Regev on Qumran archaeology

QUMRAN AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS MONTH: Sectarianism and the Archaeology of Qumran (Eyal Regev, ASOR Blog).

The spatial characteristics of Kh. Qumran correspond to sectarian social organization and ideology as defined by sociologists of religion and documented in studies of different sects, and are typical of the spatial organization of several modern sects, especially the Shakers. These general characteristics are also typical of the Yahad sect of the Community Rule (1QS). They may relate to a certain social correspondence between the inhabitants of the site and the Yahad.

Background here and links.

Charlesworth on 1QHa col. 16

QUMRAN AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS MONTH: The Eternal Planting, the Eden of Glory (James H. Charlesworth, ASOR Blog).

A taste of his forthcoming translation of the Hodayot.

Background here.

World's biggest Talmud test

DAF YOMI LATEST: 15,000 Take Largest Talmud Test in History
Last Friday more than 15,000 Torah scholars joined together around the world for the largest Talmud test in history (Arutz Sheva).

Larry Hurtado and "binitarianism"

LARRY HURTADO, in response to a recent BNTC paper by Anthony Thistelton, has clarified his current views on divine recipients of cultic devotion vs. God-discourse in the New Testament: “Binitarian,” “Dyadic,” “Triadic”: Early Christian God-talk and Devotion.

So, those interested primarily in the beliefs and religious outlook of earliest Christianity will perhaps find useful this more recent book, God in New Testament Theology. In any case, I offer two concluding observations: (1) The NT reflects a dyadic devotional pattern, in which God and Jesus feature as the programmatic recipients of devotion, especially corporate worship-devotion; but (2) there is a clear triadic shape to the God-discourse reflected in the NT. In short, I am not an exponent of “binitarianism” (whatever that is), nor have I primarily been concerned to offer a theological evaluation of the evidence of earliest Christian belief and/or devotional practice. My aims have been primarily to analyze these matters and describe them accurately.

The Jesus Blog

ASSIMILIATED TO THE BLOGOSPHERE: Many people have been noting the new blog by Anthony Le Donne and Chris Keith: The Jesus Blog "...a weblog dedicated to historical Jesus research brought to you by a hillbilly and a treehugger."

Greek to Georgian

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Translations from Greek into Georgian (Roger Pearse).

Some bits and pieces of Old Testament pseudepigrapha survive in Georgian.

Useful Aramaic vocabulary

ARAMAIC WATCH: In case you were wondering:

The 500 Most Common Nouns in Galilean Aramaic (in progress - Aramaic blog)

A list of some ethnic stereotypes in Syriac (hmmlorientalia)

Aramaic hacking

IT'S COME TO THIS: The Mandaean Book of John – Hacked!

Ginzei-Qedem 8

H-JUDAIC: TOC: Ginzei-Qedem 8 (2012)

Ginzei Qedem is an annual publication devoted to Genizah texts and studies, in the broadest possible sense of the phrase, including the publication of fragments of literary works and documents from genizot in Cairo and elsewhere, as well as new studies based on such fragments.

Its purpose is to provide a specialized venue for the field of Genizah research, in the hope that research on and publication of Genizah texts will, in time, enrich both traditional and academic Jewish studies, as well as Islamic ones, in a variety of areas, including Biblical studies and exegesis, Talmud, halakha, theology, philosophy, liturgy, history, linguistics, science, medicine, magic, and more.

Follow the link for the TOC.

New book: Stein, Textual Mirrors

NEW BOOK:

Textual Mirrors
Reflexivity, Midrash, and the Rabbinic Self
Dina Stein

248 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth Aug 2012 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4436-6 | $79.95s | £52.00 |

Textual Mirrors draws on literary theory, folklore studies, and semiotics to examine stories in which self-reflexivity operates particularly strongly to constitute rabbinic identity through the voices of Simon the Just and a handsome shepherd, the daughter of Asher, the Queen of Sheba, and an unnamed maidservant. In Stein's readings, these self-reflexive stories allow us to go through the looking glass: where the text comments upon itself, it both compromises the unity of its underlying principles—textual, religious, and ideological—and confirms it.

Via the Talmud Blog on Facebook.

Daf Yomi column and news

ADAM KIRSCH at Tablet Magazine: Talmudic Rebbe-llion: A coup at the rabbinic academy deposes Gamliel and unleashes a torrent of questions.

Also: Siyum HaShas inspiring newcomers to daily Talmud study (Neil Rubin, JTA).

Two of Linden's congregants also have started the Daf Yomi, and Linden has launched an invitation-only Facebook page called Unorthodox Daf Yomi that now has more than 120 members.

The members are just some of the many Jews who say they were motivated by the publicity surrounding the Aug. 1 completion of the Shas -- the 2,711 pages of the Talmud -- to make daily Talmud study a part of their lives.

H-JUDAIC book reviews

H-JUDAIC REVIEWS:

Joseph L. Angel. Otherworldly and Eschatological Priesthood in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Leiden: Brill, 2010. xiii + 380 pp. $179.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-90-04-18145-8.

Reviewed by James Bowley (Millsaps College)
Published on H-Judaic (September, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Priests in Heaven, the Eschaton, and Qumran

This study began as Joseph L. Angel’s 2008 dissertation at New York University, under the tutelage of Lawrence Schiffman. Angel takes up interesting issues of priesthood within Dead Sea Scrolls that have not received a full-scale systematic inquiry heretofore, namely, the frequently encountered images of an angelic (or “otherworldly”) priesthood and an eschatological priesthood. His turn toward these nonhistorical priestly imaginings of the ancient scroll writers is motivated not just by curiosity but also by his awareness of the thorniness of trying to derive any secure data about historical and social priestly realities of the authors’ community or communities. He writes that “the present study therefore largely abandons such historical inquiry in favor of investigation of the imagined constructs of priesthood in the Scrolls corpus” (p. 15). Acknowledgement of uncertainties is always commendable, and in chapter 1 Angel notes that the varied explanations of the religious and social origins of the authors of the scrolls have “highlighted the gaps in our knowledge regarding the variety of groups in Second Temple period Judaism” and “underscored the need to broaden our perspective regarding Qumran origins beyond the confining borders of the Essene hypothesis” (p. 8). As the book proceeds, it is clear that the study does not depend on or promote a certain viewpoint of these matters.

[...]

I have not read this book but, judging by the reviewer's summary, I would probably agree with many of its conclusions.

Ada Rapoport-Albert. Women and the Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zevi, 1666-1816. Translated by Deborah Greniman. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2011. xvi + 386 pp. $64.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-904113-84-3.

Reviewed by Michael Galas (Jagiellonian University)
Published on H-Judaic (September, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Female Messiahs in Judaism

In recent years, the study of Sabbatianism and its final phase, Frankism, has experienced a renaissance. The movement was first studied on a large scale by Gershom Scholem; currently many books and articles are being published which seek to undermine his "authority" on the subjects but these rarely offer new approaches or interpretations. Ada Rapoport-Albert's book is a breakthrough in this field, interpreting previously known sources in a way that sets up new research areas that had been overlooked or ignored.

Rapoport-Albert examines the role of women in Sabbatianism by incorporating a number of innovative studies on women in Hasidism. She begins with the theme of women in Sabbatianism by arguing that women are the factor that distinguishes this mystical-messianic movement from others: "One of Sabbatianism's most distinctive and persistent features was the high visibility of women within its ranks. They were among the movement's earliest and most ardent supporters--championing the messianic cause, proclaiming its gospel, and from time to time emerging as its chief protagonists" (pp. 11-12). She then adds that if one wants to look for the roots of "feminism" in the premodern period it can be found precisely in Sabbatianism, not Hasidism. It is this statement that she tries to prove within the pages of her book.

[...]

For lots more on Shabbetai Zvi and Sabbateanism, see here and links.

Boyarin and Schäfer on Jesus

BOOK REVIEW IN THE FORWARD:

The Gospel According to Feuding Academics
No Winner in Debate About Jewish Origins of Christianity

By Jay Michaelson
Published September 05, 2012, issue of September 07, 2012.

The Jewish Gospels
By Daniel Boyarin
The New Press, 224 pages, $21.95
The Jewish Jesus: How Judaism and Christianity Shaped Each Other
By Peter Schäfer
Princeton University Press, 370 pages, $35

As someone who writes in the academic world and the worlds of journalism, activism and the popular press, I’ve been painfully aware of some differences among them. Good scholarship complicates, good activism simplifies. Good academic work is generally specific and obscure, but good popular work requires the general, the relatable.

