Farming and grave marking in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Are Jews Meant To Be Farmers, Workers, or Thinkers? So much of the Talmud is about working the land, and the rules that govern labor, profit, and loss. Excerpt:

One of the things Jews were doing instead of cultivating the land was studying the Talmud. Famously, in Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Yaakov says: “One who walks along a road and studies and interrupts his studying to say, ‘How beautiful is this tree!’ ‘How beautiful is this ploughed field!’—the Torah considers it as if he had forfeited his life.” The pious Jew should be thinking about the Law, not the earth; about holiness, not nature. Yet the irony is that so much of the Talmud is about nothing but the land and working the land. The rules about planting and harvesting in the land of Israel are laid out in great detail. What effect did it have on generations of Jews, I often wonder, to read about the farming practices of the rabbis, many of whom were landowners themselves? Did a Jew studying in a yeshiva in Golden Age Spain, or in 19th-century Vilna, find his imagination excited by these details, dreaming of a life on the land that would be possible once the Messiah came? Or did it all seem abstract and a little tedious, like reading about the tax laws of a country you’d never inhabit?

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Review of Bar-Asher Siegal, Introduction to the Grammar of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic

THE TALMUD BLOG: ‘Introduction to the Grammar of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic’- A Review

Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal, Introduction to the Grammar of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2013) – Reviewed by Aaron Koller.

Excerpt:

Bar-Asher Siegal’s book relies on original research in the manuscripts of the Bavli and original grammatical analysis by a scholar who moves effortlessly between Semitic philology and linguistics. This is as good as an “introduction to Jewish Babylonian Aramaic” can be, and it is difficult to imagine anyone producing a better grammar of this type until there are qualitative advances in the field of JBA.

By which he means an eclectic critical edition of the Bavli. Hasten the day!

Brill books

NEW BOOKS FROM BRILL:

The Targums in the Light of Traditions of the Second Temple Period

Edited by Thierry Legrand and Jan Joosten both of University of Strasbourg

Although the Jewish Targums were written down only from the second century CE onward, and need to be studied against their Late Antique background, the issue of their connection to earlier sources and traditions is an important one. Do the existing Targums link up with an oral translation of Scripture and, if so, how far does it go back? Do the Targums transmit traditional exegetical material in a distinct form? What is the relation between the Targums and "parabiblical" literature of the Second Temple period (including the New Testament)?

In the present volume, these and other questions are studied and debated by an international group of scholars including some of the best specialists of Targumic literature in all its diversity, as well as specialists of various Second Temple writings.


A Vocabulary of Desire
The Song of Songs in the Early Synagogue

Laura S. Lieber, Duke University

In A Vocabulary of Desire, Laura Lieber offers a nuanced, multifaceted and highly original study of how the Song of Songs was understood and deployed by Jewish liturgical poets in Late Antiquity (ca. 4th-7th centuries CE). Through her examination of poems which embellish and even rewrite the Song of Songs, Lieber brings the creative spirit-liturgical, intellectual, and exegetical-of these poems vividly to the fore. All who are interested in the early interpretation of the Song of Songs, the ancient synagogue, early Jewish and Christian hymnography, and Judaism in Late Antiquity will find this volume both enriching and accessible.

The volume consists of two interrelated halves. In the first section, four introductory essays establish the broad cultural context in which these poems emerged; in the second, each chapter consists of an analytical essay structured around a single, complete poetic cycle, presented in new Hebrew editions with annotated original English translations.

More on Jan Joosten is here. Another book by Laura S. Lieber is noted here.

Review of Stein, Textual Mirrors

MARGINALIA: “Beneficent Incision”: Midrash and the Contemporary Critical Moment – By Adam Zachary Newton. Adam Zachary Newton on Dina Stein’s Textual Mirrors: Reflexivity, Midrash, and the Rabbinic Self. I hope the book is not as jargon laden as the review. Excerpt:

And what of an analysis that seeks dialogical partners drawn from a wholly different language game than the one practiced by the exegetes and compositors of the midrashic canon? Such partners would be not only rhetorically Other but also — and this is essential — institutionally so. Either the interpretive hazard increases or its practitioners become the agents, and we the beneficiaries, of a beneficent incision that may result in a text refreshed and rejuvenated. One of the great pleasures, then, of Dina Stein’s Textual Mirrors: Reflexivity, Midrash, and the Rabbinic Self is the imaginative and refracted light it casts upon the waking alertness, power, and fecundity of the midrashic enterprise tout court.

The book was noted earlier here.

Neo-Aramaicists speak out

(MODERN) ARAMAIC WATCH: Letter by Neo-Aramaicists regarding Iraq situation (George Kiraz, the Hugoye list).

Background here and links.

More on the Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition

RONALD HENDEL: A New Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible (Bible and Interpretation). Excerpt:

The HBCE ["The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition”] text will not reproduce a single manuscript (as is the case with the other critical editions, BHQ and HUBP), but will approximate the manuscript that was the latest common ancestor of all the extant manuscripts. This “earliest inferable text” is called the archetype. This is not identical to the original text (however one defines this elusive term), but is the earliest recoverable text of a particular book. To be more precise, the HBCE critical text will approximate the corrected archetype, since the archetype will have some scribal errors that can be remedied.

Background here.

Another soferet

TORAH DOCTOR: Maintaining an ancient tradition, female scribe repairs Jewish academy Torah (Jeff Kunerth, Orlando Sentinel).

The Torah used at the Jewish Academy of Orlando is marked with water spots, smudges, discolorations and rips.

"It's not just a book. It's a sacred text," said Alan Rusonik, head of the academy in Maitland. "To have a Torah in disrepair just doesn't seem right."

That's why Rusonik summoned Rachel Salston, a 24-year-old rabbinical student from Los Angeles.

Salston is one of an estimated 50 female Jewish scribes in the world. Her teacher, Jen Taylor Friedman, was the first woman to write a complete Torah scroll in 2007.

Females scribes, or soferets, are a rare breed because they must be conservative Jews who follow the strict laws of Judaism but also belong to an egalitarian congregation that believes in the equality of women and men. And they must have the interest, patience and talent for painstaking, meticulous work.

[...]

There's video too. For much more on female scribes from antiquity to the present, see here and links. Jen Taylor Friedman has also been mentioned here. Unfortunately, the main link has rotted, but there is still some information there about her, including a photo of her creation, Tefillin Barbie.

Call for Papers: 2015 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium

APOCRYPHICITY:

Call for Papers: 2015 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium Series 2015

“Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions” Writing Ancient and Modern Christian Apocrypha

September 24-26, 2015

Follow the link for details.

Marginalia forum on Jew vs. Judean

MARGINALIA TWEETS: Jew and Judean: Have scholars erased the Jews from antiquity? A Forum coming to MRB August 26. Looking forward to it.

Background here.

The Temple menorah in the news

ROGUE CLASSICISM: Stephen Fine and YU Students Tracking the Temple Menorah.

Background on the story is here. More on the Arch of Titus is here and links. And more on the Vatican not having any of the Temple treasures is here and links.

More on that Greek tomb

DOROTHY LOBEL KING: Hold Your [& Alexander's] Horses .... Apparently this late fourth century BCE tomb at Amphipolis is call the Lion's Tomb, for reasons made obvious at the post. And no, she doesn't know yet who was buried there.

Background here.

Eerdword Blog Post again

EERDWORD BLOG POST COUNTDOWN: EerdWord Greatest Hits 2014: James R. Davila on Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

It’s summer vacation time for your friendly neighborhood blog editor — so to mark the occasion, we’re spending this week counting down the most popular posts published here on EerdWord over the last twelve months.

Today we reveal our #3 post of the year (as determined by unique pageviews), which was penned by James R. Davila last October.

Noted originally here. I'm glad to see it getting some more attention. Their number 1 post of the year is revealed here.

Review of Stacey and Doudna, Qumran Revisited

BRYN MAWR CLASSICAL REVIEW: David Stacey, Gregory Doudna, Qumran Revisited: A Reassessment of the Archaeology of the Site and its Texts. BAR international series, 2520. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013. Pp. 150. ISBN 9781407311388. £29.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Hagith Sivan (dinah01@ku.edu).

