THE VISION OF GABRIEL INSCRIPTION has made a splash in the news (e.g., here, here, here, and here).

Meanwhile, the fourteenth anniversary of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, has been commemorated recently. Shmuley Boteach reflects on another stone inscription about a risen Messiah.

Background here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE (8 July): The last link was wrong; now fixed.

DISNEY WORLD WATCH OUT! Phoenician theme parks seem to be all the rage:

Tunisia.. an exotic blend for all tastes
Philippa Clarke finds the magic of Africa - without the long haul flight
5/07/2008 (The Mirror)

The fine white sandy beaches of the North African coast are interrupted only by lemon trees and olive groves.

The clear water of calm, summer seas lap the shores, and there's a smell of jasmine on the warm breeze.

Visitors to Tunisia could be forgiven for thinking they had died and gone to heaven when they arrive here.

[...]

Hammamet has developed over the last 40 years from a tiny fishing village to a thriving holiday destination.

Known as the garden resort, it's surrounded by olive, orange and lemon groves and lines of cypress trees. The theme park Carthage Land, and Blue Ice, the only ice rink in the country, are a major attraction for families. From Hammamet south to Monastir there's a wealth of resorts, from quiet to lively, and modest to luxury with casinos, theme parks, golf and water sports.

[...]

My emphasis. More here. Cross file under "can't make it up."

A MOVIE ON THE APOSTLE THOMAS is in the works in India:

Now, an Indian film on Apostle Thomas
July 6th, 2008 - 12:45 pm ICT by IANS Thaindian News)

By Papri Sri Raman
Chennai, July 6 (IANS) Who was the man who inspired the English term “doubting Thomas”? Was he a contemporary of Jesus, or a faithful disciple or a fourth century Christian merchant? Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi inaugurated an Indian project to film the life and times of Apostle Thomas, known popularly as St. Thomas, who straddles legend and history in Judea, Syria, Persia and several south Indian settlements in the early Christian era.

A self-acclaimed atheist, Karunanidhi said on the occasion: “Whether I am accepted by god is more important than whether I accept god.”

Paulraj Lourdusamy is chief researcher for the film to be produced by Santhome church. He has also written the script.

The Rs.500-million ($12 million) project is being supported by the St. Thomas Apostle of India Trust, set up by the Catholic Archdiocese of Mylapore.

[...]

The article claims that Jim Caviezel is considering reprising his role as Jesus for the film.

OLD NEWS FOR NEW. The New Zealand Herald has an article announcing the discovery of some new scroll fragments in the Judean Desert, but it appears to be misplaced news from a 2005 AP article. For earlier coverage see here and here.

AN EXHIBITION ON THE EMPEROR HADRIAN opens at the British Museum later this month. The Museum's director has an article profiling Hadrian and the exhibition in the London Times:

There’s more to Hadrian than wall-building
A military mastermind who retreated from Iraq, a politician motivated by peace, and a lover of Greek culture and Greek men - there’s more to Hadrian than wall-building, reveals the director of the British Museum

Neil MacGregor

We think we know the Romans. Countless books, films, plays and pieces of music have been inspired by an empire that, at its height, in AD117, stretched from the site of modern Glasgow in the north to the Sahara desert in the south, and from the Atlantic to Basra. Hollywood sword-and-sandal epics from Quo Vadis to Gladiator, as well as the BBC’s Rome, give us the impression of an empire at once brutal and noble, heroic and corrupt, bloody and decadent - an empire of slavery but also of many freedoms, of multiple identities, all drawn together in the service of Rome and its emperors. But how much do we know? It can be hard to glimpse the real empire through the histories that have survived the centuries, histories that are invariably biased depending on who wrote them, when and, above all, for whom.

