Yale manuscript digitization project

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Experts in New Haven working with ancient texts see modern connections (New Haven Register). Excerpt:

[Tasha] Dobbin-Bennett is a papyrologist, her work a key part of the process of digitizing the collection of 7,000 papyrus and parchment documents held at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. She is one of a five-member team, led by Paula Zyats, assistant chief curator for Sterling Memorial Library.

[...]

Yale’s collection of 7,000 catalogued papyrus and parchment documents, acquired in 1931, is second only to the University of Michigan’s and ranges from the mundane to the earliest known copy of the Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians and gnostic texts, including part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Working on well-known texts is easier in some ways but presents its own difficulties, because finding differences is a significant part of the task.

Translations into ancient Egyptian of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey — the Beinecke has 36 fragments of the Greek writer’s poetry — show how far the works, originally spread by oral tradition, traveled. “The Homer pieces are amazing for that,” says Dobbin-Bennett. “We get little snapshots of (how) Homer must have been performed … thousands and thousands of miles away from Greece.

[...]

Just to clarify, since the phrasing is a little confusing, the Dead Sea Scrolls are not Gnostic.

More on Yale's antiquities collections here. And more on many other manuscript digitization projects is here and links.

Chinese Hebraist game-show contestant

MORE CHINESE INTEREST IN JUDAISM: Hebrew U student represents Israel to millions on popular Chinese game show. During Lechao Tang’s screen-time, the show rose to China’s second most-viewed program (Eitan Arom, Jerusalem Post). Excerpt:

Tang represented Hebrew University in a popular Chinese game show earlier this month that pitted students from schools across the world against one another. His unlucky opponent hailed from the University of Cambridge, with other contestants representing Yale and Harvard.

But whereas Harvard and Yale are well-known abroad, Tang said that in China, the typical response when he says he studies in Israel is: “Where’s Israel?” “We are easternmost Asia and Israel is westernmost Asia,” he said. “I’m lucky to be the person to connect them.”


[...]

For Tang, merely appearing on television as a student from Israel was “a really honorable and special opportunity.” A master’s student in bible studies, Tang seeks to bridge the gap between the Chinese and Jewish cultures, which he says share many values and philosophies.

He runs a blog in Chinese about ancient Israel. He teaches Hebrew via Web videos for the Chinese online education startup One Man University, which are sometimes the first introduction to Hebrew for newcomers from China.

Related stories noted here and links.

Review of Denzy Lewis, Cosmology and Fate

REVIEWS OF BIBLICAL AND CHRISTIAN STUDIES:

Nicola Denzey Lewis
Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity: Under Pitiless Skies
In Brill, Nicola Denzey LEWIS, Sarah Parkhouse, Uncategorized on October 16, 2014 at 10:00 am

2014.10.16 | Nicola Denzey Lewis. Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity: Under Pitiless Skies. (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 81). Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013.

Reviewed by Sarah Parkhouse, Durham University.

Many thanks to Brill for providing a review copy.

Nicola Denzey Lewis’ Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity reveals that in Gnostic and Graeco-Roman texts, the skies are not pitiless. The aims of the book are three-fold: firstly, a survey of how second-century authors understood astrological fate (heimarmene) as controlled by cosmic beings; secondly, the suggestion that these authors (almost) consistently offered their readers an escape from heimarmene; and, thirdly, further deconstruction of the orthodoxy-heresy dichotomy. The book demonstrates Denzey Lewis’ impressive knowledge of all things second century, explicitly shown by her ability to discuss fate in New Testament, Middle Platonic, Stoic, Gnostic, Manichean, Hermetic, pagan and proto-orthodox texts, despite stating that ‘language of “enslavement to Fate” in antiquity was rare’ (p.28).

[...]

Muchnik, The Gender Challenge of Hebrew

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Gender Challenge of Hebrew

Malka Muchnik, Bar-Ilan University

The Gender Challenge of Hebrew is the first book to delve in depth into the problem of gender representation over the 3,000-year history of the Hebrew language. By analyzing and illustrating the grammatical characteristics of gender in Biblical, Mishnaic, Medieval and Modern Hebrew, Malka Muchnik reveals the social and cultural issues that they reflect.

Gender discrimination in all periods of Hebrew is shown in sacred, liturgical and literary texts, as well as in the popular language spoken today. All of them testify to the problematic status of women, who were traditionally excluded from religious studies and public activities, and in recent decades have been struggling to change this practice. Malka Muchnik shows that linguistic change remains a challenging goal.

New books on ancient Greek

TWO IMPORTANT NEW BOOKS ON THE STUDY OF ANCIENT GREEK:

First, from Brill:

Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics (3 vols)

General Editor: Georgios K. Giannakis (Thessaloniki)

The Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics (EAGLL) brings together the latest research from across a range of disciplines contributing to our knowledge of Ancient Greek. The EAGLL offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of Ancient Greek, comprising detailed descriptions of the language from Proto-Greek to koine. It addresses linguistic aspects from several perspectives, including history, structure, individual singularities, biographical references, schools of thought, technical meta-language, sociolinguistic issues, dialects, didactics, translation practices, generic issues, Greek in relation to other languages, etc., and on all levels of analysis including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, semantics, stylistics, etc. It also includes all the necessary background information regarding the roots of Greek in Indo-European. As and when, excursions may be made to later stages of the language, e.g. Byzantine or even later. The focus, however, will predominantly be Ancient Greek. With well over 500 entries on all aspects of Ancient Greek, this new encyclopedia is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers of Ancient Greek, general linguistics, Indo-European languages, and Biblical literature.

And here's one from Eisenbrauns:

No Stone Unturned
Greek Inscriptions and Septuagint Vocabulary
Critical Studies in the Hebrew Bible - CSHB 5
by James K. Aitken
Eisenbrauns, 2014
xiv + 140 pp., English
Paper
ISBN: 9781575063249
List Price: $28.95
Your Price: $26.06
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/AITNOSTON

For understanding biblical Greek in context, the importance of the discoveries of papyri was recognized early in the twentieth century, while inscriptions by comparison were left unexplored. Those scholars who had intended to turn their attention to the inscriptions were delayed by their work on the papyri and by the conviction that the greater results would come from these. As a result, undue focus has been placed on papyri, and biblical Greek words have been viewed only through their lens, leading to the inference that the Greek is specifically Egyptian and vernacular. This volume widens the focus on Septuagint words by demonstrating how the inscriptions, coming from a broader geographical region than papyri and containing a wider range of registers, are a source that should not remain untouched.

This work explains the current state of the study of Septuagint vocabulary and outlines the competing roles of papyri and inscriptions in its interpretation, including the limitations of focussing solely on papyri. The practical issues for a biblical scholar in dealing with inscriptions are presented and some guidance is given for those wishing to explore the resources further. Finally, examples are drawn together of how inscriptions can illuminate our understanding of Septuagint vocabulary, and thereby inform the socio-historical position of the Septuagint. The origins of apparently new words in the Septuagint, the semantic and grammatical function of words, and the geographical distribution and register all demonstrate the need for further investigation into this field.

Woes of smaller museum collections

IT'S HARD: Biblical-Era Collections Suffer in a New World of Archaeology (Geraldine Fabrikant, NYT)

In recent decades, countries that house remains of the ancient world have become determined to keep archaeological finds within their borders. Partly as a result, many smaller archaeological museums at religious-affiliated schools across the United States, lacking the financial resources to buy works or borrow actively from other collections, are scrambling to increase the museums’ appeal.

“Today they are often filling those museums with information, rather than with objects,” said Aaron Brody, director of the Badè Museum at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. In the process, they have become largely “legacy museums,” he said.

For the Tel Zayit Abcedary see here and links. The Siegfried H. Horn Museum has also been mentioned here, although the links have now rotted.

Who wrote the Pentateuch?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Who wrote the Torah? For thousands of years people believed that the five books of the Pentateuch were written by Moses. But it couldn't have been, academics say. (Elon Gilad). As usual with Haaretz, read this quickly before it goes behind the paywall.

The answer in this article describes the classical Documentary Hypothesis pretty well, although (1) the second creation story in Genesis uses the divine name YHWH Elohim, not just YHWH, and (2) the idea that the name of the writer of Deuteronomy was Shaphan (cf. 2 Kings 22:8-14) assumes that Deuteronomy was composed during Josiah's reign, whereas many specialists think that what was found in the Temple was an older document (old even in Josiah's time) which eventually served as the basis for our current book of Deuteronomy. In any case, specialists in Pentateuchal source criticism now tend to have some significant reservations about much of the classical Documentary Hypothesis. I have said more on the current state of this question here.

