Ancient Coptic biblical codex up for auction

FOR SALE: One of the oldest books in existence expected to fetch over $2.6 million at auction (Christine Kiernan, Reuters).

The Coptic Crosby-Schoyen Codex, dated to 300 CE ±50 years (and such dating may still be overly precise):

The 104 pages (52 leaves) were written by one scribe over a period of 40 years at a monastery in upper Egypt and are preserved behind plexiglass. The codex contains the first epistle of Peter and the Book of Jonah.

This may be the earliest copy of Jonah in Coptic translation, but there are substantial earlier fragments of the Hebrew original among the Dead Sea Scrolls. See the three Minor Prophets scrolls 4QXII^a, 4QXII^f, and 4QXII^g, published by Russell Fuller in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XV.

The earliest surviving codex (book with bound-together pages) may be the El-Hiba papyrus (Graz, UBG Ms 1946), perhaps dating as early as the mid-third century BCE. See here, here, and here, but with some cautionary comments by Brent Nongbri here.

These details aside, the Crosby-Schoyen Codex is quite important. If it must be put up for sale, I very much encourage the buyer to donate it to a museum, preferably one in Egypt. For precedent, see here.

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Herodium region declared "State Land"

POLITICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY: Israel appropriates 42 acres in West Bank’s Etzion Bloc, declaring it state land. Gush Etzion mayor hails move that will allow tourism development at Herodium site; Smotrich orders demolition of three illegal Palestinian buildings over terror shooting (JEREMY SHARONand SAM SOKOL, Times of Israel).

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced Monday that the Civil Administration, an agency in the Defense Ministry, has declared 170 dunams (42 acres) of land surrounding the Herodium archaeological site in the West Bank region of the Etzion Bloc as “state land,” meaning land that is not privately owned and can be used for various purposes, including settlement development.

[...]

As you might imagine, reaction to this development is mixed.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Herod the Great's palace-fortress, Herodium, and its excavation, start here and follow the links. For the archaeology of the Gush Etzion region more generally, see here and links, plus here and links, here, and here.

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Cordoni, Reconfiguring the Land of Israel (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Reconfiguring the Land of Israel

A Rabbinic Project

Series:
The Brill Reference Library of Judaism, Volume: 76

Author: Constanza Cordoni

This book is about ways in which the land of Israel, the homeland of the most paradigmatic of all diasporas, was envisioned in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the literature of the sages. It is about the Land according to the redefined Judaism that emerged in the centuries following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. This Judaism replaced the temple cult with Torah study - a study that pertained in part to that very temple cult, that became a portable homeland, and that reconfigured the Land.

Copyright Year: 2024

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69676-1
Publication: 01 Mar 2024

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69675-4
Publication: 01 Mar 2024
EUR €145.00

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Isaac Luria, businessman

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (MARCH 2024): Lionising Luria: Mosseri III.232 (Ben Outhwaite).

In fact, it is only the professional, commercial activities with which Luria supported himself and his family that leave a few traces in the Genizah, wholly from the period of his life spent in Egypt. For now I’m focusing on the autograph letter by Luria preserved in the Mosseri Genizah Collection, which is the sole document written by Isaac Luria himself that we have identified among the Cambridge collections ...

For PaleoJudaica posts on the sixteenth-century mystic Isaac Luria (Ha'ARI) and on Lurianic Kabbalah, start here and follow the links.

Past posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit are here and links, plus here, here, here, here, and here.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 215

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: The March Carnival Featuring The ‘Jewish Scriptures in Earliest Christianity’ Conference (Jim West).

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Scratched Tsade for April 1st?

New Hebrew letter from Dead Sea Scrolls announced in Language Academy April Fool's joke. While assumed to be a light-hearted joke, the post provides a practical solution to a sound that the current Aleph Bet doesn't cover (Jerusalem Post).

The new letter, titled a "scratched tsade," appears as a mirror image of the Hebrew letter tsade (which makes the "ts" sound) and supposedly represents the "ch" sound, which, until now, was represented by a tsade followed by an apostrophe.

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More on that Coptic Psalter

VARIANT READINGS: The Mudil Psalter. Brent Nongbri provides some background, including why the manuscript is nicknamed the Pillow Psalter.

My first post on the psalter is here.

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Sara Japhet (1934-2024)

SAD NEWS: Passing of Prof. Sara Japhet (Shalom Berger, H-Judaic).

H-Judaic mourns the passing of Sara Japhet (1934-2024) , the Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Bible, emerita at the Hebrew University, an Israel Prize winner, former director of the National Library of Israel, head of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University and of the World Union of Jewish Studies -- one of Israel's leading Bible and Judaic Studies scholars, and one of the first women ever to hold many of the positions she attained.

[...]

May her memory be for a blessing.

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Did Nadav and Avihu die of an incense overdose?

DR. SHEILA TULLER KEITER: The Cause of Nadav and Avihu’s Death: Incense Smoke? (TheTorah.com).

Immediately after the death of two of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, YHWH warns Moses that priests are prohibited from consuming wine before serving in the Tabernacle. Is their mysterious death the result of some form of intoxication?

I would file the story of Nadav and Avihu (Nadab and Abihu) in Leviticus 10 as fiction. But it's fair to ask how the author intended the readers to think that they died. An overdose? Maybe.

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Who was Saint Salome?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Saint Salome’s Resting Place? A Converted Cave Chapel in the Judean Foothills.

At the site of Horvat Qasra in the Judean foothills, between the fifth and the eighth centuries, Byzantine Christians frequented a small tomb chapel cut into the limestone hillside. Repurposing what was originally a multi-chambered Judean burial complex, these visitors converted the space into a memorial shrine dedicated to Saint Salome, a figure mentioned in the Gospels as one of Jesus’ disciples. On the interior walls, they carved prayers to “Holy” or “Lady” Salome, titles that implied her saintly status. But who was Saint Salome, and how did this site come to be associated with her?

[...]

This is a rare case where the full Biblical Archaeology Review article (Spring 2024 issue) is also available for free online:

Joan E. Taylor and Boaz Zissu, The Cave of Salome—Tomb of Jesus’s Disciple?.

Unfortunately, we likely will never know the true identity of the first-century Jewish woman whose name and remains were commemorated at Horvat Qasra. She could possibly have been Salome, the disciple of Jesus, but it’s also possible she was another Salome who, like many wealthy Jewish women of her day, was buried in a monumental cave tomb on the grounds of her family estate. But whoever this Salome was, archaeology shows she certainly had a remarkable afterlife.

The article fully surveys who the candidates are for the cave-tomb's occupant.

I noted the excavation of the cave last year.

Cross-file unde Speluncic Archaeology.

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The mocking Of Carabas revisited

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: The Mocking Of Carabas, And Of Christ (Philip Jenkins). The story of the mocking of Carabas, from Philo of Alexandria, is strikingly parallel to the account of the mocking of Jesus by the Roman soldiers. I noted the post some years ago, but Professor Jenkins has expanded and reposted it this week.

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High School student finds oil lamp at Late Roman fort

CERAMICS: Student discovers a unique 1,600-year-old oil lamp used by Roman soldiers. The lamp Yonatan found is identical to one discovered in the same place 90 years ago by the late Reform rabbi and archaeologist Dr. Nelson Gluec (Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Jerusalem Post).

“We know that between the Nabataean-Roman town of Mamshit and the copper mines of Feinan (biblical Punon) in the Central Arava – not far from present-day Moshav ‘En Yahav, a trade route was in use in the 4th-6th centuries CE. In order to secure the shipments of copper and possibly even gold from the mines, a series of forts were built between the head of the Scorpions Ascent and Mezad Hazeva, and Mezad Tsafir [where the lamp was found] was one of these. Mounted patrols guarded the important road. It is easy to imagine the lamp lighting up the darkness in the lonely, isolated fort manned by Roman soldiers, said Erickson-Gini.

