Review of Moss, Divine Bodies

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Divine Bodies: Resurrecting Perfection in the New Testament and Early Christianity (Thomas McGlothlin).

Candida R. Moss. Divine Bodies: Resurrecting Perfection in the New Testament and Early Christianity. Yale University Press, 2019.

The conclusion:

This book raises an important question. If, according to Paul, resurrection involves transformation, and that transformation is for the better (at least for Christians), then by what standard—or, better, whose standard—is “better” defined? Moss does not argue that there can be no such standard beyond each individual’s own desires. Rather, she shows that, in the absence of a clear standard, the temptation to substitute culturally-conditioned standards that favor those high on cultural hierarchies, such as the wealthy and the able, is extremely powerful. This is an important caution.

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

Ancient Judean Technology

ANCIENT HISTORY ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ancient Judean Technology (William Brown). The article deals with Town Planning & Urbanization, Industry, and Writing.

This is the same William Brown who runs the Biblical Review Blog, to which PaleoJudaica links from time to time.

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

On the Gospel of Barnabas and Divine fibs

OVER AT THE ANXIOUS BENCH BLOG, Professor Philip Jenkins has returned to the apocryphal Gospel of Barnabas:

Nicodemus and the Secret Scriptures
For more on the Sacromonte lead plates (the fake lead books found in Granada, Spain, in the late sixteenth century), see the comments and links here.

Micaiah and Divine Deception. This post also has an interesting discussion of the awkward throne vision oracle in 1 Kings 22.

The Gospel of Barnabas is a medieval forgery, but for various reasons it has come up here before.

I noted an earlier post by Professor Jenkins on the Gospel of Barnabas here. And for other PaleoJudaica posts on it, see here and links.

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

Jost, Communion with Angels in Earthly Worship

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Michael R. Jost. Engelgemeinschaft im irdischen Gottesdienst. Studien zu Texten aus Qumran und dem Neuen Testament. [Communion with Angels in Earthly Worship. Studies on Qumran and New Testament Texts.] 2019. XVI, 454 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 505. 104,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-156740-7.

Published in German.
The motif of liturgical communion with angels appears in early Jewish and New Testament texts. Michael R. Jost offers the first exegetical analysis of all relevant passages from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament and places them within traditio-historical developments from the Hebrew Bible to rabbinical and patristic texts. By giving special consideration to the respective performances of liturgical texts, the author reconstructs each groups' experience of angelic communion. In his analysis of the liturgical communion of the yaḥad, Jost presents new insights not only for Qumran researchbut also for New Testament scholarship and the understanding of the early Christian communities and communal liturgies.

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

Fish sauce and wine production at ancient Ashkelon

CULINARY ARCHAEOLOGY: Ancient Roman culinary preferences revealed in Ashkelon excavation (IAA press release, via Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Archaeological excavations conducted by the IAA near Ashkelon uncovered an ancient industrial area with winepresses and rarely discovered installations for producing a popular fish sauce, the preparation of which involved strong odors.

​​(Communicated by the IAA Spokesperson)

Vats used to produce fish sauce (garum) that are among the few known in the Eastern Mediterranean, were recently uncovered by the Israel AntiquitiesAuthority in Ashkelon. The excavation, underwritten by the Municipality of Ashkelon and the Ashkelon Economic Co. in preparation for the establishment of the Eco-Sport Park, has revealed evidence of 2000-year old Roman and Byzantine culinary preferences. Youths of the Kibbutz Movement from Kibbutz Yad Mordecai and pupils from the Makif Vav middle school located next to the project participated in the excavation.

[...]

The Roman site was eventually abandoned but the conditions that favored viticulture remained and in the Byzantine period in the 5th c. CE a monastic community began to thrive there, making a living from wine production: three winepresses were built next to an elaborately decorated church. Little of the church has survived but architectural fragments found at the site show that it was decorated with impressive marble and mosaics. A large kiln complex was located nearby that produced wine jars. These appear to have been used for exporting wine, which was the primary income for the monastery.

[...]

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

Cuneiform studies at Leiden University

Cuneiform reveals shared birthplace (Merijn Van Nuland, Leiden University/Phys.org).

However, the future is not always certain, says [Professor of Assyriology Caroline] Waerzeggers when we are back in her office. "A discussion is raging about whether Dutch universities offer too many small degree programs. And Assyriology of all programs is often used as the proverbial example of this. It sometimes seems as though people think we're odd bods or übernerds with no relevance to society. But cuneiform isn't a curio. It was used for longer than the current era."

A nice capsule history of Assyriology at Leiden University.

Every so often I like to link again to my 2010 post Why we need Akkadian (and the humanities!). This is a good excuse to do so. Other relevant posts are here and here.

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

M Adryael Tong on circumcision as "bodily discourse"

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: “Given as a Sign”: Circumcision and Bodily Discourse (M Adryael Tong).