But, yes, everyone agrees that the Pentateuch was written long after the time of Moses, if there was a Moses.

Obama, Hannibal, etc.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is Obama a modern-day Quintus Fabius Maximus? (Brian Michael Jenkins, Los Angeles Times).

President Obama has been repeatedly accused of delay. Critics say he dragged his feet on sending more troops to Afghanistan, on addressing the dangers in Libya, on providing support to Syria's rebels and, most recently, on initiating military action against Islamic State.

But is that necessarily such a bad thing? Calculated delay has a long history as an effective military strategy, dating back at least to the Second Punic War in the 3rd century BC.

[...]

Although America is constantly compared to ancient Rome, this is the first time I can remember the comparison being to Rome during the Punic Wars.

Also, in The Mirror Tom Parry has a review of A History of the World in Numbers, by Emma Marriott, which includes this tidbit:

To launch the second Punic War (218–201BC), Carthaginian general Hannibal took an army of about 30,000 men and 37 elephants across the Pyrenees and Alps into Italy to fight the Romans.

One elephant survived – apparently named Surus, meaning “the Syrian”. Hannibal often rode it.

Carthage, on the coast of modern Tunisia, fell to the Romans in 146BC. They massacred 200,000 people and sold the remaining 50,000 as slaves.

More, recently, on the Punic Wars is here. Cross-file under "Punic Watch."

Le Donne on Perrucci

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Who is Ignazio Perrucci? (Anthony Le Donne).

Background here.

Hey, another copper scroll!

ARASH ZEINI: A note on the Schøyen copper scroll. This is a bibliographic note that leads to an article by Étienne de la Vaissière. The scroll itself is a Buddhist donation inscription written in Sanskrit and "Brahmī."

For the Qumran Copper Scroll (and facsimiles of it), see here and links. Inscriptions on metal are rare, but not unknown in the ancient world. Other examples are the gold cuneiform tablet and the gold tablets in Phoenician and Etruscan. A legendary example is mentioned in the Treatise of the Vessels. And the fake metal codices are an infamous and now thoroughly debunked fake example, but some genuine ancient lead inscriptions are noted here, here, and links.

Mind-boggling family law in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The Talmud’s Difficulty Is What Makes the Talmud ‘Talmudic’—And Unlike the Law. Daf Yomi: In rabbinic Judaism, study is not merely a pragmatic enterprise, but a religious act in itself

Complex as this situation might appear, it is child’s play compared to some of the truly mind-bending hypotheticals that the rabbis raised in this week’s reading. We have often seen in the Talmud that the rabbis devote just as much attention to extremely unlikely possibilities as to real-world scenarios. This is, indeed, one of the things that make the Talmud “Talmudic” in the pejorative sense. Why, the impatient reader might wonder, spend so much time analyzing situations that surely would never arise in real life? Yet it is crucial to remember that, in rabbinic Judaism, the study of the law is not merely a pragmatic enterprise, like going to law school today. The study of Torah is a religious act in itself. The law forms a complete and perfect logical system, and all of its ramifications are equally valuable parts of that system. In American law, one sometimes hears the maxim “hard cases make bad law”: The more unusual and complex the case, the less suitable it is to serve as a precedent. The rabbis believe just the opposite: The law is never more fascinating to them than when it is difficult.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Very small very old coins

INCLUDING THE "WIDOW'S MITE": Small Change: The Tiniest Ancient Coins (Mike Markowitz, CoinWeek).

In the local coinage of first century Judea, the smallest denomination was a bronze coin called a lepton in Greek and a half prutah in Hebrew.

Hadrian inscription in Jerusalem

NEWS FLASH: WATCH: 2,000-year-old inscription dedicated to Roman emperor unveiled in Jerusalem. Israel Antiquities Authority: This is among the most important Latin inscriptions ever discovered in Jerusalem. (Jerusalem Post).

A rare fragment of a stone engraved with an official Latin inscription dedicated to the Roman emperor Hadrian, discovered in the capital in July by the Antiquities Authority, was unveiled at Rockefeller Museum in east Jerusalem Tuesday morning.

[...]

The inscriptions [sic], consisting of six lines of Latin text engraved on hard limestone, was read and translated by Avner Ecker and Hannah Cotton of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The English translation of the inscription is as follows: “To the Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, son of the deified Traianus Parthicus, grandson of the deified Nerva, high priest, invested with tribunician power for the 14th time, consul for the third time, father of the country (dedicated by) the 10th legion Fretensis Antoniniana.”

Ecker, a Ph.D candidate, said the inscription was dedicated by Legio X Fretensis to the emperor Hadrian in the year 129/130 CE.

“The fragment of the inscription revealed by the IAA archaeologists is none other than the right half of a complete inscription, the other part of which was discovered nearby in the late nineteenth century, and was published by the pre-eminent French archaeologist Charles Clermont-Ganneau,” he said.

[...]

Sphinx excavated

ARCHAEOLOGY: Giant Sphinx from 'Ten Commandments' Film Unearthed
(Laura Geggel, LiveScience).

Hidden for more than 90 years beneath the rolling sand dunes of Guadalupe, California, an enormous, plaster sphinx from the 1923 blockbuster movie "The Ten Commandments" has been rediscovered and is now above ground.

[...]

Aramaic in Israel and on The Simpsons

MODERN ARAMAIC WATCH: First Arameam Gets Registered in Israel (Arutz Sheva). Background here and links.

And on a far less serious note: The Simpsons Halloween Special: Homer and Co Haunted? Where to Watch 'Treehouse of Horror' Online (Ruchinka Upadhyaya, International Business Times; my bold-font emphasis).

The animated comedy's 25th annual Halloween instalment, contains a segment that parodies The Others, in which the Simpsons are haunted by another ghostly family living in the house. These ghosts turn out to be none other than their crudely drawn former selves. The Simpsons, originally surfaced in 1987 as a series of animated shorts on [Tracey] Ullman's sketch comedy show.

And the second segment shows Bart and Lisa being transported to a demon-filled alternate universe after Bart reads a set of Aramaic symbols he finds on the underside of his desk.

I hate it when that happens.

The Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting

NEW JOURNAL: The Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting.

Introducing,
the Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting (JJMJS) -
FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE FROM OCTOBER 20!

JJMJS is a new interdisciplinary peer-reviewed online journal, published in cooperation with Eisenbrauns.

A rich variety of Jewish and Christian traditions and identities mutually shaped one another in the centuries-long course of Roman Late Antiquity. A no less rich variety of scholarly approaches – from the history of Christian Origins to that of the late empire, from archaeology to Dead Sea Scrolls, from Rabbinics to Patristics – has in recent years converged upon this period, the better to understand its religious and social dynamics. JJMJS seeks to facilitate and to encourage such scholarly investigations across disciplinary boundaries, and to make the results of cutting-edge research available to a worldwide audience.

JJMJS is free of charge with complete open access. The journal is published in cooperation with Eisenbrauns and will be available in hard copy, which can be ordered from Eisenbrauns.

SBL blogger events

IN SAN DIEGO NEXT MONTH: Bibliobloggers’ Gatherings at SBL/AAR (James McGrath). Planning is in progress. I'm not sure what else I have going on that Saturday evening, but I may see you there. Fortress also has a bloggers' roundtable on the Monday. Follow the link for both.

A Cross logion on Hebrew

HARVARD MAGAZINE publishes an interesting inquiry from an alumnus:

Thomas Burrows hopes, after a half-century of searching, that someone can provide him with the source of the following assertion, delivered by Professor Frank Moore Cross during an elementary Hebrew course: “It was a saying of the ancient rabbis that you may as well learn Hebrew now because you will need it in the world to come.”

I was around Cross quite a bit for five years in the 1980s and I never heard him mention this particular saying. I do know that there is a Jewish tradition or saying that Hebrew is the language of heaven, but I don't have a specific reference. It does seem to be implied in the Talmud in b. Shabbat 12a, which advises making intercession for a sick person in Hebrew, because angels don't know Aramaic.

Baal sanctuary?

EXCAVATION: Ancient Cult Complex Discovered in Israel (Owen Jarus, Livescience).

A massive cult complex, dating back about 3,300 years, has been discovered at the site of Tel Burna in Israel.

