Passover in a pandemic: the latest

PASSOVER IS COMING, a week from tomorrow evening. Here are a couple more updates on how world Jewry is making adjustments.

Israel’s chief rabbis say Passover Seder can’t be held via videoconference. David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef dismiss previous ruling that green-lighted tech option, while two rabbis behind it stick to their guns (MICHAEL BACHNER, Times of Israel). To be quite clear, no one involved in this halakhic dispute advocates any relaxation of the rules for quarantine or social distancing.

Jews allowed relax Passover rules in unprecedented intervention by Chief Rabbi. The Chief Rabbi has issued new guidance for Jewish families to celebrate Passover by gathering virtually on social media (Gabriella Swerling, The Telegraph). This refers to Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, " the Chief Rabbi of Moscow and President of the Conference of European Rabbis." The article also mentions the guidance from the British Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.

The Telegraphic article requires either free registration or a paid subscription for full access. But the visible excerpt gives you the key information.

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

de Ward on Jeremiah 52

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Jeremiah 52 in the Context of the Book of Jeremiah

Jeremiah 52, the final chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, is very similar to the end of the Book of Kings. The first part of the chapter gives an extensive account of the 587 BC fall of Jerusalem (52:1–30; cf. 2 Kgs 24:18–25:21), while the second part briefly narrates the release of King Jehoiachin from a prison in Babylon some decades later (52:31–34; cf. 2 Kgs 25:27–30). The style and contents of the text indicate that, in the first instance, it was written as the conclusion of Kings. At a later moment, an editor of the Book of Jeremiah considered it appropriate to reuse the material at the end of his own work. Why would he have done so? What could have been his purpose with this final chapter in which the prophet Jeremiah and his words are left unmentioned?

See Also: Jeremiah 52 in the Context of the Book of Jeremiah (VTSup 183. Leiden: Brill, 2020)

By Henk de Waard
Theologische Universiteit Apeldoorn
The Netherlands
April 2020

I noted the publication of the book here.

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JNES 79.1 (2020)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Journal of Near Eastern Studies. There is an article in the current issue on Daniel chapter 5. There are also book reviews dealing with Aramaic studies and with the Seleucid empire.

Requires a personal or institutional subscription for full access.

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Passover during a pandemic

PASSOVER IS COMING in just over a week. Special preparations are underway across the world. Here are some of the many articles.

Western Wall stones disinfected, prayer notes removed in advance of Passover holiday. Operation carried out by workers in protective gloves and using disposable implements (Arutz Sheva; cross-file under Temple Mount Watch.)

The Power of Passover During a Plague. Most Jews in history have not been free, whether from murderous regimes, famines or pandemics like this one. What we have been is devoted to the idea that we deserve to be. (Alana Newhouse, New York Times)

‘Everyone’s talking about the plagues:’ Making haggadahs for a Passover unlike any before (Irene Connelly, The Forward)

Passover in a Pandemic (Ben Sales, JTA).

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Current BAR issue now available online for free

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: We Have Opened the Current Issue to Read Online. Explore Biblical Archaeology Review's content while you are practicing social distancing. For you, special deal!

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Steve Green is returning 11,500 artifacts

UNPROVENANCED ARTIFACTS: Amid Scrutiny, the Museum of the Bible’s Founder Will Return a Staggering 11,500 Artifacts of Dubious Origin to the Middle East. Hobby Lobby tycoon Steve Green founded the museum (Sarah Cascone, artnet news).

Green is now returning an additional 5,000 ancient papyrus scraps and 6,500 ancient clay pieces because their provenance cannot be verified, prompting concerns that they could be looted or stolen.

The museum is hoping that its curators will continue to have scholarly access to the works—only one of which, a clay tablet imprinted with the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, was ever displayed at the institution—upon their return.

For more on the fake Dead Sea Scroll-like fragments owned by the Museum of the Bible, see here and links. I see that I mentioned the Gilgamesh fragment here, but I don't know anything more about it. For more on the scandal of the missing Oxyrhynchus papyri, see here and links. Many other PaleoJudaica posts on the Museum of the Bible and the Green Collection are here and here and links.

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Upcoming online lecture by Lawrence Schiffman

PROFESSOR LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: OLD LEATHER, NEW INK: FORGERY AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS.

Online lecture, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 9:00 PM EDT
Old Leather, New Ink: Forgery and the Dead Sea Scrolls
with Professor Lawrence Schiffman

The lecture will be on Zoom. Follow the link for the access link. (HT Joseph Lauer.)

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Timely Talmudic reflections

TALMUD WATCH: In quarantine, daily Talmud study is keeping me afloat (Ilana Kurshan, The Forward).

Cross-file under Daf Yomi. For more on Ilana Kurshan and her book, If All the Seas Were Ink, start here and follow the links.

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Review of Alstola, Judeans in Babylonia

THE CSST BLOG: DID THEY WEEP? A NEW BOOK ON JUDEANS IN BABYLONIA (Rick Bonnie).

This is a review of the open-access book: Alstola, Tero. 2020. Judeans in Babylonia: A Study of Deportees in the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BCE. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 109. Leiden: Brill.

Cross-file under New Book.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the (unprovenanced) Babylonian-Jewish cuneiform archive of Al-Yahudu, see here and links.

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

On the true cost of museum fakes

HYPERALLERGIC: The True Cost of Museum Fakes. The Museum of the Bible recently admitted all of its Dead Sea Scroll fragments are forgeries. But when fake antiquities are donated to museums, taxpayers lose (Erin L. Thompson).

Background here and links.

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Coptic dialects

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Looking at the Coptic Magical Papyri XII: Coptic Dialects. Because you should know these things.

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Estes, The Tree of Life

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Tree of Life

Series: Themes in Biblical Narrative, Volume: 27

Editor: Douglas Estes

The tree of life is an iconic visual symbol at the edge of religious thought over the last several millennia. As a show of its significance, the tree bookends the Christian canon; yet scholarship has paid it minimal attention in the modern era. In The Tree of Life a team of scholars explore the origin, development, meaning, reception, and theology of this consequential yet obscure symbol. The fourteen essays trek from the origins of the tree in the texts and material culture of the ancient Near East, to its notable roles in biblical literature, to its expansion by early church fathers and Gnostics, to its rebirth in medieval art and culture, and to its place in modern theological thought.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €248.00 / $298.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42375-6
Publication Date: 17 Mar 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42373-2
Publication Date: 19 Mar 2020

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Interview with John Meade on Hexaplaric Job

WILLIAM ROSS: JOHN MEADE’S NEW EDITION OF THE HEXAPLARIC EVIDENCE FOR JOB.

I noted a publication announcement for the book here and two related ETC blog posts by Dr. Meade on the subject here and here.

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Botched bookroll bureaucracy

PAPYRUS STORIES: Law and the Art of Bookroll Maintenance (guest post by Mark De Kreij).

