More on the GEDSH

AT THE BETH MARDUTHO WEBSITE: List of Entries in the Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Many are relevant to ancient Judaism and other matters that come up often at PaleoJudaica.

Background here.

Metal Dead Sea Scrolls

THE METAL in the title doesn't refer to another goofy set of fake metal plates. Rather:

Angel Witch Streams New Song "Dead Sea Scrolls"

posted Feb 20 2012 at 12:01 PM by CROMCarl. (0 Comments)

U.K. NWoBHM band Angel Witch, who was activated again in 2008, is streaming the new song "Dead Sea Scrolls." The song appears on the band's first full length LP since the 1986 release "Frontal Assault" entitled "As Above, So Below", which is scheduled for release on March 12, 2012 through Rise Above Records (Europe) and on March 27, 2012 through Metal Blade Records (North America).

If you go to the link you can hear the song streamed there. It's pretty good.

Aelia Capitolina rediviva

AELIA CAPITOLINA has been receiving some well-deserved attention from archaeologists in recent years:

Archaeologists bringing Jerusalem's ancient Roman city back to life

Excavations of the Roman city Aelia Capitolina, built on the ruins of Second Temple-period Jerusalem, have unearthed a few surprises.

By Nir Hasson (Haaretz)

[...]

In the history of Jewish Jerusalem, Aelia Capitolina is the very embodiment of defeat and destruction - a reminder of the humiliation of the Second Temple's destruction, which erected a pagan temple in its place. This image has distanced Aelia Capitolina from the fathers of Israeli archaeology, who were naturally drawn to the ornate, Jewish city that preceded it. "No one concealed Aelia Capitolina, but we wanted to talk about the Second Temple," says Dr. Ofer Sion, of the Antiquities Authority. "Aelia Capitolina was an accursed city, a city from which we were banished. It was more idealistic to excavate the Second Temple."

Almost all of the archaeologists who study Aelia Capitolina call it "an elusive city." As opposed to the Jerusalem of Second Temple times that preceded it, Aelia Capitolina has not been entirely unearthed during the many excavations that have been performed in the city since 1967. The residents of Aelia Capitolina did not leave written texts like the works of Flavius Josephus during the Second Temple era or of Christian travelers in the following period.

[...]

Following the latest wave of excavations, which began in the mid-1990s, more and more archaeologists have become convinced that Aelia Capitolina was a much larger and more important city than was once thought, and its influence on the later development of modern Jerusalem was dramatic.

Aelia Capitolina has sprung to life in a significant way through no less than four extensive excavations that have taken place in the Old City area, and in a number of other digs in other parts of Jerusalem. Most of these digs have been rescue excavations by the Antiquities Authority, salvage digs carried out before new construction and development goes ahead. In a few more years, Aelia Capitolina could again be covered over by new buildings.

[...]

The latest excavations give archaeologists much greater insight into Aelia Capitolina than was possible even a decade earlier. Experts agree the city was planned extraordinarily well, based as it was on designs of other cities in the empire and according to orders that came directly from the emperor. It included broad streets, numerous and magnificent entrance gates, temples and infrastructure, and it even housed a new elite of army officers and free soldiers who turned Aelia Capitolina into a thriving city.

"When I began to study the history of the Roman city, it was a barren field," says Prof. Yoram Zafrir, one of Israel's most veteran archaeologists. "Today, it is clear that the basic structure of Jerusalem is that of Aelia Capitolina." Zafrir describes the process by which, after the Roman period, beasts of burden replaced wagons, the central government became weak and streets became "privatized." This process led to the city that we know today.

[...]

The article has many interesting details. Read it all.

UPDATE (23 February): And here's an article on Jerusalem in the time of Jesus.

UPDATE: Bad link now fixed. Sorry!

Talmud Kindle items and free book

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: Tzvee Zahavy e-mails about some Talmud and related Kindle items and, today only, a free Kindle copy of his book. The Talmud texts are mostly from the English Soncino Talmud, although a couple seem to consist of his own translations.

Many new Kindle book projects have come to fruition.

Here are some links for you to circulate and promote as you see fit

Titles From Our Kindle Talmudic Books
Kindle Talmud Temurah
Kindle Talmud Kerithoth
Kindle Talmud Meilah, Tamid, Middoth and Kinnim
Kindle Talmud Niddah
Kindle Mishnah Seder Tohoroth
Kindle Rashi: the Greatest Exegete

By Tzvee:
Kindle Kosher Talmud (Bavli Hullin)
Kindle Kosher Prayers: selected from Yerushalmi Berakhot

Free Kindle Book, one day only, Monday, February 20: God's Favorite Prayers

More on the early Mark fragment

JAMES MCGRATH: Earliest Manuscript of Mark’s Gospel Found…on Facebook?! I commend James for his very sensible skepticism. I'm not a Greek paleographer, so I'm not qualified to comment further, but I hope we hear something from the Evangelical Textual Criticism bloggers about it soon.

Background here and links.

Doctor Who, the giants, and the demons

JAMES MCGRATH has a post over at Exploring Our Matrix on the early Doctor Who multi-episode The Faceless Ones in which James compares the episode to the ancient Jewish story of the giants who were killed in the Flood, but whose spirits survived to become the demons that, er, bedevil human beings thereafter.

Here are some of the specific Second-Temple-era Jewish texts that narrate the story. In the book of 1 Enoch, the Book of the Watchers tells the story in chapters 15 and 16. And the Book of Jubilees chapter 10 gives a slightly different version in which, first, only one tenth of the giant spirits are let loose upon humanity and, second, a special book of incantations is given to Noah to protect his descendants from the demons.

Incidentally, the Talmudic-era compendium of incantations known as Sefer Ha-Razim or The Book of the Mysteries purports to be this lost book of Noah (or something similar). I am translating it for volume two of The More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project. (Details about volume one, which is in press, are here. And more on Sefer Ha-Razim here and links.)

I am not suggesting—nor, I believe, is James—that these ancient traditions influenced the Doctor Who episode. Rather, I would say this is an example of what we might call the convergence of independent nightmare traditions.

A final thought: another somewhat tangential parallel to the Doctor's faceless ones and to the giant-demons is the story of Sauron in the Tolkien mythos. After Sauron's body was destroyed in the (n.b.!) Flood of Numenor, he was able to rebuild a new hideous body, but when Isildur cut the One Ring from the finger of that body after the Battle of Dagorlad, Sauron was reduced to a powerful but malevolent spirit not unlike the giant-demons, although vastly more dangerous than they. Finally, after the One Ring was destroyed, he was further reduced to a still malevolent, but now entirely impotent disembodied spirit.

UPDATE (3 March): More here.

Review of Schipper & Moss, eds. Disability Studies and Biblical Literature

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Jeremy Schipper and Candida R. Moss, eds. Disability Studies andBiblical Literature. New York Macmillan, 2011. 248 pp. $90.00
(cloth), ISBN 978-0-230-33829-6.

Reviewed by Amos Yong (Regent University)
Published on H-Disability (February, 2012)
Commissioned by Iain C. Hutchison

Disability Studies and Biblical Interpretation: Toward Emancipation?

The establishment of the Biblical Scholarship and Disabilities program unit within the Society of Biblical Literature in 2004 (since renamed at least twice, now going under the title Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World) has begun to generate a steady stream of scholarship, both monographs and edited volumes, at the interface of these two disciplines. The goal of _Disability Studies and Biblical Literature_, edited by Candida R. Moss (University of Notre Dame) and Jeremy Schipper (Temple University), is "to familiarize the reader with research on disability and the Bible done by scholars who specialize in biblical studies" (p. 2). Besides the editors' introduction, which surveys and situates this volume within the state of the discussion at this intersection, there are twelve chapters by biblical scholars who each draw innovatively from the discipline of disability studies in order to illuminate the scriptural material. In particular, social and cultural models of disability prevalent in the field of disability studies provide alternative perspectives that, on the one hand, distinguish between bodily impairments and the social experiences of prejudice and discrimination, and on the other hand, show how disability is "a product of the ways that cultures use physical and cognitive differences to narrate, organize, and interpret their world" (p. 4). When deployed as lenses through which to revisit the biblical material, new light is shed on impairing conditions and disabling realities in the ancient world.

[...]

Why was Moses beautiful?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Or at least an interesting one. Jared Calaway: Why is Moses beautiful in Acts and Hebrews?

Aramaic dictionary on sale

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: Three-day sale on Michael Sokoloff's A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods at Bar Ilan University Press.

(Via the Agade list.)

Ancient Judaism reviews in JSJ

THE TALMUD BLOG: Reviews Galore in the Journal for the Study of Judaism.

