Anabasis 6 (2016)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: New issue of Anabasis.

The sixth issue of ANABASIS: Studia Classica et Orientalia is published by department of Ancient History and Oriental Studies, Institute of History at Rzeszów University.

Follow the link for the TOC. The topics are wide ranging, but ancient Judaism is well represented.

Fellowship on Jews and the Material in Antiquity

H-JUDAIC: Fellowship Opportunity: 2017-18 Frankel Institute Theme "Jews and the Material in Antiquity."

The Frankel Institute’s 2017–2018 theme year will ask how Jews in the ancient world related both to matter itself and to issues of materiality. How did ancient Jews sense, understand, and even construct material entities such as artifacts, bodies, environments, and so on? How did those who were not Jewish perceive or represent the relationships between Jews and matter? Finally, how has the history of Jews and matter been reconstructed in modern scholarship and how might scholars approach the nexus of Jews and the material more productively?

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars. The application deadline is 7 October 2016.

Anton on Fifty Shades of Talmud

AUDIO INTERVIEW: Rejuvenation: “Fifty Shades of Talmud: What the First Rabbis Had to Say about You-Know-What” (Jewish Press).

In her first nonfiction book, award winning historical novelist Maggie Anton combines her Talmudic scholarship with curiosity about the Sages ideas on Sex and Intimacy. Listen in as the popular author of the ‘Rashi’s Daughters’ series discusses with Eve Harow everything from exactly how we are supposed to be “fruitful and multiply’ to why the modern world needs Judaism’s refreshing honesty on physical relationships in all their forms. Pithy and pious, hilarious and serious, ’50 Shades of Talmud’ gives surprising perspective on a much discussed old/new topic. (Note: If you’re a prude, give this interview a miss…..)

Background on Ms. Anton and her latest book is here and links.

OI Open Access Publications on Persepolis

AWOL: Open Access Publications on Persepolis from the Oriental Institute. Persepolis has been mentioned from time to time by PaleoJudaica, mostly in connection with the Persepolis Fortification Archive, which has preserved, among other things, many texts in Persian-era Aramaic. For past posts on the Archive and its complex and contentious political history (an ongoing court case on whether it can be sold to compensate terrorism victims), start here and follow the links back.

Origin of the Samaritan Pentateuch

BIBLE ODYSSEY: Origin of the Samaritan Pentateuch (Terry Giles). HT AJR. Past posts on the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Samaritans are here and here and links.

Ceriani’s facsimile of Codex Ambrosianus B.21

LIV INGEBORG LIED: What facsimiles may do for you: the Syriac Codex Ambrosianus (7a1) reimagined.

However, what I want to run with you in the current blog post is the ways in which facsimile editions may also shape our imagination, both of a manuscript and its texts, using Ceriani’s facsimile edition as a test case. The effects of a facsimile may be more subtle and therefore sometimes harder to pin down, since a facsimile edition is supposed to be a reproduction of the manuscript page and because it is sometimes used by scholars as a manuscript replacement. “Facsimile” – the very word promises an exact copy, right?

More on Codex Ambrosianus B.21 is here and links. Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

Villeneuve, Nuptial Symbolism

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Nuptial Symbolism in Second Temple Writings, the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature
Divine Marriage at Key Moments of Salvation History

André Villeneuve, St. John Vianney Theological Seminary
In Nuptial Symbolism in Second Temple Writings, the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature, André Villeneuve examines the ancient Jewish concept of the covenant between God and Israel, portrayed as a marriage dynamically moving through salvation history. This nuptial covenant was established in Eden but damaged by sin; it was restored at the Sinai theophany, perpetuated in the Temple liturgy, and expected to reach its final consummation at the end of days.

The authors of the New Testament adopted the same key moments of salvation history to describe the spousal relationship between Christ and the Church. In their typological treatment of these motifs, they established an exegetical framework that would anticipate the four senses of Scripture later adopted by patristic and medieval commentators.

Judeo-Persian Literature

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Judeo-Persian Literature.

Iran Nameh, New Series, Volume 1, Number 2 (Summer 2016)

The second issue of Iran Nameh, New Series, Volume 1, Number 2 (Summer 2016), a memorial volume in honour of Professor Amnon Netzer (1934-2008), the Iranian-Jewish historian and researcher of Iranian Jewry and Judeo-Persian Literature is published. The volume comprises bilingual Persian and English contributions on different aspects of Judeo-Persian Literature and Iranian Jewry.

Follow the link for the TOC. Past posts involving Judeo-Persian are here, here, here, here, and many links.

"On the enduring legacy of the Loeb Library"

PHILOLOGY: The bright ghosts of antiquity (John Talbot, The New Criterion). A long essay on the Loeb Classical Library, its evolution, and its influence. You should read it all, but I like the way it closes:

I have a little apocalyptic fantasy that involves the collection of Loebs in my local library. It’s a complete set, from Homer’s rosy-fingered dawn to the twilight of Ammianus Marcellinus. The very sight of it is reassuringly tidy: all the sprawling energies of a thousand years of Greek and Roman thought and song, distilled and compacted into these snug matching volumes, the Greek bound in olive drab, the Latin in scarlet. Run your fingers over the spines. Here are The Classics.

Then comes a nuclear holocaust. My local library, like others around the world, is mostly pulverized, but an accident involving molten rubber preserves the case of Loebs intact within a sealed airtight cavity beneath the rubble. Centuries elapse and deposit their layers of sediment. Above ground, the descendants of the survivors plod on, speaking a crude version of English, and when their vestigial civilization is at last stable enough to permit cultivation of the liberal arts, their curiosity turns to the prior civilization, ours, whose evident sophistication is attested only in the occasionally exposed ruin, or in fragments of excavated texts. Of this second category, a half-page of Danielle Steele, the corner of a Dunkin’ Donuts advert, and the odd shred of Paradise Regained are all scrutinized, edited, and interpreted with equal zeal. The fragments are exasperating: they imply a vast literature, and behind it a teeming culture, all tantalizingly out of reach.

Until one day when excavation unseals that underground cavity, and for the first time in so many centuries, sunlight falls on those green and red spines. The whole Loeb Classical Library, dedicated to preserving whatever could be salvaged from an even earlier lost civilization, has itself survived intact. The excavators fall upon the cache and discover not only the English (which they can mostly make out, though it appears to them as remote as Chaucer to us) but also, to their astonishment, on the facing pages, two strange, even more ancient languages, one with an unfamiliar alphabet. Amid a storm of speculations it is posited that the English is the key to the other two tongues, and in time a latter-day Champollion steps forward and reconstructs the grammar of Latin and Greek. His successors, pioneer scholars of the recovered ancient languages, are at first awestruck—what are these voices speaking out of the dust?—and then electrified, as they begin to read and assimilate Homer and Sophocles and Lucretius and Augustine. These voices must be emulated; the standards are daunting but stimulating; though ancient, they point the way to something new. Academies are organized for teaching the new languages; young souls (they will become poets and historians and scientists) are once again smitten by the songs of Sappho and Catullus, the grave brilliance of Thucydides and Tacitus, the searching effervescence of Plato’s Socrates and Aristotle’s dogged earthbound inquisitiveness. The post-apocalyptic world shrugs off its torpor, hums with ideas and energy and hope.

I suppose what I mean by all this is that it is good to know that the Loeb Classical Library is there, patiently waiting, in case any civilization (not least our own present one) should require a renaissance.

This little apocalyptic fantasy is really not too far from what actually happened in the nineteenth century. We carried on the tradition through the twentieth century and, falteringly, into the twenty-first. It remains to be seen whether the rising nihilism and barbarism of modern society (including academia) can be resisted enough to pass this legacy on to future generations.

Past posts on the Loeb Classical Library are here and here and links.

'Arel

YONA SABAR: Hebrew word of the week: ’arel “uncircumcised; Philistine (Bible); Christian.”

Hallam, Basics of Classical Syriac

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM ZONDERVAN:

Basics of Classical Syriac: Complete Grammar, Workbook, and Lexicon Paperback – June 21, 2016
by Steven C. Hallam (Author)

Basics of Classical Syriac by Steven C. Hallam is a beginning Syriac grammar, workbook, and lexicon all in one and can be used by independent learners or a classroom setting.

Of the early translational languages of the New Testament, none is more important than Syriac. A working knowledge of Syriac provides a lens from which to study the early texts of the Greek New Testament, the Peshitta (the Syriac translation of the Bible), and various early church history texts and commentary, thus Basics of Classical Syriac is useful for students across a range of disciplines. Workbook exercises for each chapter enable students to know whether they are grasping the fundamentals of the language.

