Langlois on the material features of the DSS

NEW ARTICLE BY MICHAEL LANGLOIS: “Les manuscrits de la mer Morte à l’aune de la philologie matérielle”, RHPR 95/1, 2015, p. 3-31.

The article is in French. The French and English abstracts are as follows:

Résumé : Cet essai propose une méthodologie d’étude des manuscrits de la mer Morte qui tienne compte de leurs caractéristiques matérielles. Le contexte archéologique, le support d’écriture, l’agencement, la paléographie, l’orthographe, les divisions, les annotations, et la rédaction de ces rouleaux doivent faire l’objet de la plus grande attention, chacun de ces aspects étant à même d’influencer la compréhension que l’on a des œuvres littéraires ainsi véhiculées.

Abstract : This paper offers a methodology for the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls that takes into account their material features. Archaeological context, writing medium, layout, palaeography, orthography, divisions, annotations, and the redaction of these manuscripts must be diligently studied, for each of these aspects may influence our understanding of the literary works under consideration.

Karaite chief rabbi re-elected

THE KARAITES ARE ALIVE AND WELL: Karaite Jews unanimously re-elect chief rabbi. Movement has approximately 40,000 followers, who follow only Torah laws and reject oral traditions like the Mishnah and Talmud (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

The Religious Council of Karaite Jews unanimously reelected their chief rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Piroz, for another four-year term. Piroz has been serving as chief rabbi since 2011.

The Karaites are a small sect of Judaism who follow only the written Torah and reject the later additions of Oral Law, including the Mishnah and the Talmud. “Karaite” comes from the Hebrew verb “to read” because they consider themselves literal interpreters of the Books of Moses.

[...]

A small and ancient sect. Some past posts on the Karaites are collected here.

Lod Mosaic coming to Florida

LAST SEEN IN VENICE: LYDDA ROMAN MOSAIC SHOWCASED IN MIAMI. ANCIENT ROMAN MOSAIC FROM LYDDA (LOD) TO BE SHOWCASED AT MIAMI’ FROST ART MUSEUM BETWEEN FEB. 10 AND MAY 15, 2016. “PREDATORS AND PREY” A ROMAN MOSAIC FROM LYDDA (LOD), ISRAEL (The Arab Daily News).

The mosaic continues its transcontinental tour at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU, the Smithsonian Museum affiliate in Miami. Presented in association with the IAA, the mosaic has attracted crowds at the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Hermitage Museum in Russia.

The exhibition in Miami (opens February 10, closes May 15) has been generously underwritten by the museum’s patrons Patricia and Phillip Frost and provides a rare opportunity to to see one of the world’s finest, largest and most well-preserved ancient mosaics up close.

The IAA is shipping to Miami an additional never-before-seen portion of the mosaic from the excavation that has not traveled outside of Israel. The Miami version of this world tour will be the first time this additional panel has been exhibited.

Background here with many links.

Orlov, The Atoning Dyad

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Atoning Dyad: The Two Goats of Yom Kippur in the Apocalypse of Abraham

Andrei A. Orlov, Marquette University
The study explores the eschatological reinterpretation of the Yom Kippur ritual found in the Apocalypse of Abraham where the protagonist of the story, the patriarch Abraham, takes on the role of a celestial goat for YHWH, while the text’s antagonist, the fallen angel Azazel, is envisioned as the demonic scapegoat. The study treats the application of the two goats typology to human and otherworldly figures in its full historical and interpretive complexity through a broad variety of Jewish and Christian sources, from the patriarchical narratives of the Hebrew Bible to early Christian materials in which Yom Kippur traditions were applied to Jesus’ story.

Eerdmans Commentary on the Aramaic DSS

VIDEO: Eerdmans Commentary on the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls with Andrew Perrin. Glad to see this series is making progress. I published the first volume back in 2000.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch. Andrew Perrin's work has been noted previously here, here, here, here, and here.

More Aramaic from Sharjah (UAE)

ARAMAIC WATCH: Sultan unveils new archaeological treasure (WAM, The Gulf Today).

HARJAH: His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, has revealed a new archaeological discovery of major historical significance to the region in the Mleiha Archaeological Centre.

The Ruler of Sharjah unveiled the discovery of inscriptions engraved on a tomb that dates back to the third century BC, in the presence of Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah.

The historical treasure was discovered by a Belgium expedition from the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, in collaboration with the team of the Directorate of Antiquities at the Sharjah Department of Culture and Information.

The recovered treasure features inscriptions engraved on a huge grave consisting of an underground burial chamber measuring 5.2 square metres.

The inscription, written in Aramaic and the southern Arabic language, carries the name of Amad bin Jar bin Ali Kahin, the King of the ancient Kingdom of Oman, and his descendants.

The inscriptions also include the date when the tomb was built.

It says the tomb dates back to 90 or 96 AG, a system of numbering years in use by the Seleucid Empire, equivalent to the year 221/222, or 216/215 BC, making it the oldest historical discovery that refers to Oman and also proves that the ancient Kingdome of Oman existed in the late third century BC.

[...]

There was a time in antiquity when Aramaic was an important written language in Arabia. An exhibition of related material in Sharjah was noted here. And follow the link there for past posts on Aramaic in ancient Arabia.

Review of Meier, A Marginal Jew, vol. 5

THE BUSYBODY: A Marginal Jew, Volume 5: Probing the Authenticity of the Parables. Reviewed by Loren Rossen, who begins "By now it’s clear that John Meier is the George Martin of biblical studies."

I didn't realize Meir was still at it, but this volume sounds as though it will challenge and perhaps overturn much of the received wisdom on the parables. Cross-file under New Book.

Ancient Babylonian astronomical secrets

WELL, SOME OF THOSE SECRETS ANYWAY: Ancient Babylonians Knew Secrets of the Solar System 1,500 Years Before Europe. Cuneiform tablets show Babylonians were calculating position of Jupiter using geometrical methods previously thought to have been invented only in 14th-century Oxford (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The ancient Babylonians were known to have been advanced in arithmetic. Now analysis of clay cuneiform tablets found in Babylonia and Uruk shows they could predict the position of celestial bodies using advanced geometric techniques thought to have been invented in 14th-century Europe.

Specifically, the tablets show the ancient Babylonians were evidently intrigued by the position of the planet Jupiter, writes Mathieu Ossendrijver of Humboldt University, Berlin, in his paper "Ancient Babylonian astronomers calculated Jupiter's position from the area under a time-velocity graph".

[...]

The clay tablets, which are practically intact, seem to date between 350 and 50 BCE. There are issues about provenance – Ossendrijver notes that they were "excavated unscientifically" and discuss general methodology, not mentioning specific astronomical phenomena that could be datable. The writings describe two intervals after Jupiter appears along the horizon, projecting the planet’s position at 60 and 120 days.

[...]

How interesting. The ancient Jewish Enochic literature (1 Enoch) draws quite a lot on Babylonian astronomical research, although their presentation of it is a bit outdated. These tablets were written around the time the Enochic literature was being composed. The Palestinian Jewish writers of the Enochic literature conceivably could have had some access to similar things, depending on how much they had contact with Jews in Babylonia and how carefully those Jews kept up with Babylonian astronomy.

Incidentally, while were talking about the positions of the planets, don't miss the current big lineup of the planets. Enoch would disapprove. For a similar, but less comprehensive lineup of planets, see the fourth photograph here.

Hurtado on Christian codices

LARRY HURTADO: Christians and the Codex: Encore!. In contrast to Jewish use of scrolls in the same time period.

IT post involving Hebrew and Aramaic

JOB:

The Faculty of Theology of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen invites applications for the position of an

IT Professional
(pay grade 10 TV-L)


with 70% of the regular working time (currently 39,8 hours per week) commencing April 1st, 2016. The position is limited to 3 years with the possibility of prolongation for another 2 years.

In context of the German-Israeli research project „Scripta Qumranica Electronica“, funded by the German Research Foundation (GRF/DFG), new types of digital editions will be developed and proofed as practicable on selected Hebrew texts. To this end, the already existing database of the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran-Wörterbuch) of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities will be expanded and new frontends to be used by the editors of the texts and later users will be developed.

[...]

Specifics follow on the technical skills required. The application deadline is 22 February.

