tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112Fri, 17 Apr 2026 22:24:43 +0000Ancient IsraelAncient Judaism; Early ChristianityDavila 666ScriptureTenured professor Hebrew Bibleias<p><big><b>Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.</b></big> <p> E-mail: paleojudaica-at-talktalk-dot-net ("-at-" = "@", "-dot-" = ".")</p></p>http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)Blogger24096125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-7329043582795913833Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:22:00 +00002026-04-17T11:22:46.617+01:00NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE: A viral social media post is reminding the world that one Dead Sea Scroll is not scripture but a copper-engraved inventory of billions in buried treasure (Elroy Fernandes, Startup Fortune).A TIL post circulating across social platforms this week has reintroduced millions of people to one of archaeology’s most tantalizing anomalies: a scroll discovered in 1952 that reads http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-copper-scroll-in-news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-5145362913086621290Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:01:00 +00002026-04-17T11:24:00.092+01:00BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Life of Aesop the Philosopher.Grammatiki A. Karla, David Konstan, Life of Aesop the Philosopher. Writings from the Greco-Roman world, 50. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2024. Pp. 260. ISBN 9781628373271. Review by Marcus Ziemann, Florida State University. mziemann@fsu.edu I noted the publication of the book here, with notes on the connections of the Aesop traditions with the http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/review-of-karla-and-konstan-life-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-1884305476288483309Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:42:00 +00002026-04-17T10:42:44.639+01:00BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Women of the Empire. Notice of a New Book: Safaee, Yazdan. 2026. Women of the empire: Life and labor in the Achaemenid Persepolis Archives (Ancient Iran Series 20). Leiden: Brill. As the post indicates, Yazdan Safaee is one of the regular contributors to Bibilographia Iranica. For many PaleoJudaica posts on Persepolis, the ancient Achaemenid ceremonial capital http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/safaee-women-of-empire-brill.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-6048228249793630048Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:26:00 +00002026-04-16T10:26:31.278+01:00MESSIANISM: Moses of Crete: The ‘Messiah’ Who Promised to Part the Sea and Led Hundreds to Death (Nick Kampouris, The Greek Reporter).In the midst of this upheaval, during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II, [402/408-450 CE] the figure later known as Moses of Crete began to attract attention. He did not merely present himself as a prophet but claimed to be the biblical Moses returned in the fleshhttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/moses-of-crete-drowning-messiah.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-8514885045283635338Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:07:00 +00002026-04-16T10:07:50.210+01:00BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Roman Conquest of Jerusalem. How were the siegeworks deployed around the city? (Clinton J. Moyer).The Roman army’s conquest and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 is well documented, both in contemporary written sources like Josephus and in the archaeological record. ... Yet, despite all this evidence, little is known about the layout and organization of the protective http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-siegeworks-of-roman-conquest-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-918665728691602022Thu, 16 Apr 2026 08:57:00 +00002026-04-16T09:57:01.984+01:00EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY: Ancient Egyptian stone monument depicting a Roman emperor as a pharaoh discovered in Luxor. A stone slab depicting the Roman emperor Tiberius was found during restoration work at the Karnak temple complex in Luxor. (Margherita Bassi, Live Science). For more on Tiberius as a god and a son of god, see my report on the 2016 St. Andrews Symposium on Divine Sonship, and also http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/pharaoh-tiberius.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-3019864155891819951Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:29:00 +00002026-04-15T10:29:29.032+01:00TECHNOLOGY WATCH: How DNA forensics is transforming studies of ancient manuscripts. Scientists are exposing the biological information hidden in ancient parchments without leaving a mark (Marla Broadfoot, Scientific American, reprint from Nature Magazine). HT Drew Longacre's OTTC Blog.In May 2006, Tim Stinson travelled to England to tour the libraries of London, Oxford and Cambridge. ... http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/on-biocodicology.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-3692433442329046960Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:18:00 +00002026-04-15T10:18:43.288+01:00CINEMA: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: 'Legends of the Lost Ark' docudrama: Archaeologist Chris McKinney investigates fate of the biblical artifact. McKinney discusses the history, legend and mystery surrounding the Ark of the Covenant (All Israel News).A key element of “Legends of the Lost Ark” is its effort to move beyond modern speculation and instead reconstruct the conversation around the Ark through http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-on-that-ark-of-covenant-docudrama.