Basics of Classical Syriac provides an ideal first step into this ancient language and focuses on getting the student into text translation as quickly as possible.

Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

BAJS 2016 reminder

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: BAJS Conference 2016: The Texture of Jewish Tradition: Investigations in Textuality. The British Association for Jewish Studies Conference meets this year at the University of Birmingham on 10-12 July. The deadline for registrations is 12 June.

This conference will explore textuality from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the material aspects of texts, including the growing role of digital humanities in the field, to scribal culture and consciousness. The event will also involve discussions around textual plurality, composition, reworking, form, genre, reception, classification, and inter-relationships between textual worlds and corpora. Speakers will also investigate the oral and social aspects of texts and textuality, such as performance, memory and power.

The keynote talk, titled 'Scribal Bodies and the Growth of Scriptures in Early Judaism' will be given by Professor Judith Newman (University of Toronto).

The conference covers the full range of Jewish history and literature, but Judaism from the Second Temple period through the Rabbinic period is well represented.

Clivaz et al. (eds.), Ancient Worlds in Digital Culture

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Ancient Worlds in Digital Culture

Edited by Claire Clivaz, Paul Dilley, David Hamidović
The volume presents a selection of research projects in Digital Humanities applied to the “Biblical Studies” in the widest sense and context, including Early Jewish and Christian studies, hence the title “Ancient Worlds”. Taken as a whole, the volume restitutes the merging Digital Culture at the beginning of the 21st century. It also promotes many examples which attest to a change of paradigm in the textual scholarship of “Ancient Worlds”: categories are reshaped; textuality is (re-)investigated according to its relationships with oral and visualization; methods, approaches and practices are no more a fixed conglomeration but they are mobilized according to their contexts and the new available digital tools.

Howe and Müller (eds.), Folly and Violence in the Court of Alexander ...

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Folly and Violence in the Court of Alexander the Great and his Successors? Notice of a new book: Howe, Time & Sabine Müller (eds.). 2016. Folly and Violence in the Court of Alexander the Great and his Successors?. Bochum & Freiburg: Projekt verlag.

Alexander and his successors (the Diadochoi) figure prominently in the apocalyptic oracles in the second half of the Book of Daniel. Any background on the Greco-Roman reception of traditions about them is always of interest.

Geniza Fragments 71

GENIZA FRAGMENTS 71. The April 2016 issue of the Newsletter of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library has an article on the Faith After the Pharaohs exhibition at the British Museum and another on the symposium honoring the life and legacy of Solomon Schechter, plus articles on some Geniza fragments and more.

The last issue of the newsletter was noted here.

Porter and Yoon (eds.), Paul and Gnosis

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Paul and Gnosis

Edited by Stanley E. Porter, McMaster Divinity College and David I. Yoon, McMaster Divinity College.
This collection of essays—the ninth volume in Brill’s Pauline Studies series—features Paul and his relationship to knowledge. Gnosis, the Greek word generally translated as "knowledge," is broadly interpreted, and the essays contained in this volume revolve around both a more general notion of knowledge in relation to Paul and more specific references to Gnosticism. Several of these essays discuss Paul’s use of "knowledge" words, Paul’s knowledge and understanding of key themes and ideas in his writings, Paul’s interpreters in light of gnostics like Valentinus and Marcion, and Gnosticism in light of Paul’s letters. This collection of essays exposes the reader to crucial topics regarding Paul and Gnosis that are not readily addressed elsewhere.

The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: Jewish or Christian Pseudepigrapha? (Phillip J. Long, Reading Acts Blog). HT James McGrath on Facebook. Professor Long may also want to have a look at my book, The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha: Jewish, Christian, or Other? (Brill, 2005).

Hurtado on messiahship and divine sonship

LARRY HURTADO: Messiah and Divine Son.

Among interesting points raised in the discussion at the Salamanca symposium last week was the observation by Prof. Guijarro that ascriptions of divine sonship to Jewish messianic figures of the second-temple period aren’t common, whereas in earliest Christian discourse Jesus’ filial status with God is more frequent and prominent.

[...]

Tanach online

AWOL: Tanach - תנ״ך. An online edition of the Hebrew Bible. Looks useful.

Mroczek on the canon etc.

FRANKLY JUDAIC PODCAST: Eva Mroczek, "The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity." Dr. Mroczek's book The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity (OUP), was noted as forthcoming here. It has now been published.

Review of Kalleres, City of Demons

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Kalleres, City of Demons (Rex Barnes). Review of City of Demons: Violence, Ritual, and Christian Power in Late Antiquity. By Dayna S. Kalleres. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015. Pp. ix-374.

Grant for the Museum of the Jewish People

IN TEL AVIV: The Museum of the Jewish People receives a major renewal campaign gift from the David Berg Foundation. "The gift will support the creation of a gallery in the new core exhibition at The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot entitled “Jewish Centers of Antiquity: Babylonia and the Land of Israel” (Shula Bahat, RNS).

The exhibition will tell the parallel stories of Jewish life in the Land of Israel and Babylonia in the centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. It will look at how the Jews in both centers, living in the heart of the Greek and Persian empires, respectively, created cultural and intellectual traditions that changed the face of Judaism.

Safaee, Darius III: The Last Great King

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Darius III: The Last Great King. New book: Safaee, Yazdan. 2016. Darius III: The Last Great King. Tehran: Hamisheh, Pishinpažouh.

Darius III was the last king of the Persian empire, defeated by Alexander the Great. He appears in the Book of Daniel implicitly in 8:7, when the he-goat from the west (Alexander the Great) strikes down the ram with two horns (the Medo-Persian empire). Darius III may also be the unnamed fourth king of Persia in 11:2. Darius was not actually the fourth king in the series of Persian rulers; he was more like the eleventh (depending on whom you count), but the writer of Daniel seems to have been less than fully informed about such matters.

Furstenberg, Purity and Community in Antiquity

NEW BOOK FROM MAGNES PRESS:

Purity and Community in Antiquity
Traditions of the Law from Second Temple Judaism to the Mishnah

By Yair Furstenberg

Publisher: The Hebrew University Magnes Press
Categories:
History, Talmud, Jewish Studies
Publish date: May 2016
Language: Hebrew (N.B.)
Danacode: 45-131138
ISBN: 978-965-493-874-7
Cover: Hardcover
Pages: 479
Weight: 1000 gr.

How did purity evolve into the one most significant religious category during the Second Temple period? What was the role of purity discourse in the reformation of Jewish society and religion in Late Antiquity?

The concern for purity shaped Second Temple Judaism, and its significance expanded far beyond the limited realm of the Temple. The fear of impurity shaped daily conduct, stood at the heart of ideological discourse and set the contours of Jewish society. The question how to ensure ritual and moral purity was of cosmic dimensions, and therefore determined the dividing lines between the main parties of Jewish society in Palestine. The Qumran sect developed the notion of the defiling sin, and Jesus was viewed by his followers as the ultimate purifier. Against these alternatives, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of the purity policy in the teachings of the dominant Pharisees. Early rabbinic traditions alongside anti-pharisaic sources uncover a controversial policy focused on the body and not on the purity of the Temple. They provided purification to wider social circles, while preserving its role in maintaining their own status. The book further demonstrates the fundamental change of religious life and social practices from the Second Temple period through the rise of the rabbinic movement, which offered a new version of ritual purity and community. A close analysis of the halakhic traditions in rabbinic literature reveals the gradual disintegration of the ancient religious culture and the emergence of the rabbinic culture within new social contexts.

