More on the Kursi inscription

THE KURSI INSCRIPTION (that Aramaic text found recently on a marble tablet near the Sea of Galilee) continues to receive attention in the media and two recent articles add some information and thoughts on the content of the inscription.

From the Daily Mail: Is this where Jesus performed The Miracle of the Swine? 1,600-year-old Hebrew slab points to the site of Kursi where Christ exorcised a man possessed by demons (Sarah Griffiths).

So far, experts have identified the words 'amen' and 'marmaria' inscribed into the stone, which could either refer to marble, Mary or Rabbi.

That's a bit cryptic, but the Times of Israel explains the proposal more clearly: Ancient inscription points to Jewish past for early Christian site. Marble slab with 7 lines of Aramaic and Hebrew text found at biblical town on banks of Sea of Galilee may be from Byzantine-era synagogue. ‘There’s been nothing like this before,’ says archaeologist (Ilan Ben Zion):

More impressive, however, were seven lines of Hebrew and Aramaic text carved into a large slab of imported Greek marble. It includes the words “marmaria,” “amen,” “the holy king” and “the merciful,” researchers said.

Excavations at the site are funded by the Avery-Tsui Foundation, and headed by Cohen with the collaboration of the Israel Antiquities Authories and the Israel Parks Authority. High school student volunteers also took part in the dig.

Cohen was reluctant to reveal much about the inscription until experts had a chance to study the text more thoroughly. He did suggest, however, that “marmaria” could refer either to a type of marble, or — more intriguingly — “the rabbi of Mary.”

Apparently someone is suggesting that the word "marmaria" could mean mar "the master of" plus maria, an Aramaic transliteration of the Greek or Latin form of the name Miriam/Mary. This strikes me as possible, but very speculative, although I would have to see the word in the full context of the whole inscription to be sure. Pending more information, I am going to apply Frank Cross's epigraphic principle that the more banal reading is to be preferred and stay with the interpretation of the word as an Aramaic transliteration of the Greek word for "marble." As usual, this question can only be decided definitively, if at all, in a complete peer-reviewed publication of the inscription with good photographs.

Background here and here.

UPDATE: Richard Bauckham e-mails the following:

The form מריה is actually quite well attested for the late Second Temple period (ossuaries etc), but not at all for the rabbinic period, when the name Mariam itself becomes much less popular (presumably because of Christian usage). I suppose if it were a Jewish Christian synagogue, the use of מריה c. 500 CE would not be so surprising, but in my view it would be very surprising if this was a Jewish Christian synagogue. And "the master of Mary" seems a rather odd phrase, even if it can mean "Mary's rabbi" - for which we need evidence. I see from Jastrow it could also mean "Mary's pick-axe".

Hadrian at the Israel Museum

EXHIBITION: Three surviving bronzes of Hadrian united in stunning Israel Museum exhibit. Unique collaboration with Louvre, British Museum also sees monumental Jerusalem inscription in emperor’s honor rejoined after 2,000 years (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

For the first time since his reign over 1,800 years ago, three bronze sculptures of the Roman emperor Hadrian — a man both revered and reviled — will go on display at the Israel Museum on Tuesday, in the final exhibit marking the institution’s 50th anniversary.

The three bronze heads — one from the Israel Museum’s collection found in northern Israel, one from the British Museum found at the bottom of the River Thames, and the third from the Louvre in Paris — differ slightly in their depiction of the emperor, and shed light on a character whose legacy is so multifaceted.


[...]

Besides Hadrian’s visages are the two halves of a monumental inscription erected in Jerusalem by soldiers of the 10th legion Fretensis in Hadrian’s honor two years before the outbreak of the Bar Kochba revolt in 132 CE — rejoined for the first time since antiquity.

The first half was discovered in the late 19th century by French archaeologist Clermont Ganneau (also known for finding the Temple Mount Warning inscription), and is housed at the Franciscan Flagellation Monastery in Jerusalem’s Old City. The second half, found last year by Israeli archaeologists, was used as the top of a Byzantine cistern during salvage excavations in East Jerusalem.

[...]

A long article, but worth reading in full.

The discovery of the fragment of that Hadrian inscription was noted last year here. Another Hadrian exhibition, this one in the British Museum, took place in 2008. Start here and follow the many links. For Hadrian's Wall, see here and here.

Was Lilith a cat?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Are there cats in the Bible? Maybe, yes (Deane Galbraith, Remnant of Giants).

There’s a good case to be made that the biblical Lilith was a cat.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on Lilith are collected here and here.

How much gold was on the Temple?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Gold of the Jerusalem Temple (Leen Ritmeyer).

We will never know for sure how much gold the Jerusalem Temple contained and exactly where it was displayed, internally and externally. It is generally known that Josephus occasionally exaggerates, but that a large amount of gold was displayed in the Jerusalem Temple, appears to be a reasonable suggestion if we also take other historical sources into consideration.

For more on ancient real (?) gold and other treasures possibly associated with the Temple, as well as legendary gold and treasures definitely associated with it, see here and links.

Cross-file tangentially under "Copper Scroll" and "The Treatise of the Vessels."

New Reviews of the Enoch Seminar

RECENT REVIEWS AT REVIEWS OF THE ENOCH SEMINAR:

Martin Friis reviews Daniel Schwartz, Reading the First Century: On Reading Josephus and Studying Jewish History of the First Century

Carla Sulzbach reviews Katharina Bracht and David S. du Toit, Die Geschichte der Daniel-Auslegung in Judentum, Christentum und Islam: Studien zur Kommentierung des Danielbuches in Literatur und Kunst

Questions about the Green Collection

ANTIQUITIES ACQUISITION: Can Hobby Lobby Buy the Bible? In just the past six years, the evangelical owners of Hobby Lobby have amassed one of the world’s largest private collections of biblical antiquities. Why? (Joel Baden and Candida Moss, The Atlantic).

In november 2017, the Museum of the Bible will open in Washington, D.C., two blocks from the National Mall. Like many of the city’s other museums, it is designed to attract hordes of visitors each year, and it will be vast—eight stories tall, and covering 430,000 square feet. Despite its location and size, however, it isn’t a government institution. It’s private, backed by the family of David Green, a wealthy businessman from Oklahoma City, better known as the founder of the Hobby Lobby retail chain, and it will house artifacts from the family’s stunning collection of biblical manuscripts, Torah scrolls, Dead Sea Scrolls, and cuneiform texts. The Greens’ collection is one of the largest private collections of such artifacts in the world, comprising some 40,000 objects—many of which, remarkably, were unknown to scholars and the general public before the Greens acquired them. And the Greens made their first purchase only six years ago.

That’s a startling pace of acquisition, especially given the fraught and specialized market for biblical antiquities, and it raises difficult questions about how the Green family has acquired its artifacts, and why.

[...]

It does indeed raise difficult and disquieting questions, but I am not inclined to render a judgment until I see a good bit more information. So far, as we already knew, there is a federal investigation. After four years it has not led to charges, but who knows what will come of it? I shall keep an eye on the situation with interest, but unless and until there is clear evidence of illegality that leads to charges, it is only fair to give the Green Collection the benefit of the doubt. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, additional background on the Green Collection and the Museum of the Bible is here and links. And Roger Pearse's very different perspective on the work of the Green Collection is worth remembering now and again.

Hanukkah coin find

ARCHAEOLOGY AND NUMISMATICS: Israeli students make coin find during Hanukkah: Coin World Buzz (Colin Sallee).

Israeli students found three Hasmonean dynasty coins while on an an archaeological dig at the ruins in Adulam Park.

Howe and Brice (eds.), Brill’s companion to insurgency and terrorism in the ancient Mediterranean

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Insurgency and terrorism in the Ancient Mediterranean. Notice of new book: Howe, Timothy & Lee Brice (eds.). 2015. Brill’s companion to insurgency and terrorism in the ancient Mediterranean (Brill’s Companions in Classical Studies). Brill. Not surprisingly, ancient Judea is one of the subjects.

Gittin

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Daf Yomi: Gittin. Some bibliography for tractate b. Gittin, which began last Monday in the Daf Yomi reading cycle.

Reviewlet of Jacobus, Zodiac Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Reception

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE: Secret knowledge of Dead Sea Zodiacs (Simon Rocker).

Zodiac Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Reception
Helen Jacobus
Brill, $234

Concluding counterfactual-history tidbit:

Who knows, if history had turned out differently, our synagogues, as they once did, might still be displaying zodiacs.

