Hazzay

YONA SABAR: Hebrew word of the week: Hazzay (weather) forecaster. From the same Hebrew root as a biblical term for "seer" or "visionary." Cool.

More on that ancient Hebrew (?) seal from Russia

MOSAIC MAGAZINE: An Ancient Warrior Woman in Southern Russia with a (Possibly) Hebrew Seal. Someone else has been reading PaleoJudaica. I wonder when the mainstream media is going to catch on to the remarkable story they have sitting in front of them.

HT Aviv Benedix on Facebook. Background here and here.

Graffiti galore in Elijah's cave

Ancient Inscriptions in Elijah the Prophet's Cave Are in Danger. The Haifa grotto, sacred going back to the days of Baal, had been so neglected it even became a venue for bar mitzvahs. Only now is Israel starting to consider protecting it (Ran Shapira, Haaretz).

A small cave sacred from the time of Baal, where Elijah the Prophet is believed to have spent the night before going into battle, boasts inscriptions carved into its walls over millennia – which are in imminent danger of disappearing forever.

"The place should be favourable to my son Kyrillos, who will not be affected by fever anymore," wrote Elios, apparently an official living in Acre during the Roman era (first or second century BCE). The "fever" may have meant malaria, and the "place" in question was the Cave of Elijah the Prophet, a grotto some 40 meters up the slope of Mount Carmel, smack in the middle of the city of Haifa.

While about it, writing in Greek, Elios added a strict injunction against desecrating the cave.

Neither prior nor subsequent generations evidently thought much of that exhortation. Elios' inscription, a dedication to his son, is just one of about 180 Greek inscriptions, as well as 44 Hebrew, two Arabic, and one Latin, carved into the stone walls of Elijah's Cave. The youngest writing is modern and the oldest apparently dates from the late Roman era of control over the Holy Land.

[...]

And there are some late antique carvings of menorahs as well. The connection with Elijah himself is a Byzantine tradition and should be taken with a grain of salt, but the inscriptions and carvings are real enough. Some of the material remains there may also have a connection with Baal worship.

For another traditional cave of Elijah, this one in Syria, see here.

The Ark of the Covenant and the Rastafarians

THIS IS A NEW ONE: The Rastafarian Messiah Guarding the Ark of the Covenant.

The Rastafarian connection to the Jewish nation goes even deeper with their more surprising claim of knowing the location of the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Followers of Selassie in Ethiopia claim they are in possession of the Ark, which they describe as an acacia wood box covered in gold, originally taken by Queen Makeda, also known as the Queen of Sheba, and Menelik, her son by King Solomon. They allegedly removed the Ark from the Temple without Solomon’s knowledge.

The whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant have been unknown since the destruction of the Temple, leaving room for even this Rastafarian theory to be true. Since its abduction by Makeda and Menelik, the Ark is believed to be protected by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which preserves it in the famous cathedral of Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, originally built in the 4th century CE.

I knew about the claims of the Ethiopian Church to have the Ark of the Covenant (see, e.g., here, here, and here), but I did not know of any specific Rastafarian claim on the Ark. A little Googling produces the following. The old Church of St Mary of Zion in Axum goes back to the fourth century, although it has been repeatedly rebuilt. It is where the Ark of the Covenant resides according to the traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In 1955 the Emperor Haile Selassie built the new Church of St. Mary of Zion next to the old church. More details here. So there is a Rastafarian connection to the Ark tradition, albeit a somewhat indirect one.

More on Rastafarianism is here and here and links. More on Axum (Aksum) is here and links. And more on the Ark of the Covenant is here and links.

Review of Rabbinic Judaism 18.2

NEW JOURNAL ISSUE: REVIEW OF RABBINIC JUDAISM 18.2 (2015). TOC:

Research Article
Rabbinic Literature and the Christian Scriptures
Author: Jacob Neusner
pp.: 177–191 (15)

Research Article
“And It Was in the Dwelling of Rabbi Joshua bar Peraḥiah”
Author: Daniel J. Frim
pp.: 192–226 (35)

Research Article
The Halakhic Validity of Israel’s Judicial System among Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Halakhic Decisors
Author: Ron S. Kleinman
pp.: 227–259 (33)

