflicted," Moreh said.
"I had contacted Mr. Shelomo Alfassa, US director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, and told him about this situation. Then I saw the report from the Ur news agency, mentioning the decision of the Antiquities and Heritage Authority to build a mosque and to erase the Hebrewinscriptions and ornaments," Moreh said.
He asked friends to check out the developments at the site. The most recent to visit the shrine said that some of the inscriptions are now hidden by a layer of plaster.
Iraqi press reports claim that the building must be destroyed because of its poor condition. However, Alfassa believes that Iraq's Antiquities and Heritage Authority "has been pressured by Islamists to historically cleanse all evidence of a Jewish connection to Iraq - a land where Jews had lived for over a thousand years before the advent of Islam."
Again, this "renovation" is a travesty. As the article says, someone needs to act, and fast.
ISRAEL REJECTS Jordan's UN petition to claim the Dead Sea Scrolls (Arutz Sheva):
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that Jordan's claims were "ridiculous. The Dead Sea Scrolls are an intrinsic part of Jewish heritage and religion. The scrolls have no relation to Jordan or the Jordanian people," said Palmor, adding that "Jordan's occupation of the West Bank was never recognized by the international community and the kingdom relinquished all claims on the territories. On what grounds are they trying to lay claims to the scrolls, which are a cornerstone of Jewish cultural history?"
THE KHIRBET QEIYAFA OSTRACON HYPE is taken down a notch or three by epigrapher Christopher Rollston in his blog post Reflections on the Qeiyafa Ostracon. It could be earlier than the tenth century; it's in Early Alphabetic/Proto-Phoenician script, not Old Hebrew; the only-attested-in-Hebrew words aren't; the scribe was not terribly sophisticated; Rollston isn't ready to say what he thinks it says but he doesn't think it will turn out to be startling; and he's not even sure in which direction the script runs.
If ever you want to find the Sanhedrin Tombs in northern Jerusalem, don't use the half-lira bill from the 1950s as your guide.
That banknote depicted an impressive burial site from the Second Temple period, which the Israel Antiquities Authority calls "one of the most important antiquities sites in Jerusalem and in the country as a whole." But today it is neglected, unmarked, and covered with graffiti and soot - and the bureaucratic bickering about who's responsible indicates that isn't likely to change any time soon.
The ultra-Orthodox residents of Sanhedria, the neighborhood where the tombs are located, have expressed little interest in maintaining the ancient burial caves, though they were recently cleaned up by a group of Russian-speaking immigrants who have little connection to Judaism. However, the dirt quickly accumulated once more and the signposts they put up have been removed.
Rafi Kasimov, who coordinates the Land of Israel program for Russian speakers at the Conservative movement's Schechter Institutes, called on the ultra-Orthodox to join his students' attempt to restore the site.
[...]
Hats off to those Russian-speaking immigrants. I hope the Ultra-Orthodox local residents do take an interest, but it sounds as though the authorities need to step in if the job is to be done properly. I hope the municipality and/or the IAA take notice.
Why Read The Zohar? Demystifying Kabbalah For English Readers By Alan Brill Published January 13, 2010, issue of January 22, 2010. (The Forward)
The Pritzker translation of the Zohar into English by Daniel Matt — the fifth volume of which has just appeared — should be greeted as a major cultural event. Yet, the publication of each volume has typically produced tiresome book reviews on the ownership of the word Kabbalah, comparing the academic approach of Gershom Scholem to Madonna’s New Age approach. The reviews do not answer the basic question: Why read parts of Kabbalah like the Zohar? Nor do they explain why the Zohar speaks to our age more than the myriad other kabbalistic works.
The Zohar corpus as published in the 16th century contains many reworked texts of ancient and medieval materials; a large chunk of the Zohar portrays the epic story of Rabbi Shimon and his companions, but there are many segments that do not.
Melila Hellner-Eshed, in her book, “A River Flows From Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar,” provides an indispensible work that, finally, explains why the Zohar is an important and alluring work for our time. Susan Sontag taught readers to ask not what the art means, but rather “how it is what it is.” Hellner-Eshed follows Sontag and seeks to offer an experiential aesthetic of the Zohar.
Hellner-Eshed’s book is comparatively easy to read, despite being a scholarly work that assumes the reader has already read the terse prose of Scholem. Her work nevertheless does offer the nonacademic a chance to see the current state of Kabbalah study at Hebrew University among the students of Yehuda Liebes and Moshe Idel.
[...]
