IMRA: Hear the bell on You Tube!!! The sound of the recently discovered ancient golden bell can be heard on YouTube here. And, yes, I think tinkle or bangle noise fits pretty well.
HT Joseph Lauer. Background here.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Did Jews Invent the Question Mark?
PROBABLY NOT: Did Jews Invent the Question Mark?
The question is asked by Renee Ghert-Zand in The Forward blog The Shmooze. The question mark in, er, question is the punctuation mark found in fifth-century CE (not BCE) Syriac manuscripts as noted recently by Cambridge researcher Dr Chip Coakley. Syriac is the Christian Aramaic dialect spoken in the ancient Anatolian city of Edessa and it became the language of the Aramaic-speaking Eastern Church. If the mark was invented in the fifth century, it is very likely that it was invented by Eastern Christians. Still, we (or at least I) don't know exactly how early the mark was developed, and it is possible that Jews were involved in the translation of Hebrew Bible books into Syriac a few centuries earlier, so the possibility cannot be entirely discounted.
Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch."
The question is asked by Renee Ghert-Zand in The Forward blog The Shmooze. The question mark in, er, question is the punctuation mark found in fifth-century CE (not BCE) Syriac manuscripts as noted recently by Cambridge researcher Dr Chip Coakley. Syriac is the Christian Aramaic dialect spoken in the ancient Anatolian city of Edessa and it became the language of the Aramaic-speaking Eastern Church. If the mark was invented in the fifth century, it is very likely that it was invented by Eastern Christians. Still, we (or at least I) don't know exactly how early the mark was developed, and it is possible that Jews were involved in the translation of Hebrew Bible books into Syriac a few centuries earlier, so the possibility cannot be entirely discounted.
Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch."
Monday, July 25, 2011
More on the golden bell from Jerusalem
MORE ON THE GOLDEN BELL FROM JERUSALEM:
First, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes an IAA press release: Rare gold bell discovered in excavations in Jerusalem. It is substantially the same as the Arutz Sheva article I linked to on Friday, and it looks to me as though they were both translated independently into English from the same Hebrew press release.
Second, the AP has an article that has some new details: Ancient bell found in Jerusalem Old City sewer. Evidently the sound it makes is "something between a clink and a rattle" (I wonder if that counts as a "tinkle" or a "bangle noise"). And it may be my imagination, but perhaps there's a little backtracking of the claims. Instead of coming from the clothing of "a man of high authority," the owner is now "a wealthy resident" of Jerusalem, although the bell still came from "his garment."
Also, Green Prophet gets the award for most inflated headline so far: Authentic Remnant From Solomon’s Temple? The find is from the time of the Second Temple or Herod's Temple. The First ("Solomon's") Temple was destroyed many centuries before.
Background here, where I raise the possibility of the bell coming from a woman's clothing.
UPDATE (26 July): Hear the bell tinkle.
First, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes an IAA press release: Rare gold bell discovered in excavations in Jerusalem. It is substantially the same as the Arutz Sheva article I linked to on Friday, and it looks to me as though they were both translated independently into English from the same Hebrew press release.
Second, the AP has an article that has some new details: Ancient bell found in Jerusalem Old City sewer. Evidently the sound it makes is "something between a clink and a rattle" (I wonder if that counts as a "tinkle" or a "bangle noise"). And it may be my imagination, but perhaps there's a little backtracking of the claims. Instead of coming from the clothing of "a man of high authority," the owner is now "a wealthy resident" of Jerusalem, although the bell still came from "his garment."
Also, Green Prophet gets the award for most inflated headline so far: Authentic Remnant From Solomon’s Temple? The find is from the time of the Second Temple or Herod's Temple. The First ("Solomon's") Temple was destroyed many centuries before.
Background here, where I raise the possibility of the bell coming from a woman's clothing.
UPDATE (26 July): Hear the bell tinkle.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Dura Europos exhibition coming to ISAW/NYU
ANOTHER DURA EUROPOS EXHIBITION IS COMING:
New York UniversityMuch more on Dura Europos here, including links to posts on other museum exhibitions.
A private university in the public service
ISAW
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
For Immediate Release
July 21, 2011
EDGE OF EMPIRES: PAGANS, JEWS, AND CHRISTIANS AT ROMAN DURA-EUROPOS
Special exhibition examines character of ancient city on the Euphrates,
inhabited by Greek, Near Eastern, and Roman peoples.
September 23, 2011–January 8, 2012
Head of the Goddess Atargatis, or Tyche
with Doves
WHAT Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos examines the life and culture of this ancient city (located in present-day eastern Syria), which flourished under the Romans from the mid-second to mid-third century CE. With 77 objects, the exhibition explores the diversity of and interconnections among religions, languages, and peoples that distinguished Dura-Europos.
Strategically located on the Euphrates River, Dura Europos was founded in the fourth century BCE by Macedonian successors of Alexander the Great. However, it was under Parthian control from the late second-century BCE until 164 CE, when the Roman emperor Lucius Verus brought Syria, and thus also Dura Europos, under Roman control. The city then thrived as a military garrison until 256 CE, when it was destroyed by the Sasanian Persians. The cosmopolitan Roman town was exceptionally well preserved, with a wealth of artifacts that, upon their discovery, fundamentally altered our understanding of religious and military practice in the late Roman period.
Highlights of the exhibition include numerous items that demonstrate the coexistence of multiple religions at Dura, with objects from its synagogue—the world’s best-preserved ancient synagogue; a Christian house-church that is older than any surviving church in Rome; and several pagan temples. Also central to Edge of Empires are objects that open a window onto imperial Roman military life and practice, including a spectacular shield and articles of dress that attest to the variety of cultures represented in the Roman military. Dishes, an engagement ring, and other quotidian items, many imported from across a broad swath of the ancient world, attest to Dura’s integration into the economy of the empire and tell us about the daily life of its inhabitants.
WHERE Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW)
15 East 84th Street, New York City
WHEN September 23, 2011–January 8, 2012
Tuesday–Sunday, 11 am–6 pm; Friday, 11 am–8 pm
ADMISSION Admission is free.
ORGANIZATION, The exhibition has been organized by the Yale University Art Gallery and
SPONSORSHIP the McMullen Museum, Boston College. The ISAW presentation has been made possible through the support of the Leon Levy Foundation.
PUBLICATION The exhibition will be supplemented by a 100-page publication containing essays by leading scholars, as well as a map of the region, a detailed site plan of Dura-Europos, archival excavation photos, a checklist of objects in the exhibition, and a selected bibliography. It will be available for purchase at ISAW and distributed by Princeton University Press.
GUIDED TOURS Free guided tours of the exhibition will be offered on Fridays at 6 pm.
INSTITUTE The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York
FOR THE STUDY University was established in 2006 by the Leon Levy Foundation.
OF THE ANCIENT In addition to its doctoral and postdoctoral programs, ISAW engages the
WORLD larger scholarly community and the public with an ongoing program of exhibitions, lectures, and publications.
The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is located at 15 East 84th Street, New York, NY 10028. Telephone: 212-992-7800; website: www.nyu.edu/isaw
* * *
Image Caption
Head of the Goddess Atargatis, or Tyche with Doves Limestone, H. 13.0 cm, W. 25.5 cm, D. 5.0 cm From the Temple of Adonis, Dura-Europos, 1st century CE Yale University Art Gallery, Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos: 1935.46 Photography © 2011 Yale University Art Gallery
SBL Aramaic Studies Session
ARAMAIC WATCH: Targuman: SBL Aramaic Studies Session Finalized! Follow the link for details.
New book: "Melekhet Mahshevet"
NEW BOOK: MELEKHET MAHSHEVET: Studies in the Redaction and Development of Talmudic Literature. Edited By Aron Shemesh Aron Amit (Bar-Ilan University Press).
(HT Steven D. Fraade, who has an article in the volume.)
DescriptionThe articles are in English and Hebrew. Follow the link for PDF files of the prefaces and TOCs.
This volume includes a selection of articles dealing with general questions regarding the redaction and the development of talmudic literature and with specific issues relating to different aspects of the editing and the transmission of certain talmudic works. The articles are based on papers delivered at an international conference sponsored by the Department of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University titled ``Rabbinic Textuality, Transmission, and Redaction: The Historical and Literary Processes which Generated the Rabbinic Corpus.`` These articles offer important innovations to contemporary research discourse and the volume as a whole is a major contribution to the study of Talmud and the history of the redaction of talmudic literature.
(HT Steven D. Fraade, who has an article in the volume.)
Friday, July 22, 2011
Ancient golden bell found in Jerusalem
A GOLDEN BELL from the Second Temple period has been discovered in an ancient drainage channel in Jerusalem:
It would be interesting to see what the Mishnah has to say about golden and other bells.
In any case, I bet someone was extremely upset when this bell went missing.
UPDATE (26 July): More here and here.
Archaeologists Discover High Priest's Bell?Well, maybe. On the one hand it is true that the only references to golden bells in the Hebrew Bible are to bells on the vestments of the high priest (Exodus 28:33-34; 39:25-26). On the other hand, first, the only other mention of bells (a different Hebrew word) refers to horses' trappings (Zechariah 14:20). Presumably, bells were used in many other contexts, so our sample of cultural allusions is limited. But, you say, what about golden bells? Well, second, Isaiah 3:16-18 refers to bangles that the rich women of Jerusalem wore on their ankles and which "tinkled" or made some king of bangle noise. These ladies clearly had lots of jewelery and finery (cf. also vv. 19-23), so it seems entirely likely that they sometimes wore bells as jewelry and that some of those bells might well have been made of gold. And we know that Second-Temple-era ladies in Jerusalem had very nice gold earrings. So this bell need not have come from "a man of high authority."
