YHWH and Asherah at Kuntillet Ajrud

EPIGRAPHY AND MONOTHEISM A Strange Drawing Found in Sinai Could Undermine Our Entire Idea of Judaism. Is that a 3,000-year-old picture of god, his penis and his wife depicted by early Jews at Kuntillet Ajrud? (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

More than four decades after its excavation wound down, a small hill in the Sinai Desert continues to bedevil archaeologists. The extraordinary discoveries made at Kuntillet Ajrud, an otherwise nondescript slope in the northern Sinai, seem to undermine one of the foundations of Judaism as we know it.

Then, it seems, "the Lord our God” wasn't “one God.” He may have even had a wife, going by the completely unique "portrait" of the Jewish deity that archaeologists found at the site, which may well be the only existing depiction of YHWH.

[...]

First, I don't think these discoveries undermine anything in Judaism, even if the more creative interpretations of the evidence prove to be correct. The Bible makes it quite clear that in the Iron Age II (the monarchical period) the idea of monotheism hadn't entirely caught on in ancient Israel and it would not succeed definitively until after the Babylonian exile.

The remarkable discoveries at Kuntillet Ajrud are not recent news. I remember discussing them with interest in postgraduate seminars in the early 1980s. But the material has since been published and the discussion continues to move forward. This long article gives a summary of the current state of play.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts on Asherah at Kuntillet Ajrud and related matters are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

Aramaic inscriptions in a Roman-era Jordanian tomb

(EPIGRAPHIC) ARAMAIC WATCH: Findings from Irbid's Bait Ras tomb are 'unique in region' (Hana Namrouqa, Jordan Times).

AMMAN — Studies and excavations on Irbid Governorate’s Bait Ras tomb revealed that the archaeological site is "unique on a regional level", featuring Greek and Aramaic inscriptions and many frescoes, archaeologists said on Tuesday.

The Bait Ras tomb happened to be "virtually intact", the archaeologists said, indicating that it dates back to the Roman period, specifically in the period from 1st-3rd century AD.

The Jordan Department of Antiquities (DoA) and the USAID’s Sustainable Cultural Heritage Through Engagement of Local Communities Project (SCHEP) shared the Bait Ras tomb project’s initial findings and future plans during a ceremony at the site of the tomb.

Discovered by sheer accident in November 2011, the tomb’s walls are covered with elaborate paintings and inscriptions of significant historical value, DoA General Director Monther Jamhawi said.

[...]

This is the first I have heard of this site. The report says that 52 inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic as well as "dozens" of frescoes were recovered in the tomb. I hope we hear more soon.

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

Frilingos on the Infancy Gospels

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Why Do the Infancy Gospels Matter? (Christopher A. Frilingos).

As I studied the infancy gospels, I began to wonder if something had been overlooked in the intense scholarly focus on the figures of Jesus and Mary. That something, I concluded, was the depiction of familial relationships.

***********

In my book, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph: Family Trouble in the Infancy Gospels, I use the term family gospels instead of “infancy gospels.” The new terminology puts a spotlight on the dynamics of household relationships in the accounts. ...

Cross-file under New Book and New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

I have more on some of the Infancy Gospels here.

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

The sages and Second Isaiah on the Exodus

IT'S STILL PASSOVER: An Ideal Exodus? (Hakham Dr. Isaac Sassoon, TheTorah.com).

At the Seder we commemorate our ancestors’ departure from Egyptian bondage and express gratitude for the inestimable gift of freedom. And yet, some ancient rabbis, and prophets before them, could not ignore the affliction and hardship that befell Egyptians as well as Israelites at various stages of the story. And so for the future they envisioned a kinder redemption.

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

Was it the resurrected Jesus walking on water?

BELATEDLY FOR EASTER: Walking on the Water, Revisited (Philip Jenkins, The Anxious Bench).

Rudolf Bultmann and others suggested that other early Resurrection appearances survive in the Gospels in the form of stories that are now associated with Jesus’ lifetime. Actually, that sort of confused reshuffling is all the more likely given what I said above about the forgotten parts of the earliest creeds. When the gospels were written, the writers had a lot of stories to deal with and didn’t exactly know what to do with some of them.

The Transfiguration (Mark 9) is the best known example of such a possible “displacement.” Here, though, I’m referring to the famous scene when Jesus is seen walking on the water (Mark 6: 47-51, Matt. 14.22-33, John 6.16-21), which is generally listed among the miracles Jesus performed during his lifetime. Plenty of scholars through history have noted the resemblances between this scene and the acknowledged post-Resurrection appearances, especially that in John 21.

Could be.

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

Moses' horns are back in the news

TRANSLATION AND ICONOGRAPHY: Why Even Some Jews Once Believed Moses Had Horns. It is often said that this is a simple matter of mistranslation, but Vulgate author Saint Jerome would not have made such a crude mistake (Elon Gilad, Haaretz).

Hence, Jerome must truly have believed that Moses came down from Mount Sinai with horns, and not radiant. Since Jerome was living in the Holy Land at the time and consulted with Jews when working on his translation, he must have been informed by them that Moses indeed had horns. This may be a bit hard to believe, but we in fact know that some Jews did believe that Moses was literally horned.

John Meade also has a post at the ETC Blog on the ancient biblical translations and Moses' horns: Why Does Michelangelo's Moses Look Like That? He agrees that Jerome knew what he was doing when translated Exodus 34:29 the way he did. Whether that was the correct translation remains debated today.

In PaleoJudaica's early days there was some discussion about the origins of the tradition that Moses had horns. You can follow that discussion here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and, more recently, here (link has rotted; sorry) and here. The link has rotted in the last post too, but you can see the carving of the horned Moses at Rossyln Chapel here.

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

More on the de-mining of Qasr Al-Yahud

PILGRIMAGE MINEFIELD: Clearing Land Mines From the Spot Where Jesus Is Said to Have Been Baptized (Isabel Kershner, New York Times). Belatedly for Easter, sort of.

Now, in an effort to rehabilitate and open up the rest of the site, the Halo Trust, a British-American mine clearance charity, has begun a mine-clearing operation with the cooperation of the Israeli National Mine Action Authority, working under Israel’s Ministry of Defense, and the Palestinian Mine Action Center under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority.

The project is being jointly funded by the Ministry Defense and Halo, which has raised more than $1 million so far, and it will probably take at least a year.

Despite the political awkwardness of working in occupied territory, the Palestinians and Israelis share an interest in promoting Christian tourism. Both Israel and the West Bank boast major Christian sites like Nazareth and Bethlehem, and the pilgrim trade is lucrative.

I have been following this story for a while, but this New York Times piece covers it in considerable detail and is worth a read. Qasr Al-Yahud is one possible site for the baptism of Jesus. Despite the current danger, it is an increasingly popular pilgrimage site and tourist attraction.

Background here and links,

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

Giant resurrected Jesus

REMNANT OF GIANTS: Jesus’ Resurrection and Giants (Deane Galbraith). Belatedly for Easter.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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

Archaeological petition vs. Temple Mount prayer plaza

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The archaeologists versus the Kotel plan. 'Jewish history is being trampled to satisfy a religious minority that hasn't been satisfied in the past-and likely won't be in the future' (Arutz Sheva).

Robinson Arch Compound is an archeological garden, a legally-mandated antiquities site, located at the foot of one of the important entrance gates to the Temple Mount and built during the Second Temple period. It extends around the foundations of the gate, the merchants' shops next to them, and the mikvahs, among the most impressive in the world, once intended for pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem during festivals.

