Gemeinhardt and Tanaseanu-Döbler (eds.), Das Paradies ist ein Hörsaal für die Seelen

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: »Das Paradies ist ein Hörsaal für die Seelen«.
Institutionen religiöser Bildung in historischer Perspektive. Hrsg. v. Peter Gemeinhardt u. Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler. [»Paradise is a Lecture Room for the Souls«. Institutions of Religious Education in Historical Perspective.] 2018. XIII, 332 pages. Studies in Education and Religion in Ancient and Pre-Modern History in the Mediterranean and Its Environs 1. 49,00 € hardcover ISBN 978-3-16-155856-6..

Published in German.
Religious cultures were involved in education in highly different ways in classical antiquity. What were the aims and processes of transmitting education for religious purposes, which parts and methods were considered desirable (or dangerous), and who were the agents in this field? These and related questions are tackled in this interdisciplinary volume focusing on the institutionalization of education and featuring case studies on constellations of education and religion in ancient Greece, late antique Judaism, Christianity, the Latin Middle Ages and classical Islam.

The topics of the essays range widely, but include the Dead Sea Scrolls, early rabbinic Judaism, and late-antique Judaism.

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

Finkel, Smith, and the Babylonian Ark Tablet

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet. Old Babylonian flood tablet describes how to build a circular ark (Noah Wiener). I covered some of the same ground, based on the same 2014 Telegraph article on the work of Irving Finkel, here. But I missed this BHD piece when it came out around the same time. It's just been reprinted, so here it is.

It also has a section on George Adam Smith, the discoverer of the Babylonian Flood story in the nineteenth century. You can read more about him in the link in my post above and also here.

Also, I have a more recent post on the work of Dr. Finkel here.

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

YHWH inscription from Gerezim

THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: The Divine Name — YHWH — at Mt. Gerizim (Carl Rasmussen). Plus links to other photos of the site.

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

The Biblioblog Top 50

IT'S BACK: The Biblioblog Top 50.

The Biblioblog Top 50 is the official ranking of biblical studies blogging. Although posting somewhat less regularly in recent years, the Biblioblog Top 50 is pleased to celebrate its tenth anniversary this year. Yet those whom we really want to celebrate are the many bibliobloggers who continue to inform and entertain us – with their views and opinions at the cutting edge of biblical studies.

PaleoJudaica is #6 this month.

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

The Mesha Stele and Numbers 21

EPIGRAPHY, THE BIBLE, AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY: North Israelite Memories of the Transjordan and the Mesha Inscription (Prof. Israel Finkelstein and Prof. Thomas Römer, TheTorah.com).

The Mesha Inscription describes Omri’s conquest of the mishor in the Transjordan, and Moab’s subsequent (re)taking of it, in the 9th century B.C.E. Reading Numbers 21 in conversation with archaeological findings confirms much of this and offers us a glimpse at the history of this region before the Omride conquest.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on the Mesha Inscription (Mesha Stele, Moabite Stone) are here and links. For more on the lost books quoted in Numbers 21, see here.

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

The Prayer of Joseph

READING ACTS: The Prayer of Joseph. Another installment in Phil Long's current summer series on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Past posts in the series have been noted here and links.

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

Larry Hurtado

LARRY HURTADO: Going Offline . . . for a While. Professor Hurtado reports that he is unwell and is receiving treatment. I am very sorry to hear of his illness.

All best wishes to Larry from me and on behalf of PaleoJudaica's readers.

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

Stellenbosch Septuagint Symposisum

WILLIAM ROSS: STELLENBOSCH SYMPOSIUM ON THE THEOLOGY OF THE SEPTUAGINT. The Symposium takes place on 17-19 August 2018. Follow the link for details. They are no longer accepting paper proposals, but it's not too late to register.

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

Jupiter's hand - and Rome in Scotland and in Judea

ARCHAEOLOGY: Ancient Roman ‘hand of god’ discovered near Hadrian’s Wall sheds light on biggest combat operation ever in UK. Exclusive: Made of 2.3 kilos of solid bronze, sculpture going on permanent display at Vindolanda Museum (David Keys, The Independent).

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient Roman “hand of god” – but the story it tells is tragically anything but heavenly.

The hand – unearthed near Hadrian’s Wall and made of 2.3 kilos of solid bronze – was almost certainly a gift to a military deity for giving the Romans victory in the largest military combat operation ever carried out in Britain, before or since.

The operation – a relatively little-known Roman invasion of Scotland in 209-210 AD – was also probably one of the bloodiest events in British history.

[...]

It is quite a remarkable artifact in itself, but it also has resonances for PaleoJudaica. I have posted before on the second-century C.E. epigraphic discoveries at Vindolanda. As I mentioned at the link, I'm going back there next month. More on that later.

Most readers are probably also aware that I live in Scotland. And the ancient Roman campaigns in Scotland also have a connection with the Bar Kokhba Revolt. The earlier Roman invasion around 140 was headed by Quintus Lollius Urbicus, the commander who also led the defeat of the the Bar Kokhba rebels in 135. More on that Scottish campaign is here and here.

I'm looking forward to seeing the bronze "hand of Jupiter" in Vindolanda soon.

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

Graduation 2018

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CLASS OF 2018!

It is Graduation Week at the University of St. Andrews. Many students in the School of Divinity, from undergraduates to Doctors of Philosophy, are graduating. Well done, all!

This is a photo taken at the Divinity Garden Party earlier this week.



On my right is Bouddicca, who studied Hebrew, Old Testament, and Ancient Jewish Literature with me. On my left is Abigail, who took Hebrew and Old Testament with me. Congratulations to both, and to all this year's graduates.

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

Free online books from Orbis

THE AWOL BLOG: Newly added to Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis Online, June 5/6, 2018. That's nearly 250 volumes available online for free. For you, special deal!

UPDATE: I just noticed this, which brings the total over 250.

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

The Prayer of Manasseh

READING ACTS: The Prayer of Manasseh. Another installment in Phil Long's current summer series on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Past posts in the series have been noted here and links.

Two comments about the Prayer of Manasseh. First, a Hebrew version of it does survive. It was recovered from the Cairo Geniza. But it is clearly a translation into Hebrew from the (original?) Greek version (and perhaps the Syriac), so Phil's point remains sound.

Second, I have argued the possibility that the Prayer of Manasseh is a Christian rather than Jewish composition. I mentioned that article here.

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

A breakthrough on the Herculaneum scrolls?

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Buried by the Ash of Vesuvius, These Scrolls Are Being Read for the First Time in Millennia. A revolutionary American scientist is using subatomic physics to decipher 2,000-year-old texts from the early days of Western civilization (Jo Marchant, The Smithsonian).

The scrolls represent the only intact library known from the classical world, an unprecedented cache of ancient knowledge. Most classical texts we know today were copied, and were therefore filtered and distorted, by scribes over centuries, but these works came straight from the hands of the Greek and Roman scholars themselves. Yet the tremendous volcanic heat and gases spewed by Vesuvius carbonized the scrolls, turning them black and hard like lumps of coal. Over the years, various attempts to open some of them created a mess of fragile flakes that yielded only brief snippets of text. Hundreds of the papyri were therefore left unopened, with no realistic prospect that their contents would ever be revealed. And it probably would have remained that way except for an American computer scientist named Brent Seales, director of the Center for Visualization & Virtual Environments at the University of Kentucky.

PaleoJudaica has been following the work of Dr. Seales on the Herculaneum papyri and other ancient manuscripts for years. For past posts, start here and just follow those links.

This article is the most comprehensive one I can remember on the topic. And ... there's progress.

