Greek text of Philo on the web

THE GREEK TEXT OF PHILO is on the web.

BNTC 2010: Q Debate

BNTC 2010: The Sheffield Biblical Studies blog reports on the Q Debate between Christopher Tuckett and (in absentia) Francis Watson. Incidentally, I voted for Q.

NT Blog blogiversary

HAPPY BELATED SEVENTH BLOGIVERSARY to Mark Goodacre's NT Blog (originally the NT Gateway Blog).

Job: Research Associate in Papyrology in Oxford

JOB: Research Associate in Papyrology in Oxford (Oxyrhynchus Papyri).

(Via James McGrath on FB.)

Major trends in Hekhalot literature research

MAJOR TRENDS IN HEKHALOT LITERATURE RESEARCH are summed up in an article by Shlomo Brody in Text and Texture:

"The Aleinu Prayer and the Pardes Story: Major Trends in Hekhalot Literature Research"

It's a good summary overall, although it leaves out some of the most recent discussion. I have noted some additional bibliography in a comment.

(HT Joseph I. Lauer.)

Tomb Planters at Eastern Wall?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Tomb Planters at the Eastern Wall?

False Arab Graves Also Found Near Eastern Old City Wall

by Elad Benari
Follow Israel news on Twitter and Facebook.

Several weeks ago, Arutz7 reported exclusively that dozens of new tombs were being added to the Mamilla Cemetery, an ancient Muslim cemetery located on the outskirts of Jerusalem's Independence Park, but no one is buried beneath them. These faked graves were in fact a Muslim project aimed at taking over land.

Following Arutz7’s report, the faked tombs were removed by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel Lands Authority.

Now, it appears as though the same phenomenon is occurring also in the area of the Eastern Wall in Jerusalem (adjacent to the Western Wall). The Arabs are simply ignoring a law that deems the area a national park.

Maya Shukri of the El Har HaMoriyah Institute, who documented the faked graves with her camera, told Arutz7 on Wednesday that at the present time, the graves are empty but an infrastructure is in place for future burials. Shukri, who compared older photographs to photographs taken recently, said that “there are markings [of graves] there, but underneath there is only soil. Some of them don’t have a tombstone.”

[...]

Background here.

Irish bog Psalter had Egyptian papyrus in binding

THE IRISH BOG PSALTER had Egyptian papyrus in its binding:

Manuscript dug from bog rates among our top 10 biggest finds

By JEROME REILLY (Independent.ie)

Sunday September 05 2010

The Faddan More Psalter, a remarkable 1,200-year-old manuscript found in a north Tipperary bog four years ago, has provided astonishing evidence of links between the early Christian Church in Ireland and the Middle Eastern Coptic Church.

As a painstaking conservation process came to its conclusion, tiny fragments of papyrus were discovered in the lining of the Egyptian-style leather binding of the manuscript, which was unearthed by Eddie Fogarty in a mechanical digger in the townland of Faddan More, not far from Birr, in July 2006.

The discovery of Egyptian papyrus represents the first tangible connection between early Irish Christianity and the Middle-Eastern Coptic Church and has confounded some of the accepted theories about the history of early Christianity in Ireland.

Four years ago the find was heralded by Dr Pat Wallace, director of Ireland's National Museum, as "the most important day in the history of the museum since 1868 when the Ardagh Chalice came in".

The four-year conservation process has strengthened that view.

"It was a miraculous thing that the manuscript survived at all. It was found by Mr Fogarty who was cutting turf.

"It was also remarkable that Mr Fogarty and the family he was working for, the Leonards of Riverstown, were familiar with the work of the National Museum and knew exactly what to do to protect a manuscript found in wet bog.

"They immediately covered it with wet turf and this was absolutely vital in preserving the manuscript. If they hadn't done that it would have been obliterated in a few hours in the sunshine," Dr Wallace told the Sunday Independent.

[...]

I wonder if the Egyptian connection could help explain the origins of the Irish Old Testament pseudepigrapha.

Background here and follow the links.

UPDATE (8 September): Christian Askeland comments on the story at Evangelical Textual Criticism. This is the first I've heard of linguistic connections between Celtic and Coptic. On the face of it, that sounds pretty unlikely to me. Coptic is an Afro-Asiatic language and Celtic an Indo-European one.

