More archaeologists object to Western Wall compromise

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Archaeologists: New Western Wall prayer site will damage antiquities. Signatories to letter of protest warn of harm to ‘diamond in Jerusalem’s archaeological crown’ due to planned site for mixed-gender worship (Times of Israel).

Creating a new plaza at the Western Wall will damage “the most important archaeological site for the Jewish people,” nine senior Israeli archaeologists warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, days after plans for a multi-denominational site were announced.

The “diamond in Jerusalem’s archaeological crown” must not be harmed accommodate the needs of various Jewish religious streams, they wrote, Israel Radio reported.

The protest drives another spoke into the wheel of the plan to expand an existing area south of the main Western Wall prayer site by creating a plaza over ruins from the Temple in an area known as Robinson’s Arch.

Signatories to the protest letter include Dan Bahat, who excavated the Western Wall tunnels; Ronny Reich, head of the Archaeological Council of Israel, who exposed part of the paved road beneath Robinson’s Arch; Jerusalem Prize winner Gabriel Barkay, who directs the Temple Mount Sifting Project; and Israel Prize laureate Amihai Mazar.

[...]

Eilat Mazar has also objected to the plan on archaeological grounds. The article does not say whether she was one of the nine signatories.

Background here and here.

Postdoc on pre-modern Eurasian manuscripts

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA:

POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR
REQUISITION # 2507
POSITION BASICS

Advertising Ends on: Extended Until Position is Filled
Advertising Started on: Wednesday, December 16th, 2015
College: Graduate College
Department: Interdisciplinary Programs

SALARY

Salary: $42,840.00 - $46,344.00

POSITION DETAILS

Full/Part Time Status: Full Time
Percent Time: 100%

Position Description:
The Obermann Center at the University of Iowa welcomes applications for a full-time, twelve-month Postdoctoral Scholar. The one-year residency will begin on August 10, 2016. The position is funded through the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is part of the 2016-2017 Mellon-Sawyer Seminar, “Cultural and Textual Exchanges: The Manuscript Across Pre-Modern Eurasia,” led by co-PIs Timothy Barrett (Center for the Book), Paul Dilley (Religious Studies and Classics), and Katherine Tachau (History).

Our seminar is an interdisciplinary collaboration dedicated to mapping cultural exchanges across Eurasia from roughly 400 CE - ca. 1450 CE, by focusing on the development, distribution and sharing of manuscript technologies. We will convene approximately fifteen times over the course of the 2016-2017 academic year, in dialogue with a series of invited speakers who are internationally recognized experts in the various manuscript cultures of pre-modern Eurasia. Four of the seminar meetings will be followed the next day by hands-on workshops at the University of Iowa’s Center for the Book, in which participants will reproduce historically significant book structures, with their associated materials, under the guidance of conservators. The seminar will also develop an innovative website tracking the development of Eurasian manuscript formats and materials chronologically and geographically.

Candidates in any related field, including Archaeology, Art History, Classics, History, East or South Asian Studies, and Near Eastern Studies, Religious Studies, are encouraged to apply.

Follow the link for further particulars. This is a very open-ended position that could involve Jewish manuscripts or Jewish texts transmitted in a pre-modern Eurasian context. Go for it!

Davies on The Hebrew Canon and Politics

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

The Hebrew Canon and Politics

This paper was prepared for a seminar held at the Centre for Advanced Research in Oslo on April 29th 2015, convened by Prof. Terje Stordalen. I am grateful to the scholars present for their comments. The arguments should be seen as a development of those formulated in my Scribes and Schools. The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998.

By Philip R Davies
Chair, Palestine Exploration Fund
Emeritus, University of Sheffield, England
February 2016

CFP: Dating Early Christian Papyri

ROBERTA MAZZA: Dating early Christian papyri: old and new methods. A call for papers for the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Antonio this November.

The Talmud, the fall of Jerusalem, and Kamtza and bar Kamtza

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Finders Keepers, Inferior Land for Wedded Bliss, and Other Property Matters. ‘Daf Yomi’ zig-zags from impure wine to the Talmud’s apocryphal reasoning for the destruction of the Temple.

This week’s Daf Yomi reading could have been designed to demonstrate the Talmud’s extremes of halakha and aggada. In the space of a few pages in Tractate Gittin, the sages moved from highly technical debates about property law to extravagant legends about the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Roman general Titus. One of the things that makes reading Daf Yomi consistently interesting is that you never know when this kind of shift is going to happen: The Talmudic discussion, like a river, follows its own course, paying no attention to the boundaries of logic or subject matter. Indeed, all of this week’s reading, in chapter 5 of Gittin, is unrelated to the ostensible subject of the tractate, which is divorce.

The aggada comes in here:

It was toward the end of this week’s reading that we came to some of the most famous aggadic stories in the whole Talmud. These stories deal with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE, at the end of the ruinous Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire. Josephus, the Jewish priest and general who wrote the only surviving history of the rebellion, offers a variety of explanations for the catastrophe—political, religious, and economic. The Talmud, however, reduces the complex event to a moral homily: “Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kamtza and bar Kamtza.”

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Second Temple precedents

J-WIRE: ASK THE RABBI. Rabbi Raymond Apple answers readers' questions. In one answer he cites two Second Temple-era Jewish sources as precedents for modern practice:

FATHER & SON SHARING A NAME

Q. Is it wrong for a father and son to have the same first name?

A. It was certainly done in ancient times. The Apocrypha records that Tobit called his son Tobias: “When I came of age I took a wife from our kindred, and had a son by her whom I named Tobias” (Tobit 1:9).

Josephus had a brother whose name was Matityahu ben Matityahu: “I was born to Matityahu… I was brought up with my brother, whose name was Matityahu” (Life of Flavius Josephus 1, 2). Elsewhere Josephus refers to Chananiah ben Chananiah and Yochanan ben Yochanan (Antiquities 20:9:2, 10:1:2). Talmudic literature refers to Chanina ben Chanina, Bonias ben Bonias, Leizer ben Leizer, Yosef ben Yosef, Chiyya ben Chiyya, Ba bar Ba, etc.

