The Talmud on birds and math

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: The Birds. ‘Daf Yomi’: The Talmud’s shortest and most difficult tractate is nominally about the sacrifice of feathered animals. In fact, it sets up a number of mathematical problems that delight the rabbis in their pursuit of pure knowledge.

The birds in a nest can be either pigeons or doves, but both must be of the same species. The two birds are sacrificed in different ways: One is a burnt offering, which means that its blood is sprinkled on the lower half of the altar, and the other is a sin offering, whose blood is sprinkled on the upper half. The woman bringing the sacrifice can either designate which bird is for which purpose or she can leave them undesignated, so that it’s up to the priest to decide.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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The church of the "glorious martyr" at Beit Shemesh

ARCHAEOLOGY: Opulent 1,500-year-old church to mystery ‘glorious martyr’ found at Beit Shemesh. Site yields rare intact crypt of anonymous martyr immortalized by Greek inscription; Jerusalem museum exhibit of findings showcases massive collection of delicate glass artifacts (AMANDA BORSCHEL-DAN, Times of Israel).

For past posts on the site of Beit Shemesh and the excavation there, see here and links and here and links.

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2019 CRINT Essay Prize awarded

CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. GORE-JONES:

The Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (CRINT) Foundation is pleased to announce that the 2019 CRINT Essay Prize has been awarded to

Lydia Gore-Jones
St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College
Sydney, Australia

for her paper entitled Torah as Wisdom in Late Second Temple Judaism by Example of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch.

Follow the link for further details, including more information on the CRINT Essay Prize. And thanks to Dr. Matthijs den Dulk for alerting PaleoJudaica.

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch.

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Sukkot as a festival of future redemption

BELATEDLY FOR SUKKOT: Sukkot, the Festival of Future Redemption for Jews and Gentiles (Prof. Rabbi Joshua Garroway, TheTorah.com)

Zechariah 14 envisions a time when all the nations will come to the Temple in Jerusalem on Sukkot. The festival’s eschatological significance in the Second Temple period may be further hinted at in Pseudepigraphical works, in the book of Revelation, and on coins minted during the great rebellion and the Bar Kochba rebellion.

A related PaleoJudaica post from some years ago is here.

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Did Pontius Pilate build the "Herodian street" in Jerusalem?

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH, MORE OR LESS: Monumental Jerusalem Street Was Built by Pontius Pilate, Israeli Archaeologists Say. The ancient 'Herodian street,' whose recent reopening by right-wing politicians and U.S. envoys stirred controversy, was commissioned by the Roman governor hated by Jews and Christians alike (Ariel David, Haaretz premium).

The research published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed publication Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University analyzed coins that were found beneath and above the ancient thoroughfare. The monumental street, paved with massive stone slabs, climbs to the southern side of the Temple Mount from the pool of Siloam, running through what today is known as the City of David, the most ancient part of Jerusalem.

Cross-file under Numismatics.

For some past PaleoJudaica posts on Pontius Pilate, see here and links.

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Professor Obbink denies the charges

THE ETC BLOG: Dirk Obbink Denies Wrongdoing (Peter Gurry). This post quotes the statement issued by Professor Obbink's attorney. It denies the charges unequivocally and suggests that the documents offered as evidence are forged.

Also, over at the Variant Readings Blog, Brent Nongbri covers this development and more:

A Statement from Dirk Obbink

More News on Stolen Papyri from the Egypt Exploration Society

A Couple More Manuscripts of Questionable Origins

Professor Obbink's statement was issued over the weekend. I am trying to keep up with this and other stories, but my time for blogging is limited. My life remains very unsettled. So I am relying a lot on pre-posting, with random bouts of catch-up. If you want faster updates on this particular situation, keep an eye on the two blogs above.

Background here and links.

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Blenkinsopp, Essays on the Book of Isaiah

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Joseph Blenkinsopp. Essays on the Book of Isaiah. [Aufsätze zum Buch Jesaja.] 2019. V, 248 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 128. 119,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-156482-6.

Published in English.
This collection of twenty essays by Joseph Blenkinsopp on different aspects of the book of Isaiah is the product of three decades of close study of the most seminal and challenging texts of the Hebrew Bible. Five of the twenty are published here for the first time. Some deal with major themes in Isaiah, for example, universalism, the Hebrew God as creator in dialogue with Babylonian and Zoroastrian theologies of creation, theology and politics, and the Suffering Servant of the Lord God, which is of such great influence on the presentation of the life and death of Jesus in the New Testament. Others consist in close readings of specific texts in the book Aufsätze zum Buch Jesaja.

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Chilton on "The Logic of Jesus’ Resurrection"

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

The Logic of Jesus’ Resurrection

The conventional presentation [empty tomb] has become so prevalent that it needs to be mentioned in order to be set aside because it flies in the face of the fact that “the empty tomb” is a latecomer to the traditions regarding how God raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection was conceived of as bodily by Jesus’ disciples, but they did not all assert a single origin story, nor did they always conceive of his body in a physical way.