More on the Tzippori inscriptions

IAA PRESS RELEASE: 1,700-year-old funerary inscriptions exposed in Zippori. Three 1,700 year old funerary inscriptions written in Aramaic and Greek were recently revealed in the ancient cemetery in Moshav Zippori in the north. The two Aramaic inscriptions mention individuals referred to as "rabbis" who were buried in the western cemetery of Zippori; their names have not yet been deciphered. The English press release contains some details not found in the Arutz Sheva article noted yesterday. Excerpt:

Aramaic was the everyday language used by the Jews in the period of the Mishnah and Talmud, but some of them also spoke and read Greek, and thus there are also funerary inscriptions in that language. The two Aramaic inscriptions mention individuals referred to as "rabbis" who were buried in the western cemetery of Zippori; their names have not yet been deciphered.

According to Dr. Motti Aviam of the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology, the importance of the epitaphs lies in the fact that these reflect the everyday life of the Jews of Zippori and their cultural world. Researchers are uncertain as to the meaning of the term "rabbi" at the time when Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi resided in Zippori together with the Tannaim and after him by the Amoraim - the large groups of sages that studied in the city’s houses of learning.

One of the surprises in the newly discovered inscriptions is that one of the deceased was called "the Tiberian". This is already the second instance of someone from Tiberias being buried in the cemetery at Zippori. It is quite possible that Jews from various parts of Galilee were brought to Zippori to be buried in the wake of the important activity carried out there by Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi. Another possibility is that the man moved to Zippori and died there, but wanted to be remembered as someone who originally came from Tiberias.

In the second Aramaic epitaph the word le-olam (forever) appears for the first time in inscriptions found at Zippori. The term le-olam is known from funerary inscriptions in Bet She‘arim and elsewhere and means that the deceased’s burial place will remain his forever and that no one will take it from him. Both inscriptions end with the Hebrew blessing shalom.

The Greek inscription mentions the name Jose, which was very common amongst Jews living in Israel and abroad.

[...]

There is also a good photo of the Jose inscription.

Sarah Rollens on canon

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Canons, Communities, and Christian Origins: A Response to the AJR Canon Forum (Sarah Rollens). Earlier contributions to the AJR discussion are noted here and links.

Shadowhunters

REMNANT OF GIANTS: The Nephilim are on TV: Shadowhunters. "Now that Nephilim are on TV every week, the mission of Remnant of Giants is complete. Let the reader understand." We'll see.

Cross-file under Television.

Angels and demons, watchers and giants

BELIEFNET: The Important Differences between Angels and Demons (Lesli White).

I am bemused when I read articles like this one and find that the author fails to mention or show any awareness of the myth of the watchers and the giants, which is the only account of the origin of demons in Second Temple Judaism (or earlier). See here and here for specifics.

One could answer that the author is writing from a Christian tradition in which the Enochic literature is not part of the authoritative biblical canon.* This is true enough, but even if we stick to the the Protestant biblical canon, there is unsettling evidence that the Enochic literature was not ignored by it. In Jude 14-15 the author (traditionally the brother of Jesus!) says the following:

14 It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, 15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (RSV)

This is a direct quotation from the Enochic Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1:9):

9 And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones
To execute judgement upon all,
And to destroy all the ungodly:
And to convict all flesh
Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed,
And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. (Charles translation)

So for one New Testament author, the Book of the Watchers — which tells the myth of the watchers, giants, and demons — was "prophecy." I would think its view about the origins of demons was at least worth a mention. But maybe that's just me.

*It is part of the biblical canon, though, in Ethiopic Christianity.

AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowship

H-JUDAIC: Fellowship: AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

The Association for Jewish Studies invites applications for its first annual Dissertation Completion Fellowship competition. Funded for five years, this fellowship program will award seven finishing-year fellowships annually ($20,000 each) to PhD students entering the final year of their programs and completing a dissertation in the field of Jewish Studies. The 2016 competition will support fellowships during the 2016-2017 academic year. This program is generously supported through a grant from Legacy Heritage Fund. Application deadline is March 2, 2016.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars.

The Vatican and those Temple treasures

LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN: ARE THE TEMPLE’S VESSELS HIDDEN IN THE VATICAN? As regular readers know, and as Professor Schiffman agrees, this is very unlikely. But he links to an article on the subject in which he and Steven Fine are interviewed, and which is worth reading.

For some past posts on the fate of the Temple treasures, see here and links.

Ancient burial inscriptions in Tzippori

EPIGRAPHY: 'Rabbi' burial inscription uncovered in Tzippori. New discovery uncovers three burial inscriptions from 1,700-years-ago, revealing the importance of the city (Ido Ben Porat, Arutz Sheva).

Three 1,700-year-old stone burial inscriptions were found recently during an excavation in the Galilean town of Tzippori.

The discovery came after a local resident reported some information regarding stone findings to the Archaeological institute of the Galilee which is part of Kinneret College. The college together with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) conducted a dig and uncovered the inscriptions, which are written in Aramaic and Greek.

Two of the burial inscriptions, which appear in Aramaic, list the names of Jews who are buried in the western burial grounds outside the city.

[...]

One of the listed people came from Tiberias.

Past posts on ancient Tzippori/Zippori/Sepphoris are collected here and links.

UPDATE (28 January): More here.

Hebrew words in English

ETYMOLOGY? That English You’re Speaking? It’s Hebrew. (Well, Some of It.) The derivations of the words cinnamon, ruthless, scapegoat, and amen (MaNishtana, Tablet Magazine).

Given that backdrop, it’s entirely ironic that so many words Hebrew words spoken in Israel are backwards-engineered English ones, an irony currently being rectified by the Academy of Hebrew Language (which, with equal irony, is named the Academiya). But what makes this use of English loan words in modern Hebrew so thoroughly and hilariously meta is that English is literally littered with loan words and concepts borrowed from Hebrew. Here are a few:

Well, sort of. The point the article makes is correct, but the examples are oddly and poorly chosen. As the author notes, "amenable" is from a Latin root. Also, "ruthless" comes from a Germanic root and "scapegoat" is a very free translation of Azazel, not a transliterated Hebrew word. But there are some other actual Hebrew words absorbed or adapted into English, including hallelujah, edenic, sabbath, philistine, babel, behemoth, cabal, manna, and satanic, as well as countless Hebrew personal names and place names in English.

Edward Robinson

GEOGRAPHY: Today in History: The ‘father of biblical geography.’ Edward Robinson identified almost 200 biblical sites (Jerusalem Post).

153 years ago today, January 27, 1863, Edward Robinson, “the father of biblical geography” died.

[...]

Byron, Herodotus, and Sennacherib

HISTORY: Of mice and men: How archaeology confirms a Bible story (Mark Woods, Christian Today). The headline exaggerates a little, since the most important part of the biblical story (the destruction of Sennacherib's army) is not mentioned in the Sennacherib prism. That said, it confirms indirectly that Sennacherib did not capture Jerusalem, and it does sound as though something remarkable happened during the siege. I have commented further on the biblical story here (cf. here). The passage from Herodotus' History is 2.141:

After him there came to the throne the priest of Hephaistos, whose name was Sethos. This man, they said, neglected and held in no regard the warrior class of the Egyptians, considering that he would have no need of them; and besides other slights which he put upon them, he also took from them the yokes of corn-land which had been given to them as a special gift in the reigns of the former kings, twelve yokes to each man. After this, Sanacharib king of the Arabians and of the Assyrians marched a great host against Egypt. Then the warriors of the Egyptians refused to come to the rescue, and the priest, being driven into a strait, entered into the sanctuary of the temple and bewailed to the image of the god the danger which was impending over him; and as he was thus lamenting, sleep came upon him, and it seemed to him in his vision that the god came and stood by him and encouraged him, saying that he should suffer no evil if he went forth to meet the army of the Arabians; for he himself would send him helpers. Trusting in these things seen in sleep, he took with him, they said, those of the Egyptians who were willing to follow him, and encamped in Pelusion, for by this way the invasion came: and not one of the warrior class followed him, but shop-keepers and artisans and men of the market. Then after they came, there swarmed by night upon their enemies mice of the fields, and ate up their quivers and their bows, and moreover the handles of their shields, so that on the next day they fled, and being without defence of arms great numbers fell. And at the present time this king stands in the temple of Hephaistos in stone, holding upon his hand a mouse, and by letters inscribed he says these words: "Let him who looks upon me learn to fear the gods." (Macaulay translation)

Recovering more Elephantine papyri

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: X-RAYS REVEAL THE SECRETS OF EGYPTIAN SCROLLS (MEGAN GANNON, Newsweek). This article is mostly about trying to recover text from hitherto unreadable Elephantine papyri in the Archaeological Center in Berlin. I didn't know that there were so many of these. The carbonized Heculaneum scrolls also get a mention, as does the Ein Gedi carbonized Leviticus scroll. Worth reading in full, but here's an excerpt:

The hundreds of documents that have turned up at Elephantine include 10 different languages and range four continuous millennia, from Egypt’s Old Kingdom around 2500 B.C. to the Middle Ages. “I’m not aware of any other place in the world where you have 4,000 years covered by textural resources from one single place,” [Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection curator Verena] Lepper says. And yet most of the texts from the island haven’t been studied or published—and many haven’t even been unfurled because they're so delicate.