Cross-file under Old Testament Apocrypha Watch.

CFP: The Other Within

H-JUDAIC: Extended Deadline - Call for Papers: "‘The Other Within’ – The Hebrew and Jewish Collections of The John Rylands Library".

The aim of this conference is to convene scholars, curators and students researching areas represented in the Library’s Hebrew and Jewish collections, including (but not limited to): the Cairo Genizah; medieval Hebrew manuscript codices; early printed Hebrew books; Samaritan manuscripts; and, the collections of Moses Gaster. It will take place as part of a programme of activities at the John Rylands Research Institute that aim to facilitate the study of the Library’s Hebrew and Jewish holdings. This includes the 2015-2018 externally-funded project to catalogue the Hebrew manuscripts and two ongoing projects on the Gaster collections.

Somehow I missed the original call for papers, but there's still time: "Due to significant interest, the submission deadline for paper proposals has been extended to 17:00 GMT on 26 February 2016."

International Septuagint Day 2016

WILLIAM ROSS: HAPPY SEPTUAGINT DAY 2016.

Today is the 10th annual International Septuagint Day! So don’t forget to read some Greek Old Testament, browse some early editions of Liddell Scott, and brush up on your accentuation rules in celebration.

This is also the first anniversary of the launch of the International Organization of Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSC) Facebook page.

Review of Laneri (ed.), Defining the Sacred

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Nicola Laneri (ed.), Defining the Sacred: Approaches to the Archaeology of Religion in the Near East. Oxford: Oxbow, 2015. Pp. ix, 186. ISBN 9781782976790. $50.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Aren M. Maeir, Bar-Ilan University (arenmaeir@gmail.com)

The volume under review is an excellent collection of studies on the archaeology of religion in the ancient Near East, dealing with various cultures, finds, issues and periods, ranging from the early Neolithic period until the Iron Age, and while mostly within the realm of the “classical” ancient Near East, includes a study on ancient Turkmenistan. Most of the papers were originally presented at a session on the archaeology of the ancient Near East at the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East which was held in Warsaw in 2012. To this several papers were added to broaden the topics and periods covered in the volume.

The first chapter (“Introduction: Investigating archaeological approaches to the study of religious practices and beliefs,” pp. 1-10), by the volume’s editor, Nicola Laneri, provides an overview and introduction to the volume. In the chapter, Laneri very discusses and summarizes issues such as: what is religion?; an overview of the archaeology of religion; previous studies on the archaeology of religion in the ancient Near East; and a general overview of the papers in the volume. One thing that would have improved this introduction, and in particular the discussion of the definition of religion and the archaeology of religion, would have been some reference to those who question the very definitions of religion as used in modern research as formulations based on modern western perceptions of the topic that are perhaps not always relevant for the study of ancient, non-western cultures (e.g. C. Martin, “Delimiting Religion”, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 21/2 [2009], 157-176).

Most of the essays are about the pre-biblical period, but this one is of interest:

In “Where to Worship? Religion in Iron II Israel and Judah” (pp. 90-101), Beth Alpert Nakhai, discusses the types (national, community, personal) and locations of worship in Iron Age II (10th-6th cent. BCE) Israel and Judah. Differentiating between the various contexts, she attempts to place these within the context of the political and societal developments of this period, such as the formation of two distinct kingdoms, religious reformations, etc. While the overall scheme that she provides seems very likely, the newly published Iron IIA-B temple found at Moza (see S. Kisilevitz. 2015. The Iron IIA Judahite Temple at Tel Moza. Tel Aviv 42: 147-164), just outside of Jerusalem, may call into question some of her (and other scholars’) suggestions regarding the lack of temples in non-urban contexts in Iron Age Judah.

Meghillot XI-XII

NOW OUT: MEGHILLOT Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls XI-XII 2014-2015 (ed. Jonathan Ben-Dov and Menaham Kister). The link leads to a pdf of the English front matter. Purchasing information is here.

HT the IOQS Facebook page and the Orion Center.

Talmudic synopses on demand

THE TALMUD BLOG: A SYNOPSIS OF THE ENTIRE TALMUD (Yitz Landes).

Enter Shamma Friedman. For decades, Friedman has been at the forefront of both talmudic philology qua philology (think dusty book filled offices, but also trips to pastoral European monasteries which are home to ancient Talmudic manuscripts) and digital research in the humanities. Since the eighties, Friedman has headed the Saul Lieberman Institute of Talmudic Research of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Friedman and his staff have poured thousands of hours into transcribing almost every single partial and complete manuscript of the Bavli. After years of being available on CD-ROM, the institute’s databank of Talmudic manuscripts went online in 2011 and has become one of the most relied upon tools for scholars of the Bavli. Now, in what will surely be remembered as a watershed moment in the history of talmudic philology, the institute has developed software that can automatically create synopsi. Using the software, synopses of a chapter of the Talmud can be created within the span of just a few minutes, and the day on which scholars will have synopses to the entire Bavli at their fingertips does not seem too far off.

Cross-file under Technology Watch.

Ancient terraces in the Judean Hills?

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Are Jerusalem’s Historic Terraces Really That Ancient? A new study says that most of the agricultural terraces surrounding Jerusalem were built during the Ottoman era. But critics are taking steps to counter the findings (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

The man-made terraces in the Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem are at the center of a fierce debate after a new study claimed the agricultural features were mainly built by Arab workers in the past 400 years. Critics dismiss the study and say it merely reflects the most recent building work.

The UNESCO-protected village of Battir, south of Jerusalem, features one of the most famous terraces and became the subject of lengthy legal arguments when the Defense Ministry’s plan to place the West Bank separation barrier through it threatened to ruin postcard sales. The terraces around Ein Karem, the neighborhood of Ramot and other locations were also used as examples arguing against urban development. In several locations in the Jerusalem Forest and Nahal Refa’im, the Jewish National Fund and Jerusalem Development Authority have embarked on projects designed to refurbish old terraces, as well as building new ones.

