Florentin & Tal, The Samaritan Pentateuch (parallel English-Hebrew edition, Open Book)

NEW BOOK FROM OPEN BOOK PUBLISHERS:

The Samaritan Pentateuch
An English Translation with a Parallel Annotated Hebrew Text

Moshe Florentin (author) Abraham Tal (author)

This new translation into English seeks to introduce the reader to the character of the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, while emphasising the fundamental differences between it and the Masoretic version.

The translation is based on a grammatical analysis of each and every word in the text according to its oral pronunciation, informed by examination of the Samaritan translations into Aramaic and Arabic as well as other Samaritan and non-Samaritan sources.

One of the most ancient and important Samaritan manuscripts of the Pentateuch, MS Nablus 6, copied in 1204 CE, serves to represent the Samaritan version. The English translation is placed in the left-hand column of each page, while the Samaritan original is displayed in the right-hand column. For the reader’s convenience, differences between the Samaritan and Masoretic versions are marked in red.

In addition to translating the Hebrew text and highlighting the differences between it and the Masoretic text, each difference is explained in a brief note in an apparatus at the bottom of the page. Where expansion is appropriate, the reader is referred to extended notes at the end of the edition.

Available in hardback and paperback printed editions (see link for prices) and an open-access electronic edition.

Cross-file under Samaritan Watch.

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The ASOR Punic Project Digital Initiative

PUNIC WATCH: Putting Carthaginian Stelae Back Into Context: The ASOR Punic Project Digital Initiative (Brien Garnand, The Ancient Near East Today).

Instead of full-scale plaster casts and squeezes forgotten in the store rooms of individual museums, our initiative will provide digital files of individual stelae that can be viewed on screen or 3D printed at any scale. Instead of expensive and outdated volumes found only at certain exclusive institutions, our digital initiative will offer an open access resource accessible anywhere at anytime. Finally, our project will allow for reconstruction of the entire Regulus-Salammbô sector in the precinct dedicated to Tinnit and Ba‘l which, when combined with legacy archival data, can provide long–sought–after context for the vast majority of the Phoenician epigraphic corpus.

This is a great project. CIS is a wonderful resource, but it needs updating badly.

This essay amounts to a brief history of Carthaginian Punic epigraphy.

For more on the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE), formerly the Harvard Semitic Museum, see here and links. For more on the early work of Wilhelm Gesenius on deciphering Phoenician and Punic, see here (cf. here and here).

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Pilate’s Legal Path to Crucifying Jesus

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

Pilate’s Legal Path to Crucifying Jesus

“He died on the cross for having done the wrong thing (caused a commotion) in the wrong place (the Temple) at the wrong time (just before Passover). Here lies the real tragedy of Jesus the Jew.”[1]

See also Killing the Messiah: the Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus (New York: Oxford University Press, 2025).

By Nathanael Andrade
Chair, Department of History
Binghamton University
March 2025

The book has just come out.

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Hybrid event: Zoroastrian Hermeneutics in Late Antiquity

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Zoroastrian Hermeneutics in Late Antiquity.

A hybrid zoom lecture on 2 April at UCLA by Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina: "Zoroastrian Hermeneutics in Late Antiquity: The Sūdgar Nask of Dēnkard Book 9."

Follow the link for full details. Looks like it's free, but registration is required.

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Review panel on Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven (1)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Review Panel for When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven.

Full bibliographic information: Rafael Rachel Neis. When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species. University of California Press, 2023.

The first essay in the series is up:

Classification for Networks of Care (Beth Berkowitz)

Here is my question. We see from Rafe’s book that the world of the rabbis is one in which a woman can give birth to a raven, a cow can give birth to a donkey, a donkey can give birth to a horse, and so on. But what happens afterwards?

For an essay on the book by the author, see here.

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"Oldest Hebrew book" on display at JTA NYC

EXHIBITION: The world’s oldest Jewish book is on display in New York City. Dating to the year 700 CE, the Afghan Liturgical Quire is on view at the Jewish Theological Seminary Library’s exhibit, “Sacred Words: Revealing the Earliest Hebrew Book.” (Lisa Keys, JTA).

