PaleoJudaica.com

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Cherub Press trilogy on ancient Jewish mysticism

SWBTS DSS exhibition

A DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary opens on Monday. Here is some information: Southwestern report highlights Scrolls.

Background on the SWBTS scrolls is here and links.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Daf Yomi celebrations coming

THE DAF YOMI ("A Page a Day") cycle of Talmud study is coming to another conclusion in about a month: Preparations for Talmud Conclusion Celebrations under Way.

The cycle last ended in 2005. More on Daf Yomi here and here.

Iraqi Jewish archive controversy escalates

IRAQ is taking some action in order to get the Iraqi Jewish archive back from the United States: Iraq cuts US archaeology cooperation over archives (AFP).

This article is much better researched than some of the other recent ones covering the controversy and I don't see any errors in it. The article reports that the US position is that the archive is being held temporarily in the US for it to be conserved and digitized, which was what I understood. I have commented on the situation here (with many background links going back to 2003). All I will add is that cutting off cooperation with the United States on these matters is likely to do Iraq's archaeology more harm than good. I hope they reconsider and find another way forward.

The Arch of Titus in color

TECHNOLOGY WATCH:

Technology Identifies Lost Color at Roman Forum

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO (NYT)
Published: June 24, 2012

ROME — Historical sources describe the menorah looted by the Romans when they destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70 as made of gold, as God instructed Moses in Exodus.

So the recent discovery that a version of the menorah in a bas-relief on the first-century Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum was originally painted a rich yellow should not come as much of a surprise. But given that the image faded to the color of its underlying stone long ago — like so much else in and around the Forum — precise knowledge of its once-bright pigmentation comes as an exciting revelation to historians and archaeologists.

“The Bible said it was gold, but the monument, as it was seen for centuries, told us it was white,” said Steven Fine, the director of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project and a professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University in New York, which is sponsoring the project. “Isn’t it cool to be that much closer to the viewers of the first and second century?”

The findings were made possible using noninvasive spectrometry readings carried out on the arch this month.

[...]

The latest generation of ultraviolet-visual absorption spectrometers are more manageable and more sensitive, “so we can get a reading analyzing a grain of pigment on a square centimeter, and that is very helpful,” said Heinrich Piening, a conservator with the State of Bavaria Department for the Conservation of Castles, Gardens and Lakes in Germany.

Mr. Piening did spectrometric readings on the arch and compared them with a database of pigments and dyes to identify the original color. The menorah, he said, was painted a particular yellow ocher “that would have looked like gold from far away.”

[...]

I keep saying it: non-invasive and non-destructive technologies are the way of the future. Relevant posts here, here, here, here and here and links.

Azazeel in English

THIS BOOK caused a stir in Egypt when the original Arabic version was published a couple of years ago:

Youssef Ziedan, Azazeel (Atlantic Books, English translation 2012)

Set in the 5th century AD, Azazeel is the exquisitely crafted tale of a Coptic monk's journey from Upper Egypt to Alexandria and then Syria during a time of massive upheaval in the early Church. The monk, Hypa, embarks on a journey both physical and spiritual, encountering, the devil, Azazeel, and the hardship of severe temptation. At times able to resist, while at others bending to the strengths of his desire, Hypa learns that physical pleasure and spiritual enlightenment can be two sides of the same coin.
Winner of the Arab Booker Prize, Azazeel highlights how the history of our civilization has been warped by greed and avarice since its very beginnings and how one man's beliefs are challenged not only by the malice of the devil, but by the corruption with the early Church. In sparse and often sparkling prose that reflects the arid beauty of the Syrian landscape, Azazeel is a novel that forces us to re-think many of our long-held beliefs and invites us to rediscover a lost history.

HT my St. Andrews colleague Grant Macaskill. Background here and here.

Monday, June 25, 2012

A good name for a band

EPHREM THE SYRIAN has a band named after him:

Blood Donation Campaign in Appreciation of the Sacrifices of Homeland's Defenders

Jun 12, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- 'The Youth of Love and Peace' group and the Syriac Mar Afram musical band on Tuesday carried out a blood donation campaign under the title 'The Syrian Blood Is Precious' to stress the Syrians' commitment to national unity and their steadfastness in the face the conspiracy targeting their homeland.

[...]

Another review of Philly DSS exhibit

EXHIBITION REVIEW: ‘Dead Sea Scrolls' at Franklin Institute ties present to past (Howard Shapiro, Philly.com). He writes of an exhibited incense holder:

It is 3,000-odd years old. The first thing I noticed is the burn mark on its surface — the legacy of incense, as if it had been lit last night.

Shivers crept along my spine — a feeling that, instantly, a piece of something inanimate had melded me to a person who lived very differently, eons ago, but in a culture that over time also became mine.

Background here and links.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Steinsaltz Talmud varia

RABBI ADIN STEINSALTZ is interviewed by Elliot Resnick The Jewish Press: Talmudic, Tenacious, Tough-Minded: An Interview With Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Excerpt:

The Jewish Press: Why should someone buy the Steinsaltz Talmud over ArtScroll’s immensely popular Shas?

Rabbi Steinsaltz: Look, it’s not the same. I would put it in the following way: When you learn from my Gemara, I hope that you get a kick to learn further, and that you don’t feel that you know everything and that all the problems are answered.

Does the ArtScroll Shas not do that as well?

I think ArtScroll gives too much in a way. Everything is in there. I’m trying to have it in a way that you study and want more.

Basically I want, not just that you will look at the Gemara, but that you will get involved in it. You cannot learn Gemara completely passively. You have to be a participant.

There are two parts to what Hillel HaZaken said about kol haTorah kulah. One part is always quoted – “What you don’t want done to you, don’t do to others.” But the other part – “And all the rest go and learn” – is no less important.

I hope to have people who will learn and say, “We want to know more, we have more questions.”

Read it all for lots more on Rabbi Steinsaltz and his Talmud translations. And his detective novels.

Speaking of the Artscroll Talmud, at Hirhurim - Torah Musings, Rabbi Gil Student has a review of the new English translation of the Steinsaltz Talmud with the Artscroll version: Koren Steinsaltz Talmud. Excerpt:

Which edition is better? It depends what you are looking for. Even seasoned scholars can gain from the Artscroll’s commentary. Koren Steinsaltz’s commentary offers much less to such people.

People looking for a good translation that will help them master the Talmud itself will certainly prefer the Koren Steinsaltz. It is less of a crutch and more of a tool, specifically designed to offer students entry to Talmud study, to ask questions and to find for themselves a friend and a teacher with whom to advance their study.

(Via the Talmud Blog on FB).

For more on Rabbi Steinsaltz and the Steinsaltz Talmud, see here with many links. For more on the Artscroll/Schottenstein Talmud see the relevant paragraphs in this post and the links that follow. And note the reference there to the earlier Soncino and Neusner translations.

Aramaic elementary school in Jish

ARAMAIC WATCH:

Aramaic Classes Help Maronites in Israel Understand Their Liturgies

Posted GMT 6-22-2012 21:38:34 (AINA)

JISH, Israel -- Aramaic language classes begun four years ago at Jish Elementary School have changed the way youngsters experience the weekly liturgy.

"Before, I used to wonder how I would get through the one-and-a-half hours at church. Sometimes we would even laugh at the how the priest was praying," recalled Carla Issa, 9, who has studied Aramaic at the school for two years. "But now I understand what I am saying. I love it."

Sunday Mass at St. Maron Parish is partially recited in Aramaic. But Issa and friends also have found another use for the ancient language: They sometimes use it when they pass notes to each other in class.

Some 110 students are now studying the language at the elementary school as a result of years of effort by village resident Shadi Khalloul, 37, chairman of the Aramaic Christian nongovernmental organization in Israel.

"This is our Maronite Aramaic heritage," he said on a recent visit to the school. "We are hoping to revive (Aramaic) as a spoken language. Hopefully the pupils will use it among themselves to communicate with each other. It is our forefather's language. It is the language of Jesus, we should not forget that, especially the Aramaic Galilee dialect."

[...]

By the way, Aramaic is not "the root language of all Semitic languages." That would be Proto-Semitic, which came and went without a writing system and which now has to be reconstructed by comparison of the the surviving Semitic languages.

