tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:51:23 +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)Blogger24250125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-5428154700436886975Fri, 26 Jun 2026 10:01:01 +00002026-06-26T11:11:59.508+01:00ARAMAIC WATCH: Ancient Aramaic inscription reveals early Christians sealed Türkiye's Mithras Temple (Türkiye Today).{The decipherer, Professor Mehmet Sait] Toprak said the inscription refers symbolically to the "Invincible Sun God Mithras" and to Jesus, showing how the sanctuary was sealed in a Christian context. He said the text includes expressions referring to the holy cross in the name of http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/ancient-anatolian-mithraeum-was-closed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-7946064027227077727Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:47:45 +00002026-06-26T11:06:35.711+01:00THE ANXIOUS BENCH: How We Accidentally Found A Great Gnostic Poem (Philip Jenkins).Hippolytus offers elaborate retellings of Gnostic celestial mythologies, with the goal of showing how thoroughly plagiarized they were from the famous philosophers of pagan Greek antiquity, especially Plato and Pythagoras. But that habit of copious quotation is fatally counter-productive for his cause. He wants to http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-recovery-of-lost-gnostic-poem.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-6332441704686635944Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:13:41 +00002026-06-26T10:13:41.924+01:00POLITICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY: Vetting panel disqualifies heritage minister’s nominee for Antiquities Authority chief. Esther Schreiber blocked after panel finds that the tender that led to her selection illegally lowered criteria; Ben Gvir says 'deep state' can't handle religiously observant women (Times of Israel). Background here (cf. here) and links. Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest newshttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/nomination-for-iaa-head-rejected-by.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-8294629386002954571Thu, 25 Jun 2026 09:45:17 +00002026-06-25T11:00:55.482+01:00HERCULANEUM WATCH: AI helps read papyrus scroll burnt to crisp during Vesuvius eruption. Previously hidden text revealed without unrolling scroll discusses stoic philosophy on ethics, art and human behaviour (Ian Sample, The Guardian). The Vesuvius Challenge has yielded up twenty readable columns of a carbonized Herculaneum scroll:Much of the Herculaneum library was dominated by Philodemus of http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/stoic-scroll-recovered-from-herculaneum.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-8082823298789836614Thu, 25 Jun 2026 09:31:17 +00002026-06-25T11:01:44.368+01:00THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:Jesus, the Son of Panthera: The Christian Invention of a “Jewish” Slander The Panthera legend is often treated as an early Jewish slander against Jesus and Mary, but the evidence points instead to a Christian anti-Jewish construction. Early Christian writers placed the accusation in the mouths of fictional or stylized Jewish opponents to defend the virginal http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/was-jesus-son-of-panthera-christian.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-6181668855607250826Thu, 25 Jun 2026 09:15:05 +00002026-06-25T10:15:06.167+01:00PUNIC WATCH: The Reopened Bardo National Museum in Tunis, Tunisia (Helen Dixon, American Journal of Archaeology 130.3, open access).Abstract This review addresses the reopened (in 2023) Bardo National Museum in Tunis, a government-funded archaeological museum in Tunisia’s capital city. As of June 2025, several galleries had been reorganized or completely redone, but a few rooms remained closed http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/review-of-reopened-bardo-museum.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-1487059674116607206Wed, 24 Jun 2026 09:57:56 +00002026-06-24T10:57:56.860+01:00TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Hellenistic Wine Jars from Rhodes Reveal the Secrets of Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Jerusalem of the Maccabees. An international study uses Hellenistic ceramics with Rhodes stamps to track abrupt changes in the magnetic field and shed light on the Seleucid fortress of Acra in Jerusalem ( Guillermo Carvajal, LBV).A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University, Ariel Universityhttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/archaeomagnetometry-geomagnetic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-260289913395804544Wed, 24 Jun 2026 09:40:19 +00002026-06-24T10:43:49.417+01:00THE ANXIOUS BENCH: A Third Novel That Proves “Secret Mark” Is A Forgery.And Another Good Reason Why “Secret Mark” is Bogus (Philip Jenkins).I must ask for help on one question. Can anyone think of where Graves was getting his idea of a secret gospel transmission, presumably channeled through bishops? Is there any ancient warrant for that at all? Or did he make it up entirely himself? Because if http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/secret-markthree-times-bogus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-9058489027851324159Wed, 24 Jun 2026 09:28:36 +00002026-06-24T10:28:36.833+01:00BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: