A Danielic pseudepigraphon quoted by Papias?

BASIL LOURIÉ: An Unknown Danielic Pseudepigraphon from an Armenian Fragment of Papias. Offprint of a article published in the Journal of the Study of the Pseudepigrapha and posted on Academia.edu.

Abstract
In this article it is demonstrated that one of the Papias’ quotes preserved in the Armenian version of the Commentary on Apocalypse by Andrew of Caesarea goes back to an otherwise unknown Danielic pseudepigraphon, which is the oldest known witness of a peculiar tradition where the Watchers are good angelic beings responsible for, together with Michael, the revelation of the Law to Moses.

Dr. Lourié also published a translation of and introduction to the fragment in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (ed. Bauckham, Davila, and Panayotov; Eerdmans, 2013) 1:435-41.

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

Killebrew and Tel Akko

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Penn State archaeologists use IT to help uncover the past (Katie Bohn, Penn State News).

During his tenure as an archaeologist, Indiana Jones wasn’t much concerned about preserving historical sites and landmarks. He pilfered precious artifacts, set off booby traps willy nilly and damaged valuable potential research sites in all his movies.

In reality, archaeologists are much more careful. Keeping meticulous records of what a site looks like before and after a dig — as well as carefully indexing and caring for artifacts — is something all archaeologists keep in mind while in the field.

To help them preserve and keep record of historical sites and objects, Penn State archaeologists are using several information technologies while on location.

“We're constantly pushing the boundaries of how new technologies can help us in our research,” said Ann Killebrew, associate professor of classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, Jewish studies and anthropology. “We use photogrammetry to create 3-D models of the excavation, artifacts, and landscapes, and GIS to visualize the multi-layered stratigraphy of Tel Akko and spatially analyze our data.”

Preserving the past with IT

Killebrew spearheads the Total Archaeology at Tel Akko Project, which takes a group of students, faculty and staff from Penn State and other institutions across the globe each summer to study the ancient Canaanite and Phoenician site in northern Israel.

[...]

For more on Professor Killebrew's work, see here and here. Indiana Jones is invoked again.

Butterflies of Metatron

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: Native animals, meditation and fashionistas: exploring the worldly mind of Archibald artist Carla Fletcher (hhhhappy.com).

After fashion design and illustration studies, Carla Fletcher approached fine art drawing at RMIT; the artistic heritage that she has collected over the years nowadays putting her up to wider perspectives, new stylistic features and bigger audiences.

Carla Fletcher is almost ready for her next outstanding solo show, she’ll be presenting at Tinning Street a new body of work titled Butterflies of Metatron.

[...]

What is is with Metatron and butterflies?

Ruani (ed.), Les controverses religieuses en syriaque

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Syriac Polemics Against Zoroastrianism and Christian Controversies under the Sasanians. Notice of a new book: Ruani, Flavia (ed.). 2016. Les controverses religieuses en syriaque. (Études Syriaques 13). Paris: Geuthner. Follow the link for details.

Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

Cohen and Berlin (eds.), Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

NEW BOOK FROM CUP: Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Overlapping Inquiries (Yeshiva University).

Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Overlapping Inquiries, edited by Mordechai Z. Cohen and Adele Berlin (Cambridge University Press, 2016), is a comparative study of Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptural interpretation from antiquity to modernity, with special emphasis on the pivotal medieval period. It focuses on three areas: (1) responses in the three faith traditions to tensions created by the need to transplant their scriptures into new cultural and linguistic contexts; (2) changing conceptions of the literal sense and its importance vis-à-vis non-literal senses (figurative, spiritual, midrashic, etc.); (3) the ways in which classical rhetoric and poetics informed—or were resisted in—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpretation.

[...]

Review of Rubina and Rüpke (eds.), A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEWS:

Rubina Raja, Jörg Rüpke (ed.), A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World. Blackwell companions to the ancient world. Ancient history. Chichester; Malden, MA; Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2015. Pp. xiii, 502. ISBN 9781444350005. $195.00.

Reviewed by Anna Collar, Aarhus University (klaacollar@cas.au.dk)

Preview
[The Table of Contents is listed below.]

[Disclaimer: Anna Collar works as part of Troels Myrup Kristensen's 'Emergence of Sacred Travel' project in the same department as Rubina Raja.]

It is clear from their introduction what the editors set out to achieve in this collection of 35 essays: in line with their research agenda at Erfurt, "Lived Ancient Religion", their aim is to overturn the traditional bias towards the systematic and the dogmatic in the treatment of religion in antiquity, and focus instead on the material evidence that shaped the 'practices, expressions, and interactions' (p.4, p. 446) of religion as people experienced it in the past. While the editors acknowledge the virtual impossibility of understanding the specific cultural meanings of past religious behaviour, they posit that "lived ancient religion" offers a framework for describing the influences of philosophical and literary works alongside those of religious professionals, socialisation, social networks and performances in the construction of ancient religious context, and therefore for the reconstruction of situational meanings (fluid though these may be), from the evidence for religious practice as part of everyday life in antiquity. The focus on religion as it was experienced is strongly appealing; nevertheless, perhaps it is the job of a Companion to offer a more balanced picture of the ways religion in antiquity can be understood archaeologically (for example, the editors mention the cognitive approach, but have no place for this here). It is frustrating that, after a strong opening to the introduction, the editors cut and paste sections of the papers rather than offering a coherent analysis of their content.

That said, I found much of the book compelling and the quality of the essays generally excellent: there is, of course, not space enough for details, so I will go through the thematic sections, looking at the papers that prompt further reflection.

[...]

Ancient Judaism receives some attention in the book.

Who pays for archaeology?

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Who Pays For All This?

Some projects are undertaken by private individuals who have the money or can raise it from others who believe in their cause. Most times the ideas that these individuals have are not the result of scholarly research. Since many countries (especially in the Near East) require the excavator to have scholarly background and training in order to acquire a permit, these private individuals have to enlist the participation of a qualified individual or institution for this purpose. However, there are times that private wealthy individuals support genuine scholarly projects because of their interest in the topic, site or region that are studied without trying to advance a particular point of view. This could be considered as a branch of philanthropy.

Article from The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant (Equinox, 2016).

By Oded Borowski
Professor of Biblical Archaeology and Hebrew
Emory University
November 2016

Another Flint memorial

OBITUARY: In Memoriam: Peter Flint (Aline Bouwman, Mars' Hill Newspaper).

Dr. Flint was a world-renowned scholar on the Dead Sea Scrolls and a well-respected professor at Trinity Western University. Flint was Professor of Religious Studies and Co-Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute.

Background here and here.

New book on the combat myth

NEW BOOK FROM THE BIALIK INSTITUTE (IN HEBREW): Noga Ayali-Darshan, Treading on the Back of Sea: The Combat between the Storm-god and the Sea in Ancient Near Eastern Literature, The Bialik Institute, Jerusalem 2016. Noted at Lea Mazor's blog. HT reader Yoel. Follow the link for an English listing of the TOC.

Dubovský et al. (eds.), The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah
Ed. by Peter Dubovský, Dominik Markl, and Jean-Pierre Sonnet

[Die Zerstörung Jerusalems und die Entstehung der Torah.]
2016. X, 381 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 107
99,00 €
cloth
ISBN 978-3-16-154054-7
available

Published in English.
The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 bce is arguably the most tremendous disaster in the Hebrew Bible. How this decisive date relates to the development of the Pentateuch, however, is highly controversial. Is the trauma of Jerusalem reflected in the five books of Moses? This question is addressed from multiple perspectives in this volume. Israel Finkelstein and Lester L. Grabbe discuss the archaeological and historical data. Experts in Pentateuchal criticism from diverse international backgrounds present a rich panorama of relevant themes, including biblical historiography, contacts with Mesopotamian culture before and during the Babylonian exile, and the issue of cultic discontinuity caused by the destruction and restoration of Jerusalem's temple.

