Assyrian New Year 2022

THE ASSYRIAN NEW YEAR 6772 is celebrated today: Masoud Barzani congratulates Assyrian and Chaldean Christians on Akitu (Mustafa Shilani, Kurdistan24).

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masoud Barzani congratulated Assyrian and Chaldean Christians on the holiday of Akitu on Thursday.

The Assyrian New Year, known as Akitu, marks the beginning of the year 6772 for both denominations. The event is celebrated annually by members of the Christian community across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

[...]

The festival is also known as Kha b-Nisan, the First of Nisan. It is today connected with the ancient Mesopotamian New Year Akitu Festival. Memory of the latter was lost until the decipherment of cuneiform in the modern period, so I am not sure when the connection was made or reaffirmed. For more on the modern festival, see here. Follow the links from there for more on the ancient Akitu festival.

Best wishes to all those celebrating either one!

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Biblical Studies Carnival 193

THE AMATEUR EXEGETE: BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL #193 (MARCH 2022) (Ben).

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The earliest Jesus inscription in Arabia?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Earliest Evidence of Christianity in Arabia? A rock inscription from the Jordanian desert invokes Jesus (Marek Dospěl).

This BHD essay summarizes an article by Professor Ahmad Al-Jallad in the current issue of BAR. The article itself is behind the subscription wall.

The inscription is written in the Safaitic dialect of pre-Islamic Arabic. The editor dates it to the fourth century CE. It was found in the Wadi al-Khudari in northeastern Jordan.

For more on Safaitic Arabic, see here and here.

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Another Judeo-Syriac fragment from the Cairo Geniza

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (FEBRUARY 2022): A New Judaeo-Syriac Fragment from the Genizah: ENA 3846.2 (Alan Elbaum).

Judaeo-Syriac was a significant albeit never widespread phenomenon. We have long known of medieval Jewish scholars from Baghdad to Aleppo to Girona who made use of the Peshitta for exegetical purposes. But until now, we have not had direct evidence of how Jews would have learned Syriac from Christians nor any extant specimens of Peshitta manuscripts in Hebrew characters like those that Masnūt and potentially Naḥmanides would have consulted. Despite its modest dimensions, ENA 3846.2 provides crucial evidence for a previously unattested stage of Jewish engagement with Syriac and hopefully heralds further discoveries and publications of Genizah fragments in Judaeo-Syriac. I conclude with an edition and commentary.

The Cario Geniza produced another Judeo-Syriac fragment back in 2013.

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McKnight on the Pharisees and Evangelical Preaching

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Pharisees and Evangelical Preaching (Scot McKnight).

AJR continues its series of papers from a 2021 SBL session on the Pharisees. Earlier posts in the series are noted here and here.

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Vanilla-flavored wine in ancient Jerusalem?

ANCIENT VANILLA VINTAGE? 6th century BCE Jerusalemite oenophiles had a taste for exotic vanilla-spice wine. New research based on First Temple City of David pottery sherds dating to the Babylonian destruction shores up theories of international trade with Kingdom of Judah (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

Judahite Elite in Jerusalem Drank Wine Flavored With Vanilla 2,600 Years Ago. Analysis of smashed wine jars in Jerusalem houses destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. finds unexpected flavor in jars that the rich reused (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The underlying article at PLOS ONE:

Residue analysis evidence for wine enriched with vanilla consumed in Jerusalem on the eve of the Babylonian destruction in 586 BCE
Ayala Amir , Israel Finkelstein, Yiftah Shalev, Joe Uziel, Ortal Chalaf, Liora Freud, Ronny Neumann, Yuval Gadot Published: March 29, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266085

Abstract

The article presents results of residue analysis, based on Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) measurements, conducted on 13 ceramic storage jars unearthed in the Babylonian destruction layer (586 BCE) in Jerusalem. Five of the jars bear rosette stamp impressions on their handles, indicating that their content was related to the kingdom of Judah’s royal economy. The identification of the original contents remains is significant for the understanding of many aspects related to the nutrition, economy and international trade in the ancient Levant. The study shed light on the contents of the jars and the destruction process of the buildings in which they were found. The jars were used alternatively for storing wine and olive oil. The wine was flavored with vanilla. These results attest to the wine consumption habits of the Judahite elite and echo Jerusalem’s involvement in the trans-regional South Arabian trade of spices and other lucrative commodities on the eve of its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.

Last I heard, there was some skepticism about whether traces of vanilla were really found at c. 1600 BCE Megiddo. That was a few years ago. I see that there has been a formal publication of the evidence since them. I don't know what, if any, response there has been to it.

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Reception history of the Pharisees

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW continues its series of papers from a 2021 SBL session on the Pharisees:

Pharisees Part Two: Reception History (Elena G. Procario-Foley).

Earlier essays in the series are noted here.

Incidentally, PaleoJudaica has a number of posts on the Pharisees and stereotyping of them. Start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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Rollston on the Mount Ebal amulet

ROLLSTON EPIGRAPHY: The Mount Ebal Lead ‘Curse’ Inscription in Late Bronze Age Hebrew: Some Methodological Caveats. A good, cautious analysis of the evidence, such as it is, by a specialist in this area of epigraphy.

For my own comments on the claims about this object, see here. For earlier posts, see the links there.

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Springing the Megiddo Jesus mosaic?

ARCHAEOLOGY, EPIGRAPHY, DECORATIVE ART: Earliest mosaic in Israel dedicated to Jesus may soon be sprung from prison. 3rd-century Christian structure and 3 mosaics with inscriptions – including ‘to the God Jesus Christ’ – were uncovered at Meggido jail in 2004-08; it may now become a tourist site (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

I have been following the story of the Megiddo prison excavation and mosaics since the first announcements in 2005. For posts, start here and follow the links. As you will see, there is debate about whether the "God Jesus Christ" mosaic is as early as the third century.

The proposal to make the site an archaeological park has been around for years. See here.

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Discovering Isaiah

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Isaiah-Prophet, Book, and Message (Andrew T. Abernethy).

The book of Isaiah is a wonderful mixture of ethics, judgment and hope, and divine grandeur and nearness. Although we are 2800 years removed from the prophet, these messages and countless others appeal to people in all generations and draw us in for a closer look at the book of Isaiah.

The author has a new book out on Isaiah with Eerdmans: Discovering Isaiah: Content, Interpretation, Reception (Discovering Biblical Texts (DBT)).

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Big claims for the Mount Ebal amulet

I COUNSEL CAUTION: Archaeologist claims to find oldest Hebrew text in Israel, including the name of God. Scholars date tiny ‘curse tablet,’ found at Mt. Ebal, to 1200 BCE – which would prove Israelites were literate when they entered Holy Land; but findings have not been peer-reviewed (Amanda Borschel-Dan). The podcast interview with Scott Stripling has additional details.

Potentially, this amulet is an extraordinarily important discovery. It reportedly bears an inscription written in something like Hebrew, possibly the earliest recovered Hebrew inscription. This inscription reportedly places YHWH worshippers at the site of the altar on Mount Ebal c. the twelfth century BCE, not far from the date of the Merneptah Stele. The text reportedly invokes some kind of curse, which immediately brings to mind the curses uttered by the Israelites on Ebal according to Deuteronomy 27. If all this is accurate, the discovery is on the lottery-winning level.

