The Ironclad Legion vs. the highway of blood

DIFFICULT DECISIONS: Israeli Archaeologists Beg State: Don't Build Road Over Only Roman Legion Camp Ever Found. The extant highway is deadly but new finds at Legio, the Roman Legion base at Armageddon, spur archaeologists to urge government: Consider other ways to save drivers from themselves (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The Highway 66 expansion project is under the fief of Dima Pritsker, the manager of the northern district for Netivei Yisrael. "It's under execution by the Transport Ministry, for which Netivei Yisrael is the operational arm," he explains. "The project is in our 5-year plan." At this point they plan to begin the actual construction work in the third quarter of 2025, he adds.

The archaeologists, however, are horrified at the putative destruction of large swaths of the unmatched Roman camp, and the naturalists are no happier. The present road is no joy to behold, but in the parks authority's view, a four-lane, high-speed artery with drivers blaring their dissatisfaction at one another, right at the foot of the tell, would run counter to creating a park where nature, archaeology and religion meet, and where people could gather and experience the beauty of the landscape in quiet contemplation.

"But people keep getting killed there," sighs Dr. Kamil Sari, the archaeologist for the North (of Israel) with the IAA. Something had to be done.

The archaeologists hope the new finds will reopen the question of exactly what.

I have been following the excavation of the Legio VI Ferrata (6th Legion Ironclad) Roman camp near the site of Megiddo since it began in 2013. For the more recently discovered Megiddo Roman amphitheatre, see here and links. For more on the camp itself, start here and follow the links.

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Review of Smith & Landau, The Secret Gospel of Mark

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate Over Its Authenticity (Andrew S. Jacobs).

Geoffrey S. Smith and Brent C. Landau. The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate Over Its Authenticity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.

... This is an excellent book, written with verve and wit, technical without being arcane, and accessible without shortcuts or shoddiness. Readers will learn a great deal from G. Smith and Landau about paleography, apocrypha, monasticism, the history of sexuality, and the strange academic environments in which all of these are explored: filled with curiosity, envy, ambition, and flashes of brilliance. It will find a place on professors’ library shelves, graduate student reading lists, undergraduate syllabi, and bedside tables of readers far outside our arcane scholarly worlds. ...

This review also amounts to a useful summary of the history of scholarship on the so-called Secret Mark manuscript since its publication.

One unspoken takeaway is that everyone now seems to have abandoned the possibility that the Secret Mark quotations could come from an actual first-century version of the Gospel of Mark. But perhaps that is what the review's hypothetical "ingenuous undergraduate right now encountering Secret Mark for the first time" will be arguing in thirty year's time.

Be that as it may, after this much discussion I don't think we are ever going to settle the vexed question of whether that odd manuscript is an excerpt from a genuine work of Clement, a late antique forgery, or a modern forgery. Unless Oxyrhynchus or some other manuscript cache produces some portion of an ancient copy of it.

UPDATE (AND NUANCE) (24 June 2026): It seems that the genuiness of Secret Mark may still be live option.

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Review of Runia, Philo of Alexandria: collected studies 1997-2021

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Philo of Alexandria: collected studies 1997-2021.

Philo of Alexandria: collected studies 1997-2021 David T. Runia, Philo of Alexandria: collected studies 1997-2021. Texts and studies in ancient Judaism, 187. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023. Pp. xiii, 555. ISBN 9783161618765.

Review by
John Dillon, Trinity College Dublin. dillonj@tcd.ie This mighty volume, covering just about a quarter-century of David Runia’s work on Philo, is a joy to have in hand, and a great resource for Philonists, adding up, as it does, to a fairly comprehensive discussion of all aspects of Philo’s work. ...

I noted the publication of the book here.

On a related note, the AWOL Blog notes that one of Runia's earlier bibliography volumes is available as an open access publication: Philo of Alexandria: An Annotated Bibliography 1987-1996, with Addenda for 1937-1986.