But that technical point aside, the Maronites of Jish have an exciting Aramaic-revival project and I wish them well. Background here, here, and here.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

SOTS Book List 2012

IN THE MAIL:

Deborah W. Rook (ed.) with the assistance of Holly Morse, Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2012 (London: Sage, 2012)

Reading the un-openable DSS

GOOGLE has a scholar working on reading the un-openable Dead Sea Scrolls:

Computer Science Professor to Become Visiting Research Scientist at Google Cultural Institute

Published: Jun 22, 2012 (University of Kentucky News)
SHARE: Printer-friendly

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 22, 2012) — Brent Seales, director of the University of Kentucky Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments and Gill Professor in UK's Computer Science department will temporarily leave UK to accept a position as a visiting research scientist at the Google Cultural Institute. Specifically, Seales will be helping read the un-openable Dead Sea Scrolls through visualization. His role in this project will last for one year, which will be spent working in Paris.

[...]

Follow the link for a cool video on his digital reading of carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum. Past posts on Professor Seales's work on these scrolls, which appears to have met with some success since, are here and here. This is really cutting-edge stuff.

Background on the Google/Israel Museum Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Project is here and here and links.

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

Forthcoming book: Lapin, Rabbis as Romans

FORTHCOMING BOOK (release date 31 July):

Hayim Lapin, Rabbis as Romans: The Rabbinic Movement in Palestine, 100-400 CE (OUP)

Conventionally, the history of the rabbinic movement has been told as a distinctly intra-Jewish development, a response to the gaping need left by the tragic destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE. In Rabbis as Romans, Hayim Lapin reconfigures that history, drawing attention for the first time to the extent to which rabbis participated in and were the product of a Roman and late-antique political economy. Lapin discusses how rabbis as a group were relatively well off, literate Jewish men, a kind of sub-elite in most provinces of the Roman empire. That rabbis were deeply embedded in a wider Roman world is clear from their marriage choices, the rhetoric they used to describe their own group (often mirroring that used for Greek philosophical schools), their open embrace of Roman bathing habits, and their ambivalence towards theaters and public entertainments. Rabbis also form one of the most accessible and well-documented examples of a 'nativizing' traditionalist movement in a Roman province. It was a movement committed to articulating the social, ritual, and moral boundaries between an Israelite 'us' and everyone else. To attend seriously to the contradictory position of rabbis as both within and outside of a provincial cultural economy, says Lapin, is both to uncover the historical contingencies that shaped what later generations understood as simply Judaism and to reexamine in a new light the cultural work of Roman provincialization itself.

Friday, June 22, 2012

DNA and the Queen of Sheba?

QUEEN OF SHEBA LATEST:

Queen of Sheba's gift? Evidence of genetic mixing
Genome study ties Ethiopia to Syria, Israel and other lands outside of Africa

By Stephanie Pappas (MSNBC)
updated 6/21/2012 2:50:25 PM ET

The Queen of Sheba's genetic legacy may live on in Ethiopia, according to new research that finds evidence of long-ago genetic mixing between Ethiopian populations and Syrian and Israeli people.

The Queen of Sheba, known in Ethiopia as Makeda, is mentioned in both the Bible and the Quran. The Bible discusses diplomatic relations between this monarch and King Solomon of Israel, but Ethiopian tradition holds that their relationship went deeper: Makeda's son, Menelik I, the first emperor of Ethiopia, is said to be Solomon's offspring.

Whether this tale is true or not, new evidence reveals close links between Ethiopia and groups outside of Africa. Some Ethiopians have 40 percent to 50 percent of their genomes that match more closely with populations outside of Africa than those within, while the rest of the genomes more closely match African populations, said study researcher Toomas Kivisild of the University of Cambridge.

"We calculated genetic distances and found that these non-African regions of the genome are closest to the populations in Egypt, Israel and Syria," Kivislid said in a statement.

[...]

Tracing the genomic changes, the researchers found that the non-African and African genes first mingled about 3,000 years ago rather than during more recent times, the researchers reported Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

That timeline confirms what linguistic studies have suggested about links between the Middle East and Ethiopia during this time period, the researchers wrote. It also matches records and tales of the reign of the Queen of Sheba from about 1005 to 955 B.C., when trade routes were established and a royal son, perhaps, was born. Relations between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East would continue for centuries.

[...]

The genetic evidence is interesting, but hardly surprising. There would have been some trade between the two regions and you know how it is with traveling salesmen. But evidence of interbreeding between the populations of Ethiopia and Israel/Syria doesn't exactly count as proof, or even evidence, of a romantic liaison between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba as narrated in the thousand-year-old Ethiopian national epic, the Kebra Negast. True, the article doesn't quite say it does, but it also neglects to mention the very late date of the Ethiopian traditions, and the nonspecialist reader will likely come away with that impression.

Follow the "Kebra Negast" link above for many background links on the Queen of Sheba.

This is a new one

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: The Dead Sea Scrolls as inspiration for an interior design editorial?

New book: Segal, Sinning in the Hebrew Bible

A NEW BOOK BY ALAN SEGAL is being published posthumously by Columbia University Press:

Columbia University Press is pleased to announce the publication of Sinning in the Hebrew Bible: How the Worst Stories Speak for Its Truth by Alan F. Segal.

"Segal's posthumous book displays in abundance his life-long reputation as a superb teacher. Using the lens of doublets-parallel stories scattered throughout the biblical narrative-Segal guides the reader through the thickets of biblical history and a century of biblical scholarship. This book is an excellent guide for all students who wish to penetrate beneath the surface of the biblical text to discover the events and narratives that shaped our sacred Scriptures."
-Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, Jewish Theological Seminary, author of Sage Tales: Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud

§ Segal taught two of Barnard's most popular courses: "Life After Death" and "Introduction to the Hebrew Bible."
§ Segal introduces readers to key concepts of biblical study in clear easy to understand language
§ Uses the Bible's seedier stories of rape, concubines, and human sacrifice to show what they reveal about the society of the time and why they were important to the narrator
§ Discusses archaeological research to date biblical events
§ Especially useful for church or synagogue study groups that embracing critical readings

Stories of rape, murder, adultery, and conquest raise crucial issues in the Hebrew Bible, and their interpretation helps societies form their religious and moral beliefs. From the sacrifice of Isaac to the adultery of David, narratives of sin engender vivid analysis and debate, powering the myths that form the basis of the religious covenant, or the relationship between a people and their God.

Rereading these stories in their different forms and varying contexts, Alan F. Segal demonstrates the significance of sinning throughout history and today. Drawing on literary and historical theory, as well as research in the social sciences, he explores the motivation for creating sin stories, their prevalence in the Hebrew Bible, and their possible meaning to Israelite readers and listeners. After introducing the basics of his approach and outlining several hermeneutical concepts, Segal conducts seven linked studies of specific narratives, using character and text to clarify problematic terms such as "myth," "typology," and "orality." Following the reappearance and reinterpretation of these narratives in later compositions, he proves their lasting power in the mythology of Israel and the encapsulation of universal, perennially relevant themes. Segal ultimately positions the Hebrew Bible as a foundational moral text and a history book, offering uncommon insights into the dating of biblical events and the intentions of biblical authors.

Alan F. Segal (1945-2011) was professor of religion and Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of a number of books, including Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion, Paul the Convert: The Apostolate and Apostasy of Saul of Pharisee, and Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World.

To view the table of contents, or find out more about this work go to:
http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15926-5/sinning-in-the-hebrew-bible

If you would like a review copy, please hit reply or e-mail mh2306@columbia.edu your mailing address.

With best wishes,
Meredith Howard

Meredith Howard
Publicity Director
Columbia University Press
phone: 212-459-0600, ext 7126
fax: 212-459-3677
e-mail: mh2306@columbia.edu
61 West 62nd St.
New York, NY 10023

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Tomb raiders, Modi'in, and the Copper Scroll

MORE LOOTING DRAMA:

Tomb robbers, ancient tunnels and a cryptic Dead Sea Scroll bring drama to a sleepy suburb
Antiquities theft is on the rise around the quiet commuter town of Modi’in

By Matti Friedman June 21, 2012, 9:08 am 1 (The Times of Israel)

Before dawn on June 6, the members of a small squad from the Israel Antiquities Authority rappelled to the bottom of an ancient well, crawled through a narrow entrance into a 2,000-year-old horizontal tunnel and surprised two men scouring the passageway for artifacts.

The men, Palestinians from the West Bank, were cornered. They gave themselves up without a fight.

The incident followed another arrest, this one in February, by Antiquities Authority officers of five illegal diggers hiding in a cave in the same area — part of a notable rise in activity by antiquities thieves in the hills around Modi’in, a burgeoning but sleepy commuter city of 80,000 known more for clean parks than for ancient artifacts and tomb raiders.

