Saving the Mar Behnam manuscripts

THE ASOR BLOG: Rescuing Syriac Manuscripts in Iraq (Amir Harrak).

Over the centuries, the monastery of Mar Behnam amassed various Syriac and Arabic manuscripts, as well as books recording the names of royal and other historically important visitors. During the Islamic State’s more than two-year occupation of Mār-Behnam, there was great concern about the fate of these precious documents. The Islamic State is renowned for their fanatical destruction of churches, shrines, and at times even mosques, and so when the Iraqi army liberated the Plain of Nineveh, a surprise came concerning the Mār-Behnam manuscripts.

I followed the story of ISIS capturing the Mar Behnam Monastery in 2014, its liberation in 2016, and the recovery of its manuscripts after the liberation. See here, here, here, here, here, and here. Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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Website creation as a teaching tool

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Website Construction as Introduction to Academic Research (Rebecca Falcasantos).

For the past three semesters, students in my introductory Bible course have created websites as a way of learning the basic methods of academic research, analysis, and argumentation.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Is Hobby Lobby being held to a double standard?

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE: Despite smuggled antiquities purchase, some say criticism of Bible museum is unfair (Menachem Wecker). Some prominent scholars are pointing out that Hobby Lobby's antiquities-acquisition misadventure is hardly unique in the museum world. And they are wondering if a double standard is being applied because of hostility to the Green family's evangelical Christianity. But others disagree. Read the article and see what you think.

HT Jim West. For background on Hobby Lobby's recent settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over improperly acquired antiquities, see here and links. And follow the links there for past posts on the Green Collection and the soon-to-open Museum of the Bible.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Early Judaism position

JOB OPENING AT UCLA: Assistant Professor in Early Judaism.

The Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles, announces a search for a tenure-track position in early Judaism at the rank of Assistant Professor to be filled effective July 1, 2018. Applications are invited from scholars with research and teaching interests in the cultures (especially 2nd Temple Judaism) and primary languages (especially Aramaic) of eastern Mediterranean world from the Achaemenid through the Sasanian periods. Candidates will teach a variety of classes including large undergraduate courses, such as an Introduction to Judaism, literature of the Second Temple period, history of ancient Judaism, history of early Christianity, and small graduate text seminars (Hebrew, Aramaic and/or Syriac). We encourage the development of new courses in a candidate’s field of expertise.

We value candidates whose experience in teaching, research, or community service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence. Women and underrepresented minorities are encouraged to apply.
Eligible applicants will have a Ph.D. or equivalent in hand by June, 2018.

The application deadline is 15 October 2017. Follow the link for further particulars and application information.

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CFP: The Dead Sea Scrolls at Seventy

FROM THE ORION CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS:

Open Call for Papers
An International Symposium: The Dead Sea Scrolls at Seventy: “Clear a Path in the Wilderness”

Date: 29 April–3 May, 2018

Conveners: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Vienna, New York University, the Israel Antiquities Authority, The Israel Museum

Venues: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The Israel Museum

To mark seventy years since the initial discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, an international symposium will be held in Jerusalem, April 29–May 3, 2018. The overarching symposium theme will be “The Wilderness”—as a real place; as the location of biblical episodes, most notably during the formative years of Israel's wandering from Egypt to the Promised Land; as a motif; and as a concept (sometimes idealized, sometimes demonized).

The wilderness figures prominently in biblical texts and in the literature of the Second Temple, rabbinic, early Christian, and early Islamic periods. It was also a place of habitation by various groups during these periods, which have left us archaeological sites, artefacts, documents and the more than 1500 Dead Sea Scrolls. Conference papers may address any aspect of the wilderness as it relates to Qumran; other Judean Desert sites; the Dead Sea Scrolls; and the associated late antique literatures, cultures and religions—particularly, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Papers may focus on such topics as the reception of biblical figures (e.g., Moses, Aaron, Phineas, Miriam, Balaam), events (e.g., the giving of the law, the sin of the golden calf, the building of the tabernacle, covenant ceremonies), and themes (e.g., revelation, law, covenant, rebellion against God, sanctuary, water, and manna) connected with Israel’s time in the wilderness; relevant textual and philological analyses; the use of the relevant biblical passages in shaping later texts; the influence of the desert climate, flora, and fauna on the ancient texts and their state of preservation.

The conference will feature invited lectures; open sessions; and two public lectures.

Papers will be accepted for the open sessions in accordance with the relevance of the topic to the overall program. Please send a proposal of no more than 250 words to the Orion Center email address (orioncenter@mail.huji.ac.il). Deadline for receipt of proposals is September 20, 2017; responses will be mailed by October 31.

Symposium organizers:
Esther Chazon, Director, The Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem;
Armin Lange, Professor of Second Temple Judaism and Director of the Institute for Jewish Studies, University of Vienna;
Lawrence H. Schiffman, Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University;
Pnina Shor, Curator and Head of Dead Sea Scrolls Projects, The Israel Antiquities Authority;
Adolfo D. Roitman, Lizbeth and George Krupp Curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Head of The Shrine of the Book, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

We are grateful to the organizing bodies, as well as the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration, and Foreign Affairs, for their sponsorship of symposium expenses.

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Vista survey results

THE BIBLE PLACES BLOG: Survey Results: Favorite Vista (Todd Bolen). My vote was for the Mount of Olives, which came in at second place.

Background here.

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Comprehensive report on the Jordanian lead codices

THE CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF THE JORDANIAN LEAD BOOKS has published its comprehensive report on the metal codices, by Samuel Zinner, on its website. You can download the pdf file here: Son of the Star: Bar Kokhba and the Jordanian lead books. It's a big file, so be patient with the download.

[UPDATE: I have now reviewed the report in a series of four posts. The series begins here.]

The abstract of Dr. Zinner's report is as follows:

SON OF THE STAR: BAR KOKHBA AND THE JORDANIAN LEAD BOOKS OVERVIEW, ASSESSMENT, INTERPRETATION

In this report, Samuel Zinner examines the controversial ‘Jordan codices,’ addressing the complex ethical and legal issues involved in undocumented, non-provenanced artefacts. There is much to be wary of in enthusiasts’ and naysayers’ claims, both of whom fall prey to emotionalism. Aligning his position with that of André Lemaire, Zinner cautiously leaves open the possibilities of ancient authenticity (for a core group) and an elaborate pre-modern fake, carefully weighing the evidence for each. Zinner demonstrates that at least some of the artefacts are modern copies of older exemplars.

If ancient, the Jordanian artefacts are apotropaic grave objects designed to afford protection to the deceased and information relevant for their afterlife. Their contents would date from the immediate post-Bar Kokhba period to the time of Julia Domna and beyond (ca. 136-217 CE). Ancient or modern, the artefacts’ contents retrospectively view Jewish history from the Maccabees to Bar Kokhba principally through the prism of the latter’s revolt and its demise.

The artefacts’ main inspirations were ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman coinage, which naturally suggested to their creators the choice of a metal medium. The sheet format was dictated by apotropaic grave precedents such as Orphic tablets. With some exceptions, each Jordanian ‘book’ consists of a large image-text design that has been arbitrarily cut down to smaller-sized individual sheets subsequently bound together in order to retain the separate leaves’ association. ‘Book’/‘codex’ is not the most fitting terminology for these artefacts. The closest comparative parallels are the Martin Schøyen/Würzburg ancient Greek alphabet copper plaques, the Orphic lamellae, the Gnostic lead book in the National Museum at Rome, and the Mandaeans' lead books.