[...]

Still, the scrolls archaeologists find aren’t always in great shape. Some from Elephantine are still intricately folded with layers that might be brittle or stuck together—scholars of the past would pry them open anyway, at risk of destroying the fragile documents. But thanks to advanced imaging technology—and a $1.6 million grant from the European Research Council—Lepper will be able to read papyrus scrolls from the island that have never been unrolled. Over the next five years, she’ll be working with physicists and mathematicians to extract hidden words, letter by letter, with high-energy beams.

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

Tikkun Olam in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Is ‘Tikkun Olam’ for the Betterment of the World, or Just for the Betterment of Divorce? In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study, Jews may not realize the origins of a central idea of modern social justice.

One of the secrets to the continuity of Judaism is that the same words can evolve to mean totally different things. The Talmud is full of this kind of semantic shifting: The rabbis regularly interpret the Torah in ways that, presumably, its original authors could never have anticipated. But a particularly striking example came in last week’s Daf Yomi reading, in chapter 4 of Tractate Gittin. In Gittin 32a, the mishna uses the phrase mi’pnei tikkun olam: “for the sake of the betterment of the world.” Today, tikkun olam is one of the most popular American Jewish mottos. We have interpreted “the betterment of the world” to mean the improvement of society in the name of social justice. In this way, liberal or left politics (of the kind espoused by the magazine Tikkun) are read into the Jewish tradition, as though working for social progress was an inherently Jewish activity.

I don’t mean to disparage this idea—there are certainly good foundations for it in many Jewish sources, starting with the Prophets—but there is no doubt that this is not what our ancestors meant when they used the words tikkun olam. ...

Some past posts on divorce in ancient Judaism are here, here, here, here, here, and here. More on the institution of prosbul is here and here.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Judaism's holiest site, yet again

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Times Misplaces Judaism’s Holiest Site (Simon Plosker, HonestReporting). Once more, the Temple Mount, not the Western Wall, is Judaism's holy site. As of this writing, the error has not been corrected in the caption on The Times's website. Journalists have been getting this wrong a lot lately. Other recent examples of the same error are here and here.

UPDATE (28 January): The caption has now been corrected. Good.

Pulsa de-Nura in the cinema

THE PULSA DE-NURA RITE FEATURES IN A NEW FILM: ‘RABIN, THE LAST DAY’ MAKES OLIVER STONE’S ‘JFK’ LOOK STONE-COLD SOBER. Amos Gitai’s polemical new documentary—opening in U.S. theaters Friday—on the 1995 assassination that rocked Israel sacrifices facts in favor of sensation (J. Hoberman, Tablet Magazine).

... To compound the disorientation, Gitai introduces a flashback dramatization of the reading of the Pulsa Dinura (“lashes of fire” in Aramaic), a Haredi rabbinical curse amounting to a ritual fatwa, directed against Rabin.

The organizer of this ritual, apparently modeled on the Russian-born extreme rightwing nationalist Avigdor Eskin, explains that the death curse had only been employed once before, against Leon Trotsky (although it has also been applied, if not by Eskin, against archeologists, politicians, and gay activists). There is a further suggestion that the halakhic precept of din rodef (approximately, the right of self-defense) was also used as a justification for assassinating Rabin.

Hoberman is not impressed by the presentation:

... I trust Gitai’s use of the Shamgar Commission transcripts, which he evidently got released specifically for this movie, although I wish they had been more precisely presented, and I’d like to know Gitai’s source for the secret meetings between the “hallucinating rabbis with all sorts of bizarre spells,” as he’s called them, and the various nationalist fanatics. These dramatized scenes are a fantastic spectacle of orthodoxy run amok, but in the absence of footnotes and the presence of some ultra-crazed performances, we might be watching a protocol discussion by the Elders of Zion.

I haven't seen the movie and make no judgment about it. My interest is in tracking how the rite has been used and interpreted. More on the pulsa de-nura ritual is here and links. And a few posts dealing with the use of the rite against politicians are here, here and here.

What is happening to antiquities looted by ISIS?

JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI: Antiquities and ISIS: Something Doesn’t Add Up (Real Clear Arts Blog).

What I discovered, for one thing, is that actual examples of ISIS-looted antiquities on the market are slim to none. True, it may be that objects looted now are being kept in warehouses, for later sale–but that doesn’t finance ISIS now. Also true. the goods may not be coming into the U.S. market. The antiquities dealers I spoke with said they had not seen anything on these shores from looted areas since ISIS began its jihad.

But, you say, of course they wouldn’t say so. That’s partly true–it’s not in their interest to admit it. But it’s not in their interest to see the trade shut down entirely either–and that is what may well happen if stolen goods are discovered here. What most experts say, and what today’s Times article also says, is that people are peddling fakes said to be from the ISIS-damaged sites–probably to gullible collectors who think they are getting a bargain. Is ISIS producing these fake goods? Hard to say.

It may also be true that the loot may all be going into other Middle Eastern countries, or Russia, as many have speculated. In which case, it’s a problem our museums, our dealers, our collectors, our prosecutors can’t do much about. Our investigators may be able to help there, though, and I say go to it.

Here too there’s a problem, though. Many sources, many articles seem to me to be exaggerating the stakes in trade. The Times piece says, in part:

Despite a near-universal outcry over the Islamic State’s actions, few countries have shown interest in imposing new restrictions to curb the booming trade in antiquities, estimated to be worth billions of dollars a year.

Boldface mine. Other articles, and sources, have also thrown around the b-word. But I cannot fathom where that number comes from. Contemporary art may sell billions a year (lately), but antiquities? No.

This is interesting, but as the author herself mentions, all those archaeological sites in the Middle East which are now riddled with holes show that there has been catastrophically extensive looting. But of course that does not mean that we know where the looted artifacts are now and where they are being sold, if they currently are being sold rather than stockpiled for future sale.

Much more on ISIS and its destruction and looting of antiquities is here and links

Ephraim Avigdor Speiser

A RENOWNED BIBLICAL SCHOLAR: This Day in Jewish History 1902: A Man Who Spoke Hittite and Changed the View of Israelite History Is Born. His digs in Mesopotamia and command of dead languages and 5,000-year old legal documents led Ephraim Speiser to new insights into our past (David B. Green, Haaretz).

January 24, 1902, is the birthdate of Ephraim Speiser, a historian and archaeologist whose excavations in Mesopotamia and philological research did much to advance understanding of ancient Near Eastern cultures, including that of the Israelites.

[...]

He died in 1965. His Anchor Bible commentary on Genesis was published near the end of his life. It is still useful, but it is very dated and everyone now agrees that he got carried away with the parallels between the patriarchal narratives and the Hurrian texts from Nuzi.

Review of Athanassiadi, Mutations of Hellenism in Late Antiquity

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Polymnia Athanassiadi, Mutations of Hellenism in Late Antiquity. Variorum collected studies series, CS 1052. Farnham; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015. Pp. xviii, 374. ISBN 9781472443663. $170.00 (hb).

Reviewed by Guy G. Stroumsa, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Oxford (guy.stroumsa@mail.huji.ac.il)

Table of Contents

This hefty, welcome volume of opera minora includes twenty-one of the author’s essays in French and English (none of her Greek writings are included). A leading scholar of Platonic philosophy in late antiquity, Athanassiadi has sought to understand in depth, probably more than anyone else in the last generation, the interface of Hellenic philosophy with other trends in the intellectual and religious history of the Eastern Mediterranean. From the publication of her Oxford doctoral thesis on the Emperor Julian to a book on the growth of ‘pagan’ intolerance in late antiquity, through the masterly edition and translation of an important philosophical text and her co-editing of a highly influential collection of articles, her career at the University of Athens has always retained a major international element.1 Athanassiadi often invigorates discussions on both sides of the Atlantic and of the Channel; she constantly reminds colleagues who are now more and more inclined to reflect on the Christian dimensions of Late Antique religious thought about the continued, powerful presence of Hellenic, or non-Christian, thinkers, throughout late antiquity.

