Remnant of Jerusalem's pre-exilic wall found

EXCAVATION: Archaeologists find part of Jerusalem’s wall destroyed on Ninth of Av. In 586 BCE, the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem and tore down the Temple, but part of the walls have survived, researchers discovered (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

This year the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) begins at sundown on 17 July.

UPDATE: Incorrect link now fixed!

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

On sieges and starvation

FOR TISHA B'AV: Better Slain by Sword Than by Famine (Prof. Adele Berlin, TheTorah.com).

An emotionally evocative window into the suffering experienced by the victims of a siege.

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

Biblical Narratives, Archaeology and Historicity (Thompson Festschrift) (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

Biblical Narratives, Archaeology and Historicity

Essays In Honour of Thomas L. Thompson

Emanuel Pfoh (Anthology Editor), Lukasz Niesiolowski-Spanò (Anthology Editor)

Paperback
$39.95

Hardback
$130.00

Ebook (PDF)
$35.95

Published Nov 14 2019
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 328
ISBN 9780567686565
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This volume collects essays from an international body of leading scholars in Old Testament studies, focused upon the key concepts of the question of historicity of biblical stories, the archaeology of Israel/Palestine during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the nature of biblical narratives and related literature.

As a celebration of the extensive body of Thomas L. Thompson's work, these essays enable a threefold perspective on biblical narratives. Beginning with 'method', the contributors discuss archaeology, cultural memory, epistemology, and sociology of knowledge, before moving to 'history, historiography and archaeology' and close analysis of the Qumran Writings, Josephus and biblical rewritings. Finally the argument turn to the narratives themselves, exploring topics including the possibility of invented myth, the genre of Judges and the depiction of Moses in the Qu'ran. Presenting an interdisciplinary analysis of the historical issues concerning ancient Israel/Palestine, this volume creates an updated body of reference to fifty years' worth of scholarship.

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

More on the "Jerubbaal" jug

INSCRIPTION UPDATE: Five-letter inscription inked 3,100 years ago may be name of biblical judge. Excavations in Judean foothills uncover small jug from 1,100 BCE that could be inscribed with ‘Jerubbaal’; first evidence of a name from Book of Judges on a contemporary artifact (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

Ms. Borschel-Dan has published a characteristically thorough article. It covers the original report. It includes interviews with the excavator, the epigrapher, and other epigraphers. It discusses the epigraphic context of the inscription, the site of the discovery, the dating of the object, and the readings of the inscription.

The first letter is damaged. Not everyone is convinced that the name has to be Jerubbaal.

Background here (with my commentary) and here.

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

Did God cry over Jerusalem?

PROF. EDWARD GREENSTEIN: Where Are God’s Tears in Lamentations? (TheTorah.com).

Tears abound in Lamentations: the poet cries, the people cry, even the city cries, but God does not. In contrast, the gods and goddesses of ancient Near Eastern city laments, cry along with their people. Midrash Eichah Rabbah, seemingly uncomfortable with such a callous depiction of God, rereads Lamentations to include God weeping.

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

Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology (open access)

THE AWOL BLOG: New Open Access Journal: Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology (Chuck Jones).

JJAR is a peer-reviewed online journal dealing with studies related to the archaeology of the Levant and adjacent relevant regions, from the Protohistoric era to the end of the Hellenistic period (6th - 1st millennium BCE). It is distributed free of charge via the Internet.

The first article listed for this new journal is Christopher Rollston's on the Jerubbaal inscription:

Rollston, C., et al., 2021. The Jerubba‘al Inscription from Khirbet al-Ra‘i:A Proto-Canaanite (Early Alphabetic) Inscription. Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology , 2 , pp. 1-15.

More on that here.

