What does "Lord of Hosts" mean?

PHILOLOGOS: Why Does the Hebrew Bible So Often Refer to God as "Lord of Hosts"? Host means army, but who were God’s armies? (Mosaic Magazine).

Past PaleoJudaica posts that deal with this expression are here (scroll down) and here.

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Eschner, Essen im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Essen im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum

Diskurse zur sozialen Bedeutung von Tischgemeinschaft, Speiseverboten und Reinheitsvorschriften

Series:
Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Volume: 108

Author: Christina Eschner

In Essen im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum untersucht Christina Eschner die Auseinandersetzungen zum jüdischen Gesetz innerhalb des Urchristentums vor dem Hintergrund vergleichbarer Diskurse im antiken Judentum. Ziel ist es, die urchristliche Praxis des Gesetzes in ihrem größeren Kontext darzustellen und ihr gegebenenfalls einen bestimmten Platz im facettenreichen Bild der zeitgenössischen jüdischen Strömungen zuzuweisen. Dabei finden Schriften aus Qumran, dem griechischsprachigen und dem rabbinischen Judentum Berücksichtigung. Der Fokus liegt auf Vorschriften zu verbotenen Speisen, zur Tischgemeinschaft und zur erlaubten Art und Weise der Nahrungsaufnahme. Auch pagane Traditionen werden einbezogen. Damit ist diese Studie besonders interdisziplinär ausgerichtet. Sie bewegt sich an der Schnittstelle zwischen Themenfeldern der neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft, der Altphilologie, der Alten Geschichte und der Judaistik. Sie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die urchristlichen Diskurse zum Essen nicht auf eine vollständige Abschaffung der entsprechenden jüdischen Gesetzesanordungen zielen.

In Essen im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum Christina Eschner examines the Early Christian disputes about the Jewish law against the background of Ancient Jewish discourses on commands of the law, in order to situate the Early Christian practice of the law within its broader context. Jewish sources include the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish writings in Greek and early rabbinic texts. This study focusses on rules concerning prohibited food, table fellowship and the permissible way of food intake. Pagan traditions are also considered. Thus, the work has an interdisciplinary orientation, discussing issues at the junction of New Testament studies, Classics, Ancient History and Jewish studies. It concludes that Early Christian food discourses do not aim for the complete abolition of the law.

Publication Date: 1 July 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-39190-1

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Tu B'Av 2019

THE FESTIVAL OF TU B'AV begins this evening at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating.

Tu B'Av (which just means the 15th day of the month of Av) is an ancient matchmaking festival. Its first mention is in the Mishnah (Ta’anit 4). It has been revived in recent years as a kind of Jewish Valentine's Day. For past posts on it, see here and links.

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Senate building excavated in Pelusium

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Ancient Senate Building Found in North Sinai. In the Roman provincial capital of ancient Pelusium (Jonathan Laden). As the essay notes, the Book of Ezekiel mentions the city of Pelusium.

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The Talmud and speech acts

LAST WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: THE RULES OF THE SWAP. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ drawing a distinction between what is permitted and what is legal.

But what if you consecrate one animal to the priests, and then decide you would rather keep it and give up a different animal in its stead? Maybe you want to keep a big, valuable sheep for yourself and give the priest a skinny one; or maybe the reverse is true, you want to make sure God gets the best animal possible. Is this kind of substitution allowed? Or is consecration a permanent state, so that once a specific animal is designated, it cannot be replaced by a different animal, even if the two are equivalent?

This turns out to be a more complicated question than it might seem, because the Torah seems to contradict itself. ...

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Star Trek and Rabbinics?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Using Star Trek to Teach Rabbinics (Rebecca Kamholz).
Good, creative pedagogy. I like it.

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Ancient synagogue mosaic in Greece on exhibit

DECORATIVE ART: RACE TO PRESERVE RARE MOSAIC OF ANCIENT GREEK SYNAGOGUE. A special exhibition of the 4th Century CE mosaic was opened last week on Aegina Island (Ilanit Chernick, Jerusalem Post).

In a press release, EcoWeek described the geometric mosaic floor as “the most rare and significant finding of Jewish archaeology discovered in Aegina Island in the 19th century. The mosaic is at a dangerous state of damage and neglect and requires urgent preservation and protection.”

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Gold jewelry found in Jerusalem's Babylonian destruction layer

ARCHAEOLOGY: Rare Jewel Found on Mt. Zion Reveals Babylonian Destruction of Jerusalem. First Temple-era Jerusalem was bigger than thought, archaeologists say, adding: ‘Nobody abandons golden jewelry and nobody has arrowheads in their domestic refuse’ (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz premium).

Cross-file under Ancient Bling.

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Review of Berman, Inconsistency in the Torah

REVIEWS OF BIBLICAL AND EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES:

2019.3.4 | Joshua A. Berman. Inconsistency in the Torah: Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 9780190658809.

Review by Lindsey A. Askin, University of Bristol.

Excerpt:

... We have always known the Pentateuch repeats itself but historically we have been less certain about why it does so. Berman’s Inconsistency in the Torah demonstrates that the repetition of incongruous laws and “unnecessary” repetitions have their own setting and context in the ancient traditions of common-law, an insight that should have reverberations in Pentateuchal criticism.

Earlier reviews of the book etc. are noted here and links.

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SOTS Book List 2019

IN THE MAIL:

John Jarick (ed.), Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2018 (= JSOT 43.5) (London: Sage, 2019).

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Tisha B'Av 2019

TISHA B'AV (THE NINTH OF AV) begins this evening at sundown. An easy fast to all those observing it.

The Ninth of Av is not specifically a biblical holy day. Rather, it commemorates a number of disasters that happened to the Jewish people, traditionally all on that same day. These include the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Babylonians, the destruction of the Herodian Temple by the Romans, and the fall of Betar during the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Last year's Tisha B'Av post is here with links.

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Louden, Greek Myth and the Bible

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Bruce Louden, Greek Myth and the Bible. Routledge monographs in classical studies. London; New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. viii, 241. ISBN 9781138328587. $140.00. Reviewed by James J. Clauss, University of Washington (jjc@uw.edu).

Bruce Louden makes his position on the relationship between Greek Myth and the Bible loud and clear, and it will doubtless take many by surprise: “Israel’s oral traditions and scribal culture were not only acquainted with but also influenced and shaped by ancient Greek culture” (p. 2). I will state up front that I am not ready to go as far as Louden wants to take us, but readers will see first-hand that behind the Biblical passages discussed lurk traditional tales from polytheistic cultures. And the connections he points out are many and truly astonishing.

[...]

Some of what this review reports of the book sounds like parallelomania to me. But I haven't read the book, so I shall try to keep an open mind. Perhaps I would find the full arguments more convincing.

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Scialabba, Creation and Salvation

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Daniela Scialabba. Creation and Salvation. Models of Relationship Between the God of Israel and the Nations in the Book of Jonah, in Psalm 33 (MT and LXX) and in the Novel »Joseph and Aseneth.« 2019. XIV, 354 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 106. 84,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-156261-7.

Published in English.
In recent decades, the debate on monotheism and religious pluralism has been strongly influenced by the idea that monotheism originating in the Old Testament is the root of intolerance and violence. In this study, Daniela Scialabba investigates inclusive tendencies in Old Testament monotheism, in particular theological principles motivating and supporting the possibility of a positive relationship between non-Israelites and the God of Israel. Thus, she examines three texts thoroughly: the Book of Jonah, Psalm 33 (MT and LXX), and the novel »Joseph and Aseneth«. Despite their difference concerning genre, date of origin and provenance, these texts have important ideas in common: the relationship between the God of Israel and non-Israelites as well as the concept of God as a universal creator who has pity with all his creatures.

