Review of Ehrman, Forgery and Counterforgery

BOOK REVIEW IN MARGINALIA: David Lincicum on Forgery and Counterforgery, by Bart Ehrman: Lies, Damned Lies, and Patristics. Excerpt:

Learned humanists exposed many more of these ancient frauds during the Renaissance, but the authenticity of the documents that compose the New Testament was not seriously questioned until the late eighteenth century. Since that time, there has been protracted debate about not only the presence of pseudepigrapha in the New Testament but also the possible motivations a pseudepigrapher might have had. Most critical scholars now acknowledge at least some pseudonymous texts in the New Testament, but the question of motive still rattles. Some contend that pseudonymity was practiced as an open secret, a transparent fiction, and that the audience was in on the ruse. Others claim that the students or co-workers of departed apostles wrote the letters, perhaps even with their blessing, the same way a philosopher’s student might write in their name.

There’s just one problem: this pretty much never happened in antiquity. Following a growing chorus of voices in recent years — though German Neutestamentler have been saying this a lot longer and with more consistency, significant voices have arisen in the Anglophone world as well — Ehrman rightly notes that whenever a forgery is uncovered in antiquity, it is condemned as deceptive. For too long, scholars have hidden behind the hazy notion that the idea of “intellectual property” didn’t exist in the ancient world — as though authors lived in a golden utopia of verbal communism, untroubled by the very possibility of plagiarism per definitionem, until all this came to a screeching halt in 1710 with the first copyright statute. The intention of pseudepigraphers, as Ehrman and others have demonstrated in convincing detail, is to deceive. You don’t begin a letter, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints … ,” unless you want the audience to think you’re Paul.

Alexander, Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism

THE TALMUD BLOG: Review of Elizabeth Shanks Alexander, ‘Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism’- Guest Post by Raphael Magarik.

Yet, while Alexander conceived the idea for the book, as she explains in the introduction, “in the shadow of a contemporary cultural debate,” she writes as a Talmudist. Thus, she restricts herself historically to pre-Medieval sources and methodologically to descriptive history. Further, within those frameworks, Alexander does not so much answer as destroy the original question.

Rollston on David and Northwest Semitic epigraphy

CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON IN BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION: By God I am King: David’s Rise to the Throne in Broader Context.

The epigraphic texts from the ancient Near East, therefore, paint for us a broader picture, they reveal more of the depth of the tapestry that is the world of the ancient Near East. And the epigraphic texts remind us that ancient Israel was part of the ancient Near Eastern world.

This essay will be useful when I lecture on the United Monarchy in my first-year Intro to Hebrew Bible this semester.

Yom Kippur

YOM KIPPUR, the Day of Atonement, begins this evening at sundown. An easy fast to all those observing it.

Biblical background noted here.

The Talmud and intellectual questions

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: When Talmud Is the Focus of Jewish Observance, Theology Comes to Life. Instead of asking us to passively agree with the rabbis, oral law engages the intellect in concrete problems of logic and interpretation.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

DeConick et al., Practicing Gnosis

IN THE MAIL:

Practicing Gnosis
Ritual, Magic, Theurgy and Liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and Other Ancient Literature. Essays in Honor of Birger A. Pearson

Edited by April D. DeConick, Gregory Shaw, and John D. Turner

Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets seeking revelation, as mystics questing after the ultimate God, as healers attempting to care for the sick and diseased. These essays demonstrate that the Gnostics were not necessarily trendy intellectuals seeking epistomological certainities. They were after religious experiences that relied on practices. The book is organized comparatively in a history-of-religions approach with sections devoted to Initiatory, Recurrent, Therapeutic, Ecstatic, and Philosophic Practices. This book celebrates the brilliant career of Birger A. Pearson.

My article, "Ritual in the Hekhalot Literature," is included in the volume.

Middle East varia, none good

I'VE BEEN COLLECTING bad-news articles and blog posts on the Middle East for the last couple of weeks. Sadly, they all remain relevant.

War Threatens Palmyra, UNESCO Pleads for Syrian Heritage Protection (Magda Abu-Fadil, Huffington Post). Background on Palmyra and its inscriptions is here and links. More on Palmyra in this war is here and here.

Syria's Rich Archaeological Treasures Imperiled by Civil War (Tia Ghose, Live Science).

Arms for Antiquities: Syrian Artifact Smuggling Bleeds Sites Dry - including Dura Europos (Joanne Bajjaly, Al-Akhbar). Background here and links.

Ma'loula Under Attack (Steve Caruso, The Aramaic Blog). Background on Ma'loula (Maaloula, Malula) is here with many links.

Pictures: Looters Shatter Museum of Ancient Egyptian Treasures (National Geographic).

Egypt demands return of stolen artifacts from Europe and U.S. (Afrik News). For some reason someone decided that this was a good time to re-release this 2009 article.

UPDATE: Accidentally left this one out: Mount Sinai monastery latest victim of Egypt's upheavals. Closure of St Catherine's monastery due to security concerns has devastated tourist trade of nearby town named after it (Patrick Kingsley and Marwa Awad, The Guardian). St. Catherine's Monastery and its manuscripts have been mentioned often at PaleoJudaica, for example, here, here, here, here, and here.

Goodacre on Schama on Paul

DOCUMENTARY FAIL: Simon Schama's misreading of Paul (NT Blog).

To reiterate, I think this is a superb documentary and I am a big fan of Schama. But I think this section falls below his usual standards. One of the reasons that this is important is that getting the history right plays a key role in Jewish-Christian relations. Given the appalling history of Christian attitudes to Jews and Judaism documented by Schama, it is worth paying careful attention to what Jews like Paul, right at the beginning of the Jesus movement, actually said.

Background on the documentary The Story of the Jews is here and links.

Cyrus Cylinder mystery

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Who broke the Cyrus Cylinder? (A. J. Cave, Payvand News of Iran). Key excerpt:

On 28 August, 2013, Dr. Jon Taylor, Assistant Keeper of Cuneiform Collections at the British Museum gave a talk: “Hormuzd Rassam and the Discovery of the Cyrus Cylinder” to a packed audience at Cal (UC Berkeley). The talk was presented by the Assyrian Heritage Fund and co-sponsored by the Center for the Middle Eastern Studies and the Townsend Center for Humanities. Among the attendees was the elderly great, great, great grandson of one of the brothers of Rassam who had traveled just for the occasion.

To prepare for the talk, Dr. Taylor had resorted to archival research in the vast acquisition registers of the British Museum. Thumbing through old records at the museum, he found out (rather unexpectedly) that the cylinder (identified later as the “Cyrus Cylinder” by the Assyriologists the British Museum) was listed as “unbroken” in boring bureaucratic documents, leading him to speculate that the cylinder was most likely broken (perhaps intentionally) before it was shipped to London.

Why?

Intense western interest in eastern biblical lands and peoples in the 19th century did not just lead to spectacular discoveries of ancient civilizations, it sparked a lively global trade in ancient artifacts procured in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” manner. Since 1850s illicit diggings for antiquities that institutions and individuals are willing to pay good money for have progressed in the Middle East without any sign of decline. Local laborers usually got paid literally pennies for each inscribed tablet they dug up, so it was not unusual for them or actually anyone in the antiquities supply-chain to break clay tablets they found into pieces to increase their meager pay and sell the “surplus” to Baghdad dealers.

Dr. Taylor prepared a list of the usual suspects who had access and motive to break the unbroken cylinder, and like a clever crime novel detective eliminated all but two, one of them Daud (Fat) Toma, one of overseers Rassam had hired—not deemed trustworthy even by Rassam himself.

We would never know without a shadow of a doubt, but we can safely say that the real culprit was the insatiable black market for antiquities.

For much more on the Cyrus Cylinder, see here and links.

Them Bones

LIVESCIENCE: Animal sacrifice at temple powered ancient Jerusalem's economy: Animal bones found in a dump dating to the end of the second Temple period suggest that animal sacrifice powered Jerusalem's economy.

Pilgrims came from hundreds of miles away to sacrifice animals at an ancient temple in Jerusalem, new research suggests.

An analysis of bones found in an ancient dump in the city dating back 2,000 years revealed that animals sacrificed at the temple came from far and wide.