The power of a man-made terrace lies in its simplicity: It is a series of steps, with the earth held back by a wall of stones to enable tilling the mountainside. Its simplicity actually makes it difficult to date a terrace. In contrast to ancient structures, terraces are not usually part of a wider complex, which might include other artifacts that could be dated.

To add a further level of complexity, the terraces we see nowadays are the result of a never-ending project of building, reconstruction and repairing – a process that has continued for many generations. Thus, even if artifacts are found nearby, it’s difficult to ascertain whether they belong to the time the terrace was originally constructed or to a later time when it was repaired.

[...]

Clearly, the study has raised questions regarding the ability of scientific tools to solve archaeological questions. In recent years, archaeology in Israel has been relying heavily on analyses being conducted in laboratories. Some critics claim there is an excessive reliance on these methods, and that even numerical results require interpretation and juxtaposition with archaeological and historical sources, in order to place them in the right context.

[...]

More on the legal controversy over Battir (Betar) is here and links.

e-Clavis

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: New Bibliographical Resource: “e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha.” NASSCAL is crowdsourcing the Christian Apocrypha.

DSS Master's scholarship

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN: Florentino García Martínez Research Master Scholarship, established by Jan Overmeer.

The Qumran Institute of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies (University of Groningen) is delighted to present the Florentino García Martínez Research Master Scholarship for excellent students. The scholarship is specifically for students in the fields of Hebrew Bible, early Judaism and Dead Sea Scrolls.

The scholarship is € 1,000 and is meant to cover some of the expenses connected with the two-year Research Master programme at the Faculty’s Graduate School.

Follow the link for further particulars. Past recipients of the scholar are noted here and here.

Interview with Zahi Hawass

ASOR BLOG: Interview with Zahi Hawass (Alex Joffe).

Few individuals are so closely identified with Egypt – and ancient Egypt – as Zahi Hawass. Formerly Minister of State for Antiquities, Hawass has been Chief Inspector and Director of the Giza Plateau, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and has excavated at numerous sites throughout Egypt. He is also the face of Egyptian archaeology, having appeared in countless TV programs that have spread the story of ancient Egypt worldwide. In January Ancient Near East Today editor Alex Joffe had the pleasure of interviewing Hawass in New York City at the opening of the new Discovery of King Tut exhibit.

A recent story involving Zahi Hawass and King Tutankhamun's tomb is here and links.

Still more on saving Iraqi manuscripts

SYRIAC WATCH? Iraqi Jesuit saved 1,000 manuscripts (Catholic Culture).

An Iraqi Jesuit estimates that he saved 1,000 ancient manuscripts, including biblical and liturgical books, from the advance of the Islamic State.

“If Daesh burns down a church we can rebuild it, but the manuscripts are our history,” Father Gabriel Tooma told an international news channel. “If they get destroyed, then we are lost, and our culture will be forgotten.”

[...]

The brief article does not specify the language(s) of the saved manuscript, but since Father Tooma is reportedly now running an orphanage and a school in the Aramaic-speaking town of Alqosh in Iraq, it seems likely that Syriac manuscripts were involved.

For a similar recent story about a priest saving manuscripts from the depredations of ISIS in Iraq, see here and here.

Time Scanning Jerusalem

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Time Scanners series provides high-tech look at ancient sites (Jennifer Nixon, Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette).

What is it? Time Scanners, one hour-long episode per set from PBS

How much? $24.99 each

When? Now

They're scanning time? No. They're scanning buildings as a way of taking people back in time. Sort of. Basically, the series uses modern technology to explore ancient sites, trying to solve mysteries and make the structures and people who built them more relatable for the people of today.

Using a mobile laser scanner, which bounces pulses of light off objects to map them, host Dallas Campbell, structural engineer Steve Burrows and their team use their fancy gadgets and meet with local archaeological and history experts to do some high-tech, in-depth exploring:

Along with the Colosseum and Machu Picchu, there is:

Jerusalem: The Temple Mount is examined to see how King Herod's builders managed to create a structure that survived centuries of war and earthquakes. Then the team goes to Herodium, a palace and man-made mountain south of Jerusalem, to find out how it was built and what happened to the palace structures within it.

There's more on the series here.

Third Punic War anniversary

PUNIC WATCH: Lessons from history: the end of the Third Punic War (1985). After 2,131 years of living on a razor's edge, a 1985 'treaty of friendship' marked the end of the Third Punic War. Simran Uppal explains the significance of this long-awaited signing. (Simran Uppal, Cherwell).

The Third Punic War between Rome and Carthage started in 149 BC and ended on this very day, February 5th – but that is, rather bizarrely, 5th February 1985. The Romans took Carthage in 146 BC, but caught up in the general hubbub of razing a city to the ground and sowing its fields with salt, and quite understandably forgot the proceedings for an official end to the war.

This detail passed the world by until the 1960s, when some historian – presumably with too much time on their hands – picked up on it. Eventually, then, the mayors of Rome and Carthage got involved (Ugo Vetere and Chedly Klibi, also leader of the Arab League at the time) and arranged to sign a treaty, 2,134 years after war began, in the Tunisian president’s villa looking out over the Mediterranean.

[...]

This actually happened, but cross-file under Can't Make It Up.

The Dead Sea Squirrels

THAT WOULD BE A GOOD NAME FOR A BAND. OH, WAIT. Meet Delaware County's Dead Sea Squirrels (Brian Bingaman, Delaware County News Network).

Where did that name — a zany spin on the name for a set of ancient Jewish historical and religious parchment/papyrus texts — come from?

“I used to work for a small, independent label in Miami. We’d be stumbling around in a parking lot at 5 in the morning throwing around silly band names. I threw it out there as a joke,” [guitarist/vocalist Bob] Succio said.