A medieval manuscript, believed to be the oldest Jewish book in the world, is now on view in New York City.

The Afghan Liturgical Quire, which dates to approximately the year 700 CE, is on display at the Jewish Theological Seminary Library in Morningside Heights as part of an exhibit, “Sacred Words: Revealing the Earliest Hebrew Book” that opens Wednesday and runs until July 17.

Also known as the Afghan Siddur, the diminutive prayer book measures five inches by five inches and “is comprised of prayers, poems, and pages of the oldest discovered Passover Haggadah, which was mysteriously written upside down,” according to a JTS press release.

[...]

The Jewish News Syndicate has additional details: An extraordinary rarity’: Exhibit of oldest Hebrew book opens at JTS library. “There is something magical about being in the presence of a historically significant object, the oldest Hebrew book ever discovered,” David Kraemer, director of the JTS Library told JNS. (Vita Felling).

The exhibition was previously at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.

Recent PaleoJudaica posts on the Afgan Liturgical Codex are here, here, and here (and follow the links for more). The last of those posts gives my best understanding of the book.

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Gupta on Josephus

SUBSTACK SERIES: Studying Early Judaism: The Writings of Josephus (Nijay K. Gupta, Studying Early Judaism Substack).

A good, very brief guide to the writings of the first-century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.

I have noted other posts in the series here and here.

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What does the Magdala Stone depict?

TEMPLE ICONOGRAPHY? The Magdala Stone: Does It Show God's Chariot in the Temple? Since being found in 2009, the Magdala Stone has divided opinion on both what purpose it served over 2,000 years ago and what is actually depicted on it. What all agree on, though, is it that was a game-changing find (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

A long, informative article.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Magdala stone and the ancient city of Magdala, start here (cf. here and here) and follow the links. The stone is currently on display in the Reagan Library Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition.

For the recently-discovered second ancient synagogue in Magdala, see here. Some PaleoJudaica posts noting discussions of the meaning of the stones iconography are here, here, here, and here.

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Top 10 Book of Esther discoveries

BELATEDLY FOR PURIM: Top Ten Discoveries Related to the Book of Esther (Bryan Windel, Bible Archaeology Report). HT the Bible Places Blog.

Whatever you think about the historicity of the Book of Esther, this post provides lots of cultural and visual background to the book.

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This week ...

A VERY BUSY WEEK coming up. Blogging may be light. But I will make sure you have something new every day.

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Guide to ethnographic passages in Strabo's Geography

ETHNIC RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: Guide to Strabo (Philip Harland).

This post is a guide for reading sequentally through ethnographic passages in Strabo of Amaseia’s Geography (early first century CE):

Includes passages on the Judeans, the Phoenicians, the Assyrians/Babylonians, the Egyptians, and many more.

For more on this blog, see here and here and links.

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Zellentin, Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature (Mohr Siebeck, open access)

THE AWOL BLOG: Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature.

This was published in 2023 by Mohr Siebeck, written by Holger Michael Zellentin. Looks like I missed it then. The electronic version is open access.

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For the Ides of March

NUMISMATICS: Heritage to Hold Twelve Caesars Ancient Coin Showcase Auction March 15 (Heritage Auctions, CoinWeek).

The article has a nice, brief account of the life and death of Julius Caesar. And the links have photos of the coins.

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Bodner (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative

Part of Cambridge Companions to Religion

EDITOR: Keith Bodner, Crandall University, Canada
PUBLICATION PLANNED FOR: February 2025
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108841290

Other available formats:
Paperback

Description

The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative offers an overview and a concise introduction to an exciting field within literary interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament. Analysis of biblical narrative has enjoyed a resurgence in recent decades, and this volume features essays that explore many of the artistic techniques that readers encounter in an array of texts. Specially commissioned for this volume, the chapters analyze various scenes in Genesis, Exodus and the wilderness wanderings, Israel's experience in the land and royal experiment in Kings and Chronicles, along with short stories like Ruth, Jonah, Esther, and Daniel. New Testament essays examine each of the four gospels, the book of Acts, stories from the letters of Paul, and reading for the plot in the book of Revelation. Designed for use in undergraduate and graduate courses, this Companion will serve as an excellent resource for instructors and students interested in understanding and interpreting biblical narrative.

