Sukkot 2019

THE FESTIVAL OF SUKKOT (BOOTHS, TABERNACLES) begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those observing it.

Last year's Sukkot post was here with links. For the biblical background to Sukkot, see here and here.

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

Nongbri on problems with paleographic dating

WELL THAT'S A BIT AWKWARD: Palaeographic Dating: Graphic Difference Does Not Always Mean Chronological Difference (Brent Nongbri,Variant Readings).

The promised subsequent post on Codex Sinaiticus is here. And the immediately preceding post is also of interest: A New Article on Palaeographic Dating of Codices.

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

Jerusalem was not the same as Shalem?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: First Person: From Shalem to Jerusalem (Robert Cargill). Professor Cargill argues in his new book, Melchizedek, King of Sodom (OUP 2019), that Shalem in Genesis 14 was not the city of Jerusalem.

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The Talmud on using Temple leftovers

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Ends With Benefits. This week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study debates the right way to use consecrated Temple leftovers without crossing holy lines.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Magness on the Masada myth(s)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Masada Myth(s) (Jodi Magness).

Josephus’ account of the mass suicide at Masada is so compelling that after Israel was established in 1948, the slogan “Masada shall not fall again” became symbolic of the modern state. The example of Jews putting up a heroic resistance to the death instead of going meekly to their slaughter had great appeal in the wake of the Holocaust and at a time when Israel’s population felt embattled. However, times have changed, and with them, so have perspectives on Masada. For one thing, even those who embrace the mass suicide as a symbol of modern Israel must reconcile it with Judaism’s prohibition against taking one’s own life (although according to Josephus’ account, only the last man died by his own hand). More importantly, in today’s post-Zionist era the story of Masada has become a less compelling model for Israelis. And scholarly views have changed as well. For example, many scholars now believe Josephus’ description of the mass suicide (the only ancient account of this episode) is fabricated – that it never happened!

For more on Professor Magness's recent book, Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth (Princeton University Press, 2019), see here. And for many other posts on the history and archaeology of, and revisionist views on, Masada, see here and links.

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Tenure-track HB job at Harvard

HARVARD UNIVERSITY:

Tenure-track Professor of Hebrew Bible

School Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Department/Area Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Position Description
The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations seeks to appoint a tenure-track professor at the assistant level in Hebrew Bible as of 1 July 2020. The successful candidate will be familiar with the Hebrew Bible in the original. Candidates are expected to be able to situate the Hebrew Bible within its ancient Near Eastern context and within the broader history of its interpretation. The tenure-track professor will be responsible for teaching and advising at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The tenure-track professor of Hebrew Bible will be appointed in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and will work with colleagues in the Committee on the Study of Religion, the Harvard Divinity School, and other departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Keywords:
assistant, faculty, instructor, tenure track
Boston, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MA, Northeast, New England
Hebrew, Bible, biblical Hebrew, ancient near east, interpretation

Basic Qualifications
Doctorate or equivalent degree in Hebrew Bible or related discipline required by the time the appointment begins.

Additional Qualifications
Demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching; evidence of intellectual leadership and potential for high impact on the field.

Follow the link for application instructions. Applicants are "encouraged" to apply by 1 November 2019.

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The "Curse of the Dancer"

GREEK EPIGRAPHY: Ancient 'Curse of the Dancer' Deciphered, Revealing Backstabbing Rivals (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

A Greek engraving on a 1,500-year-old lead tablet discovered in the ruins of an ancient theater in Israel has finally been deciphered, revealing a curse that may rival the modern-day backstabbing between athletic opponents.

The curse calls upon numerous demons to inflict harm on a dancer named Manna, who likely performed at the famous Caesarea Maritima theater in Israel, which was built by Herod the Great.

[...]

Professor Attilio Mastrocinque has deciphered this long curse tablet using "Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)." For more on that technique, see here and links. Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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Review of Novenson, The Grammar of Messianism

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Matthew V. Novenson, The Grammar of Messianism: An Ancient Jewish Political Idiom and Its Users. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. xvi, 361. ISBN 9780190255022. $78.00. Reviewed by D. Clint Burnett, Johnson University (davidclintburnett@gmail.com).

His work is not based on new data, but on a new way of perceiving ancient Jewish and early Christian messianic texts, namely unencumbered by the messianic idea and with fresh contextual exegeses of messianic texts that probe their inner logic. He shifts the conversation about messianism from the general to the particular and from the realms of politics and history into that of particular texts, contexts, and exegesis. Adopting Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theory of language game—the “theory that human language is best conceived not as a set of symbols corresponding to things in the world, but rather as a set of rules for participation in various kinds of discourse” (12)—Novenson claims that words derive their meanings from context. Therefore, scholars must avoid preconceived notions or ideas about what words mean, especially in ancient texts. It is clear that Jewish and Christian authors’ use of messianic language is part of “one great Mediterranean language game” that can be traced to their contextualized interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. In short, Novenson concludes “ancient messiah texts constitute one example . . . of the vast, sprawling ancient Jewish and Christian project of scriptural interpretation” (17). The purpose of this book is to map the rules of this language game or the grammar of messianism. (21).

Past PaleoJudaica posts on the book are here and links.

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

On Abraham and the Aqedah

PROF. AARON KOLLER: Abraham Passes the Test of the Akedah But Fails as a Father (TheTorah.com).

The story of the Akedah appears to present Abraham’s actions in a uniformly positive light. However, Isaac’s absence at the end of the story, and Sarah’s death immediately afterwards, suggested to some traditional and modern commentators a criticism of Abraham.

For another ancient understanding of the Akedah — that Abraham actually sacrificed Isaac — see here and links.

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Yom Kippur 2019

YOM KIPPUR, the Day of Atonement, begins this evening at sundown. An easy fast to all those observing it.

Last year's post on Yom Kippur is here (bonus post here). For background and previous posts, follow the link from there. Biblical etc. background is here.

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Warren on transformational eating

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Food and Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Literature (Meredith J C Warren).

Hierophagy is the word I chose to describe this genre of transformational eating.[3] I define hierophagy as a mechanism by which characters in narrative cross boundaries from one realm to another through ingesting some item from that other realm. Hierophagy results in three specific types of transformations: (A) the binding of the eater to the place of origin of the food; (B) the transformation of the eater either in terms of behaviour or physical appearance; and/or (C) the transmission of new knowledge.

This essay gives us a taste of Dr. Warren's new book, Food and Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Literature (SBL Press, 2019).

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Apocryphal gospels as fan fiction?

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Fan Fiction and Alternative Gospels (Philip Jenkins, The Anxious Bench). Excerpt:

Popular media tend to assume that there is an ancient era in which gospels were produced abundantly, presumably because the authors had some special knowledge or perception to share. In fact, such production carried on in high volume for much longer than this model suggests, at least through the sixth and seventh centuries, with many later contributions. At no point in history—say, around 400—did churches suddenly cease recording what they believed to be Christ’s authentic message, and certainly they did not do so because of the edicts of some all-powerful hierarchy. The Christian story is one of organic growth and development, from early times, through medieval, to modern, and beyond.

Related post here.