JSJ 47.1 (2016)

THE JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF JUDAISM has a new issue out (47.1 [2016]). TOC:

Research Article
The Language of Stones: Roman Milestones on Rabbinic Roads
Author: Joshua Levinson
Source: Page Count 20

Research Article
Ein Text aus Palästina? Gedanken zur einleitungswissenschaftlichen Verortung der Apokalypse des Abraham
Author: Michael Sommer
Source: Page Count 21

Research Article
Cult Statuary in the Judean Temple at Yeb
Author: Collin Cornell
Source: Page Count 19

Research Article
Listening with the Body, Seeing through the Ears: Contextualizing Philo’s Lecture Event in On the Contemplative Life
Author: Matthew David Larsen
Source: Page Count 28

Research Article
Was There an Altar or a Temple in the Sacred Precinct on Mt. Gerizim?
Author: Reinhard Pummer
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 1 –21

Research Article
How the “Torah of Moses” Became Revelation
Author: David Lambert
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 22 –54

Research Article
The Hasmoneans and their Rivals in Seleucid and Post-Seleucid Judea
Author: Benedikt Eckhardt
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 55 –70

Research Article
Reading Aid: 2 Maccabees and the History of Jason of Cyrene Reconsidered
Author: Francis Borchardt
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 71 –87

Research Article
Lost and Stolen Property at Qumran: The “Oath of Adjuration”
Author: Kimberley Czajkowski
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 88 –103

Research Article
The Euphrates as Temporal Marker in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch
Author: Shayna Sheinfeld
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 104 –118

Research Article
On Transcription and Oral Transmission in Aseneth: A Study of the Narrative’s Conception
Author: Nicholas A. Elder
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 119 –142

Book Review
Ancient Jewish Letters and the Beginnings of Christian Epistolography , written by Lutz Doering
Author: Pieter W. van der Horst
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 143 –145

Book Review
Erste Reihe: Die Tosefta. Seder III: Naschim. Band III,2: Nedarim—Nezirut , written by Rabbinische Texte
Author: Günter Stemberger
Source: Volume 47, Issue 1, pp 146 –147

The abstracts can be accessed for free, but access to the articles requires a paid personal or institutional subscription.

Israel to clear mines from (traditional) site of Jesus' baptism

POLITICAL AND OTHER MINEFIELDS: Israel to Clear Landmines From Christian Holy Site Near Jericho.

JNS.org – Qasr al-Yahud, a site just north of the Dead Sea near Jericho where many Christians believe Jesus was baptized, will be cleared of landmines a half-century after Israel took control of the area during the 1967 Six-Day War.

[...]

The site and its unfortunate location between minefields, along with other more political complications, have been noted and discussed here and here. It is a pilgrimage site, so I'm glad this dangerous situation is being corrected.

Russian army barracks at Palmyra?

PALMYRA WATCH: Russians building army base at Syria’s Palmyra site: archaeologist (AP). Apparently the base is located just inside the protected no-build archaeological zone and the construction is proceeding without permission. At the same time, Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, emphasized that fighting with ISIS is still going on nearby and the presence of the Russian and Syrian troops in Palmyra is needed. Maybe if they ask the Russians very nicely to relocate a little?

Background on Palmyra is here with many links.

Betrothal in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Love and Marriage, Love and Marriage, Go Together Like a— In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ reading, Talmudic debates over marriage contracts are often predicated on linguistic precision, not human needs.

Between the laws of levirate marriage, marriage contracts, divorce, and betrothal, the Talmud has more to say about the subject of marriage than virtually any other topic. Even Shabbat, the subject of two lengthy tractates in Seder Moed, is not so productive of laws and legal debates as marriage. This makes sense, because while Shabbat is the holiest day in Jewish life, its laws are commandments, not subjects for negotiation. When the rabbis say that Jews are not allowed to perform 39 categories of labor on Shabbat, there is no way for Jews to bring God to court and argue with Him about exactly what He intended. Marriage, on the other hand, is understood in Jewish law as a contract between two parties, the bride and the groom, which means that it is capable of endless refinements and disagreements. Indeed, when talking about marriage law, the rabbis laid down many rules that can apply to any kind of contractual agreement—rules having to do with intention, agency, conditionality, and other complex matters.

[...]

As I've said before about various Talmudic matters, it's complicated.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Postdoc at HMML

EXPLORING OUR MATRIX: Post-doctoral Cataloging Fellowship at HMML. James McGrath posts the full advert for this two-year fellowship at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library. It involves cataloging of Arabic (including Garshuni), Syriac, and possibly Coptic manuscripts. This looks like a position that will take up some of the work of Adam McCollum. Adam was Lead Cataloger, Eastern Christian Manuscripts, at HMML, but last autumn he moved to another project at the University of Vienna. When he was at HMML he ran a blog called hmmlorientalia. I wonder if the new appointee will take it up again.

Kabbalah 34-35

TWO NEW VOLUMES OF THE JOURNAL KABBALAH:

KABBALAH: JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF JEWISH MYSTICAL TEXTS
VOLUME 35 (2015) 320 pages ISBN 9781933379562

Studies in English
Daniel Abrams: Metatron, the Lesser Lord, the Angel Called Elohim – A Kabbalistic Treatise from Thirteenth-Century Castile: Text, Translation and Commentary
Nathan Wolski: Moses de León and Midrash ha-Ne‘elam – On the Beginnings of the Zohar
Studies in Hebrew
Daniel Reiser and Ariel Evan Mayse – ‘For Many Years He Said This’: A Forgotten Manuscript of the Sefat Emet
Avi Elqayam: Liberating Nudity in Sabbateanism – Between the Messiah and His Prophet
Hagai Pely: The Conception of Halakhah in the Writings of the Author of Tiqqunei Zohar – A Reappraisal
Warren Zev Harvey: What Did the Rymanover Really Say about the Aleph of Anokhi?"
Daniel Abrams: The Earliest Manuscript of the Zohar – Ms. Vatican 202, Circa 1300: A Quote in Aramaic in the Name of R. Shimon bar Yohai in the ‘The Secret of Leverite Marriage’ and the Various Copyings of Zoharic Texts in the Manuscript

KABBALAH: JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF JEWISH MYSTICAL TEXTS
VOLUME 34 (2015) 320 pages ISBN 9781933379548

Studies in English
Daniel Abrams: Divine Jealousy – Kabbalistic Traditions of Triangulation
Elliot R. Wolfson: Anonymity and the Kabbalistic Ethos – A Fourteenth-Century Supercommentary on the Commentary on the Sefirot
Eliezer Papo: ‘Meliselda’ and its Symbolism for Sabbatai Sevi, His Inner Circle and His Later Followers
Nathan Wolski: Radical Allegoresis and Neoplatonic Myth – in Midrash ha-Ne‘elam
Studies in Hebrew
Uri Safrai: ‘What is Absent in One is Revealed in the Other: The Concept of Completeness in the Writings of R. Naftali Hertz Treves
Jacob Barnai: ‘Sabbateanism after the Death of Sabbatai Sevi’ – Gershom Scholem’s Lectures from the Hebrew University, 1960-1961 from the Notebooks of Zalman Shazar
Leore Sachs-Shmueli, ‘I Arouse the Shekhinah’: A Psychoanalytic Study of Anxiety and Desire of the Kabbalah in Relation to the Object of Taboo’
Avi Elqayam: Photography on Gravestones: Iconography and Messianism in Sabbatean Cemeteries in Istanbul
Avishai Bar-Asher: Sefer ha-Nequdah, the Short Sefer ha-Yihud and Fragments from Sefer Or Zaru‘a and Sefer Toledot Adam

You can order volumes of this journal from Cherub Press here.

Binder et al. (eds.), Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und Kultur des Nahen Ostens ...

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: History and Culture of the Ancient Near East. New book: Binder, Carsten, Henning Börm & Andreas Luther (eds.). 2016. Diwan. Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und Kultur des Nahen Ostens und des östlichen Mittelmeerraumes im Altertum. Festschrift für Josef Wiesehöfer zum 65. Geburtstag. Duisburg: Wellem Verlag.

The contents cover a lot of ground, but ancient Judaism is represented.

Apocrypha Now

NEW BOOK: Top Shelf exclusive: Apocrypha Now makes the Bible fun (and funny) (Oliver Sava, A.V. Club).

The Bible is big in comics this season, and just a month after Drawn & Quarterly released Chester Brown’s Mary Wept Over The Feet Of Jesus, Top Shelf is publishing Apocrypha Now, the follow-up to Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler’s 2013 book God Is Disappointed In You. Pairing Russell’s irreverent prose interpretations of Biblical legend with Wheeler’s droll single-panel cartoons, Apocrypha Now offers a comedic take on stories left out of the canonical Bible, including the Midrash, the Apocrypha, and the Gnostic Gospels. It’s a jam-packed read that turns these ancient texts into engaging, accessible narratives, with a strong sense of humor that draws the reader into these tales.

[...]

An excerpt of the Cain and Abel story is included. It is funny, in macabre way. There seems to be a lot of Midrash, but also cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch (excerpt here) and Old Testament Apocrypha Watch.

