Enoch Conference

HAPPENING NOW: Enoch Conference, Berlin, December 17-19, 2013 (Andrei Orlov).

More Masada revisionism

HAARETZ: No more heroes? Digging deeper into the Masada myth. 50 years after the first archaeological digs, mystery remains: Did any battle happen there at all? (Moshe Gilad). Excerpts:

According to Josephus, 967 people who fled the Romans to Masada committed suicide, choosing to die rather than be taken captive.

There are differences of opinion, however, about exactly what happened on the site overlooking the Dead Sea, and the controversy about what took place some 2,000 years ago still prompts heated debate among academics. Participants at a recent conference held in Jerusalem, Ein Gedi and at Masada itself, to mark the 50th anniversary of the excavations, spoke with movingly about their experiences at the time, which however shed little light on persisting mysteries.

Regarding the question of whether "any battle happened there at all" in the headline, the article says:

There are currently two researchers at the center of the archaeological controversy over Masada – Haim Goldfus and Benny Arubas, who have argued for years that the Masada story has been distorted. Many people, Goldfus maintains, “choose not to look reality in the eye.”

The Masada story as told by Josephus didn’t really happen that way, Goldfus insists, claiming that Josephus himself was in Rome when Masada fell.

“In reality, a different [series of] events took place at Masada, and apparently there was no war there at all,” says Goldfus. “There is no evidence at all at the site of blood being spilled in battle. The famous battery [at a site commonly referred to as the Roman ramp] couldn’t have fulfilled the role attributed to it in breaking through the wall, because it was too narrow and small and couldn’t have been used by the Roman army to position a battering ram. In light of the finds in the area where the [Romans] broke through, we understood that nothing happened there. There are no arrowheads, as one finds at other sites. There is no evidence of fires. The indications are that the battery structure was mostly naturally occurring.

“In addition,” he continues, “there are no mounds from walls that had been destroyed, or other evidence of a battle.”

Goldfus says he has no interest in either dispelling the Masada myth or confirming it. “I am also not claiming that [the Jews at the site] didn’t commit suicide. Maybe it did happen. Perhaps the Romans entered the site in a commando raid, but for 50 years they have been portraying a false picture of a heroic battle that didn’t take place. In reality, other things happened there, and I don’t know what they were.”

There's lots more, so read it all before it goes behind the pay wall.

Earlier posts dealing with post-Yadin revisionist interpretations of Masada etc. are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

More on the Sa’adah tombstone

ARAMAIC WATCH: The story of the Sa’adah tombstone is covered in the NYT: Chasing 5th-Century Clues From a Woman’s Tombstone (James Barron). Excerpt:

Dr. Fine recalled their conversation. “He said, ‘This is a Talmudic object, it should be at Yeshiva.’ I said, ‘O.K.’ He said, ‘Do you have any money?’ I said no” — a similar tombstone offered for sale was listed for $2,500 to $3,000 in Israel, Dr. Fine said. “He said, ‘Do you have anything to trade?’ I said no. He said, ‘Why don’t you come out and give a lecture and take it home?’ I did everything I could to convince him that he shouldn’t give it to us. He kept saying, ‘No, no, this is something that should be with you.’ So I went there.”

Another interesting point that had not registered with me before is that the inscription is "sandstone with paint on it." I don't know how common painted tombstones in Jordan from the fifth century are, but this brought to mind the Gabriel Revelation, which is also an inscription, possibly from Jordan, composed with ink on stone, although it is composed in Hebrew rather than Aramaic and (if genuine) it is several centuries older. My impression is that ink-on-stone is quite unusual, so I would interested in knowing more about these late antique tombstones.

And it perhaps does bear repeating that both inscription are unprovenanced.

Background on the Sa’adah tombstone, with photographs, is here.

Minimalism draft-summary

LAWRENCE J. MYKYTIUK E-MAILS:

In an article series I am writing, a subset of three articles completed last Nov. 26th might be of interest to some members of PaleoJudaica. These three introduce and attempt a representative sample of methodological developments for writing ancient Israel’s history in the era of biblical minimalism, beginning with 1992 publications.

These article are a “first pass” over the literature in an effort that I hope eventually to develop into an summary overview. Such an overview should define areas of agreement, usually qualified agreement, and the parameters within which the various positions fall. The twenty-four scholars whose works are sampled and summarized come from outside the minimalist camp. Their methodologies permit or promote a positive view of historicity in the Hebrew Bible. I do not necessarily agree with any given scholar whose work I summarize or cite.

Scholars, librarians—and those who, like me, may wish to function as both—occasionally write bibliographic essays and review articles which seek to track directions of movement within a field. I hope that scholars who hold a variety of positions regarding the controversy might profit from the bibliographic essay that is found in this article series.

The Author’s Accepted Manuscripts of all three appear on an open-access web site. Each open-access article has a link to the publisher’s Official Version of Record:

Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992-2008, Part 1: Introducing a Bibliographic Essay in Five Parts (November 2010)

Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992-2008 and Beyond, Part 2.1: The Literature of Perspective, Critique, and Methodology, First Half (November 2012)

Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992-2008 and Beyond, Part 2.2: The Literature of Perspective, Critique, and Methodology, Second Half (November 2013)

Earlier PaleoJudaica mentions of Professor Mykytiuk are here, here, and links.

Modern Syriac colophons

LIV INGEBORG LIED: Colophons delight! There are modern Syriac colophons? Who knew?

Secret Mark

LOREN ROSSEN III: Secret Mark Still Fools People.

UPDATE (17 December): Tony Burke responds at Apocryphicity and offers some corrections: Loren Rosson III: “Secret Mark Still Fools People.”

McGrath on Vinklat on Mandaean (Mandean)

ARAMAIC WATCH: Unpublished Mandaean Texts (James McGrath, leading to work by Marek Vinklat).

Wold on 4QInstruction

BENJAMIN WOLD (NEH FELLOW): The Mystery of Existence: The Construction of Authority in 4QInstruction (ASOR Blog). Excerpt:

Studies on 4QInstruction have often been shackled by perceptions of particular genres, and yet even after it has been recognized that our categories are in conflict, there has been little done to break away entirely from an approach that is tethered to this beginning point. The book that I am bringing to completion at the end of my time at the Albright Institute is an investigation of 4QInstruction that considers the individual who moved among these genres. My questions relate to how authority is constructed in the document. At stake in the way that we understand the boundaries between “wisdom” and “apocalyptic” are our assessments of ancient Jewish thought and practice and the origins of Christianity.

Review of Halivni, The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud

THE TALMUD BLOG: A Review of Weiss Halivni, The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud- Guest Post by Zvi Septimus.

Judeo-Syriac fragment discovered

NOT QUITE AS EXOTIC AS SYRO-GEORGIAN BUT STILL COOL: The first discovery of Judaeo-Syriac: T-S K14.22.

The Cairo Geniza is the philologist's gift that keeps on giving.

(HT Jack B. Tannous on the Hugoye list.)

Good news about the Lewis-Gibson Geniza collection

SUCCESS: Oxford and Cambridge universities buy Lewis-Gibson Genizah collection. A fundraising appeal by Oxford and Cambridge universities to buy a collection of 1,000-year-old Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts has been successful (BBC). To the tune of £1.2 million. Not bad.

Earlier posts on the fundraising effort are here and here.

DSS as cultural icon

CULTURAL ICON WATCH: I haven't noted uses of the Dead Sea Scrolls as a cultural icon for a long time, but a couple caught my eye recently:

The lesbian Dead Sea Scrolls: Anne Lister's diaries (NewStatesman.com)

Lost Peter Sellers films Dearth of a Salesman and Insomnia Is Good for You hailed as the movie equivalent of 'finding Dead Sea Scrolls' (The Independent)

Remembering Alan Segal

JARED CALAWAY: Reminiscing on Alan Segal.

Some past posts on Alan Segal are here, here, and links.

The Talmud on counting Jews

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: What the Talmud Would Say About the Pew Survey of American Jews: Stop Counting. An ancient principle of Judaism, debated at length in the Oral Law, is that it is a sin to count Jews—or is it?.