Armed with these books, one can now begin to appreciate a cultural and religious treasure of Judaism. No journalist or book reviewer should write about Kabbalah again without first reading Hellner-Eshed. Her work steers the English reader between the Scylla of Kabbalah as technical knowledge of sefirot and the Charybdis of Kabbalah as personalized New Age spirituality. Hellner-Eshed’s work treats the Zohar as a mystical fantasy in which the Knights of the Round Table are rabbis living in an eroticized Middle Earth and spurred to great deeds by their love of the damsel Shechinah. Then, the beautifully edited Pritzker translation allows the interested reader to travel on these mystical journeys, yet still return home safely.
A nice long book review (giving plenty of reasons in addition to mine). Worth reading in full. For background on the Zohar and Daniel Matt's translation, go here and follow the links.
King Jehoash (Joash) came to the throne of Judah in the year 835 BCE. His reign should have started six years earlier, but he was then only a baby, and the throne was usurped by his grandmother, Athaliah. With the untimely murder of her son, King Ahaziah, she took the precaution, normal for the period, of wiping out all possible rivals, but she missed Jehoash, Ahaziah's infant son, who was hidden in the Temple by his aunt, Jehosheba, wife of the priest, Jehoyada.
Athaliah, the daughter of notorious Jezebel, imposed Baal worship on Judah and appointed Mattan to be High Priest. It became the state religion, imposed on an unwilling population. We say unwilling, because six years later, when Jehoyada thought the young Jehoash was old enough to be presented as the rightful heir, he was brought out of hiding and proclaimed king, to the cheers of the people and the army, who then slaughtered Athaliah and Mattan. This palace revolution led to a remarkable pair of national agreements.
“And Jehoyada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord’s people, and between the king and the people” (2 Kings 11:17, my emphasis). The intention of these two agreements is clear: the first one is the conventional religious covenant, while the second one is secular and omits the Lord.
Well, maybe. The essay seems to me to take the account of the Deuteronomistic History more on the level of literal fact than I would be inclined to do. And I doubt that Baal worship was "imposed" on the people any more than Yahwism was. The Deuteronomists certainly did no believe in religious freedom: see, for example, Deuteronomy 17:2-7.
Oh, and antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest (non-coined and non-technical) word in the English language.
The Jordanian government has said that the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls were seized illegally by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and has asked the United Nations for them to be restored to Jordan. "The government has legal documents that prove Jordan owns the scrolls," a government official in Amman said, adding that a complaint had been filed with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Antiquities Authority of Israel rejected the claim, saying Israel was the rightful custodian of the scrolls.
Are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan descendants of an Israelite tribe that migrated across Asia after it was exiled over 2,700 years ago?
This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic research.
But now, for the first time, the government has shown official interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and determine whether or not the tribe that provides the hard core of today's Taliban has a blood link to any of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and specifically to the tribe of Efraim.
Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai, has joined the Technion to study the blood samples that she collected from Afridi Pathans in Malihabad, in the Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh state, India, to check their putativeIsraelite origin.
Shahnaz, an expert in DNA profiling and population genetics, will be supervised by Prof. Karl Skorecki, director of Nephrology and Molecular Medicine at the Technion Faculty of Medicine. Skorecki is famous for his breakthrough work on Jewish genetic research.
[...]
Count me as very skeptical about this whole idea, but it will be interesting to see what she comes up with.
It is no accident that in the last ten years a number of new potential synagogue buildings have been proposed, as the wider role of the ‘synagogue’ and the lack of identifying features in this period have been recognised. The problem then becomes, by what criteria do we identify these as synagogue buildings?
By Stephen Catto Lecturer in Biblical and Theological Studies, Morelands College, UK January 2009
The study of the ancient synagogue has recently been the focus of a great deal of scholarly literature.1 While a previous generation of scholars had a very clear idea of what was meant by a reference to a first-century synagogue–it was an architecturally defined public building which was used for religious purposes, especially on the Sabbath–many of these assumptions have now been questioned. Two periods have especially interested scholars: the origin of the synagogue, and the first-century period, which is of particular interest to those working in New Testament studies. It is into this second category that my work, Reconstructing the First-century Synagogue,2 fits, and it is this period that this essay will address.
BOOK REVIEW/TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Where Heaven and Earth Meet (ed. Benjamin Z. Kedar and Oleg Grabar) is reviewed by Miriam Feinberg Vamosh in the San Francisco Sentinel. It's a long review with detailed comments on the individual articles in the book. Excerpt:
Despite the multiple, interfaith/intercultural authorship, one does not feel that on an individual level most of the writers are struggling with the meaning of the mount. Rather, they seem quite comfortable in their various niches. But while the book cannot be considered “ecumenical” in terms of the individual writers’ conclusions, meaning-seeking readers would not want this book without its juxtapositions of often conflicting views. Such juxtaposition may be precisely what we need to allow us to compare and contrast what the various scholars have to say, ultimately coming away from the accumulation of perspectives educated and enriched.
THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE by Shlomo Sands is reviewed by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg in the Guardian. He is not impressed. Excerpt:
Uncomfortable books, if they are good, can be important. National narratives do need deconstruction; they often blind us to different perceptions of the world and deafen us to the just claims of others. This is certainly true of the Middle East, and I am one of many Jews who would agree with Sand that a decisive factor in the future of Israel will be its capacity to be far more attentive to the narratives and rights of its Palestinian and other non-Jewish citizens.
But the book is a great disappointment. Its sweeping attempt to take apart the entire history of the Jewish people from its origins to present day Israel and prove it to be a wilful fabrication is marred by tendentious premises, the misreading of key events and the ignoring of central texts and institutions.
(CNN) -- The gunmen responsible for a drive-by shooting that killed six Christians and a Muslim guard after a Mass this week have turned themselves in, government news outlets reported Friday.
The three gunmen gave themselves up after a 24-hour chase that ended in farm fields in southern Egypt, the MENA news agency reported.
[...]
The AP also reports riots on Thursday in response to the murders.
THE CLAIMED DECIPHERMENT of the Khirbet Qeiyafa inscription is being picked up by the mainstream media. The Jerusalem Post buys the whole story and presents it pretty much as fact. The AFP is commendably more cautious, reporting the content of the press release without taking a position on its correctness. But neither seems to have bothered to ask any other Hebrew epigraphers what they thought.
TORONTO.- Dead Sea Scrolls: Words That Changed the World is the most successful exhibition displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in the nine years since Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. Over 300,000 visited the exhibition during its Toronto engagement.
[...]
I'm not surprised; this sort of success is the norm for Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions.
The article has a nice picture of 11Q5, the Psalms scroll.
'It indicates that the kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE, and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research.'
Prof. Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa who deciphered the inscription: "It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research."
A breakthrough in the research of the Hebrew scriptures has shed new light on the period in which the Bible was written. Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa has deciphered an inscription dating from the 10th century BCE (the period of King David's reign), and has shown that this is a Hebrew inscription. The discovery makes this the earliest known Hebrew writing. The significance of this breakthrough relates to the fact that at least some of the biblical scriptures were composed hundreds of years before the dates presented today in research and that the Kingdom of Israel already existed at that time.
The inscription itself, which was written in ink on a 15 cm X 16.5 cm trapezoid pottery shard, was discovered a year and a half ago at excavations that were carried out by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel at Khirbet Qeiyafa near the Elah valley. The inscription was dated back to the 10th century BCE, which was the period of King David's reign, but the question of the language used in this inscription remained unanswered, making it impossible to prove whether it was in fact Hebrew or another local language.
Prof. Galil's deciphering of the ancient writing testifies to its being Hebrew, based on the use of verbs particular to the Hebrew language, and content specific to Hebrew culture and not adopted by any other cultures in the region. "This text is a social statement, relating to slaves, widows and orphans. It uses verbs that were characteristic of Hebrew, such as asah ("did") and avad ("worked"), which were rarely used in other regional languages. Particular words that appear in the text, such as almanah ("widow") are specific to Hebrew and are written differently in other local languages. The content itself was also unfamiliar to all the cultures in the region besides the Hebrew society: The present inscription provides social elements similar to those found in the biblical prophecies and very different from prophecies written by other cultures postulating glorification of the gods and taking care of their physical needs," Prof. Galil explains.
He adds that once this deciphering is received, the inscription will become the earliest Hebrew inscription to be found, testifying to Hebrew writing abilities as early as the 10th century BCE. This stands opposed to the dating of the composition of the Bible in current research, which would not have recognized the possibility that the Bible or parts of it could have been written during this ancient period.
Prof. Galil also notes that the inscription was discovered in a provincial town in Judea. He explains that if there were scribes in the periphery, it can be assumed that those inhabiting the central region and Jerusalem were even more proficient writers. "It can now be maintained that it was highly reasonable that during the 10th century BCE, during the reign of King David, there were scribes in Israel who were able to write literary texts and complex historiographies such as the books of Judges and Samuel." He adds that the complexity of the text discovered in Khirbet Qeiyafa, along with the impressive fortifications revealed at the site, refute the claims denying the existence of the Kingdom of Israel at that time.
