Did Simeon and Levi do a bad thing or the right thing?

PROF. SHAUL BAR: Jacob Rebukes Simeon and Levi for the Shechem Massacre—but Post-Biblical Interpreters Disagree

... and instead praise them!

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

Still more Barkay obituaries

THREE MORE MEMORIALS to the late Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay:

Archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, pioneer of Temple Mount research, dies at 81. Discoverer of the Ketef Hinnom scrolls and founder of Temple Mount Sifting Project was a larger-than-life figure who stirred controversy, loved Jerusalem and made the city his mission (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel; long and detailed)

Jerusalem University College's post (Jerusalem University College on Facebook)

Gabriel Barkay, 81, Dies; His Discoveries Revised Biblical History. One of Israel’s leading archaeologists, he found evidence that the writing of the Old Testament likely began much earlier than historians had thought. (Clay Risen, New York Times; behind the subscription wall)

Background here and links.

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

Review of Hornblower, Hannibal and Scipio: parallel lives

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Hannibal and Scipio: parallel lives

Simon Hornblower, Hannibal and Scipio: parallel lives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024. Pp. 528. ISBN 9781009453356.

Review by
Jeff Tatum, Victoria University of Wellingon. jeff.tatum@vuw.ac.nz

Its subjects—Hannibal and Scipio, Rome and Carthage—are big. Its learning is deep. Its keen, focused curiosity is an inspiration. And its style, conversational and lucid, is a pleasure to read. This, in sum, is a delightful and instructive book. There can be only a very few readers who will not learn something, or even quite a lot, from it. By putting in parallel the lives of Hannibal and Scipio, Simon Hornblower endeavours to furnish a fuller picture both of their twinned yet distinctive careers and personalities but also of Carthaginian and Roman ambitions, local as well as geo-political, during the late third and early second centuries bce. And he succeeds admirably.

[...]

For PaleoJudaica posts on Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus, start here, here, and here, and follow the links.

Cross-file under New Book and Punic Watch.

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

Adam, Time and Tradition: Temporal Thinking in Ecclesiastes ... (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Moritz F. Adam

Time and Tradition

Temporal Thinking in Ecclesiastes in the Context of Emerging Apocalypticism and the History of Ideas in the Hellenistic Period

2025. 335 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament (FAT) 191

€139.00
including VAT

cloth
available
978-3-16-164797-0

Also Available As:
eBook PDF
Open Access
CC BY-SA 4.0

Summary

Moritz F. Adam explores conceptions of time in the book of Ecclesiastes and its place in the history of thought in Hellenistic Judaism. He situates Ecclesiastes before a wider panorama of emerging apocalyptic thought and investigates how the text reflects, resists, and reworks prevailing ideas about time, history, knowledge, and meaning. Adam shows how Ecclesiastes stands at an important moment of conceptual transformation to the manner in which time was thought about in ancient Judaism, and how the book reflects new, broader, totalising, and abstract concerns in conversation with contemporary interlocutors. Through textual studies, comparative discussions and theoretical engagements with the fields of Classics and Literature, Adam challenges scholarly boundaries between wisdom, apocalypticism, and other genres, and highlights Ecclesiastes' pluralistic, open-ended discourse as a vital part of ancient Jewish thought.

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

Performance, Space, and Time in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Performance, Space, and Time in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Papers from the Eleventh Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Zürich 2022

Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 154

Editors: Michael B. Johnson, Jutta Jokiranta, and Molly M. Zahn

The collection focuses on performative and ritual aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls, originating from the IOQS 2022 meeting. The concept of ritualization is examined at both individual and collective levels, using ritualization of covenant as a case study. Other essays examine performative aspects of the Hodayot manuscripts, and singing, meditation, and poetic form in Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Spatial aspects are examined in two essays: one argues against the common assumption that the temple city in the Temple Scroll is clearly or only referring to Jerusalem, and the other essay demonstrates 4QMMT’s legal stringency in the question of the presence of dogs in Jerusalem. Aramaic compositions are examined for their view of priesthood. Finally, past, present and future time is argued to be brought together in ritual, with the result that the role of eschatological time in the Scrolls should be complemented by ritual time.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73445-6
Publication: 08 Dec 2025
EUR €118.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73444-9
Publication: 11 Dec 2025
EUR €118.00

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Galoppin & Lebreton (eds.), Divine Names on the Spot III (Peeters)

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PRESS:

Divine Names on the Spot III
Naming and Agency in Ancient Greek and West Semitic Texts

Series:
Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 307

Editors:
Galoppin T., Lebreton S.

Price: 85 euro
Year: 2025
ISBN: 9789042955943
Pages: XXII-318 p.