Job in Classic and Biblical Hebrew

JOB: At Rogue Classicism, David Meadows notes a fixed-term post in Classics and Biblical Hebrew at the University of British Columbia.

Another review of Footnote

FOOTNOTE is reviewed by Harvey Karten at shockya.com. He gives it an overall mark of B+. Excerpt:

With Amit Poznansky’s soundtrack alternating between Hitchcockian music and frothy beats, the two themes seeming to change suddenly, the stage is set for suspense with a satirical dimension aimed at showing academic infighting that is as much a factor in Israel as it is in America. Will Uriel risk enraging his dad by telling him the bad news? Strange to say, this conflict over a remote scholarly endeavor provides as much tension in the audience as would a thriller with Uzis and exploding cars.

Since its recent Academy Award nomination, it has been getting some attention again.

Background here and links.

New on Torleif Elgvin's website

TORLEIF ELGVIN has made some additions to his website: torleifelgvin.no. These include the full text of his just-published article "Notes on the Gabriel Inscription" from Semitica 54 (2012). In his e-mail he adds:

There are also news of (sponsoring of) a new Nowegian-based network in Qumran studies entitled 'Biblical’ Texts Older than the Bible: New Texts, New Publications, New Approaches. We will soon announce a post-doc position in this network, which is centred at University of Agder in Kristiansand (southern Norway).

I have also updated the presentation of the texts we are working on in The Schøyen Collection.

I link to the English version of his site.

UPDATE: THE 'Biblical’ Texts Older than the Bible network has a Facebook page. (HT Liv Ingeborg Lied.)

UPDATE (18 February): And there is more information on the project here (again courtesy of Dr. Lied).

Shabbetai Zvi

MICHAL SCHWARTZ has posted a capsule history of the life of Shabbetai Zvi, with more promised on his later reception: Kabbalah: Sabbatai Zevi - Messiah ben David or Messiah ben Joseph?

I know of no persuasive evidence that the concept of the suffering Messiah ben Joseph was around as early as the first century BCE.

For more on Shabbetai Zvi (Sabbetai Sevi), go here, here, and here, and follow the many links.

Baram's ancient synagogue

A JERUSALEM POST TRAVEL PIECE by Joe Yudin:

Off The Beaten Track: Baram's ancient synagogue

By JOE YUDIN 02/16/2012 16:14

Remains of synagogues throughout the Galilee tell the history of the continuous Jewish presence in Israel.

"Peace be upon this place, and upon all the places in Israel." This Inscription was found in the 19th century on the lintel of the smaller of two synagogues, now destroyed, in Baram.

The Galilee holds some wonderful treasures for any traveler looking for some off the beaten path sites. One of my favorite pastimes is to make my way to the over fifty ruins of ancient synagogues in Israel's northern regions. These synagogues range in age from the first century BCE through the eighth century CE. Some of the synagogues are in the middle of overgrown fields and only accessible by hiking trail or off road vehicle. Others, albeit not many, have been incorporated into national parks that are easily accessible. The best way to see these synagogues is to check out one of the better preserved ones, like at Baram, Capernaum or Khorazin and then seek out the harder to find ones using a trail map.

When I first visited the Baram synagogue, I was simply shocked. Here we have a synagogue, one of at least two that existed in the village, serving a large Jewish community maybe as early as the second century CE through the Middle Ages, and whose façade has remained intact to this day. ...

Codex Climaci Rescriptus update

ETC: Codex Climaci Rescriptus Collaboration. Regular readers will recall that the Codex Climaci Rescriptus is an important Syriac/Aramaic biblical manuscript that went up for auction by Sotheby's in 2009, where it was acquired by the Green collection. It is very good news to hear that it is now being made available for study by eminent specialists.

Background here and links. We've also been hearing recently (here and links) about reported very early Greek New Testament manuscripts that may be part of the Green collection (although as far as I know this has not been officially confirmed).

Temple Mount model back from Switzerland

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH (sort of):

Tiny model of Temple Mount returns to Jerusalem

140-year-old model on display near Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate, after spending 138 in Basel, Switzerland.

By Nir Hasson (Haaretz)
Tags: Jerusalem East Jerusalem Middle East peace

In one of the rounds of talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the idea came up of dividing the Temple Mount vertically: The Palestinians would get everything aboveground and Israel everything below.

Archaeologist and Jerusalem scholar Shimon Gibson says the next time the subject comes up, the parties should discuss it in Christ Church near Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate, rather than in Oslo or Washington.

That's because since Sunday, Christ Church has been displaying a model of the contentious sacred mount. The work has returned home after nearly a century and a half in Switzerland.

The model was made 140 years ago by the architect and archaeologist Conrad Schick, whose work in Jerusalem was supported by the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. Its details reveal that its creator had access to places where no Western scholar of his day was allowed.

[...]

Interesting photo. I would like to see one with more detail.

Interview with James Kugel

THE JEWISH LEDGER: Q & A with… Prof. James Kugel. Excerpt:

Q: How did you develop an interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls and their link to Torah?
A: Actually, my first interest wasn’t in the Scrolls, but in what’s called in Hebrew “the outside books” – Jewish writings from the end of the biblical period that, for one reason or another, ended up being excluded from the biblical canon. Most Jews don’t hear much about these books: the book of Ben Sira, Maccabees, Judith, the book of Jubilees, and so forth. But early on, it struck me that if you read a bit between the lines of these books, you can learn a lot about how the Torah was being interpreted in the third or second centuries BCE. This is important for us today, because so many of those interpretations became a fundamental part of how we think about the Bible, and about Judaism, in our own day. So, I started working on these.
At that time, only part of the Dead Sea Scrolls had been published. But as more and more of the Scrolls began to appear, I gravitated to concentrating on them, because there was so much new material there.

Read it all.

More from Professor Kugel, e.g., here, here, and here.

Isaac Newton and ancient Judaism

ISAAC NEWTON had other interests besides calculus and gravity: Israeli library uploads Newton's theological texts (AP).

Some of this material sounds like it would be useful for the history-of-interpretation unit of my honours course on the Book of Daniel

UPDATE: Reader Leor Jacobi sends links to two relevant articles by José Faur in pdf format: Newton, Maimonidean and Esoteric Knowledge and the Vulgar: Parallels between Newton and Maimonides.

New book: Obbink & Rutherford, Culture in Pieces

NEW BOOK: I Rutherford, D. Obbink, Culture In Pieces: Essays on Ancient Texts in Honour of Peter Parsons. Not directly relevant to ancient Judaism, but treats some of the philological and historical issues that come up often at PaleoJudaica, such as the recovery of lost books.

Wikipedia photographs and the Israel Museum

A TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY PROBLEM:

Wikipedia's archaeology editor slams Israel Museum for prohibiting photography

The Israel Museum objects to giving Wikipedia unfettered access to the ivories, even though by law the artifacts actually belong to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

By Nir Hasson (Haaretz)

Go to the Hebrew-language Wikipedia page on the Megiddo ivories and you'll see a single image of one of hundreds of 12th-century ivory carvings excavated from Tel Megiddo. Below it, a caption reads: "Megiddo ivory, exhibited in the Israel Museum, which won't grant permission to photograph the archaeology wing."

That caption is indicative of the struggle that Hana Yariv, the archaeology editor for the Israeli version of Wikipedia, has been waging against the Israel Museum, in an effort to secure permission to photograph the ivories and post the pictures on the free encyclopedia website.

"These pictures are in the interest of all of us," said Yariv. "Don't they realize they're living in the past?"

The Israel Museum objects to giving Yariv unfettered access to the ivories, even though by law the artifacts actually belong to the Israel Antiquities Authority rather than the museum.

Uzi Dahari, deputy director of the authority, says his institution does not oppose the photography, as long as it doesn't damage the objects - and is not used for commercial purposes.

But that's precisely what the Israel Museum, which the antiquities authority says does have the right to limit access, fears will happen.

[...]

I understand that the Israel Museum has to follow its own regulations, but I hope some kind of accommodation can be made here. I can see why they not would want a professional photographer to come in, photograph all the artifacts in the museum, and then make a mint selling them in a coffee table book that competes with the museum's own publications. But electronic photography and the internet have massively lowered the commercial value of photographs (ask any professional photographer about this—it's a real problem). In this case Wikipedia would be providing a valuable, free service that would, as the article observes, only increase attendance at the museum. It would probably also help sell the museum's own publications. Maybe both the Israel Museum and Wikipedia should reexamine their policies and formulate something that works better in the conditions of 2012.

UPDATE: I have inserted the missing "not" into the second sentence of my comments and it should now make sense in context. Sorry about that.