These tensions are all at play in the recent bumper crop of books on Jesus and Judaism (this is the Forward’s fourth review of such books in this calendar year). Some have been scholarly and dense, others popular and outright ridiculous in the claims they have made.

And some, like Daniel Boyarin’s “The Jewish Gospels” and Peter Schäfer’s “The Jewish Jesus,” seem caught in between. Both books are by esteemed scholars whose work is deservedly well known, and whom I myself have studied for 20 years (Boyarin, in fact, was my master’s advisor at Hebrew University many years ago). Yet both appear to make a misguided case for a wider readership. Their provocative titles are ultimately misleading: Boyarin’s book barely touches on the Gospels, and Schäfer’s is not about Jesus. Furthermore, while their introductions purport to appeal to a large audience, the body of each book is actually standard academic fare: detailed, attentive, a bit dry and highly intellectual. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The two scholars are also locked in the kind of intellectual death match that goes on all the time in the academy but probably looks like a catfight from the outside. In a scalding takedown of Boyarin’s book in The New Republic, Schäfer wrote that “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.”

[...]

But Michaelson's main complaint is that neither scholar properly popularizes the important ideas on which they agree:

Midway through “The Jewish Jesus,” Schäfer complains of a “tendency in modern scholarship to mix texts and ideas into one big meat loaf just because of some real or imaginary resemblance. After the ingredients are baked — or only half-baked — they all taste the same.” This is an apt, sharp and mildly hilarious observation, although it actually applies more to popular writing than to scholarship. And therein lies the challenge these two books fail to meet. Schäfer gets worked up about the misdating of the apocryphal book of 3 Enoch, because he is a scholar and that’s what scholars do. But out here in the nonacademic world, people like meat loaf.

You can find a link to Schäfer's review of Boyarin's book here.

Rabbinic dissertations and theses

THE TALMUD BLOG: Recent Dissertations and Theses.

Iron Age Cistern and Phoenician Psalms

I'M BACK IN ST. ANDREWS. Got in late yesterday evening. Looks like it's been a quiet few days in the media, but the following can be filed under "Temple Mount Watch":

Cistern dated to First Temple period found in Jerusalem
Discovery of large man-made reservoir next to the Temple Mount shows city did not solely rely on the Gihon Spring for its water 2,500 years ago (Matti Friedman, The Times of Israel)

Joseph Lauer notes a link to the IAA press release and a temporary link that leads to high-resolution photos.

Also, to be filed under "Phoenician Watch: Not," I first saw "Royal Psalms" in this headline: Iron Chef participant Lee Hillson goes from Royal Palms to Phoenician.

Cross-file under "Don't believe my lying eyes."

UPDATE (10 September): Joseph Lauer e-mails a permanent link to the photo files, which is here.

Elman Festschrift

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Shoshannat Yaakov
Jewish and Iranian Studies in Honor of Yaakov Elman

Shai Secunda, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Steven Fine, Yeshiva University

Shoshannat Yaakov honors Yaakov Elman, Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, and celebrates Elman’s contributions to a broad range of disciplines within Jewish and Iranian studies. The fruits of Elman’s seminal project of bringing together of scholars of Iranian studies and Talmud in ways that have transformed both disciplines, are well represented in this volume, together with scholarship that ranges from Second Temple Judaism to Late Antique Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Samaritanism and Christianity.

Review of Gautier et al. (eds.) Sources de l'histoire de Tyr

BMCR REVIEW:

Pierre-Louis Gatier, Julien Aliquot, Lévon Nordiguian (ed.), Sources de l'histoire de Tyr: textes de l'Antiquité et du Moyen Âge. Beyrouth: Presses de l'IFPO; Presses de l'Université Saint-Joseph, 2011. Pp. 303. ISBN 9782351591840. €15.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Élodie Guillon, Doctorante à l’Université de Toulouse (UTM) (eguillon31@gmail.com)

Table of Contents

Pierre-Louis Gatier, Julien Aliquot et Lévon Nordiguian nous proposent un ouvrage collectif né d'une idée originale et ambitieuse, celle de rassembler des sources extrêmement variées et dispersées sur l'histoire d'une grande cité méditerranéenne antique et médiévale, Tyr. Le projet initial, de 2006, prévoyait un colloque sur ce thème, mais les événements régionaux ont obligé les éditeurs à recourir à une autre forme de travail collectif suivant un double objectif : faire le point sur les textes antiques et médiévaux concernant l'histoire tyrienne et soutenir la recherche archéologique, récente ou en projet, in situ. Tout en souhaitant aider la recherche sur Tyr, largement lacunaire à l'heure actuelle, les auteurs espèrent également éveiller l'intérêt d'un public plus large, cultivé et curieux.

[...]

Cross-file under "Phoenician Watch."

Digital Mishnah

HAYIM LAPIN: Welcome to the Digital Mishnah.

This site accompanies and hosts the development of a born-digital critical edition of the Mishnah. When fully implemented, the project provide a dynamic edition of the Mishnah that takes advantage of its medium to provide multiple and customizable presentations of the text, as well as analytical tools that will allow the user to study variability between witnesses as well as other features.

There's a blog too.

Via the Talmud Blog on Facebook.

JSJ 43.3 (2012)

HERE'S THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF JUDAISM. My journal tracking has been hit and miss lately, but this looks like a good one. Articles TOC:

Josephus on Herod’s Domestic Intrigue in the Jewish War
Author: Helen K. Bond
pp. 295–314 (20)

“Graia migrabit ab urbe:” A Textual and Literary Note on Petronius’ frg. 37 Ernout
Author: Silvia Castelli
pp. 315–327 (13)

‘Their Backs toward the Temple, and Their Faces toward the East:’ The Temple and Toilet Practices in Rabbinic Palestine and Babylonia
Author: Rachel Neis
pp. 328–368 (41)

R. Yehoshua ben Levi’s Final Ascent as a Model Tikkun Hanefesh
Author: Alexander Seinfeld
pp. 369–379 (11)

Plus many interesting book reviews.

Yale postdoc

H-JUDAIC: postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University.

The Program in Judaic Studies at Yale University is offering a two-year Jacob & Hilda Blaustein postdoctoral fellowship that will begin on July 1, 2013. Candidates for the fellowship must have a Ph.D. in hand by July 1, 2013 and must have received the degree no earlier than 2010. The Program seeks a specialist in Ancient Judaism/Jewish History who will work closely with appropriate members of Yale's faculty.

The application deadline is 11 February 2013. Follow the link for more information.

H-JUDAIC book reviews

BOOK REVIEWS (the H-JUDAIC links are here and here):

Robert Eisen. The Peace and Violence of Judaism: From the Bible to Modern Zionism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. 280 pp. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-975147-1.

Reviewed by Robert Tabak (St. Joseph’s University and Cabrini College )
Published on H-Judaic (August, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Swords and Plowshares: Confronting Peace and Violence in Judaism

Robert Eisen’s study The Peace and Violence of Judaism is a major contribution, bringing carefully selected texts and analysis to two key questions that confront scholars of Judaism as well as those seeking ethical and religious guidance today: What does Judaism say about peace and violence? And how have “Jews as a people envisioned their relationship with other peoples”? (p.11). Eisen, a professor of religion and Judaic studies at George Washington University, steps beyond his specialty as a medievalist to cover critical and controversial Jewish texts, ethical questions, and historical events from many centuries, including a wide range of recent secondary sources. This is a daring move, one which generally succeeds admirably.

[...]

Aryeh Cohen. Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism. Brighton: Academic Studies Press, 2011. 160 pp. $59.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-936235-64-3.

Reviewed by Jonathan K. Crane (Emory University)
Published on H-Judaic (August, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Humane Urbanism Rabbinically Conceived

It is always refreshing to read a book that renders the ancient Judaic textual tradition relevant to the complexities of modern living. Aryeh Cohen’s Justice in the City delves into the Babylonian Talmud and finds there ample ethical, philosophical, and legal sources that paint “a compelling picture of what a just city should be” (p. 9). A just city is not just any city in which residents go about their daily routines with mind-numbing hedonism. Rather, it is to be a “community of obligation” in which those “who are not always in view”--such as the homeless, poor, and working class--are nonetheless attended to and cared for (p. 9). Lest one worry that Cohen’s is an argument for each individual citizen to take on the burdens of caring for all the marginalized in a city and do nothing else, he stresses that it is the city’s responsibility as well to notice and attend to them. In this way a just city is precisely that: a city as a whole that is just (not just the individuals therein).