"The study shows that there is a major interprovincial market that enables the transfer of vast numbers of animals that are used for sacrifice and feasting in Jerusalem during that time period," said study co-author Gideon Hartman, a researcher at the University of Connecticut.

The finding, published in the September issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, confirms visions of the temple depicted in historical Jewish texts and suggests the economic heart of the city was its slaughtering operation.

[...]

You can find the original journal article here (#22) (noted by Joseph Lauer).

On the Temple as a "massive slaughterhouse," see also here.

Byzantine-era gold hoard excavated in Jerusalem

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Gold treasure trove unearthed at base of Temple Mount: Byzantine-era coins and unique menorah medallion found by Hebrew University archaeologists at site abutting Southern Wall (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

“I have never found so much gold in my life!” [Professor Eilat Mazar] said with obvious excitement at a press conference on Mount Scopus. “I was frozen. It was unexpected.”

The centerpiece, a medallion that Mazar posited may have been used as ornamentation for a Torah scroll, is emblazoned with a seven-armed candelabrum — a menorah — a Torah scroll, and a shofar, a ram’s horn.

It must be nice to find gold often enough to be able to say that. Follow the link for cool photos.

Calaway, Sabbath and Sanctuary

JARED CALAWAY'S NEW BOOK: Sabbath and Sanctuary Available!

Historic Aramaic meeting

SYRIAC WATCH: Levita Meets the Maronites (Ed Cook).

Peshitta resources

SYRIAC WATCH: Peshitta (Aramico blog).

The purpose of this page is to concentrate in one place, resources found on the internet that relate to the Aramaic Bible in his best-known version, the Peshitta. Most links are to posts on the blog, with details about the edition and links for viewing and downloading. This page will be continually updated.

García Martínez scholarship update

AND WE HAVE A WINNER: Bernice Brijan receives Florentino García Martínez Research Master Scholarship. Congratulations to Ms. Brijan.

Background here.

Jewish manuscripts etc. online

ANTIQUITOPIA: Jared Calaway has a collection of Ancient Jewish Manuscripts, Texts, and Translations.

The legend of the ten Lost Tribes

FROM 4 EZRA TO A MEDIEVAL ALEXANDER ROMANCE: Exploring the legend of the ten Lost Tribes: Throughout its long history, the myth of the 10 Lost Tribes has served as a kind of signpost, a spotlight illuminating the 'right’ path to take in response to the most complex existential questions of Jewish history. (Eli Yassif, Haaretz). Excerpt:

Defining the story of the 10 Lost Tribes as a myth is often, and misleadingly, understood as an assertion that any attempts to identify the tribes will, by definition, not succeed because the story is, after all, an imaginary rather than a factual historical or anthropological one. But that is not why this story is one of the greatest myths of Jewish culture. Rather, its significance results from the fact that it illuminates some dark corners of Jewish consciousness, creates a narrative of support and encouragement when Jewish communities in the Diaspora have faced tough situations, and unequivocally through narrative technique, expresses a profoundly important point that has accompanied Jewish history since its inception: the nature of the Diaspora and the minority Jewish community’s attempt to confront a Muslim or Christian majority.

‘Carried over the waters’

As far as we know, the oldest source that refers to the myth is the Fourth Book of Esdras from the Jewish Apocrypha, written shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, toward the end of the 1st century C.E. This tradition interprets one of the central visions described in 2 Esdras 13:40-48 ‏(King James Version‏): “Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow places of the river. For the most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of a year and a half; and the same region is called Arsareth ... But those that be left behind of thy people are they that are found within my borders.”

Cross-file under "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch."

Outside the Bible

LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN: The Significance of Outside the Bible. That is, the forthcoming book by that title (TOC and excerpt here).

While you're ordering it, don't forget to order your copy of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, which comes out at the end of this month. (No, really this time!) There is very little overlap between the two works and you really should have both.

Harland, Associations, Synagogues, and Congregations (rev.)

REVISED ONLINE EDITION: Associations, Synagogues, and Congregations: Claiming a Place in Ancient Mediterranean Society (Philip Harland, 2013).

More on Philip Harland's work is here, here, here, here, and here.

"we have to imagine a scene of extreme carnage"

LAST WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: In the Talmud, Minds Full of Torah Instead of Bowls Full of Sacrificial Blood: Daf Yomi: Could Judaism ever go back to now-alien-seeming rituals from before the destruction of the Temple? Excerpt:

The Talmud, and rabbinic Judaism as a whole, have a deeply paradoxical relationship with the Temple. On the one hand, the Temple in Jerusalem is the only divinely authorized location for worship and sacrifice; Judaism as it is described in the Torah, especially in the books of Exodus and Leviticus, cannot be practiced without a Temple and a priesthood. That is because the heart of Israelite worship consisted of the slaughter of animals and the offering of their blood. According to Pirkei Avot, avodah, the Temple service, is one of the three pillars on which the world rests, along with Torah and deeds of kindness. Even now, Jews continue to mourn the destruction of the Temple—as we did this summer on the fast day of Tisha B’Av—and to look forward to its reconstruction.

At the same time, however, rabbinic Judaism was able to come into being only in the Temple’s absence. Everything we now think of as integral to classical Judaism—the study of texts, the synagogue, the liturgy, the Talmud itself—emerged as a response to the destruction of the Temple and the discontinuation of its sacrifices. After two thousand years, we have grown so accustomed to Judaism without a Temple that, if we think seriously about it, the prospect of rebuilding the Temple must seem deeply alien.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

BASOR editorship

JOB: Publications Committee Seeks Editor for the Bulletin of ASOR
Review of Applications to Begin September 16, 2013.

Latest Biblical Studies Carnival

AT NEAR EMMAUS: Biblical Studies Carnival: August, 2013.

The Story of the Jews

RADIO TIMES: The Story of the Jews: Series 1 - 1. In the Beginning. Follow the link for a brief review by David Butcher, a clip, and a link to the whole show, which is presented by Simon Schama.

Background here, here, and here.

Wrage

INSPIRED BY THE WAR SCROLL: Interview with Joseph Spencer, Author of ‘Wrage’ (Mayra Calvani, blogcritics).

What was your inspiration for Wrage?

When I decided to expand Grim into the Sons of Darkness series with Wrage, I wanted to incorporate themes which intrigued me from religion and history to tell epic stories. The “War Scroll” from the Dead Sea Scrolls foretells of an apocalyptic fight between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness in which Light will earn eternal peace by destroying Darkness. Each son in the Sons of Darkness series will represent a deadly sin, and each son in my future Sons of Light series will symbolize a cardinal virtue.

Search engine referrals

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN, and PaleoJudaica has lots of new search engine referrals from the last year to share. As usual, I swear that I have not made any of these up, and I have done a little censoring to preserve PaleoJudaica family values. The material in parentheses are my own commentary. This year I have grouped the searches thematically and under broad categories for easy reference.

HISTORY AND LITERATURE
• east anglian daily times beyond 2000bc
  
• the great mother
  
• klasicisms
  
• amazon-warriors.com
  
• alexander the great's mother in bed
  
• alexander the great's mom and dad
  
• alexander the great death wish
  
• alexander the great's body
  
• alexander the great dead body
  
• phoenician judaism
  
• old testament gaint og
  
• dead sea scrolls enema instructions (eew!)
  
• essenes enemas
  
• josephus giant bones on display in
  
• 2005 c-130 giant nephilim skeleton
  
• strange menorahs
  
• fishman becoming people talmud (sounds more like Lovecraft)
  
• "the talmud and other diet books"
  
• a king james version bavil
  
• rashi on 12/11/12 at 7 pm
  
• "holy prepuce" circumcision jesus christ
  
• "crucifixion postures" (used in pilates?)
  
• the latest report on the ist century mark man
  
• greek translation of revelation (translation?)
  
• news scriptdoomsday relates to the book of revelation
  
• ancient spiritual gnosis texts for beginners gnosis
  
• configurations of the fate of heaven beneath the twelve (not a video game)
  
• configuration of the fate of heaven that ...
  
• is codex sinaiticus is fake (short answer, no)
  
• 1-7-13 mystic, john dee
  
  PHILOLOGY
  
• cuneiform numbers 1-10
  
• "lifeless water" akkadian
  
• paleo hebrew name for adam
  
• paleo tetragrammaton ring
  
• book of enoch bangla translation
  
• aramaic popular in 2012
  
• syriac for thirsty
  
• chaldeans spoke quenya language
  
• she flies with her own wings in amharic (and you should see what she can do in Ge'ez!)
  
