Sofer, Solomonic Magic (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Solomonic Magic

Methodology, Texts, and Histories

Series:
Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity, Volume: 11

Author: Gal Sofer

Solomonic magic has captivated imaginations for centuries, yet its definition remains elusive. Is it a specialized branch linked to King Solomon, or a broader classification of practices attributed to him? This book explores the mysterious world of demon subjugation, examining previously unknown texts in multiple languages (Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and more) to reveal the historical evolution of this magical tradition. Divided into three parts, the book presents analyses of key manuscripts and examines the historical influence of Hebrew texts on later traditions. Featuring many unpublished manuscripts, this book challenges previous scholarly assumptions and offers a new perspective on the textual network that shaped medieval and early modern magical works.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73078-6
Publication: 19 May 2025
EUR €126.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54677-6
Publication: 12 Jun 2025
EUR €126.00

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Tenured post in ancient Jewish Studies at Harvard NELC

H-JUDAIC: FEATURED JOB: Tenured Professor in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University.

Position Description: The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University seeks to appoint a tenured professor in Jewish Studies, with a specialization in Jewish history, religion, and culture in antiquity and/or late antiquity. The successful candidate must have demonstrated expertise in Rabbinic and other Jewish literatures of the ancient world; facility with the relevant languages; deep knowledge of the surrounding civilization(s) in which Jews were embedded, i.e., some combination of Hellenistic, Roman, Eastern or Western Christian, and/or Zoroastrian; command of relevant disciplines in the Humanities including historical method. The appointment is expected to begin on July 1, 2027. The professor will teach and advise at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars and application instructions. The closing date is 1 September 2025.

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

Is Israel's wilderness camp based on mobile Persian camps?

DR. JAEYOUNG JEON: Israel’s Wilderness Camp Modeled on the Persian Military Formation (TheTorah.com).

The Israelite camp’s layout provides a double layer of protection for the Tabernacle and ensures an orderly march through the wilderness. But where does this organizational model come from? New evidence points not to Egypt—but to Persia.

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

Prof. Neil Danzig (1950-2025)

SAD NEWS FROM H-JUDAIC: Passing of Prof. Neil Danzig (1950-2025).

H-Judaic is greatly saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Prof. Neil Danzig (1950-2025), emeritus professor of Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary and a leading scholar of Geniza literature.

[...]

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

A Mishnah/Sifra palimpsest from the Cairo Geniza

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (APRIL 2025): A Hidden Layer of Sifra beneath the Mishnah: A Hebrew Palimpsest in the Cairo Genizah, T-S E2.51 (Elyashiv Cherlow).

Cambridge University Library T-S E2.51 preserves an early Eastern version of the Mishnah, Tractate Pesaḥim. The upper part of the same parchment leaf, housed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, Heb. C. 27/27, contains the conclusion of Tractate ʿEruvin. Both pieces have been catalogued and occasionally cited for textual variants.1 Yet one striking feature has gone unnoticed: this leaf is a Hebrew palimpsest.

On the verso of the Cambridge fragment, the Mishnah was copied over an erased text. Beneath it – still partially visible – is a passage from the tannaitic midrash Sifra. Hebrew palimpsests are rare to begin with, and even rarer when both upper and lower texts are rabbinic compositions.2

[...]

For many PaleoJudaica posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, start here (plus here and here) and follow the links.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on palimpsests (manuscripts with erased, overwritten text), see here and links.

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

Review of Litwa, Early Christianity in Alexandria

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Early Christianity in Alexandria: from its beginnings to the late second century.

M. David Litwa, Early Christianity in Alexandria: from its beginnings to the late second century. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp. 350. ISBN 9781009449557.

Review by
Joseph Verheyden, University of Leuven. jos.verheyden@kuleuven.be

... In his most recent book, Litwa takes the reader on an exploratory journey to early Christian Alexandria on the perhaps a bit too optimistic hypothesis that more can be said about the origins and earliest history of Alexandrian Christianity than has often been thought. ...

The book seems also to deal quite a bit with Alexandrian Judaism.

