Detective work on 1970s Temple archaeology

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Temple Mount Riddles Resolved by Tens of Thousands of Tiny Pieces. The monumental buildings on Temple Mount, Jerusalem turn out to have been decorated chiefly with images of plants and geometric forms, patient researcher finds (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

What did the Temple Mount compound look like over 2,000 years ago? How were its buildings decorated? The literature and the archaeology do not always coincide, but new research may have put some of the questions to rest. Including the enigma of who built a set of subterranean domes. Who completed the construction however will have to remain a mystery for now.

Much of what we know, or think we know, comes from the 1st century C.E. traitor-cum-historian Josephus Flavius, who devoted a section in one of his books to the Mount and the temple itself, which is associated with the massive construction drive by the Roman vassal king of the Jews, Herod. And we also have some knowledge from archaeological research.

[...]

A recent new study by Dr. Orit Peleg-Barkat of the Hebrew University archaeology department reexamined Josephus’ text in comparison with archaeological finds from Temple Mount digs in the 1970s. Focusing on fragments of decoration found from the time, she extrapolates to the construction of the buildings, and does propose answers to some questions – including that issue of the 162 columns that don’t divide by four. She also raises new questions too.

[...]

For the coin evidence that the Temple platform was completed after Herod's time, see here. For the second Arch of Titus, see here.

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

Emek Shaveh vs. Elad

POLITICS: ARCHEOLOGY IN ISRAEL AS A POLITICAL WEAPON. Emek Shaveh’s Mizrachi: When you control the past, you control the present and the future (Daniel K. Eisenbud, Jerusalem Post).

The battle between right- and left-wing ideologues is evident at archeological sites in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, where discoveries are routinely exhibited to the world as evidence of Israeli sovereignty in the Jewish homeland or as an occupier.

The two main opponents in the ongoing war over rightful sovereignty between Jews and Palestinians are the left-wing archeological political activist NGO Emek Shaveh, and its right-wing counterpart, the City of David Foundation (also known as Elad).

The former is primarily funded by European countries with a decidedly “anti-occupation” stance, while the latter deems the term “occupation” an incendiary insult to a people with thousands of years of history in Jerusalem.

This protracted war came to a fevered pitch in May, when UNESCO approved a resolution rejecting Jewish ties to Jerusalem – including its holiest site, the Temple Mount – prompting claims of flagrant antisemitism against the international body.

Last week, the heads of Emek Shaveh and the City of David Foundation explained why they allege the other is attempting to manipulate history to further their respective political narratives at the expense of science itself.

This is a long, informative article that gives both organizations a good deal of space to defend themselves and define their opponent.

Past PaleoJudaica posts involving Emek Shaveh are here and links. Past posts on Elad are here and here and links. Not surprisingly, the two organizations often intersect in these posts.

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

Looting arrests at Khirbet Ma'on

APPREHENDED: Antiquities theft: 'A widespread and destructive phenomenon.' Arab antiquities thieves nabbed at archaeological site mentioned in the Book of Joshua (Mordechai Sones, Arutz Sheva).

Members of the Archaeology Unit of the Civil Administration arrested a large group of antiquities thieves who broke into a burial cave in Khirbet Ma'on, which lies southeast of Hevron. Khirbet added to the name of a site means "the ruins of."

Ma'on was one of the main settlements in the southern Hevron hills of Judea and is mentioned in the Book of Joshua on the list of cities of Judea, dating back to the MIddle Bronze Age and the First Temple Period.

[...]

The site also contains remains from the Second Temple period and a Byzantine-era synagogue.

I have noted other recent looting and smuggling arrests in Israel and on the West Bank here, here, here, and links.

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

Exhibition on the Birmingham Qur'an fragments in Abu Dhabi

DIGITAL, THAT IS: Exhibition on ‘Birmingham Quran’ opens (The Gulf Today).

BU DHABI: A digital exhibition of the manuscript of the ‘Birmingham Quran’, one of the oldest surviving parts of the Quran in the world, was inaugurated last night at the Umm Al Emarat Park in Abu Dhabi.

