What did the Romans ever do for Palmyra?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Latin Over Aramaic? How the Ancient Palmyrenes Responded to Romanization. As usual, this BHD essay is a summary of a Biblical Archaeology Review article: “Maintaining Cultural Balance: Palmyrene Bilingual Inscriptions and Roman Imperialism,” by Catherine E. Bonesho in the current issue.

There are Latin inscriptions at Palmyra, as well as the ones in Aramaic, Greek, and Hebrew. I don't think I knew that, but it doesn't surprise me.

Cross-file under Palmyra Watch. Many other posts on Palmyra, its history, the ancient Aramaic dialect spoken there (Palmyrene), and the city's tragic reversals of fortune, which more recently seem to have been trending for the better, are here and links.

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Seven last visions

READING ACTS: The Final Visions: Revelation 17-22. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation. We have seven visions to go! The first one is chapter 17, "The Great Whore and the Scarlet Beast."

For notice of previous posts in Phil's series on Revelation, see here and links.

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The inscribed Moabite altar and the Bible

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Ataroth and the Inscribed Altar: Who Won the War Between Moab and Israel? (Adam L. Bean and Prof.Christopher A. Rollston, TheTorah.com).

Ataroth is an obscure Transjordanian city, referenced only twice in the Bible. Nevertheless, due to modern archaeological discoveries, it has become a central piece of evidence for reconstructing the history of the Moabite rebellion against Israel and King Mesha’s expansion of the Moabite kingdom described in both 2 Kings and the Mesha Stele.

For the 2018 publication of this inscribed Moabite altar, see here and here.

Moabite is an ancient Iron Age language very closely related to Hebrew. Moabite and Hebrew are essentially dialects of the same language. The other major Moabite inscription is the Mesha Inscription (Mesha Stele, Moabite Stone), on which more here and keep following the links. And for more on ancient Moab, see here.

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More on the Jubilees Palimpsest Project

THE AWOL BLOG: The Jubilees Palimpsest Project: Pioneering the Recovery of Illegible Text from Ancient Manuscripts Through New Tools in Digital Archaeology. I haven't mentioned the Jubilees Palimpsest Project for a few years. This is a good opportunity to mention it again. If you look at its News Archive page, you can see that the Project has been busy.

Background here and links. Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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More New Testament Apocrypha vol. 2 is out!

NEW BOOK FROM EERDMANS: New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures vol. 2, edited by Tony Burke.

See also Tony's post at his Apocryphicity Blog: Publicity Roundup for More New Testament Apocrypha 2.

I reviewed MNTA1 at length in 2017 here and links.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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Biblical archaeology uncanceled

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Summer Lipscomb University Saved Biblical Archaeology. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s blunder is Lipscomb University’s bonanza (Robert R. Cargill).

Background here.

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Zahn, Genres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PRESS RELEASE: HOW THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AUTHORS REWROTE THE BIBLE, LITERALLY.

In Molly Zahn's new book, “Genres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism” (Cambridge University Press), the University of Kansas associate professor of religious studies contends that the literary practices of these early Jewish scribes give us clues about their religious beliefs.

By comparing textual differences among various copies of the scrolls discovered in caves at Qumran, and then comparing those with later canonical versions of books like Exodus and Jeremiah, Zahn concluded that the scribes who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls believed they had a literary license to change Scripture. Indeed, she wrote, they saw themselves as partners with the deity in the process of revelation.

Dr. Zahn is also the Secretary of the International Organization for Qumran Studies (IOQS) and the Chief Editor of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries.

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Meyer on Jesus the Jew in Christian memory

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Jesus the Jew and Christianity’s Indebtedness to Judaism

Thus, even decades into the Third Quest with its overall agreement about Jesus’ core belonging to Second Temple Judaism, assessments of his Jewishness as “marginal” continue. Depicting Jesus as a “marginal Jew” allows for distance from and criticism of “common Judaism.” Inadvertently, Jesus becomes somewhat “less” Jewish, enabling identification for today’s Christians.

See Also: Jesus the Jew in Christian Memory (Cambridge; 2020).

By Barbara Meyer
Religious Studies Program
Graduate School of Philosophy
Tel Aviv University
July 2020

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HB textual unity or diversity?

THE ETC BLOG: Is There a Unity amid this Diversity? Anthony Ferguson opens a blog series on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.

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Trever's Cave 1 scroll photos for free online

VARIANT READINGS: Trever’s Photos of the Cave 1 Scrolls Freely Available Online (Brent Nongbri).

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Herod's royal portico

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Royal Portico on the Temple Mount. King Herod's impressive construction project. As usual, this BHS essay summarizes a paywall-protected article from Biblical Archaeology Review. This summary of Orit Peleg-Barkat's 2019 article “Reimagining Herod’s Royal Portico” is quite detailed. It also has a nice illustration.

Cross-file under Temple Mount Watch.