[...]

BNTC 2012

I'M OFF TO LONDON for the annual meeting of the British New Testament Society, this year at Kings College London. I am not presenting a paper this time, but Dr. Darrell Hannah and I are co-chairing the NT & Second Temple Judaism Seminar.

Over the next few days I will blog as much as time and Internet availability permit. But just in case, I have pre-posted something for each day I'm away, including later today. So do keep visiting as usual.

Crop circles

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: New crop circle inspires shock and awe: Who or what is making them and why is the media ignoring this incredible phenomena?

Guess who?

More on the Metatron's cube here.

Private Eye calls out Telegraph plagiarism

MARK GOODACRE: Private Eye on the Telegraph's plagiarized obituary of Marvin Meyer.

Meanwhile, over at The Telegraph, crickets chirping.

Once again, the mainstream media shove their head into ... the sand, while their ungainly torso bleeds out from the death of a thousand cuts.

More background here.

BAS essays on women in the ancient biblical tradition

ESSAYS FROM THE BIBLICAL ARCHAELOGICAL SOCIETY:

Janet Howe Gaines, Lilith: Seductress, Heroine or Murderer? (actually published in 2009 in Biblical Archaeology Review and already noted here)

The answer to the question is "Yes."

By the way, a lot of people think the Arslan Tash plaque is a forgery. This should have been mentioned.

I have numerous previous posts on Lilith: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here (excluding those with terminal link rot).

April DeConick, Biblical Views: How the Mother God Got Spayed (the first installment of her new Biblical Archaeology Review column)

This essay deals in part with the question of the place of women in early Christianity raised in the previous post: Gnosticism in the media.

Gnosticism in the media

GNOSTICISM has been getting some attention recently in odd corners of the new media.

First, Neo-Pagan magician Aidan Kelly has a four-part (ongoing?) series of blog posts on his interactions with Gnostic literature and scholars of Gnosticism over the past four decades:

The Fascinations of Gnosticism, Part I

The Fascinations of Gnosticism, Part II

The Fascinations of Gnosticism, Part III

The Fascinations of Gnosticism, Part IV: The Gospel According to Mary

Excerpt from the last:

The traditional conservative attitude toward Mary’s prominence in these writings is to assert that these Gnostics just made that up. But why would they? Women had no religious (or any other) authority in that misogynistic civilization. Unless she had been important from the very beginning of the movement, no one would ever have later claimed any authority for her.

Obviously, the implications of all this are still being worked out. I’ll have more to say later. But remember, the history of modern religious scholarship is still the history happening right now of beating the conservatives on their heads with facts, and of their fighting back against having to retreat, step by step.

That's a bit simplistic, but whatever. Specialists agree that the Gospel of Mary consists of legends about Mary made up long after the fact. The place of women in first-century Christianity is a separate issue, on which we have relatively little evidence and about which there is much discussion. But second- to fourth-century apocryphal traditions are of very limited usefulness as sources for the first century.

I have commented some years ago on the question "Was Jesus married to Mary Magdalene?"

[UPDATE: See also the essay by April DeConick noted in the next post.]

The series is interesting for its 60s countercultural appropriation of the Gnostic texts.

Second, a very different political appropriation of Gnosticism, which at least is something different from America always being the Roman Empire:

David Solway: The Ideology of the Left: Gnostics of Our Time (PJ Media).

To conclude. The psychology of the Left, despite certain asymmetries, is intrinsically a Gnostic one. The analogy is premonitory. For just as Gnosticism proved unsustainable as a resilient and effective theology, since it could not address the needs of the human spirit bound in time to an ineluctable world, so the theory of utopian socialism that animates the orphic community, in any of its manifold incarnations, can only distort the quest for human betterment. It can only reproduce — or worsen — the original flaw it seeks to transcend.

I'm not quite as sure as Mr. Solway is that Gnosticism as a theology is out of the running (see, e.g., above), but be that as it may.

This one got some attention from the mainstream media as well: Out of Mani, One: The philosophical roots of the Obama cult (James Taranto, WSJ).

It occurs to me that it is just possible that some of my academic readers may disagree with the politics of Solway's and Taranto's essays and, moreover, that some of those who disagree may be tempted to write and tell me so. Please restrain yourselves. My interest is sociological and I already get to hear more than enough political opinions from my Facebook friends.

Search engine referrals

IT'S BEEN A COUPLE OF YEARS and my search-engine-referral collection has grown back to a respectable size, so it's time to share it again. The text in parentheses is my own editorial commentary. I have deleted a few interesting search terms in order to uphold PaleoJudaica family values, but if you buy me a beer at a conference sometime I might tell you about them. Also, the list below could give you the impression that certain subjects are treated in this blog far more frequently and in far more detail than is actually the case.

All of the following are actual search terms that led people, often unaccountably, to PaleoJudaica.

• throne of queen bilqis design specification photo
  
• Were Edomites Enochians
  
• talktalk on watchdog 01/10/2010
  
• Crucified couple Santo Tomas.
  
• angelic aramaic map pics
  
• Does God has any involement of the writtwn Qumran?
  
• Abu El-Haj theory on divination
  
• what moral values that we can get in the story of fifty missionby joseph dever
  
• slaughter of childres dura europos
  
• criticism of "people to people exchange program"
  
• how to say computer in latin
  
• prayer conference call specialists
  
• was the naga hammadi ever discovered?
  
• http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_36_en/kenyan_road_works_and_belgian_road_works.html
  
• seventh universe of the prophet heiralias
  
• youmamajokes
  
• nils larson tattoo
  
• dueling sites
  
• Monica Belluci figure (lots of these)
  
• human attacked by lion
  
• angelina jolie breast implants (repeatedly)
  
• shorts lara croft
  
• greek amazon warriors
  
• canadian jewish artifacts
  
• papyrus tattoo
  
• "river tam" "cameron phillips" crossover fiction +discovery
  
• monica bellucci height
  
• ancientpaleohebrewwristbands
  
• bmcr insulting
  
• monica bellucci on stage (I'm detecting a trend here)
  
• round metal decorative plates for walls
  
• copyright of codex ambrosianus
  
• monica ten bears
  
• qumran loco
  
• kadisha placentia
  
• lara croft make up
  
• angelina jolie apple shape
  
• who is an actress that can speak french
  
• angelina jolie the conqueror (Hmmm ... another trend?)
  
• dead sea scrolls found in a trash heap
  
• angelina jolie art on twitter
  
• el shaddai ascension of the metatron chabad
  
• monica bellucci awards
  
• angelin jolie full length
  
• monica bellucci makeup tutorial
  
• dictionary for dovekeepers
  
• monica bellucci 20 year old
  
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• elijah was struck by "60 whips of fire" (No, that was Enoch)
  
• angelina jolie on the sea cartoon
  
• angelina jolie lara croft training
  
• 05/2009 04.12.2009 dated circular
  
• papyrus tattoo
  
• destroyed statue of angel
  
• jim davila snakes
  
• angelina jolie age 16
  
• signed jim davila snake (Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?)
  
• angelina jolie psychopath
  
• how to destroy bind stop a dibbuk box (It's important to know these things)

More on Byzantine-era town in Negev

MORE DETAILS about that late antique town excavated in southern Israel are give in an Haaretz article: Byzantine-era ritual baths discovered on Israel's Route 6 (Yanir Yagna).

Two mikvehs and two public structures, dating back to 6th century CE, were found in the southern segment of the road. Archaeologists believe the ruins point to the existence of an ancient Jewish town in the Negev.

“At the request of the Trans-Israel Highway, we performed digs along the southbound portion of the road,” said Nir Shimshon-Paran, head of archaeological digs at the antiquities authority.

“We carried out excavations – meant to document any relics in the area before development or road pavement work was started – and discovered two mikvehs, and two public structures, which, according to certain parameters, fit the criteria for synagogues,” said Paran.

Paran said the discoveries were undoubtedly part of a Jewish town.

