Atkins et al. on "Ben Sira Manuscripts after 120 years"

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Yearbook
Ed. by Calduch-Benages, Nuria / Corley, Jeremy / Duggan, Michael W. / Egger-Wenzel, Renate

e-ISSN 1614-337X

2018
Discovering, Deciphering and Dissenting
Ben Sira Manuscripts after 120 years

Ed. by Aitken, James K. / Egger-Wenzel, Renate / Reif, Stefan C.

Hardcover
Publication Date: January 2019
ISBN 978-3-11-060109-1

Aims and Scope
The discovery of Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sira in the Cairo Genizah has shaped and transformed the interpretation of the book. It is argued here that a proper appreciation of the manuscripts themselves is also essential for understanding this ancient work.
Since their discovery 120 years ago and subsequent identification of leaves, attention has been directed to the interpretation of the ancient book, the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Serious consideration should also be given to the Hebrew manuscripts themselves and their particular contributions to understanding the language and transmission of the book. The surprising appearance of a work that was preserved by Christians and denounced by some Rabbis raises questions over the preservation of the book. At the same time, diversity among the manuscripts means that exegesis has to be built on an appreciation of the individual manuscripts. The contributors examine the manuscripts in this light, examining their discovery, the codicology and reception of the manuscripts within rabbinic and medieval Judaism, and the light they throw on the Hebrew language and poetic techniques.
The book is essential reading for those working on Ben Sira, the reception of the deuterocanon, and Medieval Hebrew manuscripts.

Cross-file under Old Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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

Day conference in memory of Yaakov Elman

H-JUDAIC: Conference: Land and Spirituality in Rabbinic Literature, Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies, Mar. 3, 2019.

A day in memory of Professor Yaakov Elman ז"ל

Sunday March 3, 2019, Belfer Hall 218, Wilf Campus, Yeshiva University, 2525 Amsterdam Avenue, 9:00 AM-5:30 PM

Attendance is free, but requires advance registration. Follow the links for details and the program of papers.

More on Professor Yaakov Elman is here and links.

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More on the suitcase of small finds from Shivta

ARTIFACTS: Customs Letter About a Long-Lost Suitcase Leads to Artifacts from Desert with Early 'Jesus' Painting (Tom Metcalfe, Live Science).

The ancient desert village of Shivta in southern Israel made headlines when archaeologists discovered a wall painting there that is thought to show the baptism of Jesus Christ, the earliest representation of Christ known in Israel.

Now, they have found about 140 long-lost artifacts from the village, which showed up in an archive in Jerusalem, after they were left behind in a suitcase more than 80 years ago.

[...]

This story was covered by Haaretz (premium) in January and I noted it here. But this one is available for free and it gives some new details about the artifacts. That's a nice photo of the ring with the gemstone carved with a whale.

And follow the links from that post for more posts about the discoveries at Shivta, including the etching depicting Jesus' face at his baptism.

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HB/Ancient Judaism chair at Indiana University

H-JUDAIC: Job: Alvin H. Rosenfeld Chair in Hebrew Bible, Indiana University - Bloomington

Indiana University - Bloomington invites applications from outstanding scholars in the field of Hebrew Bible for the Alvin H. Rosenfeld Chair in Jewish Studies, an endowed Chair established to honor the founding director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program. The specific area of specialization is open, and scholars whose work examines the reception or interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in various historical and cultural contexts in the Second Temple through late antique period are encouraged to apply, though willingness and ability to teach courses on Hebrew Bible is expected. The ideal candidate’s teaching and research will complement existing program strengths. The position will consist of a joint appointment at appropriate rank in the Borns Jewish Studies Program and the Department of Religious Studies. Ph.D. or equivalent required. It is anticipated that the successful candidate will be in post either in August 2019 or January 2020. Review of applications will begin March 15, 2019. The review of applications will continue until the position is filled.

Follow the link for further particulars and application information.

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Pelosi and the Good News Bible

RELIGION PROF: Pelosi and Proverbs. Further to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's favorite Bible quote, which isn't quite in the Bible. James McGrath relays the information that the Good News translation of Proverbs 14:31 is closer to her quote than anything else pointed out so far.

Background here and links.

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Simulated crucifixion as Shroud of Turin research

WAIT, WHAT? Researchers hung men on a cross and added blood in bid to prove Turin Shroud is real (David Adam, Science Magazine).

In an attempt to prove that the Turin Shroud—a strip of linen that some people believe was used to wrap Jesus’s body after his crucifixion and carries the image of his face—is real, researchers have strapped human volunteers to a cross and drenched them in blood. Most mainstream scientists agree the shroud is a fake created in the 14th century.

[...]

That's right. And I doubt that this study is going to change that.

Past posts on the Shroud of Turin are here and links and here.

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Ofer, The Masora on Scripture and Its Methods

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Ofer, Yosef
The Masora on Scripture and Its Methods

Series:Fontes et Subsidia ad Bibliam pertinentes 7

Aims and Scope
The starting point for any study of the Bible is the text of the Masora, as designed by the Masoretes. The ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contain thousands of Masora comments of two types: Masora Magna and Masora Prava. How does this complex defense mechanism, which contains counting of words and combinations from the Bible, work?
Yosef Ofer, of Bar-Ilan University and the Academy of the Hebrew Language, presents the way in which the Masoretic comments preserve the Masoretic Text of the Bible throughout generations and all over the world, providing comprehensive information in a short and efficient manner.
The book describes the important manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, and the methods of the Masora in determining the biblical spelling and designing the forms of the parshiot and the biblical Songs. The effectiveness of Masoretic mechanisms and their degree of success in preserving the text is examined. A special explanation is offered for the phenomenon of qere and ketiv.
The book discusses the place of the Masoretic text in the history of the Bible, the differences between the Babylonian Masora and that of Tiberias, the special status of the Aleppo Codex and the mystery surrounding it. Special attention is given to the comparison between the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex (B 19a). In addition, the book discusses the relationship between the Masora and other tangential domains: the grammar of the Hebrew language, the interpretation of the Bible, and the Halakha.
The book is a necessary tool for anyone interested in the text of the Bible and its crystallization.

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

Daley, The Textual Basis of English Translations of the Hebrew Bible

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Textual Basis of English Translations of the Hebrew Bible

Series:
Supplements to the Textual History of the Bible, Volume: 2

Author: S. C. Daley

S. C. Daley’s book, The Textual Basis of English Translations of the Hebrew Bible, moves us beyond existing uncertainties about the textual basis of modern Bible translations to a fresh understanding of the text-critical constitution of well-known English translations of the past four hundred years. Most translations depart from the Masoretic Text selectively, and in-depth analysis of their textual decisions leads (1) to the identification of distinct periods in the textual history of the English Bible, (2) to a classification of the translations by eclectic type, and (3) to the observation that each translation is ultimately unique from a text-critical perspective. The study then revisits the topic of the text to be translated in Bibles intended for the wider public.

Publication Date: 4 February 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-39176-5

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Review of Persian Religion in the Achaemenid Period, ed. Henkelman and Redard

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Wouter Henkelman, Celine Redard (ed.), Persian Religion in the Achaemenid Period. Classica et orientalia, 16. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017. Pp. 496. ISBN 9783447106474. €98,00. Reviewed by Zachary W. Silvia, Bryn Mawr College (zsilvia@brynmawr.edu).