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On the Geonim

MICHAEL SATLOW: The Geonim: An Introduction. The Geonim were "the rabbis who lived at the very end of the Talmudic period and the shift to the Middle Ages." Professor Satlow now has a video series on them.

Some related PaleoJudaica posts are here and links.

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Schwartz, Rewriting the Talmud

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:Marcus Mordecai Schwartz. Rewriting the Talmud. The Fourth Century Origins of Bavil Rosh Hashanah. 2019. XI, 151 pages. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 175. 99,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-154123-0.

Published in English.
In this study, Marcus Mordecai Schwartz argues that there were two distinct periods in which traditions from Rabbinic Palestine exerted their influence upon extended passages of B. Rosh Hashanah. This doubling of influence resulted in a Babylonian-born text with two distinct Palestinian ancestries. This oddly mixed parentage was responsible for Bavli texts that both resemble synoptic passages in the Yerusalmi and differ from them in substantial ways. The main project of this book is to trace the dynamics of this doubled Palestinian influence and to account for the mark it left on passages of B. Rosh Hashanah.

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Dibon-Gad or Dibon and Gad?

PROF YIGAL LEVINE: Dibon-Gad: Between the Torah and the Mesha Stele (TheTorah.com).

In the southern Transjordanian Mishor (plateau), an area that changed hands between Israelites and Moabites, there once lived two neighboring tribes, Gadites and Dibonites…

For many past posts on the Mesha Stele, start here and follow the links.

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The Shekel (journal)

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal: The Shekel. Includes many articles on ancient Jewish coins. Cross-file under Numismatics.

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Josephus on Phinehas

DR. YONATAN MILLER: Sedition at Moab: Josephus’ Reading of the Phinehas Story (TheTorah.com).

The Torah describes Phinehas as a zealot, who kills Zimri in an act of vigilante fervor, and is rewarded by God with eternal priesthood. Anticipating the rabbis’ discomfort with Phinehas’ vigilantism, Josephus transforms Phinehas into a military general and Zimri’s sin into a dangerous sedition requiring a military response.

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New translations of NT Apocrypha

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Years in the Making: The Debut of NASSCAL’s Early Christian Apocrypha Series (Tony Burke, Apocryphicity Blog).

The North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL) is celebrating the release of the first two volumes in their Early Christian Apocrypha series: The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary, by Brandon W. Hawk, and The Protevangelium of James, by Lily C. Vuong. To be clear, the two books are numbered volumes 7 and 8 because NASSCAL is continuing a series that was begun by Julian V. Hills, who edited six volumes of texts for Polebridge Press.

[...]

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Review of Dhont, Style and Context of Old Greek Job

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Marieke Dhont, Style and Context of Old Greek Job. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 183. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. Pp. 410. ISBN 9789004358485. €138,00. Reviewed by Patrick Pouchelle, Centre Sèvres (patrick.pouchelle@gmail.com).

This excellent book offers clear and nuanced conclusions. The application of PST to the OG of Job is productive, as it asks one to consider the OG of Job for itself. The recent renewal of the studies of the Septuagint follows two different paths: treating it as the Old Testament of early Christianity, or as the product of a Greek-Hebrew Jewish translator. This last approach produced the interlinear paradigm in which the LXX is understood as a resource intended to be read alongside its Hebrew original. The PST offers another approach. As a cultural artefact of the Greek-speaking Jewish world, the OG of Job should be studied not against the Hebrew source text, but against the literature of the Greek Jewish communities. ...

I noted the publication of the book last year.

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Walsh on angels and the Qumran sect

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Claiming Israel’s Angels as their Own: The Angelic Realm and the Religious Identity of the Qumran Sect

Several ancient Jewish texts suggest that a connection, correspondence, or parallel was thought to exist between the faithful angels of heaven and Israel on earth. The Qumran sect put their own stamp on these broader convictions by boldly claiming both fellowship with the angels and that they outranked the angels in some sense. In doing so, the sectarians bolstered their claims to be the true Israel.

See Also: Angels Associated with Israel in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Angelology and Sectarian Identity at Qumran (Mohr Siebek, 2019).

By Matthew L. Walsh
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies
Acadia Divinity College
July 2019

Cross-file under New Book.

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Are the skeletal remains from Masada non-Jewish?

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Masada, the Human Remains: An Anthropological Critique

Masada, known throughout the western world for the suicide narrative described by Josephus and later excavations by Professor Yigal Yadin, is not without controversy. Outside the academic world, few are aware of the controversy surrounding Masada; however, scholars have long questioned the veracity of the narrative and its interpretation by Yadin. Unfortunately, few scholars have subjected the narrative to rigorous anthropological research, the basis upon which the final Masada drama rests. Professor Amnon Ben-Tor, who excavated Masada, has attempted to summarize the archaeological along with the anthropological findings for a wider public audience. However honest his attempt, the anthropological findings strongly suggest that nearly all, if not all of the human remains found to date, are ethnically non-Jewish.

By Joe Zias
Science and Antiquity
Jerusalem, Israel
July 2019

For past PaleoJudaica posts on the history and archaeology of, and revisionist views on, Masada, see here and links. And another recent post on Masada is here.

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Review of Alter's book on Bible translation

THE JERUSALEM POST: BOOK REVIEW: AN UNCOMPROMISING BIBLE TRANSLATION. Robert Altar [That's "Alter!" - JRD] pushes back against modern translations, which he thinks interpret too much and translate too little (Neville Teller).

In The Art of Bible Translation, Alter provides an intriguing insight into the complexities he faced in producing, single-handed, his translation of the Hebrew Bible. It makes fascinating reading.

This review too has some good examples of specific biblical texts.

For past reviews of this book and of Professor Alter's translation of the Hebrew Bible, start here and follow the many links.

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Frey et al. (eds.), Between Canonical and Apocryphal Texts

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Between Canonical and Apocryphal Texts.
Processes of Reception, Rewriting, and Interpretation in Early Judaism and Early Christianity. Ed. by Jörg Frey, Claire Clivaz, and Tobias Nicklas, in collaboration with Jörg Röder. 2019. IX, 490 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 419. 149,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-153927-5.

Published in English.
The present volume aims at a comparative study of the processes of reception, rewriting and interpretation between canonical and apocryphal texts in early Jewish and early Christian literature. A closer look at the respective developments in both corpora of literature can open up new perspectives for understanding the developments and changes between texts that were already considered authoritative, and their reception in new, 'parabiblical' or 'apocryphal' compositions. The way of reception may also influence the perspective on canonical texts. The range of texts considered includes the LXX, Targumim and Pesharim, books such as Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, the Gospel of Thomas, and Apocryphal Acts, traditions about Esther, Ezra, Manasseh, Peter and Paul, depictions of hell from Enoch to the Apocalypse of Paul, and the development of miracle stories.

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On myth and metaphor in the Hebrew Bible

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Myth as Story and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible

Myth constitutes a vital part of the Hebrew Bible; it powerfully shapes the contours of biblical language, its various narratives, and theologies. That is, myth deeply defines what we might call the biblical world – populates the landscape with mythic monsters and deities and animates that world in which the God of Israel rises against forces of evil and, through victorious battle, creates order, erects his temple, and establishes his kingship.

