Edmonds, Rastafari

IN THE MAIL: A complimentary copy from OUP:

Ennis B. Edmonds, Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2012)

Not sure how I ended up on the list to get this book, but it looks interesting. Past posts on the subject are here, here, and here.

Shape-shifting Jesus again

MICHAEL HEISER weighs in at PaleoBabble on the shape-shifting Jesus apocryphon:

Shape-Shifting Jesus: On the Sins of Marketers and Media.

I think Michael is a little too hard on this article. Notably, he asserts incorrectly that in the apocryphal text Jesus is not a shape shifter, but he cites an irrelevant passage in the section on Jesus' dinner with Pilate, while ignoring the quoted passage about shape-shifting Jesus:

"Then the Jews said to Judas: How shall we arrest him (Jesus), for he does not have a single shape but his appearance changes. Sometimes he is ruddy, sometimes he is white, sometimes he is red, sometimes he is wheat coloured, sometimes he is pallid like ascetics, sometimes he is a youth, sometimes an old man ..."

Background here.

Moss, The Myth of Persecution

JAMES MCGRATH reviews Candida Moss's new book (which I have not yet seen), The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom.

Obama in Israel

SOME HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR of President Obama's visit to Israel:

Obama visits Israel Museum, Dead Sea Scrolls (Jerusalem Post)

Obama Tells Inspiring Talmudic Carob Tree Story (Arutz Sheva)

Obama affirms Israel's ancient biblical roots (AP)

And perhaps not unconnected with the above:

Obama faces Palestinian anger (iolnews)

Worthless Mysteries

ASSIMILATED TO THE BLOGOSPHERE (haven't had one of these for a while): Worthless Mysteries (Jack Collins).

Exploring the Bible and other ancient literature from a secular—not to mention irreverent—point of view, with an emphasis on Enochic and apocalyptic traditions.

Also, rants about the academic job market.

The title of the blog, taken from the First Book of Enoch, refers to the teachings given to humanity by fallen angels, and reflects the joy I take in studying things that are utterly irrelevant.

(Via Deane Galbraith at Remants of Giants.

Herod exhibition again

POLITICS: King Herod, Long Reviled, Finds New Love Among Jewish Settlers:
Interest in Historical Villian Boosts Claim to West Bank (The Forward). Regarding the proposed alternative handling of the exhibition at the end of the essay, I will start thinking about trusting the Palestinian Authority with artifacts important for Jewish history when they start acknowledging that there was a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in antiquity.

I have a post that deals with Herod's ethnic background here.

Background on the Herod the Great exhibition is here and links.

On to Eruvin

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET MAGAZINE: Navigating the Talmud’s Alleys: The range of problems and the variety of answers in the study of Oral Law lead to new pathways of reasoning.

When I first heard about eruvs as a teenager, I regarded them a little indignantly. If the point of Shabbat is to rest from labor, to rejoice in prohibitions, why invent legal fictions to allow you to get around those prohibitions? Isn’t the eruv contrary to the very spirit of Shabbat? Now, after being immersed in the Talmud for half a year, I’ve begun to understand the more flexible imagination that the rabbis brought to these problems. For them, it was not a question of enjoying a holiday from reality, but of finding a way to obey very specific divine laws while still carrying out the necessary business of life. Precisely because they take the letter of the law seriously, they want to know the exact boundaries of that law—what it allows and disallows, and how to tell the difference.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links, as well as here and here.

Geniza songs of David

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

The Genizah Psalms

A Study of MS 798 of the Antonin Collection. Cambridge Genizah Studies Series
David Stec

The Genizah Psalms (MS 798 of the Antonin Collection) is a Hebrew document of messianic character, apparently presenting itself as the work of David. It is taken by some to date to the time of the second temple, and to be approximately contemporary with some of the literature of Qumran, while others regard it as a medieval composition. From the point of view of a classical hebraist, David M. Stec explores how this text relates to classical Hebrew literature as a whole and considers how viable it is to regard it as a genuine constituent of that body of literature. He presents an edition of the Hebrew text and English translation, together with an introduction, commentary and analysis of language.

These apocryphal songs of David are also translated (by G. W. Lorein and E. van Staalduine-Sulman) in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Canonical Scriptures volume one (the first volume of texts produced by the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project). Did I mention you can pre-order the latter volume at Amazon at a discount? For you, special deal!

As for the Geniza songs of David, I am inclined to see them as works of late antiquity, around the time of the early piyyutim, but I'm not dogmatic about it.

Cross-file under "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch."

ASOR fundraiser update

FOR YOU, SPECIAL DEAL: Support Archaeology Students.

Haven’t given to ASOR’s March Fellowship Madness yet? We are giving away a copy of The Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration Society (AASOR v. 66) by Rachel Hallote, Felicity Cobbing, and Jeffrey Spurr to one of the donors to our fellowship fundraising drive!

[...]

Details at the link. Background here.

Aramaic Facebook

ARAMAIC WATCH: Update Your Facebook Status — In Ancient Aramaic! (Haaretz via The Forward).

Hello, Forward editors, Aramaic is not a Canaanite Tongue (let alone a "Canaanite Toungue"). It is a Northwest Semitic language, but it lacks the "Canaanite shift," the systematic change of original long a to long o. You should know these things.

Obama and the Dead Sea Scrolls

POLITICS:

A visit to view the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum is being interpreted as a presidential acknowledgement of the ancient Jewish connection to the land, and the laying of a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, is also considered symbolically significant. (The Guardian)

UPDATE: From Eugene Kontorovich at the Volokh Conspiracy: More on the Politics of the Scrolls.

