QUMRAN, ESSENE SKEPTICISM, and a Latin preposition. This is an old argument, but it's interesting to see it turning up in the popular media.

HINTS OF WEALTH in Second Temple Jerusalem:

Silver found in 2,000-year-old Jerusalem pottery hints at city's wealth during late Second Temple period
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

Unusually high concentrations of silver have been found during excavations in Jerusalem's Old City by Bar-Ilan University researchers in samples of different types of pottery from late Second Temple period some two millennia ago.

[...]

The geographical distribution of the samples with high silver cannot be explained by natural causes, said the researchers, who deduced that the origin of the silver is related to human activity. The team also concluded that silver was washed into the pottery by the action of groundwater - but it is possible that in some cases the high silver may have been related to the use of the pottery in antiquity.

[...]

MORE ON SEAN KINGSLEY'S THEORY that the Temple treasures were hidden in the Monastery of Theodosius in the early seventh century: YnetNews has an interview with him. Excerpt:

'Best left locked away'
Despite the prospect that the Temple artifacts could be so close to home, Kingsley warns of the dangers of attempting to retrieve them. " So many dangerous dreams for messianic redemption hinge on this Jewish birthright that I believe it would remain far safer for humanity locked away in the cleansing soils of the Holy Land, dreamt over but not recovered," Kingsley says.

He adds: "The Temple Mount is the centre of world religion but also a seething volcano of human hatred in the Arab-Israeli conflict. It takes very little provocation for all hell to break loose in Jerusalem. The Temple treasure should today be a global treasure that unites people, not a political tool validating the construction of a Third Temple on the Haram al-Sharif. If the menorah's Diaspora over the centuries tells us anything then it is a wise lesson about the irrationality of religious fanaticism: every power that sought to imprison this icon eventually crumbled into dust."

Where is the Menora?
Kingsley says that the fate of the Temple Menora, the official symbol of the State of Israel, is likely tied to the other artifacts pillaged by Rome: "Most of the splendours of the Temple were eagerly liquidated into cash by the emperor Vespasian who needed 4,000 million sesterces (£2.25 billion) to get the (Roman) empire back on an even keel after civil war, anarchy and the great fire of Rome of AD 64 left the Eternal City looking worn out. The menora, silver trumpets and Table of the Divine Presence were acknowledged as key symbols of power. Control these and you controlled heaven, the seas and all between. Rome knew that the menora was a hotline to God and was keen to 'imprison' this divine power for its own benefit. The same held true for subsequent possessors – Vandals and Byzantines."

He also weighs in on the Waqf's treatment of the Temple Mount. Read it all.

This is an interesting theory, but I hope it doesn't lead to a bunch of treasure-hunting loonies ransacking the grounds of the monastery.

THE SEATTLE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBIT is reviewed at MSNBC's Cosmic Log:

Scrolls of mystery
Posted: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 6:38 PM by Alan Boyle
Categories: Religion, Science

The controversies surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls are still lively, 2,000 years after they were written, and more than half a century after they were found hidden within the caves of the Judean desert. To get a sense of the mysteries surrounding those ancient fragments, there's nothing like seeing them up close - and that's exactly what I did last week at Seattle's Pacific Science Center during the run-up to its big-ticket exhibit, "Deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls."


Israel Antiquities Authority via Pacific Science Center
This fragment from a calendrical document measures
about 2.5 inches by 4 inches (6 by 10.6 centimeters).

From a couple of feet away, many of the pieces look rather mundane: tattered bits from a shopping list that's gone through the laundry, perhaps, or yellowed wallpaper that's been scraped off a wall, or even ragged pieces from a jigsaw puzzle.

[...]

It's a good, thoughtful review that includes ancillary information, for example, on Peleg and Magen's alternative interpretation of the site of Qumran.

BLOG WATCH: These are a few blog posts I've been meaning to mention. Shai Heijmans tells us about his doctoral dissertation at the Hebrew and Aramaic Philology blog. Shai also gives an English outline of the latest issue of the Hebrew Journal Lishonenu. At Ricoblog, Rick Brannan notes that Metzger's List of Sahidic Coptic Words is now available online. I got the print version back in the 1970s and have used it a little, although not recently. At the Thoughts on Antiquity blog, Ben C. Smith has been posting on ancient canonical lists. Note this one on the Muratorian Canon.

As for me, this is the first week of class, I'm swamped with meetings, and I have a conference in Canada coming up this weekend. Blogging may be late and light for a while!

