Review of Moore, New Aramaic papyri from Elephantine in Berlin

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: New Aramaic papyri from Elephantine in Berlin.

James D. Moore, New Aramaic papyri from Elephantine in Berlin. Studies on Elephantine, 1. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2022. Pp. xiii, 261. ISBN 9789004505575

Review by
Amit Gvaryahu, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. amit.gvaryahu@mail.huji.ac.il

... The present volume is a contribution to the study of these documents: a trove of very small fragments, not published by the editors of the previously published collections, and overlooked for nearly 80 years, found in the Berlin Museum. ...

I noted the publication of this open-access volume here. For more on the Aramaic Elephantine papyri, follow the links from there, plus see here, here, here, here, and links.

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Porten & Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, volume 5 (Eisenbrauns)

NEW BOOK FROM EISENBRAUNS:

Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, volume 5

Dossiers H–K: 485 Ostraca

Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni

Since the early 1990s, about two thousand Idumean Aramaic ostraca have found their way onto the antiquities market and are now scattered across a number of museums, libraries, and private collections. This fifth and final volume of the Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea completes the work of bringing these ostraca together in a single publication.

Description

Since the early 1990s, about two thousand Idumean Aramaic ostraca have found their way onto the antiquities market and are now scattered across a number of museums, libraries, and private collections. This fifth and final volume of the Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea completes the work of bringing these ostraca together in a single publication. Volumes 1–4 published some 1,600 ostraca that gave us insight into agriculture, economics, politics, onomastics, and scribal practices from fourth/third-century BCE Idumea and Judah. The ostraca in volume 5 come from the same milieu, but the information they provide is entirely new and different. This volume presents 485 ostraca, including 99 land descriptions, 168 uncertain texts, and 218 assorted remains, scribal exercises, and forgeries, along with useful indexes and tables and a comparative list of entries. The land descriptions—which record local landmarks, ownership boundaries, and land registration—provide rich complementary material to the rest of the Idumean ostraca. The “uncertain texts” are fragmentary, in poor condition, or contain other abnormalities. As the TAO corpus becomes better understood and as imaging techniques improve, these texts will help to fill gaps in knowledge. The final section includes the remains of scribal practices and forgeries, important because they help to show the authenticity of the other two thousand pieces.

A unique collection of documentary sources for fourth/third-century BCE Idumea—and, by extension, Judah—this multivolume work will be a powerful resource for those interested in onomastics and social and economic history.

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The Hall of Shofars

EXHIBITION: At biblical fauna museum, a blow-by-blow of all things shofar, and more horns to toot. Beit Shemesh Biblical Museum of Natural History director Natan Slifkin’s collection features everything from rams to kudus to African buffalo and even a unicorn (Jessica Steinberg).

Spoiler alert: Neither the unicorn horn nor the horns of the mythical jackalope can be used as a shofar.

For more on Rabbi Natan Slifkin, the "Zoo Rabbi," and his Biblical Museum of Natural History, see here and follow the links. For more on his book, The Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom, see here (cf. here).

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Runia, Philo of Alexandria. Collected Studies 1997–2021 (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: David T. Runia. Philo of Alexandria. Collected Studies 1997–2021. 2023. XIII, 555 pages. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 187. 169,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-161876-5.

Published in English.
The Jewish exegete and philosopher Philo of Alexandria (ca. 15 BCE – ca. 50 CE) has left behind by far the largest surviving body of writings of Greek speaking Judaism. Deeply loyal to his own Jewish community, Philo nevertheless has an open stance towards Greek philosophy and uses its ideas to develop his own thought as he expounds the scriptural text. The present volume brings together a collection of essays by David T. Runia on Philonic thought published between 1997 to 2021. In the first section, two introductory studies show the breadth of relevant understanding that Philo has for seven sub-disciplines of ancient and patristic studies. The essays in the second section examine Philo's knowledge of and use of Greek philosophy. One of these, Philo's reception of Plato's Phaedo, has not yet been published in English. Further studies focus on biblical interpretation in an Alexandrian context and explore theological themes relating to theodicy, divine power, and human hope. Finally, another seven studies give close readings of key Philonic texts.

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Review of Allen & Doedens (eds.), Turmoil, trauma and tenacity in early Jewish literature

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Turmoil, trauma and tenacity in early Jewish literature.