The review concludes:

Stacey’s, Doudna’s and Avni’s analyses constitute a salubrious reminder that looking at Qumran in isolation, in terms of either the settlement or the texts, can lead to conclusions laced with imaginative reconstruction. Addressing important questions about the connection between the excavated settlement, its extensive cemetery and the cave archives, these contributions demonstrate that texts, even a large number of them, do not necessarily speak for themselves, especially when found in caves. Nor do they invariably shed light on a settlement in the vicinity, in spite of the alleged existence of a scriptorium in it. Cemeteries, although large and carefully aligned, likewise do not necessarily seal a single interpretation of stones and scripts. I suspect, however, that no reassessment is likely to usher in scholarly consensus nor to put an end to scholarly output that is well matched with the industry invested in the scrolls themselves.

Background on the work of Doudna and Stacey on Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls is collected here and links.

Drones

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: New to the Archaeologist’s Tool Kit: The Drone ( William Neuman and Ralph Blumenthal, NYT).

Archaeologists around the world, who have long relied on the classic tools of their profession, like the trowel and the plumb bob, are now turning to the modern technology of drones to defend and explore endangered sites. And perhaps nowhere is the shift happening as swiftly as in Peru, where Dr. [Luis Jaime] Castillo [Butters, Peru’s vice minister of cultural heritage] has created a drone air force to map, monitor and safeguard his country’s ancient treasures.

The article is mostly about Peru, but the following also comes up in passing:

In the Middle East, researchers have employed them to guard against looting.

“Aerial survey at the site is allowing for the identification of new looting pits and determinations of whether any of the looters’ holes had been revisited,” said Morag Kersel, an archaeologist from DePaul University in Chicago who is part of a team using drones in Jordan and Israel.

Moazami, Wrestling with the Demons of the Pahlavi Widēwdād

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Wrestling with the Demons of the Pahlavi Widēwdād
Transcription, Translation, and Commentary

Mahnaz Moazami, Columbia University

The Pahlavi Widēwdād (Vidēvdād), The Law (Serving to Keep) Demons Away, a fifth-century Middle Persian commentary on the Avestan Vidēvdād, describes rules and regulations that serve to prevent pollution caused by dead matter, menstrual discharges, and other agents. It recognizes the perpetual presence of the demons, the forces of the Evil Spirit –forces that should be fought through law-abiding conduct. In spite of its formidable textual problems, the commentary provides an invaluable quarry for the rules of the Zoroastrian community through its citation of regulations for the conduct of its members. Many topics are covered, from jurisprudence to penalties, procedures for dealing with pollution, purification, and arrangements for funerals. Viewed together, they provide the reader with an exquisite interlace of a community’s concerns.

Looks like something of interest for comparison with demonology and impurity in late antique Judaism, and perhaps even (with all the necessary caveats about using the late Pahlavi material) with such traditions in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity.

Collins, Jesus, the Sabbath and the Jewish Debate

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY:

Jesus, the Sabbath and the Jewish Debate
Healing on the Sabbath in the 1st and 2nd Centuries CE

By: Nina L. Collins

Media of Jesus, the Sabbath and the Jewish Debate
See larger image
Published: 25-09-2014
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 504
ISBN: 9780567385871
Imprint: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
Series: The Library of New Testament Studies
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
RRP: £80.00
Online price: £72.00
Save £8.00 (10%)

About Jesus, the Sabbath and the Jewish Debate

The claim that Jesus was criticised by the Pharisees for performing cures on the Sabbath has been repeated emphatically for almost 2,000 years. But a careful, unprejudiced evaluation of the gospels - the only source of this accusation - shows that the historical Jesus was never criticised by historical Pharisees for performing Sabbath cures. In fact, Jesus and the Pharisees were in complete agreement that cures on the Sabbath should always be performed. It is moreover evident that the Sabbath healing events in the gospels have preserved a significant part of the history of the Jewish debate. This debate sought to resolve the apparent conflict between the demands of Jewish law, and the performance of deeds of healing and/or saving life. This contention, from its Maccabean origins through to the end of the second century CE, is the subject of this book. It is a story that has escaped the attention of historians partly because it relies on the evidence of both the early post-biblical Jewish texts and the Christian gospel texts.

Review of Law, When God Spoke Greek

BRYN MAWR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Timothy Michael Law, When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. ix, 216. ISBN 9780199781720. $24.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Christian Schäfer​, Septuaginta-Unternehmen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen​ (Christian.Schaefer@mail.uni-goettingen.de)

[...]

Durch konsequenteres Einhalten des eigenen (die Innovation dieses Buches ausmachenden) Anspruchs, Fachsprache zu vermeiden und Fachinhalte in ihrer Komplexität und ihrem Umfang auf ein zielgruppenorientiertes Maß zu begrenzen, hätte „When God Spoke Greek“ – ebenso wie durch Vermeidung inhaltlicher Wiederholungen13 – sicherlich noch einmal deutlich an Stringenz und Lesefreundlichkeit gewonnen. Trotzdem ist Law dafür zu danken, dass er sich hier der nicht zu unterschätzenden Aufgabe der didaktischen Reduktion einer derart hochkomplexen Materie auf ein allgemeinverständliches Niveau erstmalig angenommen hat, um so auf populäre Weise die historische Relevanz eines der – an seiner Wirkungsgeschichte gemessen – bedeutendsten Werke der Antike14 evident zu machen.

More on the book here, here, and here.

Brody, Mishna and Tosefta Studies

NEW BOOK FROM MAGNES PRESS:

Mishna and Tosefta Studies

By Robert Brody

Publisher: The Hebrew University Magnes Press
Categories:
Talmud, Jewish Studies
Publish date: August 2014
Language: English

Danacode: 45-132011
ISBN: 9789654937672
Cover: paperback
Pages: 190
Weight: 400 gr.

This book breaks new ground in several areas of Talmudic philology, especially with regard to the central work of classical rabbinic literature, the Mishnah, and its companion volume the Tosefta. The first section, devoted to the textual criticism of the Mishnah, exposes a number of widespread fallacies with regard to the so-called "Palestinian" and "Babylonian" manuscripts of this work. The second section, the largest and most innovative of the book, seeks to place the textual criticism of the Tosefta on a firm foundation on the basis of a detailed analysis which upends the scholarly consensus in this area. The third section contributes to the ongoing debate concerning the relationship between Mishnah and Tosefta, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of this relationship which varies substantially from one passage to another. Finally, the afterword makes an impassioned plea for editors of classical rabbinic texts to abandon the antiquated notions of legitimate editorial practice which still prevail in the field in favor of approaches which have long been accepted in other disciplines.

Replacing the Head of the IAA

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY: Appointment of Israel's new antiquities chief embroiled in politics. Archeologists decry culture minister's handling of replacement of chief who recently died. (Nir Hasson, Haaretz). Excerpt:

The short list of candidates reportedly includes MK Yisrael Hasson (Kadima), former minister Effie Eitam, head of the National Heritage Program in the Prime Minister’s Office Reuven Pinsky, Deputy IAA director general Dr. Uzi Dahari and Jerusalem District Archaeologist Dr. Yuval Baruch.

Eitam, who heads an oil company set to drill in the Golan, denied his candidacy. Hasson said he was asked to contend and did not object.

After [Shuka] Dorfman’s death it transpired there was no legal procedure for appointing a successor. Culture Minister Limor Livnat, whose ministry is in charge of the authority, last week issued new regulations stipulating she is the one to decide on the new antiquities director-general.

The Israel Antiquities council, however, wants to have more influence in the process and is demanding that the committee appointed to select the new director-general consist of at least one archaeologist and three council members. The council also insists that the new director has an advanced academic degree, preferably in archaeology or Land of Israel studies.

So politics are involved. Imagine that. But how is it that there is no legal procedure for finding the replacement? This isn't the first time it's happened.

Background here.

Late fourth-century BCE tomb in Greece

THE BBC: Greek tomb at Amphipolis is 'important discovery'.

Archaeologists unearthing a burial site at Amphipolis in northern Greece have made an "extremely important find", says Greek PM Antonis Samaras.

Experts believe the tomb belonged to an important figure dating back to the last quarter of the Fourth Century BC.

A large mound complex has been unearthed at the Kasta hill site in the past two years.

Lead archaeologist Katerina Peristeri said it certainly dated from after the death of Alexander the Great.

[...]

This story has been around for a while, but seems to have a new lease on life due to the recent attention from the Greek Prime Minister. This article seems to hint that the tomb might be that of one of Alexander's generals, the Diadochoi or of his wife, Roxana or his son Alexander IV (who was born after his father's death). But Dorothy Lobel King is not ready to exclude it being the (never used) tomb of Alexander himself. David Meadows also has comments.

