Samuel Iwry's son

SAMUEL IWRY'S SON is a financial official in Washington:

The Scholar Of Savings

(Dow Jones) Interpreting the Bible and retirement policy typically don't mix.

Unless you are J. Mark Iwry. The son of a Dead Sea Scroll scholar and a descendant of mystical 17th-century rabbi Baal Shem Tov, he also is a uniquely powerful Washington wonk, almost single-handedly guiding the nation's approach to retirement accounts and policy.

Iwry's job, as the Treasury Department's senior benefits official, is to figure out what the government can and can't do to boost retirement savings. He is currently promoting "auto-IRAs," the top retirement item in the Obama administration's budget, which will be introduced to Congress within a few weeks.

Overhauling retirement-plan policies involves interpreting arcane and often ambiguous provisions in the U.S. tax code, then getting employers and lawmakers to go along with proposed changes.

"He's sort of like a biblical scholar," says Norman Stein, professor of law at Drexel University. "He's interested in trying to deal with the technical and policy together, to get the technical to serve the policy."

[...]

Iwry—who lives near Washington with his wife, Daryl Lander, a lawyer in solo practice, and his college-bound son—may have a tolerance for complexity in his DNA.

His father, Samuel Iwry, was a Bible scholar in Poland who joined the resistance during World War II, and made his way to Shanghai, where he negotiated with the British to allow Jewish families to emigrate from Asia to Palestine. He married the woman who nursed him back to health after he was imprisoned by the Japanese, and the couple moved to the U.S., where the senior Iwry became a professor at Johns Hopkins University and worked to decode the Dead Sea Scrolls.

For someone who chooses his words as if he is giving a deposition, the younger Iwry has the unlikely distinction, along with humorist Dave Barry, of being among the most quoted in the recently published "As Certain as Death: Quotations About Taxes," by Jeffery L. Yablon, a tax partner in the Washington office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

In one, Iwry compares the tax code to the Bible: "Of only one other book can it be said . . . that great minds have devoted countless hours to the scrutiny and learned exegesis of every passage; that differing interpretations of the text have given rise to some of humanity's most epic struggles; and that, while millions mine it for valuable insights and inspiration, those who claim to live by the book and follow its precepts probably far outnumber those who actually do so."

Silwan archaeological park

THAT ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK slated to be built in Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood is back in the news:

East Jerusalem Building Plan Advances

By ISABEL KERSHNER (New York Times)
Published: June 21, 2010

JERUSALEM — Jerusalem’s city hall advanced rezoning and development plans on Monday for a hotly contested area of East Jerusalem, another example of an awkwardly timed, seemingly bureaucratic Israeli maneuver that could upset fragile peace efforts.

The preliminary approval for the plans — including the demolition of more than 20 Palestinian homes to create an archaeological park, along with a new residential and commercial tourist center — came a day after Israel won unusual praise from Washington for easing the blockade of Hamas-run Gaza, and amid other signs of progress. A mayoral spokesman said the planning decisions were independent of other considerations.

[...]

New US-Israel Crisis Looms over Jerusalem Park

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (Arutz Sheva)

Another crisis between the Netanyahu and Obama administrations looms over housing in Jerusalem, this time because of Jerusalem’s plan to wreck 22 illegally built Arab homes to make way for an archaeological park. The Jerusalem municipality proposal also calls for making legal 66 other Arab buildings built without permits.

The U.S. State Department said Monday afternoon it is “concerned” over the plan that “we think undermines the trust that is fundamental in making progress to the proximity talks and ultimately in direct negotiations.”

[...]

Background here and follow the links back.

Happy Summer Solstice

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE to all celebrating. Sunny, clear, and warm here this evening, none of which is to be taken for granted.

SOTS Booklist 2010

IN THE MAIL:

Deborah W. Rook (ed.) with C. A. Strine, Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2010 (London: Sage, 2010)

Crucifixion revisionism?

CRUCIFIXION REVISIONISM?

What do we really know about the crucifixion of Jesus?
June 14, 2010 (Physorg.com)

The many different accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus find little support in historical sources. The reason is that antique sources generally lack descriptions of crucifixions, says Gunnar Samuelsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who recently finished his doctoral thesis on the topic.

For earlier PaleoJudaica discussions of the physiology of crucifixion, see this post and follow the surviving links. But Samuelsson seems to be taking a much more skeptical line about our whole understanding of crucifixion in antiquity.