The book was noted here and here. Related posts are here and here.

Anderson on Jewish Attitudes Toward Wealth and Poverty

MICHAEL SATLOW: Gary Anderson Lecture on Jewish Attitudes Toward Wealth and Poverty (Video). The conference in which this lecture took place was noted here.

Moshe Dayan

HAARETZ: The Israeli Defense Minister Who Stole Antiquities. In 1971, Israeli archaeologists petitioned Moshe Dayan to give up his legally questionable hobby: Uncovering ancient artifacts and claiming them as his own. (Yael Gruenpeter).

In 2012, Dr. Asaf Matskin's book "Too Close to the Edge" was published, telling the story of political corruption since the creation of Israel. Amid the scandals detailed in the book was the story called "The Antiquities of Moshe Dayan." Dayan was chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and eventually became defense minister.

According to Matskin, some in Israeli society were rooted in the mentality that "everything is allowed" — at least everything that your name, reputation or position allowed you to get away with. That's how Dayan, who was a sworn lover of archaeology, used his position and authority to dig at any site of his choosing while illegally using equipment and manpower belonging to the IDF.

[...]

I noted the accusations against General Dayan back in 2006 and I am unaware of anyone who has tried to refute them or deny them since. The article by archaeologist Raz Kletter that presents evidence has moved to a new ULR. You can read it here. He has also discussed the issue in his 2006 book, Just Past? The Making of Israeli Archaeology (which I have not read). You can read a review of it at JSTOR here.

Bauckham on the Kursi inscription

RICHARD BAUCKHAM has e-mailed with some reflections on the recently-discovered Aramaic inscription found on a marble tablet near the Sea of Galilee. I reproduce his message with his kind permission.

The statements attributed in the press to Michal Artzi are rather inaccurate and muddled. (Of course, we need not blame her for what she is reported as saying.)

The name Kursi is first attested unequivocally in the sixth century (in Greek as Χορσια). The first explicit evidence associating it with the miracle of the pigs is from the eighth century, but it was already a site that Christian pilgrims visited in the sixth century and so that association may well be older, but we do not know how old.

There is also one rabbinic reference to a Jewish settlement called כורסאי (y. Mo'ed. Qat. 82c), which may be the same place. (I assume this is the passage intended when it is reported that the new discovery "proves the historical accuracy of one of the Talmudic passages.")

It seems odd that, having discovered an inscription from c. 500 CE (it would be interesting to know how they date it), the archaeologists should go to the New Testament in search of evidence for the Jewish settlement there. The NT story is set in the "land of the Gerasenes/Gergesenes/Gadarenes", and refers to a city, but the city is not necessarily very near to the site of the miracle. I think it was probably Hippos. But wherever it was it was a GENTILE city (they kept pigs)!

We already knew there was a Byzantine Christian settlement, attached to a large monastery, that has been excavated. The archaeologists seem to have found evidence of a separate Jewish settlement near the harbour. This is not especially surprising. There is plenty of evidence of Jewish settlements in the Golan in that period. The lake near Kursi was one of the very best parts of the lake for fishing.

There seems to me nothing in all this that gives "significant support" (or any support at all) to the location of the miracle of pigs at this site.

Artzi is also quoted as saying "Until now we had no proof that Jewish settlements, which have disappeared over the years, actually existed during that period on the shores of the Sea of ​​Galilee, except for the town of Migdal.” Actually Magdala (Migdal) was abandoned after the earthquake of 363 CE. What about Tiberias? By 500 there was a Christian presence there, but surely still a mainly Jewish population?

I'm sure you must be right about מרמריה. "Lady Mary" would have to be מרתא מריה surely? I see the more recent press reports are saying the word most likely means "marble" - perhaps because they have read your post?

Yes, most of the reports now say that the inscription is in Aramaic, and the ones at Breitbart, Christian Today, The Blaze, Haaretz, and even the University of Haifa press release (the latter two apparently updated) give "marble" as one option for the meaning of the word. Haaretz and Haifa University correctly say that it is the more probable option. You heard it first at PaleoJudaica!

BIOSCS 1-43

THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF SEPTUAGINT AND COGNATE STUDIES: Journal Volumes Available Online.

Volumes 1 through 43 of the Bulletin of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (BIOSCS) are available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. They are made available here with the kind assent of Eisenbrauns, which now publishes our Journal. IOSCS itself printed the first 33 volumes.

IOSCS is thankful that Eisenbrauns took over professional publication of the Bulletin and now the Journal, beginning with volume 34. Printed back issues of many volumes of BIOSCS are in stock and available from Eisenbrauns.

Beginning with volume 44, the Journal is known as the Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies (JSCS).

Star Wars and the Bible

CANONICAL AND NONCANONICAL: The Saga Continues. Devotees of Star Wars and the Bible have something in common: they have expanded the universes of each text through sheer creativity, even taking ownership of them along the way (David Zvi Kalman, Tablet Magazine). Excerpt:

Both the Bible and Star Wars comprise a set a interconnected and largely self-consistent stories. Both also feature a distinction between the central, authorized canon of material and a set of related but peripheral works (Star Wars’ “Legends,” Biblical apocrypha and, in different way, midrash). Forgetting for a moment that the Bible is more important by orders of magnitude—Star Wars gave us “May the Force be with you” while the Bible gave us fundamental aspects of modern English, and it wasn’t even written in English—the two share an important quality: both canons continue to expand. Both fans of Star Wars and followers of the Bible donate to these works their attention and money, but also their individual talents, their unique and best selves. These devotees can do more than just enjoy and learn from the seminal texts; they can add to them and, in doing so, claim some form of ownership, a time-share’s worth of a cultural edifice.

Some interesting reflections for those interested in midrash and biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. I agree that "the Bible is more important by orders of magnitude," but I often find that younger people today know Star Wars far better than they know the Bible. Perhaps we should find their lack of faith disturbing, but that's how it is and I adapt my teaching accordingly.

I haven't yet seen the new Star Wars movie, but I have a ticket for Monday. I was horrified by the second trilogy and it put me off the whole thing. But I'll try to maintain an open mind for the new one.

Dead Sea Scrolls Fail

THE BAPTIST STANDARD: Noncanonical sources still influence Christian traditions (TERRY GOODRICH / BAYLOR UNIVERSITY). This is another article on Philip Jenkins's new book, The Many Faces of Christ. I was astonished to read the following howler in it (my bold-font emphasis):

“There’s this kind of myth that all these gospels went underground around the year 400 and were destroyed or lost,” Jenkins said.

But numerous have been found since the late 1770s—perhaps most notably in 1945, when farmers found a sealed jar near caves not far from the Egyptian city of Nag Hammadi. Inside were a dozen leather-bound papyrus books—termed the Dead Sea Scrolls— containing more than 50 texts, including some quotations attributed to Jesus.

No, those Coptic codices are termed the Nag Hammadi Library. The Dead Sea Scrolls are Jewish scrolls (not bound books) from centuries earlier. A few scholars have argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls included small Greek fragments of Christian texts from the New Testament, but these texts are so fragmentary that you can reconstruct them to make them into lots of things, and the vast majority of specialists have not found their arguments convincing.

Since this is attributed to Terry Goodrich, a media contact at Baylor, I did a little digging and found, just as I expected, that the original press release by her did not contain this error:

“There’s this kind of myth that all these gospels went underground around the year 400 and were destroyed or lost,” Jenkins said. But a number of texts have been found since the late 1770s — perhaps most notably in 1945, when farmers found a sealed jar near caves not far from the Egyptian city of Nag Hammadi. Inside were a dozen leather-bound papyrus books containing more than 50 texts — some of them including quotations attributed to Jesus.

How on earth, and why, did the Baptist Standard introduce the change? Has someone been reading The Da Vinci Code?

UPDATE (21 December): The Baptist Standard has now published a correction: Letter: Nag Hammadi is not near the Dead Sea (Stephen Fox).

SBL Pseudepigrapha CFP

LIV INGEBORG LIED: Pseudepigrapha Section CFP, SBL Annual Meeting 2016. That's right. It's already time to start thinking about your paper for the November 2016 Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in San Antonio.

Review of Rüpke (ed.), Public and Private in Ancient Mediterranean Law and Religion

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Clifford Ando, Jörg Rüpke (ed.), Public and Private in Ancient Mediterranean Law and Religion. Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten vol. 65. Berlin, Munich, Boston: De Gruyter, 2015. Pp. viii, 255. ISBN 9783110371024. €99.95.

