Off to San Diego

I'M OFF TO SAN DIEGO, unexpectedly, for a family emergency. I may be able to keep up blogging pretty well, since jet lag will have me up in the wee hours of the morning anyway. But posting may be light and sporadic for the next ten or twelve days. For the moment, I've preposted one more thing, to go up in a few minutes.

I'll let you know when I'm in California.

More archaeology and politics

MORE ARCHAEOLOGY AND POLITICS: I don't have time to comment on either of these articles right now, but I do want to note them:

PA rewriting Jewish history

Special: Palestinian archeological revisionism aims to nullify Jewish connection to land

Giulio Meotti (Ynet News)
Published: 10.11.11, 15:22 / Israel News

Palestinians are using archeology to advance their statehood bid. Prominent archaeologist Gabriel Barkai called it "cultural Intifada."

The PA will seek World Heritage status for the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem, once the UN’s cultural agency (UNESCO) admits them as a full member. Hamdan Taha, the Palestinian Authority minister who deals with antiquities and culture, also listed Nablus and Hebron among 20 cultural heritage sites which he said could be nominated as World Heritage Sites.

Professor Taha is a pioneer of the new Palestinian revisionism. Last January National Geographic magazine ran a “Travel Palestine” ad that appeared to blot out the State of Israel’s existence. Published by Taha’s Ministry of Antiquities, the ad said that “Palestine lies between the Mediterranean coast and Jordan River.” This is just one example of Taha’s propaganda successes around the world.

[...]

More on Hamdan Taha here. More on Rachel's Tomb here and links.

Top archaeologist decries Jerusalem dig as unscientific 'tourist gimmick'
Dr. Eilat Mazar, who worked in close cooperation with the group - which promotes the 'Judaization' of East Jerusalem - says excavations carried out in violation of accepted procedures.

By Nir Hasson (Haaretz)

An archaeologist who worked with the Elad association in Jerusalem's City of David claims that the association and the Antiquities Authority are carrying out excavations "without any commitment to scientific archaeological work."

[...]

More on the Elad controversy here and links.

Samaritan Sukkot

SAMARITAN SUKKOT has already started:

Gallery: Samaritans celebrate Succot atop Mount Gerizim

By BEN HARTMAN AND REUTERS (Jerusalem Post
10/11/2011 16:04

Members of the Samaritan community took part in a traditional pilgrimage marking the holiday of Succot near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Members of the Samaritan community took part on Tuesday in a traditional pilgrimage marking the holiday of Succot atop Mount Gerizim near the West Bank city of Nablus.

[...]

The article includes a photo gallery. Another photo gallery is a the MSNBC Photo Blog: Ancient Samaritan community marks the Feast of the Tabernacles with sunrise pilgrimage. And there's one more picture (scroll down) at the National Post's Photos of the Day, Oct. 11, 2011.

Sukkot

SUKKOT, the seven-day festival of Booths or Tabernacles, begins this evening at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating it.

Wayne Stiles has a relevant Jerusalem Post column: Sights and Insights: Succot and the waters of Siloam.

Second-Temple era mikve discovered

A SECOND-TEMPLE-ERA MIKVE has been discovered near Kibbutz Tzora (which is near Beit Shemesh and thirteen or so kilometers west of Jerusalem):

Mikve Discovery Tangible Proof of Jewish Civilization in Tzora
It comes down to water. The upgrading of a water supply system paves the way for the discovery of a mikve.

By Aryeh ben Hayim (Arutz Sheva)
First Publish: 10/11/2011, 6:14 PM

Samson was moved by the divine spirit between Tzora and Eshtaol.

Now the Israel Antiquities Authority has discovered the remains of a mikve( a ritual bath) from the Second Temple period (first century BCE-first century CE) as part of an archeological rescue dig prior to the installation of a water line by the Mekorot Company at an antiquities site, c. 2 kilometers north of Kibbutz Tzora.

[...]

Maarav: new issue and supplementary data

AWOL: Maarav Supplementary data online. Plus there's a new issue out.

The pseudepigrapha in the paleoblogosphere

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH—Some recent blog posts of interest:

Duane Smith has an abnormally interesting post on Aḥiqar: The Wolf And The Snake.

At Rogue Classicism, David Meadows links to Barbara Zaragoza's Delphi, Greece: In Search of Sibyls. She's looking for the Greek Sibyls rather than the later Jewish and Christian versions in the Sibylline Oracles, but still. More on the Sibylline Oracles here, here, here, here, and here.

Slactivist Fred Clark: The Nephilim fossil of upstate New York. (Via Remnant of Giants.) The story of the Nephilim is told more fully in the Book of Giants.

And sort of relevant (on the PGM, and Old Testament material is involved too): Roger Pearse: Jesus in the Greek Magical Papyri and More on Jesus in the Greek Magical Papyri.

Tommy Wasserman on Larry Hurtado Day

TOMMY WASSERMAN: A WONDERFUL DAY IN EDINBURGH. Indeed it was. Tommy reports on Friday's day-conference in honor of Larry Hurtado.

Who owns Maimonides?

WHO OWNS MAIMONIDES? Joshua Halberstam has a rambling (in a good and interesting way) review of Herbert A. Davidson's new book, Maimonides the Rationalist, in Jewish Ideas Daily.

Reviewlet of Ehrman & Plese, "The Apocryphal Gospels"

REVIEWLET by Nick Owchar in the LA Times:

Bookmarks: 'The Apocryphal Gospels' by Bart D. Ehrman, Zlatko Plese
The volume includes the gospels of Thomas and Judas, 'The Vengeance of the Savior' and more.

An army of Scrolls scholars?

AN ARMY OF SCROLLS SCHOLARS? That's Melissa Bell's take in the Washington Post:

Google’s Dead Sea Scrolls is latest crowdsourcing project

[...]

For the religious scholar, seeing the fragile animal skin written on between the third and first centuries BCE now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, would have required a trip to Jerusalem until the scrolls went online last month as a project between Google and the Israel Museum.

While Google touts these projects as part of its mission to make all the world’s information available online, the scrolls’ existence in digital form serves a secondary purpose: allowing amateur detectives to seek clues that elude scholarly academics.

The posting of the scrolls for the masses is the latest example of academic crowdsourcing, inviting the usually anonymous community of people online to contribute know-how, money or work to a given project. And scientists, journalists and academics have begun to recognize the value in that crowdsourced knowledge, turning to the community to unlock some of the most persistent mysteries of the world.

[...]

And what will the masses contribute to unlocking the secrets of the nearly 1,000 Dead Sea Scrolls? That may just be a question for the ages.

Maybe. Original work on the Scrolls requires some very specialized training, and I'm not aware of any initiatives that have broken down Scrolls-related problems into easily crowdsourced formats (as with the AIDS and NASA projects mentioned in the article). But we'll see what happens with Google's Digital Dead Sea Scrolls project (background here) and also the recent Ancient Lives project on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

Nathan MacDonald interviewed

MY COLLEAGUE, DR. NATHAN MACDONALD, is interviewed by David A. Burnett at the The Time Has Been Shortened blog: Monotheism and the Bible: Origins, Issues, and the Status Quaestionis – Hebrew Bible/OT Part 1.

ISAW Research Scholar Fellowships

ISAW FELLOWSHIP:

ISAW Now Accepting Visiting Research Scholar Applications for Fall 2012

Each year the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, makes about 7-10 appointments of visiting research scholars. We are now accepting applications for fellowships beginning in fall 2012. ISAW's scope embraces the history, archaeology, and culture of the entire Old World from late prehistoric times to the eighth century AD, including Asia and Africa. Projects of a theoretical or comparative nature relevant to this domain are also welcome. Academic visitors at ISAW should be individuals of scholarly distinction or promise in any relevant field of ancient studies who will benefit from the stimulation of working in an environment with colleagues in other disciplines. Applicants with a history of interdisciplinary exchange are particularly welcome. They are expected to be in residence at the Institute during the academic terms for which they are appointed and to take part in the intellectual life of the community.

For details about the categories of fellows, financial support, and the application, please visit http://isaw.nyu.edu/academics/visiting-scholars. The deadline for applications is December 10, 2011. New York University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Job in Coptic Studies

JOB at The American University in Cairo:

Coptic Studies

Category: Coptic Studies
Department: Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and Egyptology
Locations: Cairo, Egypt
Posted: Sep 29, '11
Type: Full-time
Ref. No.: SAPE-1-2012

Job Description:

The Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and Egyptology Department (SAPE) is seeking a specialist in Coptic Studies (Coptology). Candidates must be able to teach the Coptic language — in particular, the Sahidic and Bohairic dialects. Candidates must also offer at least one other specialty from among the following: Coptic monasticism, Coptic archaeology, and Coptic art and architecture. The successful candidate will be required to take the lead in working on the foundations of AUC’s new M.A. in Egyptology and Coptology, for which reason she/he will receive one course release in her/his first semester. The candidate will teach courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Requirements:

Rank is open. Candidates must have completed the Ph.D. degree at the time of appointment. The successful candidate will have a commitment to teaching and to an active program of research and scholarship. Priority will be given to applications received by October 20th, 2011.