What a mess! More than a half century of rotting scrolls and bureaucratic incompetence. HT Roger Pearse, who offers a summary: How papyrus rolls lost their tops and bottoms – from Oxyrhynchus.

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The Temple Mount Sifting Project and the Coronavirus

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT: SPECIAL UPDATE FOLLOWING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC CRISIS.

UPDATE: For many, many past posts on the project, start here and follow those links.

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The Coronavirus, the Bible, and the ANE

DR. YITZHAQ FEDER: Coronavirus: What We Can Learn from the Bible and the ANE. An expert in ancient Near Eastern contagious diseases reflects on living through a modern one (TheTorah.com).

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Happy Spring Jewish New Year!

THAT'S TONIGHT AT SUNDOWN: “May this coming year come upon us in peace”; The Ancient 1st of Nisan Celebration (Joel Davidi Weisberger, Times of Israel Blog).

The celebration of the first of Nisan as the beginning of the new year is rooted both in Biblical, extra-Biblical and Talmudic sources. Exodus 12:1-2 states that Nisan is the first month in the setting of the new year. The book of Ezekiel (45:18-19) says: “Thus saith the Lord God: In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish; and thou shalt purify the sanctuary.”

Ezekiel contains many laws and festivals that are not found in the Pentateuch. Many interpret these as being meant for a future (third) Temple. Ezekiel does not explicitly describe the first of Nissan as a celebration of the new year per se but this description is nonetheless the earliest evidence of the day having special significance.

We find a similar reference in the Temple Scroll (11Q19) of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Temple Scroll describes the ideal Temple of the Qumran sectarians. The Festival of the first day of the first month (Nissan) is one of three additional extra-biblical festivals that are mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls: ...

If the first of Nisan is such an important date to both the Bible and Talmud then, why is the day celebrated today only by this small Jewish community? To answer this question we must look to the Geonic period of Jewish history, corresponding roughly to the second half of the first millennium. ...

The celebration began on the Sabbath last week in that Egyptian-Jewish rite.

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The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is closed.

ANOTHER CLOSURE: Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre closes amid coronavirus fears (Reuters/Yahoo). Initially for a week, starting yesterday.

For many past PaleoJudaica posts on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre), see here, here, and here, and follow the links.

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Another fake Torah in Turkey

APPREHENDED: Turkish police nab 3 suspects trying to sell ancient Torah for $1.25M (Daily Sabah). These forgers don't give up, even during a pandemic.

If they were really trying to sell this thing for $1.25 million, they are epic optimists. It isn't a Torah scroll. The writing isn't Hebrew. It might be bad Syriac, or Syriac-inspired squiggles.

For many past reports of apprehensions of manuscripts etc. in Turkey, start here and follow the links. I was getting bored with these stories and was going to stop noting them. But the news is pretty quiet right now for some reason, so here you are.

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A digitized national emergency library

THE AWOL BLOG: Announcing a National Emergency Library to Provide Digitized Books to Students and the Public.

[Though not specifically antiquity facing, I include this new tool from the Internet Archive because it will be useful to the many teachers and students who use AWOL]

Thanks Chuck.

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Geography and Religion - and three mysterious holy men

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Geography and Religion

Geography, and the geological formations and climatological effects derived thereby, have a distinct shaping influence on the everyday lives of people who live in particular areas. This shaping influence extends naturally to the religious traditions that develop in certain places, affecting the figures, metaphors, motifs, and physical structures that are relevant in certain areas of the world. To be meaningful, of course, something must be relevant. The Eastern Mediterranean was shaped by certain geographical and climatological forces that enabled life, through rainfall agriculture, but that also limited life, due to a lack of largescale irrigative rivers, constant aridity, and the blight of frequent drought. Geographical and agricultural motifs developed in the region that both were relevant and meaningful in such a setting. Such agricultural motifs earliest were associated with the figure of the ancient storm-god, and then became associated with his subsequent regional manifestations and alternatives, in the figures of Jewish Elijah, Christian St. George, and Muslim al-Khiḍr. Investigating this particular example offers a good case study for the usefulness of geography of religion as both a theory (geography shapes religions) and as a method (geographical contextualization allows us to see that religious traditions always are a product of both place and time).

See Also: Geography, Religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean (Routledge, 2020).

By Erica Ferg
Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
Regis University
March 2020

Cross-file under New Book.

There are too many past PaleoJudaica posts on Elijah to link to here. If you are interested, run "Elijah" through the blog's search engine. Past posts on St. George (the patron saint of England and late-antique Palestinian reputed dragon-slayer) are here and links. Past posts involving the Qur'anic figure Al-Khidr are here and here.

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Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity at AAR/SBL 2019

RELIGION PROF: TELA at #AARSBL19. James McGrath gives us a belated, but welcome report on a session of the Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity Group at the AAR/SBL meeting in San Diego in November of 2019. As James notes, I presented a paper at a joint session of TELA and MEGA. My paper was presented in absentia, for reasons having nothing to do with the current concerns.

At present, the AAR/SBL meeting is still scheduled to occur in Boston in November of 2020. But the International Meeting of the SBL, scheduled for July at the University of Adelaide in Australia, has been canceled. We will just have to see how things look as November approaches. If we don't meet in Boston, I agree with James that we should aim for remote delivery.

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TWU LXX Summer School to go online

WILLIAM ROSS: UPDATED INFORMATION: 2020 TWU SEPTUAGINT SUMMER SCHOOL. I saw his earlier posting on the Summer School, but I held off on linking to it, since the information was likely to change. I'm glad the event is proceeding by remote delivery.

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More on those fake DSS fragments

THAT'S A REASONABLE QUESTION: After Dead Sea Forgeries Exposed, How Do We Know the Scrolls in Israel Are Authentic? All scroll fragments at the Museum of the Bible in Washington turn out to be fakes: Experts explain how we know the massive trove of scrolls held in Jerusalem is genuine (Ariel David, Haaretz premium; HT Joseph Lauer). Yes, we do know that with a high degree of confidence.

Also have a look at Drew Longacre's post at the OTTC Blog: Loll et al. 2019 - Museum of the Bible Dead Sea Scroll Collection Scientific Research and Analysis: Final Report. This discusses and has a link to the publication that debunked the Museum of the Bible's Dead Sea Scroll-like fragments. And see also the links to essays by Rollston (who offers an FBI-style profile of the forger), White Crawford, and Langlois.

Background here and follow the many links.

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BMCR reviews of two books on ancient magic

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Guide to the study of ancient magic.