King Taharqa of the Kingdom of Cush. Did Nubian kings save Judah? (Marek Dospěl). This essay summarizes a BAR article (behind the subscription wall) by James K. Hoffmeier. I'm always interested in adding another piece to the puzzle of the events around Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah. I have mentioned King Tarhaqa (Tarhaqo, Tirhakah) here http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/king-tarhaqa-and-sennacheribs-siege-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-9171090527106793884Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:43:42 +00002026-06-23T14:43:42.998+01:00ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: ">Lessons Learned from the Magi (Eric Vanden Eykel).If writing about the Magi taught me anything, it is that interpretive certainty is often unfounded. The twelve verses about the Magi in Matthew do not invite final answers; they invite attention, patience, and the persistence to keep digging. In this way, the Magi become less a prooftext about Gentiles and Jews and more a http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/on-writing-magi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-987047890605087909Sun, 21 Jun 2026 09:21:00 +00002026-06-21T10:21:00.117+01:00NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:Charlotte Obeid Le langage métaphorique dans le texte hébreu de Ben Sira [Metaphorical Language in the Hebrew Text of Ben Sira.] 2025. 404 pages. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 171 €109.00 including VAT sewn paper available 978-3-16-164680-5 Also Available As: eBook PDF Summary Charlotte Obeid analyzes the use of metaphorical http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/obeid-le-langage-metaphorique-dans-le.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-2455960376250051820Sat, 20 Jun 2026 10:01:00 +00002026-06-20T11:01:00.113+01:00NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:The New Testament Canon in Contemporary Research Series: Texts and Editions for New Testament Study, Volume: 21 Volume Editors: Stanley E. Porter and Benjamin P. Laird The New Testament canon remains a major topic in scholarly research. This comprehensive volume provides a forum for scholars from varied backgrounds and perspectives to present major essays on the varioushttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/porter-laird-eds-new-testament-canon-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-7727270929190294877Fri, 19 Jun 2026 10:05:35 +00002026-06-19T11:05:35.352+01:00ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Reading Conflict in the Babylonian Talmud: Behind The Fragility of the Mind (Yuval Fraenkel).A Publication Preview of Yuval Fraenkel, The Fragility of the Mind: Confrontation Stories among Rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud (Magness Press, 2026), [Hebrew]. ... Even if these events did in fact occur, this alone cannot explain the immense cultural energy invested in their telling,http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/fraenkel-on-confrontation-stories-among.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-6965700634266017237Fri, 19 Jun 2026 09:56:09 +00002026-06-19T10:56:09.839+01:00NEW (BRIEF) BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE ELEMENTS:Cultural Memory in the Hebrew Bible Genesis to Kings Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2026 Ronald Hendel Summary The relationship between the biblical representations of the past and the history of the second and early first millennia BCE is best comprehended by the concept of cultural memory. This volume investigates thehttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/hendel-cultural-memory-in-hebrew-bible.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-7475790974398437240Fri, 19 Jun 2026 09:07:22 +00002026-06-19T10:07:22.449+01:00BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Synagogues Jesus and Mary Magdalene Knew. Observing early Judaism at Tel Rekhesh (Lauren K. McCormick).To date, about ten first-century synagogues have been confirmed across the southern Levant. One of them, located about 10 miles from Magdala on a rural mound called Tel Rekhesh, seems to tell a different version of the same story. As opposed to a bustling lakeside town like http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/a-first-century-synagogue-at-tel-rekhesh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-6806468511121221994Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:50:33 +00002026-06-18T10:50:33.366+01:00POLITICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY: West Bank archaeology conference unearths controversy as politics takes center stage. Jerusalem event attracts hundreds, including dozens of scholars, but many in the field stay away and international participation is down; attendee calls event ‘highly politicized’ (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).Hundreds of people, including dozens of archaeology scholars http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/a-contentious-west-bank-archaeology.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-391060753468241235Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:37:31 +00002026-06-18T10:57:15.272+01:00ANCIENT MATERIAL (MULTI-)CULTURE: Rare mother-of-pearl seal highlights movement of goods and ideas across Assyrian empire. The 2,600-year-old shell used for a tiny seal stamped with an Assyrian-era religious symbol originated in the Indo-Pacific. How did it reach the Holy Land? (Zev Stub, Times of Israel).A tiny, iridescent stamp seal found at the Tel Hadid archaeological site in central Israel http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/a-mother-of-pearl-indo-pacific-assyrian.