“There is no doubt that we have seen an increase in the number of antiquities sites being damaged in the Modi’in area,” said Shai Bar-Tura, an officer with the Antiquities Authority unit that combats theft.

Suggested reasons for the increase include the construction of the West Bank security barrier in other areas once popular with antiquities thieves; a greater public awareness of the wealth of archaeological finds in the hills near Modi’in, which are full of the remains of 2,000-year-old villages and warrens of escape tunnels dating to the Jewish revolts against Rome; and even — perhaps fancifully — a connection to a mysterious treasure map in one of the most cryptic of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[...]

And that treasure map is, of course, the Copper Scroll:

Others have offered a more colorful explanation for the interest in the area, and particularly in Haruba itself.

Haruba is a name that appears in one of the strangest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Copper Scroll — a long list of directions, hammered in Hebrew letters on copper, to places where gold and valuable vessels lie buried. Many scholars believe the Copper Scroll is a guide to the location of Temple treasures hidden around the time of the Temple’s destruction in 70 CE.

“In Haruba, which is in the Valley of Achor,” reads the scroll, discovered at Qumran in 1952, “beneath the steps that enter to the east, 40 lath cubits: a chest of silver and its vessels. Weight: 17 talents.”

The cryptic scroll lists other locations where treasure is buried, including “in the residence of the queen, on the west side,” 12 cubits underground, and “in the pit that is next to the eastern gate at a distance of 15 cubits.”

Haruba near Modiin indeed appears to be a popular site for antiquities thieves, but archaeologists tend to agree that the site has nothing to do with the Haruba of the Copper Scroll — the scroll appears quite clearly to list locations in and around Jerusalem and the Judean Desert, not near Modiin. And some scholars believe the sentence doesn’t refer to a site called “Haruba” at all, but should properly be translated, “In the ruins of the Valley of Achor.”

This article covers a lot of ground, both literally and metaphorically, and I encourage you to read it all. An earlier post on possible Copper Scroll-inspired looting at Modi'in is here. Another fairly recent post on Modi'in is here.

Cross-file under "Busted!"

Review of Arbel, Forming Femininty in Antiquity

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Vita Daphna Arbel. Forming Femininity in Antiquity: Eve, Gender, and Ideologies in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 256 pp. $74.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-983777-9.

Reviewed by Nancy Klancher (University of Pittsburgh)
Published on H-Judaic (June, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Metonymic Eve: As Eve Fares, So Fare All Women?

In her new reading of the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (GLAE), Vita Daphna Arbel redeploys the study of literary antecedents and tradition histories in the service of a Bakhtinian-feminist analysis of the GLAE’s literary and ideological “multivocality,” “reading against the grain.” She defines her subject as “the multiplicity of voices, cultural traditions, and countertraditions that seem to be embedded in the GLAE framework and their relations to power, ideological stances, and gender conceptualizations” (p. 7). In so doing, she moves beyond the long-standing scholarly prioritizing of theological readings of the GLAE, and in particular of the figure of Eve. She instead focuses our attention on the diverse and contradictory representations of Eve that coincide in this complex text and their relationship to “specific theological traditions, exegetical views, as well as gender ideologies and cultural norms of the time” (p. 113).

[...]

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

More on the beauty of Moses

JARED CALAWAY: The Beauty of Moses according to Josephus.

Background here.

"Georgian Script" Summer School

ALIN SUCIU: Kartvelological Summer School “Georgian Script” (July 17-26, 2012, Tbilisi). Not mentioned in the post, but lots of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha were translated into Old Georgian.

Steinstaltz receives Presidential Award

CONGRATULATIONS TO RABBI ADIN STEINSTALTZ:

Photo by: Mark Neimann

Rabbi Steinsaltz Receives Presidential Award (Chabad.info)

Last night, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, a Lubavitcher known for his phenomenal translation of the Talmud into Hebrew received the Presidential Award of Distinction from Israeli President Shimon Peres for his extraordinary and unique donation to the Jewish world and heritage.

Follow the link for more photographs of the event.

Background on the award is here. Background on the Steinsaltz Talmud is here with many links.

True Blood and blood libel

HAS TRUE BLOOD invoked the Jewish blood-libel myth?

UPDATE: Shockingly, it seems they also got the "Aramaic" wrong.

Gold hoards in the news

TWO GOLD HOARDS RECENTLY DISCOVERED IN ISRAEL are featured in a nice National Geographic pictorial: Pictures: "Emergency" Gold Treasures Found in Holy Land.

Background on the Bar Kokhba-era hoard is here and links. Background on the Megiddo hoard is here and links (also with links to past ancient-bling posts).

In related news, in The Media Line (via the Agade list) Aryeh O'Sullivan reports on an exhibition of ancient gold objects at the Bible Lands Museum: Pure Gold to Celebrate Museum Anniversary. Excerpt:

Gold, and lots of it.

The Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem is marking its 20th anniversary with an exhibit of a collection of ancient gold jewelry and artifacts. Most of it has been tucked away in storerooms and never seen in public before, not in Israel nor anywhere else in the world.

The private collection is called Pure Gold and fills the ground floor of the museum where its 400 pieces literally shimmer in their glass cases.

Among the displays are a Roman-era wreath of gold laurel leaves, a magnificent silver and gold horn cup made literally for kings two thousand six hundred years ago, a Canaanite goddess pendant and an exquisite Greek pendant of Aphrodite.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Not the Genesis Apocryphon

FORBES moves into Old Testament Pseudepigrapha territory:

5 Management Tips from the Bible!

At an archeological excavation at the site of the Dead Sea scrolls in Khirbet Qumran, a lost book of Genesis was discovered in 2009. A translation of the Aramaic has just been published and its views on management are considered by Biblical scholars to be enlightening and surprisingly relevant for today’s business owners.

Mildly amusing, but Bill Cosby is a lot funnier.

Monday, June 18, 2012

New book: Geiger, Das hebräische Partizip in den Texten aus der judäischen Wüste

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Das hebräische Partizip in den Texten aus der judäischen Wüste

Gregor Geiger
The function of the participle within the Hebrew tense system has considerably changed between biblical and postbiblical Hebrew. This investigation studies the participle in the Hebrew manuscripts from the Judaean Desert, its formation, its usage, and its meaning, compared with those in other Hebrew traditions and dialects, especially the language of the Hebrew Bible. The biblical Hebrew tense system continues to be used in the Scrolls, while there is a clear difference between the tense system of the Scrolls and that of mishnaic Hebrew. This fact allows us to draw conclusions in the field of language studies; but it also provides us with a piece of the puzzle in our understanding of the sociology and religion of the Qumran community.

Review of Friedman, The Aleppo Codex

THE ALEPPO CODEX, by Matti Friedman, is reviewed briefly by Brian Bethune in Maclean's. Excerpt:

It was presented to Itzhak Ben-Zvi, president of Israel, and a furious group of the Aleppo Jews living in Israel launched an unsuccessful case in rabbinical court to recover their property from the state. The records of the lawsuit were suppressed for decades. When Friedman unearthed them, though, he gained an inkling why. When the manuscript went on public display in 1960, it was missing close to 200 of its 500 leaves, a loss the government said had occurred during the codex’s hidden years. Yet none of the claimants in rabbinical court even mentioned the shocking mutilation. Friedman’s painstaking investigation of just what happened to the Aleppo codex—and when—is a fascinating account of the role of sacred relics in creating a national identity, and also of the lure of old and treasured objects.

Raiders of the Lost Relics

RADIERS OF THE LOST RELICS is an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Matthew Kalman which deals with the the new finds at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the minimalist-maximalist debate, the recent discussion of the Talpiot Tombs, and pretty much everything else.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

UNESCO and the Temple Mount

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: UNESCO report exposes Dome of Rock renovation. UN body condemns Israel for skipping meeting on Mugrahbi Bridge plans; Israel denies knowledge of meeting, blames Jordan (Jerusalem Post).

Presidential visit

PRESIDENT OBAMA has visited the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

(photo credit: Sabina Louise Pierce)

Background here and links.

SBL exploring Qur'an scholarly network

THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE has received a large grant to lay the groundwork for a Society of Qur'anic Studies: SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE SUPPORTS EXPLORATION OF QUR’AN SCHOLAR NETWORK. (Click on link to download press release as pdf file.)