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Frey, Qumran, Early Judaism, and New Testament Interpretation

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Jörg Frey. Qumran, Early Judaism, and New Testament Interpretation. Kleine Schriften III. Edited by Jacob N. Cerone. 2019. XXI, 906 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 424. 214,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-156015-6..

Published in English.
The articles collected here present the fruits of 25 years of scholarship on Qumran and the New Testament. The author situates the New Testament within the pluralistic context of Second Temple Judaism, presents detailed overviews on the discoveries from Qumran, the source value of the ancient texts on the Essenes, the interpretation of the archaeological site, the various forms of dualism within the texts, the development of apocalyptic thought, Qumran meals, and scriptural authority in the Scrolls. He evaluates the various patterns of relating Jesus and the apostles to the Scrolls or the Qumran community, presents methodological reflections on comparisons and detailed surveys of the most important insights from the Qumran discoveries for the understanding of Jesus, Paul, and the Fourth Gospel. This volume demonstrates how the discovery of the Scrolls has influenced and changed New Testament scholarship.

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The Phoenicia is sailing to the Americas

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Who reached America first – Columbus or the Phoenicians? A replica Phoenician vessel made in Syria is sailing the Atlantic to prove the ancient civilisation did it 2,000 years before Columbus (Tom Westcott, Middle East Eye).

Philip Beale, the project’s leader, explained: “This expedition hopes to show that the Phoenicians could have been the first ancient seafarers to cross the Atlantic, well before Christopher Columbus.

“It’s not whether Christopher Columbus was the first to cross the Atlantic but actually that he was probably one of the last.”

As for their likely destination, Beale said that the idea is to not aim for anywhere in particular. Instead they will go where the winds and currents naturally take them, to best recreate the likely route of the Phoenicians.

This replica Phoenician vessel is, of course, the Good Ship Phoenicia. PaleoJudaica followed the ship's successful expedition to circumnavigate Africa from 2008 to 2010. Now she aims to cross the Atlantic to show that the Phoenicians could have reached the Americas. I noted the fundraising for the project back in 2013. And follow the links from there for many past posts on the adventures of the Phoenicia.

Perhaps Phoenicians could have reached the New World. Perhaps they even did. But I have reviewed all the evidence I can find for a Phoenician presence in the Americas and I have not found it credible. For past posts, see here, here, here, and many links. Cross-file under New World Forgery.

Be that as it may, I wish the Phoenicia a successful voyage. I look forward to following her new adventures.

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

Review of Krause, Synagogues in the Works of Flavius Josephus

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Synagogues in the Works of Flavius Josephus: Rhetoric, Spatiality, and First-Century Jewish Institutions (Joseph Scales).

Andrew R. Krause, Synagogues in the Works of Flavius Josephus: Rhetoric, Spatiality, and First-Century Jewish Institutions (Brill, 2017).

Excerpt:

This book is a valuable addition to scholarship on Josephus and 1st century synagogues, incorporating work on Josephus as a Greco-Roman-Jewish author, considerations for his writing intentions and how his thought developed over his career, while also addressing some of the scholarship on the early synagogue. Josephus is often used as a direct source for synagogue practices in its early developmental stage, and this work counters some of the oversimplifications that have been drawn from cursory readings of Josephus. Krause’s careful discussion of the relevant passages further shows the importance of the emerging synagogue in Judaism of the late 1st century CE.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 164 (September 2019)

READING ACTS: Biblical Studies Carnival 164 (Phil Long).

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Review of Luijendijk and Klingshirn (eds.), My Lots are in Thy Hands

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: AnneMarie Luijendijk, William E. Klingshirn (ed.), My Lots are in Thy Hands: Sortilege and its Practitioners in Late Antiquity. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, 188. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. Pp. xvii, 392. ISBN 9789004384101. €129,00. Reviewed by Joseph E. Sanzo, University of Warwick (Joseph.Sanzo@warwick.ac.uk)

Sortilege properly emerges from this volume as a complex cluster of ritual, scribal, and textual practices, which formed an important aspect of late antique social existence. Each essay successfully functions as a stand-alone contribution, offering a wealth of information to anyone interested in this important ancient practice. The non-expert will especially benefit from the editors’ introduction and first chapter. Yet, as a collection, the reader both receives valuable insight into the most important sortes (e.g., the Sortes Astrampsychi, the hermēneiai, the Gospel of the Lots of Mary) and gains a vivid sense of how sortilege was interwoven into various ancient domains, including law (Naether), economy (Ratzan), ecclesiastical institutions (Kocar, Frankfurter, and Luijendijk), the body (Costanza), and sacred texts (Wilkinson, Childers, Meerson, van der Horst).

Sortilege (casting lots to make decisions, including by consulting random passages in scripture) is also attested in late antique Judaism. See the article in this volume by Pieter van der Horst.

I noted the publication of this book here.

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Aramaic ostraca, possibly from the first Jewish Revolt

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Advanced imaging reveals ancient inscriptions on 2,000-year-old pottery (Kristen Mitchell, Phys.org).

The fragments, called ostraca, were discovered at the site of Machaerus, a well-known archaeological site connected with notable historical and religious figures of the first century including Herod the Great and John the Baptist. Chris Rollston, associate professor of northwest Semitic languages and literature, took possession of 20 ostraca in May and used multispectral imaging equipment at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences to examine the pieces and their faded ink writing more closely.

Professor Rollston, of George Washington University, and his epigraphic work are well known to PaleoJudaica readers.

What do the ostraca say? The intriguing preliminary results:

While the ostraca are brief, Dr. Rollston believes they could include information that could help researchers better understand cultural practices in the first century. He believes some of the ostraca written in Aramaic include the names and titles of Jewish soldiers who served during the First Jewish Revolt. This would shed light on naming practices of the time and provide insight on a significant time in Jewish history.

"It's difficult to know exactly when these inscriptions were written, but my sense is they were written sometime during the decade or two right prior to fall of Judaea to the Romans," he said. "These are inscriptions from this really pivotal period in what we know as ancient Judaea."

Some past posts on Multispectral Imaging and its application to epigraphy are here and links and here. And past posts on the site of Machaerus (the reputed site of the execution of John the Baptist) are here and links. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy.

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

How Jewish Was Herod the Great?

ARCHAEOLOGY MAKES THINGS COMPLICATED: How Jewish Was Herod? (Evie Gassner, TheTorah.com).

Despite the negative evaluation of Herod in traditional Jewish sources, archaeological evidence seems to suggest that, with some notable exceptions, Herod saw himself as tied to the Jewish religion and tried, to a certain extent, to uphold its laws, even in his own lifestyle.

For a related post from some years ago which also discusses Herod's Arab background, see here. And for many other past posts on Herod the Great and related archaeological discoveries, start here and follow the links.

Also,by the way, TheTorah.com's website has just been completely redesigned.

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

Temple of Ptolemy IV excavated in Egypt

CHANCE DISCOVERY: Archaeologists unearth ancient pharaoh Ptolemy IV's temple in Egypt [PHOTO] (Bhaswati Guha Majumder, International Business Times). Ptolemy IV Philopator is mentioned in the Bible. In the Book of Daniel 11:11-12 he is referred to as "the king of the south." For more about him, including some of the coins minted during his reign, see here and here.

