Hackett and Huehnergard in defense of the humanities

JO ANN HACKETT AND JOHN HUEHNERGARD have published an editorial in the American-Statesman in defense of the humanities in the era of the bursting higher education bubble:

Two Texas professors on why academic research matters

By Jo Ann Hackett and John Huehnergard

SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN

It was spring break 2009, and we were spending it in Florida, watching our beloved Red Sox play spring training games. We had a glorious week, seeing our baseball heroes a few feet from where we sat in the stands. Our time in Florida was cut short by a couple of days, though, so that we could fly to Austin to give a paper and to meet with members of the University of Texas' Department of Middle Eastern Studies, the Department of Religious Studies, and Deans Randy Diehl and Richard Flores of the College of Liberal Arts. When our two days were over, and we got situated in the plane for Boston, we each asked the other, "What do you think?" And we had the same answer: "We've got to make this work. I really want to come here."

Each of us had taught at Harvard University for more than two decades. But although Harvard had recently selected a historian as its president, a series of deans had made it clear that, as Harvard faced a financial meltdown, the humanities were expendable. If anywhere, Harvard should be the depository of, as well as the cutting edge of research in, what we know about our world and how we know it; instead, attrition was reducing our top-ranked program in ancient languages and cultures to a shadow of its former self. We felt it was time for a change.

[...]

Barely a month later we "retired" from Harvard and became members of the UT faculty. By August , we were ensconced in a new home and new offices, the whole process dizzyingly quick. But all for the best possible reason: We are happy here.

We are also now, suddenly, wondering whether we made a mistake.

The ideas we hear floated by some "experts" in higher education — that research and teaching should be separated and that some research isn't useful to the university, isn't cost-effective — are the exact opposite of what led us to move to Texas. They are also ideas that will ensure that UT will no longer be the great university we thought we were coming to.

The "professors who do not bring in as much money as they cost" is often code for the humanities. ...

Read it all. I am sorry to hear about such developments at Harvard. I got my Ph.D. there in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in the 1980s (and studied comparative Semitics and historical grammar of Hebrew with John while I was there).

For related thoughts on the importance of the humanities, see here and here.

(HT the Agade list.)

Meanwhile, Semitic philology still has a presence in Texas for now, as shown not only by John's and Jo Ann's work at UT, but also by Jeff Childers's work on an edition of the Syriac version of the writings of John Chrysostom at Abilene Christian University. (Background here.)

Book reviews in Tablet Magazine

TABLET MAGAZINE has brief reviews of numerous books relating to medieval and late-antique Judaism in its current On the Bookshelf column. Most of them look interesting, although the one on Hebrew numerology by Stan Tenen sounds goofy. As the reviewer says, "one hopes that he’s a conceptual artist lampooning new agey Kabbalists, in which case he’s hilarious." But the rest seem worthwhile.

Happy Saints Cyril and Methodius Day!

SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS DAY is being celebrated today by Orthodox Christians in Russia and Bulgaria. It commemorates the invention of the Slavonic alphabet and the translation of biblical and related literature from Greek into Old Church Slavonic. For background on relevance to the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha etc., see here and follow the links.

Popular culture, Metatron, Talmud, science fiction, Gnosticism ...

POPULAR CULTURE IN THE MEDIA is taking an unusual interest in some of PaleoJudaica's favorite themes today.

The new film Footnote continues to get attention after its Cannes screening, for which it has won an award:

Israel's Cedar wins award at Cannes

By Viva Sarah Press (Israel21c)
May 23, 2011

Israeli film director Joseph Cedar clinched the best screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival for his film, Footnote.

Footnote is a drama-comedy about the rivalry between a father and son who are competing Talmud scholars at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

[...]

Jason Solomons gives it a brief review in his Guardian Cannes roundup:

Contrasting with Malick's new agey, Romantic reverie was the old age study of the holy word contained in Joseph Cedar's Talmud tragicomedy Footnote, probably my favourite film of the festival. It's about a father and son who are both respected but very different Talmud scholars and the Shkolnik family "broigus" that ensues when father is finally awarded the prestigious recognition of the Israel prize.

The film was partly inspired by Cedar's own experience as an Oscar nominee for his last feature, war film Beaufort, but this is closer to something like the Coen brothers' A Serious Man or a David Lodge campus comedy. The performances from Lior Ashkenazi as the son and Shlomo Bar Aba are outstanding in this very smart, very Jewish film. What's not to like?

More reviews of Footnote here.

[UPDATE (24 May): Praise for the Hebrew University's Talmud Department from Manuscript Boy at Hagahot.]

From Talmud to mysticism: the Archangel Metatron make an appearance as a character (sort of) in a play currently running in Santa Monica. Reviewlet by Steven Leigh Morris in LAWeekly:

NEW REVIEW DEUX EX MACHINA AND THE HANDS OF THE BEHOLDER
​
Minutes into writer-director R.S. Bailey's "dark Vaudevillian farce," one gets a sinking feeling. The play (which really feels like two discreet works), takes place in a semi-apocalyptic setting in which God's wrath is at hand and religious zealots have taken over the world. In the prologue, we meet a character named The Historian (Jezter Detroit), who rambles on about history, politics, cause and effect, great events, historical relativism, and more. Prompted by the wail of police sirens, he quickly exits, after which the "meat" of the play begins. Bailey assumes the role of Old Testament Patriarch -- with a dash of mad scientist and Sorcerer's Apprentice tossed in -- who is searching for God before the Day of Judgment. Assisting him are his wife Majda (Mary Dryden), and son Jesse (Jonathan Brett), who is working on a contraption called a Metatron where God is located, or as it turns out, the dwelling place of his voice. The inspiration for this is purportedly the story of Abraham and Isaac, but if it is, it doesn't come across as such, notwithstanding the bizarre sacrifice near the play's end. Theatre Z Productions at The Complex, Dorie Theatre, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlwd.; Thurs-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun. 3 p.m.; thru June 5. (323) 960-7788. plays411.com (Lovell Estell III)

All of the other stories today are connected in one way or another with ancient Gnosticism.

On recent and classic films with a Gnostic connection:

Knowing Is Half The Battle: Dark City, The Matrix, And Inception As Gnostic Manuals

Added by Keoni Chavez on May 15, 2011 (Screened)

When hearing the word "religion", it's a safe assumption that most people will think of the more commonly referenced faiths, like Islam, Catholicism, declaring for Ba'al, what have you. However, I'd like to talk about an often-overlooked sect of Christianity (though even that stipulation is arguable) called Gnosticism.

Essentially -- and know that this is a gross oversimplification, but for the purposes of this article, it'll do -- the Gnostics believed that the material world was an imperfect reflection of a higher, truer reality. This imperfection was created, not by God, but by a lesser being known as a 'demiurge'. While the purpose for this creation isn't always clear, it was said that only by adherence to esoteric knowledge -- or "gnosis" -- can one transcend the trap of the material world and ascend to the higher plane.

Now, run that notion through Hollywood's lens, and what do you get? At least the three movies mentioned in the title: Alex Proyas' Dark City, The Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix, and Christopher Nolan's Inception.

[...]

Exegesis follows. The Truman Show also rightly gets a mention. Earlier thoughts on The Matrix and Gnosticism are here.

Also at Screened, more Matrix-as-Platonism/Gnosticism exegesis by Andrew Godoski in Under The Influence: The Matrix:

Moving on, the philosophy at play in The Matrix is simply mind-boggling. They actually devoted an entire disc to it in The Ultimate Matrix Collection box set. I’m not even going to try to delve too deep into any of it, because if I did this article would quickly turn into a 300 page thesis. But, I’ll touch on one idea really quickly. The premise of The Matrix can be tied into Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” Keeping this extremely basic, Plato likened people who were uneducated in his Theory of Forms (which is in very, very simplistic terms, the idea that the true essence or definition of an object isn’t what we perceive with our eyes, but rather the quality that makes it that object, i.e. what makes a table a table... that is its true form) to being chained in a cave. A fire glows behind them and they see the shadows of objects passing along the wall, but not the actual objects themselves. These people perceive the shadows as reality and thus do not know the true form of the objects. They are prisoners to this false perception of reality. Sound strikingly familiar? Again, this barely scratches the surface, but it goes to show just how complex the storytelling in The Matrix really is.

I’ll finish by making a quick stop on religion to tie it all back to this week's theme. Just naming a few, this film touches on the ideas of Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Christianity. And like philosophy, religion is so tightly woven into the script that discussing all of what you see here would take hours and hours. Obviously, I can’t go through all of it, but I will touch on perhaps the most blatantly apparent idea in the series... Neo as a Christ figure. To start, Neo has a “virgin” birth of sorts since he’s created by the machines and brought into the real world after spending his entire life in an incubator pod, which, of course, is symbolic of a womb. You also can’t ignore the prophecies of his coming and the fact that he is the one chosen to free humanity from their bondage. Then, there's his name, Thomas Anderson. Thomas refers to Doubting Thomas, as Neo never believed he was The One at first. Anderson can literally mean “son of man” when broken up into its roots. Anyone familiar with the teachings of Christianity knows Jesus is often referred to by that name. And if you couple that name with Neo meaning new, you get “new son of man.” You also can’t ignore the Judas/Cypher and Morpheus/John the Baptist metaphors and the fact that Neo gets a very Christ-like death at the end of the series.

