Epic rabbis in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The Talmud as Epic. This week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ brings to life rabbinic heroes on their intellectual battlefield: larger-than-life figures worthy of Greek drama.

But when it comes to aggadah, the Talmud’s passages of lore and legend, these one-dimensional names suddenly spring to life. The rabbis, it turns out, were not just law-producing machines; they were also saints and miracle-workers, friends and enemies, politicians and businessmen. Read one way, the Talmud is an epic, in which the rabbis play the role of heroes. But they are heroes of a particular kind: they fight not with swords but words, and the rewards they seek are not kingdoms but holiness and intellectual authority. This elevation of the intellectual and spiritual over the physical constitutes a particularly Jewish vision of heroism, which continues to play a central role in both religious and secular Jewish culture today.

And they were beautiful. Moses was also remembered as beautiful in ancient Jewish traditions (see here and here). The Merkavah mystics also frequently referred to the beauty of God (see, e.g., the passage from the Hekhalot Zutarti quoted here).

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Hurtado on The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek

LARRY HURTADO: A New Greek-English Lexicon.

Serious students of early Christian texts will want to become acquainted with a new Greek-English lexicon: GE: The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2016), edited by Madeleine Goh & Chad Schroeder, under the auspices of the Center for Hellenic Studies. (The publisher’s online catalogue entry here.)

[...]

This important new lexicon was noted earlier here, but Professor Hurtado gives additional background and details in his post. Cross-file under Philology.

Nebraska symposium on "Exile and Return in Jewish History"

H-JUDAIC: CFP: "Exile and Return in Jewish History."

The Thirtieth Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization

“Next Year in Jerusalem: Exile and Return in Jewish History”

Call for Papers: October 29-30, 2017

The Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization (Creighton University), the Kripke Center for the Study of Religion and Society (Creighton University), the Harris Center for Judaic Studies (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), and the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies (University of Nebraska-Omaha) announce their Thirtieth Annual Symposium, in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, on Sunday, October 29, and Monday, October 30, 2017. Sessions with take place on the campuses of Creighton, UNL, and UNO and also at the Omaha Jewish Community Center.

[...]

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 April 2017. Follow the link for further particulars.

Sifre Numbers

THE SBL HANDBOOK OF STYLE BLOG: Sifre Numbers. Along with the stylistic advice, this post gives a nice brief overview of the structure of Sifre Numbers, how it fits into the rabbinic midrashic literature, and some bibliography.

Hirshman, Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 1-6

NEW BOOK FROM THE SCHECHTER INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES (IN HEBREW): Marc Hirshman, Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 1-6, Critical Edition with Commentary and Introduction. There is no English page for the book yet, but you can read about the Midrash Project here in English.

HT the Talmud Blog on Facebook.

Women in Judaism 13.1 (2016)

H-JUDAIC: TOC: New Issue: Women in Judaism. Ancient Judaism is well represented in this issue.

I noted this open-access online journal recently here.

Dead Sea Scrolls Community

BIBLE ODYSSEY: Dead Sea Scrolls Community (Alex P. Jassen). HT AJR Twitter.

Baumer, The Church of the East

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Church of the East. Notice of a new book: Baumer, Christoph. 2016. The Church of the East: An illustrated history of Assyrian Christianity. I.B. Tauris. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch and Syriac Watch.

On discovering (making?) Mandaic

PHILOLOGASTRY BLOG: Columbusing Classical Mandaic (Charles G. Häberl).

And then you have Rudolf Macuch. The 20th century Slovak philologist was not only painfully aware of his own position with respect to his subject, but he also never lets us forget it. His Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic is a landmark of 20th century scholarship, if only because it is sui generis among grammars. Its first 25 pages establish it as a very personal account of a language, situating him within his own scholarly context through a painstakingly detailed critique of the work of his predecessors and contemporaries. At no point does Macuch ever adopt the terrible fiction of a voice from nowhere; instead, he makes certain that his voice is heard on each and every page.

Philologists are basically people who do things with words, and the primary thing that Macuch attempts to do with his Handbook is to document his personal discovery of both Classical and Modern Mandaic. In a very real sense, neither existed prior to 1965 (please bear with me on this) and he wants us to know that he was present at their making. In fact, he outlines the case that he has played a pivotal role in this making.

Cross file under Mandean Watch (Mandaean Watch) and Philology. HT AJR.

Turkish in Syriac script

SYRIAC WATCH: A rose by any other name: When Turkish was written in the Greek, Armenian and even Syrian script. In the Ottoman Empire, Turkish in scripts other than Arabic were commonplace (Michael Erdman, Scroll.in).

The final example of allography from the Ottoman Empire is a much less common one, but no less interesting. It is of the newspaper Leshānā d’umthā, Syriac for Voice of the Nation (BL 753.k.35). This bi-weekly was produced in Beirut, Lebanon from 1927 until 1946 and had articles in Syriac, Arabic and Turkish.

Arabic written in Syriac script is a common occurrence throughout the Christian Orient, and is referred to as Garshuni. Turkish written in Syriac characters, however, is far rarer, and represents a unique view into the linguistic, political and cultural identity of Beirut’s Christian communities decades after the end of Ottoman sovereignty.

Unlike Armeno-Turkish, the author of the Ottoman Turkish articles in this periodical adhered to Ottoman orthography as much as possible, even when it did not conform to the spoken language. This indicates that the compiler of the articles was educated in Ottoman Turkish, yet opted to write in Syriac script; a reminder of just how powerful the visual aspects of language were and are in the Middle East.

Follow the link for a photo.

The Syriac script has also been used to write other languages, including - as the article notes - Arabic (Garshuni), but also Georgian (Syro-Georgian).

Murphy and Schedtler (eds.), Apocalypses in Context

NEW BOOK FROM FORTRESS PRESS

Apocalypses in Context: Apocalyptic Currents Through History Paperback – September 1, 2016
by Kelly J. Murphy (Author), Kelly J Murphy (Editor), Justin Jeffcoat Schedtler (Editor)

Apocalyptic scenarios remain prevalent and powerful in popular culture (in television, film, comic books, and popular fiction), in politics (in debates on climate change, environmentalism, Middle East policy, and military planning), and in various religious traditions. Academic interest in apocalypticism is flourishing; indeed, the study of both ancient and contemporary apocalyptic phenomena has long been a focus of attention in scholarly research and a ready way to engage the religious studies classroom. Apocalypses in Context is designed for just such a classroom, bringing together the insights of scholars in various fields and using different methods to discuss the manifestations of apocalyptic enthusiasm in different ages (Part I: Ancient Apocalyptic Literature; Part II: Apocalypticism through the Ages; Part III: Apocalypticism in the Contemporary World). This approach enables the instructor to make connections and students to recognize continuities and contrasts across history. Apocalypses in Context features illustrations, graphs, study questions, and suggestions for further reading after each chapter, as well as recommended media and artwork to support the college classroom.

HT Peter J. Leithart at the First Things Blog.

Gertz et al. (eds.), The Formation of the Pentateuch

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

The Formation of the Pentateuch
Bridging the Academic Cultures of Europe, Israel, and North America
Ed. by Jan C. Gertz, Bernard M. Levinson, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, and Konrad Schmid

[Die Entstehung des Pentateuch. Ein Brückenschlag zwischen den akademischen Kulturen Europas, Israels und Nordamerikas.]
2016. XI, 1204 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 111

269,00 €
cloth
ISBN 978-3-16-153883-4
available

Published in English.
The Pentateuch lies at the heart of the Western humanities. Yet despite nearly two centuries of scholarship, its historical origins and its literary history are still a subject of intense discussion. Critical scholarship has isolated multiple layers of tradition, inconsistent laws, and narratives that could only have originated from separate communities within ancient Israel, and were joined together at a relatively late stage by a process of splicing and editing.
Recent developments in academic biblical studies, however, jeopardize the revolutionary progress that has been accomplished over the last two centuries. The past forty years of scholarship have witnessed not simply a proliferation of intellectual models, but the fragmentation of discourse within the three main research centers of Europe, Israel, and North America. Even when they employ the same terminology (redactor, author, source, exegesis), scholars often mean quite different things. Concepts taken for granted by one group of scholars (such as the existence of the Elohist source) are dismissed out of hand by other scholarly communities.
In effect, independent and sometimes competing scholarly discourses have emerged in Europe, Israel, and North America. Each centers on the Pentateuch, each operates with its own set of working assumptions, and each is confident of its own claims. This volume seeks to stimulate international discussion about the Pentateuch in order to help the discipline move toward a set of shared assumptions and a common discourse. With the wide range of perspectives examined, this publication is an invaluable resource for subsequent research.

