Qimron is awarded the Israel Prize

GOOD NEWS: Dead Sea Scrolls language researcher named as winner of Israel Prize. Education Minister Bennett approves Elisha Qimron to receive prestigious award for his work on the ancient documents (Stuart Winer, Times of Israel). Congratulations to Professor Qimron on this well-deserved honor, to be awarded on the seventieth anniversary of the modern State of Israel.

For notices of some past winners of the Israel Prize, see here and links.

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Review of Männkein-Robert (ed.), Die Christen als Bedrohung?

BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Irmgard Männkein-Robert (ed.), Die Christen als Bedrohung? Text, Kontext und Wirkung von Porphyrios’ 'Contra Christianos'. Roma Aeterna 5. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017. Pp. 348. ISBN 9783515115377. €56.00 (hb). Reviewed by Pieter W. van der Horst (pwvdh@xs4all.nl).

This volume contains 14 papers that were presented in 2014 at a conference in Tübingen on a variety of problems concerning Porphyry’s Kata Christianôn and its cultural context. The conference took place in the larger framework of the Sonderforschungsbereich 923, called ‘Bedrohte Ordnungen’ (hence the title of the book). In a short Introduction, the editor presents a concise overview of the recent spate of scholarly work on Porphyry’s polemical treatise 1 and outlines the contributions in the volume. In the compass of this short review it is impossible to discuss all contributions in detail and do justice to them. Hence I will briefly indicate their contents and conclude with some general remarks.

[...]

Porphyry is of interest for PaleoJudaica because he was reportedly the first to dispute (correctly) the sixth-century authorship of the Book of Daniel. But the chapter by Aaron P. Johnson in the book under review may raise doubt that the passage actually comes from Porphyry. Porphyry also interacted with Christian Gnostics and refers to some Gnostic Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

For past PaleoJudaica posts on Porphyry, see this notice of a review of Matthias Becker's recent edition of Contra Christianos and the links there. Becker is one of the contributors to the book under review.

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AJR on AJS on the Museum of the Bible

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Museum of the Bible as Mediator of Judaism
The Museum of the Bible as Mediator of Judaism (Jill Hicks-Keeton).

In November 2017, the privately-funded, $500-million Museum of the Bible (MOTB) opened its doors to the public. Situated just blocks from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the MOTB is poised to wield unparalleled influence on the national and popular imagination of the Bible. Despite its connection to evangelical Christian funding, the MOTB officially eschews ties to any religious tradition. Yet, because of the nature of its subject matter, the museum cannot help but present a selective account of both Judaism and Christianity. In December 2017 at the annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies in Washington, D.C. a panel of scholars applied a critical analytical lens to the MOTB as a site of power and politics. The papers interrogated the MOTB and its discursive projects from the combined perspectives of critical biblical scholarship and museum studies with a view to articulating the assumptions guiding the MOTB’s construction of Judaica, the Jewish Bible, and the land of Israel.

This panel sparked further discussion among scholars and the broader public, such as in a Washington Post article. In collaboration with AJR, scholars from this panel will be sharing their work with the larger scholarly community and the public.

[...]

The first paper was published in AJR yesterday:

The Museum of Whose Bible? On the Perils of Turning Theology into History (Jill Hicks-Keeton)

"While making pretenses to neutrality, the Museum of the Bible is fundamentally a political project attempting to define what the Bible is and who owns it."

For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Museum of the Bible and related matters, start here and follow the many links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

"To the place of trumpeting ..."

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Trumpeting on the Temple Mount. How a Hebrew inscription blasts the Temple Mount deniers (Leen Ritmeyer). PaleoJudaica has mentioned the "place of trumpeting" inscription here. For more on the Temple Mount deniers, see here and links. They are not the same as the Jewish Temple deniers.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

New images of Huqoq mosaics shown in Chester

THAT'S TONIGHT! WISH I COULD GO. University of Chester to show for the first time rare biblical mosaics uncovered in Israel. The panels will be exhibited at a lecture on January 24 (Leah Jones, Chester Chronicle).

Images of stunning mosaic panels, uncovered during excavations in Lower Galilee in Israel, are to be shared for the first time in the UK during a lecture at the University of Chester.

The panels are part of the Huqoq Excavation Project - an astonishingly rare and hugely significant discovery of a late Roman/Byzantine synagogue, which has attracted widespread international media attention.

Archaeologist Dr Dennis Mizzi, from the University of Malta, will be unveiling photos of the panels, which depict an array of biblical scenes.

[...]

For more on the Huqoq excavation and the mosaics found there, start here and follow the links. And while we're at it, for some images of the Roman ruins in Chester, see here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Update on the purported Parthenon pediment potsherd

ROGUE CLASSICISM: Purported Parthenon Pediment Image from ‘Bethsaida’: Followup. David Meadows has more information, but is still skeptical.

