A DEATH METAL BAND NAMED BEHEMOTH. Their frontman calls himself Nergal. You gotta love that.

MORE FROM THE ONLINE SBL PROGRAM BOOK: Sessions on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. (An earlier post on the Program Book is here.)

First, from the Pseudepigrapha Group:

S19-30
Pseudepigrapha
11/19/2007
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Gregory B - GH

John C. Reeves, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Presiding
Peter T. Lanfer, University of California-Los Angeles
Paradise in the Pseudepigrapha (25 min)
The Parascriptural Dimensions of Biblical Women
Vered Hillel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Women’s Genealogies in Hellenistic Literature: The Descent of Bilhah (25 min)
Mary Bader, College of Wooster
Dinah in the Pseudepigrapha (25 min)
Rivka Nir, Open University of Israel
Aseneth as the “Prototype of the Church of the Gentiles” (25 min)
Troy A. Miller, Crichton College
Surrogate, Slave, and Deviant?: “Hagar” in Jewish Interpretive Traditions and Paul’s Use of the Figure in Galatians 4:21-31 (25 min)

S19-78
Pseudepigrapha
11/19/2007
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: 30 D - CC

Theme: Addressing the Challenges of the *Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature Series* (Walter de Gruyter)

John Levison, Seattle Pacific University, Presiding
Dale Allison, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Panelist (15 min)
David E. Aune, University of Notre Dame, Panelist (10 min)
Randall Chesnutt, Pepperdine University, Panelist (10 min)
John Endres, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Panelist (10 min)
Judith H. Newman, University of Toronto, Panelist (15 min)
Pieter van der Horst, University of Utrecht, Panelist
Loren T. Stuckenbruck, University of Durham, Panelist (15 min)
Break (10 min)
Panelist responses
Discussion (30 min)
Audience responses
Discussion (35 min)

And two additional highly relevant sessions:

S17-25
Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity
11/17/2007
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Salon 5 - MM

James E. Bowley, Millsaps College, Presiding
K. L. Noll, Brandon University
Rethinking Literary Function in the Emerging Hebrew Canon (25 min)
Francis Borchardt, University of Helsinki
Concepts of Scripture in 1 Maccabees (25 min)
Ian W. Scott, Tyndale Seminary
Is the Bible always Scripture?: The "Low" View of the Pentateuch in the Letter of Aristeas (25 min)
Sara Parks, McGill University and Aaron Ricker, McGill University
Harry Potter Canon Discourse and the Biblical Canons (25 min)
Robert A. Kraft, University of Pennsylvania
Finding Adequate Terminology for "Pre-canonical" Literatures (25 min)
James E. Bowley, Millsaps College
Terminating Terminology (25 min)

S19-16
Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity (through 3rd to 4th centuries CE)
11/19/2007
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Manchester H - GH

Theme: Theoretical Issues

Lee Martin McDonald, Acadia Divinity College, Presiding
James A. Sanders, Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center
Non-Masoretic Literature in Early Judaism and its Function in the New Testament (20 min)
Craig Evans, Acadia Divinity College, Respondent (5 min)
Discussion (5 min)
James H. Charlesworth, Princeton Theological Seminary
The Book of the People from the People of the Book (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Lee Martin McDonald, Acadia Divinity College
What Do We Mean by "Canon"?: A Look at Some Ancient and Modern Questions (20 min)
Loren Johns, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Respondent (5 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Ken M. Penner, Acadia Divinity College
Citation Formulae as Indices to Canonicity in Early Jewish and Early Christian Literature (20 min)
Jonathan Soyars, Princeton Theological Seminary, Respondent (5 min)
Discussion (5 min)
Sarah L. Schwarz, Haverford College
Pseudepigrapha Among the Pagans?: Exploring the Boundaries of Audience (20 min)
Discussion (5 min)

THE 1981 MASADA MINISERIS is about to becme available on DVD:

•“Masada: The Complete Epic Miniseries” (Sept. 11). From the heyday of the network minis, this $25 million spectacular about a doomed rebellion against ancient Rome by Jewish zealots aired over four nights on ABC in 1981. It marked the American TV acting debut of Peter O’Toole as the lead Roman and miniseries megastar Peter Strauss as the lead zealot. This isn’t the edited-down version that was released on bulky videotape a few years ago but the whole eight-hour enchilada.

THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE PROGRAM BOOK for November's meeting in San Diego is now available online, as a number of other bloggers have already noted. I have a paper in the Qumran section:

S19-123
Qumran
11/19/2007
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Betsy A - GH

Theme: Methods and Theories in the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Martin G. Abegg, Trinity Western University, Presiding
James R. Davila, University of St. Andrews-Scotland
Counterfactual History and Other New Methodologies (25 min)
Jonathan Klawans, Boston University
The Study of Qumran Doctrines: Methodological Reflections (25 min)
Maxine L. Grossman, University of Maryland College Park
Gendered Sectarians: Some Methodological Thoughts on Gender and the Dead Sea Scrolls (25 min)
Eyal Regev, Bar-Ilan University
Sectarianism In Qumran: A Comparative Approach (25 min)
Ross Kraemer, Brown University, Respondent (15 min)
Discussion (35 min)

There are three other Qumran sections lined up:

S18-78
Qumran
11/18/2007
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Betsy C - GH

Theme: Qumran Texts and Contexts
Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University, Presiding
Steve Delamarter, George Fox University
Refining Sociological Models for Understanding Scribal Practices in the Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls (30 min)
Eibert Tigchelaar, Florida State University
Reading the Wiles of the Wicked Woman (4Q184 1) in Its Manuscript Context (30 min)
Alison Schofield, University of Denver
“From the Wilderness to a Door of Hope”: Thematic (Re)conceptualization of the Wilderness in Liturgical Texts (4QBarkiNapshi and 4QWords of the Luminaries) (30 min)
Steven D. Fraade, Yale University
Qumran Yahad and Rabbinc Havurah: A Comparison Reconsidered (30 min)
Vered Noam, Tel Aviv University
Ancient Halakhic Homilies in the Writings of the Qumran Sect and of the Tannaim (30 min)

S18-132
Qumran
11/18/2007
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Room: Salon A - MM

Theme: The Dead Sea Scrolls at Sixty: The San Diego Natural History Museum Exhibition

Esther Chazon, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Presiding (15 min)
Moshe J. Bernstein, Yeshiva University
Three Ways of Interpreting the Bible at Qumran (35 min)
James C. VanderKam, University of Notre Dame
In Those Days (35 min)
Carol Newsom, Emory University
Communion with the Angels at Qumran (35 min)

S19-32
Qumran
11/19/2007
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Ford C - GH

Eileen Schuller, McMaster University, Presiding
Armin Lange, University of Vienna
In the Second Degree (30 min)
Bennie H. Reynolds III, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
4QApocryphon of Jeremiah C and the Problem of Genre (30 min)
Albert Hogeterp, Catholic University of Leuven
Resurrection and Biblical Tradition: The Relation between the Pseudo-Ezekiel Fragments and Ezekiel 37 Reconsidered (30 min)
Hanne von Weissenberg, University of Manchester
The Centrality of the Temple in 4QMMT (30 min)
Stephane Saulnier, University of Notre Dame
X and Duqah in Some Calendrical Scrolls: Are We any Closer to an Identification? (30 min)

Plus there's this thematic Matthew session:

S17-21
Matthew
11/17/2007
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Emma BC - GH

Theme: Matthew and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Celebrating 60 years of Research

Lidija Novakovic, Bethel University, Presiding
James H. Charlesworth, Princeton Theological Seminary
How Important are the Dead Sea Scrolls for Understanding Matthew? (15 min)
Anthony Le Donne, Durham University
Messianic Duality in Matthew and the Dead Sea Scrolls (15 min)
George J. Brooke, University of Manchester
Matthew’s Use of Scripture in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (15 min)
Craig A. Evans, Acadia Divinity College
Fulfilling the Law and Seeking Righteousness in Matthew and the Dead Sea Scrolls (15 min)
John Kampen, Methodist Theological School in Ohio
Jesus, Wisdom, and Matthew’s Place Within Judaism (15 min)
Break (5 min)
Panel Response
Discussion (70 min)

And, of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls figure in many papers in many other sessions as well.

