Where was Jesus baptized?

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY: Where Exactly Did John the Baptist Baptize Jesus? if Jesus was indeed baptized, then where? Biblical scholar Shimon Gibson reviews the geo-historical and archaeological evidence, or lack thereof, and presents a new theory (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Now, based on geo-historical and archaeological considerations, Prof. Shimon Gibson, renowned biblical scholar at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has a new argument: likely al-Mahgtas (Bethabara), certainly not Yardenit, but possibly neither.

The geography is confusing, but I think it is as follows: al-Mahgtas is the traditional site of Jesus baptism on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River. On the other side is Qasr al-Yehud, mentioned briefly in the article. The latter, recently fully de-mined and re-opened, is also presented as the site of Jesus' baptism. There has been some friction over this issue.

This seems to be the first I have heard of Yardenit as another possible site. At least I haven't mentioned it.

I have no opinion about which site, if any, is the real one.

By the way, this comment is odd:

“Those belonging to the ‘Jesus group’ – since Christians only called themselves such from the fourth century – had two problems,” Gibson explains.

According to Acts 11:26, the followers of Jesus were first called Christians in Antioch, apparently during the lifetime of the Apostle Paul. In any case, the term must have been in use when Acts was written in the late first or early second century at latest. It also appears in 1 Peter 4:16. By the early second century, the Roman writes Suetonius, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger were using it, as was the Christian writer Ignatius of Antioch.

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Bar Kokhba-era finds in a Tekoan cave

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPELUNKING: Watch: Archaeologists uncover traces of the Jewish Revolt. Researchers say they have uncovered traces of Jewish fighters hiding from the Roman Legions in caves near the town of T'koa in Gush Etzion (Arutz Sheva). The video is from i24: "Tekoah Valley & the rare coin from the Bar Kokhva Revolt." HT Rogue Classicism.

The most important find is a silver tetradrachm coin from the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Cross-file under Numismatics.

For more Bar Kokhba-era discoveries at Gush Etzion, see here and here.

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Turkish Neo-Assyrian panel depicts Aramean gods

PARIETAL PETROGLYPHS: Fertility cult complex discovered under Turkish home dates to the Iron Age. It was almost destroyed by modern looters (Emily Staniforth, Live Science).

"The finding bears witness to the exercise of Assyrian hegemony in the region in its early phases," one of the study's authors Selim Ferruh Adalı, an associate professor of ancient history at the Social Sciences University of Ankara, told Live Science in an email. "The wall panel contains a depiction of divine procession with previously unknown elements, with Aramaic writing to describe some of the deities while combining Neo-Assyrian, Aramaean and Syro-Anatolian divine iconography."

[...]

Four of the eight deities depicted on the panel could not be identified, according to the study. The Aramaic inscriptions label three of the gods: the storm, rain and thunder god Hadad; his consort Atargatis, a goddess of fertility and protection; the moon god Sîn; and the sun god Šamaš. The drawing of Atargatis is the earliest known depiction of this goddess, the principal goddess of Syria, in this region, the researchers added.

This discovery is very welcome. Information on the ancient Aramean pantheon is hard to come by. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

The underlying article in the journal Antiquity is online, apparently open access, with Cambridge Core: An Assyrianised rock wall panel with figures at Başbük in south-eastern Turkey (Mehmet Önal, Celal Uludağ, Yusuf Koyuncu and Selim Ferruh Adalı)

Abstract

The Neo-Assyrian Empire of the early first millennium BC ruled over the ancient Near East. South-eastern Anatolia was controlled through vassal city-states and provincial structures. Assyrian governors and local elites expressed their power through elements of Assyrian courtly style. Here, the authors report a rare processional panel recently discovered at Başbük in south-eastern Turkey. Incised on the rock wall of a subterranean complex, the panel features eight deities, three with associated Aramaic inscriptions. The iconographic details and Syro-Anatolian religious themes illustrate the adaptation of Neo-Assyrian art in a provincial context. The panel, which appears to have been left unfinished, is the earliest-known regional attestation of Atargatis, the principal goddess of Syria c. 300 BC–AD 200.

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Spicy garbage on the Negev's Incense Trade Route

GARBAGE ARCHAEOLOGY: Israeli research on ancient rubbish shine light on Incense Trade Route.Analysis of the ancient trading route's garbage deposits point to early process of globalization between the years of 300 BCE to 300 AD (Yaron Drukman, Ynetnews.com).

Remains of these goods have been uncovered in recent years throughout archeological sites, many of which are located in Israel. Chemical analysis showed reserves of cinnamon remain in Tel Dor, reserves of vanilla have been discovered in Jerusalem, and remains of turmeric were found in teeth of a human buried in Megido.

The new research project - led by Professor Bar-Oz, PhD student Roy Galili from Ben Gurion University, Daniel Fuks, Tali Erickson-Gini, Yotam Tepper, Nofar Shamir and Gideon Avni - aimed to focus on locating the raw materials that had been transported their journey. The route infrastructure, the means by which people walked or rode between road stations (caravanserais), the size of caravan trains, and the remains traders left at the stations along the roads were the focal points of the team's project.

The article links to the underlying article in the journal Antiquity, via Cambridge Core. It is behind a subscription wall: Caravanserai middens on desert roads: a new perspective on the Nabataean–Roman trade network across the Negev (Guy Bar-Oz, Roy Galili, Tali Erickson-Gini, Yotam Tepper, Nofar Shamir and Gideon Avni).

Abstract

Long-distance trade routes criss-crossed ancient Africa and Eurasia. Archaeological research has focused on the commodities in transit and the excavation of major centres located along these routes, with less attention paid to smaller caravanserai and evidence such as rubbish middens. The ‘Incense Route’ linked the Arabian Peninsula and Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, with activity peaking during the Nabataean and Roman periods. The authors present the results of test-pit excavations of middens at three small Nabataean–Roman desert caravanserai along the ‘Incense Route’. The assemblages recovered include material culture attesting to wide, inter-regional connections, combined with archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data illuminating the subsistence basis of the caravan trade.

For more on the Incense Trade Route, see here.

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Liturgical or ritualized psalms in the Hodayot?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Ritualization of Psalms in the Dead Sea Scroll 1QHodayotᵃ (Thanksgiving Psalms from Qumran) (Michael B. Johnson).

... One of the chief hurdles in the consideration of the psalms found in 1QHᵃ as compositions that may have been read aloud in communal settings is the use of the term “liturgical” to characterize such settings and texts. In this essay, I will explore an alternative way of conceptualizing the arrangement of psalms in 1QHᵃ, which I hope will advance the discussion of its function or at least unburden it to some extent.

This essay also provides a good summary of the history of scholarship on the Hodayot.

This is the second in an AJR forum on Prayer in Jewish Antiquity. I noted the first here.

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New IAA headquarters nears completion in Jerusalem

MUSEUM FUNDING: National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel set to be completed by end 2022 (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

A decades-long building project to house the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in Jerusalem’s Museum Hill gets a major boost with a $3 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

[...]

Currently, the IAA spreads its Jerusalem offices between the technological park at Har Hotzvim, the Israel Museum, and the East Jerusalem Rockefeller Museum.

The new campus aims to display “millions of excavated artifacts that will be assembled and displayed for the public for the first time,” according to the IAA, as well as house the IAA staff offices and laboratories. The Dead Sea scrolls laboratory will also be open to the public, according to the IAA website.

