Pre-Israelite stars

MUCH EARLIER THAN PALEOJUDAICA'S USUAL RANGE, but too interesting not to note. Two separate discoveries of pre-Israelite objects decorated with eight-pointed stars have just been in the news:

Trove of ancient gold, silver discovered at Israeli archeological site. The trove was found in a pot made of china which was wrapped in fabric that was sill somewhat intact (ARIEL WHITMAN, Jerusalem Post).

A treasure trove of gold and silver objects dating back about 3,600 years from the Canaanite period has been found in the Tel Gezer excavation center.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday that it believes the objects found were part of a ceremonial offering that was laid in the center of the building being excavated.

[...]

The remaining two items were significant finds. One was a medallion consisting of a silver disc with an engraving of an eight-pointed star. At the edge of the disc are two horns meant for connecting with a rope. Dr. Irit Tziper recognized these symbols as representing Canaanite gods comparable to Mesopotamia's god's Ishtar and Sin of Akkadian culture. Ishtar is the god of reproduction, love and sex and Sin is the god of the moon.

[...]

(Medallion consisting of a Silver disc with an engraving of a Eight pointed star. (photo credit:CLARA AMIT/IAA))

Mysterious 6,000-year-old star mural sees first daylight in Jerusalem. The Ghassulian Star, discovered in Jordanian cave in 1930s, is briefly taken from East Jerusalem museum to be displayed at Israel Antiquities Authority headquarters across town (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

For the first time since its discovery in the 1930s, a spectacular, mysterious mural painted on a cave wall in modern-day Jordan some 6,000 years ago — over a millennium before the formation of the first cities or invention of writing — went on display in Jerusalem with little fanfare.

But the Ghassulian Star’s recent removal from the storeroom of the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem, where it has sat since the British Mandate, and its subsequent exhibition, until Sunday, at the Israel Antiquities Authority’s new facilities next to the Israel Museum on the other side of town, violated the IAA’s promise a few months ago not to remove artifacts from the museum.


The magnificent centerpiece was part of a series of cave wall paintings discovered during excavations conducted by the Pontifical Biblical Institute between 1929 and 1938 and in 1959 at Teleilat el-Ghassul, a site just east of the Jordan River, north of the Dead Sea.

[...]

(The Ghassulian Star on exhibit at the Israel Antiquities Authority's new headquarters on November 10, 2016. (Ilan Ben Zion/Times of Israel staff))

Gezer and Teleilat el-Ghassul are not far from each other geographically, but the finds are separated in time by about two-and-a-half millennia. It would be interesting to hear what specialists in the art history of the respective periods made of the similar eight-pointed star designs. My guess is that the similarity is coincidental. It is a fairly obvious design and must have been reinvented many times. But this is far outside my areas of expertise and I don't know. In any case, it is striking to see the two together.

Arson in the Kidron Valley?

THIS IS DISTURBING: Ancient Jerusalem tombs damaged in suspected arson. Iconic ‘archaeological gems’ from Second Temple era at base of Mount of Olives suffer extensive damage (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

Fires severely damaged two ancient tombs, one of them an iconic landmark, outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday, in what police suspect may have been arson.

An initial investigation by firefighters points to unknown persons setting fire to Absalom’s Tomb in the Kidron Valley, opposite the Temple Mount, and the adjacent Tomb of Jehoshephat, Ynet reported.

The tombs are among a cluster of ancient graves at the base of the Mount of Olives dating to the Second Temple period.

[...]

If this is confirmed to be arson, I hope the perpetrators are brought to justice.

New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 1, is published

APOCRYPHICITY: AVAILABLE AT LAST! MORE NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA VOL. 1 (Tony Burke). Congratulation to Professor Burke and Dr. Brent Landau on the publication of this important volume. Noted as forthcoming here and as going to press here.

More on the dating of ancient ink

TECHNOLOGY WATCH:

In-depth Study of Raman Spectroscopy on Carbon Black Ink as a Potential Method for Non-Destructive Dating of Ancient Manuscripts

Author(s)
Sarah Goler

Publication Date
Wed, Apr 15, 2015

Academic Term
Fall and Spring

Academic Year
2014-2015

The abstract is as follows:

Sarah Goler
April 2015

In-depth Study of Raman Spectroscopy on Carbon Black Ink as a Potential Method for Non-Destructive Dating of Ancient Manuscripts (Abstract)

Micro-Raman spectroscopy is a non-destructive light scattering technique that can be used to distinguish physical and chemical properties of materials. We have performed micro-Raman spectroscopy experiments on the black ink from Egyptian manuscripts of known provenance ranging in date from 300BCE to 1000CE. All the black ink showed the typical spectrum of carbon black ink with broad D and G bands. The D band is a forbidden Raman transition that occurs when the lattice symmetry is broken. The D band at approximately 1350cm-1 is associated with disorder, vacancies crystalline edges, etc. The G band at 1585cm-1 is a Raman allowed transition that arises from the E2g in-plane vibration of sp2 bonded carbon. These features in the Raman spectrum of carbon are assigned to the crystalline and amorphous carbon content. The carbon black spectra observed showed clear changes with the age of the ink. The significance and number of peaks to fit the Raman spectrum of carbon black is not well understood. We selected to fit our data with two, three, and four peak fits to try to extract quantitative and qualitative insight from the spectra. We found that all the parameters from our two peak fits show correlations with the age of the ink that could potentially be used to non-destructively date ink of unknown date.

Stephen Goranson drew my attention to this paper, which is of interest in relation to the recent announcement about advances in dating ancient ink, with reference to the Gospel of Jesus' Wife. As far as I know, there have been no formal publications about the dating of the ink of that particular manuscript. This paper is described as a "working paper" of Columbia University's Italian Academy For Advanced Studies in America. I take that to mean it is still a work in progress, but it seems to give some idea of what is going on. Stephen also writes:

*If* the above abstract is the sort of research proposed--which I do not know--then it would be appropriate to note that the contribution by Ira Rabin in NTS 2015 has already offered reason to question the potential of such approaches to deliver reliable dating. Further--reportedly--two lectures at the September 1-5, 2015 8th International Congress on the Application of Raman Spectroscopy in Art and Archaeology in Wrocław, Poland may include explanation why such approach to dating would be unreliable.

We'll see. I am not qualified to have any opinion on the validity of the methods used etc., but I hope the discussion moves into the peer-review literature as soon as possible, so that those who have the expertise can evaluate them.

Background here and here, with many, many links.

McGrath on the GJW at SBL

JAMES MCGRATH: Case Closed on the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife – but there’s more to be said at #aarsbl16. Including a paper by Professor McGrath. 2016 is shaping up to be a very interesting year for AAR/SBL. I hope to see many of you there.

Background on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife is here with many, many links.

Postgrad fellowships at UW-Madison

H-JUDAIC: Fellowship: UW-Madison PhD Fellowship Opportunities in Hebrew Bible/Northwest Semitics and Classics. The application deadline is 5 January 2017.

DSS exhibit at UJ

THE UNIVERSITY OF JAMESTOWN: Exhibits open UJ’s International Education Week (Sharon Cox, Jamestown Sun)

The University of Jamestown has a diverse population among its students, staff and faculty, and during International Education Week Nov 11-18, the public will be able to meet and maybe even learn something new from them.

[...]

The foreign language department, International Students Organization, UJ’s Beyond Committee and the music department will have events in the Reiland Fine Arts Center and the Student Engagement Center in the Lyngstad Center next week. It’s the university’s way of including newcomers and community residents in events featuring cultural diversity and awareness.

[...]

... Stephen Reed will have an exhibit focusing on the Dead Sea Scrolls and language charts (also from Dead Sea Scrolls) showing Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin. Other languages will be available to copy (such as Ogham, Runes, Hieroglyphs and Cuneiform).

[...]

It's always good to sea the Scrolls getting some attention, especially from young people.

Hurtado on Mugridge, Copying Early Christian Texts

LARRY HURTADO: “Copying Early Christian Texts”: New Book.

An important new book presents a case that early Christian texts were typically copied by trained, skilled scribes, and that “there is no firm evidence that the copyists were generally Christians”: Alan Mugridge, Copying Early Christian Texts: A Study of Scribal Practice (Tuebingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2016), the publisher’s online catalogue entry here.

[...]

