Postgraduate study at the University of British Columbia

FROM PROF. GREGG E. GARDNER:

Located in Vancouver, British Columbia - the 3rd best city in the world in which to live (Global Liveability Ranking – 2013), - the Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia offers students the unique opportunity to conduct graduate level research in the classical texts, archaeology, and history of the entire Mediterranean world.

In our department, students can take a spectrum of courses from Roman and Greek archaeology, literature and history to Near Eastern languages (we offer Coptic and Akkadian as well as Hieroglyphs) to Christianity, Islam and Judaism. We are a student-centred department which seeks to enrich and nourish all of our MA and PhD students as a deeply held principle.

CNERS offers MA-level programs in

Classics
Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology
Religious Studies
Ancient Culture, Religion and Ethnicity (a unique MA-level interdisciplinary program that draws on the unique synergy of our department’s faculty)

There are two programs at the PhD level:

PhD in Classics (with possible specializations in Classics, Ancient History and Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology)
PhD in Religious Studies

The department is looking for committed, self-motivated students and anticipates being able to offer up to four financial packages to well-qualified PhD applicants (with a completed MA) valued at approximately $25,000 per year for four years (contingent upon academic performance).

Typical support for incoming MA students is around $20,000 per year for two years (contingent upon academic performance).

In addition, there is money earmarked for student travel and research abroad. Funding is also available for qualified international students.

Recent PhD graduates are teaching in leading Canadian and international universities, and our MA students have gone on to study at outstanding universities such as McGill, Yale, UC-Berkeley, Stanford, and Oxford.

Our departmental website: http://cnrs.ubc.ca

Our graduate programs: http://cnrs.ubc.ca/for-graduates/graduate-programs/

We encourage students to contact our Director of Graduate Studies [ubccner-g-dgs@mail.ubc.ca] – or any of our faculty (all of whom are interested in supporting graduate students) with questions about our program, courses, and living in Vancouver.

The deadline for applications is December 15th for PhD programs and January 15th for MA programs.

To apply: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/apply-online

“Hot feces in torn date baskets in your mouth, witches.”

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN FROM ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Magical Thinking, Superstition, and Incantations in Jewish Oral Law. By elevating witches and demons to the level of gods, Talmudic rabbis diminished religious thought.

Kirsch's mind is kind of blown by finding this sort of thing in the Talmud, although he does his best to accommodate it:

The ease with which magic and witchcraft find a place in the Talmudic worldview is, to my mind, both illuminating and compromising. For it suggests that the Talmud’s general commitment to exact measurement and correct action—the need to find out exactly how to behave in order to please God, down to the order in which you put on your shoes in the morning—is itself a kind of magical thinking.

For the rabbis, Jews are the protagonists of a cosmic drama in which their every slightest action will be either rewarded or punished. There is something ennobling about this, but when the same kind of scrutiny is attributed not just to God but to demons and witches, it begins to seem oppressive and even absurd. What’s more, it impugns the authority of the rabbis themselves. If we have to listen to the Sages when they tell us about the 39 melachot of Shabbat, aren’t we just as bound to listen to them when they tell us that a “sorb tree that is close to the city contains no less than 60 demons?” And if they are wrong about the demons, mightn’t they also be wrong about the melachot?

Acceptance of the idea of the demonic (and angelic) supernatural is the norm for human societies and it is ours that is out of step with the rest of humanity. Not that we don't have good reason, but that supernatural idea does find a place for subterranean and often dark aspects of the human mind and gives them a coherent place in human society. There is a vast anthropological literature on this: off the top of my head, I. M. Lewis, Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1971), comes to mind as an old classic.

It's not as though these aspects of human consciousness can be ignored. They will get our attention one way or another and I am far from convinced that replacing the old supernatural paradigm with some widely used modern ones, notably Freudian Psychoanalysis, represents much of an advance. On the latter, see Karl Popper's critique, which can be found, for example, summarized by Bryan Magee in Popper (Modern Masters; London: Fontana, 1973), chapter 3.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Syriac Seminar at the University of Iowa

ROBERT CARGILL: Announcing Spring 2014 Seminar in Syriac at the University of Iowa. An exciting course that will include readings from the Syriac version of Joseph and Aseneth. The Syriac text is the earliest extant version of this work, although it is a translation from Greek. Bob's post has also reminded me of Mark Goodacre's excellent Aseneth Home Page.

Cross-file under "Syriac Watch" and "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch."

Underwater archaeology at Tel Dor

NEW MARITIME CIVILIZATIONS MA: Underwater archaeologists: Unlocking the mysteries of an age-old port. Who sailed from the harbor - or harbors - at Tel Dor? Haifa University students find clues on the Mediterranean floor (Alona Ferber, Haaretz). Excerpt:

It's cold. It's silent. It's murky. It's the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and it's the hangout of choice for students of maritime archaeology, seeking clues to the dawn of modern man. Or in the case of participants on Haifa University’s new English MA in Maritime Civilizations, signs of a harbor at the ancient site of Tel Dor.

The Tel Dor expedition, some 30 kilometers south of Haifa, is a collaboration between Dr. Assaf Yasur-Landau and Dr. Ayelet Gilboa of the University of Haifa, and Prof. Ilan Sharon of the Hebrew University. Students of the new English-language program, which started its second year this fall, take part in underwater surveys of Tel Dor mostly in shallow waters but also at depths of up to 10 meters of water.

The documented history of Tel Dor begins in the the 13th century BCE and continues through to the Crusader era. Excavators are seeking evidence of the location of a harbor or harbors at the site that are documented in written sources.

During the Roman and later Crusader periods the harbor seems to have been in the town's northern bay– but earlier, during the Iron Age, and perhaps even in the Bronze Age, it seems to have been located in Tel Dor’s south bay. Researchers still don’t know for sure why the harbor moved.