Persian Religion in the Achaemenid Period presents the proceedings of a 2013 colloquium concerned with religion in the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Twelve articles are included, drawing together perspectives from archaeology, art history, Avestan scholarship, history, and philology. The book is primarily concerned with regions east of the Zagros Mountains and southern Central Asia and thus will appeal to scholars and graduate students in fields related to these geographic regions during periods of Achaemenid and Hellenistic contact.

[...]

I noted the publication of the volume here. It doesn't have anything specifically on ancient Judaism, but many of the articles are of considerable background interest for Zoroastrianism and Achaemenid religion. There is also coverage of the Persepolis Fortification Archives and Persian-era Bactrian Aramaic texts (Aramaic Watch).

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

On Judith

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY has a two-part series on Judith by Robin Gallaher Branch. It was originally published in 2012, but I missed it then.

Judith: A Remarkable Heroine. The first half of a two-part Bible History Daily presentation of Judith.

Judith: A Remarkable Heroine, Part 2. The second half of Robin Gallaher Branch's two-part Bible History Daily presentation of Judith.

The Book of Judith’s truly remarkable heroine, Judith, introduced as a devout, shapely, beautiful and wealthy widow (Judith 8:4, 7), exhibits characteristics showing her the equal of Israel’s finest warriors. Indeed her beheading of Holofernes, the invading Assyrian general—in his own tent, with his own sword, and surrounded by his own heretofore victorious army, no less!—marks her as a political savior in Israel on a par with David.

Cross-file under Old Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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Reverse-engineering ancient metallurgy in Israel

ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY WATCH: How Was Iron Smelted in Ancient Israel? Researchers Build Kilns to Find Out. The transition from the Copper Age to harder iron tools was a turning point for the ancient Hebrew kingdoms, but we don't know quite how they did it (Nir Hasson, Haaretz premium).

However, there are only so many ways the people in Judah and ancient Israel could have generated temperatures high enough to extract the iron from ore, and last week Dr. Adi Eliyahu of Ariel University set out to recreate the long-forgotten process.

Using the means that could have been available at the time and common sense, Eliyahu – who studied chemistry and archaeology at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot – and her colleagues set out to make iron the old way.

And it worked!

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More on religion in the Coptic magical papyri

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG has two more posts in its series on Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri:

Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri VII: Monks and Magic

We do indeed have several texts which seem to come from monasteries or monastic cells, although many more have no clear provenance, and, as we saw in the case of the ancient town of Kellis, there are some Coptic magical texts which we know were not produced or used by monks. This week, though, we will look at one of the best attested instances of a monk practicing magic, the fascinating case of Phoibammon of Naqlun.

Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri VIII: The Bible and Magic

Using scriptural texts as amulets was therefore a way of drawing the sacred power of the Bible into the lives of individual Christians. While they might not be able to afford a copy of the Gospels in their entirety, they could wear their first lines as a way of warding off evil and misfortune. This use of sacred texts was not uniquely Christian – we have evidence of Greek speakers in Egypt using passages from Homer in amulets and other magical contexts, while evidence from the Dead Sea scrolls and Cairo Genizah shows that Jewish communities were using the Psalms as a form of protection from evil spirits before Christianity began, and continued to do so even after Christians appropriated their scriptures. Indeed, since the first Christians came from the Jewish community, it is likely that the amuletic use of scripture among Christians was at least partly inspired by its use in Judaism. The most common Psalm found in amulets, Psalm 90, is the same one which we often find in Jewish contexts.

Also, did you know that Shenoute once punched Nestorius for disrespecting the Bible?

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

AJR forum on Ophir and Rosen-Zvi, "Goy"

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Goy: An AJR Forum.

The AJR review forum of Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile. With responses from Cynthia Baker, Yair Furstenberg, Christine Hayes, and Cavan Concannon.

The first essay, by the authors of the book, is posted:

Why Goy? (Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi).

Much scholarship has been devoted to Jewish relations with gentiles in different periods, in both halakhic and aggadic contexts. Scholars have discussed the boundaries between Jews and gentiles/goyim, their creation and stability, and especially the ability to move from one side of the boundary to the other. But something has been forgotten along the way: the category itself. ...

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

CFP: DSS and Ancient Media Culture

DAY CONFERENCE AT ST MARY'S TWICKENHAM, LONDON: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Ancient Media Culture. On 7 June 2019. Looks like a great lineup of speakers. They are accepting paper proposals.

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

Mosaic on Alter's Bible

MOSAIC MAGAZINE has published three essays on Robert Alter's recently completed translation of the Hebrew Bible:

How to Judge Robert Alter's Landmark Translation of the Hebrew Bible. Finished after decades of labor, this one-man English translation is a stupendous achievement. How does it hold up against the masterpieces (and follies) that have come before? (Hillel Halkin).

Reading the Bible as literature—if that is all we read it as—remains an act of rebellion today, if not against a divine giver of the Bible who no longer commands our credence, then against the Bible itself, which does not wish to be read in this way. It is regrettable that, in his excellent introductions to, and commentaries on, the literary qualities of the books of the Bible, Alter has not dealt with this issue, which is ultimately a translator’s as well. Perhaps he still will.

The first response to Halkin's essay:

What It Means to Read the Bible as Nothing More than Great Literature. Like all of the other methods that have been devised for approaching the Bible, the literary method has its inevitable limitations (Jon D. Levenson).

Another difficult point, however, is in what sense the Bible can be said to wish or not to wish something. Does a book have will or desire? Is there any reason to take any voice within a book, however insistent it may be, as normative for interpretation?

The second response:

Is the Alter Bible Jewish, in Some Definable Sense? Robert Alter himself conspicuously does not call his own version Jewish in any way. Can we? (Leonard Greenspoon).

Nonetheless, Jewish it is. This may become clearer if we look at it from the outside, as it were—and in particular at the criticisms leveled by John Updike at Alter’s translation of the Torah, The Five Books of Moses, published separately in 2004.

Remember, Mosaic only gives you full access to three articles per month without a paid subscription. This uses up all three, but they are three good ones.

For past posts on Alter's translation of the Bible, start here and follow the links.

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

"Daphnis and Chloe in the Garden of Eden"

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Lovers’ Tale. A closer look at Daphnis and Chloe in the Garden of Eden.

In “Daphnis and Chloe in the Garden of Eden” in the July/August 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Theodore Feder explores how a second-century pagan love story alludes to the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve. In this post, delve deeper into the story with passages from the pagan romance, their Biblical counterparts and images of artistic representations of the lovers and their idyllic garden.

Noted belately for Valentine's Day.

For more on ancient Greek novels (not including Daphnis and Chloe) see here.

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

The Jewish temple at Leontopolis

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: The Forgotten Temple (Philip Jenkins). Not forgotten, of course, by PaleoJudaica and its readers.

It is intrinsically likely that Leontopolis should have been a prime creative center. As I said, it had the skilled literate people on staff and in the neighborhood, and moreover it was close to Alexandria. Can any of the texts we know have come from there?

Some fun speculation follows. Add to it Gideon Bohak's proposal that Joseph and Aseneth is connected with the priesthood of the Leontopolitan temple (mentioned here).