Congratulations to Emanuel Tov

FROM THE AGADE LIST:

From Nili Wazana (wazana@mscc.huji.ac.il):
===================================

We are happy and honored that our teacher, colleague and friend, Prof. Emanuel Tov was appointed a member to Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Prof. Emanuel Tov is Prof. emeritus of the department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His scholarship specializes in various aspects of the textual criticism of Hebrew and Greek Scripture and in the Qumran Scrolls, as well as other aspects of biblical studies.

He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project, completed in 2006.

In 2004 he received the Israeli Emet prize for Science, art and culture, and in 2009 the Israel Prize in biblical studies.

Congratulations to Professor Tov on this well-deserved honor.

Friday, June 15, 2012

New book: Atkinson, Queen Salome

IN THE MAIL:

Kenneth Atkinson, Queen Salome: Jerusalem's Warrior Monarch of the First Century B.C.E. (Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland, 2012)

New books from Peeters

NEW BOOKS FROM PEETERS PRESS:

Aphrahat's Demonstrations
A Conversation with the Jews of Mesopotamia

Series:
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 642
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Subsidia, 642

Authors: Lizorkin E.

Year: 2012
ISBN: 978-90-429-2574-8
Pages: XVI-176 p.
Price: 70 EURO

Summary:
Various opinions on the nature of Aphrahat’s interactions with the Jews have essentially revolved around either accepting or rejecting the claim that the Persian Sage had contact with (Rabbinic) Jews and/or may have been influenced by them. The issue was never settled.
To provide answers to the related questions the author uses a textual comparative methodology, juxtaposing texts from both sources and analyzing them in relation to each other. Every section that deals with such comparison is organized into three sub-sections: 1) agreement, 2) disagreement by omission; and 3) disagreement by confrontation. The study is structured around the general theme of ritual as addressed by Aphrahat in his work. It compares the treatment of circumcision, prayer, Passover, Kashrut and fasting in Aphrahat’s Demonstrations with the treatment of the same themes in Babylonian Talmud. In addition to dealing with primary conclusions that answer the questions regarding the nature of Aphrahat’s encounters with the Jews, the researcher provides a set of additional or secondary conclusions that concern variety of topics such as the nature of Jewish missions to the (Jewish) Christians and Aphrahat’s treatment of the Christian Pascha in relationship to the idea of the Christian Sabbath.

Mundus primus
Die Geschichte der Welt und des Menschen von Adam bis Noach im Genesiskommentar Ephräms des Syrers

Series:
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 641
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Subsidia, 641

Authors: Kremer T.

Year: 2012
ISBN: 978-90-429-2566-3
Pages: LVI-534 p.
Price: 120 EURO

Summary:
Albeit famous as a composer of liturgical hymns, the exegetical works of Ephrem the Syrian are almost unknown. This monograph deals with Ephrem's commentary on Genesis in which he provides a specific explanation of the biblical primordial history. His exegesis proves to be apologetic (refuting the positions of his main opponents Marcion, Bardaisan and Mani), ascetic and critical towards allegorical interpretations of an allusive type. By applying principles of a complex typology, he interprets the primordial events by relating them to particular contexts (cosmology, anthropology, ethics and eschatology). Thus he assumes that Gen 1:1–9:17 describes the contours of a first world (mundus primus), which is in a paradigmatic way a typological pre-image of the second world (mundus secundus) in which we live. According to Ephrem, with the landing of the Ark and God's covenant with Noah, the history undergoes its decisive turning point. This study may prove both Ephrem's close proximity to rabbinic exegesis and his great originality. As a starting point for a specific Syriac interpretation tradition of the first book of the Bible Ephrem’s commentary is highly interesting for patristic exegesis and inspiring for the theological interpretation of the primordial history and a lively dialogue with modern exegesis.

Ephrem shows some familiarity with Jewish traditions in his Genesis commentary. I have written about this in my book The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Nag Hammadi fellowships at Oslo

FELLOWSHIPS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OSLO, NORWAY:

First, a postdoc: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship on the Nag Hammadi (and related) Codices in Their Fourth- and Fifth-Century Contexts.

Project NEWCONT is an ERC-financed research project located at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo. It is a project that aims to shed new light on the production, use, and significance of the Nag Hammadi codices and related manuscripts, in the context of Fourth- and Fifth-Century Christianity in Egypt. For information on the aims and methodological perspectives of the project, see the project website.

In addition to research, the successful applicant will be expected to contribute with up to 10 % compulsory administrative work within the NEWCONT project.

Second, a doctoral fellowship: PhD-Fellowship on the Nag Hammadi (and related) Codices in Their Fourth- and Fifth-Century Contexts

Project NEWCONT is an ERC-financed research project located at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo. It is a project that aims to shed new light on the production, use, and significance of the Nag Hammadi codices and related manuscripts, in the context of Fourth- and Fifth-Century Christianity in Egypt. For information on the aims and methodological perspectives of the project, see the project website.

There are no teaching responsibilities. The purpose of the fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a PhD degree.

The application deadline for both is 1 August. Follow the links for further particulars.

Via Liv Ingeborg Lied on FB.

Syriac books and manuscripts at Duke

DUKE UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES: Syriac Books and Manuscripts!

The Rubenstein Library is pleased to announce that we’ve digitized a wonderful publication written by Duke’s very own Maria Doerfler, Emanuel Fiano, and Lucas Van Rompay. The publication features erudite bibliographic descriptions of several Syriac manuscripts and books from the Rubenstein collections, accompanied by photographic illustrations. The work is an annotated catalog from an exhibition assembled for the Sixth North American Syriac Symposium, held at Duke University, 26-29 June 2011.

We’re grateful to the authors for allowing the book to be published on the Internet Archive! It will surely be a treasure for scholars worldwide.

Talmud news

NEWS ON THE TALMUD, some good, some bad:

The good news is that the English translation of the Steinsaltz Talmud continues apace: A colourful Talmud for our times (Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle):

The full 38-volume set of his monumental modern Hebrew edition of the Babylonian Talmud is now available at £790. It has been designed not only for print but for the screen with an iPad app version due to launch in July.

Also, the first three volumes of Steinsaltz’s as yet unfinished English translation are being published at £39.99 apiece (or £29.99 in a smaller edition). Koren project that the English edition will take four years to complete in 41 volumes.

Significantly, the Talmud text (as well as Rashi’s commentary) is printed with vowels and punctuated, making it far easier for students to follow. The translation is clearly laid out in paragraphs rather than dense columns of print and amplified with explanations, while the extensive English commentary has separate sections summarising points of Jewish law, examining the language and giving historical and other background.

Background here.

The bad news is further confirmation that the introduction to the new Arabic translation of the Talmud confirms some of the worst fears about it: Reading the Talmud in Amman (Aryeh Tuchman, Jerusalem Post):

What are we to make of this effort? Unfortunately, the center’s director, Jawad Ahmad, refuses to talk to the Israeli press, so all we have to go on is the printed introduction and the posts on the center’s website.

That is where the trouble begins. The project features a very lengthy introduction to the Talmud by Dr. Amir al Hafi, a professor of religious studies at the University of Al al-Bayt, Jordan. Dr. Al Hafi’s introduction draws heavily on the writings of three notorious anti-Semites: Rev. I.B. Pranaitis, Israel Shahak and Hasan Zaza; and repeats many classic anti-Semitic allegations made in connection with the Talmud and other Jewish texts.

IF HIS essay is characteristic of the mindset of the Arabic Talmud’s translators or intended users, as I believe it is, this new translation can only harm Jews and set back any efforts to promote interfaith understanding.

Although Dr. Al Hafi cites a handful of humanistic passages in the Talmud, the vast majority of his introduction describes the Talmud as a racist document that encapsulates a Jewish spirit of ethnic supremacism. He claims that Jews desire “superiority and domination of all peoples”; that modern Jews have a Talmudic mindset of racism and contempt toward non-Jews; and that the Talmud encourages Jews to lie to and steal from others.

He explicitly links these Talmudic attitudes to the State of Israel.

In his view, the Talmud has created Jewish hatred toward Palestinians, and has led Jews to violate Palestinians’ rights and dispossess them of their property. Dr. Al Hafi alleges that when Jews in the Diaspora give support to Israel, they do so as a result of these same Talmudic influences. He also alleges that the Talmud issues a “clear prohibition on withdrawing from the West Bank,” and prohibits Jews from adhering to peace agreements.

He concludes his essay with the hope that this newly translated Talmud will allow students in Arab and Muslim universities to begin their studies and understand the “Jewish spirit” and Jewish national identity.