Since news of the intention to prepare a prayer plaza at Robinson’s Arch, the archaeological community has been in a rage, strongly opposing the move. The present petition is the culmination of the archaeologists' struggle that has been going on for years against the platform, established as a wound in the heart of the impressive archaeological site. "Four rounds of chipping away at the site have turned it from a magnificent place to one where the ruins are trampled under plates and iron ... There is no doubt what the end of the site will be after the huge works planned and approved, since in the end - even with the best of intentions - it will be destroyed definitively and completely, and its very exposure will be will be an eternal disgrace," the petition states.

As of last summer, the plan had been suspended. I don't know what its status is now.

Background here and links.

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

Passover priestly blessing at Western Wall 2018

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Tens of thousands flock to Western Wall for priestly blessing. US Ambassador David Friedman takes part in Jerusalem ceremony as throngs make traditional Passover pilgrimage (Times of Israel). This ritual is an annual Passover event. Last year's post, with links, is here.

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

On the eating of Matzah

PASSOVER IS HERE: Why Do We Eat Matzah in the Spring? (Dr. Yael Avrahami, TheTorah.com).

To mark the new year of grain and ensure the bountiful wheat harvest to come. But why do we remove all our chametz (leaven)?

For more on the probability that a spring new year was celebrated in ancient Israel, see here and links.

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

60 Minutes interviews Brent Searles

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: 60 Minutes’ to feature UK prof who developed a way to decipher ancient scrolls (KARLA WARD, Lexington Herald Leader).

The idea that a blackened, 2,000-year-old rolled-up papyrus scroll could somehow be unfurled and read today almost seems like a miracle.

It even seems that way to Brent Seales, the University of Kentucky computer science professor who came up with a way of doing it.

On Sunday night, Seales and his work will be featured on an episode of the longrunning CBS news magazine show “60 Minutes.” The show airs at 7 p.m.

[...]

The show ran last night. You can read the transcript at the link in the quote above. It's good to see 60 Minutes taking notice of the important work of Professor Seales, on which more here and links. Follow the links there for more on the recovery of the text of the charred Leviticus scroll. For more on his work on the Herculaneum scrolls, see here and links. And for still more on the site of Herculaneum and its carbonized scrolls, see here and here and many links.

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

What is Biblical Archaeology?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What is biblical archaeology? [Extract] (Eric H. Cline, OUP Blog).

In the following excerpt from Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction, Eric H. Cline explains the interests of biblical archaeologists, and explores the types of questions that those in the field set out to answer.

This book was published back in 2009, so I'm surprised to see OUP publishing an excerpt from it now. But it's nice to have anyway.

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

The Syriac Heritage Museum in Erbil

SYRIAC WATCH: In pictures: Syriac Heritage Museum showcases Iraq’s rich Christian past (A.C. Robinson, Rudaw).

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Just across the street from the oldest church in Ainkawa, a Christian neighborhood of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, sits the Syriac Heritage Museum, showcasing snippets of history from the different Christian denominations of Iraq.

“This museum is one of the most important museums in the Middle East because the Iraqi Christians are a minority and their history is being lost,” the museum’s director, David Nadhir Dinkhan, told Rudaw English. “We must try to preserve our history.”

The three main Christian denominations in Iraq are Chaldean, Catholic and Orthodox.

After receiving permission from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s Ministry of Culture to open the museum and collect remnants from across Iraq and Kurdistan, construction began on the Syriac Heritage Museum in 2009. It opened its doors in October 2015.

[...]

Regular readers may recall that Erbil is the modern name of the site of the ancient Kingdom of Adiabene, which was ruled by the Jewish convert Queen Helena in the first century C.E. More on the House of Adiabene is here and links

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

A Passover Haggadah from the Cairo Geniza

PASSOVER IS HERE: Cairo Genizah Project Reveals 11th Century Passover Haggadah (JNi.Media).

An ancient Haggadah from the Cairo Genizah, probably from the 10th-11th centuries CE, opens a window to the Jewish customs of the Middle Ages: the Passover Seder guidelines are written in Judeo-Arabic (Arabic in Hebrew letters, similar to Yiddish); the blessing for washing hands, “al netilat yadaim,” is expressed as “al rechitzat yadaim”; and this Haggadah follows the Eretz Israel tradition, which disappeared around the 12th century.

[...]

For many, many past posts on the Cairo Geniza, start here and here and follow the links.

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

Easter 2018

HAPPY EASTER to all those celebrating. My 2016 Easter post contains links leading to biblical and related passages concerning Easter and to correct information on the origin of the word. And this post gives biblical references for the Passion narrative.

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

Egyptian place names in Exodus

PASSOVER IS HERE: What We Know about the Egyptian Places Mentioned in Exodus (Dr. David A. Falk, TheTorah.com).

Egyptian records and archaeological findings shed light on the toponyms (place names) that appear in the exodus account: Ramesses, Pithom, Pi-Hahiroth, Baal-Zephon, Migdol, Sukkot, and Yam Suf.

Cross-file under Topography.

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

Review of Quinn, In Search of the Phoenicians

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Book Review: ‘In Search of the Phoenicians’ — Josephine Quinn (LISA KAAKI, Arab News).

In this provocative, brilliant and original book, Josephine Quinn not only sheds new light on the ancient civilization of Phoenicia but actually questions its very existence. Quinn argues that while the Phoenicians as a people certainly existed, as did the Phoenician language, there is no historical evidence that they ever constituted an ethnic group or nation or that they ever claimed to.

[...]

Past posts on the book are here (with some substantive comments) and here. And follow the links for more on Professor Quinn's work

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

Settlements in Judah in the Persian Period

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Persian period settlement in the territories of the former kingdom of Judah. Notice of a new article: Faust, Avraham. 2018. Forts or agricultural estates? Persian period settlement in the territories of the former kingdom of Judah. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 150 (1), 34-59. Follow the link for an abstract and a downloadable PDF of the article.

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

Hurtado on the Mary Magdalene film

LARRY HURTADO: “Mary Magdalene”: The Film. He thought it was historically dubious, anachronistic, and boring.

Background here and links.

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

Passover 2018

HAPPY PASSOVER TO ALL THOSE CELEBRATING! The festival begins this evening at sundown. Last year's Passover post is here and it has many Passover links. Relevant biblical texts are collected here. Some Passover-related posts from the last year are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

More on the Mellaart forgery accusation

IT'S COMPLICATED: Researcher Makes Controversial Allegation of Archaeological Fraud at Renowned Turkish Site. Eberhard Zangger alleges that the prominent British archaeologist James Mellaart forged artifacts. The accusations are difficult to evaluate (Lydia Pyne, Hyperallergic).

Zangger claimed that, in a note found after his death, Mellaart encouraged colleagues to publish these translations and artifacts after his death — and said that anyone following through with Mellaart’s request was being duped and perpetrating archaeological fraud. “I feel abused,” Zangger told LiveScience. He said that Mellaart “had no scruples when it came to harming other people’s careers.”

These accusations are difficult to evaluate. Mellaart died in 2012, and Zangger, whose allegations have not appeared in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, is cited as the only source in the story. Zangger did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement sent to Hyperallergic after publication, he said, “Publishing a peer reviewed article on this might have taken years, if a journal is at all willing to cover the subject.”

This article has some new information on the case. The accusations remain to be verified, if they can be.

Background linking to the Live Science article that broke the story is here.

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

Ancient Books Blog

ASSIMILATED TO THE BLOGOSPHERE: The Ancient Books Blog.

