Lecture on Hekhalot translation

I'M OFF TO EDINBURGH TODAY to give a lecture at a New College seminar on "Translating the Hekhalot Literature." Dr. Matthew Novenson has kindly advertised the event here. The lecture summarizes material from the introduction to my forthcoming translation and discusses some specific passages. I am not going to prepost the whole lecture, but the lecture handout is copied below:

TRANSLATING THE HEKHALOT LITERATURE

1. The Hekhalot Literature

2. The Texts

• Hekhalot Rabbati (§§81-121, 152-73, 189-277), "The Greater (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces"
• Sar Torah (§§281-306), the "Prince of Torah"
• Hekhalot Zutarti (approximately §§335-75, 407-26), "The Lesser (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces"
• Maʻaseh Merkavah (§§544-96), "The Working of the Chariot"
• Merkavah Rabba (§§655-708), "The Greater (Book of the) Chariot"
• Sefer Hekhalot (§§1-79), "The Book of the Palaces," 3 Enoch*
• Shiʻur Qomah, "The Measure of the Stature"*
• Massekhet Hekhalot, "The Treatise of the Palaces"*
• Shorter macroforms and fragments: The Chapter of R. Nehuniah ben HaQanah (§§307-14); the incantation prayers in The Great Seal-Fearsome Crown (§§318-21//§§651-54); a brief account of The Ascent of Elisha ben Avuyah (§597); Sar Panim or "The Prince of the Presence" (§§623-39), The Youth (hanaʻar)
• Geniza fragments
"The Ozhayah Fragment" (G8); "The Unicum (i.e., "unique") Fragment" (G22); The fragment of a Metatron adjuration also involving Moses (G19).
Fragments of the Hekhalot Rabbati (G1-G6), the Hekhalot Zutarti (G7, G16, G18), an otherwise unknown recension of the beginning of 3 Enoch (G12), the Sar Panim (G1), and Shiʻur Qomah traditions* (G4, G8, G9, G10, G11).
*Not included in this translation

3. Key Issues in Research on the Hekhalot Literature
• Heavenly ascents and Sar Torah adjurations
• Exegesis, experience, and praxis
• Origins of the Hekhalot traditions
• Authorship, provenance, and social context

4. This Translation
• The manuscripts

• N - MS New York, Jewish Theological Seminary 828/8128. An Ashkenanzic manuscript dating probably to the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century, heavily interpolated with magical, liturgical, and even apocalyptic materials.
• O - MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Michael 9 (Neugebauer 1531). An Ashkenazic manuscript dating to around 1300.
• M40 - MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. hebr. 40. An Italian manuscript written by multiple scribes. The section containing the Hekhalot texts translated here is dated to the end of the fifteenth century.
• M22 - MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. hebr. 22. This Italian manuscript was also written by multiple scribes, but the section containing the Hekhalot texts translated here is dated to the middle of the sixteenth century.
• D - MS Dropsie, Philadelphia, Dropsie University 436. A Sephardic manuscript dated to the fifteenth century.
• V - MS Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, Vaticana, Vat. ebr. 228. A Byzantine manuscript dated to the fifteenth century.
• B - MS Budapest, Rabbinic Seminary, Kaufman 238. An Italian manuscript dated to the fifteenth century.
• F - Florence Laurenziana Plut. 44/13. An Italian manuscript dating to the fourteenth century.
• L - Leiden Or. 4730, an Italian manuscript that may date to the sixteenth or seventeenth century.

• The nature of this translation

5. Some sample passages
Hekhalot Rabbati §81, §253, §233
GO56 (Oxford Heb. d. 56, fol. 125a 11-5) = Hekhalot Rabbati §§221-23 and cf. §229-30

Selected Bibliography
Davila, James R. The Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism. SJJTP. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming 2013.
Davila, James R. "Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of the Hekhalot Rabbati." JJS 45 (1994): 208-26.
Schäfer, Peter, et al. Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur. TSAJ 2. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1981.
Schäfer, Peter. Geniza-Fragmente zur Hekhalot-Literatur. TSAJ 6. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1984.

A text-critical principle

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Agreement in error can point to common origin (Dirk Jongkind, ETC).

Patai Folklore and Ethnology Prize

COMPETITION: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: RAPHAEL PATAI PRIZE IN JEWISH FOLKLORE AND ETHNOLOGY (H-JUDAIC).

Awarded for best unpublished essay on Jewish folklore and ethnology
completed by a student between January 2012-June 2013.

The prize is offered by the Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Section of the American Folklore Society and the Committee on the Anthropology of Jews and Judaism of the American Anthropological Association. The deadline is 1 July 2013. Follow the link for details.

UPDATE: Although the H-JUDAIC post gives the deadline as 1 July, the web page of the Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Section of the American Folklore Society says 15 June.

Destructive anger on the Sabbath

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI by Adam Kirsch in Tablet: Things Broken and Repaired: In this week’s page of Talmud, the rabbis show their skill at making distinctions between obligation and acting out.

The Mishnah bans any kind of constructive or positive activity on Shabbat; but this raises a question to which the Talmud will return in the following chapter, in Shabbat 105b. What if you perform an action that involves some real expense of energy but its effect is purely destructive?

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

Happy 11th to the AKMA blog

HAPPY ELEVENTH BLOGIVERSARY to A.K.M. Adam's blog AKMA's Random Thoughts, which is arguably the oldest "biblioblog." (PaleoJudaica is the other contender for oldest, but neither of us is particularly invested in claiming the title.)

New books on Christian Apocrypha from Tony Burke

AT APOCRYPHICITY Tony Burke has posted some information on his brand new book and his book-in-progress: Secret Mark Symposium Papers Now Available (title: Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate; background here and links) and Secret Scriptures Revealed! Thoughts on Writing for Non-Specialists, part 3 (background here and link).

Review of Hillar, From Logos to Trinity

BMCR REVIEW:

Marian Hillar, From Logos to Trinity: The Evolution of Religious Beliefs from Pythagoras to Tertullian. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. xi, 320. ISBN 9781107013308. £60.00.

Reviewed by Joe McCoy, The University of Nevada, Reno (joemccoy12@gmail.com)

Preview

There are three distinct levels of concern in Marian Hillar’s From Logos to Trinity: The Evolution of Religious Beliefs from Pythagoras to Tertullian. The first is that the doctrine of the Trinity—that the Divinity comprises three persons in a single nature—is a creed alien to the authentic Christianity of the Apostolic generation. Second, Hillar proposes the excision of this doctrine from Christian theology as a necessary condition for the reunification of Christianity as well as for a broader rapprochement among the great monotheistic religions. Third, Hillar presents an historical account of how the seeds of this doctrine were implanted and grew in the early Church. Hillar’s thesis is that the Jewish wisdom and Messianic traditions were misappropriated by early Christian thinkers and conflated with metaphysical notions, which were current in the early Roman Empire. The result is a basic incoherence in the heart of Christian theology that compromised its teachings over the course of the following two millennia.

[...]

The reviewer is not persuaded about the parts that involve Judaism.

Gorgias Book Grant

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN: Welcome to the Gorgias Book Grant Program.

In its efforts to promote education, Gorgias Press offers annually the Gorgias Book Grant. This program offers outstanding graduate students grants in the form of Gorgias Press publications. Grants consist of Gorgias Press books in the value of $500.00 per grant. Each year, two grants are distributed.

Details at the link. The application deadline is 29 March.

Rollston reviews CIIP 2

CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON: Review of Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae, Volume II: Caesarea and the Middle Coast, 1121-2160.

It is a peerless addition to the resources available for the ancient epigraphic realia.

More on the volume and the series here and links.

Lesses on Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition

REBECCA LESSES has posted her 2005 SBL review of Andrei Orlov's book, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition. My review of the same book has been noted here.

Apotropaic bling

NEVER OUT OF STYLE: ALEF BET Jewelry : Protective Bling.

It’s a brand new year, and we’re all trying to be optimistic. Casting an eye over the headlines makes this a difficult process. Even the sunniest souls among us can’t help but feel that the world is, at least, occasionally, a random, scary, dangerous place.

My advice: pile on the apotropaic jewelry. My favorite source: Alef Bet jewelry (www.alefbet.com), created by a Los Angeles-based mother-daughter design team which produces deliciously wearable, modern interpretations of ancient protective amulets.

Additional posts on modern use of ancient magical traditions are here and here.

Sad News: Victor Avigdor Hurowitz

VICTOR AVIGDOR HUROWITZ (1948-2013).

