Suh, Power and Peril: Temple Discourse in 1 Corinthians (De Gruyter)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Publication | Power and Peril: Temple Discourse in 1 Corinthians (Michael K.W. Suh). A summary by the author.

Cross-file under New Book (De Gruyter, 2020).

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Layer-cake cities

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: How to Tell a Tell. Uncovering buried cities of the biblical world (Oded Borowski). Cross-file under Archaeology and News You Can Use.

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The Cartagena Festival 2021

PUNIC WATCH: Cartagena, Spain, is celebrating its annual Romans and Carthaginians Festival from today through 26 September.

Cartagena was a Punic town founded in the third century B.C.E. For more on its historical importance, notably in the Second Punic War, see here. Follow the links from there for more on the archaeology of the site and notices of past festivals.

The festival doesn't seem to be very visible in the current news. But the Cartagena Museum is offering free entry through 30 September. And a (pictured) ancient graffito from Cartagena figures in a story about an intriguing bit of "pop culture" Greek poetry.

Now and then I like to include this link to explain why PaleoJudaica is interested in Phoenician and Punic matters.

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Confession of sin as preventative medicine

ONE MORE FOR YOM KIPPUR: Confessing Sins You Didn’t Commit (Dr. Yitzhaq Feder, TheTorah.com).

The few examples of confessions in the Bible use only generic language about sin. In contrast, the post-biblical Yom Kippur liturgical confessions, written as long alphabetical lists, include detailed admissions about specific sins, many of which the petitioner likely never committed. This kind of confession goes back to the second millennium B.C.E. ancient Near Eastern texts for people suffering from illness.

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Saving the Tomb of Nahum in Iraq

RESTORATION COMPLETED: Saving Iraq’s Tomb of Nahum, a secret mission resurrects Kurdistan’s Jewish past. With IS just miles away, a US army vet, 2 Israeli engineers and the head of a preservation group carried out an audacious plan to restore an ancient shrine of the biblical prophet (TAL SCHNEIDER, Times of Israel).

This is that story, told for the first time. It included sneaking Israelis into Iraq to assess the damage to the building’s roof and the best way to restore it. It also involved tapping into the deep knowledge of the Kurdish-Jewish community and its unofficial doyen Mordechai Zaken, a scholar who was instrumental in planning the restoration of the tomb and who passed away just a few months ago.

It features the people of Alqosh, who safeguarded the tomb after the area’s Jews fled the pogroms that followed the creation of the State of Israel, along with the tomb’s modern benefactors: a small group of donors, including oil and energy companies from Norway, the local Kurdish government, the US embassy in Iraq and a few private donors who raised $2 million.

Behind it all was ARCH, a nonprofit started by national security expert Cheryl Benard, an expert on national security and post-war rebuilding efforts. Benard, whose husband Zalmay Khalilzad has led US diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, was impressed in her travels around the world by the resilience and creativity of individuals and groups trying to safeguard their national treasures, even under the most trying circumstances.

The restoration was completed in the spring of 2021.

Read the whole story.

I have been following the fate of the (traditional) Tomb of Nahum in Alqosh (al-Qosh, Al Qosh, Al-Quosh) for years. For past posts, start here and follow the links.

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Ancient Jewish Rome

Ancient Jewish Rome. An interview with Micaela Pavoncello (Brenda Lee Bohen, Wall Street International).

Entrepreneur Micaela Pavoncello is an art historian and a local licensed tour guide from Europe's oldest Jewish community in Rome.

She is a Roman Jew who can trace her heritage to the period when Titus conquered Judea and brought Jewish slaves to Rome.

Twenty years later, Pavoncello continues to take tourists on an incredible, spiritual and passionate 'storytelling' journey about her ancestors – the Jews of Rome.

In this brief interview, Micaela Pavoncello shares with me some of the most important highlights about her Ancient Jewish Rome tour.

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Yom Kippur 2021

YOM KIPPUR, the Day of Atonement, begins this evening at sundown. An easy and healthy fast to all those observing it.

