RRJ 15.2

THE REVIEW OF RABBINIC JUDAISM has a new(ish) issue published: 15.2 (2012). TOC:

Full Access The Talmud’s Pharmacy: The Metaphors of “Taanit”

Authors: Arkady Kovelman; Uri Gershowitz
pp. 139–164 (26)

Full Access Rabbinic Theology: A System 1

Author: Jacob Neusner
pp. 165–175 (11)

Full Access Land Surveying Tube in Early Judaism

Authors: Uri Zur; Yehuda Ashkenazi
pp. 176–189 (14)

Full Access Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch as a Peshat Commentator: Literary Aspects of His Commentary on the Pentateuch 1

Author: Jonathan Jacobs
pp. 190–200 (11)

Full Access Recovering the Straight and the Good: Jose Faur, The Horizontal Society: Understanding the Covenant and Alphabetic Judaism 1

Author: Alan J. Yuter
pp. 203–241 (39)

Full Access Tzvee Zahavy, God’s Favorite Prayers (Talmudic Books, Teaneck, New Jersey, 2011), 157 pp.

Author: Aaron I. Reichel
pp. 242–246 (5)

Requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access the articles.

Biblical Studies Carnival

THE OCTOBER BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL, slightly belated, has now been posted by J. K. Gayle: a blt Biblical Studies Carnival.

HT James McGrath.

McCarter on Rollston

ROLLSTON UPDATE: Further to this post, Robert Cargill has been collecting and publishing letters in support of Christopher Rollston. One has now come in from Professor P. Kyle McCarter, which you can read here. It is a very significant statement from a senior scholar in the field.

"What have the Romans ever done for us?"

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN by Adam Kirsh at Tablet:

First-Century Technology

When new inventions made widespread sinning the norm, ancient rabbis adapted. The Talmud’s God approved.

American Judaism has been profoundly shaped by the challenges that arise when technology and Jewish law intersect. Take, for instance, the rise of the suburbs in the postwar period. All at once, a new legal question became urgent: Was it permissible for a Jew to drive to synagogue on Shabbat? For the Orthodox, the answer was no, for the traditional reasons I have been exploring in Tractate Shabbat: Operating a car involved one (or several) of the 39 categories of prohibited work. For many Conservative synagogues, on the other hand, the answer was yes, less by deduction than by default. Their rabbis knew that to prohibit driving would be to cut off attendance.

[...]

As for this:

Several times in my reading, I’ve had occasion to wonder about this kind of tension between the common people and the rabbinic elite—as when the Talmud discussed the am haaretz, the unlearned and unobservant common man. That conflict came into sharp focus in this week’s reading, in Shabbat 33b, where the Talmud tells the legend of Rabbi Shimon. The story goes that once, while talking with Shimon, Rabbi Yehudah made an admiring comment about Roman civilization: “How admirable are the deeds of this nation! They have established marketplaces, they have established bridges, and they have established bathhouses!” This tribute to Roman achievements was perhaps justified—we still marvel at the ruins of those bridges and baths—but it came oddly from a rabbi living in the aftermath of the Roman devastation of Judea.

Shimon responded, piously and patriotically, that Roman achievements were actually disgraceful: “Everything they established, they established only to serve their own needs. They established marketplaces to quarter harlots therein; bathhouses in order to beautify their own bodies; and bridges in order to collect tolls.” These critical words were reported to the authorities, and Shimon was sentenced to death, whereupon he fled into the wilderness and hid in a cave. ...

Am I the only one who is reminded of this?



Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and here and links.

Bitenosh's orgasm

TMI? Gushing Female Orgasm shows Noah’s Mother did not Have Sex with Fallen Angels (Remnant of Giants).

I know Dean credits me with this story, but all I did was note Pieter van der Horst's recent article.

Job at Brooklyn College

H-JUDAIC:

JOB: Assistant Professor, Judaism in Late Antiquity and Rabbinics, Brooklyn College

The Department of Judaic Studies invites applications for an Assistant Professor/Judaism in Late Antiquity and Rabbinics with Subspecialty in post-biblical Jewish literature to teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Collaborative teaching efforts with other academic departments and programs is expected, as is willingness to participate in departmental administration. This is a tenure track position with a start date of Fall 2013. All appointments are subject to financial availability.

Active research and continuing publications are preconditions for appointment. Ph.D. required. Preference will be given to a specialist in Judaism in Late Antiquity who is fluent in post-biblical Jewish literature, Jewish Hellenistic literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and can teach courses in Talmud, Rabbinics, Jewish law, and related materials covering Jewish intellectual history from the Second Temple period through the early Medieval period. Ability to teach Hebrew language and literature would be valued. Strong background in Judaic studies is essential. Candidates with publications are preferred. Evidence of teaching excellence is required. Writing samples will only be required of finalists.

Open until filled with the review of applications to being on December 13, 2012.
For detailed application instruction please see
www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/faculty2013.
No email or hard copy applications will be accepted.
Brooklyn College is an AA/IRCA/ADA/EOE

King interview

PROFESSOR KAREN KING is profiled in the Boston Globe: Harvard divinity professor relishes adventure, research: Jesus finding put scholar in spotlight. She has long been well known to specialists as one of the premier experts on ancient Gnosticism, but she has recently been in the media limelight with her preliminary publication of the still much-debated Gospel of Jesus' Wife. The end of the article notes that those ink tests are still in progress. Background on the GJW is here and links.

Azeka excavation

ARCHAEOLOGY MEETS EPIGRAPHY and the Bible and other interesting things:

Macquarie University excavates in Israel

November 12, 2012 (J-Wire)

Macquarie University has joined Tel Aviv University, Heidelberg University and a consortium of other institutions in the joint scientific inquiry of Tel Azekah – one of the great archaeological sites of ancient Israel.

Andrew Pleffer – PhD candidate and Area Assistant Supervisor and Dr Gil Davis – Program Director have filed this report:

The project is designed to integrate archaeological fieldwork and historical knowledge derived from the Bible and inscriptions. It will shed light on this important fortress city in the Judahite Lowland Region (Shephelah) in the second and first millennia BCE.

[...]

Azekah features in many ancient literary sources, providing us with interesting historical data and cross references from different cultures. In the Bible, it is mentioned as: the fabled site of the battle between David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17); a fortified city in the city list of King Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11); the inheritance of Judah (Joshua 15); and as the last remaining fortified city of Judah as the King of Babylon assaulted Jerusalem (Jeremiah 34). In the ‘Azekah inscription’, it is mentioned as a politically and strategically important site for the Assyrian King Sennacherib in his control of the region. A collection of letters found at the nearby site of Lachish contains an anguished Judean report that the signal-fires of Azekah can no longer be seen, implying that the city has fallen (most likely to Sennacherib during his invasion of Judah in 701 BCE).

The Azekah excavations will contribute to our understanding of the region, its border zones and periphery settlements, trade and economy, strategic development, history and politics, as well as informing current debates about detecting ethnicity in material culture.

[...]

Obviously, one has to be cautious when making these sorts of correlations, but at the same time the questions need to be asked and Azeka is an interesting site that has the potential to provide some answers.

This article amounts to a brief excavation report for the 2012 season.

That State Comptroller's report again

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Temple Mount Faithful Wants to See State Comptroller Report (Yeshiva World News). It just won't go away.

Background here and links.

Metatron moves into New Age book market

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: Metatron/i-Mobilize Secures Mobile Application Distribution Agreement With New York Times Best Seller Gary Zukav.

Europa on the Euro

PHOENICIAN WATCH (sort of): Greek mythology about Phoenicia meets the Euro: Greek mythology character to adorn new euro notes: New ‘Europa’ series of bank notes unveiled by ECB with five-euro note bearing the image of a Greek mythological princess first to be introduced in May 2013.

Cincinnati DSS exhibit

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS are coming to Cincinnati, Ohio:

Dead Sea Scrolls will be here Friday
Fragile documents widely among the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century

4:43 AM, Nov 11, 2012 |

If you go to a show called Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times, you might expect to see, well, scrolls.

But instead, when this traveling exhibit opens Friday at Cincinnati Museum Center, you will witness relatively small parchment (in a rare case, papyrus) pieces that have been torn, frayed, smudged and otherwise affected in surviving the past 2,000+ years of history.

But don’t be dismissive. They are more precious than diamonds. They constitute the oldest writings known of the Hebrew Bible, and provide insight into the development of Judaism, Christianity and Western Civilization.