Archaeologists have discovered a rare gold bell during an excavation in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem.
by Elad Benari (Arutz Sheva)
Published: 21/07/11, 11:21 PM
Archaeologists have discovered a rare gold bell with a small loop at its end. The finding was made during an archaeological excavation in the City of David National Park (near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem) by the Israel Antiquities Authority in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Ir David Foundation.
The directors of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University, said after the finding, “The bell looked as if it was sewn on the garment worn by a man of high authority in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period.
[...]
It would be interesting to see what the Mishnah has to say about golden and other bells.
In any case, I bet someone was extremely upset when this bell went missing.
UPDATE (26 July): More here and here.
Another review of "I Have Always Loved the Holy Tongue"
I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED THE HOLY TONGUE, by Anthony Grafton and Joanna Weinberg, is reviewed in the Jerusalem Post:
A Hebrew revivalAnother review and additional background are noted here.
07/21/2011 17:40 By MOSHE SLUHOVSKY
Two historians convincingly make the case that Renaissance scholar Isaac Casaubon, best known for expertise in Greek and Latin, was an industrious Hebraist.
Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614), one of the greatest scholars of the late Renaissance, is hardly remembered today. In his time, though, this son of French Calvinist refugees living in Geneva was regarded by some as “the most learned man in Europe.” He held positions as professor of Hebrew in Geneva and Montpelier, was a librarian to the king of France, and ended his life in Oxford, England, as a personal friend of King James I and a friend by correspondence of all the leading members of the early 17th-century Republic of Letters.
[...]
The authors admit that Casaubon was only a second-tier Hebraist. But his use of Hebrew illuminates the contribution of people like him not to philology per se, but to a revolution in theology and historiography. He was, they rightly point out, one of the first to realize the (currently self-evident) view that a better understanding of Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity and late Hellenism cannot be achieved without a thorough familiarity with, and respect for, all religious cultures and all languages of the period.
Professor John Healey elected FBA
ARAMAIC WATCH: Congratulations to Professor John Healey:
John Healey becomes Fellow of the British Academy
22 Jul 2011
A Professor of Semitic Studies from The University of Manchester is one of only 38 academics to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy at its Annual General Meeting on 21 July.
John Healey is the latest scholar to add to the University’s leading international reputation in Middle Eastern Studies going back to the 1940s.
[...]
John Healey came to the Manchester Department of Middle Eastern Studies from Durham University in 1989.
He is a graduate of University College Dublin and obtained his PhD in 1977 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, for work on the Ugaritic literature — Ugarit was a Late Bronze Age city on the Syrian coast, destroyed c. 1200 BCE, but leaving behind a substantial poetic literature.
Since the mid-1980s Professor Healey has concentrated on Aramaic inscriptions, especially in the Greek and Roman periods. He is currently working on a grammar of Nabataean Aramaic.
Apart from being one of the editors of the University of Manchester’s prestigious Journal of Semitic Studies (Oxford University Press), he is on the editorial boards of Levant (London), Aram (Oxford) and Aramaic Studies (Leiden) and of journals published in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
[...]
Earliest question mark found in Syriac?
ARAMAIC WATCH:
The riddle of the Syriac double dot: it’s the world’s earliest question markQuestions are sometimes marked in Semitic languages by prefixed particles — in Hebrew and Arabic, for example. But this is a punctuation mark, not a word or particle. A salutary reminder of how much we still don't know about ancient languages.
Manuscripts written in Syriac, an ancient language of the Middle East, are peppered with mysterious dots. Among them is the vertical double dot or zagwa elaya. A Cambridge academic thinks that the zagwa elaya is the world’s earliest question mark.
I’d describe it as a significant footnote in the history of writing."
—Dr Chip Coakley
Cambridge University manuscript specialist, Dr Chip Coakley has identified what may be the world’s earliest example of a question mark. The symbol in question is two dots, one above the other, similar in appearance to a colon, rather than the familiar squiggle of the modern question mark. The double dot symbol appears in Syriac manuscripts of the Bible dating back to the fifth century.
[...]
SANA profiles Sednaya
ARAMAIC WATCH: Another SANA profile of an ancient Syrian city: Sednaya… One of the Most Deep-Rooted Archeological Cities in Syria. Excerpt:
It dates back to ancient times and it embraces a lot of the archeological monuments and the Christian sanctities, the most important of which is the Convent of Sednaya Lady which is the second most important Christian sanctity after the Church of the Resurrection in occupied Jerusalem.There is also a Monastery of Mar Thomas in Sednaya. I think the article means "sanctuaries," not "sanctities."
Sednaya name was mentioned in the old registries and scripts which were found in the Convent where some of the archeological monuments were found dating back to the Classical Age such as the remains of a temple and Greek inscriptions as the royal orthodox scripts were written in the Syriac language in Sednaya till the 18th century.
The City also includes the Cherubim Monastery which was built on one of the highest mounts at al-Qalamoun Mountain, and the name of the Monastery is an Aramaic word which means the angels.
More on Syriac names in Turkey
ARAMAIC WATCH: More on the legal battle over the use of "foreign" names in Turkey:
Background here.
What’s in a name? – revisitedThat's getting pretty ridiculous.
BRUSSELS/PARIS - Reuters
BURAK BEKDİL
“Greeks are Turks who think they are Italian,” the old joke goes. A matching phrase for this side of the Aegean could be “Turks are Mongolians who think they are Arabs.” Confusing? Maybe not.
Favlus Ay, a Turkish citizen of Syriac origin, recently appealed to a court to change his surname to “Bartuma,” the Syriac equivalent of “Ay,” meaning “moon.” The court denied his request on the basis of Article 3 of the Law on Family Names which bans the use of surnames “belonging to foreign nations and races.” Ay’s appeal, the verdict read, stood “against national unity.”
Ay did not give up his legal battle, appealing to the Constitutional Court to demand the article’s cancellation. They, too, ruled against the Syriac man’s appeal in order to maintain national unity through a ban on non-Turkish names.
One may think the ban and its legal basis are ridiculous. In fact, the whole story, when seen from a wider angle, is even more ridiculous than the ban itself.
[...]
Background here.
Enochian Comic-Con launch party.
GOOD NEWS: You can attend 'El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron' Comic-Con party. It's in San Diego too. I'm not into Comic-Con, but if I were in town I might try to use my Enochian credentials to crash this party.
Background here.
Background here.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tomb Planters revisited
TOMB PLANTERS revisited:
Work resumes on removal of 500 fake gravestones in capitalHT Joseph Lauer. Background here and here. Related here and links (regarding the Museum of Tolerance controversy).
By MELANIE LIDMAN (Jerusalem Post)
07/21/2011 03:55
Leader of preservation campaign: I don’t think the argument is "real or not" – we know that this is a cemetery.
After nearly a year, the Israel Lands Authority this month resumed work removing 500 fake tombstones from the Muslim Mamilla Cemetery in downtown Jerusalem, prompting furious condemnation from Muslim groups.
Last August, Jerusalem municipality officials, working in conjunction with the ILA and the Israel Antiquities Authority, removed around 300 counterfeit tombstones, calling their erection “one of the largest acts of deception in recent years.”
The Islamic Movement accused the authorities of wantonly destroying graves, and appealed to the courts to impose a stop-work order on the removal. The order was rescinded in late June, said ILA spokeswoman Ortal Tzabar.
Since then, authorities have removed an additional 100 fake gravestones.
[...]
More on IAA board of directors legislation
MORE ON THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT to the rules for appointing the chairman of the IAA board of directors:
Archaeology professors call on Livnat to keep posting scientificBackground here and link.
Leading archeologists call on Minister of Culture and Sport to keep politics out of Antiquities Authority.
By Nir Hasson (Haaretz)
Four heads of university archaeological institutes have asked Culture Minister Limor Livnat to cancel the amendment she is sponsoring to the Antiquities Authority Law, which critics say aims to block left-leaning professionals from key positions in the authority.
[...]
"El Shaddai" news
EL SHADDAI NEWS:
First, for North Americans: El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron Delayed To August 16th. You'll just have to wait. But the European release is even later.
Second:
Background here and links. Cross-file under "Archangel Metatron Watch."
First, for North Americans: El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron Delayed To August 16th. You'll just have to wait. But the European release is even later.
Second:
El Shaddai’s Lucifel, In A Way, Is Game Designer Sawaki TakeyasuI suppose Lucifel sounds better than Michaer, as Retief would say.
By Spencer . July 20, 2011 . 3:35pm (Siliconera)
El Shaddais Lucifel, In A Way, Is Game Designer Sawaki Takeyasu "When I thought of Lucifel, I had an idea of how I wanted him to look immediately," said Sawaki Takeyasu, lead designer on El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. In the game you play as Enoch who is chosen to stop God from flooding the Earth since he has a pure heart. Lucifel, the suave character who asks Enoch if he has enough armor, guides him through his quest. Since Lucifel has a stronger personality than Enoch, I asked Takeyasu about his vision for the archangel.
[...]
