JAMES KUGEL'S HOW TO READ THE BIBLE is reviewed in the New York Jewish Week. Excerpt:

In "How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now" (Free Press) Kugel's interest is not only in what the text says, but in what a modern reader is to make of it. The book is particularly timely reading, as the cycle of weekly Torah readings begins again next week, with Genesis and the creation story.

Kugel's approach is compelling and original: A professor emeritus at Harvard and professor at Bar Ilan University in Israel, he looks at two different ways of studying and understanding the Bible - the approaches of the ancient interpreters and those of modern biblical scholars - in tandem. The former was a largely anonymous group of scholars, living from 300 BCE to 200 CE, who set about to explain the meaning of the texts; their stories, prophecies and laws have been passed on for generations. As Kugel, who speaks 10 languages, explains, "For most of our history, what the Bible meant was what the ancient interpreters had said it meant."

The latter, scholars at work for the last 150 years or so, integrate the work of archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists and historians, trying to find the original meaning of these texts, before the ancient interpreters added their own meaning. They study the Bible the same way they would approach any literary text, and theorize that the texts are from different sources and by different authors.

SECOND ENOCH GRADUATE SEMINAR (JUNE 16-18, 2008) - Gabriele Boccaccini e-mails:

Dear Members and Friends of the Enoch Seminar:

The Second Enoch Graduate Seminar will be held at Princeton (June 16-18, 2008) [please, notice the change of date]. The conference is organized by Princeton Theological Seminary in collaboration with Princeton University. Chairs: Prof. James Charlesworth, Martha Himmelfarb, and Gabriele Boccaccini; secr. Prof. Shane Berg).

Graduate students, PhD candidates and post-doc researches are invited to apply.

Abstracts, not to exceed two (2) pages, should be submitted that relate to any aspect of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins. Preference will be given to topics that cross the border lines of established literary and religious canons. Twenty four (24) papers will be selected for discussion at Princeton, and eight (8) among them for publication in the Journals Henoch and JSP.

Send abstract to Prof. Shane Berg shane.berg@ptsem.edu

Please, invite your students and... spread the news !

Gabriele Boccaccini

IAN WERRETT, my former doctoral student, is publishing his thesis with Brill:

Ritual Purity and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Ian C. Werrett

Books
Forthcoming

Series: Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, 72
ISBN-13 (i): 978 90 04 15623 4
ISBN-10: 90 04 15623 2
ISSN: 0169-9962

Cover: Cloth with dustjacket
Number of pages: x, 350 pp.

List price: € 119.00 / US$ 170.00

Readership
Those who are interested in Second Temple Judaism, ritual purity, the Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical interpretation, and contemporary methodological issues in Qumran scholarship.

About the author(s)
Ian C. Werrett, Ph.D. (2006) in Biblical Studies, University of St Andrews, is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Martin's University.

This book represents the first comprehensive study on the concept of ritual purity in the Dead Sea Scrolls since the full publication of the legal material from Qumran. Utilizing an independent approach to the relevant documents from Qumran, this study discusses the primary and secondary literature on the five major categories of impurity in the scrolls (i.e., diseases, clean/unclean animals, corpses, bodily discharges, and sexual misdeeds). This examination is supported by a comparison between the scrolls’ purity legislations and their biblical counterparts. The book culminates with a comparison between the purity rulings in the scrolls and a diachronic reading of the explicit agreements and disagreements found therein. The result is a far more comprehensive and nuanced interpretation than has been previous offered.

Should be out by the San Diego SBL meetings in November. Well done, Ian!

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH - These political rumours fly and I don't like to make a lot of them, but here's a dose for you:

Palestinians: Olmert agreed to surrender Jerusalem
(Israel Today

Palestinian Authority sources said at the weekend that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has privately agreed to surrender the eastern half of Jerusalem - including the Old City and Temple Mount - to the Arabs as part of any final status peace agreement.

Speaking to the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al Hayat Al Jadeeda, one official said that Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week that Olmert had assured him Israel would ultimately meet the long-standing Arab demand on control of Jerusalem.

Olmert reportedly made the promise during a recent preparatory meeting with Abbas ahead of a major US-hosted Middle East peace summit scheduled to take place in Washington in November.

[...]