The book was noted earlier here. As Professor Hurtado explains, it covers a lot of material that is of interest to PaleoJudaica:

The labor that went into this book is prodigious. Mugridge examined over 500 papyri, noting the characteristics of the copyist of each, these data given in the valuable “Catalogue of Papyri” that comprises pp. 155-410 of the book. These papyri include copies of Old Testament texts, New Testament texts, “Apocryphal” texts, Patristic writings, Hagiographic texts, Liturgical prayers, hymns, etc., Gnostic and Manichaean texts, and “Unidentified” texts. Tables at the end of the book present the manuscripts in these categories, each item described as to contents, writing material (papyrus or parchment) and whether it derives from a bookroll, codex, sheet, or wooden tablet.

Sumerian in Peru?

THE ASOR BLOG: Ask a Near Eastern Professional: How the Sumerians Got to Peru (Alex Joffe). The short answer is that they didn't — or at least this artifact does not prove that they did, because it is a fake. But the long answer is quite interesting, so read it all. It would be exciting to find evidence of contact between the ancient Near East and the Americas in antiquity, but it doesn't seem very likely, and so far no convincing evidence has surfaced. Related post here with links.

Free registration is required to read the full text of essays at the ASOR Blog.

Syriac Christianity in Central Asia

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Christianity in Central Asia. New article: Dickens, Mark. 2015. Le christianisme syriaque en Asie centrale. In Borbone, Pier Giorgio & Pierre Marsone (eds.), Le christianisme syriaque en Asie centrale et en Chine (Études Syriaques 12), 6–39. Geuthner.

The article is posted on Academia.edu. Follow the link above for a link to it. Cross-file under Syriac Watch. Related posts here, with some links relevant to the book. Likewise here and here and links.

Hinneh

YONA SABAR: Hebrew Word of the Week: hinneh “lo,* behold, look, here, now, yea.” A fine biblical word. There's nothing quite like it in modern English.

More new JHS articles

TWO MORE NEW ARTICLES IN THE JOURNAL OF HEBREW SCRIPTURES (16.7-8):

Speaking to One’s heart: DBR and its Semantic Extensio (Natalie MYLONAS, Stephen LLEWELYN and Gareth WEARNE)

Abstract: Cognitive linguists are increasingly recognising the value of metonymy for understanding the way language works. This article applies recent advancements in the theory of metonymy to the Hebrew noun DBR in order to explain its broad semantic range. It argues that metonymy and its function in the processes of grammaticalization account for the majority of lexical senses listed for DBR. It also aids in the translation of this polysemous noun by highlighting some contextual features of speech that help determine the meaning of DBR in any given sentence.

Narrative Toledot Formulae in Genesis: The Case of Heaven and Earth, Noah, and Isaac (Sarah SCHWARTZ)

Abstract: This paper reexamines the literary function of the narrative toledot formulae in Genesis, claiming that the formula thrice (Gen 2:4; 6:9; 25:19) introduces a passage about the specified father rather than one solely about his sons. This finding is based on a philological analysis of the word toledot and the formula's unique literary design in these three instances. This reading illuminates the inner tension between renewal and continuity in the Flood narrative; leads to the exposure of a unit about Isaac within the patriarchal cycles; and offers a new understanding of chapter 1's exclusion from the toledot framework.

Both can be accessed in full at the links.

Syriac tablet found at Edessa

SYRIAC WATCH: Syriac tablet found at Edessa in Turkey (Roger Pearse). There's a photo at the link. This is different from the Syriac mosaic inscriptions found recently in the same area, on which more here and here.

Lourié on 3 Maccabees, 2 Enoch, and the calendar

BASIL LOURIÉ: The Liturgical Cycle in 3 Maccabees and the 2 Enoch Calendar (proofs). Proofs posted at Academia.edu.

ABSTRACT
3 Maccabees provides a hagiographical legend related to a 50-day liturgical cycle. This cycle implies a modification of the already known calendar shared by 2 Enoch and the Joseph and Aseneth and covers the third pente-contad after the Passover within the 364-day year having its first day (1.I) falling on Sunday (not Wednesday) 3 Maccabees’s innovation consists in shifting the former New Wine pentecontad from the second to the third position while transforming the original day of the New Wine festival into a day of mourning. This kind of liturgical transformation of some feasts is not unique, however, in the Second Temple Judaism.

King on the GJW aftermath

THE HARVARD CRIMSON:‘Gospel of Jesus’ Wife’ Researcher Says Frenzy Distracts from Larger Issues (Bonnie K. Bennett).

A hotly debated piece of papyrus at Harvard that could help answer whether Jesus had a wife has been largely accepted as a forgery by the media and the woman who championed its cause.

And everybody else.

But for that same woman, a professor who has spent the past four years studying the small scrap of papyrus, the frenzy has distracted from the broader issues.

[...]

Professor Karen King raises some points worth discussion. And the following is indeed important and good news:

According to King, “the most significant development” resulting from the papyrus was the formation of the Ancient Ink Laboratory at Columbia University and that lab’s subsequent discovery of a nondestructive technique to date ancient inks.

Director of the Ancient Ink Laboratory Jim T. Yardley said the lab created a “totally unprecedented” method of dating manuscripts by analyzing tiny ink samples with a “scanning electron microscope.”

Also, as Alin Suciu notes on Facebook, an interesting takeaway from this article is that the date of the ink on the papyrus is earlier than the date of the papyrus. I don't think this has been mentioned before. Further proof, if any were needed, that it is a forgery.

Recent background on the whole, long saga of the Gospel of Jesus' Wife is here, here, and here, with many links to earlier posts.

Burke on the Syriac Life of Mary

APOCRYPHICITY: LOST AND FOUND ITEMS IN MANUSCRIPTS OF THE LIFE OF MARY (Tony Burke).

In the course of my manuscript hunting and gathering, I came across some manuscripts that should be of interest to a wider audience of scholars than the few of us who work on Infancy Thomas. This is one of the joys of text-critical research: the serendipitous discovery of texts or versions of texts obscured, in many cases, by sloppy cataloguing—because the cataloger either missed or misidentified the material. ...

The discussion is technical, but will especially be of interest to specialists in Syriac studies and the New Testament Apocrypha.

Cross-file under Syriac Watch. Also, happy birthday, Tony!

Cataldo on "return" in Zechariah 1-8

NEW ARTICLE IN THE JOURNAL OF HEBREW SCRIPTURES (16.6): The Radical Nature of "Return" in Zechariah (JEREMIAH W. CATALDO).

Abstract: Scholarship has tended to emphasize a positivistic view of Zechariah--namely, that the text, constructivist in nature, reflects what the prophet viewed as the eventual outcome of his community. In contrast, using Melanie Klein's theory on the “death instinct,” this article is an experimental reading of Zech 1-8 meant to expose questions about Zechariah as a paranoid text produced under fears of social irrelevance, or “death.” The article therefore argues that the concept of return must be reinterpreted accordingly.

The full article can be accessed for free at the link.

Jorunn J. Buckley on her career in Mandaean studies

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Retrospective | Jorunn J. Buckley. Professor Buckley is a pioneer in the area of Mandaean (Mandaean) studies, an area in which Biblioblogger James McGrath is also a specialist.

Some recent past posts on the Mandeans (Madaeans) are here, here, here, and here, with links. There are many more posts in the archives.

Cross-file under Mandean (Mandaean) Watch.

The fall of Gamla

ANNIVERSARY: This Day in Jewish History 67 C.E.: Roman Forces Overrun Gamla, Jews All Die. The majority of Jews who died in Vespasian's conquest of the clifftop town were suicides, according to Josephus (David B. Green, Haaretz).

Most of what is known about the siege of Gamla comes from the historian Josephus Flavius, who before he went over to the Roman camp, was commander of the Jewish forces in the Galilee and was known as Joseph ben Matityahu. It was he who had overseen the fortification of Gamla, which included construction of a wall on its eastern side. He recorded the history of the revolt in his “Wars of the Jews.”

The siege of Gamla was led by Vespasian, who arrived from Rome in 66, and who required three attempts before he succeeded in conquering the village.

CFP ISBL 2017 Qumran

CALL FOR PAPERS, 2017 INTERNATIONAL MEETING, BERLIN, GERMANY: QUMRAN AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS.

