Mikvehs have been discovered in the desert, in the Galilee, under new houses in Jerusalem, at construction sites, and in partially restored ancient towns. The vast majority date back to the Second Temple period, with at least 50 ritual baths found adjacent to the Temple Mount.A Travel survey of many of the Second Temple-era mikvehs uncovered in Israel.
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Published in English.
The Psalms of Solomon, a collection of 18 Jewish psalms from the Second Temple period, have long been a fascinating topic for scholarship. In this volume, leading scholars from a range of disciplines offer new insights into the cultural background, literary form, theological themes, and reception history of the Psalms of Solomon. The essays address a range of topics, including the origin of the text in Palestinian Judaism, the temple in the Psalms of Solomon, and the question of its canonical status.
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Purity in the Gospel of JohnEarly Jewish Tradition, Christology, and Ethics
Wil Rogan (Author)
Hardback
$115.00 $103.50Ebook (PDF)
$103.50 $82.80Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$103.50 $82.80Product details
Published Jul 13 2023
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 224
ISBN 9780567708663
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of New Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury PublishingDescription
Wil Rogan argues that, contrary to twentieth-century interpretation, the Fourth Gospel did not replace purity with faith in Jesus. Instead, as with other early Jewish writings, its discourse about purity functions as a way to make sense of life before God in the world. He suggests that John's Gospel employs biblical and early Jewish traditions of purity associated with divine revelation and Israel's restoration to narrate how God's people are prepared for the coming of Jesus and enabled by him to have life with God characterized by love.
After evaluating different theories of purity for the interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, Rogan explores John the Baptist as an agent of ritual purification, Jesus as the agent of moral purification, and the disciples of Jesus as ones who are (or are not) made morally pure by Jesus. While purity is not one of the Fourth Gospel's primary focuses, Rogan stresses that the concept figures into some of its most significant claims about Christology, the doctrine of salvation, and ethics. Through purity, the Fourth Gospel guards continuity with the past while placing surprising conditions on participation in Israel's future.
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Israel's Scriptures in Early Christian Writings
The Use of the Old Testament in the NewMatthias Henze and David Lincicum, eds.
HARDCOVER; Published: 7/20/2023
ISBN: 978-0-8028-7444-3
Price: $ 79.99
1166 Pages
Trim Size, in inches: 6.125 x 9.25DESCRIPTION
How did New Testament authors use Israel’s Scriptures?
Use, misuse, appropriation, citation, allusion, inspiration—how do we characterize the manifold images, paraphrases, and quotations of the Jewish Scriptures that pervade the New Testament? Over the past few decades, scholars have tackled the question with a variety of methodologies. New Testament authors were part of a broader landscape of Jewish readers interpreting Scripture. Recent studies have sought to understand the various compositional techniques of the early Christians who composed the New Testament in this context and on the authors’ own terms.
In this landmark collection of essays, Matthias Henze and David Lincicum marshal an international group of renowned scholars to analyze the New Testament, text-by-text, aiming to better understand what roles Israel’s Scriptures play therein. In addition to explicating each book, the essayists also cut across texts to chart the most important central concepts, such as the messiah, covenants, and the end times. Carefully constructed reception history of both testaments rounds out the volume.
Comprehensive and foundational, Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings will serve as an essential resource for biblical scholars for years to come.
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The Israel Antiquities Authority announced from social media on July 18 that the object the lifeguard turned over was a 2,500-year-old, eye-shaped marble disc that was attached to ships to ward off the evil eye.The Facebook announcement is here.Experts say the relic, found during a dive by lifeguard David Shalom at the Yavne-Yam archaeological site near Palmachim Beach, dates back to the 5th to 4th centuries BC.
The object was found underwater. So much for ship protection.
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Jewish Greek philosophy, the New Testament, Christian theology, Samaritan law, Rabbinic Judaism, the Church Fathers—all shaped and interpreted the Decalogue to meet the needs of their community.
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The mirror itself is missing, but archaeologists believe that what emerged from the Israel Antiquities Authority dig may be a 1,500-year-old “mirror plaque” demon repellent dating to the late Roman or Byzantine period (from the fourth to the sixth century), the IAA announced on Thursday.Theoretically, it could alternatively have served in catoptromancy – the Roman art of divination using mirrors – or had some other use. But use of mirrors to ward off demonic spirits was a practice in more than one religious circle in antiquity.
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Tu B'Av (which just means the 15th day of the month of Av) is an ancient matchmaking festival. Its first mention is in the Mishnah (Ta’anit 4). It has been revived in recent years as a kind of Jewish Valentine's Day. For past posts on it, see here and links.