The manuscript includes parts of Surahs 18-20 of the Quran, written in ink on parchment using an early Arabic Hijazi script. Part of the University’s Mingana collection of manuscripts, it is believed to date to the 7th Century AD.

The exhibition is being staged by the British Council in collaboration with the University of Birmingham as part of the UAE/UK Year of Creative Collaboration 2017 and was opened by the Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, Noura Al Kaabi, and the British Ambassador, Philip Parham.

[...]

The manuscript is on display "in digital form" and a replica is also present. Presumably the original is still in the Mingana Collection in Birmingham.

For past posts on the very old and very important Birmingham Qur'an fragments, start here and follow the links.

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

Exhibition canceled: Germany won't guarantee return of DSS to Israel

WELL, THAT'S AWKWARD: ISRAEL PULLS OUT OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBIT IN GERMANY. Frankfurt museum couldn’t guarantee scrolls’ return if claimed by Palestinians or Jordanians (BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JTA/Jerusalem Post).

Israel has pulled out of a planned exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Frankfurt because the German government would not guarantee their return if claimed by Palestinians or Jordanians.

The Frankfurt Bible Museum announced that it has canceled the exhibit which was scheduled for a September 2019 opening. Its director, Jürgen Schefzyk, said he regretted the German government’s decision, adding that neither Holland nor Austria would have hesitated to issue general immunity guarantees.

According to German news reports, the government guarantee would have blocked Palestinian or Jordanian authorities from contesting the provenance of the scrolls, which are among the oldest known texts related to the Hebrew Bible.

[...]

The deputy mayor of Frankfurt is not pleased with the German government.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts that bear on this subject are here and links.

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

Supreme Court hearing on Persepolis Archive case starts tomorrow

PERSEPOLIS ARCHIVE UPDATE: Will Ancient Persian Artifacts Be Sold To The Highest Bidder? (Shayan Modarres, The Iranian).

On December 4th, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a case that will decide the fate of the Persepolis tablets – ancient Persian artifacts that are currently on display in the United States. The Persepolis tablets are clay tablets written in Aramaic and other ancient languages dating back to the fifth century BC, and contain important clues about the religion, administration, society, and economy inside the ancient Persian empire. Millions of Iranian descendants of the Persian empire across the globe today treasure these precious artifacts as historical records of their lineage. If successful, the plaintiffs may be able to seize these precious artifacts from the museums that are currently displaying them to sell them off to the highest bidder.

The Court is faced with one question: can United States citizen victims of terror sue foreign countries designated as state sponsors of terror, win judgments for money damages, and seize and sell the property of the foreign country to satisfy the judgment? That is the question that will ultimately decide whether the Supreme Court of the United States will allow ancient artifacts from the Persian empire to be seized from museums and sold into private hands after it hears the case of Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran in less than two weeks.

[...]

PaleoJudaica has been following this case for years. For past posts, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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

Multispectral imaging

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: What Is Multispectral Imaging And How Is It Changing Archaeology And Digital Humanities Today? (Sarah Bond, Forbes).

What is multispectral imaging and how is the technology changing the face of archaeology, art history and digital humanities today? The non-invasive digital technique is making the past visible in ways we never thought possible.

In the world of archaeology and art history, even objects that have long been known to the world are now providing new information for researchers. This is in part due to an approach called multispectral imaging (MSI). Multispectral imaging first began as bulky and expensive remote sensing equipment used by high-tech astronomy labs like those at NASA interested in planetary science and mapping mineral deposits.

Improvements to sensors and apertures have downsized MSI technology and made it more cost-efficient in recent years. Consequently, the technique has become a more regularized part of the fields of digital archaeology and art preservation as a novel means of revealing hidden materials, pigments and inks that the naked eye alone cannot decipher.

[...]

Some recent PaleoJudaica posts involving multispectral imaging are here, here, and here, plus links. And for older posts on the subject, use the blog search engine.