I was as an assistant square supervisor at Tel Dor back in the 1980s, but that work was strictly above ground.

Gold cuneiform tablet update

A MESSY CASE: Dispute over ancient gold tablet goes to US court (AP). The tablet was excavated by German archaeologists, looted from a German Museum in 1945, and bought by a Holocaust survivor. Now the museum wants it back, but the heirs of the late most recent owner want it to go to a Holocaust museum.

I have been following the case, which has had a number of twists and turns, for a while. Background here and links. There's a photograph here and more photos in this video from June 2012.

CSM on the Bible and archaeology

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR has a couple of interesting articles by Christa Case Bryant on the Hebrew Bible and archaeology, with emphasis on the current debate between the "minimalists" and the "maximalists" regarding the historicity of the United Monarchy (Saul-David-Solomon).

What archaeology tells us about the Bible
A contentious dig in Israel delves into the kingdoms of David and Solomon, stirring a debate over the veracity of the biblical record. Excerpt:

For the past 20 years, a battle has been waged with spades and scientific tracts over just how mighty David and the Israelites were. A string of archaeologists and Bible scholars, building on critical scholarship from the 1970s and '80s, has argued that David and his son Solomon were the product of a literary tradition that at best exaggerated their rule and perhaps fabricated their existence altogether.

For some, the finds at Qeiyafa have tilted the evidence against such skeptical views of the Bible. [Archaeologist Yosef] Garfinkel says his work here bolsters the argument for a regional government at the time of David – with fortified cities, central taxation, international trade, and distinct religious traditions in the Judean hills. He says it refutes the portrayal by other scholars of an agrarian society in which David was nothing more than a "Bedouin sheikh in a tent."

"Before us, there was no evidence of a kingdom of Judah in the 10th century [BC]," says Garfinkel. "And we have changed the picture."

But critics question his methods on the ground and his interpretations in scholarly journals.

The dispute transcends the simple meaning of ancient inscriptions found at Qeiyafa, or the accuracy of carbon-dating tests on olive pits. It highlights the whole dynamic between archaeology and the Bible – whether science can, in fact, help authenticate the Scriptures.

"If you are in the trenches of what's going on today, the battle for Qeiyafa looks very important," says Israel Finkelstein, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University and one of Garfinkel's most prominent critics. "But if you are zooming out, you see that all this is another phase in a very long battle for the question of the historicity of the biblical text, for understanding the nature of the Bible, for understanding the cultural meaning of the Bible."

More on the archaeology and inscriptions of Khirbet Qeiyafa is here with many links.

In Jerusalem, the politics of digging up the past
As a nexus of religions, and archaeology, Jerusalem inspires intense fights over moving even a single 'grain of dirt.' Excerpt:

While the debate over the extent of King David's realm has focused heavily on Khirbet Qeiyafa to the southwest, archaeological work in Jerusalem also offers evidence about David and the biblical record – but in an even more fraught environment. Gabriel Barkay, who has worked as an archaeologist in the city for decades, says that even moving a single "grain of dirt from one place to another is political."

"It is a boiling caldron, the stew of which is stirred up by so many spoons," says Dr. Barkay. He cites the Chief Rabbinate of Israel (the supreme spiritual authority for Jewish people in the country), the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, UNESCO, the city of Jerusalem, the Israeli Antiquities Authority, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and the Vatican.

"The Temple Mount is the soul, heart, and spirit of Jewish history ... [and of events] in Islamic periods, also in medieval periods, and up to our day," says Barkay. "It is a focal point in the understanding of what goes on here. And the Temple Mount is a black hole in the archaeology of Jerusalem. It was never, ever excavated."

So it's perhaps not surprising that he fought a prolonged battle to reclaim hundreds of truckloads of dirt that he calls "saturated with the history of Jerusalem." In 1999, Palestinians began removing the material from the Muslim-controlled Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, and dumping it in the Kidron Valley at night.

The Palestinians said they were simply trying to build an emergency exit at a mosque. But the dirt included material that archaeologists determined was from the First and Second Temple periods, vital to Jewish history, and the project expanded beyond what Israeli authorities were expecting. Five years later, Barkay managed to reclaim it and established the Temple Mount Sifting Project to find artifacts among the rubble.

Palestinian leaders have increasingly refrained from acknowledging the existence of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem – and some outright deny it. Meanwhile, those seeking to shore up the Jewish nation's ties to the city have largely ignored the legacy of centuries of Muslim presence as well as that of early ethnic groups such as the Canaanites, believed by some to be the ancestors of Palestinians.

More on the Temple Mount Sifting Project is here, again with many, many links. More on the Palestinian Authority and its Jewish Temple denial is, for example, here and here and links.

Boustan et al., Hekhalot Literature in Context

IN THE MAIL:

Ra'anan S. Boustan, Martha Himmelfarb, Peter Schafer (eds.), Hekhalot Literature in Context: Between Byzantium and Babylonia (TSAJ 153; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013)

A review copy from the Journal for the Study of Judaism.

More details here.

Iraqi Jewish Archive debate heats up

THIS IS BECOMING A CONTENTIOUS ISSUE: Plan to ‘return’ Jewish artifacts to Iraq sparks outrage (dan pine, JWeekly.com). Excerpt:

The United States agreed to return the materials to Iraq in 2014 in exchange for a promise that the Iraqi antiquities ministry would take good care of them.

But the Iraqi Jewish community in the United States is having no part of it.

In advance of the exhibition, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) and Jews Indigen-ous to the Middle East and Africa (JIMENA) have launched a campaign to prevent the archives from returning to Iraq where, they believe, the materials will either rot or be destroyed.

“The archives were looted by the Iraqi government from the Jewish community,” said Gina Waldman, executive dir-ector of the S.F.-based JIMENA. “We hope the U.S. government will bar the return of the archives to Iraq, and do everything possible to [reach] a mutually agreeable, fair and just agreement so that the Iraqis are encouraged to hand the archives to the rightful Jewish owners.”