[...]

Ancient Judaism receives some attention as well.

Lambert, How Repentance Became Biblical

NEW BOOK FROM OUP:

How Repentance Became Biblical

Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture

David A. Lambert

• Spells out the early history of repentance as a concept
  
• Identifies a broad-based scholarly tendency to read repentance into the Bible.
  
• Shows how that tendency relates to the broader history of interiority and the self.
  
• Redescribes a range of key religious practices and central texts in the Bible.
  
• Integrates a critical study of biblical texts with a study of post-biblical literature.

Follow the link for more information.

JeruZalem citations

PROGRESS ON THE MYSTERY? JeruZalem Movie Review (Karin Crighton, horrortalk.com)

Sarah's brother has been dead for a year but she can't move on. So Rachel (Danielle Jadelyn) plans a trip to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, a whirlwind adventure to help get Sarah (Yael Grobglas) out of her rut. On the plane they meet Kevin (Yon Tumarkin), who convinces them to go to Jerusalem first to be there for Yom Kippur. Unfortunately, on this most holy night of the year, a gate has opened under the city. A gate to hell.

Using a verse from Jeremiah 19 in the Talmud, "R. Jeremiah ben Elazar said again, 'Hell has three gates: One in the desert, one in the sea, and one in Jerusalem' as it is written [Numbers xvi. 33]" (found here), The Paz Brothers create a tale of Judgement Day arriving with a vengeance. No atonement is enough and dark spirits arise to walk the streets of Jerusalem and prey on those living in and visiting the city – including Rachel and Sarah.

[...]

SPOILERS follow in the review, so don't click on the link and read further if that matters to you.

The mystery in question is which passage in the Book of Jeremiah is supposed to be the inspiration for the three gates to hell in JeruZalem. This review specifies that the mystery passage is "a verse from Jeremiah 19 in the Talmud," which is not very helpful inasmuch as the Book of Jeremiah is in the Bible, not the Talmud. The Talmudic passage linked to is in Eruvin 19a and reads as follows:

R. Jeremiah ben Elazar said again. "Hell has three gates: One in the desert, one in the sea, and one in Jerusalem." "In the desert," as it is written [Numbers xvi. 33]: "And they went down, they, and all they that appertained to them, alive into the pit (Sheol-Gehenna)." "In the sea," as it is written [Jonah ii. 3]: "Out of the depth of the grave have I cried, and thou hast heard my voice." "And one in Jerusalem," as it is written [Isaiah xxxi. 9]: "Who hath a fire in Zion, and a furnace in Jerusalem." And the disciples of R. Ishmael taught, that by a fire in Zion is meant Gehenna, and by the furnace in Jerusalem is meant the gate of Gehenna.

Here we have quotations from Numbers, Jonah and Isaiah, but not from Jeremiah. Moreover, the logion is by a Rabbi Jeremiah and it appears on p. 19a of Tractate Eruvin. Have the Jeremiah and the 19 been transmogrified into chapter 19 of the Book of Jeremiah? It's tempting to conclude that. The problem, though, is that Jeremiah 19 deals at length with the Tophet (the site for ritual human sacrifice) in the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem. The term "gehenna" is the Hebrew phrase "valley of Hinnom," known as a term for hell in the New Testament and (as "Gehinnom") in the Rabbinic literature, including in the cited passage above. So it looks like Jeremiah 19 may well be an inspiration for the movie, but the specific verse and its specific exegesis still remain a mystery.

Background here and here.

New JSJ articles

THE JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF JUDAISM (BRILL ONLINE) has advance-published two new articles:

Research Article
The Euphrates as Temporal Marker in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch
Author: Shayna Sheinfeld
Available online: 07 January 2016

Research Article
Reading Aid: 2 Maccabees and the History of Jason of Cyrene Reconsidered
Author: Francis Borchardt
Available online: 07 January 2016

These require either a paid personal or institutional subscription or individual payment to access.

Tu B'Shevat 2016

TU B'SHEVAT, the New Year for Trees, begins tonight at sundown. Some other past posts of interest are here and here. And two recent posts relating to Tu B'Shevat are here and here. And here's a recipe for the holiday: Almonds (and Marzipan) for Tu B’Shvat (Carol Goodman Kaufman, The Forward).

The Jewish People in the First Century, vol. 1 (1974)

LOGOS ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION OF A CLASSIC BRILL BOOK:

The Jewish People in the First Century, Volume 1 Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Life and Institutions

Safrai, S., Sternm M., Flusser, D., van Unnik, W.C.

Overview
Produced by a full committee of the world’s most distinguished scholars of early Christianity, rabbinic studies, and ancient history, this volume explores the intricate relationships between Christians and Jews in the Roman Era. Each chapter highlights a specific componenet of their common social constructs and explores how both groups shaped one another while living in Rome’s shadow. Broadly, this volume explores the political, historical, and cultural elements that structured first-century life in Israel and defined how Jews and Christians understood themselves as God’s people. Published in 1974, this book and subsequent volumes in the Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum series remain highly influential in first-century studies.

In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Veale on Tacitus on the Judeans

SARAH VEALE: TACITUS IN CALGARY.

... I am happy to announce that I will be presenting a paper at this year’s Religion & History Graduate Student Conference which is held by the Department of Classics & Religion at the University of Calgary. The conference takes place on April 14th and 15th.

My paper focuses on Tacitus’ Histories, specifically book five, and the anti-Judean content in his discussion of the ritual of Sukkot.

The abstract follows.

Fredriksen on Judaism and Hellenism

PAULA FREDRIKSEN: Judaism and Hellenism (Bible Odyssey video).

Rees, From Gabriel to Lucifer

NOW IN PAPERBACK FROM I. B. TAURIS:

From Gabriel to Lucifer: A Cultural History of Angels
Valery Rees

Description
For sceptics, angels may be no more than metaphors: poetic devices to convey, at least for those with a religious sensibility, an active divine interest in creation. But for others, angels are absolutely real creatures: manifestations of cosmic power with the capacity either to enlighten or annihilate those whose awestruck paths they cross. Valery Rees offers the first comprehensive history of these beautiful, enigmatic and sometimes dangerous beings, whose existence and actions have been charted across the eons of time and civilization.Whether exploring the fevered visions of Ezekiel and biblical cherubim; Persian genii; Arab djinn; Islamic archangels; the austere and haunting icons of Andrei Rublev; or Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire and the more benign idea of the watchful guardian angel, the author shows that the ubiquity of these celestial messengers reveals something profound, if not about God or the devil, then about ourselves: our perennial preoccupation with the transcendent.

I noted a review of the book when it came out back in 2012.

Where are those Temple treasures?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Where are the Temple treasures? (Is It the End of the World Blog: Jim Fletcher, Beliefnet). The short answer is that the Copper Scroll may have involved the treasures of Herod's Temple, but otherwise all we have are legends of dubious value about the subject. My publication of the first English translation of one of these, The Treatise of the Vessels (see that last link), seems to have made me something of a surprise authority on the matter. Or at least I still get letters and phone calls from people who are convinced that they know the answer to the question.

As far as I know, the most recent serious attempt to find that answer is Sean Kingsley's 2006 book God's Gold, on which more, here and links. I doubt that the Vatican has any of them. And the speculation that Alaric's tomb in Cosenza, Italy, holds a vast treasure that includes the Temple menorah remains speculation unless and until the tomb is actually found and excavated and it turns out to have a treasure and that treasure turns out to include the menorah. We'll see.

Postdoc on DSS scribes

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN: ERC StG Postdoc Digital Palaeography and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls (216007).

Job description
This Postdoc subproject is embedded within a larger research programme titled The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Digital Palaeography and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls, funded by the European Research Council. The main objective of this interdisciplinary project is to shed new light on ancient Jewish scribal culture and the making of the Bible by investigating two aspects of the scrolls’ palaeography: the typological development of writing styles and writer identification. The combination of new C14 samples and the use of computational intelligence as quantitative methods in order to assess the development of handwriting styles and to identify individual scribes will be used to cluster manuscripts as products of scribal activity in order to profile scribal production and to determine a more precise location in time for their activity, focusing, from literary and cultural-historical perspectives, on the content and genres of the texts that scribes wrote and copied and on the scripts and languages that they used.