The first announcement I saw of this project was in 2006. I noted updates in 2014 and 2016. I hope the new funding is enough to bring it to completion.

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Review of Thonemann, Lucian: Alexander or the false prophet

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Lucian: Alexander or the false prophet.

Peter Thonemann, Lucian: Alexander or the false prophet. Clarendon ancient history series. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 256. ISBN 9780198868248 £90.00.

Review by
Jan Bremmer, University of Groningen. j.n.bremmer@rug.nl

There is no doubt that Lucian’s pamphlet on the religious entrepreneur Alexander of Abonouteichos belongs to the most entertaining writings of antiquity. At the same time, it is a precious witness to the religious atmosphere of the later second century AD, that is, the same period in which we find the major Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (John, Andrew, Paul and Peter). It would perhaps have paid off for Thonemann to compare them more closely, as they portray more or less contemporaneous religious entrepreneurs, partially working in the same area as Alexander.

[...]

I think I might want to have a conversation about whether the apostle Paul "failed to reach [Alexander's] success." Really? On what time scale?

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Smith, ... Allusion and the Elihu Speeches ... (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Allusive and Elusive: Allusion and the Elihu Speeches of Job 32–37

Series: Biblical Interpretation Series, Volume: 198

Author: Cooper Smith

Elihu is among the most diversely evaluated characters in the Hebrew Bible. Attending to the inner-Joban allusions in the Elihu speeches (Job 32–37) provides both an explanation and appreciation for this diversity. After carefully defining allusion, this work identifies and interprets twenty-three allusions in Job 32–37 that refer to Job 1–31 in order to understand both their individual significance in the Elihu speeches and their collective significance as a compositional feature of the unit. This allusiveness is shown to both invite and explain the varied assessments of Elihu’s merits in the history of interpretation.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €115.00 / $139.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-50814-9
Publication Date: 14 Feb 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-50800-2
Publication Date: 22 Feb 2022

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Himmelfarb receives Princeton Humanities award

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Martha Himmelfarb and Simon Morrison receive Behrman Award for the humanities (Jamie Saxon).

Martha Himmelfarb is the William H. Danforth Professor of Religion and a leading scholar of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. A member of Princeton’s faculty for more than 40 years, she joined the University in 1978. She will transfer to emeritus status at the end of this academic year.

[...]

Her scholarly work has had a profound impact on the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity, noted one colleague in nominating Himmelfarb for the Behrman Award. Her insistence on the need to study both religious traditions, their texts and their communities in connection with one another distinguishes her research. Her approach challenged and reoriented the long-standing paradigm that assumed the inevitability of Judaism and Christianity diverging into distinct religious traditions, and her research has pioneered new ways of understanding this ongoing relationship from the Second Temple period through the Middle Ages.

Congratulations to both recipients, but especially to Professor Himmelfarb, whose contribution to the study of ancient Judaism has been vast.

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Fixed-term, part-time OT/HB job at Edinburgh

THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH:

Teaching Fellow in Old Testament and Hebrew Bible

Job Description

UE07 £34,304 - £40,927 pro rata per annum

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Divinity

Part time – 21 hours per week (0.6FTE)

Post available from 1st August 2022 to 31st July 2023

The Opportunity:

The School of Divinity is looking for an enthusiastic and organised Teaching Fellow to deliver and assess courses, primarily relating to Old Testament and Hebrew Bible. The post holder will be expected to design and deliver course materials and assist with the supervision and assessment of dissertation students. The appointee will be expected to take a share of the administrative and management responsibilities of the subject area and to play a full part in the collegiate life of the School of Divinity.

Follow the link for further particulars.

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Fixed-term NT job at Exeter

THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER:

Lecturer in New Testament Studies (Education and Scholarship)

College of Humanities

This full time role is available 1 September 2022 to 31 January 2024.

The role

You will be to contribute to the delivery of teaching in this area, including dissertation and tutorial support, and to the administration of the Department.

The post will include delivery of modules in New Testament Studies (provisionally: introducing biblical studies, Level 1 core, shared with a colleague; reading New Testament letters, Level 2/3 option; introductory New Testament Greek (Level 1, option)). It will also involve contributing to an MA module in Biblical Studies, and supervising UG dissertations. You will also be expected to act as a tutor to UG students, and to contribute to the administration of the Department, as directed by the Director of Education and Head of Department.

Follow the link for further particulars. The closing date for applications is 2 June 2022.

HT the British New Testament Society mailing list.

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Newman on Jonah and prayer

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Jonah and Prayer (Judith Newman).

... In sum, we can see that in antiquity and today, traditional prayer is a performative, embodied activity through which the cultural tradition is reclaimed, mediated, sacralized, and renewed, shaping selves and communities in the process. Prayer practice and performance open up spaces for the extension of scripture; they are intertwined.

This essay is about a lot more than Jonah's prayers.

For more on Professor Newman's book Before the Bible, see here.

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Temple Mount Research Conference

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFITING PROJECT BLOG: THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC CONFERENCE ON NEW STUDIES IN TEMPLE MOUNT RESEARCH. It happens on 18 May in Jerusalem and on Zoom. Follow the link for the full program and registration information. There is a small fee for attendance. The papers are in Hebrew and English, with real-time interpretation of both.

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Phoenician museum opens in Lebanon

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Lebanon opens Phoenician museum after joining Council of Europe's cultural routes.

BEIRUT, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's tourism ministry inaugurated on Friday a Phoenician museum in the coastal city of Jounieh at a ceremony also held to celebrate Lebanon's membership in the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, the National News Agency reported.

[...]

Good. What's in it?

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More on unsung local archaeological laborers

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Archaeological Laborers in the Middle East. Examining the critical role of local workers in archaeology (Marek Dospěl).

Writing for the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archeology Review, Allison Mickel addresses this complex issue in her article “Silent Labor: Dig Workers in the Middle East.” An assistant professor of Anthropology at Lehigh University, Mickel spent five years interviewing local archaeological laborers who helped excavate two major sites in the eastern Mediterranean: Petra in Jordan and Çatalhöyük in Turkey. ...

The article is behind a subscription wall, but this BHD essay gives you a taste of it.

For more on the Unsilencing the Archives exhibition, see here.

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Vanderkam, An Introduction to Early Judaism, 2nd ed. (Eerdmans)

NEW (REVISED) BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

An Introduction to Early Judaism, 2nd ed.
James C. Vanderkam

PAPERBACK; Published: 1/6/2022
ISBN: 978-0-8028-8016-1
Price: $ 28.99
253 Pages
Trim Size, in inches: 6 x 9

DESCRIPTION

Based on the best archaeological research, this volume explores the history of Judaism during the Second Temple period (516 BCE–70 CE), describing the body of Jewish literature written during these centuries and the most important groups, institutions, and practices of the time. Particularly interesting are VanderKam’s depiction of events associated with Masada and, more briefly, the Bar Kokhba revolt—as well as his commentary on texts unearthed in places like Elephantine and Qumran.

Now in its second edition, with additional material and updated throughout, this book remains the preeminent guide to early Judaism for anyone looking for a text that is concise and accessible while still comprehensive—and written by one of the foremost experts in the field.

For recent good news about James VanderKam, see here.