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Top 10 archaeological discoveries from the Holy Land

LISTMANIA: Digging for the Bible: 10 key discoveries from the Holy Land. Leading biblical archaeologist Aren Maeir identifies 10 key discoveries from the Holy Land and explains how they relate to the Old Testament (History Extra). It's a good list that the BBC posted several years ago.

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British Library digitizes religious manuscripts

DIGITIZATION: British Library digitises ancient texts including 1,000-year old Hebrew Bible. Collection co-sponsored by Dangoor Education includes extraordinary selection of old manuscripts, books, scrolls and scriptures from the world's major faiths (The Jewish News).

Ancient religious texts including a 1,000-year old Hebrew Bible have been digitised and made available online for free by the British Library after help from a British Jewish philanthropist.

The collection, called ‘Discovering Sacred Texts,’ is an extraordinary selection of manuscripts, books, scrolls and scriptures that allows anyone with an internet connection to explore the sacred texts of the world’s major faiths.

[...]

The tenth-century Hebrew Bible manuscript is London Codex. Or 4445.

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Rosh HaShanah 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR (ROSH HASHANAH - Jewish New Year 5780) to all those celebrating. The New Year begins tonight at sundown.

Last year's Rosh HaShanah post, with biblical and other links, is here. And a couple of subsequent posts on the subject are here and here.

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Review of Kreuzer, Introduction to the Septuagint

WILLIAM ROSS: AN INITIAL REVIEW OF BAYLOR’S INTRODUCTION TO THE SEPTUAGINT. This volume is newly translated from German.

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Review of Rüpke, Pantheon

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Pantheon (Amit Gvaryahu).

Jörg Rüpke, Pantheon: A New History of Roman Religion, Translated by David M. B. Richardson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.

I am a student of rabbinic literature, and my subjects are observers and critics of Roman practice of all kinds — including the practices which are lumped together under the heading of “Religion.” My interest in what is called Roman religion stems from a need to understand the relationships my subjects, the rabbis and their followers, had with it. What did they “borrow” from the Romans in their religion? What did they reject? In what ways was rabbinic worship a Roman cult, and how was it decidedly not Roman? How did Jews who were not rabbis perform “Roman-ness” in their religion, how did the rabbis do so, and what did they have to say about it?

[...]

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On the Gezer Calendar and the New Year

ROSH HASHANAH IS COMING: Rosh haShanah and the mystery of the Gezer Calendar (Daniel Kenner, Times of Israel Blogs).

It may not have been recorded sufficiently in the written Torah itself, but the Jewish oral tradition fills in the gaps regarding the significance of the “Day of (Shofar) Blasting”. In beginning the year on this day, the oral tradition hearkens back millennia to the Gezer Calendar’s poetic description of the Land of Israel’s natural cycle. This primary Jewish New Year – though not the only one – is thus celebrated on the First of Tishrei – the Moon of Gathering, the Moon of Forces. This is the time not only to blast on a shofar, but also to celebrate the results of the past year’s work and blessings, to take stock, to gather resources and collect forces for the year ahead.

A nice introduction to the complexities of the Jewish New Year.

Rosh HaShanah begins this year on the evening of Sunday, 29 September. For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Gezer Calendar, see here and links and here. Cross-file under Northwest Semitic Epigraphy.

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The Talmud on the misuse of sacrificial meat

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Sacrificial Ram. Sacred meat, slaughtered animals, and blood on the altar, in this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study.

This week we began Tractate Me’ila, which deals with a different kind of sin: the misuse of property, such as animals, that have been consecrated to God. ... But when does sacrificial meat change from being God’s property to being human property?

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Two cuneiform tablets found at Hadid

ASSYRIOLOGY: Assyrians Came, Conquered, and Kicked Everyone Out: Tablets Reveal 2,700-year-old Relocation. Cuneiform records show land sales 2,700 years ago in Hadid, central Israel, were made to people with entirely foreign names (Philippe Bohstrom, Haaretz premium).

Two clay tablets found in Hadid recording loans and land sales in the seventh century B.C.E. indicate that most of the people living in the town, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem today, were foreign, not Israelites, archaeologists say.

[...]

That's what we would expect from the biblical accounts. Plus there's a loan tablet in which someone puts his wife and sister up as collateral. And the excavation also found a seal with the emblem of the moon god Sin. Yes, that actually was his name.

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The Beit Shean statues find a home

THEY BELONG IN A MUSEUM. AND THAT'S WHERE THEY ARE: NO LONGER HOMELESS: TWO STATUES FIND PERMANENT HOME IN REGIONAL MUSEUM. The finds were dated to the late Roman-early Byzantine period (third to fourth centuries CE), fascinating for the social flux which occurred then (HEDDY BREUER ABRAMOWITZ, Jerusalem Post).

Two Roman statues have just been placed in their new permanent home at the regional archeological and Mediterranean museum of the National Parks Authority at Gan Hashlosha-Sahne Park, it was announced by the Antiquities Authority (IAA) in September.

[...]

I noted the chance discovery of the statues near Beit Shean (Beth Shean) in late 2018 here and here.

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Greenstein on translating the Book of Job

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Translating Job as Befits a Great Ancient Work (Edward L. Greenstein). Professor Greenstein has published a new translation of the Book of Job with Yale University Press.

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New images of LXX papyrus 967

THE ETC BLOG: New Images of Papyrus 967 (Ezekiel Portion) (Tommy Wasserman). With links to earlier posts.

This manuscript also contains material from Esther and Daniel. It is the earliest manuscript containing the Old Greek text of Daniel. It is of great importance for the textual history of that book.

For more on the Esther section of the manuscript, see here.

Cross-file under Digitization.

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Aramaic gravestones in Jordan

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: ‘World’s only’ Aramaic gravestones found in northern Jordan — French scholar (Saeb Rawashdeh, Jordan Times).

AMMAN — Khirbet es-Samra, an archaeological site located some 50 kilometres north of Amman, contains the world’s only Aramaic-inscribed stelae (ancient gravestones), according to a French scholar.

Two kinds of stelae were excavated in the ancient cemetery within the site, noted Pierre-Louis Gatier from the University of Lyon. One type of stela has a regular gravestone shape dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, while the other unusually shaped stela dates from the 6th century AD, Gatier said.

[...]

These tombstones have been known for a while, but I just learned of them through this article. You can read more about the site of Khirbet es-Samra and the epigraphic discoveries there in this article: EPIGRAPHIC DIVERSITY IN THE CEMETERY AT KHIRBET ES-SAMRĀʾ, JORDAN (Nabulsi A. J. and Michael C A Macdonald et al; PEQ 146 [2014]: 149-61).

By the way, these are not the only know Aramaic-inscribed gravestones. Some were recovered at the site of Zoar in southern Jordan near the Dead Sea. They are painted (mostly) or inscribed in Aramaic on sandstone. They are from about the same period as the ones from Khirbet es-Samra. I noted a BHD piece about them some years ago. And there is an unprovenanced Aramaic gravestone that looks similar to the ones from Zoar. See here and here.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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Oetjen (ed.), New perspectives in Seleucid history, archaeology and numismatics

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics. Notice of a new book: Roland, Oetjen (ed.). 2019. New perspectives in Seleucid history, archaeology and numismatics: Studies in honor of Getzel M. Cohen (Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 355). Berlin: De Gruyter.

