Bowie, Longus. Daphnis and Chloe (new commentary)

BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Longus. Daphnis and Chloe

Ewen Bowie, Longus. Daphnis and Chloe. Cambridge Greek and Latin classics. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. x, 338 p.. ISBN 9780521776592 $45.95 (pb).

Review by
Lucia Floridi, Università di Bologna. lucia.floridi2@unibo.it

The hellenistic Greek novel Daphnis and Chloe is of interest to PaleoJudaica because the genre of ancient novel was also in use in ancient Judaism and early Christianity. One example (debatable whether Jewish or Christian) is Joseph and Aseneth, on which more here and links.

For more on Daphnis and Chloe and the ancient Greek novel in this context, see here and here.

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

John the Baptist and ancient social distancing

RELIGION PROF: Was John the Baptist a Hermit? James McGrath is not convinced that he was.

For more on John the Baptist, see here (cf. here) and links. For more on Qasr al-Yahud, see here and links.

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

Cargill on unprovenanced antiquities

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Unprovenanced Antiquities: Learning the Hard Way (Robert R. Cargill).

Background here and here and links.

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

Job and God vs. truth decay

PROF. EDWARD L. GREENSTEIN: Speaking Truth to Power, Job Accuses God of Being Unjust (TheTorah.com).

Job's friends piously justify God's actions and challenge Job to accept that he has done wrong. Yet God sides with Job and rebukes the friends for not “speaking about me in honesty as did my servant Job”.

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

Lost texts of terror?

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: I Gave Them Laws Through Which They Could Not Live (Philip Jenkins).

Let me offer one interpretation that fits the evidence as we have it, although it is certainly not the only possible explanation. Hypothetically, let’s suppose that there once circulated stories or texts that were read, with whatever justification, as legitimizing or commanding child sacrifice. During the time of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, those supposed texts were forcefully condemned, and they have simply vanished from view. The Hebrew Old Testament canon was not defined until the fourth century BC at the very earliest, and there was still considerable latitude and debate for several centuries after that point. Prior to the fourth century BC, it is far from clear that the notion of a canon even existed, and the frontiers separating scriptures and non-scriptures were highly fluid. It is perfectly possible that in Ezekiel’s time, around 600 BC, at least some people in Israel venerated particular texts and regarded them as authoritative or inspired, even attributing words to God himself, although these writings have now been lost irretrievably. Might these have been the “statutes and judgments” in question?

For the evidence that some circles in ancient Israel engaged in child sacrifice, see here.

For books mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, but now lost, see here and here and links.

Shalom Spiegel's book, The Last Trial, argued that there was a lost version of the Aqedah (Genesis 22) in which Isaac was actually sacrificed. A recently discovered Coptic magical papyrus provides evidence for such a tradition.

Cross-file under Lost Books?

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

Plague and biblical history

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Pandemic, Plague, and Biblical History. A collection of BHD articles looking at the role of widespread disease in the Bible and in early Christian history. Plague and disease figure quite a bit in biblical history.

Relevant posts on Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem are here (about halfway in) and here.

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

Sharvit & Goetschel (eds.), Canonization and Alterity

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Canonization and Alterity

Heresy in Jewish History, Thought, and Literature

Series: Perspectives on Jewish Texts and Contexts, 14

Edited by: Gilad Sharvit and Willi Goetschel
De Gruyter | 2020

OVERVIEW
This volume offers an examination of varied forms of expressions of heresy in Jewish history, thought and literature. Contributions explore the formative role of the figure of the heretic and of heretic thought in the development of the Jewish traditions from antiquity to the 20th century. Chapters explore the role of heresy in the Hellenic period and Rabbinic literature; the significance of heresy to Kabbalah, and the critical and often formative importance the challenge of heresy plays for modern thinkers such as Spinoza, Freud, Kafka, and Derrida, and literary figures such as Kafka, Tchernikhovsky, and I.B. Singer. Examining heresy as a boundary issue constitutive for the formation of Jewish tradition, this book contributes to a better understanding of the significance of the figure of the heretic for tradition more generally.

From £91.00
Price including VAT

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

A great sign in heaven

READING ACTS: Who is the Woman in Revelation 12? Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation, now concentrating on the seven sights of chapters 12-15. We are on the first sight, the woman with the celestial accoutrements.

I have noted previous posts in the series here and links.

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

Scripta Qumranica Electronica

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: German-Israeli project to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls alive on the screen. An advantage offered by a digital edition is that readers can test the editorial decisions by directly interacting with the primary data (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

Project manager Bronson Brown-deVost:

“First, an editor usually organizes the material for the edition. This may include materials previously organized by other colleagues,” he highlighted. “Secondly, the editor will decide how to instruct the edition and what accompanying notes and commentary should be included in it. Due to the limitations of print, the editor must usually place boundaries on how much ancillary information is in the volume and how much is limited by the print media itself, for instance life-size mockups of the scrolls is difficult to share as are large numbers of high-resolution images. Such restrictions do not apply to digital editions.”

With current restrictions on travel, which will last who knows how long, projects like this one which facilitate remote research are all the more important.

Cross-file under Digitization. For earlier posts on the project, see here and links.

And for many other manuscript digitization projects, see here and links and here, here, here, here, and here.

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

Review of Litwa, How the Gospels became history

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: How the Gospels became history: Jesus and Mediterranean myths.

M. David Litwa, How the Gospels became history: Jesus and Mediterranean myths. Synkrisis. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. ix, 298 p.. ISBN 9780300249484 $65.00.

Review by
Andrew Steck, University of Iowa. andrew-steck@uiowa.edu

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

Wolf on The Rabbinic Legal Imagination

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Rabbinic Legal Imagination (Sarah Wolf).

Sarah Wolf, “The Rabbinic Legal Imagination: Scholasticism and Narrativity in the Babylonian Talmud” (Ph.D Dissertation, Northwestern University, 2018).

Excerpt:

By connecting rabbinic scholasticism with literariness, my dissertation both widens the basis for cross-cultural comparison of scholasticism and elucidates distinctively rabbinic features within a broader Sassanian scholastic context.

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

Suspicious fires at holy sites in Iran

COINCIDENCE? String of fires at Christian, Hindu, Jewish holy sites in Iran ‘deliberate’: Expert (Emily Judd and Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya).

The fires may well be coincidental, but the optics are not good. The Iranian authorities need to make this stop.

Background on the fire at the site of the (traditional) Tomb of Mordechai and Esther is here and here.

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

Temple Mount archaeology

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Temple Revealed: Jerusalem Day 2020 (Tuvia Book, Times of Israel Blogs).