More on Textual History of the Bible

NEW SERIES FROM BRILL:

Textual History of the Bible

Edited by: Armin Lange (General Editor), Emanuel Tov, Matthias Henze, Russell E. Fuller, Hanna Tervanotko and Sidnie White-Crawford

The Textual History of the Bible (THB) is unique in providing, for the first time, all available information regarding the textual history, textual character, translation techniques, manuscripts, and the importance of each textual witness for each book of the Hebrew Bible, including its deutero-canonical scriptures.
In addition, it includes articles on the history of research, the editorial histories of the Hebrew Bible, as well as other aspects of text-critical research and its auxiliary fields, such as papyrology, codicology, and linguistics.

The Textual History of the Bible will consist of:
Volumes 1A, 1B and 1C: The Hebrew Bible (2016/2017)
Volumes 2A and 2B: Deuterocanonical Scriptures (2017)
Volumes 3 A, 3B and 3C: A Companion to Textual Criticism (2019)
Volume 4: Indices, and Manuscript Catalogues (2020)

I noted a press release about the series back in April, but this Brill page gives additional information.

Roman Jewish catacombs under renovation

ROMAN CATACOMBS WATCH: In Rome, Restoring a Vast Repository of the Jewish Past. After years of delay, the ancient Jewish catacombs under Rome’s Villa Torlonia are set for restoration (John Hooper, Wall Street Journal).

This week, a central-government budget went into effect which, after more than 10 years of delay, allots €1.4 million (about $1.5 million) to restoring Villa Torlonia’s Jewish catacombs. If things work out, within a few years—maybe even next year—the public will be able to see an “area of extraordinary historic importance,” as Claudio Procaccia, director of the Department of Jewish Culture of the Jewish community of Rome, calls the site.

Paintings of stars, planets, peacocks and pomegranates decorate the walls and ceilings, along with a dolphin arching over a trident. One of the grander niches has small columns at each corner and a frescoed cross vault with a depiction of a menorah. There are images of sacred Jewish symbols, including an ark with the scrolls of the Torah, and several inscriptions referring to synagogues in the city.

But as Monica Zelinotti, the architect charged with managing the restoration, says, not every visitor to Rome will be eager to explore these catacombs. Gouged out of brownish-gray rock, they are eerie places: damp, claustrophobic and, of course, scattered with human remains. “The humidity can be as high as 100%,” says Ms. Zelinotti. The ceilings of the passageways are low. “In places, the space between the niches is no more than the width of your shoulders,” she adds.

Background on this renovation project, which has been planned since 2004, is here and links. This is only one of the Jewish catacombs surviving in Rome, but it is somewhat infamous because Mussolini lived at the Villa Torlonia. For background on Rome's other Jewish catacombs, see here and links.

Brady on Targum

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What is Targum? (Christian Brady, Targuman Blog).

It occurred to me this morning that I have never offered a definition or description of Targum and the Targumim on this site. Here is the entry I wrote for the Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible.

I noted Professor Brady's book on Targum Ruth here with background links.

EABS/ISBL 2017: CFP: Medicine in Bible and Talmud

H-JUDAIC: CFP- "MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE in BIBLE and TALMUD" - EABS/ISBL joint meeting, BERLIN, 7-11 August 2017.

Papers are invited on the comparative theme “Literary and discursive framing and concepts of (medical) knowledge in (Late) Antiquity”, from biblical and apocryphal texts, into later Jewish, Rabbinic-Talmudic traditions and beyond. The organizers explicitly welcome papers by scholars working on these questions as in neighboring or adjacent traditions (ancient Babylonia or Egypt; Graeco-Roman culture(s); Iranian traditions, early Christianity; Syriac traditions; early Islam etc.). Recent studies into ancient scientific traditions have emphasized the craft and artifice of those texts. On the one hand, these works can be characterized by a rather astonishing degree of literary expertise, discursive versatility and rhetorical sophistication. Ancient scientific authors were well versed not only in their very field of expertise but deployed compositional techniques from their respective cultural milieu. On the other hand, one notices also the complex framing of scientific knowledge in texts whose primary focus was religious, poetic, historiographic, or literary. Based on this, we welcome presentations on the representation and embedding of medical (and other) knowledge in particular texts and contexts. Papers may address the special design of such knowledge discourses. How does the use of rhetoric strategies, literary structures, or genres in `scientific texts’ affect the ideas conveyed? Could a specific hermeneutic (Listenwissenschaft/ encyclopaedism/ linguocentrism) not only serve as a ‘container’ but also as a method for knowledge acquisition? One might ask further: who constructs this discourse for whom, and with which (implicit/explicit) intention? How can the adoption of certain textual strategies and compositional techniques be seen as a vital venue for (structural/discursive) knowledge transfer, rather than the actual content of the passage?

The deadline for paper proposals in 1 February 2017.

More on the Jerusalem Bible quiz

ROMANTIC COMPETITION: Our marriage got the Bible test. There was something special about two of the competitors in this year's International Bible Competition for Adults (Lucy Cohen Blatter, Jewish Chronicle).

Last week, Yair Shahak was taking a taxi ride in Jerusalem and was recognised by the driver. Although he is not exactly a household name, Mr Shahak had just clinched the top prize in the International Bible Competition for Adults, which had been broadcast on Israeli TV earlier in the week.

But Mr Shahak had an even better claim to world Torah-knowledge domination than many viewers may have realised.

He had travelled to Jerusalem from New York with his wife, Yaelle Frohlich, who had also made the final.

And although the pair were technically competing against each other — among the 25 other finalists from around the world — “it didn’t feel like it”, said Ms Frohlich.

“We were rooting for each other, so I feel as though I share in his victory,” she said.

[...]

Background on the competition is here

Open Access Ancient Language Textbooks and Primers

AWOL: Open Access Ancient Language Textbooks and Primers. You would expect plenty of these for Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, but there is much more, including tools for learning Sanskrit, Armenian, Akkadian, Mayan, Sogdian, Avestan, Ethiopic, Sumerian, Demotic, etc.

Reed, "Retelling Biblical Retellings"

ANNETTE YOSHIKO REED: "Retelling Biblical Retellings: Epiphanius, the Pseudo-Clementines, and the Reception History of Jubilees" (Academia.edu).

This is an offprint of Professor Reed's article in Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation from Second Temple Literature through Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity. Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature. Edited by Menahem Kister, Hillel I. Newman, Michael Segal, and Ruth A. Clements. Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp. 304-21.

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch and Reception History Watch.

Booming forgeries market in Syria

FORGERY WATCH: After Islamic State institutionalized looting in Syria, the market for fake antiquities is booming (Nabih Bulos, L.A. Times).

The Bible, its pages browned and frayed at their edges, seemed liable to crumble at the slightest touch.

One page had the faded traces of a drawing of the Virgin Mary, its spaces filled in with golden particles tinged green by oxidization, set opposite neat lines of Aramaic script. Elegant drawings of religious iconography adorned the margins, adding to the artifact’s elegance.

There was just one problem.

“It’s a fake,” said Yarub Abdullah, director of the National Museum in Damascus, closing the Bible suddenly with a nonchalant flip of his hand. He looked with distaste at his fingers, smudged by the pages he had just handled.

“Just smell the page; they got that color by dunking it in chocolate, something like that.”

[...]

And not all fakes were as obvious as Abdulkarim’s new office ornament, cautioned Azm.

Some are made from pieces of damaged mosaics, reassembled into designs that mimic more valuable pieces. “There are some very good fakers, especially in mosaics…. These workshops are mostly in the area around Idlib, some in Damascus. They’re so good they use ancient stones and reset them to get a higher value,” he said.

“Unless they make a stylistic error or a technical error, you won’t tell it’s a fake. If you look at the stone, test the residue, it will all be ancient.”

Some dealers will even bury the counterfeit artifact – another trick to fool potential buyers into thinking the item is authentic. They then either sell the rights to the site so buyers can send someone to dig it out, or have them pay a premium three times the artifact’s value for delivery across the border or beyond.

[...]

Remember, if an artifact has not been recovered in a scientific archaeological excavation, the burden of proof is on anyone who wishes to argue that it is genuine and ancient.