See Also: Resurrection Logic: How Jesus' First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead (Baylor University Press, 2019).

By Bruce Chilton
Institute of Advanced Theology
Bard College
October 2019

Cross-file under New Book. Some past PaleoJudaica posts pertaining to the Empty Tomb traditions are here and links, here, and here.

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Review of Isaac, Empire and Ideology in the Graeco-Roman World

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Benjamin Henri Isaac, Empire and Ideology in the Graeco-Roman World: Selected Papers. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp. ix, 372. ISBN 9781107135895. £90.00​. Reviewed by Conor Whately, University of Winnipeg (c.whately@uwinnipeg.ca).

Over the past few decades, one of the most perceptive scholars of Rome and its empire has been Benjamin Isaac, who has waded into contentious debates like Roman racism and the multi-cultural character of the Roman world, and the degree to which the Romans engaged in strategic thinking. The seventeen chapters of this book, like Isaac’s previous publications, focus on Roman military affairs, ancient prejudice and racism, and the Roman Near East.1 The dominant, underlying theme of the essays is the problem of anachronism both in terms of evidence and scholarship, and most readers should find something of value in this rich collection.

[...]

Many of the essays involve ancient Judaism.

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Shemeni Atzeret and Simchat Torah 2019

SHEMINI ATZERET begins tonight at sundown. In Israel, this is also the holiday of Simchat Torah (Simhat Torah). Outside of Israel, the latter holiday begins tomorrow at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating!

Last year's Shemini Atzeret post is here, and the 2017 post has biblical etc. links.

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More on the Phoenicia's new voyage and Phoenicians in the Americas

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Phoenicians Sailing to the New World. Did Phoenicians beat Christopher Columbus to the Americas by thousands of years? (Jonathan Laden). As I've said before, it's possible. But there is no credible evidence that they did.

This BHD essay notes the new expedition of the Good Ship Phoenicia in the direction of the Americas to try to establish that such a voyage was possible in an ancient Phoenician ship. I wish them a safe and successful journey.

I noted the expedition here, with links to past posts on why I am not convinced of the authenticity of supposedly ancient Phoenician and Hebrew inscriptions in the New World. The BHD essay adds additional evidence for skepticism. Cross-file under Phoenician Watch and New World Forgeries.

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Katzoff, On Jews in the Roman World

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Ranon Katzoff. On Jews in the Roman World. Collected Studies. 2019. XVI, 396 pages. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 179. 149,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-157743-7.

Published in English.
The present volume presents a selection of studies by Ranon Katzoff on Jews in the ancient Roman world. Common to them is that they deal with Jews in liminal situations – confronted with non-Jewish, mainly Roman, laws, places, government, and modes of thought. In these studies – in which texts in Greek and Latin and rabbinic texts (all in translation) elucidate each other – Jews are shown to be rather loyal to their Jewish traditions, a controversial conclusion.
The first two sections concern law. Section one searches the remains of popular Jewish culture for evidence on the degree to which rabbinic law really prevailed, through the study of Judaean Desert documents, mainly those of Babatha. Section two sifts through rabbinic law for traces of Roman law. Section three comprises studies of Jews in, to, and from the city of Rome, and section four a miscellany of studies on Jews confronted with non-Jewish life.

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Hurtado on Stuckenbruck on 1 Enoch again

LARRY HURTADO: 1 Enoch: An Update on Manuscripts and Cautionary Notes on Usage.

At the meeting of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, 5 August 2019 in Aberdeen, Loren Stuckenbruck gave one of the main/plenary papers (co-authored with Ted Erho) that draws upon his extensive efforts to locate and classify Ethiopic manuscripts of 1 Enoch. I’m grateful to him for letting me see his paper: “The Significance of Ethiopic Witnesses for the Text Tradition of 1 Enoch: Problems and Prospects,” and with permission of the authors I cite some of the observations arising from the work of Stuckenbruck and his associates.

[...]

Related post here. I have heard similar cautions from Professor Stuckenbruck.

It has been good to see Larry blogging again lately.

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CPF: Sensory And Emotional Approaches To Magic In The Roman World

THE NSEA BLOG: A CONFERENCE ON SENSORY AND EMOTIONAL APPROACHES TO ROMAN MAGIC (Earl Fontainelle).

There is a call for papers out for a one-day conference with the promising title Mind, Body, Magic: Sensory And Emotional Approaches To Magic In The Roman World, organised by the Open University, Milton Keynes, Friday 27th March 2020. Here is the information:

Follow the link for more.

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Biblical Oxyrhynchus papyri stolen and sold?

WHAT A MESS: An Oxford professor allegedly stole ancient Bible fragments and sold them to Hobby Lobby (Katie Shepherd, Washington Post).

Since 2012, scholars and University of Oxford officials have been trying to trace a rumor that the oldest Bible fragment ever discovered not just existed but had been mysteriously stolen and sold to American arts-and-crafts giant Hobby Lobby.