It doesn’t take any particular news event to make Jews start worrying about the future of Judaism. But this fall, the release of the Pew survey “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” with its findings about high rates of assimilation and intermarriage, added some fuel to the fire. As community leaders debated what to do about the problem—if it is, in fact, a problem—one suggestion was conspicuous by its absence: No one proposed that we simply stop doing censuses of Jews.

Yet this would be the most Jewish solution of all, since an ancient principle of Judaism is that it is a sin to count Jews. God says as much in Exodus 30, when he instructs Moses that if he counts the Israelites directly, a plague will fall on them. Instead, the census is to be taken indirectly: Each adult over the age of 20 is to contribute a half-shekel coin, and then the coins are to be counted. This precaution is ignored by King David, in II Samuel 24, when he impetuously conducts a census of his kingdom; and as promised, he is punished by God with three days of pestilence.

[...]

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Wevers's LXX-notes volumes - free!

WORDS ON THE WORD: John William Wevers LXX Text Histories… free .pdf downloads. For you, special deal!

These five volumes are invaluable resources for working with the Greek text of the Pentateuch.

(HT James McGrath and Daniel O. McClellan on Facebook.)

Fixed-term post in Rabbinic/Medieval Jewish Studies

FROM THE AGADE LIST:

Via Vadim Putzu vadim.putzu@fandm.edu:
====================================

Rabbinic/Medieval Judaic Studies: The Judaic Studies Program at Franklin & Marshall College invites applications for a Visiting Assistant Professor, beginning Fall 2014, pending final administrative approval. The position is in premodern Judaism with possible subfields in rabbinics, medieval philosophy, or Kabbalah. It is renewable for up to three years on evidence of good teaching and administrative approval. Appointment will be at the instructor or assistant professor level depending on qualifications; teaching experience highly desirable.

The successful candidate will teach introductory courses in Hebrew Bible and Classical Jewish Texts as well as upper-level courses in his/her specialty; the teaching load is 3/2. Candidates should submit the following materials as PDF files (searchable preferred) to Tami.Lantz@fandm.edu: letter of application, curriculum vitae, graduate transcript, three letters of recommendation, and teaching evaluations.

Hard copies are also acceptable, and may be sent to Professor Maria Mitchell Chair, Judaic Studies Program, Franklin & Marshall College, Box 3003, Lancaster PA 17604-3003. The deadline for receipt is February 14, 2014. Franklin & Marshall College is a highly selective liberal arts college with a demonstrated commitment to cultural pluralism. EOE

UPDATE: Please refer to the revised information on this position, now posted here.

Fredriksen on Nirenberg, Anti-Judaism

MARGINALIA: Paula Fredriksen on David Nirenberg’s Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition. Conclusion:

Do any of these infelicities matter? Yes and no. Yes, they matter if you want a historical description of these ancient texts and their authors in context. No, they don’t if you want to know the particular ingredients of the West’s tradition of anti-Judaism. That latter project is the heart of this haunting book. Read it. You will find yourself, again and again, wishing that you could reach your hand back in time, catch these toxic themes at their launch, and prevent all the deaths that you know will surely follow.

An earlier review and an essay by Nirenberg are noted here.

St Andrews Symposium

REMINDER: St Andrews Symposium for Biblical and Early Christian Studies: Ancient Readers & Their Scriptures: The Texts, Reading Strategies, and the Versions of the Hebrew Bible in Second Temple and Early Judaism. The call for papers is now open, with a deadline of 1 February 2014. Follow the link for more information.

Noted earlier as well here. You can find information on some past symposia here, here, here, and here.

Bible Secrets Revealed: Cargill Q & A

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Bible Secrets Revealed, Episode 1: “Lost in Translation.” Robert Cargill responds to viewers’ questions on the History Channel series (Robin Ngo).

Background here, here, and here.

Finance in Religious Law: A Comparative Conference

TODAY AND TOMORROW AT THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: Finance in Religious Law: A Comparative Conference - Judaism, Christianity, Islam. (The post is at the Talmud Blog, but thanks also to Menachem Butler for alerting me to the event.)

Ben Sira website

THE BOOK OF BEN SIRA:

From Gary Rendsburg grends@rci.rutgers.edu comes this notice:

=================================

We are pleased to announce the launch of the new website, www.bensira.org. The diverse ancient (Qumran, Masada) and medieval (Cairo Genizah) manuscripts of the book of Ben Sira are currently housed in libraries and institutions (and in one instance a private collection) in Cambridge, Oxford, London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. This website brings together for the first time the entirety of the manuscript tradition (even if the Bodleian Library folios of MS B are not available at our website at this time), in a convenient user-friendly format.

At this point we have launched only the first stage of the website, with high-resolution digital images of the documents. Future updates will include transcriptions, translations, and resources.

The developers of the website gratefully acknowledge the assistance and cooperation of the custodians of the various Ben Sira documents, all of whom are acknowledged at the Introduction page of the website.

Gary A. Rendsburg and Jacob Binstein
Department of Jewish Studies
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A.

Brannan on MOTP1, plus electronic edition!

RICK BRANNAN: Received: Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures by Bauckham/Davila/Panayotov. His review is coming in due course. Meanwhile, he is posting a tweet (#MoreOTP) on each chapter as he reads it. By the way, I have posted a TC of volume one here.

Rick also notes on Facebook that an electronic edition of the volume is available with Logos Bible Software, which is (good) news to me.

Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day

YES, IT'S THAT DAY AGAIN.

More here and here and links.

Also, lots more on time travel here, here, here, here, and links.

UPDATE: James McGrath comments, apparently yesterday.

Burke at SBL

TONY BURKE: 2013 SBL Annual Meeting Diary.

My own report on the 2013 SBL conference is here.

More on the Temple in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Miraculous Architecture of the First Temple Leads to Religious Sectarianism in the Second. To the Talmudic rabbis, a miracle is more plausible than the notion that their sources were incorrect. Excerpt:

Imagine that you wanted to build an exact duplicate of your house, and you hired an architect to do the job. But the architect isn’t allowed to see the building she was supposed to duplicate, and you aren’t allowed to make any blueprints or drawings of it: All you can do is describe its dimensions in words. Something like this is the challenge facing the rabbis when they try to imagine the Holy Temple, which stood in Jerusalem for centuries before the Romans destroyed it in 70 C.E. The Amoraim had never seen the structure they were trying to describe. All they had were conflicting reports from a variety of rabbinic sources, which had to be reconciled with each other and with the biblical description of the Temple. It’s no wonder, then, that the accounts of the Temple in Tractate Yoma, which Daf Yomi readers have been exploring this week, are so inconsistent and hard to follow.

[...]

Previous Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

UPDATE (8 December): Bad link now fixed. Sorry!

GJW follow-up

IT'S MARK GOODACRE'S TURN TO ASK: Whatever happened to the Gospel of Jesus' Wife? And he asks another excellent question at the end of the post.

Background here and links.

UPDATE: More from Larry Hurtado: “Jesus’ Wife” Fragment: A Continuing Puzzle.

Burke on Christian Apocrypha

EERDMANS BLOG: “Revealing Christianity’s Secret Scriptures” by Tony Burke.

MOTP

NIJAY K. GUPTA: Make Shelf-Space for More “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha”! Indeed.

Mingana Collection

SYRIAC WATCH: The University of Birmingham's Mingana Collection website includes some interesting Syriac manuscripts, as well as manuscripts in Arabic and Greek.

(HT Emmanouela Grypeou on Facebook.) More on the Mingana collection here and link.

Oxford, Vatican manuscript project now live

DIGITIZATION: Vatican and Bodleian libraries launch online archive of ancient religious texts. Website funding from Polonsky Foundation includes Bodleian's 1455 Gutenberg Bible and aims to put 1.5m pages online (Maev Kennedy, The Guardian). Excerpt:

The works to be digitised include the small but staggering collection of Greek manuscripts in the Vatican, including ancient texts of works by Homer, Sophocles, Plato and Hippocrates. The Bodleian's collection is much larger – by the end of the 17th century the most important in Britain – but later, mainly of 15th and 16th century manuscripts.