Stanley Urman, executive vice president of JJAC, cites the legal principle “jus ex injuria non oritur,” which in international law means that a state cannot assert legal rights to property illegally obtained. “[The materials] were seized from Jewish institutions, schools and the community. There is no justification or logic in sending these Jewish archives back to Iraq, a place that has virtually no Jews, no interest in Jewish heritage and no accessibility to Jewish scholars.”

But others disagree. No word on whether the U.S. Government is taking any notice of the objections.

Background with, for what it's worth, my own commentary on the situation is here and links.

More on the York Christian Apocrypha Symposium

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE WOMAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN. She just makes everything work.

Sarah Veale: Behind the Ivory Curtain: Working on the York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. With links to symposium posts by organizer Tony Burke and by Mark Bilby. Student conference assistants are invaluable.

Background here and here and links.

Hurtado on "Covert Christianity"

WHAT HAVE THE ROMANS DONE FOR US? Now there's some guy saying they invented Jesus. Larry Hurtado replies: FlimFlam of the Month: “Covert Christianity.”

"Not our egomaniac"

HAARETZ: Archaeological stunner: Not Herod's Tomb after all?
While attention is focused on a blockbuster exhibition purporting to display the tomb of Herod the Great, two archaeologists claim there's no way the egomaniac king was interred there.

Now, two archaeologists, Prof. Joseph Patrich and Benjamin Arubas, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, are raising serious questions about the identification of the structure as the burial site of the king. They contend that there is no possibility that the mausoleum Netzer and his students uncovered could actually be the royal tomb in which Herod was interred after his death, in 4 B.C.E.

The structure is not in keeping with Herod’s other construction projects or his personality, they say.

“I feel like the boy in ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes,’” says Patrich. “It's so obvious that it is surprising people can’t see it.”

The pair presented their main reservations yesterday at the seventh annual “Innovations in Archaeology in Jerusalem and the Surrounding Area” conference, organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University.

There have always been doubts about the identification of the site as Herod's tomb, so it is not that much of a stunner. I have been putting caveats in my posts about the site for a long time, most recently here (leading to many links on the subject). But it is interesting to have archaeologists now actively offering a rebuttal.

UPDATE: Bad link now fixed. Sorry about that!

New blog on manuscripts

ASSIMILATED TO THE BLOGOSPHERE: Religion - Manuscripts - Media Culture (Liv Ingeborg Lied).

"I once promised myself that I would never start blogging."

Masada in the news

TWO ITEMS PERTAINING TO MASADA:

First:

An American in King Herod's Court

By ARIEL DAVID (NYT)
Published: October 9, 2013

MASADA, Israel — This ancient fortress, towering above the lunar landscape on the shores of the Dead Sea, is many things to many people: natural treasure, archaeological wonder, national icon. For Eitan Campbell, Masada is all that and more — it is home.

Mr. Campbell started working at the site when he was 17 and never left. Forty-one years later, he is the director, after holding almost every job available — including sitting at the cashier’s window and driving an ambulance for tourists felled by the desert heat.

[...]

Second: Dr. Jodi Magness to Present ‘Masada: Last Stronghold of the Jewish Resistance Against Rome.’ At the University of North Carolina, today.

Did Melchizedek go Green?

PHILIP JENKINS: THE GREEN MAN AND THE KING OF SALEM. Is al-Khidr in the Qur'an a late reflex of the patriarch Melchizedek? Maybe. I have argued for something similar in the Hekhalot traditions about the Youth. See my "Melchizedek, the Youth, and Jesus" in The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from a Conference at St. Andrews in 2001 (STDJ 46; Leiden: Brill, 2003) , 248-74.

More on the Syriac Manichaean fragments

ALIN SUCIU: Guest Post: Nils Arne Pedersen & John Møller Larsen – Syriac-Manichaean fragments.

Background here and here. Related post on non-Syriac Manichaean (Manichean) manuscripts here.

Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni

BOOK REVIEW: New fantasy novel draws on that old Jewish black magic.
When a female Golem from 19th century Poland and Jinni from Ancient Syria accidentally meet one another, all sorts of mayhem ensues (Renee Ghert-Zand, The Times of Israel).

I don't think golem creation would count as black magic, but I imagine the reviewer didn't write the headline. A couple of small excerpts:

Critics and the reading public alike have been captivated by Wecker’s creative narrative, which has two supernatural creatures from different historical eras and parts of the world arriving separately (the Golem by ship and the Jinni by copper flask) in New York in 1899. Eventually, the Golem from 19th century Poland and the Jinni from Ancient Syria accidentally meet one another. They bond and then separate after a terrifying incident, only to later reunite to fight a power bent on destroying them both.

While readers may be familiar with the mythic Golem of Jewish lore, a clay figure brought to life by Kabbalistic charms, it is unlikely they have ever encountered one quite like the one in this novel. This is because the Golem conjured by Wecker’s imagination is female, and her name is Chava.

[..]

Although her novel’s two protagonists are drawn from myth, the idea for “The Golem and the Jinni” stems from Wecker’s real life. The 38-year-old Jewish author is married to an American man of Syrian descent whom she met in college. However, while most of the characters in Little Syria are Christian, Wecker’s husband’s family is of Muslim background.

Earlier reviews noted here and link. And for many, many additional golem links, go here.

Rabbinic Shabbat dinner etiquette etc.

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: When the Rabbis Got Together for Shabbat Dinner, Drama—and Law—Ensued. In the Talmud, examples of real-life rabbinic behavior and the intensely personal nature of lawmaking.

