Magness, Ancient Synagogues in Palestine (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Ancient Synagogues in Palestine

A Re-evaluation Nearly a Century After Sukenik's Schweich Lectures

Jodi Magness

British Academy

Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology

£76.00
Hardback
Published: 07 March 2024
128 Pages | 25 b/w images, 1 colour image, 1 table
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780197267653

Description

Dozens of ancient synagogues have been discovered around the Mediterranean, most of which date to the fourth-sixth centuries CE and are concentrated in Palestine. In the 1930 Schweich Lectures, Eleazar Lipa Sukenik established a typology and chronology for these buildings. Ancient Synagogues in Palestine evaluates Sukenik's conclusions in light of new discoveries since his time. It opens with an overview of ancient synagogues in the region, followed by a survey of the historiography of the study of these buildings, highlighting its ideological roots in the early Zionist movement. In the final chapters, Magness examines the evidence for the dating of the synagogues at Khirbet Wadi Hamam and Capernaum, arguing that different synagogue types overlapped and were contemporary to the fourth-sixth centuries CE instead of being sequential, as Sukenik thought. This conclusion contradicts a widely accepted view that late antique Jewish communities in Palestine suffered and declined under supposedly oppressive Christian rule.

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Chaos dragon stamp seal excavated at Hazor

ICONOGRAPHY: 2,800-year-old serpent artifact is a ‘missing link’ to Hercules mythology, study says (BRENDAN RASCIUS, Miami Herald/AOL).

The object — a 2,800-year-old seal — provides a “missing link” in the evolution of a popular motif that appears in the Bible and Greek mythology, according to a study published in the journal of Near Eastern Archaeology.

The theme of the battle of a god with a seven-headed dragon appears in Mesopotamian literature, Ugaritic, the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Revelation, and (not mentioned in either article) Syriac Odes of Solomon 22.

The underlying article in Near Eastern Archaeology 87.1 (2024) is online, but behind a subscription wall.

Mastering the Seven-Headed Serpent: A Stamp Seal from Hazor Provides a Missing Link between Cuneiform and Biblical Mythology (Christoph Uehlinger, pp. 14–19)

Abstract

The Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant (SSSL) project is based on a comprehensive corpus, big data, and complex historical scenarios. Sometimes, though, an individual artifact stands out as a highlight in its own right. Such is the case with a stamp seal discovered recently at Tel Hazor. It is unusual in several respects, but mainly because of its spectacular base engraving. The main scene represents a hero fighting a coiled, seven-headed serpent; it is enhanced by a series of mixed creatures and secondary motifs. This article offers a description and analysis of the object, situating its iconography in the long history of combat myths spanning from mid-third-millennium southern Mesopotamia through second-millennium northern Syria to first-millennium Phoenicia and Israel. Most significant for a historian of Near Eastern mythology, the seal provides a visual missing link in the main motif’s literary transition from Late Bronze Age Ugarit to the Hebrew Bible.

For lots more on the archaeology of the site of Hazor in northern Israel, start here and follow the links.

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An inscription of Thekla the deaconess near Hippos Sussita

ARAMAIC WATCH: A CHRISTIAN PALESTINIAN ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION FROM THE TERRITORY OF SUSSIT A-ANTIOCHIA HIPPOS (March 2024 ARAM Periodical 34(1&2):139-152, Authors: Estee Dvorjetski, CHRISTA MULLER-KESSLER, Michael Eisenberg, Adam Pažout,Mechael Osband). The full text of this article is available for free on Research Gate.

Abstract:

Excavations were conducted in February-April and November 2019 at the site of 'Uyun Umm el-' Azam West, ea. 3.8 km south of Sussita-Antiochia Hippos, in the southern Golan Heights and overlooking the Sea of Galilee. These excavations were undertaken on behalf of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, in the context of the Hippos Regional Project, which focuses on the study of rural sites and fortifications in the territory of Antiochia Hippos from the Hellenistic through to the Byzantine period.' Several building phases in the complex were uncovered. They included a tower, inner courtyard, and a room. The mixed Early Roman material found in the foundations of the tower might suggest an earlier date for its construction, with the tower completely rebuilt in the Byzantine period. The room known as 'The Mosaic Room' was divided, probably by a partition wall, as indicated by the gap in the mosaic running across the room. A set of rooms was built on the eastern side of the inner courtyard and against the tower including a large oven.