“Here we see a Jewish town from a time when the Negev had a sparse Jewish population. The structures discovered were built with chiseled hewn stones, and both of them contain remains of a stage adjacent to a wall, facing Jerusalem. Their characteristics and positioning indicate that these structures served as synagogues, or houses of study. The town uncovered here is roughly eight kilometers from the synagogue that was destroyed along with Rimon during the Byzantine period,” Paran added.

Background here.

Hebrew and Syriac in Turkey

HEBREW AND SYRIAC are being offered at Mardin Artuklu University:

University to Offer Hebrew and Syriac Courses in Mardin

The Department of Living Languages in Mardin Artuklu University is set to launch two courses to teach Hebrew and Syriac. Assistant Prof. Mehmet Sait Toprak said their aim was to train researchers who could conduct scientific studies in their own languages.

Nilay VARDAR
nilay@bianet.org
Mardin - BIA News Center
31 August 2012, Friday

The Department of the Institute of Living Languages in Mardin Artuklu University is set to launch two new courses to teach Hebrew and Syriac. A Hebrew Language and Culture Department is also in the works.

The courses will last for three months, and they will be offered both on the weekends and weekdays. Aspiring students are required to apply until Sept. 7 to attend the classes, each of which has a maximum capacity of 40 pupils. The university will provide passing students with a certificate, and higher level courses will also be available on the second semester as well.

"We limited the number of applicants because we lack enough instructors. We are only three people. Our aim is first to teach both languages at the highest level and then to train researchers who could conduct scientific studies on Hebrew and Syriac languages and cultures in their own tongues," Assistant Prof. Mehmet Sait Toprak said.

"[We might] also establish Syriac and Jewish Research Centers to form more scientific institutions in the future. We are also going to appeal to the YÖK (Higher Board of Education) within a month or two to open a Hebrew Language and Culture Deparment," he added.

[...]

The Syriac course has been running for some time, but the Hebrew is new. Background here and links.

Dutch Talmud

THE TALMUD IS BEING TRANSLATED INTO DUTCH: New Dutch translation of Talmud a tribute to Friesland’s nearly vanished Jews (Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA).

Five years ago, De Leeuwe began focusing on another aspect of his roots, the Talmud, which he started to painstakingly translate into Dutch. This summer he reached the first milestone in his work, completing the translation of the first tractate, Brachot, in nine annotated volumes.

De Leeuwe says that though the Jewish population here is minuscule, Friesland is a fitting place for such work.

Writing here, he says, is a form of “tikkun," repair: He would produce the world’s first annotated Dutch translation of the Talmud in the place that the Nazis had tried to destroy his family and his people.

In the introduction to his recently completed translation, de Leeuwe mentions the “enemies” of the Jewish people but refuses to use the word Nazis. “I wasn’t going to give the Nazis the honor of being mentioned in Talmudic text,” he tells JTA.

“A thousand years from now,” he says, “this book will still say that, despite how the Germans tried to wipe out the Jewish people, we prevailed.”

The first two volumes of his translation took the most work, says De Leeuwe, a doctor and former cantor who used to teach Talmud classes while living elsewhere in the Netherlands. “I’m able to work much faster now,” he says. He hopes to finish two additional tractates by Passover.

Judaica collectors, libraries and others have bought about 300 copies of each volume, according to de Leeuwe.

Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls Month

ASOR BLOG: Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls Month.

We are pleased to announce that September will be Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls month here on the ASOR blog. Starting Tuesday, September 4th, we will be posting contributions from leading scholars on Qumran and the scrolls. Check back often to see the latest updates!

Good deal. But at PaleoJudaica every month is Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls Month!

Blogiversaries

HAPPY NINTH BLOGIVERSARY, both slightly belated, to David Meadows's Rogue Classicism and Mark Goodacre's NT Blog!

Byzantine-era town excavated in Israel

AN ISRAELI SALVAGE EXCAVATION has made an important discovery:

Archaeologists unearth ruins of 1,500-year-old Jewish town in southern Israel
Authorities will change the planned route of Highway 6 to avoid damaging newly unearthed remains

By Matti Friedman September 2, 2012, 6:09 pm 0 (Times of Israel)

Israeli archaeologists digging on the route of a planned highway have found new ruins from a 1,500-year-old Jewish town, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Sunday.

The remains of two Jewish ritual baths and two public buildings were uncovered in a salvage dig ahead of the paving of a new section of Israel’s Highway 6, a north-south toll road eventually slated to run much of the length of the country.

Both of the public buildings feature raised platforms along the walls facing Jerusalem, archaeologists say — a trademark feature of Jewish houses of prayer.

The highway will be rerouted to preserve the ruins, the IAA statement said.

[...]

The IAA press release in Hebrew is here and includes the photo in the article above and another one.

Via Joseph Lauer, who has also circulated high resolution copies of both IAA photos. These were sent by Yoli Shwartz, the IAA's Spokesperson, and I post them below. Click on the images for larger versions.

August Biblioblog Carnival

JIM WEST: It’s The August Biblioblog Carnival! The ‘Look, There’s a List of Biblioblog Twitterers’ Edition.

Just released: DeSilva, The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude

NEW BOOK: David A. DeSilva, The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (OUP).

New book: Alexander Histories and Iranian Reflections

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Alexander Histories and Iranian Reflections
Remnants of Propaganda and Resistance

Parivash Jamzadeh

Alexander the Great’s military campaign to conquer the Achaemenid empire included a propaganda campaign to convince the Iranians his kingship was compatible with their religious and cultural norms. This campaign proved so successful that the overt display of Alexander’s Iranian and Zoroastrian preferences alienated some of his Greek and Macedonian allies. Parivash Jamzadeh shows how this original propaganda material displayed multiple layers of Iranian influences. Additionally she demonstrates that the studied sources do not always offer an accurate account of the contemporary Iranian customs, and occasionally included historical inaccuracies.
One of the most interesting finds in this study is the confusion of historical sources that arose between the opponents Darius III and Alexander. Jamzadeh argues that the Iranian propaganda regarding Alexander the Great has contributed to this confusion.

New issue of Review of Rabbinic Judaism

H-JUDAIC: TOC: Review of Rabbinic Judaism, 15.2 (2012).

More on Rav Hisda's Daughter

MAGGIE ANTON is speaking in Laguna Beach: Historical novelist to speak at bookstore. Author Maggie Anton latest book, 'Rav Hisda's Daughter, Book I: Apprentice,' goes on sale Friday at Laguna Beach Books (Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot).

And here's some background about the author:

Magic is still a part of modern culture, according to Anton.

"A quick Internet search will turn up a wide variety of amulets for sale, some quite similar to those of Rav Hisda's time," she said.

Does St. Christopher ring a bell? A pinch salt tossed over one's shoulder. A rabbit's foot? A four-leaf clover?

"Should my novel become popular, I wouldn't be surprised if Jewish artisans started manufacturing modern incantation bowls," Anton said.

Anton owns two incantation bowls — one in perfect condition, the other broken and repaired — which she bought on a trip to Israel to visit her son who was a student there at the time.

"I sometimes take the broken one to speaking engagements," Anton said.

She is not willing to risk the perfect one.

Modern incantation bowls are already being manufactured.

Background on Anton's novels, including the Rashi's Daughters trilogy, is here and links.

Maronite Aramaic revival

ARAMAIC WATCH: More on the revival of Aramaic among the Maronites of Jish: A Maronite revival in Israel (Judith Sudilovsky, Jerusalem Post).

Background here and links.

Bone-digger arrest update

MORE ON THAT ARREST for attempting to steal human bones from the Beit Shemesh excavation: Police accuse U.S.-Israeli rabbi of robbing graves: Chizkiya Kalmanowitz was in custody for three days after police accused him of trying to steal bones on July 26 from a contested archaeological site along Route 38 near the community of Eshtaol, some 30 kilometers outside of Jerusalem (Mordechai I. Twersky, Haaretz).

The case sounds complicated. Background here.

Reflections on circumcision and Germany

RABBI MICAH PELTZ: Why Jews hold circumcision so dear, and what Germany has to fear: Ever since Abraham and Isaac, the brit milah has recognized our partnership with God doesn’t happen automatically; we must constantly uphold our end of the covenant. So too must Germany uphold its promise of religious freedom to Jews and Muslims alike. (Haaretz).

