Research Seminar in Ancient Hebrew Language and Literature

H-JUDAIC: Research Seminar in Ancient Hebrew Language and Literature:

Halle-Tel Aviv Research Seminar in Ancient Hebrew Language and Literature
- Early Samaritan, Jewish, and Christian Liturgical Texts -
3-7 February 2013, Halle (Saale), Germany
Everyone interested is welcome to take part in the seminar. The primary language of the seminar is Hebrew.
The program of the seminar can be found here:
http://schorch.at/html/seminar_english.html
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Stefan Schorch
Theologische Fakultät
Institut für Bibelwissenschaften
stefan.schorch@theologie.uni-halle.de

I wish I could attend this one.

The Talmud and kosher hot dogs

THE TALMUD was mentioned in a recent court case involving Hebrew National hot dogs:

Federal court hearing turns Talmudic in the case of Hebrew National

By Mordecai Specktor, American Jewish World (Twin Cities Daily Planet)
December 06, 2012

During a St. Paul federal court hearing last Friday, on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit alleging that Hebrew National’s hot dogs are not kosher, pages of Talmud were projected onto video screens.

Corey Gordon, the lead lawyer for the defendant, ConAgra Foods, Inc., the corporate owner of Hebrew National, cited passages from the Torah; and mentioned Rashi, the medieval Talmud commentator, along with Torah sage Moses Maimonides, the Rambam.

[...]

It is not clear from the article, however, that the Talmud was actually cited:

Then Gordon went into a lengthy exposition about the basis of kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws, which have their basis in the Torah and later commentaries. “I brought a volume of the Talmud,” said Gordon, displaying a book that he said was an English translation. “My complete Talmud is 72 volumes.”

Then he began displaying the Talmud on the digital projection system, pointing out “Rashi script” and other notations on the page. “I know I could put you to sleep if I read some of these minute analyses,” Gordon told the court, regarding the Talmudic contentions.

Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day

TODAY IS PRETEND TO BE A TIME TRAVELER DAY, providing us this year with a cosmic synchronicity with Hanukkah, which may provide inspiration to some. Earlier inspirations are noted here and here.

Whether and how I observe the event this year will, as usual, remain shrouded in mystery.

Happy Hanukkah!

HAPPY HANUKKAH to all those celebrating!

Some background on the festival of Hanukkah is here and links.

Review of Stahl (ed.), Jesus among the Jews

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Neta Stahl, ed. Jesus among the Jews: Representation and Thought. Routledge Jewish Studies Series. New York: Routledge, 2012. 248 pp. $135.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-415-78258-6.

Reviewed by Michael Cook (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati)
Published on H-Judaic (December, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Interdisciplinary Jewish Treatments of Jesus

This anthology of intriguing essays aims to chart how different disciplinary perspectives (e.g., rabbinics, philosophy, theology, poetry, and art) have represented Jesus in Jewish culture from antiquity to the present, even influencing Jewish self-understanding and expression.

[...]

Bowdlerizing bibical sins

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN by Adam Kirsch in Tablet: The Badness of Good Stories: This week, Talmudic rabbis seek righteousness in the Bible’s tales of vice, weakness, and human frailty. Excerpt:

The Bible displays extraordinarily little anxiety about portraying its heroes in an unflattering light. Jacob can be both a liar and thief, and the man who wrestles with an angel and wins the name of Israel; David can be both the anointed of God and an adulterer. But as this week’s Daf Yomi reading showed, the rabbis of the Talmud were by no means at ease with this kind of ambiguity. In a long discussion that begins in Shabbat 55b, they consider some of the most famous sinners in the Bible and argue passionately that in fact none of them did what the Bible expressly says they did.

Earlier columns are noted here and here and links.

Review of Orlov, Dark Mirrors

ANDREI ORLOV'S RECENT BOOK, Dark Mirrors: Azazel and Satanael in Early Jewish Demonology, was reviewed by Rebecca Lesses in the recent SBL session where I also presented a paper. Now Rebecca has posted her review here.

Earlier posts on the book are here, here, and here.