Middle East: Aramaic speakers and Yazidis

PERSECUTION OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES: Is the Islamic State Exterminating the Language of Jesus? We may be watching the deliberate destruction of Aramaic, unfolding in real time. (Ross Perlin, Foreign Policy).

Beyond the urgent humanitarian crisis lies a cultural and linguistic emergency of historic proportions. The extinction of a language in its homeland is rarely a natural process, but almost always reflects the pressures, persecutions, and discriminations endured by its speakers. Linguist Ken Hale famously compared the destruction of a language to "dropping a bomb on the Louvre" -- whole patterns of thought, ways of being, and entire systems of knowledge are among what is lost. If the last Aramaic speaker finally passes away two generations from now, the language will not have died of natural causes.

Background on the situation in Iraq is here and here and links. Background on Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula) is here and links. Background on Ariel Sabar's My Father's Paradise is here and links. And more on Geoffrey Khan's Aramaic database is here. Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch."

Then there are the Yazidis. They are not Aramaic speakers, but their religion has interesting and yet-to-be-clarified parallels with ancient Gnosticism. From the Times of Israel: Eight Questions About the Yazidis. Members of the Kurdish religious sect are under siege in Iraq. Who are they? What do they believe? And what is to be done? (Liel Leibovitz). Background here and links.

Conference on yētser hara within Judaism

ANOTHER EVIL CONFERENCE:

UPCOMING CONFERENCE:

The Origins of the Origins of Evil: Contesting Interpretations of the ‘Evil Inclination’ (yētser hara) within Judaism and its Impact on Early Christian Thought
2-4 September 2014
Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge
Organisers - Dr James Aitken (Cambridge), Dr Hector M. Patmore (Cardiff), and Dr Ishay Rosen-Zvi (Tel Aviv)
All welcome.
Student bursaries still available to cover accommodation and food.
More details at: http://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/research/conferences/origins or contact James Aitken, jka12@cam.ac.uk

Sent in by Dr Patmore. Evil is clearly a growth area in the field these days. See here and links, as well as here and here.

Coptic Bibliographies

AWOL: Coptic Bibliographies (from Macquarie University).

Oxford Palaeography Summer School

WORKSHOP REPORT: Greek Palaeography in Oxford (Peter Gurry, ETC Blog).

Last week was the fifth Summer School of Greek Palaeography hosted by Lincoln College in Oxford. This year’s program was run by Georgi Parpulov and a small cadre of other instructors.
The program ran for five days and concluded with a review exam on Saturday morning. The students were organized into groups of nine with each group led by a seasoned palaeographer. The majority of time was devoted to deciphering various Greek hands starting with Codex Bezae and quickly jumping to manuscripts from the 8th–15th century (so almost all minuscules). My own group spent time with about 30 manuscripts and I assume most of the other groups were the same. The focus was decidedly on matters of palaeography and codicology, so there was very little translation.

[...]

JLA Conference 2014

CONFERENCE REPORT: A Positively Diverse JLA Conference (Sara Ronis, The Talmud Blog).

Three weeks ago, I set out for Antwerp, Belgium for the Jewish Law Association international conference. The Jewish Law Association brings together academics, lawyers, dayyanim and ethicists from Israel, Europe and North and South America to have conversations about Jewish law in a variety of historical time periods, locations, and contexts.

The theme for this year’s four-day conference was Judaism, Law and Literature, and consciously drew from a wide range of sources and approaches. ...

Tigchelaar (ed.), Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the Scriptures

IN THE MAIL:

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the Scriptures

Series:
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 270 [Peeters]

Editors: Tigchelaar E.

Year: 2014
ISBN: 978-90-429-3128-2
Pages: XXVI-526 p.
Price: 95 EURO

Summary:
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the Scriptures contains the papers of the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense 2012, which focused on a series of contemporary questions in Pseudepigrapha research. The papers discuss the relationship of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha to scriptures, both in a technical sense (how did authors rewrite or interpret Scripture) and in a literary sense (how and why did authors expand or extend earlier scriptures). Many papers cover the phenomenon of pseudepigraphy, giving explanations ranging from pious forgery through various kinds of literary devices to authorial self-effacement. Some contributions discuss the historically fluid boundaries between canonical and pseudepigraphic texts, and the production and use of Old Testament pseudepigrapha in early Christianity.

The volume contains papers on texts like Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, other Dead Sea Scrolls texts, the Sibylline Oracles, Baruch, the Testament of Abraham, 4 Ezra, Jannes and Jambres, the Latin Vision of Ezra, the Life of Adam and Eve, the Story of Melchizedek, and the Story of Zosimus, as well as detailed studies on aspects of other texts like, e.g., 2 Baruch and the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum.

I attended the 2012 Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense and posted on it here. My paper, "Seven Theses Concerning the Use of Scripture in 4 Ezra and The Latin Vision of Ezra," is published in this volume.

Cross-file under "New Book."

Sanctity and sacred trash in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: How Can We Respect Both the Sanctity of Jewish Things and the Practical Needs of the Jews? In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ Talmudic rabbis debate the value of recycling, upselling, renovation, and sacred trash.

Very early in the Daf Yomi cycle, way back in Tractate Berakhot, I remember reading about the principle that in sacred things, we elevate and do not lower. In a debate over the right way to light candles on Hanukkah, Beit Shammai argued that we should start with eight candles on the first night and then reduce the number each night; Beit Hillel, by contrast, said that we should start with one candle and build up to eight. As usual, Hillel’s interpretation prevailed, because of the principle that we should always try to increase our sanctity, rather than lessen it.

[...]

As Kirsch notes, this principle led in a roundabout way to the preservation of the Cairo Geniza. The writer of the sub-heading makes a quiet nod in this direction with the phrase "sacred trash."

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Delēta est Carthago

PUNIC WATCH: In Carthage (Josephine Quinn, London Review of Books Blog).

Earlier this month a double celebration took place at Carthage, once the greatest city in the Mediterranean, destroyed by the Romans at the end of the Punic Wars and now a seaside suburb of Tunis. The anniversary of Hannibal’s defeat of the Roman army at Cannae in southern Italy on 2 August 216 BCE could be commemorated on the same day (2/8) as the beginning of the 2828th year since the foundation of the city by the Tyrian princess Dido in 814 BCE. Scholarly talks on Carthage and its heroes were followed by a carnival, including a parade from the acropolis to the amphitheatre with Carthaginian and Roman soldiers.

The Tunisian embrace of Dido, Hannibal and their city might seem surprising. ...

[...]

I'm sorry to have missed that party.

Adiabene meets Stalingrad?

A QUESTIONABLE ANALOGY: Once the capital of a proud Jewish queen, Erbil could emerge as Obama’s Stalingrad With guns blazing, more Americans could resort to the binary ‘with us or against us’ test by which Israel is surely with the U.S. and Hamas is definitely with its enemies. (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz)

Bar-hoppers on Monobaz Street and Israel Radio workers in the adjacent Heleni Hamalka Road near the Russian Compound in central Jerusalem might be surprised to learn that they are indirectly linked to the new American military campaign in Iraq. Heleni the Queen, as she is known in Hebrew, along with her husband Monobaz I and two sons, Izates and Monobaz II, ruled the ancient kingdom of Adiabene in Assyria and converted to Judaism in 30 AD: They financed parts of the Second Temple, built palaces in the City of David, helped fend off Roman onslaughts on Judea and are buried in the Kings Tombs near today’s American Colony Hotel.

And their center of government was in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, the city that is now under threat by Islamic State forces, which could emerge – in a wild exaggeration of course – as Barack Obama’s Stalingrad.

This was the upshot, at least, of the U.S. president’s Saturday morning address on the White House lawn, moments before he took off for his peculiarly-timed summer vacation. On Sinjar Mountain, Obama made clear that he is now committed to the much more complicated task of extricating them to safety as well. And only 24 hours after U.S. Navy F-18A Hornets dropped their first laser guided bombs on ISIS positions near Erbil “to protect Americans,” as the Pentagon said, Obama promised not to withdraw the American consulate from the city. By inference, and to all intents and purposes, Obama is pledging that Erbil, taken from Jewish Adiabene by the Roman Emperor Caracalla in 196 AD when its name was Arbella, won’t fall again.

[...]