Sometimes one has a chance to glimpse the real emotions of ordinary Romans, living their lives under this extraordinary empire. The Vindolanda tablets, housed in the British Museum, slightly predate the emperor Hadrian and his instruction to build his eponymous wall separating England from Scotland (Caledonia) in AD122. Vindolanda fort already existed, first constructed in the late first century. Soldiers from all over the empire were billeted there, of Celtic, Germanic, North African or Syrian origins: a multi-national force guarding the extremes of the realm. Excavations at the fort in 1973 revealed an extraordinary cache of wooden writing tablets, official military documents and personal letters concerning the day-to-day issues of life in the army. They reveal complaints about the cold, illnesses, receipt of care parcels providing socks and underpants, invitations to birthday parties and so on. These truly are the humble building blocks of history and are surely similar to the e-mails and text messages soldiers send home from Iraq today. At their most basic, they show how little has changed in nearly 2,000 years. There is another connection between these two regions: for the north of England and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) were once the northern and eastern borders of the Roman empire, under the enigmatic emperor Hadrian.

In many ways, Hadrian seems familiar to us. There is a perception of him - given to us via the Victorians and then Marguerite Yourcenar’s ever-popular fictional autobiography of the emperor (1951) - that he was somehow different, a maverick, a Greek-loving peacenik more interested in architecture and boys than in securing the legacy of mighty Rome. But how true is this portrait, and what of Hadrian’s legacy? Why is he still important now? These are the questions an exhibition at the British Museum is seeking to address. A huge number of archeological finds connected to Hadrian and excavated over the past 30 or so years have inspired a new scholarship and allowed a reassessment of his character.

[...]

A truer glimpse of Hadrian’s character can be seen in the material borrowed from Israel for the exhibition. These loans include a magnificent bronze head and torso of Hadrian in military uniform; though his pose seems casual, he is every inch the tough military leader, a trait he exhibited to shocking effect during the second Jewish revolt (AD1325). Hadrian’s apparent banning of circumcision and his probable encroachments in Jerusalem unleashed a storm, led by Simeon Bar Kokhba, that cost Rome up to three legions. Hadrian decided to remind Judea that Rome was an imperial power that could brook no dissent: the proud rebels were mercilessly crushed, costing the lives of almost 600,000 Jews. It is no wonder that in the Talmud, Hadrian’s name was followed by the simple injunction “May his bones rot”.

[...]

Read it all. The exhibition was announced back in January. For more on the Vindolanda finds (and a little more on Bar Kokhba), see here. And for more still on Bar Kokhba, see here.

UPDATE: Bad link now fixed. Sorry about that.

UPDATE (11 July): More here.

THE VISION OF GABRIEL has made it into the New York Times:

Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: July 6, 2008

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era — in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.

It is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that much of what it says is open to debate.

Still, its authenticity has so far faced no challenge, so its role in helping to understand the roots of Christianity in the devastating political crisis faced by the Jews of the time seems likely to increase

[...].

(Heads up, Eibert Tigchelaar.)

Background here and keep following the links back.

ARCHAEOLOGY FOR KIDS: I noted this last fall, but now that it's the summer holidays, readers in New York who have kids might appreciate another mention:

‘ARCHAEOLOGY ZONE: DISCOVERING TREASURES FROM PLAYGROUNDS TO PALACES’ (Sunday through Thursday) Children will step into the shoes of an explorer like Indiana Jones in this exhibition at the Jewish Museum, but the adventures will be purely scholarly. Still, there is plenty of excitement in analyzing artifacts like a jar handle, a clay jug and a bangle and figuring out the purpose behind ancient pieces like a Greek helmet and a bull-shaped vessel. This interactive show also includes a recreated room from the Ottoman period (about 1900), where young archaeologists can dress in costume. (Through June 15, 2009.) Sunday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., and Thursday to 8 p.m., 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3200, thejewishmuseum.org. Free with admission: $12; $10 for 65+; $7.50 for students; free for under 12 and members.

PICTURES OF THE JEWISH GOLD-GLASS MEDALLIONS recovered from Nazi loot have been posted by Dorothy King on her PhDiva blog.

Background here.

IRAQI JEWISH ARCHIVE (?) UPDATE:

Iraq creates task force to probe stolen antiquities

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq said on Thursday it has created a special task force to investigate the theft of valuable ancient Judaic manuscripts that later turned up in Israel.

The rare books, confiscated during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, were rescued from US bombing at the start of the 2003 war and then sent to the United States for restoration but later wound up in Israel instead.

[...]

Background here.

A SYRIAC TOOLS AND RESOURCES WEBSITE has been placed online by MGVHoffman.

