Protesting the Ashkelon graves ruling

THE ASHKELON GRAVES CONTROVERSY just keeps going:

Eda Haredit calls on public to protest Barzilai decision

By JONAH MANDEL (Jerusalem Post)
13/04/2010 23:33

Badatz follows Atra Kadisha's stance that graves might be Jewish; UTJ to convene on issue.

Members of the Eda Haredit Badatz (Court of Justice) convened on Tuesday evening for an emergency meeting in Jerusalem following Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Monday reversal of the cabinet decision to relocate the planned construction of a fortified emergency department at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center due to the presence of ancient bones at the original site.

The meeting was also attended by Rabbi David Shmidel, head of the haredi organization Atra Kadisha, which deals with safeguarding Jewish graves. Shmidel reiterated to the participants his group’s stance on the graves, which deems them as possibly Jewish. After hearing Shmidel, members of the Badatz decided that the graves mustn’t be moved, and signed a proclamation calling upon the public to protest the planned relocation of the graves. A demonstration is to take place in Ashkelon next week.

Earlier on Tuesday, Shmidel reiterated his group’s stance to The Jerusalem Post, saying that since there was a chance some of the graves belonged to Jews, it was prohibited by Halacha to relocate them. He also noted that Atra Kadisha had proposed an alternative site for the construction, which would be pricier but would also enable more beds for the hospital.

Although an Antiquities Authority announcement determined that the graves were “unequivocally pagan,” Shmidel pointed out that some of the wording in the announcement was ambiguous. He stressed that some of the archeological evidence upon which the statement was based did not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the graves were solely pagan.

[...]

Background here. If there was an IAA press release about the graves, I can't find it online.

An Akko World Heritage Coin from UNESCO

THE CITY OF AKKO (Acre) is getting its own UNESCO coin:

City of Akko Next in UNESCO Coin Series

By World Coin News
April 14, 2010

Third in the “UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Israel” series is a coin honoring the city of Akko. Recorded in ancient Babylonian and Egyptian sources, the city of Akko, also known as Acre, is located in the western Galilee region of Israel. It has a 4,000-year-old history, one of the longest in the world.

[...]

Follow the link for a picture.

Israeli tourism advert banned in UK for showing Western Wall

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

UK watchdog bans Israel Western Wall tourism advert

(BBC)

A UK watchdog has banned an Israeli tourism advert showing the Western Wall, saying it is 'misleading'.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the advert implied East Jerusalem, which has been occupied since 1967, was part of the state of Israel.

The Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites, is in East Jerusalem, but it is a major tourist site for most visitors to Israel.

Israel's tourism ministry said it would have been misleading to exclude it.

The ASA said they received one letter of complaint about the advert, which appeared in UK newspapers.

[...]

But the Israel's Ministry of Tourism has refused to accept the ruling.

A statement in response said the ad provides "basic, accurate information to a prospective UK visitor".

"It is entirely accurate to assert that a visitor to Israel could visit Jerusalem as part of a short visit. Had the ad omitted a reference to a visit to the city of Jerusalem, it would have been incorrect and potentially misleading."

[...]

The same issue came up a couple of years ago involving the site of Qumran. And the article refers to another case in 2009 involving West Bank sites. But anyone who visits Israel is going to want to visit the Western Wall. And anyone bothering to go would probably have a basic knowledge of the political situation. The objection is pretty pedantic, but we're dealing with British bureaucrats here.

Of course they've now given the advert much more publicity - for free - than it would have had if they'd just ignored it.

Review of Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (London Times)

PHILIP PULLMAN'S NEW JESUS NOVEL is reviewed in the London Times:

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
Pullman’s retelling of the life of Jesus is a poor substitute for the King James Bible

Jeanette Winterson

There is an interesting piece of New Testament apocrypha called The Acts of Thomas. Thomas, otherwise known as Didymus (from the Greek for twin), otherwise known as Judas, is the twin brother of Jesus.

The text is a Gnostic one, and Gnosticism was the seductive heresy that the evolving early Christian Church worked hard to suppress. Pre-Christian in origin, Gnosticism is a doctrine of dualism that allows for an untainted spirit and a corrupted body. Salvation is through knowledge (gnosis) of this composite self.

[...]