For more on the "To the place of trumpeting..." inscription, see here and links.

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

Hobby Lobby sues Christie's over Gilgamesh tablet

CANDIDA MOSS IS UNSYMPATHETIC: Hobby Lobby Sues Christie’s, Wants Us to Feel Sorry for Them (The Daily Beast).

For background on the Gilgamesh dream tablet, see here and links.

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

Prayer outside the al-Aqsa mosque is resuming

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Prayers at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound to resume next week: statement (Reuters).

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

The missing-papyri scandal: Nongbri on Sabar

OVER AT VARIANT READINGS, Brent Nongbri has several posts with detailed commentary on Ariel Sabar's recent Atlantic article on the scandal of the missing Oxyrhynchus Papyri:

New Article on Dirk Obbink in The Atlantic

Some Additional Thoughts on Sabar’s Atlantic Article

The Atlantic Article and Green Collection Cartonnage

The Antiquities Trade in Michigan

For the Atlantic article, with links to past PaleoJudaica posts on this convoluted story, see here and links.

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

Temple Mount Sifting Project online symposium

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT SYMPOSIUM.

In celebration of Jerusalem Day, the Temple Mount Sifting Project will conduct an on-line study session (via Zoom), with a series of lectures on the archaeology of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, presented by the Sifting Project research team.

The symposium takes place on 24 May.

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

And I saw ...

READING ACTS: The War of the Dragon – Revelation 12-15. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation with attention to the seven sights of chapters 12-15.

I have noted earlier posts in his Revelation series here and links.

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

Underground complex found near Western Wall

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Archaeologists discover 2000-year-old unique complex by the Western Wall. The structure was sealed later in the Byzantine period under the floors of a large building about 1,400 years ago and was left untouched for centuries (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

“This is a unique finding,” said Dr. Barak Monnickendam-Givon and Tehila Sadiel, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, according to a press release. “This is the first time a subterranean system has been uncovered adjacent to the Western Wall. You must understand that 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, like today, it was customary to build out of stone. The question is, why were such efforts and resources invested in hewing rooms underground in the hard bedrock?”

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

Kurt Rudolph, 1929-2020

SAD NEWS: IN MEMORIAM: KURT RUDOLPH (1929-2020) (The NSEA Blog).

My first introduction to Gnosticism was reading Professor Rudolph's excellent book, Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism. I see that he received an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Andrews in 1983 (before my time).

Requiescat in pace.

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

Review of Hicks-Keeton, Arguing with Aseneth

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Review: Arguing with Aseneth (Gerbern S. Oegema).

Arguing with Aseneth: Gentile Access to Israel’s Living God in Jewish Antiquity
By Jill Hicks-Keeton
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2018), 232 pp., $99.00 (hardcover)

For earlier reviews etc. of the book, see here and links. And for other posts on Joseph and Aseneth, see here and links.

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

"Minimal damage" to (traditional) Tomb of Mordechai and Esther

UPDATE: Iranian Officials Say Minimal Damage At Ancient Jewish Site After Allegations Of Arson Attack (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).

The cause of the incident on May 15, which U.S.-based Jewish groups have condemned as an “anti-Semitic” attack, is still not clear.

Authorities have said that the incident is being investigated.

Speaking on May 17 as he visited the site, the head of Tehran’s Jewish community Homayoun Somayeh said that the shrine of Esther and Mordechai is “completely intact,” adding that the incident has been “magnified and exaggerated” by the enemies of the Islamic republic.

Background here. And follow the links from there for more post on this shrine.

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

The heavenly Temple and Ark of the Covenant

READING ACTS: God’s Temple in Heaven and the Ark of his Covenant – Revelation 11:19. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation and their seven trumpets. We are currently on the events of the seventh trumpet.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Ark of the Covenant, start here and follow the links. But this passage in the Book of Revelation is about the archetypal Ark in the celestial (or better, macrocosmic) Temple of God.

I have noted earlier posts in Phil's current series here and links.

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

Those scroll fragments weren't blank ...

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Dead Sea Scroll fragments thought to be blank reveal text (Joe Stafford, University of Manchester via PhysOrg).

When examining the fragments for the new study, Professor [Joan] Taylor thought it possible that one of them did actually contain a letter, and therefore decided to photograph all of the existing fragments over 1 cm that appear blank to the naked eye, using multispectral imaging.

51 fragments were imaged front and back. Six were identified for further detailed investigation—of these, it was established that four have readable Hebrew/Aramaic text written in carbon-based ink. The study has also revealed ruled lines and small vestiges of letters on other fragments.

The fragments are at the Rylands Library in Manchester. They are certainly genuine. For more on Multispectral Imaging and its application to ancient epigraphy, start here and follow the links.

Now take a deep breath and repeat after me:

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

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

P for popular purview?

PROF. MARTHA HIMMELFARB: Scribal Features That Helped the Priestly Text Survive (TheTorah.com).

The biblical priestly text is unique in the ancient Near East, in that it utilizes scribal features such as colophons, cross references, and casuistic laws (when... then...), aimed at making the text accessible to the public. This preserved Israelite priestly writing past the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.

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

What was Paul?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Essay | Notes on the Historical Paul and his Intellectual Activity (Sarah Rollens).

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

Bethsaida (?) flooded

HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: Bethsaida (el–Araj) Flooded. Carl Rasmussen has photos.

On the question of which site is the real Bethsaida (et-Tell or el-Araj), see here and follow the links.

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

BAR 2020 Summer issue

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY: Biblical Archaeology Review, Summer 2020. The articles look interesting, but access to the full texts require a personal or institutional subscription.

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

Fire at the (traditional) Tomb of Mordechai and Esther.

UNDER INVESTIGATION: Iran officials confirm ‘minor damage’ by fire at Tomb of Mordechai and Esther. Regime-controlled website publishes — then deletes — report that a person was seen in CCTV footage trying, and failing, to torch Jewish holy site right after Israel’s anniversary (Times of Israel).

For earlier PaleoJudaica posts on this politically fraught site, see here (mention), here, here, here, here, and here.

