For more on Professor Fine's recent book and on the YU exhibition, see here and links. Follow the links from there for many other posts on the Arch of Titus. For more on the "second" Arch of Titus, see here. And for many other posts on ancient menorahs and representations of menorahs, see here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Examining ancient Egyptian papyri, as well as scrolls from animal skins in Levantine sites such as Deir Alla and Qumran, highlights how scribes would add text to preexisting scrolls and showcases the limited size of scrolls intended for regular use.Cross-file under Material Culture.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Somewhat related PaleoJudaica posts are here, here, and here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Palmyra, SANA- In the archaeological city of Palmyra located about 250 kilometers northeast of Damascus, the first phase of the project to restore the ancient Arch de Triumph, which was destroyed by Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization in 2015, has started on FridayThis is very good news.[...]
[Deputy Director of Antiquities and Museums Hammam] Saad revealed other archaeological restoration projects in Palmyra will be started after completing the Arch restoration project, including the restoration of the Temple of Baal Shamin, the Tetrapylon, the façade of Palmyra amphitheater and the famous Temple of Bel, all of which were attacked by terrorists.
Six years ago I noted some hope of restoring Palmyra's monuments. Meanwhile, reconstructions of the Arch of Triumph have been created in London, New York, and Florence.
For many posts on the ancient metropolis of Palmyra, its history and archaeology, the Aramaic dialect once spoken there (Palmyrene), and the city's tragic reversals of fortune, now trending for the better, start here and follow the links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Emerging Horizons. 21st Century Approaches to the Study of Midrash
Proceedings of the Midrash Section, Society of Biblical Literature, volume 9Edited by: W. Nelson and Rivka Ulmer
Volume 26 in the series Judaism in Context
https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463243661eBook £85.00
Published: March 21, 2022
ISBN: 9781463243661About this book
The chapters in Emerging Horizons: 21st Century Approaches to the Study of Midrash pertain to an intriguing midrash that appears in a Masoretic context, the Qur’anic narrative of the red cow, midrashic narratives that rabbinize enemies of Israel, the death of Moses, emotions in rabbinic literature, and yelammedenu units in midrashic works.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Jewish Law in Gentile Churches
Halakhah and the Beginning of Christian Public EthicsMarkus Bockmuehl (Author)
Paperback
$39.95$35.95Hardback
$200.00$180.00Product details
Published Jan 27 2022
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 336
ISBN 9780567706799
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Publisher Bloomsbury PublishingDescription
Why did the Gentile church keep Old Testament commandments about sex and idolatry, but disregard many others, like those about food or ritual purity? If there were any binding norms, what made them so, and on what basis were they articulated?In this important study, Markus Bockmuehl approaches such questions by examining the halakhic (Jewish legal) rationale behind the ethics of Jesus, Paul and the early Christians. He offers fresh and often unexpected answers based on careful biblical and historical study. His arguments have far-reaching implications not only for the study of the New Testament, but more broadly for the relationship between Christianity and Judaism.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
With these issues in mind, I would suggest that a liturgy can be defined as a publicly accepted ordering of rituals, which are, in turn, “the performance of more or less invariant sequences of formal acts and utterances”[8] for the public good, that may or may not include communication with the divine. I have not yet had the opportunity to fully explore the potential payoff of this definition, but I suspect it may shift the focus to thinking about ancient Jewish liturgy more as a way of life rather than prayerful acts. ...Could be.
I am wary of efforts to define an etic term based on ancient usage of cognates, especially when we're dealing with terms in multiple languages. For etic usage, it is more important to define your terms clearly than to debate the meaning of the terms.
I encourage the author to explore the implications of this definition of liturgy. Others may define the term differently, with different implications.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
With advances in technology, there are more archaeology tools than ever to help excavators dig into the past. Yet sometimes there is no substitute for a trusty trowel and bucket. Archaeology tools vary greatly by location, budget, and even research question. But, from surveying to recording, what are some of the most common tools used in biblical archaeology today?For some thoughts (some mine, some from others) on the technological future of archaeology in coming decades, see here and here. Cross-file under Technology Watch.[...]
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The Jewish Museum of Greece (JMG) inaugurated the “Stone Routes – Stories from Stone: Jewish Inscriptions in Greece” exhibition on Tuesday.The exhibition presents, for the first time, archaeological findings that document the presence of Jews in Greece since the end of the 4th century [BCE].
[...]