See Also: Myth, History, and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

By Paul K.-K. Cho
Wesley Theological Seminary
June 2019

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JJMJS Issue 6 (2019)

A NEW ISSUE (NO. 6, 2019) OF THE JOURNAL OF THE JESUS MOVEMENT IN ITS JEWISH SETTING IS OUT. Follow the link (for now) for a detailed description of the issue. A permanent link to Issues 1-6 is here.

HT AJR.

All articles are available online for free. Background on the journal is here and here and links

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Biblical Studies Carnival 162

MY DIGITAL SEMINARY: JULY BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL (162) (Lindsay Kennedy).

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On fire pans

MATERIAL CULTURE: Fire Pans in the Bible and Archaeology (Dr. Raz Kletter, TheTorah.com).

Fire pans (maḥtot) are listed as part of the Tabernacle’s accessories for the menorah and the altar. They also play an important role in the stories of Korah’s rebellion and the death of Nadav and Avihu as incense censors. Archaeological excavations have uncovered what these items were and how they functioned.

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Ecclesiastes in the Göttingen LXX

THE ETC BLOG: New Critical Edition: Ecclesiastes for Gӧttingen Septuaginta Series (John Meade).

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On the high-tech future of archaeology

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: The High-Tech Future of the Ancient Science of Archaeology. Emerging technologies could soon allow archaeologists to virtually excavate an entire site within an hour (Sarah Parcak, OneZero).

This is an excellent article about the technological future of archaeology. I have been saying similar things for years. My only criticism is that the projections are very cautious and conservative. I expect archaeology to achieve this level of technology before 2050. By 2100, and probably well before, archaeologists will be carrying out a molecular scan of the earth's entire surface.

For more on Professor Parcak's work on technological archaeology (using drones and satellite imagery), see here and links. I have some related comments and links in my 2016 post, On curating the past.

Cross-file under The Singularity is Near.

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Frey and Rupschu (eds.), Frauen im antiken Judentum und frühen Christentum

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Frauen im antiken Judentum und frühen Christentum. Hrsg. v. Jörg Frey u. Nicole Rupschus. [Women in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity.] 2019. VIII, 320 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 489. 99,00 € including VAT sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-154290-9.

Published in German.
In a wide historical framework, the present volume discusses the legal and social roles and positions of women in ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and the surrounding Greco-Roman world. Sources investigated are documentary texts from Egypt and the Judaean desert, selected writings from the Dead Sea and texts from the Hellenistic-Jewish, early Christian, and Rabbinic traditions. The essays discuss issues of the liturgical function of women, their legal position with regard to marriage and property, piety and purity issues as well as the problems of daily life, but also narrative images, role models and clichés. The combination of historical source analysis and the approaches of gender studies leads to a more precise perception of the construction of those images and patterns and their effects in the various ancient cultures.

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Review of Hartog, Pesher and Hypomnema

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Pieter B. Hartog, Pesher and Hypomnema: A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman Period. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, 121. Leiden: Brill, 2017. Pp. xv, 356. ISBN 9789004353541. €132,00. Reviewed by Andrew M. King V, University of Notre Dame (aking8@nd.edu).

This monograph is a revision of the author’s dissertation completed at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 2015, which evaluates the similarities and differences between two commentary traditions developed in the Hellenistic world: the hypomnemata (ὑπόμνημα) and the pesharim (פשר). ...

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Fixed-term OT/HB post at the University of St Andrews

ANNOUNCEMENT: Lecturer (Education Focused) in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible - AOAC1295MXSB University of St Andrews - School of Divinity.

I'm late in linking to this, but the deadline is 12 August. So there is still time to apply.

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Diesel still teasing us with "Hannibal" movie

PUNIC WATCH: Vin Diesel Reveals His Birthday Present: The Riddick 4: Furya Script (Jorge Arenas, Bounding into Comics). I hope Mr. Diesel had a nice birthday and I congratulate him on his new script. But PaleoJudaica's interest in this article comes from an aside toward the end:

Hannibal of Carthage

Not only did Vin Diesel reveal the script to Riddick 4, but he also indicated he continues to practice the “archaic arts” of archery and bolas because there is interest in Diesel playing the legendary general of Carthage, Hannibal.

Hannibal was the leading commander of the Carthage forces during the Second Punic War. THe famously led his forces into Italy by crossing the Alps with African elephants. Hannibal would defeat the Romans in a succession of battles. In fact, he would occupy most of southern Italy for 15 years. However, the Romans led by Fabius Maximus avoided confrontation and thus prevented Hannibal from defeating them. He would eventually be defeated at the Battle of Zama by Scipio Africanus, who led a counter invasion of North Africa and forced Hannibal to return to Carthage.

I'm glad to hear that Mr. Diesel is still thinking about this movie, but I hope he gets on with it. We've been waiting almost as long as Hannibal campaigned in Italy.

Background here and links.

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Worth your weight in gold (or onions)

LAST WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Your Weight in Onions. This week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study explores many ways to pay off a divine debt: in gold, silver, pitch, vegetables—or limbs.

In Chapter 5 of this brief tractate [Arakhin], the focus turns to other kinds of pledges that a person can make based on his own person. For instance, the mishna in Arakhin 19a refers to one who says “it is incumbent upon me to donate my weight.” Perhaps such a vow might be taken on recovery from a serious illness, when a person wanted to express that he owes his entire bodily existence to God. With a vow according to weight, one would ordinarily specify the material to be donated: “if silver silver, and if gold gold.” For a full-grown person, donating one’s body weight in gold could turn out to be quite an expensive proposition.

Yes. The valuation in gold by weight for a person weighing 70 kilograms would be (by the current price of gold) nearly $3,200,000.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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On Aaron's flowering staff

TWO ESSAYS AT THETORAH.COM give different perspectives on the background and meaning of Aaron's flowering staff in Numbers 17:16-26.

Dr. Raanan Eichler thinks the Zadokite priests may have approved of Asherah poles:

Aaron’s Flowering Staff: A Priestly Asherah?

The story of Aaron’s staff reads like an etiological tale, explaining a holy object in the Temple. The description of the object as a stylized tree suggests a connection with the asherah, a ritual object forbidden by Deuteronomy.

Dr. Rabbi David Frankel thinks that the Zadokites may have appropriated a tradition about the election of the tribe of Levi:

The Flowering Staff: Proof of Aaron’s or the Levites’ Election?

The story of the flowering staff in its current form and context, confirms YHWH’s previous designation of the Aaronides as priests. Originally, however, the story presented YHWH’s selection of the tribe of Levi as his priestly caste.

I blog, you decide.

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Dodgy Greek at Hippos-Sussita

GREEK EPIGRAPHY: 6th-century inscriptions near Galilee may show Christians’ fading Greek literacy. So far, ‘Burnt Church’ site at ongoing Hippos-Sussita Excavations Project has revealed three texts — all of which were misspelled and had grammar errors, say archaeologists (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

This summer, the settlement’s South-West or Burnt Church was revisited by archaeologists in search of firm dating for the conflagration that both destroyed and preserved the church. They revealed a plethora of interesting artifacts and mosaics — and a nearly illiterate artisan, who had been tasked with inscribing the names of donors and abbots for posterity. Instead, his grammar and spelling mistakes are preserved in a trio of ancient Greek mosaics. (Where is autocorrect when you need it?)

