Early Judaism (2nd Temple, Greco-Roman)

Over the past fifty years, archaeological excavations in Israel have unearthed about half a dozen ancient synagogues that were in use at different points in time between the first century BCE through the outbreak of the Bar-Kochba rebellion early in the second century of the Common Era.  In close proximity to each of these synagogues, a mikveh (ritual bath) has been discovered.  In contrast, no mikvaot have been discovered adjacent to any of the dozens of later synagogues that have been excavated and studied, with only one or two possible exceptions. 
At this point it is impossible to determine exactly when mikvaot ceased to be built in connection with synagogues, as the archaeological record reports very little about synagogues of the late second - early third century CE.  From an archaeological perspective, it is clear that at least from the second half of the third century, synagogues began to be built without regard for proximity to mikvaot.
Talmudic sources make no mention of a requirement to build mikvaot adjacent to synagogues. To date, no satisfactory explanation has been given for the evident connection between the synagogue and the mikveh in the early period, and the disappearance of such a connection in later periods of synagogue history. The objective of this paper is to present and explore a possible interpretation of this puzzling phenomenon.
  During the Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods, a rabbinical enactment was in effect requiring mikveh ablutions prior to engagement in Torah study and prayer for individuals who had experienced seminal emission. Careful study of the Talmudic sources reveals that this enactment was nullified early in the Amoraic Period, sometime during the second quarter of the third century CE.
It would appear that the mikvaot built adjacent to the earlier synagogues were intended for this precise function, serving visitors to the synagogue who required ritual ablutions prior to Torah study and prayer.  Once the rabbinical enactment regarding these ablutions was nullified, there was no longer need for such mikvaot, and hence the absence of mikvaot in proximity to the later synagogues.

"This book is the first-ever monograph on the family of royal converts from Adiabene including the broader perspective of the cultural and political environment of Hellenistic and Parthian Adiabene. It collects, arranges and discusses all available sources on the topic.
The study consists of three parts. Part 1 (chapters 1-5) is devoted to the longest ancient account on the Adiabene royalty from all ancient literature – Josephus, Ant. 20:17-96 (“the Adiabene Narrative”). It examines the Adiabene narrative as Josephus’ conscious literary product with all its rhetorical features and ideological agendas.
Part 2 (chapters 6-7) deals with other sources about the family of royal converts from Adiabene. Chapter 6 is devoted to Rabbinic traditions about Queen Helena and King Munbaz. Chapter 7 discusses all Jewish and non-Jewish literary sources which refer to the resting place of Queen Helena and to the palaces of the Adiabene royalty in Jerusalem, what is more, it also provides an updated discussion of relevant archaeological sites in Jerusalem (Le Tombeau des Rois and the Givati Parking Lot).
Part 3 (chapters 8-13) presents the material and political environment of Adiabene from the third century BCE to the third century CE. It discusses all available kinds of sources: geographical and ethnographical texts (chapter 8), archaeological sites (chapter 9), epigraphic and numismatic material (chapter 10), as well as onomastic evidence (chapter 11). Furthermore, chapter 12 provides a basic chronology of the Adiabene royalty in the Hellenistic and Parthian periods, and chapter 13 presents the political environment of Adiabene and Judea in the context of the international relations between Rome and Parthia."
P.S.
So far reviewed by K. Atkinson, Biblica 96 (2015) 635-638; D.M. Jacobson, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 147 (2015) 169-170; E. Kettenhofen, Anabasis. Studia Classica et Orientalia 6 (2015) 297-307; E. Lipiński, Polish Journal of Biblical Research 14 (2015) 201-207;  D.M. Downing, Journal of American Oriental Studies 137 (2017) 428-430; E. Nodet, Revue Biblique 122-124 (2015) 634-635; K. Berthelot, Syria 94 (2017) 415-416; J.-S. Caillou, L’Antiquité Classique 86 (2017) 517-519.