Research Article
R. Hayyim Soloveitchik and Academic Talmudic Hermeneutics
Author: Yuval Blankovsky
pp.: 260–280 (21)

Research Article
Visiting Graves of Ẓaddiqim in Yemen
Author: Aharon Gaimani
pp.: 281–300 (20)

Other
God Willing: Im Yirẓeh Hashem—In Sha Allah
Authors: Raphael Jospe and Yonatan Milo
pp.: 301–302 (2)

Book Review
The Marrakesh Dialogues: A Gospel Critique and Jewish Apology from the Spanish Renaissance, written by Carsten L. Wilke
Author: Phillip Bell
pp.: 303–304 (2)

You can read the abstracts for free, but access to the articles is by paid personal or institutional subscription only.

ISIS beheads Syrian archaeologist in Palmyra

PALMYRA WATCH: Islamic State militants behead archaeologist in Palmyra: Syrian official (Reuters).

Islamic State (IS) militants beheaded an antiquities scholar in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and hung his body on a column in a main square of the historic site, Syria's antiquities chief said on Tuesday.

IS, whose insurgents control swathes of Syria and Iraq, captured Palmyra in central Syria from government forces in May, but are not known to have damaged its monumental Roman-era ruins despite their reputation for destroying artifacts they view as idolatrous under their puritanical interpretation of Islam.

Syrian state antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said the family of Khaled Asaad had informed him that the 82-year-old scholar who worked for over 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra was executed by Islamic State on Tuesday.

Asaad had been detained and interrogated for over a month by the ultra-radical Sunni Muslim militants, he told Reuters.

[...]

Barbarians.

Background on Palmyra and its fate in the hands of ISIS is here and links. This is not the first time they have used the ruins at the site for execution theatre. And more on ISIS's assault on the past — and its representatives — is here and here and links.

UPDATE: The ASOR Blog has some additional background on the actions of ISIS: Iconoclasm in the ‘Islamic State’ (Lucinda Dirven). (Requires free registration to read in full.)

The D.C. Bible Museum and the IAA

ALLIANCE: D.C. Bible Museum To Borrow Ancient Artifacts From Israel. First displays, when museum branch goes live in 2017, will include glassware, stoneware and a Philistine altar from the Canaanite period (Jewish Business News).

“The Israel Antiquities Authority is thrilled and proud to partner with the Museum of the Bible on this landmark project. Making the archaeological heritage of the Land of Israel and the vital archaeological work conducted by the IAA available and accessible to people around the world is our mission. The rare opportunity to have a long-term exhibition in the U.S. Capital of a large selection of archaeological treasures that were excavated in Israel and illuminate the story of the Bible is remarkable. We hope that the many expected visitors will enjoy the archaeological exhibits and learn about the periods and descriptions of the Bible and the rich and diverse history and the archaeology of the Holy Land,” said Israel Hasson, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

More on the Museum of the Bible (currently under construction in Washington D.C.) and the Green Collection is here and links.

"Four Species" economic woes for Sabbatical year

BUY LOCAL: Despite Rabbinic Support, Israeli ‘Four Species’ Business Anticipates 50% Loss over Shmita Issues (JNi Media/Jewish Press).

(JNi.media) In advance of the upcoming Sukkot holiday season, Israeli distributors of the four species—Etrog (citrus fruit), Lulav (date palm), Hadas (myrtle) and Arava (willow) are expecting the current shmita (fallow) year will take a significant toll on their sales. This is despite well-known and commonly accepted halachic adjudications that allow for the purchase of Israeli-grown produce on the shmita year.

Despite the religious mandate which requires that farming be curbed during this year, leading religious authorities have approved legalistic measures to allow for the purchase of four species grown in the holy land and in so doing limit the economic damage to local Jewish growers and distributors.

[...]

More on this year's Shmita (Sabbatical year) is here and links.

BNTC 2015 is coming

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN: British New Testament Conference 2015 (Larry Hurtado). It's happening this year at the University of Edinburgh on 3-5 September. See you there.

More on that mysterious Russian seal

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: Mysterious Biblical Seal found in Russia! Top Find of 2015? (Aviv Benedix). Someone else has finally noticed what an important discovery this is. Fortunately, Mr. Benedix was able to turn to PaleoJudaica for the initial decipherment and approximate dating of the inscription.