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The Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

DATABASE: OCIANA: ancient North Arabian inscriptions gathered in online corpus (Saeb Rawashdeh, Jordan Times).

The vast majority of the inscriptions in OCIANA are, and will continue to be, in the Ancient North Arabian [ANA] scripts, it will also contain the texts in Akkadian, Old Aramaic, Imperial Aramaic, local forms of the Aramaic script, Nabataean, Palmyrene, Greek and Latin that have been found in Arabia, north of Yemen, noted [Michael] Macdonald, adding that the ANA scripts are varieties of the “South Semitic script-family”, which is separated from the North-West Semitic (Phoenico-Aramaic) branch shortly after the invention of the alphabet, and developed in parallel to it.

I noted the database with reference to the Old North Arabian dialect called Safaitic. The link there is now dead, but you can find OCIANA here.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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Another $7M ruling for Hobby Lobby against Obbink

THE ETC BLOG: Court Rules that Obbink Owes Hobby Lobby $7m (Peter Gurry).

The news is out that the civil case between Hobby Lobby and Dirk Obbink has been decided. The ruling is a “default judgment” in favor of Hobby Lobby for an incredible $7,085,100 plus interest. (A default judgment means that the defendant never showed up to court.) Keep in mind, this is a civil case not a criminal case. ...

There was already a default judgment for $7 million against Obbink from a New York federal court back in 2021. I noted a Christianity Today article giving details here. This post also has links to earlier posts on the Oxford missing-papyri scandal.

For some reason I don't understand, the case was moved to an Oklahoma court. It just issued this ruling. Peter Gurry links to a post at the Art Crime Blog by Lynda Albertson which gives details on it, but does not refer, as far as I can tell, to the 2021 ruling.

I am not a lawyer and, as I said, I don't understand what is happening. But now you know as much as I do.

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Review of MacDonald, The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony

THE BIBLE REVIEW BLOG: Review: “The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony” by Nathan MacDonald (William Brown).

Nathan MacDonald. The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.

In The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony, Nathan MacDonald examines how the Pentateuch, especially the Priestly material, evinces a social hierarchy. In particular, he shows how different textual layers and connections evince that scribes carefully negotiated priestly power and authority through key Pentateuchal portions. ...

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Jester Bes vessel recycled for Purim

YET ANOTHER PURIM-RELATED STORY: In honor of Purim, Israel Antiquities Authority unveils Persian-era find. The fragment bears a human face and was discovered in 2019 (Israel HaYom).

The artifact was unearthed during archaeological excavations carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in collaboration with Tel-Aviv University at the Givaty Parking Lot site, located in the historic City of David, Jerusalem. The jar, embellished with exaggerated facial features including two large, wide-open eyes, a nose, one ear, and a fragment of the mouth, presents a unique find from this era.

The discovery of the fragment, which bears the face of the Egyptian god Bes, was reported in 2019. I noted it here.

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West Bank Second Temple Jewish site made into a parking lot

APPREHENDED: Palestinians demolish Jewish archaeological site in West Bank. Aerial footage shows how Palestinians turn remains of Second Temple Jewish settlement into a parking lot; Israeli authorities arrest perpetrators (Elisha Ben Kimon, Ynet News).

Dozens of Palestinians vandalized the archaeological site of Umm ar-Rihan, a historic site from the Second Temple period, located on state land in Area C of the West Bank. The Palestinians completely flattened the archaeological site and built a parking lot on top of it.

[...]

HT the Bible Places Blog.

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New books on the Achaemenid Empire

INDIRECTLY PURIM-RELATED FROM BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA:

The Old Persian Inscriptions. Notice of a New Book: Schmitt, Rüdiger. 2023. Die altpersischen Inschriften der Achaimeniden: Editio minor mit deutscher Übersetzung. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.

Architecture and Archaeology of the Achaemenid Empire. Notice of a New Book: Dan, Roberto. 2024. Studies on the Architecture and Archaeology of the Achaemenid Empire. Dynamics of Interaction and Transmission Between Center and Periphery. Roma: ISMEO – The International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies.

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

How many Achaemenid Persian kings according to the Bible?

BELATEDLY FOR PURIM: Persia’s Achaemenid Dynasty—If You Read the Bible Without History (Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber, TheTorah.com).

Ezra-Nehemiah mentions only four of the twelve kings who ruled the Persian empire: Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. The book of Daniel also speaks of four Persian kings, and adds a fictional Darius the Mede as their precursor. Historically, the Achaemenid period lasted 220 years, but using only the kings mentioned in the Bible, rabbinic texts reconstruct a 52-year Persian period.

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Purim-related

BELATEDLY FOR PURIM:

How the Bible – and the Purim story – helped form a nation from an exiled people. In his bestseller ‘Why the Bible Began,’ theology Prof. Jacob L. Wright challenges conventional thought on the holy book’s history, positing that it was not all about religion (RICH TENORIO, Times of Israel).

This article is mostly a review of Prof. Wright's book (on which see further here and here). But it also does touch on the Esther story.

Israel or Iran? The quest after Esther and Mordechai's final resting place. The Bible doesn't specify the final resting places of the Purim Megillah's protagonists, but conflicting Jewish traditions emerge: one asserts that their tombs are located in Iran, while another steadfastly maintains they are in Israel (Yogev Israely, Ynet News). Perhaps the key point in the article:

"Since no documentation of the Purim story exists in other sources and the story resembles other regional myths, Mordecai and Esther aren’t considered historical figures, so this debate is entirely theoretical," she notes. "But assuming the event did take place, it’s more logical they died in the summer and were buried near Ecbatana."

For lots more on the traditional Tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan, Iran, start here and follow the links. The site has been subjected to vandalism and various kinds of protests. This year is no exception.

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Harris, Holy War Discourses in 1QM and John's Apocalypse (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: David Chapman Harris. Holy War Discourses in 1QM and John's Apocalypse. A Comparative Study. 2024. XI, 248 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 604 94,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-162428-5.

Published in English.
In this study, David Chapman Harris compares the Qumran War Scroll with John's Apocalypse through the lens of the literary and ideological theme of Holy War. Using sound literary analysis, close exegetical readings and comparison, historical analysis, and hypothetical reconstruction, the author justifies reading Revelation as a War Scroll, providing grounding to an ongoing debate. He argues that Revelation's Christological dimension has a distinctive impact on Holy War discourse, inflicting the martyr theology of Revelation.

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Purim 2024

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

Last year's Purim post is here, with links.

UPDATE: Additional Purim-related posts this year are here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE: Sadly, also here.

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Review of Levine, Ancient Synagogues Revealed 1981–2022

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Review: Ancient Synagogues Revealed 1981–2022 (Reviewed by James Riley Strange).

It turns out that more than archaeologists and scholars of early Judaism and Christianity care about these things. For this reason, in 1981 the Israel Exploration Society published Ancient Synagogues Revealed, edited by Lee I. Levine, a luminary in the field of synagogue origins. It has taken 42 years for the companion volume to arrive: Ancient Synagogues Revealed 1981–2022, edited by Levine and two other noted archaeologists, Zeev Weiss and Uzi Leibner.

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Shorthand Aramaic?

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (JANUARY 2024): More about less: A New Shorthand Targum Manuscript: Oxford MS Heb. f.56/1-12 (Dr Kim Phillips).

Several years ago I stumbled across yet another ‘shorthand’ Targum fragment, raising the total number of currently known such manuscripts to five.5 This fragment is described and transcribed below, and its surprising relationship to one of the Taylor-Schechter shorthand Targum fragments is discussed.

