Dorival, The Septuagint from Alexandria to Constantinople (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Septuagint from Alexandria to Constantinople

Canon, New Testament, Church Fathers, Catenae

Gilles Dorival

• An authoritative study of the reception of the Septuagint in Alexandria and in the Christian tradition, based on Gilles Dorival's Grinfield Lectures
• Explores the significance of the differences between the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible
• Investigates the development of the canon of the Hebrew Bible
• Examines the Jewish nature of the Deuterocanonical books and their importance to the study of early Judaism

Description

The Hebrew Torah was translated into Greek in Alexandria by Jewish scholars in the third century BCE, and other 'biblical' books followed to form the so-called Septuagint. Since the Septuagint contains a number of books and passages that are not part of the Hebrew Bible, the study of the Septuagint is essential to any account of the canon of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. However, the situation is complex because the Greek text of the Old Testament quoted in the New Testament and in the Church Fathers does not always match the Septuagint text as given by the earliest codices. Furthermore, it must be asked to what extent these texts of the Septuagint may have been Christianized.

Up until the fifth century, the Old Testament of the Church Fathers was exclusively the Septuagint—except in the Syriac area—either in its Greek form or in a language translated from this Greek form. The Septuagint thus formed a much more important role in the building of Christian identity than it is usually recognised. After Jerome's Vulgate prevailed in the West, the Septuagint remained the reference text of the catenae. These Byzantine compilations of extracts of Patristic biblical commentary were produced first in Palestine, then in Constantinople and its dependancies between the sixth and fifteenth centuries and became the most important media for the transmission of patristic commentary in these centuries. The patristic extracts in the catenae provide a remarkable witness to the text of the Greek Old Testament as it was known and used by the Church Fathers.

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Was Nimrod a goodie or a baddie?

PROF. CAROL BAKHOS: Nimrod: The Making of a Nemesis (TheTorah.com).

Genesis describes Nimrod as a great hunter before YHWH and a powerful king. In late Second Temple writings, Nimrod is connected to the Tower of Babel and seen as a rebel against God. This negative view of Nimrod persisted through the centuries in the writings of the Church Fathers, and was further expanded in rabbinic midrash and medieval Islamic literature.

Thanks to Bugs Bunny, he also has a reputation for being clueless.

Other PaleoJudaica posts on Nimrod are here and here.

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Amethyst seal engraved with balsam tree excavated in Jerusalem

ANCIENT BLING WATCH: Rare biblical ‘balsam tree’ found depicted on 2000-year-old amethyst seal. The small lilac stone featuring the engraving of a bird and a branch with five fruits had fallen in the main drainage channel of Jerusalem from the Second Temple period. (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

For more on the balsam vs. persimmon plants, see here.

For more posts on ancient bling, see here and links, here, and here.

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Exhibition: "The Sanhedrin Trail"

ARCHAEOLOGY AND RABBINICS: What was Jewish life in Israel like at the time of the Mishna and Talmud? A new exhibition by the Israel Antiquities Authority at the Yigal Allon Center in Kibbutz Ginossar offers a glimpse of the centuries when Jewish sages managed to rebuild a community in the Galilee (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

The Magdala Stone is on public display for the first time.

For more on the interactive hiking trail also called "The Sanhedrin Trail," see here and here.

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Samaritan Sukkot 2021

SAMARITAN WATCH: Samaritans gather at dawn to mark the start of Sukkot. A month after Jews celebrated the festival, members of the faith gathered at Mount Gerizim, near Nablus (Michael Daventry, Jewish News). The Samaritan celebration of Sukkot began yesterday.

For more on Samaritan Sukkot, see here and links.

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Review of Gottlieb, Targum Chronicles and its Place Among the Late Targums (Brill)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Targum Chronicles and its Place Among the Late Targums. (A.J. Berkovitz).

Gottlieb, Leeor. Targum Chronicles and Its Place Among the Late Targums. Brill, 2020.

[...]

As the book’s name implies, Gottlieb offers a detailed study of Targum Chronicles. Targum Chronicles itself combines into one neat package two features: a verse-by-verse Aramaic translation of the Hebrew books of 1-2 Chronicles and an anthology of rabbinic exegesis, mostly from the Babylonian Talmud, on those biblical books. In his 518-page study of this text, Gottlieb develops two major claims. First, he attempts to definitively prove that sometime between the end of the twelfth and the late thirteenth century, a European Jew, who likely lived in Italy, composed this Aramaic edition of Chronicles as a tool for Jewish Bible study. Prior scholarship had, by contrast, dated Targum Chronicles to between the 4th and 8th centuries and set its context as the Land of Israel or its environs.

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Ben Gurion University has closed its Bible department

SURPRISE SHUTDOWN: Dropping Bible studies is highly problematic - opinion. Ben Gurion University closed the Bible department this academic year without making a public announcement (MORDECHAI COGAN, Jerusalem Post).

I don't know the back story here, but this is bad news. I hope ben Gurion will reconsider its decision.

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Seven sites in Israel

EXCAVATIONS: 7 Lesser-known Archaeology Sites in Israel. Archaeological sites in Israel you may not be aware of: An Assyrian stronghold in Tel Aviv port, the city that may or may not have been biblical Ziklag, where the Edomite gods met our Maker and more (Andrew Califf, Haaretz).

Israel is a small country that has been trodden for more than 2 million years by humans and their predecessors. This land of clashes between human species and in more modern times, between religions, is the archaeologist’s dream but not all sites are equal, or equally accessible to visitors. Here are seven of some lesser-known sites in Israel, listed from north to south.

[...]

For more on Ein Keshatot (Umm el-Kanatir, Keshatot Rechavam) and its ancient synagogue, see here and links. For more on Shivta, see here and links (cf. here). For more on the vicinity of Ein Hatzeva, see here.

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Remember that Irish bog Psalter?

VARIANT READINGS: The Faddan More Psalter (Brent Nongbri).

One of the most interesting manuscripts to come to light in recent years is the Faddan More Psalter, a parchment codex in a leather cover that contained the Psalms in Latin. It was discovered by a worker harvesting peat for fuel from a bog in central Ireland in 2006. The acidic environment of bogs, famous for preserving human bodies, also preserved parts of this codex in a remarkable way. ...

PaleoJudaica followed the story of the bog Psalter from the annoucement of its discovery. For posts, start here and follow the links back.

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Angelini, L’imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

L’imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante

Une analyse comparée de la notion de “démon” dans la Septante et dans la Bible Hébraïque

Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 197

Author: Anna Angelini

This book offers a thorough analysis of demons in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint in the wider context of the ancient Near East and the Greek world. Taking a fresh and innovative angle of enquiry, Anna Angelini investigates continuities and changes in the representation of divine powers in Hellenistic Judaism, thereby revealing the role of the Greek translation of the Bible in shaping ancient demonology, angelology, and pneumatology. Combining philological and semantic analyses with a historical approach and anthropological insights, the author both develops a new method for analyzing religious categories within biblical traditions and sheds new light on the importance of the Septuagint for the history of ancient Judaism.