The project ‘Romans, Christians, and their Books, 300-486 CE’, explores how readers and writers in the late Latin west were affected by the change in book format from scroll to codex. Literary scrolls were the norm until the third or fourth century CE, but by the fifth century the codex had become the default format for books. This project explores the extent to which this change in format affected how people in late antiquity thought about literature. ...

The project is run by Dr. Cillian O’Hogan and his team at the University of British Columbia. He is also teaching CNRS503, “The Ancient Book this semester.

This project does not involve ancient Judaism explicitly, but it is highly relevant for understanding the transmission of many ancient Jewish texts in late antiquity.

HT AJR.

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

Review of Lipton, From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey

BOOK REVIEW: What the Torah talks about when it talks about food. In 'From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey,' Diana Lipton compiles an extensive commentary on the themes of sustenance in the Bible (Jessica Steinberg, Times of Israel).

Background here and here.

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

Coins from Great Revolt excavated in Jerusalem

EXCAVATION NUMISMATICS: COINS FROM DESTRUCTION OF SECOND TEMPLE FOUND IN TIME FOR PASSOVER. “A discovery like this—ancient coins bearing the words ‘Freedom’ and ‘Redemption’—found right before the Jewish Festival of Freedom—Passover—begins is incredibly moving” (Lidar Gravé-Lazi, Jerusalem Post). The coins were excavated with pottery in a large cave:

[Dr. Eilat] Mazar explained that there is a significant difference among the bronze coins, as in the first year when the rebels had hope and faith in their success, the inscription on the coins in ancient Hebrew script read: “For the Freedom of Zion.”

However, during the fourth year and before the destruction of the Temple, the rebels conveyed their despair by inscribing on the coins the inscription LeGeulat Tzion, meaning “For the Redemption of Zion.”

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

AJR reviews Sanders, From Adapa to Enoch

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylon (Mark Lester).

Seth L. Sanders. From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylon. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 167. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.

The essay opens:

Seth L. Sanders’s recent book, From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylonia puts forward a new history of cultural contact between Mesopotamian and Judean scribal cultures that culminated in the Second Temple Period. Sanders revisits the question of the shared features between Judean and Mesopotamian literature (such as ascent to heaven, heavenly visions, in addition to distinctively Babylonian astronomy and metrology), but he also offers two pointed methodological correctives for the study of ancient Near Eastern scribal cultures. The first corrective addresses the question of how to write a history of scribal culture; the second, addresses the question of how to approach religious experience in the ancient world.

[...]

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

Following Josephus in Rome

THE WORLD IS FULL OF HISTORY: Rome, Through the Eyes of Flavius Josephus. Where, but in the Eternal City, is it possible to map a 2,000-year-old eyewitness account of history onto an intact urban fabric? (DAVID LASKIN, New York Times).

Turncoat? Asylum seeker? Pragmatic visionary? Historians have long debated Josephus’s motives and character. What’s indisputable is that most of what is known about the violent encounter between Rome and Judea during this period comes out of his work. What’s astonishing is that, with a sharp eye and a bit of research, you can still walk in Josephus’s footsteps in contemporary Rome. Where but in the Eternal City is it possible to map a 2,000-year-old eyewitness account onto an intact urban fabric?

For many past PaleoJudaica posts on the Arch of Titus, start here (cf. here) and follow the links. Also, a notable link on the Arch and ancient Rome is here (scroll down).

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

The Talmud on mixtures, mice, and math

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Grapes of Math. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ the Talmudic calculations that make forbidden wine and food into permitted meals for religious Jews.

Of all the subjects treated in Tractate Avoda Zara, the one that takes up the most space is wine. The rabbis state as a general principle that Jews are not allowed to have anything to do with wine belonging to gentiles. Not only may Jews not drink such wine, they are not allowed to buy or sell it; nor can Jews have anything to do with wine that has been in the custody of a gentile, even briefly, or that a non-Jew has stirred or handled. The ostensible reason for this wide-ranging ban has to do with idol-worship: the rabbis are concerned that a pagan will use wine to pour out a libation to his god, thus rendering it abhorrent to Jews. The ban is also, of course, an effective way of discouraging business and personal relationships between Jews and non-Jews, which is also a goal of the rabbis in this tractate.

In Chapter Five of Avoda Zara, the subject of wine leads the rabbis to take up the issue of mixtures. ...

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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

Amirav, Grypeou, and Stroumsa (eds.) Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity

NEW BOOK FROM PEETER'S PRESS:

Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity
Encounters in the Abrahamic Religions, 6th-8th Centuries

Series:
Late Antique History and Religion, 17

Editors: Amirav H., Grypeou E., Stroumsa G.G.

Year: 2017
ISBN: 978-90-429-3537-2
Pages: XVIII-363 p.
Price: 94 EURO

Summary:
This volume includes papers on ancient apocalypticism and eschatology in the crucial period prior to the advent of Islam in the Mediterranean basin, and through the period (the sixth to the eighth centuries) when this new religion took roots and established itself in the area. As these were important social, religious, and cultural phenomena, the contributors to this volume - specialists in Late Antique and Byzantine, Syriac, Jewish, and Arabic studies - have investigated them from a variety of angles and foci, rendering this volume unique in terms of its interdisciplinary approach and broad scope. In this regard, Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity should be read as complimentary to the previous volume in the series, New Themes, New Styles in the Eastern Mediterranean, where similar goals were set and met, namely to understand not only how the Christian and Jewish populations responded to the dramatic political and military changes, but also how they expressed themselves in existing, reinvented, and new literary means at their disposal.

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

Review of Liverani, Imagining Babylon

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Mario Liverani, Imagining Babylon: The Modern Story of an Ancient City. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER), 11. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2016. Pp. xviii, 488. ISBN 9781614516026. $182.00. Reviewed by Felipe Rojas, Brown University (felipe_rojas@brown.edu).

How has the ancient Near Eastern city been "imagined and visualized, studied and reconstructed" (p. vii) over the past two hundred years? That is the question at the core of this wide-ranging book, originally published in Italian in 2013. According to Liverani, the answer should excite not only his fellow historians and archaeologists of the ancient Near East, but also many other scholars, including those studying the history of the city, the dynamics of colonialism and its aftermath, and, more generally, anyone interested in the biography of the cultural constructs called "East" and "West." To that list I would add historians of archaeology and ancient history.

[...]

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

Beaulieu, A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75

NEW BOOK FROM WILEY:

A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75
Paul-Alain Beaulieu

ISBN: 978-1-405-18899-9

Feb 2018, Wiley-Blackwell

312 pages

Description

Provides a new narrative history of the ancient world, from the beginnings of civilization in the ancient Near East and Egypt to the fall of Constantinople

Written by an expert in the field, this book presents a narrative history of Babylon from the time of its First Dynasty (1880-1595) until the last centuries of the city’s existence during the Hellenistic and Parthian periods (ca. 331-75 AD). Unlike other texts on Ancient Near Eastern and Mesopotamian history, it offers a unique focus on Babylon and Babylonia, while still providing readers with an awareness of the interaction with other states and peoples. Organized chronologically, it places the various socio-economic and cultural developments and institutions in their historical context. The book also gives religious and intellectual developments more respectable coverage than books that have come before it.

A History of Babylon, 2200 BC – AD 75 teaches readers about the most important phase in the development of Mesopotamian culture. The book offers in-depth chapter coverage on the Sumero-Addadian Background, the rise of Babylon, the decline of the first dynasty, Kassite ascendancy, the second dynasty of Isin, Arameans and Chaldeans, the Assyrian century, the imperial heyday, and Babylon under foreign rule.