Background here and links. Cross-file under "Archangel Metatron Watch."
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Could Computer Analysis Help Date the Gospels?
JOHN FARRELL: COULD COMPUTER ANALYSIS HELP DATE THE GOSPELS? This with reference to the recent claims that a computer algorithm can do biblical source criticism (and note today's update to the post). Farrell ties in Maurice Casey's attempts to retrovert translated first-century Aramaic from the Greek of the Synoptic Gospels and asks:
Given these limitations to Casey's work, I am confident in answering that, no, application of the computer algorithm would not be able to help us detect multiple authors in the reconstructed Aramaic sources or to date them to within a decade or to falsify Casey's work. None of these things will happen unless, first, we recover a lot more actual Aramaic from the first century and, second, we develop retroversion techniques that are far more sophisticated than the ones Casey uses. I wouldn't count on either happening any time soon, if ever.
UPDATE: Reader Jesse Abelman points me to a nonspecialist-friendly blog post about that computer algorithm at the Sephorim blog, written by one of the developers of the algorithm and the software, Professor Moshe Koppel: Attribution and Misattribution: On Computational Linguistics, Heresy and Journalism.
The discovery of the scrolls, Casey argued, essentially changed the game. Scholars now have the majority of words that they need extant in Aramaic from the right period to ‘reconstruct’ a large chunk of Mark’s Aramaic foundation.I have commented on Casey's retroversion attempts here. Bottom line: at best Casey has produced one of many possible retroversions of the Aramaic, but it is very unlikely that it consistently represents the Aramaic traditions that Mark had before him with any precision. Casey also often has to draw on later Aramaic and Syriac, when the relevant vocabulary does not survive in our very limited resources from the first century, and this adds yet another level of speculation to his reconstructions.
Back to Koppel and his team. Might their mode of computer analysis be able to shed more light on this?
For example, comparing a carefully retro-translated Aramaic Mark with the larger sample of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What might such an analysis reveal? Would it suggest more than one author?
Or might it falsify the whole proposition, in spite of Casey’s thesis?
Assuming not, might it also help to more accurately date the composition of the source material? Enough, for example, for scholars to ascertain what decade the text was written.
Casey argued in his book that Mark was written no later than 40 CE. Well within the decade of Jesus’ death and reported resurrection. Could Koppel’s or another group show it might have been even earlier?
Fascinating to think about.
Given these limitations to Casey's work, I am confident in answering that, no, application of the computer algorithm would not be able to help us detect multiple authors in the reconstructed Aramaic sources or to date them to within a decade or to falsify Casey's work. None of these things will happen unless, first, we recover a lot more actual Aramaic from the first century and, second, we develop retroversion techniques that are far more sophisticated than the ones Casey uses. I wouldn't count on either happening any time soon, if ever.
UPDATE: Reader Jesse Abelman points me to a nonspecialist-friendly blog post about that computer algorithm at the Sephorim blog, written by one of the developers of the algorithm and the software, Professor Moshe Koppel: Attribution and Misattribution: On Computational Linguistics, Heresy and Journalism.
Great Isaiah Scroll online
THE GREAT ISAIAH SCROLL (1QIsaa) can be consulted online with good, high resolution, color images. The site is published by the Dorot Foundation Dead Sea Scrolls Information and Study Center. (HT Gerald Rosenberg.)
Black and white images of the scroll with detailed textual analysis have been available online for a long time. Other PaleoJudaica posts on the Great Isaiah Scroll are here, here, here, here, and here.
Black and white images of the scroll with detailed textual analysis have been available online for a long time. Other PaleoJudaica posts on the Great Isaiah Scroll are here, here, here, here, and here.
UPDATE (5 November 2025): The link has evaporated. But you can find the whole scroll online now at The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls website here.
Robert Aumann on the Talmud and Game Theory
NOBEL LAUREATE ROBERT AUMANN is interviewed on Arutz Sheva Radio about, inter alia, the Talmud and game theory. The key passage is here:
On a tangentially related note, Mario I. Blejer has a piece on The Talmud and Greek Debt in Project Syndicate.
Douglas Goldstein: You used Game Theory to solve certain Talmudic problems in the Gemara and the Talmud. How does that work?More on Prof. Aumann's work on game theory and the Talmud is here.
Robert Aumann: I will tell you the story. There is a passage in the Talmud in Ketubot 93a, and it has generated a tremendous amount of ink over thousands of years, and really there was great difficulty in understanding it. My son was killed in Lebanon in 1982.
I wrote him a letter once about a certain Talmudic issue and he wrote back Ketubot 93a and to look over there. I looked at this passage in the Talmud and I couldn’t figure it out. I, together with a colleague of mine, we looked at the numbers over there and they looked really, really odd. Then we decided to apply some game theoretic tools to try to understand this.
Eventually we found one of those tools which really fit the number perfectly, but this didn’t satisfy us yet because it’s a sophisticated modern mathematical concept and it’s unlikely the sages of the Talmud knew about this.
So we had to get to the bottom of the logic and this took us a few more months and finally we did arrive at it.
The sages of the Talmud were very smart and sophisticated. Obviously, they didn’t know modern mathematics but they did know logic. It’s quite possible that the logic that we found behind these numbers really was in the minds of the Talmudic sages.
It was also published in the Journal of Economic Theory in 1985 under the title “Game Theoretic Analysis of a Bankruptcy Problem from the Talmud.”
It’s hard to believe, but they worked out a Game Theoretic approach. They did reach the conclusions, which were not at all obvious, so I take off my hat to them.
On a tangentially related note, Mario I. Blejer has a piece on The Talmud and Greek Debt in Project Syndicate.
More on Zahi Hawass
ZAHI HAWASS is gone (at least for now) and a Jerusalem Post columnist suggests we should be glad to see him go: Terra Incognita: Egypt’s other Sphinx: Zahi Hawass, by Seth J. Frantzman:
The news that Zahi Hawass was recently swept aside from his post in a cabinet reshuffle in Cairo, should be welcomed. There was always something about Hawass that seemed not quite right. Besides his anti-Semitic comments, it was his constant presence. He was always there – in every video, television report, newspaper article, every time Egyptian archeology was mentioned. As Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and later as the first Minister of Antiquities, he has spent a decade as the highest government bureaucrat responsible for Egypt’s archeological heritage.Background here and here and links.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
More on Ein Kerem
MORE ON EIN KEREM: The controversy over the building site and associated antiquities receives attention from the Jerusalem Post, which gives an account of events to date:
HT Joseph Lauer. Background here.
The Tourism Ministry, which has been working on the development of Ein Kerem for 20 years in cooperation with the residents, began in April 2010, on the basis of permits issued in 2005 and 2006, to build a large structure to house public bathrooms. A Jerusalem Municipality spokeswoman explained it as part of a larger project that would eventually include underground parking and other services for tourists.No mention of Copper Scroll treasures in this article.
But during the work, builders found the remains of a water system dating from the Second Temple period.
The discovery meant the ministry could not build a ramp to the bathrooms to make them handicap-accessible, as required by law, a spokeswoman for the Tourism Ministry said.
In August 2010, the city’s legal adviser Yossi Havilio (who is distantly related to Ron Havilio) put a stop-work order on the building. At a meeting with the Antiquities Authority and neighborhood residents soon afterward, the decision was made to seal the building until another solution could be found.
“The residents of Ein Kerem are telling the establishment that they’re making a mistake – we’ve been saying ‘Stop! This is a mistake!’ for the past 20 years,” said Ben Ofarim, the head of the local committee.
This week, the Interior Ministry’s District Planning and Construction Committee is scheduled to release its opinion on the residents’ appeal regarding the building. The residents are asking for the building to be torn down, saying that the plan to renovate the area did not follow the proper building procedures for Ein Kerem, which include providing in-depth historical documentation before construction starts.
“They destroyed the entire top of the wadi,” Ofarim said, angrily gesturing at the area around the building, which is brown and dead compared with the lush green terraces surrounding it. “They just gave the finger to public planning.”
HT Joseph Lauer. Background here.
Biblioblogospheric book reviews
BIBLIOBLOGOSPHERIC BOOK REVIEWS: Here are some recent book notes and reviews by blogging biblical etc. scholars.
From April DeConick at the Forbidden Gospels blog:
Book Note: Anthony LeDonne, Historical Jesus
Book Note: The Gnostic 4
Book Note: The Apocryphal Gospels (Ehrman and Plese)
At Larry Hurtado's Blog:
Donald Juel Volume
At the Rollston Epigraphy blog:
Review of _Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae_
By Peter Williams at the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog:
Textual criticism and Qur'ān manuscripts
By Amit Gvaryahu at the recently relaunched Talmud Blog:
Sifre Bemidbar, Ed. Kahana!
From April DeConick at the Forbidden Gospels blog:
Book Note: Anthony LeDonne, Historical Jesus
Book Note: The Gnostic 4
Book Note: The Apocryphal Gospels (Ehrman and Plese)
At Larry Hurtado's Blog:
Donald Juel Volume
At the Rollston Epigraphy blog:
Review of _Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae_
By Peter Williams at the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog:
Textual criticism and Qur'ān manuscripts
By Amit Gvaryahu at the recently relaunched Talmud Blog:
Sifre Bemidbar, Ed. Kahana!