THE SAN DIEGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM is pleased with its haul from last year's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition:

The San Diego Natural History Museum reported that it has broken all attendance records with its past two blockbuster exhibits, "Dead Sea Scrolls" and "A Day in Pompeii."

During the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2007, the museum recorded 726,000 visitors, more than double the 134-year-old museum's usual attendance. The "Dead Sea Scrolls" exhibit drew 393,975 visitors and "Pompeii" drew 131,199. By comparison, the next most-popular exhibit in the museum's history was the "Chocolate" exhibit in 2005, which drew 70,290 visitors.

The museum's next major exhibition is "Water H2O=Life," opening July 19.

On a related note, the Isaiah Scroll exhibition in the Israel Museum continues to get attention.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY to my American readers.



(Wikimedia Commons image)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Dorothy King points to a good mystic's-eye view of the place.

PALEOJUDAICA has been listed as one of The Top 100 Liberal Arts Professor Blogs as compiled by Online University Reviews. Scroll down to the last section, Theology. AKMA is there too, and Cronaca appears in the Art section. Welcome to any readers referred from the list. You can find out more about this blog at the ABOUT PALEOJUDAICA.COM link in the sidebar to the right. Note also the MEMORABLE PALEOJUDAICA POSTS link immediately below it and a fifth-anniversay recap here.

BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL XXX has been published by Tyler Williams at the Codex blog.

THOMAS JEFFERSON'S LANGUAGE SKILLS are underlined in a new biography, The Road to Monticello, by Kevin Hayes. Adam Kirsh reviews it in the New York Sun:

And this doesn't even scratch the surface: Jefferson read constantly, copiously, in many languages. (He even designed a rotating bookstand that allowed him to consult five books at a time.) Naturally, as an Enlightenment philosophe in good standing, he knew French long before he was posted to France as America's ambassador. He also read Italian and Spanish, which he taught his daughters using "Don Quixote" as a textbook.

Like most Virginia planters, Jefferson studied Latin and Greek as a boy; unlike most, he actually learned them, and used them for the rest of his life. Studying the marginalia in Jefferson's law books, Mr. Hayes discovered apposite quotations from Herodotus and Euripides, in the original. Much more unusually, however, Jefferson was also a student of Anglo-Saxon. At a time when the language of "Beowulf" had not yet entered the college curriculum, Mr. Hayes writes, Jefferson's "sizable collection of Anglo-Saxon books included nearly all of the important studies of the language." He studied the Bible in polyglot editions that included Hebrew and Aramaic; he read the first translations of Indian and Persian literature, just then appearing in English. To amuse himself in retirement, Jefferson even bought Robert Morison's "Dialogues and Detached Sentences in the Chinese Language, With a Free and Verbal Translation in English."

All these languages gave Jefferson a wide field for reading, and, what he loved almost as much, for collecting. One of the chief pleasures of "The Road to Monticello" is Mr. Hayes's evocation of a world, almost unimaginable in the age of Amazon, when buying good books was an art in itself. ...

PRIESTLY VESTMENTS are being reconstructed (as far as that is possible, given our limited knowledge) by the Temple Institute:

Third Temple preparations begin with priestly garb
By DANIELLE KUBES

Wearing a turban and a light blue tunic threaded with silver, a man stands in a workshop in Jerusalem's Old City beside spools of white thread affixed to sewing machines. A painting of high priests performing an animal sacrifice beside the First Temple illustrates the function of the room.

On Monday, the Temple Institute started preparing to build a Third Temple on Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, the site of the Dome of the Rock and the Aksa mosque, by inaugurating a workshop that manufactures priestly garments.

[...]

No digging, please, on the Temple Mount, apart from controlled, scientific archaeological excavations. And the time is not yet right even for those.

UPDATE (12 July): More here.

SYRIAC TEXTS GALORE! On the Hugoye list Kristian Heal e-mails the following:

We have added a number of additional Syriac titles to the resources section of our website (http://cpart.byu.edu/?page=99&sidebar). These titles were digitized at BYU as an extension to the BYU-CUA Syriac Reference Library project (http://www.lib.byu.edu/dlib/cua/). We will be adding more titles soon.