Plus you can watch a video excerpt of the lobby scene.

Regular PaleoJudaica readers will be reminded of earlier discussions of Gnosticism and the Simulation Argument here, here, and here. I'll take the red pill.

Then we have Lady Gaga and the Gospel of Judas, offered by Rev. Patrick S. Cheng at the Huffington Post:

Lady Gaga -- the queer icon and pop sensation -- is setting off the Christian right again. In her new song and video, "Judas," Lady Gaga sings over and over, "I'm in love with Judas," referring to the reviled disciple who betrays Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Is there anything redemptive, theologically speaking, about this song and video?

For me, the answer is a definite "yes." As a queer theologian and professor of early church history, this song and video brings to mind the little-known second century gnostic Christian text The Gospel of Judas. In that text, Judas is actually the disciple who is the most loyal to Jesus and does the will of Jesus by setting into motion the events that ultimately lead to human salvation.

[...]

Unfortunately, this interpretation of the Gospel of Judas is widely disputed.

[UPDATE: Rock diva Helen Ingram does Judas in her church organ series. Why no video, Helen? We expect the highest production standards.]

Then there's Coptic, Platonism, Gnosticism, Satanism, and black metal: Ipsissimus Discusses "The Way of Descent" (by Disc0rdant at metal underground.com):

Haimatokharmes: With the Coptic bridge in the middle of the song, I simply wanted to express black piety with the brutal and pithy character of Coptic. I arranged the riffs and the lyrics in a chiastic structure (a-b-c-b-a) to lend the section a particularly liturgical cohesion.

Finally, the Gnostic gospels Off-Broadway:

Musical Based on Gnostic Gospels, The Magdalene, to Bow Off-Broadway

By Adam Hetrick (Playbill.com)
20 May 2011

The new musical The Magdalene, inspired by the Gnostic gospels that portray Mary Magdalene in a new light, will begin previews Off-Broadway June 14 at the Theatre at St. Clement's. The production will officially open June 27 for a run through Sept. 4.

[...]

According to producers, "In this musical, Mary and Yeshua are destined to become husband and wife, and face together the dangerous and corrupt powers of the time—the Roman Empire and the church—not only battling the new religious ideas, but also the resistance to empowering women."

[...]

[UPDATE: on a related note, James McGrath has a post up on The LOST Series Finale: One Year Later. I liked the ending and could never quite figure out why some people were so unhappy with it.]

Review of Juifs et chrétiens en Arabie aux Ve et VIe siècles

BMCR REVIEW:

Joëlle Beaucamp, Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Christian Julien Robin (ed.), Juifs et chrétiens en Arabie aux Ve et VIe siècles: regards croisés sur les sources: [actes du colloque de novembre 2008]. Monographies, 32. Paris: Association des amis du Centre d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2010. Pp. 302. ISBN 9782916716237. €30.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Hagith Sivan, The University of Kansas (dinah01@ku.edu)

Far away from the centers of Roman and Sasanid power and from the raging doctrinal debates of early sixth century, the historian of late antiquity runs into an astonishing phenomenon. In a bizarre twist of Byzantine-Persian rivalry and of post-Chalcedonian controversies, an unforeseen light is shed on the emergence of southern Arabia as contested political, commercial and theological arena. The region, Himyar (roughly present day Yemen), was strategically critical to the trading interests of both empires. The major local players were the rulers of Himyar and their neighbors across the Red Sea, the rulers of Axum (present day Ethiopia). In the late fourth century the Himyarite ruling house apparently converted to Judaism. A century later the Axumites annexed Himyar to their kingdom. In 522, when the chronology of Himyarite events suddenly acquires precision, prince Yusuf revolted again the Axumite overlords of Himyar. His first priority was to secure the coastal region. In the course of his operations he besieged the town of Najran, setting on fire its church and its clergy (523). The Axumite king, Caleb, invading Himyar, defeated Yusuf and executed the Jewish inhabitants of the kingdom.

The events of 522-523 received extraordinary coverage. We have sources in Syriac, Greek, Geez, Sabean, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Aramaic, some with Chalcedonian bias, others reflecting the views of miaphysites, yet more with a Nestorian twist. Virtually all the sources display one striking feature in common, namely anti-Judaism.

English readers have had opportunities for familiarizing themselves with Himyarite events largely through the efforts of Irfan Shahîd. In addition, K. A. Kitchen has published a Bibliographical Catalogue of Texts in the series Documents for Ancient Arabia.

In the last two decades French scholarship on the south Arabian peninsula in general and on Yemen in particular has undergone a veritable renaissance. A scholarly team headed by the editors of the volume under review created a series devoted to the editing, commentary, and analysis of major sources relating to the Najran episode. The first volume dealt with the text known as “The Martyrdom of Saint Arethas and his Companions,” and appeared in 2007. The second, based on a 2008 conference, is a collection of articles, under review here, designed to highlight further research on the sources. Two more are in preparation. Both Beaucamp and Robin have already published important studies elsewhere. In 2009 alone two other related books appeared, one by Iwona Gajda on the kingdom of Himyar in its monotheistic phase, the other a volume of essays edited by Robin and Jeremie Schiettecatte on the historicity of the narrative sources in light of Axumite and Himyarite inscriptions.

[...]

Review of "Footnote" in Salon

FOOTNOTE is a success at Cannes and gets a good review in Salon, even though the reviewer is under the erroneous impression that philology is "unsexy," apparently due to issues with his father. Go figure.

Cannes: The Talmud scholarship comedy of the year!

A deadpan Israeli comedy about dueling father-son professors, "Footnote" is an unexpected hit at Cannes

Another review is noted here.

Lag B'Omer

LAG B'OMER (the Counting of the Omer) is celebrated beginning this evening at sundown (unless pre-empted by the Rapture, which doesn't look likely now). Best wishes to all those celebrating.

Review of Ulmer, Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash

BOOK REVIEW:

Rivka Ulmer. Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2009. Illustrations. vi + 404 pp. $155.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-11-022392-7.

Reviewed by Marc Bregman (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
Published on H-Judaic (May, 2011)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Egypt through Rabbinic Eyes

This book is a collection of ten interrelated essays, with numerous figures, color plates, and tables of motifs, by the prolific scholar of rabbinic literature, Rivka Ulmer, utilizing her additional expertise in Egyptology, art history, and cultural theory. A number of the essays that have been published previously are here revised, updated, and integrated into a monograph on the significance of Egypt, as a cultural icon, in rabbinic texts. The concept of “cultural icon” is best explained in the introduction to chapter 7, “Cleopatra, Isis and Serapis”: “For the purpose of this chapter a cultural icon is understood to be a representative of a particular culture or a famous individual that emerged to signify this culture to a sizable segment of the known world of antiquity, the Roman provinces and even Non-Roman territories” (p. 215).

[...]

Adin Steinsaltz interviewed in Tablet

ADIN STEINSALTZ is interviewed in Tablet Magazine:

Found in Translation

Scholar Adin Steinsaltz discusses his recently completed edition of the Talmud, why the Internet is better than TV, and the prospect of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Elvis playing cards together

Background on his Talmud translation is here and follow the links.

Cargill on the latest on the fake metal codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Speaking of Media Fails, I didn't have the heart to discuss this latest nonsense puff-piece on the Elkingtons, but Robert Cargill has it covered: i just threw up in my mouth: on david elkington and the lead codices.

Media Fail: "Egyptologist" accused of antiquities smuggling

"EGYPTOLOGIST" ACCUSED OF ANTIQUITIES SMUGGLING:

Retired U.S. Academic Is Arrested in Israel on Suspicion of Antiquities Trafficking

By Matthew Kalman (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Jerusalem

A retired American college lecturer has been arrested in Israel on suspicion of trafficking in stolen antiquities and attempting to smuggle them out of the country.

John L. Lund, 70, a motivational speaker, author, and tour guide, was detained late Monday by Israeli customs and antiquities agents as he prepared to board a plane at Ben Gurion Airport. Mr. Lund is an expert on Egyptian history, is the author of How to Hug a Porcupine: Dealing With Toxic and Difficult to Love Personalities, and, according to his Web site, has lectured in history as an adjunct faculty member at universities in California, Idaho, Utah, and Washington.

A search of his belongings revealed a stash of ancient silver and bronze coins that he was attempting to take out of Israel without a permit, as well as $20,000 and other evidence from the illegal sales of ancient coins, clay oil lamps, and glass and pottery vessels, said a statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority. Mr. Lund had been acting as a guide to two groups touring Israel.

One of the items retrieved by officials was a rare Roman lamp bearing an incised decoration of a seven-branched menorah. Such items are not permitted to be taken abroad without an export license from the antiquities agency.