Follow the link for TOC, ordering information, etc.

"Western Wall compromise" update

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: 'They have turned the site into a pile of garbage.' Noted archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar describes the severity of damage caused by construction of 'egalitarian' prayer space at Western Wall (Hezki Baruch, Arutz Sheva).

The Knesset Education Committee held a meeting today regarding damage caused to important archaeological findings as a result of construction aimed at creating an “egalitarian” prayer space at the Western Wall to cater to demands of the Reform Movement.

Speaking with Arutz Sheva, respected Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar who excavated the Ophel area nearby described the severity of damage already caused, and efforts to stop the construction so as to prevent future damage.

[...]

Includes a video interview with Dr. Mazar in Hebrew.

Background here and links.

Canaanite, not Hebrew

CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON: The Early History of the Alphabet and the Recent Claim that the Northwest Semitic Inscriptions from Serabit el-Khadem and Wadi el-Hol are Hebrew: Spoiler Alert, They’re Not. The discussion is technical, but here's an excerpt that sums it up:

In short, the things that Douglas Petrovich considers to be markers of Hebrew are, in fact, just markers of the Semitic languages in general. We even have a term of these sorts of words that occur in multiple Semitic languages. We call them “Common Semitic, because they are attested in so many languages.” In short, the only thing that can reasonably be said about the Early Alphabetic inscriptions from Serabit el-Khadem and Wadi el-Hol (etc.) is that they are written in a Northwest Semitic language and script. There is nothing in these inscriptions that is diagnostic for Hebrew. It would be interesting if there were features that could be considered distinctively Hebrew, but there are not. So, as has been the case for a very long time, we refer to these inscriptions as Canaanite or Early Alphabetic. ...

And Professor Rollston has a follow-up post here: The Problem with Reading the Word ‘Hebrew’ in Sinai 115: An Egyptologist’s Response.

Cross-file under Epigraphy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'M BACK IN ST. ANDREWS and back to work. I hope all my American readers and any others celebrating with them enjoy a happy Thanksgiving.

Zakovitch and Ruzer, God’s Word Is Powerful

NEW BOOK FROM MAGNES PRESS (IN HEBREW):

God’s Word Is Powerful
Eight Conversations on the Epistle to the Hebrews

By Yair Zakovitch, Serge Ruzer

Publisher: The Hebrew University Magnes Press
Categories:
Jewish History, Jewish Studies, Religions, Christianity
Publish date: November 2016
Language: Hebrew
Danacode: 45-481011
ISBN: 978-965-493-925-6
Cover: Paperback
Pages: 289
Weight: 450 gr.

The character of the Epistle to the Hebrews differs greatly from all other letters included in the New Testament. It is actually a sermon interpreting numerous biblical verses with the aim to substantiate its unique claim for Jesus' heavenly priesthood. The reliance on biblical proof-texts enables the writer to establish his innovative claims vis-a-vis both the broader Jewish tradition and the competing outlooks existing within the Jesus movement itself.

The eight conversations in the book discuss the Epistle's interpretative strategies in order to unearth the worldview of its author and the nature of its target audience.

Stang, Our Divine Double

NEW BOOK FROM HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Our Divine Double Hardcover – March 7, 2016
by Charles M. Stang (Author)

What if you were to discover that you were not entirely you, but rather one half of a whole, that you had, in other words, a divine double? In the second and third centuries CE, this idea gripped the religious imagination of the Eastern Mediterranean, providing a distinctive understanding of the self that has survived in various forms throughout the centuries, down to the present. Our Divine Double traces the rise of this ancient idea that each person has a divine counterpart, twin, or alter-ego, and the eventual eclipse of this idea with the rise of Christian conciliar orthodoxy.

Charles Stang marshals an array of ancient sources: from early Christianity, especially texts associated with the apostle Thomas “the twin”; from Manichaeism, a missionary religion based on the teachings of the “apostle of light” that had spread from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean; and from Neoplatonism, a name given to the renaissance of Platonism associated with the third-century philosopher Plotinus. Each of these traditions offers an understanding of the self as an irreducible unity-in-duality. To encounter one’s divine double is to embark on a path of deification that closes the gap between image and archetype, human and divine.

While the figure of the divine double receded from the history of Christianity with the rise of conciliar orthodoxy, it survives in two important discourses from late antiquity: theodicy, or the problem of evil; and Christology, the exploration of how the Incarnate Christ is both human and divine.

I believe it has been argued that the divine twin tradition could also be relevant for understanding Enoch's regeneration into the Son of Man in the Parables of Enoch. But I cannot now find the reference. In any case, the book sounds very interesting. You might also want to read Charles Williams's novel Descent into Hell for a modern take on the tradition.

HT James McGrath.

UPDATE (12 January 2017): Regarding the divine double motif in ancient Judaism, see my comment here.

Cline, Three Stones Make a Wall

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archaeology Hardcover – February 28, 2017
by Eric H. Cline (Author)

In 1922, Howard Carter peered into Tutankhamun's tomb for the first time, the only light coming from the candle in his outstretched hand. Urged to tell what he was seeing through the small opening he had cut in the door to the tomb, the Egyptologist famously replied, "I see wonderful things." Carter's fabulous discovery is just one of the many spellbinding stories told in Three Stones Make a Wall.

Written by Eric Cline, an archaeologist with more than thirty seasons of excavation experience, Three Stones Make a Wall traces the history of archaeology from an amateur pursuit to the cutting-edge science it is today by taking the reader on a tour of major archaeological sites and discoveries, from Pompeii to Petra, Troy to the Terracotta Warriors, and Mycenae to Megiddo and Masada. Cline brings to life the personalities behind these digs, including Heinrich Schliemann, the former businessman who excavated Troy, and Mary Leakey, whose discoveries advanced our understanding of human origins. The discovery of the peoples and civilizations of the past is presented in vivid detail, from the Hittites and Minoans to the Inca, Aztec, and Moche. Along the way, the book addresses the questions archaeologists are asked most often: How do you know where to dig? How are excavations actually done? How do you know how old something is? Who gets to keep what is found?

Taking readers from the pioneering digs of the eighteenth century to the exciting new discoveries being made today, Three Stones Make a Wall is a lively and essential introduction to the story of archaeology.

Zevit (ed.), Subtle Citation, Allusion, and Translation in the Hebrew Bible

NEW BOOK FROM EQUINOX PUBLISHING:

Subtle Citation, Allusion, and Translation in the Hebrew Bible
Edited by
Ziony Zevit
American Jewish University

ISBN-13 (Hardback) 9781781792667
Price (Hardback) £60.00 / $100.00
ISBN-13 (Paperback) 9781781792674
Price (Paperback) £19.99 / $29.95
Publication 01/10/2016
Pages 256
Size 234 x 156mm
Readership scholars

Biblicists have long been aware that some compositions in the Bible cite and allude to other compositions. At times these practices are obvious; often, however, they are not. Essays in this volume focus on subtle, not-so-obvious, unrecognized cases of citation and allusion as well as on unrecognized ‘translations’ from other languages and references to motifs in the plastic arts. Individual authors address unapparent cases and the methodological considerations on which their status as ‘genuine’ can be established. The essays in this volume are significant because of the methodological considerations and cautions that they describe and the varied texts that they analyze. Biblicists drawing on insights from this book will be able to provide thicker descriptions of Israelite literature and literacy and to construct relative chronologies of biblical compositions with greater accuracy than has been possible until now.

