Maronites in Israel seek to preserve Aramaic

ARAMAIC WATCH: Maronite Christians in Israel seek to preserve their language:

The Ben Yehudas of Aramaic
By Dorit Shilo (Haaretz)
Tags: Israel news

Two Aramaic-language television stations in Sweden are locked in a war for viewership among speakers of the ancient Middle Eastern tongue. Devotees of Suroyo TV and Suryoyo Sat (both are variations of the Aramaic word "Syriac," the Aramaic language) wage heated online debates over which station is superior. The majority preferSuroyo, the older station, and claim Suryoyo Sat copied much of its content and broadcasts too many reruns.

Some of the stations' most avid viewers live in Israel, primarily in Haifa and the Galilee. Shady Khallul of the Upper Galilee village of Jish says, "What does it matter which channel is better? The important thing is that they exist. These channels prove that our Aramaic language lives and breathes."

[...]

Shady Khallul and his brother Amir have been working for years to revive the holy language of Aramaean Christians in Israel and to bring it back into everyday use. Their model, Shady says, is none other than Eliezer Ben Yehuda, father of the contemporary Hebrew language renaissance.

"If you, the Jews, were able to revive Hebrew and turn it into a modern language, why can't we?" he asks. "Last year we received permission from the Education Ministry to teach Aramaic in first and second grades at the school in Jish, and we had to draft a curriculum from scratch. Amir wrote the textbooks and I traveled around the world to buy dictionaries and grammar books so that we could translate and adapt them for use in Israel. I brought most of the teaching material from Sweden, and the dictionaries from France. Most Aramaic books today are printed in Lebanon, but we have no way of bringing them in from there."

Unlike biblical Aramaic, written in Hebrew letters, the modern dialect - the Western variant of which is called Syriac - is written in another ancient script, which resembles a melding of the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets. Like Hebrew, the language comprises 22 characters and is written right to left. Each of Aramaic's two principle dialects - Western and Eastern - has its own alphabet. Both, however, share a classical written alphabet, Estrangela, reserved for prayers and religious texts.

The challenge before the Aramaeans in Israel, who use the Western dialect, is twofold: On the one hand they must teach their children to speak the language and persuade them to use it in their everyday lives, with family, friends and at school, and on the other hand teach them to read and write in the two alphabets (the Western and the Estrangela).

[...]

Precious connection

The Maronite Christians in Jish enjoy a vibrant community life and maintain close ties with Maronites living elsewhere in Israel - mostly in Nazareth, Acre and Haifa. These include 2,000 former South Lebanon Army soldiers who sought refuge here after Israel's pullout from southern Lebanon in 2000.

"When we first expressed the desire to teach Aramaic to members of our community, the people of the village were very enthusiastic," Khallul says. "Classes were immediately started at the church in Jish, on Fridays for kids and Tuesdays for adults. This year, after the Education Ministry approved the plan, people got even more excited. Schoolchildren were given the choice of studying Aramaic, and of 100 students in first and second grade, 64 chose Aramaic class instead of art and drawing."

[...]

I wish them good success.

More on the Sepphoris/Tzipori tomb etc.

MORE ON THE SEPPHORIS/TZIPORI TOMB and other finds involving ancient bones:

Old bones that never lie
By Ran Shapira (Haaretz)
Tags: Israel news

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi was not supposed to have had a tomb at all. According to the accepted tradition, the 3rd-century sage and head of a yeshiva moved his institution from Lod to Tiberias, not far from Tzippori, as he got on in years. Ben Levi, whose sayings are mentioned in the Mishnah, was one of 10 saintly men who, tradition says, ascended to heaven without actually dying.

However, last summer, New York-born Mitch Pilcer, who operates a bed-and-breakfast in Tzippori in the lower Galilee, was making preparations to build more rooms when he discovered a cave with an inscription at its entrance, testifying that the rabbi was buried there. He had no doubts about it.

"I knew immediately who it was," says Pilcer. "I'm a yeshiva graduate, a religious person, and the inscription was very clear: 'This is the burial place of Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi Hakapar.' I felt as though this was the moment I had been living for all along. The tzaddik [righteous man] had watched over me and helped me and my family succeed and now I had to watch over him."

For this reason, probably, Pilcer did not rush to call in the Israel Antiquities Authority to investigate the grave site, even though the law obligates him to do so. He did contact the ultra-Orthodox organization Atra Kadisha, however, which seeks to protect ancient graves and tries to prevent construction in their vicinity to avoid desecrating the honor of the dead.

Dror Barshad of the Antiquities Authority in the north explained that the law leaves no room for doubt: In every place where antiquities are found that might be harmed by construction, a proper excavation must be carried out. Moreover, he adds, Pilcer himself dug in the burial cave, used a coffin there as a prayer table, and damaged artifacts; therefore, he will face criminal charges. Meanwhile, the authority applied to the court, which issued a stop-work order to Pilcer and compelled him to allow the digging to be done.

"We excavated in order to get an indication about the tomb and the inscription," says Barshad, "and we did this in full cooperation with the ultra-Orthodox."

[...]

It is far from clear that this is actually the tomb of R. Yehoshua ben Levi. Background here.

The article also mentions an earlier controversy over another burial cave found in Tzipori (noted here). And, of course, graves found at the site for the proposed emergency room of the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and the Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance conflict are both mentioned. The 2004 story of the Roman cemetery at Acre is also noted (background here and here).

Good Friday

TODAY IS GOOD FRIDAY. Best wishes to all those observing it.

David Noel Freedman Award

THE DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN AWARD for excellence and creativity in Hebrew Bible Scholarship has an intention-to-submit deadline of 2 April (tomorrow).

This looks like a worthy successor to the Mitchel Dahood Memorial Prize of the 1980s and 90s.

A night with Judas Iscariot

A NIGHT WITH JUDAS ISCARIOT:

Marvin Meyer, Ph.D., chairman of Chapman's Religious Studies Department, will discuss the many facets of Judas and his changing role throughout history – even taking on the role of Judas in some readings – in "A Night With Judas Iscariot" at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6 in the Fish Interfaith Center on the Chapman campus.

Admission is free and open to the public; call 714-997-6947 for more information. Event parking is available in the structure under the Chapman stadium – enter off Walnut Street. Parking permits are on sale in the structure at $2 for two hours or $3 for four hours.

"A Night With...Judas Iscariot" will be a multimedia presentation featuring Meyer, a resident of Orange, performing readings from the New Testament, the Gnostic Gospel of Judas and other texts, as he gives insight into the complexities of Judas.

Are angels the new vampires? More Enochiana.

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: Are angels the new vampires? More Enochiana today in a Globe and Mail review of Danielle Trussoni's Angelology:

Indeed, the book’s central reference is the Book of Genesis, in particular the strange few verses in chapter six describing how the “sons of God” took “the daughters of men” as wives, producing a race of giants.

These are the creatures who inhabit Angelology: malign and imperious, determined to enslave humankind, kept in check only by the heroic efforts of a secret fellowship of scholars who have been on to them from the beginning. Literally.

“I would argue that angels are much older than vampires or any of these other creatures, that they’ve been a part of our culture from before the Bible,” Trussoni says, warming to the trend question. “So I don’t know if you can say that’s new. It’s not trendy. It’s actually really arcane and nerdy, to be honest.”

Angelology is replete with ancient texts and biblical apocrypha like the Book of Enoch, the action winding from one musty library to another. Comparing it to the work of Umberto Eco, the Times reviewer called it “an elegantly ambitious archival thriller.”

But make no mistake: Trussoni’s angels are every bit as dangerous as anybody else’s vampires. The ones she has walking among us are unsavoury at best, albeit beautiful beyond imagining. The ones she has imprisoned at the bottom of the Devil’s Throat Cavern in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains are downright terrifying.

This is what angels are, Trussoni says, explaining her desire to “peel back” the modern sentimentality that has reduced them to “puffy little new-age cherubs, which I find unbearable.” The “puffy white stuff” feeds a spiritual yearning, she admits, but it hardly fits with the true history of angels.

Indeed. I enjoyed Kostova's The Historian and this book sounds interesting.

John Hobbins reviews Milwaukee DSS exhibit

JOHN HOBBINS reviews the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in Milwaukee.

Codex Climaci Rescriptus resurfaces

CODEX CLIMACI RESCRIPTUS, last seen in June on auction at Sotheby's, has resurfaced in the hands of a private collector who seems to be trying to do the right thing with it:

Bible museum could make home in Dallas

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, March 30, 2010

By MATTHEW HAAG and SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News

Hobby Lobby Inc., the national arts and crafts store chain, says it has been on a buying spree of rare Bibles and other sacred documents to fill a proposed National Bible Museum, with Dallas a likely location.

The Oklahoma City-based company, owned by the Green family, announced Monday that it has collected a "vast array" of materials, including biblical papyri, Hebrew scrolls, medieval manuscripts and a comprehensive assortment of Bibles and rare books.

Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby, said his family has a Christian commitment to helping tell the Bible's story and is working with a group, which includes people from Dallas, that came up with the National Bible Museum idea.

[...]

Sixth-century Bible

Hobby Lobby said Monday that it had bought Codex Climaci Rescriptus, a sixth-century Bible that includes New Testament passages in Palestinian Aramaic.

The extremely rare document – described in promotional materials as "one of the earliest-known near-complete Bibles in the world" – failed to sell at a Sotheby's auction last year, Carroll said.

In January, Hobby Lobby bought the book from Westminster College at Cambridge University, with Sotheby's handling the sale, Carroll said. He would not reveal the price.

A Sotheby's spokesman confirmed the transaction.

Carroll said the Green family agreed about four years ago to help secure property for the National Bible Museum and more recently became an aggressive buyer of materials.

[...]

UPDATE: Peter Head comments at Evangelical Textual Criticism.

Pseudepigrapha terrorism

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA TERRORISM - it had to happen sooner or later.

Pa. man charged with threatening GOP's No. 2 in Congress

By The Philadelphia Inquirer

Last Edit: Mar 29 2010 - 1:18pm

PHILADELPHIA -- A Philadelphia man has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill the Republican party whip in the U.S. House of Representatives, officials announced Monday.

The FBI says Norman Leboon, 38, told investigators he was the "son of the god of Enoch" and that he had posted a video on the Internet threatening the lives of Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia and his family.

An FBI affidavit makes no mention of an incident last Tuesday when a bullet smashed through a window at Cantor's campaign office in Richmond about 1 a.m. Police have said their investigation indicated the bullet was a stray from a randomly fired handgun.

According to the affidavit, Leboon allegedly said in the video: "Remember Eric ... our judgment time, the final Yom Kippur has been given. You are a liar, you're a Lucifer, you're a pig, a greedy (expletive) pig. You're an abomination. You receive my bullets in your office. Remember they will be placed in your heads. You and your children are Lucifer's abominations."

[...]

Enoch appears in Chapter 5 of the Book of Genesis as a seventh generation descendant of Adam and the father of Methusaleh.

Some believe Enoch never died based on the line "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more because God took him away."

The Book of Enoch, which is not included in the Bible, is attributed to the patriarch, but it is considered an example of the body of works known as pseudepigrapha, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded.

I'm glad Rep. Cantor is okay.

Homer Simpson has Jerusalem Syndrome

HOMER SIMPSON has Jerusalem Syndrome:

In "The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed," the latest episode of the long-running Fox sitcom, which aired Sunday, The Simpsons set off to Israel on a church mission. They go at the urging of neighbor and devout Christian Ned Flanders, who thought a dose of the Holy Land would bring Homer much-needed salvation.

No surprise, this plan didn't go well.

Among the family's foibles and offenses, Homer became delusional and believed he was the "chosen one," destined to bring Muslims, Jews and Christians together. Diagnosed with "Jerusalem syndrome," he called himself the "Messiah" and proposed the new faith of "Chrismujews," a religion that would praise both peace and chicken.

This storyline, while certainly creative and twisted in the classic Simpsons way, is rooted in something real.

[...]

Indeed. Background here.

The Lod Mosaic is going to New York in September

THE LOD MOSAIC is going to New York in September:

Lod Mosaic Comes to the Met

By Zack Englander (The Commentator)

Published: Sunday, March 28, 2010

Updated: Sunday, March 28, 2010
Lod Mosaic

On September 28, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will begin to display a 1,700-year-old mosaic from Lod, Israel. The mosaic was found in 1996, as road workers were rebuilding the highway between Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. Around 30,000 people came to see the mosaic when it went on display for the weekend after the excavation.

The 600-sq. foot mosaic is thought to have belonged to a wealthy Roman living in, what was then called, Lydda. It consists of colorful animals, fish and sailboats, sectioned off in a decorative border. The elaborate artwork is surprisingly well preserved with only a couple of tile-less blemishes.

[...]

A lecture series will precede the exhibition.

Background here and follow the links back.

Zahi Hawass and "the Zionist enemey"

SPEAKING OF UNHELPFUL:

Egypt antiquities chief: I gave the Zionist enemy a slap in the face
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Israel news, Israel Egypt

The head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said that "he gave the Zionist enemy a slap in the face," when he canceled the inauguration of a restored Cairo synagogue two weeks ago, Army Radio reported on Sunday.

"Israel is the Zionist enemy, and I gave this enemy a strong slap in the face," said Doctor Zahi Hawass.

[...]

Background here.

UPDATE: More here. Jews banned from Maimonides Synagogue.

Bus ads for third Temple in Jerusalem

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

J’lem posters call for 3rd Temple

By ABE SELIG (Jerusalem Post)
29/03/2010 00:51

Posters leaving out Al Aksa mosque plastered on buses with e. Jerusalem routes.

While tensions continue to simmer around the Temple Mount after riots in and around the capital’s Old City earlier this month, a new campaign calling for the construction of the Third Temple atop the holy site has made its way to the sides of 200 Egged buses in the city, which now sport posters featuring a picture of a rebuilt temple on the Mount, and nothing else.

The posters, which contain the phrase, “May the Bais Hamikdosh be rebuilt speedily and within our days,” were sponsored by the Our Land of Israel group, which is led by Rabbi Shalom Dov Volpo and activist Baruch Marzel, leave out the site’s current structures – namely the the Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The campaign’s organizers chose to plaster the posters on buses whose routes take them through predominately Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

[...]

This is exceedingly unhelpful. I have commented here and many times before on the subject of excavation on the Temple Mount. And this ad campaign seems intended entirely to inflame the situation.

Happy Passover!

PASSOVER begins this evening at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating.

The Corpus Coranicum Project

THE CORPUS CORANICUM: Qur'anic studies come of age.

The origins of a holy book

Using ancient texts, scholars have begun an audacious effort to unravel the story of the Koran. What will they find?

By Drake Bennett (Boston Globe)
March 28, 2010

Later this spring, a team of scholars at Germany’s Berlin-Brandenberg Academy of Sciences will complete the first phase of what will ultimately be an unprecedented, two-decade effort to throw light on the origins of the Koran.

The project, called the Corpus Coranicum, will be something that scholars of the Koran have long yearned for: a central repository of imagery, information, and analysis about the Muslim holy book. Modern research into Islam’s origin and early years has been hampered by the paucity and inaccessibility of ancient texts, and the reluctance of Muslim governments in places like Yemen to allow wide access to them.

But, drawing on some of the earliest Korans in existence — codices found in Istanbul, Cairo, Paris, and Morocco — the Corpus Coranicum will allow users to study for themselves images of thousands of pages of early Korans, texts that differ in small but potentially telling ways from the modern standard version. The project will also link passages in the text to analogous ones in the New Testament and Hebrew Bible, and offer an exhaustive critical

commentary on the Koran’s language, structure, themes, and roots. The project’s creators are calling it the world’s first “critical edition” of the Koran, a resource that gathers historical evidence and scholarly literature into one searchable, cross-referenced whole.

[...]

Though the publication of the first section of the Corpus is only the beginning, it’s possible to see in it the outlines of its larger ambitions. The goal, essentially, is to place the text in a historical context. “We want to frame the Koran as a text of late antiquity,” says Michael Marx, the project’s research director. “We put stress on the links that the Koran has to other Near Eastern religions: Christian sources, rabbinic sources.”

For instance, in one of the parallels that the researchers will post, they compare one of the most important passages in the entire Koran — “He is God, one, God the absolute, He did not beget nor is He begotten, And there is none like Him” — to nearly identical passages in the Hebrew Bible and the Nicene Creed (the profession of faith in many Christian liturgical services). Both the Bible and the Creed long predate the birth of the Koran. To Marx, this demonstrates the extent to which the Koran, a text that proclaims itself immutable and eternal, is in fact a recognizable product of the particular historical moment in which it was created.

“Once you have all the texts on the table,” he says, “it’s possible to make quite clear that the Koran has a history, that it is interacting with human history.”

[...]

Other contemporary scholars take things further. Gerd-R. Puin, a retired professor of Arabic studies at Germany’s Saarland University, has been working for decades on a trove of Korans from a mosque in Yemen — possibly the oldest ones in existence. Because they were primarily memory aids, early Korans were written in a vowel-less “skeleton” language. Deciphering those clusters of consonants requires a sense of what languages and what cultural and religious traditions Mohammed and his earliest followers were borrowing from and reacting against. Much of the wording and imagery of the Koran are borrowed from Christian and Jewish texts, Puin argues. In fact, he says, much of the Koran is incomprehensible unless read alongside those earlier texts. As an example, he points to the term “sakina,” which Muslim scholars have translated as a spirit of calm — Puin argues that it only makes sense as a descendant of the Hebrew term “shekhinah,” which means the presence of God. The more one studies its historical context, Puin argues, the harder it is to resist the sense that the Koran itself was, at least in part, pieced together from parts of other religions.