More Palestinian Jewish-Temple denial

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: ‘Jews invented the Temple Mount lie.’ Organization representing Palestinian religious leaders praises the UNESCO denial of Jewish ties to the Temple Mount (Dalit Halevy, Arutz Sheva). Here we go again:

The Association of Palestinian Scholars and Preachers praised the controversial decision of UNESCO, which recently denied Jewish history at the Temple Mount and referred to the area only as the religious Islamic sites "Al-Haram Al-Sharif" and “Al-Aqsa Mosque."

The Association declared this decision a victory for the religious and historical legitimacy of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is built on the Mount - the holiest site in Judaism.

The Association further declared that the term Temple Mount is an "historical lie" invented by Jews, and that history is not allowed to be established on “lies," in an ironic statement given that the First and Second Temples stood at the site, as has been repeatedly proven by archaeology.

[...]

I would phrase the last clause of the last sentence a little more precisely. The archaeological case for the existence of the Herodian Temple (and therefore the Second Temple, of which the former was an extensive refurbishment) is overwhelming. The case for the existence of the First Temple is inferential, but compelling. No specialist in ancient Jewish history or the archaeology of the region doubts the existence of these temples. If you want more details, see the recent story of the embarrassing article on the subject published by the New York Times, one which resulted in repeated retractions by the Times.

Background on that UNESCO resolution is here and links.

Maaloula update

MODERN ARAMAIC WATCH: Ancient Christian City in Syria is ‘Rising Again’ (Dan Wooding, ASSIST News Service, Christian Post).

According to a CBN video report by Gary Lane, the CBN News Senior International Reporter, "Maaloula is an ancient Christian city where the people still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Located 35 miles northeast of the Syrian capital city of Damascus, Islamic terrorists overran and occupied Maaloula in September 2013.

"Because of its ancient history, Maaloula has become a symbol of Christianity. That's why Islamic extremists wanted to dominate it because it is this symbol for all of Syria. And that's why it was important for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime to regain control of the city."

Lane said that the Syrian army "fought aggressively" and "liberated Maaloula eight months after the terrorists seized control." But, he added, the town had already suffered much hardship and destruction.

"Jihadists left St. George's Church in Maaoula largely intact, but they did their damage to the interior, including some of the church's ancient icons," said veteran journalist, Lane.

"Terrorists tried to erase the city's Christian heritage by shooting up the icons. They used knives to desecrate a depiction of the Last Supper. They knocked down a statue of Jesus and broke it into pieces."

And, he added, the terror inflicted on human lives proved even more devastating.

There seems to have been some progress in restoration efforts:

He said that restoration efforts continue at Saint Sarkis Monastery. It's one of the oldest monasteries in all of Christendom. It was heavily damaged by the terrorists, but today it is mostly restored.

"The monastery chapel remains intact. Built in the 4th century on the ruins of a pagan temple, it predates the Council of Nicea in 325 AD," Lane said. "Missing today are 16th and 18th century icons that once adorned the chapel walls. The jihadists may have either sold or destroyed them."

But I'm sure this is true:

While many buildings have been restored, it will take longer for the people to rebuild their lives.

Background on Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula) is here and links.

Ancient shipwreck found at Caesarea harbor

MARINE ARCHAEOLOGY: Divers Discovered a Spectacular, Ancient and Important Cargo of a Shipwreck. Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists diving in the ancient harbor in the Caesarea National Park recovered beautiful statues, thousands of coins 1,600 years old and other finds from the seabed (IAA press release).

A fortuitous discovery by two divers in the ancient port of Caesarea in the Caesarea National Park before the Passover holiday led to the exposure of a large, spectacular and beautiful ancient marine cargo of a merchant ship that sank during the Late Roman period 1,600 years ago.

[...]

According to Jacob Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Dror Planer, deputy director of the unit, “These are extremely exciting finds, which apart from their extraordinary beauty, are of historical significance. The location and distribution of the ancient finds on the seabed indicate that a large merchant ship was carrying a cargo of metal slated recycling, which apparently encountered a storm at the entrance to the harbor and drifted until it smashed into the seawall and the rocks”. A preliminary study of the iron anchors suggests there was an attempt to stop the drifting vessel before it reached shore by casting anchors into the sea; however, these broke – evidence of the power of the waves and the wind which the ship was caught up in”. Sharvit and Planer stress, “A marine assemblage such as this has not been found in Israel in the past thirty years. Metal statues are rare archaeological finds because they were always melted down and recycled in antiquity. When we find bronze artifacts it usually occurs at sea. Because these statues were wrecked together with the ship, they sank in the water and were thus ‘saved’ from the recycling process”. Sharvit and Planer added, “In the many marine excavations that have been carried out in Caesarea only very small number of bronze statues have been found, whereas in the current cargo a wealth of spectacular statues were found that were in the city and were removed from it by way of sea. The sand protected the statues; consequently they are in an amazing state of preservation – as though they were cast yesterday rather than 1,600 years ago”. The coins that were discovered bear the image of the emperor Constantine who ruled the Western Roman Empire (312–324 CE) and was later known as Constantine the Great, ruler of the Roman Empire (324–337 CE), and of Licinius, an emperor who ruled the eastern part of the Roman Empire and was a rival of Constantine, until his downfall in a battle that was waged between the two rulers

[...]

(HT Joseph Lauer.)

Journals on the ancient world in JSTOR

AWOL: The Ancient World in JSTOR: This is the full list of journals in JSTOR with substantial focus on the Ancient World.

Interview with Gabriel Barkay

ARCHAEOLOGIST: Digging into our lives. Leading archaeologist Dr. Gabi Barkay, who survived the Holocaust as a child, tells Israel Hayom how he responds to "Bible deniers," regrets the lack of excavations in Judea and Samaria, and shares how a pesky kid led him to the discovery of his life. (, Israel HaYom).

The archaeologist Dr. Gabi Barkay came to Israel at age 6 with his mother and father, on board the ship Kommemiyut, one of the ships that smuggled Jewish immigrants into Mandate Palestine. This was the vessel's last voyage bringing Jewish immigrants to Israel before it was sold to iron traders. As part of the events of a national conference hosted by the Israel Exploration Society, the Kommemiyut sailed past the coast one last time, possibly hinting at the future of the child it had carried from the Budapest ghetto to the land of Israel.

Since then, 66 years have passed, and it seems almost arrogant to attempt to sum up in a single conversation with Barkay the progress Israel has made in archaeology since it was founded, or his personal contribution to that progress. Barkay has been involved in so many studies, excavations and events relating to local archaeology that it's doubtful a single interview will do it all justice.

Although he has never worked for the Israel Antiquities Authority -- Barkay says he prefers a university framework that offers freedom of opinion and thought -- he has acquired an international reputation thanks to two things: The first is the historic discovery of the Priestly Blessing Scrolls, the most ancient archaeological discovery of a biblical text dating to the period the Bible is believed to have been put together. The discovery of the scrolls had wide-ranging influence on biblical research, and the assessment of its historical reliability. The second is the project of sifting dirt from the Temple Mount. Barkay describes the Mount as "a black hole in the history of archaeology in general and Israeli archaeology in particular."

[...]

Includes lots of details about the excavation at Ketef Hinnom, where the silver priestly blessing scrolls were found (on which more here [cf. here, here, and here] and links). And there's more on the Temple Mount Sifting Project here and here and follow the many links.

Luzzatto and Metatron

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: This Day in Jewish History 1746: A Messianic Kabbalist Blackballed by the Establishment Dies. Though his ideas about redemption upset the rabbis, Moshe Luzzatto's works are still admired for their beauty, and their ethical messages (David B. Green, Haaretz).

May 16, 1746, is the date on of around which rabbinical scholar, mystic and moral philosopher Moshe Chayim Luzzatto died (sources vary on both the day and the year). Luzzatto was a prolific and charismatic writer and teacher, who had the misfortune of living in the shadow of the false Messiah Shabbetai Zevi. As a consequence, many of his rabbinical contemporaries feared he would similarly lead followers astray from traditional Judaism with his kabbalistic teachings. Matters were not helped by the hints given by Luzzatto in his writings that he himself was the Messiah.

[...]

This story is a little late for PaleoJudaica, although I do try to keep an eye on messianic traditions from all periods. But the more immediate reason for noting it is that the archangel Metatron receives a mention:

Luzzatto was part of a group of like-minded students of kabbala, possibly at the University of Padua, and it was with them that he shared his reports of the visits he received from various divine messengers, beginning when he was 20. He spoke in particular of encounters with a maggid, an angel-like figure who brought him news about the coming of the Messiah.