Verheyden (ed.), The Figure of Solomon

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Figure of Solomon in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Tradition
King, Sage and Architect

Edited by Joseph Verheyden, Catholic University of Leuven
Solomon is one of the more complex and fascinating characters in the history of Israel. As a king he is second only to David. As the king who gave Israel its temple he is unsurpassed. As the prototype of the sage his name lives on in numerous biblical and non-biblical writings. As the magician of later tradition he has established himself as a model for many other aspirants in this field.

This volume contains the proceedings of an international conference on Solomon that was held at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Leuven, September 30 – October 2, 2009 and discussed various aspects of this multifaced character as he appears in Jewish, early Christian, and Islamic tradition.

The early text of the NT

LARRY HURTADO: The Early Text of the New Testament: The Latest Scholarship.

Fake metal codices program now on YouTube

SPEAKING OF THE FAKE METAL CODICES, that BBC program on them is now available on YouTube for all to see. (Via James McGrath.)



Background here with endless links.

GJW: tests still pending

THE TESTS ON THE GOSPEL OF JESUS' WIFE are not yet completed, so it looks as though Harvard Theological Review will not be publishing Karen King's article on it in January: Publication of Jesus’ wife research unlikey next month (AP).

Materials science isn't my thing, so I don't know how long such tests should take. A LiveScience piece from 19 October said the following:

"The owner of the papyrus fragment has been making arrangements for the next round of analysis of the fragment, including testing by independent laboratories with the resources and the specific expertise necessary to produce and interpret reliable results," [Kit] Dodgson [director of communications at Harvard Divinity School] wrote. "This next phase is likely to take several weeks, if not months."

(Noted recently on Facebook by Andrew Bernhard.) I suppose we are still within that time frame, so it's not fair to be too impatient yet. I hope this does not deteriorate into an endless round of delays, as with the fake metal codices.

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

Cyrus Cylinder on the go again

ARTDAILY.ORG:

The Cyrus Cylinder travels to five major museum venues in the United States in 2013

LONDON.- The British Museum today announces that one of its most iconic objects, the Cyrus Cylinder, will tour to five major museum venues in the United States in 2013. This will be the first time this object has been seen in the US and the tour is supported by the Iran Heritage Foundation.

The Cyrus Cylinder is one of the most famous objects to have survived from the ancient world. The Cylinder was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform (cuneiform is the earliest form of writing) on the orders of the Persian King Cyrus the Great (559-530BC) after he captured Babylon in 539BC. It is often referred to as the first bill of human rights as it appears to encourage freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and to allow deported people to return to their homelands. It was found in Babylon in modern Iraq in 1879 during a British Museum excavation and has been on display ever since.

The Cyrus Cylinder is truly an object of world heritage, produced for a Persian king in Iraq and seen and studied for over 130 years in the British Museum. It is valued by people all around the world as a symbol of tolerance and respect for different peoples and different faiths, so much so that a copy of the cylinder is on display in the United Nations building in New York. The Museum has previously lent the Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran in 2010 - 2011 where it was seen by over one million people. This tour will provide the first opportunity for a wide US audience to engage with this unique object of world importance.

[...]

Via the Bible Places Blog.

Background on the Cyrus Cylinder, its recent visit to Iran, and the sometimes overenthusiastic evaluations of its contribution to human rights is here and here (second link from bottom of post) and many links.

Porter & Pitts (eds.), Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism
Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament

Edited by Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts
In Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism, Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through reference to Hellenistic Judaism and its literary forms. Each essay moves forward the current understanding of how primitive Christianity situated itself in relation to evolving Greco-Roman Jewish culture. Some essays focus on configuring the social context for the origins of the Jesus movement and beyond, while others assess the literary relation between early Christian and Hellenistic Jewish texts.

Jerome and Hebrew

NEW ARTICLE in Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 64.3 (2012): Görge K. Hasselhoff, Revising the Vulgate: Jerome and his Jewish Interlocutors. Abstract:

The Church Father Jerome is well-known for his translation (or revision) of the Latin Bible which later was named Vulgate. He did not translate from the Greek as was the case with the so-called Vetus Latina but he sought the Hebrew truth (hebraica veritas). However, this raises the question as to how good his understanding of the Hebrew language actually was. Therefore it is asked where Jerome might have learned Hebrew and who his Jewish interlocutors might have been.

(Requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access.)

More on St. Jerome here and here and links.

Qumran latrines

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What Is The Difference Between Urinating And Defecating?

