Church of Nativity made UNESCO World Heritage Site

THIS STORY has been developing for the last week or so and I've been watching it, but I haven't had a chance to deal with it until now.

Unesco Adds Nativity Church in Bethlehem to Heritage List

By ISABEL KERSHNER (NYT)
Published: June 29, 2012

JERUSALEM — The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, along with the Pilgrimage Route, was added on Friday to Unesco’s World Heritage List, a move that was celebrated by Palestinians who hailed it as a significant political and diplomatic achievement as much as a cultural one.

Hanan Ashrawi, who leads the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Department of Culture and Information, called the 13-to-6 vote of the World Heritage Committee meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, “a welcome recognition by the international community of our historical and cultural rights in this land.”

[...]

“This is proof that Unesco is motivated by political considerations and not cultural ones,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement after the vote. “Instead of taking steps to advance peace,” it added, “the Palestinians are acting unilaterally in ways that only distance it.”

“The world should remember that the Church of the Nativity, which is sacred to Christians, was desecrated in the past by Palestinian terrorists,” the statement said, a reference to Palestinian gunmen occupying the church in 2002 along with clerics and civilians who had taken refuge there as Israeli tanks and troops pushed into Bethlehem. The Israeli military action was part of a broader offensive after months of Palestinian suicide bombings inside Israel. The church remained under siege for 39 days.

[...]

The AFP has also covered the story: UNESCO urgently lists Church of Nativity as world heritage. Also Reuters: Palestinians win endangered world heritage status for Bethlehem church.

There have been lots of responses. Here are a few:

U.S. Needs Wiggle Room to Escape Unesco Trap (Bloomberg). Excerpt:

The episode offers a glimpse of the new Unesco, where the U.S. has diminished clout after having announced its intention to stop funding the organization following Palestine’s admission as a member last October. The U.S. purpose presumably was to punish Unesco. Instead, other countries -- notably China and Qatar -- have stepped in to fill the 22 percent hole in Unesco’s $325 million annual budget.

And if the U.S. goes two years without paying dues, it will be ousted from Unesco. Bad idea. Better that the U.S. resume its funding and stay in the organization.

Palestine attempts land grab at World Heritage Committee (Jerusalem Post). Excerpt:

Palestine has also filed a so-called “Tentative List” of a dozen other sites, including Ancient Jericho, Mount Gerizim, the Old City of Nablus (Shchem) and its environs, Old City of Hebron and its environs and Sebastia. The last is within the 1949 Green Line and the Scrolls pertain, we thought irrefutably; to the Jewish people.

Palestinian supercessionism has now moved beyond Jewish sites to those of Christianity, Samaritans and first-century Essenes.

Nuncio cautious about church's designation as World Heritage site (Georgia Bulletin).

UNESCO declares Bethlehem basilica a World Heritage site (Catholic World News). Excerpt:

Church officials in Israel welcomed the UNESCO decision, because it could provide protection for the Nativity basilica, which has been in deteriorating condition because the Christian custodians cannot agree on needed maintenance work. The administration of many shrines in the Holy Land is divided between Catholic and Orthodox custodians, under the terms of an agreement that dates back to the Ottoman Empire. Frequent clashes over territory within the shrines has often prevented cooperation on repairs. Because of the UNESCO decision, Palestinian officials will be able to raise funds for overdue maintenance work at the Nativity basilica.

In 2011 I noted (here and here and links) when the PA was admitted as a full member of UNESCO and talk began about adding the Church of the Nativity etc. as World Heritage Sites under the auspices of the former. Some relevant background on UNESCO and the politics of the region is here and links.

Mount Gerizim excavation reopens

GOOD NEWS:

Mt. Gerizim Archaeological Site Reopens After 12 Years

12 years after being closed because of the Oslo War, the archaeological site on Mount Gerizim reopened in a special ceremony.

By Elad Benari & Yoni Kempinski (Arutz Sheva)
First Publish: 7/6/2012, 4:12 AM

The archaeological excavation site on Mount Gerizim, near Shechem, was officially inaugurated in a special ceremony on Thursday.

The ceremony was attended by Environment Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud), Shomon Regional Council head Gershon Mesika, the head of the Nature and Parks Authority Shaul Goldstein, and the Head of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz.