He’d brought a speck of charred papyrus from one of the Herculaneum scrolls he studied a decade earlier. The ink on it, he had found, contained a trace of lead. In Grenoble, direct X-ray imaging of the scrolls had not been enough to detect the ink. But when you fire hugely powerful X-rays through lead, the metal emits electromagnetic radiation, or “fluoresces,” at a characteristic frequency. Seales hoped to pick up that signal with a detector placed beside the fragment, which was specially calibrated to capture photons at lead’s characteristic frequency.

It was a long shot. The minuscule fluorescence of the letter would be swamped by radiation from the protective lead lining the room—like looking for a flickering candle from miles away on a rainy night, Seales said, as we stood in the crowded hutch. But after several days of intense work—optimizing the angle of the detector, shielding the main X-ray beam with tungsten “flight tubes”—the team finally got what it was looking for: a grainy, but clearly recognizable, “c.”

“We’ve proven it,” Seales said in triumph as he displayed the legible image to the Oxford audience in March. It is, Seales hopes, the last piece of the puzzle he needs to read the ink inside a Herculaneum scroll.

The results have scholars excitedly re-evaluating what they might now be able to achieve. “I think it’s actually very close to being cracked,” says [Dirk] Obbink, the Oxford papyrologist. He estimates that at least 500 Herculaneum scrolls haven’t been opened. Moreover, excavations at Herculaneum in the 1990s revealed two unexplored layers of the villa, which some scholars believe may contain hundreds or even thousands more scrolls.

Many scholars are convinced that Piso’s great library must have contained a range of literature far wider than what has been documented so far. Obbink says he wouldn’t be surprised to find more Latin literature, or a once-unimaginable treasure of lost poems by Sappho, the revered seventh-century B.C. poet known today only through the briefest of fragments.

The recovery of that one letter has the prospect of opening the floodgates for the decipherment of the Herculaneum scrolls, and of any number of other ancient manuscripts.

That's enough excerpting. The article is long. You should read it all.

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

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

Lawrence of Arabia - archaeologist

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Lawrence of Arabia as Archaeologist. Read Stephen E. Tabachnick's full article on the archaeological life of T.E. Lawrence as it was published in Biblical Archaeology Review.

Much of Lawrence’s story is fairly well known, thanks not only to the Lean film but to the publicity work of the American journalist Lowell Thomas, who as early as 1919 began telling Lawrence’s story—albeit not always accurately—in slide shows that he presented to millions of people in New York and London. Since Lowell Thomas’s biography, With Lawrence in Arabia (1924), approximately 50 biographers have kept the story current.

But despite all this publicity, it is sometimes forgotten that Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888–1935) was a very competent Middle Eastern archaeologist before the war and that his archaeological activities and Biblical interests helped shape him for the military and political role he later played. Although his pre-war work focused on the Crusaders and on the Hittites, he contributed to the resolution of at least one important issue in Biblical archaeology and touched on several others.

He also did archaeological work on the Nabateans (Nabataeans).

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

Still more Psalms of David

READING ACTS: More Psalms of David. Another installment in Phil Long's current summer series on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. This post focuses on Psalms 151-155 in the Charlesworth collection. Past posts in the series have been noted here and links.

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

An interfaith DSS event in Colorado

TO GO WITH THE DENVER EXHIBITION: Scholars discuss significance of Dead Sea Scrolls at Boulder interfaith gathering (Carina Julig, Daily Camera).

Religious groups from around Boulder gathered Sunday night at the Islamic Center of Boulder to learn about the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the shared significance to their faiths.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ancient Community Who Used Them," an interfaith event organized by the Boulder Stake of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and hosted by the Islamic Center of Boulder, was designed to complement the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit on view at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It featured three scholars who discussed the religious and historical significance of the scrolls from their respective academic backgrounds.

Every seat in the Islamic Center's main room was taken, with over 350 people in the audience from a number of religious organizations across Boulder. Atonment Lutheran Church hosted an interfaith dinner before the talk, which a number of Boulder County Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders attended.

[...]

Background on the Denver Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition is here and links.

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

The Talmud on bird sacrifices

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Bird Sacrifice. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ Talmudic rabbis try to establish the rules governing ritual slaughter of feathered offerings.

The sacrifices discussed in the first chapters of Tractate Zevachim involved the slaughter of large animals such as bulls and sheep. With Chapter Seven, the focus moves to bird offerings—the doves and pigeons that are prescribed for sacrifice in the Torah. Bird offerings, too, come in two varieties: sin offerings, whose meat is set aside for consumption by the priests, and burnt offerings, which are burned whole on the altar. Much of the Talmudic discussion revolves around problems that arise when one type of sacrifice is accidentally performed as the other type: Are the offerings still valid, and can they be eaten without communicating impurity?

[...]

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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

Davies on "A New ‘Biblical Archaeology’"

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

A New ‘Biblical Archaeology’

If the biblical texts are not purely literary artefacts but also historical ones, they are in principle, or in theory, capable of being integrated with material artefacts. Given the dangers of biblical fundamentalism and its corresponding archaeological activities and the emerging danger of archaeological fundamentalism that believes only archaeology delivers history and only archaeologists can write a competent history, it is important to focus on the means by which textual and material data should be analysed in such a way that a history can be written that makes sense equally of both.

Chapter from: Biblical Interpretation Beyond Historicity: Changing Perspectives 7 (Routledge, 2016).

By Philip R Davies (1945-2018)
Palestine Exploration Fund
Emeritus, University of Sheffield
June 2018

More on the late Philip R. Davies here and links.

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

More Songs of David

READING ACTS: More Noncanonical Songs of David. For the first time, Phil Long takes up a text from MOTP1 in his series of posts on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Past posts in the series have been noted here and links.

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

Neef, Arbeitsbuch Hebräisch

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Heinz-Dieter Neef. Arbeitsbuch Hebräisch. Materialien, Beispiele und Übungen zum Biblisch-Hebräisch. [A Guide to the Hebrew Language. Materials, Examples and Exercises in Biblical Hebrew. 7th revised and improved edition.] 7th revised and improved edition 2018. XX, 378 pages. 24,99 € sewn paper. ISBN 978-3-8252-4918-2.

Published in German.
In 26 lessons, this “Guide to the Hebrew Language” introduces the reader to the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. A textbook with a didactic concept, it is intended mainly for first year students who are preparing for their Hebrew exam. It can however also be used by those who are studying on their own or, by virtue of its comprehensive indices, as a reference work. The book uses many charts which refer to pronouns, verbs and nouns and gives text examples from the Old Testament only. In order to consolidate the theoretical knowledge imparted, there are exercises on determining grammatical form as well as on translations and vocalizations. A short introduction precedes those lengthier text passages which are to be translated. These text passages show the extent to which the Hebrew language is tied to the Old Testament.

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

Gold Cardo coin minted in Israel

NUMISMATICS: Israel: Latest legal tender gold bullion coin focuses on the ancient cardo roadway in Jerusalem (Michael Alexander, Coin Update).

The Bank of Israel has issued (10th June) the eighth coin design within their current bullion coin series entitled “Jerusalem of Gold.” Featured on this year’s coin is the cardo, which was the main street in the heart of the city and a significant trade centre that ran from north to south during the time when Jerusalem was governed by Rome. The cardo was a feature of most Roman cities.

[...]

The image on the reverse side of the coin is the Madaba Map. Other past posts on the Cardo are here and links.

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

A female Torah-scribe in Hamilton, Ontario

SOFERET WATCH: An ancient text message. Hamiltonian Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli, a rabbi and scribe, spent two years handwriting a Torah scroll (Emma Reilly, The Hamilton Spectator).

Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli is a modern-day woman with an ancient calling.