Without in any way discounting the difficulties of the current situation, I just don't get the analogy with Stalingrad. Erbil is in Kurdish territory and is defended by the Kurds, apparently now with the help of the Americans (and indirectly, the British), against an attack by ISIS. Stalingrad was on Soviet territory and was successfully defended by the Soviets, again (considerably more indirectly) with the help of the Americans and the British, against an attack by the Nazis. It was a major turning point in the failure of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa. I certainly hope Erbil does not deteriorate into a Stalingrad scenario, but it is ISIS, not America, who is playing the role of the Nazis in the analogy, and that isn't a particularly good omen for ISIS.

Be all that as it may (and I wish Erbil well whatever happens), the central interest for PaleoJudaica is in ancient Erbil (Adiabene). I have posted on Adiabene before, but only in association with Queen Helene of Adiabene and only with reference to architecture connected with her in Jerusalem. See here, here, here, here, here, and here. Note especially the last and most recent link, which discusses the somewhat complicated problem of her tomb in Jerusalem.

Was Herod ripped off?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Is Jerusalem’s Western Wall falling down? Some of the holy site’s stones are rapidly eroding, putting the wall at risk, Israeli researchers say (Andrew Tobin, Times of Israel)

Parts of the Western Wall are eroding 100 times faster than others, potentially undermining the stability of the ancient Jewish holy site, according to a new study, indicating it might be in danger of collapse hundreds of years in the future.

[...]

It seems that some of the stones in the Western Wall are sub-standard.

The stones that are eroding more quickly are made of fine-grained limestone that crumbles more readily after exposure to water, the study finds.

“Rainwater gets into the stones and causes dissolution. It’s similar to what happens to a sugar cube when it’s dunked in coffee,” said Dr. Simon Emmanuel, an earth scientist specializing in the interaction of water and rock, who conducted the study along with earth sciences doctoral student Yael Levenson at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “The stones that are made of finer crystals fall apart much more easily.”

[...]

The researchers say the average erosion rates they calculated would not endanger the wall for at least several hundred years, although it is possible that catastrophic erosion could happen at any time.

“It looks like Herod might have been the victim of shoddy contractors,” joked Emmanuel. “He was an ambitious builder, and there was intense demand for limestone at the time. Some corners may have been cut.”

[...]

The lowest bid isn't always the best one.

Tu B'av

MAKING A COMEBACK? Tu B'av: The Jewish Valentine's Day that came from prehistory. Dying for the Golden Calf? Celebrating tribal intermarriage? Or, simply, marking the summer equinox? Whatever its origin, latter-day Zionists liked this holiday. (Elon Gilad, Haaretz).

On the 15th of the summer month of Av, under a full moon, young Jewish men and women dressed in white would go out and dance in the vineyards of ancient Judea.

That is practically all we know about this most ancient of holidays.

We know it because of a single passage in the Mishnah, quoting Simeon ben Gamliel: “No days were as good for Israel as the 15th of Av and the Day of Atonement, on which the sons of Jerusalem would go out in borrowed white clothes...and the girls of Jerusalem would go out and dance in the vineyards” (Ta’anit 10).

The question is why. There are a few clues.

There's something about marriage

What was this dancing about? The sages of the Talmud were evidently somewhat puzzled by this, since the Talmud gives us six different answers.

[...]

Most of the explanations don't sound very romantic.

The Jerusalem Post has coverage as well: Tu Be’av: Boy meets girl... in ancient Israel (Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg)

Review of Geiger, Hellenism in the East

BRYN MAWR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Joseph Geiger, Hellenism in the East: Studies on Greek Intellectuals in Palestine. Historia Einzelschriften 229. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2014. Pp. 177. ISBN 9783515106177. €49.00.

Reviewed by Bruno Rochette, Université de Liège (bruno.rochette@ulg.ac.be)

Depuis l’époque hellénistique jusqu’à la période byzantine, la Palestine fut une terre fertile en intellectuels grecs, poètes, prosateurs et philosophes – depuis le philosophe cynique Ménippe, le poète Méléagre et le penseur épicurien Philodème, tous les trois de Gadara, jusqu’à Marinos de Naplouse, le dernier scholarque de l’école néoplatonicienne d’Athènes, et Procope de Césarée, l’historien du temps de Justinien. Il faut reconnaître que ces auteurs n’ont pas reçu l’attention qu’ils méritaient. Le même constat vaut pour les intellectuels issus d’Ascalon, à l’exception du philosophe Antiochos, qui fut le maître de Varron et de Cicéron, et du mathématicien Eutocios, auteur de commentaires sur certains écrits d’Archimède et sur les Sections coniques d’Apollonios de Pergé. Si l’on met à part l’École de Gaza aux Ve et VIe s.,1 personne n’a jamais tenté de replacer ces intellectuels grecs de Palestine dans leur environnement, ni d’analyser leur contribution à la vie culturelle grecque des habitants de cette région. De surcroît, si le milieu intellectuel de certains grands centres, comme Antioche, Alexandrie ou Athènes à l’époque romaine, a fait l’objet d’une grande attention, il en va tout autrement pour des villes secondaires. Or, une telle approche pourrait éclairer sous un autre angle notre image de l’hellénisme, que nous percevons principalement à travers la situation dans les grands centres. Une question découle de ce constat : la civilisation dans une région bien définie avec certaines caractéristiques propres avait-elle un caractère distinctif ou bien cette section du monde grec était-elle une partie de ce dernier sans aucun signe particulier qui puisse la distinguer de l’ensemble ?

L’ouvrage tente d’apporter des éléments de réponse à cette problématique. Il est divisé en trois parties, dont certaines comportent des recherches déjà publiées.2 La première est une prosopographie des intellectuels grecs en Palestine. La deuxième est consacrée aux intellectuels grecs originaires d’Ascalon. La troisième étudie la diffusion de la littérature latine en Palestine.

[...]

John Allegro website

John Marco Allegro is a website about and in defense of Mr. Allegro and his controversial work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

HT Eibert Tigchelaar at the Facebook IOQS page. More on Allegro is noted here and here. The link to the Bible and Interpretation essay by his daughter, Judith Anne Brown, has rotted, but you can read it at the new link here. And her book on her father is available here.

Tarbiz 82.2

THE HEBREW JOURNAL TARBIZ has a new issue out (82.2). TOC in English translation:

The articles in this volume:

Alexander Rofé - Redressing the Calamity in the Transmission of the Bible

Yonatan Feintuch - The Textual Development of the Aggadah of Rav Ada b. Abba (b BB 22a) in Light of the Evidence of an Early Genizah Fragment

Avi Shmidman - Quina Poems for the 10th of Tevet and the 17th of Tamuz

Avraham Fraenkel - Kingdoms and their Harsh Decrees in Medieval Italian Jewish Poetry

Tzahi Weiss - ‘Most of the Errant Err in Malkhut’: The Worship of the Shekhinah in Early Kabbalah

Tsippi Kauffman - Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Przysucha

English and Hebrew Abstracts

Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder sold

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder Goes for $605,000! (Megan Sauter).

While the Cyrus Cylinder has been making its rounds on an international exhibition circuit,a another cylinder of a famous Mesopotamian emperor has recently been brought to the public eye. One of Nebuchadnezzar’s cuneiform cylinders was auctioned off on April 9, 2014, by Doyle New York, Auctioneers and Appraisers for $605,000. The purchaser of the cylinder has requested to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, his anonymity may make it difficult for further scholarly study of the text.

[...]

The Neo-Babylonian kings were very interested in ancient (already to them) Babylonian history and put a lot of effort into restoring old temples. They even engaged in very primitive archaeological efforts to find inscriptions by their predecessors — for example, in cornerstones like the one mentioned in this article. The sixth-century BCE King of Babylon Nabonidus was a keen amateur archaeologist and philologist, which contributed to later generations looking down on him as something between a nerdy poser and a madman. See the related story here about his daughter, Ennigaldi-Nanna, who seems to have taken after her father. Likewise, the Neo-Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (7th century) is mostly know for his cruel conquests in the Middle East, but he too had a great interest in ancient Babylonian history and he amassed a substantial library of Babylonian texts in Nineveh. For more on Nabonidus and Ashurbanipal as ancient historians, see:

Eckart Frahm, "Keeping Company with Men of Learning: The King as Scholar," in The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture (ed. Karen Radner and Sleanor Robson; OUP, 2011), pp. 508-532.

Much more on the Cyrus Cylinder is here and links.