This paper focuses on the Christian Palestinian Aramaic mosaic inscription from 'Uyun Umm el-'Azam West dedicated by a deaconess Thekla, its parallels, and its contribution to a better understanding of the ethnic and religious diversity in the Hippos territorium in the southern Levant and its environmental interactions.

The sixth/seventh century deaconess Thekla (Thecla) has the same name as the protagonist in the Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the archaeological discoveries at the nearby site of Hippos-Sussita, see here and links.

Cross file under Decorative Art.

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Anqa, a twin city to Dura-Europos?

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY: Archaeological gem Dura-Europos found to be mirror image of Iraq's Anqa. Strategically located Dura-Europos was a ‘forgotten city’ in Syria and neglected by archaeologists who finally identified Iraq’s Anqa as its near-mirror image (Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Jerusalem Post).

The site sounds worthy of further exploration and scientific excavation. But that may be difficult in the current political climate.

The underlying article, by Simon James in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies 83.1 (2024), is online, but behind a subscription wall: The Ancient City of Giddan/Eddana (Anqa, Iraq), the “Forgotten Twin” of Dura-Europos.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Dura-Europos, see here and links, here and links, plus here and here.

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Interview with Conway on The New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: AJR Conversations I The New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction (Colleen Conway and David Maldonado Rívera).

Below is an exchange between Colleen Conway and David Maldonado Rívera on Conway’s book, The New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2023).

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Passover 2024

HAPPY PASSOVER (PESACH) to all those celebrating! The festival begins this evening at sundown.

Last year's Passover post is here, with links. Subsequent Passover-related posts are here, here, here, and here.

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Wells (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible

Part of Cambridge Companions to Religion

EDITOR: Bruce Wells, University of Texas, Austin

DATE PUBLISHED: April 2024
AVAILABILITY: Available
FORMAT: Hardback
ISBN: 9781108493888

£ 70.00
Hardback

Description

This Companion offers a comprehensive overview of the history, nature, and legacy of biblical law. Examining the debates that swirl around the nature of biblical law, it explores its historical context, the significance of its rules, and its influence on early Judaism and Christianity. The volume also interrogates key questions: Were the rules intended to function as ancient Israel's statutory law? Is there evidence to indicate that they served a different purpose? What is the relationship between this legal material and other parts of the Hebrew Bible? Most importantly, the book provides an in-depth look at the content of the Torah's laws, with individual essays on substantive, procedural, and ritual law. With contributions from an international team of experts, written specially for this volume, The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible provides an up-to-date look at scholarship on biblical law and outlines themes and topics for future research.

• Provides up-to-date and focused explanations of current scholarship on the history, nature, and legacy of biblical law
• Provides an in-depth look at the content of the Bible's laws, with individual essays on substantive law, procedural law, and ritual law
• Contains essays by fifteen different leading scholars who represent some of the finest institutions in Europe and North America

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How reliable are oral traditions about ancient Nazareth?

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

How Much Did They Really Know? Long-Term Memory, Archaeology and The Topography Of Nazareth

Prompted by his recent book on the Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth, the author explores a historically plausible example of the long-term preservation of topographical knowledge from 19th century Nazareth, and its context in recent research on the archaeology and anthropology of memory.

See also The Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth (Oxford University Press, 2023).

By Ken Dark
Professor, Kings College London
April 2024

Sometimes centuries-old oral traditions can transmit accurate historical information. Sometimes.

For more on Professor Dark's work on the archaeology of Nazareth, see here, here, here, here, and here. Cross-file under New Book.

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Linjamaa, The Nag Hammadi Codices and their Ancient Readers (CUP)

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Nag Hammadi Codices and their Ancient Readers Exploring Textual Materiality and Reading Practice

AUTHOR: Paul Linjamaa, Lunds Universitet, Sweden
DATE PUBLISHED: January 2024
AVAILABILITY: This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
FORMAT: Adobe eBook Reader
ISBN: 9781009441445

$ 110.00 USD
Adobe eBook Reader

Description

Since their discovery in 1945, the Nag Hammadi Codices have generated questions and scholarly debate as to their date and function. Paul Linjamaa contributes to the discussion by offering insights into previously uncharted aspects pertinent to the materiality of the manuscripts. He explores the practical implementation of the texts in their ancient setting through analyses of codicological aspects, paratextual elements, and scribal features. Linjamaa's research supports the hypothesis that the Nag Hammadi texts had their origins in Pachomian monasticism. He shows how Pachomian monks used the texts for textual edification, spiritual development and pedagogical practices. He also demonstrates that the texts were used for perfecting scribal and editorial practice, and that they were used as protective artefacts containing sacred symbols in the continuous monastic warfare against evil spirits. Linjamaa's application of new material methods provides clues to the origins and use of ancient texts, and challenges preconceptions about ancient orthodoxy. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