David Frankfurter, Guide to the study of ancient magic. Religions in the Graeco-Roman world, volume 189. Leiden: Brill, 2019. xx, 797 p.. ISBN 9789004171572 €249,00.
Review by
Markham J. Geller. m.geller@ucl.ac.uk

This volume gives plenty of attention to ancient Jewish magic, among many other magical traditions. For more on the Mesopotamian āshipu practitioner (also mentioned in the biblical book of Daniel as "enchanter") see here and here.

Magic in ancient Greece and Rome

Lindsay Watson, Magic in ancient Greece and Rome. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. x, 248 p.. ISBN 9781788312981 £21.59 (pb).
Review by
Adam Parker, Open University. adam.parker@open.ac.uk

Excerpt:

The main strength of this book lies in its concise introduction of different facets of ancient magical practices, drawing on a broad (although exclusively textual) evidence base, predominantly informed by the PGM, the corpus of curse tablets, and the writings of Pliny the Elder, Dioscorides, Theophrastus, and Ovid. This focus is surprising when the recent ‘material turn’ in ancient magical studies has helped to develop a deeper understanding of the nature and scale of such practices.

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Activities for the Apocalypse

IF YOU ARE CONFINED TO QUARTERS and seeking diversion, here are a couple of activities that (resources/expertise permitting) you can do at home.

First, from the Archaeological Institute of America: 2020 AIA Photo Contest. The deadline for submission is 29 March 2020.


Second, the Hugoye list (devoted to Syriac studies) has remained active through all the excitement this month. I can't figure out how to link to this recent post, but I will copy it here in case any Syriac scholars haven't seen it.

([hugoye-list] Sheltering at Home & Deduping SEDRA - Monday, 23 March 2020 at 9:48 pm)

Dear Friends of Beth Mardutho,

We hope that you are keeping safe during this difficult time. As many of you are likely sheltering at home, you may find yourselves with extra time on your hands. Therefore, we at Beth Mardutho have decided to put out a call to those of you who know Syriac and are interested in volunteering some of your free time. As most of you are aware, SEDRA is a database of the Syriac language. Currently, it contains 4,264 duplicated lexemes. We would like to merge these duplicates. If you are interested in helping dedupe SEDRA and you know Syriac (2 years University level experience), please contact Shelby Loster at shelby@bethmardutho.org for more information.

Thank you. We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
The Beth Mardutho Team

Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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Review of Schniedewind, The Finger of the Scribe

THE BIBLICAL REVIEW BLOG: Review: “The Finger of the Scribe: How Scribes Learned to Write the Bible” by William M. Schniedewind (William Brown).

William M. Schniedewind. 2019. The Finger of the Scribe: How Scribes Learned to Write the Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Excerpt:

Schniedewind’s The Finger of the Scribe provides an insightful and unique approach the Kuntillet ‘Ajrud inscriptions. By drawing from Near Eastern scribal curriculum, he effectively demonstrates that the early Israelite scribal curriculum—as evidenced at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud—may have been heavily influenced by the Mesopotamian scribal curriculum. Surely, scholars exploring literacy and scribal practices in the Levant should engage with this volume. That said, as Schniedewind occasionally suggests, many of his arguments rely on conjecture and extrapolative thinking.

I noted another review of the book here.

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Nabatean travel and trade

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: The Ancient Nabataeans of Jordan Travelled All The Way to Yemen and Oman. Inscriptions found in Yemen and Oman dating back to the Nabataean period point to the prevalence of frankincense trade between southern Arabian centres and the Levant, according to a Greek archaeologist. (Jordan Times/albawaba). The lecture was by Konstantinos Politis at the American Centre of Oriental Research earlier this month. Back when there were still public lectures.

For many past posts on the Nabateans and their language, see here and follow the links. For still more, search the PaleoJudaica archive.

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

Persepolis

ANCIENT URBAN GEOGRAPHY: Persepolis: Symbol of Ancient Iran. TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire, was once known as the richest city under the sun. A nice little photo essay.

Persepolis does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. But it is mentioned in 2 Maccabees 6:2 as the site of the downfall of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

It was an important Achaemenid Persian site and also is of interest for that reason. And the Persepolis Fortification Archive has produced an important corpus of Persian-era Aramaic and other texts. See here (related post here) and follow the many links.

Bible Places also has lots of good material and links on Persepolis.

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Vashti wasn't summoned to appear naked

THAT'S NOT IN THE BIBLE: The Bible Says What? Did Vashti appear naked before her husband? Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers takes a controversial topic from Jewish texts and looks at a progressive response (Jewish News).

The Book of Esther 1:10-11 says that Vashti was summoned to appear "with her royal crown" to display her beauty in public. Apparently the Midrash inferred that the crown was all she was supposed to wear.

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Temple Mount closing(s)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Al-Aqsa mosque shut amid coronavirus outbreak. Prayers suspended after Wakf holds emergency meeting in Jerusalem (Aness Suheil Barghoti, Anadolu Agency). Effective this morning.

Sadly, even this notice could not resist insinuating some political fake news:

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third holiest site for Muslims. Jews refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

"claiming"

Also note this: Israel, Jordan said discussing possibility of closing Temple Mount (Times of Israel).

UPDATE: See also here from last week.

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Zeini, Zoroastrian scholasticism in late antiquity

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrian Scholasticism in Late Antiquity. Notice of a New Book: Zeini, Arash. 2020. Zoroastrian scholasticism in late antiquity. The Pahlavi version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

The Zoroastrian texts in Pahlavi often contain much earlier material and are of some interest as background for Second Temple Judaism.

Arash Zeini is founder of and contributor to the Bibliographia Iranica Blog. Some years ago he was at the University of St. Andrews on a fellowship. For more about him, see here and here and links.

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Schott, Zechariah 9:14

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER: Schott, Martin. Sacharja 9–14
Eine kompositionsgeschichtliche Analyse. [Zechariah 9:14: A Composition Historical Analysis] Series: Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 521.

99,95 € / $114.99 / £91.00*
Hardcover
Publication Date: December 2019
ISBN 978-3-11-066584-0

Aims and Scope
The final chapter of the Book of Zechariah (Zech 9:14) has long been marginalized as an originally separate appendage to the Book of Zechariah. This study subjects the text for the first time to a detailed examination from the perspective of editorial history, considering its place as a composition between Zechariah 1:8 and the Book of Malachi at the end of the Books of Twelve.

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Hoffmann, Exodus

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Exodus
Border Crossings in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Texts and Images

Ed. by Hoffmann, Annette

Series: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – Tension, Transmission, Transformation 11

86,95 € / $99.99 / £79.00*

eBook (PDF)
Publication Date: January 2020
Copyright year: 2020
ISBN 978-3-11-061854-9

Aims and Scope
The scientific debates on border crossings and cultural exchange between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have much increased over the last decades. Within this context, however, little attention has been given to the biblical Exodus, which not only plays a pivotal role in the Abrahamic religions, but also is a master narrative of a border crossing in itself. Sea and desert are spaces of liminality and transit in more than just a geographical sense. Their passage includes a transition to freedom and initiation into a new divine community, an encounter with God and an entry into the Age of law. The volume gathers twelve articles written by leading specialists in Jewish and Islamic Studies, Theology and Literature, Art and Film history, dedicated to the transitional aspects within the Exodus narrative. Bringing these studies together, the volume takes a double approach, one that is both comparative and intercultural. How do Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts and images read and retell the various border crossings in the Exodus story, and on what levels do they interrelate? By raising these questions the volume aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of contact points between the various traditions.