The inscriptions are still being deciphered and I can find nothing more about their content.

The site of Hippos-Sussita has produced many exciting artifacts and architectural finds. Most recently, there was media attention about ancient stonemasons' marks found there. For additional past posts, start here and follow the links.

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Knoppers, Judah and Samaria in Postmonarchic Times

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Gary N. Knoppers. Judah and Samaria in Postmonarchic Times. Essays on Their Histories and Literatures. 2019. XI, 333 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 129. 129,00 € including VAT cloth. ISBN 978-3-16-156804-6.

Published in English.
Focusing on Judean-Samarian interactions in Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman times, Gary N. Knoppers explores both commonalities and differences, rivalries and relationships, as these communities engaged one another in greater depth and complexity than scholars have previously thought. Some essays elucidate archaeological and epigraphic discoveries (Jerusalem, Mt. Gerizim excavations and inscriptions), while others illumine Jewish (Ezra, Chronicles, Josephus, Pseudo-Philo) and Samaritan (Samaritan 10th commandment, the Chronicon Samaritanum) literary texts. How Judeans and Samarians responded to competing claims to Israel's past by reinterpreting shared scriptures is a unifying theme in these eleven studies.

For more on the late Professor Knoppers and his work, see here, here, here, and here.

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A Lilith musical

CONTEMPORARY ART: Review: ‘Leaving Eden’ in the New York Musical Festival (Deb Miller, DC Metro).

Jenny Waxman (book and lyrics) and Ben Page (music, with additional music by Ada Westfall) consider the myth of Lilith, the Creation of Adam and Eve, and the present-day male-female and female-female dynamics from a post-modern feminist perspective in Leaving Eden – a pop-style musical playing at the Pershing Square Signature Center in this year’s New York Musical Festival (NYMF). Directed by Susanna Wolk, the narrative moves back and forth between the Garden of Eden and a contemporary metropolitan apartment, interweaving the stories of the Ancient Adam, Lilith, and Eve with three of their Modern namesakes, and interspersing references to, and iconography from, the canonical Book of Genesis, the apocryphal tales, and the philosophy of duality with a new vision of what it all means.

I'm not sure what's with the article's dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls (the correct dates are third century B.C.E. to first century C.E.). Also, specialists date the redaction of the Babylonian Talmud a couple of centuries later than in the article. But the musical sounds thoughtful and entertaining.

Lilith has received much attention in various artistic media. For past posts on the ancient and modern traditions about her, start here and follow the many links.

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Rofé on Balaam the seer

PROFESSOR ALEXANDER ROFÉ has a couple of new essays on the the biblical seer Baalam at TheTorah.com:

Balaam the Seer Is Recast as a Villain

The oldest biblical sources see Balaam as a great seer, but as time goes on, biblical texts portray him in an increasingly negative light. The key to this shift lies in Deuteronomy’s attitude to Israel and gentiles.

The Account of Balaam’s Donkey: A Late Polemical Burlesque

Already in 1877, Marcus Kalisch, one of the first Jewish scholars to engage in the critical study of the Bible, noted that the story of Balaam’s donkey is a late insertion which contradicts the rest of the story, both narratively and ideologically. Indeed, in the main story, Balaam is a prophetic character to be respected, while the supplement lampoons him.

I have fallen well behind on the essays posted at this site. There are some interesting new ones. I will catch up as time permits.

Meanwhile, for past PaleoJudaica posts on Balaam and on the Deir ʿAlla Inscription, see here (cf. here) and links.

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Ross on Psalm 51

WILLIAM ROSS: NEW ARTICLE ON PSALM 51 IN JSOT. It is his article. He can't post the whole text, but he does summarize it and give the "punch line."

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A church dedicated to the Apostle Peter at Bethsaida?

ARCHAEOLOGY: Shrine to Apostle Peter unearthed: Israeli archaeologist (Stephen Weizman, AFP). Two elements of this story are inferential and open to debate.

First, the site, El-Araj, is only one contender to be the ancient city of Bethsaida. The other is et-Tell. Second, there is no direct indication — such as an inscription — in the ruins of the church that it was dedicated to Peter. The inference is based on an account by an eighth-century visitor.

Read the whole article for details.

Past posts on the two contending sites for Bethsaida are here (cf. here) and links.

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Reviews of Barton, A History of the Bible

THE ETC BLOG: Barton on the Bible. Peter Gurry notes a couple of reviews of John Barton's new book, A History of the Bible: The Story of the World's Most Influential Book (Viking).

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Lataster, Questioning the Historicity of Jesus

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Questioning the Historicity of Jesus

Why a Philosophical Analysis Elucidates the Historical Discourse

Series:
Value Inquiry Book Series Online, Volume: 336
Value Inquiry Book Series
Philosophy and Religion

Author: Raphael Lataster

This volume moves beyond the mainstream scholarly scepticism over the Christ of Faith and considers if there is sufficient evidence to establish the existence of the more mundane Historical Jesus. Using the logical tools of the analytic philosopher, Lataster finds that the relevant sources are unreliable as historical documents, and that the key method of those purporting that the Historical Jesus existed is to appeal to sources that do not exist. Considering an ancient hypothesis suggesting that Jesus began as a celestial messiah that certain Second Temple Jews already believed in, and was later allegorised in the Gospels, Lataster discovers that it is more reasonable to at least be agnostic over Jesus’ historicity.

Publication Date: 1 July 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-40878-4

Brill has published a Mythicist book on Jesus. It will be interesting to see how it is received.

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More from the AJR series on Jensen, "The Cross" and Fine, "The Menorah"

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has concluded the series with two more essays:

SBL 2018 Book Review Panel | Menorah and Cross, Signs and Things (Pamela Eisenbaum).

SBL 2018 Book Review Panel | Response from Robin Jensen (Robin Jensen).

I noted the earlier essays in the series here.

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Barlaam and Josaphat

THE BRITISH LIBRARY: The Buddha’s long ‘journey’ to Europe and Africa. Yes, I know the Buddha is not usually a subject for PaleoJudaica. But the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat is of some interest because of its wide transmission in relevant languages, including Hebrew, Greek, Ge’ez, Armenian, Georgian Arabic, Uigur, Syriac, and Judeo-Persian. There is a connection with Turfan (cf. here) as well. It went on to be transmitted in many European languages.

I have never posted on this remarkable text before, so have a look at this post at the British Library's Asian and African studies blog, with reference to their upcoming exhibition, Buddhism.

HT Steve Dodson at the Language Hat Blog.

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Eating fish in ancient Jerusalem

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What Kinds of Fish Were Eaten in Ancient Jerusalem? (Prof. Omri Lernau, M.D., TheTorah.com).

Fishbone remains discovered in eight different excavations in Jerusalem, from the Iron age to the early Islamic period, give us a sense of what fish the locals ate, and from where they were imported.

With implications for biblical studies and the history of food purity rules.

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Newsom, Rhetoric and Hermeneutics

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Carol A. Newsom. Rhetoric and Hermeneutics. Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature. 2019. XX, 382 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 130. 149,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-157723-9.