In one of his written accounts, Luzzatto described how the maggid was followed by an appearance of the prophet Elijah, who told the rabbi  that “Metatron [the angel], the great prince, will come to me…. Souls whose identity I do not know are also revealed to me. I write down each day the new ideas each of them imparts to me."

There's no word in the article on whether Metatron ever showed up.

Past posts on Shabbetai Zvi and Sabbateanism are here and links.

New antiquities registration law in Israel

REGULATION: In new crackdown, antiquities authorities tighten noose around dealers, thieves. Regulatory agency mandates digital database, ‘closing the loopholes’ to prevent stolen artifacts reaching the Israeli market (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

The antiquities thief finally gives up and leaves, stepping out into the April air.

“It would be better for him to find a new means of livelihood,” the antiquities dealer tells this reporter.

The thief is likely not alone. A new requirement by the Israel Antiquities Authority requiring the country’s licensed antiquities dealers to register their artifacts in a digital database is aiming to shut down the blight of antiquities theft in Israel.

The requirement was introduced on March 28, following a last, desperate failed appeal by dealers to the High Court of Justice to halt the regulation.

As one antiquities dealer told The Times of Israel, the goal is to “close all the loopholes” through which some licensed dealers have interacted with Israel’s “very dark gray” antiquities market. Some dealers will drop out of the business as a result, he speculated.

The IAA attempted to introduce the system, called Antique-net, four years ago, but a handful of antiquities dealers sued, putting its implementation on hold. Now it is legally binding, and dealers must photograph, register and detail all items in their storerooms and upload them to the IAA’s network. All purchases and sales have to be placed through the registry for approval by the IAA; once cleared, an object is digitally transferred from a dealer’s inventory to the buyer’s.

This means it will become significantly harder for black market antiquities to make their way to a licensed dealer’s shop.

[...]

I hope this does some good. As of this writing the "Antique-net" link was dead.

Another matter of interest is mentioned toward the end of the article:

In March, the IAA called on Israelis to volunteer a few hours a month to help protect Israel’s 30,000 archaeological sites from looters and vandals. In the month and a half since the initiative was made public, over 180 people have registered, Ganor said.

“We recognize that among the general public there are people who can help the operations of the IAA in protecting and preserving the country’s antiquities,” he said in his office at the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem.

“It’s no secret that there aren’t a lot of employees in the IAA,” he said. In all there are around 700 staffers nationwide to protect the country’s thousands of ancient sites. “Pretty much every other hill out there is an archaeological site.”

NT TC anniversary

ETC: 135 Years Ago Today (Peter Gurry).

Today [Thursday, May 12, 2016] marks the 135th anniversary of the publication of Westcott and Hort’s momentous edition The New Testament in the Original Greek. The date was May 12, 1881 (see FB discussion here). Later in the same year they would publish their introduction and appendix justifying and explaining their text critical method.

[...]

Today, our critical editions typically vary less from the text of Westcott and Hort than they do from the textus receptus. To some, this might suggest that we have made little progress. From another perspective it is a testament to Westcott and Hort’s skill. As Gordon Fee has said, “If all of this means that we still appear to be crossing the Atlantic in an 1881 ship, it may be that they built them better in those days.”*

[...]

Mor, The Second Jewish Revolt

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Second Jewish Revolt
The Bar Kokhba War, 132-136 CE

Menahem Mor, University of Haifa
In The Second Jewish Revolt: The Bar Kokhba War, 132-136 C.E., Menahem Mor offers a detailed account on the Bar Kokhba Revolt in an attempt to understand the second revolt against the Romans. Since the Bar Kokhba Revolt did not have a historian who devoted a comprehensive book to the event, Mor used a variety of historical materials including literary sources (Jewish, Christian, Greek and Latin) and archaeological sources (inscriptions, coins, military diplomas, hideouts, and refuge complexes). The book reviews the causes for the outbreak while explaining the complexity of the territorial expansion of the Revolt. Mor portrays the participants and opponents as well as the attitudes of the non-Jewish population in Palestine. He exposes the Roman Army’s part in Judaea, the Jewish leadership and the implications of the Revolt.

Schøyen Collection NWS manuscripts

FROM THE SCHØYEN COLLECTION: 4.6 Aramaic, Hebrew & Syriac. It's been a while since I mentioned the Schøyen Collection (here and here and links). I saw this link on Facebook at the Syriac Aramaic studies group page, so it seemed like a good idea to share it.

Online indices to BiOr

AWOL: Open Access Index to Bibliotheca Orientalis. All book reviews, articles, and In Memoriams are listed. Looks useful.

The carob

FOOD: Second Look: Carob (Meg Cotner, Paste Magazine).

Carob is an ancient food, found in the greater Mediterranean region, in parts of South America, and Southern California. The carob tree is an evergreen, and drought tolerant (thought rain is necessary for it to fruit). Its pods contain legumes, but the entire thing – pod, beans and all – is used as food (both for humans and animals).

It is also plays a part in the world’s major faiths. It’s mentioned in the Talmud – a basket of carob pods alone nourished the impoverished Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa from Sabbath eve to Sabbath eve. (Ta’anit, 24b), and Jews eat it during Tu Bishvat (a celebration of the trees). In Islam, carob juice is consumed during Ramadan. The conventional interpretation of a section in the Book of Matthew, is John the Baptist ate carob in the desert – “locusts” may very well mean carob beans, the fruit of the Locust Tree; it is sometimes referred to as St. John’s Bread. In any case, carob trees are one of the most common in Israel.

The carob has come up from time to time in various PaleoJudaica posts, collected here. James A Kellhoffer has devoted a whole book to the subject of The Diet of John the Baptist and he thinks John ate locusts.

How the Serpent Became Satan

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: How the Serpent Became Satan. Adam, Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Shawna Dolansky).

Introduced as “the most clever of all of the beasts of the field that YHWH God had made,” the serpent in the Garden of Eden is portrayed as just that: a serpent. Satan does not make an appearance in Genesis 2–3, for the simple reason that when the story was written, the concept of the devil had not yet been invented. Explaining the serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan would have been as foreign a concept to the ancient authors of the text as referring to Ezekiel’s vision as a UFO (but Google “Ezekiel’s vision” now, and you’ll see that plenty of people today have made that connection!). In fact, while the word satan appears elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, it is never a proper name; since there is no devil in ancient Israel’s worldview, there can’t yet have been a proper name for such a creature.

[...]

A good overview of the development of the figure of Satan.

Past posts on Satan/the Devil are collected here plus here.

Addey, Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Crystal Addey, Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism: Oracles of the Gods. Ashgate studies in philosophy and theology in late antiquity. Farnham; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2014. Pp. xv, 335. ISBN 9781409451525. $134.95.

Reviewed by Ilinca Tanaseanu-Doebler, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (itanase@uni-goettingen.de)

Preview

In the last decades, the religious and ritual side of Neoplatonism has attracted growing scholarly interest. Crystal Addey’s study is part of this discourse. It explores divination as a central facet of the rituals that were subsumed in Neoplatonic circles under the label “theurgy”. The focus lies on two major figures whose debate shaped the Neoplatonic discourse about rituals: Porphyry and Iamblichus. The book aims to demonstrate the basic harmony between the two philosophers as far as divination and rituals are concerned. In so doing, it inserts itself into a strand of research that emphasises the fundamental unity of the Porphyrian oeuvre, also as far as rituals are concerned (e.g. Smith 2007 and 2011, Busine 2004 or 2005, Johnson 2013).

[...]

Neoplatonism was an important philosophical — and in some ways religious —movement in the late antique world where Judaism and Christianity also lived. Related post here.

AJR: Clark's and Ilan's unexpected influences

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Unexpected Influences | Elizabeth A. Clark and Tal Ilan. I dare say the reader will find a surprise or two here. At least I did.

The Talmud Boyz

TALMUD WATCH: Talmud Boyz learn and bond studying religious texts (Debra Lefkowitz, Massachusetts Sharon Avocate).

They first met more than 15 years ago. At the time, all were residents of Sharon and members of its Conservative synagogue, Temple Israel.

A family doctor, college professor, engineer, psychologist and medical illustrator. All seeking the intellectual challenge and discipline of studying Jewish texts for a few hours every week, squeezed between their early-hour fathering responsibilities and later-morning professional obligations.

Striar Jewish Community Center in Stoughton quickly became the logical location for their meetings. Some of the men exercised at the facility, others passed by en route to school drop-offs or work; and all felt at home at the Jewish facility.

[...]