This book is an analysis of early Jewish thought on human nature, specifically, the complex of characteristics that are understood to be universally innate, and/or God-given, to collective humanity and the manner which they depict human existence in relationship, or lack thereof, to God.
Jewish discourse in the Greco-Roman period (4th c. BCE until 1st c. CE) on human nature was not exclusively particularistic, although the immediate concern was often communal-specific. Evidence shows that many of these discussions were also an attempt to grasp a general, or universal, human nature. The focus of this work has been narrowed to three categories that encapsulate the most prevalent themes in Second Temple Jewish texts, namely, creation, composition, and condition.
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This book is intended as a practical tool to facilitate access to the Qumran collection of Dead Sea Scrolls. As such, it is primarily intended for classroom use and for the benefit of specialists from other disciplines (scholars working on the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament or Rabbinic literature, specialists on Semitic languages, on the History of Judaism or on the History of Religions, among others) who need a reliable compendium of all the relevant materials found in this collection. As such, it is not intended to compete with, let alone to replace, the editio princeps of the materials published in the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert or outside this series, or the preliminary publications of materials which have not yet appeared in the DJD Series. The plates printed in the critical editions, as well as the transcriptions, translations and commentaries of the first editors are, and will always remain, the basis of all serious work on the Scrolls.
Whereas the evidence of the biblical manuscripts from Qumran will be shortly available in The Qumran Bible by E. Ulrich, this book offers a fresh transcription and an English translation of all the relevant non-biblical texts found at Qumran, arranged by serial number from Cave 1 to Cave 11. By biblical scrolls we understand here the copies of the books that subsequently emerged as the traditional Hebrew Bible, as well as the remains of tefillin and mezuzot which only contain quotations of those biblical books. In several cases the distinction between biblical and non-biblical texts is not clear-cut. Thus, the so-called Reworked Pentateuch consists mainly of the biblical text of the pentateuchal books, be it sometimes in a different order, but also has some sections with material that is not included in the Hebrew Bible; likewise, we have included the non-biblical psalms from the Psalms Scrolls 4Q88, 11Q5 and 11Q6. Not included are the scant remains of Ben Sira from Cave 2. The inclusion in the edition of these ‘additions’ does not imply a judgment on their ‘biblical’ or ‘non-biblical’ character. In three cases we have included texts not found at Qumran, but related to manuscripts from Qumran; this goes for the remains of the mediaeval copies of the Damascus Document and the Aramaic Levi Document found in the Cairo Genizah, and for the copy of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice recovered at Masada.
The transcriptions of the material included in this edition are fresh transcriptions made by the authors, though it is a very pleasant duty to recognize the debt to all previous work by teachers and colleagues. Our transcriptions rely not only on the identification and placement of the many tens of thousands of fragments achieved by the original editors of the non-biblical scrolls, who arranged the fragments for the photographs made by the Palestine Archaeological Museum in the 1950s and 1960s, and the subsequent editions of these materials by the original editors, but also on all the editions done by other scholars.
Although we have consulted the available editions of the individual manuscripts, the responsibility for the transcriptions here presented is entirely ours. We have checked all the proposed readings against the photographs accessible to us: the photographs provided by the published editions, the photographs included in the Brill microfiche edition and the photographs available in the Oxford-Brill’s CDROM. In most cases one will find no or few significant differences from other transcriptions because these readings are imposed by the univocal manuscript evidence. In the case of ambiguous manuscript evidence, and in view of the practical purpose of this book, we have often adopted the suggestions of previous editors, rather than presenting alternative readings for the sake of originality and difference, even when such readings would be palaeographically or otherwise possible. The restorations of the text offered in the transcriptions are on the whole relatively sparse. The main exceptions are reconstructions based upon the preserved text of parallel copies of the same manuscript.
A considerable part of the materials was already accessible in translation in The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated. That translation has served as the base-text of the translations presented in this edition, but has been thoroughly checked and corrected by the authors. Of the greatest help for this revision was the Dutch translation by A.S. van der Woude included in F. García Martínez & A.S. van der Woude, De Rollen van de Dode Zee Ingeleid en in het Nederlands vertaald (Kampen: Kok, 1994, 1995). Although we have consulted most other translations of individual manuscripts, the responsibility for the translations here presented is also ours. The practical purpose of the book has shaped the final translation: to a large extent literal, neutral and close to the transcribed text, even if the outcome lacks finesse and is less fluent than some other presently available translations. On the whole the translation aims to be a translation of the transcribed text on the facing page. Exceptions have been made for texts like Tobit, Jubilees and 1 Enoch, where the translation fills in the lacunae on the basis of the known non-Hebrew versions for the benefit of the readers. Although we have tried to be generally consistent in the translation of technical terms, we have not established a chart of translation-equivalents to avoid imposing an uniform meaning upon texts which may be of different origin or of different epochs. Other differences of translation, and also, to some extent, method of transcription, may be attributed to the procedure followed by the authors: each author prepared his own lot, and revised the lot of the other author.
The practical purpose of the book has also governed the selection and the presentation of the materials. We have selected the materials on the basis of their extensiveness  and interest, discarding most of the minute fragments which add little to our knowledge. On some occasions we have hesitantly opted for the inclusion of very small and insignificant fragments, only to provide some idea of the material remains of certain compositions, and in order not to leave too many entries empty. On the other hand, larger but, in our opinion, less interesting fragments from manuscripts have been omitted. This means that, in general, we present the largest fragments of a manuscript, and a selection of the smaller ones. Even so, many Q numbers from the different caves are exclusively made up of  unidentified or unclassified fragments, and we have not attempted to reproduce these snippets. In spite of this, we consider this edition relatively complete for the nonbiblical scrolls, and as such it could be useful as a companion volume with transcriptions and translations for the users of the microfiche or the CD-ROM editions of the photographs of the manuscripts.
This same practical purpose has governed the presentation of the transcriptions. We have avoided all diacritical marks which indicate the degree of certainty of a reading. Readings which in our view are sufficiently assured or have a high degree of probability, even if the remains are minimal, are transcribed outside square brackets. When we are not reasonably assured of a reading, we have noted the letter within square brackets, as a reconstruction, or replaced it by one or more dots. We have not reproduced the extent of lacunae; three dots within square brackets ([…]) indicate any amount of missing text and three dots outside square brackets (]…[) any amount of unreadable (either undecipherable or meaningless) letters or words. Readings corrected by a copyist are indicated within accolades. The text printed within accolades ({…}) may represent erasures, letters with cancellation dots, or text otherwise marked by the copyist as not to be read. One particular type of scribal correction, the overwriting and reshaping of individual letters, has not always been presented in the transcription. The indication vacat in the transcription, and Blank in the translation, indicate any amount of space left blank in the manuscript, either intentionally (as indication of a new paragraph) or accidentally. Words written above the line or in Palaeohebrew characters in the manuscript are reproduced as such in our transcription. In only a limited number of cases we have indicated obvious mistakes in the text which have not been corrected by the copyist. Text presented within angled brackets (< >) was written in the manuscripts, but should, in our opinion, be read otherwise or be deleted. Text within round brackets either presents our addition to the text, or indicates our corrected reading of the preceding word or words.
The materials are arranged according to cave and serial number. For the materials which do not have a serial number (1QIsaa, 1QIsab, 1QHa, 1QM, 1QS, 1QapGen, 1QpHab, and the three included non-Qumranic texts)

