Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: November

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year Part 4: November 2024.

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

In this most recent update he tracks down some Mary of Magdalene traditions and gives us a preview of what to expect in his forthcoming Anchor Yale volume on the Christian apocrypha. There's plenty of New Testament apocrypha and Old Testament pseudepigrapha in this post.

For earlier posts in the series and more on Tony's work, see the links collected here.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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AJR reviews Hamori, God’s Monsters

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible (Ethan Schwartz).

Esther J. Hamori, God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible. (Minneapolis: Broadleaf, 2023).

... Some readers might find Hamori’s combination of seriousness and frivolousness to be incoherent. However, I would argue that it’s a faithful reflection of what she’s talking about. Monsters themselves are both serious and frivolous. If we aren’t open to this duality, then we’re going to miss crucial dimensions of how the Bible presents God. Hamori’s goal is to encourage that openness. ...

I noted the publication of the book here and another review of it here. See the links collected in the latter post, plus here, for more on monsters in the biblical world.

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A MOOC on ancient Israel

ONLINE COURSE: Jerusalem: A Journey Through Time: Bar-Ilan launches new course on ancient Israel. Students will study ancient Jerusalem starting from the prehistoric period through key historical phases (Raquel G. Frohlich, Jerusalem Post).

A new online undergraduate-level course, titled “Jerusalem: A Journey Through Time,” was recently launched by Bar-Ilan University, the institution announced in a Sunday statement.

The course, available as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the edX platform, is taught by Prof. Aren Maeir, who specializes in the archeology of ancient Jerusalem and the southern Levant, the statement said.

[...]

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Candida Moss to head the Anchor Yale Bible Series

PUBLISHING NEWS: Candida Moss to Lead Anchor Yale Bible (Cathy Lynn Grossman, Publisher's Weekly).

Thirty years ago, a British schoolgirl had a unique request for her 16th birthday present. Candida Moss wanted scholar Raymond Brown's 1971 commentary on the Gospel According to John from the illustrious Anchor Bible Series, then published by Doubleday. That treasured book is still on her home bookshelf today as Moss, now a well-published New Testament scholar and professor of theology at the University of Birmingham, prepares to become the fifth general editor, the first New Testament scholar, and the first woman to lead the 68-year-old series, now known as the Anchor Yale Bible Series, in May 2025.

[...]

Congratulations to Professor Moss and to Yale University Press.

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Rogue Classicism is back

ROGUE CLASSICISM is up and running again. It's good to see you back, David Meadows.

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Herod Agrippa II's aqueous banqueting cave?

SPELUNKIC ARCHAEOLOGY: In a watery Golan cave, Herod’s great-grandson entertained in the Roman imperial style. An altar dedicated to the cult of Pan was likely converted to a banquet area by Herodian ruler Agrippa II, aligning with the account of Josephus, new research shows (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

The latest excavations at Banias, an archaeological site and national park in the Golan Heights that abuts the border with Lebanon, have shown that a sacred cave long associated with the worship of nature deity Pan was likely repurposed during the late 1st century CE by Agrippa II, the great-grandson of King Herod, as an ancient event hall in the Roman style.

[...]

The underlying technical article is behind a subscription wall. But you can read the abstract for free: Dine and Worship: The Roman Complex in Front of the Pan Grotto in Paneas/Caesarea Philippi (Adi Erlich and Ron Lavi, BASOR 392))

For PaleoJudaica posts on the site of Banias, see the links collected here. For posts on King Herod Agrippa II, see here and links (cf. here).

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AJR reviews the Berlin Elephantine exhibition

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Exhibition Review | Elephantine: Island of the Millennia (Simcha Gross).

As one of the few fora where academic knowledge is mediated to the general public, museum exhibitions are often revealing windows into the contemporary stakes and concerns that underpin scholarship. The stunning exhibition on Elephantine currently hosted at the James-Simon-Galerie and the Neues Museum in Berlin is no exception. The visitor is expertly guided through a sumptuous display of objects discovered, beginning in the late nineteenth century, on the famous island lying in the middle of the Nile in Upper Egypt. ...

