PA TV and The Protocols

OH DEAR: Palestinian Authority TV Presents Anti-Semitic ‘Protocols’ as True. "Even in their Protocols [of the Elders of Zion] and even in their bible [it says], ‘Don't live in Gaza,'" says Fatah spokesman. (Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu, The Jewish Press).

A dozen years ago I had a little run-in with the new Egyptian Library of Alexandria over a display of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. My PaleoJudaica posts made enough of an impact that the Library sent me the press release when they removed the exhibit. You can read about it here, here, here, here, and here.

Bons and Pouchelle (eds.), The Psalms of Solomon

NEW BOOK FROM THE SBL:

The Psalms of Solomon: Language, History, Theology
Eberhard Bons (Editor), Patrick Pouchelle (Editor)

ISBN 1628370424
Status Available
Price: $34.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date April, 2015
Pages 228

A fresh analysis of that sheds new light on the Psalms of Solomon [Sic]

Researchers whose work focuses on the Psalms of Solomon, experts on the Septuagint, and scholars of Jewish Hellenistic literature take a fresh look at debates surrounding the text. Authors engage linguistic, historical, and theological issues, including the original language of the psalms, their historical setting, and their theological intentions, with the goal of expanding our understanding of first-century BCE Jewish theology.

Easter

SHORED FRAGMENTS: The name 'Easter' and internet misinformation. My St. Andrews colleague Steven R. Holmes has researched the origins of the word "Easter." Short version: It's not from Bede's (otherwise unknown) goddess Eostre, it's the Indo-European word for April, the month when the "dawn" comes earlier.

Via James McGrath: Myths, Messiahs, and Minimalisms.

Some Armenian Philo

ADAM MCCOLLUM: The wise king: A passage from Philo’s Questions on Genesis (4.76) in Armenian. Unusually for Philo's Quaestiones in Genesim, the original Greek survives and can be compared to the Armenian.

Performance of ancient music

CONCERT IN YORK TONIGHT: Swimming Between Shores & The Flood. Draws on, among other things, late antique Aramaic, Byzantine (Greek?), and Coptic music, as well as ancient Akkadian and Sumerian music. I'm not sure exactly how the latter was reconstructed, but it sounds interesting.

Robo-scribe

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Robot takes on ancient ritual of Torah writing in museum installation (FoxNews.com). I noted this story back in July of 2014, when the Berlin Museum exhibition (which ran into April) was opening. But the link has rotted, so now you can read about it here.

Qumran video

ISRAEL TODAY: VIDEO: Israel's Amazing Qumran Caves. An unnarrated flyover video by Amir Aloni. Cool.

AJS paper-proposal deadline looming

H-JUDAIC: CFP: AJS 47th Annual Conference: Proposal Submission Deadline May 6, 2015.

A reminder that Wednesday, May 6, 2015 is the deadline for submitting proposals to the Association for Jewish Studies 47th Annual Conference. The conference will be held December 13-15, 2015 at the Sheraton Boston, in Boston, Massachusetts. The AJS Conference is the largest annual gathering of Jewish Studies scholars worldwide, with more than 170 sessions on the latest research in Jewish Studies, an exhibit of major publishers, professional development and digital humanities workshops, cultural events, receptions, and more.

Follow the link for the relevant links. CFPs for specific sessions of the conference have already been noted here and here.

Honorary doctorate for the other Collins at Zurich

CONGRATULATIONS TO ADELE YARBRO COLLINS: Ehrenpromotion 2015 der Theologischen Fakultät: Prof. Dr. Adela Yarbro Collins.

Die Theologische Fakultät der Universität Zürich verleiht die Würde einer Doktorin ehrenhalber an Frau Prof. Dr. Adela Yarbro Collins für ihre methodisch innovativen Arbeiten zur frühchristlichen Apokalyptik und zur Johannesapokalypse sowie ihre wegweisenden Arbeiten zum Markusevangelium und zur frühchristlichen Christologie. Sie verbindet religionsgeschichtliche Weite, philologische Solidität und methodische Innovation mit einem steten Engagement zur Förderung internationaler Kooperation und der kommenden Generation von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern weit über ihren

Well deserved.