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-5962157437811538418Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:27:46 +00002026-06-18T10:27:46.849+01:00BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Teasing the Temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thinking through the dimensions with Lawrence Schiffman (Clinton J. Moyer).Given this background, it is unsurprising that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls—some of whom wrote as early as the third century BCE—were intensely interested in this topic. Schiffman examines two detailed plans for the Temple and its environs found in thehttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-glorious-imaginary-temples-in-dead.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-4611429564804533295Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:50:00 +00002026-06-17T10:50:00.108+01:00ALGORITHM WATCH MEETS GOLEM WATCH: AI, Magnifica Humanitas, and the Law of the Golem (Seth C. Oranburg, Public Discourse).The Talmudic and rabbinic tradition diverges from the latest encyclical, and the divergence highlights a paradox in the papal logic. Leo XIV’s strongest move, his categorical prohibition against the use of AI to make “lethal or otherwise irreversible decisions,” demands a http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/on-ai-golems-and-pope.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-808037585167198107Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:38:00 +00002026-06-17T10:38:00.111+01:00HADASHOT ARKHEOLOGIYOT–Excavations and Surveys in Israel has a new volume out with articles in English and Hebrew. Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/hadashot-arkheologiyot-volume-138-2026.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-6080266155200283372Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:24:00 +00002026-06-17T10:24:00.107+01:00THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:How the Hebrew Bible Became a Christian Book Medieval and early Christian biblical traditions developed through centuries of copying, translation, correction, and interpretation. The Bible’s history is less like one tree branching outward and more like rivers flowing together, as Hebrew, Greek, and Latin textual streams shaped Christian Scripture through the http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/how-hebrew-bible-became-christian.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-3138838108473199136Tue, 16 Jun 2026 10:02:38 +00002026-06-16T11:02:39.216+01:00VARIANT READINGS: The Iconography of Jewish Scrolls in the Roman Era (Brent Nongbri).As far as I know, that is about the extent of the visual range of depictions of scrolls in Jewish sources: a spiral showing the frons or end, the closed roll showing the height of the scroll and perhaps some perspective with one or both of the ends depicted as well, and the partly open scroll shown in the Dura http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/scrolls-or-unidentified-rectangular.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-9050671716733731646Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:47:03 +00002026-06-16T10:47:03.480+01:00THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Finding The First Book Ever Written On A Hidden Gospel (Philip Jenkins).The Gospel of the Hebrews thus mattered greatly in the scriptural tradition, and in 1866, Hilgenfeld had collected the 33 surviving fragments in his survey of all available extra-canonical New Testament texts. The work also earned the attention of the versatile scholar Nicholson, the long-serving head of http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-first-bad-book-on-apocryphal-gospel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-7433534468717104516Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:34:58 +00002026-06-16T10:34:58.561+01:00MYTHOLOGICAL MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE? Was there a real Tower of Babel? This temple is the leading contender. Many archaeologists believe the famed tower from the Book of Genesis may have had a real historical counterpart in ancient Mesopotamia (National Geographic).The answer could be yes—both archaeologists and historians believe the Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis actually had a http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/was-there-real-tower-of-babel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184112.post-8940719193117071263Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:36:54 +00002026-06-15T10:36:54.743+01:00ANCIENT STATUARY: 'Once-in-a-lifetime Discovery': Intact 1,700-year-old Roman Busts Found in Israel. Buried in a disused Roman-Byzantine winepress near Binyamina, one of the marble busts may depict Sparta's legendary founder, Lycurgus. 'There was a feeling we were about to discover something that was not supposed to be there,' an archaeologist said (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).The statues were carefullyhttp://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2026/06/busts-of-lycurgus-and-his-shaggy-friend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jim Davila)