Nicholas P. L. Allen, Jacob J. T. Doedens, Turmoil, trauma and tenacity in early Jewish literature. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2022. Pp. 285. ISBN 9783110784893

Review by
Matthew Kraus, University of Cincinnati. matthew.kraus@uc.edu

... The authors are to be commended for acknowledging that the depiction of trauma can be used as a literary strategy, may evoke or re-evoke trauma in the reader, and may influence the author who experienced trauma. Nevertheless, the reader will be left frustrated and unconvinced by how these topics are to be understood in Hellenistic Jewish texts. The authors raise insightful questions, while the answers remain obscured in the analyses of specific texts.

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Ancient stone workshop found in the West Bank

ARCHAEOLOGY: Israel uncovers Second Temple-era stone workshop in West Bank. During the Second Temple period, it was customary to use tools made of stone and indeed stone tools are being discovered at almost every site in the region (Jerusalem Post).

Remains of a Second Temple-era quarry and an early stone tool factory site were uncovered during road works on Route 437 in the West Bank, according to a Monday statement from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

[...]

For two other Second Temple-era stone workshops, both in the Galilee, see here and links.

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Rosh HaShanah and the heritage of the Temple Mount

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: UNITY AROUND THE REALLY IMPORTANT THINGS – THE HERITAGE OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT. Some Rosh HaShanah-related ancient and modern history.

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A new translation of P

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Displaying The Literary Artistry of P (Liane Feldman).

The Consuming Fire: The Complete Priestly Source, from Creation to the Promised Land. UC Press, 2023.

... Lest this project begin to sound like a gathering of esoteric academic arguments (which in a way it is), I should say that I had a strong secondary agenda in creating this translation. I wanted to make this text accessible to a broad audience. Put simply: I wanted the language and the ideas to work for an undergraduate classroom or make sense to a non-academic audience. After all, to my mind P is first and foremost a story. It should be able to be read as such. ...

An ambitious and interesting attempt to reconstruct and translate the full surviving text of the Pentateuchal Priestly source (P).

Cross-file under New Book.

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Robert A. Kraft, 1934-2023

SAD NEWS: This weekend the news came in that Professor Robert A. Kraft passed away on Friday after a long illness.

Bob was American Berg Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a major figure in biblical and early Jewish studies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He made massive advances in applying computer technology to these fields.

Bob's Wikipedia entry is here. An e-mail message from the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins notes that he was a founding member of the Seminar and and links to a history of the Seminar by him and Annette Yoshiko Reed. His page of collected online work is here. I wrote briefly about his influence on the field in my 2010 SBL paper What Just Happened and PaleoJudaica has referred often to his work. Septuagint scholar William A. Ross interviewed him in 2017.

Bob was a great scholar and a kind and good man, alway supportive of his younger colleagues. We will miss him.

Reqiescat in pace.

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Magnetometry in Archaeology

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Magnetometry in Archaeology. A new method for seeing buried buildings (Marek Dospěl).

In the Summer 2023 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Andrew Creekmore introduces the use of magnetometry in archaeology. His article, “Seeing into the Ground,” explains how magnetometry works and demonstrates what results this novel method has brought so far at Tell es-Safi, the site of the biblical Gath in southern Israel. ...

The BAR article is behind the subscription wall, but this brief essay summarizes some main points.

A couple of PaleoJudaica posts dealing with magnetometry in archaeology are here and here.

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Rosh HaShanah 2023

HAPPY NEW YEAR (ROSH HASHANAH - Jewish New Year 5784) to all those celebrating. The New Year begins tonight at sundown.

Last year's Rosh HaShanah post, with links, is here. A more recent related post is here. For biblical background, see here.

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Is that new Oxyrhynchus fragment Q?

SPOLIER: NOPE. NT Pod 102: Has Q Been Discovered? Mark Goodacre has an excellect podcast on the new Jesus sayings fragment P.Oxy. 5575.

Background here.

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The Horvat Ethri synagogue

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Ancient synagogue at Horvat Ethri reveals Jewish village and hidden caves on Judean coastal plain. Historic structure features impressive Second Temple period remnants of Jewish settlement (All Israel News).

Israel's National Jewish Fund (KKL-JNF) recently welcomed Israeli guests to visit recently updated sites of two ancient Jewish synagogues, one in Ma'on – located in Israel's southern Negev desert – and the other, Horvat Ethri in Adullam-France Park, located in the Judean coastal plains.

[...]

For the synagogue and mosaic at Ma'on, see here and links.

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The Enuma Elish and the Akitu Festival

WITH REFERENCE TO ROSH HASHANAH: Enuma Elish: Babylonia’s Creation Myth and the Enthronement of Marduk (Prof. Wayne Horowitz, TheTorah.com).

