"JESUS, MARY AND DA VINCI" is reviewed by Slate Magazine (via Protocols). This documentary, if it even deserves to be called one, sounds pretty lame. This excerpt of the review sums it up nicely:

To Vargas' and the producers' credit, they trot out some impressive scholars to comment, including Elaine Pagels, Jack Wasserman, and Umberto Eco. While many of the interviewees express polite interest in the theoretical ramifications of this notion, they can't shed any real light on the question. Yes, the Catholic Church has had problems dealing with sex and women. And it behaved extremely badly at times, the Crusades and the Inquisition being two shameful examples. But those sad facts do not a conspiracy make. As titillating or shocking as the idea of Jesus having sex might be, we just don't know if he did. The few historical texts we can refer to, including recently recovered ones like the Gospel of Thomas, don't mention Mary's relationship to Jesus, and so they don't bring us closer to the truth.

The film no doubt aims to encourage religious discussion by bringing an incendiary theory to light. But any debate on this topic is bound to be fruitless and frustrating since hard facts simply don't exist to support it. In the end, the film only provides extra (unnecessary) publicity for Brown's best-selling novel.

NEW BOOK REVIEWS FROM THE REVIEW OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE:

Chiesa, Bruno
Filologia storica della Bibbia ebraica
Reviewed by Paul Sanders

Devens, Monica S.
A Concordance to Psalms in the Ethiopic Version
Reviewed by Stephen Ryan

Laurent, Francoise
Les biens pour rien en Qohéleth 5,9-6,6 ou La traversée d'un contraste
Reviewed by James L Crenshaw

DER ZEITSCHRIFT FUR DIE ALTTESTAMENTLICHE WISSENSCHAFT has a new issue out (115.3). Unfortunately, it is not online, but here are some articles of interest in it:

pp. 388-400
Remarks on Ben Sira's >>Instruction on Shame<<, Sirach 41,14-42,8
Reymond, E. D.

pp. 401-422
Questions about the Great Flood, as Viewed by Philo, Pseudo-Philo, Josephus, and the Rabbis
Feldman, L. H.

pp. 433-434
Prov 5,19c: (non-Roman script word)
Zalcman, L.

pp. 435-439
The Righteous Sage: Pleonasm or Oxymoron? (Kohelet 7,16-18)
Shnider, S.; Zalcman, L.

AN OLD TESTAMENT SCHOLAR named Lisa Davison will tell Protestants to pay more attention to the "First Testament" in a lecture at Eureka College tonight. Good for her. She also weighs in on the relevance (or lack thereof) of the Hebrew Bible for the current debate on homosexuality in mainline churches.

NAOMI CHANA OF BARAITA weighs in on Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ, especially the alleged Agreda/Emmerich connections. Turns out she knows something about the works of both authors and she'll be able to tell us if Gibson is using them once the movie comes out. If he is, she's going to protest strenously and so will I. But if I remember correctly, he's denied it, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Also, scroll up for "Signs That You Are A Hopeless Humanities Geek." I'm afraid it sounds all too familiar.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES: David Meadows in Explorator 6.27 notes articles on two new technologies that could become important for ancient history and archaeology. One is a virtual book system that could allow you to have the sensation of holding an ancient manuscript or scroll in your hands. The other is "X-Ray software" that could help map out an archaeological site before a spade of soil is turned. At this point the latter is just being used to see what is under modern houses around Liverpool, but who knows what the future holds?

"JESUS, MARY AND DA VINCI" is a television special inspired by The Da Vinci Code and evidently it suggests that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that perhaps they had childred. I have already discussed this idea here and here. The only thing I can think of to add is that even if Jesus was married, I think it's very unlikely he had any childred, at least who lived to adulthood. The early Jesus movement was interested in the family of Jesus and preserved quite a few traditions about them. I can't imagine that they wouldn't have kept track of the careers of Jesus' children if he had any. For more on the family of Jesus, see my colleague Richard Bauckham's book Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church.

UPDATE: Here's more on the show from the New York Times and the Washington Times. Granted, I haven't seen it, but it doesn't sound very credible.

THE INDIANA JONES TRILOGY DVD is a record-breaking bestseller in the U.S.A. (via Archaeology Magazine News).

MAIA MORGENSTERN, a Romanian Jewish actress, plays the Virgin Mary in Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ (the article is from New California Media). Here are excerpts (but it's worth reading in full):

Critics have denounced the hyper-realistic drama as a modern version of the medieval passion play, blaming Jews for the death of Jesus. But Morgenstern, 41, doesn�t view the film as anti-Semitic.

Yes, the villain is the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas, she said from her Bucharest home. But he clearly represents the regime, not the Jewish people. "Authorities throughout history have persecuted individuals with revolutionary ideas," she said.