Mount Gerizim and nearby Mount Eival are named in the Pentateuch as the place where the Priests and Levites addressed the tribes entering Israel after their sojourn in the desert, blessing them at Mount Gerizim if they kept G-d's commandments and elucidating the punishments they would receive at Mount Eival if they did not. Mount Gerizim is also an important place for the Samaritans, who believe that the preeminent holy spot is on the mountain and whose Temple was built there.

Mount Gerizim was excavated for more than 24 years and Thursday’s ceremony marked the archaeological site’s reopening after being closed for 12 years since the start of the Oslo War, also known as the Second Intifada.

[...]

Lots more on Mount Gerizim and the Samaritans here and links.

Woe unto Babylon

THE SITE OF BABYLON has become the victim of an oil pipeline and the dispute over the Iraqi Jewish archive: Oil and politics are ancient Babylon’s new curse (AP).

The oil pipeline seems to be a matter of putting short-term national interests ahead of long-term ones. And if anyone digs through the site of Babylon and doesn't find any artifacts, they aren't looking very hard.

As for the business about the archive, the phrase "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face" comes to mind.

Background on the 2008 British Museum exhibition on ancient Babylon is here and here and links. Background on Babylon in the Saddam era is here and here, and on the unfortunate occupation of the site by the US and Polish Armies in 2005 here, here, and here.

July 4th

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY to my American readers!

Haaretz and the Temple Institute

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Messianic sect allows peek into battle to build third Temple

Messianic right-wing activists offer Haaretz a rare glimpse into efforts to Judaize the Temple Mount - including with a flood of lawsuits.

By Oz Rosenberg | Jul.03, 2012 | 4:16 AM |

The headline to this long, rambling article is misleading on a couple of counts. First of all, to my mind the Temple Mount is already kind of Judaized, it being the site of the Jewish Temple and all. The article uses this language too (some comments on which are here and links) and it isn't particularly helpful for sorting out what is actually going on. And, although it is correct that the long-term goal of the groups in question is to rebuild the Temple (when the Messiah comes), the current issue under discussion is lobbying for the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

My own view, for what it's worth, is that people should be allowed to pray—peaceably and respectfully—pretty much wherever they want, and if other people don't like it, too bad. If the people who don't like other people praying at a shared holy site want to riot about it, the authorities should deal with the rioters as harshly as becomes necessary to maintain order.

As for the proposed rebuilding of the Temple, I am not a fan of the idea and it is obviously politically impossible for the foreseeable future. Beyond that, any excavation or construction on the Temple Mount should, first, respect and preserve all existing architecture on the site, along with its normal uses. Second, such excavation should be done only under scientifically controlled conditions under the supervision of archaeologists. But I would prefer that archaeological exploration of the site wait a few years until we have non-destructive technologies to do the job. I have commented on the Temple Institute and related matters here. And there's much more on non-invasive and non-destructive technologies at this recent post and links.

Hurtado on Christology

LARRY HURTADO sets matters straight on An “Early High Christology.”

More from Bauckham on the Talpiot Tomb B inscription

RICHARD BAUCKHAM has posted A New Interpretation of the Greek Ossuary Inscription in Talpiyot Tomb B at Mark Goodacre's New Testament Blog. If he is right, the inscription just consists of a couple of names. We'll see what the response is from Greek paleographers, but meanwhile remember a good rule of thumb is that the more banal reading is to be preferred.

Background here and links.

Temple Mount Sifting Project and related

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Here's an article in Israel HaYom on the Temple Mount Sifting Project is the context of much earlier as well as very recent developments:

Second Temple-era mikveh discovered under Al-Aqsa mosque

Al-Aqsa mosque was destroyed in an earthquake in 1927 • As it was being rebuilt, the British archaeologist Robert Hamilton documented the excavation of its foundations • He hid away the findings that the waqf found inconvenient • Today, thousands of findings, including a seal with the inscription “From Gibeon to the king” unearthed by Dr. Gabi Barkai and Zachi Dvira, shed light on the Temple Mount’s Jewish period • A peek back into history.

Nadav Shragai

I didn't know about Hamilton's excavations.

Eighty years later, Hamilton’s hidden findings are providing support for similar findings unearthed by two Israeli archaeologists, Dr. Gabi Barkai and Zachi Dvira. For the past seven years, Barkai and Dvira have been working on a unique project: sifting tons of earth that the waqf removed from the Temple Mount in the dead of night about 13 years ago. This earth is filled with tiny archaeological findings.

[...]

Beneath the floor of Al-Aqsa mosque, which had collapsed in the earthquake, Hamilton discovered the remains of a Jewish mikveh [ritual pool used for purification] that dated back to the Second Temple era.

