McKenzie & Richelle, The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings

Edited by Steven L. McKenzie and Matthieu Richelle

Oxford Handbooks

£115.00

Hardback
Published: 26 September 2024
624 Pages
248x171mm
ISBN: 9780197610374

Also Available As:
Ebook

Also Available In:
Oxford Handbooks Online

Description

The Books of Kings have long been at the center of scholarly discussions on the Hebrew Bible because they constitute important sources for the history of ancient Israel and Judah, and because they are key components of the Deuteronomistic History. The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings provide a clear and useful introduction to the main aspects and issues pertaining to the scholarly study of Kings. These include textual history (including the linguistic profile), compositional history, literary approaches, key characters, history, important recurring themes, reception history and some contemporary readings. As a one-volume introduction embracing all the aspects of the study of Kings, written by an international and diverse team of scholars, this handbook is the ideal point of entry into the study of Kings for generations of students and scholars.

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More on the Petra chalice

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: What 12 ancient skeletons discovered in a mysterious tomb in Petra could tell us about the ancient city (Claire Isabella Gilmour, The Conversation).

This essay gives a very preliminary assessment of the new discoveries in that tomb under Al Khazneh in Petra, as well as some background on the Nabateans and on Petra. It caught my eye because it addresses an obvious question: why is the chalice excavated in the grave so similar to the Holy Grain in Indiana Jones 3?

One of the most headline-grabbing discoveries has been dubbed a “holy grail” in many reports, suggesting that the vessel is similar to the fictional cup from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, also discovered at the Khazneh. In fact, it’s a humble jug, not a cup offering the drinker eternal life.

The similarities between the vessels aren’t a case of art imitating life, but the result of painstaking research into Nabataean pottery carried out by Deborah Fine, who was the director of archives at Lucasfilm Ltd.

She chose wisely.

PaleoJudaica posts on the new discoveries at Petra are here and here.

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Berlejung & Bohak (eds.), Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity. Edited by Angelika Berlejung and Gideon Bohak. 2024. XII, 311 pages. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike (ORA) 57. €139.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-163549-6. Also Available As: eBook PDF €139.00.

Amulets are devices for fear management and communication with supernatural forces. Textual amulets - that is, amulets which contain mostly texts - attest explicitly to human fears, or threats which were supposed to be repelled by the amulets. They are valuable sources which can be analyzed for the study of the history of religion, historical anthropology, and interreligious research. The contributions in this current volume are based on the research project »Between Materiality and Scribal Magic: West-Semitic Textual Amulets from the First Millennium BCE to the Rise of Islam«. Within this project, teams from Leipzig University and Tel Aviv University studied textual amulets from the Levant in the 1st mill. BCE and CE that were written in the West-Semitic languages. Several scholars were invited to discuss and share their expertise within the scope of this research project. The present volume is the result of this interdisciplinary and international cooperation.

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On Samaritan coinage and a name

SAMARITAN NUMUSMATICS AND ONOMASTICS: A Son of Mazday on Samarian Coins: Reattribution From Bdyḥbl to Brochubelus (David Hendin, CoinWeek).

Early Samarian coins often feature legends with names that may be linked to local minting authorities. Some of these names are documented in historical and archaeological sources, such as the Wadi ed-Daliyeh papyri, while others remain speculative.

One of those speculative names is BDYḤBL. Meshorer and Qedar acknowledged in MQ that they were “unable to find an identical name,” though they interpreted BDYḤBL as a personal name. However, no historical records confirm the existence of a figure by this name. This interpretation has persisted in various publications and auction catalogs.

But it seems it needs to be revised. Read on. Bold-font emphasis in the above quote is in the original.

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Afterlife activities and foreshadowing shadows in Sefer Chasidim (and the Talmud)

FOR SUKKOT ETC.: Hoshana Rabbah: Delivering Judgment and Night of the Dead (Dr. Emilie Amar-Zifkin, TheTorah.com).

On Rosh Hashanah, our judgment is written; on Yom Kippur, it is sealed; and on Hoshana Rabbah, it is sent out to be fulfilled. It is said that on the night of Hoshana Rabbah, those judged to die that year will lose their shadows. Sefer Chasidim relates that, in a final plea for forgiveness, even the spirits of the dead rise from their graves to pray for the living.

The latter story is based on one in the Talmud that takes place on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

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A Qilliri Yom Kippur Geniza fragment

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (OCTOBER 2024): A fragment of a piyyut by Qilliri for Yom Kippur from the Collection of Yeshiva University (Shulamith Berger, Joseph Ginsberg, and Aaron Koller).

Yeshiva University owns two Geniza fragments. The first, published back in 1906 by Siegmund Fraenkel, is a section of Saadia’s commentary on Isaiah.² The second is a fragment of a piyyut by El‘azar Qilliri. Although the piyyut is well known and has been published with a full critical apparatus and commentary, the YU fragment has flown under the radar.³ As we will see, though, our little fragment has its own stories to tell.

[...]

This eleventh-century fragment has now been (remotely) joined up with a fragment containing much of the rest of the manuscript. The latter is housed in the Jewish Theological Seminary Geniza collection. This manuscript has some variant readings from the traditional German-Polish text, but none that weren't already known from other manuscripts.

For more on the late-antique poet Qilliri's piyyutim (liturgical poetry), see here. For more on the piyyut more generally, see here.

For many PaleoJudaica posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, start here and follow the links.

For Yom Kippur, belatedly noted.

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Ark of the Covenant replica on display

RECONSTRUCTION: Historic Ark Replica Makes Its Jerusalem Debut During Sukkot Festival. They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half amot long, an amah and a half wide, and an amah and a half high. EXODUS 25: 10 (THE ISRAEL BIBLE) (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel365 News).

In a remarkable fusion of ancient tradition and modern craftsmanship, a meticulously constructed replica of the biblical Ark of the Covenant was showcased in Jerusalem during the Sukkot holiday. The display, which took place at the prestigious King David Hotel, featured the golden vessel housing a Holocaust-surviving Torah scroll from Thessaloniki, Greece.

[..]

Who knows how close this replica is to the original Ark of the Covenant, assuming there was one that was anything like the biblical description? But its creators seem to have put a lot of work into representing what the Ark described in the Bible could have looked like.

For many, many PaleoJudaica posts on the Ark of the Covenant, start here and follow the links. For an overview, see here. For efforts to determine the original structure and appearance of the Ark, see here, here, and here (and, indirectly, here).

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Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah 2024

SHEMINI ATZERET begins tonight at sundown. In Israel, this is also the holiday of Simchat Torah (Simhat Torah). Outside of Israel, the latter holiday begins tomorrow at sundown. I wish you the joy of the holiday in the midst of the mourning for last year.

Last year's Shemini Atzeret post is here. Biblical etc. links are here.

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Does variable paragraphing of the Hallel Psalms matter?

FOR SUKKOT ETC.: Hallel: How Many Psalms? (Dr.Eric J. Harvey, TheTorah.com).

The answer depends on the manuscript and tradition we read: Psalms are segmented differently from as early as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint and continuing through the medieval Hebrew manuscripts of the Masoretic Text.

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Archaeological discoveries in Israel this year

AND ITS ONLY OCTOBER: Israel: Ten of thousands of archaeological relics uncovered in 2024.

(Oct. 23, 2024 / JNS) Amid the ongoing wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, countless artifacts from the Second Temple era, the Late Roman period, and more were uncovered across Israel in 2024.