Program Unit Type: Section
Accepting Papers? Yes

Call For Papers: The Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls unit plans four sessions: 1. “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Genre Apocalypse” will be convened jointly with the Apocalyptic Literature program unit. This session will reconsider questions related to genre and definitions of apocalyptic literature, in light of the full publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, exploring issues such as apocalyptic rhetoric, social setting, and eschatology. Some papers are invited but we also welcome proposals. 2. “Tracing and Facing Possibility of Forgeries: Methodology, Ethics, Policies” is an open session on the status of unprovenanced material in Qumran studies. SBL has recently announced a new policy on unprovenanced materials. In summer 2016, the controversy over the “Gospel of Jesus's wife” fragment was traced to Berlin by Ariel Sabar. Around that time, Qumran scholars began to express skepticism about the authenticity of some fragments attributed to Qumran which have surfaced since 2002. We invite papers to engage one or more of the following topics in a cooperative and collegial spirit: • Developments and discussion on post-2002 DSS fragments/other recent material: What has happened and what can we learn from these processes? • Methodology: How to identify forgeries? Which technological/material/paleographical analyses are available/most important? • Ethics: Whose responsibility is it to look into the nature of the material in collections? To what extent can their history and provenance be traced? How are discovery narratives constructing reality? • Policies: To what extent is the new SBL policy helpful? What implications can be expected? 3. The third session is an invited interdisciplinary session that will explore intersections between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Manichean literature, in particular the Turfan collection, which is kept in Berlin. 4. For our final session we welcome proposals on any issue pertaining to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Program Unit Chairs

Jutta Jokiranta
Matthew Goff

Follow the link for instructions on how to submit a paper proposal. HT Dr. Molly Zahn on the IOQS e-mail list.

Places where Jesus might have been buried?

HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY? These are the places where people think Jesus might be buried — including Japan (Tom Murray, Business Insider, UK).

Last week, the tomb of Jesus Christ was opened for the first time in centuries, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Except that it might not be the tomb of Christ. In fact, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is just one of the places where people think Jesus might have been buried.

As per the nature of the Bible story — that Jesus was resurrected then ascended to heaven — it's pretty much impossible to say definitively what or where the Tomb of Christ is, as it won't contain any remains.

Although there will never be any archaeological evidence of Jesus' body, there are other factors that make certain sites look more probable than others.

In accordance with Jewish custom, researchers know that Jesus would have been buried outside of Jerusalem's city walls. However, soon after Jesus' death, the walls were expanded — meaning that Jesus' burial site could now rest within the modern-day 'Old City' of Jerusalem.

Over time, researchers have found over a thousand 'rock-cut' tombs that match those that Jesus could have been buried in, but only a handful have laid a convincing claim on the son of God's resting place.

See them below ...

Two of these, the ones in India and Japan, just have fanciful legends about Jesus associated with them and aren't in the running in any historical sense. And, as the article notes, the Garden Tomb really is not in the running archaeologically speaking. The Talpiot Tomb is at least from the right time period, but specialists in the New Testament and archaeology have not found the arguments for any connection with Jesus or his family persuasive. On that, see most recently here, here, here, and here, with links to many earlier posts.

The tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre) seems to be from the right period as well, and if we know the place of Jesus' burial, it is the only possibility in the running. But for that matter, it is possible that the tomb narratives in the Gospels are partly or completely legendary and that the place where Jesus was buried is entirely unknown or even that, as was the norm for crucified criminals, his body didn't have any formal burial at all. We just don't know.

It is interesting that when Paul talks about the resurrection of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15, he refers to Jesus being buried (v. 4), but says nothing about a tomb. If he knew about a tomb tradition, it doesn't seem to have been important to him.

For more on the recent restoration work on the tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, see here and links.

Jonah and Eden

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Jonah in the Shadows of Eden

Like the manna-hoarding Israelites who, after the splitting of the sea, believe they can preserve their latest installment of divine largesse, the rebellious Jonah, after his own salvation at sea, renews his quest for a permanent Eden-like existence. In neither case, however, is the wish granted. Rather, God teaches Jonah, as he showed in the story of the manna, that enduring value cannot be attained by unearned gifts amassed in a day. Rather, only by persistent, plodding effort can humans strive toward a more perfect world—an opportunity that the prophet seeks to deny to the flawed inhabitants of Nineveh.


See Also: Jonah in the Shadows of Eden (Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature; Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2016).

By Yitzhak Berger
Professor of Bible
Head, Hebrew Division
Hunter College of the City University of New York
November 2016

HB job in Finland

CHANGES IN SACRED TEXTS AND TRADITIONS BLOG: PERMANENT OR TENURE-TRACK POSITION IN HEBREW BIBLE AND COGNATE STUDIES AT UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI. The application deadline is 7 December 2016.

Seen on Facebook.

Hort once dissed Tischendorf

ETC BLOG: Tischendorf’s ‘Wounded Vanity’? (Peter Gurry). Rick Brannan once informed us that "Tischendorf was a stud." So there. More on Constantine Tischendorf, who is especially well known (or infamous) for recovering (or appropriating) the Codex Sinaiticus, is here and links.

"Methuselah" the movie

CINEMA: TOM CRUISE IS AN EPIC 969-YEAR-OLD MAN IN NEW BIBLE FILM ‘METHUSELAH’ (Alison Lesley, World Religion News).

TOM CRUISE WILL PLAY THE WORLD’S OLDEST DEMON SLAYER IN ‘METHUSELAH’. Tom Cruise is no stranger to action-packed movies that keep viewers on the edge of their seats, and he always goes the extra mile and performs death-defying stunts that most actors will never even dare try. He hung off the side of a plane in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and scaled the Burj Khalifa in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. This versatile actor has played a variety of roles – from the mysterious yet powerful Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible series, the virtuous yet dangerous Jack Reacher, the sought-after rock god Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages and the confident, fast-talking sports agent in Jerry Maguire. Tom Cruise most definitely pulled off a lot of characters most have not expected him to play.

One of his upcoming roles attracting controversy is the role of Methuselah, a biblical character in the Old Testament who defied the laws of aging, surpassed the mortal age of all the characters in the Bible, and lived to be 969 years old. Cruise plays the powerful yet fully mortal character, who, like a lot of protagonists he has played before, has the uncanny ability to defeat enemies and surmount obstacles with a nearly supernatural prowess. In the Bible, Methuselah is portrayed as a great leader and warrior. Although only briefly mentioned in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, he is given more attention in the book of Enoch. In this Jewish book, we find that Methuselah has a powerful weapon called the sword of Methuselah, an object that can kill evil spirits and demons.

[...]

Methuselah is mentioned a number of times in the book of 1 Enoch, but there is no reference to a "sword of Methuselah." There is reference to a knife of Methuselah in 2 Enoch chapter 69 and that may be where the sword comes from. Not untypically, the article is a mixture of correct and muddled information. The meaning of the name is unclear, but the first part ("Methu") means "man of." "Shelah" may be the name of an underworld god, a place, or something like "dart."

Be that as it may, it sounds like a fun film. Tom Cruise will have his work cut out for him following the act of Anthony Hopkins in Noah.

Azariah Dei Rossi

HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP: Rediscovering Azariah Dei Rossi (Eli Kavon, Past Imperect Blog, Jerusalem Post). Excerpt:

Azariah dei Rossi, a pioneer of Jewish scholarship born into a distinguished family in Mantua, earned the condemnation of the rabbis of his time. The rabbinic leadership in the 16th century in Italy, Central Europe, and the Middle East were especially outraged by Meor Einayim (“Light to the Eyes”). This was Azariah’s outstanding work of Jewish history, a harbinger of great modern Jewish historians such as Heinrich Graetz who would emerge later in the modern period. ...

Dei Rossi was also revolutionary in his rediscovery of ancient Jewish writings of the Hellenistic and pagan world—including the first great Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, the histories of Josephus, and the Letter of Aristeas that described the first translations of the Torah into Greek. In many cases, these texts went unrecognized by Jews and had worked their way into the cherished canon of the Church. It is impossible to think of the modern writing of the history of the Jews without acknowledging this pioneer of Mantua. ...

New Phoenician Tourism Route

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Phoenician Tourism Route launched at the World Travel Market.

(Forimmediaterelease.net) An integral component of Mediterranean trade and culture, the Phoenicians’ Route links 18 countries with a common heritage.

With the aim of revitalizing this itinerary as a tourism route, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Ministry of Tourism of Lebanon and Council of Europe launched the Phoenicians’ Route Cultural Tourism Programme, which integrates public and private sector, at World Travel Market in London.

During the event, participants discussed the development and marketing of three pilot cultural tourism itineraries along the Phoenicians’ Route. The itineraries will connect three continents, 18 countries and more than 80 towns. Theycover the various periods of Phoenician heritage: the Origin (Lebanon, Cyprus and Greece); the Punics and the Sea (Italy, Malta and Tunisia) and the Expansion (France and Spain).

[...]

Sounds like a good tourism initiative, although I would be cautious about visiting Lebanon at present.