The shorthand system is the "first-letter-Serugin method," in which only the first letter of each word is written.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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AJR (SBL) on E. P. Sanders

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has published the papers from a 2023 SBL session in memory of E. P. Sanders.

E.P. Sanders In Memoriam (Adele Reinhartz)

Through his studies, he became convinced of four main points: (1) New Testament scholarship then (as now) paid too much attention to theology and not enough attention to religion. (2) To know one religion is to know none. The human brain comprehends by comparing and contrasting, and consequently comparison in the study of religion is essential, not optional. (3) New Testament scholars ought to study Judaism. (4) Scholarship on the New Testament, second temple, and rabbinic Judaism must be conducted on the first-hand study of the primary sources in their original languages.

E. P. Sanders and His Impact on the Study of Second Temple Judaism (Annette Yoshiko Reed)

Sanders did much to update the scholarly discourse to fit these shifts, recognizing that mere revision would not suffice. On the one hand, he criticized many of the common habits and assumptions in the practice of studying Judaism within the ostensibly academic but fundamentally Christian frame of New Testament Studies as embodied by Schürer. On the other hand, Sanders worked to construct an alternative, writing synthetically in a manner that was equally comprehensive but framed around a different set of questions.

Paul the Apostle and Sanders the Critic (Matthew V. Novenson)

For the purposes of this short essay, I would like to reflect on two words that sound like they should be synonyms, but are not, both of which figure prominently in Sanders’s argument in Paul and Palestinian Judaism, namely: legalism and nomism. ...

E. P. Sanders and the Historical Jesus (Helen Bond)

In contrast, Sanders shifted the focus from what Jesus said to what he did. He started with a list of eight “almost indisputable facts” about Jesus, and then - with impeccable and unrelenting logic – worked outwards from what was most secure in the tradition to what was more debateable. Sanders realised that where the investigation starts has a profound effect on where it ends up, and he chose to begin his analysis with one of the most secure of his “almost indisputable” facts, the Temple controversy. ...

E.P. Sanders: My Guide in the Field of Rabbinics (Yair Furstenberg)

Ultimately, I was captivated by Sanders’ original vision for advancing the study of early Jewish law, which challenged my own scholarly traditions. This included a novel approach to rabbinic source criticism; social contextualization of current legal discourse, and the consideration of the actual real-life experience of Jewish law. In what follows I will briefly relate to these three aspects, which amount to a new image of Jewish Law in practice, resonating with his concept of “common Judaism.”

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Yadin's birthday

WELL, YESTERDAY'S: Today’s Jewish Birthday: Yigael Yadin (San Diego Jewish World).

Thereafter, Yadin devoted himself to archaeology, winning the 1956 Israel Prize for his doctoral thesis on seven Dead Sea Scrolls, three of which his father had purchased in 1947 from a Bedouin goatherd and four that Yadin purchased in 1954 in New York. He excavated such sites as the Qumram Caves, Masada, Hazor, Tel Megiddo, and the Judean Desert caves where artifacts from the Bar Kokhba revolt were found.

For more on Yadin, and his father Eliezer Sukenik, see the links collected here, plus here.

(And, no, the Hazor archives have not yet been found. Amnon Ben-Tor, who took over the Hazor excavation after Yadin's passing, is also no longer with us.)

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Christians, Jews, and Biblical Archaeology

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Biblical Archaeology—Between Christians and Jews

There is a built-in tension between religious studies and academic ones in the humanities, including archaeology. The students in the yeshivas see themselves as protected within “the tent of the Torah” and any egress to the academic world opens one up to the dangers involved in exposure to opinions and worldviews that are contrary to the religious world.

See also, The Changing Landscape of Israeli Archaeology (Routledge, 2023).

By Hayah Katz
Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee
March 2024

Cross-file under New Book.

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Review of Allen, Coptic: A Grammar of Its Six Major Dialects

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Coptic: A Grammar of Its Six Major Dialects (David Mihalyfy).

James P. Allen. Coptic: A Grammar of Its Six Major Dialects. Eisenbrauns imprint of The Pennsylvania State University Press: University Park, 2020.

... Egyptologist James P. Allen’s new Coptic dialect grammar is therefore useful for anyone beginning to grapple with language variation, with the proviso that the study of Coptic dialects is a relatively underdeveloped discipline whose present state and shape do not yet allow for the creation of the more effective tools that should one day become possible. There does remain a justifiable frustration to studying Coptic dialects, but this is often attributable to the nature of the texts and the underlying disciplinary research. ...

It is fascinating that, even in a relatively small geographic area like Egypt, isolating six dialects is not fine-grained enough to capture the linguistic diversity of an ancient language. "Dialects" are, of course, artificial slices of a continuous linguistic field that varied from village to village, from neighborhood to neighborhood, and ultimately from person to person.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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Male hair from ancient Jerusalem

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Only Ancient Jewish Male Hair Ever Found Biblical scholar James Tabor examines a rare ancient Jewish male hair specimen from the "Tomb of the Shroud."

The poor guy was a leper too! For more on the Tomb of the Shroud at Akeldama near Jerusalem, see here.

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Review of La Babylonie hellénistique

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: La Babylonie hellénistique.

Laetitia Graslin-Thomé, Philippe Clancier, Julien Monerie, La Babylonie hellénistique. La roue à livres, 98. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2023. Pp. 336. ISBN 9782251454139. Review by
Gregory Crane, Tufts University. gregory.crane@tufts.edu

... Summing up, this is a wonderful collection that begins to make more accessible an extraordinarily rich and understudied world where Greek and Mesopotamian cultures interact.

For more on Babylonian scribes in the Second Temple era, see here.

This volume sounds like a treasure trove of information on Hellenistic-era Babylon, which is of no small interest for the study of Second Temple Judaism. See, e.g., here, here, and here.

And for more on Hellenistic-era Babylon, see here, here, here, here, and here.

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Ancient underground complex in the Galilee

SUBTERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY: Bar Kochba Revolt era hiding complex revealed near Sea of Galilee. The area is mentioned in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 19:34) and has been settled since ancient times (Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Jerusalem Post).

The excavation also revealed that, as part of the preparations for the First Revolt in 66 CE and the Bar Kochba Revolt in 132 CE, the residents of Huqoq converted the water cistern that had been dug during the Second Temple period into a hiding complex. In addition, at the time of danger, they broke one of the walls of the mikveh and dug a tunnel into other cavities.

Several tunnels allowed maneuvering in narrow, low spaces underneath the houses. In this underground system, which was the largest and most impressive discovered at the Galilee, there are about eight hiding cavities. The connecting tunnels are dug at 90 degrees make is difficult for the heavily armed Roman soldiers to chase the rebels. The excavation also yielded hundreds of broken clay and glass dishes, an impressive ring for a precious stone (the stone itself was not found), and other fascinating finds.

Huqoq, the archaeological site that keeps on giving. Background on the ancient synagogue and mosaic is here and many links.

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The Mount Ebal curse tablet/fishing weight as "The First Ancient Postmodern Inscription?"

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION: The Mt. Ebal Tablet: The First Ancient Postmodern Inscription?

This is not the decipherment of an ancient text written by a scribe, but the creation of a new, artificial text by Galil. It is a purely academic (though very imaginative) exercise. Galil and his coauthors believe in this experiment: they spent much time and resources, and the results confirm their underlying ideological convictions. But this does not change the conclusion that this experiment has no historical value for the ancient world.

By Raz Kletter
University of Helsinki
Faculty of Theology
Docent for Near Eastern Archaeology
February 2024

An interesting assessment of the supposed inscription, its announced discovery, and the response to it. Read it and see what you think. I too am not persuaded that there is any writing on this object.