But the reports offer us almost no data to evaluate.

The object is folded over and the inscription is not readable (or, at least to me, visible) on the outside. All the claims are based on an unpublished scan of its interior. Only a drawing of three letters (reportedly the divine name) has been released. There is no paleographic analysis. There is not even a transcription of the Hebrew. The editors have only released an English translation. No peer review of these claims has been completed.

I would also like to know more about the provenance trail of the object.

I am going to invoke my Lottery Rule here. If a reported new discovery is the scholarly equivalent of our having won the lottery, we should be skeptical of it unless and until we have strong evidence that it is real.

People sometimes win do the lottery. Scholarship sometimes wins the lottery (e.g., the Dead Sea Scrolls). But the bigger the claim, the more we should expect solid evidence and the more carefully we should probe that evidence.

I await more information.

Earlier posts on the discovery are here and here.

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Baal's sacred astronomical pool in Sicily

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Monumental Structure in Sicily Isn’t a Phoenician Harbor – It’s a Huge Sacred Pool of Baal. The kothon of Motya in southern Sicily had first been assumed to be an artificial harbor. It wasn’t, archaeologist Lorenzo Nigro of Sapienza proves (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

For more on the Phoenician remains at Motya, see here, here, here, and here.

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Ross & Runge (eds.), Postclassical Greek Prepositions and Conceptual Metaphor (De Gruyter)

WILLIAM ROSS: BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: POSTCLASSICAL GREEK PREPOSITIONS AND CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR.

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Frohlich, The Relationship between MT and LXX in Jeremiah 39(46):1–41(48):3 and 52 (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: James Frohlich. The Relationship between MT and LXX in Jeremiah 39(46):1–41(48):3 and 52. 2022. XVII, 239 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 133. 79,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-160739-4.

Published in English.
In this work, James Frohlich analyzes the Septuagint translation technique in Jeremiah 39(46)-41(48):3 and 52 in order to determine if the large-scale differences between MT and LXX in these chapters were caused by the LXX translator. Since the Hebrew text of Jeremiah 52 largely parallels that of 2 Kings 24:18–25:30, and Jeremiah 39(46)-41(48):3 has various parallels with 2 Kgs 25:22–26, the author also focuses on the differences between the Septuagint translations in these parallel texts. Along with a study of translation technique, he also considers the nature of the MT pluses and analyzes the agreements and disagreements between Jeremiah 39(46)-41(48):3 and 52 MT/LXX with the parallel text in 2 Kings 24:18–25:30 MT/LXX. James Frohlich concludes that the large-scale differences between MT and LXX in Jeremiah 39–41:3 and 52 are due to a divergent Hebrew Vorlage used by the Septuagint translator.

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Still no Gospel of Mark in the DSS

VARIANT READINGS: The Strange “nu” Story of 7Q5 (Brent Nongbri).

The correct reading of a single letter – even a blank space – in an ancient manuscript can sometimes make a big difference. For more examples, see here and here.

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

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Rogers, For the Freedom of Zion (Yale)

NEW BOOK FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

For the Freedom of Zion
The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66–74 CE

Guy MacLean Rogers

Format: Hardcover
Price: $37.50

A definitive account of the great revolt of Jews against Rome and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple

“A lucid yet terrifying account of the 'Jewish War'—the uprising of the Jews in 66 CE, and the Roman empire’s savage response, in a story that stretches from Rome to Jerusalem.”—John Ma, Columbia University

This deeply researched and insightful book examines the causes, course, and historical significance of the Jews’ failed revolt against Rome from 66 to 74 CE, including the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Based on a comprehensive study of all the evidence and new statistical data, Guy Rogers argues that the Jewish rebels fought for their religious and political freedom and lost due to military mistakes.

Rogers contends that while the Romans won the war, they lost the peace. When the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, they thought that they had defeated the God of Israel and eliminated Jews as a strategic threat to their rule. Instead, they ensured the Jews’ ultimate victory. After their defeat Jews turned to the written words of their God, and following those words led the Jews to recover their freedom in the promised land. The war's tragic outcome still shapes the worldview of billions of people today.

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AJR reviews The Pharisees

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW is publishing another series of papers from a 2021 SBL session, this one on the Pharisees. Thus far:

The Pharisees: a SBL 2021 Review Forum (Kelley Coblentz Bautch and Joshua Scott)

The Pharisees (Eerdmans, 2021), edited by Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine, is an important recent publication for readers of AJR and indeed all readers interested in Jewish history and Jewish/Christian relations.[1] This volume, with contributions from twenty-seven scholars of an international scope, is significant for numerous reasons, as the reviews in this AJR Forum make clear. ...

I noted the 2019 conference here from which the essays in the book come. I knew the book was coming out, but its publication appears to have slipped by me in December.

Pharisees Part One: Historical Reconstruction (Kathy Ehrensperger)

By way of some concluding remarks, in terms of the historicity of the Pharisees, as we have seen especially in the first portion of the volume (chapters 1-5), it is difficult to find more than a few details, like relation and knowledge of the Law, political presence, some popularity. This should already lead us to caution.

Who Needs the Pharisees? New Testament and Beyond (Anders Runesson)

Summing up – and answering our initial question, “Who needs the Pharisees?” – it seems that, on the whole, we today, both Jews and Christians, need them more than anyone has ever done before, but for very different reasons. And we need them in academic historical, non-polemical form.

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A new Cairo Geniza?

REPORT: Egyptian Antiquities Authorities Confiscates New Genizah Found In Cairo Jewish Cemetery (VIN News).

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A new genizah (archive) with rare ancient Jewish documents was discovered in the Cairo Jewish cemetery last month, but a report by Israeli Arab affairs correspondent Roi Kais reveals that employees from the Egyptian Antiquities Authority arrived at the cemetery this week and began emptying the genizah, despite the vehement opposition of the local Jewish community.

[...]

I can't find any reference to this discovery elsewhere, although I feel like I vaguely remember seeing one. No word here on the contents of the geniza or the dates of the manuscripts.

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Handprints at Hippos

HUMAN TRACES: Israel archaeologists discover 2,000-year-old handprints in ancient Roman cistern (huaxia, Xinhua).

I am suprised that Xinhua seems to be the only media outlet covering this story.

For many PaleoJudaic posts on the ancient site of Hippos-Sussita, start here (cf. here) and follow the links. Some years ago, archaeologist also discovered footprints of Roman soliders embedded in mortar at Hippos-Sussista.

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AI and ancient Hebrew

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

New Technology in an Ancient World: Using Artificial Intelligence to Study Ancient Hebrew Texts

The overall aim of the project is to develop a method to integrate these fields, using cutting edge machine learning techniques, with the goal of getting a much more complete picture of the development of the text and language of the Hebrew Bible than is currently possible.

By Martijn Naaijer
Faculty of Theology
University of Copenhagen

By Anders Søgaard
Department of Computer Science
University of Copenhagen

By Martin Ehrensvärd
Faculty of Theology
University of Copenhagen
March 2022

Cross-file under Algorithm Watch.

It's good to hear from The Bible and Interpretation again.

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NEH Fellowship for Shai Secunda

TALMUD WATCH: Professor Shai Secunda Awarded $40,000 National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship for his Monograph on the Formation of the Talmud (Bard College News). Congratulations to Professor Secunda!