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Xeravits memorial volume (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Understanding Texts in Early Judaism
Studies on Biblical, Qumranic, Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature in Memory of Géza Xeravits
Edited by: József Zsengellér
Volume 48 in the series Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110768534

PDF & EPUB £102.00
Hardcover £102.00

eBook
Published: March 7, 2022
ISBN: 9783110768534
Hardcover
Published: March 21, 2022
ISBN: 9783110768367

About this book

This volume remembers Géza Xeravits, a well known scholar of deuterocanonical and Qumran literature. The volume is divided into four sections according to his scholarly work and interest. Contributions in the first part deal with Old Testament and related issues (Thomas Hiecke, Stefan Beyerle, and Mattew Goff). The second section is about the Dead Sea Scrolls (John J, Collins, John Kampen, Peter Porzig, Eibert Tigchelaar, Balázs Tamási and Réka Esztári). The largest part is the forth on deuterocanonica (Beate Ego, Lucas Brum Teixteira, Fancis Macatangay, Tobias Nicklas, Maria Brutti, Nuria, Chalduch-Benages, Panc Beentjes, Ben Wright, Otto Mulder, Angelo Passaro, Friedrich Reiterer, Severino Bussino, Jeremy Corley and JiSeong Kwong). The third section deals with some cognate literature (József Zsengellér and Karin Schöpflin). The last section about the Ancient Synagogue has the paper of Anders Kloostergaard Petersen.
Some hot topics are discussed, for example the Two spirits in Qumran, the cathegorization of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the authorship and antropology of Ben Sira, and the angelology of Vitae Prophetarum.

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The evil eye is not in the Bible

DR. NICOLE L. TILFORD: Does the Bible Believe in the Evil Eye? (TheTorah.com).

The belief in the power of an angry or jealous person’s eye to damage others was pervasive in the ancient Near East, in Jewish antiquity, and medieval times. But what does the Bible say?

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Evans & Wright (eds.), Gods, Spirits, and Worship in the Greco-Roman World and Early Christianity (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Gods, Spirits, and Worship in the Greco-Roman World and Early Christianity

Craig A. Evans (Anthology Editor), Adam Z. Wright (Anthology Editor)

Hardback $115.00 $103.50

Ebook (PDF) $103.50 $82.80

Ebook (Epub & Mobi) $103.50 $82.80

Product details

Published Feb 24 2022
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 280
ISBN 9780567703262
Imprint T&T Clark
Illustrations 7 bw illus
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series Jewish and Christian Texts
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

Greco-Roman religions and superstitions, and early Christianity's engagement with them, are explored in 12 unique studies. The beliefs and fears with regard to demons (or daimons), their origins, and threatening behavior are examined, both in their pagan and Judaeo-Christian contexts. These new studies look at the Greco-Roman heroic gods, how they faced death, and how James and John, the “sons of Thunder,” may well have been viewed in some circles as the equivalent of the “sons of Zeus”, Castor and Pollux.

The contributors also explore Roman omens, especially as they relate to Rome's legendary founder Romulus and what light they shed on the omens that accompany the birth and death of Jesus of Nazareth. Particular focus is placed upon Paul, binding spells, women and hymns of exaltation, along with atheism in late antiquity, with special consideration of the charlatan Alexander. Finally, there is a re-visitation of the confusion, misinformation and legends surrounding the discovery of the Qumran caves, including fear of jinn. This book provides invaluable resources for precisely how early Christians interacted with different ideas and traditions around gods and spirits - both benevolent and malevolent - in the Greco-Roman world.

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More discoveries in Sohag

EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY: Checkpoint, remains of archaeological temple from the Ptolemaic era discovered in Sohag (Egypt Independent).

Just in case you thought Egypt had no archaeological discoveries left. The finds include the checkpoint, the temple of Isis, some Demotic and Greek documentary texts, and a lot of tombs.

For more on Sohag and its archaeology and history, some of which is of no little interest to PaleoJudaica, see here and links.

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The Mount Ebal amulet again

THE BIG CLAIMS CONTINUE: The Ebal Amulet – the oldest Israelite text ever found. It was as if I had been finding, and putting together the pieces of a large, difficult jigsaw puzzle – pieces that came from ancient history, archaeology, geography and biblical textual analysis (ZVI KOENIGSBERG, Jerusalem Post).

I note this article for completeness' sake, not because it says anything new. Indeed, it does not acknowledge the genuine concerns that specialists have raised about some of the claims repeated in it.

The amulet may be an important discovery. But until the discoverers publish it in a peer-review publication with good photographs, the scholarly conversation has not yet begun. Only then can we see what we really have and how important it is.

Background here and links.

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What happened to the rest of Paul's letters?

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: The Lost Letters of Saint Paul, and How They Were Lost (Philip Jenkins).

Why, then, were these lost letters lost?

The answer to that is quite simple. Paul probably died around 64/65AD. Very shortly afterward, during the early years of the Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-73) savage inter-communal violence broke out across the Levant, and in Egypt. ... If we look at the places described as marked by the most savage violence, where Jewish communities were extirpated, several of the worst massacres and orgies of destruction occurred in cities mentioned in Acts. Moreover, these almost certainly contained followers of Jesus, who would have retained letters by Paul. Those letters would have been lost when Jewish quarters were burned out. In contrast, no such massacres are known in Corinth, Philippi, Thessaloniki, and the other centers where letters were preserved.

Do follow the link to read the whole argument over a number of blog posts. I think it makes a lot of sense.

Cross-file under Lost Books.

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Early references to the Aleppo Codex in the Cairo Geniza

THE GENIZA FRAGMENTS BLOG: Q&A Wednesday: The Best Crown in Town? Finding the Aleppo Codex in Fustat, with Neriah Klein. An interview with Neriah Klein by Melonie Schmierer-Lee.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Aleppo Codex, see here and here and links.

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Cotton, Collected Papers (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Roman Rule and Jewish Life
Collected Papers

Hannah M. Cotton
Edited by: Ofer Pogorelsky
Volume 89 in the series Studia Judaica
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110770438

PDF & EPUB £141.00
Hardcover £141.00

eBook
Published: March 7, 2022
ISBN: 9783110770438
Hardcover
Published: March 21, 2022
ISBN: 9783110191448

About this book

Hannah M Cotton’s collected papers focus on questions which have fascinated her for over four decades: the concrete relationships between law, language, administration and everyday life in Judaea and Nabataea in particular, and in the Roman world as a whole. Many of the papers, especially those devoted to the Judean Desert documents of the 2nd century CE have been widely cited. Others, having appeared in less accessible publications, may not have received the attention they deserve.　 On the whole, rather than addressing the grand narratives of world or national history, they look at the texture of life, seeking to provide tentative answers to historical questions and interpretations by paying fine attention to the details of literary and, especially, documentary evidence. Taken together they illuminate fundamental, often legal, questions concerning daily life and the exercise of Roman rule and administration in the early imperial period, and especially, their impact on life as it was lived in the province and the period where Roman and Jewish history fatefully intersected. The volume includes a complete bibliography of her publications./blockquote>

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VanderKam elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

CONGRATULATIONS TO JAMES VANDERKAM: Notre Dame scholar of Dead Sea Scrolls elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences. HT Joseph Lauer.