Hi everyone! I have been really busy with essay marking. But I hope to pick up the blogging pace soon.

Be well!

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van Oort, Mani and Augustine

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Mani and Augustine

Collected Essays on Mani, Manichaeism and Augustine

Series: Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, Volume: 97

Author: Johannes van Oort

Mani and Augustine: collected essays on Mani, Manichaeism and Augustine gathers in one volume contributions on Manichaean scholarship made by the internationally renowned scholar Johannes van Oort. The first part of the book focuses on the Babylonian prophet Mani (216-277) who styled himself an ‘apostle of Jesus Christ’, on Jewish elements in Manichaeism and on ‘human semen eucharist’, eschatology and imagery of Christ as ‘God’s Right Hand’. The second part of the book concentrates on the question to what extent the former ‘auditor’ Augustine became acquainted with Mani’s gnostic world religion and his canonical writings, and explores to what extent Manichaeism had a lasting impact on the most influential church father of the West.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €149.00 / $179.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-41759-5
Publication Date: 10 Feb 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-41695-6
Publication Date: 06 Feb 2020

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Diesel still hopes to direct Hannibal trilogy

PUNIC WATCH: Vin Diesel Says Spielberg Told Him It’s a ‘Crime of Cinema’ If He Doesn’t Direct More (Zack Sharf, Yahoo Indiewire).

One directorial passion project for Diesel over the years has been to helm a film about Hannibal Barca, the military general from Carthage who fought the Romans during the Second Punic War around 200 BC.

Diesel says of never directing the epic, “I haven’t done it yet. As much as I am grateful for the accomplishments, there are moments when I go ‘God, you promised the universe, very specifically, the Hannibal Barca trilogy, and you haven’t delivered it. You travelled all over the world.'”

It looks as though the project will remain on hold for now, but I hope he does complete it someday.

Background here and links.

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Israel's museums going virtual

EXHIBITIONS: Israel’s museums go online for immersive experience amid pandemic. Virtual guided tours of new exhibits and fun activities for visitors of all ages to be available (Jessica Steinberg, Times of Israel).

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Review of Joel Marcus Festschrift

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | The Ways That Often Parted (Laura Robinson).

Lori Baron, Jill Hicks-Keeton, and Matthew Thiessen, eds. The Ways That Often Parted: Essays in Honor of Joel Marcus. Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2018.

Excerpt:

This collection of essays reflects a core assumption that Marcus shares with his scholarly contemporaries: the parting between Christianity and Judaism did not happen at one definite moment, but occurred in different places and at different times in different communities. While The Ways that Often Parted contains diverse and varied contributions, the authors’ sustained engagement with Marcus’s scholarship lends the work a distinct coherence.

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Duggan et al. (eds.), Cosmos and Creation

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Cosmos and Creation
Second Temple Perspectives.

Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Yearbook 2019.

Ed. by Duggan, Michael W. / Egger-Wenzel, Renate / Reif, Stefan C.

99,95 € / $114.99 / £91.00*
Hardcover
Publication Date: February 2020
ISBN 978-3-11-067696-9.

Aims and Scope
This volume contains essays by some of the leading scholars in the study of the Jewish religious ideas in the Second Temple period, that led up to the development of early forms of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Close attention is paid to the cosmological ideas to be found in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Bible and to the manner in which the translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek reflected the creativity with which Judaism engaged Hellenistic ideas about the cosmos and the creation. The concepts of heaven and divine power, human mortality, the forces of nature, combat myths, and the philosophy of wisdom, as they occur in 2 Maccabees, Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon and Tobit, are carefully analysed and compared with Greek and Roman world-views. There are also critical examinations of Dead Sea scroll texts, early Jewish prayers and Hebrew liturgical poetry and how they these adopt, adapt and alter earlier ideas. The editors have included appreciations of two major figures who played important roles in the study of the Second Temple period and in the history and development of the ISDCL, namely, Otto Kaiser and Alexander Di Lella, who died recently and are greatly missed by those in the field.

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Resources for remote teaching and conference presentation

H-NET: Two New Resources for Scholars Affected by the Coronavirus (Jesse Draper).

If you work for an academic institution, you no doubt have access to resources for online teaching and remote conference presentations. But it can't hurt to note the aggregate posts at this link too.

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

Chief Rabbis declare Western Wall closed

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Israel’s chief rabbis call on Jews to avoid visiting the Western Wall. As virus spreads, Jewish law requires total adherence to all instructions of health officials, Rabbis Lau and Yosef declare in edicts to the faithful (Times of Israel). HT Todd Bolen at the Bible Places Blog.

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Liebermann on Collective Identity and the Body in the Book of Ezekiel

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Dissertation Spotlight | On Bread, Books, and Bodies in Ezekiel.

Rosanne R. Liebermann, “Hearts of Flesh: Collective Identity and the Body in the Book of Ezekiel” (Ph.D. Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 2019).

Excerpt:

My dissertation shows how Ezekiel’s references to body modifications and practices reflect the author’s ideology of collective identity for the Judeans in Babylonia. More importantly, these references reveal how he expected his group to embody that identity in material and practical ways.

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Detecting refugees from the Great Revolt of 70 CE.

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Judean Refugees in Galilee? Oil Lamps Shedding Light on an Ancient Migration (Jonathan Laden). This essay summarizes an article by James Riley Strange in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. The article itself is behind the subscription wall.

For a research project on tracing the survivors of the eruption of Vesuvius a few years later, see here and here.

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All of the MOTB's DSS fragments are fake

ALL 16 OF THEM: 'Dead Sea Scrolls' at the Museum of the Bible are all forgeries. Months of testing confirm earlier suspicions that the fragments were made in modern times. What happens next? (National Geographic). They are written on ancient (sandal??) leather, but the writing was added in modern times.

This is a long and wide-ranging article, with lots of background information on the story. Worth reading in full.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the discovery that five of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments belonging to the Museum of the Bible were fake, start here and follow the links. And for the "post-2002 Dead Sea Scroll-like fragments" in general, see here and here and links.

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

Apocalyptic archaeological repentence

ANCIENT ARTIFACT: Inspired by Coronavirus Doom, Repentant Thief Returns Ancient Missile to State Agency (David Israel, The Jewish Press).