For more on his work on the Babylonian Talmud, see here and here and links.

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More on the resurrected ancient Judean date palms

PALEOBOTANY AND RESURRECTION GENOMICS: How King Solomon and the Romans Shaped the Judean Date Palm. The famed Judean dates began as one variant 2,400 years ago, by the Common Era had become something else and today, are different again (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

In the last decade, [Sarah] Sallon and Elaine Solowey of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura germinated date seeds that were radiocarbon-dated to between 1,800 and 2,400 years old. The seeds had been discovered by archaeologists at sites in the Judean Desert, including Masada. Seven trees grew.

The seven trees were named, from the oldest seed to the youngest: Methuselah, Hannah, Adam, Judith, Boaz, Jonah and Uriel. And lo, genetic analyses Sallon and international teams published in Science Advances in 2020, and in a 2021 paper in the journal PNAS by Muriel Gros-Balthazard and colleagues, show that these seven trees aren’t all the same type.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the work of this team on resurrecting the ancient Judean date palm, start here and follow the links. Related post here.

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Exhibition: The Samaritans: A Biblical People (YU)

SAMARITAN WATCH: First-of-its-kind Samaritans showcase to be unveiled in New York on March 27. (Yeshiva University/JNS).

“This initiative is an opportunity on the largest possible stage for us all—Jews, Christians, Muslims and Samaritans—to reflect about otherness and complexity, about core issues of who each of us is, and about what we hope to be,” said Professor Steven Fine.

For some background on the exhibition, and on the Samaritans, see: Encountering Samaritans. YU project explores our distant, oft-estranged cousins (LARRY YUDELSON, The Jewish Standard).

For the documentary film associated with the exhibition, see the H-Judaic notice: EVENT: The YU Israelite Samaritans Project: First Public Viewing of "The Samaritans: A Biblical People," NYC (March 27),

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Kratz & Schipper (eds.), Elephantine in Context (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Elephantine in Context. Studies on the History, Religion and Literature of the Judeans in Persian Period Egypt. Edited by Reinhard G. Kratz and Bernd U. Schipper. 2022. XII, 385 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 155. 144,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-160996-1.

Published in English.
The Persian period has long been considered a »dark era« in Israel's history. For this reason, research has mainly focused on how it is depicted in the Hebrew Bible. A spectacular discovery of archaeological relics and epigraphic sources was hence hardly noticed: the military colony located on the island of Elephantine in the Nile, on the border between Egypt and present-day Sudan. The basic approach of this volume, which documents a three-year Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft project, is to break with a research tradition focusing on the Judeans (Jews) mentioned in the Aramaic papyri from Elephantine and instead investigate the military colony in a broader historical context also documented by Demotic and Egyptian-hieratic evidence found at Elephantine. The studies presented focus on three main subject areas: society and administration, religion, and literature. They show that historically the island of Elephantine hosted a multicultural society with several interactions between the Egyptians and the other inhabitants, and that it was also an important administrative centre for the Persian authorities.

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Laato, Message and Composition of the Book of Isaiah (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Message and Composition of the Book of Isaiah

An Interpretation in the Light of Jewish Reception History

Antti Laato

Volume 46 in the series Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110761818

eBook
Published: January 19, 2022
ISBN: 9783110761818

Hardcover
Published: January 31, 2022
ISBN: 9783110761634

About this book

The study deals with the theological message and composition of the Book of Isaiah and promotes a thesis that an early Jewish reception history helps us to find perspectives to understand them. This study treats the following themes among others:
1 Hezekiah as Immanuel was an important theme in the reception as can be seen in Chronicles and Ben Sira as well as in rabbinical writings. The central event which makes Hezekiah such an important figure, was the annihilation of the Assyrian army as recounted in Isaiah 36-37.
2 The Book of Isaiah was interpreted in apocalyptic milieu as the Animal Apocalypse and Daniel show. Even though the Qumran writings do not provide any coherent way to interpret Isaianic passages its textual evidence shows how the community has found from the Book of Isaiah different concepts to characterize the division of the Jewish community to the righteous and sinful ones (cf. Isa 65-66).
3 Ezra and Nehemiah received inspiration from the theological themes of Isaianic texts of Levitical singers which were later edited in the Book of Isaiah by scribes. The formation of the Book of Isaiah then went in its own way and its theology became different from that in the Book of Ezra–Nehemiah.

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Another English translation of the Talmud Yerushalmi

(JERUSALEM) TALMUD WATCH: From Teverya to Today: The Journey of Talmud Yerushalmi. Brand-new exclusive presentation celebrates completion of the Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud Yerushalmi in English (JLNJ).

(Artscroll) The Mesorah Heritage Foundation is celebrating the completion of the Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud Yerushalmi in English, a truly historic accomplishment in the Jewish world.

[...]

The Talmud Yerushalmi (Palestinian Talmud) was comparatively neglected until well into the twentieth century. Jacob Neusner produced a multivolume English translation of it in 1982-1994. Now two new English translations of it have just been completed, the Schottenstein edition above and the Sefaria translation.

For more posts on the Talmud Yerushalmi, start at the link just above and keep going from there.

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Review of Arcari, Vedere Dio

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Vedere Dio: le apocalissi giudaiche e protocristiane (IV sec. a.C.-II sec. d.C.).

Luca Arcari, Vedere Dio: le apocalissi giudaiche e protocristiane (IV sec. a.C.-II sec. d.C.). Frecce, 291. Roma: Carocci Editore, 2020. Pp. 442. ISBN 9788843098507 €39,00.

Review by
Luigi Walt, Universität Regensburg. luigi.walt@ur.de

... In other words, what Arcari wants to underline is the cognitive, emotional, and social value of these ancient visionary accounts, namely the fact that such texts could function as formidable tools for organizing the world as well as instruments for propaganda, aimed at constructing religious identities which were in competition but also in dialogue with each other.

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Carlson, Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible

Possession and Other Spirit Phenomena

Reed Carlson

Volume 9 in the series Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110670035

eBook
Published: January 19, 2022
ISBN: 9783110670035

Hardcover
Published: January 31, 2022
ISBN: 9783110669343 v PDF & EPUB £73.50
Hardcover £73.50

About this book

Lautenschlaeger Award 2021

Spirit possession is more commonly associated with late Second Temple Jewish literature and the New Testament than it is with the Hebrew Bible. In Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible, however, Reed Carlson argues that possession is also depicted in this earlier literature, though rarely according to the typical western paradigm. This new approach utilizes theoretical models developed by cultural anthropologists and ethnographers of contemporary possession-practicing communities in the global south and its diasporas. Carlson demonstrates how possession in the Bible is a corporate and cultivated practice that can function as social commentary and as a means to model the moral self.
The author treats a variety of spirit phenomena in the Hebrew Bible, including spirit language in the Psalms and Job, spirit empowerment in Judges and Samuel, and communal possession in the prophets. Carlson also surveys apotropaic texts and spirit myths in early Jewish literature—including the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this volume, two recent scholarly trends in biblical studies converge: investigations into notions of evil and of the self. The result is a synthesizing project, useful to biblical scholars and those of early Judaism and Christianity alike.

