Deborah & Jael on a new Huqoq synagogue mosaic

DECORATIVE ART: Excavations by Carolina archaeologist reveal first known depictions of two biblical heroines, episode in ancient Jewish art. This 10th season of excavations in the ancient Galilean synagogue at Huqoq uncovers intricate mosaic floor panels dating back nearly 1,600 years (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill).

A team of specialists and students led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness recently returned to Israel’s Lower Galilee to continue unearthing nearly 1,600-year-old mosaics in an ancient Jewish synagogue at Huqoq. Discoveries made this year include the first known depiction of the biblical heroines Deborah and Jael as described in the book of Judges.

[...]

For PaleoJudaica posts on the other mosaics recovered at the late-antique Huqoq synagogue excavation, start here and follow the many links.

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

Another LBA Canaanite curse inscription?

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY? 3,500-year-old stone is inscribed with curse on Jerusalem governor, claims professor. Expert claims to decipher ancient script on tablet he believes was used in voodoo ceremony; Antiquities Authority awaits further ‘scientific research and publication’ (MICHAEL HOROVITZ, Times of Israel).

A professor at the University of Haifa claimed on Wednesday that he had deciphered a 3,500-year-old stone tablet discovered in Jerusalem more than a decade ago, contending that the artifact’s inscription was a curse against the city’s governor at the time.

If the finding is confirmed, it is among the earliest inscriptions discovered to date in Jerusalem.

The stone was used in a voodoo ceremony, according to Prof. Gershon Galil, head of the Institute for Biblical Studies and Ancient History at the university, that was likely carried out by priests or other important figures in the city who were feuding with the city’s highest-level official, a statement released by the institute stated.

[...]

I have been busy in the last week and have mostly been blogging from my reserves. But I see the news has been busy too.

There has been much attention to this story. I link to the ToI article because it includes both a good photo and a drawing of the artifact. The claims reported are extravagant. I am skeptical.

Christopher Rollston has published a response on Jim West's blog: Chris Rollston Responds to Gershon Galil: A Guest Post. Déjà Vu…Gershon Galil’s Sensational New Claims: A Response from Chris Rollston.

Professor Rollston not only questions the claims about the content and significance of the "inscription," he doubts that it is an inscription at all. Some of his concerns also occurred to me as I read the reports. But he covers the issues more thoroughly and more authoritatively than I could.

We are still waiting for the peer-reviewed publication on the supposed Mount Ebal curse tablet. We can add the supposed Jerusalem curse inscription to our waiting list.

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Dal Bo, The Lexical Field of the Substantives of “Word” in Ancient Hebrew (Harrassowitz)

NEW BOOK FROM HARRASSOWITZ:

Dal Bo, Federico
The Lexical Field of the Substantives of “Word” in Ancient Hebrew
From the Bible to the Mishnah

series: Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes
volume: 124
pages/dimensions: XVIII, 278 pages, 271 tables
language: English
binding: Book (Paperback)
dimensions: 14.50 × 22.00 cm
weight: 446g
publishing date: 25.08.2021
prices: 58,00 Eur[D] / 59,70 Eur[A]
ISBN: 978-3-447-11652-7

978-3-447-11652-7 Printed Version 58,00 Eur

978-3-447-39182-5 E-Book (pdf) 58,00 Eur

Jewish Monotheism is built on a fundamental assumption: God has spoken to the Jews and commanded them to follow His law. But what exactly are – “God’s words”?
This monograph examines the notion of “word” in Ancient Judaism from the Bible to the Mishnah – from Scripture to this prominent Hebrew law handbook redacted at the beginning of 3rd century c.e. It explores the notion of human and divine “word” and its transformation in the narrative, legal, poetical, and theological pieces of Jewish literature. It pays particular attention to the semantic evolutions of all those substantives that designate a “word” or any other relevant element of speech that both humans and God use to communicate with each other.
The monograph offers an analysis of the word field of the substantives of “word” from a double perspective – a linguistic and a cultural one. On the one hand it relies on Eugenio Coseriu’s semantics and on the disseminated notion of “Hebrew functional languages.” It starts from the presupposition that every term has its own meaning only due to its connection with other terms – called “lexical field.” It also argues that Hebrew can be divided into several “functional languages” that have different social and communicative functions: a narrative, legal, poetical, and performative one.
On the other hand, the monograph also takes into account the reception history of Scripture through its main ancient translations into Greek, Aramaic, and Syriac. In doing so, the monograph examines the word field of the substantives of “word” also from a cultural perspective and shows the evolution of this fundamental portion of Jewish literature.

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Red heifer detergent?

DR. JOSEPH WEINSTEIN: Red Heifer: A Soap Ritual (TheTorah.com).

After contact with a corpse, a person must be sprinkled with a liquid mixture containing the ashes of a red heifer, together with cedar and ezov, alkaline plants that, when burnt, function as the key ingredients in a detergent.

For more on the red heifer rite, include a modern effort to revive it, see here and links and here.

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Rothschild, The Muratorian Fragment (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Clare K. Rothschild. The Muratorian Fragment. Text, Translation, Commentary. 2022. XX, 462 pages. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum / Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity 132. 114,00 € including VAT, sewn paper, ISBN 978-3-16-161174-2.

Published in English.
This volume offers an introduction, critical edition, and fresh English translation of the Muratorian Fragment. In addition to addressing questions of authorship, date, provenance, and sources, Clare K. Rothschild carefully analyzes the text's language, composition, genre, and possible functions with reference to a breathtaking range of scholarly positions and findings from the eighteenth century to the present. She also investigates its position within the eclectic eighth-century Muratorian Codex (Ambr. I 101 sup.). A line-by-line philological commentary draws attention to literary, philosophical, and religious aspects of the individual traditions represented. This study should be of interest to scholars of the New Testament and early Christian literature, as well as experts on the emergence of the canon and historians of the Latin Medieval West.

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Concerning the Goddess of Ancient Israel

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Who’s Afraid of the Goddess of Ancient Israel? (Dvora Lederman Daniely).

The realization that the metaphorical relationship described in the Bible between Yahweh and his spouse may have originally constituted an actual mythological relationship between God and a Goddess, requires a rethinking of the theological implications that arise.

I noted the publication of the author's book, Sarai: Is she the Goddess of ancient Israel?, here.

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Fleming Festschrift (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

“A Community of Peoples”

Studies on Society and Politics in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Daniel E. Fleming

Series: Harvard Semitic Studies

Editors: Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, Lauren A.S. Monroe, Michael J. Stahl, and Dylan R. Johnson

A “Community of Peoples”: Studies on Society and Politics in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Daniel E. Fleming draws together a diverse community of scholars to honor the career of Daniel E. Fleming as a historian of the Bible and ancient Near East.

Together, these scholars participate in a dynamic historical enterprise, each one positioning themself along a Middle Eastern spatial-temporal continuum stretching from the Old Babylonian to the Persian periods. Each contributor attempts to touch a sliver of ancient history, whether a particular person or community, a text or visual image or scribal process. They do so through a diversity of methods and disciplines, which together reflect the possibilities and promises for history writing.

The Harvard Semitic Studies series publishes volumes from the Harvard Semitic Museum. Other series offered by Brill that publish volumes from the Museum include Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant and Harvard Semitic Monographs, https://semiticmuseum.fas.harvard.edu/publications.