I'll post the schedules for some other sections of interest as I find the time and the inclination.

UPDATE (26 August): More here (Pseudepigrapha-related sessions). Also, I've added the session numbers to the session listings above.

UPDATE (27 August): More here (Hellenistic Judaism).

ARAMAIC WATCH: The Village Voice astrology column delves into Kabbalah and Aramaic etymology.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): According to the Haggadah, an ancient Jewish text, the first thing God made, before anything else, was the Torah. This book was "written with black fire on white fire." The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet became the raw materials out of which the Divine One forged heaven and earth. Now you, Cancerian, have a chance to get firsthand evidence of the power that language has to shape experience. In the coming days, I suggest that you formulate what you say with great precision. The words you use will have the power of the ancient magical incantation, abracadabra, which is derived from the Aramaic word meaning "I create as I speak."

"Haggadah (Aggada) is a genre of rabbinic texts (lore or legend rather than law), not a specific text. This material sounds as though it comes from the early Kabbalistic text Sefer Yetzirah (Sefer Yesira, "The Book of Creation"; online translation of uncertain value here; old introductory article here, authoritative 2005 edition by A. P. Hayman here), although it may be that Aggadic texts present some of the same ideas.

As for Abracadabra, the suggested Aramaic phrase is a plausible etymology, although others are possible as well. The history of the incantation and the various proposed etymologies are summed up in this article by Michael Quinion and this Wikipedia article. They, incidentally, provide additional evidence for the influence of Jewish lore on Harry Potter. On that, Quinon is a little imprecise:

Fans of the Harry Potter books will know the killing curse, Avada Kedavra, in which J K Rowling seems to have combined the supposed Aramaic source of abracadabra with the Latin cadaver, a dead body.

Wikipedia is more precise:

The "Killing Curse" in the Harry Potter stories may have been taken by J. K. Rowling from an Aramaic form "avada kedavra" or similar, which roughly means "what I speak is destroyed," influenced by the Latin word cadaver, meaning "corpse". This form differs from the "I create as I speak" form ("Avara Kedavra") by a single letter in the English transliteration; it is one of the few spells in Harry Potter not derived entirely from Latin.

THE SAN DIEGO DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION is reviewed by the Navy Compass. They liked it.

HESCHEL CENTENARY CONFERENCE - CALL FOR PAPERS:

Celebrating Abraham Joshua Heschel at 100
Jerusalem, 25-27/12/2007

The Tenth Annual Conference of
The Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought
Robert M. Beren College, Beit Morasha of Jerusalem

Call for Papers:
Heavenly Torah: The Book and its Themes through the Prism of a Generation


This year we celebrate Abraham Joshua Heschel’s 100’th birthday. One of his most important works, published originally in Hebrew, with the English title “Theology of Ancient Judaism”, recently appeared in English translation as “Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations”. The tenth annual conference of the Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought will be dedicated to a reexamination of this work, its importance, its theological innovation, and a critique of it. Themes and issues that are seminal to the work will be discussed in their own light and in light of Heschel’s work. We herewith invite presentations, in Hebrew and in English, that address a broad range of subjects that grow out of Heschel’s work. These include:

General and specific assessment and critique of Heschel’s work in “Heavenly Torah.”

Understanding “Heavenly Torah” in the context of Heschel’s theological oeuvre.

Methodological issues in the study of rabbinic thought and Jewish theology that arise from the work; making the study of the rabbis’ thought systematic; types of theological creativity and the role of historical theology.

Retrieving the thought of individual rabbis and of constitutive “machlokot”.

Agadda and theology.

The rabbis between prophecy and apocalypse.

Specific theological issues: God, anthropomorphism, suffering, etc.

The schools of R. Akiva and R. Ishmael - halachic, hermeneutic and philosophical perspectives.

Rationalism and mysticism in rabbinic thought.