Follow the link for TOC, ordering information, etc.

Altmann, Economics in Persian-Period Biblical Texts

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

PETER ALTMANN
Economics in Persian-Period Biblical Texts
Their Interactions with Economic Developments in the Persian Period and Earlier Biblical Traditions

[Ökonomie in den Bibeltexten der Perserzeit. Ihre Wechselwirkung mit wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen in der Perserzeit und früheren biblischen Traditionen.]
2016. XII, 342 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 109
119,00 €
cloth
ISBN 978-3-16-154813-0
available

Published in English.
“Centre and periphery” frameworks have been particularly helpful for research on systems whose dynamics are strongly influenced by a substantially unequal distribution of qualities. But what can these frameworks, in all their present diversity and in their various “re-conceptualizations,” contribute to the study of the early Second Temple period? The essays in this volume address this question through the prism of, for instance, the location of Jerusalem, diasporic communities, Torah, roles of temples and royal courts, Jerusalem/Gerizim, the Zion tradition, the universal kingdom of YHWH, the literary history of some texts, socio-linguistic choices, and gender.

Follow the link for TOC, ordering information, etc.

Lipinski, Studies in Aramaic Inscriptions and Onomastics IV

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PUBLISHERS:

Studies in Aramaic Inscriptions and Onomastics IV

Series:
Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 250

Authors: Lipinski E.

Year: 2016
ISBN: 978-90-429-3352-1
Pages: XIV-286 p.
Price: 95 EURO

Summary:
A large number of Aramaic inscriptions from the 9th century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D. are revisited in this fourth volume of Studies. After the stele of Tel Dan, the epitaph of Kuttamuwa from Zincirli, and the inscription found at Tepe Qalaichi, Aramaic dockets from Dur-Katlimmu are re-examined, distinguishing a court ruling concerning theft, agreements regarding mortgage, guarantee, indemnity, barley and silver loans, and the particular nsk-loan. Next are examined "cadastral" reports from Idumaea, some inscriptions from Hellenistic times, a divorce bill from the Roman period, several Palmyrene dedications, epitaphs, and honorific inscriptions, as well as some Hatraean texts, mainly related to Adiabene. Finally, Marcionism is considered as background of a saying on "two gods", ascribed to Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba. Like in the preceding volumes of Studies, detailed indexes list the inscriptions, the personal names and the place-names examined, as well as other subjects.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

Mar Behnam Monastery liberated

"THIS IS WAR": Historic Iraqi Assyrian Monastery Found Ransacked By Islamic State (Stephen Kalin, Reuters via AINA).

(Reuters) -- The history pages of Iraq's Christian community lie in charred fragments on the floor of a fourth-century monastery near Mosul which Islamic State militants ransacked during a two-year occupation that ended over the weekend.

The jihadists at the Mar Behnam monastery burned a collection of books about Christian theology, scraped off inscriptions written in Syriac -- the language used by Jesus -- and demolished sculptures of the Virgin Mary and the monastery's patron saint.

They removed the site's crosses and tried to erase any mention of Behnam, the son of an Assyrian king who, according to popular legend, built the monastery as penance for killing both his children after they converted to Christianity.

"Their fundamental goal was to destroy Christian history and civilization in the Nineveh plains," Duraid Elias, commander of the Babylon Brigades, a Christian militia that helped retake the site, told Reuters during a visit on Monday.

[...]

Both sad and outrageous. Many of the manuscripts belonging to the monastery were digitized before the ISIS occupation, but it sounds very unlikely that the manuscripts themselves survived. I hope I'm wrong. Past posts involving the Mar Behnam monastery are here, here, here, and here. Another recent post involving the current campaign to liberate Mosul is here.

Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

Safaitic inscriptions

EPIGRAPHY: Ancient Inscriptions Show Life Once Flourished in Jordan's 'Black Desert' (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

Thousands of inscriptions and petroglyphs dating back around 2,000 years have been discovered in the Jebel Qurma region of Jordan's Black Desert. They tell of a time when the now-desolate landscape was teeming with life.

"Nowadays, the Jebel Qurma area, and the Black Desert in general, is a highly inhospitable area, very arid and difficult to cross," said Peter Akkermans, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands who leads the Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project. Photos the team took of the modern-day landscape show little water, vegetation or wildlife.

The inscriptions are written in Safaitic, an alphabetic script used by people who lived in parts of Syria, Jordan and Arabia in ancient times. Research is ongoing, but the archaeologists say their finds indicate that around 2,000 years ago, Jebel Qurma had trees, wildlife and a sizable human population.

[...]

Safaitic is an Old North Arabian dialect that seems to be known only from stone inscriptions. The writers knew the Nabateans (Nabataeans) and had to do with them, perhaps not always on the most positive basis:

Some texts contain information on what people were doing, with a few hinting that the people who inhabited Jebel Qurma had conflicts with the Nabataeans, a people who built the ancient city of Petra. "I am on the lookout for the Nabataeans," one inscription reads.

There's more on Safaitic at the The Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia site.

McGrath on the Aramaic incantation bowls

JAMES MCGRATH: Aramaic Magic Bowls at #AARSBL16. I was sorry to have to miss this session, but I ended up attending another one. Glad to have James's report for the one I missed.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

Loiseau, L'influence de l'arameen sur les traducteurs de la LXX ...

NEW BOOK FROM THE SBL PRESS:

L'influence de l'arameen sur les traducteurs de la LXX principalement sur les traducteurs grecs posterieurs, ainsi que sur les scribes de la Vorlage de la LXX
Anne-Francoise Loiseau

ISBN 9781628371567
Status Available
Price: $45.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date October 2016
Pages 282

Further your understanding of the methods and peculiarities of the ancient Greek translators and revisers of the Hebrew Bible

Loiseau presents examples of Greek translations of verses from the Hebrew Bible that clearly illustrate the influence of Aramaic or Late Hebrew on the semantics of the Septuagint translators. The author postulates that the Greek translators based their translations on Hebrew-Aramaic equivalents maintained as lists or even on proto-targumim such as those found at Qumran, both predecessors of the later Aramaic targumic translations. Loiseau’s examples provide convincing explanations for different coincidences occurring between the Greek translations and the interpretative traditions found in the targumim and help elucidate a number of puzzling translations where two Aramaic words that are very similar graphically or phonetically were erroneously interchanged.

Features

• Unique insight into ancient Jewish exegesis
• English summary
• The first extensive illustration of the influence of the Aramaic or Late Hebrew on the Septuagint

Follow the link for more details and ordering information.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

Enoch, Metatron, and Yima?

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: Enoch’s Walk with God Ends Badly in Babylonia (Yishai Kiel,TheGemara.com).

Echoing the Iranian story of Yima, the biblical Enoch morphed into the theologically problematic angel Metatron, and ends up being flogged.

Interesting proposal about a possible Zoroastrian connection with the rise of the Metatron traditions.

​JJMJS Issue 3 (2016)

A NEW ISSUE (NO. 3, 2016) OF THE JOURNAL OF THE JESUS MOVEMENT IN ITS JEWISH SETTING IS OUT. Follow the link for (for now) a detailed description of the issue. A permanent link to Issues 1-3 is here.

All articles are available online for free. Background on the journal is here and here.

Review of Chin and Vidas (eds.), Late Ancient Knowing

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Late Ancient Knowing (Taylor Ross).

Chin, Catherine M. and Moulie Vidas, eds. Late Ancient Knowing: Explorations in Intellectual History. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015.