For more on the Seleucid dynasty and its importance for biblical studies, see here and links (cf. here and here).

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Review of Cook, Empty Tomb, Resurrection, Apotheosis

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: John Granger Cook, Empty Tomb, Resurrection, Apotheosis. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 410. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018. Pp. xvi, 717. ISBN 9783161565038. €164,00. Reviewed by Kelly Shannon-Henderson, University of Alabama (keshannon@ua.edu).

In this book, New Testament scholar John Granger Cook collects evidence for the concept of resurrection in Greek, Roman, Jewish, and early Christian texts. He aims to prove two propositions: “first, there is no fundamental difference between Paul’s conception of the resurrection body and that of the Gospels; and second, the resurrection and translation stories of Greco-Roman antiquity probably help explain the willingness of Mediterranean people to gradually accept the Gospel of a crucified and risen savior” (1). The first of these will be of interest primarily to specialists in early Christian studies, while the second will appeal to a wider audience of scholars of classical literature, ancient religions, and ancient history. My own interest in this volume is of the latter type, and it is from that point of view that this review is written. Classicists will find here a wealth of information, some of it perhaps unfamiliar, stretching across many linguistic, temporal, cultural, and religious boundaries that will prove useful in considering the concept of resurrection in its pan-Mediterranean context.

[...]

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Berkowitz on "Execution and Invention"

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Execution and Irony (Beth Berkowitz). AN AJR RETROSPECTIVE ON EXECUTION AND INVENTION: DEATH PENALTY DISCOURSE IN EARLY RABBINIC AND CHRISTIAN CULTURES (OXFORD UP, 2006). Excerpt:

The ironies of criminal execution were my interest in Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures, my 2006 study of the early rabbinic laws of capital punishment. One chapter deals with the apologetics of past scholarship on the subject, another with the Mishnah’s ritual of execution, a third and fourth with the key players in that ritual, the next with how the Rabbis subvert Roman forms of punishment, and a final chapter with how the Rabbis’ representation of execution compares with that in early Christian martyrdom narratives. My concern throughout was the criss-crossing between criminal execution and other cultural currents such as can be found in Nebraska’s recent execution, where one of the most pressing crises facing the country – the opioid epidemic – meets one of its most contentious moral questions, capital punishment.

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Another review of Balberg, Blood for Thought

H-JUDAIC BOOK REVIEW:

Sanders on Balberg, 'Blood for Thought: The Reinvention of Sacrifice in Early Rabbinic Literature'

Author: S. Mira Balberg
Reviewer: Seth Sanders

S. Mira Balberg. Blood for Thought: The Reinvention of Sacrifice in Early Rabbinic Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2017. xi + 287 pp. $95.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-520-29592-6.

Reviewed by Seth Sanders (University of California, Davis) Published on H-Judaic (September, 2019) Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Read literally, the Torah looks as much like a cookbook as an origin story: much of Leviticus consists of God's commandments on how to prepare and offer animals to him, and the right and wrong way to sacrifice is a key theme from Cain and Abel through Deuteronomy. Yet Jewish animal sacrifice ended almost two thousand years ago, long before the Talmud was written. How did Judaism, a religion founded on performing God's commandments, abandon these religiously central commandments? Balberg's provocative but well-supported answer is: It didn't.

[...]

Past posts on the book are here and here.

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Rabbinics job(s) at University of Chicago Divinity School

H-JUDAIC: Job: Rabbinic Judaism (open rank), University of Chicago, Divinity School. Review of applications began on 15 September, so if you want to apply, don't dawdle.

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Happy centennial to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago!

A CENTURY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST: U. of C.’s Oriental Institute celebrates centennial (AARON GETTINGER, Hyde Park Herald).

The Oriental Institute celebrated its centennial with a black-tie anniversary gala on Saturday, giving guests a chance to view galleries renovated with a greater emphasis on accessibility.

It has been an eventful 100 years. In 1919, archaeology was overwhelmingly focused on ancient Greece and Rome. Professor James Henry Breasted founded the OI with a then-groundbreaking emphasis on the Near East, or Orient.

[...]

Read on for a brief history of the OI. There will be a public celebration on Saturday, 28 September.

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A royal steward's seal from ancient Jerusalem

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Tiny First Temple seal impression found with name of Bible-era royal steward. Inscribed with ‘Belonging to Adoniyahu, Royal Steward,’ a clay sealing from the 7th century BCE uncovered from earth excavated at the foundations of the Western Wall (Amanda Borcschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

The article mentions the royal steward's tomb at Silwan. The name there is damaged, but could be restored as Adoniyahu. In other words, it could be the tomb of the owner of this seal. At least that is chronologically possible. A past post on the royal steward's tomb is here.

And for many, many past posts on the Temple Mount Sifting Project, which discovered this seal, start here and follow the links.

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

Review of Frankfurter (ed.), Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic

THE BIBLICAL REVIEW BLOG: Review: “Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic” edited by David Frankfurter (William Brown).

Overall, the volume is an excellent introduction to the theory of magic and ways that magic is practiced through time and space. Notable contributions include each introduction to regional forms of magic (illegitimate ritual) in chapters 4-11, David Frankfurter’s discussion of “magic” as a form of local ritual drawing from an authoritative tradition, and Sarah Iles Johnston’s discussion of the relationship between theurgy and magic. Though readers may have minor quibbles concerning points by authors, by and large Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic is an excellent volume for a detailed overview of studies of magic in the ancient world. Therefore, I will focus my criticisms on points of possible improvement evident throughout the entire volume. Additionally, below the body of this review is a summary of each chapter and occasional comment about contributions.

I noted the publication of the book here.

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On Taylor on the Copper Scroll

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Dating the Copper Scroll. Ancient Jewish scroll -- and treasure map (Megan Sauter). As usual, this is a summary of an article in Biblical Archaeology Review. It is in the current issue and is by Professor Joan E. Taylor: "Secrets of the Copper Scroll." The article itself is behind the subscription wall, but the summary is worth reading.

For a great many PaleoJudaica posts on the Copper Scroll, start here and just follow those links.

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

Surprising salts on the Temple Scroll

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Unique Salt Coating Helped Preserve 25-Foot-Long Dead Sea Scroll. Analysis shows that the unique processing of the Temple Scroll’s parchment kept it intact (Jason Daley, The Smithsonian).

To understand how the Temple Scroll survived all those years, a research team was given access to a 1-inch fragment of the parchment—itself just 1/250th of an inch thick—from The Shrine of the Book, a museum in Jerusalem that holds the scroll. Besides being super long, the scroll is unusual in several ways, Nicola Davis at The Guardian reports: The text is written on the flesh side of the skin, which is uncommon. The thin parchment may be an animal skin that has been split in two. And the text is written on a thick layer containing lots of inorganic minerals pressed into the collagen.

It seems that the results were unexpected. But the implications are unclear. Does this mean that the Temple Scroll was produced somewhere at a distance from the Dead Sea area? Maybe. The article at The Guardian collects a range of views from scholars.

The Smithsonian article covers the somewhat technical story in detail and it also links to the MIT press release and to the specialist article in Science Advances.

One point to underline is that this analysis used non-invasive and non-destructive technologies. As I have said many times, this is the way of the future.

