Blaming "the Jews" for Middle East antiquities looting

OH DEAR: Jewish conspiracy looting Mideast antiquities, say Arab archaeologists. Prominent Iraqi, Syrian historians claim Jews seek to destroy region’s Arab heritage to avenge 2,500-year-old Babylonian exile (Tamar Pileggi, Times of Israel/AFP).

According to a prominent Iraqi historian and archaeologist and a Syrian director of the country’s famed Palmyra museum, an “international Jewish mafia” is plotting to loot Iraq and Syria of its most valued antiquities in an effort to prove the veracity of the Jewish Bible and eradicate evidence of Arab heritage in the Middle East.

“The Jews are always looking for antiquities – especially Middle Eastern ones, and particularly Iraqi ones – in order to prove that the Torah is true,” Ali al-Nashmi, the Iraqi archaeologist, said on the pan-Arab Mayadeen television channel earlier this month.

[...]

MEMRI has posted both interviews here with English subtitles. My spoken Arabic is not good enough to make out more than a word or two here and there. But MEMRI is good at providing reliable translations in the videos they post, so, along with the AFP, I am taking them at their word in what follows — with all the usual caveats about things I have not fully verified firsthand myself. The content reported in the video and the article is almost the same (see below).

Given Palestinian Jewish-Temple denial, widely repeated in the Arab world etc., and the depredations of the Waqf on the Temple Mount, it's hard not to see a certain amount of projection in the reported comments.

After some more comments on the same lines as those already quoted, we come to this:

Walid Al-As’ad, the director of the Palmyra Museum, spoke to the Mayadeen network in a similar vein, explaining that Jews are driven to “erase the Arab origins of these antiquities” – this time a reference to Syrian artifacts – and “destroy the city [of Palmyra] and wipe it off the face of the Earth, in order to erase the memory of their Babylonian exile,” an exile he said was abetted by archers from Palmyra who served in the army of Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar II when he destroyed the First Temple and exiled the Jewish elite to Babylon.

Neither interviewee seems to have a very clear idea of what the "Torah" is. Palmyra (Tadmor) is not mentioned in the Pentateuch. The only biblical mentions of the site are in 1 Kings 9:18 and 2 Chronicles 8:4, with reference to the reign of Solomon. The story about the archers does not appear in the Bible at all. I don't know whether the Talmud mentions Tadmor. (The video does not show either speaker saying the phrase "in order to erase the memory of their Babylonian exile," although it appears — not as a quotation — in the caption below the video.)

Then we come to this:

In August, Islamic State jihadists beheaded Walid’s father, Khaled Al-As’ad, and hanged his mutilated body in public. The elder As’ad had served as director of the Palmyra Museum for 40 years until his retirement in 2003, when Walid took over the position.

Now I know the junior Mr. Asaad (As'ad) lives in a Baathist state and his government may have put him up to this, or he may be speaking out of fear of reprisal from ISIS. Or both. So I'm trying to cut him some slack. But this is just sad, and it brings shame to the memory of his father.

For reports on the destruction of Palmyra (by ISIS, not the Jews) and the murder of the senior Asaad (also by ISIS), see here, here, here, here, and many links. Some other relevant recent posts are here and here, and don't forget to follow those links.

Was Jesus a Phoenician?

SHORT ANSWER: NO. LAU lecture explores question: Was Jesus a Phoenician? (Lebanese Examiner).

(NEW YORK) — The Lebanese American University held a lecture Wednesday exploring evidence compiled by author Karim El Koussa, which suggests Jesus may be a Phoenician, according to his private studies.

The university hosted the Lebanese author at the LAU New York Academic Center, where university officials frequently host public forums and hold Arabic language courses, among others.

El Koussa said 40 people attended the lecture, which included a book signing for his publication “Jesus the Phoenician.” He admits the results of his studies often spark controversy because they contradict conventional beliefs that Jesus was a Jew.

“Some people are used to the traditional way of thinking that was imposed on them throughout their life and are definitely afraid to open their minds to controversial ideas in matter of religion and history,” El Koussa said, referring to points discussed in his book. “They usually react in a very fierce way as if they are threatened, although many of the reference I am using are coming from the New Testament itself.”

[...]

No actual arguments are included in the article, so there are none to reply to. But Jesus was a Galilean who self-identified as a Jew. The lecturer's credentials for his remarkable assertion are "a degree in communications from NDU." This notion is not one even noticed, let alone taken seriously or treated as a theory in the scholarly literature on the historical Jesus.

This is perhaps related to the notion that Jesus was a "Palestinian," on which I commented some years ago here and here.

More destruction at Palmyra

PALMYRA WATCH: Islamic State destroys Palmyra’s triumphal arch. Activists say jihadist group has destroyed the Arch of Triumph at Syrian archaeological site because of ‘idolatrous’ columns (AFP).

Background here and links.

Bar Kokhba-era site vandalized

ISRAEL HAYOM: Bar Kokhba-era antiquities site razed by Palestinian vandals (Efrat Forsher). Ancient city in Gush Etzion was site of first discovery of one of the caves Bar Kokhba used for concealment during his second century revolt against Roman rule • Students at the Kfar Etzion Field School come across irreparable damage during field trip.

An antiquities site that served as an encampment for Jewish leader Shimon Bar Kokhba during his revolt against the Romans from 132 to 136 C.E. has been destroyed by Palestinian vandals.

Discoveries made at the Kiryat Arabia site, located near the village al-Arub in Gush Etzion, have been a vital source of information about the period of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and its destruction is a blow to research efforts.

In 1968, a winding, branching cave was discovered at the site, the first of the system of caves where Bar Kokhba hid to be discovered. A few years later, the Kfar Etzion Field School began conducting excavations at the site under the guidance of Professor Yoram Tsafrir, which turned up exciting finds and shed light on the final days of the revolt.

The cave was originally dug beneath the ancient community of Kiryat Arabia, which is mentioned in scrolls found at Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert. The Nahal Hever scrolls also include military correspondence between Bar Kokhba and his fighters.

In one that apparently dates back to 134 C.E., Bar Kokhba orders a man named Yehuda Bar Menashe, who was in Kiryat Arabia, to supply him and his soldiers with the Four Species mandated by Jewish law (citron, palm, myrtle and willow) for the observance of the approaching Sukkot holiday. This demonstrates how strictly Bar Kokhba and his army followed the commandments of Jewish law, even under difficult circumstances.

[...]

The letter mentioned is P.Yadin 57. The location, vocalization, and meaning of the site named "Kiryat Arabia" is uncertain. It may or may not have to do with "Arabia" or "Arabs." It is also uncertain whether it is to be identified with the vandalized site. Also, the article does not make clear how the writer knows who did the vandalizing.

It is an ironic synchronicity that the vandalizing of a site that may be mentioned in P.Yadin 57, which letter also refers to preparations for the Festival of Sukkot, was discovered and announced during the Festival of Sukkot some nineteen centuries later.

Review of Quinn and Vella (eds.), The Punic Mediterranean

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Josephine Crawley Quinn, Nicholas Vella, The Punic Mediterranean: Identities and Identification from Phoenician Settlement to Roman Rule. British School at Rome studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xxvi, 376. ISBN 9781107055278. $125.00.

Reviewed by Carolina López-Ruiz, The Ohio State University (lopez-ruiz.1@osu.edu)

Preview

This important collection of essays explores current debates about Phoenician culture in its western Mediterranean aspects, a field of growing interest.1 Its authors examine what we call “Punic” culture, that is, the western Phoenician colonial world after the sixth century (all dates BCE), marked by the rise of Carthage. The contributors agree that the name Punic (from the Latin for “Phoenician,” or “Carthaginian,” poenus, punicus) does not correspond with a clearly defined and distinct identity, but should be treated as a subset of the broader “Phoenician world,” slippery, vague, and complex as that term might be in turn. The ultimate (and frustrating) difficulty for historians and archaeologists is how to discuss those cultures (Phoenicians, Sardinians, Iberians, Numidians, and others) who left little or no literary evidence and no surviving self-defining narratives, without creating artificial modern categories shaped by material evidence, institutional projects, and intellectual trends. How do we bridge the gaps and correct for the biases in the Greek and Roman sources in order to form a more authentic view of the “Phoenicians” that is not Hellenocentric or Romanocentric? Do the cultural differences reflected in material practices reflect a separate identity between western and eastern Phoenicians? In general, the chapters all build on current views of the construction of identities and postcolonial theory, offering a fresh perspective on old and recent archaeological materials and (in fewer cases) written materials.

[...]

Cross-file under Punic Watch.