Stroumsa, Hidden Wisdom, now online for free

ACADEMIA.EDU: Guy G Stroumsa, Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism (Studies in the History of Religions 70; Leiden: Brill, 1996). This is actually the 2005 revised and enlarged edition. The Amazon book blurb reads:

This book investigates the problem of esoteric traditions in early Christianity, their origin and their transformation in Patristic hermeneutics, in the West as well as in the East. It argues that these traditions eventually formed the basis of nascent Christian mysticism in Late Antiquity. These esoteric traditions do not reflect the influence of Greek Mystery religions, as has often been claimed, but rather seem to stem from the Jewish background of Christianity. They were adopted by various Gnostic teachings, a fact which helps explaining their eventual disappearance from Patristic literature. The eleven chapters study each a different aspect of the problem, including the questions of Gnostic and Manichaean esotericism. This book will be of interest to all students of religious history in Late Antiquity.

The whole book is downloadable for free as a pdf file. For you, special deal!

Horn and Griffith (eds.), Biblical & Qur'anic Traditions in the Middle East

NEW BOOK FROM ABELIAN ACADEMIC PRESS:

Biblical & Qur'anic Traditions in the Middle East
Authored by Cornelia B. Horn, editor, Sidney H. Griffith, editor
Edition: First Edition

As the threat to the existence and continuation of the diversity of peoples and cultures in the Middle East steadily increases, despair is not the answer. Instead, the contributors to and editors of this volume respond positively with their work to the ever more important and urgent task of intensifying efforts in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere to study with rigor, dedication, and intellectual acumen the profound and foundational heritage of Middle Eastern origins in order to render it fruitful, productive, and enriching for the development of modern life and thought in all its dimensions.

With discussions of Satan's role in Adam's Fall in Islamic and Syriac Christian traditions, stories about Aaron's death, Jewish and Christian stories concerning the matriarch Sarah or interpretations in poetry and prose of the role of the Psalms, with reflections on the spiritual memories of paradise in the Odes of Solomon, or Manichaean magic, only to mention a few of the topics, this book will take your imagination and insights into new depths and to new heights. Scholars from the Middle East, South Africa, North America, and Europe--Tammie Wanta, Herrie van Rooy, Jason Scully, Ben Rosenfeld, Ilaria Ramelli, Robert Phenix, Rebekka Nieten, Giulio Maspero, Aryeh Levene, Cornelia Horn, Angela Harkins, Sidney Griffith, Craig Blaising, and Gaby Abousamra--contribute new evidence and foundational reflections to understanding the diverse relationships between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The seeds for this volume's articles were laid at the gatherings of scholars of Syriac Studies at the SBL conferences in New Orleans, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Chicago between 2009 and 2012 and in the context of subsequent international, collaborative projects.

As Sacred Scriptures for the believers, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an guide and inspire billions of faithful women and men across the globe. One of the exceptionally fruitful contexts in which the reception, interpretation, transmission of, and engagement with these holy texts flourished was in the Syriac- and Arabic-speaking milieux. The articles in this volume illuminate once more the critical contribution of Syriac Studies more specifically, and Christian Oriental Studies more generally, to understanding important aspects of reading and hearing Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sacred texts in historical contexts. They open the reader's imagination to the contribution of the Middle East for the cross-fertilization of these sacred texts and their interpretation and reception.

This book is the second volume of Abelian Academic's new series: Eastern Mediterranean Texts and Contexts (EMTC). This series takes its readers on journeys through Eastern Mediterranean time and space. Its cutting-edge research illuminates foundational aspects of this formative region of the modern world. Geoffrey Greatrex, Sidney H. Griffith, Cornelia Horn, Guita G. Hourani, Basil Lourie, Robert R. Phenix, Hagith Sivan, and Cynthia Villagomez serve on the series' editorial board.

Upcoming volumes, to be published in 2016 and 2017, will include chapters by Predrag Bukovec, Vicente Dobroruka, Mats Eskhult, Carl Griffin, Blake Hartung, Cornelia Horn, Stanley F. Jones, Robert Kitchen, Tuomo Lankila, Basil Lourie, Robert Phenix, Ilaria Ramelli, Erga Shnerson, Herrie van Rooy, Cynthia Villagomez, and Helen Younansardaroud, among others.

Publication Date: Jan 09 2016
ISBN/EAN13: 069260975X / 9780692609750
Page Count: 320
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6" x 9"
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Related Categories: Religion / Christianity / General

The first volume in the series was noted here.

ASMEA Conference 2016 CFP

JAMES MCGRATH: Jewish Christianity and the Origins of Islam #CFP.

Sifting Project photos

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Sifting for Ancient Treasures (The Jewish Express). Actually there are several nice photos. It's always good to see the Temple Mount Sifting Project getting some attention. Background here (cf. here, here, and here) with oh so many links.

Kulik et al., The Bible in Slavic Tradition

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Bible in Slavic Tradition

Edited by Alexander Kulik, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Catherine Mary MacRobert, University of Oxford, Svetlina Nikolova, Cyrillo-Methodian Research Centre , Moshe Taube, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Cynthia M. Vakareliyska, University of Oregon
This volume contains selected papers from an international conference held in 2009 in Varna, Bulgaria. The papers represent major trends and developments in current research on the medieval Slavonic biblical tradition, primarily in comparison with Greek and Hebrew texts. The volume covers the translation of the canonical, apocryphal and pseudepigraphical books of the Old and New Testaments and its development over the ninth to sixteenth centuries. Another focus is on issues relating to Cyril and Methodius, the creators of the first Slavonic alphabet in the ninth century and the first translators of biblical books into Slavonic. The analytical approach in the volume is interdisciplinary, applying methodologies from textual criticism, philology, cultural and political history, and theology. It should be of value to Slavists, Hebraists and Byzantinists.

For past posts on Old Church Slavonic, especially in relation to the Old Testament pseudepigrapha, see here and here and many links

Literal creation stories?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Should We Take Creation Stories in Genesis Literally? (Robin Ngo). No. Next question?

This BHD post summarizes a a BAR column by Shawna Dolansky which is behind the subscription wall. But I'm pleased to see that it does not neglect that other creation account, the one not found in Genesis. Because dragons!