UPDATE (22 June): The Gothenburg University website has more information on the thesis here.

Back in St. Andrews

I'M BACK in St. Andrews. Don't know if I'll get to more blogging today.

Back to St. Andrews

I HEAD BACK TO ST. ANDREWS later this morning. Look for me sometime again on Sunday.

Seventh heaven

HEADLINE OF THE WEEK:

The struggles, survival of 7th Heaven

Written by Rick Hellman, Editor (Jewish Chronicle)
Friday, 18 June 2010 12:00

The idea of Seven Heavens is actually an early Jewish mystical concept, propounded by, among others, the sect that wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. So it’s fitting that a young Jewish man from Kansas City, Mo., chose 7th Heaven as the name of his record store near the corner of 76th Street and Troost Avenue back in 1974.

[...]

The seven "firmaments" figure prominently in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice among the Dead Sea Scrolls. More on the seventh heaven (broadly speaking) here.

Nabucco at Masada - commentary

NABUCCO AT MASADA - commentary:

Setting opera in Masada resonates with Jewish audience

Published On Fri Jun 18 2010

By William Littler Music Columnist (Toronto Star)

MASADA, ISRAEL—The active campaign to list Masada among the world heritage sites received a huge boost this month with the Israeli Opera’s staging of a two camel-, 10-horse production of Verdi’s Nabucco at its desert base.

[...]

Background here.

Review of Canada's Big Biblical Bargain

REVIEW of Canada's Big Biblical Bargain in Macleans.com (scroll down):

Canada’s Big Biblical Bargain
Jason Kalman and Jaqueline S. du Toit

Most Canadians know something of the Dead Sea scrolls: the first discovery in 1947 by Bedouin nomads after two millennia buried in a cliffside cave, and subsequent finds over the next nine years in 10 other caves; the controversy the texts have sparked over what they reveal about early Judaism and the origins of Christianity; and the endless debate over who owns them now, still making news last year as the scrolls visited the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

What few realize, however, is that a key portion of the scrolls was once set to be permanently housed in Montreal. Half of the 16 scrolls shown at the ROM, in fact, were purchased from their Bedouin finders by a Jerusalem museum with money provided by McGill University. Its $20,000 contribution bought 500 manuscript fragments and, according to Kalman and du Toit, was crucial to keeping the collection intact and available to scholars. In exchange, McGill was promised ownership.

[...]

Background here.

Ron Hendel has left the SBL

RONALD S. HENDEL has left the Society of Biblical Literature:

The battle royal between faith and reason is now in the center ring at the SBL circus. While the cultured despisers of reason may rejoice—including some postmodernists, feminists4 and eco-theologians—I find it dispiriting. I don’t want to belong to a professional society where people want to convert me, and where they hint in their book reviews that I’m going to hell. As a scholar of the humanities—and I might add, as a Jew—I do not feel at home in such a place. What to do? Well, I’ve let my membership in SBL lapse. Maybe that’s a cowardly response, but sometimes, as Shakespeare wrote, “The better part of valor is discretion.” Sometimes it’s reasonable to avoid conflict. And like Pascal and Spinoza, I’m partial to reason in matters of scholarship. But my heart, for reasons of its own, gently grieves.

I didn't know about the change in the wording of the mission statement and I can't say I'm happy with it. I and others have noticed that since the departure of the American Academy of Religion, attendance at the annual-meeting SBL sessions has been disturbingly low, but diluting the mission of the Society is not the solution.

Congratulations to James McGrath et al.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JAMES MCGRATH, with Charles Haberl and April De Conick,, who have been awarded a large NEH grant:

Butler Religion Professor Awarded Federal Funding

InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report

A Butler University associate professor of Religion has landed a $130,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant to translate the Mandaean Book of John. James McGrath and his collaborators plan to spend the next two years producing a typed version of the text in the original language and translating the more than 200 pages of handwritten text.

UPDATE: The project now has a blog: The Mandaean Book of John .

Review of Jewish magic exhibition

A REVIEW of the Jewish Magic exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem:

How lucky charms still bring us a little magic
For all the Bible’s warning against superstition, you can still find Jews wearing amulets today.

By Mordechai Beck, June 17, 2010 (Jewish Chronicle)

Israel's representative at the recent Eurovision Song Contest, Harel Skaat, unashamedly flaunted a kemaye - a Hebrew amulet - on his bared chest during his performance. "I believe in all these superstitions," he confessed.

