DASTARDLY FELINE FORGERY! Ancient Egyptians Sold Fake Cats.

ED COOK has obtained a copy of the forgery indictment (the original Hebrew) and is posting information from it. He hopes to have the whole text posted on his website before long.

UPDATE: It's now available in a PDF-format link at the same posting. Also, a commenter to the post says that an English translation will be put on the IAA website soon.

A SECOND-TEMPLE-ERA WINERY AND VILLAGE have been uncovered in a salvage excavation in Israel. Excerpt from the Ha'aretz article:

Five wine presses surrounded the farmhouse, built in the third century BCE, on land between what today is Moshav Gan Sorek and the Tel Aviv-Ashdod highway.

[...]

The winery's customers also included residents of the closest settlements. One of these settlements was a large village barely half a kilometer north of the farmhouse, and was completely unknown until the salvage excavations conducted by Uzi Ed, Angelina Dagot and Kareem Sa'id of the Israel Antiquities Authority in the latter months of 2004.

The village covers more than 15 dunams (3.75 acres) and the dig uncovered what looks like its southern residential neighborhood and its industrial zone. Among the buildings and facilities found by the archaeologists were a kiln for firing pottery and a reservoir pit that apparently was part of an agricultural compound that did not survive, designed to collect the sediment waste from liquid that gathered in it - either water or grape juice. East of the village are 11 round pits believed to have been used for dumping garbage, as they contained mainly cinders and animal bones.

I CONGRATULATED HELENANN HARTLEY privately on passing her D.Phil. viva as soon as I got her e-mail yesterday. But I want to do so again publicly, now that she has mentioned it on her blog. Well done, Helenann! Another St. Andrews alum makes good.

OXYRHYNCHUS-PAPYRI-SALE UPDATE: In June of 2003, I noted the sale of 29 Oxyrhynchus papyri by Colgate Rochester Divinity School (Crozer Theological Seminary) to persons unknown. It later developed that Macquarie University in Australia bought three of them. Now a fourth, a fragment of the Gospel of John, has resurfaced on display at the Ink and Blood exhibit about to open in Knoxville, Tennessee. The following post has just gone up on the Textual Criticism list:

Forwarded from M. Robinson:

-----------------------------------------------------
As I recall, there was some concern last Spring regarding the U. of Pennsylvania's sale of p39 to an unknown party, which had people wondering whether this fragment would ever be viewable again, etc.

In case no one has found the answer, it appears here:

http://www.inkandblood.com/exhibit/exhibit_artifacts.php

Gospel of John Fragment - The Gospel of John fragment (8:14-22) from the 3rd Century is an Oxyrinchus [Sic - JRD] Papyrus known as the P39 in scholarly circles. It is one of the earliest witnesses in existence to any portion of The New Testament.

The owner corporation (who will let you look at the fragment among its traveling exhibits for US$15) is:

Ink & Blood
111 West College Street
Murfreesboro, TN 37130

-----------------------------------------------------

There are good online images at:
http://www.atla.com/digitalresources/searcha.asp

keyword=swasey title=john
(safe the images!)

Best wishes
Wieland [Willker, listowner]

As above, it was the Crozer Theological Seminary that sold the papyri, not the University of Pennsylvania. The Ink and Blood exhibit appears to be a breakaway from the From Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America exhibition (which is still on tour), created after a falling out among the organizers.

THE SITE OF BABYLON is to remain closed until damage to it has been assessed:

Babylon to remain closed until damage known
Mon Jan 17, 2005 06:35 PM GMT

By Waleed Ibrahim

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Babylon -- home to one of the seven wonders of the world -- will remain closed until experts determine how much damage foreign forces had done to the site, Iraq's culture minister says.

A British Museum report published at the weekend said U.S. and Polish troops had damaged the ancient city, fabled home of the Hanging Gardens, by setting up a military base among the ruins in April 2003 after the invasion of Iraq.

"We want to know the full facts about Babylon's condition," Culture Minister Mofeed al-Jazaeri told a news conference on Monday.

"Babylon will stay closed until an international team is formed to determine the damage, document it and recommend what should be done to restore the city."

And the Poles have responded further to the charges:

Earlier on Monday, Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said that contrary to the British Museum report, the presence of foreign troops in Babylon had saved it.

"If it wasn't for the Americans, Babylon would have been looted like all other museums in Iraq ... and we would now be buying back Babylon artefacts on bazaars and markets," he said.

Szmajdzinski told public radio Jedynka local authorities and archaeologists were consulted over all decisions affecting ancient sites at the base.

"Surely mistakes were made at the beginning, but nobody knows what Babylon was like before the Americans took over. Since arriving, we have carried out full documentation of the site," he said.

The Polish Culture Ministry will soon issue a 500-page report on Babylon, he added.

I have not yet been able to find a U.S. response beyond what I cited in the update to yesterday's post.