Additional Information:

The appointment is tenure-track effective September 1, 2012, with renewal dependent upon institutional needs and the appointee’s performance.

Follow the link for application instructions.

(HT Alin Suciu.)

Yom Kippur

YOM KIPPUR (THE DAY OF ATONEMENT) begins this evening at sundown. A healthy fast to all observing it. The biblical precepts for Yom Kippur appear in Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32.

BAR website: "The Dead Sea Scrolls and Why They Matter"

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW has a new website on the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Why They Matter.

In Edinburgh at Hurtado event

I'M IN EDINBURGH TODAY at the New College seminar honoring the work of Larry Hurtado. I have pre-posted this and a couple of other things, but otherwise I don't expect to be blogging today.

Rescued Hebrew Bible manuscripts from Damascus

RESCUED HEBREW BIBLE MANUSCRIPTS:

Bibles rescued from Syria in secret op
Holy books dating back 1,000 years, meticulously guarded by Jewish community, travel from Damascus to Israel in continent-wide, James Bond-style operation

Uri Misgav
Published: 10.05.11, 14:56 / Israel Jewish Scene (YnetNews)

It was a James Bond-style, continent-wide operation with many participants. It began in Syria, continued in the United States and ended in Israel. And yet, not a single word has been published about it – until now.

Yedioth Ahronoth has revealed the amazing rescue of some of the world's most ancient Bibles from Damascus.

The 11 holy books, some dating back 1,000 years, were written by copyist of the Scriptures around the world and arrived in the Syrian capital in different periods. The Jewish community took pride in them and guarded them meticulously, helping them survive the political upheavals that took place in the city over the years.

The Damascus books are considered the world's most ancient Bibles after the Aleppo Codex, which compared to them is torn and shabby.

[...]

That is, they may be among the oldest complete manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls and many Greek Septuagint manuscripts are, of course, much older.

The Associated Press also has an article on the story: Bible Manuscripts From Damascus Go on Rare Display.

Report on CSUF's DSS event

A REPORT on the CSUF Dead Sea Scrolls event from the Daily Titan:

Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit alive at CSUF

By Sean Viele
Published: October 05, 2011

An exhibit at Cal State Fullerton Tuesday featuring a series of lectures on the Dead Sea Scrolls covered topics from the historical context to the politics behind the scrolls.

The lectures and a detailed replica of the Great Isaiah Scroll attracted students and visitors from the Fullerton community.

The Comparative Religion Department began planning for the exhibit last year but were unable to secure funding until this semester, said Paul Levesque, department chair and associate professor of the Comparative Religion Department.

Levesque said the long-awaited exhibit was a success.

“We’ve had a lot of alumni here today, a lot of people from the community, so we’ve been thrilled about that,” Levesque said.

[...]

By the way, there were a lot more than seven Dead Sea Scrolls. I think the number seven must refer to the relatively complete scrolls found in Cave One.

Background to the story is here.

Another review of Hoffman, "The Dovekeepers"

ANOTHER REVIEW OF HOFFMAN, THE DOVEKEEPERS:

Book review: Alice Hoffman’s ‘Dovekeepers’ builds on lives of Jewish heroines

By Ron Charles, Published: October 5 (Washington Post)

Alice Hoffman may be the most uneven writer in America. A trip through her enormous body of work — for adults and young people — is a jarring ride, from the loveliness of “Illumination Night” to the schlockiness of “The River King.” Hang on tight and you’ll swerve from the quiet power of her short stories in “Local Girls” to the groaning hokiness of “The Ice Queen.” In bestseller after bestseller, she explores women’s subjects and feminist themes, especially ancient and modern expressions of witchcraft. Sometimes, the results are practically magic; sometimes, they’re practically laughable.

But nothing she’s written would prepare you for the gravitas of her new book, an immersive historical novel about Masada during the Roman siege in the 1st century. “The Dovekeepers” is an enormously ambitious, multi-part story, richly decorated with the details of life 2,000 years ago. What’s more, as Anita Diamant showed so popularly with “The Red Tent,” the world of ancient Judaism provides fertile ground for exploring the challenges of women’s lives, and, fortunately, this time Hoffman treats her favorite issues without throwing up much of the fairy dust that too often clogs her work.

[...]

More on that archaeology-privatization bill

MORE ON THAT ARCHAEOLOGY BILL:

Israeli archaeologists oppose privatisation bill
Proposed amendment related to disputed excavation

By Lauren Gelfond Feldinger | Web only (The Art Newspaper)
Published online 6 Oct 11 (News)

JERUSALEM. More than 150 Israeli archaeologists and historians have petitioned the Israeli parliament to vote down an amendment to a bill that would privatise national parks, including archaeological and historic sites. The petition, delivered to the culture and environment ministers, charges that the changes to law, if passed, would fuel political interests, hurt minority communities and undermine unbiased scientific research. “We demand that the government not change the laws... and instead strengthens academic freedom and heritage without sectarian preference,” it says. The Union for Environmental Defence and The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel have also opposed the amendment.

The bill, to be voted on in October, was proposed following protests against the management of City of David, one of Israel’s most popular, albeit politically charged, archaeological parks, sponsored and managed by a private foundation.

I'm not sure that there's anything new in this article, but it sums up the state of play thoroughly.

Background here and links.

Copts as Egyptian citizens

COPTIC SOLIDARITY: "Are Christian Copts 'Dhimmis' or 'Infidels'?" That's the Question in Post-Revolutionary Egypt. The question should be, "Are they citizens with all the same rights and responsibilities as all other Egyptian citizens?" And the answer should be "Yes." Just saying.

Review of Lindbeck, "Elijah and the Rabbis"

H-NET REVIEW:

Kristen H. Lindbeck. Elijah and the Rabbis: Story and Theology. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 272 pp. $82.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-231-13080-6; $26.50 (paper), ISBN 978-0-231-13081-3.

Reviewed by Eliezer Segal (University of Calgary)
Published on H-Judaic (October, 2011)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

A (Deathless?) Prophet among the Talmudic Scholars

There is an understandable appeal in the image of Elijah the prophet as a figure who was exempted from the limits of mortality and continues to make appearances in the human world. The Bible provided a complex set of themes related to Elijah that could be drawn upon by later storytellers. The scriptural Elijah was at once a zealous warrior against idolatry, a wonder-worker who performed supernatural miracles for the benefit of common folk, and an eschatological herald who, according to Malachi, would be sent by God "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (4:5). Medieval Jews developed their own legends and customs through which Elijah could participate in their lives, the most familiar of these being his appearances at circumcisions and at the Passover seder, or as a poor wayfarer who might test the hospitality of his hosts.

The present volume focuses on the tales about Elijah that appear in the Babylonian Talmud--the work in the rabbinic corpus that preserves the largest number of such stories. The image of Elijah that emerges from this corpus differs in some significant respects from those of earlier and later eras; e.g., little importance is attached to his role as a messianic harbinger, and much of his activity is tightly enmeshed in the values of rabbinic scholarship. Lindbeck's treatment of the topic is thorough and thoughtful. She subjects the texts to incisive questions, classifications, and analyses, and she succeeds in eliciting interpretations that are true to the texts and their cultural contexts. As befits the topic, there are points when it is best to let the sources speak on their own terms, while it is also instructive to learn from comparisons with related phenomena in Jewish and neighboring cultures.

[...]

How To Discover Boundary Inscriptions

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Discover Boundary Inscriptions (BiblePlaces).

Replica of Great Isaiah Scroll at CSUF

A REPLICA OF THE GREAT ISAIAH SCROLL is going on display at Cal State Fullerton: Religious scroll replica to be shown at CSUF (Daily Titan). There's a little information on the replica itself:

The facsimile scroll is owned by Legacy Church Orange County and is on loan from the Museum of Biblical and Sacred Writings in Irvine, where Giacumakis is director. The replica is approximately 24 feet long.

The same replica was noted here and, I suspect (unless there's a second replica) here and here as well. For other links on the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa^a) itself, see here and here.

DSS website gets a million+ hits in a week

I'M NOT SURPRISED:

Virtual Dead Sea scrolls get more than a million hits in just one week
400,000 Americans visit new website launched by Israel Museum and Google.
By Nir Hasson Tags: Dead Sea scrolls Jerusalem (Haaretz)


More than a million people have visited a new website featuring high-resolution photographs of several Dead Sea Scrolls since the site was launched less than a week ago by the Israel Museum and Google Israel.