Lavery-Yisraeli, 33, is a Hamiltonian, a rabbi, and a scribe. Her work involves writing documents in Hebrew in tiny, uniform script — labour that is both painstaking and prayerful.

In the past several years, Lavery-Yisraeli has written dozens of mezuzah scrolls (called klafs), which are placed in decorative and protective cases and hung on the doorposts in Jewish homes, as well as her biggest accomplishment: a Torah scroll.

[...]

Female scribes are still a rarity, as they have been back to antiquity. But there have always been some. For more on modern sofrot, see here and links. Jen Taylor Friedman, mentioned in the article above, also appears there. And that post also collects past posts on female scribes from antiquity to the present.

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

Albertz, Pentateuchstudien

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Rainer Albertz. Pentateuchstudien. Hrsg. v. Jakob Wöhrle, unter Mitarb. v. Friederike Neumann. [Pentateuch Studies.] 2018. IX, 533 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 117. 129,00 € cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-153705-9

Published in German.
Twenty-one studies dedicated to the composition and redaction of the Pentateuch and the Hexateuch, written over ten years as part of the Münster Old Testament scholar Rainer Albertz's work on his Exodus Commentary, are gathered in this volume. Five of them were previously unpublished, while a further eight were revised and translated for their first appearance in German. The problem-orientated approach taken reveals a model for the emergence of the Pentateuch that could replace the classical three-source theory. A concluding overview makes it easier to gauge the model's effectiveness by assigning the texts dealt with to the identifiable tradition- and redaction-historical development stages of the Pentateuch.

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

Review of Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Paula Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017. Pp. xii, 319. ISBN 9780300225884. $35.00. Reviewed by Olivia Stewart Lester, University of Oxford (olivia.stewartlester@oriel.ox.ac.uk).

Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle radically recontextualizes Paul within the diversity of Judaism in the ancient Mediterranean and within a compelling history of anti-Judaism in ancient and modern readings of his letters. Against such readings, Fredriksen transforms essential questions in Pauline studies—on gentile inclusion, the Law, christology, and the imminent end of time—with an historically robust portrayal of Paul as a first-century Jewish thinker. This book offers a new paradigm for Pauline scholarship and requires an ethical reckoning for the devastating legacies of anti-Jewish readings of Paul.

[...]

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

More on the latest Waqf archaeological damage to the Temple Mount

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Muslim cleanup project ‘illegally disturbed, removed’ ancient soil on Temple Mt. Ramadan 'beautification' effort was deliberately provocative, part of bid to erase traces of pre-Muslim era heritage, claims activist-archaeologist; Israeli authorities checking (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

Prof. Ronny Reich, a prominent archaeologist of ancient Jerusalem who has excavated extensively in the Old City and its surroundings, told The Times of Israel on Thursday that because the mixed pile of dirt has been taken out of its original context, it has “limited value” as an archaeological site. He noted, however, that its artifacts offer an important statistical analysis of the periods of human settlement on the mount, quite apart from any rare inscriptions or art that may be found in the pile.

“It is impossible to just leave it lying [in the Aqsa compound]. It needs to be treated [properly], and the head of the IAA needs to speak up on its behalf,” said Reich, who was among the founding management of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Last week, Muslim volunteers of all ages were filmed on the Temple Mount raking earth and carving out an improvised staircase leading to the top of one of the two dirt mounds on the eastern side of the compound. There, they used stone planks they found inside the mound to build benches and tables.

This long and thoroughly researched article follows up the two blog posts on the subject by archaeologist Zachi Dvira at the Temple Mount Sifting Project Blog. I noted those here and here. This article gives lots of background and additional details. You should read it all.

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

Justnes on those dubious DSS-like fragments (in new Marginalia Forum)

MARGINALIA: Fragments for Sale: Dead Sea Scrolls. Årstein Justnes on selling scripture.

The so-called post-2002 fragments are all non-provenanced, but they bear impressive stories, often crafted and told by scholars, and used as a means to authenticate them. In this piece, I recount some of these stories and discuss their hidden message. Let me, however, start with two snapshots from the time when our story was just about to begin, in 2002 ...

Professor Justnes offers a revision of the narrative. There is good reason to think that at least some of the new fragments are forgeries, so the narrative bears re-examination.

Background on the dubious post-2002 Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments is here and links.

UPDATE: I had finished this post when I discovered that the article by Justness is just one in Marginalia Forum on Origin Stories: A Forum on the “Discovery” and Interpretation of First-Millennium Manuscripts. So far, there is an introduction and two other articles. More is promised.

Introduction – Jennifer Barry (University of Mary Washington) and Eva Mroczek (UC Davis)

This forum is sponsored by the First Millennium Network in connection with The Lying Pen of Scribes: Manuscript Forgeries and Counterfeiting Scripture in the Twenty-First Century, the Norwegian project on forgery and provenance. Throughout the course of the forum, contributors will address the scholarship and the politics behind the discovery, interpretation, and diffusion of such “new” texts. Panelists, experts in a range of fields within manuscript studies, will seek to answer questions such as: How can scholars actually tell if a manuscript is authentically ancient or forged in the new age of greater scientific possibilities? What are the ethical issues surrounding collecting, owning, and publishing items that hold religious/cultural value for a wider, non-academic audience? How much do these new finds really challenge our understanding of our own origin stories?

Kipp Davis (Trinity Western University) – Gleaning from the Cave of Wonders? Fragments, Forgeries and “Biblicism” in the Dead Sea Scrolls

There are undoubtedly authentic artefacts of extremely high importance in both The Schøyen Collection, the MOTB, and in other private collections, which have a tremendous role to play in achieving this objective. But my own experience should sound a cautionary alarm: we would be naive to imagine that biblical datasets are free from pollution. Scholars would be remiss in their failure to exercise due diligence and ensure that they remain in service of the common good, and not as a repository for the wares of profiteers hoping to capitalize on the misplaced zeal of well-meaning Evangelical biblicists.

Eva Mroczek (UC Davis) – Batshit Stories: New Tales of Discovering Ancient Texts

More deeply, I want to highlight that whether these stories are factual, fictional, or somewhere in between, it is sometimes their very telling, rather than the actual manuscript finds themselves, that capture our imagination. Find stories reveal our own patterns of thinking about how a long-lost past might come into view and what might stand in the way of its recovery.

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

Benyamin Storchan

PROFILE IN ARCHAEOLOGY: Former Detroiter follows his passion to an archaeology post in Israel. Much of Storchan’s work has focused on ancient oil burning lamps. These lamps help archaeologists identify what happened to Jews after the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century. During this time, Romans pushed Jews out of Judea, but Storchan’s work with lamps has shown that the Jewish population was not totally displaced. (Rob Streit, Detroit Jewish News).

Benyamin Storchan says he feels like an Israeli who was mistakenly born in America. The 34-year-old Michigan native realized this during his first visit to Israel at age 16 while he was on a Jewish Federation teen mission.

“I felt a great inner peace from both the people and the land,” Storchan says. “After that trip, I got the bug and said, ‘That’s it; I want to live in Israel.’”

And that’s where he finds himself today. Storchan works for the Israel Antiquities Authority as a research excavation archaeologist in the Judean Hills region. In that role, he conducts excavations and catalogues any artifacts his team finds.

[...]

The article tells more about his background. Also something about his specializations, starting here:

Much of Storchan’s work has focused on ancient oil burning lamps. These lamps help archaeologists identify what happened to Jews after the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century. During this time, Romans pushed Jews out of Judea, but Storchan’s work with lamps has shown that the Jewish population was not totally displaced.

An inspirational story. Congratulations to Mr. Storchan.

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

On doves

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Enduring Symbolism of Doves. From ancient icon to Biblical mainstay (Dorothy Willette).