The Golb case—it's not over

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE IDENTITY-THEFT CASE involving Raphael Golb and the Dead Sea Scrolls:

First, last week New York's highest court agreed to hear Golb's appeal. Second, also last week, two bloggers received e-mails from Lawrence Schiffman's lawyer demanding that they remove blog posts that have dealt with the case. The relevant discussion is in the following posts.

By prominent legal blogger Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy:
Prof. Lawrence Schiffman’s Lawyer Demands Removal of Post Containing the Text of a Court Opinion
New York’s Highest Court Agrees to Hear the Golb (Dead Sea Scrolls) E-Mail Impersonation Case

By another legal blogger, Scott H. Greenfield, at the Simple Justice blog:
Schiffman, Meet Streisand (Update!!! x4)

Blogger Ken White at Popehat has also involved himself and added some commentary and information:
Barbra? Barbra Streisand? Never Heard of Her. Now, Back To My Threat.

I have blogged extensively on the case (start here and just keep following the links back) but I have not been involved in this particular blog-related situation, except to e-mail Professor Schiffman to ask if he wanted to comment on it for PaleoJudaica. In view of the current status of the case, he was advised not to do so.

UPDATE (19 March): Dead link now fixed. Sorry about that. Also, related, another Blogospheric reaction, this one from techdirt: The Internet Is For Baseless Legal Threats: Popehat, Greenfield And Volokh Triple-Streisand Edition!

Aramaic Peter Rabbit

ARAMAIC WATCH (UPDATE): The Tale of Peter Rabbit - In Galilean Aramaic (Steve Caruso).

Background here. Related item here.

Female angels?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why didn’t the female angels have sex with man? Deane Galbraith says that "the answer is simple: there are no female angels. In early Jewish literature, all angels are male." This is probably correct in terms of the specific question, but it is technically incorrect. There were female angels: the four Hayyot ("living creatures" or "beasts") of Ezekiel chapter 1 are grammatically female. But their gender identity, of course, looks kind of complicated, plus it seems unlikely that mortal men would find them attractive in that way.

Josephus on Jesus

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Did Josephus Call Jesus the Messiah? (Ed Cook).

That Assyrian Dalek

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: If Sennacherib had at least one Dalek and he couldn't take Jerusalem, does that mean that God sent the Doctor to help king Hezekiah? (James McGrath—of course).

Satlow (ed.), The Gift in Antiquity

NEW BOOK:

The Gift in Antiquity

Michael Satlow

ISBN: 978-1-4443-5024-1
Hardcover
272 pages
March 2013, Wiley-Blackwell

Follow the link for the TOC.

(Via the Talmud Blog on Facebook.)

The Bible and soap

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Does the Bible Have No Recipe for Soap?

Two thoughts come to mind. First, I don't know much about the history of soap, but I kind of doubt that it was in widespread use in ancient Israel or in the ancient world in general. Even in the nineteenth century, Mark Twain had trouble finding it in Europe. (Things are better there now.)

Second, there are lots of things the Bible doesn't include but which must have been well known in ancient Israelite society. For example, the book of Leviticus tells us about sacrificial rites, but includes nothing about the prayers, songs, and music that must have accompanied them and which are alluded to elsewhere (e.g., 1 Chronicles 25).

UPDATE (15 March): I have received a number of responses to this one. For the early history of soap, see here (with the usual caveats about Wikipedia). Also, Gerald Rosenberg points to Jeremiah 2:22, which may refer to a couple of early types of detergent. I suppose the reference to a "fuller" in Mark 9:3 could be relevant as well, since the job involved cleaning wool. But I can't find any evidence for hygienic hand soap as early as the biblical period.

Shape-shifting Jesus

T-INFINITY? Shape-Shifting Jesus Described in Ancient Egyptian Text (Owen Jarus, LiveScience).

A newly deciphered Egyptian text, dating back almost 1,200 years, tells part of the crucifixion story of Jesus with apocryphal plot twists, some of which have never been seen before.

Written in the Coptic language, the ancient text tells of Pontius Pilate, the judge who authorized Jesus' crucifixion, having dinner with Jesus before his crucifixion and offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus. It also explains why Judas used a kiss, specifically, to betray Jesus — because Jesus had the ability to change shape, according to the text — and it puts the day of the arrest of Jesus on Tuesday evening rather than Thursday evening, something that contravenes the Easter timeline.

The discovery of the text doesn't mean these events happened, but rather that some people living at the time appear to have believed in them, said Roelof van den Broek, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who published the translation in the book "Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem on the Life and the Passion of Christ"(Brill, 2013).

[...]

An interesting little text, presented with a refreshing lack of hype. Shape-shifting Jesus is even more fun than flying Jesus. For more shape-shifting miracles, see the Legend of the Ten Martyrs in the Hekhalot Rabbati.

(HT Steve Caruso.)

Monday's child is ...

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET MAGAZINE: Written in the Stars (Or Not): To overcome fated lives, the Talmud’s rabbis argued, perform virtuous acts according to Torah.

Most often, when Jews use the phrase mazel tov, they simply mean “congratulations”—it’s the kind of thing you say when you hear about someone getting married or having a baby. Literally, however, mazel tov means “good fortune,” as in “may you have good fortune.” Still more literally, I learned in this week’s Daf Yomi reading, mazal means a constellation, and wishing someone a good mazal means hoping that the stars will be in their favor. In other words, mazel tov is a relic of astrology, the belief that the orientation of the stars can affect human destiny. As such, it seems to pose a significant challenge to the basic Jewish idea that God and God alone rules the universe. Should Jews believe in mazal?

This issue came up as part of a long digression in the final chapter of Tractate Shabbat. ...

According to the system of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, I am either "completely for the best or completely for the worst." I blog, you decide.