DSS and Hubble nuttiness

ROBERT CARGILL: no, no the dead sea scrolls do not ‘confirm’ the discoveries of the hubble telescope. Indeed.

Personally, when I look up into the night sky without a telescope, I am filled with wonder at the awesome power behind the universe. But maybe that's just me.

A jewish kingdom in late-antique Arabia

THIS IS NEW TO ME:

The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Kingdom in Arabia

By Glen W. Bowersock (Institute for Advanced Study)

In these turbulent times in the Middle East, I have found myself working on the rise and fall of a late antique Jewish kingdom along the Red Sea in the Arabian peninsula. Friends and colleagues alike have reacted with amazement and disbelief when I have told them about the history I have been looking at. In the southwestern part of Arabia, known in antiquity as Himyar and corresponding today approximately with Yemen, the local population converted to Judaism at some point in the late fourth century, and by about 425 a Jewish kingdom had already taken shape. For just over a century after that, its kings ruled, with one brief interruption, over a religious state that was explicitly dedicated to the observance of Judaism and the persecu­tion of its Christ­ian population. The record sur­vived over many centuries in Arabic historical writings, as well as in Greek and Syriac accounts of martyred Christians, but incredulous scholars had long been inclined to see little more than a local monotheism overlaid with language and features borrowed from Jews who had settled in the area. It is only within recent decades that enough inscribed stones have turned up to prove definitively the veracity of these surprising accounts. We can now say that an entire nation of ethnic Arabs in southwestern Arabia had converted to Judaism and imposed it as the state religion.

This bizarre but militant kingdom in Himyar was eventually overthrown by an invasion of forces from Christian Ethiopia, across the Red Sea. They set sail from East Africa, where they were joined by reinforcements from the Christian emperor in Constantinople. In the territory of Himyar, they engaged and destroyed the armies of the Jewish king and finally brought an end to what was arguably the most improbable, yet portentous, upheaval in the history of pre-Islamic Arabia. Few scholars, apart from specialists in ancient South Arabia or early Christian Ethiopia, have been aware of these events. A vigorous team led by Christian Julien Robin in Paris has pioneered research on the Jewish kingdom in Himyar, and one of the Institute’s former Members, Andrei Korotayev, a Russian scholar who has worked in Yemen and was at the Institute in 2003–04, has also contributed to recovering this lost chapter of late antique Middle Eastern history.

[...]

How interesting. I look forward to seeing Professor Bowersock's forthcoming book.


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

A hard story to swallow

TODD BOLEN takes the IAA to task for its sensationalist coverage of the recent Ashdod discoveries: Iron Age Fortress Excavated in Ashdod.

Historical geography is not my specialty and I haven't looked into the details of the press release. But I was pretty irritated by the playing up of the idea "that life did in fact exist there at the time of Jonah the prophet." Did anybody deny that? And so what? It doesn't tell us anything very interesting about the prophet Jonah, assuming there was such a person. (I think that likely enough [2 Kings 14:25 ], without feeling the need to take the tall tale of the big fish seriously.) If they find an Iron-Age II tomb in Ashdod with an inscription about the prophet Jonah son of Amittai, then call me. Special points if it mentions a big fish.

Meanwhile, Todd is spot on in saying "Attempts to sensationalize this story by connecting it to the prophet Jonah should not be allowed to obscure the significance of a fortress recently uncovered in Ashdod."

City-of-David-excavation visitors' center approved and work begun

THAT TOURIST CENTER near the Old City of Jerusalem is going forward apace:

Israel approves new East Jerusalem visitors' compound, razes Palestinian community center

Jerusalem planning and committee approves construction of new visitors’ center at City of David National Park in Silwan.

By Nir Hasson (Haaretz)

The Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee approved on Monday the construction of a new visitors’ center at the City of David National Park in Silwan.

As part of this decision, Israel Nature and Parks Authority representatives this morning razed a complex built by Silwan residents that included a playground, community center and cafe.

The new visitors’ center is to be built above the Givati parking lot and will be called the Mercaz Kedem (Kedem Center). The building will be built on stilts and beneath it there will be an area where visitors can view recently discovered archeological findings. The Elad organization promoted the plan and it obtained the support of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who appeared before the district committee earlier today to voice his support.

The Israel Antiquities Authority’s Jerusalem District director, Dr. Yuval Baruch, also expressed support for the plan, despite the presence of archeological findings under the building. “This is one of the most important projects in Jerusalem in recent generations. It would be impossible to find a serious archeologist with a bad word to say about the conduct of the excavations,” said Baruch. “The building as it stands is approved by the Israel Antiquities Authority and was presented to the authority in dozens of meetings.

[...]

Background here. I am surprised at the rapidity of these developments. The Arutz Sheva article cited in the Background link said at the end of December that "[t]he planned center and parking lot over the excavations is years away from construction."

Interview of authors of Jewish Annotated New Testament

MARC BRETTLER AND AMY-JILL LEVINE, the authors of The Jewish Annotated New Testament, are interviewed by Jay Michaelson in The Forward: Jewish Roots of the New Testament: New Book Says Much of the Scripture is Jewish Literature. First question:

The JANT strikes me as a tour de force, and it fills much-needed gaps in our knowledge. But why is it important for Jews to read the New Testament?

First, much, if not all, of the New Testament is Jewish literature, and all of it is relevant for understanding Jewish history. The New Testament sheds important light on early Jewish life and literature, from the practice of Halacha relations with Rome to women’s social roles to the meaning of apocalyptic texts. Another rationale for Jews reading the N.T. is respect: If we Jews want Christians to respect Judaism, we owe the church the same respect, and that respect includes knowing what is in the Christian canon.

More on the book here and links.

Back to Oxyrhynchus

EXCAVATIONS AT OXYRHYNCHUS are resuming:

Spain: Catalan archaeological mission returns to Egypt

06 February, 18:36

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, FEBRUARY 6 - One year after the uprising in Egypt, the mission of archaeologists and Egyptologists of the University of Barcelona, working in collaboration with the Catalan Egyptology Society, returns to Cairo to resume its excavation work in Oxirrinco. The news is reported by mission director and Egyptology professor Josep Padro, quoted by La Vanguardia.

The goal of the Spanish mission, entering its 20th year, is to ''continue excavating the remains of a large Greek-Roman temple which, because of its position and texts found on papyrus scrolls, could be the Serapeum, dedicated to the god Serapis'', Pardo explains.


[...]

Contra the next paragraph in the article, the most famous find at Oxyrhynchus is the massive cache of papyri, of which only about one percent have been deciphered and published in the last century or so (background here and here, and here with many links). I hope the Spanish expedition stays safe. I also hope they find more papyri.

(Via the Agade list.)

UPDATE: I see that the article covered in the first background link says that 1% of the fragments have been edited and published, whereas the one at the third link says 15%. Also, Larry Hurtado quoted the first figure in a 2007 address at the BNTC. In any case, a lot of work remains to be done.

The Queen of Sheba's mines?

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA is back in archaeological news:

Archaeologists strike gold in quest to find Queen of Sheba's wealth

A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba derived her fabled treasures

Dalya Alberge
The Observer, Sunday 12 February 2012
Article history

A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled treasures.

Almost 3,000 years ago, the ruler of Sheba, which spanned modern-day Ethiopia and Yemen, arrived in Jerusalem with vast quantities of gold to give to King Solomon. Now an enormous ancient goldmine, together with the ruins of a temple and the site of a battlefield, have been discovered in her former territory.

Louise Schofield, an archaeologist and former British Museum curator, who headed the excavation on the high Gheralta plateau in northern Ethiopia, said: "One of the things I've always loved about archaeology is the way it can tie up with legends and myths. The fact that we might have the Queen of Sheba's mines is extraordinary."

An initial clue lay in a 20ft stone stele (or slab) carved with a sun and crescent moon, the "calling card of the land of Sheba", Schofield said. "I crawled beneath the stone – wary of a 9ft cobra I was warned lives here – and came face to face with an inscription in Sabaean, the language that the Queen of Sheba would have spoken."

On a mound nearby she found parts of columns and finely carved stone channels from a buried temple that appears to be dedicated to the moon god, the main deity of Sheba, an 8th century BC civilisation that lasted 1,000 years. It revealed a victory in a battle nearby, where Schofield excavated ancient bones.

Although local people still pan for gold in the river, they were unaware of the ancient mine. Its shaft is buried some 4ft down, in a hill above which vultures swoop. An ancient human skull is embedded in the entrance shaft, which bears Sabaean chiselling.

[...]