Moss and Baden on the Jerusalem papyrus

EPIGRAPHY: Is Israel’s Big New Find for Real? A piece of recently found papyrus is said to prove that Jerusalem was the center of a kingdom thousands of years ago. But the timing of its discovery has cast some doubt on it (Candida Moss and Joel Baden, The Daily Beast). Excerpt:

Scholars who are not concerned with lab testing have openly questioned the authenticity of the Jerusalem papyrus, among them some of the most highly-respected archaeologists, epigraphers, and philologists in the world. Part of what drives this doubt may be technical concerns over issues such as whether the script used is what we would expect to find from the seventh century, or philological details such as whether the place name in the papyrus, Naharata, is grammatically correct. But for many, the overarching problem is how the text came to light in the first place.

As usual, Moss and Baden give us a good summary of the current state of play concerning the papyrus.

Background here (cf. here) and links.

SBL blogger events

MORE DETAILS on events for bloggers at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Antonio, Texas, next week.

RELIGION PROF: Blogger Gathering at #AARSBL16 on Saturday, November 19th at 7pm at Yard House (James McGrath)

ETC BLOG: SBL 2016 San Antonio ETC Blog Dinner (Christian Askeland)

The timeless Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Need a Reason to Hope This Campaign Season? Try the Timeless Talmud. Can it get any worse? Yes, yes, it can, a lot worse, but the continuity of learning in the ‘Daf Yomi’ cycle has remained unbroken for 2,000 years.

But then, perhaps this bad time is exactly the right time for Talmud. The Talmud cannot teach us how to resist our enemies—that requires a different kind of knowledge and skill. But there is something reassuring about the very remoteness of the rabbis from contemporary politics, and from politics in general. It has been nearly 2,000 years since Yehuda HaNasi compiled the Mishna, and in that time the Jewish people have been through much worse ordeals than the ones we are facing in America today. Yet the links in the chain of study have never been entirely broken. Judaism has passed through many places and forms, and there is no reason to think that the American phase of the Jewish story will last forever. But the Talmud does last, and by reading it I have the sense of participating in something, if not timeless, then as close to it as human beings can get.

The column is actually on chapter three of Tractate Bava Metzia, for which follow the link.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Stiebert on incest in the Hebrew Bible

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Incest in the Hebrew Bible

There is no persuasive reason, however, in Leviticus (or elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible) for arguing that daughters are depicted as sexually available to fathers (see Stiebert 2016: 33-44). Really, the Hebrew Bible provides us with very little to go on concerning child sexual abuse, including incestuous abuse of girls in particular, a topic so disturbing and prevalent in the clinical literature of contemporary Western contexts (Herman [1981] 2000). While violence against children is mentioned in numerous places (Michel 2003), the assumption in almost every single case in the Hebrew Bible is that sexual acts occur not with children and only between persons of marriageable and/or childbearing age (Michel 2004).

See Also: Stiebert, Johanna. First-Degree Incest and the Hebrew Bible: Sex in the Family (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016).

By Johanna Stiebert
School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science
University of Leeds, West Yorkshire
November 2016

Diplomatic replica trinkets

POLITICS: A diplomatic gift. Foreign Ministry will distribute gifts to foreign visitor from the City of David in honor of Jerusalem's re-unification (Arutz Sheva).

The gifts are replicas of artifacts found in the City of David excavations representing the millennia-long connection of the Jewish People to Jerusalem.

Diplomats from abroad will receive either a half-shekel coin or a gold pendant with the image of the menorah that was found in the Ophel excavations at the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount. The original was 1,400 years old, the oldest such decoration found.

There's more on ancient half-shekel coins here and links, and more on the Ophel golden menorah medallion here and links.

Sad news: Peter Flint

I AM VERY SORRY TO RELAY THE SAD NEWS that Professor Peter Flint, a well-known Dead Sea Scrolls scholar at Trinity Western University, died on 3 November. The news comes from his colleague Andrew Perrin, posted on the IOQS Facebook page. Peter's wife, Amanda, has asked that, in lieu of further flowers, contributions be made to Trinity Western's Dead Sea Scrolls Legacy Scholarship. Peter's personal website is here and his Wikipedia entry is here.

I have known Peter for a very long time, although I hadn't seen him much in recent years. He has been mentioned often at PaleoJudaica, most recently here. Peter was an endless font of energy and enthusiasm. It's hard to believe that he is gone. Requiescat in pace.

UPDATE: Molly Zahn has sent the following to the IOQS e-mail list:

Many of you will have heard the sad news of the sudden death of our dear colleague Peter Flint. Our hearts go out to Peter’s family, colleagues, and students. All of us in the community of Qumran scholarship will feel his loss keenly.

Rus Fuller has asked me to pass on information about a memorial session for Peter at the upcoming SBL meeting in San Antonio. It will be held at the end of the Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible session on Monday November 21. The session will be held in room 214B of the convention center and will start at approximately 5:45 pm. Please join us if you can.

I hope to see some of you there.

Newsom Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

CONGRATULATIONS TO CAROL NEWSOM: Newsom Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Emory University, Candler School of Theology News).

Charles Howard Candler Professor of Old Testament Carol A. Newsom has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research.

[...]

A member of the Candler faculty since 1980, Newsom became the second woman to hold a tenure-track position, and the first female faculty member appointed to a chaired professorship. Along with her teaching at Candler, she is a senior fellow at Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion. Her research focuses on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Wisdom tradition, the book of Daniel, apocalyptic literature, and theology and the environment.

[...]

Jenkins on Lazarus and James

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Lazarus and James (Philip Jenkins).

I have been posting on the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, as told in Luke’s chapter 16, and puzzling out its possible relationship to the miracle of Lazarus in the Gospel of John. Here, I will pursue that question by citing another curious source, namely the Epistle of James.

[...]

Offhand I don't find the suggested connection between the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man with the passage in James to be very convincing. Both passages may just be using stereotypical language about the rich and the poor. But a blog post is not the ideal place to present such arguments, and it is possible that I would find a more detailed presentation of the case more persuasive.

An earlier post by Professor Jenkins on the Lazarus traditions in the New Testament was noted here.

Yale conference on ancient divination, prophecy, and oracles

CALL FOR PAPERS: Between Heaven and Earth: Divination, Prophecy and Oracles in the Ancient World. International interdisciplinary conference.

The conference “Between Heaven and Earth: Divination, Prophecy and Oracles in the Ancient World,” will take place at Yale University, on April 20-21, 2017.

We are seeking papers from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for an international interdisciplinary conference entitled “Between Heaven and Earth: Divination, Prophecy and Oracles in the Ancient World” at Yale University on April 20-21,
2017. Many studies have been conducted on the manner in which cultures across the globe have attempted (and continue to attempt) communication with higher powers. The study of divination, prophecy and oracles, however, has suffered from their being considered in isolation.

This conference invites graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty to an interdisciplinary exploration of prophecy, magic, and oracular and divinatory practices in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Bringing Egyptologists into conversation with scholars in Classics, ancient Judaism, and ancient Christianity, it will also seek new theoretical models for approaching prophecy, divination, and oracles in the ancient world. Sources for study can include both texts and material culture from the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. We invite papers on any topic related to the following five aims of the conference ...

Follow the link for further particulars. HT Annette Yoshiko Reed on the PSCO e-mail list.

Biblical archaeology conference in Tennessee

UPCOMING CONFERENCE: Biblical Archaeology Conference to be Held in Bristol (BRISTOL HERALD COURIER).

BRISTOL, Tenn. — King University will host a Biblical Archaeology Conference Nov. 13-14. The conference, which is free and open to the public, will answer the question, “What’s Going on with Biblical Archaeology in Israel.”

This meeting is part of a once-a-year seminar series designed specifically for those interested in the Bible and a better understanding of its history through archaeological digs and research. This year’s conference is held in conjunction with King’s Department of Philosophy and Religion and the King Institute for Faith and Culture’s 2016-17 Lecture Series, which contemplates faith engaging culture.

Sessions over two days will cover topics from the Old and New Testaments and the latest Biblical archaeological discoveries in Israel and Palestine. Regions of interest include Jerusalem, Judah, and Azekah which overlooks the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath.

[...]

New tests on the Jordan codices

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: ‘Lead Sea Scrolls’ row reopened (Richard Brooks, Sunday Times [of London]*). A report of some new materials tests on those lead codices:

The debate has been given new impetus after tests on one of the books at Surrey University’s Ion Beam Centre found the lead was at least 150 years old and could date back 2,000 years.