M Adryael Tong. “Given as a Sign”: Circumcision and Bodily Discourse in Late Antique Judaism and Christianity. Ph.D. Dissertation, Fordham University, 2019

The essay opens:

My dissertation argues that understanding circumcision as a bodily discourse, rather than exclusively as a bodily practice, illuminates a surprising number of similarities in early Christian and rabbinic Jewish texts, in addition to their often more obvious differences. Following an examination of circumcision discourse in Hebrew biblical and pre-rabbinic Jewish sources, I focus on three topics—genealogy, gender, and the composition of the body—wherein rabbinic and patristic authors discuss circumcision as a means to explore theological anthropology.

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

Memorial service for Larry Hurtado

THE MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR LARRY HURTADO took place yesterday afternoon at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. Sarah Whittle and I were there, representing St Andrews.

The service was led by Jolyon Mitchell and Paul Foster, both colleagues of Larry at the Divinity School of the University of Edinburgh (New College). The opening reading was by Larry's granddaughter, Karina Hurtado-Cerasoli. There were memorials given by his son, Jesse Hurtado, his daughter, Tiffany Hurtado-Cerasoli, and his New College colleagues, Helen Bond and David Fergusson. His New College colleague Matt Novenson read an excerpt from the Preface to Larry's magnum opus, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (2003).

The music was lovely. A couple of the more ambitious hymns were led by Suzanne Butler, the Director of Music at Larry's church, St James Scottish Episcopal Church in Leith.

The service was well attended. Many of Larry's colleagues and friends came from around Scotland. I saw some from as far away as Durham, Manchester, and Chester. Many others from around the world who could not attend sent in their condolences and good wishes.

It was a moving goodbye to Larry. I think he would have been pleased.

Background here and links.

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

Coptic manuscripts, published or with problems

VARIANT READINGS: Recently Emerged Coptic Manuscripts of Dubious Origins: A Working List (Brent Nongbri). The list includes Old Testament, New Testament, Patristic, and documentary texts.

This is a follow-up to Dr. Nongbri's post, The Coptic Material from Oxyrhynchus from November. This list includes Old Testament, New Testament, NT Apocryphal, Classical, other literary, magical, and documentary material.

Cross file under Coptic Watch.

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

A visit to the "real" Bethsaida?

HOLY LAND PHOTOS' BLOG: A Visit to the “real” Bethsaida — el-Araj (Carl Rasmussen). As usual, with some nice photos.

I take no position on whether ancient Bethsaida was at the site of el-Araj or et-Tell. But Carl has an opinion. For past PaleoJudaica posts on Bethsaida and both sites, start here and follow the links.

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

Classical vs. Late Biblical Hebrew

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Biblical Hebrew Phases: A Case Study. (Ronald S. Hendel and Jan Joosten).

The contrast between Classical and Late Biblical Hebrew is best illustrated by juxtaposing two extracts of biblical prose narrative, one from each corpus.

It is a challenge to make this case in a popular essay using very little Hebrew. But I think Hendel and Joosten do a pretty good job.

See here for another brief presentation of their case, which is given fully in their book, How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study (Yale University Press, 2018). For more online discussion and reviews, start here and follow the links.

Cross-file under Philology.

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

Judean coins in Wacks collection going on auction

NUMISMATICS: Wacks Collection Includes Rare Roman Related Judaean Coins (Goldberg Auctioneers, CoinWeek). The auction takes place in New York on 14-16 January 2020. As always, I hope that the collectors who buy them will make them available to scholars for study. Meanwhile, this article has some photos and descriptions of the coins, which are of interest for the study of ancient Judaism.

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

Burke's SBL diary

OVER AT THE APOCRYPHYCITY BLOG, Tony Burke has published his annual SBL diary in three parts:

2019 SBL Diary: Day One. In all three posts, Tony mostly reports on the Christian Apocrypha sessions. But he also has a paragraph in this post on the Postmortem on the So-called First-Century Mark Fragment session. More on that here.

2019 SBL Diary: Day Two. For more on M. R. James and his ghost stories and his apocrypha, start here (cf. here) and follow the many links.

2019 SBL Diary: Day 3. In which Tony consumes "edibles," because California.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch and #AARSBL19.

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

Review of Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle (Jennifer Quigley).

Paula Fredriksen. Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017

I noted an earlier review of the book here.

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

Fourth-century church excavated in Aksum

ARCHAEOLOGY: Buried Christian (and Pagan) Basilica Discovered in Ethiopia's 'Lost Kingdom' of Aksum (Tom Metcalfe, Live Science).

"The basilica that we have found is quite important," Harrower said. "There have been other fourth-century basilicas that are known, but most of them were discovered a long time ago and some of them just without a lot of artifacts or information to be had."

In contrast, the early church at Beta Samati holds a trove of ancient artifacts, including early Christian religious artifacts, bronze coins, clay figurines and large pottery amphoras that were used to store either imported wine or olive oil.

"This is telling you that whoever is using this basilica has access to imported luxury trade goods and is quite interconnected into the ancient world and the trade networks," he said.

Some of the ancient bronze coins from the basilica confirmed its age: A coin from the early reign of Aksum's fourth-century King Ezana is decorated with a crescent moon symbolic of the southern Arabian god Almaqah, Harrower said.

Aksum (Axum) has a number of legendary and historical connections with ancient Judaism and early Christianity. I have summarized them here with links. More recent posts on Aksum are here and links.