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

Miroshnikov, The Gospel of Thomas and Plato (Brill, open access)

NEWLY OPEN-ACCESS BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Gospel of Thomas and Plato

A Study of the Impact of Platonism on the “Fifth Gospel”

Series: Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, Volume: 93

Author: Ivan Miroshnikov

Now available in Open Access thanks to the support of the University of Helsinki. In The Gospel of Thomas and Plato, Ivan Miroshnikov contributes to the study of the earliest Christian engagements with philosophy by offering the first systematic discussion of the impact of Platonism on the Gospel of Thomas, one of the most intriguing and cryptic works among the Nag Hammadi writings. Miroshnikov demonstrates that a Platonist lens is indispensable to the understanding of a number of the Thomasine sayings that have, for decades, remained elusive as exegetical cruces. The Gospel of Thomas is thus an important witness to the early stages of the process that eventually led to the Platonist formulation of certain Christian dogmata.

Prices from (excl. VAT): €121.00 / $146.00 Hardback

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-36729-6
Publication Date: 12 Jun 2018
Copyright Date: 01 Jan 2018

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-36728-9
Publication Date: 28 Jun 2018v Copyright Date: 01 Jan 2018

HT the AWOL Blog.

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

"Jerubbaal" on a jug

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Qiryat Gat 3 Millennia-Old Inscription May Name Biblical Judge Gideon (Jewish Press).

For the first time, an inscription from the time of the Biblical Judges, and even relating to the Book of Judges, has been recovered from excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Qiryat Gat. The rare inscription bears the name ‘Yerubbaal’ in alphabetic script and dates from around 1,100 BCE. It was written in ink on a pottery vessel and found inside a storage pit that was dug into the ground and lined with stones.

[...]

I doubt that this jug belonged to the Gideon of the Book of Judges, assuming there was such a person. But this discovery does show that the name, which is applied only to him in the Bible, does roughly fit into the chronological and geographical context in which the Book of Judges places it.

In the Bible it appears only in Judges 6-9 and in 1 Samuel 12:11. It appears in bowdlerized form as Jerubboshet - "The shame strives" in 2 Samuel 11:21.

Jonathan son of King Saul had a son with the similar name Meribbaal, "Baal is striving." It too is bowdlerized into Mephiboshet, something like "one who spreads shame," in 2 Samuel, especially chapter 9, but in the correct form survives in 1 Chronicles 8:34. In general, Israelite names containing "Baal" got the "shame" treatment from later scribes.

The name Jerubbaal means "Baal strives." Judges presents it as a nickname of Gideon which disrespects Baal. It was always more likely that it was a perfectly good Canaanite name in honor of Baal. This inscription confirms the latter view.

In fact, I suspect Jeribai, the name of one of David's mghty men, in 1 Chronicles 11:46 is a nickname abbreviation of (otherwise unattested) Yeribiah, "YHWH strives." Likewise the name "Jarib" in 1 Chronicles 4:24 (cf. Ezra 8:16, 10:18). A god "striving" was a good thing.

The names Meribbaal and Ishbaal (e.g., 2 Samuel 2:8//1 Chronicles 8:33) may even indicate that Israel's God YHWH was sometimes known informally as Baal, "the Lord," in early Israel. If so, Jerubbaal may have been a normal Israelite name. The fact that we found it on an extremely rare inscription from the period of Judges implies that it was pretty common.

Cross-file under Onomastics.

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

Israeli excavators shortlisted for Khaled al-Asaad award

RECOGNITION: Israeli archeologists could win prestigious award over 2nd Temple-era find. A dig in the Western Wall Tunnels in Jerusalem reveals a hidden underground complex that experts say was used by the Jews to prepare for religious services during the Second Temple period (Israel HaYom).

Israel is among the five candidate countries for the prestigious annual International Archaeological Discovery Award "Khaled al-Asaad" for an excavation conducted in the Western Wall Tunnels in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.

A dig headed by Israeli archeologists Barak Monnickendam-Givon and Tehila Sadiel discovered a hidden underground complex that experts think was used by the Jews to prepare for religious services during the Second Temple period before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

[...]

I noted the discovery of this underground complex here and here last year. For more on the Western Wall Tunnels excavations, see here and follow the links.

This is the first I remember hearing of the Khaled al-Asaad award. It is named after the antiquities chief of Palmyra, who was murdered by ISIS in 2015. Background here and links.