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Tov, Studies in Textual Criticism: Collected Essays, Volume V (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Studies in Textual Criticism

Collected Essays, Volume V

Series:
Vetus Testamentum, Supplements, Volume: 197

Author: Emanuel Tov

Twenty-eight rewritten and updated essays on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls mainly published between 2019 and 2022 are presented in the fifth volume of the author's collected essays. They are joined by an unpublished study, an unpublished "reflection" on the development of text-critical research in 1970-2020 and the author's academic memoirs. All the topics included in this volume are at the forefront of textual research.

Copyright Year: 2024

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-69002-8
Publication: 06 Feb 2024
EUR €160.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54935-7
Publication: 31 Jan 2024
EUR €160.00

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Review of Mastnjak, Before the Scrolls

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Before the Scrolls: A Material Approach to Israel’s Prophetic Library (Ethan Schwartz).

Nathan Mastnjak’s Before the Scrolls: A Material Approach to Israel’s Prophetic Library is a bold, programmatic attempt to account for how the biblical prophetic literature developed. Building on New Philology and book history, Mastnjak argues that the historical-critical study of this literature must begin with—and answer to—the material realities of textual production in ancient Israel and the Second Temple period. ...

Regarding this:

In Chapter 2 (the first main chapter following the introduction), he builds upon Menahem Haran’s influential claim that in the Persian period, Judahite scribes shifted from short papyri to long parchment scrolls. Mastnjak affirms the shift but pushes it later, to the Hellenistic period. The (modest) empirical evidence and internal hints from the Hebrew Bible itself suggest that in the Persian period, discrete papyrus sheets or short papyrus scrolls were still the Judahite scribal standard.

I wonder about this. In Egypt there were very long papyrus scrolls many centuries before the Persian Period. For example, the Book of the Dead manuscripts noted here, here, and here. In addition, Papyrus Amherst 63 (cf. here) is another substantial (12-foot-long) scroll which came from Egypt toward the end of the Persian Period. It looks as though its contents originated in Babylon and Israel.

Both the Book of the Dead and the Amherst Papyrus are anthological works. I haven't read the book, but I would be interested in what Mastnjak has to say about them and how they affect his thesis.

PaleoJudaica posts noting the publication of the book and another review of it are here and here.

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The Haggadah counters an intermediary angel at the Exodus

PASSOVER IS COMING: I (God) and Not an Angel: The Haggadah Counters Jesus and the Arma Christi. (Prof.Steven Weitzman, TheTorah.com).

The Haggadah’s insistence that God, without an intermediary, saved the Israelites from Egypt is a veiled retort to the Christian belief that God relied on Jesus as an agent of redemption. Moreover, the midrash replaces the Arma Christi tradition of recounting the weapons Jesus used to save humanity during the Crucifixion with its own distinctively Jewish arsenal of redemption: pestilence, a sword, the Shechinah, the staff, and blood.

The author argues that this Haggadah tradition could go as far back as late antiquity.

I don't doubt that the passage as we have it offers a counter to Christianity. The essay deals with many things outside my expertise, but I can add some background to it.

The basis of the idea of an angel leading the Israelites to the Promised Land is Exodus 23:20, 23, which say so in so many words. Of course, the meaning of the passage is open to various interpretations, but a literal understanding of it seems also to have been taken up in Jewish tradition.

In the Hekhalot literature, the main passage about the high-priestly angelic figure called "the Youth" (הנער) quotes Exodus 23:20 in relation to him. Apparently he is that angel. In addition, the hand of the Lord rests upon him and the Shekhinah is present before, or in the midst of, God's throne of glory. The Youth passage appears in various places in the texts.

It is even possible that the mysterious priestly figure Mechizedek, mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110, was identified with this angel in the Qumran Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. This is based on its use of the odd term קרוב, "sanctuary," which arguably is based on the phrase "my name is in the midst (קרב) of him" in Exodus 23:21.