So fragile and valuable are they that there will just be two rotations of 10 each on display during the course of the exhibit, which lasts until at least April 14. (There are some 900 scrolls in existence.) These will be protected inside the drawer-like chambers of a circular, light- and climate-controlled Communal Scroll Table along with an English translation of the mostly Hebrew text.

[...]

The exhibition includes many interesting fragments; there's a list at the end of the article. It is an incarnation of the exhibition that ran previously at Discovery Times Square and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphi.

Kamlah et al., Temple Building and Temple Cult

NEW BOOK from Harrassowizt:

Temple Building and Temple Cult: Architecture and Cultic Paraphernalia of Temples in the Levant (2.-1. Mill. B.C.E.)
Proceedings of a Conference on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Institute of Biblical Archaeology at the University of Tübingen (28th - 30th of May 2010) with the assistance of Henrike Michelau
Herausgegeben von Kamlah, Jens / Mitherausgeber: Michelau, Henrike
Neu

pages/dimensions : ca. 688 Seiten
binding: Gebunden
weight: 2300
publishing date: 1. Auflage 10.2012
price info: 68,00 Eur[D] / 70,00 Eur[A]
ISBN: 978-3-447-06784-3

68,00 Eur

The volume is based on an international and interdisciplinary conference which took place at Tübingen, Germany in May 2010 on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Institute of Biblical Archaeology at the University of Tübingen. Jens Kamlah (ed.) brings these conference lectures along with four additional articles on recent archaeological finds related to temple building and temple cult together in one volume. From Aleppo to Ataroth - the volume is dedicated to city temples in the Levant, from the North to the South, from the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age. The storm god of Aleppo on one side and the bull of Ataroth on the other side symbolize its comprehensive approach and its wide geographical and chronological spectrum. From altars to votive vessels - within the various sub-regions of the Levant, several temple complexes and associated cultic paraphernalia have been recently excavated or re-evaluated. The results of these investigations significantly expand and modify our knowledge of temple building and temple cult in the Levant. From Jerusalem to Mount Gerizim - these new insights are of great importance for the research on the temple in Jerusalem and Old Testament research. Together, the articles lead to a better understanding of the complex religious history of the Levant in general and of the Levantine city temples in particular.

van Ruiten, Abraham in the Book of Jubilees

NEW BOOK from Brill:

Abraham in the Book of Jubilees
The Rewriting of Genesis 11:26-25:10 in the Book of Jubilees 11:14-23:8

Jacques T.A.G.M van Ruiten, University of Groningen

In Abraham in the Book of Jubilees, Jacques van Ruiten offers a systematic analysis of one of the most important and extensive Second Temple Jewish treatments of the figure of Abraham (Jub. 11:14-23:8). Given the importance of representations and reinterpretations of Abraham within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a careful analysis of this early source is an important contribution to research both on the evolving images of biblical patriarchs and on the history of biblical interpretation.

There are many references to Jubilees in articles and books on images of Abraham. They are chosen for exegetical motifs, with little attention for its own literary and narrative dynamics, or for the specific writing and reading practices that it embodies and attests. Van Ruiten’s careful analysis thus provides important context and corrective.

Cross memorial session

THE SBL MEMORIAL SESSION FOR FRANK MOORE CROSS now has a date, time, and venue: 5:00-6:00 pm on Saturday, 17 November in room W183a at the McCormick Place Convention Center. Again, see you there!

Diverse translational Aramaica

ARAMAIC/SYRIAC WATCH: Translations from and into Aramaic figure in some recent stories.

First, A translation of the Syriac New Testament into Arabic:

First Translation of New Testament From Jesus' Primary Language Into Arabic

Posted GMT 11-9-2012 1:29:9 (AINA)

WACO, Texas -- A former monk/civil engineer/business manager, who now teaches Arabic at Baylor University, has translated the New Testament for the first time into Arabic -- one of the fastest-growing languages on Twitter -- directly from what most scholars believe was Jesus' primary language.

Arabic is the world's fifth most common language, according to Wikipedia, and enrollment in its study has soared at U.S. colleges and universities, according to the Modern Language Association.

Abdul-Massih Saadi, Ph.D., a lecturer in Arabic in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences, said his 12-year undertaking has been "a good struggle" to translate the text into two versions -- Modern Standard Arabic as well as a colloquial Arabic dialect -- in the volume.

Saadi's 800-page project meant not only poring over original texts rather than the English of the King James Version or the New International Version, but also holding the colloquial Arabic version up for scrutiny by people ranging from educated to illiterate to be certain it meshed with the language they speak and understand -- including idioms.

"Our translation is the first Arabic Bible based on Eastern Bible tradition, namely the Syriac," said Saadi, who is from Aleppo, Syria. "Most unique in this project is the Colloquial Arabic Version, with the colloquial is known as Mardini."

The term Syriac refers to one Aramaic dialect in which Christian literature was written. Evidence from the second century A.D. indicates Aramaic-speaking Christians undertook translating the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament into Syriac, he said.

[...]

Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic and so is technically the language of Jesus, but he would have spoken a first-century Galilean dialect, whereas Syriac originated as the somewhat later Anatolian dialect spoken in the city of Edessa.

Second, some of the Syriac poetry of Ephrem the Syrian has been translated into Turkish:

Turkish Ministry Collects Poems in Assyrian in a New Book

Posted GMT 11-6-2012 1:41:11 (AINA)

Syriac [Assyrian] poems have been translated into Turkish by the Mardin Kırklar Church high priest Gabriel Akyüz, at the request of the Culture and Arts Ministry.

"These poems are an important part of Syriac culture and literature," Akyüz said. The translated works include poems by one of the most important names in Syriac literature, Mor Efem. The poems were written during the fourth century using a seven-syllabic meter, Akyüz said.

The book consists of 400 pages and includes additional information on Mor Erem's life.

[...]

There are many PaleoJudaica posts on Ephrem, including here, here, here, here, here, here (sort of), here, and here.

Finally, over at the Aramaic Blog, Steve Caruso has posted a retroversion of the Lord's Prayer into first-century Galilean Aramaic: The Lord's Prayer Reconstructed in Galilean Aramaic Posted!

Job in Jewish Studies/Abrahamic Religions

JOB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER: Lecturer in Jewish Studies/Abrahamic Religions (Education and Research).

The successful applicant will hold a PhD in Jewish Studies, study of Abrahamic religions, or an area related to the study of religion with a particular focus on, or with special expertise in, Judaism, and have an independent, internationally-recognised research programme in an active field of research related or complementary to existing Exeter strengths. He/she will be able to demonstrate the following qualities and characteristics: a strong record in attracting research funding or demonstrable potential to attract such funding, teamwork skills to work in collaboration with existing group members, an active and supportive approach to inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research that will help to foster interactions and links both within the University and externally, the attitude and ability to engage in continuous professional development, the aptitude to develop familiarity with a variety of strategies to promote and assess learning and enthusiasm for delivering undergraduate programmes.

Follow the link for details.

Via Francesca Stavrakopoulou on Facebook.

In support of Christopher Rollston

ROBERT CARGILL has posted a Call for Letters in Support of Christopher Rollston.

Background here and links.

DSS miscellany

STEPHEN GORANSON sends in links to some current stories on the Dead Sea Scrolls:

First, at the Scrolls exhibition at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, a lecture by Weston Fields:

Tuesday, December 04 - Dr. Weston Fields [+]

“100 New Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments From Qumran Cave 4: How Did It Happen?”
Weston Fields

Director, Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation

Weston W. Fields has traveled across the Middle East, Europe and the United States to interview every person he could find who was involved in the original excavation and examination of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He has amassed a large collection of papers and archives related to the first scrolls scholars, especially the famous Qumran Cave 4 Team.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Fields has worked closely with the editors of the official publication of the scrolls, “Discoveries in the Judaean Desert,” and has himself published “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Full History, Volume 1” and “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Short History.” He earned his doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Then, a new book from OUP by Prof. Joan Taylor of Kings College London:

The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea
Joan E. Taylor
448 pages | 56 figures, colour plate section | 234x156mm
978-0-19-955448-5 | Hardback | 15 November 2012
Price: £30.00

Presents a solution to the mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Clearly sets out the history and archaeology of Qumran
Offers a new understanding of the Essenes (and New Testament 'Herodians') in ancient Judaism, from the surviving literary sources
Explores the rich history of ancient medicine and pharmacology, and the uses of the Dead Sea in antiquity
Carefully illustrated with maps, illustrations, and colour photographs

Ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves near the site of Qumran in 1947, this mysterious cache of manuscripts has been associated with the Essenes, a 'sect' configured as marginal and isolated. Scholarly consensus has held that an Essene library was hidden ahead of the Roman advance in 68 CE, when Qumran was partly destroyed. With much doubt now expressed about aspects of this view, the Essenes, the Scrolls and the Dead Sea systematically reviews the surviving historical sources, and supports an understanding of the Essenes as an influential legal society, at the centre of Judaean religious life, held in much esteem by many and protected by the Herodian dynasty, thus appearing as 'Herodians' in the Gospels.

