Is the Jerusalem "(proto-)Canaanite" inscription actually Old South Arabian?

SOUTH SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY? Inscription on Sherd From Solomon-era Jerusalem Found to Be Ancient Arabian Script. Scholars have been squabbling over the inscription found on the sherd since its discovery 11 years ago – though according to a new interpretation, the script is Sabaean, from the time of the Kingdom of Sheba (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

I have posted on the "Jerusalem inscription" here (discovery in 2013), and here, here, here, and here. I noted a couple, by no means all, of the proposed interpretations.

I don't have the expertise to evaluate the claim that the script is Sabaean. The readings are quite different from the earlier ones I've seen, and the latter are not entirely consistent. In fact, Dr. Vainstub's Sabean reading has six letters and the ealier ones have seven.

Whoever may be right, if anyone, the main takeaway for me is that we really don't know much about alphabetic scripts from the tenth century BCE.

The Kingdom of Sheba in Yemen is one possible place of origin for the Queen of Sheba. The other is Axum (Aksum) in Ethiopia. This inscription, if (big if) the new interpretation proves to be correct, would show there was contact between Solomonic-era Jerusalem and the Yemenite Sheba. But that seems likely enough anyway, since Palestine was an unavoidable route for the spice trade.

Note: Old South Arabian Sabaean should not be confused with Mandaic or Mandean (Mandaean) Sabean (Sabaean/Sabian). The latter refers to a late-antique Aramaic dialect and the people who spoke and who still use it.

UPDATE (11 April): More here.

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How many Egyptian words in Hebrew and where did they come from?

PHILOLOGOS: How Many Egyptian Words Made It into Biblical Hebrew? And does their presence illuminate the book of Exodus—or is it simply a sign that ancient Egypt was a powerful nation? (Mosaic Magazine).

Not surprisingly, the answer is "It depends."

One point not raised in the essay is that even if the Israelites spent some generations as slaves in Egypt in the late second millennium BCE, the biblical texts were not written until late in Iron Age II, more than half a millennium later. They had lived in a context of neighbors who spoke Northwest Semitic dialects cognate with, and probably mutually intelligible with, Hebrew. That's a long time to readjust the language away from any Egyptian influence from that sojourn.

Cross-file under Passover.

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IAA exhibits ancient gold jewelry forgotten in a drawer

ANCIENT APOTROPAIC FUNERARY BLING: Spectacular Gold Jewels Worn Against Evil Eye in Roman Jerusalem Go on Exhibit, Finally. Found over 50 years ago and forgotten in a box at the Israel Antiquities Authority, the gold ‘moon’ pendant was probably worn by a girl as an amulet, archaeologists say (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

For the first time, gorgeous gold jewels discovered in forgotten drawers at the Israel Antiquities Authority will be going on display. The items, dating to the Late Roman period about 1,800 years ago, will be exhibited at a conference of the IAA, the Israel Exploration Society and the Israel Archaeological Association, the authority announced on Monday.

The newly unearthed treasures include gold earrings, a hairpin, beads made of gold, carnelian stone and glass - and a gold pendant called a lunula that is shaped like the crescent moon and named after the Roman moon goddess Luna.

[...]

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Biblical Studies Carnival 205

TOM WRONG IS BACK, with Biblical Studies Carnival 205 for March 2023.

My thanks to Tom, Phil Long, and Todd Bolen, for their congratulations on PaleoJudaica's twentieth anniversary.

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April 1st, belatedly

ON APRIL FIRST, I was busy and just pre-posted. But Todd Bolin was blogging away, noting many day-appropriate posts.

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Mohrmann, Deuteronomion: A Commentary ... (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Deuteronomion

A Commentary Based on the Text of Codex Alexandrinus

Series: Septuagint Commentary Series

Author: Douglas C. Mohrmann

This commentary on Deuteronomion is based on Codex Alexandrinus, the single best complete witness to the Old Greek. It features a new transcription of the manuscript with a fresh translation that treats Deuteronomion as a sacred text that would have been read, studied, and cherished in a worshipping community. Notations of important variants with the other key manuscripts, such as p848, p963, and B (Vaticanus), appear regularly. This commentary represents an interpretative adventure, intentionally giving room for varied ancient reader-responses, and accordingly it functions within several literary spaces. First, it recognizes the substantial intratextual features between the book’s narrative framing and its legal materials. Deuteronomion is also read in its hypotextual relation with the Pentateuch’s other narratives and legal materials, chiefly within Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Sensitivity to the Greek linguistic climate, the so-called koine Greek, is another space. Finally, and most distinctively, this commentary adds to its reading the many voices who read and used Deuteronomy, in either Hebrew or Greek forms, from the late Second Temple Period.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €199.00

Copyright Year: 2023

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-53661-6
Publication date: 17 Feb 2023

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-53653-1
Publication date: 24 Feb 2023

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Miglio, The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1-11 (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1-11
Peering into the Deep

By Adam E. Miglio

Copyright Year 2023

Paperback
£34.99

Hardback
£120.00

eBook
£26.24

ISBN 9781032020129
Published February 10, 2023 by Routledge
190 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations

Book Description

This book provides a substantive, reliable, and accessible comparison of the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis 1–11, investigating their presentation of humanistic themes such as wisdom, power, and the ‘good life.’

While the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis 1–11 are characterized by historical and cultural features that may seem unusual or challenging to modern readers, such as the intervention of gods and goddesses and talking animals, these ancient literary masterpieces are nonetheless familiar and relatable stories through their humanistic composition. This volume explores the presentation of humanistic themes and motifs throughout both stories. Significant passages and narratives, such as stories from the Garden of Eden and the Flood, are translated into English and accompanied by comprehensive discussions that compare and contrast shared ideas in both compositions. Written in a lucid and concise fashion, this book offers new insights into the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis 1–11 in an accessible way.

The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1–11: Peering into the Deep is suitable for students and scholars of ancient Near Eastern literature, with broad appeal across religious studies, ancient history, and world literature.

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Is the Angel of the Lord an interpolation?

DR. DANIEL O. MCCLELLAN: The Angel of YHWH.

Abraham, Hagar, Moses, and Gideon all encounter the angel of YHWH. What is this divine being and how are we to understand its relationship to YHWH?

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Machiela, A Handbook of the Aramaic Scrolls from the Qumran Caves (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

A Handbook of the Aramaic Scrolls from the Qumran Caves

Manuscripts, Language, and Scribal Practices

Series: Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 140

Author: Daniel Machiela

This book provides the first comprehensive treatment of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls from the caves of Qumran. These nearly one hundred scrolls open a window onto a vibrant period of Jewish history for which we previously had few historical sources. Scholars and advanced students will find a general introduction to the corpus, detailed, richly-illustrated profiles of individual scrolls, and up-to-date studies of their Aramaic language and scribal practices. The goal of the book is to foster and support further study of these scrolls against the historical backdrop of early Judaism and ancient Mediterranean scribal cultures.

Prices from (excl. shipping):€160.00 Hardback

Copyright Year: 2022

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51381-5
Publication date: 05 Dec 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-51378-5
Publication date: 09 Jan 2023

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The Talmudic egg - smaller than we thought?

EGGY ARCHAEOLOGY: Bar Ilan Professor Solves Age Old Issue: How Big Was the Talmudic Egg? (David Israel, Jewish Press).

It sounds as though Prof. Zohar Amar now thinks that ancient eggs were smaller that his research several years ago indicated. As the article notes, this development could have halakhic implications.