[...]

While the museum had anticipated wide interest in the website, interest has exceeded expectations. Between last Monday, when the website was launched, and Sunday morning, Google logged 1,042,104 visitors to the site, which not only provides an opportunity to see detailed images of the five scrolls, but also features an English translation.

[...]

It is the norm for Dead Sea Scrolls museum exhibitions to exceed attendance expectations. It seems the same is true for virtual exhibitions.

I noted the website here and here last week.

No BBC ban on BC and AD

NO BBC BAN ON BC AND AD:

BBC head of religion hits back at BC/AD ban claims
Aaqil Ahmed: story by "people seeking to make mischief" is "simply wrong"

Written By
Jack Seale (Radio Times)
9:30 AM, 02 October 2011

Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC's head of religion and ethics, has responded strongly to reports that the Corporation has banned the terms BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini). Last weekend it was claimed that BC and AD had been replaced across the BBC's output by the modern, secular terms BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era).

"The story was quite simply wrong," Ahmed wrote on the About the BBC blog. "We have issued no editorial guidelines or instructions to suggest that anyone in the BBC should change the terms they use."

[...]

This is the first I've heard of this controversy. In my technical work I always use BCE and CE as the more neutral terms, but in popular presentations, such as the radio interview a week ago, I usually say BC and AD, since a lot of people don't know what BCE and CE mean. The BBC policy as explained by Mr. Ahmed seems reasonable to me.

UPDATE (4 October): Here is the Daily Mail article that seems to have started up (or at least intensified) the controversy: BBC turns its back on year of Our Lord: 2,000 years of Christianity jettisoned for politically correct 'Common Era'.

Another review of Hoffman, "The Dovekeepers" (Masada novel)

BOOK REVIEW:

'The Dovekeepers:' A book review

Published: Sunday, October 02, 2011, 10:39 AM
Star-Ledger Entertainment Desk By Star-Ledger Entertainment Desk

The Dovekeepers
Alice Hoffman
Scribner, 504 pp., $27.99

Reviewed by Sherryl Connelly

The ancient historian Josephus wrote that he learned the story of Masada from two women who had escaped as the Romans breached the walls of the desert stronghold in 73 CE to declare victory over the corpses of 900 Jewish men, women and children. They had committed suicide rather than submit. Recent archaeological findings appear to contradict what Josephus recorded, but Alice Hoffman embraces the account and the woman who gave it in what may be her master work, “The Dovekeepers.”

[...]

Earlier review noted here.

Syriac Referenc Portal at the University of Alabama

A SYRIAC REFERENCE PORTAL is being created at the University of Alabama. (Via AINA.)

September 2011 Biblical Studies Carnival

THE SEPTEMBER 2011 BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL has been posted at ths Scotteriology blog. Or maybe it's the October one. I'm confused.

"The Phoenicians" wins another award

THE DOCUMENTARY THE PHOENICIANS has won another award:

The Phoenicians wins bronze award in Austria

Article published on 29 September 2011 (Malta Independent)

The documentary The Phoenicians, produced by Chris and Maurice Micallef, was awarded the Bronze Award in the Golden Diana International Film Festival held in Austria last month.

[...]

The article says it has won thirteen international awards, some of which have already been noted here.

A new novel on the fall of Masada

A NEW NOVEL on the fall of Masada:

Alice Hoffman weaves ancient history into mesmerizing tale

by AMANDA ST. AMAND • astamand@post-dispatch.com | Posted: Sunday, October 2, 2011 12:00 am | No Comments Posted (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

'The Dovekeepers'

A novel by Alice Hoffman

Published by Scribner, 504 pages, $27

On sale Tuesday

If a world of strong women and their complex relationships with one another doesn't draw you into Alice Hoffman's brilliant new novel, "The Dovekeepers," read it for Hoffman's fine sense of narrative, history and detail as she shares the story of four women who come by various paths to Masada.

[...]

Earliest Christian inscription?

EARLIEST CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTION?

World's earliest surviving Christian inscription identified

By Owen Jarus (CBS News)

Researchers have identified what is believed to be the world's earliest surviving Christian inscription, shedding light on an ancient sect that followed the teachings of a second-century philosopher named Valentinus.

Officially called NCE 156, the inscription is written in Greek and is dated to the latter half of the second century, a time when the Roman Empire was at the height of its power.

An inscription is an artifact containing writing that is carved on stone. The only other written Christian remains that survive from that time period are fragments of papyri that quote part of the gospels and are written in ink. Stone inscriptions are more durable than papyri and are easier to display. NCE 156 also doesn't quote the gospels directly, instead its inscription alludes to Christian beliefs.

"If it is in fact a second-century inscription, as I think it probably is, it is about the earliest Christian material object that we possess," study researcher Gregory Snyder, of Davidson College in North Carolina, told LiveScience. (See Images of Early Christian Inscriptions and Artifacts)

Snyder, who detailed the finding in the most recent issue of the Journal of Early Christian Studies, believes it to be a funeral epigram, incorporating both Christian and pagan elements. His work caps 50 years of research done by multiple scholars, much of it in Italian. The inscription is in the collection of the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

"Assuming that Professor Snyder is right, it's clearly the earliest identifiable Christian inscription," said Paul McKechnie, a professor of ancient history at Macquarie University in Australia, who has also studied the inscription.

As translated by Snyder, the inscription reads:

To my bath, the brothers of the bridal chamber carry the torches,
[here] in our halls, they hunger for the [true] banquets,
even while praising the Father and glorifying the Son.
There [with the Father and the Son] is the only spring and source of truth.

Details on the provenance of the inscription are sketchy. It was first published in 1953 by Luigi Moretti in the "Bullettino della commissione archeologica comunale di Roma," an Italian archaeological journal published annually.

The only reference to where it was found is a note scribbled on a squeeze (a paper impression) of the inscription, Snyder said. According to that note, it was found in the suburbs of Rome near Tor Fiscale, a medieval tower. In ancient times, the location of the tower would have been near mile four of a roadway called the Via Latina.

[...]

The argument for the date is primarily paleographic (that is, based on the shapes of the letters) and I defer to the judgment of those who specialize in Greek paleography of the period. I would be happier if there were clearer data about the provenance. Was the inscription excavated or found by someone and turned in? But for now it seems to be regarded as genuine and quite possibly of an early date. As it notes at the beginning, the article points out parallels with contemporary Valentinian Gnostic literature, so the earliest (or at least a very early) Christian inscription may be of the Gnostic variety rather than the orthodox.

Read it all.

(HT Annette Yoshiko Reed.)

The Jordan Lead Codices Information Page

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Steve Caruso has put up a page on the Jordan codices at his Biblioblog Reference Library. It is full of information on the state of play and the history of the discussion since March. It lists the bibliobloggers who have informally been sharing information with one another on the codices for some months and links to the relevant blog posts by the individual bloggers. Steve and some of the others have also put up pages with analysis of specific problems and issues. Do go and have a look: The Jordan Lead Codices Information Page.

One Thousand Open Access Journals

ISAW/AWOL: One Thousand Open Access Journals.

Roger Pearse: Is ambiguity in ancient texts a problem for the translator?

ROGER PEARSE: Is ambiguity in ancient texts a problem for the translator? Roger has some good observations in response to this question, of which I would highlight the point that a good understanding of the genre and literary context of a text is often very important for eliminating ambiguity in a translation. When I first started working on the Hekhalot literature (the Hebrew and Aramaic texts behind Jewish "Merkavah mysticism") some twenty years ago, I was often entirely perplexed about the meaning of a given sentence. But now after working through the entire corpus, reconstructing a critical text of most of it, and producing draft translations of nearly all of it, I usually (not always) have a good idea what such sentences mean. I have become accustomed to the technical terminology and the thought world of the texts, and that makes a great deal of difference.

That said, there are types of ancient texts which are ambiguous (to us) by their very nature. In particular I think of personal letters (of which we have many from antiquity esepcially from cuneiform sources). Because the personal context between the correspondents is lost, it is often very difficult for us to make sense of what is being said. The problem is multiplied if we only have one or a few letters in a longer correspondence. Lapidary inscriptions are also often maddeningly ambiguous, perhaps because the texts tend to be terse and the spatial and social contexts in which an inscription was embedded are now lost.

Also, damaged texts by nature have a higher degree of ambiguity to them. I think of the Dead Sea Scrolls in particular. If a text is fragmentary and we lack crucial hints from the grammar of the sentences and the immediate literary context of the text itself, it becomes correspondingly difficult to decipher the text.