[...]

This sounds like an extraordinarily important project from both a text-critical and a history-of-religions perspective. And a courageous one as well: it is bound to generate strident opposition in some circles.

A couple of years ago I noted the story about the recovered photographic archive of Qur'an manuscripts, but this article give much more information about the whole project. For the Corpus Coranicum website, follow the link.

The story of the reuniting of the Song of the Sea fragments

THE SONG OF THE SEA FRAGMENTS, now on temporary display in the Israel Museum, are the subject of an article in the Jerusalem Post which tells the full story of how they were reunited. Brief excerpt:

Mishor and Engel quickly established that the Ashkar fragment and the London Manuscript had indeed been part of the same Torah scroll, separated only by a column and a half of missing text. Both fragments are assumed to have come from the Cairo Geniza, a depository of ancient Jewish documents, including worn-out holy books, but that is not certain. Although most of the Geniza fragments were salvaged by Cambridge University in 1896, tens of thousands ended up in other collections and in private hands. Centuries after the original Torah scroll had been taken out of circulation, circumstance had brought these two fragments separately across the Atlantic within a few decades of each other – one from Beirut, the other from London. They were now being reunited in Jerusalem, at least in a temporary exhibit.

Read it all.

Via Joseph I. Lauer's list. Background here.

More on the Azusa Pacific exhibition of their DSS fragments

MORE ON THE AZUSA PACIFIC EXHIBITION of the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments now in their possession:

In Azusa, scholars and religious leaders unravel rare Dead Sea Scrolls fragments

By Evelyn Barge, Staff Writer (sgvtribune.com)
Posted: 03/26/2010 07:17:09 PM PDT

After keeping fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls mostly under wraps for seven months, officials at Azusa Pacific University on Friday invited groups of scholars and local religious leaders to look at the ancient texts.

The 2,000-year-old fragments, tiny pieces of the earliest known text of the Hebrew scriptures, will be part of a public exhibition this spring, along with other rare biblical artifacts.

[...]

Two of the fragments contain passages from Deuteronomy, one fragment is identified as from Leviticus, and another as the book of Daniel.

The fifth fragment, previously thought to be from Exodus, remains unidentified. It contains the fewest number of visible characters.

A fragment of Deuteronomy 27, photographs of which were released to researchers by APU, is already generating scholarly debate about the location where an altar was to be built in ancient Israel. The university's fragment denotes Mount Gerizim as the location, Charlesworth said, while modern bibles indicate Mount Ebal.

If the fragment is indeed an original copy of Deuteronomy, the revelation has the potential to change the understanding - and possibly even the wording - of the modern bible, Charlesworth said.

[...]

There is some confusion here and I think Charlesworth's comments must have been misunderstood a little. I'm not sure what "an original copy of Deuteronomy" is. This is certainly not the original copy. It may be a copy of the Samaritan version of Deuteronomy and the issue is which of the two readings (and hence which location of the altar) was original. Much more on this fragment is here.

Background to Azusa Pacific University's acquisition of the fragments is here.

Fishing ban in the Sea of Galilee

THE SEA OF GALILEE is under a fishing ban for two years. There's lots of finger pointing concerning the declining stock of fish. It seems a multiplication-of-fish miracle would come in handy now.

The Daily Mail meets the Septuagint

THE SEPTUAGINT is mentioned in the Daily Mail, which is impressive, even though it predictably gets it wrong. This in a somewhat overly enthusiastic article about Alexander the Great and Alexandria.

The father of civilisation: Alexander the Great's hunger for knowledge gave us everything from the Old Testament to algebra and even robots

By Bettany Hughes

Last updated at 8:50 AM on 26th March 2010

There is not, and has never been, another city to match it. It was a glittering metropolis, home to the most sexually charismatic queen of all time, founded by a man whose megalomaniac ambitions knew no bounds.

It was a buzzing hub that boasted one of the seven wonders of the world, where intellectual geniuses from both East and West met to tussle and debate in a library containing all the knowledge on the planet.

Founded more than 2,300 years ago, and in its hey-day one of the most powerful places in the world, this is now a lost city, most of it buried beneath waves off the coast of modern Egypt.
Alexander the Great: The Greek leader made Alexandria a place of knowledge, discovery and sexual intrigues

Alexander the Great: The Greek leader made Alexandria a place of knowledge, discovery and sexual intrigues

This is the city of Alexandria. By rights, Alexandria should be a household name, as famous as Athens or Rome. Make no mistake, this was a metropolis as beautiful as Paris, as creative as London, as hip as New York and more learned than Harvard.

And yet, as I discovered while researching a new documentary, somehow this amazing urban experiment is just a footnote in history.

[...]

The mention of the Septuagint is here:

Soon after, Euclid devised the system of geometry that still torments our schoolchildren today. This was also where the Old Testament was preserved for future generations.

It was said that 72 of the best scholars who spoke both Hebrew and Greek worked for 72 days in 72 separate cells to translate the old testament texts into Greek.

Their efforts - named then and today 'the Septuagint' - were not wasted. The Old Testament only survives into the 21st-century thanks to the men of Alexandria in the 2nd-century BC.

This basic story is found in the Letter to Aristeas. Aristeas is itself legendary, but the business about the 72 different cells is a still later improvement of the story. See here for more. The Pentateuch does seem to have been translated in Alexandria in the third (not second) century BCE, with the translation of the other books of the Hebrew Bible coming over the next couple of centuries, with revisions continuing after that.

The business about the Old Testament surviving only "thanks to the men of Alexandria" is, of course, nonsense. The Hebrew text was transmitted quite independently of them.

As for this:

From the death of Hypatia onwards, rival factions battled for control of the city. In 641 AD, as Arab forces swept along the coast, what was left of Alexandria's great libraries were burnt in a whirlwind of battle fires.

The story that Muslim fanatics burned down the Library of Alexandria keeps getting repeated, but the sources for it are late and unreliable. See here and follow the link at the end.

I'm looking forward to seeing Rachel Weisz as Hypatia.

Looting in Lebanon

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Looting in Lebanon. Not good.

Review: Carthage Must Be Destroyed

CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED, by Richard Miles, is reviewed in The Economist. Excerpt:

Hannibal was a heroic figure and a superb tactician. But he was ultimately overcome by Scipio Africanus, an equally brilliant commander, who learned much of tactics and propaganda from his opponent and whose nation possessed a unique determination and resilience. Mr Miles has skilfully fused the works of ancient historians such as Polybius and Livy, a wide range of modern studies and recent archaeological research to create a convincing and enthralling narrative.

Earlier review here.

Controversy over the archaeology of Jerusalem

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF JERUSALEM and the controversies surrounding it are treated by Reuters:

Researchers Dig up Controversy in Jerusalem

By Erika Solomon
March 24, 2010

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Archaeologists in Jerusalem are competing to unearth artifacts pointing to the ancient city's Jewish past, which are used to justify Israel's claim to all of it as the indivisible capital of the modern Jewish state.

But critics say some of "finds" are really just bending science to prove a "Biblical heritage" that is open to dispute.

"Archaeologists have given up many of their best practices in order to answer the continuing demands of mainly political actors," says Raphael Greenberg, an Israeli archaeologist from Tel Aviv University, who has worked in Jerusalem.

[...]

Some of the major players are interviewed to give their side.

Ashkelon gravesite: "Relocation of ER will kill patients"

A GRAVE MATTER INDEED:

'Relocation of ER will kill patients'

Resigning Health Ministry director-general says medical professional must sit on committee reassessing cabinet's controversial decision to relocate Barzilai emergency room. Medical Association chairman to MKs: Why are discussing graves?

Meital Yasur Beit-Or (ynetnews.com)
Latest Update: 03.24.10, 12:07 / Israel News

Dr. Eitan Hai-Am, who recently resigned from his post as Health Ministry director-general over the cabinet's controversial decision to relocate the emergency room at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center because of ancient graves found on the site, said the task force appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to review the issue is not professional enough.

"I have a problem with the inquiry commission. If we want good results then a medical professional must sit on the committee," Hai-Am told a meeting of the Knesset's State Control Committee on Wednesday.

Israel Medical Association chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman said during the committee's meeting, "You've been discussing graves for the past two hours. Patients will die as a result of this decision and you are talking about (graves)."

"Building an emergency room far from the hospital's main building means killing patients. You do not realize that," he said.

[...]

Background here.

Happy 7th Blogiversary to PaleoJudaica!

HAPPY SEVENTH BLOGIVERSARY TO PALEOJUDAICA! Last year's anniversary post, with links to earlier ones, is here. Below is a collection of some of the most interesting (in my view) posts in the last year. In some cases I have linked to the most recent post of a series, so do follow the background links to anything that interests you.

