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Friday, November 27, 2009 JESUS IN ENGLAND? I don't think so. Jesus 'may have visited England', says Scottish academicThis story is making the new rounds, although I have not been able to find the original press release. Yes, it is possible that Jesus visited England, insofar as England existed when Jesus lived and it was physically possible to get from the one place to the other. But, like the suggestion that Jesus visited India, there is no evidence for it apart from much later legends. And what's this about England being the "the forefront of learning 2,000 years ago?" Ever heard of Alexandria and Rome? Specialists in the study of the historical Jesus have enough difficulty inherent in their work and they will not thank someone whose expertise obviously lies elsewhere (Dr. Strachan is not listed as an academic staff member at the Edinburgh University School of Architecture, but he has taught courses there on "Sacred Geometry" and "Edward Irving and his Circle") muddying the water of the public arena with this sort of wild speculation. Naturally, the media lap it up utterly uncritically. The hymn is cool, but let's not get carried away. posted by Jim Davila | 9:38 AM THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE by Shlomo Sand is reviewed in the Independent by Stephen Howe: Shlomo Sand clearly intended his book as an explosive device, a big bang demolishing the myths of Jewishness on which both communal identity and Israeli state policies rest.We seem to have been reading different reviews (and I certainly can't claim to have looked at all of them). The ones I have seen have usually been critical, but thoughtfully so. Here's another one by David Goldberg in the Jewish Chronicle. Excerpt: Sand is not immune to similar zeitgeist factors. He rightly excoriates Zionist historiography that posits an unbroken continuum between the ancient Jewish homeland and its modern inhabitants in order to justify ownership of all the biblical territory. His particular beef is with geneticists who have “discovered” such ludicrous “facts” as the Jewish gene that is shared by Ashkenazim and Sephardim, or make the even more preposterous claim that a single chromosome is common to over 50 per cent of men surnamed Cohen.Background here. Some more recent information about genetic markers for the Jewish priesthood is here and here. posted by Jim Davila | 9:33 AM CONGRATULATIONS TO STEVEN FINE AND HAYIM TAWIL: YU Professors Fine and Tawil Make Mark on Jewish Studies Literature Sceneposted by Jim Davila | 9:12 AM Thursday, November 26, 2009 OH, AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING TOO. posted by Jim Davila | 2:30 PM ADMINISTRIVIA, please ignore: 2F5VRBBCH5DB MXHCKB3M43EV posted by Jim Davila | 10:36 AM DO TELL. Scientist says to be 'very careful' when interpreting writing on Shroud of Turin. Dr. John P. Jackson, director of the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado, told CNA, “you have to be very careful when interpreting these things.” He cited the example of an image on the Shroud thought to have been the rope which led Jesus to Calvary which, under scientific investigation, turned out to be nothing more than a watermark.Background here. posted by Jim Davila | 10:28 AM IN THE MAIL: Eugene Ulrich (ed.), The Biblical Qumran Scrolls (VTSup 134; Leiden: Brill, 2010) (Not yet on Amazon. Includes my work on the Cave IV Genesis-Exodus manuscripts.)posted by Jim Davila | 9:52 AM Wednesday, November 25, 2009 I'M BACK IN ST. ANDREWS. More tomorrow. posted by Jim Davila | 9:24 PM Tuesday, November 24, 2009 GOOD SBL 2009 CONFERENCE. The best part is always catching up with the people, although this year the food gave them some competition. I lived in New Orleans for a few years a long time ago and on this trip I made sure to visit some of my favorite places. I've been posting food pictures on Facebook, but I'll spare you that. One of the most interesting things that happened at the conference was this morning, when I saw Stephen Pfann in the book display area and he showed me pictures of the inscribed stone cup from the Mt. Zion excavation. Most of it is written in one or more cryptic scripts, one of which is related to Cryptic A from Qumran. Most of the text remains undeciphered as yet, but what can be read at the beginning has some resemblance to Psalm 26. That's all I'm free to repeat at present. Background here (and follow the links back) and here. I'm in the New Orleans Airport right now and my first flight leaves in a little over an hour. posted by Jim Davila | 3:15 PM THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE by Shlomo Sand is reviewed by Patricia Cohen in the NYT. Excerpt: Despite the fragmented and incomplete historical record, experts pretty much agree that some popular beliefs about Jewish history simply don’t hold up ...Again, I haven't read the book, but this looks like a careful and dispassionate treatment of it. Background here. posted by Jim Davila | 5:05 AM Monday, November 23, 2009 AN ARABIC TRANSLATION of a book on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Yarmouk University DSS dss@yu.edu.jo:Well done! I hope we see more of this sort of thing. (From the Agade list.) posted by Jim Davila | 8:50 PM Sunday, November 22, 2009 ENOCH SEMINAR NEWS: There are three new initiatives of the Enoch Seminar in the works. 1. 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism Research. The Encyclopedia aims to offer a comprehensive introduction to scholarly research in Second Temple Judaism (or from the Babylonian Exile to the Bar-Kokhba Revolt). It includes biographies of Scholars and Authors as well as abstracts of scholarly and fictional Works on the period, from the 16th century to the present.2. A sixth Enoch Seminar is planned for 2011. The Chair, Matthias Henze of Rice University, informs me that: Our topic will be "2 Baruch and 4 Ezra: Jewish Apocalypticism in Late First Century Israel." The Seminar will take place June 26-30, 2011 (i.e., one week before the international SBL in London) in the Villa Sacro Cuore in Triuggio, just outside of Milan, Italy. The opening evening will be at the Ambrosiana Library, where we will be shown the famed Syriac manuscript that contains 2 Baruch, as well as several other treasures.Attendance is by invitation only. 3. The Third Enoch Graduate Seminar will be held in Budapest, Hungary on 19-24 JULY, 2010 and is currently accepting paper proposals from postgraduates. A fourth Enoch Graduate Seminar is also planned for 2012 at the University of Notre Dame. For further information on the Enoch Seminar and Enoch Graduate Seminars, see the Enoch Seminar website. posted by Jim Davila | 5:42 AM Saturday, November 21, 2009 THE PERSEPOLIS FORTIFICATION ARCHIVE PROJECT ANNUAL REPORT is available with hyperlinks at Payvand. Background here with links. UPDATE: That version is pirated. Chuck Jones e-mails: The Payvand copy of the Persepolis Annual Report is an unattributed copy of what I posted here http://persepolistablets.blogspot.com/2009/11/persepolis-fortification-archive.html on November 12th. "Mine" is an authorized republication (with reformatting and hyperlinks added by me) of an article under copyright by the Oriental Institute.Thanks for doing so. posted by Jim Davila | 7:16 AM MORE ON THOSE SUPPOSED SHROUD-OF-TURIN INSCRIPTIONS in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, which are starting to get some media attention. This is from the Scotsman: Professor Frale has published a new book, The Shroud of Jesus the Nazarene, which claims an archaic script that appears on parts of the material was written by low-ranking Roman officials or mortuary clerks on a scroll or piece of papyrus to identify Christ's corpse.I will look at the evidence with great interest when it becomes available and will maintain a skeptical open mind in the meantime. But I do note the rule of thumb that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't so, which is widely applicable in life if you want to stay out of trouble. Background here. posted by Jim Davila | 7:04 AM A MAP OF ARCHAEOLOGY SITES has won an award at the ASOR meetings, which are taking place here in New Orleans alongside of SBL: Archaeologists publish first map of contested sites in Middle Eastposted by Jim Davila | 6:54 AM |
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