Mr. Lund was allowed to leave Israel after posting a bond of $7,500. Israeli police expect to file charges in the near future.

[...]

Dr. Lund claims to be innocent, and the courts will have to sort this one out. But I find the case itself less interesting than the press reports about Dr. Lund's credentials. Here's what I could find with a little Googling.

Here is his profile at the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum. Credentials:

... He is a popular speaker and author of many books, cd's and dvd's. His most recent book is, Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon, Is This the Place?.

He holds Bachelor's degrees in sociology and education from Brigham Young University, a Master's Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Washington in Seattle and a Doctor of Education from Brigham Young University. Because of his emphasis in research, he also completed the equivalent of a Doctoral Minor in Statistics.

His own personal description is here and goes into somewhat more detail but adds nothing relevant.

The Deseret Book website has a list of 15 of his books for sale. They are all popular works, mostly in the self-help category. None of them has anything to do with Egyptology.

He is a motivational speaker, tour guide, and author of self-help and religious books. There's nothing wrong with any of those things, but an Egyptologist they do not make. If he has a doctorate in history, he's keeping it well hidden. Apparently he has taught at adjunct level somewhere and so counts as a retired "academic" or "professor," but if some institution let him teach ancient history, I'm not impressed with their recruiting standards.

I am no Egyptologist, but I'm more of one than he is. At least I have actually studied an ancient Egyptian language (Coptic) and have taught ancient Near Eastern history and mythology at the tertiary level.

The Chronicle of Higher Education report above details his background pretty well, but then spoils it with the howler "Mr. Lund is an expert on Egyptian history." Many of the media reports do no better and some are worse.

JTA: U.S. professor arrested for trafficking stolen antiquities. The article refers to him as "[a] retired history professor."

The Media Line: American Professor Caught Trafficking Antiquities in Israel; "[a]n American history professor."

Art Daily has an innocuous headline (An Attempt to Smuggle Hundreds of Stolen Antiquities from Israel was Thwarted) but describes Mr. Lund as "a retired university lecturer with a Ph. D in history from the United States."

Ynet News: US professor suspected of selling stolen artifacts; "[a] history professor from the US."

Then it gets even better:

Jerusalem Post: Egyptologist suspected of smuggling artifacts from Israel; " a former history lecturer specializing in Ancient Egypt."

Likewise Arutz Sheva: US Egyptologist's Attempt to Smuggle Stolen Antiquities Thwarted; "an American tour guide, a retired American university lecturer and expert on Egyptian history and culture."

To be fair, we don't find this nonsense this time with some media, including the major outlets:

Haaretz gets credit for getting it about right: U.S. tour guide arrested for antiquities trafficking.

CNN does all right as well: American arrested over alleged antiquities smuggling in Israel. Description: "a retired American university lecturer." Note that Mr. Lund had not been identified by name at this point.

The AP (Fox News, CBS, WaPo) likewise: Israel accuses US man of antiquities trafficking; "a retired U.S. lecturer."

I am not picking on Dr. Lund, nor am I pre-judging the outcome of this case. He is what he is and, as far as I can tell, he himself doesn't claim otherwise. My problem is with the media, much of which is simply incapable of judging academic credentials. Even Haaretz and the major media did not express themselves clearly by saying that he is a retired adjunct lecturer in areas that have nothing to do with ancient history. (The adjunct status is relevant: although many adjuncts are fully credentialed, publishing scholars, many are also non-academics teaching a course here and there. Dr. Lund clearly falls in the latter category.)

With Dr. Lund and, recently, with Mr. Elkington, it has become obvious that the media could not identify an Egyptologist if one rose up from an alabaster coffin in front of them. Once again, Media Fail.

UPDATE: At Rogue Classicism, David Meadows reaches the same conclusion about this story: Journalists Just Aren’t Trying Any More.

VMBA: Virtual Magic Bowl Archive

ARAMAIC INCANTATION BOWLS ONLINE: VMBA: Virtual Magic Bowl Archive.

The aim of VMBA is to provide an environment that will allow collaborative work on material that is otherwise difficult to access or unavailable. The material within this archive consists, at this stage, of parts of three collections: The Moussaieff Collection, The Dehays Collection and The Barakat Collection. By providing access to this material to a number of scholars and their students we aim to encourage the production of critical editions of these texts and their publication. A single portal providing access to a shared virtual environment where this can occur provides a convenient forum for collaboration between a small group of scholars from different institutions spread in a number of countries.

(Via AWOL.)

Updates on the Valmadonna and Schneerson Judaica collections

THE SALE OF THE VALMADONNA LIBRARY of Judaica has fallen through:

Treasured Judaica Library, Feared Lost, Is Back On the Market

By Paul Berger (The Forward)
Published May 04, 2011, issue of May 20, 2011.

One of the world’s largest and most valuable private Judaica libraries is up for sale, again.

To the consternation of Judaeophiles and scholarly libraries around the world, public access to the Valmadonna Trust Library — or even knowledge of its whereabouts — was feared to have been lost last December, with the selection of an anonymous buyer in a sealed bid auction conducted by Sotheby’s. Scholars braced for the potential breakup or disappearance of an unparalleled assemblage of rare and historic Jewish books and an incalculable loss to Western culture. Libraries rued its loss, perhaps forever, as a potential acquisition.

But the sale of the collection, the Forward has learned, never went through.

“It’s sitting a few feet from me right now,” said David Redden, a Sotheby’s vice-chairman, in an April 29 interview. Redden, who led the sale in New York, said that an anonymous bidder had met or exceeded the $25 million minimum set by the library’s trustees. But Jack Lunzer, who amassed the collection, told the Forward that the trustees had aborted the sale because the buyer failed to meet two stipulations for purchase: that the library be kept whole and be made available to scholars.

The library has been sitting in Sotheby’s New York offices ever since.

[...]

The centerpiece of his library is a 16th-century Babylonian Talmud that was coaxed out of the collection of Westminster Abbey, where it had lain for about 400 years. The Talmud was published by Daniel Bomberg, a Christian printer who was the first to publish a complete edition. The Abbey refused repeated attempts by Lunzer over a period of 25 years to buy the books. In 1980, Lunzer spotted an opening: A New York collector needed to unload the original charter of Westminster Abbey. Lunzer bought the charter and used it as a bargaining chip to persuade, some might say blackmail, the Abbey into letting the Talmud go.

[...]

(HT Gerald Rosenberg.)

Previous posts on the Valmadonna Library sale are here, here, here, and here.

Tangentially related topic: U.S. looking at Chabad-Russia feud over texts (JTA). The dispute between Chabad and Russia over the Schneerson Collection has now led to US exhibition cancellations and is attracting the interest of the State Department. Background on that is here.

Part of State Comptroller's report on Temple Mount released

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Part of that suppressed State Comptroller's report on the Waqf and the Temple Mount has been released. From Haaretz:

'Waqf Temple Mount excavation damaged archaeological relics'

State Comptroller's report finds that the Muslim religious trust carried out works without permits and used heavy equipment damaging the Jerusalem holy site.

By Nir Hasson

Tags: Israel news Temple Mount Jerusalem Israel archeology Jerusalem Old City

* Published 18:52 17.05.11
* Latest update 18:52 17.05.11

In his annual report, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss found many shortcomings in the supervision of works carried out by the Waqf Muslim religious trust at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, saying that as a result, important archaeological artifacts had been damaged.

The majority of the State Comptrollers opinion is being kept confidential, as per the decision of the State Control Committee. According to the State Comptroller's report, this is "In order to guarantee state security and to prevent damaging Israel's international relations, in accordance with article 17 of the state comptroller's law."

The only section of the opinion that was made public was the conclusion, which says that supervision of the works that the Waqf carried out at the Temple Mount, particularly in the structure known as Solomon's Stables, was problematic. ...

The released text of the report follows.

Background here.

iGematria App

GEMATRIA — There's an app for that: iGematria App Unlocks Ancient Hebrew Numerology System.

Lecture on Qur'anic apocalyptic and the Aramaic Gospels tradition

LECTURE at the Middle East History and Theory Workshop at the University of Chicago:

Dr. Emran El Badawi

Thursday, May 19, 12:00–1:30, Pick 218
Stages of the Apocalypse in the Qur’ān and the Aramaic Gospels Traditions

(HT Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni.)

New book: Steven D. Fraade, Legal Fictions

NEW BOOK:

Steven D. Fraade, Legal Fictions: Studies of Law and Narrative in the Discursive Worlds of Ancient Jewish Sectarians and Sages (Brill)

Ancient Jewish writings combine interpretive narratives of Israel’s sacred history with legal prescriptions for a divinely ordered way of life. Two ancient Jewish societies have left us extensive textual corpora preserving interpenetrating legal and narrative interpretive teachings: the sectarian community of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the sage-disciple circles of the early Rabbis. This book comprises studies that explore specific aspects of the interplay of interpretative, narrative, and legal rhetoric with an eye to pedagogic function and social formation for each of these communities … read moreand for both of them in comparison. It addresses questions of how best to approach these writings for purposes of historical retrieval and reconstruction by recognizing the inseparability of literary-rhetorical textual analysis and a non-reductive historiography.

