New book: Shantz & Werline, Experientia 2

NEW BOOK FROM THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE:

Experientia, Volume 2: Linking Text and Experience

Colleen Shantz, Rodney A. Werline

ISBN 1589836693
Status Forthcoming
Price: $26.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date August, 2012

This collection of essays continues the investigation of religious experience in early Judaism and early Christianity begun in Experientia, Volume 1, by addressing one of the traditional objections to the study of experience in antiquity. The authors address the relationship between the surviving evidence, which is textual, and the religious experiences that precede or ensue from those texts. Drawing on insights from anthropology, sociology, social memory theory, neuroscience, and cognitive science, they explore a range of religious phenomena including worship, the act of public reading, ritual, ecstasy, mystical ascent, and the transformation of gender and of emotions. Through careful and theoretically informed work, the authors demonstrate the possibility of moving from written documents to assess the lived experiences that are linked to them. The contributors are István Czachesz, Frances Flannery, Robin Griffith-Jones, Angela Kim Harkins, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, John R. Levison, Carol A. Newsom, Rollin A. Ramsaran, Colleen Shantz, Leif E. Vaage, and Rodney A. Werline.

Colleen Shantz is Associate Professor of New Testament at St. Michael’s College in the Toronto School of Theology. She is the author of Paul in Ecstasy: The Neurobiology of the Apostle’s Life and Thought (Cambridge University Press) and the co-editor of Experientia, Volume 1: Inquiry into Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Christianity (Society of Biblical Literature). She chairs the Religious Experience section of the Society of Biblical Literature. Rodney A. Werline is Associate Professor and the Marie and Leman Barnhill Endowed Chair in Religious Studies at Barton College, Wilson, North Carolina. He is the author of Pray Like This (Continuum) and Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism: The Development of a Religious Institution (Society of Biblical Literature) and the co-editor of numerous volumes including Experientia, Volume 1: Inquiry into Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Christianity (Society of Biblical Literature).

Review of Ullucci, The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice

BMCR BOOK REVIEW:

Daniel C. Ullucci, The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. x, 227. ISBN 9780199791705. $74.00.

Reviewed by Philippa Townsend, Ursinus College (ptownsend@ursinus.edu)

Preview

Sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean has been the subject of renewed scholarly attention in recent years.1 Daniel Ullucci’s book makes a significant contribution to the debate, focusing on the fascinating issue of when and why Christians stopped participating in the previously ubiquitous practice of animal sacrifice. While much previous scholarship has interpreted the Christian rejection of animal sacrifice as the culmination of a long tradition of enlightened criticism of the practice, Ullucci argues instead that early Christians were participating in an ongoing competition between elite “cultural producers” to define what sacrifice meant and how it should be practiced (5). First through third century Christian texts display a wide variety of views on sacrifice, and it was not until the fourth century that these disparate interpretations came to be read as consistent and that a coherent Christian position on sacrifice was developed (8-9). Readers will appreciate Ullucci’s concise and sophisticated explication of theoretical issues, and his close analytical overview of a large number of Christian and non-Christian texts on sacrifice.

[...]

Background on SWBTS DSS exhibit

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Story behind exhibit as extraordinary as Scrolls (Diane Cowen). The exhibit is the one currently running at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Excerpt:

For decades, the Pattersons have led friends and seminary patrons on tours of the Holy Land. Among the many people they got to know was William Kando Sr., a shopkeeper and antiquities dealer in Bethlehem. Kando, a Syrian Orthodox Christian, is one of the people who was approached by the Bedouins who discovered the scrolls 65 years ago.

In 2009, the Pattersons took another group to the Holy Land, and Stephanie and Gary Loveless of Houston - members of Second Baptist Church - were part of the group. Gary Loveless owns Square Mile Energy and years ago founded the Living Waters International charity that sends mission groups to dig water wells for people in underdeveloped areas around the world. He's also on the board of trustees for the seminary.

Gary Loveless said they were busy visiting the usual sights of Holy Land travelers, and the group stopped at Kando's shop, now run by his son, William Kando Jr. Stephanie Loveless purchased a small oil lamp, and the couple returned to the tour bus, with her husband thinking he'd just gotten out of a pricey store with way more money in his pocket than he expected.