"Realia" and teaching the NT (etc.)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Realia and the Teacher’s Toolbox in the Postmodern New Testament Classroom (Richard Newton). The examples in this article could also be readily applied to the postmodern (or whatever) ancient Judaism classroom.

Jehoash inscription R.I.P.?

THE ASOR BLOG: The So-Called Jehoash Inscription: A Post Mortem (Ed Greenstein). Requires free registration to read in full. Excerpt:

Several months after the publication of the tablet and after several scholars had declared the text a fake, the State of Israel put the owner, Oded Golan, and other individuals on trial in Jerusalem district court, for this fraud and for other infractions. After seven and a half years of periodically hearing testimony from 130 witnesses, in March 2012, the judge delivered a 500-page opinion explaining the complexity of the case, in which experts contradicted experts. The judge did not find the Jehoash inscription to be authentic but felt there was enough doubt to acquit the defendant of the major criminal charges. In October 2013 the court ordered the Israel Antiquities Authority to return the tablet to its owner. The tablet was returned the following May.

The judge, overwhelmed by the diverse testimony, was inconclusive. However, the judgment of scholars who read ancient texts and analyze their language and writing is clear: no textbook of ancient Hebrew inscriptions will ever include the so-called Jehoash text; no historian of ancient Israel will ever count the inscription as a source; no grammarian or lexicographer of ancient Hebrew will ever include words, phrases, or forms found in the inscription as genuine data.

Geologists seem to be divided on whether the Jehoash (Joash) inscription could have been faked. Most philologists (myself included) think it is a forgery, but at least one has declined to declare it so, although even he makes no positive case for it being genuine. As usual, if a Semitic philologist ever wishes to publish a peer-review article making such a case, I will have a look at it. Meanwhile, I agree with Ed Greenstein. It's a fake.

Background on the inscription is here and here and many links.

P-s-e-u-d-e-p-i-g-r-a-p-h-a

WHICH PROVES YOU SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS: Chaunte Conquers - Ardenne High Student Is 2016 Spelling Bee Champion (Jamaica Gleaner).

P-s-e-u-d-e-p-i-g-r-a-p-h-a was the word that gave Chaunte the edge over Assana, who was unable to spell it correctly.

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

Archaeological discoveries preserved by nature

ACTUALLY, ALL ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES WERE PRESERVED BY NATURE, BUT THESE ARE INDEED IMPRESSIVE: 5 amazing archaeological discoveries preserved by nature: From Oetzi the Iceman to frozen woolly mammoths (Michael Kuhne, AccuWeather.com). The first item on the list is the Dead Sea Scrolls:

The Dead Sea is a salt lake bordered by Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. It is fed by several tributaries including the Jordan River.

Due to its high salinity and low elevation inside a deep basin, the climate of the Dead Sea region is unique. Atmospheric humidity in the area is relatively low and nearby regions are arid, which provided a very conducive environment for the preservation of the scrolls over the course of thousands of years.

"The fact that they survived for twenty centuries, that they were found accidentally by Bedouin shepherds, that they are the largest and oldest body of manuscripts relating to the Bible and to the time of Jesus of Nazareth make them a truly remarkable archaeological find," according to the U.S. Library of Congress.

The mummies of Pompeii are also on the list. More on them and on the destruction of Pompeii here and links.

2016 Israel Prize winner

CONGRATULATIONS TO PROFESSOR EDITH DORON: (Dov Smith, J-Wire).

Israeli Minister of Education Naftali Bennett has announced that Prof. Edit Doron a professor in the Department of Linguistics and at the Language, Logic and Cognition Center in the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.will be awarded the Israel Prize for her work in the study of Linguistics.

[...]

In its recommendation of Prof. Doron, the Israel Prize Committee said: “Prof. Edit Doron is a researcher at the forefront of linguistics research in Israel and the world, both in general and in formal linguistics, as well as in Hebrew and Semitic languages. Her research deals with a wide range of linguistic phenomena in a variety of languages. In her groundbreaking research she discovered new phenomena in spoken Hebrew today, and in classical Hebrew. Insights from these studies comprise a basis for research in numerous languages studied by the international scientific community. In recent years she turned to understanding the processes that influenced the formation of Modern Hebrew, and in this field she shows how it has evolved a natural evolution of the previous language combined with the great effect of the linguistics of its speakers.”

[...]

Some past winners of the Israel Prize have been noted here, here, here, here, here, here (sort of), here, and here.

In Idaho: lecture on Jewish magic

THE COLLEGE OF IDAHO: C OF I CONTINUES JUDAIC STUDIES LECTURESHIP.

he College of Idaho’s distinctive Craig Neilsen Foundation Lectureship in Judaic Studies is set to host Professor J.H. Chajes from the University of Haifa on Tuesday, Feb. 16. Professor Chajes will present two seminars for C of I students as well as the public lecture “Jewish Magic, Magical Judaism,” which is set for 7 p.m. in Lecture Hall 106 of the Kathryn Albertson International Center on the C of I campus in Caldwell. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The Feb. 16 public lecture will take a fascinating look at the place of magic in Judaism from ancient to modern times. Chajes will begin with an exploration of magic in the Bible and classical rabbinic sources, and then turn to medieval Jewish approaches to magic, examining techniques, critiques and legends. He will conclude with a look at the relationship between Jewish magic and contemporary Jewish culture. The lecture will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

[...]

Ancient canal system near Dead Sea

ARCHAEOLOGY: Roman-era canal system unearthed near Dead Sea.

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An ancient canal system used 2,000 years ago to irrigate terraced agricultural plots has been unearthed in an excavation near the Roman-era fortress of Metzad Bokek in southern Israel. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority jointly conducted the excavation.

[...]

Regarding the reference to "persimmon" later in the article, Joseph Lauer commented as follows (inter alia) in his e-mail circulating the article:

We’ve been through this before regarding articles that confuse the afarsemon plant of antiquity, balsam or balm, with the modern Hebrew word for persimmon, also afarsemon. See, e.g., TB Berachot 43a, and Jastrow, Dictionary 109a.

