HSM to HMANE

CHANGE: Harvard Semitic Museum Changes Name To Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (Oliver L. Riskin-Kutz, The Harvard Crimson).

I will feel nostalgic about the old title, but the rationale for the change makes sense. I wonder what they're going to do about the inscription in the stone lintel.

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Free egyptological bibliography

THE NESEA BLOG: ONLINE EGYPTOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY: [TEMPORARY] FREE ACCESS. For you, special deal, but for limited time only. I hope not for long.

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Did Peter go to Rome?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Apostle Peter in Rome. Jesus’ chief disciple examined (Nicola Denzey Lewis). Professor Denzey Lewis is skeptical that Peter ever went to Rome. I don't have a strong view either way. One the one hand, the testimonies that he was there don't start until more than a century after the fact. On the other, I don't find the arguments against them particularly persuasive.

Regarding "the lack of references to him in our earliest Roman Christian literature," it is true that Paul's letter to the Romans does not mention Peter. But the Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians (1 Clement), written near the end of the first century CE, refers to the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul in chapters 5-6. It doesn't specify the location of the death of either.

There is a tradition that Paul too was executed in Rome, but like the one about Peter, it is late.

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Abaddon

READING ACTS: Who is Abaddon? Revelation 9:11. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation. We are still on the events of the blowing of the fifth angel's trumpet.

I have noted the earlier posts in the series here and links.

For another, later, text on the angel Abbadon, see at the end of this post.

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Herodian-synagogue relocation project at Beit Shemesh

ROADWORKS VS. ARCHAEOLOGY, CONTINUED: Second Temple-era synagogue to be moved stone by stone for highway. Rare Second Temple-era synagogue uncovered near Beit Shemesh will have to be relocated to another area to allow for already approved highway widening (Paul Shindman, World Israel News). If there continues to be money for such things.

HT Joseph Lauer, who writes in his e-mail:

Readers may remember a series of articles beginning in late 2018 about the discovery of a First Temple Period village in the path of the proposed widening of Route 38 near Beit Shemesh, Israel. After much discussion, the width of the road was reduced to allow preservation of the site, with a pedestrian overpass to connect the two parts of the tel. But, as it’s Israel, when the widening began, a Second Temple Period village with a synagogue was discovered. As reported below, the “Second Temple-era synagogue [is] to be moved stone by stone for [the] highway”.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the archaeology of the Route 38 roadworks, start here and follow the links. For earlier, unrelated, posts on the site of Beit Shemesh (Beth Shemesh) see the links here. And for more recent posts, see here and here.

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Lost NTA/OTP manuscript found!

RELIGION PROF: Missing Gospel Found! (Missing Ending Still Missing). James McGrath is excited about the rediscovery of the lost Akhmim Fragment. So am I.

It appears that I once knew that the manuscript had been misplaced, but I had forgotten. (I find that PaleoJudaica is the archive for a good part of my memory.)

The manuscript contains a substantial fragment of the otherwise lost Gospel of Peter, which is important. It also contains a substantial fragment of the Greek version (translated from Aramaic) of 1 Enoch, which is even more exciting to me. The full text of 1 Enoch survives only in a translation in Ethiopic Ge'ez. Some of of the Aramaic original survives among the Dead Sea Scrolls. A fair amount of the Greek translation is preserved, mainly in this manuscript and in Chester Beatty Papyrus XII.

For more on Akhmim manuscript (P.Cairo 10759) and its contents, see here. Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch and New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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A new Sassanian-era inscription

IRANIAN EPIGRAPHY: Sassanid Inscription Unearthed In Ancient Iran Necropolis Being Deciphered (RFE/RL, The Iranian).

A very interesting site:

Naqsh-e Rostam, the site where the inscription was found, was a necropolis and religious center about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (550-300 BC). However, some of the relics on the cliffs may date as far back as the Pre-Iranian Elamite Period (2700-539 BC).

Four huge tombs from the Achaemenid period, including the tomb of King Darius the Great (550-486 CE) hewn into the cliff face and a square-shaped building made with stone blocks from the Sassanian which may also have had a significance in burial rites are among the most important relics of the necropolis.

And, of course, there are also remains from the Sassanian (Sasanian) era, on which time see here and here.

The inscription is in Pahlavi (Middle Persian), on which more here and here. The article discusses the challenges of deciphering inscriptions in this language. Alas, there is no indication of what the inscription says.

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Stinging locusts

READING ACTS: The Fifth Trumpet: Locust from the Abyss – Revelation 9:1-12. Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation. This post is on the events of the trumpet of the fifth angel.

I have noted the past posts in the series here and links.

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Interview with Vered Noam

TALMUD WATCH: Meet Prof. Noam Vered [sic], the 1st woman to win the Israel Prize for Talmud. As a child I felt that Talmud is a conversation that links people and creates joy and also has something different from everyday life, something higher and beautiful (LINDA GRADSTEIN, Jerusalem Post). Contra the headline (but correct in the article), her name is Vered Noam.