2 Enoch in Coptic!
Pompeii photos
2 Enoch: All your base are belong to us
Stephen R. Donaldson gets honorary degree at St. Andrews
Bishop Tom Wright gets honorary degree at St. Andrews
Mt. Zion stone cup inscription
Aramaic and Hebrew on the Shroud of Turin?
Lost books mentioned in the Bible
Junk History Day! Coins of Joseph
Junk History Day! Palestinian Temple Denial
Junk History Day! Ark of the Covenant
Congressional tribute to Geza Vermes
SBL etc. papers on the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project
Sunrise in St. Andrews
Ralphies 2009
The decipherment (??) of the Khirbet Qeiyafa inscription
Ezekiel's Tomb is going down the Islamist memory hole
No relations, I assure you
The politics of the Cyrus Cylinder
The Raphael Golb case

The counter stands at 688,196 total individual hits (and 991,331 total page views). That's 94,901 unique hits in the last year.

Welcome to all of you, thanks for visiting, and do keep coming back!

Google decides not to be evil after all

GOOGLE has decided not to be evil after all and has stopped censoring its results for the Chinese government. Took them long enough. But, that said, they've done the right thing and they deserve praise for it. So, well done Google, and I'll start clicking on those sponsored links again.

Capsule history of the Shroud of Turin

A CAPSULE HISTORY of the Shroud of Turin and the past and present controversies about it has been published in the Independent in advance of the upcoming exhibition of the Shroud in April and May:

Cloth of gold: The glittering return of the Turin Shroud

The Turin Shroud captivates the faithful, intrigues even the sceptical – and earns the Catholic Church a fortune. What is it about this ancient relic that makes it so special? Michael Day reports from Italy on this spring's real blockbuster exhibition

Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Its authenticity might be in doubt, but it's hard to deny the Turin Shroud's near-miraculous powers of longevity as the Catholic Church prepares once again to roll out the world's most famous relic – and to cash in on the unique mixture of devotion, speculation and ridicule that it generates.

This spring the millions of visitors shuffling up the aisle of Turin cathedral will gaze on what is purportedly the burial cloth of Jesus through a secure, climate-controlled case.

[...]

Background here and just keep following those links back.

Lost sentence from the Jerusalem Talmud recovered

A LOST SENTENCE from the Jerusalem Talmud has been recovered in a Cairo Geniza manuscript in Geneva:

Lost segment of Jerusalem Talmud unearthed in Geneva

Researchers find whole missing Talmud sentence in collection of Cairo Genizah manuscripts which renders part of Tractate Bikkurim intelligible

Tzofia Hirshfeld (ynetnews.com)
Published: 03.23.10, 14:55 / Israel Jewish Scene

Manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah, a collection of ancient Jewish writings stored in an Egyptian synagogue, which were recently examined reveal new segments of the Talmud, Mishnah (oral Jewish laws) and rabbinic literature.

Among the scriptures was a whole sentence off the Jerusalem Talmud's Tractate Bikkurim which had been missing until now. The incorporation of the phrase in the Gemara renders the tractate chapter intelligible.

The manuscripts, which include 350 pages from the Cairo Genizah were stored for some 100 years in a tin can in the Geneva University, that no one knew existed. Greek papyrus experts recently discovered the tin can and employed the services of Hebrew Univesity's Prof. David Rosenthal of the Talmud Department.

[...]

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

Some earlier posts on the Cairo Geniza are collected here, here, and here. And note in particular this post, which also deals with Prof. Rosenthal's work.

Verdi is coming to Masada

VERDI is coming to Masada:

Verdi opera event in Masada to attract 3,000 tourists

Travel agency marketing event abroad reports ever growing waiting list for two shows of 'Nabucco' to be held in south Israel in June

Ynet
Published: 03.24.10, 08:21 / Israel Travel

The Eshet Tours travel agency reported Monday that more than 3,000 tourists from 14 countries are scheduled to visit Israel in June in order to see Verdi's opera "Nabucco" in the ancient site of Masada, produced by the Israeli Opera.

[...]

Review: Carthage Must Be Destroyed

REVIEW: CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED:

Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilisation by Richard Miles
Rome tried hard to eradicate its sworn enemy Carthage, but Richard Miles wants to resurrect the city and its culture

The Sunday Times review by Christopher Hart

Carthage holds an almost mythical place in the western imagination. A powerful city state on the north African coast in what is now Tunisia, it looked during the 4th and 3rd centuries before Christ just as likely as Rome to become the dominant Mediterranean empire. A clash of the titans was inevitable, and when it came, grim Roman determination proved superior to Carthaginian military brilliance, led by Hannibal and his elephants.

To justify their final destruction of Carthage, the victors were obliged to depict the city and its civilisation as decadent, cruel and oriental, the “moral antitype to Rome”, their own ­triumph being decreed by Providence. It is this myth-making as much as the narrative history that fascinates Cambridge classicist Richard Miles, who now seeks to offer us an alternative, de-Romanised and more nuanced view of this lost civilisation.

[...]

Hart is somewhat skeptical of Miles's effort to rehabilitate Carthage.

Related item here.

UCLA lecture on quest for historic(al) Queen of Sheba

UCLA LECTURE on the quest for the historic(al) Queen of Sheba and her world:

But if archaeology so far has not uncovered the historic Sheba, it has made considerable headway in understanding the 3,000-year-old empire that archaeologists call the Kingdom of Saba — the Arabic name for "Sheba" — whose location and era are consistent with biblical accounts of the queen.

On Saturday, April 3, the Cotsen Institute will present a talk at which Harrower and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory principal scientist Ronald Blom will discuss these findings. The free event, which is open to the public, begins at 2 p.m. in the Lenart Auditorium of the Fowler Museum at UCLA, on the Westwood campus. Parking is available in Lot 4 for $10.

Showcasing the latest advancements in satellite imagery and computer mapping, "The Ancient Universe of the Queen of Sheba" will explore a 200,000-square-mile-area, stretching east from Ethiopia across the Red Sea into Yemen and Oman on the southern Arabian Peninsula. Topics will include the Kingdom of Saba's impressive irrigation system, its coveted reserves of frankincense and its long-distance trade routes to the Mediterranean.

For earlier posts on the Queen of Sheba, go here and follow the many links.

Ashkelon graves update

ASHKELON GRAVES UPDATE:

Panel to ‘reconsider’ Barzilai decision
By GIL HOFFMAN (Jerusalem Post)
23/03/2010 02:02

Kadima on Netanyahu’s move: Origami prime minister has folded again.

In a move seen as caving in to public pressure, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday instructed his director-general, Eyal Gabai, to head a task force that would reevaluate Sunday’s cabinet decision to relocate the proposed reinforced emergency room for Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center.

The cabinet had approved by a narrow margin Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman’s proposal to build the emergency room at a more distant site because ancient bones were found at the original site. Critics say that revising the plans would cost an extra NIS 136 million, delay the project for two years and put the facility too far from the hospital’s main building.

Netanyahu made the decision after meeting with close aides following his arrival in Washington. After he was briefed about the public outcry, he called Litzman and said the decision had to be changed.

“The new task force will determine, together with all the relevant authorities, the possibility of erecting the secure emergency room at Barzilai Hospital in a way in which lives will not be endangered,” a Prime Minister’s Office press release said. “The task force’s conclusions will be presented immediately after Pessah. Until then there will not be any work done on the facility.”

[...]

Background here.

Lecture: Bringing the DSS to Milwaukee

LECTURE:

Museum has its own story of how scroll exhibit came together

Posted: March 21, 2010 |(Journal-Sentinel)

The tale is part archaeology, part diplomacy, with a bit of intrigue thrown in the mix.

The free public lecture "Bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls to Milwaukee" by Carter Lupton gives a rare behind-the-scenes description of how Milwaukee Public Museum staffers pulled together the largest show the museum has ever produced.

Lupton, the museum's curator of ancient history, was instrumental in creating the museum's "Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible" show, now running at the museum.

[...]

Background here.

More on Ashkelon graves

MORE ON THE ASHKELON GRAVES:

Decision to move rocket-resistant Ashkelon ER may be illegal

By Dan Even and Mazal Mualem (Haaretz)
Tags: Ashkelon, Israel health

By a single vote, the cabinet approved Sunday the demand of Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) to move the planned bomb-proof emergency room of Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, after ancient burial grounds were discovered in the original site.

Building the emergency room elsewhere in the hospital complex will cost an extra NIS 120 million and delay completion by two years. In response to the decision, Dr. Eitan Hai-Am, director general of the Health Ministry, resigned, saying that the decision "is likely to place lives at risk."

The decision was heavily criticized and the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement saying that professional evaluations of the burial grounds will take place over the coming month, "and if it emerges that the graves do not belong to Jews, the matter will be returned to the cabinet for more discussions."
Advertisement

Critics of the decision noted that in addition to the extra cost, the delay in the construction of a bomb-proof medical ward when security considerations in the area near the Gaza Strip remain high, will create logistical problems in case of emergencies.