Opposed to the Hasmoneans, the Essenes combined sophisticated legal expertise and autonomy with an austere regimen of practical work, including a specialisation in medicine and pharmacology. Their presence along the north-western Dead Sea is strongly indicated by two independent sources, Dio Chrysostom and Pliny the Elder, and coheres with the archaeology. The Dead Sea Scrolls represent not an isolated library, quickly hidden, but burials of manuscripts from numerous Essene collections, placed in jars in caves for long-term preservation. The historical context of the Dead Sea area itself, and its extraordinary natural resources, as well as the archaeology of Qumran, confirm the Essenes' patronage by Herod, and indicate that they harnessed the medicinal material the Dead Sea zone provides to this day.

Readership: Students and scholars of Qumran studies; of biblical archaeology; of Jewish studies; of biblical studies; of ancient history. General readers interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Third, a story of Scrolls skullduggery which we should take with a grain of salt, pending further coverage:

Dead Sea Manuscripts

croatiantimes.com

Swiss detectives are trying to work out how a previously unknown dead sea scroll worth up to 30 million GBP ended up in the suitcase of a Romanian tourist stopped during a random search by customs officials.

[...]

A police spokesman said: "The man had a full set of documentation proving the authenticity of the scroll including an estimate of its value, which was around 40 million Swiss Francs (27 million GBP)."

Police say that because of the remote location of the site where the original scrolls were found many had been looted and sold on the black market, and they suspect that if proven to be genuine - the current scroll was probably worth the money that the Romanian man's paperwork suggested.

It is rumored that there are still Dead Sea Scroll fragments on the antiquities market which have an asking price of millions of dollars (which is probably why they remain on the market). If there really is something out there worth 27 million British Pounds ($43 million), it must be very special indeed. Count me skeptical.

Also, a recent review of the SWBTS exhibition is here. And there's lots of background on the exhibition here and links.

Qumran and the DSS

OWEN JARUS at LiveScience: Qumran & the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is a nice summary of the current state of the question and is generally accurate, even in details. That said, a lot of scholars are skeptical of de Vaux's scriptorium and there are closer to 1200 graves in the cemetery.

Standing on one foot

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN by Adam Kirsch in Tablet: Standing on One Foot: The origin of a famous anecdote shines light on the compromises of Conservative and Reform Judaism.

It is only when you encounter Hillel’s saying in the context of the Talmud that it becomes clear just how nonsensical our modern interpretation of his words would have seemed to him.

Ancient cedar beams burnt on Temple Mount?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Video: Arabs Burning 'First Temple Cedars of Lebanon'
Arabs are burning ancient beams of wood that had apparently been used during the period of the Holy Temple.

By David Lev (Arutz Sheva)
First Publish: 11/4/2012, 4:14 PM

A group of Jews that ascended the Temple Mount Sunday were shocked to see that ancient beams of wood that had apparently been used during the period of the Holy Temple were being used as firewood by Arabs on the Mount, and off it. Archaeologists have dated the wood as far back as the First Temple period, and appear to be among the celebrated “Cedars of Lebanon” mentioned in the Tanach.

[...]

If this report is accurate, it's not good.

Masada and the Qumran scrolls

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Ancient Scribe Links Qumran Scrolls to Masada: Sidnie White Crawford discusses handwriting discoveries by Ada Yardeni.

Some interesting reflections on a 2007 article by Yardeni. Unfortunately, most of the BAR article by White Crawford is behind a subscription wall.

Philip Davies again on the Jordan Codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Philip Davies has another editorial in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly on the codices: Codices from Jordan: the Mystery Remains. (His earlier editorial in the same journal on the same subject is noted here). He sums up the current situation and calls for those who think they are genuine and those who think they are fake to maintain an open mind.

I have explained in detail already, repeatedly (see here with many links), why I think that, although at least in some cases it looks as though ancient lead was used to make them, the codices were manufactured in modern times. I hold this position with considerable confidence because the evidence that they are fake is substantial. Could I be wrong? Sure. But the best working hypothesis by far is that they are fake and I see no reason to keep agonizing over the remote possibility that they are ancient productions. I have called repeatedly over the last year and a half for some significant evidence for their ancient manufacture, and the silence grows more deafening with each passing month. Should tests and analyses that have some bearing on the question ever actually be produced, I will be happy to look at the results, and especially at peer review of the tests and their results by experts in the area. Meanwhile, I think we all have more important things to think about.

Do keep in mind that there are no scholars who are arguing, either in peer-review articles or even in blog posts, that the codices are genuine. Philip Davies has been their most positive proponent and he thinks that we should leave the possibility open, but even he has not tried to make a convincing positive case.

A few specific comments on Professor Davies's latest essay.

The letters used are not consistent in form: they are from various old Semitic scripts used for dialects of Aramaic, with the odd letter inverted and some letters perhaps from Coptic.

This in itself is certainly not inconsistent with forgery. It is true that there are ancient cryptic scripts that mix up different alphabets, but these are used as simple substitution ciphers to encode texts that make sense. No such sensible text can be found in the metal codices.

Philip notes that Steve Caruso and Tom Verenna (among others) have advanced parallels with ancient objects to demonstrate forgery and he responds:

Do these parallels not prove that the codices are modern? Not quite: we need an image from the recent past to prove that. The eclectic choice of script is consistent with a deliberately created similitude of an ancient artifact, i.e. a ‘modern forgery’. But it’s not proof. Other explanations are possible.

First, one of the images on the codices bears a very suspicious resemblance to a coin that is itself a modern fake (see no. 4 here). Second, other explanations are doubtless possible, but how probable are they? What ancient analogies are there for such an eclectic choice of script combined with nonsense text?

However, as made clear in the Editorial, among the items found with the codices are some that are clearly fakes—one made of copper, for example and shown as fig. 3 in the editorial. Again, this proves nothing. Ancient relics might well be seeded with modern creations.

Of course this is possible, but it is farfetched. Why would anyone who had found a real cache of ancient artifacts want to go to the huge amount of effort required to make fake versions of those artifacts to mix in with them? The danger of getting caught and casting doubt on the whole collection (which is what actually happened) would surely outweigh the possibility of some marginal gain in selling them.

This brings us to the next question. Why would these books would have been produced in antiquity? Why would they would have been manufactured recently? The books are numerous (at least 50), probably mass-produced, apparently stored in a rural cave, not an urban warehouse, and manufactured with some care but designed with no meaningful text and an apparently random proliferation of letters and images. They are unlikely products, whether ancient or modern. If ancient, it seems to be likely that they had some kind of magical or ritual use.

I do not see that assigning to them a "magical" or "ritual" (what does the latter mean?) use is of any great explanatory value. We have quite a few ancient magical texts and objects spanning from the earliest literate ancient Near East up through the Middle Ages (and beyond). What specifically about the codices flags them as magical? It is true that nonsense words and apparently meaningless strings of letters are often characteristic of magical and mystical texts from late antiquity on, but these appear as incantations within reasonably coherent texts. Which genuine magical artifacts and texts from antiquity are informative parallels to the codices? I know of none, and this is an area I work in quite a bit. Unless such parallels are advanced, the best explanation for the nonsense letters and words in the codices are that the codices are crude fakes.

If modern, they were presumably designed to make money by selling to gullible customers who would not bother asking what they were supposed to be. So, if they are modern, the problem does not, in my view, stop there. There is more that needs finding out.

I agree that it is worthwhile for someone to try to track down how, where, and when the codices were made. If Philip wants to spend his time doing this, more power to him. But I doubt very much that this will lead to significant evidence that they are ancient productions.

To add some spice to this enigma, there have been images circulating of sheets that look just like these lead books, but in much better condition. A few sceptics have pointed to these as further proof that the collection is not genuinely ancient. But they are so clearly modern copies (see figs 5 and 6). Fakes of fakes? Whatever shall we encounter next?