Reviewed by Anders Klostergaard Petersen, University of Aarhus (AKP@cas.au.dk)

Preview

Most contributions in this collection of essays originate from a conference held at the Max Weber Center of Erfurt. The collection arises from the cooperation between two internationally esteemed centers for the study of antiquity: the Center for the Study of Ancient Religion at the University of Chicago and the research group “Religious Individualization in Historical Perspective” under the auspices of the Max Weber Center. It is reasonable to have great expectations to a volume edited by two prolific scholars in the field, Clifford Ando and Jörg Rüpke, all the more so since the book is targeted on truly moot questions. The papers focus on the private-public binary in the context of Mediterranean antiquity in two correspondingly contested realms: law and religion.

In their introduction, the editors are keen to point out two a priori principles on which the book rests. First, they take the ideologically contingent nature pertaining to the private-public dualism, its definition and its salience, as an axiomatic point of departure. Second, they give emphasis to the fact that the concepts examined interact with equally charged notions of family, household, and the people as a political collective entity. These are lexemes with corollary phenomenological substantiation, an intrinsic part of the field under scrutiny, and, therefore, likely to exert influence on the manner in which the discussion is conducted at the third order level of analysis. To tackle these issues, the participants endeavor to create a historical comparative project meant to avoid the dangers of presentism. In the ancient context, the notions of public and private were, from the etic perspective, deeply ingrained, whereas in contemporary Western societies they have increasingly come to denote (semi-)autonomous realms.

[...]

Two of the essays deal with rabbinic evidence.

Oqimta 2 (2014)

H-JUDAIC: TOC: Volume 2 of Oqimta - A Journal for Rabbinic Studies.

Yes, I know that this is 2015, but the date given is 2014.

Most of the articles are in Hebrew, but with English summaries.

Hannibal at Trebia

PUNIC WATCH: On this day: Hannibal defeats the Romans at Trebia (The Scotsman).

218BC: Hannibal’s Cathaginian army defeated the Romans at the Battle of the Trebia during the second Punic War.

You can read about the details of the battle at Military History at About.com: Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia (Kennedy Hickman).

The victory at Trebia was Hannibal's first great triumph in Italy and would be followed by others at Lake Trasimene (217 BC) and Cannae (216 BC). Despite these stunning victories, Hannibal was never able to completely defeat Rome, and was ultimately recalled to Carthage to aid in protecting the city from a Roman army. In the resulting battle at Zama (202 BC), he was beaten and Carthage was forced to make peace.

On the history of the study of the DSS

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Dead Sea Scrolls History: Looking Back on the Last 75 Years. Martin Abegg, Peter Flint and Andrew Perrin reflect on the Dead Sea Scrolls’ history (Megan Sauter).

With one of its long-term codirectors continuing on at the helm (Dr. Peter Flint) and the other (Dr. Martin Abegg) passing the baton to a new faculty member (Dr. Andrew Perrin), the leadership of the Trinity Western University Dead Sea Scrolls Institute—North America’s only research center dedicated to Qumran studies—provides a snapshot of both the perspectives of different generations of Dead Sea Scroll scholars and a view of the discipline’s past, present and future. In this exclusive Bible History Daily interview, these three colleagues reflect on some major moments in recent Qumran scholarship and pressing issues that lie ahead.

[...]

And note this in particular:

MS: We’re approaching the 75th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. At this point, can young scholars still make a career out of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship, or should students wishing to study the scrolls be encouraged in other directions?

Abegg: Yes, scrolls scholarship remains an ideal launching point for an academic career. The broader field of Biblical studies thrives on the collective basis of vibrant focused disciplines—just look at a program book of the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. Yet it is hard to imagine that any of us—even the likes of Emanuel Tov or Eugene Ulrich— would be able to find a job teaching only the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls, however, are ideally suited to serve any university’s Biblical, Jewish, theological and religious studies programs. Qumran scholarship requires Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, the study of the foundational texts of Judaism and Christianity, knowledge of the early church and rabbinic Judaism, as well as familiarity with Israelite religion. Other such “niche studies” in the past (e.g., Ugaritic) cannot make the same claim. In fact—I might be so bold to say—it’s hard to imagine another research focus that would equip the early career Biblical studies scholar with such a broad preparation.

Wise words. In relation to that, see here.

Breed on canon

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Canon: Process, Not Product? (Brennan Breed). The third and final instalment of the AJR Forum on the biblical Canon. The first, by Timothy Lim, was noted here. The second, by Eva Mroczek, was noted here.

Killebrew and Faßbeck (eds.), Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology
VeHinnei Rachel - Essays in Honor of Rachel Hachlili

Edited by Ann E. Killebrew, Pennsylvania State University and Gabriele Faßbeck, University of Alabama
In honor of eminent archaeologist and historian of ancient Jewish art, Rachel Hachlili, friends and colleagues offer contributions in this festschrift which span the world of ancient Judaism both in Palestine and the Diaspora. Hachlili's distinctive research interests: synagogues, burial sites, and Jewish iconography receive particular attention in the volume. Archaeologists and historians present new material evidence from Galilee, Jerusalem, and Transjordan, contributing to the honoree’s fields of scholarly study. Fresh analyses of ancient Jewish art, essays on architecture, historical geography, and research history complete the volume and make it an enticing kaleidoscope of the vibrant field of scholarship that owes so much to Rachel.

Review of Gager, Who Made Early Christianity?

H-JUDAIC REVIEW:

Kok on Gager, 'Who Made Early Christianity?: The Jewish Lives of the Apostle Paul'

Author: John G. Gager
Reviewer: Michael Kok

John G. Gager. Who Made Early Christianity?: The Jewish Lives of the Apostle Paul. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. 208 pp. $30.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-231-53937-1.

Reviewed by Michael Kok (The King's University)
Published on H-Judaic (December, 2015)
Commissioned by Matthew A. Kraus

The Jewish Reception of the Apostle Paul

Together with Lloyd Gaston and Stanley K. Stowers, John G. Gager developed the Sonderweg reading of the Pauline Epistles.[1] According to this model, Paul understood Christ to have opened up a “special path” to salvation for non-Jews distinct from the provision of salvation that was already available to Israel through the Sinai covenant. Despite its title, this book covers far more ground than ancient and modern Jewish interpretations of the Pauline corpus. It also explores the active participation of Diaspora Jewish populations in the civic life of Mediterranean societies and the range of Jewish and Christian social interactions in antiquity.

[...]

Past posts on the book are here and here.

Inscribed tablet found near Sea of Galilee

EPIGRAPHY: Discovery suggests Jews lived in Galilee 1,500 years ago. An ancient tablet featuring Hebrew letters has been excavated and is the best proof yet of a former Jewish town at the site (Itay Blumenthal, YNet News).

An archeological discovery near the Sea of Galilee may prove the presence of a Jewish settlement at the site 1,500 years ago.

The existence of an ancient settlement in the northeast Sea of Galilee became known to researchers by the early 1960s, when fragments of a large pier from the Byzantine period were found underwater. Researchers from Haifa University returned to the site last week following a drop in the water level and found a 1,500-year-old marble tablet bearing Hebrew letters – potential evidence for an ancient Jewish presence.

"This discovery bolsters the belief, which was until now considered folklore, that this is the settlement of Kursi, which Jesus visited and where he performed 'the Miracle of the Swine,'" said Professor Michal Artzy, who directed excavations at the site.

The compound in which the rare artifact was found has in recent years yielded evidence of a Christian city from the fifth century AD.

Two words have been identified on the tablet, which measures 150 by 70 centimeters: "amen" and "marmaria", a word that suggests a connection to the Virgin Mary.

[...]

This is a very important discovery for the history of Judaism in the Galilee in late antiquity. The potential connection with a site associated with a story about Jesus is also interesting, although let's keep in mind that the story is set several hundred years earlier than this inscription.

The last quoted sentence sounds a bit dubious to me. The word "marmaria" looks an awful lot like a word known from the Targumim (מרמירא) which is just a transliteration of the Greek word for "marble" (μάρμαρος). The specific spelling of the word in the inscription in Hebrew letters is not given, so I can't be certain, but, given that the object is a marble plaque, that interpretation sounds far more likely to me than any connection with Mary.