More on the carbonized Leviticus scroll

THE SMITHSONIAN: 1,500-Year-Old Text Has Been Digitally Resurrected From a Hebrew Scroll. Special software helped reveal the words on a burned scroll found inside a holy ark near the Dead Sea (Devin Powell). HT Jim West, who notes that James Aitkin is quoted in the article. Nice video too.

Background here and links.

New chambers in Tut's tomb?

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Search for Nefertiti's burial chamber in Tutankhamun tomb (BBC).

While assessing the scans last February, Dr [Nicholas] Reeves spotted what he believed were marks indicating where two doorways used to be. The archaeologist from the University of Arizona says he believes Nefertiti may lie inside.

Egypt's Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty hopes that non-invasive radar equipment can be used in the tomb within the next three months.

"If it is true, we are facing a discovery that would overshadow the discovery of Tutankhamun himself," said Mr Damaty.

Radar equipment "will confirm whether there's something" there, he added.

No, this isn't about ancient Judaism. But since I am forever going on about the imminent promise of non-invasive and non-destructive scanning technologies, it seemed worthwhile to note a case where primitive forms of such technologies are already being used to solve an archaeological question. I hope they do find more chambers in Tut's tomb — preferably well stocked ones! But the real point is that the technology now exists either to find them or to rule them out.

CFP for digital editions conference

ETC: Call for Papers: Digital Editions: Academia, Society, Cultural Heritage (Peter J. Gurry). Note that the date of this conference is 16-18 March 2016, not the 2015 typo at the link. The deadline for submission of proposals is 16 October 2015.

Krasnowolska and Rusek-Kowalska (eds.), Studies on the Iranian World I. Before Islam

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Studies on the Pre-Islamic Iranian World. Notice of a new book: Krasnowolska, Anna & Renata Rusek-Kowalska (eds.). 2015. Studies on the Iranian World I. Before Islam. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press. Nothing specific on ancient Judaism in the TOC, but the Manicheans (Manichaeans) come up a couple of times.

Review of Bradley, Smell and the Ancient Senses

BRYN MARY CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Mark Bradley (ed.), Smell and the Ancient Senses. The senses in antiquity. London; New York: Routledge, 2015. Pp. xii, 210. ISBN 9781844656424. $39.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Stuart Eve, University College London/L – P : Archaeology (s.eve@ucl.ac.uk)

Preview

Mark Bradley opens this collected volume of 13 essays by stating: “one of the most interesting things about smell is its very transitoriness and elision from the record, as well as its ambiguities and complexities” (p. 2-3). This sentence sums up the book as a whole and sets the stage well for what can be considered an excellent collection of work on smell in the ancient world.

[...]

The breadth of the different contributions means there is not room to discuss each one individually, but each certainly contributes something useful to the volume and as a whole they give a good overview of the current (and varied) thinking on the subject. The early chapters present excellent discussions of smell for both medical diagnosis and prognosis, along with a discussion of which herbs and trees may have been experienced and exploited for their smelly qualities. In some cases it seems as if the authors are perhaps 'tacking on' a discussion of smell to some of their previous research – this is particularly true of Koloski-Ostrow (with her focus on sewerage systems) and Potter (on Roman dining) – but the contributions don't necessarily suffer for this and indeed it can be taken as evidence of how pervasive the study of smell should be.

The choice of the contributions means interesting juxtapositions are sometimes presented, with Butler's exploration of the poetical creation of the sweet-smelling 'scent of a woman' being set against Bradley's discussion of the foul smells of the body. The chapters on the role of scent and smell in religious contexts, (Clements [on Greek ritual], Green [on smell in Rabbinic Jewish ritual], and Toner [on smell in Christianity]) work together very well to present three different ways in which smell can be used to appease or attract the gods. The exploration of the role of incense throughout these three chapters aptly demonstrates both the ethereal nature of smell, but also its politicisation to achieve one's own aims.3 As Clements says, “odour emerges as an experience of divinity, and divinity, in turn, as an experience of odour” (p. 59).

[...]

RevQ 105/27 (2015)

A NEW VOLUME IS OUT: Revue de Qumrân 105, tome 27 (2015). Follow the link for the TOC.

Thompson on "Biblical Archaeology"

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Biblical Archaeology: The Hydra of Palestine’s History

Both Israel Finkelstein and William Dever have allegedly distanced themselves from the kind of “biblical archaeology” of William F. Albright. Their own efforts, however, to relate Palestinian archaeology and biblical narrative not only reflect Albright’s earlier methods, they create a politically oriented incoherence. In three recent works, since the turn of the millennia, Finkelstein uses archaeologically based arguments primarily to resolve problems of biblical interpretation. Dever, who also has published three biblical-archaeological studies since 2001, concentrates, rather, on archaeological issues, while using biblical narrative for his underlying historical context. A discussion of the figures of Solomon and Josiah on the one hand and a discussion of “landscape archaeology” and site classification, on the other hand, illustrate the shortcomings of their methodology.

This article has been published as part of the Festschrift for Niels Peter Lemche, Teologi, historie og erindring, in the Dansk teologisk tidsskrift 78 (2015), 243-260.

By Thomas L. Thompson
Professor emeritus
University of Copenhagen
October 2015

ARTA

AWOL: Open Access Journal: ARTA: Achaemenid Research on Texts and Archaeology. Lots of good articles on Achaemenid Persia. I noted a recent one here.

The Mt Zion excavation

JAMES TABOR: Fabulous Coverage of our Mt Zion Dig! Professor Tabor links to a popular report on the Mt Zion excavation, headed by him and Shimon Gibson under the auspices of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. It will be running again in 2016.

Background on the excavation and its most famous discovery, the "Mt Zion cup," is here and links.

Dead Sea Scrolls workshop report

THE EUROPEAN QUMRAN NETWORK MEETING IN HELSINKI took place in September. Katri Antin and Jutta Jokiranta have a brief report at the Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions (CSTT) Blog: FROM TINY DOTS TO GLOBALIZATION.

Satlow on Ben Sira

MICHAEL L. SATLOW: The Wisdom of Ben Sira: How Jewish? (TheTorah.com).

Ben Sira will never replace Kohelet within the Tanak or as a synagogue reading on Sukkot. But although it is “outside the Bible,” it may still contain teachings and wisdom that remain relevant for us today. King Solomon, the reputed author of Kohelet, was said to have a capacious sense of wisdom. We might want to ask whether our tent, like those of the Talmudic and Geonic Sages, is large enough to include Ben Sira, even if the book is only just allowed to lurk at the entrance.

Cross-file under Old Testament Apocrypha Watch.

Research fellowship at the John Rylands Library

H-JUDAIC: Fellowships: Visiting Research fellowships at the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.

For more on the John Rylands Research Institute, see here and links.

Fulton, Reconsidering Nehemiah's Judah

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Reconsidering Nehemiah's Judah
The Case of MT and LXX Nehemia 11–12

[Neuauswertung des Juda bei Nehemia. Der Fall MT und LXX Nehemia 11–12.]
2015. XV, 258 Seiten.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 80

Deirdre N. Fulton investigates the history of Judah during the late-Persian and Hellenistic Periods by analysing Nehemiah 11-12. These chapters exhibit changes in the lists and the procession narrative, preserved in two different traditions, within the MT (Masoretic Text) and the LXX (Greek Septuagint).

Gerim

YONA SABAR: Hebrew word of the week: Gerim — “alien residents; converts to Judaism.”

Virtual tour of biblical sites

POPULAR ARCHAEOLOGY: Website walks visitors on virtual tour of biblical archaeological sites.

Petra. Masada. Herodium. Jericho. Qumran.

These are “holy land” archaeological sites of which most of us have heard but comparatively few of us have actually visited in person. There are obvious reasons for that—cost, time, cost, other commitments, cost, other priorities, cost. For those of us who have a passion for things archaeological, especially as they apply to the biblical account and the Middle East in general, such places remain mostly uncrossed on the travel wish list.

But what if you were told that you could ‘visit’ these places without incurring the fortune of airfare, hotel expenses and food, without ever having to hassle with security check lines, step onto an airplane or ride a bus or take a taxi?

One website, called the Virtual World Project, can do that for us. Featuring archaeological sites from Abu Ghosh to Zohar, the website offers virtual grand tours of no less than 106 sites.

[...]

Nice website. It's not quite up to this level of virtual reality yet, but the images are high quality and the panorama effects are very good.

PSCO 53 (2015-16)

THE PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS: 2015–2016 Topic: Beyond “Greco-Roman Context”: Persian & Other Perspectives on Judaism & Christianity. Sounds like an excellent area to explore. Follow the link for details.