From Jack Sasson at the Agade list:

Dispatches from Israel are conveying the incredibly sad news that Victor Avigdor Hurowitz died today, after a series of complications arising from struggles with a long term illness.

He was just too young and did not live to receive a Festschrift currently being prepared in his honor. His website is at http://profiler.bgu.ac.il/frontoffice/ShowUser.aspx?id=373.
As yet, I have not information about funeral arrangements.

May his memory be for a blessing.

UPDATE: Again, from Jack Sasson:

From Mayer Gruber [mayergruber99@yahoo.com]:
=======================================

Funeral services for Victor Avigdor Hurowitz will take place today at
4:00 PM at Beit Ha-'Almin He-Hadash, Be-Derech Le-Hatzerim.

Shivah will be at his home, Mish'ol Ha-'Aqrabim 33, Shechunah Heh, Beer Sheva

Ann's cellular phone number for his wife Ann is [redacted, but if you really need it, drop me a note - JRD]

May his memory be for a blessing.

UPDATE: Once more from Jack. He reports that it was to have been officially launched yesterday:

Proverbs
Mikra leyisrael - A Scientific Commentary on the Bible
Series Mikra LeIsrael - Scientific Commentary on the Bible
By Avigdor Hurvitz Edited By Shmuel Ahituv
Publisher: The Hebrew University Magnes Press Ltd.

Colloquium on The Life of Adam and Eve

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: International Colloquium on The Life of Adam and Eve (Apocryphicity). The colloquium is in January of 2014.

Seeing the God is coming

JARED CALLAWAY notes the forthcoming Gorgias Press book Seeing the God: Ways of Envisioning the Divine in Ancient Mediterranean Religion (ed. Jeffrey Pettis), to which he is a contributor. The publisher's description:

Seeing the God: Ways of Envisioning the Divine in Ancient Mediterranean Religion is a collection of scholarly essays exploring the concept of how the ancients “envisioned” the deities within various religious traditions, including Judaism, Gnosticism, Syriac Christianity, Byzantium, and Classical Greco-Roman religion and philosophy.

In this book, specific attention is given to phenomena such as dreams, day or night-time visions, and initiation rites perceived as mediums of divine encounter. The work derives from an idea of Robin Lane Fox, who, in his Pagans and Christians writes, “When people prayed, they expected their gods to come, from the age of Homer to the last Platonists in the fifth century A.D.”

Translation of the Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: Guest Post: Anthony Alcock – The Apocalypse of Elijah. English translation made from the text in Georg Steindorff Die Apokalypse des Elias (1899) (Alin Suciu).

BAR on CIIP

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Early Jewish Writings Reveal History of Jerusalem: Scholars publish Theodotus inscription and hundreds of other early Jerusalem texts.

For more on the Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae, see here and links

Frevel & Nihan, Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions ...

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism

Edited by Christian Frevel and Christophe Nihan
Purity is a cultural construct that had a central role in the forming and the development of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean. This volume analyzes concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the main cultures of Antiquity, and discusses from a comparative perspective their parallel developments and transformations. The perspective adopted is both synchronic and diachronic; the comparative approach takes into account points of contact and mutual influences, but also includes major transcultural trends. A number of renowned specialists contribute a large variety of perspectives and approaches, combining archaeology, epigraphy and social history; in addition, particular attention is given to concepts of purity in ancient Israel and early Judaism as a ‘test-case’ of sorts. Through its extensive coverage, the volume contributes decisively to the present discussion about the forming of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Schneerson Library update

$50,000 PER DAY:

U.S. Jewish community taking Russia to court over ancient texts

Tags: Society, Opinion & Analysis, World, Schneerson collection, historic documents
Rebecca Burns

Jan 18, 2013 12:57 Moscow Time (Voice of Russia)

The Russian Foreign Ministry has angrily dismissed a decision by a Washington court to issue what's may be the biggest library fine ever. It's fifty thousand dollars for every day Russia refuses to return a set of religious texts to an orthodox Jewish community in the United States. But Russia is refusing to pay up and even America’s Department of Justice is reportedly unhappy with the ruling. Borukh Gorin, Head of PR at the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, says he understands the American Chabad-Lubavitch community’s feelings but that they don't understand the Russian perspective.

Background here and link.

Hurtado reviews

BOOK REVIEWS AND COMMENTS FROM LARRY HURTADO: “Monotheism” in/and Ancient Roman Religion: The Continuing Discussion (chiefly on Stephen Mitchell & Peter Van Neffelen [eds.] One God: Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Period) and The “Son of God” in/and the Roman Empire: A Review Essay (on Michael Peppard, The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context).

Nabataean (Nabatean) journal

AWOL: Open Access Journal: The Bulletin of Nabataean Studies (BNS).

Observing the Scribe at Work

CONFERENCE: CONFERENCE: Observing the Scribe at Work: Knowledge Transfer and Scribal Professionalism in Pre-Typographic Societies.

Barclay, Josephus: Against Apion

NOW IN PAPERBACK FROM BRILL:

Flavius Josephus: Against Apion
Translation and Commentary

Translation and commentary by John M.G. Barclay
This volume contains a fresh English translation of Josephus’ apologetic treatise Against Apion, based on the new textual research conducted by the Münster Josephus project. It also provides the first English commentary on this treatise, with comprehensive treatment of the historical, literary, and rhetorical features of Josephus’ most engaging literary product.
Against Apion contains the most important evidence for hostility to Judeans in antiquity, as Josephus responds to both Egyptian and Hellenistic slurs on the Judean people, their origins and character. Josephus’ robust defense of his people, with his striking account of the Judean constitution (“theocracy”), also constitutes the finest example of Judean apologetics from antiquity.
The commentary will provide a richly-documented resource for the many readers of this treatise – those who study and teach early Judaism, early Christianity, and the cultural politics of antiquity. It also offers the first “postcolonial” reading of Josephus, in his attempt to present his Judean tradition under the cultural hegemony of the Greek intellectual tradition and the political power of Rome.

Still not cheap.

Via the Agade list. Hardback noted earlier here.

English theses at the Hebrew U

CONTROVERSY: Theses in English 'erosion of Hebrew': The Academy of the Hebrew Language's president admonishes Hebrew University's decision to allow doctorate theses in English, warning against 'Hebrew's erosion' (Sharar Chai, Ynetnews)

I can sympathize with the Academy's concern for keeping the Hebrew language central to Israeli academia. At the same time, the move to allow English theses will inevitably mean that these theses are more widely read than they would be if they were written in Hebrew.

Giant washbasin sighted in Jerusalem

TEMPLE INSTITUTE:Temple Laver Moved to New Home: Temple Institute moves to new headquarters, and takes giant laver with it. (Arutz Sheva).

The Temple Institute moved a giant copper laver, or wash basin, to the new home of its exhibit of Temple articles on Monday.

A statement by the Temple Institute said the basin, which is 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) tall and 2.8 meters (9.1 foot) in diameter is kosher for use in the Third Temple and can be used to purify 12 priests at once.

The statement also said the new basin has advanced systems that make it possible to overcome certain problems in Jewish law, as was done at the time of the Second Temple

[...]

The resemblance to a UFO is entirely coincidental, but to be on the safe side, let's not show the photo to Erich von Däniken.

More on the Temple Institute here.

Cross-post as tangentially relevant to Temple Mount Watch.

Sabbath, space, and time in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN by Adam Kirsch in Tablet: The Pretenders: In order to understand Sabbath rules, the rabbis show, one must imagine exactly what work the Israelites did.

The problem of simultaneity has defeated the rabbis ...

Herod exhibition

HEROD THE GREAT: Israel museum to exhibit reconstructed tomb in first major exhibition on biblical King Herod (AP). When they figure a coffin has to be yours because other people smashed it to bits, I guess that means you had an impact.

There's more on Herod here, with a link that leads back to endless earlier posts on the discovery and study of Herod's probable tomb.

Kashow, Josephus on Sacrifice and Atonement

ROBERT C. KASHOW: Josephus on Sacrifice and Atonement, with reference, that is, to the Essenes.

Reviewlet: Raphael on Josephus

MACLEANS: Review: A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus (Brian Bethune). Excerpt:

But in the multitalented and prickly [Frederic] Raphael—novelist, classicist and Oscar-winning screenwriter for Darling (1965)—the ancient survivor has found his ideal judge, a man as certain of being a Jew as he is uncertain of the meaning of that fact, much as Josephus himself was. (“There is comedy of a kind,” the 81-year-old Raphael writes, “that the only people who might now insist that I am not really a Jew—since I neither pray nor abstain from forbidden foods—are other Jews.”)