Few symbols have a tradition as long and as rich as the dove. A particular favorite in art and iconography, the dove often represents some aspect of the divine, and its use has been shared, adapted and reinterpreted across cultures and millennia to suit changing belief systems. From the ancient world to modern times, this simple bird developed layer upon layer of meaning and interpretive significance, making it a complex and powerful addition to religious texts and visual representations.

[...]

There are many doves in the Bible. And they show up often in other ancient literature.

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

The Museum of the Bible, Operation Scroll, etc.

AN UNHELPFUL HEADLINE: An Illegal Archeological Dig in the West Bank Raises Questions About the Museum of the Bible The Museum of the Bible has been funding a number of scholarly projects, including an illegal excavation in the West Bank that will certainly influence how the public understands the Bible and the ancient world (Michael Press, Hyperallegic). This article raises some genuine issues, notably the questions still surrounding the handling of the the formerly-first-century Mark fragment from Oxyrhynchus. More on that here and links.

It also flags a financial connection between the Museum of the Bible and the study of unprovenanced Aramaic incantation bowls. But there are plenty of scholars unconnected with the Museum of the Bible who are working on this material. Indeed, the funded project is based at Exeter University, so it is mainstream scholarship. It is a real problem how to handle such unprovenanced artifacts. I don't pretend to have a fully satisfying solution. I have discussed such concerns and given you my own view here.

But the bulk of the article concerns the Dead Sea Scrolls. The "illegal dig in the West Bank" is Operation Scroll, the recent attempt by the Israeli Goverment to explore the caves in the Judean Desert more fully. The objective is (so far with very little success) to recover any remaining Dead Sea Scrolls. The project was also sponsored by the Hebrew University and the IAA. Past posts on Operation Scroll are here and links.

Beyond that, the author has concerns about the international legality of the handling of the Dead Sea Scrolls from at least the 1967 war on. These do not bear very directly on anything to do with the Museum of the Bible. And in general the author seems to have serious reservations about funding of archaeological projects by Evangelical Christian organizations.

The author has his views. Readers may agree or disagree. None of the issues are new, with the possible exception of the specifics about the Mark fragment. We're still waiting for full information on that.

I do criticize Hyperalleric for the headline of this piece. One can debates the issues surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls and international law, but to call — without qualification — a project co-sponsored by the Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority "an illegal archaeological dig in the West Bank" is misleading clickbait.

For other past posts on the Museum of the Bible, start here and follow the links. (Dead link now fixed!)

UPDATE (24 June): Over at the Variant Readings Blog, Brent Nongbri has comments on this article.

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

HUCA 88 (2017)

H-JUDAIC: TOC - Hebrew Union College Annual Volume 88. Some of the articles are on ancient and medieval Judaism.

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

More on the Denver DSS exhibition

EXHIBITION REVIEW: DEAD SEA SCROLLS TRAVELLING EXHIBIT LANDS IN DENVER (Sandy Bornstein, Canadian Jewish News). The Scrolls actually landed in Denver some time ago. One lot of them has even been rotated out and replaced with another. But the author has just seen the exhibition and she gives it a good recommendation.

Background on the Denver Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition is here and follow the links.

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

Was Luke one-upping Euripides?

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Goads and Gods (Philip Jenkins).

Today we have a guest column. Some time ago, I referred to the Book of Acts, and began an intriguing correspondence with Mr. Jesse Elison. Focusing especially on one key phrase, Mr. Elison made a strong case for showing how Luke was drawing directly on secular Greek literature, and moreover that he might even have been using the work of Euripides as a model for the story he was trying to tell. After all, did not his play The Bacchae describe the introduction of a new religious system into Greece? Invoking that play in this context was surprising to me, and I invited Mr. Elison to expand his provocative comments into a blog post.

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

On the Yavneh Yam ostracon

THE PAPYRUS STORIES BLOG: A Harvester’s Plea (guest post by Gareth Wearne).

What legal rights did a farm labourer have in ancient Israel? A rare glimpse is offered by an ostracon (inscribed pot-sherd), which was discovered in 1960 in the guardroom of a small Iron Age fortress, approximately 17 km south of Tel Aviv.

[...]

This essay gives a good, quick overview, but there is more to be said about the inscription, notably concerning the details of the biblical law behind the plea. Past PaleoJudaica posts involving the Yavneh Yam (Mesad Hashavyahu) ostracon are here, here, and here.

Also, welcome to the Papyrus Stories Blog, which first came to my attention through AJR. This new blog highlights stories from ancient inscriptions. Cross-file under Assimilated to the Blogosphere.

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

Dhont, Style and Context of Old Greek Job

THE LXX STUDIES BLOG: New Book: Style and Context of Old Greek Job by Marieke Dhont (John Meade).

Below is a guest post from Dr. Marieke Dhont describing her new book Style and Context of Old Greek Job (Brill, 2018). Enjoy.

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

Nyström, The Apology of Justin Martyr

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: David E. Nyström. The Apology of Justin Martyr. Literary Strategies and the Defence of Christianity. [Die Apologie Justins des Märtyrers. Literarische Strategien und die Verteidigung des Christentums.] 2018. XIV, 182 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 462. 69,00 € sewn paper. ISBN 978-3-16-155761-3.

Published in English.
In his Apologia pro Christianis, Justin Martyr uses some major apologetic strategies to defend and promote Christianity. These are here identified as the 'logos doctrine', the 'theft theory', the 'proof from prophecy' and the demonological arguments. David E. Nyström analyses each strategy on its own terms as well as in relation to the others in order for them to yield a picture of how they work, rhetorically and literarily, in Justin's grand argument. He also explores possible literary models as well as the purpose and function of the literary form Justin chose for his work.

For more on Justin Martyr and why he is of interest to PaleoJudaica, see here.

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

A bibliography of those dubious DSS fragments

THE LYING PEN OF SCRIBES BLOG: A Lightly Annotated Chronological Bibliography of the Post-2002 Dead Sea Scrolls-like Fragments (Årstein Justnes).

Background on the dubious new Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments is here and links.

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

Review of Rosenblum, The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World

H-JUDAIC: Garroway on Rosenblum, 'The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World.'

Author: Jordan Rosenblum
Reviewer: Joshua Garroway

Jordan Rosenblum. The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. xiii + 193 pp. $99.99 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-107-09034-7.

Reviewed by Joshua Garroway (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles) Published on H-Judaic (June, 2018) Commissioned by Katja Vehlow (University of South Carolina)

Jordan Rosenblum’s second book-length treatment of Jewish food culture in antiquity comes on the heels of his successful 2010 offering, Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism. The present volume is less triumphant, in my view, but nonetheless will prove valuable in certain settings.

[...]

I noted a review of Jordan Rosenblum's earlier book, Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism, here. This is the first time I've specifically noted his 2016 book, but I did link to an essay by him here which was inspired by the book.

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

How many bronze platings on the altar?

SOME MORE REDACTION CRITICISM: The Bronze Plating of the Altar: Numbers Versus Exodus (Dr. Rabbi David Frankel, TheTorah.com).

After Korah’s failed rebellion, God commands Elazar to plate the altar with the bronze firepans of the two hundred and fifty tribal leaders (Num 17). But didn’t Bezalel already plate the altar in bronze as God commanded when it was first built (Exod 27 and 38)?

One interesting thing about this essay is that it finds a redactional seam within one of the traditional Pentateuchal sources (P), not just between the sources.

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

Paris Philo codex online

VARIANT READINGS: Paris Philo Codex (sort of?) Online (Brent Nongbri).The link to the images were down, but they are now back up. This codex is one of our earliest sources for works of Philo of Alexandria

Background here.