Now, officials said they have finally cracked the case. The suspected thief at the center of the biblical controversy? Professor Dirk Obbink, one of the most celebrated classics professors in the world, a Nebraska native and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient who had long directed — and allegedly looted — Oxford’s Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project, a collection of centuries-old literature recovered from an ancient Egyptian garbage dump in 1896.

[...]

Read the whole article for details. These are serious accusations. So far, Professor Obbink has not responded to the most recent round of them. Some time ago he did deny that he sold a fragment of a manuscript of the Gospel of Mark.

We'll just have to see how this plays out.

Background here and links.

Also, here are some recent blog posts on the situation.

From Variant Readings (Brent Nongbri):

Breaking: EES Stolen Manuscripts Update

How Many Oxyrhynchus Papyri Have Been Sold?

From Evangelical Textual Criticism (posted by Tommy Wasserman):

NEWSFLASH: ‘Professor Obbink and Missing EES Papyri’ – MOTB returns 13 Papyri to EES!

News Statement: ‘Museum of the Bible Helps EES Recover Antiquities’

See also this Daily Beast essay by Professor Candida Moss:

INDIANA JONES BREAKS BAD. Hobby Lobby Scandal Widens as Museum of the Bible Admits Oxford Prof Sold Illicit Papyri to Green Family. The Museum of the Bible revealed today that at least 13 biblical fragments in its collection were illicitly sold by a Oxford professor to Hobby Lobby's Green family.

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Review of Lord (et al.), The Singer of Tales (3rd ed.)

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Albert Bates Lord, David F. Elmer, The Singer of Tales. 3rd Edition. Publications of the Milman Parry collection of oral literature, 4. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019. Pp. xlv, 338. ISBN 9780674975736. $24.50. Reviewed by Minna Skafte Jensen, University of Southern Denmark and Copenhagen University (minna.s.j@gmail.com).

This is the third edition of a monograph originally published 1960, an unusual fact in a time in which libraries are reduced in favour of digitized versions for online reading. What is so special about exactly this book?

The answer is, of course, that Lord’s Singer of Tales is a modern classic. Milman Parry’s sensational research which combined careful, even pedantic, studies of the Homeric poems with fieldwork investigation of oral epic in Yugoslavia was known to scholars working with archaic Greek poetry, but relatively unknown elsewhere. Had it not been for Lord’s book the situation might have remained like that. The Singer of Tales first describes the theory constructed from the fieldwork and next suggests how this theory changes our understanding of Homer. Lord was a charismatic author, and the enthusiasm emanating from every page makes his book a great read. It was received with admiration, and with it the ambitious project of defining the general characteristics of oral poetry became deeply influential not only in Homeric studies but in related fields as well, such as the philologies concerned with early poetry from other parts of the world, anthropology, folklore, and psychology, to mention only the most obvious. ...

Lord's book has also been influential on Hebrew Bible studies and Ugaritic studies.

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The Divine Warrior

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

God in Conflict: Images of the Divine Warrior in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Texts

In the ancient world, writers routinely appealed to martial motifs to express their beliefs and hopes related to the divine. Texts from the ancient Near East depict deities in conflict with one another over the rightful rule of the cosmos. Documents among the Hebrew Bible, which arose out the ancient Near Eastern context, continued to adapt images of divine conflict when describing the God of Israel; Jewish authors, however, showed much creativity in bending and shaping the traditional motifs for their rhetorical and theological purposes. This adaptation of divine war images endured into the first century CE among New Testament authors, who incorporated the person and work of Jesus Christ into traditional conflict motifs. This essay offers a brief overview of some key images and texts from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament that framed God as a warrior; it also gestures toward the varieties of ways authors expressed the hope that God would fight for God’s people, defeat their adversaries, and restore the chosen people.

See Also: Scott C. Ryan, Divine Conflict and the Divine Warrior: Listening to Romans and Other Jewish Voices, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019).

By Scott C. Ryan
Assistant Professor of Religion and Biblical Studies
Department of Humanities
Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina
October 2019

O worship the King all-glorious above is another well-know and frequently-sung hymn that draws deeply on the divine warrior tradition.

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The Manichaeans of Kellis

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Manichaeans of Kellis: Religion, Community, and Everyday Life (Mattias Brand).

Mattias Brand, The Manichaeans of Kellis: Religion, Community, and Everyday Life (Leiden University PhD Dissertation, 2019).

For more on Kellis, see here and the relevant link here. Cross-file under Manichean Watch (Manichaean Watch) and Coptic Watch.

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Sukkot 2019

THE FESTIVAL OF SUKKOT (BOOTHS, TABERNACLES) begins tonight at sundown. Best wishes to all those observing it.

Last year's Sukkot post was here with links. For the biblical background to Sukkot, see here and here.

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Nongbri on problems with paleographic dating

WELL THAT'S A BIT AWKWARD: Palaeographic Dating: Graphic Difference Does Not Always Mean Chronological Difference (Brent Nongbri,Variant Readings).

The promised subsequent post on Codex Sinaiticus is here. And the immediately preceding post is also of interest: A New Article on Palaeographic Dating of Codices.

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