Copyright Year: 2022

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51153-8
Publication date: 09 May 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €250.00 / $300.00
Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51152-1
Publication date: 05 May 2022

Congratulations to Daniel Fleming!

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Hopkins, ... Religious Sacrifice in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

CULTIC SPIRITUALIZATION
Religious Sacrifice in the Dead Sea Scrolls

By Jamal-Dominique Hopkins

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4241-1
Formats Hardback (also ebook)

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts 33
Publication Date: Apr 26,2022
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 393
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4241-1

Price: $110.95
Your price: $88.76

Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls beginning in 1947, its material witness and evocative content have captured the religious imagination of scholars and the general public alike. Hailed as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, the excavated material content has illuminated and revitalized the vast fields of biblical-related scholarship. To date, investigation of the material discoveries related to religious sacrifice has received limited attention. In this study, Jamal-Dominique Hopkins examines the traces of the life and archaeology of Qumran, and the cherished views of sacrifice in the non-biblical sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. Hopkins explores the historical and ideological development of the Jewish priestly movement related to the scrolls, focusing predominantly on the vantage point of the movement’s later offshoot group known as the Qumran community. This panoramic examination of sacrifice in the Dead Sea Scrolls offers a historical reconstruction of this principal community and its gripping story. Hopkins reveals the development of a community, from its pre-Qumranic to Qumranic settlement stages, which chose to spiritualize the Jerusalem temple and sacrificial practices. As a consequence of being driven into the Qumran desert, in the absence of the physical temple in Jerusalem, this nomadic priestly community viewed itself as “temple.” In exchange for actual animal sacrifice, through the acts of prayer and praise, the community offered the fruit of their lips as an alternative modality of sacrifice. In leaving the larger community, this Qumran community thus became an eschatological community engaging in the practice of cultic spiritualization.

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July 4th

HAPPY AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY to all those celebrating!

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

Archaeology in the Gaza Strip

ARCHAEOLOGY UNDER PRESSURE: Buried under the impoverished Gaza Strip, a rich archaeological heritage. But would-be excavators are facing a constant battle against construction to meet urgent housing needs for the rapidly expanding population, and the devastation wrought by war (AP and Times of Israel).

For the discovery of that Roman-era necropolis in Gaza, see here and here. And for more on the reopening of the late-antique Saint Hilarion Monastery, follow the relevant link.

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$1M to UCSD for techno-archaeology

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: UCSD gets $1M gift to expand archaeological studies of Israel, eastern Mediterranean. The ‘cyber-archaeology’ will involve flying drones and underwater cameras (Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune). HT Rogue Classicism.

UC San Diego has received a $1 million bequest from the late Orange County philanthropist Norma Kershaw to expand its wide-ranging archaeological studies in the eastern Mediterranean, particularly Israel.

[...]

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

Ackerman, Women and the Religion of Ancient Israel (Yale)

NEW BOOK FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Women and the Religion of Ancient Israel

by Susan Ackerman
Imprint: Yale University Press

Series: The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library

576 Pages, 6.12 x 9.25 in, 39 b-w illus.

Hardcover
9780300141788
Published: Tuesday, 19 Apr 2022
$50.00

Description

A synthetic reconstruction of women's religious engagement and experiences in preexilic Israel

“This monumental book examines a wealth of data from the Bible, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern texts and iconography to provide a clear, comprehensive, and compelling analysis of women's religious lives in preexilic times."—Carol Meyers, Duke University

Throughout the biblical narrative, ancient Israelite religious life is dominated by male actors. When women appear, they are often seen only on the periphery: as tangential, accidental, or passive participants. However, despite their absence from the written record, they were often deeply involved in religious practice and ritual observance.

In this new volume, Susan Ackerman presents a comprehensive account of ancient Israelite women's religious lives and experiences. She examines the various sites of their practice, including household shrines, regional sanctuaries, and national temples; the calendar of religious rituals that women observed on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis; and their special roles in religious settings. Drawing on texts, archaeology, and material culture, and documenting the distinctions between Israelite women's experiences and those of their male counterparts, Ackerman reconstructs an essential picture of women's lived religion in ancient Israelite culture.

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More on Ross, Postclassical Greek and Septuagint Lexicography

WILLIAM A. ROSS: BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: POSTCLASSICAL GREEK AND SEPTUAGINT LEXICOGRAPHY.

I already noted the recent publication of this book. But Dr. Ross gives us some personal background about it in this post.

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

Hardy, The Development of Biblical Hebrew Prepositions (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Development of Biblical Hebrew Prepositions

H. H. Hardy

ISBN 9781628374230
Volume ANEM 28
Status Available
Publication Date April 2022
Paperback $49.00
Hardback $69.00

A robust theoretical and empirical study using a linguistically grounded and data-driven approach

The Development of Biblical Hebrew Prepositions presents an analysis of the sources and diachronic developments of forty-one simple and multiword prepositions in the Hebrew Bible from the viewpoint of grammaticalization within a historical-linguistics framework. The study contributes a detailed corpus-based accounting of the variation evidenced by the usages of Biblical Hebrew prepositions and provides a descriptive model of the emergence of this linguistic subsystem. Furthermore, it demonstrates the value of integrating diachronic linguistics and philological approaches in the investigation of grammar, providing for an exhaustive language-internal description.

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Review of Harrington, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (NICOT, Eerdmans)

READING ACTS: Hannah K. Harrington, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (NICOT) (Phil Long).

Harrington, Hannah K. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2022. 529 pp. Hb; $52.00

[...]

Conclusion. Hannah Harrington’s commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah is an excellent contribution to the study of these two books, but also an introduction to the theology and practice of Second Temple Judaism. Her focus on Ezra-Nehemiah as an early witness to developments in later Judaism and Christianity makes this an especially valuable book. The excurses are worth the price of the commentary alone!

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Schmidt, Hippolytus of Rome's Commentary on Daniel (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME'S COMMENTARY ON DANIEL
By T. C. Schmidt

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4436-1
Formats: Paperback

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Gorgias Studies in Early Christianity and Patristics 79
Publication Date: Apr 26,2022
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 217
Language: Englishv ISBN: 978-1-4632-4436-1

Price: $37.00
Your price: $29.60

In his Commentary on Daniel, the earliest extant Christian commentary, Hippolytus interprets the deeds and visions of Daniel against the backdrop of contemporary Roman persecution and eschatological expectation, thus providing much information about Christian affairs in the early third century. Throughout the commentary Hippolytus further discusses his distinctive Logos theology and also makes mention of various liturgical practices evolving baptism, anointing, the celebration of Easter and perhaps the date of Christmas.

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Review of Marlow et al. (eds.), Eschatology in antiquity: forms and functions

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Eschatology in antiquity: forms and functions.

Hilary Marlow, Karla Pollmann, Helen Van Noorden, Eschatology in antiquity: forms and functions. Rewriting antiquity. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. Pp. xxiv, 629. ISBN 9781138208315 $200.00.

Review by
Joel Gordon, University of Otago. joel.gordon@otago.ac.nz

Eschatology in antiquity is, as its editors rightly claim (p.1), the first volume of its kind: an exploration of various eschatologies originating from the numerous societies and cultures within the Mediterranean throughout the period broadly identified as ‘antiquity’ (25th century BCE to 9th century CE). While such breadth of scope is a common feature of Routledge’s Rewriting Antiquity series, this is the first time that (ancient) eschatology has been addressed within a single tome. ...