The contents of the text express social sensitivity to the fragile position of weaker members of society. The inscription testifies to the presence of strangers within the Israeli society as far back as this ancient period, and calls to provide support for these strangers. It appeals to care for the widows and orphans and that the king – who at that time had the responsibility of curbing social inequality - be involved. This inscription is similar in its content to biblical scriptures (Isaiah 1:17, Psalms 72:3, Exodus 23:3, and others), but it is clear that it is not copied from any biblical text.
###
English translaton of the deciphered text:
1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord]. 2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an] 3' [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and] 4' the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king. 5' Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.
Via James McGrath, who cites reactions from other bibliobloggers. The press release has a drawing of the text as well. For earlier PaleoJudaica coverage, of which there is much, go here and keep following the links back.
Although this is a very interesting development, I think people are getting carried away. Someone has finally published a preliminary translation of this very difficult text and (more importantly) a drawing that gives the translator's interpretation of the readings and reconstruction of the (many) damaged letters. This in an over-hyped press release (the text, even if the decipherment is exactly correct, doesn't prove an early date for any specific [unnamed!] biblical texts). Oddly, the press release does not even give a transcription of the Hebrew. Still, this announcement is very welcome and the proposed decipherment is, as I said, quite interesting, especially the specifically Hebrew (not generically "Canaanite") words and the mention of a king in tenth-century BCE Israel.
But before we get all excited, let's see Professor Galil's interpretation published in a peer-review journal. Then let's wait a few years to give other epigraphers time to digest it and give their interpretations. Then, let's see what we have.
UPDATE: On Facebook, Stephen C. Carlson reminds me that John Hobbins posted a quite different transcription and translation of the inscription in October at John's Ancient Hebrew Poetry blog. It is much less biblically interesting: it includes some of the same specifically Hebrew words, but we don't get a king in Israel from it. I am reminded of one of the epigraphic rules of thumb I learned from my teacher, Frank Moore Cross: the more banal reading is to be preferred.
MICHAEL GOULDER, retired biblical scholar of the University of Birmingham, has passed away. The sad news comes from Mark Goodacre, who reports that Professor Goulder died yesterday. His Wikipedia entry is here. My strongest memory of Michael was at the 1999 British New Testament Conference. It was my first time there and he noticed me as a new person and bought me a beer. He was a good guy. Requiescat in pace.
At least six Coptic Christians and a security official have been killed in a drive-by shooting outside a church in southern Egypt, officials say.
The shooting came as worshippers left the church in Naj Hammadi after a midnight mass on Coptic Christmas Eve.
A car pulled up and gunfire was sprayed into the crowd.
Officials say they suspect the attack is in revenge for the rape of a 12-year-old Muslim girl by a Christian man in the town in November.
There were five days of riots in the town, with Christian properties torched and damaged, following the rape.
[...]
Naj Hammadi is 40 miles (64km) from Luxor, southern Egypt's biggest city.
[...]
Naj Hammadi is also known as Nag Hammadi, the place where the ancient Coptic Gnostic library was discovered in the 1940s, mentioned frequently in PaleoJudaica, most recently a few days ago here. The library was buried in a jar, likely hidden because of persecution (this time from other Christians). This is the first I have heard of these recent events. I grieve for all the victims involved.
PHILOLOGOS discusses the new Hebrew names for the planets Uranus and Neptune in The Forward:
Oron (the stress is on the second syllable) was coined by one of the contest’s Internet participants, from the Hebrew word or, meaning “light,” plus the diminutive suffix –on, thus giving us “little light.” Besides sounding like “Uranus,” it must have seemed fitting to those who voted for it, because the seventh planet is indeed a faint presence in the sky. Shaḥak, the runner-up, is a literary Hebrew word for “sky” that goes back to the Bible and would have been closer to Uranus in meaning, though without any phonetic similarity.
Rahav, the new Hebrew name for Neptune, also appears in the Bible, where it is the name of a mythological sea monster. In the Book of Job, for instance, we are told, “By His [God’s] power He stilled the sea; by His understanding He smote Rahav.” The Talmudic tractate of Bava Batra even refers to Rahav as “the lord of the sea” (sar shel yam), which makes this legendary creature a rough Hebrew parallel to the Roman sea god Neptune. Tarshish, which came in second, is the name of a distant but unidentified Mediterranean city or land mentioned many times in the Bible, sometimes in the metaphorical sense of “far over the sea.”