15 years after he had taken a ballista stone without permission from the archaeological site of the Jerusalem Walls National Park in the City of David, an anonymous man decided last weekend to return the 2,000-year old find to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

He did it, he said, in light of the coronavirus crisis, and his feeling that “the end of the world is nigh.”

[...]

Hopefully that was hyperbole, but I'm glad he did the right thing.

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Geiger, Die Handschriften aus der Judäischen Wüste

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER: Geiger, Gregor. Die Handschriften aus der Judäischen Wüste Die Texte außerhalb Qumrans Einführung und deutsche Übersetzung. [The Manuscripts from the Judaean Desert – The Texts from Outside Qumran: An Introduction and German Translation]. Series: Fontes et Subsidia ad Bibliam pertinentes 9. 139,95 € / $160.99 / £127.00*. Hardcover Publication Date: January 2020. ISBN 978-3-11-063612-3

Aims and Scope
The manuscripts from the Judaean desert are an important source for understanding the late Biblical period. This volume includes for the first time a German translation of all of the non-Biblical texts not originating from Qumran. Unlike the Qumran texts, they were not written by a religious sect, but are by and large texts about everyday life. The texts are accompanied by a detailed introduction.

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Bowen and Rochberg (eds.), Hellenistic Astronomy

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Hellenistic Astronomy

The Science in Its Contexts

Series:Brill's Companions to Classical Studies

Editors: Alan C. Bowen and Francesca Rochberg

In Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in Its Contexts, new essays by renowned scholars address questions about what the ancient science of the heavens was in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean worlds, and the numerous contexts in which it was pursued. Together, these essays will enable readers not only to understand the technical accomplishments of this ancient science but also to appreciate their historical significance by locating the questions, challenges, and issues inspiring them in their political, medical, philosophical, literary, and religious contexts.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €197.00 / $236.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-40056-6
Publication Date: 17 Feb 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-24336-1
Publication Date: 20 Feb 2020

Not surprisingly, this quite comprehensive volume includes essays on astronomical matters in ancient Jewish literature, early Christian literature, Mandean (Mandaean) literature, and Hermetic literature.

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More on the Nazareth inscription

COUNTERPOINTS: Nazareth Inscription study questions link to Jesus’ tomb; not everyone agrees (Anugrah Kumar, The Christian Post). This article raises some points in favor of the inscription being produced in Nazareth rather than Kos, where the marble originated. I have no opinion on the question, but I will keep track of any interesting discussion.

In any case, the inscription does not prove the resurrection of Jesus. If the inscription does come from Nazareth, it is conceivable that it shows some awareness of the report that Jesus' body went missing from the tomb. But even this connection is very speculative.

Background here.

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Weisberg, Massekhet Menahot

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Dvora Weisberg. Massekhet Menahot. Volume V/2. Text, Translation, and Commentary. 2020. XII, 316 pages. 109,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-158332-2.

Published in English.
Tractate Menahkot in the Babylonian Talmud considers the proper composition, formation, and presentation of offerings of grain and flour brought to the Jerusalem Temple. Redacted centuries after the destruction of the Temple and the cessation of the sacrificial cult, the tractate focuses on the work of the priests and the centrality of intent in validating or invalidating offerings. There is minimal consideration of the role or experience of the men and women who brought offerings. The tractate also contains a detailed discussion of major ritual objects: Torah scrolls, mezuzah, tsitsit, and tefillin. Dvora Weisberg's commentary focuses attention on the tractate's treatment of women and gender issues, considering the ways that the Talmud presents women's engagement with the sacrificial system and with key religious symbols.

Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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Hadrian's travel coinage

NUMISMATICS: CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: Travels With Hadrian (Mike Markowitz). Hadrian sure did a lot of traveling, as this coin series illustrates. The section on "Judaea" is of most interest for PaleoJudaica.

Hadrian is known for his role in the Bar Kokbha Revolt and the events leading up to it. Also, past posts on Hadrian's Wall are here and links. There have been museum exhibitions on Hadrian at the British Museum and the Israel Museum. And for various other relevant posts, run "Hadrian" through the PaleoJudaica search engine.

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

Did Iranian Jews buy the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai?

BELATEDLY FOR PURIM: The tomb of Esther and Mordechai (Chen Malul, National Library of Israel, via Intermountain Jewish News).

The archives, however, do include evidence that the purchase of the grounds of the tomb was completed, with final approval arriving on January 18, 1970. It appears that the land was transferred into the hands of the community — though it is difficult to say for certain as the documentation ceases at this stage.

The honeymoon period between the Jews of Iran and the state authorities would come to a quick, cruel end with the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the rise to power of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Since then, the tomb of Esther and Mordechai has been the focus of bitter dispute.

Past PaleoJudaica posts on the (traditional) tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Iran are here and links.

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Israel's museums adjust

EXHIBITIONS: Israel’s museums stay open, but with limits; special events canceled. Local cultural institutions restrict number of visitors to 100 per gallery at any time, set up hygiene stands (Jessica Steinberg, Times of Israel).

As you might imagine, the media are not brimming with news about ancient Judaism right now. But I will continue to share with you what I find.

Courage, my friends. Take care and be well!

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Types of Coptic magic

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Looking at the Coptic Magical Papyri XIII: Types of Magic.

This week our project has hit another milestone – we now have all published Coptic magical texts (and a few unpublished ones) entered into our database. This is quite exciting for us, as it will make the process of editing and re-editing texts much faster, and we hope to make them available to the general public in the near future. Full information on the database will appear below, but in this post we’ll use the data we now have to explore the types of magic found in Coptic texts.

[...]

Cross-file under Coptic Watch. And congratulation to the Coptic Magical Papyri Project on achieving this milestone!

The genres and interests of ancient Coptic magic are quite similar to the genres and interests of both the somewhat earlier Greco-Roman magic corpus and the roughly contemporary ancient Jewish magic literature. I will have more to say about this soon.

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Welton, ‘He is a Glutton and a Drunkard’

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

‘He is a Glutton and a Drunkard’. Deviant Consumption in the Hebrew Bible

Series: Biblical Interpretation Series, Volume: 183

Author: Rebekah Welton

In ‘He is a Glutton and a Drunkard’: Deviant Consumption in the Hebrew Bible Rebekah Welton uses interdisciplinary approaches to explore the social and ritual roles of food and alcohol in Late Bronze Age to Persian-period Syro-Palestine (1550 BCE–400 BCE). This contextual backdrop throws into relief episodes of consumption deemed to be excessive or deviant by biblical writers. Welton emphasises the social networks of the household in which food was entangled, arguing that household animals and ritual foodstuffs were social agents, challenging traditional understandings of sacrifice. For the first time, the accusation of being a ‘glutton and a drunkard’ (Deut 21:18-21) is convincingly re-interpreted in its alimentary and socio-ritual contexts.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €121.00 / $146.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42349-7
Publication Date: 17 Feb 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42348-0
Publication Date: 20 Feb 2020

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Review of Frankfurter, Christianizing Egypt

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Christianizing Egypt: Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity (Candace Buckner).