Apparently, Jews immersed in this mikveh before entering the Temple grounds.

Barkai and Dvira found a multitude of small items from the periods of the First and Second Temples. Among these items were fragments of the small columns used in a hypocaust — a space under the floor of a room, used to heat the room above — and tubuli - hollow square bricks through which heated air passed, heating the space. Barkai believes that these are remnants of the heating system that the pilgrims, or perhaps the priests, used after completing the ritual immersion.

About half a meter (1.5 feet) under the floor of the damaged mosque, Hamilton discovered the remains of a Byzantine mosaic. When Dvira saw the photographs of it, he immediately recalled hundreds of thousands of mosaic stones and fragments of column capitals, marble used to cover stalls, and marble used for the grating of a church, all from the Byzantine period (324-638 C.E.) that had been found amid the earth taken from the Temple Mount.

That doesn't sound good.

The report of the inscribed bulla seems to be new:

One of the rare findings discovered recently is a bulla that was found in a First Temple-era trash pit on the southeastern slopes of the Temple Mount. The bulla bore the inscription: “From Gibeon to the king.” Gabi Barkai believes that the bulla, which is about 2,600 years old dating back to the seventh century B.C.E., is evidence of the tax that the inhabitants of Gibeon paid to the king of Judah, who was likely Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah.

“This is the first time that a bulla of this type has been discovered someplace other than the antiques market. It gives validity to 50 other bullae, most of which are in the collection of Joseph Chaim Kaufman of Belgium. Each bulla mentions a city whose name appears in the fifteenth chapter of the biblical Book of Joshua,” says Barkai. “This demonstrates that those cities paid taxes to the central government.”

The bulla that bears the inscription “From Gibeon to the king” was found by accident when the ground was being leveled on the eastern slopes of the Temple Mount in order to prepare for a mass given by the Pope, who visited Israel that year. Zachi Dvira, who was there when the work was going on and watched it, received permission to transfer the earth from there for sifting in Ein Tzurim National Park. This led to the discovery of amazing findings including fragments of earthenware and tools, bones and five other bullae from the First Temple era.

There is plenty more left to sift:

Dr. Gabi Barkai says that to date, about two-thirds of the earth removed from the Temple Mount has been transported to the sifting site, and about half of the total amount has been sifted. “The remaining third, which was not taken to the sifting site, became mixed in large part with other dust and earth, so we let it go. ... We have enough sifting work for another seven years,” he says, and mentions that piles of earth remain on the Temple Mount. In an extraordinary move, he High Court of Justice has ruled that the waqf is forbidden to move them.

“We are willing to allow the waqf to remove the earth from there under certain conditions that will allow us to carry out a better archaeological examination of it, or if they allow us to sift it there. Meanwhile, the waqf refuses to allow either option. Not only that, but it is deliberately mixing this earth with modern-day trash and construction debris in order to reduce our ability to get something out of it in the future,” he says.

That doesn't sound good either.

I noted the 2006 discovery of the inscription mentioning Flavius Silva here.

Finally, there is this:

This week, a rare photograph was taken on the Temple Mount. Taken inside the Dome of the Rock, it shows construction materials and rebar placed on the Foundation Stone, the place where the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant are believed to have been. While there does not appear to be any archaeological damage, this state of affairs is an expression of the weakness of the Antiquities Authority in the place that is the most important to the Jewish people. This weakness takes the form of the authority’s complete dependence on the police and also of the contempt that the Muslims show toward Jewish archaeological remnants on the Temple Mount.

You can see the photograph here at the Jerusalem Post blog.

The article has a lot of other interesting information, so read it all. Background on the Temple Mount Sifting Project is here with many links.

Synagogue and mosaic floor excavated in Galilee

IAA PRESS RELEASE:

Monumental synagogue building discovered in excavations in Galilee

A monumental synagogue building dating to the Late Roman period (ca. 4th-5th centuries C.E.) has been discovered in archaeological excavations at Huqoq in Israel's Galilee.

The excavations are being conducted by Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and David Amit and Shua Kisilevitz of the Israel Antiquities Authority, under the sponsorship of UNC, Brigham Young University in Utah, Trinity University in Texas, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Toronto in Canada. Students and staff from UNC and the consortium schools are participating in the dig

Huqoq is an ancient Jewish village located approximately two to three miles west of Capernaum and Migdal (Magdala). Thissecond season of excavations has revealed portions of a stunning mosaic floor decorating the interior of the synagogue building. The mosaic, which is made of tiny colored stone cubes of the highest quality, includes a scene depicting Samson placing torches between the tails of foxes (as related in the book of Judges 15). In another part of the mosaic, two human (apparently female) faces flank a circular medallion with a Hebrew inscription that refersto rewards for those who performgood deeds.