New website on esotericism in antiquity

FROM SARAH VEALE:

NSEA Announces Website for Scholars of Esotericism in Antiquity

January 15, 2013

The Network for the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity (NSEA) is happy to announce our new website, AncientEsotericism.org. With continually-updated online resources news, and conference announcements, AncientEsotericism.org is intended to be a one-stop location for scholars and students of the field.

What is esotericism in antiquity? This is a broad term that governs the use of secrecy, concealment, and revelation to talk about the really important stuff—from the true identity of the creator of the cosmos (Gnosticism) to the keys to the heavenly palaces (Hekhalot literature) to how to talk about the indescribable One (Neoplatonic mysticism), etc. So if the subject involves arcana celestial and subterrestrial, it’s ancient esotericism. Scholars in various disciplines have struggled to describe a spike in “secret revelations” in Hellenistic and Late Antique religion (Hengel) or the trend towards mythology in the “Underworld of Platonism” (Dillon)—what all this diverse material has in common is an interest in secrecy and revelation for dealing with the divine, and a common reception-history in “esotericism” in the modern era, ranging from Renaissance Platonism to the New Age.

The website is intended provide a guide to the wonderful, but dizzying, online resources available for the study of this vast and difficult body of literature. My goal (in collaboration with Sarah Veale) was to create the website I would have died to see when I was an undergraduate and just starting to get excited about this material, but totally confused about how to go about studying it, what scholarship was already out there, and, most importantly, where to find the most useful primary sources and reference materials on the web. A lot of the resources gathered here will be familiar to you—but perhaps not to your students, or colleagues in an adjoining field, or a friend. So, if someone has come your way who is starting to get into Nag Hammadi, or Iamblichus, or the apocalypses, etc. and asks you for some guidance to what’s out there, please consider making this one of the links you pass on to them. We will do our best to make it worth your while.

We encourage those interested in these fields to submit calls for papers, workshop notices, conference announcements, and other pertinent news and resources for inclusion on the website. You can submit by email or through our online submissions form. Those wishing to get involved with NSEA are invited to contact us for more information.

NSEA Website: Ancientesotericism.org

With best wishes to you and yours,
Dylan M. Burns, University of Copenhagen
Coordinator, Network for the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity
dylanburns93@yahoo.com, dmb@teol.ku.dk


###

NSEA is a thematic network of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), the pre-eminent European academic organization for the study of Western esotericism. NSEA aims to bring together scholars who specialize in esoteric phenomena in antiquity, regardless of discipline, in an effort to create a dialogue about shared issues and research while providing the necessary resources to facilitate further study.

Contact information:
Dylan Burns, NSEA Coordinator, University of Copenhagen
dylanburns93@yahoo.com, dmb@teol.ku.dk

Sarah Veale, Website Coordinator, York University
sveale@sarahveale.com, sarahvea@yorku.ca

Update on smuggled Turkish Torah scroll

THAT TORAH SCROLL APPREHENDED IN TURKEY is back in the news:

Leather Torah captured after thrilling police operation

ISTANBUL (Hurrieyt Daily News)

Police carefully planned and carried out a special operation Dec. 25 to capture a 1,900-year-old Torah from alleged smugglers before it was sold in the Mediterranean province of Adana.

Police apprehended four people in Adana who were attempting to sell an incredibly old leather Torah. Four suspects were released by a local court pending trial and the leather Torah was sent to Ankara for analysis following the operation.

After receiving information regarding the entrance of an artifact to Adana through illegal means from Syria amid the nation’s civil war, police discovered through additional research that an attempt would be made to sell a 2-millennia-old leather Torah for $30 million.

A geography teacher, T.N., searched for a buyer for the 8.78 meter-long and 44 centimeters-wide leather Torah by describing it as the "only original text of the Torah in the world."

Props to the Turkish police for intercepting what appears to have been an antiquities smuggling operation. They certainly did not stint on the cloak and dagger aspect of the arrests:

Police infiltrated the hotel to catch the alleged smugglers in the act disguised in the uniforms of waiters and valets after learning the location of the sale.

When T.N. entered to the hotel, he was arrested by a police officer in a waiter’s uniform in silence.

Police efficiency and enthusiasm aside, the claims made about the scroll sound pretty silly. Also setting aside the bit about "only original text of the Torah in the world" as meaningless salesmanship twaddle, we are still left with the claim that the scroll is 1900 years old. No authentication has been offered, and it sounds as though this geography teacher was the scholarly source for their evaluation of the scroll, which is not good.

"We bought it from an antique store and brought it to a geography teacher to ask what was written on it," one of the suspects told police.

"One of my friends called me to meet and he asked me to analyze a leather scripture they had", T.N. has said in defense of himself.

The scroll pictured is longer and considerably taller than even the Temple Scroll. It is extremely well preserved, unbelievably so for such a supposed age, and the leather looks modern. I can't get a good enough look at the script to judge its age. The claim of great age sounds very implausible on all counts.

If it is a modern scroll, the case for the smuggling of antiquities may collapse, although there does remain the question of to whom the scroll actually belongs and how the arrested men happened to come into possession of it.

Via Dorothy Lobel King on Facebook. Background here.

UPDATE: Well, well, lots of antiquities-smuggling news from Turkey today. Two items sent to me by readerJerry Rosenberg:

Israeli millionaire to buy Torah copy in Turkey (Vestnik Kavkaza).

An anonymous israeli millionaire plans to buy a Torah manuscript found by Turkish police officers for hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of dollars.

The Torah copy is aged about 500 years. The police arrested the four people who brought the copy to an antique shop, suspecting them of theft. It is believed to be a manuscript of Jews fleeing Spain in 1490.

There's a photo as well, by implication (but not explicitly) the Torah scroll in question. The photo is not of the same scroll as the one above. It appears that this is a different confiscated Torah scroll.

1,500-year-old handwritten Bible kept in Ankara, ministry confirms

23 February 2012 / FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK, İSTANBUL (Today's Zaman)

The minister of culture and tourism on Thursday confirmed media reports suggesting that a 1,500-year-old Bible that was discovered by Turkish police during an anti-smuggling operation in 2000 is being kept in Ankara today.

According to media reports on Thursday, the Bible was seized from a gang smuggling artifacts during a police operation in southern Turkey in 2010 and reportedly preserves its originality and many traces of the period in which it originated.

The gang was reportedly convicted of smuggling various items seized during the operation, including the Bible, and all the artifacts were kept in a safe at an Ankara courthouse. The Bible, which was reportedly kept at the courthouse for years, was only recently handed over to the care of the Ankara Ethnography Museum.

[...]

Some of the above may be true, but if so, you wouldn't know it by all the hokum in the rest of the article. It repeats that the manuscript—and even a photocopy of some of its pages—may be worth millions, then veers off into the whole long-debunked story about it being a pre-Islamic copy of the very late Gospel of Barnabas. As I summed up the situation back in March of 2012:

So instead of being a pre-Islamic copy of The Gospel of Barnabas with predictions of Muhammad in the mouth of Jesus, the manuscript dates itself to 1500; it appears to contain a canonical Gospel; it is suspiciously poorly copied; and paleographic concerns indicate it may be much later than even 1500.

The weird thing is that the manuscript itself does not seem to be promoting the narrative being circulated about it. If it is a forgery, it's a forgery of a 600-year-old manuscript of a canonical book, not of an an ancient copy of an apocryphal one.

If only the Turkish media would start reading some reputable blogs, they might learn some things.

Golb impersonation case up for appeal

THE RAPHAEL GOLB CASE is coming up on appeal before the New York Supreme Court:

Dead Sea Scrolls Go to Court
A brilliant young Harvard Ph.D. faces jail for impersonating a Bible scholar—and rival of his father

By Batya Ungar-Sargon|January 14, 2013 7:00 AM|38comments

On Tuesday, Jan. 8, the New York Supreme Court convened for a hearing in the case of the People vs. Raphael Golb. The matter? That in July of 2008, Golb, a Harvard doctorate, created an email account in the name of Lawrence Schiffman, formerly professor at New York University and now vice provost for Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University. From larry.schiffman@gmail.com, Golb sent emails to the dean, the provost, and the faculty of the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU where Schiffman was formerly the chair.