The English article does note, in a translated quote, that the trees “were different from the persimmon trees we know today”.

Shenaton Hamishpat Haivri 28

H-JUDAIC: TOC: Shenaton Hamishpat Haivri 28. Some of the articles deal with ancient Judaic matters.

The Aristophil collection isn't selling

Albert Einstein's notebook and Dead Sea Scrolls fragments among historic manuscripts struggling to find buyer. The value of the collection amassed by the Aristophil group has been estimated at hundreds of millions of euros (Nick Clark, John Lichfield, The Independent).

It is believed that close to 600 institutions and potential private investors have now been sounded out about a bid. Although the collection would enrich the home of any billionaire, it is hoped that a museum, foundation or gallery will come forward.

But it appears that interest has not been overwhelming. The original deadline for bids, ends on Wednesday but a French court hearing is expected to extend that date.

Sources in the art world suggest the collection may be overvalued, and that a top asking price of €100m might be more realistic.

“Yes, 5 per cent of the collection is extraordinary, but the remaining 95 per cent is insignificant,” one antiquarian bookseller told the Financial Times.

I'm curious to know more about the Dead Sea Scroll fragments in the collection. Not that I'm planning to submit a bid.

Background here and here.

JTS rabbinical grads honored

AWARDS: Jewish Theological Seminary to honor 3 prolific, longtime rabbinical grads. Rabbi David Geffen, along with Professors Lee Israel Levine and Aaron Demsky will receive the Louis Finkelstein Award at the JTS-Schocken Institute for Jewish Research in Jerusalem (Jeremy Sharon, Jerusalem Post).

The Jewish Theological Seminary will on Tuesday honor three rabbinical graduates from 50 years ago who made aliya and went on to excel in their fields of expertise.

Rabbi David Geffen, along with Professors Lee Israel Levine and Aaron Demsky will receive the Louis Finkelstein Award at the JTS-Schocken Institute for Jewish Research in Jerusalem.

Dr Beverly Gribetz, another JTS alumnus, will receive the Solomon Schechter Award for Jewish Education in recognition of her contributions to The State of Israel on Tuesday night as well.

Geffen, Levine and Demsky, were ordained by the JTS rabbinical school in New York in 1965.

Congratulations to all four, but the one of special interest to PaleoJudaica is Lee Levine:

Levine’s work focused on Jewish history and archaeology. He earned a PhD from Columbia University in New York, and was invited in the 1970s to teach at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem by the late archaeologist, politician and IDF Chief of Staff, Yigal Yadin.

Levine taught at the Institute for Archaeology at The Hebrew University and became a professor in 1985.

He wrote 13 books, edited another 12 works, and published about 200 academic papers.

He also founded the Tali network of schools and helped establish the Schechter Institute where he served as its first president.

Some past posts on Professor Levine's work are here, here, here, and here.

YU student research presentations

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY NEWS: Sharing Exceptional Research in Judaic Studies.
Yeshiva College Students Selected to Present at Princeton Jewish Studies Conference.

Two Yeshiva College students have been invited to present 15-minute lectures on their research at Princeton University’s inaugural Undergraduate Jewish Studies Conference on February 14, 2016. Yeshiva University is the only institution besides Princeton to be represented twice at the conference, which draws together outstanding students from universities across the country to share ideas and connect with other highly-motivated undergraduates.

Yakov Ellenbogen, a junior majoring in history from Sharon, Massachusetts, will present his work on the demonology of the Ramban, in which Ellenbogen closely examines Ramban’s attitudes on the classification and abilities of demons and how they interact with humanity, comparing those attitudes to those held by Ramban’s non-Jewish contemporaries.

[...]

Samuel Berkovitz, a senior at Yeshiva College majoring in Jewish studies from Far Rockaway, New York, will share his research on the prohibition against carrying objects on Shabbat as recorded in Second Temple-era literature, such as the Book of Jubilees or the Dead Seas Scrolls. ...

Congratulations to both.

The IAA responds to Mazar

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Prominent archaeologist claims Western Wall construction will cause irreparable damage. Less than 48 hours after cabinet approved historic overhaul for a gender-neutral prayer space, Hebrew University professor says construction will “absolutely ruin the site” (DANIEL K. EISENBUD, Jerusalem Post).

The significant upgrade to the Western Wall’s controversial egalitarian prayer section at Robinson’s Gate will ruin Judaism’s “jewel of archeology,” an internationally recognized archeologist from the Hebrew University contended Tuesday.

Less than 48 hours after the cabinet approved a historic overhaul for the gender-neutral prayer space, Dr. Eilat Mazar, of HU’s Institute of Archeology, said the construction will “absolutely ruin the site” by turning an irreplaceable archeological landmark into a religious site.

[...]

Her objections were covered in yesterday's post, but this article goes into somewhat more detail. And it includes this new information:

Despite Mazar’s scathing rebuke of the project, the Israel Antiquities Authority, which approved and will oversee the expansion, issued a brief statement saying it stands by its position, claiming the construction and resulting changes will be “minor.”

“In reaching the agreement, the IAA demanded measures to continue to maintain the character of the archeological surroundings,” it said.

Meanwhile, the left-wing NGO Emek Shaveh echoed Mazar’s concerns and further condemned the construction as an egregious violation of the Old City’s delicate status quo.

[...]

We'll see what happens.

€500K grant for DSS research

CONGRATULATIONS TO MLADEN POPOVIĆ AND EIBERT TIGCHELAAR:

Half a million euro NWO/FWO grant for Dead Sea Scrolls research
Were different communities involved in the production and interpretation of these manuscripts more than 2000 years ago?

February 02, 2016

Analysis of the content of the Dead Sea Scrolls has revealed that the different texts present a religiously diverse picture. The development of early Judaism over time is a possible explanation for this – or could there have been different religious communities, to which the scribes of the manuscripts belonged? NWO-FWO has awarded a EUR 500,000 grant for research to Professor Mladen Popović of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen and Professor Eibert Tigchelaar of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven.