THE TEMPLE TREASURES FOUND?

Treasures looted by Rome 'are back in the Holy Land
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent (London Times)

A COLLECTION of sacred artefacts looted by the Romans from the Temple of Jerusalem and long suspected of being hidden in the vaults of the Vatican are actually in the Holy Land, according to a British archaeologist.

Sean Kingsley, a specialist in the Holy Land, claims to have discovered what became of the collection, which is widely regarded as the greatest of biblical treasures and includes silver trumpets that would have heralded the Coming of the Messiah.

The trumpets, gold candelabra and the bejewelled Table of the Divine Presence were among pieces shipped to Rome after the looting in AD70 of the Temple, the most sacred building in the ancient Jewish faith.

After a decade of research into previously untapped ancient texts and archaeological sources, Dr Kingsley has reconstructed the treasure’s route for the first time in 2,000 years to provide evidence that it left Rome in the 5th century.

He has discovered that it was taken to Carthage, Constantinople and Algeria before being hidden in the Judaean wilderness, beneath the Monastery of Theodosius.

[...]

I would be delighted if this were true, but I am extremely skeptical. I'll believe it when I see the treasures. At the end of the article we read "Dr Kingsley will reveal his findings in God’s Gold: The Quest for the Lost Temple Treasure of Jerusalem, to be published by John Murray on October 5." Should be interesting to read. Dr. Kingsley is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Reading. Here is information on him from their Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies website:

Sean Kingsley
MA DPhil: Editor of the leading international archaeology and history of ancient art magazine 'Minerva'. A leading expert on maritime archaeology and specialist on the Byzantine Holy Land and trade in Late Antiquity, Dr Kingsley has conducted excavations and surveys of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean and publishes extensively on Byzantine pottery.

The Monastery of Theodosius near Bethlehem doesn't seem to have a website, but here's some information about it.

For more on the lost Temple treasures, see here. I have been working on Massekhet Kelim lately but, no, I still haven't come into sudden wealth.

UPDATE ON THE MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE CONTROVERSY:

Jerusalem Tolerance Museum Sparks Fight

By MATTI FRIEDMAN
Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM
The Museum of Tolerance started off with good intentions, over $100 million in donations, an eye-catching design by architect Frank Gehry, a 2004 kickoff ceremony attended by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a great piece of Jerusalem real estate.

But underneath that real estate, it turned out, there were Muslim graves. As a result, instead of bringing this contentious city's warring tribes together, the museum has sparked a fight with political, religious and historical dimensions between Muslims and Jews - and all this before it has even been built.

Months of arbitration have ended in deadlock, the site is enclosed in aluminum walls, and the dispute is now before Israel's Supreme Court. Even if the court gives the go-ahead, however, the Museum of Tolerance could well remain permanently tainted by allegations of intolerance.

[...]

TECHNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS is surveyed in this article:

Analyzing Dead Sea Scrolls evolves from carbon to DNA

By TOM PAULSON
P-I REPORTER

From the very beginning, science and technology have played a critical role in the authentication, restoration and analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

"There have been a number of remarkable technological achievements that have helped us better understand the scrolls," said Scott Noegel, a University of Washington expert on Near Eastern languages and literature.

"I think the coolest has been the use of DNA analysis," added R. Bryce Seidl, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Science Center.

[...]

LILITH gets a blurb in the Dallas Morning News.

CLERGY ARE INTERVIEWED about the Dead Sea Scrolls in the latest from the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

Scrolls' fragments bring religions together
Christians, Jews join in honoring ancient texts

Excerpt:

Aside from their archaeological significance, the biblical portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls -- the Hebrew Bible for Jews, the Old Testament for Christians -- hold deep spiritual value for both faiths.

A half-dozen local synagogues and churches have reserved the exhibit for private showings. Many more have booked group tours, planned scroll sermons or invited scroll experts to give lectures.

Some clergy say the discovery reinforces their faith, underscores the accuracy of Bible translation and, particularly for Christians, provides a reminder of the link between Judaism and Christianity.

"THE EVOLUTION OF MONOTHEISM" is examined from a liberal Muslim perspective by Zeeshan Hasan on alt.muslim. Nitpicks aside, it's a fair summary of the current scholarly understanding of the origins of monotheism in ancient Israel in its ancient Near Eastern context. He concludes with the following reflections on the implications for Muslims:

So we are left with a very interesting view of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition; one which may greatly change its interactions with other religious traditions in the current day. If monotheist worship of Yahweh in Israel started after Moses, it would seem that previous Biblical and Qur'anic figures such as Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were all polytheist. Since these figures are all revered as primordial Muslims in the Qur'an, the surprising conclusion is that the definition of "Muslim" has changed over the millennia, along with the definition of God itself. In spite of apparently believing in a polytheist religion that Muslims today would not even recognize, the Qur'an has no reservations of the high status of Abraham.