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A 10th-century-BCE electrum pendant from Jerusalem

PHOENICIAN WATCH (?): Tiny First Temple-era Phoenician pendant is ‘earliest gold artifact’ found in Jerusalem. Just 4 millimeters on a side, the item could provide evidence that Phoenicians were in Jerusalem 3,000 years ago, archaeologist says (Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

The tiny pendant or earring was found a decade ago during excavations in the Ophel, a raised area south of Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But until last year, the item had been largely overlooked, according to archaeologist Brent Nagtegaal of the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology.

The finely crafted artifact is shaped like a basket with a solid base measuring just 4x4x2 millimeters. Two semicircular “handles” extend 6 millimeters above the base, overlapping each other to form a point where the pendant could be suspended, and narrow gold wire is wrapped around the top of the item.

[...]

The artifact is "'securely dated by archaeological context' to the 10th century BCE." If it is of Phoenician origin, it could be taken as indirect evidence for the claim of the Deuteronomistic History that Phoenicians were active in Jerusalem at that time building Solomon's Temple.

However, it seems that the case for its Phoenician origin has not yet been published. I would withhold judgment until we see how secure that case is.

Anyway, nice pendant. Someone was very upset when it was lost. Cross-file under Ancient Bling and Exhibition.

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Ancient multi-compartment stone box discovered in Jerusalem

ANICENT ARTIFACT: Rare Second Temple-era merchants box displayed at Israel Museum. 2,000-year old artifact likely used to display wares in ancient Jerusalem’s pilgrims’ market; burned sides might be from Jewish Revolt fires (xGavriel Fiske, Times of Israel).

An unusual, multi-chambered limestone box from the Second Temple period, now on display in the Israel Museum, was likely used to present small items for sale in the pilgrims’ market alongside the main road in ancient Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday.

[...]

The object was found (excavated, apparently) a couple of years ago. It is on display in the Israel Museum.

For more on ancient Jewish stone vessels and their purity implications, see here and links.

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Evacuated boy finds Alexander Janneus coin near Dead Sea

NUMISMATICS: 2,000-year-old Hasmonean coin discovered by child evacuated on Oct.7. While exploring the area around the hotel that he had been evacuated to along the Dead Sea, Nati Toyikar came across an ancient coin dating back to the Hasmonean period (Jerusalem Post).

According to Dr. Robert Cole, Head of the Coins Branch at the Antiquities Authority, "the coin that Nati found is a well-known coin of the Hasmonean king and high priest Alexander Janai (104-76 BCE). On the face of the coin appears an anchor, and around it appears an inscription in Greek - "Alexander Basileus," which translates to "(of) Alexander the King." On the back of the coin appears a star with eight rays, surrounded by a crown of kings. Between the rays, you can see an inscription, which appears in small letters. Only a part of it can be deciphered here. It recalls the name and title of the king in ancient Hebrew: [Yohan]n/he/mel/[cha]/."

All Israel News also reports the story and says that this coin is a "widow's mite," on which more here and links.

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Otto, Die Mose-Exodus-Tradition in den Korintherbriefen (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Konrad Otto. Die Mose-Exodus-Tradition in den Korintherbriefen. Schriftrezeption und -verarbeitung 'zwischen den Welten'. [The Moses-Exodus Tradition in the Corinthian Correspondence. Scriptural Reception and Processing 'Between the Worlds'.] 2024. XV, 593 pages. Studies in Education and Religion in Ancient and Pre-Modern History in the Mediterranean and Its Environs 20. 94,00 € including VAT. hardcover ISBN 978-3-16-160065-4.

Published in German.
References to biblical traditions are an essential part of the Corinthian correspondence. By taking two extensive references to the Exodus tradition of Moses, Konrad Otto examines the extent to which scriptural references serve to mediate between Paul's intellectual world and that of his addressees.

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Hagler, Owning Disaster (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Owning Disaster
Coping with Catastrophe in Abrahamic Narrative Traditions

By Aaron M. Hagler
Copyright 2024

Hardback £104.00
eBook £31.19

ISBN 9781032454740
242 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
Published December 18, 2023 by Routledge

Description

Delving into the intertwined tapestry of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sacred texts, exegesis, philosophy, theology, and historiography, this book explores the similar coping mechanisms across Abrahamic communities in reconciling the implications of disasters without abandoning their faith.