Cross-file under Material Culture.

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CFP: World in Crisis: Reflections and Responses from Antiquity to the Present (BAJS)

H-JUDAIC: CFP: World in Crisis: Reflections and Responses from Antiquity to the Present - British Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. Follow the link for further particulars. The conferences takes place at the University of Southampton and the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations on 13-15 July 2020. The deadline for paper proposals is Wednesday 15th January 2020.

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David Stacey (1943-2019)

SAD NEWS: The Agade list has shared the sad news that archaeologist David Stacey has passed away. I quote from Jack Sasson's e-mail:

Dr David Stacey passed away on 20 July 2019 in Cambridge, UK. David worked in Israel for many years, having first arrived for the Masada excavations as a volunteer. He worked under Ehud Netzer in Jericho, Herodium, and Masada, and also excavated in Tiberias, Ashkelon, and many other sites. Recently, he wrote extensively about Qumran.

David and I were both staff (he senior and I very junior) at the Asheklon excavation in the late 1980s. We roomed together with another archaeology student for one season during that time. David had endless entertaining stories about the inside world of archaeology and his own adventures in that world over many years.

He and I got back in touch in the early 2000s and we continued to correspond, mostly about the archaeology of Qumran. You can find some relevant posts in the PaleoJudaica archives.

May his memory be for a blessing.

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On ancient cosmology and theology

IS THAT IN THE BIBLE? The Structure of Heaven and Earth: How Ancient Cosmology Shaped Everyone’s Theology (Paul Davidson).

The Bible is often difficult to make sense of without the proper conceptual framework. Why is Paul concerned about mysterious angels, principles, powers, forces, and archons in his epistles? Why are interactions with demons at the forefront of Jesus’ ministry in Mark? Why is heaven sometimes described as having different levels? Why does Paul describe people under the law as being enslaved to the elements? What motivated early Christians to worship a heavenly saviour? It’s hard to answer these questions without a detailed understanding of ancient Jewish and Greek cosmology, so I’ve spent a great deal of time reading the best books I can find on the subject. Much of what I learned surprised me; perhaps it will surprise you too.

[...]

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The Talmud on being "cut off"

LAST WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Captive Among the Gentiles. This week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study suggests contemporary secular Jews have a lot to atone for.

... Last week, Daf Yomi readers began Tractate Karetot, the section of the Talmud dealing with the laws of karet, and it opens with a catalogue of 36 sins that are punished by karet, including Shabbat violation, various types of incest, breaking the Yom Kippur fast, eating bread on Passover, and profanation of the Temple sacrifices.

In characteristic fashion, however, the rabbis don’t begin at what might seem like the logical beginning, by defining exactly what karet consists of. ...

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Tamber-Rosenau on Women-Turned-Warriors and Queer Theory

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: How to Get a Head in Ancient Israel: Women-Turned-Warriors and Queer Theory (Caryn Tamber-Rosenau).

Caryn Tamber-Rosenau provides an overview of her recent publication, Women in Drag: Gender and Performance in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish Literature (Gorgias, 2018).

Excerpt:

I argue that the women in these tales perform femininity—seductiveness, motherliness, or a mixture of the two, depending on what the circumstances called for—as a deliberate battle strategy. Their chief weapons are not tent pegs and swords but feminine performance, and their ability to engage in this performance is intimately tied to their childlessness.

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Smash Mouth's "All Star" in Aramaic and back

ARAMAIC WATCH? Smash Mouth's 'All Star' translated to Aramaic and back becomes 'beautiful poetry' (Daniel Rutledge, Newshub).

Behold currently! You are entirely a star child! Begin your power! Go! Laugh!

The retranslated lyrics are kind of cool. For the full text of the Aramaic version, see this blog post by the translator, Isaac Mayer.

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Review of King (ed.), The Syriac World

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Daniel King (ed.), The Syriac World. Routledge worlds. London; New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 842. ISBN 9781138899018. $176.00. Reviewed by Yulia Furman, Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics (yfurman@hse.ru)

The present volume ‘The Syriac World’ has been published in the series of the Routledge publishing house ‘Routledge Worlds’, which offers comprehensive and magisterial overviews of principal historical epochs written by established experts. ‘The Syriac World’, edited by Daniel King, is dedicated to various aspects of Syriac culture, including history, literature, language and arts. It is intended primarily for scholars and students of Syriac studies and related fields. The book covers a vast variety of topics ranging from the birth of Syriac Christian culture and its pagan past to the modern descendants of the ancient Syriac churches spread all over the world. Thirty-nine contributions are divided between five major parts.

[...]

Cross-file, of course, under Syriac Watch.

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On the places that YHWH chose

ZVI KOENIGSBERG: The Place(s) that YHWH will Choose: Ebal, Shiloh, and Jerusalem (TheTorah.com).

Jews have long understood “the place that YHWH will chose” to mean Mount Zion in Jerusalem, while Samaritans have interpreted it as Mount Gerizim near Shechem. Archaeology and redaction criticism converge on a compromise solution: it refers to a series of places, one place at a time.

For more on Mt. Ebal, see here and links, and on Mt. Gerizim, see here and here and links.

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Bortolani et al. (eds), Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices. Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions. Ed. by Ljuba Merlina Bortolani, William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack. 2019. IX, 374 pages. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 32. 129,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-156478-9.

Published in English.
A conference held in Heidelberg in 2014 resulted in this collection of essays, which explore the multifaceted aspects of magical texts and practices in antiquity, focusing especially on the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri. The volume concentrates on questions of cultural plurality and fusion, ranging from earlier Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek magico-religious traditions, through the original developments of Graeco-Roman Egypt, up to and including their integration into Jewish and Byzantine magical lore. In particular, phenomena such as simple borrowing, advanced adaptation, complete assimilation or even distortion of origin and meaning stress the importance of disentangling different cultural elements and understanding their interaction. Going beyond the borders of academic fields, this book aims at giving to the transcultural perspective the importance it deserves in the study of ancient magic.

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Review of Krag, Funerary Representations of Palmyrene Women

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Signe Krag, Funerary Representations of Palmyrene Women: From the First Century BC to the Third Century AD. Studies in classical archaeology, 3. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018. Pp. xii, 422. ISBN 9782503569659. €100,00 (pb). Reviewed by Anja Slawisch, University of Cambridge (as2653@cam.ac.uk)

In this book, Krag aims to offer new insights into a selected corpus of Palmyrene sculptures, dating from the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD and composed mostly of female funerary representations. The book contains exhaustive and careful commentary on the pieces and categories under study, but gleaning wider insights is hampered by the verbose writing style and lack of clarity over research agenda.

[...]

Cross-file unde Palmyra Watch, Aramaic Watch, Northwest Semitic Epigraphy, and Sculpture.

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.

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

One Year of the Coptic Magical Papyri Project

COPTIC WATCH: 2019 Review: One Year of the Coptic Magical Papyri Project.

It’s hard to believe it, but a whole year has now passed since the three members of our project first sat around a table in Würzburg and began to talk about our new project on Coptic magic. In this post, we’ll discuss some of our achievements so far, and what we have coming up in the next year.

This excellent blog continues to be active. I have not kept up with it well for a while. Besides the retrospective post above, here are a couple of notable recent posts:

Anthropology of Magic IV: Lévi-Strauss on Magic. I noted the first three posts in this series here and here.

Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri. I noted nine of the ten posts in this series here, here, and here. The tenth is Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri X: Islam and Coptic Magic. It mentions a magical text from the Cairo Geniza which is written in part in Copto-Arabic (a term I just made up), that is, in Arabic written in Coptic script. I did not know that was a thing.

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Role-playing exorcisms?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Performing Exercises, Performing Exorcisms (Sara Ronis).

According to the angel Raphael, the secret to exorcising the demon Asmodeus is to burn a particular fish’s heart and liver in the presence of the malevolent Asmodeus. The foul smell apparently repels this finicky demon. At least, that’s what the author of the Book of Tobit believed. Demons are weird. Demonic exorcisms are weirder still. And yet to dismiss them as simply weird is to miss out on the important social and theological work that demons do in both ancient and modern societies. Thus, I decided to devote a day to demonic possession and exorcism in a new course I was teaching on Second Temple Judaism. But how to teach this subject?

[...]

Cross-file under Pedagogy.

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Belatedly, Biblical Studies Carnival 162

THE AMATEUR EXEGETE: Biblical Studies Carnival 163 (August 2019).

Also, a related post by Phil Long, organizer of the carnival, at Reading Acts: Biblical Studies Carnival for August 2019.

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Many Recensions of the Ten Commandments?

PROF. SIDNIE WHITE CRAWFORD: The Many Recensions of the Ten Commandments (TheTorah.com).

Beyond the two version of the Decalogue in Exodus and Deuteronomy, and the usual differences between MT, SP, and LXX, in Second Temple times, liturgical texts in Qumran (4QDeutⁿ) and Egypt (Nash Papyrus), Greek references in the New Testament and Philo, and even tefillin parchments, reflect slightly different recensions of the text.

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More on Stone, Secret Groups in Ancient Judaism

IN THE MAIL FROM OUP:

Secret Groups in Ancient Judaism

Michael E. Stone

• Greatly enriches our understanding of the religious dynamic of this period
• Analyzes the Essenes and other contemporary groups as a secret society

Were there groups in Ancient Judaism that cultivated esoteric knowledge and transmitted it secretly? With the discovery and burgeoning study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and particularly of the documents legislating the social structure of the Qumran group, the foremost paradigm for analysis of the group's social structure has become the "sect." This is still dominant, having replacing the monastic paradigm used by some of the earliest scholars of the Scrolls.

But after studying what has been written on secret societies more generally, Michael Stone has concluded that many known ancient Jewish groupsthe Qumran covenanters, Josephus's and Philo's Essenes, and Philo's Therapeutaeshould be viewed as societies at the heart of whose existence were esoteric knowledge and practice. Guarding and transmitting this esoteric knowledge and practice, Stone argues, provided the dynamic that motivated the social and conceptual structure of these groups. Analyzing them as secret societies, he says, enables us to see previously latent social structural dimensions, and provides many new enriching insights into the groups, including the Dead Sea covenanters.

By examining historical and literary sources, Stone uncovers evidence for the existence of other secret groups in ancient Jewish society. This line of study leads Stone not only to consider the "classical" Jewish apocalypses as pseudo-esoteric, but also to discern in them the footsteps of hidden, truly esoteric traditions cultivated in the circles that produced the apocalypses. This discovery has significant implications, especially considering the enormous growth of study of the apocalyptic in the Judaism of the Second Temple period and in nascent Christianity over the last seventy years.

I am one of the reviewers of this book for the Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity Group at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Diego, California.

Past posts on the book are here and here.

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The Temple on Mount Gerizim

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Temple on Mount Gerizim—In the Bible and Archaeology. Worship at Ancient Temples (Megan Sauter). As usual, this is a summary on an article, this one by Anne Katrine de Hemmer in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review: "Reactivating Remembrance: Interactive Inscriptions from Mt. Gerizim." The full article is behind the subscription wall.

A couple of related posts are here and here.

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

Review of Walsh, The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: David Walsh, The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity. Development, Decline and Demise ca. A.D. 270-430. Late Antique Archaeology (Supplementary Series), volume 2. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Pp. xii, 146. ISBN 9789004380806. €121 (pb). ISBN 9789004383067. ebook. Reviewed by Matthew M. McCarty, University of British Columbia (matthew.mccarty@ubc.ca).

Ultimately, though, whether Walsh’s boldest arguments will hold true as excavations publish their data may matter less than the way that Walsh successfully re-frames the questions surrounding the end of Mithras-worship.

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Was Emmaus at Kiriath Yearim?

ARCHAEOLOGY: Israeli Archaeologists May Have Found Emmaus, Where Jesus Appeared After Crucifixion (Ariel David, Haaretz premium).

Archaeologists have uncovered the massive walls of a 2,200-year-old Hellenistic fortification that may have been built by the Seleucid general who defeated Judah the Maccabee, the famed Jewish leader at the center of the Hanukkah story. In an unexpected twist, the discovery could also help identify the location of the biblical town of Emmaus, where the Gospels say Jesus made his first appearance after being crucified and resurrected.

[...]

But just to keep things interesting, there may have been more than one ancient town named Emmaus.

For more on the excavation at Kiriath Yearim (Kiriath Jearim), see here and links. And for more on the excavation at the site of Motza (mentioned in the article as another contender for the site of Emmaus), see here and here.

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Psalmen und Chronik (ed. Hartenstein and Willi)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Psalmen und Chronik. Hrsg. v. Friedhelm Hartenstein u. Thomas Willi. [Psalms and Chronicles.] 2019. XXII, 434 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 107. 99,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-154010-3.

Published in German.
The Books of Psalms and Chronicles open and close the ketubim in the TENAK. They share some significant mutual linguistic and thematic threads, which demonstrate their cognate character in the Second Temple literature. This becomes even more obvious if one looks at both works as a special example of the relationship of poetics and prose in ancient Jewish tradition. Finally, it is important to note how the presentation of history in Chronicles uses Psalms (from the theocratic books 4 and 5) as interpreting doxologies while conversely certain Psalms show concepts of history comparable to 1–2Chr. This volume contains the contributions of an international conference held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich where for the first time renowned scholars discussed aspects of the relationship between Psalms and Chronicles fundamentally and in detail.

The essays are in German and English.

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Isaac Luria knew things

KABBALAH WATCH: REPORTS OF MIRACLES FROM SAFED. How the great kabbalist Isaac Luria changed the perception of the world without changing the world itself (Eli Yassif, Tablet Magazine).

To be somewhat less cautious than Leon was, I would say not that most of the original legends about Luria involve his knowledge or recognition of something but that they are all of this sort. Not a single legend told about Luria during his sojourn in Safed (or the fifty years around 1600 that this book is concentrated on; I am not speaking here about legends fashioned centuries later) recounts a miraculous deed. There are no stories of sick people lining up in front of his door so that he could cure them, or stories of threats to the Safed Jewish community that he averted or undid.

The essay also touches on ancient Jewish mysticism and magic here and there.

For past posts on Isaac Luria (Ha'ARI) and Lurianic Kabbalah, see here and links.

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Reviving ancient fragrances?