Recent related post here and one from 2015 here.

Top 5 ASOR Blog essays for 2016

THE ASOR BLOG: Top 5 ASOR Articles of 2016 (Kaitlynn Anderson).

2017 has officially begun! We’d like to thank all of our Friends of ASOR (and lurkers) who come back to the ASOR Blog to read article after article! Here’s a look back at the five most popular articles of 2016. A lot happened in 2016, here’s hoping 2017 is even better and full of interesting articles and discoveries.

It's a good list. And, yes, let's hope for even better stories in 2017.

OTP page at Syri.ac

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: New Old Testament Pseudepigrapha page from Syri.ac (Morgan Reed, Hugoye List).

Dear colleagues,

We are excited to introduce a new page at http://syri.ac [found here] devoted to the study of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. A rich literary tradition, valued by Jews, Christians, and Muslims — though today often marginalized or unknown, even to scholars — surrounds the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Old Testament. We have created this page to highlight the numerous non-canonical texts related to the Old Testament that survive in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni.

[...]

Cross-file under Syriac Watch. And there's more on Syri.ac here.

New blog series on historical reliability of Luke-Acts

THE BIBLE PLACES BLOG: Luke & Acts: Historical Reliability - 1 (Michael J. Caba).

This ongoing series of posts considers the historical reliability of the New Testament books of Luke and Acts by examining the relationship between the texts and other ancient sources. Primarily intended to assist those with a teaching ministry, it will cover both well documented and obscure correlations and will include periodic summaries and source references as relevant. Public domain photos, or those whose author has given permission for use, will also be provided when available.

To begin with, the first two verses of the third chapter of the Book of Luke contain references to eight individuals in prominent positions at the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist. The text itself is shown below.

[...]

Kanarek and Lehman (eds.), Learning to Read Talmud

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Learning to Read Talmud: Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy (Jane Kanarek and Marjorie Lehman). Excerpt:

... Our book, Learning to Read Talmud: What It Looks Like and How It Happens, presents a series of eight focused classroom studies written by professors of talmudic literature who were asked to respond to two questions:

1. What does it mean to read Talmud in your particular classroom?

2. What does this reading look like when it happens?

[...]

In this vein, these case studies reflect a range of North American contexts, from rabbinical seminaries to secular universities. Together, they reveal that learning to read Talmud is a complex and multivalent endeavor. It involves the mastery of base-line skills: learning the technical terminology and the dialogical style of argument for which the Talmud is well-known. But, learning to read the Talmud—whether in its original language or in translation—also involves competencies in several cognitive processes: breaking a sugya into much smaller units in order to rebuild sense; simultaneously considering multiple answers as possible; viewing problems as integral to the text; integrating the ahistorical with the historical; becoming conscious of and rethinking prior religious, cultural and historical assumptions in the face of new evidence; learning to think with a different mode of reasoning; building bridges between the ancient and the contemporary; and confronting unethical, even unfriendly texts.

This looks extraordinarily useful. Cross-file under New Book (Academic Studies Press).

Tel Shimron near Sepphoris to be excavated

ARCHAEOLOGY: Pitt lecturer on team to excavate site in Galilee (Toby Tabachnick, Jewish Chronicle).

[Ben] Gordon, the Perlow lecturer in Classical Judaism and the Ancient Near East in the department of Religious Studies within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, will be heading to Israel’s Galilee region this summer to commence a multiyear project excavating Tel Shimron, an archaeological site near the town of Sepphoris. Gordon will be part of the core research team, which includes Mario Martin of Tel Aviv University and Daniel Master of Wheaton University as co-directors of the project.

Gordon, a Virginia native, is no stranger to the historical treasures of Sepphoris, having done field work there as well as examined the findings of its excavation through affiliations with Hebrew University and Duke University.

Sepphoris, he explained, became a center of Jewish life after the destruction of the Second Temple. Following the Jews’ expulsion from Jerusalem, many migrated north and settled there, where Jewish intellectual life flourished.

“Judah HaNasi lived there when he edited the Mishnah,” Gordon noted.

Duke University began excavating a residential area of Sepphoris in the late 1980s, Gordon said, and found concrete evidence of Jewish life, including private ritual baths known as mikvahs in the homes, as well as dining vessels carved from stone that were referenced in the Talmud as being insusceptible to ritual impurity.

More on the Syriac mosaics at Urfa

SYRIAC WATCH: Mosaics reveal ancient styles in Turkey's southeast. Hurriyet Daily News has an article from ŞANLIURFA – Anadolu Agency on the recently excavated tombs at Urfa Castle (ancient Edessa) with some new details. Excerpt:

An archaeologist from the Şanlıurfa Museum, Bekir Çetin, said the region was reputed as the necropolis (cemetery) of the Edessa city. The necropolis was used by Syriacs between 132 B.C. and 244 A.D.

“Generally, we see such tombs in the southern, southeastern and the eastern Anatolia regions, as well as in Syria,” he added.

He said the tombs were mostly built as family chamber tombs and the dead bodies were placed inside holes on the walls.

“These mosaics generally have herbal and geometrical motifs. Particularly in one of them, mosaics depicting the portraits of the dead were made and the names of these people were written in Syriac. When we look at a mosaic, we clearly see the dressing sense of their era and men’s hair and beards. With women, we see that they covered their head. When comparing the people on these mosaics and today’s people, we think that the culture of this era still exists among the local people living there.”

Background here and links.

Archaeology in 2017

PREDICTIONS: 5 Big Archaeology Stories to Watch for in 2017 (Owen Jarus, Live Science). Yes, the lists for 2017 are already starting. I hope Mr. Jarus is right about more Dead Sea Scrolls being discovered.

Jerusalem Bible quiz winners

COMPETITION: American, Israeli win Bible quiz in Jerusalem. Yair Shahak defeats wife in International Adult Bible Contest, shares prize with Israeli Yafit Silman (JTA/Times of Israel).

Yair Shahak of New York City was one of two winners of the International Adult Bible Contest in Jerusalem.

Shahak, 28, representing the US, shared the honor with Israeli Yafit Silman, according to Ynet News. Shahak’s wife, Yaelle Frohlich, was also a finalist in the competition, representing Canada. The contest ended on December 28.

The contest — sort of a spelling bee, but with biblical verses rather than words — has the contestants answer the minutest of details about the most obscure of biblical books. Contestants must locate or complete fragments of biblical verses, identify who said which quotation to whom, or name geographical details of the ancient Land of Israel.

[...]

That sounds like a good quiz.

Ancient cross and menorah etchings

HOLIDAY CAVE ICONOGRAPHY: Ancient Cross and Menorah Carvings Found Side by Side (Mindy Weisberger, Live Science).

Engravings of a cross and a menorah carved thousands of years ago were recently found in a cave in Israel, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Though the two figures were etched close together on a cistern wall, they were likely created hundreds of years apart, the archaeologists said.

Hikers unexpectedly came upon the ancient carvings while exploring subterranean passages in southern Israel. Archaeologists with the IAA dated the menorah carving to the second century A.D. and the cross to the fourth century A.D. The menorah, which has seven arms and three legs, represents the traditional candelabra that stood in the Second Temple in Jerusalem, IAA experts said in a statement.

The discovery of two side-by-side symbols associated with Judaism and Christianity, respectively, coincides with a rare overlap of the Hanukkah and Christmas holidays in 2016, with the first night of Hanukkah falling on Christmas Eve. Such an alignment has happened only four times since 1900 — in 1902, 1940, 1978 and 2016, Vox.com reported.

[...]

'Tis Still the Season. For many post (including lots of recent ones) on ancient menorahs, start here and follow the links.

Review of Edelman et al. (eds), Religion in the Achaemenid Persian Empire

THE BIBLICAL REVIEW BLOG: “Religion in the Achaemenid Persian Empire” (William Brown). A review of Religion in the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Edited by Diana Edelman, Anne Fitzpatrick-McKinley, and Philippe Guillaume. Tubingen, Germany: 2016, Mohr Siebeck, pp. 390.

I noted the book last summer here.

Ancient milestones on display

MONUMENTS: Roman Milestones on Display at KKL-JNF Archaeological Garden. Roman Milestones Moved from Highway 38 to KKL-JNF’s Archaeological Garden in Givat Yeshayahu. This fascinating garden is open to the public (Jerusalem Post).