Philip Pullman’s retelling of the Gospels splits Jesus and Christ into a pair of hostile twins. The good man Jesus is a leader and a teacher. His brother Christ is the scoundrel motivated by expediency and posterity. While Jesus tells his followers to take no thought for the morrow, Christ is secretly writing down everything that Jesus says, with his eye on the future publishing deal.

Her verdict:

So while I can see that Pullman wants us to remember that any religious text is both a palimpsest and revisionary, his own revisionism fails to win me over, not because I am a believer but because the Bible stories are better.

[...]

All of Jesus’s miracles in the Gospels are an affront to literalness — the dead are raised, the blind see — and an invitation towards energy, creativity and the possibility of a different order.

Pullman doesn’t want to understand this, and that may be why he has chosen to use a flat language, which makes me long for the rich and problematic language of the King James Bible, where the words themselves move us away from too much literalness towards an opening in the mind. Pullman’s text is instruction-manual English. It reads like The Good News Bible, but for atheists.

[...]

Pullman himself more or less ratifies this conclusion in an interview in the Toronto Star:

Q. What has the response been?

A. There has been a lot of coverage and a number of nice reviews. The general tendency has been to say that it’s not as good as the Bible, but it sort of works.

Iraqi cleric defends Tomb of Ezekiel

THE TOMB OF EZEKIEL (traditional) in Al-Kifl, Iraq, has a new defender:

Iraq cleric slams plan to turn Jewish tomb into mosque

By Jessica Elgot, April 12, 2010 (Jewish Chronicle)

One of Iraq’s leading clerics, Ayatollah Shaykh Ayad al-Rikabi, has denounced the proposed conversion of the ancient tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel into an Islamic site.

Iraq’s Department of Antiquities and the Iraqi Shi’i “waqf”, which controls religious heritage sites in the country, has stated that the historic tomb does not belong to Iraq’s dwindling Jewish community.

It asserted that since Ezekiel is described in the Koran as a Muslim, the tomb should be declared an Islamic site. Plans are now under way to turn the site into a mosque.

Ayatollah al-Rikabi, whose own tribe came from the area close to the tomb, has written to the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s foremost religious Shi’a leader, to request that the plans be overturned and that the tomb be kept as a Jewish holy site.

[...]

Good for him. I hope that the Grand Ayatollah listens.

Background here.

Barzilai ER to be built on originally planned site

THE ASHKELON GRAVES will not prevent the building of the Barzilai Medical Center's ER on the originally planned site:

PM U-turns, approves Barzilai ER at original site

By HERB KEINON (Jerusalem Post)
13/04/2010 01:38

Litzman says despite announcement he has not changed his position against moving graves.

In a dramatic about-face, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday reversed last month’s cabinet decision to relocate the Barzilai Medical Center’s planned fortified emergency department in Ashkelon due to the existence of ancient bones at the original site.

The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement saying that Netanyahu, who is also formally the country’s health minister, directed the Health Ministry’s professional staff to prepare for the construction of the emergency room at its original location.

The decision comes a day after the cabinet empowered Netanyahu to decide the issue.

The original decision to relocate the emergency room so ancient graves would not have to be disturbed, spearheaded by Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman (United Torah Judaism), created a public uproar for a number of reasons, including the cost involved and the additional time it would take to build the facility.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu’s decision came following recommendations made by a professional committee empowered by the cabinet ruling last month to look into the matter and return with proposals within a month.

[...]

But a hardline Haredi group is reportedly threatening violent protests.

Background here.

Conference: Judaic and Christian Visions of the Social Order

CONFERENCE PROGRAM from Jacob Neusner:

THE INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED THEOLOGY
BARD COLLEGE

PROGRAM

JUDAIC AND CHRISTIAN VISIONS OF THE SOCIAL ORDER.
DESCRIBING, ANALYZING AND COMPARING SYSTEMS OF THE FORMATIVE AGE


APRIL 27-29 2010

CHAIRED BY
JACOB NEUSNER AND BRUCE D. CHILTON
BARD COLLEGE

This conference is made possible by a grant from the Tammy and Carey Wolchok and Ahavas Tzedek, the Wolchok Family Foundation. The Foundation notes that Carey Robinson Wolchok is a former student of Professor Neusner’s.