Aramaic DNA Project

ARAMAIC WATCH: There's an Aramaic DNA Project:

A. INTRODUCTION The Aramaic DNA Project hopes to bring together all Aramaic (also known as Modern or Neo-Aramaic) speaking people and people of Aramaic-speaking heritage of the world. For 3000 years, and despite unrelenting strife of every conceivable sort, the Aramaic language has steadfastly retained a continuous presence in the region known as the Fertile Crescent.

The people who retained a form of the Aramaic language as their mother tongue offer a tremendous opportunity to catch a glimpse many centuries, and perhaps even millennia, into the past. The testing of DNA, specifically one's mtDNA and Y-DNA, is ideally suited for discovering one’s deep ancestral roots. This is because mtDNA and Y-DNA remain more or less unchanged for thousands of years. If we wish to understand the origins of the Aramaic-speaking people, it is imperative to undertake this task now. The growing diasporic aspect of many, if not all, Aramaic-speaking communities is at the root of this urgency. If this project were not undertaken, or pursued with sufficient zeal, we may forever squander our ability to peer, with least obstruction, back to the dawn of our civilization.

The Aramaic DNA Project aims to answer questions of interest to Aramaic-speakers regarding their recent and distant origins. It will also delve into the relationships between the different Aramaic-speaking groups with ancestral origins from different geographical regions including, but by no means limited to: Diyarbakir, Hakkari, Harput, Mardin, Mosul, Salamas, Seert, Urfa, Urmia, Tur Abdin, and Zakho.

The Project, in remaining true to standard scientific practices, as well as FTDNA’s terms of agreement, will remain objective and has no affiliations whatsoever. We encourage all Aramaic-speaking people and people of Aramaic-speaking heritage to join our Project regardless of self-designation including, but not limited to: Aramaeans, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syrians, Ancient Syrians, and Syriacs. People of Aramaic-speaking heritage who have lost usage of the language due to assimilation are encouraged to join. All participants will be offered the option to identify by their preferred self-designation.

The Project is open to all religious affiliations and not limited to Christian communities. We welcome, with open hearts, Aramaic-speakers among the Jewish and Mandaean communities, and Aramaic-speakers from other religious affiliations. All Aramaic-speakers will be classified according to their self-designation into the appropriate haplogroup categories. We sincerely hope all Aramaic-speaking people tested at Family Tree DNA will consider participating in this very special endeavor. The administrators are more than happy to discuss any questions pertaining to the project. Please refer to our contact details above. Yours truly, Paul Givargidze Jean Fathi Nenos Birko

Thomas Verenna on the fake metal codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Thomas Verenna has published an excellent article over at Bible and Interpretation about the metal codices and how they have been handled by the media and bibliobloggers:

Artifacts and the Media: Lead Codices and the Public Portrayal of History

More scandalous is the complete lack of journalistic integrity, honest research, and thorough fact-checking. These codices might never have been heard of if the authors of the reports for BBC and Fox News (among others) had just checked with the academic community before publishing the “find”. At the very least, the journalists might have used less authoritative language, expressed more caution, and exposed the controversy rather than simply stating, as if doing so made it fact, that these codices were “the earliest Christian texts” and that they held “early images of Jesus.”

As Tom concludes, "Perhaps blogging isn’t enough; but it is something."

Background here and just keep following those links.

BMCR reviews

BMCR REVIEWS:

Jordan D. Rosenblum, Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Pp. xiv, 223. ISBN 9780521195980. $85.00.

Reviewed by Matthew Kraus, University of Cincinnati (tthew.kraus@uc.edu)

Preview

Planning a dinner party for scholars of food, Classics and rabbinics would present a formidable challenge for any chef. Jordan Rosenblum assumes this task in Food and Identity in Rabbinic Judaism, a respectable attempt to serve fare both edible and satisfying to all. By examining the Tannaim's innovative adaptation of Jewish and non-Jewish customs, Rosenblum claims to develop a methodology for cross-cultural and trans-historical food studies. Rosenblum demonstrates how tannaitic texts establish a discrete rabbinic identity through the discursive construction of culinary and commensal practices. This essential thesis is not difficult to swallow, but it should be noted that the size of the portions vary. The rabbinics scholar has the most to digest, albeit abundantly seasoned with contemporary food theory. Classicists might enjoy the tastes, but will depart still hungry.

[...]


Anders-Christian Jacobsen, Jörg Ulrich, David Brakke (ed.), Critique and Apologetics: Jews, Christians, and Pagans in Antiquity. Early Christianity in the Context of Antiquity 4. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009. Pp. 327. ISBN 9783631580110. $64.95.

Reviewed by Danielle Slootjes, Radboud University Nijmegen (d.slootjes@let.ru.nl)

The volume under review presents the results of a conference, held in 2007, which marked the final stages of a larger research project at the University of Aarhus in Denmark that had started in 2000, called ‘Jews, Christians and Pagans in Antiquity – Critique and Apologetics’. This project examined the dialogues and conflicts between religious groups in the period between circa 100 B.C. and A.D. 500 in order to acquire a deeper understanding of apologetic literature (whereby they also included those texts that traditionally might not have been regarded as apologetic). The project has taken three phases into account: the pre-Constantine epoch, the Constantinian revolution, and the post-Constantinian era. The thirteen contributions in the volume focus for the most part on issues that deal with the concept and genre of the apologetics, as well as the writings that can be connected to these three phases.

[...]

Lexicon news

LEXICON NEWS:

• First, Lane's multi-volume Arabic-English Lexicon is now available online at the Perseus Digital Library. I have the set of bound volumes on my bookshelf, but it will be handy to have this for reference when I'm away from my office. (Via Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni.)
  
  
• Second, a massive new dictionary of medieval Latin is being completed at Oxford University and is slated to be published online in 2014. Press release:

  Unique dictionary nears completion
  
  12 May 11
  
  A huge number of students ranging from linguists to those studying coins and family ancestry are benefiting from a 100 year project to compile the world’s most comprehensive dictionary of Medieval Latin.
  
  Work started on the unique Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources 50 years ago but experts began collecting material early in the 20th century.
  
  Now the initiative is nearing completion and Professor Tobias Reinhardt, Corpus Christi Professor of the Latin Language and Literature at Oxford University is responsible for seeing it through.
  
  “It will be an achievement of international importance, serving as a primary and essential reference volume to a very wide range of scholars, students, and interested members of the public,” Professor Reinhardt, who is based in the Faculty of Classics says. “Bringing it to completion in the current difficult funding environment will be a symbol of the resilience of the humanities in Britain.”
  
  The dictionary has drawn on the largest collection of literary and epigraphic sources of any similar project. Words used in Classical Latin and Late Latin – up to AD 600 – and the Middle Ages – from the sixth century to the 16th - are included. It details headwords – under which related entries appear – definitions, quotations and each word’s history. It follows the style of the Oxford English Dictionary.
  
  It is being used by students of philosophy, music, those studying names and even topography as well as language and literature students
  
  Entries range from words used in high literature to those common in day to day speech, many of which did not appear in text for hundreds of years.
  
  The dictionary also incorporates words from Greek, Celtic, Semitic, Germanic and Romance languages. “It is being used by students of philosophy, music, those studying names and even topography as well as language and literature students,” Professor Reinhardt adds.
  
  The dictionary is due be published fully online in 2014, a target he is confident will be met. The dictionary, which is a British Academy research project as well as a research project in the Faculty of Classics at Oxford, has recently won $800,000 from the Packard Humanities Institute enabling its completion.
  
  “People will be able to search for words online when they have an internet connection, using their iPhones and of course laptops. As a medieval Latin dictionary it is the leading publication in its field.”

Footnote

PROFESSORS OF TALMUD are the central characters in the indie film Footnote:

CANNES REVIEW | “Footnote” Finds the Comedy in a Talmudic Feud

by Eric Kohn (Updated 23 hours, 31 minutes ago) [indiewire.com]

Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar’s last feature, the Oscar-nominated “Beaufort,” was a tense war movie about the 2000 South Lebanon conflict. His latest effort, “Footnote,” involves a much more personal war, in which the opposing sides are a father and his grown son. In Cedar’s dark comic fable, bookish eccentrics pit their egos against each other on a shrewdly composed battlefield where the only potential casualty is self-esteem.

Cedar’s screenplay follows a tale two of Shkolniks: The aging Eliezer (Israeli comic Shlomo Bar Aba), a veteran Talmud professor at Hebrew University, and his middle-aged son Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi), a more established researcher in the same field. From the first scene, Eliezer sulks in his son’s shadow, as the younger Skolnick accepts an award while his father watches from the audience. Cedar quickly explains the context with an introductory bit that surveys both of their backgrounds, aided by words on the screen and a deadpan voiceover seemingly imported from Woody Allenville. Like Allen’s best creations, Eliezer and Uriel harbor neuroses that run deep.

[...]