While archaeologists have not fully excavated the cult complex, they can tell it was quite large, as the courtyard alone was 52 by 52 feet (16 by 16 meters). Inside the complex, researchers discovered three connected cups, fragments of facemasks, massive jars that are almost as big as a person and burnt animal bones that may indicate sacrificial rituals.

The archaeologists said they aren't sure who was worshipped at the complex, though Baal, the Canaanite storm god, is a possibility. "The letters of Ugarit [an ancient site in modern-day Syria] suggest that of the Canaanite pantheon, Baal, the Canaanite storm god, would have been the most likely candidate," Itzhaq Shai, a professor at Ariel University who is directing a research project at Tel Burna, told Live Science in an email.

[...]

The goddess Anat is also in the running. This is an exciting discovery and I hope it does turn out to be a major sanctuary. But I'll believe it's a Baal sanctuary when they find an inscription that says "House of Baal" or the like. Or better yet, another copy of the Ugaritic Baal epic.

Bejewelled watchers

JACK COLLINS: Addendum - to his excellent review of the Noah movie, noted here. So there's precedent after all for the idea of watchers made of stone.

More on Noah here and links.

Gathercole on the Gospels

BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE 2014 PLENARY LECTURE: Simon Gathercole on the canonical and non-canonical Gospels. Summarized by Steve Walton. I was there too and I thought it was an impressive lecture.

Some Brill books

NEW BOOKS FROM BRILL:

The Divine Courtroom in Comparative Perspective

Edited by Ari Mermelstein and Shalom E. Holtz, Yeshiva University

Contributors to The Divine Courtroom in Comparative Perspective treat one of the most pervasive religious metaphors, that of the divine courtroom, in both its historical and thematic senses. In order to shed light on the various manifestations of the divine courtroom, this volume consists of essays by scholars of the ancient Near East, Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, Talmud, Islam, medieval Judaism, and classical Greek literature. Contributions to the volume primarily center upon three related facets of the divine courtroom: the role of the divine courtroom in the earthly legal system; the divine courtroom as the site of historical justice; and the divine courtroom as the venue in which God is called to answer for his own unjust acts.


Eating in Isaiah
Approaching the Role of Food and Drink in Isaiah's Structure and Message

Andrew T. Abernethy, Wheaton College

In Eating in Isaiah Andrew Abernethy employs a sequential-synchronic approach to explore the role of eating in the structure and message of the book of Isaiah. By focusing on 'scaffolding' chapters (Isaiah 1; 36–37; 55; 65-66), avenues open for exploring how eating operates within the major sections of Isaiah and how the motif enhances the book's coherence. Furthermore, occurrences of eating in Isaiah create networks of association that grant perspective on significant topics in the book's message, such as Zion, YHWH’s kingship, and YHWH's servants. Amidst growing scholarly interest in food and drink within biblical literature, Eating in Isaiah demonstrates how eating can operate at a literary level within a prophetic book.


The Lawsuit Motif in John’s Gospel from New Perspectives
Jesus Christ, Crucified Criminal and Emperor of the World

Per Jarle Bekken, University of Nordland, Bodø

The study sheds fresh light on aspects of the lawsuit motif in John from the background of Diaspora-Jewish and Greco-Roman data and perspectives. – John’s narrative of the attempts on Jesus for such crimes as breaking the Sabbath, blasphemy, and seduction are illuminated from Philo’s perspectives on vigilante execution. – Furthermore, John’s narrative of the official Jewish and Roman forensic procedures against Jesus can also be situated within the framework of the Greco-Roman administration exemplified by the legal papyri from the Roman Egypt. – Philo’s expectation of an eschatological emperor, who shall rule over many nations, provides a cultural context for the way John’s gospel re-inscribed Jesus as the true “Emperor” of all the nations.

On the Punic Wars

PUNIC WATCH: A number of articles relating to the Punic Wars have been piling up in my inbox. Here they are:

First, a series of brief, vivid, popular articles on the Punic Wars by Travis Simpson in the Courier News.

The First Punic War

History time, folks.

I like Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca. If I hadn’t told you previously that he was a historical figure, you wouldn’t have believed me. His story has the makings of a fantasy novel, or perhaps and episode or three of Game of Thrones.

It’s got...blood oaths, vengeance, monsters and a lot of bloodshed.

Hannibal was from Carthage, a city on the Mediterranean, and his story is the story of the Punic Wars and the fall and eventual destruction of Carthage.

[...]

The Second Punic War

Imagine you are a roman soldier. You’ve been equipped with a spear, armor and a sword. Across the battlefield is a creature you’ve likely never seen in your life. It’s lumbers over you, a gray fleshed giant.

As the sounds of battle surround you, the creature centers on your phalanx — on you and your fiends. You look at your weapons. Just what will bring this thing down? You watch as is stomps and crashes its way over the men in front of you. Many dropped their weapons and ran.

Sort of like the battle of Minas Tirith.

Second Punic Wars, continued

Hannibal spent his entire life with a seething hatred of the empire across the Mediterranean. He was bred to cross the Alps, to cause an uprising and to spark fear in the heart of Rome.

On the other side, you have Publius Scipio. Scipio’s father (of the same name) discovered Hannibal’s army as it crossed the Alps and was able to warn Rome of the incoming apocalypse. He was gravely wounded in the Battle of Ticinus and was only saved by the bravery of his son.

Almost 16 years later, Scipio (the son) meets Hannibal head on in the Battle of Zama with almost two decades of mutual hatred, murder and destruction between the two empires.

These two men have known nothing else.

Cool story about their meeting after Hannibal's defeat. Part four, on the Third Punic War, is still forthcoming.

Second, a snippet on the latest regarding Halle Berry's Hannibal miniseries (not to be confused with Vin Diesel's Hannibal movie trilogy project): CBS orders new seasons of Halle Berry's 'Extant' and 'Under the Dome' (Mark Dawidziak, The Plain Dealer).

Berry has another big-budget television project in the works. She is the executive producer behind the miniseries "Hannibal" being developed for the History Channel. It will tell the story of one of the greatest generals in antiquity, Hannibal Barca, and his arch-rival, Scipio Africanus, who went head-to-head in the Second Punic War.

More on this miniseries and on Hannibal himself is here and links.

Friedman, Studies in the Language and Terminology of Talmudic Literature

NEW BOOK FROM THE ACADEMY OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE: Shamma Friedman, Studies in the Language and Terminology of Talmudic Literature. In Hebrew!

John Dee's library

COMING EXHIBITION: Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee.

January – July 2016

A major exhibition revealing the fascinating life, times and lost library of Queen Elizabeth I’s most famous ‘conjurer’.

John Dee (1527–1609) is one of the most intriguing characters of 16th century England. A member of the Elizabethan court, he is infamous for his attempts to make contact with other-worldly spirits and his study and practice of alchemy. He was also a mathematician and scholar of navigation, a founding fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, a university lecturer on rhetoric, and an astrologer.

Dee’s library was one of the most famous collections of books and manuscripts of its time, as renowned for its contents as for the fact it was pillaged and dispersed while Dee was travelling in Europe during the 1580s.

Today the Royal College of Physicians library contains more than 100 books previously belonging to Dee: the largest known collection of Dee books surviving in one location. They were acquired as part of the library of the Marquis of Dorchester, presented to the physicians in the 1680s. It is not clear how these 100-plus volumes came to be owned by Dorchester, but there is evidence that many of them were stolen from Dee by a certain Nicholas Saunder.

The Dee collection contains some of the most dramatic and beautiful books in the RCP library, including mathematical, astronomical and alchemical texts. Many of the books are heavily and elaborately annotated by Dee himself.

Our 2016 exhibition will be the first time the books of Elizabethan England’s most famous ‘conjurer’ will have been displayed in public.

HT Liv Ingeborg Lied on Facebook. And Aron Sterk added that a few books from Dee's library are at Chetham's Library in Manchester: 101 Treasures of Chetham's - Material associated with John Dee (1527-1608).

For my own work on John Dee's angelic seances in relation to ancient Jewish visionary traditions, see here and links. Related posts here, here, here, and links.

Conference on gynaecological knowledge in late antiquity

H-JUDAIC: Conf: Female Bodies and Female Practitioners in the Medical Traditions of the Late Antique Mediterranean World. Berlin, 27.-29.10.2014.