The exhibition, supported by the culture ministry, the foreign ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Hellenic-German Fund for the Future, is characterised by an innovative dual structure and originality.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
“These results attest to the fact that the calcite-alabaster industry in Judea in the second half of the first century BC was sufficiently developed and of high enough quality to serve the luxurious standards of Herod, one of the finest builders among the kings of that period,” the researchers concluded in their report.The story is also covered by Amanda Borschel-Dan in the Times of Israel, with an interview with Ayala Amir: Alabaster for Herod the Great’s lavish bathtubs traced to quarry in Israel. Daughter-father scientific study rules out Egyptian quarries and shows ancient Holy Land industry was potentially much more developed than previously thought.
The latter also links to the open-access underlying article in Nature, which is here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Now, 49 chambers have been unearthed in the colossal complex, as well as connecting passages, water wells, grain storage silos, the rooms of homes, and places of worship, including a Christian church and a large hall with a Star of David symbol on the wall, which appears to be a Jewish synagogue.For another underground complex in Turkey, this one in Kars Province and used by late-antique Armenian monks, see here.Artifacts found in the caverns — including Roman-era coins and oil lamps — indicate that the subterranean complex was built sometime in the second or third centuries A.D, Tarkan told Live Science.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Ancient cuneiform tablets, a bronze figurine, jewelry, seals, and no less than 1,800 coins were seized from the home of an antiquities trader in Modi'in on Sunday by police working with the Israel Antiquities Authority theft prevention team.Among the coins:
One rare item was a silver "shekel" coin from the time of the First Jewish-Roman War in 67 C.E., the IAA stated. It bears the legend "Holy Jerusalem" in Hebrew on one side with the image of a bunch of three pomegranates. The other side says "Shekel Israel Year 2" (the letter bet) and the image of a goblet.Another Year 2 silver shekel was excavated in Jerusalem last year. I'm not a numismatist, but it looks to me to be of the same design as the newly recovered one.
In 2016 a Year 2 silver shekel sold for $5,280, while ten years ago a Year 1 silver shekel sold for $1.1 million. I don't know how much the newly recovered coin is worth. Much depends on its condition and how rare its features are.
Cross-file under Numismatics.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
My 2021 Lag B'Omer post is here with links. Subsequent posts are here, (sadly) here, and here. Please stay safe this year!
For the biblical and rabbinic background of the holiday, see here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Each week, twelve fresh loaves of bread were placed before YHWH in the Tabernacle and Temple. What do we know about the practice and its significance?For more on the Phoenician Ahiram sarcophagus inscription, see here (with photo).
For more on the Aramaic Kuttamuwu (Kuttamuwa) inscription, see my notices on its discovery in 2008 here and here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
A Guide to the ZoharCross-file under Zohar Watch. For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Zohar, see here and here and follow the links.Arthur Green
In the series The Zohar: Pritzker Edition
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804782913eBook (€82.95/£75.00/$95.00)
Published: April 21, 2022
ISBN: 9780804782913About this book
The Zohar is the great medieval compendium of Jewish esoteric and mystical teaching, and the basis of the kabbalistic faith. It is, however, a notoriously difficult text, full of hidden codes, concealed meanings, obscure symbols, and ecstatic expression. This illuminating study, based upon the last several decades of modern Zohar scholarship, unravels the historical and intellectual origins of this rich text and provides an excellent introduction to its themes, complex symbolism, narrative structure, and language. A Guide to the Zohar is thus an invaluable companion to the Zohar itself, as well as a useful resource for scholars and students interested in mystical literature, particularly that of the west, from the Middle Ages to the present.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Israel's Supreme Court has rejected several petitions against a controversial cable car project set to alter the historical skyline of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.This is the first I have heard about this story in a few years. I was following it back in 2019. See here and links.On Sunday, the court dismissed four petitions filed by Palestinian residents of the Silwan neighbourhood, store owners in the Old City, the Jewish Karaite community, the Israeli archaeological group Emek Shaveh, and Adam Teva V'Din, an environmental group.
[...]
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Within that artificial cavern carved into the bedrock, artists began – but apparently did not finish – a wall relief almost 4 meters in length. Time-worn but unmistakably Assyrian in style, the panel shows a procession of eight major gods, the archaeologists say.Moreover, the first three gods are accompanied by inscriptions. The gods are Syro-Anatolian but their names are Aramaic, in style and in writing. This is the only Neo-Assyrian relief found to date that has Aramaic text, the archaeologists say and as said is the only Neo-Assyrian relief ever to be discovered underground, though one was found in a cave at the source of the Tigris, the team philologist Dr. Selim Ferruh Adali qualifies.
This article has more details that I have seen in others, especially about the engraved divine images and the accompanying Aramaic inscriptions.