In the emails, the fictional Schiffman admitted to having plagiarized the work of Norman Golb, professor at the University of Chicago’s prestigious Oriental Institute, Dead Sea Scrolls scholar—and also Raphael’s father. “It is true that I should have cited Dr. Golb’s articles when using his arguments,” the email reads, “and it is true that I misrepresented his ideas. But this is simply the politics of Dead Sea Scrolls studies. If I had given credit to this man I would have been banned from conferences around the world.” It was signed—by some accounts, implausibly—“Lawrence Schiffman, professor,” with a lower-case “p.”

Raphael Golb admits to having sent the email, but he maintains that it was an act of parody, rather than criminal impersonation. “I was exercising my right to expose, condemn, and ridicule the misconduct of other people,” he says. “It says more about Schiffman than it does about me, that people might have believed that an informal email from a gmail account admitting to plagiarism, signed with a lower-case ‘p’ in professor, could have come from an NYU department chair.” The defense argued that Golb was well within his First Amendment rights and that the prosecution was trying to make hurting feelings into a criminal act. But the defense argument failed. In September 2010, Golb was convicted before Judge Carol Berkman of 30 counts of identity fraud, harassment, forgery, and criminal impersonation of Lawrence Schiffman.

[...]

Background to the case is here and you can follow many, many links back from there. I have given my take on the case in the article "The Golb Affair." I have further commentary on the case, and on the harm I judge that Golb was intending to inflict on Schiffman and, in a lesser, pathetic way, on the field in general, here. I'm not a lawyer, or a judge in the case, but I can't say I find the parody defense convincing.

I have some comments on the work of the much maligned original team of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars here and here. (As I have mentioned already any number of times, Frank Moore Cross was my doctoral supervisor and I also worked closely with John Strugnell.) And I have thoughts on the theory of Norman Golb here and links.

UPDATE (16 January): Richard Bartholomew has commentary on the article: US Tablet Defends Convicted Dead Sea Scrolls Cyberbully. (Via Bob Cargill on Facebook.)

2012 biblical archaeology roundup

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Top 20 Biblical Archaeology Events and Discoveries of 2012.

How to read the Göttingen Septuagint

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Read and Understand the Göttingen LXX.

Reviewlet of Denzey Lewis, Introduction to Gnosticism

APRIL DECONICK: Book Note: Introduction to "Gnosticism" (Denzey Lewis).

The book covers all the main issues of the Nag Hammadi literature and will be a perfect compliment to the Nag Hammadi Library if you are considering teaching a course on this literature, or if you are studying the Nag Hammadi texts independently.

The book was also noted here last Fall.

PUNIC-UK Home Page

PHOENICIAN/PUNIC WATCH: Phoenician/Punic Mailing List (AWOL).

Improving on Jesus' burial

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Did Early Christians Improve the Burial of Jesus?

This actually is quite an interesting question. James McGrath's speculations about it sound fairly plausible to me.

Harvard on Iranian Studies

RESOURCES FOR ANCIENT IRANIAN STUDIES: Iranian Studies at Harvard University. Including introductions to Avestan, Old Persian, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism (Manicheism).

Via Adam McCollum on Facebook.

By the way Professor Prods Oktor Skjærvø is contributing a translation of the Iranian Manichaean version of the Book of Giants to the second volume of the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project.

Collins and Harlow on Early Judaism

EERDMANS: Video Interview with John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow. This on the new book they have edited: Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview.

Tabor on ascents to heaven

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: If I Ascend to Heaven … Paul’s Journey to Paradise: James Tabor on Various Understandings of Ascension. An interesting typology of ascent, worthy of much discussion.

Review of Novenson, Christ among the Messiahs

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Matthew V. Novenson. Christ among the Messiahs: Christ Language in Paul and Messiah Language in Ancient Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 256 pp. $74.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-984457-9.

Reviewed by Joshua Garroway (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles)
Published on H-Judaic (January, 2013)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Paul’s Jewish Messiah

Rarely can the thesis of a monograph be stated in a mere five words. Yet Matthew V. Novenson does not oversimplify by distilling his argument down to the bald claim that “Christos in Paul means ‘messiah’” (p. 3). This simple thesis is nevertheless bold and controversial because it challenges the commonly held view that Paul uses Christos as a (meaningless) name, not as a (meaningful) title. According to Novenson, Paul does not use Christos as a name or as a title but as a Hellenistic honorific, comparable to Augustus, Epiphanes, Soter, or Maccabee. As such, Christos means “messiah.”

[...]

Review of Shoshan, Stories of the Law

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Moshe Simon-Shoshan. Stories of the Law: Narrative Discourse and the Construction of Authority in the Mishnah. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. xv + 287 pp. $74.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-977373-2.

Reviewed by Jordan Rosenblum (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Published on H-Judaic (January, 2013)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Telling Tales and Making Law

In recent years, scholars have begun to question the traditional binary between halakhah and aggadah, that is, between texts that investigate legal matters (halakhah) and everything else, especially stories (aggadah). This reassessment has done more than just remove aggadah from the bookshelf, where it traditionally sat due to the relative importance of halakhah in traditional Judaism (one is reminded of the many yeshivot where rabbis would instruct their students to skip a Talmud page since it is “just” aggadah). Beyond raising the status of the academic study of aggadah, this trend has also resulted in the blurring of the lines between these categories. For example, though the famous story of the Oven of Akhnai (b. Bava Metzi‘ah 59a-b) begins with a matter of halakhah regarding the purity of an oven, it quickly transitions to a fascinating and complex story of rabbinic authority and proper decorum.

[...]

Review of Tawil, Lexical Studies

BOOK REVIEW in the Jewish Press:

By: David B. Levy
Published: January 10th, 2013

Title: Lexical Studies in the Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Inscriptions: The Collected Essays of Hayim Tawil
Editors: Abraham Jacob Berkovitz, Stuart W. Halpern, and Alec Goldstein
Publisher: Ktav

This excellent, delightful and lucid collection represents some of the best in academic research. Philological, lexicographical, linguistic, epigraphical, cultural, mythological, ritualistic, and historical knowledge are informed by virtuosity in comparative ancient Semitic languages. These erudite studies by the high-powered academic scholarship of Hayim Tawil – a professor of Hebrew languages and literature at Yeshiva University – shed light on Biblical Hebrew, the whole field of Ancient Near Eastern studies, medieval exegetical traditions, and the reception history of the Biblical text from antiquity to the present day.

One rarely encounters such a great breadth, depth, multi-variegated, and diverse interdisciplinary knowledge applied to analysis of the Biblical text – especially from an Orthodox source. The collected essays exhibit precise close readings of the texts’ details, and is fully visionary to reveal the forest for the trees.

[...]

Hekhalot Literature in Translation

GOOD NEWS: I am pleased to report that my translation of an eclectic critical text of the bulk of the pre-Kabbalistic Jewish mystical literature know as the Hekhalot literature (current title: Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism) has been accepted for publication by Brill. The table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. Hekhalot Rabbati: The Greater (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces

3. Sar Torah: The Prince of Torah

4. Hekhalot Zutarti: The Lesser (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces

5. Maʻaseh Merkavah: The Working of the Chariot

6. Merkavah Rabba: The Great (Book of the) Chariot

7. Some Shorter Macroforms

8. Geniza Fragments

I spent the 2011-12 academic year on research leave finishing the project (which I started in 1991!) and have mentioned it here, here, here, here, here, and here. The volume translates most of the Hekhalot texts (which are in Hebrew and Aramaic) and I have explained in the introduction why a few have been omitted. Notably, you can already find an excellent eclectic English translation of 3 Enoch by Philip Alexander in Charlesworth's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

Look for Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism later this year. I will keep you posted!

New book on tekhelet

BOOK AWARD:

Jewish Journal Book Award announced

By Jonathan Kirsch (JewishJournal.com)

The making of a memorable book requires the skills of an alchemist. Every author starts with the raw material of his or her own experience and expertise, but it can take a certain secret ingredient — passion, vision, inspiration — to transform the dross into gold. That is a fair description of what Baruch Sterman and Judy Taubes Sterman have accomplished in “The Rarest Blue: The Remarkable Story of an Ancient Color Lost to History and Rediscovered,” published last year by Lyons Press and reviewed in these pages on Dec. 21, 2012.

Because the Stermans possess precisely that alchemical genius, the Jewish Journal Book Prize for 2013 is awarded to “The Rarest Blue,” the second-annual prize given in recognition of a book of exceptional interest, achievement and significance. This award is presented each January to an author or authors for a book published during the previous calendar year, and it includes a $1,000 honorarium.