"This discovery is significant because only a small number of ancient (Late Roman) synagogue buildings are decorated with mosaics showing biblical scenes, and only two others have scenes with Samson (one is at another site just a couple of miles from Huqoq)," said Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor in the department of religious studies in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences. "Our mosaics are also important because of their high artistic quality and the tiny size of the mosaic cubes. This, together with the monumental size of the stones used to construct the synagogue's walls, suggest a high level of prosperity in this village, as the building clearly was very costly."

Excavations are scheduled to continue in summer 2013.

Click on the link below to download high resolution photographs

Photographic Credit: Jim Haberman

SWBTS DSS exhibit opens

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION IN FORT WORTH (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), which opened yesterday, is reviewed in the Star-Telegram: Collection of Dead Sea Scroll fragments on display at Southwestern Seminary. That should be Peter Flint, not Peter Finch. There is also a nice photo gallery: Dead Sea Scrolls on Display.

Background here and links.

More on SWBTS DSS exhibit

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminar is covered by the Christian Post, Singapore edition, and has some information I don't recall seeing before:

Largest Ever Dead Sea Scroll Fragments on Display

Saturday, Jun. 30, 2012 Posted: 9:46:03PM HKT

Visitors at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's exhibition, "Dead Sea Scrolls & the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures" in Forth Worth, Texas, will be able to view the largest Dead Sea Scroll fragments to ever be placed on public display starting July 12.

"The chance to view portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls usually requires an overseas trip to a Near East nation, such as Israel or Jordan," said Bruce McCoy, the exhibition director.

The elaborate display will include the Genesis 37-38 fragment, which is owned by the Kando family of Bethlehem and is considered to be the largest Dead Sea Scroll segment held by a private collector. Five other major fragments will also be on display, including Genesis 33, 1 Kings 13:22-22, Isaiah 28:23-29, Amos 7:17- 8:1 and Joel 3:9-10.

These fragments account for only the latest additions to the impressive ancient artifact display – passages from Nehemiah, Ezekiel, and Jonah are all also featured, and with the help of the Green Collection and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Southwestern's total display has reached 21.

In addition, other rare and interesting artifacts that will be present at the MacGorman Performing Arts Center will include the Isaiah scroll, the Habakkuk Commentary, the Manual of Discipline, and the full Copper Scroll, which were all found at the archaeological site in Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.

[...]

I think there is something wrong with the last paragraph. Granted, the exhibition website (http://www.seethescrolls.com/) is very weak on particulars, but if these superstar scrolls were actually part of it, I would think that would be mentioned somewhere. Not only that, the Copper Scroll was sliced up into a bunch of narrow segments in order to read it and I would be very surprised if all of them were allowed to travel to one exhibition. Moreover, the Copper Scroll is held by Jordan, but there is absolutely nothing on the website about a Jordanian connection.

Not mentioned in the article, but the St. John's Bible and the Gabriel Revelation are also part of the exhibition.

Background here and links.

UPDATE: Reader Theophrastus has e-mailed to point me to the press release on which the article is based and which says clearly that the scrolls I had doubts about are facsimiles.

Moses and Greco-Egyptian magic

JARED CALAWAY has a post on the post-biblical pagan Moses tradition at Antiquitopia: Moses and Greco-Egyptian Practices: Contextualizing the Christian Moses. In brief:

In this post, I would like to delve a little deeper in the Moses of the Greek and Demotic Magical Papyri: a Moses to be emulated; a Moses who belongs to an environment where his name had value and influence even beyond Jewish and Christian circles, and whose experiences upon the mountain provided a model to emulate as you, too, could call upon and see God on the mount.

Incidentally, The Eighth Book of Moses in PGM 13 has been translated by Todd Klutz for the first volume of texts from the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project (working title: Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures). Should be out in the autumn.

What is a redactor?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What is a Redactor? (Ron Naiweld at the Talmud blog).

This is not just an issue for rabbinic texts. In antiquity it was the norm for writers to be both authors and compilers and they saw no particular distinction between the two.

$500,000 Talmuds?

