Last year's post on Yom Kippur is here, with links to previous posts and one subsequent one. Biblical etc. background is here and links. For a recent post on the Akitu Festival, to which some have drawn parallels with Yom Kippur, see here.
UPDATE (5 October): More here.
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Published in English.
The Encyclopedia of Material Culture in the Biblical World (EBW) builds on the German »Standardwerk« Biblisches Reallexikon (BRL), edited by Kurt Galling 1937, second edition 1977 (2BRL). It is a reference book for biblical scholars, historians, and archaeologists. The EBW focusses on the material culture from the Neolithic Age to the Hellenistic period, giving attention to the material from the Bronze and Iron Ages, including the Persian period. The geographic regions covered by the entries include primarily the records of Palestine (= the Southern Levant) limited by (excl.) the southern fringe of Lebanon and Hermon (North), the Wadi al-Ariš, the Sinai peninsula and North-Arabia (South), the Mediterranean Sea (West) and the Transjordanian desert (East). If appropriate to the entry, the neighboring evidence from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Mesopotamia is included. The Encyclopedia presents and documents the material culture based on the archaeological, epigraphical, and iconographical data in historical order and documents the state of current research. The entries do not only list or mention the most important material data, but try to synthesize and interpret it within the horizon of a history of Southern Levantine culture, economy, technical development, art, and religion.
The EBW consists of around 120 articles and an introductory part pertaining to the chronology of the EBW, archaeology and cultural History, epigraphy, and iconography, written by specialists from 15 different countries.
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Routledge Handbook of Jewish Ritual and PracticeEdited By Oliver Leaman
Copyright Year 2022
Hardback
£190.00eBook
£35.99ISBN 9780367470128
Published July 8, 2022 by Routledge
618 Pages 42 B/W IllustrationsBook Description
Ritual and practice are some of the most defining features of religion, linked with its central beliefs. Discussing the wide range of Jewish ritual and practice, this volume provides a contemporary guide to this significant aspect of religious life and experience.
Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, this volume describes not only what takes place, but the reasons behind this and the implications both the theory and practice have for our understanding of Judaism. Organized in terms of texts, periods, practices, languages and relationships with the other, the book includes accounts of prayer, food, history, synagogues and the various legal and ideological debates that exist within Judaism with the focus on how they influence practice. Coming at a time of renewed interest in the role of the body in religion, this book aims to bring the theoretical and scriptural issues which arise in this area of Jewish life and culture up to date.
This volume is aimed at students and researchers working in Jewish studies specifically, and religious studies in general. Designed to be helpful to those on courses in relevant areas, especially in the United States, this book includes substantial bibliographical material.
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James Carleton Paget, Simon Gathercole, Celsus in his world: philosophy, polemic, and religion in the second century. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. 350. ISBN 9781108832441 $99.00.Review by
Juraj Franek, Masaryk University. j.franek@mail.muni.czOn the face of it, the reviewed work is yet another collection of essays (and responses) derived from the papers presented by their respective authors at the 2018 conference Celsus in his World, organized by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge. Upon closer inspection, however, the volume successfully avoids the usual pitfalls of such undertakings and its individual contributors together with the editors, James Carleton Paget and Simon Gathercole, are to be congratulated for producing one of the best comprehensive volumes on Celsus in recent memory. ...
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Biblical Aramaic and Related Dialects
An IntroductionTEXTBOOK
AUTHOR: Edward Cook, Catholic University of America, Washington DC
PUBLICATION PLANNED FOR: September 2022
AVAILABILITY: In stock
FORMAT: Paperback
ISBN: 9781108714488[Currently Available on the Cambridge Higher Education website.]
Description
Biblical Aramaic and Related Dialects is a comprehensive, introductory-level textbook for the acquisition of the language of the Old Testament and related dialects that were in use from the last few centuries BCE. Based on the latest research, it uses a method that guides students into knowledge of the language inductively, with selections taken from the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and papyrus discoveries from ancient Egypt. The volume offers a comprehensive view of ancient Aramaic that enables students to progress to advanced levels with a solid grounding in historical grammar. Most up-to-date description of Aramaic in light of modern discoveries and methods. Provides more detail than previous textbooks. Includes comprehensive description of Biblical dialect, along with Aramaic of the Persian period and of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Guided readings begin with primary sources, enabling students learn the language by reading historical texts.
- Only introduction to Biblical Aramaic within the context of contemporary dialects
- Uses inductive method to learn language by reading primary texts from the beginning
- Provides a comprehensive view of ancient Aramaic grammar
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Aramaic DanielI repeat: the E-Book is Open Access.A Textual Reconstruction of Chapters 1–7
Series: Studia Semitica Neerlandica, Volume: 73
Author: Benjamin D. Suchard
The first half of the book of Daniel contains world-famous stories like the Writing on the Wall. These stories have mostly been transmitted in Aramaic, not Hebrew, as has the influential apocalypse of Daniel 7. This Aramaic corpus shows clear signs of multiple authorship. Which different textual layers can we tease apart, and what do they tell us about the changing function of the Danielic material during the Second Temple Period? This monograph compares the Masoretic Text of Daniel to ancient manuscripts and translations preserving textual variants. By highlighting tensions in the reconstructed archetype underlying all these texts, it then probes the tales’ prehistory even further, showing how Daniel underwent many transformations to yield the book we know today.
€119.00 Hardback
Copyright Year: 2022
E-Book (PDF) [Open Access!]