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

Bacchi, Uncovering Jewish Creativity in Book III of the Sibylline Oracles

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Uncovering Jewish Creativity in Book III of the Sibylline Oracles

Gender, Intertextuality, and Politics

Series:
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 194

Author: Ashley Bacchi

In Uncovering Jewish Creativity in Book III of the Sibylline oracles, Ashley L. Bacchi reclaims the importance of the Sibyl as a female voice of prophecy and reveals new layers of intertextual references that address political, cultural, and religious dialogue in second-century Ptolemaic Egypt. This investigation stands apart from prior examinations by reorienting the discussion around the desirability of the pseudonym to an issue of gender. It questions the impact of identifying the author’s message with a female prophetic figure and challenges the previous identification of paraphrased Greek oracles and their function within the text. Verses previously seen as anomalous are transferred from the role of Greek subterfuge of Jewish identity to offering nuanced support of monotheistic themes.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €105.00 / $126.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42607-8
Publication Date: 28 Apr 2020

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42434-0
Publication Date: 17 Jun 2020

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

The seventh trumpet

READING ACTS: The Seventh Trumpet – Revelation 11:15-19. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation and their seven trumpets.

I have noted earlier posts in the series here and links.

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

NYU's virtual DSS conference starts tomorrow

INNOVATION: Sunday at NYU: First-Ever Virtual International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls (David Israel, The Jewish Press).

Noted previously here.

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

Secunda, The Talmud’s Red Fence

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Menstrual Impurity and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian Context. Notice of a New Book: Secunda, Samuel. 2020. The Talmud’s red fence: Menstrual impurity and difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian context. New York: Oxford University Press.

Follow the link for description and purchase information.

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

A gold octodrachm of Ptolemy III

NUMISMATICS: Octodrachm from Ptolemaic Egypt in Heritage sale displays spending power (Jeff Starck, Coin World).

In Heritage Auctions’ April 24 auction, a gold mnaieion of Ptolemy III Euergetes, posthumously issued circa 219 to 217 B.C. in Alexandria for Ptolemy IV, realized $20,400, with the 20 percent buyer’s fee.

The coin measures 27 millimeters in diameter and weighs 27.74 grams, comparable in diameter to a Presidential dollar, but slightly heavier than a Morgan dollar.

There are nice photos in the article.

For more on the coinage of the Ptolemaic kings, and the role of some of those kings in the Bible, see here and links. As noted in that post, Ptolemy III Euergetes is the branch from the roots of the daughter of the king of the south mentioned in Daniel 11:7-9 and Ptolemy IV Philopater is the king of the south mentioned in Daniel 11:11. For more on Ptolemy III, see here. And for a detailed account of the convoluted historical background to their reigns, see here.

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

The beer hypothesis

IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER: Was the First Beer Brewed for the Dead? Archaeologists disagree on whether they’ve found the world’s oldest beer, or just bread (Bridget Alex, Discover Magazine).

For past PaleoJudaica posts on ancient beer, see here and links. This story takes the history of beer back to its origins. Maybe.

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

Feasting at Philoteria

CULINARY ARCHAEOLOGY: Feast of snails and pig sheds life on Hellenist life in ancient Galilee. “If we look at food remains in Jewish settlements from the same period, we see very different species,” Pines, whose expertise is in the field of zoo-archaeology, told the Post (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

I love trash pits.

The site is Tel Bet Yerah, ancient Philoteria.

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

The psalm and the pandemic?

PROF. MATTHIAS HENZE: God Shelters the Faithful: The Prayer of Psalm 91 (TheTorah.com).

Psalm 91 expresses confidence that God will protect the righteous from plagues, demons, and wild animals, while allowing the wicked to perish. How are we to understand such language, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Psalm 91 is the premier psalm for the Jewish magical tradition. As Professor Henze notes, it is tied to an exorcistic tradition as far back as the Dead Sea Scrolls. And it also features often in the context of protection from demonic pestilence in subsequent Jewish magic. For some background, see here.

Psalm 91 has also been used similarly in Christianity. Philip Jenkins has a recent blog post on it here.

Individual readers can decide for themselves whether the psalm has any relevance for the current pandemic.

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

The witnesses perish but persevere

READING ACTS: The Death of the Two Witnesses – Revelation 11:7-14. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation and their seven trumpets. I think we must be close to wrapping up the events of the sixth trumpet.

I have noted earlier posts in the series here and links.

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

Walsh, Angels Associated with Israel in the Dead Sea Scrolls

IN THE MAIL:

Matthew L. Walsh, Angels Associated with Israel in the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Angelology and Sectarian Identity at Qumran (Mohr Siebeck, 2019)

My review copy for Dead Sea Discoveries.

For more on the book, see here.

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

Sabar on the missing-papyri scandal

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING: A Biblical Mystery at Oxford. A renowned scholar claimed that he discovered a first-century gospel fragment. Now he’s facing allegations of antiquities theft, cover-up, and fraud (Ariel Sabar, The Atlantic).

This is the definitive account of the missing-Oxyrhynchus-papyri scandal. It covers the still-inconclusive story up to the present, with detailed background. I think it has everything I already knew, plus a good bit I didn't. Background here and many links.

You should set aside some time and read the whole, long article. As before, I myself have no inside knowledge of the affair and no further comment.

Ariel Sabar is the son of UCLA Aramaist Yona Sabar. Ariel is known for his book My Father's Paradise, on his family's background in Aramaic-speaking Kurdish Iraq. See here and links. And he is still better known for his groundbreaking 2016 article on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife, also in The Atlantic. He has a book forthcoming on the latter.

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

Thomas Oden Lambdin, 1927-2020

SAD NEWS: Reports are coming in from Jack Sasson's Agade List and elsewhere that Thomas Oden Lambdin, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, has passed away at the age of 93.

Professor Lambdin was a premier — perhaps the premier — Semitist of the twentieth century. He took early retirement in 1983, the year I came to the Harvard NELC PhD program. I never took a class with him, but he came round the Semitic Museum now and then, so I did get to meet him and chat with him a bit. And I heard many stories about him from other students in the program, and from John Huehnergard, who came in the same year to take up the NELC Comparative Semitics post.

Professor Lambdin's influence on the field was incalculable, both at the elementary level and in the world of research. He published introductory grammars for Hebrew, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Gothic. All have been much used and highly influential. And his advances in Comparative Semitics and the historical grammar of Hebrew were profound.

Requeiscat in pace.

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

Francis Ian Andersen, 1925-2020

SAD NEWS: Word has come in from Professor Andrei Orlov that Australian Biblical Scholar Francis (Frank) Andersen, has passed away at the age of 94.

Professor Andersen taught at a number of institutions in Australia and the United States. He was back in Australia at the end of his life. He was known especially for his work on biblical Hebrew syntax and computational linguistics, and for his translation of 2 (Slavonic) Enoch in Charlesworth's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

Requiescat in pace.

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

Hard times for biblical archaeology

IT'S LOOKING BAD: Biblical archaeology: another casualty of the coronavirus. Archaeologists in Israel are still processing the casualties the pandemic has wrought (SHELLEY NEESE, Jerusalem Post).