Some titles may already be available elsewhere (Google Books, Internet Archive etc). It would be nice for someone to take on the task of producing a master list of Syriac titles available on-line in the various collections.

The Mingana and Wright catalogues look especially useful.

Then Steven Ring replies:

Thank you very much for this invaluable Syriac resource!

Although it now needs updating a little and not only to add your titles,
last year I began to compile a master list of Syriac books and
manuscripts available on-line .
The prototype list can be accessed at:
http://www.ashu39.dsl.pipex.com/ChristianMysteries/Online_Library.html

Over the next month, I will endeavour to update this list and mend some
links which have since broken....
Of course, the list is invited to send me any new links and corrections.

This looks exceedingly useful. Many thanks to Kristian and Steven.

NEWSWEEK has a number of Bible-related articles in its current online issue, some of which are of interest. First:

Raiders of the Lost Tomb
A book and movie allege the final resting place of Mary, Joseph and the King of Kings has been found. Controversy to follow.
By Lisa Miller and Joanna Chen | Newsweek Web Exclusive

In Jerusalem, that ancient and holy city, people's houses are built on bones. For thousands of years, hundreds of generations of Jews, Muslims and Christians have been laid to rest in its rocky soil. Tova Bracha has always known that the tiny, rose-bordered concrete plot next to her apartment building covers an ancient Jewish burial tomb, but she never thought much about it. "It just didn't seem important when there are so many tombs anyway that have been found around Jerusalem," she says. Rushing home for the Sabbath, her arms full of groceries, Bracha laughs at the suggestion that the tomb might be of considerable religious interest. Maybe she can make a fortune selling trinkets to tourists, she jokes. Maybe the value of her home will soar.

This week the Discovery Channel, together with HarperSanFrancisco, announces the release of "The Jesus Family Tomb," a television documentary and a book that aim to show that the tomb next door to Tova Bracha's apartment, located in a nondescript suburb called East Talpiot, is, well, the family plot of Jesus Christ. Spearheaded by a well-known TV director named Simcha Jacobovici, and produced by "Titanic" director James Cameron, "The Jesus Family Tomb" is—both in book and movie form—a slick and suspenseful narrative about the 1980 discovery of a first-century Jewish burial cave and the 10 bone boxes, or ossuaries, found therein.

[...]

Most specialists are skeptical. Background here and follow the many links back.

Second this:

But Did It Happen?
Like Any Good Mythic Narrative, Genesis Gets The Customs And Culture Of Its Setting Right
By Sharon Begley | NEWSWEEK
Oct 21, 1996 Issue

Tower of Babel

But starting with chapter 12, which introduces Abraham, Genesis starts reading like good historical fiction, reflecting the places, culture and customs of the second millennium B.C., says archeologist Amihai Mazar of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. (Genesis was compiled much later, however--between the 10th and fifth centuries B.C.) In chapter 13, for instance, when Lot, son of Abraham's dead brother, parts company with his uncle and strikes out for ""the whole plain of the Jordan,'' he saw ""that all of it was well-watered.'' Archeologists, notes Robert Alter in his new translation of and commentary on Genesis,* ""have in fact discovered traces of an ancient irrigation system in the plain of the Jordan.'' When Lot sits ""in the gate of Sodom'' in chapter 19, the reference is to a large chamber in the gateway of Canaanite cities, where residents would gossip, transact business and settle legal matters. And Egyptian records show that peasants paid a 20 percent tax on crops; Joseph, in chapter 47, orders that ""when the harvests come, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh.''

Something seems to be missing at the beginning of the article. This piece is disappointing. It relies to a large degree on old scholarship. It quotes authors in a way that gives the impression they were being interviewed, although this is unlikely in at least one case, given that Nahum Sarna died in 2005. I haven't followed this area for some time, but even back in the 1980s this position was being challenged by people like Thomas Thompson and John Van Seters, neither of whom are mentioned. The bottom line is that a lot of the supposed parallels between Genesis and Middle Bronze Age culture are poorly formulated and are not comparing like with like (I call this the fallacy of the middle term). And other more defensible parallels have equally good parallels later in the first millennium BCE.