Then the Pattersons waved at him to return to the shop. Kando had just made them an offer they couldn't refuse: His family had decided that their Dead Sea Scroll fragments, locked away in a Swiss vault for decades, should be on public display. And they wanted them to be exhibited with his treasured friends at Southwestern Baptist.

The Lovelesses knew it was time for the important work of Christian charity - and they ultimately became the major sponsors of the exhibit with their $1 million donation.

Background here and links.

Meyer obit fail

AN OBITUARY FOR MARVIN MEYER in the Telegraph has some careless errors. Marv deserves better. Mark Goodacre administers a fisking at the NT Blog. And to add to Mark's comments, note the first sentence of the article:

What we know as the New Testament – the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Book of Revelation – was actually born of thousands of texts and gospels circulated among the early Christians.

If only there had been thousands of Christian texts and gospels circulating in the early centuries C.E., and if only we still had them! There were scores, certainly, and the number may have been as high as the low hundreds, but not thousands.

Earlier obituaries etc. are here and links.

UPDATE: It just gets worse. Mark has a new post up: Plagiarism in the Telegraph's obituary of Marvin Meyer. Epic fail.

I agree fully with Mark's concluding comment:

I think that it is disgraceful that The Telegraph's obituary of Marvin Meyer is a patchwork of passages plagiarized from different electronic articles and I would like to suggest that they acknowledge what they have done, issuing a full apology, and replacing the plagiarized piece with something that appropriately honours Professor Meyer's memory.

Pagels seminar on Revelation

ELAINE PAGELS recently gave a seminar on the Book of Revelation for The Long Now Foundation. You can listen to it here: “The Truth About the Book of Revelations.” Obviously, the title should read "Revelation."

For more on her recent book on the subject, see here and links,

Fighting in Aleppo

MORE ON THE SYRIAN CRISIS: Jewish Aleppo, Lost Forever: The Syrian diaspora in Israel watches its once-vibrant ancestral home fall to ruin in the country’s civil war (Joseph Dana, Tablet Magazine).

See also my recent post Syrian antiquities plundered. And there's much more on the Aleppo Codex here and links.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the mustache?

THE AMERICAN MUSTACHE INSTITUTE reports the following:

We should note biblical text -- specifically the Dead Sea Scrolls -- which specifically state that "each time a mustache is shaved, an angel in heaven dies and falls to earth."

Relayed on the PBS website by Paul Solman, who rightly has his doubts. It's a fine apocryphal saying, but it isn't in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Another Meyer obit

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES has published a long and detailed obituary for Marvin Meyer: Marvin W. Meyer dies at 64; expert on Gnosticism: The specialist in early Christianity helped translate the Gospel of Judas, which he said portrayed the disciple as a hero, not a villain, for betraying Jesus and setting in motion the Crucifixion. Excerpt:

The tanned, athletic man who wore rumpled khakis, oversized shirts and a silver hoop in his left ear "was our Indiana Jones," said James L. Doti, president of Chapman University in Orange, where Meyer held the Griset Chair in Bible and Christian Studies and was director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute.

"Marv was a scholar and a showman who helped put this university on the map," Doti said. "He was fluent in 10 languages — five of them nearly extinct — and authored enough works to fill an entire bookcase. He was also a perpetually upbeat guy who inspired everyone he crossed paths with."

Princeton historian Elaine Pagels, author of "The Gnostic Gospels," which in the 1970s ignited international interest in the sect of early Christians condemned as heretical, reflected the thoughts of many when she noted: "Marv was a pioneer in making available to a wide audience obscure texts from the first and second centuries that had been buried as heretical and rarely seen outside of academia."

Other obituaries, etc. here and links.

Second Shoshana Collection auction

THE SECOND PART OF THE SHOSHANA COIN COLLECTION is coming up for auction:

The Shoshana Collection of ancient Judaean coins, Part 2, comes to Long Beach from Heritage Auctions

ArtDaily.org

BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- A five-year run of silver shekels struck by Judaean rebels during the Jewish War against Rome, circa 66-70 AD, highlights the second half of the world-famous Shoshana Collection of Ancient Judaean Coins, offered by Heritage Auctions the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 5, during the Long Beach Coin & Collectibles show.