Samuel Zinner studied ancient and modern languages, literatures, and histories, and museum and archival studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he received his PhD in 2002. His coursework included intensive studies in Shem-Tob’s Hebrew Matthew gospel and in ancient Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman texts. Other areas of concentration included modern German and Russian literatures, poetics, linguistics, philology, and cryptography. His training in modern European history involved research in Holocaust and genocide studies, ethnic cleansing, and indigenous issues. He is author of several monographs and essays that have appeared in English, German, and Russian.

It is lengthy: over 1100 pages, although that includes many images. It addresses the issues that need to be addresed and does so thoughtfully and in great detail. Rather than coming to a final conclusion, Dr. Zinner explores the evidence for what he understands to be the full range of possibilities.

I have read the (long!) introductory sections and the conclusion and have read and skimmed some of the core chapters. That took up most of a day of my vacation. I'm not ready to comment yet, but I will post some comments once I have time to look at it a little more and to digest the material.

I should also note that the Lead Book Centre has published a number of films on the codices. I will respect their wish that the videos not be embedded, but you can go to their YouTube site here to view them.

Background here and many, many links. Cross-file under Fake Metal Codices Watch. I acknowledge that various elements of the current discussion may point to some of the codices being something other than fake, but I remain to be convinced. I will have more to say in due course. In any case, I continue to include this cross-file rubric so that readers can search it to find all my posts on the subject.

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Buried at the Carthage racetrack

NEO-PUNIC WATCH: Buried at the Racetracks: 1,500-year-old Grave Discovered at Carthage Circus. The ancient Carthaginians were so obsessed with gambling that some may have chosen the races as their final resting place, archaeologists suspect (Phillippe Bohstrom, Haaretz).

How crazy do you have to be about gambling to have your nearest and dearest inter you at the racetrack? Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman racing course in the North African city of Carthage have found a burial in the heart of the spectator section in the bleachers around 1,500 years ago.

Whether or not the deceased was a dice-crazed adult remains to be seen, but the choice of venue was certainly striking.

[...]

You can't take it with you, but you can try to stay.

The article includes some information on curse tablets (intended to influence the races) and on ancient gambling. It also reports on some older, Punic, remains found at the site.

I noted another story on the archaeology of the Carthage Circus here.

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The Terra Sancta Museum in Jerusalem

RENOVATION: Travel back in time at this secret cool oasis in Jerusalem’s Old City. The first stage of the 100-year-old Terra Sancta Museum’s reboot offers a multi-media tour of the holy city from a Christian perspective (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

Moving lithely in his brown Franciscan monk’s habit and sandals, Father Eugenio Alliata stoops next to a newly discovered Second Temple period flagstone to pick up a mosaic piece overlooked by the Israel Antiquities Authority crew that morning. Such finds, he confirms, are a typical byproduct of the ongoing expansion and renovation of the Terra Sancta Museum in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Located on the second station of the Via Dolorosa — the 14-station path Jesus walked from sentencing to crucifixion — the museum is housed in the lush Flagellation Monastery compound. Archaeological finds are sprinkled among the chapels and well-kept gardens that form an oasis away from the cramped hustle and bustle of the narrow street beyond its gates.

Alliata, the 70-something scientific director of the museum and a professor at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, exhibits a curious combination of old school archaeologist — he enthusiastically points out a recently discovered Byzantine cistern and Crusader period tunnels forgotten by time — and an eagerness to adapt modern technology to enhance the museum’s vast collection’s records and display.

Implementing his vision is the museum’s reboot project director, Sara Cibin, who is on extended loan from the government in her native Italy.

[...]

The displays include a section of Jerusalem's bedrock. The museum's collection of artifacts from ancient Palmyra is currently on display in Italy.

(Cross-file under Palmyra Watch.)

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The Book of Jubilees

READING ACTS: What is the Book of Jubilees? Phil Long continues his blog series on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. He also dealt with Jubilees in an earlier post, noted here.

The Jubilees Palimpsest Project is currently working on recovering more of the Latin translation of Jubilees. See here and links.

Other past posts in Phil's Pseudepigrapha series are noted here and links. Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

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More on the arrest of antiquities dealers in Israel

MORE FALLOUT: Arrest of Jerusalem antiquities dealers opens a smuggling Pandora’s Box. Use of Israel as a way station to legitimize sale of looted artifacts to Hobby Lobby prompts Antiquities Authority to seek ban on all dealing (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel). Regarding the last point in the headline:

In a conversation with The Times of Israel, Eitan Klein, deputy director of the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Looting, said the case is significant in that it highlights the fraudulent use of Israeli law in the dealing of artifacts looted across the Middle East.

As Israel is the only country in the region that legally allows antiquities commerce, dealers of looted antiquities and smugglers from neighboring countries make use of the Jewish state as a clearance point for resale in order to give their wares a veneer of legitimacy.

“In all other countries — Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq — it is illegal to deal antiquities. The problem is that the dealers that we gave permission to deal antiquities are using our law to deal in looted artifacts,” said Klein.

The position of the IAA is that antiquities sales should be forbidden in Israel, said Klein, and it is in exploratory talks with the Justice Ministry to investigate legal options after twice failing in the Knesset to amend the existing law.

Background here and follow the links.

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Vista survey

THE BIBLE PLACES BLOG: Reader Survey: Favorite Vista. Todd Bolen has another Bible Places survey:

I thought that this week we would solicit your perspective on the best vista on your itinerary. The site can be in Israel or any other biblical land.

My experience of vistas in biblical lands is less comprehensive than I wish, but I did submit a good one.

Your turn.

As usual, I will link to the results when they come out.

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Steinsaltz recovery update

THE LATEST: An exciting conversation with Rabbi Steinsaltz. President Rivlin calls Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz on prolific scholar's birthday, wishes him continued health and many more years of teaching (Arutz Sheva).

President Reuven Rivlin called Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz Sunday to congratulate the rabbi and wish him good health on his 80th birthday.

Rabbi Steinsaltz is considered one of the great rabbinical commentators and scholars of this generation, and has written numerous world-renowned commentaries on the Bible, the Talmud, and many other religious Jewish texts. Rabbi Steinsaltz suffered a stroke six months ago.

[...]

It is good to hear that Rabbi Steinsaltz is back at work. I wish him good health and a full recovery.

Background here and links. For further background on Rabbi Steinsaltz and his work, especially his Hebrew and English translations of the Talmud, keep following those links.

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On this day in 216 BCE: the Battle of Cannae

PUNIC WATCH: Today, in the Boston Globe's This day in history.

In 216 B.C., during the Second Punic War, Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal defeated the Roman army in the Battle of Cannae.

Past posts involving the Battle of Cannae are here and here, and links. You can find the whole story there.

Every so often I also like to link to this post, which explains why PaleoJudaica pays attention to the Phoenicians, Phoenician, the Carthaginians, and Punic and Neo-Punic.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Antiquities dealers arrested in connection with Hobby Lobby?

THIS IS GETTING COMPLICATED: Israeli Authorities Arrest Antiquities Dealers In Connection With Hobby Lobby Scandal (Daniel Estrin, NPR).

At 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, Israeli police say, authorities arrested five Palestinian antiquities dealers in Jerusalem and confiscated items dating back thousands of years from their homes and shops: papyrus fragments from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the bust of an Etruscan woman, a fresco from Pompeii depicting swimming fish. They also seized more modern objects — two black luxury Audi vehicles — and more than $200,000 in cash.

NPR has learned the reason for the early Sunday morning arrests: Israel's Antiquities Authority says the dealers were involved in sales of antiquities — including items that U.S. authorities determined were smuggled — to Hobby Lobby, the national U.S. arts and crafts chain.

[...]