Even so, most of this week’s reading managed to stay far away from the concrete details of Passover. The mishna on Pesachim 99b begins with a brief sentence about eating on the day of the Seder: “On the eve of Passover, adjacent to mincha time, a person may not eat until dark.” These few words are the springboard for eight full pages of Gemara, in which the rabbis talk primarily not about Passover at all, but about Shabbat. In the process, the text gives several examples of real-life rabbinic behavior, dramatizing the intensely personal nature of Talmudic lawmaking.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Brooten on ancient Jewish and Christian women

BERNADETTE BROOTEN INTERVIEWED: Documents from Dead Sea Scrolls era show diversity of women’s roles (BrandeisNow).

Related posts at my old Qumranica blog here and here.

"Methuselah" still going strong

THE DATE PALM grown from an ancient seed excavated at Masada is still alive and well: Ancient Date Palm Tree Flourishes Again (Popular Archaeology). Excerpt:

During excavations by the late Ehud Netzer in 1973 at the site of Herod the Great's fortified mountaintop palace at Masada in Israel, archeologists uncovered a cache of seeds stowed away in a clay jar about 2,000 years ago. For decades, the ancient seeds were stored in a drawer at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University. But in 2005, in collaboration with the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Center at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, botanical researcher Elaine Solowey received one of them for an experimental planting.

"When we asked if we could try and grow some of them, they said, 'You're mad,' but they gave us three seeds," she said. "Lotus seeds over 1,000 years old have been sprouted, and I realized that no one had done any similar work with dates, so why not give it our best shot -- and we were rewarded."*

Solowey planted a seed in a pot at Kibbutz Ketura in January, immediately after receiving them. Since then, it has sprouted into a seedling, produced its first blossom in 2011, and now flourishes as a young date palm. It has been nick-named "Methuselah", after the oldest person who ever lived, according to the biblical account.

Background here. Dr Solowey also recently had a similar success with growing the ancient Frankincense plant.

Dead Sea Scrolls concert

IN BOSTON: In the caves of Qumran, with electronics (Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe).

... In their day, the scroll texts were most likely chanted out loud, writes the Brandeis scholar Marc Brettler in a program note for Saturday’s Dinosaur Annex concert, though he conceded we don’t have any idea how that chanting might have sounded.

At a guess, probably not much like the modern electro-acoustic soundscapes created by Eric Chasalow for his new work, “Where It Finds Nothing But the Wind,” a setting of selections from the scroll texts that received its premiere on Saturday’s concert. Chasalow, a Brandeis-based composer, freely admits he came to the Scrolls with no previous knowledge about their origins or content. His work also makes no claim to any informed guesswork about the sound world of ancient liturgical traditions. Brettler, who assisted Chasalow on his project, pointed out in a preconcert lecture that even the pronunciation of the texts themselves is speculative since they predate the creation of the system of vowels that inform the speaking of Hebrew and Aramaic today.

So what we have in Chasalow’s new work is a purely contemporary fantasy on these texts, scored for soprano, percussion, guitar, flute, and electronics. The texts used here were culled by Chasalow from across the different scrolls, and include biblical passages, texts from the Qumran Psalms scroll, and even an extraordinary passage from the Book of Enoch that describes “the sons of the sky” siring a race of evil giants with the “daughters of men.” Chasalow’s musical response is an ever-shifting kaleidoscope that moves seamlessly from tonal music to abstract electronic noise and back. ...

The story of Enoch was also the subject of an opera earlier this year.

Background on the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at the Boston Museum of Science is here and links.

Iraqi Jewish achive latest

THEY WERE ALREADY STOLEN BEFORE THE AMERICANS GOT TO THEM: Iraqi Jewish Treasures Displayed in D.C. Before Being Shipped Back to … Iraq
In the chaos of the 2003 war, remnants of a once-thriving Jewish past were saved (or stolen?) by America. Where do they belong? (Lisa Leff, Tablet Mgazine).

In this sense, the exhibit sidesteps the question that has made the Iraqi Jewish archive such a hot topic in the Jewish press for the last 10 years: Should the United States honor its agreement to return these things to Iraq, or should they instead be sent to Israel, where most Iraqi Jews fled and many of their descendants still live? While international law may be clear—belligerent troops may not cart away the cultural treasures of a conquered nation—for many Jews, the law doesn’t seem to serve justice in this particular case.

On one level, this is a question of access. If these materials return to Iraq, it’s hard to imagine that Israeli scholars will be able to travel to Iraq to consult them. But this is a practical problem, to which American authorities are offering a technical solution. As part of the restoration process, NARA’s staff will be carefully digitizing every book and every document in the collection that cannot be found elsewhere. NARA’s Doris Hamburg promises that the rare materials will be made available for free on NARA’s website, and they will be word-searchable, with annotations by experts. Ironically, the massive digitization project that is intended to accompany the return of Jewish cultural treasures to Iraq will make the archive more widely and easily available to Jewish scholars from around the world than it would have been if NARA had kept the collection in Washington. Astoundingly, much of the Iraqi Jewish archive—once-secret trove hidden away by a police state, unknown and far from the public’s reach—is about to become one of the most easily accessible collections of Jewish materials in the world.

As the article makes clear, the Iraqi secret police confiscated the manuscripts after the Jewish owners were driven out of Iraq, which rather reduces the moral urgency of Iraq's claims to them.

Be that as it may, one question that is not raised in the article (and seems, as far as I can tell, not to be of much concern to international law), is where the archive will be safest and best cared for. I have been belaboring this concern with reference to this and related stories for a long time. It seems a shame that a political tug-of-war over who should get the archive overshadows that concern.

Background on the Iraqi Jewish archive is here with a decade's worth of links.

I am glad to hear about the digitization. For more such digitization projects, see the immediately preceding post and links.

Digitizing Hebrew manuscripts

INL AND PALATINA: Rare Hebrew manuscripts to go online
Israel's National Library signs agreement with leading Italian collection to digitize about 1,600 documents dating to Middle Ages, including one of oldest existing copies of Mishna (AP).