Third, a piece on the Sacred exhibition:

The Sacred History
An exhibit of religious manuscripts serves as a timely reminder of the teachings the three major faiths share.
By Carla Power | Newsweek Web Exclusive

September 11 made Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations" thesis a fashionable map for the 21st century. Right-wing pundits and religious zealots alike used it to argue that Islamic and Western societies have always been incompatible. Now "Sacred," on view at London's British Library (through Sept. 23), provides an elegant riposte to clash-mongers. The collection of manuscripts from Christianity, Islam and Judaism underscores that the traditions of the three religions bear striking similarities. Their emphasis on scriptural truth is the same, their cultures are intertwined and their followers lived—usually peacefully—in multicultural societies for centuries.

[...]

Background here.

UPDATE: Reader Adam Peiper e-mails:

The article "But Did It Happen" was written in 1996 so it obviously couldn't quote any scholarship from after 1996. The date "October 21, 1996 issue" is written below the author's name Sharon Begley.

I was snookered too when I was searching the Google News search and I noticed other old articles from Newsweek that appeared; some from 2006. I suspect that Newsweek recently placed many of their old articles recently on-line and the "Google News" feature returns them as "new articles" even though they may have been published over a decade ago and only now appear online.

My bad for not noticing the date, and Professor Sarna was alive at the time after all. Still, Newsweek isn't entirely off the hook, since they were ignoring even 1980s scholarship.

NAZIS. I HATE THESE GUYS.

Nazi looted relics returned to former owner's heirs

Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:01pm EDT

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - Three ancient medallions looted by the Nazis in World War Two and missing for more than 60 years are being returned to the heirs of the former owner, the Commission for Looted Art in Europe said on Tuesday.

The three gold-glass relics from the 4th century AD are decorated with some of the earliest known depictions of Jewish symbols from the Second Temple period.

Found in the Rome catacombs in the 17th century, they were part of the collection in Poland of Countess Isabella Dzialynska.

Hidden for safekeeping at the outbreak of war, they were found and taken by the Nazis in 1941 and sent to Austria on the orders of Adolf Hitler where they were once again looted by locals at the end of the war.

The three medallions were acquired in the 1960s by the Israel Museum Jerusalem which, under the deal with Dzialynska's heirs, is keeping two of them bearing the ancient Jewish symbols.

[...]

UPDATE (2 July): The ArtDaily has more information:

Israel Museum Restitutes Three Ancient Roman Gold-Glass Medallions

[Restitutes?]

JERUSALEM.- The Israel Museum announced today the restitution of three gold-glass medallions dating from the fourth century CE, two from the catacombs in Rome and one discovered in Cologne, to the heirs of the Dzialynska Collection at Goluchow Castle in Poland. Of the three medallions, two are decorated with Jewish motifs, representing some of the earliest known depictions of Jewish symbols from the Second Temple to appear outside of the Land of Israel. Given the historical importance of the medallions to the Museum’s collections and to the patrimonial heritage of the State of Israel, the Israel Museum and the heirs have worked together to enable the Museum to repurchase one of the medallions with Jewish iconography for its permanent collection. The second medallion bearing Jewish symbols has been purchased by a donor and friend of the Israel Museum, for long-term loan to the Museum.

Distinguished by iconic imagery of the Holy Ark, the Lions of Judah, and the Temple Menorah, these two medallions were identified in Vienna by the well-known Judaica dealer Joseph Steiglitz and were purchased for the Israel Museum in 1965 by founder Teddy Kollek through the generosity of Museum donor Jakob Michael, New York, in memory of his wife, Erna Sondheimer-Michael. The third was acquired by Teddy Kollek in Vienna at the same time and donated by Teddy and Tamar Kollek to the Israel Museum in 1970. Given their rarity and their archaeological significance, the two medallions with Jewish motifs have been featured on permanent display in the Israel Museum’s archaeology galleries and in several special exhibitions and publications, with Goluchow Castle identified as part of their history of ownership beginning with the 1986 publication, “Treasures of the Holy Land: Ancient Art from the Israel Museum.”

[...]

Read it all.

UPDATE (4 July): For photos, see here.