One element of Professor VanderKam's multifacted work is new to me:

His next book, R.H. Charles: A Biography, will be published soon by Oxford University Press. Charles, a 19th- and 20th-century Irish biblical scholar who worked extensively on the Book of Jubilees, is one of VanderKam’s academic heroes.

Mine too. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Canonical Scriptures volume 1 (MOTP1) was co-dedicated to Charles, on whom more here and links and here. I am looking forward to this biography.

And again, congratulations to Jim VanderKam for this much-merited honor.

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Phoenician necropolis excavated in Spain

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Workers discover ‘unprecedented’ Phoenician necropolis in southern Spain. Preliminary surveys in Osuna have turned up eight burial vaults as well as staircases (Sam Jones, The Guardian).

Archaeologists exploring the site – which was discovered amid the Roman ruins in the town of Osuna, 55 miles (90km) east of Seville – say the Phoenician-Carthaginian cemetery dates back to the fourth or fifth century BC and is highly unusual as such sites are normally found in coastal areas rather than so far inland.

In Spain, in this period, the ruins could be either Phoenician (from Lebanese colonizers) or Punic (from Carthaginian colonizers). Accordingly, cross-file under Punic Watch.

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More on the archaeology of the Battle of Aegates

MARINE ARCHAEOLOGY: The shipwrecks rewriting ancient history (BBC News).

For centuries, historians believed that any physical evidence of the pivotal Battle of the Aegates was long gone. Then came a chance discovery – which led to dozens of shipwrecks.

For more on the underwater archaeology of the Carthaginian defeat at the Aegates islands in the First Punic War, see here and links. I commented on the account of the battle by the ancient historian Polybius in relation to the archaeological discoveries here.

For many other posts on ancient shipwrecks, see here (as above) and links, plus here and here. Cross-file under Punic Watch and Marine (Maritime, Underwater) Archaeology.

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Agastya and the Golem

GOLEM WATCH: Two Religious Views Of Power: Agastya The Hindu, And A Jewish Golem – OpEd (Rabbi Allen S. Maller, Eurasia Review).

Rabbi Allen tell us about Agastya, a character in the Mahabharata who created a perfect artificial woman to marry. Then he goes on to Rabbi Judah Loew's legendary creation of the golem, which had a more complicated outcome.

This article has a long account of the golem legend. Bonus: there are four alternative endings.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the golem tradition, start here and follow the links.

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Berlejung et al. (eds.), Writing and Re-Writing History by Destruction (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Writing and Re-Writing History by Destruction. Proceedings of the Annual Minerva Center RIAB Conference, Leipzig, 2018. Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times III Edited by Angelika Berlejung, Aren M. Maeir, and Takayoshi M. Oshima. 2022. VII, 342 pages. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 45. 134,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-161248-0.

Published in English.
This volume combines the papers held at the Minerva Center's »Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times« conference (Leipzig 2018) on the subject of writing and re-writing history by deliberate destruction in the regions of Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. An international group of scholars studies the subject using a multi-perspective and interdisciplinary approach. Archeological studies, ancient Near Eastern studies, and biblical studies focused on the destruction of ancient sites in Israel and Judah in the 1st millennium BC. The perspective of the defeated Israelites, Jerusalemites, and Judeans is described in detail in the Old Testament and in postbiblical literature and shows that the destructions in the past were a cultural and identity creator of the first magnitude. The longue durée of the practice of reshaping the past through the deliberate destruction of a cultural heritage in order to shape the present according to current interests becomes evident based on the Neo-Assyrian Empire's practice up to the modern era and is demonstrated by the example of the Arabian-Muslim conquest of Aram as well as current Turkish politics.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 194

BRENT NIEDERGALL: BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL 194 FOR APRIL 2022. Star Wars edition.

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A Samaritan priestly lamp at Mount Gerizim

SAMARITAN WATCH: 2,300-year-old clay candle uncovered at Samaritan high priesthood compound in Samaria (J-Wire/TPS).

Netanel Elimelech, director of the Mount Gerizim site for the Nature and Parks Authority and the Civil Administration, said that the ancient candle was found in the compound of the high priesthood and is estimated to date to a time when Mount Gerizim “had a glorious Samaritan temple city, parallel to the Jewish Temple City in Jerusalem, about 2,300 years ago.”

The "candle" in the English text is clearly a mistranslation of the Hebrew of the original article. I don't have access to the latter, but I suspect the word was נֵר, which means "candle," but also an (ancient) "lamp." The photograph shows an ancient clay lamp.

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

González-Salinero, Military Service and the Integration of Jews into the Roman Empire (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Military Service and the Integration of Jews into the Roman Empire

Series: The Brill Reference Library of Judaism, Volume: 72

Author: Raúl González-Salinero

According to Raúl González Salinero, the plurality of religious expressions within Judaism prior to the predominance of the rabbinical current disproves the assumption according to which some Jewish customs and precepts (especially the Sabbath) prevented Jews from joining the Roman army without renouncing their ancestral culture. The military exemption occasionally granted to the Jews by the Roman authorities was compatible with their voluntary enlistment (as it was in the Hellenistic armies) in order to obtain Roman citizenship. As the sources attest, Judaism did not pose any insurmountable obstacle to integration of the Jews into the Roman world. They achieved a noteworthy presence in the Roman army by the fourth century CE, at which time the Church’s influence over imperial power led to their exclusion from the militia armata.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €105.00 / $127.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-50725-8
Publication Date: 28 Feb 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-50675-6
Publication Date: 10 Feb 2022

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Star Trek and the Golem tradition?

GOLEM WATCH: The Golem in Star Trek. From Seven of Nine to Gray to Picard (REBECCA KAPLAN, Star Trek).

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Golem tradition, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

For some posts on Star Trek, see here, here, here, here, and here.

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DSS fragments at the Vatican

VARIANT READINGS: Better Images of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Vatican (Brent Nongbri). Brent notes that he has an earlier post on the fragments here.

Back in 2005, PaleoJudaica noted claims that the Vatican owned two small Dead Sea Scrolls fragments. See here, here, and here. And note the linked-to post at the old Megillot list by Stephen Goranson. These appear to be the same fragments. Goranson has additional comments at Nongbri's 2021 post, linked to above.

I agree that the one in paleo-Hebrew script is unlikely to be from the Book of Daniel, even though it shares a word with Daniel 11:36. I would be very surprised to see a copy of Daniel in paleo-Hebrew. Also, although there is little to go on, the beginning of the next line does not look like anything in the immediate context of that verse in Daniel.

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More on the Champollion exhibition

EXHIBITION REVIEW: Celebrating Champollion. (ahramonline).

A new Paris exhibition is celebrating Jean-François Champollion, the French decipherer of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics at the beginning of the 19th century and one of the founding figures of modern Egyptology, writes David Tresilian

For more on the Bibliothèque nationale de France's exhibition celebrating Champollion and the bicentennial of his decipherment of hieroglyphic (and demotic) Egyptian, see here.

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

Engraved stones excavated at Persepolis

ICONOGRAPHY AND CUNEIFORM: Hundreds of engraved stones discovered in Persepolis (Tehran Times). Again, HT Rogue Classicism.

TEHRAN – Hundreds of engraved stones and fragmented bas-relief carvings have recently been discovered in the ruined Tachara Palace, located in heart of the UNESCO-registered Persepolis, southern Fars province.

[...]