Excerpt:

This is, at any rate, the wager at the center of the impressive set of essays Catherine Chin and Moulie Vidas have collected in Late Ancient Knowing: Explorations in Intellectual History (2015). Each of the offerings in this volume is an exercise in “sympathetic imagination,” an experiment in imagining how the world of Late Antiquity differs from the one in which we, as scholars of the period, labor to understand it (Chin/Vidas 2015: 4). The cumulative effect is to render the late ancient world less familiar than even those most intimate with its history and texts might have otherwise supposed. For this reason alone, the book deserves to be read widely. ...

Hebrew textbooks

TWO POSSIBLE TEXTBOOKS ON BIBLICAL HEBREW have been drawn to my attention by the Combined Academic Press. I don't think I can use them right now, and they aren't new. but I've never noted them before, so in case any readers might find them useful for their classes, here they are.

JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh, Pocket Edition
Jewish Publication Society
9780827607668
£20.99

This pocket edition offers a lightweight, compact version of the popular JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh. It features the oldest-known complete Hebrew version of the Holy Scriptures, side by side with JPS's renowned English translation. The Hebrew text of this Tanakh is based on the famed Leningrad Codex, the Masoretic text traceable to Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, ca. 930 CE.

Regarded throughout the English-speaking world as a landmark English translation of the Holy Scriptures, the JPS Tanakh has been acclaimed by scholars, rabbis, lay leaders, Jews, and Christians alike.


In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language
Joel Hoffman
New York University Press
9780814736906
£21.99

Hebrew set the stage for almost every modern alphabet. Hoffman follows and decodes the adventure that is the history of Hebrew, illuminating how the written record has survived, the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient translations, and attempts to determine how the language actually sounded. He places these developments into a historical context, and shows their continuing impact on the modern world.

This sweeping history traces Hebrew's development as one of the first languages to make use of vowels. Hoffman also covers the dramatic story of the rebirth of Hebrew as a modern, spoken language. Packed with lively information about language and linguistics and history, In the Beginning is essential reading for both newcomers and scholars interested in learning more about Hebrew and languages in general.

Paul on Jesus being "handed over"

BART EHRMAN: Does Paul Know that Judas Betrayed Jesus? I agree: Paul's wording is ambiguous and does not demonstrate that he knew the story of Judas' betrayal, although he may have.

Seen on Facebook.

Did ancient Israelites eat pork?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: You Are What You Eat: The Israelite Diet and Archaeology. Pig bones as an ethnic marker? (Marek Dospěl). Apparently, it's complicated. But you need a paid subscription to read the full text of the highlighted article by Lidar Sapir-Hen in BAR.

Genesis Rabbah on Lot's daughters

THETORAH.COM: Lot and his Daughters’ Motives for their Incestuous Union. Genesis Rabbah surprisingly portrays Lot’s daughters and their choices in a decidedly positive light, while exacerbating Lot’s culpability (Shayna Sheinfeld). The Midrash has its work cut out to put a positive spin on this episode, but it certainly tries its best.

Moss on ancient bathrooms

CANDIDA MOSS: The Dirty Secret About Ancient Bathrooms. Excavations at the most famous racing stadium in the ancient world have been completed, and one of the best preserved parts turns out to be the toilets—adding to a rich history of the disposal of human waste (The Daily Beast). This essay has a lot of information — some might say too much (but we're historians, right?) — about toilet practices in the ancient Roman world. And it includes a detail about toilet practice in the Temple according to the Mishnah.

Some relevant past PaleoJudaica posts on evidence for ancient latrines are collected here (and perhaps cf. here).

Baum et al. (eds.), Der jüdische Messias Jesus und sein jüdischer Apostel Paulus

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Der jüdische Messias Jesus und sein jüdischer Apostel Paulus
Hrsg. v. Armin D. Baum, Detlef Häußer und Emmanuel L. Rehfeld

[The Jewish Messiah Jesus and his Jewish Apostle Paul.]
2016. VIII, 417 pages.
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 425
94,00 €
sewn paper
ISBN 978-3-16-153872-8
available

Published in German.
The occasion of Rainer Riesner's 65th birthday brought together many of his students and colleagues to discuss the Jewish contours of the messianic ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and the apostolic ministry of Paul of Tarsus. The contributions in this compendium consider in the main issues of continuity or discontinuity between Judaism and Christianity as they are reflected in New Testament texts concerning Jesus and Paul as well as in Paul's writings. The question concerning the Jewish roots of early Christianity has at least three sides to it which all receive attention in this volume: the influence of the Scriptures of Israel on the ministries of Jesus and Paul, their relationship to early Judaism, and the links between Paul's theology on the one hand and the teaching of Jesus and the synoptic tradition on the other.

Follow the link for TOC, ordering information, etc.

McGrath on Digital Biblical Studies

JAMES MCGRATH: My contribution to the review panel about Ancient Worlds in Digital Culture at #AARSBL16. The full text of his comments at yesterday's SBL session on the subject.

Background here and links.

Review of DeConick, The Gnostic New Age, MEGA, SBL 2016

I AM PRESENTING THE FOLLOWING REVIEW in the Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity Group at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Antonio, Texas, on 19 November 2016 (S19-334). The session is beginning as this post goes up.

April DeConick, Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University, has published a stimulating and multifaceted book in The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today. It is as ambitious as the title sounds and it takes us on an intriguing journey from the temples of ancient Egypt to the modern New Age bookstore. You may be entertained to hear that the week before last, when I saved a draft of this review and e-mailed it to myself, Outlook’s autocorrect changed “DeConick review draft” in the e-mail header to “Demonic review draft” without my noticing. So it seems that the establishment still has it in for the Gnostics.

April opens with a definition of Gnosticism that offers a constructive advance to the discussion and which to my mind moves beyond the critiques of the use of the term by Michael Williams and Karen King and gives us something positive to work with. Gnosticism involves direct experiential knowledge of a transcendent God achieved through ecstatic experience generated by ritual. It believes that human beings have an innate spiritual nature. It is transgressive and countercultural and it draws freely on varying medleys of earlier religious traditions.

April then proceeds with an ambitious survey of a vast range of ancient traditions that either she argues contributed to the development of Gnosticism or which are instances of individual Gnostic movements. Most interesting among the former is the proposal that the basic innovative template of Gnostic spirituality originated in Hellenistic-era Egypt when Greek, Roman, and perhaps Jewish pilgrims visited Egyptian temples and encountered the creation myth of Atum. Some of these pilgrims identified the Egyptian god with Plato’s Good and reversed the value of other traditional gods and religious practices as demonic inversions of the truth. I have not seen this suggestion before and, not being an Egyptologist, I am not sure that I am very entitled to an opinion on it. But it is a very stimulating reconstruction that seems to have some real explanatory value. April proceeds to survey the pagan Gnostic traditions in Hermeticism, and to discuss Sethian Gnostic traditions (to which she returns later) and the Samaritan movement associated with Simon Magus.

April finds both the writings of the Apostle Paul and the Gospel of John to be capable of being read as either (to adopt her not entirely satisfactory term) “Apostolic Catholic” traditions, as the Church consistently has since late antiquity, or as Gnostic works, as they were interpreted by Gnostics, especially in the Christian Gnostic heyday of the second century C.E. We have generally been taught to consider apparent use of Gnostic terminology in Paul to be an illusion arising from the appropriation of his language by later Gnostics, but April guides us in how to read it as Gnostic from the hand of Paul. She sees Paul as moving forward from his extraordinary Gnostic vision of Jesus on the Damascus Road to downgrading Jewish moral and ritual law to make his mystical religious perspective accessible to gentiles, but then finding a certain degree of backtracking necessary in order to prevent his movement from descending into amoral libertinism.

