Lucian of Samosata—a Syrian barbarian?

ARAMAIC WATCH: Lucian of Samosata: ܠܘܩܝܰܢܳܣ ܫܰܡܝܼܫܰܛܳܝܐ (Denho Bar Mourad–Özmen, Syriac Press).

Lucian of Samosata is far more than a Greek satirist. He represents one of the earliest global voices from the Syriac–Aramaic world, navigating multiple linguistic and cultural spheres with insight and creativity. Restoring him to his proper historical and cultural context corrects longstanding misconceptions and reinforces a richer understanding of ancient intellectual history.

I have Lucian's De Dea Syria on my bookshelf, but I didn't realize how many surviving works he left us. They are all in Greek now, but some many have been composed in Aramaic.

This new Syriac Press has been publishing some good articles on the history of Syriac and Aramaic.

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Noah's administrative calendar?

MICHAEL L. SATLOW: The Calendar Before Chaos.

It is plausible, but speculative, that the authors of P were close enough to the scribal and bureaucratic structures of the Babylonian administration that they would have been exposed to the 360 day administrative calendar. Whether or not they did know about this calendar, though, they may have been drawn ideologically, and independently, to their own schematized calendar, at least outside of cultic contexts.

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The site of Ur is being renovated

CONSERVATION: Iraq preparing $14.5 million renovation of ancient city of Ur. The head of the General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage said the work was to ensure its preservation for the future. (The New Arab).

Iraq's ancient city of Ur, birthplace of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, is located in the country's south near the modern city of Nasiriyah in Iraq's Dhi Qar province.

It hosts numerous archaeological sites, the most famous of which is the Ziggurat of Ur, a stepped pyramid dating back 4,000 years that has the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The restoration of the site of Ur is good news.

The biblical references to Ur ("Ur of the Chaldeans") are in Genesis 11:28, 31; 15:7; and Nehemiah 9:7. They all involve Abraham's origin in that city. The reference to the Chaldeans is anachronistic in this context, but it perhaps gives insight into when the Abraham traditions were assembled.

The Chaldeans as an ethnic group only show up around the beginning of the first millennium BCE. Ur was under their rule only commencing with the Chaldean Neo-Babylonian dynasty in the seventh century BCE.

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The narrative "hypothesis" behind the Gospels

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Hypothesis of the Gospels (Ian N. Mills)

An author's summary of Ian N. Mills, The Hypothesis of the Gospels: Narrative Traditions in Hellenistic Reading Culture. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2025.

We do not have to wonder whether early readers of the gospels used the same mental model to understand the pluriform narrative tradition about Jesus. Irenaeus, Clement, Origen, Epiphanius, and Eusebius make explicit use of hypothesis language to describe, limit, and legitimize the multiplicity of gospels. The same authors and other early readers, I argue, use the title “gospel” to refer to the narrative hypothesis that they imagined constituting the narrative tradition about Jesus.

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Les stèles puniques de Carthage au musée du Louvre

THE AWOL BLOG: Les stèles puniques de Carthage au musée du Louvre: Des offrandes à Tanit et à Baal Hammon.

An open-access online catalogue of the Carthaginian Punic steles in the Louvre, produced by Hélène Le Meaux et al.

Cross-file under Punic Watch.

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A Sifiting Project staff profile

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: STAFF SPOTLIGHT: EMUNAH ASPIR.

Meet Emunah Aspir, a 19-year-old bat sherut bodeda from Teaneck, New Jersey, currently volunteering through the Aminadav organization with the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem. ...

At the Sifting Project, Emunah has uncovered a series of remarkable artifacts ...

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The last Hasmonean princess

HANUKKAH IS COMING: Miriam: The Last Jewish Princess. The Hanukkah miracle sparked a century of Jewish sovereignty—and a princess whose marriage to Herod turned glory into tragedy. Miriam’s life is the Hasmonean dynasty’s final flame. (Avi Abrams, Aish.com).