• Focuses on Babylon and Babylonia
• Written by a highly regarded Assyriologist
• Part of the very successful Histories of the Ancient World series
• An excellent resource for students, instructors, and scholars
A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75 is a profound text that will be ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses on Ancient Near Eastern and Mesopotamian history and scholars of the subject.

I confess myself baffled by the reference to the fall of Constantinople, which happened in 1453 (CE!). If that event is mentioned in the book, it can't be covered very thoroughly. But in any case, the volume looks like a useful resource. The history of Babylon is important for many periods in Jewish history.

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

Verheyden et al. (eds.), Docetism in the Early Church

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Docetism in the Early Church.The Quest for an Elusive Phenomenon. Ed. by Joseph Verheyden, Reimund Bieringer, Jens Schröter, and Ines Jäger. [Doketismus in der frühen Kirche. Auf der Suche nach einem flüchtigen Phänomen.]
2018. XI, 289 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 402. 134,00 €. cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-154084-4.

Published in English.
This volume studies the ways modern research has tried to detect traces of Docetism in ancient sources, including the gospels and the Johannine epistles and several second-century authors. As a concept, Docetism is often used in scholarly literature for denoting loosely connected or even quite different phenomena or doctrines that all have to do with defining the nature of Christ and the reality of the incarnation and passion of Jesus. The essays presented here approach the topic from a new angle by focusing on the ancient documents themselves instead of staying on a purely theoretical or dogmatic level, while at the same time critically re-examining the historical contexts in which these were produced and first circulated. In some cases, this serves to once more reveal the hidden agendas that have guided modern scholars in their discussion of these topics.

Cross-file under Gnosticism Watch.

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

Review of Czajkowski, Localized Law

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Kimberley Czajkowski, Localized Law: The Babatha and Salome Komaise Archives. Oxford studies in Roman society and law. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. xii, 240. ISBN 9780198777335. $105.00. Reviewed by Tristan Taylor, University of New England (tristan.taylor@une.edu.au)

Localized Law seeks to analyze the famous Babatha and Salome Komaise archives using a different approach than one centered on the oft-examined question of what legal systems are present in the documents. Rather, in a revised version of her doctoral thesis, Czajkowski builds on developments in the analysis of legal pluralism in the Roman empire to consider the ‘varying contributions, considerations and influences that led to the papyri being written the way that they were’ (p 23). As such, the work offers a stimulating study that embraces the legally heterogeneous nature of the documents and highlights the multiplicity of potential influences in their formation—both in terms of individuals and systems—even though the documents rarely provide straightforward answers to the questions asked of them.

[...]

Cross-file under New Book.

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

Alkier and Leppin (eds.), Juden – Heiden – Christen?

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Juden – Heiden – Christen? Religiöse Inklusionen und Exklusionen im Römischen Kleinasien bis Decius. Hrsg. v. Stefan Alkier u. Hartmut Leppin. [Jews – Gentiles – Christians? Religious Inclusion and Exclusion in Roman Asia Minor up to Decius.] 2018. VI, 453 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 400. 149,00 €. cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-153706-6.

Published in German.
The triad of Jews, gentiles and Christians seems clearly arranged in the religious world of the Roman Empire. However, a closer look shows that this is too simple a model in that it neither does justice to the diverse descriptions of these groups or those of others, nor to their respective concepts of identity or the varying mechanisms of inclusions and exclusions. This volume illustrates this by way of interdisciplinary individual studies on Asia Minor, but also through conceptional considerations. In summary, the editors offer new terminology suggestions.

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

The color of the Capernaum synagogue

LEEN RITMEYER: The Synagogue of Capernaum in which Jesus taught. Was it white or black?. Follow the link to find out.

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

New book on Isaac of Nineveh's eschatology

SYRIAC WATCH: Core Fellow Jason Scully Publishes Book (Nancy Enright, Seton Hall University).

Core Fellow Jason Scully recently published a book entitled Isaac of Ninevah's [read "Nineveh's" - JRD] Eschatology (Oxford University Press, 2018) in Oxford's Early Christian Studies series.

Also, some advice for prospective PhD students:

Once I realized how wide open the field of Syriac studies was ("you can pluck a dissertation topic from the ether," my advisor told me), I decided to write on a seventh century Syriac author named Isaac of Nineveh, a figure whose historical importance far outweighs the relative dearth of modern scholarship devoted to his thought."

There is much work to be done in Syriac studies.

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

Unleavened bread and the Exodus story

PASSOVER IS COMING: How Eating Matzot became Part of the Exodus Story (Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber, TheTorah.com).

Originally the Festival of Matzot was an agricultural holiday but through its association with the Pesach sacrifice, it became historicized and connected to the exodus story. This shift prompted the redaction of several biblical passages and the question “how indeed does eating matzah commemorate the exodus?”

In case you didn't know, Matzot means "unleavened bread" and the biblical festival that goes by that name. That festival is associated with Passover, but is not identical to Passover.

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

Butticaz and Norelli (eds.), Memory and Memories in Early Christianity

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Memory and Memories in Early Christianity. Proceedings of the International Conference held at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne (June 2–3, 2016). Ed. by Simon Butticaz and Enrico Norelli. [Gedächtnis und Erinnerungen im frühen Christentum. Tagungsband der internationalen Konferenz vom 2.-3. Juni 2016 an den Universitäten Genf und Lausanne.] 2018. X, 356 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 398. 139,00 €. cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-155729-3.

Published in English.
Bringing together thirteen talks given at the international conference “Memory and Memories in Early Christianity”, held at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva in June 2016, this interdisciplinary volume explores a fresh problem in the study of the origins of Christianity and of the New Testament, namely the “work of memory” undertaken in the discourses and practices of the believers in Jesus. The studies collected here not only apply a heuristic analytical tool – “social memory theory” – to the literature and history of Christian beginnings, but also endeavour to show the socio-religious resonance of this “work of memory” in the language and ideology of the early believers. The historical Jesus, the Pauline writings, the Gospel of John, the Acts of the Apostles, Marcion, ancient Christian epistolography, Hegesippus, Irenaeus, etc. are explored by some of the world's top specialists in “social memory studies” as applied to Christian origins.

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

van der Toorn, Papyrus Amherst 63

ARAMAIC STUDIES TODAY BLOG: Papyrus Amherst 63 — Where do we stand? Professor Steve Kaufmann gives us notice of a new book on this remarkable and remarkably difficult text, which is written in Aramaic and Canaanite, but in the Egyptian Demotic script. The book is Karel van der Toorn, Papyrus Amherst 63 (AOAT 448).

Ancient Palymra is involved, so cross-file under Aramaic Watch and Palmyra Watch.

Past posts on Papyrus Amherst 63 are here (cf. here) and links.

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

Ephraim Stern - 1934-2018

SAD NEWS: A report that the Israeli archaeologist Ephraim Stern passed away over the weekend has been posted by Jack Sasson on the Agade list. Professor Stern is best know as the chief excavator of the Tel Dor Excavation. He also published extensively on the archaeology of the Land of Israel. I got to know him in my postgraduate days when I served as an assistant square supervisor at Tel Dor in the mid 1980s. May his memory be for a blessing.

Professor Stern's Wikipedia entry is here.

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

A busy week

I SHALL BE VERY BUSY MUCH OF THIS COMING WEEK. I have pre-posted plenty of interesting things, so do keep visiting daily as usual. But I may not get to current stories until the evenings, or even until late in the week.