[...]

The article lists half a dozen of the more significant finds.

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That submerged Nabatean temple again, plus that Petra chalice

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: Archaeologists discover 2,000-year-old 'Indiana Jones' temple (Stacy Liberatore, Daily Mail).

Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of a 2,000-year-old temple built by an ancient civilization featured in Indiana Jones.

The religious temple had a rectangular plan and two rooms with access to internal routes of the vicus Lartidianus, an area designated for foreign people engaged in trade.

The discovery off the coast of Puteoli, modern-day Pozzuoli, marks the first known temple built by the Nabataeans, nomadic Arabian merchant civilization who hailed from Jordan, outside of the Middle East.

[...]

The Mail is late to the party; this discovery is a year and a half old. But the coverage and photos are good.

A link in the article leads to another article about the recent remarkable discoveries at Al Khazneh in Petra. It too has decent coverage and good photos; heavy on Indiana Jones, but also of the excavated chalice. It really does look like the one we last saw following Elsa Schneider down the chasm in the film.

For more on the submerged Nabatean temple excavated off the coast of Puteoli, see here, here, and here.

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Fourth-century church excavated in Armenia

ARMENIAN WATCH: Remains of one of the oldest churches in the world discovered in Armenia. Octagonal-shaped structure dates from the mid-4th century CE, not long after the Kingdom of Armenia is thought to have become the first Christian kingdom (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

“This does appear to be a significant discovery and credible claim by well-qualified archaeologists,” said Prof. Jodi Magness, a classical and biblical archaeologist and religious historian who teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in an email exchange with The Times of Israel.

“The discovery of this church makes sense since the Kingdom of Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion in the early fourth century,” she said, and noted that at around the same time, “Armenians established a presence in Jerusalem, which they have maintained until today.”

For information on surviving Armenian artwork and architecture in Israel, see here.

Note that the Armenian alphabet was invented only half a century or so after the time of this church. See here and links. For still more on Armenian literature, including Armenian translations of otherwise lost works of Philo of Alexandria, see here and links and here.

As I noted earlier, MOTP2 will reprint Michael Stone's translation of the idiosyncratic Armenian translation of 4 Ezra.

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Review series on Fisch, Written for Us, parts 3-5

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has posted two more reviews and the author's response in this series on Yael Fisch's Written for Us: Paul’s Interpretation of Scripture and the History of Midrash.

Pauline Christcentric Hermeneutics (J. Ross Wagner).

I have learned a great deal from this book, especially about the distinctive character of Tannaitic interpretation. With respect to the subject area that I know best, however, I am left with the impression that, despite her careful study, Dr. Fisch has not revealed the heart of Paul’s hermeneutic. In what follows, I offer an all-too-brief justification for this rather bold assertion. My intention is not to foreclose discussion; rather, I hope, in the same spirit of intellectual humility modeled by Fisch, to spark further conversation and debate among scholars of these three significant interpretive traditions.

Does Paul Give Preference to an Oral Nomos over the Written Nomos in Romans 10 for the sake of the Gentiles? A Response to Yael Fisch (Isaac Soon).

My response here will focus specifically on the second chapter of Dr. Fisch’s book, her analysis of Romans 10:5–13 through midrash-pesher in conversation with Romans 3. I want to contend with the implication drawn that Paul gives preference to an oral nomos over a written nomos in scripture. In this response, I argue that Paul does not give preference to the oral over the written but emphasizes the oral in his wider argument in Romans 10 about ethnic Jews (Israel) who have not heard the message about Christ (“the word”). According to Romans 10 and 3, following the oral nomos is essential for fulfilling the written nomos.

Author Response: Review Forum Yael Fisch's Written for Us (Yael Fisch).

What I certainly did not intend to do was to end the conversation, and this collection of responses proves that I certainly did not. A committed reading of Written for Us generated 4 new papers: Christine Hayes provides a methodological contextualization of the book, asking me to consider different approach to comparative religion; Daniel Picus expands my discussion of reading practices to new avenues that may host both Paul, the Tannaim and other ancient Jewish authors without committing to a narrow (and precarious) social institution of reading; J. Ross Wagner questions my approach to Paul as an exegete and traces some of the books’ shortcomings to a systematic marginalization of Christ; and Isaac Soon offers a new constellation of two Torot in Paul, that thoroughly, though not entirely, differs from my own. In what follows, I will offer some comments and questions on each of these rereadings and departures.

I noted the first two essays here and here.

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Still more on that Jewish (?) gladiator at Pompeii

MARTIAL MATERIAL CULTURE: It turns out that Samuele Rocca's article "A Jewish Gladiator in Pompeii: Reassessing the Evidence" is available by pre-print open access from Brill. It is published in the forthcoming volume (17, 2024) of IMAGES: A Journal of Jewish Art and Visual Culture.

Rocca, S. (2024). A Jewish Gladiator at Pompeii: Reassessing the Evidence. IMAGES (published online ahead of print 2024). https://doi.org/10.1163/18718000-12340185

Thanks to reader Michael Helfield for drawing my attention to it.

I noted two popular articles on this scholarly one here and here.

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The latest on the raising of the Mazzarón II

PHOENICIAN WATCH:

The raising of the Phoenician ship in the bay of Mazarrón is well underway. The first month of work has seen archaeologists remove 30% of the Phoenician ship from the sea in Mazarrón (Murcia Today).

New findings during the extraction of a Phoenician shipwreck in Spain, the most complete ancient vessel found in the Mediterranean Sea (Guillermo Carvajal, LBV).

Although the area has been previously excavated, the team has found materials that had not been documented before, which has been a pleasant surprise for the researchers. Among the most notable discoveries are fragments of ropes and ceramic pieces that had been buried under layers of sediment.

The preservation of such delicate objects is a unique opportunity for scholars, as they will offer new insights into trade practices and life aboard this type of vessel in antiquity. According to the experts, the condition of some of these materials is exceptional, allowing for in-depth studies of the navigation and trade techniques of the ancient Phoenicians.

Emphasis in original.

Background on the project of raising the Mazzarón II shipwreck in Murcia, Spain, which has been in planning for years and is currently being executed, see here and links. Note the variable spellings Mazarrón (Mazarron) and Mazzarón (Mazzaron).

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Hybrid event: Revealing Royal Jerusalem

ARMSTRONG INSTITUTE OF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY: Upcoming Event: Revealing Royal Jerusalem. Join AIBA, the Israel Antiquities Authority and other select partners on an archaeological journey to the core of ancient Jerusalem..

The event on 10 November will be both in-person and livestreamed. Follow the link for ticket information etc.

For more on the current "Kingdom of David and Solomon Discovered" exhibition, which includes the Tel Dan Stele, see here, here, and here.

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Orientalism and HB scholarship

THE BIBLE AND INTEPRETATION:

Orientalism and Hebrew Bible Scholarship

The standard version of Orientalism as a pernicious regime of power/knowledge is simplistic and somewhat grotesque. It entails the negation of the very possibility of philological knowledge and critical scholarship of ancient Middle Eastern texts, including the Hebrew Bible.

See also Genesis 1-11: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Yale University Press, 2024).

By Ronald Hendel University of California, Berkeley October 2024

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Frendo, How to Read Ancient Texts (Archaeopress, open access)

THE AWOL BLOG: How to Read Ancient Texts: With a Focus on Select Phoenician Inscriptions from Malta. By Anthony J. Frendo, open access by Archaeopress, September 2024.