Normally, none of these texts was ambiguous by nature to its original audience. It is only our distance from their original context and, in the case of fragments, the imperfect preservation of the texts themselves, which makes them ambiguous to us.

Eerdmans catalogue on archaeology and the DSS

EERDMANS has a new online catalogue of their books on archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls. My commentary on the Qumran liturgical works is on the list.

Fake metal codices tidbits

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: A few small tidbits for a slow day. First, a brief reference to the codices in an article attributed to Deutsche Press-Angentur entitled "Jordan recovers 620 artifacts from Israel, says official." The artifacts mentioned in the title are from the Early Bronze Age and thus outside the interest range of PaleoJudaica. But this paragraph is included:

In March this year, the Jordanian government said that it was seeking the recovery from Israel of about 70 ancient Christian codices which were discovered by a Jordanian Beduin in a cave in northern Jordan between 2005 and 2007 and were later smuggled to Israel.

I take it from this that there is no more progress to report on the extradition of the codices.

Also, a blogger for the Jewish Chronicle notes the debunking of by Peter Thonemann and also cites Tom Verenna's essays in Bible and Interpretation: Metal gurus. That's at least a little progress.

On the off chance that you missed my radio interview on Sunday, I also discuss the fake metal codices briefly in it. If you couldn't get the podcast to work, there are new links in the updates which should be good.

Background to the codices is here with endless links.

More on the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Project

MORE ON THE DIGITAL DEAD SEA SCROLLS PROJECT:

Google helps put Dead Sea Scrolls online

(BBC)

Ultra-high resolution images of several Dead Sea Scrolls are now available on the web, after Google helped digitise the ancient texts.

[...]

There are many other articles that give substantially the same information. Background here.

Also, related: Unraveling the Dead Sea Scrolls: Six Fascinating Facts.

Happy New Year!

ROSH HASHANAH begins this evening at sundown. Happy New Year to all those celebrating.

Digital Dead Sea Scrolls

THE DIGITAL DEAD SEA SCROLLS PROJECT, a collaboration between the Israel Museum and Google, has put some scrolls images online.

Background here.

Witherington reviews Flusser on Jesus

DAVID FLUSSER'S BOOK ON THE HISTORICAL JESUS, originally published in German in 1968 but republished posthumously in an English revised edition in 2007, is reviewed by Ben Witherington. The review article was published in JAOS and is reprinted at Ben's blog.

Radio interview on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

TODAY I AM BEING INTERVIEWED by Brent Walters on his "God Talk" program on KGO, a Californian talk radio station. The theme of the show, which runs from 5:00 am to 8:00 am California time, is "Anonymous Legends and Literature." The first hour is on the Epistle to Diognetus; the second hour is an introduction to the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, and the third hour (7:00-8:00 am pst, 3:00-4:00 pm British time) is the interview with me. Mostly we will be discussing The More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project, the first volume of which is now in press. But we will also spend a little time talking about those fake metal codices. You should be able to listen to the program live online here. If you have missed it, don't panic. It will be posted as a podcast in due course and I will put up the link here.

UPDATE (26 September): The podcasts are now available. Hour one (which I have not listened to, but you may wish to) is here. Hour two (mostly on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha) is here. And hour three (my interview) is here.

UPDATE (27 September): Those podcast links do not seem to be working. For now, go here, Sunday, 7:00-8:00 am for my interview. It's after seven or eight minutes of news. I'll try to find out what's going on with the permanent links.

UPDATE (29 September): Here's an alternate link to the podcast of my interview.

Review of Amitay, "From Alexander to Jesus"

BMCR BOOK REVIEW:

Ory Amitay, From Alexander to Jesus. Hellenistic culture and society, 52. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. Pp. xii, 246. ISBN 9780520266360. $49.95.

Reviewed by David W. Madsen, Seattle University (dmadsen@seattleu.edu)

Preview

Great historical figures invariably attract both mythographers and biographers—none more than the two subjects of this study. Here Ory Amitay, employing meme theory, explores the mythological links between them: “…the thesis of this book is that the Jesus memeplex replicated a great many memes adopted and developed first by Alexander the living person, and after his death by the mythical memeplex which he had created” (5) In order to validate the claim, Amitay devotes the bulk of his book to an exploration of the memes and memeplex between Alexander and Herakles, the object of Alexander’s worship, emulation, and rivalry. In the process of matching and surpassing him, Alexander broke the barrier between history and myth and provided a justification for his own claim to divinity; this self- divinization then set the stage for acceptance, in a monotheistic milieu no less, of the incarnate god Jesus. Unlike Herakles, whom some have suggested as a model for Christian ‘mythography,’ Amitay believes that the flesh and blood Alexander is the better, indeed, “unique forerunner of Christ.”

[...]

The reviewer is not convinced.

Dura-Europos Exhibition Opens

ISAW: Dura-Europos Exhibition Opens. Today!

Background here.

Mykytiuk on biblical persons in NWS inscriptions

LAWRENCE MYKYTIUK has e-mailed to let me know that an article of his from 2010 is available for free online:

Corrections and Updates to "Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E."

Lawrence J. Mykytiuk, Purdue University

Comments
This article updates the cutoff point for the inscriptions treated in the book mentioned in the title, which was mid-2002, to July 31, 2008. It evaluates 32 proposed identifications (IDs) of biblical persons in ancient Near Eastern inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E. All 32 IDs or non-IDs are listed and indexed at the end.

Abstract
This article does two things. First, it corrects things in the book, Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E. (2004), abbreviated IBP below:
• Regarding potential forgeries, the article applies the principles for treatment of unprovenanced inscriptions set forth in Christopher A. Rollston, “Non-Provenanced Epigraphs II: The Status of Non-Provenanced Epigraphs within the Broader Corpus of Northwest Semitic,” Maarav 11 (2004): 71–76.
• It disqualifies proposed IDs in eight (8) inscriptions that are forgeries or probable forgeries, notably including the two bullae frequently attributed to the biblical Baruch.
Second, it evaluates 32 proposed identifications (IDs) of biblical persons in inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E. Doing this updates the book, IBP, from its original coverage through mid-2002, to July 31, 2008. In order to evaluate these proposed IDs, it uses the protocols set forth in the book, IBP, pp. 9-89. Resulting IDs and non-IDs appear in six categories of strength or weakness, from unmistakable to disqualified.
• Constructively, it makes eleven strong, reasonable, or possible IDs of biblical persons in provenanced Northwest Semitic inscriptions and two reasonable IDs in inscriptions written in other languages (one in Egyptian hieroglyphics and one in Babylonian Akkadian).
• It gives page-by-page corrections to the book, IBP, if they affect IDs. These corrections end with a summary of the results of the book as corrected by this article on pp. 125-126. A summary and an index only of the results in the article appear on pp. 126-132.


Keywords
Hebrew Bible, Old Testament, biblical historicity, historical reliability of the Old Testament, identifying biblical persons, palaeography, Semitic paleography, Semitic inscriptions, Hebrew inscriptions, Northwest Semitic epigraphy, epigraphic Hebrew, epigraphic Aramaic, Melqart stele, Ahab, Ahikam, Ahiqam, Ahaziah, Azzur, Balaam, Bala‘am, Baruch, Berekyahu, Bar-hadad, Ben-hadad, Beor, Be‘or, David, Esarhaddon, Gedaliah, Pashhur, Gemariah, Gemaryahu, Goliath, Hadadezer, Hanan, Hazael, Igdaliah, Immer, Joash, Jehoash, Jehucal, Jucal, Yehukal, Yukal, Jerahmeel, Josiah, Mikneiah, Miqneiah, Nebo-sarsekim, Rab-saris, Neriah, Shaphan, Shelemiah, Zechariah

Published in:
Maarav 16.1 (2009): 49–132.

Date of this Version
2009

You can download the article as a PDF file from the linked web page. The article is long, detailed, and very technical, but you can read a summary of his conclusions on pp. 126-30.

Professor Mykytiuk and I had a discussion of this subject at PaleoJudaica back in 2004 (here and here; note also related later posts here and here). He now agrees with my initial instinct that the Baruch bullae should be treated as forgeries.

Alex Joffe on Mel Gibson's Maccabee movie

ALEX JOFFE: MEL AND THE MACCABEE (Jewish Ideas Daily). Excerpt:

But in some respects, few people are better equipped than Gibson to tackle the character of Judah Maccabee and the Jewish revolt against the Syrian Greeks, which took place from 167 to 160 B.C.E. In his 1979 breakthrough movie Mad Max, Gibson fought his way across the post-apocalyptic Australian outback. In the Lethal Weapon series, Martin Riggs, the Los Angeles detective played by Gibson was chronically on the edge of a breakdown. In the more recent Edge of Darkness, Gibson's homicide cop pursued his daughter's killer. Gibson's most iconic characters have been damaged loners who are roused by adversity to lead against-the-odds battles against injustice.