Moreover, the critics argued, the government was motivated in its decision by keeping the coalition together, and not the security and health of the citizens of the country.

[...]

The article covers recent events thoroughly, although I can find nothing in it that explicitly addresses or justifies the headline.

Then there's the halakhic question:

Bar-Ilan professor: No halachic ban on moving remains

By BEN HARTMAN
22/03/2010 02:23

According to Dr. Jeffrey Woolf, Halacha includes procedures for transporting human remains.

There is no halachic reason to change the site for the fortified emergency room at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center due to the presence of ancient bones there, even if they are Jewish, an expert on Jewish law at Bar-Ilan University told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the cabinet decided that the bones would not be moved, and that the emergency room would be built at a different site.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Woolf, a senior lecturer in the university’s Talmud department and director of the school’s institute for the study of post-Talmudic Jewish law, Halacha includes procedures for transporting human remains and does not contain an absolute prohibition on such transport.

[...]

Background here.

A page-turner at the Milwaukee DSS exhibit

TURNING A PAGE in the Masoretic Bible at the Milwaukee Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition is a complicated procedure:

A real page-turner, literally for scrolls

By Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: March 20, 2010

The Milwaukee Public Museum is turning the page on its "Dead Sea Scrolls" exhibit. And an expert is traveling 8,000 miles to make the turn.

The pages of the Masoretic Bible, the oldest existing version of the Hebrew Bible, will be carefully turned on Friday to put a new section of the text on public view at the museum. Comprising the Torah - the first five books traditionally attributed to Moses - the beautifully bound Bible dates to the 10th century. Its pages are the earliest known biblical writings after the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls themselves.

The Masoretic Bible is on loan from the British Library, and on Friday, Robert Davies, the library's registrar, will travel from Britain to carefully turn the Bible's ancient pages. The procedure will be closed to the public and take place after museum hours.

[...]

An individual page can be exposed to light safely for only a limited time.

Background to the exhibit is here, and keep following the links.

An Akkadian-Arabic dictionary

AN AKKADIAN-ARABIC DICTIONARY:

ADACH announces publication of Akkadian-Arabic dictionary

Mar 21, 2010 - 11:00 -

WAM Abu Dhabi, March 21st, 2010 (WAM) -- The National Library at the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) has announced publishing an Akkadian-Arabic dictionary, in a bid to fill the gap of information in that department.

The dictionary, whose compiling was part of ADACH's strategy to promote heritage and support cultural initiatives, is prepared by Dr. Ali Yassin Al Jubouri.

In its introduction, the dictionary addresses issues such as the history of writing Akkadian dictionaries, the language's phonology, and the process of using of Latin script following the deciphering of cuneiform writing in the middle of the nineteenth century.

[...]

Good.

Irish bog Psalter restored and going on display in 2011

THE IRISH BOG PSALTER has been restored and is going on display next year:

Psalter to go on display in 2011

MICHAEL PARSONS (Irishtimes.com)

FOUR YEARS after its sensational discovery in a midlands bog, new photographs today reveal the conservation work on the 1,200-year- old “Faddan More Psalter”.

The National Museum of Ireland has announced that the eighth century religious manuscript “of staggering importance” will go on public display for the first time next year.

The book was found in 2006 by a workman operating a mechanical digger on the bog at Faddan More, near Riverstown in north Co Tipperary.

[...]

He praised the “magical and internationally important work” undertaken by senior conservator, John Gillis.

Mr Gillis (49), who is on secondment to the museum from Trinity College Library, was “confounded” when he first saw what had been salvaged from the bog and initially “transfixed with fear” at the scale of the “once-in-a-lifetime” restoration task.

[...]

The Psalter is compared favorably, if perhaps a little enthusiastically, to the Dead Sea Scrolls

Background here and here (bottom of post) and follow the links.

Tal and Levin receive Israel Prize

CONGRATULATIONS to Abraham Tal and Aryeh Levin:

Israel Prize to two linguists, Abraham Tal and Aryeh Levin

By Or Kashti (Haaretz)

Professor Abraham Tal is the Israel Prize laureate in Hebrew linguistics, and Professor Aryeh Levin is the laureate for general linguistics, Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar announced yesterday.

The prize committee awarded the prize to Tal, of Tel Aviv University, for his achievements in the study of Samaritan traditions and the study of the language of the Targums, in lexicography, for his work as an editor of the Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language and his contribution in producing important students.

[...]

The prize committee honored Levin for excellent achievement in the study of the Hebrew language in the Middle Ages and research into Arabic dialects and for promoting literary and spoken Arabic in various state frameworks. ...

I've worked quite a bit with Tal's publications on Samaritan Hebrew and Aramaic.

(Via the Agade list.)

They belong in a museum!

WHOEVER BUYS THESE should donate them to a museum. Or, at the very least, make them freely available to any scholars who want to study them. I don't see anything in the collection that looks unique, but each artifact has its own tale to tell.

Jodi Magness lecturing in Louisville on looting

JODI MAGNESS is lecturing in Louisville, KY, on looting and antiquities trafficking:

Questions & Answers | Archaeologist Jodi Magness

By Diane Heilenman • dheilenman@courier-journal.com • March 19, 2010

There is passion in the dust of ages — and evil. Looting is loathsome, said Jodi Magness, a distinguished and passionate archaeologist who gives a 6 p.m. talk on “Loot and Lies: Trafficking in Antiquities” on Thursday at the Speed Art Museum, 2035 S. Third St., Louisville. She will be accompanied by filmmaker Gary Glassman, whose “The Bible's Buried Secrets” has been seen on “Nova.” The film airs at 6 p.m. Friday at the museum. Both events are free.

[...]

The article also interviews her briefly.

Angela Kim Harkins lecturing in Bridgeport on DSS

ANGELA KIM HARKINS will be lecturing on the Dead Sea Scrolls in Bridgeport, CT:

Tuesday, March 23
“Dead Sea Scrolls” — Angela Kim Harkins, assistant professor of religious studies at Fairfield University, discusses the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 and today’s perspective on them, 6:30 p.m., Black Rock Branch Library, 2705 Fairfield Ave.; free to the public, 203-337-9676.

Gary Anderson interviewed in Christianity Today

PROFESSOR GARY ANDERSON is interviewed in Christianity Today about his new book, Sin: A History.

Earlier review here.

Samuel's Daughter: A Love Story from Third-Century Parthia

A NEW NOVEL by a Hebrew scholar:

Hebraic scholar's historical novel unfolds love story of young woman caught between two cultures

Samuel's Daughter by Ann Brener creates the portrait of a young Jewish girl taken captive in the wars of ancient Iran and her road back to Judaism

WASHINGTON, D.C. (MMD Newswire) March 17, 2010 -- Samuel's Daughter: A Love Story from Third-Century Parthia by Ann Brener uses the story of the capture of Rabbi Samuel's daughter in 259 A.D. to propel a story about one girl's search for identity in the heart of ancient Iran.

[...]

Hurva Synagogue restoration

HURVA SYNAGOGUE RESTORATION: Okay, so far I've ignored this story and the accompanying hoo-haw, since it's tangential to PaleoJudaica's interests. But here's an article in The Forward that summarizes briefly what's been going on:

No Longer in Ruins

Editorial

Published March 17, 2010, issue of March 26, 2010.

There is plenty to criticize when considering the Israeli government’s recent actions and statements on the future of Jerusalem, but that should not diminish its achievement in restoring the ancient Hurva Synagogue in the heart of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter.

[...]

Ruins of an Umayyad palace in N. Israel

RUINS next to the Sea of Galilee, once thought to be of a synagogue, have now been identified as the remains of a seventh-century Umayyad palace.

UPDATE (18 March): More here on how the misidentification came about.

The Phoenicia navigates Cape of Good Hope

THE GOOD SHIP PHOENICIA has successfully circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope:

Phoenicia team navigate Cape of Good Hope

9:00am Tuesday 16th March 2010 (Dorset Echo)

By Laura Kitching

A PRIMITIVE sailing venture being led by a Dorset adventurer has overcome its biggest challenge yet.

A team of 15 international sailors have breathed a sigh of relief as they successfully completed one of the toughest stretches of a 17,000-mile voyage around Africa – navigating the Cape of Good Hope.

This stretch of coastline is a considerable challenge in any modern sailing yacht, but the Phoenicia team managed it in a replica 600 BC Phoenician wooden ship.

Expedition leader Philip Beale, who conceived the project from his base at East Chaldon, near Lulworth, had described it as the ‘critical point in the expedition’.

[...]

Congratulations and well done!

Background here.

TIght security at Minnesota DSS exhibit

TIGHT SECURITY at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at the Minnesota Science Museum:

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- If you go to see the Dead Sea scrolls exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota, you'll notice you actually have to pass through security first. The museum has beefed up security as part of hosting the historical artifacts.

[...]