Background here.

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Chrestus or Christus? Yes.

KIWI HELLENIST: Chrest or Christ. HT Rogue Classicism.

They come out to the same thing, but the Hellenist uses the spelling varition to do some source criticism on Tacitus and Suetonius. Nicely argued and reasonably convincing.

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Rabbinics resources

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Reading the Rabbis. Philip Jenkins has collected some useful resources and some interesting material on the use of Psalm 91 in the rabbinic literature.

I am more skeptical than he seems to be about how much the Talmud, or for that matter the Mishnah, preserve memories of Temple services in the first century.

Some relevant PaleoJudaica posts are here, here, here, here, and links.

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

New national park at Hippos-Sussita

OPENED YESTERDAY: Israel opens new Sussita National Park (Times of Israel).

For PaleoJudaica posts on the many archaeological discoveries at Hippos-Sussita, see here and links.

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

Should the Codex Sassoon stay in Israel?

FOR SALE: Should the World's Oldest Hebrew Bible Remain in Israel? An Auction Awaits. The Codex Sassoon, more than a millennium old and valued at up to $50 million, is on display in Tel Aviv before the sale. Some say it's imperative the state buy it (Moshe Gilad, Haaretz). This article is behind the subscription wall, but you can read it with a free registration with Haaretz.

My own view is that whoever buys this manuscript should donate it to a museum in Israel.

Background here and links.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the comparably ancient but less well-preserved Aleppo Codex of the Hebrew Bible, see here and links. For the slightly later, but complete, Leningrad Codex, see here and links.

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

Free online course on Zoroastrianism

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrianism: History, Religion and Belief. A free online course by Dr Sarah Stewart and Dr Céline Redard at SOAS, University of London. For you, special deal!

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Bauckham, "Son of Man", vol. 1 (Eerdmans, forthcoming)

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

"Son of Man", vol. 1

Early Jewish Literature
Richard Bauckham

HARDCOVER; Coming Soon: 7/25/2023
ISBN: 978-0-8028-8326-1
Price: $ 44.99
447 Pages
Trim Size, in inches: 6 x 9

DESCRIPTION

The Son of Man is not Jesus Christ.  

In fact, the Son of Man isn’t anyone, or anything—it’s just a man. It’s not a title, and it’s certainly not an indication of divinity. Yet the term has held considerable interest among scholars of Christology for its use in describing Jesus in the gospels. And among those studying messianism in Second Temple Judaism, consensus about the valences of “Son of Man” in Scripture remains elusive.

In the first volume of this landmark study, Richard Bauckham pushes the conversation forward, explicating the phrase “Son of Man” as it appears in Jewish interpretations of the book of Daniel and in the apocryphal book of 1 Enoch. With philological precision and sensitivity to his sources, Bauckham attunes us to the realities of early Jewish eschatology.

Thorough and comprehensive, “Son of Man,” vol. 1, offers scholars a solid basis for understanding the context of the messiah in the centuries leading up to Jesus. Along with the forthcoming second volume, which parses the meaning of “Son of Man” in the Gospels, Bauckham’s work is essential for understanding one of the most widely used yet misunderstood phrases in the Bible.

Looks like it can be pre-ordered now.

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Caesarea receives archaeological and cultural award

TOURISM: Caesarea named best cultural and archaeological tourist site. These organizations worked in concert with Israel's Nature and Parks Authority and the Israel Antiquities authority to restore the city's historic site (Jerusalem Post).

Caesarea was given awarded the ACTA Archeological and Cultural Award for the best foreign archeological site by GIST, Italy's foremost tourism press agency.

The city, located in the north of Israel, was chosen based on the merits of its coastal harbor, underwater sites and various scientific and archeological studies taking place there.

[...]

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Geniza fragment of Christian Palestinian Aramaic palimpsest of Joshua

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (MARCH 2023): The Book of Joshua in a Christian Palestinian Aramaic Palimpsest Fragment (T-S 12.758) (Christa Müller-Kessler).

For over 120 years, the verses of chapter 7:2c–4a; 9b–11a of the book of Joshua in the translation of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, a Western Aramaic dialect, remained unrecognized under the Palestinian Talmud tractate Sanhedrin 19a (40)–19b (37). It is a rather small parchment fragment (ca. 8 x 7 cm) with another even smaller fragment merged onto it on the right-hand side. This biblical text is a welcome addition to the transmission of the Bible in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, of which only scanty text remnants have survived. The only other witness of the book of Joshua is found on parchment, but not as a palimpsest: it comes from the Kastellion at Khirbet Mird (ca. 8th/9th century CE), a site nine kilometres northeast of Jerusalem, and is housed today in the Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem.

[...]

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MacGrath's books on the Baptist

JAMES MCGRATH is publishing two new books on John the Baptist with Eerdmans.

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

The Dead Sea Scrolls in Ancient Media Culture (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Dead Sea Scrolls in Ancient Media Culture

Series: Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 144

Volume Editors: Travis B. Williams , Chris Keith , and Loren Stuckenbruck

Media studies is an emerging discipline that is quickly making an impact within the wider field of biblical scholarship. This volume is designed to evaluate the status quaestionis of the Dead Sea Scrolls as products of an ancient media culture, with leading scholars in the Dead Sea Scrolls and related disciplines reviewing how scholarship has addressed issues of ancient media in the past, assessing the use of media criticism in current research, and outlining potential directions for future discussions.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €160.00

Copyright Year: 2023
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-53780-4
Publication date: 13 Feb 2023

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52972-4
Publication date: 09 Feb 2023

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Smith, Religion and Apuleius' Golden Ass (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Religion and Apuleius' Golden Ass
The Sacred Ass

By Warren S. Smith

Copyright Year 2023

Hardback
£120.00

eBook
£33.29

ISBN 9781032192802
Published December 30, 2022 by Routledge
208 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations

Book Description

This volume examines Apuleius’ comic donkey novel, The Golden Ass, within the context of the popular beliefs and Jewish and Christian writings that were part of the intellectual culture of his own day in 2nd century C.E. North Africa, a culture which can also be glimpsed in some early Arabic writings.

The novel was written against a cultural and religious background in which the donkey had various connotations, both positive and negative, but tended to be admired in Jewish, Christian, and later, in Muslim writings. Smith explores the influence of such popular opinions on The Golden Ass and how Apuleius presented Isis and Osiris as desirable alternatives to the claims of both Christianity and magic, offering hope of spiritual renewal partly modelled on contemporary religious apocalyptic literature. Complemented by images of contemporary art, including amulets and terra cotta figures, this volume gives readers a better understanding of how Apuleius, ostensibly a Platonist and member of the Roman establishment, could maintain an intellectual independence in a North African milieu while still drawing on hope in the salvation of the gods.

Religion and Apuleius’ Golden Ass provides a fascinating new approach to this much disputed novel, of interest not only to students and scholars of Apuleius and Roman literature, but also scholars interested in Christian and Jewish literature and beliefs of the early centuries of the first millennium C.E.

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Review of Brand, Religion and the everyday life of Manichaeans in Kellis

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Religion and the everyday life of Manichaeans in Kellis: beyond light and darkness.

