Semitica 58

MICHAEL LANGLOIS: Semitica 58.

Semitica 58 is out!

Semitica is published by the Institute of Semitic Studies at the Collège de France. It presents every year new scientific studies. I serve as editor under the direction of Thomas Römer, professor at the Collège de France and director by right of the Institute of Semitic Studies.

Volume 58 is out and available in paper and electronic version at Peeters. Here are its contents

The current volume has a number of articles relevant to biblical studies and ancient Judaism. The electronic version charges for access to the full articles, but you can read the abstracts for free.

On the Sumerian King List

THE ASOR BLOG: The Sumerian King List or the ‘History’ of Kingship in Early Mesopotamia (Gianni Marchesi). Yes, I know this one is a stretch for PaleoJudaica, but I have mentioned the Sumerian King List in the past. It's a very interesting document that has some indirect connections with biblical studies (e.g., mention of the Great Flood and a list of ancestors who came before it) and, given all the recent events in the Middle East, it may well come up again. This essay is a good, brief introduction to the text and to the current scholarly state of the question about it.

Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in Kurdish Studies 4 (2016)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Yezidism and Yezidi Studies. Notice of a thematic journal issue: Kreyenbroek, Philip G. & Khanna Omarkhali (eds.). 2016. Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in the early 21st century (Special Issue. Vol. 4, No 2, Kurdish Studies). London: Transnational Press. Some of the material in the issue is available online for free.

Cross-file under Yazidi Watch. Background on the Yazidis, their Gnosticism-themed religion, and their tragic fate in the hands of ISIS, is here with many links.

Christian Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha at ISBL 2017

APOCRYPHICITY: CALL FOR PAPERS: 2017 SBL INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA SECTION (Tony Burke).

The 2017 SBL International Meeting will take place August 7-11 in Berlin, Germany. The deadline for proposals is February 22, 2017.

It's not too early to start thinking about this!

Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE)

AWOL: Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE) News. Looks like an important resource. Cross-file under Numismatics.

CFP: Christian late antiquity conference

JAMES MCGRATH: Call for Papers: Mapping Transformations Towards a Christian Late Antiquity. James posts some information from Gerhard van den Heever.

New Testament Society of South Africa: Early Christian Studies Subgroup

Inaugural Session: 9—12 April 2017, University of Stellenbosch.

Call for Papers

Mapping Transformations Towards a Christian Late Antiquity

The context includes Greco-Roman, ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. Follow the link for details.

Diversity of views in the Bible

THE ASOR BLOG: It’s Complicated: Biblical Exercise for the Theological and Ethical Imagination (C. L. Crouch).

Why does the Bible matter? Why do we continue to talk about, turn to, and study a diverse assortment of narratives, poems, laws and prophetic proclamations at least two millennia old? The most straightforward answer is that they continue to serve as the sacred texts for two of the world’s major religions, Judaism and Christianity, and as an interlocutor for a third, Islam. As such, they have served as the theological, ethical and social bedrock of half of civilization.

But if this goes some way to explaining their persistence through past ages, it leaves open why these texts might continue to matter in the present and future. Why might these texts remain of interest, particularly in the undeniably diverse cultural milieu which is the modern world? One compelling reason is their own diversity, which contributes in a marked way to their ongoing vitality. The texts and traditions of the Hebrew Bible contain profound differences in their theologies, deep disputes in ethical thought and argumentation, and fundamental disagreements in conceptions of the world and its workings.

[...]

Access to the full text of the essays at the ASOR Blog requires free registration.

Hendel on textual criticism and inerrancy

RON HENDEL: The Dream of a Perfect Text: Textual Criticism and Biblical Inerrancy in Early Modern Europe (Academia.edu). This is the full text of Professor Hendel's contribution to the Collins Festschrift (on which see the immediately preceding post). The full TOC of the volume is also included.

HT Peter Gurry at the ETC Blog. He has comments there.

Collins Festschrift

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM BRILL:

Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls: John Collins at Seventy

Edited by Joel Baden, Yale University, Hindy Najman,University of Oxford and Eibert Tigchelaar, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

This volume, a tribute to John J. Collins by his friends, colleagues, and students, includes essays on the wide range of interests that have occupied John Collins’s distinguished career. Topics range from the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism and beyond into early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. The contributions deal with issues of text and interpretation, history and historiography, philology and archaeology, and more. The breadth of the volume is matched only by the breadth of John Collins’s own work.

Congratulations to Professor Collins on this well-deserved honor.