THIS EVENT TAKES PLACE AT
MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM (MPR)
AT THE BERTELSMANN CAMPUS CENTER

1:00-1:15 P.M. APRIL 27 2010 WELCOMING REMARKS

Bard College Dean of Faculty and Academic Vice President Michele Dominy

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
1:15 P.M.-2:15 P M APRIL 27 2010 HOW DOES RELIGION IMAGINE SOCIETY?

William Scott Green and John T. Fitzgerald
University of Miami

ANCIENT ISRAEL
2:15-3:15 P.M. APRIL 27 2010 FROM THE REPERTOIRE OF THE HEBREW BIBLE: VISIONS OF THE SOCIAL ORDER

Baruch A. Levine
New York University

3:15-3:30 P. M. Coffee Break

JUDAISM
3:30 P.M.- 4:30 P. M. APRIL 27 2010 Visions of the Social Order: the Qumran Library

James C. VanderKam
University of Notre Dame

4:30 - 5:30 P. M. APRIL 27 2010 1 ENOCH’S VAGUE VISIONS OF A FUTURE SOCIAL ORDER; FOILS TO ITS VIVID PORTRAYALS OF THE PRESENT CHAOS

George W. E. Nickelsburg
The University of Iowa

5:30-6:30 p. m. APRIL 27 2010 The Mishnah and Concepts of the Social Order

Alan J. Avery-Peck
College of the Holy Cross


6:30-8:00 P. M.
SUPPER, FACULTY DINING ROOM
KLINE REFECTORY

THE NEXT EVENT TAKES PLACE AT
MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM (MPR)
AT THE BERTELSMANN CAMPUS CENTER

8:00-9:00 P M April 27 2010 2010 Six People You Meet in the Synagogue: Visions of Social Order in Early Rabbinic Prayer

Tzvee Zahavy
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America

. APRIL 28 2010

9:00-10:00 A.M. APRIL 28 2010 The Social Vision of Rabbinic Judaism

Jacob Neusner
Bard College

10:00 – 10:30 A.M Coffee break

CHRISTIANITY

10:30 – 12 Noon A.M. APRIL 28 Jesus and the Kingdom of God

Bruce D. Chilton
Bard College

12:00-1:00 P M
BUFFET LUNCH

THE NEXT EVENT TAKES PLACE AT
MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM (MPR)
AT THE BERTELSMANN CAMPUS CENTER

1:00 – 2:15 P.M. APRIL 28 2010 Paul’s theory of the social order

Bruce D. Chilton
Bard College

2:15 – 3:30 P M April 28 2010 Early Christian Martyrdom, Scripture, and the Social Order

Frederick W. Weidmann
Auburn Theological Seminary

Coffee break 3:30 – 4:00 p.m.

4:00 p. m. – 5:00 P M APRIL 28 2010 Origen’s Social Vision of Christian Life

Petra Heldt
Hebrew University

THE NEXT EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE IN
BITO AUDITORIUM ROOM 103 IN THE
REEM - KAYDEN CENTER

5:00 P M - 6:30 p m APRIL 28 2010 Irenaeus of Lyons (130-200) Re-Imagining the Cosmos From the Perspective of the Oppressed

J.A. McGuckin
Columbia University

6:30-7:45 P M
SUPPER, FACULTY DINING ROOM
KLINE REFECTORY

THE NEXT EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE IN
BITO AUDITORIUM ROOM 103 IN THE
REEM-KAYDEN CENTER

8:00 – 9:15 p. m. April 28 2010 Eusebius’s (and Constantine’s) theory of the political order

Bruce D. Chilton
Bard College

THE NEXT EVENT TAKES PLACE AT
MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM (MPR)
AT THE BERTELSMANN CAMPUS CENTER

9:00 – 10:15 A.M. April 29 2010 Augustine’s theory of world order

J. A. McGuckin
Columbia University

10:15 – 10:30 P.M. coffee break

10:30A.M. – Noon April 29 2010 Concluding discussion: JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY: ANSWERING THE QUESTONS OF THE SOCIAL ORDER

William Scott Green and John T. Fitzgerald
University of Miami

12:00-1:15 P M
BOX LUNCH
MULTI PURPOSE ROOM


The Institute of Advanced Theology of Bard College presents this conference. Admission is free, but reservations are advised. To reserve a place write to Theresa Desmond, Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N. Y. 12504 5000 or via e mail at desmond@bard.edu.