And it’s this lesson that the courts that outlawed non-medical circumcision in Germany need to learn. Restricting minority groups' religious rituals harms the whole society, especially one with a history such as Germany's. It’s time for Germany, and the other countries in Europe who have prevented circumcisions, to uphold the principle of religious freedom and stop outlawing this important Jewish and Muslim ritual. Doing so not only ensures the legal practice of this religious tradition, it also affirms the principles of freedom, tolerance, and respect for all peoples, which any democracy must hold dear.

Background on the German decision to ban circumcision is here and links.

Forgery trial appeal

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: ISRAEL APPEALS FORGERY DECISION.

Normally someone who appeals asks the upper court to decide in the appealing party’s favor. But that’s not the case. The government is not asking the Supreme Court to convict the defendant after the trial court acquitted him.

The government contends only that the judge could not decide whether the patina on the “Jehoash” tablet was genuine (proving that the inscription was authentic) unless a chemical analysis was made of what appeared on photographs to be genuine patina. (The photographs, incidentally, showing patina were made by the government’s expert, Yuval Goren.)

Background on the Israel forgery trial is here with endless links.

Review of The Possession

THE POSSESSION is reviewed by Jim Dooley in BigPictureBigSound and gets 2.5 of 4 stars: Crazy Like a Box. Excerpt:

The acting is excellent, especially given the genre. The script is promising, if not inventive. There is also balance between the horror and the family wish fulfilment narratives. But with the execution, scenes are episodic. Some are deliciously cringe-worthy, but they do not hang together.

[...]

Unfortunately, Bornedal front-loads the most violent and disturbing scenes. He presents an evil whose agency seems unlimited from the start. He has repressed the child sexuality that should terrorize the family. The father's authority is never questioned by Em; Daddy is infallible. In the end, "The Possession" neatly reinscribes the family. The brush with pure evil seems to have left no scars on any of the family members. As a result, neither will the film.

Background here and links.

AWOL latest

LOTS OF GOOD STUFF ONSCREEN AT AWOL:

Online Atlas of Old Iranian Inscriptions

Forum for Classics, Libraries, and Scholarly Communication

LacusCurtius

Online Resources for Peshitta

e-Ktobe: Manuscrits Syriaques

Circumcision ban update

THIS ARTICLE summarizes the current state of play regarding the circumcision ban in Germany:

Circumcision ban ignites a religious battle in Germany

By Janelle Dumalaon - Special to The Washington Times

Read more: Circumcision ban ignites a religious battle in Germany - Washington Times

BERLIN — A German court decision to criminalize religious circumcisions has turned into an international spat, as Israeli leaders urge Germany to protect the ancient rite and local Jewish and Muslim groups vow to continue the practice.

[...]

This in particular seems like an interesting development, although what exactly it means is not clear:

The German government has already announced its intention to draft a law this fall that will protect Jews and Muslims from prosecution over circumcisions.

“The Ministry of Justice is consulting with religious and medical experts among others, to ensure that the legal question be clarified on as many levels as possible,” said ministry spokesman Anne Zimmermann.

“[But] it’s not a simple issue. Even the religious dimension itself has other layers, such as the fact that Muslim and Jewish circumcisions are performed differently from one another and such facts also have to be taken into consideration.”

Background here.

More on The Possession

REUTERS:

The Jewish 'Exorcist'? Sam Raimi on 'The Possession'

By REUTERS
08/29/2012 12:55

The producer's new horror flick starring Matisyahu is inspired by an account of a family fighting a Dibbuk.

LOS ANGELES - Film director and producer Sam Raimi, for the first time in a long career of spooking audiences with his horror films, has turned to real-life events for supernatural thriller The Possession, opening in the United States on Friday.

Raimi, whose credits range from directing 2002's Spider-Man to producing horror flicks such as The Grudge and The Grudge 2, produces The Possession. The movie, directed by Ole Bornedal, is inspired by a newspaper account of a family that fights a demon known as a Dibbuk in ancient Yiddish folklore.

The spirit, which resides in a Dibbuk box, is said to possesses the bodies of people with the intention of devouring them. In The Possession, the Dibbuk enters the body of a young woman and her parents must figure out how to stop it.

[...]

The article interviews Sam Raimi and links to the trailer for the film.

Background here and links.

Notes on Secret Scriptures Revealed!, cont'd

TONY BURKE: Secret Scriptures Revealed! Thoughts on Writing for Non-specialists, part 2 (Apocryphicity).

For part one, see here.

Foundation stone lawsuit

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Supreme Court Rejects Temple Faithful Suit. Rejects—or deflects—but does not find against.

I don't remember reading about this particular lawsuit before, but background on the situation regarding the foundation stone is here and links.

The Talmud's favorite Bible books

MICHAEL SATLOW: Bible in the Bavli: The Bavli’s Citation of Biblical Books.

(Via The Talmud Blog on Facebook.)

Related posts here and here.

Coptic bibliographies

ALIN SUCIU: Provisional Bibliographies for the Coptological Congress.

Another Christian Apocrypha symposium

TONY BURKE: 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium.

Bone diggers?

AT BEIT SHEMESH: Suspected of Trying to Steal Bones from Archaeology Dig (Arutz Sheva).

New book on Turkish Syriacs

ON MOR GABRIEL MONASTERY AND MORE: New Book Published on Embattled Assyrian Monastery in Turkey (AINA).

The book discusses the slow and nearly complete disappearance of the Syriac (also known as Assyrian and Chaldean) community form Turkey, the history and importance of the St. Gabriel Monastery and the ways the Turkish state expropriates the monastery's land.

The treatment of the St. Gabriel monastery is a the litmus test of freedom of religion in Turkey and has already been debated the parliaments from the Netherlands, Germany, the US and the European parliament.

Famed Syriac researcher Dr. Sebastian Brock is the author of a chapter.

Background on the Mor Gabriel Monastery controversy is here and links.

Talmudic resources

FOR STUDY OF THE BAVLI: Tackling the Talmud: One Daf at a Time: With the historic Siyum HaShas a few weeks behind us, Jewish Action surveys some of the resources and aids—both print and electronic—available to the Daf Yomi learner.

Another Meyer obit

AN OBITUARY FOR MARVIN MEYER has been published by the AP: Marvin Meyer, 'Gospel of Judas' translator, dies. It is quite brief and focuses on his work on the Gospel of Judas and Gnosticism. I don't see any obvious errors.

Background here and links. The Telegraph has been informed by Mark Goodacre and many tweeters of its plagiarism and errors in its obituary of Prof. Meyer, but I have heard no word of any apology or correction.

Photos of Gospel of Peter and 1 Enoch MS

PHOTOS of Codex P.Cairo 10759, containing the Greek text of The Gospel of Peter and much of the Book of the Watchers (in 1 Enoch) can be found here in the CSAD Photographic Archive of Papyri in the Cairo Museum.

Via Rick Brannan on Facebook.

New book: Shantz & Werline, Experientia 2

NEW BOOK FROM THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE:

Experientia, Volume 2: Linking Text and Experience

Colleen Shantz, Rodney A. Werline

ISBN 1589836693
Status Forthcoming
Price: $26.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date August, 2012

This collection of essays continues the investigation of religious experience in early Judaism and early Christianity begun in Experientia, Volume 1, by addressing one of the traditional objections to the study of experience in antiquity. The authors address the relationship between the surviving evidence, which is textual, and the religious experiences that precede or ensue from those texts. Drawing on insights from anthropology, sociology, social memory theory, neuroscience, and cognitive science, they explore a range of religious phenomena including worship, the act of public reading, ritual, ecstasy, mystical ascent, and the transformation of gender and of emotions. Through careful and theoretically informed work, the authors demonstrate the possibility of moving from written documents to assess the lived experiences that are linked to them. The contributors are István Czachesz, Frances Flannery, Robin Griffith-Jones, Angela Kim Harkins, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, John R. Levison, Carol A. Newsom, Rollin A. Ramsaran, Colleen Shantz, Leif E. Vaage, and Rodney A. Werline.

Colleen Shantz is Associate Professor of New Testament at St. Michael’s College in the Toronto School of Theology. She is the author of Paul in Ecstasy: The Neurobiology of the Apostle’s Life and Thought (Cambridge University Press) and the co-editor of Experientia, Volume 1: Inquiry into Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Christianity (Society of Biblical Literature). She chairs the Religious Experience section of the Society of Biblical Literature. Rodney A. Werline is Associate Professor and the Marie and Leman Barnhill Endowed Chair in Religious Studies at Barton College, Wilson, North Carolina. He is the author of Pray Like This (Continuum) and Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism: The Development of a Religious Institution (Society of Biblical Literature) and the co-editor of numerous volumes including Experientia, Volume 1: Inquiry into Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Christianity (Society of Biblical Literature).