David Frankfurter. Christianizing Egypt: Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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BMCR’s New Site

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: BMCR’s New Site. FYI. I have updated the link in the PaleoJudaica blogroll. Links to earlier BMCR reviews seem to remain valid.

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

Restitution for the death of a pregnant woman

DR. SANDRA JACOBS: Deathblows to a Pregnant Woman – What Restitution Was Required? (TheTorah.com).

The requirement of a “life for a life,” recalling the lex talionis, is provided when a man accidentally kills a pregnant woman in a brawl. While this consequence is generally explained as capital punishment or monetary repayment, its legal formulation in the Covenant Collection is suggestive of live, human, substitution.

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Review of Schniedewind, The Finger of the Scribe

H-JUDAIC REVIEW:

van der Toorn on Schniedewind, 'The Finger of the Scribe: The Beginnings of Scribal Education and How It Shaped the Hebrew Bible'

Author: William M. Schniedewind
Reviewer: Karel van der Toorn

William M. Schniedewind. The Finger of the Scribe: The Beginnings of Scribal Education and How It Shaped the Hebrew Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 248 pp. $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-005246-1.

Reviewed by Karel van der Toorn (University of Amsterdam) Published on H-Judaic (March, 2020) Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

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Kim, Multiple Authorship of the Septuagint Pentateuch

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Multiple Authorship of the Septuagint Pentateuch

The origin of the Septuagint

Series: Supplements to the Textual History of the Bible, Volume: 4
Author: Hayeon Kim

For hundreds of years, disputes on the origin of the Septuagint, a biblical text that was translated from Hebrew into Greek in the third century BCE, and the number of its translators have been ongoing. In Multiple Authorship of the Septuagint Pentateuch, Hayeon Kim provides a clear solution to the unsolved questions, using an objective and consistent set of translation-technique criteria, and traditional and computerized tools of analysis. According to the author, the translation of the Septuagint Pentateuch has two facets: homogeneity and heterogeneity. The common socio-religious milieu of the translators is apparent in the similar translation techniques, however, the individual characters of the five translators are also evident in their distinct translation styles.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €94.00 / $113.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42112-7
Publication Date: 17 Feb 2020

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42051-9
Publication Date: 27 Feb 2020

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Samuel Rolles Driver

PROF. MARC ZVI BRETTLER: S. R. Driver “Taught the Faithful Criticism, and the Critics Faith.” A reflection on the 106th yahrzeit of Samuel Rolles Driver (TheTorah.com).

Driver was the greatest British biblical scholar of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century—one of the few scholars of that era whose work has endured. He is the “D” of the famed BDB Lexicon—the Brown, Driver, Briggs A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament—which is still widely-used more than a century after it was published, largely because of Driver’s role in the project. His 1892 book on the Hebrew tenses remains a classic.[6] But he was much more than a lexicographer and a grammarian.

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Purim 2020

HAPPY Purim to all those celebrating! The festival begins tonight at sundown.

Last year's Purim post is here, with links. Posts on Purim since then are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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"Yemen — from Sheba to Jerusalem"

EXHIBITION: Prophets, priests, Jewish kings: Ancient Yemen made vivid in Jerusalem exhibit. Bible Lands Museum tells the story of Jews in south Arabia, where they once ruled, made war, traded spice with Rome and longed for the Holy Land (AVIVA AND SHMUEL BAR-AM, Times of Israel).

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Queen of Sheba, who may (or may not) have come from ancient Yemen, start here and follow those links. Other posts on Jews in ancient Yemen are here and here and links.

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Trinity Western's Aramaic DSS conference is canceled

PRUDENT: Canadian universities plan for video lectures, remote exams if coronavirus epidemic worsens (Joe Friesen, Globe and Mail). So far these are just contingency plans. But buried in the article is this, which I had not heard before:

Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., announced Thursday that it’s cancelling a planned conference on the Dead Sea scrolls, scheduled for late March.

I noted the conference as upcoming here.

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Völkening, Imago Dei versus Kultbild

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Völkening, Helga

Imago Dei versus Kultbild
Die Sapientia Salomonis als jüdisch-hellenistischer Beitrag zur antiken Bilderdebatte
[Imago Dei versus Cultural Icon: The Wisdom of Solomon as a Jewish-Hellenistic Contribution to the Ancient Debate on Images]

Series: Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 508

99,95 € / $114.99 / £91.00*
Hardcover
Publication Date: January 2020
ISBN 978-3-11-055315-4

Aims and Scope
The study spotlights the importance of ethical discourse on icons in the Book of Wisdom. Using structural, semantic, and topological analyses, it shows that parenesis about false and true images of God is an overarching theme, and contextualizes it in terms of tradition and cultural history. The text makes a unique contribution to the ancient debate on images by positing that they fulfill the imago dei invested in human beings.

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The cosmic menorah

PROF. STEVEN FINE: Menorah, Its “Branches” and Their Cosmic Significance (TheTorah.com)

Midrash Tanchuma relates how Moses didn’t understand God's instructions for how to construct the menorah. This highlights the complexity of the Torah’s instructions, which commentators from antiquity until today struggled to visualize. One approach, taken by Philo and Josephus, was to interpret the menorah symbolically.

For many past PaleoJudaica posts on ancient menorahs and representations of menorahs, with considerable attention to Professor Fine's work, see here and links (cf. here, here, here, here, here and links).

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

Mount Athos manuscripts digitized

THE ETC BLOG: Mount Athos Repository On-line (Tommy Wasserman). This is exciting news. Tommy is thinking about all the New testament manuscripts this project will make available. For my part, I am hoping for some interesting new Old Testament pseudepigrapha manuscripts.

Cross-file under Digitization.

And for a PaleoJudaica post on Mount Athos and its ... cats, see here.

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Trouble with that adultery commandment

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (FEBRUARY 2020): Trouble with Adultery in the Cairo Genizah Biblical Manuscripts: T-S NS 67.34, T-S A40.77 et al. (Gary Martin). Presumably all these problems with the transmission of the adultery commandment are accidental.

Earlier references to the awkward omission in the infamous "Wicked Bible" are here, here, and here.

Past posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit are here and links.

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The Nazareth inscription isn't from Nazareth?

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: NAZARETH TABLET HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JESUS, BELONGED TO GREEK TYRANT, SCIENTISTS SAY. (Hannah Osborne, Newsweek).

The Nazareth Tablet, long thought to have been created after the disappearance of Jesus' body, has nothing to do with him or Christianity, scientists have said. Instead, the mystery marble tablet more likely belonged to a Greek tyrant called Nikias, whose grave was desecrated after his death, around 30 to 20 B.C.