Mattias Brand, Religion and the everyday life of Manichaeans in Kellis: beyond light and darkness. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies, 102. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2022. Pp. 383. ISBN 9789004508224

Review by
Joseph E. Sanzo, Ca' Foscari University of Venice. joseph.sanzo@unive.it

... Brand has produced a well-informed and highly nuanced analysis of late antique Manichean life in Kellis. The image of Manichaeism in late-antique Kellis that emerges from this book is one of a complex and ever-shifting relationship between Manichean religious identity or “groupness,” on the one hand, and the exigencies of quotidian existence across a range of social contexts (e.g., family, economy, and scribal culture), on the other hand. ...

I noted the publication of the book here. For more on the important site of Kellis, Egypt, and its Manichean texts, see there and links, plus here.

Cross-file under Manichean (Manichaean) Watch, Coptic Watch, and Syriac Watch.

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Ilan, Tracates Pe'ah, Demai and Kil'ayim (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: tTal Ilan. Tracates Pe'ah, Demai and Kil'ayim. Volume I/2. Text, Translation, and Commentary. 2022. XI, 239 pages. 79,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-161533-7.

Published in English.
In this volume, Tal Ilan presents a feminist commentary on the first three mishnaic tractates of Seder Zera'im (Seeds) that have no Babylonian commentary. The first one, Pe'ah, is about charity. The commentary shows that, even though women in antiquity were poorer than men, and the Bible was aware of this, this tractate actually ignores them completely. Demai, the second tractate, is about doubtful tithing. Because it devotes much space to a sectarian organization known as the havurah , it is interesting to discover that this sect included women among its members. The third tractate, kil'ayim, is about forbidden mixtures – mixed breeding among animals, mixed weaving of two sorts of thread; the sowing of mixed crops in a field, or working the land with two different animals hitched together. The tractate is full of gendered metaphors that are discussed in detail.

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Twenty years of PaleoJudaica

HAPPY TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY TO PALEOJUDAICA!

PaleoJudaica's first post was twenty years ago today.

I don't have time to make as big a deal of this as I might, but it's been a fun twenty years. As of 21,669 posts, I'm still at it.

I hope that you enjoy PaleoJudaica and find it useful, and that your keep coming back.

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

Spirit phenomena in the Hebrew Bible?

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Are Possession and Other Spirit Phenomena Depicted in the Hebrew Bible? (Reed Carlson).

In short, possession and other spirit experiences are common phenomena in human religious practice, and we should not be surprised to see evidence of their cultivation in antiquity. The inability of interpreters to recognize such phenomena in the Hebrew Bible says more about the expectations of modern biblical scholars than it does about the literature itself.

Lots to think about in this essay. And it doesn't even touch on angels or ritual divination, both of which are important in some Second Temple Jewish works, notably the Books of Daniel and 4 Ezra. See, for example, here, here, and here.

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

The rise of the Sasanian Empire

THE WORLD IS FULL OF HISTORY: Rise of the Sasanian Empire: The Persians (205-310 CE). The accounts of the fall of the Parthians and the rise of the Sasanians are shrouded by time. Yet the Sasanians rose from obscurity to establish one of the most powerful empires of the Ancient Near East (Robert C. L. Holmes, The Collector).

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 for lots of posts on the Parthian Empire, which preceded the Sassanians, see here and links.

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

Archeochemistry

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: By studying ancient residues, scholar finds clues of humanity’s past. Archaeochemist Andrew Koh, the new museum scientist at the Peabody Museum, analyzes carbon residues on artifacts to learn how ancient peoples lived and died (Mike Cummings, Yale News).

Koh recently spoke to Yale News about his new role, his discoveries — including the remnants of an opiate concoction found in the Yale Babylonian Collection — and what makes Yale the perfect setting for interdisciplinary scholarship. The interview has been edited and condensed.

For more on Dr. Koh's work on the Bronze-Age wine cellar at Tel Kabri, Israel, see here.

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Review of Waters, ... the life of Cyrus the Great

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: King of the world: the life of Cyrus the Great.

Matt Waters, King of the world: the life of Cyrus the Great. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xvi, 255. ISBN 9780190927172

Review by
Paul Brazinski, Tidewater Bible College. paulbrazinski4@gmail.com

... Overall, Waters accomplishes what he sets out to do in this book. He provides a welcome new general book on Cyrus. He also attests to the importance of Cyrus as an influential figure in his age as well as today. The book is a quick read and is a page turner. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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The siege of Yodfat

HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY: Yodfat, the Jewish Town Attacked by 60,000 Roman Soldiers. Commanded by Josephus, the rebellious Jews of Yodfat withstood the Roman siege for 47 days. And when they knew it was hopeless, they chose how to die. Two millennia later they were finally brought to rest (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

One town there was Yodfat. A hallmark of Judaism is that some homes had their own mikvehs, or ritual baths, says Prof. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret Academic College, who has been involved in the study at the site for decades. Last week he brought a group of graduate students to Yodfat, which probably is named after a Seleucid princess, he explained. I was invited to join the tour.

This a fascinating and nearly comprehensive account of what we know from Josephus and archaeology about the fall of Yodfat (Jotapata) during the Great Revolt.

It does gloss over Josephus' self-described creative handling of the suicide pact he had as part of a group of forty defenders of the city. He managed to be one of the two who didn't carry out the pact. For more on that, see my posts on the Josephus Problem (the algorithm he supposedly used to come out among the last in the suicide rota).

For PaleoJudaica posts on the siege of Yodfat, see here and links.

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

The million-dollar Vesuvius Challenge

CONTEST: Vesuvius Challenge – Decipher These 2,000-Year-Old Scrolls And Win $1 Million. Can you help identify and read the texts on these ancient scrolls from Herculaneum? (DR. RUSSELL MOUL, IFLScience).

Fancy yourself a code breaker or a technological wiz? If so, you could win $700,000 if you can solve a 2,000-year-old mystery. The former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and a group of scientists are giving away prizes worth a total of $1,000,000, at the time of writing, to anyone who can successfully decipher scrolls recovered from a library in Herculaneum, which was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

[...]

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and its destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and on the efforts to reconstruct and decipher the carbonized library at Herculaneum, start here and just follow those links.

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

Roman-era mosaic (re-)uncovered in Shoham

DECORATIVE ART: Archaeologists uncover Roman-era church mosaic along Israel Nat'l Trail. The mosaic was first discovered in the 80s but has been uncovered over the last month by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Shoham residents (Jerusalem Post).

The mosaic, which had been part of a church floor, was part of a church that most likely dated back to the Roman era. The design shows colorful sections with flower designs in them that are likely inspired by anemones that flower in the area.

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

Lessons from the fake Darius ostracon

ANALYSIS: Too-good-to-be-true Darius ostracon mix-up teaches a public lesson etched in pottery. While archaeologists worry about forgeries, the IAA vows to implement more rigorous testing after a highly touted potsherd thought to be from 498 BCE was found to be inauthentic (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

The IAA quickly identified that the potsherd itself was an authentic potsherd, which led to the assumption that the inscription on it was also authentic. However, there are thousands of potsherds similar to the unauthenticated ostracon lying around Lachish.

Avni said the experts fell into a mistake common not just in archaeology, but in all types of science: they already believed the item was real, and they performed tests that confirmed that bias.

For more on confirmation bias, see here.

Background on the story, with my commentary, is here and links.