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52130-8
Publication date: 19 Sep 2022Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-52129-2
Publication date: 22 Sep 2022
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The Eye, the Sense of Sight, and Seeing God? Reflections on God’s (In)visibility Considering Early Jewish Christian Relations (Deborah Forger)
What might the eye, the sense of sight, and the desire of many in the ancient world to see God tell us about points of continuity and discontinuity between Jews and Christians in antiquity? Moreover, how might this specific question about humanity’s ability to see God offer us fresh perspectives on our primary task for this morning? Namely, to think about and discuss what it means to invest in a career in early Jewish Christian relations—the opportunities, pitfalls, joys, and challenges of centering one’s work on questions related to the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.Do Rabbis Belong in Early Jewish Christian Relations? (Krista Dalton)
While I’ve raised concerns related to the framing of early Judaism and Christianity as a singular category of knowledge, I want to end by making the case for why the rabbis matter to this category. The rabbis did not arise in a vacuum. Judaism may have “shattered” following the Great Revolt (66-74 CE), as Seth Schwartz famously argued, and the rabbis may have initiated a new kind of grammarian piety using their ancestral texts, but they did so with the tools that they already possessed.
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The Babylonian akītu festivals reflect a common ritual structure of status reversal, for which there are many examples from other cultures around the world. On the other hand such festivals may be considered as a reflection of the political context in which they were written and/or performed. ...This is a good summary of what we know about the Akitu Festival. It includes some new (at least to me) information.
For PaleoJudaica posts involving the ancient Mesopotamian Akitu Festival, see here and links. And see here and links for the modern Akitu Festival.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Christopher Star, Apocalypse and golden age: the end of the world in Greek and Roman thought. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. Pp. 320. ISBN 9781421441634 $54.95.I noted another review of the book here.Review by
Joseph Gerbasi, University of Toronto. joseph.gerbasi@utoronto.ca... The aim of Christopher Star’s book is to show that there is an “underappreciated tradition” of apocalyptic thought among the pagans of Greco-Roman antiquity too (p. 5). The book’s ambition, being both interdisciplinary and indeed timely, is exciting and worthwhile. However, I do not think the book accomplishes all that it sets out to do. ...
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The exhibition, however, is not about history, but the first of its kind to explore 2,000 years of storytelling and mythmaking. With objects from 25 countries in 21 languages, it shows how one figure could serve so many purposes, creating shared narratives of universal appeal. The Alexander Romance, composed originally in Greek in the third century AD, was at the heart of this storytelling. But legends also found their way into epic poetry and drama, and more recently into novels, comics, films and video games. You will see examples of all of these in the exhibition.It opens on 21 October.
For many PaleoJudaica posts on Alexander and his connection with ancient Jewish traditions, start here and follow the links. For posts on the Alexander Romance, see here and links.
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The Book of Enoch for Beginners: A Guide to Expand Your Understanding of the Biblical World (Rockridge Press, 2022)His blog post gives the details and a link to the Amazon page.
Cross-file under New Book.
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The relics, which include an Elymais-era bronze coin and pieces of a marble vessel were seized from smugglers in Dezful of Khuzestan province, CHTN reported on Wednesday.For more on the region of Elymais, and why PaleoJudaica is interested in it, see here. Cross-file under Numismatics.In addition, an ancient Roman gold coin attributed to Julius Caesar was recovered from the suspects by police forces in charge of protecting cultural heritage, the report said.
[...]
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For more on ancient Jewish stone vessels, see here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Work Continues on Byzantine Mosaic Discovered by Palestinian Farmer in Gaza (Yahoo/Storyful.).
The ministry of tourism and antiquities also said that along with the mosaics, the discovery included evidence of the ancient walls, pottery, and glass bottles.With a video showing good views of the mosaic. Plus disquieting scenes of what appear to be lots of separate mosaic stones being put into receptacles. Does that imply that part of the mosaic was damaged? The next article seems to indicate not.
Background here.
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Harriet I. Flower, Empire and religion in the Roman world. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. xiii, 277. ISBN 9781108831925 $99.99.This article is notable for PaleoJudaica's interests:Review by
David Woods, University College Cork. d.woods@ucc.ie
Contingency and Context: The Origins of the Jewish War against Rome (Erich S. Gruen)
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Ancient Babylon was an influential city that served as a center of Mesopotamian civilization for nearly two millennia, from roughly 2000 B.C. to 540 B.C. It was located near the Euphrates River, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Baghdad in what is now Iraq.This is a long, informative article. It surveys the entire history of the city of Babylon from antiquity to the present.Babylon had a significant impact on Mesopotamia. One of its early rulers, Hammurabi, created a harsh system of laws, while in later times, the Babylonian language was used across the Middle East as a way of communicating across borders. The law code, while not the oldest in the Middle East, is one of the most famous. The city is also famous for the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (if the ancient stories are true), a wonder of the ancient world that some people believe was built by the biblical king Nebuchadnezzar II.
[...]
For many PaleoJudaica posts on Babylon see the links collected here, plus here and here. For the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which, if they existed at all, may not have been at Babylon, see here and links. See the latter link, and follow the links, for what I like to call the Greek Fantasy Babylon tradition. For the parallel Aramaic Fantasy Babylon tradition, especially in relation to the Book of Daniel, see here and here.
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Last year's Rosh HaShanah post, with links, is here. A more recent post is here. For biblical background, see here.
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The ubiquity of hoards in antiquity, both in time and region, suggests that the phenomenon was so well known that Paul could reasonably use it as an analogy. However, these treasures—the coin hoards mentioned in 2 Corinthians 4:7—were never placed in clay lamps but rather in clay jars.Cross-file under Numismatics and Metaphor.
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