If any news stories show up which are especially important, feel free to drop me a note to point them out. I will try to attend to such things in the evenings.

Have a good week!

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

Torah manuscripts taken from the Jobar Synagogue?

UPDATE: Syria accuses Israel of stealing artifacts from ancient synagogue. Damascus' ambassador to the UN alleges 'terrorist groups cooperated with the Turkish and Israeli intelligence services to loot artifacts and manuscripts from the ancient synagogue'; Israeli ambassador dismisses charges as 'another attempt by Syrian regime to draw attention away from the horrible atrocities it commits.' (Itamar Eichner, Ynet News).

Syria filed an official complaint to the United Nations this week accusing Israel of smuggling Torah books and precious artifacts from the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Damascus in a secret operation with Turkey.

[...]

This article basically covers the same ground as the Jerusalem Post article from last week, noted here. But it specifies that the manuscripts supposedly recovered from the Jobar Synagogue included Torahs. I would have guessed that, but this the first time I've seen it said. And there's also this:

Theft and shelling during the Syrian civil war have damaged the ancient synagogue, one of the oldest in the world. There are conflicting reports about the fate of the artifacts in the synagogue. One report claims the rare Torah books were smuggled out of the synagogue by rebels, but were seized by the Syrian army.

Who knows what the basis is for that report or whether it is credible. But there you have it.

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

Bricks and straw in ancient Egypt

PASSOVER IS COMING: What Kind of Construction Did the Israelites Do in Egypt? (Dr. David A. Falk, TheTorah.com).

Egyptian sources shed light on the nature of the work described in the Torah.

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

Yellowstone and angel sex

REMNANT OF GIANTS: How Yellowstone’s ‘Old Faithful’ became an Angel copulating with a woman. Trust Deane Galbraith to find these things. But, yes, I too can see the sculpture scene in the geyser photograph. Can you?

Hmmm ... The watchers myth says that the angelic watchers descended from heaven and mated with mortal women, producing giants. God disapproved. According to 1 Enoch 67, the burning abyss where the watchers were buried underground to await the Final Judgment became a hot springs. A coincidence? Do you really think so?

Cross-file under Watchers Watch.

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

Erskine et al. (eds.), The Hellenistic Court

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Hellenistic Court. Notice of a new book: Erskine, Andrew, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones & Shane Wallace (eds.). 2017. The Hellenistic court : Monarchic power and elite society from Alexander to Cleopatra. Classical Press of Wales.

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

Fifteen years of PaleoJudaica

HAPPY 15TH BLOGIVERSARY TO PALEOJUDAICA! I posted on this blog for the first time (here; first substantive post here) on 24 March 2003. Since then I have put up more than 16,000 posts.

On most anniversaries (but not last year) I have put up a retrospective anniversary post. The most recent one was for 2016 and you can follow the links from there to all earlier retrospective posts. This year you get a double-edition retrospective. I focus on posts in which I had more commentary than usual. I also include a few end-of-year roundup posts and posts on especially important stories, plus a few others I just liked.

2016-2017
• Rabbi Sacks at St. Andrews
• Latest on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife — a major breakthrough? (Yep. see here.)
• Report on the St. Andrews Symposium on Divine Sonship (6-8 June 2016)
• John the Jew (Camaldoli): my response to Williams (Enoch Seminar)
• "John the Jew" (Camaldoli): final comments (Ditto)
• Old editions of the Cave of Treasures
• Back from the BNTC (Photo essay on the Roman ruins at Chester.)
• Archaeology stories for Rosh HaShanah
• A Hebrew papyrus from the 8th century BCE? [Now updated] (There is debate on whether this is genuine or a forgery.)
• Billionaires are trying to escape the demiurgic world
• Review of DeConick, The Gnostic New Age, MEGA, SBL 2016
• Non-deceptive pseudepigraphy?
• Archaeology top 10, 2016
• Biggest 2016 archaeological discoveries
• Two Prophetesses for Burns Night
• Rabbinics and Second Temple Judaism
• Frescoes, not phalluses, are the stars - and no sex toys (The media certainly botched this story.)
• The Jordan Department of Antiquities disavows the lead codices (For much more on the metal codices, see below.)

2017-2018
• Bar Kokhba letters anniversary
• The Talmud on scriptural exegesis
• Josephus, Masada, and archaeology

A four-part review of an important new book:
• Review of Burke and Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1 (part 1)
• Review of Burke and Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1 (part 2)
• Review of Burke and Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha (part 3)
• Review of Burke and Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha (part 4)

• If you like OT Pseudepigrapha, please help! (bumped)
I promised an update on this one. Mainly I found that it's too early to get a sense of the impact of MOTP1. My article will be coming out in 2019 and it will have a little more to say about that then.

• Bible Cat revisited (Because cat!)
• Graduation 2017 (Because philologists!)
• Ezekiel's Merkavah anniversary is today (Because Merkavah!)
• Hurtado on representing the views of others (Good advice from Professor Hurtado and from me.)

Samuel Zinner's full publication on the Jordanian metal codices finally came out in 2017. Here is my four-part review of it:
• The Jordanian lead codices: (1) The materials tests
• The Jordanian lead codices: (2) The inscriptions
• The Jordanian lead codices: (3) The Abgar-Selaman epitaph
• The Jordanian lead codices: (4) Concluding observations

Then some new metal codices showed up:
• Metal codices seized in Turkey. This has been the most visited post since Blogger started keeping records in May of 2010. And on a related note, the Turkish authorities seized many smuggled antiquities in the last year, including a number of other dubious artifacts. See here, here, here, here, and here.

• Bauckham event in St. Andrews
• Judah the Hammer (On why scholars should try harder to think like regular people.)
• A bulla of Isaiah (the prophet?) (Maybe, but maybe not; cf. here.)
• A disquieting case of scholarly forgery?

On 1 March 2018 PaleoJudaica received its largest number of views ever in a single day: 18,630. I don't know what was special about that day, but I hope it keeps happening.

I am still enjoying blogging and my readers seem to enjoy it as well. Thanks for your support! Please do keep coming back and keeping bringing your friends.

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

A new blog for early career scholars in Second Temple Judaism

ASSIMILATED TO THE BLOGOSPHERE: Second Temple Early Career Academy (STECA). Founded and directed by Professor Charlotte Hempel of Birmingham University and with a team of early career scholars. Looks like this will a very useful resource for early career specialists in the field.

By the way, have you noticed that the Blogosphere is alive and well and stronger than ever?

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

T-a-l-m-u-d

AGAIN, YOU SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS: Dozens of Tri-State students compete in WCPO 9 On Your Side/Scripps Regional Spelling Bee. Two winners advance to National Bee (WCPO Cininnati).

The two winners outlasted dozens of students from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana:

Irene Calderon from Summit Country Day School won the Ohio event with the word "Talmud," a collection of writings on Jewish law and custom and religious practice.

Congratulations to both winners. In past PaleoJudaica-highlighted spelling bees the winning words have included m-a-m-m-o-n-i-s-t-i-c, p-s-e-u-d-e-p-i-g-r-a-p-h-a (twice!), and N-a-a-s-s-e-n-e.