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

Bible Animals

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Bible Animals: From Hyenas to Hippos Lions and crocodiles and monkeys, oh my! (Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin).

If you were asked to name a book that mentions lions, cheetahs, crocodiles, hippos and hyenas, your thoughts might turn to Tarzan or some other such exotic tale. Bears, jackals, monkeys and panthers are the domain of The Jungle Book. Yet all these animals are also found in the Bible.

[...]

You'd be surprised what's in the Bible.

Rabbi Dr. Slifkin, a.k.a. "the Zoo Rabbi," is curator of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, Israel. Past PaleoJudaica posts on him and the Museum are here and links.

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

Report on CJH event on Goodman's A History of Judaism

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: A History of Judaism: Goodman, Reed, and Magid at the Center for Jewish History (Erez DeGolan).

On April 18, 2018, the Center for Jewish History (CJH) in New York hosted a public event in celebration of the A History of Judaism. About 40 people, academics and not, came to hear Goodman discussing his work, with a response from Annette Yoshiko Reed and Shaul Magid. The thoughtful remarks of the three and the unusual character of A History of Judaism more broadly, stimulated contemplations on the spacious, if seldom thought of, gap between academic knowledge production and its ‘public’ dissemination. In what follows I discuss the highlights of the CJH’s event and the questions it raised.

With thoughtful commentary.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on Martin Goodman's book A History of Judaism are here, here, and here.

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

Review of Tugendhaft, Baal and the Politics of Poetry

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Aaron Tugendhaft, Baal and the Politics of Poetry. The Ancient Word 1. London; New York: Routledge, 2017. Pp. 166. ISBN 9781138063624. $140.00. Reviewed by Aren M. Wilson-Wright, Universität Zürich​ (aren.wilson-wright@uzh.ch).

Baal and the Politics of Poetry is a revised version of Aaron Tugendhaft’s 2012 New York University dissertation. In it, Tugendhaft argues that the Baal Cycle—an epic poem from Ugarit depicting Baal’s struggle for political dominance against Yamm (sea) and Mot (death)—represents a meditation on kingship and its limitations, rather than an unabashed celebration of royal power as usually assumed. Tugendhaft develops this argument over the course of six chapters as well as the introduction and conclusion.

[...]

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

More on that tiny royal (?) head

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: An Iron Age Royal at Abel Beth Maacah? Highly crafted figurine may depict a dignitary, elite person, or even a king (Robin Ngo).

Background here.

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

Barthélemy's Critique textuelle de l’ancien Testament online

THE ETC BLOG: Critique textuelle de l’ancien Testament for Free Download (John Meade). For you, special deal!

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

Virtual archaeology in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Archaeology Without Ruins. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ ancient Talmudic rabbis look for the First and Second Temples without stones or relics to guide them.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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

More on the latest archaeological destruction on the Temple Mount

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: Update: Waqf Uses Ramadan to Violate Antiquities Law. Excerpt:

In 2018, this should not be a problem. Taking advantage of the limited police, and ban of all non-Muslims from the Temple Mount because of Ramadan, these archaeologically rich mounds of earth have been irreconcilably damaged. This is a clear violation of the law, a violation of basic morality and respect, and an absolute destruction of the heritage of Jews as well as Christians and Muslims. This constitutes a decade’s worth of regression in the level of enforcement of the antiquities law on the Temple Mount and needs to go viral so that the world can see what the real status quo is on the Temple Mount.

Please share this information and communicate it to the media and government officials. Make this story go viral.

You should read it all.

Background here.

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

Review of Kiel, Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud (Noah Bickart).

Yishai Kiel’s new book Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud analyzes Talmudic texts that deal explicitly with sex in order to situate rabbinic society at the crossroads of a number of late-antique cultures. Through convincing close readings of Jewish material alongside compelling parallels in Greek, Syriac, and Pahlavi texts, Kiel illustrates how Babylonian rabbis used the language of sexuality to negotiate their Iranian context, their Palestinian heritage, and the myriad of concomitant challenges posed by western and eastern Christian thought. This book is highly recommended for scholars and students of rabbinics, early Christianity, and Iranology, especially for those who are interested in the history of sexuality.

[...]

I noted the publication of the book here and an article by the author on the same topic here.

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

The Gamla synagogue

ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY: The 2,000-year-old synagogue at Gamla, the oldest yet found in Israel (Ticia Verveer, Times of Israel Blogs).

Archaeological excavations proved that Josephus was very precise in his description, which is remarkable, seldom do literary sources and archaeological data complement each other in such a way. The more than 2,000 basalt ballista stones and 1,600 iron arrowheads that were found are a sorrowful reminder of the aggression off the Romans. Within the settlement a concentration of several dozen ballista stones was discovered. Probably, the defenders gathered the ballista stones that had fallen on the city and hurled them back at the Romans the following day.

The most exciting discovery of the excavation, and the reason why I am here, is a large public building, with benches intended for public gatherings, the amazing remains of an ancient synagogue, the oldest yet found in Israel.

An impressive photo essay by an archaeologist working at the site.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts on the site of Gamla, its archaeology, and its history, are collected here.

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

A 1 Samuel LXX manuscript in the Green Collection

AT THE VARIANT READINGS BLOG, Brent Nongbri has been following up indications that the Green Collection includes a fragmentary Greek manuscript of 1 Samuel (possibly containing nine chapters).

The Green Collection 1 Samuel Papyrus and Mummy Cartonnage. Incidentally, per Scott Carroll's quoted comment, this is not "the earliest text of 1 Samuel in the world." Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4QSamuel^b (4Q52) is dated by Cross to c. 250 BCE and 4QSamuel^a (4Q51) and 4QSamuel^c (4Q53) to the first century BCE. This Greek papyrus seems to be from the early third century CE (or later? - See the second post below). That is still very early. It may be the earliest surviving papyrus copy or Greek copy or both. I don't know.

1 Samuel and the Green Collection’s “Cartonnage”

There are lots of unanswered questions about this manuscript.

For the Samuel manuscripts from Cave 4 Qumran, see Frank Moore Cross et al., Qumran Cave 4 XII 1-2 Samuel. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XVII. Oxford, Clarendon, 2005.

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

The Russians may excavate Palmyra

PALMYRA WATCH: Russian archaeologists eyeing excavations in Palmyra after restoration of Tadmor. Russian experts have already submitted proposals on restoring the Temple of Baal Shamin, one of the main relics of the place.

KRASNODAR, June 9. /TASS/. Russian archaeologists hope to continue archaeological excavations in ancient Palmyra after rehabilitation of the Syrian city of Tadmor, on the territory of which the historical marvel is located, a leading Russian expert said on Friday.

Dr. Natalya Solovyova, a Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg-based Institute for the History of Material Culture said this on the sidelines of the festival titled ‘Russia’s Antique Heritage’ in the southern city of Krasnodar where she did a public presentation of the 3D model of Palmyrene monuments.

"We hope we’ll manage to do some archaeological excavations there because our Institute made an arrangement on them with the Syrian government in spring 2015, several days before the start of combat actions [in the Palmyra area]," Dr. Solovyova said. "We didn’t sign the documents then, however, because armed fighting began."

[...]

For many other past posts on Palmyra, its history, the ancient Aramaic dialect spoken there (Palmyrene), and the city's tragic reversals of fortune, now trending for the better, start here and follow the links.

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

Repatriating Ethiopic manuscripts?

ETHIOPIC WATCH: British Exhibitions of Ethiopian Manuscripts Prompt Questions About Repatriation. Exhibitions at British cultural institutions have lately underscored the artistic output of Ethiopian scribes, and in the process, have also renewed questions around whether museums that have benefitted from acts of imperialism and colonialism should now return looted objects (Sarah E. Bond, Hyperallergic).