Philologos also notes that the other five planets that were known in antiquity already have Hebrew names and that Pluto is no longer technically a planet (too small). I think they should name Pluto Sheol anyway.
PALEOJUDAICA is one of Technorati's Top 100 Religion blogs, just squeaking in with a three-way tie for place #97. I don't see many biblioblogs in the top 100, but Jesus Creed comes in at #3 and Exploring our Matrix at #23. Well done, Scott and James! I may be missing others; I don't keep careful track of such things anymore.
The city’s revived night life is adding a new dimension to the already powerful lure of its 7,000-year-old history and ruins. For years, Byblos’s main draws were its Crusader citadel, Phoenician ramparts and Bronze Age ruins of L-shaped temples scattered along a seaside bluff like oversized Lego blocks. Byblos lays claim to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world, dating its origins to 5000 B.C., as well as the birthplace of the modern alphabet (“byblos” is the Greek word for papyrus).
It was a major commercial port for ancient Egyptian seafarers buying cedar. Though many of its best-preserved sarcophagi and hieroglyphic vases are now in Beirut’s National Museum, visitors can wander through the endless maze of ruins and marvel at one of the world’s earliest examples of sophisticated urban planning.
“I come to just walk around and soak up the atmosphere,” said Mouna Bassili Sehnaoui, a painter from Beirut with a shock of silvery hair. “The stones almost seem to want to talk about what happened here many millennia ago.”
FIND A DIG: Biblical Archaeological Review has published its annual listing of archaeological excavations that are accepting volunteers for this year's season. More information here.
AMMAN - Jordan has not received an official response from Canada regarding a request to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls that were displayed at a museum in Toronto until Sunday, a senior official said.
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Maha Khatib was responding to news published in some news websites that the Canadian government has announced it will not act upon Amman’s request to seize the two-millennia-old scrolls. The Kingdom will not respond until receiving an official response, the official said.
According to Khatib, the government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has requested Canada to take custody of the scrolls, citing the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories.
[...]
Background here. Previous reports made it sound as though the Canadian Government had already replied negatively.
I can see why they would not be anxious to get involved in this. I'm not qualified to comment on the international-law issues, but I think it's safe to say that if Canada were agree to seize the Scrolls, Canadian museums would suddenly find it exceedingly difficult to persuade any other country to lend them anything.
EZEKIEL'S (TRADITIONAL) TOMB in Iraq is going to be turned into a mosque and stripped of Jewish features according to "sources in Baghdad" in contact with Arutz Sheva:
(IsraelNN.com) Early reports that Iraq plans to retain the Jewish nature of the Tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel are apparently false. Sources in Baghdad say that the government plans to turn it into a mosque and erase all Jewish markings.
Iraq announced earlier this year that it would revamp the ancient burial site, which is located in Al-Kifl, a small town south of Baghdad. The U.S.-backed government announcement implied that its Jewish nature would continue to be emphasized.
Since then, however, reports have surfaced that the government is actually planning to build a mosque there, including removing the ancient Hebew inscriptions that adorn the site. Some reports say that all or some of the lines of Hebrew script have already been erased.
[...]
Such a "renovation" would be a travesty. I certainly hope these reports turn out to be incorrect.
More on Ezekiel's tomb here (and follow the links). CAMERA's concerns may have been justified. Watch this space.
By Dovid Zaklikowski (Chabad.org) Jan 3, 2010 1:00 PM
A new exhibit at a Jewish archive in New York City is shedding light on the dissemination of religious material in the days before the printing press.
Comprised of old manuscripts, fading marriage certificates and handwritten editions of the Talmud – once consigned to be nothing more than filler for the bindings of printed books – the display at the central Chabad-Lubavitch library in Brooklyn represents the collective discovery of staff members cataloguing the library’s vast holdings.
According to Rabbi Sholom Ber Levine, chief librarian and archivist at the Library of Agudas Chassidei Chabad, the parchment documents also reveal a practice used by early printers, who compressed old manuscripts together to make covers for newer versions of the Talmud.
“When we were cataloging the library,” says Levine, “I felt that several of the covers were very flimsy, and that the bindings were comprised of many layers.”
The rabbi’s hunch proved correct when he took the material to a lab to extract the individual pages. The resulting treasure included several pages of the Talmud dating from before the first Jewish book was printed in the last third of the 15th century.
Levine says the find has enormous value to scholars, who examine minute variations between different versions of a text.
Also known as Ohel Yosef Yitzchak-Lubavitch, the library is named after the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory. Located in the Crown Heights section of the city, it houses close to 250,000 published volumes, many of them rare, and tens of thousands of antique documents and manuscripts.