Likewise, April sees an early conflict between an Apostolic Catholic understanding of the Gospel of John, exemplified by the first epistle of John, and a Gnostic understanding of the Gospel as found in second-century commentaries on John. She then defends the Gnostic reading of John 8:44 as referring to “the father of the devil” rather than “(your) father the devil)” and argues that the Gnostic reading of the Gospel is as well based or better than the Apostolic Catholic reading. She even suggests that we take seriously the second- and third-century traditions that associate the late first-century Gnostic teacher Cerinthus in some way with the composition of the Gospel. She also proposes that Johannine Christianity arose when Simonian mythology was appropriated by members of the early Jesus movement, who applied the mythology to Jesus.

April pays close attention to the use of ritual in Gnosticism and draws connections between it and shamanic ritual, which is associated cross-culturally with ecstatic experience and revelation. She also engages with modern scientific studies of the neurology of ascetic ritual practices associated with ecstatic experience. She then gives us a detailed survey of five classical Gnostic movements. There are the Peratics, the Gnosticism of Justin’s Book of Baruch, the Naassene “serpent” Gnostics, and the Ophians. We know of the first three from the patristic writer Hippolytus and the fourth from accounts by Origen and by the pagan writer Celsus. The fifth is the Sethian Gnostics, the only group that has left us complete texts, thanks to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library. All of these movements involved progressive stages of spiritual and ritual advancement, mostly through astrological stages involving various “star gates.” She also gives us a detailed discussion of the Valentinian movement, to which she devotes a whole chapter of the book. Throughout she presents a persuasive synthesis of Gnostic traditions, giving a sensitive and penetrating description of the details of each system, while at the same time uncovering the overarching structure that made all of them Gnostic.

The penultimate chapter first takes on the question of how the burgeoning Christian Gnostic movements of the second century were defeated by what would in the course of time become Apostolic Catholicism. Gnosticism is transgressive by its very nature, teaching that direct experience of God is available by means of ecstatic rituals, offering exegesis of scriptures that inverted the literal reading of them and, in the demiurgic myth, inverting the view of the God of Israel by teaching that there is a higher True God above him and that human beings are by nature greater than he. To add insult to injury, Christian Gnostics often made use of the same rituals as those used by the Apostolic Catholics, while again inverting or at least reinterpreting their meanings. But much of the power of their message came from their secretiveness and emphasis on individual experience, and these aspects proved to be weak points that would be exploited by their opponents. The Apostolic Catholics were well organized and had embedded within their movement the Roman values of civic duty and morality. This gave them the greater social power, and norms are determined by those with the power to set them. The Apostolic Catholics succeeded in marginalizing the Gnostics and purging them from Christianity by the end of late antiquity.

But this was not the end of Gnosticism. In the rest of this chapter April traces some key Gnostic texts and movements in late antiquity and beyond. The Gospel of Judas is a Christian Gnostic text, but the movement represented by the Coptic Pistis Sophia and Books of Jeu is a Gnostic adaptation of worship of the sun god Re in which Jesus merely plays a supporting role. Mani created an eclectic Gnosticism that blended traditions from Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism, and thus introduced the first world religion. And the Mandaeans, whose origin April dates quite early, originated as a group of Nazoraean Gnostic Christians who later rejected both Christianity and Judaism. Their Gnostic religion alone survives precariously to the present.

Finally, in the last chapter, April brings us to today and describes what I like to think of, in keeping with her cinematic theme, as The Revenge of Gnosticism. She describes a series of Gnostic re-awakenings between late antiquity and the present, culminating in the rise of the New Age Movement in the twentieth century and its continued thriving even now in the twenty-first. Each revival was triggered by the recovery of lost texts along with re-appropriations of Gnostic readings of traditional texts.

I consider April’s book an important contribution to both the study of ancient Gnosticism and to our understanding of contemporary religious thought. But before I discuss its importance, I should note a few criticisms and register at least one disagreement.

The semi-popular nature of the book sometimes lends itself to generalizations that could benefit from nuancing. I have some concern about the way certain ancient texts are read which implies that they are literal historical accounts rather than foundation legends or some irrecoverable mixture of real events and legends. I tend to read our sources on Simon Magus with a good deal of skepticism and a sense that the story has overtaken whatever historical events gave rise to it. Likewise, most of our sources for Pythagoras are very late and probably tell us more about Pythagoreanism in the Greco-Roman world and late antiquity than about the founder or his original movement.

Similarly, I have some concern that ritual elements have been read too readily into some narrative texts, such as the Apocryphon of John. That said, I fully accept that rituals inform some of the narrative texts, Zostrianos being a very convincing example. The ritual background of the vowel chants in some of the texts is also fully convincing. More generally, an etic reframing of local mystical and ecstatic movements as exemplifications of the same experience is defensible and may be necessary to give us a full understanding of those movements. At the same time we need to keep in mind that this perspective is a scholarly construct, and one that many of those very movements would have disputed.

Third, it is taken for granted in the book that Sethian Gnosticism originated in a Jewish environment. This seems to be widely accepted, although not without dissent, but I find it very difficult to believe. The Sethian brand of Gnosticism is particularly invested in the demiurgic myth, which teaches that the god of the Hebrew scriptures is a failed, aborted, spiritual being who created a damaged and failed material world, the one we live in. This myth has profound implications for Jewish purity regulations, ritual law, kosher laws, calendar, and the Temple cult. I cannot think of any form of ancient Judaism that would not have had to grapple with these issues extensively in conceiving of anything like Sethian Gnosticism, yet the Sethian Gnostic texts are, as far as I can see, entirely uninterested in such issues and oblivious to them. Granted, this is an argument from silence, but it is a rather powerful one. I find it by far simplest to conclude that Sethian Gnosticism originated among Christians for whom halakhic questions had already been neutralized by the detailed engagement with and dismissal of the issue by Paul and to a lesser degree John. This is a much bigger question than we can address adequately here, but it does need to be confronted at some point.

But none of these criticisms or disagreements affect the larger picture that April has painted for us or any of her central conclusions. This book is a magnum opus that both summarizes and synthesizes the work that April has done over the last twenty years. To appreciate it fully and correctly it is important to understand its aims and approach when evaluating it. It is a semi-popular book that is addressed both to scholars and to an intelligent and engaged nonspecialist audience. There are no footnotes, and arguments are often presented with only a general account of the supporting evidence and with no real indication of debate in the scholarly literature. For these technical matters the reader is directed early on to the many technical and peer-review publications that April has produced over the last two decades.

The effort to engage with a popular audience is well conceived and is likely to be quite successful. I was impressed, for example, by April’s use of ancient Gnostic artifacts to help the reader connect with the texts, personae, and arguments presented in the book. Notable examples are the use of an Ophian amulet seal, the Valentinian tombstone of Flavia Sophe, and the Judas amulet. These are illustrated with good black and white photographs, and many other photographs in the book help bring the reader visually into the world of the Gnostics.

But far more important are her illustrations of the themes and eras covered in the book through interaction with modern cinematography. Each chapter opens and closes with an account of a modern film that embodies a theme or conclusion central to that chapter. Many of my favorite movies are covered, and there are now a few more on my list of films that I missed but must see. A couple of examples will suffice.

Chapter two, “The Matrix of Ancient Spirituality,” opens with a description of the movie The Matrix, which is used to illustrate how the early Gnostics considered themselves to have woken up from the matrix of — for them dead-end — religious orientations of the ancient world: especially servant spirituality, which made humanity the debased servants of the gods; covenant spirituality, the Israelite adaptation of servant spirituality; and ecstatic spirituality, which deployed ritual power to gain access to the wholly Other gods. Like Neo, the Gnostics took the Red Pill of liberated Gnostic spirituality and they began to unplug themselves from the bondage of the Matrix of traditional ancient spirituality.