The announcement of John Collins's honorary doctorate at the same institution was noted here.

Again, via the Agade List.

Oxford Hebrew job

POSTDOC: Kennicott Research Fellow - Classical Hebrew. University of Oxford - Faculty of Oriental Studies.

Applications are invited for a fixed-term fellowship in Classical Hebrew or closely related disciplines, from an ambitious academic at an early stage of his or her career, the appointment to commence on 1 October 2015. This is a fixed-term junior research position that may also involve some teaching for the Hebrew and Jewish Studies courses of the Faculty of Oriental Studies. For 2 years initially, the appointment may be extended for a further year subject to satisfactory progress and the availability of funding.

Follow the link for further particulars and application information. The deadline for application is 22 May.

Via the Agade List.

BASOR on Caesarea Maritima

ASOR BLOG: BASOR Article Preview: Excavations at Caesarea Maritima and the Vardaman Papers (Olin Storvick and Marylinda Govaars). There is a charge to read the whole article.

BHD on the GJW

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Is the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife a Fake? Coptic papyrus mentioning Jesus’ wife is a forgery, according to Coptic manuscripts experts (Ellen White).

Yep. Background here and follow the many, many links.

Marriage inequality and the Angel of Death in the Talmud

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Jewish Bride Has a Mole? Grounds for Divorce. Husband Smells Bad? Live With It. Inequality under the wedding canopy, in this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study. Plus: a story about cheating the Angel of Death. On the latter the essay concludes:

The discussion of ra’atan culminates, at the end of the chapter, in a beautiful story about Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, one of the greatest Talmudic sages. Most rabbis, the Gemara says, would flee anyone afflicted with the disease, even avoiding the alleys where they lived. But Yehoshua ben Levi would seek out lepers and study Torah with them, confident that Torah itself would protect him from getting sick. This extraordinary selflessness earned its reward at the end of his life, when the dying Yehoshua managed to play a trick on the Angel of Death.

When the Angel approached him, Yehoshua asked to be shown his place in paradise before he died. Once the Angel took him there, the rabbi “jumped and fell into that side,” slipping into paradise while still alive. Such was his virtue that he was allowed to stay, and “Elijah the Prophet announced before him: Make way for the son of Levi, make way for the son of Levi.” Still, there was a limit to what even Yehoshua ben Levi could achieve. On the way to paradise he seized the Angel of Death’s knife and refused to give it back, hoping in this way to abolish death forever; but “a Divine Voice emerged and said to him: ‘Give it to him, as it is necessary to kill the created beings.’ ” However inscrutable it may remain to us, the rabbis are sure that death is part of God’s plan for the universe.

You can read a couple of versions of this story in Helen Spurling's excellent translation of "Hebrew Visions of Hell and Paradise" in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures volume 1.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links. Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

Koren on Tyrian Purple Pigments and Dyes

ASOR BLOG: Setting the Archaeo-Chemical Record Straight Regarding Tyrian Purple Pigments and Dyes. Professor Zvi C. Koren presents his 2014 ASOR paper for ASORtv. I haven't yet watched the presentation, but the abstract says tantalizingly:

A critical reanalysis of Pliny’s and the Talmud’s writings, combined with the archaeological record and with modern laboratory experiments on all-natural dyeings that I have performed, have provided new insights into this craft.

My findings show that there have been significant misinterpretations of the biotechnological process associated with the molluskan purple pigment and of its uses in textile dyeing and stone painting.

It will be interesting to see what impact his research has on recent efforts to resurrect the biblical tekhelet dye.

Honorary doctorate for Collins at Zurich University

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOHN J. COLLINS: Ehrenpromotion 2015 der Theologischen Fakultät: Prof. Dr. John Collins.