Classical Hebrew degree in Malta

COOL: You can now get a degree in Classical Hebrew at the University of Malta:

Classical Hebrew degree

(Times of Malta)

The course will enable the students to read ancient Jewish texts such as the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

A BA/BA (Hons) degree in Classical Hebrew will be offered as of next month by the University’s Department of Oriental Studies. The degree gives an overview of ancient Israelite and Jewish history and culture, covering the period ranging from the 12th century BC to the 2nd century AD, and of the development of the Hebrew language during this period.

Various language courses on Classical and post-Classical Hebrew (starting from the very basics of the language) will be on offer, which will enable the students to read ancient Jewish texts, such as the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls, in their original language.

[...]

Given the location, I hope they add some courses on ancient Phoenician and Punic languages and archaeology.

Back in St. Andrews

BACK IN ST. ANDREWS. Got in last night.

Half a decade of search engine referrals

SEARCH ENGINE REFERRALS: For the past five years and several months I have been saving up especially entertaining search-engine referrals that have directed readers to PaleoJudaica. It's pretty obvious that most of those readers did not find what they were looking for. Here, for your amusement, is the list of search terms. I swear I did not make any of them up.

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Coptic Unicode font now available

A COPTIC UNICODE FONT is now available.

The Flood story at Ugarit

THE FLOOD STORY AT UGARIT: It isn't terribly well known, but a version of the Mesopotamian Flood story was found among those "Canaanite" alphabetic cuneiform texts at Ugarit. This tablet, however, was written in Akkadian and tells the story in the first person with Atrahasis as the Flood hero. The name of the hero is Utnapishtim in the Gilgamesh Epic and Atrahasis in the Atrahasis epic. Duane Smith has posted an edition and translation of the Flood story from Ugarit at Abnormal Interests.

I published a discussion and partial translation of this tablet in my article "The Flood Hero as King and Priest," JNES 53 (1995): 199-214, esp. pp. 205-206. Despite its fragmentary nature, it is a very interesting text.

Bishop Tom Wright on moving to St. Andrews

BISHOP TOM WRIGHT is interviewed by the BBC on moving to St. Andrews.

Via Mark Goodacre's NT Blog.

BNTC 2010

I'M OFF to the British New Testament Conference, which is in Bangor, Wales, this year. I'm not presenting a paper this time, but I will be co-chairing the New Testament and Second Temple Judaism Seminar, as usual. The programs of all the seminars are available here.

The conference takes place today, Friday, and Saturday. I will try to keep blogging as usual, time and internet connection permitting, but I have also pre-posted a few things, so there will be something new here each day in any case.

New World Hebrew forgeries in the news

NEW WORLD HEBREW FORGERIES have been getting some unfortunate media attention lately. For some reason the Los Lunas "Mystery Stone" forgery in New Mexico is given gullible positive coverage by Digital Journal. Also, a visit to the stone is chronicled much more sensibly in Mama Dragon, in which post the burning bush is repeatedly addressed as "dude."*

Note also Glenn Beck's recent foray back into Hebrew studies with a segment on the Bat Creek Stone. The Bat Creek stone inscription was also debunked back in 1993 in the July/August issue of Biblical Archaeology Review by P. Kyle McCarter, supporting earlier conclusions by Frank Moore Cross. (Not online. Sorry.) Cross and McCarter are two of the most distinguished living Northwest Semitic epigraphers. (Full disclosure: Cross supervised my doctoral dissertation.) Both the paleography (letter shapes) of the letters that look like Hebrew and the content (the apparent geographical name Yehud) do not work for Second Temple Hebrew (or, in combination, any other kind).

Beck also mentioned the Newark Stones, which are clearly not actually Second Temple Hebrew inscriptions, although it has been argued that they are medieval Jewish relics that were salted into the digs where they were discovered. At least the residents of Newark were pleased with Beck's mention of the stones:

NEWARK -- The day after the Newark Earthworks were mentioned by television and radio host Glenn Beck on FOX News, there was an increase in visitors at the Great Circle.

"Our phones are ringing off the hook," said Susan Fryer, executive director of the Greater Licking County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is housed at the Great Circle in Newark.

"So far we've had about 34 visitors today, and about one-third of those are here because they saw it on Glenn Beck," Fryer said mid-afternoon Thursday.