Among its collections is a prayer book used by the founder of Chasidism, the 17th-century rabbi known as the Baal Shem Tov, whose tears stained some of the book’s pages.
[...]
The Coptic Gnostic library from Nag Hammadi also used discarded manuscripts (in this case documentary texts) as book-binding filler and the dates on some of those fragments helped establish the dates of the codices. And a fragment of the Codex Sinaiticus was very recently discovered in the binding of an 18th century book.
Jordan claims Israel seized scrolls from Jerusalem museum. Ottawa says Canada will not intervene
MICHAEL VALPY
From Monday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Jan. 04, 2010 12:00AM EST Last updated on Monday, Jan. 04, 2010 2:25AM EST
The six-month exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls closed yesterday in Toronto, with scholars baffled by the Jordanian government's last-minute request to Canada to stop the ancient manuscripts from going back to Israel.
The Canadian government has replied by saying Jordan, Israel and the Palestine Authority should sort out who owns the scrolls and Ottawa will not intervene - a response which, legally, the Canadian government likely had no choice but to make, said Prof. Lawrence Schiffman, chair of New York University's department of Hebrew and Judaic studies and a Dead Sea Scrolls specialist.
Ottawa, he said, was likely party to an indemnification agreement signed before the scrolls left Israel to come to Canada. The agreement - a conventional document protecting cultural property - would guarantee that Israel would get the scrolls back.
What has puzzled scrolls experts is not just Jordan's timing but Jordan's intervention. Why did it wait until just before the exhibit closed? And why did it make the request when 20 years ago it declared that its previous interests in the area, such as the museum in east Jerusalem that once housed some of the scrolls that came to Canada, were now in the hands of the Palestinian Authority.
[...]
The article goes on to say that there is doubt that the Hague Convention applies to the particular complicated political circumstances surrounding the discovery of the Scrolls.
That they processed aboard the enormous floating wildlife collection two-by-two is well known. Less familiar, however, is the possibility that the animals Noah shepherded on to his ark then went round and round inside.
According to newly translated instructions inscribed in ancient Babylonian on a clay tablet telling the story of the ark, the vessel that saved one virtuous man, his family and the animals from god's watery wrath was not the pointy-prowed craft of popular imagination but rather a giant circular reed raft.
The now battered tablet, aged about 3,700 years, was found somewhere in the Middle East by Leonard Simmons, a largely self-educated Londoner who indulged his passion for history while serving in the RAF from 1945 to 1948.
The relic was passed to his son Douglas, who took it to one of the few people in the world who could read it as easily as the back of a cornflakes box; he gave it to Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert, who translated its 60 lines of neat cuneiform script.
[...]
In his translation, the god who has decided to spare one just man speaks to Atram-Hasis, a Sumerian king who lived before the flood and who is the Noah figure in earlier versions of the ark story. "Wall, wall! Reed wall, reed wall! Atram-Hasis, pay heed to my advice, that you may live forever! Destroy your house, build a boat; despise possessions And save life! Draw out the boat that you will built with a circular design; Let its length and breadth be the same."
[...]
Noah's Ark in Genesis 6 was an oblong box. If memory serves (I don't have the text handy at home), the Gilgamesh epic described it as a cube. Read the whole article; it's entertaining. And this is worth quoting:
In the Victorian era some became obsessed with the ark story. George Smith – the lowly British museum assistant who, in 1872, deciphered the Flood Tablet which is inscribed with the Assyrian version of the Noah's ark tale – could apparently not contain his excitement at his discovery.
According to the museum's archives: "He jumped up and rushed about the room in a great state of excitement and to the astonishment of those present began to undress himself."
By FRANK KERMODE (NYT) Published: December 31, 2009
“A Literary Bible,” by David Rosenberg, is a large book though not, of course, a complete translation of the Hebrew Bible. Genesis is fairly full, though one looks in vain for the passage “In the beginning . . . ,” from which Genesis takes its title in both Hebrew and Greek. The Prophets, from Samuel to Jonah, get about 160 pages, and an anthology drawn from the Writings — notably the Psalms and Job — occupies the remaining half of the book. Each selection has a preface providing scholarly information and justification for the assumptions and procedures of the present translator. An epilogue, “How the Bible Came About,” makes these points in a more expansive way.
[...]