This book foregrounds the principles of interpretation that scholars employ when reading ancient inscriptions. In order to better come to grips with Canaanite, such as Phoenician, inscriptions, we need to first understand how people wrote and read texts in the ancient Mediterranean world, including that of the Greeks and Romans.

Cross-file under New Book, Phoenician Watch, and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy.

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Altmann & Angelini, To Eat or Not to Eat (Mohr Siebeck, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Peter Altmann, Anna Angelini. To Eat or Not to Eat. Studies on the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions. 2024. X, 295 pages. Archaeology and Bible (ArchB) 9. €94.00 including VAT. sewn paper available 978-3-16-163657-8. Also Available As: eBook PDF. The PDF version is open access.

Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and their significance as practices and texts through philological, zooarchaeological, iconographic, and comparative ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman lenses. They explore theoretical frameworks adopted in modern interpretation, possible origins in relation to ancient Israelite religion and society, and location in relation to Priestly terminology and Deuteronomic tradition. The authors expand the arc of investigation to the Second Temple reception of the prohibitions in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greco-Roman discourses from the first centuries CE. With their foundational studies, they provide an approach to the dietary prohibitions, opening the way for reconstructing their path of development into their present-day contexts.

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The Holy Grail has not been found at Petra. Nope. But read on ...

PETRA WATCH: St Andrews researchers discover hidden tomb at Petra, Jordan (University of St Andrews).

A ground-breaking discovery of a secret tomb at one of the new seven wonders of the world has been made by a team of researchers, including academics from the University of St Andrews.

Professor Richard Bates, from the St Andrews School of Earth and Environmental Science, was part of a collaboration carrying out research at Al-Khazneh, the Treasury Building, at the World Heritage Site of Petra, Jordan.

The team found a long-buried tomb with the remains of 12 ancient skeletons beneath the iconic building where more than a million visitors a year come to visit and the unexpected discovery now features in a new Discovery Channel documentary. ...

Apparently originating with this press release, the follow has unsurprisingly caught the attention of the media:

One skeleton in the chamber was found clutching a ceramic vessel.

Adventurer and presenter Josh Gates said: “When we spotted what looked like a chalice, all of us just froze. It looked nearly identical to the Holy Grail featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, set in the ancient building directly above the tomb. It was the ultimate moment of life imitating art.”

Detailed examination of the vessel reveals it to be the top part of a broken jug, likely dating to the first century BC.

Not the Holy Grail then. Keep looking.

Seriously, congratuations to my University of St Andrews colleagues and their collaborators on this important discovery in a place one would have thought to have been comprehensively explored already.

Also seriously, keep an eye out for some scrolls in one of those caves.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the ancient Nabatean capital city of Petra in Jordan, see here and links, plus here, here, and here.

Cross-file under Nabatean (Nabataean) Watch.

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Sukkot in Second Temple-era Jerusalem

FOR SUKKOT: Jerusalem in its glory: Reconstructing the Sukkot pilgrimage to the Second Temple. What was the pilgrims’ visit to Jerusalem on Sukkot during the Second Temple like? (Alan Rosenbaum, Jerusalem Post).

While the model of the Temple at the Israel Museum and the 3D Virtual Tour of the Temple offered at the Western Wall provide us with an idea of what Jerusalem looked like 2,000 years ago, let’s try to abandon the hi-tech look and use our powers of imagination to understand what the process of aliyah la’regel – the ascent to Jerusalem for the holiday – might have been like.

A long, informative article. For more on the Theodotus inscription, see here and here.

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Apples or citrons?

FOR SUKKOT: Etrog, a Royal Assyrian Aromatic Purifier (Dr. Norma Franklin. TheTorah.com).

When ambassadors from Judah went to the Assyrian capital to present their yearly tribute, they encountered large stone reliefs of winged genii holding citrons, a fruit long treasured for its fragrance and medicinal properties.

For lots more on the Citron and what it may or may not have been (including additional "apple" connections), see here and links.

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Jews in Pre-Islamic Arabia

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Jews in Pre-Islamic Arabia. Tracing the Jewish diaspora in ancient North Arabia (Marek Dospěl).

In the first two centuries CE, Jews led two major revolts against the Romans—first, the Great Revolt (66–74), then the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135). In their tragic aftermath, when the Temple lay in ruins and Jews were forbidden to live in or near Jerusalem, many decided to seek new homes abroad. Some from this early Jewish diaspora turned south and ended up in North Arabia, where only inscriptions survive to bear witness to individuals who clearly belonged to the scattered Jewish communities of pre-Islamic Arabia.

[...]

This essay summarizes an article by Gary A. Rendsburg in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. The full article is behind the subscription wall.

For more on the site of Hegra (the "Petra of Saudi Arabia" and an important Nabatean/Nabataean site) see here and links. For more on Aramaic and Jews at the site of Tayma, see here, here, here, here, and here.

As some of those posts indicate, Tayma is also known as the site of the Babylonian King Nabonidus's self-exile, a legendary version of which appears in the Aramaic Prayer of Nabonidus from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Something like this legend looks to be the source of the legend of Nebuchadnezzar's madness and exile in Daniel chapter 4. Follow the links for more information.

There was also a Jewish Kingdom of Himyar in late-antique Arabia.

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Virtual Persepolis

PERSEPOLIS WATCH:

HT the Bible Places Blog.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Persepolis, the ancient Achaemenid ceremonial capital city, see here and links.

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More on that Jewish (?) gladiator in Pompeii

MORE ON MARTIAL MATERIAL CULTURE: A Jewish gladiator in Roman Pompeii? A helmet found in the ruins of the famous Roman city wiped out by a volcano eruption a few years after the destruction of Jerusalem depicts a palm tree, a symbol of Judea (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

I've already noted a more detailed article on this story here, but this one notes an additional underlying technical study. And in-between there has also been another study on the question of Jewish gladitors in the ancient Roman world.

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Sukkot 2024

THE SEVEN-DAY FESTIVAL OF SUKKOT (BOOTHS, TABERNACLES) begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those observing it.

Last year's Sukkot post is here. Another relevant post is here.

For the biblical background to Sukkot, see here and here.

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Aramaic at the UAE's Shamash temple

ARAMAIC WATCH: UAE rebuilding region's sun temple, brick by brick. (Sajila Saseendran, Khaleej Yimes).

Umm Al Quwain - The Aramaic inscription found at the temple mentioned the name of the sun deity Shamash, throwing light on the fact that the deity was worshipped in the region some 2000 years ago.

[...]

This restoration project has been going on for some time. For more on this temple and Aramaic inscription, and on Aramaic at the site of ed-Dur, see here and follow the links.

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Persica Antiqua

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal: Persica Antiqua: The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies.

I noted an article in this journal a while ago, but I understood (apparently misunderstood) it to be behind a subscription wall. As the headline above says, the journal is open access.

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The Bible's big bad Babylonians

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Who Were the Babylonians? A brief look at one of the Bible’s biggest baddies (Nathan Steinmeyer).

The Babylonians are certainly one of the Bible’s biggest baddies, but they were also one of history’s greatest empires. So, who were the Babylonians? ...

A good brief overview of the Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian Empires.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on ancient Babylon, start with the links collected here, plus here, here, here, and here, and just keep going.

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

Another review of Mazza, Stolen Fragments

VARIANT READINGS: Roberta Mazza’s Stolen Fragments. (Brent Nongbri).

