Origin Stories - Part 2

MARGINALIA REVIEW OF BOOKS has its second installment of essays in its series Origin Stories: A Forum on the “Discovery” and Interpretation of First-Millennium Manuscripts. The first set of essays in the series was noted here. There are three new essays:

Tommy Wasserman (Ansgar Teologiske Høgskole) – Simonides’ New Testament Papyri: Their Production and Purported Provenance

Also, over at the Markers of Authenticity Blog, Malcolm Choat has published a post involving Simonides and one of his nemeses, Henry Deane: Forgery, (de)authentication, and modes of expertise. Past PaleoJudaica posts involving Simonides are here and here.

Roberta Mazza (University of Manchester) – “Property of a gentleman”: The market of ancient manuscripts and the problem of provenance

Regular readers will recognize Dr. Mazza from her blog, Faces and Voices, to which I have linked from time to time. Past PaleoJudaica posts on the new Sappho fragments are here and links. And for many past posts on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife forgery, start here and here and follow the links.

Nicola Denzey Lewis (Claremont Graduate University) – (Still) Rethinking the Origins of the Nag Hammadi Codices

I noted the publication of James Robinson's account of the history of the Nag Hammadi codices from their discovery to their publication here. And I noted some comments by Larry Hurtado on problems with the origin story of the codices here. And this post and this one are relevant too.

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R. Akiva and his wife for children

NEW CHILDREN'S BOOK: Great Jewish Summer Reads (Phil Jacobs, Jewish Link of New Jersey). This article briefly notes many new books, some of which have already been mentioned on PaleoJudaica. But this one is new to me:

“Drop by Drop: A Story of Rabbi Akiva,” by Jacqueline Jules. 2017. Kar-Ben Publishing. Paperback, 32 pages. Age Range: 3-6 years. ISBN-13: 978-1512420913.

Akiva is just a poor shepherd living an ordinary life, until he falls in love with Rachel. Rachel thinks her husband could become a great man of learning but Akiva can’t even read! Is he too old to be a scholar or can he follow the example of the water in the nearby brook? Water is soft, yet drop by drop, it can soften the hardest stone.

I noted a recently-published, imaginative biography of Rabbi Akiva (for adults) here and links. And for past posts on his wife, Rachel, see here and links.

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Raphael

ARCHANGEL WATCH What Role Does Raphael Play in the Bible? Where is this archangel in Scripture? (Stephanie Hertzenberg, Beliefnet). That is a trick question, at least for some traditions. This article is written from the perspective of the Protestant Christian tradition, but it does discuss the role of Raphael in the Second-Temple-era Jewish books of Tobit and 1 Enoch. From a historical perspective it doesn't work very well to speak of "the final form of the Bible." There are several different forms in active use today. Each has its own claim to authenticity. But that is for another discussion.

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Busy again ...

I HAVE ANOTHE BUSY WEEK COMING and I will have little time to blog.

But despair not! I have been saving up posts for you. I should be able to keep up a normal blogging volume or close to it. But posting will probably mostly be in the afternoons for a while. And I may not be on top of new stories as promptly as I usually am.

Do keep coming back as normally! I have some good things lined up for you, including new books, posts from some blogs we don't hear from often, and even some new blogs.

More later (today).

Have a great week!

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More on Ada Yardeni

RECOGNITION: Dead Sea Scrolls decoder remembered as grande dame of Semitic paleography. Ada Yardeni, who died this month at 81, combined practical knowledge of calligraphy with scholarly insights on the development of Hebrew to become a world-renowned forgery expert (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel). Excerpt:

Yardeni was “definitely one of the three best paleographers of the Dead Sea Scrolls and maybe one of the best Hebrew paleographers for all [historical] periods,” said [Prof. Emanuel] Tov this week.

Tov told The Times of Israel that Yardeni’s background in graphic arts gave her a decided advantage in reading ancient scripts.

“She was the only one who combined the practical knowledge of a calligraphist with the scholarly insights of the knowledge of the development of the writing in all the various Hebrew scripts,” he said. “She was the only one who really knew exactly how the movement and the strokes of the scripts went, which was a tremendous benefit in analyzing the scripts and helping others in analyzing their scrolls.”