But the review is not without its criticisms. Read on.

For more on the Elephantine exhibition at the Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, see here and here. Subsequent posts on the Elephantine papyri (etc.) are here, here, and here.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 222

READING ACTS: Biblical Studies Carnival #222 for November 2024 (Phil Long). With lots of SBL 2024 recaps and posted papers.

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De Martin & Furlan (eds.), Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World

Edited By Sara De Martin, Anna Lucia Furlan
Copyright 2025

Hardback
£135.00
eBook
£35.99

ISBN 9781032778587
236 Pages
Published October 3, 2024 by Routledge

Description

This book moves beyond the debate on ‘wisdom literature’, ongoing in biblical studies, to demonstrate the productivity of ‘wisdom’ as a literary category. Featuring work by scholars of Egyptology, classics, biblical and Near Eastern studies, it offers fresh perspectives on what makes a text ‘wisdom’.

This interdisciplinary volume widens the scope of the investigation into ‘wisdom literature’, chronologically, geographically, and methodologically. Readers are given insights into how the label ‘wisdom’ contributes to our understanding of diverse literary forms across time periods and cultural contexts. In the volume’s introduction, the editors consider ‘wisdom’ as a ‘discourse’, shifting the focus from the debate on whether ‘wisdom literature’ is a genre to the properties of the texts, namely exploring what makes a text ‘wisdom’. This offers a methodological backdrop against which the diverse approaches of the single authors productively coexist. The chapters examine texts that are the products of different ancient cultures, with several of them bridging diverse cultural, social, and chronological contexts. By sampling how different methodologies interact both within individual interpretative efforts and in wider attempts to understand cross-cultural literary phenomena, this volume also contributes new perspectives to the scholarship on ancient literary genres.

Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World will interest both students and scholars of the ancient Near East, Egyptology, classical studies, biblical studies, and theology and religious studies, particularly those working on wisdom literature in antiquity. It will also appeal to readers with an interest in comparative approaches and genre studies more broadly.

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Lauinger, The Labors of Idrimi (SBL, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

The Labors of Idrimi: Inscribing the Past, Shaping the Present at Late Bronze Age Alalah

Jacob Lauinger

ISBN9781628376135
VolumeANEM 33
Status Available
Publication Date September 2024

Hardback
$78.00
Paperback
$58.00

Since the 1949 publication of the Late Bronze inscriptions on the Statue of Idrimi, scholars have been intrigued by the carefully structured and vividly detailed cuneiform text that recounts the rise of King Idrimi of Alalah. Jacob Lauinger significantly advances prior scholarship through an in-depth historical analysis that combines textual and material perspectives on both the statue and the inscriptions. His study reveals how two distinct inscriptions were added to an originally anepigraphic statue to advance a claim about royal legitimacy long after Idrimi’s death during a time of political upheaval at Alalah. This richly illustrated volume includes a translation, more than ninety-five images, and sixteen composite plates that, for the first time, present each line of the inscriptions in its entirety to scholars and students. The appendix offers a detailed philological commentary treating numerous aspects of the inscriptions that have been the subject of multiple scholarly interpretations.

As the AWOL Blog notes, the book is also available in an open-access pdf version. For a quick introduction to the statue of Idrimi and some of its potential relevance for biblical studies, see this British Museum blog post by James Fraser: Idrimi, the 3,500-year-old refugee.

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Images of the Human Being (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Images of the Human Being. Eighth International East-West Symposium of New Testament Scholars, Caraiman Monastery, May 26 to 31, 2019. Edited by Cosmin Pricop, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr and Tobias Nicklas. 2024. XIX, 580 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 521. DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-160638-0. €169.00 including VAT. eBook PDF available 978-3-16-160638-0. Also Available As: cloth €169.00.

