Vision, Narrative, and Wisdom in the Aramaic Texts from Qumran (Bundvad and Siegismund eds.)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Vision, Narrative, and Wisdom in the Aramaic Texts from Qumran

Essays from the Copenhagen Symposium, 14-15 August, 2017

Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 131
Editors: Mette Bundvad and Kasper Siegismund

The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran have attracted increasing interest in recent years. These texts predate the “sectarian” Dead Sea scrolls, and they are contemporary with the youngest parts of the Hebrew Bible. They offer a unique glimpse into the situation before the biblical canons were closed. Their highly creative Jewish authors reshaped and rewrote biblical traditions to cope with the concerns of their own time. The essays in this volume examine this fascinating ancient literature from a variety of different perspectives. The book grew out of an international symposium held at the University of Copenhagen in August 2017.

Hardback: €99.00/$119.00
E-Book: Open Access

E-Book
Status: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-41373-3
Publication Date: 24 Sep 2019

Hardback
Status: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-41370-2
Publication Date: 26 Nov 2019

I noted the CFP for the Copenhagen Symposium here. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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Geniza Fragments 78

GENIZA FRAGMENTS, the Newsletter of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library has published its October 2019 Issue. Topics include "The Genizah as an untapped source of Geonic responsa" and "The Sisters of Sinai in Jerusalem." For past posts on Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson, the "Sisters of Sinai," start with "The Incredible Lady Bible Hunters" of St Andrews! and follow the links.

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

Children in the ANE

ANCIENT FAMILY: Children in the ancient Middle East were valued and vulnerable — not unlike children today (Shawn Flynn and Kristine Garroway, The Conversation). But for children today (thank goodness!), the child mortality rate is no longer 50%.

An informative, wide-ranging, popular article. I have noted Professor Garroway's work, including her book, Growing Up in Ancient Israel (SBL Press, 2018), here, here, here, here, and here.

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Christmas 2019

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all those celebrating!

This is a good opportunity to mention two New Books of seasonal interest, both from Wiqf and Stock (Cascade Imprint):

The Protevangelium of James
BY Lily C. Vuong

About

The Protevangelium of James tells stories about the life of the Virgin Mary that are absent from the New Testament Gospels: her miraculous birth to Anna and Joachim, her upbringing in the temple, and her marriage at the age of twelve to the aged widower Joseph. The text also adds significant details to the well-known stories of Jesus’ conception, birth, and escape from the slaughter of innocents perpetrated by Herod the Great. Despite its noncanonical status, the Protevangelium of James was extremely influential in churches of the East, and since its publication in the West in the sixteenth-century has captured the imagination of readers all over the world. This study edition presents a fresh, new translation of the text with cross-references, notes, and commentary. The extensive introduction makes accessible the most recent scholarship in studies on Mary in Christian apocrypha, offers new insights into the text’s provenance and relationship to Judaism, and discusses the text’s contributions to art and literature.


The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary
BY Brandon W. Hawk

About

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew is one of the most important witnesses in Western Europe to apocryphal stories about the lives of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and Mary’s parents, Anna and Joachim. This apocryphon was also used as the basis for another, the Nativity of Mary, which gained equal popularity. As bestsellers of medieval Christianity, these Latin apocrypha are major witnesses to the explosion of extra-biblical literature in the Western Middle Ages. Despite their apocryphal status, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary proved influential throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, as their popularity and influences may be traced in Christian literature, visual arts, liturgy, and theological perspectives still revered by Roman Catholic theologians. These apocrypha also remain significant works for considering the history of monasticism and the cult of the Virgin Mary. This book draws upon a range of manuscript sources to present comprehensive English translations of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary with full introductions and commentaries, as well as translations of related works with accompanying commentaries.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

For posts of Christmas past, see my 2018 Christmas post and links. A Christmas-related post from the last year is here.

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Review of Ameling et al., Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume IV

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Walter Ameling, Hannah M. Cotton, Werner Eck, Avner Ecker, Benjamin Isaac, Alla Kushnir-Stein, Haggai Misgav, Jonathan Price, Peter Weiß and Ada Yardeni (ed.), Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume IV: Iudaea/Idumaea Part 1, 2649-3978. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. Pp. xxvi, 1580 (2 vols.). ISBN 9783110543643/4. $345.98. Reviewed by Benedikt Eckhardt, University of Edinburgh (b.eckhardt@ed.ac.uk).

It will not be necessary to once again sing the praise of the CIIP project as a whole; suffice it to point to the reviews of Volume I, II and III on this platform.1 However, Volume IV, covering Judea proper and Idumea, is exceptional even by CIIP standards: its 1580 pages require two separate books, and add more than 1300 items from 172 locations to the Corpus.

[...]

For more on the Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (CIIP), including reviews of earlier volumes, see here and follow the links

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Biale, Gershom Scholem (in Hebrew)

NEW BOOK FROM MAGNES PRESS:

Gershom Scholem
Master of the Kabbalah

By: David Biale
Translation: Amotz Giladi

Synopsis
David Biale’s Gershom Scholem traces Scholem’s tumultumous life, tying together his scholarly studies with his political activism and cultural criticism. By mining a rich trove of diaries, letters and other writings, Biale shows how Scholem’s inner life must be understood as the necessary background to understanding his most important writings. Far from a dry, ivory-tower scholar, Scholem emerges as a passionately engaged man of his times, whose life encompassed the most significant events of the Jewish twentieth-century: World War I, the rise of Nazism, World War II and the Holocaust, and the creation of the state of Israel.

More details
Publisher: Magnes Press
Year: 2019
Catalog number: 45-531013
ISBN: 978-965-7008-31-7
Pages: 214
Language: Hebrew
Weight: 400 gr.
Cover: Paperback
Series: Bridges

For other recent books and posts on Scholem, the renowned twentieth-century scholar of Kabbalah, see here (cf. here) and links.

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Hanukkah 2019

HAPPY HANUKKAH (CHANUKKAH, CHANUKAH) to all those celebrating! The eight-day festival begins tonight at sundown.

Last year's Hanukkah post is here. It links to past Hanukkah posts with additional historical background. For PaleoJudaica posts in the last year that relate to Hanukkah, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here (but I'm not sure why).

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

Another review of Moss, Divine Bodies

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Candida R. Moss, Divine Bodies: Resurrecting Perfection in the New Testament and Early Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. Pp. 208. ISBN 9780300179767. $45.00. Reviewed by Harry O. Maier, Vancouver School of Theology (hmaier@vst.edu).

... Paul speaks of a glorified resurrected body, she succinctly summarizes, not a glorious one. Following Troels Engberg-Pedersen’s analysis of Stoic influences on Paul’s ideas, Moss agrees that Paul is talking of the (transformed) stuff of what resurrected bodies are made, not their qualities (p. 13). The script risks taking leave of the teachings of the apostle upon which it purports to rest: “Onto Paul’s assertion that the resurrected body will be heavenly, two thousand years of interpreters have mapped their own culturally informed values about bodily perfection” (p. 14). They have largely ignored what the New Testament sometimes does say about Jesus’ resurrected body as touchable, scarred, and perhaps hungry and thirsty. Moss seeks a complicated and non-systematic early Christian view of the resurrected body that attends to the hypothetical nature of early Christian speculation on the topic and its debt to larger currents of its cultural world.

I noted another review of the book here.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.