At the very end of that dynasty stood one extraordinary woman: Miriam, the last Jewish princess, the crown jewel of Judean royalty. Her life plays out like a Greek tragedy in Hebrew letters: heroic, dramatic, and ultimately heartbreaking, a portrait of Jewish dignity caught between the fading glory of the Hasmoneans and the rising shadow of Herod the Great.

This "Miriam" is better known as Mariamne, but also as Mariamme and even Marianne.

This biographical essay is based on Josephus' account of her life, which we should receive with some caution. Josephus tends to write from an omniscient narrator perspective, sometimes repeating news as fact which he couldn't possibly have checked. For example, I imagine he gives us a reasonably accurate account of the accusations against Mariamne and her sons, but he couldn't have known whether any of them were true. Granted, Herod was crazy enough that the distinction may not have made much difference to their fates.

For notice of another account of Mariamne's life which also takes into account Talmudic legends, see here. And there are some links to follow as well. For more on Herod's ancestral background and his religion, see here.

Mariamne's Hanukkah connection is that she was the last Hasmonean to have a royal role.

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Another review of Perrin, Lost Words and Forgotten Worlds

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls. An accessible introduction to the scrolls and their significance (Abigail Naidu ).

Lost Words and Forgotten Worlds: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls
By Andrew Perrin
(Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2025), 348 pp., 66 figs. (color & b/w photos, maps); $28.99 (paperback), $25.99 digital)

The headline is potentially confusing, since the 2010 book edited by Maxine Grossman also has the title Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls. More on that one here and links.

From the current review of Perrin's book:

With a clear and pedagogical style, Perrin methodically explains and unpacks these ancient artifacts, equipping the reader with the tools to explore them further. He frequently includes excerpts from the documents themselves, accompanied by comprehensive explanations that contextualize the contents and elucidate their significance. Non-specialist readers are guided through the issues that have dominated scrolls scholarship in recent decades, including the stability of biblical texts through centuries of transcription, the social landscape the scribes inhabited, and the archaeology of the site of Qumran near where the scrolls were discovered.

I noted another review of the book here.

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The Josephus Christianus project

THE AWOL BLOG: Josephus Christianus: The Reception of Josephus in Greek Christian Literature (2nd - 15th Cent. CE). A new, multi-institution project.

The project extends beyond mere identification of textual parallels. We are conducting in-depth historical and philological analyses of how Christian authors integrated, modified, and appropriated Josephus' writings. This includes examining famous cases like the Testimonium Flavianum—a controversial passage in Jewish Antiquities that mentions Jesus—as well as countless other, less studied instances of Christian engagement with Josephus' texts. While recent scholarship has made great progress in understanding Josephus' Latin reception, the Greek tradition has received comparatively less attention.

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Who goads God in the Aqedah?

PROF. KRISTEN H. LINDBECK: The Satan Provokes God into Testing Job and Abraham (TheTorah.com).

Why would God make righteous people suffer just to test their faithfulness? With Job, the Bible is explicit that it was in response to Satan’s challenge, but what about Abraham? Jubilees (2nd cent. C.E.), and later the Talmud and midrash, reimagine the Akedah to have been instigated by Mastema, the Satan, or jealous angels. The midrash goes further and envisions the demon Samael tempting Abraham to make him fail.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Aqedah (the binding of Isaac, Genesis 22), see here and links. For more on Abraham in the Book of Jubilees, see here and here. For a bit of background on Mastema, see here.

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Dream divination in the Exagoge of Ezekiel

OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH:

Signs of Dream Divination in the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian, 68–89: Hypotexts, Tragedy, and Jewish Creativity in the Hellenistic Period

Scott B. Noegel https://doi.org/10.4000/158jz

Aitia. Regards sur la culture hellénistique au XXIe siècle 15 | 2025

ABSTRACT

The dream sequence found in the Exagoge of Ezekiel (68-89) has long captured the attention of scholars who have seen it as either typical of Greek tragedy, representative of an early merkavah tradition, engaging in haggadic midrash, an investiture story, or a polemic against Enochic traditions. Classicists also have pointed to numerous parallels from Greek and Jewish literary traditions that might have informed the play. However, what has hitherto gone unnoticed is that Raguel’s interpretation of Moses’ dream conforms to a number of conventions for reporting enigmatic dreams in ancient Near Eastern literature. Of specific interest is Ezekiel’s use of polysemy and paronomasia to tie the dream to its interpretation. In the wider Near East, this hermeneutical strategy derives from divinatory practice generally, and consequently features in dream omen manuals and literary reports of dream interpretation.