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Review of McNamara et al. (eds.), Apocrypha Hiberniae II, Apocalyptica 2

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Apocrypha Hiberniae II, Apocalyptica 2.

Martin McNamara, Caoimnín Breatnach, John Carey, Joseph Flahive, Charles D. Wright, Apocrypha Hiberniae II, Apocalyptica 2. Corpus Christianorum. Series Apocryphorum, 21. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019. Pp. xxiv, 589. ISBN 9782503585352 €355,00.

Review by
Thomas Kraus, University of Zürich. t.j.kraus@web.de

Conclusion:

This volume is a masterpiece of editorial technique and methodology; and it is an invaluable foundation of further studies of Irish apocrypha. At the same time it provides essential insights into the ongoing processing of biblical or non-biblical material, its transmission and reception, and its regional adaptation. It comprises the most distinguished scholars working in the field, who must be thanked for their meticulous and scrupulous work.

Some PaleoJudaica posts involving Irish apocrypha (linking to essays by Philip Jenkins) are here, here, and here. See also Grant Macaskill's essay on The Pseudepigrapha in the Irish Church for a class we co-taught on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

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Beyerle & Goff (eds.), Notions of Time in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Notions of Time in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature

Edited by: Stefan Beyerle and Matthew Goff

Volume 2020/2021 in the series Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Yearbook
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110705454

eBook
Published: December 20, 2021
ISBN: 9783110705454

Hardcover
Published: December 31, 2021
ISBN: 9783110702194

About this book

A comprehensive investigation of notions of "time" in deuterocanonical and cognate literature, from the ancient Jewish up to the early Christian eras, requires further scholarship. The aim of this collection of articles is to contribute to a better understanding of "time" in deuterocanonical literature and pseudepigrapha, especially in Second Temple Judaism, and to provide criteria for concepts of time in wisdom literature, apocalypticism, Jewish and early Christian historiography and in Rabbinic religiosity.
Essays in this volume, representing the proceedings of a conference of the "International Society for the Study of Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature" in July 2019 at Greifswald, discuss concepts and terminologies of "time", stemming from novellas like the book of Tobit, from exhortations for the wise like Ben Sira, from an apocalyptic time table in 4 Ezra, the book of Giants or Daniel, and early Christian and Rabbinic compositions. The volume consists of four chapters that represent different approaches or hermeneutics of "time:" I. Axial Ages: The Construction of Time as "History", II. The Construction of Time: Particular Reifications, III. Terms of Time and Space, IV. The Construction of Apocalyptic Time. Scholars and students of ancient Jewish and Christian religious history will find in this volume orientation with regard to an important but multifaceted and sometimes disparate topic.

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Finale: Lied's Invisible Manuscripts

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The final essays on Liv Ingeborg Lied's book, Invisible Manuscripts:

Celebrating the Remedy of Neglect: a review of Liv Ingeborg Lied, Invisible Manuscripts: Textual Scholarship and the Survival of 2 Baruch (Jeff Childers).

With 2 Baruch, we have so little to hand, we are quick to welcome the expansion of sources that Lied’s approach affords us. But if we were to amend our ways and quit neglecting the artifacts and their readers generally, how might that transform our approach to works for which the embodiments are exponentially more numerous than for 2 Baruch? ...

Response to the Respondents (Liv Ingeborg Lied).

For previous essays in the AJR forum (SBL 2021 panel) on Professor Lied's book, see here and links.

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The Cologne Mani Codex has been C-14 dated

VARIANT READINGS: Radiocarbon Dating of the Cologne Mani Codex (Brent Nongbri).

Finally, what is the best way to describe the date of the codex in light of all the data (palaeographic and radiocarbon)? We can now say with a high degree of confidence: “fourth century to mid-sixth century.”

That's good, and that's what we expected. But the intrusive conservation process does still leave some doubt about the C-14 result.

For more on the Cologne Mani Codex, including online photos and background information, see here and links.

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Purim 2022

HAPPY PURIM to all those celebrating! The festival began last night at sundown.

Last year's Purim post is here, with links. Purim-related posts since then are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

The (traditional) Tomb of Esther and Mordechai was bought by Iranian Jews in 1971.

FOR PURIM: Iranian Jews acquired tomb of Queen Esther and Mordechai, Israel's National Library reveals. The government of Iran's shah facilitated the purchase of the land in 1971 to mark 2,500 years to Cyrus the Great's edict allowing Babylonians to worship the god of their choic (Hanan Greenwood, Yisrael HaYom).

Ahead of the Purim holiday, Israel's National Library has revealed the exchange of historical letters proving Iranian Jews purchased the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai in the Iranian city of Hamadan. The purchase of the land in 1971 marked 2,500 years to Persian King Cyrus the Great's edict allowing Babylonians to worship the god of their choice.

[...]

I noted this story a couple of years ago, so it is not exactly a revelation. But this year's story includes scans of a couple of the letters, which I have not seen before.

Again, this is the traditional tomb of Esther and Mordechai. They are characters in the Book of Esther, an ancient novel. But apparently there is some reason to believe that the tomb goes back to late antiquity and has a Jewish connection.

For that and for more on this tomb, which was in the news a good bit in 2020, start here and follow the links.

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

Xerxes I and Ahasuerus

FOR PURIM: Persian King Xerxes thought to be Biblical Ahasuerus ‘famous example of arrogance.’ The story of Esther would have taken place in the third year of Xerxes’ reign in 483 BCE, noted Dr. Yigal Bloch, curator of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem (JUDITH SUDILOVSKY, Jerusalem Post).

“This doesn’t mean the story is real, but it gives a chronological anchor for when it should have taken place,” he said.

For more on the historical Xerxes I, see here. A couple of posts on legends about Ahasuerus inspired by the Book of Esther are here and here.

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

Esther in Hebrew and Greek

PURIM IS COMING: The Other Side of Esther. The Hebrew version we read doesn’t mention God, and avoids theology. But the ancient Greek versions of the story took a very different approach (A.J. Berkovitz, Tablet Magazine).

As in modern times, many diasporic Jews in the ancient world could barely read, let alone understand, Hebrew. Those living in places dominated by Hellenism—such as Alexandria in Egypt and the Greek isles—would gather in synagogues to read from sacred scripture translated into their Greek vernacular. The story of Esther that these communities heard on Purim vastly differs from the tale as told by our familiar Hebrew text.

Cross-file under Septuagint.

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On Mordechai

PURIM IS COMING: Mordechai the Spy-Master. (Rabbi Eric Grossman, TheTorah.com).

Mordechai learns of a secret plot to assassinate King Ahasuerus. He also knows that in a private meeting, Haman tried to bribe the king to kill the Jews. At the same time, Mordechai is able to keep his relationship with Esther a secret.

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

Esther scrolls in the Israel National Library

PURIM IS COMING: National Library unveils largest collection of Esther scrolls in the world. As the nation marks Purim, the National Library provides a rare glimpse into part of its collection of Esther scrolls (Jerusalem Post).

For more on the Valmadonna Library, its acquisition by the INL, etc., see here and links and here.

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Turkey denies there is a deal to return the Siloam Inscription.

SO MUCH FOR RUMORS: Not So Fast: Turkey Denies Deal to Return Siloam Inscription to Israel (Hana Levi Julian, The Jewish Press).