The goal of the Postdoc subproject is to describe the processes of and developments in three to four centuries of copying the biblical manuscripts found in the Judaean Desert in relation to palaeographic dating and writer identification. The major research question is how variant forms and editions of biblical manuscripts can be correlated to palaeographic dates, to identification of writers, as well as other variables such as scribal practices and different find-sites. Previous scholarship has explained textual variety in terms of chronological developments or sociological differences, or both, based on traditional palaeographical dates, or on models of a Qumran scribal practice, and generally on a smaller sample of manuscripts. On the basis of a database of all substantial biblical manuscripts from the Judaean Desert, the Postdoc researcher will select one more confined group of manuscripts (most probably either Deuteronomy or the Psalms), and qualitatively analyse the differences between the manuscripts as well as in relation to the authoritative text forms of the later traditions, in order to plot such variants against the developing time and the different find places and correlating these not only to traditional text-typologies of text, but also to occurrences of rewriting and so-called Fortschreibung, and to the various scribal practices.

The postdoc will work together with a PhD at the Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Engineering Institute (ALICE), headed by Prof Lambert Schomaker, with experts from the Center for Isotope Research at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, headed by Prof Hans van der Plicht, and with a PhD and student assistants at the Qumran Institute of the faculty.

Follow the link for further particulars. This post is advertised alongside this.

UPDATE (21 March): Somehow the first link above got mixed up and led to the PhD position for this project, not the postdoc. I have corrected the link. Sorry for the mixup.

Kolton-Fromm seminar, Investing (in) Jerusalem

AUDIO FILE:

PSCO Presentation: 21 January, 2016: Investing (in) Jerusalem
Naomi Koltun-Fromm (Haverford).

Seminar
Prof. Naomi Koltun-Fromm is Professor of Religion at Haverford College. She specializes in Late Ancient Jewish history, Jewish and Christian relations, religious polemics, comparative biblical exegesis, rabbinic culture and the Syriac speaking churches. She recently published a book, Hermeneutics of Holiness: Ancient Jewish and Christian Notions of Sexuality and Religious Community, which traces the nexus of sexuality and holiness from the biblical texts into the fourth-century rabbinic and patristic writings. Her present research focuses on the representation of Jerusalem in early Jewish, Christian and Muslim writings.

Wikipedia: ISAW

THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World has been revised and updated.

Social memory and giant Jesus in the Gospel of Peter

REMNANT OF GIANTS: Pure Forms, the Giant Jesus, and Chris Keith on Social Memory. Evidently to be continued.

EABS Early Judaism CFP 2016

EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF BIBLICAL STUDIES: Early Judaism and Rabbinics Programme: Call for Papers – Lueven [Leuven] 2016 Content, Composition and Biblical Interpretation in Late Homiletic Midrash. Follow the link for details and contact information. And general information about the 2016 meeting of the EABS is here.

BNTC 2018

PLANNING WELL AHEAD: British New Testament Conference at St Mary’s in 2018 (Steve Walton). That is St Mary’s University, Twickenham. We at St Mary's College at the University of St Andrews did our bit back in 2013. The 2016 meeting will take place at the University of Chester.

I probably once knew where the 2017 BNTC is meeting, but I've forgotten and I can't find it online. If the organizers would like to drop me a note, I will update this post with the information.

I'm looking forward to the coming meetings. I never miss if I can help it.

Carobs, chocolate, and the Talmud

CONTINUING ON THIS WEEK'S THEME OF TREES: Carob or Chocolate: Tu B’shvat’s Trees? (Rabbi Debbie Prinz,Jewish Journal). Alas, chocolate is not found in the Talmud and cocoa trees did not and do not grow in ancient or modern Israel. But carobs are another matter:

The Talmud notes that carob pods alone nourished the poor Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa from Shabbat to Shabbat. (Ta’anit, 24b) The famous Honi Hamaagal story about planting for future generations centers on a carob plant. (Ta’anit, 23a). Carob’s appearance in other Middle Eastern based religions extends to Islam. During Ramadan carob juices are drunk. In addition, in Christian sources, the Book of Matthew (3:4) claims that John the Baptist ate carob in the desert, thus explaining its English denotation as St. John’s Bread. Perhaps this association puts carob on Easter and Lent menus.

As for Matthew 3:4, my understanding is that when it says John ate locusts, it means locusts. For my part I would be happier if it meant carobs. More on that here and here.

More on the holiday of Tu B'Shevat (coming this weekened) here.

The destruction of St. Elijah's Monastery and thoughts on ISIS

BUT ISIS DOESN'T CARE: World blasts ISIS for destroying oldest Christian monastery in Iraq (AP/Israel HaYom). And ISIS isn't going to care as long as "blast" continues to be used metaphorically.

This is a good time to remember that larger atrocities, such as ISIS's now codified practice of making captive Yazidi women into sex slaves, heavily outweigh the issue of antiquities. I focus on antiquities because that is what this blog is about.

This blog is not (generally) about advocating particular political or military solutions in world affairs, and I am not calling for more direct military intervention in the Middle East, although that is an option that those who make such decisions will need to consider. I don't envy them their job.

Meanwhile, I will continue to bear witness to and condemn what is happening in the Middle East.

Background here and links.

Research post with Lexicon of Greek Personal Names

FIXED-TERM JOB AT OXFORD:

Researcher (Lexicon of Greek Personal Names)

Faculty of Classics, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, Oxford

Grade 7: £30,738 - £37,768 p.a.

The Faculty of Classics is seeking to appoint a full-time researcher for the AHRC funded Lexicon of Greek Personal Names project, directed by Professor Robert Parker. The appointment will be for a fixed period of 3 years. The appointee will be a member of a research group which will prepare volume VI of the Lexicon, that covering names from the Roman provinces of Syria, Palaestina, Arabia, and areas further East. The special responsibility of the appointee will be for names attested in non-Greek sources; s/he will have excellent knowledge of at least one relevant ancient Semitic language and willingness to acquire competence in others, and a good knowledge of Ancient Greek and Latin and relevant modern languages. S/he will have, or be near completion of, a relevant PhD.

The deadline for applications is 18 February 2016. Follow the link for further particulars.

HT Briquel Chatonnet at the Hugoye list.

Tweeting Enochians

THE ENOCH SEMINAR IS NOW ON TWITTER.

Paul's polite bribe?

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

The Collection for the Saints as a Polite Bribe: An Effort to Humanize Paul

Scholars have puzzled a great deal over this collection. One group understands it in analogy to the temple tax, which every Jew had to pay annually, while another group points out that with it the promise of the pilgrimage of the nations is fulfilled. Finally in 2002, inspired my pal Tom Hall, I have coined the phrase that the collection was “a polite bribe” on Paul’s part.

By Gerd Lüdemann
Emeritus Professor of the History and Literature of Early Christianity
Georg-August-University of Göttingen
Visiting Scholar at Vanderbilt University
Homepage: gerdluedemann.de
January 2016

Some palimpsests

GENIZA FRAGMENTS 70: The October 2015 issue of the Newsletter of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library has a number of interesting articles, notably "Palimpsests? There’s more than meets the eye..." by Melonie Schmierer-Lee. A palimpsest is a manuscript whose original writing has been erased and over-written with a new text. Careful scrutiny, these days often with the help of technology, can allow scholars to recover the erased text.

On a related note, AWOL pointed to the following earlier this month: Galen Syriac Palimpsest Digital Release at OPENN. More on that manuscript is here.

Some other posts on various palimpsests are here, here, here, here, and here. And this post discusses a forged palimpsest manuscript from the nineteenth century.

Word clouds in religion courses

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Using Word Clouds as Informal Assessment in Religion Courses (Shayna Sheinfeld). She gives examples from the Judaism and Christianity units in her Western Religious Traditions course.

Tu B'Shevat: the date palm in Israel, plus the seven fruits

IN HONOR OF TU B'SHEVAT, COMING THIS WEEKEND: The Disappearance and Return of the Date Palm (Jo Ann Gardner, The Forward). An interesting historical review. But it is short of specific literary references. Naturally, Methuselah receives a mention.

And there's also this, from the same author in The Forward: Why We Eat the 7 Fruits on Tu B’Shvat. The short answer is Deuteronomy 8:7-8.

UPDATE: Missing title now included. Sorry about that!

Satlow course on rabbinics

MICHAEL SATLOW, THIS SEMESTER: And the Other…. Syllabus for course on the Mishnah and Tosefta.

Schneerson Library update

PROGRESS? Putin believes situation around Schneerson Library improved considerably (Interfax Religion).

Moscow, January 20, Interfax - Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced hope that the Schneerson Library problem has ceased to be acute now.