Some other past posts on the Jewish temple at Leontopolis in Egypt are here and here.

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

Review of Linguistics & Biblical Exegesis (ed. Mangum and Westbury), plus a blog series on Acts.

READING ACTS: Book Review: Douglas Mangum and Josh Westbury, eds. Linguistics & Biblical Exegesis (Phil Long).

Mangum, Douglas and Josh Westbury, eds. Linguistics & Biblical Exegesis. Lexham Methods Series 2; Lexham Press, 2016. 262 pp. $24.99

While we're here, I should note that for some time Phil Long has been posting a detailed exegetical series on the Book of Acts, appropriately for a blog called Reading Acts. He is up to chapter 10 at the moment. If Acts interests you, do go and have a look.

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

Archaeology of the Battle of the Aegates

PUNIC WATCH: Underwater Archaeologists Find Surprising Artifacts from Major Roman Naval Battle (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

Archaeologists exploring the site of a naval battle fought 2,200 years ago between Rome and Carthage have uncovered clues to how the battle may have unfolded — as well as several mysteries.

The finds suggest that Carthage reused captured Roman warships during the battle and that Carthaginian sailors may have thrown cargo overboard in a desperate attempt to help their ships escape the Romans.

According to historical records, the naval battle occurred on March 10, 241 B.C., near the Aegates Islands, not far from Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. ...

The new finds fit well with what we hear from Polybius. He says that in a previous naval engagement at Drepana the Carthaginians had captured many Roman ships (1.51). And the Roman fleet took the Carthaginians by surprise at the Battle of the Aegates. The Carthaginians ships were deployed hastily and overloaded, while the Roman fleet was streamlined and well prepared (1.60-61). Both naval engagements took place during the First Punic War.

It's always exciting when archaeology connects up in a coherent way with ancient literary accounts of an event.

Every so often I like to mention again why "Punic Watch" is a feature of PaleoJudaica.

Cross-file under Maritime (Marine) Archaeology, on which see also the posts collected here and here.

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

On Dating Biblical Texts to the Persian Period, ed. Bautch and Lackowski

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: On Dating Biblical Texts to the Persian Period. Notice of a New Book: Bautch, Richard J., and Mark Lackowski (eds.) (2019). On Dating Biblical Texts to the Persian Period. FAT 2.101. Mohr Siebeck.

Follow the link for a description, TOC, and ordering information.

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

Interview with Jodi Magness

AUDIO: Archaeologist Unveils Mosaic Art Hidden In Ancient Israel Synagogue (Sandra Averhart, WUWF88.1, NPR for Florida's Great Northwest).

Dr. Jodi Magness as been directing excavations in the ancient village of Huqoq in Israel’s Galilee, where crews discovered mosaics depicting biblical scenes and the first non-biblical story ever discovered decorating an ancient synagogue.

Sandra Averhart talks to Dr. Jodi Magness, an archeologist and scholar of religion. She will be speaking in Pensacola Sunday, Feb. 17 about her research team's discovery of mosaics in an ancient synagogue in Israel.

That's today.

For past posts on the Huqoq excavation, its ancient synagogue, and its splendid mosaics, start here and follow the many links.

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

Lustful, greedy Lot?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Abraham and Lot in the Bible. Examining ancient Jewish interpretations (Megan Sauter).

Dan Rickett investigates ancient interpretations of Lot’s character in his Biblical Views column “Safeguarding Abraham,” published in the January/February 2019 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He shows that ancient interpreters frequently painted Lot as greedy and unscrupulous—a foil to Abraham’s righteousness.

As usual, the full BAR article is behind the subscription wall, but this BHD essay gives you a summary of it.

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

Another review of Fredriksen, When Christians Were Jews

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Paula Fredriksen, When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018. Pp. viii, 261. ISBN 9780300190519. $27.50. Reviewed by Andrew S. Jacobs, Scripps College (andrew@andrewjacobs.org).

Paula Fredriksen’s new book spins a lucid and straightforward narrative of "the first generation" of an eschatological Jewish movement that would become, despite itself, Christianity. Fredriksen centers her narrative on the city of Jerusalem, the site of the Temple of the God of Israel, where Jesus’s mission culminated, his life ended, and the movement in his name developed numerically and theologically after his death. Transformed in and by the city of David, Jesus’s followers went forth to gather in all the people of Israel; encountering god-fearing pagans in the Jewish synagogues, they began to expand their target zone while waiting for the imminent return of Jesus and the end of the world. Paul, at first alarmed by the sociologically disruptive separation of pagans from their gods, attempted to discipline (or "persecute") these Jewish Jesus-followers; then, altered by his own experience of Jesus, he became the most influential theorist of this Jewish eschatological movement.

[...]

For earlier reviews of the book, see here.

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

Should Codex Sinaiticus have been rebound?

VARIANT READINGS: Newsreel Footage of Codex Sinaiticus from 1933. With background and characteristically insightful commentary from Brent Nongbri, including information on the debate about the rebinding of the codex in the 1930s.

By the way, Codex Sinaiticus is not a fake.

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

Was Alexander declared dead prematurely?

PALEO-FORENSIC SPECULATION: Why Alexander the Great May Have Been Declared Dead Prematurely (It's Pretty Gruesome) (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

Alexander the Great may have been killed by Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological condition in which a person's own immune system attacks them, says one medical researchers [sic].

[...]

Could be. We'll never know unless someday we recover his body.

Ancient Judaism took an interest in Alexander the Great, in the Bible and elsewhere. So I like to keep track of news about him. For past posts see here and links.

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

Resources for learning Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez)

THE AWOL BLOG: ምምሃረ፡ልሳነ፡ግዕዝ - MEMHĀRA LESĀNA GE'EZ: RESOURCES FOR LEARNING GE'EZ-- THE CLASSICAL LANGUAGE OF ETHIOPIA. Cross-file under Ethiopic Watch and News You Can Use.

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

The Talmud on weasels and wombs

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Womb Raider. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ Talmudic rabbis imagine a situation involving a weasel, a cow’s womb, a fetus, vomit, and a firstborn calf. Naturally.

One of the things that can make Talmudic reasoning feel so foreign is that the rabbis take exactly the opposite approach [from “hard cases make bad law”]. They love hard cases; in fact, they will frequently invent hypothetical situations that are improbable and convoluted, precisely in order to test the outer limits of legal concepts. When people use the word “Talmudic” to describe reasoning that is overly complicated and detached from the real world, it is this kind of hypothetical argument that they have in mind.

Over the course of my Talmud study, a few such examples have stuck with me because of their sheer weirdness. ...

You really want to keep reading for this one.

I have discussed another weasel-themed Talmudic (Mishnaic) passage here.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Nathan and Topolski (eds.), Is there a Judeo-Christian Tradition?

OPEN-ACCESS BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Is there a Judeo-Christian Tradition?
A European Perspective
Ed. by Nathan, Emmanuel / Topolski, Anya

Series: Perspectives on Jewish Texts and Contexts 4

eBook (PDF)
Publication Date: March 2016
Copyright year: 2016
ISBN 978-3-11-041659-6

Includes articles on ancient Jewish-Christianity and the relationship between ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

HT AJR.

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Kraken is coming for Hebrew paleography

ALGORITHM WATCH: Tikkoun Sofrim.