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SOTS Book List 2022

IN THE MAIL:

John Jarick (ed.), Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2022 (= JSOT 46.5) (London: Sage, 2021)

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New funding for the Gozo shipwreck

PUNIC WATCH: Government to fund further studies on Punic wreck off Xlendi (Malta Independent).

The government has committed €140,000 through an agreement with the University of Malta for continued studies on an underwater Punic wreck off the coast of Xlendi.

[...]

This is also known as the Gozo Phoenician shipwreck. Xlendi Bay is at the village of Xlendi on the island of Gozo. Cross-file under Phoenician Watch.

For many other PaleoJudaica posts on ancient shipwrecks, see here and here and links . Cross-file under Marine (Maritime, Underwater) Archaeology.

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

Ashkelon reinstates Roman gods

ANCIENT STATUARY: Statues of Roman goddesses returned to rightful place of honor at Tel Ashkelon. The remains of five marble statues have been rescued from anonymity and placed standing using a special frame between the southern portion of the basilica and the odeon, a small covered theater (Judith Sudilovsky, Jerusalem Post).

Not mentioned by name in the article, but the late Prof. Larry Stager directed the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon from 1985 to 2016.

There are many PaleoJudaica posts on Ashkelon and its excavation.

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

Open-rank Rabbinics job(s) at U Chicago Divinity School

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO:

Rabbinic Judaism (open rank), Divinity School

Divinity School
Position Type: Faculty
Hyde Park
Jun 27, 2022

Description

The University of Chicago Divinity School seeks scholar(s) for one or more positions in the study of Rabbinic Judaism for an appointment date of July 1, 2023. Rank and salary are open. We welcome applications at the assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor ranks.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars. "Review of applications will begin on September 1, 2022, and will continue until the position(s) is/are filled or the search is closed."

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Prof. David Weiss Halivni z'l'

SAD NEWS: David Weiss Halivni, pillar of Talmudic scholarship, Holocaust survivor, dies age 94. A prodigy, Halivni received rabbinic ordination at 15, won the Israel Prize and molded generations of scholars in US and Israel, teaching well into his 90s (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

H-JUDAIC also has a note of his passing, with links and the full text of the Encyclopaedia Judaica article about him: Passing of Prof. David Weiss Halivni.

Some PaleoJudaica posts on his work are here, here, and here.

May his memory be for a blessing.

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

Who Was Josephus?

BIOGRAPHY: Who Was Josephus? The Controversial Backstory of the Famed Historian. When Yosef ben Matityahu, a great warrior, defected to the Romans and became Josephus Flavius (Dr. Henry Abramson, Aish.com).

Scholars and students of ancient Israel are heavily indebted to a Jewish historian named Josephus. Born Yosef ben Matityahu to an aristocratic family of Kohanim around the year 37 CE, he lived through one of the most tumultuous centuries in Jewish history, culminating in the disastrous Roman-Jewish war of 66-74 CE and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, events he recorded in his many books in great detail and gripping prose.

His backstory, however, is quite complicated, even troubling.

[...]

It's a story worth retelling now and again.

For another recent overview essay on Flavius Josephus, see here. And for that suicide pact during the siege of Jotapata (Yodfat), see the posts on the "Josephus Problem" linked to there.

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Matt, Becoming Elijah (Yale)

NEW BOOK FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Becoming Elijah
Prophet of Transformation

by Daniel C. Matt
Imprint: Yale University Press
Series: Jewish Lives

248 Pages, 5.75 x 8.25 in, 1 b-w illus.

Hardcover
9780300242706
Published: Tuesday, 15 Mar 2022
$26.00

Description

The story of the prophet Elijah’s transformation from fierce zealot to compassionate hero and cherished figure in Jewish tradition

“In a series on Jewish Lives, this volume is about the Jewish life—the one that goes on forever. Becoming Elijah blends meticulous scholarship with bold literary and poetic imagination. Don’t miss it!”—Arthur Green, author of Judaism for the World

"The author’s erudite prose and masterful command of history and faith traditions bring his subject to vibrant life. This is an edifying and accessible chronicle of a towering religious figure."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

In the Bible Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. Because of his messianic role, Jews open the door for Elijah during each seder—the meal commemorating liberation from slavery and anticipating final redemption.

How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero—apparently the most popular figure in Jewish tradition? Becoming Elijah explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to Rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). His transformation is pertinent and inspirational for our polarized, fanatical world.

I noted a couple of other recent books on Elijah here and here.

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Van Maaren, The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE–132 CE (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE–132 CE
Power, Strategies, and Ethnic Configurations

John Van Maaren Volume 118 in the series Studia Judaica
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110787450

PDF & EPUB £79.00
Hardcover £79.00

eBook
Published: June 6, 2022
ISBN: 9783110787450

Hardcover
Published: June 6, 2022
ISBN: 9783110787382

About this book

Recent research has considered how changing imperial contexts influence conceptions of Jewishness among ruling elites (esp. Eckhardt, Ethnos und Herrschaft, 2013). This study integrates other, often marginal, conceptions with elite perspectives. It uses the ethnic boundary making model, an empirically based sociological model, to link macro-level characteristics of the social field with individual agency in ethnic construction. It uses a wide range of written sources as evidence for constructions of Jewishness and relates these to a local-specific understanding of demographic and institutional characteristics, informed by material culture. The result is a diachronic study of how institutional changes under Seleucid, Hasmonean, and Early Roman rule influenced the ways that members of the ruling elite, retainer class, and marginalized groups presented their preferred visions of Jewishness. These sometimes-competing visions advance different strategies to maintain, rework, or blur the boundaries between Jews and others. The study provides the next step toward a thick description of Jewishness in antiquity by introducing needed systematization for relating written sources from different social strata with their contexts.

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The Lod Mosaic is back in Lod

BACK HOME: Stunning Ancient Mosaic Found Near Tel Aviv Returns Home After World Tour. After being on display in the likes of the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the magnificent 1,700-year-old Lod mosaic – featuring animals, plants and fish – is back on show at the purpose-built Shelby White and Leon Levy Mosaic Archaeological Center (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Its tour included the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: “It was such as thrill to see the name Lod on the Metropolitan Museum,” White says. Its itinerary also included the Louvre in Paris; the Altes Museum in Berlin; Waddesdon Manor (a country house popular among tourists) in England; the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg; the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio; the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology in Philadelphia; the Field Museum in Chicago; Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice; and the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami.

PaleoJudaica followed the peregrinations of the mosaic on its world tour for some years.

In this article Ms. Schuster gives a characteristically comprehensive account of the Lod Mosaic: its discovery, its contents, the background of its ancient city (Lydda), and its archaeological context, including the other two mosaics found at the site in recent years.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on all three Lod Mosaics, start here and follow the links. Cross-file under Decorative Art.

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Open-access Pentateuchal Sources

ONLINE SOURCE CRITICISM: Founding Documents of the Bible: The Priestly Tradition. With a provisional reconstruction of the Priestly Source in English translation.

This is a project developed at UC Davis, apparently with Prof. Seth Sanders at the helm. It looks promising. It is clearly a work in progress. The website is not yet very user-friendly. The best place to start is with Hebrew Literature Before the Bible: The Purpose of the Site.

HT the AWOL Blog.

For some of my own thoughts on Pentateuchal source criticism, see here and links.

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McGrath in the footsteps of John the Baptist

RELIGION PROF.: In the Footsteps of John the Baptist Part 1: From the Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of Galilee (James McGrath).