The Vatican's Hebrew texts include the oldest Hebrew codex – a manuscript bound as a book – in existence, and a copy of the entire Bible written in Italy around 1100. The Vatican's collection of 8,900 incunabula – the earliest printed books, many published in Rome – is the fourth largest in the world, followed closely by the Bodleian's.

The project website is here. Note also its Hebrew Manuscripts page, the essay thereon by renowned Hebrew codicologist Malachi Beit-Arié, and the essay by Nigel Wilson on the Greek manuscripts.

Background here, with lots of links about other digitization projects.

Temple Mount graphic

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The most contested real estate on Earth?

Yeah, pretty much.

In the Washington Post Richard Johnson, Gene Thorp, and Bonnie Berkowitz have an interesting and useful graphic about the history of the site.

Deutsch is suing the IAA

THE ISRAEL FORGERY TRIAL BLOWBACK CONTINUES: Deutsch Files $3 Million Suit Against Israel Antiquities Authority (Matthew Kalman, Bible and Interpretation). Excerpt:

[Robert] Deutsch filed suit on 28 November in the Tel Aviv District Court against the Israel Antiquities Authority, its director Shuka Dorfman, the head of its anti-theft unit Amir Ganor, the Jerusalem District Attorney and Assistant District Attorney Dan Bahat who led the prosecution. He is seeking 12 million shekels ($3.4 million) in damages – an astronomical sum for Israel. In an interview, Deutsch said the multi-million-dollar damages demanded were “a drop in the ocean” compared to the wreckage wrought to his reputation and business by the affair. Deutsch was never accused of any involvement with the alleged forgery of either the James Ossuary or Jehoash Tablet, but when those items propelled the sprawling, 18-count indictment sheet into the headlines, as the main co-defendant his name was yoked to the allegations against Golan.

In the verdict delivered in March 2012 and upheld by Israel’s High Court earlier this year, Golan was also acquitted on all counts of forgery while charges against two other defendants were dropped halfway through the trial. Golan and a fifth defendant were convicted on three minor charges of mishandling genuine antiquities. In his verdict, the trial judge, Aharon Farkash, described Deutsch as “an honest and decent businessman, professional and experienced, who has advised many people without demanding any financial return.”

Background on the Israel forgery trial and its aftermath is here with many links.

Iraqi Jewish Archive - new developments

THE CONTROVERSY CONTINUES:

The discoverer of the Iraqi Jewish archive weighs in: Scholar fights to keep Jewish artifacts from returning to Iraq. Harold Rhode's elation at finding the trove during the Iraq war has since turned to outrage that the salvaged texts might go back. (David S. Cloud, L.A. Times).

WASHINGTON — Harold Rhode still recalls the euphoria he felt a decade ago after finding thousands of dripping, moldy artifacts of Iraq's once-vibrant Jewish community in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's intelligence service headquarters in Baghdad.

"How do you describe it? An enormous elation, a deep connection, but also shock: Why would this be here?" says the 64-year-old former Pentagon official, an Orthodox Jew who discovered the purloined archive in the bombed-out building days after he arrived in the Iraqi capital with the U.S. invasion force in the spring of 2003.

People who saw him at the time recall that Rhode, a disheveled, rotund scholar of Islamic history, was nearly overcome with emotion as he rescued the waterlogged books, personal papers and sacred texts, including a 400-year-old Hebrew Bible, all of which seemed to be a link to the ancient — and mostly dispersed — Jewish population of Mesopotamia.

But like the arc of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Rhode's involvement with the Iraqi Jewish archives has progressed from exhilaration to disillusionment and recrimination.

Since he arranged 10 years ago for the collection to be brought to the United States in metal shipping containers, on which he had scrawled "RHODE" and "TORAHS" in big letters, the books and documents have been carefully cleaned of mold and grime, preserved and digitally photographed by experts at the U.S. National Archives.

When summer comes, however, they are to be returned to the Iraqi government, an ending that Rhode likens to giving the personal effects of Jews killed in the Holocaust back to Germany.

[...]

Ouch.

At a hearing last month before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lawmakers grilled Brett H. McGurk, deputy assistant secretary of State.

He affirmed that the U.S. was committed to the "safe and rightful return of these artifacts" but also acknowledged that "we have heard loudly and clearly the concerns" of the Jewish community. "We'll see what we can do."

I hope they do.

I mentioned Harold Rhode in connection with the archive here back in 2004.

Jews expelled from Iraq are also having their say: Tug-of-war erupts over planned return of Jewish archives to Iraq (Sylvia Westall and Jonathan Saul, Reuters). Excerpt:

Edwin Shuker, 58, who escaped to Britain with his family from Baghdad in 1971, said he had discovered his long-abandoned school certificate on display as part of the National Archives exhibition.

"This is more than a school certificate - it is the identity we were forced to leave behind," he told Reuters, likening the document's journey and survival to his own.

"I would like to be reassured that my children and future generations will have unrestricted access to this collection."

Cynthia Kaplan Shamash, from the New York-based World Organisation of Jews from Iraq, said Iraqi Jews were grateful for the restoration but did not want the archive to go back. "Returning the collection to a Jewish-free Iraq in the current conditions is incomprehensible and unacceptable," she said.

Likewise in this article in the National Post: ‘Like sending back art Nazis looted’: Iraqi Jews who fled persecution fight to stop U.S. from returning stolen artifacts to Baghdad (Joe O'Connor). Excerpt:

Finding her old report card in an archive that houses the Declaration of Independence was “kind of cool” for Dr. Bassoon-Zaltzman. But mostly it wasn’t cool. Mostly it made her angry, and sad, and brought back a tide of bad memories from her childhood, from the Iraq of the 1960s where a once vital Iraqi Jewish community lived in fear, never knowing who would be arrested next.

“I really felt violated seeing my report card because I knew the Iraqi secret police had no way of getting it unless they took it from our house,” Dr. Bassoon-Zaltzman says. “All I could think about was somebody being in the house I grew up in and stealing this document and storing it in the basement of the Mukhabarat — the secret police of Saddam Hussein.

“Sending these items back to Iraq now would be like sending art that the Nazis looted from Europe’s Jews back to Germany. But it’s even worse, because I am nobody. I am not famous, and I am still alive, and there is no inherent value to these items. Nobody in Iraq is going to care about looking at documents and photos of Iraqi Jews that they don’t even know and that have no value to them, or the Iraqi government, or anyone — except the people they were stolen from.

“It is my report card.”

Background here with endless links

Hannibal miniseries

PUNIC WATCH: History Developing Hannibal Miniseries Executive Produced by Halle Berry (comingsoon.net).

History is developing the miniseries "Hannibal" (working title), co-produced by A+E Studios and Red Arrow Entertainment with Academy Award-winning Actress Halle Berry executive producing and Oscar-nominated writer Jeffrey Caine (The Constant Gardener, GoldenEye) penning the script, it was announced today by Dirk Hoogstra, Executive Vice President and General Manager, History & H2. The miniseries will tell the story of the greatest generals in antiquity - Hannibal Barca and his archrival Scipio Africanus - who went head-to-head in the Second Punic War.

[...]

This is evidently unrelated to Vin Diesel's longstanding project of a Hannibal movie. I have many other past posts on Hannibal, e.g., here, here, here, here, and here.

Review of Lim, The Formation of the Jewish Canon

MARGINALIA: Edmon L. Gallagher on Timothy H. Lim’s The Formation of the Jewish Canon. Excerpt:

Timothy Lim’s new book The Formation of the Jewish Canon does not seek to provide a comprehensive treatment of canon formation but rather attempts to address select questions with some depth. He thus gives little attention to what we can learn of the Jewish Bible from patristic sources, which scholars such as Gilles Dorival have shown to be valuable for this task. Nevertheless, each of the debatable points listed above receives treatment here. Lim concentrates on the pre-rabbinic sources that illuminate (however faintly) the process by which the main contours of the Jewish canon were established during the period from Ezra in the fifth century BCE to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

The book was noted earlier as forthcoming here.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Pauline Literature, Christianity in the Lycus Valley

MORE NEW BOOKS FROM BRILL:

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Pauline Literature

Edited by Jean-Sébastien Rey , Université de Lorraine
The relationships between Pauline literature and the Dead Sea scrolls have fascinated specialists ever since the latter were first discovered. Now that all the Qumran scrolls have been published, it is possible to see more clearly the amplitude and impact of this corpus on first century Judaism. This book offers some syntheses of the results obtained in the last decades, and also opens up new perspectives, by highlighting similarities and indicating possible relationships between these various writings within Mediterranean Judaism. In addition, the authors wish to show how certain traditions spread, evolve and are reconfigured in ancient Judaism as they meet new religious, cultural and social challenges.

Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley

In Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley, Ulrich Huttner explores the way Christians established communities and defined their position within their surroundings from the first to the fifth centuries. He shows that since the time of Paul the apostle, the cities Colossae, Hierapolis and Laodicea allowed Christians to expand and develop in their own way.

Huttner uses a wide variety of sources, not only Christian texts - from Pauline letters to Byzantine hagiographies - but also inscriptions and archeological remains, to reconstruct the religious conflicts as well as cooperation between Christians, Jews and Pagans. The book reveals the importance of local conditions in the development of Early Christianity.

Fish or dish on the Talpiot Tomb B inscription?

MARK GOODACRE (Wim G. Meijer): If it walks like a duck: Ossuary 6 of the Talpiot 'Patio' Tomb depicts commonly used Jewish images.

Numerous earlier posts on the Talpiot Tomb B inscription are here and links.

4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, Wisdom and Torah

NEW BOOKS FROM BRILL:

Fourth Ezra and Second Baruch
Reconstruction after the Fall
Edited by Matthias Henze, Rice University and Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan with the collaboration of Jason M. Zurawski

The two Jewish works that are the subject of this volume, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, were written around the turn of the first century CE in the aftermath of the Roman destruction of the Second Temple. Both texts are apocalypses, and both occupy an important place in early Jewish literature and thought: they were composed right after the Second Temple period, as Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity began to emerge.

The twenty essays in this volume were first presented and discussed at the Sixth Enoch Seminar at the Villa Cagnola at Gazzada, near Milan, Italy, on June 26-30, 2011. Together they reflect the lively debate about 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch among the most distinguished specialists in the field.

The Contributors are: Gabriele Boccaccini; Daniel Boyarin; John J. Collins; Devorah Dimant; Lutz Doering; Lorenzo DiTommaso; Steven Fraade; Lester L. Grabbe; Matthias Henze; Karina M. Hoogan; Liv Ingeborg Lied; Hindy Najman; George W.E. Nickelsburg; Eugen Pentiuc; Pierluigi Piovanelli; Benjamin Reynolds; Loren Stuckenbruck; Balázs Tamási; Alexander Toepel; Adela Yarbro Collins

More on the Sixth Enoch Seminar here, here, and here.

Wisdom and Torah
The Reception of ‘Torah’ in the Wisdom Literature of the Second Temple Period
Edited by Bernd U. Schipper, Humboldt University and D. Andrew Teeter, Harvard Divinity School

A proper assessment of the manifold relationships that obtain between “wisdom” and “Torah” in the Second Temple Period has fascinated generations of interpreters. The essays of the present collection seek to understand this key relationship by focusing attention on specific instances of the reception of “Torah” in Wisdom literature and the shaping of Torah by wisdom. Taking the concepts of wisdom and torah in the various literary strata of the book of Deuteronomy as a point of departure, the remainder of the book examines the relationship between wisdom and Torah in Wisdom literature of the Second Temple period, including Proverbs, Qohelet, Ps 19 and 119, Baruch, Ben Sira, Wisdom, sapiential and rewritten scriptural texts from Qumran, and the Wisdom of Solomon.

1 Enoch and the canon

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Seriously?

Jack Collins: "Scholars have suggested a number of factors that led to Enoch's rejection from most Christian biblical canons ..."

Mezuzot and persecution in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The Talmud Says God Can’t Protect Jews From Persecution; They Must Take Precautions. A ‘mezuzah,’ like Judaism, is designed for life in this world, not for a messianic future, or for martyrdom.

This week’s Daf Yomi reading gave striking examples of such Talmudic difficulties. Say, for instance, that you wanted to know whether a certain building or doorway required a mezuzah. We know that the door of every residence is supposed to have one. But what about a public building, like a synagogue? What about a building that gets filthy, like a barn or a bathhouse, or a temporary structure, like a sukkah? What if two people own a house in partnership—do they both have to put up a mezuzah? And what about unusual entryways, like a tall arch—do they qualify? These are the kinds of minutely detailed questions you would expect the Talmud to ask, since it is always concerned with anticipating the full range of possible questions, no matter how unlikely. What you would not expect is that the answers to those mezuzah-related questions would be found in Tractate Yoma, which is supposed to be about Yom Kippur.

Previous Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

SBL 2013 highlights

EXCELLENT SBL MEETING IN BALTIMORE. I went to some good papers, did some good networking, and was very happy with the review session on the new Pseudepigrapha book. This was the first year I have ever had two new books in the Book Display auditorium. (Click on all the images below for a larger version.)

My translation of the Hekhalot literature is to be reviewed at the 2014 SBL in San Diego in the Esotericism and Mysticism in Antiquity Section.

L to R: Jim Davila, Judith Newman, John J. Collins. Photo courtesy of Sarah Whittle.

As I said, I was pleased with this year's review of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume One (photo above). There were people coming and going throughout the session and at peak attendance I counted about 60 in the room. I recall that there was an SBL review session on Charlesworth's two Old Testament Pseudepigrapha volumes back in 1986 or 1987. It took place around a single large table in a room and my recollection is that there weren't more than about 20 people present, which perhaps reflects something of the expansion of interest in the field since the mid-80s.

One of the reviewers, Liv Ingeborg Lied, has posted her review on her blog: Text – work – manuscript: what is “an Old Testament Pseudepigraphon”? In return, I am posting my response to her review below, along with the opening and closing paragraphs of my whole response.

First, let me thank all of the reviewers for their kind remarks about our new volume. It is gratifying indeed both to hear their praise and to receive criticisms that reflect such attentive reading and careful engagement with the volume. Their remarks will help us continue to develop our thinking about the second volume and today's discussion marks the beginning of what I trust will be a long and fruitful conversation generated by this new material. My remarks that follow should be heard with all this in mind. I would also like to thank my co-editors, Richard Bauckham and Alexander Panayotov, who read the first three of the reviews and shared their thoughts with me, some of which I have included here. ...

Liv Ingeborg Lied Liv raises some legitimate methodological concerns over the fact that we treat a large number of alleged quotations of now otherwise lost works ("conceived compositional units") as representative of actual lost works and that sometimes we even infer the existence of lost works from passages in the work of a later author which imply or hint at the use of an earlier source. This would be her third category, "entries that represent as works texts-on-page that are conceptualized in a rather different way in the manuscripts themselves." She asks specifically about the text fragment attributed to a Book of Noah, but implicitly about a number of other texts translated in the volume, "[I]s the textual entity described here a work at all, and if it is; what work are we talking about and to whom is this a work?"

The editors were of the view, as we said in the introduction, that the quotation fragments included in this volume and the forthcoming one could at least be argued to come out of earlier, otherwise lost "works" and that it was worthwhile to present the case for each so scholars could evaluate it. I imagine some will stand the test of time and scrutiny and others won't. The format chosen for presentation has ample precedent in earlier collections. All that said, there is always room for methodological reflection and refinement of what we are doing. And what we do with quotation fragments is, as Liv observes, complicated.

But much of the complication consists of factors that scholars specializing in ancient texts have learned to take for granted. Like the Book of Noah fragment (if that is what it is), most of our manuscripts of ancient or early medieval works are medieval and we must try to reconstruct the ancient work as best we can, often on the basis of maddeningly corrupt manuscripts. The complications of interest here are with the additional inference that a passage in the Book of Asaph (as best we have it in a medieval manuscript) which claims to give us the Book of Noah is actually an excerpt from an ancient book with that title.