Thanks to a joint effort of KKL-JNF and the Israel Antiquities Authority, impressive Roman milestones were moved to the archaeological gardens located in the courtyard of KKL-JNF’s Givat Yeshayahu offices, where they can be viewed safely by visitors.

The Roman Empire paved an extensive network of roads in the land of Israel, which contributed towards making their presence conspicuous and making safe trade possible.

The Romans installed stone obelisks on the roads at a distance of 1,480 meters (a Roman mile) from each other. These stones provided walkers with information about their location, and some of them had inscriptions that glorified the ruler under whose jurisdiction the road was paved.

[...]

"KKL-JNF" stands for "Keren Kayemeth LeYisrael-Jewish National Fund." Givat Yeshayahu is about 10 kilometers south of Beit Shemesh. For some other archaeological gardens in Israel, see here and links.

Last Biblical Studies Carnival of 2016

JENNIFER GUO: Biblical Studies Carnival – December 2016. HT James McGrath.

UPDATE: Phil Long is of the view that biblioblogging is not dead (in response to Jim West): Biblical Studies Carnival 130 – December 2016. Well, Jim did carefully qualify his post with "most, "by and large," etc. If biblioblogging is dead, I certainly did not get the memo.

"Temple Mount"

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Islamic guards try to boot guide for saying ‘Temple Mount’ on Temple Mount. Waqf officials haul Israeli archaeologist in front of Israeli police for not using term ‘Haram al-Sharif’ during historical tour of site; police advise him to refrain from saying ‘Temple Mount’ for rest of visit (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

Islamic authorities managing the Temple Mount attempted to have a veteran Israeli archaeologist ejected from the Jerusalem flashpoint holy site on Sunday for using the term “Temple Mount” in a lecture to American students. Waqf guards brought him to Israeli police at the site to complain, and the police, while saying there were no legal grounds to eject him, advised him to refrain from using the phrase “Temple Mount” for the rest of the group’s visit.

A multi-faith group of students from the University of California, Los Angeles, was visiting the Temple Mount as part of a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories to understand facts on the ground. Dr. Gabriel Barkay was brought in to explain the archaeological history of the site.

Barkay, a veteran Israeli archaeologist, devotes much of his time in recent years to sifting through tons of fill illegally excavated from the Temple Mount by the Waqf — the Islamic endowment charged with administering the flashpoint holy site — in the 1990s.

The incident, which was witnessed by this reporter and which other tour guides said was not without precedent, highlighted ever-present tensions over the nomenclature used at the site, months after Israel furiously protested a UNESCO resolution that refers to The Temple Mount and Western Wall as solely Muslim sites.

[...]

Sigh.

Dr. Gabriel Barkay (Barkai) is also the head of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, on which more here and many, many links.

Studia Philonica Annual XXVIII, 2016 — Runia Festschrift

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Studia Philonica Annual XXVIII, 2016: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism
David T. Runia (Editor), Gregory E. Sterling (Editor)

ISBN 9780884141815
Status Available
Price: $61.95
Binding Hardback
Publication Date October 2016
Pages 476

Celebrate the contributions of David T. Runia

The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly journal devoted to the study of Hellenistic Judaism, particularly the writings and thought of the Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria. More than fifteen scholars from around the world offer contributions to this special edition of the Annual in honor of Professor David T. Runia on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday and retirement from his post as Master of Queens College, University of Melbourne. Professor Runia is internationally recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on Philo of Alexandria. As founder of The Studia Philonica Annual, he has been editor or coeditor for twenty-seven years. He initiated a Philo Bibliography project prior to the Annual and incorporated the bibliography into the Annual from the outset. It serves as the primary bibliography for Philonic studies worldwide.

Follow the link for ordering info etc.

Lim, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction (revised)

FORTHCOMING REVISED BOOK FROM OUP:

The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction

Timothy H. Lim

Very Short Introductions

• Introduces the historical and cultural context of the scrolls, through the archaeology and history of the Dead Sea region 2,000 years ago.
• Provides an accessible account of the leading interpretations of the scrolls, and how they have changed the way we understand the emergence of the Old Testament, Ancient Judaism, and Early Christianity.
• Discusses the scrolls' rise to the status of cultural icon, beginning with their discovery in the 1940s, to the political, legal, and scholarly controversies that still persist today.
• Navigates the ongoing scholarly debates over the archaeological site of Khirbet Qumran, the caves, and the marginalization of women
• Analyses the communities associated with the Scrolls and Essenes, the textual fluidity of the biblical texts, the formation of the canon, and the sectarian nature of early Christianity
• Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over eight million copies sold worldwide

New to this Edition:

• The Qumran-Essene theory that held sway in the last generation has been challenged by various scholars who have reassessed Roland de Vaux's interpretation of Khirbet Qumran, and the close link between the communities reflected in the Scrolls and the archaeological site. This edition discusses the alternate views to the Qumran-Essene theory
• Expands the discussion on the issue of 'canon', showing how the sectarian community did have an understanding of authoritative scriptures, forming a broadly bipartite canon of the Torah and the prophets
• Discusses the cultural significance of the Scrolls, including the most recent online digital projects

Coming in March of 2017 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the first discovery of the Scrolls.

Keim, Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer: Structure, Coherence, Intertextuality

Katharina E. Keim, University of Manchester

In Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer: Structure, Coherence, Intertextuality Katharina E. Keim offers a description of the literary character of Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer, an enigmatic work of the late-eighth-to-early-ninth centuries CE. Katharina E. Keim explores the work’s distinctive literary features through an analysis of its structure and coherence. These literary features, when taken together with the work’s intertextual relationships with antecedent and contemporaneous Christian and Jewish (rabbinic and non-rabbinic) texts, reveal Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer to be an innovative work, and throw light on a new turn in Jewish literature following the rise of Islam.

Gribetz et al. (eds.), Genesis Rabbah in Text and Context

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Genesis Rabbah in Text and Context
Ed. by Sarit Kattan Gribetz, David M. Grossberg, Martha Himmelfarb, and Peter Schäfer

[Genesis Rabbah in Text und Kontext.]
2016. IX, 288 pages.
Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 166

129,00 €
cloth
ISBN 978-3-16-154702-7
available

Published in English.
Genesis Rabbah, the earliest rabbinic commentary on Genesis, was composed in Roman Palestine around the 5th century CE. In this volume, an international team of scholars explores the literary formation and textual transmission of this work in late antiquity, and the historical, cultural, religious, and political contexts from which it emerged. Some essays study the multi-layered nature of this text, the relationship of the traditions within the collection to one another and to other compositions, its redaction, its manuscript history, and the interpretive strategies it applies to biblical verses. Other essays explore how the midrash engages with Greco-Roman literature, competing theological and exegetical ideas found in contemporary Christian works, and other genres of Jewish literature. The collection aims to advance scholarly conversations about the classical rabbinic corpus; midrash; religions of late antiquity; interactions between Jews, Christians, and others in the Greco-Roman world; and the reception of Genesis Rabbah in medieval and modern times.

Eldar, Hebrew Language Study in the Middle Ages

NEW BOOK (IN HEBREW) FROM MAGNES PRESS:

Hebrew Language Study in the Middle Ages

Texts and Studies

By Ilan Eldar

Publisher: The Hebrew University Magnes Press
Categories:
Linguistics and Language, Hebrew and Jewish Languages
Publish date: August 2016
Language: Hebrew
Danacode: 45-351106
ISBN: 978-965-493-864-8
Cover: Paperback
Pages: 426
Weight: 800 gr.

Prof. Ilan Eldars study of linguistics and reading theory in the middle ages, is brought to you in this publication. These twenty articles, written over thirty-three years and published in scientific journals, memorial publications and jubilee volumes, include unpublished texts from manuscripts and Genizah segments and deal with a variety of historiographical and linguistic issues: The beginnings of the glottology of the Hebrew language; The study of the Hebrew language among Jews of Germany, Italy, Spain, Yemen and France; Methods of structure and editing of dictionaries, derivation systems, concept of triliteral root, division of verbal stems, vowel length and substitution of letters.