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

Stone, Armenian Apocrypha: The Short Questionnaire from Adam to Moses (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Armenian Apocrypha: The Short Questionnaire from Adam to Moses

Michael E. Stone

ISBN 9781628376173
Volume EJL 58
Status Available
Publication Date May 2025

Paperback $60.00
Hardback $80.00
eBook $60.00

Short Questionnaire, an Armenian question-and-answer text that survives in a seventeenth-century manuscript, draws on Armenian parabiblical traditions to systematically explore biblical events from creation to the exodus. The volume includes Michael E. Stone’s translation, extensive commentary, and twenty-seven essays that trace the history of parabiblical concepts and events from the Second Temple and early Christian periods down to the second millennium. Including stories of Satan’s fall from the garden, the raven’s role in Abel’s murder, the burial places of Adam and Eve, and Noah’s fourth son, the book forms a dictionary of Armenian parabiblical traditions for scholars and students interested in reception history in early Judaism and Christianity.

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Berlejung, YHWH's Diversity (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Angelika Berlejung

YHWH's Diversity

A Lot of Names and No Iconography?

[JHWHs Vielfalt. Viele Namen und keine Ikonographie?]
2025. XIII, 204 pages.
Orientalische Religionen in der Antike (ORA) 63

€119.00
including VAT

available 978-3-16-164305-7

Also Available As:
eBook PDF €119.00

Summary

By applying a bottom-up approach, Angelika Berlejung examines YHWH's names, epithets, attributes, and functions in biblical and extrabiblical texts, images found in iconographic material, and attempts to correlate these sources. In doing so, her study reverses the usual approach: rather than starting with discussions about the one (and only) origin of YHWH and the search for his primordial theological profile, it aggregates the diversity of the known YHWH names and the fact that there is no specific YHWH iconography into the thesis that there were different origins of YHWH and regional manifestations of this god before the exile, each with different theological profiles and iconographies. This thesis is accompanied by a consistent regionalization of YHWH worship. The study is embedded in modern approaches to the archaeology of religion and a conception of the Southern Levantine religions which are characterized by a high degree of diversity, regionality, exchange, entanglement, hybridisation and dynamics of appropriation and negation. Instead of a uniform YHWH religion shared by all »Israelites«, the polyyahwistic and polyiconographic approach to Yahwism reveals a mosaic of regionally diverse, religiously non-homogeneous clusters that were only harmonised with each other by Judean and Samarian interpretive authorities in the post-exilic period. From this point of departure, the author discusses possible reasons that lead from pre-exilic polyyahwism and polyiconography to YHWH's later differentia specifica, monotheism and the ban against YHWH images.

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Leuchter, The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

An Empire Far and Wide

The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period

Mark A. Leuchter

E-book: £59.00

Hardback
This item is not yet published, but may be pre-ordered now for delivery when available.
Published: 13 January 2025 (Estimated)
184 Pages
235x156mm
ISBN: 978019777274

Description

The Persian period (539-332 BCE) sits somewhat awkwardly within the study of Second Temple Judaism. Amidst a myriad of issues and debates, the approach to the Persian period is fundamentally complicated by the difficulty in labelling communities — whether or not the communities in the province of Yehud, in Egypt, or in the Eastern Diaspora can even be called "Jewish," a label denoting a type of ethnic and religious symbiosis that some scholars are hesitant to identify any time before the mid-2nd century BCE.

This uncertain position of the Persian Period in Jewish memory is nothing new — in fact, it can be traced back to nearly two thousand years. Yet it can lead contemporary scholars to exercise too much caution when dating, analyzing, and discussing ancient scribal texts. Utilizing recent tools to examine scribal methods, Mark Leuchter takes a definitive approach. An Empire Far and Wide focuses on a careful selection of literary test cases to better understand how Jewish scribes in Persian Yehud interacted with a feature of Persian imperialism that has not received adequate attention: the dynastic mythology of the Achaemenid rulers and the way it shaped emerging Jewish identity in the Persian period.

Leuchter works from the determination that we can indeed apply the terms "Jewish" and "Judaism" to certain Persian period communities with certain caveats. This book illuminates the fact that the Persian period is hardly a "dark age" of study — it reveals important dimensions of Jewish culture of the era. The textual record of the learned Yehudite Jewish caste of the Persian period provides us with monumental insight into a larger intellectual history — one shaped by centuries of imperialism extending back, and forward, in time.

I've been holding off posting this one for months and months, waiting for the hardback to come out. Never mind, just enjoy the e-book.

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Did the Babylonian rabbis know the Yerushalmi?