Please note that all sessions but the one on Wednesday evening are held at the Multi-Purpose Room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center. The session Wednesday evening is at Bito Auditorium Room 103 in the Reem and Kayden Center

Meals: lunches are served in the Multi-Purpose Room, suppers are at the Faculty Dining Room of the Kline refectory. Vegetarian service is available. Kosher meals may be ordered in advance through the office of Theresa Desmond, Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N. Y. 12504 5000 or via e mail at desmond@bard.edu.

New issue of Hugoye

HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES has just published a new issue (13.1, Winter 2010) devoted to Philoxenus of Mabbug.

Note also the upcoming First Hugoye Symposium on Libraries in the Syriac Tradition (20 May).

Conference: The Gift in Antiquity (Brown University)

THE GIFT IN ANTIQUITY: A conference at Brown University, Department of Judaic Studies, 2-4 May.

Ashkelon graves - the latest

ASHKELON GRAVES - the latest:

Netanyahu gets go-ahead to decide on Barzilai ER

By Barak Ravid and Dan Even (Haaretz)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received cabinet authorization yesterday to decide whether the construction of a contentious bomb-proof emergency ward at Barzilai Hospital will proceed as planned.

The approval was given on the prime minister's request, and due to his role as acting health minister.

This decision cancels a previous one to relocate the building because ancient graves were found at the site. A final decision on the matter is expected soon.

The cabinet decided unanimously, despite reservations expressed by Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman of United Torah Judaism, who has no vote.

In a statement, Litzman's office reiterated the ultra-Orthodox minister's dissatisfaction, stating he "is determined that the graves discovered at the Barzilai complex not be moved, and following a decision on the issue he will hold a [UTJ] faction meeting on future steps."

Litzman had said he would resign if a decision was made to move the graves and continue with construction at the original site. However, his associates have said that in light of the public protest over the cost and delay inherent in relocation, his faction's spiritual leaders may change their minds - letting Litzman stay in his post.

[...]

Background here.

Azusa Pacific DSS fragments to go on display in local church

THE AZUSA PACIFIC DEAD SEA SCROLL FRAGMENTS will reportedly be on display at an exhibition at a local church in Granite Bay, California. This in association with an exhibition called From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America, which was on tour some years ago in association with Lee Biondi.

Dead Sea Scrolls on display in Granite Bay

Sena Christian, The Press Tribune

Bayside Church’s exhibit includes five fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

When a pastor at a local church saw fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls in person, he knew he had to bring this archaeological treasure to Granite Bay.

So he did.

Bayside Church is hosting the fragments as part of an exhibit called “From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America.” These earliest-known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible are considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century — or for Pastor Ray Johnston and many other Christians, of all time. The texts date back to around 150 B.C.

“When I saw (the scrolls) for the first time, I got chills,” Johnston said. “I’m inches away from the real deal.”

Now, exhibit visitors can also get close to the Dead Sea Scrolls. The exhibit will feature five scroll fragments and dozens of other biblical items, including parts of the oldest Greek New Testament papyri, a 17th century Hebrew Sefer Torah scroll, a 5,000-year-old cuneiform tablet, an original King James Bible from 1611 to 1640, the Eliot Indian Bible and the Bible that flew to the moon aboard Apollo 14 in 1971.

A Gutenberg Bible leaf will also be on display. This was the first major book printed with movable type printing, making the Bible available to the mass population. Several other displayed artifacts highlight life in the region during the period when the scrolls were written.

[...]

Bayside Church renovated a building at its complex on Sierra College Boulevard to serve as a temporary museum. Visitors wander through a darkened cave-like setting, which depicts the caves of the northwest rim of the Dead Sea near Qumran, where a Bedouin shepherd boy found the scrolls in 1947. As shepherd boys looked for a lost sheep, one threw a stone into a cave and heard a clinking sound, soon discovering the artifacts.

[...]

Bayside Church is hosting the exhibit in conjunction with Azusa Pacific University, which acquired the artifacts in August 2009. Johnston serves on the university’s board of trustees. During a board meeting following the acquisition of the scrolls, Johnston had a chance to see the manuscripts. He said the experience left him profoundly moved. At first, he didn’t think he could actually bring the fragments to his church.

“I never thought it could happen,” Johnson said. “But that doesn’t stop us.”

[...]

Background to the Azusa Pacific fragments is here.