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

VanderKam, R.H. Charles: A Biography (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

R. H. Charles

A Biography

James C. VanderKam

The Bible and the Humanities

• Provides the first book-length biography of R.H. Charles, a pioneer in the study of Jewish apocalyptic literature
• Exploits fully the archival evidence for Charles's career
• Establishes the first comprehensive analysis of Charles's publications and their reception in his time and today

£120.00
Hardback
Published: 02 February 2023
608 Pages
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780192869289
Also Available As: Ebook

R.H. Charles: A Biography first situates Charles's work in the history of biblical scholarship. The remainder of the book is divided into three parts that draw on material stored in several archives and other sources. The first provides an account of his early life and education in Ireland. Part two is devoted to his Oxford years (1890-1913). Within a chronological framework, the chapters regarding the Oxford period focus on his pioneering work with Jewish apocalypses as evident in his many textual editions, translations, and commentaries. For all of his major publications an attempt is made to assess how his work was received at the time and how it continues to affect the field of early Judaism. The third part furnishes a biographical overview of his work as a canon of Westminster (1913-31). At the Abbey, he carried out pastoral duties but also published books that made contributions to publicly debated issues such as divorce, while at the same time continuing his scholarly endeavours. The volume includes bibliographies of Charles's many publications and of works cited.

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Bakker, The Secret of Time (Brill, Open Access)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Secret of Time: Reconfiguring Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Series: Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 143

Open Access

Author: Arjen F. Bakker

Copyright Year: 2023
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-53779-8
Publication date: 13 Feb 2023

Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52974-8
Publication date: 22 Mar 2023

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Review of Rogers, For the Freedom of Zion

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews Against Romans, 66–74 CE.

By Guy MacLean Rogers (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2021), xxii + 721 pp., 23 b/w photos and drawings, 5 maps; $37.50 (hardcover), $28.49 (eBook)
Reviewed by Dennis Mizzi

... In his approach to Josephus, Rogers departs from previous scholarship in a fundamental way. Instead of limiting his focus to the causes of the revolt—a major scholarly preoccupation—he takes a deep dive into every aspect of Josephus’s narrative. Although Rogers reads Josephus critically, he is more receptive to his viewpoint than most scholars today. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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

Frevel & Nihan, Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions ... (Brill, open-access)

THE AWOL BLOG: Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism.

I noted the publication of this Brill volume when it came out a decade ago. But now you can get the e-book version for free. For you, special deal!

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

Tov on the evolution of the biblical DSS

THE ETC BLOG: The Evolution of the Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls (Anthony Ferguson).

Emanuel Tov is the most well-known textual critic of the Hebrew Bible and for good reason. Under his leadership, thirty-three volumes of the authoritative series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD) were published in less than twenty years. Before his tenure, only seven volumes were published in nearly forty years. Despite this impressive feat, Tov is probably most well-known for his work Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible.

The book is now in its fourth edition, and it is the go-to work for those interested in textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. One aspect of the fourth edition, among many, worth discussing is his categorization of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls. A comparison of these categories across his four editions shows a certain evolution in how he views the text of the Hebrew Bible in the Second Temple period.

[...]

A detailed breakdown for all you textual criticism nerds.

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The "Tomb of Absalom"

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: The “Tomb of Absalom”: The Earliest Judeo-Christian Place of Pilgrimage in Jerusalem (Joe Zias).

Jews and Christians alike would have been aware of the fact that the monument, apparently lacking inscriptions, was known by the local population as the Tomb of Absalom, as suggested by Josephus and the Copper Scroll. By converting it into a Christian martyrium and a dwelling, monks would simply have to rename it the Tomb of Zacharias, add three inscriptions, holy water and baptismal fonts, modify its architecture, and break down parts of the northern, western, eastern and southern walls for light and air.

I still would like to know what the structure was originally for. I see that it has been proposed that it is the tomb of the Herodian ruler Agrippa I.

I followed the discovery of the inscriptions in 2003. Most of the links have rotted, but some substantive posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The structure was damaged by fire in 2016.

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Ezekiel's Babylonian-inspired temple?

DR. TOVA GANZEL: Ezekiel’s Temple Plan Draws on Babylonian Temples (TheTorah.com).

During the Babylonian exile (6th c. B.C.E.), Ezekiel prophesies the building of a future temple in Israel that is unlike the Tabernacle or First Temple, but that incorporates elements familiar from Babylonian temples, including the Ezida temple of Borsippa.

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Antiquities-smuggling arrests in West Bank

APPREHENDED: Security forces thwart illegal antiquity trade in West Bank. "The suspect knew the provisions of the law but chose to ignore them and act against the law in order to make money," said Amir Ganor (Jerusalem Post).

Military officials intercepted an antiquities-smuggling ring in the West Bank, IDF officials said in a statement released early Wednesday.

Following a large-scale investigation conducted in secrecy, the Israeli Civil Administration arrested three antiquities smugglers who had hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of rare archaeological finds in their possession.

[...]

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More on those Turkish Esther scrolls

ANALYSIS: How the removal of Jewish scripture from Turkey marred Israel’s rescue operation. ZAKA volunteers brought back and showcased 2 Scrolls of Esther said to be decades old, sparking frenzied allegations of ‘archaeological theft’ in the Turkish media (CANAAN LIDOR, Times of Israel).

The scrolls are now "decades old" instead of centuries.

Background here and here.

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Temple menorah coin on display in Jerusalem

NUMISMATICS: Coin with oldest depiction of Temple menorah displayed for first time. New renovation of the Davidson Center in Jerusalem utilizes interactive tech and augmented reality to highlight history and archaeology of Temple-era Jerusalem (Melanie Lidman, Times of Israel).

The coin dates to around 40 BCE, during the Roman times and the reign of the last Hasmonean king. “This is the oldest known artistic depiction of the menorah, created 107 years before the destruction of the Second Temple,” says Dr. Yuval Baruch, head of archaeology and administration at the Israel Antiquities Authority, who was one of the excavators of the site and led the archaeological curation of the Davidson Center. The coin was donated to Israel sometime during the 1940s, during the British Mandate period, and it’s unclear where or when it was found.

That is, it's unprovenanced. Just saying.

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Codex Sassoon going on display in Tel Aviv

FOR SALE: Oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible to be displayed at Tel Aviv museum. Thousand-year-old Codex Sassoon manuscript is expected to fetch up to $50 million at Sotheby’s (ETGAR LEFKOVITS).

(March 12, 2023 / JNS) The oldest near-complete edition of the Hebrew Bible, a manuscript from a millennium ago, will be on display on March 23-29 at the ANU—Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, the museum announced on Sunday.

The Codex Sassoon—which was shown to the public only once before, four decades ago—will then be displayed in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York before being auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on May 16. It is expected to fetch an estimated $30 million-$50 million, making it potentially the most expensive book or historical document ever to be sold at auction.

[...]

Background here and here.

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Halivni, Zevahim, Menahot, Hullin (Magnes)

NEW BOOK FROM MAGNES PRESS (IN HEBREW):

Sources and Traditions
A Source Critical Commentary on the Talmud Tractates Zevahim, Menahot, Hullin

By: David Weiss Halivni

Synopsis
This volume - Zevahim, Menahot, Hullin - is the ninth in the series Sources and Traditions: Commentaries on the Talmud. Like its predecessors, it distinguishes between sources (the original sayings in the Talmud) and traditions (sayings that have been changed in the course of transmission).

More details

Publisher: Magnes Press
Year: 2023
Catalog number : 45-131161
ISBN: 978-965-7790-52-6
Pages: 316
Language: Hebrew
Weight: 750 gr.
Cover: Hardcover

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TC 27 (2022)

THE ETC BLOG: TC Journal vol. 27 (2022) Is Out (Tommy Wasserman). With articles on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Old Latin and Septuagint.