The specifics are not very clear, but this seems to be what the case is about:

On Sunday, Israeli police and tax authorities issued a statement saying the dealers provided fictitious invoices for the sales and an American allegedly used the invoices to receive large-scale tax breaks — and paid dealers kickbacks in return. They declined to name the American.

But later in the day, in a court hearing, Israeli police said the arrested Jerusalem antiquities dealers are suspected of tax evasion for failing to report the $20 million in earnings to Israel's tax authority — and are also suspected of money laundering for an alleged scheme in which fictitious receipts and invoices were issued for antiquities sold to [Hobby Lobby president Steve] Green.

Watch this space.

Background on the recent arrests in Jerusalem is here. Background on the recent Hobby Lobby settlement with the U.S. Justice Department is here and links.

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Og's bed or sarcophagus?

REMNANT OF GIANTS: Is Og with the Quick or the Dead? New article from Laura Quick.

Laura Quick has just published a useful discussion of the issues surrounding interpretation of King Og’s ערשׂ, in Deuteronomy 3.11, which she interprets as a literal sleeping bed rather than as a coffin or sarcophagus:

“Laying Og to Rest: Deuteronomy 3 and the Making of a Myth,” Biblica 98:2 (2017): 161–172.

Deane Galbraith has a detailed response to the article. He's not convinced.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on Og the Giant are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Mystery inscription at Gath

THE TELL ES-SAFI/GATH ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT BLOG: INSCRIPTION!!! That's right. A new inscription was discovered Gath last month. So far details are scarce.

This post does say that "it is quite similar, in its general characteristics, to the “ALWT/WLT” inscription that we published about a decade ago." There is a link that I can't get to work. But I did have a post about that inscription when it was found back in 2005.

There was a mixup at first that led the media to conclude that it bore the name of the biblical giant "Goliath," who was from Gath. But it actually had two names that are structurally similar to Goliath, but which are not that exact name. Deane Galbraith gives a chronicle of the misunderstanding here.

Beyond that, we are told that the new one is a nice little inscription and another post refers to the very interesting inscription found in that area. I will keep an eye out for more news.

HT the Bible Places Blog.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Gallarreta, Household and Family Religion in Persian-Period Judah

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Household and Family Religion in Persian-Period Judah. Notice of a new book: Gallarreta, Jose E. Balcells. 2017. Household and Family Religion in Persian-Period Judah: An Archaeological Approach (Ancient Near East Monographs 18), SBL Press. Follow the link for ordering information and a description.

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Tisha B'Av 2017

TISHA B'AV (THE NINTH OF AV) begins this evening at sundown. An easy fast to all those observing it.

The Ninth of Av is not specifically a biblical holy day. Rather, it commemorates a number of disasters that happened to the Jewish people, traditionally all on that same day. These include the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Babylonians, the destruction of the Herodian Temple by the Romans, and the fall of Betar during the Bar Kokhba revolt.

A couple of recent PaleoJudaica posts involving the Ninth of Av are here and here. See also Lawrence Schiffman's recent post, When the Talmud Was Burned.

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Newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES! I learned about this year's round when I received an announcement from the Orion Center that Professor Emeritus Emanuel Tov of the Hebrew University had been elected. Professor Tov is one of the world's foremost experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

When I looked at this years list of newly elected members, I saw that Peter Schäfer, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University and current Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, has also been elected. Professor Schäfer has vast accomplishments in the field of Jewish studies. I am best acquainted with his foundational work on the Hekhalot literature, the texts of pre-Kabbalistic Jewish mysticism.

In addition, Professor Carl R. Holladay of Emory University has been elected. Again, his accomplishments are wide-ranging. I am best acquainted with his important multivolume commentary on the fragments of Hellenistic Jewish authors.

I am delighted to congratulate all three (and anyone else in the field whom I may have missed) on this outstanding achievement.

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Antiquities dealers arrested in Jerusalem

APPREHENDED: POLICE ARREST 5 IN $20 MILLION BLACK MARKET ANTIQUITIES, TAX FRAUD STING. Rare antiquities, NIS 800,000 in cash, and luxury cars were seized from east Jerusalem suspects’ homes and businesses (Daniel K. Eisenbud, Jerusalem Post).

Following a protracted international joint undercover investigation, police on Sunday arrested five east Jerusalem antiquities dealers accused of a $20 million tax-fraud and artifacts scheme reaching as far as America.

According to police, the investigation was launched several months ago with US law-enforcement agencies, the Antiquities Authority and Israel Tax Authority after evidence surfaced that the dealers were involved in illegal transactions for seven years.

[...]

There is some information on the antiquities recovered:

“The antiquities that were seized included ancient parchment pieces written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin; ancient weapons; sculpture items from the Hellenistic and Roman periods; high-level murals; pottery and figurines; and many bronze, silver and gold coins,” he [police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld] said.

If these artifacts are genuine (a very big if at this stage) they sound quite important.

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Modern Canaanites

RELIGION PROF. BLOG: Canaanites Among Us. James McGrath has some sensible commentary on the recent excited reports that DNA analysis shows that the modern Lebanese are descended from the Canaanites. This isn't exactly a surprise.

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Tarbiz 84.3-4

THE HEBREW-LANGUAGE JOURNAL TARBIZ HAS A COUPLE OF NEW ISSUES OUT:

Tarbiz Vol. 84, No. 3

Nili Samet - New Light on the Administrative Term bēn bayît in Biblical and Rabbinical Sources

Bezalel Bar-Kochva - The Religious Persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes as a Historical Reality

David Henshke - Between Blessings and Prayer: On the History of the Amidah Prayer

Mordechai Sabato - On the Inclusion of the ‘Mikan Ameru’ Homilies in the Halakhic Midrashim

Michael Rand - Surviving Fragments of the Qillirian Heritage in Provence/Catalonia and in Spain: In the Wake of New Materials from the Genizah

Jonathan Vardi - Between Shemuel Ha-Nagid and the Poets of Zaragoza

Tarbiz Vol. 84, No. 4

Hallel Baitner - The Unintentional Killer and the Blood-Avenger –New Perspectives in the Rabbinic Exegesis of Num 35

Shulamit Elizur - The Origins of the Seliḥot Piyyutim

Shalem Yahalom - The Pilpul Method of Talmudic Study: Earliest Evidence

A. Bar-Asher - The Earliest Sefer ha-Zohar in Jerusalem: Early Manuscripts of Zoharic Texts and an Unknown Fragment from Midrash ha-Neʿlam [?]

You may find that you have to reload the web pages to get them to work. There is a link to English abstracts of the Hebrew articles on both pages.

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Sauer, Sasanian Persia

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Sasanian Persia. Notice of a new book: Sauer, Eberhard. 2017. Sasanian Persia: Between Rome and the steppes of Eurasia. Edinburgh University Press.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

More on Brill's Textual History of the Bible

ETC BLOG: Introduction to Brill’s Textual History of the Bible (John Meade).

What follows is not a review. It is a teaser and brief orientation to one of the most comprehensive projects on the text of the Hebrew Bible. Brill’s Textual History of the Bible (THB) is a four volume work in process. ...

Background on the series is here and here.

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Youngberg, "Identity Coherence in the Chronicler's Narrative"

NEW ARTICLE IN THE JOURNAL OF HEBREW SCRIPTURES: Identity Coherence in the Chronicler's Narrative: King Josiah as a Second David and a Second Saul (BRENDAN G. YOUNGBERG; Volume 17, Article 4 DOI:10.5508/jhs.2017.v17.a4).