Actually Duane Smith is linking to James Tabor's very interesting essay at the ASOR Blog: Texts without Qumran and Qumran without Texts: Searching for the Latrines. But Duane's title is more entertaining. The essay is wider ranging than either title might lead you to expect.

Biblical Studies Carnival November 2012

BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL NOVEMBER 2012 has been posted by Bob MacDonald at his Dust Blog. Very comprehensive. He also gives an insider perspective on composing the carnival here.

Vetus Testamentum 62.4 (2012)

VETUS TESTAMENTUM has published a new(-ish) issue (Volume 62, Issue 4, January 2012). Requires a personal or institutional subscription to access the full articles. TOC:

The Fightin’ Mushites*
Author: Mark Leuchter
pp. 479–500 (22)

Looking for Aphek in 1 Kgs 20*
Author: Shuichi Hasegawa
pp. 501–514 (14)

The Merkabah as a Substitute for Messianism in Targum Ezekiel? 1
Author: Alinda Damsma
pp. 515–533 (19)

Reconsidering 4QSama and the Textual Support for the Long and Short Versions of the David and Goliath Story
Author: Benjamin J.M. Johnson
pp. 534–549 (16)

The Structure of Genesis 38: A Thematic Reading*
Author: Dohyung Kim
pp. 550–560 (11)

The Vanishing Character in Biblical Narrative: The Role of Hathach in Esther 4*
Author: Jonathan Grossman
pp. 561–571 (11)

Antiochus IV as the Scorned Prince in Dan 11:21
Author: Benjamin Scolnic
pp. 572–581 (10)

Hearing Psalm 102 within the Context of the Hebrew Psalter
Author: Andrew Witt
pp. 582–606 (25)

“My Beloved Son, Come and Rest in Me“: Job's Return to His Mother's Womb (Job 1:21a) in Light of Egyptian Mythology
Author: Christopher B. Hays
pp. 607–621 (15)

Die Schuld der Väter (er-)tragen-Thr 5 im Kontext exilischer Theologie
Author: Thomas Wagner
pp. 622–635 (14)

Entdämonisierung von Dtn 32:24
Author: Szabolcs Ferencz Kató
pp. 636–641 (6)

The Syntax and Rhetoric of Ruth 1:9a
Author: Jeremy Schipper
pp. 642–645 (4)
Diodorus, Deuteronomy, and Egyptian Agriculture 1
Author: Jaclyn Neel
pp. 646–651 (6)

Book List
pp. 652–663 (12)

The Most Interesting Bible in the World

WHY DO YOU HATE THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA? The Most Interesting Bible in the World.

Time travel in the Talmud

MOSES THE TIME TRAVELER: The First Science Fiction? This raises all sorts of tempting thoughts for Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day (8 December), doesn't it?

Via James McGrath.

AramaicNT.org

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL at the Aramaic Blog: Help Support AramaicNT.org.

Ancient port at Akko

DISCOVERIES AT AKKO are reported by e! Science News from a University of Rhode Island press release. The nineteenth century shipwrecks are interesting, but the story relevant for PaleoJudaica is the ancient port and the prospect of finding ancient shipwrecks.

URI, IAA archaeologists discover shipwrecks, ancient harbor on coast of Israel

Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 17:04 in Paleontology & Archaeology

Arrchaeologists from the University of Rhode Island, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the University of Louisville have discovered the remains of a fleet of early-19th century ships and ancient harbor structures from the Hellenistic period (third to first century B.C.) at the city of Akko, one of the major ancient ports of the eastern Mediterranean. The findings shed light on a period of history that is little known and point to how and where additional remains may be found. The discoveries were presented on November 15 and 17 in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research by URI assistant professors Bridget Buxton and William Krieger on behalf of the Israel Coast Exploration project.

[...]

"Like many underwater archaeologists I'm very interested in finding a well-preserved example of an ancient multi-decked warship from the Hellenistic age," said Buxton. "These ships were incredible pieces of technology, but we don't know much about their design because no hulls have been found. However, a combination of unusual environmental and historical factors leads us to believe we have a chance of finding the remains of one of these ships off the northern coast of Israel."