Belief in a single, omnipotent God carries with it the challenge of explaining and contextualizing disasters that seem to contravene God’s supposed will. Through explorations of Jewish responses to the destruction of both the First and Second Temples, Christian responses to the Arab Muslim conquests, Muslim responses to the Crusades, and a variety of responses to the Mongol conquests, Aaron M. Hagler unveils the shared patterns and responses that emerge within these communities when confronted by calamity. Initial responses come in the forms of horrified lamentations, but as the initial shock dissipates, a complex dance of self-blame and collective introspection unfolds, as writers and theologians seek to contextualize the tragedy and guide their communities toward hope, resilience, and renewal.

Of interest to scholars, theologians, and individuals seeking to explore interconnected notions of resilience within Abrahamic communities, Owning Disaster will resonate with readers eager to contemplate the intricate relationship between religious dogma, human resilience, and the profound questions that emerge when confronted with calamity.

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Minets & Nowakowski (eds.), Shaping Letters, Shaping Communities (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Shaping Letters, Shaping Communities: Multilingualism and Linguistic Practice in the Late Antique Near East and Egypt

Series:
Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity, Volume: 33

Volume Editors: Yuliya Minets and Paweł Nowakowski

The volume explores linguistic practices and choices in the late antique Eastern Mediterranean. It investigates how linguistic diversity and change influenced the social dimension of human interaction, affected group dynamics, the expression and negotiation of various communal identities, such as professional groups of mosaic-makers, stonecutters, or their supervisors in North Syria, bilingual monastic communities in Palestine, elusive producers of Coptic ritual texts in Egypt, or Jewish communities in Dura Europos and Palmyra. The key question is: what do we learn about social groups and human individuals by studying their multilingualism and language practices reflected in epigraphic and other written sources?

Copyright Year: 2024

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-68233-7
Publication: 11 Dec 2023
EUR €149.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-68230-6
Publication: 20 Dec 2023
EUR €149.00

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Semi-hiatus

YES, I know I haven't been posting much. Bear with me. I will get back to regular posting as soon as I can. Soon, I hope.

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

Popa, The Making of Syriac Jerusalem (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

The Making of Syriac Jerusalem
Representations of the Holy City in Syriac Literature of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages

By Catalin-Stefan Popa
Copyright 2023

Hardback £96.00
eBook £31.19

ISBN 9781032470993
324 Pages
Published May 31, 2023 by Routledge

Description

This book discusses hagiographic, historiographical, hymnological, and theological sources that contributed to the formation of the sacred picture of the physical as well as metaphysical Jerusalem in the literature of two Eastern Christian denominations, East and West Syrians.

Popa analyses the question of Syrian beliefs about the Holy City, their interaction with holy places, and how they travelled in the Holy Land. He also explores how they imagined and reflected the theology of this itinerary through literature in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, set alongside a well-defined local tradition that was at times at odds with Jerusalem. Even though the image of Jerusalem as a land of sacred spaces is unanimously accepted in the history of Christianity, there were also various competing positions and attitudes. This often promoted the attempt at mitigating and replacing Jerusalem’s sacred centrality to the Christian experience with local sacred heritage, which is also explored in this study. Popa argues that despite this rhetoric of artificial boundaries, the general picture epitomises a fluid and animated intersection of Syriac Christians with the Holy City especially in the medieval era and the subsequent period, through a standardised process of pilgrimage, well-integrated in the custom of advanced Christian life and monastic canon.

The Making of Syriac Jerusalem is suitable for students and scholars working on the history, literature, and theology of Syriac Christianity in the late antique and medieval periods.

HT Bibliographia Iranica. Cross-file under Syriac Watch.

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Bühner, Paulus im Kontext des Diasporajudentums (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Ruben A. Bühner. Paulus im Kontext des Diasporajudentums. Judenchristliche Lebensweise nach den paulinischen Briefen und die Debatten um »Paul within Judaism.« [Paul in the Context of Diaspora Judaism. Jewish-Christian Life after the Pauline Epistles and the Debates about »Paul within Judaism.«] 2023. XIV, 435 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 511. 159,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-162749-1.