Yes, a new lot of fake fake metal codices has recently made an appearance. I have seen photos of some of them. For comments on an earlier lot of such, see here. This has no particular bearing on the genuineness or not of the original lot of codices, except that it demonstrates that one or more production facility for such artifacts exists and is in active use at present.

The majority of scholars I have consulted, many of whom have seen one of these codices, have been impressed enough to regard their ancient origin as a possibility.

I have not yet seen one of the objects directly (that may change soon), but that hardly has any bearing on anything. What features could they have that could not be described or shown in a photograph which would amount to compelling evidence for their being genuine?

If, as I believe, we shall at some point be in a position to establish whether they are modern forgeries, or genuine antiquities, or ancient forgeries (if ancient enough, do they become genuine antiquities?), why commit oneself? It’s fine to have an opinion, but a little room for doubt should be left by those committed to either view. At least those who think they are genuinely old are trying their best to establish whether they are right or wrong.

I call 'em as I see 'em. The current evidence does not seem ambiguous to me. If someone wants a different call from me, give me new evidence that makes me reconsider my position.

Let me end with a silence, The silence from Amman. The dog that has not yet barked. Although these items, if genuinely old, would be of value to the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and the Kingdom, ever since its erstwhile Director, Ziad al-Sa’ad made his opinion known there has been complete silence from Amman. Earlier this year, a group of biblical scholars from the UK’s Society for the Study of the Old Testament wrote a letter to the Times asking the Jordanian authorities to make an announcement.

At the time of writing, we are still waiting. Without an initiative from Amman we may never know for sure what these are. Listen out!

Yes, the silence from Amman also grows more deafening as time passes. Remember back in April of 2011 when we were supposed to have tests results in three weeks? I have speculated on possible reasons for this silence here.

Bottom line: such evidence as we now have, which is not inconsiderable, indicates that the Jordan metal codices are fakes. I am prepared to consider any new, reputable (especially peer-reviewed) evidence to the contrary, but failing that, I see no reason for scholars to be concerned about them.

My most recent post bearing on the fake metal codices is here and it leads to many, many links going back to the first announcement in March of 2011.

Website: Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook

PHILIP A. HARLAND: Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook.

Welcome to the companion site to Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook (= AGRW).

Using tools in the right sidebar, you can browse or search a growing online database of inscriptions and papyri about associations, immigrant groups, and guilds in the ancient Mediterranean, including many documents that do not appear in the book (marked with an asterisk*).

The plan is to have more translations and photos contributed to this website by scholarly experts around the world with coordination by Richard S. Ascough, Philip A. Harland, and John S. Kloppenborg ...

Philip adds in an e-mail:

Basically, users of the site can browse through hundreds of inscriptions (450 so far) involving guilds, immigrant groups, and other associations in the ancient Mediterranean. The user can browse by geography and by topics (including gods). There is also a feature I called "selected exhibits" on (hopefully) interesting topics to a general reader (with about 10 inscriptions in each exhibit). There are many documents with English translations, and the user can choose to view just those (in selected exhibits). One of the selected exhibits is for Judeans in the diaspora. The plan is to continue to expand the websitewith more inscriptions relating to these groups.

This looks like a very useful resource.

Philip Harland also runs the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean Blog.

JSJ 43.4-5

THE JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF JUDAISM has a new double issue out: vol. 43.4-5 (requires a paid personal or institutional subscription for access to full content).

From the Preface, by Hindy Najman and Eibert Tigchelaar:

We dedicate this special issue of the Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period (JSJ) to our colleague, teacher, and friend, Florentino García Martínez, who will resign this year as editor-in-chief of the Journal for the Study of Judaism and as one of the editors of the series Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism.

TOC:

Preface
pp. 453-454(2)
Authors: Najman, Hindy; Tigchelaar, Eibert

Articles

The Transformation of the Torah in Second Temple Judaism
pp. 455-474(20)
Author: Collins, John J.

The Riverrun of Rewriting Scripture: From Textual Cannibalism to Scriptural Completion
pp. 475-496(22)
Author: Petersen, Anders Klostergaard

The Vitality of Scripture Within and Beyond the “Canon“
pp. 497-518(22)
Author: Najman, Hindy
Classifications of the Collection of Dead Sea Scrolls and the Case of Apocryphon of Jeremiah C
pp. 519-550(32)
Author: Tigchelaar, Eibert

Qumran as Scroll Storehouse in Times of Crisis? A Comparative Perspective on Judaean Desert Manuscript Collections
pp. 551-594(44)
Authors: Popović, Mladen

The Image of Jacob in the Targum of Hosea 12
pp. 595-612(18)
Author: Van Ruiten, Jacques

Bitenosh's Orgasm (1QapGen 2:9-15)
pp. 613-628(16)
Author: Van der Horst, Pieter W.

Via the Talmud Blog on Facebook.

Review of Anton, Rav Hisda's Daughter

BOOK REVIEW AT THE TALMUD BLOG: Review: Maggie Anton’s Rav Hisda’s Daughter- Guest Post by Ilana Kurshan. Excerpt:

The discussions that come alive in this book are Talmudic as well as academic, which may explain why this novel will have so much appeal for readers like myself who are steeped in the Talmudic text and the scholarship about its context. For readers who do not experience the pleasure of the familiar in its fictionalized form, Anton’s novel celebrates our rich and colorful textual heritage and reminds us that feminist history is often a return to the material and the real – to the beer the scholars drank, the springs in which they bathed, the cycle of blood that dictated their most intimate relationships, and the rooms in which they studied texts that occasionally refer to wives and daughters whose lives we can at best imagine.

Earlier coverage of Anton and her books is here and links

Brill deal on Jewish studies

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: Special Year End Offer on Jewish Studies Primary Sources. Most of them are modern, but a few are earlier.

AAR/SBL app

JAMES MCGRATH: This Year’s AAR/SBL iPad App is Finally Available!

It's also for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. I've installed mine.

Dogged exploration

DISCOVERY: Dog's Fall Led to Archaeological Discovery: Ancient wine presses found in Jerusalem thanks to a man who walked his dog (Arutz Sheva)

Not the first such discovery a dog has made.

Hanukkah in the Talmud

DAF YOMI COLUMN: This week in Tablet, Adam Kirsch writes on Light Advice From the Rabbis: A Talmudic discussion of Hanukkah and Sabbath candles leads to a lesson in the sacred and profane.

Earlier columns in the series are noted here and links.

Review of CIIP vol. 2

BMCR REVIEW:

Walter Ameling, Hannah M. Cotton, Werner Eck, Benjamin Isaac, Alla Kushnir-Stein (ed.), Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume II: Caesarea and the Middle Coast: 1121-2160. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2011. Pp. xxiv, 923. ISBN 9783110222173. $255.00.

Contributors: Additional editors: Haggai Misgav, Jonathan Price, and Ada Yardeni

Reviewed by Yaron Z. Eliav, University of Michigan (yzeliav@umich.edu)

Nearly two hundred years have passed since August Böckh launched the first comprehensive, academically standardized corpus of Greek inscriptions – the Corpus inscriptionum Graecarum – in 1815 (although the first volume was not published until 1828). The Eastern Mediterranean, originally seen as the less important periphery of the Roman world, has also claimed its epigraphic corpora – Syria’s Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, for example, started appearing in 1929. Now, remarkably late if one considers the centrality of this region in Christian and Jewish consciousness, it is the turn of Roman Judaea, known since the second century CE as Syria Palaestina or simply Palestine, with the Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (CIIP). Modern Middle Eastern politics has hindered the project: it does not include inscriptions from the region’s central hill or from the southern seashore plains, part and parcel of the political and cultural textures of the area’s past, but now separated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Academic intrigue caused the leading Greek epigraphist of Judaea/Palaestina – Leah Di Segni – to depart from the team working on the inscriptions, a professional and collegial loss. Only the high quality of the series makes these hurdles somewhat more tolerable.

Werner Eck, a German epigraphist with Mommsenian authority, and Hannah Cotton, a prominent Israeli papyrologist, have assembled an impressive international team to carry out this endeavor. They plan a nine-volume series; the first, a two-book volume on Jerusalem, was published in 2010/12. The current tome, volume II in the series, offers over a thousand inscriptions from the northern parts of the Israeli seashore, a sixty-mile stretch between modern Tel Aviv and Mount Carmel. Caesarea Maritima, the central port city of Roman Palestine and the seat of its governor, dominates the region and its epigraphical output with a total of 952 inscriptions, many of which were already published and discussed in earlier corpora.1 Along with Caesarea the current volume showcases a host of other smaller cities and towns in which inscriptions survived (including Apollonia/Arsuf, Castra Samaritanorum, Dora/Dor, and Sycamina).