Canepa, "Text, image, memory, and performance"

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Epigraphic practices in Persia and the ancient Iranian world. Notice of a new article in a new book: Canepa, Matthew P. 2015. "Text, image, memory, and performance: epigraphic practices in Persia and the ancient Iranian world." In Antony Eastmond, Viewing Inscriptions in the Late Antique and Medieval World, 10-35. Cambridge University Press

Dennert, John the Baptist and the Jewish Setting of Matthew

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

John the Baptist and the Jewish Setting of Matthew

How does the Jewish figure of John the Baptist function within the Jewish setting of Matthew? Brian C. Dennert analyzes the Baptist's role in Matthew and draws upon his portrait in other texts, noting how Matthew's portrait and use of John strengthens the claims of Matthew's Jewish group over against other Jewish groups.

Aramaic and the Cellist

ARAMAIC WATCH: Cellist Maya Beiser takes cutting-edge approach to music (Colin Eatock, Chron).

For this kind of unorthodox programming, the Washington Post dubbed her "the reigning queen of the avant-garde cello."

Beiser was raised on a kibbutz and came to the U.S. in 1987. She soon made a name for herself as the cellist in the New York ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars, which is known for cutting-edge repertoire.

Her newest production, brought to the Wortham Theater Center by the Society for the Performing Arts, is called "All Vows." She says the title is inspired by the "Kol Nidre," a Jewish prayer written more than 1,000 years ago in the Aramaic language.

"I'm starting the second part of the show with 'Kol Nidre,' " she says. "I'll be playing the cello and singing in Aramaic. I'll perform a setting that was written for me by Mohammed Fairouz. It's a beautiful gift that he has created."

Fairouz is an American composer of Palestinian origin who is much feted in the classical music world.

Aramaic and music seem to go well together.

Sukkot priestly blessing at Western Wall

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: IN PICTURES: Thousands flock to Western Wall for traditional priestly blessing. The traditional priestly blessing is held anually in honor of Succot, Passover and Shavuot (Jerusalem Post).

Background on the Festival of Sukkot is here (cf. here) and links.

AJR interviews CBR editor

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Currents in Biblical Research: Interview with Editor Jordan Rosenblum.

“The Ancient Jew Review sat down with Jordan Rosenblum, editor of Ancient Judaism at Currents in Biblical Research. We discuss the scope of the journal, the peer review process, as well as Rosenblum’s advice for journal submissions.”

Egyptian street-map mosaic excavated in Israel

ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY PRESS RELEASE:

A Rare 1,500 Year Old Mosaic was Discovered that Depicts Ancient Streets and Buildings in Egypt

A 1,500 year old mosaic, depicting a map with streets and buildings, was exposed about two years ago in archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted together with school children and employees from the Qiryat Gat Industrial Park. The excavation of the mosaic was generously underwritten by the Y.S. Gat Company–Qiryat Gat Industrial Park Management Company. This extraordinary mosaic served as the floor of a church dating to the Byzantine period. It was removed from the site for the purpose of conservation and was recently returned to its permanent location in the industrial park. The mosaic will be revealed to the public for the first time at the “Factories from Within” festival to be held October 1, during the Sukkot holiday.

According to archaeologists Sa‘ar Ganor and Dr. Rina Avner of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The appearance of buildings on mosaic floors is a rare phenomenon in Israel. The buildings are arranged along a main colonnaded street of a city, in a sort of ancient map. A Greek inscription preserved alongside one of the buildings exposed in the mosaic indicates that the place which is depicted is the settlement חורטסו, in Egypt. According to Christian tradition, the prophet Habakkuk was buried in חורטסו. The appearance of this Egyptian city on the floor of the public building in Qiryat Gat might allude to the origin of the church’s congregation”.

The mosaic pavement was part of the floor of a church that did not survive. Two sections of the mosaic were preserved; animals such as a rooster, deer and birds and a special goblet with red fruits are portrayed on one part of the pavement. According to Ganor, “The artist utilized tesserae of seventeen different colors in preparing the mosaic. The investment in the raw materials and their quality are the best ever discovered in Israel”. A Nile River landscape in Egypt consisting of a boat with a rolled-up sail, streets and buildings is depicted on the second carpet. The buildings are portrayed in detail and in three dimensions, and they have two–three stories, balconies and galleries, roofs, roof tiles and windows.

The “Factories from Within” festival will be held this year for the first time in the Qiryat Gat Industrial Park during the Sukkot holiday, in what will become an annual tradition. On October 1 the Qiryat Gat Industrial Park will be turned into an event-filled arena of one-time performances in unconventional locations, with rare visits inside some of the best known factories in Israel. The children will enjoy performances of Adon Shoko with songs by Arik Einstein, “Shukhnat Hop” and a variety of creative activities. A unique offering of events awaits adults with appearances by Shalom Hanoch and Moshe Levi in a performance of “Exit” that will be held in a printer factory, the singer Dikla will appear in the park, and Hemi Rudner will hold a fascinating master’s class in the Negev Beer brewery.

The project will give the general public a rare opportunity to peek into the hidden world of the factories in one of the country’s most modern industrial areas. The “Factories from Within” festival is the inaugural event slated to launch the 60th anniversary of Qiryat Gat, and the public is invited to enjoy the unique musical and visual experience.

The announcement has already received considerable media attention, for example, these LiveScience articles by Stephanie Pappas: 1,500-Year-Old Mosaic Shows Map of Ancient Egyptian Settlement and In Photos: Elaborate Mosaic Adorned Floor of Ancient Church.

Scanning the bodies from Pompeii

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Revealed - what's inside the Pompeii mummies: Incredible CT scans show bodies in unprecedented detail laying bare their bones, delicate facial features and even dental cavities (Victoria Woollaston, Daily Mail)

• Restorers are working on 86 preserved plaster casts of Romans who died when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD
  
• Each of the victims have been entombed in ash and now plaster for more than 1,900 years
  
• Experts have spent the summer scanning these bodies using CT scanners at the Pompeii Archaeological Site
  
• They have now released the first results of these scans to show what lies beneath the plaster of the victims

Remarkable, if macabre, technological progress. Pompeii has featured from time to time on PaleoJudaica, notably here, here, here, and here and links. It has even occasionally come up in connection with ancient Judaism, such as here, here and here and links.

Cairo Geniza scholar receives MacArthur Fellowship

CONGRATULATIONS! Rustow receives MacArthur Fellowship (Daily Princetonian).

Marina Rustow, the Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East at the University, is among the 24 scientists, artists, scholars and activists who received this year’s MacArthur Fellowship.

The distinction, sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, comes with $625,000 grants distributed in quarterly installments over a five-year period. ...

Rustow joined the University faculty this past July and specializes in Jewish studies of the medieval Middle East. Rustow has analyzed Cairo Geniza, a collection of more than 300,000 folio pages of legal documents, letters and literary materials once preserved in an Egyptian synagogue. These documents now reside in about 200 libraries and private collections.

Rustow explained that because of the complexity of their language, the Cairo Geniza texts are often difficult to understand and only a limited number of scholars have received sufficient training. The texts mostly include legal transactions and other day-to-day records preserved in a range of languages, particularly Judeo-Arabic ones.

Studying those texts, she said, provides a more insightful understanding of the Medieval Islamic state, especially the lifestyle of Jews, a minority in the empire that stretched from Egypt to Palestine.

“I am interested in the internal history of Jewish communities between the 11th and 13th centuries, a period that they documented so well,” she said. “Reading these accounts allow me to get a sense about the lives of Jews living under Islamic rule on every level from breakfast to poetry to marriage choices.”

[...]

This is later than PaleoJudaica's normal range of interest, but I always like to keep track of what is happening in Cairo Geniza studies. On which, more here with many, many links.

Christ Among the Messiahs in paperback

MATTHEW NOVENSON'S RECENT BOOK CHRIST AMONG THE MESSIAHS is now out in paperback with OUP.

A review of the book was noted here.

NaBuCCo

AWOL: Neo-Babylonian Cuneiform Corpus (NaBuCCo). Get it, get it, Nabucco?!

Review of Hoyos, Mastering the West

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Dexter Hoyos, Mastering the West: Rome and Carthage at War. Ancient warfare and civilization. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. xxi, 337. ISBN 9780199860104. $29.95.

Reviewed by Fred K. Drogula, Providence College (fdrogula@providence.edu)

Preview

Dexter Hoyos is a leading authority on ancient Carthage and its wars with Rome, and his numerous works have advanced our understanding of these subjects.1 In Mastering the West: Rome and Carthage at War, Hoyos takes up the daunting tasks of giving a detailed narrative of the three Punic Wars and their intervening periods, of analyzing the catalysts and motives driving critical events in these wars, of drawing attention to problems in our evidence, and of working through those problems to present the best reconstruction possible. Hoyos also asks several larger questions in his work, such as why the three Punic Wars (and related Macedonian Wars) began, how Carthage and Rome were able to sustain the immense costs of the wars, and why winning the wars did not leave Rome enfeebled. In all of these areas he has succeeded admirably, and has produced an engaging and highly readable work that will attract a wide readership.