Gibson also has a long cinematic history with freedom fighters. In the 1995 Braveheart, of which he was director and star, he played the doomed 13th-century Scots leader William Wallace, driven by an outrage committed against his beloved into warring against the English. In The Patriot in 2000, he portrayed a South Carolina farmer drawn into the Revolutionary War after his son was brutally killed by the British. When it comes to reluctant heroes who "just snapped," no one does it better than Gibson.

Moreover, the biblical epic as a cinematic form in America is in grave need of a reboot.

Background here.

Columbus, the size of the earth, and 4 Ezra

COLUMBUS, THE SIZE OF THE EARTH, AND 4 EZRA: Over at Starts With A Bang!, Ethan Siegel has a nice post up on Who Discovered The Earth is Round? (HT James McGrath and Tom Verenna). It was, of course, the Alexandrian scholar Eratosthenes of Cyrene in the third century BCE. So, contrary to the old textbooks, Columbus knew perfectly well that the earth was a sphere. Indeed, the success of his project to sail to the Indies depended on his being able to circumnavigate it. These days, this is well known. But Ethan's last paragraph raises another point that is generally unknown (his emphasis):

If there's anything Columbus should be known for, as respects the size and shape of the Earth, it was using unrealistically low numbers for the circumference of the Earth! His estimates, that he used to convince others that one could sail from Europe directly to India (were the Americas non-existant), were absurdly small! Had the Americas not existed, he and his crew surely would have starved before reaching Asia!

Spot on. Now, as Theodore Sturgeon used to say, Ask the next question. Where did Columbus get his wildly inaccurate estimate of the circumference of the earth? (Or, at least, of the size of the ocean between Europe and the Indies.) The answer is from 4 Ezra 6:42-52:

[42] "On the third day thou didst command the waters to be gathered together in the seventh part of the earth; six parts thou didst dry up and keep so that some of them might be planted and cultivated and be of service before thee.
[43] For thy word went forth, and at once the work was done.
[44] For immediately fruit came forth in endless abundance and of varied appeal to the taste; and flowers of inimitable color; and odors of inexpressible fragrance. These were made on the third day.
[45] "On the fourth day thou didst command the brightness of the sun, the light of the moon, and the arrangement of the stars to come into being;
[46] and thou didst command them to serve man, who was about to be formed.
[47] "On the fifth day thou didst command the seventh part, where the water had been gathered together, to bring forth living creatures, birds, and fishes; and so it was done.
[48] The dumb and lifeless water produced living creatures, as it was commanded, that therefore the nations might declare thy wondrous works.
[49] "Then thou didst keep in existence two living creatures; the name of one thou didst call Behemoth and the name of the other Leviathan.
[50] And thou didst separate one from the other, for the seventh part where the water had been gathered together could not hold them both.
[51] And thou didst give Behemoth one of the parts which had been dried up on the third day, to live in it, where there are a thousand mountains;
[52] but to Leviathan thou didst give the seventh part, the watery part; and thou hast kept them to be eaten by whom thou wilt, and when thou wilt. (RSV)

My emphasis. The key point is the repeated assertion that the waters, that is the oceans, make up only one-seventh of the earth. Therefore, one might infer that the Atlantic ocean could not have been all that big and that it would not be a difficult project to sail across it to the Indies. Columbus, in fact, made this very argument to Ferdinand and Isabella using this text, and apparently they were convinced, since they gave him their support.*

The moral? Everyone should read the Old Testament pseudepigrapha, but don't use them to make your travel plans.

*For more details, see Alastair Hamilton, The Apocryphal Apocalypse: The Reception of the Second Book of Esdras (4 Ezra) from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (Oxford: Clarendon, 1999), 27-29.

Cross-file under "Pseudepigrapha Watch."

NYU Dura-Europos exhibition opens Friday

THE NYU DURA-EUROPOS EXHIBITION opens Friday:

Earliest Known Images of Christ on Display at NYU
Exhibition highlights religious coexistence and multiculturalism

By Laura Gilbert 9/20 7:20pm (New York Observer)

This Friday, the earliest known images of Christ, from the year 240, go on view in New York for the first time, and they aren’t where you might expect them to be. They are part of a remarkable exhibition at the relatively obscure N.Y.U. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a jewel-box of a museum on East 84th Street whose mission, according to exhibitions director Dr. Jennifer Chi, is “to break down preconceived notions of antiquity.”

“Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos” does so with a vengeance, in presenting 77 objects from an excavation in Syria that fundamentally altered the understanding of art, culture and religion in the ancient world.

[...]

Art and artifacts of stunning historical importance were uncovered. The paintings of Christ are part of a series of New Testament scenes that exhibition co-curator Dr. Peter De Staebler said are “the earliest dated Christian art in existence.” ...

These images of Christ are not to be confused with any images that might happen to be on any fake metal codices.

Personally, I wouldn't say that I wouldn't expect to see such images (the real ones, that is) at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. But PaleoJudaica has been following the career of the Institute since its founding was announced back in 2006, so it is not "obscure"—not even "relatively"—to regular readers here.

Background on the exhibition and on Dura Europos is here and links.

More on DSS exhibit in NYC

MORE ON THE UPCOMING DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK:

Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times Exhibition to Make World Premiere at Discovery Times Square in October
Exhibition Premieres Largest Collection of Holy Land Artifacts featuring 10 Dead Sea Scrolls on Display, Over 500 Biblical Era Artifacts Along With an Authentic Three-Ton Stone from Jerusalem's Western Wall

NEW YORK, Sept. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- ( www.discoverytsx.com ) -- Beginning October 28, the world premiere engagement of Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times will be held at Discovery Times Square (226 West 44th Street). This new exhibition features the most comprehensive collection of ancient artifacts from Israel ever organized, including one of the largest collections of the priceless 2000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls displayed in North America and an authentic three-ton stone from the Western Wall in Jerusalem. This exhibition is created by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) from the collections of the Israel National Treasures and produced by Discovery Times Square and The Franklin Institute.

[...]

There are lots of new details, including information on the scrolls to be displayed:

The 20-scroll exhibit (10 scrolls displayed at a time, with 4 scrolls making their world debut) will include pieces from the biblical books of Genesis, Psalms, Exodus, Isaiah, and others.

Background here.

Byzantine-era site at Beer Sheva bus terminal

A BYZANTINE-ERA SITE is being excavated at the Beer Sheva bus terminal (Arutz Sheva):

“We've found a few large rooms at floor level preservation, with a lot of fallen walls, and a few floors,” [archaeology student Tamar] Gresser said in an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva. “The interesting part are underground rooms which were dug into the natural earth, underneath the houses. The rooms are easy to detect because they are filled with very soft dirt, very different from the rock-hard natural earth. Most of these rooms will have a wall or two to strengthen the sides or the opening.”

So far, the archaeologists have found broken jars and numerous coins – so many, in fact, that in one of the rooms, “we found 52 coins in one day," Gresser said. "We think they may have been in a cloth or leather bag that decayed over the years, resulting in them being found scattered. That was exciting!”

Mandaean message on a bottle

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: Well, okay, on a bottle. James McGrath has made an interesting Mandaean (Mandean) discovery in that same British Museum database: Mandaean Artifacts in the British Museum.

A new fragment of Jeremiah in Coptic

ALIN SUCIU: A British Museum Fragment Purchased from Christie’s: New Evidence of the Book of Jeremiah in Coptic, discovered via the new searchable database of the British Museum.

However, examination of the photographs led me to the conclusion that the manuscript contains a portion from the Book of Jeremiah in Sahidic. More precisely, the Coptic text corresponds to Jer. 21:14-22:20 (LXX). The document is of particular importance as it supplies us with a passage from Jeremiah which was unknown in Sahidic.

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

More on the new Oxyrhynchus gospel fragment

NEWS ABOUT THAT NEW FRAGMENT OF AN UNKNOWN GOSPEL from the Oxyrhynchus papyri: Tony Burke relays a report by Brent Landau on a lecture by Dirk Obbink: New Unknown Gospel from Oxyrhynchus. The report has some other interesting information as well.

Background here and links.

On the Hekhalot literature

ON THE HEKHALOT LITERATURE:

Ancient Kabbalah- Entering Heavenly Palaces

Part of: Kabbalistic Offshoots and Mystical Bends

Author: michal Schwartz — Published: Sep 16, 2011 at 1:11 pm 0 comments
BC Culture Premium

“Thus it is possible that in some Jewish texts, already beginning with antiquity, magic and mysticism can be regarded as two faces of the same coin. This is obvious in the Hekhalot literature.” (Moshe Idel)

Full of fantastic descriptions, Hekhalot (heavenly palaces) and Merkavah (Chariot) are ancient Hebrew mystical texts dating from around the second to the fifth century CE.