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-8711804415839769782Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:55:00 +00002026-04-15T09:55:30.092+01:00TECHNOLOGY WATCH: UI professor repairs damaged ancient manuscripts with AI. Paul Dilley received a $500,000 grant from Schmidt Sciences to develop AI tools that can reconstruct missing sections of ancient manuscripts (Jacob Calvin, The Daily Iowan).Dilley said even as multispectral imaging continues to advance, there is a limit to what it can decipher. “If the manuscript has already been damagedhttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/u-of-iowa-project-funded-to-reconstruct.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-7783370011239471920Tue, 14 Apr 2026 10:11:00 +00002026-04-14T11:11:14.134+01:00HERCULANEUM WATCH: The Latin Problem: BYU's Roger Macfarlane on What We Have — and Haven't — Found in the Herculaneum Papyri (Utah TechBuzz News).BYU classicist, Roger Macfarlane, who has spent more than three decades hunting for lost Latin literature in carbonized scrolls came to UVU with an honest assessment: most of the discovered Herculaneum papyri is barely readable. But what we might still http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/whats-in-herculaneum-papyri-what-might.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-3722414102818415843Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:54:00 +00002026-04-14T10:54:13.196+01:00THIS IS WAR: There are reports of the bombing of antiquities sites in northern Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah rocket hits remains of 1,500-year-old Byzantine church in northern Israel. Israel Antiquities Authority says modern-day structure preserving the mosaic in Nahariya was damaged but the ancient floor is intact (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).“Today, a meeting was held on site with the http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/reports-of-bombed-antiquities-sites-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-5248360662774923020Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:33:00 +00002026-04-14T10:33:48.078+01:00BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: 39 Sites in Lebanon Gain UNESCO Protection. Why it matters for biblical history and beyond (Lauren K. McCormick).In a decision prompted by a request from the Lebanese government, UNESCO granted enhanced protection status to 39 sites across Lebanon under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The designation places http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/39-more-lebanese-sites-under-enhanced.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-5523436831765811266Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:53:00 +00002026-04-13T10:53:00.116+01:00BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East.The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East Rubina Raja, The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Oxford handbooks. New York: Oxford University Press, 2025. Pp. 944. ISBN 9780190858155. Review by Céline Debourse, Harvard University. cdebourse@fas.harvard.edu [Authors and http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/review-of-oxford-handbook-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-3245486616702840444Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:34:00 +00002026-04-13T10:34:00.121+01:00YET ANOTHER SCROLL DISCOVERY: Valuable discovery in Egypt reveals 3,000-year-old scrolls with secret messages still unread. Cache of coffins also found stacked in a rock-carved funerary chamber nearby (Andrea Margolis, Fox News).Excavators found the ancient scrolls in a large pottery vessel, with some even bearing their original, 3,000-year-old clay seals. "They vary in size and are considered ahttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/eight-3000-year-old-scrolls-excavated.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-4458545113825538287Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:16:00 +00002026-04-13T10:16:00.122+01:00GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (FEBRUARY 2026): Scrolls, Stratigraphy and the Song of the Sea: Re-examining Ashkar-Gilson (Kim Phillips). This fascinating essay is quite technical and hard to excerpt. The main issue is the question of how ancient the layout (as opposed to the text itself) of the Masoretic Text is. The specific examples are the dots placed over some of the words and the division ofhttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/how-old-is-layout-of-mt-hebrew-bible.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-6525454763102584396Sun, 12 Apr 2026 09:28:00 +00002026-04-12T10:28:00.115+01:00NEW PAPERBACK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Testament Edition: 2nd Edition Author: Bill T. Arnold, Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky Published: February 2026 Availability: Available Format: Paperback ISBN: 9781009328593 £55.00 GBP Paperback £110.00 GBP Hardback $72.00 USD eBook Description This textbook offers students who have no prior http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/arnold-cambridge-introduction-to-old.