Published in English.
This collection of essays by Carol A. Newsom explores the indispensable role that rhetoric and hermeneutics play in the production and reception of biblical and Second Temple literature. Some of the essays are methodological and programmatic, while others provide extended case studies. Because rhetoric is, as Kenneth Burke put it, »a strategy for encompassing a situation,« the analysis of rhetoric illumines the ways in which texts engage particular historical moments, shape and reshape communities, and even construct new models of self and agency. The essays in this book not only explore how ancient texts hermeneutically engage existing traditions but also how they themselves have become the objects of hermeneutical transformation in contexts ranging from ancient sectarian Judaism to the politics of post-World War I and II Germany and America to modern film criticism and feminist re-reading.

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Review of Andrade, Zenobia: Shooting Star of Palmyra

BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Nathanael J. Andrade, Zenobia: Shooting Star of Palmyra. Women in Antiquity. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xvii, 284. ISBN 9780190638818. $35.00. Reviewed by Gustavo A. Vivas García​, Universidad de La Laguna (gusgarvi@gmail.com).

Neither Odainath, nor of course Zenobia or her son, intended to separate from the Empire nor to break with Rome or usurp the Imperial throne. Nathanael Andrade’s book is clear in this respect. Zenobia behaved like a Hellenistic queen who surrounded herself with men of letters like Callinicos, and who had Cassius Longinus as her chief philosopher, who was rapidly eliminated by Aurelian after the Queen’s defeat. An Empress who conquered Egypt and in passing subdued Arabia, inserting her name onto all the milestones along the kingdom’s roads. A woman who was interested in religious questions and who built a contact with the Christian bishop, Paul of Samosata. A monarch whose objective was to try to obtain a place in the Empire, even on equal terms with Aurelian in the West. In 272, however, Zenobia’s Imperial and dynastic dream met an abrupt end. Aurelian proved himself to be her match and made-to-measure rival.

Past PaleoJudaica post on the Empress Zenobia are here and links.

Cross-file under Palmyra Watch. 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, are here and links.

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AJR series on Jensen, "The Cross" and Fine, "The Menorah"

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: SBL 2018 Book Review Panel | Art and Religion in Antiquity. Felicity Harley-McGowan introduces the series at the link.

At the 2018 meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Denver, two program units collaborated in reviewing two books published by Harvard University Press: Robin Jensen’s The Cross: History, Art and Controversy (2018) and Steven Fine’s The Menorah: From the Bible to Modern Israel (2016).

The first essay is by David Frankfurter:
JEWISH (AND CHRISTIAN) SYMBOLS IN THE LATE MODERN PERIOD: JENSEN’S CROSS AND FINE’S MENORAH

There are two themes that I do think could bring these symbols together, and in their material rather than abstract manifestations. First, both authors alert us in various ways to the vitality and importance of the symbol in motion – in procession – rather than emblazoned on a coin or a door lintel. And from this processional vitality comes the second theme that struck me as key in the discussion of these symbols: their intrinsic agency as material things – that is, not just what they convey in terms of “memory” or “tradition” but their capacity to work in the world.

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Trotter, The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora: Jewish Practice and Thought during the Second Temple Period

Series:
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 192

Author: Jonathan Trotter

In The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora, Jonathan Trotter shows how different diaspora Jews’ perspectives on the distant city of Jerusalem and the temple took shape while living in the diaspora, an experience which often is characterized by complicated senses of alienation from and belonging to an ancestral homeland and one’s current home. This book investigates not only the perspectives of the individual diaspora Jews whose writings mention the Jerusalem temple (Letter of Aristeas, Philo of Alexandria, 2 Maccabees, and 3 Maccabees) but also the customs of diaspora Jewish communities linking them to the temple, such as their financial contributions and pilgrimages there.

Publication Date: 24 June 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-40985-9

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Postdocs for LXX project

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI: 2–3 POSTDOC­TORAL RE­SEARCH­ERS IN THE PRO­JECT THE SEP­TUAGINT AND ITS AN­CIENT VER­SIONS.

HT William Ross, who also gives some interesting background on the texts that the project is studying.

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Septuagint Song of Songs in French

WILLIAM ROSS: NEW VOLUME IN LA BIBLE D’ALEXANDRIE: SONG OF SONGS. It's good to have another volume in this series out.

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Jason’s Tomb

THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: Jason’s Tomb (2nd Temple Period) (Carl Rasmussen).

Jason’s tomb is a beautiful funeral monument from the late Hellenistic – early Roman period. It was the tomb of a high priestly family that was forced out of Jerusalem in 172 B.C. (2 Maccabees 5:5-10) by their rival, Menelaus....

It is in West Jerusalem. Follow the link for photos.

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On digressions in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Neither Less Than X nor More Than Y. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ minima and maxima decorate the memory palaces Talmudic rabbis built to sustain the oral tradition of Babylonian learning.

The reason why digressions are so common in the Talmud is that it began as an oral tradition, not a written text—a vast memorized accumulation of the debates held in the Babylonian academies. What look like digressions on the page usually served some mnemonic purpose. The appearance of a certain sage’s name, for instance, might trigger the recollection of his opinions on different subjects. Often, the common principle is grammatical: When a teaching that takes a certain verbal form arises in the Gemara, the sages will recount other, unrelated laws that happen to follow the same pattern.

This is a deployment of the catchword principle, which was also a major feature of ancient Jewish exegesis of scripture. It is also used often in the New Testament.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Larry Hurtado

LARRY HURTADO: Health Issues and Blogging. Larry shares sad news. The leukemia for which he was treated last year has returned. There is little that can be done in the way of treatment. He has signed off indefinitely from further blogging.

We wish Larry and his family all the best. They will be in our thoughts and prayers.

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Ezekiel's Merkavah anniversary 2019

TODAY IS THE 5TH OF TAMUZ: This Day in History – 5 Tamuz/July 8 (Harmodia).

In 3333, Yechezkel Hanavi received a nevuah at the river of Chebar about Maaseh Merkavah. That perek is read as the haftarah on Shavuos.

To unpack that, this is the anniversary of the prophecy of the prophet Ezekiel concerning Maaseh Merkavah, "the working of the chariot." This was a vision of the heavenly realm, some of its frightening denizens, and the throne of God and its occupant. It took place by the river Chebar in Babylonia in 593 BCE. The relevant biblical passage, Ezekiel chapter 1, is the prophetic synagogue reading on Shavuot. There are further details in the links below.

Past posts on this anniversary and on Ezekiel 1 and its mystical and cultural afterlife, are here and here. And this year's post from Shavuot is also relevant.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 161

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: The Incredibly Hot June Biblical Studies Carnival, Including Lots of Scandal Because of an Unprovenanced Manuscript…

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Babylon named a UNESCO World Heritage site.

HISTORICAL LANDMARK: Iraq celebrates naming Babylon a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was from the 4,300-year-old city that Nebuchadnezzar sent his vast army to Jerusalem to put down an uprising and bring the Jews back as slaves. (QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Times of Israel). This is a good development. I am sometimes hard on UNESCO, but they got this one right.

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Belated happy Cyril and Methodius Day 2019!

OLD CHURCH SLAVONIC WATCH: CZECHS MARK LEGACY OF GREEK MISSIONARIES CYRIL AND METHODIUS (Daniela Lazarová, Czech Radio). The work of Saints Cyril and Methodius, whose invention of the first Slavonic alphabet led to the preservation of much ancient literature that would otherwise have been lost, is celebrated by various traditions on 14 February, 24 May, and 5 July. Details here. Some of that ancient literature includes important Old Testament Pseudepgrapha. Details here and links.