[...]

This is a companion piece to an earlier essay on Metatron etc. Very broadly it gives the novice reader some idea of what the Hekhalot literature is about, but there are errors and I want to go through the whole thing and nuance and revise. Some of the material in the texts may indeed go back to the second to fifth century CE, or even earlier, but the bulk of what we have now was composed roughly from late antiquity through the Genonic period (call it from the fifth to the tenth century) and edited by the European Haside Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages. Palmistry and reading the lines of the forehead are known from physiognomic texts related to the Hekhalot literature, but otherwise appears in only one early Hekhalot manuscript from the Cairo Geniza. And the Hekhalot texts do not teach how to call down evil angels. The good ones are quite dangerous enough.

And so on. Rather than continuing, let me just refer you to my article "The Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism," which introduces the texts, their contents, and their purposes as I understand them. As I have mentioned before, I am currently finishing my English translation of the Hekhalot literature, so such matters are much on my mind right now.

New DSS exhibition coming to Manhattan

A NEW DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION is coming to Discovery Times Square in Manhattan on 28 October.

Review of Miles, "Carthage Must Be Destroyed"

REVIEW OF MILES, CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

A rival to ancient Rome that paid the ultimate price
September 18, 2011

By Richard Miles

Viking. 544 pp. $35.

Reviewed by John Timpane

You know a story is great when it grips you even when you know how it turns out.

I picked up Carthage Must Be Destroyed because I'd always wanted to know more about the famed ancient city, sited in what is now Tunisia. This center of power rivaled Rome for centuries. That rivalry culminated in the three Punic Wars, fought between 264 B.C. and 146 B.C., ending with the utter and horrific destruction of both Carthage and its culture.

[...]

Earlier reviews here and here and links.

Review: Fields, "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Full History"

H-JUDAIC REVIEW:

Weston Fields. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Full History. Leiden: Brill Academic Pub, 2009. 608 pp. $99.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-90-04-17581-5.

Reviewed by Jaqueline Du Toit (University of the Free State, South Africa)
Published on H-Judaic (September, 2011)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Excerpt:

In short, The Dead Sea Scrolls. A Full History is therefore, as the cover claims, an attempt at “a more complete account of the discovery of the scrolls and their history over the past 60 years since the first scrolls were discovered in a cave near the Dead Sea.” The project, of which this is only the first volume, was anticipated in 2006 by Fields’s The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Short History, also published by Brill. The current first of a projected two volumes of the “full history” (henceforth referred to as volume 1) sets out to record the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls from the moment of discovery in the late 1940s until the present day. Much necessary ink is spilt on the relationships between the primary actors in the drama of the scrolls’ discovery, purchase, reconstruction, decipherment, and the often less than successful attempts at publication of the first decade. As is to be expected, of the thirteen chapters, the predominant number (chapters 4 to 13) are devoted primarily to the discovery and management of what became known as the Cave 4 cache of fragments and the establishment of the international coterie of scholars that would become known as the “Cave Four Team”--a term Fields prefers to “International Team” or “International Committee” (pp. 191-192) for its emphasis on the nature of their work.

Job in Early Judaism at U. Tennessee, Knoxville

JOB IN EARLY JUDAISM at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Department of Religious Studies:

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Department of Religious Studies, invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor in Early Judaism to begin August 2012. PhD in a relevant field and teaching experience are preferred, but ABDs in the final stages of completing their dissertations will be considered. Preferred applicants will have a background in Religious Studies, teaching competence in Hebrew Bible, and knowledge of biblical Hebrew and other languages relevant to their research, and will complement existing UTK faculty in Religious Studies, Judaic Studies, and/or The Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Possible periods of specialization include but are not limited to: Second-Temple Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, Medieval Judaism. The Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee is seeking candidates who have the ability to contribute in meaningful ways to the diversity and intercultural goals of the university.

Posted on the Hugoye list by Prof. Tina Shepardson. Follow the link for full details.

Job in Late Hebrew Bible at U. Texas at Austin

JOB IN LATE HEBREW BIBLE at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin:

The Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin invites applications for a position of Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in the field of late Hebrew Bible. The position will begin in August 2012.

The successful applicant must have obtained his/her PhD by Sept. 1, 2010. He or she must demonstrate an established record of scholarly research and publication, as well as excellence in teaching at the college level. The scholar in this position will specialize in late Hebrew Bible (post-exilic texts) and will have expertise in one or more of the following fields: 2nd Temple archaeology and culture; the language and context of the Dead Sea Scrolls; 2nd Temple literature outside the Hebrew Bible. She or he will teach both undergraduate and graduate courses and will serve in new, demanding doctoral programs in Hebrew Bible/Ancient Near East (Dept. of Middle Eastern Studies) and Ancient Mediterranean Religions (Dept.of Religious Studies).

Scholars at the University of Texas are expected to maintain a strong record of research and publication and engage in service to the Department, the University, and the profession. The Department places a high premium on collegiality and maintaining a diverse and hospitable working environment. Preference will be given to those with methodological and theoretical interests in Religious Studies.

Applicant Instructions:

Review of applications will begin October 21, 2011, with the intention of conducting preliminary interviews at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, November 19–22, 2011.

Please submit a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, sample of research, teaching dossier, and three original letters of reference via https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/1017. No hard copy, please.

Follow the link for more details.

Following the Tenth Legion

TRAVEL PIECE:

Off the Beaten Track: Following the Tenth Legion

By JOE YUDIN (Jerusalem Post)
09/15/2011 15:48

Marks of Hadrian, Herod, Crusaders, Rabbi Akiva, Bar Kochba, Rashi, Mamlukes, Ottomans, Brits, Israelis and more are all over Jerusalem.
Talkbacks (2)

Joe Yudin owns Touring Israel, a company that specializes in “Lifestyle” tours of Israel.

There are ten measures of beauty in the world-nine in Jerusalem and one in the rest of the world. There are ten measures of suffering in the world-nine in Jerusalem and one in the rest of the world. There are ten measures of wisdom in the world-nine in Jerusalem and one in the rest of the world. There are ten measures of smooth talk in the world-nine in Jerusalem and one in the rest of the world. There are ten measures of Torah in the world-nine in Jerusalem and one in the rest of the world. -Avot de Rabbi Natan, B.

This late period midrash (around the 8th century CE) explains Jerusalem perfectly even until this day. There is no place on earth like Jerusalem, its beauty is unique and very special, and its history and holiness are almost immeasurable. There is also a dark side to Jerusalem: its politics, its sectarian friction, and its history of being destroyed and rebuilt over and over again.

Walking through Jaffa Gate in the Old City we pass the ramparts walk entrance and bathrooms immediately to the left, then the tourist offices and the “Tomb of the Architects.” Pass the first street on your left and then take your next left through an arched gateway next to a kiosk, seemingly entering a building but in actually it’s an alleyway. Check out the ceilings under the arches and continue to a small circular opening next to a café. You will be standing next to a lamppost, but take a closer look at the pillar holding up the lamp. There is Latin writing engraved on it. This pillar marks the spot of the headquarters for the Roman governor of Judea, “Marcus Iunius Maximus…Legate of the Tenth Legion of the Sea Straits.” The infamous Tenth Legion, previously led by Octavian Augustus which defeated both Sextus Pompei and Mark Anthony, also participated in the siege of Jerusalem and its destruction in the year 70 CE, first under the command of Vespasian and later his son Titus.

During the Titus led, Tenth Legion’s siege of the Temple Mount complex, the Temple itself caught fire and the Jewish priests threw the keys to Jerusalem and the Temple into the burning ambers of the Temple proclaiming “Master of the Universe! Since we have not been privileged to become Thy faithful ministers, let these keys been entrusted to Thy hands!” ...

The writer doesn't give a source for this legend, but presumably it is rabbinic. A similar story appears in a couple of Old Testament pseudepigrapha. According to 4 Baruch 4:1-5 and the Coptic Jeremiah Apocryphon 28, during the siege the prophet Jeremiah tossed either keys or the gold plate with God's name on it into the sun for safekeeping.

Lecture and exhibition on the Shofar

LECTURE AND EXHIBITION:

Ancient instruments and texts inspire!

By LOREN MINSKY/ITRAVELJERUSALEM.COM TEAM (Jerusalem Post)
09/15/2011 14:52

Don’t miss the fascinating Gone with the Wind lecture at the Bible Lands museum.

Dr. Guy Stiebel from Hebrew University will be discussing wind instruments in the land of Israel during the classical period. The talk is free with museum admission.