For reports of looting, see here. A related story is here and here. For Tel Aroma (Tel Aruma), see here. For the closure of the SWBTS archaeology program, see here.

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

The prophesying witnesses

READING ACTS: Who are the Two Witnesses? Revelation 11:3-6. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation and their seven trumpets. And yes, we are still on that very eventful sixth trumpet.

I have noted earlier posts in the series here and links.

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

Ghost readings in the the oldest complete Hebrew Bible

ALTERATIONS: Israeli Scholars Discover Corrections, Erasures, Revisions in Oldest Biblical Manuscript. Analysis of Leningrad Codex shows that about a millennium ago, there were several different versions of the Bible that evolved over time (Nir Hasson, Haaretz premium).

Scholars from the Academy of the Hebrew Language who have been analyzing the codex discovered that it contains hundreds of corrections meant to bring it into line with the familiar biblical text we know today. The changes were made by erasing, altering or adding letters and vocalization marks.

These changes show that back when the Leningrad Codex was written, roughly a millennium ago, the Jewish bookshelf contained several different versions of the biblical text.

Or at least a long tradition of variant readings.

Other PaleoJudaica posts on the Leningrad Codex of the Hebrew Bible are here, here, here, here, and links.

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

Apocalypse in the late-antique Negev?

ARCHAEOLOGY: A Perfect Storm: How Early Christian Farming in the Negev Collapsed. Israeli archaeologists date the remnants of flourishing agriculture in the desert and discover exactly when, and possibly why, it came to a bitter end (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz premium). Plague may have been a factor, which hits a bit close to home right now.

The site of Shivta has been in the news a lot in the last few years. This article is about a new study that ties much of the old information together with some new research and leads to some interesting conclusions. As for past PaleoJudaica posts, this one sets up the problem addressed in the current article. Then this one looks at the pre-disaster prosperity of the late-antique Negev. For the face of Jesus at Shivta, see here and links. And for the full trail of posts on Shivta, start here and just follow those links.

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

Review of Fournet, The Rise of Coptic

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian Versus Greek in Late Antiquity (Chance E. Bonar).

Jean-Luc Fournet, The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian Versus Greek in Late Antiquity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020.

Excerpt:

Fournet’s The Rise of Coptic is a substantial and accessible contribution to the ongoing discussion of bilingualism and multilingualism in the ancient world. He incisively illuminates the chronological development of Egyptian as a legal(izing) language and Coptic as a regulated script through use of Coptic documentary papyri - sources that have been understudied by historians and classicists who have traditionally limited themselves to Greek and Latin archives for the study of the Roman Empire. Beyond the scope of sociolinguistics and papyrology, Fournet’s work challenges us not to view language use as a zero-sum game within a particular nation or culture. ...

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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

Epicurus wasn't so bad?

CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHY: Epicurus was not as bad as he is portrayed (Israel Drazin, Times of Israel Blogs). The rabbinic literature has a negative view of the "Apicorus" ("Apikoros") — a term derived from "Epicurean."

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

Bar Kokhba coin found in Jerusalem

ARCHAEOLOGICAL NUMISMATICS: ‘Year 2 of freedom’: Ancient coin from Bar Kochba revolt found near Temple Mount. Israel Antiquities Authority reveals the coin, one of only four from the era to be discovered in the area, to mark Lag B’Omer holiday (Times of Israel).

This holiday is traditionally associated with the early second-century Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Yohai). He is the traditional (but pseudepigraphic) author of the Zohar. Lag B'Omer is also associated with the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

In recent years the IAA has saved up archaeological treats for Lag B'Omer: in 2017 the public opening of a complex of caves used by the Bar Kokhba rebels and in 2018 announcement of the discovery of another Bar Kokhba coin, this one recovered in a cave in Modi'in.

Another coin from year two of the Bar Kokhba revolt was found in the Lachish area in 2019.

As the article notes, very few Bar Kokhba coins have been discovered in Jerusalem. This is one of a number of reasons for concluding that the rebels never re-took the city. This Jerusalem Post article by Rossella Tercatin has additional details: Ancient coin tied to Jewish rebellion against Romans found in Jerusalem. Out of 22,000 ancient coins found in the Old City, only four can be traced back to Bar Kochba rebellion.

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

Online Enoch Seminar on the origin of evil

RELIGION PROF: Enoch Seminar Online 2020: The Origin of Evil in Second Temple Judaism. I am pleased to hear that James McGrath is involved with this groundbreakingly fully-remote Enoch Seminar too.

You can consult the regularly updated schedule for the conference at: 2020 Enoch Seminar Online.

The conferences takes place from 29 June to 2 July. The lineup is impressive and is still developing. As you can see from the current schedule, I am a respondent in session 7: "How is the problem of evil and its origin addressed in the Parables of Enoch and the Synoptics?"

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

Geniza Fragments 79

GENIZA FRAGMENTS, the Newsletter of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library has published its April 2020 Issue. Topics include fragments of an important Hebrew prayerbook, fragments from Maimonides and his circle, a vertical parchment scroll (rotulus) containing material from the Tosefta, and a review of Geoffrey Khan's open-access book The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew (on which more here).

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

Lag B'Omer and the coronavirus

CHANGE: Taking the fire out of Lag Ba'omer amid coronavirus in Israel. Just as COVID-19 put a crimp in Passover Seders, Remembrance Day grieving of bereaved families, and Independence Day celebrations, so too is it altering the Lag Ba'omer celebrations this year (Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post). Lag B'Omer is celebrated today.

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

Scroll indigestion

READING ACTS: Eating the Little Scroll – Revelation 10:8-11. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation and their seven trumpets. We are still on the events of the sixth trumpet.

I have noted earlier posts in the series here and links.

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

Lag B'Omer 2020

LAG B'OMER, the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all observing it.

My 2018 Lag B'Omer post is here. Follow the links there for the biblical and rabbinic background of the holiday and collected previous posts of interest. I missed Lag B'Omer 2019, due to circumstances beyond my control. But there are additional posts on the subject here, here, and here.

Like everything else, the observation of Lag B'Omer has been affected by the coronavirus. Normally a crowd of up to five-hundred-thousand people celebrate with bonfires on Mount Meron. But this year the observations are massively scaled down.

If you are celebrating, however you go about it, please celebrate safely!

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

C-14 D-REAMS

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: The Israeli lab keeping cultural heritage alive. We take a tour of a special laboratory in Rehovot that is focused on preserving and dating history – and has even rewritten it (STEPHEN ORYSZCZUK, Jewish News/Times of Israel).

D-REAM stands for the Dangoor Research Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, inaugurated in 2012 by British Jewish philanthropist David Dangoor and his wife Judy, both scientists.