And on the subject of the language of the inscription, this report is careful to specify that it is written in "Hebrew letters" and not to claim that it is written in the Hebrew language. Other reports are less cautious, for example: 1,500 Year Old Hebrew Inscription Discovered on East Coast of Sea of Galilee (The Jewish Press); Israeli archaeologists find Hebrew inscriptions on ancient slab of marble near Lake Kinneret (Jerusalem Post). Caution is warranted because, from what I can see of the published photo, it looks to me as though it could well be written in Aramaic. The word "amen," of course, is used in both Hebrew and Aramaic. That word for "marble" above is found in the Aramaic Targumim (see Jastrow, 844b). And on the photo on line 1, I see what could be יקר or יקרה, which means "glory" or "honor" in Aramaic (but it also appears more rarely in Hebrew meaning "precious" or "valuable"). On line 4, I see אתרה, which means "the place" or "the synagogue" in Aramaic and סייע, which is a root in both Aramaic and Hebrew meaning "to aid or support." On line 5, I see the word יברך, which could be "he shall bless" in either Hebrew and Aramaic. I don't have any more time to puzzle out the inscription, but what I see is adding up to Aramaic more than Hebrew.

Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch?"

UPDATE: I see from the original Hebrew version of this article that the word "marmaria" is spelled מרמריה. [I'm revising an earlier comment here, since after a closer look, I see that the spelling is very similar (and there is even some variation of the spelling in the Targumim), but it is not quite the same. I still think the word in the inscription is far more likely to mean "marble" than to have anything to do with the Virgin Mary.]

Yale postdoc in Ancient Judaism/Jewish History

H-JUDAIC: JOB: Yale University Postdoc in Ancient Judaism/Jewish History.

Yale University, Program in Judaic Studies, Postdoctoral Associate in
Ancient Judaism/Jewish History, 2016-2018

Follow the link for details. The application deadline is 8 February 2016.

Jesus

YONA SABAR: Hebrew word of the week: Yeshu/Jesus. 'Tis the Season.

Smelik on the Targum

AJS PERSPECTIVES: The Translation as a Bilingual Text: The Curious Case of the Targum (Willem F. Smelik).

A targum (an Aramaic translation of Scripture) is a translation that does not come alone: hardly ever is it left unattended by its parent text, the Hebrew Bible. While it may play, it is always supervised, its game subject to specific rules. A targum is not supposed to ever leave home and strike out on its own. The reasons for this peculiar and probably unique conception of translation as one part of a bilingual text are to be sought in contemporary rabbinic views on how to read and translate the Hebrew Bible.

[...]

Kister et al. (eds.), Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation from Second Temple Literature through Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity
Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, Jointly Sponsored by the Hebrew University Center for the Study of Christianity, 22–24 February, 2011

Edited by Menahem Kister, Hillel I. Newman, Michael Segal, and Ruth A. Clements
Many types of tradition and interpretation found in later Jewish and Christian writings trace their origins to the Second Temple period, but their transmission and transformation followed different paths within the two religious communities. For example, while Christians often translated and transmitted discrete Second Temple texts, rabbinic Judaism generally preserved earlier traditions integrated into new literary frameworks. In both cases, ancient traditions were often transformed to serve new purposes but continued to bear witness to their ancient roots. Later compositions may even provide the key to clarifying obscurities in earlier texts. The contributions in this volume explore the dynamics by which earlier texts and traditions were transmitted and transformed in these later bodies of literature and their attendant cultural contexts.

Unearthing the World of Jesus

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE: Unearthing the World of Jesus. Surprising archaeological finds are breaking new ground in our understanding of Jesus’s time—and the revolution he launched 2,000 years ago (Ariel Sabar). This article focuses on the Galilee in the first-century. Magdala gets a lot of space, but other sites such as Bethsaida receive some attention too. Excerpt:

What archaeologists have begun to recover is Jesus’s world—the beat of everyday life in the fishing villages where he is said to have planted the seeds of a movement. The deepest insights have come from millions of “small finds” gathered over decades of painstaking excavation: pottery shards, coins, glassware, animal bones, fishing hooks, cobbled streets, courtyard houses and other simple structures.

Before such discoveries, a long line of (mostly Christian) theologians had sought to reinterpret the New Testament in a way that stripped Jesus of his Judaism. Depending on the writer, Jesus was either a man who, though nominally Jewish, wandered freely among pagans; or he was a secular gadfly inspired less by the Hebrews than by the Greek Cynics, shaggy-haired loners who roamed the countryside irritating the powers that be with biting one-liners.

Archaeology showed once and for all that the people and places closest to Jesus were deeply Jewish. To judge by the bone finds, Galileans didn’t eat pig. To judge by the limestone jugs, they stored liquids in vessels that complied with the strictest Jewish purity laws. Their coins lacked likenesses of humans or animals, in keeping with the Second Commandment against graven images.

Hanukkah at the Arch of Titus

YU NEWS: Hanukkah at the Arch of Titus. Professor Steven Fine Reflects on Jewish View of Menorah Depicted on the Arch of Titus Through the Ages.

Where the miracle and hope of Hanukkah celebrates the ascending lights of the menorah, a new lamp set ablaze each night (a process that is paralleled in the heavens as the days begin to lengthen with the winter solstice, roughly during Hanukkah), the Arch of Titus menorah is dark, carried by reveling heathen soldiers in a triumphal parade and into a triumphal museum built by Titus’ father, the emperor Vespasian. In truly Orwellian language, this museum was called the “Temple of Peace.”

Yet looking up at the menorah of the Arch of Titus, our ancestors have often conjured a far more positive image, one that bears a positive lesson for us today.

Lots more on the Arch of Titus here and just keep following those links.

García Martínez, Revelación, Autoridad y Canon en Qumrán

NEW ARTICLE: García Martínez, Florentino, "Revelación, Autoridad y Canon en Qumrân." Published in Revelación, Escritura, Interpretación. Estudios en honor del Prof. D. Gonzalo Aranda Pérez pages:87-108. Via Masora digital.

Brooke and Hempel (eds.), The T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls

FORTHCOMING BOOK: The T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Table of Contents of this Volume forthcoming (Academia.edu).

The decline of piety according to the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Your Bubbe Was Not More Jewish Than You Are. The Talmud debunks the myth of declining Jewish piety.

Reading Daf Yomi, one of the things that has most interested me is the Talmud’s picture of the Jewish society of its day. It’s easy to assume that, because the rabbis who assembled the Mishna and the Gemara were exceptionally learned and pious, the Jewish world they lived in was itself extremely devout. Surely the Jews of Palestine and Babylonia in the 1st centuries C.E. would put American Jews to shame with their Jewish knowledge and practice! Yet that is certainly not the way the rabbis of the Talmud understood their world. On the contrary, the impression they give is of a Jewish community divided between a very pious elite—the people the Talmud calls chaverim, “friends,” who took care to scrupulously follow the law—and an ignorant, unreliable mass of ordinary Jews, the am ha’aretz. What’s more, as we saw in this week’s Daf Yomi reading, the rabbis were convinced that they stood at the end of a long, irreversible decline in Jewish piety. If we think that Jews who lived centuries ago were better Jews than we are today, the Jews of centuries ago thought exactly the same thing.

[...]

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Review of Jenkins, The Many Faces of Christ

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Book review: 'Many Faces of Christ' discusses evolution of church (Michael L. Ramsey, The Roanoke Times).

We know Christ from the paintings and writings of Europeans. We also know him from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Pauline letters and other books in the New Testament. After the Church allied itself with the Roman Empire in A.D. 336, many other gospels were removed from the canon of Christianity and were lost — or were they?

Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of history at Baylor University, presents in his new work “The Many Faces of Christ” stories of how the lost gospels were not lost at all. The subtitle, “The Thousand Year Story of the Survival and Influence of the Lost Gospels,” answers the question of whether theses writings were lost or just excluded from readings approved by councils of the established church.

[...]

More on the book is here and links

I. Howard Marshall, 1934-2015

SAD NEWS: This weekend brought the sad news of the death of Emeritus Professor I. Howard Marshall, retired from Aberdeen University. I quote the notice by Paul Middleton to the British New Testament Society List:

Colleagues will be saddened to learn of the death of Prof. Ian Howard Marshall at the weekend, aged 81.

Prof. Marshall was Emeritus Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen. He took his MA, BD, and PhD from Aberdeen and began teaching there in 1964, becoming Professor in 1979.