[...]

A review of volume 1 is noted here. Background on the project is here and here and links.

Malta exhibit

ANCIENT (ETC.) INSCRIPTIONS in numerous languages are going on exhibition in Malta:

Writings from the past
(Sunday Times of Malta)

Inscribed artefacts and copies of ancient manuscripts written in Phoenician/Punic, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and Maltese will be among the exhibits on display at Ancestral Voices: Writings from the Past, an activity being held on November 7 from 10am to 7.30pm at the University’s Archeology Centre.

[...]

Review of Levenson, The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Alan T. Levenson. The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible: How Scholars in Germany, Israel, and America Transformed an Ancient Text.
Lanham Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. xiii + 247 pp. $49.95
(cloth), ISBN 978-1-4422-0516-1.

Reviewed by Alan Cooper (Jewish Theological Seminary)
Published on H-Judaic (October, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Whose Bible?

Alan T. Levenson introduces his book by suggesting that its scope
might be deemed "hubristic" and stating that it is "_not_ an original
piece of scholarship" (pp. 4, 5, his emphasis). One could say,
therefore, that the book is self-reviewing, but the overly modest
characterization does an injustice to a volume that is learned,
informative, insightful, often entertaining, and occasionally (but
constructively) annoying. The learning, culled from a wide array of
primary and secondary sources, is placed in the service of an effort
to "translate the findings of the academy for a wider audience"--an
effort that succeeds admirably (p. 5).

[...]

GJW and the Failure of Early Christian Studies

ALIN SUCIU: Guest Post: Timothy Pettipiece – Jesus’ Wife and the Failure of Early Christian Studies.

The real interest of this fragment, assuming its authenticity, is to underscore the immense and ongoing diversity of opinions within the early church during the 2nd and 3rd centuries. This sophisticated analysis, which scholars of early Christianity have been building for over a century (and which is arguably more offensive to conservative Christian sensibilities than Jesus’ marriage), is simply not part of the general public’s imagination.

Background on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife is here and links.

Another Cross obituary

THE HARVARD GAZETTE:

Frank Moore Cross, 91
A first-rate biblical scholar, but a dedicated teacher first

By Tania deLuzuriaga

Harvard Staff Writer

Thursday, October 25, 2012

“My students have given me the greatest pleasure,” said Bible scholar Frank Moore Cross, who retired from Harvard in 1992. “I have always had the view that the first task of a scholar is to pass knowledge and understanding of method and the tools of his field from one generation to the next.”

He traveled the world unearthing and interpreting religious texts from a forgotten time. His nearly 300 academic papers deepened humanity’s understanding of the time and place in which three of the world’s major religions would take root. And yet, over the course of a career that spanned five decades, Frank Moore Cross always returned to the classroom, teaching until his retirement in 1992, and advising more than 100 doctoral dissertations in the process.

“My students have given me the greatest pleasure,” he once told the editor of the Bible Review. “I have always had the view that the first task of a scholar is to pass knowledge and understanding of method and the tools of his field from one generation to the next.”

[...]

Yes. He held his students to the highest standards, while patiently explaining when we didn't understand and being understanding and supportive if one of us was having problems outside of our academic work. I never saw him irritable or impatient. I like to think that I have been able to apply some of what I saw in him to my work with my own students.

He could be a formidable critic in his classes and our doctoral seminar, but his comments were always constructive and leavened with sympathetic humor. I remember once he opened his response to a student seminar paper with, "I should begin by saying that this is a good paper on a very difficult topic. But enough of fulsome praise. ..."

Friends and colleagues remembered Cross as a consummate gentleman, with a dry wit and varied interests. He studied ancient texts, yet had a penchant for fast sports coupes. He read and wrote in several “dead” languages, even as he kept his Southern accent. He wore a bow tie to the classroom, and took up backpacking in his 40s, embarking on several long trips through the wilderness with his wife, Betty Anne. A lifelong swimmer, he learned to scuba dive in his 60s so that he could conduct underwater archaeology in the Middle East.

“His interests were incredible,” said Harvard Divinity School Professor Paul D. Hanson. “He was always cultivating some hobby.”

Indeed. I found out late in my time at Harvard that he was an avid science fiction reader, as I was and still am. Somehow the topic came up once when I was meeting with him in his office about one of my dissertation chapters. We started talking about SF and I had the surreal experience of debating the merits of a particular design for a starship drive with Frank Moore Cross.

Also once when some of us took him out to lunch to thank him for doing a special readings course with us, he mentioned in passing that he much preferred the idea of a cyclical big-bang big-crunch universe to an open universe that just faded out into cold and darkness.

A couple of small corrections:

When Albright and his students were given exclusive access to some of the scrolls, Cross was allocated the often fragmented texts of Cave No. 4.

This makes it sound as though Albright and his students made up the original team of editors. But actually Cross was just one of a group of editors from more varied backgrounds, including J. T. Milik, John Strugnell, and John Allegro. Cross was the last surviving member of the original team.

Also, Cross was allocated the biblical fragments from Cave 4, not the whole lot.

Cross came to Harvard’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 1957, having completed stints at Wellesley College and McCormick Seminary. By then, he was making regular trips to the Middle East to see and authenticate scrolls, journeys that often involved arduous plane rides, shoddy communications, and unsavory characters. Work sometimes entailed crawling through caves in 120-degree heat, negotiating with corrupt antiquities dealers, or excavating an archaeological site while bombs went off in the distance.

“It was very cloak-and-dagger,” Machinist said. “Israel was a newly created state, and the whole region precipitated on war.”

In a newspaper article about a trip to Lebanon in 1967, Cross recalled landing in Beirut to procure a collection of newly found scrolls. After proving his identity to an intermediary, he was directed to stand alone on a particular street corner one night, was picked up in a nondescript car, and was driven through the back roads of the city to a mansion where negotiations began. Unfortunately, the transaction fell through when the Arab-Israeli War broke out.

I heard him tell that story too. He said he was terrified when he got into the car, until he realized that Kando was in it waiting for him.

More obituaries and memorials here and links.

Amulet auction in Tel Aviv

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: Amulet collection spanning 8,000 years is up for grabs at T.A. auction: The starting prices for the amulets, which come from the collection of antiquities dealer and amulet collector Lenny Wolfe, range from $25 to $5,000. (Haaretz). Excerpt:

A second-century figure of a mouse, whose starting price is listed as $300, was meant to protect against mice in the pantry, and a clenched fist from the second or third century was thought to keep evil spirits, demons and bad luck at bay.

In some cultures the clenched fist was seen as a rude gesture, much like sticking up one's middle finger today, said Wolfe, and the "negative nature of the amulet served to protect against evil."

The medieval scholar Maimonides, as well as rabbis in the talmudic era, prohibited Jews from using amulets, especially those made from parts of animals. But the fact that they were banned indicates that they may already have been in widespread use.

"When there are prohibitions, you have to look for the politics behind them," said Wolfe. "On the one hand, they banned use of amulets. On the other hand, sometimes the custom was allowed, but only for specific people, a small circle of friends." All the same, many of the amulets in the collection have Hebrew inscriptions and are connected to Judaism.

It seems that many of these are modern, but if you do happen to buy an ancient one, please consider donating it to a museum. Or at least make sure to make it available to specialists who want to study it. Publications on the piece will only make it more valuable.

Elad in the news

POLITICS: TAU to take part in East Jerusalem dig funded by pro-settlement group: Silwan residents say excavations in City of David promote Elad's political agenda. Tel Aviv University: It's an academic project (Haaretz). Excerpt:

Critics question the role of Elad in the dig. “It's hard to believe that the Antiques Authority, with its meager budget, has suddenly found sources to fund someone else's projects,” says archaeologist Yoni Mizrachi of Emek Shaveh.

TAU archaeologist Prof. Rafael Greenberg, another Emek Shaveh activist, is more outspoken: “This is a clear politicization of research. Whoever is familiar with the area is aware that all the diggings are annexed to Elad, supervised by Elad, and separate from the site of the City of David. In practice, the project is to become part of Elad's settlement drive.”

Rejecting the criticism, TAU Institute of Archaeology Director Prof. Oded Lipschitstold Haaretz that academic standards would be maintained. “The heart of biblical archaeology is in Jerusalem and the City of David. For that reason, I approached the Antiquities Authority and expressed our will to carry out work in the area,” Lipschits said. “The goal of the digging at the City of David is to carry out a form of 'clean' archaeology. Of course the project has to take into consideration the elements active in the site and running the national park. We will cooperate with Elad, since they run the site, but we will maintain our standards. We won't agree to be subjected to political interests."