Review of Ullucci, The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice

BMCR BOOK REVIEW:

Daniel C. Ullucci, The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. x, 227. ISBN 9780199791705. $74.00.

Reviewed by Philippa Townsend, Ursinus College (ptownsend@ursinus.edu)

Preview

Sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean has been the subject of renewed scholarly attention in recent years.1 Daniel Ullucci’s book makes a significant contribution to the debate, focusing on the fascinating issue of when and why Christians stopped participating in the previously ubiquitous practice of animal sacrifice. While much previous scholarship has interpreted the Christian rejection of animal sacrifice as the culmination of a long tradition of enlightened criticism of the practice, Ullucci argues instead that early Christians were participating in an ongoing competition between elite “cultural producers” to define what sacrifice meant and how it should be practiced (5). First through third century Christian texts display a wide variety of views on sacrifice, and it was not until the fourth century that these disparate interpretations came to be read as consistent and that a coherent Christian position on sacrifice was developed (8-9). Readers will appreciate Ullucci’s concise and sophisticated explication of theoretical issues, and his close analytical overview of a large number of Christian and non-Christian texts on sacrifice.

[...]

Background on SWBTS DSS exhibit

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Story behind exhibit as extraordinary as Scrolls (Diane Cowen). The exhibit is the one currently running at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Excerpt:

For decades, the Pattersons have led friends and seminary patrons on tours of the Holy Land. Among the many people they got to know was William Kando Sr., a shopkeeper and antiquities dealer in Bethlehem. Kando, a Syrian Orthodox Christian, is one of the people who was approached by the Bedouins who discovered the scrolls 65 years ago.

In 2009, the Pattersons took another group to the Holy Land, and Stephanie and Gary Loveless of Houston - members of Second Baptist Church - were part of the group. Gary Loveless owns Square Mile Energy and years ago founded the Living Waters International charity that sends mission groups to dig water wells for people in underdeveloped areas around the world. He's also on the board of trustees for the seminary.

Gary Loveless said they were busy visiting the usual sights of Holy Land travelers, and the group stopped at Kando's shop, now run by his son, William Kando Jr. Stephanie Loveless purchased a small oil lamp, and the couple returned to the tour bus, with her husband thinking he'd just gotten out of a pricey store with way more money in his pocket than he expected.

Then the Pattersons waved at him to return to the shop. Kando had just made them an offer they couldn't refuse: His family had decided that their Dead Sea Scroll fragments, locked away in a Swiss vault for decades, should be on public display. And they wanted them to be exhibited with his treasured friends at Southwestern Baptist.

The Lovelesses knew it was time for the important work of Christian charity - and they ultimately became the major sponsors of the exhibit with their $1 million donation.

Background here and links.

Meyer obit fail

AN OBITUARY FOR MARVIN MEYER in the Telegraph has some careless errors. Marv deserves better. Mark Goodacre administers a fisking at the NT Blog. And to add to Mark's comments, note the first sentence of the article:

What we know as the New Testament – the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Book of Revelation – was actually born of thousands of texts and gospels circulated among the early Christians.

If only there had been thousands of Christian texts and gospels circulating in the early centuries C.E., and if only we still had them! There were scores, certainly, and the number may have been as high as the low hundreds, but not thousands.

Earlier obituaries etc. are here and links.

UPDATE: It just gets worse. Mark has a new post up: Plagiarism in the Telegraph's obituary of Marvin Meyer. Epic fail.

I agree fully with Mark's concluding comment:

I think that it is disgraceful that The Telegraph's obituary of Marvin Meyer is a patchwork of passages plagiarized from different electronic articles and I would like to suggest that they acknowledge what they have done, issuing a full apology, and replacing the plagiarized piece with something that appropriately honours Professor Meyer's memory.

Pagels seminar on Revelation

ELAINE PAGELS recently gave a seminar on the Book of Revelation for The Long Now Foundation. You can listen to it here: “The Truth About the Book of Revelations.” Obviously, the title should read "Revelation."

For more on her recent book on the subject, see here and links,

Fighting in Aleppo

MORE ON THE SYRIAN CRISIS: Jewish Aleppo, Lost Forever: The Syrian diaspora in Israel watches its once-vibrant ancestral home fall to ruin in the country’s civil war (Joseph Dana, Tablet Magazine).

See also my recent post Syrian antiquities plundered. And there's much more on the Aleppo Codex here and links.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the mustache?

THE AMERICAN MUSTACHE INSTITUTE reports the following:

We should note biblical text -- specifically the Dead Sea Scrolls -- which specifically state that "each time a mustache is shaved, an angel in heaven dies and falls to earth."

Relayed on the PBS website by Paul Solman, who rightly has his doubts. It's a fine apocryphal saying, but it isn't in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Another Meyer obit

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES has published a long and detailed obituary for Marvin Meyer: Marvin W. Meyer dies at 64; expert on Gnosticism: The specialist in early Christianity helped translate the Gospel of Judas, which he said portrayed the disciple as a hero, not a villain, for betraying Jesus and setting in motion the Crucifixion. Excerpt:

The tanned, athletic man who wore rumpled khakis, oversized shirts and a silver hoop in his left ear "was our Indiana Jones," said James L. Doti, president of Chapman University in Orange, where Meyer held the Griset Chair in Bible and Christian Studies and was director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute.

"Marv was a scholar and a showman who helped put this university on the map," Doti said. "He was fluent in 10 languages — five of them nearly extinct — and authored enough works to fill an entire bookcase. He was also a perpetually upbeat guy who inspired everyone he crossed paths with."

Princeton historian Elaine Pagels, author of "The Gnostic Gospels," which in the 1970s ignited international interest in the sect of early Christians condemned as heretical, reflected the thoughts of many when she noted: "Marv was a pioneer in making available to a wide audience obscure texts from the first and second centuries that had been buried as heretical and rarely seen outside of academia."

Other obituaries, etc. here and links.

Second Shoshana Collection auction

THE SECOND PART OF THE SHOSHANA COIN COLLECTION is coming up for auction:

The Shoshana Collection of ancient Judaean coins, Part 2, comes to Long Beach from Heritage Auctions

ArtDaily.org

BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- A five-year run of silver shekels struck by Judaean rebels during the Jewish War against Rome, circa 66-70 AD, highlights the second half of the world-famous Shoshana Collection of Ancient Judaean Coins, offered by Heritage Auctions the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 5, during the Long Beach Coin & Collectibles show.

The Jewish War section, lots 20105-20128, includes multiple examples of the silver shekels and half-shekels, dated Year 1 through Year 5, struck by Judaean forces engaged in a titanic struggle against the Roman Empire.

“All of these coins are in wonderful condition and their stark imagery beautifully conveys the devotion and convictions of the courageous Jewish rebels,” said David Michaels, Director of Ancient Coins for Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. “This sale shows the great breadth and depth of the Shoshana Collection. The first Shoshana sale last March was already the greatest offering of Judaean coins every brought to public auction, and the second half is – in many ways – a reprise of the first.”

[...]

The article has more details on the lot coming up for sale. As always, I encourage philanthropists to buy the best pieces and donate them to a museum. Failing that, please do make them available to scholars who want to study them and publish on them. It will only increase their value.

Background on the first Shoshana Collection sale is here and links.

Dybbuk movie

THE DYBBUK (DIBBUK) LEGEND is featured in a new film: Sam Raimi’s latest horror flick draws on ‘true’ tale, Jewish exorcism (Naomi Pfefferman, Jewish Journal).

“The Possession” — the latest riff on the subgenre of a girl defiled by a demon — revolves around a non-Jewish family whose 10-year-old daughter, Em (Natasha Calis), buys a wooden box inscribed with Hebrew warnings at an estate sale. The child immediately becomes obsessed with the box, carrying it around everywhere, as a feathery malevolent voice echoes through the house, lamps explode, the girl’s behavior grows increasingly agitated, and a claw-like hand emerges from her throat. Her divorced parents eventually turn to a Chasidic community in Brooklyn to arrange an exorcism, which is ultimately performed by the Jewish reggae star Matisyahu, in his first film role.