Abstract:

Among the variants in Chronicles and Samuel-Kings is the inclusion of Samuel in Josiah's narrative (2 Chr 35:18) compared to “the judges who led Israel” (2 Kgs 23:22). Samuel's appearance occurs at a major transition in the Chronicler's narrative, which links Josiah to not only David, but Saul. While there is yet to be a consensus among scholars as to why a negative death scene follows Josiah's laudable Passover, the social memory associated with Samuel adds rhetorical weight to the Chronicler's narrative.

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Who was the real Pontius Pilate?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Jesus Before Pilate: Who was the real Pontius Pilate? (Marek Dospěl). As usual, the full article on Pontius Pilate by R. Steven Notley is only available to paid subscribers to BAR. But the BHD essay has some good general information.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts on Pontius Pilate are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Crowdsourcing Chinese epigraphy

AN ARMY OF EPIGRAPHERS: A Chinese Museum Is Offering Big Money to Whomever Can Decode This Ancient Script. The going rate is $15,000 per character (MICHAEL WATERS, Atlas Obscura).

IT’S NOT BOUNTY HUNTING, BUT it’s close: The National Museum of Chinese Writing in Anyang, Henan Province is offering a large monetary reward to anyone who can decode a 3,000-year-old script. The writing, which dates to the ancient Shang dynasty, is one of the “earliest written records of Chin­ese civilization,” according to the South China Morning Post.

[...]

No, this has nothing to do with ancient Judaism. I mention it because its another example of a project that only became possible in the internet era, when photos of hundreds of thousands of partially deciphered inscribed objects could be made public for next to nothing.

PaleoJudaica has been following the similar Ancient Lives Project, in which an army of papyrologists is working on deciphering the many thousands of fragmentary Oxyrhynchus papyri. Only in this case they are doing it for free. For background, start here and follow the links. Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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Böhm, Die Rezeption der Psalmen ...

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: CHRISTIANE BÖHM. Die Rezeption der Psalmen in den Qumranschriften, bei Philo von Alexandrien und im Corpus Paulinum. [The Reception of the Psalms in the Qumran Cave Scrolls, Philo of Alexandria's Writings, and the Pauline Corpus.] 2017. XII, 284 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 437. 84,00 €, sewn paper, ISBN 978-3-16-154664-8.

Published in German.
In this study, Christiane Böhm examines the interpretation of the Psalms in the trio of 11QPsa, Philo's allegorical commentary and the Pauline letters, each of which constitutes paradigmatic text corpora representing the various strands of ancient Judaism, and provides a specific understanding of the Psalms.
The interpretation of the Psalms in Qumran, Philo and Paul reflect an inner-Jewish discourse on their capacity to disclose reality and their identity-imparting function in the interpretive horizon of group-specific belief systems. The three examined text corpora reveal a different view of the Psalms. It also becomes apparent how the sense potential inherent in the psalter is fully exhausted.

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Collected essays by the late Alan Segal

LARRY HURTADO: A.F. Segal: “The Other Judaisms of Late Antiquity.”

I’m very pleased to have my gift-copy of the re-publication of some key works by Alan F. Segal in one handy volume: The Other Judaisms of Late Antiquity, Second Edition, which now includes also his major essay, “Heavenly Ascent in Hellenistic Judaism, Early Christianity, and Their Environment” (which originally appeared in the series, Aufstieg und Niedergang der roemischen Welt, 1980).

[...]

Follow the link for TOC etc.

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Why did Elazar interrupt Moses?

DR. RABBI ZEV FARBER: Elazar Speaks Once in the Torah: Why Does He Interrupt Moses? (TheTorah.com).

Moses tells the soldiers returning from the Midianite war that they must purify themselves from corpse impurity. Elazar then jumps in with a unique law in Moses’ name about the need to purify metal in fire. Critical and traditional scholars alike—including the scribes of the Samaritan Pentateuch—were troubled by why Elazar and not Moses teaches this law.

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DNA analysis of manuscripts

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Goats, bookworms, a monk’s kiss: Biologists reveal the hidden history of ancient gospels (Ann Gibbons, Science Magazine). This article is about DNA analysis of medieval Gospel manuscripts, but the techology is potentially of considerable interest for ancient historians. Many medieval manuscripts contain copies of ancient texts, and the social background of the manuscripts can be important for understanding the transmission of these texts. And the technology could be applicable to some ancient manuscripts.

The article describes a non-invasive technique for gathering material from a parchment for DNA analysis. It touches on how bacteria (e.g., from sneezes - ugh!) left on the manuscript can tell about its past users. It also discusses how the remains of parasites in the bindings and the manuscripts can give all sorts of useful information about the artifact. Excerpt on some possible applications:

[Biochemist Matthew] Collins is seeking advice on what to do with any DNA his team finds and sequences. What hypotheses should they address? "We're fishing for proteins and DNA and catching a lot of stuff," Collins says. "But we scientists come up with questions humanities scholars think are dumb," such as the cause of a death already described in mortuary records. And scientists and humanities scholars have different approaches: Given the concerns about DNA contamination, scientists prefer to touch books only with gloves. But among humanities scholars, the tradition is to use bare hands to ensure that people handle the pages gently; those wearing gloves are thought be rougher.

Some scholars at the Bodleian meeting had lofty ideas—would it be possible to get DNA of famous people such as Isaac Newton, who left behind many diaries and documents? Others were more interested in the bookworms. Hedges announced that the wormholes he measured in the Gospel of Luke were 1.3 millimeters in diameter, suggesting that they were made by Anobium punctatum, a northern European beetle. That would confirm that the book was made in the United Kingdom or northern Europe, rather than in southern Europe. The DNA of bookworms "can provide clues as to when and where objects such as books originated and were transported," Hedges says.

Some medievalists are enthused about the idea that biologists might be able to aid their studies, filling in the blanks left by written records. "I look at handwriting and dialect analysis to figure out a manuscript's age—ridiculous!" laments Stinson, given the Herculean effort required to do so. Now, he says, "I could go ask a biologist."

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Conference: Being Jewish, Writing Greek

UPCOMING: Being Jewish, Writing Greek: Literary Form and Cultural Identity.

— Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge —

Wednesday 6th September–Friday 8th September 2017

Being Jewish, Writing Greek is a conference at the University of Cambridge which aims to explore the literary aspects of Jewish texts in Greek in the Hellenistic and Imperial period (ca. 3rd century B.C.E. to 3rd C.E.). We believe that a focus on literary form, in addition to content, has the potential to better our understanding of the negotiations of culture and identity articulated in these texts.

Supported by the Faculty of Classics, the School of Arts and Humanities, and the St. Thomas Aquinas Institute in Zagreb, the conference has developed out of a seminar series in Cambridge organised by Max Kramer and Max Leventhal for the 2016–17 academic year, also entitled: ‘Being Jewish, Writing Greek’. Motivated by the belief that the large body of Jewish texts in Greek are an under-valued literature, we felt that the topic deserved further exploration in a full-scale international conference.

If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us at the following address: organisers@beingjewish-writinggreek.co.uk.

Follow the link for registration information and further particulars.

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Kaden on "Law" in Pauline discourse

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Why "Law" in Pauline Discourse (David Kaden).

With this theoretical caveat, my project compares cross-cultural relations of power that cause law, or law-like practices in indigenous contexts, to surface as objects of discourse with a view to answering a fundamental question, “Why law”? I argue that this comparative grid can be applied to such disparate cultural practices as: Ilongot headhunting, court proceedings among the Talean Zapotecs in Mexico and the Dou Donggo in Indonesia, Roman legal fiction, Philo and Josephus’ descriptions of Judean laws and customs authorized by Roman legal precedent, modifications to indigenous law during the colonization of 19th century Hawaii, and Matthew and Paul’s views of Judean law. By putting all of this together, I am defamiliarizing for us as scholars Matthew and Paul on the topic of law.