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Mapfeka, Esther in Diaspora

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Esther in Diaspora
Toward an Alternative Interpretive Framework

Series:
Biblical Interpretation Series, Volume: 178

Author: Tsaurayi Kudakwashe Mapfeka

In Esther in Diaspora, Tsaurayi Kudakwashe Mapfeka presents a new approach to the book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He argues that, whereas previous interpretations have emphasised an association with the Jewish festival of Purim, a theory-nuanced concept of diaspora offers the key for reading Esther. Alongside the relatively new approach of Diaspora Studies, the author makes use of the more traditional analogical reasoning, seeing parallels between the community behind Esther and the Zimbabwean diaspora community in the United Kingdom, of which he is a member. The two-fold methodological application results in an innovative and stimulating reading of the book. Overall, the book reflects a deep awareness not only of issues surrounding Esther but of the broader fields of the study of the Bible and of the ancient Near East.

Publication Date: 17 June 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-40656-8

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More on the Huqoq mosaics

DECORATIVE ART: Teeming With Riddles, Israel's Most Beautiful Mosaic Reveals Ancient Liberal Judaism. The artwork covers the entire floor of a synagogue’s sanctuary, and every year, as each new section is unearthed, new figures and biblical scenes are being discovered (Nir Hasson, Haaretz premium).

For seven years now, archaeologists have been gradually exposing the mosaic floor of a synagogue in Huqoq in the lower Galilee. Each new excavation season reveals another bit of Israel’s richest and most beautiful floor.

Still, questions remain about the identity of the community that built this synagogue. And this year, the riddle has gotten even more puzzling. The latest dig reveals scenes from the mysterious prophecies of the prophet Daniel and a little-known episode from the Book of Exodus.

[...]

A nice overview of the discoveries at the ancient synagogue at Huqoq, especially its remarkable mosaics. Background here and follow the many links.

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

The Talmud on valuation of a human life

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: How Much Is a Jewish Life Worth? In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ Talmudic sages make ‘valuations’ and ‘assessments’ of living people, in ancient actuarial tables with premiums paid at the Temple.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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The Philistines were Europeans?

GENETIC ANALYSIS: ARCHAEOLOGY SHOWS PHILISTINES, ENEMY OF ISRAELITES, CAME FROM EUROPE. "We found infants that were too young to travel... so they were born on site. And their DNA revealed [that] their parents’ heritage was not from the local population" (Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, Jerusalem Post).

“When we found the infants – infants that were too young to travel... these infants couldn’t march or sail to get to the land around Ashkelon, so they were born on site. And their DNA revealed [that] their parents’ heritage was not from the local population,” Aja explained, referring to the new genetic input from the direction of Southern Europe that was found in bone samples taken from infants buried under the floors of Philistine homes, as was the custom during that period.

More on the Ashkelon cemetery is here.

For various reasons, some scholars have argued that the Philistines had an Aegean origin. These new results seem to be compatible with that hypothesis.

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A Phoenician Snail Dye Factory in Israel

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Mysterious Biblical-era Stronghold Was Actually a Phoenician Snail Dye Factory, Archaeologists Say. Tel Shikmona contains the ruins of a powerful edifice built where one shouldn’t have been, given the absence of harbor or beach – but the snails from which purple dye was made were there in droves (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz premium).

Murex shell dye was also used by the Israelites for the tekhelet dye. For more on the Phoenician and the Israelite uses of the dye, see here and links.

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Independence Day 2019

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY to my American readers!

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The Christian Century on Alter's Bible translation

BOOK REVIEW: Robert Alter’s Hebrew Bible translation is at once accurate and eloquent. Precision and beauty have kissed (Judy Klitsner, The Christian Century).

With his groundbreaking translation, Alter has done no less than to turn a technical task into a vehicle for showcasing and celebrating the artistic glory of the Hebrew Bible. To the attuned reader, the Bible’s exquisite craftsmanship communicates the deeply affecting nature, as well as the eternal relevance, of an ancient, hallowed text.

With some good examples that I haven't seen before.

For more on the now-complete Alter translation of the Bible, start here and follow the many links.

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More Bible-themed mosaics from Huqoq

DECORATIVE ART: Uncovered 1,600-year-old Jewish art brings more of an unknown culture to light UNC-Chapel Hill’s Jodi Magness, researchers and students are the first to find a mosaic art depiction of a scene from the biblical book of Exodus. (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). An interview with Professor Magness, the chief excavator, announces the discovery of two new mosaics in the Huqoq Synagogue:

If you could name the biggest discovery of this summer, what would it be?
First, Chapter 7 in the book of Daniel describes four beasts which represent the four kingdoms leading up to the end of days. This year our team discovered mosaics in the synagogue’s north aisle depicting these four beasts, as indicated by a fragmentary Aramaic inscription referring to the first beast: a lion with eagle’s wings. The lion itself is not preserved, nor is the third beast. However, the second beast from Daniel 7:4 — a bear with three ribs protruding from its mouth — is preserved. So is most of the fourth beast, which is described in Daniel 7:7 as having iron teeth.

Second, We’ve uncovered the first depiction of the episode of Elim ever found in ancient Jewish art. This story is from Exodus 15:27. Elim is where the Israelites camped after leaving Egypt and wandering in the wilderness without water. The mosaic is divided into three horizontal strips, or registers. We see clusters of dates being harvested by male agricultural workers wearing loincloths, who are sliding the dates down ropes held by other men. The middle register shows a row of wells alternating with date palms. On the left side of the panel, a man in a short tunic is carrying a water jar and entering the arched gate of a city flanked by crenellated towers. An inscription above the gate reads, “And they came to Elim.”

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

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Herod the Gardener?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Herod the Great’s Ancient Gardens (Marek Dospěl). As usual, this BHD essay is a summary of a BAR article. The full article by Kathryn L. Gleason, "Herod the Great Gardener," is behind the subscription wall.

For many past posts on Herod the Great and on related archaeological discoveries, start here and follow the links.

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Review of Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Harold Tarrant, Danielle A. Layne, Dirk Baltzly, François Renaud (ed.), Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity. Brill's companions to classical reception, 13. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. Pp. xxi, 657. ISBN 9789004270695. €187,00. Reviewed by Adrian Pirtea, Freie Universität Berlin; Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (adrian.pirtea@fu-berlin.de)

The volume includes chapters on Philo of Alexandria and on Sethian Gnostic Platonism.

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Shingal, the Yazidis, ancient Judaism, etc.

YAZIDI WATCH: Ezidi temples, Christian churches, Shia shrines, and historic civilizations: Shingal, an ancient town worth fighting to preserve (Levi Clancy, Kurdistan24).

Sinjar, known as Shingal in Kurdish, was catapulted into the world’s consciousness after the shocking Yezidi (Ezidi) genocide that emptied the town and surrounding villages in 2014. Lost in the aftermath of apocalyptic violence, however, is the seldom-discussed story of Shingal as a town of enormous cultural heritage that is nearly unrivaled to have all in one place: a medieval minaret, a soaring stone-built cathedral, stunning old homes, a universe of Ezidi temples going back to Sheikh Adi himself, and thousands of years of history from ancient Mesopotamia through the present day.

[...]

Aside from the Yazidi (Ezidi) connection, the region around Shingal/Sinjar also had associations with Judaism and Syriac Christianity in antiquity. This interesting article gives an overview of its history up to the present.

For many past posts on the Yazidis, their Gnosticism-themed religion, and their tragic fate in the hands of ISIS, start here and follow the links

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Samson the Demigod?