There is a palpable urgency in Mazza’s writing, and for good reason. Mazza documents the ongoing problem of looting in Egypt, and her narrative highlights the connections between looting, the trade in unprovenanced artifacts, and academics who work on unprovenanced pieces. Stolen Fragments will become a a key reference point in these discussions.

I noted another review of the book here with some background links

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The Tel Dan Stele's next move

THE JEWISH MUSEUM, NEW YORK: 5 DECEMBER 2024–5 JANUARY 2025. Tel Dan Stele.

The Tel Dan Stele is presented within Engaging with History: Works from the Collection, a selection of rarely exhibited objects from the Museum's holdings of over 30,000 works including new acquisitions from Carrie Mae Weens, William Kentridge, and others on view for the first time in dialogue with Museum treasures reflecting millenia of global Jewish culture.

The Tel Dan Stele is currently on display at Armstrong College in Oklahoma until 25 November. It then moves to the Jewish Museum in New York.

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Was Jesus short?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Jesus the Short King. Measuring up Jesus and Zacchaeus in Luke 19 (Nathan Steinmeyer).

Translating a text can be a difficult task under any circumstance. But it is all the harder when the meaning of the original text is ambiguous. Such is the case with Luke 19:3. Although most readers assume the text states that Zacchaeus was too short to see Jesus, the original Greek is less clear. Publishing in the Journal of Biblical Literature, Isaac Soon, Assistant Professor of Early Christianity at the University of British Columbia, points out that the original text makes no distinction between which of the characters is “short in stature,” and that it is instead the reader’s preconceived notions of what Jesus “should” look like that leads most to read the text as being about Zacchaeus.

[...]

The JBL article is behind a subscription wall, but you can read the abstract for free.

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Orlov, Abraham Among Golems (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Andrei A. Orlov. Abraham Among Golems. The Imago Dei Traditions in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha. 2024. XVIII, 296 pages. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism (TSAJ) 189. €149.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-164009-4. Also Available As: eBook PDF €149.00..

In this insightful book, Andrei A. Orlov examines the symbolism of the »image of God« found in early Jewish pseudepigraphical accounts, paying special attention to the cultic traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham. The study demonstrates that the Jewish pseudepigrapha transform various biblical characters — including Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Aseneth — into eschatological embodiments of the imago Dei. The book argues that these cultic metamorphoses preserve memories of ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian rituals involving the vivification of cultic statues. The Apocalypse of Abraham and other early Jewish pseudepigraphical accounts attempt to polemically refashion the concept of cultic statues by envisioning their protagonists as divine representations in the form of the eschatological image of God.

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Hybrid Princeton workshop on Maagarim (Historical Dictionary of Hebrew database)

H-JUDAIC: Ma'agarim Workshop at Princeton.

On Thurs, Nov 7, the Program in Judaic Studies will host an afternoon workshop on using Maagarim. This Digital Rabbinics Workshop is convened by our own Amit Gvaryahu, JDS’s associate research scholar and a cultural historian of ancient Judaism. It is open to everyone – undergraduates, grad students, faculty, and in fact anyone else. Feel free to share this invite within your circles.

Maagarim – the database for the Historical Dictionary of Hebrew, maintained by the Academy for the Hebrew Language – is an invaluable tool for the study of rabbinic and other ancient Jewish literature. It is however underutilized and not well known in the U.S. In this workshop we will learn how to use Maagarim, its advantages and limitations, practice complex searches, compare it with its manuscript sources, and use it to answer questions about our own texts.

Participants may attend in person or online. ...

For registration information etc., follow the link.

I have a post on the Maagarim database here.

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Review of Iovine, Latin military papyri of Dura-Europos (P.Dura 55-145)

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Latin military papyri of Dura-Europos (P.Dura 55-145): a new edition of the texts, with introduction and notes.

Giulio Iovine, Latin military papyri of Dura-Europos (P.Dura 55-145): a new edition of the texts, with introduction and notes. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp. 450. ISBN 9781009183130.

Review by
Rudolf Haensch, Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des Deutschen Archäologischen Institut. Rudolf.Haensch@dainst.de

The documents of the cohors XX Palmyrenorum found in Dura-Europos are, alongside the wooden tablets from Vindolanda and the ostraca from the Roman guard posts in the eastern Egyptian desert (Hélène Cuvigny, Rome in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, 2 vols., New York 2021 etc.), among the most important groups of written records of the Roman army. ...

With regard to the edition of the texts, the use of new technology by Iovine has largely served to confirm the reliability of the texts of the earlier editors. He has improved them in detail, but was unable to present major new readings—this is a compliment to the earlier editors and not a criticism of him, except that the work should not be announced as grandiloquently as it was. Similarly, the commentary rarely adds much to the older ones. Unfortunately, the commentaries and the introductory sections contain a number of minor errors.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Dura-Europos, start with the links collected here and just keep going.

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Nodet Festschrift (Peeters)

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PUBLISHERS:

L'univers de Flavius Josèphe
Judaïsmes et christianismes au début de l'Empire romain. Mélanges offerts à Étienne Nodet, O.P.

SERIES:
Cahiers de la Revue Biblique, 96

EDITOR:
Leroy M.

PRICE: 85 euro
YEAR: 2024
ISBN: 9789042951952
PAGES: XXXIV-275 p.

SUMMARY:

Le frère Étienne Nodet, o.p., est décédé le 4 février 2024 à Jérusalem. Ancien élève de l’École Polytechnique, dominicain, professeur à l’École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem pendant plusieurs années, son enseignement et ses publications ont marqué plusieurs générations de chercheurs et d’étudiants. Son projet principal fut sa traduction commentée des Antiquités juives de Flavius Josèphe. Mais il aborda également des sujets aussi divers que la crise maccabéenne, les Samaritains, les origines du judaïsme et du christianisme, le Jésus historique ou les Actes des Apôtres. Ses amis et collègues ont voulu regrouper en un recueil intitulé L’univers de Flavius Josèphe. Judaïsmes et christianismes au début de l’Empire romain treize contributions ainsi qu’une biographie intellectuelle écrite par Justin Taylor, s.m. Ce volume d’hommages, qui paraît après son décès, voudrait être un témoignage de gratitude envers le frère Étienne Nodet, o.p., pour sa vie, son enseignement et sa recherche.

The articles are in French and English.

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Isaksson, The Verb in Classical Hebrew (OpenBooks)

NEW BOOK FROM OPENBOOK PUBLISHERS:

The Verb in Classical Hebrew
The Linguistic Reality behind the Consecutive Tenses

Bo Isaksson (author)

The consecutive tenses are fundamental in all descriptions of Classical Hebrew grammar. They are even basic to the textbooks on Biblical Hebrew. Being fundamental in the verbal system, and part of any beginner’s grammar, they pose a serious problem to a linguistic understanding of the verbal system, since grammars describe an alternation of ‘forms’ or ‘tenses’ in double pairs: wayyiqṭol alternates with its ‘equivalent’ qaṭal, and wə-qaṭal alternates with its ‘equivalent’ yiqṭol.