Buxton believes that the ships they are looking for are likely buried in the coastal sediment, which has built up over the centuries through natural processes. However, time is not on their side. "That protective silt is now being stripped away," she said. "And it's being stripped away a lot faster than it was originally dumped, by a combination of development, environmental changes, and the effects of the Aswan Dam." The Nile River has historically deposited large quantities of silt in the area, but the dam has significantly reduced the flow of silt.

[...]

One line of buried targets detected off the southern seawall of old Akko is particularly suggestive. Continuing excavations in this area over the summer revealed an alignment between these targets and a newly-discovered slipway and shipshed structure, which continued out under the sea floor 25 meters from the Ottoman city wall. The feature resembles other naval shipsheds found in places such as Athens where they were used to haul up ancient warships. The excavation project was initially undertaken to strengthen the eroding sea wall, but it also revealed Hellenistic masonry, pottery vessels, an ancient mooring stone, and a stone quay 1.3 meters below the modern sea level. The possibility that much more of the Hellenistic port lies well-preserved under the sea floor is exciting for the archaeologists, because it means that shipwrecks from earlier centuries that have so far not been found at Akko may simply be buried deeper down in the sediment.

"We've got fragmentary historic records for this area in the Hellenistic period, and now we've found a very important feature from the ancient harbor. Ancient shipwrecks are another piece of the puzzle that will help us to rewrite the story of this region at a critical time in Mediterranean history," she said.

Located on the northern coast of Israel, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Akko is one of the few cities in the Mediterranean with more than 5,000 years of maritime history. Also known as Acre, Ake and Ptolemais, its port was an important waypoint for the Phoenicians, Romans, Crusaders, Ottomans and other ancient maritime empires. In the Hellenistic period, it was bitterly fought over by the rival empires of Egypt and Syria.

"Understanding the history and archaeology of Akko's port is crucial to understanding the broader issues of maritime connectivity and the great power struggles that defined the history of the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic Age," Buxton said.

"Go out and intend."

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN by Adam Kirsh in Tablet: The Power of Positive Thinking: This week, deduction and analogy propel the Talmud from the mundane to the miraculous. Excerpt:

This kind of reasoning grants to intention an almost magical power: If you think that you are going to use something on the Sabbath, you change its legal status, almost its existential status. You see a dramatic example of this with Rabbi Chanina ben Akiva, who once “went to a certain place and found branches of a date palm that were harvested for the sake of firewood, and he said to his students, ‘Go out and intend, so that we may sit on them tomorrow.’ ” “Go out and intend”: With this wonderful phrase, Chanina shows how much power merely thinking can have in Talmudic law. However, the Talmud goes on to explain, there are limits to such intention. It is only when you do not have time to tie the bundles of wood that it is acceptable merely to “intend” them. That is why Chanina’s “go out and intend” was spoken at “a house of feasting or a house of mourning,” that is, a place where people were too busy with other preparations to actually tie the wood together.

Hendel, The Book of Genesis: A Biography

THE BOOK OF GENESIS: A BIOGRAPHY, by Ronald Hendel, is reviewed by
Scott McLemee in Inside Higher Ed: In the Beginning. Excerpt:

... To write the biography of a book -- portraying it as having, in effect, a personality and a career -- is a literary conceit. But it is a justified and effective one in the case of texts which seem, to a great many of their readers, almost literally alive, or at least integral to understanding life itself.

On that score, no book could be more exemplary than Genesis. “Over the generations,” Hendel writes, “the ways that people have understood Genesis tend to correlate with the ways that people have understood reality. It is not just that Genesis provides an account of the origins of reality -- which it does -- but that the kinds of meaning that people expect to find in Genesis are the same kinds that they expect to find in the outside world.”

And for good reason: “Genesis envisions a single, God-created universe in which human life is limited by the boundaries of knowledge and death. We are earth-bound, intermittently wise, often immoral, mortal creatures.” Within the first few words, the reader will encounter temptation, disobedience, sex, death, violence, and exile. It’s not necessary to believe in the historical reality of a single person named in Genesis -- nor even that God exists, let alone gets byline credit for either Genesis or the universe itself -- to recognize much of this world. De te fabula narrator. The tale is told about you.

