Leviticus 16 Als Mitte Der Tora
Rolf Rendtorff

Gazing Back At the Shulammite, Yet Again
Athalya Brenner

Seeing Solomon's Palanquin (Song of Songs 3:6-11)
J. Cheryl Exum

Proving Yahweh Killed His Wife (Zechariah 5:5-11)
Diana Edelman

Ezra-nehemiah as a Narrative of (re-invented) Israelite Identity
Philip F. Esler

Israel's Holy Seed and the Foreign Women of Ezra-nehemiah: a Kristevan Reading
Harold C. Washington

'Rouzing the Faculties to Act': William Blake, Merkabah Mysticism, the Theology of Liberation and the Exegetical Importance of Experience
Christopher Rowland

��� Although many have wished to consign the "James Ossuary" to the dust heap of history, it continues to engender passionate comment. My own position on this artifact is still undecided. However, I do not believe that the ossuary, if authentic, tells us much that we did not already know from Galatians, one of the earliest, and most unquestionably authentic of the Pauline epistles, which refers to "James the Lord's brother" (1:19). The most the ossuary can do is confirm something that no one has seriously doubted.

��� If I do choose this moment to enter the discussion, it is because several comments have been made about the Aramaic dialect of this inscription, which are unfounded or misleading. These comments center on the second part of the inscription that reads ahuy d'Yeshua, "brother of Jesus." It has been claimed that certain elements of this phrase are uncharacteristic of first-century Aramaic.

[Detailed grammatical analysis follows.]

��� In summation, the short phrase ahuy d'Yeshua in the James Ossuary is perfectly acceptable Aramaic for the first century CE. Its morphology and its syntax are consistent with expected developments in Aramaic and are paralleled by other occurrences in other texts from the same period or earlier.

��� Is the James Ossuary authentic? Maybe, maybe not. But any final answer will have to come on non-linguistic grounds.

The movie is based on the story of Jacob, Esau and caught in the middle their cousin Hamor. It begins after Jacob (Sotigui Kouyat�) learns that his son Joseph is dead, and he has his family in mourning over the loss. Only Rebecca his wife is tired of being in mourning and asks her daughter Dinah (Fatoumata Diawara) to wash the bloodied robe that Joseph's brother brought back as proof. Esau and his tribe of hunters are shadowing Jacob, waiting for the right moment to strike.

At the same time Hamor's son kidnaps Dinah and takes her virginity, and falls in love with her, so now he wants to marry her. Jacob and his 12 sons will not allow it unless the two tribes become one. To do that Hamor's tribe must circumcise all the males. When they do, Jacob's 12 sons invade the tribe and kill the entire line of Hamor. For that Dinah goes crazy and Hamor decides, too much blood has been shed, it is time for compromise.

While they converge for peace talks, Esau plans his attack. In the night we see how Jacob fights the angel of the Lord, and how Esau spares his life, and how Jacob's name is changed to Israel.

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean � a Congregationalist Christian who said he prays almost daily and reads the Bible but rarely attends church these days unless it is for a political event � compared some fundamentalist leaders to the Pharisees, an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of religious law but who have come to be associated with self-righteousness.

Scholars say Jesus box may be genuine (CNN)

Tuesday, November 25, 2003 Posted: 1526 GMT (11:26 PM HKT)

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A purported first-century inscription naming Jesus may or may not be the real thing, but Israel's labeling of the find as a fake is premature, scientists and scholars said at a panel discussion.

[...]

Panelists, speaking in Atlanta at the annual joint conference of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature on Sunday, said authorities should examine the box more closely before passing judgment.

"I don't know for sure whether this is a forged inscription, and I'm sort of cast as a defender of the inscription. I'm not," said moderator Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archeology Review, which published the initial findings. "What I do know is, Israeli authorities have badly managed the affair."

[...]

The hard, brown patina that covers the box could not be found on the inscription, where a soft, grayish chalk-and-water paste had been applied instead to imitate weathering, the [antiquities] authority said.