Of course its always possible that the denial is just part of the negotiation and that matters will turn around. But the history of the discussion does not encourage optimism.

For the earlier report on the supposed deal, see here. Follow the links from there for more posts on previous negotiations that also fell through and other posts on the Siloam Inscription.

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

Dugan on Lied’s Invisible Manuscripts

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Is That All There Is?: On Limits in the Study of Second Temple Literature (Elena Dugan).

So, these are three ways in which Lied’s book has fundamentally reoriented my view of antiquity and Second Temple literature in particular. I am no longer so sure that we have any stable cases of late-Second Temple voices mourning the loss of the Temple. I am galvanized to check and see just how much of the material reception-history of the pseudepigrapha is in service of Christian supersession, and anti-Judaism, and suspicious that it may be more than we might have imagined. And I am worried about the extent to which the textual stability on which scholars of the ancient world tacitly rely to build our archive is built on particularly vile early-modern attitudes towards our manuscripts’ careful and tireless guardians. In short, I am rethinking much thanks to Lied’s groundbreaking work, and it remains only for me to thank her greatly for it.

For previous essays in the AJR forum (SBL 2021 panel) on Liv Ingeborg Lied's book, Invisible Manuscripts, see here and here.

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

JQR 111.1 (2022)

H-JUDAIC: ToC: The Jewish Quarterly Review 112.1 (2022). One article of particular interest:

Babylonian Jewish Society: The Evidence of the Incantation Bowls
Simcha Gross, Avigail Manekin-Bamberger

Since their discovery, the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls have typically been understood to represent “popular” Jewish religious practice that stood in marked contrast with the scholastic rabbinic elite. As a result of this characterization, the usefulness of the bowls for understanding Babylonian Jewish society and the position of the rabbis within it has remained largely unexplored. With the continued publication and study of the bowls, however, the dichotomy between the world of the learned elites and the masses allegedly responsible for the bowls has become increasingly difficult to maintain. This article argues that the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls do not constitute a single corpus; rather, they were produced by different groups of scribes, some of whom consistently employed recognizable Jewish literature from a variety of genres and eschewed non-Jewish invocations. Moreover, we demonstrate how some bowl scribes invoke in an unprecedented manner not only rabbis of the distant past but also local rabbis, the rabbinic class, and even rabbinic academy heads. This evidence suggests that some bowls scribes had greater intellectual and social proximity to the rabbis, rendering a more complicated depiction of Babylonian Jewish society.

The article and this JQR issue are behind a subscription wall.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the ancient Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls, see the links collected here.

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

Jews or Judeans in the Book of Esther?

OPHIR YARDEN: Jewish Not Judean: The Diaspora in the Book of Esther (TheTorah.com).

Although Judea is one of the provinces of the multicultural empire of Persia, the book of Esther never mentions it. Rather, it grapples with the precarious position of Jews scattered throughout Persia, outside their ancestral homeland, and who stand out among the non-Jews in their insistence on keeping to their cultural rules and norms.

For some thoughts (including mine) on the debate on whether the ancient terms ioudaios/yehudi are best understood as "Jew" or "Judean," see here and links.

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Zoom event on the Aramaic incantation bowls

YALE UNIVERSITY JUDAIC STUDIES PROGRAM: The Aramaic Incantation Bowls in Their Late Antique Jewish Contexts, virtual event. Takes place on Monday, April 4, 2022 - 7:00am to Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - 12:30pm. Follow the link for the registration link.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls, see the links collected here and follow them back from there.

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

Leviathan in the Bible and the ANE

BIBLE ODYSSEY: Leviathan (Alessandro Rivera & Dexter Callender). An excellent overview of the biblical traditions about this sea monster and its ancient Near Eastern background.

For more on the Leviathan myth, including reception history to the present, see here and links, plus here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

Review of Fischer-Bovet & von Reden, Comparing the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Comparing the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires: integration, communication, and resistance.

Christelle Fischer-Bovet, Sitta von Reden, Comparing the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires: integration, communication, and resistance. Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. 400. ISBN 9781108479257 £90.00.

Review by
Benedikt Eckhardt, University of Edinburgh. B.Eckhardt@ed.ac.uk

Ancient Judaism comes up a couple of times in the review, but the book is also of great interest for background information on the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on both empires, including their coins, and their importance for biblical and ancient Jewish studies, start here (plus here and here) and follow the links.

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

Tübingen University's ancient Jewish coins online

NUMISMATICS: University Of Tübingen: Ancient Jewish Coins: Germany’s Outstanding Collection Is Presented (Iednewsdesk).

Ancient Jewish coins are a rarity in German museums and have hardly been published to date. The Institute for Classical Archeology at the University of Tübingen is now presenting a collection that is exceptional in Germany in terms of its scope and historical breadth. It includes 394 coins covering all eras of ancient Judaism. The coins were scientifically examined and historically classified by a team led by Professor Stefan Krmnicek. The photos and descriptions are now available in the Digital Coin Cabinet of the University of Tübingen ( https://www.ikmk.uni-tuebingen.de/) as public domain content. The scientific processing and digital documentation of the collection was made possible by the financial support of the Jewish religious community of Württemberg (IRGW).

[...]

I'm not sure how you get at all 394 coins. If you enter "Jewish" into the search engine at the url, it gives 191 results. The entry "Judaea" gives 362 results.

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The Tabernacle, the priesthood, and the cloud problem

PROF. GARY A. ANDERSON: The Date of the Tabernacle’s Completion and Consecration (TheTorah.com).

The Tabernacle is completed on the first of Nisan (Exodus 40) and is consecrated eight days later (Leviticus 9). And yet, the Book of Chronicles, Biblical Antiquities, and the Rabbis read these accounts as describing the same event. Indeed, the Torah’s final editor may have understood the texts as a continuous narrative, but chose to emphasize different themes of the Tabernacle by separating them.

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Is Turkey returning the Siloam Inscription to Israel?

POLITICS MEETS NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Israeli official: Turkey agrees to return ancient Hebrew inscription to Jerusalem. The 2,700-year-old Siloam inscription, taken by the Ottomans and still held in Istanbul, marks direct evidence of Bible’s account of King Hezekiah’s tunnel-building in Jerusalem (Shalom Yerushalmi, Times of Israel).

Turkey has agreed to return to Israel an ancient inscription from Jerusalem, currently housed in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, an Israeli official told Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site. It is considered one of the most important ancient Hebrew inscriptions in existence.

The gesture comes amid warming ties between Israel and Turkey and was discussed during the landmark visit of President Isaac Herzog to Ankara earlier this week, said a senior official in the Israeli entourage.

[...]

Still a rumor at this stage, but I hope it happens. For background information on the inscription, see the article at the link above and this post.

The discussions between Israel and Turkey about the Siloam Inscription have been going on for a long time. For the unsuccessful effort to arrange a loan of it in 2007, see the links collected here. For the unsuccessful offer to exchange it for two elephants (yes, really) in 2017, see here. The current negotiations reportedly involve an exchange for a Turkish artifact now in Israel.

Watch this space.

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

Who killed Goliath?

TEXT AND CANON INSTITUTE: Who Really Killed Goliath? Knowledge of scribal mistakes may provide a better solution to the historical puzzle of who killed Goliath in 2 Samuel 21:19 (Kaspars Ozoliņš). HT the ETC Blog.