Tikkoun Sofrim is a joint French Israeli project aimed at making Medieval Hebrew manuscripts openly and freely available as texts.The project is combining automatic Handwritten Text-Recognition (HTR) and Crowdsourcing.

In the first stage we analyse the manuscript layout and train Kraken, a deep learning engine for automatic reading. Kraken is transcribing quite well, with an error rate of less than 10% and often even less than 5% at the letter level.

However this is not quite good enough.

In order to further improve Kraken’s automatic reading and provide accurate editions of the texts, we need the human eye. The tool in this website is aimed at achieving this goal.

It needs the human eye for now.

The Singularity is Near.

HT The Talmud Blog on Facebook.

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

A 400-year-old Torah book seized in Turkey?

APPREHENDED: Turkish police find 400-year-old Torah in Aydın province (Daily Sabah).

The Turkish police are doing an impressive job of disrupting the work of antiquities smugglers. That said, most of what they are recovering seem to be fake artifacts. Still, that's good. It keeps the smugglers from duping people who might otherwise have wasted money on them.

There is a photo at the top of this article which I infer to be of the seized "Torah." The article doesn't actually say. But assuming that it is, it does not look like a Torah manuscript to me. I am no expert on seventeenth-century Torah codices, but some things don't add up.

The writing on the cover is in Hebrew letters. I see the word "fire," followed by "You are the King of the World/Eternity." There seem to be some other words, but it's hard to tell because there don't seem to be spaces between the words in the marginal writing. Some of the lettering does not readily add up into words.

Moreover, the writing and layout are clumsy and do not look like the work of a professional scribe. There is no photo of the inner contents, but I can't imagine that there is a Torah inside.

The menorah design on the cover is worth noting too. Menorahs are a favored decoration in the rash of recent fake manuscripts that have been turning up.

It could be an early modern Hebrew book of some sort. But I think most likely it is another modern fake. I would have to see the contents of the codex to be able to say any more.

The article mentions two "gold plated Torahs that were seized recently. I have commented on (at least) one of those stories here and here. And I have commented on the report of the seizure of a 1900-year-old Torah scroll here. None of these reports was credible.

For other manuscripts and artifacts seized from smugglers by the Turkish authorities, both recently and in recent years, start here and follow the links. I have not seen a single case that seems to be a genuine ancient artifact.

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

It's February 14th!

AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS: AND TODAY WE CELEBRATE... THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14 Saints Cyril and Methodius (Aleteia). Cyril and Methodius Day is actually celebrated on three different days in Eastern Europe. This is the first one for 2019. We celebrate Cyril and Methodius here at PaleoJudaica for their invention of the Slavonic alphabet, which let to the preservation of some fascinating Old Testament pseudepigrapha (etc.) in Old Church Slavonic which otherwise would mostly have been lost.

And yes, I hope you all have a nice Valentine's Day too.

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

Is Codex Sinaiticus a Fake?

SPOILER: NO. Is Codex Sinaiticus a Fake? New Evidence (Elijah Hixson, The ETC Blog).

There's been so much debunking to do lately.

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

More on Apollonius of Tyana

NEWSWEEK HAS TAKEN UP THE STORY: WHO WAS APOLLONIUS? CONTROVERSIAL 'BIBLE CONSPIRACIES' DOCUMENTARY CLAIMS JESUS WAS REALLY GREEK PHILOSOPHER (Katherine Hignett). The headline is unfortunate. This "documentary" is not credible and no specialist is defending it. There is no controversy.

But otherwise the article is good and I commend it to you. The interview with Prof. Sam Boyd of the University of Colorado, Boulder, gives an overview of why the claim of the film is wrong and what the actual interesting points of comparison between Apollonius and Jesus are.

It is unfortunate that the film is spreading misinformation. But the positive side is that Apollonius of Tyana is getting some publicity. And the media, to give them due credit, are generally correcting the errors of the film.

Background here.

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More on those four "Aramaic" books from Turkey

UPDATE: 4 ancient books depicting life of Jesus seized in Turkey's Denizli (The Daily Sabah). This is the article mentioned in yesterday's post, which I have only now been able to find.

This article includes a larger version of the image of the four books. The cover of the second from the right has some Syriac writing on it, although it's too blurry for me to be sure what it says.

The article also includes another photo of two pages in one of the books. They contain color images, mostly in gold leaf, and writing in the Greek alphabet. On the left is an image of an eagle on a pedestal, holding a cross. On the right, two people doing something. Is that a game board or a box between them?

The writing, as far as I can make it out, is gibberish. I see no actual Greek words and many of the letter combinations look bizarre.

It's a fake.

The way to bet is that they are all fakes. But I would have to see more of the other three to be sure.

By the way, both articles had this odd sentence:

Archaeology Professor Fahriye Bayram from Pamukkale University confirmed the authenticity of the books, saying that they had been requested and used by royals.

I don't know what the last clause means. Perhaps it was translated badly from Arabic. UPDATE: Sorry, that should be Turkish. I must have been thinking of SANA instead of the Daily Sabah.

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Was Jesus really Apollonius of Tyana? No.

JUNK HISTORY WATCH: Low-budget Amazon Prime documentary prompts explosion of interest in theory Jesus was a Greek man called Apollonius. ‘What about this person, Jesus? Was he real? Was he created? Was he an alien?’ film asks - to the general annoyance of theological experts (Tom Barnes, The Independent). I was going to ignore this story, but it seems to have gained some traction thanks to the recent coverage in Sputnik.

Yes, it is annoying. This is not a theory. It is not even a hypothesis. It is a notion that has no basis in any kind of historical reality. The sources for Jesus are much earlier and better than those for Apollonius. I don't doubt that Apollonius was a real philosopher who lived in the first century, but our main source for him is a biography by Philostratus written in the third century. You can read the whole, long work in the Loeb Classical Library translation here and here (for free).

There are some interesting similarities between Jesus and Apollonius as divine mediator figures, but they were quite different people and it takes willful obtuseness to suggest that they were the same person.

I see that back in 1998 my class on Divine Mediator Figures in the Biblical World had a seminar on Apollonius. You can read a student summary of some of the issues we discussed here. It assumes introductory material posted here and the bibliography on Apollonius posted here and also the bibilography on exorcism and anthropology here.

You can watch the trailer for the whole Bible Conspiracies "documentary" with the Independent article at the link. Apparently other themes include ancient aliens and Bible Code numerology. It's disappointing that Amazon Prime is promoting this drivel.

UPDATE (14 February): More here.

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More Aramaic books seized in Turkey

HERE WE GO AGAIN: 4 Ancient Assyrian Books Depicting Life of Jesus Seized in Turkey (Daily Sabah via AINA).

Turkish police have seized four invaluable ancient books written in Syriac and Aramaic, including one depicting the life of Jesus Christ.

Anti-smuggling police teams carried out an operation in southwestern Denizli province upon receiving intelligence that smugglers were planning to sell the ancient books.

Written on papyrus, the leather bound books are thought to be over 1,000 years old and were smuggled from the Middle East.

[...]

There is a low quality photo of the covers of the four books. They have decorations in gold leaf and they look similar to other recent objects emerging in Turkey (here and here - as noted, the former is a fake).

One of the four new books seems to have writing on it, but it's too small for me to read.