Le livre propose une analyse approfondie des démons dans la Bible Hébraïque et la Septante, à la lumière du Proche Orient Ancien et du contexte grec. Par un nouvel angle d’approche, Anna Angelini met en lumière dynamiques de continuité et de changement dans les représentations des puissances divines à l’époque hellénistique, en soulignant l’importance de la traduction grecque de la Bible pour la compréhension de la démonologie, de l’angélologie et de la pneumatologie antiques. En intégrant l’analyse philologique et sémantique avec une approche historique et des méthodes anthropologiques, l’autrice développe une nouvelle méthodologie pour analyser des catégories religieuses à l’intérieur des traditions bibliques et affirme la valeur de la Septante pour l’histoire du judaïsme antique.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €134.00 / $161.00 Hardback

Copyright Year: 2021

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46847-4
Publication Date: 06 Sep 2021

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46846-7
Publication Date: 20 Oct 2021

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Archaeological evidence for the United Monarchy?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: King David’s Judah Found? New study examines archaeological evidence for early Judahite state (Nathan Steinmeyer). This essay summarizes a recent article that you can read in full for free:

The 10th Century BCE in Judah: Archaeology and the Biblical Tradition

Citation:
Garfinkel, Y., 2021. The 10th Century BCE in Judah: Archaeology and the Biblical Tradition. Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology , 1 , pp. 126-154. Copy at http://www.tinyurl.com/yk6l8jpp

Abstract:
In the framework of the regional project in the Judean Shephelah, which started in 2007, four sites were investigated: Khirbet Qeiyafa, Khirbet el-Ra‘i, Socoh, and Lachish. The data for the 10th century is presented here together with the relevant biblical traditions. The data is analyzed according to an urban geography model and the gradual development and territorial expansion of the Kingdom of Judah is suggested.

Follow the link for a link to a pdf version of the full text.

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Was the Flood story added later?

PROF. DAVID M. CARR: The Original Primeval History of the Hebrews (TheTorah.com).

Before the flood story was added, the primeval history focused on human mortality, family relationships, and etiological explanations for human behaviors and professions. Only later did this primeval history develop into a broader narrative that included stories of the flood and the Tower of Babel.

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Levantine late-antique earthquakes

I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM! AND I GOT TWO. Scholar explores impact of Levantine earthquake of 418/419 AD (Saeb Rawashdeh, Jordan Times).

AMMAN — Conclusions about an earthquake that damaged “many towns and villages in Palestine” in 418/419 AD came from the ancient chronicler, Marcellinus Comes, who died in 534 AD, noted an American archaeologist.

“The geological evidence is somewhat ambiguous, as well, in part because another large earthquake happened in 363 AD, and it’s difficult to distinguish geological [and archaeological] evidence from events only a half-century apart,” said Ian Jones from University of California, San Diego.

[...]

Both earthquakes caused a lot of damage to Jerusalem.

I have mentioned the earthquake of 363 CE here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The earthquake of 418 or 419 appears to be new to me, although this post seems to allude to it.

For posts on biblical-era earthquakes, start here and follow the links.

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The Sifting Project has found a Kufic inscription fragment

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: FIND AND FINDER OF THE MONTH: YARDEN SHOR DISCOVERED A FRAGMENT OF AN 8TH CENTURY CE ARABIC INSCRIPTION ENGRAVED ON A MARBLE TILE. There is probably not enough remaining of the inscription to decipher it. But wel'l see.

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Review of Parks, Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note I Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus: Women in Q (Hilary Floyd).

Sara Parks, Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus: Women in Q (Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019)

Opening:

In this compelling monograph, Sara Parks combines two scholarly interests that have not been brought together before: studies of Q, a hypothetical source that explains the material shared by the Gospel of Matthew and Luke, and studies of the historical Jesus’ relationship to women. Parks argues that Q uses a unique literary device, which she terms “parallel gender pairs” (e.g., the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin; she also refers to them as “gendered pairs”), to treat male and female listeners with a certain kind of equality. Although this literary device does not appear in any extant Hellenistic or early Jewish literature, Parks finds echoes of it in some of the texts that follow Q. ...

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Sefaria releases a new-old German translation of the Talmud

TALMUD WATCH: A pioneering German translation of the Talmud, finished in 1935, is now accessible online (Philissa Cramer and Joe Baur, JTA).

Joshua Foer, an author and cofounder of Sefaria, said in a statement that the translation’s online release represents the triumph of Jewish tradition over the forces of hate that lapped against Goldschmidt as he worked.

“Goldschmidt released the translation at a time of rising antisemitism to dispel dangerous myths and make the text accessible to all German speakers around the world,” Foer said. He added, “That this translation is being made more accessible today with the help of German and Austrian rabbinic students and scholars representing the future of German Judaism is a fitting celebration of Goldschmidt’s legacy.”

For more on the Sefaria website and its Talmud-related publication see here and links.

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Evidence for Jewish priestesses in antiquity

EPIGRAPHY: Stone epitaphs of Jewish women in ancient Rome. Gaudentia, Eulogia, Besula (Wall Street International, Brenda Lee Bohen).

These inscriptions from Italy point to the existence of ancient Jewish priestesses, elders, and synagogue leaders. The 3rd/4th century CE catacomb inscription in Rome is another early reference to a Jewish priestess. The earliest such reference I have encountered is to a priestess in the Jewish temple at Leontopolis (Egypt) dated to 28 BCE.

The role of Jewish priestess is not found at all in the Bible, but it has been revived in recent years. I discuss the matter here with links. That discussion is now out of date, thanks to the evidence mentioned above.

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

Gods, Angels, and Demons in Deuteronomy?

SPOILER: YES. Are There Gods, Angels, and Demons in Deuteronomy? (Prof. Jonathan Ben-Dov, TheTorah.com).

Several poetic verses in Deuteronomy were used in Second Temple times to support the belief in multiple characters in the divine realm. Thus, the scribes of the early Masoretic text, who opposed this belief, sometimes went so far as to revise or excise these references.

I have commented on Deuteronomy 32:8 here and here.

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

Ritual purity in the time of Jesus

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Clean or Unclean? Ritual Purity and Jewish Identity (John Drummond).

Regardless of religious party, however, a vision of a people set apart by God and fit to dwell in the midst of his holiness was central to the piety of Second Temple Judaism.

To learn more about ritual purity and its role in Jesus’ ministry, read “Jesus and Ritual Impurity” by Matthew Thiessen, published in the Fall 2021 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

The latter article is behind the subscription wall.

Some PaleoJudaica posts on ritual purity in ancient Judaism are collected here (cf. here) and here (cf. here).

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

Tenure-track Bible job at JTS

H-JUDAIC: FEATURED JOB: Assistant Professor of Bible, Jewish Theological Seminary. Details at the link. "Applications received by November 1 will be given full consideration."

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Did Nehemiah build a wall?

THE BIBLE AND INTEPRETATION:

The Walls that Nehemiah Built: The Town of Jerusalem in the Persian Period

The biblical books Nehemiah 2 and 3 relay the story of Nehemiah’s trip around the destroyed town of Jerusalem and of the rebuilding of its fortifications. Despite the detailed description of walls and gates, scholars debate the actual size of the settlement in Persian times and even question whether the walls were really reconstructed. This paper investigates the facts `on the ground’. Was any town wall of the Persian period ever excavated? How large was Nehemiah’s Jerusalem and how did it function within the Persian empire? Was it a walled town with a central temple, the seat of the governor, a centre of administration, religion and economy? Or was it a small undefended settlement in which only the local temple had any significance? Spoiler alert: there are as many opinions as there are scholars, and the archaeological evidence is meagre.