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

The keyholder of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

ECUMENICAL: The Muslim Who Holds the Ancient Key to Jesus' Tomb in Jerusalem. As Christian denominations vie for control over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the 800-year-old key rests with a Muslim man named Adeeb Joudeh (Reuters/Haaretz).

Due to archaeologically-informative restorations, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre) has been in the news recently. For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Church, start here and follow the links.

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

Dello Russo on the Roman Jewish catacombs

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Dissertation Spotlight | Jessica Dello Russo.

Jessica Dello Russo, "Jewish Shadows of Subterranean Christian Rome," Ph.D. dissertation, Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, 2017.

My research for the doctorate from the Vatican’s Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology concentrates on the material testimony and modern discovery accounts of burials dating to the Ancient Roman era. Whether for reasons of context or content these tombs are identified as belonging to Jews.

My work spans many centuries of scholarship on different types of archaeological finds. What really interests me is this: from the two types of data, literary and archaeological, what are the “essential differences”, if any, between Jewish and contemporaneous non-Jewish, notably Christian, burial arrangements and tomb monuments?

[...]

Past PaleoJudaica posts on the Roman Jewish catacombs are here and links.

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

Review of Kaplan, My Perfect One

REVIEWS OF THE ENOCH SEMINAR: Laura Lieber reviews My Perfect One: Typology and Early Rabbinic Interpretation of the Song of Songs (Jonathan Kaplan).

Jonathan Kaplan, My Perfect One: Typology and Early Rabbinic Interpretation of the Song of Songs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-0199359332. Pp. 245. $74.00 cloth/ebook.

Laura Suzanne Lieber
Duke University

Excerpt:

Most of the most readily accessible and familiar early Jewish interpretations of the Song of Songs—notably Song of Songs Rabbah (the major midrash explicating the Song) and the Targum (Aramaic version) of the Song—significantly postdate the Tannaitic material studied by Kaplan. Songs Rabbah is often dated to around the fifth century CE (although it surely contains earlier material) while the Targum is likely from the seventh century CE. In their received form, these works offer verse-by-verse commentaries on the Song, as do a number of late antique liturgical poems composed for use during Passover. The Tannaitic readings of the Song explored by Kaplan are, by contrast, episodic and occasional, and they cluster in the midrashic sources around specifically evocative sources from the Torah, such as the Song at the Sea (Exod 15). Kaplan’s analysis culls and organizes these deployments of the Song along thematic lines.

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

Pigeons and doves

THE ASOR BLOG: Not Just for the Birds: Pigeons in the Roman and Byzantine Near East (Jennifer Ramsay). Doves are, of course, mentioned occasionally in the Bible. Then there's this:

Archaeologically we know that pigeon-rearing was already well established on the southern coastal plains of the Levant by the Hellenistic period. Hundreds of hewn underground installations date to this period and there are also many structures from the Roman and Byzantine Periods all over the region. Pigeon structures have been identified in archaeological contexts at Jericho, Jerusalem, Masada, Herodium, and Petra, to name a few. A newly discovered dovecote at ‘Ain al-Baida/‘Amman in Jordan, dating to the Iron Age, may help date other regional dovecotes to earlier periods than originally assumed. An excellent example of pictorial evidence dated to 100 BCE comes from a scene on the Palestrina mosaic located east of Rome at the sanctuary of Fortuna Primagenia. The mosaic illustrates landscape scenes along the Nile and includes an often overlooked example of a pigeon tower.

And there's also that Masada miniseries, "The Dovekeepers." Plus much else of interest in this essay.

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

Landau lectures on The Revelation of the Magi

'TIS THE SEASON: Apocryphal text sheds light on Wise Men story (Courtney Sosnowski, Baylor Lariat).

Many people, Christian or not, could tell you about the three wise men who followed a star from the east and presented the baby Jesus with gold, frankincense and myrrh.