Another unpublished PhD thesis written under my supervision might be of interest in this context: Kathleen Burt, “Ritual in the Damascus Document and the Gospel of Matthew” (University of St. Andrews, 2014). Dr. Burt applied Catherine Bell's typology of ritual to the Damascus Document and Matthew as a way of moving beyond discussion of "Law" in relation to ancient Judaism and the New Testament.

The above is another (presumably the last) essay in AJR's series from the SBL 2016 Pauline Epistles Review Panel. I noted earlier essays in the series here and links. The panel reviewed Matthew Thiessen’s Paul and the Gentile Problem and David Kaden’s Matthew, Paul, and the Anthropology of Law.

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The Green Collection and Classics: "Brace Yourselves"

THE ROGUE CLASSICISM BLOG: The Hobby Lobby Settlement: A Gathering Storm for Classicists? David Meadows has a meticulously documented post on the Classics-related manuscripts in the Green Collection, their importance for scholarship, the complicated background of their acquisition, and the growing difficulties with their associations. There is mention in passing of manuscripts of the New Testament and ancient Jewish works.

It's a very long post, so read (or skim) it at your leisure. For now, just two excerpts, one from near the beginning and one from the end.

But when reading about the travails of Dr Blumell, I couldn’t help but reflect on what we know about the amassing of the Green Collection from a Classics point of view. I also could not help adding to that reflection that 2017 has become the year when social media really came of age, what with a President’s tweets being actually newsworthy, and the whole news cycle becoming essentially a tool of ‘fake news’ or alternatively, confirmation bias. And so, in what follows, I hope to demonstrate how several years of antiquities acquisition by Scott Carroll merge with the spectacular announcements of a new Sappho papyrus a few years ago by Dirk Obbink, and suggest that the series of events presages potentially very difficult times for plenty of people in the Classics profession, including graduate students who were given amazing research opportunities through their (or their supervisors’) ties to the Green Scholars program.

[...]

Meanwhile, there are Classicists — undergraduates, graduates, and supervisors — dealing with these texts that clearly should have been published by now. But given the current climate created by the Hobby Lobby legal decision, it seems it is going to become even more difficult to publish anything associated with them, especially if there is no rock solid collection history for whatever is being published. And even if the collection history does appear solid (as with the Sappho papyrus … it’s about as solid as anything else coming out of Christie’s), the stories attached to the finds will inevitably be questioned (“private collector approaches noted scholar” sounds barely one step up from ‘Anonymous Swiss Collector’ no?). And how many of them might find themselves in the same position as Lincoln Blumell, being put on the defensive for being a scholar. As the meme says, “Brace Yourselves” …

Background on the Green Collection, the Museum of the Bible, and the recent Hobby Lobby settlement with the U.S. Justice Department is here and follow the many links. Past posts on the new Sappho fragments are here and here and links.

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Magdala — an ancient priestly refuge?

ARCHAEOLOGY: New finds suggest Second Temple priests who fled the Romans kept up holy rituals in the Galilee. After seven years of excavations at Magdala, four rare ritual baths and a unique carved stone point to importance of ancient fishing town to priestly class (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

The hometown of the most popular sinner of the New Testament may also have been the seat of one of the priestly families that fled Jerusalem to the Galilee after the fall of the Second Temple at the hands of the Romans.

A combination of recent findings at Magdala — home of Jesus disciple Mary Magdalene (who was recently celebrated by Catholics on her July 22 feast day) and the Jewish historian Joseph Flavius — point to a developed priestly culture with echoes of ancient Jerusalem at the site.

The question scholars are now exploring is just how much of the Temple practice the priests took along with them when they fled.

[...]

With special attention to the excavation work by archaeologist Marcela Zapata-Meza of Universidad Anáhuac México.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on the ritual baths at Magdala are here and here. A past post on the discovery of that bronze "incense" shovel is here. And for many more posts on the Magdala Stone and the site of Magdala, start here and follow those links.

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Textual Plurality conference at Metz

UPCOMING: TEXTUAL PLURALITY BEYOND THE BIBLICAL TEXTS: International Conference, Metz, October 17-19 2017.

Argument of the conference

The discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the middle of the 20th century, and of the Cairo Genizah, at the end of the 19th century, have shed new light on the question of divergent textual forms, not only for the texts that constitute the Hebrew Bible, but also for cognate ancient Jewish literature. While 19th century scholars addressed the problem of divergences between textual witnesses through the concept of an alleged Urtext, this response is no longer satisfactory. New paradigms are needed to accommodate textual plurality and textual development.

While such a problem has been mainly dedicated to the study of the history of the biblical text, the present conference aims to focus on the so-called non-biblical texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls and their development in antiquity (or on texts in the margin of the biblical canon). We are perfectly conscious that the distinction between biblical and non biblical texts is artificial in the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and that the conference will focus precisely on texts on the border of what will become the biblical canon (as Jubilee, the Temple Scrolls or the Reworked Pentateuch, etc.)

The aim of this project is to rethink the textual plurality and to theorize the phenomenon and its theological, legal, political, social and cultural implications. Papers of this conference will address the following issues: (1) divergent textual witnesses from the same linguistic tradition; (2) when divergences implicate to stop considering texts as a “copy” of another text and start to be a “new” composition; (3) the phenomenon of translation and cultural transfers it entails; (4) semantic and conceptual transformation through transition from one language to another, from one socio-cultural identity to another; (5) implications of textual variants between the different witnesses, but also with comparison to rabbinical and patristic traditions; (6) in-depth study of scribal practices, at codicological level: paratextual elements, corrections, marginal notes as witnesses of a hermeneutical process through text transmission. Obviously, the transmission of the text is intertwined with its transformation, under the impact of scribes, translators, and commentators.

Follow the link for registration information and details on the papers and participant.

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New findings from the Babylonian destructions of Jerusalem

ARCHAEOLOGY: New evidence from Babylonian destruction of the First Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.​ The findings depict the affluence and character of Jerusalem, the capital of the Judean Kingdom, and are mesmerizing proof of the city's demise at the hands of the Babylonians (IAA press release posted by IMFA).

2,500 years have passed since the destruction of the First Jewish Temple by the Babylonians and yet evidence from this time in history keep coming.

On the eve of Tish'a Beav, a day of mourning marking the destruction of both, the First Temple by the Babylonians and the Second Temple by the Romans in Jerusalem, new evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians were found in the City of David.

In the excavations, conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority at the Jerusalem Walls National Park , structures dating to more than 2,600 years ago have been unearthed after they have been covered over by collapsed layers of stone. Nestled within the collapse, many findings have surfaced. These findings depict the affluence and character of Jerusalem, the capital of the Judean Kingdom, and are mesmerizing proof of the city's demise at the hands of the Babylonians.

[...]

There are some cool small finds.

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Reeves and Reed, Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

REMNANT OF GIANTS: Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Deane Galbraith notes a forthcoming book: John C. Reeves and Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds., Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Sources From Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Volume I. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

I remember that Professor Reeves mentioned to me that he was working on this project and that he expected it to take a long time. That was over twenty years ago. It is a huge undertaking. I'm glad to see that the first volume of results is coming out soon.

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Isbell on Paul & Judaism

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION: Paul & Judaism. By Charles David Isbell, Louisiana State University, July 2017.

