Review of Heger, Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran: Fact or Assumption? (Patrick Angiolillo).

Paul Heger, Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran: Fact or Assumption? Posthumously edited by Bernard M. Levinson. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019.

... In other words, perhaps the “intrinsic distinction between the various approaches to God” (p. 41) that Heger insists is necessary to understanding ancient Jewish prayer on its own terms is not so intrinsic, after all. It therefore remains to be seen whether we can produce a functional “grammar” or uncover a “native theory” of prayer in ancient Judaism, but Heger’s study, by pushing to apply strict definitions to the terms we employ in describing ancient Jewish prayer, invites us to think about what consensuses we should revisit in order to achieve such a goal, while also displaying for us the potential shortcomings in any scholarly attempt to taxonomize ancient literature.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 200

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: The 200th Biblical Studies Carnival Extravaganza!!!!!!!!!!!!. Jim West posts an unusually comprehensive carnival, with links to other social media etc. besides blogs.

Meanwhile, Phil Long, the organizer of the carnival, laments the lack of interest in hosting it. He also comments on recent trends in social media platforms and content presentation. If you are interested in hosting a carnival, do drop Phil a note.

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A monumental inscription of King Hezekiah?

HEBREW EPIGRAPHY: Possible Monumental Inscription with Hezekiah’s Name (Luke Chandler). HT Todd Bolen at the Bible Places Blog.

Could be. This is not an entirely new story. I noted the fragment as possibly mentioning Hezekiah's name (badly damaged, of course) back in 2009. See here and here. I don't think I knew about the other fragment, discovered by Shiloh in 1978.

The fragments are tantalizingly ambiguous and may or may not belong to the same inscription. The angel Lacunael has been at work here.

It does look plausible that we are dealing with one or two monumental lapidary inscriptions. Those were expensive to produce. It seems likely they came from some official, possibly royal, source. But it is difficult to say more unless we find more fragments.

For more on the Hezekiah bulla, see here and links. For more on the Siloam Tunnel Inscription, see here and many links.

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Review of Noga-Banai, Sacred Stimulus: Jerusalem in the Visual Christianization of Rome

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Sacred Stimulus: Jerusalem in the Visual Christianization of Rome (Ian Kinman).

Galit Noga-Banai. Sacred Stimulus: Jerusalem in the Visual Christianization of Rome. Oxford University Press, 2018.

... Noga-Banai structures her study around repeated journeys between Jerusalem and Rome from the first through fifth centuries, tracing a period from subtle to increasingly assured visual appropriation of memories and tropes, culminating in a self-assured and assertive Rome confident in its identity as the perceived historical center of the Christian movement. ...

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Msgr. John P. Meier, 1942-2022

SAD NEWS: New York Priest, Msgr. John Meier, Dies; Wrote ‘A Marginal Jew’ (The Tablet). Msgr. Meier passed away earlier this month.

You can also find a New York Times obituary, but it is behind a subscription wall. His Wikipedia page is here.

Requiescat in pace.

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Column base excavated near Mount Hermon

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Roman-era column base discovered near Mount Hermon (i24 News).

In Roman times, columns were generally used to support buildings. However, the enormous dimensions of the one discovered at the foot of the Hermon meant that it had to serve as support for a structure much larger than a conventional building.

The fact that the remains of walls were found near the column supports this hypothesis.

Inside the walls, archaeologists found flowers, a clay candle, and ancient tools. Researchers believe it may have been a flour mill or other agricultural facility

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Indexing MTNA3 (with a note on MOTP2)

THE APOCRYPHYCITY BLOG: On Indexing More New Testament Apocrypha vol. 3. Tony Burke reports on MNTA3 and shares his experience with indexing it.

This is my tenth go round at indexing and I have the process down to a science. It is surprisingly old-school. You would think that some electronic search and organization process would get the job done in no time, but as my publisher’s Guide to Preparing Indexes states, “There really is no substitute for rereading the whole work and preparing an index yourself.” Still, I have been able to create a few shortcuts.

We look forward to the next MTNA volume.

As an aside, many readers will be wondering what has become of More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha volume 2 (MOTP2).

The volume is well advanced. Most contributions are in. I have a semester of research leave starting in January to finish editing the book. All going well, it will be heading to the publisher by late in 2023.

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Review of Clark, Melania the Younger

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Melania the Younger: from Rome to Jerusalem.