• roman numeral 08-16-2009
  
  SCHOLARSHIP
  
• british new testament conference whisky room
  
• mystical book reviews blog
  
  CELEBRITIES
  
• angelina jolie stretch marks
  
• angelina jolie без грим (means "without makeup" in Russian; appeared repeatedly)
  
• lara croft angelina jolie hot (again, repeatedly)
  
• angelina jolie breast augmentation
  
• monica bellutchi
  
• monica bellucci at 20 years old
  
• "intertextuality * life of brian" (well, why not?)
  
• singer madonna carthage must be destroyed (new hit!)
  
• jim davila wood carver (not me)
  
• jimmy davila art teacher, az (not me)
  
• never see the day with james davila (not me?)
  
• james davila blot (me?)
  
• davila paleo (not the diet)
  
• paleodudaica (Dude!)
  
• pleojudaica
  
  TATTOOS
  
• complete metatron's cube tattoos
  
• metatrons cube tattoo
  
• tatoo papyroi
  
  MISCELLANEOUS
  
• human got bitten by lion (not Daniel, presumably)
  
• man jump on lion dan into bronx zoo (probably the guy who got bitten)
  
• jesus will save you picture
  
• criteria for interpretatvie dance contest
  
• j mark iwry married to darryl
  
• "on the matter of the man with three wives"
  
• orgasm interview
  
• 10-11 age real dangle gold earrings in toronto
  
• annezimmermann fotos 2012 (makeup again!)
  
• historic importance of 11-11-11-18
  
• k.i.blue ridge cemetary hours open
  
• published: sunday, march. 22, 2009- 12:00am
  
• nuclear medicine physicians @talktalk.net
  
• professors in surgeons @talktalk.net

Rosh HaShanah

HAPPY ROSH HASHANAH (Jewish New Year) to all those celebrating! The holiday begins this evening at sundown.

Some background here.

Important blogiversaries

HAPPY TENTH BLOGIVERSARY to Mark Goodacre's NT Blog and to David Meadows's Rogue Classicism!

York Symposium update

FURTHER TO MY EARLIER POST involving the York University Symposium on the Christian Apocrypha, Sarah Veale e-mails to let me know that the Symposium has its own website: York Christian Apocrypha Symposium.

Rollston update

CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON just keeps landing on his feet throughout all the tribulations: From Washington to Jerusalem: Personal Reflections on a Year to Remember. Congratulations, Chris, on the National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

Background here and links.

BNTC wrap-up

THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE finished on Saturday afternoon and I trust that by now everyone is safely home or has at least reached their next destination. Excellent papers, excellent networking, lots of good catching up with friends and colleagues, a couple of good whisky evenings, and perfect weather throughout. Special thanks to the BNTS committee, notably the Secretary, Paul Middleton, and the President, Loveday Alexander, who provided much prompt and helpful guidance and feedback for the preparations. Thanks also to last year's organiser at KCL, Davina Grojnowski, who cheerfully endured endless questions beginning "How did you ..." over the last year. Thanks to our Conferences Group and Residence Management at St. Andrews, who provided smooth sailing throughout. Also many thanks to John Dunne, my chief conference assistant, and the other postgraduate assistants: Garrick Allen, Jamie Davies, Euichang Bryan Kim, and Jesse Nickel.

I'm already very much looking forward to next year's BNTC at Manchester.

I took Sunday off (yes, even from blogging!), but am back to work today trying to catch up on everything I have left undone over the last month or two.

More McGrath on the Mandaeans

JAMES MCGRATH is an ever-flowing font of resources for Mandaean (Mandean) studies. His latest: Mandaean Resources Online.

Apocryphicity latest

TONY BURKE has some good new posts over at Apocryphicity.

First, more supplements to Secret Scriptures Revealed:

More Secret Scriptures 5: Pseudo-Memoirs of the Apostles.

More Secret Scriptures 6: The Preaching of Simon Cephas in the City of Rome.

The earlier posts in the series are noted here.

Second, Tony has been posting profiles of speakers for his upcoming conference “Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha in North American Perspectives” (September 26–28, 2013).

2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Brent Landau.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Lee McDonald.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Lorenzo DiTommaso.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Stephen Shoemaker.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: F. Stanley Jones.

The BNTC begins

THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE begins today in St. Andrews, with registration opening this afternoon. Welcome to the 150 delegates arriving from all over Britain, and in a few cases, farther afield!

Petra Papyri II

NEW BOOK FROM ACOR: L. Koenen, J. Kaimio, M. Kaimio, R. W. Daniel edd., Petra Papyri II (P.Petra II) (G.W. Schwendner, What's New in Papyrology). Another important documentary text from late antiquity. One more volume to go and the series will be complete.

Goff, 4QInstruction

NEW BOOK, JUST OUT FROM THE SBL:

Matthew J. Goff, 4QInstruction (22 August, 2013)

Schiffman on studying the DSS

LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN: How to Study a Dead Sea Scrolls Text. This is an article from Bible History Daily, but it was originally a series of recent posts on his blog which I had not yet noted.

Another grant for the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PERSEPOLIS FORTIFICATION ARCHIVE PROJECT, which has just received a $30,000 grant for its work: Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute grant to the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project.

Background on the project and the international legal controversy over the archive is here with many links.

Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch."

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics

NOW PUBLISHED IN HARD COPY BY BRILL:

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (4 Vols.)

General Editor: Geoffrey Khan Associate Editors: Shmuel Bolozky, Steven E. Fassberg, Gary A. Rendsburg, Aaron D. Rubin, Ora R. Schwarzwald, Tamar Zewi Advisory Board: Moshe Bar-Asher, Aharon Maman, Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé, Yael Reshef

The Hebrew language has one of the longest attested histories of any of the world’s languages, with records of its use from antiquity until modern times. Although it ceased to be a spoken language by the 2nd century C.E., Hebrew continued to be used and to develop in the form of a literary and liturgical language until its revival as a vernacular in the 20th century.
In a four volume set, complete with index, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day. The encyclopedia contains overview articles that provide a readable synopsis of current knowledge of the major periods and varieties of the Hebrew language as well as thematically-organized entries which provide further information on individual topics, such as the Hebrew of various sources (texts, manuscripts, inscriptions, reading traditions), major grammatical features (phonology, morphology, and syntax), lexicon, script and paleography, theoretical linguistic approaches, and so forth. With over 950 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.

There is an online version as well.

Noted as forthcoming here.

More on Shenoute

PHILIP JENKINS has two more posts on the ancient Egyptian monastic leader Shenoute: SHENOUTE’S WARS and SHENOUTE AND THE GNOSTICS. From the latter:

Shenoute wrote against both Origenists and Gnostics, and (not surprisingly, being Shenoute) he also undertook direct action. One of his campaigns, against the temple of Pneuit near Akhmim, around 412, was probably directed against still-surviving Sethian Gnostics. He particularly wanted to seize their “books full of abominations” – presumably, a collection very much like what was found at Nag Hammadi in modern times.

[...]

We can understand why Shenoute was hunting for Gnostic books. But the more interesting question might be, why were other monks likely using them? Did they still value them for their religious truth? Or were they mining them for evidence to denounce heresy? Scholars have debated this for years. Increasingly, I think these were books that monks themselves were reading for enlightenment and spiritual revelation, or at least had at some stage in their institutional development.

Background here.

Ugaritic

PHILOLOGOS in The Forward: Cracking the Ugaritic Code: Hebrew and Sister Tongue Grew From Ancient Semitic Language.

The treatment is pretty accurate, but a few comments are in order. First, it is not quite true that the Ugaritic alphabet does not indicate vowels at all. The letter Aleph comes in three forms, each of which attaches a different vowel to the consonant (a, i, or u). Second, it is not clear to me that Yamm or Sea is the same being as Lotan/Leviathan. Yamm is the god of the sea, whereas Leviathan is a sea monster. Third, it should be noted that the Ugaritic phrase quoted in the article appears in Hebrew in almost the same consonantal form in Isaiah 27:1. Finally, Ugaritic does "predate" Hebrew in the sense that it is older than the Hebrew we have in the Hebrew Bible, which (possibly with a rare earlier exception here or there) dates to the Iron Age II (c. 1000-586/7 BCE) and later. But Philologos is correct that Hebrew does not descend from Ugaritic; they are independent branches of Northwest Semitic. Still, whatever ancestor of Hebrew existed in the time of Ugaritic would be rather different from the Hebrew we know from the Bible and it would be a stretch to call it "Hebrew."

