Review of Schniedewind, Who Really Wrote the Bible

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Who Really Wrote the Bible’ by William M. Schniedewind review. Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes by William M. Schniedewind asks what authorship meant to the hidden hands behind the Old Testament (Alec Ryrie, History Today 74, vol. 11).

His scope is exclusively the Hebrew Bible, the ‘Old Testament’. There are also questions about the authorship of the New Testament, but that was written in Greek and Schniedewind sees ‘authorship’, in the modern sense, as a Greek idea that was a latecomer to Jewish culture. Almost none of the books of the Hebrew Bible claim to have an author, simply because that’s not how books were written in ancient Hebrew. They were the product of scribal communities, not individuals.

Cross-file under New Book (Princeton University Press, 2024).

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The Mazzarón II has been raised

PHOENICIAN WATCH: The Mazzaron Phoenician Boat is successfully raised from seabed. The keel of the shipwreck is the last of the 22 sections to be recovered after two months of painstaking work (Murcia Today).

For some years I have been following the planning for and raising of the Mazarrón II shipwreck in Murcia, Spain. The excavation work is finally done.

The ship is now to be reassembled and restored at nearby Cartagena. It remains to be decided whether it will go on permanent public display there or at Mazzarón.

Background here and links. Note the variable spellings Mazzarón (Mazzaron) and Mazarrón (Mazarron).

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Sifting Project presents analysis of its First Temple-era pottery

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: MILESTONE ACHIEVEMENT IN OUR RESEARCH: QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD POTTERY.

Last Thursday, we reached a significant milestone in our research and publication process. At the annual New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region conference, organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University, and Tel Aviv University, we presented key findings from the quantitative analysis of pottery from the mid-late First Temple Period (Iron Age IIB-C). Our study focuses on comparing these artifacts with finds from other Jerusalem sites, particularly the Ophel area.

[...]

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Labahn, Lamentations: A Commentary Based on the Text in Codex Vaticanus (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Lamentations

A Commentary Based on the Text in Codex Vaticanus

Series: Septuagint Commentary Series

Author: Antje Labahn

This commentary on Greek Lamentations is based on the Codex Vaticanus, and includes an introduction, Greek text and English translation. LamLXX presents a new interpretation of the past, creating its own conceptual idea about loss and destruction, grief and suffering. In varied vivid images, metaphors and pictures, LamLXX retells past experiences as present life, invoking conditions reminiscent of Exodus. Hope is reduced to a limited amount, suffering seems endless. Only through prophet Jeremiah’s mediation, a new perspective for future life appears at the horizon. Contemporary readers, or readers of any period, may find therein representations of their own experiences in life.

Copyright Year: 2024

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70168-7
Publication: 02 Oct 2024
EUR €110.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69958-8
Publication: 04 Oct 2024
EUR €110.00

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Luther, Hiob in Qumran (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Hiob in Qumran

Der Beitrag der Hiobhandschriften aus Qumran zur Text- und Literargeschichte des Hiobbuchs

Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 148

Author: Rebekka Luther

The six manuscripts from Ḥirbet Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99, 4Q100, 4Q101, 4Q157, 11Q10) are the oldest textual witnesses of the Hebrew Book of Job, which received its final redaction during the 3rd century BCE. But their different characteristics and fragmentary condition make it hard to draw a picture on what these textual witnesses actually testify to. This study combines Text- and Literarkritik while considering their individual features. The results unveil a history of reception of the image of Job, which goes hand in hand with an ongoing production and reworking of the text.

In dieser Studie werden die sechs fragmentarischen Hiobmanuskripte aus Ḥirbet Qumran in text- und literarkritischen Einzelanalysen untersucht. Die Ergebnisse geben Einblick in die früheste Rezeptionsgeschichte und zeigen, welche Themen nach dem Abschluss der Großkomposition im 3. Jh. v. Chr. die weisheitliche Debatte um das Schicksal Hiobs prägten.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70886-0
Publication: 02 Oct 2024
EUR €125.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70881-5
Publication: 10 Oct 2024
EUR €125.00

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Glinter, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Yale)

NEW BOOK FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Becoming the Messiah

by Ezra Glinter

Series: Jewish Lives

320 Pages, 5.75 x 8.25 in, 13 b-w illus.

Hardcover
9780300222623
Published: Tuesday, 29 Oct 2024
$28.00

eBook
9780300280371
Published: Tuesday, 29 Oct 2024
$28.00

Description

The life and thought of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, one of the most influential—and controversial—rabbis in modern Judaism

“Accessible, informed, and balanced. . . . The author manages to tread on fragile ground with aplomb. . . . An exceptional tool for understanding.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement, one of the world’s best-known Hasidic groups, is driven by the belief that we are on the verge of the messianic age. The man most recognized for the movement’s success is the seventh and last Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), believed by many of his followers to be the Messiah.