While you’re at the museum, check out the related exhibition on the ancient wind instrument, the shofar. The exhibition, Sound the Shofar - a Witness to History, traces the history of the shofar from animal horn to icon. On display are shofarot from around the world, each with a story to tell and together they tell the story of the Jewish people. A viewing of the exhibition will enrich and redefine your shofar-blowing experience during the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

UPATE: Todd Bolen notes More Sounds of the Shofar.

Why Jesus was a giant

REMNANT OF GIANTS: Why Jesus was a Giant: The Messianic Interpretation of Psalm 18(19) in Gosp. Peter 10.38-42. Quite an interesting argument.

Fake metal codices: recent blog posts

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Some interesting blog posts have come out in the last day or so.

Tom Verenna: Jordan Lead Codices: Another Stamp Found.

Steve Caruso: Jordan Codices: More About the Altered Metallurgical Report .

And David Meadows links to Tom's post and has a roundup of his own coverage: Those Lead Codices Just Get Faker By the Day.

Background here and links.

Metatron, Black Metal, and the Holocaust

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH—Metatron, Black Metal, and the Holocaust:

THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL Begins Work On New Album - Sep. 14, 2011

(Blabbermouth.Net)

Vocalist Metatron of the English progressive black metal band THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL will go to Krakow, Poland in November to research Auschwitz for the band's new album, to be titled "Sonderkommando". The concept behind the release is to see the Holocaust from the eyes of the Jewish Sonderkommando (these were the unfortunate workers who removed the corpses from the gas chambers, and after removing teeth/hair and valuables, cremated them). From their words the album will lament on the burning death pits, Block 11, the crematoriums, the daily arrival of the trains and their human freight destined to the jaws of murder and to be stacked like logs in a factory of death.

Metatron will record narratives and parts of the album on site in Auschwitz to capture some of the horror of a unique chapter in history.

[...]

This is pretty horrific and I'm not sure what to think about it, but I'll let Metatron speak for himself:

Commented Metatron: "Maybe some things are best forgotten, maybe unspoken. Then again, maybe they should never be forgotten, and if spoken of, maybe the world will be a better place by remembering."

I could have sworn that I've blogged on this band before, but I can't find a link now.

UPDATE (18 September): Ezra Glinter comments at The Forward's Arty Semite blog:

It’s hard to know what to make of such a project. Is it serious? Well intentioned? Exploitative? Metatron frames it in the pious language of Holocaust remembrance: “Maybe some things are best forgotten, maybe unspoken. Then again, maybe they should never be forgotten, and if spoken of, maybe the world will be a better place by remembering.”

What he doesn’t acknowledge is the possibility — or probability — that attempting to interpret the most horrific of Holocaust horrors through the lens of contemporary black metal will cheapen the raw force of the facts themselves. As Primo Levi wrote, the creation of the Sonderkommandos was among the Nazis’ most heinous acts, because by forcing their victims to carry out their own destruction, they made them complicit in their crimes. Can Metatron and The Meads of Asphodel do justice to such a thing?

He thinks not. Read it all.

A new course on Zoharic Aramaic at U. Manitoba

ARAMAIC WATCH:

Aramaic getting new life

Written by Rebeca Kuropatwa (Jewish Tribune)
Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Winnipeg – This fall, the University of Manitoba’s Judaic Studies program will be offering, not only Hebrew and Yiddish language classes, but also Arabic – and, for the first time, Aramaic.
In ancient times, Aramaic was the common language spoken by many Jews in Israel and Babylonia. The Talmud is mainly in Aramaic, as is one of the most widely known Jewish prayers, Kaddish.

Justin Jaron Lewis, assistant professor in the Judaic Studies program, moved to Winnipeg in July 2008. He will be teaching the Aramaic course, The Aramaic of The Zohar.

“The idea of teaching a beginner’s course on the Aramaic of the Zohar has been with me for years,” said Lewis, who has been studying The Zohar for about 25 years and is the author of an online Zohar course www.kolel.org/ zohar/map.html.

“Like many other people, I’m fascinated by The Zohar – not only because it’s the cornerstone of Kabbalah, a rich spiritual tradition, but also because it’s a unique work of imaginative literature.”

[...]

Due to the particularly literary dialect that The Zohar’s Aramaic is written in, it encompasses a minimal vocabulary. That is why Lewis thinks it will be possible to teach it to beginner students, noting that “studying Aramaic in this fairly simple form can be an introduction to Semitic languages for students who don’t know Hebrew or Arabic. When I mentioned it to some students here at the U of M, they were very interested and I decided to actually try it out.”


[...]

I am mind-blown at the thought of teaching Zoharic Aramaic as an introductory Aramaic course to students who don't even have Hebrew. But I hope the course is very successful and I also hope there is a follow-up report on it later on.

If you happen to be interested in trying out some Zoharic Aramaic, the critical text behind Daniel Matt's (still in-progress) translation of the Zohar can be downloaded from The Zohar: Pritzker Edition web page from Stanford University Press. Click on the Aramaic Texts link for the PDF files. More on Matt's translation of the Zohar here and links.

Greek Professors: Do They Know Greek?

DANIEL STREETT: Greek Professors: Do They Know Greek?

(Read the post at the link and, if you are so minded, take the quiz. Do this before you read my comments below, or the hints I give may inflate your score.)

The highest score of the Greek professors was two out of eleven. I'm a Hebrew professor and I got four and a bit. (I got "hello" in the bonus question.) He's right, reading widely outside the New Testament does help. Besides Jewish Hellenistic literature and some Septuagint, I've read a lot of Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonist texts. I don't think I would have gotten "nine" if it hadn't been for Plotinus. Plus, I have to give credit to the goofy textbook Let's Study Greek, which I used as a teenager and which teaches New Testament Greek in a conversational way that includes words like "yes," "hi!," and "chair." (The other word I got was "nose" and I'm annoyed with myself for not getting "red." "Red Sea," anyone?)

Via James McGrath, who doesn't say what his score was.

UPDATE: Yitz Landes has a tangentially related post at the Talmud Blog: Essential Languages for the Study of Rabbinic Literature. His list sounds right to me and it makes me wish I knew Middle Persian. For Medieval languages, I would spell out* that "Arabic" includes "Judeo-Arabic" (Arabic written in the Hebrew alphabet).

*No pun intended.

UPDATE (15 September): Daniel comments.

Ancient anchors discovered at Bat Yam beach

SLIGHTLY EARLY IN HONOR OF TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY:

Byzantine-era anchor found in Israel might shed light on ancient sailing

English.news.cn 2011-09-13 21:36:32 FeedbackPrintRSS

JERUSALEM, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The recent discovery by Israeli lifeguards of three ancient iron anchors might help archaeologists understand more about ancient sailing and lead to the discovery of an unknown anchorage site.

Lifeguards at a Bat Yam city beach, south of Tel Aviv, came across the first 300 kg, two-meter-tall anchor after spotting it submerged in shallow waters, 30 meters offshore.

Though the lifeguards initially thought it to be a modern artifact, they contacted the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) after suspecting that it might, in fact, be an archaeological find.

An IAA marine archaeologist confirmed that the find was about 1, 700-1,400 years old, belonging to the Byzantine era.

The anchor's surprisingly well preserved state was due to it's having been buried for centuries in the seabed and only being recently uncovered, an IAA statement read.

[...]

Two other anchor were found in the same area.

Anchors aweigh, aarrr!

Beth Mardutho website and Hugoye journal

THE BETH MARDUTHO SYRIAC STUDIES WEBSITE (http://www.bethmardutho.org/) has been renovated and reformatted and is looking spiffy. Also, the associated (free!) online journal, Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, has just published a new issue (14.2). TOC:

Volume 14 Number 2 (Summer 2011)

Papers

A Light from "The Dark Centuries": Isḥaq Shbadnaya's Life and Works
Thomas Carlson, Princeton University

A Note on Jacob of Sarug's Memre on Joseph
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University

'Cast out Hagar and Ismael Her Son from Me': Text and Intertext in Eutychius of Alexandria's Annals
Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, University of Cordoba

Interpreting the Ninevites' Repentance: Jewish and Christian Exegetes in Late Antique Mesopotamia
Christine Shepardson, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Book Reviews

Ignacio Carbajosa, The Character of the Syriac Version of the Psalms: A Study of Psalms 90-150 in the Peshitta
Richard A. Taylor, Dallas Theological Seminary

Daniel M. Gurtner, Introduction to Syriac: Key to Exercises & English-Syriac Vocabulary
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University

Naomi Koltun-Fromm, Hermeneutics of Holiness: Ancient Jewish and Christian Notions of Sexuality and Religious Community
Yifat Monnickendam, Johns Hopkins University

Brent Landau, Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men's Journey to Bethlehem
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University

Serge Ruzer and Aryeh Kofsky, Syriac Idiosyncracies: Theology and Hermeneutics in Early Syriac Literature
J.W. Childers, Abilene Christian University

Bas Snelders, Identity and Christian-Muslim Interaction: Medieval Art of the Syrian Orthodox from the Mosul Area
Emma Loosley, University of Manchester

Reports

An Early Aramaic (Syriac) Word Processor under DOS
Sunil Sivanand and Daniel Benjamin

Baptists, El Shaddai, and 1 Enoch

EL SHADDAI: ASCENSION OF THE METATRON is getting Baptists to take a second look at the book of 1 Enoch, which is all to the good as far as I'm concerned.