A recent display at the British Library, African Scribes: Manuscript Culture of Ethiopia put the institution’s impressive collection of Ethiopic manuscripts on display. Online, the library has also highlighted efforts to digitize these ancient works and make them accessible to the public. Exhibitions at the British Library and other cultural institutions within Britain have worked to underscore the artistic output of Ethiopian scribes and the literature connected to the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church. In the process, these special exhibitions have also renewed questions of provenance and the issue of whether museums that have benefitted from acts of imperialism and colonialism should now return looted objects — even centuries after the fact.

[...]

I don't have a view on the merits of repatriating these particular artifacts, because I don't know enough about the local situation. But my general position is that antiquities and cultural artifacts are the heritage of humanity, not just of the descendants of their culture of origin. They should be kept where they are safest.

I noted a recent article that discusses the importance of the Ethiopic Church for the transmission of the Book of 1 Enoch here. Also, back in 2004-2005, the Ethiopic manuscripts taken (i.e., looted) by Britain after the Battle of Maqdala were in the news. See here, here, and here.

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

Korah and the fire-pans

REDACTION CRITICISM: Why the Fire-Pans Were Used to Plate the Altar (Dr. Rabbi David Frankel, TheTorah.com).

After the two hundred and fifty tribal leaders, led by Korah, were burnt, God tells Elazar to use the fire-pans to plate the altar to remind Israel that only priests may offer incense (Num 17:5). But is this the original reason for the plating? A redaction-critical analysis shows that the story once had a different purpose in mind.

Could be.

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

More on the supposed lost Jobar Synagogue scrolls

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jewish artifacts disappear from Damascus in fog of Syria war. Jewish artifacts, including ancient parchment torahs from one of the world's oldest synagogues, have gone missing from the Syrian capital amid the tumult of ongoing civil war (AP). That synagogue is, of course, the synagogue of Jobar. Earlier this year I noted reports that ancient artifacts, notably Torah scrolls, had been removed from the Jobar Synagogue during the war. The posts are here and here. Some of the reports claimed the removals were connected with "terrorist groups" and/or Israeli and Turkish intelligence and/or (indirectly) the Syrian Army. None of the reports seemed especially credible, although they could not be disproved either.

Now this AP report weighs in with much more detail from "activist sources." The artifacts were taken by rebels for safe keeping, but some artifacts (notably Torah scrolls written on gazelle hides) have since disappeared. Some of the missing artifacts may have surfaced in Turkey. Some of the missing artifacts, it is claimed, may themselves have been fakes. Again, an Israeli connection is hinted at.

This is a convoluted story that is very short of verification. I emphasize that I take no position on whether any of it is true. But I am keeping an eye on it to see if anything develops from it.

For what it's worth, there have been many reports over the years of artifacts being seized by the authorities in Turkey. Some of these artifacts have turned out to be obvious fakes or relatively recent objects that were not as important as the initial reports claimed. I collected links to these stories in this post last October. There was a report on December of a 700-year-old Torah scroll being seized in Turkey, but this turned out to be bogus.

Perhaps of more interest is a report from April of 2017 that Turkish authorities seized a "gold-plated" Torah scroll written on gazelle skin. This Torah (I think it was the same one) was also reported to be 1,500 years old. I explained my reasons for some skepticism of the stories at the links.

The Jobar scrolls were supposed to be on gazelle skins too and some of them seem to stored in a silver receptacle at some point. But those are very tenuous possible links to the scroll in Turkey.

In short, right now we have a bunch of unverified stories. Maybe some of them are real and, if so, maybe some of the real ones are connected. We'll just have to see if any verification turns up. Watch this space.

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

Unsifted dirt disturbed on the Temple Mount

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: More Archaeological Destruction on the Temple Mount and Damage to Dirt Mounds that Should be Sifted.

Now, under the auspices of the last days of the month of Ramadan, when the Temple Mount is closed to none-Muslim visitors and the police presence is limited, over than a thousand people carried out excavation work, stone clearance and the creation of terraces in these piles of earth!

This is a clear violation of the High Court’s order and shows – this constitutes decade’s worth of regression in the level of enforcement of the antiquities law on the Temple Mount.

This blog is run by credible archaeologists and I would take the report seriously. It doesn't sound good.

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

Index of online books on Classics and ancient Judaism

THE AWOL BLOG: CLASSICSINDEX: Links to Online Books (Google Books, Archive.org, etc.) FOR THE STUDY OF GREEK AND ROMAN CLASSICS, EARLY JUDAISM, AND CHRISTIANITY. There are lots of good things here. Note in particular the section on "JUDAISM [2ND TEMPLE : RABBINIC]."

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

Who Wrote the Torah?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS (REALLY): Who Wrote the Torah? Textual, Historical, Sociological, and Ideological Cornerstones of the Formation of the Pentateuch (Konrad Schmid, Institute for Advanced Study).

Who wrote the Torah? In light of more than two hundred years of scholarship and of the ongoing disputes on that question,[1] the most precise answer to this question still is: We don’t know. The tradition claims it was Moses, but the Torah itself says otherwise. Only small portions within the Torah are traced back to him, but not nearly the whole Torah: Exodus 17:14 (Battle against Amalek); 24:4 (Covenant Code); 34:28 (Ten Commandments); Numbers 33:2 (Wandering Stations); Deuteronomy 31:9 (Deuteronomic Law); and 31:22 (Song of Moses). Despite all disagreement in current scholarship, however, the situation in Pentateuchal research is far from desperate, and there are indeed some basic statements that can be made regarding the formation of the Torah. This is what this contribution is about. It is structured in the following three parts: the textual evidence of the Pentateuch; the socio-historical conditions for the development of the Pentateuch, and “Ideologies” or “Theologies” of the Pentateuch in their historical contexts.

[...]

HT AJR.

This essay is a very good account of the state of the question by a prominent specialist in the area. It moves from first principles to cautious and circumscribed conclusions. Nevertheless, some of it would be disputed by other specialists. It touches here and there on the traditional JEDP sources, mostly in the notes. But its main interests are elsewhere. That's all to the good.

This is the first time I have seen anyone claim that the Ketef Hinnom silver amulets (containing the text of the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24-26) could be from as late as the second century B.C.E.

For some more thoughts on the origins of the Pentateuch, see here and links, and here, here, and here.

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

Hebrew acronyms

PHILOLOGOS: Where Do Hebrew Acronyms Come From? Medieval and modern Hebrew are unusually rich in abbreviations, but in a manner that is the reverse of English (Mosaic Magazine).

Clearly, then, acronyms were first developed by ancient Greek and Latin stenographers and, though known to the rabbis of the Talmud, adopted by Hebrew only in a subsequent age. The fact that they are found in abundance in ancient midrashic texts like Genesis Rabbah, whose composition is contemporaneous with the Talmud’s, does not prove otherwise. ...

Acronyms are one of the banes of working with medieval Hebrew manuscripts. And it scarcely helps when the text of the manuscript is also full of copyist errors. It can be hard to tell whether you're dealing with a corrupt and meaningless word, an obscure technical term, or an acronym.

Incidentally, the best source I have found for deciphering Hebrew acronyms is Dalman's old German dictionary of Rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic. The full reference is Gustav H. Dalman, Aramäisch-Neuhebräisches Handwörterbuch zu Targum, Talmud und Midrasch. The original publication was in Göttingen in 1938. The reprint edition I have on my bookshelf is by Olms in 1987. At the end it has a 120-page lexicon of abbreviations. You will find pretty much everything there.