This ‘enigma’ in the verbal system is handled in the book by recognising that the alternation of the consecutive tenses with other tenses, in the reality of the text, represents a linking of clauses. The ‘consecutive tenses’ are clause-types with a natural language connective wa- directly followed by a finite verbal morpheme, a type of clause that expressed continuity in the earliest stage of Semitic. The commonly held assumption that there is a special ‘consecutive waw’ is unwarranted. The use of the ‘consecutive’ clause-types in order to express discourse continuity indicates that Classical Hebrew has retained the old unmarked declarative word order of Semitic syntax. Seen in the light of recent research on the Tiberian reading tradition, the ‘consecutive’ wayyiqṭol can be analysed as a retention of the old Semitic past perfective *wa-yaqtul, which was pronounced wa-yiqṭol in Classical Hebrew. The ‘consecutive’ wə-qāṭal (pronounced wa-qaṭal in the classical language) constitutes the result of an internal Hebrew development into a construction (in the sense of Joan Bybee) already foreshadowed in the earliest Northwest Semitic languages.

The book understands the ‘consecutive tenses’ as discourse continuity clauses, which typically form chains of main line clauses. Such chains can be interrupted by other types of clauses. This interruption is a clause linking that receives special attention in the interpretation of the Classical Hebrew verbal system. Chapter six presents a regenerated text linguistics founded on the new terminology. A clause linking approach is the central methodological procedure in this book. To this must be added diachronic typology in a comparative Semitic setting. The linguistic examples of clause linking are gathered from a large Classical Hebrew corpus, the Pentateuch and the Book of Judges, and made searchable in a database of 6559 non-archaic text records.

The pdf version of this 2024 book is open access. It is also available for purchase in hardback (GBP 43.95) and paperback (GBP 40.95).

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Yom Kippur 2024

YOM KIPPUR, the Day of Atonement, begins this evening at sundown. An easy and healthy fast to all those observing it.

Last year's post on Yom Kippur is here, with links. Biblical etc. background is here and links. Additional Yom Kippur-related posts are here and here.

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Jonah, the "rather unusual prophet"

FOR YOM KIPPUR: The Book of Jonah: God and Humanity Don’t Understand Each Other (Susan Niditch, TheTorah.com).

Jonah is an idiosyncratic prophet who disobeys, doesn’t really repent, and even gets angry with YHWH. While later interpretations seek to explain Jonah’s problematic behavior, in the book, it is Jonah who is confounded by YHWH’s actions.

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Review series on Fisch, Written for Us, part 2

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Midrash, Paul, and Difficulty (Daniel Picus).

This review essay is part of the 2023 Society of Biblical Literature's review panel for Yael Fisch, Written for Us: Paul’s Interpretation of Scripture and the History of Midrash. Find the full panel here.

Yael Fisch’s Written For Us: Paul’s Interpretation of Scripture and the History of Midrash achieves something remarkable: it is a book about Pauline hermeneutics and rabbinic literature that is both new and grounded. It gives us a new way to think about a set of old problems, and it refrains from drawing genealogical conclusions in favor of making a series of more nuanced arguments about the landscape of interpretive strategies present in first century Judaism.

[...]

I noted part one of the series here.

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Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus is back in Georgia

AND HEADED FOR A MUSEUM: Calligrapher John Zosimos’ “unique” 10th-century manuscript returned to Georgia after purchase at Christie’s by ruling party Honorary Chair (Agenda.Ge).

A “unique” 10th-century manuscript by John Zosimos, a famed Georgian calligrapher, author, translator and bookbinder monk, has returned to Georgia after being purchased by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and the Honorary Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, at the Christie's auction in London. ...

The GD press office noted Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, a 5th-7th centuries CE manuscript compiled in Aramaic and Georgian languages, would be donated to the Georgian National Museum network.

The palimpsest is overwritten with Georgian text written by Zosimos, and preserved in its 10th-century binding from St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, the earliest known signed, dated, and localisable binding. The manuscript will be the only masterpiece of Ioane Zosimos to be kept in Georgia. ...

This article in The Paradise gives additional information on the manuscripts current location: 10th-century Georgian manuscript arrives at Georgian Patriarchate.

Background on the manuscript and on its sale last spring, is here and here.

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NLI digitizing Ethiopic manuscripts of sacred books

ETHIOPIC WATCH: National Library announces digitization project of Beta Israel sacred manuscripts. Dozens of rare texts in Ge’ez, the ancient Semitic liturgical language used in Ethiopia, to be made available online to the public for the first time (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

These manuscripts, which are written in Ge’ez, the ancient Semitic liturgical language, include several copies of “The Orit” or Octateuch, the Beta Israel Torah, which comprises the Five Books of Moses plus the books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth.

Other material includes “the Jewish apocryphal texts of Jubilees and Enoch, prayerbooks such as the Book of Psalms, and more,” the NLI said.

For more on the Ethiopic Bible, see here and links.

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and Digitization.

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Gaza archaeological exhibition in Geneva

GAZA ARCHAEOLOGY: Gaza cultural heritage goes on display in Geneva as war enters second year. Cultural heritage institutions mark first anniversary of Israel-Palestine conflict (Museums Association/Museums Journal).

An exhibition of archaeological finds from Gaza has gone on display in Geneva this week, a year on from the 7 October Hamas attacks and the start of the current Israel-Palestine war.

Forty-four objects from Gaza, including amphorae, statuettes, vases, oil lamps and figurines, can be seen at the Patrimony in Peril exhibition in the Swiss city's Museum of Art and History, according to the global news agency AFP.

[...]

For more on the Gaza archaeological collection in Geneva, see here.

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Did Sennacherib destroy Hezekiah's administrative center?

ARCHAEOLOGY AND HEBREW EPIGRAPHY: Recent excavations reveal King Sennacherib's military impact on the economy of the Kingdom of Judah. Excavations in Jerusalem revealed that Sennacherib’s 701 BCE military campaign impacted Judah's economy, uncovering administrative changes under King Hezekiah (ZIV REINSTEIN, Jerusalem Post).

“We found remains of a significant state administrative center from the time of Hezekiah – possibly even from his father, Ahaz,” said Neriya Sapir, Natan Ben-Ari, and Benjamin Storchin, the excavation directors from the IAA.

“This center was in use during the last third of the 8th century BCE and was then completely destroyed. This structure was intentionally buried under a massive heap of stones, on top of which another building was erected, overseeing the agricultural lands east of the Armon Hanatziv-Ramat Rachel ridge and was visible from afar,” they explained.

The working hypothesis is that this was a "political statement" by the Assyrians.

For more on the history and archaeology of Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem, start here and follow the many links.

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George Brooke awarded British Academy Burkitt Medal

ACCOLADE: George Brooke (1970) awarded British Academy Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies (St Peter's College).

St Peter’s College alumnus Professor George J. Brooke (Theology, 1970) has been awarded the prestigious British Academy Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies for his pioneering work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[...]

Congratulations to Professor Brooke! Well deserved indeed.

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McGrath, John of History, Baptist of Faith (Eerdmans) and other news

RELIGION PROF: John The Baptist News.

James McGrath's second recent book on John the Baptist has now been published:

John of History, Baptist of Faith
The Quest for the Historical Baptizer

by James F. McGrath

Imprint: Eerdmans

486 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

HARDCOVER
9780802883995
Publication Date: October 3, 2024
$59.99
£46.99

Buy
EBOOK
9781467467988
Publication Date: October 4, 2024

Studies of the historical Jesus typically reduce John the Baptist to a subordinate role in the story of Christian origins. This meticulous historical study focuses on John himself, revealing his extensive and enduring influence.

In the popular imagination, John the Baptist plays the supporting role of Jesus’s unkempt forerunner. But meticulous historical study reveals his wide-reaching and enduring influence on the history of religion.