Generous grant
It has just been announced that Cooperation Flanders, a joint initiative of FWO (the Research Foundation - Flanders ) and NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research), has awarded a EUR 500,000 grant for research into this. The research project, entitled Models of Textual Communities and Digital Palaeography of the Dead Sea Scrolls, will be led by Professor Mladen Popović from the Qumran Institute of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen and Professor Eibert Tigchelaar from the Biblical Studies research unit of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven. The support of NWO/FWO will make it possible for the universities of Groningen and Leuven, with two leading international research centres in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, to further intensify their collaboration both now and in the future. Popović and Tigchelaar’s research team will be aided by two PhD students. The research is expected to take four years, and a conference and workshops will also be held.

[...]

The Western Wall compromise and archaeology

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Reform prayer section to erase last signs of Temple destruction. Archaeologist warns government compromise to expand non-Orthodox Kotel prayer section will destroy priceless Jewish heritage. (Shimon Cohen, Arutz Sheva).

Dr. Eilat Mazar of Hebrew University's archaeology institute spoke to Arutz Sheva about the government's new decision to expand the non-Orthodox mixed prayer section of the Western Wall (Kotel), in the southern part of the Kotel.

Mazar warned that the decision to construct yet another prayer section for Reform Jews, in an expansion of a similar space built in 2013, could prove disastrous for the last remaining area where signs of the destruction of the Second Temple just under 2,000 years ago can be witnessed.

"In the archaeological park at the feet of the Western Wall there is only one section that is exposed and can be viewed. All the rest is underground. This is the southernmost section where the Herodian Quarter from the days of the Second Temple are preserved the way they were," she said.

Mazar added that "in the excavations of my grandfather Professor (Binyamin) Mazar a giant rockslide of the walls that the Romans destroyed on the Temple Mount was discovered."

She noted that the rockslide from the Temple's walls was excavated over the years, and "when they expanded the archaeological park - they moved the southern portion of Herodian road. What remains from all this impressive massive rockslide of these great stones is just a pile of a few dozen meters in a very narrow portion in this section."

The site of the remaining ruins of the Temple walls is exactly the point where the new Reform and Conservative prayer section is planned.

[...]

One David Newman has an Opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post which refers to IAA objections to the plan. : Borderline views: The Antiquities Authority’s campaign against pluralism at the Western Wall. Just as the environmentalists may not like turning to the defense establishment for assistance, so we would assume the archaeologists do not like serving the interests of the Orthodox establishment.I cannot find any other references to these objections of the IAA, but Mr. Newman summarizes them as follows:

However, the opposition of the Antiquities Authority to the preparation of a separate space further along the wall for non-Orthodox and mixed-gender prayer on the basis that this will prevent further excavations of one of the most important ancient Jewish sites in Israel, as well as limiting access to those who came to see the archaeology rather than for prayer, serves the interests of the Orthodox community, who are strongly opposed to such forms of alternative prayer.

.He summarizes his own view as follows:

Strange coalitions often emerge when interests are threatened. It is unlikely that in the most recent case of the prayer sites at the Western Wall, such a coalition was planned in advance. But the opposition of the Antiquities Authority to this week’s government decision serves the interests of other lobbyists – in this case the Orthodox community – who must be rubbing their hands with glee at this unexpected intervention against religious pluralism.

I can't say I find the essay particular illuminating. It attempts to explain the political motivations of the various parties involved, which is fine, but it does not respond the archaeological objections to the plan, nor does it refer to Dr. Mazar's objections, which sound more urgent.

To make matters more complicated, the Grant Mufti of Jerusalem, for his own reasons, finds himself significantly in agreement with Dr. Mazar and the Orthodox: Grand Mufti condemns new Jewish egalitarian prayer section at Western Wall. In a press statement he released on Monday, Hussien claimed that the prayer space adjacent to the Western Wall is “the property of the Islamic waqf that was taken by the Israeli occupation in 1967.” (KHALED ABU TOAMEH, Jerusalem Post).

If you are having trouble visualizing the proposed changes, have a look at this article: 3 Maps That Explain The Western Wall Compromise (Ben Sales, JTA).

To be clear, Dr. Mazar does not object to the concept in principle. Rather, because of the archaeological problems with this plan she says "Find another plan." For my part, I am not an expert on the details of the geography of the Temple Mount and its vicinity, but I am very concerned by the objections raised by Dr. Mazar and I would like to see them addressed by someone who is. Perhaps Leen Ritmeyer will weigh in on this one?

UPDATE (3 February): More here.

Jewish Law Annual 21 (2015)

H-JUDAIC: TOC: The Jewish Law Annual 21. Some of the articles deal with ancient Jewish law.

More on the new Lod Mosaic

ARCHAEOLOGY: ‘This is the best of the Roman tradition': A new mosaic unveiled in Israel (Apollo Magazine).

A second Roman floor was found at the site of the Lod mosaic in 2009. Archaeologist Amir Gorzalczany, of the Israel Antiquities Authority, tells Imelda Barnard what this recently unveiled discovery reveals about the villa that housed them 1,700 years ago

Excerpt:

What does the new mosaic depict?
It’s a very rich, late Roman work, composed of rectangular concentric frames. Inside are nine medallions, octagonal in shape: five of these depict animals fighting or hunting; two depict fish, showing species from the Mediterranean Sea; and two others reveal birds – doves and partridges beside objects, including an amphora and a basket of flowers. Based on the ceramic shards found during the excavation, and on numismatic – as well as artistic – grounds, we have dated it to the 3rd century. This mosaic is the best of the Roman tradition.

Background here. And there are many posts on the first Lod Mosaic and its recent international peregrinations here and links.

Action adventure tales in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Talmud: We Don’t Negotiate With Terrorists. This week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ features captives, kidnappers, and extortionists; ransom, escape, and stonings—and black magic.