For background, start here and follow the many links.

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Heal on Genesis 37 and 39 in the Early Syriac Tradition

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Pursuing Joseph in Early Syriac Literature (Kristian S. Heal).

Kristian S. Heal. Genesis 37 and 39 in the Early Syriac Tradition. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2023.

... The Syriac Joseph texts include some of the finest works in the early Syriac tradition, but also produced some of the most derivative. I would suggest that only when we recognize both ends of the spectrum do we start to see the full scope and range of a literary culture. This is perhaps my way of confessing that the book presents as a contribution to the history of exegesis, and it certainly is that, but my highest hope is that I contributed to better understanding the Syriac literary tradition, especially the tradition’s creative, dynamic, and prolonged imaginative engagement with biblical stories.

This is the first of two volumes.

Dr. Heal contributed a translation of a Syriac Joseph text to MOTP volume one. See n. 7 of the current essay.

Cross-file under New Book.

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Levy, The Dawn of Agriculture and the Earliest States in Genesis 1-11 (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

The Dawn of Agriculture and the Earliest States in Genesis 1-11

By Natan Levy
Copyright 2024

Hardback £104.00
eBook £31.19

ISBN 9781032446882
218 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
Published November 29, 2023 by Routledge

Description

This book invites a close textual encounter with the first 11 chapters of Genesis as an intimate drama of marginalised peoples wrestling with the rise of the world’s first grain states in the Mesopotamian alluvium.

The initial 11 chapters of Genesis are often considered discordant and fragmentary, despite being a story of beginnings within the context of the Bible. Readers discover how these formative chapters cohere as a cross-generational account of peoples grappling with the hegemonic spread of domesticated grain production and the concomitant rise of the pristine states of Mesopotamia. The book reveals how key episodes from the Genesis narrative reflect major societal revolutions of the Neolithic period in Mesopotamia through a three-fold hermeneutical method: literary analysis of the Bible and contemporary cuneiform texts; modern scholarship from archaeological, anthropological, ecological, and historical sources; and relevant exegesis from the Second Temple and rabbinical era. These three strands entwine to recount a generally sequential story of the earliest archaic states as narrated by non-elites at the margins of these emerging state spaces.

The Dawn of Agriculture and the Earliest States in Genesis 1–11 provides a fascinating reading of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, appealing to students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and the Near East, as well as those working on ecological injustice from a religious vantage point.

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Dead Sea Scrolls horoscopy

ANCIENT ASTROLOGY: Ancient 'horoscope' scroll unveiled: A glimpse into the mysterious sect of the Judean Desert. This ancient text unveils a worldview where an individual's birth date doesn't just hint at their zodiac but dictates their physical traits and the balance of light and darkness within their soul (Jerusalem Post).

The "Horoscope" scroll, distinguished by its reverse Hebrew writing and incorporation of Greek, Aramaic, ancient Hebrew, and cipher symbols, is believed to have been accessible only to those initiated into its mysteries. Dr. Oren Ableman, a researcher at the Israel Antiquities Authority's Dead Sea Scrolls Unit, emphasized the exclusivity of its content. "The writing style suggests the text was intended solely for those in the know," he stated. "It appears the writings were secret, understood only by the sect's leadership."

I'm not sure why this scroll is suddenly getting so much attention in the media and on Facebook (IAA page). It is 4Q186, a long-known Dead Sea Scroll, published by Allegro in the 1960s.

It does have astrological connections, but it is more of a physiognomic tractate, a work that claims to deduce what a person is like on the basis of their physical characteristics (length of fingers and toes, eye color, height, voice, etc.). 4Q561 and 4Q534 have related traditions in Aramaic. Such tractates also circulated in Hebrew in the Middle Ages.

For whatever reason, it's nice to see some notice taken of this remarkable text.

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Roman roads in Israel

ANCIENT INFRASTRUCTURE: Roman Roads Connected Gaza, Hebron, Jerusalem and Tiberias. What Is Left of Them Today? Israel used to build its main arteries on top of or parallel to the great roads of antiquity. New technology has changed this, but the Roman routes remain an unexploited tourist opportunity (Moshe Gilad, Haaretz).

In the 1970s, Tel Aviv University professors Israel Roll (archaeology) and Benjamin Isaac (ancient history) surveyed the Roman roads here and produced a map of their finds. The map bears a striking resemblance to the layout of roads we use today, but now a great change is taking place: Israel's new roads don't follow the network that crisscrossed the country for two millennia.

The most obvious reason, as Hebrew University geography professor Rehav Rubin says, is that until 50 years ago, when road-construction technology allowed for leveling, tunneling and excavating, natural topography dictated the route. Now that routes can be shortened by blasting and tunneling through mountains and/or leveling steep grades, the topography issue is almost a thing of the past.

For more on Roman roads and milestones, see here and links, plus here, here, here, and here.

For the obligatory Life of Brian reference, see here.

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CFP: Worlds Above and Below Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Click on the image for a larger version. Note that the deadline for proposals is in a week.

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Coptic Museum exhibits restored oldest Coptic Psalter

COPTIC WATCH: Oldest complete Coptic Psalter re-exhibited at the Coptic Museum after restoration. After undergoing a meticulous five-year restoration, the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo has re-exhibited its most treasured artefact – the oldest complete Coptic Psalter ever discovered. (Nevine El-Aref, ahramonline).

“This is the first time we possess a complete book of Psalms dating to late fourth century AD, making it the oldest complete Psalms book unearthed to date. We've never encountered such an early book in Egypt, and I've found no evidence of an earlier genuine book anywhere else,” said the late director of the Coptic Museum and Coptic studies expert Gawdat Gabra when he first saw the book days after its discovery in 1984.

[...]

For more on the Mudil Coptic Psalter, see here.

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Review of Amsler, Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture.

Monika Amsler, The Babylonian Talmud and late antique book culture. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp. 243. ISBN 9781009297332.

Review by
Noah Benjamin Bickart, John Carroll University. nbickart@jcu.edu

Open access

It is a distinct pleasure to recommend Monika Amsler’s well written and carefully argued new monograph, “The Babylonian Talmud and Late Antique Book Culture,” not despite this reviewer’s strong disagreement with many of the claims made in the book, but because of them. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 215

BELATEDLY: Biblical Studies Carnival #215 – February 2024 (Ben - The Amateur Exegete).

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Were Torah rituals meant to be performed?

PROF. WILLIAM MORROW: Are Torah Rituals Just Literary Compositions? A Comparison with Namburbis (TheTorah.com).

Both namburbi anti-omen rituals (1st millennium B.C.E.) and priestly Torah rituals were preserved in collections in multiple versions that show evidence of intertextuality and innovation. Were these rituals meant to be performed?

Spoiler: arguably, yes.

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Michael Knibb obituary

THE GUARDIAN: Michael Knibb obituary (Paul Joyce).

My former colleague Michael Knibb, who has died aged 84, was a professor of theology at King’s College London. His research focused on ancient texts that tell of heavenly journeys and visions of the end times associated with the mysterious patriarch Enoch, known from the Book of Genesis in the Bible.

[...]

Background here.

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The Ironclad Legion vs. the highway of blood

DIFFICULT DECISIONS: Israeli Archaeologists Beg State: Don't Build Road Over Only Roman Legion Camp Ever Found. The extant highway is deadly but new finds at Legio, the Roman Legion base at Armageddon, spur archaeologists to urge government: Consider other ways to save drivers from themselves (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The Highway 66 expansion project is under the fief of Dima Pritsker, the manager of the northern district for Netivei Yisrael. "It's under execution by the Transport Ministry, for which Netivei Yisrael is the operational arm," he explains. "The project is in our 5-year plan." At this point they plan to begin the actual construction work in the third quarter of 2025, he adds.