Analysis of one type of intersexuals in tannaitic literature (the androgynos) arguing that the early rabbis know three sexes but only 2 genders. A comparison between the Tosefta Bikkurim and the post-tannaitic Baraita inserted into some manuscripts as fourth chapter of Mishna Bikkurim shows in my eyes that two different attitudes, one tending to a certain feminization of the androgynos (Baraita)as opposed to the Tosefta.

Der erste Teil einer unveröffentlichten Einleitung zu den Test XII. Das Manuskript bedarf der Umarbeitung. Stand: ca 2006. Erscheinungsdatum: offen. Neue Ideen lassen sich hier wohl trotzdem finden. Zitation möglich (nach Paragraphenzählung).

Although Fourth Ezra and Second Baruch roughly date to the same era (late 1st to mid-2nd century) and respond to the same catastrophe (destruction of the Second Temple), use the same narrative device of pseudepigraphy and narrative foil (destruction of the First Temple), it has been noted that their theologies and theodicies are markedly different. In addition, the narrative point of view also differs, informed as it is by the chosen narrator personae. Baruch is actually located in Jerusalem and near the Temple Mount in the wake of its destruction, whereas Ezra – by his own account – is removed in time (30 years after the destruction) and space (located in Babylonia). He is thus looking back and looking in.

This paper asks to what degree these different perspectives influence their portrayal of the city of Jerusalem.

It has now been published in: Interpreting 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. Jason Zurawski, ed. (proceedings volume of the 6th Enoch Seminar, held in Milan (Italy), 26-30 June 2011). London/New York: T&T Clark, 2014: 138-152