DR. NAPHTALI MESHEL: Samson the Demigod? (TheTorah.com).

Samson’s conception story may be read subversively as the result of a union between a divine being and a mortal woman, making Samson a demi-god with superhuman characteristics. At the same time, the text keeps open the more mundane possibility that his father is Manoah and his powers are simply a gift from God.

I was less skeptical about this proposal after I read this essay than when I started it.

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Early review of Scholem's "Jewish Gnosticism"

REPRINT REVIEW: Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition, by Gershom G. Scholem. Professor Scholem's latest work is a scholar's book--in both sense of that phrase (FEB, 1961 BY JAKOB J. PETUCHOWSKI, Commentary Magazine). Scholem's Jewish Gnosticism is outdated now, but it is a classic that did much to define the field of Hekhalot Studies. For an early response to it, read this review.

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Kotzé et al., eds., Ancient Texts and Modern Readers

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Ancient Texts and Modern Readers
Studies in Ancient Hebrew Linguistics and Bible Translation

Series:
Studia Semitica Neerlandica, Volume: 71

Editors: Gideon Kotzé, Christian S. Locatell and John A. Messarra

The chapters of this volume address a variety of topics that pertain to modern readers’ understanding of ancient texts, as well as tools or resources that can facilitate contemporary audiences’ interpretation of these ancient writings and their language. In this regard, they cover subjects related to the fields of ancient Hebrew linguistics and Bible translation. The chapters apply linguistic insights and theories to elucidate elements of ancient texts for modern readers, investigate how ancient texts help modern readers to interpret features in other ancient texts, and suggest ways in which translations can make the language and conceptual worlds of ancient texts more accessible to modern readers. In so doing, they present the results of original research, identify new lines and topics of inquiry, and make novel contributions to modern readers’ understanding of ancient texts.

Contributors are Alexander Andrason, Barry L. Bandstra, Reinier de Blois, Lénart J. de Regt, Gideon R. Kotzé, Geoffrey Khan, Christian S. Locatell, Kristopher Lyle, John A. Messarra, Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé, Jacobus A. Naudé, Daniel Rodriguez, Eep Talstra, Jeremy Thompson, Cornelius M. van den Heever, Herrie F. van Rooy, Gerrit J. van Steenbergen, Ernst Wendland, Tamar Zewi.

Publication Date: 7 June 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-40291-1

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New members elected to Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

BELATED CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL: Six new members elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

In particular, Professor Michael Stone is well-known to PaleoJudaica readers as a premier specialist in ancient Judaism and Armenian Studies. And Professor Yehuda Liebes, a likewise premier specialist in Kabbalah, has been mentioned here.

Meanwhile, over at Haaretz, Shira Kadari-Ovadia has noted the awards with a criticism: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Admits Six New Members, All Men.

Academy Director Galia Pinzi said that she is aware of the "distressing" lack of women in the organization's ranks, and that the selection of Academy members is made on the basis of excellence in research alone. "The number of women among Academy members reveals the lack of representation of women among in senior academic staff in institutions of higher education in Israel," she said.

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Opening of Pilgrim's Road

ARCHAEOLOGICAL POLITICS: NEW DISCOVERY IN JERUSALEM'S CITY OF DAVID: 2,000-YEAR-OLD PILGRIMAGE ROAD. The City of David has already changed Jerusalem. A new discovery there opening soon will change the way Jews connect with their past in a way never seen before (Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post).

As is often the case with archeology, though, the first discovery or two are just the beginning. That is how a few weeks ago I found myself on an exclusive tour of an ancient road dug out beneath the village of Silwan and above the now well-known water channel (also the place where Jewish rebels made a final stand against the Roman invaders).

The ancient street is referred to as “Pilgrimage Road,” since archeologists are convinced that this is the path millions of Jews took three times a year when performing the commandment of aliyah l’regel – going up to the holy city of Jerusalem to bring sacrifices to God during Judaism’s three key holidays, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot.

The Pilgrimage Road goes all the way from the Shiloah Pool to the area adjacent to the Western Wall known as Robinson’s Arch, where today you can still see remnants of the ancient stairway that led into the Jewish Temple.

I wouldn't call this a new discovery. The project has been around for a while. But aside from the headline, the article gives a good overview of the archaeological significance of the road. And there are lots of politics to go around too. See, for example, the following article:

FRIEDMAN, GREENBLATT ATTEND ARCHAEOLOGICAL INAUGURATION IN CITY OF DAVID. Emek Shaveh activists were removed by police from protesting against the Sunday opening of Pilgrim Road, which they call “Fighting Road” (Hagay Hacohen, Jerusalem Post).

US Ambassador David Friedman and US Middle East special envoy Jason Greenblatt attended the inauguration of Pilgrimage Road in the City of David on Sunday, triggering angry denunciations from Palestinian and left-wing circles for taking part in a “settler project.”

Ministers Rafi Peretz and Uri Ariel, US Senator Lindsey Graham, Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, Israel Antiquities Authority director Israel Hasson, and US billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam were also among those present at the event.

[...]

I noted the story of the broken sewage pipe in Jerusalem that lead to the uncovering of the first bit of road here, here, and here.

Some other past posts on the Pilgrim's Road Project in Jerusalem and the attendant politics are here, here, here, and here.

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A secret sale of biblical Oxyrhynchus fragments?

CANDIDA MOSS: Did Oxford Scholar Secretly Sell Bible Fragment to Hobby Lobby Family? The first-century antiquity is part of a collection at Oxford, but paperwork reportedly suggests it was sold by a professor (The Daily Beast). The fragments under discussion may have included the no-longer-first-century papyrus of the Gospel of Mark, on which more here and links.

This is a very complicated and messy story. I've been trying to get my head around it for a while. This essay by Professor Moss sums up the key information. For more details as they came out, see the recent posts by Brent Nongbri at his Variant Readings Blog. His most recent post, Jerry Pattengale on Dirk Obbink and the Mark Fragment, came out after Professor Moss's essay in the Daily Beast.

I'm not going to try to summarize the situation. And I'm certainly not going to offer an opinion on it. I note the discussion merely for your information. Let's keep an eye on what happens next.

UPDATE: The Evangelical Textual Criticism Blog has also been posting on this story.

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Forum on Boyarin’s "Judaism"

MARGINALIA REVIEW OF BOOKS: Daniel Boyarin’s Judaism: A Forum.

I was otherwise occupied in May when this forum on Judaism: The Genealogy of a Modern Notion (Rutgers University Press) commenced, and it only came to my attention recently as it finished up. There are eight essays by prominent scholars and a "Responsum" by Professor Boyarin. Follow the link for everything.

Another post on Professor Boyarin's new book is here. And Michael Satlow has some related comments, and notice of his new article on Philo's definition of "Judaism," here.

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The amazing migrating word

PHILOLOGOS: This Word Goes Back 4,000 Years and Spans Over a Dozen Languages. Variations of Hebrew’s misken, meaning “poor” or “unfortunate,” can be found from Italian to Swahili to Tagalog and far beyond (Mosaic Magazine). It looks as though this is an Akkadian word that spread to Aramaic, and then to all over the place.

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On repatriating antiquities

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: First Person: Who Owns History? From the May/June 2019 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (Robert Cargill, chief editor of BAR).

Good question. I have offered my own answer, for example, here and here and links. I blog, you decide.

