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Video Lecture: Revealing Dead Sea Scrolls to the World

The Great Courses is offering a free lecture (until April 5) entitled “Revealing the Dead Sea Scrolls to the World.” The 30-minute lecture is given by Gary A. Rendsburg and is one of 24 lectures in the Dead Sea Scrolls course. The lecture is described as follows:

To follow the story of how the Dead Sea Scrolls were first translated and interpreted is to witness the great lengths to which scholars will go to learn new insights into the mysteries of the past. It’s a tale filled with controversial publications, scrolls squirreled away in shoeboxes, a revealing New Yorker essay, and a six-day-long war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. More important, it’s a tale whose conclusion revolutionized our understanding of ancient Jewish history. In Revealing the Dead Sea Scrolls to the World, you learn

how some of the original documents first came into the hands of scholars;

how the first series of scrolls were transcribed and translated; and

a few of the many insights learned from work done on the important Temple Scroll.

The lecture may be viewed here.

Tagged Dead Sea, Resources

Bible Reference Finalists

The Christian Book Expo has listed award finalists for 2011. In the “Bible Reference” category, four of the five nominated books have been praised here before.

A Visual Guide to Gospel Events, by James C. Martin, John A. Beck, and David G. Hansen

Crossway ESV Bible Atlas, by John D. Currid and David P. Barrett

The Story of the Bible: The Fascinating History of Its Writing, Translation and Effect on
Civilization, by Larry Stone [not noted on this blog]

Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, by Carl G. Rasmussen

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, John H. Walton, General Editor

If judging on the basis of unique value to a Bible student, I would give the award to the five-volume (3,000-page!) commentary set. The other books are more affordable, and all make 2010 an outstanding year for works in the field.

Tagged Resources

New Book: Excavating the City of David

It’s a bit risky to suggest that a book you have not read or even seen is in the top-ten must-have books on Jerusalem, but I’m willing to be so bold in the case of Ronny Reich’s new book, Excavating the City of David. Given how quickly Jerusalem’s history “changes” as new archaeological discoveries are made, it is not all that daring to suggest that the newest book is one of the most important. But I believe that the book will be a classic on the subject because it is written by the lead excavator of the longest running excavations ever in the City of David.

Since 1995, Reich has been working with Eli Shukrun in numerous areas throughout the most ancient portion of the city of Jerusalem.

They have excavated the area of the Gihon Spring where they discovered the Spring and Pool Towers. They cleared and re-dated the Siloam Channel and made new discoveries concerning the origin of Warren’s Shaft. In 2004, Reich and Shukrun discovered and revealed the first-century Pool of Siloam. In recent years, they have excavated the ancient street leading from the pool to the Temple Mount.

Sixteen years of often year-round excavation far exceeds the seven years of Kathleen Kenyon’s work (1961-67) or the eight years of Yigal Shiloh (1978-85). Reich also benefits from learning from the history of many dozens of excavations in Jerusalem (good and bad), and he has the latest archaeological tools to guide his research.

Excavating the City of David is published by the Israel Exploration Society and includes 384 pages and 207 illustrations. The book has two major sections (see details below in table of contents). The first reviews the history of excavation in the last 150 years. The second is a brief history of the City of David. The work collects the findings published in various articles (Hebrew and English) over the last 15 years, and it almost certainly includes new data and interpretations of the latest finds.

This book will be a major reference in the field for decades to come. It is available now for about $50 from the Biblical Archaeology Society and as a pre-order from Eisenbrauns. (It is not listed at Amazon.)

Table of Contents:

Introduction

The City of David–the archaeologists’ creation

The City of David: The History of its Excavation and Study

The Gihon Spring and the pool

Under Ottoman rule

Charles Warren
Charles Clermont-Ganneau
Conrad Schick and the discovery of the Siloam Inscription
Hermann Guthe, Conrad Schick and the discovery of Channel II
E. Masterman and C.A. Hornstein and Channel I
Frederick Jones Bliss and Archibald Dickie
Montague B. Parker and Father Louis H. Vincent
Raymond Weill

During the British mandatory period

The International Excavation Project
Robert A.S. Macalister and J. Garrow Duncan
John Winter Crowfoot and Gerald M. Fitzgerald

During the period of the divided city (1948-1967)

Kathleen M. Kenyon

After reunification of Jerusalem in June 1967

David Ussishkin and the survey of tombs in Silwan
David Adan-Bayewitz and Yigal Shiloh
Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron
Some small-scale excavations
Eilat Mazar
Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets

Summary

What next?

A Brief History of the City of David

Early days
The first city—in the Middle Bronze Age II
The Late Bronze Age: “My king has caused his name to dwell in the Land of Jerusalem forever”
Biblical traditions: David, Solomon and the United Monarchy
Some geographical-historical issues
Text vs. pottery sherd
The kingdom of Judah
The return from Babylonian exile
The Early Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods
The southern City of David in the Herodian period
The Roman destruction of the city
The Late Roman period
The Byzantine period, the Church of Siloam
The Early Islamic period and the renewal of Jewish settlement in the southern part of the city
The Middle Ages—The Mameluke period and the reopening of the spring
The Ottoman period

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Appendices

Chronological Table

Selected bibliography

Index

Index of textual references

Illustration credits

Tagged Jerusalem, Resources

New CD: Seven Churches of Revelation

Leen Ritmeyer has just released a new CD with 105 pictures and captions of the sites where the seven churches of Revelation were located in the first century.