FROM THE PHOENICIANS TO THE MAMELUKES -- the Jerusalem Post has a Tourism piece on the ancient city of Apollonia (Arshuf):

In the blink of an eye...
By CARL HOFFMAN

Silently overlooking the Mediterranean, a mere 15 kilometers north of bustling Tel Aviv, stand the ruins of an ancient city. The broken fragments of centuries-old walls seem to hang almost desperately to the tops of fossilized sandstone cliffs in what is now an empty, windblown stretch of the coast in Herzliya.

Known as Apollonia, the name it was given early in its history by the ancient Greeks, this lonely spot perched high above the pounding ocean waves is little known and seldom visited. The place is nonetheless a national treasure.

Archaeological excavations revealing the remains of more than 1,800 years of continuous occupation were begun by Tel Aviv University (TAU) in 1996, and a national archaeological park was established by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority in 2002. According to what we know so far - archaeological work continues periodically - the first people to call this starkly beautiful place home were the Phoenicians, who established a settlement in the sixth century B.C.E.

Who were these Phoenicians? Related culturally and linguistically to the ancient Canaanites, these maritime people built boats and took to the sea from the coast of Lebanon, sailing and trading throughout the Mediterranean, and even establishing a colony on the coast of North Africa which they called, in their Hebrew-related West Semitic language, Karta Hadasht ("New City"), or Carthage. This was the Carthage that later challenged Rome for supremacy of the Mediterranean, and whose great general Hannibal led a mighty army equipped with elephants across the Alps.

Back here, meanwhile, the Phoenicians named their settlement on the coast of today's Herzliya Arshuf, in honor of Resheph, the Canaanite god of war, plague and the underworld. The Phoenician town grew rich, fishing for murex mollusks in the nearby coastal waters and producing from those aquatic snails a rare purple dye. This dye, which could be produced in only very small quantities, was prized by royalty throughout the Aegean and mentioned in both the Bible and the Talmud. Superior to plant-based dyes which were then most common, the purple mollusk dye was permanent. It was also precious: As one mollusk secreted only a few drops of the dye, thousands were thus needed to dye one single garment - or Tabernacle cloth.

[...]

THE ANCHOR BIBLE SERIES has moved to Yale University Press:

Yale Acquires Anchor Bible Series
September 25, 2007
By Kimberly Maul (The Book Standard)

Yale University Press has acquired the Anchor Bible series from Doubleday for undisclosed terms. The series, which was started in 1956 with guidance from biblical scholar William Foxwell Albright, is a collection of more than 115 volumes of biblical scholarship. The overall series is divided into the Anchor Bible Commentary Series, a book-by-book translation and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Apocrypha; the six-volume Anchor Bible Dictionary set; and the open-ended Anchor Bible Reference Library series.

[...]

UPDATE (27 September): Iyov is happy.

UPDATE: Charles Halton is unhappy.

MOBILE PHONES WITH AN AMHARIC DISPLAY are now available in Ethiopia.

FISHING TACKLE has been recovered from a seventh-century CE shipwreck off the coast of Tel Dor:

Ancient Fishermen Lured Fish With Fire
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Sept. 25, 2007 — Fishermen around areas mentioned in the New Testament worked the night shift, suggests fishing gear found in a 7th century shipwreck off the coast of Dor, Israel, west of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have preached.

The standout item among the found gear is a fire basket, the first evidence for "fire fishing" in the ancient eastern Mediterranean. Early images and writings indicate fires were lit in such baskets, which were suspended in giant lantern devices from the end of fishing boats.

Light emitted from the fire both attracted and illuminated fish, as well as other sea creatures, like octopus, which men then speared or captured in nets.

"Striking at night is classified as fire hunting," explained archaeologists Ehud Galili and Baruch Rosen, who excavated the shipwreck.

Their findings have been accepted for publication in The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

The researchers, from the Israel Antiquities Authority, added that the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (approximately 428-348 B.C.) wrote about the practice, which involved striking fish forcefully from above or below the water.

[...]

SUKKOT (the seven-day Festival of Booths or Tabernacles) begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating.

THE GILGAMESH RESTAURANT HAS BEEN SOLD:

Richard Caring acquires London’s Gilgamesh restaurant
(24 September 2007 23:06)

London restaurant Gilgamesh has reportedly been acquired by fashion mogul Richard Caring after a dispute over unpaid rent.

The restaurant, at the heart of Camden Market, is understood to have been seized by landlord Stables Market, of which Caring is a stakeholder.