[...]

For background on this artifact, see here.

The Newsweek article is based on a scholarly article published in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 30 (2020) 10228: Establishing the provenance of the Nazareth Inscription: Using stable isotopes to resolve a historic controversy and trace ancient marble production (Kyle Harper, Michael McCormick, Matthew Hamilton, Chantal Peiffert, Raymond Michels, Michael Engel). I have linked to the pdf. It looks as though the article is open access.

As the Newsweek article indicates, this new research, although valuable in itself, does not prove that the tablet was not displayed in Nazareth. The marble could, for example, have been imported from Kos. But it does raise significant doubt about the Nazareth connection and, therefore, any connection with the burial of Jesus.

This is another example of why we should be cautious about drawing conclusions from unprovenanced artifacts.

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Hiding places for the Great Revolt

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY VIII.2: Jewish Cliff Shelters and Hiding Complexes in the Roman Period Galilee (Yinon Shivtiel).

Dr. Shivtiel has been at this project for many years. Past posts on his work are here, here, and here. And see also this recent article in the Jerusalem Post by Rossella Tercatin: Researcher identifies Galilee caves where Jews fought Romans. Hundreds of caves in the Galilee have been identified as those described by Josephus almost 2,000 years ago.

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Purim and Aelia Capitolina?

PURIM IS COMING: Walled Cities “from the Time of Joshua” Celebrate Shushan Purim – Why? (Prof.Eyal Ben-Eliyahu, TheTorah.com).

Hidden behind the strange rabbinic definition of walled cities is a polemical response to the notorious claim of Emperor Hadrian, who rebuilt Jerusalem as the pagan city Aelia Capitolina.

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Harvard's Stager Memorial Minute

THE HARVARD GAZETTE: Lawrence Elwood Stager, 74. Memorial Minute — Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on March 3, 2020, the following tribute to the life and service of the late Lawrence Elwood Stager was placed upon the permanent records of the Faculty.

Professor Stager, who was one of my teachers in my doctoral program in the 1980s, died in December 2017. I noted his passing, with some of my own memories, here. Other posts on him are here and here. I am pleased to see Harvard's recognition of him in this minute.

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Lost stories of Daniel recovered in the Aramaic DSS

AT BIBLE HISTORY DAILY, Dr. Andrew Perrin introduces another of his videos on the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls:

Aramaic Memories of Daniel Recovered from the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Qumran Aramaic collection, however, revealed a yet unknown and broader profile of the figure of Daniel in several works. While we were familiar with other Daniel traditions from the so-called “Additions” in the Septuagint, Cave Four included at least two new works that cast a Daniel in new settings and associate him with fresh revelations.

For notice of past episodes in the series, as well as earlier links to Dr. Perrin's work, see here.

This episode is timely, as we follow Phil Long's blog series on the Book of Daniel.

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Daniel and the end of Antiochus IV

READING ACTS: Daniel 11:36-12:3 – The Willful King. Another installment in Phil Long's blog series on the Book of Daniel.

In my view, Daniel 11:36-39 are so vaguely polemical that it is difficult to be sure whether they apply to specific things that Antiochus Epiphanes did. But vv. 40-45 make quite specific predictions which Antiochus did not fulfill, except that he did die not long after the profanation of the Jerusalem Temple. More on that here and links. For three (!) conflicting accounts of how Antiochus died, see 1 Maccabees 3:31-37; 6:1-17 and 2 Maccabees 1:12-16; 9:1-29. But all three place his death in the vicinity of Persia, not the land of Israel. The other events in Daniel 11:40-45 didn't happen.

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How are Esther and Jesus alike?

PURIM IS COMING: “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?” — Jesus or Esther? (Dr.Abraham J. Berkovitz, TheTorah.com).

A midrash imagines Queen Esther reciting Psalm 22 the moment she was about to enter Ahasuerus' inner court. Are the rabbis responding to the Passion Narrative, in which Jesus, in his final moments, recites this lament on the cross?

A related post is here.

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Israel's universities make good showing in 2020 top 100

LEAGUE TABLES: Seven Israeli university programs named among top 100 worldwide. Israel’s leading university is the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the research showed, with four programs ranked among the top 100 in their field. (Eytan Halon, Jerusalem Post). Congratulations to all seven, with special mention for the Hebrew University:

Israel’s leading university is the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the research showed, with four programs ranked among the top 100 in their field. The Hebrew University’s Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies Department was named 11th best in the world – Israel’s only top-20 department. The university’s Classics and Ancient History Department was ranked 34th worldwide.

I am pleased that the School of Divinity of the University of St. Andrews is also in the top 20 in the worldwide top 100 for Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies. We are tied for 17th place, up one from 2019.

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Daniel 11: Antiochus Epiphanes

READING ACTS has two more posts in Phil Long's blog series on the Book of Daniel:

Daniel 11:21-35 – Concerning Antiochus IV Epiphanes

Daniel 11:29-35 – The Fall of Antiochus IV Epiphanes

According to 1-2 Maccabees, the Maccabean war was a a rebellion against an oppressive outsider, Antiochus IV. But a lateral reading of the evidence indicates that it was also a civil was between Jewish traditionalists and innovators.

There are also brief accounts of the war from outsiders who see it more from the Seleucid side.

For more on these issues, see the links collected here. And for a highly revisionist view of the revolt, see here.

I noted earlier posts in Phil's Daniel series, often with my own commentary, here and links.

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AJR reviews Shoemaker, The Apocalypse of Empire

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (Abby Kulisz).

I noted the publication of the book here and another review of it here.

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On Sabbath law in the Mishnah

PROF. RABBI JUDITH HAUPTMAN: 39 Melachot of Shabbat: What Is the Function of This List? (TheTorah.com).

In halakha, the 39 melachot of Mishnah Shabbat 7:2 functions as a comprehensive list of primary categories of forbidden labor. A closer look at the list in context, however, reveals that it was composed and added as a supplement, to clarify a detail in the previous mishnah.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 169

THE DUST BLOG: Biblical Studies Carnival for February 2020. As Phil Long notes, this is a Mardi Gras themed carnival.

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

Curtis (ed.), Studies in Ancient Persia and the Achaemenid Period

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Studies in Ancient Persia and the Achaemenid Period. Notice of a New Book: Curtis, John (ed.). 2020. Studies in Ancient Persia and the Achaemenid Period. A collection of essays in memory of the curator and scholar Terence Mitchell, exploring the history and archaeology of Ancient Persia. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co. Ltd.

Follow the link for a description and the TOC. A number of the articles involve biblical studies and Second Temple Judaism.

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Women's History Month: Babatha

THE FORWARD: Unsung Women | Babatha: The real housewife of ancient Judea (Irene Connelly).