He was the author of dozens of volumes, including commentaries on Luke (NIGTC, 1978), the Epistles of John (NICNT, 1978), Acts (TNTC, 1980), 1 and 2 Thessalonians (NCB, 1983), 1 Peter (IVP, 1991), Philippians (Epworth, 1992), and the Pastoral Epistles (ICC, 1999). He also published many significant books on New Testament Theology and Interpretation, including New Testament Theology: Many Witnesses, One Gospel (IVP, 2004).

Prof. Marshall was a former President of the British New Testament Society, and will be sadly missed.

Dr Paul Middleton
Secretary, The British New Testament Society

Howard was a prolific and massively influential scholar and a very nice guy. I know I have seen him in recent years at the annual British New Testament Conference in September, although I cannot remember if he was there this year in Edinburgh. Other notices of his death: by James McGrath here and by Michael Bird here. Requiescat in pace.

UPDATE: A notice by Mark Goodacre is here, and he links to others.

Does the Magdala Stone explain Jesus' execution?

CANDIDA MOSS: Is This Stone the Clue to Why Jesus Was Killed? A stone found in Israel with carvings of a chariot may be the key to understanding the charge of blasphemy leveled at Jesus Christ (The Daily Beast).

The stone is the Magdala Stone, on which more here. I have posted a photo of it here.

Even if we grant that the Magdala Stone showed a chariot in the holy of holies in the Jerusalem Temple, any connection with the execution of Jesus seems to me far-fetched. First, the idea that the heavenly Temple had chariots within it is very ancient, going back at least to the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And the Chronicler explicitly states (more or less - the text is difficult) that King David put a "golden chariot (of) the cherubim" in the holy of holies of the earthly Temple and that their wings were spread over the ark of the covenant (1 Chronicles 28:18). So the idea is hardly new.

Second, I see no reference to the divine chariot in Mark 14:62. Jesus is quoted as alluding to the enthronement of the Davidic King alongside God in Psalm 110:1 and the coming of the son of man on the clouds of heaven in Daniel 7:13. I grant that claiming to be the heavenly Davidic King and the Danielic one like a son of man is not blasphemous by first-century Jewish standards, although it would have been considered megalomaniacal and quite possibly (especially by the Romans) seditious. But it is not at all easy to read the divine chariot into what Jesus is presented as saying, so I don't see that the Magdala Stone, interesting though it is, is very helpful for that issue. But, as always, such matter should be argued in the peer-review literature.

Was Isaiah's Rabshakeh an exiled Israelite?

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

How Did Rabshakeh Know the Language of Judah?

Article from Marbeh Ḥokmah: Studies in the Bible and the Ancient Near East in Loving Memory of Victor Avigdor Hurowitz (Winona Lake, Indiana : Eisenbrauns, 2015).

By Yigal Levin
Bar-Ilan University
December 2015

Interesting and not-implausible proposal.

That Coptic magical handbook

COPTIC WATCH: Thousand-year-old ‘Egyptian Handbook of Ritual Power’ deciphered (Nina Awad, StepFeed).

Researchers at the Macquarie universities in New South Wales, Australia, gave deciphered a 1,300-year-old Egyptian manuscript believed to be a manual on how to use and create magical spells.

The manuscript, which has been dubbed the “Egyptian Handbook of Ritual Power” by scientific researchers and scholars, was first found by a merchant in the late ’70s and though numerous attempts were made to decode the contexts of the ancient document, all attempts seemed fruitless.

With 20 pages deciphered, researchers believe that due to the way it was written, the handbook most likely came from some place in Upper Egypt and was probably created by a member of the Sethians, a minority group that worshiped Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve.

[...]

The publication of the manuscript was noted here in November, but this article has additional information.

Sanders on early Jewish myths

PHIADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS: PSCO Presentation: 3 December 2015:) "Where Did Early Judaism Get Its Myths? Enoch and the Making of a Modern Academic Tradition" Seth Sanders (UC Davis) (Audio file.)

Metatron Gets Pumped, Crashes Horribly

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: Metatron Inc (OTCMKTS:MRNJ) Gets Pumped, Crashes Horribly (Georgi Kamburov, Hot Stocked).

Not the first time this has happened to an archangel.

Bibliographia Iranica

AWOL: Bibliographia Iranica. Regular readers of PaleoJudaica are well familiar with this site, but it's good to see it getting more publicity.

The Roman Calendar in Rabbinic Sources

LECTURE: ‘A Matter of Time: The Roman Calendar in Rabbinic Sources’ at YINR (ELLIN HEILMAN, The Jewish Link).

Sarit Kattan Gribetz, assistant professor of historical theology at Fordham University, will be speaking on “A Matter of Time: The Roman Calendar in Rabbinic Sources.” This lecture, part of the continuing series presented by WIJS (Women’s Initiative for Jewish Studies) will be presented on Tuesday evening, January 12, 7:45 p.m. at the Young Israel of New Rochelle (1149 North Avenue, New Rochelle, N.Y.).

[...]

Review of Quack and Luft (eds.), Erscheinungsformen und Handhabungen Heiliger Schriften

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Joachim Friedrich Quack, Daniela Luft (ed.), Erscheinungsformen und Handhabungen Heiliger Schriften. Materiale Textkulturen, Bd 5. Berlin; München; Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. Pp. vii, 349. ISBN 9783110371246. €89.95.

Reviewed by Geert Lernout, University of Antwerp (geert.lernout@uantwerpen.be)

Preview

This collection of studies is the fifth volume in De Gruyter’s series on “material text cultures” and is based on papers given at a conference in Heidelberg in 2011. Most of the material texts dealt with in the volume are “sacred texts”; an introductory chapter by the second editor attempts to define this term, which is not easy given the wide diversity of cultures involved—from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to China and contemporary Bali.

[...]

Jewish and Christian texts receive attention as well.

Peter Head has noted the review over at ETC: The physical appearance and handling of sacred texts in terms of material text culture.

Resources on the Cultural Crisis in the Near East

ASOR BLOG: Resources on the Cultural Crisis in the Near East.

The scale of the human crisis in Syria has expanded and now involves Europe. Damage to archaeological and heritage sites also continues at an alarming rate. We present here a series of new and important links discussing the ongoing cultural disaster.

Grim but important reading.

Related PaleoJudaica posts are here and here and many links.

Nordic excursion to Ethiopia

LIV INGEBORG LIED: NNJCI excursion/seminar to Ethiopia.

The Nordic Network for the Study of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the First Millennium (NNJCI) is proud to present its new seminar on Ethiopian Christianity and its contacts with Jewish and Islamic traditions. This is a unique opportunity to visit Ethiopia, its several awe-inspiring places (such as the stone hewn churches in Lalibela, the ancient Aksum and several monasteries) in the guidance of both local and Nordic experts.

The duration of the seminar is two weeks (October 23 to November 6, 2016). It will include preparatory readings and short presentations of each participants which equals 5 ECTS. The seminar is primarily intended for PhD-students, but it will also be open for advanced master’s students and postdoctoral researchers.

Follow the link for further particulars.

Coptic database

AWOL: Banque de données des textes coptes documentaires - Brussels Coptic Database.

Welcome to the site of the database of the Coptic documentary texts of the "Centre de Papyrologie et d'Épigraphie Grecque" of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

[...]

Another Coptic database is always a good thing.

Review of Jördens (ed.), Ägyptische Magie und ihre Umwelt

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Andrea Jördens (ed.), Ägyptische Magie und ihre Umwelt. Philippika, 80. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2015. Pp. 379. ISBN 9783447103169. €48.00.

Reviewed by Árpád M. Nagy, Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Classical Antiquities (amnagy8@gmail.com)

Table of Contents

It has become a commonplace that research on ancient magic is one of the success stories of contemporary classical studies. The key to this success was a turn that started around thirty years ago: magika that was traditionally deemed as „Wissenschaft des nicht Wissenswerten” has been transformed into a scholarly field that is jointly investigated by researchers from a number of disciplines (Egyptology, classical archaeology and philology, the ancient Near East and Jewish Studies), which had traditionally worked completely separately. An old-school professor would ask his student to decide between classical archaeology and Egyptology. Contemporary research on ancient magic offers a third solution: to study both. It is in this context that the title of the book is to be understood: although its principal subject is Ägyptische Magie, its horizon is the Umwelt, the ancient Mediterranean — which also explains why the book is reviewed by a researcher of Graeco-Roman magic.

[...]

CFP: 2016 meeting of the IOSOT etc.

THE INTERNATIONAL ORIGANIZATION FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: Call For Papers.

