Phoenicians on a Sicilian Island

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Homesick Phoenicians Imported Plants, Animals to New Sicilian Island Home 3,000 Years Ago. DNA analysis of seeds and bones unearthed on the tiny island of Motya show that they came from the ancient Levant, brought by the Phoenicians to Sicily (Philippe Bohstrom, Haaretz).

Over 3,000 years ago, as the Phoenicians spread west from the Levantine coasts of the Mediterranean to Sicily and beyond, it turns out they had not only animals on board, but plants and tableware too, bringing with them the taste of home.

Archaeologists excavating a village the seafaring Phoenicians established on the tiny island of Motya, on the western tip of Sicily, found plant seeds and animal bones that they had brought from home, possibly the coast of today's Lebanon.

The Phoenicians seem to have first landed on Motya, an island with protected anchorage and with access to mainland agriculture, sometime in the 10th to 11th century B.C.E. By the late 9th century B.C.E., they had developed it into a proper colony, thanks to no small part to the safe harbor.

Pottery and inscriptions to their gods, among other things, seal the case that the town was Phoenician. 

[...]

There are many interesting finds at this site. Cross-file under Archaeology and Material Culture.

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The Talmud on flogging

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: To Flog or Not to Flog. Which sinners are to taste the lash, how many strokes of it, in what circumstances, with what intention, and as just punishment in which cases, and with what exceptions: As always, the Talmud leaves no contingency unaccounted for.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Review of Ker and Pieper (eds.), Valuing the past in the Greco-Roman World

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Valuing the past in the Greco-Roman World (Kelsi Morrison-Atkins).

James Ker and Christoph Pieper, eds. Valuing the past in the Greco-Roman World: Proceedings from the Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values VII. Leiden: Brill, 2014.

The review concludes:

Valuing the Past in the Greco-Roman World asks how the past was defined, accessed, and valued in that period of time so often considered “our” antiquity (18) and provides an array of fascinating examples that work together to undercut notions of the value of the past in the past as in any way uniform or monolithic. This range of historical perspectives calls for further reflection on the ethics and politics underlying our own individual and institutional practices of valuing the past in the present and contributes much to our understanding of the range of values ascribed to the past in the past.

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Sinai palimpsests on display in Athens

EXHIBITION: Ancient hidden texts from St Catherine’s Monastery in Mt Sinai displayed in Athens (video) (Tornos News).

Ancient texts from St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, Egypt, that were kept secret for centuries under other texts until they were revealed through the use of state-of-the-art technology will go on display for four days starting on Monday at the Greek Foreign Ministry.

The texts will be showcased as part of an international conference titled “The Other Voice of the Desert: The palimpsest manuscripts of the Sinai Monastery, new technologies for reading, discovery of unknown texts, prospects for research,” at the ministry’s Yiannos Kranidiotis Auditorium.

[...]

For more on the palimpsests from St. Catherine's Monastery, see here and links.

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Magness lectures at the University of Pittsburgh

EVENT: Professor unearths Israeli heritage (The Pitt News).

Pitt’s Jewish Studies program and Nationality Rooms program came together Monday night to host [Professor Jodi] Magness and celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Israel Heritage Classroom — the 20th Nationality Room constructed in the Cathedral.

Magness — a University of North Carolina professor with a bachelor’s in archaeology and history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem — shared the current status of the excavation site at the Late Roman-era synagogue with more than 80 people during her lecture, “More than Just Mosaics: the Huqoq Synagogue,” in the Cathedral of Learning.

Magness and her excavation team have gone out every summer digging season since 2011 and unearthed a variety of partial and complete mosaic scenes throughout the stone foundations of the Jewish synagogue.

More on Professor Magness is here and links. This article could have mentioned that she also has a Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania. For past PaleoJudaica posts on Huqoq and its mosaics, start here and follow the links.

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Replicas of Palmyrene objects on display in New York

PALMYRA WATCH: DUBAI COMBATS ISIS DESTRUCTION WITH 3D PRINTED ARTEFACT RECONSTRUCTIONS AT UN HQ (Rushabh Haria, 3D Printing Industry).

When the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) wreaked havoc across regions of Syria and Iraq, they also destroyed countless Assyrian, Greek and Roman artefacts in museums and on site.

In an effort to preserve the cultural heritage and archaeological sites of the region, institutes such as the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) are 3D printing some of the destroyed objects. Some of the foundation’s work is to be displayed at the “The Spirit in the Stone” digital archaeology exhibition at the UN New York headquarters, inaugurated this week.

[...]

The printed objects include the Arch of Triumph and a statue of Athena. More on the replicas of the Arch of Triumph is here and links. Related post here. For many other past posts on the site of Palmyra, its Aramaic language, its artifacts, and its tragic fate while in the hands of ISIS, start here and follow the links. Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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Review of Carrara et al. (eds.), Die Weltchronik des Johannes Malalas

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Laura Carrara, Mischa Meier, Christine Radtki-Jansen (ed.), Die Weltchronik des Johannes Malalas: Quellenfragen. Malalas-Studien, 2. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017. Pp. 409. ISBN 9783515116442. €68.00. Reviewed by Geoffrey Greatrex, University of Ottawa (greatrex@uottawa.ca).

The first two chapters consider the early books of Malalas, in which myths and history are blended into a euhemerising account of early times. Both articles, by William Adler and Umberto Roberto, emphasise Malalas’ debt to Julius Africanus, direct and indirect; they both also discuss his use of traditions found in the Book of Jubilees. Each article has interesting things to say about Malalas’ adaptation of this material, making it more Roman, but it is puzzling how little cross-referencing there is between them, especially since they cover such similar ground (e.g., at 34-5, 58-9).

The sixth-century chronographer Malalas makes use of other ancient Jewish sources as well, directly or indirectly. And I have mentioned before that he preserves an alternative account of the Maccabean Revolt which may give a Seleucid perspective.

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Review of a new novel on Judas

(MODERN) NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Real 'Book of Judas' inspires journalist's novel (Rev. Alexander Santora, Jersey Journal/nj.com).

[Linda Stasi's] sixth book and second novel, "Book of Judas," manages to display her wicked use of words wrapped around a gospel few of us ever heard of, "The Gospel of Judas," a Gnostic gospel that has seen renewed interest over the last decade.

The article displays an outdated understanding of the Gospel of Judas. Hopefully the novel does not, but its hard to tell.

Past posts on the Gospel of Judas are here and follow the many links.

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PGM online

THE AWOL BLOG: Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae. All three volumes of Preisendanz's edition of the Greek Magical Papyri are now online for free. They can be downloaded as PDF files.

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

On the Arch of Titus replica

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Life-size relief replica stars in Arch of Titus show in New York. Massachusetts sign carver uses 3-D scans and and hi-tech machinery to make striking copy of famous 'Spoils of Jerusalem' bas-relief (Renee Ghert-Zand, Times of Israel).

Lindsay Neathawk first saw the Arch of Titus on a visit to Rome in 1998. A teenager at the time, she could not have imagined that two decades later she would make the first hi-tech replica of the ancient monument’s famous “Spoils of Jerusalem” panel commemorating Roman forces’s capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the Holy Temple in 70 CE.

Using cutting-edge digital tools, Neathawk, a graphic designer and owner of a sign carving business in Williamstown, Massachusetts, spent a straight 49 days last summer creating the replica.

It was carefully transported in late August to New York City, becoming the centerpiece of the current “The Arch of Titus – from Jerusalem to Rome, and Back” exhibition at Yeshiva University Museum.

[...]

Nice work.

Background on the Arch of Titus exhibition at YU is here and links. Follow the links from there also for many past posts on the Arch of Titus itself.