My guess is that they are modern fakes or modern or early modern devotional objects. They do not look a thousand years old to me. But any definitive conclusions about them would require an art historian (I am not one) and/or better photos.

In recent years many such objects have been seized from smugglers in Turkey. Mostly we hear nothing more about them, although in a few cases the information presented was enough for specialists working from the photos to figure out what they are. None have turned out to be ancient or of any great interest. For details, see here and follow the many links.

I always like to underline my appreciation of the work of the Turkish police in disrupting smuggling networks. I only wish the media were as diligent about careful and cautious coverage of what is seized from the smugglers.

UPDATE: I should also mention this post as potentially relevant: Hebrew forgeries from Arab countries.

UPDATE (14 February): More here. At least one of the books is a fake.

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Review of Fredriksen, When Christians Were Jews

MARGINALIA REVIEW OF BOOKS: When Jesus Was Jewish. Larry W. Hurtado on Paula Fredriksen’s When Christians Were Jews.

This latest book by Paula Fredriksen is aimed at a broad readership, and so heavily draws on some of her earlier works, especially Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity (1999), and Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle (2017). But the present book skilfully and readably weaves its own narrative and stands on its own as a succinct account of the earliest stage of what became Christianity. She succeeds admirably in presenting a compact account for “general readers” that is built on her much fuller work. The emphasis is on the Jewishness of Jesus and the earliest Jesus-followers, and their Jerusalem orientation, including particularly a positive view of the temple. ...

Professor Hurtado has also posted another review of this book on his blog.

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More on Scott Carroll's manuscripts

VARIANT READINGS: Scott Carroll’s Christian Manuscripts. Brent Nongbri continues his excavation of video presentations to establish the contents of the ancient manuscripts owned by the Green Collection, Scott Carroll, etc.

In this one he infers Carroll's ownership of some manuscript fragments of Greek biblical (Old and New Testament) and Classical works.

Background here and links.

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Rains reveal Bar Kokhba Revolt coin

NUMISMATICS: Rains unearth rare Bar Kochba-era coin hailing ‘freedom of Israel.’ Nature and Parks Authority tour guide stumbles on 1,885-year-old find while on training hike in Lachish region (MICHAEL BACHNER and TOI Staff, Times of Israel).

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Review of Mandel, The Origins of Midrash

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | The Origins of Midrash (Yitz Landes).

Paul D. Mandel,The Origins of Midrash: From Teaching to Text. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 180. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017.

Excerpt:

And yet, Paul Mandel argues in his recent book, The Origins of Midrash: From Teaching to Text, that midrash was not always—indeed, not originally—interpretation, as such. Rather, for much of antiquity, including during the early rabbinic period, the Semitic root d.r.sh referred to teaching—textual or otherwise. Mandel thus overturns the consensus understanding that early uses of the root d.r.sh refer to textual interpretation, and that only later was the root expanded to encompass teaching more generally.

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2019 Coptic and Syriac Summer School

ALIN SUCIU: Dumbarton Oaks/HMML Coptic and Syriac Summer School (July 7-August 2, 2019).

Upon the invitation of Fr. Columba Stewart, next summer I will teach an intensive Coptic course in the United States, together with my colleague, Victor Ghica (Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo). The course is funded by Dumbarton Oaks and will be hosted at HMML, Collegeville, Minnesota, between July 7 and August 2. The deadline for applications is February 15, so, if interested, there is still time to apply. We will do lots of Coptic literature and manuscripts! Here follows the official announcement.

[...]

Should be a good Summer School. I have linked often to Dr. Suciu's interesting blog posts on mostly Coptic matters.

You may recall that Fr. Columba Stewart is one of Iraq's heroic Manuscripts Men.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch and Syriac Watch.

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On graffiti (art)

HYPERALLERGIC: The Clandestine Cultural Knowledge of Ancient Graffiti. Today we are used to thinking of graffiti as subversive or illegal, but ancient people didn’t necessarily see graffiti in this way at all (Michael Press).

Whatever the definition, scholars love ancient graffiti. Whether painted or inscribed, made quickly or over some time, these texts and drawings provide glimpses of a world otherwise largely invisible to us. Many examples of graffiti (but certainly not all) were inscribed by ordinary people who may not have engaged in other types of writing, or they might reflect the everyday lives of people — elite and non-elite — that is otherwise only hinted at in literary and historical sources. ...

For the work of Karen Stern on ancient Jewish graffiti, mentioned in this essay, see here and links.

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Wiesel on Seth in the Bible

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Seth in the Bible. Bible Review's Supporting Roles by Elie Wiesel.

Read Elie Wiesel’s essay on Seth in the Bible as it originally appeared in Bible Review, October 1999.—Ed.

Incidentally, Seth is also a key character in the branch of Gnosticism known as Sethian Gnosticism. More on that here, here, here, and here.

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The truth about ancient widows

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Widows in the New Testament Period

The notion that widows needed someone to take care of them rests on ideas about the legal and social status of women. Perhaps most important is the idea that widows could not possess their own property. A wife was dependent on her husband, and when he died, she went to live with her father’s household if he was alive, or to an adult son if she had one. Having a father or son was fortunate, because otherwise widows were entirely without resources. Widows were also legally subordinate to these male relatives. The above picture is largely false for the Mediterranean world of the first and second centuries.

See Also: Women in the New Testament World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).

By Susan E. Hylen
Professor of New Testament
Candler School of Theology
Emory University, Georgia
February 2019

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Litke, Targum Song of Songs and Late Jewish Literary Aramaic

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM BRILL:

Targum Song of Songs and Late Jewish Literary Aramaic

Language, Lexicon, Text, and Translation

Series:
Supplement to Aramaic Studies, Volume: 15

Author: Andrew Litke

In Targum Song of Songs and Late Jewish Literary Aramaic, Andrew W. Litke offers the first language analysis of Targum Song of Songs. The Targum utilizes grammatical and lexical features from different Aramaic dialects, as is the case with other Late Jewish Literary Aramaic (LJLA) texts. The study is laid out as a descriptive grammar and glossary, and in the analysis, each grammatical feature and lexical item is compared with the pre-modern Aramaic dialects and other exemplars of LJLA. By clearly laying out the linguistic character of this Targum in this manner, Litke is able to provide added clarity to our understanding of LJLA more broadly. Litke also provides a new transcription and translation of the Paris Héb. 110 manuscript.

Publication Date: 28 March 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-39374-5

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Aramaic in New Jersey

ARAMAIC (SYRIAC) WATCH: New Jersey is one of the few places you can hear these languages — and they’re in danger ( Blake Nelson, nj.com). And one of those languages is:

Spotlight: Aramaic
In Paramus, the Syriac Orthodox Church still uses Aramaic during services.

“It’s our identity,” said Saliba Kassis, a priest at Paramus' Mor Aphrem Center. Although the use of Aramaic is decreasing, Kassis said, thousands of people in the area still speak it.

Aramaic originated in the Middle East millennia ago, and is similar to Hebrew. Because it was spoken in first century Palestine, you can hear the actor Jim Caviezel use it in 2004′s The Passion of the Christ.

I mentioned Paramus in this context some years ago. Teaneck is another center for Syriac/Aramaic in New Jersey.