Introduction to Messianic Judaism provides a description of what the Messianic Jewish community looks like today at its center and on its margins. The first section of the book traces the ecclesial contours of the community, providing a socio-historical and theological snapshot of the community's origins, where it is presently and where it is heading. Alongside these chapters, the book also includes a number of essays on biblical and theological issues central to the identity of Messianic Judaism. The twelve contributors to the first part of the book are recognized leaders in the Messianic Jewish community. They work with various organizations, including the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues, the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council, Tikkun International, Chosen People Ministries, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, Israel College of the Bible and the New School for Jewish Studies. Fourteen scholars from a wide spectrum of Christian backgrounds have written essays for the second part of the book. Their participation signals a growing academic and ecclesial interest in Messianic Judaism. Since the 1970s, a sea change has taken place in New Testament studies that has far-reaching implications for how the church evaluates Messianic Judaism. A broad reassessment of the New Testament writers’ view of Judaism has occurred since the publication of E. P. Sanders’s seminal work Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), and this reevaluation continues unabated. The contributors to the second part of Introduction to Messianic Judaism draw from this recent scholarship and demonstrate how post-supersessionist interpretation of the New Testament results in readings of the biblical text that are consistent with Messianic Judaism. The final section of the book is written by Joel Willitts who provides a summary and synthesis of the essays, explaining how they shed light on the ecclesial context and biblical foundations of Messianic Judaism.

In 2012 the Israel Antiquities Authority launched the new photographic digital database for Judaean Desert manuscripts, the Leon Levy Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Library (www.deadseascrolls.il). The site features new images of a large number of Qumran mss, with the promise of many more on the way, including for many of these fragments the first ever photographs in full colour. This paper illustrates how the new IAA photographs can assist efforts of manuscript identification, reconstruction and interpretation on a digital platform applied to one of the Cave 4Q copies of the War Scroll, 4QMa (4Q491). I will set special attention on the colour photographs and the usage of colour for increasing our knowledge about this scroll. First, I will very briefly introduce 4Q491, and its somewhat controversial history of scholarship. While the first editor identified and published the fragments all together as part of a single manuscript, others have since delivered persuasive arguments for the existence of two and even three separate scrolls among the fragments, and this is a matter that I will challenge directly through an investigation of the new digital images. Second, I will illustrate my study in two parts of the physical features of 4Q491, in a close examination of one set of fragment pieces—those assigned to frg. 11 i–ii. I will initially explore and identify patterns of damage in the overall shape of the fragment pieces and the composite whole, and will illustrate how these are most clearly discerned with the application of colour. Then I will use targeted colour selection of the RGB images to make digital transparencies of the fragments, which are a useful tool for precisely interpreting various types of surface damage. Third, the results of my physical examination of frg. 11 i–ii will be applied to the whole manuscript in terms of how to understand the scribal activity, how to classify its literary content, and finally how a new arrangement of the fragments affects the structure of the composition and its meaning.

The article deals with the Parokhet, the Jerusalem Temple vail, which separated between the Holy and the Holy of Holies. It discusses the parokhet's descriptions, makers and symbolism as they appear in the Rabbinic literature and in related texts. The article discusses the semiotic of the Parokhet as a feminine entity, and considers how it may have shed light on the symbolism of the Temple in general. Women were in charge of the making of the parokhet, and through this craft they took part in the Temple’s service. According to some 2nd century CE sources, the weavers of the parokhet were young girls, “little women”, whose femininity was still latent and not active. Some of the sources show affinity between the modest work of the weavers and the act of the creation of the world. 

מאמר זה עוסק בפרוכת של בית המקדש, זו שהפרידה בין הקודש ובין קודש הקודשים, בייצוגיה, באורגותיה ובסמליותה, כפי שעולה מספרות חז"ל ומהספרות הקרובה לה. המאמר עוסק בייצוגה הסמיוטי הנשי של הפרוכת, וכיצד הוא עשוי לזרוע אור על סמליותו של בית המקדש כולו. נשים היו אלה שארגו את הפרוכת ובכך השתתפו בעבודת הקודש. לפי מקורות אחדים מן המאה השנייה, אורגותיה של הפרוכת היו ילדות, נשים קטנות, שנשיותן עודה בכוח ולא בפועל. מן המקורות שנידונו במאמר עולה  הקבלה, ולו עקיפה ובלתי מפורשת, בין מלאכתן הצנועה ובין מלאכת בריאת העולם.

The story of Cain and Abel records the first ever offering made to God. The question that quickly rises to the surface when reading Gen. 4.3-7 is: What was wrong with Cain's offering? Why did God reject it? God's seeming capriciousness in rejecting one sacrifice over the other creates a theological problem. The problem is compounded by Abel's murder. Since Cain's act of fratricide is precipitated by God's unexplained rejection of the sacrifice which resulted in Cain's anger, God becomes complicit in the act. These problems opened the door for ancient interpreters to expand and rework the story in a way that exonerated God of appearing capricious and, by extension, complicit in Abel's murder. This article traces the interpretive approaches used by Jewish and Christian exegetes to respond to a theological problem created by gaps in the narrative.