By Margreet L. Steiner
Independent Archaeologist
October 2021

For more on the question of Nehemiah's wall, see the links collected here.

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The Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages

From Judeo-Greek to Karaim, Oxford courses on 12 rare Jewish languages aim to keep heritages alive (Michelle Krasovitski, JTA).

The Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages in the UK has launched its inaugural semester of courses in 12 Jewish languages, belonging to the Aramaic, Arabic and Turkic language families. They range in number of speakers, from millions to none.

The courses, which began this week, run for an hour a week online and are free for all students.

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Was Eve Adam's helpmate?

PROF. GARY RENDSBURG: Woman: Helpmate No Longer (TheTorah.com).

Eve was created as Adam’s עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדֹּו ʿezer ke-negdo (Genesis 2:18). What is the meaning of this enigmatic phrase?

The suggestion in this essay is possible, of course, but I am not convinced. The Hebrew meaning "helper" makes sense in the context. The word is not attested elsewherein Hebrew with the meaning "woman." Anytime you have to move to an Arabic cognate to explain a Hebrew word, you are conjecturing. And I don't see the gain in doing so here.

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Vast Byzantine-era winepress complex excavated at Yavneh

VINTAGE ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeological Sensation in Yavne: Ancient World’s Largest Complex of Winepresses Uncovered (The Jewish Press).

It appears that the town of Yavne, home to the Sanhedrin in exile after the destruction of the Second Temple, became a worldwide powerhouse of wine production some 1,500 years ago. A vast, well-designed industrial estate from the Byzantine period with an impressive wine production complex—the largest of its kind in the world in that period—has been excavated in the city of Yavne over the past two years.

[...]

PaleoJudaica posts on ancient winepresses, mostly in Israel, are collected here, plus here and here.

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Roman-era temple excavated in Tyre

PHOENICIAN WATCH: New Roman Temple Discovered in Ancient Phoenician City of Tyre. The temple's location "in the most elevated area of the ancient island highlights this building's particular status." (Jesse Holth, ARTNEWS). So far the excavators don't know which god was worshipped in the temple.

Some of PaleoJudaica's posts on the ancient city of Tyre are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. And Tyre is, of course, mentioned from time to time in the Bible.

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Without form and void?

PROF. JAMES A. DIAMOND: Creating Order from Tohu and Bohu. (TheTorah.com).

God encounters the primordial תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu and bohu), dividing it into its constituent parts and reshaping it into a wiser, more orderly world, a task entrusted to humans thereafter.

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Neumann & Thomason (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East

BIBILOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East. Notice of a New Book: Neumann, Kiersten & Allison Thomason (eds.). 2021. The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East. London: Routledge. Follow the link for details.

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Review of Hannestad, Nicator Seleucus I and his empire

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Nicator Seleucus I and his empire.

Lise Hannestad, Nicator Seleucus I and his empire. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2020. Pp. 181. ISBN 9788772191737 249,95 Kr.

Review by
Branko van Oppen, Tampa Museum of Art. branko.vanoppen@tampamuseum.org

Excerpt:

While acknowledging throughout that sources for Seleucus are scarce, Hannestad presents her interpretations with surprising certainty. The point is not so much that this reviewer disagrees with her interpretations, but that historians ought to differentiate established facts from their own understanding – if only for the sake of the general reader.

King Seleucus I Nicator is mentioned in the Bible in Daniel 11:5 as one of the princes of the king of the south. For more on him and on his son Antiochus I Soter and on Seleucus's second wife, Queen Stratonice, who also married Antiochus, see here and links.

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On the origin of the Armenian alphabet

ARMENIAN WATCH: All Things Assyrian: The Origin of the Armenian Alphabet (Rev. Dr. Vahan Tootikian, Armenian Weekly, rpt. AINA). Earlier PaleoJudaica posts on the origin of the Armenian alphabet are here, here, and here. For other posts on the Armenian language, which preserves some otherwise lost ancient Jewish literature, start here and follow the links..

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Interview with Raija Sollamo

WILLIAM ROSS: SEPTUAGINT SCHOLAR INTERVIEW: RAIJA SOLLAMO. For notice of Dr. Ross's previous interviews with Septuagint scholars, see here and links.

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The Sifting Project is seeking donations

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFITING PROJECT: HELP SUPPORT THE PARTICIPATION OF SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE SIFTING.

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Did an evil angel father Cain?

PROF. RACHEL ADELMAN: Cain, Son of the Fallen Angel Samael (TheTorah.com).

What made Cain capable of murdering his brother? Why was the flood generation so wicked? According to Pirqei de-Rabbi Eliezer, the fallen angel Samael embodies the serpent and seduces Eve, whereupon she conceives Cain. Engendered by this “bad seed,” all the descendants of Cain become corrupt, destined to be wiped out by mighty waters.

In other legends, Sammael (Samael, Samma'el) mated with Adam's first wife Lilith and, as the evil angelic Prince of Rome, conspired against the Ten Martyrs. Sammael also appears in the Aramaic incantation bowls.

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Steven Fraade reflects on his own work.

ANCIENt JEW REVIEW: Retrospective on the Intersection of Translation and Commentary in Ancient Judaism and Its Greco-Roman Context | Steven Fraade.

From my first book to my most recent, comparison (and its pitfalls), both within Judaism and without, has been a constant preoccupation as I continued to focus on texts of legal interpretation, and to struggle with how best to translate the rabbinic texts upon which I was commenting and to what extent either should inform or presume the other.

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Fossil giants?!

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: On the Shoulders of Giants. How the ancients understood prehistoric fossils (Jennifer Drummond).

In this rich world of stories and folklore, it was only natural for people to look for evidence of giants in the world around them. In their article “Encounters with Fossil Giants” in the Fall 2021 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Steven Fine and Elisha Fine discuss examples from ancient history where individuals found what they thought were the bones of giants. Locals would often discover unusually large fossils and present them to visitors as the remains of famous or mythical giants.

Most of the article is behind the subscription wall.

For a thematically related post, see here. Many years ago I commented here on Josephus' giant bones. For some modern giant-skeleton hoaxes, see here.

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First-Temple-era toilet excavated in Jerusalem

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Archaeologists find 2,700-year-old toilet in luxurious palace in Jerusalem. The extraordinary find sheds light on life under the kings of Judah: "Only the rich could afford toilets" (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post). For more on the excavation of the Armon Hanatziv Promenade, see here and links. Cross-file under Latrine News.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 187

THE AMATEUR EXEGETE: BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL #187 (SEPTEMBER 2021) (Ben).