As I prepared for my recent trip to the Holy Land focused on John the Baptist, there were moments when I wondered whether it would accomplish what I hoped for. Would standing in the same places that John, his followers, and his critics stood lead to any new insights or raise new questions? ...

For many background posts, see here and links.

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Latest on the Irbid Greco-Aramaic tomb comics

ARAMAIC WATCH PLUS DECORATIVE ART: 'Alas for me, I am dead': Greco-Roman tomb in Jordan offers clues about life in Capitolias. A tomb discovered by a bulldozer may show how the Aramaic population dealt with Greek and Roman overlords (Khaled Yacoub Oweis, The National). HT Rogue Classicism.

Enough details survived, mainly from a red mural on one wall of the tomb, to discern 64 Greek and Aramaic inscriptions written above figures depicting workers and other people.

Jordan's unheralded archaeological gem rivals Syrian neighbour Many were builders of Capitolias, one of a group of cities called the Decapolis League. Pliny the Elder wrote about it in Natural History, his epic work, almost two millennia ago.

The discovery was announced in April of 2018. I had a follow-up post on it later that year. The story has since been quiet.

The main takeaway from this article is the current conservation efforts:

The National was let into the tomb as part of a tour organised by Jordan’s Department of Antiquities for French diplomats and personnel from Ifpo, one of several western organisations working with the department to preserve and study the site through a US-funded project.

Among them is the American Centre of Oriental Research and the Italian Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro, which is has been involved for years in rescuing Qusayr Amra, an Umayyad era gem in Jordan's eastern desert.

The article adds, "There are no plans to open the tomb to the public anytime soon."

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Moore, Studies in the Language of Targum Canticles (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Studies in the Language of Targum Canticles

with Annotated Transcription of Geniza Fragments

Series: Supplement to Aramaic Studies, Volume: 18

Author: Paul R. Moore

Targum Canticles, composed in the dialectally eclectic idiom of Late Jewish Literary Aramaic (LJLA), had immense historic popularity among Jewish communities worldwide. In this work, Paul R. Moore thoroughly analyses several of the Targum’s grammatical peculiarities overlooked by previous studies. Through this prism, he considers its literary influences, composition, and LJLA as a precursor of the highly eccentric Aramaic of the 13th century Spanish cabalistic masterpiece, The Zohar. The study includes transcriptions and analysis of the previously unpublished of fragments of the Targum from the Cairo Geniza, and what is possibly its earliest, known translation into Judaeo-Arabic.

Copyright Year: 2022

Prices from (excl. VAT): €129.00 / $155.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51570-3
Publication date: 20 Jun 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51710-3
Publication date: 23 Jun 2022

I noted the PhD thesis of which this book is a revision here.

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Review of new English translation of Strack-Billerbeck (vol. 2)

READING ACTS: A New English Translation of Strack and Billerbeck, Commentary on the Talmud, Volume 2, ed. and trans. by Jacob N. Cerone (Phil Long).

Conclusion: Is this new English translation of Strack and Billerbeck worth the investment? This is not a reference work for the casual reader, it is a major tool intended for the serious Bible student and scholar. For many, an English translation of Strack and Billerbeck opens up a new world of Rabbinic literature for the first time. In fact, it is very easy to open this book randomly and read something fascinating.

Using Strack and Billerbeck can enhance one’s understanding of the Jewish background to Jesus, Paul, and the rest of the New Testament. But it is a tool which may lead to unintentional consequences and misreading the Rabbinic literature.

That last sentence is an important caution.

Volume 3 came out last year. I noted and commented on Phil's review of it here. The translation of volume 1 is not yet out. I have additional comments, bibliography, and links, on the use of rabbinic literature for the study of Second Temple Judaism here.

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

Eleazar in the Bible

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Eleazar in the Bible. A High Priest and Leader of Early Israel (Robin Gallaher Branch). You don't hear much about Eleazar, but there he is.

Eleazar’s life is remarkable for the instances the Bible mentions but also for a silence. Unlike the leaders Moses, Aaron, Miriam, and later David, scripture records no rebuke of him. It seems that Eleazar learned a life-long lesson from the deaths of his brothers Nadab and Abihu—he learned obedience.

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

YU faculty research grants

YU NEWS: Provost’s Office Awards Grants for Faculty Research.

Congratulations to all the award recipients. Three of the projects are of notable interest to PaleoJudaica.

Dr. Jonathan Dauber, Associate Professor of Jewish Mysticism and Director of the Ph.D. Program

Jewish Philosophy (Bernard Revel)
Project Title: Sefer ha-Bahir: Translation and Commentary

Dr. Shalom E. Holtz, Professor

Bible, Hebrew, Near Eastern Studies
Project Title: Jewish Legal Practice in the Persian Period

Dr. Ari Mermelstein, Associate Professor of Bible and Second Temple Literature

Department of Bible, Hebrew & Near Eastern Studies
Project Title: The Jewish Legal Tradition

For details on the projects, see the article.

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

The Jewish Catacombs Of Rome

ROMAN CATACOMBS WATCH: The Jewish Catacombs Of Rome (Saul Jay Singer, The Jewish Press).

Ancient Roman law prohibited burial within the city, so catacombs were established in the soft volcanic rock outside the city walls. These Roman catacombs, which feature about a half-million tombs interred in a complex underground network of narrow passageways and dark galleries, contain the largest body of archaeological evidence on the early Christian and Jewish communities of ancient Rome.

[...]

This is an impressive article on the Roman-era and late-antique Jewish catacombs in Rome, their rediscovery in the Middle Ages, and their subsequent rediscoveries, exploration, and conservation up to the present.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Jewish catacombs in Rome, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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

Review of Halbertal, The Birth of Doubt

YU NEWS: What the Straus Center Is Reading — The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature.

Moshe Halbertal | Brown Judaic Studies | 2020

Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern

... Surveying concepts such as the kosher status of food found in a public place, purity, possession of property, Shabbat start times, lineage of a mamzer (bastard), and gender identity, Halbertal shows how the rabbis were quite comfortable wrestling with doubt’s very nature. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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

Review of Fine (ed.), The Arch of Titus

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Arch of Titus: from Jerusalem to Rome – and back.

Steven Fine, The Arch of Titus: from Jerusalem to Rome – and back. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. Pp. xxvi, 196. ISBN 9789004447783 €110,00.

Review by
Steven Wander, University of Connecticut. steven.wander@uconn.edu

For Steven Fine, the Arch of Titus has been the subject of long study and recently the focus of an exhibition held at the Yeshiva University Museum from 14 September 2017 to 14 January 2018, both to commemorate his achievements and to illuminate its fascinating history. In connection with the exhibit, an international team of scholars provides a broad treatment of The Arch of Titus, From Jerusalem to Rome—and Back. ...

For more on this book, the YU exhibition, and Professor Fine's longstanding work on the Arch of Titus, start here and follow the links.

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

Palmyran portraits

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Portraits of People and Society From Palmyra (Maura Heyn). With many illustrations.

These Palmyrene reliefs in many ways resemble formal portraits that one might create in the modern era, with the individual depicted in what is presumably their best attire, some holding objects that communicate something about their identity, and many adorned with brooches, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings. In ancient Palmyra, the portraits of men and women were placed side by side in the tombs; they are more or less similar in scale, they are posed in much the same way, and men and women alike hold objects and are identified by name in the accompanying inscriptions.