Reif and Egger-Wenzel (eds.), Ancient Jewish Prayers and Emotions

NEW(ISH) BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Ancient Jewish Prayers and Emotions
Emotions associated with Jewish prayer in and around the Second Temple period

Ed. by Reif, Stefan C. / Egger-Wenzel, Renate
Series: Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies

Aims and Scope
Given the recent interest in the emotions presupposed in early religious literature, it has been thought useful to examine in this volume how the Jews and early Christians expressed their feelings within the prayers recorded in some of their literature. Specialists in their fields from academic institutions around the world have analysed important texts relating to this overall theme and to what is revealed with regard to such diverse topics as relations with God, exegesis, education, prophecy, linguistic expression, feminism, happiness, grief, cult, suicide, non-Jews, Hellenism, Qumran and Jerusalem. The texts discussed are in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and are important for a scientific understanding of how Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity developed their approaches to worship, to the construction of their theology and to the feelings that lay behind their religious ideas and practices. The articles contribute significantly to an historical understanding of how Jews maintained their earlier traditions but also came to terms with the ideology of the dominant Hellenistic culture that surrounded them.

This book was published a year ago, but I seem to have missed it when it came out. So here it is.

Heidelberg conference on "Material Aspects of Reading"

H-JUDAIC: CFP "Material Aspects of Reading", International Conference, February 11–13, 2018, Heidelberg.

Taking its starting point from this area of problems, the conference will investigate the »Material Aspects of Reading«, with a main focus on Mediterranean Antiquity from the Second Temple Period to Early Islamic and Karaite times.

Follow the link for further particulars and information on submitting a paper proposal. The deadline is 10 February 2017.

Fidanzio (ed.), The Caves of Qumran

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Caves of Qumran
Proceedings of the International Conference, Lugano 2014

Edited by Marcello Fidanzio, Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano
In Qumran studies, the attention of scholars has largely been focused on the Dead Sea Scrolls, while archaeology has concentrated above all on the settlement. This volume presents the proceedings of an international conference (Lugano 2014) dedicated entirely to the caves of Qumran. The papers deal with both archaeological and textual issues, comparing the caves in the vicinity of Qumran between themselves and their contents with the other finds in the Dead Sea region. The relationships between the caves and the settlement of Qumran are re-examined and their connections with the regional context are investigated. The original inventory of the materials excavated from the caves by Roland de Vaux is published for the first time in appendix to the volume.

Female scribes (sofrot)

THE LATEST ON FEMALE SCRIBES: Female ‘sofrot’ inscribe themselves in history books. Women across the Jewish denominational spectrum are binding together to pen holy texts according to ancient tradition (RICH TENORIO, Times of Israel).

In the early 2000s, women interested in scribal arts were forced to procure their equipment through subterfuge.

“The only way for a woman to purchase scribal materials such as kosher parchment and ink was to engage in an act of deception, by either sending a man to make the purchases on her behalf, or misrepresenting herself when making the purchase (i.e. not letting the seller know that he was selling to a soferet),” said Rabbi Linda Motzkin of Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Slowly, however, female scribes began taking their work out into the open, and next year will mark a decade since the completion of the first sefer Torah credited to a soferet, or female scribe.

Since then, the profession has been putting down roots: Sofrot have continued developing professional networks while the next generation is studying scribal arts (safrut). There are about 10 sofrot who have been involved in writing a Torah, and 30 others who have been involved in Torah repair.

While Sofrot have largely come from Reform and Conservative Judaism, recently the profession is reaching out to Orthodox communities as well.

[...]

PaleoJudaica was already noting female scribes back in 2005 (see here and here). The completion of the Torah scroll by Jen Taylor Friedman (who is also the creator of Tefillin Barbie) was noted here. And for more on female scribes from antiquity to the present, see here, here, and here.

Hayes review, collected papers, SBL 2016

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: What's Divine About Divine Law? #SBLAAR16. The papers and the response for this SBL 2016 session on Christine Hayes's recent book have already been posted individually by AJR (see here and follow the links), but they have now been collected on a single page with a key excerpt for each.

Kloppenborg Festschrift

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PUBLISHERS:

Scribal Practices and Social Structures among Jesus Adherents
Essays in Honour of John S. Kloppenborg

Series:
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 285

Editors: Arnal W.E., Ascough R.S., Derrenbacker Jr. R.A., Harland P.A.
cover

Year: 2016
ISBN: 978-90-429-3391-0
Pages: XXIV-630 p.
Price: 115 EURO

Summary:
Building on the influential efforts of John S. Kloppenborg to integrate our understanding of Christian origins more closely and carefully within its cultural matrix, this volume explores two main phenomena of Hellenistic and Roman antiquity: scribes and scribalism, on the one hand, and voluntary associations, especially as evidenced in honorific and other inscriptions, on the other. In part one, nineteen essays by both established and younger scholars explore ancient scribalism, bureaucracy, literacy, and book production, with a view to drawing innovative new conclusions about a range of ancient Christian writings, including the gospels, Q, the Gospel of Thomas and other Nag Hammadi writings, the Letter of James, and apocalyptic literature, as well as insights into the synoptic problem and memory theory. Part two offers nine articles drawing on papyrological and epigraphic evidence to illuminate group behaviors and the concrete dynamics of smaller social bodies in the Hellenistic and Roman world, with several of the papers explicitly applying this analysis to the ekklesiai established by Paul. The essays in this section contribute to a more detailed understanding of ancient voluntary associations, and along with them, a richer picture of ancient values, economics, politics, and clothing.

Jesus and those Temple Mount floor times

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH FLOOR TILES JESUS MAY HAVE WALKED ON (COREY BARNETT, World Religion News). I suppose this is possible, depending on where exactly the flooring is from. But it has only become a story because apparently Gabriel Barkay (Barkai) has raised the possibility:

Archaeologist Gaby Barkay was very excited about the findings and the restorations. He sees them as a connection between his people and his ancestors. He explained that the floors may have been walked on by the ancestors of the Israelis as they went about their religious duties and so have a lot of sentimental value for the Jews. He says the floors tiles are also going to be very important to the Christians as they were trodded on by Christ himself. He also says that this is the very floor on which the coins may have rolled on when Jesus drove out the sellers in the temple.

The article came out on 26 December, so it looks like the opportunity to get those floor tiles back into the news cycle a bit was not wasted. 'Tis the Season.

HT Explorator 19.35-36. Past posts on the, in itself quite important, discovery and reconstruction of those floor times from the Temple courtyard by the Temple Mount Sifting Project are here and links.

Guarding Leptis Magna in Libya

PUNIC WATCH: Libyan Civilians Take Up Arms and Form Protective Shield Around Ancient Ruins of Leptis Magna (MARK MILLER, Ancient Origins).

A group of armed Libyan civilians concerned about the potential of their country’s rich ancient heritage are patrolling Leptis Magna, an ancient city of Rome. They fear the Islamic State will do in Libya what it has done in Iraq and Syria: defaced and destroyed some of the richest and most important artifacts and buildings in world history.

Though the city of Leptis Magna is in ruins now, some fine architecture and art remain. There are only around 20 citizens armed with Kalashnikov rifles surrounding Leptis Magna and the surrounding archaeological ruins, which covers an area of about 120 acres (50 hectares).

[...]

This article summarizes a number of media reports and gives some background on the city. And there is additional information in this AP article: Unlikely saviors of Libya's Roman remains.

Leptis Magna has come up a couple of times at PaleoJudaica (here and here).

More on that Second Temple-era road in Jerusalem

ARCHAEOLOGY: Ancient Jerusalem Road Hints at Possible Reason for Jewish Revolt Against Rome. Jerusalem dig shows that Herodian-period street was wrongly attributed to King Herod; excavations dismiss the idea that poorer people lived in the lower part of the city (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

The archaeological excavation of a 2,000-year-old underground road in Jerusalem, inaugurated with much fanfare last week, will probably take another decade to complete. But it is already yielding new insights into the history of the city during the Second Temple period.

[...]

The two main new insights are summarized in the headline, but read it all for details. Hurry, though. This a premium article, so it will go behind the subscription wall soon.

Background here.

2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND ALL BEST WISHES FOR 2017! Have a great year and please continue to make PaleoJudaica a regular part of it.

New Year's Eve 2016

AS 2016 COMES TO AN END, PaleoJudaica has tallied up 1822 posts for the year (including this one), considerably more than any previous year since it began back in 2003. I haven't been keeping systematic track of page views in 2016, but their number has gone up considerably and has been above 120K per month for much of the year.

I have a busy semester coming, but I plan to keep posting, to keep the quality high, and to keep up the best pace I can for 2017.

As I said yesterday, I will save my list of top posts of the year for the blogiversary notice in March.

Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve.

Fitzmyer obituary

MEMORIAL: Noted biblical scholar Jesuit Father Fitzmyer dies at age 96 (Catholic News Service/National Catholic Reporter).