Another obituary for Hanan Eshel

ANOTHER OBITUARY for Hanan Eshel, this one in the Jerusalem Post:

Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Hanan Eshel dies at 52
By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
08/04/2010 22:19

World famous researcher passes away after a long battle with cancer.

Prof. Hanan Eshel, a world famous researcher of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kochba Revolt, passed away after a long battle with cancer early Thursday morning. He was 52.

A former head and current faculty member of Bar-Ilan University’s Martin Szusz Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Eshel wrote several books and over 200 articles. He was an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as the Qumran settlement, the Second Temple period and the Bar Kochba Revolt of 132-136 CE.

Eshel also served as director of the university’s Jeselsohn Epigraphic Center of Jewish History since the center’s founding more than a decade ago.

[...]

Sad News: Ellis Rivkin

SAD NEWS: Dr. Ellis Rivkin has passed away. From the HUC-JIR News Center:

Dr. Ellis Rivkin, z''l, Passed Away on April 7

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s beloved teacher, Dr. Ellis Rivkin, died at 6:20 p.m. on Wednesday evening, April 7, at Cincinnati Jewish Hospital.

The funeral service will be held this Sunday, April 11, in the Scheuer Chapel at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati campus. The service will begin at noon; the Rivkin family will receive visitors beginning 11:00 a.m.

Immediately following the interment, friends may call on the family at the Evergreen Mansion Room, 230 W. Galbraith Rd., Cincinnati, OH. Shiva will be observed Sunday through Tuesday, at the residence of Zelda Rivkin (5110 Evergreen Ridge Road).

Dr. Rivkin was the Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History Emeritus at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati. He was born on September 7, 1918 in Baltimore, MD. He received his BA with honors from Johns Hopkins University in 1941 and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1946. He also attended the Baltimore Hebrew College and was awarded the BHL degree in 1943. In 1962, Dr. Rivkin was awarded a Simon Guggenheim Fellowship to do archival research on the role of the Jews in the development of early Capitalism in European archives. He published five books and wrote more than one hundred articles and reviews on Jewish history and early Christianity. Dr. Rivkin lectured widely in the US and abroad and was especially active in Christian-Jewish dialogue.

Dr. Rivkin touched and enriched thousands of lives. His memory will always be a blessing.

Via the Agade list.

Also, on the H-JUDAIC list, Jonathan Sarna has a tribute that mentions some of Dr. Rivkin's publications. He also notes the Rivkin Society website.

More on the new Assyrian Vassal Treaty tablet

MORE ON THE NEW ASSYRIAN VASSAL TREATY TABLET. The University of Toronto has a press release:

U of T researchers shed light on ancient Assyrian tablets

A cache of cuneiform tablets unearthed by a team led by a University of Toronto archaeologist has been found to contain a largely intact Assyrian treaty from the early 7th century BCE.

"The tablet is quite spectacular. It records a treaty — or covenant — between Esarhaddon, King of the Assyrian Empire and a secondary ruler who acknowledged Assyrian power. The treaty was confirmed in 672 BCE at elaborate ceremonies held in the Assyrian royal city of Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). In the text, the ruler vows to recognize the authority of Esarhaddon's successor, his son Ashurbanipal," said Timothy Harrison, professor of near eastern archaeology in the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations and director of U of T's Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP).

[...]

And this article in the Montreal Gazette has a photo of some of the fragments.

Early Christianity: a new journal

EARLY CHRISTIANITY: A new journal.

The journal is concerned with early Christianity as a historical phenomenon. Thereby, “Early Christianity” aims to overcome certain limitations which have hindered the development of the discipline, including the concept of the “New Testament” itself. The journal, then, is taken to cover not only the first Christian century but also the second.

This journal will not, however, give any special prominence to reception-history or to the second century. The total phenomenon called "early Christianity" comprises a kaleidoscopic range of individual phenomena, including communal structures, social norms, discursive practices, points of conflict, material remains, and much else – far more than just the production and reception of texts. This journal will strive to reflect this multiplicity of contexts, in the expectation of new light on our subject-matter from a variety of angles.

"Early Christianity" will appear four times a year. Each issue will contain four (or five) articles, at least one of which will be in German, together with sections devoted to new books, new discoveries, and new projects. Every issue will be the primary responsibility of each of the four co-editors in turn, every alternate issue will be devoted to a specific theme.