Outline

The conference aims at discussing the emergence and transmission of gynaecological knowledge from different angles in ancient medical theory and practice. Beside the medical approach, we will consider cultural practices and socio-religious norms that enable and constrain the production and application of gynaecological know-how (e.g. certain taboos on examining or touching the female body, etc.). The role and function of female specialists (e.g. healers, midwives or wet-nurses) as objects and subjects within ancient medical discourses will also be elaborated in further detail.

The combination of topics from various disciplines will provide ample possibilities for a comparative exploration of this field. The multi-perspective approach will help to sharpen our understanding of similarities and differences between Talmudic knowledge on this topic and the medical traditions in Ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Graeco-Roman, Persian, Byzantine, and Syriac cultures.

TC 18-19

TC: A JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL TEXTUAL CRITICISM has published a couple of new volumes since I last mentioned it:

Volume 18 (2013)

Volume 19 (2014)

Thanks to AWOL for the reminder.

ANE Monographs from the SBL

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: Free downloadable Ancient Near East Monographs from the Society of Biblical Literature.

The latest on Ezra-Nehemiah and Ugaritic

TWO FROM THE ASOR BLOG:

What’s New with Ezra-Nehemiah (Thomas M. Bolin)

The Current State of Ugaritic studies (Gregorio del Olmo Lete)

Very useful bibliographic surveys of recent developments in these areas. The ASOR Blog requires free registration to access the essays.

Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah

SHEMINI ATZERET begins this evening at sundown. In Israel, this is also the holiday of Simchat Torah (Simhat Torah). Outside of Israel, that holiday begins tomorrow night at sundown.

Shemini Atzeret is a biblical holiday mentioned in Numbers 29:35-38. Simchat Torah is not a biblical holiday, but it marks the beginning and ending of the annual cycle of Torah readings.

Best wishes to all those celebrating.

Daf Yomi begins Seder Nashim

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Sex With Your Uncle? OK. Sex With Your Widowed Daughter’s Rival? Not OK. When two mitzvot conflict, the Talmud asks, how do we decide which takes precedence? The first tractate in Seder Nashim (The Order of Women) is Yevamot (Levirate Marriage).

This type of union, known as levirate marriage (the English word comes from the Latin term meaning “brother-in-law”), is designed to prevent the dead husband’s lineage from dying out: His brother impregnates his wife in order to provide him with a posthumous heir. The practice is commanded in Deuteronomy 25:5: “If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and he has no child, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside of the family to one not of his kin; her brother-in-law will have intercourse with her and take her to him to be his wife and consummate the levirate marriage.” There is, however, a significant problem with this commandment, because it seems to directly contradict an earlier prohibition from the book of Leviticus: “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.” When two mitzvot conflict, the Talmud asks, how do we decide which takes precedence?

As they say on Facebook, it's complicated.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Hurtado on the Geniza

LARRY HURTADO has been blogging about the Cairo Geniza:

New Testament Texts in the Cairo Genizah
NT Texts in the Cairo Genizah: Bibliographical References
Provenance of Aquila OT Genizah Manuscripts

For lots of background on the Cairo Geniza, see here and links.

Columbus Day varia

OH, YES — COLUMBUS DAY: Columbus, the size of the earth, and 4 Ezra. An appropriate post from a few years ago. Also, more recently, this: Hebrew, pepper, and Columbus. On the actual discovery of America, see the comments at the bottom of this post.

Incidentally, it has also been argued in recent years that Christopher Columbus was secretly Jewish. For this reason, Barbara Aiello thinks that The Jews can save Columbus Day (Times of Israel Blog). I blog, you decide.

I know Columbus Day was officially yesterday, but I just remembered to post on it now.

Zohar Ammud Yomi

REMINDER: "Zohar Ammud Yomi (A Daily Page of Zohar) begins at sundown in your location. Monday night, October 13 – Tuesday, October 14, 2014 (20 Tishrei 5775)." Background here. It is currently taking place on the The Zohar Facebook page.

Also, here's an audio file that I haven't had the chance to listen to yet: Daniel Matt on Translating the Zohar.

Roman and Late Antique "Assyrians" and "Syrians"

THE CURRENT ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES has an article on the ancient use of the terms "Assyrian" and "Syrian" which complicates and enriches the historical background of the current political discussion on whether modern Aramaic-speaking Christian groups in the Middle East constitute an ethnic identity.

Nathanael Andrade, Assyrians, Syrians and the Greek Language in the late Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Periods (JNES 73 [2014]: 299-317)

The analysis is complicated and there is no abstract, but here's an excerpt from the conclusion:

As stated in the analysis above, Greeks first began to distinguish between Syrians and Assyrians during the classical period. According to their perspective, the Syrians lived in the Levant west of the Euphrates river, and the Assyrians lived in the region of Mesopotamia extending east of it. The Greeks conceived of Syrians and Assyrians as sharing the same ethnic descent and cultural features, most notably the Aramaic language, but they arbitrarily placed them in regional categories. When the Hellenistic Greek kingdoms and (eventually) the Roman empire asserted authority over the Near East, they made this conceptual partitioning into a social fact maintained by imperial infrastructure. While they perceived Syrians and Assyrians (and Arameans) to be the same people, the Seleucids nevertheless defined Syria as a region west of the Euphrates and divided it into administrative districts. Roman authorities recognized this territory as the land inhabited by the Syrian ethnos, a social category distinct from the Assyrians who dwelled in Parthian and then Sasanian Mesopotamia.

Such modes of differentiation were durable. During the mid-third century ce, one of the compilers of the Thirteenth Sibylline Oracle, himself a Syrian, lamented in Greek how Syrians had suffered the invasions of “Assyrian” hordes who had fought in the Persian ranks. This could have been an archaizing reference, but it also reflects the belief that Syrians lived in Roman territory and Assyrian counterparts in Persian ones.91 Sharing the same ancestral legacy, they nonetheless belonged to different social categories. Syrians were Assyrian, but they were a discrete, specific subset of them.

Despite such differentiation, Syrians of the Roman empire still could meaningfully conceive of themselves as Assyrians. While encapsulating a heterogeneous array of individuals who alternatively traced Greek, Assyrian, and other Near Eastern genealogies, they could emphasize how their ethnos in aggregate constituted the social legacy of the same ancient people from whom the Assyrians of the Parthian and Sasanian empires claimed to have originated. They could also reckon “Aramean” to be the common name for such Assyrians in the Aramaic language and not just for the inhabitants of the Sasanian Persian region called bēth Arāmāyē (otherwise known as Babylonia or Asūrestān). Even as Syria’s local cultures underwent tremendous cultural transformation, integrated Greek idioms, or generated “hybrid” cultural forms, Syrians still could produce narratives of an “Assyrian” past and vaunt Assyrian self-definition in ways that embedded their innovative and dynamic cultural expressions in a venerable pre-Hellenistic origin. Syrians adopted and adapted new practices amid imperial pressure, but they could continue to see themselves as traditional, as Assyrian, by constantly producing new perspectives on the history of the Assyrians, and reconceiving what Assyrian traditions were. Being Syrian and Assyrian was not a static phenomenon. It was a process of cultural creativity and productive memory, of forging links to a common Assyrian heritage while also identifying with a specific social unit to which many fellow Assyrians did not belong: the Roman imperial Syrian ethnos. How Syriac-speaking Christians fashioned distinct yet intersecting identifications as Syrians, Assyrians, or Arameans in late antiquity is a complex issue that cannot be explored here. But as this article has hopefully shown, how Greek-writing Syrians, or Assyrians, did so during the high Roman imperial period is a complex issue too.

Requires a JSTOR subscription to access the full article. Cross-file under "Modern Aramaic Watch," sort of.

Weitzman at Penn

CONGRATULATIONS TO STEVEN WEITZMAN,* who has just been appointed to a named chair at the University of Pennsylvania.

Steven Weitzman, who came to Penn in July from Stanford University, has been appointed Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literature in the department of religious studies. He is also the new Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Dr. Weitzman is a scholar of biblical and Jewish studies. He applies insights from the study of religion, literary theory, anthropology and other fields to understand the origins of Jewish culture, the formation of the Bible and other ancient texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the history of how the Bible has been reimagined in later cultural traditions. Among his recent projects is a collaboration with a Stanford geneticist that aims to bridge Jewish studies and population genetics.

As director of the Katz Center, Dr. Weitzman will lead this distinguished research institute into its third decade of post-doctoral research on Jewish civilization in all its historical and cultural manifestations.

Dr. Weitzman received his PhD from Harvard after completing his BA at UC Berkeley, and had previously spent several years teaching in the department of religious studies at Indiana University where he served as director of its Jewish Studies program for six years.