PHILADELPHIA Jesuit Father Joseph Fitzmyer, a leading Catholic biblical scholar, died Dec. 24 at Manresa Hall, a Jesuit infirmary in Philadelphia. He was 96.

A funeral Mass was to be celebrated Jan. 5 at St. Matthias Church in Bala Cynwyd, just outside Philadelphia, followed by a burial at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville.

The priest, who was born in Philadelphia in 1920 and was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1951, is well known for his contributions to the Anchor Bible Series and for co-editing "The Jerome Biblical Commentary."

He earned a doctorate in Semitics from Johns Hopkins University in 1956 and a licentiate in sacred Scripture a year later from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

Fitzmyer was a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and also served as president of the U.S. Catholic Biblical Association.

An expert in the Aramaic language spoken by Christ and by many first-century Jews and Christians, the priest was noted for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of Luke. He did some of the initial work in the 1950s to prepare a concordance to the scrolls and was one of the first Americans to have direct access to the documents.

[...]

He was 96! That's what philology does for you. Rest in peace.

Background here.

Authenticity and provenance in 2016

END OF YEAR OVERVIEW: 2016: The year in Authenticity and Provenance (Malcolm Choat, Markers of Authenticity Blog). (HT AJR). A post that summarizes the relevant stories from 2016, many of which will be familiar to PaleoJudaica readers, including the ‘Fragments of an Unbelievable Past? conference; the retaking of Palmyra earlier this year from ISIS and its more recent second fall to ISIS; Ariel Sabar's publication concerning the Gospel of Jesus' Wife; the Jerusalem Papyrus; and the new materials tests on the Jordanian lead codices. One of my recent posts on the last story is linked to.

Brill Research Perspectives in Biblical Interpretation

NEW JOURNAL FROM BRILL:

Brill Research Perspectives in Biblical Interpretation

Editor-in-Chief: Tat-siong Benny Liew, College of the Holy Cross
Need support prior to submitting your manuscript? Make the process of preparing and submitting a manuscript easier with Brill's suite of author services, an online platform that connects academics seeking support for their work with specialized experts who can help.

The Brill Research Perspectives series in Biblical Interpretation will provide a critical yet accessible analysis by an invited scholar of a field of study that has become or is becoming important for interpreting the Bible. This analysis, ranging from 50 to 100 pages, will not only present an up-to-date picture of the field of study in separation from biblical studies, but also how this field of study has been or can be engaged in biblical interpretation. Whether one is seeking to keep up with the rapid pace of development or exploring a field of study for the first time, this journal will be an invaluable resource for anyone who is interested in interdisciplinary biblical interpretation.

Fields of study that the journal will cover includes, but are not limited to, the following:
Anthropological studies
Affect studies
Animal studies
Classical studies
Contextual studies
Cultural studies
Diasporic studies
Ecological studies
Feminist studies
Genocide studies
Global studies
Historical studies
Identity studies
Ideological studies
Legal studies
Linguistic studies
Literary studies
Marxist studies
Masculinity studies
Migration studies
Philosophical studies
Postcolonial studies/Empire critical studies
Postmodern studies
Poststructuralist studies
Psychological/psychoanalytical studies
Queer studies
Racial/Ethnic studies
Reception studies
Religious studies/Critical Studies of Religion
Rhetorical studies
Semiotic studies
Sociological studies
Spatial studies
Theological studies
Translation studies
Visual art studies

Boorer, The Vision of the Priestly Narrative

NEW BOOK FROM THE SBL PRESS:

The Vision of the Priestly Narrative: Its Genre and Hermeneutics of Time
Suzanne Boorer

ISBN 9780884140627
Status Available
Price: $89.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date October 2016
Pages 636

A fresh look at the Priestly narrative that places less weight on linguistic criteria alone in favor of narrative coherence

Boorer explores the theology of an originally independent Priestly narrative (Pg), extending through Genesis–Numbers, as a whole. In this book she describes the structure of the Priestly narrative, in particular its coherent sequential and parallel patterns. Boorer argues that at every point in the narrative’s sequential and parallel structure, it reshapes past traditions, synthesizing these with contemporary and unique elements into future visions, in a way that is akin to the timelessness of liturgical texts. The book sheds new light on what this material might have sought to accomplish as a whole, and how it might have functioned for, its original audience.

Features

• Solid arguments based on genre and themes, with regard to a once separate Priestly narrative (Pg) that concludes in Numbers 27*
• Thorough discussion of the overall interpretation of the Priestly narrative (Pg), by bringing together consideration of its structure and genre
• Clear illustration of how understanding the genre of the material and its hermeneutics of time is vital for interpreting Pg as a whole

Follow the link for ordering information, etc.

SBL 2016: Hayes's response

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Christine Hayes: A Response to the SBL Forum. Professor Hayes responds to a number of reviews of her book, What’s Divine About Divine Law? For the reviews, which were also posted on AJR, see here and links.

Top 10 ETC posts in 2016

THE ETC BLOG: Top 10 Posts in 2016 (Peter Gurry).

These are the top ten most read posts for the blog in 2016 according to Google Analytics. Not all of these were written in 2016 of course.

As usual, I plan to give a list of top posts for the year in PaleoJudaica's anniversary post, which comes in late March. My habit is to list my favorite posts for the year rather than to base it on any traffic analytics.

Jesus' mother

'TIS THE SEASON: Finding Jesus’s Mother. Over at the Anxious Bench, Philip Jenkins has a look at what the four gospels in the New Testament actually say about Mary the mother of Jesus, and he clears up a little confusion caused by the fact that so many women were named Mary. Excerpt:

Any of those possibilities might be accurate, or perhaps there are other explanations I am simply neglecting. But the point is that the accounts of Mary found in the various traditions do differ very substantially, and those differences demand some thought, and explanation. They also show how vital a role tradition, rather than scripture, plays in shaping Christian belief and doctrine.

Advances in marine archaeology

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: New technologies bring marine archaeology treasures to light. Robotic submarines and ‘internet of underwater things’ to transform hunt for sunken cities and ancient shipwrecks (Ian Sample, The Guardian). This article does not deal directly with the archaeology of ancient Israel specifically, aside from a very important Neolithic site. But the potential applications of the new technologies are very wide, and are worth noting inasmuch as ancient shipwrecks and other stories about marine archaeology are often of interest to PaleoJudaica (e.g., recently, here, here, here, here, and here). Excerpt:

In January, work will start on a new project to transform the search for sunken cities, ancient shipwrecks and other subsea curiosities. Led by Italian researchers, Archeosub will build a new generation of robotic submarines, or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), for marine archaeologists. “You can find plenty of human settlements not far from the coast,” Allotta said. “In the Mediterranean there will be a lot more Atlit-Yams waiting to be explored and studied.”

The goal of Archeosub is to put sophisticated AUVs in the hands of cash-strapped researchers. That, in part, means turning the costly, heavy technology of the military and oil industries into far cheaper and lighter robots. They must be affordable for archaeological organisations and light enough to launch by hand from a small boat, or even the shore, rather than from a winch on a large research vessel.

Slashing the cost and weight is only the start. The team behind Archeosub has begun to make the AUVs smarter too. When thrown overboard, the submarines can become part of an “internet of underwater things” which brings the power of wifi to the deep. Once hooked up, the AUVs can talk to each other and, for example, work out the most efficient way to survey a site, or find particular objects on the seabed.

"Discarded History" at Cambridge University

EXHIBITION: Cairo Geniza at Cambridge University (Edgar Asher, Ashernet, Intermountain Jewish News).

An exhibition at Cambridge University featuring a fraction of ancient Jewish manuscripts that are part of the unique collection known as the Cairo Geniza will open in April, 2017.

Titled “Discarded History,” the exhibit displays a small percentage of 300,000 manuscripts originally found in the geniza, or storeroom, of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat. Some documents date back over 1,000 years.

[...]

For many, many past posts on the Cairo Geniza and its manuscripts, see here, here, here, and links.

Ancient Jerusalem VR tour

THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT: New App Offers Users Virtual Tours Of Ancient Jerusalem (Jewish Business News).

A new VR app has been released in time for the Chanukah holiday. Lithodomos VR‘s tool allows users to see Jerusalem as it once looked back in antiquity when the Temple still stood.