Magdala Synagogue Gala

MAGDALA SYNAGOGUE GALA:

Religious, political luminaries gather to raise money for Magdala Center in Israel

By Electa Draper
The Denver Post
Posted: 05/12/2011 05:21:17 PM MDT

A Holy Land archaeological discovery will bring together some of Denver's biggest names in politics and religion for a Galilee Gala June 8 at The Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

A first-century synagogue, uncovered in 2009 in Magdala — Mary Magdalene's hometown in the region of Galilee — holds the oldest known depiction in stone of a menorah.

Jesus lived most of his life, conducted most of his ministry and performed most of his miracles in the region of Galilee. And so the area was chosen by the Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic order of priests seeking to promote Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land, as the site for a $100 million building project.

Plans encompass a 300-bed hotel, educational center dedicated to Jesus called "Walk With Me," and, acknowledging the Mary Magdalene connection, a cultural center for women.

The project began purchasing land in Magdala in 2006, eventually acquiring more than 20 acres on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

As providence would have it, project spokesman Father Eamon Kelly said, workers soon discovered, in the very footprint set aside for an ecumenical chapel for Christians, a 2,000-year-old Jewish place of worship.

[...]

This is not "the most important archaeological discovery ever related to the 2nd Temple," and I kind of doubt that that's exactly what the IAA said, but it is an important site and I wish them well in their fundraising.

Background here.

Latest on the fake metal codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Another article in a small local press: Are rusty books Christ's chronicle? by Sholeh Patrick in the Coeur d'Alene Press. The piece summarizes the misinformation already circulated by the media. I have written to the author. We'll see if anything comes of that.

Background here.

NT job at University of Edinburgh

JOB AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY:

Divinity: Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins

We are seeking an outstanding researcher/lecturer to join the Biblical Studies subject area in the School of Divinity (New College). The candidate can be a specialist in any area of NT study, but applicants whose field is Pauline studies or the use of the Old Testament in the New are particularly encouraged to apply.

The successful candidate will be expected to engage actively in research, teaching and administration and play a full part in the collegiate life of the Biblical Studies subject area and the School of Divinity.

Candidates are expected to have a relevant doctoral degree, and to have demonstrable achievements in research, publication, and teaching. The School has plans to develop PGT programmes delivered via distance learning, experience and/or an interest in this area would be advantageous.

The post is available from 1st September 2011, however the start date is negotiable.

The deadline is 29 June. Follow the link for full details.

UPDATE: Bad link now fixed. Sorry about that!

Blogger down

BLOGGER WAS DOWN all day, so I and many others had an enforced blogging fast. Glad to be getting back to it.

UPDATE: I did put up a post on Thursday, but the Blogger debacle seems to have eaten it. They say deleted posts will come back. We'll see.

Isaac Casaubon as a Hebraist

BMCR BOOK REVIEW on the 16th/17th-century Christian Classicist and Hebraist Isaac Casaubon:

Anthony Grafton, Joanna Weinberg, "I have always loved the holy tongue": Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship. Cambridge, MA/London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011. Pp. x, 380. ISBN 9780674048409. $35.00.

Reviewed by Pieter W. van der Horst, Utrecht, The Netherlands (pwvdh@xs4all.nl)

This is an extraordinary book about Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614), a man who is well known for his fine editions of and commentaries on classical Greek and Latin authors (Theophrastus, Strabo, Diogenes Laertius, Persius, among others). What is little known, however, and what is revealed in this book by Grafton and Weinberg, is that, apart from his work as a classical philologist, Casaubon was also an ardent student of ancient and medieval Jewish literature in Hebrew and Aramaic. The evidence for this is found not so much in his published work as in the copious marginal notes Casaubon jotted down in the books he read, in his separate notebooks, in his diary, in his many letters, and in other material most of which is unpublished. ...

The longest chapter of the book (almost 70 pages) deals with the conflict between Casaubon and Baronio, a conflict that dominated the last decade of his life. Between 1588 and 1607, cardinal Cesare Baronio (1538-1607) had published his multivolume work Annales Ecclesiastici, in which he tried to demonstrate on historical grounds that the Roman Catholic Church was exactly the kind of institution that Jesus had wanted to found. Casaubon wrote a devastating review that expanded into a manuscript of more than 800 pages (it was unfinished at his death but was published posthumously as De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI). In it he concentrated on the historical circumstances of the life of Jesus, whom he saw as a pious Jew, and he gloatingly and at great length exposed the cardinal’s glaring lack of knowledge of Jewish life and thought in first-century Palestine. Here Casaubon demonstrated that, besides being a classicist, he was also a Judaist, whose aim it was to use his Judaic knowledge for as exact as possible a historical reconstruction of the origins of Christianity. That gave him the opportunity to argue that “Baronio’s failings as a Hebraist mattered as much as his defects as a Hellenist, and that both made it impossible for him to write a scholarly study of the early church” (183). For all his hidden Calvinist agenda, Casaubon shows himself here to be a formidable philologist.

[...]

Isaac Casaubon also established that the Hermetic corpus consisted of late (i.e., Hellenistic-era) compositions and likewise reinforced the earlier conclusion by Johannes Opsopoeus that the Sibylline Oracles were Hellenistic. Earlier posts on Casaubon are here and here.

Polish translations of Jewish texts

TRANSLATIONS of Torah, Talmud excerpts, and other Jewish texts into Polish:

Gained In Translation: Sacred Texts For Poles

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Steve Lipman (The Jewish Week)

A Croatian-born college student in Prague in the late 1980s, Sacha Pecaric became interested in traditional Judaism, but no Jewish texts were available in Serbo-Croatian or Czech. He turned to English and Hebrew books.

As an Orthodox rabbi doing outreach to Krakow’s small Jewish community in the first decade of this century, he found few Jewish texts in Polish. Again, he used English and Hebrew.

Rabbi Pecaric, now 45 and a resident of Teaneck, decided to fill the literary-linguistic void. The rabbi, who moved to New Jersey with his wife Ksenija, an artist, and two young sons, in 2005, has written, edited and translated some 30 classical Jewish texts in Polish during the last decade.

[...]

His most ambitious project was his translation of the Talmud (chapters from the often-studied tractates of Berachot, Kiddushin and Baba Kama), which includes the standard Aramaic text as well as a translation, ArtScroll-style explanations, and a commentary in the guise of a teacher-student dialogue.

[...]

Apocryphal gospels in the Blogosphere

APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS in the Blogosphere:

Reports on the Secret Mark Symposium at York University:

Report on Secret Gospel of Mark Symposium Pt 1 (Ryan D. Wettlaufer)
Report on Secret Gospel of Mark Symposium Pt 2 (Ryan D. Wettlaufer, to be continued)
Thoughts on the Secret Gospel of Mark Conference (Sarah Veale)
Secret Mark in Toronto ("the_cave")
Secret Mark Symposium: A Student’s View (Calogero A. Miceli)

It seems there is no consensus on whether Secret Mark is a forgery.

Alin Suciu has identified a Coptic fragment of the Garshuni Lament of the Virgin: The Identity of a Coptic Apocryphal Fragment in the British Library (Layton no. 100).

UPDATE: Also, April DeConick has a post on Digital images of Nag Hammadi collection. The images include the apocryphal gospels in the Nag Hammadi library. Last summer I linked to the same site for an image of some Psalms material inscribed on a cave wall.

UPDATE: Tony Burke, the organizer of the Secret Mark symposium, has posted his own account at Apocryphicity:

Reflections on the Secret Mark Symposium, part 1
Reflections on the Secret Mark Symposium, part 2

Also, there's more on the images of those Nag Hammadi codices at AWOL.

UPDATE (11 May): Report on Secret Gospel of Mark Symposium Pt 3 (Ryan Wettlaufer)

Publisher's Weekly on AAR/SBL reunion

THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION AND THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE ARE TOGETHER AGAIN and Publisher's Weekly is delighted.

For religion publishers who do academic publishing, the November 19–22 concurrent meetings this year in San Francisco of two major professional groups of religion scholars is a felicitous remarriage after an expensive three-year divorce.

Background here.

Robert Cargill on Simcha's nails

ROBERT CARGILL ON SIMCHA'S NAILS: A Critique of Simcha Jacobovici’s Secrets of Christianity: Nails of the Cross (Bible and Interpretation).

Simcha makes two bold claims to say the least: the first is that the lost nails of Jesus’ crucifixion have been recovered, and the second is an implicit assertion that the IAA covered it up. Unfortunately for Simcha, his theory has a problem, and its name is Legion, for they are many. Any one of these problems renders Simcha’s theory impossible, and their aggregate renders the theory preposterous.

Background here.

Davila on "The Golb Affair"

"THE GOLB AFFAIR," my article covering the story of Raphael Golb's sock puppetry, his identity-theft trial, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, has been published in Religion in the News.