Netanyahu on the Arch of Titus and UNESCO

POLITICS: Netanyahu: Italy’s Arch of Titus in Rome Described A Jewish Tragedy in Jerusalem. PM Netanyahu reminded Italy's Pres. Matarella the Arch of Titus, a Roman description of Jewish Jerusalem events, was not 'Zionist propaganda' (Hana Levi Julian, The Jewish Press).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday in Jerusalem with Italian President Sergio Mattarella. Netanyahu spoke with media prior to the meeting at his office, offering condolences to the families of the earthquake victims and wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded. Israel, he said, has extended its offer to help and reiterated the assistance remains if needed.

... "I cannot say that the history of our peoples in antiquity was always marked by amity,” Netanyahu remarked, however, “even though there was a very active Jewish community in ancient Rome. But obviously things took a turn for the worse, and that is commemorated in all its tragedy in the Arch of Titus in Rome… in which you see, of course, the great artifacts of the Jewish Temple carried in a triumphal march in Rome. And you see the Menorah, which is the symbol of the Jewish state, but also was of course the main object in our ancient Temple.

“I raise this because we’ve just had an absurd decision of UNESCO that said that the Jewish people h ave no connection to the Temple Mount.

“Well, the Arch of Titus was built by Titus’s brother, the Emperor Domitian. He wasn’t a Zionist propagandist. And he obviously was depicting that long, thousands-year connection to the Temple Mount, to Jerusalem and to this country of the Jewish people.

[...]

The Prime Minister's comments on the Arch of Titus at least have a secure basis in historical facts. Any political interpretation of the facts is, of course, a political interpretation. The situation with the Jerusalem papyrus was, you may recall, more complicated. That last link also has links to background on the UNESCO resolution.

More from Rollston on the Jerusalem papyrus

THE ROLLSTON EPIGRAPHY BLOG: The Jerusalem Papyrus: Complementary Notations. Epigrapher Christopher Rollston has posted some detailed observations and concerns about the Jerusalem papyrus. His previous post on the subject is here.

HT reader Stephen Goranson. Background here and links.

Romans 9:4-5

READING ACTS: What Advantage Has The Jew? Romans 9:4-5. In this latest post in his series on Paul's letter to the Romans, Phil Long interacts with passages from the Hebrew Bible, the Wisdom of Solomon, and 2 Maccabees. As background, you may also want to have a look at his introductory comments on Romans 9-11 here.

Some past posts in the series have been noted here and links.

The Artifact Peregrination Scale

ROGUE CLASSICISM: Artifact Peregrination Score: Thinking Out Loud About Provenance, Collection History, etc.. David Meadows proposes a new methodology for preliminary evaluations of of unprovenanced putatively ancient artifacts. Excerpt:

Indeed, it struck me that all our scholarly concern about not commenting on potentially-looted artifacts has done nothing but drive collectors into anonymous land. These are wealthy people whose egos and reputations are a large part of their identity, and while they might not like that we cast doubt on their collecting habits, they’re still going to do it. They just don’t tell us they’re doing it.

With the foregoing in mind, I thought there must be some way to bridge this gap between scholars and collectors to lend confidence to the authenticity of objects and encourage practices which actually add value both from a scholarly point of view and a collector’s point of view. And so, as traffic came to a complete halt on the Burlington Skyway, I came up with what I call the ‘Artifact Peregrination Scale’.

The idea of the scale is to give an artifact a ‘confidence rating’, which scholars can make use of (and contribute to) and collectors can also use for investment purposes (which should have some appeal). It’s basically a 10-point scale, from which points are deducted for various things as follows ...

Read it all and see what you think.

SBL 2016 seminar papers on Philo of Alexandria

PHILONICA ET NEOTESTAMENTICA: Philo papers (Torrey Seland).

Papers for the Philo seminars at the coming SBL Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Tx are now coming in, and are posted on my website.

CFP: Yale graduate conference on "Talmud and Philosophy"

ASSOCIATION FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF JUDAISM: Graduate conference on “Talmud and Philosophy” (Yale University 30 April 2017).

The study of Talmud, immersion in its distinctive modes and methods, represents a promising arena for deepening philosophical reflection. We invite papers for a day-long conference, to be held on April 30, 2017 at Yale University, that both explore and evaluate the potential for conversation between Talmud and philosophy. We welcome proposals engaging rabbinic literature more broadly; proposals addressing the concerns outlined above in relation to other religious traditions may be considered as well. Limited financial assistance is available for travel and hotel costs. Open to graduate students in all fields.

Follow the link for further particulars and instructions for submitting a paper proposal. HT reader Gerald Rosenberg.

Interview with Shmuel Ahituv (Jerusalem papyrus)

AUDIO: Rejuvenation: Beyond the Jerusalem Papyrus Debate (The Land of Israel Network/The Jewish Press).