[...]

Cross-file under Punic Watch.

More on the renovation of the JTS Library

MARC GARY: The JTS Library for the 21st Century (Times of Israel blog).

Although nostalgia for a golden-hued past is a common emotional reaction to change, it cannot be a substitute for meeting the evolving needs of the future. The present JTS Library was built in the 1980s, which may seem not so long ago until you realize that 30 years ago the Internet revolution had not transformed the way we receive and disseminate information, digitization was not yet available, eBooks did not exist, and the numerous technological developments that allow rare books to be showcased and studied without harm to their fragile condition were not even considered. Perhaps even more importantly, 30 years ago libraries were mainly used as spaces for silent, individual scholarship, which is at odds with the advanced thinking of today that emphasizes the value of collaborative learning.

Had JTS merely decided to preserve the present Library and ignore these seismic changes—as some have suggested—we would have done a major disservice to the remarkable collection and the history it represents. Instead, the leadership of JTS—the Board of Trustees, the administration, and the leadership of the Library—embarked on one of the most exciting ventures in JTS history to ensure that the treasures of the Jewish people are better conserved, more widely disseminated, and more accessible to the world of scholars, students, and lay people with the purpose of enriching and inspiring new generations.

The author "is executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS)."

Background here.

Was Tischendorf a goodie or a baddie?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Tischendorf on Trial for Removing Codex Sinaiticus, the Oldest New Testament. Is Constantine Tischendorf a hero or thief? (Ellen White). The BAR article by Stanley Porter is summarized in this post, but its full text is behind a subscription wall.

Stanley Porter, the Dean of McMaster Divinity College, argues that many salient details are omitted from this all too common telling of the events. At the time of Tischendorf, there was nothing uncommon about removing, buying or gifting ancient manuscripts in this manner. He also demonstrates that from the beginning, there were discussions about donating the manuscript to the Russian Czar, as would be appropriate for an Eastern Orthodox monastery, but that the succession problems within the church leadership lead to a more complicated than normal process, which allowed allegations against Tischendorf to linger. Stanley Porter explains how newly revealed documents from the Russian archives exonerate Tischendorf and provide the rest of the story of Codex Sinaiticus’s long journey west.

More on Tischendorf is here and link. More on Codex Sinaiticus is here and links.

Regarding Codex Siniaticus, I can only repeat my view that antiquities are the heritage of humanity, not just treasures of particular nations or institutions, and they should be kept where they are safest. I realize that raises many moral and practical issues and, yes, let's talk about them. Meanwhile, I can't say I'm sorry that this manuscript is not at Saint Catherine's Monastery at present.

Kish

LET IT STAY BURIED FOR NOW: Iraq’s Ancient Kish City Lies Buried in Sand. Iraq’s Kish City has overcome natural disasters and neglect over the years, but it has now been turned into a desolate site covered in sand (Adnan Abu Zeed, Al-Monitor).

KISH CITY, Iraq — A British archaeological team from the Field Museum and Oxford University conducted excavations between 1923 and 1929 in Kish City, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad. Since then, no other excavations have been made in the city, which dates back 5,000 years. The visible ruins of the ancient site have been covered by sand dunes and mounds. According to archaeological records, Kish City survived the Great Flood that happened some 7,600 years ago and was mentioned in Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures.

Kish City is also well known because this is the site where the famous King Sargon of Akkad, with whom the Akkadian state was raised to the level of an empire, appeared. This brave king annexed the cities neighboring Kish to his kingdom and invaded the lands neighboring Iraq, such as Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Arab Gulf region.

Whoever visits Kish City, 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) east of Babil, will not find, for the time being, more than ruins buried underneath the sand.

[...]

Kish is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Saul's father's names is coincidentally similar) or the New Testament or, as far as I can recall, in the Qur'an. I don't know where the author got the idea that the name is mentioned in these scriptures. The Hebrew Bible does mention a number of very ancient Mesopotamian cities such as Babylon, Uruk ("Erech"), and Agade ("Akkad") in Genesis 10.

The Sumerian King list is the "archaeological records" that say that that the city-state of Kish survived the Great Flood.

There is already some local looting of the site, but I hope it remains relatively ignored until the political situation becomes more stable in Iraq.

Super blood moon photos

SUKKOT SUPER-BLOOD-MOON-TETRAD FINALE: Blood moon: Your stunning photographs of the lunar eclipse over the North East. People across the region were tempted from their beds by a rare celestial event combining a lunar eclipse and a supermoon in early hours of Monday (BARBARA HODGSON, Chronicle Live). Lots of good photos. Also in The Guardian: Super moon and lunar eclipse combine for 'blood moon' – pictures from around the world (Jonny Weeks).

As the latter headline hints, a "super moon" is a full moon while at the moon's closest point to the earth and a "blood moon" happens during a lunar eclipse. Both happened together last night, which coincided with the beginning of Sukkot. This is a fairly rare coincidence, but not so rare as to be an apocalyptic one.

I last saw the full moon last night at about 11:00, when it was just starting to go bloody. And I woke up and went out again at 4:45 am in time to see a remaining crescent from the eclipse. None of my photos came out as well as the ones linked to above, so I won't post any here.

Background here and links.

NASSCAL

TONY BURKE: NEW ACADEMIC ASSOCIATION DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA.

At the conclusion of the 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium there was discussion of creating a North American academic association for the study of Christian Apocrypha, a counterpart of sorts to l’AELAC (the French/Swiss group of scholars responsible for the Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum and other publishing endeavours). We soon established a founding board and met at SBL in November 2014 to consider the group’s mandate, possible collaborative projects, and the very important decision of what do we call the thing? After a few false starts we came up with the North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL). Since November we have elected an executive and created a web site to promote the group and to build a membership. The existence of the group was formally announced at this past weekend’s 2015 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium.

[...]

Background here. The website of the new society is here: NASSCAL: The North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature.

Review of Ziedan, Azazeel

BOOK REVIEW IN THE JORDAN TIMES: ‘Storms we have stifled’ (Sally Bland).

Azazeel
Youssef Ziedan

Translated by Jonathan Wright

London: Atlantic Books, 2013

Pp. 312

Youssef Ziedan’s novel, “Azazeel”, has many layers, each of them fascinating in its own right. At the narrative level, it is the diary of a 5th century monk named Hypa, who undertakes a number of significant journeys, spiritual and temporal. Born in Upper Egypt along the Nile, the disintegration of his family leads him to migrate to Alexandria, then Jerusalem, Syria, north of Aleppo, and Antioch. Other layers of the story involve history, culture, philosophy, psychology, love, religion and spirituality.

Hypa’s descriptions of the people, landscapes, cities and customs he encounters weave a fascinating tapestry of life in a time which is largely forgotten. It is a multilingual and multicultural world peopled by Greeks, Arabs, Kurds and Turks, speaking Syriac (Aramaic), Greek, Arabic, Coptic, etc. It is also a world in transition and turmoil as Christianity advances at the expense of paganism, only to be embroiled in internal doctrinal squabbles.

[...]

This novel was first released in Egypt in Arabic in 2010 and was controversial. It was published in the English translation in 2012.

The title refers to a name of the devil, who is also a character in the story. His name comes from the Hebrew name Azazel, on which more here. I don't know where the extra "e" comes from, but perhaps this is just an Arabic form of the name?

A seal, not a coin

CONFUSION: 10 Year Old Volunteer Discovers Ancient Coin in Israel (David DeMar, The New Historian).

An ancient coin dating back to the tenth century BCE – roughly the time of the reign of King David – was recently discovered by a 10 year old volunteer from Russia who had been participating in the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem.

[...]

No, this was not a coin. Coins were not invented until some centuries after the time of this artifact. It is a seal — a stone object carved with an image (not writing in this case, alas) which is pressed into clay (or later wax). The clay impression is called a "bulla" (plural "bullae) and was used to seal documents shut. You can read about the story here.

This doesn't seem complicated to me, but this is the second time I've seen this sort of confusion recently. Back in June someone was confusing a Canaanite-era Egyptian scarab seal with a coin. Story here.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Jewish history’s greatest archaeological crime. The Temple Mount Sifting Project, now in its 10th year, has uncovered hundreds of thousands of invaluable antiquities from tons of ancient debris discarded like trash from Judaism’s holiest site (DANIEL K. EISENBUD, Jerusalem Post).