The new year and Akitu festivals in Babylonia were celebrated in the spring, during which the high priest of Marduk’s Esagil temple would read the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish. This narrative tells how the young god Marduk became king of the gods by saving them from Tiamat and her army of monsters.

A good overview of the Akitu Festival and the Enuma Elish.

For more on the Enuma Elish, see here. For more on the ancient Akitu Festival, which has been connected with both Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, see here and links. As that post notes, the ancient Babylonian festival has been revived and is celebrated annually in the spring by Assyrian Christians.

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Another review of Wilson, Ancient Wisdom

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Ancient wisdom: an introduction to sayings collections.

Walter T. Wilson, Ancient wisdom: an introduction to sayings collections. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022. Pp. 335. ISBN 9780802875433

Review by
Craig Davis, Smith College. cradavis@smith.edu

... Expansive in its inclusiveness and meticulous in its scholarship, this user-friendly volume will be an invaluable resource to all students of archaic proverbial traditions in world literature, both for quick reference and deeper study.

I noted another review of the volume here.

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Persepolis tablets to be returned to Iran

PERSEPOLIS WATCH: Iran says U.S. will return thousands of ancient tablets after nine decades (Tehran Times).

So far, hundreds of those tablets (and fragments), which were on loan from Iran to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago since 1935, have been returned home. For example, in 2019, Iran received 1,783 of those important objects being kept at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.

In February 2018, and following years of ups and downs, the fate of those ancient Persian artifacts was left in the hands of a U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Iran.

Archaeologists affiliated with the University of Chicago discovered the tablets in the 1930s while excavating in Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire. However, the institute has resumed work in collaboration with colleagues in Iran, and the return of the tablets is part of a broadening of contacts between scholars in the two countries, said Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Persepolis, the ancient Achemenid ceremonial capital city, start here and follow the links. For some introductory material, see here and links.

And for that U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Persepolis archives, see here and links. The archives are not directly relevant to ancient Judaism, but they provides us with background information on scribal practice and Aramaic in Iran in the Persian Period.

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Schiffman on the Legio X Fretensis

PROF. LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: LEGION OF DESTRUCTION. THE DISCOVERY OF AN ILLEGAL CACHE OF ANCIENT TILES AND BRICKS SHEDS LIGHT ON A SAD CHAPTER IN OUR HISTORY.

A PDF offprint of an article in Ami Magazine. The article surveys the history of the Legio X Fretensis, notably its role in the suppression of the two Jewish revolts against Rome.

I noted the seizing of the looted bricks here. For the Great Revolt coins found recently near the Black Sea, see here.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 209

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: The ‘Why is it so Hot?’ August Carnival of Biblical Studies Hotness: The Climate Change Catastrophe (Jim West). Noted belatedly.

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Fragment of an early collection of Jesus sayings?

(NEW) NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH? Over at the ETC Blog, Peter Gurry notes a newly published fragment of a manuscript from Oxyrhynchus which contains Jesus sayings known from Matthew, the Gospel of Thomas, and maybe Luke. The editors date it to the second century CE, which is quite early for any kind of gospel manuscript.

New 2nd-Century ‘Sayings of Jesus’ Oxyrhynchus Papyrus

Synopsis of P.Oxy. 5575, Matt, Luke, and Thomas

Brent Nongbri has an evaluation of the paleographic case for a second-century date over at Variant Readings: The Date of the New Oxyrhynchus Sayings of Jesus P.Oxy. 87.5575.

I tend to agree with the editors about the similarity of the scripts of 5575 and 4009, but in my first look at the proposals for dated parallels (for both the pieces), I cannot say that I find any of them especially compelling. This is not to criticize the work of the editors. It is very difficult to find good, securely dated comparanda for scripts like these. A more detailed evaluation will have to wait for another occasion.

A lot of questions remain about this new text. Is it a sayings gospel based on oral traditions? Is it a compilation of sayings extracted from earlier gospels? Is it some other kind of work that just happens to cite some Jesus sayings in what survives? And how secure is that second century date?

I imagine all of these questions will be debated for a long time to come. In any case, P.Oxy. 5575 is an important discovery.

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Teenager finds ancient ring at Sussita National Park

ANCIENT ARTIFACT: Treasure hunt: Israeli youth finds Roman-era ring in national park. While visiting Sussita National Park, 13-year-old Itamar Grossman found an 'ancient-looking' ring lying on the ground and insisted that it be examined (Yair Kraus, Ynet News). Well spotted!

Sussita National Park opened this spring. For PaleoJudaica posts on the many archaeological discoveries at Hippos-Sussita, follow the links from there.

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