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Bodor, The Theological Profile of the Peshitta of Isaiah (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Theological Profile of the Peshitta of Isaiah

Series: Supplements to the Textual History of the Bible, Volume: 5

Author: Attila Bodor

In The Theological Profile of the Peshitta of Isaiah, Attila Bodor explores theological elements in the book of Isaiah as represented in the Peshitta. Through a close study of its interpretative renderings, the author shows that this lesser-known ancient version is not only an important witness to textual history and a repository of early exegetical traditions but also testifies to the beliefs of the early Syriac-speaking community from which the Peshitta emerged. In the monograph, sixty-three Peshitta divergences from the Hebrew version of Isaiah are collected and analyzed in order to illustrate the theological implications and the impact of these divergent renderings on the interpretation and reception of the major Isaianic themes that treat God, the Messiah, and the people of God.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €108.00 / $130.00

Copyright Year: 2021
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46912-9
Publication Date: 30 Aug 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-46903-7
Publication Date: 02 Sep 2021

Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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Israel or YHWH?

DR. RABBI DAVID FRANKEL: When YHWH Went Forth: A New Reading of Psalm 114 (TheTorah.com).

What did the sea see to make it flee? Who caused the mountains to skip like rams?

The emendation of "Israel" to "YHWH" in v. 1 may sound extreme, but I think the author of the essay makes a good case for it.

Not mentioned in the essay, but arguably there is parallel scribal emendation in Deuteronomy 32:8. The Masoretic Text refers to "the sons of Israel," but the Septuagint and 4QDeut^j read "the sons of God." The latter reading is clearly more original. One can hardly imagine a scribe introducing it to replace "the sons of Israel." It also makes much better sense in context. But the mythological element of God parceling out the nations to other divine beings became an embarrassment. Some later scribe introduced the awkward reference to Israel to try to get around it.

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Who were the Levites?

PROF. ALEXANDER ROFÉ: Levites: A Transjordanian Tribe of Priests (TheTorah.com).

Pre-exilic biblical texts describe Levites as landless priests who can serve in any holy site. The origin of this status can be found in ancient times, when the tribe of Levi lost control of their territory in the Transjordan, but remained in the vicinity serving in the Nebo temple, where their ancestor Moses was buried.

This seems as plausible as the various other reconstructions of the origin and history of the Levites. Our sources are incomplete and contradictory.

Some PaleoJudaica posts on the subject are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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Where was the "Red Sea?"

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: The Location of the Biblical ‘Red Sea’ (Barry J. Beitzel).

At the end of the day, one must recognize that beyond a limited and generic description found in the Bible, augmented by textual clues found in both Hebrew and Egyptian lexicography, and by considerations of geographic and terrestrial logic, no definitive evidence of any sort exists to support a precise locational tradition, aside from the demonstrable fact that the event must have occurred within relatively close proximity to the eastern frontier of Egypt’s Delta.

I have posted on the question of the crossing-place of the "Sea of Reeds" here.

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Review of Mastrocinque et al. (eds.), Ancient magic: then and now

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Ancient magic: then and now.

Attilio Mastrocinque, Joseph Sanzo, Marianna Scapini, Ancient magic: then and now. Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beitraege, 74. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2020. Pp. 451. ISBN 9783515127967 €82,00.

Review by
Elaine Sanderson, University of Liverpool. elaine.sanderson@liverpool.ac.uk

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

This volume is the product of the Humboldt Kolleg ‘Magic in the Ancient World – New Perspectives’ conference held in Italy in 2016. Following broad surveys of the relationships between magic and science and magic and religion in the Preface (Giacomo De Angelis) and Foreward (Hans-Christian Günther) respectively, Marianna Scapini and Joseph E. Sanzo (Introduction) outline the volume’s aim to consider ‘ancient magic’ as an ‘analytical construct and as a domain of historical inquiry and imagination’ (p. 19). ...

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Ancient Near East Monographs

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Monograph Series: ANCIENT NEAR EAST MONOGRAPHS / MONOGRAFIAS SOBRE EL ANTIGUO CERCANO ORIENTE. There are many volumes of interest in this series. They are all open access.

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Review of Walsh, The origins of early Christian literature

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The origins of early Christian literature: contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman literary culture.

Robyn Faith Walsh, The origins of early Christian literature: contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman literary culture. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. 325. ISBN 9781108835305 $99.99.

Review by
Brent Nongbri, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society. brent.nongbri@mf.no

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Brenner-Idan &. Yee (eds.), Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Vol. 2 (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah

Volume 2

Athalya Brenner-Idan (Anthology Editor), Gale A. Yee (Anthology Editor)

Hardback
$115.00 $103.50

Ebook (PDF)
$103.50 $82.80

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$103.50 $82.80

Product details

Published Aug 26 2021
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 248
ISBN 9780567701152
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series Texts @ Contexts
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This volume brings together disparate views about biblical texts in the books of Samuel, Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah and examines their influence in the life of contemporary communities, demonstrating how today's environments and disorders help readers to acquire new insights into such texts.

The contributing scholars hail from different continents - from East Asia to the United States to Europe to South Africa and Israel - and count themselves as members of various Jewish and Christian traditions or secularist ways of life. But, in spite of their differences in location and community membership, and perhaps in the spirit of contemporary global discontents, they share preoccupations with questions of ethics in politics and life, 'proper' death, violence and social exclusion or inclusion. This volume offers readers a deeper understanding of how politics and faith can be melded, both in ancient and contemporary contexts, to serve the interests of certain classes and societies, often at the expense of others.

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Jerusalem's historical water supply

CISTERNS AND AQUEDUCTS: Water sustainability throughout Jerusalem's history. The now-dry Sultan's Pool, named for Sultan Suleiman I (1520-1566), was one of Jerusalem’s most important water reservoirs for hundreds of years (SUSAN DE LA FUENTE, Jerusalem Post).

Even in First Temple times approximately 3,000 years ago, water cisterns were painstakingly chiseled into the rock, then coated with sealing layers of yellow waterproofing plaster to form substantial underground reservoirs. When a cistern of this type was discovered near the Temple Mount in 2012, it proved that the Gihon Spring, though useful, was not an adequate source of water for Temple needs.

[...]

I noted the discovery of this cistern (I think) in 2012 here and of the 2005 playground cistern here (when another was found in the same area in 2019).

I also noted the discovery of the section of the Lower Aqueduct to Jerusalem in 2015 here and of the High-Level Aqueduct in 2010 here.

For more on the work of Sir Charles Warren, see here and links.

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Remembering Eilat Mazar

FROM ONE OF HER MAIN FUNDERS: ‘Let the stones speak for themselves.’ Eilat Mazar offered me a chance to help link the Bible to modern times. It was one of my best investments (Roger Hertog, Times of Israel Blogs).

Even the naysayers welcomed her contributions. As noted in a 2005 article in The New York Times, “Other scholars who have toured the site are skeptical that the foundation walls Eilat Mazar has discovered are David’s palace, but they acknowledged that what she found was rare and important — a major public building from around the 10th century B.C.E. with pottery shards that date from the time of David and Solomon…”

For more on the career of Dr. Mazar, start here and follow the links.

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How bad is death in the Hebrew Bible? Bad.

PROF. MEGHAN HENNING: No Heaven or Hell, Only Sheʾol (TheTorah.com).

Sheʾol and its synonyms, בּוֹר “pit,” שַׁחַת “chasm,” and אֲבַדּוֹן “oblivion,” was the fate of all people upon death. The wicked were sent there early, while the righteous were rewarded with a long life. During the Second Temple period, the negative attitude about death and sheʾol develops into a concept of post-mortem punishment and eventually hell. 1 Enoch’s four chambers for the dead is the first step in that direction.