I've also been following the story of the 3-D replicas of the Arch of Triumph from Palmyra (also known - incorrectly! - as the portal of Baal). See here and links.

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New volume of TC

TC: A JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL TEXTUAL CRITICISM (VOLUME 22, 2017) is now out, with lots of biblical text-critical goodness.

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Maimonides's little brother, David

REVIEW OF A NEW BOOK FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS: The brothers Maimonides. New book shines light on the relationship between law, business, and family (Larry Yudelson, Jewish Standard/Times of Israel).

This saga had an impact on Jewish law, Dr. Mark R. Cohen argues. Dr. Cohen, professor emeritus at Princeton, is an expert on the Cairo Geniza. That’s the hoard of a thousand years worth of old books, letters, and contracts that provides a unique window on Jewish life in the Middle Ages. Among its treasures are letters between the Maimonides brothers.

His most recent book, “Maimonides and the Merchants,” zooms in on the legal rulings of Moses Maimonides, as he is known in English — or Rambam, which is short for Rav Moshe ben Maimon, his Hebrew name — and in particular on how he modified talmudic commercial law to account for the way international business worked in the twelfth century.

Dr. Cohen will talk about his book at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan next month. (See below.)

For more on the book, see here. For many, many past posts on the Cario Geniza, start here and here and follow the links.

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Review of Pummer, The Samaritans

READING RELIGION: The Samaritans. A Profile (Matthew Chalmers).

Reinhard Pummer

Cambridge, UK: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., February 2016. 376 pages. $30.00.Paperback. ISBN 9780802867681. For other formats: Link to Publisher's Website.

From the review:

The Samaritans is the book which the study of the Samaritans needed. It distils an unwieldly mass of scholarship into a concise, accessible form. Where there are omissions, they indicate fertile ground yet to explore, rather than any failure on the part of Pummer. In The Samaritans, one of the most erudite scholars of Samaritanism has given to us—scholars researching Samaritans like myself, scholars with general interests, and a reading public to whom the Samaritans are a fuzzy but fascinating overheard name—a wide-ranging, clear, and perhaps most importantly, intellectually generous overview.

HT AJR. Past PaleoJudaica posts on the book are here and here.

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Deir Aziz Synagogue

HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: Deir Aziz Synagogue (Golan Heights) (Carl Rasmussen).

Deir Aziz (“Monastery of Aziz”) is a site located 4 mi. [6.5 km.] east of the Sea of Galilee on the north side of a wadi that flows into the Nahal Qanaf. There is a very powerful spring at Deir Aziz and the remains of a prominent synagogue that dates to the Talmudic/Byzantine Period.

With photos, of course.

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The first owners of the Leningrad Codex (of the Hebrew Bible)

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH: The first owners of the Leningrad Codex: T-S 10J30.7 (Ben Outhwaite).

The question of ownership is a significant one, since it speaks to the wider context of the book’s intended use and potential audience, an aspect of the research on the biblical text which is often overlooked. Within which tradition or for which Jewish confessional congregation was this Bible produced? This is the sort of information that is not usually explicitly stated in colophons, but must be gleaned from our knowledge of the people involved, again relying on the Genizah documentary manuscripts to fill out the picture. ...

So, Codex Leningrad was produced for, most likely, a Persian Karaite, and was subsequently acquired by a Persian Karaite, who sold it to Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen b. Solomon, Gaʾon (head) of the Jerusalem Yeshiva. Maṣliaḥ was the highest intellectual authority in Palestinian Judaism and ‘Head of the Jews’ (Raʾīs al-Yahūd) in the Fatimid Empire. That such a powerful and senior figure should acquire the Bible strongly attests to the value ascribed to it in its day (today’s critics of Samuel b. Jacob’s work should take note). In addition, evidently its Karaite provenance did not devalue it in Maṣliaḥ’s eyes and deter him from purchasing it.

Ben Outhwaite's earlier FOTM post on the author of the Leningrad Codex (a very old and important copy of the Hebrew Bible) was noted here. Other past posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit are here and links. That post will also lead you to many past posts on the Karaites. Cross-file under Karaite Watch.

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

Juel, Messianic Exegesis

REISSUED IN PAPERBACK BY BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Title: Messianic Exegesis
Sub-title: Christological Interpretation of the Old Testament in Early Christianity
Series: (Library of Early Christology Series)
By (author): Donald H. Juel
ISBN10-13: 1481307959 : 9781481307956
Format: Paperback
Size: 230x155mm
Pages: 205
Weight: .348 Kg.
Published: Baylor University Press (US) - August 2017
List Price: 28.99 Pounds Sterling
Availability: In Stock Qty Available: 9
Subjects: History of religion : Church history : New Testaments : Biblical studies & exegesis : Christian theology

While the relationship between Second Temple Jewish exegesis and early Christian exegesis as demonstrated in the New Testament is universally recognized, the reasons for their similarities and differences are often elusive. Donald H Juel in Messianic Exegesis seeks to unknot this tangled web of interpretation. Juel's thesis is simple: Christianity's origins are rooted in the earliest Christian interpretations of Israel's Scriptures. The difficulty resides in showing how these distinctive interpretations arose. Juel argues that the events of Jesus' life form the fulcrum for the Christian re-reading of Jewish Scripture. In particular, Juel shows how Christian belief in a crucified and risen Messiah guided both the selection and appropriation of Old Testament texts -- texts like 2 Samuel 7, Daniel 7, and Psalms 2 and 110. With the confession "Jesus is the Messiah" as the central claim of Christianity, Juel is able to show the fluidity of contemporary Jewish exegesis while also making the anomalous uses of Scripture within the early Christian community understandable. Christians proclaimed Jesus as Messiah throughout their exegesis and thereby defined their emerging community through the way they read Scripture.

Another in Baylor's new Library of Early Christology reprint series, on which more here and links.

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

Oppenheimer, Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: AHARON OPPENHEIMER. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi. Statesman, Reformer, and Redactor of the Mishnah. [Rabbi Jehuda ha-Nassi. Staatsmann, Reformer und Redaktor der Mischna.] 2017. XIV, 291 pages.

Published in English.
The patriarch Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi headed the independent Jewish leadership institutions in Roman Palestine at the turn of the second and third centuries CE. He conducted the affairs of the patriarchate with a high hand, was renowned for his learning and behaved like a kind of anointed king. He was also incredibly rich, a consummate politician, and close to the Roman authorities. He made taqqanot (reforms) in the light of circumstances, and tried to cancel mitzvoth (religious regulations), such as the regulations about shemita (not using the land in the sabbatical year), which entailed hardship for the Jews of his time. He was ahead of his times in his humane and liberal decisions. Rabbi completed the redaction of the Mishnah and thus gave the Jewish people the work that is second in importance only to the Torah, although by so doing he put a brake on the development of the oral law. Aharon Oppenheimer attempts to present Rabbi Jehuda ha-Nassi's character and his life as well as examining the significance of his work for his own generation and succeeding ones.

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

Karaite and ancient sectarian halakhah

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH: OCTOBER 2017: Early Karaite Halakha according to Karaite Commentaries to the Bible (T-S 16.316) (Yoram Erder).

The Genizah documents are essentially fragmentary. In order to understand the Karaite halakha in these documents in its broad context, one needs to read the extensive corpus of early Karaite commentaries, which are mostly found in manuscripts in western libraries and in the Firkowitcz Collection in Russia. These commentaries are written in Judaeo-Arabic and most of them were not in the hands of the first scholars. Not only that, but the first scholars did not trouble themselves to compare their Genizah documents with the early Karaite commentaries available in their time, and instead they made do by reading late Karaite commentaries to the Bible written in Hebrew in the later Middle Ages, since these were readily available in print. The Karaites that wrote these later books did not, in their writings, present the halakhic controversies of their predecessors.

