Zoroastrian Dualism in Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean Perspective

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrian Dualism in Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean Perspective. Journal issue:

Volume 96, issue 2 (2020) of Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses is dedicated to the subject of Zoroastrian dualism in Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean perspectives.

Follow the link for the ToC.

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Sabar, Veritas – now out

BOOK REVIEW: Review: 'Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus' Wife,' by Ariel Sabar. NONFICTION: "Veritas" tells the true story of a Harvard academic who fell for a biblical fraud. (Or did she?) ( Katherine A. Powers, Star Tribune).

PaleoJudaica followed the whole story of the so-called Gospel of Jesus' Wife (GJW) from beginning to end. I noted the book as forthcoming here. For relevant posts about the story and about Ariel Sabar and his work, see the links there. The book is now out and the reviews are starting to come in.

As for what Mr. Sabar has been up to lately, see here.

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The magnetometry of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Scholars trace Earth’s magnetic field in 586 BCE through Jerusalem’s ruins. In August 586 BCE, after months of siege, the Babylonian troops breached the walls of Jerusalem and proceeded to destroy and burn the city, including the Holy Temple (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

When objects containing magnetic minerals burn at a very high temperature, those minerals are re-magnetized and therefore record the direction and the magnitude of the field in that precise moment. Artifacts like pottery, bricks and tiles, which are fired in furnaces, ovens and kilns, can all provide these records. However, as precise as their dating can be, it usually spans of at least a few decades. On the contrary, if documented by historical records, destruction lawyers can be pinned down to a very specific moment – in the case of Jerusalem in 586 almost to the date - providing a unique opportunity.

According to the Bible (2 Kings 25:3-4), the wall of Jerusalem was breached on the ninth day of the fourth month. This is the basis for the holy day the Ninth of Av. Traditionally other days of the disaster for the Jewish people took place on the same date, including the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 CE and the fall of Betar, the center of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, in 135 CE.

The PLOS One article where this research is published is: The Earth’s magnetic field in Jerusalem during the Babylonian destruction: A unique reference for field behavior and an anchor for archaeomagnetic dating (Yoav Vaknin , Ron Shaar, Yuval Gadot, Yiftah Shalev, Oded Lipschits, Erez Ben-Yosef).

Abstract

Paleomagnetic analysis of archaeological materials is crucial for understanding the behavior of the geomagnetic field in the past. As it is often difficult to accurately date the acquisition of magnetic information recorded in archaeological materials, large age uncertainties and discrepancies are common in archaeomagnetic datasets, limiting the ability to use these data for geomagnetic modeling and archaeomagnetic dating. Here we present an accurately dated reconstruction of the intensity and direction of the field in Jerusalem in August, 586 BCE, the date of the city’s destruction by fire by the Babylonian army, which marks the end of the Iron Age in the Levant. We analyzed 54 floor segments, of unprecedented construction quality, unearthed within a large monumental structure that had served as an elite or public building and collapsed during the conflagration. From the reconstructed paleomagnetic directions, we conclude that the tilted floor segments had originally been part of the floor of the second story of the building and cooled after they had collapsed. This firmly connects the time of the magnetic acquisition to the date of the destruction. The relatively high field intensity, corresponding to virtual axial dipole moment (VADM) of 148.9 ± 3.9 ZAm2, accompanied by a geocentric axial dipole (GAD) inclination and a positive declination of 8.3°, suggests instability of the field during the 6th century BCE and redefines the duration of the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly. The narrow dating of the geomagnetic reconstruction enabled us to constrain the age of other Iron Age finds and resolve a long archaeological and historical discussion regarding the role and dating of royal Judean stamped jar handles. This demonstrates how archaeomagnetic data derived from historically-dated destructions can serve as an anchor for archaeomagnetic dating and its particular potency for periods in which radiocarbon is not adequate for high resolution dating.

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van den Hout (ed.), Discovering New Pasts: The OI at 100

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: From “An” to “The”: The OI at 100 (Theo van den Hout).

Celebrating a new book edited by the same author: Discovering New Pasts: The OI at 100 (Oriental Institute Press).