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10 awesome Israeli archeological sites

PALEOJUDAICA READERS HAVE HEARD OF ALL OF THESE: 10 awesome Israeli archeological sites you never heard of (Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c). They are good ones.

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The Silk Road Sogdians

ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE: A Silk Road Renaissance. Excavations in Tajikistan have unveiled a city of merchant princes that flourished from the fifth to the eighth century A.D (Eric A. Powell). The Sogdians are of interest to PaleoJudaica because they preserved the Book of Giants in one or more translations into their language. Fragments of the Sogdian Book of Giants survive today.

For more on Sogdian, see here and links.

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Lo Sardo, Post-Priestly Additions and Rewritings in Exodus 35–40

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Domenico Lo Sardo. Post-Priestly Additions and Rewritings in Exodus 35–40. An Analysis of MT, LXX, and Vetus Latina. 2020. XXI, 307 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 119. 84,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-159586-8.

Published in English.
In this study, Domenico Lo Sardo shows that the section of MT Exod 35–40 dedicated to the construction of the Tabernacle involves textual and literary problems. It has different textual forms according to MT, LXX, and Vetus Latina (Monacensis ms): LXX Exod 35–40 shows a different order of the literary material and its extension is shorter than the MT. One of the most important differences is the absence of MT Exod 36:8b–34 in the LXX. The Monacensis ms is even shorter than the Greek text. In a text-critical analysis, the author demonstrates that the ‘Short Hebrew Vorlage’ behind the Latin manuscript is the oldest text. In the MT there was post-priestly editorial work marked by expansions, rewritings, and reinterpretations. Employing literary criticism, the author proves that with the expansion of Exod 36:8b–34 and the stressed use of the term miškān (Tabernacle), MT points to legitimate the centralization of the Jerusalem Temple.

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Coin smuggling thwarted at Gaza checkpoint

APPREHENDED: 2,400-year-old coins found hidden in Gaza purses. Israeli security forces foil attempt to smuggle ancient coins from the time of Alexander the Great into Israel (Arutz Sheva). Cross-file under Numismatics

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A new translation of the Bundahišn

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Bundahišn: a new translation. Notice of a New Book: Agostini, Domenico & Samuel Thrope (eds.). 2020. The Bundahišn: The Zoroastrian Book of Creation. A new translation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Follow the link for description and ToC. This is a very important work for Zoroastrian studies.

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Coptic Literature in Context (4th-13th cent.)

THE AWOL BLOG: Coptic Literature in Context (4th-13th cent.) : Cultural Landscape, Literary Production, and Manuscript Archaeology : Proceedings of the Third Conference of the ERC Project Tracking Papyrus and Parchment Paths: An Archaeological Atlas of Coptic Literature : Literary Texts in their Geographical Context (PAThs'). Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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The seventh bowl of wrath

READING ACTS: The Seventh Bowl: It is Done! Revelation 16:17-21. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation. We have just reached the seventh and last bowl of wrath.

For notice of previous posts in Phil's series on Revelation, see here and links.

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Drawnel (ed.), Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later

Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24–26 October 2017

Series: Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 133

Editor: Henryk Drawnel

The essays in Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations cover an array of core themes from various areas of Qumran studies, including textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple history, philology, paleography, Wisdom and religious poetry.
Contributors to this volume generally consider these themes from a historical perspective, trying to find new solutions to old questions and entering in constructive dialogue with the opinions of other scholars. Paleographic investigations, textual criticism as well as literary and philological approaches make this volume a valuable contribution to the variegated and often highly specialized directions of inquiry into the contents and historical background of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €132.00 / $159.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-43279-6
Publication Date: 13 Jul 2020
Hardback
Availability: Not Yet Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-43156-0
Publication Date: 19 Aug 2020

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Smith, Valentinian Christianity

NEW BOOK FROM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS:

Valentinian Christianity
Texts and Translations

Translated by: Geoffrey S. Smith

University of California Press | 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520969803

£64.00 PDF
FORMATS
PDF
ISBN: 978-0-520-96980-3
Published: 22 Jun 2020

OVERVIEW
Valentinus, an Egyptian Christian who traveled to Rome to teach his unique brand of theology, and his followers, the Valentinians, formed one of the largest and most influential sects of Christianity in the second and third centuries. But by the fourth century, their writings had all but disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from the historical record, as the newly consolidated imperial Christian Church condemned as heretical all forms of what has come to be known as Gnosticism. Only in 1945 were their extensive original works finally rediscovered, and the resurrected “Gnostic Gospels” soon rooted themselves in both the scholarly and popular imagination.

Valentinian Christianity: Texts and Translations brings together for the first time all the extant texts composed by Valentinus and his followers. With fresh, carefully annotated translations throughout and new transcriptions of the original Greek, Latin, and Coptic on facing pages, Geoffrey S. Smith provides an illuminating, balanced overview of Valentinian Christianity and its formative place in Christian history.

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