“The Rarest Blue” starts with a 2,000-year-old mystery: How did the Israelites make thread a blue color known as tekhelet that they were required by the Torah to wear on their fringed garments? The formula for making the blue dye was lost in the early centuries of the Diaspora, and generation after generation of observant Jews have been unable to comply with the biblical commandment. “And now we have only white,” the compiler of the Midrash complained in the eighth century, “for tekhelet has been hidden.” Ironically, it was only during the era of the scientific and industrial revolution that the biblical secrets began to emerge. And now the Stermans have revealed how to make what they called “the sacred, rarest blue.”

[...]

The book sounds potentially interesting, but I would like to see reviews by archaeologists and biblical scholars. For recent scholarly and nonspecialist efforts to recover tekhelet, see here and links

Celebrating Church Slavonic

FEBRUARY 14TH IS COMING — and you know what that means: Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day!

STS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013 (Catholic News Agency)

On Feb. 14, the universal Church honors two brothers, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who are called the “Apostles of the Slavs” for their tireless work in spreading the Gospel throughout Eastern Europe in the ninth century.

Such was their influence in Church history, through their evangelization efforts, that the late Pope John Paul II named the two brothers the patron saints of Europe along with fifth century monastic leader St. Benedict.

[...]

In order to fulfill this mission, Cyril and Methodius took the step of adapting the Greek alphabet into a script for the Slavonic language. The result was the “Cyrillic” alphabet, which was first used to translate the Bible and liturgical books. It also became the primary means of written communication for large portions of the world, including modern day Russia.

[...]

Quite a few interesting Old Testament pseudepigrapha are preserved only or primarily in Church Slavonic. Some relevant posts are here, here, and here, with many links.

Sins coming in fractions

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN by Adam Kirsch in Tablet: Intention Versus Action: This week, the rabbis ask if two half-sins equal a whole one. In what part of a sin is sinfulness located?

... We are not even given the satisfaction of a resolution to Rava’s problems! This is frustrating and casts further doubt on the practical application of everything that’s gone before: If the rabbis are willing to leave these questions unanswered, they couldn’t be very relevant to actual Jewish practice.

However, the Talmud is also sending a powerful implicit message. The act of thinking about law, of reasoning out its most distant ramifications, is itself sacred and pleasurable to the rabbis, regardless of its practical application. To read the Talmud at all, I’m finding, it’s necessary to be able to share at least their pleasure, if not their sense of sanctity.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are collected here and links.

Samaritan Ukrainian brides

SAMARITAN GENETICS: 'Good Samaritans' seek Ukrainian wives: In the West Bank, the world's few remaining Samaritans are starting to marry women from outside to expand the gene pool (Jane Ferguson, Al Jazeera).

The tiny population, however, is something of a double-edged sword. While the community is naturally close-knit, the next generation runs the risk of birth defects from such a small gene pool. There is a particular shortage of women, they told Al Jazeera.

That's where Tanya comes in. The community's religious elders got together a few years ago and decided they had no choice but to let some of the men marry foreign women, provided they convert. The marriage agency Tanya was working for would help make those crucial matches.

"When they came, we would show them the pictures of the women, tell them some information about them and if they want, they could have a date," Tanya explained. Eleven Ukrainian women, including Tanya, have moved into the community in recent years.

More on Samaritan genetic issues and Ukrainian brides is here and links.

Political implications of Afghan manuscripts?

I DOUBT IT: Expert: New Ancient Hebrew Manuscripts Could Have Major Impact on Taliban (The Algemeiner).

[Journalist and author Jere] Van Dyk says that if it could ever be proven that the papers date back to before the founding of the Muslim religion, or if it became evident that there was a Jewish community there at that time, then it could change the region.

“The Taliban, who are deracinated – cut off from their culture – are deeply politicized and have been for decades by Pakistan, which has its own agenda in Afghanistan. They are deeply religious – ‘We are Muslim; We want to rid our land of the infidels; We want a pure Islamic government,’ not unlike the one Mohamed is said to have created in Medina – now if it becomes clear, if there’s an increasing amount of information, and the Taliban begin to hear that, wait a minute, ‘We are descended from those who are at war with the Arabs, and our allies here Al-Qaeda’ – then it could possibly change how they look at everything.”

I just don't see this happening; I can't see the Taliban taking that much interest in what secular historians are saying. But I'll be very happy if I'm wrong.

Background on the Afghan "geniza" is here and links.

Ben Yehuda's birthday

YESTERDAY: Israelis offer a 'Yom Huledet Sameach' to Ben Yehuda, resurrector of Hebrew language: Eliezer Ben Yehuda, who transformed Hebrew from the rusty language of ancient Israel and the Bible into the dynamic, dominant language of modern-day Israel, would be 155 years old today (CSM Global News blog).

Of course, Hebrew was the language of the Torah – the biblical books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – as well as other religious writings. So many Jews were familiar with it. But they didn’t use it to talk about things like grocery shopping or even politics.

Not so fast. Those "other religious writings" often had a lot to say about daily life and all the little halakhic details pertaining thereto. Politics certainly featured in them sometimes and I would be very surprised if the Talmud and the Responsa literature didn't discuss grocery shopping from time to time. See also my post on Hebrew as a dead language from five years ago.

Collins, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography

NEW BOOK (Yale News):

The Dead Sea Scrolls:
 A Biography


John J. Collins, the Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation

(Princeton University Press)

The Dead Sea Scrolls — discovered in caves at Qumran in 1947 — appear to have been hidden in the Judean desert by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that existed around the time of Jesus. They continue to inspire veneration and conspiracy theories to this day. John Collins tells the story of the bitter conflicts that have swirled around the scrolls since their discovery, and sheds light on their true significance for Jewish and Christian history.

Collins recounts how a Bedouin shepherd went searching for a lost goat and found the scrolls instead. He offers insight into debates over whether the Essenes were an authentic Jewish sect and explains why such questions are critical to our understanding of ancient Judaism and to Jewish identity. Collins explores whether the scrolls were indeed the property of an isolated, quasi-monastic community living at Qumran, or whether they more broadly reflect the Judaism of their time. And he unravels the impassioned disputes surrounding the scrolls and Christianity. Do they anticipate the early church? Do they undermine the credibility of the Christian faith? Collins also looks at attempts to “reclaim” the scrolls for Judaism after the full corpus became available in the 1990s, and at how the decades-long delay in publishing the scrolls gave rise to sensational claims and conspiracy theories.

Gold coins found in Iraq

66 SASSANID-ERA COINS have been discovered in Iraq in a town called Aziziyah: Iraq unearths ancient gold coins (AFP). The same article appears here with another photo of some of the coins after they had been cleaned, giving a much better view of their iconography.

Archaeology in Gaza

THE GAZA STRIP'S ARCHAEOLOGY has fared no better in the recent conflicts than in earlier ones: Gaza's archaeological treasures at risk from war and neglect (BBC). The article notes in passing the recent discovery of a Byzantine-era church and mosaic.

Related posts here and links.

Hurtado on the Son of Man in 1 Enoch

LARRY HURTADO has two new posts up on the figure of the Son of Man in 1 Enoch: Enoch & the “Son of Man” and More on “son of man”: The Nickelsburg/VanderKam Commentary.

Earlier PaleoJudaica posts on the figure of the (one like a) Son of Man in Daniel etc. are collected here.

AWOL is four

HAPPY FOURTH BLOGIVERSARY TO AWOL - The Ancient World Online.

Talmud-page "art" in Tel Aviv

ART CONTROVERSY:

Gallery threatened over Talmud artwork

Rabbinate vows to stop exhibition of works created by French artist, using pages of ancient rabbinic writings. Display 'desecrates Holy Scriptures,' says Chief Rabbi Metzger

Kobi Nahshoni
Published: 01.03.13, 15:47 / Israel Jewish Scene (ynetnews)

Israel's Chief Rabbinate has threatened to stop an art gallery in Tel Aviv from exhibiting works using original Talmud pages "sacrilegiously."

Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said he hoped someone would purchase the artwork for thousands of shekels – so that they would be removed from the gallery.

[...]

I think this "art" project is pretty tacky, but I don't think the artist should be prevented from doing it or persecuted. And despite the lurid headline of this article, the only specific "threat" seems to amount to hoping that someone buys the offending artwork. Oh and there were two (she counted them) protesters outside her gallery once. I bet we don't see this artist doing the same thing with pages from the Qur'an.