Elizabeth A. Clark, Melania the Younger: from Rome to Jerusalem. Women in antiquity. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 304. ISBN 9780190888237 $29.95.

Review by
Joseph Reisdoerfer, Institut grand-ducal, Section de Linguistique. reisdoe@gmail.com

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Review of Hope & Bowen, Kellis

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Kellis: a Roman-period village in Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis

Colin A. Hope, Gillian E. Bowen, Kellis: a Roman-period village in Egypt's Dakhleh Oasis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. 400. ISBN 9780521190329 £105,00.

Review by
Robert J. Littman, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. littman@hawaii.edu

... The neglected site of Kellis, a village in the Dakhleh Oasis in the Western Desert, dating from the first to the fourth centuries CE, has proven to be a treasure trove of data and artifacts about Roman Egypt. ...

For PaleoJudaica posts on the important site of Kellis, see here and links. Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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Ancient material culture for blind scholars

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Accessing the Ancient Mediterranean Studies Classroom (Daniel C. Smith).

“I don’t think material culture has anything for you,” said a senior scholar to me, a blind student in my first semester of a Master’s program. “You’d be better off sticking to texts.” The comment was offered in response to my request for a letter of recommendation for an archaeological grant regularly awarded to students at the institution and, while certainly not offered in malice, this feedback constricted my scholarly imagination—my sense of what questions and methods I could pursue—for years.

[...]

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Review of the Aleppo Synagogue exhibition

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Step into the Aleppo Synagogue. VR exhibit displays a lost wonder on the verge of its destruction (Nathan Steinmeyer).

Step into the great Aleppo Synagogue, one of the most important synagogues in the world and home to the oldest Hebrew Bible in existence, the Aleppo Codex. At least, that was how the Aleppo Synagogue would have been described before its destruction in 1947. Now an incredible virtual reality experience is bringing this lost wonder back to life.

[...]

PaleoJudaica posts on this exhibition are here and here. Follow the links from there for many posts on the Aleppo Codex of the Hebrew Bible.

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

Retellable Gilgamesh?

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Prismatic Gilgamesh (Sophus Helle).

Faced with this abundance of versions, I find myself asking two questions. One: What is it about Gilgamesh’s story that renders it so endlessly retellable? And two: How might a would-be translator (or playwright or composer or painter or filmmaker) contribute to this already impressive lineage? I will argue that the answer to the first question provides us with an immediate answer to the second.

For many PaleoJudaic posts on Gilgamesh, his Epic, and his importance for the study of ancient Judaism, see here and links, here, and here and links

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

Wetzel, Violence and Divine Victory in the Book of Esther (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Thomas Wetzel. Violence and Divine Victory in the Book of Esther. 2022. IX, 198 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 136.74,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-160660-1.

Published in English.
Thomas Wetzel offers a new way to understand the violence and religious absence long emphasized in readings of the Hebrew version of the Esther story. By tracing the vestiges of Jewish liturgical activity described in the story as well as the story's reliance on the tradition of the Divine Combat myth, the author uncovers a profound, yet intentionally hidden, religious sensibility within the story's narrative world. These connections link the Esther story to the great acts of deliverance in the larger biblical tradition, but also bring into sharp focus the biblical view that Israel's survival and sometimes violent deliverance remain the definitive sign of the Lord's ongoing and active presence in creation. The author's conclusion suggests that this understanding has profound implications for Jewish-Christian dialogue and for the future existence and practice of the two communities.

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Hybrid event: Were Ezra and Nehemiah Real People?

PLANET PRINCETON: Were Ezra and Nehemiah Real People? A lecture by Dr Mark Leuchter on Monday 14 November 2022 in person and on Zoom. Follow the link for details and registration information.

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Paleomagnetic archaeology

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Archaeologists Reconstruct Biblical Conflicts Using Earth’s Magnetic Field. Israel is full of ancient ruins, but who destroyed what and when? Earth’s magnetic field is helping researchers identify remains of wars described in the Bible (Ariel David, Haaretz).

Questions over the dating of ancient sites in the Levant are not purely academic. They lie at the heart of the longstanding debate over fact and fiction in the Bible.

Now a new scientific technique based on information from the Earth’s ever-changing magnetic field is helping archaeologists date their finds and reconstruct biblical conflicts that occurred in the Iron Age – that is the period that goes from the 12th to the sixth century B.C.E. and spans the rise and fall of the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

For more on the the use of archaeomagnetic dating in Israel, see here.

