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Abstract
Olive press caves are widespread in the archaeology of Judea but have not received due attention. This paper provides an integrative analysis of the caves and explains their use in oil production. The phenomenon has clear geographic and chronological parameters as a feature of early Roman period Judean settlement. This article proposes that olive press caves represent ethnically-bounded practices identified with Jewish society and are linked to production of ritually pure oil for temple rites and pilgrimage festivals in Jerusalem. It is argued that their architectural layout helped to maximize the ability to supervise, monitor and control the purity of workers.
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The present article examines methodological prospects and pitfalls we face in identifying specific practices prescribed in the Pentateuch and that were adopted as elements within Judaism, which have roots in much earlier Israelite/Judean cultural praxis. Identifying such practices – which we may think of as “proto-Judaic” – is crucial for investigating the degree to which early Judaism manifests the culmination of a long-evolving cultural inheritance reaching back to before the compilation of Pentateuchal texts, versus the degree to which early Judaism reflects fundamentally novel developments following widespread adoption of the Pentateuch as authoritative Torah law. The article examines concrete methodological issues regarding how various types of evidence potentially relevant to identifying proto-Judaic cultural features are to be treated: (1) epigraphic finds; (2) archaeological remains; (3) narratives in Hebrew Bible texts which predate the relevant Pentateuchal texts; and (4) etiological accounts within the Pentateuch itself.
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In this essay I suggest that the attitudes to Jewish law and the conflicting interpretations reflected by the early Jesus tradition are best understood within a landscape of change, in which the character of torah as instruction, guidance, and description gradually morphed into a more prescriptive and judicial nomos. Although the tensions described in the sources usually concern Jesus and the Pharisees, a comparison with the legal interpretation in some of the texts from Qumran sheds light on the principled differences between the early Jesus movement’s understanding of the law’s character and function and that of its opponents. It is suggested that Jesus and his early followers saw no conflict between the Torah’s guidance and its pragmatic application, but objected to some interpretations associated with its transformation.
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In contrast to the biblical tradition, the figure of Phineas saw considerable development in Second Temple traditions. Numerous studies have appeared recently, yet the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, which shows awareness of such traditions and reworks them creatively, has been overlooked by scholars. The present contribution aims to investigate the significant testimony of Pseudo-Philo, who constructs a complex and versatile character in his rewriting of biblical history – one who is responsible for the purity of worship against any idolatrous drift and who is the guardian of the Law and its understanding. Moreover, Phineas occupies a central position in the eschatological scenario, since he will be taken up to heaven like Elijah until his return in the last days, when, after his death, he will participate in the divine judgment.
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The importance and observance of the Sabbath within the Judean exilic communities has often been the subject of debate. Recent studies have argued that the exiles in Elephantine, Egypt, observed the Sabbath but the exilic Judean communities in Babylonia did not. New evidence – in the form of names derived from “Sabbath” among the exiles during the Achaemenid period – seems to reflect a shift in the importance of the Sabbath within Judean identity. In this article we review the occurrences of the name Shabbataya (Šabbatāya) in extrabiblical material and explore possible parallel phenomena in Elephantine and biblical texts, ultimately drawing a picture of an Achaemenid-era evolution in the attribution of significance to the Sabbath. This transformation is evident in Ezra-Nehemiah and corroborated by new evidence; extrabiblical and biblical sources demonstrate that names relating to the Sabbath began to appear at the time.
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This essay explores the rationale behind the different interpretations of the servant of the Lord in Targum Jonathan Isaiah. In order to facilitate understanding of this material, I survey the use of the designation “servant(s) of the Lord” in the Hebrew Bible and then discuss the rationale behind the use of singulars and plurals in the Targum’s translation of Isaiah 40–55. After this, I analyze the relevant passages within the Targum, suggesting that the scribes interpret the figure of the servant to have four different referents: the nation of Israel, the righteous, the prophets, and the messiah. Throughout this analysis, I attend to the features of the text that appear to have influenced the scribes to identify the servant in these ways. I conclude by reviewing the most important factors contributing to these decisions and then highlighting the coherence between my observations and some recent works on the scribes’ hermeneutical orientation.
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This paper investigates the degree to which Antiochus III’s treatment of Jerusalem conforms to a common Seleucid model. It develops this through a comparison with the same king’s treatment of Sardis in 213 BCE. It then attempts to identify a local cultural script deployed by the Seleucid court in its conquest of Judea. The paper concludes by raising some broader methodological questions.
Text – Re-interpretations – Afterlives
Two millennia ago, the Jewish priest-turned-general Flavius Josephus, captured by the emperor Vespasian in the middle of the Roman-Jewish War (66–70 CE), spent the last decades of his life in Rome writing several historiographical works in Greek. Josephus was eagerly read and used by Christian thinkers, but eventually his writings became the basis for the early-10th century Hebrew text called Sefer Yosippon, reintegrating Josephus into the Jewish tradition. This volume marks the first edited collection to be dedicated to the study of Josephus, Yosippon, and their reception histories. Consisting of critical inquiries into one or both of these texts and their afterlives, the essays in this volume pave the way for future research on the Josephan tradition in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and beyond.
Text – Re-interpretations – Afterlives
Two millennia ago, the Jewish priest-turned-general Flavius Josephus, captured by the emperor Vespasian in the middle of the Roman-Jewish War (66–70 CE), spent the last decades of his life in Rome writing several historiographical works in Greek. Josephus was eagerly read and used by Christian thinkers, but eventually his writings became the basis for the early-10th century Hebrew text called Sefer Yosippon, reintegrating Josephus into the Jewish tradition. This volume marks the first edited collection to be dedicated to the study of Josephus, Yosippon, and their reception histories. Consisting of critical inquiries into one or both of these texts and their afterlives, the essays in this volume pave the way for future research on the Josephan tradition in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and beyond.