The following detail in this article caught my eye:

One of the most striking finds is a black stone pendant, decorated with a Christian cross and the motto "venerable" in Ethiopia's ancient Ge'ez script. "This is about the size that you could hang around your neck," he said, "so maybe a priest would have worn this."

The ancient Jewish books of 1 Enoch and Jubilees survive complete only in translations in the ancient Ethiopic language Ge'ez. I do not know Ge'ez, so I can't comment authoritatively. But I do know that a fourth-century inscription in Ge'ez is quite early. The earliest manuscripts in Ge'ez, the Garima Gospels, date from the fourth to seventh centuries. All other manuscripts in Ge'ez come from many centuries later.

This pendant only has one word on it, but it sounds like an exciting discovery.

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

Report on the SBL "First Century Mark" Session

VARIANT READINGS: Recap of the SBL “First Century Mark” Session (Brent Nongbri). For background on this rather complicated story and its ramifications, see here and many links. I have not been directly involved with it and I take no position on the various claims and accusations. I keep up with the story for your information. You decide what to make of it.

I am still looking for reports on #AARSBL19 sessions relevant to the interests of PaleoJudaica. If you have written one or found one, please drop me a note.

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

Masada essays in the JP

MASADA WATCH: In anticipation of Hanukkah, the Jerusalem Post has published four essays on Masada:

The symbol of Masada. The adoption of Masada as a modern symbol for the State of Israel, however, is controversial because of what Josephus wrote took place there. (Steve Linde). Introductory to the other three.

Masada and Jewish heroism: A new perspective. The most important question is why the Jews at Masada stopped fighting (Moshe Dann). Most of this essay is behind the subscription wall.

The fall of Masada. Two thousand years ago, 967 Jewish men, women and children reportedly chose to take their own lives rather than suffer enslavement or death at the hands of the Roman army (Jodi Magness). For more on Professor Magness's recent book, Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth (Princeton University Press, 2019), see here and here. And for many other posts on the history and archaeology of, and revisionist views on, Masada, follow the links at the latter post.

Masada and its scrolls. Masada was first built as a fortress by a Hasmonean priest Jonathan, either the brother of Judah the Maccabee (152–143 BCE) or Alexander Janneus (103–76 BCE) (Lawrence H. Schiffman). Professor Schiffman is a prominent specialist on the Dead Sea Scrolls. I link to his his blog from time to time.

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

Nazoreans (and Nazareth) and Enochic Judaism?

THE RELIGION PROF BLOG: Nazoreans and Enochic Judaism at #AARSBL19. There are many interesting blog posts on the goings on at the AAR/SBL meeting in San Diego last month. This one by James McGrath caught my eye. If I get around to it, maybe I will link to some others.

Cross-file under Mandean (Mandaean) Watch.

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

Sabar, Veritas

FORTHCOMING BOOK FROM DOUBLEDAY:

Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife Hardcover – August 11, 2020
by Ariel Sabar (Author)

Kindle
$15.50

Hardcover
$29.95

From National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Ariel Sabar, the gripping true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that engulfed Harvard.

In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star professor at Harvard Divinity School, announced a blockbuster discovery at a scholarly conference just steps from the Vatican: She had found an ancient fragment of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene "my wife." The tattered manuscript made international headlines. If early Christians believed Jesus was married, it would upend the 2,000-year history of the world's predominant faith, threatening not just the celibate, all-male priesthood but sacred teachings on marriage, sex and women's leadership. Biblical scholars were in an uproar, but King had impeccable credentials as a world-renowned authority on female figures in the lost Christian texts from Egypt known as the Gnostic gospels. "The Gospel of Jesus's Wife"--as she provocatively titled her discovery--was both a crowning career achievement and powerful proof for her arguments that Christianity from its start embraced alternative, and far more inclusive, voices.

As debates over the manuscript's authenticity raged, award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar set out to investigate a baffling mystery: where did this tiny scrap of papyrus come from? His search for answers is an international detective story--leading from the factory districts of Berlin to the former headquarters of the East German Stasi before winding up in rural Florida, where he discovered an internet pornographer with a prophetess wife, a fascination with the Pharaohs and a tortured relationship with the Catholic Church.

VERITAS is a tale of fierce intellectual rivalries at the highest levels of academia, a piercing psychological portrait of a disillusioned college dropout whose life had reached a breaking point, and a tragedy about a brilliant scholar handed an ancient papyrus that appealed to her greatest hopes for Christianity--but forced a reckoning with fundamental questions about the nature of truth and the line between faith and reason.

Available for pre-order.

I noted Mr. Sabar's important 2016 article in the Atlantic on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife here. And for some follow-up, see here. This book on the same story is coming out in August of next year.

For many, many other posts on the GJW, see here and links. My first post on the subject, back in 2012, is here. And for more on Ariel Sabar's other work, see here and links.

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

Review of Aufrecht, A Corpus of Ammonite Inscriptions (2nd ed.)

THE BIBLICAL REVIEW BLOG: Review: “A Corpus of Ammonite Inscriptions, Second Edition” by Walter E. Aufrecht (William Brown). Cross-file under Northwest Semitic Epigraphy.

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