Jim Caviezel interview on The Passion of the Christ

JIM CAVIEZEL is interviewed by Scott Ross about playing the role of Jesus in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ:


This via an article by Aisling Redican in IrishCentral.com: Actor rejected from Hollywood for playing Jesus in Gibson’s ‘The Passion’ - VIDEO. Excerpt:

A lot of the criticism the film garnered revolved around the portrayal of Jews as being principally responsible for Christ's death. Caviezel responded to the accusations saying "we are all culpable in the death of Christ. My sins, your sins put Him on that cross. I want my Jewish brothers to see this film. I want people in my own faith who think it's anti-Semitic to see this film."

Though Caviezel praises the film for its portrayal of the last moments in Christ's life, he admits that it has hindered his career in many respects. Despite the negative effects, he asserts that he would do it again if given the chance: "This is what I feel. I believe I was called to play this role...I'm still an actor. I'll always be one, whether I get another job or not."

Sands, Invention of the Jewish People, reviewed in Al Ahram

SHLOMO SAND'S THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE gets a long cheerleading review by Gamal Nkrumah in Al Ahram:

Scriptural non-sequitur
The Invention of the Jewish People, by Shlomo Sand. Translated by Yael Lotan (2009). Verso, London

Complacency and political convenience have conspired to blur the vision of Israeli historians and biblical scholars to gross factual errors unearthed by contemporary archaeology since the inception of the Zionist state. Israel is today repeating that folly. The Zionist entity is continually reinventing the wheel. Its politicians and academicians, historians and archaeologists monotonously sound like a scratched gramophone when they insist that the Jews of the world are simultaneously a race, an ethnicity and a religious community.

In harking about exile and return they do not exude a positive message about either Zionism or Judaism. Their ideas are outdated and antiquated no matter how much high-tech they smear on the ultra-modern veneer. There is a paradox in hearing this from an Israeli academician.

[...]

That gives you a sense of the tone and the political orientation. Some critical reflection about aspects of the book (e.g., theories about the Khazars or the relevance of recent developments in genetics) would have been welcome as well. For earlier reviews, etc., some of which do better on the critical reflection front, go here and follow the links back.

Review of Manning, The Last Pharaohs, 305-30 BC

BOOK REVIEW:

Scholia Reviews ns 20 (2011) 8.

J. G. Manning, The Last Pharaohs: Egypt under the Ptolemies, 305-30 BC. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010. Pp. xvi + 264, incl. 18 black-and- white illustrations. ISBN 978-0-691-14262- 3. UK£27.95. Further Details.

John Atkinson
School of Languages and Literatures, University of Cape Town

Manning, with numerous previous publications in the field of Ptolemaic studies to his credit, here plunges straight into the issues which he proposes to address, and dispenses with the customary historical survey of the Ptolemaic period. His brief historical introduction is entitled 'Egypt in the First Millennium BC’ (pp. 19-28), and picks up the story from the end of the New Kingdom, giving more space to Persian rule than to the period of Alexander and Ptolemy. This is appropriate as he identifies with the trend in scholarship over the last three decades to lay greater stress on Egyptian culture in the Ptolemaic era, and on Persian administrative practices (p. 2).

[...]

Minimalism and Khirbet Qeiyafa

MINIMALISM AND KHIRBET QEIYAFA: Two recent, long articles deal with the minimalist-maximalist debate in biblical studies, with a special focus on Yosef Garfinkel's excavation at Khirbet Qeiyafa. The first is by Garfinkel himself in Biblical Archaeological Review: The Birth & Death of Biblical Minimalism. The second (HT Gerald Rosenberg) is by Asaf Shtull-Trauring in Haaretz: The keys to the kingdom. Garfinkel dismisses the minimalist approach as largely defunct whereas the Haaretz piece seems to be trying to present both sides impartially. The "Solomonic" gates at Gezer, Megiddo, and Hazor; the Tel Dan inscriptions that mentions "the house of David"; the tenth-century-BCE Tel Qeiyafa inscription, whose interpretation remains controversial; and much else are discussed in one or both of the articles.

There's more on discoveries at Khirbet Qeiyafa here and follow the links.

The Koran as a text from Late Antiquity

THE KORAN AS A TEXT FROM LATE ANTIQUITY:

Bridging the Gap between Orthodox Interpretation and New Research

In her comprehensive Koran study, Angelika Neuwirth, Director of the research project Corpus Coranicum, interprets the Koran as a text that was developed in the milieu of Late Antiquity theological debates. Stefan Weidner introduces the book and project

[Quantara.de]

German scholarship of Islam experienced its heyday around 100 years ago. Back then, Ignaz Goldziher and Theodor Nöldeke presented studies on early Islam, the Koran and the emergence of Islamic law, publications still viewed as vitally important to this day.

For some years now, scholars have reconnected with these glory years of research into early Islam from a quite different perspective, at among others the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Under the programmatic title "The Koran as Text from the Late Antiquity. A European Approach", the scholar of Arabic Angelika Neuwirth, who heads a group of young Koran researchers at the Academy, presents the project's initial findings.

Embedded in a cultural and religious context

Angelika Neuwirth's work liberates the Koran from later Islamic tradition and makes the process of its creation visible. It then reads just as contemporaries must have understood it: as evidence of intensive theological wrangling on the Arab Peninsular but in a cultural and religious context that also characterised the rest of the Mediterranean region in the 7th century – and thereby ultimately European spiritual beliefs to this day:

"In as far as the Koran emerged from the debates raging during the Late Antiquity, and carved its own niche among existing Christian and Jewish traditions (…) this means it is itself part of the historical legacy of the Late Antiquity in Europe."


[...]

HT Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni.

King James Bible translator Richard Brett

KJB@400 WATCH: Portraits of the Past: Richard Brett.

King James Bible translator Richard Brett, 1567-1637, served on the First Oxford Company, translating Isaiah-Malachi. Brett was a scholar in Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew and Ethiopic languages.

Related item here.

Another Lod Mosaic exhibition review

THE LATEST LOD MOSAIC EXHIBITION is reviewed by Emma Silvers in jweekly.com: Pieces of history: Ancient Roman mosaic from Israel on display at Legion of HonorSan Francisco, CA.

Hot Action Enoch

"HOT ACTION ENOCH": The Forward discovers Enochic pseudepigrapha and the new game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. Excerpt:

All of which appears to make “El Shaddai” a fairly unique case. Sawaki and his team are consciously developing the characters and themes in conversation with traditional interpretations and treatments. While the ancient text, with its firmly unorthodox insistence on the fall of rebellious angels, wasn’t even considered for canonization by Jewish authorities and Enoch himself (either the human or taken as the angel Metatron) appears only a handful of times in the Talmud, the Book of Enoch is central to many Jewish mystical traditions and is also counted among the Apocrypha of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. Notably, the book is included in the canon itself of the Beta Israel Ethiopian Jewish community. Meanwhile, the game seeks to play up on this angle of esoteric transmission, advertising itself as a “tale of times past: a tale that was not permitted to be handed down through the ages.”

Actually 1 Enoch is not part of the Old Testament Apocrypha (which form part of the Catholic and Orothodox biblical canons, but not the Jewish or Protestant canons).

Background here.

CSM still clueless on the fake metal codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: The Christian Science Monitor has a follow-up article:

What happened to the metal codices that promised Christian revelations

The tiny books have stirred debate over the Christian 'secrets' they could contain and who can sell them. Now, they may never be decoded.

Imagine that.

The main new(ish) information is here:

Since the controversy erupted, Saeda has returned to Israel and has refused scholars further access to the codices, while the Jordanians and Elkington have joined efforts to repatriate the texts to Jordan. Since Jordan announced that it will pursue diplomatic channels to "retrieve" the texts, Israeli antiquities officials have expressed willingness to meet with the Jordanian side, although they deny any involvement with the texts. Their previous lack of response was a source of anxiety in Amman rooted in an ongoing legal contest over the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Although Jordan officially severed ties with the West Bank in 1988, it has retained its claims to the scrolls – believed to be the oldest Hebrew Bible ever discovered – alleging that the texts were annexed from sovereign Jordanian territory during the 1967 war, a claim Israel refutes.

According to Moawiyam Ibrahim, archaeologist and Jordan's representative to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, this historical sense of "loss" of the scrolls triggered a sense of "urgency" in Amman when news of the codices emerged.

More than just a matter of national pride, tourism is also at stake. Tourism is a major pillar of Jordan's and Israel's economies, generating $2.1 billion and $4.3 billion, respectively, in 2010, and both countries compete for the lucrative pilgrimage market.

But the looming legal battle may prevent the books from ever reaching a museum. With mounting pressure from the Jordanian government and the media exposure generated by the claims, Elkington and Mr. Saad say Saeda is looking to make a quick and easy sale. "If these books are sold to private collectors, the world will never see them," says Elkington.

I doubt that any private collectors will be as careless in their research as the media have been.

The CSM deserves a little credit for following up the story, but the effort is paltry. They did not consult any outside experts (or even re-interview Davies or Barker as far as I can tell); nor take any notice of Thoneman's article in the London Times or the Yahoo article; nor consult any specialist blogs (or give any hint they have a clue which blogs to read); or even do a rudimentary Google search for recent developments. The Media Fail continues.

Background here and here and follow those links.