Other archaeologists have been searching for evidence of the Queen of Sheba in Yemen. For much more on archaeology and legend relevant to the Queen of Sheba, go here and follow the many links. See also this more recent link, this notice of a novel involving the Queen, and, finally, the forthcoming translation of the legendary "The Questions of the Queen of Sheba" in the first volume of texts edited for the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project (scroll down to the table of contents).

Back to the Observer article:

Sean Kingsley, archaeologist and author of God's Gold, said: "Where Sheba dug her golden riches is one of the great stories of the Old Testament. Timna in the Negev desert is falsely known as 'King Solomon's Mines', but anything shinier has eluded us.

"The idea that the ruins of Sheba's empire will once more bring life to the villages around Maikado is truly poetic and appropriate. Making the past relevant to the present is exactly what archaeologists should be doing. "

For more on Sean Kingsley and his book, which claims to have deduced where the treasures of Herod's Temple were hidden after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, go here and follow the links.

(Observer story via Joseph I. Lauer.)

Footnote director interviewed

JOSEPH CEDAR is interviewed by Daphne Merkin in The Tablet: Writing Footnote: Director Joseph Cedar on Orthodox Judaism, The Social Network, and the nightmare scenario behind his latest Academy Award-nominated film. Excerpt:

Did you have any model for the kind of film you were trying to make?

It’s a film that can’t be compared to anything. While we were preparing the shoot, we decided that the way the father character sees the world—in extreme detail, the way a philologist looks at a text—was the way we were going to look at the story. Extremely subjectively and not considering the larger context. My previous films had left me with a lot of ideas that I didn’t know how to fit into the story; that’s the way narrative films are. Because of the style of this film, its flexibility, anything that was important to the story found its way onto the screen.

Background on the film and its reception here and links.

Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage

THE GORGIAS ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF THE SYRIAC HERITAGE is now in print:

Brock, Sebastian, Aaron Butts, George Kiraz, and Lucas Van Rompay. Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage

Title: Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage
Availability: In Print
Publisher: Gorgias Press
Edited by Sebastian Brock
Edited by Aaron Butts
Edited by George Kiraz
Edited by Lucas Van Rompay
ISBN: 978-1-59333-714-8
Availability: In Print
Publication Date: 9/2011
Language: English
Format: Hardback, Black_ColorInsert, 8.25 x 10.75 in
Pages: 612


The Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (GEDSH) is the first major encyclopedia-type reference work devoted exclusively to Syriac Christianity, both as a field of scholarly inquiry and as the inheritance of Syriac Christians today. In more than 600 entries it covers the Syriac heritage from its beginnings in the first centuries of the Common Era up to the present day. Special attention is given to authors, literary works, scholars, and locations that are associated with the Classical Syriac tradition. Within this tradition, the diversity of Syriac Christianity is highlighted as well as Syriac Christianity’s broader literary and historical contexts, with major entries devoted to Greek and Arabic authors and more general themes, such as Syriac Christianity’s contacts with Judaism and Islam, and with Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Georgian Christianities. In addition to the literary tradition, inscriptions and objects of art are given due consideration. The entries are accompanied by 131 illustrations, twenty of which are in color. The volume closes with maps, lists of patriarchs of the main Syriac Churches of the Middle East, and elaborate indices.

GEDSH is a collaborative project that involves seventy-six scholars from across the globe. Three of the four editors are associated with major universities in Europe and the United States: Oxford University, Yale University, and Duke University. The fourth editor is the founding director of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. GEDSH was carried out under the auspices of Beth Mardutho.

Pricing for scholars and students: $98.00
Pricing for institutions: $160

Noted here in December when it was still in press.

More on the early Mark manuscript

DR. DANIEL B. WALLACE has posted more information on the (reportedly) first-century manuscript of the Gospel of Mark at the Dallas Theological Seminary website: Dr. Wallace: Earliest Manuscript of the New Testament Discovered?. The relevant section of the post is:

On 1 February 2012, I debated Bart Ehrman at UNC Chapel Hill on whether we have the wording of the original New Testament today. This was our third such debate, and it was before a crowd of more than 1000 people. I mentioned that seven New Testament papyri had recently been discovered—six of them probably from the second century and one of them probably from the first. These fragments will be published in about a year.

These fragments now increase our holdings as follows: we have as many as eighteen New Testament manuscripts from the second century and one from the first. Altogether, more than 43% of all New Testament verses are found in these manuscripts. But the most interesting thing is the first-century fragment.

It was dated by one of the world’s leading paleographers. He said he was ‘certain’ that it was from the first century. If this is true, it would be the oldest fragment of the New Testament known to exist. Up until now, no one has discovered any first-century manuscripts of the New Testament. The oldest manuscript of the New Testament has been P52, a small fragment from John’s Gospel, dated to the first half of the second century. It was discovered in 1934.

Not only this, but the first-century fragment is from Mark’s Gospel. Before the discovery of this fragment, the oldest manuscript that had Mark in it was P45, from the early third century (c. AD 200–250). This new fragment would predate that by 100 to 150 years.

Very interesting, although as others have already pointed out, paleographic analysis generally can't pinpoint a date more precisely than about a fifty-year range at best. That means that if we start with the generally accepted date of composition for Mark of 70 CE, we would be hard-pressed to distinguish a late first century script from one from the early second century, especially if the sample is small. Which, of course, would be impressive enough.

But I maintain an open mind about the precision of the dating until the manuscript is published and numerous Greek paleographers have been able to evaluate it. Meanwhile, I am still baffled as to why "one of the world’s leading paleographers" would be happy to have his "certain" paleographic judgment made public, but would be unwilling to attach his name to it. Come on, who is he? I double dare him to come forward.

(Via John Byron's The Biblical World blog.)

Background here and links.

UPDATE (13 February): Peter Williams has a post on this new information at ETC: First century Mark fragment and extensive papyrus And a number of textual critics weigh in with comments.

Visiting PT post in Second Temple & Rabbinic Judaism

JOB at Brown University:

From: "Jacobson, David"
List Editor: "Mendelsohn, Adam D"
Editor's Subject: JOB: part-time visiting position in the area of Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods, Brown University
Author's Subject: Employment notice--please post
Date Written: Thu, 9 Feb 2012 16:25:57 -0500
Date Posted: Fri, 09 Feb 2012 22:04:34 -0500

The Program in Judaic Studies and the Department of Religious Studies at Brown University in Providence, RI seek to fill a part-time visiting position during the academic year 2012-2013 in the area of Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods. The successful applicant will teach one course each semester and will serve both undergraduate and graduate students. S/he will also be invited to participate fully in the intellectual communities of both units. Questions for further information and CVs of applicants should be sent to < Tracy_Miller@Brown.edu >.

(From the H-Judaic list.)

Rabbi Boteach's book and the Historical Jesus

BOOK REVIEW in The Forward:

It's 'Kosher' To Accept Real Jesus?
Boteach Book Seeks To Strip Away Distortions of Christ

By Adam Gregerman
Published February 09, 2012, issue of February 17, 2012.

Kosher Jesus
By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
Gefen Publishing House, 263 pages, $26

Despite Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s best efforts in “Kosher Jesus,” some Jewish teachers and their messages are not worth reclaiming. Whether because of their fanciful interpretations of the Bible or their odd religious agendas, they are best ignored. I have in mind not Jesus but Hyam Maccoby, the late, idiosyncratic religion scholar. Boteach says that his writings were, “more than any other works of scholarship,” his most trustworthy guide to early Christianity and essential to his efforts to construct a portrait of Jesus the Jew.

Maccoby, in works from the 1980s and ’90s, claimed that Paul — a conniving gentile pretending to be a Jew — distorted Jesus’ starkly political message. Boteach seems not to know that this strange, conspiratorial reading has been almost universally rejected by scholars since it appeared. Indeed, Boteach, relying on Maccoby’s speculations, goes further. He presents this questionable historical reconstruction to buttress a religious argument that modern Jews and Christians should embrace Jesus as a model of devotion to both God and the people of Israel.

A “kosher” Jesus, Boteach argues, is the “authentic” Jesus: a Torah-observant Jew and an active opponent of Rome. Sadly, he notes, New Testament authors falsely presented him as an antagonist of his own people and of the Torah. Also falsely, they saw him as divine. Once these distortions are removed, Jews need not shun him, and he even can serve as a bridge between Jews and Christians.

Boteach’s work depends on retrieving the historical Jesus from the character portrayed in Christian tradition. One commonplace is that such reconstructions usually end up resembling the people doing the reconstruction. Liberal Christians find a liberal Jesus; conservative Christians find a conservative Jesus. While Jews historically ignored or lampooned Jesus, modern Jewish scholars sympathetic to him (such as Abraham Geiger and Martin Buber) also fit this model, praising or criticizing qualities with which they agreed or disagreed. Boteach sees a Jesus in his own image, but his reconstruction is nevertheless distinctive.