The first scholars studied the early Karaite halakha in the light of poor remnants of sectarian halakha they found in the Talmudic literature. From 1910 they had at their disposal the Damascus Covenant scroll that was discovered in the Genizah. When and where it was written was still then in debate. Nowadays, of course, we can examine early Karaite halakha in the light of the entire corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Past PaleoJudaica posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit are here and here and links. For many past PaleoJudaica posts on the Karaites, start here and follow the links. Cross-file under Karaite Watch.

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

Morris, Warding Off Evil

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: MICHAEL J. MORRIS. Warding Off Evil. Apotropaic Tradition in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Synoptic Gospels. [Das Böse abwehren. Apotropäische Überlieferungen in den Schriftrollen vom Toten Meer und den synoptischen Evangelien.] 2017. XV, 296 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 451.

Published in English.
In this study, Michael J. Morris examines aspects of synoptic gospel demonology; specifically, human responses to demonic evil. It is clear that early Christian demonology can be more fully understood against the background of early Jewish traditions. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, there are two fundamental ways by which protection against demons is sought. The first anti-demonic method is “exorcism,” and the second is characterized by its preventative nature and is typically referred to as “apotropaism.” Although many contributions have been made on the topic of exorcism in the gospels, less attention has been paid to the presence of apotropaic features in the gospel texts. Therefore, Michael J. Morris offers a timely examination of apotropaic tradition in early Judaism and its significance for demonological material in the synoptic gospels. He shows how the presence of apotropaisms not only shape conversations about early Christian demonology, but also have broader implications for the understanding of evil, eschatology, and the depiction of Jesus in relation to each gospel.

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

Jacob, Leah, and Rachel

DR. RABBI ZEV FARBER: How Is It Possible that Jacob Mistakes Leah for Rachel? (TheTorah.com).

“When morning came, there was Leah!” (Genesis 29:25). Could Jacob not tell the difference between his beloved of seven years and her sister, for a whole night? Commentators have long tried to make sense of the story by adding extra details, but perhaps we need to rethink the nature of Jacob and Rachel’s relationship during those years.

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More on the Tyndale House NT

ETC BLOG: Initial thoughts on the Tyndale House Greek New Testament (Peter Gurry).

These are some initial impressions, then. Overall, the edition is refreshing in its visual simplicity and some of the novelties such as paragraphing are a nice change. I will still use my NA, of course, for serious work but I expect to be reading the THGNT devotionally in 2018 and perhaps as my new church NT.

Past posts on the new Tyndale House New Testament are here and here.

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Inscribed mosaic excavated in Georgian church at Ashdod-Yam

ARCHAEOLOGY, DECORATIVE ART, AND EPIGRAPHY: Where Maccabees overthrew idolatry, early Georgian Christian mosaic uncovered. Ashdod, today home to the largest community of Georgian Jews in the world, was a Byzantine base for a Christian Georgian prince (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

The first evidence of a Georgian Christian presence on the shores of the Holy Land was uncovered during August excavations in the ancient city of Ashdod-Yam. Dating to the Byzantine period, a Greek inscription was found on the floor of a 1,500-year-old church, which mentions the date of 292 according to the Georgian calendar.

The Ashdod-Yam inscription is the earliest known use of the Georgian calendar in the world — including in Georgia. Interestingly, according to the excavation’s lead archaeologists, modern Ashdod is now home to the largest community of Jews of Georgian origin.

[...]

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Henze on Jesus and the gap years

SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM: Jesus was more Jewish than you think, says Bible prof. Matthias Henze says the source for the Christian Messiah's faith is best explained after looking at the Second Temple era, when Judaism and Christianity overlapped (RICH TENORIO, Times of Israel).

When Rice University religion professor Matthias Henze visits local Houston-area churches and synagogues to promote interfaith understanding between Christianity and Judaism, he focuses on discussing one particular time period: the four-to-five-century gap between the Old and New Testaments.

[...]

An article on the work of Professor Henze, with special reference to his new book, Mind the Gap: How the Jewish Writings Between the Old and New Testament Help Us Understand Jesus (Fortress, 2017).

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Return of Mor Gabriel monastery "imminent"

ASSYRIAN (MODERN SYRIAC) WATCH: Turkey’s Syriac community welcomes monastery’s return. Title deed of Mor Gabriel Monastery transferred to Turkish Treasury in 2014 (Anadolu Agency, Halil Ibrahim Sincar, Nurten Aslan and Selahattin Erol).

MARDIN, Turkey

Turkey’s Syriac minority in Mardin province welcomes the imminent return of legal ownership of the Mor Gabriel Monastery to their community, a monastery official told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Cavusoglu said earlier that an Assyrian Christian cemetery belonging to the monastery had been mistakenly transferred to the state treasury.

"We are now transferring this cemetery back to its owners," Cavusoglu added.

[...]

This is prospectively good news. I will call it actual good news as soon as there is word that the return has been fully effected. I appreciate the efforts of the Turkish Government to get this one right. I trust that they will be similarly attentive to the related property issues that remain to be resolved. The world is watching.

Background here and links.

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Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my American readers and all those celebrating with us!

Today is a normal work day in the U.K., so there will be some normal blogging. Have a good day.

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

Lioness carving found at el-Araj

ARCHAEOLOGY: Perfect Lioness Carving From 1,500 Years Ago Discovered in a Pile of Dirt in Israel. Basalt carving may have graced an ancient synagogue in Bethsaida, archaeologists surmise: It's like other synagogue decorations found in the area (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

"Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princess of Israel, And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions." Ezekiel 19:1-2

Some people wouldn't notice an elephant statue in the room. Others glance at a pile of dirt and see ancient carvings of cats. That's how archaeologists found a relief of a lioness carved on a basalt rock weighing 600 kilograms (1320 pounds) at el-Araj, which may or may not have been the site of Bethsaida, in the Galilee.

The carving probably dates to around the 4th to 6th century C.E., says Dr. Mordechai Aviam, director of excavations at the Kinneret Academic College in the Galilee.

[...]

For the controversy over whether el-Araj was ancient Bethsaida-Julias, see here, here, here, and links

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Schiffman on the archaeology of garbage in Jerusalem

PROFESSOR LAWERENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT! ANCIENT TRASH REVEALS THE EATING HABITS OF JEWS 2,000 YEARS AGO. An offprint of his recent article in Ami Magazine. For clarity, the Bayis Rishon period is the First Temple period and the Bayis Sheini period is the Second Temple period.

An earlier post on this excavation in Jerusalem is here.

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Avemarie et al. (eds.), Die Makkabäer

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Die Makkabäer. Hrsg. v. Friedrich Avemarie, Predrag Bukovec, Stefan Krauter u. Michael Tilly, unter Mitarb. v. Hendrik Stoppel. [The Maccabees.] 2017. XI, 471 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 382. 179,00 €. cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-153861-2.

Published in German.
In many respects, the Maccabean period represents a bench mark for the formative phase as well as for ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Alongside the political significance of an independent state in Hellenistic times, there belongs the paradigmatic developments of the complex intertwining of ethnos and confession in Judaism, the establishment of the Torah and the Bible as binding text corpora, and the emergence of religious institutions and parties. In the field of theology, discourses on the Maccabean period had a decisive effect on Jewish and Christian eschatology, martyrology and soteriology. This volume makes the first attempt at providing a complete overview of this epoch from a variety of angles. In thematically ordered interdisciplinary groups, proven experts synchronously consider contemporary events and literature, and take a diachronic look at the far-reaching reception of the Maccabean books and their time.

The articles are in German and English. Follow the link for the full TOC.