Here it is not clear to me why Liv only allows that "other sources may point" in the direction "that there was an ancient conception of a work ascribed to Noah." This very cautious formulation seems to me to be a simple matter of fact. There are references to a book of Noah, not only in Jubilees 21:10 and 10:13, but also in Aramaic Levi 57 and in the Genesis Apocryphon v 29. There was a conception of a work ascribed to Noah. Whether in fact one or more such works actually existed is uncertain (I think it likely) and whether we can reconstruct part of it is more uncertain still. But I believe that Martha Himmelfarb has made a good case for the fragment in question to be a stratigraphically earlier version of material found in Jubilees. This material is connected both there and in the Book of Asaph with a book of Noah, so it may well be that that is where it came from.

Liv asks about this book, "can we really get to it, and why is it an aim to get to it?" My answer to her first question is: Quite possibly, based on the specific case that Martha has made. Why is it an aim to get to it? Because our aim is to recover every surviving scrap of writing from antiquity. Bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.

I take it that Liv is not concerned so much with the question of whether any or all of the quotation fragments we have published actually come from ancient "works." A specific case has been made for each on its own terms and doubtless other specialists will find some cases more persuasive than others. Rather, she has broader methodological concerns about applying what she calls the "work-model" to these texts at all. Along these lines she asks some wide-ranging methodological questions.

First she says "We need to ask ourselves about the extent to which it is fruitful for readers of MOTP to get acquainted with this material in the work-format, or whether this format hides too much information, or even creates a map of second temple Judaism and late antiquity that may not fit the territory." My main response to this is that we chose this format as the best and clearest way forward to present the material to both a specialist and a nonspecialist audience. Our concerns were practical and not just methodological.

Second she asks, "[H]ow do we value the information contained in the source material when 'the ancient books' are what we aim for?" There are many different possible answers to this question. Her approach using New Philology values the manuscripts and texts in ways rather different from the ways we valued them, but both approaches have a significant contribution to make.

She asks finally, "Does the Pseudepigraphon have to be a book, identifiable as a 'work,' in order to be something in its own right at all?" My answer: I don't know. I doubt it.

Liv's three questions are phrased in a way that seems to imply she has answers in mind, so I am happy to turn them back to her and ask her for her own answers. And, again in practical terms, if she thinks there is a better way for us to handle these quotation fragments in accordance with our own objective of getting them published in a form readily useful to specialists and nonspecialists, I invite her to tell us about it. ...

In conclusions, once again, I want to convey the gratitude of the editors to this review panel for their warm welcome of the new volume, their praise, and their thoughtful critical comments.

UPDATE (29 November): Jack Collins was at the session and comments here. Since Jack brings up the dissatisfaction with the term "pseudepigrapha" in the discussion (especially in relation to the title of our book), here are some comments I made about the issue:

Regarding the question of terminology, I would like to sound a note of caution. The current discussion reminds me of the similar discussion of the term "magic" in the 1990s, in which specialists in the area expressed strong and quite justified reservations about the use of the term for what they were studying. Marvin Meyer offered a replacement term, "ritual power," and Jonathan Z. Smith argued that the term "magic" should be dropped in favor of more specific terms on a lower order of taxonomy, but by the early 2000s the discussion had died down without coming to any conclusion. This conversation was quite useful for helping specialists in magic understand better what they were studying, but ultimately the unsatisfactory term "magic" carried the day and it is the term used in the various SBL sessions in which the specialists carry on with the important work of understanding the ancient magical texts.

It could happen again. I appreciate the many problems with the term "pseudepigrapha" and I don't dispute that the current discussion is helping us better to understand the texts on which we are working. At the same time, I see no sign of a groundswell of support for new terminology that can adequately replace the term "pseudepigrapha." I cannot predict the future, but I see no need to assume that the current discussion will succeed in producing such terminology, and it may well be that at a certain point we pseudepigraphers will join the magicians and just get on with studying the texts. There is a certain irony that we are being told in the Pseudepigrapha Section that "pseudepigrapha" is a term we should drop and that should not have been used in our volume. When we reach the point of consensus that the title of this unit should be changed to something else that most of us can agree on, not to mention the title of the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, and the titles of both are in fact changed, I will be more worried about the word "pseudepigrapha" in our volumes.

I suggested the Unobtainium Section and the Journal for the Study of Unobtainium, but no one seemed to want to go with that.

Jesus and Brian

CONFERENCE AT KING'S COLLEGE LONDON:

Jesus & Brian - Or: What Have the Pythons Done for Us?

Location
Safra Lecture Theatre (Ground Floor) Strand Campus

Category
Conference, Film Screening, Public Talk

When
20 (16:00) - 22/06/2014 (17:00)

Monty Python’s Life of Brian provoked a furious response in some quarters when it first appeared in 1979, even leading to cries of ‘blasphemy’. However, many students and teachers of biblical literature were quietly, and often loudly, both amused and intrigued. Life of Brian in fact contains numerous references to what was then the cutting edge of biblical scholarship and Life of Jesus research, founded on the recognition of the historical Jesus as a Jew who needs to be understood within the context of his time. Implicitly, in setting ‘Brian’ within the tumultuous social and political background of his age, Life of Brian sets Jesus within it also. It assumes the audience has some knowledge of the gospel accounts, which directly inform the comedy.

Ever since Philip Davies first wrote on the film 15 years ago, other scholars too have turned their gaze to consider exactly what Life of Brian does in regard to Jesus scholarship, and have increasingly delved into its curious corners to reflect on what it says both about the tumultuous times of Jesus and also contemporary scholarly discussions. Biblical scholarship has moved on greatly in the past 25 years, and various aspects of Life of Brian correlate with themes now intensely explored. Every Bible scholar knows what ‘blessed are the cheese-makers’ means among us!

This conference opens up Life of Brian to renewed investigation, using it in an innovative way to sharpen our view. Papers presented by some of the world’s most eminent biblical scholars and historians will discuss the film’s relevance to history, biblical studies and Life of Jesus research (see below). There will be discussion of the socio-political context and Josephus; costuming and setting; and other topics. The aim is to use the film to reflect on history, interpretation and meaning, as a tool that can help us consider our assumptions and the historical evidence: a ‘reception exegesis’ approach. There will be a book produced with selected conference papers, with a publication date of mid-2015.

It is also a celebration of a British movie masterpiece.

I am dumbfounded by what a good idea this is. Follow the link for registration information and an impressive list of speakers.

Brock bibliographical handouts

SYRIAC WATCH: Bibliographical Handouts by Dr. Sebastian Brock (Dumbarton Oaks).

This page attempts to reproduce the priceless set of bibliographical handouts prepared by Dr. Sebastian Brock over many years of teaching Syriac in the Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford. Dr. Brock's students have, for years, saved their handouts and constantly referred back to them, at times trading each other for more recently produced editions. We ourselves have treasured our sets of Dr. Brock's handouts and most of what we know about Syriac studies originates from his classes, his articles, and his famously generous and helpful conversations and advice. ...

(Via Emmanuella Grypeou on Facebook.)

UPDATE: Dead link now fixed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

BACK IN ST. ANDREWS and in my office. Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers and all others celebrating.

Happy Hanukkah!

HAPPY HANUKKAH (CHANUKKAH) to all those celebrating. The festival begins this evening at sundown.

Some background on Hanukkah is collected here, and some more recent Hanukkah-related posts are here, here, here, and here.

Dobroruka, Second Temple Pseudepigraphy

FORTHCOMING IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS:

Vicente Dobroruka, Second Temple Pseudepigraphy: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Apocalyptic Texts and Related Jewish Literature (Ekstasis)

Leaving

HEADING BACK TO ST. ANDREWS. Should be there tomorrow (Wednesday) evening. Excellent conference. More later.

Martone, Lettere di Bar Kokhba

NEW BOOK:

Corrando Martone (ed.), Lettere di Bar Kokhba. Brescia 2013.

(Via What's New in Papyrology?)

Satlow - Albright report

ASOR BLOG: Jewish Popular Piety in Late Antiquity (Michael L. Satlow). A report on his stint as Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professor at the Albright Institute.