The Abraham M. Ellis chair was created in 1954 by the Abraham M. and Rose Ellis Foundation. The Ella Darivoff Director was established in 2001 by Philip M. Darivoff, W’79, WG’85 and Betsy Marks Darivoff, C’79.

For more on the genetics research mentioned above, see here.

*And also to his Penn colleague Eve Troutt Powell, who has also just been appointed to a named chair at Penn.

Virtual Magic Bowl Archive Project relocated

THE VMBA: VIRTUAL MAGIC BOWL ARCHIVE was noted here back in 2011 when it was a project of Southampton University. The old website is still there, but the project is now at Exeter University and there's a new and updated website there (the first link above).

The aim of the VMBA is to provide online resources for those engaged in the study of Aramaic incantation bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia, perhaps the most important primary source we have for studying the everyday beliefs and practices of the Jewish, Christian, Mandaean, Manichaean, Zoroastrian and Pagan communities on the eve of the Islamic conquests.

While we envisage more features being added over time, the initial resources will focus on some 650 texts that comprise part of the Schøyen Collection, which are currently being prepared for publication by an international team of scholars under the supervision of Professor Shaul Shaked.

Via AWOL. More on Professor Shaked here, here, here, and links.

The "Roman Ascent" to Jerusalem

RUINS: Ancient road into Jerusalem lies buried under construction debris. Historic pilgrims’ route known as the Roman Ascent now passes through sewage main and firing range.

The outskirts of Jerusalem, like the rest of the city, are a combination of the ugly and the beautiful. After Har Hamenuchot cemetery, under a heap of construction debris dozens of meters high, between a gigantic sewage main and the police firing range is a green valley though which the historic road to Jerusalem once ran. Very little has survived – a few curbstones, hints of ancient paving and archaeological remains at either end. The rest has been swept away over the years or disappeared under the cemetery, the range and the sewage main.

In honor of Sukkot, we took a walk along the ancient pilgrims’ route to Jerusalem, known as the Roman Ascent.

[...]

Even though it may actually be a Hasmonean rather than a Roman road.

Four Who Entered Paradise reloaded

THE FORWARD: Mysticism, Heresy and Multimedia Art (Michael Kaminer).

In the Talmudic legend called “Four Entered the Orchard,” a quartet of wise men who explore Jewish mysticism meet severe ends: One dies, one loses his mind, and one forsakes Jewish tenets altogether. Only one leaves intact.

Here’s hoping that the artists in “Pardes,” a new exhibition at Toronto’s Koffler Centre of the Arts, meet gentler fates. Inspired by the ancient tale, the exhibition “brings together four Israeli sound and multimedia artists to investigate notions of mysticism, heresy and the occult from secular perspectives, as they relate to contemporary society,” according to Mona Filip, the Koffler’s director.

The Talmudic story “becomes an overarching metaphor and theme of research for the show,” Filip said.
Pardes is also “a metaphor for the transcendent,” according to Toronto-based curator Liora Belford, who organized the exhibition. ”Where traditional transcendent and institutionalized religions are waning, alternative forms of non-physical yet non-transcendent ‘spirituality’ are emerging.”

[...]

Sounds interesting, but be careful not to ask where the drinking fountain is while you're visiting the exhibit.

Past references to the story of the Four Who Entered Paradise are collected here.

Jenkins on "the outside books"

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: In Many Tongues. Philip Jenkins comments on Outside the Bible. I hope at some point he will also have a look at Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. I think he will like it.

Yee et al. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha

NEW BOOK:

Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha

by Gale A. Yee (Editor); Hugh R. Page Jr. (Editor); Matthew J. M. Coomber (Editor)

Availability: In stock.

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 1,050
ISBN: 9780800699161
Height: 9.25
Width: 7.5
Item No: ED015737
Release Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2014

$70.00

The Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Old Testament and Apocrypha presents a balanced synthesis of current scholarship, enabling readers to interpret Scripture for a complex and pluralistic world.

The contributors bring a rich diversity of perspectives to the task of connecting solid historical critical analysis of the Scripture with sensitivity to theological, cultural, and interpretive issues arising in our encounter with the text. The contributors represent a broad array of theological commitment—Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and others.

The introductory articles and section introductions in the volume discuss the dramatic challenges that have shaped contemporary interpretation of the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Individual book articles provide an introduction and commentary on key sense units that are explored through the lenses of three critical questions:

• The text in its ancient context. What did the text probably mean in its original historical and cultural context?
  
• The text in the interpretive tradition. How have centuries of reading and interpreting shaped our understanding of the text?
  
• The text in contemporary discussion. What are the unique challenges and interpretive questions that arise for readers and hearers of the text today?

The result is a commentary that is comprehensive and useful for preaching, teaching, and research.

Reviews of books on Jewish and Iranian studies

ARASH ZEINI: Two reviews. The reviews, neither of which is online, are both in Zion and are of Secunda, The Iranian Talmud (background here, here, and links) and Secunda and Fine (eds.): Shoshannat Yaakov, Jewish and Iranian studies in honor of Yaakov Elman (background here).

Wells, Grace and Agency in Paul and Second Temple Judaism

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Grace and Agency in Paul and Second Temple Judaism
Interpreting the Transformation of the Heart

Kyle B. Wells, Westmont College, Santa Barbara

Following recent intertextual studies, Kyle B. Wells examines how descriptions of ‘heart-transformation’ in Deut 30, Jer 31–32 and Ezek 36 informed Paul and his contemporaries' articulations about grace and agency. Beyond advancing our understanding of how these restoration narratives were interpreted in the LXX, the Dead Sea Literature, Baruch, Jubilees, 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra, and Philo, Wells demonstrates that while most Jews in this period did not set divine and human agency in competition with one another, their constructions differed markedly and this would have contributed to vehement disagreements among them. While not sui generis in every respect, Paul's own convictions about grace and agency appear radical due to the way he reconfigures these concepts in relation to Christ.

Was Isaac sacrificed?

TZEMAH YOREH: The Sacrifice of Isaac in Context. Recovering a Lost Ending of the Akedah (TheTorah.com).

HT Seth Sanders on Facebook. An interesting article that takes up and develops a case made by Shalom Spiegel in The Last Trial (see n. 26) that in the original story of the Aqedah (the Binding of Isaac) Isaac was not only bound, he was actually sacrificed by Abraham. Indeed there is a good case that there is more going on in the Akedah (Genesis 22:1-19) than first meets the eye. But that said, there is a piece of evidence missed by Dr. Yoreh which partly supports his argument, but overall raises serious difficulties for it. He accepts a source division of the passage based on the use of divine names: Elohim ("God," used by the E source or Elohist) throughout the narrative except in vv. 11 and 14-15, where YHWH ("the LORD," typical of the J source or Yahwist) is used instead. Then by omitting vv. 12b and 13-14 (and presumably vv. 15-18 also) as Yahwistic additions, he reconstructs an original Elohistic story in which no angel intervened and Isaac was sacrificed.

The piece of evidence I mentioned is literally a piece, a fragment of Genesis 22 preserved in our earliest surviving manuscript of Genesis, found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and called 4QGenesisExodus^a.* This fragment has just a bit of v. 14 on it: אלהים יראה אשר יאמר. (Some of the letters are damaged or missing, but the readings are not in doubt.) So the place name in v. 14 is called "Elohim Yir'eh; as it is said ... ." The Masoretic text here reads "YHWH Yireh," so this fragment supports the suggestion that the original version had Elohim. Indeed, this phrase refers back to the beginning of the verse where Abraham uses the phrase "YHWH Yir'eh," translated something like "YHWH will see to it." The implication is that the original of that phrase also used Elohim. Moreover, the reference to "the"Angel of YHWH" in v. 11 is read in the Syriac version as "the Angel of Elohim." So we see a pattern, enough of one to suspect that the use of YHWH in "the Angel of YHWH" in v. 15 is also secondary and it originally read "the Angel of Elohim."

In other words, the fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls gives us very good reason to infer that the whole passage originally read Elohim throughout.

So far, so good. The problem with Dr. Yoreh's theory is that v. 14, which he wants to delete as a secondary addition by the Yahwist, also originally read Elohim and therefore was probably part of the original E story. Or at least the original use of the divine name gives us no reason to suspect that the Yahwist has added the passage.

One could still argue that the verses he deletes are secondary additions and that still gives us an Aqedah in which Isaac wasn't saved, but the argument is much weaker without the change in divine names.