Cross-file under Palmyra Watch and Funerary Sculpture.

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.

Manichaean Studies Conference

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Manichaean Studies.

10th International Conference of the International Association of Manichaean Studies ... to be held at Aarhus University (Denmark), Monday 8th – Thursday 11th August 2022

Follow the link for the full program.

Cross-file under Manichean (Manichaean) Watch.

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

More on The Lost Synagogue of Aleppo

EXHIBITION REVIEW: The Lost Synagogue of Aleppo. A new virtual reality exhibit at the Israel Museum brings to life the Great Synagogue, and the great collapse of multinational Jewish life (Matti Friedman, Tablet Magazine).

The new simulation had the effect of bringing the Aleppo synagogue to life for a moment. The impression of being in that building, even if it was only virtual, was so potent for me that it still hasn’t quite worn off. Everyone who can visit the simulation at the Israel Museum should go. But tech has a way of showing us something and leaving us hollow. When the headset came off, I was left with the same feeling I’ve had when reconnecting online with a friend from the past—the knowledge of what existed not long ago, and how truly gone it is.

Background on the exhibition is here.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Matti Friedman's book, The Aleppo Codex, start here and follow the links.

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

Online Event: John the Baptist and the Mandaeans

RELIGION PROF: John the Baptist and the Mandaeans (James McGrath).

For anyone interested in getting a glimpse of some of the exciting insights and groundbreaking new perspectives I’ve already come up with in the early stages of my research project focused on John the Baptist, I’m the keynote speaker at the Apostolic Johannite Church Conclave this weekend. My talk is titled “John the Baptist and the Mandaeans” and presents for a general audience some of what I consider the most interesting discoveries I’ve made thus far. ...

Cross-file under Mandean (Mandaean) Watch.

For more on Professor McGrath's work on John the Baptist, see the links collected here. Likewise, some posts noting his work on the Mandaeans, with some overlap with the preceding, are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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

New editors for Eisenbrauns

PUBLISHING: Penn State University Press announces new editors for Eisenbrauns imprint.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Press has announced the hiring of three new editors for its Eisenbrauns imprint, which specializes in books on ancient Near Eastern and biblical studies. Maria Metzler, who holds a degree in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University, joins the imprint as full-time acquisitions editor, and Jennie Ebeling and Nigel Fletcher-Jones will serve as editors-at-large.

[...]

Congratulations to Eisenbrauns and to all three new editors.

For a recent essay by Dr. Metzler on the Shapira fragments, see here. For more on Prof. Ebeling's work, notably on the Jezreel expedition, see here and here and links.

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

Mokhtarian, Medicine in the Talmud (UC Press)

TALMUD WATCH: Ancient Jewish text preserves real-world remedies (Kate Blackwood, Cornell Chronicle).

In “Medicine in the Talmud: Natural and Supernatural Therapies Between Magic and Science,” Jason Mokhtarian argues that the rabbis subscribed to a common medical culture they shared with pagans, Christians, Mandaeans and other therapeutic schools of thought, while at the same time making it their own.

The full reference is Jason Sion Mokhtarian, Medicine in the Talmud: Natural and Supernatural Therapies between Magic and Science (University of California Press, 2022). The publisher gives the publication as July 2022, but it seems to be available now. Cross-file under New Book.

This article has an interview with the author. I have noted other work by him here, here, and here.

Some PaleoJudaica posts involving medicine in the Talmud are here, here, here, here, and here.

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

VR reconstructs the ancient synagogue of the Aleppo Codex

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: VR tech at Israel Museum resurrects destroyed Aleppo synagogue. Using the advanced technology of virtual reality to produce a digital 3D model of the synagogue, the exhibit brings back to life a community and a period long since vanished (Judith Sudilovsky, Jerusalem Post).

In Aleppo, once the center of a thriving Jewish community, [in 1947, Sarah Shammah] had hired a local Armenian photographer to meticulously photograph the Grand Synagogue building, the treasure of the Aleppo Jewish community where the sacred Aleppo Codex—considered to be the most accurate existing manuscript of the Masoretic text which was written at the beginning of the 10th century CE and is listed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list—was kept carefully protected in what was known as “Elijah’s Cave.” They photographed every corner of the building, including the adjacent cemetery and garden.

As fate would have it, as they completed their work the UN made the partition declaration, the riots broke out in Aleppo and the synagogue was burned and with that the Aleppo Codex disappeared. The Armenian photographer realized the value of the negatives he had taken as the last images of the ancient synagogue, and demanded Shammah return them and the photographs to him, threatening to turn her in as a Zionist spy. That is when she, together with her brother, made their escape to the Lebanon border with the help of a Syrian Muslim friend.

The synagogue reportedly "was built between the fifth and seventh centuries CE."

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

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

Another 7th-century mosque excavated in Rahat

ARCHAEOLOGY: One of the oldest known mosques in the world uncovered in Negev Bedouin city Rahat. New discovery joins a second very early mosque dated to the 7th century, when Islam was just beginning to spread in the Holy Land (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

The small 7th-century CE prayer hall was uncovered during salvage excavations ahead of the construction of new neighborhoods in the Negev Bedouin city of Rahat. It is located some two kilometers from another 7th-century rural mosque that was excavated in 2019.

[...]

What the scholars are seeing is that “Islam came very, very early in the northern Negev and began to live alongside the Christian settlement,” said Kogan-Zehavi.

Aside from the mosque, the archaeologists uncovered a Byzantine-era farmhouse that they said apparently housed Christian farmers. It included a fortified tower and rooms with strong walls surrounding a courtyard.

I missed the report of the early mosque found in 2019, which was not a good summer for me. But a third seventh-century mosque was also found last year in Tiberias. Reportedly, the latter is "the oldest mosque in the world that can be excavated."

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

Did Syriac reveal the origin of the Black Death?

SYRIAC WATCH: Central Asia source of Black Death pandemic say researchers. Syriac inscriptions on ancient tombstones in cemeteries in modern-day Kyrgyzstan hinted to a trading community devastated by the plague, leading to a multi-disciplinary international study (Judith Sudilovsky, Jerusalem Post).

Now, by utilizing technology from the relatively new archaeological field of archaeogenetics to analyze DNA from human remains found in ancient graves in Kyrgyzstan over 140 years ago, a multidisciplinary team of international researchers suggest that this Second Plague pandemic originated in Central Asia.

Syriac inscriptions on the numerous tombstones noting that the people had died in the years 1338-1339 of an unknown illness provided the researchers with the evidence the cause of their death may have been the plague.

An article in The Conversation by Philip Slavin, one of the head researchers, gives further details: Black death: how we solved the centuries-old mystery of its origins

Without securely dated ancient DNA from Central Asia, however, the question would ultimately remain unsolved.

This changed when I came across records of the Kara-Djigach cemetary – excavated by the Russian archaeologist Nikolai Pantusov in 1885 and 1886 and analysed by the Russian scholar Daniel Chwolson (1819-1911). Of the total 467 stones, covering the period 1248-1345, 118 are dated to 1338 – a suspiciously large proportions of deaths. Most most of the stones have little detail about the person they commemorate, just bearing the names and death dates, but there are ten longer inscriptions from those years, stating “pestilence” (mawtānā in Syriac, the language of ancient Syria) as a cause of death.