ANCIENT MATERIAL CULTURE, AROMATICS EDITION: Israeli farmer remixes ancient scents near Dead Sea (Michael Blum, AFP). It's not certain that Mr. Erlich has the right ancient plants, but an expert thinks he probably does.

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Was there a Dead Sea Scrolls conspiracy?

SPOILER: NO. Religious questions: Was there a Dead Sea Scrolls conspiracy? (Wyatt Massey, Times Free Press).

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

In honor of Khaled Al-Asaad

PALMYRA WATCH: The Guardian Spirit of Palmyra, Khaled Al-As’aad (The Syria Times).

The 18th of August marks a very distressing occasion for all Syrians; yet a source of pride; in commemoration of Mr. Khaled Al-Asa’ad assassination; the Arabic Cultural Center of Abou Roumani hosted the occasion along with Mada Cultural Project, through displaying a documentary entitled “Palmyra Admirer”, directed by Ghassan Shmit, on Khaled Al-Asa’ad documenting his life and death, but most significantly his passion for his beloved Palmyra.

The Syrian archaeologist, who held the position of head of antiquities at the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for over 40 years; was publicly beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on 18 August 2015, at the age of eighty three.

For more on the murder of Dr Asaad by ISIS, see here and here.

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.

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

More on that inscribed Moabite altar

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Newly deciphered Moabite inscription may be first use of written word ‘Hebrews.’ Cylindrical altar from 3,000 years ago found in Jordan also offers first evidence of early Moabite script — and could repaint picture of geopolitics in the ancient Levantine world (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel). A long and comprehensive article on the new inscriptions from Khirbat Ataruz.

Background here.

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The Talmud on sacrificial restrictions and prostitution

LAST WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: If a Man Gives a Woman a Lamb in Exchange for Sex. This week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ follows its own logic from animal sacrifice to definitions of prostitution.

The Talmud seldom explicitly reckons with the fact that the laws of animal sacrifice are in abeyance. One exception comes in Chapter 5 of Temura, when the rabbis address the issue of whether it is possible to use “artifice” to get around the obligation to sacrifice every firstborn animal. The problem is that while there is no place to actually sacrifice such animals today, they are still born consecrated to God, which means that they can’t be eaten, shorn, or used for labor. Rather, one is supposed to let them alone until they develop a blemish that would render them unsuitable for sacrifice. Only then is it permitted to derive benefit from them, since they can no longer even theoretically be brought to the altar.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Lataster and McGrath debate Mythicism

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION has recently published two essays on "Mythicism" — the idea that Jesus did not exist as an historical person. Raphael Lataster argues for agnosticism on the question:

Questioning Jesus’ Historicity

As a secular scholar, I, of course, reject hypotheses involving the Christ of Faith. Critical scholars can only reasonably debate the existence of the so-called Historical Jesus, that figure of the Gospels stripped of all divinity. Most secular scholars of the New Testament believe that this figure certainly existed. I noticed that this is an assumption, however, later finding it to be an unjustified assumption.

See Also: Questioning the Historicity of Jesus (Brill 2019).

By Raphael Lataster
University of Sydney
August 2019

I noted his recent book here.

James McGrath replies and disagrees:

Exorcising Mythicism’s Sky-Demons: A Response to Raphael Lataster’s “Questioning Jesus’ Historicity.”

Historians do not depend on the Gospels, much less hypothetical sources behind them, for their conclusion that there was a historical Jesus. The letters of Paul, written within decades of Jesus’ life by someone who had met his brother, combined not only with the Gospels but also Roman and Jewish sources, together provide a convincing impression that the religious phenomenon known as Christianity owes something to a historical figure named Jesus whose detractors viewed him as a charlatan and/or heretic.

See: Questioning Jesus’ Historicity.
Mythicism and the Mainstream: The Rhetoric and Realities of Academic Freedom.

By James F. McGrath
Butler University
August 2019

I think McGrath gets the better of the debate here, but you can read the essays and decide for yourself. For my own views about the historical Jesus, see here and links and here.

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Interview with Peter J. Gentry

WILLIAM ROSS: LXX SCHOLAR INTERVIEW: DR. PETER J. GENTRY DISCUSSES HIS NEW CRITICAL EDITION. Of Greek Ecclesiastes, that is. I noted the publication of the volume here.

For Dr. Ross's many previous interviews with Septuagint scholars, see here and links and here.

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On Solomon's Temple and archaeology

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE AND ICONOGRAPHY: Reconstructing the Features of Solomon’s Temple (Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu and Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, TheTorah.com).

A small shrine model, found in an archaeological excavation of the 10th century B.C.E. city of Qeiyafa, together with a 9th century B.C.E. Temple excavated at Motza, help us better understand the Temple of Solomon, known only from the biblical text.

For past posts on the model shrines at Iron Age II Khirbet Qeiyafa, see here and links. I noted the discovery of the Iron Age II shrine at Motza here.

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Hamidović et al. (eds.), »Retribution« in Jewish and Christian Writings

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: »Retribution« in Jewish and Christian Writings. A Concept in Debate. Ed. by David Hamidović, Apolline Thromas, and Matteo Silvestrini. 2019. IX, 220 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 492. 84,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-154721-8.

Published in English.
The authors of this volume attempt to define the concept of retribution by looking beyond its diversity in Jewish and Christian writings, and seeking the common objects and components that govern it in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, as well as Greek, Islamic and Buddhist texts. They argue that the concept should not be seen as a set of ideas acquired and accepted, but rather as an on-going process. The epistemological current of the Begriffsgeschichte understands conceptualization as a continual process of contesting and questioning, rather than something fixed or final. Each study therefore explicitly examines the actors involved, their environments and receptions, and whether they were accepted, rejected, or modified as components of compensation. The associations made with concepts of wealth, poverty, power, their exchange, transfer, and instance are also taken into consideration.

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Virtual unfolding of Elephantine papyri

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Physicists discover hidden text in what was thought to be blank Egyptian papyri. It's the latest example of how cutting-edge physics techniques can unlock the past (Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica).

A team of German scientists has used a combination of cutting-edge physics techniques to virtually "unfold" an ancient Egyptian papyrus, part of an extensive collection housed in the Berlin Egyptian Museum. Their analysis revealed that a seemingly blank patch on the papyrus actually contained characters written in what had become "invisible ink" after centuries of exposure to light.

Most of the papyri in the collection were excavated around 1906 by an archaeologist named Otto Rubensohn, on Elephantine Island, near the city of Aswan. They've been gathering dust in storage for much of the ensuing decades, and because they are so fragile, more than 80% of the text within remains undeciphered. ...

The only fully recovered word is the Coptic word for "Lord." But as the process is perfected, it may help to recover a lot of other ancient text more fully.

Given that these papyri are in Coptic, they must be much later than the fifth-century BCE Judean (etc.?) Aramaic papyri from Elephantine. I don't know whether any such Aramaic texts might be included among those undeciphered texts mentioned in the quote. I hope so.

As I like to say:

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

Non-invasive and non-destructive technologies are the way of the future for archaeology.

The Singularity is Near.

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Freedman Award goes to Andrew Perrin

CONGRATULATIONS! TWU professor honoured for Dead Sea Scroll research. Dr. Andrew Perrin receives 2019 David Noel Freedman Award (Ryan Uytdewilligen, Aldergrove Star).