GENIZA FRAGMENTS BLOG: What did the Geonim of Babylonia really know about the Jerusalem Talmud? (Zvi Stampfer.)

For over 150 years, scholars have debated a fascinating question: To what extent did the Geonim—the heads of the great academies of Sura and Pumbedita—engage with the Jerusalem Talmud? The Geonim saw themselves as the guardians and transmitters of the Babylonian Talmud, which became the dominant text of Jewish law. But was the Yerushalmi, composed in the Land of Israel, also part of their intellectual world?

My current research is shedding new light on this issue. While working on previously unpublished teshuvot (responsa) from the Geonic period, I have uncovered evidence suggesting that more Babylonian Geonim made use of the Jerusalem Talmud than previously thought.

[...]

Cross file under (Jerusalem) Talmud Watch.

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

Ethiopic biblical manuscripts identified

ETHIOPIC WATCH: Researchers uncover oldest-ever Ethiopian Jewish scriptures. Two 15th-century Orit scrolls discovered through Tel Aviv University program documenting sacred texts of Beta Israel; scholars say find reshapes global understanding of Jewish history preserved in oral tradition and Ge’ez script (Yaron Drukman, Ynet News).

The headline overstates the case, although the subheader is correct. These are the oldest mauscripts of the Jewish Scriptures belonging to the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews now in Israel). The article explains:

“The Orit of Beta Israel includes the Five Books of Moses as well as Joshua, Judges and the Scroll of Ruth," said Prof. Dalit Rom-Shiloni of the Department of Biblical Studies.

The oldest Ethiopic (i.e. Ge'ez) Old Testament manuscript I know of dates to before 1270 CE. The oldest Ge'ez manuscript I know of is the Garima Gospels, which dates to the fourth to seventh centuries.

Nevertheless, these are early Ge'ez manuscripts and it's great to have them and to know they are well cared for.

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

Was Zenobia Jewish?

PALMYRA WATCH: Third-century queen, target of Syrian government, may have converted to Judaism. “The ancient sources implying Queen Zenobia converted to Judaism are possibly accurate,” Haggai Olshanetsky, of University of Warsaw, told JNS (Menachem Wecker).

The underlying article summarized in this one is published open access in Clio 107.1.

Zenobia, the Great Jewish Queen? Re-analysing Zenobia’s Attitude to Monotheism, Judaism and Its Reasonings

Haggai Olshanetsky

Published/Copyright: May 22, 2025

Summary

The current article wishes to reassess the Christian texts mentioning Queen Zenobia’s potential affinity to Judaism, or her conversion to Judaism. It will be shown that the claims against the reliability of these texts are deficient or inaccurate. Furthermore, it will be clarified that she was not Jewish from birth. Instead, the sources indicate that she had a special relationship with monotheism, and Judaism in particular, and that she may have wished to convert to Judaism or did so in secret. The reasoning for this action and her relationship with Judaism will be examined while considering her politically precarious position, as well as the place of monotheism and Judaism in Palmyra, the Roman East and the Roman Army. Through this, the current article wishes to provide a better, more accurate presentation of Zenobia’s religious inclinations, how she used and manoeuvred between an ambiguous monotheism and Judaism in order to gain power and support, and what was her raison d’être for such a move and choice.

For more on Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, see here and links, notably here.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the ancient metropolis of Palmyra, its history and archaeology, the Aramaic dialect once spoken there (Palmyrene), and the city's tragic reversals of fortune, now hopefully once again trending for the better, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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

Review of Garfinkel, The First Expedition to Lachish

BOOK REVIEW: The First Expedition to Lachish: A Colonial Archaeology Story. Archaeology at the biblical city of Lachish began a century ago and went neither well nor smoothly. In a new book, Yosef Garfinkel tells the fascinating tale of the hazards the archaeologists faced (Robin Twite, Haaretz).

Yosef Garfinkel, Colonial Archaeology in Palestine in the 1930s: The First Expedition to Lachish. Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society and Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2024. 712 pages, ILS 260 (about $75 US dollars).

Though the title of the book by Garfinkel, a professor of archaeology at Hebrew University, is somewhat forbidding, its content is the reverse. In his new book, Garfinkel tells the fascinating tale of the first archeological expedition to Tel Lachish and the many hazards those involved faced – among them incomprehension from the local population, the fear of violence in a time of trouble, distance from health and other services, and difficult relations with donors.