OKC "Passages" exhibition Dead Sea Scroll
MORE ON THE OKLAHOMA CITY PASSAGES EXHIBITION and its Dead Sea Scroll fragment: Reader Matthew Hamilton e-mails:
Background on the exhibition is here.
I've been tracking the location of a number of fragments of the scrolls in various collections, including those in the Green Collection. The one exhibited at OKC Museum of Art is a fragment of Gen.32:3-7 that previously was the property of the book dealer Michael Sharpe. There is a nice photograph on the Passages website, go to the newsroom and then within that to Green Collection Photo Gallery. See here.The photo of the scroll fragment is the third one down on the far left.
Background on the exhibition is here.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Zahi Hawass fired
ZAHI HAWASS HAS BEEN FIRED: Egypt's Iconic Antiquities Chief Fired (AP). For now, at least. He has quite a reputation for comebacks.
(HT Chuck Jones.) Background here, but then he was back for a while (cf. here).
(HT Chuck Jones.) Background here, but then he was back for a while (cf. here).
Photographic archive of Dura Europos excavation
MORE ON DURA EUROPOS: The huge, and apparently mostly unpublished, photographic archive of the 1928-37 excavation of the site has been getting some attention from a sociological angle:
More on Dura Europos here and links.
Study Sheds New Light on Archaeology of the Dura-Europos Expedition(HT James McGrath.) This article is based on an article by J.A. Baird in the current issue of the American Journal of Archaeology, which you can find online here and which is available through JSTOR.
By Dan McLerran Wed, Jul 13, 2011 (Popular Archaeology)
A new study of the photographic archives of one of the “big digs” of the 20th century reveals much more than artifacts and ancient architecture. It says something about a by-gone era in archaeology and the culture, psychology and practices of its participants.
A recent study of the photographic archives of one of the 20th century's most sensational archaeological excavations and discoveries lends powerful credence to the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words". Tucked away carefully within the archival collections of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut, more than 5,000 unpublished photographs taken between 1928 and 1937 recount a story in visual detail that cannot be fully told in the printed words of excavation reports, site journals or the popular press of the time.
[...]
More on Dura Europos here and links.
Copper Scroll treasures under a public toilet in Israel?
COPPER SCROLL TREASURES buried under a public toilet in Israel?
Second is the question of whether a treasure from the Copper Scroll could be at the site. This sort of thing is always possible, but establishing the location of any of the sites mentioned in the Copper Scroll is a maddeningly difficult challenge, so I'm pretty skeptical. It also seems doubtful that many, if any, of the caches of precious metals listed in the Scroll have been left undiscovered until the present. Richard Freund (of recent discovery-of-Atlantis-yet-again fame) thought he found one, but his case is not philologically compelling.
Third, how did this "Palestinian treasure" (from the Copper Scroll?) come to be buried in someone's house in 1948?
In short, I am doubtful about any connection with the Copper Scroll, but I hope the site is nevertheless being handled with appropriate archaeological care.
I have a recent post on the Copper Scroll and other treasure hoards, real and imagined, here, with links as usual.
Second Temple artifacts may be buried under Ein Karem toiletThere seem to be three issues here. First is the treatment of the site by the developers, and I leave those closer to the situation than I to evaluate the concerns.
Neighborhood residents are convinced the bathroom-come-toolshed, which they call "the monster," was just a pretext for building an edifice that would some day serve as a restaurant.
By Nir Hasson Tags: Israel archeology Temple Mount Jerusalem Jewish World (Haaretz)
Have the Tourism Ministry and the Jerusalem municipality buried treasures from the Second Temple under a giant lavatory? That possibility is just one of the problems cited by opponents of a plan to improve a spring in the city's Ein Karem neighborhood, at one of Israel's most important Christian tourism sites.
[...]
But perhaps worst of all was the handling of the site's archaeological relics. A salvage dig conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority discovered ancient water systems that carried water from the spring to terraces on the wadi. This led the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Naomi Tsur, to call a meeting in November 2009 to discuss how these relics could be preserved. The meeting, attended by Tourism Ministry and Antiquities Authority representatives, decided to freeze construction of the building and look into building an archaeological park there instead.
But on the very day the meeting was held, the tourist corporation's vice president, David Mingelgreen, sent the municipality a letter saying that, for reasons unknown, all the archaeological findings had been buried under tons of earth the day before. Thus, by the time the meeting occurred, there was nothing left to salvage.
From his letter, Mingelgreen appeared to view the findings as a nuisance. "The goal is to refrain as far as possible from work that will require archaeological digs," he wrote.
But Ron Havilio, a neighborhood resident and leading opponent of the project who has researched Ein Karem's history extensively, believes the archaeological loss may have been even greater. There is a well-known legend about a Palestinian treasure being buried in one of the neighborhood's houses during the War of Independence in 1948, and Havilio - who is distantly related to Yossi Havilio - claims this legendary treasury may actually have comprised treasures from the Second Temple.
His source for this claim is the Copper Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1952. The scroll, which was written on metal, details the places where the Second Temple's treasures were hidden after its destruction in 70 C.E. Among other things it says: "At the ashuach in Beit Hakerem, when you go 10 cubits to the left, are 62 talents of silver."
The accepted view is that "ashuach" signifies a reservoir and that the ancient Beit Hakerem is the modern-day neighborhood of Ein Karem. The only question, Havilio argued, is the location of the ancient pool referred to in the scroll - and analyses of the area's former geography indicate that one possible answer is right under the giant lavatory.
"There is a chance, even if only a small one, that an exciting discovery could be made at Ein Karem, one of the most important discoveries in Israel of the last 100 years," he said.
[...]
Second is the question of whether a treasure from the Copper Scroll could be at the site. This sort of thing is always possible, but establishing the location of any of the sites mentioned in the Copper Scroll is a maddeningly difficult challenge, so I'm pretty skeptical. It also seems doubtful that many, if any, of the caches of precious metals listed in the Scroll have been left undiscovered until the present. Richard Freund (of recent discovery-of-Atlantis-yet-again fame) thought he found one, but his case is not philologically compelling.
Third, how did this "Palestinian treasure" (from the Copper Scroll?) come to be buried in someone's house in 1948?
In short, I am doubtful about any connection with the Copper Scroll, but I hope the site is nevertheless being handled with appropriate archaeological care.
I have a recent post on the Copper Scroll and other treasure hoards, real and imagined, here, with links as usual.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Tile murals from the Dura Europos synagogue
TILE MURALS from the Dura Europos synagogue are on display in Israel:
Ruins from ancient Syrian synagogue put on display in Israel after 63-year delayMuch more on Dura Europos here leading back to many links.
An archaeological exhibit slated to open on Mount Scopus in 1948 finally kicked off last month with a display of tiles from the famed Dura Europos synagogue.
By Ran Shapira (Haaretz)
Painted tiles from an impressive ancient synagogue in Syria, along with other archaeological artifacts, went on display on Mount Scopus last month - after a 63-year delay.
The exhibits were originally intended to be shown to the public on Mount Scopus in 1948, but the outbreak of the War of Independence froze plans to open the nearly-completed museum built there. The exhibits were placed in drawers for decades and became accessible to the public only last month.
Among the artifacts are tiles from the ancient synagogue discovered in the city of Dura Europos, which is located in the Syrian desert above the banks of the Euphrates. To this day - about 80 years after its discovery - this 3rd century synagogue is considered one of the most complete and impressive examples of Jewish religious structures from that period.
[...]
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Liberties taken with the Book of Enoch?
ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH:
Background here.
Ignition describes El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron as a "retelling of the Book of Enoch," except the team have "taken some liberties" with the material.Do tell.
Background here.
Steven Weitzman, "Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom"
THE SOLOMON LEGEND is the subject of a new book:
King Solomon: Stanford scholar considers how the man who had everything ended with nothingIt does sound like fun.
Scholar Steven Weitzman's new book on Solomon is a meditation on the "lust to know." But how much can we really know about the legendary king who was the first Faust and inspired the voyage of Columbus?
BY CYNTHIA HAVEN (Stanford Report)
What can we learn from the wisest man who ever lived?
Maybe not as much as we think, according to Stanford Jewish studies scholar Steven Weitzman.
His new book, Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom (Yale University Press) has been called a meditation on the "lust to know." Yet it's curious we know so little about the man at the center of the book. We don't even know what Solomon looked like, though Biblical writers note that his father and siblings were handsome.
One thing he is famous for, though: "According to Jewish tradition, he knew everything. He knew as much as God knew," said Weitzman, a professor of Jewish culture and religion. "As a scholar, I'm attracted to knowing everything. Because I feel I don't know anything."
Hence, the book. "It was a lot of fun," Weitzman said of the work he calls "an unauthorized biography."
[...]
Friday, July 15, 2011
Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception
RELEGERE: Studies in Religion and Reception is a new open-access online journal on reception history.
(Via the BNTS list.)
(Via the BNTS list.)
Rollston on the Mariam Ossuary again
CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON has a new blog post on the Miriam/Mariam ossuary inscription: ‘Priests’ or ‘Priest’ in the Mariam (Miriam) Ossuary, and the Language of the Inscription.
His earlier post on this inscription is noted here. Also, two reviews of Professor Rollston's new book Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age have just been published by Johannes Schnocks and Ian Young in the Review of Biblical Literature.
His earlier post on this inscription is noted here. Also, two reviews of Professor Rollston's new book Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age have just been published by Johannes Schnocks and Ian Young in the Review of Biblical Literature.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Controversy over Syriac names in Turkey
ARAMAIC WATCH:
(HT Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni.)