It was intriguing. Not only that “pestilence” was mentioned, but that the associated tombstones were all dated to 1338-9 - just seven to eight years before the arrival of the Black Death in Crimea, and its subsequent spread all over west Eurasia and north Africa. I had a strong gut feeling about the likely connection

Genetic sequencing followed. It demonstrated that three of the "pestilence" victims had the Black Death bacterium.

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

Review of Hellner-Eshed, Seekers of the Face

H-JUDAIC: Verman on Hellner-Eshed, 'Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) of the Zohar' [review].

Melila Hellner-Eshed. Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) of the Zohar. Translated by Raphael Dascalu. Stanford Studies in Jewish Mysticism Series. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2021. 480 pp. $75.00 (e-book), ISBN 978-1-5036-2858-8; $75.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-5036-2842-7.

Reviewed by Mark Verman (Wright State University)
Published on H-Judaic (June, 2022)
Commissioned by Robin Buller (University of California - Berkeley)

Melila Hellner-Eshed’s Seekers of the Face is an enchanting work, in terms of both content and style. It constitutes the first monograph in English devoted to one of the most important parts of the Zohar, the crown jewel of medieval Jewish literature. A translation of Hellner-Eshed’s Hebrew book Mevakshei ha-Panim (2017), Seekers of the Face is also a wonderful sequel to her earlier work, A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar (2009), which is a translation of her Hebrew monograph Ve-Nahar Yotse me-'Eden (2005). Both are part of Stanford University Press’s ambitious series, Stanford Studies in Jewish Mysticism, which has published a number of important studies of the Zohar.

[...]

Cross-file under Zohar Watch. For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Zohar, start here and follow the links.

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

Review of Neumann, Antioch in Syria: a history from coins (300 BCE-450 CE)

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Antioch in Syria: a history from coins (300 BCE-450 CE).

Kristina M. Neumann, Antioch in Syria: a history from coins (300 BCE-450 CE). Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. xxvii, 410. ISBN 9781108837149 £90.00.

Review by
Alan Stahl, Princeton University. astahl@princeton.edu

... In this new work, Kristina Neumann uses the coinage of the city as a source for an understanding of its history and, especially, as a way to probe into the ways the Antiochians used the imagery and epigraphy on the coins minted in and for the city as a way of creating and projecting their self image.

Cross-file under Numismatics.

For a CoinWeek series on the Seleucid coins, see here, here, here, and here. Other posts on the Seleucid coinage are here, here, here, here [link now corrected], and here. And for more on late-antique Antioch, see here.

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

Zoom Event: The Revelation at Sinai in Early Synagogue Poetry

H-JUDAIC: EVENT: The Revelation at Sinai in Early Synagogue Poetry.

7 July

We are honoured to welcome Professor Raymond Scheindlin, Jewish Theological Seminary, USA, to lead a session on The Revelation at Sinai in Early Synagogue Poetry.

This session is a part of the new International Interfaith Reading Group on Sacred Literature in Interfaith Contexts organised and chaired by Professor Glenda Abramson, Professor Emerita in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University of Oxford, UK.

Here are the details of this fascinating session.

The event requires free pre-registration.

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How to make your own Nag Hammadi codex

NAG HAMMADI WATCH: Local Focus: The art of Nag Hammadi bookbinding in just 2 hours. Classical historian Robyn Ramsden teaches the ancient craft of Nag Hammadi bookbinding at Featherston Booktown (Ellie Franco, New Zealand Herald).

Robyn's Booktown workshop condensed the binding process to just two hours, and most of that time was waiting for glue to dry.

"I teach [Nag Hammadi] because they're a one-quire book, with one set of pages and you don't have to get fancy," she said.

Ramsden uses a milliner's needle, scissors, glue and pushpins to construct her books from thick card, paper, greaseproof paper, leather, linen thread and a 3B1 notebook - all tied together in a kangaroo sheath band.

The Nag Hammadi-style books Robyn made at Booktown workshops were done in a simplified process. They're quick and easy to put together and pull apart.

"I cheat, so a 3B1 notebook is the innards, so when you've finished filling up your notebook with however you use notebooks, you can just pop their stitches and stitch a new one in and off you go," she said.

The noncanonical scripture doesn't come with it though. You have to provide that yourself.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Coptic Gnostic library in the Nag Hammadi Codices, see here and links, plus here and here.

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

Altman, Banned Birds (Mohr Siebeck, open access)

THE AWOL BLOG: Banned Birds: The Birds of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. This 2019 Mohr Siebeck book by Peter Altmann is now open access.

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

Jabal Ikmah

ARAMAIC (ETC.) WATCH: Jabal Ikmah. Al Ula, Saudi Arabia. The rocks around this mountain are filled with so many carvings that the area became known as the "open library" (Max Cortesi, Atlas Obscura).

Languages represented in these inscriptions include Aramaic, Dadanitic, Safaitic, Thamudic, Minaic, and Nabataean, all languages that predated and eventually influenced Arabic. All these scripts and languages have been deciphered, which increases the historical significance of this place.

For more on the Al Ula (Al-‘Ula) region, see here and here.

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Martins, Treasures Lost (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Treasures Lost
A Literary Study of the Despoliation Notices in the Book of Kings

Francisco Martins

Volume 543 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110778892

PDF & EPUB £81.50
Hardcover £91.00

eBook
Published: June 6, 2022
ISBN: 9783110778892

Hardcover
Published: June 6, 2022
ISBN: 9783110776119

About this book

The book of Kings repeatedly refers to the despoliation of the treasures of the Jerusalem temple and royal palace. These short notices recounting a foreign invasion and the loss of "national wealth" have been explored only briefly among scholars applying their expertise to the analysis of the book of Kings or the study of the Jerusalem temple and royal palace, from both literary and historical perspectives.

This monograph aims to fill this lacuna. Adopting an approach that combines a more traditional form of literary criticism with a thorough analysis of the narrative role and intertextual connections giving shape to the texts (Sitz in der Literatur), the book offers a more complex and nuanced appreciation of the literary development and ideological profile of the despoliation notices. In addition, it weighs the use of the underlying literary motif in the biblical writings against other Ancient Near Eastern sources.

This study not only provides new perspectives on the role of motifs in biblical historiography but has far-reaching implications for the reconstruction of the process of production and transmission of Kings as part of the Deuteronomistic History.

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The DSS and 21st-century Judaism

TAKING THE LONG VIEW: The Not-So-Dead Sea Scrolls. How the Dead Sea Scrolls, considered by many to be the most significant archaeological discovery of the 20th century, speak to Jews in the 21st century (Rabbi Mordechai Becher, Aish.com).

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Arnold (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Genesis

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Companion to Genesis

Part of Cambridge Companions to Religion

EDITOR: Bill T. Arnold, Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky
DATE PUBLISHED: May 2022
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Paperback
ISBN: 9781108438322

£ 28.99 Paperback
Other available formats: Hardback

The Cambridge Companion to Genesis explores the first book of the Bible, the book that serves as the foundation for the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. Recognizing its unique position in world history, the history of religions, as well as biblical and theological studies, the volume summarizes key developments in Biblical scholarship since the Enlightenment, while offering an overview of the diverse methods and reading strategies that are currently applied to the reading of Genesis. It also explores questions that, in some cases, have been explored for centuries. Written by an international team of scholars whose essays were specially commissioned, the Companion provides a multi-disciplinary update of all relevant issues related to the interpretation of Genesis. Whether the reader is taking the first step on the path or continuing a research journey, this volume will illuminate the role of Genesis in world religions, theology, philosophy, and critical biblical scholarship.