How important is Dr. Al Hafi’s essay? Even if it does not achieve broad distribution or a significant number of readers, it tells you about the cultural environment in which this new field of academic Talmud studies in the Muslim world will take place: one in which a Professor of Religious Studies in Jordan accepts the claims of avowed anti-Semites about Jewish civilization, and feels no shame in citing them in his writing; in which Jews are believed to be racist, supremacist, deceitful and hateful people; and in which the actions of the Israeli government are thought to be motivated by an ideological or religious hatred of Arabs rather than geopolitical and security concerns.

Background here.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

New book: Hanneken, The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees

NEW BOOK from the Society of Biblical Literature:

The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees
Todd R. Hanneken

ISBN 1589836421
Status Available
Price: $42.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date June, 2012

In spite of some scholars' inclination to include the book of Jubilees as another witness to “Enochic Judaism,” the relationship of Jubilees to the apocalyptic writings and events surrounding the Maccabean revolt has never been adequately clarified. This book builds on scholarship on genre to establish a clear pattern among the ways Jubilees resembles and differs from other apocalypses. Jubilees matches the apocalypses of its day in overall structure and literary morphology. Jubilees also uses the literary genre to raise the issues typical of the apocalypses—including revelation, angels and demons, judgment, and eschatology—but rejects what the apocalypses typically say about those issues, subverting reader expectations with a corrected view. In addition to the main argument concerning Jubilees, this volume's survey of what is fundamentally apocalyptic about apocalyptic literature advances the understanding of early Jewish apocalyptic literature and, in turn, of later apocalypses and comparable perspectives, including those of Paul and the Qumran sectarians.

Todd R. Hanneken is Assistant Professor of Theology at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

Hardback edition available from Brill Academic Publishers (www.brill.nl)

Free LCL volumes!

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: Free Volumes in Loeb Classical Library.

Biblioblogging carnival

The Biblioblog Carnival for June 1, 2012 has been posted at Political Jesus. Some interesting content, but the South Park theme is a bit try-too-hard.

TC vol. 17

ETC: TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism vol. 17 (2012) Online.

Review of Friedman, The Aleppo Codex

BOOK REVIEW:

Rival Owners, Sacred Text
The story of how the most authoritative manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, spirited to Aleppo in the 14th century, found its way to Israel.

By BENJAMIN BALINT (Wall Street Journal)

In Jerusalem, a gleaming white dome and a black basalt wall shield Israel's greatest treasures—not bejeweled crowns or scepters but unadorned texts. Visitors to the Shrine of the Book, a wing of the Israel Museum, can descend a steep flight of stairs from the main hall, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display, and arrive at a small chamber that houses the oldest and most authoritative copy of the Hebrew Bible.

Or so it appears. In fact, the full Aleppo Codex, as the copy is called—a bound volume of vellum pages also known as the Crown of Aleppo—is stored in a nearby vault. Only its topmost leaf, the one that viewers see, is from the codex itself. The rest is a dummy, cleverly arranged by the curators to appear real. As Matti Friedman observes in "The Aleppo Codex," a superb work of investigative journalism that reads like a detective thriller, this illusion is but the first sign that not everything about the codex is as it seems.

[...]

Earlier reviews etc. here and links.

More on Origen's Psalm homilies

ALIN SUCIU: Lorenzo Perrone About Origen’s Newly Discovered Homilies on the Psalms. Excerpt:

I worked hastily in the following weeks to go through the considerable manuscript (371 folios) and check its content. More and more, albeit still provisionally, I have come to the conclusion that we have to do with a lot of lost homilies of Origen. My conviction is supported, among other things, by the exegetical treatment presented by the homilies, the doctrinal elements they preserve, the stylistic features which are typical of the great Alexandrian. In addition, some excerpts of these homilies were already known to us under his name in some catenae fragments edited in PG 17 and the Analecta Sacra of Pitra, especially with regard to Psalm 77.

Only a thorough examination of the texts transmitted by the Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 will permit to extend with reasonable certainty the attribution to Origen of all the remaining homilies or of part of them, besides the Homilies I-IV on Psalm 36.

This seems to be a very important discovery. More please.

Background here (immediately preceding post).

UPDATE: Roger Pearse: Jerome’s Letter 33, listing the works of Origen.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Homilies on the Psalms by Origen recovered

NEW DISCOVERY: The Rediscovery of Origen’s Homilies on the Psalms (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod.graec. 314) (Alin Suciu). "The Bavarian State Library in Munich announces that Origen’s homilies to the Psalms have been discovered in an 11th century Greek manuscript." Alin has more information here: Guest Post: Mark Bilby on the Recent Discovery of Origen’s Homilies on the Psalms. And Roger Pearse translates the German press release here and comments:

What else is out there??? What lies hidden by the wretched catalogues of most institutions, where none but the staff can browse casually?

Indeed.

It is not clear to me whether these homilies are entirely new or were already known from a Latin translation. But they are certainly new in the original Greek, and given that the Latin translations of Origen's works were generally pretty poor, tending toward paraphrase and bowdlerization, they are important either way. Some summary information on Origen's homilies is here. The author specifically bewails the loss of so many of the Psalms homilies.

This discovery is likely also to be important indirectly for ancient Judaism. Origen lived in Caesarea in the third century. He knew Hebrew and was in contact with the local rabbis, so his work is often influenced by contemporary Palestinian Jewish exegesis.

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

UPDATE (13 June): More here.

Review of Harland (ed.), Travel and Religion in Antiquity

BOOK REVIEW at H-Judaic:

Philip A. Harland, ed. Travel and Religion in Antiquity. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011. xii + 289 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-55458-222-8.

Reviewed by David Frankfurter (Boston University)
Published on H-Judaic (June, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Beyond Pilgrimage

Philip Harland has produced an exceptionally interesting and theoretically astute collection of essays, based on seminars of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and thoroughly in dialogue with new work like Jaś Elsner and Ian Rutherford’s Seeing the Gods (although too late for some of the participants to engage Catherine Heszer’s new Jewish Travel in Antiquity).[1] In some ways the volume follows new questions in the area of New Testament studies about itinerancy and cult migration; and yet only two of the papers in the volume address New Testament materials. The collection is far more eclectic, including discussions of Mesopotamian mythology, Nabataean ritual, and Tacitus’s interpretations of barbarian gods.

[...]

Philip Harland runs the blog Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean. An earlier review of this book is noted here.

Review of Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels

BOOK REVIEW: Peter Schäfer reviews Daniel Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ (New Press, 200 pp., $21.95) in The New Republic: The Jew Who Would Be God. Excerpt:

BOYARIN’S BOOK leaves the reader irritated and sad. It has very little that is new to offer—and what appears to be new is wildly speculative and highly idiosyncratic. Even judged by its commendable intentions—to win over dogmatic defenders of the perfect uniqueness of Christianity or Judaism—it is disappointing. As the younger Talmud professor in the acclaimed Israeli movie Footnote says to his hapless student, “There are many correct and new aspects in your paper—only what is new isn’t correct and what is correct isn’t new.”

Via Larry Hurtado, who concurs with Schäfer's judgment.

Earlier reviews and comments on Boyarin's work are here and links. Earlier PaleoJudaica posts on the Son of Man are here and here and links. Schäfer and I are more or less in agreement on the latter subject, although I think the Danielic "one like a son of man" may have been Enoch rather than an angel. I have not yet read Boyarin's book, so I can't comment on it.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Online aliases in academic debate

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS (really this time): Are online aliases ever justified in academic debate? Sock puppets - online commenters that create a false identity - are disrupting academic freedom and scholarly debate, says Simon Tanner (The Guardian).

If it's just a matter of discussing evidence and debating rational arguments, it doesn't really matter whether one knows all the names of the debaters. And there is a long tradition of anonymous political pamphleteering that has often served a constructive purpose.

But, that said, there is rarely a compelling reason to conceal one's identity in tempest-in-a-teapot academic debates. True, sometimes it does no great harm for an anonymous blogger to tweak the nose of academia. For example, I found the N. T. Wrong blog amusing. But, human nature being what it is, Internet anonymity leads some people to do things they would never do in their own name.