While hope of redemption has sustained the Jewish people through exile and persecution, it has also upended Jewish society with its apocalyptic and anarchic tendencies. So it is not surprising that Schneerson’s messianic fervor made him one of the most controversial rabbinic leaders of the twentieth century. How did he go from being an ordinary rabbi’s son in the Russian Empire to achieving status as a mystical sage? How did he revitalize a centuries-old Hasidic movement, construct an outreach empire of unprecedented scope, and earn the admiration and condemnation of political, communal, and religious leaders in America and abroad?

Ezra Glinter’s deeply researched account is the first biography of Schneerson to combine a nonpartisan view of his life, work, and impact with an insider’s understanding of the ideology that drove him and that continues to inspire the Chabad-Lubavitch movement today.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and the messianic tradition around him, start here and follow the links.

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Bronze bulls and other goodies excavated at MBA Tel Shimron

BOVINE ICONOGRAPHY: Giant Trove of Canaanite Cultic Artifacts Found in Northern Israel. Atop Tel Shimron, archaeologists reveal enigmatic monumental 'white' structure from Canaanite era and its storage for used religious artifacts, and animal bones (Ariel David, Haaretz).

Archaeologists digging at Tel Shimron in northern Israel are revealing a monumental structure from which they have recovered a vast cache of rare cultic objects used some 3,800 years ago by the ancient Canaanites.

Burnt animal bones, precious imported ceramics and two bull statuettes representing Canaanite deities are just the most spectacular finds that emerged from a huge dump of religious artifacts located at the top of the recently-discovered monument.

[...]

On those bull statuettes, found in what the archaeologists think is a "favissa," a room for storing retired religious ritual objects:

At this point one could be reminded of the old joke about archaeologists interpreting everything they can't explain as signs of cultic activity. But there are good reasons to believe the ancient trove found at Shimron is not just a random dump of Middle Bronze domestic garbage.

The types of pottery vessels are typical of what is found in temples, rather than in domestic contexts, Master says. Initial analysis of the animal bones also shows that many burned at very high temperatures that would have destroyed any meat on them, suggesting they were not for domestic consumption, he adds.

And then of course there is the matter of the two bronze bull figurines that emerged from the favissa.

These are generally interpreted as cultic representations of El – the head of the Canaanite pantheon – or of the storm god Baal.

There are photos in the article.

Metal bulls naturally make one think of the "golden calf" found in the Exodus tradition (Exodus 32) and the two such objects reportedly used in Jeroboam I's cultic apparatus (1 Kings 13).

These two new metal bulls join the slightly later silver filigreed bronze bull excavated at Ashkelon (link to photo here) and the 2,500-year-old bronze bull excavated in Greece a few years ago. Those links also discuss the golden calf supposedly found in Gozo, Malta, in the eighteenth century. There was also the golden calf seized by Turkish authories in 2017, which I suspect is of pretty recent origin.

Follow the links above for discussion of how these excavated metal bulls could relate to the biblical golden calf traditions. And keep following the links from there for more on the biblical traditions.

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Review of Fontanille, The Yehud coinage

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Yehud coinage: a study and die classification of the provincial silver coinage of Judah.

Haim Gitler, Catharine Lorber, Jean-Philippe Fontanille, The Yehud coinage: a study and die classification of the provincial silver coinage of Judah. Numismatic studies and researches, 12. Jerusalem: The Israel Numismatic Society, 2023. Pp. xii, 532. ISBN 9789655982299.

Review by
David Hendin, American Numismatic Society. dhendin@numismatics.org

This comprehensive 532-page volume, weighing over 3 kilograms, is dedicated to the smallest coins ever minted in the Southern Levant—the Yehud coins, most of which weigh less than half a gram. The book explores the historical, numismatic, and archaeological contexts of these minuscule coins in meticulous detail. The small silver Yehud coins were the first coins struck in the ancient land of Judah by local officials.

[...]

Cross-file under Numismatics.

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More on some contested Canaanite/Hebrew inscription claims

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Too Good to Be True? Not Necessarily So! Rollston ignores context of “sensational” inscriptions (Pieter Gert van der Veen).

In his recent Biblical Archaeology Review article, “Too Good to Be True? Reckoning with Sensational Inscriptions,” epigrapher Christopher Rollston takes to task several recent studies of apparent paleo-Hebrew and proto-Canaanite inscriptions and criticizes some of his fellow epigraphers (myself included) for reading too much into these badly damaged and/or questionable texts. Although I agree with some of his points, with others I clearly cannot. Below I consider two of the texts discussed by Rollston in his article.