In 1999, thousands of years’ worth of fragile and irreplaceable Jewish archaeological antiquities were surreptitiously and violently dug up by Arab bulldozers at Judaism’s holiest site, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, to build an entrance to a subterranean mosque.

The resulting thousands of tons of invaluable debris – believed to contain over 1 million artifacts dating back to the First Temple period – were then carted off in dump trunks and discarded like garbage to a nearby landfill in Jerusalem’s Kidron Valley.

According to internationally recognized archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, PhD, who is the co-director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, located near Mount Scopus, the removal represents perhaps the greatest archaeological crime in history.

[...]

However, only slightly more than 50 percent of the reclaimed earth has been sifted, and a massive shortfall in the project’s funding now seriously endangers the possibility of continuing the work. In an effort to ensure that the project continues, Barkay and Dvira launched a crowdfunding campaign earlier this month.

[...]

In the meantime, despite a growing Arab campaign to rewrite Jewish history at the contested holy site, Barkay notes the sifting project has been instrumental in irrefutably proving the inexorable link between Jews and the Temple Mount.

“Even now we have new information that may well change the written history of some of the periods of the Temple Mount,” he says.

“The sifting project has proven itself to be an inexhaustible source of knowledge for the research and study of the archaeology and history of the Temple Mount, and the project is continuing full steam with many more finds waiting to be discovered by professionals and visitors who come to work at the site.”

[...]

I have been blogging on this story ever since the Temple Mount Sifting Project's inception, but a reminder never hurts. Background here with many, many links.

Sukkot 2015

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

Biblical and other background to the festival is collected here in last year's Sukkot post.

Also, there is this good news: Super blood moon on Sunday will not usher in the end of the world (and other failed predictions) (JAKE ELLISON, SFGate.com). This is the last of the four "blood moons" corresponding with four successive major Jewish holidays, on which more here and links. When the world doesn't end tonight (assuming it doesn't), we should have some peace on the matter again for a while.

Israel Beer Museum

IT KEEPS A LOW PROFILE ONLINE, but I just learned from a photo caption in this article that Carlsberg has a brewery in Ashkelon and its Visitor Center includes a Beer Museum. (This website caption places it in Eilat, but that seems to be an error. See the directions in the right-hand column.)

The visit includes the following: a spectacular audio-visual display in a unique auditorium; tour of the brewery, a prize-winning state-of-the-art plant; visit to the museum which describes the story of beer production in ancient times, with an exciting archeological display of authentic tools on loan from the Israeli Antiquity Authorities. Unique pub museum in which the visitor can taste the brewery’s products - unlimited!

Background on ancient Near Eastern and biblical beer is here and links.

Lied on Codex Ambrosianus B.21 marginalia

LIV INGEBORG LIED: Details in the margin – not marginal details: A liturgical annotation in the Syriac Codex Ambrosianus.

A small annotation such as this one may seem (literally) a marginal detail. However, it may turn out to be an interesting detail, since it sheds some additional light on a hypothesis that has been repeated in scholarship ever since Ceriani published the facsimile edition of the codex in 1876/1883. In the Praefatio of this edition, Ceriani suggestes that the codex was probably not produced for ecclesiastical use, since it includes neither liturgical notes, nor an index of lessons. He notes, though, that the occasional liturgical note occurs in the columns of some texts, but suggests that this is due to the fact that the scribe copied the texts in question from an exemplar that contained such notes (p. 8).

Details matter.

More on manuscript Codex Ambrosianus B.21 here and here (cf. here). Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

Workshop on ancient Nabataean rituals

NABATEAN WATCH: Ancient Nabataean rituals uncovered and explored at IFPO workshop (Saeb Rawashdeh, The Jordan Times).

AMMAN (JT) — Under the patronage of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) held on September 17th a workshop titled “Offerings to Gods, Offerings to Man — Archaeology of Rituals in the Nabataean World“.

Ancient Nabataean heritage, language and rituals were at the forefront of the discussion, as nine distinguished scholars gathered from global universities to present their findings.

Archaeologists, historians and anthropologists specialising in Nabataean legacy covered the territories of southern Jordan and northwestern Saudi Arabia in order to reconstruct life in this ancient kingdom.

[...]

Seen on Facebook. For some past posts on the Nabateans (Nabataeans), the Nabatean (Nabataean) language, and Petra, see here and links.

Biblical and African manuscripts at the University of Jos

IN NIGERIA: Uni-Jos pushing boundaries on ancient manuscripts collection (Hir Joseph,The Daily Trust).

A research work on ancient manuscripts - now lasting two years so far - has brought the University of Jos (UNIJOS) in Plateau State pushing boundaries in the collection of original, unpublished documents especially about Africa.

The university is on its way to breaking the record among universities in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to Professor Danny McCain, an American author who is leading a research group made up of a dozen scholars from five universities in Nigeria on a work called “Ancient Manuscripts Project.”

[...]

Ancient manuscripts project:
The ancient manuscript project, brought the university linking up with Ancient Manuscript Group based in Grand Haven, Michigan, according to Professor McCain, who is also a professor of Biblical Theology in the department at the university.

McCain has lectured continuously at UNIJOS since 1991 and has had significant experience creating academic projects and coalitions in Africa. He is also the founder and Chairman of Board, Global Scholars, a group of Christian professors in universities worldwide.

He said the Ancient Manuscripts Group has been visiting the country every three months to do workshops with scholars.

“We have about 12 to 15 scholars involved in this project. These are ancient biblical manuscripts and other manuscripts which are important to the Christian faith because they are the foundation of the bible,” McCain said.

“Now, we have a 600 year old Hebrew scroll with us; we have been analysing for the last three months. We have also analysed 800-year old Latin manuscript. We have one of my PhD students doing works on 4th Century Coptic document.”
He said the group of scholars has spent a good deal of time looking at the Papyrus document; that is one of the earliest papers from 1600 years old to over 2,200 years old.

“For example, I have a picture of the Vice Chancellor holding a document in his hands; a letter from Ptolemy II, son of Ptolemy I, Alexander the Great’s general who ruled Egypt.

[...]

The article doesn't specify this, but it sounds as though these manuscripts may be from the Van Kampen Collection, which was originally located in Grand Haven, Michigan, but is now in Orlando, Florida, associated with the not uncontroversial Holy Land Experience theme park.

A new fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh

CUNEIFORM SURPRISE: The Newly Discovered Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Osama S. M. Amin, Ancient History et cetera). The fragment, which was recovered from the antiquities market in 2011 and published in The Journal of Cuneiform Studies in 2014, contains new material from the Cedar Forest episode. You can read the JCS article at the link in Mr. Amin's post. Somehow I missed the story last year, so I am happy to catch up with it here.

Mr. Amin tells the story of the identification of the tablet and summarizes its contents:

• The revised reconstruction of Tablet V yields text that is nearly twenty lines longer than previously known.
  
• The obverse (columns i-ii) duplicates the Neo-Assyrian fragments which means the Epic tablet can be placed in order and used to fill in the gaps between them. It also shows the recension on Tablet V was in Babylonia, as well as Assyria and that “izzizūma inappatū qišta” is the same phrase that other tablets being with.
  
• The reverse (columns v-vi) duplicates parts of the reverse (columns iv-vi) of the late Babylonian tablet excavated at Uruk that begins with the inscription “Humbāba pâšu īpušma iqabbi izakkara ana Gilgāmeš”.
  
• The most interesting piece of information provided by this new source is the continuation of the description of the Cedar Forest:
  
• Gilgamesh and Enkidu saw ‘monkeys’ as part of the exotic and noisy fauna of the Cedar Forest; this was not mentioned in other versions of the Epic.
  
• Humbaba emerges, not as a barbarian ogre, and but as a foreign ruler entertained with exotic music at court in the manner of Babylonian kings. The chatter of monkeys, chorus of cicada, and squawking of many kinds of birds formed a symphony (or cacophony) that daily entertained the forest’s guardian, Humbaba.
  
• The aftermath of Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s slaying of Humbaba is now better preserved.
  
• The passages are consistent with other versions and confirm what was already known. For example, Enkidu had spent some time with Humbaba in his youth.

The Second Temple Jewish Aramaic Book of Giants (also adopted as scripture by the Manicheans [Manichaeans]) remembers both Gilgamesh and Humbaba (Huwawa), and perhaps also the Flood hero Utnapishtim, as antediluvian giants.

Bit by bit, a letter at at time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.