The Jewish War section, lots 20105-20128, includes multiple examples of the silver shekels and half-shekels, dated Year 1 through Year 5, struck by Judaean forces engaged in a titanic struggle against the Roman Empire.

“All of these coins are in wonderful condition and their stark imagery beautifully conveys the devotion and convictions of the courageous Jewish rebels,” said David Michaels, Director of Ancient Coins for Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. “This sale shows the great breadth and depth of the Shoshana Collection. The first Shoshana sale last March was already the greatest offering of Judaean coins every brought to public auction, and the second half is – in many ways – a reprise of the first.”

[...]

The article has more details on the lot coming up for sale. As always, I encourage philanthropists to buy the best pieces and donate them to a museum. Failing that, please do make them available to scholars who want to study them and publish on them. It will only increase their value.

Background on the first Shoshana Collection sale is here and links.

Dybbuk movie

THE DYBBUK (DIBBUK) LEGEND is featured in a new film: Sam Raimi’s latest horror flick draws on ‘true’ tale, Jewish exorcism (Naomi Pfefferman, Jewish Journal).

“The Possession” — the latest riff on the subgenre of a girl defiled by a demon — revolves around a non-Jewish family whose 10-year-old daughter, Em (Natasha Calis), buys a wooden box inscribed with Hebrew warnings at an estate sale. The child immediately becomes obsessed with the box, carrying it around everywhere, as a feathery malevolent voice echoes through the house, lamps explode, the girl’s behavior grows increasingly agitated, and a claw-like hand emerges from her throat. Her divorced parents eventually turn to a Chasidic community in Brooklyn to arrange an exorcism, which is ultimately performed by the Jewish reggae star Matisyahu, in his first film role.

Raimi co-wrote and directed 2009’s “Drag Me to Hell,” inspired by his mother’s childhood threat to him that should he misbehave, “our Aunt Minnie would put the evil eye on us,” he said. To write “The Possession,” he called on screenwriters Stiles White and Juliet Snowden, who had previously collaborated on “Boogeyman” (2005) for Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures.

White and Snowden, who are not Jewish, immersed themselves in research to create the Jewish horror in the film, drawing on the seven years they lived in a Chasidic neighborhood in Hancock Park, watching the 1937 Yiddish film, “The Dibbuk” as well as YouTube videos of Jewish exorcisms, and reading works on Jewish folklore by authors such as Howard Schwartz. In a book about angels and demons, they learned of the Jewish entity, Abizou, the “taker of children,” who became the sinister spirit in the movie. “What is common in many possession stories is that knowing the demon’s name is crucial in order to ultimately vanquish it, so that became an important part of our mystery,” White said.

More on the Dybbuk tradition here and links.

Kfar Kedem latest

NETWORKED DONKEYS at Kfar Kedem: Israeli biblical park outfits donkeys with Wi-Fi (AP).

Some comment about Balaam seems called for here, but I'm not sure what.

Background on Kfar Kedem is here.

More on that Abbas statement

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Times of Israel gives a slightly different rendering (translation?) of the recent comments of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority:

Abbas apparently denies Jewish link to Jerusalem — again

Palestinian Authority president says that unabated attacks "under the nose of the Israeli occupation authorities" seek to "rob Muslims and Christians of their holy shrines, destroy Al-Aqsa mosque and build the alleged Jewish Temple."

Israel Hayom Staff

A "series" of attacks on the Temple Mount "under the nose of the Israeli occupation authorities" seek "to rob Muslims and Christians of their holy shrines, destroy Al-Aqsa mosque and build the alleged Jewish Temple," according to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In a statement issued to mark the 43rd anniversary of an arson attack on Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Abbas said that the third holiest shrine in Islam is still under threat. His statement will be seen by some in Israel as denying any Jewish claim to the Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism.

[...]

That's certainly what it sounds like. Does anyone know if the full speech or the full quotation in context is available anywhere?

Background here.

The Talmud on scholars and warriors

ADAM KIRSCH: Talmud’s Warriors and Scholars: This week’s Daf Yomi reframes the debate over the primacy of force or scholarship in Jewish values (The Tablet). Excerpt:

Reading in this allegorical fashion, Chiya argues that when the Bible says Benaiah struck down two men of Moab, it means that “he did not leave anyone comparable to himself [in scholarship], neither in the period of the First Temple nor in the period of the Second Temple.” When it says that he killed a lion in a pit on a winter day, this means that he immersed himself in a freezing pool, to purify himself before studying Torah. Alternatively, it means that he studied an entire treatise on the Book of Leviticus on a single freezing day.