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-1959519400213506838Sat, 11 Apr 2026 09:44:00 +00002026-04-11T10:44:00.121+01:00NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:For Those Who Sleep in the Dust: Essays on Archaeology and the Bible William G. Dever ISBN 9781628376470 Status Available Publication Date March 2026 Paperback $56.00 eBook $56.00 Hardback $76.00 A lifetime of essential scholarship from one of biblical archaeology’s most prolific scholars For Those Who Sleep in the Dust collects thirteen of William G. Dever’s best http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/dever-for-those-who-sleep-in-dust-sbl.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-1825669862462558933Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:55:00 +00002026-04-10T10:55:08.515+01:00IN ISRAEL, museums and holy sites are starting to reopen during the ceasefire: Museums begin to reopen in Israel following ceasefire (Jessica Steinberg, Times of Israel)Amid the fragile ceasefire between Iran and the US, and a pause in Iranian missile strikes that sent Israelis into safe rooms and shelters, museums are planning to reopen for the first time in six weeks, moving artworks and http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/reopenings-in-israel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-7747327108316402033Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:41:00 +00002026-04-10T10:41:38.977+01:00THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:Revisiting the God-Fearers The widely accepted “god-fearer” thesis rests on weak foundations: the ancient terms are not clear technical labels, the evidence is sparse and often overstretched, and the model relies too heavily on assumptions about synagogue-associated Gentiles supposedly primed for Christian conversion. Early Christianity did not require a large http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/revisiting-god-fearer-thesis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-975629936467941369Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:21:00 +00002026-04-10T10:21:42.325+01:00ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Tyler Blaine Wilson).Mark Goodacre. The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2025. It has long been asserted within modern biblical scholarship that the author of the Gospel of John did not use the Synoptic Gospels when writinghttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/review-of-goodacre-fourth-synoptic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-5121367166170941095Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:39:00 +00002026-04-09T10:39:09.371+01:00BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia. Open-access journal special issue: Joachimsen, Kristin & Jason S. Mokhtarian (eds.). 2025. Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia (The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 25). Follow the link for a link to the issue. Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/ancient-jewish-memories-of-achaemenid.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-924775082566218987Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:25:00 +00002026-04-09T10:25:03.346+01:00HISTORY: The Jewish Kingdom of Southern Arabia. The tale of Himyar reminds us of the ongoing Jewish presence in the Middle East, its important history, but also of the danger of religion interwoven with state politics (Lane Igoudin, Jewish Journal).Two well-documented academic works shed light on the mysterious kingdom: “The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam” by G. W. Bowersock (http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-jewish-kingdom-of-himyar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-7390850700132130598Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:04:00 +00002026-04-09T10:04:53.144+01:00EXHIBITION REVIEW: New Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit Is the Real Deal. After an embarrassing snafu in 2020, the Museum of the Bible celebrates an authentic documents display (GORDON GOVIER, Christianity Today).“These are the oldest biblical texts ever discovered,” explained Robert Duke, the museum’s chief curatorial officer. “Our average guest is just blown away knowing that you’re looking at texts http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/review-of-dead-sea-scrolls-exhibition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-6143073136594963364Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:51:00 +00002026-04-08T10:51:00.111+01:00PALEOGENETICS: New DNA research confirms Shroud of Turin's passage through the Middle East (Vatican News).The Holy Shroud of Turin passed through the Middle East, reveals new DNA research in the scientific article authored by Dr. Gianni Barcaccia, Professor of Genetics and Genomics at the University of Padua, along with other researchers. The scientists confirm the presence of a genome http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/dna-from-all-over-in-shroud-of-turin.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-9091756043431984522Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:34:00 +00002026-04-08T10:34:00.118+01:00BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Understanding Iron in the Iron Age. Carmel Coast discovery shows iron was traded before forging (Lauren K. McCormick). I have already noted the discovery of these iron objects excavated from the Dor L2 shipwreck here. This BHD essay covers the highlights of that story and gives some useful background. Cross-file under Maritime (Marine, Underwater) Archaeology Visithttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-on-iron-blooms-from-dor-shipwreck.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)