For background on Elad, see here and links.

Kabbalah 28

CHERUB PRESS has just announced the publication of a new volume of Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts:

Kabbalah, Volume 28 (2012)
320 pp. [English and Hebrew] ISBN 1-933379-31-6

ORDER HERE: ATLAS BOOKS

Studies in English
Daniel Abrams: ‘The Becoming of the Hasidic Book’ – An Unpublished Article by Joseph Weiss: Study, Edition and English Translation
Jonatan Meir: Marketing Demons – Joseph Perl, Israel Baal Shem Tov and the History of One Amulet
Moshe Idel: Solomon Maimon and Kabbalah

Studies in Hebrew
Daniel Abrams: Gershom Scholem and the Book Bahir
Gideon Bohak: Gershom Scholem and Jewish Magic
Shraga Bar-On: The Yom Kippur Lots – Rationalism, Manticism and Mysticism
Leore Sachs Shmueli: Seder Gan Eden – Critical Edition and Study (with annotations by Gershom Scholem)
Avraham Elqayam: Nudity in the Sanctus Sanctorum: Philo and Plotinus on Nudity, Esthetics and Sanctity

Peer review and the GJW

MARK GOODACRE has some observations about how the online Gospel of Jesus' Wife controversy is affecting peer review: The Jesus' Wife Fragment and the Transformation of Peer Review?

I like to post informal drafts of my work (usually conference papers) so I can get online feedback before peer review even comes up. Most of the time the best informal feedback I get comes from the discussion at the conference, but I've not posted anything online that would get the kind of attention and scrutiny that Professor King's paper on the GJW has received.

Background here and links.

Carthage

PUNIC WATCH: Owen Jarus has posted a capsule history of Carthage at Live Science: Carthage: Ancient Phoenician City-State.

The Sota Project

ADULTERY MEETS THE TALMUD MEETS ART:

Sota Project’: Sealed With a Kiss

by Jonathan Maseng, Contributing Writer [JewishJournal.com]

The Talmud is on display this month at the USC Fisher Museum of Art, but if you’re expecting a dry examination of rabbinic law and ethics, you’ve come to the wrong place. Ofri Cnaani’s “The Sota Project” offers a daring and even graphic take on Jewish views of adultery, sexuality and sisterhood through a little-known but fascinating piece of talmudic text.

Sitting in a conference room at the Fisher Museum’s offices, Cnaani was excited to discuss “The Sota Project,” though a little disappointed to hear she’d missed out on Los Angeles’ long-running heat wave. Born in Israel in 1975, Cnaani immigrated to the United States a decade ago to study art at New York’s Hunter College MFA program, and though she apparently misses the warm Israeli summers, she’s found great success in the States and in the New York art world, where her work has been on display at prestigious places like MOMA’s PS1 and the Andrea Meislin Gallery. Her exhibition at the Fisher Museum marks her Los Angeles debut, and she seems particularly excited to be showing a piece like “The Sota Project,” which is so close to her heart.

[...]

The kiss is a kiss of death.

Cross SBL session

A SPECIAL SESSION in honor of Frank Moore Cross has been arranged for the Chicago meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature next month:

There will be a special session at SBL honoring the memory of Frank
Moore Cross (1921-2012), on Saturday, Nov. 17, at 5:00 p.m. (room
TBA). Friends and colleagues are invited to pay tribute to the memory
of this great scholar, mentor and teacher.

Sidnie White Crawford
Willa Cather Professor of Classics and Religious Studies
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Chair of the Board of Trustees
W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
Jerusalem

See you there!

Background here and links

Wiesel lecture

ELIE WIESEL has given a lecture at BU on martyrdom in the Talmud:

Martyrdom, suicide, sins spark Elie Wiesel lecture

Written by Regine Sarah Capungan (The Daily Free Press)
Published Oct 23, 2012

Boston University professor Elie Wiesel addressed the perceptions surrounding martyrdom and suicide in Jewish culture as he spoke before hundreds of students Monday night.

In Wiesel’s lecture, “In the Talmud: Is Martyrdom or Sanctification of His Name a Valid Response?” he focused on whether the act of martyrdom was accepted or legal in Jewish culture.

He said suicide is forbidden in Judaism, as life is always of greater importance than death.

[...]

Wiesel drew on examples from religious texts to support his argument. He gave an illustration of martyrdom by introducing the three largest sins of Judaism: idolatry, or worship of a false idol, murder and adultery.

Wiesel used the story of Rabbi Hanina as an example of martyrdom. Hanina defied Roman law and taught the Torah. As a result, Hanina was sentenced to death and Roman soldiers burned him to death at the stake as punishment.

“We are always amazed at the life and death of these great teachers,” Wiesel said.

[...]

Incidentally, R. Hanina is one of the martyrs in the traditional Legend of the Ten Martyrs and he plays an important role in the rather idiosyncratic version of the story in the Hekhalot Rabbati. See the link for details.

New book on Philo of Alexandria

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Philo of Alexandria
A Thinker in the Jewish Diaspora

By Mireille Hadas-Lebel, Professor emeritus at Paris-Sorbonne

Philo (20BCE?-45CE?) is the most illustrious son of Alexandrian Jewry and the first major scholar to combine a deep Jewish learning with Greek philosophy. His unique allegorical exegesis of the Greek Bible was to have a profound influence on the early fathers of the Church. Philo was, above all, a philosopher, but he was also intensely practical in his defence of the Jewish faith and law in general, and that of Alexandria’s embattled Jewish community in particular. A famous example was his leadership of a perilous mission to plead the community’s cause to Emperor Caligula. This monograph provides a guide to Philo's life, his thought and his action, as well as his continuing influence on theological and philosophical thought.

Cross memorial update

HERSHEL SHANKS'S MEMORIAL TO FRANK MOORE CROSS has now been updated with the addition of memorials written by Cross's students and others, including the one I published on PaleoJudaica last week.

Background here and links.

Collins on the DSS

JOHN J. COLLINS: Dead Sea Scrolls: What Have We Learned? at the Huffington Post.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered near the site of Qumran, south of Jericho in the years 1947-1956 were dubbed "the academic scandal of the 20th century" because of the long delay in publication. Over the last 20 years or so, however, they have been fully published, except for occasional scraps that continue to come to light. Ever since their discovery, they have aroused passions on a scale that is extraordinary for an academic subject. Now that those passions have cooled, the time is ripe to ask what we have really learned from this remarkable discovery.

[...]

UPDATE: Over at Remnant of Giants, Deane Galbraith flags a comment to the above. This is a good illustration of why I don't enable comments at PaleoJudaica.

Lice on the Sabbath and related issues

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN from Adam Kirsch at Tablet: Of Lice and Men: Study of the Talmud’s second tractate reveals how the rabbis stuck to logic and made it sacred.

Reading the first pages of the tractate on Shabbat over the last weeks, I was struck by the way this emphasis on Torah study allows the rabbis to sacralize what is, on its face, often a strictly intellectual, logical, even mathematical kind of thinking. When we communicate with God in prayer, we tend to focus on emotions. We feel elevated by thinking about our love for God and his for us, or we declare our devotion or repentance. All of this is encouraged by the emotive language of the prayer service.

The opening pages of Shabbat, however, could not be more rigorously logical. In Shabbat 2a, the Mishnah presents us with a situation in which a householder is standing inside the boundary of his house, while a poor man is facing him while standing in the street, in the public domain. Say that the men transfer an object from one domain to the other, from the private zone to the public or vice versa—something that is legally prohibited on Shabbat. Which one is culpable for breaking for the law?

And, yes, lice do figure in the discussion. Ick.

Earlier columns are noted here and links.

Cross obituary in The Crimson

THE HARVARD CRIMSON:

Hebrew Bible Scholar and Devoted Mentor Frank Moore Cross Passes Away at 91

By Michelle S. Lee, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Published: Monday, October 22, 2012

Friends and family mourned the passing of former professor Frank Moore Cross—a loving father, a wild mushroom and rhododendron enthusiast, and a great scholar of the Hebrew Bible.

The former Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at the Harvard Divinity School passed away on Wednesday in Rochester, New York, at age 91.

“It really is the end of an era,” said Professor Peter Machinist ’66, a colleague and former student of Cross.