Did you know that the Bible is inconsistent about who killed Goliath? But I think Kaspars Ozoliņš is correct about the solution to the problem.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Goliath the giant, see the links collected here (cf. here).

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

Where, if anywhere, was Tarshish?

DR. TZILLA ESHEL: Tarshish: The Origins of Solomon’s Silver (TheTorah.com).

In a joint venture, the Phoenician King Hiram and King Solomon go to Tarshish to bring back silver—the Levant has no silver deposits of its own. Where is Tarshish? Archaeological science, specifically, the ability to trace the chemical fingerprint of silver, and Phoenician inscriptions such as the Nora Stone, point us to the answer(s).

For more on the use of lead isotopes to track the movements of Phoencian silver, see here. For more on the possible whereabouts of Tarshish, if it was a place, see here.

The word Tarshish can also mean a type of precious stone in Hebrew (chrysolite or topaz? Cf., e.g., Ezekiel 28:13). And, as Philologos noted, it nearly became the Modern Hebrew name of the planet Neptune.

Cross-file under Phoenician Watch and Ancient Material Culture.

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Mroczek on Lied’s Invisible Manuscripts

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Other People’s Hands: A Response to Lied’s Invisible Manuscripts (Eva Mroczek).

My remarks on Liv Lied’s trailblazing new book will focus on its philosophical orientation and approach. I will consider the book as a humanistic work, an invitation to a kind of scholarship normally curtailed by the traditional orientations of our field—its theological roots, its focus on origins, its privileging of certain time periods as more significant than others, its logocentrism—and its implicit or explicit perspectives on who owns the right to claim a past and to determine its meaning.

I will do this in two related parts. First, I place the book in conversation with another work that gets us in touch with the concrete traces of human presence, Karen Stern’s Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity (Princeton UP, 2018). Second, I theorize Lied’s idea of “someone else’s manuscripts” more broadly as a pattern in our access to the past—the idea that we always owe it to “others” who have carried the texts through history, and that we have inherited certain patterns in how these “others” are identified and valued.

[...]

For previous essays in the AJR forum (SBL 2021 panel) on Liv Ingeborg Lied's book, Invisible Manuscripts, see here. For more on Karen Stern's book and her research, see here and links.

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Zoom Event: Annette Yoshiko Reed, "Forgetting Second Temple Judaism"

H-JUDAIC: EVENT: Annette Yoshiko Reed, "Forgetting Second Temple Judaism: History, Memory, and the Dead Sea Scrolls" -- Streaming live on Zoom (April 7 at 7:30pm Eastern). The event is free, but requires pre-registration.

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Hybrid Conference: Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future

SOCIETY FOR CLASSICAL STUDIES: Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future - Celebrating the Centennial of Excavations at Dura-Europos.

Yale University’s interdisciplinary ARCHAIA program is pleased to share news of its upcoming hybrid conference: Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future. This three-day event (March 31-April 2, 2022) is arranged to celebrate the centennial of excavations on-site at Dura-Europos (Syria). Papers and discussion will explore the town’s regional and long-distance ties in antiquity, 21st-century geopolitical entanglements, and avenues for future research. Registration is free, and online attendance is open to all.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the site of Dura-Europos, its late antique synagogue, and that synogogue's remarkable murals, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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

AJR on Lied, Invisible Manuscripts (of 2 Baruch)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Lied's Invisible Manuscripts: a Review Forum.

The book that serves as the point of departure for our discussion today is my recently published book, Invisible Manuscripts: Textual Scholarship and the Survival of 2 Baruch (2021), which is available open access via the publisher, Mohr Siebeck.

In Invisible Manuscripts, I explore an omission in scholarship on early Jewish writings in Christian transmission: the general inattention paid to the manuscripts that preserve these writings as cultural artefacts. ...

AJR has also posted the first essay responding to the book:

What Can Manuscripts Tell Us about the Texts They Preserve? A Response to Liv Ingeborg Lied’s Invisible Manuscripts (Matthias Henze).

I consider the scholarly turn to the reception histories of the ancient texts, and especially the new interest in the lives of the manuscripts, the single most significant development in recent decades in the study of the texts that are traditionally called the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. I have learned a great deal from you, Liv, and from many of our colleagues. Thank you. But I also appreciate where my own thinking and vocabulary have yet to change and evolve further (here I think in particular of New Philology).

My work receives favorable mention in the second essay.

For more on the Syriac manuscript Codex Ambrosianus B.21, which contains the only complete manuscript of 2 Baruch, see here (with photos of a facsimile of the first page of 2 Baruch) and here (with photos of the original manuscript in Milan and of Professor Lied and others, including me), and here.

For some other PaleoJudaica posts on 2 Baruch, notably links to Phil Long's blog series on the book at Reading Acts, see here and here and links, plus here.

I have linked to Liv's blog posts on 2 Baruch here and here, and on Codex Ambrosianus B.21 here, here, and here.

I have presented the case for the Jewish provenance of 2 Baruch in my book, The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha (Brill, 2005), pp. 126-131. I argue that 2 Baruch promotes Torah observance, a Jewish ethnic identity, and a Jewish (and distinctly not Christian) concept of the Messiah. I have not yet seen Liv's book, so I don't know if she has replied to my arguments.

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

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"Feminine Power" at the British Museum

EXHIBITION: British Museum Announces FEMININE POWER: THE DIVINE TO THE DEMONIC. British Museum announces first ever exhibition on female spiritual beings through the ages (A.A. Cristi, Broadway World). The exhibition opens on 22 May this year. It is quite cross-cultural. Notable for PaleoJudaica:

Since the late first millennium AD, Lilith has been known within Jewish demonology as the first wife of Adam and the consort of Satan. Her origins are thought to lie in Mesopotamian demons. The exhibition will include a ceramic incantation bowl from 500-800 AD Iraq, featuring a rare early image of Lilith in female form. Buried upside down under the thresholds of houses these bowls were inscribed with charms to protect the named patrons from demonic forces and regularly name Lilith; sometimes as grammatically singular and feminine, but also masculine or plural.

Lilith as "consort to Satan" presumably refers to her cohabitation with Sama'el, notably in the Kabbalistic Treatise on the Left Emanation.

For past posts on Lilith, start here and follow the links. For posts on the Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and links.

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

More on the incantation bowls seized in Jerusalem

APPREHENSION UPDATE: ‘Magic’ bowls among trove of ancient artifacts seized in raid on Jerusalem home. Ramat Shlomo resident suspected of illegal antiquities trade had three 1,500-year-old incantation bowls from Iraq, hundreds of other rare treasures (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

This article has new information about the inscriptions on the three seized bowls. Background here.

One of my first posts on PaleoJudaica included a translation of an Aramaic incantation bowl. That bowl also involved R. Joshua bar Perahya ("Joshua ben (son of) Perachiah") and had a divorce procedure against the demons.

The post had many useful links. Almost all of them have evaporated in less than twenty years. Maybe we should have stuck with clay tablets.

UPDATE (9 March): I have collected links to many of my posts on the Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls here.