The move follows a financial dispute with the former Israeli owners, who allegedly failed to make rental payments of £700,000.

[...]

PHOTOS: KING HEROD'S QUARRY

JEWISH HISTORY JOBS:

From: Adam Mendelsohn
List Editor: Adam Mendelsohn
Editor's Subject: JOB: Distinguished Professorship, Jewish History, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Author's Subject: JOB: Distinguished Professorship, Jewish History, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Date Written: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 00:00:53 -0400
Date Posted: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 00:00:53 -0400

Distinguished Professorship/Jewish History. The University of North Carolina Wilmington's Department of History announces a new endowed professorship in Jewish History beginning Fall 2008. The holder of the Charles and Hannah Block Distinguished Professorship in Jewish History will be a senior scholar with a notable record of scholarly publication and teaching in any period of Jewish History. Ph.D. in history or related discipline required. Responsibilities include: teaching four courses per year, including undergraduate courses in Jewish History from antiquity to the present as well as upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in specialty; active research; and outreach to area educators. Funds from the Rhine Family Endowment for Jewish History will be available to support research, outreach, and related programs for the region. Salary will be competitive based on experience and publications. A comprehensive university situated in the historic port city of Wilmington, UNCW enrolls nearly 12,000 students and offers graduate fields in European, U.S., Global, and Public History at the M.A. level. To apply, please complete the online application process available on the Web at http://consensus.uncw.edu. A letter of application, curriculum vitae, and contact information for three professional references should be addressed to the Dr. Michael Seidman, Search Committee Chair and attached to the online application - not emailed, mailed or faxed. Attachments must be either Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF documents. For questions regarding the online application process, contact Ms. Tammie Grady at (910) 962-3307. Under North Carolina law, applications and related materials are confidential personnel documents and not subject to public release. Priority consideration will be given to online applications received by December 1, 2007, but will be accepted until the position is filled.

UNCW is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply.
Contact Info:
Applications accepted online only at
http://consensus.uncw.edu
Website: http://www.uncw.edu/

From the H-Judaic list.

Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 23:58:25 -0400
From: Adam Mendelsohn
Subject: JOB: Assistant Professor, Jewish History, Brooklyn College

Jewish History (ancient/medieval). The History Department at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in Jewish history to begin in fall 2008. Ph.D. required. Research specialization in the ancient or medieval period, but the successful candidate will be able to offer courses ranging from ancient to modern as well as the college's core course on the shaping of the modern world. Send letter of application describing both research and teaching interests, c.v., three letters of recommendation, a representative sample of scholarship (article or dissertation chapter), and evidence of teaching experience to: Professor David G. Troyansky, Chair, Department of History, Brooklyn College/CUNY, 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210. Review of applications will begin on October 15, 2007, and will continue until position is filled. EO/AA/IRCA/ADA. Women and members of underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply.

Contact Info:
Professor David G. Troyansky
Chair, Department of History
Brooklyn College/CUNY
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Website: http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/index.html

Also from the H-Judaic list.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Jordan allocates $1.5m to rebuild Temple Mount
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

Jordan will allocate 1.113 million Jordanian Dinars ($1.5 million dollars) to the Jordan Hashemite Fund for the Reconstruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, King Abdullah II announced Sunday during a meeting of the trustees of the new fund.

The king also instructed a bonus salary to be given to employees of the Waqf, as a gesture of thanks for their commitment and work.

[...]

he fund will pay for a new fire detection system that will be installed in the complex of mosques, as well as a modern fire suppression system.

In addition, the fund will acquire a fire truck that will be stationed near the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

A team in charge of preserving mosaics and antiquities will also undergo further training at the expense of the new fund.

[...]

UPDATE (29 September): More here.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH (indirectly):

Quarry used for Jewish temple unearthed in Israel
Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:21am EDT
By Rebecca Harrison

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Archaeologists have found an ancient quarry where King Herod's workers may have chiselled the giant stones used to rebuild the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said on Sunday experts believe stones as long as 8 meters (24 feet) were extracted from the quarry and then dragged by oxen to building sites in Jerusalem for major projects such as the temple.

"This construction most likely included the walls of the Temple Mount and other monumental buildings," the authority said in a statement.

Some of the blocks discovered at the site resemble stones used in the lower parts of the Temple Mount compound, the site of two biblical Jewish temples, the statement said.