The BBC on the fake metal codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: The BBC has finally gotten around to doing some real investigative reporting on the codices and on their promoter, David Elkington, and his background. Almost half a segment of yesterday's Inside Out South program is devoted to the story. If you are in the UK, you can watch it here. If you are elsewhere, the segment is summarized here: Jordan Codices 'expert' David Elkington's claims queried.

Bottom line: the metal codices are still fake. My most recent posts on the subject are here and here and they lead to other posts in which I explain in detail the reasons for regarding the codices to be inauthentic. Regular readers of PaleoJudaica will be familiar with many of the points made belatedly in the BBC program, but it does include information that is new or that has been poorly circulated up to now, so watch it if you can.

Ghost sectarianism in m. Hallah?

THE TALMUD BLOG: The Mishnah and Second Temple Polemics: A Note on Tractate Hallah (Yitz Landes).

But are we overreading here? Can polemics be found here even though they aren’t brought up explicitly? Can the structural choices of the Mishnah’s editor(s) speak of points of conflict between the rabbis and other Jews? I’m not sure if the Mishnah works this way, and I’m wondering what other people have to say.

Sherwood, Paul and The Restoration of Humanity ...

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Paul and The Restoration of Humanity in Light of Ancient Jewish Traditions

Aaron Sherwood

In Paul and The Restoration of Humanity in Light of Ancient Jewish Traditions, Aaron Sherwood questions the assumption of universalism in Pauline thought, and finds instead that relevant Pauline traditions depict a partly restricted and particularly Israelite restoration of humanity. This important Jewish component of Paul’s thought remains largely unrecognized, but Pauline and other ancient Jewish traditions consistently present Israel and non-Israelites' uniting in their worship of Yhwh as the restoration of both Israel and humanity.

Aaron Sherwood demonstrates in Pauline traditions the same deployment of Israel-nations unification as in biblical and post-biblical traditions. This suggests that rather than secondarily finding space for Gentile justification, the restoration of humanity plays a generative role in Paul’s theology, mission, and apostolic self-identity.

Brooke et al., The Significance of Sinai

BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Significance of Sinai
Traditions about Sinai and Divine Revelation in Judaism and Christianity

Edited by: George J. Brooke, Hindy Najman, Loren T. Stuckenbruck. Editorial Assistance: Eva Mroczek, Brauna Doidge and Nathalie Lacoste

This volume of essays is concerned with ancient and modern Jewish and Christian views of the revelation at Sinai. The theme is highlighted in studies on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Paul, Josephus, rabbinic literature, art and philosophy. The contributions demonstrate that Sinai, as the location of the revelation, soon became less significant than the narratives that developed about what happened there. Those narratives were themselves transformed, not least to explain problems regarding the text's plain sense. Miraculous theophany, anthropomorphisms, the role of Moses, and the response of Israel were all handled with exegetical skills mustered by each new generation of readers. Furthermore, the content of the revelation, especially the covenant, was rethought in philosophical, political, and theological ways. This collection of studies is especially useful in showing something of the complexity of how scriptural traditions remain authoritative and lively for those who appeal to them from very different contexts.

This is not a new book (2008), but the Brill Facebook page highlighted it recently and I haven't mentioned it before, so here it is.

More digitization

OTTOMAN-ERA CORRESPONDENCE about important archaeological finds in Palestine is being digitized: Preserving Israel's recent and ancient pasts using 21st-century technology: Some 40,000 documents will be scanned and in a few weeks will be uploaded to a searchable website. (Nir Hasson, Haaretz). The Siloam Inscription is one of the artifacts mentioned.

Other recent digitization projects are noted here with many links.

Latest on Cincinnati DSS

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS encountered a gala cocktail-dress reception and just missed a nearly naked mile in Cincinnati. The sectarians would have been mortified, but I am amused.

Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my American readers and to all others celebrating with us. As usual, I shall have to work all day in a fog of post-SBL jet lag, but I will try to be thankful nonetheless.

Corpses and the Sabbath in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI column by Adam Kirsch in Tablet:

Eggs and Babies

This week’s Talmud study reveals legal debates that refine the limits and nature of inherently abstract concepts
By Adam Kirsch|November 19, 2012 7:00 AM|

This week’s Talmud reading was largely devoted to the legal concept of muktzeh, a category of items that may not be moved or used on Shabbat. It is a fairly technical discussion, but in the course of it, in Shabbat 43b, the Talmud comes up with a bizarre image that makes all the abstractions immediately memorable: a baby or a loaf of bread placed deliberately on top of a dead body. This is Rav’s solution to one of the difficult Shabbat-related cases the rabbis consider: What can you do on Shabbat with a corpse that is decomposing in the sun? “One should place a loaf of bread or an infant on the corpse and then move it,” Rav says.