I very much hope that the new owner of the Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder will make the artifact available for scholars to study, even while remaining anonymous. This will only increase its value, so everybody wins.

Eshel and Levine (eds.), “See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me” (Ps 40:8)

NEW BOOK FROM VANDENHOECK AN RUPRECHT IN MEMORY OF HANAN ESHEL:

Esther Eshel, Yigal Levin (Ed.)
“See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me” (Ps 40:8)
Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud

Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Hanan Eshel

1. Edition 2014
245 pages
ISBN 978-3-525-55062-5
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Journal of Ancient Judaism. Supplements -
99,99 €
incl. VAT
plus S&H
If you have placed a standing order for the series: 89,99 €
PDF eBook 79,99 €

In January 2011, the David and Jemima Jeselsohn Epigraphic Center for Jewish History held its second international conference at Bar-Ilan University, dedicated to the memory of Professor Hanan Eshel, the founding academic director of the center who passed away on April 8th, 2010. This collection of articles, traces, when taken together, daily lifein the land of Israel from the First Temple Period through the time of the Talmud, as seen in the various types of inscriptions from those periods that have been discovered and published. Schiffman’s summary of Hanan’s work serves as an introduction to the book. Ahituv discusses the language and religious outlook of the Kuntilet ‘Ajrud inscriptions. Mazar and Ahituv survey the quite large corpus of short inscriptions found in Mazar’s excavation of Tel Re?ov, south of Beth-Shean. Maeir and Eshel deal with four very short more-or-less contemporary inscriptions found at Tell es-Safi, identified as the major Philistine city of Gath. Demsky deals with the theoretical aspects of literacy in ancient Israel. Grabbe discusses the functions of the scribe during the Second Temple Period. Zissu, Langford, Ecker and Eshel report on both an Aramaic-language graffito and a Latin one, inscribed on the wall of a first and 2nd century CE oil press from of Khirbet ‘Arâk Hâla in the Judean Shephelah. Rappaport’s survey of Jewish coins from the Persian Period through the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, focusing on the Hasmonean coins. Amit describes a group of bread stamps and oil seals, in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin, found in different parts of the country. Klein and Mamalya describe two Byzantine Period Nabatean Christian burial sites and their epitaphs.

More on Hanan Eshel here, here, here, here, and links.

The Talmud on Hebrew

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: American Jews Speak English, but Our Sacred Texts Are in Hebrew. What happens when the most authoritative guardians of the tradition are sometimes baffled by the tradition themselves?

You don’t have to spend much time in a Reform or Conservative synagogue to realize that American Judaism has a language problem, one that’s simple to describe but hard to solve. American Jews speak English, but our sacred texts—the Torah readings, the prayers—are in Hebrew. As a result, most of us don’t know what we’re hearing, or even what we’re saying, during a prayer service. Yet if you try to reduce the amount of Hebrew in the service, by saying prayers in English, you lose the sense of connection with ancient tradition that is such a large part of Jewish spirituality. The only real solution to this dilemma would be for every Jew to become fluent in Hebrew, but we will be waiting a long time before that day comes.

It was consoling to read Daf Yomi this week, then, and realize that this is not just an American problem; it’s been with Judaism since the Babylonian exile. The language of the Tanakh is Hebrew, but by the time the Talmud was compiled, the Jewish people even in the Holy Land no longer spoke Hebrew as a native language; instead, they spoke the closely related Aramaic. And Jews in other parts of the classical world didn’t even know Aramaic, conducting their lives instead in Greek. Indeed, Philo of Alexandria, the biblical commentator who lived in the 1st century C.E., based his detailed explication of the Torah on the Greek translation known as the Septuagint; it’s not certain that he even knew Hebrew at all. Judaism has been a religion of and in translation almost since the beginning.

[...]

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Books on John Dee

IN THE MAIL:

Christopher Whitby, John Dee's Actions with Spirits (Volumes 1 and 2): 22 December 1581 to 23 May 1583: 1-2 (Routledge, 1988 pbk. rpt. 2013)

Nicholas H. Clulee , John Dee's Natural Philosophy: Between Science and Religion (Routledge, 1988 pbk. rpt. 2014)

Background here and links.

Research Assistant: Hebrew and Aramaic Qumran-Dictionary, Göttingen

JOB:

Research Assistantship, Hebrew and Aramaic Qumran-Dictionary, Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany

The Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities invites applications for a Research Assistantship associated with the Hebrew and Aramaic Qumran-Dictionary. Applicants, who must also be fluent in German, are expected to have excellent Hebrew Language skills. Some interest and experience in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible would be an advantage. Information can be found on the website of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities: http://adw-goe.de/en/about-us/job-offers/. Applications will be reviewed beginning Monday, September 15, 2014, and it is recommended that the usual application materials be submitted before that date.

I have posted the English version of the advert (provided by Annette Steudel as circulated on the Agade list and by Eibert Tigchelaar on the Facebook IOQS page), but note that the job requires fluency in German.

Seth Sanders strives for preeminence

COULD BE ... Could This Be the Most Pretentious Semitic Philology Footnote of the 21st Century? But the 21st century is still young.

Related post here.

McGrath on Notsrim in the Talmud

JAMES MCGRATH: Notsrim in the Talmud: Mandaeans, Christians, or Both? This in response to a recent Daf Yomi column by Adam Kirsh in Tablet. Lots more on the Mandaeans (Mandeans) here and links.

More persecution of the Yazidis reported

ACCORDING TO AN IRAQI MP: Who Cares About an Impending Genocide in Iraq? Amid deafening international silence, tens of thousands of Yazidis are dying at the hands of the 'Islamic State'. (Ari Soffer, Arutz Sheva). More on the Yazidis (whose religion seems to have connections with Gnosticism) and the persecution that has been inflicted on them in recent years is noted here and here and links.

Selwood on the two Jewish revolts against Rome

DOMINIC SELWOOD: Two millennia after the sack of Jerusalem, what does history tell us about violence in the Middle East? (The Telegraph). This longish article, published on Tisha B'Av in the context of the current Israel-Gaza conflict, covers the history of the Great Revolt against Rome in 66-74 CE, as presented by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, and also covers the Bar Kokhba Revolt of 132-135 CE and its background. It is a thorough summary and is pretty accurate, although it does not distinguish between Zealots and Sicarii, which Josephus treats (in a not particularly clear way) as two different movements. It is the Sicarii who held out until the end at Masada. As for the question in the headline, Selwood concludes:

The eastern Mediterranean seaboard is — and has always been — a troubled region that has seen too much blood spilled for one reason or another, all of which seemed important at the time. As Churchill noted, so bluntly but accurately, the first casualty of war is truth. And the truth of the land is that the various competing webs and roots of nationhood, identity, and memory that have flourished for millennia are thick and run deep into its dust and soil.

As Josephus observed, “as for war, if it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again.” History may not repeat itself exactly, but it does teach us lessons. One thing is certain: in 1,000 years’ time, the Near East will look different. And perhaps the lesson for the troubled land is that throughout history extreme military force has been used there time and time again — but, in over five millennia, it has never yet brought lasting peace for anyone.

More from Mr. Selwood on the Knights Templar is noted here.

Coins from the Great Revolt

TWO RECENT DISCOVERIES: Trove of Jewish Revolt coins discovered near Jerusalem Bronze bits minted months before destruction of temple on Tisha B’Av; ‘Judea Capta’ coin found in north in summer excavations (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

A hoard of coins from the fourth year of the Jewish Revolt against Rome — minted months before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE — was found outside the capital and announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority on Tuesday to coincide with the Ninth of Av, the date commemorating the destruction of the Second Temple.

The trove, which consists of 114 bronze coins, was unearthed during the expansion of Route 1, the major highway connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, in February. In the past several months, the IAA team led by Judea District chief archaeologist Pablo Betzer has excavated the remains of a small Roman-era Jewish village near the modern town of Abu Ghosh. Amid the ruins was a broken juglet containing the verdigris-coated coins.

[...]

The announcement came shortly after the discovery of another ancient coin in the far northern site of Bethsaida, to the north of the Sea of Galilee. A team led by Professor Rami Arav of the University of Nebraska, Omaha, found a Roman coin this summer from the years immediately after the revolt bearing the phrase “Judea Capta,” commemorating the victory over the Jewish rebels and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

[...]

Other notable coin finds at Bethsaida in recent years are noted here and here and links.