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

How did Galileans get to Jerusalem?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: 3 Pilgrimage Paths from Galilee to Jerusalem. Explore first-century pilgrimage routes connecting Galilee and Judea (Megan Sauter). This BHD essay summarizes an article by Jeffrey P. García in the current issue of Bibical Archaeology Review. The article is behind the subscription wall.

Not mentioned in the essay (I haven't seen the article), but the first route, through Samaria, brings to mind the the story of the rejection of Jesus by the Samaritan village as he traveled to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51-56). I assume the article discusses the passage.

The essay also made me think of the parable of the "good Samaritan" (Luke 10:29-37). A Samaritan saves a Jewish man who was waylaid by bandits on his travels between Jerusalem and Jericho. The story is obviously meant to overturn stereotypes about the Samaritans. Was Jesus underlining the point by making a Samaritan (one of the dangerous people on the first route) the rescuer of someone assaulted on the supposedly safer second route?

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

Religion and the Arts - 25th anniversary volume

BRILL JUBILEE VOLUME: 25th Anniversary-Religion and the Arts

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Religion and the Arts, James Najarian has compiled a jubilee anthology of 25 articles – one from each year of the journal’s life. This exciting Editor’s Pick is available for free downloading until the end of 2021.

The volume is weighted toward the modern. But there are articles on Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, and women in the ancient synagogue paintings at Dura-Europos.

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

Stanley, A Bull for Pluto (NFB)

RECENT NOVEL FROM NFB PUBLISHING:

A Bull For Pluto: A Slave's Story, Book 2 Paperback – June 17, 2020
by Christopher D. Stanley (Author)

A slave without a past. A master without a future. A journey of discovery that will forever change the lives of both men. The ancient world comes alive in this vivid and engaging trilogy by an expert on Roman social history.

What if you suddenly discovered that you were not who you thought you were—that your true family history had been hidden from you since birth? What if the truth about your origins would cause others to despise you? What if the man who had arranged the deception was seriously ill and needed your help? What if you were a slave and that man held your life in his hands—and you his? These are some of the questions explored in the first two volumes of the new historical trilogy, A Slave’s Story.

The story centers on a slave named Marcus who manages the business affairs of a wealthy Roman citizen in central Asia Minor in the first century AD. The first volume, A Rooster for Asklepios, narrates his eventful journey to a famous healing center in western Turkey following a dream in which the god Asklepios appears to promise that his master will be cured there of a nagging illness. The second volume, A Bull for Pluto, relates the aftermath of this journey. .

Along the way, both men encounter people and ideas that undermine everything that they have ever believed about themselves, one another, and the world around them. Societal norms are challenged, personal loyalties tested, and identities transformed in this engaging story that brings to life a unique corner of the Roman world that has been neglected by previous storytellers.

Christopher D. Stanley is a professor at St. Bonaventure University who studies the social history of early Christianity and the Greco-Roman world. He has written or edited six books and dozens of professional articles on the subject and presents papers regularly at conferences around the world. The trilogy A Slave’s Story, which grew out of his historical research on first-century Asia Minor, is his first work of fiction. . For more information please visit https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001H6EUCA

I noted a review by Phil Long of A Rooster for Asklepios here. He also reviewed A Bull for Pluto here. And at the Bible Places Blog, Todd Bolen has reviewed A Rooster for Asklepios here.

The author's website for the series (a projected trilogy) is here.

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

10 questions & answers about the DSS

LIST: 10 Questions About the Dead Sea Scrolls Answered (Lexie Herman, Honest Reporting).

As some of the most important archaeological finds in the world, the Dead Sea Scrolls have provided an unparalleled look into Israel’s past. Yet, despite their significance they are rarely mentioned outside of academic and research settings.

So, what exactly are the Dead Sea Scrolls and why are they important? The following answers the questions you might have about the Scrolls and what they mean in terms of Jewish history.

I could quibble about some of the details in this article. But it is an adequate overview of the Scrolls aimed at the novice.

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

When is a name a wall?