However, the mere 12 verses in the Gospel of Matthew leave many details to question about these mysterious men. Brent Landau, lecturer in the department of religious studies at the University of Texas at Austin shared a relatively unheard story about the Magi of the Bible, in his Thursday lecture “Christmas from the Wise Men’s Point of View.”

The lecture addressed the apocryphal text, “The Revelation of the Magi,” which gives the Magi’s account of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth.

[...]

The Revelation of the Magi, a Syriac apocryphal New Testament text that was published a few years ago by Dr. Landau, has become a fixture in Christmas-Season media stories. Deservedly so: it's a great text, even though it tells us nothing about the historical Magi or the birth of Jesus.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on it are here and links and here.

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

News from Tigay on the Shapira scroll

FORGERY OR THE REAL THING? Was this the first Dead Sea Scroll? More than a century ago, an antiquities dealer from Jerusalem claimed he had discovered an ancient version of the book of Deuteronomy. But was it a fake? (Chanan Tigay, BBC). Excerpt:

For those following the affair, Shapira’s death at the age of 54 seemed to be the sad end of his story. But fast forward more than 60 years to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, thousands of ancient biblical scrolls and scroll fragments first uncovered in 1947. Shapira’s Deuteronomy was said to have been stashed away in a cave. So, too, were the Dead Sea Scrolls. Shapira’s manuscript was full of interesting departures from the traditional Bible text. So, too, were the Dead Sea Scrolls. Shapira’s text was found by Bedouin wandering the deserts near the Dead Sea. So, too, were the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The similarities were too striking to dismiss. Beginning in the 1950s, a number of scholars decided to return to Shapira’s manuscript, using methods not available to Ginsburg in 1883, to prove once and for all whether it was real or fake.

But there was a problem: Shapira’s scrolls had mysteriously vanished.

Mr. Tigay's adventures are both entertaining and informative, so take some time to sit down and read the whole article. It contains some revelations that I have not seen before.

As for the rhetorical question in the headline: on the one hand, it has recently been argued in a peer-review journal article that the Shapira scroll was a genuine ancient artifact. On the other hand, Mr. Tigay has uncovered some striking circumstantial evidence that points pretty strongly in a different direction. Again, read it all. For more on his book, start with the latter link and follow the links from there.

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

An Idumean temple/palace near Lachish?

BEYOND THE PALACE HEMI-POWERED DRONES SCREAM DOWN THE BOULEVARD: Drone Spots 2,200-year-old Edomite Temple in Israeli Live-fire Zone. The temple, or it may have been a palace, had been burned down by Jewish forces who conquered the region, converted surviving locals and built ritual baths (Ruth Schuster and Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

Archaeologists using drones have found what seems to be a rare Edomite temple dating to 2,200 years ago, smack in the middle of a live-fire zone. The structure seems to have been destroyed by Jewish forces, possibly under Judah Maccabee himself, who then converted the surviving locals.

The structure could be a temple, or a palace, and in any case seems to have been destroyed in one of the incessant upheavals of the region. In this case, the building, evidently a large one, may have been destroyed during the Hasmonean conquest of the region in 112 B.C.E. Following the Hasmonean victory, the locals were forced to convert to Judaism.

The structure was found on a hill at Horvat 'Amuda, in the Lachish region. After decades of being barred from the site because of its use for military training, excavation commenced a couple of months ago and uncovered this structure, from the Hellenistic period.

[...]

With apologies to Bruce Springsteen. Couldn't resist.

Seriously, this sounds like an extraordinarily important discovery which may tell us a lot about the Edomites/Idumeans. Cross-file under Archaeology.

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

Torah scroll seized in Turkey

APPREHENDED: Four Arrested in Turkey for Stealing 700-Year Old Torah Scroll (Sputnik News).

Four people were arrested in Turkey last week after attempting to sell an ancient Torah scroll to undercover police officers for almost $2 million.

The Torah, the holiest book in Judaism, contains the entire Hebrew text of the Five Books of Moses and is read aloud in all synagogues. The one recently recovered in Turkey is believed to be 700 years old.

[...]