Similarly, chapter nine, “The Pi of Politics,” opens with a recap of the plot of Darren Aranofsky’s cult classic film Pi, in which another computer programmer, one Max Cohen, discovers the 216-digit number that explains the whole of reality. But this ultimate Gnostic disclosure proves too much for Max’s mortal nature to bear and he is forced to extreme measures to eliminate the knowledge of the revelation from his brain and thus precariously to preserve his own sanity. Max exemplifies the stereotype of the dangerous, deranged Gnostic as seen by ancient Apostolic Catholicism. And the Apostolic Catholics, like Max, believed it necessary to undertake extreme measures to extirpate Gnostic spirituality from Christianity in order to save the Church.

I see the contribution of The Gnostic New Age as twofold and aimed at two quite different audiences. For scholars, it is a synthesis of April’s work in the context of the scholarly discussion of Gnosticism over the last generation. It traces Gnostic origins from an arguable inception in the intersection between ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman spiritualities; it surveys the classical Gnostic movements and places the thought of Paul and John in context in relation to them; it highlights the importance of ecstatic ritual for understanding Gnostic spirituality; it traces later Gnostic movements into late antiquity and beyond; and it offers an explanation of why Gnosticism was defeated in antiquity by the Apostolic Catholics. Specialists wishing to drill down to the detailed philological and historical details of the arguments will need to consult April’s specialist work, but this need is highlighted in the preface and the references are easy to find. In my view the chief original contribution of the book beyond this synthesis is April’s argument for a deep connection between the thought worlds of ancient Gnostic spirituality and modern popular spirituality especially as exemplified in the New Age movement. This connection is illustrated throughout the book in the filmography and explored in more detail in the final chapter.

But the book is also aimed at a popular audience, one that has an interest in the ancient primary texts and which in many ways is well informed about them, but this audience also aims to incorporate the teachings of the texts into their own personal spiritualities. We as scholars may or may not find this to be a prudent course, but no one is asking our opinion, and April very sensibly meets this audience on their own terms and leaves them better informed about the ancient traditions and better equipped to put them to whatever use they decide to put them to. For this audience, The Gnostic New Age can serve as a guidebook that provides a historical context and some general guidance on how to employ Gnostic spirituality in a responsible and constructive way.

To conclude, I want to congratulate April on the publication of a fascinating book that has much to offer to specialists in Gnosticism, specialists in cognate fields, and an increasingly engaged and sophisticated nonspecialist audience.

Piovanelli, Apocryphités

NEW BOOK FROM BREPOLS PUBLISHERS:

Judaïsme ancien et origines du christianisme (JAOC 7)
P. Piovanelli
Apocryphités
Études sur les textes et les traditions scripturaires du judaïsme et du christianisme anciens

568 p., 156 x 234 mm, 2016
ISBN: 978-2-503-56883-6
Languages: French
Paperback
The publication is available.
Retail price: EUR 100,00 excl. tax

Recueil de vingt-une études fondamentales sur les textes et les phénomènes scripturaires du judaïsme et du christianisme anciens.
Les vingt-une études ici réunies représentent le fruit de vingt-cinq ans de recherches consacrées aux phénomènes scripturaires du judaïsme et du christianisme anciens, qu’il s’agisse de la mise en chantier des différentes éditions du livre de Jérémie et de ses réécritures « apocryphes » (l’Histoire de la captivité babylonienne et les Paralipomènes de Jérémie), de l’évolution de la littérature « apocalyptique » judéenne et chrétienne (du 1er Hénoch à l’Apocalypse de Paul, en passant par le 4e Esdras et l’Apocalypse de Pierre), de la retranscription des traditions mémorielles au sujet de Jésus (dans l’Évangile selon Thomas et dans les dialogues de révélation de Nag Hammadi) et de leurs réécritures ultériures (dans le Livre du coq et autres évangiles tardo-antiques de la Passion), voire de leur réinvention moderne (comme dans le cas de certaines productions romanesques contemporaines ou dans celui beaucoup plus délicat de l’Évangile secret de Marc). Ces études démontrent qu’à l’instar de leurs collègues judéens, les narrateurs chrétiens n’ont eu de cesse de réactualiser les récits sur les origines du mouvement de Jésus, et que, contrairement aux idées reçues, la frontière entre canonicité et apocryphité a toujours été (et continue d’être) extrêmement poreuse et fluctuante.
Pierluigi Piovanelli, ancien élève de l'École pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences religieuses, docteur des Universités de Turin – Pise – Rome « La Sapienza » – Venise, est professeur de Judaïsme du Second Temple et Origines du christianisme à l'Université d'Ottawa.

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch and New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

TC 21 (2016)

ETC BLOG: New Articles and Reviews in the TC Journal (Tommy Wasserman). It includes articles and reviews dealing with the New Testament and the Septuagint, etc.

Shafel/shafal

YONA SABAR: Hebrew Word of the Week: shafel/shafal “lowly, humble; lowdown, mean, base.”

AAR/SBL Blogger Dinner reminder (tonight)

JAMES MCGRATH: Don’t Forget the #AARSBL16 Blogger Dinner This Evening! I need to go to other things this evening, but I hope the dinner goes well.

Samaritan Decalogue tablet sells for $850K

EPIGRAPHY UP FOR AUCTION: Stone inscription of Ten Commandments sells for $850K (Yaron Steinbuch, New York Post).

For sale: the word of God, in slightly less than mint condition.

A mystery antiquities collector got a fantastic deal Wednesday on a stone tablet that bears the earliest known inscription of the Ten Commandments — in large part because the revered religious artifact is as worn out as a ’77 Pinto.

The 115-pound “Decalogue” went for a bargain-basement price of $850,000 at an auction in Beverly Hills, even though it could be as much as 1,500 years old and is considered a “national treasure” in Israel. The artifact might have been priceless if it wasn’t treated like garbage after it was first unearthed in the Middle East in 1913.

[...]

I look forward to hearing where it will be on permanent display to the public, which was a condition of the sale.

Background here and links.

Categories of Gnostic rituals

THE GOD ABOVE GOD BLOG: The Four Categories of Gnostic Religious Rites. Miguel Conner, of Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio, summarizes some material from April DeConick's new book, The Gnostic New Age. There is also an audio interview with Professor DeConick.

As I noted yesterday, I am reviewing her book tomorrow at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting. I will post the text of my review tomorrow as well.

Flint obituary

IN MEMORIAM: Well-respected Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and Langley professor passes (Troy Landreville, Langley Times).

“Dr. Peter Flint was a well-loved member of the TWU community for many reasons,” said Bob Wood, PhD, Provost, TWU.

“In addition to being a teacher who genuinely cared for his students, he was recognized by his peers as a world leader in the field of Dead Sea Scrolls Studies. His passion and his top-notch contributions to the academic field of biblical studies will be missed a great deal.”

Background here.

Byzantine-era arch on display in Jerusalem

ARCHAEOLOGY: Newly Discovered Byzantine Arch Unveiled in Jerusalem.

JNS.org – The discovery of a 1,500-year-old Byzantine arch was revealed Wednesday at a ceremony attended by Israeli Construction Minister Yoav Gallant in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The arch was discovered during recent excavation work to uncover the layout of the street between the Hurva Synagogue, considered Israel’s most important synagogue until the 1948 War of Independence, and the Cardo, Jerusalem’s main street during the Roman era.