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Tablet reviews "The Golem"

CINEMA AND THEODICY: Jewish Horror. Judaism offers the same baroque supernatural possibilities that Christianity does. So why is it rarely a universal source for genre filmmakers? And what does it say about human evil? (Ed Simon, Tablet Magazine). This is a review of The Golem, but the subject matter ranges from the Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls, to the film, to Kafka, to metaphysics and theology.

Monotheistic horror plumbs the depths of the Shema’s darkest conclusions, where the ultimate origin of terror must be reconciled with the fundamental truth of “the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” In monotheistic horror, regardless of whether a book or movie has superficial markers of Jewishness or not, where it leads is to that gnawing wisdom of the prophet, who writes in Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

The ur-text of Jewish horror, and what I would argue is perhaps the most terrifying story every told, is the biblical Book of Job. ...

Background here and links.

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Resurrecting the Showbread?

VINTAGE BAKING: SHOWING THE WORLD THE SHOWBREAD. Baker Les Saidel was entranced by the Biblical showbread – the 12 loaves of unleavened bread in the Tabernacle and later in the Holy Temple (ALAN ROSENBAUM, Jerusalem Post).

Saidel consulted extensively with Prof. Amar in all of his research and has been offering a “Breads of the Beit Hamikdash” workshop since last summer. The workshop offers participants the opportunity to mix, shape, smell, bake and eat some of the breads used in the Temple service, including the types of breads that were offered as part of the korban todah (thanksgiving offering), the sh’tei halechem (two breads) of the Shavuot offering, and, of course, the lehem hapanim. He reports that thousands of participants – Jewish and non-Jewish – from around the world have attended.

“I’m going to dedicate the rest of my life to researching the lehem hapanim, teaching the people about the service in the Temple and trying to awaken the people into rebuilding the third Temple the right way,” says Saidel. “You have to do it with love and peace – not by provoking and creating strife, but by creating unity and love.”

I doubt that it is possible to reconstruct the recipe for the Showbread with any confidence. But Mr. Saidel seems to be having fun trying.

Past posts on the Showbread (a.k.a. "Shewbread") are here, here, and here.

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The Question of God's Perfection, ed. Hazony and Johnson

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Question of God's Perfection

Jewish and Christian Essays on the God of the Bible and Talmud

Series: Philosophy of Religion - World Religions, Volume: 8

Editors: Yoram Hazony and Dru Johnson

Philosophers have often described theism as the belief in the existence of a “perfect being”—a being that is said to possess all possible perfections, so that it is all-powerful, all-knowing, immutable, perfectly good, perfectly simple, and necessarily existent, among other qualities. But such a theology is difficult to reconcile with the God we find in the Bible and Talmud. The Question of God’s Perfection brings together leading scholars from the Jewish and Christian traditions to critically examine the theology of perfect being in light of the Hebrew Bible and classical rabbinic sources. Contributors are James A. Diamond, Lenn E. Goodman, Edward C. Halper, Yoram Hazony, Dru Johnson, Brian Leftow, Berel Dov Lerner, Alan L. Mittleman, Heather C. Ohaneson, Randy Ramal, Eleonore Stump, Alex Sztuden, and Joshua I. Weinstein.

Publication Date: 6 December 2018
ISBN: 978-90-04-38795-9

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Tiberias Stylistic Classifier

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Tiberias Stylistic Classifier for the Hebrew Bible (Drew Longacre, The OTTC Blog). The algorithms are getting more and more sophisticated.

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Alter on translating the Bible

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Translating the Bible Against the Ancient Near Eastern Background (Robert Alter).

All translations of great works are of course no more than approximations of the original, in some places happy ones, in some necessarily imperfect. But respecting the sheer physicality of the Bible’s language together with a stylistic decorum appropriate to the Hebrew diction can help readers sense something of the world quite different from ours in which the Bible was created.

With lots of insightful examples.

For more on Professor Alter's recently completed translation of the Hebrew Bible, see here, here, here and links.

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Festschrift for Maria Macuch (on Irano-Judaica etc.)

BIBLIOGRAPHICA IRANICA: A Thousand Judgements: Festschrift for Maria Macuch. Notice of a New Book: Hintze, Almut, Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst & Claudius Naumann (eds.). 2019. A Thousand Judgements: Festschrift for Maria Macuch. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Includes articles on Zoroastrianism, Manicheism (Manichaeism), Judeo-Persian, Irano-Talmudica, etc. Follow the link for description, TOC, and ordering information.

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Review of Watts, Hypatia

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher (Taylor Ross).

Edward J. Watts, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Past posts on Hypatia, a famous and tragic figure in late-antique Alexandria, are here and links.

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The Let's Read Greek website

THE AWOL BLOG: Let's Read Greek. Let's do that.

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

The Talmud on identifying damaged animals

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Better Treyf Than Sorry. ‘Daf Yomi’: To avoid conflicts of interest, Talmudic rabbis put limits on their own authority over kosher slaughter. Plus listmania!

The column has usually been posted on Tuesdays in the past, but this one only appeared today (Friday).

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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De Troyer interview for International Septuagint Day 2019

WILLIAM ROSS: 13TH INTERNATIONAL SEPTUAGINT DAY: AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. KRISTIN DE TROYER. As mentioned in the post, Professor De Troyer is a past member of our faculty at St. Andrews, and also a current honorary member.

Happy International Septuagint Day! Past posts celebrating the day are here and links, here, here, and here.

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The splendid, fictional, Temple table of Ptolemy II

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: Ptolemy II’s Gift to the Temple in the Letter of Aristeas (Prof. Benjamin G. Wright III, TheTorah.com).

The Letter of Aristeas embellishes its account of Ptolemy’s gift of a table and bowls to the Jerusalem Temple with what Greek rhetoric calls ekphrasis, a graphic description of a thing or person intended to bring the subject vividly to the eyes of the reader. What is the purpose of this embellishment?

Professor Wright has recently published a commentary on the Letter of Aristeas. And there's more on his work here. Some other PaleoJudaica posts on the Letter are here, here, and here. And an old essay of mine on it is here.

The story in the Letter of Aristeas is fictional, but Ptolemy II was a real Egyptian king. For more on him and his family, see here, here, here, and here.

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Latest from Temple Mount Sifting Project

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG has put up a couple of new posts:

• French Film Answers the UNESCO Jerusalem Resolution.

A Jerusalem Post article from last month deals with the resolution(s) in question: UNESCO’S JERUSALEM RESOLUTIONS MAY BE REVIVED AFTER EXIT BY ISRAEL, US. PA calls for fact-finding mission into ‘Israeli aggression’ and ‘colonial plans’ (Tovah Lazaroff). For more on the withdrawal of Israel and the U.S.A. from UNESCO, see here and links.

• Not as you thought: The most significant archaeological work is in the lab and not at the dig….

As opposed to salvage excavations, in an academic excavation the main core of the archaeological work is carried out in the lab and not in the field. The average yearly excavation work consists of around a month of excavation on site; the remainder of the year is taken up with studying and processing the finds in the lab. In the case of the finds from the Temple Mount Sifting Project, the challenge of processing the material is more difficult since the artifacts were not uncovered in-situ, and hence we need to apply complex statistical calculations in our research with the aim of reconstructing the original context of the more frequent finds.

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Facial recognition for coins?