The lab is run by Italian-born Elisabetta Boaretto – described as “one of the rock-stars of archaeology” – together with her colleague Lior Regev, and they gave me a tour just before the country began closing its borders.

This is a place of work and study. Give them a viable organic sample, such as a bone fragment, and the team gets pre-screening, pre-treating, CO2 extracting, graphitising, pressing and AMS-ing to work out its age. It is a world of catalyst weights, cathode locations, infrared analysis, field calibration, cellulose fractions, oxelate peaks, “probable absolutes” and something intriguingly called a “wiggle model”.

It sounds as though this lab, which is new to me, has been making important advances in archaeology and even history.

Cross-file under Carbon-14 Dating and Material Culture. Some relevant PaleoJudaica posts are here and links.

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

A Hellenistic-era temple of Baal in Syria

ARCHAEOLOGY: Baal Shamin temple… Beauty, creativity in architectural, engineering decorations (SANA).

Sweida, SANA_ Baal Shamin Temple, which is located in the archaeological site of the eastern countryside of Sweida, is distinguished by the beauty of its geometric and architectural decorations that are carved as plant shapes, especially vine in addition to the figures carved within the Acanthus leaves that decorate the Corinthian crowns of the columns.

[...]

Sweida (As-Suwayda/Suada) was founded as an ancient Nabatean city. Other PaleoJudaica posts on the archaeology of the Sweida region are here and here.

This Temple of Baal Shamin is not to be confused with the one at Palmyra (a.k.a. the Temple of Bel), which was destroyed by ISIS in 2015. More on it here, here, here and links.

Cross-file under Nabatean Watch (Nabataean Watch).

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

Report: destruction at Tel Aroma

THIS SOUNDS BAD: Palestinian Authority paves over Hasmonean fortress, destroying remains of ancient wall. After declaring ancient Hasmonean fortress a 'Palestinian Heritage Site', PA paves over the fortress, destroying remains of wall, cisterns (Arutz Sheva).

The name of the site is Tel Aroma/Tel Aruma.

As usual with such things, I am not there and have only some media reports to go on. The information seems to come from the "Preserving the Eternal" (Shomrim Al Hanetzach) Project (on which more here and links) and the Shomron Regional Council.

There is video footage of the site in this article and here. I am not qualified to evaluate it, but perhaps some readers are.

There is another article here, but it adds no additional information. This is all I have been able to find on the story.

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

Orion Greenfield Scholars Lectures

THE ORION CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: Jonas C. Greenfield Scholars- Seminar 2019 - 2020. There are two lectures scheduled for June, both available on Zoom:

June 2, 2020
International Greenfield Scholars Seminar
Zoom meeting
Dr. Oren Abelman, Israel Antiquities Authority and Orion Matlow Scholar,
Topic: “The Kittim and the Historical Context of the War Scroll” (In English)
18:00-19:30 Israel time; 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. EST
(Zoom meeting ID to be announced)

June 17, 2020
International Greenfield Scholars Seminar
Zoom meeting
Avigail Aravna, doctoral student, Department of Bible, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Orion scholarship recipient
Topic: “Exegesis and Reception of Isaiah 24-27 in the Bible and in Postbiblical Literature” (In Hebrew)
12:30-14:00 Israel time
(Zoom meeting ID to be announced)

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

Coptic magical papyri series completed

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Looking at the Coptic Magical Papyri. I have linked to and commented on some of the posts (here, here, here, and here) in this fourteen-part series. But now you can find links to all of them in the post above.

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

Shavit, An Imaginary Trio

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Yaacov Shavit
An Imaginary Trio

King Solomon, Jesus, and Aristotle

Translated by: Chaya Naor
De Gruyter | 2020

OVERVIEW

This book focuses on places and instances where Solomon's legendary biography intersects with those of Jesus Christ and of Aristotle. Solomon is the axis around which this trio revolves, the thread that binds it together. It is based on the premise that there exists a correspondence, both overt and implied, between these three biographies, that has taken shape within a vast, multifaceted field of texts for more than two thousand years.

From £39.00
Price including VAT

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

Čapek & Lipschits (eds.), The Last Century in the History of Judah

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Last Century in the History of Judah: The Seventh Century BCE in Archaeological, Historical, and Biblical Perspectives
Filip Čapek (Editor), Oded Lipschits (Editor)

ISBN 9781628372526
Status Available
Price: $44.00
Binding Paperback
Publication Date October 2019
Pages 324

An incomparable interdisciplinary study of the history of Judah

Experts from a variety of disciplines examine the history of Judah during the seventh century BCE, the last century of the kingdom’s existence. This important era is well defined historically and archaeologically beginning with the destruction layers left behind by Sennacherib’s Assyrian campaign (701 BCE) and ending with levels of destruction resulting from Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian campaign (588–586 BCE). Eleven essays develop the current ongoing discussion about Judah during this period and extend the debate to include further important insights in the fields of archaeology, history, cult, and the interpretation of Old Testament texts.

Features

• A new chronological frame for the Iron Age IIB–IIC
  
• Close examinations of archaeology, texts, and traditions related to the reigns of Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah
  
• An evaluation of the religious, cultic, and political landscape

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

Tyrell, Strategies of Persuasion in Herodotus’ Histories and Genesis–Kings

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Strategies of Persuasion in Herodotus’ Histories and Genesis–Kings

Evoking Reality in Ancient Narratives of a Past

Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 195

Author: Eva Tyrell

In Strategies of Persuasion in Herodotus’ Histories and Genesis–Kings, Eva Tyrell comparatively analyzes narrative means in two monumental ancient texts about the past. Combining a narratological approach with insights of modern historical theory and biblical scholarship, she investigates patterns of narrative persuasion as a trans-cultural phenomenon and their connection with ancient concepts of reality and truth. The study contrasts differences in fundamental narrative structures of both narratives, such as mediacy and discursive versus diegetic text portions. It explores the role of material remains mentioned in the accounts to evoke or even create the reality of a past.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €116.00 / $140.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42797-6
Publication Date: 14 Apr 2020

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42796-9
Publication Date: 14 May 2020

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

Review of Nongbri, God's Library

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: God’s library: the archaeology of the earliest Christian manuscripts.

Brent Nongbri, God's library: the archaeology of the earliest Christian manuscripts. . New Haven: Yale University Press, . xi, 403 p.. ISBN 9780300215410 $35.00.