This peer-reviewed open-access article is technical (assumes you read Greek), but between the abstract, the introduction, and the conclusion, you can get the gist of the argument. You also need to know what polysemy and paranomasia mean.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Ezekiel the Tragedian's Hellenistic-era play The Exagoge, see here and links.

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Review of Rosenblum, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig

BOOK REVIEW: 'A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig': A Hebrew, Talmud, rabbinic expert goes ‘whole hog.’ At the beginning of the Second Temple period, in the Persian era of the 4th to 5th centuries BCE, pigs did not have a unique status; other animals were viewed as equally non-kosher (ARI ZIVOTOFSKY, Jerusalem Post).

In his book A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig, author Jordan D. Rosenblum shares more than two decades’ worth of research. He explains that at the beginning of the Second Temple period, in the Persian era of the 4th to 5th centuries BCE, pigs did not have a unique status; other non-kosher items were viewed as non-kosher as the pig. But by the time of the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, the pig was king of non-kosher and had taken on its role as uber non-kosher.

I noted the publication of the book here.

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Ezra and Nehemiah According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation (Gorgias)

NEW BOOK FROM GORGIAS PRESS:

Ezra and Nehemiah According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation

English Translation by Professor John Healey; Text Prepared by George Anton Kiraz & Joseph Bali

Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4374-6

Formats *
Cloth (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-4374-6
eBook PDF (In Print) ISBN 978-1-4632-4817-8 on Gorgias Mobile App (Glassboxx)

Publication Status: In Print
Series: Surath Kthob 11
Publication Date: Sep 15,2025
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Page Count: 300
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4374-6
Price: $150.00 (USD)
Your price: $120.00 (USD)

Overview

This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Healey has translated the text, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.

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De Vos, The Pseudo-Clementine Tradition (CUP)

NEW BOOK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Pseudo-Clementine Tradition

The Hermeneutics of Late-Ancient Sophistic Christianity

Series: Elements in Early Christian Literature
Author: Benjamin M. J. De Vos, Ghent University
Published: October 2025
Availability: Available
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781009506700

£55.00 GBP
Hardback

£18.00 GBP
Paperback

$23.00 USD
eBook

Description

This Element, through detailed example, scrutinizes the exact nature of Christian storytelling in the case of the Greek Pseudo-Clementines, or Klementia, and examines what exactly is involved in the correct interpretation of this Christian prose fiction as a redefined pepaideumenos. In the act of such reconsideration of paideia, Greek cultural capital, and the accompanying reflections on prose literature and fiction, it becomes clear that the Klementinist exploits certain cases of intertextual and meta-literary reflections on the Greek novelistic fiction, such as Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe and Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Cleitophon, in order to evoke these reconsiderations of storytelling, interpretive hermeneutics, and one's role as a culturally Greek reader pepaideumenos. This Element argues that the Klementia bears witness to a rich, dynamic, and Sophistic context in which reflections on paideia, dynamics regarding Greek identity, and literary production were neatly intertwined with reflections on reading and interpreting truth and fiction.

Product details

Published: October 2025
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781009506700
Length: 102 pages
Dimensions: 229 × 152 × 8 mm
Weight: 0.287kg
Availability: Available

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On Aramaic in 2025

ARAMAIC WATCH: Aramaic – A Living Semitic Memory (Alexander A. Winogradsky Frenkel, Times of Israel Blogs). Also published in AINA.