Siegel, Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud

NEW BOOK:

Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud (CUP, 2013)

DSS in Utah

OPENED YESTERDAY: The Leo rolls out the Dead Sea Scrolls (Jaime Winston, saltlakemagazine.com/)

Background here with many links.

Modi'in in the news

HANUKKAH | Modi’in struggles to preserve its ancient Maccabean history (judy lash balint, jns.org).

Modi’in is a town mentioned in the Mishnah as home to the Maccabees of Hanukkah fame, and where the oldest synagogue in Israel was discovered. But it is also the Jewish state’s largest planned community and bills itself as “The City of the Future.”

Reconciling those two aspects of Modi’in is at the heart of a struggle playing itself out on local, national and international levels, as archeologists and preservationists try to raise awareness of Modi’in’s rich Hanukkah-related history and preserve ancient sites, while most city and government officials are focused on developing services for today’s residents.

[...]

The specific site of ancient Modi'in remains debated among specialists, but Umm el-Umdan definitely has some important ancient architecture from the Maccabean era.

Background here and links.

Postdoc at the Hebrew University:

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP 2014-2015:

The Center for the Study of Christianity at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem invites applications for a postdoctoral research fellowship in one of the following areas of study:

* New Testament, Early Christianity, its literature and Jewish context

* Eastern Christianity

* Christianity in Palestine/Eretz-Israel (in all fields and throughout its entire history)

* Jewish-Christian relations


What the CSC is offering:

* The successful candidate will be awarded for one year (or 6 months), beginning on 1 September 2014, a grant **of $2000 per month

* Travel expenses

* Library privileges at the Hebrew University

The deadline for application is 1 February 2014. Follow the link for full application details etc.

The Sanders Guide to SBL Ghost Panels

SETH SANDERS: A Guide to SBL Ghost Panels. A list of some information missing on the SBL app. As I noted yesterday, the Pseudepigrapha session on Monday afternoon has problems too.

Recent Talmudica

THE TALMUD BLOG has a couple posts up on recent publications and one sad loss:

Fair and Fowl: A Review of ‘Tractates Tamid, Middot and Qinnim’ by Dalia Marx – Guest Post by Ilana Kurshan

Recent Dissertations and Theses

Postscript: Prof. Zvi Arieh Steinfeld

Arrived

I'M IN BALTIMORE. More tomorrow.

Fine, Art, History and the Historiography of Judaism in Roman Antiquity

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Art, History and the Historiography of Judaism in Roman Antiquity

Steven Fine, Yeshiva University
Art, History, and the Historiography of Judaism in Roman Antiquity explores the complex interplay between visual culture, texts, and their interpretations, arguing for an open-ended and self-aware approach to understanding Jewish culture from the first century CE through the rise of Islam. The essays assembled here range from the “thick description” of Josephus’s portrayal of Bezalel son of Uri as a Roman architect through the inscriptions of the Dura Europos synagogue, Jewish reflections on Caligula in color, the polychromy of the Jerusalem temple and new-old approaches to the zodiac, and to the Christian destruction of ancient synagogues. Taken together, these essays suggest a humane approach to the history of the Jews in an age of deep and long-lasting transitions—both in antiquity, and in our own time.

SBL 2013

I'M OFF TO BALTIMORE for the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.

This year I am responding to several reviews of my new book, co-edited with Richard Bauckham and Alexander Panayotov, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume one (on which much background here and links). Here is the information on the session:

Pseudepigrapha
11/25/2013
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: 334 - Convention Center

Theme: Review session, R. Bauckham, J. Davila, A. Panayotov, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume One

Judith Newman, University of Toronto, Presiding (5 min)
John Collins, Yale University, Panelist (20 min)
Liv Ingeborg Lied, Det Teologiske Menighetsfakultet, Panelist (20 min)
Robert Kraft, University of Pennsylvania, Panelist (20 min)
Hindy Najman, Yale University, Panelist (20 min)
James Davila, University of St. Andrews, Respondent (25 min)

Note that both the online and the paper Program Books have some inaccuracies in this entry. They omit Professor Najman, give the respondents in the wrong order, and assign incorrect times to each presentation. Please go by the information given above. Also, Professor Lied provides a foretaste of her review here.

If you are attending SBL this year, we hope to see you there.

As usual, I will blog as much as time permits during the conference. Also as usual, I have pre-posted something for each day I'm away, so do keep visiting PaleoJudaica over the next week.

Horn (ed.), The Bible, the Qur'an, & Their Interpretation: Syriac Perspectives

NEW BOOK:

Cornelia Horn (ed.), The Bible, the Qur'an, & Their Interpretation: Syriac Perspectives (Abelian)

As Sacred Scriptures for the believer, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an inspire and guide billions of faithful women and men, young and old, across the globe. One of the exceptionally fruitful contexts in which the reception, interpretation, transmission of, and engagement with these holy texts flourished was in the Syriac-speaking milieu. The articles collected in this volume illuminate the critical contribution of Syriac studies to understanding important aspects of reading Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sacred texts in historical contexts. They open the reader's imagination to the contribution of the Syriac-speaking world for the cross-fertilization of these sacred texts and their interpretation.

[...]

Women's work in ancient Israel

HAARETZ: What's changed? Nothing: In ancient Israel, women did all the work. How did the people of the ancient Levant really live? For women, it was grinding on their haunches. ( Miriam Feinberg Vamosh). The headline, for which the author is obviously not responsible, mischaracterizes the content of the article on a number of counts. The point of the article is that running a household in antiquity was vastly more work than today, and that work fell to women. Excerpt:

Grain can actually be eaten fresh, but only in early spring, when it’s still green and full of sugar. It can also be toasted, which is the way Ruth and Boaz enjoyed it on their first lunch date (Ruth 2:14: At mealtime Boaz said to her, Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar. When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain.) Turning it into bread was a lot harder. The earliest food processor in history was a grinding stone, the likes of which have been found in excavations going back many thousands of years. Scholars say that even though the baking itself took only a few minutes after plastering the raw dough on the inside walls of the oven, it probably took a woman about three hours to produce enough flour for a minimum-sized household of six.

Yom Kippur in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSH IN TABLET: The Talmud’s Yom Kippur, With Sacrifice and Blood, Is Nothing Like Jewish Ritual Today. The rabbinic tradition arose from the fact that the Bible doesn’t tell us what we need to know to lead our lives.

But the Yom Kippur we read about in the Talmud is not exactly the Yom Kippur Jews experience today. For the last 2,000 years, the Day of Atonement has been observed with prayer and fasting. But in the days when the Temple stood, the heart of Yom Kippur was an elaborate daylong ritual performed by the high priest, the Kohen Gadol. This involved animal sacrifice, confession of sins, and the sprinkling of blood in the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the Temple; and most of Tractate Yoma is consumed with getting the details of this ceremony exactly right. Unlike Eruvin, then, which is intensely practical in its focus on what ordinary Jews can and can’t do on Shabbat, Yoma is highly abstract. It is about a ceremony that hasn’t been performed for 2,000 years and that even then was performed by just one man out of the whole Jewish people.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

DSS interview

RISA LEVITT KOHN, co-curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition currently about to open in Utah, is interviewed by Brian Staker in the Salt Lake City Weekly: The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Leonardo's exhibition brings the time of biblical writing to life.

Background here and links.

Day-Conference on Polemic in the Study of Jews and Judaism

PENN POSTGRADUATE DAY-CONFERENCE:

Call for Papers - Warring Words: Rethinking Polemic in the Study of Jews and Judaism
Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference
University of Pennsylvania, Jewish Studies Program, Thursday, March 20, 2014
[organized by Marc Herman, Rachel Ellis, and Phillip Fackler]

There exists a strong scholarly consensus that polemic has played a central role in Jewish history. Whether we consider polemics involving Samaritans, Christians, Qaraites, Muslims, Haskalah thinkers, Zionists, “the nations,” or contemporary group identity formation, polemical forms of argumentation and representation have been widespread in thinking about Jews and Judaism. However, this scholarly consensus often obfuscates rather than clarifies, preventing the category of polemic from receiving careful scrutiny. The label “polemic” can render certain aspects of a text unproblematic or irrelevant, because scholars frequently view polemic as a dishonest form of argumentation that bears little or no relationship to a writer’s “real” views. To move this situation forward, scholars must begin to ask the following questions. How can scholars identify polemic and delimit its boundaries? Does the label polemic imply that a given author actually held different views? How is that view identified? Are there limits to polemic, either based on reasonableness or believability? Do consumers of polemic share the scholarly skepticism of polemic or recognize the rhetorical strategies at play? What role does relationship with a real or imagined “Other” play in constructing identity?