The archaeologists, however, are horrified at the putative destruction of large swaths of the unmatched Roman camp, and the naturalists are no happier. The present road is no joy to behold, but in the parks authority's view, a four-lane, high-speed artery with drivers blaring their dissatisfaction at one another, right at the foot of the tell, would run counter to creating a park where nature, archaeology and religion meet, and where people could gather and experience the beauty of the landscape in quiet contemplation.

"But people keep getting killed there," sighs Dr. Kamil Sari, the archaeologist for the North (of Israel) with the IAA. Something had to be done.

The archaeologists hope the new finds will reopen the question of exactly what.

I have been following the excavation of the Legio VI Ferrata (6th Legion Ironclad) Roman camp near the site of Megiddo since it began in 2013. For the more recently discovered Megiddo Roman amphitheatre, see here and links. For more on the camp itself, start here and follow the links.

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Review of Smith & Landau, The Secret Gospel of Mark

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate Over Its Authenticity (Andrew S. Jacobs).

Geoffrey S. Smith and Brent C. Landau. The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate Over Its Authenticity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.

... This is an excellent book, written with verve and wit, technical without being arcane, and accessible without shortcuts or shoddiness. Readers will learn a great deal from G. Smith and Landau about paleography, apocrypha, monasticism, the history of sexuality, and the strange academic environments in which all of these are explored: filled with curiosity, envy, ambition, and flashes of brilliance. It will find a place on professors’ library shelves, graduate student reading lists, undergraduate syllabi, and bedside tables of readers far outside our arcane scholarly worlds. ...

This review also amounts to a useful summary of the history of scholarship on the so-called Secret Mark manuscript since its publication.

One unspoken takeaway is that everyone now seems to have abandoned the possibility that the Secret Mark quotations could come from an actual first-century version of the Gospel of Mark. But perhaps that is what the review's hypothetical "ingenuous undergraduate right now encountering Secret Mark for the first time" will be arguing in thirty year's time.

Be that as it may, after this much discussion I don't think we are ever going to settle the vexed question of whether that odd manuscript is an excerpt from a genuine work of Clement, a late antique forgery, or a modern forgery. Unless Oxyrhynchus or some other manuscript cache produces some portion of an ancient copy of it.

UPDATE (AND NUANCE) (24 June 2026): It seems that the genuiness of Secret Mark may still be live option.

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Review of Runia, Philo of Alexandria: collected studies 1997-2021

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Philo of Alexandria: collected studies 1997-2021.

Philo of Alexandria: collected studies 1997-2021 David T. Runia, Philo of Alexandria: collected studies 1997-2021. Texts and studies in ancient Judaism, 187. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023. Pp. xiii, 555. ISBN 9783161618765.

Review by
John Dillon, Trinity College Dublin. dillonj@tcd.ie This mighty volume, covering just about a quarter-century of David Runia’s work on Philo, is a joy to have in hand, and a great resource for Philonists, adding up, as it does, to a fairly comprehensive discussion of all aspects of Philo’s work. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

On a related note, the AWOL Blog notes that one of Runia's earlier bibliography volumes is available as an open access publication: Philo of Alexandria: An Annotated Bibliography 1987-1996, with Addenda for 1937-1986.

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A 10th-century-BCE electrum pendant from Jerusalem

PHOENICIAN WATCH (?): Tiny First Temple-era Phoenician pendant is ‘earliest gold artifact’ found in Jerusalem. Just 4 millimeters on a side, the item could provide evidence that Phoenicians were in Jerusalem 3,000 years ago, archaeologist says (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

The tiny pendant or earring was found a decade ago during excavations in the Ophel, a raised area south of Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But until last year, the item had been largely overlooked, according to archaeologist Brent Nagtegaal of the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology.

The finely crafted artifact is shaped like a basket with a solid base measuring just 4x4x2 millimeters. Two semicircular “handles” extend 6 millimeters above the base, overlapping each other to form a point where the pendant could be suspended, and narrow gold wire is wrapped around the top of the item.

[...]

The artifact is "'securely dated by archaeological context' to the 10th century BCE." If it is of Phoenician origin, it could be taken as indirect evidence for the claim of the Deuteronomistic History that Phoenicians were active in Jerusalem at that time building Solomon's Temple.

However, it seems that the case for its Phoenician origin has not yet been published. I would withhold judgment until we see how secure that case is.

Anyway, nice pendant. Someone was very upset when it was lost. Cross-file under Ancient Bling and Exhibition.

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Ancient multi-compartment stone box discovered in Jerusalem

ANICENT ARTIFACT: Rare Second Temple-era merchants box displayed at Israel Museum. 2,000-year old artifact likely used to display wares in ancient Jerusalem’s pilgrims’ market; burned sides might be from Jewish Revolt fires (xGavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

An unusual, multi-chambered limestone box from the Second Temple period, now on display in the Israel Museum, was likely used to present small items for sale in the pilgrims’ market alongside the main road in ancient Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday.

[...]

The object was found (excavated, apparently) a couple of years ago. It is on display in the Israel Museum.

For more on ancient Jewish stone vessels and their purity implications, see here and links.

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Evacuated boy finds Alexander Janneus coin near Dead Sea

NUMISMATICS: 2,000-year-old Hasmonean coin discovered by child evacuated on Oct.7. While exploring the area around the hotel that he had been evacuated to along the Dead Sea, Nati Toyikar came across an ancient coin dating back to the Hasmonean period (Jerusalem Post).

According to Dr. Robert Cole, Head of the Coins Branch at the Antiquities Authority, "the coin that Nati found is a well-known coin of the Hasmonean king and high priest Alexander Janai (104-76 BCE). On the face of the coin appears an anchor, and around it appears an inscription in Greek - "Alexander Basileus," which translates to "(of) Alexander the King." On the back of the coin appears a star with eight rays, surrounded by a crown of kings. Between the rays, you can see an inscription, which appears in small letters. Only a part of it can be deciphered here. It recalls the name and title of the king in ancient Hebrew: [Yohan]n/he/mel/[cha]/."

All Israel News also reports the story and says that this coin is a "widow's mite," on which more here and links.

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Otto, Die Mose-Exodus-Tradition in den Korintherbriefen (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Konrad Otto. Die Mose-Exodus-Tradition in den Korintherbriefen. Schriftrezeption und -verarbeitung 'zwischen den Welten'. [The Moses-Exodus Tradition in the Corinthian Correspondence. Scriptural Reception and Processing 'Between the Worlds'.] 2024. XV, 593 pages. Studies in Education and Religion in Ancient and Pre-Modern History in the Mediterranean and Its Environs 20. 94,00 € including VAT. hardcover ISBN 978-3-16-160065-4.

Published in German.
References to biblical traditions are an essential part of the Corinthian correspondence. By taking two extensive references to the Exodus tradition of Moses, Konrad Otto examines the extent to which scriptural references serve to mediate between Paul's intellectual world and that of his addressees.

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Hagler, Owning Disaster (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Owning Disaster
Coping with Catastrophe in Abrahamic Narrative Traditions

By Aaron M. Hagler
Copyright 2024

Hardback £104.00
eBook £31.19

ISBN 9781032454740
242 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
Published December 18, 2023 by Routledge

Description

Delving into the intertwined tapestry of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sacred texts, exegesis, philosophy, theology, and historiography, this book explores the similar coping mechanisms across Abrahamic communities in reconciling the implications of disasters without abandoning their faith.