Turkey’s Syriacs demanding right to own namesThe issue may be brought to the attention of the European Court of Human Rights.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Vercihan Ziflioğlu
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
Turkey’s Syriac community, who adopted Turkish surnames, now want their original surnames back. Yet, a top cour says that the laws don’t allow such a move.
Members of Turkey’s Syriac Christian community are leading a legal struggle to adopt last names that reflect their identity despite a Constitutional Court ruling earlier this year that barred one Syriac from altering his last name.
[...]
(HT Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni.)
"The Magdalene" gets unenthusiastic reviews
THE MAGDALENE, now playing Off-Broadway, is getting unenthusiastic reviews.
From the NYT:
Background here (bottom of post).
From the NYT:
A Married, Reimagined JesusFrom the New York Press:
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
Published: July 12, 2011
The creators of “The Magdalene,” a musical based on an alternate telling of the story of Mary Magdalene, have achieved the seemingly impossible: they have managed to take stunningly incendiary material and douse it with blandness and bathos.
[...]
Oh, MaryI don't recall the pixie cut from the Gnostic gospels, but it's been a while since I read them.
Mary Magdalene gets the superstar treatment in a new musical
By Mark Peikert
Forget the prostitute we all love, the one who belts “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” in Jesus Christ Superstar. According to The Magdalene (and the Gnostic texts left out of the Bible as we know it), Mary Magdalene was a feisty spitfire with a Mia Farrow pixie cut, who questioned the treatment of women by church officials and society and turns out to have known how to love Jesus all along. She also likes to belt out a few tunes herself, though none of them as catchy as the ones in the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Time Rice musical.
There’s very little that’s catchy in this new musical, staged in the round at Theater at St. Clement’s, a choice that makes the piece feel more amateurish than it might otherwise. ...
Background here (bottom of post).
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Teologías, Escrituras, y Siberia
THIS BLOG by Tomás García-Huidobro has been around since late 2009, but I've only just found it: Teologías, Escrituras, y Siberia: Temprano misticismo judío, cristiano y gnóstico como medios para iluminar los origenes cristianos.
Jewish artifacts at the ROM (with aside on fake metal codices)
THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM has a new exhibition with items of interest:
Below: genuine early-Byzantine metal ring with seven-branched menorah. Note the etrog on the lower left and the lulav (palm branch) on the lower right.
Below: fake metal codex. Note the seven-branched menorah on the lower left. And could that wreath under it be partly inspired by the etrog and lulav on the image above?
Just a thought.
Jewish artifacts are displayed in a new ROM galleryThe ring is quite interesting. Could it be another inspiration for the fake metal codices (follow those links)?
By SHELDON KIRSHNER, Staff Reporter (Canadian Jewish News)
Thursday, 14 July 2011
TORONTO —The Royal Ontario Museum has unveiled an ensemble of four new galleries on the ancient empires of Rome, Byzantium and Nubia, all supplemented by videos shot on location in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Ring with a menorah
Janet Carding, the director and chief executive officer of the museum, said this was “a key moment” for the Toronto museum.
These civilizations span 2,500 years of history and had a lasting influence on art, esthetics, architecture and religion, said Carding.
The galleries – which add approximately 7,000 square feet of exhibit space to the museum – were opened on July 1.
The new galleries consist of the Eaton Gallery of Rome, the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Byzantium, the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Rome and the Near East, and the Galleries of Africa: Nubia.
Several Jewish objects from ancient Palestine are exhibited in the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Byzantium – a jar with a menorah, a ring with a menorah, etrog and lulav and a bread stamp with a menorah and cross.
They date back to the period from 300 to 614 CE.
The jar and the ring were most likely made for Jews visiting holy sites in Jerusalem.
The bread stamp engraved with a menorah and a cross is extremely rare because the portrayal of images was considered idolatrous, said Paul Denis, the assistant curator of the Greek and Roman collections.
[...]
Below: genuine early-Byzantine metal ring with seven-branched menorah. Note the etrog on the lower left and the lulav (palm branch) on the lower right.
Below: fake metal codex. Note the seven-branched menorah on the lower left. And could that wreath under it be partly inspired by the etrog and lulav on the image above?
Just a thought.
KJB@400: Dead Sea Scroll at Oklahoma City exhibit
KJB@400 WATCH: More on the exhibition at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art:
Background here.
UPDATE (19 July): The fragment is of Genesis 32:3-7. More here.
OKC Museum of Art: "Passages" exhibitNo word on which Dead Sea Scroll is exhibited, and the exhibition website is no more forthcoming.
Brianna Joyce, Oklahoma City Travel Examiner
July 12, 2011
This season's special exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is truly incredible. Art aficionados, bibliophiles, young and old, and members of all faiths will enjoy the Passages exhibit celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible. Passages explores the Bible's history from its origins in Jewish scripture to its important English translation under King James.
For those interested in exploring the story behind each artifact, the exhibit provides headphones that give detailed explanations for many scrolls and books. The tour begins with a stunning collection of containers that held scrolls of the Torah. There is also a stone menorah that stood in the Temple of Jerusalem at the time of Christ. The beautiful lines of Hebrew are preserved on parchment, and a glass case contains a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
[...]
Background here.
UPDATE (19 July): The fragment is of Genesis 32:3-7. More here.
The Magdala Center and archaeological site
THE MAGDALA CENTER and archaeological site are the subject of a Travel piece in the Jerusalem Post:
Archaeological site inspires gospel reminiscingBackground here and links.
By NICOLE JANSEZIAN, TRAVELUJAH
07/12/2011 17:49
The Magdala Center's new guesthouse, along with a uniquely written Catholic mass will bring to life New Testament times in the Galilee.
A new guesthouse, an archaeological site and a uniquely written Catholic mass will bring to life New Testament times in the Galilee.
The Magdala Center, Notre Dame Pontifical Institute's planned guesthouse, is on the shores of the Galilee and hosts a peek into the time of Jesus. Even though the Gospels barely mention the city, Magdala (or Migdal) played a historic role in the 1st century as revealed in the ongoing archaeological dig on the site.
[...]
The entire archaeological area uncovered is exclusively 1st century, which is rare. Most sites, even those nearby, usually show an overlap of periods. This one so far is purely Roman era. It has also revealed a community that was likely very wealthy.
“In this synagogue they had a great leader – not common, very rich,” he said.
[Father Juan Maria] Solana listed some of the impressive findings in the excavations including a synagogue, a marketplace, a villa, a perfectly preserved mosaic, rooms paved with well-cut stones and three arches, one of which is still standing. The synagogue contains mosaics, a carved stone menorah and frescoes.
Another key find is the port of Magdala, some 50 meters from the current shoreline and near the marketplace. On one side of the port is all the remnants of the lake that had lapped against the wall.
[...]
Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance gets building permit
JERUSALEM MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE UPDATE:
Museum of Tolerance gets final go-aheadBackground here and many links.
By MELANIE LIDMAN (Jerusalem Post)
07/13/2011 02:23
The building permit was awarded by the Interior Ministry, rather than the Jerusalem Municipality, due to the sensitivity of the site.
Talkbacks (1)
After more than a decade of sitting empty in downtown Jerusalem, the controversial Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance received final approval for its new campus on Tuesday.
The building permit, from the Ministry of the Interior’s District Planning and Construction Committee, means that work can begin on the site immediately.
[...]
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Ancient Hebrew Shabbat boundary marker
NEW INSCRIPTION:
Shabbat boundary rock with Hebrew etching discovered
By OREN KESSLER (Jerusalem Post)
07/12/2011 05:42
Inscription, discovered by chance by visitor in Lower Galilee, appears to date from the Roman or Byzantine period.
An ancient rock inscription of the word “Shabbat” was uncovered near Lake Kinneret this week – the first and only discovery of a stone Shabbat boundary in Hebrew.
The etching in the Lower Galilee community of Timrat appears to date from the Roman or Byzantine period.
News of the inscription, discovered by chance Sunday by a visitor strolling the community grounds, quickly reached Mordechai Aviam, head of the Institute for Galilean Archeology at Kinneret College.
“This is the first time we’ve found a Shabbat boundary inscription in Hebrew,” he said. “The letters are so clear that there is no doubt that the word is ‘Shabbat.’”
[...]
Benjamin Z. Kedar interviewed in Haaretz
THE OUTGOING CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE IAA is interviewed by Haaretz:
Background to MK Livnat's proposed amendment is here.
Professor B.Z. Kedar, is Israeli archaeology an 'old-boys club'?He also expresses doubt that the Essenes wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls and comments on many other archaeological and political issues. Read it all.
The Israel Antiquities Authority has been attacked for not doing enough to preserve the Temple Mount antiquities, on one hand, but also for supposedly being a tool of extreme nationalist groups.
By Nir Hasson
Prof. Benjamin Z. Kedar has been chairman of the board of the Israel Antiquities Authority for 11 years. He is also the deputy chairman of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Kedar will leave his position at the authority at the end of July. Haaretz reported yesterday on an amendment to the Antiquities Authority Law, proposed by Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, that would make it easier for her to find a replacement for Kedar. At present, the chairman of the Antiquities Authority board must belong to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Livnat's bill would require only that the chairman be a "leading scholar in the field of history or archaeology."