Further, if Paul had been a Sadducee from the beginning, his subsequent laxity with respect to rules and rituals that were precious to Pharisees makes more sense. His extremism and his arrogance in presuming that he alone knew better than the ruling authorities how the new faith should proceed also make more sense coming from an elitist. And it would offer a new wrinkle to the change of heart Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. He did not lose beliefs precious to a Pharisee, for subsequent events describe no scintilla of internal struggle over his abandonment of circumcision, kashrut, Shabbat, and torah.

I note that this essay does not interact with the vast recent (i.e., within the last decade or so) secondary literature on Paul. I am not an expert on Paul and I have no idea what a specialist in Pauline studies would make of it. I link, you decide.

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Paul and the Stegosaurus

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Pauline Paleontology (Matthew Thiessen).

A few concluding words about dinosaurs, fossil remains, and Paul’s letters. Apparently my research interests have broadened from the study of Paul and circumcision to paleontology and dinosaurs. No doubt I have my five-year-old son to thank, since he has appointed me his unpaid research assistant to aid him in his own burgeoning scholarly endeavors as a paleontologist. I have labored, though, to compare Pauline studies to paleontology because I think it beautifully illustrates the real problems we face in the interpretation of Paul’s letters. We simply have very little evidence upon which to base our work. These gaping holes in the Pauline fossil record make it difficult for us to form a consensus with regard to the entire skeleton or structure of Pauline thought: we have Lutheran camps, new perspective camps, radical new perspective camps, apocalyptic camps, and other camps unnamed or uncharted. Such disagreements are long standing and often heated because for many Pauline interpreters we are excavating no mere dinosaur, but, forgive the mixing of metaphors, a sacred cow. ...

Read on at the link for the Stegosaurus. The dinosaur metaphor gets a lot of use in this essay!

This is another essay in AJR's series from the SBL 2016 Pauline Epistles Review Panel. I noted earlier essays in the series here and links. The panel reviewed Matthew Thiessen’s Paul and the Gentile Problem and David Kaden’s Matthew, Paul, and the Anthropology of Law.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Ancient wine press excavated at Ramat Negev

ARCHAEOLOGY: 1,600 years ago, soldiers may have quaffed wine from this desert press. A large Byzantine-era wine press uncovered in the Negev region is only the second of its kind to be found (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

During digs near the Ramat Negev Regional Council, a team of Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists discovered a large Byzantine-era structure dating to the fourth century CE, inside of which was the remains of a wine press. The archaeological dig was continued with a team of youth from a Yerucham yeshiva, in an effort to connect the young men with with the country’s physical history.

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Daf Yomi: starting tractate Sanhedrin

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Reading Torah Against the Grain. Daf Yomi: Do Talmudic rabbis seek justification for givens by retrofitting biblical text to their needs? The case of the Sanhedrin courts.

The new tractate we began this week, Tractate Sanhedrin, focuses on the role of judges and courts in Jewish law. Fittingly, it is named after the body that held supreme judicial power in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple period and beyond. The Great Sanhedrin was a body of 71 judges sitting in Jerusalem; it appointed various Lesser Sanhedrins, made up of 23 judges, to hear cases in the towns and provinces of Judea. The Great Sanhedrin survived the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and continued to meet in other locations until the fourth century CE.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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The Menorah exhibition and the history of Roman Jewry

VATICAN MENORAH EXHIBITION:St. Peter’s Menorah. How the Vatican warmed to Jews over the last century (Fredric Brandfon, Tablet Magazine). This article uses the current Menorah exhibition in Rome as a launching point for surveying the history of Jews in Rome since the end of the Great Revolt in CE 70. Excerpt:

Those papal processions were in turn modeled after the ancient Roman triumphs, such as the one memorialized in the Arch of Titus. In fact, upon the election of each new pope, the pontiff would march triumphantly through Rome, reiterating the Roman tradition of a triumphal procession that is depicted in the Arch. Homage was paid to the pope by a Jewish delegation carrying a Torah scroll. They would present the scroll to the pontiff, probably at the Arch. The new pope would ceremonially accept the Torah, but, at the same time, volubly reject the Jewish interpretation of it. He would then either throw the Torah to the ground or pass it unceremoniously to an underling.

The Arch would serve doubly to remind Roman Jews of their subservient status; first, as a people humbled by the Romans, and second, as a subordinated community under papal hegemony. When, in the 16th century, Jews were no longer required to present the new pope with the Torah, they instead had to lavishly decorate the pope’s processional route, including bedecking the Arch of Titus with tapestries and banners. Not surprisingly, these humiliations gave rise to a well-known Roman Jewish custom: Jews prohibited themselves from walking beneath the Arch of Titus.

That custom remained in place until Dec. 2, 1947, three days after the United Nations decision to partition Palestine and allow a Jewish state. On that day, Roman Jews and Jews from across Europe awaiting transport to Palestine gathered at the Arch. Led by Rome’s chief rabbi, David Prato, they again placed a banner on the Arch. But this time it was a blue-and-white Jewish banner with two dates: the date of the Roman destruction of the Second Temple and the date of the UN decision to partition Palestine. After the singing of Hatikvah, the assembled crowd deliberately broke with tradition and marched through the Arch from west to east toward Jerusalem, in the opposite direction of the Jews who had come to Rome as slaves of Titus in 70 CE.

For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Vatican Menorah exhibition, start here and follow the links. For past posts on ancient menorahs and representations of menorahs, start here and follow the links.

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Oy va-avoy!

YONA SABAR: Hebrew Word of the Week: oy va-avoy "oh dear; woe, alas" אוי ואבוי. An onomatopoetic expression formed from the combination of two biblical Hebrew words of lamentation.

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What is Tisha B’Av?

COMING NEXT WEEK: What is Tisha B’Av? It is one of the saddest days in the Jewish calendar, but why - and how - do we mark it? (Daniel Sugarman, The Jewish Chronicle).

Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, is a fast day, commonly known as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar.

It commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, the first by the Babylonians, circa 587 BCE, and the second by the Romans in 70 CE. However, the fast has also become associated with other tragedies which have taken place over the course of Jewish history.

[...]

A good introduction to this multifaceted fast day.

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The Shikhin excavation 2017

ARCHAEOLOGY: SAMFORD EXCAVATION IN ISRAEL SHEDS LIGHT ON ANCIENT LAMP WORKSHOP (The Alabama Baptist). I have been following reports on the excavation at Shikhin for the last several years. This article has some information on the discoveries this year.

[Excavation director James Riley] Strange, [ associate director Mordechai] Aviam and a team of students and volunteers have worked on the site for six seasons. Their recent excavations in May and June uncovered part of the house and workshop of an oil lamp maker.

Although the house was typically simple — with packed earthen floors and, probably, mud plaster on the walls — it held a unique surprise. In an area thought to have been a courtyard, the team discovered a special kiln for firing oil lamps and other small vessels, with two complete, identical oil lamps and a small bowl still inside.

Many kilns from various periods have been discovered in Israel — all of them used to fire jugs, storage jars, cooking pots and other large vessels.

These usually measure more than 16 feet in diameter. The kiln in the Shikhin potter’s house, the first of its kind found in Israel, measures less than three feet in diameter, with a central pillar made of stone and brick that supported an upper floor.

There is also a little information on a coin find.

Past posts on the Shikhin excavation are here, here, here, here, and here.

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Commemorating Jonah's (traditional) Tomb in Iraq

THREE YEARS: ISIS Destroyed Jonah’s Tomb, but Not Its Message. Iraqis of Armenian, Arab, Assyrian, and Jewish descent recall what the shrine symbolized on the third anniversary of its destruction. (SARA FARHAN, ATOOR LAWANDOW, AND SIGAL SAMUEL, The Atlantic).