Say: No, but follow the religion of Abraham, the upright (Qur'an 2:135)

The unwavering Qur'anic support of Abraham is very significant for modern day Muslims. If we accept the historical evidence that Abraham was polytheist, then we have found grounds for a more pluralistic view of Islam in the many verses praising him. This is very relevant in the context of South Asia, for example, where fundamentalist Muslim leaders routinely criticize Hinduism for being polytheist.

More generally, given the historical evidence that even Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheism has evolved from very different religious ideas, it becomes harder to criticize any other religion for not being monotheist. This enables us to develop a Qur'anic theology based on genuine respect and appreciation for other religions as divinely-inspired, regardless of how different they may seem. The following verses are relevant:

>And for every nation there is a messenger (Qur'an 10:47)

To every nation We appointed sacred rites which they are to perform. (Qur'an 22:67)

And unto thee have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it... For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. Had Allah willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto Allah ye will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ. (Qur'an 5:48)

The above seems to imply that the variety of religious faiths that we see in the world may all be part of a larger divine scheme of things. How do we know that all of these are not simply the "sacred rites" appointed to different nations, each corresponding to various divinely-approved "traced-out ways" (shir'at in Arabic, with a similar etymology as shari'ah)? They may seem different and strange to us, but so would Abraham's Canaanite polytheism. And the Qur'an is very positive about Abraham; so it becomes impossible for us to criticize any religion based on doctrine. As the above makes clear, the only way left to criticize any religion is based on the "good works" of its followers. From this viewpoint, Islam does not become merely tolerant of other religions, but actually appreciative of them.

An interesting consequence of this discussion is that over their disparate histories, the Judeo-Christian Muslim tradition winds up looking a lot like Hinduism. Both started out thousands of years ago with polytheism and moved towards monotheism. In Israel that happened millennia ago, with the absorption of El and Baal into the figure of Yahweh. In India it happened about a century ago with the Brahmo Samaj (as a result of which, the poems and songs of the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore are sufficiently monotheist to be used as hymns in Christian churches in Bangladesh).

Very interesting. I wonder what kind of reaction he'll get. It sounds like the opening of what could be a very constructive discussion.

Zeeshan Hasan is also one of the bloggers at ProgressiveIslam.Org. And he has more essays (which I have not read) posted at liberalislam.net.

UPDATE (24 September): So far the comments to the article are unsympathetic.

RECENT DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITIONS IN THE USA are covered in this A.P. article, whose starting point is the current Seattle exhibit:

Museums use science to explore history, geography, religion

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SEATTLE -- Not since King Tut set attendance records in the 1970s, has an exhibit from the Middle East been such a guaranteed success for America museums.

About a decade ago, museum directors began to dream of desert oases and ancient history again when the Israel Antiquities Authority decided it was time to share the Dead Sea Scrolls with the rest of the world.

A dozen exhibits in the United States have focused on the historical and religious aspects of this 1947 archaeological discovery in the Judean desert, but now Dead Sea Scrolls exhibits are moving into new territories: the realm of science.

A new exhibit co-designed by hands-on science museums in Seattle and Charlotte, N.C., opens this weekend at the Pacific Science Center. It is unique in several ways including its efforts to capture the imagination of children as well as their parents.

[...]

Plus, The Olympian has an intro piece on the Scrolls that looks pretty good.

MORE MEDIA ATTENTION to the Seattle Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit can be found here and here. From the first:

[Professor Martin] Abegg smiled when he described two people who were excited about the exhibit: the 6-year-old who wanted to see the Dead Sea Squirrels, and the adult looking forward to the Grateful Dead Scrolls.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Israel opens ancient site near Jerusalem shrine
Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:41am ET171

By Jonathan Saul

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has opened to the public an underground archaeological exhibit near Jerusalem's most sensitive shrine, drawing fire from Palestinians who say the project endangers the foundations of the holy site.

Israel's opening of an archaeological tunnel near al-Haram al-Sharif, the site of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque where the biblical Jewish Temples once stood, sparked Palestinian anger in 1996. Sixty-one Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes.