Senior archaeologists criticized Livnat on Sunday, claiming that the purpose of the amendment was to enable her to appoint archaeologists who are identified with the right or who will toe the establishment line. Livnat's critics say the bill reflects the anti-intellectual winds blowing through the government ministries. Kedar rejects this interpretation, but cautions against amending the law.
[...]
Background to MK Livnat's proposed amendment is here.
Monday, July 11, 2011
KJB@400: Lecture series in Oklahoma City
KJB@400 WATCH: Cool lecture series in Oklahoma City:
Oklahoma City Museum speaker series connected to Bible exhibit set for debut ‘Passages' speaker series calendarHere is the list of lecturers and their topics:
A speaker series connected to the “Passages” Bible exhibit will debut July 19 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in downtown Oklahoma City.
BY CARLA HINTON chinton@opubco.com (NewsOK)
Published: July 9, 2011
Renowned scholars and authorities in ancient texts and manuscripts will discuss recent research and developments during lecture presentations connected with the “Passages” exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
The “Passages” Speaker Series will begin July 19 in the Noble Theater at the museum, 415 Couch Drive.
“Passages,” a 14,000-square-foot traveling exhibit, opened in May to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. The interactive exhibit features nearly 300 items from the Green Collection, one of the world's largest private collections of rare biblical texts and artifacts.
[...]
The following guest speakers and lectures will be presented as part of the free 11-week “Passages” Speakers' Series at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive. Each lecture will be from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays.
• July 19: David Lyle Jeffrey, Ph.D., Baylor University, “Beyond the Renaissance: Critical Texts and Bible Translation.”
• July 26: Peter Flint, Ph.D., Canada research chair in Dead Sea Scrolls studies, “The Contents and Challenges of the Dead Sea Biblical Scrolls.”
• Aug. 9: Gordon Campbell, Ph.D., University of Leicester, United Kingdom, “The Making of a Bible Classic: The Translation of the King James Bible.”
• Aug. 16: Edwin Yamauchi, Ph.D., Miami (Fla.) University, “The Greatest Archaeological Discoveries and the Old Testament.”
• Aug. 23: Scott Carroll, Ph.D., director of the Green Collection, “The Green Collection: Scientific Breakthroughs and Bible Translation.”
• Sept. 6: Scot McKendrick, Ph.D., British Library, “Manuscript Discoveries and Bible Translation.”
• Sept. 13: Dirk Obbink, Ph.D., Oxford University, “Papyri Discoveries and Bible Translation.”
• Sept. 20: Alister McGrath, Ph.D., King's College, United Kingdom, “What Do William Tyndale and C.S. Lewis Have in Common.”
• Sept. 27: Ralph Hanna, Ph.D., Oxford University, “Richard Rolle's Impact on the English Bible.”
• Oct. 4: Jerry Pattengale, Ph.D., director of the Green Scholars Initiative, “Answers to New Theories Regarding How We Got the Bible.”
• Oct. 11: Robert Cooley, Ph.D., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, “The Greatest Archaeological Discoveries and the New Testament.”
For more information, go online to www.explorepassages.com.
Politics and IAA board of directors
SPEAKING OF POLITICS:
Archaeologists: Right-wing culture minister making appointments based on politicsLivnat replies:
Top archaeologists slam Limor Livnat's bid to change make-up of Israel Antiquities Authority's board of directors, say move will allow her to appoint officials identified with the political right.
By Nir Hasson (Haaretz)
Senior archaeologists are up in arms over an amendment to the Antiquities Authority Law proposed by Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat , which they say will shift the political slant of the Israel Antiquities Authority's board of directors to the right.
Critics say Livnat has proposed the legislation to prevent the appointment of Prof. Yoram Tsafrir as chairman of the board of directors of the authority and to allow her to instead appoint archaeologists identified with the political right. Opponents of the bill also say Livnat has also been changing the makeup of the country's senior archaeological body, the Archaeological Council, which advises the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the minister who oversees the Israel Antiquities Authority.
[...]
Livnat's amendment states that the minister "would appoint a senior scientist from the realm of history or archaeology, after consultation with the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities."
The explanatory notes accompanying Livnat's bill state: "The law currently obliges the minister to choose from a limited list of scientists, while in fact there are many worthy candidates who are not members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities."
Over the past year,three new members were appointed to the Archaeological Council: Dr. Gabriel Barkay, Dr. Ronny Reich and Dr. Eilat Mazar. All three are known for their work in excavations funded by Elad in East Jerusalem. Reich was elected head of the council.
Archaeologists critical of Livnat's moves also say scholars from Bar-Ilan University have a greater representation on the Archaeological Council than other universities.
[...]
"The source of this limitation is a law going back 33 years. Since then, the number of archaeologists and historians who are senior researchers has increased significantly and there is not reason to prevent worthy candidates from heading the board. ... It seems that claims against opening up the appointment to additional worthy candidates stems from extraneous interests and the desire to force a certain appointment as chairman of the board."UPDATE (12 July): More here.
Iraqi Jewish archives update
IRAQI JEWISH ARCHIVE WATCH: Tug-of-war over Iraqi Jewish trove in US hands (AP). Lots of new information, especially about the web of politics in which the archive is now snarled. But the good news is that $3 million has be set aside for the restoration of the manuscripts.
(HT Gerald Rosenberg. Background here and follow the many links back to 2003.)
(HT Gerald Rosenberg. Background here and follow the many links back to 2003.)
Sunday, July 10, 2011
BMCR review responses and reviews
BMCR review responses and reviews:
First, two responses to this review from March:
Bar-Kochva on Wyrick on Bar-Kochva, The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature.
Pelling on Bar-Kochva on Wyrick on Bar-Kochva.
Then, a couple of recent review of possible interest:
First, two responses to this review from March:
Bar-Kochva on Wyrick on Bar-Kochva, The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature.
Pelling on Bar-Kochva on Wyrick on Bar-Kochva.
Then, a couple of recent review of possible interest:
Daniel C. Snell, Religions of the Ancient Near East. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp. xii, 179. ISBN 9780521683364. $25.99 (pb).
Reviewed by Corinne Bonnet, Université de Toulouse II – Le Mirail & Institut Universitaire de France (cbonnet@univ-tlse2.fr)
Preview
Présenter l’ensemble des religions du Proche-Orient en 179 pages est un défi. Daniel C. Snell l’a courageusement relevé et propose à ses lecteurs une synthèse agréable à lire qui balaie les principales thématiques, aires géographiques et périodes en 17 chapitres. La qualité majeure de cet ouvrage est la conjonction entre une érudition vaste et profonde et une présentation accessible aux non spécialistes. Certes, parfois, on y perd en précision ou l’on tombe dans certaines généralisations que les spécialistes regretteront, mais l’objectif est de fournir un premier panorama que les indications bibliographiques permettront, le cas échéant, d’approfondir.
[...]
Dominique Charpin, Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia (translated by Jane Marie Todd). Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Pp. 182. ISBN 9780226101583. $55.00.
Reviewed by Rochelle Altman, Sivan College (willaa@netvision.net.il)
Preview
In Classical studies, since the 1990s, it has become increasingly clear that literacy was more widespread in society than had been previously thought. While many Assyriologists maintain that literacy was the exclusive domain of professional scribes and even kings, clergy, and generals are classed among the illiterate, Dominique Charpin has come to similar conclusions about Classical Babylonia. In this volume, Charpin focuses on the relationship between writing and law and, as we could expect from his previous works, makes a strong and convincing case for writing as a more wide-spread phenomenon than has been assumed.
[...]
A Metatron schism?
AN IMPENDING METATRON SCHISM? El Shaddai will be 'divisive' in America, says Ignition. That can happen.
Background here and links.
Background here and links.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
DSS on list of world's top five treasure troves
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS are on the WSJ's list of The World’s Top Five Treasure Troves, inspired by that recent discovery of vast treasure in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, India.
The list looks about right to me. I would put the Cairo Geniza and the Ugaritic texts in a top-ten list. The treasures of the Copper Scroll (follow those links) would perhaps belong on the top-ten list too, if they could still be found, which is very unlikely.
Also, here's something recent on Massekhet Kelim (The Treatise of the Vessels), an apocryphal account of the fate of the Jerusalem Temple treasures.
I have noted some manuscript treasures from Kerala here (and links) and here (Cochin is in Kerala). (No word so far on any manuscripts in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple trove.)
The list looks about right to me. I would put the Cairo Geniza and the Ugaritic texts in a top-ten list. The treasures of the Copper Scroll (follow those links) would perhaps belong on the top-ten list too, if they could still be found, which is very unlikely.
Also, here's something recent on Massekhet Kelim (The Treatise of the Vessels), an apocryphal account of the fate of the Jerusalem Temple treasures.
I have noted some manuscript treasures from Kerala here (and links) and here (Cochin is in Kerala). (No word so far on any manuscripts in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple trove.)
Hundreds at Byzantine-Era Synagogue
ANCIENT SYNAGOGUES WATCH:
Hundreds at Byzantine-Era SynagogueRecent post on other ancient synagogues here.
by Maayana Miskin (Arutz Sheva)
Hundreds of Jews were allowed to visit an ancient synagogue from the Byzantine era on Friday morning. The tour, coordinated with the IDF, took place as part of a program to commemorate young hikers slain by Palestinian Authority terrorists.