Putin said at a meeting with representatives of the European Jewish Congress that the Schneerson Library, which is currently exhibited at the Tolerance Center in Moscow, has been an apple of discord with representatives of the U.S. community for some time.

"I hope that now when these books will become a heritage of all those who want to familiarize themselves with them, work in the scientific field, I believe that there already should not be such acuteness. To my mind, the situation has cardinally changed," Putin said.

[...]

Background here and here and links. I have following this story since early 2010. In 2013 the Russian President proposed the solution of moving the library to the European Tolerance Center in Moscow. It isn't yet clear, at least to me, how this is now going to play out.

ISIS destroys another ancient monastery

ISIS AND ANTIQUITIES WATCH: Satellite proves ISIS destroyed 1,500-year-old monastery. AP confirms with satellite imagery that St. Elijah's Monastery, built 590 CE, was 'pulverized' by jihadists in Mosul (Arutz Sheva)

Satellite photos on Wednesday confirmed the reports of activists from last August, revealing that Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists have demolished the nearly 1,500-year-old St. Elijah's Monastery near Mosul to rubble.

Associated Press asked satellite imagery firm DigitalGlobe this month to photograph St. Elijah's, the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq, and then compare the images with previous pictures from the same site.

The results, published by AP on Wednesday, reveal the monastery has indeed suffered the same fate as hundreds of ancient sites in Iraq and Syria, having been destroyed by ISIS jihadists.

[...]

Background on the assault of ISIS on the past and its caretakers is here with many links.

Inspired by Lilith

POETRY: Lilith Remains A Powerful Inspiration For Jewish Feminists (Julie R. Enszer, The Forward).

So I listened and listened. Lilith and the one hundred demons she births every night filled my mind and my notebook one summer with poems. I wrote the poems in the haze of early morning insomnia then revised them and shaped the book in conversation with other Jewish poets and scholars thinking about Lilith. Plaskow’s work was crucial in my thinking and reading. So was the work of Marge Piercy and her poetic midrash. The collection, “Which Lilith?: Feminist Writers Re-Create the World’s First Woman,” edited by Enid Dame, Lilly Rivlin, and Henny Wenkart, was an invaluable compendium for me of thinking about Lilith.

For the many past PaleoJudaica posts on Lilith, see here and links.

Talmudic dissertations and theses

THE TALMUD BLOG: DISSERTATIONS AND THESES, 2015.

Hjälm, Christian Arabic Versions of Daniel

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Christian Arabic Versions of Daniel
A Comparative Study of Early MSS and Translation Techniques in MSS Sinai Ar. 1 and 2

Miriam L. Hjälm, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich
In Christian Arabic Versions of Daniel, Miriam L. Hjälm provides an insight into the Arabic transmission of the biblical Book of Daniel. This book offers an inventory and a classification of extant manuscripts as well as a detailed account of the translation techniques employed in the early manuscripts. The use of the texts is discussed and the various versions are compared with liturgical Bible material.

Miriam L. Hjälm shows the importance of Arabic as a tool for understanding the development of the religious heritage of Christian communities under Muslim rule. Arabic became an indispensable part of the everyday life of many Near Eastern Christians and was increasingly used next to the established liturgical languages, which remained the standard measure of the biblical text.

HT the Facebook Biblica Arabica page. Related post on the Arabic Bible here.

LXX & NT Greek course online

UMASS BOSTON: GREEK151 Biblical Greek I.

Course Description
This course offers an introduction to koine (Hellenistic) Greek, with particular emphasis on the great Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible and on the Christian New Testament. Grammar, vocabulary, and reading skills acquired in this course are readily transferable to the study of Greek literature of earlier periods as well.

Follow the link for further particulars.

Maimonides conference

NOW AN ANNUAL EVENT: Rambam Conference at the Kinneret. Hundreds learn new aspects of Maimonides' work at a three day conference in Tiberias (Rochel Sylvetsky, Arutz Sheva).

Maimonides lived over 800 years ago, but, whether or not we know how he looked, he is still being researched, quoted, studied and argued over constantly by Torah sages and scholars, historians, physicians and members of the legal profession. This past weekend, over 500 people from all over Israel attended the seventh annual 3-day Rambam Conference in Tiberias to hear lectures by rabbis, public figures and academics on various aspects of the life and works of Maimonides. Seven years during which none of the lectures have repeated themselves - and next year is already being planned.

Why Tiberias? After all, Rabbi Moshe (Moses) ben Maimon, known by his acronym, the Rambam, is claimed by the city of his birth, Cordoba, Spain. A world-famous statue of the Torah giant, astronomer, philosopher and physician, though actually a likeness of Muslem philosopher Avicennes according to Dr. Schwartz, stands in the Cordoba Hudariya (Jewish quarter), glossing over the insignificant fact that the Rambam was forced to flee the city in order to save his life at the age of 10.

The Rambam lived in Morocco for a time and then spent most of his life in Egypt at the court of the Sultan, but his burial place, although the subject of some debate, is believed to be in Tiberias, based on artifacts found at a now-reconstructed site at the edge of the ancient city's cemetery. A folk legend states that when he died, his body was put on the back of a camel to prevent controversy over where he should be buried, and that the camel made its way to Tiberias.

I hope the artifacts are more conclusive than the folk legend.

The eight-hundredth anniversary of the death of Maimonides was commemorated in 2004, as noted here and here.

Jones on NT texts in late antique Greek amulets

NOW A FORTHCOMING BOOK: Brice Jones’ Thesis on NT Texts on Greek Amulets (Tommy Wasserman, ETC). The book is coming out with Bloomsbury in March: New Testament Texts on Greek Amulets from Late Antiquity.

Brice C. Jones presents a comprehensive analysis of Greek amulets from late antique Egypt which contain New Testament citations. He evaluates the words they contain in terms of their text-critical value. The use of New Testament texts on amulets was common in late antiquity. These citations were extracted from their larger Biblical contexts and used for ritual purposes that have traditionally been understood in terms of the ambiguous category of 'magic'. Often, these citations were used to invoke the divine for some favour, healing or protection. For various reasons, however, these citations have not played a significant role in the study of the text of the Greek New Testament.

As such, this is the first systematic treatment of Greek New Testament citations on amulets from late antique Egypt. Jones' work has real implications for how amulets and other such witnesses from this era should be treated in the future of the discipline of New Testament textual criticism.

More from and about Dr Brice C. Jones is here and here and links

Nineteenth century archaeology and the PEF

CHARLES WARREN: Archaeologists reveal shocking stories of their past. According to the preliminary announcement, his team apparently tricked the Muslim authorities to conduct the courageous operation (DAVID GUREVICH, ANAT KIDRON, Jerusalem Post). One of the tricks involved the smell of grilled lizard meat.

The headline and opening of the article are a bit sensationalist, but it is actually about this:

Recently, to mark 150 years since the establishment of the PEF [Palestine Exploration Fund], scholars worldwide came together to the University of Haifa for a special conference to reassess the PEF’s achievements.

[...]

What qualities did archaeologists need to have two centuries ago? Nothing went smoothly then. The Ottoman authorities, obviously, were not eager to cooperate, and only the international influence from the highest ranks (often combined with some hefty baksheesh) made the explorations possible. Conditions were harsh. In addition to the lack of infrastructure and permits, the explorers had to deal with malaria and sometimes a hostile population. In some cases it was fatal. Corporal Duncan, a member of Warren’s team, passed away after desperately struggling with “fever.” However, even this event did not make Warren cease his digging.

Today, we read fictional accounts or watch Hollywood movies about “treasure seeking” archaeologists.

However, back in the 19th century the dangers were part of the reality for every archaeologist, whose true “treasure” was simply understanding the past. These remarkable old works are a heritage much of which still remains to be revealed. The new studies presented at the Haifa conference seem to be only a beginning.

The authors are chairs of the PEF and the Early Exploration of the Holy Land conference under the auspices of the Gottlieb Schumacher Institute and the Zinman Institute of Archaeology.

Temple tour DVD

(VIRTUAL) TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Virtual Tour of the Temple 2.0 (Leen Ritmeyer).

JHS 15.6-9

RECENT ARTICLES IN THE JOURNAL OF HEBREW SCRIPTURES:

Nava Neriya-Cohen, “The Reflective Passages as the Core of Qoheleth: Content and Structure Analysis.”