Sock puppetry goes beyond presenting arguments anonymously for an unpopular position and deliberately creates the impression that more people are making the arguments than actually are. (This amounts to a twisted appeal to the authority of numbers to give the impression of a false controversy or even a false consensus.) The showpiece example of sock puppetry run amok is the Raphael Golb affair involving the Dead Sea Scrolls (more background here and links), which Tanner mentions, citing Robert Cargill. This case moved from mere nuisance trolling to an attempt actually to damage the reputation of a prominent academic, and it illustrates sock puppetry's potential for real harm.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

This year's Masada opera

CARMEN is the operatic piece chosen for performance at Masada this year: Dead Sea fortress in Israel to be the set for 'Carmen' (MSNBC photoblog). Performances started on 6 June, but the desert context has not been without its challenges: Masada sandstorm gives Israeli opera star break. ‘Carmen’ star replaced by local understudy after desert climate proves too much. (Jerusalem Post).

This is the third annual opera run performed at Masada. The earlier ones were Nabucco in 2010 and Aida in 2011. Background here and links.

Friday, June 08, 2012

The 2nd St Andrews Graduate Conference for Biblical and Early Christian Studies

HERE TODAY: The 2nd St Andrews Graduate Conference for Biblical and Early Christian Studies: Manuscripts and their Texts: Perspectives on Textual Criticism - 8-9 June 2012.

Lots of good papers lined up.

Iraqi Jewish archive latest

THE IRAQI JEWISH ARCHIVE is back in the news, after nearly a year of quiet. To recap: a lot of Jewish documents in Hebrew and ~~Aramaic~~ (sorry, slip of the keyboard, should be Arabic) were found rotting in the flooded basement of the Iraqi Intelligence headquarters during the Iraq war in 2003. In a few weeks these were frozen to preserve them and they were later shipped to the United States for conservation, which is still ongoing. Meanwhile, Iraq has been asking for them back.

The latest coverage is in Al Arabiya News: Israel suspected of seeking to ‘steal’ ancient Iraqi manuscripts transferred to U.S., with the Times of Israel then picking up the story: Iraq to the United States: Give us back our Torahs and Talmuds. Baghdad officials claim the US took away thousands of ancient Babylonian artifacts in 2006.

The Al Arabiya article is riddled with errors:

The Iraqi minister of culture has said that the United States is delaying the return of original copies of ancient manuscripts that were illegally smuggled out of Iraq and reportedly sold to Israel.

The manuscripts are part of the Jewish archive that was found in the basement of the Iraqi intelligence building following the 2003 American invasion.

The archive was reportedly transferred to the United States for “maintenance purposes” provided that it would be returned to the Iraqi government by mid-2006. The archive, however, has not yet been transferred back to the Iraqi Archeology and Heritage Association.

The archive was sent to the United States for conservation purposes. The manuscripts were soaked with water, infested with mold, and then frozen. The expertise and resources needed to conserve them are enormous and they were sent to the best place to get this done, and it is taking as long as it takes to do the job right.

Iraqi media reports suggest that Israel was behind the stalling of the
delivery of the archives and that the Jewish state was planning to obtain the historic manuscripts from its ally the United States. Arab League Deputy Secretary General Ahmed ben Helli has confirmed attempts by Israel to steal ancient Iraqi archives.

“Iraq has been subjected to the biggest theft of its manuscripts and historic treasures,” he said. “Israel is accomplice to this.”

According to archeologists, the Iraqi Jewish archive contains almost 3,000 documents and 1,700 antiques that chronicle the eras in which Jews were enslaved in Iraq during the first and second eras of Babylonian captivity. The collection also comprises belongings of Jews who lived in Iraq.

Among the most important items in the collection are the oldest copies of the Talmud and the Old Testament. That is why, experts argue, the former Iraqi regime kept the collection guarded in the intelligence building.

All I can say is, if only. The Iraqi Jewish Archive Preservation Report from 2003 has a description of the archive as follows:

Description of the Iraqi Jewish Archive

The Iraqi Jewish Archive contains 16th-20th century Jewish rare books, correspondence and document files, pamphlets, modern books, audio tape and parchment scrolls. Languages represented in the Archive include Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Arabic and English (a few items).

The following descriptive information, provided by Hebraic and Arabic area study specialists at the Library of Congress, was gleaned from the photographs taken of the frozen materials in the open trunks. Once the materials are dried and have had the mold remediated it will be possible to provide a clearer and more detailed assessment of the contents.

∑ Hebraic materials. The Hebraica includes an eclectic mix of materials, ranging from holiday and daily prayer books, Bibles and commentaries, sections from a damaged Torah scroll, books on Jewish law, as well as children's Hebrew language and Bible primers. The printed books were published in a variety of places, including Baghdad, Warsaw, Livorno, and Venice, and most are from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rare works include:

∑ the 'Ketubim' volume of the monumental Third Rabbinic Bible that was published in Venice by Giovanni di Gara in 1568; and

∑ what appears to be Abraham Brudo's 'Birkat Avraham,' which was published in Venice in 1696.

∑ Arabic materials. The Arabic materials include both hand-written and printed items pertaining to the Jewish community of Iraq, some produced by the Jewish community and others from official governmental sources. In addition, there are items that do not appear to have any connection to the Jewish community at all. The materials include:

∑ a handwritten document, dated September 5, 1966, which appears to be a request for names for a board of directors of the Jewish community;

∑ a school roster Madrasat Furnak (second part unclear) with both male and female names, which dates primarily to August-September 1966-67;

∑ a collection that includes the law of the Jewish community #77 for 1931 and the organization of the Jewish community #36 of 1931, published by the Jewish Charitable Organization in 1932;

∑ an official Iraqi report to the Minister of Interior (and various directorates) reporting on important events, dated 16/2/2000.

This was written in 2003, and there have been no updates since which give any indication of earlier material in the archive.

Now there is a lot of important, interesting, and cool stuff here, but nothing copied or printed before early modernity. It is ridiculous to claim that ancient copies of the Talmud or the Hebrew Bible were included. Had this been true it would have been worked out early on, and specialists would have been all over the collection. It is true that there were early reports of a seventh-century Talmud in the collection, but these were debunked by the beginnning of 2004.

Back to the Al Arabiya article:

Experts add that Israel is keen on obtaining the manuscripts in order to prove their claim that the Jews had built the Tower of Babel as part of its attempt to distort the history of the Middle East for its own interests.

Because the controversy over who built the Tower of Babel is central to the geopolitics of 2012.

Now bah to Jawad Al-Tattab for writing such ignorant propaganda and to Al Arabiya for publishing it. But double bah to Elhanan Miller and The Times of Israel for falling for it and propagating it. Their research seems to have consisted of reading the Al Arabiya article, then calling some Iraqi government officials and the IAA, with this result:

Saad Bashir Iskandar, director general of the books and documents department of the Iraqi ministry, said the Americans insisted on removing the artifacts from Iraq. The items were stored in no less than 48,000 boxes and containers, he said.

“Our ongoing negotiations with the Americans always run up against barriers of procrastination,” Taher Hamoud, director general of the Culture Ministry told Al-Arabiya. He added that the documents contained within the archive in question are 70% in Hebrew, 25% in Arabic and 5% in other languages.

A spokeswoman for Israel’s Antiquities Authority told The Times of Israel she had no information on the Iraqi allegations.

The factual information from the Iraqi officials is of mixed quality: notably, we're talking about 27 metal trunks of manuscripts, which would not hold 48,000 boxes. (Didn't that number sound at all implausible to anyone?) As for the delay, the challenge of carrying out the massive conservation project (and raising the money for it) adequately explains the "procrastination." And I don't blame the IAA for wanting to stay out of the whole thing.

I would have thought that the stuff about the Tower of Babel would have hinted to pretty much anyone that there were problems with the Al Arabiya piece. And had anyone at The Times of Israel bothered to Google "Iraqi Jewish Archive," they would have found the Iraqi Jewish Archive Preservation Report on the first results page, which would have cleared up much of the nonsense. It is disappointing that the recent example of shoe-leather reporting by their own Matti Friedman did not inspire them to do some real research.

Anyone who wants the full story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive from its discovery in 2003 to the present can follow the PaleoJudaica links here (AP link has rotted) and here all the way back to the original story.