The more than 200 hikers first visited the ancient synagogue of Samoa and the nearby village of Anin, mentioned in the book of Joshua. They held morning prayer services in the synagogue.
They then continued on to a second ancient synagogue, this one located in the village of Susiya, a town dating back to Talmud times that in recent decades has enjoyed renewed Jewish settlement.
[...]
Friday, July 08, 2011
Newly Discovered Qumran Photographs from the 1950s
NEWLY DISCOVERED QUMRAN PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE 1950s. (Via Jim West via Joseph Lauer and the Agade list.)
Syriac language at Artuklu University in Turkey
ARAMAIC WATCH:
Southeastern university starts Syriac coursesThis project in Turkey has been in development for some time. More on it here, here, here, and here. It's good to see it up and running.
MARDİN - Doğan News Agency (Hurriyet Daily News)
Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz attended the first lesson of Syriac language courses started by Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin. DHA photo
Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz attended the first lesson of Syriac language courses started by Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin. DHA photo
Already providing Kurdish-language education, Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin, or MAU, is readying to open an intensive course on the Syriac language.
The courses will be provided by the university’s Living Languages Institute. Also, a committee from the faculty of letters is working on establishing a Syriac Language and Culture Department.
[...]
Analyzing The Dead Sea Scrolls' Provenance
TECHNOLOGY WATCH: The latest in non-destructive manuscript analysis from Chemical and Engineering News:
Analyzing The Dead Sea Scrolls' ProvenanceThis short piece links to the page for the technical article that presents the research:
Cultural Analysis: Scientists think that X-ray fluorescence could identify the geographical origin of these ancient texts
Sarah Everts
An X-ray fluorescence analytical technique may help scholars settle a decades-long archaeological debate: Were the multitude of Dead Sea Scroll texts written near the Dead Sea or just stored in caves nearby? This technique could provide an answer without harming the valuable Hebrew documents that have been degrading rapidly since their discovery in the 1940s and 50s, its developers say.
[...]
3D Micro-XRF for cultural heritage objects – new analysis strategies for the investigation of the Dead Sea ScrollsThis new technique sounds like it has promise to answer some difficult and controversial questions about the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Ioanna Mantouvalou , Timo Wolff , Oliver Hahn , Irene Rabin , Lars Lühl , Marcel Pagels , Wolfgang Malzer , and Birgit Kanngiesser
Anal. Chem., Just Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1021/ac2011262
Publication Date (Web): June 29, 2011
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
Abstract
A combination of 3D Micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (3D Micro-XRF) and Micro-XRF was utilized for the investigation of a small collection of highly heterogeneous, partly degraded Dead Sea Scroll parchment samples from known excavation sites. The quantitative combination of the two techniques proves to be suitable for the identification of reliable marker elements which may be used for classification and provenance studies. With 3D Micro-XRF the three-dimensional nature, i.e. the depth resolved elemental composition as well as density variations, of the samples was investigated and bromine could be identified as a suitable marker element. It is shown through a comparison of quantitative and semi-quantitative values for the bromine content derived using both techniques that, for elements which are homogeneously distributed in the sample matrix, quantification with Micro-XRF using a one-layer model is feasible. Thus, the possibility for routine provenance studies using portable Micro-XRF instrumentation on a vast amount of samples, even on site, is obtained through this work.
Thursday, July 07, 2011
BAR: "New Synagogue Excavations In Israel and Beyond"
BAR: New Synagogue Excavations In Israel and Beyond by Joey Corbett, with discussions of the synagogues found at Magdala, Wadi Hamam and Horvat Kur.
More on the Magdala synagogue here and links, on the Wadi Hamam synagogue here and here, and on the Horvat Kur synagogue here.
More on the Magdala synagogue here and links, on the Wadi Hamam synagogue here and here, and on the Horvat Kur synagogue here.
New curator for Bodleian's Hebrew & Judaica collection
CONGRATULATIONS to Dr Cesar Merchan Hamann and the Bodleian Library:
Curator named for Oxford Hebrew Centre
By Jennifer Lipman, July 6, 2011 (thejc.com)
The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies has announced the successor to its longtime curator Dr Piet van Boxel.
Dr Cesar Merchan Hamann will take over from Dr van Boxel in September as curator of the Bodleian Library's Hebrew and Judaica collections.
[...]
Report on Waqf's Temple Mount excavations to be released?
TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: That State Comptroller's report on the Waqf's excavations on the Temple Mount may be released after all, according to Arutz Sheva:
Report on Muslim Temple Mount Digs to Be Declassified?Background here and links.
by Gil Ronen
A special Knesset subcommittee convened Wednesday afternoon to discuss declassifying a report by the State Comptroller on illegal excavation by Muslim authorities on the Temple Mount.
The Chairman of the Knesset’s State Control Committee, MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima), toured the Temple Mount Wednesday after he received the full and detailed report by the Comptroller regarding unauthorized Waqf digs on the Mount.
[...]
Rollston on the Mariam Ossuary
THE MIRIAM (MARIAM?) OSSUARY is the subject of a blog post by Christopher Rollston: The Ossuary of Mariam Daughter of Yeshua’ in Context: Limning the Broad Tableau of the Epigraphic and Literary Data. A useful discussion with lots of information.
Background here and link.
Background here and link.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
If we are in a computer simulation
MORE ON THE SIMULATION ARGUMENT: If We Are In A Computer Simulation (FuturePundit). As already noted, the Gnostics worried about some of these questions centuries ago.
The Talmud Blog relaunched
THE TALMUD BLOG has been relaunched by Shai Secunda as a collective enterprise.
I’m proud to announce the opening of a new collective Talmud Blog. Here scholars of rabbinic literature will find announcements (of articles, new publications, conferences, and more); a curated list of links (in the “tools” section) for aiding in talmudic research; original posts that present new research; discussions of critical methodologies, and of course the French import even more beloved than “freedom fries” – Critique.Be sure and update your link.
Review of Grossman (ed.), "Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls"
H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:
Maxine L. Grossman, ed. Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls: An Assessment of Old and New Approaches and Methods. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2010. xiii + 318 pp. $28.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8028-4009-7.More on this book here, here, and here.
Reviewed by Jean Duhaime (Université de Montréal)
Published on H-Judaic (July, 2011)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman
Old and New Tools at Work on the Dead Sea Scrolls
This book is the result of a few years of collaborative work between the authors in order to produce a volume that would "bring together a range of diverse perspectives on and scholarly approaches" to the Dead Sea Scrolls (p. 1). The contributors were asked to provide an introduction to an approach to the scrolls and an example of it, but also a "more self-reflective assessment" (p. 1) of its limits and the potential pitfalls associated with it. The book consists of an introduction, "Tools for Our Work," by Maxine L. Grossman, and fifteen chapters clustered according to their contents.
[...]
Three new books from the SBL
THREE NEW BOOKS from the Society of Biblical Literature:
John, Qumran, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Sixty Years of Discovery and DebateThe Gabriel Revelation (a.k.a. the Vision of Gabriel) has been discussed many times at this blog. See here and follow the links.
Mary L. Coloe, Tom Thatcher
The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal a Palestinian form of Second Temple Judaism in which the seeds of Johannine Christianity may have first sprouted. Although many texts from the Judean Desert are now widely available, the Scrolls have had little part in discussions of the Johannine literature over the past several decades. The essays in this book, ranging from focused studies of key passages in the Fourth Gospel to its broader social world, consider the past and potential impact of the Scrolls on Johannine studies in the context of a growing interest in the historical roots of the Johannine tradition and the origins and nature of the “Johannine community” and its relationship to mainstream Judaism. Future scholarship will be interested in connections between the Gospel of John and the Scrolls and also in Qumran Judaism and Johannine Christianity as parallel religious movements. The contributors are Mary L. Coloe and Tom Thatcher, Eileen Schuller, Paul N. Anderson, John Ashton, George J. Brooke, Brian J. Capper, Hannah K. Harrington, Loren T. Stuckenbruck, and James H. Charlesworth.
Paper $28.95 • 242 pages • ISBN 9781589835467 • Early Judaism and Its Literature 32
Was 1 Esdras First? An Investigation into the Priority and Nature of 1 Esdras
Lisbeth S. Fried
The books of Ezra-Nehemiah and 1 Esdras tell the story of the Judean return from exile in Babylon, of rebuilding the temple, and of creating a new community in Zion. For scholars and students trying to understand the Second Temple period, there are no other contemporary narratives available, giving these books prime importance. In Was 1 Esdras First? world-renowned scholars fully discuss, without arriving at a consensus, the relationship between Ezra-Nehemiah and 1 Esdras. In addition, they delve into these books’ dates and methods of composition, the sources used, their respective historical and social milieus, their original languages, and their authority and status in antiquity. This collection adds to our understanding of the history of Second Temple Judah, the formation of early Judaism, and the processes by which biblical books were composed. The contributors are Lisbeth S. Fried, Deirdre N. Fulton and Gary N. Knoppers, Lester L. Grabbe, Adrian Schenker, Bob Becking, Kristin De Troyer, Juha Pakkala, Zipora Talshir, James C. VanderKam, Jacob L. Wright, Sebastian Grätz, Paul B. Harvey Jr., Sylvie Honigman, Sara Japhet, Ralph W. Klein, and H. G. M. Williamson.