The next triennial congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) will take place in Stellenbosch, South Africa from 4-9 September 2016. The IOSOT is the leading organization for Hebrew Bible / Old Testament studies, and the 2016 meeting will be the first on the African continent, and only the second outside of Europe.

As usual, this meeting with be concurrent and coordinated with The International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS), The International Organization for Qumran Studies (IOQS), The International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS), and The International Organization for Masoretic Studies (IOMS).

Collar responds to Williams and Hurtado

LARRY HURTADO: Collar Responds to Reviews of Her Book.

(In previous postings, the recent book by Dr. Anna Collar, Religious Networks in the Roman Empire: The Spread of New Ideas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), was the focus of comments by Dr. Margaret Williams here, and by me here. Earlier this week, Dr. Collar emailed to indicate that she had read the postings, and she offered some comments in response. I invited her to prepare a posting of her own in which she responds to the criticisms in the previous postings about her book. Her posting appears below. LWH)

[...]

I noted the two reviews here and here.

Plischke, Die Seleukiden und Iran

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Seleucids and Iran. Notice of new book: Plischke, Sonja. 2014. Die Seleukiden und Iran: die seleukidische Herrschaftspolitik in den östlichen Satrapien. (Classica et Orientalia 9). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Pompeii database

AWOL: Pompeii Bibliography and Mapping Project. Past PaleoJudaica posts on Pompeii are collected here.

Yoda or a sage?

QUIZ: As the Force Awakens: Who Said It? Yoda or a Jewish Sage (JTA).

In honor of the imminent release of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' try deciphering which of the following quotes were said by Yoda in a 'Star Wars' film and which were said by Jewish sages of centuries past.

When was Jesus born?

'TIS THE SEASON: The Year Jesus Was Born (Philip Jenkins, The Anxious Bench).

Scholars differ on the exact birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth, though a fair consensus holds that it was not in the year 1. Many favor a date in or around 4BC, and for the sake of argument, let us take that as accurate. If so, the birth occurred during or near a truly dreadful time in the history of what was already a troubled and turbulent land. Although these events are familiar to scholars, they are not at all well known by non-specialists. This is unfortunate, because memories of this crisis certainly shaped memories and perceptions for decades afterwards, and conditioned attitudes during Jesus’s lifetime. If we don’t understand those conflicts, we are missing the prehistory of the earliest Jesus Movement.

[...]

Lots of interesting historical background to 4 BCE follows. But was Jesus actually born in that year? Who knows? The sources do not commend themselves as offering reliable information for that kind of question. I have discussed the question here.

Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts at the Library of Congress

AWOL: Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts at the Library of Congress. Includes Kabbalist materials and manuscripts in Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, etc.

For many other manuscript digitization projects, go here and just keep following the links.

More on the breakup and auction of the Valmadonna Library

THE FORWARD: World's Largest Collection of Judaica Broken Up and Sold — Against Owner's Wishes (Britta Lokting). Excerpt:

The collection was assembled by Jack Lunzer, an industrial diamond merchant from Britain, who previously sought to sell it, but with stipulations that the library only be sold as a whole and kept available for scholars. Lunzer also stipulated that the buyer must himself agree not to break up the collection through subsequent sales.

But Lunzer is now 91 and suffers from dementia. And over several years the library’s trustees, who now control the collection, were unable to obtain the price they sought for it while maintaining Lunzer’s stipulations. They are consequently moving to sell off some of the rarest and highest-priced books individually.

Scholars had earlier taken reassurance from Lunzer’s original conditions, which guaranteed them and those who rely on their research continued access to the collection. It’s been available to scholars since it has been at Sotheby’s. Now, some are deeply saddened.

“It would be a terrible loss to the Hebrew book lore to have the rest of the printed book collection dispersed,” said Brad Sabin Hill, the curator at the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection at George Washington University. “I would consider that to be unfortunate.”

The Library’s trustees defend their decision to sell some individual books and manuscripts and override Lunzer’s stipulations as an effort to make the rest of the Library more affordable to sell as a whole. Though there has been great interest over the years, the collection as a whole proved too expensive and expansive for both private buyers and institutions. Margaret Rothem, Lunzer’s oldest daughter, said that Lunzer had been informed of the trustees’ decision, though he was now unable to meaningfully participate in it.

David Redden, the chairman of Sotheby’s book and manuscripts department, said all the money made from the auction will go to the trust. But he didn’t know how the trustees would spend or allocate the funds once the library was sold off, or whether the trust owned other collections toward which the funds might go. Efforts to reach members of the trust’s board were unsuccessful.

Background here and links.

Another (early!) Lachish ostracon

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: At biblical site, researchers discover ABCs of how alphabet came to be. Oldest precursor to letter S found in nine-letter Canaanite text unearthed at Lachish, in central Israel; discovery ‘another piece in the puzzle’ of alphabet’s development, researcher says (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

A potsherd slightly larger than a business card found in the ruins of a Late Bronze Age temple at the biblical site of Lachish in southern Israel has yielded a few tantalizing letters from a 12th century BCE alphabet — what one researcher called a “once in a generation” find.

The inscription, three lines containing nine early Semitic letters, was discovered during excavations at the site in 2014 and is believed to date from around 1130 BCE. It’s the first Canaanite inscription found in a Late Bronze Age context in over 30 years, the authors of the paper said. The letters were etched into a clay jar before firing, and are exceptionally clear.


The first line reads pkl, the second spr — the Semitic root for scribe — but the third has two letters of uncertain meaning (one is fragmentary). The text includes the earliest dateable examples of the letters kaf — the precursor to the Latin letter K — samekh — S — and resh — R. Samekh had never before been found in early Canaanite inscriptions.

Details of the intriguing nine-letter inscription were published in the November/December issue of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

[...]

More on the current Lachish excavation and on the other Lachish ostraca is here and links.

The watchers and giants in anime

REMNANT OF GIANTS: Julius Thompson’s Grigori Anime (Deane Galbraith). With a video trailer.

Mroczek on canon

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Imagining Scriptures Before the Canon (Eva Mroczek). The second instalment of the AJR Forum on the biblical Canon. The first, by Timothy Lim, was noted here.

Mystery potsherd

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT: A Potsherd from the Temple Mount with an Incision that Resembles the Temple Menorah. The project is calling for help in identifying the design incised on this potsherd and determining its purpose:



I am not an art historian, but it looks to me as though it could be either a stylized menorah or a stylized palm tree. (If you look at the post above and its comments, you'll see I am not the first to make either suggestion.) The bent line at the bottom right could be the base of the menorah, so that seems more likely. For an example of each, see the photo of the Magdala Stone below. The menorah is on the front of the stone and the palm tree is on the top upper right. Both are known iconographically from the late Second Temple period on into late antiquity.


Image courtesy of www.HolyLandPhotos.org.

Click on both images for larger versions.

HT Joseph Lauer.

Again, timely. I wonder how long they have been saving this object up for Hanukkah.

UPDATE: Archaeologist and co-director of the Sifting Project, Zachi Dvira, thinks its a menorah and that it was produced in late antiquity.

Hasmoneans/Maccabees

YONA SABAR: Hebrew word(s) of the week: Hashmona’im/makabbim, Hasmoneans/Maccabees. Timely.

Hanukkah: It's complicated.

HUFFPOST RELIGION: The Real History Of Hanukkah Is More Complicated Than You Thought (Daniel Marans and Nick Baumann). The headline does not apply to regular readers of PaleoJudaica, but this is a good capsule history of the Maccabean revolt and its context.

Hurtado previews Blumell & Wayment, Christian Oxyrhynchus

LARRY HURTADO: “Christian Oxyrhynchus”: New Book. An earlier post noting the book is here. Peter Gurry flagged the blurb, but did not have a copy. Larry Hurtado has a copy but has not yet read it. We're making progress.

Assuming (and hoping) that the work embodies the exacting care that the project deserved, we have in this volume a singularly valuable go-to resource for anyone wanting to consult primary-text data about Christians and Christianity in Oxyrhynchus ca. 100-400 CE.

Finkelstein admitted to Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

CONGRATULATIONS TO ISRAEL FINKELSTEIN: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities admits nine new members – including three women (JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH, Jerusalem Post).

Prof. Israel Finkelstein teaches in the archaeologic and ancient Near Eastern civilizations department at TAU, specializing in archaeology of the Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages and the incorporation of the exact and life sciences into archaeological research and biblical history. Finkelstein is a laureate of the Dan David Prize and received other awards and conducted archaeological surveys and excavations in the Negev, Sinai and highlands. Since 1994, he has been the co-director of the Megiddo Expedition.

