Catchword tag and turbulent waters in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN by Adam Kirsch in Tablet

The Talmud’s Absolute Value
Through reasoning, the rabbis brought all of natural creation under the rule of law
By Adam Kirsch|April 30, 2013 12:00 AM|

One of the recurring patterns I have noticed in my reading of the Talmud is the way the text puts off explaining its key terms. From the beginning of Tractate Eruvin, for instance, it has been axiomatic that on Shabbat it is permitted to move only within a 2,000-amot techum or boundary. But why is the boundary 2,000 amot in the first place? If the Talmud were a textbook, this would be explained on the first page. But the compilers of the Talmud clearly did not envision it being read the way I, and many others doing Daf Yomi, read it—that is, in isolation.

Rather, the Talmud is a product of and commentary on a living tradition, whose principles have been passed on from generation to generation, in word and action. Presumably, in the fifth century CE, every Jewish child would have known about the 2,000-amot boundary from the time he or she began to walk. It was a rule handed down for centuries—ostensibly, since Moses received the Oral Law on Sinai—and it didn’t need to be explained or justified.

In this week’s reading, however, the rabbis finally did explain where the 2,000-amot figure comes from—and the explanation raises as many questions as it answers. ...

Biblical Studies Carnival

THE APRIL 2013 BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL has been published at the ἐνθύμησις blog.

Gabriel Revelation inscription in Israel

THE GABRIEL REVELATION STONE is now on display at the Israel Museum: Conversations with Gabriel (Jerusalem Post). It is part of an exhibition on the archangel Gabriel:

These writings trace the development of the figure of the Angel Gabriel in early rabbinic Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The works include the “War Scroll” – a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran in 1947, the Book of Daniel from the 13th-century Damascus Codex of the Hebrew Bible, the Gospel of Luke from a rare 10th-century Latin manuscript of the Four Gospels from France and a Koran from Iran from either the 15th or the 16thcentury.

Also on display are prayer books from the three monotheistic religions that contain illustrations of the Angel Gabriel.

Also, despite the lurid headline, this Daily Mail article is pretty good: Does this mysterious Hebrew stone reveal a messiah BEFORE Jesus? Controversial 'Gabriel stone' tablet goes on show in Jerusalem. The answer to the headline question is probably not.

Background on the Gabriel Revelation/Vision of Gabriel inscription is here and just keep following those links back.

As for me, I am back in St. Andrews. I got home yesterday evening and am back in the office this morning.

Ancient demonization of paganism

ASOR BLOG: Ecclesia Diaboli: The Demonization of the Gentile Religion in Jewish and Christian Thought (Aleksander Michalak, Independent Researcher, Poland, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow).

Schiffman on Philo and Josephus

LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN: Second Temple Period Rationales for the Torah: Philo; Second Temple Period Rationales for the Torah’s Commandments: Josephus.

Related post noted here.

Another Syriac manuscript in Turkey

HERE WE GO AGAIN: Priceless 300-year-old religious manuscript in Syriac discovered in eastern province (Hurriyet Daily News).

What is it with Turkey and "priceless" smuggled manuscripts? There is a photo of this one, but the resolution is too poor to make out the contents. It is a codex written in red and black ink, with a lot of deterioration around the edges and what looks like considerable water damage. I don't know how the estimate of the date was arrived at or how accurate it is, but 300-year-old Syriac manuscripts are not particularly hard to come by and I doubt that one would be "priceless" unless its contents were very unusual.

Again, it's good to see that the Turkish authorities are being vigilant about manuscript smuggling, but I suspect that nothing much will come of the extraordinary claims about this one, any more that the claims about an ancient Gospel of Barnabas manuscript that turned out to be an early modern copy of the Gospel of Matthew or that supposed nineteen-hundred-year-old Torah manuscript.

UPDATE (5 May): More here.

Manichaean texts from Turfan

AT HIEROI LOGOI: Manichaean Texts at the Digitales Turfan-Archiv and TITUS. These Manichaean (Manichean) manuscripts from Turfan include important fragments of a Turkic translation of the Book of Giants which are being translated by Peter Zieme (along with fragments in Aramaic and Manichaean Iranian being translated by others) for volume 2 of the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project.

Arrived

NOW IN OXFORD and enjoying the hospitality of Wolfson College. Aside from my missing my first train by five seconds, the trip was uneventful, and I spent most of it reading page proofs.

Lag B'Omer update

R. SHIMON BAR YOCHAI: Tsunami of prayers at Rashbi’s tomb: Hundreds of thousands of people gather in northern town of Meron to celebrate mystic Jewish holiday.

Background here and links.

Cairo Geniza presentation

THIS HANDOUT summarizes a presentation recently made by two St. Andrews biblical-studies doctoral students in one of our postgraduate seminars: Cairo Geniza Presentation Interactive Handout by Garrick Allen and Adam Harger.

Incidentally, Garrick produced the indices for my translation of the Hekhalot literature mentioned in the previous post.

Hekhalot literature lecture at Oxford University

I'M OFF TO OXFORD to give a presentation at their Qumran Forum postgraduate seminar. The subject matter of the seminar is wider than the title implies, and I will be speaking on "Translating the Hekhalot Literature." This is a slightly revised and updated version of the paper I gave in Edinburgh in January, the handout for which is posted at the link. The handout for the one I am giving tomorrow in Oxford is pretty much the same.

As for the translation itself, I am currently going through the second and final page proofs for the volume and it should be out this summer.

I shall be very busy in the next few days, but I will blog as much as time and internet access permit. In any case, I have pre-posted something for each day, so do keep coming back as usual. I expect to be home on Wednesday evening.