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Facial recognition for coins. So to speak, yes.

The digitization procedure itself is simple: Once the barcode on the particular bag belonging to each coin has been scanned beforehand, the coins are placed singly under the scanner. A push of a button suffices to start the device. A specially developed optical analysis system reconstructs the color and surface features of the historical artifacts. The scanner captures over 1000 visual features per coin. The recorded images are inter-preted as measurement data. Reference samples and color charts ensure that every image is standardized and its color space is comparable. This ensures that the image data can be compared among different institutions. In the next step, all of the measurement data are transferred to the analysis software, which uses the data to compute the digital fingerprint.

This project in Germany deals with relatively modern coins. But there is obvious potential for application of the process to ancient coins and other artifacts.

Cross-file under Numismatics.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 155

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: One Carnival to Rule them All: January, 2019 (Jim West). And reminder, Phil Long is still looking for a carnival host for the February 2019 edition. If you don't volunteer, he will have to take matters into his own hands.

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1200-year-old Bible!! Without any writing?

HERE WE GO AGAIN: Ancient Bible DISCOVERY: Moment police uncover copy of the early Bible in smuggling raid. DRAMATIC footage shows Turkish police uncovering a 1,200-year-old Bible during an anti-smuggling raid in Diyarbakir, before arresting the smugglers and inspecting the ancient pages. (Katie Weston, The Express). The story is also covered by Daily Sabah, but without the video.

Really, how clueless can people be? This supposedly old "Bible" has no writing in it. Not a word. Just a bunch of drawings in gold leaf.

It has the look of other manuscripts recovered in Turkey which have writing or drawings in gold leaf (e.g., here). I hear that there are a lot of modern forgeries in gold leaf circulating. It would not surprise me if this is one. The drawing of the man (see 0:48 on the video) looks pretty modern to me (but I am not an art historian).

But some of the manuscripts are genuine early-modern artifacts in the Syriac tradition. That could be the case here too.

For past seizing of smuggled manuscripts in Turkey which contain writing or drawings, often in gold leaf, see here, here, here, here and here and links. And this case also involves gold objects. More links there.

As always, I appreciate that the Turkish police make it so hard for smugglers. But the media needs to exercise some restraint in covering the artifacts that are seized. They are sometimes outright fakes and so far have never been the kind of blockbuster discovery that is reported.

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Pseudepigraphic biblical quotations ... in the Bible?

SO THERE! If Pelosi Is Guilty, So’s Jesus (Jill Marshall, Religion Dispatches).

Nancy Pelosi has come under fire because her "favorite Bible verse" isn't actually in the Bible. But there's a long and storied history of misquoting the Bible, including a couple of figures you'd least expect.

Yes, from time to time the Bible quotes things from the Bible which are not exactly in the Bible.

Background on Speaker Pelosi's favorite (not in the) Bible quote is here and links.

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Should we call it "magic?"

MAGICAL CONTROVERSY: Why Magic? Some Reflections on Terminology in the Study of Ancient Ritual (Korshi Dosoo, The Coptic Magical Papyri Blog).

This post contains a good critique of the late Marvin Meyer's attempt to replace "magic" with "ritual power." I used that term for a while. That taught me not to be an early adopter.

"Magic" it is, until someone comes up with something that we all agree is better.

Shaily Patel also has a recent good essay in AJR on the same topic. And I have also discussed it here (scroll to the end).

Today is Controversy Day at PaleoJudaica. I didn't plan it that way. That's just how it turned out.

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Operation Scroll and international law

OPERATION SCROLL CONTROVERSY: Search for undiscovered Dead Sea Scrolls reveals dispute over West Bank artifacts (Michele Chabin, Religion News Service).

Qumran is in the West Bank — territory Israel captured from Jordan during the 1967 Middle East War — which Palestinians say will be part of their future state.

Although international law assigns ownership of artifacts to the country where the excavation is taking place, the status of the disputed West Bank is not so clear-cut, some experts say. The Palestinians do not have an independent state, and Israel, which most countries consider an occupying force, has not annexed the territory.

I am not a lawyer and I take no view on what international law says about this particular case. But it does seem as though international law specialists don't agree on the issue either. This article cites and interviews a number of interested parties and experts, who have a wide range of views.

For past posts on Operation Scroll, start here and follow the links. And for another discussion of the issues it raises in international law, see here.

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The debate over "Finds Gone Astray"

STILL MORE CONTROVERSY: Digging Up Controversy. A museum display of artifacts looted from the West Bank raises questions about the role archaeology plays in nationhood (Sara Toth Stub, U.S. News and World Report).

Thought to be about 3,000 years old, the items in the new "Finds Gone Astray" exhibit are among about 40,000 objects that Israeli officials have confiscated from antiquities smugglers and looters of archaeological sites in the contested West Bank during the past 50 years. They are being put on display for the first time, an unusual move for the museum, which like most others does not display stolen items.

"As a museum I believe it was not only our responsibility to display these objects, but it's our moral duty," says the museum's deputy director, Leora Berry. The exhibit, a joint project with the Defense Ministry, aims to raise awareness about the widespread theft and smuggling of antiquities in the West Bank, says Berry, and how the trade threatens the preservation of cultural heritage.

But with an opening ceremony in late December that included speeches about the importance of Israel's continuing control of the West Bank, and questions emerging about the ethics and legality of displaying the confiscated objects, the exhibit also offers a window into the growing role that archaeology is playing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For more on the "Finds Gone Astray" exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum and the debate over it, see here and links.

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Jerusalem's indigenous controversy cats

SO MANY CONTROVERSIES TODAY: Jerusalem's Controversial Cats. In Israel’s divided city, a new split emerges over what to do about stray cats (Sara Toth Stub, U.S. News and World Report).

In a city holy to three religions, with strong political and geographical divisions tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, another issue is driving a wedge between residents: what to do about Butter, and the hundreds of thousands of street cats like her. The discussion intensified recently after the city's new mayor, Moshe Lion, announced in late January that the municipality would spend 100,000 shekels ($27,692) a year to buy food for street cats and set up designated feeding stations. The project comes as dumpsters have been replaced in some areas by underground trash containers, effectively reducing a key source of food for street cats.

"Because there are so many cats, it's become so emotional in both ways," says Idit Gunther, a veterinarian and lecturer in veterinary medicine at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "You have people who spend their whole salary on feeding them, then you have people who think of the cats and the feeders in a bad way. And whether you are a cat lover or a cat hater you can see that something needs to be done."

What, you ask, has this to do with antiquity? Read on:

Many tour guides and Jerusalem residents blame the British, who ruled the city between 1917 and 1948, for bringing cats to the city via their ships. But the felines have lived in Jerusalem for thousands of years, Gunther says. In fact, the genetic makeup of most of Israel's street cats shows they are directly descended from the original African cat domesticated by the ancient Egyptians, and do not include genes of any wild European cat species, she says.

For more on recent studies of ancient cat DNA, plus other fun facts about ancient cats, see here.