Their weekly meetings originally focused on the Talmud, an ancient, dense and complex document, which in its entirety consists of 63 tractates or discussions running more than 6,200 pages long. The group wasn’t sure that they were up for the challenge, but they plunged into what one participant humorously refers to as self-misdirected study.

They spent the first few years selecting sections of interest, reading a couple of lines in Hebrew and English, trying to decipher the text’s often cryptic and always multi-layered meanings, and make sense of its teachings in the context of Jewish history, today’s world, and their own lives.

[...]

More on the Dunhuang caves exhibition in L.A.

THOSE TREASURES FROM THE SILK ROAD: Artifacts from ancient Chinese cave temples head west for California exhibit. Situated on the edge of the Gobi desert, the Dunhuang caves features six miles of art many centuries old – and now an American audience will get a taste of it (Jordan Riefe, The Guardian). There's nothing really new in this article, but it gives a good overview of the historical background of the caves and their contents, which included Buddhist, Christian, and Jewish manuscripts in various languages.

You see Hindu deities in Cave 285 and there are Chinese mythological beings flying around the ceiling. I think the fact that Buddhism would incorporate elements of Chinese culture into its fabric really helped,” offers Gates, citing among the artifacts a Christian hymn, Gloria in Excelsis Deo, translated to Chinese in the 10th century. There are also mandalas from when Dunhuang belonged to the Tibetan empire during the years 781-848, and a fragment of an Old Testament psalm written in Hebrew. “It was not the purity of any one cultural tradition that gave Dunhuang its strength. It was the ever-changing mix, the fusion of cultures that gave Dunhuang the ability to renew itself over and over again for over a thousand years.”

My bold emphasis. This reference to a Hebrew Psalm fragment raises some interesting points. I was informed years ago (scroll down) that this fragment (assuming it is the same) is actually a page from the Slichot prayers ("the penitence oriented prayers recited around the High Holidays"), rather than the biblical Book of Psalms. But I have also read elsewhere that the Book of Psalms in a Syriac translation was found in the caves. I don't know if this is real or is a further misunderstanding of the reference to this Judeo-Persian prayer fragment. Does anyone know?

An earlier post on the Getty exhibition, with lots of related past posts, is here and links. Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

Sauer et al., Persia's Imperial Power in Late Antiquity

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Eberhard W. Sauer, Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, Tony J. Wilkinson, Jebrael Nokandeh, Persia's Imperial Power in Late Antiquity: the Great Wall of Gorgan and the Frontier Landscapes of Sasanian Iran. British Institute of Persian Studies. Archaeological monographs series, 2. Oxford; Oakville, CT: Oxbow Books, 2013. Pp. xvi, 712. ISBN 9781842175194. $150.00.

Reviewed by Josef Wiesehöfer (jwiesehoefer@email.uni-kiel.de)

The book under review here is not only a significant contribution to the study of the dating, origins, and function of the Great Wall of Gorgan in northeastern Iran. It also touches on broader themes in Sasanian history, including economic, administrative, and military matters as well as the question of the empire’s cohesiveness.

[...]

Indirectly relevant to PaleoJudaica, but interesting as background, since the Sassanian Empire had a flourishing Jewish population in late antiquity. Some past posts on ancient Iranian Judaism are here, here, here, here, here, and links.

Journal issue on Digital Humanities in Ancient Jewish, Christian and Arabic Traditions

AWOL: Special Issue: Digital Humanities in Ancient Jewish, Christian and Arabic Traditions: Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture.

The Epic of Gilgamesh again

ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE: The World's Oldest Writing: Cuneiform Religion. The story of George Smith's discovery of the Mesopotamian Flood narrative in the Epic of Gilgamesh is a great one, only the first part of which is told at the link. For the rest, see the link at this post. In brief, Smith found part of the Flood story on a tablet in the British Museum, he convinced the Daily Telegraph to put up money for him to go to Ottoman Iraq to try to find the rest of the story, and then within three days of digging at the site of Nineveh he found a fragment of the Epic of Atrahasis which filled in the missing material. The full story is so implausible that it would have to be true: fiction dares not rely on coincidence and good luck the way reality can. His story ended in tragedy and premature death, but left him a name and glory. Gilgamesh would have approved.

Lots more on the Epic of Gilgamesh and its relevance to ancient Judaism etc. is here and links.

The Pseudepigrapha and World War III

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: Author Claims Return of Christ Tied to Nuclear War and Three Days of Darkness (Michael Fortner, Christian News Wire).

LAWTON, Okla., May 2, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Journalist, historian, and Bible prophecy author, Michael D. Fortner has released his latest book, "The Approaching Apocalypse and Three Days of Darkness." In his new book, he claims that a multi-nation nuclear war will take place at the end of WW3, followed shortly by an asteroid impact, both of which will cover the world with dark clouds and threaten to bring nuclear/cosmic winter.

He says the world will be in complete darkness for three days, during which Christ will return and burn up the black clouds with fire from heaven. In this way, Christ will save the world from self-destruction, even though the fire will also kill many people. The nuclear war and asteroid impact will also create poison air that will kill more people than WW3.

He arrived at his thesis by analyzing many prophecies inside and outside the Bible, including the Book of Enoch, Sibylline Oracles, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and even Catholic and Protestant prophecies. He pieces them together like a jigsaw puzzle.

One of the important things he discovered is how God will send fire from heaven, from a small second sun that will appear in the sky some weeks or months beforehand. Fortner presents many prophecies that speak of this second sun, going all the way back to the Erythraean Sibyl.

[...]

As usual, my interest here is sociological rather than theological or survivalist. Not so long ago an author in the mode of Hal Lindsey writing about the apocalypse wouldn't have gone near the noncanonical scriptural literature. They were not the Bible and so were entirely without authority and probably heretical. Times change. There is lots of material for apocalypticists in 1 Enoch and the Sibylline Oracles, both found in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, and it seems that such writers are now turning to this rich vein of material. I suppose that's progress of a sort. In any case, I am always glad to see the Pseudepigrapha getting some attention.

Incidentally, the Erythraen Sibyl was one of ten or twelve legendary Sibyls. The surviving Greek Sibylline Oracles are attributed, in the few cases when one is specified, to the Chaldean Sibyl, daughter or daughter-in-law of Noah (see Collins's translation in the first of Charlesworth's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha volumes) or the Tiburtine Sibyl (see the translation by Rieuwerd Buitenwerf in Bauckham, Davila, Panayotov, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol 1). There is also a Latin book of the "Witch Sibyl" (Sibylla Maga), which is forthcoming in an English translation by Johannes Magliano-Tromp in volume 2 of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, which is now in preparation.

Gnostic music

ORCHESTRA: Reviews Maja Ratkje CREPUSCULAR HOUR (Euan Andrews, The Quietus).

Norwegian composer Ratkje's mesmerising Crepuscular Hour seeps through the liminal cracks between light and dark, the spiritual gloaming during which living bodies and minds change their patterns of behaviour. Recorded during the 2012 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, it is a piece for three choirs, three noise musicians and church organ. It begins with an almighty sharp intake of breath, like the oxygen were being sucked out of a vast space as if by one violently conjoined sigh, and it is these gathered voices which predominate throughout the performance. Based around texts from the Nag Hammed Library, a collection of early Gnostic gospels discovered in Egypt in 1945, the choirs augur portents of chaos and battle while sounding scarcely human, or at least not the work of individual human beings. Here, as with the most extreme choral work of Ligeti, we have the voices of living people turned to mass invocation of barely suppressed terror and hysteria in the face of cataclysm.

My bold emphasis. Yes, the entire review sounds this earnest.

Ancient symbols on the Emblem of the State of Israel

IN HONOR OF ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY: What Are the Weird Scribbles on the State of Israel's Emblem? They look startlingly like dragons and nymphs found at the temple of Apollo in Didyma, with allowances made for Jewish custom (Elon Gilad, Haaretz).

Out of the hundreds of suggestions that arrived, the committee chose a design submitted by the brothers Gabriel and Maxim Shamir: a schematic menorah with seven six-pointed stars over it and an olive branch on each side. But the committee asked the brothers Shamir to make the menorah look more ancient, and to add Israel's name.

The result was the Emblem of the State of Israel, which the government approved on February 10, 1949.

The menorah that the Shamir brothers ultimately used on the symbol was a stylized version of the menorah carved in relief on Titus’ Arch in Rome. The arch was built in 83 CE to mark the victories of the deceased emperor – including the conquest of Jerusalem (Titus himself died in 81 CE).

Simply, those scribbles on the emblem are simplified versions of the ornamentation on the base of the menorah that is depicted on the arch.