YCAS 2015

TONY BURKE is currently holding this year's York Christian Apocrypha Symposium at York University. It has an excellent lineup of speakers and papers. Tony has been blogging speaker profiles etc. over at Apocryphicity and James McGrath, who is one of the presenters, has been blogging the conference over at Exploring Our Matrix. The Twitter hashtag is #YCAS2015. Good times.

Review of Rapp, The Sasanian world through Georgian eyes

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Review: The Sasanian world through Georgian eyes. Notes a review by Adam McCollum of Rapp, Stephen. 2014. The Sasanian world through Georgian eyes. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.

Old Georgian language and literature has been receiving a lot of attention lately, not least through Adam's efforts. Background here and links.

Another persecuted Egyptian blogger

FREE SPEECH INTERLUDE: Convicted Egyptian blogger posts Israel fan vid. Sherif Gaber, dodging a one-year jail sentence for atheist activism, says Arab world is envious of Jewish state’s achievements (Stuart Winer, Times of Israel blog).

Gaber made headlines earlier this year when he was sentenced to a year in prison for “contempt of religion” after authorities at the Suez Canal University in Ismailia where he was studying reported him in 2013 for setting up a pro-atheism Facebook page.

Bail was set for about $130 until an appeal could be heard but Gaber went on the run and has been in hiding ever since.

Dear me, Egyptian governments come and go, but this sort of persecution keeps happening. I have not heard of Mr. Gaber before today and I flag this story not because he posted a pro-Israel video, but because I support his right to express his religious and political views, whatever they are.

Hey, General Sissi's Government: the world is watching. Just saying.

Background here and here, sadly, with many links. To be fair, none of come from the time of General Sissi's Government, until now. Let's see them do better than this.

Jewish Studies Visiting Chair at the College of Charleston

H-JUDAIC: JOB: College of Charleston, YNorman and Gerry Sue Arnold Distinguished Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies. Follow the link for further particulars. The application deadline is January 15, 2016.

3000-year-old seal found in Temple Mount rubble

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT: Special Media Release: Rare 3,000-Year-Old Seal Discovered within Earth Discarded from Temple Mount.

Rare 3,000-Year-Old Seal Discovered within Earth Discarded from Temple Mount

Seal, dating to period of the Biblical kings David & Solomon discovered at Temple Mount Sifting Project

JERUSALEM, September 21, 2015 — A rare 3,000 year-old seal dating to the period of the Biblical kings David and Solomon of the 10th century BCE was recently discovered at the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem.

“The seal is the first of its kind to be found in Jerusalem,” stated Dr. Gabriel Barkay, the co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project. “The dating of the seal corresponds to the historical period of the Jebusites and the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, as well as the construction of the Temple and the royal official compound by his son, King Solomon… What makes this discovery particularly significant is that it originated from upon the Temple Mount itself.”

[...]

Alas, it is an anepigraphic seal — no writing. But if the suggested early date holds up, it could have implications for our understanding of the level of administrative sophistication in Jerusalem around the tenth century BCE.

Many, many previous posts on the Temple Mount Sifting Project are here (cf. here, here, here) and links. Cross-file under Temple Mount Watch. A post on the 2014 discovery of some anepigraphic bullae (clay seal impressions) from the same period in the northern Negev is here.

A Hellenistic-era Christianized mikveh

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

A Unique Mikveh in Upper Galilee

A mikveh in the Holy Land which shows a cross on its wall

By Eldad Keynan
Bar Ilan
Israel
September 2015

Hebrew/Jewish Studies job at NYU

H-JUDAIC: JOB: NYU, Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Follow the link for further particulars. The rank is open and there is no mention of a fixed term for the post. The deadline for application is 15 October 2015, so don't dawdle.

Sukkot

YONA SABAR: Hebrew word of the week: Sukkot. Timely.

Airstrikes at Palmyra

PALMYRA WATCH: Syria government airstrikes pound IS-controlled Palmyra (AP).

Background here and here and links.

Electrum coins from Carthage

PUNIC WATCH: Electrum coins weren't just issued early on: Ancients Today. Cities still use alloy after switch to pure gold and silver (David Vagi, Coin World).

As the production of electrum coinage in Asia Minor died out in the 320s, it is most curious that the tradition was then taken up at the other end of the Mediterranean by Carthage, a Phoenician settlement on the shore of North Africa, just southwest of Sicily.

The earliest precious metal coins of Carthage, dating to about 350 B.C., were made of pure gold, but by about 320 B.C. they were substituted with staters of electrum.

These were issued in very large quantities, along with multiple and fractional denominations that were produced only occasionally and in relatively small quantities. The standard design for the Carthaginian stater was the head of the goddess Tanit and a standing horse.

They mainly appear to have been issued from circa 320 to 270 B.C. After that prolific era, Carthage also struck electrum coinage during its three wars with Rome: the First Punic War (264 to 241 B.C.), the Second Punic War (218 to 201 B.C.), and the Third Punic War (149 to 146 B.C.).

It's good to know these things. Cross-file under Numismatics.

Judaic Studies Chair at UT

THE HUGOYE LIST: Job Ad: Judaic Studies. The job is an Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies and Program Director in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Follow the link for further particulars. Review of applications begins October 21, 2015.

Jewish-Temple denial and "extremist" Talmudic rabbis

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The current conflicts at and about the Temple Mount have led to some predictable, but still disappointing, rhetoric. First, from the Egypt Independent/Anadolu Agency: Palestinians warn of extremist plan to demolish Al-Aqsa.

Palestinian activists warn that extremist Jewish groups in Israel — which they say enjoy the tacit support of Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government — are now openly calling for the destruction of occupied East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for a "third Jewish temple".

Recent weeks have seen large groups of Jewish settlers, usually accompanied by Israeli army troops and police, forcing their way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex — which Jews already refer to as the “Temple Mount” — with increasing frequency.

I have commented with some concern about some of the rhetoric coming out of groups that advocate the rebuilding of the Temple on the Temple Mount, so I don't blame Palestinian groups for being concerned as well. But Jews already refer to the site as the "Temple Mount" because there were Jewish temples there in the past, not because some groups want to (re)build a temple there.

I'm not going to comment on the various claims and counterclaims about what has recently been happening on the Temple Mount. I wasn't there and I can't judge. But I do note that this article cites and approves of some unhistorical denial that there ever were Jewish temples on the site. The bold emphasis is mine.

According to Ziad Hammouri, a Palestinian expert on these extremist Jewish groups, the current Israeli government uses these right-wing organizations “to stage incursions by settlers into the Al-Aqsa compound”.

He went on to cite groups such as Rabbis of the Temple Mount, Women of the Temple Mount, the Temple Mount Faithful, Kahana Chai, Kach and Lahiva.

“These organizations openly call for the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for what they call the ‘Temple of Solomon’, which they claim was destroyed in 586 BC during the Babylonian Captivity,” Hammouri told Anadolu Agency.

[...]

Hammouri went on to explain that these groups adhere to an ideology laid out in the Talmud, which – as opposed to the Torah, the Jews’ traditional holy book – was compiled over the centuries by extremist Jewish rabbis.

Extremist Jewish rabbis? Who compiled the Talmud? What does that even mean?

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site after Makkah and Medina. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount,” claiming it was the site of both Solomon’s Temple and a second temple built during the reign of King Herod (destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD).

Mr. Hammouri seems to want to cast doubt even on the existence of the Herodian Temple, which goes farther than even Yasser Arafat and, more recently, one Dr. Jamal Amer have been willing to go. Evidence for the existence of the First Temple and the Second and Herodian Temples on the the Temple Mount is collected at the links.

The United Nations, for its part, seems not to be helping matters with its own rhetoric: U.N. Can’t Even Say ‘Temple Mount’ (Stewart Ain, The Jewish Week).

Now, on the eve of the annual gathering of world leaders for the U.N. General Assembly and smack in the middle of the High Holy Days, Jewish leaders are saying the world body came up with another doozy. This time, it couldn’t even bring itself to use the term favored by Jews to refer to the area housing the Western Wall and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The U.N. Security Council issued a statement last Thursday expressing “grave concern regarding escalating tensions in Jerusalem, especially surrounding the Haram al-Sharif compound, including recent clashes in and around the site.” It went on to call for “restraint, refraining from provocative actions and rhetoric and upholding unchanged the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif — in word and in practice.” It added that Muslims “must be allowed to worship in peace, free from violence, threats and provocations.”

If the U.N wants to be taken seriously as an honest broker, it would do well to use terminology that reflects the positions of both sides. No one disputes the title "Haram al-Sharif," the Noble Sanctuary, which refers to the Islamic shrines on the site. But "Temple Mount" refers to the past presence of Jewish temples on the site, which is a matter of historical record and is important to Jews (and Christians).