Torah from Heaven, revelation and role of human creativity in making the Torah.

Please send proposals for the conference to Alon Goshen-Gottstein, amgogo@bmj.org.il, by 20.9.07.

Sincerely

Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein
The Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought
Bet Morasha of Jerusalem

ARTICLES ON THE JUDEAN DESERT TEXTS (especially the Babatha archive) from the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik are now available online. Menachem Mendel has details.

MY RECENT BOOK, THE PROVENANCE OF THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA (see sidebar on the right), gets a second review in the Review of Biblical Literature. (The first, by Sabrina Inowlocki, is noted here.) The new one, by Johann Cook, is here. Key conclusion:

One thing is certain: this book will force scholars to rethink their methodological positions.

If it accomplishes that, I am content.

THE SITE OF UGARIT figures in the new novel ABC by David Plante:

Gerard soon will find a concrete expression for his grief, for the letters on the scrap of paper are Sanskrit, oldest of the classical Indo-European languages to which our tongue belongs. The more Gerard studies the scrap retrieved from the ruined house, the "more its incomprehensibility took hold of him, and the more the incomprehensibility took hold of him the more he believed it must have a meaning."

Soon, he has left his wife and teaching post behind to join a similarly obsessed band of grieving parents, who are convinced that, in the mystery of the alphabet's origins -- in other words, in the very mechanism by which we set down the stories by which we live -- there is a hidden, transcendent and, perhaps, consoling meaning. Together this little band -- which includes a mother who has lost a daughter to a drug overdose, parents of a child killed by terrorists and a grief-stricken Chechen mother -- moves from Oxford to Greece, to the site of ancient Ugarit, near Latikia on the Syrian coast.

That city occupies a special place in the archaeological study of languages because it has given up not simply vast palaces and temple libraries, but also the first private manuscript collections ever found in the ancient world. Inscribed on clay tablets, the Ugarit texts comprise a polyphony of ancient Near Eastern languages -- Sumerian, Hurrian, Akkadian and Ugarit written in seven different scripts, ranging from Egyptian hieroglyphics to Cypro-Minoan to the Ugarites' own cuneiform. The latter is thought to be the most direct antecedent of our own phonetic alphabet.

Throughout this quest, the ghosts of the phonetic pilgrims' lost loved ones hover around and it is one of the strengths of Plante's beautifully controlled prose that the reality and unreality of these specters is altogether unresolved. It once was said of James Joyce that he had rejected everything about the Scholastic Catholicism in which he was raised, except its basic principles. Plante is one of those Catholic unbelievers who has abandoned everything about his faith except that sense of the sacred to be found in its mysteries and contradictions.

The arc of "ABC's" narrative evokes deeply -- though it is unspoken -- the ancient mysticism drawn from one of the most ancient of cabalistic texts, the first century "Sefer Yetzirah," which held that The Infinite ("En Sof") was accessible through contemplation of the Hebrew alphabet itself. Meditation upon the divine through the mechanism of autonomic writing and assigning of transcendent meaning to individual letters entered the mysticism of Plante's Catholic tradition through contact with the writings of the great medieval Spanish cabalist, Abraham Abulafia.

Actually the Ugaritic alphabet, based on the cuneiform (wedge) system, was a dead end and died out. It's the Phoenician alphabet that is antecedent to ours. Still, sounds like an interesting book.

UPDATE (24 August): Duane Smith comments at Abnormal Interests.

SCOTT MCKNIGHT is interviewed on Beliefnet regarding his recent book:

What Jesus Believed
New Testament scholar Scott McKnight wants Christians to say 'the Jesus Creed' and recommit to love.
Interview by Paul O'Donnell


Amid the continuing debate over who Jesus was, New Testament scholar Scott McKnight asks what Jesus did to revolutionize religious thought. Placing Jesus firmly in the Jewish tradition, McKnight identifies Jesus' key innovation as his modification of the Shema: to the ancient Jewish commandment to "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might," Jesus appended a relatively obscure dictate from Leviticus: "Love your neighbor as yourself." In a new book, McKnight argues that Christians must reexamine their commitment to love, and offers "the Jesus Creed" as an essential guide to spiritual formation. We spoke to him recently about Jesus the Jewish prophet and revolutionary Christian.