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

Arabic amulet excavated near Temple Mount

APOTROPAIC ARTIFACT: 1,000 Year Old Clay Amulet with Arabic Blessing Discovered in City of David (JNi.Media).

The tiny amulet constitutes direct testimony of the everyday life in Jerusalem during the early Islamic period. At this time, it is unclear whether it was intentionally placed underneath the flooring during construction or whether the tiny object was carried by a man named Kareem and lost. It seems that it was an amulet whose inscription – praising God, was supposed to bring blessing to its bearer.

This is from a little later that PaleoJudaica's usual period of interest. But it is too cool not to mention.

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

Bibliographia Manichaica Selecta

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Bibliographia Manichaica Selecta: Selected Works for Manichaean Studies. Notice of a new book: Šokrī-Fūmešī, Moḥammad. 1397 [2018]. ketābšenāsī-ye moṭāleʿāt-e mānavī: šenāḫt-e możuʿī-ye manabeʿ-o maʾāḫeẕ [Bibliographia Manichaica Selecta. Selected Works for Manichaean Studies]. Teheran: Ṭahūrī.

It looks as though it is in both Persian and English.

Cross-file under Manichean (Manichaean) Watch.

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

Report on DSS at 70 conference

PROF. LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AT 70. EXCITING NEW DEVELOPMENTS POINT TOWARD FUTURE PROGRESS.

The field of Dead Sea Scrolls is never without important new developments. At the recent conference, “The Dead Sea Scrolls at Seventy: Clear a Path in the Wilderness,” there was exciting news about the ongoing development of technological tools for reading and identifying the remaining small scraps or wads (several layers of fragments stuck together) that did not find their place in the amazing jigsaw puzzle that had to be assembled to decipher the scrolls.

The announcement was made by Pnina Shor, curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), at a public session conducted in Hebrew at which I had the honor of being a speaker. The conference was organized by the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University, the IAA, the Israel Museum, New York University, and the University of Vienna — all major players in scrolls research.

This is the opening of Professor Schiffman's recent article in the Jewish Tribune. Follow the link for a full reprint.

I noted the story of the newly deciphered Dead Sea Scrolls fragments announced at this conference here and here

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

More on the Oklahoma bullae exhibition

STILL MORE: Why the world premiere of precious biblical artifacts is in quiet Oklahoma. Through August 19, a select few in the middle of America's vast Bible Belt can see rare First Temple objects -- that most may only ever see online (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel). This is a wide-ranging and informative article. The most interesting part to me was the background on the relationship of Armstrong College with the Mazar family and their archaeological work in Jerusalem. Excerpt:

An unlikely 50-year partnership

Mazar takes the podium at the posh King David Hotel on Sunday evening, addressing a crowd well beyond its walls.

“This is a celebration day for all our friends and especially for the lovers of Israel and the Bible,” she says, before quickly outlining the greatest hits of the 5,000 years of Jerusalem’s history. She touches on a clear record of the name of “Yerushalem” on Egyptian papyrus from 4,000 years ago and King Herod’s renovation and expansion of Solomon’s Temple 2,000 years ago.

And then she turns to another historic event: The decades-old partnership between the Mazar family and this group of Sabbath-observant Christians.

“Exactly 50 years, right after the unification of Jerusalem, in February 1968, Prof. Benjamin Mazar, my grandfather, started archaeological excavations on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem right at the foot of the walls of that 2,000-year-old Temple Mount compound. At the end of that year, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of the Ambassador Cultural Foundation, became the most significant financial supporter of the excavations,” said Mazar.

And please permit me one niggle:

“We teach the Bible, from Genesis to Revelations,” says [Gerald] Flurry, “and a lot comes from the Hebrew Bible.”

I am absolutely certain that Mr. Flurry said "Revelation," not "Revelations." That is not a mistake he would have made. Amanda, you do great work, but you and your fellow journalists need to make an effort to get this detail right. It matters to many of your readers who share your interests.

For background on the Armstrong College exhibition, as well as on the bullae of Hezekiah and Isaiah, start here and follow the links.

UPDATE (20 June): I see that the error noted above has been corrected. Thanks, Amanda. Much appreciated.

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

Bridegroom of blood

THAT'S IN THE BIBLE: The Bible Says What? God tried to kill Moses. Rabbi Aaron Goldstein reflects on a controversial subject in the Torah (Jewish News/Times of Israel). You'd be surprised what's in the Bible.

The reference is to Exodus 4:24-26. No one knows what it means. It's not even clear who is doing what. Did YHWH try to kill Moses or his son? Did Zipporah touch Moses or her son or YHWH with the foreskin? And the big question for what everyone does is: Why?

The interpretation in this essay has the merit of being original.

For more on Zipporah, see here (immediately preceding post).

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

Moses' Kushite wife

DR. ELAD FILLER: Moses and the Kushite Woman: Classic Interpretations and Philo’s Allegory (TheTorah.com).

Ancient interpreters debated the identify of Moses’ Kushite wife and the nature of Miriam and Aaron’s complaint. Philo allegorizes her as an eye’s perfect focus, reflecting Moses’ direct perception of God. Reading this together with Philo’s allegorical understanding of Zipporah as a “bird” with direct access to heaven highlights the greatness of Moses’ wife as the fourth matriarch of Israel.

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

More on the Hezekiah-Isaiah bullae exhibition

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: On View: Seals of Isaiah and King Hezekiah Discovered. Bible and archaeology news (Robin Ngo). More on the Armstrong College exhibition in Edmond, Oklahoma. More on that here and links

For some archaeological background on the reign of King Hezekiah, see this other recent BHD essay: Hezekiah’s Religious Reform—In the Bible and Archaeology. What was King Hezekiah’s reform like on the ground? (David Rafael Moulis).

Excerpt:

Despite what the Bible says in 2 Kings 23, cultic changes during Hezekiah’s reign were absolute and left nothing to be centralized by King Josiah at the end of the seventh century. Indeed, only one phase of Judahite religious reform is visible in archaeological record, and that one is Hezekiah’s.

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

More on formerly "first-century Mark" and related matters

VARIANT READINGS: “First Century” Mark and “Second Century” Romans and “Second Century” Hebrews and “Second Century” 1 Corinthians. Brent Nongbri collects and discusses what we currently know about the background of the early Mark fragment from Oxyrhynchus and also about some other supposedly early New Testament fragments in the Green Collection. Dr. Nongbri links to an ETC post by Elijah Hixton. And James McGrath has a recent roundup post here.

The story is becoming complicated and I can't say I have the details in my head clearly. But the main question at present seems to be, was the Mark fragment ever for sale, and if so, by whom? Dr. Nongbri has another questions about the other fragments:

So, now a question for the people associated with the Green Collection and the Museum of the Bible: Do we have any provenance information on these pieces? They have a similar character to the Oxyrhynchus Mark fragment, and they seem to have become a part of the Green Collection at about the same time as the Oxyrhynchus Mark fragment was alleged to have been for sale. It would be most illuminating if the Green Collection or the Museum of the Bible would provide detailed acquisition information about these pieces.

Background on the Mark fragment is here and links. A post on the announcement about the Romans fragment is here. And a related post on supposedly early New Testament fragments is here.

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

Review of the Museum of the Bible

THE LATEST: Museum of the Bible finds big audience in bustling D.C. (The Washington Times). It's bee a while since we've seen a review. Here's a new one.

Thousands of people have come from far and wide — sometimes two by two — to visit the red-brick, ark-shaped building in Southwest.

The Museum of the Bible, on the 400 block of 4th Street SW, has received nearly 603,000 visitors (about 100,000 a month) since its 2-ton, 40-foot-tall bronze doors opened in November.