Among the engraved stones there are pieces with human and plant motifs, and at least one of the stones has cuneiform inscriptions, and if the collection of stones is explored fully, it will probably discover more inscribed pieces, he added.

[...]

The report attributes the cuneiform inscription to Xerxes I (ruled c. 486-465 BCE). He is the King Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther. He is also mentioned in Ezra 4:6. The Ahasuerus of Daniel 9:1 may also be intended as he, but the chronology is all wrong (as often in the Book of Daniel) and his supposed son, Darius the Mede, does not seem to be a real person.

For more on the ancient Iranian city of Persepolis, including why it is of interest to PaleoJudaica, see the immediately preceding post and many links.

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

Time travel to Persepolis?

EXHIBITION: U.S. exhibit offers visitors time travel to Achaemenid capital (Tehran Times). HT Rogue Classicism.

TEHRAN – A magnificent exhibition of ancient Iranian arts, which is currently at the Getty Villa Museum in Los Angeles, offers visitors a time travel to the former Achaemenid capital of Persepolis by the means of special music and digital art.

[...]

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the ancient city of Persepolis, the ceremonial royal capital of the Achemenid empire, start here and follow the links.

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

Hellenistic Judaism in 19th-century Germany

MARGINALIA ESSAY: What’s So Jewish about Hellenistic Judaism? Paul Michael Kurtz on the Complexities of Jewish Identity (Paul Michael Kurtz).

Two German Jewish scholars showed the way in the late nineteenth century. Together Jacob Bernays and Jacob Freudenthal forged the modern study of Hellenistic Judaism. Both were active in Breslau, Prussia (Wrocław, Poland), at the Jewish Theological Seminary, also called the Fraenkel Foundation. There, Bernays and Freudenthal worked in one of the leading centers of the flourishing “Science of Judaism” as well as a burgeoning Reform Judaism. In doing so, each made grand discoveries: Jewish authors of Greek works previously thought to be pagan or Christian. Beyond the specific results themselves, their meticulous philological studies exhibited the instability of determining Jewishness in antiquity. At the same time, they displayed the concerns and resonances of ancient Greek Jews for modern German Jews.

Some PaleoJudaica posts on Pseudo-Phocylides are here, here, here, and here.

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Another Crusader hand grenade?

EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL CULTURE Archaeologists Find Fragment of Medieval Hand Grenade (Enrico de Lazaro, Sci-News).

Archaeologists have found sherds from four small sphero-conical vessels in a destruction layer, dating between the 11th and 12th century CE, in Jerusalem, Israel. One of the sherds was from a stoneware sphero-conical vessel with very thick walls and no decoration; it may have held the chemical ingredients — including fatty acids and notable levels of mercury, sulfur, aluminum, potassium, magnesium, nitrates and phosphorous — of an explosive device.

Alas, we used up the Holy Hand Grenade jokes on the last Crusader-era hand grenade, found in 2016.

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Love, breasts, or wine?

DR. RABBI ZEV FARBER: What Is Better than Wine? (TheTorah.com).

Song of Songs opens with: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for דֹּדֶיךָ (MT “your loving”) or mastoi sou (LXX “your breasts”) are better than wine.” Why does the LXX translate this way and which version is correct?

Whatever the primary sense of the verse, the writer of the Song of Songs was surely aware of both meanings of the unvocalized word.

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Review of Schäfer, Two Gods in Heaven

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity (Josiah Bisbee).

Peter Schäfer. Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity. Translated by Allison Brown. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020.

... Schäfer’s overall argument, that binitarian views were more widespread and ongoing in ancient and late antique Judaism than commonly assumed, is provocative, and a number of his examples are convincing. At the same time, his work also raises some questions regarding whether or not so-called binitarinism is a proper label for what is portrayed in some of these texts, as many seem to describe far more than just two powers in heaven ...

I noted the publication of the English translation of this (originally German) book here.

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Interview with Robert Alter

PODCAST: UC-Berkeley Prof. Robert Alter on the Hebrew Bible’s Wide Literary Influence. Hosted by Cara Candal & Gerard Robinson. With guest Robert Alter (The Learning Curve #83).

This week on “The Learning Curve,” co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Robert Alter, Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of the landmark three-volume book, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. As Jews around the world celebrate Passover this week, Dr. Alter shares why the Hebrew Bible is probably the most influential book in human history, and the larger lessons 21st century teachers and students should draw from its timeless wisdom. They also discuss the text as a record of the Jewish people, and vital historical lessons of persecution, resilience, and survival. Professor Alter describes how the Psalms and the Book of Exodus’ stories of liberation and Moses’ leadership inspired several of the major figures of the Civil Rights Movement. The interview concludes with Dr. Alter reading from his trilogy.

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Unsung local workers at the Tell en-Nasbeh excavation

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Unsilencing the Archives. Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology.

Developed with support from the Palestine Exploration Fund, [the exhibition] portrays the role of local laborers and Egyptian foremen in excavating Tell en-Nasbeh, an archaeological site about 8 miles northwest of Jerusalem in what was British Mandate Palestine.

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Review of Keddie, Class and Power in Roman Palestine

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins (Taylor M. Weaver).

Anthony Keddie. Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

... Anthony Keddie joins this rising movement of scholars interacting with class in a serious way, and his Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins stands as a welcome addition to recent provocative publications. Keddie’s volume provides a fulsome account, touching on a wide variety of archaeological and textual materials to sketch a more detailed depiction of the socioeconomic situation. ...

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Review of Nikki & Valkama, Magic in the ancient eastern Mediterranean

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Magic in the ancient eastern Mediterranean: cognitive, historical, and material perspectives on the Bible and its contexts.

Nina Nikki, Kirsi M.J. Valkama, Magic in the ancient eastern Mediterranean: cognitive, historical, and material perspectives on the Bible and its contexts. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021. Pp. 331. ISBN 9783525522189 €50,00.

Review by
Raquel Martín Hernández, Universidad Complutense Madrid. raquelma@pdi.ucm.es

... The book, therefore, constitutes a contribution of great interest for the study of magic in Antiquity in general and the Biblical tradition in particular. The study of magic in the Bible has been deeply anchored in a dichotomous and strongly negative comparison with religion. Studies such as those developed in this book, especially those based on cognitive theories of the study of magic, are extremely suggestive and contribute to advancing a better understanding of the ritual practices of ancient cultures.

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Temple of Zeus excavated in Pelusium

ARCHAEOLOGY: Egyptian archaeologists excavate temple for Zeus destroyed by ancient earthquake. Tourism and Antiquities Ministry in Cairo says temple ruins discovered at Pelesium, now known as Tell el-Farma (AP & Israel HaYom).

As I have noted before, Pelusium is mentioned (cursed, actually) in Ezekiel 30:15-16.

Herodotus also tells a story of about the miraculous thwarting of the Assyrian King Sennacherib's invasion of Egypt at the city of Pelusium. This was on the same campaign as his invasion of Palestine and his unsuccessful attempt to capture King Hezekiah's Jerusalem. For details, see here and links.

UPDATE (28 April): This Jerusalem Post article has more on the mythological background of the Zeus temple: Remains of temple to god Zeus Kasios uncovered in Sinai. A merger of ancient religious traditions, Zeus Kasios is an example of the legacy of religious multiculturalism in antiquity (Judith Sudilovsky).