As for who gets the archive, after its treatment of its own Jewish community in the 20th century, I think Iraq's claim is tenuous at best. But the real issue is what is best for the archive itself, as part of the historical heritage not only of Iraqi Judaism, but of humanity. I have commented on this at greater length here and here and links.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

New book: Schnieder, The Appearance of the High Priest

NEW BOOK from Cherub Press:

The Appearance of the High Priest – Theophany, Apotheosis and Binitarian Theology: From Priestly Tradition of the Second Temple Period through Ancient Jewish Mysticism, by Michael Schneider, מראה כהן: תיאופניה, אפותיאוזה, ותיאולוגיה בינארית – בין ההגות הכהנית בתקופת הבית השני לבין המיסטיקה היהודית הקדומה (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 30; 2012, 384 pages, ISBN 1-933379-25-1, $42, in Hebrew). This volume is the first of three volumes in a major scholarly reassessment of mystical traditions in the Second Temple period, which explores the variety of early religious traditions across diverse bodies of literature and in various languages. The symbolic, mythic and mystical features of these traditions, their transmission and migration histories and their reappearance in some medieval texts is further investigated. At the heart of this volume is the concept of the encounter and communion between the high priest and God, which implies an anthropomorphic theophany (the appearance of the God in human form) and the apotheosis (deification) of the high priest. This phenomenon is understood in the framework of a binitarian theology that distinguishes the hidden God from His visible appearance. These concepts appear as sources for many latter mystical traditions.

Treasure-hoard press release

THE IAA PRESS RELEASE about that treasure hoard from the Bar Kokhba period has been published by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 2,000 year-old gold and silver hoard uncovered. It has more photos.

Background here.

Another decipherment of the Qeiyafa inscription

A DECIPHERMENT OF THE QEIYAFA INSCRIPTION has reportedly been published in the journal Semitica by Prof. Reinhard Achenbach of Münster University. I say reportedly because I have not seen the article itself, only the notice of it in The Local:

German translates oldest known Hebrew

Published: 6 Jun 12 07:44 CET
Share10

The oldest known written ancient Hebrew other than the Bible has emerged as laws to protect slaves, widows, orphans and foreigners, according to the German theologian who translated the script.

Here's the summary of the article:

"The language seems to be ancient Hebrew, but it is closely related to other west-semitic canaanite languages," the Old Testament expert told The Local in an email.

The tablet’s significance lay in its instructions to take care of the disadvantaged of ancient Israeli society.

This is visible in the second and third lines which read: “Give rights to slaves and to widows! Give rights to orphans and foreigners! Protect the rights of the poor and protect the rights of minors!”

These were likely to be some of the first laws implemented, he said, adding that the tablet was probably a copied version made by a royal official given the task to learn the laws.

The proposed translation is very similar to the one produced by Prof. Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa in 2010. As far as I know—and I haven't been paying close attention, so correct me if I'm wrong—this is the first decipherment of the inscription actually published in a peer-review journal. That and the fact that two specialists now read the text in the same way means that we have to take this interpretation seriously. But the real test will be the response from other scholars and the viability of this reading against any other readings that may be published in the coming years.

I hope Professors Galil and Achenbach are right. If we actually have an early Hebrew(ish) ostracon with such interesting and biblically relevant content, that would be very exciting. But let's wait and see what other interpretations are published. In the scheme of things it is much more likely to be something utterly banal, like a list of loan defalters or a tax receipt. (I'm not proposing either, thy are only examples.) But maybe we just got really lucky on this one.

Much more on the various discoveries at Khirbet Qeiyafa in recent years here and links.

Betar and the security fence

THE SITE OF BETAR, the place of Bar Kokhba's last stand, is involved in a controversy over the Israeli security fence:

Beitar's Legacy

by Benny Morris Jun 5, 2012 11:45 AM EDT (The Daily Beast)

In an effort to obstruct the construction of a section of Israel’s security fence—commonly called by Israel’s detractors the "Wall" or "Apartheid Wall," though less than ten per cent is actually a reinforced concrete wall; the rest is a razor-wire fence with sensors—Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week petitioned UNESCO to recognize the West Bank village of Battir, and particularly its terraced agricultural plots and water channels linking them, as a world heritage site. The Palestinians hope that such recognition will prevent Israel from completing this section of the fence.

A deep irony underlies the petition. The village sits on the site of the Judean fortress town of Beitar (or Bethar), where Shimon Bar-Kochba, the leader of the second Jewish revolt against Rome (132-135 AD), made his last stand and died. In the 1980s, Israeli archeologists identified the remains of the citadel and found some Bar-Kochba coins on the hillock called by the local Arabs "Khirbet al-Yahud" (the Jewish ruins) three hundred yards west of the village center, and found the remains of the Roman siege wall and two of the besiegers’ camps. A rock next to one of Battir’s springs has an etched inscription (“Leg V Mac et XI Cl”) identifying the legions, the Fifth Macedonica and Eleventh Claudia, that took part in the siege of Beitar. Presumably Battir’s terraces and water canals were first built by the Jewish inhabitants of the land more than two millennia ago.

The issue is currently before the Israeli courts, which must rule whether the planned route of the fence, just north of the village, which lies three miles west of Bethlehem, will do irreparable harm to the ancient system of terraces and canals that irrigate the village’s olive trees and vegetable gardens on the slopes. This is one of the few places in the West Bank where the ancient terrace-canal system has survived.

[...]

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Review of Portier-Young, Apocalypse Against Empire

BOOK REVIEW: Saturday Book Review: Anathea Portier-Young, Apocalypse Against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism ( Drew J. Strait, Jesus Creed). Excerpt:

Apocalypse Against Empire sets a new high water mark for anti-imperial readings. Simply put: it is theoretically and historically sophisticated. John Collins goes so far as to say in the foreward that “not since the early work of Martin Hengel have we seen such a thick description of Seleucid history and politics in the context of biblical scholarship” (xii). And I agree. I found Part Two to be the most valuable part of the book. But perhaps the greatest contribution of this study is its clearly argued thesis that the terror and domination of the Seleucid empire contributed to the emergence of apocalyptic. By carefully reconstructing the political, economic and hegemonic stressors that dominated and terrorized the Judeans, Portier-Young achieves what many anti-imperial interpreters do not: namely, a reading that is not historically embellished. Still, the degree with which the apocalypses are targeting empire alone will need to be further assessed by experts in early Judaism. For example, what other stressors contributed to the emergence of apocalyptic? I am especially wondering here how intra-Jewish conflicts may have contributed to the anxiety of life in Judea. Moreover, how does Portier-Young’s thesis hold up in light of other extant apocalypses written after the Seleucid empire? This study is sure to inspire many fascinating questions for future doctoral students to pursue.

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Bar Kokhba-era treasure

MORE ANCIENT BLING AND TREASURE has been discovered in Israel: Archeologists uncover 2,000-year-old coins, jewelry. The jewelry, believed to date back to the Bar Kokhba revolts, was likely hidden by a wealthy woman during the rebellion. (Jerusalem Post).

And that looks to me like yet another gold earring.

Much more ancient bling here and links.

UPDATE (7 June): More here.

Slavonic photo exhibition

SLAVONIC EXHIBITION: Slavonic compares with Greek, Latin and Jewish. A photo exhibition to mark the Day of Slavonic Letters and Culture was organised at Russian Centre of Science and Culture recently (Deccan Herald).

By "Jewish" the article seems to mean Hebrew. The Day of Slavonic Letters and Culture is 24 May. Background on the day and on ancient literature preserved in Church Slavonic is here and links.

Haredi protests at a salvage excavation

PROTESTS: 25 Arrested at Archaeological Dig (Arutz Sheva.

Police arrested 25 Hareidi Jews on Monday during a protest against the disturbing of graves at a building site in Yehud. ...

Happy 20th anniversary to Kfar Kedem

KFAR KEDEM: Recreated Ancient Galilean Village Celebrates 20 Years (Arutz Sheva).

I noted this site way back in 2003. It seems still to be going strong.

The fate of the James Ossuary and Jehoash inscription

A SOLOMONIC JUDGMENT on the James Ossuary and the Jehoash tablet?

Judge to decide fate of ossuary, Jehoash tablet

By MATTHEW KALMAN (Jerusalem Post)
29/05/2012

Scholars say items should be preserved; J'lem judge could order items destroy under "ruling of Solomon."

A Jerusalem judge will announce on Wednesday whether he has decided to order the destruction of a burial box that could have held the bones of the brother of Jesus and an inscribed tablet that could have come from the First Temple.

At a Jerusalem District Court hearing in April, Judge Aharon Farkash said he might exercise “the judgement of Solomon” and order both items to be destroyed.

[...]

On Wednesday, Judge Farkash will pass sentence on the defendant, Oded Golan, who was acquitted on 41 charges of forgery, fraud and other serious crimes, but found guilty of three minor misdemeanors of trading in antiquities without a license and handling goods suspected of being stolen.

At a hearing in April, the prosecution demanded a tough sentence including jail time and said that the ossuary, the tablet and many other items should be confiscated by the court, even though Golan had been acquitted of all charges related to them.