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Frendo, Approaching Biblical Archaeology (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Approaching Biblical Archaeology

Anthony J. Frendo (Author)

Paperback
$29.95 $26.95

Hardback
$90.00 $81.00

Ebook (PDF)
$26.95 $21.56

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$26.95 $21.56

Product details

Published Sep 09 2021
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 160v ISBN 9780567677532
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

Anthony J. Frendo introduces biblical students and scholars alike to the discipline of archaeology by explaining how the minds of professional archaeologists work, explaining what archaeologists seek, how they go about doing so, and how they interpret their data. Frendo shows those engaged in biblical scholarship how they can properly integrate biblical research with archaeological discoveries in a way that allows the bible and archaeology to be viewed and kept as distinct disciplines, the respective results of which, where relevant, may be integrated in productive discussion.

Frendo also examines how the archaeology of the ancient Near East (particularly that of the southern Levant) has an essential bearing on how scholars can better appreciate the text of the bible, including its religious message. Frendo examines such matters as artefacts, stratigraphy and chronology, and archaeological reasoning. He also demonstrates that, whilst generally it is archaeology that casts light on the biblical text, at points biblical interpretation can help archaeologists to understand certain data.

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CRINT Essay Prize Winner 2021

ANNOUNCEMENT: CRINT Essay Prize 2021 Winner. Congratulations to Dr. A.J. Berkovitz, who was awarded the 2021 prize for his essay Psalm 45 Between Abraham and Jesus: A Polemic and its Shelf Life. Details at the link.

For more on the CRINT Essay Prize, see here.

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Saint Jerome's feast day 2021

THE FEAST DAY OF ST. JEROME IS TODAY, 30 SEPTEMBER. Jerome was one of the few Church Fathers to learn and use Hebrew. The Latin Vulgate is his complete translation of the Hebrew Bible. I last noted his feast day in 2016. For more on him, follow the links there. More recent posts are here, here, and here.

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Theophilos, Numismatics and Greek Lexicography (T&T Clark)

RECENT BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Numismatics and Greek Lexicography

Michael P. Theophilos (Author)

Hardback
$120.00 $108.00

Ebook (PDF)
$35.95 $28.76

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$35.95 $28.76

Product details

Published Nov 28 2019
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 296
ISBN 9780567674364
Imprint T&T Clark
Illustrations 76 bw illus
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

Michael P. Theophilos explores the fascinating variety of numismatic contributions to Greek lexicography, pertaining to lexicographic studies of the Second Temple period in general, and the New Testament in particular.

Theophilos considers previous scholarly attempts to grapple with, and incorporate, critical numismatic material into the emerging discipline of Greek lexicography - including foundational work by F. Preisigke and E. Kiessling - before outlining his own methodological approach. Theophilos' then examines the resources available for engaging with the numismatic material, and presents a series of specific case studies throughout the New Testament material. His carefully annotated images of coins draw readers in to a greater understanding of the material culture of the Greco-Roman world, and how this impacted upon the Greek language and the New Testament.

The paperback is coming out soon.

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Diversity and Rabbinization (ed. McDowell, Naiweld & Stökl Ben Ezra; Open Edition Books)

THE AWOL BLOG: Diversity and Rabbinization: Jewish Texts and Societies between 400 and 1,000 CE.

Diversity and Rabbinization: Jewish Texts and Societies between 400 and 1,000 CE
Gavin McDowell, Ron Naiweld et Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra (dir.)
Diversity and Rabbinizationv Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures Series

An open-access book.

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More on Qumran as a festival-gathering site

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE DAMASCUS DOCUMENT: Medieval Hebrew document could reveal why Dead Sea Scrolls were found in Qumran. Damascus Covenant could hold the answers (Tom Metcalfe, Live Science).

Now, research suggests Qumran was in fact the site of a huge annual ceremony of the mystical Jewish sect of the Essenes, in which its members gathered from cities and rural communities all over Israel to observe a key ritual known as the Covenant of Renewal. Qumran's peculiar construction, the researchers suggest, reflects this ceremonial function. Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls also mention a festival that seems to be referring to the same gathering of the Essenes, the researcher said.

According to the new theory, many of the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves could have been written by Essene communities throughout the country and brought to Qumran at the time of the annual festival to study and be stored there.

I noted this story back in August, when Rossella Tercatin wrote on it in the Jerusalem Post. The Times of Israel now also has an article on it here.

The suggestion is possible, and is pretty consistent with the scenario I suggested years ago. I doubt that we have enough evidence at present to solve the matter decisively.

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Stroumsa, The Crucible of Religion in Late Antiquity (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Guy G. Stroumsa. The Crucible of Religion in Late Antiquity. Selected Essays. 2021. X, 305 pages. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum / Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity 124. 84,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-160691-5.

Published in English.
The religious revolution of late antiquity and its intertwined religious history are reflected in a broad array of new forms of religious belief and practice, of which Christianity is only the most perceptible one. It is represented in the passage from polytheistic systems to monotheistic and dualist ones, as well as in the move from rituals centred upon sacrifices in temples to rituals established upon scriptures, in churches, synagogues, or mosques. This double dynamism of beliefs and rituals sheds light on the transformations of religious ethos. Guy G. Stroumsa's two-part volume reflects this double argument. The essays all focus on central aspects, such as in Part I on mental aspects of religion in the Roman Empire, as expressed in early Christian texts and traditions, and in Part II on religious communication across the empire's cultures and communities.

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Bodner & Johnson (eds.), Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings (T&T Clark)

RECENT BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings

Keith Bodner (Anthology Editor), Benjamin J.M. Johnson (Anthology Editor)

Hardback
$120.00 $108.00

Ebook (PDF)
$35.95 $28.76

Product details

Published Dec 12 2019
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 320
ISBN 9780567680907
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This book is an examination of characters in the books of Kings; showing how understanding and interpretation of key characters affects readings of the story. The volume begins with more general pieces addressing how the study of characters can shed light on the composition history of Kings and on how characters and characterization can be considered with respect to ethics, particularly with respect to the moral complexity of biblical characters.

Contributors then consider key characters within the Kings narrative in depth, such as Nathan, Bathsheba, Solomon and Jezebel. The contributors use their own specific expertise to analyze these characters and more, drawing on insights from literary theory and considering such approaches as questioning our view of a particular character with based on the character within the text with whom we identify. Contributors also assess whether or not characters as portrayed in the biblical text necessarily match up to their possible counterparts in history.

The paperback is coming out soon.

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Shemeni Atzeret and Simchat Torah 2021

SHEMINI ATZERET begins tonight at sundown. In Israel, this is also the holiday of Simchat Torah (Simhat Torah). Outside of Israel, the latter holiday begins tomorrow at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating!

Last year's Shemini Atzeret post is here. The 2017 post has biblical etc. links.