And keeping the scrolls safe during their stay in Minnesota is a full time job. Some security you'll see, like bag checks, police officers, cameras. But a lot of security you won't see and museum officials can't talk about.

"You have to take every precaution that you can to protect pieces of our history," says Tim Watts who came to the museum to see the scrolls with his family.

While there are no snipers, bomb-sniffing dogs or members of the Israel Antiquities Authority remaining on-site, science museum officials say the scrolls are in good, secure hands for good reason.

[...]

Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance under construction

THE JERUSALEM MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE is now under construction.

Background here and here.

The Dead Sea Squirrels

A WISCONSIN TOURIST: "Can you give me more information on the Milwaukee Public Museum's 'Dead Sea Squirrels' exhibit?"

Background here.

UPDATE: Related items here and here.

Ancient burials at an Ashkelon hospital site

ANCIENT BURIALS at Ashkelon are making the building of a new hospital complicated. Not sure how I missed this story earlier.

Contested gravesite at Ashkelon hospital may have belonged to pagans

By Haaretz Service
Tags: Israel news

The ancient gravesite at the center of ongoing tensions between the Haredi community and the Health Ministry may have belonged to pagans, as opposed to Jews, according to new findings by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The burial site was discovered when Health Minister Yaakov Litzman attempted to add a new wing to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. Once the gravesite was found at the original construction site, the Antiquities Authority confirmed the graves belonged to Jews, and put the project on indefinite hold.

New information gathered by the Antiquities Authority now reveals that the graves belonged to pagan worshippers. The Authority has asked to be given an additional week to conclude the excavations at the contested site.

Finance Ministry officials said a relocation of the new wing would cost at least NIS 160 million, and would be funded either with money designated for reinforcing other hospital departments or by siphoning money from various other government offices.

[...]

Opening ceremony for Maimonides Synagogue canceled

THE OPENING CEREMONY for the Maimonides Synagogue in Cairo has been canceled according to the A.P. Zahi Hawass cites the current political situation in Israel and alleged inappropriate behavior ("dancing and drinking") at an earlier ceremony in the synagogue.

Background here.

(Heads up, Carla Sulzbach.)

Pseudepigrapha lecture at the University of Groningen

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: Lecture today at the University of Groningen:

15 maart Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap: Ancient World Seminar. Titel: Why Should We Read the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha? The Case of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch. Spreker: Matthias Henze. Plaats: Oude Boteringestraat 38, Groningen. Tijd: 14.00 uur.

UPDATE: More information in English on the Seminar is here. An abstract of of Professor Henze's lecture is here.

James McGrath promoted to rediscovered Chair at Butler

CONGRATULATIONS TO JAMES MCGRATH, who has been promoted to a recently rediscovered Chair at Butler University:

A New Testament Scholar Is Named to a Long-Lost Chair at Butler U.

By Andrea Fuller (Chronicle of Higher Education)

When Harry van der Linden, chair of the philosophy and religion department at Butler University, in Indianapolis, was browsing a registry of endowed funds last fall, he made a curious find: a chair in New Testament studies that had not been filled in over half a century. Immediately, James F. McGrath, an associate professor of religion who blogs about biblical studies, came to mind.

Mr. McGrath, 37, was installed last month as the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair of New Testament Language and Literature, making him the first person to hold the position since 1948.

"It was just listed there, a little paragraph, and it basically said that Mr. Goodwin had given money for this chair and the chair had been occupied one time," Mr. van der Linden says. "And then the story just stopped."

[...]

The professor is now doing research on the Mandaeans, an ancient Gnostic group that survives to day. Mr. McGrath says he is interested in the religion's positive portrayal of John the Baptist and negative portrayal of Jesus. He hopes to work with two of the most important sacred Mandaean texts and translate them into English, and although he has applied for a grant to pursue this project, he says funds from his chair could come in handy.

[...]

James also runs the very active blog Exploring Our Matrix.

Lectureship in NT/Second Temple Judaism at KCL

JOB: A Lectureship in New Testament/Second Temple Judaism at Kings College London:

King's College London seeks a Lecturer in New Testament Studies with a specialism in Second Temple Judaism to join a cutting-edge and highly motivated team in Biblical Studies with effect from 1 April 2011.

The successful candidate will research and teach New Testament Studies (especially in the area of Jesus and the Gospels) in its historical context within Second Temple Judaism. He or she will teach undergraduate courses in New Testament, especially in the area of Jesus and the Gospels, and areas of Second Temple Judaism such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. He or she will contribute to MA programmes in Biblical Studies and in Bible and Ministry, and will work in collaboration with colleagues to ensure that the Department attracts high quality students at both MA & PhD level and that the Department's research output is of world-leading quality.

Details here.

Via the British New Testament Society list.

St. Paul DSS exhibition opened on Friday

THE ST. PAUL DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION opened on Friday:

NOW OPEN - The Dead Sea Scrolls: Words That Changed the World Exhibition at the Science Museum of Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn., March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Science Museum of Minnesota has opened the long-awaited landmark exhibition of The Dead Sea Scrolls: Words That Changed the World today -- Friday, March 12, 2010. This exhibition offers visitors an exclusive chance to explore the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century -- one that has great historic and personal meaning to people all over the world. It will run through October 24, 2010

[...]

Background here.

Conference: Between Contact and Contrast: Jews and Christians in the Sasanian Empire

CONFERENCE: Between Contact and Contrast: Jews and Christians in the
Sasanian Empire. 17 - 18 March 2010, SH 1 / 187, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

This workshop explores the contacts between Persian Christianity and Babylonian Jewry in the Sasanian Era, aiming to promote greater cooperation between these fields, and further interest in the value of comparison between these two ancient communities. In Sasanian Babylonia Jews and Christians shared both geographical space and a biblical lexicon. Both communities could refer to themselves as the “captivity”, seek out the biblical geography of the region, and perceive of their rulers as either “a second Cyrus” or as Nebuchadnezzar. They both also had to reckon with similar issues, be it an uncertain relationship with Zoroastrianism, interreligious and intercultural influences, or their relationship with the “west”:
Palestine for the Jews; the Roman Empire - and particularly Antioch, for the Christians. Each inherited a canonical literary corpus from its western counterpart, but then proceeded towards a sense of independence and creativity, asserting equality, and even superiority. Each religious community indeed responded to the vicissitudes of the period, and in the course of the centuries of Sasanian rule, carved a unique and distinctive path, creating an extensive religious literature. This workshop, viewing the rich potential for comparison, seeks to probe the processes and dynamics of religious contact and exchange in the Sasanian empire.

The conference flier can be downloaded as a pdf file from here.

Via the H-Judaic list.

Book review: The Dead Sea Scrolls. A Full History. Vol. 1

BOOK REVIEW: The Dead Sea Scrolls. A Full History. Vol. 1 by Weston W. FIELDS. 25 x 17,5; 592 pp. Leiden/Boston, Brill, 2009. — Hardback. ISBN 978-90-04-17581-5.

Reviewed by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor here (downloads as a Word document).

A very thorough review of an extraordinary book.

Via the Agade list.

Azusa Pacific DSS fragments go on display in May

THE AZUSA PACIFIC DEAD SEA SCROLL FRAGMENTS go on display in May:

Dead Sea Scroll Fragments and Biblical Artifacts on Exhibit at Azusa Pacific

Share in one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th century as Azusa Pacific University hosts an exhibition featuring five fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a collection of rare biblical artifacts from May 21–July 18. Tickets are currently on sale at www.apu.edu/deadseascrolls/.

Background here.

The Forward on the Israel Heritage Plan

THE FORWARD on the Israel Heritage Plan:

Whose History?
Editorial

Published March 10, 2010, issue of March 19, 2010.

The diagnosis is correct. The prescription is troubling. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wise to be concerned about the weakening Jewish identity of many Israelis, an issue for Jews everywhere but especially poignant in what is supposed to be the national homeland. The powerful collective identity forged during the early years of Israel’s modern existence has given way to a splintered sense of self, particularly among the young.

But his proposed national heritage project, aimed at preserving Jewish artifacts and teaching schoolchildren about Jewish and Zionist history, is a flawed response. Estimated to cost the equivalent of $100 million, the project has been duly criticized for including sites in the disputed cities of Bethlehem and Hebron. There’s a deeper concern, however.

The thrust of the project appears to be in telling only one narrative, the Jewish one, as if no other kinds of people ever lived on the land. A quick trip to any archaeological site will counter that notion.

[...]

Interview with Dr. Irving Finkel

DR. IRVING FINKEL, Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian Inscriptions at the British Museum, is interviewed in Jewish Ideas Daily:

But for the Grace of Babylon
A British Museum scholar offers a Darwinian explanation for Judaism's survival.

Interviewer: Elliot Jager

On the way to work from his home in south London, Dr. Irving Finkel often finds himself sitting on a bus reading the Hebrew Bible while surrounded by black church ladies studying their Bibles. "If they only knew what I was thinking," he muses.