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Gieschen, Angelomorphic Christology

REISSUED IN PAPERBACK BY BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Title: Angelomorphic Christology
Sub-title: Antecedents and Early Evidence
Series: (Library of Early Christology Series)
By (author): Charles A. Gieschen
ISBN10-13: 1481307940 : 9781481307949
Format: Paperback
Size: 230x155mm
Pages: 419
Weight: .688 Kg.
Published: Baylor University Press (US) - August 2017
List Price: 38.50 Pounds Sterling
Availability: In Stock Qty Available: 7
Subjects: History of religion : Church history : New Testaments : Biblical studies & exegesis : Christian theology

Charles Gieschen demonstrates that angel and angel-related traditions, especially those built upon the so-called "Angel of the Lord" figure in the Hebrew Bible, had a profound impact upon the origin, development, and shape of early Christian claims about Jesus. Gieschen's book falls neatly into two halves. The first catalogues the various antecedents for Angelomorphic Christology -- Jewish speculation about principal angels, mediator figures, and related phenomena -- with chapters on “An Angelomorphic God”, “Angelomorphic Divine Hypostases” (including the Divine Name, the Divine Glory, Wisdom, the Word, the Spirit and Power), Principal Named Angels, and Angelomorphic Humans. The book's second half examines the evidence for Angelomorphic Christology in early Christian literature. This portion begins with a brief overview of the principal Angel and Angelomorphic Christology from Justin to Nicea and then examines in turn the Pseudo-Clementines, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Revelation of John, the Fourth Gospel, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Pauline Corpus. Gieschen argues that Christian use of the angelomorphic tradition did not spawn a new and variant kind of Christology, one that competed with accepted belief about Jesus for early Christians' favour, but instead shows how Christians adapted an already variegated Jewish tradition to weave a single story about a common Lord.

Another in Baylor's new Library of Early Christology reprint series, on which more here and here and links.

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The Talmud and involuntary manslaughter

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Accident or Crime? How studying Torah could kill a child, and other lessons in involuntary manslaughter from this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study.

This week, Daf Yomi readers completed the second chapter of Tractate Makkot, a short section of the Talmud that deals with non-capital crimes. The subject of this chapter was what American law calls involuntary manslaughter: What happens to someone who accidentally kills another person? Clearly, he cannot be convicted of murder under Jewish law, because we learned in Tractate Sanhedrin, a murderer is only guilty if he is forewarned by two witnesses that he is about to commit a capital crime. But does this mean that an unintentional killer suffers no consequences at all?

[...]

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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

British Library Hebrew manuscripts online with translations

DIGITIZATION: British Library publishes treasure trove of Hebrew manuscripts. New online collection is venerable library's first bilingual online project, letting users search among 1,300 items in English and Hebrew (Raphael Ahren, Times of Israel).

The British Library last week launched a new website showcasing 1,300 Hebrew manuscripts, ranging from ancient Torah scrolls and prayer books to philosophical, theological and scientific works.

The new site is the library’s first bilingual online collection, allowing users to search for scans of the manuscripts in Hebrew and English.

[...]

Past posts on the British Library's Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project are here, here, and here.

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

Windows

PROF. AARON DEMSKY: Looking through the Window: A Gendered Motif (TheTorah.com).

Abimelech, Michal, Sisera’s mother, and Jezebel all look through a window, but their experience is not the same.

Indeed not.

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

Disability theory and Rabbinic literature

LECTURE: Rabbi highlights disability theory and symbolism in Rabbinic literature ( Eliana Padwa, The Justice).

To Rabbi Dr. Julia Watts Belser, an expert in both Judaic studies and disability studies, being knowledgeable about multiple fields provides a unique opportunity to combine and compare disciplines; she analyzes each field in light of the other.

On Tuesday, the annual Jewish Studies Colloquium convened to hear Watts Belser, assistant professor of Jewish Studies at Georgetown University, and to discuss her ongoing work.

Introduced as someone whose scholarship “is a constant reminder of our intellectual, moral and emotional responsibility to break down barriers,” Watts Belser presented briefly on her new project, which attendees had read in advance. The project, an essay titled “Disciplining the Dissident Body: Disability, Gender, and State Violence in Rabbinic Literature,” discusses three “rabbinic stories” — Jewish theological tales — and their physical and symbolic portrayals of disability.

[...]

I noted a review of a book by Dr. Belser here and an essay by her at AJR here.

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Timna and the United Monarchy?

ARCHAEOLOGY: Did David and Solomon's United Monarchy Exist? Vast Ancient Mining Operation May Hold Answers. Archaeology has provided precious little evidence for the biblical account of a powerful Judaic kingdom 3,000 years ago, but the sheer extent of copper mining in Timna, when Egypt was in a state of collapse, is otherwise hard to explain (Philippe Bohstrom, Haaretz).

The biblical narrative may have gone overboard on extolling the virtues of the two kings, but a preponderance of evidence indicates that some kind of powerful polity did rule from Jerusalem. One of the best arguments is the massive copper production during the 10th century B.C.E., at Timna, three hundred kilometers south of Jerusalem.

Mountains of slag

There, in the dry desert, Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University has spent 14 years excavating copper mining and smelting sites of Jordan and Israel, dating to the 10th century B.C.E. The mines in the Aravah valley are in the very territory the Bible says David won from the Edomites, who then became subject to Israel (2 Samuel 8:13-14).

This article is especially interested in the "minimalist-maximalist" debate about whether and to what degree the Hebrew Bible tells us any useful historical information about the so-called United Monarchy. I am more interested in the article's detailed coverage of the Timna Valley excavation. Lots of organic material from the 10th century BCE has been excavated there. This leads me to hope that someday the excavators may recover scroll fragments there from the same period. It's a long shot, but we'll see.

Background on the many fascinating discoveries in the Timna Valley excavation is here and follow the links.

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Greek fragments found of Coptic "First Apocalypse of James"

BRICE C. JONES: First Greek Fragments of a Nag Hammadi Text Discovered among Oxyrhynchus Papyri!.

Very exciting news came out of a session at the 2017 annual Society of Biblical Literature conference in Boston: Geoff Smith and Brent Landau announced their discovery of the first known Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James, a Coptic text known from a Nag Hammadi codex (Codex V) and the famous Codex Tchacos. This early Christian text consists of a dialogue between Jesus and James the brother of Jesus. Scholars have argued that this Coptic text was probably translated from Greek, but until now, no Greek witnesses have been known to exist.

[...]

Very exciting indeed. Bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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Review of Hasselhoff and Strothmann (eds.), "Religio licita?"

BRYN MARY CLASSICAL REVIEW: Görge K. Hasselhoff, Meret Strothmann (ed.), "Religio licita?": Rom und die Juden. Studia Judaica, 84. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2017. Pp. viii, 230. ISBN 9783110406559. $126.00. Reviewed by Arco den Heijer, Theological University Kampen (ajdenheijer@tukampen.nl).

The introductory chapter situates the book within a number of scholarly debates: the debate on Jewish or Judean identity within the Mediterranean world (is it primarily ethnic or primarily religious, or does it evolve from the one into the other?), the debate on the legal status of the Judeans within the Roman empire and the question how conflictual the relationship between Judeans and other inhabitants of the Roman empire was on a social level. Scholars generally acknowledge the relatively large degree of freedom accorded in a number of decrees to Judeans to live according to their ancestral customs,1 but disagree about the extent to which they could actually participate in Greco-Roman society without getting involved in various kinds of cultural conflict.2

This volume contributes to these debates by collecting a number of essays by leading scholars in the field. The strengths of the book are its detailed attention to the ancient sources and its wide chronological and geographical scope, ranging from the speeches of Cicero to the Judean community of Cologne in the fourth century. However, the book as a whole fails to move forward on the debates mentioned above, both because a number of the contributors have already presented their views in more detail in earlier publications and because the book lacks a concluding chapter that could bring the various contributions together to answer the questions posed in the introduction. Still, the quality of the individual papers is generally high in its argumentative strength and adequate use of the evidence. I cannot discuss all papers in detail, but will highlight some of them.