[...]

What strikes me about this passage is that this sort of thing came up often enough to be an issue. It is hard for us to image what a brutal world the ancients lived in.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Review of Sabar, My Father's Paradise

A BELATED REVIEW of Ariel Sabar, My Father's Paradise by Moris Farhi in the Jewish Chronicle: Nostalgic and Aramaic: Professor Yona Sabar is one of a small remnant of native Aramaic speakers. His son explores his roots.

For earlier reviews etc. see here with many links.

Ancient Hebrew cosmology

JAMES MCGRATH has a post on Ancient Hebrew Cosmology which interacts with a diagram from Logos Bible Software. The diagram is accurate as far as it goes, but incomplete and to a large degree it misses the point. For the ancient Israelites (and ancient Near Eastern peoples in general), the physical universe was God's (or the high god's) temple. The firmament/dome of the heavens was the floor of the temple and formed its vestibule (entryway) and nave (main room). The heaven of heavens contained the holy of holies, God's throne room, where he sat enthroned. The earth was below all the action and was merely God's footstool. The earthly temple is the microcosmic representation of the macrocosmic reality. This layout is implicit in the architecture and decoration of the Jerusalem temple and is explained in detail by Philo of Alexandria (Spec. Leg. 1:66-67, 82-96; Moses 2:74-76, 88, 98, 101-5, 109-33). It forms the basis of the theology and celestial cosmography of mystical texts such as the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the Hekhalot literature.

Home

I'M BACK IN ST. ANDREWS. More later, or maybe tomorrow.

Binder on Tertullian and Avodah Zarah

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Tertullian, On Idolatry and Mishnah Avodah Zarah
Questioning the Parting of the Ways between Christians and Jews

Stéphanie E. Binder, Bar-Ilan University
This work studies and compares systematically the text of Tertullian, an African Church Father of the third century CE, on idolatry with the rabbinic Mishnah Avodah Zarah, on the same subject, dating roughly from the same period. Similarities and differences between the Jewish and Christian approaches to idolatry are examined and accounted for. The research is inscribed in the wider framework of discussions on the “parting of the ways” between Jews and Christians. It also addresses related questions such as the role of the rabbis in second and third century Judaism in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora; relations between Jews living in those places; interactions between Jews and pagans, Christians and pagans, Jews and Christians.

Leaving

GOOD SBL CONFERENCE. I was quite pleased with the reception of my paper and I got some good feedback. There is one more round of sessions and then I leave this afternoon, but my internet time in my room is almost up, so this is probably my last post before I go.

Cincinnati DSS exhibit

THE LATEST on the new Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum Center:

A review: History comes alive: A walk through the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit (jgelfand,Cincinnati.com)

Related:

HUC part of Scrolls' mystery
Cincinnati connections go back to the scrolls' discovery in 1947
11:38 PM, Nov. 15, 2012 |

Written by
Steven Rosen
Enquirer contributor

For decades, Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion has been an unsung hero in the long, dramatic struggle to save and understand the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls.

So pronounced has HUC’s role been – going back to the 1947 discovery of the first of the scrolls that are 2,000-plus years old – that a special section will be devoted to it when the traveling exhibition Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times opens at Cincinnati Museum Center today.

It’s a story that, in different chapters, involves high intrigue in helping purchase and protect priceless scrolls put up for sale, storing a secret “security negative” on the University Heights campus in case war destroyed the originals in Israel, and a professor’s defiant publication of an unauthorized transcription of scroll text to force authorities to finally make the scrolls public.

[...]

Jason Kalman, an HUC professor of classical Hebrew text and interpretation, has studied his school’s complex involvement with the scrolls and just published a book about it, “Hebrew Union College and the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

[...]

Background here.

Tov interview

OUP BLOG: An interview with Emanuel Tov.