Last year's post on Yom Kippur is here, with links to previous posts. See also here. More recent posts are here, here, here, and here. Biblical etc. background is here.

UPDATE (17 September): Also here.

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Does Yom Kippur atone for the sale of Joseph?

PROF. JASON RADINE: Shoeless on Yom Kippur (TheTorah.com).

The book of Jubilees claims that the brothers sold Joseph on Yom Kippur. Amos accuses the wealthy of selling the righteous for shoes. Reading this as a reference to the sale of Joseph, Eleh Ezkarah tells how Caesar fills his palace with shoes, and executes ten sages as a punishment for this crime. Is this connected to the prohibition to wear shoes on Yom Kippur?

For more on the story of the Ten Martyrs, which also appears in the Hekhalot literature and elsewhere, see here, here, and here. In the story as told in the Hekhalot Rabbati (§108), a textual variant refers to the selling of Joseph as the reason that Samma’el, the evil angelic prince of Rome, received permission to kill the ten martyrs. But there is no reference to shoes.

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Versatile Azazel

DR. ANNA ANGELINI: Is Azazel a Goat, Place, Demon, or Deity? (TheTorah.com).

Azazel plays the role of a deity in the biblical ritual of Yom Kippur, and in early interpretation, he played a central role as the initiator of sin and even the devil, or alternatively, as a protective figure. Later tradition obscured his identity, presenting Azazel as the name of a demon, as the scapegoat itself, and even as a place name.

So the answer to the question in the title seems to be "Yes." This essay gives a good summary of the ancient evidence.

For more on Azazel, see here and here.

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Ben Sira, the High Priest, and the Yom Kippur liturgy

PROF. RABBI DALIA MARX: Mareh Kohen: Ben Sira’s Description of Simon the High Priest (TheTorah.com).

Written while the Second Temple was standing, and the Yom Kippur sacrificial service still performed, Ben Sira’s poem traces the history of the world through Simon son of Johanan, the High Priest in his time, thus expressing the cosmic importance of the Temple and its priesthood. The poem appears to be the antecedent or literary inspiration of the Yom Kippur Seder Avodah’s framing liturgy.

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Forthcoming book on the Septuagint

WILLIAM ROSS: BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: THE SEPTUAGINT (CROSSWAY 2021).

I’m excited to announce this morning my newest book that will hit shelves in early November: The Septuagint: What It Is and Why It Matters, which is being published with Crossway. It’s great to see this project come to fruition. Here are the details.

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Not as fraudulent as they thought

ARTIFACT VINDICATED? SORT OF. Tempest Over a “Cheater’s Weight” (David Hendin, Coin Week). Noted by various people over the weekend.

I noted the story of the supposed highly fraudulent First-Temple-era weight here. The claim here is that the archaeologists were reading it sideways!

All the same, the weight of the object comes somewhat under the labeled weight as revised. So it may have been fraudulent in the other direction.

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Free online course on Zoroastrianism

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrianism: History, Religion, and Belief. Courtesy of SOAS. For you, special deal!

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Allen, 1 & 2 Chronicles (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

1 & 2 Chronicles: An Introduction and Study Guide

A Message for Yehud

Leslie C. Allen (Author)

Paperback
$24.95 $22.45

Hardback
$75.00 $67.50

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$22.45< $17.96

Ebook (PDF)
$22.45 $17.96

Product details

Published Aug 12 2021
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 160
ISBN 9780567697011
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series T&T Clark’s Study Guides to the Old Testament
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

Leslie C. Allen introduces students to the 1 & 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament, incorporating insights from over two decades of previous scholarship while grounding his analysis in earlier key works.

“A Message for Yehud” sums up what has been judged to be a fundamental motivation underlying the whole book, a conviction that the obligation to “seek the Lord” in the light of the Torah and prophetic texts must be laid on the hearts of the community of Yehud in the fourth century BCE. To this end, using Samuel-Kings as a basis, Chronicles reviewed pre-exilic royal history for positive and negative clues as to how the generation for which it was written might achieve this spiritual ideal. In the book, Allen shows how this program was communicated all through the book by literary and rhetorical means.

