More Seal Stuff That Makes You Go Hmmm…

Joseph Lauer notes on the Biblical Studies list

Has anyone else noticed the similarity in design (and perhaps lettering) to the recently discovered Rephaihu (ben) Shalem seal of a seal pictured among others from the Israel Museum in the just-published BAR (March/April 2008, p. 35), but without a branch/frond/tree as at the end of Shalem/Shallum? The BAR seal is at the upper right of the picture, just under a possibly similar but smaller green seal. The picture can be seen on-line in the free current issue of BAR at

http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/indexBAR.asp by clicking on the “Fit for a Queen: Jezebel’s Royal Seal” article and scrolling down until the picture is reached. However, the on-line picture is much smaller than the printed picture and the words on the seal cannot be made out. The article’s URL is http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/indexBAR.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=34&Issue=2&ArticleID=6

The first line of the BAR seal, the picture of which is small, appears to begin with L’LYQM (leElyakim). The second line is difficult to read but appears to begin with an ayin (eved?) and the fourth letter is an aleph. Does anyone know the provenance of the seal, its approximate date, what it actually says, and where it has been published? And would anyone care to comment on its possible connection to the Rephaihu (ben) Shalem seal?

Thank you!

Joseph I. Lauer

Hmmm……

And moments later Yitzhak Sapir writes in response

The picture is also published in Hestrin and Dayagi-Mendels’s book on seals, in the first page following the copyright notice, although the colors are somewhat different. The green seal Lauer speaks of is brown in Hestrin and Dayagi-Mendels. The seal is Hestrin and Dayagi Mendels 91. It reads “l?lykm (z?”. “Of Elyakim son of Azza.” It is described as made of bone, in Hebrew script, from the 7th century BCE, and of unknown provenance. Dimension 0.6 x1.4×1.7. At the end of the second line is a small vertical line. The top and bottom name are separated by two parallel horizontal lines. It is a pierced scaraboid seal.

I don’t think it has any connection with the rp?yhw seal. But both are scaraboid seals, both have two names separated by two parallel lines across the seal, and both have some kind of marking at the end of the second line. The ?lykm seal apparently has the pierced hole running through the body of the seal under the two lines although that is not visible in the picture. No such marking is visible in the seal. No information on this is given regarding the rp?yhw seal. Both have a circular frame. We don’t know of what material the rp?yhw seal was made. Presumably, it was dated to the 8th century BCE on the basis of stratigraphy, but Deutsch disputes that date [here].

Yitzhak Sapir

OK People- It’s Time To Do It

And by ‘it’ I mean dig down deep and buy this book! It’s a fine book and well, well worth it. Besides, by doing so you assist my further research in things Zwinglian and so you prove yourself a benefactor to the entire history of humanity. In short, by getting a copy, you make the world a better place. How many books that you’ve purchased can make that claim?

What are you waiting for, go get one!

Zwingli’s Prolific-nicity

The printer Froschauer was Zwingli’s one and only publisher (during Z’s lifetime of course).   Everything that came from Zwingli’s pen was put into print on a Gutenberg Press by him.

Froschauer came into Zwingli’s circle during the earliest days of the Zurich Reformation. Indeed, he was present at the famous ’sausage dinner’ which kicked off the Reform in a formal way.  Alongside publishing Zwingli’s numerous books and booklets, he also published the rightly famous Zurich Bible in its first and following editions in 1531.

 

(from the History of Switzerland)

On March 1, 1526, Froschauer printed another of Zwingli’s books- Ad Theobaldi Billicani et Urbani Rhegii epistolas responsio, which concerned, naturally, the question of the Lord’s Supper.  And I say naturally because from 1526-1529 this was the major concern of most of Zwingli’s work.  Of course he wrote about numerous other things- but the majority of his books from 1526 onwards concerned this topic.  In 1525, by the way, it was all about the re-baptizers.

Three years later, Froschauer published the “Prophet’s Bible” - the fruit of the famed ‘Prophezei’ - the daily gathering in the Grossmunster Choir of city clerics who were, for all intents and purposes, going to University and translating the Old Testament.  The foreword of the “Prophet’s Bible” was written by Zwingli himself.