Raimi co-wrote and directed 2009’s “Drag Me to Hell,” inspired by his mother’s childhood threat to him that should he misbehave, “our Aunt Minnie would put the evil eye on us,” he said. To write “The Possession,” he called on screenwriters Stiles White and Juliet Snowden, who had previously collaborated on “Boogeyman” (2005) for Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures.

White and Snowden, who are not Jewish, immersed themselves in research to create the Jewish horror in the film, drawing on the seven years they lived in a Chasidic neighborhood in Hancock Park, watching the 1937 Yiddish film, “The Dibbuk” as well as YouTube videos of Jewish exorcisms, and reading works on Jewish folklore by authors such as Howard Schwartz. In a book about angels and demons, they learned of the Jewish entity, Abizou, the “taker of children,” who became the sinister spirit in the movie. “What is common in many possession stories is that knowing the demon’s name is crucial in order to ultimately vanquish it, so that became an important part of our mystery,” White said.

More on the Dybbuk tradition here and links.

Kfar Kedem latest

NETWORKED DONKEYS at Kfar Kedem: Israeli biblical park outfits donkeys with Wi-Fi (AP).

Some comment about Balaam seems called for here, but I'm not sure what.

Background on Kfar Kedem is here.

More on that Abbas statement

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Times of Israel gives a slightly different rendering (translation?) of the recent comments of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority:

Abbas apparently denies Jewish link to Jerusalem — again

Palestinian Authority president says that unabated attacks "under the nose of the Israeli occupation authorities" seek to "rob Muslims and Christians of their holy shrines, destroy Al-Aqsa mosque and build the alleged Jewish Temple."

Israel Hayom Staff

A "series" of attacks on the Temple Mount "under the nose of the Israeli occupation authorities" seek "to rob Muslims and Christians of their holy shrines, destroy Al-Aqsa mosque and build the alleged Jewish Temple," according to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In a statement issued to mark the 43rd anniversary of an arson attack on Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Abbas said that the third holiest shrine in Islam is still under threat. His statement will be seen by some in Israel as denying any Jewish claim to the Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism.

[...]

That's certainly what it sounds like. Does anyone know if the full speech or the full quotation in context is available anywhere?

Background here.

The Talmud on scholars and warriors

ADAM KIRSCH: Talmud’s Warriors and Scholars: This week’s Daf Yomi reframes the debate over the primacy of force or scholarship in Jewish values (The Tablet). Excerpt:

Reading in this allegorical fashion, Chiya argues that when the Bible says Benaiah struck down two men of Moab, it means that “he did not leave anyone comparable to himself [in scholarship], neither in the period of the First Temple nor in the period of the Second Temple.” When it says that he killed a lion in a pit on a winter day, this means that he immersed himself in a freezing pool, to purify himself before studying Torah. Alternatively, it means that he studied an entire treatise on the Book of Leviticus on a single freezing day.

This remarkable transformation of Benaiah from a killer into a scholar raised two questions for me. First is the perhaps unanswerable one of how Chiya understood allegory. When he argues that the biblical descriptions of Benaiah’s physical feats were really descriptions of mental and spiritual feats, did he think that this meant that the physical feats did not happen at all? If so, how do the rabbis understand the entire David story, which plainly belongs to a world of fighting kings and their armies?

If, on the other hand, Chiya understood that he was reading against the grain of the biblical text—that is, imposing on it a new meaning and a new system of values—the second question arises. How did he and his fellow rabbis think and feel about the enormous change in Jewish life that had made warrior-heroism so archaic and scholar-heroism so important? Clearly, between the time of the Israelites and the time of the Amoraim, there was a revolution in Jewish values, in which something was lost as well as gained. From a Zionist point of view, it’s even possible to feel that the denigration of Benaiah’s fighting spirit was a dangerous mistake for the Jews. Not until 1948 would the Jewish people once again produce warriors on Benaiah’s scale.

Yet reading the Talmud has also made me more inclined than I used to be to see this question from the other side, from the rabbinic point of view. After all, if Torah study is the most worthy and most distinctively Jewish of human pursuits, then mere skill at fighting is negligible, a barbarism. Which, finally, does Judaism need more, warriors or scholars? Which is a higher human type?

Clearly there's room for both. But one of the Talmud's important cultural innovations was to re-frame scholarship as an alpha-male activity.

More on the Jamal-Dominique Hopkins case

MORE ACCUSATIONS in the Jamal-Dominique Hopkins wrongful-dismissal complaint: Theological Professor Claims He Was Fired for Homosexuality Stance (The Christian Post).

Rev. Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, recently filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The complaint accused the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) administrators of harassment that included "disagreeing with my conservative religious ideals, intimidating me, slandering my character, giving me poor evaluations, and changing student grades from failing to passing with no merit.''

Hopkins, 42, explained that the fallout started after a representative from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship spoke at an event he organized in February. Attendees were given a book that declared homosexuality was a sin. Following the event, Hopkins was confronted about the distribution of the book by his department chair, Rev. Margaret Aymer, according to reports from Religion News Service.

[...]

ITC denies the claim.

Philly DSS exhibit reviewed again

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is reviewed by Frank D. Quattrone in Montgomery Media:

Beguiling, reverential, inspiring - Dead Sea Scrolls on view at Franklin Institute

Frank-ly Speaking: Inspiring Dead Sea Scrolls

Background here and links.

Excavations at the Sobibor death camp

NOT ANCIENT, but important and poignant Jewish archaeology: Israeli archaeologist digs into Nazi death camp (AP).

Note also this report from 2004 of archaeological discoveries at Auschwitz.

Chairman Abbas on the Temple

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Abbas Derides Jewish Link to Temple Mount as ‘Fiction’ (Arutz Sheva).

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas derided the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during an event Tuesday honoring Al Aksa Mosque. Israel is trying to destroy the mosque in order to build a “fake Temple,” he said, adding, “Fiction and legend do not create rights.”

This quote is not inconsistent with views expressed in the past by the Palestinian Authority, e.g., here.

Cross-file under "Jewish-Temple denial."

UPDATE (23 August): More here.

Another Meyer obituary

AN OBITUARY FOR MARVIN MEYER has been posted on the National Geographic Society website: Biblical Scholar Marvin Meyer Dead at 64. It includes the full text of the open letter from the Chancellor of Chapman University, Daniele C. Struppa. Excerpt:

Marv brought the ancient world alive in his lucid and poetic translations and in his teaching both inside and outside the classroom, not only for students and colleagues but also for others around the globe. Beloved by his students, he was extremely generous with his time, working individually with them, taking groups to Egypt and teaching Greek and Coptic on top of his regular courses, and challenging students to think deeply about life’s meaning and purpose in his Schweitzer and Freshman Foundations courses. He was a true leader in challenging times and situations on campus, with a talent for putting people at ease and moderating between diverse constituencies, and he never shied away from such challenges.

What many of us will always remember is Marv’s deep love of the Gnostic authors whose writings he helped bring out from the darkness, where they had long been dismissed as heretical. He invested decades in learning the languages so he could enable their ideas to speak in a way both fresh and true. Marv never sought fame, although it deservedly came to him — but he sought to bring ideas hidden by history into the open. If anyone ever loved learning for learning’s sake—utterly and unabashedly so–it was Marv Meyer. And he loved even more opening this astonishing world of ideas to his students who had never thought there was a gospel beyond the canonical four. Marv helped his students to see the world with different eyes, to see how exciting and fun it could be, and always, always to think about the ethical dimension of ideas.

Background here and links.

Job in late antique Judaism

JOB AT UC DAVIS, from the H-JUDAIC list:

From: "Mendelsohn, Adam D"
List Editor: "Mendelsohn, Adam D"
Editor's Subject: JOB: Assistant Professor, Late Antique Judaism, University of California, Davis
Author's Subject: JOB: Assistant Professor, Late Antique Judaism, University of California, Davis
Date Written: Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:59:57 +0000
Date Posted: Tue, 20 Aug 2012 15:59:57 -0400

The Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis announces a search for a tenure-track faculty position in late antique Judaism. Applicants must have strong research plans and teaching records, and expertise in Jewish texts from the late antique period, especially rabbinic literature. Applicants should be prepared to teach a broad range of introductory and advanced courses in Jewish Studies, to teach specialized courses at the graduate level, and to take an active role in UC Davis’ Jewish Studies Program.