For past PaleoJudaica posts on Babatha and her archive of personal papers from the second century CE, see here and links and here.

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New biblical Hebrew program at GWU

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Classics department faculty look to add biblical Hebrew option for students.

Members of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations plan to debut a Biblical Hebrew program next semester.

Students majoring or minoring in Classical and Ancient Near Eastern studies could previously fulfill their history, culture and language requirements only by taking two years of ancient Greek or classical Latin. Faculty said the new program will allow students to explore a different classical language to fulfill their language requirement and help the department meet a growing interest in Ancient Near Eastern studies.

[...]

This is good news. This program has been in the planning since 2014.

Two members of the GWU Classics faculty make appearances on PaleoJudaica from time to time. Christopher Rollston is associate professor of Northwest Semitic languages and literature. Some posts on his work from the last few years are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and links. Eric Cline is professor of classics, anthropology and history. Some posts on his work are here, here, here, and links.

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Review of Huebner, Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament.

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Sabine R. Huebner, Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xv, 192. ISBN 9781108455701. $24.99 (pb). Reviewed by Brent Nongbri, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society (brent.nongbri@mf.no)

Enter Sabine Huebner’s Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament. This engaging book offers a series of case studies showing what can be gained when a specialist in the field of ancient history, particularly in papyrology, turns to texts and questions that are typically examined within the framework of New Testament studies.

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Kraemer on "The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity"

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Publications | The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity. (Ross Kraemer).

Ross Shepard Kraemer, The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity: What Christianity Cost the Jews: OUP 2020.

The central question I wanted to answer when I began work on MDLA was seemingly straightforward: what happened to the Jews of the Mediterranean diaspora in late antiquity? This phrasing carries several implications: that something happened to Jews in the Mediterranean diaspora, and that whatever this was didn’t happen to Jews elsewhere (whether in the homeland, or in the neo-Babylonian diaspora).

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Cross-file under New Book.

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Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors

The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant

Series: Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, Volume: 108

Author: Daniel A. Frese

In The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors, Daniel A. Frese provides a wide-ranging portrayal of one of the most prominent social institutions in the kingdoms of the southern Levant during the Iron II period: the use of the city gate as a hub for numerous and diverse civic functions. The book provides an up-to-date description of the architecture of gate complexes based on archaeological evidence, and a systematic description of the many functions of the gate seen in hundreds of texts from the Hebrew Bible and the broader ancient Near East. The final chapters of the book discuss the conceptual significance of gates in Israelite culture, based on idiomatic and symbolic gate terminology in the Hebrew Bible.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €165.00 / $198.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-41667-3
Publication Date: 20 Jan 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-41666-6
Publication Date: 13 Feb 2020

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DSS postdoc in Norway

THE ETC BLOG: Lying Pen of Scribes Postdoc: POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW IN DIGITAL HUMANITIES AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS (Christian Askeland). Follow the link for a link to the full advert. The application deadline is 1 April 2020.

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Das Buch Ezechiel (ed. Gertz, Körting, & Witte)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER: Das Buch Ezechiel. Komposition, Redaktion und Rezeption. [The Book of Ezekiel – Composition, Redaction and Reception]. Ed. by Gertz, Jan Christian / Körting, Corinna / Witte, Markus. Series:Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 516.

99,95 € / $114.99 / £91.00*
Hardcover
Publication Date: December 2019
ISBN 978-3-11-061819-8

Aims and Scope
The volume gives an overview of current research on the Book of Ezekiel with historical-editorial commentary about key texts in this prophetic book. In addition to questions about its textual, traditional, and reception history, the authors also examine central theological themes in the Book of Ezekiel in the context of Jewish-Hebraic and early Christian literary and religious history.

One essay is in English. The others are in German.

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de Waard, Jeremiah 52 in the Context of the Book of Jeremiah

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Jeremiah 52 in the Context of the Book of Jeremiah

Series: Vetus Testamentum, Supplements, Volume: 183

Author: Henk de Waard

In Jeremiah 52 in the Context of the Book of Jeremiah, Henk de Waard offers a thorough examination of the final chapter of the book of Jeremiah. Particular attention is paid to the chapter’s relationship with the parallel text in 2 Kings 24:18–25:30, to the differences between the Masoretic text and the Old Greek translation, to the literary function of Jeremiah 52 within the book of Jeremiah, and to the chapter’s historical context.
De Waard shows that, especially in the early text form represented by the Old Greek, Jeremiah 52 is not a mere appendix to the book, but a golah-oriented epilogue, indicating the contrasting destinies of pre-exilic Judah and the exilic community in Babylon.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €115.00 / $138.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42355-8
Publication Date: 03 Feb 2020

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42354-1
Publication Date: 18 Mar 2020

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BAR Spring 2020

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY has some posts on the just-released current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (background here):

First Person: Where Is the Real Biblical Bethsaida? (Robert R. Cargill)

Excavating El-Araj—a Candidate for Biblical Bethsaida (Megan Sauter)
For some time I have been following the archaeological debate over whether et-Tell or el-Araj is the site of biblical Bethsaida. For past posts on the question, start here and follow the links.

The IAA’s Pnina Shor Retires.
An interview with BAR editor Robert Cargill. Some PaleoJudaica posts on Pnina Shor's work are here, here, and here. I wish her a happy retirement.

More Queries & Comments, Spring 2020. Readers respond to their favorite Biblical Archaeology Review articles

Spring 2020 Caption Contest

January/February 2020 Cartoon Caption Winners

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Daniel 11: those kings of the north and the south

READING ACTS: Daniel 11:2-20 – Who are the Kings of the North and South? (Phil Long).

For more on the historical details behind the kings of the north and the kings of the south in Daniel 11 (with some cool coin images), see the links here.

For notice of other posts in Phil's blog series on the Book of Daniel, often with my own comments, see here and links.

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Review of Flynn, Children in Ancient Israel

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Children in Ancient Israel (Kerry Sonia).

Shawn W. Flynn. Children in Ancient Israel: The Hebrew Bible and Mesopotamia in Comparative Perspective. Oxford University Press, 2018.

For related posts, see here and links.

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On the ink of the DSS

MATERIAL CULTURE: Could studying ancient ink help shed new light on the Dead Sea Scrolls? The study of manuscripts offers scholars a treasure trove of information hidden in plain sight, complementing those presented by the texts themselves (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

Could studying the ink used to pen the Dead Sea Scrolls help scholars shed light on the many mysteries still surrounding them?

According to Ira Rabin, senior scientist at the Federal Institute of Material Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin and the Center for the Studies of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) in Hamburg the answer is a resounding yes.

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Some past PaleoJudaica posts on Dr. Rabin's work on ancient ink, especially of the Dead Sea Scrolls, are here, here, here, here and here. As usual, follow the links too. And this post, and links, is also relevant

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