• Provides an inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary update of all relevant issues related to the interpretation of the Book of Genesis
• Includes summaries by leading experts noted for their work on each topic, and allows them to make innovative proposals and conclusions
• Introduces the most important developments of each topic since, while also explaining the most recent developments without assuming prior reader knowledge

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Did the Jewish Kingdom of Himyar succumb to drought?

STALAGMITE STUDY: Megadrought Contributed to Fall of Jewish Kingdom in Arabia, Rise of Islam, Study Suggests (Ariel David, Haaretz).

Around 1,500 years ago, southern Arabia was hit by a multi-decade megadrought, a new study of ancient climate data has found. This likely contributed to the downfall of a once powerful Jewish kingdom that ruled over large swaths of what is today Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

The demise of the ancient kingdom of Himyar in the sixth century and the ensuing power vacuum in Arabia may have then favored the rise and expansion of Islam throughout the region less than a hundred years later, suggests the paper published Thursday in Science.

[...]

The underlying Science article by Dominik Fleitman et al. is behind a subscription wall: Droughts and societal change: The environmental context for the emergence of Islam in late Antique Arabia.

Abstract

In Arabia, the first half of the sixth century CE was marked by the demise of Himyar, the dominant power in Arabia until 525 CE. Important social and political changes followed, which promoted the disintegration of the major Arabian polities. Here, we present hydroclimate records from around Southern Arabia, including a new high-resolution stalagmite record from northern Oman. These records clearly indicate unprecedented droughts during the sixth century CE, with the most severe aridity persisting between ~500 and 530 CE. We suggest that such droughts undermined the resilience of Himyar and thereby contributed to the societal changes from which Islam emerged.

For more on the late-antique Kingdom of Himyar, see here and links and here.

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On Sassanian coinage

NUMISMATICS: Sassanian Silver Drachms (Michael Shutterly, CoinWeek).

This article has some nice images of Sassanian coins etc. and it indirectly provides a brief history of the empire. The prophet Mani shows up too.

There are many connections between ancient Judaism and the late-antique Sassanian (Sasanian) Empire in Iran. For many PaleoJudaica posts, see here and links and here. And cross-file under Manichean (Manichaean) Watch.

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

About that camel and that needle

CANDIDA MOSS: Your Understanding of Eye of the Needle is Probably Wrong (The Daily Beast). Any attempt to soften Jesus' logion about the camel and the eye of the needle misses its point. It is supposed to be shocking.

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Is the new Oxford Mishnah "accessible?"

EXPENSIVE ACCESS: They set out to produce an ‘accessible’ Mishnah. The price tag: $645 (Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA).

Yes, this is a problem. This article gives a fair account of all sides. It is expensive to compose, copyedit, and produce such an ambitious three-volume work. And OUP reasonably wants to recover its costs.

They hint that a less expensive version could be in the works. I hope it is. I don't know what that would involve. Certainly something in paperback/electronic format. I think there would also be a market for an inexpensive nonspecialist edition with limited or no notes.

Meanwhile, if you have enough interest in rabbinics to want this annotated translation, here are some suggestions. If you are an academic, make sure your institution's library buys it. If you are not an academic, get a membership with your local university or seminary library and press them to buy it. You might try your local public library too, but I imagine it would have to be a large branch for them to be interested.

Background here.

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This Week in the Ancient Near East Podcast

THE AWOL BLOG: This Week in the Ancient Near East Podcast.

The podcast that takes archaeology exactly as seriously as it deserves.

Two real professors of archaeology and one guy from a fake institution discuss cutting edge archaeological discoveries at a high professional level using technical knowledge and stuff. A scholarly podcast for the discerning listener, it’s handmade, artisanal, and bespoke!

[...]

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

Upcoming ToI archaeology event in Jerusalem

LIVE EVENT: Hi-tech archaeology reveals secrets of ancient Jerusalem’s destructions. Join us for the 2nd in the ToI@10 series July 6: Archaeologists Jodi Magness and Joe Uziel in conversation with ToI’s Amanda Borschel-Dan at the Begin Center — plus live music! (Times of Israel).

Looks like this is an in-person event only. There's nothing about any online video feed. But if you're in Jerusalem next month, it sounds great. Requires advance ticket purchase.

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

Deyrul Zafaran Monastery in Turkey

SYRIAC WATCH: The Early Christian Monastery Built on a Sun God Temple in Turkey. Deyrul Zafaran, or the Saffron Monastery, of Mardin arose in the fifth century – and what lies beneath indicates the site in southeastern Turkey had been sacred before (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

A few kilometers southeast of the city of Mardin is Deyrul Zafaran Monastery, the first incarnation of which was built on the mountain slope about 1,600 years ago. Deyr means monastery and zafaran means saffron in Arabic, so yes its name is technically the Saffron Monastery Monastery, and it was built smack on top of a temple to Shams, Shamash, Shamsum or call him what you will: the sun god.

The article mentions the recently discovered Neo-Assyrian panel that depicts Aramean gods, also in southeastern Turkey. Shamash is one of those gods.

PaleoJudaica has not had occasion to mention the remarkable twelve-thousand-year-old ruins discovered at Göbekli Tepe, in that same region. But if you are interested, Ms. Schuster recently published a long article on that site: Visiting Göbekli Tepe: The World’s ‘Earliest Temple,’ Built in a Paradise That Is No More. Around 12,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers made a vast social leap and built monumental public sites. What was different in prehistoric southeast Turkey? And what did they actually create? Reducing these stone circles to ‘temples’ is to underrate them, says head archaeologist Necmi Karul (Haaretz).

Some Syriac mosaics were also recently found in Mardin province. And the Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery is in Mardin.

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

Who was Palmyra's anonymous god?

PALMYRA WATCH: Warsaw archaeologist solves 100-year-old mystery surrounding identity of anonymous god (Jo Harper, THEfirstNEWS)).

Around 200 [Aramaic epigraphic] texts dated mainly to the 2nd and 3rd centuries contained mysterious references to a deity: "Blessed is his name forever, Lord of the World and Merciful.”

Ever since scientists have been trying to work out which god the specific phrase was directed to and used the stopgap term “Palmyrene Anonymous God.”

Now [Dr. Aleksandra] Kubiak-Schneider says she thinks she has cracked it.

Her answer may surprise you. Hint: it's a trick question.

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.

What's with that Nazirite hair?

DR. RICHARD LEDERMAN: What Is a Nazir, and Why the Wild Hair? (TheTorah.com).

Like many prophets, a nazirite once characterized holy people living on the periphery of society, with wild flowing hair to mark their separate status. Some were divine messengers, like the prophets Elijah and Samuel. Others were warriors, like Samson, a wild-man warrior reminiscent of the Sumerian hero Enkidu. The priestly legislation neutralizes the nazir, making the hair itself the focus.

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An Achaemenid Aramaic grammar at the Arshama Project

ARAMAIC WATCH: Aramaic lessons and reading classes. These are useful class materials posted for an Aramaic course run by David Taylor at Oxford University in 2010 as part of the Arshama Project.

I noted the Arshama Project here and here. I just became aware of the Aramaic class materials thanks to Drew Longacre.

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On the Jerusalem aqueduct

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Excavating the Jerusalem Aqueduct. New sections of city’s ancient water system found (Nathan Steinmeyer).