Belief in a single, omnipotent God carries with it the challenge of explaining and contextualizing disasters that seem to contravene God’s supposed will. Through explorations of Jewish responses to the destruction of both the First and Second Temples, Christian responses to the Arab Muslim conquests, Muslim responses to the Crusades, and a variety of responses to the Mongol conquests, Aaron M. Hagler unveils the shared patterns and responses that emerge within these communities when confronted by calamity. Initial responses come in the forms of horrified lamentations, but as the initial shock dissipates, a complex dance of self-blame and collective introspection unfolds, as writers and theologians seek to contextualize the tragedy and guide their communities toward hope, resilience, and renewal.

Of interest to scholars, theologians, and individuals seeking to explore interconnected notions of resilience within Abrahamic communities, Owning Disaster will resonate with readers eager to contemplate the intricate relationship between religious dogma, human resilience, and the profound questions that emerge when confronted with calamity.

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Minets & Nowakowski (eds.), Shaping Letters, Shaping Communities (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Shaping Letters, Shaping Communities: Multilingualism and Linguistic Practice in the Late Antique Near East and Egypt

Series:
Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity, Volume: 33

Volume Editors: Yuliya Minets and Paweł Nowakowski

The volume explores linguistic practices and choices in the late antique Eastern Mediterranean. It investigates how linguistic diversity and change influenced the social dimension of human interaction, affected group dynamics, the expression and negotiation of various communal identities, such as professional groups of mosaic-makers, stonecutters, or their supervisors in North Syria, bilingual monastic communities in Palestine, elusive producers of Coptic ritual texts in Egypt, or Jewish communities in Dura Europos and Palmyra. The key question is: what do we learn about social groups and human individuals by studying their multilingualism and language practices reflected in epigraphic and other written sources?

Copyright Year: 2024

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-68233-7
Publication: 11 Dec 2023
EUR €149.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-68230-6
Publication: 20 Dec 2023
EUR €149.00

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Semi-hiatus

YES, I know I haven't been posting much. Bear with me. I will get back to regular posting as soon as I can. Soon, I hope.

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

Popa, The Making of Syriac Jerusalem (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

The Making of Syriac Jerusalem
Representations of the Holy City in Syriac Literature of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages

By Catalin-Stefan Popa
Copyright 2023

Hardback £96.00
eBook £31.19

ISBN 9781032470993
324 Pages
Published May 31, 2023 by Routledge

Description

This book discusses hagiographic, historiographical, hymnological, and theological sources that contributed to the formation of the sacred picture of the physical as well as metaphysical Jerusalem in the literature of two Eastern Christian denominations, East and West Syrians.

Popa analyses the question of Syrian beliefs about the Holy City, their interaction with holy places, and how they travelled in the Holy Land. He also explores how they imagined and reflected the theology of this itinerary through literature in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, set alongside a well-defined local tradition that was at times at odds with Jerusalem. Even though the image of Jerusalem as a land of sacred spaces is unanimously accepted in the history of Christianity, there were also various competing positions and attitudes. This often promoted the attempt at mitigating and replacing Jerusalem’s sacred centrality to the Christian experience with local sacred heritage, which is also explored in this study. Popa argues that despite this rhetoric of artificial boundaries, the general picture epitomises a fluid and animated intersection of Syriac Christians with the Holy City especially in the medieval era and the subsequent period, through a standardised process of pilgrimage, well-integrated in the custom of advanced Christian life and monastic canon.

The Making of Syriac Jerusalem is suitable for students and scholars working on the history, literature, and theology of Syriac Christianity in the late antique and medieval periods.

HT Bibliographia Iranica. Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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Bühner, Paulus im Kontext des Diasporajudentums (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Ruben A. Bühner. Paulus im Kontext des Diasporajudentums. Judenchristliche Lebensweise nach den paulinischen Briefen und die Debatten um »Paul within Judaism.« [Paul in the Context of Diaspora Judaism. Jewish-Christian Life after the Pauline Epistles and the Debates about »Paul within Judaism.«] 2023. XIV, 435 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 511. 159,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-162749-1.

Published in German.
Under the umbrella term »Paul within Judaism,« new interpretations of Paul's letters have recently emerged. In this context, Ruben A. Bühner examines the continuity of a Jewish way of life before and after Jews turned to Christ. By interpreting Paul in the context of a diverse Diaspora Judaism, he argues for a mediating position in an increasingly ideological debate. Thus Paul understands himself both as a Jew and as committed to a Jewish way of life, while at the same time seeing himself as »in Christ« also committed to community with non-Jews.

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Long, Dynamics of Charity and Reciprocity in the Book of Sirach (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Stephen Arden Long. Dynamics of Charity and Reciprocity in the Book of Sirach. 2024. XV, 339 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 147. 99,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-162384-4 available.

Published in English.
In this study, Stephen Long explores the role of reciprocity and gift exchange in the wisdom-instruction of Ben Sira, contextualizing the sage's prescriptions in relation to comparative data from Greco-Roman antiquity and his own teaching on »charity«. While tangible human returns are the normal expectation in response to acts of generosity, Ben Sira is seen to have inflected this cultural expectation in a uniquely Jewish and theological manner. First, sacrifice is understood as a »gift« for the deity, a gift which the God of Israel will »repay«; second, acts of both ordinary, »self-interested« generosity as well as more »altruistic« acts are brought within the ambit of »sacrifice«. Ben Sira appears to think that he thereby followed the lead of prior, pentateuchal tradition, and drew out implications of a theology of creation whereby the cosmos is so ordered that every »need« is – or should be – met »at the right time«. Thus, Long elucidates a second century BCE sage's theological construal of the relation between charity and reciprocity.

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Kim, Hebrew Forms of Address (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Hebrew Forms of Address: A Sociolinguistic Analysis
Young Bok Kim

ISBN 9781628373639
Volume ANEM 31
Status Available
Publication Date December 2023

Paperback
$40.00

Hardback
$60.00

Young Bok Kim investigates the patterns of nominal forms of address in Biblical and Epigraphic Hebrew, examining their role in expressing various social relationships between speakers and addressees. Drawing on modern sociolinguistic theories on address and politeness, as well as insights from Hebrew studies, Kim elucidates the underlying rules governing address usage. This essential resource, complete with data tables and illustrative figures, provides valuable insights into the social structure of ancient Israel and the exegetical significance of address variations, making it indispensable for scholars and students of Hebrew interested in its potential for biblical interpretation.

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A Grand Prize winner for the Vesuvius Challenge

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: An Ancient Roman Scroll on Pleasure Was Just Decoded Using AI (Will Henshall, Time Magazine).

Papyrologists working with the Vesuvius Challenge believe the scroll contains “never-before-seen text from antiquity,” and the text in question is a piece of Epicurean philosophy on the subject of pleasure. The winning submission shows ancient Greek letters on a large patch of scroll, and the author seems to be discussing the question: are things that are scarce more pleasurable as a result?

... In accordance with the criteria set in March 2023, the winning submission contains four passages of 140 characters each, with at least 85% of the characters in each of those passages recoverable by professional papyrologists. It also contains a further 11 columns of text.

This is an extraordinary achievement. All indications are that this new technology is opening the door to transcribing and deciphering the many hundreds of carbonized scrolls from Heculaneum. With the possibility of thousands more still unexcavated.

The contest was announced in March of last year. The current prizewinners have already won a couple of lesser prizes in the 2023 competition. See here and here. There is a new grand prize for 2024, so let's look forward to more good news this time next year.

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

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The latest on muon detection under Jerusalem

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Unable to dig, researchers look to cosmic rays to unlock Jerusalem’s ancient underworld. A Tel Aviv University team is using muon detectors to track powerful particles, hoping to build a 3D map of undiscovered tunnels, chambers and fortifications under the hole-y city (DIANA BLETTER, Times of Israel).