ARAMAIC WATCH: Here's another sign that Aramaic too has become a cultural icon after Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. From a review in the Seattle Times of what seems to be an aptly titled novel:

"How I Became Stupid"

In this pithy, subversive debut, French novelist Martin Page taps into a feeling that afflicts many of us but that few act on � that life might be easier if we weren't so painfully aware of the world's woes or the pitifulness of our lives.

That's what young Aramaic scholar Antoine believes, and he's determined to do something about it. "Intelligence," he's convinced, "makes you unhappy, lonely and poor." It also, he finds, paralyzes you by always letting you see both sides of an issue.

After earnest attempts at alcoholism and suicide (he only gets as far as attending a pro-suicide support group), Antoine turns to his family doctor � and asks for a lobotomy.

What he gets instead is a prescription to Happyzac.

[...]

The Aramaists I've know have generally been better adjusted than that.

THE GREEK TEXT OF THE SEPTUAGINT is coming soon over at Zhubert's Blog. More details here.

A MACINTOSH BIBLIOBLOG: My prayers are answered! Welcome, Joe.

(Via Hypotyposeis.)

"IS BIBLICAL HEBREW A LANGUAGE?" Maybe not. What's the word for spoon? In a first installment, Seth Sanders reflects.

BABYLON DAMAGED BY MILITARY CAMP: If this story is accurate, it's appalling.

U.S.-led forces damaged ancient Babylon
Sat Jan 15, 2005 01:44 PM GMT

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces, using Iraq's ancient city of Babylon as a military base, have caused "substantial damage" to one of the world's most renowned archaeological treasures, a British Museum report says.

The report said U.S. and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilisation and home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Archaeological fragments were used to fill sand bags, it added.

[...]

However, the Polish military is denying that they damaged the site:

Polish military deny damaging Babylon
Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:53 PM GMT

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Defence Ministry has denied charges that Polish troops in Iraq had damaged the site of ancient Babylon, one of the world's most famous archaeological treasures, while using it as a military base.

"Neither Polish troops, nor any other troops under Polish command, ever carried out any projects violating historical monuments or causing their devastation," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Piotr Pertek said on Sunday.

"Our soldiers never engaged in any efforts to strengthen the security of Camp Babylon without consulting Iraq's monument preservation authorities."

So far, I can't find any response from the U.S. military. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Here's a brief response, quoted in the L.A. Times (requires free registration) via Archaeological News:

Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said all engineering works were discussed with the head of the Babylon museum. "An archeologist examined every construction initiative for its impact on historical ruins," he said.

I think this needs to be addressed rather more thoroughly. Do they acknowledge that the damage happened? If so, how did it come about?

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION in Mobile Alabama is covered again in this A.P. article. It also mentions an associated lecture series.

Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit brings Bible history to Bible Belt

GARRY MITCHELL

Associated Press

MOBILE, Ala. - An exhibition of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls opening Thursday in Mobile will include lectures from some of the world's leading religious scholars, bringing Bible history to the Bible Belt.

[...]

[Exploreum spokeswoman Shannon] Lipscomb said at least 1,000 tickets have been sold for the lecture series, which has been relocated to nearby Christ Episcopal Church because only 177 seats were available in the Exploreum's theater. Advance sales for the exhibit had reached 38,000 a week before it opened.

Hebrew University professor Emmanuel Tov, editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scroll Publication Project, leads off the lecture series on Feb. 15.

Others in the lecture series are: Notre Dame University's James VanderKam and Eugene Ulrich; Claremont School of Theology's James Sanders, the first scholar to unroll and study the Psalms scroll in the 1960s; Duke University's Eric Meyers; Bruce Zuckerman of the University of Southern California; New York University's Lawrence Schiffman; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's Steve Ortiz, director of the Center for Archeological Research; Trinity Western University's Peter Flint of Canada; and Millsaps College's James E. Bowley.

[...]

PAUL NIKKEL over at Deinde is blogging the British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology conference just held in Oxford. I like the dangerous liasons with hypothetical Sanballats.

SOME INTERESTING NEWS about Nicole Kidman:

KIDMAN'S SECRET STUDIES (Contactmusic.com, UK)

Actress NICOLE KIDMAN is currently studying the Old Testament in secret at California's Pepperdine University, so she can keep a teenage promise to her parents.

[...]

"At the moment I'm studying the Old Testament through a professor who teaches at Pepperdine University.

"Through that I'm able to study Israel, Palestine and the Middle East and the politics of it. I do it to relax on weekends and one night a week."

Some Old Testament professors have all the luck.

MORE ON THE "JERUSALEM SYNDROME" FILM to be shown in Dundee, Scotland, from the Scotsman.