Published in German.
Under the umbrella term »Paul within Judaism,« new interpretations of Paul's letters have recently emerged. In this context, Ruben A. Bühner examines the continuity of a Jewish way of life before and after Jews turned to Christ. By interpreting Paul in the context of a diverse Diaspora Judaism, he argues for a mediating position in an increasingly ideological debate. Thus Paul understands himself both as a Jew and as committed to a Jewish way of life, while at the same time seeing himself as »in Christ« also committed to community with non-Jews.

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Long, Dynamics of Charity and Reciprocity in the Book of Sirach (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Stephen Arden Long. Dynamics of Charity and Reciprocity in the Book of Sirach. 2024. XV, 339 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe 147. 99,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-162384-4 available.

Published in English.
In this study, Stephen Long explores the role of reciprocity and gift exchange in the wisdom-instruction of Ben Sira, contextualizing the sage's prescriptions in relation to comparative data from Greco-Roman antiquity and his own teaching on »charity«. While tangible human returns are the normal expectation in response to acts of generosity, Ben Sira is seen to have inflected this cultural expectation in a uniquely Jewish and theological manner. First, sacrifice is understood as a »gift« for the deity, a gift which the God of Israel will »repay«; second, acts of both ordinary, »self-interested« generosity as well as more »altruistic« acts are brought within the ambit of »sacrifice«. Ben Sira appears to think that he thereby followed the lead of prior, pentateuchal tradition, and drew out implications of a theology of creation whereby the cosmos is so ordered that every »need« is – or should be – met »at the right time«. Thus, Long elucidates a second century BCE sage's theological construal of the relation between charity and reciprocity.

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Kim, Hebrew Forms of Address (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Hebrew Forms of Address: A Sociolinguistic Analysis
Young Bok Kim

ISBN 9781628373639
Volume ANEM 31
Status Available
Publication Date December 2023

Paperback
$40.00

Hardback
$60.00

Young Bok Kim investigates the patterns of nominal forms of address in Biblical and Epigraphic Hebrew, examining their role in expressing various social relationships between speakers and addressees. Drawing on modern sociolinguistic theories on address and politeness, as well as insights from Hebrew studies, Kim elucidates the underlying rules governing address usage. This essential resource, complete with data tables and illustrative figures, provides valuable insights into the social structure of ancient Israel and the exegetical significance of address variations, making it indispensable for scholars and students of Hebrew interested in its potential for biblical interpretation.

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A Grand Prize winner for the Vesuvius Challenge

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: An Ancient Roman Scroll on Pleasure Was Just Decoded Using AI (Will Henshall, Time Magazine).

Papyrologists working with the Vesuvius Challenge believe the scroll contains “never-before-seen text from antiquity,” and the text in question is a piece of Epicurean philosophy on the subject of pleasure. The winning submission shows ancient Greek letters on a large patch of scroll, and the author seems to be discussing the question: are things that are scarce more pleasurable as a result?

... In accordance with the criteria set in March 2023, the winning submission contains four passages of 140 characters each, with at least 85% of the characters in each of those passages recoverable by professional papyrologists. It also contains a further 11 columns of text.

This is an extraordinary achievement. All indications are that this new technology is opening the door to transcribing and deciphering the many hundreds of carbonized scrolls from Heculaneum. With the possibility of thousands more still unexcavated.

The contest was announced in March of last year. The current prizewinners have already won a couple of lesser prizes in the 2023 competition. See here and here. There is a new grand prize for 2024, so let's look forward to more good news this time next year.

Bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.

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The latest on muon detection under Jerusalem

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Unable to dig, researchers look to cosmic rays to unlock Jerusalem’s ancient underworld. A Tel Aviv University team is using muon detectors to track powerful particles, hoping to build a 3D map of undiscovered tunnels, chambers and fortifications under the hole-y city (DIANA BLETTER, Times of Israel).

The device, which had been built by the Tel Aviv University team, was designed to capture and register the angular distribution of muons, tiny but powerful particles created when cosmic rays smash into the earth’s atmosphere.