UPDATE: Mark Goodacre makes a comparison to the coverage of the Hitler Diaries in 1983. How far the media have fallen!

Another review of BC Dura-Europos exhibition

THE DURA-EUROPOS EXHIBITION at the Boston College McMullen Museum of Art is reviewed by Melik Kaylan in the WSJ. Excerpt:

Though it features, among other things, the best example of a Roman armor-suit ever found, this is not a show about rare objects of great value. Rather, it illustrates moments of consciousness in history, including the moment of the excavations to illustrate how the world then chose to digest its own ancient history. Between the World Wars, the revelations of Dura-Europos were valued largely as contributions to the history of art, illuminating the bridge between Classical and Renaissance aesthetics. The show's present-day curators invite us to consider how their preoccupations (and ours) have changed. They focus on the successful cross-pollination of cultures at Dura-Europos, how Greek, Jewish, Parthian, Roman and Christian cultures synthesized and abided in harmony. A Sassanian helmet with a nose guard demonstrates how Romans learned from other cultures: They added a nose guard to their own helmets. The Palmyran temple frieze shows how a Roman general worshiped with local pagans. The curators prod us to view the ancients through our contemporary concerns: in a word, multiculturalism or diversity. In the study of archaeology, they seem to say, we see what we look for. It never goes out of fashion.

The review also has some background on the public response to the excavation in the early twentieth century.

Background here.

Second-Temple-era ruins in the Jordan Valley?

SECOND-TEMPLE-ERA RUINS in the Jordan Valley?

Ancient Roman ruins found at Jordan Valley building site

English.news.cn 2011-05-04 20:55:22 FeedbackPrintRSS

JERUSALEM, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Construction crew building a clinic in a Jordan Valley Palestinian village have uncovered structures of the Roman and Byzantine era, Israel's Civil Administration, the Defense Ministry department responsible for managing civilian affairs between Palestinian and Israeli bodies said Wednesday.

COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) officials, in reviewing a German aid request to build a health clinic in Jiftlik, came upon the 2,000-year-old buildings, which contained ceramic shards, basalt tools, a preserved furnace and 40 historical coins, according to an official statement.

[...]

Details are sparse, but apparently the excavation has been going on for some time. This video shows the site and includes some narrative by archaeologist Yuval Peleg. He mentions only Byzantine ruins and says they will keep digging to see what else they find.

Alex Joffe on the fake metal codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Alex Joffe has an article on the fake metal codices in Jewish Ideas Daily: On Faith and Forgeries. Excerpt:

In short, like so many objects before them, the lead codices seem to be fakes of a kind that goes back to the earliest days of organized Christianity. At least ten different churches and monasteries from Egypt to England have claimed to have the head of John the Baptist, and at least four others claim to possess his hands. Forgeries based on a smattering of scholarship and a great deal of artistic license have also dogged the field of biblical archeology for over a century. The real question is why they still attract the avid attention of the press, laypeople, and even some scholars.

Background here.

April's Biblical Studies Carnival

APRIL'S BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL has been posted at Dr. Jim's Thinking Shop. Very thorough. Well illustrated too.

SBL gets $300K NEH grant for website

CONGRATULATIONS to the Society of Biblical Literature:

SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE AWARDED FUNDS TO BUILD PUBLIC WEBSITE
ATLANTA -- We are pleased to announce that the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) was awarded a $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to build an interactive website that invites general audiences to engage with biblical scholarship.

This is a rare opportunity for the SBL to speak to the continued importance of the Bible in modern culture and to communicate the value that biblical scholars bring to the study of the Bible and to the humanities.

The NEH review process includes peer review along with deliberation by the National Council on the Humanities. The award announcement described the grant recipients as highlighting the breadth of high-caliber humanities projects and research supported by the Endowment. “These projects represent some of the most innovative work happening in the humanities today,” said Jim Leach, Chairman of the NEH.

The site will begin production immediately, with a planned launch in 2013. Once completed, the site will become a powerful public platform for SBL members to speak directly to new audiences and to gain a stronger voice in the public square when questions arise about the Bible and its contexts.

“This is a huge opportunity for SBL to showcase the work of biblical scholars, educate and engage the public, and foster biblical scholarship,” said John Kutsko, executive director of SBL. “It also goes without saying that this award comes at a time of increasing pressure on the public support of the humanities at the state and federal levels. Thus, the award commitment is all the more significant in this context, and we are all the more grateful that the NEH has made us stewards of their support of scholarship, education, and the humanities.”

A strong team of SBL staff and members, led by Kent Richards, executive director emeritus, advised the project to its current status, and S2N Media developed the prototype site. For further information contact: Moira Bucciarelli, mbucciarelli@sbl- site.org.

** * The Society of Biblical Literature is the oldest and largest non-sectarian international scholarly membership organization in the field of biblical studies. Founded in 1880, SBL’s membership includes scholars, teachers, students, and individuals from all walks of life who share a mutual interest in the critical, academic study of the Bible. SBL’s mission is to foster biblical scholarship.

New archaeological non-invasive scanning technology

TECHNOLOGY WATCH:

An Israeli technology that's groundbreaking - literally
4 May 2011
A new geophysical tool for zeroing in on ancient artifacts buried deep underground could be a boon for archeologists and excavators.

By Jenny Hazan (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Archeologists around the world rely on a repertoire of only partially effective methods - historical texts, surface indicators and technology - to decide where to break ground to uncover sites of archeological significance. But the decision often comes down to educated guesswork, because it isn't possible to get a really clear look at what is going on underground.

Now it is, thanks to Prof. Lev Eppelbaum of Tel Aviv University's Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences. Eppelbaum has created a new non-disruptive, ecologically sound geophysical methodology, an "algorithmic toolkit," capable of cutting through the "background noise" of irrelevant underground features. It can detect archeological structures and artifacts up to 150 meters deep, producing an accurate 3D or even 4D image.

"It's the most conclusive evidence ever produced about what's below the ground's surface," says Eppelbaum, who immigrated to Israel from Azerbaijan in 1990. "Until now it was very difficult to reveal relevant archeological components, given the strong background noise of irrelevant components, and now it's possible."

[...]

Eppelbaum's method, dubbed the "Multi-PAM" (physical archeological models) System, uses a combination of up to seven different geophysical components to get an estimation of the underground landscape: magnetism; gravity; self-potential; VLF (very low frequency electromagnetic radio transmissions, the type the military uses to communicate with nuclear submarines deep below the water's surface); resistivity; induced polarization (based on differences in electromagnetic properties); and piezoelectricity, which detects minerals and some archaeological objects made from fired clay.

In most cases, not all seven methods are applied; mostly because of the expense. "Usually we can get an accurate image using two or three methods per site," the former chess champion says. Eppelbaum explains that the survey technology can be strapped to a remote-operated unmanned aircraft, the kind most often used by the military, and sent to scan the desired tract of land. The data it returns is then converted into an advanced mathematical algorithm that can be translated into a model image.

[...]

Apocryphal logion of MLK applied to OBL

ROBERT CARGILL notes an apocryphal logion of Martin Luther King which is currently in wide circulation in connection with the demise of Osama Bin Laden: fake martin luther king, jr. quote demonstrates how we got the apocrypha. It also illustrates how we got many Jesus sayings in the apocryphal and even the canonical gospels.

Conference at HU: Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon

CONFERENCE: Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations between Jews, Iranians and Babylonians in Antiquity, at the Hebrew University, 23-25 May.

Simcha's nails aren't even from the Caiaphas cave

SHOCKING IAA REPORT: Simha's nails aren't even from the Caiaphas cave. Their provenance is unknown, but it is clear that that cave is one place they are not from.

Dr. Zvi Greenhut of the Israel Antiquities Authority reveals: the nails in the Tel Aviv University Medical School anthropology laboratory are not the missing nails from Caiaphas’ Cave! Dr. Zvi Greenhut, Head of the IAA Artifacts Treatment and Conservation Department, explains that the two nails shown in the film by director Simcha Jacobovici are nails that were stored in Professor Nicu Haas’ laboratory in the Jerusalem Medical School until the late 1970s, and their provenance is unknown. Dr. Greenhut rejects the claims put forth by Simcha Jacobovici in a press conference held on April 13 in which Simcha maintains that he found the nails allegedly used to crucify Jesus inside an ossuary in a burial cave in Jerusalem. Dr. Greenhut explains that in 1975 Professor Nicu Haas was severely injured in an accident. He makes it clear that shortly thereafter, in the late 1970s, Joe Zias, Curator in charge of State of Israel archaeological collections and responsible for physical anthropology in the then Israel Department of Antiquities, was asked to transfer the nails from Professor Haas’ laboratory in the Jerusalem Medical School to the National Treasures, which was the responsibility of the Department of Antiquities and Museums in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. These nails were under the supervision, responsibility and custody of that curator for at least 15 years, until they were transferred in the beginning of the 1990s, at the behest of the then director of the IAA, to the Tel Aviv University Anthropology Department, where they have been until the present. Furthermore, the fact that the nails that appear in the film are unregistered, without any mark of identification, as opposed to what is described in the preliminary archaeological report by the excavator of the site, reinforces the fact that the nails did not come from a proper archaeological excavation. Therefore, the claim presented in the film that the provenance of the nails presently located in the Tel Aviv University physical anthropology laboratory and shown in the film was from the tomb of Caiaphas, discovered in the Jerusalem Peace Forest in 1990, is unsubstantiated and has no factual basis. The data shows exactly when and how the nails came to be in the Medical School lab approximately 15 or more years before the tomb of Caiaphas was excavated. For further details, kindly contact Itzhak Rabihiya, acting spokesman of the Israel Antiquities Authority, 054-7999209.