Summary

This collection of essays presents the papers given at the Eighth International Orthodox-Western Symposium of New Testament Scholars in the Caraiman Monastery (Romania). The symposium was a project of the Eastern Europe Liaison Committee (EELC) of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. Main subject matters of the volume are images and stories of the human being according to the New Testament and church tradition. All topics are discussed from a »western« (Protestant and Roman-Catholic) exegetical perspective as well as from an eastern orthodox point of view. In addition, several seminar papers deal with anthropological texts and conceptions in Paul, the synoptic Gospels, and John as well as with Philo and extra-canonical writings. A particular section presents reports on biblical scholarship in Romania, past and present.

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Heilig, Paul the Storyteller (Eerdmans)

NEW BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

Paul the Storyteller
A Narratological Approach

by Christoph Heilig

Imprint: Eerdmans

448 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

HARDCOVER
9780802878953
Publication Date: October 22, 2024
$49.99
£39.99

EBOOK
9781467469074
Publication Date: October 22, 2024

DESCRIPTION

An incisive study of Paul’s use of stories and narratives in his letters

Paul is often thought of as a crafter of numerous and complex arguments, but some scholars, such as N. T. Wright and Richard Hays, have shown that narratives are vitally important in his letters. Through careful examination of the texts, Christoph Heilig demonstrates that Paul is indeed a talented teller of stories—not only explicit narratives but also implicit stories.

In this volume, after a decade of research and writing, Heilig presents his definitive report on narrative in Paul. While Richard Hays and N. T. Wright have argued that Paul’s letters contain implicit narratives, Heilig stresses that a sound methodology requires beginning with text-linguistic investigation of explicit narratives. As Heilig argues, focusing on explicit narratives repeatedly redirects our attention to implicit (“almost”) stories. On this basis, he shows that Hays’s “narrative substructures” and Wright’s “worldview” narratives can also be fruitfully integrated into a narratological approach. Paul is a different kind of storyteller than the gospel writers, for example, but at countless points miniature narratives play a crucial role for Paul’s communicative goals.

Students and scholars of the New Testament will welcome Heilig’s expert guidance through a hotly debated area of Pauline studies.

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J. Cheryl Exum (1946-2024)

SAD NEWS, coming in from many sources, of the passing of J. Cheryl Exum, Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield. Jim West posts Jack Sasson's Agade note: Sad News: J. Cheryl Exum has Died.

Reqiescat in pace.

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Enuma Elish (Bloomsbury Academic, open access)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY:

Enuma Elish

The Babylonian Epic of Creation

Johannes Haubold (Anthology Editor) , Sophus Helle (Anthology Editor) , Enrique Jiménez (Anthology Editor) , Selena Wisnom (Anthology Editor)

Open Access

Paperback
$34.95 $31.45

Hardback
$100.00 $90.00

Product details

Published Oct 31 2024
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 352
ISBN 9781350297197
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Babylonian Literature
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This open access book is the first in a groundbreaking series making Babylonian literature accessible. It presents Enuma Elish in transcription and translation, with an introduction for non-specialist readers and essays from leading scholars in the field.

Acting as a companion to the poem, the book provides readers with the tools they need to explore Enuma Elish in greater depth. Essays cover important historical and contextual information, offer discussions of key topics and explanations of technical terms, as well as suggestions of relevant further reading. The book's interpretive and reflective approach, which pays special attention to questions of poetic style, intertextual resonance, and literary and cultural significance, encourages a greater understanding of the poem as a work of literature while remaining grounded in philology.

The critical essays examine Enuma Elish and the following themes: the poem's rhythm and style; its modern receptions, issues of gender, motherhood and masculinity; Marduk's rise to power; Babylonian astronomy; intertextuality and the poem as counter myth.

Enuma Elish and the Library of Babylonian Literature series will be an indispensable companion for anyone interested in the literature, culture and religion of ancient Assyria.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by LMU Munich and Princeton University.