James Harrell, a geologist at the University of Toledo and member of the Association for the Study of Marble and Other Stones in Antiquity, said his analysis of the inscription suggests the missing patina could simply be the result of overcleaning -- not forgery.

Shanks said experts from the antiquities authority declined to speak at the forum.

[...]

Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Amir Ganor said the James ossuary investigation has expanded to encompass Bible-era archaeological artifacts collected over the past 15 years by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

[...]

In a presentation at the conference, [archaeologist Yuval] Goren described the "Jerusalem Syndrome" of forged relics, a reference to a similarly named psychological ailment afflicting tourists who visit Jerusalem and then become convinced they are characters from the Bible. Focusing on four cases of dubious artifacts, including the James ossuary, he listed common characteristics of fakes from the last decade:

� Publication or planned publication of the relic in Biblical Archaeology Review.

� Authentication of the relic's age by Geological Survey of Israel scientists and the inscription by paleographer Andr� Lemaire of Paris' Sorbonne University.

� Comments by outside experts that it's too good to be true.

"Our discipline may be contaminated to some extent by more such fakes," Goren warned. Past forgeries accepted as real suggest the science of paleography is "a fool's paradise," he said, useless for authenticating any inscriptions.

FYI: Raphael Patai Prize in Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

The Jewish Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society and the
Committee on the Anthropology of Jews and Judaism of the American Anthropological Association invites submissions of papers and publications from students for the Raphael Patai Prize in Jewish Folklore and Ethnology. The Prize recognizes scholarship from 2000 to 2003 from students in undergraduate and graduate programs who have done research in Jewish folklore and ethnology, including studies of expressive culture and social contexts in Jewish communities across the globe. The award includes a cash
prize and certificate. Send entries BEFORE DECEMBER 30, 2003 with a cover letter indicating program of study to:

Professor Simon J. Bronner
School of Humanities
The Pennsylvania State University
777 West Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, PA 17057-4898
sbronner@psu.edu 717-948-6724 (fax)

A colleague of mine received your list message and brought it to my attention. I am the excavator of the site in Shuafat, Jerusalem.� The article in the Jerusalem Post was quite superficial�and I wanted to pass on some more info to whom ever is interested.�
�
The settlement is a single layer site with the origins dating to the second half of the first cent. CE.� It was likely built in�relation to the Roman road which�linked�Jerusalem to Nablus. This site is situated approximately at the place of the third mile from Jerusalem.�We identified�it as a Jewish village on the basis of the extensive�assemblage of stone vessels�deriving�insitu on floors and in fills including many "Qalal"�shapes.�The�latest pottery attributed to this layer dates to the first half of the 2nd�cent. CE.� The coins include a few Hasmonean (a late Hellenistic layer was not found though Herodian pottery was found in a few loci but not a substantial amount), post-Revolt coins up to 2nd cent though lacking Bar Kochva mint.� We did not find mikveot but we only excavated a strip 4.5 m in width (the total length was around 220 m).� The remains of at least two bathhouses were seen and possible third identified by a fill of tubuli and bricks (not insitu) in a single room. We found five ceramic inkwells in one room and a horde of glass bottles in another.� That's about it right now. I would be happy to answer any questions anyone may have.
�
My email is:� debbies@israntique.org.il
�
Yours,
Debbie Sklar-Parnes
Israel Antiquities Authority

The American Society of Papyrology
APIS
ABZU
Texts, Manuscripts and Palaeography (Jay Treat)
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (literary texts, but includes magical papyri)
John Muccigrosso's Papyrology Home Page (stops at the year 2000)
University of Michigan Papyrus Collection
Duke Data Bank of Documentary Papyri
Oxyrhynchus Online
Kraft's gopher papyri page
Unidentified Jewish and Christian Papyri (Kraft)
Kraft, "Textual Mechanics of Early LXX/OG papyri"

Stephen Kaufman: Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon

Steve Tinney: Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary

Traianos Gagos: APIS (Advanced Papyrological Information System, on which see also above)