Cross is renowned for his contributions to the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls­ and for serving as a dedicated and inspring mentor to many students over the years. Cross advised over 100 dissertations during his 35 years as a profesor at Harvard.

[...]

Background here and links.

Review of Henze (ed.), A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Matthias Henze, ed. A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012. 584 pp. $29.99 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8028-0388-7.

Reviewed by Don Carlson (Xavier University)
Published on H-Judaic (October, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

A Useful Survey of Early Jewish Biblical Interpretation

A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism, edited by Matthias Henze, seeks to provide “a systematic introduction to biblical interpretation in the Jewish literature of antiquity” (p. ix). The Companion includes eighteen essays, under eight headings: “Introduction,” “The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament,” “Rewritten Bible,” “The Qumran Literature,” “Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments,” “Wisdom Literature,” “Hellenistic Judaism,” and “Biblical Interpretation in Antiquity.” A short bibliography is conveniently provided at the end of each essay, as well as a cumulative bibliography and indices at the end of the book.

[...]

More on Frank Cross

THE NEW YORK TIMES has published an obituary for Frank Cross: Frank Moore Cross, Biblical Scholar, Dies at 91.

“When you walked into his classes, you felt you were on the frontier of knowledge in the field,” said Peter Machinist, who studied under Dr. Cross as an undergraduate at Harvard and now holds the endowed professorship there that Dr. Cross had held until his retirement in 1992. “Whatever happened in the field would come to him first, before it got published, because people wanted to know what he thought.”

Regarding the photo, I was working at the Ashkelon dig when the bowl he was looking at was discovered (it bore a Phoenician inscription) and I remember him out in the field in that shirt.

Other tributes to Professor Cross have been published by Hershel Shanks (The End of an Era: Frank Moore Cross (1921-2012), BAR) and by Jonathan Rosenbaum, another of his students (Frank Moore Cross: An Appreciation, ASOR Blog). And Chuck Jones has collected some bibliography at AWOL: Frank Moore Cross in JSTOR.

Background here.

Jesus the shaman?

EGIL ASPREM: Jesus was a … shaman (heterodox Christologies II) (Heterodoxology). A review of the idea which ranges from the recent and serious (Craffert, cf. here) to the nineteenth century and goofy. With pauses at modern Norwegian headlines and Giordano Bruno at the stake.

Elig's heterodox Christology I is noted here.

Somewhat related material on shamanism is here, here, and here. See also here.

Og revisited

DEANE GALBRAITH: The Origin of the Giant King Og of Bashan (Remnant of Giants).

The likelihood, therefore, is that Og’s name preceded his invention, in the Bible, as a person.

Something like that sounds plausible to me.

Earlier posts on Og the giant are here, here, here and links.

Frank Moore Cross, 1921-2012

REPORTS ARE COMING IN from many sources that my beloved doctoral supervisor Frank Moore Cross passed away peacefully yesterday, aged 91. I studied with Professor Cross at Harvard University from 1983 to 1988, writing a dissertation under him on unpublished manuscripts of Genesis and Exodus from Qumran Cave 4, one of the last of the over 100 dissertations he supervised.

I read Northwest Semitic inscriptions and Ugaritic with him, and also took his class on the textual criticism of 1-2 Samuel. I recall spending endless hours in the library vocalizing arcane texts with Sidnie White (Crawford), Julie Duncan, and Russ Fuller for his classes. He also graciously agreed to do a special readings course in early Hebrew poetry with Sidnie, Julie, and me toward the end of our time in the NELC program. Among ourselves we referred to him as "FMC," but our other nickname for him (never to his face, although I bet Sidnie told him about it later) was "El," the mighty head of the Canaanite pantheon. It was the beard, you see. Along with the regal sense of authority and wisdom.

As a student I was terrified of him, although he was always thoughtful and kind to me, as to all his students. I learned vastly from him, not only about Semitic philology and paleography, but also about academic politics and scholars as people. He was an excellent teacher who expected and got the very best from his students, and he also taught by example, just by being who he was. He had a wry sense of humor and he had endless entertaining stories. It was very important to him to get to know each student as an individual and to keep track of his students' careers once they had graduated. He told us once in class how frustrating it was for him to run into an old student at a conference and immediately to remember that student's dissertation topic, every position the student had held since graduating, and the name of the student's spouse and children, but not to be able to remember that student's name. Then he said that when this happened (and I'm sure it was exceedingly rare), he would tell the story about how William Foxwell Albright was once introducing Cross and David Noel Freedman at length and with great praise about how they were two of his star students, and then Albright couldn't remember either of their names.

Frank's influence on me is extensive, wide-ranging, and pervasive. Some of what I learned from him took years to sink in. His influence in many fields has been enormous: Hebrew Bible, Northwest Semitic epigraphy, Ugaritic, and, of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls. And a great many of the scholars who entered those fields in the twentieth century were trained by him. On Facebook, Sidnie writes "He was, for me, the real Teacher of Righteousness." Amen to that. And as Jack Sasson said on the Agade List, "Truly, the end of an era."

A Wikipedia biography is here. Some past PaleoJudaica posts mentioning him are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The gracious gods are welcoming him into their midst. Requiescat in pace, Frank.

UPDATE (26 October): More here, here, here, here, and here. I have posted some more of my own memories at the last link.

Resurrected Beer

WHAT WOULD THE LOST TRIBES DRINK? Lost Tribes Beer Co. Resurrects Ancient Brews (JTA/The Forward).

According to the company’s website, “2,700 years ago, ten of the twelve tribes were sent into exile, eventually settling across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Legend has it that one day the tribes will return home bearing gifts from their lands. We’ve discovered that each tribe holds a unique crew [read "brew"? - ed.] recipe – we believe that their brews were the gifts they were meant to bring home.”

Lost Tribes sells three beer lines: a pale ale they call Shikra, an Aramaic word for alcoholic beverage; Tej, an Ethiopian-adapted recipe of honey and herbs that is kosher for Passover; and a low-calorie option called Light.

I have my doubts about the historical rationale, but the beers sound nice.

Related post here.

Daf Yomi column: Berakhot

ADAM KIRSCH has posted a new Daf Yomi column at Tablet Magazine: The Rabbis’ Mental World: The last chapter of the first tractate brings modern readers back to sex, bowel movements, and thunder.

The first eight chapters of Berachot are composed primarily of halakhah, or Jewish law—close legal and textual reasoning about the correct timing, manner, and language of the major Jewish prayers. Aggadah, the folklore and anecdotes and proverbs that constitute the more imaginative and accessible part of the Talmud, comes in the interstices of the halakhic argument. But chapter nine of Berachot is just about all aggadah—a cornucopia of rabbinic views on subjects ranging from meteorology to embryology to bathroom etiquette to dream interpretation. “Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it,” Pirkei Avot famously says of the Torah, and this section of the Berachot seems like the kind of thing Ben Bag-Bag had in mind.

The content is too varied to excerpt usefully (read it all), but here's one paragraph of interest:

All of this raised the question for me of how contemporary Orthodox readers make sense of parts of the Talmud, like this one, that are based on clearly erroneous scientific ideas. When Aristotle makes empirical mistakes—as, for instance, when he says that women have fewer teeth than men—it’s easy to say that he was simply wrong, that he lacked modern ideas of scientific observation and method. With the Talmud, which grounds religious obligations on its empirical assertions, things must be more complicated. I’m sure much thought has been given to this problem and—as always—I would be grateful to hear from knowledgeable readers in the comments.

It happens that the Jewish Press published an article by Harry Maryles yesterday on this very issue: Rav Elyashiv, Torah and Science: It is very troubling that there are those who say insist that it is forbidden to believe that Chazal were mistaken in matters of science. There are just too many instances of nature quoted in the Gemarah that contradict what we know today.

Kirsh's earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here, here here, here, and here.

The death of rabbinics?

MICHAEL SATLOW: Rabbinics must die (The Talmud Blog).

The fundamental problem is that “rabbinics” implies both a body of literature and a distinctive methodology or approach to that literature. In some quarters in Israel this perhaps accurately describes, for good or bad, how rabbinic literature is studied (e.g., philologically in a “department” of Talmud). In the American academy, however, “rabbinics” is not a discipline. Those of us who primarily use rabbinic literature are situated in departments of religious studies (most frequently), language and culture, and history. We are scholars trained in a particular discipline who use rabbinic texts for our data. I do not “do rabbinics.” I “do” Jewish history in antiquity, using rabbinic texts as one (even if it is the primary) set of sources.