Paper $34.95 • 298 pages • ISBN 9781589835443 • Ancient Israel and Its Literature 7
Hazon Gabriel: New Readings of the Gabriel Revelation
Matthias Henze, editor
Since its rediscovery a decade ago, the Hazon Gabriel or Gabriel Revelation, a Hebrew inscription of the first century B.C.E., has attracted considerable attention. The inscription, of which about 87 lines are preserved, written in black ink on a slab of gray limestone, has been compared to the Dead Sea Scrolls. This book makes accessible in one place all existing editions of the Hazon Gabriel together with annotated English translations and offers initial interpretations of the text as a whole, its language, and its most prominent motifs. The volume, originating from a 2009 conference at Rice University, compares the Gabriel Revelation to other literature of the time—the book of Daniel, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament in particular—to determine its place in early Judaism. The contributors are David Jeselsohn, Ada Yardeni and Binyamin Elizur, Elisha Qimron and Alexey (Eliyahu) Yuditsky, Israel Knohl, Gary A. Rendsburg, Adela Yarbro Collins, John J. Collins, Matthias Henze, Kelley Coblentz Bautch, Daewoong Kim, and David Capes.
Paper $29.95 • 234 pages • ISBN 9781589835412 • Early Judaism and Its Literature 29
A homily on Elisha ben Avuyah (Acher)
A HOMILY ON ELISHA BEN AVUYAH (ACHER/AHER/AKHER) by Rabbi Andrea Myers appears in The Jewish Week: From Elisha Ben Abuyah To Morris, The Golfer: Hearing the voice of the Other. Excerpt:
Morris is in good company. When we talk about what it means to be Other in the Jewish community, it is essential to look at the first Other: Elisha ben Abuyah, the first/second-century rabbi who becomes known as Acher, or Other, because of his apostasy. There are many stories about why he lost his faith, but the most powerful one describes the incident that may have pushed him to reject the central tenets of the Judaism of his time:How interesting. I was not aware of this passage and Simon Holloway did not include it in his three-part survey of the Akher traditions at his blog Davar Akher. Actually, Elisha ben Avuyah shows up a number of times in the rabbinic literature, especially in connection with the story of the four who entered paradise. The better-known account of his apostasy, which is associated with that story, is translated (from 3 Enoch) and discussed here. And I have one more post on Aher here.
For it was taught: R. Jacob said … in connection with honoring parents it is written, “that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you” (Deut 5:16). In reference to the dismissal of the nest it is written, “that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days” (Deut 22:6). Now, if one’s father said to him, ’Ascend to the loft and bring me young birds,’ and he ascends to the loft, dismisses the dam and takes the young, and on his return falls and is killed, where is this man’s happiness and where is this man’s prolonging of days? ... Now, what happened with Acher? Some say, he saw something of this nature. (B. Kid.39b)
Like Morris, Elisha ben Abuyah had a problem of theodicy: the question of how God can exist if there is evil in the world. His experience led him away from the Jewish community; he went from being a respected scholar to an apostate. After this break with the tradition, his name was no longer cited in the Talmud.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Computer source criticism?
TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Computer source criticism?
Algorithm developed by Israeli scholars sheds light on the Bible’s authorship (AP).
As described by this article, this new algorithm, which has been developed by a team led by Prof. Moshe Koppel at Bar-Ilan University, might just be useful. It sounds like a fairly blunt instrument; the source criticism of both the Pentateuch and Isaiah is considerably more complicated than indicated, although this may just be the article simplifying what the program actually did. The designers have clearly put some thought into verifying their results independently (with the experiment on the mixed texts of Ezekiel and Jeremiah) and seem to have gotten encouraging results. I want to see this published in a peer-review journal, to have the raw data looked at by both biblical scholars and computer experts, and to have more tests run on documents whose sources we can verify independently for comparison. But on the basis of this early report I am cautiously optimistic.
The Singularity may be nearer than I thought.
UPDATE: Reader David Clark is skeptical:
UPDATE (20 July) More here. Also,this e-mail from reader Ed Kaneen came in on the 11th and I've been meaning to post it, so I will do so while I'm linking to this post.
Algorithm developed by Israeli scholars sheds light on the Bible’s authorship (AP).
As described by this article, this new algorithm, which has been developed by a team led by Prof. Moshe Koppel at Bar-Ilan University, might just be useful. It sounds like a fairly blunt instrument; the source criticism of both the Pentateuch and Isaiah is considerably more complicated than indicated, although this may just be the article simplifying what the program actually did. The designers have clearly put some thought into verifying their results independently (with the experiment on the mixed texts of Ezekiel and Jeremiah) and seem to have gotten encouraging results. I want to see this published in a peer-review journal, to have the raw data looked at by both biblical scholars and computer experts, and to have more tests run on documents whose sources we can verify independently for comparison. But on the basis of this early report I am cautiously optimistic.
The Singularity may be nearer than I thought.
UPDATE: Reader David Clark is skeptical:
I saw your post this morning on computer source criticism. I intended to add a comment to your blog, but it appears you do not allow comments. In any case, software like this make me very suspicious for two reasons.Much depends on whether the software can deduce the sources in documents that were not in the minds of the developers and whose sources we know with confidence on other grounds. If it can do that, I will be impressed.
First, the software tends to know what humans know. That is, they are biased by how the researchers code the software. Thus, if researchers are testing a theory about word choice and authorship, they will necessarily code in information about what a word choice is and how that may relate to authorship. Software like this tends to find what the authors think it will find, no matter how objective and careful they tend to be. Even very subtle biases in a complex computer program behave in non-linear ways, which can have disproportionate effects in the outcome. My point is that even though I think the scholarly consensus on the Pentateuch and Isaiah is correct, I highly doubt this kind of program adds much new insight.
Second, these kinds of software programs have played out already in other religious communities. The best one I can think of is the Mormon faith and the attempt to identify the author(s) of the Book of Mormon. Teams made up of mostly Mormons have written software to identify authorship, as have teams of people not affiliated (or no longer affiliated) with the Mormon faith. Not suprisingly, the software of the former tends to find that the Book of Mormon was not authored by Joseph Smith or his contemporaries, from which they conclude this is evidence of a divine origin. While the latter tend to find evidence for the authorship of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith or one of his contemporaries. The bottom line is that computer programs tend to find what people want them to find.
UPDATE (20 July) More here. Also,this e-mail from reader Ed Kaneen came in on the 11th and I've been meaning to post it, so I will do so while I'm linking to this post.
I'm afraid I've only just picked up your post of 5/7 on Computer Source Criticism, and David Clark's comment. As a former computer scientist, I don't feel the criticism is entirely justified in this case. The original paper offered to the Association of Computational Linguistics Conference is available here: http://www.dershowitz.net/files/unsupervised-decomposition-of-a-document-into-authorial-components.pdf. The method used by Koppel et al. is to first of all group units of text according to the presence of synonyms (as defined by Strong's Concordance), on the assumption that one author will prefer one set of synonyms, and another a different set (this is explained under 'Exploiting Synonym Usage' and they give some examples in section 1.3). This, they suggest, fairly reliably assigns portions of texts to separate authors. However, there are not many such synonyms. Therefore, on the basis of the few units that can be separated in this way, they then use the combination of common words (which occur >5 times in 10, unnamed, biblical books) in these already identified sections as a seed from which to automatically learn a measure for discriminating between the remaining non-identified sections. Their test texts consist of random combinations of two biblical books, primarily Jeremiah and Ezekiel but others too. They do this first at the chapter level, and then at the verse level (i.e. by drawing a random number of chapters/verses from Jeremiah, and then a random number from Ezekiel, and so on – described in section 1.6). Their method seems to be remarkably successful at separating these chapters/verses into their correct original books. They likewise claim in their conclusion a 90% success rate in identifying P and non-P in the Pentateuch (based on Driver).
The point of the above description is that their method is essentially automated, and not dependent on the results they are trying to find. Having said that, of course they will optimise the method to get better results, that is the point isn't it? Nevertheless, I suggest there is at least one problem with both the method and this experiment. With respect to the method, the assumption that there are exactly two authors for a text is a significant restriction – can this be overcome or does the lack of data make the method unreliable for innumerable authors? What results would have been given by applying the method to, say, Ezekiel alone? If the two-author restriction cannot be overcome then it not useful to biblical studies, except perhaps as some measure of confirmation of pre-existing hypotheses. The problem with the experiment is how reliable is the combination of KJV and Strong's Concordance in identifying synonyms, and where does a style of deliberately using synonyms for variety fit into this? In this case however, we should bear in mind that their primary interest is in the novel computational method used, rather than the problem of biblical authorship.
In sum, this is an impressive result, but unsurprisingly relies on the quality of biblical scholarship at its source.
Cinema’s 10 most underrated monsters
THE GOLEM is one of Cinema’s 10 most underrated monsters.
A beast formed from clay according to Jewish folklore, the Golem has suffered mix fortunes in the movies. Where Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein monster was immortalised in James Whale’s classic movies, German expressionist Paul Wegener’s 1915 movie The Golem survives only in fragments. His second Golem feature, The Golem And The Dancing Girl, has disappeared from history altogether.More on the Golem here and links.
The director’s third, 1920’s The Golem: How He Came Into The World, however, does survive, and it’s a masterpiece of early filmmaking and design. Based on the famous 16th century story of the Golem of Prague, the film sees a Rabbi bringing the creature to life in order to protect his people from racist attacks.
[...]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)