Review by
Donatella Tronca, University of Verona. donatella.tronca2@unibo.it

Excerpt:

Although Nongbri sometimes leaves the reader feeling that the only certainty is that there are no certainties, regarding both dating and information about the provenance of manuscripts, this apparent sense of defeat can be countered by adopting his approach: analysing and reconstructing all the available data about the manuscripts, the history of the collections, the cataloguing, the analytical description and—hopefully—the open access digitisation.

For earlier reviews etc. of the book, see here and links.

Brent Nongbri runs the Variant Readings blog, to which PaleoJudaica links frequently.

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

Moscicke, The New Day of Atonement

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Hans M. Moscicke. The New Day of Atonement. A Matthean Typology. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 517. 84,00 € including VAT. sewn paper
ISBN 978-3-16-159393-2.

Published in English.
In this work, Hans M. Moscicke investigates the influence of the Day of Atonement on Matthew’s passion narrative. The author argues that the First Evangelist crafts a sustained Yom Kippur typology in the twenty-seventh chapter of his Gospel and then remodels the Barabbas episode (Matt 27:15–26) as a Yom Kippur lottery between two “goats”. Pilate acts as high priest, designating Jesus as the immolated goat and Barabbas, along with the crowd, as a sin-bearing scapegoat. Matthew also casts Jesus as a scapegoat in the Roman-abuse scene (Matt 27:27–31), in which he depicts Jesus as physically receiving the sins of the world upon himself. Finally, the author suggests that Matthew, in his death-resurrection narrative (Matt 27:50–54), conceives Jesus as offering his life-force to God as the sacrificial goat for YHWH and descending to the realm of the dead as the goat for Azazel.

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

The sealed thunders

READING ACTS: What are the Seven Thunders in Revelation 10? Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels and their trumpets in the Book of Revelation. We are still on the sixth trumpet, which has a lot going on.

I have noted previous posts in the series here and links.

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

Carthage

PUNIC WATCH: Carthage – Capital of the Carthaginian Empire (Heritage Daily). A nice capsule history.

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

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

Virtual DSS conference at NYU

THE AWOL BLOG: [VIRTUAL] The Dead Sea Scrolls in Recent Scholarship: A Public Conference, Day 1 [May 17 - 20, 2020]. Despite the headline, this post gives the schedule for all four days of the conference.

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

Crude forgeries intercepted

A FLOOD OF FAKES: A Trove of Artifacts Inscribed With Gibberish Was Intercepted at Heathrow. They May Reveal an Alarming New Front in the War on Forgery. British Museum curators explain what makes the new wave of bogus antiquities different (Taylor Dafoe, artnet news).

A Border Force officer at Heathrow Airport discovered the hundreds of clay figurines, pots, and tablets covered in cuneiform script in a pair of metal trunks last July. Intercepted en route from Bahrain to a private address in the UK, the objects were sent to the British Museum for inspection. There, they were discovered to be fakes.

The striking thing about the discovery, says St John Simpson, a curator at the British Museum, is not the number of counterfeit relics. It’s the type.

The clay tablets were inscribed with "gibberish cuneiform."

In a roundabout way, it's good news that the antiquities "market is flooded with fakes." It means that real ancient artifacts are harder to get. As long as the fakes are of poor quality, they will only fool careless collectors.

Good-quality forgeries are another matter. They are truly dangerous.

It will be interesting to hear more about that "private address in the UK."

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

More on Jesus and Nazareth – plus Enoch

RELIGION PROF: Nazareth, Sepphoris, Jesus, and Enoch. James McGrath discusses recent work on ancient Nazareth, with links, some from me.

Other PaleoJudaica posts relevant for Jesus and Enoch (or at least the Gospels and Enoch) are here, here, here, here, here, here, and links.

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

The angel of the little scroll

READING ACTS: Who is the Angel in Revelation 10:1-4? Phil Long continues his series on the seven angels and their trumpets in the Book of Revelation. We are still on the events of the sixth trumpet.

I have noted past posts in the series here and links.

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

Western Wall reopens

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Western Wall reopens: Worshipers' temperatures checked, details recorded. The plaza will be split into a number of prayer complexes that will follow Health Ministry regulations. 300 worshipers will be allowed in the plaza at a time while wearing masks (Jerusalem Post).

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

Review of Kampen, Matthew within Sectarian Judaism - with free bonus link!!

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Matthew Within Sectarian Judaism (Giancarlo Angulo).

John Kampen, Matthew within Sectarian Judaism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019).

Excerpt:

... Rather than think of Matthew as a Christian text that reflects certain Jewish qualities, Kampen frames Matthew as a Jewish composition that emerges from within a variegated sectarian environment, and that proposes its understanding of Jewish halakhah as mediated through the messianic figure of Jesus. Using this framework, Matthew’s textual and ideological context must include the arguments and declarations of Jewish groups documented in texts such as those found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Any of my readers interested in this book — you will also be interested in a St. Andrews PhD dissertation that I supervised some years ago. You can access it for free at the link in pdf format.

Kathleen Helen Burt, Ritual in the Damascus Document and the Gospel of Matthew (University of St. Andrews PhD thesis, 2014).

Abstract
This thesis examines the ritual content of the Damascus Document and the Gospel of
Matthew, demonstrating how community identity is constructed and developed through
the interpretation of the Law represented in each. The content is arranged according to
the ritual typology of Catherine Bell, which organises ritual into six categories:
calendrical ritual, rites of exchange and communion, political ritual, rites of passage, rites of affliction and rites of feasting and fasting. Analysis by type enables comparison and comment on the features and effects of ritual. I identify the Scriptural precedent for the discussions of ritual and any similar texts from the same period. These two ritually dense texts provide a great deal of material representing different perspectives on ritual
function and obligations within a Jewish community setting. The Damascus Document is a non-sectarian legal text from the Second Temple period. The Gospel of Matthew presents the narrative of Jesus with considerable comment on ritual matters, reflecting an audience steeped in Jewish ritual praxis while looking towards an eschatological inclusion of Gentiles who adhere to Jewish obligations. Each offers an insight into a community dissenting from aspects of mainstream Judaism without withdrawing completely. Each community maintains traditional ritual obligations to some extent, but claims additional information clarifying the correct interpretations of the Law. This thesis analyses how they negotiate the practical, and often theological, issues that accompany their distinct practices, creating a community identity through ritual.

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

Review of Sweeney, Jewish Mysticism

READING ACTS: Book Review: Marvin Sweeney, Jewish Mysticism: From Ancient Times through Today (Phil Long).

Sweeney, Marvin A. Jewish Mysticism: From Ancient Times through Today. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2020. 432 pp. Hc; $60.

This sounds like a useful textbook.

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

Dura-Europos website

THE AWOL BLOG: Dura-Europos, 'Pompeii of the Syrian Desert.' A website run by Professor Simon James, one of the recent excavators of the site.