But the tomb was much more than a tourist destination; it was a constant, potent symbol. Overlooking the city, it reminded all Maslawis of the interconnectedness of Iraq’s diverse religious populations. It was the antithesis of sectarianism. As such, ISIS’s decision to blow it up read as an attempt to erase the shared history of the many religious populations that Mosul housed, and to erase the very notion that such populations can share anything at all. But now that Mosul has been liberated from ISIS, we—three Iraqis from different religious backgrounds—hope all our communities will have a hand in rebuilding the city and its holy sites.

I noted the destruction of the (traditional) Tomb of Jonah just after it happened here. For other past posts on the Tomb of Jonah, go here and follow the links. Past posts on the (traditional) Tomb of Nahum are here and links. And for past posts on the Yazidis, start here and follow the links.

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Jerusalem survey results

THE BIBLE PLACES BLOG: Survey Results: Favorite Site in Jerusalem (Todd Bolen). I noted the survey here last week.

I was the one who voted for the Shrine of the Book. But I thought carefully about Hezekiah's Tunnel, which got the most votes. I also thought carefully about the Dome of the Rock, which apparently didn't get any votes.

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T. Solomon: Solomon's women, plus some more demons

READING ACTS: Testament of Solomon: Several Biblical Expansions (Phil Long). Dr. Long's past posts on the Testament of Solomon were noted here.

For past posts in his ongoing series on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, follow the links in the latter post. Lately he has been writing about the Testamentary literature. Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

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A panel discussion on Hannibal's failure

PUNIC WATCH: Why did Hannibal ultimately fail? A history of the Punic Wars. Tommy Graham interviews an expert panel in a Talking History podcast. I don't have time to listen to it right now, but I thought I would draw it to your attention.

For many past PaleoJudaica posts on Hannibal and the Punic Wars, start here and follow the links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Charity in the Rabbinic literature

PROF. GREGG E. GARDNER: How Tzedakah Became Charity (TheGemara.com).

“Tzedakah” in the sense of communal charity, civic benefaction, and an individual form of giving came into being during the tannaitic period, with the help of the Greeks and a little-known king named Munbaz.

Munbaz was a real king: Monobazus, the son of Queen Helena of Adiabene. The Kingdom of Adiabene was located at the site of Erbil in modern Iraq. Helena and her family converted to Judaism in the first century CE. The story about Munbaz in the Tosefta is presumably legendary, but it is instructive in some ways nonetheless.

For past posts on Erbil and the House of Adiabene, see here and links.

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Tamruqim

YONA SABAR: Hebrew Word of the Week: tamruqim "cosmetics, perfumes, ointments" תמרוקים. Used in the Bible of Esther's cosmetics.

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Ancient lemons and citrons

CITRUS: Sour Note: In Ancient Rome, Lemons Were Only for the Rich (Laura Geggel, Live Science). The title may seem unpromising, but this article does have an angle of interest for ancient Judaism. The citron has been important as part of the celebration of the festival of Sukkoth since antiquity. The article has images of a late-antique synagogue mosaic and some ancient Jewish coins which feature citrons.

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Seizure of Aramean land in Turkey still unresolved

ASSYRIAN (MODERN SYRIAC) WATCH: Legal Limbo of Turkey's Assyrian Christian Properties Still Unresolved (Barbara G. Baker,WorldWatch Monitor via AINA).

In less than two weeks, the Mardin Governorate had stepped back from its decision to give the Christian properties over to control of the Muslim directorate. Calling together representatives of the three Syriac foundations whose properties had been confiscated, the governorate cancelled the transfer on 3 July; but that left the disputed properties back again under treasury control.

The Mardin Governorate's original court order transferring the Syriac deeds to the Religious Affairs Directorate was dated 12 August 2014. The Syriac church had not been informed of this judicial action taken nearly three years ago.

The 3 July cancellation order specified that a legal amendment was required "for the problem's exact solution". The Syriac community agreed, with the Syriac foundation chairmen sending a formal petition that same day, requesting Ankara to take a second step: transfer the ownership of all the church property deeds currently held by the treasury over to their respective Syriac foundations.

To date, the Syriac community has received no response to their petition from Turkey's central government.

Unless Ankara agrees to return the seized properties to official church ownership and amends the law, the Syriac community is left with only one alternative: file 100 or more separate court cases to gain back their centuries-old properties, a very expensive and lengthy option that would take years to complete.

"They can give them back to us, or not; it's up to them!" one Syriac leader who wished to withhold his name told World Watch Monitor. "It's out of our hands. We can't do anything unless they reveal the realities!"

"But always," he sighed, "they are coming to us with a club! You have taken them away from us. Now are you going to give them back? Or do you just want us to leave?"

The actions of the Turkish Government could be taken to look that way. Whatever the full merits of the case, and I cannot myself claim to have complete information, the world is watching. It needs to be resolved.

This article has detailed background on the story. For additional background, see here and links.

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Balaam and the Book of Revelation

DR. RABBI JOSHUA GARROWAY: Balaam the Seducer of Jews and an Early Christian Polemic (TheTorah.com).

Ancient Jewish interpreters imagined Balaam as the prototypical Gentile seducer. This trope was used by John of Patmos, the author of the book of Revelation and himself a Jew, to polemicize against his rivals among the early Christians.

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Misinterpreted giant skeletons

REMNANT OF GIANTS: Ancient misinterpretation of large bones as mythological giants. Deane Galbraith notes a new article in Historical Biology. He also offers some corrections.

As an aside, Josephus also reports that skeletons of giant were known in his day.

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Review of Hunt, "Hannibal"

BOOK REVIEW: 'Hannibal' relates the famous general's story with wonderful energy. Archeologist and historian Patrick Hunt distills his survey of literature about the Second Punic War into a brightly dramatic story that covers virtually every anecdote connected with Hannibal. (Steve Donoghue, CSM).

We'll never be any closer to the actual truth of it than Livy and Polybius let us get, so the approach Patrick Hunt uses in his book – taking each working cog of the Hannibal story in its turn and a shining bright light of inquiry on it, bringing everything together so readers can have it all before them – is probably the wisest. And those readers can then go back to Livy on their own time.

I noted the book recently here. Follow the links there (cf. here) for many past posts on Hannibal and the Punic Wars.

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Heiser, The Unseen Realm

FRANK VIOLA: Interview with Michael Heiser: The Unseen Realm. This is a long interview with Dr. Heiser about his recent book, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Lexham Press, 2015). Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and ancient Mesopotamian traditions figure prominently in the book and the interview.

PaleoJudaica has occassionally mentioned Dr. Heiser and his blog, Paleobabble.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

What is a waqf?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Amid Temple Mount tumult, the who, what and why of its Waqf rulers. Jordan lost control of Jerusalem in 1967, but is now at the heart of a crisis that threatens to plunge the city into violence (Dov Lieber, Times of Israel). The Waqf has come up frequently in PaleoJudaica posts about the Temple Mount. Readers may find this article interesting. It explains what a waqf is, gives the background of the one that administers the Temple Mount, and explains what the arrangement has been. The recent terrorist attack just outside the site has thrown the longstanding status quo into turmoil.

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Biblical kings and gigantic wine bottles

PHILOLOGOS: Why Are Extremely Large Wine Bottles Named after Biblical Kings? The convoluted story of jeroboams, rehoboams, methuselahs, and more (Mosaic Magazine).

Ours is not a Bible-reading age. Ask the average American what the names Jeroboam, Rehoboam, Nebuchadnezzar, and Shalmaneser have in common and he is more likely to guess that all belong to rock bands than that they belong to biblical kings. And even though ours is a wine-drinking age, how many of those who know the right answer would know that there is a second answer, too: namely, that these same names also denote different sizes of wine bottles?