In the preface Zwingli remarks, concerning the science and art of translation:  Es sind die gaben des geystes manigfalt unnd underscheyden, unnd wie ein stern den anderen in klarheyt, also übertrifft ouch in der kilchen Christi ezner den anderen in verstand unnd wüssen, in erkanntnuß unnd urteyl.

Sex Offenders: Lock Them Up And Throw Away The Key

Once a sex offender, always a sex offender. It’s as plain as the nose on anyone’s face. Yet, rather than keeping these predators off the street they are regularly set loose to accost, molest, and destroy. These persons are a plague on society and they must be permanently removed from the general population. This fact has once more been driven home by the events reported yesterday.

A convicted sex offender has been charged with touching a young teenage boy in the restroom of a Fruitport Township church during last Sunday’s service. Aaron Michael Winston, 21, who listed his address as the Muskegon Rescue Mission, 400 W. Laketon, was arraigned Thursday before 60th District Judge Harold F. Closz III. Winston is charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct during a felony, accosting a child for immoral purposes and failing to comply with the sex offender registration act. Bail was set at $50,000 cash only, with the condition if bond is posted that he have no contact with anyone under age 18. The incident occurred at Broadway Baptist Church, 2860 S. Oak Lane, according to Fruitport Township police. Winston allegedly showed the boy photographs of naked men that were on the defendant’s cell phone, police said. The pictures were determined to have come from the Internet. Winston then allegedly offered the boy $20 to expose himself. The boy declined and as he tried to leave, Winston allegedly touched the boy’s genital area on the outside of his clothing, police said.

When children can’t go to the restroom at Church without fearing molestation, the time for talk is past. It’s time to lock sex offenders up and throw away the key. One strike, and they should be out. Permanently.

The Jewish People? An Invention- Says Shlomo Zand

Ha’aretz reviews a terribly controversial book (or it’s about to be) which suggests that there never was a ‘Jewish people’, only a Jewish religion. Further, there never was an Exile either. Antonio Lombatti points this out.

In part Ha’aretz notes

There never was a Jewish people, only a Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened - hence there was no return. Zand rejects most of the stories of national-identity formation in the Bible, including the exodus from Egypt and, most satisfactorily, the horrors of the conquest under Joshua. It’s all fiction and myth that served as an excuse for the establishment of the State of Israel, he asserts.

According to Zand, the Romans did not generally exile whole nations, and most of the Jews were permitted to remain in the country. The number of those exiled was at most tens of thousands. When the country was conquered by the Arabs, many of the Jews converted to Islam and were assimilated among the conquerors. It follows that the progenitors of the Palestinian Arabs were Jews. Zand did not invent this thesis; 30 years before the Declaration of Independence, it was espoused by David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and others.

I have a prediction- this guy is going to get a LOT of flack. Unfortunately, the book isn’t available for non Hebrew readers.

Prof. Zand teaches at Tel Aviv University. His book, “When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?” (published by Resling in Hebrew), is intended to promote the idea that Israel should be a “state of all its citizens” - Jews, Arabs and others - in contrast to its declared identity as a “Jewish and democratic” state. Personal stories, a prolonged theoretical discussion and abundant sarcastic quips do not help the book, but its historical chapters are well-written and cite numerous facts and insights that many Israelis will be astonished to read for the first time.

Review of Davies’ ‘Origins of Biblical Israel’ - A Recovered Post

Provocative. Provocation. Those two words are almost synonymous with Philip Davies’ latest The Origins of Biblical Israel. I’ve mentioned before that I’m going over it with no small measure of delight and today I’ll offer another one of his intriguing statements for your consideration.Saul’s Israel is not the twelve tribe Israel of the Pentateuch or Joshua. Nor do we find twelve individual tribes, as in the core of Judges. We have an Israel composed of a few cooperating tribes, and a separate Judah (p. 6 does Davies suggest in his discussion if the Former Prophets.

This is certainly not the typical understanding of a simple reader of the Biblical story. For that one, Saul is the King of Twelve Tribes- as will be David and Solomon. It isn’t until afterwards that the tribal alliance is fractured. But of course this simple (or perhaps simplistic) reading has nothing to do with what the texts themselves actually say. It is indeed interesting that Davies reads the text with a clear eye and sees what is there rather than imposing on it what he wishes or thinks is there. This is the way historians, and I might also add, exegetes especially, ought to act.