Music inspired by Hannibal

PUNIC WATCH:

Esperti Project
Le Voyage d'Hannibal
Eclectic Art Records (www.espertiproject.com)

"I will either find a way, or make one." These famous words are attributed to Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca and Carthaginian commander of the First Punic War (264-241 BC). The proverb also applies to the sonic paths taken by Andrea Esperti, whose eponymous trio project sonically re-imagines the legendary military leader's travels.

Andrea Esperti "When I was young I studied the history of Hannibal and Rome," recalls the Italian trombonist and composer in our email interview, "and I immediately appreciated the courage, strength, and will of this man. No one would have thought he could win against the strongest empire in the world. His accomplishment therefore goes beyond historical fact. It's an encouragement to realize our dreams and overcome obstacles."

Joining Andrea for this journey is his brother Antonio Esperti, a formally trained musician versed in the traditional music of Italy. He plays duduk, clarinets, and recites original poetry inspired by Hannibal's cartographic sweep.

With them is Luca Fusconi, a veteran circuit-bender who holds the narrative together with his spacious electronics.

[...]

Follow the links to listen to some of the music.

Diesel still keen on Punic films

VIN DIESEL, interviewed about the challenges of his latest acting role playing a tree, mentions in passing that he still very much hopes to complete his long-awaited movie (trilogy) on Hannibal (and the Punic Wars):

In stark contrast to the part-animated comic book blockbuster, the 'Fast and the Furious' star is hoping to complete a historical film trilogy, based on the three Punic wars - fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC - which he has had in the pipeline for a decade.

He explained: 'As so many people know, I want to do this his historical piece. And I want to do the trilogy about the Punic wars it's still something that I have been working on the 10 years and it's something that has to be realised.'

Background going back to 2005 is here and links. Cross-file under "Punic Watch."

Joosten becomes Regius Professor of Hebrew

CONGRATULATIONS TO JAN JOOSTEN:

Press release
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford University: Jan Joosten

From: Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street
History: Published 24 July 2014
Part of: Higher education

The Queen has approved that Professor Jan Joosten be appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford.

The Queen has approved that Professor Jan Joosten ThM, PhD, Professor of Old Testament Exegesis at the University of Strasbourg, be appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford in succession to Professor Hugh Williamson, MA PhD DD Camb DD Oxf FBA, who retires on 30 September.

Professor Jan Joosten

Professor Joosten (55) has been Professor of Old Testament Exegesis at the University of Strasbourg since 2004, before which he was Professor of Biblical Philology (1994-2004). Prior to this he was Lecturer in Biblical Hebrew at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Brussels (1991-94), Pastor of the United Protestant Church in Belgium (1988-94) and Lecturer of Old Testament at the École de Théologie in Butare, Rwanda (1985-87).

Professor Joosten was born in Belgium and holds degrees in Theology from the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Brussels (1981) and from Princeton (1982), and doctorates from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1989) and Brussels (1994). He has a considerable international reputation in the field of Old Testament / Hebrew Bible engaging particularly with Biblical Hebrew Syntax, the Septuagint, and Old Testament exegetical questions.

Streaker ring?

ARTIFACT: 'Naked runner' sheds light on a little-known art of ancient Rome. The carved jasper stone, found in Israel, was apparently commissioned by a wealthy man and passed down for generations ( Ran Shapira, Haaretz).

A unique gemstone found in Israel that may have adorned a ring has shed light on a little known art in ancient Rome: fine carving.

On the floor of a room dating to the early Byzantium period, around 4th century CE, archaeologists spotted a red gemstone beautifully engraved with the figure of a naked running man holding a laurel wreath in one hand.

Or maybe he's holding a wreath of olive branches. It's hard to tell. In any case, in the other hand the bare gentleman holds what is clearly a date palm branch.

Based on his research, the engraving on the stone is unique in the annals of Israeli excavation, says Dr. Michael Eisenberg of Haifa University's Zinman Institute of Archaeology, director of the Shikmona Excavation Project.

Modern forensics in search of answers

Human remains at Tel Shikmona and the nearby town date from the Late Bronze to the Late Byzantine period, but the gemstone appears to date from the Roman era, indicating that it may have been handed down over generations.

[...]

The Zohar

ZOHAR WATCH: Print puts the Zohar in reach of the masses. Controversy still surrounds the foundation text of Jewish mysticism, which was first printed in 1558 and written nearly 300 — or 1,400 — years earlier (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz). A nice little summary of the history and reception of the Zohar. Excerpt:

Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Jews during the period of the Second Temple (leading to endless arguments over which language Jesus actually spoke), and the language in the Zohar has been described as an “exalted” form of the language. But based on the form of the Aramaic used, latter-day academics believe de Leon wrote the books himself, which to some detracts from their sacredness and authority.

That hasn’t touched its standing among today’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, which takes its writings with deadly seriousness. It is sometimes quoted in daily life, for instance when raising money for charity. The Zohar has also been used as a source for hexes, and is often wrongly associated with being the source of the infamous “pulsa denura” (“whip of fire”) curse of death. The Zohar mentions the curse, but no more.

Zohar specialists seem to think it's more complicated than Moses de León writing the Zohar all by himself, but they agree that it was produced in his time and he was involved in a central way. For much more on the Zohar, especially Daniel Matt's new edition and English translation of it, see here and links. Also, there's lots more on the pulsa de-nura curse rite here and links, and on the golem tradition (mentioned later in the article) here and links.

Hamas in Hebrew

FOLK ETYMOLOGIZING: Word of the Day / Hamas: The terror movement that didn't do its Hebrew homework. It's quite the coincidence and 'Hamas' terror is spelled differently from 'hamas' the nasty act, but both originate from the Aramaic for 'hard' (Shoshana Kordova, Haaretz). The headline just about sums up the article.

Tisha B'Av

TISHA B'Av (THE NINTH OF AV) begins this evening at sundown. An easy fast to all those observing it.

More from Schiffman on schisms

LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN has put up two more blog posts on Schisms in Jewish history: Sectarianism in the Second Temple Period and The Jewish-Christian Schism. Earlier posts in the series are noted here.

More Brill books

NEW BOOKS FROM BRILL:

Violence in Ancient Christianity
Victims and Perpetrators

Edited by Albert C. Geljon and Riemer Roukema

Ancient Christianity had an ambivalent stance toward violence. Jesus had instructed his disciples to love their enemies, and in the first centuries Christians were proud of this lofty teaching and tried to apply it to their persecutors and to competing religious groups. Yet at the same time they testify to their virulent verbal criticism of Jews, heretics and pagans, who could not accept the Christian exclusiveness. After emperor Constantine had turned to Christianity, Christians acquired the opportunity to use violence toward competing groups and pagans, even though they were instructed to love them personally and Jewish-Christian relationships flourished at grass root level. General analyses and case studies demonstrate that the fashionable distinction between intolerant monotheism and tolerant polytheism must be qualified.


A Universal Art. Hebrew Grammar across Disciplines and Faiths

Edited by Nadia Vidro, University of Cambridge, Irene E. Zwiep, University of Amsterdam, and Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, EPHE/IRHT-CNRS, Paris

A Universal Art. Hebrew Grammar Across Disciplines and Faiths reflects on medieval and early modern Hebrew linguistics as a discipline that crossed geographic and religious borders and linked up with a plethora of scholarly activities, from Judaeo-Arabic Bible translations to the Renaissance search for the holiest alphabet. This collection of articles presents a cross-section of new research avenues on Hebraism, Karaite, Rabbanite and Christian, with an emphasis on the transmission of linguistic ideas through time and space among different communities, cultures and religious currents. The resulting picture is one of intrinsic variation and dynamic growth as opposed to the linear paradigm of development, culmination and stagnation current in the historiography of Hebrew linguistics.


The Comfort of Kin
Samaritan Community, Kinship, and Marriage

Monika Schreiber, University of Vienna

In The Comfort of Kin Monika Schreiber presents a study of the social and religious life of the Samaritans, a minority in modern Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Utilizing approaches ranging from anthropological theory and method to comparative history and religion, she approaches this community from diverse empirical and epistemic angles. Her account of the Samaritans, usually studied for their Bible and their role in ancient history, is enriched by a thorough treatment of the Samaritan family, a powerful institution rooted in notions of patrilineal descent and perpetuated in part by consanguineous marriage (which differs from incest in degree rather than in kind). Schreiber also discusses how the tiny community is affected by its demographic predicament, intermarriage, and identity issues.