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The Coins of Carthage from the Second Punic War

NUMISMATICS: The Coins of Carthage During Hannibal’s War With Rome (Mike Markowitz, CoinWeek). With rampaging elephants! And maybe with Hannibal's portrait, sort of.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Hannibal Barca and the Second Punic War, see here and links.

Cross-file under Punic Watch.

This seems like a good time to link to this post, which explains why PaleoJudaica pays attention to the Phoenicians, the Phoenician language, the Carthaginians, and Punic and Neo-Punic

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Review of The Routledge handbook of the senses in the ancient Near East

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Routledge handbook of the senses in the ancient Near East.

Kiersten Neumann, Allison Thomason, The Routledge handbook of the senses in the ancient Near East. Routledge handbooks. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2022. Pp. xxix, 739. ISBN 9780367235284

Review by
Nassos Papalexandrou, University of Texas. papalex@austin.utexas.edu (with Amir Abou-Jaoude and Marina Schneider)

The volume gives some attention to the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism.

I noted its publication here.

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Does Hebrew have a "reduced alphabet?"

COMPARATIVE SEMITICS: Hebrew Has a ‘Reduced Alphabet’ (Mitchell First, Jewish Link).

It's true! This is a good, accessible (if you know some Hebrew) account of comparative Semitic phonology in relation to biblical Hebrew. It solves a good many mysteries.

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A Persian-era city in Nahariya?

ARCHAEOLOGY: Israel unveils 2,500-year-old Mediterranean Persian city.

JERUSALEM, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Israeli archaeologists uncovered an ancient Persian city from 2,500 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said Thursday.

The ruins, situated in today's Mediterranean city of Nahariya in northern Israel, include residential areas with buildings and streets, a commercial and industrial area, worship buildings, and a large storage area, said the IAA.

[...]

I can't find the IAA announcement anywhere, but Xinhua sometimes does come up with the first English annoucement about archaeology stories in Israel.

For another ancient city recently unveiled by archaeologists (this one in Egypt), see here.

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Career retrospective: Sidnie White Crawford

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Retrospective | My Journey with the Dead Sea Scrolls (Sidnie White Crawford).

I have always acknowledged that the Dead Sea Scrolls have been very good to me. I was very fortunate, as a young graduate student, to have the opportunity to work on the Scrolls at the moment when scrolls scholarship was breaking open. I was also fortunate to work with a close circle of fine colleagues, who freely shared ideas and supported each other’s work.[14] The Dead Sea Scrolls captured my intellectual interest very early in my development as a scholar, and they have held it ever since.

Professor Crawford and I were PhD students of Frank Moore Cross at the same time in the 1980s.

I noted a review of her 2019 book, Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran, here. Last year she published another book, The Text of the Pentateuch, with De Gruyter, noted here.

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Milan Fashion Week meets 3 Enoch

INSTALLATION ART: Tod's sensual elegance on show amidst The Seven Heavenly Palaces (Elena Passeri, translated by Nicola Mira, Fashion Network). The location:

Pirelli HangarBicocca is a not-for-profit foundation set up in Milan in 2004, when a disused industrial plant was converted into the home of an organisation that produces and promotes contemporary art. Kiefer’s ‘The Seven Heavenly Palaces’ installation was conceived and presented for the opening of the Pirelli Hangar. It owes its name to the palaces described in the ancient Hebrew treatise ‘Sefer Hekhalot’ (the book of palaces), dating back to the 4th-5th century AD. The installation’s seven towers are made of reinforced concrete. Each weighs 90 tons, and they vary in height from 14 to 18 metres.

I have noted Kiefer's hekhalot installation previously here and his earlier, apparently related, painting here. See those posts for commentary on Sefer Hekhalot (3 Enoch).

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Lioness carving found in the Golan

LAPIDARY ART: College Students Find Ancient Stone Lioness During Field Trip in Northern Israel. Israel is littered with archaeological finds and antiquities, but finding not one but two lioness statues by accident is quite the achievement (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Such is Israel. Take a walk, find a lioness, or at least an ancient statue of one. Discovered by chance at Ein Nashut in the Golan Heights, the lady lion was depicted nursing cubs. The artifact is quite weathered after almost 2,000 years of exposure to the elements and much is missing but the identification is unmistakable, says Prof. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee.

[...]

Does this object count as a provenanced or unprovenanced artifact? Interesting question. It was not scientifically excavated. It was found by a group of archaeology students on the surface. It may already have been moved before they found it.

It would be nice to hear more about the object's relationship to the synagogue. Evidently both were made of the same material. Are there other artistic representations in the ruins of the synagogue? Can we tell if the object was made with the same workmanship?

No one seems to doubt that it is an ancient artifact originating from the site. I am not suggesting otherwise. But surface surveys raise their own questions and we should still be asking them.

I noted the discovery of the other lioness statue at el-Araj in 2017 here.

Cross-file under Numismatics, with reference to the coin of the Roman Emperor Gallienus found by the same student group at Khirbet Majdukiya.

This seems to be lion statue week. Archaeologists have also excavated a Sphinx-like statue, perhaps representing the Emperor Claudius, in southern Egypt.

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Purim 2023

HAPPY PURIM to all those celebrating! The festival begins tonight night at sundown.

Last year's Purim post is here, with links. Another recent (indirectly) Purim-related post is here. The latter is now debunked.

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More on the fake Darius inscription

THE DARIUS OSTRACON INSCRIPTION, which reportedly turned out to be a modern pedagogical exercise that went awry, is receiving a good bit of media attention. I have followed the story with my own comments here and here.

Here are some follow-up articles:

Analysis | The Darius Artifact: How Did We Get From Discovery of the Decade to Disgrace? An inscription mentioning the Persian invader found in the city of Lachish, which had a strong Persian presence, correctly written in the language of the time. What could go wrong? (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz)

Israel Antiquities Authority must rein in enthusiasm before its next find - editorial The Israel Antiquities Authority must curb its enthusiasm and double and triple check its archaeological findings before publication (Jerusalem Post)

The Darius Ostracon: From Real to Fake. How experts authenticated a modern forgery (Nathan Steinmeyer, Bible History Daily)

[Christopher Rollston] added that this lack of scrutiny could have had real implications for our understanding of the ancient past. “What if the archaeologist who made this piece had not come forward?” asked Rollston. “We could end up writing histories and citing inscriptions in those histories, and in part basing some of what we say on something that is a modern forgery.”

It is possible that we already are. I flagged concerns about this almost twenty years ago .

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Review of Greek and Egyptian magical formularies, vol. I

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Greek and Egyptian magical formularies, vol. I: text and translation.

Christopher A. Faraone, Sofia Torallas Tovar, Greek and Egyptian magical formularies, vol. I: text and translation. California classical studies, 9. Berkeley: California Classical Studies, 2022. Pp. xxviii, 531. ISBN 9781939926166

Review by
Sofia Bianchi Mancini, Max-Weber-Kolleg (Universität Erfurt). sofia.bianchi_mancini@uni-erfurt.de

... After Karl Preisendanz’s influential first edition of the magical papyri––Papyri Graecae Magicae (PGM), completed between 1928 and 1931, and revised in 1974 by Albert Henrichs––and Hans Dieter Betz’s 1986 English translation of the Greek and Demotic magical papyri, Faraone and Torallas Tovar have created in Greek and Egyptian magical formularies (GEMF) an invaluable and much needed corpus. ...