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Spiritual Transformation in the New Testament and Related Literature (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Spiritual Transformation in the New Testament and Related Literature. Edited by Albert L.A. Hogeterp, D. Francois Tolmie and Jan G. van der Watt. 2024. VII, 358 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 522. €139.00 including VAT. cloth available 978-3-16-163519-9. Also Available As: eBook PDF €139.00 .

Summary

The contributions to this volume explore the question of what spiritual transformation means for Early Christianity and beyond, with articles ranging from Old Testament wisdom literature to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Graeco-Roman philosophy, the gospels, epistles, and Johannine literature of the New Testament and other Early Christian literature. The contributions provide reflections on the involvement of the self and agency in spiritual transformation and concern diverse anthropological dimensions of mind, emotions, body, and embodiment related to this phenomenon of metamorphosis. The impact of spiritual transformation may relate to a renewal of the mind, to a therapeutics of emotions, and to material dimensions of bodily posture and physiological metaphors expressing spiritual identity.

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The blessing of Jacob - Were Isaac and God in on the ruse?

DR. RABBI DAVID ZUCKER: Isaac Knows He Is Blessing Jacob: Who Is Really Being Deceived? (TheTorah.com).

Isaac and Rebecca’s relationship appears close and loving, except when Rebecca directs Jacob to deceive Isaac and steal the blessing meant for Esau. The sages suggest that Isaac knew all along that the man before him was Jacob, disguised as Esau. Is it possible that Isaac and Rebecca were both in on the plan from the start?

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More on those third-millennium alphabetic (?) inscriptions

Evidence of oldest known alphabet unearthed among Syrian tomb treasures. Cylinders discovered in 2004 are inscribed with the earliest known examples of letters, say archaeologists (Miryam Naddaf, Nature).

I have already noted this story here. But this Nature article has additional information, including comments from other specialists. It sounds as though the proposal that these are unprecedentedly early alphabetic inscriptions is holding up so far. We'll see how it looks after the formal publication.

Part of the Nature article is behind a subscription wall. But, if you are interested and you dont have institutional access, you can access it through your Google or Facebook account.

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Schniedewind lecturing on "Who Wrote the Bible?"

IN-PERSON EVENT: Who wrote the Bible? In a new book and upcoming lecture, William Schniedewind offers bold new answers (Ashna Madni, UCLA Newsroom).

Who really wrote the Bible? A Dec. 3 lecture by William Schniedewind will offer a bold new answer to that age-old question.

“Although the Hebrew Bible rarely speaks of its authors, people have been fascinated by the question of its authorship since ancient times,” said Schniedewind, the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and a professor of biblical studies and northwest Semitic languages. “But the Bible was not written by a single author, or by a series of single authors.”

Rather, he said, it was written by communities of scribes.

[...]

Follow the link for details on the event. More on the book here.

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Thanksgiving ... Psalms

TIMELY: Thanksgiving: A Genre in Psalms (Prof. Benjamin D. Sommer, TheTorah.com).

The elements of a thanksgiving prayer—praise, description of the crisis, calling on the audience, an acknowledgment of God’s answer, and a concluding thanks—are found in Psalm 30, recited daily in the morning service. The adaptability of this and other biblical psalms helps explain why these Iron-Age prayers are still recited around the world today.

And, of course, happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating the day.

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Hezser on Rabbinic Scholarship in the Context of Late Antique Intellectual Culture

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Why It Is Necessary to Integrate Rabbinic Scholarship Into the Study of Late Antique Intellectual Culture

Rabbinic scholarship, conducted in Hebrew and Aramaic in the eastern parts of the Roman-Byzantine Empire, is commonly excluded from the study of “classical” intellectual practices based on Greek paideia. A broader integrative approach that acknowledges both similarities and differences between rabbinic, Graeco-Roman, and Christian scholarship enables a more variegated assessment of late antique intellectual life.

See also: Rabbinic Scholarship in the Context of Late Antique Scholasticism: The Development of the Talmud Yerushalmi (Bloomsbury, 2024).

By Catherine Hezser
SOAS, University of London
November 2024

Cross-file under Forthcoming Book.

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