Unfortunately, there still is no solid reason to connect this with the Parthenon.

Background on the potsherd discovered at E-Tell is here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Iraqi Jewish Archive negotiations

THE DEBATE GOES ON: Iraqi-Jewish archive triggers 'traumatic memories' (Dalia Hatuqa, Al Jazeera).

The black-and-white photograph is part of a treasure trove of ancient pieces of Judaica retrieved from the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's General Intelligence Service during the United States' 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The heirlooms include documents dating from the mid-16th century to the 1970s and more than 2,700 books in Hebrew, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic, a version of Arabic written in Hebrew letters and spoken by Iraqi Jews.

They cast invaluable insight on Iraq's ancient Jewish community, which dwindled from an estimated 130,000 people to fewer than five today.

But the rich collection is not without its share of controversy as Iraqis have criticised the delay in repatriating the archives to Baghdad and accused the US of benefitting from the spoils of the occupation of their country.

The article has its own slant, as article on the subject usually do, but it also provides a useful update on where negotiations on the fate of the archive stand at present. I have presented some of my own thoughts on the subject at the links here.

Background here and many, many links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

What is a Canon?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Canon as an Authoritative List of Books or a List of Authoritative Books? (John Meade, ETC Blog). The distinction does matter.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Excavating a new Qumran cave

ARCHAEOLOGY: Could This Newfound Cave Hold More Dead Sea Scrolls? (Owen Jarus, Live Science).

Archaeologists are excavating a newfound cave in Qumran, with the hope of finding new Dead Sea Scrolls.

[...]

Hebrew University archaeologist Oren] Gutfeld and Randall Price, of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, are now leading an archaeology team that is excavating this newfound cave.

"Dr. Gutfeld and I have been at Qumran since December, working with our team on excavating a new cave in the Qumran area," Price told Live Science in an email. No other details about this "new cave" have been released, but the team will release a statement soon, Price said.

[...]

Presumably there was something about this cave that led the excavators to think it was likely to have more scrolls in it. I look forward to more details.

Background on the so-called Qumran Cave 12, which only produced a piece of blank parchment, is here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Daf Yomi begins Avodah Zarah

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The Talmud’s Revenge Fantasies. In this week’s ‘Daf Yomi,’ the oft-banned tractate that indulges a God ‘making sport’ with the enemies of a persecuted and oppressed people.

This week, Daf Yomi readers began Tractate Avodah Zarah, the section of the Talmud devoted to the laws forbidding idolatry. As we already learned in Tractate Sanhedrin, avodah zarah—literally, “strange worship”—is one of the most serious sins in Jewish law. Not only are Jews who worship other gods liable to be stoned to death, but Jews must avoid even mentioning the names of those gods, in accordance with Exodus 23:13: “Make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard out of your mouth.” In the Roman Empire, where images of gods were omnipresent and pagan festivals governed the calendar, this would have presented a constant challenge.

[...]

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Truth, Lies, and Language Conference

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Truth, Lies, and Language in Ancient Mediterranean Religion

March 11 - 13, 2018
University of California, Davis

“Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech” (Gen. 11:7)

How did Jews, Christians, and others in the ancient Mediterranean world understand each other? What did they think about the possibilities of communication across the different languages and cultures around them? What made something true, believable—or suspect?

The Jewish Studies Program and the Department of Religious Studies at UC Davis are proud to host an international conference on concepts of religious language, particularly issues of credibility, propaganda, and translation between languages and cultures in the ancient world, with a focus on Jewish and Christian texts of the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Local faculty, graduate students, and invited guests will spend three days discussing the possibilities of communication and credibility—issues that seem particularly salient in today’s political climate, but were no less vital in the ancient world.

We would be happy if you would join us. The conference is free and open to the public. To view the list of attendees, find the conference schedule, or contact the organizers, please visit our website:

www.truthliesandlanguage.com

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

More on the Museum of the Bible from Mosaic

MOSAIC MAGAZINE has now published two responses to its earlier review of the Museum of the Bible by Diane Muir Appelbaum, which I linked to here.

Biblical Illiteracy = Cultural Illiteracy. The Bible molded modern English and shaped American society and culture. Now, as attacks on the Museum of the Bible suggest, it has been cripplingly tossed aside (Edward Rothstein).

The Bible Has Long Deserved a Museum. Now it Finally Has One. Anyone expecting to find a politicized museum dedicated to hot-button “culture-war” issues needs to look elsewhere than the new Museum of the Bible (Peter Wehner).

For past posts on the Museum of the Bible and related matters, start here and follow the many links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Orion Newsletter 23 (2017)

THE ORION CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND ASSOCIATED LITERATURE in Jerusalem has published Orion Newsletter 23 (2017). When you click on the link the current newsletter comes up as a pdf file ready to download. You can also download earlier newsletters from the same link. The last one I noted on PaleoJudaica was the one for 2015. The 2016 newsletter is here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Newly deciphered calendrical DSS

RECONSTRUCTED AND DECODED: UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA RESEARCHERS DECIPHER MYSTERIOUS DEAD SEA SCROLL. “An important peculiarity of the present discovery is the fact that the [Qumran] sect followed a 364-day calendar" (Daniel K. Eisenbud, Jerusalem Post).