On Jesus the exorcist

AT BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Spirit Possession, Exorcism and the Historical Jesus

Thus, Jesus’ experience as portrayed in Mark closely resembles those of healers across cultures, whose careers often begin with a period of illness or spirit possession, followed by a period of trials or testing, during which the healers learn to control their spirits. Once this has been achieved, they are able to control the spirits of others. In other words, they become healers and exorcists themselves.

See Also: Jesus, the Galilean Exorcist. (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2012)

By Amanda Witmer
Department of Religious Studies
Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo
Waterloo, ON Canada
March 2013

Lag B'Omer

LAG B'OMER is observed beginning tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating.

Also, the same day in the Jewish calendar is the yahrzeit for R. Shimon bar Yochai, as noted by Arutz Sheva (although it's a pity they couldn't be bothered to extend their research beyond Wikipedia). More on R. Shimon bar/ben Yochai here and links.

Report on DSS "kickoff event"

AT BRANDEIS: Professors discuss import of Dead Sea Scrolls: Kickoff event held for educational collaboration with Museum of Science.

Background here and links.

Metatron slumming it in Silent Hill

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: This is not a place you want to go.

Irish apocrypha again (etc.)

PHILIP JENKINS has more on Irish apocrypha: THE THREE WISE DRUIDS.

Background here.

UPDATE: And here's another interesting post from Jenkins to which I meant to link: CANONS OF SCRIPTURE. Excerpt:

If you want to understand the history of Christian thought, in the sense of what a substantial majority of Christians actually thought and believed through much of the history of the faith, then you cannot ignore these many alternative scriptures, texts like the Gospel of Nicodemus and pseudo-Matthew, the infancy gospels and the Book of Enoch. They really were that influential. Nor was their impact confined to the poor and uneducated.

Indeed.

Covergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory

CONFERENCE:

Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory:
Bridging the Academic Cultures of Israel, North America and Europe

Date: May 12–13, 2013
Location: Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University.

The Pentateuch lies at the heart of the Western humanities. Yet despite nearly two centuries of critical scholarship, the human origins of this monument of civilization remain shrouded in the past. Indeed, the traditional conception of a unified, self-consistent foundation narrative has long been given up. Critical scholarship has isolated multiple layers of tradition, inconsistent laws, and narratives that could only have originated from separate communities within ancient Israel, and were joined together at a relatively late stage by a process of splicing and editing.

Recent developments in academic biblical studies, however, jeopardize the revolutionary progress that has been made over the last two centuries. The so-called “Documentary Hypothesis” has dominated academic discourse on the Pentateuch since the end of the nineteenth century. More recently, however, the source-critical method has come under unprecedented attack. In fact, in many quarters it has been rejected entirely. While new perspectives are constantly being generated to replace traditional paradigms, the past forty years of scholarship have witnessed not simply a proliferation of intellectual models, but the fragmentation of discourse, especially among Israeli, European, and North American scholars.

This conference seeks to further international exchange and re-establish a shared intellectual. Presentations will be offered by a group of twenty-five international scholars, drawn from the fields of Biblical Studies, Second Temple/Dead Sea Scrolls, and Jewish Studies, with extensive time for discussion and debate.

Organizers: Bernard M. Levinson, University of Minnesota; Konrad Schmid, University of Zurich; Baruch J. Schwartz, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Jan Christian Gertz, Heidelberg University.

Speakers: Joel Baden, Yale University; Mark J. Boda, McMaster Divinity College; David Carr, Union Theological Seminary; Cynthia Edenburg, The Open University of Israel; Jan Joosten, University of Strasbourg; Reinhard G. Kratz, University of Göttingen; Christoph Levin, University of Munich; Noam Mizrahi, Tel Aviv University; Christophe Nihan, University of Lausanne; Thomas Römer, University of Lausanne and Collège de France; Christopher Rollston, George Washington University; Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Tel Aviv University; Michael Segal, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Jean Louis Ska, Pontifical Biblical Institute; Jean-Pierre Sonnet, Pontifical Gregorian University; Jeffrey Stackert, University of Chicago; Jakob Wöhrle, University of Münster; David Wright, Brandeis University; Molly Zahn, University of Kansas.

For more information: ias.huji.ac.il/convergence

Samaritan Passover 2013

HAARETZ:

Samaritans make annual sacrifice - and preserve a way of life
Although there are now less than 800 Samaritans, their Passover sacrifice - set according to calendar different from the mainstream Jewish one - draws an even bigger crowd.

By Andrew Esensten | Apr.24, 2013 | 5:55 PM | 2

The Samaritan community conducted its annual Passover sacrifice Tuesday evening under the leadership of a new high priest, as 50 sheep were slaughtered on Mount Gerizim in an ancient ceremony that attracted more than 1,000 spectators from around the world.

High Priest Aabed-El Ben Asher was elevated to his position, which is reserved for the eldest member of the priestly family, following the death last week of High Priest Aaron Ben Ab-Hisda at age 84. Ben Asher, 78, is the 133rd high priest in a line that the Samaritans claim stretches back to Aaron, brother of Moses.

[...]

More on Samaritan Passover here and links. More on the succession of the Samaritan high priesthood in 2010 here. And a recent post on the new translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch is here.

2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium

TONY BURKE: 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. Happening in September.

Talmud latest

A TALMUD MUSICAL: A Talmud Tale: A Musical: by Judith Abrams, David Schechter, Ned Paul Ginsburg. Published, but apparently not yet performed.