Much more on Hebrew and other manuscript digitization projects here and links.

DSS at Boston Museum of Science

ASOR BLOG: An Afternoon at the Museum – The Dead Sea Scrolls (Kaitlynn Anderson).

Background here and links.

Calaway on 1 Maccabees

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Does 1 Maccabees Critique the Hasmoneans? (Jared Calaway).

Shai Secunda interviewed

THE BOOK OF DOCTRINES AND OPINIONS: An Interview with Dr. Shai Secunda about The Iranian Talmud (Alan Brill).

Background here.

Dirk Smilde Scholarship

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Dirk Smilde Scholarship 2013-2014.

In addition to the Dirk Smilde Fellowship, the Qumran Institute of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies (University of Groningen) is delighted to present the Dirk Smilde Scholarship for excellent PhD students and postdocs in the fields of Hebrew Bible, early Judaism and Dead Sea Scrolls.

The scholarship amounts to € 1,000 a month. Regarding the duration of the scholarship, we offer a range between a minimum of three and a maximum of six months. This should start January 2014 at the earliest and end July 2014 at the latest.

Simultaneously, the 2013-2014 Dirk Smilde Fellow Prof. Dr. Steve Mason (University of Aberdeen) will also reside at the Qumran Institute of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies from January to May 2014.

The proposed research should fit within the Qumran Institute’s research theme “Cultural Encounters in the Ancient World”.

Awards are made on academic merit, evaluated by an academic committee.

The deadline is 31 October. Follow the link for application details. More on the Dirk Smilde Fellowship here.

Anxious Ezra varia

THE ANXIIOUS BENCH: FORGETTING EZRA. Philip Jenkins relates some interesting information on 2 Esdras/ 4 Ezra.

I have some old essays on the ancient Ezra literature posted at my Old Testament Pseudepigrapha website:
4 Ezra
The Apocalypse of Sedrach

The following are by Ted Bergren:
5 Ezra
5 Ezra translation
6 Ezra

Some past posts on PaleoJudaica are also relevant:

• Eagle Vision of 4 Ezra
  
• Enoch Seminar: Response to Najman
  
• Columbus, the size of the earth, and 4 Ezra
  
• Off to the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense (with a summary of my paper "Seven Theses Concerning the Use of Scripture in 4 Ezra and The Latin Vision of Ezra")
  
• SBL 2012. Includes background material for my paper The Ninety-four Books of Ezra and the Angelic Revelations of John Dee.
  
• The legend of the ten Lost Tribes

St. Andrews symposium on ancient readers and their scriptures

CALL FOR PAPERS: The St Andrews Symposium for Biblical and Early Christian Studies. The Symposium takes place on 2-3 June 2014 and the subject is Ancient Readers & Their Scriptures: The Texts, Reading Strategies, and the Versions of the Hebrew Bible in Second Temple and Early Judaism. Follow the link for information on submitting a paper proposal (deadline 1 February 2014).

Talmudic cosmology and the scientific method

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: We No Longer Live in the World of Talmudic Rabbis. What’s a Modern Jew to Do? In the Bible, the rabbis had the most accurate possible description of the world—a flawed and limited cosmology. Excerpt:

Just about every page of Talmud I read makes clear to me that the rabbis lived in a different world than we do. But this week’s Daf Yomi reading showed that this was true in the most literal sense: The world, for the rabbis, was not our planet Earth, a small blue planet orbiting the Sun in the vastness of empty space. To them, as to all educated people of their time, the Earth was the center of the universe, surrounded by a series of concentric spheres, the outermost of which was studded with stars. “The Jewish Sages,” according to Pesachim 94b, “say the celestial sphere is stationary, and the constellations revolve in their place within the sphere.” In this they differed from the Gentile sages, who “say the entire celestial sphere revolves, and the constellations are stationary within the sphere.”

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

Embodying the ancestors

SERVING THE WORD: "I am Adapa, Sage of Eridu" How and Why did Mesopotamian Exorcists Embody their Ancestors? A forthcoming paper by Seth Sanders. As Seth observes on Facebook, there is an interesting conversation to be had about the relationship between these Mesopotamian traditions and the much later (but still ancient) Jewish pseudepigrapha attributed to Enoch and others.

UPDATE (2 October): Jared Calaway comments with reference to the Greek Magical Papyri etc.

Mor Gabriel Monastery update

PROGRESS:

Turkey: Syriacs to regain Mor Gabriel’s land in ‘democratization package’
Tuesday 1 October 2013

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

The land of the historic Mor Gabriel Monastery will be returned to the Syriac community in Turkey as part of the “democratization package” announced by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today, while the package fell short of meeting the expectations that the Halki Seminary could be reopened.

[...]

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

York Symposium

THE YORK CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA SYMPOSIUM concluded on Saturday. The organizer, Tony Burke, promises a post mortem at his Apocryphicity blog, but meanwhile, there was lots of realtime commentary, often with photographs, at the #yorkca twitter feed.

A tale of stolen Torah scrolls

PHD DIVA: One Of Our Torahs Is Missing ... Two very old Samaritan Torah scrolls, in fact. Since 1995. Dorothy King has the story at the link.

Jesus the tweeter

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Was Jesus the first person to tweet? (Mark Goodacre).

Oldest Jewish prayer book?

PRESS RELEASE:

Green Scholars Discover World’s Oldest Jewish Prayer Book

840 C.E. Discovery from The Green Collection is Important Link between Time of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Medieval Judaism

OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 26, 2013—The Green Collection, one of the world’s largest collections of rare biblical texts and artifacts, announced today that it has identified what is likely the oldest Jewish prayer book ever found, dated by both scholars and Carbon-14 tests to circa 840 C.E. The artifact may well be the earliest connection today’s practicing Jews have to the roots of their modern-day rabbinic liturgy.