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

Ginormous LXX bibliography

WILLIAM ROSS: AN ABSOLUTELY GIGANTIC SEPTUAGINT BIBLIOGRAPHY.

No I don’t think you really understand. This bibliography is massive. It’s titanic. It’s stupendous.

In fact, it’s currently at over seven hundred and fifty items…

and it’s all for you.

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

The material culture of Ugaritic writing

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: The Social Context of Writing in Ancient Ugarit (Philip Boyes).

This contextual approach to writing is at the heart of the CREWS Project (Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems), led by Dr Philippa Steele and based in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge. Our research interests cover much of the East Mediterranean and Levant during the second and first millennia BCE. My own research as a member of CREWS has focused on one of the most fascinating and important sites in the region for the history of writing, the Syrian coastal city of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), about 10km from modern Latakia.

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BHD on the Mount Ebal amulet

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: An Early Israelite Curse Inscription from Mt. Ebal? Questions abound following announcement of sensational new find (Nathan Steinmeyer). There is nothing new in this essay, but it is a good summary of the current state of the question.

Background here and here and links.

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Review of Ben-Dov & Rojas (eds.), Afterlives of ancient rock-cut monuments in the Near East

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Afterlives of ancient rock-cut monuments in the Near East.

Jonathan Ben-Dov, Felipe Rojas, Afterlives of ancient rock-cut monuments in the Near East. Culture and history of the ancient Near East, volume 123. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. Pp. xxiv, 441. ISBN 9789004462083 €158.00 / $190.00.

Review by
Marc Van De Mieroop, Columbia University. mv1@columbia.edu

... The editors are not concerned with the moments of carving, however. Their interest lies rather in the afterlives, the reinterpretations of these monuments in changing contexts after some type of rupture (p. 1). They thus explore the special impression they made on those who encountered them after they had been carved, and some of the contributors take this discussion as late as the 19th century AD.

I noted the publication of the book here.

PaleoJudaica readers will be interested especially in the articles by Ben-Dov, Adler, and Steele:

Jonathan Ben-Dov, Neo-Babylonian Rock Reliefs and the Jewish Literary Imagination, p. 345
William Adler, Translatio studii: Stelae Traditions in Second Temple Judaism and Their Legacy in Byzantium, p. 380
John Steele, The Long History of an Imaginary Inscription: Josephus’ Two Pillars in Early Modern European Histories of Astronomy, p. 402

For more on Professor Ben-Dov's ideas about the influence of Mesopotamian monumental inscriptions on Second Temple Jewish literature, see here and here.

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Stein et al. (eds), Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World

Edited By Diana Stein, Sarah Kielt Costello, Karen Polinger Foster

Copyright Year 2022

Hardback
£152.00
eBook
£31.99

ISBN 9780367480325
Published December 31, 2021 by Routledge
560 Pages 33 Color & 61 B/W Illustrations

Book Description

For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East.

The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art.

Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.

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Folmer (ed.), Elephantine Revisited (Eisenbrauns)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Elephantine Revisited. Notice of a New Book: Folmer, Margaretha (ed.). 2022. Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors. Pennsylvania: Eisenbrauns.

For many, many PaleoJudaica posts on the Elephantine Papyri and the site of Elephantine, see here and links. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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Canticles and Qoheleth, sex and death

PROF. FRANCIS LANDRY: Is Love an Answer to the Meaninglessness of Life? (TheTorah.com).

Ecclesiastes versus Song of Songs

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Neusner on Judaism, Vol. 1: History (Routledge paperback)

NEW PAPERBACK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Neusner on Judaism
Volume 1: History

By Jacob Neusner

Copyright Year 2004

Paperback
£27.99
Hardback
£96.00
eBook
£27.99

ISBN 9781138619937
Published March 31, 2022 by Routledge
560 Pages

Book Description

Jacob Neusner has published more than 1000 books and articles, scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is one of the most published humanities scholars in the world. Over a period of fifty years he has made significant, insightful and challenging contributions to the study of Rabbinic Judaism, particularly in the disciplines covered in the three volumes which make up Neusner on Judaism: the study of history (volume 1), literature (volume 2), and religion and theology (volume 3). These unique volumes of selective writings by Jacob Neusner, with new introductions by the author, offer scholars an invaluable resource in the field of Judaic Studies.

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Jesus walking on water as a resurrection appearance?

NOTED BELATEDLY FOR EASTER: Walking on the Water (Philip Jenkins, The Anxious Bench). Professor Jenkins argues that the story of Jesus walking on the water in the Gospels is a repurposed resurrection-appearance story.

Over the past week, we have heard a great deal about Jesus’s Resurrection, open tombs, and Jerusalem gardens, and the same topics will dominate the lectionary readings and sermons for next Sunday. Here is another view of the story. I want to suggest that we actually possess an alternative version of the very earliest story of a Resurrection appearance, and we don’t have to go some fringe source or “Gnostic Gospel” to find it. It’s hidden in plain sight. And you already know the story very well indeed.

[...]

Maybe. I'm skeptical.

• Paul's account (1 Corinthians 15:5) says that Jesus appeared first to Cephas (Peter) and then to the Twelve. All versions of the walking-on-water story (Mark 6:47-51, Matthew 14:22-33, John 6:16-21) have him appearing to the disciples, with Peter presumably among them. Only Matthew singles him out. This does not sound like the appearance to Peter alone implied by Paul.
• If the walking-on-water episode was originally the resurrection appearance to Peter, why does Matthew alone mention him? Why did Mark and John ignore Peter, the star of the story?
• Elsewhere Matthew increases Peter's role in a story (Mark 8:27-30 // Matthew 16:13-22). It seems more plausible to me that he is doing that again in the walking-on-water story, rather than Mark and John having a diluted version of the story that dropped both the resurrection element and the centrality of Peter.
• The miscellaneous parallels to resurrection stories are mostly thematic rather than verbal. And note that in Mark's story of the calming of the Sea of Galilee (4:35-41), he says to the disciples, "Why are you afraid? Do you have no faith?" (v.40). These are not sentiments limited to the resurrection narratives, unless you want to argue that this story too is a misplaced resurrection narrative.

But still, it's possible that the walking-on-the-water story started as a resurrection story. I doubt we will ever know.

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

Kugler, Resolving Disputes in Second Century BCE Herakleopolis (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Resolving Disputes in Second Century BCE Herakleopolis

A Study in Jewish Legal Reasoning in Hellenistic Egypt

Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 201

Author: Robert A. Kugler

Resolving Disputes challenges the consensus that the petitions to the leaders of “the πολίτευμα of the Jews in Herakleopolis” (P.Polit.Iud. 8.4-5) prove that while the Ptolemies granted Jews limited self-governance according to their ancestral traditions, the petitioners nonetheless relied almost exclusively on Ptolemaic Greek law to make their agreements and settle their arguments. Reading the appeals in their proper juridical context, this study shows how these Jewish petitioners in fact made sophisticated use of their ancestral norms, drawing from them principles that complemented and contradicted prevailing Greek law. The Jews appealing to the leaders of the πολίτευμα in Herakleopolis embraced Torah.

Copyright Year: 2022

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

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-50828-6
Publication Date: 28 Feb 2022

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-50563-6
Publication Date: 17 Feb 2022

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Remember those Shapira scroll fragments?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Shapira Fragments. An artifact of 19th-century Jewish Christianity (Jonathan Klawans).