For archaeologists, using particle physics to peer into solid ground offers a tantalizing way to glimpse the history of a city densely packed with strata upon strata of ancient settlement, but just as chock full of religious sensitivities. This makes invasive digs under many of its most important sites — especially the Temple Mount — a fraught, if not impossible, endeavor.

Everything is proceeding as I have have foreseen.

For more on the use of muon detection technology at the Temple Mount and elsewhere, see here and links. And here is an old post that I missed.

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Singing grape pips from the Negev?

ARCHAEOBOTANY: The ancient history of Israeli grape pips and wine. Excavations have given proof of a flourishing wine industry in the Byzantine and early Arab period, especially at sites like Shivta, Halutza, Nitzana, and Avdat (Adam Montefiore, Jerusalem Post).

Prof. Guy Bar-Oz of the University of Haifa is the person responsible for the research. He is a bioarchaeologist at the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures. He has been involved in ongoing, groundbreaking research regarding the history of the wine industry in the Negev Desert.

I have posted on this project here and (appears to be the underlying technical article) here. For posts involving the Nabatean (Nabataean) site of Avdat (‘Avedat, Ovdat, Uvdat), see the links collected here.

Cross-file under Ancient Viticulture.

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News about the Coptic Magical Papyri Project

COPTIC WATCH: Love and hate in ancient times: New anthology on 'magical' texts published (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg press release at Phys.org).

"Magical" texts from Egypt in Coptic script and language are at the center of a research project at the University of Würzburg. They have now been collected and scientifically annotated for the first time in a 600-page book.

[...]

This is an announcement of the culminating work of the Coptic Magical Papyri Project, which PaleoJudaica has been following through its blog since its inception. The blog also announced this last autumn.

The new information in this article is the good news that the project has been funded for an additional three years, now under the rubric the Corpus of Coptic Magical Formularies. Congratulations to the project and its researchers. I look forward to following their future work.

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Trotter, Hellenistic Jews and Consolatory Rhetoric (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: Christine R. Trotter. Hellenistic Jews and Consolatory Rhetoric. 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, 1 Thessalonians, and Hebrews. 2023. XII, 385 pages. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 600. 99,00 € including VAT. sewn paper ISBN 978-3-16-162475-9.

Published in English.
Christine R. Trotter elucidates how Hellenistic Jewish writers attempted to comfort those living in the midst of and in the wake of persecution and violence. While past scholarship has explored this question primarily in terms of the development of Jewish apocalypticism and afterlife beliefs, Christine R. Trotter takes a comprehensive approach by investigating how Hellenistic Jewish authors engaged with ancient consolatory rhetoric, that is, the means of persuasion intended to move a suffering person out of grief and into joy. Through studies on 2 Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, 1 Thessalonians, and Hebrews, the author explicates how Hellenistic Jewish authors navigated the diverse traditions of consolation within their biblical heritage and Greco-Roman culture. Her work has important implications for the genre of 1 Thessalonians and the dates of composition of the Wisdom of Solomon and Hebrews.

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Smith, Luke and the Jewish Other (Routledge)

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE:

Luke and the Jewish Other
Politics of Identity in the Third Gospel

By David Andrew Smith
Copyright 2024

Hardback
£104.00

eBook
£31.19

ISBN 9781032450483
230 Pages

Description

Luke and the Jewish Other takes up the debated question of the orientation of Luke toward the Jewish people. Building on recent studies in the social history of early Jewish-Christian relations, it offers an analysis of Luke’s portrayal of Jewish and Christian identities that challenges the common assumption that the construction of religious identity in antiquity necessarily depended upon antagonistic relations with others. Taking account of the deep and often divisive difference that belief in Jesus made in Luke’s community, the author argues that Luke hoped to bring about both a rapprochement with and the conversion of contemporary Jews. Through this account of identity and alterity in the Gospel of Luke, the book cuts across boundaries of biblical studies, history, theology, and social theory, proposing a way forward for the study of Luke’s relation to Judaism and of the "parting of the ways" between Jews and Christians in the early Common Era.

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