Gallant also unveiled the second mosaic in the “Jerusalem of Mosaics” project and viewed artifacts that were recently unearthed beneath the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue. ...

I wouldn't exactly say that the arch was "newly" discovered. There was a notice about it some ten years ago (see here). But that's just the headline. The actual article says "during recent excavation work," which is right enough.

More on the Cardo mosaics display is here and here.

Langlois on the Jerusalem papyrus

MICHAEL LANGLOIS: How a 2,700-year-old piece of papyrus super-charged the debate over UNESCO and Jerusalem (Huffington Post). Excerpt:

As for this papyrus, the various arguments claiming it is a forgery based on orthography are unconvincing. I have doubts about its authenticity, but on other grounds, especially the use of a margin of a sheet (a modus operandi of forgers from more than a century ago) and the alignment of the text. I believe that further analysis is required.

Still, the polemics surrounding the presentation of this papyrus could almost eclipse issues raised by its contents. Is it the king of Judah who asked that wine from his personal reserve be brought to Jerusalem? Or, did one of his subjects send him wine as a gift or as tax? Is it a neighbouring king who offered his Judahite counterpart some of his best bottles? What did the preceding lines say?

Whether this papyrus is authentic or not, it has not yet to reveal all of its secrets.

Background here and links. [Bad link now fixed!]

Arrived

I'M IN SAN ANTONIO for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. I got in late last night, but have managed a decent night's sleep. I'll be visiting with family today, but will fit in some blogging first. The conference festivities start tomorrow.

SBL 2016

I'M OFF TO SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, for the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. I shall be reviewing April DeConick's fascinating new book, The Gnostic New Age, on which more here and here. I will post my review during the conference.

I have pre-posted many items and will try to keep up with blogging the latest as time permits, so please keep visiting PaleoJudaica as usual. There will be new things here every day.

Of course, in addition, I look forward to seeing many of you in San Antonio. If you're a PaleoJudaica reader and you see me, please do say hi.

And if you aren't going to SBL, have a good week anyway.

Hannibal vs. Godzilla!

PUNIC WATCH: The True History Of The Punic Wars Is Finally Revealed In ‘Godzilla: Rage Across Time’ #4 [Preview] ( Chris Sims, Comic Alliance).

And yet, they’ve never really gotten around to the real question that I think we all want answered: What would’ve happened in the Second Punic War if Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps had been stopped by Godzilla?

Fortunately, Ulises Farinas, Erik Freitas, Pablo Tunica, and Chris Mowry are here to finally settle things once and for all with Godzilla: Rage Across Time #4, in which the Carthaginian forces run across the King of All Monsters. Check out a preview below!

Yeah, that question has been bothering me for a long time.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts on Hannibal and the Punic Wars are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, with links.

McGill post: Religions in the Greco-Roman World

JOB AT MCGILL UNIVERSITY: Religions in the Greco-Roman World.

Position 3: Religions in the Greco-Roman World

The Department of History and Classical Studies and the School of Religious Studies invite applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of assistant professor in “Religions in the Greco-Roman World.” The successful applicant is expected to hold a relevant Ph.D. at time of appointment, to show promise of excellence in teaching and to have an innovative research portfolio. The successful applicant can expect to teach and develop courses in Ancient History, Biblical Studies, and Classics. The ability to teach ancient Greek and Koine Greek is essential. A specialization in any of the literatures, religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman World, such as Stoicism, Cynicism, Mystery Religions, Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism is desirable.

The review of applications will begin on December 15, 2016 and will continue until the position is filled.

Applicants should submit the following: a letter of introduction, curriculum vitae, one page teaching statement, and at least three reference letters. All materials, including referees’ letters of recommendation, must be submitted electronically to the Academic Jobs Online website https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo?job-2346-8417.

Inquiries may be directed to Professor Gerbern Oegema, School of Religious Studies, McGill University via e-mail: gerbern.oegema@mcgill.ca.

McGill University is committed to equity in employment and diversity. It welcomes applications from: women, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender identity, visible minorities, and others who may contribute to further diversification. All qualified candidates will be considered; however, in accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

To access this particular job description, you need to click on the first link above, then click on "School of Religious Studies (formerly the Faculty of Religious Studies) 3 positions" and scroll down to the third listing.

Late Antique Judaism job at UCI

H-JUDAIC: JOB: University of California - Irvine, Late Antique Jewish History. Follow the link for further particulars. The application deadline is 16 December 2016.

Ben Zvi and Levin (eds.), Centres and Peripheries in the Early Second Temple Period

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Centres and Peripheries in the Early Second Temple Period
Ed. by Ehud Ben Zvi and Christoph Levin

[Zentrum und Peripherie in der frühen Zeit des Zweiten Tempels.]
2016. XIV, 469 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 108
134,00 €
cloth
ISBN 978-3-16-154293-0
available

Published in English.
“Centre and periphery” frameworks have been particularly helpful for research on systems whose dynamics are strongly influenced by a substantially unequal distribution of qualities. But what can these frameworks, in all their present diversity and in their various “re-conceptualizations,” contribute to the study of the early Second Temple period? The essays in this volume address this question through the prism of, for instance, the location of Jerusalem, diasporic communities, Torah, roles of temples and royal courts, Jerusalem/Gerizim, the Zion tradition, the universal kingdom of YHWH, the literary history of some texts, socio-linguistic choices, and gender.

Follow the link for TOC, ordering information, etc.

Samaritan Decalogue tablet to be auctioned today

EPIGRAPHY: Earliest known stone version of Ten Commandments up for auction (Georgia McCafferty, CNN).

(CNN)The earliest known stone inscription of the Ten Commandments is being auctioned in Beverly Hills on November 16, with an opening bid of $250,000 -- and a stipulation that any owner must put the tablet on public display.

Described as a "national treasure" of Israel, the stone was first uncovered in 1913 during excavations for a railroad station near Yavneh in Israel and is the only intact tablet version of the Commandments thought to exist.

"The tablet's significance is testament to the deep roots and enduring power of the Commandments that still form the basis of three of the world's great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam," says David Michaels, director of ancient coins for Heritage Auctions, who will be conducting the sale.

"Its surface is worn, battered and encrusted in places, but running a gloved finger over it does produce, in some people, a particular thrill of touching a piece of Bible history."

Buried for centuries
The two-foot-square (0.18 square meter), 115-pound (52 kg) marble slab is inscribed in an early Hebrew script called Samaritan and most likely adorned a Samaritan synagogue or home in the ancient town of Jabneel, Palestine, which is now Yavneh in modern Israel, according to Michaels.

[...]

Background and comments are here and here.

More on the Edessan Syriac mosaics

SYRIAC WATCH: 1,800-Year-Old Mosaic Portraits of the Dead Unearthed in Turkey. Archaeologists excavating an ancient necropolis at the site of the historic the historic Urfa castle in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa found mosaic portraits of two men and two women (Claire Voon, Hyperallergic).

A series of curious mosaics have emerged during archaeological excavations of rock tombs in Turkey, representing individual portraits of the long-deceased. Archaeologists working on the historic Castle of Urfa in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa unearthed the floor tiles, according to the announcement from the Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality, and they estimate that the images date to the first or second centuries CE.

[...]

This article seems to be based on a press release in Turkish (linked to above) and gives some new details, including a considerably wider possible range of dating than indicated in the earlier reports.

Background here, here, and here. Related recent post here.

Punic death metal update

PUNIC WATCH: KATAKLYSM Frontman's EX DEO Project: 'The Immortal Wars' Album Details Revealed (Blabbermouth.net).