The first study of its kind, John of History, Baptist of Faith sheds light on the historical John the Baptist and his world. James F. McGrath applies historical-critical methodology not only to the New Testament but also to the Mandaean Book of John, a holy text of the last extant gnostic sect. McGrath uses the teachings of John’s pupil, Jesus, as a window into his mentor’s beliefs. Along the way, he brings new clarity to questions of contention among scholars, such as John’s use of immersion as a substitute for temple sacrifice.

Bold in its claims yet careful in its method, John of History, Baptist of Faith lends fresh insight into John, Jesus, and their world. McGrath’s pioneering monograph will challenge and intrigue students and scholars of the New Testament and Second Temple Judaism.

For more on Professor McGrath's research on John the Baptist, see here and links.

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Review series on Fisch, Written for Us

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: 2023 SBL Review Forum for Yael Fisch's Written for Us.

The book was published by Brill in 2023. There are four essays in this series. The first is now posted:

“The Art of Comparison: Yael Fisch’s Written for Us: Paul’s Interpretation of Scripture and the History of Midrash” (Christine Hayes)

[...]

After reading Fisch’s book I am convinced that Paul’s general hermeneutic should not be identified as a radicalization of Alexandrian allegory, or as allegory at all. And I can accept, based on Paul’s blend of the intertextual method featured in later rabbinic midrash with the terminology and content of allegory in Gal 4, that allegory and midrash are not always diametrically opposed, at least for Paul. Nevertheless, as Fisch herself recognizes and details, allegory and midrash differ in numerous ways. Moreover, they are not blended in the vast majority of works of ancient Jewish interpretation or in rabbinic literature, which suggests that their distinction as hermeneutical systems has heuristic value. ...

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Melchizedek the literary phantom

IS THAT IN THE BIBLE? Melchizedek: How a Literary Phantom Became an Eternal Priest and Savior of Israel.

Paul Davidson has a long essay summarizing the current scholarly state of the question concerning the aptly-termed "literary phantom" of Melchizedek (Genesis 14, Psalm 110). That state of the question has been very much a moving target over the last century. Most of what has been written on him, including by me, is speculative.

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Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: September

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year, Part 2: September 2024.

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany. This is his latest update. It includes lots of information on apocrypha pertaining to St. Stephen, who apparently was a changeling. Who knew?

Also, unrelated to New Testament apocrypha, Tony witnessed a dachshund parade. I approve.

I noted the first post in this ongoing series here.

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Review of Pioske, The Bible Among Ruins

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Review: The Bible Among Ruins.

The Bible Among Ruins
Time, Material Remains, and the World of the Biblical Writers
By Daniel Pioske
(Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2023), 308 pp., 50 b/w figs.; $110.00 (hardback and eBook)

Reviewed by Aaron A. Burke

... While it is relatively easy to recognize that ruins were a part of ancient landscapes, Pioske challenges us to recognize that ruins were perceived quite differently by ancient peoples, who had an entirely different conception of time than do people of the modern world. He highlights, for example, the lack of interest shown in the biblical text for the exploration of the past, despite an awareness of the antiquity of ruins that surrounded ancient writers. ...

I noted the publication of the book here and a related essay by its author here.

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The archaeologists and October 7th

ONE YEAR LATER: Exclusive: Why Israel turned to archaeologists in its search for the Oct. 7 missing (Chanan Tigay, The Jewish News of Northern California).

There were a few archaeologists among the reservists serving in the search unit, and they quickly realized that if Israel hoped to locate the missing — and Israel has historically gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure its dead a proper burial — they would need to marshal skills intrinsic to archaeology: the ability to identify human remains that have been so badly damaged by fire and fighting that, to the untrained eye, it appears as if there is nothing left.

Excellent article. Hard reading. Those archaeologists have done heroic work.

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Another review of Magness, Jerusalem Through the Ages

BOOK REVIEW: 'Jerusalem Through the Ages': What archaeology reveals about the history of Jerusalem - review. This is both positive and a challenge for readers; it’s dense, meticulous, and sometimes overwhelming (Moshe Dann, The Jerusalem Report in the Jerusalem Post).

Unlike other books, Magness explains, her book is not only a history of the city – up to and including the Crusader period – but also integrates more than a century of archaeological discoveries. A virtual encyclopedia of information, the book includes many details that she and others have revealed.

I noted the publication of the book here and another review of it here. And see also here and here.

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Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology (open access) revisited

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal: Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology.

I've noted this journal before. But since it's come up again at AWOL, it's worth flagging that the current volume (7, 2024) has lots of interesting-looking articles on Iron Age Hebrew epigraphy.

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Frey (ed.), Qumran and the New Testament (Peeters)

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PUBLISHERS:

Qumran and the New Testament

SERIES:
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 340

EDITOR:
Frey J.

PRICE: 100 euro
YEAR: 2024
ISBN: 9789042953550
PAGES: XXVI-484 p.

SUMMARY:

The volume Qumran and the New Testament comprises the papers read at the 71st meeting of the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense, which was held in 2022 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the textual discoveries at Qumran, and to reflect on the relevance of the Scrolls for the understanding of the New Testament, now based on the knowledge of the complete Qumran corpus and recent research trends. The topics discussed in this volume go far beyond the previous habit of compiling parallels and the question of possible dependencies. They include sociological issues of comparable group identity, questions of halakhah and liturgy, perspectives of performance criticism, and new historical insights into the growth of texts applied to the Synoptic tradition. Characterized by historical sobriety and caution, as well as hermeneutical awareness, the articles in this volume take the practice of textual comparison and the contextualization of the New Testament within the Scrolls to a promising new level.

The articles are in German, English, and French.

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Portier-Young, The Prophetic Body (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Prophetic Body

Embodiment and Mediation in Biblical Prophetic Literature

Anathea E. Portier-Young

£78.00

Hardback
Published: 29 August 2024
344 Pages
235x156mm
ISBN: 9780197604960

Also Available As:
Ebook

Description

Biblical prophecy involves more than words: it is always also embodied. After assessing the prevalence, implications, and origins of a logocentric model of biblical prophecy, Anathea E. Portier-Young proposes an alternative, embodied paradigm of analysis that draws insights from disciplines ranging from cognitive neuroscience to anthropology.

Portier-Young provides a new, embodied paradigm of analysis for biblical prophecy, offering tools for academics and students to study a wide range of texts with new emphasis on the body. If offers a broadly-based account of prophetic embodiment. The author first assesses the prevalence, implications, and origins of a logocentric model of biblical prophecy, then proposes an alternative, embodied, and interdisciplinary paradigm. She argues that embodied religious experience and affect are not merely antecedent or coincidental to prophetic mediation but are both means (how mediation occurs) and objects (part of what is mediated).

While Portier-Young's primary aim is to intervene in how biblical scholars understand and talk about prophecy, it has broader implications for how we map the relationships between spoken and written word(s) on one hand and body and praxis on the other. The author provides a game-changing reframing of prophecy that not only changes how we read biblical texts but also funds and energizes our understanding of prophetic witness in the contemporary world.

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Walter E. Aufrecht, R.I.P.

SAD NEWS: In memorium - Walter “Wally” E. Aufrecht (Kevin McGeough & Shawn Bubel, University of Lethbridge).

With sadness, we are writing to share the news that Walter “Wally” E. Aufrecht passed away in Calgary, Canada the morning of Saturday, September 21, 2024.