And, of course, congratulations also to the other eight new inductees.

The Magdala Stone as a snapshot of the Temple

ICONOGRAPHY: A Carved Stone Block Upends Assumptions About Ancient Judaism (ISABEL KERSHNER, NYT).

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The carved stone block is about the size of an occasional table. It has held its secrets for two millenniums. Whoever engraved its enigmatic symbols was apparently depicting the ancient Jewish temples.

But what makes the stone such a rare find in biblical archaeology, according to scholars, is that when it was carved, the Second Temple still stood in Jerusalem for the carver to see. The stone is a kind of ancient snapshot.

[...]

I approached the stone, and I could not believe what I was seeing,” said Rina Talgam, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor specializing in ancient art of the Middle East. Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists had asked her to visit the site to view Magdala’s mosaics and frescoes, but when she first saw the stone, “they said I stood there for three hours.”

Ms. Talgam concluded that she was looking at a three-dimensional depiction of the Temple of Herod, including its most sacred inner sanctum, known as the Holy of Holies.

She has since spent years deciphering and interpreting the symbols that adorn the stone and researching the possible implications of the discovery.

[...]

One side of the stone has what experts say is an unusual feature for the time: a carving of a seven-branch menorah. A candelabra of that kind is described in the Bible and is believed to have stood in the Temple, and it emerged as a Jewish symbol of hope for redemption centuries later, according to David Mevorah, senior curator for Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine archaeology at the Israel Museum.

[...]

The reading of the Magdala Stone as a depiction of the Temple is not a new development (see here), but it is covered in more detail in this article, which doubtless was inspired by the current Hanukkah celebration. There's lots more on the Magdala Stone and the site of Magdala here and links.

Also: "millenniums?" Are proper Latin endings a thing of the past even for New York Times writers?

Cross file under "Temple Mount Watch (sort of)."

Paleography app from UCLA

THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT: New app helps students learn to read ancient Japanese writing form (Cynthia Lee, UCLA Newsroom). Although this is in itself an interesting story, it is not directly relevant to PaleoJudaica. But this aside in it is:

If successful, the app could serve as a model for similar tools to teach scripts used in a wide range of ancient and medieval manuscript traditions.

“For example, students might use apps of this kind to learn to read stone inscriptions from ancient Greece and Rome; or Greek papyrus fragments of the kind that have long been excavated in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt; or the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek of the Dead Sea Scrolls; or bronze inscriptions and bamboo texts from ancient China,” said Humanities Dean David Schaberg, a scholar of classical Chinese poetry and thought. “In every case, reading the handwritten versions of the language takes specialized skills that are not necessary for reading modern printed versions of the same texts.”

Cross-file under "Technology Watch."

The crucified man

OSTEOLOGY: This One Bone Is The Only Skeletal Evidence For Crucifixion In The Ancient World (Kristina Killgrove, Forbes).

The bioarchaeology of crucifixion is therefore a bit of a conundrum: it makes sense that finding evidence may be difficult because of the ravages of time on bones and wooden crosses, but the sheer volume of people killed in this way over centuries should have given us more direct evidence of the practice.

A lot of rather random chance is involved in the creation of the archaeological record – from weather conditions to cultural customs to rodent activity. Even though there are problems involved in the preservation of evidence of crucifixion, the case of Yehohanan ben Hagkol shows that skeletal evidence might some day give us more information about the practice.

This article is about the well-known skeletal remains of one Yehohanan ben Hagkol. But I am surprised that it doesn't mention a second skeleton found in Jerusalem in 1970 which also may be the remains of a crucified person. It is possible that Dr. Killgrove does not accept that this body was crucified, but it would have been helpful for her to discuss it and explain why. You can read about that case here, and follow the links for more on the crucified body discussed in today's Forbes article. See also here. And for past posts on the gruesome physiology of crucifixion, see here, here, here, here, and here, and links.

Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day 2015

IT'S THAT DAY AGAIN: Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day.

The Facebook page is here. Follow this link for past posts on the day and related links.

Don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Jews and Hebrew, Angels and Aramaic

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: What Language Do the Angels Speak? Must prayers be uttered in Hebrew? Plus: Were ancient Israelite spies the size of grasshoppers?

One of the heartening things about reading Daf Yomi, for me, has been realizing that this kind of alienation is not new to American Judaism; on the contrary, it has been the norm since ancient times. The average Jew even in the Second Temple period did not speak Hebrew at all, but Aramaic, or sometimes Greek. This fact is reflected in the Talmud itself: The laws of the Mishna are in Hebrew, but the commentaries in the Gemara are in Aramaic, a related but distinct language. In this week’s Daf Yomi reading, in chapter 7 of Tractate Sota, there was a brief reference to the targum, the synagogue official who used to translate the Torah reading sentence by sentence from Hebrew into Aramaic. “The translator is not permitted to begin the translation until the verse concludes from the mouth of the reader,” says Rabbi Zeira; clearly, the rabbis were concerned that neither reading nor translation get drowned out or garbled. I wonder why American synagogues never employ a similar method—perhaps because it would make the Torah reading too long?

If the Jewish people don’t speak Hebrew, the Talmud suggests that the angels in Heaven speak nothing but. “A person should never request in the Aramaic language that his needs be met,” according to Rabbi Yochanan, because “the ministering angels are not familiar with the Aramaic language.” This surprising statement reveals both the rabbis’ implicit belief in angels—a belief that has vanished without a trace from most contemporary Judaism—and their willingness to accept a pretty serious limitation on the angels’ understanding. (Some later commentators, feeling that an illiterate angel is a contradiction in terms, interpreted this passage as saying that the angels know Aramaic, they just don’t respect it.)

I suspect it is an exaggeration to say that "[t]he average Jew even in the Second Temple period did not speak Hebrew at all, but Aramaic, or sometimes Greek." The average Jew would likely have at least had some familiarity with the Hebrew Bible and there is some evidence that Hebrew remained a spoken language in this period. But our information is frustratingly limited. See the posts collected here.

Past post on the angels' knowledge of Aramaic are here, here, and here.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Michael Rostovtzeff

THOSE WERE THE DAYS: WILLIAM THEISS: Rostovtzeff at Yale (Yale Daily News). A brief and entertaining account of the career of one of the excavators of Dura-Europos. Excerpt:

The city they found, Dura-Europos, told Rostovtzeff what he already knew about the ancient world: It was a place of unbelievable cosmopolitanism and radical diversity. A Jewish synagogue, one of the earliest known, displayed Abraham and Isaac, as well as Moses fleeing Egypt. A Christian church contained the earliest painting of Jesus we have. The walls were inscribed with more ancient languages than many have ever heard of. Rostovtzeff, now well over 60, disturbed his colleagues by staring at the blinding white walls for hours, reading one item after another and placing each into his cosmic historical framework. In New Haven, the students and faculty of the Classics Department summoned their common expertise and published study after study, year after year, exposing for the first time material that had been hidden from the world since the third century A.D. (What is not in a museum is now gone again: Last year, ISIS raided the ancient city and demolished whatever they saw.)

The context of the essay is the recent controversy over Yale's use of endowment funds of the Classics Department, on which see Classics dept decries admin “raid” on funds (VICTOR WANG, Yale Daily News).

There are many, many past PaleoJudaica posts on Dura-Europos. Start here and follow the links. The posts here and here seems particularly relevant to the article above.

MOOC: Rome and the Menorah

TIMELY: Rome and the Menorah. New Online Course Led by Yeshiva University Faculty Brings Arch of Titus to the Global Classroom (YU News).

As Jews around the world celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah, a new massive open online course (MOOC) being offered through YU Global, Yeshiva University’s online initiative, and Coursera, an educational technology company, will provide interested members of the public with a once in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the cultural impact of the Arch of Titus, a central artifact in both Jewish and Western history that depicts the golden menorah used in the Jerusalem Temple, among other Temple relics.

Titled “The Arch of Titus: Rome and the Menorah,” the free online course, led by Dr. Steven Fine, the Dean Pinkhos Churgin Professor of Jewish History at YU and director of its Center for Israel Studies, combines aspects of archaeology, art history and Judaic studies.

[...]

Lots more on the Arch of Titus here and links.

Robinson, The Manichaean Codices

WHAT'S NEW IN PAPYROLOGY: James Robinson, The Manichaean Codices.