If you were to make a movie about the Talmud, the hero would have to be Reish Lakish. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, usually referred to as Reish Lakish, had a biography more typical of an action hero than a sage. His first career was as a gladiator in the Roman circus, before Rabbi Yochanan convinced him to devote his life to Torah. In this week’s Daf Yomi reading, in Gittin 47a, there was a story about Reish Lakish that testified to his combination of strength and cunning. Apparently, there was a tradition among gladiators that before one was put to death, he was granted any wish he asked for. When Reish Lakish was about to be killed, then, he asked he asked his captors, “I want to tie you up and have you sit, and I will strike each of you one and a half times.”

Probably they should have smelled a rat ...

Probably. Good story though.

As Mr. Kirsch notes, the attention to the subject of hostage-taking for ransom indicates that it was not an infrequent occurrence. We have seen many stories, not least in these columns, which have shown how difficult it is for us moderns to imagine the brutal and degrading world the ancients took for granted.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Biblical Studies Carnival CXX

BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL CXX has been published by Tim Bulkeley at Sansblogue.

SBL MEGA (etc.) 2016 CFP

THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE AND AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION ANNUAL MEETINGS are in San Antonio, Texas on 19-22 November 2016. The Call for Papers for both is open. (The link leads to the SBL one.) Here is the CFP for the SBL's MEGA Section:

MYSTICISM, ESOTERICISM, AND GNOSTICISM IN ANTIQUITY

Program Unit Type: Section
Accepting Papers? Yes
Call For Papers: For its open session, the Mysticism, Esotericism and Gnosticism in Antiquity (MEGA) Section invites papers on any theme or text related to direct knowledge of the divine or God. Papers on the subject of amulets and inscribed religious objects are especially welcome for a special session on this topic. An invited book review session is also planned with the following books featured: April D. DeConick. 2016. The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion From Antiquity to Today (Columbia University Press); Frances L. Flannery. 2015. Understanding Apocalyptic Terrorism: Countering the Radical Mindset (Routledge); Andrei Orlov. 2015. Divine Scapegoats: Demonic Mimesis in Early Jewish Mysticism (SUNY).

Follow the link for details regarding submitting a paper.

Other bloggers have been noting the CFPs for other program units. Here are a couple I have come across recently:

James McGrath: 2016 AAR Call for Papers: Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity;

Liv Ingeborg Lied: SBL Book History and Biblical Literatures CFP.

Philological excavation of the Web

CAROLINE T. SCHROEDER IS LOOKING FOR: Coptic and Syriac on the early WWW.

HT AJR.

The Virtual Bible Project

ASOR BLOG: Virtual Bible Project [PODCAST]. Cross-file under Technology Watch.

Jesus dissed the apostles?

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: What Jesus Thought of the Apostles (James McGrath). The quotation is amusing, although taken out of context. But it's a good way to get people to notice the text.

Jewish Studies Professorship at Case Western

H-JUDAIC: JOB: Case Western University, Abba Hillel Silver Professorship in Jewish Studies

The Department of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University invites applications and nominations for a senior position (professor or associate professor) for the Abba Hillel Silver Professorship in Jewish Studies. Associate professors must demonstrate a record of publications, including monograph, as well as other evidence of scholarly accomplishments. Professors must have national or international recognition for their scholarship, an expansive record of publications, and the promise of on-going productivity. The successful applicant must also demonstrate a commitment to teaching. Area of research specialization is open.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars. The review of applications begins on 25 February 2016.

Tahtonim

YONA SABAR: Hebrew word of the week: Tahtonim “underwear, panties.”

In Rabbinic Hebrew, taHtonim means “worldly, as the human body” versus elyonim, “celestial; as the human soul” (Rashi on Genesis 2:7).

That's quite a semantic shift.

Talk Gnosis: McGrath on the Mandaeans

JAMES MCGRATH is featured a Talk Gnosis Interview about the Mandaeans. This links to video of the first 20 minutes of the interview. The full video is only available to subscribers, but you can listen to the full audio file at the link given in this post.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts on the Mandaeans (Mandeans) are collected here.

Gorgias Press

SYRIAC WATCH: Why Gorgias Matters (Philip Jenkins, The Anxious Bench).

Writings from the eastern churches, above all in Syriac, survive in large quantities, although they are not easily accessible to most Western scholars. Hence the enormous significance of the Gorgias Press, based in Piscataway, NJ, which tries to make these materials readily available. Gorgias was founded in 2001, by George Kiraz. The Press “is an independent academic publisher of books and journals covering several areas related to religious studies, the world of ancient western Asia, classics, and Middle Eastern studies. Specific areas of our current specializations are studies in Ancient Near East, Arabic and Islam, Archaeology, Bible, Classics, Early Christianity, Judaism, Linguistics, Syriac, and Ugaritic.”

[...]

To give some idea of what I am talking about, just imagine an alternate world where Christianity had boomed in Asia but not in Western Europe, and where Latin writings were largely lost to scholarship. Then imagine the experience of a historian suddenly discovering the forgotten texts of these obscure characters called Augustine, Gregory the Great, Benedict, Thomas Aquinas …. Then felt I like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken.

Some ancient Jewish writings whose originals are now lost still survive in Syriac, notably 4 Ezra (also in Latin) and 2 Baruch.

Jewish Law postdoc at the Hebrew University

H-JUDAIC: POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP IN THE FIELD OF JEWISH LAW, THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF LAW.

Eligible candidates from Israel or overseas must have completed their doctorate, from 2011 onward. Candidates who research Jewish law will be considered from a variety of academic disciplines (including Jewish philosophy, history, religious studies, social sciences, and other relevant fields).

The bold emphasis is in the original. Follow the link for further particulars. The application deadline is 15 February 2016.

The scribe of the Leningrad Codex

DREW LONGACRE: Samuel ben Jacob and the Leningrad Codex. The scribe who wrote the Leningrad Codex (the text basis for the widely used Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia etc.) appears in the January 2016 Taylor-Schecter Cairo Geniza fragment of the month.

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.

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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.

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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.