DR. MORDECAI DAVID ROSEN: The Cities of Nebo and Baʿal-Meon Were “Musabot Shem” (TheTorah.com).

What does this phrase, found in Numbers 32:38, mean?

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

Maaloula is coming back!

MODERN ARAMAIC WATCH: Syrian village with language of Jesus prepares for returning pilgrims (AFP via i24News).

The Town of Maaloula is one of the last places where Aramaic is (or at least was recently) still a spoken language. It was ravaged by ISIS in the war, then presumably shut down for pilgrims during the pandemic. But now it is preparing to reopen for pilgrimages.

The Saint Taqla mentioned in the current article is better known as Saint Thecla, whose traditional tomb was in Maaloula. It was reportedly descecrated during the war. I don't know its current status.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula, Maalula - there seem to be endless spellings), start here and follow the links.

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

The Dead Sea Scrolls LOL

ENTERTAINMENT: Back on stage with a humorous theatrical show (Christine DeSouza, Heritage Florida Jewish News).

Who thought the topic of the Dead Sea Scrolls could be so entertaining? Natural story-teller Kenneth Hanson, Ph.D., as done just that. In addition to being an associate professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Central Florida, he is a brilliant actor who brings to life academic topics such as archeology finds in Israel and the Dead Sea Scrolls through his characters known as Jerusalem Jones and Menachem the Essene, also known as the 2,001-year-old man.

[...]

Don't miss the link to the video teaser.

This is a long-running gig. I see that I noted Professor Hanson's show back in 2005.

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

Where was John the Baptist really from?

RELIGION PROF: Could John the Baptist Have Been From Nazareth? (James McGrath). The argument for this is indirect. But maybe.

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

The Copper Scroll: treasure chest or quest?

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: A Treasure Quest in the Copper Scroll from Qumran (Jesper Høgenhaven).

The Copper Scroll from Qumran sends its reader on a quest to uncover hidden treasures. Is this treasure hunt for real or a symbolic journey? Is this dichotomy even fruitful? Maybe the most important thing is that the text sends the reader’s mind on a quest.

[...]

This essay gives a good overview of the history of the study of the Copper Scroll and the current questions still surrounding it.

One question it does not address is, if the Copper Scroll is entirely fictional, why did someone put in the extensive effort and expense to engrave it on copper sheets and then hide it in a cave? I would not say that is a compelling refutation. After all, someone carved the obviously fictional Treatise of the Vessels on a stone plaque as an addendum to an ambitious stone-plaque presentation of the whole book of Ezekiel. But even so, I would have liked to see some discussion of the question. But presumably he addresses this in his book.

For Professor Høgenhaven's recent book on the Copper Scroll, see here. And follow the links from there for many PaleoJudaica posts on the Copper Scroll. And for more on the Treatise of the Vessels (which I translated into English for the first time in 2013) and the Ezekiel Plates, see here and here and links.

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

AJA review of Stern, Writing on the Wall

AJA ONLINE BOOK REVIEW: Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity.

By Karen B. Stern. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2018. Pp. xxiii + 283. $35. ISBN 978-0-691-16133-4 (cloth).

Reviewed by Haggai Olshanetsky

HT Rogue Classicism. The review is an electronic preprint from the October issue of the American Journal of Archaeology.

For more on the book and the author's work, see here and links (cf. here).

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

Review of Jacobs, Ancient information on Persia re-assessed

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Ancient information on Persia re-assessed: Xenophon’s “Cyropaedia”.

Bruno Jacobs, Ancient information on Persia re-assessed: Xenophon's "Cyropaedia". Proceedings of a conference held at Marburg in honour of Christopher J. Tuplin, December 1-2, 2017. Classica et Orientalia, 22. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020. Pp. xxxii, 407. ISBN 9783447112833 €98,00.

Review by
Nicholas Sekunda, University of Gdansk. nicholas.sekunda@ug.edu.pl

I noted the publication of the book here and here. It addresses a wide range of topics. Of particular interest are the articles on the relationship of the Cyropaedia to the Greek novel and to Esther and Judith.

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