Brazilan Temple completed

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH (REPLICA EDITION): It's Solomon's Temple, complete with helipad (Isabel De Bertodano, The Jewish Chronicle).

A vast replica of Solomon's Temple opened this week in Sao Paulo, with the capacity to seat 10,000 followers of the evangelical Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

The temple, which engulfs an entire city block and cost about £176 million to build, has polarised opinion, particularly among the Jewish community from which it borrows much of its most eye-catching symbolism.

The temple was built using stone from Israel and contains a number of conspicuous menorahs and an altar imitating the Ark of the Covenant.

[...]

This project was noted earlier here. Other, less ambitious, replicas of the Temple are noted here and here and links. And a couple of related posts are here and here. Cross-file under "Cant Make It Up."

Jack Sasson honored

CONGRATULATIONS TO JACK SASSON: Jack Sasson’s scholarly efforts in Assyriology honored (Ann Marie Deer Owens, researchnews@vanderbilt).

Jack M. Sasson, the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt, has been inducted into the International Association for Assyriology’s Honorary Council. Sasson, who is also a professor of classics, is one of a dozen scholars to receive this prestigious honor in recent years. The announcement was made July 24 in Warsaw at the group’s annual meeting and during the 60th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, a yearly five-day conference that is open to all those who are interested in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology.

[...]

Besides his important scholarly work on the Mari Letters, etc., Jack keeps our inboxes full to bursting with his Agade List.

HT Joseph Lauer, whose e-mail message also points to relevant links here, here, here, and here.

Shuka Dorfman, 1950-2014

SAD NEWS: Israel Antiquities Authority Director, Shuka Dorfman, 64, z’l (The Jewish Press).

The man who has led the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) into the future of hi-tech since November 2000, Shuka Dorfman, passed away today (Thursday) at 64 after a serious illness.

He will be laid to rest Friday at 2 pm in Gedera.

[...]

The Hebrew press release by the IAA is here. May his memory be for a blessing.

Hurtado on blogging and scholarship

LARRY HURTADO: Scholarly Work and the “Blogosphere.” Excerpt:

Scholarly work intended to have an impact on the field isn’t done in blogging. The amount of data, its complexity, the analysis and argumentation involved, and the engagement with the work of other scholars that forms an essential feature of scholarly work all require more space than a few hundred words of a blog-posting, or a few paragraphs of blog-comment. So, it’s rather unrealistic (not to say bizarre) for some commenters to assume otherwise.

Via James McGrath, who has comments on Larry's post here and who is pretty much in agreement. I agree too. The blog is not a natural format for producing original scholarly work, although sometimes it can be used that way (as noted, for example, here). And this discussion indirectly supports my decision not to allow comments on my blog (although Larry and James, bless them, do allow them).

Talmudic exegesis of Esther

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: When the Talmud Offers Close Readings of Sacred Fictions. Antic embellishments, like Esther being good in bed, help Talmudic rabbis to more fully explicate the text’s divine meaning. Excerpt:

But the rabbis, it turns out, had a different and much greater kind of freedom. To them, every letter and word of the Bible was put there by God, which meant that every letter and word had a meaning. If the same word appeared in a verse in Exodus and again in a verse in Chronicles, then there must be some essential relationship between the two verses that the reader was meant to discover. And the rabbinic reader of the Bible was not even bound by the plain sense of the words: He was free to invent episodes, multiply motives, and add characters, if the result seemed to him a fuller explication of the text’s divine meaning.

This week’s Daf Yomi reading, which brought us to the end of Chapter 1 of Tractate Megilla, offered a master class in this kind of midrashic reading. Over seven pages of Gemara, the rabbis engaged in a chapter-by-chapter, sometimes line-by-line analysis of the Book of Esther, after which the tractate is named. The result is practically a rewriting of the Esther story, full of new details that seem to spring from nowhere but the minds of the rabbis themselves yet are treated as deep truths that the text must have contained from the beginning. At times euphemistic and puritanical, at times surprisingly frank, the rabbis show how they take the ambiguous story of Esther and assimilate it to their own worldview.

The catchword principle is one of the keys to understanding both rabbinic and Second Temple Jewish exegesis of scripture.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links. More posts having to do with exegesis of the Book of Esther up to the present (including Haman as barber) are here and here and links.

Translation of the Suda completed

AN ARMY OF TRANSLATORS: Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography. From the Overview page:

Certain fundamental sources for the study of the ancient world are currently accessible only to a few specially trained researchers because they have never been provided with a sufficiently convenient interpretive apparatus or, in some cases, even translated into modern languages. The Suda On Line project attacks that inaccessibility by engaging the efforts of scholars world-wide in the translation and annotation of a substantial text that is being made available exclusively through the internet. We have chosen to begin with the Byzantine encyclopedia known as the Suda, a 10th century CE compilation of material on ancient literature, history, and biography. A massive work of about 30,000 entries, and written in sometimes dense Byzantine Greek prose, the Suda is an invaluable source for many details that would otherwise be unknown to us about Greek and Roman antiquity, as well as an important text for the study of Byzantine intellectual history.

The project has recently been completed, in the sense that all the entries have been translated, but the work will continue to be revised and developed. From the The History of the Suda On Line page:

At present (July 2014), the family of active and emerita/us SOL contributors comprises over 200 individuals from five continents and more than 20 countries, but geography is not the only aspect that makes this group diverse and eclectic. In addition to research-active university faculty, our roster has included retired professors, scholars in countries where the internet provides an invaluable supplement to meager local resources, and talented classicists who for one reason or another have ended up in careers other than higher education. One of the great benefits of SOL is the opportunity the project gives to such scholars to make a valuable contribution to the field. SOL has also been used to good effect in the classroom. Instructors at several colleges and universities have assigned entries to graduate and advanced undergraduate students for supervised translating and annotating, and hundreds of their contributions are now a permanent part of the database and can be listed as published scholarly works on the students’ CV's. One of our most prolific contributors, Jennifer Benedict (over 4500 translations), did most of her work on the SOL as an undergraduate at William & Mary. Several scholars, including Peter Green, Malcolm Heath and John Melville-Jones, donated translations of entries that they had done previously for other purposes.

A translation of the last of the Suda’s 31000+ entries was submitted to the database on July 21, 2014 and vetted the next day. This milestone is very gratifying, but the work of the project is far from over. As mentioned above, one of the founding principles of the project is that the process of improving and annotating our translations will go on indefinitely. Much important work remains to be done. We are also constantly thinking of ways to improve SOL's infrastructure and to add new tools and features. If you are interested in helping us with the continuing betterment of SOL, please read about how you can register as an editor and/or contact the managing editors.

This is a Byzantine-era work, but many of the entries are potentially of interest to ancient Judaism and its reception. For example, see the many results when you run the search term "Hebrew" through the translation search engine.

(Via AWOL.)

(Modern) Phoenician metal sculpture

PHOENICIAN WATCH: In ancient Byblos, metal sculptures add a modern touch (Nohad Topalian, Al-Shorfa.com).

Lebanese artist Sami Khoury is lighting up the ancient walls of UNESCO's International Centre for Human Sciences in Byblos with 34 plaques sculpted out of aged metal which portray three-dimensional Phoenician figures.

The exhibition, titled "Ahiram: Metal and Light" after the Phoenician king of Byblos, will remain on display through August 20th.

Khoury, a well-known choreographer who is trying his hand at sculpture for the first time, spoke with Al-Shorfa about his new project.

[...]

Ahiram, King of Byblos c. 1000 BCE, and his inscribed sarcophagus are well known, at least to Northwest Semitic epigraphers.

Snowpiercer

GNOSTICISM WATCH: How an Obscure 2nd Century Christian Heresy Influenced Snowpiercer (Michael M. Hughes, io9).

Wilford, the creator of the eponymous Snowpiercer in Bong Joon-ho's visionary science fiction epic, has fabricated our world in microcosm. It's an enormous, interconnected ecosystem that — because of its function as an ark for the all that remains of humanity —truly is their only world (young Timmy calls it "the whole wide train"). Snowpiercer flips the Gnostic model of the cosmos sideways, however, and instead of moving vertically from the lower material world to the higher, more exalted spiritual realm, the tail-enders' quest takes them horizontally from the Dickensian hell of the caboose to the rarified heaven of the eternal engine.

Sounds like an interesting movie.