Unlike his fellow passengers, what the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian Inscriptions at the British Museum is thinking is that the Bible is not the literal word of God, but that it was crystallized during the sixth-century B.C.E. Babylonian exile by a displaced people from Judea who had lost their country, whose deity was invisible, abstract, and unforgiving, and whose monotheism had gone wobbly. Their decision to create "scripture," something that had never before been attempted, saved the refugees' civilization and enshrined their religious identity. The result was Judaism.

Finkel outlined his thesis in a late-February talk at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem entitled "New Light on the Babylonian Exile." He is in the midst of writing a book on the subject, and an American literary agent stands ready to help place it.

[...]

Good interview. More on Dr. Finkel here, here, and here.

Richard Bauckham has a new website

RICHARD BAUCKHAM has a new website.

Book review (H-Judaic): Collins & Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God

BOOK REVIEW: Gerbern Oegema. Review of Collins, Adela Yarbro; Collins, John Joseph, King and Messiah as Son of God: Divine, Human, and Angelic Messianic Figures in Biblical and Related Literature. H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews. March, 2010.

Excerpt:

This is a fine work with a clear thesis: the term "son of God" must be seen in its historical context as the constantly changing expressions of the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, both in the way that they develop throughout history and in the ways that they pick up biblical and ancient tradition, and transform and further develop them in new concepts and beliefs. Both authors complement each other and work with a solid knowledge base. They lead us through the texts with their always careful and sound judgment. They finally underline that we have only partial textual evidence of the possible trajectories of a "son of God" concept and that we must always adapt our reconstructions to this.

More on the St. Paul DSS exhibition

MORE ON THE ST. PAUL DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION, which begins on Friday:

Dead Sea Scrolls come to St. Paul
The ancient scrolls will be exhibited at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Published: 03/09/2010 (mndaily.com)
By Kyle Potter

Tweezers and scissors sat within reach of latex glove-clad hands. Rubber suction handles sat attached to a Plexiglass case.

When dealing with ancient artifacts like the Dead Sea Scrolls, a single slip of the hand could destroy 2,000 years of history.

For the first time, some of these revered documents will be open for Minnesotans to view at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. Drawing on a University of Minnesota professor for help, the exhibit will open this Friday.

[...]

Background here.

More illicit excavation on the Temple Mount?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: More destructive, illicit excavation? Arutz Sheva reports the following from The Committee for the Prevention of Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount:

According to the Committee, a bulldozer was seen recently on the Temple Mount dumping huge amounts of earth and artifacts extracted from underneath the mount into a large truck for disposal.

In defense of Israel's Heritage Plan (JTA)

IN DEFENSE of Israel's Heritage Plan:

Op-Ed: In defense of Jewish heritage

By Danny Danon · March 8, 2010

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Imagine if someone forbade you from seeing your loved ones or banned you from visiting the graves of your grandparents. Imagine they told you that you have no right to come to your family home and your identity was simply a figment of your imagination.

Israelis deal with claims like these as a nation each and every day -- constant charges that the Jewish people have no right to their ancient homeland.

A new wave of Palestinian rage was unleashed recently following the inclusion of Judaism’s second holiest shrine, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and the tomb of our matriarch Rachel in Bethlehem on the new list of national heritage sites. It is important to note that the list will serve as a budgetary directive to governmental agencies to ensure that these religious and historical sites receive the appropriate funding for their proper upkeep, not as any sort of political statement.

[...]

Background here and follow the links.

Review of Sin: A History

SIN: A HISTORY, by Gary Anderson, is reviewed by Walter Brueggemann in The Christian Century:

Sin: A History

reviewed by Walter Brueggemann

Sin: A History
by Gary A. Anderson
Yale University Press, 272 pp., $30.00
Anderson suggests how the Anselm tradition might be recovered in ways that are socially alert and systemically demanding.

Gary Anderson, professor of Old Testament at the University of Notre Dame, has written an astonishing book that, in ways typical of his work, moves from close textual reading to the widest vistas of interpretation. As usual, he exhibits uncommon erudition, careful method and disciplined imagination that evokes connections his readers surely would not have otherwise noticed. The general idea of the book is that "sin has a history"—that over time understandings of sin reflected in the Bible and in nonbiblical literature changed in dramatic and significant ways.

Anderson identifies three ways of speaking of sin in the Bible—as stain, as burden and as debt. He scarcely mentions stain (only in his introduction), and he handles burden in one brief chapter, so the focus of his compelling study is on sin as debt. He judges that the transfer of interpretive energy from burden to debt can be traced chronologically, with burden evident in the earlier materials and debt becoming dominant in the Second Temple period and exercising immense influence on rabbinic and early Christian interpretation.

He suggests, in too offhand a way, that the change from burden to debt happened because of the move from Hebrew to Aramaic, and that the vocabulary for sin in Aramaic tilted in the direction of economic imagery. Anderson is a most capable scholar of linguistics, but I find his explanation of the change less than persuasive. Whatever may have been the cause of the transfer from one meaning to another, however, his attention to a mass of detailed texts makes clear that meaning does shift in exactly the way he reports.

[...]

Is Khirbet Qeiyafa biblical Neta'im"?

ANOTHER IDENTIFICATION of the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa:

Khirbet Qeiyafa is Identified as Biblical "Neta'im"

Released: 3/4/2010 8:30 AM EST
Source: University of Haifa

Newswise — Has another mystery in the history of Israel been solved? Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Bible Studies at the University of Haifa has identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as "Neta'im", which is mentioned in the book of Chronicles. "The inhabitants of Neta'im were potters who worked in the king's service and inhabited an important administrative center near the border with the Philistines," explains Prof. Galil.

Khirbet Qeiyafa is a provincial town in the Elah Valley region. Archaeological excavations carried out at Khirbet Qeiyafa by a team headed by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel and Mr. Saar Ganor have dated the site to the beginning of the 10th century BCE, namely the time of King David's rule. A Hebrew inscription on a pottery shard found at the site, also dating back to the 10th century, has recently been deciphered by Prof. Galil and indicates the presence of scribes and a high level of culture in the town.

[...]

For discussions of other suggested identifications of the site, go here and here. For the inscription, go here and just keep following the links back. For Professor Galili's highly debatable decipherment, see the latter link and follow the first few links back.

The Lemba and their Jewish DNA

THE LEMBA and their Jewish DNA get some attention in Haaretz:

Report: DNA tests support Zimbabwe tribe's claim of Jewish roots

By Haaretz Service

British scientists have succeeded in proving the Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe and South Africa descended from Jewish ancestors, according to a report by the BBC.

According to the report, the scientists conducted DNA tests on a large sample of the Lemba people, which confirmed Semitic origins dating back more than two millennia.

[...]

Inevitably, Professor Tudor Parfitt is quoted.

This is an old story, which I noted back in 2003. For more on the Lemba and their supposed Ark of the Covenant, go here and follow the links back.

Review of The Sisters of Sinai

THE SISTERS OF SINAI, by Janet Soskice, is reviewed by Lawton Posey in the Charleston Gazette. Excerpt:

Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson, the intrepid twins, made their travels to St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai desert to study the books stored there in a place not usually open to women. Securing admission through the good offices of a bishop, they did indeed enter the library, ultimately finding an exceedingly rare volume which seemed to be one thing and was discovered to be another. Hidden beneath more modern writings, and by using special chemicals, Agnes and Margaret were able to see revealed before them a very early set of the four Gospels in Syriac. This astounding find was made by two women who had not only made the journey of discovery, but had the audacity to challenge the scholarly community as to the truth of their claims.

Remember, they had no degrees, had attended no university and were largely self-taught.

And here's something I didn't know:

Ultimately, they did receive honors, and even the very Presbyterian-influenced University of St. Andrews gave them both honorary degrees.

Good for us.

More reviews here and follow the links.

More on the St. Paul DSS exhibition

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION upcoming in the Science Museum of Minnesota is getting a lot of attention. This Star Tribune article has some newish background:

The Israel Antiquities Authority will actually swap out the five-scroll set twice because the artifacts are so sensitive and fragile. They don't want to display them longer than 10 weeks at a time.

Negotiating to secure the scrolls' 13th U.S. visit and 21st trip out of Israel has been a seven-year odyssey for Science Museum staff, featuring a $750,000 conservation fee, a cave-exploring trip along the Dead Sea's northwestern coast and construction of the most sophisticated display cases in the museum's 103-year history. There was even a pivotal 2006 wining-and-dining session of Israel's directors of artifacts and treasures that began at the Mall of America and ended up at a Target store on St. Paul's East Side (more on that later).

There are lots more interesting details about the mechanics of the exhibition, but the article never gets back to the Target store.

Note the scroll photo to the right. It's of a manuscript of Genesis that I edited in DJD 12.

UPDATE: And here's a Twincities.com article that gives a précis of the theories about the origins of the scrolls.