In celebration of the OI’s centennial year, over sixty different authors and contributors have come together to provide a personalized history of the OI’s work past and present. In these pages we invite you to join us on an adventure. Explore the legacy of James Henry Breasted and the institute he founded. Discover the inner workings of the OI and its museum. Travel across multiple continents to learn about groundbreaking research. Enjoy a unique collection of nearly six hundred images, all in one publication for the first time. Learn the story of the institute’s development—from being one man’s dream to becoming one of the world’s preeminent authorities on over ten thousand years of human civilization.

You may download a free copy for your personal use.

I noted the centenary of the Oriental Institute in 2019.

Also, I just noted the online publicat of a biography of James Henry Breasted here in the immediately preceding post.

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Filial biography of James Henry Breasted online

THE AWOL BLOG: New from the Oriental Institute: Pioneer to the Past: The Story of James Henry Breasted, Archaeologist, Told by His Son Charles Breasted. You can download one complimentary copy for your own personal use. For you, special deal!

Cross-file under Egyptology.

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Bühner, Hohe Messianologie

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Ruben A. Bühner. Hohe Messianologie. Übermenschliche Aspekte eschatologischer Heilsgestalten im Frühjudentum. [High Messianology. Superhuman Aspects of Eschatological Figures of Salvation in Early Judaism.] 2020. XIV, 394 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 523. 94,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-159606-3.

Published in German.
Messianic expectations in Second Temple Judaism included not only human, but also very different kinds of superhuman aspects. Ruben A. Bühner discusses all relevant early Jewish sources and offers the basis for new approaches for conceptualizing the origin and development of early Christology.

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The statue, the golden calf, and the stone?

DR. NAAMA GOLAN: The Statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream and the Golden Calf (TheTorah.com).

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue made of four metals in Daniel 2 was composed using Persian and Greek historiographic imagery. The crushing of the statue by a stone mountain alludes to the story of the golden calf, and is a message of hope to the Judeans that God will eventually crush their Greek oppressors.

This is a good overview of the historical-thematic background of Nebuchadnezzar's vision in Daniel 2. The part about the stone and the golden calf is new. I am teaching undergraduate course on the Book of Daniel next semester. I will have to think more about this idea.

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What made Alexander so great?

NUMISMATICS: CoinWeek Podcast #140: What Made Alexander Great? (Mike Markowiz).

The headline made me think of this old Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson.

For background on Alexander's connections to ancient Jewish tradition, start here and follow the many links.

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Wordplay in Genesis

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Wordplay in Genesis (Philip D. Stern). With suggested connections with Arabic, Akkadian, and Sumerian.

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New highlights from the Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies

THE CSCO BLOG: New entries to the Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies. (Matthew Novenson). Dr. Novenson lists the new entries in this post. He gives taster quotes from some of them in the following posts at the same blog:

New in the Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies: Laura Dingeldein on Paul the Letter-Writer

New in the Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies: Cavan Concannon on Archaeology and the Pauline Letters

New in the Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies: Kathy Ehrensperger on Paul and Feminism

New in the Oxford Handbook of Pauline Sudies: Nijay Gupta on pistis Christou in Paul

New in the Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies: Emma Wasserman on Paul and Religion

New in the Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies: Troels Engberg-Pedersen on Paul the Philosopher

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Moodle Midrash and Pandemic Pedagogy

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Moodle Midrash (Daniel Picus).

A few weeks before the class was slated to begin in late March, my institution went entirely remote. This turned my class on its head, and while there’s no need for yet another narrative of how exactly I attempted to transform my class, the remote format and slightly broader scope did combine in order to produce a particularly effective pedagogical activity: the Moodle Midrash.

Pandemic Pedagogy: Pamphlet Final Projects and Laughter (Matthew Chalmers).

Teaching during global pandemic means improvisation. This short article shares my experience of an improvised assignment that worked, how it worked, and what good came out of it: museum-style pamphlets. Take it if you like, adapt it as you will, and let me know what works better when you do.

I am going full online teaching with my classes next year too. I appreciate these essays and others like them, which give out-of-the box ideas for how to proceed.