Professor Roger Webb, the centre’s director, said that while the metal was difficult to age, lead less than 150 years old was slightly radioactive and emitted alpha particles but “the page of the book we tested had no alpha particle emissions”.

It is not clear why this is news. Back in 2011 when the discovery of the metal codices was first announced, one had already been tested at Oxford and shown to have been manufactured from ancient lead. That does not by any means exclude the possibility that they are forgeries. More on that below.

I was already aware that some new tests on the lead of the codices had been undertaken, but the results that had been reported to me are a little different from what is indicated above, so they may have referred to other tests. I understand that a number of tests have been done.

If anyone involved with the tests thinks they are of any real interest for the study of the Jordanian lead codices, they should release full scans of the lab reports, so we can see exactly what they say and outside specialists in ancient metallurgy can evaluate their claims. Complete scans please, not excerpts and not retyped transcripts.

Meanwhile, this article seems particularly interested in the fact that Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, "has called for a fresh examination" of the codices and has said, "'The books are well worth a second glance. If I were a forger, I would frankly forge something more mainstream.'"

I have the greatest respect for Dr. Williams as a premier theologian and church leader, but his opinion as reported here does not count as a specialist evaluation of the codices — nor does he claim that it does.

It's fine to call for a reexamination of the codices, but to make this worthwhile, we need some new evidence that makes some kind of difference. Indeed, when I heard the news of the lab reports some time ago, I went back over all the evidence I have available about the codices to see if I wanted to change my mind on anything. Having done so, I remain fully convinced that they are not ancient artifacts (i.e., they are not two thousand years old or anywhere near that). My judgment is that the evidence against their being ancient is decisive and compelling. Most of the evidence is fully covered in archived past posts on the subject and I see no need to rehearse it again here.

If some of the lead codices turn out to have been manufactured a century or a century and a half or so ago, that does not exclude forgery. Forgers were around in the nineteenth century and some of them were pretty good for the time. And if the codices are forgeries, which I think very likely, they are not all that good.

I do not rule out the possibility that some of them could be that old, but I have seen no definitive evidence yet that requires them to be that old, and some of the evidence points toward some of them having been manufactured more recently. That is about as specific as I can be at present.

Back in 2015 an independent scholar named Samuel Zinner posted a draft article on Academia.edu that argued that the codices are modern amuletic art objects that were misunderstood when rediscovered as either ancient objects or forgeries. I am skeptical about this, but I encouraged him to try to publish the article in a peer-review journal so that other specialists in that area could evaluate his argument. (It is outside my areas of expertise.) The essay has been removed, but has not yet been published. Still, I am open to the possibility that he could be correct. But I cannot see how the codices could be ancient artifacts.

The Times article also quotes the views of Classicist Peter Thonemann of Oxford University and New Testament scholar Mark Goodacre of Duke University. Both were involved in the early discussion of the codices and neither thinks they are genuine ancient artifacts. The reporter also asked for and received a statement from me, but he did not use it. I have used a few bits of it in this post.

As for the tests, materials testing can be an important tool for evaluating the authenticity of unprovenanced artifacts, but modern forgers are very sophisticated and know to use ancient materials, etc. Materials tests initially seemed to support the antiquity of the infamous Gospel of Jesus' Wife papyrus, yet it has now definitively been shown to be a modern forgery. The new test results on the codices may turn out to be of interest, but I want to hear more about them and hear what independent specialists in ancient metallurgy make of them.

If there are people who want skeptical specialists to change our thinking on the metal codices, they need not only to release the lab reports, but also to make the full archive of photos available to art historians specializing in Jewish iconography and to palaeographers specializing in ancient Hebrew scripts. Their research should then be published in peer-review journals. I have been calling for years for this to be done. This is how scholarship advances, not through popular reports in the media.

I am prepared to listen to any scholarly case for what the codices are and to rethink my understanding of them if the evidence requires it. But I remain skeptical at present that they are anything but forgeries.

Background here, with many links going back to March of 2011.

*The Times article is behind a subscription wall, but you can read it with a free registration.

van Bladel, From Sasanian Mandaeans to Ṣābians of the Marshes

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

From Sasanian Mandaeans to Ṣābians of the Marshes

Kevin T. van Bladel (Ph.D. 2004, Yale University), The Ohio State University
This historical study argues that the Mandaean religion originated under Sasanid rule in the fifth century, not earlier as has been widely accepted. It analyzes primary sources in Syriac, Mandaic, and Arabic to clarify the early history of Mandaeism. This religion, along with several other, shorter-lived new faiths, such as Kentaeism, began in a period of state-sponsored persecution of Babylonian paganism. The Mandaeans would survive to become one of many groups known as Ṣābians by their Muslim neighbors. Rather than seeking to elucidate the history of Mandaeism in terms of other religions to which it can be related, this study approaches the religion through the history of its social contexts.

Cross-file under Mandean (Mandaean) Watch.

Archaeologists are returning to Masada

ANNOUNCEMENT: Israeli archaeologist announces return to Masada after ten-year absence. Dr. Guy Stiebel, former director of excavations at Masada, says much is yet to be discovered at the site (i24 News).

The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archeology held the sixth session of its annual conference this Thursday at Tel Aviv University. Some 250 people gathered in the hallway including renowned researchers, representatives from the Israel Antiquity Authorities, and archaeology enthusiasts, for the event loaded with additional significance as the Institution was ranked 50th in the 2016 QS World University Rankings by Subject.

[...]

Dr. Guy Stiebel, former director of excavations at Masada, will this February conduct a new series of archaeological digs to pierce the secrets of this national shrine.

Dr. Stiebel expressed his excitement to return to the site after a ten year absence, enthusiasm that was reciprocated by conference organizers.

“A lifetime would not suffice to get a glimpse of all the hidden beauties of Masada," he said. "Its magic is not just in the military equipment, it is also in small things."

[...]

Good.

The Center for the Study of Ancient Religious Texts

ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: New center to study ancient religious texts (Lauren Franco, The Optimist).

The Center for the Study of Ancient Religious Texts opened Thursday in conjunction with the 30th annual Carmichael-Walling lectures.

The new center, or CSART, will provide an opportunity for faculty and students to collaborate in cutting edge research of ancient texts. Dr. Jeff Childers, director of the CSART, said the center’s participants have already begun engaging in global partnerships, one of which is with St. Catherine’s monastery.

On Thursday, Father Justin, a librarian in the monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai, Egypt, delivered three lectures about the treasures of the monastery.

[...]

The opportunity is open to all students, but Childers said mostly students who are skilled in ancient languages, no matter their major, can be involved in the research. Ancient languages include Ethiopic (ancient Ethiopian), Coptic, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Resident Ethiopic expert Dr. Kurt Niccum, professor of Bible, will continue his research of Ethiopic texts, some of which are housed on campus in the Brown Library.

[...]

Sounds like an exciting project.

Palestinians to claim DSS?

POLITICS: Israel says Palestinians may try to claim Dead Sea Scrolls. In latest diplomatic tussle over archaeology, Palestinians reportedly raise demand at UNESCO panel; Israel slams fresh bid to deny Jewish ties to the land (Times of Israel).

Officials in Jerusalem are concerned that the Palestinians will make a formal approach to UNESCO demanding a return of the historic Dead Sea Scrolls, considered among Israel’s most important archaeological holdings.

During a meeting of the UN’s cultural agency last month, UNESCO officials told Eitan Klein, a deputy director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, that the Palestinians had informally raised the issue and were likely to make an official request too.

[...]

Something like this was tried back in 2009. You can read about it here. Nothing came of it. It isn't going to happen now either.

Semitica 58

MICHAEL LANGLOIS: Semitica 58.

Semitica 58 is out!

Semitica is published by the Institute of Semitic Studies at the Collège de France. It presents every year new scientific studies. I serve as editor under the direction of Thomas Römer, professor at the Collège de France and director by right of the Institute of Semitic Studies.

Volume 58 is out and available in paper and electronic version at Peeters. Here are its contents

The current volume has a number of articles relevant to biblical studies and ancient Judaism. The electronic version charges for access to the full articles, but you can read the abstracts for free.

On the Sumerian King List

THE ASOR BLOG: The Sumerian King List or the ‘History’ of Kingship in Early Mesopotamia (Gianni Marchesi). Yes, I know this one is a stretch for PaleoJudaica, but I have mentioned the Sumerian King List in the past. It's a very interesting document that has some indirect connections with biblical studies (e.g., mention of the Great Flood and a list of ancestors who came before it) and, given all the recent events in the Middle East, it may well come up again. This essay is a good, brief introduction to the text and to the current scholarly state of the question about it.

Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in Kurdish Studies 4 (2016)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Yezidism and Yezidi Studies. Notice of a thematic journal issue: Kreyenbroek, Philip G. & Khanna Omarkhali (eds.). 2016. Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in the early 21st century (Special Issue. Vol. 4, No 2, Kurdish Studies). London: Transnational Press. Some of the material in the issue is available online for free.

Cross-file under Yazidi Watch. Background on the Yazidis, their Gnosticism-themed religion, and their tragic fate in the hands of ISIS, is here with many links.

Christian Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha at ISBL 2017

APOCRYPHICITY: CALL FOR PAPERS: 2017 SBL INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA SECTION (Tony Burke).

The 2017 SBL International Meeting will take place August 7-11 in Berlin, Germany. The deadline for proposals is February 22, 2017.

It's not too early to start thinking about this!

Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE)

AWOL: Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE) News. Looks like an important resource. Cross-file under Numismatics.

CFP: Christian late antiquity conference

JAMES MCGRATH: Call for Papers: Mapping Transformations Towards a Christian Late Antiquity. James posts some information from Gerhard van den Heever.

New Testament Society of South Africa: Early Christian Studies Subgroup

Inaugural Session: 9—12 April 2017, University of Stellenbosch.

Call for Papers

Mapping Transformations Towards a Christian Late Antiquity

The context includes Greco-Roman, ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. Follow the link for details.

Diversity of views in the Bible

THE ASOR BLOG: It’s Complicated: Biblical Exercise for the Theological and Ethical Imagination (C. L. Crouch).

Why does the Bible matter? Why do we continue to talk about, turn to, and study a diverse assortment of narratives, poems, laws and prophetic proclamations at least two millennia old? The most straightforward answer is that they continue to serve as the sacred texts for two of the world’s major religions, Judaism and Christianity, and as an interlocutor for a third, Islam. As such, they have served as the theological, ethical and social bedrock of half of civilization.

But if this goes some way to explaining their persistence through past ages, it leaves open why these texts might continue to matter in the present and future. Why might these texts remain of interest, particularly in the undeniably diverse cultural milieu which is the modern world? One compelling reason is their own diversity, which contributes in a marked way to their ongoing vitality. The texts and traditions of the Hebrew Bible contain profound differences in their theologies, deep disputes in ethical thought and argumentation, and fundamental disagreements in conceptions of the world and its workings.

[...]

Access to the full text of the essays at the ASOR Blog requires free registration.

Hendel on textual criticism and inerrancy

RON HENDEL: The Dream of a Perfect Text: Textual Criticism and Biblical Inerrancy in Early Modern Europe (Academia.edu). This is the full text of Professor Hendel's contribution to the Collins Festschrift (on which see the immediately preceding post). The full TOC of the volume is also included.

HT Peter Gurry at the ETC Blog. He has comments there.

Collins Festschrift

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM BRILL:

Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls: John Collins at Seventy

Edited by Joel Baden, Yale University, Hindy Najman,University of Oxford and Eibert Tigchelaar, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

This volume, a tribute to John J. Collins by his friends, colleagues, and students, includes essays on the wide range of interests that have occupied John Collins’s distinguished career. Topics range from the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism and beyond into early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. The contributions deal with issues of text and interpretation, history and historiography, philology and archaeology, and more. The breadth of the volume is matched only by the breadth of John Collins’s own work.

Congratulations to Professor Collins on this well-deserved honor.

Netanyahu on the Arch of Titus and UNESCO

POLITICS: Netanyahu: Italy’s Arch of Titus in Rome Described A Jewish Tragedy in Jerusalem. PM Netanyahu reminded Italy's Pres. Matarella the Arch of Titus, a Roman description of Jewish Jerusalem events, was not 'Zionist propaganda' (Hana Levi Julian, The Jewish Press).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday in Jerusalem with Italian President Sergio Mattarella. Netanyahu spoke with media prior to the meeting at his office, offering condolences to the families of the earthquake victims and wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded. Israel, he said, has extended its offer to help and reiterated the assistance remains if needed.

... "I cannot say that the history of our peoples in antiquity was always marked by amity,” Netanyahu remarked, however, “even though there was a very active Jewish community in ancient Rome. But obviously things took a turn for the worse, and that is commemorated in all its tragedy in the Arch of Titus in Rome… in which you see, of course, the great artifacts of the Jewish Temple carried in a triumphal march in Rome. And you see the Menorah, which is the symbol of the Jewish state, but also was of course the main object in our ancient Temple.

“I raise this because we’ve just had an absurd decision of UNESCO that said that the Jewish people h ave no connection to the Temple Mount.

“Well, the Arch of Titus was built by Titus’s brother, the Emperor Domitian. He wasn’t a Zionist propagandist. And he obviously was depicting that long, thousands-year connection to the Temple Mount, to Jerusalem and to this country of the Jewish people.

[...]

The Prime Minister's comments on the Arch of Titus at least have a secure basis in historical facts. Any political interpretation of the facts is, of course, a political interpretation. The situation with the Jerusalem papyrus was, you may recall, more complicated. That last link also has links to background on the UNESCO resolution.

More from Rollston on the Jerusalem papyrus

THE ROLLSTON EPIGRAPHY BLOG: The Jerusalem Papyrus: Complementary Notations. Epigrapher Christopher Rollston has posted some detailed observations and concerns about the Jerusalem papyrus. His previous post on the subject is here.

HT reader Stephen Goranson. Background here and links.

Romans 9:4-5

READING ACTS: What Advantage Has The Jew? Romans 9:4-5. In this latest post in his series on Paul's letter to the Romans, Phil Long interacts with passages from the Hebrew Bible, the Wisdom of Solomon, and 2 Maccabees. As background, you may also want to have a look at his introductory comments on Romans 9-11 here.

Some past posts in the series have been noted here and links.

The Artifact Peregrination Scale

ROGUE CLASSICISM: Artifact Peregrination Score: Thinking Out Loud About Provenance, Collection History, etc.. David Meadows proposes a new methodology for preliminary evaluations of of unprovenanced putatively ancient artifacts. Excerpt:

Indeed, it struck me that all our scholarly concern about not commenting on potentially-looted artifacts has done nothing but drive collectors into anonymous land. These are wealthy people whose egos and reputations are a large part of their identity, and while they might not like that we cast doubt on their collecting habits, they’re still going to do it. They just don’t tell us they’re doing it.

With the foregoing in mind, I thought there must be some way to bridge this gap between scholars and collectors to lend confidence to the authenticity of objects and encourage practices which actually add value both from a scholarly point of view and a collector’s point of view. And so, as traffic came to a complete halt on the Burlington Skyway, I came up with what I call the ‘Artifact Peregrination Scale’.

The idea of the scale is to give an artifact a ‘confidence rating’, which scholars can make use of (and contribute to) and collectors can also use for investment purposes (which should have some appeal). It’s basically a 10-point scale, from which points are deducted for various things as follows ...

Read it all and see what you think.

SBL 2016 seminar papers on Philo of Alexandria

PHILONICA ET NEOTESTAMENTICA: Philo papers (Torrey Seland).

Papers for the Philo seminars at the coming SBL Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Tx are now coming in, and are posted on my website.

CFP: Yale graduate conference on "Talmud and Philosophy"

ASSOCIATION FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF JUDAISM: Graduate conference on “Talmud and Philosophy” (Yale University 30 April 2017).

The study of Talmud, immersion in its distinctive modes and methods, represents a promising arena for deepening philosophical reflection. We invite papers for a day-long conference, to be held on April 30, 2017 at Yale University, that both explore and evaluate the potential for conversation between Talmud and philosophy. We welcome proposals engaging rabbinic literature more broadly; proposals addressing the concerns outlined above in relation to other religious traditions may be considered as well. Limited financial assistance is available for travel and hotel costs. Open to graduate students in all fields.

Follow the link for further particulars and instructions for submitting a paper proposal. HT reader Gerald Rosenberg.

Interview with Shmuel Ahituv (Jerusalem papyrus)

AUDIO: Rejuvenation: Beyond the Jerusalem Papyrus Debate (The Land of Israel Network/The Jewish Press).

Israel Prize winner Professor Shmuel Ahituv was one of the first to examine the now famous and controversial ‘Jerusalem Papyrus”. This delightful, unpretentious Biblical Archaeology expert discusses different aspects of the incredibly rare find with Eve in addition to the usual dating and verifying procedures. The role of women in the First Temple period, Jericho’s agriculture, antiquities theft and the keeping of secrets. Who knows what else awaits discovery in the arid Judean Desert?