Personal friend Cotton-Paltiel told The Times of Israel that unlike many of today’s scholars, Yardeni worked directly from primary sources.

Most scholars, she said, develop theories based on documents in which texts are deciphered by others. “Ada mainly worked on the primary documents herself and gave us the material to work on.”

There's more on Ada Yardeni here and links.

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Jeremiah 39: getting the Babylonian names right

EPIGRAPHY AND ONOMASTICS: The Babylonian Officials Who Oversaw the Siege of Jerusalem (Prof. Shalom Holtz, TheTorah.com).

Jeremiah 39 describes Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem, and even names some of the officials who were with him and their titles (v.3). Babylonian administrative records uncovered by archaeology revises our understanding of who they were.

Prof. Holtz's conclusions seem to agree with those of Dr. Lawrence Mykytiuk. Regular readers will remember Dr. Mykytiuk's list of 50 biblical persons mentioned in inscriptions, later updated to 53 persons. The updated list includes the second Nergal-sharezer who is noted here by Prof. Holtz.

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What are the mezuzot in Solomon's Temple?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Doorways of Solomon’s Temple What is a “mezuzah” in the Bible? (Megan Sauter).

Despite the Biblical description and archaeological parallels, there are still some mysteries about Solomon’s Temple. For example, 1 Kings 6:31 describes the doors between the outer sanctum and the inner shrine of Solomon’s Temple as having five mezuzot (the plural form of mezuzah). What is a mezuzah? In the Bible, mezuzah is normally translated as “doorpost.” However, in the context of Solomon’s Temple, doors with five doorposts do not make sense.

This essay summarizes a BAR article from 2015. The article itself is behind the subscription wall, but the essay gives you the gist of it.

The BAR article is: Madeleine Mumcuoglu and Yosef Garfinkel, “The Puzzling Doorways of Solomon’s Temple,” July/August 2015.

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Oriental Institute Publications

THE AWOL BLOG: Chronological Lists of Oriental Institute Publications.

Between 1997 and 2011, the Oriental Institute maintained a list, by year, of its publications. This offered a useful chronological overview of the publication activity. I have now compiled lists for 2012-2017 (so far) and include links to the 1997-2011 lists below.

These monographs cover the full range of Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Some of them are of interest for Semitics, ancient Hebrew, and ancient and medieval Judaism — for example, the Golb and Huehnergard Festschriften. You can download a copy of any of them for free. For you, special deal!

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BHD on Ada Yardeni

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: In Memoriam: Ada Yardeni (1937–2018). This is a collection of links to the full texts of past BAR essays by Dr. Yardeni.

Note in particular her very recent essay in honor of Hershel Shanks's retirement as chief editor of BAR: Hershel’s Crusade, No. 3: Forgeries and Unprovenanced Artifacts. In it she gave her authoritative opinions on the James Ossuary inscription, the Jehoash inscription, and the inscription on the Ivory Pomegranate.

More on the late Ada Yardeni is here and links.

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Review of Rich, Cedar Forests, Cedar Ships

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Sara A. Rich, Cedar Forests, Cedar Ships: Allure, Lore, and Metaphor in the Mediterranean Near East. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2017. Pp. x, 280. ISBN 9781784913656. £36.00. Reviewed by Marcus Ziemann, The Ohio State University (marcusdziemann@gmail.com).

In this book, which began its life as an archaeology dissertation at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Sara Rich attempts to provide a history of eastern Mediterranean cedars from the trees’ perspective (a “hylocentric antinarrative,” as she calls it). In doing so, she includes biological, philological, historical, archaeological, and, not least, philosophical material relevant to her analysis of the cedars. Moreover, she deals with the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant, Greece and Rome, as well as the European and West Asiatic cultures of the Middle Ages, and the modern-day nation-states of the eastern Mediterranean. If this sounds like an ambitious project, it is, and Rich signals as much in her introduction. She promises to provide a history of the trees that is “object-oriented” (in the philosophical sense) and stresses the trees’ qualities and interactions with their environment (both ecological and anthropological). In particular, she wants to know how the trees’ qualities affected humans’ perception of them and how this perception in turn affected humans’ interactions with and utilization of the trees as resources. Despite her stated ambitions, I am not sure that she fully accomplishes what she intended. ...