This one-day graduate student conference at the University of Pennsylvania will focus on these and similar questions. It will feature Dr. Elisheva Carlebach as the keynote speaker and students of different periods and disciplines in the study of Judaism and Jewish history who will bring different data to bear on these theoretical questions. This one-day event will be held on Thursday, March 20, 2014.

Proposals should be 500-800 words, and include a title, description of the specific materials studied and method, and a statement of thesis. Relevant papers might investigate specific texts, monuments, movements, people, or examples from material culture from any period of Jewish history, including contemporary research, with an eye toward the theoretical and methodological issues raised by problematizing the category of polemic. Papers may focus on any aspect of Jews and Judaism, from any perspective. We welcome submissions from graduate students both affiliated with and outside the University of Pennsylvania. Selected papers will receive small travel stipends.

Please submit proposals to warringwords2014@gmail.com by January 6, 2014.

(HT Annette Yoshiko Reed on the PSCO list.)

Gold cuneiform tablet again

APPEAL VERDICT: NY court rules ancient gold tablet belongs to Berlin museum, not Holocaust survivor’s heirs (AP).

Background here and links.

GJW?

LARRY HURTADO: Jesus’ Wife Fragment: What’s Happening? I was asking the same question back in April. Crickets still chirping.

That said, I don't think I've yet mentioned Anthony Le Donne's new book, The Wife of Jesus: Ancient Texts and Modern Scandals (Oneworld, 2013), so there it is.

Additional background on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife is here and keep following the links back.

More on Bible Secrets Revealed

MARK GOODACRE: Bible Secrets Revealed on History Channel, Wednesday. That would have been Wednesday the 13th, so the first episode has aired (in the USA). I've heard some good things about it.

Schröter (ed.), The Apocryphal Gospels within the Context of Early Christian Theology

NEW BOOK:

J. Schröter (ed.) The Apocryphal Gospels (Peeters, 2013)

Summary:
Recent scholarship has become increasingly aware of the significance of the apocryphal gospels for the transmission and interpretation of the Jesus tradition in the first three or four centuries. Against this background the 60th Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense was devoted to these texts and their role and status in the formation of the New Testament Canon. The present volume contains the proceedings of the conference. Some of its contributions deal with well-known apocryphal gospels as, e.g., the Gospels of Thomas, Mary, Peter or Judas. Other essays treat thematic aspects, such as the influence of Platonic tradition, the way Jesus is presented in these gospels, or his dialogues with his (male and female) disciples. Important facets of the present volume are also early traditions about Jesus, e.g., in the so-called Infancy Gospels or in texts on the Mary. The volume thus gives an extensive overview of important areas of current research on the apocryphal gospels within early Christian theology.

God's body?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Does God have a body? (Shlomo Brody, Jerusalem Post Magazine). Excerpt:

While these figures all denied any corporeality to God, the most trenchant critic of anthropomorphism was Maimonides. He asserted that believers in divine corporeality were both idiots and heretics, since their conception of God was entirely false – as it denied the omnipotence and unity of the Creator. All biblical and rabbinic passages that imply otherwise must therefore be understood as metaphors or visions in the prophet’s minds. Such imagery, he asserted, were pedagogically necessary to introduce complex concepts in familiar terms or because some concepts elude linguistic expression, thereby necessitating pictorial images to convey a sense of the teaching.

Maimonides also deemed the early mystical work Shiur Koma, a midrashic work from the Heichalot literature that graphically depicts God’s exact measurements, as heretical and stemming from non-Jewish hands. Following in his father’s footsteps, Maimonides’s son Abraham maintained that believing in a corporeal God was equivalent to worshiping demons or idols, and further sniped that it was no surprise that Christians were generally supportive of those Ashkenazi scholars who vociferously opposed Maimonidean teachings.

More on the Hekhalot literature here, here, here, here, with links, and of course here. The Shiʻur Qomah has also come up in one post from some years ago here.

Shanks, Christianity & Rabbinic Judaism rev. ed.

SECOND EDITION:

Hershel Shanks (ed.), Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A Parallel History of their Origins and Early Development (BAS).

This newly revised parallel history of Judaism and Christianity presents the first six centuries in the development of both religions in one understandable volume. This unprecedented book takes readers from the middle of the first century—when a distinction between Judaism and Christianity first became apparent—to theArab conquest. This book begins where its companion volume, Ancient Israel, ends.

The first edition appeared more than two decadesago and has since become a standard text book and reference work for undergraduate, graduate and Bible study courses across the country. The book’s editor and contributing authors have now written a completely updated and revised edition that incorporates the most important finds andi nsights from the past two decades of archaeological, historical and biblical research.

More than 65 images enhance the text, many illustrating the most dramatic and importantf inds discovered in the Holy Land and elsewhere in recent decades. It also includes, for the first time, informative maps detailing the many sites and regions where the shared histories of these two world religions unfolded.

Follow the link for order information and some chapter listings.

DSS coming to Utah

AT THE LEONARDO: Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times. This Salt Lake City exhibition opens 22 November.

Background here.

DSS "edutainment"

ONE MAN SHOW: "Jerusalem Jones and the Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls."

[Ken Hanson] marches out a host of characters to join Jerusalem Jones in the adventure saga that tells the story of how the scrolls were "discovered out of the blue in the middle of the desert in 1947." With a lot of costume changes, he becomes a shepherd boy who throws a stone into a cave and stumbles into these mysterious documents; a shopkeeper in Bethlehem; a Greek Orthodox archbishop; and two prominent Israeli archaeologists.

Hanson even does a "brief Elvis impersonation" in "Jerusalem Jones."

Of course he does.

More on that oldest Jewish prayer book

THE JEWISH VOICE: World’s Oldest Siddur Slated For Future D.C. Bible Museum (Sean Savage/JNS.org).

Currently part of Hobby Lobby President Steven Green’s “Green Collection,” the largest private collection of biblical texts and artifacts in the world, the siddur and the rest of the collection will be donated to the as yet unnamed international Bible museum in Washington, D.C., slated to open in 2017.

Jerry Pattengale—assistant provost at Indiana Wesleyan University and director of the Green Scholars Initiative, the research arm of the Green Collection—spoke to JNS.org about the discovery of the ancient siddur, Jewish-Christian relations, and the upcoming Bible museum.

An interview follows. And here's some more information on the siddur:

“When we realized what we were looking at, we decided it would be best to carbon date it. We removed two small sections from the book non-invasively and sent them to two separate labs. They did not know what they were testing; it was a double blind test. Both results came back with a date of 840 CE. Our scholars had originally dated it to 850 CE. The whole process was very exciting.”

What contents of the siddur would modern Jews find familiar, and what would they find different?

“It has services for the Sabbath and the 100 blessings, which you would find in most modern prayer books. That alone makes it relevant to most Jewish communities and something they would recognize right away. There is also the liturgy in there for Passover and the ‘Song of Songs’ poem for Sukkot.”

“I think something a lot of people would be interested in is the poem on the end of times or the apocalyptic text. This is a story that was very popular at the time, but we don’t see often anymore. Finally, there is a really unique section at the end that we are calling the ‘Salvation for Zion.’”

This sounds promising. As always, I would like to see the results of the paleographic analysis, tests, etc., published in a peer-review journal. The rest of the article has more information on the Green Collection and the siddur itself.

Background here and links.

Mesopotamian Chronicles

AWOL: Mesopotamian Chronicles. Lots of useful online resources.