From 1990 to 2010, Professor Emanuel Tov (Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) served as the Editor in Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project, producing over thirty volumes from the famed 1947 discovery near Qumran. The scrolls — written between 250 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. by a Jewish monastic community (most likely the Essenes) — have had an enormous impact on Biblical studies scholarship over the last 65 years, calling into question, among many other things, the origin and influence of certain practices and beliefs. The volumes that Tov helped to produce during his tenure can now be found in the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series, the foundational point of reference for students of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Kim, Early Biblical Hebrew, Late Biblical Hebrew, and Linguistic Variability

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Early Biblical Hebrew, Late Biblical Hebrew, and Linguistic Variability
A Sociolinguistic Evaluation of the Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts

By Dong-Hyuk Kim
In Early Biblical Hebrew, Late Biblical Hebrew, and Linguistic Variability, Dong-Hyuk Kim attempts to adjudicate between the two seemingly irreconcilable views over the linguistic dating of biblical texts. Whereas the traditional opinion, represented by Avi Hurvitz, believes that Late Biblical Hebrew was distinct from Early Biblical Hebrew and thus one can date biblical texts on linguistic grounds, the more recent view argues that Early and Late Biblical Hebrew were merely stylistic choices through the entire biblical period. Using the variationist approach of (historical) sociolinguistics and on the basis of the sociolinguistic concepts of linguistic variation and different types of language change, Kim convincingly argues that there is a third way of looking at the issue.

New JHS articles and reviews

THE ONLINE JOURNAL OF HEBREW SCRIPTURES has published a couple of new articles and some reviews. Christophe Nihan e-mails:

I am glad to announce the publication of two new articles in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (http://www.jhsonline.org).

Elie ASSIS, "The Structure of Zechariah 8 and its
Meaning."

Abstract: This article claims that the collection of ten short oracles in Zechariah 8 is ordered in a well planned structure, and is meant to be read a meaningful sequence,
even though each one is an independent entity. The article demonstrates a sophisticated structure of these oracles, and reveals the meaning of the structure.

To access the article directly please go to

http://www.jhsonline.org/JHS/Articles/article_174.pdf


Michael AVIOZ, "The 'Spring of the Year' (2 Chronicles
36:10) and the Chronicler's Sources."

Abstract: This article offers a detailed discussion of 2 Chronicles 36:10 and the differences with the parallel account in 2 Kings 24, focusing on the expression "the
spring of the year," which is present in Chronicles but absent from Kings. It argues that the differences between Chronicles and Kings cannot be explained either as
representing exegetical changes or as reflecting a different Vorlage. Rather, as in this instance, such differences point to the fact that the Chronicler had access to sources that were not available to the authors of Kings.


To access the article directly please go to

http://www.jhsonline.org/JHS/Articles/article_175.pdf

Also, I am glad to announce the publication of several new
reviews in JHS:

Carr, David M., The Formation of the Hebrew Bible: A New
Reconstruction (Oxford and New York: Oxford University
Press, 2011). (Reviewed by Timothy J. Stone).

Hays, Christopher B., Death in the Iron Age II and in First
Isaiah (FAT, 79; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011). (Reviewed
by Konrad Schmid).

Lee, Kyong-Jin, The Authority and Authorization of Torah in
the Persian Period (Contributions to Biblical Exegesis &
Theology, 64; Leuven, Peeters, 2011). (Reviewed by James W.
Watts).

To access the reviews directly please go to

http://www.jhsonline.org/reviews_vol.html


Please note that JHS is now offering hypertext/ hyperlinked
versions of all articles and reviews published from 1996 to
2009 (inclusive of 2009). We are currently working to
include versions of the 2010/2011 articles and reviews.

Lewis, Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity

NEW BOOK with Brill by Nicola Denzey Lewis:

Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity
Under Pitiless Skies

Nicola Denzey Lewis, Brown University
In Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity, Nicola Denzey Lewis dismisses Hans Jonas' mischaracterization of second-century Gnosticism as a philosophically-oriented religious movement built on the perception of the cosmos as negative or enslaving. A focused study on the concept of astrological fate in “Gnostic” writings including the Apocryphon of John, the recently-discovered Gospel of Judas, Trimorphic Protennoia, and the Pistis Sophia, this book reexamines their language of “enslavement to fate (Gk: heimarmene)” from its origins in Greek Stoicism, its deployment by the apostle Paul, to its later use by a variety of second-century intellectuals (both Christian and non-Christian). Denzey Lewis thus offers an informed and revisionist conceptual map of the ancient cosmos, its influence, and all those who claimed to be free of its potentially pernicious effects.