MORE FROM BART EHRMAN on the Da Vinci Code: He's written a book refuting it, which we're told took all of two weeks to write. This Herald Sun/A.P. article also gives a clearer account of what he says about the Dead Sea Scrolls, phrased more accurately and doubtlessly closer to what he actually said.

Also not true, Ehrman says. In fact, the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient writings discovered in caves near Jerusalem in 1947, were authored by a group of single, celibate Jewish men called The Essenes.

"The idea that a Jewish man couldn't be single is ludicrous," Ehrman said. "There were, in fact, single men in the ancient time and they had world views much like Jesus."

Further, a character in "The Da Vinci Code" refers to the Dead Sea Scrolls as one of Christianity's earliest writings. That claim, too, was a head-scratcher for Ehrman, pointing out once again the ancient scrolls were written by Jews.

"There's nothing Christian about the Dead Sea Scrolls," he said.

THE SCHOTTENSTEIN ARTSCROLL TRANSLATION OF THE TALMUD is nearly complete, with the 73rd and final volume coming out next month. This JewishTimes.com article discusses it at length. Here's an evaluation of a Talmud scholar:

Rabbi Judith Hauptman, a professor of Talmud at the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, called the Artscroll translation "a marvelous teaching tool" that allows her students to come to class better prepared.

Still, Hauptman said, when she has a question about a particular talmudic word's meaning, she does not go to the Schottenstein translation for an explanation.

"It is an ideological translation," Hauptman said. "They have a certain point of view � that the Talmud is the greatest book of the Jewish people and the Talmud is always right � and they translate accordingly, which can sometimes be frustrating."

As I've said before, I am not a Talmudist. Any other specialists in the Talmud want to comment on it?

MORE ON THE SBL RESOLUTION: Maxine Grossman has taken up my challenge and has drafted another resolution with the same aims as the first. She writes:

During the United States election of 2004, an equation was made between specific political arguments and the concept of "moral values" or "biblical values." This claim confuses politics with theology and fundamentally misunderstands both the history of the Bible and its place in contemporary faith communities.

As an organization of professional Bible scholars we share the consensus that biblical texts are diverse in their origins and their theologies, and that they are always understood through the filter of present-day concerns and interpretations.

Interpretations of the Bible can vary widely, but all such interpretations are selective. A "literal" approach, itself a thoroughly modern response to critical Bible scholarship, has no greater claim to theological legitimacy than any other approach, and it is, if anything, less reflective of the history of biblical interpretation since its origins.

A serious and sincere interpreter of the Bible can find support in its texts for almost any political view on issues including abortion, gay marriage, and stem cell research. To say otherwise, or to equate one's own political agenda with "biblical morality" to the exception of all others', is both a bad reading of the Bible and a marker of bad faith.

We call upon those who would base their political arguments on exclusive scriptural claims to recognize the hubris of such practices and the damage that they do to civil discourse on issues of concern to all of us.


Comments?

For the record, y'all, I want to say that I voted in favor of the SBL's statement, and I will do so again if that is the one they approve. I may not agree with all of its content, but I think the issues are too important to ignore. Why should other people's politics be a measure of my morality?

I like this a lot better than the first one. I may have more comments on it as they come to me. As for the last paragraph of her message, I think the last sentence cuts both ways, which is why I voted against the statement. What I really like about Max's statement is that it addresses the "biblical values" question from the viewpoint of a biblical scholar without advocating a specific political position. I consider that public service (i.e., contributing our expertise to the public debate) without it being political activism (which I use to mean advocating a particular political line). I still think the latter should be an individual matter. But thanks to Dr. Grossman for contributing to the debate and for helping me clarify my own thinking on it.

THE FROM THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS TO THE BIBLE IN AMERICA EXHIBITION is now on display in Charlotte, North Carolina.

TIMBUKTU ARCHIVES UPDATE:

Rich Trove of Islamic Tradition (Navhind Times)

An exhibition of 400-year-old Islamic manuscripts from Timbuktu that was originally mounted at the Library of Congress in 2003 will be featured in Jackson, Mississippi, in fall 2005 before circulating around the United States. ....

The manuscripts, written in Arabic, Hebrew and Greek, date from the 16th through the 18th centuries. They come from the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library and the Library of Cheick Zayni Baye in Timbuktu, Mali. Timbuktu, a city celebrated in western verse for its exotic locale, was for centuries a significant religious, cultural and commercial outpost of Islam, and a center for Islamic book production. There, the written word, along with intricate calligraphy in bound sheaves, fostered an important industry in book selling, rivaling all other local trades.

[...]

The manuscripts presented in the exhibition are samples of scholarly treatises that explore such diverse topics as medicine, science, religion, history and commerce - topics central to the intellectual life of Islam and the era. Many of the manuscripts had remained in the hands of private collectors after being zealously guarded during the colonial period by Malian families to prevent pilfering by Europeans. ...

Hebrew and Greek, as well as Arabic. More and more interesting.