One wonders why what is so clearly evident to one reader isn�t to another. And the answer is, I think, presupposition. Presupposition blinds more than it illuminates. Clearing one’s mind of presuppositions, though difficult, is certainly worth the effort as it allows one to see with clear eyes. We’re fortunate to have such a clear eyed guide to the texts contained in the Hebrew Bible.

Philips 5th chapter concerns itself with Israel in the Second History: Chronicles. And what does he suggest in connection with the narrative description of Israel here?... the genealogies in Chronicles are clearly not meant to be understood literally, but rather as a social map of Israel conforming, of course, to the way we know such genealogies usually work. But in the remainder of the Second History there is a dramatic reversal, as genealogy is used not as a means of expanding Israel but contracting it by exclusion (p. 92).

This leads to the curious fact that when Judah goes into exile, the Chronicler must empty out the land utterly; which is exactly what he does (in 2 Chr 36:20-21). As Davies notes quite astutely: This scenario leaves an emphatically empty land (p. 93).

But this is where it gets a bit difficult. Because - Despite the numerous points of agreement between all its components, the Second History does not present us, any more that the First, with a consistent view of who belongs to Israel- and who does not (Ibid.)

Who is Israel?� That’s the very question which neither the Pentateuch, the Former Prophets, nor the Chronicler answer with any sort of specificity. Provocative, no?

And next, Davies turns to a consideration of Ezra and Nehemiah’s understanding of the term ‘Israel’.

The Israel of Ezra and Nehemiah isn’t a family. It isn’t a nation. It is a sect. That’s how Philip sees it in the 6th chapter of his book, The Origins of Biblical Israel. ‘The covenant in Neh 9-10 is a signed and sealed document with all the names of those who are party to it. It is also a human initiative. In this and other respects, both books reflect a sectarian mentality: a charter, a membership list with strict criteria, the ban on mixing with outsiders- this Israel � in neither a family, nor a nation, but a sect’ (p. 101).

Earlier in the chapter Davies had noted, ‘The Israel of Ezra-Nehemiah is almost completely consistent. Descent plays a major role throughout as an index of membership of the ‘people of Israel’ maintaining a strict social boundary between Israel and non-Israel. This new ‘Israel’ does not correspond to any other Israels so far encountered in Judean memory. It is similar to Chronicles, but explicitly excludes Samaria’ (p. 98).

But what if rather than an either / or we have in the Old Testament a both / and? What I mean here is that perhaps the varieties of ‘Israels’ that Davies has combed out of the matted and tangled biblical record are all intended to be the understanding of what it means to be ‘Israel’ by the text’s authors? What if the editors of the Former Prophets are not disagreeing with the editors of the Pentateuch in their understanding of ‘Israel’ but instead are supplementing that understanding and expanding it. And then, what if the Chronicler has expanded on the previous notion. And the editor of Ezra and Nehemiah has likewise expanded (and clarified)? We may well have here not ‘Israels’ after all but ‘Israel’ in multifaceted perspective.

Anyway, I continue to be provoked. More anon. And doubtless I will be corrected as I move forward through Davies’ argument. If I’m wrong.

UPDATE: Philip responds to my comments and expands a bit on the topic:

I Mostly agree that each author says what he thinks Israel is; but whether or not this includes Samaria looks to me like a major political issue; whether the ‘people of the land’ are included likewise. We can also agree that whatever the varying biblical definitions, various compromises and solutions emerged - Samaria is separate from Judah’s ‘Israel’ but remains another Israel. ‘Jew’ and ‘Israel’ become virtually synonymous. Also, of course, the huge bulk of diaspora ‘Jews,’ and the addition of most Semitic (i.e. circumcising) Palestinians - Edomites, Galileans, Ammonites, etc. (i.e. the Abrahamic family) make Judaism into a potentially universal religion (did I say ‘potentially’� Isn�t that what happened�). The bottom line is - there is no biblical Israel, but lots of biblical Israels, just like historical Israels. The Bible, as ever, is usually made to describe whatever reality its reader feels comfortable with! And one further thought: had it not been for the conquests of Hyrcanus and Jannaeus, neither Herod nor Jesus would have been given the title ‘king of the Jews’. They would probably not have been Jewish at all.