Disappointingly, after a quick Google Search, I found very little on the topic published in the past few days since news of the incredibly discovery were announced. Most news articles found were just recycling the Daily Mail article and were not interested or didn’t know about its possible Biblical connection.

Not being an expert myself in ancient Semitic languages, I was very happy to find Jim Davila’s fantastic Paleo-Judaica Blog, where Mr. Davila confirms that it is a stone seal written in ancient Hebrew script.

(HT reader Gerald Rosenberg.)

This find is calling out for more attention. Northwest-Semitic epigraphers, where are you?

Last week's PaleoJudaica post, which links to Daily Mail article that announced the find in English, is here and is quoted extensively by Mr. Benedix.

UPDATE (19 August): Victar Josef Mas, commenter to the Times of Israel article, reminds us that the commander of the seventh-century BCE military fortress excavated at Arad was also named Elyashiv. We have many inscriptions from Arad that mention him (cf., e.g., here and here), including three of his seals, one of which you can see here. The name does not seem to have been uncommon, so I doubt that there is any direct connection between Elyashiv of Arad and the Elyashiv of the Russian woman's inscription.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I have not been able to find the name in any of the other languages. That's not conclusive, but it points to the likelihood that the seal bears a Hebrew name.

The Rhetoric of Paul

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Convincing Early Christians: The Rhetoric of Paul

Uses of emotion in Paul are usually less extensive, but his descriptions of his hardships at times function to evoke pity or love. His descriptions of those he considers dangerous intend the opposite; they evoke revulsion or at least make them so unattractive (perhaps untrustworthy or selfish) that his readers will not want to associate with them. So arguments that rely on emotion play an important role in his letters. This is not a reason to dismiss them. Rhetoricians of the time regularly noted that arguments from emotion are often the most persuasive.

See Also: Paul: Apostle and Fellow Traveler (Abingdon Press, 2014)

By Jerry L. Sumney
Professor of Biblical Studies
Lexington Theological Seminary
August 2015

Bergerhausen, Digitale Keilschrift | Digital cuneiform

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: From Babylonian to Old Persian Cuneiform. Notice of a new-ish (2014) book.

Blumell and Wayment, Christian Oxyrhynchus

New Book on Christian Oxyrhynchus Texts (Peter J. Gurry, ETC). The book sounds very interesting, but note this:

We asked the publishers for a review copy so that we could report as to whether the book was any good or not, but they said, “Due to the size and cost of this book, we are not able to mail physical copies for review in Britain.” So we don’t know at this point of time whether this book is any good or not. Hence: caveat emptor.

An earlier book on the Oxyrhynchus papyri by L. H. Blumell was noted here a few years ago. Many, many other past posts on the Oxyrhynchus papyri etc. are here and links.

Perrone, Origenes Die neuen Psalmenhomilien

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Band 13
Origenes
Die neuen Psalmenhomilien
Eine kritische Edition des Codex Monacensis Graecus 314
[The New Homilies on the Psalms: A Critical Edition of Codex Monacensis Graecus 314]
Ed. by Perrone, Lorenzo
Series: Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte NF 19

Aims and Scope

The editio princeps of Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, the collection of Origen's Homilies on the Psalms was discovered by Marina Molin Pradel in april 2012. The Munich manuscript is the major text discovery on Origen, seventy years after the find of the Tura papyri in 1941. The 29 homilies provide the original Greek text of four Homilies on Psalm 36, translated by Rufinus into Latin at the beginning of the fifth century, together with twenty-five new sermons. Only parts of them were known through tiny excerpts preserved in the exegetical anthologies of the catenae. The list of the sermons essentially corresponds to the catalogue of Origen's Homilies on the Psalms in Jerome's Letter 33. It includes two homilies on Ps. 15, four on Ps. 36, two on Ps. 67, three on Ps. 73, one on Ps. 74, one on Ps. 75, four on Ps. 76, nine on Ps. 77, two on Ps. 80, and one on Ps. 81. Beyond recovering for us Origen as the great interpreter of the Psalms, the sermons throw new light on his life and thought, and provide insights into the situation of the Church in the third century CE.

The critical text has been edited by Lorenzo Perrone in cooperation with Marina Molin Pradel, Emanuela Prinzivalli and Antonio Cacciari.