The idea is simple. When tourists visit sites in Jerusalem such as the Western Wall Plaza and the areas around it they see things as they look now, 2,000 years after it was all destroyed by the Romans. Imagine if when looking up at the Temple you could see how it once looked when the Second Temple — as it was fully renovated by Herod — stood in all of its glory. Well now you can with the help of virtual reality goggles.

[...]

Sounds interesting, although it's hard to tell how good it is without seeing it.

Restored Second Temple-era road unveiled in Jerusalem

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: City of David unveils latest groundbreaking archeological discovery to mark jubilee year. Regev: UN resolution is ridiculous, cannot undo thousands of years of Jewish history (Daniel K. Eisenbud, Jerusalem Post).

Political, religious and historic luminaries gathered underground at the City of David National Park’s archeological site on Tuesday to unveil a restored 2,000-year-old road leading to the Western Wall, and condemn last week’s UN resolution against settlement construction.

As rain and sleet poured down, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat stood together several meters under the Givati parking lot in Silwan to light a large silver hanukkia at the end of the ancient road.

[...]

The hours-long ceremony, initiated to officially begin united Jerusalem’s 50th jubilee-year celebrations, also featured rare relics, including millennia-old ballista balls, jugs and jewelry, discovered by archeologists who excavated the once well-travelled road during the Second Temple period.

The approximately 50-meter roadway, built near the Herodian Pool of Siloam, where pilgrims once immersed themselves, begins south of the City of David, and ends at the foot of the Western Wall’s Robinson’s Arch.

[...]

Cross-file under Politics.

Another Fine interview

MENORAH QUESTIONS: 7 facts about menorahs, the most enduring symbol of the Jewish people. Yeshiva University Professor Steven Fine’s new book illuminates the candelabra’s 3,000-year history — from tabernacle to Titus to today (Renee Ghert-Zand, Times of Israel).

The Times of Israel discussed with Fine various subjects covered in his book, asking seven questions — one for each branch of the menorah.

Earlier PaleoJudaica posts on Professor Fine's new book, The Menorah, and on the history (especially the ancient history) of the menorah are collected here.

Biblical Archaeology 2016 Top Ten

LIST MANIA: Biblical Archaeology’s Top 10 Discoveries of 2016. A glimpse at the important excavation work revealed this year (Gordon Govier, Christianity Today).

Archaeological discoveries announced in 2016 help us better understand the Bible and the biblical world, and affirm the Bible’s details about events and people.

Below are the top findings from the important excavations taking place in the lands of the Bible or that have a biblical connection. (This list is subjective, and based on news reports rather than peer-reviewed articles in scientific publications.)

We're not really at the point of having peer-review publications for 2016 discoveries. Such things take some time. But I give the author credti for being aware of the issue. Perhaps my constant harping on the subject is having some effect. I hope so.

This list overlaps partially with other 2016 lists, but each has its own interests. Again, many of the stories were covered by PaleoJudaica over the last year.

Best 2016 archaeological finds in Israel

ANOTHER LIST: The best archaeological finds in Israel of 2016. Humans have been living and fighting and loving and dying in Israel for hundreds of thousands of years. Here is what we found this year (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Israel is soaked in blood and relics of human history. Primitive humans passed through Israel on their way out of Africa: now we know what they ate. Israel is part of the area where human society formed: 12,000 years later, we have found their homes. Modern civilization arose in these parts, as did the three big monotheistic religions: all left behind gods, death and destruction at which we now gaze in awe. Here are just some of the stories in Israeli archaeology in 2016.

[...]

I don't have time to dig up (heh) all the past posts, but many of these stories were also covered by PaleoJudaica over the last year.

CUA receives Ethiopic manuscript collection

ETHIOPIC WATCH: Catholic University Receives Donation of Ethiopian Manuscripts Valued at More Than $1 Million.

The Catholic University of America is now home to one of North America's most important collections of Ethiopian religious manuscripts, thanks to a generous donation from Chicago collectors Gerald and Barbara Weiner. The handmade manuscripts, which originate from Ethiopia and which date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, include more than 125 Christian manuscripts, 215 Islamic manuscripts, and 350 "magic" scrolls.

With this donation, which is valued at over $1 million, Catholic University is now the holder of the fifth largest collection of Ethiopian Christian manuscripts in the United States and the largest collection of Ethiopian Islamic manuscripts outside of Ethiopia.

[...]

Good!

Elliott, "Beyond the Bible"

CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA WATCH: NASSCAL Member Publication: J. K. Elliott Goes “Beyond the Bible” in TLS.

Review of Feeney, Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Denis Feeney, Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 2016. Pp. xii, 377. ISBN 9780674055230. $35.00.

Reviewed by Jackie Elliott, University of Colorado Boulder (Jackie.Elliott@colorado.edu)

Preview

This characteristically elegant and learned book essentially takes what we know about the origins of Roman literature and re-frames it in a larger, comparative context. That larger context illuminates not only how peculiar it is for a literature to have developed at all in the ancient world (either in Greece or at Rome) but especially how peculiar it is that Roman literature, from its origins and successively, presents itself as a continuation and development of Greek literature. (Ovid, Am. 15 and Accius’ Didascalica are Feeney’s opening examples of that representation.) Feeney’s object is “to de-familiarize the terms of comparison and of reference we use in describing the Roman experiment so as to bring the strange developments of the period into perspective” (p. 8). His engaging comparative data and the work he does to breathe life into facts and ideas we have long lived with (e.g. the First Punic War becomes the “Great War” on analogy with the war of 1914-18, explained in n. 2 on pp. 279-80) readily assist him in that aim.

[...]

The subject is not of direct interest to PaleoJudaica, but the book does touch on some matters of interest, such as Manetho, Berossus, Carthage, "the Hebrew texts," and Ancient Near Eastern literature. There appears not to be much, if anything, on translations of the Bible into Latin.

SBL 2016 video: Williams on the so-called "Septuagint"

WILLIAM ROSS: PETER WILLIAMS ON THE SO-CALLED “SEPTUAGINT.”

Related post here.

Reconstructing a Cairo Geniza manuscript

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (DECEMBER 2016): The Long Art: T-S AS 144.331 (Katelyn Mesler).

“Life is short, the art is long.” So begins one of the foundational texts of Greek medicine, the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. The ‘art’ of which Hippocrates wrote was the knowledge and skill to be acquired by physicians, but the sentiment has been expressed in other contexts, not least of which is R. Tarfon’s saying, “The day is short, the work is great” (mAvot 2:15). Faced with hundreds of thousands of textual fragments, far too many still unidentified, researchers of the Cairo Genizah might sometimes feel the same. But the increasing number of catalogs, digitization of fragments, and other electronic sources are helping make the research more productive than ever, even for a newcomer to the field such as myself. And so, I’d like to share with you a story about T-S AS 144.331.

The shelfmark in question is actually a collection of 82 small fragments from numerous different sources, some in Hebrew, some in Arabic, and some with little or no legible text.

[...]

This commentary by Maimonides on a Hebrew translation of Hippocrates is not of direct interest to PaleoJudaica (although I do touch on Maimonides from time to time). But the process of the reconstruction of the manuscript from tiny fragments using new technologies is of much wider potential application and interest. It may, for example, prove useful for the Dead Sea Scrolls, of which many thousands of tiny fragments still remain unidentified. Cross-file under Technology Watch.

Past posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit are here and links.

Biggest 2016 archaeological discoveries

PHOTO ESSAY: The 9 Biggest Archaeology Findings of 2016 (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

PaleoJudaica has noted some of these stories as well. For the Noah's Ark mosaic at the Huqoq Synagogue excavation, see here. For the charred Ein Gedi Leviticus scroll, see here and links. For the excavation of the tomb (of Jesus?) in the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre), see here and here and links. For the recently published Dead Sea Scrolls (some of which seem likely to be forgeries), see here (cf. here) and links. For the Jerusalem papyrus (whose genuineness is also in debate), see here and here and links. And note also the very recently announced discovery of inscribed, but as yet unreadable, scroll fragments from the Cave of the Skulls.

Jewish Studies postdoc at Washington University

H-JUDAIC: JOB: Washington University in St. Louis, Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures: Friedman Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Jewish Studies. Open to any field within Jewish Studies. "Applications will be reviewed beginning February 8, 2017."

deSilva, From Herod to Hadrian

VIDEO: FROM HEROD TO HADRIAN, PARTS 1 AND 2 (David deSilva).


"History of Herod the Great and his kingdom, to 4 BC."