[...]

I've not seen the book, but if the review is accurate, it has a lot of problems.

The last paragraph quoted above highlights a central weakness of Historical Jesus studies, as I have noted before. And, of course, the sources themselves seem to present rather different pictures of Jesus, which does not help matters. Back in 1988 John Dominic Crossan wrote a very perceptive article* that took up this problem and asked "What did Jesus say and do that led, if not necessarily at least immediately, to such diverse understandings?" Some such attempt to jump out of the system and produce a meta-reconstruction of the Historical Jesus with this as guiding principle has always seemed to me to be a promising way forward, but I haven't kept up with Historical Jesus studies enough to know if anyone has run with it. What I have seen over the last couple of decades shows no sign of such an approach.

*"Divine Immediacy and Human Immediacy: Towards a New First Principle in Historical Jesus Research," The Historical Jesus and the Rejected Gospels, Semeia 44: 121-140, quotation from p. 125.

UPDATE: Bad link now fixed. Sorry about that.

More commentary on early Mark manuscript

MORE BLOG COMMENTARY on that supposed first-century manuscript of Mark:

Larry Hurtado: Newly-Identified Early New Testament Fragments? Larry notes that the fragment seems to be part of the Green Collection (and therefore connected to that supposed second-century manuscript of Romans).

John Byron: Earliest Copy of Mark Found? John is cautiously optimistic.

Follow the links in both posts for more Biblioblogospheric reactions. PaleoJudaica background is here.

Adin Steinsaltz receives Israel Presidential Prize

CONGRATULATIONS TO RABBI ADIN STEINSALTZ:

Israel: Rav Steinsaltz Tapped for Presidential Prize

(Thursday, February 9th, 2012) (The Yeshiva World)

HaRav Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz has been selected as the first recipient of the Presidential Prize the selection committee announced today, Thursday, 16 Shevat 5772. The committee is made up of President Shimon Peres, former president Yitzchak Navon and former president of the High Court of Justice Meir Shamgar.

Rav Steinsaltz was a recipient of the Israel Prize in 1988 for his outstanding contribution to the field of education. The rav was hailed by Time Magazine as a “once-in-a-millennium scholar”.

[...]

Arutz Sheva also notes the story and lists the five other recipients of this year's Prize: State of Israel Honors Kissinger, Steinsaltz, Mehta.

Background on the Steinsaltz Talmud translation (into Modern Hebrew) is here with many links.

SBL Call for Papers?

APPARENTLY the Society of Biblical Literature opened its call for papers yesterday for the 2012 annual meeting in Chicago. I have been expecting to receive e-mail notification when it happened, but nothing has arrived. But in any case, you can find information on the SBL website here.

A computer algorithm for Greek paleography

AN ARMY OF (STUDENT) PALEOGRAPHERS is teaching a computer algorithm how to transcribe the Oxyrhynchus papyri:

Excavators find treasure in Egyptian trash heap
University experts are trying to match Greek letters to symbols found on ancient fragments of papyri.

By Jill Jensen (mndaily.com)
2012 / 02 / 09

University of Minnesota students can be a part of discovering history by helping researchers decipher Greek characters on 2,000-year-old fragments of ancient papyri discovered in Egypt.

Their participation could also help develop an algorithm to faster assess data in different disciplines — the sole responsibility of the University in the project.

The team is collaborating with the University of Oxford in the Ancient Lives project to translate papyri preserved in Egypt since about the third century B.C.

The damaged fragments are available online for the public to identify and match Greek letters in order to translate works. About 120,000 people participate internationally.

“You don’t need to know Greek,” said Marco Perale, papyrology and Greek language expert.

Only 30 percent of ancient Egyptian works have surfaced, Perale said. Other literature is alluded to in books or poems but wasn’t copied down by scribes and monks.

Lost works, like a book of poetry by Greek poet Sappho, have been deciphered since the excavation of the papyri from a trash heap in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.

The project has the potential to unveil those treasures as well as develop an algorithm to speed up computers when deciphering data in any discipline.

[...]

Background on the Ancient Lives Project is here.

Cross-file under "Technology Watch" and "The Singularity is Near."

More on new DSS in NYC exhibit

MORE ON THE NEW SCROLLS at the Discovery Times Square exhibition:

Dead Sea Scrolls get new life

Written By John R. Quain

Published February 08, 2012 (FoxNews.com)

The most extensive public display of 2,000-year-old Biblical documents just got a refresh.

At the Discovery Times Square exhibit “The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times," a new set of 10 documents have been installed to replace the previous set on display. The new collection includes a section from the book of Isaiah and two scrolls never before seen by the public, “Greek Minor Prophets” and “Job Targum.”

[...]

Among the newly installed scrolls is a section from the book of Isaiah, which will resonate with many Christians. Also included in the copy of Psalms are passages that will be instantly recognized by Jewish visitors as these words from thousands of years ago are still part of services today.

[...]

Background here and links.

Talmud Blog Book Club latest

THE TALMUD BLOG: Definite Article – The Book Club II. Responses to Zvi Septimus’ article “Trigger Words and Simultexts: The Experience of Reading the Bavli."

Background here.

New book: Henze (ed.), A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism

NEW BOOK:

A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism, ed. Matthias Henze (Eerdmans 2012)

A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism presents eighteen commissioned articles on biblical exegesis in early Judaism, covering the period after the Hebrew Bible was written and before the beginning of rabbinic Judaism. The essays, all written by experts in the field, are arranged in seven categories: Hebrew Bible, Rewritten Bible, Qumran Literature, Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, Wisdom Literature, Hellenistic Judaism, and Biblical Interpretation in Antiquity. Together these essays provide a systematic and comprehensive introduction to the diverse modes of scriptural interpretation practiced by a variegated and dynamic spectrum of Jewish groups in the Hellenistic and early Roman eras.

(HT James Tucker on FB.)

SBL call for papers: Christian Apocrypha

TONY BURKE: Christian Apocrypha at 2012 SBL. Once again, the Society of Biblical Literature has put off the opening of their 2012 call for papers until tomorrow. Meanwhile, in many places in the blogosphere and on discussion lists, SBL groups are making the announcements independently.

Hurtado on The Annotated Jewish New Testament

LARRY HURTADO has posted a reviewlet of The Jewish Annotated New Testament, eds. Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford University Press, 2011). He reports that he will have more to say in a panel discussion later this year.

I noted the book a couple of months ago here.

Review of Koosed, Gleaning Ruth

BOOK REVIEW:

Jennifer L. Koosed. Gleaning Ruth: A Biblical Heroine and Her Afterlives. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2011. xiv + 173 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-57003-983-6.

Reviewed by Talia Sutskover (Tel Aviv University)
Published on H-Judaic (February, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

The Book of Ruth: New Insights

Gleaning Ruth, by Jennifer L. Koosed, examines the characters of the book of Ruth and their relationships, and offers a pleasurable reading and learning experience. In part, it is pleasurable to read because in some of the chapters the author draws on her personal experience where it is relevant to her subject. For instance, in the second chapter, titled “Agricultural Interlude No. 1,” the author gives the reader a glimpse into her childhood summers in the branches of a cherry tree in Ohio. This writing technique does indeed have an effect on the reader, because through contemporary personal experience, we are gently taken into the ancient world of gleaning, the making of bread, and altogether, of surviving. The reader acquires a better understanding of the world of Ruth, and is better prepared for the fresh perspective presented in the book.

Koosed’s Gleaning Ruth is a also pleasurable learning experience, because aside from the author’s new findings, the discussion of each of the topics contains a thorough scholarship survey. Careful attention is given not only to the author’s own conclusions but to those of other interpreters, as well. I find that Koosed often offers a new and even brave perspective on various topics. For instance, when commenting on Agnès Varda's documentary The Gleaners and I (2001), she writes, “Even though Varda does not mention Ruth in her documentary, the biblical heroine might easily be considered a shadow presence, following behind and beside the contemporary gleaners Varda documents” (p. 6). Linking a modern documentary with the book of Ruth, even though there is no explicit reference in the documentary, and constructing an interpretation based on this link is, in my view, a courageous and creative act of interpretation.

[...]

Follow the first link for the full review. Sounds lightweight but still interesting.