Job in Classical Judaism

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON - SEATTLE: Call for Applications: Assistant Professor in Classical Judaism.

The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in classical Judaism. Possible areas of specialization include rabbinics, medieval commentarial literature, medieval philosophy, Jewish mysticism or Jewish law. The ideal candidate will study the Jewish religious and textual tradition within a broader cultural and comparative context. We expect this hire to play an integral role in the Samuel and Althea Stroum Jewish Studies Program, a nationally renowned program whose mission includes community engagement, outstanding scholarship, and exploring the integration of Jewish Studies and digital technologies. In addition, the successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the Comparative Religion program and to the interdisciplinary curriculum of the Jackson School.

Follow the link for details.

HT Carla Sulzbach on Facebook.

Review of Lapin, Rabbis as Romans

MARGINALIA: Ishay Rosen-Zvi on Rabbis as Romans, by Hayim Lapin: In what sense were the rabbis Roman?.

In 2012 I noted the book as forthcoming here.

The Israel Forgery Trial aftermath continues

THE LATEST NEWS arising from the Israel Forgery Trial has been out for a while and I'm just catching up. This Fox News article by Sasha Bogursky seems to cover the basics: Forgery of the century? Israel in decade-long war over biblical artifacts. The key point of interest is this:

The state now maintains that the inscription on the limestone box and the tablet are forged -- but the stones themselves are ancient and therefore belong to the state.

For its part, the IAA declined to comment after several days of repeated efforts by FoxNews.com.

"The IAA does not give interviews on that issue," the agency said.

I think the text of the Joash Inscription (Jehoash Inscription) is a modern fake, for reasons given quite a while ago here. I have the impression that at least most philologists agree on this. More to the point, I am still unaware of any peer-review publication that has argued for the authenticity of the Joash inscription or the full text of the James Ossuary inscription (see below), although I haven't been following the discussion closely and it's possible I have missed something. I am unqualified to have any opinion on whether the stone on which the Joash inscription is written is "ancient" (presumably meaning it is an ancient human-produced artifact, since stones by nature are pretty old). The James Ossuary itself is an ancient artifact, but there is a great deal of debate on whether all or part of the inscription is a modern (or at least later than first century) forgery.

Background on the Israel Forgery Trial is here with many, many links.

Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

THE ETHIOPIAN TRADITION that the Ark of the Covenant is kept in a special sanctuary in Aksum is explored by Paul Raffaele for The Smithsonian: Keepers of the Lost Ark? Christians in Ethiopia have long claimed to have the ark of the covenant. Our reporter investigated. He got to see the guardian of the Ark, but alas, not the Ark itself.

This is one of a number of less than convincing claims to account for the whereabouts (or at least fate) of the Ark of the Covenant, about which PaleoJudaica has posted many times. Start here and follow the many links back.

The DSS in the Netherlands

A DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION is being run by Kossmann.dejong in Assen, the Netherlands: Kossmann.dejong: An Exhibition Takes Visitors 2000 Years Back in Time.

HT Mladen Popovic.

BNTC update

THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE meets here in St. Andrews starting a week from tomorrow (29-31 August). For those attending, the conference program and some travel advice have been posted on the website. Just follow the link and scroll down to "Conference Details."

Local Jewish customs, plus miracles, in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Good Jewish Fences Once Made Good Jewish Neighbors. Do They Still? One of many ancient local customs analyzed in this week’s Talmud study is the habit of separating Jews from gentiles. Excerpt:

I wonder, however, whether the rabbis were also motivated by their general tendency to discourage Jews from mingling too much with non-Jews. In Tractate Eruvin, we saw how the rabbis strongly advised a Jew not to live on his own in a non-Jewish neighborhood, lest he end up getting murdered. In an age when the non-Jew was seldom encountered except as an enemy, the rabbis may have thought it wiser for Jews not to do any business with their non-Jewish neighbors. Happily, I learned from the Schottenstein Talmud’s notes that this ban, like many Talmudic provisions, is no longer in force; so if you have an ox to sell, feel free to put it on Craigslist.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Textus archive

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY now has a full archive online of the textual criticism journal Textus: Studies of the Hebrew University Bible Project.

Mystery word solved in the Apostrophe to Zion?

IT'S NICE when philology gets some attention from the media: Baffling Dead Sea Scrolls text gets new interpretation. A single phrase in the Psalms Scroll bewildered scholars for decades. Then two students had an epiphany. (Ran Shapira, Haaretz). Excerpt:

The verse with the word titbaech appears in a poem called (in English at least) “Apostrophe to Zion” — which appears in the so-called “Psalms Scroll”, together with other poems very much like the biblical Psalms.

Most of the Psalms Scroll had been satisfactorily deciphered and published in distinguished scientific journals. But the mystery verse with titbaech remained obscure.

There were interpretations, to be sure. They just didn’t make much sense.

And then Hanan Ariel and Alexey Yuditsky, doctoral students working on a project at the Hebrew Language Academy, had an epiphany.

[...]

Meanwhile, Ariel and Yuditsky realized - in Arabic, which is as close to Hebrew as say French is to English – the root taph-bet-ayin means “to go after,” “follow,” “overtake.”

Aha, thought the students: what if the mystery verb titbaech bore a rare meaning, not commonly known – not “seek” or “demand,” but “follow,” overtake”?

It's an interesting proposal, but I have reservations about new meanings derived primarily from Arabic cognates. When you start looking for cognates for a Hebrew word in Lane's Arabic English Lexicon, you tend to find a lot of them, and with a wide range of meanings. I wouldn't bet too heavily on any one of them unless there is substantial additional supporting evidence. Perhaps there is here, but we should wait for a full peer-review publication to evaluate the argument fully.

Meanwhile though, as I said, it's nice to find a user-friendly media discussion of a technical philological proposal.

Review of Labendz, Socratic Torah

MARGINALIA: Eva Kiesele on Socratic Torah, by Jenny Labendz: Plato, Bakhtin, and the Rabbis meet again.

Iron Age II Hebrew-inscribed bowl excavated in Jerusalem

THIS IAA PRESS RELEASE came out this weekend:

2700 Year-Old Inscription Found in Archaeological Excavations in the City of David

Archaeological excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the area of the Gihon Spring in the City of David, in the Walls around Jerusalem National Park, have unearthed a layer of rich finds including thousands of broken pottery shards, clay lamps and figurines. Most intriguing is the recent discovery of a ceramic bowl with a partially preserved inscription in ancient Hebrew. While not complete, the inscription presents us with the name of a seventh century BCE figure, which resembles other names known to us from both the Biblical and archaeological record (see examples below) and providing us with a connection to the people living in Jerusalem at the end of the First Temple period. This fascinating find will be presented at Megalim's Annual Archaeological Conference which will take place on Thursday, August 29th in the City of David.
The most similar name to our inscription is Zechariah the son of Benaiah, the father of the Prophet Jahaziel. The name Zechariah the son of Benaiah appears in 2 Chronicles 20:14 where it states that Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, prophesized before the Biblical King Jehoshaphat before the nation went off to war against the ancient kingdoms of Ammon and Moab.
Israel Antiquity Authority archaeologists Dr. Joe Uziel and Nahshon Zanton, who discovered the bowl while excavating remains associated with the First Temple period destruction, explained that the letters inscribed on the shard likely date to the 8-7th centuries BCE, placing the production of the bowl sometime between the reign of Hezekiah and the destruction of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah. The archaeologists also explained that the inscription was engraved on the bowl prior to firing, indicating that the inscription originally adorned the rim of the bowl in its entirety, and was not written on a shard after the vessel was broken.
While the purpose of the inscription on the bowl is unclear, archaeologists have posited that the bowl may have contained an offering, likely given by the individual whose name was inscribed on the bowl, or alternatively given to him.
Inscription Analysis
The first letter of the ceramic bowl’s partially preserved inscription in ancient Hebrew script is broken and is therefore difficult to read, but appears to be the letter ר. The next three letters יהו constitute the theophoric suffix (the component in which the name of the deity appears as part of the first name, such as Yirme-yahu and Eli-yahu, etc). These letters are followed by בנ (the son of) after which appears the patronymic name composed of the three letters בנה. According to archaeologists Uziel and Zanton, “If we consider the possibility that we are dealing with an unvowelized or ‘defective’ spelling of the name בניה (Benaiah), then what we have before us is the name "...ריהו בן בניה"

Many of the first names mentioned in the Bible contained the theophoric component יהו, as is the case of this inscription from the City of David. Besides the biblical references, other examples of this have also been found in archaeological excavations, written on a variety of objects such as seals, bullae, pottery vessels or even carved on rock. Noteworthy among the many names that end with the theophoric suffix יהו are several prominent examples that were previously discovered in City of David by Professor Yigal Shiloh, such as Gemar-yahu the son of Shaphan, Bena-yahu the son of Hoshayahu, etc. which were also found in the destruction layer and the ruins of the Babylonian conquest.