Background here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
In 2012 the Israel Nature and Parks Authority began new works under the authority of the Civil Administration, and two weeks ago a newly restored, impressive Samaritan residential compound was open for visitors, enabling them to experience history by walking through the ancient rooms.The date 1011 BCE for John Hyrcanus' destruction of Mount Gerizim is, of course, a typo. I think it is supposed to read 111 BCE.The compound, dated at around 200-300 BCE, is part of a large city from the Persian and Hellenistic periods which was built around a sacred precinct where once stood the Samaritan Temple, and where today stands the remains of a large Byzantine church built on top of the destroyed Temple, a heavy wall cutting right through the holy Samaritan site where Samaritan tradition holds the Tabernacle stood. During the Muslim period a military guard post was built over one of the church’s towers.
Another golden bell, which everyone seems to think is priestly, was excavated in Jerusalem in 2011.
For PaleoJudaica posts on the Samaritan Temple etc. on Mount Gerizim, see here and links and here. And for a current museum exhibition on the Samaritans, see here.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
... Are we correct to presume that early rabbinic liturgy had a textual tradition coherent with the models we know, including from their predecessors at Qumran? Did early rabbis have a system of memorized, orally transmitted yet fixed texts, or did their worship operate in a more free-form system? When and where did the verbal worship of the rabbinic elite spread to other social groups and geographic areas? These questions, with answers not yet fully resolved in my mind, have dominated my current investigations into early rabbinic liturgy.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The Biblical world at various eras is probably the most intensely studied society in human history. Just how many books, for instance, have been written about Palestine in the time of Jesus? Despite all that work, though, we still have major areas of ignorance about such a basic issue as population. If we look at a country today, that is such a critical theme. How many people are there to pay taxes, to serve in armies, to populate cities, and to feed those cities? Numbers are not everything, but nor are they nothing. So just how many people lived in Palestine – broadly defined – at any given time? And how many in Jerusalem itself?Like so much in our ancient sources, ancient claims about the population statistics of Palestine and Jerusalem are on the tabloid level of credibility.[...]
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Evolution of a Taboo: Pigs and People in the Ancient Near East
By Max D. Price
(Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2020), xxii + 312 pp., 19 figures
(maps, graphs, plans, drawings, photos), $34.95 (hardcover)
Reviewed by Aren M. MaeirAs someone who has been studying the Philistine culture for some 25 years, I am greatly interested in the dietary patterns of the Iron Age Philistines and their neighbors—including who did and who didn’t eat pig. And this is one of the central issues addressed in the recent book by Max Price. An anthropologist and zoologist at MIT, Price explores the complex relations between pigs and humans in the Near East, focusing on ancient times but also providing perspective on the deep cultural ramifications until today.
[...]
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The Masora on Scripture and Its Methods
By: Yosef OferSpecial price
$33$23More details
Publisher: Magnes Press
Collaborators: De Gruyter
Year: 2022
Catalog number : 45-101139
ISBN: 978-965-7790-35-9
Pages: 357
Language: Hebrew
Weight: 700 gr.
Cover: PaperbackSynopsis
The starting point for any study of the Bible is the text of the Masora, as designed by the Masoretes. The ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contain thousands of Masora comments of two types: Masora Magna and Masora Prava. This book presents the way in which the Masoretic comments preserve the Masoretic Text of the Bible throughout generations and all over the world, providing comprehensive information in a short and efficient manner. The book describes the important manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, and the methods of the Masora in determining the biblical spelling and designing the forms of the parshiot and the biblical Songs. The effectiveness of Masoretic mechanisms and their degree of success in preserving the text is examined. A special explanation is offered for the phenomenon of qere and ketiv. The book discusses the place of the Masoretic text in the history of the Bible, the differences between the Babylonian Masora and that of Tiberias, the special status of the Aleppo Codex and the mystery surrounding it. Special attention is given to the comparison between the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex (B 19a). In addition, the book discusses the relationship between the Masora and other tangential domains: the grammar of the Hebrew language, the interpretation of the Bible, and the Halakha. The appendix to the book contains a description of books and computer software that are tools for researching the Masora. The book is based on the author's research and the research of the great scholars of the Masora in recent generations. It is a necessary tool for anyone interested in the text of the Bible and its crystallization.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Tefillin and Mezuzot from QumranNew Readings and Interpretations
Ariel Feldman
Volume 538 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110725377PDF & EPUB £81.50
Hardcover £81.50eBook
Published: April 4, 2022
ISBN: 9783110725377Hardcover
Published: April 18, 2022
ISBN: 9783110725261About this book
This monograph studies ancient tefillin (also known as phylacteries) and mezuzot found in the Caves of Qumran. Most of these miniature texts were published by the end of 1970s and thus have long been available to scholars. And yet in several respects, these tiny fragments remain an unfinished business.