It is therefore possible that the Haggadah is countering both Christian and Jewish interpretations of Exodus 23 which posit an intermediary figure in the Exodus from Egypt.

For a detailed discussion of the evidence concerning the Youth and Melchizedek, see:

James R. Davila, Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism (SJJTP 20; Leiden: Brill, 2013), pp. 345-47, 366-69 (cf. 408-9) (the Youth passages)

Davila, “Melchizedek, the ‘Youth,’ and Jesus.” Pp. 248-74 (esp. p. 263) in Davila (ed.), The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from a Conference at St. Andrews in 2001 (STDJ 46; Leiden: Brill, 2003).

Davila, Liturgical Works (Eerdmans Commentaries on the Dead Sea Scrolls 6; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2000), pp. 98, 147-49.

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The Motza mosaic replica

DECORATIVE ART: Motza mosaicists: Putting an ancient Roman mosaic floor back together. Residents of a village near Jerusalem piece together an ancient Roman floor (SARA MANOBLA, Jerusalem Post).

Friday, February 23, was a day of celebration. Our team of Motza mosaicists welcomed the villagers to the dedication ceremony. Deeply moved, [project organizer Shauli] Yossefon, assisted by his family, unveiled the mosaic, thanking the many people who had contributed to the project, supporting him in the creation of the Motza Mosaic replica. It was a moment of general rejoicing, a feeling that something important had been accomplished.

Most of the media coverage on Tel Motza (Tel Moza, Tel Moẓa, Tel Moẓah which I have seen involves Iron Age discoveres, especially the Canaanite temple. For PaleoJudaica posts on the site, start here (second article) and follow the links.

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On the clay tokens from the Temple Mount

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Temple Mount sifting: What were these ancient clay tokens used for? Jerusalem archaeologists are still trying to understand the nature of a 2,000-year-old mysterious clay token found in dirt sifted from the Temple Mount (Israel National News 7).

Two months after the discovery of the Greek token, another very similar token was found in excavations at the drainage channel under Robinson's Arch (below the southern part of the Western Wall) directed by Eli Shukrun and Prof. Ronny Reich of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

This token bore an Aramaic inscription readingדכא/ליה , initially interpreted as "pure to God" by the excavators. However, Hebrew University Talmudic scholar, Prof. Shlomo Naeh, later suggested that the token was used by pilgrims ascending to the Temple as a token to receive their offerings after payment, with the writing on the sealing intended to prevent forgeries by including the abbreviations of the sacrifice type, the day, the month, and the name of the priestly division of that week.

PaleoJudaica followed this debate in 2011 and 2012. See here, here, and here. It sounds as though the token's interpretation remains debated.

This is the first I have heard about that Greek token that bears an amphora image.

The underlying article by Dr. Yoav Farhi, mentioned in the article, has been posted on the author's Academia.edu page here.

UPDATE (19 April): the Temple Mount Sifting Project Blog now has a post on the story: A 2,000-YEAR-OLD MYSTERIOUS CLAY TOKEN (Zachi Dvira).

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... Chronicling the Legacy of Gary N. Knoppers (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: The Formation of Biblical Texts. Chronicling the Legacy of Gary N. Knoppers. Edited by Deirdre N. Fulton, Kenneth A. Ristau, Jonathan S. Greer, and Margaret E. Cohen. 2024. XI, 494 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 176. 164,00 € including VAT. cloth ISBN 978-3-16-160741-7.

Published in English.
Questions concerning the composition and formation of biblical texts have dominated many of the current discussions in biblical studies, especially relating to the relationship between the Pentateuch and the (so-called) Deuteronomistic History, how these texts may have functioned as a corpus (or related corpora), and interconnections among these texts and those of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. As appreciation has grown for the potential text production in Judah and Samaria during the Persian and Hellenistic periods, the discussion has expanded to incorporate explorations of the way that textual criticism – particularly as it relates to the relationships among the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, Qumran corpus, and the Masoretic Text – and literary criticism intersect. In this volume, leading voices come together to tackle questions about the composition and formation of the Hebrew Bible and the future directions of such studies in honor of Gary N. Knoppers.

For more on the late Professor Knoppers and his work, see here and links, notably here, plus here.

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On Biblical Hebrew

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: What Is Biblical Hebrew? Exploring the language of ancient Israel and Judah (Clinton J. Moyer).

I missed this one when it came out last December. I have already noted the corresponding BHD essays on Aramaic and biblical Greek.

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