The device, which had been built by the Tel Aviv University team, was designed to capture and register the angular distribution of muons, tiny but powerful particles created when cosmic rays smash into the earth’s atmosphere.

For archaeologists, using particle physics to peer into solid ground offers a tantalizing way to glimpse the history of a city densely packed with strata upon strata of ancient settlement, but just as chock full of religious sensitivities. This makes invasive digs under many of its most important sites — especially the Temple Mount — a fraught, if not impossible, endeavor.

Everything is proceeding as I have have foreseen.

For more on the use of muon detection technology at the Temple Mount and elsewhere, see here and links. And here is an old post that I missed.

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Singing grape pips from the Negev?

ARCHAEOBOTANY: The ancient history of Israeli grape pips and wine. Excavations have given proof of a flourishing wine industry in the Byzantine and early Arab period, especially at sites like Shivta, Halutza, Nitzana, and Avdat (Adam Montefiore, Jerusalem Post).

Prof. Guy Bar-Oz of the University of Haifa is the person responsible for the research. He is a bioarchaeologist at the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures. He has been involved in ongoing, groundbreaking research regarding the history of the wine industry in the Negev Desert.

I have posted on this project here and (appears to be the underlying technical article) here. For posts involving the Nabatean (Nabataean) site of Avdat (‘Avedat, Ovdat, Uvdat), see the links collected here.

Cross-file under Ancient Viticulture.

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News about the Coptic Magical Papyri Project

COPTIC WATCH: Love and hate in ancient times: New anthology on 'magical' texts published (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg press release at Phys.org).

"Magical" texts from Egypt in Coptic script and language are at the center of a research project at the University of Würzburg. They have now been collected and scientifically annotated for the first time in a 600-page book.

[...]

This is an announcement of the culminating work of the Coptic Magical Papyri Project, which PaleoJudaica has been following through its blog since its inception. The blog also announced this last autumn.

The new information in this article is the good news that the project has been funded for an additional three years, now under the rubric the Corpus of Coptic Magical Formularies. Congratulations to the project and its researchers. I look forward to following their future work.

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Trotter, Hellenistic Jews and Consolatory Rhetoric (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Christine R. Trotter. Hellenistic Jews and Consolatory Rhetoric. 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, 1 Thessalonians, and Hebrews. 2023. XII, 385 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 600. 99,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-162475-9.

Published in English.
Christine R. Trotter elucidates how Hellenistic Jewish writers attempted to comfort those living in the midst of and in the wake of persecution and violence. While past scholarship has explored this question primarily in terms of the development of Jewish apocalypticism and afterlife beliefs, Christine R. Trotter takes a comprehensive approach by investigating how Hellenistic Jewish authors engaged with ancient consolatory rhetoric, that is, the means of persuasion intended to move a suffering person out of grief and into joy. Through studies on 2 Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, 1 Thessalonians, and Hebrews, the author explicates how Hellenistic Jewish authors navigated the diverse traditions of consolation within their biblical heritage and Greco-Roman culture. Her work has important implications for the genre of 1 Thessalonians and the dates of composition of the Wisdom of Solomon and Hebrews.

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Smith, Luke and the Jewish Other (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Luke and the Jewish Other
Politics of Identity in the Third Gospel

By David Andrew Smith
Copyright 2024

Hardback
£104.00

eBook
£31.19

ISBN 9781032450483
230 Pages

Description

Luke and the Jewish Other takes up the debated question of the orientation of Luke toward the Jewish people. Building on recent studies in the social history of early Jewish-Christian relations, it offers an analysis of Luke’s portrayal of Jewish and Christian identities that challenges the common assumption that the construction of religious identity in antiquity necessarily depended upon antagonistic relations with others. Taking account of the deep and often divisive difference that belief in Jesus made in Luke’s community, the author argues that Luke hoped to bring about both a rapprochement with and the conversion of contemporary Jews. Through this account of identity and alterity in the Gospel of Luke, the book cuts across boundaries of biblical studies, history, theology, and social theory, proposing a way forward for the study of Luke’s relation to Judaism and of the "parting of the ways" between Jews and Christians in the early Common Era.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 214

THE PURSUING VERITAS BLOG: January 2024 Biblical Studies Carnival (Jacob J. Prahlow).

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The author on Ritual and Religious Experience in Early Christianities

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Ritual and Religious Experience in Early Christianities (David J. McCollough).

David J. McCollough. Ritual and Religious Experience in Early Christianities: The Spirit In Between. WUNT II (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022).

Interest in ritual behavior and religious experience is a fundamental concern in anthropological approaches to religion. Giovanni Bazzana’s recent study of spirit possession among the early Christ Groups demonstrates the applicability of these questions to the early Jesus Movement.[1] My research participates in this ongoing conversation by exploring fresh methodological approaches to uncover the ways New Testament literature bears witness to ritual practices among early Christians.

[...]

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What exactly did Ezra do with (or to) the Torah?

DR. REBECCA SCHARBACK WOLLENBERG: Did Ezra Reconstruct the Torah or Just Change the Script? (TheTorah.com.

In the second century C.E., 4 Ezra and Irenaeus tell a story of how the Torah was burned by Nebuchadnezzar and reconstructed by Ezra through divine inspiration. Rabbinic texts know of this tradition, but in their version, Ezra’s contribution is changing the Torah into Aramaic writing, or even Aramaic language.

This essay gives some fascinating background to 4 Ezra in Christian and Rabbinic tradition which I didn't know about.

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Epistemic supersessionism in the Epistle to Diognetus

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Anti-Judaism, Meddlesomeness, and Epistemic Supersessionism in the Epistle to Diognetus (Chance E. Bonar).

In this article, I want to contextualize the term polupragmosunēas it is used in the works of other writers in the Roman imperial period (particularly Plutarch, Apuleius, Lucian, and Tertullian) and demonstrate how polupragmosunē is a key component of Diognetus’s anti-Jewish rhetoric and construction of uniquely Christian knowledge. ...

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Only non-Israelites bless God in the Pentateuch?

"STAFF EDITORS": Baruch Hashem: Only Non-Israelites Bless God in the Torah (TheTorah.com).

Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham’s servant, Laban, and Jethro all bless YHWH, but, as Rabbi Pappias notes in the Mekhilta, the Israelites don’t. Only later in the Bible do we find David and Solomon blessing YHWH, but so do Hiram King of Tyre and the Queen of Sheba.

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The authors on Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean (Shayna Sheinfeld, Sara Parks, and Meredith Warren).

When AJR reached out to see if we (Shayna Sheinfeld, Sara Parks, and Meredith Warren) would be willing to outline why we saw the need for a textbook on ancient Mediterranean religions that did not ignore or compartmentalize Jewish and Christian women, but instead centered them, we jumped at the chance. It was a need–both practical and ethical–that we keenly felt during our first teaching experience. In this piece, we’ll explain the steps that led to the process of building a collaborative textbook, and provide some ideas for how colleagues might use it.

[...]

I noted the publication of the book here and an AJR review here.

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Review of Sauvage & Lorre, À la découverte du royaume d'Ougarit (Syrie du IIe millénaire)

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: À la découverte du royaume d’Ougarit (Syrie du IIe millénaire): les fouilles de C.F.A. Schaeffer à Minet el-Beida et Ras Shamra (1929-1937).