For information on the Megalim-City of David Annual Archaeological Conference please call *6033 or visit www.cityofdavid.org.il

Click here to download high resolution pictures:
1. Pottery Sherd of a Bowl from the end of the First Temple Period, bearing the inscription "ryhu bn bnh". Photo: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority
2. Various finds from the fill layer of the end of First Temple period: oil lamps, LMLKstamped handles and female figurines. Photo: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority

For more details contact Meyrav Shay, Public Information, Israel Antiquities Authority at 052-4284408, meyrav@israntique.org.il

Photo number 1 above. Click on the image for a larger view.HT Joseph I. Lauer.

Iraqi Jewish Archive update

REPORT: Iraqi Jewish Archives to be housed in the Iraqi National Library and Archives.

HT Dorothy Lobel King. Background here and many, many links.

Jewish palm reading

ERIC KWAKKEL: Medieval palm reading.

This image with Hebrew annotations is from the 13th century, but Jewish chiromancy (palm reading) is considerably older, and Jewish physiognomy (determining character by a person's physical characteristics) goes all the way back to the Qumran Library. See the Jewish Virtual Library article linked to in Kwakkel's post. I also discuss these matters in my article The Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism and at greater length in chapter 3 of my book Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature.

The Zombie Bible

IT HAD TO HAPPEN: Ancient Israel’s Zombie Apocalypse (James McGrath). Cross-file under "Can't Make It Up."

Potentially relevant past posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Sara Japhet on Chronicles

THE OUP BLOG: An interview with Sarah Japhet.

In an interview with Professor Marc Zvi Brettler of Brandeis University, Professor Japhet explains how she became interested in the Chronicler, which she describes as “a fresh, critical spirit with the courage to look at Israelite history in a different way.” This emphasis on new and critical perspectives, she explains, helped to frame her career, and was fitting given her appointment as the first tenured woman in the Bible Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In addition, Japhet discusses how her early experiences with Chronicles informed her ongoing work on the larger issues of exegesis and historiography.

Shenoute and Nag Hammadi

PHILIP JENKINS: SHENOUTE THE GREAT. Shenoute was a critically important figure in the history of early Coptic language and literature, and he is also highly relevant for understanding the cultural background of the Nag Hammadi Library.

On a related note, Professor André Gagné has a Nag Hammadi Seminar running at Concordia University. It is by invitation only, but there is a public lecture coming up in February 2014.

Did Eusebius write the Testimonium Flavianum?

THE JESUS BLOG: The Testimonium Flavianum, Eusebius, and Consensus (Guest Post) - Olson.

In this guest post, Ken Olson offers us a brief look at his meticulous work on Josephus' reference to Jesus (famously titled the Testimonium Flavianium). We at the Jesus Blog are grateful to have him respond to the recent discussions of this passage in more popular treatments. -anthony

Earlier PaleoJudaica posts pertaining to the Testimonium Flavianum are here, here, here, here, and here. And there's a bit more on Ken Olson and his doctoral work on the Testimonium (which was done at Birmingham and Duke under Mark Goodacre) here.

American Jews and Cutheans?

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Are American Jews Creating a New Jewishness, or Just Abandoning the Real Kind? Most American Jews have effectively cast off rabbinic guidance. Would the Talmud’s rabbis have respected us for it, or disdained us? The column concludes:

All this made me wonder, as I have many times before in reading the Talmud, what the rabbis would make of the situation of American Jewry today. No one can say that America lacks rabbis to point out the correct halakhah, as the Jews of Kabul did. But the vast majority of Jews—unaffiliated, Reform, and even Conservative—have effectively cast off rabbinic guidance and have decided to invent their own Jewish customs. Some keep kosher at home but eat in non-kosher restaurants; some attend Shabbat services, but get there by driving to synagogue. The compromises of American Jewish life are legion.

Would these customs earn the rabbis’ respect, since they are the established practice of the majority? Or would we seem to them like Cutheans, who have lost the knowledge of the law and need to be treated with extra strictness? If, as I suspect, it’s the latter, perhaps we could respond, as the Cutheans would have, that our Jewishness is not a defective version of the rabbis’ but an original creation with its own integrity. But then the rabbis could point out that the Cutheans have all but disappeared, along with the Karaites and all the other Jewish schismatic sects, while rabbinic Judaism remains. It’s impossible to read the Talmud as a modern American Jew, especially a secular one like me, and not wonder whether that argument trumps all the rest.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Biblical Studies Carnival

THE JULY 2013 BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL has been published this month by Jim West.

The Qurʿan and the Syriac Bible

SYRIAC WATCH: Emran El-Badawi and Gabriel Said Reynolds have a Focus On essay on The Qurʿan and the Syriac Bible at the Oxford Islamic Studies Online website.

Cook on Aslan

ED COOK: Reza Aslan's "Zealot": Poor. That's pretty much what I'm hearing from biblical scholars.

Background here.

BNTC and blogging

THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE is meeting in St Andrews at the end of the month, as regular readers are aware, and much of my time will be taken up by preparations for it. This means that blogging is likely to be lighter than usual for the rest of August. I will blog as much as I can, but probably not as much as I would like.

Conference on Jeremiah's Scriptures

CONFERENCE:

Jeremiah’s Scriptures: Production, Reception, Interaction, Transformation
Jer 2,1-2
International Conference June 22-26, 2014

Centro Stefano Franscini on the Monte Verità

The conference on "Jeremiah’s Scriptures: Production, Reception, Interaction, and Transformation" aspires to engage recent and current scholarship that has advanced source redaction, and literary criticism of Jeremiah and related Baruch and Jeremianic traditions in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature.

There are vital traditions about Jeremiah within, but also outside of the book that his name and engage in texts linked to his name. Accordingly, the conference will take into account the history of recension and the growth of tradition – biblical and para-biblical – as aspects of the expansion of the earlier sources within and beyond the book of Jeremiah. Thus, our proposed conference and volume of proceedings include a discussion of the literary growth of the book of Jeremiah, but not in a way that is limited to the study of that biblical book alone. The texts that play a role in the development of traditions connected to the figures of Jeremiah and Baruch, taken together, constitute what we call “Jeremiah’s Scriptures.”

The invited speakers include scholars of Biblical Studies, Ancient Judaism, and Dead Sea Scrolls from the U.S., Canada, Israel, Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Austria.

Location

The conference will take at the Centro Stefano Franscini on the Monte Verità (Ascona near Locarno, Switzerland).

Follow the link for registration information etc.

(HT Hindy Najman, one of the organizers.)

Byzantine-Era Samaritan site excavated

I LOVE GARBAGE PITS: Herzliya Byzantine-era find sheds light on ancient Samaritans’ lives (Sammy Hughs, Jerusalem Post). Excerpt:

The group is focusing on excavating refuse pits, essentially the town dumps used by the Samaritan community during the sixth and seventh centuries CE, Tal told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

Findings thus far in the main pit at the site include 400 Byzantine coins, 200 Samaritan lamps, an ancient ring and gold jewelry.

Tal said many of these findings could be significant because they included items that were discarded unused.

“Among these findings we have many intact oil lamps.

Some of them are even still sealed,” he said.

“This is very fascinating...

You don’t expect them to be found in dumps and refuse, because they need to be used and they need to be sold,” he said.