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Edelman et al. (eds.), Deuteronomy in the Making (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Deuteronomy in the Making
Studies in the Production of Debarim

Edited by: Diana Edelman, Kåre Berge, Philippe Guillaume and Benedetta Rossi

Volume 533 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110713312

eBook
Published: August 23, 2021
ISBN: 9783110713312

Hardcover
Published: August 23, 2021
ISBN: 9783110713053

About this book

A number of long-standing theories concerning the production of Deuteronomy are currently being revisited. This volume takes a fresh look at the theory that there was an independent legal collection comprising chs 12-26 that subsequently was set within one or two narrative frames to yield the book, with ongoing redactional changes. Each contributor has been asked to focus on how the “core” might have functioned as a stand-alone document or, if exploring a theme or motif, to take note of commonalities and differences within the “core” and “frames” that might shed light on the theory under review. Some of the articles also revisit the theory of a northern origin of the “core” of the book, while others challenge de Wette’s equation of Deuteronomy with the scroll found during temple repairs under Josiah. With Deuteronomic studies in a state of flux, this is a timely collection by a group of international scholars who use a range of methods and who, in varying degrees, work with or challenge older theories about the book’s origin and growth to approach the central focus from many angles. Readers will find multivalent evidence they can reflect over to decide where they stand on the issue of Deuteronomy as a framed legal “core.”

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Introduction to Numismatic Terms and Methods

THE AWOL BLOG: Introduction to Numismatic Terms and Methods. A thorough introduction to the study of coins by the American Numismatic Society. Cross-file under Numismatics.

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Beavis & Kateusz (eds.) Rediscovering the Marys (T&T Clark)

RECENT BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Rediscovering the Marys
Maria, Mariamne, Miriam

Mary Ann Beavis (Anthology Editor), Ally Kateusz (Anthology Editor)

Hardback
$115.00 $103.50

Ebook (PDF)
$35.95 $28.76

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$35.95 $28.76

Product details

Published Jan 23 2020
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 288
ISBN 9780567683458
Imprint T&T Clark
Illustrations 50
Dimensions 9 x 6 inchesv Series Scriptural Traces
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This interdisciplinary volume of text and art offers new insights into various unsolved mysteries associated with Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Mary the Mother of Jesus, and Miriam the sister of Moses. Mariamic traditions are often interconnected, as seen in the portrayal of these women as community leaders, prophets, apostles and priests. These traditions also are often inter-religious, echoing themes back to Miriam in the Hebrew Bible as well as forward to Maryam in the Qur'an. The chapters explore questions such as: which biblical Mary did the author of the Gospel of Mary intend to portray-Magdalene, Mother, or neither? Why did some writers depict Mary of Nazareth as a priest? Were extracanonical scriptures featuring Mary more influential than the canonical gospels on the depiction of Maryam in the Qur'an?

Contributors dig deep into literature, iconography, and archaeology to offer cutting edge research under three overarching topics. The first section examines the question of "which Mary?" and illustrates how some ancient authors (and contemporary scholars) may have conflated the biblical Marys. The second section focuses on Mary of Nazareth, and includes research related to the portrayal of Mary the Mother of Jesus as a Eucharistic priest. The final section, “Recovering Receptions of Mary in Art, Archeology, and Literature,” explores how artists and authors have engaged with one or more of the Marys, from the early Christian era through to medieval and modern times.

Coming out in paperback soon.

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How to end a line in Hebrew

THE ETC BLOG: Hebrew Scribes at the End of the Line (Anthony Ferguson).

Composing a text by hand demands an awareness of certain details that we can ignore when using a word processor. One of these details is if the next written word corresponds to the available space. At times, the space didn't for Hebrew scribes, and when this happened, they had several ways to navigate this situation. Let’s review some of these. ...

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Review of Mouton (ed.), Flesh and bones

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Flesh and bones: the individual and his body in the ancient Mediterranean basin.

Alice Mouton, Flesh and bones: the individual and his body in the ancient Mediterranean basin. Semitica et Classica: Supplementa (SUPSEC), 2. Turnhout: Brepols, 2020. Pp. 240. ISBN 9782503590387 €65,00.

Review by
Julianne Burnett, Asbury University. julianne.burnett@asbury.edu

The volume includes essays on ancient Egyptian, Hittite, Akkadian, biblical Hebrew, and Greco-Roman literature.

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Crouch, Israel and Judah Redefined (CUP)

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Israel and Judah Redefined
Migration, Trauma, and Empire in the Sixth Century BCE

Part of Society for Old Testament Study Monographs

AUTHOR: C. L. Crouch, Fuller Theological Seminary, California
DATE PUBLISHED: August 2021
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108473767

£ 75.00 Hardback

Description

In Israel and Judah Redefined, C. L. Crouch uses trauma studies, postcolonial theory, and social-scientific research on migration to analyse the impact of mass displacements and imperial power on Israelite and Judahite identity in the sixth century BCE. Crouch argues that the trauma of deportation affected Israelite identity differently depending on resettlement context. Deportees resettled in rural Babylonia took an isolationist approach to Israelite identity, whereas deportees resettled in urban contexts took a more integrationist approach. Crouch also emphasises the impact of mass displacement on identity concerns in the homeland, demonstrating that displacement and the experience of Babylonian imperial rule together facilitated major developments in Judahite identity. The diverse experiences of this period produced bitter conflict between Israelites and Judahites, as well as diverse attempts to resolve this conflict. Inspired by studies of forced migration and by postcolonial analyses of imperial domination, Crouch's book highlights the crucial contribution of this era to the story of Israel and Judah.

• Introduces social scientific research on diverse migration experiences to a biblical studies audience
• IIdentifies the significance of Israel and Judah to the identity debates in the sixth century BCE
• IIntegrates postcolonial theory, trauma studies, and social scientific research on migration to interpret ancient texts

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The etrog, the citron, and Sukkot

DR. DAFNA LANGGUT: The Etrog: Celebrating Sukkot With a Persian Apple (TheTorah.com).

A luxury Persian import, famous for its medicinal qualities and lovely smell, the citron became Sukkot’s פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר “fruit of a splendid tree” in the first century C.E.

PaleoJudaica posts on the etrog/citron, including ones on the Ramat Rachel garden, are collected here.

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Schröter et al. (eds.), Jews and Christians – Parting Ways in the First Two Centuries CE? (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Jews and Christians – Parting Ways in the First Two Centuries CE?
Reflections on the Gains and Losses of a Model

Edited by: Jens Schröter, Benjamin A. Edsall and Joseph Verheyden

Volume 253 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110742213

eBook
Published: August 23, 2021
ISBN: 9783110742213

Hardcover
Published: August 23, 2021
ISBN: 9783110742138

About this book

The present volume is based on a conference held in October 2019 at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University Berlin as part of a common project of the Australian Catholic University, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Humboldt University Berlin. The aim is to discuss the relationships of “Jews” and “Christians” in the first two centuries CE against the background of recent debates which have called into question the image of “parting ways” for a description of the relationships of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity. One objection raised against this metaphor is that it accentuates differences at the expense of commonalities. Another critique is that this image looks from a later perspective at historical developments which can hardly be grasped with such a metaphor. It is more likely that distinctions between Jews, Christians, Jewish Christians, Christian Jews etc. are more blurred than the image of “parting ways” allows. In light of these considerations the contributions in this volume discuss the cogency of the “parting of the ways”-model with a look at prominent early Christian writers and places and suggest more appropriate metaphors to describe the relationships of Jews and Christians in the early period.