Lauren’s Lab: Biblical story makes rare appearance in video game

Posted by admin

By LAUREN SCHOENEMANN (The Houston Baptist University Collegian)

It’s good versus evil, taken to new levels.

“El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron” took inspiration from a source rarely consulted within the video game industry – the Bible.

The game is loosely based on the legend of Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah who, according to the book of Genesis, never died but was taken by God directly into heaven. It draws more heavily from the Ethiopic Bible’s Books of Enoch, according to which Enoch becomes chief of the archangels and protector of heaven’s treasures.

Whether the game assumes a ministerial role or simply serves to entertain, players may feel challenged to look beyond the anime-themed action-adventure elements to discover the original scripture that inspired the plot of “El Shaddai” instead of merely playing a game that encourages no further investigation into its origins. They could even become more enthusiastic about playing it after learning more about the story.

[...]

Background here.

Cross file under "Archangel Metatron Watch" and "Pseudepigrapha Watch."

Mel Gibson interviewed about Maccabean movie

MEL GIBSON is interviewed by Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic about Mel's Maccabean movie project: "Mel Gibson on Judah Maccabee, Christopher Hitchens, and Circumcision." Excerpt:

Let me dispense first with the famous anti-Semitic blow-up. I asked him why it happened, and he answered me directly: "I was loaded, and some stupid shit can come out of your mouth when you're loaded."

But from what dark corner of his soul did this terrible accusation -- that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world -- emanate? He said, "That day they were marching into Lebanon. It was one of those things. It was on the news."

The "they" in question is the Israel Defense Forces. I found this answer to be proof, of course, of Gibson's anti-Semitic tendencies. Most drunk people, when stopped by the police, don't launch into tirades against Jews. He was obviously preoccupied with the putative sins of Jewish people, which raised the obvious question, why would he seek to make a film about one of the great Jewish heroes of history? Money, he said, was not a motivator.

"If you're looking to make money out of this, forget it," he said, citing the costs of staging period spectaculars. "Even Braveheart didn't make much money."

His interest stemmed, he said, from the simple fact that the Book of Maccabees (I and II, he said) are "ripping good reads."

"I just read it when I was teenager, and it's amazing. It's almost like" -- here, he grabbed my digital recorder, held it to his mouth, and spoke in a portentous movie-announcer voice -- "They profaned his Temple. They killed his father. They... all kinds of stuff. In the face of great odds for something he believed in" -- here he switched out of movie-announcer voice -- "Oh, my God, the odds they faced. The armies they faced had elephants! How cinematic is this! Even Judah's dad -- what's his name? Mattathias? -- you kind of get this guy who more or less is trying to avoid the whole thing, but he just gets to a place where had enough, and he just snapped!"

In other words, Judah Maccabee, his father, and his brothers, are like the heroes of every Mel Gibson movie.

Worth reading in full, but if you are fainthearted, be warned that there is strong language as well as a discussion of epispasm that may involve too much information.

Via Cinema Blend. Background here.

More from Tom Verenna on the fake metal codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Thomas Verenna has posted an update on the current state of play at the Bible and Interpretation website: Brief Update on the Lead Codices.

Background here and links.

Blogcritics article on Metatron

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: Blogcritics has a "culture" post up on Metatron:

Kabbalah: Archangel Metatron - Divine Ruler of Evil

Part of: Kabbalistic Offshoots and Mystical Bends

Author: michal Schwartz — Published: Sep 09, 2011 at 3:42 pm 1 comment
BC Culture Premium

“Every Angel is terrifying.”
Rilke, Duino Elegies

Metatron is the highest angel in Jewish angelic lore, second to God only. This position has made him an ambivalent figure; is he God’s servant or rival?

Jewish angelology has ascribed him many titles like: Prince of the World, the lesser YHWH, Prince of the Countenance.

[...]

The article is mostly on Kabbalistic traditions, which are outside my expertise, and I can't speak for its accuracy on these. The comments on the Hekhalot and magical texts are more or less correct, although the texts are from much later than the first century and they don't confuse Metatron with God. They do give the former a very exalted place and they do tell the Talmudic story of Elisha Ben Abuyah's confusion over the matter (I have translated the version in 3 Enoch here).

Talmud Blog: new books and web synopsis

NEW BOOKS are noted by Yitz Landes at the Talmud Blog:

Shaul Shaked, J.N. Ford, and Siam Bhayro, Aramaic Bowl Spells: Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Bowls Volume One (EIsenbrauns). The post has many useful links. Unfortunately, Eisenbrauns seems to have adjusted the URLs to both of the actual books and the links are dead at the moment. The page for this book is here.

The corpus of Aramaic incantation bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia is perhaps the most important source we have for studying the everyday beliefs and practices of the Jewish, Christian, Mandaean, Manichaean, Zoroastrian and Pagan communities on the eve of the Islamic conquests. The bowls are from the Schøyen Collection, which has some 650 texts in different varieties of Aramaic: Jewish Aramaic, Mandaic and Syriac, and forms the largest collection of its kind anywhere in the world. This volume presents editions of sixty-three Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls, with accompanying introductions, translations, philological notes, photographs and indices. The themes covered include the magical divorce and the accounts of the wonder-working sages Hanina ben Dosa and Joshua bar Perahia. It is the first of a multi-volume project that aims to publish the entire Schøyen Collection of Aramaic incantation bowls.

Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (3rd ed., Eisenbrauns). Again, the post has some good links. The link to the Eisenbrauns page is here.

Since its initial publication, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible has established itself as the indispensable authoritative textbook and reference on the subject. In this thoroughly revised third edition, Emanuel Tov has incorporated the insights of the last ten years of scholarship, including new perspectives on the biblical texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls, all of which have now been published. Here are expanded discussions of the contribution of textual criticism to biblical exegesis and of the role of scribes in the transmission of the text. The introduction and references throughout the book have been thoroughly revised with the beginning student of textual criticism in mind.

Yitz Landes has also posted news of a new synopsis of Midrash Qohelet Rabbah.

September 11th

BMCR review of Cotton et al., "Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume 1: Jerusalem, Part 1"

BMCR REVIEW:

Hannah M. Cotton (ed.), Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume 1: Jerusalem, Part 1: 1 - 704. Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palestinae. A multi-lingual corpus of the inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2010. Pp. xxiv, 694. ISBN 9783110222197. $182.00.

Contributors: Additional editors: Leah Di Segni, Werner Eck, Benjamin Isaac, Alla Kushnir-Stein, Haggai Misgav, Jonathan Price, Israel Roll and Ada Yardeni.

Reviewed by Hagith Sivan (dinah01@ku.edu)

Preview

This is the first volume in a projected series of nine volumes dedicated to the classical epigraphy of Israel, a modern state with somewhat fluctuating borders that do not, however, correspond to either ancient Judaea or to Roman Palestine. The corpus's uniqueness, according to the brief introduction, resides in its multi-lingual aspect. Its chronological spectrum embraces nearly a millennium (c. 300 BCE to c. 640 CE), and the editors ought to be commended for attempting to break away from the traditional chronologies that have dominated the field of Jewish studies. Thus, instead of "Second Temple" and the "Mishnah" and "Talmud" eras (c. 450 BCE to 70 CE; c. 70 to c. 200 CE; and c. 200 to 400/600 CE, respectively), the editors have adopted the conventional classical boundaries of the "Hellenistic" period (which they do, however, terminate with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE); the "Roman Period" (from 70 to Constantine), and "Late Antiquity" (from Constantine to the Arab Conquest). The inscriptions themselves do not appear to lend support to these temporal divisions, at least not in part 1 of volume 1 which, according to page 39, solely covers "inscriptions from the Hellenistic period up to the destruction of the Second Temple." Perhaps, for the sake of clarification, this important piece of information should have been placed on the title page.

[...]

Mentioned earlier here. Another project to collect ancient Jewish inscriptions from outside Palestine was noted here some years ago.