Summary:
In the line of the previous volumes of the series “Divine Names on the Spot” devoted to the study of divine names in Greek and Semitic contexts, this third one focuses on the question “who named the gods?” Naming the divine, within the ritual communication or in narratives and discourses about gods and goddesses, involves choices, negotiations or strategies by human agents, in accordance with traditions or in order to activate innovations. Always context-sensitive, the agency of human addressers, narrators, or beneficiaries of the divine powers must be put forward as a main factor of these processes. From the addresses to the gods by kings in Cyprus to the carriage drivers naming Poseidon Helikapanaios in Thessaly, through the carving of divine names on a cup found in Jerusalem, the dozen of contributions gathered here make steps for a long exploration of divine names in the making, and suggest a few directions and orientations for investigating human agency in religious history.

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

Darby, Shaping Text Through Song (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Shaping Text Through Song: The Influence of Singing Upon Processes of Textual Interpretation and Variation in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 156

Author: Jonathan M. Darby

This book explores the influential role played by singing as a performative medium within processes of textual interpretation and variation during the late Second Temple Period, as reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Singing is argued to be a prominent and widespread mode of performance, and a medium which exerted considerable influence within and upon processes of textual composition, interpretation and transmission. These complex processes result in the variation of textual forms, meaning that sung performance contributed to the widespread pluriformity of textual traditions, including those that were eventually codified in the scriptural canons of Judaism and Christianity.

Copyright Year: 2026

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74934-4
Publication: 22 Dec 2025
EUR €121.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74933-7
Publication: 18 Dec 2025
EUR €121.00

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

Kaufman, Phoenicia, Carthage, and Popular Government in the Pre-Classical Mediterranean (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Phoenicia, Carthage, and Popular Government in the Pre-Classical Mediterranean

The Other Democracy

Brett Kaufman

£99.00
Hardback
Published: 26 December 2025
320 Pages | 57 figures and 3 maps
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780198867685

Also Available As:
E-book

Description

From Aristotle to John Adams, great minds of government have revered Carthaginian democracy as the purest expression of a people's will. Yet today, while Phoenician influence on the Graeco-Roman worlds has been revisited and corrected from the perspectives of art, architecture, industry, crafts, and writing systems, the sphere of government in general and constitutional democracy in particular are still largely, and incorrectly, considered to be purely within the preserve of ancient Greece or Athens.

This book is the first comprehensive treatment of Phoenician government, drawing on archaeological, epigraphic, and historical sources. The Phoenicians introduced a brand of state-level society that enfranchised not only men, but also women, children, and even slaves into the popular assembly. Phoenician governmental leaders fostered a foreign and domestic policy that emphasized development, political stability, and economic growth insured by mutual incentives, as well as shared ritual practice, marriage alliances, social mobility, and concern for commoners, at home and abroad. This sustainable form of global leadership lasted for around eight centuries (~1000–146 BC).

This work in no way attempts to diminish the exceptional Athenian democracy and its subsequent positive effects on political history and the peoples who have benefited from its legacy. Rather this work amplifies ancient Greek democracy to help us better understand its origins, as well as expanding democratic heritage. In turn, it serves as an historical corrective that recenters democracy as a conversation and a competition between peoples as opposed to a monolithic institution. It highlights an alternative model of imperial democracy.

Cross-file under Phoenician Watch and Punic Watch. There's a lot of interest lately in Phoenicia and Carthage. It's not just me.

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

Religion at Carthage 800 BCE-439 CE (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Religion at Carthage 800 BCE-439 CE

From Baal-Hammon to Christ

Series:
Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements, Volume: 191

Volume Editors: Jane Merdinger, Jesse A. Hoover, and Nancy Weatherwax

This volume investigates the rich spectrum of religious practices and beliefs at Carthage from its foundation until the end of Roman rule. Essays analyse the metropolis’s Phoenician, Punic, and Graeco-Roman cults (all exhibiting a remarkable degree of assimilation and amalgamation), mystery cults, Judaism, and Manichaeism. A majority of essays comprehensively examine Christianity’s development (including persecution, martyrdom, Montanism, and Donatism) within Carthage’s multi-cultural environment. Utilizing methodologies from popular culture studies, biblical exegesis, cultural studies, and archaeology, contributors cover such innovative topics as: polytheistic religiosity; Jewish identity and devotional life based on a recently discovered ancient synagogue near Carthage; and challenges experienced by St. Augustine as a guest-preacher to rambunctious congregations at Carthage.

Copyright Year: 2025

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73859-1
Publication: 01 Dec 2025
EUR €183.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73858-4
Publication: 04 Dec 2025
EUR €183.00

Cross-file under Punic Watch.

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

New evidence for the construction of Cartagena's city wall.

PUNIC WATCH: How Carthage Organized the Construction of Its Great Wall in Hispania: A Unique Case in the Ancient Mediterranean (Guillermo Carvajal, LBV).