Caroline Sauvage, Christine Lorre, À la découverte du royaume d'Ougarit (Syrie du IIe millénaire): les fouilles de C.F.A. Schaeffer à Minet el-Beida et Ras Shamra (1929-1937). Contributions to the archaeology of Egypt, Nubia and the Levant, 7; Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie, 89. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2023. Pp. 472. ISBN 9783700179986

Review by
Mark S. Smith, Princeton Theological Seminary. mark.s.smith@ptsem.edu

... Thanks to this volume, students of ancient Ugarit now enjoy yet another important resource for understanding different dimensions of its culture. Often noting information lacking in or missing from Schaeffer’s records, the editors and authors are to be applauded for their wonderful excavations of his excavation materials housed in the MAN.

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The "killer wife" in Judaism, from antiquity to the present

DR. ELAINE GOODFRIEND: Qatlanit: The “Killer-Wife” (TheTorah.com).

Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, is twice-widowed, but the Torah still expects Judah to allow his third son Shelah to marry her. In the Second Temple period book, Tobit marries his seven-times widowed cousin upon the advice of the angel Raphael. And yet, the Talmud prohibits marrying twice widowed women, for fear they are dangerous.

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On the ancient balsam industry

PERFUMERY AND DECORATIVE MALEDICTION ART: Buildings In The Desert, and A Curse Written Into A Synagogue Mosaic In Ein Gedi (crownheights.info).

In the course of a survey of the Judean Desert carried out a few years ago by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Ministry of Heritage, and the Civil Administration Staff Officer for Archaeology in Judea and Samaria, a group of buildings dating to the last days of the Kingdom of Judah was discovered alongside the road ascending from Ein Gedi to the Judean Mountain ridge and the major cities of Hebron and Jerusalem.

Saar Ganor, Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist and researcher of the First Temple period proposes that these buildings may have safeguarded the route along which convoys transported the coveted expensive persimmon perfume.

This would be balsam (צרי), the biblical "balm of Gilead," which in the Mishaic period was apparently also known as "persimmon" (אפרסמן). (I think I have that right.) For more on balsam in the Second Temple period, see here and here. (There is also the claim that the balm of Gilead came from the resin of the pistachio tree.)

I had heard of the Aramaic Ein Gedi synagogue curse mosaic, but this article gives additional details.

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Online Workshop: Exploring the Apocrypha (etc.)

EVENT: Online Workshop: Exploring the Apocrypha: Uncovering Hidden Christian Texts (Medievalists.net).

The Orthodox Academy of Crete, Medievalists.net, and After Constantine Journal are inviting you to join the online international workshop “Exploring the Apocrypha: Discovering Hidden Christian Texts.”, which will take place on Zoom on February 18, 2024, at 11:00 (Eastern US time).

Some details:

In this course we will discover biblically adjacent texts that present themselves as scriptural revelation by named biblical authors but which are not accepted as such (the pseudepigrapha ‘spuriously attributed writings’), books accepted by some traditions but not others (deuterocanonical books), and works that provide supplementary background information, alternative versions of events, or which expand on biblical narratives, episodes, and figures (apocrypha in the broadest sense). Through a series of mini-lectures, activities, and group discussions, this one-day programme will grapple with the historical, theological, and cultural significances of a wide body of Jewish and Christian writings that fall outside the Bible.

In other words (1) by "apocrypha" the title means what PaleoJudaica would call New Testament apocrypha, Old Testament pseudepigrapha, Old Testament Apocrypha (Deuterocanonica), and more; and (2) despite the title, the workshop looks at both Jewish and Christian texts.

One of the instructors, John J. Gallagher, is also an honorary lecturer in the School of English at the University of St. Andrews.

The cost of the one-day workshop is USD $69.

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Review of Hadas-Lebel, Les Pharisiens

RELIGION PROF: Review Of Mireille Hadas-Lebel, Les Pharisiens (James McGrath).

On the whole Hadas-Lebel offers a presentation of the Pharisees that recognizes their diversity, their positive contributions in their era, and the resemblance of Jesus of Nazareth to them. In seeking to adjudicate between an array of literature with polemical features, it is perhaps inevitable that the Pharisees, what became Christianity, and other groups will all at times be cast in a negative light because the only lens through which we can view them is one provided by their opponents. That Hadas-Lebel for the most part manages to avoid this is remarkable. ...

For more on the Pharisees, see here and follow the links.

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Regina tombstone on loan to British Museum

ARAMAIC WATCH: The South Shields tomb is on loan to the British Museum (Muhammad, Pi News).

The Regina tombstone featured in the recent BBC Radio 4 series ‘Being Roman’ by renowned historian Mary Beard was erected by a man named Barates from Palmyra, Syria.

Originally from southeast England, Regina was a slave, but Barates freed her and later married her. When she died at the age of 30, he made her an expensive tombstone.

... A replica of the tombstone is currently on display at the British Museum, but is now acquiring the original for a major new exhibition Legion: Life in the Roman Army, which looks at what it was like to be in one of the most elite fighting forces. ...

The stone has two epitaphs, one in Latin and one in (Palmyrene) Aramaic. Follow the link for photos.

There is a long PaleoJudaica post on this tombstone here.

Cross-file under Exhibition.

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More on the Nabateans

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: Saeb Rawashdeh continues a series on the Nabateans at the Jordan Times:

Lasting Legacy of Nabataean Dushara: From Petra’s temples to all corners of Roman Empire

Assimilated with Zeus, Dushara was considered the supreme god of the Nabataeans.

From Madaba map to Saint Lot Monastery: Tracing Byzantine heritage, Nabataean influences. The vibrant Christian community continued to thrive during Umayyad dynasty

During an archaeological survey in 1986, the research team found remains of an ancient site near the spring Ain Abata, located in Ghor Safi. Very soon it was established that these ruins belonged to the Saint Lot monastery, near the biblical city of Zoara/Ghor Safi, since it shared the same geographic location as the church depicted on the 6th century AD mosaic floor map at Saint George Church of Madaba.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Madaba Map see here and links plus here and links.

Epigraphic journey: Unveiling the enigmatic society of Ancient Nabataeans

I noted earlier articles in the series here and here.

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Evidence for a Byzantine church on the Temple Mount?

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: UNIQUE WEIGHTS DISCOVERED IN TEMPLE MOUNT SOIL SUGGEST PRESENCE OF BYZANTINE CHURCH.

... Consequently, these weights add credence to the growing body of evidence showing that activity upon the Temple Mount during the Byzantine period was greater than previously assumed. The TMSP has unearthed a multitude of artifacts dating to the Byzantine era, such as pieces of Corinthian capitals, chancel screens, patterned floor (opus sectile) tiles, around half a million tesserae from mosaic floors and thousands of roof tile fragments, as well as numerous Byzantine pottery shards and coins. This abundance of Byzantine-period artifacts stands in contrast to a commonly held view that in the Byzantine era the Temple Mount was desolate and undeveloped, and together with the recently discovered weights suggest that there might even have been a Byzantine church upon the Temple Mount. ...

UPDATE (29 January): The story is now covered in the Times of Israel in an article by Gavriel Fiske: Tiny weights hint at pre-Muslim Christian presence on Temple Mount – archaeologists. Byzantine-era coin weights, newly discovered in debris from the Jerusalem holy site, are of a type used in 6th century church settings.

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Abracadabra again

ARAMAIC WATCH? Is Abracadabra a Jewish word? Widely believed to derive from Aramaic, the phrase appears nowhere in classical Jewish sources (unattributed, My Jewish Learning).

I agree that the case is circumstantial, but I think it is strong. Abracadabra looks like it is a mixed Aramaic and Aramaicized Hebrew phrase אברא כדברא, which would mean something like "I create according to the word" (perhaps meaning "I create as I speak"). The translation offered in the article looks a bit off.

For the philological specifics, see here. And for more posts on Abracadabra, follow the links from there and from here.

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