“Maybe I’ll order them to be destroyed and neither side will have them,” said Farkash in comments that were not recorded in the official court transcript.

It would be “the judgement of Solomon,” said Judge Farkash.

“Neither of you will have the ossuary or the Jehoash tablet. They broke once already; they can be broken again. Just destroy them,” he said.

The ossuary cracked into two pieces in 2002 while it was being shipped to an exhibition in Canada and was repaired by restorers at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The Jehoash tablet broke along an existing crack in 2003 while it was being handled by investigators at the Israel Police forensic laboratory.

The judge also suggested that the items might be put on display for the public.

“Maybe they should be exhibited at the Israel Museum as items from this trial suspected of being fakes,” he said.

Experts who gave evidence for both sides last night urged Judge Farkash not to destroy the items.

[...]

Destroying the objects would be a terrible idea and I wonder if the judge's words are being quoted accurately and, if so, whether he was speaking tongue in cheek. The James Ossuary is itself an ancient artifact, whether or not part of the inscription is forged. Would it even be legal to order it destroyed?

I think the Jehoash/Joash inscription is a forgery, but it should be kept and at least studied to learn more about the techniques of modern forgers.

May I respectfully remind the judge that Solomon did not actually carry out that particular judgment.

Much background on the Israel forgery trial is here and links.

Monday, June 04, 2012

Romanian DSS smuggler?

MYSTERY: A Romanian Smuggler of Dead Sea Scrolls? (Exploring Our Matrix).

Classical Hebrew post at TAU

JOB IN CLASSICAL HEBREW:

From Hezy Mutzafi (yehezmu@post.tau.ac.il):
====================================

Tel Aviv University
The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities
Department of Hebrew Culture Studies

Position in Classical Hebrew Studies

The Department of Hebrew Culture Studies at Tel Aviv University invites applicants holding a PhD degree for a tenured or tenure-track position in the field of classical Hebrew, to be effective as of October 2013.

The position requires competence in using Hebrew as a language of instruction and the ability to conduct independent research and scholarly projects in classical Hebrew and its affinity to cognate Semitic languages, as well as teaching courses which are affiliated with the study programs of Hebrew Language, Semitic Linguistics, Bible, Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at the Department of Hebrew
Culture Studies.

Salary and conditions will conform to Israeli University regulations. Appointment procedures will be carried out according to the rules and regulations of Tel-Aviv University and are subject to the approval of University authorities.

Applicants should send their Curriculum Vitae, samples of publications and/or other written work. Three letters of recommendation from senior scholars should be sent independently to Prof. Moshe Florentin, the Head of the Department of Hebrew Culture Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel

Applications should be received no later than July 15, 2012.

The position is open for candidates without any discrimination as to gender, nationality or ethnic origins. The appointment will be based solely on candidate qualifications and the department’s needs. The department, the faculty or Tel-Aviv University are not obligated to appoint any of the candidates who apply for the position.

From the Agade list.

KCL Biblical Studies and Jewish Studies Joint Day Conference

DAY CONFERENCE:

King's College London: Biblical Studies and Jewish Studies Joint Day
Conference with Professor Philip Esler, Principal of St Mary's
University College, London, June 8th

Room K0.16, King's Building

10.30 Arrivals: tea and coffee

11.00 Introduction and welcome: Revd Professor Richard Burridge

11.05 Reading Old Testament/Hebrew Bible Narrative: Why's and
Wherefore's
Professor Philip Esler
Chaired by Dr Andrea Schatz

12.30 Lunch (own arrangements)

14.00 Judean Ethnic Identity and the Origin of the Christ Movement:
The
Meaning of Matthew and Hebrews
Professor Philip Esler
Chaired by Dr Edward Adams

15.15 Formal Responses: Prof. Joan Taylor and Dr Adam Silverstein

16.00 Refreshments

No attendance charge, but please RSVP to trs@kcl.ac.uk

Dr Edward Adams
Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
King's College London
Strand, London
WC2R 2LS
Tel: 0207 848 2502

From the BNTS list.

Court ruling on gold cuneiform tablet

SOME NEWS ON THAT GOLD CUNEIFORM TABLET:

Nazi Victim’s Family Told to Return Artifact

By PATRICIA COHEN (NYT
Published: June 1, 2012

A state appellate court in Brooklyn has ordered the family of a Holocaust survivor to return an ancient gold tablet to a German museum.

[...]

Raymond J. Dowd, the lawyer who represented the museum and who has represented the families of Holocaust victims trying to recover lost art, called the decision historically significant.

“The principle that property taken unlawfully should be returned is consistent with the rights of Holocaust victims,” he said. “This precedent will help those seeking return of stolen works that are museums not only in the U.S. but throughout Europe.”

But a lawyer for the family, Seth A. Presser, said the decision had “caused a remarkably inequitable result” and that it would be appealed.

“We believe that the court has misapprehended certain facts and, as a result, misapplied New York law,” he said.

[...]

Via the Agade list. Background here.

Scholarships for TAU MA program in Jewish Studies

SCHOLARSHIPS:

From Emilie Levy:

Dear All,
I would like to inform you that few scholarships are still available for the 2012-2013 MA program in Jewish Studies at Tel Aviv University.

The program is the world's only one-year intensive MA in Jewish Studies taught in English in a Hebrew speaking environment and offers a series of comprehensive encounters with the classical texts of Jewish cultures. In addition, few more spots are still open for the Summer School in Rabbinic Literature, which aims to enhance textual, linguistic and philological skills for advanced students of Jewish and Religious studies interested in acquiring reading skills in Talmud and Midrash.

Both of the programs will expose the students to relevant historical sites, current scholarship, and leading Israeli experts in the field, as a well as meeting with international students.

For more details about our programs, visit our website or download our brochure I would be very grateful if you could forward this email to any person who may be interested.
Best Regards,

Emilie Levy
Program Coordinator
International MA in Jewish Studies
Tel Aviv University
TAU International

+972(0)3 640 65 03

http://humanities.tau.ac.il/jewish_studies/

From the SOTS List.

Review of Schäfer, The Origins of Jewish Mysticism

BOOK REVIEW at H-JUDAIC:

Peter Schäfer. The Origins of Jewish Mysticism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. xv + 398 pp. $35.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-691-14215-9.

Reviewed by Mark Verman (Wright State University)
Published on H-Judaic (May, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Early Jewish Mystical Literature

Peter Schäfer’s new monograph The Origins of Jewish Mysticism (hereafter OJM) is a magisterial tour de force. Owing to the breadth of the material that is covered and Schäfer’s consistently lucid, methodical, and incisive analysis, this book is an instant classic and will become the benchmark for all subsequent discussions of the topic. Schäfer’s lengthy and productive career has revolved around his incomparable contribution to the publication and scholarly analysis of that corpus of writings known as Hekhalot (Temples/Palaces) texts. An examination of these particular works constitutes the culmination of his current book. In fact, the basic agenda of OJM is an attempt to discover to what extent the pre-Hekhalot writings, biblical and post-biblical, can be seen as anticipating the mystical experience delineated in the Hekhalot corpus.

[...]

I reviewed this book at the 2010 Society of Biblical Literature meeting. A revised version of that review has recently been published in Dead Sea Discoveries (requires paid personal or institutional subscription to access).

Review of Sperber, Greek in Talmudic Palestine

BOOK REVIEW: Daniel Sperber’s Greek in Talmudic Palestine- Review by Yair Furstenberg (the Talmud Blog). Excerpt:

In his latest book, Daniel Sperber contributes to this endeavor by laying out some of the main findings of his two esteemed masters, Krauss and Lieberman, and by commenting on the challenges which, in his eyes, their works hold for future scholarship. Thus, in the first part, “Greek and Latin Words in Rabbinic Literature: Prolegomena to a New Dictionary of Classical Words in Rabbinic Literaute” (a reprint of two of his articles from the seventies), Sperber surveys the problems and methodological concerns which await the compilation of an improved dictionary, more than a century after Krauss. In the second part, “Rabbinic Knowledge of Greek in Talmudic Palestine”, he readdresses the fundamental question posed by Liebermen: “How much knowledge (and we may add, and of what nature) of the world which surrounded them did the builders of Rabbinic Judaism possess?”. To that end, he adds to Lieberman’s exposition some further examples of his own, relating to regional differences, knowledge of pagan ritual, rabbinic acquaintance with Roman legal and military terminology, and the use of Greek in magical texts.