The complete parchment codex is in its original binding, containing Hebrew script so archaic that it incorporates Babylonian vowel pointing (akin to Old or Middle English for the English language). That vowel pointing has led researchers to place the prayer book in the times of the Geonim (Babylonian, Talmudic leaders during the Middle Ages).

“This find is historical evidence supporting the very fulcrum of Jewish religious life,” said Dr. Jerry Pattengale, executive director of the Green Scholars Initiative, the research arm of The Green Collection. “This Hebrew prayer book helps fill the gap between the Dead Sea Scrolls and other discoveries of Jewish texts from the ninth and 10th centuries.”

The announcement by The Green Collection comes just months after scholars in Italy identified the oldest-known Torah scroll from the 12th and 13th centuries; this Jewish prayer book dates some 300-400 years earlier.

Research on the prayer book—perhaps the Christian equivalent of a complete, early edition of the Book of Common Prayer—will be released in late 2014 or early 2015 by the Green Scholars Initiative in its upcoming Brill Series on Early Jewish Texts and Manuscripts edited by Pattengale and Dr. Emanuel Tov. The series will feature in-depth examination of some of the world’s oldest and most rare biblical texts, including portions from the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Ezekiel, Micah, Daniel and the Psalms.

Dr. Stephen Pfann, a senior scholar with the Green Scholars Initiative and president of The University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, along with his students participating in the research project, made the initial discovery among other items from The Green Collection.

“The public will have the opportunity to witness the prayer book, along with the findings from The Green Scholars Initiative’s initial round of research, at a new museum, expected to open in Washington in early spring 2017,” said Steve Green, president of the national arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby. Green oversees support for the collection on behalf of his family.

“The research conducted by Green scholars the world over will bring to light the contents of valuable early Jewish texts—from Dead Sea Scrolls and Cairo Genizah leaves to rare manuscripts still being identified,” said Pattengale.

About The Green Collection:

Called “a sampler of Jewish, Roman Catholic and Protestant treasures” that span from ancient times to the digital age (USA Today), The Green Collection is comprised of over 40,000 ancient texts and artifacts that have spanned the ages and together weave a story of history’s most tenacious book. Whether called ancient literature, a work of art or the living Word of God, no other book has persevered the ages, endured such turmoil, is as hated and beloved as the Bible.

One of the world’s largest private collections of biblical texts and artifacts, the collection is named after the Green family, owners of national arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby. The collection will be permanently located in a yet-to-be-named national Bible museum in Washington, D.C., that will illustrate how the Bible as we know it came to be, the impact the Scriptures have had on the world and the story told in history’s No. 1 best-seller.

This press release does not have a photo, but an article on the discovery in Christianity Today (sent to me by reader Ted Olsen, CT Managing Editor, News & Online Journalism) does.

This sounds like it could be an exciting discovery. As always, I would like to know more about the provenance of the artifact.

Much more on the Green Collection is here and follow the links. Also, for more on that oldest Torah scroll see here and links.

Abegg interview

LXXI: Interview with Martin G. Abegg on Electronic Dead Sea Scrolls

Shemeni Atzeret and Simchat Torah

HAPPY SHEMENI ATZERET AND SIMCHAT TORAH (Simhat Torah) to all those celebrating! The former began on the sunset of the 25th. In Israel, Simchat Torah was on the same day, but elsewhere it began on the evening of the 26th. More here.

A Jewish holiday for Cyrus?

COUNTERFACTUAL HISTORY: What if Cyrus had not freed the Jews? (Roger Price, Jewish Journal).

Yet if it is true that but for Cyrus there would be no Judaism and no Jews today, why is not more attention paid to him? The man was extolled in the Hebrew Bible by the well regarded prophet Deutero-Isaiah and the esteemed priest Ezra, and more recently by Israeli founder and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on the 2500 anniversary of the Cyrus Cylinder, but Cyrus is hardly remembered, much less honored , today in the Jewish community.

Part of the answer may be that the ancient sages did not want to attribute such momentous consequences to a mere mortal, preferring to see the return from exile and the rebuilding of the Temple as evidence of God’s intervention and grace. But then, how do you justify the inclusion of the Purim story in the canon and the celebration of that holiday? Jews of all stripes seem to love the fictional story set in Shushan in modern day Iran and the holiday that celebrates it, even though God is never mentioned. And who can resist? You get to wear costumes, eat some triangular cookies, drink a lot of wine and cheer as the pretty Jewish girl and her uncle save the Jews who were threatened with extinction. But, again, why is a true story of Jewish emancipation, set in a similar geographic locale, given no recognition? Sure, Cyrus was an emperor, not a paragon of modern democratic values, but the failure to designate a time to honor Cyrus is a serious omission in the Jewish calendar.

Lots more on Cyrus the Great and the Cyrus Cylinder here and links. Also, more on counterfactual history here and links.

The Talmud on the benefits of exile

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: In the Talmud, Jews in Exile Are Considered Defenseless Before Their Enemies. Daf Yomi: The one protection God granted the Jews was to scatter them, so that no single enemy could destroy them all at once.

Then the Amoraim perform a remarkable and moving feat of interpretation. If God loves Israel, they reason, then even when he punishes Israel he must manifest that love. The Exile cannot be all bad; it must have redeeming features, which prove that God had the welfare of his people in mind, even as he condemned them to dispersion. Indeed, Rabbi Oshaya says, the dispersion itself is a blessing in disguise. By scattering the Jews around the world, God made sure that their enemies could not exterminate them at one blow. Oshaya once argued this very point with a Roman: If the Romans had not managed to annihilate the Jews after so many years, it was not because they were well-disposed to the Jews, but “because you do not know how to do it.”

Plus advice on how to deal with a glutton.

Reed address at York symposium

TOMORROW: Keynote Address for 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium: Annette Yoshiko Reed.

Background here and links.