“Our understanding is that there is some sort of probable cultic aspect of intentionally discarding usable and intact vessels among the Samaritan community that inhabited Apollonia in the late Byzantine period.”

There are cool photos of the octagonal ring, which is inscribed with the name of God.

Also see: Byzantine Coins and Gold Found in Garbage Pit (Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery.com).

Doctoral post in Finland

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI: Job opening for a doctoral student

Job announcement for a doctoral student in the REECR project now published!

The length of the appointment is 3-4 years, beginning on 1.1.2014 at the latest. The appointed doctoral student will be situated at the Faculty of Theology, and will enter into an employment relationship with the University of Helsinki.

The dissertation project will be carried out as part of the collective research project “Ritual and the Emergence of Early Christian Religion: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis (REECR),” funded by the Academy of Finland and directed by Risto Uro. The doctoral student will be part of an interdisciplinary team, consisting of a director of research (Risto Uro), who will also serve as the doctoral student’s supervisor, and of postdoctoral researchers, along with an international group of external advisors and collaborators. The project’s working language is English. In addition to completing the dissertation work, the doctoral student will contribute to some extent to teaching and other academic activities, as determined by the Faculty.

The appointee should hold a Master’s degree in Theology, Religious Studies or a related field (or the degree will be completed by December 2013 at the latest), and should show competence in studying the New Testament and early Christian sources. The applicant should propose a dissertation project related to the theme and methodology of the REECR research project, and should be prepared to adapt it according to the aims and objectives of the REECR project and to the allocation of work in the research team. To successfully attend to the duties of the position, the appointee should have good English skills.

Follow the link for more information.

The Talmud and Israeli culture

THE TALMUD BLOG: “What does the Talmud Have to Offer Israeli Culture?” Yair Lipshitz and Moulie Vidas in Conversation on the Value of Talmud Study, the Beginnings of Talmudic Culture, and the Talmud’s Role in Israeli Society.

Job and his wife in Syriac

ADAM MCCOLLUM: A Syriac fragment on Job and his wife: Text and translation.

Hbd to me

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! I'm taking the day off and going to Edinburgh, but I'll leave you a couple of things before I go.

Coin find in Bethsaida

RECENTLY EXCAVATED: The ancient coin of Cleopatra: There could have been pyramids in Paris. Found in an archaeological dig in Bethsaida, this rare bronze coin tells of love, trade ties and globe-shaking jealousies. And what if Marc Antony had won the war? (Miriam Feinberg Vamosh, Haaretz). Excerpt:

A few thousand years is a mere blink of an eye when it comes to the vital ties between this land and Egypt, as attested by a rare coin carrying historical weight far greater than its 7.59 grams, which depicts the notorious lovers – and which emerged last year from the ruins of a first-century house at Tel Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee.

Tel Bethsaida rises from the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee, but the coin was minted in another city by another sea – the Mediterranean port of Akko - today better known as Acre. The coin, made of bronze, is about the size of a quarter, being 21–23 millimeters in diameter (it is not perfectly round, at least not any more). Its date shows that it was minted in the last half of the year 35 or the first half of 34 BCE.

Mark Antony, the most powerful man in the world at the time, is on one side of the coin and Cleopatra graces the other. On her side are the Greek words “of the people of Ptolemais.”

The article also indulges in a little counterfactual history:

Had Antony not lost the battle of Actium in 31 BCE, there might have been a dramatic change in the history of the Western civilization, [Prof. Rami] Arav says.

“We can only imagine what could have happened to Western civilization if the capital of the empire was not Rome, but Alexandria," Arav says. "Until Augustus turned it ‘from a mudbrick city to marble’ Rome was a very unimpressive town. It could have remained an unimportant city on an insignificant peninsula of Italy, way in the west, where according to the Greeks, demons and giants lived.”

When pressed to imagine what could indeed have happened, Arav, says: “I am not sure that we would be worshipping cats today or building pyramids, but Greek could have been much more important than it was and perhaps the rise of Europe in the 15th century would not have happened. Who knows?”

I thought the West was worshipping cats today, at least judging from the Internet. And as for pyramids in Paris, the headline writer needs to visit the Louvre, or at least rent a DVD of The Da Vinci Code.

Freyne obit

OBITUARY FOR SEAN FREYNE IN THE IRISH TIMES: Eminent theologian Seán Freyne dies.

Background here.

Talmudic philology, the Tower of London, and NT background

THIS WEEKS DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: How the Talmud Has Bridged the Gaps Between Various Jewish Cultures for Ages: By imbuing even the most mundane things—like vinegar—with importance, the rabbis find proof of sacred history. Excerpt:

There is, then, a great gulf of time and space, a historical rupture, inscribed within the Talmud itself. The Amoraim are often reduced to guesswork when they try to figure out the Mishnah’s exact meaning and, still more often, its exact authorship. They are constantly asking which Tanna held which opinion, and why, and how you can tell. Frequently, they have to deduce what a given Tanna thought by analogy: If he said X regarding one subject, he must have said Y regarding another. At least as much energy is devoted to these questions as to the substance of the laws themselves.

Sometimes, as we saw in the Daf Yomi reading this week, the loss of knowledge is still more profound, when the very meanings of words used in the Mishnah are forgotten. In Pesachim 39a, for instance, the Mishnah lists the species of vegetables that can be used to make maror, the bitter herbs eaten on Passover: chazeret, tamcha, charchavina, ulshin. But these names conveyed nothing to the Aramaic-speaking rabbis of the Gemara, who had to translate them into their own language: chasa, hindvei, tamachta.

And the chain of translation doesn’t end there. Over the next 500 years, the meaning of these plant names was lost again, and so Rashi, commenting on the Talmud in the 11th century, had to try to figure out their French equivalents: hindvei, in old French, was krespelah. And in the last thousand years, krespelah itself was forgotten, so now we English-speakers have to guess at what Rashi was talking about. According to the Schottenstein Talmud, it is probably what we call endive, or possibly escarole.

Philologists today spend their time trying to understand the meaning of ancient texts like the Talmud, the meaning of whose vocabulary and grammar has often been forgotten over the centuries.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

And on a somewhat related note: Reading the Talmud in the Tower of London (Stephen Grosby, Library of Law and Liberty; via Jacob L. Wright on Facebook).

On March 4, 1629, John Selden, the most learned man in England, was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He had been arrested on charges of conspiracy and sedition against King Charles I. The question is: what did Selden choose to read while imprisoned?

You have to read for a while to reach the answer, but it's there already in the title.

The question can no longer be put off. What did Selden study while imprisoned in the Tower of London? The answer to our question is: the Babylonian Talmud.

Now, a different question arises: Why did he do so? ...

Basically the answer is for New Testament background. Now Professor Grosby at this point gives the somewhat misleading impression that New Testament scholars still draw on the Talmud for NT background. In fact, they stay away from (or at least they should stay away from) the Gemara, which consists mostly of traditions attributed to the much later Amoraim. The Mishnah consists of traditions attributed to the Tannaim, who lived from the first to the third centuries CE. The earliest layers of this material are potentially relevant to the New Testament, but great care must be taken to establish the date of these traditions not only on the basis of attribution to the earlier rabbis (which is unreliable), but also on the basis of the stratigraphic relationship with older traditions in the Mishnah. It's complicated.

All that said, I can totally relate to Selden. I hope I never end up locked in the Tower of London, but in the unlikely event that I do, I will probably take similar reading material with me.

More on those DSS fragments for sale

STILL ON SALE: American Evangelical Collectors Buy Up Dead Sea Scroll Fragments (Daniel Estrin, PRI's The World). Excerpt:

But there’s a handful of fragments that Israel doesn’t have. The source is William Kando, whose father, Khalil, a Palestinian Christian, became the main dealer of Dead Sea Scrolls after Bedouin Arabs first found them in the late 1940s.

But he held onto one important scroll. In 1967, Israel detained William’s father, and he confessed he’d hidden it: the longest Dead Sea Scroll ever discovered.

“My father (kept) it at home, in a very good condition,” Kando said. It was stored in a shoe box under a floor tile in his bedroom.

Israel bought the scroll from him. But he had more scroll fragments hidden throughout the house. Kando says his father put them in a safe deposit box in Switzerland.

When Kando’s father died in 1993, his children inherited the collection. Very quietly, they began to sell.