The program especially welcomes applicants with an interest in the historical, comparative and theoretical study of religion, as well as candidates with an interest in interdisciplinary work in areas already represented in the UC Davis Religious Studies program, particularly in the history of Christianity or Islam. Rank is assistant professor; Ph.D. in Religious Studies or related field must be completed by the start of classes, September 23, 2013.

Applicants should submit a cover letter including a statement of research and teaching interests, curriculum vitae, a writing sample such as a dissertation chapter or published article and three (3) professional letters of reference, using the online application form found at:

https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/apply/JPF00004

For full consideration applications should be received by October 15, 2012. The position is open until filled.

The University of California, Davis, is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer with a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of diversity among its faculty and staff.

More on the Huqoq excavation

THE SUPERVISOR OF THE HUQOQ EXCAVATION is profiled and interviewed in the Southtown Star:

Frankfort native does much more than dig his job

BY SUSAN DEMAR LAFFERTY slafferty@southtownstar.com August 20, 2012 7:26PM

Updated: August 21, 2012 2:08AM

It isn’t King Tut’s tomb, the Rosetta Stone or even the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail.

But what Frankfort native Matt Grey discovered on his summer vacation in Israel could provide significant insight into biblical and postbiblical life near the Sea of Galilee.

Grey, a 1994 Lincoln-Way Central High School graduate and now assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, supervised an archaeology team this June in Huqoq that uncovered a rare mosaic floor in an ancient Jewish synagogue — a work of art that no one had seen for 1,500 years.

The mosaic, made of high-quality stone cubes, depicts two female faces with a Hebrew or Aramaic inscription that refers to blessings on those who follow God’s commandments, Grey said.

It was unearthed by Bryan Bozung, a BYU graduate who was one of many student volunteers on the dig. He had been hoeing in search of the floor when he scraped upon something. He immediately called over Grey and project leader Dr. Jodi Magness, of the University of North Carolina. As they gently cleared the area, faces emerged through the dirt.

“We just stood there looking at these human faces. Then it dawned on us that this is a significant contribution to the study of ancient Judaism,” Grey said. “This type of discovery does not happen often.”
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As they continued to clear the site, another scene became evident — depicting Samson placing torches between the tails of foxes as noted in the biblical Book of Judges.

Only a few ancient synagogues were decorated with mosaic floors, even fewer had faces and fewer still featured biblical scenes. One of Samson is exceptionally rare.

“There’s only one other known image of Samson, and that’s two miles away (from this site),” Grey said. “Something about Samson resonated with them.”

[...]

Read on for more about the excavator and the excavation. An interview with Bryan Bozung is noted here and that link also leads to lots of background links on the Samson mosaic.

Haredi-only archaeological site?

IF ACCURATE, this story is disturbing:

Modi'in Ilit mayor: Secular Israelis unwelcome at our historic sites

An archeological site, Khirbet Bad-Issa, in the West Bank city will only open to Haredi visitors.

By Yair Ettinger | Aug.21, 2012 | 7:42 AM

An archaeological site in the heart of the ultra-Orthodox West Bank city of Modi'in Ilit will be open only to Haredi visitors, says the city's mayor.

The government is currently in the process of developing the site, which is believed to have been an agricultural village from the Second Temple period. It is now known as Khirbet Bad-Issa.

[...]

The excavation persisted, however, and eventually revealed a farming village from the Second Temple period. In the center was a synagogue, which has since been partially restored. Also uncovered in the excavations was a winepress, a ritual bath, homes and large public and private buildings. A collection of 145 Roman coins from the first century C.E. was also found.

[...]

I don't pretend to understand the ins and outs of Israeli archaeological politics, but I am surprised that this kind of limit can be enforced after Israeli taxpayers have put so much money into the site. I would want my money back! Whether or not this community has the technical legal right to exclude non-Haredi visitors, I contest their moral right to do so. As with all archaeology, these relics are the historical heritage not only of all Jews, but of all humanity, and should be treated as such.

UPDATE: Blowback already:

Modi'in threatens to ban ultra-Orthodox from park, after nearby town bars seculars from heritage site

Mayor of mostly secular Modi'in threatens to close city park to ultra-Orthodox visitors if Modi'in Ilit doesn't reverse decision on national heritage site.

By Yair Ettinger | Aug.21, 2012 | 1:06 PM | 2

Modi'in Ilit Mayor Yaakov Gutterman's statement that the archeological site in the city will only be open to ultra-Orthodox visitors is drawing fire from the neighboring city of Modi'in.

Modi'in Mayor Haim Bibas threatened Tuesday morning to close his city's central park to ultra-Orthodox visitors if Gutterman doesn't take back his statement to the Haredi newspaper Yated Neeman.

[...]

In a letter Bibas sent Gutterman Tuesday morning, he wrote: "National heritage sites are places central to the history of the Jewish people and should be open to everyone, whatever their worldview or religious affiliation may be."

Which is pretty much what I said above.

"As you know," Bibas wrote. "Two years ago, we inaugurated the Aneba Park in Modi'in – the city's central park. Since it opened, thousands of Modi'in Ilit-Kiryat Sefer residents have visited it, since your city doesn't provide adequate family recreation facilities. Up to now, I have refrained from discriminating between ultra-Orthodox and secular visitors, despite the multitude of petitions by Modi'in residents complaining that the park is being taken from them."

Bibas finished his letter with a threat: "If the municipality you head doesn't reverse its decision and will in fact bar secular visitors, the city of Modi'in will bar residents of your municipality entrance to Aneba Park."

This is developing into an interesting conversation.

(HT to reader Yehoshua Rabinowitz for the second article.)

Geza Vermes interviewed

GEZA VERMES is interviewed on the BBC radio Heart and Soul program, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of his English translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Fifty years ago this year, the first translations were made of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have contributed massively to the understanding of the Bible and Christian teachings.

The translations were done by a man who has gone on to be called the most important Jesus historian ever, Geza Vermes.

John McCarthy meets Vermes, who has devoted his career to the historical examination of the Bible and the life of Jesus.

Vermes tells McCarthy his own story of escaping Eastern Europe after his parents were killed in the Holocaust and how he became a Roman Catholic priest.

He left the priesthood and his academic work has become the most-important academic study of the historical life of Christ, although many of his theories about the life and work of Jesus contradict the accepted teachings and beliefs that underpin the worship for hundreds of millions of people.

McCarthy examines how his work contributed to the understanding of the Bible for ordinary worshippers, Christian and Jewish.

Via Michael Bird at Euangelion. I fear that those outside the U.K. may not be able to access the file.

Marvin Meyer obituary

AN OBITUARY FOR MARVIN MEYER, doubtless only the first of many, has been published in the Orange County Register: Noted biblical scholar, Chapman professor dies at 64.

"If anyone ever loved learning for learning's sake — utterly and unabashedly so – it was Marv Meyer," Chapman University Chancellor Daniele Struppa said in an open letter to university students and faculty. "And he loved even more opening this astonishing world of ideas to his students who had never thought there was a gospel beyond the canonical four."

Background here. Professor Meyer's name has been mentioned many times in PaleoJudaica, including here, here, here, here, here, and here. And for more on the debate over the interpretation of the Coptic Gospel of Judas, see here and links.

UPDATE: Jared Calaway has a post at Antiquitopia which links to some blogger testimonials (including mine) and a 2010 interview with Marv: R.I.P. Marvin Meyer.

Review of Ehrenkrook, Sculpting idolatry in Flavian Rome

BMCR REVIEW:

Jason Ehrenkrook, Sculpting idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)Iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus. Early Judaism and its literature, 33. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011. Pp. xiv, 226. ISBN 9781589836228. $29.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Nadejda Popov, University of West Georgia (npopov@westga.edu)

Preview

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth,” declares the second commandment (Exodus 20:4, KJV). But how strictly did Hellenized Jews living in the Roman Empire interpret this commandment while living in a world saturated with statuary and artistic images? To what extent did their cultural milieu influence their interpretation of this commandment, and how did it affect their often uneasy interactions with their conquerors? These are the questions that Jason von Ehrenkrook approaches in this insightful revision of his University of Michigan dissertation, using Josephus, a Hellenized Jew turned distinguished Roman citizen, as his point of departure and main source of evidence for Jewish attitudes towards images during the Second Temple period.

[...]