A geoarchaeological study identifies that the mud bricks were manufactured 7–8 km from the site, demonstrating detailed knowledge of the territory and a centralized political organization under Barcid rule.

The headline is a little confusing. It's point is that the North African city Carthage organized the construction of the city wall of its namesake, Carthage or New Carthage, it's chief colonial city in Spain. That is the modern city of Cartagena, about which you have already heard a great deal from me.

The underlying open-access article, cited at the end of the LBV piece, is Cutillas-Victoria B, Ramallo Asensio SF, Martín Camino M. "Landscape exploitation and middle-distance supply of mudbricks for the Carthaginian rampart of Qart Hadasht (Spain)." Antiquity. Published online 2026:1-19. doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.10276.

Abstract

Founded in 228/227 BCE, the Carthaginian city of Qart Hadasht in southern Spain became the principal Punic political centre and military port in the western Mediterranean. Its defensive architecture featured a robust casemate wall composed of an outer sandstone face and inner mudbrick walls. Here, the authors present the geoarchaeological analysis of the earthen materials used in the construction of this wall. The results reveal differences in composition and provenance between mudbricks and mud mortars, with the former sourced across distances of 7–8km, highlighting the detailed knowledge of hinterland resources and complex political organisation involved in the wall’s construction.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Cartagena, its Annual Festival of the Carthaginians and Romans, and its history and archaeology, see the links collected here. For a very quick history review, see here. And for more on that Punic-era city wall (which in the end did not save the city) and other Punic archaeological remains, see here.

Cross-file under Ancient Fortification.

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

Poppaea's house at Pompeii?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Home of Nero’s Wife at Pompeii. Renewed excavations at the Villa of Poppaea (Nathan Steinmeyer).

Renewed excavations near Pompeii are revealing more of the incredible riches of a house believed to be the home of Emperor Nero’s second wife, Poppaea. In addition to newly excavated rooms, archaeologists have uncovered multiple stunning frescoes and other remarkable finds.

[...]

PaleoJudaica last saw Poppaea Sabina ascending to heaven on a chariot. Or at least that seems the most likely reading of a damaged third-century Oxyrhynchus papyrus that doesn't actually give her name.

I posted that story with an eye to a revisionist view of Nero. (For another Nero story that does not fit the narrative, see here.) But Poppaea's mythology aside, it seems that her likely second home, at Pompeii, is currently being excavated. If so, we now know quite a few personal details about her, including her tastes in decorating and gardening.

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

Two more Barkay obituaries

TWO MORE MEMORIALS to the late Prof. Gabriel Barkay:

Temple Mount sifting project co-founder Gabriel Barkay dies after decades of biblical research. Israeli archaeologist Prof. Gabriel Barkay, who co-founded the Temple Mount Sifting Project and made key discoveries in Jerusalem, has passed away at 81, remembered for his contributions (Jerusalem Post Staff)

Archaeologist Who Died Last Night Made the Discovery of a Lifetime Thanks to an Annoying Child (Dinah Bucholz, JewishBreakingNews.com)

That discovery was, of course, the inscribed Ketef Hinnom silver amulets.

Background here and here.

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

Albanese, Translation Technique and Literary Structures in Greek Isaiah 13:1–14:23 (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Translation Technique and Literary Structures in Greek Isaiah 13:1–14:23
Matthew J. Albanese

ISBN 9781628376449
Volume SCS 79
Status Available
Price $64.00
Publication Date October 2025
Paperback $64.00
eBook $64.00
Hardback $84.00

Matthew J. Albanese explores the translation techniques behind the Greek version of Isaiah 13:1–14:23, offering fresh insights into how the translator rendered the Hebrew text. Through a detailed analysis of style, structure, and linguistic choices, this book reveals how the translator’s decisions were deeply rooted in the Hebrew text, shedding new light on the artistry of biblical interpretation and translation in ancient Judaism. The work also examines how certain divergences and shifts in Hebrew-to-Greek clause structure, semantics, and lexical misunderstanding influenced the formation of Greek Isaiah. The work advances Greek Isaiah research by highlighting the translator’s awareness and appropriation of features from larger thematic and structural portions of Hebrew Isaiah 13:1–14:23.

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

Two Barkay obituaries

TWO MEMORIALS to Prof. Gabriel Barkay:

In Memoriam: Prof. Gabriel Barkay, Dean of Biblical Archaeology (1944–2026). Israel loses another archaeology giant (Armstrong Institute Staff).

In the old days, W. F. Albright was the Dean of Biblical Archaeology. I wonder who will take up that mantle now.

I didn't know about Prof. Barkay's book on Song of Songs.