Jews believe King Solomon built the first Jerusalem temple 3,000 years ago. In 1 BC, King Herod rebuilt and expanded a second temple on the same site, which was razed by the Romans during the sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

[...]

Archaeologists also discovered coins and shards of pottery which confirm the quarry was operating during the Second Temple period, when rulers of the city under King Herod embarked on major construction projects.

[...]

Note the seemingly obligatory mistake: King Herod died in 4 B.C.E., so he could hardly have started work on the Temple three years later.

THE CAVERNS OF THE SERONI ON MALACANDRA? The geography seems about right. Tell them to keep an eye out for the Tower of Augray.

ED COOK is defending the reputation of the Gibeonites.

NEIL ALTMAN has duped yet another newspaper (the Philadelphia Bulletin) into taking his ridiculous notions about the Dead Sea Scrolls seriously.

Challenging History: The Dead Sea Scrolls
By: Neil Altman, For The Bulletin
09/21/2007

[...]

From the editor's note:

Since their discovery nearly half a century ago, the scrolls and the identity of the nearby settlement have been of great scholarly and public interest as well as heated controversy. Why were the scrolls hidden in the caves? Who placed them there? Who lived in Qumran? Were its inhabitants responsible for the scrolls and their presence in the caves? Of what significance are the scrolls to Judaism and Christianity?
In this article, Neil Altman, who has devoted much of his life to studying the scrolls, examines the latest evidence regarding the age and authenticity of these controversial artifacts. While his conclusions are not accepted by everyone in the field, they bring up compelling questions surrounding some of the most famed group of documents in human history.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, the crown jewels of biblical scholarship, have been guarded for 60 years.
Soon after the existence of the scrolls came to light, a scholarly debate broke out over whether the writings were indeed pre-Christian. Though it was commonly accepted that the scrolls were ancient, many respected scholars had begun to argue that the texts were much more recent in origin.
In short order, a scholarly elite emerged and took possession of the artifacts, keeping them hidden from scrutiny. Recently, that group has been challenged to bring the scrolls to the public for closer examination.
Now, there is accumulating and compelling evidence that undermines everything we originally thought about the scrolls - including an explosive finding in China that suggests these historic texts date from medieval times.

I'm not going to waste time discussing this article. Instead I'll just refer you to my past comments on Altman's erroneous arguments and his twisting of the words of real scholars here, here, here, here, here, and here. But I note that in this article Altman cites the work of Greg Doudna to support the absurd idea that the Scrolls are medieval. Greg thinks no such thing and would not be happy to be associated with this notion.

I'll say it again: Altman and his friends are making fools of a good many journalists and newspaper editors, who don't have sense enough to vet their claims independently with real specialists.

RABBINICS JOB - from Michael V. Fox on the Ioudaios-l list:

The University of Wisconsin-Madison invites applications for a full-time, tenure track assistant professor position in Hebrew & Semitic Studies with a specialization in Rabbinics, beginning August 2008. The successful candidate with be awarded the Belzer Professorship in Rabbinics and will be a member of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. A Ph.D. is required prior to the start of the appointment. The position requires a demonstrated commitment to excellence in research, teaching and service. Preference will be given to those candidates dedicated to the study of Midrash and classical Jewish thought. The teaching load is 2/2 and includes undergraduate and graduate courses: a one-semester Introduction to Judaism for undergraduates; rabbinic texts in the original and translation; topics in Jewish religion and culture; and occasional graduate seminars. To ensure full consideration, send curriculum vita, three letters of recommendation, academic transcripts of undergraduate and graduate study, and writing sample by October 22, 2007 to: Professor Cynthia L. Miller / Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies / 1344 Van Hise Hall / 1220 Linden Drive / Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1558. Unless confidentiality is requested in writing, information regarding the applicants must be released upon request. Finalists cannot be guaranteed confidentiality. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. UW-Madison is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

PSCO 45 - This just in:

With apologies for the lateness of this information, here is the outline for the new PSCO year, and the announcement of the initial meeting. Please cross-post as appropriate.