New vassal treaty of Esarhaddon

AN ASSYRIAN VASSAL TREATY TABLET has been excavated in Turkey:

Canadian archeologists discover Old Testament-era tablet

By Jennifer Green, The Ottawa Citizen April 8, 2010 2:03 AM

Canadian archeologists in Turkey have unearthed an ancient treaty written in cuneiform that could have served as a model for the biblical description of God's covenant with the Israelites.

The tablet, dating from about 670 BC, is a treaty between the powerful Assyrian king and his weaker vassal states, written in a highly formulaic language very similar in form and style to the story of Abraham's covenant with God in the Hebrew Bible, says University of Toronto archeologist Timothy Harrison.

[...]

King Esarhaddon was nearing the end of his reign in Assyria when he drafted this treaty, trying to ensure a peaceful succession to the throne, Harrison said. "It was remarkable the kind of the intrigue went on." One of the reasons they made these treaties is that Esarhaddon's father was assassinated by a brother.

"So he brought together all the rulers in the Assyrian empire and essentially bound them to these treaties (to) avoid political crisis. It's a very complex document to deal with, sophisticated and intricate ... anticipating all the possibilities that might arise."

Harrison's dig at Tell Tayinat revealed tens of thousands of items last summer, including the tablet. It measured 43x28 centimetres, with 650 and 700 tiny lines of script -- and was smashed to pieces. Still, at least the pieces were all in one place. Dozens of similar smashed tablets were scattered.

[...]

This one clearly wasn't made of gold.

We already have copies of vassal treaties between Esarhaddon and other states (See ANET 533-34 for one with Baal of Tyre; also see here). It's not clear to me what the relationship of this new copy is to the others. But in any case, more is always better.

UPDATE (13 April): Duane Smith comments.

Sad News: Hanan Eshel

SAD NEWS: Hanan Eshel has passed away. From the Orion Center via Mladen Popovic:

Dear All,

The Orion Center would like to express its great sorrow at the death of Prof. Hanan Eshel. May his memory be for a blessing.

Our condolences to Esther Eshel and to the Eshel family.

The funeral will be today (Thursday, 8/4/10) at 4 pm at the cemetery in Ma'aleh Hahamisha (just outside of Jerusalem).

The shiva will be held at the Eshel's house (Alrozorov 17, Jerusalem). Prayer times will be 7am for shacharit and 6:45 for Mincha/Maariv.


The Orion Center
02-5881966

Hanan was a prominent scholar and did much important work on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran archaeology. I last saw him at the Enoch Seminar in Naples in June of last year, where I learned that he was terminally ill. He expressed hope that he would be at the next Enoch Seminar in 2011 but, alas, it is not to be.

May his memory be for a blessing.

UPDATE: Arutz Sheva has an obituary here.

UPDATE: Gabriele Boccaccini has just sent out a tribute to Hanan to the Enoch Seminar membership. I reproduce it here with his permission.

Dear Friends:

It is with great sorrow, that I am writing you about the death of our dear friend and colleague, and co-Director of the Enoch Seminar, Hanan Eshel.

Our warmest thought are with his wife, Esti, his family and friends.

It is a devastating loss for the entire scholarly community. It seems hard today to imagine any edited volumes, research projects, or international conferences, directly or indirectly related to the Dead Sea Scrolls, without his presence and contribution.

Hanan was the driving force of the Enoch Seminar (an energetic and passionate co-Director of the project). He attended all its biennial sessions, contributing decisively to the success of the project, not only through his scholarly contribution but also fostering a positive atmosphere of collaboration and productive exchange.

His scholarly legacy is a precious gift to all of us, but here I would rather like to remember Hanan the man and the friend. His scholarly reputation was the result of hard work, substantial achievements, but primarily of the immense love and passion he had for what he studied. Hanan’s enthusiasm and energy were irresistible, almost legendary, and highly contagious, an enthusiasm and optimism that he maintained to the last days, even facing his illness.

Hanan was not only interested in work, he was interested in people. I know it well by experience, during all the time we spent together in Italy, Israel, and Ann Arbor. On more than one occasion I received from him not only support as a colleague, but help and encouragement as a friend. Many times, both publicly and privately, we talked about how the study of Second Temple Judaism is essential not only for the self-understanding of Jews and Christians but also for their relationships today. We both shared the same dream of reconciliation and mutual understanding and were aware of the responsibility that as scholars we have to find common ground in the study of this crucial period of Christian and Rabbinic origins.