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

Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity

Edited by Harold Tarrant, University of Newcastle Australia, Danielle A. Layne, Gonzaga University, Dirk Baltzly, University of Tasmania and Monash University, and François Renaud, Université de Moncton
Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity offers a comprehensive account of the ways in which ancient readers responded to Plato, as philosopher, as author, and more generally as a central figure in the intellectual heritage of Classical Greece, from his death in the fourth century BCE until the Platonist and Aristotelian commentators in the sixth century CE. The volume is divided into three sections: ‘Early Developments in Reception’ (four chapters); ‘Early Imperial Reception’ (nine chapters); and ‘Early Christianity and Late Antique Platonism’ (eighteen chapters). Sectional introductions cover matters of importance that could not easily be covered in dedicated chapters. The book demonstrates the great variety of approaches to and interpretations of Plato among even his most dedicated ancient readers, offering some salutary lessons for his modern readers too.

Phil of Alexandria is, of course, represented, as is Gnosticism and other matters of interest. HT the Newtwork for the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity.

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

Artifacts recovered from Jobar Synagogue ruins?

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SKULDUGGERY? SYRIA ACCUSES ISRAEL OF REMOVING JEWISH ARTIFACTS FROM DAMASCUS TEMPLE. “This is yet another attempt by the Syrian regime to distract attention from the atrocities it is inflicting on its own people,” said Israel's UN envoy (Daniel J. Roth, Jerusalem Post).

LOS ANGELES - The Syrian government on Thursday accused Israel of conducting a clandestine operation, together with Turkey, to remove ancient artifacts from a synagogue near Damascus.

In a formal complaint sent to the United Nations Security Council, Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari accused the two countries of cooperating with “terrorist groups” to remove valuable items from the 2,000-year-old Jobar temple.


[...]

The artifacts reportedly include manuscripts. The claim is that they were smuggled to Istanbul and then New York.

The Jobar Synagogue was badly damaged in the Syrian fighting in 2013 and then substantially destroyed in 2014. I followed events as they were reported. See here and links.

Two thoughts on the current report. First, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN gave a good response to the Syrian accusation. But I don't see a denial of the accusation in it. Second, I do not condone such activities. But if there were any ancient artifacts in the ruins of the Jobar Synagogue, I hope they are safe.

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

Repairs begun on the (traditional) Tomb of Nahum

RENOVATIONS: Hebrew prophet's tomb in Iraq saved from collapse (Judit Neurink, Al-Monitor).

Al-Qosh, on the Ninevah Plains, is home to several historic monasteries and churches as well as the synagogue, which houses the tomb of Nahum, the prophet who in 615 B.C. correctly predicted the downfall of the Assyrian kingdom. While the town's churches have been well maintained due to the efforts of the Christian community, the synagogue — despite Nahum being regarded as a prophet by the three major monotheistic religions — was allowed to crumble after the last Jews left town for Israel in 1951.

The good news is that after years of aborted attempts to save the building, a US organization — ARCH, the Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage — was finally able to send a team of engineers to secure the building in January before it fully collapsed. Some of the walls and part of the roof had already collapsed, and columns with Hebrew inscriptions are barely standing, endangering the tomb, which lies beneath a green covering.

This is good news indeed. The poor condition of the synagogue has been a matter of concern for some time.

Background on the (traditional) Tomb of Nahum is here and links.

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

Review of The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek

BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Franco Montanari, Madeleine Goh, Chad Schroeder, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. English Edition edited by Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, under the auspices of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2015. Pp. lx, 2431. ISBN 9789004193185. $125.00. Reviewed by Panagiotis Filos, University of Ioannina (pfilos@cc.uoi.gr)>.

In conclusion, the new Brill Greek dictionary is a most welcome addition to the current lexicographic store for Ancient Greek and is set to become a primary resource for the study of Ancient Greek, especially as regards non-literary texts and post-classical authors. It goes without saying, though, that other dictionaries, especially LSJ will continue to be of importance, as far as words of literary origin are concerned in particular.9 In any case, the ultimate gamble is the future of bilingual Ancient Greek dictionaries as a whole in times of growing financial hardship for classical studies: ‘δεῖ δὲ χρημάτων’ obviously needs no dictionary aid to be promptly understood nowadays.

Indeed.

HT Larry Hurtado. Past PaleoJudaica posts (often leading to Hurtado posts) on The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek are here and links.

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

Pigeons in the Byzantine-era Negev

OSTEOLOGY AND COPROLOGY: Haifa U. Reveals Role of Pigeons in Turning the Negev Green 1,500 Years Ago (JNi Media, The Jewish Press).

Pigeons played a central role some 1,500 years ago in transforming the Byzantine Negev into a flourishing garden, according to a new study conducted at the Zinman Institute of Archeology at the University of Haifa and published Wednesday in the journal PlosOne.

The study, which focused on the ancient settlements of Shivta and Sa’adon, found archaeological evidence that the Byzantines in the Negev did not raise their pigeons for food, but to fertilize the dry loess soil and making it more suitable for intensive agriculture.

[...]

I noted another article that mentioned this research here. The same research group has been working on ancient gerbils in the Negev as well.

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

Lester on Sibylline Oracles 4 and 5

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Dissertation Spotlight | Olivia Stewart Lester.

Olivia Stewart Lester, “Prophets and Their Rivals: Interpretation, Gender, and Economics in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4–5,” PhD Dissertation, Yale University, 2017.

Excerpt:

The ongoing appeal of prophecy as a rhetorical strategy in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4–5, and the ongoing rivalries in which these texts engage, argue for prophecy’s continuing significance in a larger ancient Mediterranean religious context. In this way, my book adds to a growing body of scholarship challenging widespread narratives about prophecy’s decline in Second Temple Judaism and in early Christianity, as well as narratives about the decline of Greek oracles and divination, in the early Roman imperial period. Prophecy persists in tenuous political moments, reinforcing the authority of those who feel their power is under threat.

For more on Sibylline Oracles 4 and 5, see here, here, here, and here. Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

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

The New Moon Festival

PROF. MICHAEL L. SATLOW: What Does Rosh Hodesh Celebrate? (TheGemara.com).

Tracing the meaning and motifs of Rosh Hodesh (the new moon festival) from the biblical through the talmudic periods reveals a day of two different meanings.

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

Will Palestinians claim the DSS at UNESCO?

POLITICS: PALESTINIAN CLAIM TO DEAD SEA SCROLLS MAY BE NEXT UP AT UNESCO. Ex-agency head to ‘Post’: Mixing religion and politics is dangerous (Herb Keinon and Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post).

The next “prize” the Palestinians will likely claim as their own at UNESCO will probably be the archeological site of Qumran and its Dead Sea Scrolls, Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said on Wednesday.

He spoke at a panel on the denial of Jewish history in international organizations at the Foreign Ministry-sponsored sixth Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem.

[...]

The claim was attempted back in 2009 and it has been rumored since 2016 that it will be tried again. See here and links. This is just a rumor so far, but it could happen. I don't think the claim will be any more successful than it was in 2009. UNESCO is already (see here and here and links) about to lose the support of the USA and Israel.

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

Williamson, Isaiah 6-16 (ICC)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Isaiah 6-12
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
By: H.G.M. Williamson

Published: 08-02-2018
Format: Hardback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 808
ISBN: 9780567030597
Imprint: T&T Clark
Series: International Critical Commentary
Dimensions: 216 x 138 mm
RRP: £75.00
Online price: £67.50
Save £7.50 (10%)

About Isaiah 6-12
This eagerly anticipated volume is the second installment in H.G.M. Williamson's International Critical Commentary on first Isaiah.

For over one hundred years International Critical Commentaries have had a special place among works on the Bible. They bring together all the relevant aids to exegesis - linguistic, textual, archaeological, historical, literary, and theological - to help the reader understand the meaning of the books of the Old and New Testaments.