A close scrutiny of their editions reveals a presence of texts that have not been fully accounted for. These fall into three categories. First, there are multiple tefillin and mezuzot that contain legible fragments which their editors were unable to identify. Second, several tefillin and mezuzot feature imprints of letters that have not been deciphered. Third, there are texts which were provisionally classified as tefillin and mezuzot yet left unread.
This monograph offers a detailed study of these unidentified and undeciphered texts. It thus sheds new light on the contents of ancient tefillin and mezuzot and on the scribal practices involved in their preparation.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
With some fun counterfactual speculation on what would have happened if Hannibal had won. Cf. here.
For many more posts on Hannibal Barca and his role in the Second Punic War, see here, here, here, here, and links. Cross-file under Punic Watch.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
"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."This discovery is very welcome. Information on the ancient Aramean pantheon is hard to come by. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.[...]
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.
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)
AbstractThe 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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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 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).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.
AbstractFor more on the Incense Trade Route, see here.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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
... 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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.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.[...]
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.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?Review by
Jan Bremmer, University of Groningen. j.n.bremmer@rug.nlThere 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.
[...]
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Allusive and Elusive: Allusion and the Elihu Speeches of Job 32–37Series: 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 2022Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-50800-2
Publication Date: 22 Feb 2022
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.Congratulations to both recipients, but especially to Professor Himmelfarb, whose contribution to the study of ancient Judaism has been vast.[...]
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Teaching Fellow in Old Testament and Hebrew BibleFollow the link for further particulars.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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Lecturer in New Testament Studies (Education and Scholarship)Follow the link for further particulars. The closing date for applications is 2 June 2022.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.
HT the British New Testament Society mailing list.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
... 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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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?[...]
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
An Introduction to Early Judaism, 2nd ed.For recent good news about James VanderKam, see here.
James C. VanderkamPAPERBACK; Published: 1/6/2022
ISBN: 978-0-8028-8016-1
Price: $ 28.99
253 Pages
Trim Size, in inches: 6 x 9DESCRIPTION
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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/10.1515/9783110768534PDF & EPUB £102.00
Hardcover £102.00eBook
Published: March 7, 2022
ISBN: 9783110768534
Hardcover
Published: March 21, 2022
ISBN: 9783110768367About 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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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?
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Gods, Spirits, and Worship in the Greco-Roman World and Early ChristianityCraig A. Evans (Anthology Editor), Adam Z. Wright (Anthology Editor)
Hardback
$115.00$103.50Ebook (PDF)
$103.50$82.80Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$103.50$82.80Product 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 PublishingDescription
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Why, then, were these lost letters lost?Do follow the link to read the whole argument over a number of blog posts. I think it makes a lot of sense.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.
Cross-file under Lost Books.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Aleppo Codex, see here and here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Roman Rule and Jewish Life
Collected PapersHannah M. Cotton
Edited by: Ofer Pogorelsky
Volume 89 in the series Studia Judaica
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110770438PDF & EPUB £141.00
Hardcover £141.00eBook
Published: March 7, 2022
ISBN: 9783110770438
Hardcover
Published: March 21, 2022
ISBN: 9783110191448About 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>
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Military Service and the Integration of Jews into the Roman EmpireSeries: 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 2022Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-50675-6
Publication Date: 10 Feb 2022
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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 TresilianFor 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.
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.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.[...]
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.
[...]
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.
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.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Peter Schäfer. Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity. Translated by Allison Brown. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020.I noted the publication of the English translation of this (originally German) book here.... 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 ...
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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. ...
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.
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.
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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Background here and here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
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.I noted the publication of the book here.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.
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. 345For more on Professor Ben-Dov's ideas about the influence of Mesopotamian monumental inscriptions on Second Temple Jewish literature, see here and here.
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
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient WorldEdited 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 IllustrationsBook 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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
For many, many PaleoJudaica posts on the Elephantine Papyri and the site of Elephantine, see here and links. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Ecclesiastes versus Song of Songs
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Neusner on Judaism
Volume 1: HistoryBy Jacob Neusner
Copyright Year 2004
Paperback
£27.99
Hardback
£96.00
eBook
£27.99ISBN 9781138619937
Published March 31, 2022 by Routledge
560 PagesBook 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.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.