[UPDATE: Despite the date at the top of the essay, it is from March of 2021. I now see that I linked to it when it came out. Please pardon the error. Thanks to reader Matthew Hamilton for pointing it out.]

A little over a year ago, a couple of new books made a media splash, arguing that the Shapira scroll fragments were geniune after all. See here and here and then follow the links back from here.

Professor Klawans argues that the fragments are fake and they display Christian influence.

The discussion has died down in 2022, with no resolution in sight. I suggested a possible way forward here, but as far as I know, no one has followed it up.

I commented early in the revived debate:

If we ever find one of the Shapira fragments, we have a good chance of resolving the question. If not, I suspect Tony [Burke] is right. Both sides will find evidence that supports their confirmation bias and there will never be a consensus.

A year on, that still sounds right.

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Late-antique earring & fork recovered at Korazim

ARTIFACTS: Israel discovers 1,500-year-old earring, fork near Sea of Galilee (Xinua).

The artifacts, both made of bronze, were found in the Korazim National Park in northeastern Israel, about 4 km north of the Sea of Galilee, according to the NPA.

I wonder if this was a cooking fork or individual tableware. Either would be possible in this period.

Cross-file under Bling. For other finds of ancient earrings in Israel, see the links collected here. Those were all more upscale gold jewelry.

UPDATE (26 April; HT Joseph Lauer): This Times of Israel article has additional details about the discovery: Girl finds rare ancient fork at 1,500-year-old dig site near Sea of Galilee. Members of the public participate in work to uncover ancient Jewish village at Korazim, also uncover an elaborate earing [sic].

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The original Esther scroll? Nope.

YET ANOTHER CRUDE FORGERY: Discovery claim of biblical scroll in Iran is fake (Rob Lever, AFP Fact Check).

Videos shared on social media claim to show a recently discovered original scroll of the Book of Esther, a biblical text which recounts the deliverance of the Jewish people from a plot to exterminate them in the 5th century BC. But experts say the video shows a document with random Hebrew letters and no indication of a genuine antiquity.

I missed this story when it came out, but it's the sort of thing we've seen many times before. The video announcement is still up on YouTube at present:

My regular readers, you will recognize the pattern: a scroll or codex made of similar-looking crappy material with drawn images, gibberish Hebrew lettering, and Masoretic vocalization (or sometimes Syriac script), all in gold print. Most of the ones I have seen come from Turkey.

I have collected many examples here.

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

Rescuing Egyptian Jewish manuscripts

HERITAGE CONSERVATION: Yiddish in Cairo: Egyptians Rescue Centuries of Jewish Life From Garbage Dumps (Ofer Aderet, Haaretz).

Over the last five years, [Prof. Yoram] Meital [of Ben-Gurion University’s Middle East Studies Department], a 63-year-old specialist on Egypt, has been taking part in a project aimed at conserving synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish sites in Egypt. The project is being carried out by the tiny Jewish community that remains in Egypt, with American funding and the cooperation of Egyptian authorities. A consultant on the history of the Jewish community, Meital is documenting existing conditions through photography and texts, and creating a detailed database of remaining Jewish sites in Egypt.

I commend the Egyptian authorities for their support of Professor Meital's project. This is very good news indeed!

As the headline hints, this article has some information about the recently-discovered "new" Cairo Geniza:

Last month, the focus of the project was an old Jewish cemetery in Cairo. “Some 250 garbage trucks were used to clear the area. The place had become the neighborhood dump,” says Meital.

While the site was being cleared, Meital received a WhatsApp message while he was in Israel that made him sit up. “They sent me a photo of an opening to a genizah (repository) inside a burial chamber,” he says excitedly.

But before he had a chance of examining the material found there, officials from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities arrived and took away 165 sacks of documents. “We can’t say what’s there and how valuable it might be,” he says.

We now know a little more about what happened. But we still don't know where the documents are, how they are being cared for, and when scholars will be able to see them.

Reminder to the Egyptian authorities: The world is watching.

Please give us a full update on the manuscripts.

The article also mentions other discoveries by Professor Meital's team. This one is particularly exciting:

The most important finding came from the Karaite synagogue in Cairo, a manuscript of the Bible written 1,000 years ago on vellum “preserved in excellent condition,” he says. “It’s inconceivable. This book was located in a place where anyone could have picked it up .... You can’t imagine its monetary value.” The 616-page book, dated to 1028, had been previously documented by researchers but later disappeared.

For more on the restoration of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the source of the famous Cairo Geniza, see here.

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On ancient Jewish stone vessels

MATERIAL CULTURE: Stone Dishes in Jewish Homes: A Custom That Began in the Second Temple. It was known that Jews used stone cups and dishes, but now Mount Zion archaeologist Shimon Gibson sheds light on their actual use from King Herod’s time - and until the Bar Kochba debacle (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

So, the use of stoneware may have begun in the Temple, and would remain in the context of Jerusalem for decades before permeating the land at large, city and country alike.

As Ms. Schuster notes, the underlying article came out recently in the peer-reviewed Journal for the Study of Judaism: Common and Uncommon Jewish Purity Concerns in City and Village in Early Roman Palestine and the Flourishing of the Stone Vessel Industry: A Summary and Discussion. The link leads to the astract. Full access is by personal or institutional subscription or individual payment.

For PaleoJudaica posts on ancient stone vessels, see here and here and links. And for posts on the inscribe Mount Zion stone cup, see here and links.

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

Parks et al. (eds.), Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean

By Sara Parks, Shayna Sheinfeld, Meredith J. C. Warren

Copyright Year 2022

Paperback
£27.99
Hardback
£96.00
eBook
£27.99

ISBN 9781138543782
Published December 31, 2021 by Routledge
370 Pages 68 B/W Illustrations

Book Description

This engaging and accessible textbook provides an introduction to the study of ancient Jewish and Christian women in their Hellenistic and Roman contexts.

This is the first textbook dedicated to introducing women’s religious roles in Judaism and Christianity in a way that is accessible to undergraduates from all disciplines. The textbook provides brief, contextualising overviews that then allow for deeper explorations of specific topics in women’s religion, including leadership, domestic ritual, women as readers and writers of scripture, and as innovators in their traditions. Using select examples from ancient sources, the textbook provides teachers and students with the raw tools to begin their own exploration of ancient religion. An introductory chapter provides an outline of common hermeneutics or "lenses" through which scholars approach the texts and artefacts of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity. The textbook also features a glossary of key terms, a list of further readings and discussion questions for each topic, and activities for classroom use. In short, the book is designed to be a complete, classroom-ready toolbox for teachers who may have never taught this subject as well as for those already familiar with it.

Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean is intended for use in undergraduate classrooms, its target audience undergraduate students and their instructors, although Masters students may also find the book useful. In addition, the book is accessible and lively enough that religious communities’ study groups and interested laypersons could employ the book for their own education.

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The Great Revolt

HISTORY: The 2000-Year Legacy of the Jewish Wars (Mervyn Bendle, Quadrant Online). HT Rogue Classicism.

This is quite a good account of the Great Revolt (the first Jewish revolt against Rome) in 66 - c. 73 CE. It is based on the primary sources, especially the accounts by Flavius Josephus, and on the archaeological evidence.