In the work of Bloom and Rosenberg, the character of J was now exultantly developed: she was a sublime writer, an “uncanny” writer, among the greatest of all writers. She was a “strong” poet — not a religious writer, any more than Shakespeare was. Indeed, she was a comic writer whose powerful and eccentric character, more Kafka than Moses, has been obscured by clerical interpreters in the 3,000 years since she wrote. Part of Rosenberg’s task was to produce a style of translation that might fairly represent the rocky magnificence of J’s language.
It was a difficult program, and one may say, with some reservations, that on his own terms Rosenberg makes it work. ...
2,000-year-old Hebrew artifacts, which Jordan claims were illegally taken by Israel in 1967, are on display in Toronto
Patrick Martin
From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009 9:38PM EST Last updated on Friday, Jan. 01, 2010 1:18AM EST
Jordan has asked Canada to seize the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea scrolls, on display until Sunday at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, invoking international law in a bid to keep the artifacts out of the hands of Israel until their disputed ownership is settled.
Even if Canada ignores the request, it will make other countries think twice before accepting the controversial exhibit.
While confirming that Canada has received a message from Jordan, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said yesterday that “differences regarding ownership of the Dead Sea scrolls should be addressed by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. It would not be appropriate for Canada to intervene as a third party.”
[...]
This is a new twist, one that may complicate matters, since now it is an actual state that existed at the time of the discovery disputing ownership of the Scrolls. Read it all.
For background to the exhibition and the ownership controversy raised initially by Palestinians, see here and follow the links back.
(Note: I have been asked by readers to start using post titles to make this blog easier to read in news feeds etc. I obey.)
RALPHIES 2009 - another best-of-the-year varia post, inspired by Ed Cook, who posts his sixth annual Ralphies here. For past PaleoJudaica Ralphies for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, follow the links.
These are my favorite items of the year. Your results may differ.
BEST FICTION BOOK: No contest here. Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Published in 2008 but I read most of it in 2009 (my son gave it to me for Christmas 2008). A parallel universe in which, after a technological holocaust and other disasters, nerds are kept in secular low-tech monasteries to prevent knowledge from advancing too fast. Naturally that means that they just discover more dangerous knowledge in even weirder ways. Then something happens to cause the world to really really need their knowledge ... A demanding book that assumes a working knowledge of physics and the history of Western philosophy (all of which is replicated with a completely parallel history and terminology) but well worth the effort. I can't remember ever enjoying an SF novel more. It entered the NYT hardback bestseller list as number one in September of 2008.
I should also note that one of my favorite authors, Stephen R. Donaldson (writer of, inter alia, the Thomas Covenant series - see my 2005 and 2007 Ralphies above) received an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Andrews in 2009. My laureation address, given at the ceremony, is transcribed here.
BEST NONFICTION BOOK: I started some very good nonfiction tomes in 2009, but didn't finish them. Maybe I'll be able to report on one or two of them next year.
BEST SCHOLARLY BOOK: Once again, I didn't get to read nearly as many technical books as I should have or wanted to. I did read some good ones though. I'll settle on the best as Bill Rebiger and Peter Schäfer, Sefer ha-Razim I und II. Das Buch der Geheimnisse I und II: Band 1: Edition (TSAJ 125; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009). I'm reviewing this for the SOTS Booklist, so I'll keep my comments brief. Sefer ha-Razim (Sepher HaRazim) is the most important Jewish magic handbook from antiquity and it is foundational to the later Jewish magical tradition. Rebiger and Schäfer have produced a stunningly executed new edition full of new data. (Observant readers will recall that I only got a copy a little over a week ago, so this glowing note may seem premature. But Schäfer and Rebiger kindly gave me page proofs of much of the manuscript for my work on a translation of the text for the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project when I was on research leave in 2008. So I have worked closely with the book for some months and my comments are carefully considered.)
(By the way, I step down as Head of the School of Divinity, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity, and Principal of St. Mary's College in February of 2010, after a little over three years total (not counting the semester of research leave) in post. It was an interesting experience and I learned a lot, and I think I led the School in good directions, but I'll be glad to be able to go back to spending more time on my research and teaching.)
BEST MOVIE: I spent even less time in the cinema in 2009 than in previous years and nothing that I saw particularly impressed me. I'll pass this year.
BEST TELEVISION SERIES: My vote would have to go to FlashForward. The novel by Robert J. Sawyer had a good concept, but the series actually sharpens it by making the gap between the present and the visions of the future only six months (rather than 21 years) and introducing other complexities not found in the book. Good acting and scripts too (not to be taken for granted these days). After 10 episodes, so far so good. I look forward to the rest of the season in 2010.