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Fan Fiction and Ancient Scribal Cultures?

RELIGION PROF BLOG: Fan Fiction and Ancient Scribal Cultures #CFP (James McGrath). The comparison seems anachronistic to me, but it will be very interesting to see what this special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures produces.

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New analysis of Qumran skeletons

OSTEOLOGY: Skeletons could provide clues to who wrote or protected the Dead Sea Scrolls. Few women or children have been found at Qumran burial site, suggesting similarities to Byzantine monastery cemeteries (Bruce Bower, Science News).

Analyses of 33 newly excavated skeletons of people buried at the West Bank site, Qumran, supports a view that the community consisted of a religious sect of celibate men. Anthropologist Yossi Nagar of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem presented the findings November 16 at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Preliminary radiocarbon dating of one of the Qumran bones indicates that the interred bodies are around 2,200 years old — close to the same age as the ancient texts, which are estimated to have been written between around 150 B.C. and A.D. 70.

Plus, reexamination of 53 previously unearthed human skeletons from Qumran’s cemetery, now housed in France, found that six of seven individuals formerly tagged as women were actually men, Nagar said. A small number of children have also been excavated at Qumran.

[...]

The skeletons excavated at Qumran have been controversial for quite some time, mainly because analysis of them is so difficult. These latest results are interesting and could be important for our understanding of the site of Qumran and even for our understanding of the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls — if the results are upheld in peer-review publication. Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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Judaism and the Museum of the Bible

MUSEUM REVIEW: JUDAISM IS THE STAR AT A BIBLE MUSEUM BUILT BY HOBBY LOBBY. $500 million Bible musuem opened on National Mall park in Washington D.C. (JTA/Jerusalem Post).

The museum celebrates Jews and Judaism as the noble, beloved and even feared antecedents to Christianity, and argues that its best modern expression is in the State of Israel. And it makes the case that the Bible is not merely to be studied but to be believed.

Speaking at the dedication Friday, Steven Green, the president of Hobby Lobby and the museum’s chairman of the board, said museumgoers should come away realizing that the Bible “has had a positive impact on their lives in so many different ways and when they leave they will be inspired to open it.”

It especially celebrates the Bible’s Jewish origins, notably those made manifest in modern Israel. The dedication included a rabbi, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, the Israeli minister of tourism and the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

At times, the event seemed like a pro-Israel gala. Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador, celebrated the museum as a signifier of the Jewish claim to Jerusalem. The Bible nurtured Jews through 2,000 years of exile until they were able to “rebuild the original DC — David’s Capital,” he said.

This review is basically positive, but not without criticisms.

Background on the Museum of the Bible, Hobby Lobby, and the Green Collection, is here and follow the many links.

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Dubious DSS fragments in the Museum of the Bible

THIS IS A PROBLEM: Forgeries May Hide in Museum of the Bible's Dead Sea Scrolls. With the museum’s support, scholars are racing to understand the disputed Biblical texts (Michael Greshko, National Geographic).

Widely respected Biblical scholar David Trobisch now directs the collection—and the Museum of the Bible has supported the very work on the Dead Sea Scrolls which has uncovered evidence of forgery.

“Anybody who thinks that in a gigantic museum that there’s going to be no item [with disputed authenticity], it’s like believing that there’s no amoeba in your water,” says New York University Biblical scholar Lawrence Schiffman, who consulted the museum on its presentation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. “The museum did everything they’re supposed to do.”

Regular readers of PaleoJudaica will be familiar with most of what is covered in this article. But the article assembles the information conveniently in one place.

Background on those dubious Dead Sea Scrolls fragments is here and links. Background on the Museum of the Bible, Hobby Lobby, and the Green Collection, is here and many links.

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

More on the Good Ship Ma’agan Michael II

REPLICA UPDATE: Sailing a 2,400-year-old Ship That Sank Off Israel's Coast. Over many centuries, hundreds of ships sank along what is now the coast of Israel. Report from a cruise on a replica of the oldest found so far (Moshe Gilad, Haaretz).

Sunk on its maiden voyage

The ancient ship was discovered in 1985. It lay 70 meters from the shore, its bow pointing landward, at a depth of about two meters, under a layer of sand of similar thickness. Dr. Elisha Linder, a marine archaeologist from the University of Haifa, was in charge of researching the unique find. The quantity of wood used in the ship’s construction, and its quality, together with the precise dating, reflected the ship’s importance. Its one-armed anchor was the first of its type to be found whole. It took a full 15 years for the vessel to be lifted out of the water, dismantled, preserved and reassembled. It’s now a fine exhibit in the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa. The findings on display, which constitute about a third of the original ship, were the foundation for the construction of the replica.

In the past three years, Prof. Yaacov Kahanov of Haifa University’s Department of Maritime Civilizations, a world expert in the study of ancient ships, led the initiative to build the replica. The resulting full-scale ship, constructed using methods that were in use in the Mediterranean around 400 BCE, is faithful to the original. Kahanov passed away just before the work was completed.

(Stop and read this premium article now, before it goes behind the subscription wall.)

The excavators think the ship was likely crewed by Greeks rather than Phoenicians. Background to the story is here and here.

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Lieu (ed.), Manichaeism East and West

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Manichaeism East and West. Notice of a new book: Lieu, Samuel N. C. (ed.). 2017. Manichaeism east and west (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum. Analecta Manichaica 1). Turnhout: Brepols.

Follow the link for the TOC. The Book of Giants figures in a couple of the articles. For many past PaleoJudaica posts involving the Book of Giants, see here, here, here, and links.

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Hurtado on Psalm 110

LARRY HURTADO: Early Christian Use of “Messianic” Psalms. With focus on a surprising fact about Psalm 110:1.

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Surrogacy in an Assyrian prenup

MODERN THEMES, ANCIENT SOLUTIONS: 4,000-year-old prenup pushes for surrogacy in case of infertility. Cuneiform tablet calls for a contractual sex slave to be freed after a son's birth -- and would have prevented the bitter rivalry between biblical Hagar and Sarah. I'm not sure how much relevance this text really has for the legends about Sarah and Hagar in the Bible. But it is of considerable historical interest in itself.

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Fossum, The Name of God & the Angel of the Lord

REISSUED IN PAPERBACK BY BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Title: Name of God & the Angel of the Lord
Sub-title: Samaritan & Jewish Concepts of Intermediation & the Origin of Gnosticism
Series: (Library of Early Christology Series)
By (author): Jarl E. Fossum
ISBN10-13: 1481307932 : 9781481307932
Format: Paperback
Size: 230x155mm
Pages: 391
Weight: .650 Kg.
Published: Baylor University Press (US) - August 2017
List Price: 38.50 Pounds Sterling
Availability: In Stock Qty Available: 8
Subjects: History of religion : Church history : New Testaments : Biblical studies & exegesis : Christian theology

The relationship among Judaism, Gnosticism, and Christianity perpetually eludes easy description. While it is clear that by the second and third centuries of the Common Era these three religious groups worked hard to distinguish themselves from each other, it is also true that the three religious traditions share common religious perspectives. Jarl Fossum examines this common heritage by proposing that the emergence of an anticosmic gnostic demiurge was not simply Gnosticism's critique of the Jewish God or a metaphysical anti-semitism. The figure of the gnostic demiurge arose from Judaism itself. Fossum demonstrates that the first gnostic versions of the demiurge constituted a subordinated dualism. Fossum then turns to Judaism, in particular Samaritanism's portrayal of a principal angel. In distinction from non-Samaritan Jewish examples -- where the Angel of the Lord bears the Divine Name but is not a demiurge, or examples where the Divine Name is said to be the instrument of creation but is not an angel or personal being -- Fossum discovers a figure who bore God's name, was distinct from God, and was God's instrument for creation. Only in Samaritan texts is God's vice-regent personalised, angelic, demiurgic, and the bearer of God's name. In the end the book reveals that not all gnostic speculation was anti-Jewish and, indeed, emerging gnostic and Christian traditions borrowed as much from Judaism as they criticised and rejected.