I noted a review of Professor James's recent book on Dura-Europos here. And follow the links from there for many past posts on Dura-Europos, know in particular for the remarkable biblical murals in its third-century CE synagogue, as well as for its ancient house church and Mithraeum.

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

More on the arrests in Samaria

ARCHAEOLOGIST APPREHENSION UPDATE: IDF investigating PA confiscation of Israeli archaeologist gun in Area C. COGAT said that the archaeologists had sought and failed to receive IDF permission to visit the site precisely because of the Palestinian COVID-19 roadblock (Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post). With some clarifications to the earlier report. Not surprisingly, the story becomes more complicated as more of it comes out.

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

Magness to deliver Schweich Lectures

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA: Jodi Magness To Deliver Schweich Lectures.

AIA Past President Jodi Magness has been invited by the British Academy to deliver the Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology in 2022.

[...]

Hopefully things will have settled down by then.

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

Berthelot (ed.), Reconsidering Roman power

THE AWOL BLOG: Reconsidering Roman power: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian perceptions and reactions. This volume, edited by Katell Berthelot, is online in the open-access series, Collection de l'École française de Rome.

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

No repentance

READING ACTS: Why Do People Refuse to Repent? Revelation 9:20-21. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation. We are still on the events of the trumpet-blowing of the sixth angel.

I have noted earlier posts in the series here and links

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

Review of James, The Roman military base at Dura-Europos, Syria

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Roman military base at Dura-Europos, Syria: an archaeological visualisation.

Simon James, The Roman military base at Dura-Europos, Syria: an archaeological visualisation. . Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. xxxiii, 345 p.. ISBN 9780198743569 $175.00.

Review by
Matthew M. McCarty, University of British Columbia. matthew.mccarty@ubc.ca

Excerpt:

James’ work on the military zone demonstrates both the need and potential for full re-analysis of legacy data from Dura and other sites with similar excavation histories. It offers a methodologically robust paradigm for doing so, whose value is apparent from the way James is able to re-write the history and archaeology of Roman-controlled Dura. This is an auspicious opening to mark the centenary of Dura studies, and a model starting point for reevaluating one of the most important archaeological sites in the Roman East.

For many past posts on Dura-Europos, know in particular for the remarkable biblical murals in its third-century CE synagogue, start here and follow the links. The city also had a house church and a Mithraeum.

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

Branch-Trevathan, The Sermon on the Mount and Spiritual Exercises

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Sermon on the Mount and Spiritual Exercises

The Making of the Matthean Self

Series: Novum Testamentum, Supplements, Volume: 178

Author: George Branch-Trevathan

What, in Matthew’s view, should a human being become and how does one attain that ideal? In The Sermon on the Mount and Spiritual Exercises: The Making of the Matthean Self, George Branch-Trevathan presents a new account of Matthew’s ethics and argues that the evangelist presents the Sermon on the Mount as functioning like many other ancient sayings collections, that is, as facilitating transformative work on oneself, or “spiritual exercises,” that enable one to realize the evangelist’s ideals. The conclusion suggests some implications for our understanding of ethical formation in antiquity and the study of ethics more generally. This will be an essential volume for scholars studying the Gospel of Matthew, early Christian ethics, the relationships between early Christian and ancient philosophical writings, or ethical formation in antiquity.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €109.00 / $131.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42554-5
Publication Date: 31 Mar 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42444-9
Publication Date: 02 Apr 2020

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

Archaeologists arrested in Samaria

CONTROVERSIAL APPREHENSION: PA Police Arrest Israeli Archaeologists Investigating Arab Robberies in Northern Samaria Site (David Israel, Jewish Press). The site is Tel Parsin. It was occupied over a long period and there are Second Temple-era remains there.

Again, the story involves plenty of politics. You can read one take on them in the article.

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

The Romans built the Pools of Solomon?

CANDIDA MOSS: The Secrets of Bethlehem’s Controversial Pools of Solomon Have Been Unlocked (The Daily Beast).

Analysis of the layers of plaster in the walls of the pools only confirmed this assessment. The Pools were first built by the Romans in the second century. A period of major reinforcement took place in the early middle ages, after an earthquake had rendered them unusable. A restoration and enlargement program, likely conducted under the auspices of Suleiman the Magnificent, took place in the 16th century. A final phase, begun by the British military in the early twentieth century, rounded out the evidence.

I was not aware that there were any current claims that the Pools of Solomon actually went back to the time of Solomon. Such claims do not sound credible. Discussion that I have seen of the site (here and links) dated the Pools to the late Second Temple period, from the Maccabean to the Herodian eras. The current evidence seems to indicate that they were built by the Roman army during the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

I'm not going to go into the political implications, but you can read one take on them in the article.

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

Two paintings of Judith

OLD TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH: Art history: Two artistic interpretations of Judith killing Holofernes (Regina Haggo, Hamilton Spectator).

One of Gentileschi’s Judith paintings, produced around 1615, was to travel from Italy for the London exhibition. Let’s compare it with one painted in 1596 by Fede Galizia, a Milanese painter. Both women focus on Judith and Abra moments after the decapitation.

The exhibition at the National Museum has, alas, been postponed for obvious reasons. But you can see images of both paintings at the link.

Judith's slaying of Holophernes has long been a popular artistic theme. For more paintings (here, here, and here), as well as opera, modern mosaics, theatre, and intepretive dance, see the links.

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

Free Temple Mount articles

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Temple Mount. Library Explorer. This collection of articles from Biblical Archaeology Review is available online for free until 11 May.

Cross-file under Temple Mount Watch.

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

Azazel's billy goat

DR. NOGA AYALI-DARSHAN: The Scapegoat Ritual and Its Ancient Near Eastern Parallels (TheTorah.com).

In the scapegoat ritual of Yom Kippur and the bird ritual of the metzora, sin/impurity is transferred onto an animal and it is sent away. These biblical examples have parallels in Eblaite, Hittite, Ugaritic, and Neo-Assyrian apotropaic rituals.

A few PaleoJudaica posts on the possible historical background of Yom Kippur are here, here, and here. For more on the mysterious figure of Azazel, about whom there is a substantial postbiblical tradition, see here.

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

Entangled Religions 11.2 (2020)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Christianity in Contact. A new volume of the open-access, online journal Entangled Religions. Even though it is not mentioned in the volume's title, late-antique Mesopotamian Judaism figures in one of the articles.