I was very sorry that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was canceled last year. (The movie Terminator Four had some good concepts but sacrificed their development with way too much CGI.) Likewise, I'm sorry for the recent canceling of Dollhouse, which has really picked up as it speeds toward its imminent conclusion. But Ashes to Ashes, which had a weak first season in 2008 picked up in 2009 and I quite enjoyed it. My favorite television moment of 2009 was the concluding topsy-turvy and maddeningly multivalent seconds of the 2009 season of Ashes to Ashes. Bolly seems to have her work cut out for her in season three.
BEST MUSIC: I listened to almost no new music in 2009. But in lieu of that, I'll leave you with a recent parody of the in-itself over-the-top 1980s video for Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. The parody had a very strong viral presence this year. I don't know if it's the funniest video on YouTube, but it's certainly the funniest one I've seen.
Best wishes for a most excellent 2010!
A DISPUTE OVER THE BODY OF SANTA CLAUS is roiling, reminding me for some perverse reason of the dispute between the archangel Michael and the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 9 and the lost Testament of Moses). You can decide who gets to be Michael and who gets to be old Nick. Not to be confused, of course, with St. Nick.
THE TOP DISCOVERIES OF 2009, "related to the biblical world," according to Todd Bolen have been posted at his Bible Places blog. He also has a good list of his additional 2009 posts on major discoveries and stories of 2009. And he notes the National Geographic list of Top Ten Archaeology Finds: Most Viewed of 2009. Only one of these is even tangentially related to the Bible or ancient Judaism: GOLD HOARD PICTURES: Largest Anglo-Saxon Treasure Found, the Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon gold hoard, which included a gold strip inscribed with a quotation from the Latin Vulgate, as I noted here. Photo here.
ONE MORE TIME: another Alexa-based ranking of biblioblogs, this one for December, 2009 by Joseph Kelly at Kol ha-Adam.
A MEDITATION ON THE LEGEND OF AHER (Elisha ben Abuyah) is cited by Rabbi Yair Hoffman in the Five Towns Jewish Times in an essay on responses to morally fallen Torah scholars in Jewish tradition:
In conclusion, there is a fascinating Kochvei Ohr which discusses the sin of Acher – Elisha Ben Abuyah - the teacher of Rabbi Meir and the sage who fell. While talking to his teacher who went off the path of Torah, Acher the teacher told Rabbi Meir that he had reached the Shabbos boundary. Rabbi Meir asked him how he knew. The teacher said that he was counting the footsteps of his horse. Rabbi Meir asked Acher to come back and return to Judaism. Acher responded that he could not because he was privy to a Bas Kol that said, “Return you wayward sons all except Acher – who knew my Glory and rebelled against Me..” Rabbi Meir tried to convince him to come back anyway. Rav Yitzchok Blaser – the author of the Kochvei Ohr and student of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter asks two questions: The first is that how could it be that Hashem did not want the penance of Acher? The second question he asked was how it could be that Rabbi Meir is going against a Bas Kol – a direct request from Hashem Himself? The Kochvei Ohr answers that generally speaking Teshuva is always somewhat tainted. We know that Hashem will accept our Teshuva ultimately if we offer it and He will forgive us. Even though it is tainted in this manner, nonetheless, Hashem does not care and accepts it anyway. This is true for most people. However, Acher was so depraved and had fallen so far that he needed a completely perfect Teshuvah. He required a Teshuvah untainted by the knowledge that it would be accepted. Hashem wanted Acher to perform this type of Teshuva and that is why Acher heard that Bas Kol. Rabbi Meir was aware of this, while his own teacher was not. He tried convincing him to do real Teshuvah anyway – even though it would not have been accepted. We see from the words of Rav Blaser how very much Hashem wants everyone to do Teshuvah. May all of us be zocheh to a complete Teshuva in all that he do wrong. Amain.
I had never heard this story before. I have discussed the Aher legend in another context in an earlier post here.
Call it Star Wars. In the end, Oron defeated Shahak and Rahab prevailed over Tarshish as the Hebrew Language Academy on Wednesday unveiled the new names of two planets referred to until now by non-Hebrew names. Henceforth, Uranus will be known as "Oron" and Neptune as "Rahab."
Astronomy and language experts selected the four proposed names, but the general public was allowed to make the final decision.
[...]
Both Hebrew names were inspired by their Greek and Latin equivalents. Rahab, like Neptune, comes from the nautical world: It is the name of a sea monster in the Bible and Talmud. A source at the Academy said Oron was chosen partly because of its phonetic similarity to the word Uranus and partly because "Oron means small light - hinting at the pale light the planet emits when seen from Earth because of its great distance from the sun."