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In a sense, Legio – home to the Ironclads in the Jezreel Valley – didn’t have one amphitheater, it had two. The archaeologists excavating amid the chickpea fields of Kibbutz Megiddo have identified two phases of this monumental structure: a smaller, earlier phase and a later, expanded one. Situated to one side of the camp, it was clearly a ludus: a training ground for soldiers and/or gladiators to practice the arts of weaponry and armor, explains excavation leader Dr. Yotam Tepper. Maybe the troops were also treated to the odd Greek tragedy but that wasn’t the purpose, and we just note that this edifice was conveniently close to the camp cemetery.I noted the excavation of this amphitheater here and here, labeling it "ghost architecture," because the stones used for it seemed mostly to have been looted. But it sounds as though they are recovering some of its architecture now. For more on the Legio VI Ferrata, see here.The locations of excavations at Legio this year were no coincidence. The team co-directed by Tepper and archaeologist Dr. Matthew Adams, on behalf of the JVRP and the Albright Institute in Jerusalem with the support of the Israel Antiquities Authority and funding of American Archaeology Abroad, knew where hidden sites of interest were thanks to charting part of the Legio using ground-penetrating radar, flown over from Sweden.
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Three Powers in Heaven
The Emergence of Theology and the Parting of the Waysby Emanuel Fiano
Series: Synkrisis
440 Pages, 6.12 x 9.25 in
Hardcover
9780300263329
Published: Thursday, 1 Jun 2023
$85.00eBook
9780300271393
Published: Tuesday, 20 Jun 2023
$85.00Description
A fresh look at how Christianity and Judaism became two distinct religions through the parting of their intellectual traditions
How, when, and why did Christianity and Judaism diverge into separate religions? Emanuel Fiano reinterprets the parting of the ways between Jews and Christians as a split between two intellectual traditions, a split that emerged within the context of ancient debates about Jesus’s relationship to God and the world.
Fiano explores how Christianity moved away from Judaism through the development of new practices for religious inquiry. By demonstrating that the constitution of communal borders coincided with the elaboration of different methods for producing religious knowledge, the author shows that Christian theological controversies, often thought to teach us nothing beyond the history of dogma, can cast light on the broader religious landscape of late antiquity. Three Powers in Heaven thus marks not only a historical but also a methodological intervention in the study of the parting of the ways and in scholarship on ancient religion.
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The Ties that BindBy the way, blogging may be light for a while. I'm fine, I'm just taking some time off. I'll try still to have something for you every day.Negotiating Relationships in Early Jewish and Christian Texts, Contexts, and Reception History
Esther Kobel (Anthology Editor), Meredith Warren (Anthology Editor), Jo-Ann A. Brant (Anthology Editor)
Hardback
$115.00$103.50Ebook (PDF)
$103.50$82.80Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$103.50$82.80Product details
Published Jul 13 2023
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 262
ISBN 9780567702586
Imprint T&T Clark
Illustrations 9 bw illus
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of New Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury PublishingDescription
Friendship and other intimate (but not always amicable) relationships have received some attention in the greater field of research on early Judaism and Christianity, though not as much as deserved. This volume celebrates and builds upon the life-long work of Adele Reinhartz, covering the various permutations of relationships that can be found in the Gospel of John, the wider corpus of early Jewish and Christian literature, and cinematic re-imaginings thereof.
While the issue of whether one can 'befriend' the Fourth Gospel in light of the book's legacy of antisemitism is central to many of the essays in this volume, others address other more or less likely friendships: Pilate, Paul, Lazarus, Judas, or Mary Magdalene. Likewise, the bonds between ancient texts and contemporary retellings of their stories feature prominently, with contributors asking what kinds of relationships filmmakers encourage their audiences to have with their subjects. This volume explores some of the rich variety of relationships in the ancient world, and unpacks the intricate and dynamic processes and interactions by which human relationships and societies are generated, maintained, and dissolved.
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EzraA New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi
Series: The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries
504 Pages, 6.12 x 9.25 in, 2 b-w illus.
Hardcover
9780300149692
Published: Tuesday, 11 Jul 2023
$85.00eBook
9780300174625
Published: Tuesday, 11 Jul 2023
$85.00Description
A new translation and commentary on the biblical book of Ezra by the renowned author of two award-winning biblical commentaries
The book of Ezra is a remarkable testament to a nation’s ability to survive and develop a distinctive identity under imperial rule. But Ezra is far more than a simple chronicle; it constitutes a new biblical model for political, religious, and social order in the Persian Empire.