From the division of Herod's kingdom to the Second Jewish Revolt.

HT James McGrath.

Wisdom and Jesus at Christmas

OLD TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Christmas lightning (Brad Roth, The Doxology Project Blog).

The Wisdom of Solomon, an ancient scripture now found in the Protestant Apocrypha, is sometimes read on Christmas Eve. It goes like this:

For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior (Wisdom 18:14)

The passage was originally intended as a poetic description of the coming of the angel of death to take the Egyptian firstborn, but it gets retrofitted in Christian tradition to describe the coming of Christ on Christmas. Talk about reinterpretation. I love the action and intensity of the text. The night’s “swift course was now half gone.” The word “leaped from heaven.” The word landed in a doomed land as “a stern warrior.” It gives Christmas Eve a bit of an edge.

I didn't know that, although now that I look at the passage I suppose that it hardly could have been otherwise. By the way, the full references is Wisdom 18:14-15.

Reviving frankincense and myrrh

"A GRASS-ROOTS PROJECT": Revival of Biblical plants. Israeli farmer growing ancient flora like myrrh (RUTH EGLASH). This article was originally published in the Washington Post, but I seem to have missed it. This is a reprint in the Journal Gazette.

KIBBUTZ ALMOG, West Bank – Guy Erlich is a pioneering Israeli farmer, but not in the way you might imagine.

Instead of developing new crops or innovative biotechnology, Erlich is engaged in a grass-roots project: Reviving ancient plants mentioned in the Bible.

Think frankincense and myrrh, plus a few others.

At his farm on Kibbutz Almog, a West Bank settlement a stone’s throw from the Palestinian city of Jericho and a few miles from the Dead Sea, Erlich is growing ancient plants once used to make holy balms, perfumes and natural medicines.

Frankincense and myrrh, along with gold, are forever intertwined with the Christmas story as the gifts the wise men took to the baby Jesus in the city of Bethlehem, just 20 miles from here.

[...]

I noted another project to revive frankincense and myrrh here several years ago.

Languages and scripts of the DSS

THE LEON LEVY DEAD SEA SCROLLS DIGITAL LIBRARY: Languages and Scripts.

While the majority of Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Hebrew, the collection also includes many Aramaic and Greek texts, as well as some Arabic texts and a small number of Latin fragments.

[...]

A good brief overview. A lot of people don't realize how many Latin and Arabic manuscripts have been discovered in the Judean Desert.

Seen on Facebook.

Kaiser, Studien zu Philo von Alexandrien

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Kaiser, Otto

Studien zu Philo von Alexandrien
[Studies on Philo of Alexandria]

Ed. by Witte, Markus
In coop. with Hofmann, Sina
Series: Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 501

99,95 € / $140.00 / £74.99*
eBook (PDF)Publication Date: November 2016ISBN 978-3-11-049265-1

Aims and Scope
The volume presents studies by the Marburg Old Testament scholar Otto Kaiser on the works of the Jewish religious philosopher Philo of Alexandria in the context of intellectual and cultural history. They examine issues of Jewish Biblical exegesis along with Philo’s anthropology and cosmology, his understanding of ritual and prayer, and his ideas about living a virtuous life and overcoming death.

HT Torrey Seland.

Stone, Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Angels and Biblical Heroes

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Angels and Biblical Heroes
Michael E. Stone

ISBN 9781628371543
Status Available
Price: $55.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date October 2016
Pages 322

Explore how the vivid and creative Armenian spiritual tradition shaped biblical stories to serve new needs

Michael E. Stone’s latest book includes texts from Armenian manuscripts that are relevant to the development and growth of biblical themes and subjects. Most of these texts have not been published previously. Stone has collected a fascinating corpus of texts about biblical heroes, such as Joseph and Jonah, Nathan the Prophet, and Asaph the Psalmist. In addition, he has included documents illustrating particular points of the biblical story. This work reflects not just on how the Bible was interpreted in medieval times, but also how its stories and details were shaped by and served the needs of the vivid and creative Armenian spiritual tradition.

Features:

• Expanded stories from Exodus
• Introductions,translations, and notes
• Insights into the Armenian "Embroidered Bible," through which many biblical incidents were known to Armenian literature, art, and thought

Follow the link for ordering information, etc.

Otero and Morales, The Text of the Hebrew Bible and Its Editions

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Text of the Hebrew Bible and Its Editions
Studies in Celebration of the Fifth Centennial of the Complutensian Polyglot

Andrés Piquer Otero and Pablo Torijano Morales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

In The Text of the Hebrew Bible and its Editions some of the top world scholars and editors of the Hebrew Bible and its versions present essays on the aims, method, and problems of editing the biblical text(s), taking as a reference the Complutensian Polyglot, first modern edition of the Hebrew text and its versions and whose Fifth Centennial was celebrated in 2014. The main parts of the volume discuss models of editions from the Renaissance and its forerunners to the Digital Age, the challenges offered by the different textual traditions, particular editorial problems of the individual books of the Bible, and the role played by quotations. It thus sets a landmark in the future of biblical editions.

The Coptic Acts of Pilate

ALIN SUCIU: Guest Post: Anthony Alcock – The Sahidic Version of the Acts of Pilate.

Anthony Alcock has prepared an English translation of the Sahidic version of the Acts of Pilate. This text constitutes the source of many apocryphal Passion narratives composed in Coptic. ...

Follow the link for a link to a pdf file of the translation. Cross-file under Coptic Watch and New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

Schiffman on Jerusalem after the Maccabean Revolt

PROFESSOR LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: JERUSALEM AFTER THE MACCABEAN REVOLT. Professor Schiffman has posted another recent article in Ami Magazine.

Why are Hanukkah and Christmas out of sync?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Hanukkah overlaps with Christmas this year. But why all the moving around? (Josh Hafner , USA TODAY).

Christmas (as celebrated in the Western Church) is timed according to the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar calendar. But Hanukkah is timed according to the Jewish religious calendar, which is technically a luni-solar calendar (not a lunar calendar, as the article says - although it does describe the details correctly). This Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle, but is periodically corrected with a leap month so that it stays in reasonably close alignment with the solar year. So the two holiday can be quite out of sync in their timing, but they do line up sometimes.

The reason many Orthodox Christian traditions celebrate Christmas on 7 January is that they are still marking it according to the old Julian calendar.

In antiquity the Enochic and Qumran Jews used a purely solar calendar that was rounded off to a 364 day year, which conveniently meant that each religious festival was on the same day of the week each year. But it also meant that their calendar moved out of alignment with the actual solar year by a day and a half each year. Whether and how this was corrected is not perfectly clear.

Past posts on Jewish calendars are here and here and links. Cross-file under 'Tis the Season and ditto (Hanukkah Edition).

Davies on DSS and ancient Judaism

BIBLE ODYSSEY: Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Judaism (Philip R. Davies).

Transcript
The significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls is to… early Judaism is huge. It’s on two levels. ...

HT AJR.

Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J., 1920-2016

SAD NEWS: Remembering Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J. (America Magazine).

Father Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J., died peacefully this morning at Manresa Hall, Merion Station, Pa. He was 96. Father Fitzmyer was a leading Catholic biblical scholar, and we asked several scholars influenced by his life and work to offer their remembrances.

[...]

Father Fitzmyer's biblical scholarship was wide-ranging. I am most familiar with his foundational work on the languages of ancient Palestine and the Semitic background of the New Testament. At the Agade list, Jack Sasson also points to his Wikipedia entry, which gives some details on his career and his publications.

Requiescat in Pace.

Christmas 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all those celebrating!

Posts of Christmas past are collected in my 2015 Christmas post and links. Posts relating (sometimes loosely) to Christmas in the last year are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Hanukkah 2016

HAPPY HANUKKAH (CHANUKKAH, CHANUKAH) to all those celebrating! The eight-day festival begins tonight at sundown. That means that this year the first day of Hanukkah will overlap with Christmas. (Cross-file under Cosmic Synchronicity.)

Last year's Hanukkah post is here. It links to past Hanukkah posts with additional historical background. PaleoJudaica has put up many posts on Hanukkah in the last year. See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Stronk, Semiramis’ Legacy

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Semiramis’ Legacy. Notice of a new book: Stronk, Jan p. 2016. Semiramis’ Legacy: The History of Persia According to Diodorus of Sicily (Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia). Edinburgh University Press.

I have commented here on the importance of the work of Diodorus for biblical studies, notably as cultural background to the Book of Daniel.