The book is open access.

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Photos of the Book of the Dead scroll from Saqqara

PHOTO ESSAY: See photos of stunningly preserved 52-foot-long Book of the Dead papyrus from ancient Egypt. Egypt has released photos of a newly discovered Book of the Dead from more than 2,000 years ago (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

Egyptian officials have released photos of an ancient scroll, the 52-foot-long (16 meters) Book of the Dead papyrus recently discovered in Saqqara. The 10 images show ancient illustrations of gods and scenes from the afterlife, as well as text on the document, which is more than 2,000 years old.

[...]

I made a big deal of the discovery of this scroll and its implications here. Now you can see more of it.

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Review of The Lexham Old Testament Apocrypha

READING ACTS: The Lexham Old Testament Apocrypha: A New Translation (Phil Long).

Conclusion: The subtitle “A New Translation” is misleading since the majority of this new edition of the Apocrypha is extracted from the Lexham English Septuagint. If you already own the Lexham English Septuagint, then there is little need to add the Lexham Old Testament Apocrypha to your Logos library since they are identical, except for 2 Esdras and deSilva’s introductions. However, the printed book is an inexpensive translation of the Apocrypha (plus) which will serve students of the Second Temple period.

For more on the Lexham English Septuagint, see here and here.

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List of C-14 dated manuscripts

VARIANT READINGS: Radiocarbon Analysis of Papyrus and Parchment Manuscripts: A List (Brent Nongbri).

It occurs to me that it would be useful to have (as complete as possible) a list of papyrus and parchment manuscripts that have been subjected to radiocarbon analysis. I have tried to arrange this list chronologically by the date when the analysis was carried out (which sometimes differs substantially from the date of publication). I would be grateful to be informed of omissions (especially Pharaonic-era papyri and medieval parchment manuscripts; I know that many have been analyzed, but I am not aware of the publication details). Thanks in advance. Links are provided for open access materials.

Looks very useful. Thanks Brent.

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The Darius ostracon was a modern showpiece?

OOPS: Unfounded: Ancient Darius inscription shard isn’t authentic – Antiquities Authority. Officials backtrack on claim of find linked to Purim king’s father, say fragment was created by an expert showing inscription techniques to students, accidentally left at dig site (Times of Israel).

However, on Friday, the IAA said that following the publication of the find they were approached by an expert who participated in an excavation expedition last August, who informed the authority that she had created the inscription “while demonstrating to a group of students the manner in which sherds were inscribed in ancient times.”

“She then left the sherd on the site, which led to the erroneous identification. She was questioned and said this was done unintentionally and without malice,” the statement said.

If we assume this update is correct – and I don't know what's real anymore – the key takeaway is this. When the original story broke, we were assured of the following:

But a few weeks later, after the IAA had put the potsherd through multiple scans and laboratory tests, including at the Dead Sea Scrolls Lab, Ganor called Levy and told him the potsherd was believed to be authentic.

What are all those scans and laboratory tests worth if they can't even identify a modern pedagogical showpiece that wasn't intended to fool anyone? This is a major hit to their credibility.

I said that this find seemed awfully lucky and that my instinct was that the object was a modern plant. Well, it wasn't planted deliberately. Otherwise my instinct was right.

But I trusted the authentication. Again, assuming this revised story bears up, from now on I am trusting my instincts.

Have a nice weekend.

UPDATE (4 March): Ruth Schuster provides additional details in an Haaretz article: Israel Antiquities Authority: ‘Ancient’ Darius Inscription Deemed Inauthentic in Mix-up. A world expert on Aramaic scripts on a foreign expedition in Tel Lachish had written on the shard of pottery as a demonstration to students illustrating how pottery was inscribed in ancient times.

Following the announcement, a world expert on Aramaic scripts who was participating in a foreign expedition to Lachish last August contacted the IAA and explained that she had demonstrated how sherds were inscribed in ancient times to students by scratching on an existing sherd at the site. She then left the ancient sherd with the modern addition on the site, the IAA stated.

That is proper practice in the sense that removing any artifact from an archaeological site in Israel is prohibited, but in this case its subsequent discovery four months later led to confusion. “She was questioned and said this was done unintentionally and without malice,” the IAA said.

The potsherd itself was ancient, but the inscription was scratched onto it last year. I guess that is why it passed all the scans and tests as authentic.

In this case the object was made with no intent to deceive. But it raises the question, how many other unprovenanced, but supposedly-genuine, inscribed (incised) ostraca are modern forgeries made in exactly the same way?

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The Bar'am Synagogue

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Exploring Israel: A Visit to a 1,600–year–old Synagogue. The ancient synagogue at the Bar'am National Park, near the Lebanese border, makes it easy to imagine the ancient Galilean worshipers congregating there (Moshe Gilad, Haaretz).

Even in a country replete with antiquities, it’s rare to find such a magnificent, well-preserved edifice. The 1,600-year-old synagogue in the Bar'am National Park, near Israel's border with Lebanon, is one of the oldest, best-preserved ancient buildings in the country. The lintel stones are decorated with branches, vines and inscriptions in Aramaic, the language spoken by Galilean Jews during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods.

[...]

Previous posts on the Bar'am (Baram) Synagogue are here and links.

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When did copying a Torah scroll became a sacred process?

PROF. EMANUEL TOV: The Torah Scroll: How the Copying Process Became Sacred (TheTorah.com).

For most Second Temple scribes, the Torah’s sanctity did not translate into a requirement to avoid the imprecisions common in all books. The Paleo-Hebrew and Proto-MT scribes were an exception, although the latter were committed to precise copying of all biblical scrolls. Only with the emergence of scrolls containing all five books (2nd cent. C.E.) did Torah scrolls take on their special level of sanctification.

Drew Longacre has comments at the OTTC Blog.

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The Sassoon family and their collections

ANTIQUARIANS: The sensational collections of the Sassoon family (Tom Stammers, Apollo Magazine).

In recent years, the story of David Sassoon and his remarkable descendants has been a subject of interest to scholars, collectors and curators. Having succeeded in cracking the Baghdadi-Jewish dialect the family used in the correspondence preserved in the Jerusalem archives, business historian Joseph Sassoon has chronicled their success as global merchants. In December 2020 Sotheby’s New York presented ‘Sassoon: A Golden Legacy’, which fetched $5 million, far outstripping estimates and attracting bidders from all over the world. Sharon Mintz, Sotheby’s senior consultant for Judaica, attributed the result to the ‘dazzling quality of the objects together with the storied legacy of the family’. Now a major exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York, curated by Claudia Nahson and Esther da Costa Meyer and opening this month (3 March–13 August), digs into the stories and the objects that have made the family name into both a brand and a myth.

The Codex Sassoon, reportedly the oldest complete copy of the Hebrew Bible, is going up for auction in May. It was part of the collection of of bibliophile and manuscript collector David Solomon Sassoon, although it now has another owner.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 204

THE AMATEUR EXEGETE: Biblical Studies Carnival #204 (February 2023) (Ben). There are a lot of YouTube entries in this one. A sign of changing times?

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Today is Mani's death day, maybe.

MANICHEISM (MANICHAEISM) WATCH: The Prophet Mani and Christianity’s Problem with Dualism (James Ishmael Ford, Monkey Mind Blog).

This is a good, brief summary of the life of Mani and his influence. It concludes with some theological reflections. I leave you to evaluate those yourself.