Abstract: This article provides an in-depth analysis of the reflective passages of the book of Qoheleth and argues that they constitute an originally independent composition that exhibits a coherent train of thought. Via a close reading of the reflective passages that exposes their content as well as the manner of their distribution, the article demonstrates that through the twenty-two passages strewn throughout the book's core, the author has developed a systematic line of reasoning that examines the premise of world order and posits an alternative objective and way of life.

Jeremy M. HUTTON, “‘Optimality’ in the Grammars of Ancient Translations.”

Abstract: This paper proposes a new methodology for describing, explaining, and tracking the linguistic and non-linguistic shifts that occurred in the ancient biblical translations. It first surveys the approach to Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) taken by Gideon Toury, outlining pertinent theoretical points. Second, it summarizes the principles and methods of Optimality Theory (OT), arguing that this linguistic model may be harnessed in order to benefit the study of ancient translations. Third, this article applies the theory and methods developed here to a single sample verse, 2 Sam 11:1. Through this study, I demonstrate that the combined theoretical and methodological model provided by DTS and OT allows us to identify, describe, evaluate, and organize the norms constraining the translator of Tg. Jon. to Samuel—and, by extension, to the other ancient Versions. Finally, I argue that we may use OT's notational system to capture regularities and anomalies in ancient translations, outlining their respective “grammars.”

Giovanni LENZI, “Sequences of Verbal Forms and Taxis in Biblical Hebrew.”

Abstract: This study presents an empirical collection of Biblical Hebrew verbal forms, arguing that at one stage of the Hebrew language syntax was based on a combination of sequences and taxis (the chronological relations between two “actions”). The suffix conjugation and the prefix conjugation had different functions in a past/anterior sequence and in a non-past/non-anterior sequence. In a past/anterior sequence, the suffix conjugation denoted a co-ordinate element, while the prefix conjugation denoted a sub-ordinate element. In a non-past/non-anterior sequence, on the other hand, the prefix conjugation denoted a co-ordinate element, whereas the suffix conjugation denoted a sub-ordinate element. This syntax was identical in direct speech, subordinate clauses, narration and poetry.

HEATHER MACUMBER, A Monster without a Name: Creating the Beast Known as Antiochus IV in Daniel 7

(No abstract circulated as of this posting.)

SBL Proceedings of the Midrash Section, vol. 6

H-JUDAIC NOTES A NEW BOOK: TOC Midrash Book.

It’s better to hear the rebuke of the wise than the song of the fool” (Qoh 7:5). Proceedings of the Midrash Section, Society of Biblical Literature, vol. 6, edited by W. David Nelson and Rivka Ulmer (Judaism in Context; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2015).

ISBN: 978-1-4632-0560-7

Alter on Berkeley

EAST MEETS WEST: How Berkeley Made the Old Testament New (Robert Alter, Boom). Excerpt:

In the mid-1970s, I became interested in biblical narrative, having had a good grounding in biblical Hebrew as well as in the modern language. Berkeley graduate seminars on the Bible in those years were exclusively devoted to the Book of Leviticus because the scholar who was then professor of the Hebrew Bible was engaged in what would prove to be a three-thousand-page commentary on Leviticus. He would allow nothing to deflect him from his sacerdotal subject.

My students of modern Hebrew literature complained, and so I devised for them a new course—conceivably, the first of its kind anywhere—on the poetics of biblical narrative. I had a relatively large group, about ten students, many of them quite gifted and with serious literary interests, and together we soon developed an excited sense that, even though this was the Bible, we were exploring new territory. My own work for the seminar and beyond it led me in the next few years to produce The Art of Biblical Narrative in 1981 and to launch a kind of second scholarly career that complemented the one I continued to pursue in writing about the European and American novel.

A dozen years later, again in a wholly unanticipated way, the study of biblical narrative and biblical poetry induced me to begin an experiment in translating the Bible. Since adolescence I had always read the Bible in Hebrew and had been deeply moved by the compact power of its poetry and by the subtlety, elegant precision, and evocative rhythms of its narrative prose. When an editor at W.W. Norton proposed that I might do a Norton Critical Edition of a book of the Bible, I responded, perhaps imprudently, that one could make a fine Norton Critical Edition of Genesis, but that because there was something wrong with all the existing English versions. I would have to do my own translation. After some discussion, we agreed that I would write a new English translation of Genesis instead of the critical edition. But, as I got into the project, I also found that I was producing a commentary.

Iconic photo. More on Robert Alter's now nearly complete translation of the Hebrew Bible is here with many links.

Funded German PhDs

ETC: Funded German PhDs in Bible and Digital Humanities (Christian Askeland). The projects could involve textual criticism of the New Testament or the Septuagint. The deadline for applications is 27 January, so don't dawdle!

Gounelle and Mounier (eds.), La littérature apocryphe chrétienne et les Écritures juives

NEW BOOK:

Publications de l’Institut romand des sciences bibliques
Collection dirigée par J.-D. Kaestli

R. Gounelle – B. Mounier, La littérature apocryphe chrétienne et les Écritures juives, 2015, 507 p., ISBN 978-2-940557-00-4, € 49.-
code commande : pir07

La littérature apocryphe chrétienne est très peu citée dans les recherches sur la formation et le développement du canon des Écritures chrétiennes. Le colloque de Strasbourg a fait dialoguer des savants qui ne collaborent pas habituellement : les spécialistes de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne et les spécialistes de l’histoire de la Bible juive. Il a tenté d’attirer l’attention des premiers sur les références que les apocryphes chrétiens font aux Écritures juives et de les inciter à mettre davantage à profit les outils et les méthodes développées par l’histoire de l’exégèse durant ces dernières décennies ; analyser les apocryphes à la lumière de l’histoire des Écritures juives et de leur interprétation peut en effet fournir des éléments non négligeables sur le contexte de production d’un écrit et ouvre, dans certains cas, de nouvelles perspectives sur son interprétation.

La littérature apocryphe chrétienne provoque un certain renouveau dans l’étude de la réception du Premier Testament dans le christianisme et apporte de nouveaux matériaux à l’étude des relations entre judaïsme et christianisme, dans l’Antiquité comme au Moyen Age. En mettant au jour de nouvelles formes, inconnues jusque-là, du texte biblique et en analysant la façon dont les Écritures juives ont été exploitées dans des contextes parfois peu documentés par ailleurs, ce colloque a également mis au jour de nouvelles données, que les spécialistes de l’histoire de la Bible juive devront prendre en compte.

Les contributions présentées au colloque de Strasbourg témoignent de la multitude des méthodes à déployer pour circonscrire le phénomène citationnel dans des textes qui ne proposent que rarement des citations explicites. L’étude du rapport des apocryphes chrétiens aux Écritures juives peut en effet aussi bien passer par la recherche de citations précises dans des textes spécifiques et l’identification de leurs sources que par l’analyse des jeux d’allusions et d’intertextualité ; s’interroger sur le choix des versets et sur leur combinaison, questionner les changements qui y ont été apportés ou encore les situer dans l’histoire de leur réception peuvent s’avérer tout aussi fructueux.

Le colloque de Strasbourg ne prétendait pas couvrir l’ensemble de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne. Les contributions ici réunies n’en étudient pas moins un large éventail de textes de provenances et de datations très diverses : des textes liés aux prophètes et à l’histoire d’Israël côtoient des récits consacrés à la vie et à l’enseignement de Jésus et aux apôtres.

Follow the link for the TOC etc.

PhD fellowship on DSS scribes

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN: ERC PhD position Digital Palaeography and Dead Sea Scrolls Scribal Culture (216006).

Job description
This PhD subproject is embedded within a larger research programme titled The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Digital Palaeography and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls, funded by the European Research Council. The main objective of this interdisciplinary project is to shed new light on ancient Jewish scribal culture and the making of the Bible by investigating two aspects of the scrolls’ palaeography: the typological development of writing styles and writer identification. The combination of new C14 samples and the use of computational intelligence as quantitative methods in order to assess the development of handwriting styles and to identify individual scribes will be used to cluster manuscripts as products of scribal activity in order to profile scribal production and to determine a more precise location in time for their activity, focusing, from literary and cultural-historical perspectives, on the content and genres of the texts that scribes wrote and copied and on the scripts and languages that they used.
The goal of the PhD subproject is to identify one or more prolific scribes of the Qumran manuscripts, to date these scribes, and to analyse quantitatively and qualitatively the scribal activity of one or more specific Qumran scribes. This subproject will compare the traditional palaeographical identification of specific scribes with the digital palaeographic identification, and choose the most prolific scribe of manuscripts that are, on the basis of existing scholarship, classified as so-called ‘sectarian’. The PhD will correlate the manuscripts identified as copied by this scribe with two widely but not universally accepted hypotheses pertaining to sectarian manuscripts and literature.
The PhD will work together with a PhD at the Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Engineering Institute (ALICE), and with a postdoc and student assistants at the Qumran Institute of the faculty.