Morgenstern feels "The Passion" opposes such oppression. "It is about letting people speak openly about what they think and believe," she said. "It denounces the madness of violence and cruelty, which if unchecked can spread like a disease."

Morgenstern�s family experienced such violence during World War II. Her grandfather disappeared after being arrested in his native Transnistria, a conflicted region near the Ukraine; her father survived Nazi and Stalinist labor camps.

[...]

Morgenstern eventually became a star of Bucharest�s National Theatre and more than 30 Eastern European films. In Maria Meszaros� "The Seventh Room," she played Edith Stein, the Jew who died as a nun in Auschwitz and was canonized in 1998. Between scenes shot just outside the camp gates, Morgenstern � who shaved her head for the role � perused Nazi records and discovered her grandfather had died in the camp.

[...]

Over the course of the production, Morgenstern emphasized, not a single scene struck her as anti-Semitic. Characters such as Mary and John are sympathetic Jews, and Gibson "allowed me to make suggestions based on my Jewish culture," she said. In the scene in which Mary learns Jesus has been arrested, it was Morgenstern�s idea to whisper the Passover question, "Why is this night different from all other nights?"

When visiting reporters asked why a Jewish actress was portraying Jesus� mother, she replied, "I played Clytemnestra in �Oresteia,� and it didn�t mean I killed my husband. And as far as I know, Mary was a Jewish lady, so I think it is very normal."

Incidentally, I know women married very young in antiquity, but is it realistic to have a 41-year-old woman play the mother of a man in his thirties? Or is this just because everyone in a Hollywood movie has to look young and beautiful?

ALL SOUL'S DAY is today. This article from the Manila Bulletin discusses the ancient background (esp. 2 Maccabees 12:39-45) and history of this Catholic holiday. (Scroll down to the Opinion/Editorial link to the All Soul's Day article and click on it. Linking to the article itself doesn't seem to work.) All Soul's Day follows All Saint's Day, yesterday, and All Hallow's Eve, on Friday; the last was also Samhain, the ancient Celtic new year.

UPDATE: The link to the article is http://www.mb.com.ph/news.php?search=yes&art=41715§=3&fname=OPED/2003-11/OE03110141715f.txt. Try it. It may work for you; it's working for me sometimes, but not as a link to a blog entry here. I don't know why.

JIM WEST has just started a Biblical Studies blog that deals with both Hebrew Bible and New Testament and also with related fields such as archaeology.

PROFESSOR WILLIAM G. DEVER will be lecturing in the Berkshires in November on �The Age of Solomon: Biblical Revisionism, Archaeology, and Anti-Semitism� according to iBerkshires.com (scroll down to the second half of the article).

NOAH'S CURSE OF HAM and how it has been used to justify enslavement of Africans is the subject of an article in the New York Times. It surveys the findings of a number of scholars.

From Noah's Curse to Slavery's Rationale
By FELICIA R. LEE

Published: November 1, 2003

As stories go, this one has all the elements of good soap opera: nudity, sex and dysfunctional families.

For many scholars, though, the enigmatic tale in Genesis 9 describing how Noah cursed the descendants of his son Ham with servitude remains a way to explore the complex origins of the concept of race: how and why did people begin to see themselves as racially divided?


In the biblical account, Noah and his family are not described in racial terms. But as the story echoed through the centuries and around the world, variously interpreted by Islamic, Christian and Jewish scholars, Ham came to be widely portrayed as black; blackness, servitude and the idea of racial hierarchy became inextricably linked.

By the 19th century, many historians agree, the belief that African-Americans were descendants of Ham was a primary justification for slavery among Southern Christians.

The debate about just what the story of Ham and Noah means has marched on into the 21st century. Today scholars are increasingly reading documents in the authors' original languages and going further back in time and to more places, as well as calling on disciplines like sociology and classics. Their ambitions are also bigger than just parsing Ham.

[...]

ACCESS TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT was limited by the Israelis for Muslim visitors during the first Friday of Ramadan.

I BELONG IN THE SECOND LEVEL OF HELL according to the Dante's Inferno Test (heads-up, Torrey Seland). Apparently I scored well for level five too. I'm surprised I didn't score better for level six, though. I'm a historical-critical biblical scholar, after all. Go figure.

For a long time I've hoped I could just squeak by into Limbo. At least I'm close.

Enjoy the test, but don't blame me if they keep your answers and blackmail you.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

HERE'S AN ARAB PERSPECTIVE on the Petra exhibit in New York, published in the Daily Star, Lebanon:

Petra exhibit in New York strives to alter perceptions
Most visitors viewing artifacts displayed in museum associate works with ancient history, not current Arab culture

UPDATE: And here's an account of a yoga and New Age spirituality retreat at Petra attended by Jordanians and an Iraqi, with a German teacher. Now is that multicultural or what?