This remarkable transformation of Benaiah from a killer into a scholar raised two questions for me. First is the perhaps unanswerable one of how Chiya understood allegory. When he argues that the biblical descriptions of Benaiah’s physical feats were really descriptions of mental and spiritual feats, did he think that this meant that the physical feats did not happen at all? If so, how do the rabbis understand the entire David story, which plainly belongs to a world of fighting kings and their armies?

If, on the other hand, Chiya understood that he was reading against the grain of the biblical text—that is, imposing on it a new meaning and a new system of values—the second question arises. How did he and his fellow rabbis think and feel about the enormous change in Jewish life that had made warrior-heroism so archaic and scholar-heroism so important? Clearly, between the time of the Israelites and the time of the Amoraim, there was a revolution in Jewish values, in which something was lost as well as gained. From a Zionist point of view, it’s even possible to feel that the denigration of Benaiah’s fighting spirit was a dangerous mistake for the Jews. Not until 1948 would the Jewish people once again produce warriors on Benaiah’s scale.

Yet reading the Talmud has also made me more inclined than I used to be to see this question from the other side, from the rabbinic point of view. After all, if Torah study is the most worthy and most distinctively Jewish of human pursuits, then mere skill at fighting is negligible, a barbarism. Which, finally, does Judaism need more, warriors or scholars? Which is a higher human type?

Clearly there's room for both. But one of the Talmud's important cultural innovations was to re-frame scholarship as an alpha-male activity.

More on the Jamal-Dominique Hopkins case

MORE ACCUSATIONS in the Jamal-Dominique Hopkins wrongful-dismissal complaint: Theological Professor Claims He Was Fired for Homosexuality Stance (The Christian Post).

Rev. Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, recently filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The complaint accused the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) administrators of harassment that included "disagreeing with my conservative religious ideals, intimidating me, slandering my character, giving me poor evaluations, and changing student grades from failing to passing with no merit.''

Hopkins, 42, explained that the fallout started after a representative from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship spoke at an event he organized in February. Attendees were given a book that declared homosexuality was a sin. Following the event, Hopkins was confronted about the distribution of the book by his department chair, Rev. Margaret Aymer, according to reports from Religion News Service.

[...]

ITC denies the claim.

Philly DSS exhibit reviewed again

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is reviewed by Frank D. Quattrone in Montgomery Media:

Beguiling, reverential, inspiring - Dead Sea Scrolls on view at Franklin Institute

Frank-ly Speaking: Inspiring Dead Sea Scrolls

Background here and links.

Excavations at the Sobibor death camp

NOT ANCIENT, but important and poignant Jewish archaeology: Israeli archaeologist digs into Nazi death camp (AP).

Note also this report from 2004 of archaeological discoveries at Auschwitz.

Chairman Abbas on the Temple

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Abbas Derides Jewish Link to Temple Mount as ‘Fiction’ (Arutz Sheva).

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas derided the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during an event Tuesday honoring Al Aksa Mosque. Israel is trying to destroy the mosque in order to build a “fake Temple,” he said, adding, “Fiction and legend do not create rights.”

This quote is not inconsistent with views expressed in the past by the Palestinian Authority, e.g., here.

Cross-file under "Jewish-Temple denial."

UPDATE (23 August): More here.

Another Meyer obituary

AN OBITUARY FOR MARVIN MEYER has been posted on the National Geographic Society website: Biblical Scholar Marvin Meyer Dead at 64. It includes the full text of the open letter from the Chancellor of Chapman University, Daniele C. Struppa. Excerpt:

Marv brought the ancient world alive in his lucid and poetic translations and in his teaching both inside and outside the classroom, not only for students and colleagues but also for others around the globe. Beloved by his students, he was extremely generous with his time, working individually with them, taking groups to Egypt and teaching Greek and Coptic on top of his regular courses, and challenging students to think deeply about life’s meaning and purpose in his Schweitzer and Freshman Foundations courses. He was a true leader in challenging times and situations on campus, with a talent for putting people at ease and moderating between diverse constituencies, and he never shied away from such challenges.