Problems of theodicy mark both the book of Job and the Testament of Job (T. Job). While Job has traditionally been hailed as “Job the patient,” biblical scholars have often found reason to doubt the validity of the epithet with respect to the book of Job. Whereas in the book of Job the exemplary character of Job’s response to his suffering is ambiguous, T. Job does portray Job as a moral exemplar to be imitated. This paper argues that T. Job describes a path of paideia as Job learns patience and dispassion through his suffering. Drawing on themes current in Hellenistic popular philosophy—particularly the theme of renunciation and athletic metaphor—T. Job narrates the process by which Job gradually learns apatheia and loses his attachment to the sources of his suffering. Job’s path has both horizontal and vertical trajectories. Where Hellenistic philosophy is teleologically oriented, Job’s patience is ultimately eschatologically oriented. At the same time, he is given the means of participating in the heavenly or angelic life while on earth, which may mirror philosophical ascent or assimilation to God. Through his philosophical detachment, eschatological hope, and mystical transformation, Job’s paideia through suffering itself functions as a pedagogical model for other righteous sufferers.

In Chapter 2, Paul gives us a powerful, even poetic declaration of the eternal divine nature of Yeshua and his place as one with the One God of Israel. Many scholars understand that a full acceptance of Yeshua’s divine nature and union with the One God of Israel, referred to as a “High Christology,” was a development of the Nicene Council of the fourth century c.e. and later Church councils. Yet in the Messianic hymn of 2:5–11, Paul presents Yeshua as the divine Messiah, the One God of Israel becoming a human being, in a letter written around 65 c.e. This Messianic hymn clearly shows that Paul and the earliest Messianic Community proclaimed a “High Christology” almost 300 years before Nicaea.

from the 2010 conference, to be published in in ‘And God Breathed into Man the Breath of Life’ – Dust of the Ground and Breath of Life (Gen 2.7): The Development of a Dualistic Anthropology in Early Judaism and Christianity, and Their Umwelts (ed. J.T.A.G.M. van Ruiten and G.H. van Kooten; Themes in Biblical Narrative; Leiden: Brill, forthcoming)

Courtney J. P. Friesen explores shifting boundaries of ancient religions by way of the reception of a popular tragedy, Euripides’ Bacchae . As a play staging political crises provoked by the arrival of the “foreign” god Dionysus and his ecstatic cult, audiences and readers found resonances with their own cultural moments. This dramatic deity became emblematic of exuberant and liberating spirituality and, at the same time, a symbol of imperial conquest. Thus, readings of the Bacchae frequently foreground conflicts between religious autonomy and political authority, and between ethnic diversity and social cohesion. This cross-disciplinary study traces appropriations and evocations of this drama ranging from the fifth century BCE through Byzantium not only among “pagans” but also Jews and Christians. Writers variously articulated their religious visions over against Dionysus, often while paradoxically adopting the god’s language and symbols. Consequently, imitation and emulation are at times indistinguishable from polemics and subversion.

Near Eastern Societies had started to constitute a syncretic culture after Aleksandros’ death by combining their own local traditions and Hellenism. In Roman Empire period, this synthesis had developed and the culture had ossified. One of the most important element of this cultural structure is magic. This tradiation presents daily life of people who lived in this period. Also ingredients which used for magical purpose provide a clue about socio-economical structure of this period and gods, godnesses and supernatural powers, mentioned in magical texts, reflect many details about religional tradiation. In addition, taxonomy over magic types which made according to using extensity, mirrors basic anxieties of the society.

References to baptism in the New Testament and the early church writings.

See related book on academia http://collegemhc.academia.edu/DanielKeeran/Books/446453/Ancient_and_Medieval_Baptismal_Fonts and at http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Medieval-Baptismal-Daniel-Keeran/dp/1441471618

Jesus und die Evangelisten standen in einer langen Geschichte mit dem jüdischen Liebesgebot. Hat Jesus etwas Neues gebracht? Ein Blick in die jüdische Denkwelt und die lebendigen Diskussionen seiner Zeit. – A semi-popular account of the love commandment in ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

The aim of this volume is to present a balanced description of preexistence in the contect of present exegetical and sytematic-theological Discours. The article about the idea of a preexistence Messiah (Schimanowski) develops my dissertation "Weisheit und Messias. Die jüdischen Voraussetzungen der urchristlichen Präexistenzchristologie" (WUNT 2,17; Tübingen 1985), especially now from texts of the LXX and the different visions of 1 Enoch (similitudes).