Lots of interesting details in this interview. The papyrus seems to refer to a female administrative functionary in late Iron Age II Judah. Do we have other evidence for such female administrators or is this new? I didn't find his example convincing. And I note that the word "maidservant" is partially reconstructed. Also, Professor Ahituv clarifies that he dates the script of the papyrus's inscription to the late seventh century BCE, around 600, roughly during the reign of King Josiah.

Background here and links.

The Josephus Problem on video

POPULAR MECHANICS: The Deadly Ancient Math Problem Computer Scientists Love. Learn the secret of the Josephus problem and maybe you'll be the lone survivor (Jay Bennett).

Flavius Josephus, a Jewish-Roman historian from the first century, tells the story like this: A company of 40 soldiers, along with Josephus himself, were trapped in a cave by Roman soldiers during the Siege of Yodfat in 67 A.D. The Jewish soldiers chose to die rather than surrender, so they devised a system to kill off each other until only one person remained. (That last person would be the only one required to die by their own hand.)

All 41 people stood in a circle. The first soldier killed the man to his left, the next surviving soldier killed the man to his left, and so on. Josephus was among the last two men standing, "whether we must say it happened so by chance, or whether by the providence of God," and he convinced the other survivor to surrender rather than die.

This tale may be apocryphal and fantastic, but it gives rise to a fascinating math problem. That is: If you're in a similar situation to Josephus, how do you know where to stand so you will be the last man standing? This is the subject of a new video from the wonderful YouTube channel Numberphile.

[...]

If Josephus really did the maths in his head under those circumstances, that's pretty impressive.

Background on the Josephus Problem is here and here.

Review of Nelson and Ulmer (eds.), "It's Better to Hear the Rebuke of the Wise Than the Song of Fools"

H-JUDAIC: Adelman on Nelson and Ulmer, '"It's Better to Hear the Rebuke of the Wise Than the Song of Fools" (Qoh 7:5): Proceedings of the Midrash Section, Society of Biblical Literature'

Author: W. David Nelson, Rivka Ulmer, eds.
Reviewer: Rachel Adelman

W. David Nelson, Rivka Ulmer, eds. "It's Better to Hear the Rebuke of the Wise Than the Song of Fools" (Qoh 7:5): Proceedings of the Midrash Section, Society of Biblical Literature. Judaism in Context Series. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2015. 200 pp. $169.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4632-0560-7.

Excerpt:

This selection of essays advances midrash scholarship in three directions: with regard to the history of interpretation—whether it be the “curse of Ham” in the justification of slavery, the split image of Jacob the patriarch, the term “the holiest of holies,” or the Divine Spirit as the source of rabbinic inspiration and the sequel to prophecy; with regard to the content and composition of such texts as Seder Eliyahu Rabbah and Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer; and with respect to expanding the approach to the reading of midrash—inner-biblical exegesis and form criticism.

A Future for Pauline Studies?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Paul is Dead. Long Live Paulinism! : Imagining a Future for Pauline Studies (Cavan Concannon).

The editors of Ancient Jew Review have asked me to think about the future of Pauline studies. To pronounce the future of a field is a weighty task. To conjure the future is beyond me. What I can do is gesture towards a future, a future in which I think I could have fun studying Paul again. The future that I conjure is not a neutral one. I am a partisan in the battles over Pauline studies. My prescriptions stem from my own roots in feminist biblical criticism, though I also invoke here other pathways toward solidarities that might yet be cobbled together.

When I think of what it would take to make Pauline studies fun, I am drawn to one simple idea: we have to kill Paul. ...

That seems a bit harsh, but the rest of the essay clarifies. For example:

What might it mean to kill the presumption of Paul’s authority over moral and ethical matters and reject our collective moratorium on ethical criticism of the Pauline archive?

Also:

If we stop caring about whether Paul might undergird our ethical, political, or theological projects, I think we should also stop pretending that our historical procedures can get us back to the historical Paul.

As someone who has a mild interest in Paul and Pauline studies, but is not a specialist, I found this essay very interesting.

Biblical Studies Carnival October 2016

DUST: Biblical Studies Carnival 128 - October 2016 (Bob MacDonald). And Jim West has his own Halloween-themed, counter carnival: The ‘You’ve Got to Be Kidding, Great Pumpkin’ Biblical Studies Carnival.

Lost property in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Lost and Found. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ how the Talmud transforms absolute Torah commandments into contingent human laws, prizing practicality over literalism.

Chapter Two of Tractate Bava Metzia offers a good example of how the Talmud transforms an absolute Torah commandment into a contingent human law. Deuteronomy 22 instructs Jews that it is their duty to return lost property to its original owner: “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep wandering and disregard them; you shall return them to your brother.” If a Jew finds lost property and can’t locate or doesn’t know the rightful owner, the finder is obligated to keep it until the owner comes to claim it: “You shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother requires it, and you shall restore it to him.” There are no limitations on this duty; it seems to apply to all kinds of property, and for an indefinite period of time.

But you don’t have to think about this law for very long for its inadequacy to become apparent. What happens to a found item if the owner never comes to claim it? And how do you know if the person who does claim it really is the rightful owner? It is these kinds of questions the rabbis seek to answer, and they begin from the assumption that the right of an owner to reclaim lost property is not unlimited. Here we meet again a concept that has come up often in the Talmud: ye’ush or “despair.” Once a person has despaired of regaining his lost property, it becomes ownerless, and anyone who finds it can claim it.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

What they found in the Holy Sepulcher tomb

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: UNSEALING OF CHRIST'S REPUTED TOMB TURNS UP NEW REVELATIONS. For just 60 hours, researchers have had the opportunity to examine the holiest site in Christianity. Here's what they've found (KRISTIN ROMEY). Excerpt:

When the marble cladding was first removed on the night of October 26, an initial inspection by the conservation team from the National Technical University of Athens showed only a layer of fill material underneath. However, as researchers continued their non-stop work over the course of 60 hours, another marble slab with a cross carved into its surface was exposed. By Friday night, just hours before the tomb was to be re-sealed, the original limestone burial bed was revealed intact.

"I'm absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a little bit because I wasn't expecting this,” said Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic's archaeologist-in-residence. "We can't say 100 percent, but it appears to be visible proof that the location of the tomb has not shifted through time, something that scientists and historians have wondered for decades."

In addition, researchers confirmed the existence of the original limestone cave walls within the 18th-century Edicule, or shrine, which encloses the tomb. A transparent window has been cut into the southern interior wall of the shrine to expose one of the cave walls.

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The article includes a lot of background information on the site and its archaeological context, so read it all. The restoration work on the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre) continues. Background here and links.

UPDATE: David Meadows has additional background over at Rogue Classicism: Jesus’ ‘Tomb’ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Some Background.

"The Holy Temple" and the Dome of the Rock in an early mosque inscription

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH (INDIRECTLY): Centuries before trying to deny it, Muslims carved Jewish link to Jerusalem into mosque. Newly studied inscription from Mosque of Umar dated to 9th or 10th centuries highlights correlation between Dome of the Rock and biblical Jewish temples (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

A recently studied inscription from a mosque near Hebron offers insight into how, until the mid-20th century, the Muslim world considered Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock to be the successor to two ancient Jewish shrines that formerly stood atop the Temple Mount.

The previously overlooked dedicatory inscription from the Mosque of Umar in Nuba, a village nearly 26 kilometers (16 miles) southwest of Jerusalem, mentions the village as an endowment for the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. But what’s striking is that the Dome of the Rock is referred to in the text as “the rock of the Bayt al-Maqdis” — literally, “The Holy Temple” — a verbatim translation of the Hebrew term for the Jerusalem temple that early Muslims employed to refer to Jerusalem as a whole, and the gold-domed shrine in particular.

Local tradition ascribed the construction of the mosque to Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, under whose rule Arab armies conquered Jerusalem and the rest of Byzantine Palestine in the mid-7th century. It was under his eventual successor Abd al-Malik, the fifth caliph, that the Dome of the Rock was completed in 691 CE.

[...]

But the Israeli scholars who presented a paper on the inscription at the recent conference on the archaeology of Jerusalem date it to the ninth or tenth century CE on orthographic (spelling) and stylistic grounds. The Times of Israel article also has lots of information on the connection between the Temple Mount and Solomon's Temple in early Islamic tradition. As I have said before, the explicit denial of the existence of the Jewish temples on the Temple Mount is a new phenomenon, perhaps no older than the 1990s. Background here and links.