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More freebies from Orbis

THE AWOL BLOG: Newly added to Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis Online, July 3, 2018. Background here. They just keep posting free books!

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On Balaam

PROF. CARL S. ERLICH: Balaam the Seer: From the Bible to the Deir ʿAlla Inscription (TheTorah.com).

What we know about where he lived, the language he spoke, and the gods he worshiped.

A good, thorough discussion of all of our evidence, biblical and epigraphic, for the seer Balaam son of Beor.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts on Balaam are here, here, here, here, here, here, and links.

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July 4th 2018

HAPPY AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY to all those celebrating!

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What is depicted on the carved stone at Capernaum?

LEEN RITMEYER: Is the Ark of the Covenant depicted on a carved stone at Capernaum? Dr. Ritmeyer thinks it represents a wheeled carriage that was transport for the synagogue's Torah scroll.

It has also been argued that the stone depicts the Jerusalem Temple with God's Merkavah chariot. Parallels with the Magdala Stone could point in the latter direction.


(The Capernaum Stone. Image courtesy of bible-history.com.)

There's more on the ancient synagogue of Capernaum here. And for more on the Magdala Stone, start here (cf. here) and follow the links.

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Animal pain in Jewish tradition

PROF. YAEL SHEMESH: Do Animals Feel Pain? Balaam’s Donkey vs. Descartes (TheTorah.com).

In contrast to Descartes’ theory of animals as automatons, the Torah and rabbinic text express deep concern for animal suffering. One vivid example is the donkey’s rebuke of Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me?” (Num 22:28).

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Yardeni obituary

H-JUDAIC: Obituary: Dr. Ada Yardeni (Shalom Berger). Background here.

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Hellenistic-era pots excavated in Israeli cliff-cave

SPELEOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY: Ancient pottery vessels salvaged intact from cave in northern Israel. Large wine jars, a cooking pot and other pottery vessels over 2000 years old were salvaged over the weekend in a complex operation from a cave on a cliff in a nature reserve near the northern border (IAA press release).

The excavators climbed up ropes into the cave and in a coordinated and strenuous effort in a confined space succeeded in carrying out an archaeological excavation, in the course of which two intact wine amphoras (jars), several storage jars, a bowl, a cooking pot, two juglets and broken shards of several more jars were dug out. The fragile vessels were wrapped in a protective plastic sheet and were lowered in padded bags some 30m over rope slides controlled from below and reached the base of the cliff safely. The team carried the finds on foot to the cars and they were taken to an Israel Antiquities Authority facility for restoration and research.

According to Dr. Danny Syon of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “as a first impression, the finds seem to date to the Hellenistic period—between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Considering that cooking and serving vessels were found, it would appear that those who brought them planned to live there for a while. We assume that whoever hid here escaped some violent event that occurred in the area. Perhaps by dating the vessels more closely, we shall be able to tie them to a known historic event. It is mind boggling how the vessels were carried to the cave, which is extremely difficult to access. Maybe an easier way that once existed disappeared over time.”

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The altar on Mt. Ebal and related sites

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: A Biblical Altar on Mt. Ebal and Other Israelite Footprints in the Jordan Valley? Potential archaeological evidence of the Israelites entering the Promised Land (Megan Sauter). As usual, the BAR article of which this is a summary is behind the subscription wall. But as usual, the summary is worth reading. The 2016 BAR article is: Ralph K. Hawkins, “Israelite Footprints: Has Adam Zertal Found the Biblical Altar on Mt. Ebal and the Footprints of the Israelites Settling the Promised Land?”

For more on the late Adam Zertal and his work, see here.

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ANE Mailing List silver anniversary

THE AWOL BLOG: 25th Anniversary of the ANE mailing list (Charles Jones). I remember it. I was there! Happy anniversary (yesterday) to the ANE List!

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On the Psalms of Solomon

READING ACTS: Introduction to The Psalms of Solomon. Another installment in Phil Long's current summer series on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Past posts in the series have been noted here and links.

Some past PaleoJudaica posts on the Psalms of Solomon are here, here, and here and links. These include links to two 2017 posts by Phil which also involve the Psalms of Solomon.

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