Philip

[N.B.- I'd like to thank my New Zealand friend for discovering a way to recover lost posts which has allowed me to reconstruct a bit of the more important, in my estimation, of the lost].

And So The Idiocy Begins To Spread

The media are already beginning to report that a ‘researcher says that the lost Ark of the Covenant has been found’!

In a newly released book, University of London Professor Tudor Parfitt claims to have located the treasured artifact on a dusty shelf of an out-of-the-way museum in Harare, Zimbabwe. “It was just by chance that I finally managed to track it down to a storeroom in Harare, was able to analyze it and discover that quite apart from anything else, it’s quite probably the oldest wooden object in sub-Sahara Africa,” said Parfitt, an expert in Oriental and African Studies. “It’s massively important in terms of history, even apart from its status as the last surviving link to the original Ark of Moses.” In his HarperCollins’ book, “The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark,” Profitt describes traipsing around the globe, decoding ancient texts and deciphering numerous clues to locate the enigmatic object.

It’s come to the point that whenever a book is released that coincides with the airing of a TV special, you can expect rubbish from both.  Talpiot, Judas (and the massive misreadings that April DeConick debunked but who had no tv special to show it), Exodus Decoded, and now the ‘Lost Ark of the Covenant’.   All ‘commercial successes’ and all massively misinformative.  If the media is the devil, then academics (in some corners) have sold their souls to him.  For publicity.

Another Dilettante Puts Pen to Paper

This time the dilettante is Gary Wills, who, in his massive hubris, has the stones to imagine himself qualified to write a book titled What the Gospels Really Meant. The reviewer notes

Wills relies almost exclusively on the writings of the late Raymond Brown, a Catholic priest whose works are the gold standard of New Testament exegesis.

Which naturally means that Wills is simply representing himself as a New Testament scholar (as he had previously represented himself as a church historian and a Pauline scholar) whilst relying utterly on the ideas of someone else. Wills exemplifies the modern delusion that insists that just because someone has read a book or two on a subject they are thereby an ‘expert’ and their opinion should be heard.

Tragically, too many Americans actually believe such nonsense. Perhaps that’s why so few really know anything about the Bible at all. Least of all the dilettantes who opine that they do.

Kathleen Kenyon

It’s been announced on the ANE-2 list that

… the first full length biography of archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon [has been published] by Miriam Davis, a historian at Delta State University. Miriam had full access to the Kenyon family’s materials and interviewed dozens of archaeologists on 4 continents for her work.

The book is published in a series sponsored by the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, which provided the peer review. It’s also been reviewed by Bill Dever and Tom Holland, among others (see their comments on our website).

Dame Kathleen Kenyon
Digging Up the Holy Land
by Miriam C. Davis
978-1-59874-325-8 cloth
978-1-59874-326-5 paper
March 2008 272 pages, photos

Dame Kathleen Kenyon has always been a larger-than-life figure, likely the most influential woman archaeologist of the 20th century. In the first full-length biography of Kenyon, Miriam Davis recounts not only her many achievements in the field but also her personal side, known to very few of her contemporaries. Her public side is a catalog of major successes: discovering the oldest city at Jericho with its amazing collection of plastered skulls; untangling the archaeological complexities of ancient Jerusalem and identifying the original City of David; participating in the discipline’s most famous all-woman excavation at Great Zimbabwe. Her development (with Sir Mortimer Wheeler) of stratigraphic trenching methods has been universally emulated by archaeologists for over half a century. Her private life—her childhood as daughter of the director of the British Museum, her accidental choice of a career in archaeology, her working at bombed sites in London during the blitz, and her solitary retirement to Wales—are generally unknown. Davis provides a balanced and illuminating picture of both the public Dame Kenyon and the private person.

The book will be available in paperback next week in the US and in April in the UK, Europe, and the Middle East.

The big question- will Eisenbrauns carry it?

March Featured Blogger: Ben Myers

The March featured Blogger is the inestimably Australian theologian Ben Myers. You can read the interview here. Brandon and I are grateful for Ben’s participation.