A NEW MANDAEAN (MANDEAN) BLOG: April DeConick gives some details.

A CONFERENCE ON THE CAIRO GENIZA begins today began yesterday in Cambridge.

THE CONTROVERSY OVER TENURE for Nadia Abu El-Haj at Barnard College continues. Here are blog posts from the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Huffington Post. The latter notes a counter-petition in favor of tenure. And the Chronicle also has an article that is available only to subscribers.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Christiane Amapour has a new CNN documentary, "God's Warriors," in which the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem reportedly indulges in more Jewish-Temple denial:

On the line with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour

By Perry Gil S. Mallari (Manila Times)

WHAT happens when manmade laws collide with God’s law? This is but one of the questions that the new CNN documentary God’s Warriors will try to answer. Hosted by CNN international chief correspondent Christiane Amanpour, the documentary is an in-depth look at the so-called God’s Warriors of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, an army of religious zealots who see contemporary society as corrupt and in need of purging.

[...]

... In contrast, another character featured in God’s Warriors, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti (Islamic scholar) of Jerusalem pertaining to the same topic said, “The temple [the Jewish Temple] only exists in the illusion of people who speaks of it.” ...

"MIRED IN TRANSLATING APOCRYPHA":

The Gospel according to Czechs
With Bible translation, Alexandr Flek seeks to restore 'cultural literacy'

By Paul Voosen
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 15th, 2007

Sixteen years ago, Alexandr Flek lay upon the floor of the church where he worshipped, and he was in agony.
It had been four years since he converted to Christianity and became a preacher, and two years since the Velvet Revolution. And still, there was no project under way to translate the Bible into Czech. In the past 400 years, there had been only two Czech translations—one archaic if revered, and the other denuded of its figurative force by the taint of communism.
“On the carpet, this groaning and travailing overwhelmed me,” says Flek of that day. “I was desperate. The years were passing. There was no Bible.”
There lay Flek’s passion, harkening back to the Protestant Reformation, hundreds of years earlier: That people read the Bible firsthand, in language current and powerful.
But there was no new translation. The country’s scholars — perhaps removed from the glowing evangelism that enfolds Flek’s late arrival to religion — were mired in translating apocrypha.

[...]

I'm glad the Czechs are getting a new translation of the Bible, but I wouldn't knock translating apocrypha. I hope those scholars are still at it.

CAN'T MAKE IT UP - DEAD (SEA SCROLLS) BY CHOCOLATE:

Chuao Chocolatier Partners with the San Diego Natural History Museum's Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition

Chuao Chocolatier has partnered with San Diego Natural History Museum to create an exclusive chocolate assortment inspired by the Museum's highly anticipated exhibition, Dead Sea Scrolls.

San Diego (PRWEB) August 20, 2007 -- Chuao Chocolatier (www.chuaochocolatier.com) has partnered with San Diego Natural History Museum to create an exclusive chocolate assortment inspired by the Museum's highly anticipated exhibition, Dead Sea Scrolls.

Chuao Chocolatier's Chef Michael Antonorsi, blended his signature Venezuelan chocolate with popular Middle Eastern spices to create bonbons that are unlike anything most chocolate lovers have ever tasted. The assortment is called "Flavors of the Region," the region being the Middle East where the scrolls were discovered.

Each box contains nine bonbons in three unique flavors.

[...]

Yum.

MESSAGES TO THE DEMIURGE can be left here. Seriously.

UPDATE (4 September): Winning entries noted here.

JUNIOR ACADEMIC POSITIONS IN RABBINICS are being advertised by the Open University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

(Via the H-Judaic list.)

HERSHEL SHANKS is defending the authenticity of the Ivory Pomegranate. He has photographs.

(Via Jack Sasson's Agade list.)

Background here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE (21 August): I meant to say "the Ivory Pomegranate inscription." Everyone agrees that the object itself is an ancient artifact; it's the inscription that is argued to be a forgery.