Templeton Foundation grant and conference

THE TEMPLETON FOUNDATION is offering support for projects on the philosophical theology of early Jewish texts. Announcement on the H-JUDAIC list:

From: "Mendelsohn, Adam D"
List Editor: "Mendelsohn, Adam D"
Editor's Subject: CFP: "Philosophical Investigation of the Hebrew Scriptures, Talmud, and Midrash," Jerusalem, July 2012
Author's Subject: CFP: "Philosophical Investigation of the Hebrew Scriptures, Talmud, and Midrash," Jerusalem, July 2012
Date Written: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 11:01:00 -0500
Date Posted: Wed, 07 Feb 2012 11:01:00 -0500

In Fall 2010, the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, launched an initiative aimed at developing a Jewish “philosophical theology” that will seek to advance the study of the ideas of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Talmud and Midrash in the academic setting. This initiative is part of a broader “Analytic Theology” project of the Templeton Foundation, which will also support Christian centers for philosophical theology at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Innsbruck, Austria. The Jewish component of the project envisions the development of a uniquely Jewish discipline that will use philosophical tools and methods for examining classical Jewish sources. The project is open to Jewish and non-Jewish scholars interested in the philosophical elucidation of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Talmud and Midrash.

In the context of this project, the department of Philosophy, Political Theory and Religion (PPR) at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem invites submissions for an interdisciplinary conference on “Philosophical Investigation of the Hebrew Scriptures, Talmud and Midrash,” to be held in Jerusalem on July 22-26, 2012.

[...]

For more information, follow the link above.

Workshop on Ancient Religion, Modern Technology

WORKSHOP at Brown University on 13-14 February: Ancient Religion, Modern Technology.

This workshop will explore the intersection of ancient religion and the digital humanities. Can digital tools not only allow us to do our work faster and more thoroughly but also enable entirely new kinds of research? How might different digital data (e.g., textual, geographic, and material culture) be used together most productively? One session is devoted to “nuts and bolts” issues of funding, starting, and maintaining a digital project.

There will be a "pre-workshop" session on Monday, February 13, 10 AM - 12 PM. This session will introduce some general tools and concepts of use to digital humanists.

The workshop is free and open to the public. All sessions will take place in the Petteruti Lounge, located in the Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center at Brown University.

Follow the link for the tentative program, etc.

(HT James McGrath, who flags a paper on Digital Analysis of Mandaic Manuscripts.)

New DSS in NYC

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION at Discovery Times Square is being refreshed: NYC's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit has 10 new scrolls (AP). Lots of interesting variety in the new collection.

Background here and links.

Tu B'Shevat

TU B'SHEVAT, the New Year for Trees, begins tonight at sundown.

BNTC 2012 call for papers

THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT SOCIETY has issued a call for papers for its 2012 meeting on 6-8 September at Kings College London. As ever, Darrell Hannah and I are chairing the NT & Second Temple Judaism Seminar.

UPDATE: I haven't forgotten my promise last week to link to the Society of Biblical Literature call for papers, but they keep putting it off. It's currently scheduled for tomorrow. We'll see.

More on the Torah scroll fraudster

DOROTHY LOBEL KING has been on this story too, and she too saw problems when it was coming out some years ago: Rabbi admits Torah tales were a fraud.

Background here.

A first-century copy of the Gospel of Mark?

DANIEL B. WALLACE, of Dallas Theological Seminary, has announced (in a debate with Bart Ehrman, reported on Professor Wallace's blog, Parchment & Pen) that numerous very early manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark New Testament, including one (of the Gospel of Mark) from the first century, are soon to be published: Ehrman vs Wallace: Round Three. The relevant passage of the post:

He [Professor Ehrman] answered the second question by saying that we really don’t have any early manuscripts. But this again is a huge overstatement. We have as many as eighteen second-century manuscripts (six of which were recently discovered and not yet catalogued) and a first-century manuscript of Mark’s Gospel! Altogether, more than 43% of the 8000 or so verses in the NT are found in these papyri. Bart had explicitly said that our earliest copy of Mark was from c. 200 CE, but this is now incorrect. It’s from the firstcentury. I mentioned these new manuscript finds and told the audience that a book will be published by E. J. Brill in about a year that gives all the data. (In the Q & A, Bart questioned the validity of the first-century Mark fragment. I noted that a world-class paleographer, a man who had no religious affiliation and thus was not biased toward an early date, was my source. Bart said that even so, we don’t have thousands of manuscripts from the first century! That kind of skepticism is incomprehensible to me.)

Well, I look forward to the book, but in the meantime I am cordially skeptical of the claim about the supposed first-century date of one manuscript—and I'm sure Professor Wallace will understand that kind of skepticism. As pointed out by a commenter at Exploring Our Matrix (noted below), claims have been made in the past that first-century fragments of New Testament texts, including Mark, were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, but specialists have not found the case convincing.

At this point all we have is an extraordinary assertion, presented with no evidence and on the authority of a "world-class specialist" who, very oddly, is not named. (Wouldn't he want his name to be associated with any announcement of such an important find?) As always with such things, I remain skeptical until I see compelling evidence, but I would be delighted to be convinced.

Note the recent similar report that a first mid-second-century copy of Romans has been found in a private collection. As far as I can find out, no further substantiation has been offered for this one.

If you know any more about either of these manuscripts and are willing to share (either confidentially or for blog publication), please do drop me a note.

(HT James McGrath at Exploring Our Matrix.)

UPDATE: Reader Roberto Labanti has e-mailed to correct a couple of errors (peripheral to my argument) which I have now corrected. Sorry about that.

UPDATE (7 February): I sense that my skepticism is shared by some textual critics.

UPDATE: I see that Mark Goodacre is skeptical as well. Plus, he brings Doctor Who into the discussion.

Phoenician bling

Another in PaleoJudaica's series on ancient bling:

A golden exhibit for Spain

February 4, 2012 • Lead, Sevilla • 4 Comments (The Olive Press)

IT has been kept locked away for years, with the public only having seen it five times since it was first discovered.

But now an ancient hoard of gold jewellery has gone on permanent display at the Archaeological Museum in Sevilla.

The so-called Carambolo Treasure is made up of 21 elaborately worked 24-carat gold pieces that together weigh almost three kilos.

[...]

Nice bracelet.

More bling here and links. Also, just possibly, here (with more links here).

Another review of the NYC DSS exhibit

A SUPERCILIOUS REVIEW by Jenna Weissman Joselit in The Forward, which emphasizes the elements of tourist tackiness in the exhibition: Thou Shalt Suspend Disbelief: Dead Sea Scrolls Come to Times Square Tourist Land. Excerpt:

Columnist, historian, curator and occasional ethnographer, I came to West 44th wearing a number of hats, all of which put me at some remove from the proceedings at hand. But what about everyone else? Why were they there, and what did they take with them as they emerged from the gloom into the bright light of Broadway? I suspect that what drew most visitors to the display and sustained their spirits as they waited patiently on line was the opportunity to be in the presence of texts that had, arguably, been in the presence of Jesus or his followers.

Much like a reliquary, “Dead Sea Scrolls” dissolved the temporal boundaries between past and present, enabling those in attendance to connect the early history of Christianity and its context with their own contemporary display of faith. For them, visiting the exhibition was an exercise in affirmation.

The queue to see the Ten Commandments scroll does sound like it was unpleasant.

More reviews here and links.

Torah scroll fraudster

THIS IS SAD. And strange. And annoying.

'Jewish Indiana Jones' faces jail for $1m fraud after lying about daring trips to save ancient Torah scrolls

• Claimed he was 'beaten up, thrown in jail, and [went] $175,000 into debt' to rescue relics
  
• Said he found priceless scroll at Auschwitz using metal detector

By Rebecca Seales (Daily Mail)

Last updated at 2:14 PM on 3rd February 2012


A Jewish charity founder who claimed he travelled the world as a 'Jewish Indiana Jones' to rescue holy scrolls has admitted he was a $1 million fraudster.

Menachem Youlus told the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, New York he lied about making risky trips to obtain vintage Torah scrolls in Europe and Israel for six years.

The texts are sacred to the Jewish faith, and followers believe they contain the rules that God intended mankind to live by.

Among the fantastical tales Youlus invented were detailed accounts of recovering Torah lost or hidden during the Holocaust, including at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

Youlus, 50, who owns the Jewish Bookstore in Wheaton, Maryland, allegedly boasted that he had been 'beaten up, thrown in jail, and gone $175,000 into debt, to bring these holy scrolls out of less-than-friendly places, back to safety and a new life.'

The court heard he had fabricated various exploits between 2004 and 2010 in order to obtain funds from his Save a Torah charity and some of its contributors.

'I know what I did was wrong, and I deeply regret my conduct,' Youlus said yesterday.
[...]

One of Mr. Youlus's supposed exploits, this one in Iraq, was noted in PaleoJudaica here and here. At the time I commented on what seemed like a difficulty in the story. I never received any clarification about that matter and in light of recent events, it may have been a significant point. Apparently he did have a Torah scroll, but one may wonder whether it really came from Iraq. The specific episode is not mentioned in the Daily Mail article.