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

Lee, Moral Transformation in Greco-Roman Philosophy of Mind

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Max J. Lee. Moral Transformation in Greco-Roman Philosophy of Mind. Mapping the Moral Milieu of the Apostle Paul and his Diaspora Jewish Contemporaries 2020. XXXV, 658 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 515. 139,00 € including VAT sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-149660-8.

Published in English.
Max J. Lee examines the philosophies of Platonism and Stoicism during the Greco-Roman era and their rivals including Diaspora Judaism and Pauline Christianity on how to transform a person’s character from vice to virtue. He describes each philosophical school’s respective teachings on diverse moral topoi such as emotional control, ethical action and habit, character formation, training, mentorship, and deity.

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

A stone vessel workshop in Galilee (recap)

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Jewish Purification: Stone Vessel Workshop Discovered in Galilee. A 2,000-year-old stone production center points to ritual purity (Robin Ngo).

This essay was published in 2016 just after the discovery of the stone vessel workshop in ‘Einot Amitai near Nazareth in the Galilee. For PaleoJudaica posts on the story, see here and links. I didn't link to the BHS essay at the time, but it has just been re-published, so here it is now.

Another stone workshop from antiquity, also in the Galilee (at Reina), was discovered about a year later. See here and here. And for more generally on stoneworking in Roman antiquity, see here.

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

Gault, Body as Landscape, Love as Intoxication

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Body as Landscape, Love as Intoxication: Conceptual Metaphors in the Song of Songs
Brian P. Gault

ISBN 9781628372472
Status Available
Price: $45.00
Binding Paperback
Publication Date September 2019
Pages 314

Explore metaphors in the exquisite and enigmatic poetry of Song of Songs

One of the chief difficulties in interpreting the Song’s lyrics is the unusual imagery used to depict the lovers’ bodies. Why is the maiden’s hair compared to a flock of goats (4:1), the man’s cheeks likened to garden beds of spice (5:13), and the eyes of both lovers described as doves (4:1; 5:12)? While scholars speculate on the significance of these images, a systematic inquiry into the Song’s body metaphors is curiously absent. Based on insights from cognitive linguistics, this study incorporates biblical and comparative data to uncover the meaning of these metaphors surveying literature in the eastern Mediterranean (and beyond) that shares a similar form (poetry) and theme (love). Gault presents an interpretation of the Song’s body imagery that sheds light on the perception of beauty in Israel and its relationship to surrounding cultures.

Features

• Exploration of the Song’s use of universal themes and culturally specific variations
  
• Discussion of the Song’s literary structure and unity

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

Release the four angels of slaughter

READING ACTS: The Sixth Trumpet: An Uncountable Army – Revelation 9:13-21. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation. This post is on the sixth angel and the events of his trumpet.

UPDATE: I have noted the earlier posts in the series here and links.

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

Biblical Studies Carnival 170

PETER GOEMAN: Biblical Studies Carnival 170 (April 2020).

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

The imperial cult at Herculaneum

OVER AT THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG, Carl Rasmussen continues his blog series on the Roman imperial cult and its resonances with the early worship of Jesus.

Emperor Worship at Herculaneum

Emperor Worship at Herculaneum Part 2

I have noted the earlier posts in the series here and here.

Again, the 2016 St. Andrews Symposium on Divine Sonship is of interest for the current posts.

For earlier PaleoJudaica posts on Heculaneum, especially its library of carbonized scrolls, see here and here and follow the many links.

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

Review of Leatherbury, Inscribing faith in late antiquity

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Inscribing faith in late antiquity: between reading and seeing.

Sean Villareal Leatherbury, Inscribing faith in late antiquity: between reading and seeing. Image, text, and culture in classical antiquity . London; New York: Routledge, 2020. xvii, 366 p., [14 p. of plates]. ISBN 9781472459183 $140.00.

Review by
Michael Hahn, Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Michael.Hahn@dainst.de

Preview

This study by Sean Leatherbury aims to reconstruct the perception and performance of the reader of late antique inscriptions in churches, synagogues and mosques from about 300-800 CE. ...

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

Quine, Casting Down the Host of Heaven

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Casting Down the Host of Heaven

The Rhetoric of Ritual Failure in the Polemic Against the Host of Heaven

Series: Oudtestamentische Studiën, Old Testament Studies, Volume: 78

Author: Cat Quine

In Casting Down the Host of Heaven Cat Quine analyses the ambiguous nature of the Host and explores the role of ritual in the polemic against their worship. Although commonly assumed to be YHWH’s divine army, the book reveals their non-military and fluid nature. Quine demonstrates that it was the fluidity of the Host and their roles in the divine realm that permitted the creation of wide-ranging polemic against their worship. Her analysis shows that this polemic was expressed in ritual terms which persuaded its audiences, both ancient and modern, of its legitimacy and authority.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €104.00 / $125.00

E-Book
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42439-5
Publication Date: 23 Mar 2020

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-42438-8
Publication Date: 26 Mar 2020

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

The Golden Rule

PROF. JOHN J. COLLINS: Love Your Neighbor: How It Became the Golden Rule (TheTorah.com).

The precept וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” in Leviticus, is one of many action-oriented commandments focused on Israelite social cohesion. Only in Late Antique Jewish and early Christian sources, did the rule take on a transcendent role as the principle in which all of the Torah is encompassed.

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

HSM to HMANE

CHANGE: Harvard Semitic Museum Changes Name To Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (Oliver L. Riskin-Kutz, The Harvard Crimson).

I will feel nostalgic about the old title, but the rationale for the change makes sense. I wonder what they're going to do about the inscription in the stone lintel.

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

Free egyptological bibliography

THE NESEA BLOG: ONLINE EGYPTOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY: [TEMPORARY] FREE ACCESS. For you, special deal, but for limited time only. I hope not for long.

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

Did Peter go to Rome?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Apostle Peter in Rome. Jesus’ chief disciple examined (Nicola Denzey Lewis). Professor Denzey Lewis is skeptical that Peter ever went to Rome. I don't have a strong view either way. One the one hand, the testimonies that he was there don't start until more than a century after the fact. On the other, I don't find the arguments against them particularly persuasive.

Regarding "the lack of references to him in our earliest Roman Christian literature," it is true that Paul's letter to the Romans does not mention Peter. But the Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians (1 Clement), written near the end of the first century CE, refers to the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul in chapters 5-6. It doesn't specify the location of the death of either.

There is a tradition that Paul too was executed in Rome, but like the one about Peter, it is late.

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

Abaddon

READING ACTS: Who is Abaddon? Revelation 9:11. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation. We are still on the events of the blowing of the fifth angel's trumpet.

I have noted the earlier posts in the series here and links.

For another, later, text on the angel Abbadon, see at the end of this post.

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