Via What's New in Papyrology. PaleoJudaica had several posts on the discovery of the manuscript back in 2012: here, here, here, and here.
.

Review of McLean, Hellenistic and Biblical Greek

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Bradley H. McLean, Hellenistic and Biblical Greek: A Graduated Reader. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xxxiv, 509. ISBN 9781107686281. $39.99 (pb).

Reviewed by Mark Glen Bilby, Claremont School of Theology (mgb8n@virginia.edu)

Preview

This text fills a major gap in the available scholarly literature for the pedagogy of Hellenistic Greek, especially for students of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity. While numerous Greek readers, extracts, selections, chrestomathies, and anthologies have appeared over the past few hundred years, none explores the breadth of Jewish and Christian Hellenistic Greek literature more ably, thoroughly, and expertly than does this one. Many readers simply provide excerpts with little in the way of historical and literary introduction, grammatical notes, or vocabulary lists, but McLean provides these for every text. (Indeed, these supplements are so well-written that this reader could easily double as a sourcebook for the study of ancient Judaism and Christianity!) Though many Greek readers are not structured or populated with developmental educational concerns in mind, this one is carefully constructed to start simple, work gradually up to much more difficult samples, and build cumulative vocabulary competency throughout. And while other readers typically select from a narrow range of texts, whether in terms of canonicity, authorship, or genre, McLean’s selections prove diverse in all of these respects.

[...]

Werlin, Ancient Synagogues of Southern Palestine, 300-800 C.E.

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Ancient Synagogues of Southern Palestine, 300-800 C.E.
Living on the Edge

Steven H. Werlin
Following the failure of the Bar-Kokhba revolt in the second century, the majority of the Jewish population of Palestine migrated northward away from Jerusalem to join the communities of Jews in Galilee and the Golan Heights. Although rabbinic sources indicate that from the second century onward the demographic center of Jewish Palestine was in Galilee, archaeological evidence of Jewish communities is found in the southern part of the country as well.

In The Ancient Synagogues of Southern Palestine, 300-800 C.E., Steve Werlin considers ten synagogues uncovered in southern Palestine. Through an in-depth analysis of the art, architecture, epigraphy, and stratigraphy, the author demonstrates how monumental, religious structures provide critical insight into the lives of those who were strangers among Christians and Muslims in their ancestral homeland.

Mathys et al. (eds.), Neue Beiträge zur Semitistik

NEW BOOK FROM UGARIT-VERLAG:

Hans-Peter Mathys, Viktor Golinets, Hanna Jenni and Samuel Sarasin (Eds.)
Neue Beiträge zur Semitistik
Fünftes Treffen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Semitistik in der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft vom 15.–17. Februar 2012 an der Universität Basel
AOAT 425

Printed edition 2015 (ISBN: 978-3-86835-163-7): 352 pages, 98.00 €
Printed edition + e-book in production

This volume contains part of the lectures given at a conference for Semitic languages held at the University of Basel, February 15th to 17th 2012. The articles deal with Akkadian, Amharic, Ancient North and South Arabic, Classical and Modern Arabic, Argobba, Classical Ethiopic, Modern Aramaic, Hebrew and Phoenician. The topics discussed are phonology and lexicography, verbal syntax, epigraphy and literary studies.

Via the Agade list.

Video on the Herculaneum library

WHAT'S NEW IN PAPYROLOGY: Video: Herculaneum's Lost Library. It is unfortunate that the video opens asserting of the Herculaneum scrolls that "The only library ever recovered from antiquity comes to light in a new day." Ahem ... the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Some past posts on the Herculaneum library are here and links. Related post here.

Review of Dever, The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel

JAMES MCGRATH: Review of William Dever, The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel.

Dever’s book is actually something much more significant than the title may actually reveal: it is the first attempt to write about the way of life of ancient Israel (focusing in this instance on the 8th century BCE) initially based on archaeology alone as the primary data, and then and only then to bring the Biblical texts into the picture.

Database for Verbs in the Dead Sea Scrolls

MUCH DATA: Database for Verbs in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This looks like an important and useful collection of information on the verbs used in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is supplemental to Ken Penner's new book (noted here, cf. here), The Verbal System of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and is probably best used in conjunction with it.