It's possible that they had a 700-year-old Torah scroll, but I am skeptical of all details of the story until I see some independent verification. I note it because in recent years there have been many stories about supposedly-ancient Jewish artifacts being seized from smugglers in Turkey.

I like to keep track of these. I have collected my past posts here (follow-ups here and here). Often the claims about the artifacts have seemed dubious. This case is one of the more plausible stories, although the asking price strikes me as awfully high.

Again, well done to the Turkish authorities for all their efforts against antiquities smuggling.

The photo at the top of the article is not of the Torah scroll in question. It is of a printed volume and the text isn't even the Pentateuch.

UPDATE: Reader Roberto Labanti points us to this Daily Sabah article, which has photos of what is reported to be this Torah manuscript: 700-year-old Torah seized in Turkey's Muğla. It is written in gold ink (cf. here, here and here). The first and third image are upside-down, but I can make out enough of the text to see that it isn't a Torah text. It has more recent Hebrew forms in it. Also, it isn't nearly big enough to be a complete Torah scroll. I don't know what it is, but I very much doubt that it is worth $1.9 million.

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

Of mummy masks, Mark, and the Museum of the Bible

MANUSCRIPTS: Why did the Museum of the Bible’s scholars destroy ancient Egyptian artifacts? Christian apologists say they found New Testament fragments in mummy masks. It’s a dubious claim (Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden, The Christian Century). Excerpt:

The fragment touted by Carroll and others as part of a first-century version of the Gospel of Mark remains unpublished. Only a handful of people have claimed to have seen it, and many in the scholarly world doubt that it exists, though Green declares that he had authorized its purchase. The claim that it was discovered in a mummy mask has since been walked back. And while until recently the Museum of the Bible’s website still referred to the potential for discovering biblical texts in mummy masks, current and recent employees have told us that the practice of purchasing and dismantling these artifacts is no longer part of the museum’s practice.

What, then, of McDowell’s remarkable discoveries? In a fundraising document written in the wake of the Discover the Evidence event, McDowell describes how Carroll had extracted papyri from the cartonnage and found seven biblical texts. McDowell even provides images of the fragments: they are from fourth-century manuscripts of Matthew, Mark, John, and Galatians, and a fifth-century text of Jeremiah. What he does not make clear, however, is that none of these fragments actually came from the two mummy masks that Carroll dissolved that day. They came, rather, from cartonnage used in book bindings from centuries later. (It is not even clear that these texts are what Carroll and McDowell purport them to be. A specialist in papyrology has questioned both the dates assigned to the manuscripts and their identification.) What did come out of McDowell’s mummy masks was exactly what one would ex­pect from Ptolemaic Egypt: economic texts, letters, and burial documents.

Carroll told us, “I can only say I know what I’ve seen.” No one else has seen the materials, though. And to date, not a single Christian text has been published, formally or informally, that has come from a mummy mask.

More on the mummy masks and the Palmolive soap is here and links. And for more on that report of a first-century manuscript of the Gospel of Mark, see here and links. And for background on the Museum of the Bible, 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.

Textiles from Iron Age I Meggido

ARCHAEOLOGY: Hidden hoard hints at how ancient elites protected the family treasures. A find from Israel reveals clues about Iron Age wealth protection (Bruce Bower, Science News).

BOSTON — Long before anyone opened a bank account or rented a safe deposit box, wealth protection demanded a bit of guile and a broken beer jug. A 3,100-year-old jewelry stash was discovered in just such a vessel, unearthed from an ancient settlement in Israel called Megiddo in 2010. Now the find is providing clues to how affluent folk hoarded their valuables at a time when fortunes rested on fancy metalwork, not money.

[...]

This is outside PaleoJudaica's usual range, but a detail of this story caught my eye. This jewelry hoard from about 1100 BCE Megiddo was wrapped in two linen cloths and the linen cloths still survived. You can see them wadded up in the photo. They aren't in great shape, but they are there. So some textiles that had been hidden in a jar survived for 3000 years. Regular readers will see where I am going with this. The implication is that if someone in the time of the United Monarchy had sealed up some scrolls in a jar (like some of the Dead Sea Scrolls) in the region of Megiddo, they would have had a reasonable chance of surviving to the present.