A novel about Aher

AS A DRIVEN LEAF: Studying a classic novel of Judaism. The novel involves the heretic Elisha Ben Avuyah and Rabbi Akiva.

Epiphany and The Revelation of the Magi

HAPPY EPIPHANY to all those celebrating. In related news, Brent Landau was recently interviewed about his work on the The Revelation of the Magi:

Background here and links.

Botta (ed.), In the Shadow of Bezalel

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

In the Shadow of Bezalel. Aramaic, Biblical, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Bezalel Porten

Edited by Alejandro F. Botta, Boston University

Twenty nine scholars from Israel, Europe and the Americas came together to honor and celebrate Prof. Bezalel Porten's (Emeritus, Dept. of History of the Jewish People, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) academic career. Covering a wide variety of topics within Aramaic, Biblical, and ancient Near Eastern Studies, In the Shadow of Bezalel offers new insights and proposals in the areas of Aramaic language, paleography, onomastica and lexicography; ancient Near Eastern legal traditions, Hebrew Bible, and social history of the Persian period.

UPDATE: Dead link now fixed. Sorry about that.

Afghan manuscripts now in Israel

29 MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE AFGHAN "GENIZAH" have been purchased by the Israel National Library: Israeli library unveils ancient Afghan manuscripts (AP).

The INL website also has a "New Acquisitions" entry at its News page: Afghan Genizah.

About a year and a half ago, the National Library got word regarding the existence of a stash, a genizah, of Jewish manuscripts from Afghanistan. The news was back by numerous photographs. The manuscripts left Afghanistan and reached antiquaries in different countries, bound together in bundles of varying sizes.

The material includes many dozens of fragments in Hebrew, in Judeo-Arabic, in Judeo-Persian and in Muslim Arabic. The documents written in Muslim Arabic are dated and their content is of a legal nature. Based on these items, we can date the Afghan genizah to approximately the first half of the 11th century. The National Library has now purchased 29 of these fragments. This lot has fragments of commentaries by Rav Sa'adia Gaon in Judeo Arabic, letters and other documents in Judeo-Persian and legal documents in Arabic. This is an extremely important finding, being a unique testimony, both in nature and in volume, of the cultural history of a Jewish community in an area which in the 11th century included highly important political, cultural and economical centers. To this day we have not seen Jewish findings of such magnitude and importance from this area. Everything indicates that the findings are authentic, as attested by the experts consulted by the National Library. The National Library of Israel places the utmost importance in having all the findings of this unique genizah form part of its collection, since by law its mandate is to preserve the national memory of the Jewish People. The present purchase is a first step in this direction. Several of the items can now be viewed online in the gallery included here.

Background here and links.

GJW update

THE GOSPEL OF JESUS' WIFE is the subject of a post at the CNN Belief Blog. I don't see any new information, but it's a pretty good summary of the current state of play.

'Jesus Wife' fragment gets more testing, delays article

By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Editor

(CNN) - One of the most anticipated articles in religion circles will be absent from the pages of the January edition of the Harvard Theological Review. Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King's final article on the "Jesus wife" fragment did not make the scholarly journal because further testing on the Coptic papyrus fragment has not been finished.

[...]

As for this,

"We're moving ahead with the testing, but it is not yet complete, and so the article will await until we have the results," King said in an email to CNN.

"The owner of the fragment has been making arrangements for further testing and analysis of the fragment, including testing by independent laboratories with the resources and specific expertise necessary to produce and interpret reliable results. This testing is still underway," Kathyrn Dodgson, director of communications for the Harvard Divinity School, said in a email to CNN.

I don't think I'm the only one who has wondered why the owner is arranging the tests rather than Professor King or specialists designated by Harvard University. Does the owner have the expertise to make such arrangements? And, not to put too fine a point on it, how do we know that tests have actually been arranged? Have King or Harvard been involved at all or do we just have the word of the anonymous owner? The reports I have seen are vague on this point and it would be helpful to hear some specifics. Trust, but verify.

Background here.

UPDATE: David Meadows comments.

John William McKenzie Brady, 16 January 2004–31 December 2012

TRAGIC NEWS: A Moment of Silence, A Day of Support for Dr. Christian Brady and his Family, 10 am Friday.

Dr. Christian Brady of Penn State University is well known to readers of this blog. At the beginning of this week Dr. Brady and his family suffered the utterly unexpected loss of their son, John William McKenzie. The funeral begins in five minutes. Our hearts go out to Chris and his family in this time of unimaginable grief.

Chris has a post up at his blog, Targuman: John William McKenzie Brady – Mack, the best boy ever.

Review of Portier-Young, Apocalypse against Empire

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Anathea Portier-Young.Apocalypse against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism. Grand Rapids W. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.,
2011. xxiii + 462 pp. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8028-6598-4.

Reviewed by John C. Reeves (The University of North Carolina,
Charlotte)
Published on H-Judaic (January, 2013)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Rethinking the Imperial Context for Early Jewish Apocalypticism

This impressive monograph, a thoroughly revised version of the
author's doctoral dissertation carried out under the direction of
James L. Crenshaw at Duke University almost a decade ago, provides a
new reading of the cultic crisis purportedly threatening the
Jerusalem Temple in Judea during the first half of the second century
BCE, a cultural schism whose main events are known almost exclusively
from later apocryphal sources like 1 and 2 Maccabees or allegedly
contemporary visionary (that is, "apocalyptic") compositions like the
biblical book of Daniel, or early portions from what would later
figure within the parascriptural collection of writings known by
modern scholars as _1 Enoch_. ...

Terrace farming at Petra

PETRA IN THE NEWS:

Terrace Farming Unearthed at Ancient Desert City of Petra

(ScienceDaily)

Jan. 2, 2013 — A team of international archaeologists including Christian Cloke of the University of Cincinnati is providing new insights into successful and extensive water management and agricultural production in and around the ancient desert city of Petra, located in present-day Jordan. Ongoing investigations, of which Cloke is a part, are led by Professor Susan Alcock of the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project (BUPAP).

[...]

Some of the many stories about Petra noted in PaleoJudaica are here, here, and links.

Goldenberg, Semitic Languages

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM OUP:

Semitic Languages
Features, Structures, Relations, Processes
Gideon Goldenberg

ISBN13: 9780199644919ISBN10: 0199644918 Hardback, 416 pages
Jan 2013, In Stock
Price:
$135.00 (06)
Shipping Details

Description
This book offers a thorough, authoritative account of the branches of Semitic. These include some of the world's oldest attested languages, among them Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic, as well as various modern languages. Gideon Goldenberg describes their history, geographical distribution, writing systems, and genetic classi?cation. He examines their main features and distinctive characteristics, including their phonology, morphemes, derivational morphology, verbal systems, syntactic relationships, and their typological signi?cance. He also discusses the pioneering work and achievements of medieval Arabic and Hebrew scholars in theoretical and descriptive aspects of grammar, lexicography, and philology. Professor Goldenberg's balanced, undogmatic account presents the fruits of a lifetime of original research: it will be widely welcomed by scholars and advanced students of the Semitic languages and linguistic typology.

Features
Pioneering account of one of the oldest attested language families
Written by one of the world's leading authorities
Covers the history of Semitic from ancient origins to the present
Wide-ranging, undogmatic, and accessible

Product Details
416 pages; Tables, Line Drawings, Maps; 9.7 x 6.7; ISBN13: 978-0-19-964491-9ISBN10: 0-19-964491-8

About the Author(s)
Gideon Goldenberg is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1996 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy since 1999. He has published extensively on Neo-Ethiopian languages, Syriac, Hebrew, and Neo-Aramaic, syntactic relations and typology, and on the history of linguistics in the Middle East.

Via Adam McCollum on Facebook.

December Biblical Studies Carnival

THE DECEMBER 2012 BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL has been posted by Abram K-J at the Words on the Word blog.

M. R. James

M. R. JAMES is profiled by Mark Gatiss in an interview in New Statesman: The dead of night: how to write the perfect ghost story: Mark Gatiss tells Robin Ince about his love of MR James.

Montague Rhodes James was also a very important specialist in the study of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and New Testament Apocrypha.

Background on James's scholarly work and his ghost stories is here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE: Related? Archaeologist Tired Of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils (The Onion). Yeah, I hate it when that happens. You can't be too careful about reading those ancient manuscripts aloud.

(The latter via Francis DeBlauwe on Facebook.)