For some past posts on Dr. Perrin's research, see here, here, here, and here and links.

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

A fishy mosaic at Hippos-Sussita

DECORATIVE ART: Miracle of the Multiplication Mosaic Found on ‘Wrong’ Side of Sea of Galilee. The mosaic in the Burnt Church of Hippos-Sussita shows five loaves and two fish, like the ones Jesus used to feed 5,000 men, but the depicted fish look Nilotic, not local (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz premium).

Besides the apparent mixup about what kind of fish Jesus used in that miracle, the Burnt Church also has inscriptions in really bad Greek. So maybe fact-checking was a low priority.

But the archaeologists are very happy with the discoveries. So am I.

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An inscribed Moabite altar!

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Biblical War Revealed on 2,800-Year-Old Stone Altar. The altar reveals new details about a rebellion against the Kingdom of Israel (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

The altar bears two inscriptions. The words are in the Moabite language and script, while the numerals in the inscriptions are in Hieratic (an Egyptian writing system). The altar appears to date to a time after Mesha, king of Moab, successfully rebelled against the Kingdom of Israel and conquered Ataroth (sometimes spelled Atarot), a city that the Kingdom of Israel had controlled. By this time, Israel had broke in two with a northern kingdom that retained the name Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah.

[...]

The inscriptions were recently published in the open-access journal Levant (Volume 50, 2018 - Issue 2, pp. 211-236): An inscribed altar from the Khirbat Ataruz Moabite sanctuary (Adam L. Bean, Christopher A. Rollston, P. Kyle McCarter & Stefan J. Wimmer).

Abstract
A cylindrical stone incense altar inscribed with seven lines of text in two separate inscriptions was discovered in a cultic context during 2010 excavations at Khirbat Ataruz in Jordan. The two short inscriptions are written in Moabite language, using an Early Moabite script datable to the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. Both inscriptions also employ Hieratic numerals. Inscription A appears to tabulate small quantities of metal, possibly for some purpose relating to the cultic context of the inscription. The longer Inscription B appears to be potentially dedicatory and/or commemorative in focus, but remains largely enigmatic. These inscriptions provide a new important historical witness to the period after the Moabite conquest and occupation of Khirbat Ataruz/Atarot described in the Mesha Inscription.

This is a very important discovery. The decipherment of the inscriptions, especially the second one, are tentative. But any new inscriptions in Moabite are a welcome addition to a small corpus.

The other major Moabite inscription is the Mesha Inscription (Mesha Stele, Moabite Stone), on which more here and keep following the links.

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Review of Nissinen, Ancient Prophecy

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Ancient Prophecy: Near Eastern, Biblical, and Greek Perspectives (William Kelly).

Martti Nissinen. Ancient Prophecy: Near Eastern, Biblical, and Greek Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Opening paragraph:

Through several decades of productive and influential work, Martti Nissinen has established himself as a leading scholar in the study of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. With Ancient Prophecy, Nissinen weaves together his experience, skill, and insight into an impressive monograph. What results is one of the most complete and authoritative accounts of the prophetic phenomenon in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean.

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

Review of The Alexander Romance: History and Literature (ed. Stoneman et al.)

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Richard Stoneman, Krzysztof Nawotka, Agnieszka Wojciechowska (ed.), The Alexander Romance: History and Literature. Ancient narrative. Supplementum, 25. Groningen: Barkhuis & Groningen University Library, 2018. Pp. xv, 322. ISBN 9789492444714. €95,00. Reviewed by Chiara Di Serio, Università di Roma 'La Sapienza' (chiara.diserio@uniroma1.it).

Alexander is connected to Jewish traditions in one recension of the Alexander Romance. The volume under review also has an article on Alexander traditions in some Jewish texts.

For past PaleoJudaica posts involving the Alexander Romance, see here and links, here, and here.

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

Carthage exhibition in Rome

PUNIC WATCH: Carthage exhibition at the Colosseum in Rome. From 27 Sep 2019 to 29 Mar 2020 (Wanted in Rome). The title of the exhibition is Carthago. The immortal myth.

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Carthage vs. illegal houses

PUNIC WATCH: Battle of Carthage: Tunisia demolishes homes to protect ancient site. Carthage's place on UNESCO World Heritage list is under threat, due to what the UN cultural body calls "uncontrolled urban sprawl." Residents and civil society activists see government demolitions as discrimination (Reuters via Israel HaYom). This is a difficult situation. Apparently it is especially important to get planning permission to build a house in the vicinity of Carthage.

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Laato, Understanding the Spiritual Meaning of Jerusalem in Three Abrahamic Religions

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Understanding the Spiritual Meaning of Jerusalem in Three Abrahamic Religions

Series:
Studies on the Children of Abraham, Volume: 6

Editor: Antti Laato

Understanding the Spiritual Meaning of Jerusalem in Three Abrahamic Religions analyzes the historical, social and theological factors which have resulted in Jerusalem being considered a holy place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It also surveys the transmission of the religious traditions related to Jerusalem. This volume centralizes both the biblical background of Jerusalem’s pivotal role as holy place and its later development in religious writings; the biblical imagery has been adapted, rewritten and modified in Second Temple Jewish writings, the New Testament, patristic and Jewish literature, and Islamic traditions. Thus, all three monotheistic religions have influenced the multifaceted, interpretive traditions which help to understand the current religious and political position of Jerusalem in the three main Abrahamic faiths.

Publication Date: 5 August 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-40685-8

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Knoppers memorial

FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Oded Lipschits, Carol A. Newsom, Konrad Schmid. In memoriam Gary N. Knoppers. (November 14, 1956-December 22, 2018).Section: Editorial. Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (HeBAI),Volume 8 (2019) / Issue 1, p. 1 (1). You can download this brief obituary as a PDF file for free.

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

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Kaminsky on election in the HB

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Election in the Hebrew Bible

Much of the Hebrew Bible speaks against the idea that the nations will convert to Israel’s religion and it is rare to find a passage that speaks of a complete dissolution of all distinctions between Abraham’s family and the other nations of the world.

See Also: Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election (Wipf and Stock, 2016).

By Joel S. Kaminsky
Morningstar Family Professor of Jewish Studies
Chair, Religion Department
Smith College
August 2019

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Review of Lee, The Greek of the Pentateuch

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: John A. L. Lee, The Greek of the Pentateuch: Grinfield Lectures on the Septuagint 2011-2012. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xx, 360. ISBN 9780198816133. $99.00. Reviewed by Dries De Crom, Tilburg University (d.j.l.a.decrom@tilburguniversity.edu).

In this study, John A.L. Lee returns to the language of the Greek Pentateuch, the topic of an earlier monograph which is, to the best of this reviewer’s knowledge, one of the most widely quoted studies on this particular topic.2 The driving force behind the present volume is “the overriding objective of demonstrating the Pentateuch translators’ intimacy with the Greek of their time” (p. 2). Indeed, the author repeatedly stresses the independence of linguistic and stylistic features in the Greek Pentateuch from its Hebrew parent text. He deploys numerous examples from papyrological, epigraphical, biblical and non-biblical sources to firmly embed the Greek Pentateuch in the language of its time and place. The result is a study that is exemplary in many ways.

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