... Wally was perhaps best known for his pioneering work on the Ammonite language, encapsulated by the second edition of his A Corpus of Ammonite Inscriptions, published by Eisenbrauns in 2019. His chapters on Ammonite religion, texts, and language in MacDonald and Younker’s Ancient Ammon are good summations of his larger body of work on those topics. His contributions were not limited to the Transjordanian languages, however. ...

Requiescat in pace.

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Nutzman on Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Person, Place, and Object: Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine (Megan Nutzman).

I argue that three broad avenues for seeking miracles can be identified in Palestine, and indeed across the ancient Mediterranean world: person, place, and object. People were believed to transmit cures by their own intrinsic power or through the use of prescribed words and actions; sacred places hosted incubation rituals where the sick and injured awaited healing in their dreams; and objects inscribed with powerful texts and images were attached to the body as amulets to ward off present and future ailments.

As the essay notes, most of the published late-antique amulets from Palestine are unprovenanced (cf. here). As I've said many times, my methodological principle is that we should assume an unprovenanced artifact is a forgery unless someone makes a credible positive case for its authenticity.

In the case of these artifacts, we should draw initial conclusions based on the minority of amulets that come from controlled archaeological excavation. It is a judgment call on what to do with the unprovenanced ones, but if they are going to be used, their evidence should generally be given less weight than the provenanced ones.

With that out of the way, read the esssay, which takes a sophisticated cross-cultural contextual approach to the data. I have noted a review of Professor Nutzman's book, Contested Cures: Identity and Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine, here.

Outside the scope of this essay and her book, but the late-antique Hebrew magical tractate Sefer HaRazim includes ritual healing spells for generic healing, recovery from stroke, protection during childbirth, and curing migrane headaches and cataracts. It seems to have been composed roughly in the Talmudic era. Its provenance is unknown, but Egypt or Palestine are plausible.

Sefer HaRazim was translated by Michael Morgan in 1983 (details here). I have translated it again, forthcoming (April 2025!) in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2, drawing on much more manuscript information than was available to Morgan.

For addition posts on Sefer HaRazim see here and follow the links from here. Note also today's post here.

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Presentation on ancient art and ritual in Jewish worship practices

EVENT: CHAP presents Representing the Divine: Late Antique Jewish Art and Ritual (Porterville Recorder [California]).

Independent art historian and curator Rachel Schmid will explore the presence of ancient art and ritual in Jewish worship practices during the Porterville College Cultural and Historical Awareness Program presentation of “Representing the Divine: Late Antique Jewish Art and Ritual.” The event will take place on Friday, October 11 at 7 p.m. at the PC Theater.

For centuries, the prohibition against graven images in Jewish tradition has led to the misconception Jewish places of worship were always devoid of figurative art. However, recent discoveries have revealed a stunning array of beautifully decorated synagogues dating back to the 3rd-7th centuries CE.

[...]

The presentation is free. Follow the link for details.

For many (but by no means all) PaleoJudaica posts on ancient synagogues, follow the links from here. For pagan imagery in late-antique synagogues and in the late-antique magical tractate Sefer HaRazim, see here and links. There are many other posts on mosaic art in various ancient synagogues in Israel. See the archives.

Cross-file under Ancient Decorative Art and Iconography.

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Review of Eliav, A Jew in the Roman bathhouse

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: A Jew in the Roman bathhouse: cultural interaction in the ancient Mediterranean.

aron Z. Eliav, A Jew in the Roman bathhouse: cultural interaction in the ancient Mediterranean. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023. Pp. 392. ISBN 9780691243436.

Review by
Eleanor J. F. Martin, Yale University. eleanor.martin@yale.edu

... What truly sets Eliav’s work apart, however, is the way in which he goes about developing and validating the model of “filtered absorption”: his focus is not only on one particular group (the Jews, specifically those living in Judea/Syria Palaestina), but also on their engagement with one particular cultural institution (the public bathhouse). In doing so, he reconciles rabbinic literature—so often neglected by classicists working on the imperial Mediterranean—with the wealth of written, visual, and archaeological evidence for bathing culture in Roman Palestine and beyond, thereby putting in conversation two fields that have been kept distinct in unnecessary and unproductive ways. ...

I noted the publication of the book, and a related essay by the author, here.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 220

THE AMATEUR EXEGETE: Biblical Studies Carnival #220 (September 2024) (Ben).

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

Review of Hayes, The literature of the sages: a re-visioning

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The literature of the sages: a re-visioning.

Christine Hayes, The literature of the sages: a re-visioning. Compendia rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, 16. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2022. Pp. xi, 660. ISBN 9789004515420.

Review by
Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Tel Aviv University. rosenzvi@tauex.tau.ac.il

... The majority of the articles serve as concise summaries of monographs by the aforementioned scholars, effectively capturing the key theses. Maintaining a commendable equilibrium between primary sources and the current state of research, these articles meticulously distinguish between Babylonia and Roman Palestine, as well as between Tanaim and Amoraim. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Ancient Eshtemoa Synagogue defaced and burned

VANDALISM: Pro-Hamas vandals deface, burn ancient Judea synagogue. The Eshtemoa Synagogue south of Hebron dates to around the 4th century C.E. (Jewish News Syndicate).

Alas, this is not the first vandalism episode for this late-antique synagogue.

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Rosh HaShanah 2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR (ROSH HASHANAH - Jewish New Year 5785) to all those celebrating. The New Year begins tonight at sundown.

Pray for peace in the coming year.

Last year's Rosh HaShanah post, with links, is here. For biblical background, see here.

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

A Judeo-Egyptian in the third century BCE?

GREEK EPIGRAPHY: A Judeo-Egyptian Complains to King Ptolemy About His Neighbor. First record of ethnic identifier 'Judeo-Egyptian' revealed on petition to King Ptolemy. Could this papyrus fragment be the earliest extant petition in Greek to any ancient Egyptian king from a Jew? (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Long story short, apparently Palous' village was near the paleolake Moeris, separate work suggests, and he and a fellow villager were engaged in an argument – involving sheep – bitter enough to be brought before the mightiest one in the land. How was the dispute resolved? We do not know.

The underlying article in the current issue of the Journal of Jewish Studies (75.2) is behind the subscription wall: A Ptolemaic petition from a ‘Judeo-Egyptian’ (Ἰουδαιοαιγύπτιος). The abstract is free.

This papyrus intriguingly contains a very early use of some form of the Greek word for "Jew," ioudaios. I wrote some comments on the nuances of the word ioudaios some years ago here. And for more on that subject, see Paula Fredriksen's review of Steve Mason's recent book, Jews and Christians in the Roman World, noted today here.

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

The Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE)

THE AWOL BLOG: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE) Collections.

Formerly, the Harvard Semitic Museum. On the name change in 2020, see here. A couple of related posts are here and here.

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Review of Mason, Jews and Christians in the Roman world

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Jews and Christians in the Roman world: from historical method to cases.

Steve Mason, Jews and Christians in the Roman world: from historical method to cases. Ancient Judaism and early Christianity, 116. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2023. Pp. x, 691. ISBN 9789004543874.

Review by
Paula Fredriksen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. augfred@bu.edu

... “This is not a dump of stray essays,” Mason tells his reader in the introduction (1). It is, rather, a gathering of articles published in hard-to-access places—conference volumes, Festschriften, and various volumes of collected essays—that cohere around certain themes central to Mason’s work. A premier theme is historiography, modern no less than ancient. “What is historical method?” (1). ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

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One MOTB Afghan codex, not two

EXHIBITION AND CORRECTION: ‘Most exciting find in a millennium’: Oldest Hebrew book goes on display in DC. The eighth-century Afghan Liturgical Quire “pushes the history of the Jewish book back approximately 200 years,” said scholar Gary Rendsburg ( Menachem Wecker, Israel Today).