She's on a roll this year.

Jewish Studies postdoc at Toronto

H-JUDAIC: Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto.

The Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto is pleased to offer the Ray D. Wolfe Postdoctoral Fellowship to support advanced research in Jewish Studies. Applicants must have completed their doctoral dissertations by July 1, 2013 on a topic related to the history, culture, literature or thought of the Jewish people. The successful candidate will receive a scholarship of $45,000 (CAD) as well as up to an additional $1500 to support participation in academic conferences. The Fellow will spend the 2013-14 academic year at the University of Toronto, during which time he or she is expected to continue his or her research; deliver a public lecture; teach one course in each of the two terms; and contribute to the intellectual life of the Centre for Jewish Studies. Applicants from foreign as well as Canadian universities are welcome. Applications must include: (1) a letter of interest that describes the candidate’s research project; (2) a curriculum vitae; (3) a brief statement of teaching interests, including proposals for two undergraduate courses; (4) a writing sample, not to exceed 8,000 words. These materials should be emailed to the Centre’s Assistant, Ms. Emily Springgay, at cjs.toronto@utoronto.ca by December 4, 2012. By this date, applicants must also arrange to have three letters of recommendation sent in sealed envelopes to:
Centre for Jewish Studies
University of Toronto
170 St. George Street, Room 218
Toronto, ON M5R 2M8
Canada

Arrived

I'M IN CHICAGO after a long but uneventful trip. If I last until then, I'm planning to go to the 50th-anniversary Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins session this evening:

Location now confirmed for PSCO@SBL meeting on 16 November at 7:30pm = Boulevard Room A at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, Chicago. Speakers include Ross Kraemer, Raanan Boustan, Todd Krulak, Megan Williams, Michael Pregill, and Phil Webster.

(From Annette Yoshiko Reed on Facebook.)

UPDATE: More details on the PSCO session here. I've been out shopping and getting a second supper. Almost 7:00 now and I'm still awake.

SBL 2012

I'M OFF TO CHICAGO for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. On Saturday I am scheduled to present a paper in the Esotericism and Mysticism in Antiquity Section:

Esotericism and Mysticism in Antiquity
11/17/2012
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: W181c - McCormick Place

Theme: Demonology and Angelology

Paul Pasquesi, Presiding
Book Review Panel: Andrei Orlov, Dark Mirrors
Andrei Orlov, Marquette University, Panelist (10 min)
Rebecca Lesses, Ithaca College, Panelist (15 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Break (5 min)
Papers
Jonathan Knight, York Saint John University
The political demonology of The Ascension of Isaiah: A reply to Enrico Norelli (20 min)
Kevin Sullivan, Illinois Wesleyan University
"What’s in a Name?" Demons, Exorcisms and Esoteric Knowledge of Names (20 min)
Jeff Pettis, New Brunswick Seminary
Drug of the Widow: Isis and the angels at Hermopolis (20 min)
Jim Davila, University of St. Andrews
The Ninety-four Books of Ezra and the Angelic Revelations of John Dee (20 min)
Discussion (25 min)

Follow the link on my paper title to download a pdf file of the whole paper (due to time constraints, this is a somewhat longer version than the one I will present at the session). You can also read the abstract here (the one at the SBL site has one or two uncorrected errors that are corrected at the link).

One article cited in the paper is available online (but behind a subscription wall):

James Justin Sledge, Between Loagaeth and Cosening: Towards an Etiology of John Dee's Spirit Diaries," (Aries 10 (2010): 1-35.

Also of interest:

Egil Asprem, "'Enochian' language: A proof of the existence of angels?" Skepsis (13.12.2006)


I will let you know when I am in Chicago and networked again. I have pre-posted something for each day that I will be away, so please do keep coming back as usual. Beyond that, I will blog as often as time permits, but that may not be much.

UPDATE: Date in header now corrected to 2012. I do know what year it is. Really, I do. I was working on the 2013 British New Testament Conference preparations as I was writing this post and conference and 2013 just seemed to go together.

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).

[...]