The "Chain of Generations Center" took over 10 years to construct and recently opened its doors to visitors for the first time. Among the attractions is a Jewish ritual bath dating to the 1st century which was discovered during building work.

[...]

ROSH HASHANAH (the Jewish New Year, 5767) begins tonight at sundown. In the Bible this is known as the holy convocation of trumpets:

23: And the LORD said to Moses,
24: "Say to the people of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.
25: You shall do no laborious work; and you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD."
(Leviticus 23:23-25)

Rosh HaShanah marks the beginning of the Days of Awe.

Happy New Year to all those celebrating.

THE IRAQ WAR AND ARCHAEOLOGY BLOG is now up and running, produced by Francis Deblauwe and replacing the corresponding e-mail list. Be sure and bookmark it.

SYRIAC ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 6 (2006) just appeared, containing the following articles:

-Adil al-Jadir, "Numbers and Dating Formulae in the Old Syriac Inscriptions"
-Muriel Debié, "L’héritage de la chronique d’Eusèbe dans l’historiographie syriaque"
-Richard Burgess, "A Chronological Prolegomenon to Reconstructing Eusebius’ Chronici canones: The Evidence of Ps-Dionysius (the Zuqnin Chronicle)"
-Geoffrey Greatrex, "Pseudo-Zachariah of Mytilene: the context and nature of his work"
-Jan van Ginkel, "Michael the Syrian and his Sources: Reflections on the Methodology of Michael the Great as a Historiographer and its Implications for Modern Historians"
-Witold Witakowski, "The Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Gregory Bar‘Ebroyo"

* * * * *
Members of the CSSS: Your copy will be mailed to you in October.
Join the CSSS and you will receive a free copy of its Journal: US$50.00 per year.
Cost per copy (including mailing):
Individuals: US$35.00
Institutions: US$50.00

To order the Journal of the CSSS, write to:
Canadian Society for Syriac Studies Inc.
Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
4 Bancroft Avenue
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5S 1C1

OR

E-mail: csss@chass.utoronto.ca

(From the Hugoye list.)

Also, a call for papers:

Call for Papers

Syriac Studies Symposium V

Syriac as a Bridge Culture
Toronto, Ontario Canada June 25-27, 2007

The (North American) Syriac Studies Symposium gathers scholars, researchers, graduate students, and interested public from all over the world for a three day conference on Syriac studies. Symposium V will take place in Canada for the first time, following four successive symposia in the United States: Providence RI (1991), Washington DC (1995), Notre Dame IN (1999), and Princeton NJ (2003).
Preference will be given to papers or sessions that directly deal with the main theme: The role of Syriac in bridging antiquity with the medieval Near East, ancient Greece with the Islamic civilizations, Christianity with the Far East, etc., in literature, translations, art, architecture and any other relevant field. Other proposals in the areas of Syriac literature, Biblical versions, history, art, archaeology, and theology are also welcome.
As in the past conferences, the Syriac Studies Symposium will jointly convene with the International Forum on Syriac Computing. This forum aims to give those working on computational projects in Syriac the opportunity to share information. Papers on all aspects of Syriac computing are welcomed, including: databases (lexical, bibliographical, catalogues), word processing, fonts, desktop publishing, critical editions, computer aided learning/teaching, software and systems.
Please submit a title and a 250 word abstract if you wish to present a (20 minute) paper. If you wish to propose a session, indicate its theme and participants, and enclose copies of abstracts for the papers. Send your abstract or proposal electronically at the following e-mail, csss@chass.utoronto.ca. The registration form will be mailed to you in the fall.

Address questions concerning papers or sessions:
For Syriac Symposium V to the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies at csss@chass.utoronto.ca.
For the International Forum on Syriac Computing to Dr. George Kiraz: gak@bethmardutho.org.

(Again, posted on the Hugoye list.)

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION IN SEATTLE gets a thoughtful but positive review by Janet I. Tu in the Seattle Times:

Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit tells stories from then and now

By Janet I. Tu

Seattle Times staff reporter

To best appreciate the Pacific Science Center's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, it helps to know or read about their background and religious significance beforehand.

The exhibit, which opened for a media preview Wednesday morning, is not a display of visual grandeur on the King Tut scale. Instead, the 10 scrolls on display are small and in dimly lit cases — the limited lighting necessary to preserve these ancient manuscripts.

It's the stories behind the scrolls — and the stories they tell — that are the most interesting.

[...]