Williamson continues in this tradition, adding to his already published volume on Isaiah 1-5. Covering the next seven chapters of Isaiah Williamson incorporates a range of secondary scholarly material with examination of all the key textual and critical issues surrounding the text.

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

Genesis Apocryphon on display in Jerusalem

EXHIBITION: Enigmatic Dead Sea Scroll makes rare show in Jerusalem. Genesis Apocryphon, sole surviving copy of ancient text expounding on biblical tales of Noah, Abraham, to go up on display in Jerusalem's Israel Museum for first time since its discovery 70 years ago; scroll contains 'parallel stories we don't have in the Hebrew Bible,' says exhibit's curator (AP via Ynet News).

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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

Review of Burke and Landau, MNTA1

READING ACTS BLOG: Book Review: Tony Burke and Brent Landau, New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1 (Phil Long).

Burke, Tony and Brent Landau eds. New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2016. 635 pp. Hb; $75. Link to Eerdmans

In his forward to this new collection of Christian apocrypha, J. K. Elliott asks “When is enough, enough?” Well he may ask, since he edited the seven hundred page The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford, 1994). To quote Jordan Belfort from Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street, “More is never enough.” This new collection edited by Burke and Landau is the first volume of a new series of non-canonical writings which promises to greatly expand the number of apocryphal texts available to students of the early church. Volume one collects thirty texts newly translated with introductions by experts in this literature. A second volume is planned and Burke hopes the project can be expanded to include a third and fourth volume.

[...]

"More is never enough." I like that. I haven't mentioned this before, but I recently began a year of research leave and I am hard at work on volume two of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (MOTP2). We're planning on stopping with the second volume. Future generations can take it from there. But meanwhile, I look forward to many other volumes of MNTA.

For my four-part review of MNTA1, start here and, as usual, follow the links. Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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

The discoverers of that lost bit of Incense Route

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: 86-year-old guide helps discover section of Incense Route lost for millennia. Traversing 100 kilometers in five days, Shuka Ravek fulfills dream and walks from Petra to Avdat in the footsteps of Nabateans (Amanda Borschel Dan, Times of Israel).

At 86, the grandfather of Israeli hiking finally fulfilled a decades-long dream.

Over five days, trailblazing outdoorsman Yehoshua “Shuka” Ravek traversed some 100 kilometers (62 miles) by foot, walking from Petra, Jordan, to Avdat in the Israeli Negev. From February 18-23, Ravek walked along with a group of some 40 Israelis and, before crossing the border, a handful of Jordanians — and two camels.

Why the camels? The octogenarian’s goal was to accurately retrace the steps of the ancient Incense Route, laid down circa 3rd century BCE by Nabatean traders. He wanted to see if the path, first used by the mysterious desert dwellers and later by the Roman invaders, could really have supported this means of transportation.

And if fulfilling a dream wasn’t enough, on the final day, the group of hikers discovered and mapped out a “lost” 7.5 km (4.6 miles) section of the path that had eluded searching scholars for decades.

[...]

I noted the discovery of the lost stretch of the Incense Route here. The current article gives additional historical and human interest background.

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

An Aramaic challenge

RELIGION AND LITERATURE OF ANCIENT PALESTINE BLOG: Uncertain reading in TAD B7.3/Cowley 44. Ryan Thomas offers a hard-core paleographic and philological problem for those who like such things. If you do, have a look and see if you can offer him a solution.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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

Isaiah the prophet

THE ISAIAH BULLA AND THE BIBLE: Isaiah the Prophet, Man or Biblical Myth: The Archaeological Evidence. Finding seal marks ostensibly from Isaiah the Prophet and Hezekiah within mere feet of each other in Jerusalem is intriguing; so are other seals of other non-visionary Isaiahs found in Israel from that time (Phillipe Bohstrom, Haaretz).

A 2,700-year-old seal impression on clay unearthed in Jerusalem this February piqued enormous interest, after its finder, the leading Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, said it may have been the personal seal of Isaiah the Prophet himself. Biblical scholars have been quarreling ever since.

[...]

In general this is a good article. It covers the issues surrounding the Isaiah bulla in some depth. It also addresses the larger questions concerning the prophet Isaiah and his book. Usually these are handled well. I will flag one glitch:

In Isaiah 20:1, the Assyrian king's name is spelled SRGN, which is the Aramaic version. The Assyrians spoke Aramaic (a language very like Hebrew, originally spoken by the Aramaeans that would eventually become the international language for trade in Assyria and Babylon too).

The phrase that I have highlighted in bold is not expressed very clearly. It may be a misunderstanding of Isaiah 36:11, in which the Judean leaders ask the representative of the King of Assyria to speak in Aramaic, which they knew, but the common Judean people who were listening did not understand. It is true that Assyrian (and Judean) diplomats would have spoken Aramaic. They would have needed it to interact with their Aramean neighbors in what is now Syria. But the Assyrians overall did not speak Aramaic. They spoke — wait for it — Assyrian, which was a dialect of Akkadian. Akkadian was a Semitic language that was written in cuneiform script.

Specialists agree that the Book of Isaiah was written by three or more people over period of centuries. The exceptions are those, such as Professor Millard. who believe in single authorship "on grounds of faith." The efforts toward the end of the article to undermine multiple authorship are not convincing. Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the works of Josephus were written centuries after the events. They did not have any more information than we do, and we have better tools to analyze that information.

All that said, this is a good article and you should read it all.

Background on the recently discovered Isaiah bulla is here (cf. here) and links. For more on Herodotus and the destruction of Sennacherib's army, see here.

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

The Talmud on why God permits idolatry

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Truth or Coincidences. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study, the Rabbis offer desperate—or reassuring—explanations for why God does not interfere in the world in order to prevent sin.

One of the remarkable things about the Talmud is the way it can jump, without a pause, from the most technical, legalistic arguments to the largest philosophical questions. For the rabbis, the how of the law is not separate from the why; both are ways of asking about God’s will, and so both belong in the same discussion. A good example of this came in last week’s Daf Yomi reading, in chapter four of Tractate Avoda Zara. Most of the chapter has to do with whether Jews may drink (or derive other kinds of benefit from) wine that has been handled by gentiles. To answer this question, the rabbis spend many pages considering real and hypothetical cases and parsing the differences among different kinds of handling—stirring with the hand versus treading with the feet, for instance.

And then, in the Mishna in Avoda Zara 54b, we suddenly find ourselves confronted with the most basic questions about God and sin. ...

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 Leuchter, The Levites and the Boundaries of Israelite Identity.

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | The Levites and the Boundaries of Israelite Identity (Ethan Schwartz).

Mark Leuchter. The Levites and the Boundaries of Israelite Identity. Oxford University Press. New York, 2017.

Excerpt:

It would be a mistake, however, to focus on the Levites in the first part of Leuchter’s title at the expense of the “boundaries” in the second. For Leuchter has written neither an encyclopedic catalogue of the Levites’ appearances nor a linear reconstruction of their history. Rather, the book is undergirded by a keen perception of the Levites’ penchant for appearing at the boundaries—whether spatial, temporal, ethnic, cultic, or literary.

Richard Elliott Friedman's recent book, The Exodus, has some similar interests.

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

"Copy" or original?

THE ETC BLOG: ‘The copy is the original’ (Peter Gurry). An example of awkward cross-cultural miscommunication. Be sure and read the Aeon article to see the full scope of the problem. In the twenty-first century it's getting harder to tell what is real.