A personal memorial by Todd Bolen at the Bible Places Blog:

Dr. Gabriel Barkay (1944-2026)

Most remembrances of Gabriel Barkay will likely focus on his archaeological contributions, but for me he was one of the most influential teachers of my life. He didn’t just demand that I know it all, he made me want to know it all. When students of mine complain about the lack of a (useful) exam study guide, I tell them about Dr. Barkay’s exam. There was one, on the last day of the semester, and your entire course grade depended on that one test. It was not multiple-choice or true/false. We had eight essay questions and two hours to write as fast as we possibly could everything we knew. Preparing for those exams taught me how to study, and I’ve never been the same.

Background here.

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

A ceramic fingerprinting database

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Israeli archaeologists launch project to trace origins of ancient pottery. The project, launched by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), aims to trace the origin of thousands of ceramic vessels even when the kilns where they were fired have long vanished (PESACH BENSON/TPS via Jerusalem Post).

According to a recent IAA announcement, thousands of pottery vessels uncovered at excavation sites across Israel will now be examined with advanced scientific methods and catalogued as part of a joint project led by Dr. Anat Cohen Weinberger of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Prof. Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University. ...

According to the announcement, the research is being developed as a wide-scale national project. As part of it, the IAA said it is building a digital “kiln atlas” to consolidate the accumulated knowledge and make it available to researchers through a platform being developed by the authority’s digital technologies division. The statement says the atlas is intended to serve as a long-term research infrastructure for studying production, trade, and regional connections in the past.

For a related 2020 article by the lead researcher, see here.

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

The politics of "Palestine"

HISTORY, TERMINOLOGY, POLITICS: Uproar in British academia following use of the term 'Ancient Palestine' in Open University course. A course at the Open University in Britain stated that the Virgin Mary was born in 'ancient Palestine'; Jewish organization has contacted the university, claiming that the term is historically inaccurate; the incorrect term will be removed (Ynet News).

Oh dear. Not so long ago, "Palestine" was a neutral term for a particular geographical area. But now everything is political.

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

Gabriel Barkay, 1944-2026

SAD NEWS: THE PASSING OF DR. GABRIEL BARKAY (The Temple Mount Sifting Project Blog).

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of

Dr. Gabriel Barkay z”l, co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

[...]

Aren Maier also has a brief notice at his blog: Sad News: Gabriel Barkay z”l….

Sad news this evening with the information that Dr. Gabriel (Gaby) Barkay z”l, passed away. May his memory be a blessing.

Gabi was for many years a leading figure in the archaeology of the Land of Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular, and among his many accomplishments, is well-known for his excavations in the Ketef Hinnom Cemetery, where he discovered the famous “Priestly Blessing” silver amulets.

[...]

These posts mention two of Professor Barkay's best-known accomplishments: the discovery of the Keter Hinnom siver amulets inscribed with the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24-26 (on which see here and many links) and his leadership of the Temple Mount Sifting Project. PaleoJudaica links to the Sifting Projects's blog frequently.

May his memory be for a blessing.

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

The Roman army at Megiddo

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Roman Army at Armageddon. Crossroads of empire and faith (Marek Dospěl).

Writing for the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, the archaeological team at Legio, headed by Matthew J. Adams and Yotam Tepper, presents the results of their ongoing research into the daily life and the cultural and religious transformations that took place there nearly two millennia ago.

The BAR article is behind the subscription wall, but this BHD essay gives a summary of it.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the excavation of the Sixth Legion Roman camp ("Legio") at Megiddo (a.k.a. the Megiddo Prison excavation), start here and follow the links.

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

Erich von Däniken, 1935-2026

SAD NEWS: Erich von Däniken, author who spawned alien archaeology theory, dies at 90. The Swiss author whose bestselling books about the extraterrestrial origins of ancient civilizations brought him fame (AP via The Independent).

Mr. von Däniken's notions about ancient astronauts are bogus, but entertaining. I read his books at an impressionable age. They got me interested in biblical archaeology. The rest, as they say, is history. If not for him, quite likely you would not be reading this blog or anything else I have written.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Erich von Däniken and his daft ideas, start here and follow the links.

Peace be upon him. Requiescat in pace.

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

Muraoka, The Psalms of Solomon (Peeters)

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PRESS:

The Psalms of Solomon

Author:
Muraoka T.

Price: 35 euro
Year: 2025
Isbn: 9789042953826
Pages: XIV-139 p.

Summary:
The Psalms of Solomon comprise a collection of 18 ancient, beautiful psalms preserved in the Septuagint. No Hebrew or Aramaic text has come down to us. In addition to the Greek text, an ancient Syriac translation has been carefully looked at. This book presents the first English translation of the most recent critical edition (2018) prepared by F. Albrecht for the Göttingen Septuagint Project.

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