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

Thomas & Melton (eds.), Reading Lamentations Intertextually (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Reading Lamentations Intertextually

Heath A. Thomas (Anthology Editor), Brittany N. Melton (Anthology Editor)

Hardback
$120.00 $84.00

Ebook (PDF)
$108.00 $75.60

Product details

Published Nov 04 2021
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 352
ISBN 9780567699589
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This book addresses intertextual connections between Lamentations and texts in each division of the Hebrew Bible, along with texts throughout history. Sources examined range from the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern Shoah literature, allowing the volume's impact to reach beyond Lamentations to each of the 'intertexts' the chapters address.

By bringing together scholars with expertise on this diverse array of texts, the volume offers a wide range of exegetical insight. It also enables the reader to appreciate the varying intertextual approaches currently employed in Biblical Studies, ranging from abstract theory to rigid method. By applying these to a focused analysis of Lamentations, this book will facilitate greater insight on both Lamentations and current methodological research.

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Magic bowls and ivory plaques seized in Jerusalem

APPREHENDED: IAA uncovers ancient magical bowls in home of Jerusalem resident. 1,500-year-old "incantation bowls" were among hundreds of antiquities found, believed to be intended for the illegal antiquities trade (JUDITH SUDILOVSKY, Jerusalem Post).

The incantation bowls will have come from Iraq. If you want to see some more of them, go here. And for many PaleoJudaica posts on such bowls, run "Aramaic incantation bowls" through the blog search engine.

Reportedly the IAA thinks that the decorated ivory objects come from the north, perhaps Samaria. Other similar object have been found there. The IAA would know better than I. Decorated ivory plaques have been found in Samaria, Syria, and Iraq.

UPDATE (9 March): More here, and note the update.

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TC 26 (2021)

TC: A JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL TEXTUAL CRITICISM has published a new volume: 26 (2021). All articles are about the New Testament, but some touch on matters relevant to first-century Judaism. The reviews are of books on the New Testament and early Christianity, the Septuagint, and Psalms in Syriac and Hebrew. TC is an open-access journal.

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Ritmeyer reconstructs the Magdala synagogue

LEEN RITMEYER: A reconstruction of the Magdala Synagogue. Did Jesus preach in this synagogue?

For many posts on the ancient city of Magdala (Migdal today), the two first-century synagogues excavated there, and the Magdala Stone found in the first synagogue, start here and follow the links.

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Christian, Zu Entstehung und Theologie von 1/4QInstruction und der ‚Zwei-Geister-Lehre‘ (1QS III,13–IV,26) (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Zu Entstehung und Theologie von 1/4QInstruction und der ‚Zwei-Geister-Lehre‘ (1QS III,13–IV,26)

Geheimwissen, Erwählung und Prädestination

Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 135

Author: Meike Christian

This study challenges the common classification of 1/4QInstruction and the Treatise of the Two Spirits (1QS III,13–IV,26) as “pre-sectarian”. The analysis refrains from the distinction between “sectarian-” and “non-sectarian-texts” and supplies detailed comparisons as well as a redaction-critical investigation without any presuppositions about the historical setting of 1/4QInstruction and the Treatise. This way it re-evaluates the formation of the two compositions and brings to light connections and developments that have been concealed so far.

Die vorliegende Studie stellt die verbreitete Klassifizierung von 1/4QInstruction und der Zwei-Geister-Lehre als „pre-sectarian-texts“ in Frage. Anstatt von übergeordneten Kategorien auszugehen, vermeidet diese Untersuchung historische Vorannahmen und richtet den Blick aufs Detail, indem sie anhand von Textvergleichen sowie einer redaktionskritischen Analyse eine Neueinordnung der beiden Werke vornimmt. Auf diese Weise werden bisher verborgende gedankliche Entwicklungen und literarische Abhängigkeitsverhältnisse aufgedeckt, sodass die beiden Werke in einem neuen Licht erscheinen.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €139.00 / $167.00

Copyright Year: 2022

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-47307-2
Publication Date: 25 Oct 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-47306-5
Publication Date: 28 Jan 2022

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Conserving a Maltese Phoenician sarcophagus

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Rare Phoenician sarcophagus covered by Rabat trenching works excavated. 600BC Phoenician stone sarcophagus discovered 21 years ago being examined by University and heritage experts over fears of damage from increased roadworks (Matthew Vella, Malta Today).

See also: Phoenician sarcophagus discovered in Rabat being conserved, will go up on permanent display (Malta Independent).

The sarcophagus, alas, appears to be uninscribed.

Cross-file under Punic Watch, if you define Punic broadly as Mediterranian colonial Phoenician, rather than narrowly as Carthaginian.

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Hilpert, Die Komposition der Chronikbücher (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Die Komposition der Chronikbücher

Redaktionsgeschichtliche Studien zu 2 Chr 10-36

The Composition of the Books of Chronicles: Editorial Historical Studies of 2 Chr 10–36

Andreas Hilpert

Volume 526 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110698534

eBook
Published: January 19, 2022
ISBN: 9783110698534

Hardcover
Published: January 31, 2022
ISBN: 9783110698435

About this book

The Books of Chronicles are generally considered the works of a single author, who attempts a canonical synthesis of the Hebrew Bible. This study examines the history of King Judas (2 Chr 10–36) to reach a different conclusion. The Chronicles were revised across the books. The texts of the Chronicles should now be understood as historically evolved documents, which document a historical transformation of theology.

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Preview of Tobolowsky, The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Publication Preview | The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Andrew Tobolowsky).

... Basically, we now realize that there would have been multiple different versions of Israelite identity over time, regardless of the origins of the ethnic concept, and that it, like all identity concepts, would respond constantly and dynamically to changing circumstances and, for that matter, the changing needs of the authors of any given vision. ...

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Review of Dershowitz, The Dismembered Bible

IS THAT IN THE BIBLE? Did Biblical Authors Literally Cut and Paste? A Review of The Dismembered Bible by Idan Dershowitz (Paul D.).

In a new monograph titled The Dismembered Bible, up-and-coming scholar Idan Dershowitz (University of Potsdam) takes a crack at explaining the physical methods that were used by Hebrew scribes in the process of editing and redacting the Old Testament. In particular, he argues that mechanical cutting and pasting — a phrase that has become mere metaphor in the digital age — was the actual method used by some biblical authors to compose their texts. He also argues that this technique has left detectable fingerprints in the text — out-of-place or “jumbled” snippets that cannot be explained by conventional scribal errors.

I noted the publication of the book here. Prof. Dershowitz has also been in the news recently for his book defending the authenticity of the Shapira Scroll fragments.

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Looted Steinhardt artifacts returned to Jordan

REPATRIATION: US returns Michael Steinhardt’s looted antiquities to Jordan. American and Jordanian authorities’ press statements about ceremony in Amman make no mention of billionaire, who agreed to surrender trafficked artifacts to avoid prosecution (Agencies via Times of Israel).

The article refers to two ancient Jewish tombstones among the nine artifacts, but they are not pictured with the other seven. The writer of the article would like to know more about them. So would I.

For more on the Steinhardt case, see here.

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Antiochus Epiphanes in Illinois?

THE POCKET CHANGE BLOG: Antiochus IV in Illinois.

Coins in strange places are great things. Nevertheless, it has always been of some personal disappointment to me that there never seemed to be many examples of Seleucid coins in odd places, excluding those that survived the centuries to be restruck as Jewish coins of the Bar Kokhba War (AD 132–135). This all changed a few months ago when I discovered the June 17, 1882, issue of Scientific American.