I was happy he could share once more the Italian experience of the Enoch Seminar in Naples and had time for a trip to Capri with Esti, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. When he left at the end of the conference, he hugged me with his strong arms and whispered: "I'm dying, Gabriele, I don't know if I will make it for another Enoch Seminar but I will try as hard as I can." We silently struggled not to cry, as I am struggling now that I am writing this notes... I miss you, Hanan. I miss you so much.

Gabriele

Israeli tourist site rankings

ISRAELI TOURIST SITE RANKINGS (half of the top ten are antiquities related):

Biblical Zoo is Israel's No. 1 tourist destination

Some 740,000 visitors enjoyed Jerusalemite animals over past year, Dan & Bradstreet reveals. Ramat Gan Safari ranked second; last year's winner, Masada, down to third place

Ynet
Published: 04.07.10, 07:40 / Israel Travel

Israelis' favorite touristy destination is the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, according to Dun's 100 ranking published recently by the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) company, which provides credit information on businesses and corporations.

Dun's 100 rates the leading and most attractive tourism and recreation destinations for Israelis over the past year, and this is the 30th year it is published.

[...]

Ashkelon graves update

ASHKELON GRAVES UPDATE:

PM to Deputy Health Minister: Ashkelon ER won't be relocated

By Barak Ravid and Dan Even, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service
Tags: Israel news

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday told Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman that he opposes relocating a planned bomb-proof emergency room for the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, due to ultra-Orthodox objections after burial grounds were discovered under the original site.

Netanyahu told Litzman that his decision about the location of the emergency room would be based on the need to prevent harm or risk to human life.

Netanyahu had appointed a task force to re-evaluate the cabinet decision to relocate the emergency room, and made his decision after the committee submitted its conclusions.
Advertisement

Netanyhau further told the minister that he believes the emergency room should be built as planned on the original site and that the remains discovered there should be re-interred elsewhere.

[...]

Background here.

A cuneiform tablet made of gold

A GOLD TABLET inscribed with Assyrian cuneiform ended up in the estate of a Holocaust survivor and there is now a legal ruling that the the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Germany, from where it came, cannot reclaim it. The 13th-century BCE tablet was excavated at ancient Ashur early in the 20th century. Click on the link to see a photograph of this remarkable object. I've never seen a cuneiform tablet made of gold, although gold tablets from about 500 BCE inscribed with Phoenician and Etruscan have been recovered at Pyrgi (see here [JSTOR] and here).

The legal ruling of the New York court can be downloaded as a pdf file here.

I know this is a stretch for PaleoJudaica, but I thought it was too interesting not to note.

UPDATE (7 April): This UPI article has the additional information that the artifact has been valued at $10 million but that the owners do not intend to sell it. As always, I hope that the owners donate it to a museum (I don't care which one) or at least that they make the object available to scholars who want to study it.

UPDATE: The New York Post has coverage here with another photograph of the tablet.

Latest on Ashkelon tomb controversy

THE ASHKELON TOMB CONTROVERSY is covered in an article by the BBC. I can't see anything new in it, but the coverage seems pretty thorough and accurate.

Religious row holds up Israeli hospital

Beth McLeod
BBC News, Ashkelon

The emergency unit at Barzilai Hospital in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon is dark and cramped. Patients jostle for space along a narrow hallway.

Construction of the planned new casualty ward has stalled due to the latest flare-up in the bitter conflict between religious and secular Jews.

Religious groups oppose building on the planned site because an ancient burial ground has been discovered there.

Dr Ron Lobel, the hospital's deputy director, cannot hide his anger.

"There are only 20 beds in here - you can imagine how it looks when a mass casualty accident happens and more than 100 patients arrive in ambulances."

[...]

Background here.

More on Maaloula

ARAMAIC WATCH: The BBC has a short video on Aramaic in the Syrian town of Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula). (May not be available outside the U.K. Sorry.) Predictably, it is not without errors. It refers to Aramaic as "the world's oldest language," which is odd. It's not even the world's oldest spoken language: Greek and Hebrew go back as far. The video also says that the Aramaic speakers in Maaloula speak "the same dialect" that Jesus spoke. Nonsense. They speak what is very broadly the same language, but hardly the first-century Galilean dialect of Jesus. The piece also mentions the Aramaic Institute there without mentioning that it has been shut down by the government on the grounds that the alphabet looked too much like Hebrew.