Skaat is not alone. Superstition and magic among Jews has a history stretching back to biblical times. It is said that the first amulet was the "sign" given by God to Cain to protect him from potential assassins.

A new exhibition, called "Angels and Demons", in Jerusalem's Bible Lands' Museum offers a panoramic view of this Jewish fascination with magic. It brings together written and graphic material from across the centuries and around the globe displaying what the classic book on the subject, Joshua Trachtenberg's Jewish Magic and Superstition, calls "a folk religion". Alongside legitimate Judaism another, subterranean belief system has persisted, attracting rabbis, scholars and laymen alike.
[...]

And here's something interesting that I didn't know about:

Also on display is a young boy's shirt holding various charms in its pockets. It was found by the late Yigal Yadin in the same cave as the letters of Bar Kochba overlooking the Dead Sea. The fact that such a charmed vest would be used by this group of spiritual seekers back in the second century attests to the depth to which these customs had taken hold of the people.

Background here.

Oxyrhynchus biblical papyri

VIGILIAE CHRISTIANAE has an article about the Oxyrhynchus Papyri in its current issue (64.3): Sacred Scriptures as Trash: Biblical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus (requires a paid personal or institutional subscription to access).

Rioting over archaeology in Jaffa

RIOTING OVER ARCHAEOLOGY IN JAFFA:

Hundreds of haredim riot in Jaffa
By JPOST.COM STAFF
06/16/2010 13:47

Rioters say archaeological dig desecrates graves, 5 policemen injured.
Talkbacks (13)

Hundreds of haredim were involved in violent riots in Jaffa on Wednesday, in Rehov Louis Pasteur around the site of an archeological dig. Fifteen haredim were arrested.

The haredim maintain that the work desecrates the sanctity of ancient bones at the site. Rabbi Tuvia Weiss, the senior rabbinic leader of the Eda Haredit Badatz (rabbinical court), was on the scene to encourage the protesters and lead a curse against those working at the site.

[...]

It would be interesting to hear more about what has actually been found at the site.

Background here.

Kthobonoyo in the Netherlands

ARAMAIC WATCH:

The Netherlands: ancient faith of the Middle East fathers

Guardian Weekly reader Catherine Ann Lombard writes on a visit to Mor Ephrem, the Syrian Orthodox Monastery at the far eastern border of the Netherlands and meets 45 boys who are learning to read and chant in kthobonoyo, the litur gical language that only about 300 people in the world speak today

[...]

More on Kthobonoyo here.

Hershel Shanks profiled in the NYT

HERSHEL SHANKS is profiled in the New York Times:

Shining a Light on Ancient Israel

By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
Published: June 16, 2010

NEW YORK — He’s not exactly a household name, but anybody who has been paying only intermittent attention to the tricky, contentious and occasionally litigious world of biblical archaeology will know that Hershel Shanks, who at the age of 80 has just published his autobiography, is the leading non-archaeologist in the field.

Mr. Shanks is the founder and editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, a position from which he led the campaign a quarter-century ago to make the famed Dead Sea Scrolls available to pretty much any scholar who wanted to examine them — after forty years during which only members of a small and possessive group of experts were allowed access to them.

In acknowledgment of that, Mr. Shanks has titled his new book, the 21st he has either written or edited, “Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls: And Other Adventures of an Archaeology Outsider.”

[...]

A novel about Josephus

A NOVEL about Josephus:

THE GOSPEL
The Good News According To Josephus

THE GOSPEL
By: C.G. Weiss
ISBN: 1-4500-2787-3 (eBook )
ISBN13: 978-1-4500-2787-8 (eBook )
ISBN: 1-4500-2785-7 (Trade Paperback 6x9 )
ISBN13: 978-1-4500-2785-4 (Trade Paperback 6x9 )
ISBN: 1-4500-2786-5 (Trade Hardback 6x9 )
ISBN13: 978-1-4500-2786-1 (Trade Hardback 6x9 )

Pages : 275
Book Format :Trade Book 6x9
Subject :
FICTION / Historical

Availability
eBook ($9.99)
Trade Paperback 6x9 ($19.99)
Trade Hardback 6x9 ($29.99)
Please choose book availability