This long and informative article includes information I have not seen before. On that basis, I need to revise my previous conclusions about the manuscript.

When Steve Green, the president of Hobby Lobby, presented the book in 2013 at a Religion Newswriters Association conference, the founder of the museum and its board chair said that the manuscript dated to the ninth century.

(Original emphasis.) This paragraph establishes that the manuscript was first presented in 2013. That must mean that it is the "Hebrew siddur" noted at the time here. The discovery of its actual Afghani provenance in 2017 led to a new C-14 dating which established it eighth-century date.

As for its layout, the book currently on display seems to combine two originally independent quires, with more writing added after they were combined. Herschel Hepler, "associate curator of Hebrew manuscripts at the Museum of the Bible":

“I think there were two quires that had independent lives from this manuscript in the eighth century. One the Haggadah. One the beginning of a poem” about Sukkot, Hepler said. “Someone came into possession of these two different quires of four sheets of parchment and wanted to combine them, and I think this is the person who wrote the Sabbath morning prayers.”

Thus the codex appears to have inconsistent layouts. One widely posted photo of it (see links here) has 14-15 lines. The available photos I have seen of the 2013 book (e.g., here) have 11 lines. But a more recent photo of the current book also has 11 lines. And a photo in the Israel Today article shows 12 lines, one blank.

I conclude therefore that there is only one book, first presented in 2013 and now on display in the MOTB with new information. Please pardon the confusion.

Background here and links.

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Review of Mazza, Stolen Fragments

BOOK REVIEW: Inside the dangerous world of papyrus dealing. Frauds have infested the artefact trade (Alexander Poots, UnHerd).

Kardashian’s coffin made global news. The beautiful object, further burnished by its fleeting contact with television royalty, was a wonderful story. But not all stolen antiquities are so instantly arresting, so immediately recognisable, or so obviously priceless. Their value is measured not in beauty, but in what they can tell us about the ancient world, and they are just as vulnerable to trafficking as a gold coffin. Such objects are explored in a fascinating new book by Roberta Mazza, Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts.

A long and informative article. Regular PaleoJudaica readers will be familiar with much of its contents.

Roberta Mazza blogs at Faces & Voices. For the Museum of the Bible and the difficulties regarding some of its holdings, start from the links here. For posts on Dirk Obbink and the Oxford missing-papyri scandal, see there, plus follow-up posts here and links.

Cross-file under New Book.

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Meir, Rethinking Ancient Jewish Politics (PhD diss. University of Helsinki, 2023)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Dissertation Spotlight: Rethinking Ancient Jewish Politics: The Hasmonean Dynasty in the Seleukid Empire (Rotem Avneri Meir).

Rotem Avneri Meir, “The Emergence of the Hasmonean Dynasty on the Margins of the Seleukid Empire” (PhD diss., University of Helsinki, 2023).

... Was imperial rule indeed so antithetical to local agency, or was it in fact a facilitating factor in the formation and consolidation of local elite identities? Did the Hasmoneans and their supporters really espouse such an anti-imperial political theology as is often associated with them? What would change in our understanding of emerging Judaism and the Jewish political imagination if we were to reimagine the Hasmonean period without such a heavy emphasis on Jewish national and religious identity in opposition to empire? These are the questions that guided me in my dissertation, in which I revisit the emergence of the Hasmonean dynasty on the margins of the Seleukid empire. ...

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Abebe, Apocalyptic Spatiality in 1 Peter and Selected 1 Enoch Literature (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Sofanit Tamene Abebe. Apocalyptic Spatiality in 1 Peter and Selected 1 Enoch Literature. A Comparative Analysis. 2024. XIV, 209 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe (WUNT II) 613. €84.00 including VAT. sewn paper available 978-3-16-162230-4. Also Available As: eBook PDF €84.00.

Sofanit Tamene Abebe analyses the constructions of symbolic space in the later 1 Enoch texts and 1 Peter, and the extent to which their respective vision of reality is constructed on the basis of an axis linking heaven and earth through divine revelation. She argues that the revelatory basis on which the Enochic authors form their text gives their readers access to a new spatial reality. In 1 Peter, through recalling cultic spatial practices and significant events from Israel’s sacred past, she depicts how the addresses form the space where the divine dwells. Such a spatial construal reconstitutes them as the mobile axis linking heaven and earth. In this way, 1 Peter construes the readers’ corporate and corporeal existence in Roman Asia Minor within the Jewish matrix of exile as a mode of existence on an apocalyptic stage newly configured by Christ.

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CFP: Divination Techniques in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean World

THE MELAMMU PROJECT:

Divination Techniques in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean World

Twentyfifth Workshop of the Melammu Project
Sofia
29–30 May 2025

Organiser: Zozan Tarhan

Workshop Program

Divination and prophecy played an important role in decision-making in the ancient world. Royal courts, political elites, military commanders, and ordinary people relied on divination and prophecy to make the right decisions. The 25th Melammu Workshop is dedicated to divination techniques, provoked and unprovoked omens and prophecy in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean World. The workshop aims to analyse divination techniques, their development and the context they have been used in, the experts behind them, their conceptual setting, and their diffusion in the ancient world.

The call for papers, with more information, is here.

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Forty in the Bible

RABBI YEHUDA HAUSMAN: Forty: A Biblical Symbol of Completeness (TheTorah.com).

In biblical texts, the span of forty days or forty years is rarely a measure of precise time. Instead, it holds symbolic significance, shaping narratives in ways that transcend a literal interpretation.

If you liked forty, wait until you see seven!

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Runesson, Judaism for Gentiles (Mohr Siebeck, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Anders Runesson. Judaism for Gentiles. Reading Paul beyond the Parting of the Ways Paradigm. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 494. DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-161996-0. eBook PDF Open Access. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 978-3-16-161996-0. Also Available As: cloth €159.00.

For clergy, scholar, and lay person, Paul's letters hold weight and continue to draw in new readers. In this collection of essays, Anders Runesson listens to the voice of the historical Paul - a Jew proclaiming a form of Judaism to non-Jews to save them from divine wrath - but also probes what it means to breathe new life into this historical figure in the twenty-first century.

HT the AWOL Blog.

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Cover (ed.), Philo of Alexandria: On the Change of Names (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Philo of Alexandria: On the Change of Names

Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Series: Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, Volume: 8

Author: Michael Cover

In the treatise On the Change of Names (part of his magnum opus, the Allegorical Commentary), Philo of Alexandria brings his figurative exegesis of the Abraham cycle to its fruition. Taking a cue from Platonist interpreters of Homer’s Odyssey, Philo reads Moses’s story of Abraham as an account of the soul’s progress and perfection. Responding to contemporary critics, who mocked Genesis 17 as uninspired, Philo finds instead a hidden philosophical reflection on the ineffability of the transcendent God, the transformation of souls which recognize their mortal nothingness, the possibility of human faith enabled by peerless faithfulness of God, and the fruit of moral perfection: joy divine, prefigured in the birth of Isaac.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-68742-4
Publication: 15 Jan 2024
EUR €219.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-68743-1
Publication: 08 Feb 2024
EUR €219.00

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