• Provides readers with an overview of the Old & New testament
• Written in a user-friendly style with a pedagogical approach
• Readers are acquainted with the best recent scholarship in the field

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Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Vol. 2!

MY RULE IS: A BOOK ISN'T FINISHED UNTIL I HOLD A COPY IN MY HAND.

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2, is finished:

My first copy, the jacket a bit battered by the international journey, arrived a few minutes ago.

For the same moment for volume 1 in October of 2013 , see here.

The link to the Eerdmans page is here. You can pre-order it now. The official publication date is 24 April 2025.

Background here and links. Cross-file under IN THE MAIL and MOTP2.

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Conference: The Bible in its Ancient Iranian Context

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Bible in its Ancient Iranian Context.

International conference at UCLA on March 13-14, 2025. This is an in-person conference, but there is also a Zoom link.

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

Review of Ophir, In the Beginning Was the State

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Review | In the Beginning Was the State: Divine Violence in the Hebrew Bible (Emily Filler).

Adi Ophir, In the Beginning Was the State: Divine Violence in the Hebrew Bible (Fordham University Press, 2023).

... By “Job’s questions,” Ophir means the ones readers tend to ask whenever the God of the Hebrew Bible enacts, authorizes, or declines to intervene in the text’s frequent killings, wars, and genocidal campaigns: why is this God so violent? Where is the justice here? How can we still understand this God as good? How shall we as readers respond?

But while Ophir’s book is also about divine violence, his questions are blessedly less conventional queries. Rather, he writes as a political philosopher observing a governmental system and seeking to understand how it works, for better or worse. ...

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Obituary: Ze’ev Meshel (1932–2024)

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Milestones: Ze’ev Meshel (1932–2024). Leading archaeologist of Israel’s desert regions (Lily Singer-Avitz).

Ze’ev Meshel, renowned Israeli archaeologist, exemplary guide, passionate desert lover, and explorer, passed away on December 14, 2024, at his home in Givatayim, Israel. He was 92 years old.

[...]

Among his accomplishments was the excavation of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in 1975-76. For many PaleoJudaica posts on the discoveries there, especially the epigraphic ones, see here and links plus here.

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Purim 2025

HAPPY PURIM to all those celebrating! The festival begins tonight night at sundown.

Last year's Purim post is here, with links. More recently, see here and here.

UPDATE (18 March): More here.

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Who Wrote the Book of Esther?

FOR PURIM: Who Wrote the Book of Esther? Tradition says Mordechai wrote the Book of Esther, but surely he wouldn't have gotten the timing of his own expulsion a century wrong? (Elon Gilad, Haaretz).

Why would a Jewish scribe writing in Shushan in the 4th century B.C.E. write about events that settled the score between Saul and God in the preceding century? Jona Schellekens, a sociologist at the Hebrew University, came up with a theory for this, which he published in a paper in 2009.

The Jewish propaganda theory

According to Schellekens' interpretation, the Book of Esther is a fanciful family history of a rich and powerful Jewish family in 4th century B.C.E. Shushan, a legendary account of how the family's ancestor Mordechai gained power in court, and of the source of the family's wealth and authority.

This Haaretz article is a good survey of the historical-critical issues for the Book of Esther. It was published originally in 2015 and I linked to it then, with comments.

Schellekens's hypothesis, which I did not comment on in my earlier post, strikes me as a plausible, but speculative, reconstruction.

His methodology has similarties to the approach of the TheTorah.com essay by Prof. Rabbi Reuven Kimelman to which I linked yesterday. Both trace structural similarites in the Book of Esther to earlier biblical stories. It's interesting that the latter thinks the parallels to the Ruth story are centrally important, whereas the former ignores them.

The article by Schellekens underlying the Haaretz piece is "Accession Days and Holidays: The Origins of the Jewish Festival of Purim" Journal of Biblical Literature, 128. 1 (Spring, 2009):115-134. https://doi.org/10.2307/25610170.

The links are to JSTOR and to the JBL website, respectively. The article is behind the subscription wall in both.

For more on the historical background of the Book of Esther, see here.

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