This and the evidence from the Timna Valley excavation give us some hope that someday we may find inscribed scroll fragments from the time of the United Monarchy, or even a bit earlier. If someone hid them in jars, they could still be there. We have no way of know whether such scrolls were hidden, but there is clear evidence that if they were, their survival to the present is within the realm of possibility.

Let's just keep that in mind.

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Review of Mason, A History of the Jewish War, A.D. 66-74

CAMWS (CJ-ONLINE): A History of the Jewish War, A.D. 66-74. by Steven Mason. New York: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2016. Pp. xii + 690. Hardcover, $150.00. ISBN 978-0-521-85329-3. Reviewed by Yaron Eliav, University of Michigan (yzeliav@umich.edu). Excerpt:

Such deficiencies in argument, when taken together with other blunders that dilute the book-its unnecessary length and murky structure, its numerous typos,[1] the author's flimsy, usually second-hand knowledge of Hebrew and/or Aramaic,[2] the spoken vernacular of one of the major groups of people he is studying, and his limited acquaintance with other literatures of the time that provide insight into the events he is studying, such as the Qumran and rabbinic corpuses[3]-all undermine the validity of this work. Those well-trained in the history of the revolt will find value in the questions Mason raises and in his provocative suggestions, even if only to reject them. Others, seeking a good and thorough presentation of this key moment in ancient history, will have to await for future, or revert to earlier, more solid discussions by others.

An earlier, and more positive, review of the book was noted here.

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Lipton (ed.), From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey

NEW BOOK FROM URIM PUBLICATIONS: From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey: A Commentary on Food in the Torah by Diana Lipton.

Urim Publications, 2018
Hardcover, 302 pages
ISBN:978-965-524-252-2

Food is at the heart of Jewish life and culture as the subject of many recent studies - popular and academic - and countless Jewish jokes. From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey spotlights food in the Torah – where it’s used to explore such themes as love and compassion, commitment, character, justice, belonging and exclusion, deception, and life and death. Originally created as an online project to support the innovative food rescue charity, Leket Israel, From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey comprises short essays on food and eating in the parasha by 52 internationally acclaimed scholars and Jewish educators and a commentary by Diana Lipton.
Proceeds from sales of this book will go to Leket Israel.

Follow the link for the TOC and ordering information.

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

Newman, Paul's Glory-Christology

REISSUED IN PAPERBACK BY BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Title: Paul's Glory-Christology
Sub-title: Tradition & Rhetoric
Series: (Library of Early Christology Series)
By (author): Carey C. Newman
ISBN10-13: 1481307967 : 9781481307963
Illustrations: 5 illus
Format: Paperback
Size: 230x155mm
Pages: 323
Weight: .542 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

Glory formed an essential part of early Christianity's christological vocabulary. Along with "word", "image" and "wisdom" Glory (doxa) language worked to define the identity, status, and even uniqueness of Christian belief in Jesus. In this book Carey C Newman, using methodology developed in semantics, semiotics, and literary theory, examines the origin and rhetoric of Paul's Glory-language. Newman divides the investigation into three distinct tasks: (1) to plot the tradition -- history of Glory that formed part of Paul's linguistic world, (2) to examine Paul's letters, in light of the reconstructed tradition -- history of Glory, in order to discern the rationale of Paul's identification of Christ as Glory, and (3) to map out the implications of such an identification for Paul's theological and rhetorical strategy. Newman reaches four conclusions for understanding Paul. First, Paul inherited a symbolic universe with signs already full of signification. Second, awareness of the connotative range of a surface symbol aids in discerning Paul's precise contingent strategy. Third, knowing a symbol's referential power defines and contributes to the deeper structure of Paul's theological grammar. Finally, the heuristic power within the construals of the Glory tradition coalesce in Paul's Christophany and thus provide coherence at the deepest level of Paul's Christology. Taken together, these conclusions reveal that nothing less than Paul's declaration of Jesus as God is expressed in his designation of Jesus as Glory.