Likewise, if the Palestinians want their concerns to be taken seriously, they should stop denying that Jewish temples once stood on the site and, indeed, that they were the original reason the site was regarded to be holy.

Conservation at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Precious pigments and high-tech solutions: unlocking Chester Beatty texts. Library conservators combine science and creativity in protecting and restoring the collection of 20,000 objects (Dick Ahlstrom, The Irish Times).

There are few places where sticky goop made from fish meets mass spectrometry, other than in the conservation unit of a museum. The old and the new sit easily together, however, when in the hands of experts.

The conservation unit of the Chester Beatty Library is just such a place. It has some of the oldest documents in Europe and one of the world’s finest collections of Qur’ans. There are rare and precious objects, such as imperial robes from ancient China and surgical tools dating back a millennium.

The collection includes more than 20,000 objects, of which only 1 per cent of which are on display at any one time. It was assembled by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, an Irish- American mining millionaire, who was born in the US, was naturalised British in 1933, and was granted honorary Irish citizenship in 1957.

[...]

A number of projects are described, including these two:

[Chief conservator and head of collections Jessica] Baldwin referred to a conservation challenge, the Manichaean papyrus that she describes as “the sod of turf”. It suffered from repeated floodings by the Nile river before being acquired by Beatty and is in poor condition.

Yet it may hold the last text of the Iranian prophet Mani who founded the Manichaean religion. It thrived during the third to seventh centuries, spreading from the Mediterranean across to China, and rivalled Christianity at the time.
She is studying ways to retrieve the texts it holds, unlocking a text that has been closed for centuries.

[...]

Conservator Julia Poirier is working on the Samaritan Pentateuch dating from 1339, part of the Hebrew collection at the library. She applies ancient Japanese techniques to conserve the pages. She uses “washi”, a form of tough paper made from the mulberry tree to strengthen cracks and breaks in the pages. She dyes it with “yasha” made by boiling up alder tree cones, to achieve a good colour match with the parchment.

She sticks bits of the dyed washi to reinforce the parchment using “isinglass”, a kind of glue made from the swimming bladder of the sturgeon fish.

Yet high tech enters in a collaboration with University of York where cells are lifted from the parchment for DNA analysis to determine what animal provided the original skins and to measure any deterioration.

More on the Chester Beatty collection is here and here.

UPDATE: Broken link now fixed!

Fixed-term post at Colby College

H-JUDAIC: JOB: Colby College, Jewish Studies (sabbatical replacement). A one-year position. Deadline for full consideration is 1 November 2015.

On the origins of Yom Kippur

A MYSTERY: Origin of Yom Kippur: Not Moses, but a Murder in the Temple? While tradition says that observance of the Day of Atonement was initiated by Moses, careful reading of the Bible indicates that the holiday was a much later contrivance (Elon Gilad, Haaretz). Some interesting speculation on the possible origins of the festival being observed today. Mr. Gilad's first point is indubitable:

It may simply be omission that Yom Kippur is not mentioned in the rest of the Bible. But in the passages dealing with events observed during the month of Tishri, the silence on the Day of Atonement is glaring.

The evidence he collects is compelling and it is clear that the Day of Atonement was not celebrated in the pre-Exilic Temple cult or even during the Exile and into the early Restoration period. His guess that it was established around 400 BCE is plausible. Mr. Gilad then suggests the following:

The Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius recounts a story pertaining to these individuals, which may hold the key to the origins of Yom Kippur.

When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in 444 B.C.E., he found that the Jews in the city were mixing with the local population. Even worse, Jeshua, son of Joiada the high priest and heir to the priesthood, married the daughter of his enemy Sanballat the Horonite, governor of Samaria: “And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me,” he writes (Nehemiah 13:28). When Joiada died, Nehemiah replaced him with Jeshua’s younger brother, Johanan. But then, in 413 B.C.E., Nehemiah himself died.

According to Josephus, in his book “The Antiquities of the Jews,” Bagoas conspired with Jeshua to have him replace his younger brother as high priest. When Johanan learned of this, he confronted his brother in the Temple and killed him. When Bagoas subsequently heard what had happened, he rushed to the Temple. “Have you had the impudence to perpetrate a murder in your temple!” Bagoas shouted as he made his way into the holy sanctuary. Those in attendance pleaded with him not to enter as his presence would defile the Temple. He ignored their cries, declaring, “Am not I purer than he that was slain in the temple?”

Josephus doesn’t say what happened after this shocking event took place. But clearly, this was a huge crisis. The Temple had to be cleansed, but how?

After looking through the Bible and not finding reference to a ceremony that could make amends for what had happened, Johanan and his fellow priests must have looked elsewhere, until they found the text that constitutes what is now the bulk of Leviticus 16, describing the ritual carried out by Aaron.

Maybe. But we should be cautious. Josephus was writing centuries after the events he described and we don't what his source was or if it is reliable. He includes quite a few stories in the Antiquities which are obviously legends and this may be one too. Moreover, even if the story is true, it is speculative, if not implausible, to connect it to the founding of the Day of Atonement. It really only pushes much of the problem back a step, leaving us to ask how the priests thought they could introduce a new festival into the calendar as though it were an old one, and where the ritual in Leviticus 16 came from in the first place.

Again, it's an interesting idea and I can't prove it's wrong, but I think it is historically more plausible to look for the origins of new festivals in new social trends than in a specific event.

Mr. Gilad published an article last year exploring the possible connection of the Day of Atonement to the Mespotamian spring New Year festival, the Akitu. This is possible as well. I give my own very tentative view of the origins of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur in this post. This is not so much a theory as a notion, but it still makes sense to me.

On blogs and consensus

JAMES MCGRATH: A Blog-Based Consensus? With reference to the question of the authenticity of the Gospel of Jesus Wife. It's true that most of the discussion has been in the blogosphere and many of the important advances have first been made public there. But it is also important that those advances have now been published in peer-review publications, which require more rigor than a blog post. Specialist blogs have the advantage of being able to advance the discussion much more rapidly in a preliminary way, and I think this is a significant contribution. But I would not want to see them replace peer-review publication.

Specialist blogs also make a significant contribution when they evaluate stories about unpublished ideas that receive a lot of media attention without the benefit of any formal scholarly publications. The fake metal codices are a good example. The story was announced and the media became very excited, but specialist blogs evaluated the case and found it severely wanting. There are still no peer-review publications on the Jordan codices after four and a half years — I think because there is no case for their authenticity that could pass peer review. But be that as it may, in the absence of peer-review analysis, the blog discussions raised many important points that the media probably would have missed and are the closest we have to a preliminary scholarly consensus. Any advance in the discussion would require some real arguments to be made against this consensus, preferably arguments published in peer-review venues.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on the idea of scholarly consensus are here and links.

UPDATE: Background on the GJW is here and links. And in that post I respond to the latest essay by Baden and Moss, mentioned in McGrath's post cited above.

Jewish studies post at Stanford

H-JUDAIC: JOB: Stanford University, Jewish Religion and/or Thought.

The Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University invites applications and nominations in the area of the study of Jewish religion and/or thought for a tenure-line, open-rank position. The successful applicant must demonstrate substantial evidence of creativity and excellence in research and scholarship as well as a commitment to excellence in teaching and advising students at both graduate and undergraduate levels. He or she may specialize in any area or period of the study of Jewish religion and/or thought.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars. The deadline for the receipt of applications is 30 October 2015.

Sea of Galilee quiz

THE ASOR BLOG: Can you pass this Sea of Galilee quiz? Don't expect to get a perfect score unless you happen to be an expert on everything to do with the Sea of Galilee.

Jewish Studies is struggling

DEMOGRAPHICS: Jewish Studies Struggling on Several Fronts, Study Says (JTA, rpt. The Forward).

Student enrollment in Jewish studies classes is declining, and newly minted Jewish studies professors are having a significantly harder time finding tenure-track positions, a new survey found

[...]

These are the trends in higher education in general, especially in the humanities.

Yom Kippur 2015

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

Biblical etc. background on Yom Kippur is here and links.

UPDATE (23 September): More historical discussion here.

The search for the tomb of the Maccabees

ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY PRESS RELEASE: Is the Large Mausoleum Recently Uncovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Residents of the Modi‘in Region Really the Tomb of the Maccabees? The Israel Antiquities Authority is calling on the public to donate, volunteer and be part of the journey in discovering one of the most fascinating stories in Israeli archaeology. The short answer to the question is "Maybe."