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Zoomcast on ancient Jerusalem

ARCHAEOLOGY: What did biblical Jerusalem look like some 2,500 years ago? JPost One-on-One Zoomcast, Episode 34 - Rossella Tercatin and Prof. Yuval Gadot, archaeology and ancient near eastern cultures at Tel-Aviv University (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

“What we have uncovered is a level of wealth that we could not imagine before,” Prof. Yuval Gadot, the head Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel-Aviv University - and co-director of the excavations conducted by TAU and the Israeli Antiquities Authority at the City of David - said.

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Interview with Sarah Parkhouse

COPTIC APOCRYPHA WATCH: Interview with Dr Sarah Parkhouse (University of Manchester).

Dr Sarah Parkhouse has recently joined the Centre for Biblical Studies as a British Academy postdoctoral fellow. We sat down to discuss her work and the research project she will be undertaking.

I have noted books by Dr. Parkhouse here and here.

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How do we know what ancient writers actually wrote?

THE ANTIGONE BLOG: WHERE DO THE CLASSICS COME FROM? OR, THE APPARATUS CRITICUS AND YOU (Max Hardy). HT Rogue Classicism.

To read a Classical text without an apparatus has been justly compared to the experience of sitting in the back of a car while another controls the wheel. In the fullness of time, come the development of the self-driving car, this simile may eventually lose its force; but the apparatus will certainly not have lost its relevance to those who are fascinated about what ancient writers actually wrote.

A lucid introduction to the science and art of textual criticism.

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Eichler, The Ark and the Cherubim (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Raanan Eichler. The Ark and the Cherubim. 2021. XV, 391 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 146. 134,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-155432-2.

Published in English.
The most important objects in the Hebrew Bible are a wooden box, styled in English »the ark« or »the ark of the covenant«, and two statues of winged creatures, »the cherubim«, that surmount it. Raanan Eichler attempts to understand these objects using the full gamut of data and tools available to the modern scholar. The study features an abundance of visual comparative material, much of it in colour, with a particularly close examination of the finds from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The author proposes solutions to a number of unsolved puzzles, such as the question of what cherubim looked like, and offers a new explanation of the nature of the ark and the cherubim, rejecting the prevailing scholarly view of them as having constituted an »empty throne« and footstool for the God of Israel. Rather, he argues, they constituted an empty frame, a unique cultic focus that surpassed all known systems in the ancient Near East in the extent of the efforts it represented to prevent an anthropomorphic conception of the deity in a cultic context.

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AJR on Brown-deVost, Commentary and Authority in Mesopotamia and Qumran

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Commentary and Authority in Mesopotamia and Qumran (Emily Branton).

Bronson Brown-deVost. Commentary and Authority in Mesopotamia and Qumran. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019.

I noted another review of the book here.

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Was Sodom destroyed by a "cosmic airburst?"

I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM. AND I GOT ONE: Did the destruction of this Middle Bronze Age city inspire the story of Sodom? Archaeologists investigated the destruction of Tel el-Hammam and discovered an event similar to the description of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (ARIELLA MARSDEN, Jerusalem Post).

This story has been around since 2018. I noted it here. But now the technical article is published in Nature.

A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea

Ted E. Bunch, Malcolm A. LeCompte, A. Victor Adedeji, James H. Wittke, T. David Burleigh, Robert E. Hermes, Charles Mooney, Dale Batchelor, Wendy S. Wolbach, Joel Kathan, Gunther Kletetschka, Mark C. L. Patterson, Edward C. Swindel, Timothy Witwer, George A. Howard, Siddhartha Mitra, Christopher R. Moore, Kurt Langworthy, James P. Kennett, Allen West & Phillip J. Silvia Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 18632 (2021)

A Tunguska-sized airburst is a significant event: "The proposed airburst was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, where a ~ 50-m-wide bolide detonated with ~ 1000× more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb."

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A.-J. Levine appointed to named chair at Hartford

CONGRATULATIONS TO PROFESSOR LEVINE: Dr. Amy-Jill Levine is named Hartford Seminary’s first Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor (Stacey Dresner, CT Jewish Ledger).

HARTFORD – Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, a foremost scholar in the study of Judaism, the Tanakh (Jewish scriptures), and the New Testament has been named the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at The Hartford Seminary. The first person to fill this post, Levine arrives from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., where she is professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita.

[...]

The article includes an interview.

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Gilgamesh dream tablet returing to Iraq

REPATRIATION IMMINENT: US to hand over 3,500-year-old 'Gilgamesh' tablet to Iraq (AFP via MSN). The tablet goes back to Iraq this week.

Background here and links.

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Sukkot 2021

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

Last year's Sukkot post was here. More recent relevant posts are here and here. For the biblical background to Sukkot, see here and here.

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The archaeology of Sukkot

ARCHITECTURE AND NUMISMATICS: How did Jews celebrate Sukkot 2,000 years ago? Archaeology offers answers. While no traces survive of the ancient booths Jews built to celebrate the holiday, archaeology provides important evidence of the centrality of Sukkot (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

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Israeli archaeology in a plague year

PANDEMIC ARCHAEOLOGY: What were Israel's archaeological advances during COVID? A 6,000-year-old skeleton of a child, a near-3,000-year-old natural disaster and ancient churches, including advancements in the legendary Dead Sea Scrolls, are among this year's finds (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

PaleoJudaica has posted on most of these stories. For the new Minor Prophets scroll fragments from the Cave of Horror, see here, here, here, here, and follow the links in-between. For the fragmentary capitals found at Armon Hanatziv, see here and here. For the new evidence for Amos' earthquake, see here. For the Iron-Age temple at Tel Moza (Tel Motza, Tel Moẓa, Tel Moẓah), see here and links. For the Jerubbaal (?) jug, see here and links. Posts on ancient Caesarea are here and here. For the early church with the Pan altar in the Banyas Springs Nature Reserve, see here. For the suspended excavations at Huqoq, see here and links.

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Ancient Jewish texts on abortion

ROGER PEARSE: Ancient references to Jewish attitudes to abortion. HT Rogue Classicism.

I discuss some of this material in an old post from 2004. And for the Talmud, see here and here.

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Suh, Power and Peril: Temple Discourse in 1 Corinthians (De Gruyter)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Publication | Power and Peril: Temple Discourse in 1 Corinthians (Michael K.W. Suh). A summary by the author.

Cross-file under New Book (De Gruyter, 2020).

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Layer-cake cities

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: How to Tell a Tell. Uncovering buried cities of the biblical world (Oded Borowski). Cross-file under Archaeology and News You Can Use.

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The Cartagena Festival 2021

PUNIC WATCH: Cartagena, Spain, is celebrating its annual Romans and Carthaginians Festival from today through 26 September.

Cartagena was a Punic town founded in the third century B.C.E. For more on its historical importance, notably in the Second Punic War, see here. Follow the links from there for more on the archaeology of the site and notices of past festivals.

The festival doesn't seem to be very visible in the current news. But the Cartagena Museum is offering free entry through 30 September. And a (pictured) ancient graffito from Cartagena figures in a story about an intriguing bit of "pop culture" Greek poetry.