SATAN has been getting a lot of attention lately. The latest contribution is "Angel FAQs: The Fall of Satan" by William D. Webber on Beliefnet.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS are also the subject of a long article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. I've read it over quickly and it looks good. Here's the conclusion:

The legacy of the scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls caused re-examination of ancient texts, leading to about 100 minor revisions, such as a word substitution, and margin notes in English translations. As research continues, that total will likely triple or quadruple, Abegg said.

"Despite the fact that there are some variations in the texts from the Qumran, the content of the Bible and its wordings are virtually the same," Schiffman said. "Its eternal message remains the same throughout the ages."

The Dead Sea Scrolls also illuminate the centuries between the Old Testament and New Testament.

Before the scrolls were discovered, Nickelsburg said, Jews largely derived their history from the fourth century B.C. to the first century A.D. from the writings of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and the Jewish philosopher and exegete, Philo of Alexandria.

"The Qumran writings are contemporary witnesses to that history, composed by the people who were living it. In them modern Jews may find aspects of their heritage to embrace and eschew," he said.

The scrolls' many parallels with the New Testament show today's Christians that "the earliest Christianity was, in fact, a Jewish messianic movement, and a better appreciation of the specific ways in which the early church both incorporated and distanced itself from aspects of its Jewish heritage," Nickelsburg said

Put another way, Abegg said, "the scrolls allow us to see that Christianity is much more Jewish than we had allowed, and they show us a Judaism that was much more varied than we had previously known. As you can imagine, there has been a major rewriting of books to account for this perspective."

That's plenty to ponder for scholars and believers and even skeptics, anyone curious about the cache of writings hidden in pottery jars in caves for two millennia.

Viewers of the scrolls may gain "a sense that something is special here -- some treasure, some ancient wisdom," Abegg said. "It may change their lives. Who knows?"

UPDATE: The same source also has an article on the exhibition that has generated all this interest:

Once restricted to scholars, scrolls on view for anyone

By MARY ANDOM
P-I REPORTER

Shrouded in mystery, the Dead Sea Scrolls remained hidden from the world; only a select few had seen them until 1991, when the first photos of them were published.

Now, 2,000 years after their creation, the scrolls are getting a breath of fresh air. An exhibit titled Discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls will make its West Coast premiere Saturday at the Pacific Science Center. The exhibit will feature 10 of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with four scrolls never before seen by the public.

[...]

A self-guided audio tour will transport visitors back in time; the exhibit, which begins with contemporary Israel, works it way back to the 1947 discovery, with a replica of the cave in which they were found, and eventually leads to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In addition, the show will include pottery, coins and leather sandals discovered near the archaeological site. These artifacts shed a light on the lives of the people living there then.

The Gallery of the Scrolls will feature 10 original scrolls with the earliest versions of the Hebrew Bible -- the books of Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Psalms -- on display. A handful of facsimiles on various subjects, including the book of Deuteronomy, also will be shown.

The Pacific Science Center wanted visitors to get a sense of the intricate and difficult task of trying to reconstruct the 50,000 pieces of scrolls, so they dumped 50 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles into a tank. Some of the pieces are damaged and contain debris.

"Try to imagine piecing the puzzle of the scrolls, with no puzzle top as a guide," Johns said.

[...]

I've been using this same puzzle analogy for many years. I hope I can find a photo of this tank.

UPDATE: Tangentially related, the techniques used to restore the Archimedes palimpsest are now being applied to a fragile, 700-year-old Hindu philosophical manuscript:

The project led by P.R. Mukund and Roger Easton, professors at Rochester Institute of Technology, will digitally preserve the original Hindu writings known as the Sarvamoola granthas attributed to scholar Shri Madvacharya (1238-1317). The collection of 36 works contains commentaries written in Sanskrit on sacred Hindu scriptures and conveys the scholar's Dvaita philosophy of the meaning of life and the role of God.

The document is difficult to handle and to read, the result of centuries of inappropriate storage techniques, botched preservation efforts and degradation due to improper handling. Each leaf of the manuscript measures 26 inches long and two inches wide, and is bound together with braided cord threaded through two holes. Heavy wooden covers sandwich the 340 palm leaves, cracked and chipped at the edges. Time and a misguided application of oil have aged the palm leaves dark brown, obscuring the Sanskrit writings.

"It is literally crumbling to dust," says Mukund, the Gleason Professor of Electrical Engineering at RIT.

According to Mukund, 15 percent of the manuscript is missing.

"The book will never be opened again unless there is a compelling reason to do so," Mukund says. "Because every time they do, they lose some. After this, there won't be a need to open the book."

[...]