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The kibbutz as an unexpected influence

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Unexpected Influences with Mira Balberg.

... The first time I saw kibbutz regulations (takanonim) from the 20th century, I was astounded by their similarity to the Mishnah in terms of their ambition to cover every aspect of everyday life and every possible scenario. ...

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The Bruriah Episode: Talmudic apocrypha? Rashi apocrypha?

TALMUD WATCH: The Mysterious Bruriah Episode (Eitam Henkin).

An excerpt from the work of Eitam Henkin, a brilliant doctoral student who was murdered by terrorists in front of his four young children

This article is a reprinted chapter of his book, Studies in Halakhah and Rabbinic History (Koren, 2022). Excerpt:

Despite our dismissal of the aforementioned claims, the reliability of the Bruriah Episode is worthy of clarification. Rashi’s source is unknown to us. The story does not appear anywhere in Talmudic literature, it is not mentioned in Ge’onic writings, nor do we find even a single mention of it in the period of the Rishonim, except for Rashi (and, in his wake, Menorat HaMa’or and Maharil, as we shall presently see). The story is singular and improbable, casting two exceptional Talmudic figures in a most problematic light.

For a review of the book see What the Straus Center Is Reading — Studies in Halakhah and Rabbinic History (Stu Halpern, YU News).

Mosaic also has a 2020 essay by David Wolpe on the Bruriah tradition: The Woman Who Earned a Place Alongside the Rabbis of the Talmud. Bruriah is the only female cited repeatedly as a religious authority, and rarely shown in the roles the Talmud generally associates with women. Who was she?

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Arab Archaeologists in Israel

ARCHAEOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS: The Groundbreaking Work of Arab Archeologists in Israel. Over the years, Arabs who sought to work as archaeologists were looked on with suspicion by Jews and Arabs alike. Haaretz speaks with pioneers in the field about their challenges and achievements (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

Fortunately for the first generation of Arab archaeologists in Israel, the early ‘90s brought two developments which significantly influenced the field: In 1990, the Israel Antiquities Authority was established, replacing the Antiquities Department that had operated as a small department within the Education Ministry. This coincided with a construction boom all over the country thanks to the need to house the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Archaeological remains were discovered at many construction sites, and there was great demand for archaeologists to supervise rescue excavations – digs conducted in advance of construction or development. Many of the students who completed their bachelor’s degree in archaeology at the time were hired by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Some of them advanced to senior positions.

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Symposium in memory of Shaul Shaked

UPCOMING CONFERENCE: Yahwism under the Achaemenid Empire. Prof. Shaul Shaked in memoriam. University of Haifa @ Hadarim center | 20-22.12.2022.

This three-day international symposium—in memory of the late Prof. Shaul Shaked—is dedicated to the study of the touch-points between diverse Yahwistic communities throughout the Achaemenid empire and the Iranian attributes of the empire that ruled over them for about two centuries. This is arguably the most formative period in the development, redaction and composition of some of the most central texts within the Jewish (and, by extension, Christian) heritage. However, there has historically been too little dialogue between scholars of Achaemenid history and linguistics and those of Jewish history, Bible scholarship, archeology and Semitics.

To respond to these lacunae, the conference’s approach is fundamentally interdisciplinary. It brings together scholars of Achaemenid history, literature and religion, Iranian linguistics, historians of the Ancient Near East, archeologists, biblical scholars and Semiticists.

Follow the link for the presentation schedule and registration information. This conference appears to be on-site only.

For more on the late Professor Shaul Shaked, see here and links, plus here.

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PROVERBS, QOHELETH, AND SONG OF SONGS ACCORDING TO THE SYRIAC PESHITTA VERSION WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

PROVERBS, QOHELETH, AND SONG OF SONGS ACCORDING TO THE SYRIAC PESHITTA VERSION WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION
English Translation by Robert J. Owens; Text Prepared by George Anton Kiraz & Joseph Bali

This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars.

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-3911-4

Formats Cloth

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Surath Kthob
Publication Date: Aug 23,2022
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Page Count: 368
Languages: English, Syriac
ISBN: 978-1-4632-3911-4

$150.00

OVERVIEW

This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Owens has translated the text, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.

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