[...]

This makes me think of the song The Mesopotamians by They Might Be Giants. Also, for some reason it really pleases me that the largest bottle of wine (30 liters!) is called a "melchizedek."

Be all that as it may, Philologos proposes a very plausible answer to the question in the headline.

Cross-file under Asking the Important Questions.

P.S. Yes, I know that Methuselah was an antediluvian patriarch, not a king, and that Melchior is a postbiblical name for one of Matthew's magi, who are unnamed in the Bible and who aren't called kings. Don't be such a nerd.

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A papyrologist weighs in on the Hobby Lobby settlement etc.

THE FACES AND VOICES BLOG: The Green collection and the Museum of the Bible: 443,000 square meters of mess. Papyrologist Robert Mazza shares her expert opinion on the Hobby Lobby case and its implications for the Green Collection and the Museum of the Bible. And in a more recent post she follows up the story with some related news: Green papyri: Egypt steps in.

Dr. Mazza is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Manchester and is currently a Research Fellow at the Rylands Library.

Background on the recent Hobby Lobby settlement with the U.S. Justice Department is here and here. And follow the relevant links for many past posts on the Museum of the Bible and the Green Collection.

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Mandeans in Australia

MANDEAN (MANDAEAN) WATCH: Meet the Mandaeans: Australian followers of John the Baptist celebrate new year (Siobhan Hegarty, ABC News).

Baptism, or masbuta, is the key ritual of this gnostic faith. Unlike Christians, Mandaeans may be baptised hundreds, even thousands of times over the course their life.

This week marked Kahshuzahly, or Mandaean New Year's Eve, and Mandaeans around the world flocked to flowing rivers for a special ceremony.

Anwar Hasan, the 13-year-old daughter of a local priest, was one of the 100 or so Mandaeans who went to the banks of the Nepean River.

Baptisms, she said, are an opportunity to cleanse and refresh one's life and soul.

Their Mandean liturgical language is Mandaic, an ancient Aramaic dialect. Like other religious minorities in Iraq, the Mandeans have suffered much persecution since the Iraq War.

For more on this week's Mandean new-year celebrations, see here. And for many past posts on the Mandeans, follow the links that start there.

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Survey: your favorite site in Jerusalem

THE BIBLE PLACES BLOG: Reader Survey: Favorite Site in Jerusalem (Todd Bolen). I have submitted my response. You are welcome to go and do likewise. I found it difficult to narrow it down from my top three. I'll let you know when the results are in.

I hope Todd is right about those ancient archives. We have been waiting for them a long time. Some of us became so impatient that we went and collected one ourselves.

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Young on two books by Paul (etc.) and the Law

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Description, Redescription, and Textual Practices: Thiessen’s and Kaden’s Critical Interventions (Stephen Young).

Description and Redescription – the classic interrelated activities that animate critical scholarship on religion. This roundtable affords the chance to examine two books that push the descriptive and redescriptive envelopes in their sectors of biblical studies. Matthew Thiessen’s Paul and the Gentile Problem rigorously describes Paul’s discourses about the Jewish law and Gentiles, while David Kaden’s Matthew, Paul, and the Anthropology of Law innovatively redescribes Paul and Matthew’s discourses about the Jewish law with theoretical resources from Jonathan Z. Smith, Michel Foucault, and the anthropology of law. ...

I quote just one observation that I found particularly thought provoking:

It is one thing for us modern scholars to persuade ourselves about what is going on in Paul’s letters by investigating how he (as a literate intellectual) may have accessed his ancestral writings and how his interpretive activity may have significantly shaped his writings to Gentiles. In this case, our experiments with excavating possible textual allusions and Paul’s potential transmission and transformation of “traditions” may be crucial. But it is another thing to presume that Paul’s persuasiveness to his (largely illiterate) ancient consumers necessarily turned on their ability to recognize these finely-grained, textual-interpretive steps that we modern scholars devote journal articles and academic monographs to elucidating.[5] Thiessen could more precisely combine his exhaustive comparative readings with an exploration of Paul’s persuasiveness through a sensitivity to practices themselves; practices associated with sacred writings in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean.

Yes, Paul was an educated member of the elite. What made his message persuasive to so many uneducated, lower-status people? I doubt that it was his sophisticated scriptural exegesis.

This is another instalment in AJR's series from the SBL 2016 Pauline Epistles Review Panel. I noted earlier essays in the series here and links.

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Testament of Solomon: so many demons!

READING ACTS has two posts on the Testament of Solomon.

What is the Testament of Solomon?
Testament of Solomon: A Catalog of Demons

The Testament of Solomon is a late-antique Christian work that knows material from the New Testament, but which also is familiar with Jewish traditions. My PhD student Bankole Davies-Brown explored this matter in detail in his unpublished doctoral dissertation: “The Jewish Background of the Testament of Solomon” (University of St. Andrews, 2004).

Past posts in Phil Long's series on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha have been noted here and links. His recent posts have been on the Testamentary literature. Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

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Betulah

YONA SABAR: Hebrew Word of the Week: betulah "virgin; virgo" בתולה.

This essay does not mention the matter of Isaiah 7:14 and it its use in Matthew 1:23, but it is indirectly relevant. The word used in Isaiah 7:14 means a "young woman" (who may or may not be a virgin). The word betulah is not used. The Septuagint mistranslates that word into Greek as parthenos, which does mean "virgin." Matthew's exegesis depends on the meaning of the Greek word. See here, here and here for more.

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Hurtado on representing the views of others

LARRY HURTADO: On Representing the Views of Others.

The following exhortation about representing the views of others is primarily directed to students and younger scholars. One of the aims I’ve striven for over the 40+ years of my scholarly work has been to represent the views of other scholars fairly, and especially those views with which I take issue.

[...]

There are some very useful observations in this post.

It is human nature that when we have strong views on a matter and we encounter disagreement — including thoughtful and well-reasoned disagreement — we tend to lapse into cognitive dissonance and create a caricature of the opposing view in our minds. This is the origin of the "straw-man argument," but the effect can be more subtle. This happens to everyone and it is very difficult to avoid.

One of the main purposes of blind peer-review is to ferret out and correct misunderstandings that arise from cognitive dissonance. It is an imperfect tool, but is one of the best ones we have. Professor Hurtado offers some other tools that he has found useful.

Let me add one of my own, which I got from the philosopher of science and epistemologist Karl Popper. When I set out to respond to a position with which I disagree, first I look for ways to make the case for that position stronger. Can weak arguments be reformulated more clearly and compellingly? Can I find any evidence that my opponent has missed which offers additional support to the case I want to refute? I try to make sure that I am responding not just to my opponent's case as presented, but to the strongest possible case I can formulate for my opponent's position. I find that this approach helps me process positions with which I disagree more receptively and with better comprehension. Try it. I think you will find it works.

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Hayes on two books on Paul (etc.) and the Law

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: How Faith Effects the Incorporation of the Gentile (Christine Hayes).

What a pleasure to read two such fascinating books – Matthew Thiessen’s Paul and the Gentile Problem and David Kaden’s Matthew, Paul, and the Anthropology of Law – whose intersections, differences and complementarities promise to enrich and reform the scholarly conversation on Paul and the Law. I’d like to structure my remarks around these features – the books’ intersections, their one primary point of difference and the way in which this difference might in fact be crucial to a full understanding of Paul.

[...]

AJR continues its series from the SBL 2016 Pauline Epistles Review Panel with this essay. I noted an earlier essay in the series here.

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