EX DEO, the reactivated Ancient Roman-themed arsenal fronted by KATAKLYSM singer Maurizio Iacono, will release its third album, "The Immortal Wars", on February 24, 2017 via Napalm Records. The cover artwork was created by renowned artist Eliran Kantor, who has previously worked with TESTAMENT, HATEBREED, SOULFLY and KATAKLYSM.

The CD's main concept deals with Punic Wars, a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 B.C. to 146 B.C. The epic legendary wars come to life and bring the showdown between two of the greatest generals that ever walked the earth, Hannibal and Scipio Africanus, both of whom rewrote the rules of war and strategies. The album also features other unexplored subjects on Ancient Rome surely to raise the epic level to the maximum.

[...]

The upcoming release of the album was announced in January of this year and was noted here, but this new article includes cover artwork, a track listing, and a video teaser for the album.

Documenting the Yazidi genocide

YAZIDI WATCH: French priest helps expose IS group’s Yazidi genocide. Father Patrick Desbois spent over a decade documenting some of the Nazis’ least known atrocities in the killing fields of Ukraine. In turning his attention to Iraq’s Yazidi minority, he hopes to thwart a genocide going on right now. (Benjamin DODMAN, France 24).

Like most people unfamiliar with the ethnic hodgepodge of northern Iraq, Father Patrick Desbois had not heard of the Yazidis before the summer of 2014 – when the Islamic State (IS) group carved a “caliphate” out of large parts of Syria and Iraq, and set about cleansing it of all “infidels”. “It is a cruel irony to first hear about a people when it faces annihilation,” Father Desbois tells FRANCE 24.

The Yazidis, thought to number some 400,000, are members of a religious sect whose beliefs borrow from several ancient Middle Eastern creeds. They live primarily in Iraq’s northern Nineveh Province, though Yazidi migrants and refugees have spread far and wide. It was a chance encounter with one of them in a barber’s shop in Brussels that set Father Desbois on their trail.

Two years on, the French priest has finished a book, published in October, about the Yazidis’ persecution at the hands of jihadist militants. Based on interviews with more than one hundred former IS group captives, the book, “La Fabrique des terroristes” (The Terror Factory), documents the killings, abductions and enslavements that have struck the Kurdish-speaking minority and chased it out of its ancestral lands.

[...]

Read on. Really, read on.

For background on the Yazidis, their Gnosticism-themed religion, and their tragic fate in the hands of ISIS, see the recent posts here, here, and here, with many links. For the record, readers of PaleoJudaica have been hearing about the Yazidis since 2003. My first substantive post on them dealt with another atrocity committed against them in 2007. Note that April DeConick was writing about them then too.

McGrath on Digital Biblical Studies at SBL

JAMES MCGRATH: Ancient Worlds in Digital Culture at #AARSBL16. Professor McGrath is on the SBL panel discussion. I noted the book and Brill series (and the ETC post) here and here.

More on the Göttingen/IAA DSS project

THE UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA: Scripta Qumranica Electronica.

The Dead Sea Scrolls - The Next Generation

Computer scientists and Dead Sea Scrolls scholars are building a digital work environment for one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century * This will enable the virtual joining of the “puzzle pieces” of thousands of ancient scrolls fragments found in Judean Desert caves, through the collaborative German-Israeli research of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Germany), the Israel Antiquities Authority, Haifa University and Tel Aviv University

[...]

HT AJR. Background here and links.

Money transactions in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The Coin of the Realm. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study, the finer points of monetary transactions, and the attendant honesty ingrained in them.

Today, we are used to thinking of buying and selling as an activity exclusively connected with money: you buy things by paying money and sell them in exchange for money. For the Talmud, however, money is considered only a special case of purchase and sale; the standard transaction is imagined as a barter, a direct exchange of goods. In a barter transaction, Jewish law says that the sale is completed when the buyer “pulls” the item he is buying: that is, he literally puts his hands on it and takes it into his possession. This makes sense when you are talking about, say, an ox or a cow.

But it raises a question about monetary transactions. When, exactly, is a money transaction completed? ...

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Another search for more DSS

EXPEDITION: Israel to search hundreds of caves to find the 'crown jewel of Israeli antiquities' — the missing Dead Sea Scrolls (AP). The three-year project launches in December. I hope they find them.

Another such expedition concluded in June without finding any scrolls. Better luck next time.

Leonard Cohen's most Jewish songs

MAY HIS MEMORY BE FOR A BLESSING: Leonard Cohen’s five most Jewish songs. Following the death of legendary Canadian artist last week, we go through his five ‘most Jewish’ songs (Jewish News). His songs were much influenced by the Bible and the Jewish liturgy.

Cuneiform cookies just get cooler and cooler

BAKING: Ah, Finally, Ancient Clay Tablets for Dessert (JENNIFER A. KINGSON, New York Times). Excerpts:

Ms. [Katy] Blanchard, whose passions are archaeology and baking, used chopsticks, a fish knife and a gingerbread recipe that came packaged with a Coliseum-shaped cookie-cutter she once bought. Not only did her cuneiform cookies beguile her colleagues at the office party, they also gained some measure of internet renown after a Penn Museum publicist posted an article about how she made them. (Sample comment from the public: “Mine will probably taste more like the Dead Sea Scrolls.”)

From there, cuneiform cookies started to become — as the newspaper The Forward put it — “a thing.” Bloggers were enthralled, including one who said she was taking a class in Hittite and opted to practice on shortbread. (“The writing took a surprisingly long time,” she observed.)

[...]

Inspired by Ms. Blanchard’s cuneiform cookies, Esther Brownsmith, a Ph.D. student in the Bible and Near East program at Brandeis University who has been studying Akkadian for years, went all out: For a New Year’s party, she baked four tablets of gingerbread, each on a 13-by-18-inch pan, and copied part of the Enuma Elish, a seven-tablet Babylonian creation myth, onto them. A stunning step-by-step description of this feat has drawn thousands of “likes” on her Tumblr blog.

The epic of Gilgamesh has also received the cookie treatment. We live in an age of wonders.

Past posts on the cuneiform cookies phenomenon are here, here, and here.

Festschrift for Jean-Daniel Dubois

NETWORK FOR THE STUDY OF ESOTERICISM IN ANTIQUITY: GNOSE ET MANICHÉISME. FESTSCHRIFT DUBOIS (Dylan M. Burns).

I have been waiting with bated breath for some time for the volume honoring the work of Jean-Daniel Dubois, a luminary of scholarship on Gnosticism and Manichaeism, to appear. Brepols has made the book available to order (with a publication date in October of this year) and posted a table of contents, and it looks tasty indeed. ...

Cross-file under Gnosticism Watch and Manichean (Manichaean) Watch.

Romans 12:1

READING ACTS: Romans 12:1 and the Scapegoat. A living sacrifice?

Some past posts in Phil Long's series on Paul's letter to the Romans are noted here and links.

Still more on the dating of ancient ink

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Stephen Goranson sends reference to a publication on new techniques for the non-destructive dating of ancient ink, not just a work in progress:

Sarah Goler, James T. Yardley, Angela Cacciola, Alexis Hagadorn, David Ratzan and Roger Bagnall. "Characterizing the age of ancient Egyptian manuscripts through micro-Raman spectroscopy." Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. Article first published online: 6 MAY 2016 DOI: 10.1002/jrs.4945.
And now (apparently) in paper vol. 47 issue 10, October, 2016, pages 1185–1193, ISSN 1097-4555

You can read the abstract at the link. The full article is here, but probably requires a paid subscription to access.

Background (with reference to the Gospel of Jesus' Wife) is here and links.

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.