If you would like a much deeper dive into Mani's life, including the question of the date of his death, see Werner Sundermann's article MANI in the online Encyclopaedia Iranica

One thing Revd. Ford's essay does not mention is that one of Mani's scriptures was a version of the Book of Giants. It was perhaps written in Syriac and seems to be based on the Jewish Aramaic Book of Giants, fragments of which survive in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Our surviving fragments of Mani's Book of Giants are written in Middle Persian (various languages) and Old Turkic translations.

For some PaleoJudaica posts on the Book of Giants, see here and here and links.

The second volume of the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project will include translations of all surviving fragments of the book.

For many posts on the prophet Mani, see here, here, here, and links.

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Ostracon mentioning Darius I found at Lachish

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Hiker discovers 2,500-year-old ancient receipt from reign of Purim king’s father. Eylon Levy, international media adviser to President Isaac Herzog, finds ostracon at Tel Lachish with the first-ever reference in Israel to the name of Persian king Darius I (MELANIE LIDMAN, Times of Israel).

A hiker in Israel’s Judean lowlands region recently discovered a 2,500-year-old pottery shard inscribed with the name of the Persian king Darius the Great, the father of king Ahasuerus. It is the first discovery of an inscription bearing the name of Darius I anywhere in Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday.

[...]

It seems awfully lucky to find an inscribed ostracon bearing a date and the name of a king mentioned in the Bible (e.g. Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1; Ezra 6:1; Nehemeiah 12:22) just lying around. Like the finder, my first instinct was to think it might be a modern plant. But the IAA says they have run multiple tests on it and they think it is authentic. Sometimes you're just lucky.

For the Canaanite sentence on a lice comb from Lachish, see here. For two early inscribed ostraca found at Lachish in recent years, see here and links. For the "Lachish letters" — inscribed ostraca excavated at Lachish about a century ago, see here and links. For more on the archaeology of Lachish in general, see here and here and links.

UPDATE (3 March): If it seems awfully lucky, that's almost certainly because it's not real.

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Saranda synagogue signage restored

MAINTENANCE: Dignity restored to ancient Jewish site in Albania, thanks to concerned visitor (World Israel News).

“This is a beautiful thing for tourists and locals alike, and finally gives the dignity due to this important Jewish site,” says Dave Gordon, who advocated for repairs to signage at the ruins of the 1,700-year-old synagogue.

Well good.

I noted the discovery in 2003 of the late-antique synagogue ruins in Saranda, Albania. See here and here.

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Tombs excavated at Oxyrhynchus

OXYRHYNCHUS WATCH: Group Of Persian, Roman and Coptic Tombs Discovered In Egypt (Paula Tsoni, Greek Reporter).

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Friday the discovery of a group of tombs from the Persian, Roman and Coptic eras in the Al-Bhansa region, Minya governorate.

[...]

Most of the media coverage does not realize that Al-Bhansa is also Oxyrhychus, the place where a gigantic trove of inscribe papyri was recovered in trash dumps over a century ago. The papyri are still being deciphered and edited.

There is no indication that the current excavation found any papyri. But there is a report of murals inscribed in Greek and Coptic at the site.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Oxyrhynchus and its papyri, start here and follow the links.

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

Robots RePAIR Pompeii's frescoes

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Solving Pompeii’s Shattered Puzzles With a Robot. Artificial intelligence will aid the robot in its attempts to put together frescoes that were shattered when Mount Vesuvius erupted (Ofer Aderet, Haaretz).

Many vestiges of Pompeii such as mosaics and frescoes have been preserved in their entirety because they were buried under the volcanic ash. In the 18th century, the first archaeologists to excavate the city discovered these works.

The 15,000 stones apparently were parts of frescoes that the eruption scattered in all directions. After painstaking work, archaeologists and other researchers concluded that the challenge was beyond human capabilities.

Prof. Ohad Ben-Shahar of Ben-Gurion University’s Department of Computer Science agrees, so the Sisyphean task will be done by a robot fueled by artificial intelligence.

Cross-file under Algorithm Watch and Decorative Art.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the eruption of Vesuvius and its destruction of Pompeii and Heculaneum, start here and follow the links

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

Hallmark meets the Golem

GOLEM WATCH: From dust to human: A new Hallmark rom-com puts a twist on the Jewish golem legend. ‘Made for Each Other,’ written by Israeli-American screenwriter Adi Blotman, centers around a mystical 16th-century folktale, with a 21st-century twist (Amy Spiro, Times of Israel).

In the film, Rachel Becker, a sculptor and art teacher played by Alexandra Turshan, feels unlucky in love. She sculpts her ideal man out of clay and, egged on by her neighbor Doris (Illeana Douglas), places an old pendant with Hebrew letters around his neck. The next day, her perfect man has come to life, named, of course, Clay.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the golem tradition, start here and follow the links. Despite the relatively recent origin of the Golem of Prague, the concept of the golem developed out of ideas in the Talmud.

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Meccariello & Singletary (eds.) Uses and Misuses of Ancient Mediterranean Sources (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Uses and Misuses of Ancient Mediterranean Sources. Erudition, Authority, Manipulation. Edited by Chiara Meccariello and Jennifer Singletary. Studies in Education and Religion in Ancient and Pre-Modern History in the Mediterranean and Its Environs 12. 69,00 € including VAT. hardcover ISBN 978-3-16-159943-9.

Published in English.
This interdisciplinary collection of essays explores the use and manipulation of ancient textual sources from different settings across the ancient Mediterranean as a key to understanding the dissemination of religious and mythological knowledge in different historical contexts. In a series of case studies focusing on texts and artifacts from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Greece, and Rome, and their ancient as well as modern reuse, this volume displays multiple approaches to and perspectives on strategies of incorporation of derivative materials in antiquity and beyond.

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Eshel & Langlois (eds.), The Scribe in the Biblical World (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

The Scribe in the Biblical World

A Bridge Between Scripts, Languages and Cultures

Edited by: Esther Eshel and Michael Langlois

Volume 547 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110984293

PDF & EPUB £87.00
Hardcover £87.00

eBook
Published: December 5, 2022
ISBN: 9783110984293

Hardcover
Published: December 5, 2022
ISBN: 9783110996685

About this book

This book offers a fresh look at the status of the scribe in society, his training, practices, and work in the biblical world.

What was the scribe’s role in these societies? Were there rival scribal schools? What was their role in daily life? How many scripts and languages did they grasp? Did they master political and religious rhetoric? Did they travel or share foreign traditions, cultures, and beliefs? Were scribes redactors, or simply copyists? What was their influence on the redaction of the Bible? How did they relate to the political and religious powers of their day? Did they possess any authority themselves?

These are the questions that were tackled during an international conference held at the University of Strasbourg on June 17–19, 2019. The conference served as the basis for this publication, which includes fifteen articles covering a wide geographical and chronological range, from Late Bronze Age royal scribes to refugees in Masada at the end of the Second Temple period.

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Review of Minets, The slow fall of Babel

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The slow fall of Babel: languages and identities in Late Antique Christianity.

Yuliya Minets, The slow fall of Babel: languages and identities in Late Antique Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. 400. ISBN 9781108980821

Review by
Philip Forness, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. philip.forness@kuleuven.be

... With this broader background, Yulia Minets’s timely monograph The Slow Fall of Babel investigates the ways in which Late Antique Christian sources reflect on and conceptualize language. The book takes as its source material Christian texts written roughly between 200 and 600 ce in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and occasionally Coptic, focusing on Christian interpretations of “language-related phenomena described in the biblical narrative” (p. 7) as well as “metalinguistic comments in early Christian narratives” (p. 8). ...