[...]

Lachish is a very important archaeological site. For some of the many PaleoJudaica posts on its archaeology and epigraphic discoveries (including the famous Lachish Letters and the Canaanite lice comb), see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and follow the links

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

Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: June 2025

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year Part 11: June 2025.

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Less than one month to go now!

June included a visit to Dublin and a look at the Chester Beatty Papyri, then to Bratislava and Oslo. At a workshop in the latter he presented on his work on Longinus the centurion traditions.

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

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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

Update on the Tomb of Nahum in Iraq

RESTORED AND OPEN FOR VISITORS: In Iraq, restored tomb of biblical prophet Nahum quietly attracts Jewish pilgrimage. Despite geopolitical tensions, dozens of Jews, including Israelis, have journeyed to shrine in Kurdish city of Alqosh since its rehabilitation in 2022, says project organizer (Rossella Tercatin).

I have been following the fate of the (traditional) Tomb of Nahum in Alqosh (al-Qosh, Al Qosh, Al-Quosh) for years. For past posts, start here and follow the links.

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

Eight new scrolls at the Reagan Library Exhibition

SCROLL ROTATION: Eight newly installed Dead Sea Scrolls on display at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, U.S. (Chris Eyte, Christian Daily).

The newly installed scrolls include the Community Rule Scroll 4Q260, also known as the Manual of Discipline, which details the governing structure, daily practices, and core values of the 1st century BC Qumran community. They replace the previous set of eight scrolls as part of a regular rotation to preserve the ancient manuscripts, which are highly sensitive to light and environmental exposure.

I can't find any information yet about the other seven scrolls.

Background on the exhibition is here and links.

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

Biblical Studies Carnival #227

READING ACTS: Biblical Studies Carnival #227 for June 2025 (Phil Long).

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

Is the Moabite Stone a forgery?

IT'S COME TO THIS: Is the Mesha Stele Also a Forgery? (Yigal Bin-Nun, Times of Israel Blogs).

Two famous cases of forgery are associated with the figure of Moses Shapira, an antiquities dealer: the Moabite sherds sold to the Berlin Museum in 1872, and the pseudo-scroll of Deuteronomy written in ancient Hebrew in 1883. These two episodes were preceded by the discovery of the Mesha Stele, attributed to Mesha, king of Moab (1868), with which Shapira is also indirectly associated. A reassessment of this stele, based on archival material from the time, leads me to believe that the authenticity of the inscription it bears must now be called into question.

[...]

Fair enough to raise the question. I doubt that epigraphers would have continued to be fooled by an epigraphic forgery from the nineteeth century. They know too much about the details of the Northwest Semitic scripts for that to be likely. To really make the case for forgery, one would have to show that the script of the Mesha Stele gets details wrong that no one would have noticed in the nineteenth century.

It's true that we don't have many substantial lapidary royal inscriptions from ancient Israel. But we do have Hezekiah's Siloam Tunnel Inscription and some other fragments from his era. Perhaps not as many as have sometimes been argued. For discussion, see here and links. And there also is the fragmentary Tel Dan Stele, which was set up by an Aramean king, but which mentions the House of David.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Mesha Stele (Moabite Inscription), start here (plus here and here) and follow the links. For the renewed debate over the authenticity of the Shapira Scroll fragments, start here and follow the links.

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

Still more on that ancient mass grave in the Negev

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: Treasures in the Desert (Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology).

From the May-June 2025 Let the Stones Speak Magazine Issue

An ancient tomb complex containing 60 mostly young female bodies was discovered in the Negev region of southern Israel. Among the bodies were a plethora of exotic artifacts, including jewelry, alabaster vessels for spices, mortar-​and-pestle figurines, weights, scales and arrowheads.

In February, Let the Stones Speak podcast host Brent Nagtegaal interviewed Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini, senior researcher at the Israel Antiquities Authority, about the discovery. Here is their fascinating discussion.

[...]

I noted this story here and here.

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

What is a god in the ANE?

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY:What is a God in the Ancient Near East? (Michael B. Hundley).

What is a god? While the question is simple enough, the answer depends on context and perspective. For those raised in the shadow of the great monotheisms — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — the god category has a singular member who is the creator and perfect unchallenged ruler of the cosmos. For most other modern religious traditions, gods are multiple and variable.

[...]

First in a series.

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