Rioting in Mea Shearim

RIOTING IN MEA SHEARIM (Ynetnews):

The conflict was ignited when a man decided to build on land he acquired in Tzippori, which had been found to contain archaeological findings. The man was ordered by the Antiquities Authority to allow a dig, which uncovered an ancient Jewish burial cave.

The authority notified the police and the Ministry of Religious Affairs of its findings and said it planned to dig further in order to document them.

But large groups of haredim have been arriving to protest at the site for the past few days, fearing the graves may be damaged. Four were arrested, and others were prevented from entering the area. The dig began Sunday morning, with large police forces securing the group of scientists.

The world's oldest man knows Aramaic

PHILOLOGY IS GOOD FOR YOU: The world's oldest man knows Aramaic. Etc.

(IsraelNN.com) He has trouble seeing, but as one who has repeated the prayers for more than a century, he knows them by heart. David Pur, age 115, continues to learn Torah and to pray every day, now in the nursing home to where he moved just three months ago.

[...]

“I have had plenty of time to memorize the Biblical writings,” he said. He prays every morning while standing next to Moshe, who has just turned 100, and who Pur says sometimes seems lost – but is guided by his older friend.

Born in 1895 in what was then Persia and today is Iran, Pur became an adviser to the Shah, who admired his mastery of languages, including Persian, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic and French. He later added Tagalog, a language spoke in the Philippines, while learning to care for Filipinos. He and his family made aliyah to Israel in 1948.

[...]

Riots on the Temple Mount

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH - RIOTS:

Dozens hurt in clashes at revered Jerusalem mosque
Ammar Awad
JERUSALEM
Fri Mar 5, 2010 11:34am EST

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police and Palestinians clashed outside Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque Friday and at least 35 people were injured, Israeli police and Palestinian medical workers said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israeli forces of "provocation" and "crossing red lines" in an effort to derail a resumption of peace negotiations expected shortly under U.S. mediation. In a statement, Abbas appealed to Washington to hold Israel back to prevent a "war of religion" in the Middle East.

Israel's security minister blamed Abbas's Islamist rivals Hamas for fomenting the trouble. It started after weekly prayers at the third holiest site in Islam, in an area that Jews also revere as the site of their biblical Temple.

Muslim worshippers staging a protest after prayers against an Israeli government plan to include holy sites in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in an Israeli national heritage plan flew Hamas flags and threw stones at police who had taken up positions in the compound surrounding the al-Aqsa mosque.

[...]

Background here.

Review of Fifth Symposium on Coptic Studies (Al-Ahram)

THE FIFTH SYMPOSIUM ON COPTIC STUDIES, with the theme "Early Christianity and Monasticism in Aswan and Nubia," is reviewed in Al-Ahram:

Revisiting the southern frontier

Coptic history never ceases to enthral. Jill Kamil attends this year's symposium near Aswan

Early Christianity and Monasticism in Aswan and Nubia" was the fifth symposium on Coptic Studies to take place at a monastic centre. Organised by Coptologist Gawdat Gabra, Fawzi Estafanous of the St Mark Foundation for Coptic History Studies, Hani Takla, president of the St Shenouda Society, and under the auspices of Pope Shenouda III and Anba Hedra, archbishop of Aswan, it was held in the new Monastery of St Hatre (still under construction), within walking distance of the ruins of the famous Monastery of St Hatre in the Western Desert -- known for some unknown reason by early archaeologists and travellers as the Monastery of St Simeon.

Situated due south-west of the southern tip of Elephantine, the monastery is named after an anchorite who was consecrated by Patriarch Theophilus, bishop of Syene (Aswan), at the beginning of the fifth century.

[...]

This in particular is notable:

The temple-church of Qasr Ibrim was the subject of a presentation by Joost Hagen. Ibrim is all that remains of an important frontier post in Roman times that commanded a view of the Nile valley and desert for miles around. Between 30 BC and 395 AD it was the official border between Egypt and Nubia, and its control by the Roman general Petronius is well documented. His task was to contain the Blemmys (Beja) and the Nobodai tributes of the Eastern and Western deserts. Later, when Christianity spread throughout Nubia at the beginning of the sixth century, a Pharaonic temple on the site (built by the 25th-dynasty Nubian ruler Pharaoh Taharqa) was converted into a church, and the great cathedral on the summit was built in the 12th century. Threatened as it was with total inundation by Lake Nasser, excavations started in the 1960s when an important discovery was made. A body clad in episcopal robes was unearthed, and within its folds were long scrolls written in Arabic and Coptic. This was only a beginning. This site has proved vital for historical research. Among the most important discoveries made so far is a horde of ancient documents written in a host of languages -- Old Nubian, Arabic, Coptic, and Greek. They are private and official letters, legal documents and petitions, literary and documentary texts, dating from the end of the eighth to the 15th centuries.

Regular readers will recall that Dr. Hagen discovered Coptic fragments of 2 Enoch, an important pseudepigraphon known formerly only in Church Slavonic, in this manuscript hoard. More on that here and here.

Reconstructed ancient musical instruments

RECONSTRUCTED ANCIENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS are on display in Kansas City:

Artist makes ancient instruments

Written by Administrator (KC Jewish Chronicle)
Friday, 05 March 2010 12:00

The Kansas City Jewish Museum presents the exhibit “Moshe Frumin — Ancient Instruments” March 14 through May 2 at the Epsten Gallery at Village Shalom.

The show features 21 musical instruments created by Israeli professor Moshe Frumin, who has constructed authentic recreations of ancient biblical instruments based on depictions discovered in archaeological discoveries from Israel.

[...]

DSS arrive in St. Paul

SOME DEAD SEA SCROLLS have arrived in Minnesota for the upcoming exhibition:

Dead Sea Scrolls, live

The 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls and other artifacts have arrived in St. Paul from Israel.

Last update: March 4, 2010 - 8:35 PM (Star Tribune)

Helena Sokolov cradled a 2,000-year-old clay jar in her arms before gently placing it in a display case at the Science Museum of Minnesota on Thursday. "It's like a little baby," said Sokolov, a coordinator with the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The jar is among 200 ancient artifacts found in caves along the Dead Sea that have found their way to the banks of the Mississippi.

The headliners of the exhibit, which opens next week, are five parchment fragments, part of what's known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. ...

Background here.

Maimonides Synagogue in Cairo restored

THE MAIMONIDES SYNAGOGUE in Cairo has been restored:

Egypt completes restoration of Maimonides shul
By RON FRIEDMAN (Jerusalem Post)
05/03/2010 06:00

Dignitaries from Israel and abroad fly in for Sunday’s rededication.

After a year-and-a-half of careful restoration work by the Egyptian authorities, the Maimonides Synagogue in Cairo is set to be rededicated on Sunday.

The 19th-century synagogue and adjacent yeshiva, which stand on the site where Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, the Rambam, worked and worshiped more than 800 years ago, was restored by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

[...]

That's good, but this news in the article, which I had not heard before, is disturbing:

In late February, a homemade bomb was thrown at the Ben-Ezra Synagogue, sometimes referred to as the El-Geniza Synagogue, in the heart of Cairo.

The land for this synagogue was purchased in 882 CE for 20,000 dinars by Abraham ibn Ezra of Jerusalem.

This was the synagogue whose geniza or store room was found in the 19th century to contain a treasure of abandoned Hebrew secular and sacred manuscripts. The collection, known as the Cairo Geniza, was brought to Cambridge, England, at the instigation of Solomon Schechter.

According to the police report, a man entered a hotel located on the fourth floor of a building across from the synagogue at around 3 a.m. and, as he was checking in, threw his suitcase out the window.

The case contained four containers of gasoline, each attached to a glass bottle of sulfuric acid meant to shatter on impact and ignite the makeshift bomb, said police, who speculated the man may have panicked.

The bag, which also contained clothes, cotton strips, matches and a lighter, fell onto the sidewalk in front of the hotel and briefly caught fire before being extinguished.

There were no injuries and no damage to the historic synagogue.

For more on the Egyptian synagogue restoration project, go here and follow the links.

Editorial on Israel Heritage Plan controversy (Baltimore Sun)

THE CONTROVERSY over the Israel Heritage Plan is the subject of an editorial in the Baltimore Sun:

Heralding Israel's heritage
The nation must defend its historical ties to the land against those who deny them

By Aron U. Raskas

March 5, 2010

Jerusalem - JERUSALEM--The Israeli government adds two culturally rich, millennium-old historic sites to a list of national treasures, and riots break out, followed by international condemnation. Yet, it is precisely this cynical, albeit predictable, response that demonstrates why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to add the Tomb of Rachel and the Cave of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs to Israel's National Heritage Sites.

There is no nation with firmer roots in a land than the Jewish people in the greater land of Israel. Yet, that great heritage has been under assault by Arab protagonists and their pusillanimous patrons for the longest time, and this has intensified in recent years.

[...]

Background here.