Still, it's nice to see Aramaic continuing to get some media attention, even after the Mel Gibson hype of some years ago has died down.

The Pope cites the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: The Pope cites a couple of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha in his Easter Vigil homily. First, from the Life of Adam and Eve:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

An ancient Jewish legend from the apocryphal book “The life of Adam and Eve” recounts that, in his final illness, Adam sent his son Seth together with Eve into the region of Paradise to fetch the oil of mercy, so that he could be anointed with it and healed. The two of them went in search of the tree of life, and after much praying and weeping on their part, the Archangel Michael appeared to them, and told them they would not obtain the oil of the tree of mercy and that Adam would have to die. Subsequently, Christian readers added a word of consolation to the Archangel’s message, to the effect that after 5,500 years the loving King, Christ, would come, the Son of God who would anoint all those who believe in him with the oil of his mercy. “The oil of mercy from eternity to eternity will be given to those who are reborn of water and the Holy Spirit. Then the Son of God, Christ, abounding in love, will descend into the depths of the earth and will lead your father into Paradise, to the tree of mercy.” This legend lays bare the whole of humanity’s anguish at the destiny of illness, pain and death that has been imposed upon us.

This story is from L.A.E. 35-42. There's been much scholarly discussion of the Life of Adam and Eve in recent years and the current consensus is that it is a Christian work. I don't know that that affects the Pope's point, though.

Second, a citation from 2 Enoch:

Once again, an ancient Jewish text can help us form an idea of the mysterious process that begins in us at baptism. There it is recounted how the patriarch Enoch was taken up to the throne of God. But he was filled with fear in the presence of the glorious angelic powers, and in his human weakness he could not contemplate the face of God. “Then God said to Michael,” to quote from the book of Enoch, “‘Take Enoch and remove his earthly clothing. Anoint him with sweet oil and vest him in the robes of glory!’ And Michael took off my garments, anointed me with sweet oil, and this oil was more than a radiant light … its splendour was like the rays of the sun. When I looked at myself, I saw that I was like one of the glorious beings” (Ph. Rech, Inbild des Kosmos, II 524).

The quotation is from 2 Enoch 22. Again, it is debatable whether 2 Enoch is a Jewish or a Christian work. It may well have ancient Jewish elements in it but later Christian elements may well also be present. And in this case, that may make some difference, in that the baptismal connection may be even closer than the Pope posits, which perhaps would add support to his comparison. For the latest on 2 Enoch, see here and here.

Happy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER to all those celebrating.

Anti-Semitic idiocy derails Maaloula Aramaic Institute

ARAMAIC WATCH: Anti-Semitic idiocy derails the Aramaic Institute in Maaloula, Syria.

Easter Sunday: A Syrian bid to resurrect Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is remembered on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but the language he spoke is all but forgotten. A controversial new language institute in Syria seeks to save Aramaic.

By Alastair Beach, Contributor / April 2, 2010 (CSM)

Malula, Syria

While millions will commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ this Easter Sunday, only a handful of people could discuss his works in the language of his day: Aramaic.

Nearly all of them live in three Syrian villages, the last outposts in a region largely swept by the Arabic of Islam. In a bid to preserve its ancient heritage, Syria launched a series of language courses in 2007 to bolster the fading influence of a 3,000-year-old language that once reigned supreme in the Middle East.

And so it was that an Aramaic institute joined the cluster of buildings that cling to a rocky spine in the village of Malula, about 35 miles northwest of Damascus. But the program ran into trouble recently, when a Syrian newspaper suggested that the alphabet being used to teach written Aramaic bore an uncanny resemblance to the Hebrew characters found in modern-day Israel.

Worried that a flagship heritage scheme might in any way be associated with the country’s neighboring enemy, the government-run University of Damascus, which established the institute, acted quickly to freeze the Aramaic program.

“There were some people in the press trying to cause trouble,” says George Rezkallah, an elderly villager from Malula who runs the institute. He is hopeful that classes will be able to resume this summer.

[...]

Sigh.

Background on Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula) and its Aramaic Institute here.

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.