Follow the link for further particulars.

Adams and Ehorn (eds.), Composite Citations in Antiquity, vol. 1

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY:

Composite Citations in Antiquity
Volume One: Jewish, Graeco-Roman, and Early Christian Uses

Editor(s): Sean A. Adams, Seth M. Ehorn

Published: 19-11-2015
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 256
ISBN: 9780567657978
Imprint: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
Series: The Library of New Testament Studies
Volume: 525

About Composite Citations in Antiquity

Sean A. Adams and Seth M. Ehorn have drawn together an exciting range of contributors to evaluate the use of composite citations in Early Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Early Christian authors (up through Justin Martyr). The goal is to identify and describe the existence of this phenomenon in both Greco-Roman and Jewish literature. The introductory essay will help to provide some definitional parameters, although the study as a whole will seek to weigh in on this question. The contributors seek to address specific issues, such as whether the quoting author created the composite text or found it already constructed as such. The essays also cover an exploration of the rhetorical and/or literary impact of the quotation in its present textual location, and the question of whether the intended audiences would have recognised and 'reverse engineered' the composite citation and as a result engage with the original context of each of the component parts.

In addition to the specific studies, Professor Christopher Stanley provides a summary reflection on all of the essays in the volume along with some implications for New Testament studies.

Follow the link for price, TOC, and ordering information.

Creation out of nothing?

THE THOUSAND YEAR VIEW: Creation But Not Ex Nihilo (N.S. PALMER, Jerusalem Post blogs). Relevant also are the surprising number of references in the Hebrew Bible to God's defeat of the sea dragon at the primordial battle (e.g., Psalm 74:12-17; 89:9-10 [English versification]).

Mysterious abandoned cities

ARCHAEOLOGY: The Mystery of Israel's Ancient Abandoned Cities. The ancient inhabitants of Negev cities abandoned their homes more than 1,000 years ago. Archaeologists are studying the refuse and food scraps they left behind to try to fathom why they left. (Ronit Vered, Haaretz).

In recent months, the team from Haifa University has been heading south every other week to examine the remnants of the refuse left behind by inhabitants of the ancient cities of Nitzana, Haluza and Shivta. The large-scale project, estimated to last for five years and funded by the European Union, aims to crack the mystery of why these once-thriving commercial and cultural hubs were ultimately abandoned. One day, or perhaps it occurred gradually over a longer period of time, the inhabitants packed their things, carefully sealed up their homes so they could come back to them in the future, and disappeared, never to return again.

“The people who lived here put tremendous energy into construction and infrastructure. They wanted to stay here forever, but something went wrong,” says Bar-Oz. “The next time you find settlement in the Negev is over a thousand years later, with the Zionist movement. In the scholarly literature, a number of possible theories for the abandonment have been proposed: climate change, a cultural change like the Muslim conquest, or an epidemic like the plague that struck the region in the sixth century. We’re trying to solve the mystery of why they left once and for all, and we’re looking at the collapse of Byzantine society in the Negev as a test case that also has importance for the modern world, from the point of view of sustainability and understanding the attempt to cope with changes.”

The three southern cities are generally thought to be associated with the start of permanent Nabatean (1st-3rd century C.E.) settlement, but no Nabatean artifacts have been found so far. “I don’t want to denigrate classic Israeli archaeology, and we’re far from finishing the excavations and analyzing all the findings in the lab, but so far we’ve been digging and digging, getting down to the foundations of the buildings, and we’re not finding Nabatean artifacts,” says Bar-Oz.

The article illustrates the point I made recently that garbage dumps are often treasure troves of archaeological information.

Psychedelic Hebrew

DARSHAN: WATCH: The most psychedelic Hebrew lesson you’ll ever see. Beautiful artwork and animation, accompanied by deep Hebrew lyrics (The Jewish Standard). With Kabbalistic themes and imagery.

Cuneiform cookies

NEWS YOU CAN USE: HOW TO MAKE CUNEIFORM TABLET COOKIES (Tom Stanley, Penn Museum). Next recipe: edible Ezekiel scrolls.

The Second Apocalypse of John

RICK BRANNAN: NT Apocrypha: The Second Apocalypse of John. Via Fred Clark at the Slacktivist, who includes the obligatory sequels joke.

What Did Herod’s Temple Look Like?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: What Did Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem Look Like? Michael Avi-Yonah’s iconic Temple model turns 50 (Jennifer Drummond). The basis of this BHD post is the article “A Temple’s Golden Anniversary” by Peter J. Schertz and Steven Fine in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. It is behind a subscription wall, but the post gives some information about its contents. The article was also discussed by Leen Ritmeyer in a post noted here.

Cross-file under Temple Mount Watch.

Apocrypha 26 (2015)

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH Apocrypha 26/2015. Forthcoming in March. Follow the link for the TOC. Most of the article are on NT Apocrypha, but the Apostolic Fathers and the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha are represented as well.

The makers of Codex Sinaiticus

THE BRITISH MUSEUM BLOG: The makers of Codex Sinaiticus. Cillian O’Hogan, Research Fellow, University of Waterloo, formerly Curator of Classical and Byzantine Studies, British Library. This post contains some good information about the artisans and scribes responsible for the production of this manuscript. Background to the post is here and links, reminding us that Sinaiticus preserves about half of the Old Testament as well as the complete New Testament and some other odds and ends.

Jobes, Discovering the Septuagint

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM KREGEL ACADEMIC PRESS:

Discovering the Septuagint: A Guided Reader Hardcover – January 27, 2016
by Karen Jobes (Author)

Quick access to Septuagint vocabulary and syntax for students of the Greek New Testament
Interest in the Septuagint today continues to grow stronger. Despite that interest, students have lacked a guidebook to the text similar to the readers and handbooks that exist for the Greek New Testament. Discovering the Septuagint: A Guided Reader fills that need. Created by an expert on the Septuagint, this groundbreaking resource draws on Jobes's experience as an educator in order to help upper—level college, seminary, and graduate students cultivate skill in reading the Greek Old Testament.

This reader presents, in Septuagint canonical order, ten Greek texts from the Rahlfs—Hanhart Septuaginta critical edition. It explains the syntax, grammar, and vocabulary of more than 700 verses from select Old Testament texts representing a variety of genres, including the Psalms, the Prophets, and more.

The texts selected for this volume were chosen to fit into a typical semester. Each text (1) is an example of distinctive Septuagint syntax or word usage; (2) exemplifies the amplification of certain theological themes or motifs by the Septuagint translators within their Jewish Hellenistic culture; and/or (3) is used significantly by New Testament writers.

Hayes wins Sarna Memorial Award

CONGRATULATIONS TO CHRISTINE HAYES, winner of this year's Scholarship Award (the Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award) in the National Jewish Book Award competition of the Jewish Book Council. And congratulations also to the three finalists.

Scholarship
Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award

Winner:

What's Divine About Divine Law? Early Perspectives
Christine Hayes
Princeton University Press

Finalists:

Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests: The Culture of the Talmud in Ancient Iran
Jason Sion Mokhtarian
University of California Press

Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition
Benjamin S. Sommer
Yale University Press

Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts
Marc Michael Epstein, ed.
Princeton University Press

HT AJR. More on Hayes's book here. More on Mokhtarian's book here.

Alan Rickman 1946-2016

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: The Iconic Career Of Alan Rickman (Laurel Raymond, Think Progress). Perhaps most widely known as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies, he is also well remembered for his remarkable performance "as the anatomically incomplete, tequila-spitting Metatron, Voice of God, in Dogma." A past post on that film is here. Requiescat in pace.

Review of Spiró, Captivity

BLOGCRITICS: Book Review: ‘Captivity’ by György Spiró (Jon Sobel).

Captivity, a sprawling epic about Jews, Greeks and Romans in the first century A.D., is the first novel by the noted Hungarian writer György Spiró to be published in English. Intensively researched, it follows the travels and peripatetic career of a myopic, bookish Jew who bears the Roman name Gaius Theodorus but is known to his Jewish compatriots as Uri. Despite humble origins, Uri travels as a young man to great cities of the ancient world and lives through adventures thrilling and horrible that throw light on what life was like in great cities and in the countryside two thousand years ago.

[...]

Other reviews are noted here and link.