I still suspect that an earlier version of the Aqedah did involve the actual sacrifice of Isaac, although what happened next is far from clear. Did Isaac die and rise again like Baal? I don't know. Yoreh suggests (n. 33) that in E Abraham was not the ancestor of Jacob, which is also possible. But any such speculative reconstructions have to proceed without the help of traditional source criticism based on the use of the divine names.

*I published the fragment in "The Name of God at Moriah: An Unpublished Fragment from 4QGenExod^a" in JBL 110 (1991): 577-82. The entire manuscript was later published in DJD 12. Incidentally, the handwriting of this fragment is the same as in the rest of the manuscript. And I reconstructed the whole manuscript and discovered that 22:14 came right at the top of a column, and the fragment does show the top margin of a column, so despite it's small size it is clearly a fragment from this part of Genesis in this manuscript.

UPDATE: I see I have an earlier post from many years ago which refers to Spiegel's reading of the Aqedah.

More on the INL's Hebrew manuscript digitization project

MANUSCRIPTS GALORE: In Jerusalem, a glimpse of Newton’s apocalypse, smuggled Syrian bibles, Kafka’s Hebrew As it pioneers a worldwide initiative to digitize every Hebrew manuscript in existence, Israel’s National Library offers a rare and tantalizing sight of its most prized treasures (Daniel Estrin, AP).

HT Gerald Rosenberg.

For the recently destroyed Jobar Synagogue, see here and links. For more on two of the "crowns of Damascus," see here. More on Isaac Newton's theological views and writings is here, here, and here. There's more on the Israel National Library's Hebrew manuscript digitization project here and here. And there is much more on many other manuscript digitization projects here, here, and here, and links.

Daf Yomi interim reflections

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The Study of Law as a Spiritual Act: Finding Truth and Meaning in the Talmud. Two years and 100 columns in to the Daf Yomi cycle, our critic pauses to reflect on its intellectual challenges and delights.

This week, punctuated for all Jews by Yom Kippur, also marks a particular transition for Daf Yomi readers. After two years, we have finally come to the end of Seder Moed, the division of the Talmud that deals with Jewish holidays. In that time, we have read hundreds of pages on the laws of Shabbat, in Tractates Shabbat and Eruvin, and learned the laws of most of the other major Jewish holidays—Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Pesach and Sukkot and Purim. We’ve learned about laws that apply to all festivals, in Tractate Beitzah, and those that apply only to the intermediate days of festivals, in Tractate Moed Katan. And we’ve read about rituals from Temple times that have not been practiced for almost 2,000 years—such as the collection of tithes, in Tractate Shekalim, and pilgrimages to Jerusalem, in Tractate Chagigah—but have remained a subject of study for all that time.

As it happens, this week also marks the 100th installment of my Daf Yomi column. These two milestones have led me to step back from the daily routine and reflect on what I have learned over the past two years of exploring the Talmud. I’ve been further prompted in this direction by reading a new book, The Talmud: A Biography, by Harry Freedman, which offers a brief history of the Talmud and the role it has played in Jewish thought and practice. So important is that role, so ubiquitous is the Talmud in Jewish culture, that the later parts of Freedman’s book tend to blur into a history of Judaism in general, taking in everything from Spinoza’s secularism to the miracle-working of the Baal Shem Tov.

[...]

Insofar as I know about the subject (and it is by no means my specialty), this column seems to be a nice brief summary of the current state of Talmudic studies. Freedman's book has also been mentioned here.

I don't have the time to participate in Daf Yomi, but I have learned a lot just from reading Mr. Kirsch's columns. I look forward to five more year of them.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Sukkot 2014

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

Biblical background to the festival is found in Leviticus 23:39-43 and Deuteronomy 16:13-15, with mentions also in Deuteronomy 31:10, Zechariah 14:16-18, Ezra 3:4, and 2 Chronicles 8:12-13. And there is one mention in the New Testament in John 7:2.

Past posts dealing with the historical background of the festival are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Herman, "The Babylonian Talmud and the Paikuli inscription"

ARASH ZEINI: The Babylonian Talmud and the Paikuli inscription. A new article in Zion by Geoffrey Herman.

New Jesus document? Sadly, no.

BOGUS: Newly-Found Document Holds Eyewitness Account of Jesus Performing Miracle.

In case you happened to see this article, which has been making the rounds on social media, it is a rather well-done, playful hoax on a site that likes to publish playful hoaxes. That pretty much sums it up, but Snopes has some more details: Miracle Witness.

Anyone who knows about Historical Jesus research would have been pretty sure it was a hoax as soon as they saw it. A real thing like this would have been all over the media with extensive responses from specialists. Think of the response to the Gospel of Jesus' Wife back in 2012, only more so.

Shanks on the Ivory Pomegranate inscription

HERSHEL SHANKS: First Person: A New Target (BAR). That target being Mr. Shanks himself. Paleographer Ada Yardeni has convinced him that the Ivory Pomegranate inscription may be a forgery. Most specialists think that, although the artifact itself is a genuine antiquity, the inscription is a modern forgery.

Background here, here, and links.

"Four species" coin on display

FOR SUKKOT: Rare ‘Four Species’ Coin from Bar Kochba in Display in Israel. The exhibition includes the largest gold medallion with Judaic symbols known in existence (The Jewish Press).

A rare silver coin with an inscription from the period of the Bar Kochba revolt is on display at the Israel Museum through the week-long Sukkot holiday, which begins Wednesday night.

The rare cache of Byzantine-era antiquities discovered in 2013 will be on display through the Sukkot holiday.

The writing on the coin with a depiction of the Four Species used on Sukkot indicates that it was written by Bar Kochba or in his name and illustrates the effort spent to supply the Four Species to Bar Kochba’s soldiers in the rebellion against the Roman conquerors.

The exhibition includes the largest gold medallion with Judaic symbols known in existence. Among the archaeological finds on view are gold coins and silver and gold jewelry, in addition to the sizable medallion, measuring four inches in diameter.

[...]

The report of the discovery was noted here last year. The gold medallion was also recently on display in the Jerusalem of Gold exhibition, noted here.

"When the Greeks Ruled Egypt"

EXHIBITION: Multiculturalism: Nothing New.‘When the Greeks Ruled Egypt’ Highlights the Diversity of Cultures in Ptolemaic Egypt (John Noble Wilford, NYT).

For the three centuries from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, Greeks ruled Egypt not so much as foreign conquerors but as the next dynasty in the long line of pharaohs. It was not out of character for Alexander himself to assume the power and status of a pharaoh, not to mention the promised fringe benefit of a grand afterlife and kinship to the Egyptian gods.

[...]


Their overriding policy was not to demand assimilation but to accept many ways of life. No official language was imposed for all purposes. Government affairs were often conducted in Greek, but also in Demotic, the local everyday language derived from the more formal hieroglyphs. Jewish and other immigrants often spoke and wrote Aramaic.

[...]

The diversity of cultures in Ptolemaic Egypt is the subject of an exhibition opening Wednesday at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, affiliated with New York University. Curators said the exhibition, “When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra,” from 323 B. C. to the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 B.C., “shines a light on the fluidity of the very idea of specific cultural identity.”

[...]

There is a certain amount of idealization and cultural projection here. Ptolemaic Egypt did not lack for Greek cultural imperialism, but the rulers were also very pragmatic and they accepted a great deal of cultural variety as long as the taxes got paid.

In any case, sounds like an interesting exhibition.

Mikveh discovery

CHRONIC OFFENDERS: Second Temple Period Mikveh Unearthed in Valley of Elah. Archaeologists stunned to find inscription by Australian soldiers from World War II alongside 1,900-year-old Jewish ritual bath (Ornit Etzer, Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva).

Israel Antiquities Authority excavations in the Valley of Elah's Tzomet Haelah, funded by the Netivei Israel state transportation company, made a rare discovery recently in unearthing a mikveh (ritual Jewish bath) from the Second Temple period.

In an interesting intertwining of time periods, on the roof of an adjacent massive water cistern inscriptions were found, made in the rock by Australian soldiers who were on the site during World War II.

The 1,900-year-old mikveh and 1,700-year-old water cistern were unearthed in explorations ahead of the construction of Highway 38.

"We found a mikveh with five steps quarried into the rock, with the fifth step serving as a bench to sit on the lip of the ritual immersion pool," said Yoav Tsur, the Authority's director of excavations.