Kando has kept the rest of this story quiet. He has approached manuscript dealers in the US, including Lee Biondi in California

Lots of background here. Also Loren Stuckenbruck tells me that there is an Aramaic manuscript of the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36) currently in Switzerland (I don't know if it is one of Kando's), the asking price for which is I-don't-remember-how-many-million dollars. I also don't know if the latter has any connection with the 1 Enoch manuscript mentioned in this post.

Sean Freyne R.I.P.

SAD NEWS: I hear from Benjamin Wold on Facebook that Professor Sean Freyne died yesterday. He taught at the School of Religions and Theology, University of Dublin, Trinity College, and was known particularly for his research on the ancient Galilee and on the Historical Jesus. Requiescat in pace.

UPDATE: Larry Hurtado has more here.

Secunda, The Iranian Talmud

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS:

The Iranian Talmud
Reading the Bavli in Its Sasanian Context
Shai Secunda

272 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth Nov 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4570-7 | $55.00s | £36.00 | Add to cart
Ebook Nov 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-0904-4 | $55.00s | £36.00 | About | Add to cart
A volume in the Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion series
View table of contents and excerpt

"Shai Secunda not only persuades his readers of the need for contextual study of the Bavli but also facilitates such study by educating them about the religious and ethnic communities of the Sasanian empire, the forms of literary and nonliterary evidence available, and appropriate methodological and theoretical approaches to the comparative study of Talmudic and Middle Persian literature. The Iranian Talmud will be the first sustained attempt both to demystify the project of Irano-Talmudic research and to provide a basic orientation to it."—Christine Hayes, Yale University

Although the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, has been a text central and vital to the Jewish canon since the Middle Ages, the context in which it was produced has been poorly understood. Delving deep into Sasanian material culture and literary remains, Shai Secunda pieces together the dynamic world of late antique Iran, providing an unprecedented and accessible overview of the world that shaped the Bavli.

Secunda unites the fields of Talmudic scholarship with Old Iranian studies to enable a fresh look at the heterogeneous religious and ethnic communities of pre-Islamic Iran. He analyzes the intercultural dynamics between the Jews and their Persian Zoroastrian neighbors, exploring the complex processes and modes of discourse through which these groups came into contact and considering the ways in which rabbis and Zoroastrian priests perceived one another. Placing the Bavli and examples of Middle Persian literature side by side, the Zoroastrian traces in the former and the discursive and Talmudic qualities of the latter become evident. The Iranian Talmud introduces a substantial and essential shift in the field, setting the stage for further Irano-Talmudic research.

Shai Secunda is a scholar at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and coeditor of Shoshannat Yaakov: Jewish and Iranian Studies in Honor of Yaakov Elman (with Steven Fine).

The book also has a website here.

LXX varia

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Announcing the Septuagint Studies Soirée.

Also:

The triennial meeting of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament is happening right now in Munich (4-9 August). A meeting of The International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies took place in Munich on 1-3 August, where the meeting of the International Organization of Targumic Studies is also about to start.

T. Michael Law is interviewed at First Things about his book When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible. (UPDATE: It seems that there is a blog tour of the book.)

Nijay Gupta: The Importance of the Septuagint (Even for Pastors…) Part 1 and The Importance of the Septuagint (The Apocrypha) Part II. Also, Deissmann’s Passion for the Septuagint!

Reza Aslan

THE NOW INFAMOUS INTERVIEW of Reza Aslan by Fox News presenter Lauren Green has had the Biblioblogosphere all abuzz for the last couple of weeks. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is:



I've been following the story, but haven't had time until now to post on it. Briefly, Professor Aslan has published a book on the Historical Jesus. Ms. Green handles the interview badly by belaboring the fact that he is a Muslim and wondering why a Muslim should have any interest in Jesus. Professor Aslan gets the better of the interview overall, but he in turn embarrassingly belabors his own credentials (if you need to mention more than once that you have a Ph.D., you've lost the frame) and makes claims about their relevance to the subject matter of the book which have not gone undisputed.

I have not read the book, but such reviews as I have seen indicate that it says nothing new or particularly interesting, covering well-traveled ground and reaching conclusions that are somewhere between debatable and outdated. To be fair, it is exceedingly difficult these days to write a book about the Historical Jesus which doesn't share these flaws. The ground is simply too well covered by experts already and our very limited sources simply cannot tell us much more about Jesus than they already have.

Here are links to reviews by novelist Naomi Alderman in The Forward: Separating Jesus the Man From the Myth and by (well-known to PaleoJudaica) literary critic Adam Kirsch: Jesus Was a Rebel and a Bandit. What Made Him Also the Christian Son of God? Aldeman's evaluation is very positive and Kirsch's positive but with qualifications. Of special interest are reviews by two biblical scholars: Greg Carey: Reza Aslan on Jesus: A Biblical Scholar Responds; and Anthony LeDonne: A Usually Happy Fellow Reviews Aslan’s Zealot – Le Donne. Both are highly critical and Le Donne's is brutal.

As for Professor Aslan's credentials as a biblical scholar, Matthew J. Franck has a detailed evaluation of his claims: Reza Aslan Misrepresents His Scholarly Credentials. In Did Reza Aslan Lie about His Credentials? - Le Donne Anthony LeDonne regards Franck's post to be "motivated by religious distrust" and indirectly rebuts part of it in the discussion that follows. In what follows he quotes some criticisms from Stephen Prothero on Facebook and a defense from the supervisor of Aslan's dissertation, Mark Juergensmeyer, and then concludes that indeed some of Aslan's claims in the interview are problematical:

What Prothero says about his expertise in NT Studies still stands. I have now read the book and I can say (without question) that Zealot is not written by an author conversant with the field of NT studies or Second Temple Judaism more generally. More on this point in the coming days.

As to the credentials issue, where Aslan might be in the biggest danger of falsehood is in his claim to be a teacher of religious studies, or that he does this "for a living". He is not a religious studies instructor in the traditional sense of that title. A colleague of his from Riverside has confirmed this for me.

No doubt, he overplayed his credentials, but there is a difference between setting the record right and tearing a colleague to shreds.

Buzzfeed also collects some of Professor Aslan's more acerbic tweets: Author Attacked By Fox News Is Actually Kind Of A Jerk On Twitter (strong language warning). I realize that the tweets are doubtless selected from a much larger output, but still. Call me old fashioned, but I think this kind of rhetoric fails to show scholarly dignity. But here's an interview with the Boston Globe in which he speaks in a more scholarly mode.

There is much more in the blogosphere about the whole episode and about Professor Aslan's book. Returning to the issue that started the whole episode, I can say with confidence that having Muslim scholars do original work in New Testament studies is something most New Testament specialists would welcome. There was a time in the early 90s when it was PC to think that only those "within the tradition" should publish scholarly work in any given area of religious studies. I thought then and still think that this idea is unhelpful and corrosive. Muslim scholars should publish on Christianity, Christian scholars on Judaism, and Jewish scholars on Islam. And fill in all the rest of the permutations. And, of course, add agnostics, atheists, etc. In the first place, we as historians and historians of religion are all following the same scholarly approach, which at least aims for objectivity in its results, so there is scope for considerable agreement. In the second place, scholars coming out of different religious traditions will start with somewhat different assumptions, interests, and focuses, and are likely to see avenues worth following up which those "within the tradition" or from other traditions might miss, even though the latter would recognize the importance of those avenues once pointed out.

If this little episode causes us to think in a constructive way about what we are doing as scholars and how each of us can contribute, some good will have come of it.

UPDATE: The story has now found its way into the New York Times: Return of the Jesus Wars (Ross Douthat).

UPDATE (6 August): The book is reviewed in the NYT by Dale B. Martin: Still a Firebrand, 2,000 Years Later: ‘Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth’. The review concludes:

By profession, Mr. Aslan is not a scholar of ancient Judaism or Christianity. He teaches creative writing. And he is a good writer. “Zealot” is not innovative or original scholarship, but it makes an entertaining read. It is also a serious presentation of one plausible portrait of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

UPDATE: Another review, by Charlotte Allen in the L.A. Times: Reza Aslan's 'new' take on Jesus: The controversy over his book about Jesus' life misses the point.

Ancient Jewish village found in the Galilee

EXCAVATION: Samford Archaeological Dig in Israel uncovers Jewish village (Greg Garrison, Al.com).