HERE'S A WEBSITE on archaeological dating techniques (via Anita Cohen William's Archaeology Online blog). Includes some cool animation.

HERE'S A STATEMENT ON NORTH AMERICAN STUDENTS STUDYING IN ISRAEL (via the H-Judaic list):

Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 14:38:08 -0500
From: Ariella Brown
Subject: Statement on North American Undergraduate Study in Israeli Universities

The American Academy for Jewish Research, the Association For Jewish Studies, and the National Association Of Professors Of Hebrew have issued a statement expressing their concern over the restrictions imposed by numerous American and Canadian universities on undergraduates who wish to participate in "semester abroad" programs of study in Israel and asking university administrators to review their policies and remove impediments
to such study.

Please publicize and disseminate this statement widely.

The statement follows:

American Academy for Jewish Research
Association for Jewish Studies
National Association of Professors of Hebrew

Statement on North American Undergraduate Study in Israeli Universities


Over the past three years, the sharp decline in the number of North
American undergraduate students in "study abroad" programs at Israeli universities has had a severe and deleterious impact on academic Jewish Studies Programs in the United States and Canada. Students in such programs have been shown to benefit greatly from the language study and other subject specialization opportunities that can be found only at Israeli universities.

As presidents of the three major academic organizations of Jewish Studies faculty in North America, we wish to express our alarm at the policies of North American universities that serve to dissuade, discourage, prevent or even prohibit students who decide to study in Israel from doing so.

We recognize legitimate concerns for safety and the cautionary advice given by the State Department about travel in Israel. But we believe that, rather than cancel programs or prohibit study, universities should base the decision to award university credit for academic work done elsewhere solely on academic criteria and that no penalty should be imposed on students who have chosen freely and of their own volition to participate in such programs.

We call upon the administrations of American universities to review their policies on study in Israel in order to remove obstacles created by administrative decisions that are not germane to academic standards, so as to allow students to pursue their legitimate academic goals.

Shmuel Bolozky
(University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
President
National Association of Professors of Hebrew
(413) 545-2550

Lawrence H. Schiffman
(New York University)
President
Association for Jewish Studies
(212) 998-8980

David B. Ruderman
(University of Pennsylvania)
President
American Academy for Jewish Research
(215) 238-1290
The statement may also be viewed on the
AJS Website at
http://www.brandeis.edu/ajs/Study%20Abroad%20statement%20NAPH-AJS-AAJR.html

Yours sincerely,

Aaron L. Katchen
Executive Director
Association for Jewish Studies

HERE'S A BOSTON GLOBE REVIEW by Scott Bernard Nelson of two new books by Bart D. Ehrman on early Christian noncanonical literature and traditions (via Bible and Interpretation News). Excerpts:

In "Lost Scriptures," Ehrman provides English translations -- many of them his own -- of 47 nonbiblical texts written by early Christians and later unearthed by theologians, historians, and archeologists. In each case, he provides a short explanation of when and where the writing was found and how he believes it compares and contrasts with the New Testament. Virtually all were, at various times by various Christians, considered sacred.

It can be a fascinating exercise to, say, read the "Apocalypse of Peter," considered canonical by a number of early churches and thought to be the inspiration for Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy," alongside the biblical revelation of John. Or to puzzle your way through the "Gospel of Thomas," discovered in an Egyptian grave in 1945 and attributed to Didymus Judas Thomas, who some believe was Christ's brother. The text claims to record 114 direct quotes from Jesus, and some scholars have sparked controversy by saying those might be closer to what Christ actually taught than anything in the New Testament.

Perhaps most interesting, Ehrman includes five lists from early Christian writers discussing which books should and should not be counted as scripture. The variety of suggestions shows that the specifics of what we know today as the New Testament were in flux well into the fourth century. The first author to claim that the 27 books of the New Testament were, in fact, the one and true scripture was the bishop of Alexandria in AD 367 -- almost 3 1/2 centuries after Christ's crucifixion.

[�]

But who made the decisions about which books to include in the canon and which to exclude? And why? The Apostles themselves -- and anyone who knew anyone who knew the Apostles -- were long gone by the fourth century.

An analysis of these questions fills Ehrman's companion volume, "Lost Christianities." In it, he presents the major strains of early Christianity and explains how each feuded bitterly with the others. He also discusses how and why the group representing the closest thing to modern-day Christianity ultimately won out, leading to a statement of beliefs at the First Ecumenical Council in AD 325, which dictated that followers were to believe that there is one God, that he created the world, that Jesus his son is both human and divine, and that Jesus' death brought the world salvation, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.

Read it all.

HYPOTYPOSEIS is a new blog on biblical studies (so far New Testament and patristics) by Stephen C. Carlson (via Mark Goodacre). Recently he has discussed, inter alia the Secret Gospel of Mark, scholarship and copyright law, and ancient forgeries.