Another in Baylor's new Library of Early Christology reprint series, on which more here and links.

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The Museum of the Bible opens today

SOME MEDIA ATTENTION FOR TODAY'S OPENING OF THE MUSEUM OF THE BIBLE:

Museum of the Bible: A First Look. On the high-tech, new museum and the agenda of the family behind it (Christine Rosen, Weekly Standard)

Thus the Museum of the Bible, opening on November 17 not far from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., appears at a critical time. How do you engage the citizens of an increasingly secular country, whose founding was nevertheless indelibly marked by principles found in this book, with its history? How do you create a space that acknowledges the cultural primacy of the Bible while also respecting the heterodox religious past and present of the United States? How can an institution talk about one of the world’s most controversial texts without itself becoming a flashpoint for controversy?

The short answer: It can’t.

Washington’s Bible museum won’t touch political hot potatoes. Funded by evangelical Christian Steve Green, the controversial Hobby Lobby head, institution claims 'non-sectarian' mission (MAGGY DONALDSON, AFP/Times of Israel).

Read the actual Dead Sea scrolls, see the Nile turn to blood and visit Jesus World: Billionaire's $500m Bible Museum opens in DC after he was caught buying stolen artefacts from Iraq (Rory Tingle, Daily Mail).

There are other articles, but I think these give a reasonably rounded picture. And they have some good photos and videos.

For much past PaleoJudaica coverage of the Museum of the Bible, and also of Hobby Lobby and the Green Collection, start here and follow the many links.

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

CFP: IOTS 2018

CALL FOR PAPERS: 9th International Meeting, International Organization for Targum Studies (IOTS) July 9-11, 2018, University College London.

There is special interest in proposals that deal with one of the following two thematic focuses:

The Aramaic dialects within their Late Antique environment;
The development of the Targums within their wider interpretative milieu.

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Postdoc at Princeton

H-JUDAIC: JOB: Princeton University, Program in Judaic Studies, Postdoctoral Research Associate.

A renewable one-year post "to pursue research on any aspect of Judaic Studies" and to do some teaching at Princeton. The application deadline for full consideration is 15 December 2017.

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Aristophil auction plan

300 AUCTIONS OVER SIX YEARS: Multi-million-pound collection of manuscripts from the scandal-hit Aristophil to be auctioned in Paris. A huge collection of manuscripts from investment scheme Aristophil will finally be resold in Paris after a two-year wait (Laura Chesters, Antiques Trade Gazette).

Included in the sales are treasures such as the will of Louis XVI, the original 39ft-long manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom, fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a 15th-century translation in French of Alexander the Great’s biography by Quintus Curtius.

I've been following this story since 2015, because of the report that there are fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the collection. I have not been able to find any specific information on these. The story of how we got here is complicated and involves an alleged "Ponzi scheme." I have gone over it in more detail here. Follow the links there for past coverage.

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

An advance tour of the Museum of the Bible

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Museum of the Bible: Part Museum, Part Holy Land Experience. Bible museum opens in Washington, DC (Robin Ngo). The museum opens tomorrow. It sounds as though they have been taking the various criticisms on board and responding. Excerpt:

In a way, the Museum of the Bible will open as a work in progress: while all of its exhibition spaces and interactive rooms will be ready for visitors, museum leaders give the impression that the museum’s approach to displaying artifacts—especially problematic ones—is subject to change. This does not detract from the spectacular experience the visitor is bound to have—especially the nearly overwhelming experience of the grand entrance and the appreciation of the efforts of faithful scholars who over the centuries tirelessly produced the Biblical manuscripts in the History of the Bible exhibition. But the Museum of the Bible has also inadvertently yanked the debate over the ownership of history and the dark underbelly of the antiquities black market into the public realm, which will hopefully inspire visitors to pause and reflect on how “Biblical” artifacts are properly acquired, researched, and displayed.

Background on the Museum of the Bible, Hobby Lobby, and the Green Collection is here and many links.

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

On scholars and those dubious DSS fragments

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Soli Deo Gloria?
The Scholars, the Market, and the Dubious
Post-2002 Dead Sea Scrolls-like Fragments

Meanwhile, however, since the early 1990s, researchers in fields like archaeology and heritage studies have expressed growing concern about the role of academics as facilitators of illicit trading in ancient texts and objects from countries suffering from extensive looting and unlawful removal of prehistoric material. Despite this widespread awareness, reflected in a growing number of laws, regulations and international policies to prevent looting, smuggling and illegal trade in cultural objects, many scholars in the field of biblical studies continue to receive unprovenanced material with enthusiasm.

By Årstein Justnes
Professor, Department of Religion
University of Agder, Norway
Leader of the Lying Pen of Scribes Project

Josephine Munch Rasmussen
Ph.D., lecturer
University of Oslo
November 2017

Background on those dubious Dead Sea Scrolls fragments is here, here, here, and links.

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Interview with Ben Wright

WILLIAM ROSS: LXX SCHOLAR INTERVIEW – DR. BEN WRIGHT (Septuaginta &C. Blog).

I have noted some past interviews of LXX scholars by William Ross here and links.

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A late-antique synagogue in the Galilee

THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: Baram — The Synagogue (Carl Rasmussen).

Almost all travelers to Israel will visit the justly famous synagogue at Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee—and some will even visit the one at nearby Chorazin. However, the best preserved of the “Galilean Type” synagogues is the one located at the not-too-frequently visited site of Baram. It is located in Upper Galilee, about 1.2 mi. [2 km.] south of the Israeli Lebanese border.

Nice photos, as usual. An earlier PaleoJudaica post on the Baram Synagogue is here. Sorry about the bad link

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

Review of Kemezis (ed.), Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity: Remains and Representations of the Ancient City (Jordan Conley).

Adam M. Kemezis, ed. Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity: Remains and Representations of the Ancient City. Leiden: Brill, 2015.

Jerusalem, both New and otherwise, receives its due.

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Provenance and the Museum of the Bible

BUT IT'S OPENING SOON: The Provenance Problem. Why a cloud hangs over the new Museum of the Bible (Tom Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education). As the article explains, there is an authenticity problem too.

Background on the Museum of the Bible, Hobby Lobby, and the Green Collection is here and many links.

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

Review of the Tyndale House NT

BRICE C. JONES: A Review of The Greek New Testament, Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge.

I noted the volume recently here.

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Rebecca's father?

DR. RABBI ZEV FARBER AND RABBI DANIEL M. ZUCKER D.D: Rebekah Ran to her “Mother’s Household”: Where Was her Father? (TheTorah.com).

Betuel, Rebekah’s father, mysteriously appears and disappears in the negotiations over Rebekah’s marriage.

It seems that many solutions to the problem have been proposed. Redaction criticism has, not surprisingly, gotten involved too.

Not mentioned in this essay, but Aramaic Levi 62 seems to solve the problem by assuming that Laban had a son who was named Bethuel after his grandfather.

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The Talmud and false witnesses

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: On Bearing False Witness. Talmudic rabbis debate what’s to be done with the liars who help hide crimes—and who to believe in such cases—in this week’s ‘Daf Yomi.’