The coin seems now to be lost. How it ended up in a field in Illinois remains a mystery.

For more on the coins of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, see here. He was, of course, the chief bad guy of the Maccabean Revolt, as recorded in the Book of Daniel and the books of 1-2 Maccabees. Cross-file under Numismatics.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 192

THE LIBRARY MUSINGS: Biblical Studies Carnival 192 (Bobby Howell).

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Nati, Textual Criticism and the Ontology of Literature in Early Judaism (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Textual Criticism and the Ontology of Literature in Early Judaism

An Analysis of the Serekh ha-Yaḥad

Series:
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 198

Author: James Nati

The Dead Sea Scrolls have demonstrated the fluidity of biblical and early Jewish texts in antiquity. How did early Jewish scribes understand the nature of their pluriform literature? How should modern textual critics deal with these fluid texts?
Centered on the Serekh ha-Yaḥad – or Community Rule – from Qumran as a test case, this volume tracks the development of its textual tradition in multiple trajectories, and suggests that it was not understood as a single, unified composition even in antiquity. Attending to material, textual, and literary factors, the book argues that ancient claims for textual identity ought to be given priority in discussions among textual critics about the ontology of biblical books.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €119.00 / $144.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-47218-1
Publication Date: 01 Nov 2021

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-47194-8
Publication Date: 04 Nov 2021

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Where did Peter really live?

APOSTOLIC HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY: Where Did Peter the Apostle, Disciple of Christ, Really Live? Scripture is conflicting about the hometown of Peter the Apostle, but historian R. Steven Notley believes he has uncovered key clues that point in only one direction (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz). HT Rogue Classicism.

The debate over which site was the ancient city of Bethsaida (El-Araj or et-Tell/e-Tell) continues. But, thanks to the recent discovery of a Byzantine-era church building at El-Araj, the question of Peter's residence has become part of the discussion. I have commented at length on the current state of the question here. I have nothing to add at present.

I have following the debate over the site of Bethsaida for a long time. For posts, start at the last link above (plus here) and follow the links.

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An Elamite royal inscription fragment from Persepolis

PERSEPOLIS WATCH: Elamite inscription attributed to Xerxes the Great found in Persepolis (Tehran Times). HT Rogue Classicism.

For the Neo-Elamite kingdom and its capital, Susa, see here. I have mentioned other Neo-Elamite inscriptions here, here and here.

The article also has a discussion of the inscriptions found at the Persepolis Fortification and the Persepolis Treasury, although it does not mention the Aramaic material. (Persepolis was the ceremonial royal capital of the Achemenid Empire.) For more on the Persepolis Fortification Archives, see here and many links. And for many PaleoJudaica posts on Persepolis, start here and follow the links.

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BMCR reviews The Cambridge Greek Lexicon

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Cambridge Greek lexicon.

James Diggle, Bruce Fraser, Patrick James, Oliver Simkin, Anne Thompson, Simon Westripp, The Cambridge Greek lexicon. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. 1529 in 2 volumes. ISBN 9780521826808 $84.99.

Review by
Luuk Huitink, University of Amsterdam. l.huitink@uva.nl
Arjan Nijk, University of Leiden. arjannijk@hotmail.com

A long and detailed review. It concludes:

All in all, CGL is a pleasure to use due to its attractive presentation (both on the outside and on the inside), its contemporary translations, the wealth of information it provides concerning usage, and the fresh insight it provides in the semantic structure of certain key concepts in Greek culture. It will no doubt become a standard work of reference for students throughout the world and it will save scholars a trip to the fuller LSJ or Montanari for most quotidian purposes. However, some unfortunate decisions in coverage, together with its somewhat experimental approach to lexicography, make it a flawed colossus.

For previous PaleoJudaica posts on the Cambridge Greek lexicon, see the links collected here.

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Ein Gedi's ancient synagogue

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Unique Sites of Israel: A Mosaic Treasure at Ein Gedi! (Nosson Shulman, The Jewish Press Blogs).

The article discusses the late-antique synagogue at Ein Gedi, its decorative mosaics, and their Aramaic inscriptions. Surprisingly, it does not mention the main thing for which the synagogue has been in the news in recent years: the charred Leviticus scroll found there in 1970, which was deciphered in 2015 with the help of new, non-intrusive scanning technology. For that scroll see here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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Review of Fee, Bodmer Papyri, scribal culture, and textual transmission

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Bodmer Papyri, scribal culture, and textual transmission: collected works on New Testament textual criticism.

Gordon D. Fee, Bodmer Papyri, scribal culture, and textual transmission: collected works on New Testament textual criticism. New Testament tools, studies and documents. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. Pp. 382, xviii. ISBN 9789004311411 €154,00.

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

Regular PaleoJudaica readers will recognize the reviewer from his blog, Variant Readings, to which I link sometimes.

I have collected PaleoJudaica posts on the Bodmer Papyri here.

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BAR, Spring 2022

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY: Biblical Archaeology Review, Spring 2022. Including articles (behind the subscription wall) on the origins of the Philistines, early worship of Jesus in the Arabian Peninsula, a palace of Herod at Banias, storage jars in ancient Israel, and more.

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Berthelot, Jews and Their Roman Rivals (Princeton)

NEW BOOK FROM PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Jews and Their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome's Challenge to Israel

Katell Berthelot

How encounters with the Roman Empire compelled the Jews of antiquity to rethink their conceptions of Israel and the Torah

Hardcover
Price: $45.00 / £35.00
ISBN: 9780691199290
Published (US): Oct 26, 2021

Published (UK):Dec 21, 2021
Copyright: 2021
Pages: 552
Size: 6.13 x 9.25 in.
22 b/w illus. 2 maps.

Overview

Throughout their history, Jews have lived under a succession of imperial powers, from Assyria and Babylonia to Persia and the Hellenistic kingdoms. Jews and Their Roman Rivals shows how the Roman Empire posed a unique challenge to Jewish thinkers such as Philo, Josephus, and the Palestinian rabbis, who both resisted and internalized Roman standards and imperial ideology.

Katell Berthelot traces how, long before the empire became Christian, Jews came to perceive Israel and Rome as rivals competing for supremacy. Both considered their laws to be the most perfect ever written, and both believed they were a most pious people who had been entrusted with a divine mission to bring order and peace to the world. Berthelot argues that the rabbinic identification of Rome with Esau, Israel’s twin brother, reflected this sense of rivalry. She discusses how this challenge transformed ancient Jewish ideas about military power and the use of force, law and jurisdiction, and membership in the people of Israel. Berthelot argues that Jewish thinkers imitated the Romans in some cases and proposed competing models in others.

Shedding new light on Jewish thought in antiquity, Jews and Their Roman Rivals reveals how Jewish encounters with pagan Rome gave rise to crucial evolutions in the ways Jews conceptualized the Torah and conversion to Judaism.

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Introduction to late Egyptian history

THE WORLD IS FULL OF HISTORY: Late Period and the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, an introduction (Dr. Amy Calvert, Smarthistory). An illustrated capsule history of Egypt from the 25th dynasty to the end of the Roman period. It only mentions Judaism in passing, but much of the article provides useful background for ancient Jewish history.

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