Bob Kraft & Annette Reed, co-chairs

--
PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS
in its 45th year
an Interdisciplinary Humanities Seminar
under the auspices of the
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Department of Religious Studies
201 Logan Hall
with support from
the Penn Humanities Forum


TOPIC FOR 2007-2008: "Tracing the Patterns, (Un/Re-)Weaving the Threads"

co-chairs: Annette Yoshiko Reed and Robert Alan Kraft

In 1994, John C. Reeves edited and published a collection of essays entitled Tracing the Threads: Studies in the Vitality of Jewish Pseudepigrapha (SBL Early Judaism and its Literature 6, series editor William Adler; Atlanta: Scholars Press). For Reeves, the "threads" refer to the persistent survival (or rediscovery) of early Jewish materials in the literature of a wide variety of religious communities -- especially (but not only) Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, and Muslim. The "tracing" refers to modern scholarship on these materials such as was solicited for that volume.

Since both Reeves and Adler are in Philadelphia during the fall term of the 2007-2008 academic year as fellows at the University of Pennslyvania's Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, along with a number of other leading scholars of late antiquity, and since the PSCO itself will be undergoing transition with the arrival of Annette Yoshiko Reed to continue the work of Robert Kraft in the Department of Religious Studies, it seemed an opportune time to take stock of current scholarship in areas relevant to the aforementioned "threads" in their wide geographical distribution in the relevant ancient and late antique worlds.

To facilitate discussion between specialists in different subfields, we have chosen to define the sessions by geographical area, rather than by religioust radition, theme, or textual corpus. By following "threads" through regional trajectories, we hope also to assess, not only our literary remains, but also archaeological evidence, inscriptions, etc.

We are planning a flexible format, focused less on prepared presentations and more on informed discussion. Some sessions will consist of roundtable discussions; scholars from different subfields and specializations will be invited to exchange ideas and information about the sources, state of current research, methodological challenges, and promising directions for research on specific locales. For other sessions, pairs of participants or individual speakers will share their ongoing research and reflections. Although we do not intend to limit ourselves to the CAJS Fellows, they will provide a rich primary reservoir of discussants and participants.

The introductory meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 11 October, 7-9 pm in the 2nd floor Lounge of Logan Hall at the University of Pennsylvania (36th St walkway, just north of Spruce Street). Those wishing to dine together before the seminar will meet at 6 pm in the Logan Lounge to go next door to the food court in Houston Hall.

The evening's topic is "Methodological Challenges," with a panel discussion in which the chairs will be joined by Maxine Grossman (University of Maryland; CAJS associate fellow 2007/8) and the editor and series editor of the original "Tracing the Threads"
volume (to which both also contributed articles), John C. Reeves (UNC Charlotte; CAJS fellow in fall 2007) and William Adler(UNC Raleigh; CAJS fellow in 2007/8).


The remaining tentative schedule, with exact dates and details to be worked out is as follows:

October/November - Palestine beyond Jerusalem

16 November (Friday) - SBL Session in San Diego: Asia Minor

January (late) - Egypt beyond Alexandria

February - Western Roman Empire

March - Persia and its Environs

April - Byzantium and Islamic Empires


**See the PSCO Web page for further details
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/psco/

--
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827
kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html

MANUSCRIPT BOY reflects on the maturity of magical studies at Hagahot. Excerpt:

So I was impressed to find that, in Matthew Morgenstern's recent article on JBA (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic) in magic bowls, he makes extensive use of scribal errors. The kind of thing that editors focused on publishing new material tend to overlook - words that the scribe began writing, but then stopped midway because he realized he made a mistake, and then wrote afresh. Morgenstern reads these self-corrections as a sound-bite of the scribe's own pronunciation.

My thought is simply that the increasing proliferation of published magic bowls, including at least two recent books, allows for a higher level of textual scholarship. Yet another reason why it is important to publish rabbinic texts from manuscript, and why that job should not be left solely in the hands of amateurs. The more texts are published, the more scholars will be able to focus on reading them carefully.

Indeed.

He also draws attention to the important recent manuscript discoveries of the so-called European Geniza (i.e., non-Cairo Geniza) project.

What scholars refer to as the European Genizah is actually a phenomenon evidenced throughout Europe, where discarded manuscripts were used as pastedowns, fillers or binders for other books or volumes of notarial documents. Sometimes the manuscripts used were musical notations, or earlier Latin documents. Sometimes, they were Hebrew books. Usually they were large parchment folios, best suited for this kind of thing.

Lots of Talmudic fragments have been recovered, and at least some from the Mishnah and the Tosefta. Cool.