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George F. Bass (1932–2021)

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Milestones: George F. Bass (1932–2021). Pioneer of nautical archaeology (Shelley Wachsmann). Cross-file under Sad News and Maritime (Marine, Underwater) Archaeology.

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Elder, The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative

Nicholas Elder (Author)

Paperback
$39.95 $35.95

Hardback
$120.00 $108.00

Ebook (PDF)
$35.95 $28.76

Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$35.95 $28.76

Product details

Published Jul 29 2021
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 224
ISBN 9780567701541
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of New Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

Generically, theologically, and concerning content, Mark and Joseph and Aseneth are quite different. The former is a product of the nascent Jesus movement and influenced by the Greco-Roman Bioi (“Lives”). It details the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of a wandering Galilean. The latter is a Hellenistic Jewish narrative influenced by Greek romances and Jewish novellas. It expands the laconic account of Joseph's marriage to Aseneth in Genesis 41 into a full-fledged love and adventure story.

Despite these differences, Elder finds remarkable similarities that the texts share. Elder uses both texts to examine media and modes of composition in antiquity, arguing that they were both composed via dictation from their antecedent oral traditions. Elder's volume offers a fresh approach to the composition of both Joseph and Aseneth and Mark as well as to many of their respective interpretive debates.

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Greek influence on Petra

PHOTO ESSAY: The Stunning Greek-inspired Architecture of the Ancient City of Petra (Kerry Kolasa-Sikiaridi, Greek Reporter). Yet another travel piece on Petra, with some nice photos.

Cross-file under Nabatean (Nabataean) Watch.

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Maqdala artifacts returned to Ethiopia

ETHIOPIC WATCH: Maqdala treasures looted by British troops returned to Ethiopia in 'largest single restitution.' At the ceremony in London, the Ethiopian ambassador renewed calls for museums to return Maqdala objects (Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper).

I noted the upcoming repatriation of the artifacts here in June. You can find further information on them and on the Maqdala treasures and their background in that post and its links.

This article has some new information about a second group of artifacts that was returned at the same time:

The second group of returned items comes from an unnamed Brussels collector and dealer. They include a processional cross, a priestly crown, a shield, a small icon of the Crucifixion and a talismanic scroll. Most are from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Brussels collection was acquired by [the writer Tahir] Shah for a few thousand pounds.

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The Fast of Gedaliah 2021

THE FAST OF GEDALIAH was yesterday. It is one of the "four minor fasts." I don't recall it receiving much media attention in past years, but this year I have come across a couple of articles on it.

Fast of Gedaliah: What you need to know about the first fast of the year. Here is a rundown for what you need to know about its history, its rules and when it ends (Aaron Reich, Jerusalem Post).

The fast is meant to commemorate the death of Gedaliah, a righteous Jew who was the governor of the land of Judah following the collapse of the First Temple at the hands of the Babylonian Empire. However, he was assassinated by his fellow Jews, specifically by Ishmael Ben Nethaniah, who descended from the Davidic line.

His death was recounted in detail by the Roman-era historian Josephus, and is also described in the book of 2 Kings chapter 25 and, in even more detail, in the Book of Jeremiah chapter 41.

Dr.Tzvi Novick, Tzom Gedaliah: Why Commemorate His Assassination? (TheTorah.com)

Gedaliah ben Ahikam, the governor of Judah after the destruction of the Temple, was assassinated by Ishmael ben Nethaniah, a scion of the Davidic family. This event has been commemorated for millennia with a yearly fast—the only fast over the death of an individual. The Talmud points to his righteousness, while Saadia Gaon emphasizes the tragic consequences to the Judahite people he governed.

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Job in Religions of Western Antiquity at Florida State

H-JUDAIC: FEATURED JOB: Assistant Professor in Religions of Western Antiquity, Florida State University. The specialization is open. The application deadline is 18 October 2021. Follow the link for further particulars.

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