Weekend Roundup Archives - Page 150 of 171

Weekend Roundup

Have they found a “smoking gun” proving that the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife was forged?

A plan to build a water reservoir west of Jerusalem near Har Adar is being opposed because it will mean the loss of 800 pine, cypress, and oak trees.

Shahar Shilo will speak about new discoveries from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and the City of David in Simi Valley, California next week. I know that he is speaking in Dallas and probably elsewhere, but I do not have public links for those events.

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art today launched MetPublications, a major online resource that offers unparalleled in-depth access to the Museum’s renowned print and online publications, covering art, art history, archaeology, conservation, and collecting.”

The latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review is online (digital subscription required).

HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, Museums, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Wednesday Roundup

Streams in the Desert: A 20-second clip from SourceFlix.com

New exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum: Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt,

October 16, 2012-July 28, 2013

The Sea of Galilee is entering fall at a higher level than in six years.

Wayne Stiles: Connecting Cisterns, Rain, and Reading the Bible

Haaretz: Samson follows the sun to Galilee

The date palm growing from a 2,000-year-old seed is shown and discussed on video.

The Mazotos shipwreck is the oldest shipwreck found off Cyprus to date. The vessel sank in 350 BC
with a load of 1,000 amphorae of wine.

Elizabeth Payne, conservator of the Yale Babylonian Collection, is interviewed in the school paper.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Tagged Weekend Roundup

Wednesday Roundup

Vandals spray-painted anti-Christian graffiti on the Dormition Abbey church. UPDATE: The graffiti was near the Dormition Abbey, just outside Zion Gate on the door of the Franciscan Convent.

Haaretz has a photo. (Thanks, Dina.)

Israel and Jordan are planning to work together to rehabilitate the Jordan River.

The case for the authenticity of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife is getting weaker.

Aren Maeir posts an archaeological note relating to Sukkot.

If you’re interested in historical fiction set in the life of the early church, The Scribes is currently free for Kindle.

The problem with blackmail is that it never stops, even between governments and world-class museums.

How is the Messiah related to the feast of Sukkot? Wayne Stiles explains and illustrates.

HT: Jack Sasson

Sukkot prayers (photo source)

Tagged Holidays, Jerusalem, Jordan Rift, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Charles Jones has put created an excellent Roundup of Resources on Ancient Geography. Bookmark this one!

There are enough scholars who have serious doubts about the authenticity of the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” that when a report circulated that Harvard Theological Review had decided to not publish the article, many scholars believed it. Brian LePort has some of the back and forth.

Mark Hoffman excavated at et-Tell (Bethsaida?) this summer and is sharing his photo book of the dig. (No account is needed to flip through it, and full screen provides the best view.)

Jodi Magness is interviewed in the WAMC Academic Minute about her excavations of the Huqoq synagogue.

Cornell University has received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating research in the Near East.

A conference at Tel Aviv University in late October will focus on Ancient Greece and Ancient Israel:
Interactions and Parallels (10th to 4th Centuries BCE). The details are available here.

SourceFlix’s latest short is called “Fishers of Men.”

Biblical Archaeology Review is now available as a digital subscription, with the bonus that you get last year’s digital issues.

Robert Mullins gives a day-by-day account of the first season at Abel-beth-maacah. His excitement is justified.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Abel Beth Maacah from northwest, tb062900201

Abel Beth Maacah from the northwest
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Tagged Galilee, Greece, Lectures, Resources, Technology, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

The University of Oxford and the Vatican Library plan “to digitize 1.5 million pages of texts from their collections and make them freely available online.”

A large 3rd or 4th century poolside mosaic has been uncovered in southern Turkey, not far from biblical Attalia.

The Saqqara Serapeum was inaugurated this week.

The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project has received a 3-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Hebrew University will begin offering online courses for free.

Check out Wayne Stiles’ descriptive and devotional thoughts about Tel Dan. “By providing alternative places of worship [at Dan and Bethel], Jeroboam appealed to the laziness of the human spirit.”

If you’re looking for full-color, poster-size maps of biblical history, take a look at WordAction’s Bible Teaching Maps. The $35 set includes 10 large maps and 10 reproducible charts. The maps were produced by Zondervan and Oxford University Press.

They are easily mounted on foam board for display and transport.

Christianbook.com has many Bible atlases on sale this week, as well as Gary Burge’s The Bible and the Land for $1.99.

A number of distinguished scholars passed away this week, including Manfred Goerg, Bahnam Abu As-Souf, and Itamar Singer.

HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Egypt, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Wednesday Roundup

Eilat Mazar has resumed excavations in the (so-called) Ophel, and her partners at Armstrong College plan to provide regular updates. They begin with an on-location interview of Mazar.

Excavations continue to reveal Egyptian presence in Joppa from the New Kingdom period.

Mark Fairchild’s search for ancient synagogues in Turkey is profiled in the local press. The article includes an interesting video by Fairchild of his discoveries.

In light of an article in the Wall Street Journal, Charles Savelle reflects on the value of knowing biblical geography.

Ferrell Jenkins is back in Israel and he shares a rare photo of Jacob’s well.

King Tut and his predecessors may have been afflicted with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Did you forget to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Caligula’s birthday?

Clean-up of the polluted Kishon River is finally scheduled to begin, 12 years after divers were found
to have contracted cancer.

The cedars of Lebanon are threatened by climate change.

As Rosh HaShanah (the New Year) begins in Jewish homes around the world at sundown on Sunday,

Wayne Stiles reflects on the Gezer Calendar and other ways we keep time.

The 50th anniversary of Lawrence of Arabia inspires Anthony Horowitz to travel to Jordan.

HT: Explorator, Jack Sasson

Wadi Rum. Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.

Tagged Egypt, Excavations, Holidays, Italy, Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, Samaria, Turkey, Weekend Roundup