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

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A new DSS edition and translation

PROJECT: Alison Schofield Tackles New Translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. DU professor is one of three editors on an international project (Jon Stone, University of Denver).

Alison Schofield is truly living her childhood dream. An associate professor of religious and Judaic studies, she works with some of the most intriguing ancient manuscripts in Judaism and Christianity.

“I was always a fan of Indiana Jones, and I was always interested in the Middle East,” Schofield says. “I’ve been interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls for as long as I can remember.”

That interest has paid off. Today, she is part of a three-editor team working to create a new translation of the famous scrolls. “My field tends to be male-dominated,” Schofield says. “For the first time in history a woman has been selected to one of the highest roles of editing, and also being an American, because generally it has been European scholars.”

[...]

Schofield joins Daniel Falk of Penn State University and retired professor Martin Abegg Jr. of Trinity Western University in piecing together the fragments, creating a translation and providing textual notes and commentary to help readers make sense of all the different copies of the scrolls.

[...]

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

4th-century mortar at the tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

MATERIAL CULTURE: Mortar Found in 'Tomb of Jesus' Cave Dates to Constantine Era One mystery surrounding the tomb had been the origin and date of the marble slab at the bottom of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Haaretz).

Mortar found in the limestone cave at the bottom of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has been dated to the time of Emperor Constantine, who reigned in the 4th century C.E., National Geographic reported on Tuesday.

Chemical tests of the mortar between the limestone and the marble slab covering the purported tomb date it to around 345 C.E., NatGeo reports. It certainly could be the tomb found by envoys of Emperor Constantine and the Holy Roman Empire around 20 years earlier.

[...]

This seems a bit gratuitous:

There is no archaeological evidence whatsoever for the existence of Jesus, let alone for the identity of the person who might have been buried in that cave, if any.

I wouldn't expect much in the way of direct archaeological evidence for the existence of a first-century Palestinian itinerant healer. But there is plenty of textual evidence. What we can say about the historical Jesus which goes beyond his mere existence is, of course, a matter of considerable debate. Likewise, we have no way of being sure who was buried in this tomb. The really interesting thing from an archaeological perspective is that it does seem to be a first-century tomb.

More on the recent repairs at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre) is here and links (cf. here.

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

"Diaspora" and Masada

THE PERFORMING ARTS: Death And Sex At Masada. Politics, Birthright Israel trips and a powerful myth animate ‘Diaspora’ (Ted Merwin, Jewish Week).

Few places are as iconic in Jewish life as Masada, the desert stronghold where, as the story goes, a courageous group of Jews chose to die at their own hands rather than perish by the sword of the conquering Roman army. Each year, tens of thousands of young American Jews make a pilgrimage to the site, where they learn about its importance in Jewish history. And just two years ago, a pair of pop culture versions of the Masada story hit our screens, the melodramatic CBS movie, “The Dovekeepers,” with its implicit call for religious tolerance, and “The Siege of Masada,” a documentary by the Smithsonian Channel that called Masada the “Alamo of the ancient world.”

Now comes Nathaniel Sam Shapiro’s Off-Broadway comedy “Diaspora,” directed by Saheem Ali, in which a group of Birthright Israel students touring Masada travel back in time to 73 C.E. and encounter a small band of women and children who survived the catastrophe. The play also comes as Birthright is in the news for its recent decision to disqualify the Reform movement from participating as a trip provider, even as both Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox groups are increasing their share of free, 10-day trips to Israel.

[...]

For past PaleoJudaica posts on the history and archaeology of, and revisionist views on, Masada, start here and follow the links. Past posts on the Dovekeepers series are here and here and links. And for the Smithsonian documentary, see here.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

New volume of TC

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

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

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.

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

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.

[...]

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

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).

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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