Elaborating on the find, Tsur noted "at the site we found intricate pottery shards from the second century CE, including candles, red burnished vessels, a jug and cooking pots. It appears that during the second century CE the mikveh fell out of use, possibly in light of the events of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE)."

[...]

Nowadays you get busted for leaving graffiti on ancient ruins.

I pinched the opener of this post from the title of a science fiction story by Spider Robinson.

On the Loeb Classical Library

WELCOME TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: Ancient to Modern. The Loeb Classical Library goes digital (Susan Kristol, The Weekly Standard)

What is the connection between Morris Loeb, the eccentric but brilliant scientist, and the Loeb Classical Library, a collection of more than 520 Greek and Latin volumes published by Harvard University Press and now entering its digital age? Morris’s strong-willed decision to go into chemistry instead of joining the family investment-banking business reportedly led to increased pressure on his younger brother James (Harvard ’88) to become part of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. with their father, Solomon. James, a sensitive lover of literature and music and a gifted cellist, reluctantly gave up a potential career as an archaeologist or a classicist to join the family business. But he never lost his love of Greek and Latin. And one result of his thwarted passion for antiquity was his decision to create the Loeb Classical Library in 1911.

A fun article on the background and history of the LCL, inspired by its recent digitization and full of interesting details.

HT Ellen Birnbaum. For more on the LCL and its digitization, see here and links.

Vintage resurrection

IMPORTANT RESEARCH: Israeli wine researchers aim to revive ancient libations. Matching indigenous grapes with archaeological finds, Elyashiv Drori hopes to recreate the drinks enjoyed by King David (Ben Sales, JTA/Times of Israel).

ARIEL, West Bank (JTA) — The small cardboard box in Elyashiv Drori’s palm looks like it’s full of black pebbles.

Closing the box quickly, he explains that it cannot be open for long. The pebble-like pieces, which were uncovered in an archaeological dig near Jerusalem’s Old City, are in fact remains of a kilo of grapes stored nearly 3,000 years ago. They were preserved under layers of earth from the era when David and Solomon ruled over the Land of Israel.

Next to his laboratory at Ariel University, Drori — an oenophile who has judged international wine competitions — already has barrels of wine made from grapes that have grown in Israel for two millennia. Finding a living sample of the 3,000-year-old grapes will be the next step in his years-long quest to produce wine identical to that consumed in ancient Israel.

[...]

A recent potentially relevant story is noted here. And for similar efforts to resurrect ancient beer, see here and links.

Review of Anton, Enchantress

VOLUME TWO: Anton’s Newest Book Enchants (Sybil Kaplan, The Jewish Journal).

An enchantress is usually defined as a magician, sorcerer, enchanter or wizard.

For author Maggie Anton, an enchantress is also a sorceress or a woman who practices magic. Anton explains on her blog that when she was preparing to write “Enchantress,” (the sequel to “Rav Hisda’s Daughter”), she and a rabbi colleague went through “the entire Talmud again, tractate by tractate, searching for every mention of demons, magic, and enchantresses. We found far more than I expected; some stories were quite fantastic.”

“Empress” features Hisdadukh, the daughter of Rav Hisda, and is set in Babylonia from 299 C.E. to 359 C.E.

[...]

I think "Empress" is a typo for "Enchantress."

More on Anton, this latest book, and her earlier novels is here and links.

Shishak in Jordan?

INSCRIPTION: Pharaoh-Branded Amulet Found at Ancient Copper Mine in Jordan (Megan Gannon, LiveScience).

While exploring ancient copper factories in southern Jordan, a team of archaeologists picked up an Egyptian amulet that bears the name of the powerful pharaoh Sheshonq I.

The tiny artifact could attest to the fabled military campaign that Sheshonq I waged in the region nearly 3,000 years ago, researchers say.

[...]

That military campaign being the invasion of Sheshonq I ("Shishak") mentioned in 1 Kings 14:25-26 (cf. 11:39). Here we have a tantalizing potential link between a contemporary epigraphic source and a story about the Judean kingdom just after the United Monarchy. We don't get those very often.

Review of Waters, Ancient Persia

BMCR:

Matt Waters, Ancient Persia. A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xx, 252. ISBN 9780521253697. $29.99 (pb).

Reviewed by Catherine M. Draycott, British Institute at Ankara (cdraycott@biaatr.org)

Excerpt:

Matt Waters’s book should now be the first stop for those wanting an introduction to the Achaemenids and the study of them. It is a traditional history handbook, a chronological political narrative punctuated with social themes, but a thoroughly enjoyable one: well written and stimulating, the chapters pull the reader along through the book, and while concise it is packed with information and satisfyingly detailed, lucid discussions. A few typos aside, the copy is clean and well-illustrated with images and good maps.3 It shares with the books mentioned above the approach of the ‘New Achaemenid History’, wherein biases in the preponderance of Greek literary sources are made explicit and balanced with the different quality of information available from Near Eastern sources.4 Waters's book is a great success in these terms. The author displays equal control over the Greek and the myriad of non-Greek sources, which range from trilingual monumental royal inscriptions, clay tablets, Babylonian chronicles and the Bible to inscriptions and private letters from Egypt. From these he deftly weaves the story of this first Persian Empire, from their origins in the early Iron Age groups of Iran through to the take over of their vast territory by Alexander the Great, integrating into it the character of the sources.

Yom Kippur 2014

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

The biblical precepts for Yom Kippur appear in Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32. Some additional historical background is collected here and links.

Nikolsky and Ilan (eds.), Rabbinic Traditions between Palestine and Babylonia

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Rabbinic Traditions between Palestine and Babylonia

Edited by Ronit Nikolsky University of Groningen and Tal Ilan, Freie Universität Berlin

In this book various authors explore how rabbinic traditions that were formulated in the Land of Israel migrated to Jewish study houses in Babylonia. The authors demonstrate how the new location and the unique literary character of the Babylonian Talmud combine to create new and surprising texts out of the old ones. Some authors concentrate on inner rabbinic social structures that influence the changes the traditions underwent. Others show the influence of the host culture on the metamorphosis of the traditions. The result is a complex study of cultural processes, as shaped by a unique historical moment.

Welcome to two new St Andrews colleagues

WELCOME TO DR. JUDITH WOLFE AND DR. SANDRA HÜBENTHAL, two new colleagues in the School of the Divinity at the University of St. Andrews.

Judith comes to us from Oxford University and has just taken up a Lectureship in Theology and the Arts here. Her research currently focuses on theology and literature, which special interests in epistemology, eschatology, and the Inklings, and she is the editor of The Journal of Inkling Studies. But she also did her undergraduate work at the Hebrew University, where she studied with, among others, Rachel Elior. So she has a considerable interest in Second Temple Judaism and related matters.

Sandra comes from Basel University and is here as a Teaching Fellow in New Testament Studies for 2014-15 (this post). Her research interests include the New Testament and social memory theory, and biblical traditions and economic thought. You can read more about her work in this post at the Jesus blog.

Judith and Sandra, delighted to have you both here.

Review of Brody, Mishnah and Tosefta Studies

LIKE REVENGE: Straight-up Philology, Served Cold (Amit Gvaryahu, The Talmud Blog).

Robert Brody, Mishnah and Tosefta Studies, (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2014)

Brody might be writing in English, but the book is decidedly Jerusalemite: a crash-course in straight-up philology, clearheaded and free of jargon, served cold.

Noted earlier here.

Salome in the arts

SALOME (daughter of Herodias, not the disciple of Jesus) is getting some attention in the theatre and in a musical production inspired by an earlier opera and graphic novel.

With Salome, Al Pacino returns to London stage after 30-year wait (Ben Beaumont-Thomas, The Guardian).

Al Pacino has said he’ll return to the London stage in 2016 in a production of Oscar Wilde’s play Salome, over 30 years after he last appeared in the West End.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Pacino promised there would be a full production of the play that he’s already performed in New York and Los Angeles, the latter filmed in 2006 for a cinema version that is currently on release. Describing Pacino’s filmed performance, the Guardian’s Mike McCahill said that “Pacino’s vulgar, ethnically indeterminate Herod furnishes this banquet with easily digested ham: if he can’t quite bring all of Wilde’s often florid imagery into focus, he’s given it a good shout – literally so, in places.”

[...]

I'm sure Mr. Pacino makes a fine Herod. Salome herself was played by Jessica Chastain in the Los Angeles production, but she has yet to be cast for the London one.