UPDATE (7 February): More here.

Golden Jubilee for Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in English

CONGRATULATIONS TO GEZA VERMES:

Emeritus Fellow Geza Vermes celebrates Dead Sea Scrolls golden jubilee

2 February 2012

Wolfson College was honoured to welcome Emeritus Fellow Geza Vermes and Penguin Books on 23rd January for the 50th Anniversary of the publication of his The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, which has sold an estimated half-a-million copies worldwide.

[...]

The article also reports that the latest version of this translation is set to go online with the Google/Shrine of the Book online publication of the Scrolls (on which see, e.g., here).

Biblioblog Carnival for February

THE BIBLIOBLOG CARNIVAL FEBRUARY 2012 has been posted by Amanda MacInnis at the Cheese-Wearing Theology blog.

CSSS Symposium XII November 10, 2012, plus Syriac SBL

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Canadian Society for Syriac Studies (CSSS) will hold its annual Symposium XII entitled Studies on Syriac Manuscripts: Texts, Illuminations, and Collections, on Saturday November 10, 2012, 9 am to 5 pm. The CSSS welcomes a limited number of speakers to present papers related to this theme. There will be no registration fee; however, participants are expected to cater for their own travel and accommodation. Those interested are requested to email us the topic title, an abstract, and a short biography.

Best wishes.



Board of Directors

---

Canadian Society for Syriac Studiers

Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations

University of Toronto

4 Bancroft Avenue

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1C1

Tel. 416-978-3184

FAX 416-978-3305

Posted on the Hugoye list.

And on a related note, Cornelia Horn flags another Syriac event: Call for Papers SBL Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred. The call for papers for the November 2012 SBL meetings opens tomorrow. If you're in the SBL, I assume you will automatically get a message about it, but I'll post a link here anyway.

New book: Greengus, "Laws in the Bible and in Early Rabbinic Collections"

NEW BOOK from Wipf and Stock:

Laws in the Bible and in Early Rabbinic Collections
The Legal Legacy of the Ancient Near East
By Samuel Greengus

-
Book Description

The remarkable discovery of ancient Near Eastern law collections or "codes," beginning with the Laws of Hammurabi and followed by many other collections in decades following, opened a new window upon biblical law. This volume seeks to examine within a single study all of the biblical laws that are similar in content with ancient Near Eastern laws from Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Hatti. The book also examines a small but important group of early rabbinic laws from postbiblical times that exhibit significant similarities with laws found in the ancient Near Eastern collections or "codes." This later group of laws, although absent from the Bible, are nevertheless of comparable antiquity. The presentation focuses on the actual law statements preserved in these ancient law "codes." The discussion then adds narratives, records, and reports of legal actions from ancient sources outside the laws-all of which relate to the formal law statements. The discourse is non-polemical in tone and does not seek to revisit all theories and interpretations. The format allows readers, including those who are new to the subject of biblical law, to engage the primary sources on their own.

(Via the Agade list.)

Bad news for Classicists

CONSTANTINA KATSARI: Redundancies at the Foundation of the Hellenic World.

Possibly cross-file under "Higher Education Bubble," although this sounds more like a side effect of the Greek economic disaster in general.

Etrogs in an ancient garden at Ramat Rachel

POLLEN from a Persian-Period garden has yielded up some surprises:

Jerusalem dig uncovers earliest evidence of local cultivation of etrogs

Pollen reveals ancient palace grew the citrus in its garden.

By Zafrir Rinat (Haaretz)

Tags: Jerusalem Israel archeology Tel Aviv University

The earliest evidence of local cultivation of three of the Sukkot holiday's traditional "four species" has been found at the most ancient royal royal garden ever discovered in Israel.

The garden, at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem, gave up its secrets through remnants of pollen found in the plaster of its walls.

[...]

Then, Lipschits said, he and his colleagues had a "wild thought": If plasterers had worked on the garden walls in springtime, when flowers were blooming, breezes would have carried the pollen to the walls, where it would have become embedded in the plaster.

Enlisting the aid of Tel Aviv University archaeobotanist Dr. Daphne Langot, they carefully peeled away layers of the plaster, revealing pollen from a number of plant species.

Most of the plants were wild, but in one layer of plaster, apparently from the Persian period (the era of the Jewish return from the Babylonian exile in 538 B.C.E. ) they found pollen from ornamental species and fruit trees, some of which came from distant lands.

The find that most excited the scholars was pollen from etrogs, or citrons, a fruit that originated in India. This is the earliest botanical evidence of citrons in the country.

[...]

Coptic incantation texts online

ALIN SUCIU has found yet another venerable Coptic resource online: A. Kropp, Ausgewählte koptische Zaubertexte.

The Coptic magical texts draw on a great many Jewish traditions. You can find lots of them in English translation in Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith (eds.) Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power.

Google and the Dead Sea Scrolls

LINA BROYDO visits the Dead Sea Scrolls online with Google and on site in Israel: Google Offers Stroll Through Dead Sea Scrolls (The Epoch Times). The Discovery Times Square exhibition is also mentioned in passing, but not reviewed.

Speaking of replicas of archaeology sites ...

CAN'T MAKE IT UP:

Blooming Prairie couple design, build cave for Vatican.

Posted: Jan 31, 2012, 10:10 am
By John Weiss
The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — Once the 800-square-foot cave replica was shipped to the Vatican, Chris and Linda Beech were able to take a deep breath and get back to their usual jobs of writing computer games.

But there was no peace during the month the Blooming Prairie couple worked up to 16 hours a day in a local garage to fashion a replica of a cave where the famed Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

[...]

Okay, maybe I could have made this one up, but it's still pretty odd.

Ancient language composition

ADAM MCCOLLUM has a post on Translating into and composing in ancient languages at the hmmlorientalia blog.

Coptic apocrypha

ALIN SUCIU: P. Lacau, Fragments d’apocryphes coptes. Downloadable as a pdf file. They include apocryphal gospels (?), the Acts of Pilate, and an Apocalypse of Bartholomew.

Herod's Tomb again

TODD BOLEN is skeptical of the Haaretz report on the proposed reconstruction of Herod's Tomb: Reconstruction of Herod’s Tomb Criticized. Excerpt:

Whether or not a monument that helps the public to visualize the tomb (and thus increases visits to the site) is a good thing or not can be debated. Haaretz misleads, however, in suggesting that there is a widespread movement among archaeologists against a plastic model. A more accurate headline would be: “Two archaeologists condemn Israeli plan to rebuild ancient tomb.”

Background here.

New Book: Dimant (ed.), "The Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarly Perspective"

NEW BOOK from Brill:

The Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarly Perspective: A History of Research

Edited by Devorah Dimant

The volume consists of 27 surveys of research into the Dead Sea Scrolls in the past 60 years, written by 26 authors. An innovation of the volume is that it covers Qumran scholarship in separate countries: the USA, Canada, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Italy and the Eastern bloc. Each essay also carries a detailed bibliography for the respective country. Biographies of all the major scholars active in the field are briefly given as well. This book thereby exhaustively surveys past and present Qumran research, outlining its particular development in various circumstances and national contexts. For the first time, perspectives and information not recorded in any other publication are highlighted.

Afghan manuscripts update

THE AFGHAN JEWISH MANUSCRIPTS are mentioned briefly in a Reuters article on another Afghan antiquity: Germany returns two millennia old Afghan sculpture. The relevant passage:

Ancient Jewish scrolls, which [Omara Khan] Massoudi [the director of Afghanistan's National Museum] confirmed were recently smuggled out, are currently being kept by private dealers in London.

This is the first confirmation I have seen from an Afghan official that the manuscripts come from Afghanistan. Assuming, of course, that he was understood and cited correctly.

Background here.

Cuts in Hebrew at Temple U

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE:

Hebrew major cut deserves a fair compromise

January 30, 2012 by Donald Hopkins
Filed under Commentary, Opinion, (The Temple News)

PMHopkins argues that while the decision to cut Hebrew as a major is logical, the non-tenured track position is still necessary.

This year, many of the interdisciplinary programs have fallen to the wayside, in the wake of budget cuts and student apathy toward certain academic subjects. Recently, Temple administration announced its intentions to eliminate the Hebrew major effective Fall 2012 and consolidate it within the Jewish studies major. Furthermore, the administration plans to eliminate the only non-tenured track position for Hebrew – occupied by Dr. Ayala Guy. Temple has justified this consolidation as part of a larger trend to save money as well as a response to lack of student interest.