[...]

The main substantive points involve the fishing weight intepretation.

I don't think anyone was ignoring the archaeological context of the lapidary inscription fragment, which was in a fill containing eighth century potsherds, but not a solid stratum. The reason for caution is that there is so little of the fragment.

The lapidary inscription fragments (see links below for specifics) which have undoubted letters on them are probably the remains of official (royal?) inscriptions from around Hezekiah's era. I wouldn't be more specific than that.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Mount Ebal curse tablet/fishing weight, including my own preliminary assessment, see here and links. For posts on the supposed Hezekiah inscription fragments, as well as some others that Prof. Galil believes he has deciphered, see here, here, and here and links.

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Review of Arzt-Grabner et al. (eds.), More light from the ancient East

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: More light from the ancient East: understanding the New Testament through papyri.

Peter Arzt-Grabner, John S. Kloppenborg, Christina M. Kreinecker, Gregg Schwendner, More light from the ancient East: understanding the New Testament through papyri. Papyri and the New Testament, 1. Leiden: Brill, 2023. Pp. xl, 237. ISBN 9783506790415.

Review by
Lajos Berkes, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. lajos.berkes@hu-berlin.de

... The volume is well produced, and typos and infelicities are rare. Overall, this is a readable book which provides a good introduction to papyrology for scholars who are interested in what papyri can contribute to understanding the NT. One of its strengths are the translations of selected papyri at the end of each chapter, which, thanks to the detailed explanations, succeed in showcasing how they are relevant for the book’s topic. ...

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Lu, The Transformation of Tĕhôm (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Transformation of Tĕhôm

From Deified Power to Demonized Abyss

Series: Biblical Interpretation Series, Volume: 224

Author: Rosanna Lu

Tehom, the Hebrew Bible’s primeval deep, is a powerful concept often overlooked outside of creation and conflict contexts. Primeval waters mark the boundary between life and death in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East, representing the duality of both deliverance and judgment. This book examines all contexts of Tehom to explain its conceptual forms and use as a proper noun. Comparative methodology combined with affect and spatial theories provide new ways to understand how religious communities repurposed Tehom. These interpretations of Tehom empower resilience in times of suffering and oppression.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70803-7
Publication: 07 Oct 2024
EUR €120.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-70877-8
Publication: 17 Oct 2024
EUR €120.00

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Tutty, The Monks of the Nag Hammadi Codices (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Monks of the Nag Hammadi Codices

Contextualising a Fourth-Century Monastic Community

Series:
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, Volume: 107

Author: Paula Tutty

This work tells the story of a community of fourth-century monks living in Egypt. The letters they wrote and received were found within the covers of works that changed our understanding of early religious thought - the Nag Hammadi Codices. This book seeks to contextualise the letters and answer questions about monastic life. Significantly, new evidence is presented that links the letters directly to the authors and creators of the codices in which they were discovered.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69908-3
Publication: 02 Oct 2024
EUR €130.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69574-0
Publication: 10 Oct 2024
EUR €130.00

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies

THE AWOL BLOG: Open Access Journal: Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies.

It's been quite a while since I mentioned this journal, so this is a good opportunity to do so again. It deals with Judaism from all periods, but antiquity is well represented.

Unfortunately, it looks like there has not been a new volume since 2019.

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Häberlein, Speaking to Job in Greek (De Gruyter)

NEW BOOK FROM DE GRUYTER:

Speaking to Job in Greek
Text, Translation Technique, Literary and Theological Profile of OG Job 38:1-42:6

Maximilian Häberlein
Volume 560 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111399003

Institutional price £110.00

eBook
Published: September 23, 2024
ISBN: 9783111399003

Hardcover
Published: September 23, 2024
ISBN: 9783111397443

About this book

This study investigates the Old Greek translation of Job regarding its text, Vorlage, translation technique, literary contexts, and theological profile.
To situate OG Job within its ancient contexts, both the strategies employed by the translators and the literary profile of the translated text have to be taken into account. Thus, an approach is employed encompassing a thick description of translational strategies; and a reading of the translated text in its own right. This framework is applied in an investigation of God’s answer to Job in OG Job 38:1-42:6. The results show that the translators worked from a Vorlage similar to, but not fully identical with MT, and produced a coherent, stylized text. The transformations undertaken, including double translations, intertextual renderings, minuses, small-scale rewritings and paraphrases, can be situated in an environment influenced by Greek educational and philological practices, but are also deeply indebted to Jewish scribal traditions. While not introducing sweeping theological changes, the translation nevertheless shows a tendency to emphasize divine sovereignty. The study thus contributes to a deeper understanding of this important witness to the book of Job an Jewish literature in the Hellenistic period.