McGrath on the Baptist and the Gnostics

JAMES MCGRATH comments on John the Baptist and the Gnostics in reply to my request here.

Bond, Jesus, book of the year

THE JESUS BLOG has announced its book of the year for 2012: Helen Bond, The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed.

I haven't read the book, but from what I have heard about it the reward sounds well deserved.

Background here.

Interview with Hindy Najman

HINDY NAJMAN is interviewed in the Jewish Ledger about an adult education course she is teaching in Connecticut:

Conversation with… Professor Hindy Najman

Posted by CindyMindell on December 31, 2012 in CT News, Latest | 0 Comment

There is much to be learned from the Jewish response to tragedy, says Yale professor

By Cindy Mindell

How can a culture survive destruction and exile and renew itself when its leading institutions have been devastated? Yale religious studies professor Hindy Najman explores the Jewish response to tragedy – the destruction of the First and Second Temples, exile, and return – in “Galut and Hitgalut,” a course offered by the Bureau of Jewish Education in Stamford.

[...]

More on Professor Najman's work here.

Gnostic traditions about John the Baptist

JOHN THE BAPTIST AND THE GNOSTICS is the subject of an article by Miguel Conner in The Examiner. I would like to hear what James McGrath thinks of it.

UPDATE (2 January): More here.

Counterclaims about Temple Mount "trash"

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Debris removed from Temple Mount sparks controversy

By MELANIE LIDMAN
01/01/2013 01:11

Archeologists say "modern trash" may contain ancient artifacts, but police call that rubbish.

The adage that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” rings especially true on the Temple Mount, where even the smallest piece of ancient trash – such as a seal bearing the name “Bethlehem” or a bell that possibly fell off a priests’ robe – can reveal volumes about religious practices.

Workers from the Temple Mount Sifting Project say that over the past week, six to eight garbage trucks, illegally removed debris, possibly rich in archeological finds, from the site.

But Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said the debris had been “modern trash” that needed to be dumped, and that it was done in cooperation with the Antiquities Authority and under police supervision.

[...]

After reading the rest of the article, I think the claim in the last quoted paragraph above sounds dubious. We need to hear from the IAA about this.

Background here.

2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Best wishes for 2013 and, as always, keep reading PaleoJudaica.

Hannibal film update

VIN DIESEL may now have backing for his proposed film(s) on Hannibal: Vin Diesel Says A Studio Is Interested In Making His Hannibal Trilogy (Denzel Washington Still In?) (IndieWire Shadow and Act Blog).

My understanding is that Denzel Washington has been slated to play Hamilcar, Hannibal's father, not Hannibal himself.

Diesel has been talking about this project for some years, and his Facebook comment does seem to imply that he now has studio backing for it. I hope so, anyway.

Background here and links. Cross-file under "Punic Watch."

More on Rollston

COMMENTARY ON THE CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON CASE is provided by Robert Cargill: Winners and Losers in the Emmanuel Christian Seminary Scandal. And Daniel O. McClellan provides an editorial cartoon.

Background here.

UPDATE (2 January 2013): Roger Pearse comments.

Mythraism?

JAMES MCGRATH: Mithraism and Mythicism. In which he collects online resources and resorts to dubious etymology.

DSD 19

DEAD SEA DISCOVERIES has published a special, thematic volume (19): The Rise of Commentary: Commentary Texts in Ancient Near Eastern, Greek, Roman and Jewish Cultures.

Follow the link for the TOC. Requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access the full articles.

The Group for the Study of Late Antiquity

NEW SEMINAR at the Hebrew University: The Group for the Study of Late Antiquity.

Seow, Job 1-21

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

Job 1-21
Interpretation and Commentary
C. L. Seow

HARDCOVER; Coming Soon: 2/28/2013
ISBN: 978-0-8028-4895-6
Series

DESCRIPTION
The book of Job is by all accounts an exquisite piece of literary art that has its rightful place among the most outstanding compositions in world literature. It is a work of remarkable theological richness, passion, and honesty. Yet it is also widely recognized as an immensely difficult text to understand.

C. L. Seow's two-volume commentary -- the first in the Illuminations biblical commentary series -- pays close attention to the reception history of Job, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Western secular interpretations as expressed in theological, philosophical, and literary writings and in the visual and performing arts. In addition, this volume offers a primarily literary-theological interpretation of Job, a new translation, and commentary, resulting in a "history of consequences" that draws on insights from a rich tapestry of historical and contemporary interpretations.

JTS 63.1 (2012)

THE JOURNAL OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES has a fairly recent new issue out: 63.1 (2012).

Follow the link for the full TOC, but note the following articles in particular:

Charlotte Hempel
Who is Making Dinner at Qumran?
J Theol Studies (2012) 63(1): 49-65

Jonathan Knight
The Origin and Significance of the Angelomorphic Christology in the Ascension of Isaiah
J Theol Studies (2012) 63(1): 66-105

Also, this review:

H. G. M. Williamson
Qumran Cave 1. II: The Isaiah Scrolls. Part 1: Plates and Transcriptions. Part 2: Introductions, Commentary, and Textual Variants. By Eugene Ulrich and Peter W. Flint, with a contribution by Martin G. Abegg, Jr.
J Theol Studies (2012) 63(1): 230-234

Requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access the full articles and book reviews.

Bnei Menashe update

MORE BNEI MENASHE—supposed remnants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel—are emigrating from India to Israel. Some detailed coverage in Tablet Magazine: ‘Lost’ Indian Jews Come Home. Shut out for years, this week Bnei Menashe Jews moved to Israel. Why did the government change its policy?

Background here and links.

Ancient shrine found

REMAINS OF AN IRON-AGE II SHRINE have been discovered near Jerusalem:

Animal Figurines Found in Ancient Israel Temple

by LiveScience Staff
Date: 27 December 2012 Time: 01:52 PM ET

Just outside of Jerusalem, archaeologists have discovered a cache of vessels and figurines inside a 2,750-year-old temple that could provide a rare window into religious rituals of the period, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced.

The finds were uncovered at Tel Motza, an archaeological site being excavated ahead of the expansion of Highway 1, the main road connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The dig revealed part of a large building, believed to be a temple, and objects that date back to the era of the First Temple, which, according to the Hebrew Bible, was constructed by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. and then destroyed 400 years later.

[...]

The Deuteronomistic Historian would not have approved.

Rollston update

CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON has resigned from Emmanuel Christian Seminary.

Background here and links.

UPDATE (congratulations!): Visiting Professorship at George Washington University.

Gender Dualism in the Book of Baruch

SARAH VEALE has an interesting essay at Invocatio on gender dualism in Justin the Gnostic's Book of Baruch: Gnostic Dualism and Gender in Baruch.

But Baruch does not portray the female or the material world as a holy thing. In all cases, it is something to be subdued by masculine power and separated from higher, transcendent principles. When the female does have power, it is corrupt, evil, embodied and uncontrollable. It’s hard not to see the dualism and its implications on gender at work in this text.

This Book of Baruch is a lost Gnostic text known to us only in a summary by Hippolytus and, unlike 1-3 Baruch, the title character is not the prophet Jeremiah's scribe, but rather an angel of the same name who figures in Justin's retelling of the biblical narrative. You can read about Justin and his book in Hippolytus's Refutation of All Heresies, 5.18-23. The surviving fragments of this Book of Baruch are being translated by Todd Klutz for volume 2 of the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project.

Cross-file under "Pseudepigrapha Watch" and "Lost Books."

Busted!

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS: Four caught selling 1,900-year-old leather Torah.

I would be happy to be wrong on this, but I simply do not believe that these guys had a complete Torah scroll that was 1900 years old. That would be nearly as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls. It does sound like they did have an oldish Hebrew scroll of some sort which perhaps they shouldn't have had, and it's as well that this was noticed. I'm not sure if the photo is supposed to be of the scroll, but it's upside down and of poor resolution, the script is not of 100 CE, and it doesn't look a Torah scroll to me.

Ilan Ben Zion has more details in The Times of Israel: Turkish police bust men trying to sell ‘a 1,900-year-old Torah’: Suspects insist they legally acquired ancient 29-foot-long parchment.

That would make it comparable in length to the Temple Scroll (9 meters).

As the latter article notes, the Turkish authorities do not have an impressive recent track record for understanding such Bible-related antiquities as fall into their hands. (See here and [final story] here.) Still, I give them points for at least paying attention and investigating these things.