For much of the past 2,000 years, the Jerusalem aqueduct has provided water to the ancient city, with portions still used well into the 20th century. Now, excavations by the Israel Antiquity Authority (IAA) are uncovering this ancient water system. The IAA has uncovered a large section of the lower aqueduct in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Armon Hanatsiv, south of the Old City. The IAA intends to carry out conservation work on a portion of the aqueduct, which they will eventually interpret and display for the public.

[...]

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Jerusalem aqueduct, see here and here and links. The dating of the "Bier/Biar aqueduct" section to as early as Pontius Pilate is not as secure as the essay implies.

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Buster, Remembering the Story of Israel (CUP)

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Remembering the Story of Israel Historical Summaries and Memory Formation in Second Temple Judaism

AUTHOR: Aubrey E. Buster, Wheaton College, Illinois
DATE PUBLISHED: May 2022
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781009150682

£ 90.00 Hardback
Other available formats: eBook

Description

In this book, Aubrey Buster demonstrates how methods adapted from cultural and social memory studies and the new formalism can illuminate the communal function of biblical and extra-biblical historical summaries in Second Temple Judaism. Refining models drawn from memory studies, she applies them to ancient texts and demonstrates the development of Judah's speech about their past across the Second Temple period. Buster's wide-ranging study demonstrates how and where the historical summary functions in the book of Psalms, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles, as well as the Qumran Psalms Scrolls, Words of the Luminaries, Paraphrase of Genesis and Exodus, and Pseudo-Daniel. She shows how the historical summary proves to be a generative, replicable, and ultimately productive form of memory. Crossing the boundaries of genre categories and time periods, liturgical performances, and literary works, historical summaries crafted a highly selective but broadly useful mode of commemoration of key events from Israel's past.

• Includes models from cultural and memory studies that inform our reading of texts from the Hebrew Bible
• Provides the first book-length treatment of the historical summaries in the Hebrew Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls
• Explores a more precise distinction between genre and form, and shows how such a distinction benefits the analysis of texts, and the literary analyses of the Bible

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The Oxford Annotated Mishnah

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Oxford Annotated Mishnah

Edited by Shaye J.D. Cohen, Robert Goldenberg, and Hayim Lapin

• An accessible version of the Mishnah in three volumes
• Assembled by an expert group of translators and annotators
• Includes explanations of technical terms and impressions, and reference to the New Testament and ancient Jewish works

£495.00

Published: 09 June 2022

1256 Pages

246x171mm

ISBN: 9780192846143

Description

The Mishnah is the foundational document of rabbinic law and, one could say, of rabbinic Judaism itself. It is overwhelmingly technical and focused on matters of practice, custom, and law. The Oxford Annotated Mishnah is the first annotated translation of this work, making the text accessible to all.

With explanations of all technical terms and expressions, The Oxford Annotated Mishnah brings together an expert group of translators and annotators to assemble a version of the Mishnah that requires no specialist knowledge.

This seems like a big deal. I am surprised I have not heard more about it.

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Volunteering at the Ein Gedi dig in 1972

MEMORIES: Roots Amid the Rubble (Claudia Chotzen, Hadassah Magazine).

Like so many others at the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns, I escaped isolation by turning to television. When I watched The Dig, a movie on Netflix about amateur archaeologist Basil Brown’s discovery of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon ship buried at Sutton Hoo on Edith Pretty’s estate in Suffolk, England in 1939, I was reminded of my own life-changing archaeology experience in Israel half a century ago.

[...]

This is a lovely story.

HT the Bible Places Blog.

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Review of Phoenicians and the making of the Mediterranean

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Phoenicians and the making of the Mediterranean.

Carolina López-Ruiz, Phoenicians and the making of the Mediterranean. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2021. $45.00. ISBN 9780674988187 $45.00.

Review by
Hélène Sader, American University of Beirut. hsader@aub.edu.lb

... López-Ruiz’ s work does justice to the Phoenicians’ role in shaping Mediterranean culture by providing rational and factual argumentation and by setting the record straight. It also speaks volumes about the author’s mastery of both Classics and Phoenicio-Punic studies which enables her to deconstruct false interpretations and long-lived biases. The long-debated issue of Orientalizing culture finds in the book a clear definition, a meticulous study of its various elements, and a convincing presentation of how Phoenicians and locals interacted in each different context. ...

Cross-file under Phoenician Watch.

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The treasures in the Cairo Geniza

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Text Treasures: Cairo Geniza. 300,000 documents found in an attic storeroom (Marek Dospěl). A nice, brief introduction.

For many, many PaleoJudaica posts on the Cairo Geniza and its wondrous trove of manuscript fragments, start here (cf. here and here) and follow the links

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Ilan et al. (eds.), Rabbinic Literature (SBL Bible and Women series)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Rabbinic Literature

Tal Ilan, Lorena Miralles-Macia, Ronit Nikolsky, editors

ISBN 9781589835719
Volume BW 4.1
Status Available
Price $65.00
Publication Date April 2022
Paperback $65.00
Hardback $85.00
eBook $65.00

This volume in the Bible and Women series is devoted to rabbinic literature from late Jewish antiquity to the early Middle Ages. Fifteen contributions feature different approaches to the question of biblical women and gender and encompass a wide variety of rabbinic corpora, including the Mishnah-Tosefta, halakhic and aggadic midrashim, Talmud, and late midrash. Some essays analyze biblical law and gender relations as they are reflected in the rabbinic sages’ argumentation, while others examine either the rabbinic portrayal of a certain woman or a group of women or the role of biblical women in a specific rabbinic context. Contributors include Judith R. Baskin, Yuval Blankovsky, Alexander A. Dubrau, Cecilia Haendler, Tal Ilan, Gail Labovitz, Moshe Lavee, Lorena Miralles-Maciá, Ronit Nikolsky, Susanne Plietzsch, Natalie C. Polzer, Olga I. Ruiz-Morell, Devora Steinmetz, Christiane Hannah Tzuberi, and Dvora Weisberg.

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Podcast on Christian and Jewish Magic

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Podcast #11: Intersection between Christian and Jewish Magic with Joseph Sanzo.

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Salvage archaeology in Israel

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Salvage Excavation in Israel. BAR Interviews IAA’s Head Archaeologist, Gideon Avni (Nathan Steinmeyer). Unusually for BHD, this essay contains the full text of the interview.

For more on the recent excavations at Yavneh Yam, mentioned in the essay, see here and links.

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Everyday life for the Babylonian exiles

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Everyday Life in Exile: Judean Deportees in Babylonian Texts (Tero Alstola).

All the Babylonian texts discussed above are legal and administrative documents that were written by Babylonian scribes. They allow a detailed study of the socioeconomic status of Judeans and an investigation of the Babylonian and Persian policies towards them. At the same time, questions related to religion, identity, and exilic experience remain mostly unanswered.

I noted a review of Dr. Alstola's book, Judeans in Babylonia, here. And for many posts on the (unprovenanced) Babylonian-Jewish cuneiform archive of Al-Yahudu, start there (cf. here) and follow the links.

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Interview with James VanderKam

THE SECOND EDITION, THAT IS: An Introduction to Early Judaism (Frank Viola).

James C. Vanderkam has written An Introduction to Early Judaism.

I caught up with James recently to discuss his book.

Enjoy!

I noted the publication of the revised edition of this book here.

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