At the heart of this patrimony lies Aramaic, the language of the Targum, the Talmud, and of Jesus. Aramaic is not an exotic relic. It is heard in the Kaddish in every Jewish community worldwide; it shapes Passover hymns, the Zohar, and the daily liturgy of Jews from Iraq and Syria. In Israel today, Aramaic is not perceived as foreign but as a part of Hebrew’s own breathing space. This proximity has encouraged a quiet but significant revival of interest: Bar-Ilan University, Hebrew University, Haifa, and Ben-Gurion University now study Jewish and Christian Neo-Aramaic dialects together. Researchers map the speech patterns of former communities from the Hakkari mountains, the Nineveh plain, and northern Iran, rediscovering a shared Semitic past in which Jewish and Syriac Christian bilingualism was common and natural.

A wide-ranging essay on the status of living Aramaic in Christian and Jewish communities worldwide on the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. Well worth a read.

Likewise, the Syriac Press has a long article on the current efforts of the Syriac Church (Catholic and Orthodox) to preserve and digitize Syriac manuscripts, including mention of the Department of Syriac Studies based in the Syriac Orthodox St. Aphrem Clerical School, currently in Damascus:

Syriac Manuscripts: Delving into a Rich Human Legacy.

In preserving, photographing, and digitizing these manuscripts, the Syriac Church is safeguarding its religious and spiritual legacy alongside a vast cultural, linguistic, and scientific heritage. Each manuscript offers a window into the intellectual life of past centuries, reflecting the dedication of scribes, scholars, and Church leaders who meticulously recorded knowledge for future generations. Through modern technology, these treasures are no longer confined to the walls of monasteries or patriarchal libraries — they can now be accessed, studied, and appreciated worldwide, ensuring that the wisdom, artistry, and history they contain continue to inspire and inform. In this way, the Church’s commitment to its manuscripts bridges the past and the present, transforming fragile pages into enduring sources of learning and cultural memory for generations to come.

Again, informative and well worth a read.

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More excavations in the Kingdom of Ugarit

ARCHAEOLOGY AND, HOPEFULLY, NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Unearthing the Birthplace of the Alphabet: Archaeologists Return After 14 Years of Silence (oguz kayra, Archeonews). HT the Bible Places Blog.

After more than a decade of silence, the ancient civilization of Ugarit, once one of the most influential trade hubs of the Late Bronze Age, is coming back into focus. Archaeologists have resumed excavations near Latakia, northwestern Syria, revealing long-buried layers of a city that shaped the cultural and linguistic history of the ancient world.

[...]

Good, find more texts!

Ugarit is, of course, not the birthplace of the alphabet. Current evidence puts that in the Sinai some centuries earlier than the Ugaritic Kingdom, although a case is currently being argued for alphabetic inscriptions in northern Syria in the mid-third millennium BCE.

A few PaleoJudaica posts on Ugarit and the Ugaritic language are here, here, and here. But it comes up often.

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Missing-women mysteries in NT manuscripts?

TEXTUAL CRITICISM: Two news items have just come up about textual variants in New Testament manuscripts that may remove one woman from a story and give us the lost name of another woman.

Manuscript Mystery. Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of John (Bible History Daily)

In her article entitled “The Mystery of Mary and Martha” in the Winter 2024 issue of BAR, Elizabeth Schrader Polczer points out that some early copies of John’s Gospel exhibit unusual treatments of the sisters of Lazarus, which together suggest that an early version circulated in which there was only one sister, Mary—sometimes thought to be Mary Magdalene—while Martha was added later.

The BAR article is behind the subscription wall, but this BHD essay has a good summary of it.

Researchers Restore Long-Lost Greek Woman to the Bible After 2,000 Years (Nisha Zahid, Greek Reporter). HT Rogue Classicism.

A Brigham Young University researcher says he has recovered the name of a woman whose identity vanished from the Bible for nearly two millennia. According to new findings, the woman addressed in 2 John, New Testament , was not an unnamed “elect lady,” as scholars long believed, but a Greek woman named Eclecte.

[...]

The book is Lincoln H. Blumell, Lady Eclecte: The Lost Woman of the New Testament (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2025). You can read a review of it here.

The Greek Reporter article is unclear about this, but the proposed reading of the name does appear in some NT manuscripts, so it is not just an emendation.

I would not bet the farm on either of these textual reconstructions, but they are worth noting.

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