If we have to do everything differently, we may as well be creative about it.

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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz z'l'

SAD NEWS: Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, noted Talmudic scholar, dies at 83. The rabbi, who is best known for translating the Talmud into modern Hebrew, had been in the hospital with a lung infection since Tuesday (Jeremy Sharon, Jerusalem Post).

For background on Rabbi Steinsaltz and his remarkable work on the Talmud, start here and follow the links. May his memory be for a blessing.

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Comfort in Deutero-Isaiah

PROF. FRANCIS LANDY: The Prologue to Deutero-Isaiah (TheTorah.com).

“Comfort, oh comfort My people,” says your God, נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ עַמִּי יֹאמַר אֱלֹהֵיכֶם. Thus begins the prologue to Deutero-Isaiah (40:1–11), a passage containing four speech fragments haunted by the past but offering a message of comfort and hope.

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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. A quick skim through some recent issues turned up a number of articles of interest to ancient Judaism and related matters.

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More from McGrath on Gnostic origins

RELIGION PROF: Talk Gnosis: The Origins of Gnosticism. James McGrath links to an episode of Talk Gnosis in which he discusses his views about the origins of Gnosticism.

Background here, also linked to by James above.

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Review of Praying and contemplating in late antiquity (ed. Pachoumi & Edwards)

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Praying and contemplating in late antiquity: religious and philosophical interactions

Eleni Pachoumi, Mark J. Edwards, Praying and contemplating in late antiquity: religious and philosophical interactions. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum, 113. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018. viii, 229 p.. ISBN 9783161561191 €79,00 (pb).

Review by
Mark Roblee, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. mroblee@history.umass.edu

... Proceeding from a 2016 conference organized by editors Eleni Pachoumi and Mark J. Edwards, Praying and Contemplating captures a range of intimate encounters with the divine sought by late antique intellectuals in papers by international (and long-armed) specialists in Neoplatonism, theurgy, early Christianity, and related late antique currents including Orphism, dreams, Chaldean Oracles, initiation, Greek Magical Papyri, divination, and Manichaeism....

It also gives some attention to late-antique Alexandrian Judaism in the article by Bronwen Neil.

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The Qur'an on the direction of prayer

DR. ABDULLA GALADARI: The Quran’s Lesson from the Shema: Direct Your Heart to God (TheTorah.com).

The Quran makes multiple intertextual connections with the Shema and its rabbinic commentary in its qiblah (“direction”) passages, thus highlighting a point of agreement between Jews and Muslims: Prayer is not about the physical direction you face but about loving God with all your heart.

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Woes unto Babylon!

READING ACTS: Three Woes against Babylon – Revelation 18:9-20. Phil Long continues his blog series on the Book of Revelation, now on the final seven visions. We continue with the second vision in chapter 18.

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

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VR reconstructions of ancient sites

THE NEXT BEST THING TO BEING THERE: Ruined Unesco sites virtually rebuilt before your very eyes! From Jerusalem to Iraq, digital wizardry restores renowned cities and temples to their former glory (Jennifer Newton and Ted Thornhill, Daily Mail).

The project includes digital reconstructions of the Temple Mount, Hatra, Leptis Magna, and Palmyra.

For endless PaleoJudaica posts on the Temple Mount, run "Temple Mount" through the blog's search engine.

Hatra was an important Aramaic-speaking city on the Silk Road in late antiquity. The archaeological site in Iraq was bulldozed by ISIS in March of 2015. It was retaken by Iraqi forces during the annihilation of ISIS in 2017. Follow the links (and cf. here) for more posts on Hatra.

Leptis Magna is a Punic site in Libya. There was fear that ISIS would come for it, but the Libyans successfully protected it. Past posts on Leptis Magna are here, here, and here.

For many 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, start here and follow the links.

Cross-file unde Digitization, Technology Watch, Punic Watch, and Virtual Reality.

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Online lecture on the earliest Coptic books

VARIANT READINGS: Upcoming Talk on Coptic Books. Brent Nongbri is presenting the lecture tomorrow, 6 August, on Zoom. Follow the link for a poster with details.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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