What many of us will always remember is Marv’s deep love of the Gnostic authors whose writings he helped bring out from the darkness, where they had long been dismissed as heretical. He invested decades in learning the languages so he could enable their ideas to speak in a way both fresh and true. Marv never sought fame, although it deservedly came to him — but he sought to bring ideas hidden by history into the open. If anyone ever loved learning for learning’s sake—utterly and unabashedly so–it was Marv Meyer. And he loved even more opening this astonishing world of ideas to his students who had never thought there was a gospel beyond the canonical four. Marv helped his students to see the world with different eyes, to see how exciting and fun it could be, and always, always to think about the ethical dimension of ideas.

Background here and links.

Job in late antique Judaism

JOB AT UC DAVIS, from the H-JUDAIC list:

From: "Mendelsohn, Adam D"
List Editor: "Mendelsohn, Adam D"
Editor's Subject: JOB: Assistant Professor, Late Antique Judaism, University of California, Davis
Author's Subject: JOB: Assistant Professor, Late Antique Judaism, University of California, Davis
Date Written: Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:59:57 +0000
Date Posted: Tue, 20 Aug 2012 15:59:57 -0400

The Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis announces a search for a tenure-track faculty position in late antique Judaism. Applicants must have strong research plans and teaching records, and expertise in Jewish texts from the late antique period, especially rabbinic literature. Applicants should be prepared to teach a broad range of introductory and advanced courses in Jewish Studies, to teach specialized courses at the graduate level, and to take an active role in UC Davis’ Jewish Studies Program.

The program especially welcomes applicants with an interest in the historical, comparative and theoretical study of religion, as well as candidates with an interest in interdisciplinary work in areas already represented in the UC Davis Religious Studies program, particularly in the history of Christianity or Islam. Rank is assistant professor; Ph.D. in Religious Studies or related field must be completed by the start of classes, September 23, 2013.

Applicants should submit a cover letter including a statement of research and teaching interests, curriculum vitae, a writing sample such as a dissertation chapter or published article and three (3) professional letters of reference, using the online application form found at:

https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/apply/JPF00004

For full consideration applications should be received by October 15, 2012. The position is open until filled.

The University of California, Davis, is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer with a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of diversity among its faculty and staff.

More on the Huqoq excavation

THE SUPERVISOR OF THE HUQOQ EXCAVATION is profiled and interviewed in the Southtown Star:

Frankfort native does much more than dig his job

BY SUSAN DEMAR LAFFERTY slafferty@southtownstar.com August 20, 2012 7:26PM

Updated: August 21, 2012 2:08AM

It isn’t King Tut’s tomb, the Rosetta Stone or even the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail.

But what Frankfort native Matt Grey discovered on his summer vacation in Israel could provide significant insight into biblical and postbiblical life near the Sea of Galilee.

Grey, a 1994 Lincoln-Way Central High School graduate and now assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, supervised an archaeology team this June in Huqoq that uncovered a rare mosaic floor in an ancient Jewish synagogue — a work of art that no one had seen for 1,500 years.

The mosaic, made of high-quality stone cubes, depicts two female faces with a Hebrew or Aramaic inscription that refers to blessings on those who follow God’s commandments, Grey said.

It was unearthed by Bryan Bozung, a BYU graduate who was one of many student volunteers on the dig. He had been hoeing in search of the floor when he scraped upon something. He immediately called over Grey and project leader Dr. Jodi Magness, of the University of North Carolina. As they gently cleared the area, faces emerged through the dirt.

“We just stood there looking at these human faces. Then it dawned on us that this is a significant contribution to the study of ancient Judaism,” Grey said. “This type of discovery does not happen often.”
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As they continued to clear the site, another scene became evident — depicting Samson placing torches between the tails of foxes as noted in the biblical Book of Judges.

Only a few ancient synagogues were decorated with mosaic floors, even fewer had faces and fewer still featured biblical scenes. One of Samson is exceptionally rare.

“There’s only one other known image of Samson, and that’s two miles away (from this site),” Grey said. “Something about Samson resonated with them.”

[...]

Read on for more about the excavator and the excavation. An interview with Bryan Bozung is noted here and that link also leads to lots of background links on the Samson mosaic.