And then it gets very complicated, so read the rest if you can access it before it goes behind the subscription wall. This is the emblem:


(Public domain photo. Source: Wikipedia. Click on the image for a larger version.)

You can see a photo of the relevant relief on the Arch of Titus here (scroll down, last photo). And for more on the Arch of Titus, start here and follow the links.

Today is Israel's 68th Independence Day. Yona Sabar's column this week is relevant: Hebrew word of the week: Yom ’Atsma’ut.

The article concludes:

King Herod may have changed the menorah, or perhaps just its base, after it was damaged or stolen when the Parthians sacked Jerusalem in 40 BCE. Or perhaps, he made the adjustment as part of his reconstruction of the Temple during his reign. We just don’t know.

So it seems that there are good arguments for the menorah on Titus’ Arch and on the Emblem of the State of Israel both being and not being in the Temple. The debate could really only be settled for sure if the menorah itself were to be discovered, but that is unlikely to ever happen. In 410 CE, the Vandals sacked Rome and carried away its treasures. The menorah, which had been sitting in a pagan temple since its arrival in Rome hundreds of years earlier, was probably taken by them, never to be seen again.

Not yet, anyway.

The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh

AWOL: The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is surprisingly relevant for the study of the Bible, ancient Judaism, and even late antique Christianity. Gilgamesh resurfaces as a giant in the Book of Giants and the Epic has connections with the Flood Story etc. And Gilgamesh remains influential in popular culture even today. On all this, see the past posts here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Obi Wan takes a turn as Jesus

CINEMA: A Holy Ewan McGregor Wanders a Desert of the Mind (ALAN SCHERSTUHL, LA Weekly). The reviewer seems very impressed by Jesus laughing when another guy farts. (I'm pretty sure that's not in the Bible. Or the New Testament Apocrypha.)

That Rabelaisian laugh cuts against the grain of the film's welcome seriousness. Last Days [in the Desert] is weighty and somber, familiar and strange, in the way of Bible stories but not of contemporary faith-based filmmaking, which eschews mystery and paradox for homily. The story, a consistent surprise, becomes domestic apocrypha, after opening with Jesus — known here as “Holy Man,” “rabbi” and “Yeshua” — wandering sun-blasted vistas en route to Jerusalem.

If this review is any indication, Last Days in the Desert doesn't have much to do with past traditions about Jesus, inside or outside the canon. Cross-file under (Modern) New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

French PM weighs in on UNESCO resolution

I CAN'T ARGUE WITH THIS: French PM: UNESCO resolution on Jerusalem ‘unfortunate, clumsy’ (AP/JTA). Background here and links.

Hannibal event

PUNIC WATCH: Tunisia: Cultural Event - Hannibal in Carthage (allAfrica.com).

Tunis — The Carthage palace hosted, on Monday, a cultural event on "Hannibal in Carthage", devoted to the military leader and Carthaginian politician Hannibal Barca.

The event was marked by an exhibition of archaeological finds, inaugurated by Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentilioni. Mainly displayed, a statue of the famous Carthaginian leader found in the 16th century in the city of Capo in Italy and lent by the Italian presidential palace (Quirinal palace).

Among the other pieces exhibited, a bronze shield found in one the Punic graves of Ksour Essef (governorate of Mahdia).

[...]

Hannibal and his army have been receiving some media attention recently (cf. also here). And here is a reminder of why Phoenician and Punic matter to PaleoJudaica.

Rabbi Sacks at St. Andrews

RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS GAVE THE Templeton Prize Lecture: Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence earlier this week in St. Andrews.

A global religious leader, philosopher, award-winning author and moral voice for our time, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was recently named the winner of the 2016 Templeton Prize.

Rabbi Sacks is currently the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at New York University and the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University. He is also Professor of Law, Ethics and the Bible at King’s College London. Previously, Rabbi Sacks served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth between September 1991 and September 2013, only the sixth incumbent since the role was formalised in 1845.

The now-deleted events page gave this information:

The Title of Rabbi Lord Sacks' Lecture is 'Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence'. He was chief rabbi for 30 years and is also the longest-serving person on the BBC’s 'Thought for the Day' programme. He has worked tirelessly to foster good relations and understanding between different faiths. He is this year's Templeton Prize Laureate and is due to be awarded the annual £1.1 million Templeton Prize in London on May 26.

His lecture was based on his recent book with the same title and it included some interesting exegesis of the Book of Genesis, influenced by Freud and René Girard. (My photo. Click on both images for larger versions.)


I had the chance to chat with him briefly after the lecture. I'm the one with my back to the camera. Rabbi Sacks is on the right. To the left is Eric Priest, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and one of the organizers of the event. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Whittle.)

Congratulations to Rabbi Sacks on the Templeton Prize. It was great to have him here.

Interview with Emanuel Tov

WILLIAM ROSS: LXX SCHOLAR INTERVIEW: DR. EMANUEL TOV. A couple of Ross's previous LXX scholar interviews were noted here and here. This one is in video format.

The genetics of the Bene Israel in India

TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY PRESS RELEASE:

Genetic Testing Proves Bene Israel Community in India Has Jewish Roots

Tuesday, May 10, 2016 9:30:00 AM
TAU–Cornell collaboration provides insight into unique community whose history is largely unknown

A new study from Tel Aviv University, Cornell University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine reveals genetic proof of the Jewish roots of the Bene Israel community in the western part of India. They have always considered themselves Jewish.

"Almost nothing is known about the Bene Israel community before the 18th century, when Cochin Jews and later Christian missionaries first came into contact with it," says first author Yedael Waldman of both TAU's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Cornell's Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology. "Beyond vague oral history and speculations, there has been no independent support for Bene Israel claims of Jewish ancestry, claims that have remained shrouded in legend."

[...]

"We found that while Bene Israel individuals genetically resemble local Indian populations, they constitute a clearly separated and unique population in India," Waldman says.

How the community grew

"The results point to Bene Israel being an 'admixed' population, with both Jewish and Indian ancestry. The genetic contribution of each of these ancestral populations is substantial," adds study co-lead author Arjun Biddanda of Cornell.

The results even indicate when the Jewish and Indian ancestors of Bene Israel "admixed": some 19-33 generations (approximately 650-1,050 years) ago.

"We believe that the first encounter involved Middle-Eastern Jews and was followed by a high rate of tribal intermarriage," says Waldman. "This study provides a new example of how genetic analysis can be a valuable and powerful tool to advance our knowledge of human history."

The study sounds very interesting, although it is based on only 18 individuals, which doesn't sound like many to me. Elements of the statement could be phrased more clearly. It says that the study "reveals genetic proof of the Jewish roots of the Bene Israel community," but also "while Bene Israel individuals genetically resemble local Indian populations, they constitute a clearly separated and unique population in India." The rest seems to imply that the separate and unique element can be identified specifically as Jewish, but it doesn't quite spell it out. Maybe I am parsing too finely, but some clarification would be helpful.

There are some past posts (here and links) on genetic testing of another group in India called the Bene Menashe, who have the tradition that they descend from the lost ten tribes of Israel. Whatever the historical merits of the claim, their genetic profile does seem to have Middle Eastern connections. Past posts on genetic studies and their implications for the history of Judaism are collected here and here.

New edition of DSS

PENN STATE NEWS: Falk to co-edit new critical editions of Dead Sea Scrolls (Cherie Winner).

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State scholar Daniel Falk has been named one of three editors on an international project to produce new critical editions of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient documents that contain some of the earliest known versions of Biblical texts.

The 15-volume series, known as Dead Sea Scrolls Editions, will feature improved reconstructions of previously published texts and some texts that have not been published before. It will be published by the Dutch firm Brill Publishers.

Falk, who is Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies at Penn State, is a recognized expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, specializing in the analysis of papyrus fragments and prayer texts. His co-editors on the project will be Martin Abegg Jr., recently retired from Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, and Alison Schofield of the University of Denver.

As critical editions, the books will include all known versions of each text, along with different interpretations of them that have been made over the years. With documents like the Dead Sea Scrolls, where the originals are often fragmentary and hard to read, such comparisons are essential to resolving questions about the meaning and even, in some cases, the specific wording of the text.

[...]

The first volume will an edition of the Temple Scroll.

Terrorism alert in Tunisia

TRAVEL ADVISORY: Israel warns Jewish pilgrims of ‘severe’ terror threat in Tunisia. As Lag B’Omer festival approaches, counter-terror agency sees ‘concrete’ jihadist threat on historic Djerba island (Times of Israel).

Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau on Monday highlighted a “severe” travel advisory for Tunisia.

Many Jews who hail from the Mediterranean Arab country travel each year to the island of Djerba in the country’s south, the historic home of an ancient community of Jewish priestly families, to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday, which this year falls on May 25-26.

The bureau, a branch of the Prime Minister’s Office, on Monday urged Israelis and Jews not to visit the country this year due to the “high” likelihood of attacks by jihadist groups.

[...]

That's a pity. More on the Tunisian island of Djerba and its ancient synagogue is here and links. And there's more on Tunisian archaeology and the terrorist threat to its tourist industry here and links.

When is a betrothal not a betrothal in the Talmud?

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The True Pleasure of the Talmud Is Its Intellectual Gamesmanship. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ reading, a pair of sages engage in a duel of the mind, posing, parrying, and riposting over hypothetical marriage and sexual scenarios.

For a man to betroth a woman, we have learned in Tractate Kiddushin, requires two things: a declaration of intent, and the transfer of money or an item of value worth at least one peruta. This seems straightforward enough, but as always in the Talmud, the rabbis are alert to possible complications. There are many ways that betrothal can go wrong, due to a flaw in either the declaration or the purchase. This week’s Daf Yomi reading explored a number of these possible errors and in doing so entered into fairly remote regions of the law. Because halakha is one vast system, you can easily start out talking about betrothal and end up talking about tithing or agricultural laws.

[...]

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Conference: Shenoute and the Bible

ALIN SUCIU: Forthcoming: Shenoute and the Bible, International Conference, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, 17–21 May 2016.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch. More on Shenoute, his White Monastery, and its manuscripts is here and links.

The end of the Great Revolt

EXCAVATION: Archaeologists Find the Last Hideout of the Jewish Revolt in Jerusalem. Titus' soldiers ripped paving stones out of the street to find the last rebels 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists think they have found those hiding places (Ariel David, Haaretz).

Below the street’s thick slab stones lay a large roofed drainage canal that channeled rain water away from the city. It was in this underground channel, which was wide and tall enough for people to comfortably stand in, that archeologists found the first puzzle.

Among the sediments and refuse that had filled it up were several coins from the period of the revolt that confirmed the dating of the site - as well as cooking pots and utensils.

“We found two perfectly preserved cooking pots,” says Ronny Reich, an emeritus professor of archaeology at Haifa University who, until recently, headed the dig of the stepped road. “If they had rolled in or had been thrown out as garbage, they would have been in pieces. The fact that they were intact indicates that people used them in the canal, and lived there for a time.”

The second clue came from the state of the street above. Most of it was intact, except that in five spots the paving stones had been broken and removed to create an opening into the canal below, Reich says.

Researchers now connect these finds to the text of Josephus Flavius, the Jewish-rebel-turned-Roman-collaborator who wrote the history of the revolt. In “The Jewish War,” Josephus recounts how, after the Roman legions, led by Titus, breached the walls of Jerusalem and burned down the Temple, some of the surviving rebels and civilians took refuge in the sewers and underground spaces of the city.

Solomon's Pools damaged

CONSERVATION: Second Temple era archaeological site suffer serious damage. Visitors to Solomon's Pools report a part of one of the water reservoir's walls had collapsed; they urged the PA to either make the necessary repairs the site, which is located in Area A, or allow Israel to (Itay Blumenthal, Ynetnews).

Solomon’s Pools, a historic site built in the Gush Etzion region over 2,000 years ago during the time of the Second Temple, has been damaged, perhaps irreparably.

Visitors who documented the damage to the site, located in Area A, demanded that the Palestinian Authority work to fix it or otherwise allow Israel to restore it.

“This is the most impressive water area that was built in the common era,” explained tour guide Benjamin Tropper.

It is still unclear whether the archaeological site was damaged as a result of harsh weather conditions or due to neglect.

[...]

Other recent references to the Gush Etzion region are collected here. Solomon's Pools have been mentioned ealier here.

A history lesson for UNESCO

SARCASM: After Temple Mount resolution, PM offers UN staff a Jewish history lesson. Netanyahu announces session following passage of UNESCO text that omits mention of Jewish ties to holiest site in Judaism (Times of Israel/AP).

The response: UN official rejects Netanyahu invitation for seminar on Jerusalem. Too bad. It sounded like a good seminar.

Background here and links.

Schmidt, The Materiality of Power

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

BRIAN B. SCHMIDT
The Materiality of Power
Explorations in the Social History of Ancient Israelite Magic

[Die Materialität der Macht. Untersuchungen zur Sozialgeschichte der Magie im antiken Israel.]
2016. XV, 258 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 105
99,00 €
cloth
ISBN 978-3-16-153302-0

Published in English.
Brian B. Schmidt presents five case studies in which architectural spaces, artifacts, epigraphs, images and biblical manuscripts corroborate the existence of a robust daimonic realm ruled by YHWH and Asherah in late pre-exilic Israel and an embryonic pandemonium foreshadowing later demonological constructs. The material and epigraphic data from Kuntillet Ajrud, Ketef Hinnom, and Khirbet el-Qom, along with the early manuscript evidence from Deut 32 and 1 Sam 28, indicate that this pandemonium wreaked havoc on the living and the dead. These same data also preserve a countervailing realm of apotropaism—a realm over which YHWH and Asherah, portrayed as Egypt’s quintessential protective deities Bes and Beset, governed. Various other material media including amulets, inscribed blessings and decorated jars also conveyed this counteractive apotropaism. Yet, the data as a whole highlight Asherah’s central role in this magical realm as YHWH’s mediatrix. Alongside various protective spirits, Asherah executed divine protection for mortals, those alive and departed, from threatening demons.

Ancient ink

MATERIAL CULTURE: Solving the Mystery of Ancient Ink Origins (Eve M. Kahn, Antiques column, NYT). Fun facts about current scholarly research on ancient inks.

ll this new scholarship could be useful for experts authenticating manuscripts and for conservators trying to stabilize documents damaged by corrosive inks. Extracts in the formulas may also indicate where tree species once flourished and help identify the trade routes for ink products.

Some past stories in which ancient ink matters are noted here and here, both with many links.

The DSS and the Samaritan Pentateuch

CONFERENCE: THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG, MAY 26–27, 2016.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the middle of the twentieth century, has brought to light ancient biblical and related manuscripts that exhibit variant readings previously unknown — except for the Samaritan Pentateuch. These affinities raise the issue of the Samaritan Pentateuch’s origins and relationships with other textual traditions of the Hebrew Bible. The Strasbourg conference will explore various aspects in which the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Samaritan Pentateuch shed light on each other: history of religions, linguistics, material philology, textual criticism, exegesis, etc. Please join us on May 26–27 for this international research conference.

Organized by Michael Langlois. Follow the link for the conference schedule. Registration information is here.

Syriac in India

SYRIAC WATCH: Bengaluru Youth Learn Dying Language, Preserve It (Mebin John, The New Indian Express).

BENGALURU: Youngsters in the city are trying to preserve a language that survives only among a small community near Kurdisthan, Iraq — Syriac.

Many belonging to the ancient Syro-Malabar Catholic Church of India study East Syriac under Rev Thomas Kalayil, a well-known scholar at Bengaluru’s Dharmaram College.

City Express speaks to some about their interest in keeping the language alive.

“Every religion has its own sacred language — Arabic for Islam and Sanskrit for Hinduism, and Syriac, the language spoken by Jesus Christ, for Indian St Thomas Christians,” says Rev Varghese Pathikulangara, renowned historian and liturgist at Dharmaram College

[...]

Technically, Jesus spoke Galilean Aramaic, a Western Dialect. Syriac is an Eastern dialect of the same language. It was the dialect spoken in the Anatolian city of Edessa, but it expanded to become the language of the Eastern Church and it remains the liturgical language of the Syrian Orthodox Church as well as surviving in Indian Christianity. (East Syriac and West Syriac, mentioned later in the article, are later sub-dialects of Syriac).

AINA has also reprinted the article and its link may prove more durable. There are past posts on Syriac in Kerala here and here and links.

Gérard Depardieu, Talmud Scholar?

TALMUD WATCH: Gérard Depardieu, Talmud Scholar? (Talya Zax, The Forward).

Gérard Depardieu, the French film star known for his roles in “The Last Metro,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” has shed some surprising light on his literary preferences: he’s currently working his way through the Babylonian Talmud.

[...]

Well, that's something different.