It begins on the beautiful Greek island of Patmos, where the Apostle John was told to write the visions which he saw in a scroll and send them to the Seven Churches (Greek singular:”ekklesia”) which were in Asia. We visit these sites: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea in order, with additional slides devoted to Laodicea’s sister churches in the Lycus Valley: Colossae and Hierapolis, (without reference to these neighbouring churches, in particular their water supply, the letter to Laodicea would be unintelligible). The circular postal route of the messenger is mapped, with a separate map given to highlight his journey from one city to the next. Each section includes a slide containing the full message to each church (quoted from the NKJV) with a useful summary given in its caption. The church and its city is then placed in its geographical and historical setting, with links made to the local background in each letter. Images providing Scriptural insight, accompanied by detailed captions, are given of each city. In Ephesus, you can disembark at the ancient harbour and walk with the messenger up the Harbour Way to the Theatre where the great riot had taken place about thirty years earlier in the time of Paul. With reference to Smyrna, see a possible modern remnant of the “crown of life.” In Philadelphia, ponder the poignancy of the promise to the “overcomers” of that city, never more to have to “go out.” This was to a group of people who were used to always having to flee the city, in an area notoriously prone to earthquakes.

More information is given here, and the CD may be purchased for £15 (~$24) here.

Tagged Resources

Recent Journal Articles

There have been a number of articles published within the past few months, all of which are related to the content of this blog.

Galil, Gershon.
2009 “The Hebrew Inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa/Neta’im: Script, Language, Literature and History.” Ugarit-Forschungen 41: 193-242.

I have not read this article yet, but presumably this is Galil’s formal publication of his reading of the Qeiyafa ostracon and of his identification of Kh. Qeiyafa as Netaim, both of which were mentioned previously by Todd (inscription and identification).

Beitzel, Barry J.
2010 “Was There a Joint Nautical Venture on the Mediterranean Sea by Tyrian Phoenicians and Early Israelites?” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 360: 37-66.

de Canales, F. González; L. Serrano; and J. Llompart.
2010 “Tarshish and the United Monarchy of Israel.” Ancient Near Eastern Studies 47: 137-164.

Both of these articles argue for the plausibility of Phoenician nautical trade on the Mediterranean Sea in the 10th century B.C. Beitzel argues that the Hebrew expression ’onî taršîš in 1 Kings 10:22 is better translated “ships of Tarshish” as in the ESV, and not “trading ships” as in the NIV. He gathers together the evidence for early Phoenician trading on the Mediterranean and suggests Tarshish was located in the western Mediterranean. De Canales et al. identify Tarshish more specifically with Huelva, Spain, and date the earliest excavated levels to 900-770 B.C., while proposing an even earlier Phoenician presence.

The latest issue of Israel Exploration Journal contains three articles which may be of interest to our readers.

Rendsburg, Gary A. and William M. Schniedewind.
2010 “The Siloam Tunnel Inscription: Historical and Linguistic Perspectives.” Israel Exploration Journal 60/2: 188-203.

Rendsburg and Schniedewind argue that three linguistic peculiarities of the Siloam inscription point to the dialect of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (referred to as Israelian Hebrew). They go on to speculate that the inscription was authored by a refugee from the northern kingdom, and that the purpose of the tunnel may have been to divert water to the refugee population on the Western Hill.

Siloam Tunnel Inscription in Istanbul, Turkey.

Two more cuneiform inscriptions from Hazor are published in this issue of IEJ as well, one a fragment of an administrative docket and the other a fragment of a clay liver model. (Neither of these are the tablet fragments found last year that Todd reported on here.)

Horowitz, Wayne and Takayoshi Oshima.
2010 “Hazor 16: Another Administrative Docket from Hazor.” Israel Exploration Journal 60/2: 129-132.

Horowitz, Wayne; Takayoshi Oshima; and Abraham Winitzer.
2010 “Hazor 17: Another Clay Liver Model.” Israel Exploration Journal 60/2: 133-145.

These two inscriptions supplement the handy volume of all cuneiform inscriptions found in Canaan (up to the date of publication), Cuneiform in Canaan: Cuneiform Sources from the Land of Israel in Ancient Times, by Wayne Horowitz,; Takayoshi Oshima; and Seth Sanders (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2006). We should also add to the list:

Horowitz, Wayne and Takayoshi Oshima.
2007 “Hazor 15: A Letter Fragment from Hazor.” Israel Exploration Journal 57: 34-40.

Mazar, Eilat; Wayne Horowitz; Takayoshi Oshima; and Yuval Goren.
2010 “A Cuneiform Tablet from the Ophel in Jerusalem.” Israel Exploration Journal 60/1: 4-21.

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Resources, Shephelah

LSJ Online Out of Commission

Two weekends ago, we reported that Thesaurus Linguae Graecae had made available an online edition of the Classical Greek lexicon Liddell-Scott-Jones, with hyperlinks to texts in the TLG database. Three days ago, TLG announced on their website that the lexicon was no longer available due to misuse.

The Online LSJ was released on February 24, 2011. Within hours of its release, our site became the target of individuals attempting to download our data. By March 1 our server was bombarded by hundreds of coordinated pirate attackers seeking to break into our server security. As a consequence, we were forced to suspend access to LSJ while we are taking steps to address the security of our servers.
We are working to reestablish access gradually and hope that LSJ will be back up within the next few days.
We regret the inconvenience this action has caused to our legitimate users.

Tagged Resources