The original Hebrew press release is here. Both from Joseph Lauer. Background here.

Gafni on Palestine under Persian, Byzantine and Arab rule

ISAIAH GAFNI: Palestine under Persian, Byzantine and Arab Rule. A brief but pithy article reprint.

Ezekiel plates—and a legend of the Temple treasures

EZEKIEL PLATES — AND A LEGEND OF THE TEMPLE TREASURES:

Dating the Ezekiel plates

05/01/2011 12:07 By DAVID PARSONS AND FLORENCE BACHE (Jerusalem Post)

The relative obscurity of the tiles may be about to change, if tests date them back to the first century.

A set of 66 stone tiles known as the “Ezekiel Plates,” believed to have come from the prophet Ezekiel’s traditional tomb along the Euphrates River in Iraq, are in the process of being dated by modern technological methods to finally establish whether they should be considered on a par with the Isaiah Scroll as among the oldest existing biblical texts ever found.

Currently on display at the Yad Ben- Zvi Institute in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem, the Ezekiel plates have been around a while but have failed to draw visitors like the impressive parchment containing the complete book of Isaiah, which dates to the first century and is housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum.

Part of the problem is that the institute is located on a small side street in a residential area of the capital that affords very limited access for the public. The tiles have also failed to convince many in the archeological community that they date back to antiquity.

But that question may be settled soon, as two of the tiles were recently handed over to the Israel Museum to undergo dating tests. Results are expected soon, and the conclusions may require that the unique collection of stones be moved to a facility in Jerusalem that can give them more prominent display.

[...]

(HT Joseph Lauer.)

I've been aware of these stone plaques and their current location for a few years, although the only photograph I've seen (of a related plaque - see below) is scarcely readable. But this article fills in some details of their relatively recent history of which I was not aware.

I knew of the Ezekiel plaques because at the end of the series there were once two additional plaques bearing another text, Massekhet Kelim, the Treatise of the Vessels. This is not the Mishnaic tractate of the same name, but rather an apocryphal account of the hiding of the treasures of Solomon's Temple at the time of its destruction by the Babylonians. I am translating this text as part of the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project. J. T. Milik published the poor photo of one of the plaques bearing Massekhet Kelim in an article in 1959. They were in Lebanon last he knew of them, and I had the impression from his article that they were made locally and recently. In February of 2008 I put up a post on these plaques, asking if anyone knew their current whereabouts. Thanks to a reply from reader Robert R. Smith, I was able to trace the Ezekiel plaques to the Yad Ben Zvi Institute but, alas, it turned out that the plaques containing Massekhet Kelim were no longer with them and the Institute did not know what had become of them. (Hence my lack of follow-up to the post.)

The oldest other surviving copies of Massekhet Kelim which I have been able to locate are all in seventeenth-century printed editions.

Assuming it is accurate, this article tells where the stone plaques came from (the Tomb of Ezekiel in Iraq) and how they got from there to the Yad Ben Zvi Institute via Lebanon:

The tiles’ authenticity is also open to question because the time and location of the find, as well as its chain of custody, are not as well documented as scholars now demand for wider acceptance. A number of forgeries have infiltrated the field of biblical archeology in recent decades, and thus the standards of proof are being forced upward.

You don't say.

In this case, the tiles were supposedly found over 100 years ago when visitors to the traditional tomb of Ezekiel in the small Iraqi town of Kfar al-Kafil, located about 50 miles south of Baghdad, noticed a stone tile had fallen off the inside of the burial chamber. Oddly, its back side contained an ancient lettering which had been deliberately hidden, facing the wall. Other tiles were removed and similar inscriptions were found on their back sides as well.

The entire set of Ezekiel plates were then taken to Lebanon, where decades later a Christian Arab widow, on the advice of her priest, wanted to place them in Jewish hands before she moved to France. She sold them for a mere two pounds sterling to businessman David Hacohen in 1947.

He smuggled the plates into Israel in 1953, and they were eventually acquired by Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel’s second president and a noted historian, who considered them a valuable national treasure.

After Ben-Zvi’s death, the Ezekiel plates became the property of the Institute in Jerusalem set up in his honor, which had them in storage until Zwebner convinced his wife’s parents, Max and Lombi Landau, to sponsor their public display.

Some speculation on the date:

Until now, estimates of their age have varied widely. According to the British Museum, the plates could be anywhere between 300 to 2000 years old.

Veteran Israeli archeologist Dan Bahat of Bar-Ilan University, while cautioning that artifacts from Mesopotamia are outside his field of expertise, told The Christian Edition that the script is similar to ones he has seen from the 7th or 8th century CE.

Dr. Stephen Pfann, head of the University of the Holy Land and a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, also suggested that studying the style of the script – a discipline known as paleography – is probably a better method of dating for such stone objects than carbon dating and other tests.

I have studied Massekhet Kelim closely and there is no way that it is from the first century. The Hebrew is rabbinic, but I have not tried to refine its date further. The text is well acquainted with rabbinic exegesis and must be of the Talmudic era or later. I wouldn't rule out a date of the seventh or eighth century CE, although I would be (pleasantly) surprised if the document is that early. (I have recently published an article on this document, which is noted here and here.)

The first line of the first plaque containing Massekhet Kelim has the last verse and a half of Ezekiel on it, so the plaques formed one set and it seems pretty clear that their date and provenance must be the same.

I don't know exactly what tests can be made on stone to determine its date, but I'm not a geologist. Probably they involve things like patinas. But Stephen Pfann is spot on to say that paleography is likely to be of more use. I hope some paleographers take some interest in the stones now. I also hope that this new publicity might lead both to the publication of better photographs of the plaques (it's too bad the picture in the Jerusalem Post article is so bad) and to some information on what has become of the stones inscribed with Massekhet Kelim.

Yet there is an old Talmudic tradition that Israel’s prophets and other great sages were often buried with copies of their writings. One such Talmudic legend held that the original book of Ezekiel was buried with the prophet in his tomb and was left there to be revealed in the last days.

That would be nice, but these plaques are not it.

Whether or not that legend turns out to be true, Ezekiel remains the most mysterious of the Hebrew prophets and his writings – with their accounts of strange flying objects and other rare “visions of God” – are reserved by strictly observant Jews only for the most learned.

Meanwhile, the tomb of Ezekiel has gone from being a major pilgrimage site for Jews and Christians to a neglected shrine, after the mass Jewish exodus from Iraq in 1951.

Amid the turmoil and conflict that followed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Jewish leaders began voicing concerns about acts of desecration at the site. But Iraqi authorities have recently given assurances about preserving the tomb.

This is the traditional tomb of Ezekiel, but we have no way of knowing whether the tradition is correct. Locations for sites like the last resting places of prophets tend to be supplied if they happen to be wanting, so there is reason to be skeptical. PaleoJudaica has also followed closely the controversy over the treatment of the tomb. Last I heard, it seemed to be safe. Start here and follow the many links back.

So, my preliminary evaluation is that the Ezekiel plaques are not older than the seventh or eighth century CE and I suspect they may be considerably more recent.

Watch this space ...

Osama Bin Laden is dead

GOOD NEWS: Osama Bin Laden is dead.

This announcement is a courtesy in case any of the three people in the world who haven't heard the news happen to be PaleoJudaica readers.

Ten DSS fragments at SWBTS?

TEN FRAGMENTS? Last year it was reported that Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary had acquired three fragments of the the Dead Sea Scrolls. Later, three more fragments were added to that. (See also here.) But now in an article entitled, "Dead Sea Scrolls expert presents book in chapel," about Peter Flint and his new edition of the Isaiah Scroll, the number is given as ten:

Southwestern Seminary currently possesses ten fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Flint, a professor at Trinity Western University and co-director for the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute, has partnered with the seminary in promoting the study and publication of these scrolls.

What's the story?

(HT reader Matthew Hamilton.)

Authors of Sacred Trash to lecture in NY

THE AUTHORS OF SACRED TRASH, Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman, will be giving a public lecture next week in Queens, NY: Boro Y to hold talk on ancient Jewish writings.

Reviews of the book are noted here.

HU offers online Biblical Aramaic classes

ARAMAIC WATCH: Biblical Aramaic classes online: Hebrew University and eTeacher Group Offer Aramaic Language via Online Program.

Awards for documentary on the Phoenicians

PHOENICIAN WATCH: A documentary on the Phoenicians has won some awards: ‘The Phoenicians’ wins the Silver Remi Award.