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Late-antique Coptic Psalms fragments for sale

VARIANT READINGS: Additional Items from the Schøyen Collection on Sale (Brent Nongbri).

Brent reports that three Coptic parchment folios with material from the Book of Psalms are being advertised for sale on a rare book dealer's website. The sale site dates them all to the first half of the fifth century. Two look like they are from the same codex. The third less so, but it's hard to be sure.

Follow the link for more from Brent, including on the question of provenance.

As usual with these things, if these manuscripts must be sold, I encourage the buyer to donate them to a museum. Or, failing that, at least to make them available freely for scholars to study.

For more on the sale of the Crosby-Schøyen codex, mentioned in the post, see here links. For the sale and fate of the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, sold at the same auction, see here and links.

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The Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project

TEXTUAL CRITICISM: Welcome to the Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter Project The first eclectic and digital critical edition of the first 50 Psalms.

This Virtual Manuscript Room digital workspace will support the three-year NEH-funded project “‘I Shall No Longer Want’ (Psalm 23:1): The Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter” (CEHP) to produce the first full eclectic and digital critical edition of the Hebrew Psalms 1-50, as well as the printed volume for Psalms 1-50 for the Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition series. The project is co-directed by Prof. Brent Strawn and Dr. Drew Longacre at Duke University/Divinity School.

[...]

Follow the link for additional details. The project also has a blog: Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter.

HT Drew Longacre.

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Is the "Passover" Papyrus really about a Zoroastrian rite?

ELEPHANTINE WATCH: New Study of 'Passover Letter' May Change What We Know About the Birth of Judaism. The 2,400-year-old papyrus from Elephantine, touted as the earliest evidence for Pesach, may in fact reference Zoroastrian-influenced rituals, Israeli scholar concludes (Ariel David, Haaretz).

The so-called 'Passover Letter' is a tattered papyrus written in Aramaic during the Persian period. It is thought by scholars to contain the first extrabiblical reference to the rituals of Pesach, thus proving that this festival was already well established more than 2,400 years ago.

Not so, says a new study by an Israeli researcher, which calls into question a century of scholarship on the seminal document and claims the text has little or nothing to do with Passover as we know it. Instead, the letter was most likely discussing Zoroastrian-inspired rituals that were commonly observed by Jews in the Persian Empire, says Dr. Gad Barnea, a lecturer in Jewish history and biblical studies at Haifa University.

[...]

The underlying article is published in the open-access Shaked Festschrift, to which I linked here. Gad Barnea has also published the full volume, including this article, at his Academia.edu site.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Aramaic "Passover" Papyrus from Elephantine, which doesn't actually mention Passover in its surviving text, see here and here and follow the many links. For another argument that the papyrus did not mention Passover at all, see here.

Dr. Barnea's argument involves technical aspects of ancient Zoroastrian worship outside my expertise, so I take no position on it. But I have made a case here that Passover as we know it was known, and perhaps well-known, in Judea no later than the third century BCE and quite possibly as early as the late seventh century BCE.

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

A Josephus apocryphon on Hades

ROGER PEARSE: Pseudo-Josephus, “A Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades” – an investigation AND More on Pseudo-Josephus, “Discourse to the Greeks on Hades.”

The discussion is technical, but Roger includes a link to a translation of the text. It is worth reading as a late-antique, clearly Christian, treatise on Hades addressed to "the Greeks." It looks like attribution to Josephus is a transmission error rather than the intent of the author (who may have been Hippolytus).

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Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: October

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year Part 3: October 2024.

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany. This is his most recent update. With the latest on Thecla and on the dormition of Mary tradition.

For earlier posts in this series, see here and links. For more on Tony's work and related matters, see here and here.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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A cat kneaded an unfired pot 1,200 years ago in Jerusalem

FELINE-EMBELLISHED MATERIAL CULTURE: Archaeologists Find First-ever Evidence of a Cat Kneading, in Jerusalem. Combing through excavation material from Mount Zion in Jerusalem, lab director Gretchen Cotter noticed something unusual on an Abbasid-era clay jug (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

It is the claw marks that whisper of the ancient cat's contentment. It didn't just walk on the raw jar, which is absolutely a thing a cat would do. If it had just been strolling on the jug – first, cats have retractable claws in their front feet and do not stroll about with their front claws extended. There would not be any claw marks. Second, we wouldn't see the imprint of its foreleg.

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