TALMUD WATCH:

Rare Edition of Talmud May Yield Big Bucks

(Tuesday, June 26th, 2012) (The Yeshiva World)

The starting price for volumes of Shas Bavli and Yerushalmi with handwritten notes from the Vilna Gaon offered for sale is $500,000. The sale offered by the Kedma Company includes mesechtos Rosh Hashanah, Taanis, Yoma, Sukka, and Megilah, as well as Talmud Yerushalmi Meseches Shekalim.

Editions containing the Gra’s notes were reprinted in 1880-1886 but according to the seller, the volumes for sale do not include all the notes from the Gra or those that were printed were amended. The volumes being offered for sale are from those with the Gra’s original comments, and these comments have been lost over the years.

[...]

That sounds pretty cool, but whether it is cool to the tune of $500,000 we shall see.

Talmud and drug trade?

TALMUD WATCH: Iran VP Says Talmud to Blame for Drugs Trade.

Of course he did. He did not, however, cite a specific passage.

Another circumcision ban

I SEEM TO RECALL that banning circumcision didn't work out very well for Antiochus Epiphanes.

Cherub Press trilogy on ancient Jewish mysticism

MORE FROM CHERUB PRESS:

Cherub Press is proud to announce
A trilogy of studies in Hebrew on ancient Jewish mysticism by
Michael Schneider

THE FIRST TWO VOLUMES
ARE NOW AVAILABLE !

Volume I
The Appearance of the High Priest
Theophany, Apotheosis and Binitarian Theology
From Priestly Tradition of the Second Temple Period through Ancient Jewish Mysticism (in Hebrew)
מראה כהן
תיאופניה, אפותיאוזה, ותיאולוגיה בינארית
בין ההגות הכהנית בתקופת הבית השני לבין המיסטיקה היהודית הקדומה

Volume II
Scattered Traditions of Jewish Mysticism
Studies in Ancient Jewish Mysticism in Light of Traditions from the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha
Hellenistic Literature, Christian and Islamic Sources (in Hebrew)
המסורות הגנוזות של המיסטיקה היהודית
מחקרי המיסטיקה היהודית הקדומה
על פי עדויות של ספרים חיצונים, ספרות הלניסטית, מקורות נוצריים ומוסלמיים

Volume III
The Divine Retinue
Variety of Jewish Mysticism (in Hebrew)
פמליא של מעלה
ריבוי פניה של המיסטיקה היהודית
(forthcoming, this summer)
The Divine Retinue: Variety of Jewish Mysticism, פמליא של מעלה: ריבוי פניה של המיסטיקה היהודית, by Michael Schneider (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 32; 2012, in Hebrew, FORTHCOMING). This is the third book in a trilogy of studies on Jewish mythical and mystical traditions from the Second Temple period through the early medieval ages. One of the main purposes of this study is to show variegation in early Jewish mysticism that cannot be reduced to a few major trends. One of its cross-cutting themes is the images of multiplicity – like the rainbow and the multi-faced theophanic angels – as a revelation of the One God. The book traces mythic and mystical traditions and motifs through sources belonging to a variety of languages, cultures and religions, mainly Jewish, Christian, gnostic, Muslim, Zoroastrian and Buddhist.
ORDER HERE: Atlas Books

Scattered Traditions of Jewish Mysticism: Studies in Ancient Jewish Mysticism in Light of Traditions from the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha Hellenistic Literature, Christian and Islamic Sources המסורות הגנוזות של המיסטיקה היהודית: מחקרי המיסטיקה היהודית הקדומה על פי עדויות של ספרים חיצונים, ספרות הלניסטית, מקורות נוצריים ומוסלמיים, by Michael Schneider (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 31; 2012, 336 pages, ISBN 1-933379-26-X, in Hebrew). This is the second volume in a trilogy of studies on Jewish mythical and mystical traditions from the Second Temple through the early medieval ages. The book includes three extensive studies. The first deals with pseudepigraphic book of Joseph and Aseneth and explores the topics of ritual, initiation, mystical transformation and sacred marriage. The second chapter contains a thorough revision of the scholarly consensus about the pargod as a medium of mystical vision in Hekhalot literature and in the Apocalyptic. The third chapter is devoted to the ‘Prince of peace’, the divine-angelic-human messianic figure that embodies the principle of ‘coincidentia oppositorum’.
ORDER HERE: Atlas Books

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, 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.
ORDER HERE: Atlas Books

Volume one has been noted already here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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).

[...]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.