They [the Qumran sect] wrote numerous scrolls, a small number of them in code – including the 60 relics on parchment that Dr. Eshbal Ratson and Prof. Jonathan Ben-Dov of Haifa University’s Department of Bible Studies were able to translate.

The researchers spent a year painstakingly studying the tiny fragments from the second-to-last scroll, some which measured smaller than one square centimeter.

“The reward for their hard work is fresh insight into the unique 364-day calendar used by the members of the Judean Desert sect, including the discovery for the first time of the name given by the sect to the special days marking the transitions between the four seasons,” the university said in a statement on Sunday.

Although an earlier researcher who examined the 60 pieces postulated that they came from several different scrolls, Ratson and Ben-Dov proved in an article recently published in the Journal of Biblical Literature that the fragments actually constitute a single scroll.

The JBL article is available on JSTOR, but only to subscribers. The abstract is at the link.

A Newly Reconstructed Calendrical Scroll from Qumran in Cryptic Script
Eshbal Ratzon and Jonathan Ben-Dov
Journal of Biblical Literature
Vol. 136, No. 4 (Winter 2017), pp. 905-936

Bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.

UPDATE: The JBL article is available at Academia.edu here. HT Joseph I. Lauer.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Lifta update

CONSERVATION CONTROVERSY CONTINUED: EXCLUSIVE: The archaeological report Israel wants to bury. A survey obtained by i24NEWS warns Lifta, a unique heritage site, could be destroyed (Maya Margit). If Israel wants to bury the report, they haven't done too well so far. Haaretz got hold of a copy more than a year ago and publicized it then. I noted that story here. A key issue is that the site turned out to have been inhabited earlier than anyone thought – as early as the Hellenistic period.

Still the i24 article is longer and a bit more detailed. But the most important thing we learn from it is that the matter is not yet resolved. The ILA's development plan for the village is still active, but it appears none of it has been implemented. Watch this space.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Climate change and the fall of the Roman Empire

LARRY HURTADO: “The Fate of Rome”: Kyle Harper’s New Book.

The book focuses on a period later than my own competence, and so later than the stated focus of this blog site, but Kyle Harper’s most recent tome is just so good that I have to mention it: The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (Princeton University Press, 2017). The publisher’s online catalog entry here.

[...]

Cross-file under New Book.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Podcast interview with Patrick Hunt

PUNIC WATCH: What Can An Ancient General Teach Us About Modern Leadership? Patrick N. Hunt discusses his new book on Hannibal and how much of his success was based on solid financing. (Knowledge@Wharton, ValueWalk).

Few military leaders hold as much allure for historians as Hannibal Barca of Carthage (today’s Tunisia). Born in 247 B.C., he is still studied today because of his unparalleled ability to strategize and get inside the mind of his opponent in battle. Archaeologist Patrick N. Hunt, who had been the director of Stanford’s Alpine Archaeology Project, has written a new book about the legendary figure that is simply titled Hannibal. He joined the Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel 111 to explain why Hannibal was so intriguing and why his story still endures. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

For more on Dr. Hunt's new book and his research, see here and links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Interview with Josephine Quinn

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Books interview: Josephine Quinn. The historian and author of In Search of the Phoenicians on reading the Bible under the blankets, DIY Latin lessons and the keys to unlocking the ancient world (Times Higher).

For more on Professor Quinn's new book etc., see here and links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Inside Higher Ed. reviews Bible Nation

RELIGION PROF: Bible Nation around the Blogosphere. James McGrath notes, inter alia, a review of Moss and Baden, Bible Nation by Scott McLemee in Inside Higher Ed.

For past posts on Bible Nation, the Museum of the Bible, and related matters, start here and follow the many links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Review of Bar-Asher Siegal et al., Perceiving the Other

REVIEWS OF BIBLICAL AND EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES: Perceiving the Other.

2017.12.29 | Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, Wolfgang Grünstäudl, and Matthew Thiessen, eds. Perceiving the Other in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. WUNT 394. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.

Reviewed by Max Botner, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main.

Scholars of religion are becoming increasingly attuned to the ways in which groups represent and conceive of the “other.”

As Johnathan Z. Smith notes, “While the ‘other’ may be perceived as being LIKE-US or NOT-LIKE-US, he is in fact most problematic when he is TOO-MUCH-LIKE-US, or when he claims to BE-US”.[1] The task of the present volume—which grew out of a colloquium at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev—is to explore this “problematic” space in the literary production of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

[...]

I noted the publication of the book here and here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.