Now and then I like to include this link to explain why PaleoJudaica is interested in Phoenician and Punic matters.

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Confession of sin as preventative medicine

ONE MORE FOR YOM KIPPUR: Confessing Sins You Didn’t Commit (Dr. Yitzhaq Feder, TheTorah.com).

The few examples of confessions in the Bible use only generic language about sin. In contrast, the post-biblical Yom Kippur liturgical confessions, written as long alphabetical lists, include detailed admissions about specific sins, many of which the petitioner likely never committed. This kind of confession goes back to the second millennium B.C.E. ancient Near Eastern texts for people suffering from illness.

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Saving the Tomb of Nahum in Iraq

RESTORATION COMPLETED: Saving Iraq’s Tomb of Nahum, a secret mission resurrects Kurdistan’s Jewish past. With IS just miles away, a US army vet, 2 Israeli engineers and the head of a preservation group carried out an audacious plan to restore an ancient shrine of the biblical prophet (TAL SCHNEIDER, Times of Israel).

This is that story, told for the first time. It included sneaking Israelis into Iraq to assess the damage to the building’s roof and the best way to restore it. It also involved tapping into the deep knowledge of the Kurdish-Jewish community and its unofficial doyen Mordechai Zaken, a scholar who was instrumental in planning the restoration of the tomb and who passed away just a few months ago.

It features the people of Alqosh, who safeguarded the tomb after the area’s Jews fled the pogroms that followed the creation of the State of Israel, along with the tomb’s modern benefactors: a small group of donors, including oil and energy companies from Norway, the local Kurdish government, the US embassy in Iraq and a few private donors who raised $2 million.

Behind it all was ARCH, a nonprofit started by national security expert Cheryl Benard, an expert on national security and post-war rebuilding efforts. Benard, whose husband Zalmay Khalilzad has led US diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, was impressed in her travels around the world by the resilience and creativity of individuals and groups trying to safeguard their national treasures, even under the most trying circumstances.

The restoration was completed in the spring of 2021.

Read the whole story.

I have been following the fate of the (traditional) Tomb of Nahum in Alqosh (al-Qosh, Al Qosh, Al-Quosh) for years. For past posts, start here and follow the links.

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Ancient Jewish Rome

Ancient Jewish Rome. An interview with Micaela Pavoncello (Brenda Lee Bohen, Wall Street International).

Entrepreneur Micaela Pavoncello is an art historian and a local licensed tour guide from Europe's oldest Jewish community in Rome.

She is a Roman Jew who can trace her heritage to the period when Titus conquered Judea and brought Jewish slaves to Rome.

Twenty years later, Pavoncello continues to take tourists on an incredible, spiritual and passionate 'storytelling' journey about her ancestors – the Jews of Rome.

In this brief interview, Micaela Pavoncello shares with me some of the most important highlights about her Ancient Jewish Rome tour.

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Yom Kippur 2021

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

Last year's post on Yom Kippur is here, with links to previous posts. See also here. More recent posts are here, here, here, and here. Biblical etc. background is here.

UPDATE (17 September): Also here.

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Does Yom Kippur atone for the sale of Joseph?

PROF. JASON RADINE: Shoeless on Yom Kippur (TheTorah.com).

The book of Jubilees claims that the brothers sold Joseph on Yom Kippur. Amos accuses the wealthy of selling the righteous for shoes. Reading this as a reference to the sale of Joseph, Eleh Ezkarah tells how Caesar fills his palace with shoes, and executes ten sages as a punishment for this crime. Is this connected to the prohibition to wear shoes on Yom Kippur?

For more on the story of the Ten Martyrs, which also appears in the Hekhalot literature and elsewhere, see here, here, and here. In the story as told in the Hekhalot Rabbati (§108), a textual variant refers to the selling of Joseph as the reason that Samma’el, the evil angelic prince of Rome, received permission to kill the ten martyrs. But there is no reference to shoes.

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Versatile Azazel

DR. ANNA ANGELINI: Is Azazel a Goat, Place, Demon, or Deity? (TheTorah.com).

Azazel plays the role of a deity in the biblical ritual of Yom Kippur, and in early interpretation, he played a central role as the initiator of sin and even the devil, or alternatively, as a protective figure. Later tradition obscured his identity, presenting Azazel as the name of a demon, as the scapegoat itself, and even as a place name.

So the answer to the question in the title seems to be "Yes." This essay gives a good summary of the ancient evidence.

For more on Azazel, see here and here.

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Ben Sira, the High Priest, and the Yom Kippur liturgy

PROF. RABBI DALIA MARX: Mareh Kohen: Ben Sira’s Description of Simon the High Priest (TheTorah.com).

Written while the Second Temple was standing, and the Yom Kippur sacrificial service still performed, Ben Sira’s poem traces the history of the world through Simon son of Johanan, the High Priest in his time, thus expressing the cosmic importance of the Temple and its priesthood. The poem appears to be the antecedent or literary inspiration of the Yom Kippur Seder Avodah’s framing liturgy.

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Forthcoming book on the Septuagint

WILLIAM ROSS: BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: THE SEPTUAGINT (CROSSWAY 2021).

I’m excited to announce this morning my newest book that will hit shelves in early November: The Septuagint: What It Is and Why It Matters, which is being published with Crossway. It’s great to see this project come to fruition. Here are the details.

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Not as fraudulent as they thought

ARTIFACT VINDICATED? SORT OF. Tempest Over a “Cheater’s Weight” (David Hendin, Coin Week). Noted by various people over the weekend.

I noted the story of the supposed highly fraudulent First-Temple-era weight here. The claim here is that the archaeologists were reading it sideways!

All the same, the weight of the object comes somewhat under the labeled weight as revised. So it may have been fraudulent in the other direction.

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Free online course on Zoroastrianism

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrianism: History, Religion, and Belief. Courtesy of SOAS. For you, special deal!

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Allen, 1 & 2 Chronicles (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

1 & 2 Chronicles: An Introduction and Study Guide

A Message for Yehud

Leslie C. Allen (Author)

Paperback
$24.95 $22.45

Hardback
$75.00 $67.50

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$22.45< $17.96

Ebook (PDF)
$22.45 $17.96

Product details

Published Aug 12 2021
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 160
ISBN 9780567697011
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series T&T Clark’s Study Guides to the Old Testament
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

Leslie C. Allen introduces students to the 1 & 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament, incorporating insights from over two decades of previous scholarship while grounding his analysis in earlier key works.

“A Message for Yehud” sums up what has been judged to be a fundamental motivation underlying the whole book, a conviction that the obligation to “seek the Lord” in the light of the Torah and prophetic texts must be laid on the hearts of the community of Yehud in the fourth century BCE. To this end, using Samuel-Kings as a basis, Chronicles reviewed pre-exilic royal history for positive and negative clues as to how the generation for which it was written might achieve this spiritual ideal. In the book, Allen shows how this program was communicated all through the book by literary and rhetorical means.

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George F. Bass (1932–2021)

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Milestones: George F. Bass (1932–2021). Pioneer of nautical archaeology (Shelley Wachsmann). Cross-file under Sad News and Maritime (Marine, Underwater) Archaeology.

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