More Syriac Manichaeana

IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY: Some Syriac Manichean Treasures in the British Library.

HT Emmanouela Grypeou on Facebook. Recent related post here.

Anxious Enochiana

PHILIP JENKINS has been publishing many interesting posts recently over at The Anxious Bench. Here are a few about Enoch:

THE MYSTERY OF ENOCH. Excerpt:

1 Enoch in particular was enormously influential in its time. Generations of New Testament scholars have been intrigued by the book’s use of the “Son of Man” terminology, recalling Jesus’s own use of that phrase. For centuries, the book’s most intriguing section was the so-called Book of the Watchers, which described how the Sons of God descended to Earth to breed with human women, producing a range of bizarre and frightening monsters. 1 Enoch also gave scriptural foundation for the fascination with angels and archangels like Michael and Gabriel.

LOSING ENOCH. Excerpt:

Even so, and despite the condemnation of such ecclesiastical giants as Origen and Augustine, we can trace the influence of the Enochic books for centuries afterwards. That survival is a powerful commentary on the durability of texts, especially when they were read so widely across the very broad canvas of a transcontinental Christian world.

ENOCH ABIDES. Here he suggests that Grendel's name in Beowulf was inspired by the names of the watchers and giants in 1 Enoch. Maybe, but no giants are named in 1 Enoch, and they are the closest analogues with Grendel, although this may have been a fine distinction to our medieval clerical readers. Some version of the Book of Giants may also have been circulating in clerical circles (see the Book of Ogias the Giant, mentioned in the Gelasian Decree, noted here). But as far as I can recall, none of the giants named in the Book of Giants had an "-el" name.

Meyers, Rediscovering Eve

IN THE MAIL FROM OUP:

Carol Meyers, Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context (2012)

This groundbreaking study looks beyond biblical texts, which have had a powerful influence over our views of women's roles and worth, in order to reconstruct the typical everyday lives of women in ancient Israel. Carol Meyers argues that biblical sources alone do not give a true picture of ancient Israelite women because urban elite males wrote the vast majority of the scriptural texts. Also, the stories of women in the Bible concern exceptional individuals rather than ordinary Israelite women. Drawing on archaeological discoveries and ethnographic information as well as biblical texts, Meyers depicts Israelite women not as submissive chattel in an oppressive patriarchy, but rather as strong and significant actors within their families and in their communities. In so doing, she challenges the very notion of patriarchy as an appropriate designation for Israelite society.

Jon Ma on Hanukkah

REVISIONIST HISTORY: Re-Examining Hanukkah: John Ma deconstructs the Maccabean History (Marginalia).

For more on the Heliodorus inscription, see here and links.

Orlov, Heavenly Priesthood in the Apocalypse of Abraham

NEW BOOK:

Andrei A. Orlov, Heavenly Priesthood in the Apocalypse of Abraham (CUP, September 2013.

The Apocalypse of Abraham is a vital source for understanding both Jewish apocalypticism and mysticism. Written anonymously soon after the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple, the text envisions heaven as the true place of worship and depicts Abraham as an initiate of celestial priesthood. Andrei A. Orlov focuses on the central rite of the Abraham story - the scapegoat ritual that receives a striking eschatological reinterpretation in the text. He demonstrates that the development of the sacerdotal traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham, along with a cluster of Jewish mystical motifs, represents an important transition from Jewish apocalypticism to the symbols of early Jewish mysticism. In this way, Orlov offers unique insight into the complex world of the Jewish sacerdotal debates in the early centuries of the Common Era. The book will be of interest to scholars of early Judaism and Christianity, Old Testament studies, and Jewish mysticism and magic.

New early Manichaean fragments

SOME (SORT OF) NEW MANICHAEAN (MANICHEAN) FRAGMENTS IN SYRIAC have been recovered by Cambridge University: The Allberry fragments: Manichaean texts rediscovered.

The Allberry fragments contain portions of a Manichaean text, written in Syriac and in a form of Aramaic script often referred to as Manichaean script. Only a small number of such tiny fragments seem to be preserved worldwide. In fact Mani (c. 216-277 AD), the founder of the Manichaean world-religion, wrote his oeuvre in Syriac, but the huge Manichaean literature which in the 20th century has been found in Central Asia and Egypt, and which is of great interest for the history of religions, theology, and many philologies, is not in Syriac. Many scholarly efforts are invested in reconstructing the original Syriac terminology of Mani and the first Manichaeans.

These fragments pre-date, by a couple of centuries, the only other material written in this script, which are on incantation bowls from Mesopotamia, though there are a few other fragments of Proto-Manichaean in existence. These particular fragments appear to have come from the Manichaean communities in Egypt and represent the most western location for the spread of this Syriac font which originated in Mesopotamia.

Even though the fragments are small, this is an exciting discovery.

HT Adam McCollum on Facebook.

More on upcoming Christian Apocrypha Symposium at York University

APOCRYPHICITY: The Historical Jesus and the Christian Apocrypha Panel.

Background here and links.

Congratulations to Philip Esler

THE UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE: University announces new Portland Chair in New Testament Studies.

The University of Gloucestershire has announced the appointment of the eminent theologian, author and academic, Professor Philip Esler, to one of its most distinguished posts - the Portland Chair in New Testament Studies.

Dirk Smilde Fellowship at Groningen University

CONGRATULATIONS: Prof. Steve Mason receives first Dirk Smilde Fellowship.

Prof. Dr. Mladen Popović, director of the Qumran Institute of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, will award Prof. Dr. Steve Mason the inaugural Dirk Smilde Fellowship on 20 September 2013. The ceremony will take place in the Drents Museum in Assen, location of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition.