Two questions have to be addressed, when considering whether this elimination and consolidation of the Hebrew major is a good idea for the university and its’ student body. First, is there a benefit to Hebrew existing outside the Jewish studies program as a separate major? Second, is the plan to eliminate the only stable teaching position for the Hebrew language, conducive to the study of language?

[...]

The authorities at Temple do seem to be trying to think this through and not just make random cuts to meet a budget. As long as these cuts have been preceded by, say, the cutting of two administrative posts, I would say they are reasonable.

Ostromir Gospels added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program

CHURCH SLAVONIC WATCH:

Old Russian book part of Memory of the World

Tags: Russia, World, UNESCO World Heritage , Commentary, Culture, Gospel
Olga Bugrova

Jan 30, 2012 17:11 Moscow Time

The Ostromir Gospels, the second oldest dated East Slavic book, has been included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, an international initiative launched to preserve the documentary heritage of humanity. The Voice of Russia’s Olga Bugrova reports.

The Ostromir Gospels was written in Church Slavonic in 1057 for St.Sofia’s Cathedral in Veliky Novgorod. The book was created by deacon Gregory for his patron, Posadnik Ostromir, possibly as a gift for the monastery. Though classified as the first Russian book, in fact, it isn’t. The Novgorod Psalm Book discovered in 2000 was written several decades earlier. It consists of four wooden plates covered in wax with the text scribbled over it with a sharpened stick. Researchers have yet to establish the exact date of the Novgorod Psalm Book.

The Ostromir Gospels has survived in good condition, which makes the manuscript still more valuable. All 294 sheets covered with large Church Slavonic characters used for solemn occasions have been preserved in full. The book is richly studded with miniatures and gems. At present, the monument is kept at the Russian National Library in St.Petersburg. Alexei Alekseev, who heads the Library’s manuscript department, comments:

"The original is stored in a special case. Each sheet is stored separately with special paper inserted between the sheets. We take it out when it needs airing. In the near future, we plan to post a digital copy of the manuscript on our website so that it could be accessible to all people interested in Russian history."

[...]

Book review: Hidary, "Dispute for the Sake of Heaven"

BOOK REVIEW:

Richard Hidary. Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud. Providence Brown Judaic Studies, 2010. xii + 441 pp.
$65.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-930675-77-3.

Reviewed by David Levine (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem)
Published on H-Judaic (January, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Excerpt:

This is a knowledgeable and broad-minded study, and Hidary brings a variety of skills to his research. Philological technique is coupled with literary sensitivity throughout the book, and textual analyses and their resultant conclusions are placed within theoretical
considerations of legal pluralism. Historical contextualization plays a prominent role in the conclusion when explanations are considered for the differing approaches of the Talmudim. In the spirit of Hillel's _u'dela mosif yesuf_ (Avot 1:13: "One who does not add, will meet his end"), I will offer a few thoughts and responses to some of
the points made.

A list of biblical verses cited in the Talmud

MICHAEL SATLOW and his team have compiled a list of all the biblical verses cited in the Babylonian Talmud. Like the new index of the Talmud, this a resource that will undoubtedly be very useful. For details see his recent post at the Talmud Blog: One pesuk, two pesuk, three pesukim more…- Guest Post by Michael Satlow.

Review of Roberge, "The Paraphrase of Shem"

RBL REVIEW:

The Paraphrase of Shem (NH VII,1): Introduction, Translation and Commentary
Roberge, Michel

Leiden: Brill, 2010 pp. xii + 192. $122.00

Series Information
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, 72

Description: This book presents the first comprehensive interpretation of the Paraphrase of Shem, Codex VII,1 in the Coptic Nag Hammadi Library. The lenghty introduction discusses the literary genre of the treatise, its plan and system, its situation among the Gnostic systems, its provenance and date. The translation sets out the text in paragraphs, with headings and subheadings. A short commentary follows the translation. The analysis of the system shows that the author is working from a model of the universe, whose principles have been drawn from Stoicism and Middle Platonism. While dipping into the springs of the major Sethian and Valentinian systems, the author follows his own way and offers an original system, anticipating in many respects Manichaeism.

Subjects: Nag Hammadi and Gnostic, Literature

Review by James F. McGrath

A Herod's Tomb theme park?

CONTROVERSY OVER HEROD'S TOMB:

Top archeologists condemn Israeli plan to rebuild ancient tomb

The plan, promoted by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Gush Etzion Regional Council, includes rebuilding the tomb of Herod the Great in West Bank.

By Nir Hasson (Haaretz) Tags: West Bank Jerusalem Israel archeology

An unusual plan to rebuild the tomb of Herod the Great at the Herodium site, southeast of Jerusalem, has spurred opposition on the part of top archeologists.

The plan, which is being promoted by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Gush Etzion Regional Council, includes building a lavish mausoleum in its original size out of light plastic material, and turning it into a visitor’s center. The plan is the first of its kind in the realm of Israeli archeological digs, as most sites consist of either miniaturized or renovated historical sites that use the original materials found at the site.

[...]

Well it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Best quote in the article: "'It’s crazy - Archeology is not Disneyland,' said one top archeologist who asked to remain anonymous."

Background on Herod's tomb (if that's what it is) is here and links.

UPDATE (1 February): Todd Bolin comments skeptically on the report.

Tur Abdin

(NEO-)ARAMAIC WATCH:

Exploring the Tur Abdin a forgotten treasure of southeastern Turkey

29 January 2012 / PAT YALE , MARDİN (Sunday's Zaman)

Imagine a landscape of narrow country roads hemmed in by dry stone walls. Imagine village after honey-colored village, each with its church tower punctuating the skyline.

Imagine golden-stoned houses blending softly into the scenery. The cotswolds in the UK? No, believe it or not this is a description of the Tur Abdin, the strangely named area immediately around Midyat in Turkey that was, until recently, off-limits to visitors because of the troubles in the Southeast.

Tur Abdin sounds as if it should be the name of a tour company bringing visitors to the area, but actually it just means “Mountain of the Servants,” a name that extends way back to the pre-Roman era. The name is actually a bit of an oddity since although the land is undoubtedly high in relationship to its surroundings most visitors will think it hilly rather than mountainous. Mostly you will find yourself roaming around a lofty plateau that was once the local heart of Syriac (Suryani) Orthodoxy, a form of Christianity believed to have evolved from that taught by St. Peter in Antioch (Antakya) in the first century.

In the fourth century monasticism was introduced to the area, and at one time there were so many monasteries here that some writers called it “the Mount Athos of the East.” Today, however, a mere 5,000 Syriac Orthodox Christians are thought to live in Turkey compared with, say, 80,000 in Sweden. Most of them speak Turoyo, a variation of the Aramaic believed to have been spoken by Jesus.

[...]

That is, a very late and developed dialact of an Anatolian branch of Aramaic, not directly related to the first-century Galilean dialect that Jesus spoke.

Fellowships and grants

SOME FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES for various relevant areas of research are gathered below. Click on the links for further details for each.

3 POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWS
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY, BERLIN (GERMANY)

FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Within the European Research Council Advanced Grant 2011 "FOUNDMED. Foundations in medieval societies. Cross-cultural comparisons" there are three open positions for postdoctoral research fellows to be filled at the Department of History of Humboldt-University, Berlin (TV-L HU 13, 100 %, approx. EUR 2.000 net./month) to run from June 1, 2012 initially for five years.

reference number DR/007/12
Job description: research services within the framework of the ERC Advanced Grant 2011 “FOUNDMED. Foundations in medieval societies. Cross-cultural comparisons” for the field of Jewish Studies / Medieval Jewish History; collaboration in an intercultural comparative study of foundations in the premodern era; tasks to upgrade one’s academic qualifications

Requirements: (preferably above-average) graduate and doctoral degree in the field of Jewish Studies / Medieval Jewish History; willingness to work in Berlin; good command of Hebrew and English, at least passive command of German; willingness to collaborate with scholars from four other academic disciplines in preparing an “Encyclopedia of Premodern Foundations” based on intercultural comparative research; knowledge of the history of foundations is an advantage but not a requirement

The other two ERC fellowships mentioned above are in Byzantine studies and Islamic/Middle Eastern studies.

BINAH NEMOY MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Yale University invites applications for support of publication of texts and studies in Judeo-Arabic Literature of the Karaite Sect.

GORGIAS BOOK GRANT

In its efforts to promote education, Gorgias Press offers annually the Gorgias Book Grant. This program offers outstanding graduate students grants in the form of Gorgias Press publications. Grants consist of books in the value of $500.00 per grant. Each year, two grants are distributed.

2011-2012 Grant Field: Any field within the scope of Gorgias Publications
Application Deadline: February 29, 2012
Grant Date: April 2012