Romans 8:19-22

READING ACTS: Why Does “All Creation Groan” in Romans 8:19-22? Phil Long continues his series on Paul's letter to the Romans, with parallel material from the Septuagint and 4 Ezra cited in this post.

Some past posts in the series have been noted here and links.

The Pseudepigrapha at SBL 2016

LIV INGEBORG LIED: SBL Pseudepigrapha Section 2016 - annotated version. Cross-file under News You Can Use and Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

Jerusalem papyrus: the IAA responds

JERUSALEM PAPYRUS UPDATE: IAA refutes authenticity accusations of ‘Jerusalem’ papyrus inscription (Daniel K. Eisenbud, Jerusalem Post). The IAA didn't exactly "refute" them, they denied them. Despite the unfortunate tendency these days to water down the meaning of "refute," this is not the same thing. Refute means to demonstrate or prove that something is incorrect.

That curmudgeonly grumble aside — key quote from the article:

Asked to respond to the allegations of impropriety, Prof. Gideon Avny, head of the Antiquities Authority’s Archaeological Division and a lecturer at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology, said the onus of disproving such a rare find falls on Maeir and Rollston.

“We cannot say that the accusations are false, but on the other hand they cannot prove in any way that this is a forgery,” Avny said by phone.

Conceding that doubt could arise because the relic was apprehended on the black market and not during a normal excavation – compounded by the fact that it is difficult to accurately analyze the date of ink – he nonetheless reasserted its authenticity as genuine.

“Yes, we didn’t have an archeologist [on site] testifying that it came out of [an excavation], but at the same time, if someone wants to say it is fake, they need to bring some kind of proof,” Avny said.

The burden of proving an unprovenanced object to be an ancient artifact is on those arguing it to be an ancient artifact. I think we need more than has been offered so far to say that that has been done. The conference paper has been released, apparently in a formal publication. That's good. (Has it been peer-reviewed? It would speed up dissemination if an English translation were made available.) But the lab reports on the carbon dating and other tests need to be released. More details need to be released on how the object was acquired and the state it was acquired in. A full paleographical analysis also needs to be published. Then substantive objections and alternate interpretations will need to be evaluated in the peer-review literature.

Now don't get me wrong. The IAA has made a good start here and the initial case looks promising to me, as I have already stated. But some skepticism is still warranted and the IAA still has work to do before it dismisses the current concerns about the object's authenticity. But I agree with Professor Avny that objections also need to be substantive and specific — once the IAA has itself presented the case fully.

Let us remember that we were once at the stage that the Gospel of Jesus' Wife had strong materials-testing verification in its favor: both the papyrus and the ink tested as ancient. [Later - okay, consistent with an ancient, or at least very old, origin. See link for details.] But it still turned out to be a forgery. That doesn't mean that the Jerusalem papyrus is also a forgery. I hope it isn't. But it could be. Let's take our time and figure it out.

Meanwhile, Aren Meir summarizes his response to the Ahituv, Klein, Ganor conference paper: My take on the Jerusalem Papyrus. There you will also find a link to the Hebrew conference paper itself, which has been posted on Academia.edu. Thanks to Joseph Lauer for both links.

Background here and links.

More on the Syriac mosaics in Turkey

APOCRYPHICITY: Mosaics Discovered of “Christian king” Abgar (Tony Burke). Professor Burke gives some background from legends about King Abgar V and his supposed correspondence with Jesus in apocryphal material preserved by Eusebius.

In addition, at Lootbusters, Dorothy Lobel King (who also drew my attention to the link above) has a post up about some other mosaics with Syriac inscriptions which seem to have been looted from Turkey since 1970: Edessa: Mosaics with Syriac inscriptions, families and Orphic scenes.

Mosaic works stolen from Sanliurfa Province, Turkey.

Please note that DK identified other mosaics from this group, which were not reported stolen, but which turned out to be amongst the set of photographers the looters took at the site. Any mosaics in this very distinct style - Orphic scenes, Syriac inscriptions, women wearing hair piled high and covered in veils - are almost certainly looted from Edessa post 1970.

Follow the link for photos, translations of the inscriptions, and descriptions.

Background here. Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

Hurtado on "law" in the NT

LARRY HURTADO: A “Law-Free” Apostle Paul? In this post Professor Hurtado discusses an article by Paula Fredriksen on the Apostle Paul and Torah observance. This is followed up with some statistical data in this post: “Law” Statistics.

Here are some raw figures to contemplate about the usage of “law” (Greek: nomos) in the NT (relying on Bibleworks) ...

More on the Schottenstein archaeological campus in Jerusalem

ARCHITECTURE: New archaeology complex shows there's hope for Jerusalem yet. The city’s buildings and towers have been lumbering or kitschy in recent years, but the new campus in the museum district will be a modern gem housing ancient artifacts (Naama Riba, Haaretz).

Given this depressing situation, the new Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, which is going up near the Israel Museum and the Bible Lands Museum, is good news. Construction is still underway and at least 14 months will be needed to finish it, but even at this stage it’s easy to perceive the building’s archaeological language.

Among the better efforts, the idea is to do as little as possible to undermine Jerusalem's delicate fabric, and Moshe Safdie and Irit Kohavi get a high grade for meeting this challenge.

The proposal for the Schottenstein campus came up after the Oslo Accords over two decades ago. East Jerusalem’s future wasn’t clear, and because the Rockefeller archaeological museum was already there, it was thought a new building should go up.

The planning was delayed until 2006 and the building was conceived with a number of other functions. It will house the Israel Antiquities Authority, storerooms for some 2 million artifacts, laboratories, a magnificent library and exhibition space. The 35,000-square-meter (376,737-square-foot) structure will have nine stories and cost 400 million shekels ($104 million) to build.

The article has a lot of details about the Schottenstein Campus, but it's a premium article, so read it now before it goes behind the paywall.

Background here and links.

The shipwreck that keeps on giving

PHOENICIAN WATCH: A Phoenician wreck that just keeps giving. Recent find shows Malta may have been part of early Phoenician trade network.

A jug unearthed at the oldest shipwreck in the central Mediterranean could prove that the Maltese islands were an integral part of the Phoenician trade network.

“To date, we knew that the Phoenicians lived here, because they died here. And to date, our main archaeological sources came from graves,” marine archaeologist Timmy Gambin told The Sunday Times of Malta.

“We now have a ship that was actually leaving the Maltese Islands before it sank off Gozo, because the island was one of its port calls. A shipwreck without any local items could mean that the ship just happened to sink close to Malta during its voyage.”

Confirming the origin of the jug, he said, could place Malta as an integral part of the trading network of the earliest phase of the Phoenician occupation.

[...]

Background on the Gozo shipwreck is here and here, with links to past posts about Maltese Phoenician archaeology and history.

Kiel, Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud: Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity. Notice of a new book: Kiel, Yshai. 2016. Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud: Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

For a recent popular book by Maggie Anton on the same topic, see here and links.

Lecture on Malta shipwreck

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Exploring the Phoenician Shipwreck off Gozo – Public lecture (Gozo News).

In 2016, the University of Malta conducted another season of underwater operations on the Phoenician Shipwreck off Gozo. An international team of technical divers was used to record this unique site as well as to recover a number of archaeological objects.

This presentation of – Exploring the Phoenician Shipwreck off Gozo – covers aspects such as the logistics of the project, diving procedures, and the recording processes used this season. Works in progress and some preliminary results from 2016 will be shared via numerous illustrations, 3D work, and short videos.

It will be taking place on Monday, the 14th of November, starting at 6.30pm, at the Ministry for Gozo Exhibition Hall, St Francis Square, Victoria.

[...]

Background on the Gozo shipwreck is here. Past PaleoJudaica posts on Maltese Phoenician and Punic history and archaeology are collected here.

Women in ancient Israel

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 11 things about women in Ancient Israel you probably didn’t know (Cassandra Gill, OUP Blog). Some of these generalize a bit much from our limited evidence, but the post has lots of interesting information.

McGrath sets Amos to music

JAMES MCGRATH: Setting Amos’ Hymn Fragments to Music. This is an awesome idea. I too have found these passages in Amos to be fascinating.

Torah-scroll incredible journeys

MANUSCRIPTS: The unbelievable tales of smuggled Torah scrolls that survived incredible journeys These Sifrei Torah made it through hard times in Poland, Iraq, Portugal, Russia and elsewhere, before being reborn in new communities (Jerusalem Post). Technically none of these manuscripts are ancient, although, of course, the Torah itself is an ancient work. But their stories are fascinating, so have a look.