Many of the visitors, Fryer said, were from Ohio and had thought about visiting but never did until they saw the program.

[...]

*Via James McGrath on FB.

Antiquities restoration at the IAA

ANTIQUITIES RESTORATION at the IAA gets a brief look by Haaretz. Excerpt:

[Elisheva] Kamaisky is one of the Antiquities Authority's six-member restoration team who reconstruct objects and implements of the material culture in the country since human habitation began. They receive potsherds, threadbare cloths, metallic weapons, golden coins, delicate glassware and more. Unlike their colleagues in the rest of the world, Israeli law bars them from working with human remains.

[...]

In a nearby room that resembles a chemistry lab, Lena Kuperschmidt, a metallurgy expert, is hard at work. Her current project is opening rolled up lead talismans found in Caesarea. Each talisman is a flat rectangle of lead, engraved in Greek and rolled into a tight scroll. The talismans contain mostly curses against horses, and were meant to help whoever wrote or ordered them disable rival's horses in the races staged at the local hippodrome. Every talisman holds uncharitable wishes, like "may the horse go blind," "may it break its legs," "may it fail to run" and so on.

Ancient Cupid cameo from Jerusalem

AN ANCIENT CUPID CAMEO has been excavated in Jerusalem:

Israel archeologists uncover 2,000-year-old cupid in City of David dig

Israel Antiquities Authority says added inlaid semi-precious stone is of the 'Eros in mourning,' one of a group of visual motifs linked with mourning practices.

By Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news archeology Jerusalem

Israeli archeologists unveiled a 2,000 year old semi-precious cameo bearing the image of Cupid on Monday, which the Israel Antiquities Authorities (IAA) said was among several items located in the City of David archeological area in Jerusalem's Old City in the last 12 months.

The cameo, which will be displayed at the 11th Annual City of David Archaeology Conference scheduled to take place later this week, is 1 cm in length and 0.7 cm in width, and was discovered in the Givati Parking Lot Excavation, a part of the Jerusalem Walls National Park.

[...]

Click on the link for a photo and detailed description.

On the origins of the alphabet

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE ALPHABET: An interesting debate was started up in the March/April issue of BAR by Orly Goldwasser on whether the alphabet was invented in elite scribal circles or (her position) in a working-class environment. Anson Rainey and now Christopher Rollston have replied, taking the contrary view. Much of the discussion is online:

Orly Goldwasser, How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs (mostly behind a subscription wall).

Anson Rainey, with Goldwasser's rebuttal, Who Really Invented the Alphabet—Illiterate Miners or Educated Sophisticates? (BAR website).

Christopher Rollston, FEATURED POST by Christopher Rollston: The Probable Inventors of the First Alphabet (ASOR blog).

Note also the recent discussion of The Origins of ABC in a post at John Boardley's I Love Typography blog.

More on Arsinoë II

MORE ON ARSINOË II from Judith Weingarten at the Zenobia: Empress of the East blog: The Uppity Queen Arsinoë II (Part II).

Background here.

Phoenicia closing on on Gibraltar

THE GOOD SHIP PHOENICIA is closing in on Gibraltar:

ARRIVING AT CALPE…

Over a thousand years ago they arrived, looked at the Rock and called it Calpe. Now they’re back - at Ocean Village.

After 27 consecutive days at sea, Phoenicia is expected to arrive on Sunday 29 August in the safe waters of Ocean Village marina for some well-earned R n R. The 21 metre vessel, a traditionally built replica of a 600BC Phoenician cargo ship, is currently recreating the epic first circumnavigation of Africa achieved some 2,600 years ago.

[...]

The latest entry in the Ship's Blog (Position Report 241) reports favorable weather. Background here and follow the links.

UPDATE (30 August): They arrived safely on Sunday (Position Report 243):

We successfully made landfall earlier this morning after a challenging passage along the final Straits of Gibraltar where strong headwinds and sea mist nearly prevented us from going any further. However the strong current enabled us to beat off the head winds and although this meant positioning ourselves near the centre of the Strait and facing on coming ships in the adjacent traffic lane, this strategy eventually paid dividends. Even so it was a tense night and fortunately our luck held.

In Gibraltar we are guests of the Ocean Village Marina where we plan to stay until the end of the week when we will start another leg of the expedition towards Carthage in Tunisia.