In this new volume, Tamara Cohn Eskenazi illustrates how the book of Ezra envisions the radical transformation that followed reconstruction after the fall of Jerusalem and Judah. The extensive introduction highlights the book’s innovations, including its textualization of the tradition, as well as the unprecedented role of the people as chief protagonists. The translation and commentary incorporate evidence from ancient and contemporaneous primary sources from Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, and Persia, along with new archaeological studies of Judah. With great care and detail, Eskenazi demonstrates how the book of Ezra creates a blueprint for survival after destruction, shaping a new kind of society and forging a new communal identity.
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The Scriptures in the Book of Revelation and Apocalyptic Literature
Essays in Honour of Steve MoyiseSusan Docherty (Anthology Editor), Steve Smith (Anthology Editor)
Hardback
$115.00$103.50Ebook (PDF)
$103.50$82.80Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$103.50$82.80Product details
Published Jul 13 2023
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 272
ISBN 9780567695895
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of New Testament Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury PublishingDescription
This volume addresses one of the key issues in the study of the Book of Revelation and the apocalyptic genre more broadly – the re-use within these texts of the Jewish Scriptures. A range of expert contributors analyse specific themes and passages, and also explore wider methodological questions, aiming particularly to engage with the ground-breaking work in this field of Steve Moyise.
Divided into three sections, the book first focuses on hermeneutical questions, such as the role of 'typology' in interpretation, and the relationship between the 'original meaning' of a scriptural text and the sense it acquires in a new literary context. In the following section, a series of chapters offers detailed exegetical engagement with the Book of Revelation. These probe the scriptural background of some of its major theological themes (e.g. time, sounds and silence) and significant passages (e.g. the Song of the Lamb and other hymns), and highlight fresh aspects of its reception by both ancient and modern audiences. The final section considers the place of scripture and its interpretation in a selection of other early Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic writings (including 1 Enoch, Paul's Letters and the First Apocryphal Apocalypse of John).
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Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Archaeologists in Rome think they may have found the ruins of Nero's theater, a first-century imperial performance space that was widely described in ancient Roman texts but whose whereabouts had remained largely elusive.For past posts on Nero, whom PaleoJudaica finds interesting for a number of reasons, start here and follow the links.The theater is named after Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, who served as Roman emperor from A.D. 54 to his death in 68. Officials are calling the discovery of the theater, located just east of Vatican City, "exceptional." It was likely where Nero rehearsed poetry and put on musical performances, according to ABC News.
[...]
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The work involved analyzing shards of pottery collected from a dig site identified as the base of an ancient two-story building. Prior researchers had named it Building 100. The team followed procedures of modern fire marshals—they wanted to know where the fire started in the building and how it progressed. To find out, they studied magnetic signals hidden in the pottery shards.The underlying article in the Journal of Archaeological Science (Volume 157, September 2023) is behind a subscription wall, but you can read excerpts at the link:
Destruction by fire: Reconstructing the evidence of the 586 BCE Babylonian destruction in a monumental building in JerusalemUPDATE (28 July): Joseph Lauer points me to the full text of the article, posted at Academia.edu.N. Shalom, Y. Vaknin, R. Shaar, E. Ben-Yosef, O. Lipschits, Y. Shalev, Y. Gadot, E. Boaretto
Abstract
Evidence of fire is one of the most important features for identifying and characterizing destruction events. Analysis of microscopic remains of fire has developed exceedingly in recent years, enabling archaeologists to examine new questions relating to the intensity of destruction events and to the circumstances of the creation of destruction layers. One of the most crucial events in the history of the Southern Levant is the Babylonian destruction of Judah and its capital Jerusalem in 586 BCE, which shaped the biblical narrative and theology for generations to come. Building 100 was an extraordinarily large and rich elite building, thoroughly destroyed during the Babylonian campaign. This paper presents a study of the destruction layer excavated within the rooms of the building. FTIR spectrometry and archaeomagnetic analysis were combined in the micro-archaeological study of the remains in order to create a detailed reconstruction of the destruction event. This reconstruction sheds new light on how the Babylonian destruction was manifested in reality in the elite buildings of Jerusalem.
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Jews and Christians in the Roman World From Historical Method to CasesSeries: Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Volume: 116
Author: Steve N Mason
Roman Judaea, Christian origins, and Roman-Judaean-Christian relations are flourishing fields of endless fascination. Amid the flurry of new research, however, which uses ever new methods in the humanities and social sciences, basic questions about what happened and how people then understood events are easily obscured. This book argues that a simple but consistent historical method can throw new light – and challenge entrenched views – on such familiar topics as Roman provincial governance, the Jewish War, Flavian politics, Judaea after King Herod, Jewish and Christian historiography, Pharisees and Essenes, John the Baptist, the apostle Paul, and Luke-Acts.
Prices from (excl. shipping): €190.00
Copyright Year: 2023
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54596-0
Publication: 10 Jul 2023
EUR €190.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54387-4
Publication: 13 Jul 2023
EUR €190.00
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