But what about other kinds of punishments, which are not capable of being so symmetrically applied? Tractate Makkot begins by inquiring about a case in which witnesses falsely testify that a priest is ineligible for the priesthood because he is the son of a divorced woman. If their lie is exposed, does that mean that the witnesses should be declared ineligible for the priesthood? This is what a plain reading of the biblical verse might suggest, but in practice, this would make no sense—what if the witnesses were Israelites, not Kohanim, and therefore ineligible for the priesthood to begin with? To ensure that such conspiring witnesses don’t get off scot-free, the Mishna imposes a punishment of 40 lashes.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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The Museum of the Bible is opening soon

OPENING THIS FRIDAY: In the Capitol’s shadow, massive Museum of the Bible readies for opening (Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service). Lots of good background information in this one.

For many other past posts on the Museum of the Bible, Hobby Lobby, and the Green Collection, start here and follow the links.

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

What to make of Rebecca?

DR. MALKA Z. SIMCOVICH: Rebecca’s Character (TheTorah.com).

Rebecca, informed by God of her sons’ destinies, thwarts her husband’s effort to bless Esau. The Torah thus portrays an assertive Rebecca in contrast to a weak and uninformed Isaac. Early Jewish interpreters took conflicting approaches to this unusual depiction of a patriarchal couple.

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The Gospel of Judas was for sale?

THE FACES AND VOICES BLOG: The Gospel of Judas on Sale? (Roberta Mazza). Not now, some years ago. Another interesting story in Moss and Baden, Bible Nation, on which more here and links.

Background on the Gospel of Judas is here with many links.

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

Valmadonna Library auction mystery

VALMADONNA LIBRARY UPDATE: Valmadonna Trust Library auction in NY brings record sales. But who benefits? Private sale of Jewish books sees lots reaching far beyond their estimated values, including the trust's complete reference and bibliographic library for $190,000 (Times of Israel).

It is a mystery who benefitted from the proceeds earned at the November 9 private sale of 209 rare items from the esteemed Valmadonna Trust Library. But as the hammer struck on the final lot — sold for almost four times its estimate at $190,000 in an auction held at New York-based Kestenbaum & Company — the anonymous benefactor was doubtless pleased with the results.

Amassed over four decades by the late Jack V. Lunzer, the Valmadonna Library consists of more than 11,000 printed books and broadsheets, as well as some 300 manuscripts. Lunzer, a British industrial diamond merchant and bibliophile, charted the history of Hebrew printing through his collection, which reflects the worldwide dissemination of Jewish culture through the printed word.

After Lunzer’s death in December 2016, the Valmadonna was jointly acquired by the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem and Dr. David and Jemima Jeselsohn, collectors of archaeology, books and Judaica, in a private transaction with the Valmadonna Trust.

As explored in an in-depth Times of Israel article earlier this week, both NLI and the Jeselsohns deny being behind the November 9 auction, with each intimating that it is the other.

[...]

This story just keeps getting more complicated. Past PaloeJudaica posts on the fate of the Valmadonna Library are collected here.

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

Rebekah's father

DR. RABBI ZEV FARBER: Who Was Rebekah’s Father? (TheTorah.com).

“I am the daughter of Betuel the son of Milkah, whom she bore to Nahor” (Gen 24:24) – Why the unusual and cumbersome genealogical description?

Redaction criticism to the rescue.

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More on the DRUNK celebration

TALMUD WATCH (?): To Really Dig the Talmud, Try Reading It Drunk. What wine goes well with Rabbi Zeira? An upcoming evening of text, art, and booze has the answer (Gordon Haber, Tablet Magazine).

[Wine merchant H. Ronald] Jordan has a full head of silver hair with an equally full silver mustache. We’ve met to discuss DRUNK, an evening of art and performance inspired by Jewish texts, coming Saturday, November 18th, at the 14th Street Y. Jordan is the official sommelier for the event, which was put together by LABA, a kind of incubator for Jewish art and culture sponsored by the Y. (Full disclosure: I was a LABA fellow in the 2016-17 season, and the spiritual guides for the evening are the Tablet’s Liel Leibovitz and noted novelist Ruby Namdar).

DRUNK combines nine LABA artists with five texts and five wines. Jordan’s letting me taste three wines, in order to “keep a little mystery for the audience.” It also seems prudent to limit the number of tastings, because I had to bring my six-year-old son to the interview.

Hopefully the event will go better than this Talmudic story:

The next text is less tendentious. It’s the famous Talmudic tale of Rabbi Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira and their ill-fated Purim party. The rabbis get hammered, as you do on Purim. But later that night, Rabbah is so drunk that he slays Zeira. The next morning, Rabbah begs God for mercy, and Zeira is revived. The following Purim, it’s no surprise when Zeira refuses Rabbah’s invitation: “Not every time does a miracle occur,” says Zeira. Meaning: Who knows if Hashem will bring me back the next time, and anyway Rabbi Zeira is a mean drunk.

Background here.

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Karl Katz z'l'

SAD NEWS: Karl Katz, Museum Director in New York and Israel, Dies at 88 (SAM ROBERTS, NYT).

Karl Katz, who was so entranced by an art history lecture in college that he went on to become a founding curator of the Israel Museum, convey the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s vast collection to wider audiences by video, and play a key role in finding a home for the International Center of Photography, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 88.

[...]

He earned a bachelor’s degree in art history and Semitic studies and a master’s in fine arts and archaeology at Columbia. He completed his doctoral thesis in early Hebrew manuscripts from Yemen but never fulfilled the language requirement for his doctorate; he said he could not bring himself to learn German so soon after the Holocaust.

[...]

May his memory be for a blessing.

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Review of Mendelsohn, Behold the Man

BOOK REVIEW: Mendelsohn, Amitai. Behold the Man—Jesus in Israeli Art. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, Jerusalem and the Magnes Press, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2017. Pp. 312 + 210 color illustrations. $ 40.00 cloth. By David Sperber in Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 567–581. Posted online by Magnes Press.

I noted the exhibition here and the book here.

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Boda, Exploring Zechariah (2 vols.)

NEW BOOKS FROM THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE:

Exploring Zechariah, Volume 1: The Development of Zechariah and Its Role within the Twelve
Mark J. Boda

ISBN 9781628371628
Status Available
Price: $37.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date April 2017
Pages 290

A decade of research on Zechariah

This first volume of Mark J. Boda's two-volume set on Zechariah showcases a series of studies on the development of Zechariah as a book and its role within the development and rhetoric of the Book of the Twelve.

• Examination of the role that the final section of the Book of the Twelve played in drawing the corpus together into its final form
  
• Articles drawn from a variety of journals
  
• Ten essays that represent advances into Book of the Twelve research

Exploring Zechariah, Volume 2: The Development and Role of Biblical Traditions in Zechariah Mark J. Boda

ISBN 9780884142003 Status Available Price: $36.95 Binding Paperback Publication Date April 2017 Pages 270

A decade of research on Zechariah

This second volume of Mark J. Boda’s two-volume set on Zechariah showcases a series of studies tracing the impact of earlier Hebrew Bible traditions on various passages and sections of the book of Zechariah: 1:7–6:15; 1:1–6/7;1–8:23; and chapters 9–14. These two volumes showcase a series of studies on Zechariah that Boda wrote over the past decade.

Features:

• Examination of the role that the final section of the Book of the Twelve played in drawing the corpus together into its final form
  
• Articles drawn from a variety of journals
  
• Twelve essays that represent advances into Book of the Twelve research

You can also download both volumes for free as pdf files here and here.