According to Amit Re’em and Dan Shahar, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “There is no doubt that the structure that was uncovered is unusual. The descriptions from 150 years ago were revealed right here in front of our eyes, and we discovered the magnificent burial vaults, enormous pillars that apparently supported a second story, a forecourt that led to the tomb and other associated buildings. To our disappointment, the building seen by our predecessors had been robbed, and its stones were taken to construct settlements in the vicinity; nevertheless, the appearance of the place is impressive and stimulates the imagination. The archaeological evidence currently at hand is still insufficient to establish that this is the burial place of the Maccabees. If what we uncovered is not the Tomb of the Maccabees itself, then there is a high probability that this is the site that early Christianity identified as the royal funerary enclosure, and therefore, perhaps, erected the structure. Evidently one cannot rule out the assumptions of the past, but an excavation and a lot of hard work are still required in order to confirm that assumption unequivocally, and the riddle remains unsolved–the search for the elusive Tomb of the Maccabees continues".

Pending additional funding. A very interesting project.

Background here and links.

Satlow interview

MICHAEL L. SATLOW is interviewed by Jason Schulman for New Books in Jewish Studies, with special attention to Prof. Satlow's recent book How the Bible Became Holy.

Reviews of the book etc. are noted here and links.

Syriac post at Fordham

SYRIAC WATCH: Job in Syriac studies at Fordham (Jeanne-Nicole, the Hugoye List).

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY, Department of Theology, invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship, beginning Fall 2016, in the field of Syriac Christianity. Candidates must have the ability to teach both the content of Syriac theological literature and the Syriac language. The ability to teach courses on Islam at the undergraduate level is also required.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars. The deadline for receipt of applications is 16 October 2015.

When is a nazirite not a nazirite and a sin not a sin?

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Why in Jewish Law Good Can Be Evil and Evil Good. In this week’s Talmud study: Is just thinking about pork a sin?

This point of law opens an interesting moral question, which the rabbis address at length starting in Nazir 23a. Say a woman takes a nazirite vow and her husband nullifies it without telling her, so that she believes she is still a nazirite even though legally she isn’t. What if that woman then starts drinking wine, so that she is in violation of what she believes to be her obligations. Has she committed a sin? Legally, it would seem she has not, and the mishna says that she is not liable for the 40 lashes that are ordinarily imposed on a sinning nazirite. But since she intended to sin, it seems unfair that she should be rescued by a technicality. Thus Rabbi Yehuda says, “She should incur lashes for rebelliousness,” and in the Gemara, the sages say, “She requires atonement and forgiveness.” Intending to sin is itself sinful, even if you end up not committing the sin you think you did.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Pharisees

BIBLE ODYSSEY: Pharisees (Joshua Garroway).

HT Anthony Le Donne at the Jesus Blog. Some past PaleoJudaica posts on the Pharisees are here and links.

Jezreel Expedition 2015

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION: Preliminary Report of the 2015 Jezreel Expedition Field Season (Norma Franklin and Jennie Ebeling).

More on Late Antiquity

THE MARGINALIA LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE NEW HUMANITIES FORUM has published three more essays:

Late Antiquity Dissolves – By Anthony Kaldellis

Can “Late Antiquity” Be Saved? – By Philip Rousseau

On Authors, Fathers, and Holy Men – By Ellen Muehlberger.

Background here and here.

Georgian in the news

GEORGIA TODAY: Georgian Among 10 Oldest Languages Still Spoken in the World Today.

Lani Seelinger of theculturetrip.com has compiled a list of the ten oldest languages still spoken in the world today. Georgian features at number nine after Hebrew, Tamil, Lithuanian, Farsi, Icelandic, Macedonian, Basque and Finnish, and followed by Irish Gaelic.

I'm not sure the full list would be as few as ten. Aramaic, for example should be on it as well.

Georgian is the biggest Kartvelian language, and it is the only Caucasian language with an ancient literary tradition. Its beautiful and unique alphabet is also quite old – it is thought to have been adapted from Aramaic as far back as the third century AD.

And some form of the written language may be even older than that. For background on Georgian and why it matters to PaleoJudaica, see here and links.

Review of Zarghamee, Discovering Cyrus

IRANIAN.COM: Book review: Discovering Cyrus (bparhami).

Zarghamee, Reza, Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World, Mage Publishers, 2013.

This is an informal review by a non-specialist, but the book sounds interesting. For lots more on Cyrus the Great, see here and links.

Ben Zvi Festschrift

NEW BOOK FROM EISENBRAUNS:

History, Memory, Hebrew Scriptures
A Festschrift for Ehud Ben Zvi

edited by Ian Douglas Wilson and Diana V. Edelman

Ehud Ben Zvi is one of the foremost scholars in the field of Hebrew Bible today. He has had a global impact both as a researcher and as a teacher, and he continues to create cutting-edge research that is helping to shape the future of the field. This volume marks his upcoming retirement from the University of Alberta and honors him and his career as a scholar and educator. Thirty-one papers written by a select group of colleagues, including several former students and a former teacher, are presented in three categories: History and Historiography; Prophecy and Prophetic Books; and Methods, Observations, (Re)Readings. These categories represent the wide-ranging interests of Ehud himself and include contributions on the Bible as social memory, for which he has been a leading advocate and theorist in the past decade. Readers, regardless of their areas of specialization, will find many stimulating and thought-provoking contributions in the collection, which is fitting, given the boundary-pushing work of the honoree.

Eisenbrauns, 2015. Pp. vii + 474. English. Cloth.
ISBN: 978-1-57506-391-1 List Price: $64.50
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/item/WILHISTOR

HT AJR Twitter.

Amzallag, Esau in Jerusalem

NEW BOOK FROM GABALDA:

Esau in Jerusalem - The Rise of a Seirite Religious Elite in Zion in the Persian Period

Auteur Nissim Amzallag
Année 2015
ISBN 978-285021-242-0
Nombre de pages 282

Cahiers de la Revue Biblique n°85

Description rapide

The post-exilic biblical writings speak in two contrasting voices. The first focuses on the Babylonian repatriates and ignores the Israelite population that remained in the land during the exile. It upholds an exclusive relationship between YHWH and the community organized around Jerusalem and its temple. The second voice takes a contrasting and much more universalistic approach to the relationship with YHWH and even promotes its expansion among foreign nations through the diffusion of musical worship.

The first voice clearly echoes the theology evoked in Jeremiah (especially in the metaphor of the good and bad figs in Jeremiah 24) and extensively developed in Ezekiel. The second voice, however, appears to be distant from the classical Israelite theology. It is shown in this study that this second voice echoes a pre-Israelite cult of YHWH that originated in the land of Seir and denotes the existence of a Seirite religious elite in post-exilic Zion.

Part 1 of the study investigates the reason for the presence of a small group of Edomite/Seirite musicians and poets, self-defined as "sons of Zerah" or "Ezrahites," in early post-exilic Jerusalem, and clarifies the nature of their yahwistic religious background. With the help of the books of Nehemiah, Chronicles, and Psalms, Part 2 analyzes the Levitization of these foreign singers and the opposition this process stimulated among the community of the Sons of Exile. Part 3 examines the transformation of these Ezrahite singers into a new religious elite, a process promoted mainly by Nehemiah and his followers, and explores the theological changes this new situation stimulated.

This study uncovers an overlooked reality that had a profound influence on the evolution of post-Exilic yawhism and on the composition and content of many biblical writings.

Keywords: Babylonian exile, Chronicles, complex antiphony, Edom/Israel rivalry, Ezekiel, Ezra, Ezrahites, Jeremiah, Levite singers, musical worship, Nehemiah, Persian period, post-exilic religion, primeval yahwism, Psalter, Seirite theology, Seirite source of biblical writings, Yehud, Zerah

Collins, Apocalypse, Prophecy, and Pseudepigraphy

JOHN J. COLLINS is about to publish a collection of his essays: Apocalypse, Prophecy, and Pseudepigraphy. On Jewish Apocalyptic Literature (Eerdmans, 2015). He has a post on it at the Eerdword Blog: Meet This Book: Apocalypse, Prophecy, and Pseudepigraphy by John J. Collins.

I have been engaged with apocalypticism as a religious phenomenon throughout my scholarly career. Apocalypse, Prophecy, and Pseudepigraphy brings together nineteen essays written over the last fifteen years or so. They mainly deal with two recurring issues. One is the question of genre. The other is the issue of apocalyptic ethics.

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Sinaiticus

NO, NOT CODEX SINAITICUS! Open Access Journal: Sinaiticus: The Bulletin of the Saint Catherine Foundation (AWOL). Looks like this publication has lots of information on St. Catherine's Monastery and its manuscripts, on which more here and here and links.

Syriac comet

SYRIAC WATCH: A Syriac report on the comet of 1577 (Adam McCollum, hmmlorientalia blog).