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Jonah: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text

NEW BOOK FROM BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS (GAZELLE):

Title: Jonah
Sub-title: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text
Series: Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible
By (author): W. Dennis Tucker
ISBN10-13: 1481308467 : 9781481308465
Format: Paperback
Size: 203x133mm
Pages: 132
Weight: .156 Kg.
Published: Baylor University Press (US) - July 2018
List Price: 28.00 Pounds Sterling
Availability: In Stock Qty Available: 7
Subjects: Christianity : Biblical studies & exegesis

In the Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible's most widely used volume, Dennis Tucker provides a foundational analysis of the text of Jonah. This second edition of Jonah is distinguished by the detailed and comprehensive attention paid to the Hebrew text. Tucker's analysis is a convenient pedagogical and reference tool that explains the form and syntax of the biblical text, offers guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engages important text-critical debates, and addresses questions relating to the Hebrew text that are not always addressed in standard commentaries. Beyond serving as a succinct and accessible analytic key, Jonah also reflects the most up-to-date advances in scholarship on Hebrew grammar and linguisticsâ€specifically, this edition relies on the methodology of generative grammar utilized in other recent volumes in this series. This handbook proves itself an indispensable tool for anyone committed to a deep reading of the Hebrew biblical text.

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Golem clip

CINEMA: [Exclusive] Mythical Monster Wreaks Bloody Havoc in Clip from ‘The Golem’ (John Squires, Bloody-Disgusting.com). Yes, that really is the name of the website.

If you're thinking about watching the new The Golem movie, you can view a couple of minutes in this clip which are not in the trailers. But I link to it with a content warning: the clip contains graphic violence, so viewer discretion is advised.

Background on the movie is here and links. And follow the links back for many more posts on past and present manifestations of the Golem legend.

This article says that The Golem opens tomorrow today (5 February), although an earlier one said 1 February. Perhaps it depends on the country.

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

The Journal for Semitics

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal Backfiles: Journal for Semitics. All articles from 1998 through 2003 are available online for free. Noted a few years ago, but the AWOL link for that post is now gone.

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

Pelosi pseudepigrapha

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH? Nancy Pelosi Keeps Quoting Her Favorite Bible Verse. The Mystery: It’s Not Actually in the Bible (Ruth Graham, Slate).

“To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.”

OK, actually, she said, it might not technically be from the Bible. “I can’t find it in the Bible, but I quote it all the time,” Pelosi said as she introduced the quote. “I keep reading and reading the Bible—I know it’s there someplace. It’s supposed to be in Isaiah. I heard a bishop say, ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation … ’ ”

To clarify: It is not “there someplace.”

No, it isn't, but it is sort of a modern midrashic expansion of one or two biblical verses. The article discusses some possible inspirations. And it notes that the issue of the Speaker's quote also came up back in 2008. I posted on it then here and here.

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

The Coptic magical papyri in context

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG has been blogging up a storm with, inter alia, a six-part series on the papyri in their late-antique Egyptian religious context.

Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri I: “Paganism” and Christianity
"While such mentions of traditional deities are relatively rare in Coptic texts, those that we do find are very interesting for our understanding of the development of the Coptic magical tradition, and of its ability to transmit and preserve knowledge of cults which had been lost in previous centuries."

Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri II: Greek Gods in Coptic Magic
"Here we see one strange outcome of centuries of Hellenic culture in Egypt, the Greek gods as the secret names of the Christian devil."

Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri III: Manichaeans and Magic
Includes a Lovecraftian exchange of letters between two Manichean magicians.

Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri IV: Sethian Gnosticism and Magical Texts
"If this is the case, then magical and gnostic texts both provide us with independent vantage points on religious beliefs and practices beyond the narrowly defined orthodoxy."

Religion in Coptic Magic V: Magic and Gnostic Ritual
A magical papyrus that appears to make use of Sethian Gnostic myth and ritual.

Religion in the Magical Papyri VI: Christianity and Magic
"To the composer(s), compiler(s), and copyist of this text, orthodox Christianity offered possibilities for protective ritual practices just as rich as Egyptian or Greek 'paganism', or the complex cosmologies of 'gnosticism'."

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Slavonic apocrypha in Scrinium 14.1 (2018)

CHURCH SLAVONIC WATCH: The open-access journal Scrinium: Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiographa has a new issue out (14.1) which has a large section of articles on Slavonic biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha.

HT AJR. Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch and Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

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

A Yazidi woman won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

YAZIDI WATCH: Nobel peace prize goes to campaigners against sexual violence. Gynaecologist Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad are jointly awarded (Jason Burke, The Guardian, 5 October 2018).

Murad said: “I share this award with all Yazidis, with all the Iraqis, Kurds and all the minorities and all survivors of sexual violence around the world.

As a survivor, I am grateful for this opportunity to draw international attention to the plight of the Yazidi people who have suffered unimaginable crimes since the genocide by Daesh (Isis).”

I am very surprised that this story didn't show up in my search feeds earlier, but better late than never. PaleoJudaica has been following the Yazidis — an Iraqi minority group that has a Gnosticism-themed religion with ancient roots — before, throughout, and after their brutal persecution by ISIS in 2014. I mentioned Nadia Murad and her lawyer, Amal Clooney, in 2016.

Belated congratulations to Ms. Murad (and to Dr. Mukwege) and to the Yazidi community.

For other posts on the Yazidis, start here and follow the links.

A recent article on them in the Jerusalem Post is here: THE PLIGHT OF THE YAZIDIS. Many Yazidis feel that the world has abandoned them to suffer alone (ANTHONY AVICE DU BUISSON).

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

Festival of Ingathering: coming or going?

HARVEY N. BOCK: Is the Autumn Ingathering Festival at the Beginning, Middle, or End of the Year? (TheTorah.com).

The Feast of Ingathering is “at the tzet (צֵאת) of the year” (Exod 23:16). This phrase is generally translated as “the end of the year,” but a closer look at the meaning of the Hebrew verb in biblical Hebrew suggests it may mean the beginning.

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

Review of the British Museum's Ashurbanipal exhibition

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: I Am Ashurbanipal at the British Museum. Exhibit: I Am Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria (Cathleen Chopra-McGowan).

I Am Ashurbanipal, featured at the British Museum in London through February 24, 2019, is a magnificent exhibition. The display’s namesake would be proud.

[...]

Some past posts involving Ashurbanipal are here, here, and here.

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

Exodus 22 and liability for watching other people's property

PROF. RABBI MARTIN LOCKSHIN: Does the Torah Differentiate between an Unpaid and a Paid Bailee? (TheTorah.com).

For the first nine hundred years after the writing of the Mishnah in the early third century, Jews thought that laws about bailees or custodians (שומרים) in the Mishnah and in the Talmud corresponded closely to the plain meaning (peshat) of the Torah. But in the Middle Ages, Rashbam challenged that assumption, proposing an understanding of the Torah that contradicted Jewish law.

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

Jewish and Christian Books in the First Millennium at Notre Dame

THE ETC BLOG: Jewish and Christian Books in the First Millennium in Indiana (Peter Gurry).

David Lincicum, Hildegund Müller, and Jeremiah Coogan are running a working group at Notre Dame on Jewish and Christian Books. Jeremiah tells me the group is open to all comers and that if you RSVP soon enough, you may even get free lunch! What’s not to love? (Except the polar vortex sweeping Indy right now.) Here’s the info: ...

Follow the link.

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

The Gospel of Thomas Resource Center

THE AWOL BLOG: The Gospel of Thomas Resource Center. A useful site by Michael W. Grondin. Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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