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

Quick on Deuteronomy and Aramaic curses

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Curses in the Book of Deuteronomy and in Old Aramaic Inscriptions

The law code of the book of Deuteronomy is capped with a series of curses that threaten harm upon any individual that should fail to keep the Deuteronomic laws. While this method of divine encouragement to keep the commandments of God might seem surprising from a theological point of view, curses were an integral part of the legal, political and religious life of the ancient Near East, found in a variety of ancient texts including the Hebrew Bible, Neo-Assyrian treaties, and Northwest Semitic inscriptions. Placing the biblical curses within the larger context of this ancient Near Eastern material provides new insights into the background and function of the curses in the book of Deuteronomy.

See Also: Deuteronomy 28 and the Aramaic Curse Tradition (Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).

By Laura Quick
Assistant Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies
Princeton University
March 2018

It seems the Arameans were fond of "futility curses." Cross-file under Aramaic Watch and New Book.

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

Mary Magdalene the "apostolesse?"

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Mary Magdalene’s Myth: The Latest Chapter (Philip Jenkins). Professor Jenkins has not yet seen the new Mary Magdalene movie (nor have I), but it has inspired him to discuss some issues about the historical and traditional Mary Magdelene. It develops that she was referred to as an apostle ("apostolesse") in 15th century England.

Interesting discussion about which resurrection appearances of Jesus might be more historical. But that question raises metaphysical and psychological issues as well ...

Background on the new Mary Magdalene film is here.

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

Priestly laws in the Torah

PROF. JEFFREY H. TIGAY: Why Are Laws for Priests Included in the Torah? (TheTorah.com).

The Torah’s program to democratize knowledge and create an educated laity.

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

Koller, Elitzur and Bar-Asher Siegal (eds.), Studies in Mishnaic Hebrew and Related Fields

NEW BOOK FROM MAGNES PRESS:

Studies in Mishnaic Hebrew and Related Fields
Proceedings of the Yale Symposium on Mishnaic Hebrew, May 2014
Edited by: Aaron J. Koller, Elitzur A. Bar-Asher Siegal

Purchase options: Price Site price
Printed book $ 47.00 $ 42.30
Online book & Download $ 35.25
Publisher: The Program in Judaic Studies, Yale University, New Haven
In collaboration with: The Center for Jewish Languages and Literatures. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Categories: Hebrew and Jewish Languages, Linguistics and Language
Publish date: January 2018
Language: English
Danacode: 45-341040
ISBN: 978-965-481-067-8
Cover: Hardcover
Pages: 445
Weight: 985 gr.

The eighteen studies presented here originated in a symposium held at Yale in 2014, attended by scholars from Europe, Israel, and North America. The papers approach the subject of Mishnaic Hebrew from many different angles and directions, including grammar, from morphology to syntax to pragmatics; the relationship between the literary dialect and epigraphic evidence; manuscripts; questions of language contact, lexicography, social history, and medieval traditions; and the problem of translating Mishnaic Hebrew into modern languages. The contributors to this volume are among the leading scholars in the field and the collection represents both the current state of research and the cutting edge of future work.

Follow the link for the TOC and ordering information.

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

Gnostic America Conference at Rice University

APRIL DECONICK: Gnostic America Conference, March 28-31, Rice University.

I am pleased to announce the Gnostic America Conference. We will convene at Rice University on March 28-31. The conference is free and open to the public. We are exploring the afterlives of Gnosticism in America.

[...]

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

Shofar sheep

FOR TRUMPETING: ISRAELI SHEPHERDESS USES MODERN SHEEP BREED TO REVIVE ANCIENT SHOFAR SOUND. Turning her flock's horns into shofars is part of God's plan, says Lewinsky, who calls herself a "traditional and God-fearing Jew" (Reuters/Jerusalem Post).

Some background on the use of the shofar is here.

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

Clandestine Aramaic

SO ANGELS AND THE IDF DON'T KNOW ARAMAIC? Incarcerated Peleg Protestor Asks Friends to Send Letter in Aramaic So IDF Won’t Understand (Yeshiva World).

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

Neef, Arbeitsbuch Biblisch-Aramäisch

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: HEINZ-DIETER NEEF. Arbeitsbuch Biblisch-Aramäisch. Materialien, Beispiele und Übungen zum Biblisch-Aramäisch. [A Guide to Biblical Aramaic. Materials, Examples and Exercises in Biblical Aramaic. 3 rd revised and expanded edition.] 3rd reviewed and revised edition 2018. XVIII, 208 pages. 29,00 €. sewn paper. ISBN 978-3-16-156012-5.

Published in German.
With its 16 lessons, this guide is an introduction to the biblical Aramaic language. A textbook with a didactic concept, it contains materials, examples and exercises as well as paradigm tables, a vocabulary list, the answers to the exercises, a subject index and an index of biblical passages. The exercises, i.e. the verb and nominal forms to be determined, as well as the texts to be translated, are all from the Aramaic part of the Old Testament. The book has been designed so that readers who have no knowledge of Hebrew or another Semitic language can also use it. Since the answers to the exercises are given, the book can also be used for autodidactic studies and the indexes make it a good reference work.

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

Boccaccini is a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy

CONGRATULATIONS TO GABRIELE BOCCACCINI, who has announced on Facebook:

Proud and happy. I was awarded the honor of "Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia" (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy) by Italy's President, Sergio Mattarella, for my contribution to the promotion of Italian culture abroad.

As he adds:

An important acknowledgment not for me only, but also for the entire work of the Enoch Seminar.

Well done, Professor Boccaccini!

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

Free articles from Dead Sea Discoveries

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: Free articles from Dead Sea Discoveries.

To celebrate the 25th Volume of Dead Sea Discoveries, 25 articles from the past 25 Volumes will be available for free downloading during 2018.
The first 5 articles are now freely accessible until 15 April:

Follow the first link above for links to the articles. The list is as follows:

• Prayers From Qumran and Their Historical Implications - Esther Glickler Chazon (Volume 1, No. 3)
  
• Rabbinic Literature as a Source for the History of Jewish Sectarianism in the Second Temple Period - Albert I. Baumgarten (Volume 2, No. 1)
  
• On the Testimony of Women in 1QSa - Philip R. Davies and Joan E. Taylor (Volume 3, No. 3)
  
• "The Holy Angels Are in Their Council": the Exclusion of Deformed Persons From Holy Places in Qumranic and Rabbinic Literature - Aharon Shemesh (Volume 4, No. 2)
  
• Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly At Qumran - Sidnie White Crawford (Volume 5, No. 3)

And congratulations to DSD for a quarter century of excellent publications!

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

Women, WIkipedia, and the ANE: International Women's Day 2018

THE CSTT.FI BLOG: CEL­EB­RAT­ING THE IN­TER­NA­TIONAL WO­MEN’S DAY 2018 WITH A WIKI­PE­DIA EDIT-A-THON (Katri Rostedt).

On the 8th of March, International Women’s Day, the Centres of Excellence ANEE and CSTT co-organized a Wikipedia edit-a-thon with the theme “Women and the Ancient Near East”. The aim was to improve both the Wikipedia pages on female scholars of the ancient Near East and on women in the ancient sources. The event took place in a casual but inspiring atmosphere, and the Wikimedia volunteers provided some editing training for the ones not so familiar with Wikipedia content creating. The event gathered 15 participants, who created in total 4 new Wikipedia articles, edited 9 existing ones, and added 2540 words to Wikipedia.

[...]

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