Die Theologische Fakultät der Universität Zürich verleiht die Würde eines Doktors ehrenhalber an Herrn Prof. Dr. John Collins für seine wegweisenden Forschungen zur jüdischen Apokalyptik und die sein Lebenswerk prägende Bemühung, die Einsichten aus den Schriftfunden vom Toten Meer für die gesamte Bibelwissenschaft fruchtbar zu machen. Sie würdigt ihn nicht zuletzt für seinen unermüdlichen Einsatz um die internationale Vernetzung der Bibelwissenschaft und seine selbstlose und stets interessierte Förderung der kommenden Generation von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern.

A well-deserved honor.

Mt. Zion excavation and cup

JERUSALEM EXCAVATION: Archaeologists Return to Dig Key Area Near Temple Mount (Popular Archaeology). The excavation of the Mt. Zion site, just outside the Temple Mount, are described in the free article, Digging into First Century Jerusalem's Rich and Famous. Notable in the article is a section on the Mt. Zion cup, an inscribed stone cup excavated there:

"Among the special finds from the 2009 season of excavations was a soft white limestone cup dating from the first century C.E. bearing an incised inscription, with ten or perhaps eleven lines of script on its sides," wrote Gibson.**

The cup (pictured left) was found in four pieces within a fill layer containing 1st century pottery fragments above a barrel-vaulted ceiling of a mikveh. It represented a well-known type of 1st century cup found in excavations throughout Jerusalem and beyond. The inscription on the cup has not yet been completely and definitively translated, but study of the cup and the historical context of its finding suggests that it might have been a ritual cleansing cup, used for the washing of hands before engaging in liturgical functions. Suggests Gibson, "the discovery of the cup in the area of the Upper City of Jerusalem, in which priestly families are known to have resided (including the Qatros family), may hint at the original priestly function that this specific vessel had some two thousand years ago."**

Most of the inscription remains undeciphered. There is more on it in the article and there is further background here and here and links

The Babylonian-Judean cuneiform tablets again

THE LACROSSE TRIBUNE: Mark Chavalas: New evidence for Jewish exiles found in clay tablets. Excerpt:

One of the towns inhabited by these exiled Jewish businessmen was call Al-Yahudu, “Judah-town,” the city where many of the tablets originated. Though the location of this town is uncertain, it was probably within proximity to Babylon, the focal center of the kingdom. The name of the town indicates the primary ethnic makeup of the inhabitants, although they interacted with the Babylonian natives in many of their ventures.

The texts were written by professional Babylonian scribes on behalf of their Jewish lower middle-class clients, who engaged in the cultivation of grains and date palms, bought and sold cattle, rented houses, loaned silver, sold slaves, and engaged in marriage alliances. Though some even prospered economically, most were settled in state-owned land in return for military service for Babylon, By a cursory study of the personal names in the tablets, it appears that at least three generations of Jews lived in Al-Yahudu and surrounding towns.

Though the tablets tell us virtually nothing about the religious nature of the exiles, it is interesting to note that none of the dated texts were issued during Jewish sacred days.

A few examples from these texts will perhaps help in our understanding. ...

The discovery is well known to PaleoJudaica readers, but Dr. Chavales proceeds to relate some interesting details about some of the Jewish clients in the tablets.

Background here and links.

Hannibal meets "extreme glacial theatre"

PUNIC WATCH: Extreme glacial theatre show portrays Hannibal crossing the Alps. The fabled story of Hannibal leading his Carthaginian army across the Alps to face the Roman Republic was given a modern re-imagining on Friday (April 17) on the Rettenbach glacier in Austria. (NTD.tv). So bad it's hypnotic.

Cross-file under Can't Make It Up.

Stausberg and Vevaina (eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism

ARASH ZEINI: The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. New book edited by M. Stausberg and Y. Vevaina.

Dirty medieval books

GRODY: Dirty manuscripts (Peter M. Head, ETC). Includes the one with the famous cat footprints.