The remains include an ancient synagogue, houses and massive evidence of pottery production in the ancient Jewish village of Shikhin, near the ancient Jewish city of Sepphoris (Zippori). The site is important because it teaches about Galilean Jewish village life and its economy at the birth of both Christianity and the Judaism of the Talmud, according to [excavator] Dr. [James Riley] Strange. The sites are about five miles northwest of Nazareth.

“The site of the discovery has been abandoned, except for agriculture, ever since the mid-fourth century A.D.,” said Strange. “The buildings came down and people used its stones in other nearby buildings, then those buildings were destroyed and the stones were re-used again.”

Mosaics at Tzippori

MORE ON MOSAICS IN ISRAEL: In bits and pieces: Mosaic splendor at Tzippori: From the Akeda to ‘Mona Lisa of the Galilee,’ the wine drinking contest of Heracles and Dionysus, and the angels telling Sarah and Abraham of their impending parenthod, Tzippori is a wealth of ancient art (Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am, Times of Israel).

Earlier posts on Tzippori/Zippori/Sepphoris are collected here. And there's lots more on mosaics in Israel here.

Lim, The Formation of the Jewish Canon

FORTHCOMING BOOK: Timothy H. Lim, The Formation of the Jewish Canon (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library; Yale University Press, October 2013).

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provides unprecedented insight into the nature of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament before its fixation. Timothy Lim here presents a complete account of the formation of the canon in Ancient Judaism from the emergence of the Torah in the Persian period to the final acceptance of the list of twenty-two/twenty-four books in the Rabbinic period.

Using the Hebrew Bible, the Scrolls, the Apocrypha, the Letter of Aristeas, the writings of Philo, Josephus, the New Testament, and Rabbinic literature as primary evidence he argues that throughout the post-exilic period up to around 100 CE there was not one official “canon” accepted by all Jews; rather, there existed a plurality of collections of scriptures that were authoritative for different communities. Examining the literary sources and historical circumstances that led to the emergence of authoritative scriptures in ancient Judaism, Lim proposes a theory of the majority canon that posits that the Pharisaic canon became the canon of Rabbinic Judaism in the centuries after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.

Why blog, indeed?

MARK GOODACRE has a recent series of posts on academic blogging. PaleoJudaica comes up repeatedly with much praise. Thanks Mark!

Why blog?

Academic blogging: When and Why?

Academic Blogging: What are the benefits?

Megatron, Metatron, whatever.

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: Megatron & Metatron (& Supernatural & Star Wars & Voltron) (Photos) (Mariano Grinbank, The Examiner).

The information about the Enoch and Metatron mythology is pretty accurate, although Metatron appears only in 3 Enoch, not 1 Enoch or 2 Enoch.

For Metatron in Supernatural, see here.

Lucid dreaming of angels

EXPLANATION: Biblical visions of angels may have actually been lucid dreams: Fifteen patients in an experiment reported experiencing a lucid dream state and encountering angels during that time. (Live Science, via Mother Nature Network*).

Sleep researchers say they have established that many of the visions of angels and other religious encounters described in the Bible were likely "the products of spontaneous lucid dreams."

In a sleep study by the Out-Of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles, 30 volunteers were instructed to perform a series of mental steps upon waking up or becoming lucid during the night that might lead them to have out-of-body experiences culminating in perceived encounters with an angel. Half of them succeeded, the researchers said.

Specifically, the volunteers were told to try to re-create the story of Elijah, a prophet who is referenced in the Talmud, the Bible and the Quran. In one of the stories in the Bible's Book of Kings, Elijah flees to the wilderness and falls asleep under a juniper tree, exhausted and prepared to die. Suddenly an angel shakes him awake and tells him to eat. He looks around and, to his surprise, sees a loaf of bread baked on some coals and a jug of water. Elijah eats the meal and goes back to sleep. Lead researcher Michael Raduga said this event was chosen from among a multitude of biblical passages involving religious visions during the night, because, "in terms of verifiable results, angels were the ideal choice, as Western culture provides a relatively well-established image for them (wings, white robes, halos, etc.)."

The research, which has not been reviewed by peers for scientific publication, does garner support from some dreams researchers who were not involved in Raduga's study. They said the findings support further inquiry into the basis of such religious visions. One dream expert, however, pointed out that many religious tales of angelic encounters occurred in daytime, which suggests they could not have been dreams.

[...]

Because evidently that expert was unfamiliar with the concept of the "afternoon nap."

Seriously, although this project—as the article forthrightly admits—was not peer reviewed and doesn't have any clear scientific validity, it does offer some anectodal support to the idea that various types of altered states of consciousness, especially when properly prepped by the active imagination, can result in visions of angels. I think it is likely that this sort of thing is behind some of the ancient biblical, apocalyptic, and mystical accounts of supernatural visions. More on that here, here, and here.

*Published originally in December of 2011. Don't know how I missed it.

Ghost of an ancient "friendship" tablet?

THIS ANCIENT BRONZE TABLET may have existed after all: Israeli Historian Proves Roman-Jewish 'Friendship' Tablet: Tablet turns the world of historical research upside down; cites ancient Jewish warrior "Judah Maccabee" (Hana Levi Julian, Arutz Sheva). Excerpt:

The article authored by Dr. Linda Zollschan, which appears in Classica Et Mediaevalia, the Danish Journal of Philology and History, Volume 63, proves a long-gone bronze tablet displaying ‘friendship’ between Rome and Israel’s Jews did indeed exist. The research has overturned previous assertions to the contrary.

Ancient writers – Josephus, Justinus and Eusebius – have all made reference to the fact that the Jews received “friendship” (a technical term for diplomatic ties, just below formal diplomatic relations) from the Romans. Memory of this event was preserved through oral and written tradition into the Middle Ages on a bronze tablet that once hung in the Church of San Basilio in Rome, says Zollschan in her article.

“The bronze tablet had been well known, for it was remembered after it had disappeared from sight and given attention in the Mirabilia, a guidebook which had wide currency and was still being reprinted and used into the sixteenth century,” Zollschan explains.

“The tablet was singled out for attention because of its mention of Judas Maccabaeus who was held in high regard in the Middle Ages. The story of the Maccabaean revolt against the Seleucid king served as an allegory of the battles of the Church against its enemies. The success of the Jews with G-d’s help was also considered an uplifting exemplar of military leadership and later (during the Crusades) as the defender of Jerusalem.”

That it was inscribed on bronze defines it as an inscription that had significance in its own right, and that it was not used as building material, as were so many stone inscriptions, she adds. Its text, which contained mention of Judas Maccabeaeus — Judah Maccabee – gave it a religious significance, reminding the viewer of Judah the warrior, aided by G-d, who succeeded against overwhelming odds in his battle against the Syrian Seleucid army.

Till now, most historians in the field have believed the tablet – which has not been seen in centuries – was only a myth confused with one inscribed in stone.

“There are several indicators to be considered that speak for the tablet’s authenticity,” Zollschan argues in her article.

The rhetoric in the Arutz Sheva article is, frankly, embarrassing. The world of historical research has not been turned upside done or even joggled. I haven't read the Danish article and I know better than to judge it on the basis of a summary in a popular article like this, but the case here certainly doesn't constitute "proof." It is a very interesting argument, though. Against it is that the artifact, if it ever existed, is now lost, and fabricated ancient relics are hardly a rarity in Rome. In its favor are some elements of the description of the artifact that could point to it having been real and genuinely ancient.

Last day to register for BNTC 2013!

REGISTRATION FOR THE 2013 MEETING OF THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE in St. Andrews (29-31 August) at the standard rate is still open and you can book online here. Registration closes TODAY, so this is your last chance!

Job in postbiblical Judaism

JOB AT MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY: Assistant Professor of Religious Studies.

The Department of Religious Studies anticipates an August 2014 opening for an assistant professor specializing in post-biblical Judaism, tenure eligible. The department is particularly interested in scholars of rabbinic, medieval, or early modern Judaism, whose research interests engage fields such as classical texts and/or biblical commentary, gender studies, or interreligious encounter. The successful candidate will teach undergraduate and M.A. courses in Judaism and will regularly teach one of the department’s survey courses. The candidate is expected to pursue an active research agenda and provide service to the department, college, and university.

Further particulars and application information are at the link.

Via Leslie Baynes on Facebook.