That doesn't mean it tells us what actually happened. The casualty numbers, in particular, look inflated. And there are many unverifiable details. We have no way of knowing what really happened except in the most general terms. But this is a good summary of the primary accounts and the archaeology.

The essay also includes brief accounts of the Kitos War in 115-117 CE and the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 132-135 CE.

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Ben Ezra Synagogue being restored

THIS IS GOOD NEWS: RESTORATION BEGINS ON OLD CAIRO'S BEN EZRA SYNAGOGUE. Famous for its geniza - a collection of ancient manuscripts -the current iteration of the Ben Ezra Synagogue dates back to 1892, as part of a renovation effort at the time. (Cairo Scene).

For PaleoJudaica posts on Cairo's Ben Ezra Synagogue, see here and links. And for many, many posts on the Cairo Geniza and its priceless hoard of manuscripts, start here and links, plus here, here, here, here, and here.

By the way, whatever happened with that new Cairo Geniza? We are still waiting for an update.

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Hawass on the world of Cleopatra (2)

THE SERIES CONTINUES: The world of Cleopatra — II. Zahi Hawass continues his four-part series of articles on the world of the ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra (Ahram Online).

This installment surveys the reigns of Ptolemy I to Ptolemy X and adds some comments on Ptolemaic architecture.

I noted the first essay in the series here. And follow the links from there for PaleoJudaica posts on the Ptolemaic empire, including its coins and its importance for biblical and ancient Jewish studies.

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No beer on Passover in ancient Egypt?

TIME TO GET OUT THE PASSOVER PAPYRUS: ‘No beer on Passover, okay?’ —Jerusalem to Jewish soldiers in Egypt, 419 BCE (Dr. Henry Abramson, The Forward).

The document, known to scholars as The Passover Papyrus, is part of an amazing trove of papyri (texts written on a material made from papyrus reeds) and ostraca (texts written on broken pottery) from a remarkable Jewish colony in Elephantine, Egypt. Preserved by the dry climate of the region, the documents span about a century and provide an invaluable glimpse into relations between the center of Jewish life in the Land of Israel and the early Jewish diaspora.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Passover Papyrus, see here and links. For the Elephantine Papyri more generally, see here and links, plus here and here.

Fun fact: the word "Passover does not actually appear in the "Passover Papyrus." It is reconstructed in a damaged spot. I have no trouble with the reconstruction, but Idan Dershowitz has offered a different reconstruction that takes Passover out of the papyrus and reads it as mandating a leap year (intercalated month) that year.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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Review of Jackson-McCabe, Jewish Christianity

MARGINALIA REVIEW OF BOOKS: The Past and Future of Jewish Christianity. Sarit Kattan Gribetz on Matt Jackson-McCabe. Review of Matt Jackson-McCabe, Jewish Christianity: The Making of the Christianity-Judaism Divide. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020. pp. 328. $65.

“Imagine a scholar of New Testament and Early Christianity who went to sleep on the eve of World War II and woke up today. Describe to her the major developments in the field.”

[...]

Jackson-McCabe’s book highlights that, among the many subjects that scholars have explored, rethinking the fundamental categories by which scholars have organized the ancient world remains a central concern, especially in the last decade and a half. How we categorize, differentiate, and label our subjects of study sets the stage for how we imagine everything else about them, including their relationship to one another. Rearranging those categories and renaming them or dispensing with them altogether in favor of alternative ways of organizing our ancient sources provides us with the possibility of imagining the past in fundamentally different ways.

I noted the publication of the book here.

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A menorah graffito at an ancient library in Ephesus

MENORAH WATCH FOR PASSOVER: Menorah graffiti: Carving on Ephesus Celsus Library stairs an enigma. The menorah became employed as a Jewish symbol sometime in the 3rd century, so far three have been found in ancient Ephesus which had a flourishing Jewish community (Judith Sudilovsky, Jerusalem Post).

Julius Aquilas, the son of Roman senator and Roman Legion Commander Celsus Polemeanus, began construction of the Celsus Library in honor of his father, around 110 CE and it was completed in 135. Celsus is buried in a sarcophagus beneath the main entrance of the library.

Somewhere along the ancient history of the library, someone carved a graffiti image of a menorah into one of the steps of the library’s marble staircase. The history of the menorah can be nothing more than conjecture, noted Dr. Avner Ecker of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University.

I don't think I knew about the Celsus Library. Sadly, all the scrolls are long since gone.

For other examples of menorah graffiti, see here and links.

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Is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus was buried?

PODCAST ARTICLE: What does archaeology say about the location of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? Ahead of Easter, we walk in the Jerusalem Old City church compound with top archaeologist Prof. Jodi Magness in this audio tour of the history and controversy of a unique holy spot (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

As we tour the church and its surroundings, we see parts of the ruins of earlier stages of the church, including an arguably Christian find that predates the Constantine construction in around 330 CE, as well as remains of earlier structures. By the end of the tour, we see what Magness feels is the best evidence that supports the Christian tradition, although nothing is unambiguous.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre), start here (cf. here) and follow the links. Posts relevant to the article above are here and here.

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Karatepe inscriptions recognized by UNESCO

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Bilingual inscriptions of Osmaniye in UNESCO Memory of World Register (Daily Sabah).

The 2,700-year-old inscriptions in the Karatepe Aslantaş Open Air Museum in the Kadirli district of southern Osmaniye province have been listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

The inscriptions, which feature both Anatolian hieroglyphs and Phoenician languages, in the Karatepe Aslantaş Open Air Museum, are on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, and studies about them have yielded interesting results.

[...]

The Karatepe inscriptions were put up in a site in Cilicia now known as Karatepe by an official named Azitiwada, perhaps in the eighth century BCE. He boasts of his military and political achievements, including rebuilding a city on the site (which he modestly names after himself). He also makes arrangements for sacrifices to Baal etc. at the local temple. He calls down the blessings of Baal upon himself and he curses anyone who removes his name from the inscription. (See, e.g., John C. L. Gibson, Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions, Vol. 3: Phoenician Inscriptions [Oxford: Clarendon, 1982]), 41-64).

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Creepy blood Aramaic?

ARAMAIC WATCH? Homeless Man Uses Own Blood to Scribble Magic Spell on Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial (David Israel, Jewish Press). I don't know if this is the weirdest story PaleoJudaica has ever noted, but it's surely in the top three.

For more on "Abracadabra" as an Aramaic magical spell, see here and links.

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Easter 2022

HAPPY EASTER to all those celebrating. My 2021 Easter post with links is here. See also here.

My 2016 Easter post contains links leading to biblical and related passages concerning Easter and to correct information on the origin of the word. And this post gives biblical references for the Passion narrative.

And yes, I do know about the "ancient" altar recently discovered in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre). It's an important discovery, but it is medieval, not ancient, so outside of PaleoJudaica's main range. But if you're interested, follow the link.

UPDATE (18 April): More on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre) here.

UPDATE (26 April): More on Easter here.

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More from McGrath on John the Baptist

JAMES MCGRATH is presenting papers on John the Baptist at AAR/SBL 2022.

Q as a Source of Knowledge about John the Baptist

AAR Conference Paper for 2022: “Late Antique Texts and Earlier History: The Case of John the Baptist and Mandaean Sources”

Professor McGrath has been working on John the Baptist for a long time. I have noted some relevant posts at his blog, Religion Prof, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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