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

Jones on reading the Book of Ruth

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

The Book of Ruth: Origin and Purpose

As a last option for understanding Ruth, I would offer that Ruth does fit well when set against the background of the early post-exilic period. The literature on this time is vast and continues to grow, but it is safe to say that the small community in Judea in the late 500s to early 400s B.C.E. conflicted over various societal issues, one of which was how they should define the boundaries of their community. The prophet Zechariah believed that Jerusalem would throng with foreigners who would count as Yhwh’s people (Zech 2:15[EV 11]), but other persons from the Ezra-Nehemiah narrative feel that foreigners have no part in the community (Ezra 4:1-3; 9:1-4; Neh 13:1-3). This is not to say that Ruth reacts directly to the Ezra-Nehemiah text, nor should we read Ezra-Nehemiah uncritically as plain history, but it is reasonable to hold that community cohesion and in-group/out-group questions were live topics at the time. Within this debate, we can see how Ruth provides a counterfactual to a certain exclusivist perspective toward outsiders. The text is not so bold as to claim that all non-Israelites/Judeans should count as people of Yhwh, but it does demonstrate that there are cases where a foreigner can reasonably measure up to the standard of a true Israelite.

See Also: Reading Ruth in the Restoration Period (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016).

By E. Allen Jones III, PhD
Associate Professor of Bible
Corban University
November 2017

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Review of Muntz, Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Charles E. Muntz, Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. xii, 284. ISBN 9780190498726. $85.00. Reviewed by Lisa Irene Hau, University of Glasgow (Lisa.hau@glasgow.ac.uk).

Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic is part of the wave of scholarship which since the 1980s and ’90s has attempted to rehabilitate Diodorus as a thinker and/or as a historian. It accomplishes this purpose more successfully than many other publications of the same persuasion: Muntz applies careful and critical scholarship both to Diodorus’ own text and to control texts that were (probably) based on the same sources, and he reaches balanced and nuanced conclusions. His main goal throughout is to show that, although Diodorus undeniably based his work closely on written sources and took over ideas from other writers and—primarily—from current trends in his time, he moulded his material to reflect on the current issues of the Late Roman Republic even when writing about mythological times or far-away places. Overall, Muntz’s analysis and argument are convincing, and it is good to see such care and attention being paid to Diodorus’ text and its historical context rather than to preconceived ideas about its sources.

It is good to see Diodorus receiving so much attention lately. For past PaleoJudaica posts on Diodorus and the importance of his work for the history of Second Temple Judaism, start here and follow the links.

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

Hunt on Hannibal

PUNIC WATCH: Archeologist Patrick Hunt traces Hannibal’s path (Skye Nguyen, Manitou Messenger).

A historian who looks at the human effect on climate change over the course of time. An author who wrote a book on Hannibal Barca, the ancient Carthaginian leader and enemy of Rome. An environmentalist who asks tough questions about our planet. Meet Dr. Patrick Hunt of Stanford University. Bringing his suitcase packed with experience and expertise from his many expeditions, Hunt paid a visit to St. Olaf College last Friday, Nov. 3 and talked about his new book “Hannibal” in Regents Hall of Natural Science.

[...]

I have more on Dr. Hunt's new book and his research here and links.

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

Balberg, Blood for Thought

NEW BOOK FROM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS:

Blood for Thought
The Reinvention of Sacrifice in Early Rabbinic Literature
Mira Balberg (Author)
Available worldwide

Hardcover, 304 pages
ISBN: 9780520295926
September 2017
$95.00, £79.95

Blood for Thought delves into a relatively unexplored area of rabbinic literature: the vast corpus of laws, regulations, and instructions pertaining to sacrificial rituals. Mira Balberg traces and analyzes the ways in which the early rabbis interpreted and conceived of biblical sacrifices, reinventing them as a site through which to negotiate intellectual, cultural, and religious trends and practices in their surrounding world. Rather than viewing the rabbinic project as an attempt to generate a nonsacrificial version of Judaism, she argues that the rabbis developed a new sacrificial Jewish tradition altogether, consisting of not merely substitutes to sacrifice but elaborate practical manuals that redefined the processes themselves, radically transforming the meanings of sacrifice, its efficacy, and its value.

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

Bauckham event in St. Andrews

SLIGHTLY BELATEDLY, I want to mention that Richard Bauckham's book launch lecture in St. Andrews went well last week. He discussed some of the responses to his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Eerdmans) over the last ten years. If you are interested, be sure to get a copy of the newly published second edition of the book. Here I am with Richard after the lecture:


(Photo courtesy of Sarah Whittle.)

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

The stories of Sodom and the Flood

DR. BARUCH ALSTER: Why Does the Sodom Story Parallel the Flood Traditions? (TheTorah.com).

A closer look at the thematic and verbal parallels between the accounts of the flood and the destruction of Sodom, as well as comparison with other ANE flood/destruction stories, helps us better understand the genre and function of the Sodom story.

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

Schäfer, Jesus im Talmud (3rd ed.)

NEW (REVISED AND TRANSLATED) BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

PETER SCHÄFER
Jesus im Talmud
Übers. a.d. Englischen v. Barbara Schäfer

[Jesus in the Talmud. 3rd revised edition.]
3rd revised and corrected edition 2017. XXI, 320 pages.

29,00 €
sewn paper
ISBN 978-3-16-155531-2

Published in German.
This is a thorough investigation of the passages about Jesus in the rabbinic literature, mainly in the Babylonian Talmud. In his lucid and accessible book, Peter Schäfer examines how the rabbis read and used the New Testament to assert Judaism's superiority over Christianity. The Talmudic texts focus on the virgin birth of Jesus, his behavior as a bad and frivolous disciple, his teachings, the healing capacities Jesus and his disciples possessed, the execution of Jesus and his disciples, and finally his punishment forever in hell. The center of this critique of Jesus and his fate was Babylonia under Sassanian rule, quite in contrast to Palestinian Judaism, which was increasingly threatened by the dominant power of Christianity.

I noted the publication of the original English edition here and here.

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

Arch of Titus lecture

ICONOGRAPHY: Symbolism of Arch of Titus focus of Nov. 14 lecture (CARLO WOLFF, Cleveland Jewish News).

Professor Steven Fine, who has been researching this Arch for decades, will probe it and the various meanings it has spawned for some 2,000 years in “The Arch of Titus: From Jerusalem and Back,” at 6 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. Fine’s free talk is the annual Julius Lecture in Ancient Art, hosted by the CWRU Department of Art History and Art.

An exhibition of the same name as Fine’s lecture is on view through Jan. 14, 2018, at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City.

More on that exhibition is here. And for much more on the Arch of Titus, follow the links there and here.

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

More on Joshua and that eclipse

PHILOLOGOS: No, the Book of Joshua Does Not Tell of a Rare Solar Eclipse. Despite the claim of two recent scientific papers (Mosaic Magazine). PaleoJudaica is cited.

This is something that our British and Israeli scholars do not appear to have thought of. It’s not enough, in interpreting the Bible, to know Akkadian and astronomy. You also have to know how to read a simple story.

Yep.

Background here and here.

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

Moss and Baden on Hobby Lobby

INTERVIEW: Investigating the Hobby Lobby Family: An Interview with Candida Moss and Joel S. Baden (Gordon Haber, Religion and Politics). For more on their new book, Bible Nation, see here and links. And follow the links there (and also here) for many other past posts on the Museum of the Bible, Hobby Lobby, and the Green Collection.

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

AJR on PSCO 2017-18

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins (PSCO) 2017-2018.

AJR will be sharing highlights from the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins. This year's theme "science and the scientific" asks, "Does considering knowledge as practiced in the ancient world disrupt, modify, and nuance our understanding of the “scientific”?"

Looks like a good lineup.

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