Qumran Institute Symposuim

THIRD QUMRAN INSTITUTE SYMPOSIUM AT GRONINGEN UNIVERSITY: Qumran Institute Symposium: Jewish Cultural Encounters in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern World. It takes place on 8-11 December 2013. Follow the link for a program and registration information.

Iraqi Jewish Archive statement

JNS.ORG: Iraqi Jewish Archive should be protected and accessible, 42 groups say.

Posted on November 12, 2013 by JNS.org.
(JNS.org) Forty-two groups, led by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, on Tuesday released a statement calling on the U.S. government to assure that the Iraqi Jewish Archive, which America plans to return to Iraq, would be protected and continually accessible to Iraqi Jewish communities around the world.

[...]

Background here and links.

James Ossuary inscription "vandalized" by authorities?

MATTHEW KALMAN: Scientific vandalism:How the IAA and Israeli Police wrecked the James ossuary (James Ossuary Trial Jerusalem Blog).

The Israel Police Forensics Laboratory applied red silicon to the inscription to create a mold that might show it was a modern addition. The procedure proved nothing, but it left reddish stains in the grooves of the letters and ripped out the ancient patina that covers archaeological items and helps determine their authenticity.

Evidently the Trial's Judge was not pleased.

Background here and links.

More on Talmudic Temple lore

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The Importance of Cubits and Shewbread and Everything That Makes Your Eyes Glaze Over. In their faith, Talmudic rabbis kept contradictory thoughts, believing in both the reality of miracles and their unreliability.

The rabbis take for granted that the sanctuary in the Jerusalem Temple followed the pattern of the Tabernacle, which was built by Moses according to the specifications God delivered at Sinai. Then there are details from the book of Kings, which describes how Solomon built the First Temple. But that building was destroyed by the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE, and it’s not clear how closely the Second Temple followed its blueprint. The Temple that emerges in the rabbis’ imagination, then, is a palimpsest, full of contradictory details that have to be reconciled.

Also, where did the Ark of the Covenant end up?

More on the Ark of the Covenant here (and I suppose here) and links. More on legends about the lost Temple treasures here and links.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

More on the Iraqi Jewish Archive

JEWISH PRESS EDITORIAL: Sending Jewish Assets To Iraq.

No definitive analysis has surfaced as to what international law has to say about Iraq’s right to insist on the return of the items. To be sure, countries have broad powers when it comes to controlling the assets of their citizens. Certainly the State Department believes Iraq is within its rights. Yet we believe the issue is best framed in terms of whether this country, under its own laws, can be complicit in what would amount to outright theft by an American government.

It would be scandalous for the U.S. to transfer the Iraqi Jewish community’s stolen historical record to anyone other than the heirs of that community.

Background here and links.

James Ossuary going on display

BACK IN ODED GOLAN'S HANDS: Public will be able to see limestone box that may have been casket for Jesus’ brother. Ancient burial box is inscribed 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus' (Matthew Kalman, New York Daily News).

The stone burial box bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" has been hidden from public view at the Israel Antiquities Authority since 2003.

But now it has been released to be displayed around the world, following a 10-year legal battle in which Israeli authorities failed to show that collector Oded Golan faked the ancient Aramaic lettering on the box.

Some recent posts on the James Ossuary are here, here, and here and follow the links. Background on the Israel forgery trial is here with many links.

Jerome Murphy O'Connor, 1935-2013

SAD NEWS: Charlotte Hempel reports on Facebook via Émile Puech that Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor passed away last night. Requiescat in pace.

Mazal tov!

HAARETZ: Word of the day / Mazal tov: Stars above! Good luck with that. And if you don't have any, you can always move, says the Talmud. (Shoshana Kordova). Excerpts:

Mazal tov translates as “congratulations,” but mazal actually means “luck” or “fate.” Tov means good. Yes, this means that when you heaped good wishes on a friend who just announced she was getting married, on a literal level you were actually telling her “good luck with that.”

[...]

Despite the association with idol worship, one of the biggest Jewish no-nos, the idea of mazal has not been expunged from Judaism. Zodiac signs have been found in the mosaics of ancient synagogues in the Galilee. And the Talmud tells an exegetical story that has God saying “I created 12 mazalot in the sky,” as well as hundreds of thousands of stars, “and I created all of them for you” (Brachot 32b).

Jewish sources also refer to mazal as fate or as an entity that affects something else’s fate. The homiletic collection Bereshit Rabba states that “There is no blade of grass that doesn’t have a mazal in the heavens that strikes it and tells it: ‘Grow!’” (10). And the Jewish mystical work the Zohar states that “everything depends on mazal, even a Torah scroll in the synagogue.”

More on zodiac mosaics in ancient synagogues here. There is also a roughly Geonic Hebrew tractate on astrology called Baraita di-Mazzalot, The External Tractate of the Constellations.

Robert Cargill profiled

A.K.A. XKV8R:

University of Iowa professor digs further into the Bible
After chasing David and Goliath, Robert Cargill stars in a History Channel documentary, which debuts this week

(Josh O’Leary, Iowa City Press-Citizen)

IOWA CITY, IA. — IArchaeologist and religious scholar Robert Cargill was teaching last decade at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., when he received an unusual request.

A woman who was auditing one of Cargill’s history and religion classes approached him and said her good friend wanted to take the course, as well, but was worried she’d be a distraction. The woman asked Cargill if he’d be willing to privately tutor the friend — actress Nicole Kidman.

That introduction nine years ago, in a way, would prove to be a bridge between Cargill’s work in the academic world to television, where his dynamic personality has made him a go-to expert for several documentary makers.

Today Cargill is an assistant professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa and has appeared as a biblical authority in nearly 15 documentaries and TV programs. His latest project, a six-part documentary called “Bible Secrets Revealed,” in which he served as a consulting producer, will begin airing Wednesday on the History channel.

[...]

The soon-to-air documentary series, produced by Prometheus Entertainment of Los Angeles, covers an array of topics — what was lost in the various translations of the Bible, examining who Jesus really was, and sex in the Scriptures. Cargill, who in addition to being one of the dozens of biblical scholars interviewed, reviewed and helped inform scripts as a consulting producer.

He said the series’ academic approach will inevitably lead to criticism from those who adhere to fundamentalist views of the Bible, but he’s no stranger to receiving emails from viewers calling him a heretic or telling him he will burn in hell.

“At the end of the day, you have the reality and the facts, and then you have what you were taught, either by your parents or by the Bible or whatever. When they’re not congruent, what do you do?” Cargill said. “Do you deny reality and stick to what you believe or what somebody taught you? Or do you embrace the reality and the facts, and do you rethink what you were taught growing up? That’s one of the centerpieces of the documentary.

“We’re trying to give facts, we’re trying to give a diversity of opinion, and then we want the viewer to make the decision for themselves based on the evidence.”

[...]

I knew about the documentary, but not about Nicole Kidman.

Johnson, Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus

LARRY HURTADO: The Bookroll vs. the Codex. A reviewlet of William A. Johnson: Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004).

Much more on the Oxyrhynchus papyri here and links.

Second Yeshiva Univ. DSS Seminar

PROF. LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: Second Yeshiva University Dead Sea Scrolls Seminar. Coming on 20 November.

The Gospel of Judas manuscript is going to Egypt

AHRAMONLINE: The gospel according to Judas: The only known copy of the Gospel of Judas, which casts an unorthodox light on events leading up to the Crucifixion, is returning to Egypt (Nevine El-Aref).

The gospel of Jesus's favourite disciple, Judas, was on show yesterday in Washington's National Geographic Museum before its return to Egypt where it was found 30 years ago. The fragile codex -- made up of 13 papyrus leaves -- has been restored with a two-million-dollar fund from the National Geographic Society (NGS) and the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery. Its most recent owners, the Basel-based Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art (MFAA), will now hand the codex over to the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo.

[...]

It is far from clear that this gospel presents Judas as Jesus' favorite disciple.

Be that as it may, I hope the manuscript will be safe. Things Coptic, not to speak of the Copts themselves, don't seem very safe in Egypt at present.

Some background on the Coptic Gospel of Judas is here and links.