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Review of Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great (ed. Moore)

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Kenneth Royce Moore (ed.), Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great. Brill's companions to classical reception, volume 14. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. Pp. 856. ISBN 9789004285071. €189,00. Reviewed by Christian Thrue Djurslev, Aarhus University (ctd@cas.au.dk). Excerpt:

Part II, ‘Later receptions in the Near- and Far East and the Romance tradition’, opens with much-needed studies of religious writers. Klęczar tackles Jewish tradition in an exemplary fashion, whereas Shahar revisits the Jerusalem episode. Nawotka and Wojciechowska quantify evidence from Coptic Egypt over a long period of time. Jouanno is the right person to offer a chapter on the Byzantine corpus, and I was impressed with the paleographical discussion of the (Greek) authors I found missing in Part I. She reminds us that Arrian, Plutarch and Diodorus were read for many other reasons in Byzantium. Peltonen surveys some essential references in early Christian authors, although I am not persuaded by all of his readings. Blythe provides some good summaries of inaccessible material from medieval Italy, which complements and updates Cary’s book on the Medieval Alexander (Cambridge, 1956). Nawotka revisits many important issues regarding the Alexander Romance in Syria and Persia, again with solid summaries of relevant texts. The last paper is the only one that overlaps with content from Zuwiyya’s Brill volume from 2011.

I noted the publication of the book last year.

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More on the Beit Shemesh exhibition

ROADWORKS VS. ARCHAEOLOGY, CONTINUED: A FOCUS ON BEIT SHEMESH. Beit Shemesh, at the crossroads between Jerusalem and coast, has been inhabited since earliest times, going back to the pre-biblical Canaanite civilization from whom its idolatrous name originates (MORDECHAI BECK, Jerusalem Post).

The Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem saw a unique opportunity for creating a special exhibition dedicated to this site and to the issues it raised. According to the director, Amanda Weiss, the decision to create an exhibition happened spontaneously. “One of our guides told me about the finds that were being uncovered there,” said Weiss. “She said to me ‘You must come and see for yourself while they are digging.’ So I grabbed Leora (her deputy) and a couple of other of the curators and rushed down in my car. This was last November. It was a very memorable day. Not only was it an exciting place to visit – we saw the site in the pouring rain! We were drenched, but that was part of the experience, with all the beautiful fragrances of the flowers. In just four months we arranged this exhibition.”

For background on the exhibition and on the controversy over Highway 38 and the site of Beit Shemesh, start here and follow the links.

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Was the Sotah rite for saving marriages?

PROF HANNA LISS: The Sotah Ritual: Permitting a Jealous Husband to Remain with His Wife (TheTorah.com).

The root ק.נ.א “jealous zeal” in the chapter on the sotah (Numbers 5) highlights a key goal of the ritual and its accompanying offering, namely, to remove the husband’s jealous zeal and allow him to remain with his wife without guilt.

A couple of past posts on the Sotah rite and its postbiblical interpretation are here and here.

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Deciphering ancient stonemasons' marks at Hippos-Sussita

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Israeli Archaeologists Discover How Ancient Romans Pulled Off Their Monumental Architecture. Ikea didn’t invent the DIY diagram: Ancient stonecutters wanted credit for their efforts just like any artist, signed their work — and also marked the stone blocks with building instructions (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz premium).

At Hippos-Sussita, about 20 percent of the heavy basalt stone-block flooring bears masons’ marks. “We managed to identify 20 different types,” Kowalewska shares. “It is entirely possible that the quarriers couldn’t read or write, but they did know how to make their marks.”

Also, the marks can be a tool for reconstruction of buildings, providing they are preserved on many of the stones. If the marked stone has been reused, they can tell from which structure it was taken. Besides their usefulness for archaeologists, these marks also serve as a simple reminder of all the hard work undertaken by the builders of the past.

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Tomb of the Kings to reopen?

THEOLOGICAL POLITICS: RESTING PLACES OF ADIABENIAN JEWISH QUEEN TO RE-OPEN. The tombs, discovered in Jerusalem by Louis Félicien de Saulcy in 1863, are owned by the French government since 1885 (Hagay Hacohen, Jerusalem Post).

French authorities announced on Wednesday that the site should be open to the public, while Foreign Minister Israel Katz lauded their decision.

The site is generally, although not universally, understood to be the burial ground of the dynasty of Queen Helena of Adiabene. I hope that this new announcement means that the legal issues around the site have been resolved and it will indeed be reopening. For background on Queen Helena and on the site, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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On Boyarin on the origin of "Judaism"

NEW BOOK: How Christians Invented 'Judaism,' According to a Top Talmud Scholar. One of the greatest living scholars of the Talmud, Daniel Boyarin ponders the place where the two traditions were born, in brotherly rivalry but with a common biblical origin (Tomer Persico, Haaretz premium).

His latest book thus joins a series of studies that call into question the popular-naive conception of Judaism. Starkly put, Boyarin asserts that until a few hundred years ago, there was no such thing as “Judaism,” in the sense of an abstract category of thought and thus of life. Indeed, the term is not found in the Torah, Prophets or Writings, the Mishna or Talmud, the works of the early medieval Geonim, of Rabbi Judah Halevi or of Maimonides. None of them knew of the existence of such a thing as “Judaism.” The term’s first appearances date from the 12th century (for example, in the “Midrash Sekhel Tov,” by Rabbi Menachem Ben Shlomo), and even then it denotes not a particular culture or a particular religion but a condition – that is, the condition of being a Jewish person.

In antiquity there was no distinction between nationhood and religion. You worshipped your national god(s). Judaism arose in that environment and retains the concept of a national identity.

I haven't read Professor Boyarin's new book (Judaism: The Genealogy of a Modern Notion, Rutgers University Press), so I can't comment on it. Dr. Persico has some criticisms. Have a look at the article and see what you think.

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More on Hebrew historical linguistics from Rezetko and Young

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Do We Really Think That There Is No Historical Linguistics of Ancient Hebrew?

Ancient Hebrew like all natural languages evolved through time, and silhouettes of its history are traceable in the literary writings of the Hebrew Bible. But, historical linguistics is not text-dating, and the latter is what Hendel and Joosten’s How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? is largely about.

See Also: How Old Is the Hebrew Bible?, Can the Ages of Biblical Literature be Discerned Without Literary Analysis?, Flawed Philology

By Robert Rezetko
Research Associate
Radboud University Nijmegen & University of Sydney

By Ian Young
Associate Professor
Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies
University of Sydney
April 2019

As you can see from the "See Also" links, this discussion has been going on for some time. At this point, it is of interest mainly to specialists who are working on the specific problem of historical linguistics of ancient Hebrew.

I have also noted the discussion here and links.

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Weitzman on the Origin of the Jews

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Genealogical Bewilderment: Between the Scholarly and the Personal in the Quest for the Origin of the Jews (Steven Weitzman).

In two recent publications—Solomon: the Lure of Wisdom and The Origin of the Jews: a Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age—I have written works that seem to be about antiquity but are really about how we relate to antiquity from a vantage point in the present. I write as someone genuinely curious about what we can learn from ancient texts by reading them in relation to their history, and for much of my scholarly career, my goal has been to avoid casting the past as a projection of the present. In these works, however, I have tried a different approach, allowing myself into the story in the hope that doing so can lead to a deeper understanding of how we relate to antiquity. Focusing on the Origin of the Jews, I want to reflect on what I was able to learn about my subject from mixing the personal and the scholarly in this way.

[...]

For more on Steven Weitzman's work, see here and links.

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