Israel Prize winner Professor Shmuel Ahituv was one of the first to examine the now famous and controversial ‘Jerusalem Papyrus”. This delightful, unpretentious Biblical Archaeology expert discusses different aspects of the incredibly rare find with Eve in addition to the usual dating and verifying procedures. The role of women in the First Temple period, Jericho’s agriculture, antiquities theft and the keeping of secrets. Who knows what else awaits discovery in the arid Judean Desert?

Lots of interesting details in this interview. The papyrus seems to refer to a female administrative functionary in late Iron Age II Judah. Do we have other evidence for such female administrators or is this new? I didn't find his example convincing. And I note that the word "maidservant" is partially reconstructed. Also, Professor Ahituv clarifies that he dates the script of the papyrus's inscription to the late seventh century BCE, around 600, roughly during the reign of King Josiah.

Background here and links.

The Josephus Problem on video

POPULAR MECHANICS: The Deadly Ancient Math Problem Computer Scientists Love. Learn the secret of the Josephus problem and maybe you'll be the lone survivor (Jay Bennett).

Flavius Josephus, a Jewish-Roman historian from the first century, tells the story like this: A company of 40 soldiers, along with Josephus himself, were trapped in a cave by Roman soldiers during the Siege of Yodfat in 67 A.D. The Jewish soldiers chose to die rather than surrender, so they devised a system to kill off each other until only one person remained. (That last person would be the only one required to die by their own hand.)

All 41 people stood in a circle. The first soldier killed the man to his left, the next surviving soldier killed the man to his left, and so on. Josephus was among the last two men standing, "whether we must say it happened so by chance, or whether by the providence of God," and he convinced the other survivor to surrender rather than die.

This tale may be apocryphal and fantastic, but it gives rise to a fascinating math problem. That is: If you're in a similar situation to Josephus, how do you know where to stand so you will be the last man standing? This is the subject of a new video from the wonderful YouTube channel Numberphile.

[...]

If Josephus really did the maths in his head under those circumstances, that's pretty impressive.

Background on the Josephus Problem is here and here.

Review of Nelson and Ulmer (eds.), "It's Better to Hear the Rebuke of the Wise Than the Song of Fools"

H-JUDAIC: Adelman on Nelson and Ulmer, '"It's Better to Hear the Rebuke of the Wise Than the Song of Fools" (Qoh 7:5): Proceedings of the Midrash Section, Society of Biblical Literature'

Author: W. David Nelson, Rivka Ulmer, eds.
Reviewer: Rachel Adelman

W. David Nelson, Rivka Ulmer, eds. "It's Better to Hear the Rebuke of the Wise Than the Song of Fools" (Qoh 7:5): Proceedings of the Midrash Section, Society of Biblical Literature. Judaism in Context Series. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2015. 200 pp. $169.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4632-0560-7.

Excerpt:

This selection of essays advances midrash scholarship in three directions: with regard to the history of interpretation—whether it be the “curse of Ham” in the justification of slavery, the split image of Jacob the patriarch, the term “the holiest of holies,” or the Divine Spirit as the source of rabbinic inspiration and the sequel to prophecy; with regard to the content and composition of such texts as Seder Eliyahu Rabbah and Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer; and with respect to expanding the approach to the reading of midrash—inner-biblical exegesis and form criticism.

A Future for Pauline Studies?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Paul is Dead. Long Live Paulinism! : Imagining a Future for Pauline Studies (Cavan Concannon).

The editors of Ancient Jew Review have asked me to think about the future of Pauline studies. To pronounce the future of a field is a weighty task. To conjure the future is beyond me. What I can do is gesture towards a future, a future in which I think I could have fun studying Paul again. The future that I conjure is not a neutral one. I am a partisan in the battles over Pauline studies. My prescriptions stem from my own roots in feminist biblical criticism, though I also invoke here other pathways toward solidarities that might yet be cobbled together.

When I think of what it would take to make Pauline studies fun, I am drawn to one simple idea: we have to kill Paul. ...

That seems a bit harsh, but the rest of the essay clarifies. For example:

What might it mean to kill the presumption of Paul’s authority over moral and ethical matters and reject our collective moratorium on ethical criticism of the Pauline archive?

Also:

If we stop caring about whether Paul might undergird our ethical, political, or theological projects, I think we should also stop pretending that our historical procedures can get us back to the historical Paul.

As someone who has a mild interest in Paul and Pauline studies, but is not a specialist, I found this essay very interesting.

Biblical Studies Carnival October 2016

DUST: Biblical Studies Carnival 128 - October 2016 (Bob MacDonald). And Jim West has his own Halloween-themed, counter carnival: The ‘You’ve Got to Be Kidding, Great Pumpkin’ Biblical Studies Carnival.