Caesarea development decision

COURT RULING:

Court rejects Caesarea residential neighborhood

By SHARON UDASIN (Jerusalem Post)
12/24/2012 23:20

After 7-year legal battle, Jerusalem court rejects plan to build neighborhood over site off coast of Aqueduct Beach.

Following a seven-year legal battle, the Jerusalem District Court has decided to reject a plan to build a neighborhood over a site off the coast of Aqueduct Beach, just north of the ancient city of Caesarea, the Antiquities Authority announced on Monday.

The decision, which was made on December 13, denied the appeal of the Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Development Corporation and thereby determined that a residential neighborhood would not be cropping up on the Aqueduct Beach.

Approval of the plan would cause “irreparable damage to ancient remains, harm the cultural heritage of the State of Israel, as well as eliminate one of the important archeological sites of the country,” the Antiquities Authority had expressed in its official position to the court.

[...]

Sounds like an important legal precedent.

I noted the case back in 2006, when it was just getting underway.

More Waqf depredations at the Temple Mount

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Temple Mount authority reportedly carts off antiquities to the dump
Despite High Court ruling, mounds of earth excavated from Jerusalem holy site go unexamined by archaeologists

By Ilan Ben Zion December 24, 2012, 5:55 am 12 (Times of Israel)

The Muslim authority managing the Temple Mount on Sunday dumped tons of unexamined earth and stones excavated from the holy site into a municipal dump, in violation of a High Court injunction, Maariv reported on Monday.

Israel’s top court in September 2004 prohibited removal of earth from the Temple Mount and ruled that, should it be necessary, the Antiquities Authority must be notified a month in advance so it may examine the earth for artifacts.

[...]

Some indication of what that earth may contain:

Soil from the Temple Mount that had been removed to the Kidron Valley in recent years has yielded “tens of thousands of finds, including signet rings from the First Temple era, painted floor tiles from the Second Temple era, ancient gold coins, and horseshoe nails and arrowheads belonging to the Knights Templar, who stabled their horses in Solomon’s Stables,” [archaeologist Tzachi] Dvira said.

In recent years I have noted other details of finds sifted (see below) out of similarly pillaged Temple-Mount earth here, here, here, and here.

Arutz Sheva is also covering the story:

Report: Waqf Continues to Destroy Jewish Antiquities
The Waqf is continuing to destroy Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount in a direct violation of a court ruling, new report finds.

By Elad Benari
First Publish: 12/25/2012, 2:13 AM

The Muslim Waqf is continuing to destroy Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount in a direct violation of a ruling by the Supreme Court, a new report released Monday finds.

The author of the report, archaeologist Tzachi Zweig-Devira, told Arutz Sheva that his report is based on a personal visit he made to the Temple Mount.

[...]

This sort of thing has been going on for years, and I can't fathom why the Israeli Government continues to abide it. Much of the illicitly excavated material has been scrutinized for artifacts by the Temple Mount Sifting Project, with which Tzachi Zewig-Dvira is associated. More on the project here and follow the many, many links back.

(HT Joseph I. Lauer and others.)

UPDATE—The story develops: MK Eldad Joins Rally for Temple Mount Preservation and Court May Be Asked to Stop ‘Destruction of History’ (Arutz Sheva).

Helen Bond on Historical Jesus studies

HELEN BOND has published an essay in Bible and Intepretation summarizing the results of her new book The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed:

Ten Things I Learnt about Jesus by Writing a Book about him

I’ve become increasingly convinced that the search for authentic words of Jesus is a waste of time. The human memory has been studied exhaustively in recent decades, and the overriding picture which emerges is one of fragility and subjectivity. On an individual level, we tend to fill in the blanks, to make sense of what we see or hear, and to allow later information to blend into and inform what we think we remember. Over time, we may retain the gist of what happened, but not the specific details....the idea that a person or a group could remember and transmit Jesus’ sayings perfectly seems highly unlikely.

I am not a specialist in Historical Jesus studies, but her comments seem to me refreshingly sensible and undogmatic (both in the religious sense and the political-correctness sense). I have posts making similar points to her points 2 and 6 here and her point 3 here (end of post).

(Via James McGrath.)

Fourth international Colloquium on apocryphal literature

COLLOQUIUM: THE LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE AND ADAMIC TRADITIONS (7-10 janvier 2014 – January 7th-10th, 2014) (Alin Suciu).

This fourth international Colloquium on apocryphal literature is devoted to Adam and Eve in apocryphal traditions. The new edition of the Vita latina Adae et Evae just published in the Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum led the AELAC to organise this meeting. It should be an opportunity to honour the memory of Jean-Pierre Pettorelli, who devoted much time and energy in the last years of his life to the completion of this outstanding edition.

Cross-filu under "Pseudepigrapha Watch."

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all those celebrating!

Posts of Christmas past are collected here and links. And relevant posts from yesterday are here, here, and here.

Something for this Christmas: Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., Two Christmas stories: An analysis of New Testament narratives (OUP Blog).

My purpose here is not to criticize blending the two Christmas stories or to debate the historicity of the events they describe. What I do want to show is that by harmonizing the two stories we may be missing points that were especially important for Matthew and Luke, respectively. I want also to suggest that appreciating each biblical account separately might open up new perspectives on the infancy narratives for people today.

The wrong Bethlehem!

OOPS! Birth of Jesus celebrated in 'wrong Bethlehem' (The Telegraph).

This is an old story, being recycled for the Season. I have a discussion of it from five years ago here. I see nothing in the brief Telegraph article to indicate that Mr. Oshri has made any notable progress in proving his theory.

Some other recent Bethlehem-related stories are here (fifth paragraph) and here. And while I'm at it, past discussions of the Star of Bethlehem and the Magi are here and links.

Frankincense returns to Israel

MORE SEASONAL NEWS:

After 1,500 years, frankincense returns to the Holy Land in time for Christmas
December 23, 2012, 3:49 pm 1

Matthew Kalman (Times of Israel blog)

KIBBUTZ KETURA, ISRAEL – Seven years after I revealed her success in sprouting a 2,000 year-old date palm seed found on Masada, botanist Dr Elaine Solowey of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has done it again.

1,500 years after the last frankincense tree disappeared from the Holy Land, Dr Solowey has managed to grow the first shoots of a tree whose scented white sap was once worth more than gold.

At Kibbutz Ketura deep in Israel’s Negev Desert, Dr Solowey is carefully nurturing the fragile sapling in her greenhouse, where she is also growing myrrh and balm of Gilead – probably the “gold” brought by the Three Wise Men to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem.

[...]

Cool about the frankincense, but if it's all the same to you, I'm going to keep the gold in my mental picture of the story.

More on the magi here and links.

Bones of St Nick

TIMELY, IF ODD NEWS: Turkey wants St. Nick's bones back.

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A Turkish professor has requested that the bones of Saint Nicholas, the original Santa Claus, be returned to Turkey from the Vatican.

[...]

If Turkey wants to be taken even the least bit seriously when they start asking for the repatriation of Christian relics, they need to start taking proper care of the Christian antiquities that are already there.

Background on the body of St. Nicholas is here. The first link has rotted, but the second is still good. Cross-file (tangentially) with "Mor Gabriel Monastery."

Hell

THE ECONOMIST: Hell: A very rough guide. Somehow, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" doesn't quite fly as a travel slogan.

Ben Zvi and Levin (eds.), Remembering and Forgetting in Early Second Temple Judah

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Remembering and Forgetting in Early Second Temple Judah. Ed. by Ehud Ben Zvi and Christoph Levin
2012. XIV, 360 pages. FAT 85

ISBN 978-3-16-151909-3
cloth € 99.00


Remembering and Forgetting in Early Second Temple Judah
Ed. by Ehud Ben Zvi and Christoph Levin
This volume collects revised versions of essays from a 2011 workshop held in Munich on Remembering and Forgetting in Early Second Temple Judah . The authors of the essays address these issues from both general methodological perspectives and through case studies emerging out or associated with a wide range of texts from the prophetic literature, the Pentateuch, the historical books, Psalms and Lamentations. All these texts share one main feature: they shape memories of the past (or future) and involve forgetting.

Contributors: Bob Becking, Ehud Ben Zvi, Kåre Berge, Diana Edelman, Christina Ehring, Judith Gärtner, Friedhelm Hartenstein, Michael Hundley, Jörg Jeremias, Sonya Kostamo, Francis Landy, Christoph Levin, James Linville, Zhenhua Meng, Bill Morrow, Reinhard Müller, Urmas Nõmmik, Juha Pakkala, Hermann-Josef Stipp