I noted the awarding of the Israel Prize to Professor Noam here.

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Women at Qumran?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: No Women at Qumran? Qumran as an Essene scribal center (Marek Dospěl). This essay summarizes an article by Sidnie White Crawford in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Normally the article would be behind the subscription wall. But in response to the current crisis, BAS has made that issue available online for free. The article is here: Were There Women at Qumran?

Some related PaleoJudaica posts are here, here, here, here, and here. For past posts more generally on the archaeology of Qumran and the relationship of the Essenes to the site, start here and follow the links.

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Bronze coins from Ptolemy I-IV

THE AWOL BLOG: Numismatic News: Bronze types from Ptolemy I - IV published to PCO.

For more on the coins of the Ptolemaic period, with my commentary on biblical and Second Temple Jewish connections, see here and links. For more on bronze Ptolemaic coins specifically, see here. and for the Ptolemaic Coins Online Project, see here.

Cross-file under Numismatics.

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Abysmal

DEEP QUESTION: What is the Abyss in Revelation 9:1? Over at Reading Acts, Phil Long continues his blog series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation. The fallen star of the fifth angel's trumpet receives the key to the shaft of the bottomless abyss.

I have noted the previous posts in the series here and links.

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More from McGrath on Biblical Aramaic

RELIGION PROF: Biblical Aramaic: A Reader and Handbook. James McGrath offers a brief review of this book and asks an interesting question about an Aramaic word in the Gospel of Matthew 5:22.

Background here. I have posts on the book here and here. And for those Aramaic gravestones (there are others), see here.

As for James's question, I have some thoughts.

Mark also quotes Aramaic words attributed to Jesus in 5:41, 7:34, and 15:34 (cf. Matthew 27:46), but in those cases he translates them into Greek.

Matthew does not translate Raka in 5:22, although the next saying does use the near-synonym "fool" (Mōre) in Greek. And it would have been awkward to use the word "fool" twice in the same sentence. Perhaps he positioned the two sayings together to give his Greek readers the sense of the Aramaic word, while keeping the Aramaic, like Mark, for vividness and local color.

But I would not rule out James's idea that Matthew's Greek-speaking readers may have used the Aramaic word raka themselve (as a swear word?). In it's favor is Matthews use of mammon, a (Hebrew/)Aramaic word for "money," untranslated in 6:24 (cf. Luke 16:9, 11, 13). Presumably his readers knew the meaning of the word and maybe they even used it.

Perhaps a closer analogy to James's idea is Paul's use of the Aramaic phrase Marana tha ("our Lord, come!") untranslated in 1 Corinthians 16:22. It looks like Paul and his readers had adopted the Aramaic phrase as a salutation for their own use.

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Double duration of postpartum purification

DR. RABBI ZEV FARBER: Postpartum Impurity: Why Is the Duration Double for a Girl?

Compared to the birth of a son, Leviticus 12 requires a double-period of purification upon the birth of a daughter. Interpreters in antiquity offered two basic models to explain this. The first approach was to utilize biological “knowledge,” the second was to ground the law in the biblical story of Adam and Eve.

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Mary as role-model in Pseudo-Matthew

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

The Second Sex in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew

Mary draws on a biblical tradition of male virgin asceticism that she appropriates for her own womanhood. Her purity, in other words, is based on everyday rituals and the performance of chastity as a defining identity trait throughout the narrative. As she reveals in her own speech, Mary relies on models of previous virgins even as she enacts a new model for others to follow.

See Also: The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary, Early Christian Apocrypha 7 (Cascade Books, 2019).

By Brandon W. Hawk
Assistant Professor of English
Rhode Island College
March 2020

I noted the publication of this book here and here. Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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PhD scholarship at Groningen

THE NESEA BLOG: PHD SCHOLARSHIP IN JEWISH, CHRISTIAN AND ISLAMIC ORIGINS AT GRONINGEN.

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Is Cave 1 Really Cave 1?

VARIANT READINGS: Qumran Cave 1 Questions, Part 3: Is Cave 1 Really Cave 1? Brent Nongbri continues his series of posts with questions about the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries associated with Qumran Cave One.

I noted the earlier posts in the series here and here.

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Pilate, Jesus, and the imperial cult

THE HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: One of Pilate’s Coins — Emperor Worship in Judean Territory (Carl Rasmussen).

Background here. Cross-file under Numismatics.

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LXX links

WILLIAM ROSS: LINK ROUNDUP OF SEPTUAGINT NEWS AND RESOURCES IN THE AGE OF COVID-19. Scholarship goes on, even during the pandemic.

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The angel and the abyss

READING ACTS: Who is the Fallen Star in Revelation 9:1? Phil Long continues his series on the seven angels of the Book of Revelation. The star fallen from heaven comes with the blowing of the fifth angel's trumpet.

I have noted earlier posts in the series here and links.

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