[...]

I will flag a couple of new details. First, an upcoming exhibition:

Next month, the museum will open new exhibits, including one focuses on women’s roles in artifact collecting.

Women comprise the majority of the museum’s visitors, and the “Noblewomen and the Bible” exhibit will tell the story of women from Germany’s House of Stolberg who amassed a collection of manuscripts and books, many of which were stolen by the Soviets during World War II. Some stolen artifacts have since been recovered.

Second, survey results:

According to post-visit surveys, more than 90 percent of the Museum of the Bible’s visitors have rated their experience as excellent or good, and most would recommend the experience to a friend or family member.

They seem to be pleasing their target audience.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on the Museum of the Bible and the controversies around it are here and links. And past posts on the repatriation of those improperly acquired (by Hobby Lobby, not the Museum of the Bible) looted cuneiform tablets are here and links.

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

Review of Chrubasik and King (eds.), Hellenism and the Local Communities of the Eastern Mediterranean

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Boris Chrubasik, Daniel King (ed.), Hellenism and the Local Communities of the Eastern Mediterranean. 400 BCE—250 CE. Oxford; London: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. xxii, 232. ISBN 9780198805663. $85.00. Reviewed by Peter Talloen, University of Leuven (peter.talloen@kuleuven.be).

As stated in the introduction by Chrubasik and King, the book focusses on the ways in which the relationship between local communities and Greek culture was negotiated in key areas of the Hellenistic world: Asia Minor, the Levant, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. The center stage is held by the non-Greek communities of those areas who refashioned and reshaped what they deemed to be Greek cultural forms to suit their own needs and interests. By studying different regions with different local interpretations of Greek culture, the volume aims to sketch a more nuanced cultural history of the Eastern Mediterranean. According to the editors, this focus on local interpretations of Greek cultural forms should also raise the question whether the historiographical terms Hellenism and Hellenization to describe these processes are still useful labels for the cultural processes at play in this time period—similar to questions raised about the usefulness of the term ‘Romanization’.5 The volume not only has a broad geographical scope but also a wide chronological one. The editors do not adhere to the traditional chronological boundaries of the Hellenistic period, 323—31 BCE, as they consider the interaction between Greek and non-Greek cultures not restricted to this period. The overview starts in 400 BCE, the beginning of a period of intensification of non-Greek engagement with Greek cultural forms especially in Asia Minor, as demonstrated by several contributions. Similarly, the editors rightly argue that engagement with Greek culture did not cease with the battle of Actium. Yet, why 250 CE was chosen as the end date is not clarified. Surely, Greek cultural influence did not come to an end in the middle of the 3rd century CE.

Ancient Judaism receives plenty of attention in the book. There is also coverage of Palmyra, Dura-Europos, Babylon, Egypt, and Asia Minor.

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

Pig bones and archaeology

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: You Are What You Eat: The Israelite Diet and Archaeology. Pig bones as an ethnic marker? (Marek Dospěl). Apparently it's complicated. Welcome to trying to integrate archaeology with texts.

As usual, this essay (itself informative) is a teaser for a BAR article that is behind the subscription wall: Lidar Sapir-Hen, “Pigs as an Ethnic Marker? You Are What You Eat,” November/December 2016.

Cross-file under Osteology.

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

Penn Report on the Scribes of the Cairo Geniza Project

AN ARMY OF PALEOGRAPHERS: Reclaiming a fragmented history. Digital humanities scholars are orchestrating an epic crowdsourcing effort to sort and transcribe handwriting on thousands of documents discarded hundreds of years ago, known as the Cairo Geniza (Penn Today).

Known as the Cairo Geniza, the 350,000 fragments of paper and parchment can be anything from the most holy religious manuscripts to the most mundane legal forms, holding endless opportunities to learn about medieval life in the Middle East.

Penn Libraries, which holds about 650 of the fragments, is coordinating with universities and other institutions in the public crowdsourced project, Scribes of the Cairo Geniza.

Progress so far:

The first phase, launched on August 8, 2017, was designed to sort a first batch of digitized fragments as either Hebrew or Arabic, or in some cases both, as well as to determine whether the scripts were written in an informal or formal style. It included more than 30,000 fragments from the Jewish Theological Seminary through the Princeton Geniza Project and the 650-plus from the Penn Libraries collection.

That first phase ended May 19, and the more than 30,000 fragments that were successfully sorted are now the foundation for the second phase.

The second phase, which begins later this month, invites the public to participate in deciphering and transcribing the sorted fragments.

“Luckily for us the research community in first classification were incredible,” Blickhan says. “The results of the first phase are impressive.”

While there is some skepticism in the academic community about the public contributing to such a scholarly pursuit, Allen and Eckstein say that the work by the public so far has exceeded their expectations. The public has consistently agreed whether texts were Arabic or Hebrew, formal or informal.

For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Scribes of the Cairo Geniza Project, see here and links. This is the most detailed report I have seen on it. The combination of crowdsourcing and digitization looks to be very powerful.

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

Past "An Army of" posts are here and links, and here, here, and here.

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

Review of Capone (ed.), Cristiani, Ebrei e pagani

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Alessandro Capone (ed.), Cristiani, Ebrei e pagani: il dibattito sulla Sacra Scrittura tra III e VI secolo = Christians, Jews and Heathens: The Debate on the Holy Scripture between the Third and Sixth Century. Judaïsme ancien et origines du christianisme, 12​. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017. Pp. 276. ISBN 9782503575568. €90,00 (pb). Reviewed by Geert Lernout, University of Antwerp (geert.lernout@uantwerpen.be).

Like so many volumes these days, this book is one of the outputs of a large collaborative project, this time on pagan-Jewish-Christian polemics and homiletics in the Latin fourth to sixth centuries.1 The topic is timely in the context of the renewed interest in Late Antiquity in general and in pagan-Christian polemics in particular.

[...]

For some past PaleoJudaica post on Porphyry, see here and links.

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

Syriac workshop at Frankfurt

SYRIAC WATCH: Workshop: Textual Criticism and Scholarly Editing of Syriac Sources (James McGrath, Religion Prof Blog).

The Forschungsstelle für Aramäische Studien at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main and its director, Prof. Dr Dorothea Weltecke, are glad to announce the upcoming seminar “Textual Criticism and Scholarly Editing of Syriac Sources: Ongoing Projects, Current Issues and Methods in Practice”, an international workshop on ecdotical methods and approaches in textual criticism of Syriac and Garshuni texts organized by Dr Simone Isacco Maria Pratelli and funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

[...]

The workshop takes place on 8-9 July 2018. Follow the link for further particulars.

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

13th Mainz Colloquium on ancient Hebrew

AIA ANNOUNCEMENT: MICAH 13th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (& Cognate Languages).

Friday, November 2, 2018 to Sunday, November 4, 2018
Location:

Germany

Website:
https://www.micah.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/micah2018/

"The 13th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH) 2018 will meet November 2–4. (Friday-Sunday) at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany.

As always, topics of the MICAH meeting cover grammar and linguistics of Ancient and Classical Hebrew (Epigraphic and Biblical Hebrew, Qumran and related Hebrew, and Ben Sira) as well as studies of older or contemporary adjacent Semitic languages and epigraphy, as for instance Ugaritic, Phoenician-Punic, Old and Imperial Aramaic and Early Syriac, or Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite and the like in phonetics, lexic, morphology and syntax. Topics on non-Semitic but contact languages (e.g. Philistine, Luwian) and general linguistics in connection with these languages will also considered welcome.

[...]

For some reason this only just came up in my search regime. The call for papers came to an end on 31 May, but it should still be possible to attend without a presentation. Follow the links for details.

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