Description

It takes place in the year 95 C.E. (A.D.) at the home of Flavia Sabena — a cousin to Emperor Domitian — on the last night of the Festival of Saturnalia. The hostess has invited eminent Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, as guest of honor, to give readings from his works while they wait up all night in their annual solar vigil celebrating the mid-Winter Solstice. Among the guests are P. Cornelius Tacitus, the leading voice among Roman historians, and Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus the biographer of the Caesars. Opening with the “Star & Scepter” prophecy and a fl ashback to Isaiah, the action shifts to Josephus, who explains that what encouraged the zealot bandits who fomented this war, was an ambiguous oracle of a world ruler coming out of their country that was supported by their scriptural writings. But as it turned out, the oracle foretold the elevation of Vespasian, who was proclaimed Roman Emperor while he was in Judea.

Follow the link for author information and an excerpt from the book. If the excerpt is representative, a lot of the dialogue is taken from the works of Josephus and some of the other Festival guests. Not sure how well that would sustain a whole novel.

Prince Charles quotes a Gnostic gospel

PRINCE CHARLES cites a Gnostic gospel (and the canonical Jesus tradition) in a recent speech on the environmental virtues of the Islamic tradition. I quote the passage in context:

This [unsustainable lifestyle] happens when traditional principles and practices are abandoned – and with them, all sense of reverence for the Earth which is an inseparable element in an integrated and spiritually grounded tradition like Islam – just as it was once firmly embedded in the philosophical heritage of Western thought. The Stoics of Ancient Greece, for instance, held that “right knowledge,” as they called it, is gained by living in agreement with Nature, where there is a correspondence or a sympathy between the truth of things, thought and action. They saw it as our duty to achieve an attunement between human nature and the greater scheme of the Cosmos.

This incidentally is also the teaching of Judaism. The Book of Genesis says that God placed Mankind in the garden “to tend it and take care of it,” to serve and conserve it for the sake of future generations. “Adamah” in Hebrew means “the one hewn from the Earth,” so Adam is a child of the Earth. In my own tradition of Christianity, the immanence of God is made explicit by the incarnation of Christ. But let us also not forget that throughout the Christian New Testament, Christ often refers to Himself as “the Son of Man” which, in Hebrew, is “Ben Adam.” He, too, is a “son of the Earth,” surely making the same explicit connection between human nature and the whole of Nature.

Even the apocryphal Gnostic texts are imbued with the same principle. The fragments of one of the oldest, ascribed to Mary Magdalene, instructs us that “Attachment to matter gives rise to passion against Nature. Thus, trouble arises in the whole body; this is why I tell you; be in harmony.” In all cases the message is clear. Our specific purpose is to “earth” Heaven. So, to separate ourselves within an inner darkness, leads to what the Irish poet, WB Yeats, warned of at the start of the Twentieth Century. “The falcon cannot hear the falconer,” he wrote, “things fall apart and the centre cannot hold.”

With all due respect to Prince Charles, I have two comments. First, regarding the title "the Son of Man," the word Adamah means "earth" or "ground," not "the one hewn from the Earth." The term/name Adam, "man" or "human being," would indeed probably have brought to mind an echo of Adamah as a folk etymology. But if Jesus used the phrase "the Son of Man" (and I think it's likely he did, although it's less clear he meant himself), he would have been speaking in Aramaic. The Aramaic phrase is bar (a)nasha, (the second word is "man," "human being" from another root, related to the biblical name Enosh). The phrase has no connection with the Hebrew word adamah and would not have brought it to mind.

Second, regarding the Gospel of Mary, I have serious reservations about using a Gnostic scripture to support modern environmentalism. Gnosticism taught esoteric knowledge that was supposed to help the soul escape from the irredeemably corrupt material world into the spiritual, heavenly Fullness or Pleroma. This is not a philosophy that had any sympathy or concern for the natural world.

Fallout from the Ashkelon graves?

FALLOUT from the removal of the Ashkelon graves?

Ottoman-era Archaeological Dig in Jaffa Vandalized (Turkish Weekly)

[...]

While no suspects have been arrested, since the controversial excavation of the ancient graves on the grounds of Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon began a wave of vandalism against IAA archaeological digs swept the country.

Previous attacks on IAA dig sites in Jaffa and elsewhere were found to be the work of haredim.

Recent background on the controversy over the ancient graves at Barliali Hospital ER site is here, here, here and here.