The Manichaean Codices of Medinet Madi By James M. Robinson James Clarke & Co., LTD. Expertly researched and meticulously presented, this is the story of the 4th century Manichaean Codices of Medinet Madi, their discovery, acquisition and conservation.

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Cross-file under "New Book" and "Manichaean (Manichean) Watch." Recent books by Robinson on other manuscript caches have been noted here and here.

More on the Acra

ARCHAEOLOGY: Overlooking the Mount. Where was the Akra, and how could it overlook the Temple Mount, which was higher than all the surrounding areas? (STEPHEN GABRIEL ROSENBERG, Jerusalem Post).

But just recently the archaeologists went deeper, and uncovered something else.

They have exposed the massive foundations of a large tower, the foundations of its adjoining stone walls and the remains of a fine neighboring glacis, a sloping protective rampart that was built to ward off, avoid and discourage enemy attacks. The archaeologists claim that the tower foundations are so massive that the tower could have risen to a great height, and that it was probably built to overlook the Temple site, located to the north and not far away. The original supporting ground on the site had been built up to give even greater height to the tower, which thus made it possible for the Syrian Greeks on the tower, if it was them, to keep their rebellious Jewish subjects on the Mount under constant surveillance, and at the same time under the likely threat of retaliation.

The archaeologists claim they have found the Akra, or at least its foundations.

So that is the archaeologists' explanation of how ruins at this elevation could overlook the Temple Mount. Again, this issue is outside my expertise and I am simply following the discussion. I have no opinion on the matter myself. Background on the excavation and its possible connection to the Acra (Akra) is here, here, and here.

Elad challenged by State on City of David National Park

POLITICS: State to appeal against Elad control of Jerusalem archaeology center (DANIEL K. EISENBUD, Jerusalem Post).

The Elad Foundation, also known as the Ir David Foundation, operates the City of David National Park, which draws more than 500,000 tourists annually.

Less than two months after the Jerusalem District Court approved an agreement to transfer management of the capital’s Davidson Center Archaeological Park to the right-wing Elad Foundation, the state attorney on Thursday requested permission to appeal the decision.

Emek Shaveh, a left-wing consortium of European-funded archaeologists representing Arab residents of Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood, which has unsuccessfully attempted to block the move, praised the development as a “step in the right direction.”

“The state’s decision to appeal to the High Court is a step… to safeguard the heritage of Jerusalem, and maintain the status quo in the area around the Temple Mount/ al-Aksa compound,” said spokesman and archeologist Yonathan Mizrachi.

[...]

It just goes on and on. Background here.

Hanukkah series

VIDEO: Walk In The Footsteps of The Maccabees with Arutz Sheva. Special eight-part series with Israeli historian Dr. Hagai Ben Artzi lets you follow the Maccabees' path from revolution to independence.

Part One: Feature: The ancient synagogue where the Hanukkah story began. Part One of Arutz Sheva's special Hanukkah series - In The Footsteps of The Maccabees - takes you to Modiin, where it all started. A somewhat romanticized account of the revolt which treats the dialogue in 1 Maccabees etc. as a transcript. But a good travelogue nonetheless. Some past posts on Modi'in and the archaeology associated with it are here and here.

No connection between Jerusalem and early Islam?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Egyptian Muslim scholar: No connection between Temple Mt., Islam. Arab world outraged at latest research of renowned scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies Youssef Ziedan.

Renowned Egyptian scholar Youssef Ziedan, a specialist in Arabic and Islamic studies, has given a series of interviews to Egyptian television stations of late, the purpose of which appears to be to anger his Muslim colleagues.

His main point has been to say that there is actually no connection between Jerusalem and ancient Islam. When Islam was founded during the 7th century, he says, Jerusalem was a holy city to the Jews, while the Mosque of Omar was not even built until 74 years after Muhammed's death. The reason it was built, Ziedan says, is because the builder wished to detract from the centrality of Mecca in Islam.

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There has been an important connection between Jerusalem and Islam for many centuries, at least from shortly after the time of Muhammad and perhaps going back to his famous vision, Al-Miraj. It's hard to say about the vision, since the references in the Qur'an (traditionally Surah 17.1, 62 and 53.13-18) are cryptic, but the earliest interpretations unanimously place part of the vision in Jerusalem. That is, Muhammad experienced being in Jerusalem in the vision, although he did not ever travel there in non-visionary reality. There is no reason to deny that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount have been important to Islam from very early on. The problem is when some Muslims claim (e.g., here and often) that there was no ancient, pre-Islamic, Jewish connection to the city and the site. That, of course, is nonsense.

Mr. Ziedan's novel, Azazeel has been in the news off and on for some years. See here and follow the links.

Athas on the Hezekiah Bulla

GEORGE ATHAS: A Seal of King Hezekiah.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has announced the discovery of an ancient ‘bulla’ (a clay seal with a personal stamp impressed upon on it) bearing the name of Hezekiah, King of Judah. This is not the first seal bearing Hezekiah’s name to come to light. Nonetheless, it is an exciting find, especially since it was found in situ.

Background here and links.

Hanukkah 2015

HAPPY HANUKKAH (CHANUKKAH, CHANUKAH) to all those celebrating! The eight-day festival begins tonight at sundown.

A couple of recent posts on Hanukkah are here and here. Past Hanukkha posts with additional historical background are here and links.

A divinized first-century healer

SARAH VEALE: ANCIENT MIRACLE WORKERS: THE EMPEROR VESPASIAN. Jesus wasn't the only one in the first century with a miraculous-healing gig.

The day the moon stood still?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Mark W. Chavalas: Were sun and moon stopped in their tracks? (LaCrosseTribune.com).

The sun and moon have been in the news lately. The Rev. John Hagee has claimed that recent blood moons (a popular phrase for a total lunar eclipse) have biblical significance of cataclysmic proportions concerning modern-day Israel. Notwithstanding Hagee’s so-called expertise in astronomy (and Bible, for that matter), a discussion of what the Bible actually says of the movement of heavenly bodies is in order.

According to Joshua 10, the Israelite leader, Joshua, made a “mad dash” to get to Gibeon to protect that town against a coalition of Amorite kings. Like any good military leader in antiquity, Joshua inquired of God about his chances in battle; God guaranteed victory, which was all Joshua needed know.

[...]

Dr. Chavales then summarizes the case that the passage refers not to the sun and moon miraculously standing still in the sky, but to a propitious arrangement of the sun and moon in the sky which gave an omen that the Israelites would win the battle. I haven't seen his source by one John Walton, but a similar case was also made by John S. Holladay, Jr., in his 1968 article "The Day(s) the Moon Stood Still" in the Journal of Biblical Literature 87, pp. 166-78, which underlines the point that the place of the moon is also important in the story, so it can't just be about the sun standing still. Holladay argues that Mesopotamian omen literature explains what the poem was originally about, and that the writer of the book of Joshua was quoting an already ancient poem (from the Book of Jashar) which he misunderstood in his prose account of the battle. I too find this argument basically persuasive.

For my part, I have no problem with the idea that ancient Israelites would seek an omen for such matters (cf., e.g., 1 Samuel 10:17-24). Be that as it may, one problem with the theory is that the rubric assigning the poetic quotation to the Book of Jashar is probably secondary. It is missing in the Septuagint. So the quotation was probably originally unattributed and a later scribe either knew or was misinformed or inferred that it came from the Book of Jashar, which is quoted elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Still, the poetic passage does seem to be a quotation of an earlier work which was the only source the prose author had and which he understood imperfectly.

I have written about the Book of Jashar (which perhaps was originally called "The Book of the Song") in my article "Quotations from Lost Books in the Hebrew Bible" in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 1 (ed. Bauckham, Davila, and Panayotov; Eerdmans, 2013), pp. 673-98, which you should definitely buy. A summary handout is here. Other past posts relevant to the latter article are collected here.

Past posts on the recent Blood Moon Tetrad, and some of the nonsense written about it, are here and links.

Cross-file under "Lost Books."

JAOS 135(3) (2015)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Journal of the American Oriental Society. This posts flags reviews of interest for ancient Zoroastrianism in the current issue of JAOS. These are, more or less, also of potential interest for ancient Judaism. But click through to the TOC for more material of interest for the latter.

Interview with Christine Shepardson

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Christine Shepardson.

AJR interviews Dr. Christine Shepardson about her book Controlling Contested Places: Late Antique Antioch and the Spatial Politics of Religious Controversy.

Late-antique Judaism gets a brief mention in connection with John Chrysostom.