The book also gives considerable attention to Jewish sources and Jewish scriptural exegesis.

I noted an essay by the author on the then-forthcoming book here.

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Materiality and Liminality in Aramaic incantation bowls

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Materiality and Liminality in Incantation Bowls. A guest post by Anne Sieberichs.

In this post, I will illustrate the entanglements of the use of the incantation bowls and their text through the concept of liminality that is present in both the text and its use. More specifically, I will look at the placement of the bowls within thresholds, and how they served as a second wall providing protection inside against the non-protected outside, using bowl CAMIB 49A as an example.

The Aramaic incantation bowl CAMIB 49A (BM 135563) is housed in the British Museum, acquired in 1971. It appears not to have been scientifically excavated: the provenance is "said to be from." Caveat lector accordingly.

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More on "Rediscovering Enoch"

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Rediscovering Enoch from the Fifteenth to Nineteenth Century (Annette Yoshiko Reed).

If there is an origin myth for modern scholarship on Second Temple Judaism, one of its protagonists is no doubt the Scottish adventurer James Bruce (1730–1794), widely celebrated as the man who “rediscovered” 1 Enoch. The manuscripts that he brought from Ethiopia to Europe were key catalysts for academic interest in the Judaism of this so-called “intertestamental” period ...

I noted the publication of Rediscovering Enoch here, with comment.

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The Ptolemaic Kingdom

THE WORLD IS FULL OF HISTORY: The Ptolemaic Kingdom (World Atlas).

The Ptolemaic Kingdom was an ancient Greek state based in Egypt. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BC, liberating the people from Persian rule. After his death, his companion and general, Ptolemy I Soter, founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 305 BC and ruled over Egypt. He took advantage of Egypt's geographical position and expanded Egypt's role in trade networks, which led to the domination of the Ptolemaic Kingdom over the Mediterranean. The Ptolemaic rulers reigned for nearly three centuries before the end of the empire marked by the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, and the beginning of Roman rule in Egypt.

[...]

A nice overview of the Ptolemaic dynasty and its history.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Ptolemaic empire, including its coins and its importance for biblical and ancient Jewish studies, start here (cf. here and here) and follow the links.

For Ptolemaic coins and mention of the rulers in the Bible, see the posts collected here.

For Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra), who reportedly spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, see here and links.

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More on Antakya (Antioch)

HISTORY: Ruins of Turkish city of Antakya tell story of a rich past. Jewish community’s leaders died in 7.8-quake this month; city ‘can be rebuilt, but it will not be like the old one,’ resident says (SARAH EL DEEB, Times of Israel).

Antakya, known as Antioch in ancient times, has been repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt over history. But residents fear it will be a long time before it recovers from this one, and that its unique historical identity may never be fully restored. The destruction is so great, and they say the government cares little for this area.

Antioch, built in 300 B.C. by a general of Alexander the Great in the Orontes River valley, was one of the biggest cities of the Greco-Roman world, rivaling Alexandria and Constantinople. Saints Peter and Paul are said to have founded one of the oldest Christian communities here, and it’s here that the word “Christian” first came into use. It later drew Muslim and Christian Crusader invaders.

Antaka has tragically been in the news due to that dreadful earthquake. I followed a story pertaining to the city here and here.

The Book of Acts reports that ancient Antioch had a Jewish community signficant enough to make it attractive as a missions ground for first-generation Jesus followers. But some of them also began preaching to gentiles, evidently with some success. Acts says that Jesus followers were first called Christians at Antioch (11:19-30).

Incidentally, this city was Antioch on the Orontes. There were other ancient cities with the same name. Acts mentions one of them, Antioch of Pisidia (or Phrygia) (Acts 13:13-52), near Yalvaç in Isparta Province in present-day Turkey.

I wish the citizens of Aktakya all success in rebuilding their city.

UPDATE (24 February): This post by Carl Rasmussen at the Holy Land Photos' Blog is also relevant: Earthquakes in Turkey and the formation of the Jordan Valley.

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

Rediscovering Enoch? (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Rediscovering Enoch? The Antediluvian Past from the Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries

Series: Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha, Volume: 27

Volume Editors: Ariel Hessayon , Annette Yoshiko Reed , and Gabriele Boccaccini

The books of Enoch are famed for having been “lost” in the Middle Ages but “rediscovered” by modern scholars. But was this really the case? This volume is the first to explore the reception of Enochic texts and traditions between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bringing specialists in antiquity into conversation with specialists in early modernity, it reveals a much richer story with a more global scope. Contributors show how Enoch and the era before the Flood were newly reimagined, not just by scholars, but also by European artists and adventurers, Kabbalists, Sufis, Mormons, and Ethiopian and Slavonic Christians.

Prices from (excl. shipping): €147.00

Copyright Year: 2023
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-53751-4
Publication date: 13 Feb 2023

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52979-3
Publication date: 16 Feb 2023

Nothing on John Dee? I'm surprised. In the sixteenth century, Dee and his "scryer," Edward Kelley, showed some interest in the quotation of 1 Enoch in Jude 14-15. They also produced their own Enochian apocrypha.

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Candle handle found on an amble

ARTIFACT: Israeli family discovers ancient Byzantine relic on Shabbat walk. According to a release from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the family noticed a small clay face in the ground, which appeared to be looking up at them (Jerusalem Post).

Researchers at the IAA examined the item and determined that it is the decorative handle of a candle holder from the 6th or 7th century CE.

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

The Phoenix and ancient Judaism

MYTHOLOGY: The surprising Jewish origins of the phoenix. Israeli expert delves into the history of the mythical bird, from the Hebrew Bible to classical Jewish sages and even Harry Potter (Shmuel Munitz, YNet News).

The legend of the phoenix appears in different cultures - from Greek mythology and ancient Egypt to modern fantasy stories. The legendary bird is made of fire and lives for centuries before it bursts into flames and is reborn from the ashes.

However, the mythical winged creature also makes several appearances in Jewish scripture and subsequent commentaries on the Hebrew Bible.

“In all mythologies, there is a concept of hope after loss and death. The possibility for Tikkun (amendment/fixing) exists in the phoenix itself – and it is very strong,” says Ayala Dekel, an author and a spiritual expert who serves as the head of the secular yeshiva The Jewish Movement for Social Change.

[...]

Despite the headline, the article itself (correctly) does not assert that the phoenix originated in Judaism. But the creature does make appearances in rabbinic literature and subsequent Jewish traditions.

For more on the phoenix in the Talmud, see here — alas with bad link, but still with substantive comment.

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

Esther scrolls returned to Turkey

BACK HOME: Turkey earthquake: Israel returns antique Jewish scrolls taken from Antakya. Israeli rescue mission says it was given the texts for safekeeping, but the issue has angered many (Middle East Eye).

However, the reaction on Turkish social media quickly became hostile, with discontent rumbling over the weekend despite the scrolls being returned on Friday. The removal of the texts tap into longstanding fears that historical items have previously been looted from the country in times of crisis, for instance during the Ottoman period.

The Turkish Chief Rabbinate Foundation quickly attempted to quell fears by addressing the issue on Twitter and assuring that the scrolls are in its possession.

"The relevant Esther scroll was received from Israel and is kept in our Chief Rabbinate. [The scroll] will return to its home in Antakya after the renovation of our synagogue," it tweeted on Friday.

Background here.

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