Opera music, comic book art tell story of Salomé’s Dance (Webster Post).

Greece, N.Y.

To most of us, Salomé is a salacious symbol of sexual excess — but that wasn’t always the case. A striking new production combines the illustrations of famed comic-book artist P. Craig Russell with music to tell the biblical story of a beautiful and sensuous young dancer. Russell’s evocative graphic novel, based on Richard Strauss’s opera Salomé, will be accompanied by a reworked instrumental rendition of the opera in presentations at the University of Rochester and its Eastman School of Music next month.

[...]

In the New Testament, Salomé is not identified by name, but simply as the daughter of Herodias, the wife of King Herod. When the girl’s dance pleases the king, he promises her anything she wants. Prodded by her mother, the girl asks for the head of John the Baptist, who had condemned Herodias and Herod for their unlawful marriage.

The ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also recounted the story, naming the young girl Shalome. Over the centuries, Salomé came to represent the dangers of the life of the flesh as opposed to John the Baptist’s life of the Holy Spirit, and was depicted as an alluring, lustful, and dangerous female.

[...]

Close, but not quite. The New Testament tells the story about the unnamed daughter of Herodias. Josephus tells us the name of Herodias' daughter, but he does not tell the New Testament story and he gives a different reason for John the Baptist's execution by Herod (i.e, to prevent him from fomenting a rebellion). By combining the two accounts, we infer that the girl in the New Testament story, whatever its historical merits, was meant to be Salome.

Sources Chrétiennes

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: 50 % off for 518 Sources Chrétiennes Volumes (Alin Suciu).

Aramean nation?

MODERN ARAMAIC WATCH: Op-Ed: Is There Really an Aramean Nation? Are the Israeli Christians part of the ancient Aramean people rather than Arabs? (Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Arutz Sheva).

One of the last things Israel's Interior Minister Gideon Saar did before resigning from the Knesset was to recognize the Israeli Christians as members of the Aramean nation. The decision caused a media uproar, especially in the Arab sector, with most critics saying that there is no Aramaic nation and that the real reason for this step was an attempt to cause a split in the Arab population of Israel so as to "divide and conquer" and gain control of the Arab sector.

This calls for an investigation and an investigation into the veracity of an Aramean nation's existence must be conducted on two planes: the historic-lingual-religious one and the civilian one.

[...]

He argues that it is valid to think in terms of an Aramean nation. Background here. There are very complicated historical and linguistic issues involved, not to speak of the political ones, and more than a newspaper article or a blog post would be necessary to address them properly.

Past posts on speakers of Aramaic in Israel are here (scroll down to third story from bottom), here, here, and links.

The PhDiva on the Jobar Synagogue

DOROTHY KING: RIP the Jobar Synagogue, Syria. With pre-destruction photos.

Background here and links.

Blood moon tetrad part 2 - Sukkot

COSMIC SYNCHRONICITY WATCH: Is lunar eclipse at Sukkot an ominous sign? (Edmon J. Rodman, JTA). Excerpt:

Jeremy Schnittman, a research astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and an observant Jew, is putting up his, so maybe we shouldn’t worry.

“The lunar tetrad event is perfectly normal,” Schnittman told JTA.

“Every night when you go outside on the first night of Sukkot, it is going to be a full moon. And every lunar eclipse happens during a full moon,” he said. “On average there are two lunar eclipses every year. The chance of having a lunar eclipse on Sukkot is one in six.

“The same is true for the first night of Pesach,” he said, demystifying what at first seems like an awesome coincidence.

But what about the fact that the eclipses fall on the two Jewish holidays?

“If there’s one on Sukkot, then there’s a very high chance that there will be one on Pesach,” said Schnittman, noting that the holidays are exactly six months apart.

“There’s been a lot of hubbub about ‘Four Blood Moons’ in a row,” he added. But once the plane of the orbits of the moon and earth are aligned so that an eclipse occurs, “it’s actually quite reasonable that you are going to get them again every six months for the next couple of years before the cycle moves a little bit out of alignment.”

As for the blood-like color, which is even mentioned in the book of Joel, Schnittman explained, “Full eclipses are always red. Just like the clouds on earth turn red during the sunset, during an eclipse the full moon turns red.”

So don't get excited; it's not a sign of the apocalypse. Last year's blood moon at Passover was noted and discussed here.

Yom Kippur

The obscure origins of Yom Kippur. It is the holiest day in Judaism, yet its intent has markedly changed and its practice today is a far cry from the rites of ancient times. (Elon Gilad, Haaretz). A long article with lots of good stuff in it. Excerpt:

Just when Yom Kippur began has been hotly debated by academics for over a century. The main question is whether it happened during the First Temple period. The evidence seems to indicate that it did not exist then.

Writing just after the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, Ezekiel seems unaware of Yom Kippur. It is not on his list of holidays to be observed when the Temple would be rebuilt.
A rare relic from the First Temple period (found in the City of David, referring to Bethlehem). Photo by: Clara Amit, IAA

Neither does Zecharia seem to have any notion of it when he instructed the Jews returning from captivity on observation of fast days. When Ezra reads the Torah to the returning Jews on the first of Tishrei, they learned that they need to prepare for Sukkot, but Yom Kippur is not mentioned. This is only proof of omission, but it’s all we have.

Thus, it seems that the three biblical mentions of the Day of Atonement (Numbers 29:7-11, Leviticus 16:1-34, and Leviticus 23:26-32) were inserted by priests during the Second Temple period to validate new rites added to purify the Temple in advance of the most important holiday in the Jewish calendar at the time, Sukkot.

The priests of the Jerusalem Temple who inaugurated Yom Kippur seem to have had the 12-day Babylonian festival marking the new year, Akitu, in mind, particularly the fifth day of Akitu, which has some striking similarities to Yom Kippur that are unlikely to be coincidence.

That fifth day involved a purification ceremony called kuppuru, which involved dragging a dead ram through the temple, supposedly purifying it of impurities. Kuppuru and its Hebrew cognate kippur meant “to uncover” or specifically in this case “to remove impurity,” which means a better translation of Yom Kippur to English would be "Day of Purification."

Again, read the article soon, before it goes behind the subscription paywall.

The root meaning of kippur may have been "to cover over," rather than "to uncover," but in any case its usage in the Hebrew Bible is "to expiate" or "atone for" sin. This is a somewhat different issue from removing impurity, which potentially involves ritual impurity, which is defiling but not sinful. The concepts of sin/atonement and impurity/purification do have some overlap in biblical Hebrew, but they are generally distinct ideas. I would stick with the translation "Day of Atonement."

For lots more on the Akitu Festival, see yesterday's post here and links, notably here. As I explain in the latter post, I don't see a direct connection between the Akitu Festival and Rosh HaShanah or Yom Kippur, but I do think it's possible that both descend from an indigenously Judean re-enthronement festival that operated on similar lines.

This article also discusses the scapegoat ceremony, on which see also here, and the Yom Kippur observances by the High Priest in the Second Temple period according to the Mishnah. For Yom Kippur in the Talmud, see here. For more on the mysterious figure Azazel in the biblical Yom Kippur rites, see here.

Remains of fourth-century CE earthquake at Hippos

EXCAVATION: Archaeological findings shed light on massive 363 CE earthquake in Galilee. University of Haifa archaeologists find bones crushed under a collapsed roof, a dove-shaped gold pendant and catapult ammunition at site near Lake Kinneret (Jerusalem Post).

University of Haifa archeologists recently discovered items which have shed light on an earthquake that occurred in 363 CE in the ancient city of Hippos that overlooks Lake Kinneret.

Hippos, near modern-day Kibbutz Ein Gev overlooking the lake (the Sea of Galilee), was the site of a Greco-Roman city-state. It is just on the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice line with Syria. Susita Mountain, on which Hippos was built, is between the Kinneret Valley and the southwestern Golan mountain range, about 2 kilometers east of the lake and rising 350 meters above it. Hippos was part of the Decapolis, Ten Cities that were culturally tied more closely to Greece and Rome than to the otherwise Semitic region.

Archeologists digging at the excavation site, founded as Antioch of Hippos by Seleucid settlers and known as Susita in Hebrew, uncovered a woman’s skeleton and a gold dove-shaped pendant under the tiles of a collapsed roof. In addition, they found the marble leg of a statue and artillery from some 2,000 years ago.

[...]

Cool pendant. For lots more ancient bling, see here and here and links. And for past posts on Hippos-Sussita, see here and links.