I don't have a horse in this race: if specialists in "rabbinics" want to call it something else now, that's okay with me. But I do think that the field of the study of the rabbinic literature needs to be called something. Also, I think the death of "patristics" is somewhat exaggerated and, again, we need to be able to call the study of the corpus of church fathers something. I consider myself a specialist in (inter alia) "late antiquity," and I know very little indeed about "patristics," so I don't consider the former term a good replacement for the latter.

To put my point more broadly, it is a fine thing that older fields are increasingly embedded and cross-fertilized in a larger interdisciplinary framework (e.g., Jewish history in antiquity or the study of late antiquity). But the narrower disciplines still exist and still need to be called something. I work in both Jewish history in antiquity and in the study of late antiquity, but I do so drawing on, for example, Qumran studies and Pseudepigrapha studies (which are coherent fields in themselves—although some may disagree with me about Pseudepigrapha).

Let us indeed be clear what we are talking about, but this involves precision as well as synthesis. I am hesitant to abandon the older more precise terms until either they are replaced individually with something better defined or I am convinced of a cognitive gain in abandoning the precision they represent.

There is an important discussion to be had here.

Divine Vintage

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What would Jesus drink?

UPDATE (17 October): related post here.

French consul general: Qumran caves in "Palestine"

POLITICS:

Israel accuses French diplomat of ‘helping Palestinians rewrite history’

JTA

Israel’s foreign ministry has accused France’s consul general in Jerusalem of “denying Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.”

The statement by Yigal Palmor, a spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, came in response to remarks made last month by Consul General Frederic Desagneaux in a speech on archeology. He spoke of “the important archaeological projects that French archaeologists had helped to uncover in Palestine,” including the Qumran Caves.

Desagneaux also praised French archaeologists for “helping to discover Palestine.” An approved copy of his speech mentions, in this context, the Qumran Caves, where archaeologists discovered the collection of biblical texts knows as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The text does not contain the word “Jewish” and Israel appears in it once, in a sentence about the “Israelo-Palestinian conflict.”

[...]

Rollston update

INSIDE HIGHER ED has more information about the current situation with Christopher Rollston at Emmanuel Christian College. PaleoJudaica is also quoted. I have updated the relevant post from 10 October here.

Doctoral fellowship at Vienna

A "PRE-DOC" FELLOWSHIP in Jewish Studies is being advertised by the University of Vienna. Eibert Tigchelaar has posted it on the IOQS list in German and English versions. I copy the English below:

At the University of Vienna (15 faculties, 3 centres, about 188 fields of study, approx. 9.400 members of staff, more than 90.000 students) the position of a

University Assistant (prae doc)
at the Department of Jewish Studies

is vacant.

Identification number of advertisement: 3469


The Vienna Institute for Jewish Studies covers the study and teaching of Judaism from its beginnings until today. The advertised positions concern a) the field of Ancient Judaism and b) the field of medieval and modern Judaism.

Extent of Employment: 30 hours/week
Occupation group in accordance with collective bargaining agreement: §48 VwGr. B1 Grundstufe (praedoc)
On top of this relevant chargeable work experience determines the assessment to a particular salary grade.

Areas of work:
The advertised positions involve a wide range of responsibilities including the cooperation in research and teaching (either in the are of Ancient Judaism or the area of medieval and modern Judaism) as well as involvement in the organization of conferences and research projects: - Participation in research projects - Preparation /Finalization of a (publishable) dissertation thesis - Holding classes due to extent regulations of wage agreement - Examination activities - Support of students - Participation in administration of the institute. Position a focuses on ancient Judaism, position b on medieval and modern Judaism. For position a (ancient Judaism) Hebrew, ancient Greek, Aramaic, German and English are required. For position b (medieval and modern Judaism) Hebrew, German, English, and Jiddish are required.

Profile:
MA or equivalent degree in Jewish studies or a comparable field of study documenting scholarly excellence

Excellence in oral and written expression, ability to work in teams


Research fields:
Main research field
Special research fields Importance
Other Philological and Cultural Sciences
Judaism CAN


Education:
Educational institution
Educational level Special subject Importance
University
Humanities - MUST


Languages:
Language
Language level Importance
Aramaic
Good knowledge SHOULD
Ancient Greek
Good knowledge SHOULD
Hebrew
Excellent knowledge MUST
German
Excellent knowledge MUST
Yiddish
Good knowledge SHOULD
English
Excellent knowledge MUST


Computer-Skills:
Type of computer skills
Specified computer skills Importance
Basic Knowledge
MS Word MUST
Basic Knowledge
Internet knowledge MUST


Applications including a letter of motivation (German or English) should be sent via Job Center to the University of Vienna (http://jobcenter.univie.ac.at) no later than 29.10.2012 and be referenced to the identification number 3469.

For further information please contact Lange, Armin +43-1-4277-43313.

The University of Vienna intends to increase the number of women on its faculty, particularly in high-level positions, and therefore specifically invites applications by women. Among equally qualified applicants women will receive preferential consideration.

Human Resources and Gender Equality of the University of Vienna
Identification number of advertisement: 3469
E-Mail: jobcenter@univie.ac.at

Praying for a third temple

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Why I pray for a third temple: In the first of a two-part series, Jewish World blogger Dr. Samuel Lebens explores his complex relationship with the Temple Mount and with those who want to rebuild the temple (Haaretz).

The desire to run up on to the Temple Mount, to demolish a mosque and a shrine, and to force our temple in to its place, is the desire to force the end; it is the desire to insert messianic notions of peace into our pre-messianic world. It can only result in evil and bloodshed and runs against the probing insight of the Talmudic sages. So, I can agree with readers of Haaretz if they conclude that Littman’s subjects are dangerous, fringe and extreme.

But I cannot agree that the very notion of a third temple is outmoded and absurd, nor is it extreme. In fact, it is mainstream. Every Jew who ever says the central Amida prayer, or recites a traditional Grace After Meals, prays for the rebuilding of the temple. To jettison the idea is to place yourself outside of the mainstream, and onthe extreme.

There is actually historical precedent for a Judean temple cult that eschews animal sacrifice. The rebuilt Judean temple at Elephantine, Egypt, was founded with such a system in the late fifth century BCE as agreed by the Persian authorities.

That said, I am opposed to any building or excavation (except future non-invasive/non-destructive scientific archaeological excavation) on the Temple Mount for practical reasons that I have explained repeatedly and at some length, if not tedium. I am also extremely wary of utopianism in any of its myriad forms.

Background here and links. Cross-file under "Politics."

More on the Maronite Aramaic revival

ARAMAIC WATCH: Maronite Christians Seek To Revive Aramaic Language: Ancient Israeli Minority Hopes To Win Communal Recognition (The Forward).

At this unique summer camp, some 85 children were being immersed in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke and in which the Gemara — one of the Talmud’s two major books — was written. Once the Middle East’s lingua franca, Aramaic is an almost vanished language today. But the camp organizers and the families of these children hope to resurrect it. Moreover, they aim to carve out a new national identity based on that resurrection.

It’s a campaign that Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of Modern Hebrew, would readily understand and, perhaps, applaud. But in today’s Israel, it’s a campaign fraught with controversy.

Aram, the Maronite Christian group that organized the camp, is spending long hours huddling with a team of lawyers, preparing papers to submit to Israel’s Supreme Court later in October. They are seeking formal recognition of their nationality as “Aramaic,” rather than Arab, by the State of Israel.

And then it starts to get complicated.

Background here and links. Cross-file under "Politics."

New book: Zetterholm, Jewish Interpretation of the Bible

NEW BOOK FROM FORTRESS PRESS: Karin Hedner Zetterholm, Jewish Interpretation of the Bible: Ancient and Contemporary.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9780800697983
Dimensions: 6 x 9
Course Level: Graduate
Item No: ED015058
Release Date: Monday, October 1, 2012

Although Jewish tradition gives tremendous importance to the Hebrew Bible, from the beginning Jewish interpretation of those scriptures has been practiced with remarkable freedom. Karin Hedner Zetterholm introduces the legal, theological, and historical presuppositions that shaped the dominant stream of rabbinic interpretation, including Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrashim, discussing examples of different interpretive methods, and explores the contours of Jewish biblical interpretation evident in the New Testament and the legacy of ancient traditions in the way different Jewish movements read the Bible today. Students of the history of biblical interpretation and of Judaism will find this an important and engaging resource.

Via the Agade List and the Talmud Blog on Facebook.