Prof. Steve Mason (University of Aberdeen)is the first Dirk Smilde Fellow to start in the academic year 2013-2014. He shall stay at the Qumran Institute from January through May 2014. Prof. Mason is a leading specialist on the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, the Jewish religion of the early Roman period, and Jewish cultural interactions with Greek and Roman culture. He is editor-in-chief of the first commentary series on Josephus (published by Brill, Leiden). His research focuses on the wider cultural and historical context of the world Josephus was living in. Prof. Mason’s research is a perfect match with the research of the Qumran Institute and the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

More on Professor Mason here and links.

DSS lecture at Kent State

ADOLFO ROITMAN, TONIGHT: Dead Sea Scrolls curator to speak at Kent State.

"we learned in the Mishnah that a bride turns her face"

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: When the Rabbis Do Things by the Book, They Give the Talmud Its ‘Talmudic’ Qualities. In this week’s Daf Yomi, deference, privilege, and the appearance of impropriety from the rabbis of ancient Jewish society.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Sukkot

THE FESTIVAL OF SUKKOT (BOOTHS, TABERNACLES) begins this evening at sundown. Best wishes to all those observing it.

And here's something from Philologos for the season: Why Sukkot Is a Harvest Holiday, Even Though There's Little To Harvest. Holiday Is Not the Best Time to Reap Grain.

News on the title of the Gospel of Matthew

BRICE C. JONES: Simon Gathercole on the Earliest Title of Matthew's Gospel on a Papyrus "Flyleaf." Cool.

Old Church Slavonic and modern politics

SLAVONIC WATCH: A tug-of-war over the origins of the Slavonic alphabet: Press 24: Cyril and Methodius are Bulgarians; Slavonic alphabet is Bulgarian – latest anti-Macedonian scandal in Brussels.

Background here and here and links.

PhD fellowship

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OSLO: PhD Research Fellowship in Early Christian Studies.

A full-time PhD research fellowship position in Early Christian Studies is available at The Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo. The position is attached to the ERC-project NEWCONT. Tentative starting date is 1st January 2014.

Job description

NEWCONT is an ERC-funded research project that focuses on the Coptic Nag Hammadi Codices in the context of Christianity and monasticism in the fourth and fifth centuries. It is a project that seeks to increase our knowledge of early Christianity and monasticism and the historical reception of the Bible. For further information on the NEWCONT-project, see the project's webpages.

The proposed PhD-project should be relevant to the NEWCONT-project, with which the successful applicant will be in close collaboration. Proposals focusing on the history and theology of Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries are especially welcome. The working language is English, and the PhD-dissertation should be written in English.

The appointment is for a period of 4 years. 75 percent of the position is allocated to the Candidate's research training, while 25 percent is allocated to required duties. The required duties comprise teaching, research assistance, etc.

The purpose of the PhD Research Fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a doctoral dissertation (monograph) to be defended at a public defense for the doctoral degree. The successful candidate will be automatically accepted to the research-training program (PhD-program) at the Faculty of Theology.

Follow the link for further particulars.

HT Liv Ingeborg Lied on Facebook.

Assistant Professor of Christian Near East

JOB AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA: Assistant Professor of Christian Near East.

The Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures in the School of Arts & Sciences at the Catholic University of America invites applications for a tenure track position, to begin in August 2014, at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor, in early Christian Near Eastern languages, literature, and history. The successful candidate will have a thorough knowledge of Syriac grammar and literature. Knowledge of Classical Arabic and other Semitic languages, as well as other Christian Near Eastern languages, such as Coptic and Armenian, is a plus.

The successful candidate will have an earned doctorate, with an excellent record of teaching, publishing, research, and service, or the promise of these, commensurate with experience. Responsibilities will include: teaching graduate courses and seminars in Syriac language and literature, the history of the Christian Near East, and other languages within the candidates competence; advising students in the Department; participation in activities within the Department and allied programs and units within the University (including the possibility of undergraduate teaching on occasion); conducting and directing research in the languages and literatures of the Christian Near East.

The application deadline is 1 November 2013. Follow the link for further particulars.

HT James McGrath on Facebook. Cross-file under "Syriac Watch."

Iraqi Jewish archive again

SHORT ANSWER: NO. Does Iraq deserve the return of its Jewish archive? But even more to the point, it is far from clear to me that the archive will be safer or better cared for there than where it is now.

More thoughts on these issues here (especially the last paragraph and links). Additional background here with links going back a decade.

Middle East latest

MORE REPORTS OF MURDER AND DESTRUCTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST:

There are reports of the murders of at least three Christians by Islamist rebels in the Aramaic-speaking Syrian town of Maaloula (Ma'loula, Malula), although there is limited verification. What is clear, though, is that the town is caught between the Syrian Government and the rebels and things are going badly there.

Eyewitness Account of Three Syrian Christians Killed by Extremists (Joan Frawley, National Catholic Register)

Syrian Jihadist Slits Throat of Christian Man Refusing to Deny Christ, Then Taunts Fiancée, 'Jesus Didn't Come to Save Him' (Leonardo Blair, The Christian Post).

Christians fighting for survival against jihadist rebels in ancient Maaloula (Catholic Online).

Maaloula's cathedral and churches empty of Christians as Syria's latest front-line fight takes its toll. Its churches are empty, its monasteries deserted, many pitted and holed by the battles raging around them. (Bill Neely, ITV News, The Telegraph).

Syrian Militants Battle For Christian Village (Deborah Amos, NPR).

Background on Maaloula is here with many, many links.

Meanwhile in Egypt: Coptic archaeological site wrecked (Daily News Egypt).

The latest attack targeted Ansana, a historical Egyptian site believed to have been used as a Coptic monastery. Yet, information about it is scarce. “[The site] was never properly studied and published,” said archaeologist Monica Hanna. The site was bombed with dynamite. ... The whole area is full of Coptic, Syriac and Greek inscriptions that have not been completely studied and documented.

I cannot hope to keep track of all the relevant (to PaleoJudaica) atrocities happening right now in the Middle East, but these are some of them.

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.