More on Gnosticism's influence on films and in other modern contexts here, here, and here, and links

Crowdfunding campaign for Third Temple

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Online Campaign Aims to Build Third Temple. The Temple Institute launches an indiegogo campaign to build the Third Temple, under the title: 'Don't make history, make the future' (Arutz Sheva). I say it again: no building or excavation on the Temple Mount unless and until it can be done using non-invasive and non-destructive scanning technologies.

More on the Temple Institute is here and links.

Destruction in Mosul

MODERN ARAMAIC WATCH: Does Jonah's tomb signal the death of Christianity in Iraq? (Joel S. Baden and Candida Moss, CNN). (The (traditional) Tomb of Jonah in Mosul was reportedly destroyed by ISIS last week. I have refrained from commenting until now to see if the story held up, but current indications are that it is true.) Excerpt:

Last week, ISIS reportedly issued an ultimatum to Christians that they must convert to Islam, flee or face the sword. Earlier this month ISIS had allowed Christians to pay a non-Muslim tax known as jizya. On July 17, Christians were notified that jizya was no longer an option. They must now convert, flee or die.

Among the last Christians to leave the city were monks – residents of the ancient Mar Behnam Monastery – who left behind them 1,400 years of rich Christian tradition, as ISIS refused to let the monks take any of their precious relics with them.

Despite its antiquity and rich tradition, Christianity in Iraq is on the brink of eradication.

The heirs to those who first discovered the tomb of Jonah, and those who helped to keep Greek philosophy alive in the medieval period, are being ejected from their homes and from a land they have held sacred for centuries. This is the face and reality of Christian persecution.

Jonah was one of the earliest symbols of the resurrection for Christians. Will Christianity ever rise again in Iraq?

Related: Trampled in Abraham’s dust: The destruction of Near Eastern Christianity (Franck Salameh, Jerusalem Post).

Background here and links.

Review of Marks, First Came Marriage

H-JUDAIC REVIEW:

Susan Marks. First Came Marriage: The Rabbinic Appropriation of Early Jewish Wedding Ritual. Judaism in Context Series. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2013. ix + 261 pp. $183.04 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-59333-585-4.

Reviewed by Jane Kanarek (Hebrew College)
Published on H-Judaic (July, 2014)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Ancient Jewish Weddings between Ritual and History

With the goal of uncovering practices that have heretofore been unnoticed in ancient Jewish weddings, Susan Marks sets her methodological task as negotiating between the poles of ritual and history. She contends that approaching the study of Jewish weddings from the perspective of ritual theory alone misleads, but so too does the sole perspective of history. ...

Review of Outside the Bible

THE SEFORIM BLOG: Review of Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture by Shaye J.D. Cohen. Excerpt:

The canonization of the Hebrew Bible was an enormous goad to Jewish creativity. Across genres, styles, and languages, the Jews of the second temple period reacted to, interacted with, interpreted and re-interpreted, the words of the Bible, especially the Torah, in an extraordinary variety of ways with an extraordinary variety of results. The words of the Bible, especially the Torah, seem to have consumed the Jews to such an extent that they produced little literature that did not somehow engage the Bible and its concerns. Outside the Bible is a good entry point for the study not just of ancient Bible interpretation but also of ancient Judaism as a whole.

There is also a favorable mention of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 1.

For more on Outside the Bible see here and links.

Review of Swartz, The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad

KRISTA DALTON: Who Exactly Were The Ancient Jews? At least according to Seth Schwartz. Excerpt:

In a more condensed and perhaps more self-reflective form of his earlier chronology in Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE, Schwartz produces a succinct minimalist historical narrative, heavily nuanced by archeological evidence and Neusnarian skepticism.

Via Antquitopia. The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad was noted last month as forthcoming here. It's now out and already reviewed. Things move fast in the Blogosphere!

Bloomsbury books

THREE NEW BOOKS FROM BLOOMSBURY:

'I Lifted My Eyes and Saw'
Reading Dream and Vision Reports in the Hebrew Bible

Editor(s): Elizabeth R. Hayes, Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Published: 31-07-2014
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 272
ISBN: 9780567605665
Imprint: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
Series: The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
RRP: £70.00
Online price: £63.00
Save £7.00 (10%)

About 'I Lifted My Eyes and Saw'

This volume addresses the rhetorical function and impact of vision and dream accounts in the Hebrew Bible. The contributors explore the exegetical, rhetorical, and structural aspects of the vision and dream accounts in the Hebrew Bible, focusing on prophetic vision reports. Several contributors employ a diachronic approach as they explore the textual relationship between the vision reports and the oracular material. Others focus on the rhetorical aspects of the vision reports in their final form and discuss why vision reporting may be used to convey a message. Another approach employed looks at reception history and investigates how this type of text has been understood by past exegetes. A few chapters consider the inter-textual relationship of the various vision reports in the Hebrew Bible, focusing on shared themes and motifs. There are also papers that deal with the ways in which select texts in the Hebrew Bible portray dream/vision interpreters andtheir activities.


Imagining the Other and Constructing Israelite Identity in the Early Second Temple Period

Editor(s): Ehud Ben Zvi, Diana Vikander Edelman

Published: 25-09-2014
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 400
ISBN: 9780567248725
Imprint: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
Series: The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
RRP: £70.00
Online price: £63.00
Save £7.00 (10%)

About Imagining the Other and Constructing Israelite Identity in the Early Second Temple Period

This volume sheds light on how particular constructions of the 'Other'contributed to an ongoing process of defining what 'Israel' or an 'Israelite'was or was supposed to be in literature taken to be authoritative in the latePersian and Early Hellenistic periods. It asks, who is an insider and who anoutsider? Are boundaries permeable? Are there different ideas expressed withinindividual books? What about constructions of the (partial) 'Other' frominside, e.g., women, people whose body did not fit social constructions ofnormalness? It includes chapters dealing with theoretical issues and casestudies, and addresses similar issues from the perspective of groups in thelate Second Temple period so as to shed light on processes of continuity anddiscontinuity on these matters. Preliminary forms of five of the contributions werepresented in Thessaloniki in 2011 in the research programme, 'Production andReception of Authoritative Books in the Persian and Hellenistic Period,' at theAnnual Meeting of European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS).


Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually

Editor(s): Katharine Dell, Will Kynes

Published: 25-09-2014
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 344
ISBN: 9780567331250
Imprint: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
Series: The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
RRP: £70.00
Online price: £63.00
Save £7.00 (10%)

About Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually

This volume continues the study of intertextuality in the ‘Wisdom Literature’ initiated in Reading Job Intertextually (Dell and Kynes, T&T Clark, 2012). Like that book, Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually provides the first comprehensive treatment of intertextuality in this wisdom text. Articles address intertextual resonances between Ecclesiastes and texts across the Hebrew canon, along with texts throughout history, from Greek classical literature to the New Testament, Jewish and Christian interpretation, and existential and Modern philosophy.

As a multi-authored volume that gathers together scholars with expertise on this diverse array of texts, this collection provides exegetical insight that exceeds any similar attempt by a single author. The contributors have been encouraged to pursue the intertextual approach that best suits their topic, thereby offering readers a valuable collection of intertextual case studies addressing a single text.

Follow the links for TOCs and ordering information.

The ANE and psychotropic drugs

ASOR BLOG: Psychedelics and the Ancient Near East (Diana L. Stein).

As courts today debate whether to legalize or regulate the use of drugs like cannabis, it is interesting to look at the history of man’s relationship with mind-altering substances.Several books, exhibits and catalogues have recently explored the topic. Yet, despite the consensus that “every society on earth is a high society,” the Ancient Near East is omitted from these surveys. Is it too remote? Do we know so little? Was it unique? The evidence suggests otherwise.

[...]

The Coinage of Carthage

PUNIC WATCH: The Coinage of Carthage (Mike Markowitz, CoinWeek).

Most of what we know about Carthaginians was written by their enemies–first the Greeks, then the Romans. They are described as greedy, treacherous and brutal. Yet even Cicero, a Roman politician born 40 years after Carthage was wiped out, grudgingly admitted that “Carthage would never have held an empire for six hundred years had it not been governed with wisdom and statesmanship.”

None of its literature, and very little of its art, architecture or material culture survives.

But we have the coins.

[...]

The article puts the coinage into a nice capsule history of Carthage.

Hurtado on Wright on Paul

LARRY HURTADO: Review of Wright Published. An early review of my St Andrews colleague N. T. Wright's magnum opus, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (SPCK, 2013).