Archaeology and Early Judaism | Associate Professor
@arieluniversity
| Author of: The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal (Yale, 2022)
Food for thought:
No surviving texts from the Second Temple period mention any kind of pool used specifically for ritual immersions. We know these existed—in large numbers and everywhere there were Judeans—only from archaeology.
What else is missing from our textual record?
I am very pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of my book, The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal, due out with
@yalepress
in early autumn. Preorders are available today! (Feel free to share and retweet).
A Bar Kokhba era (132–135 CE) hiding complex has been found at Huqoq in Galilee.
The find adds to a growing body of evidence from northern sites relating to the Second Revolt which suggests that the rebellion extended beyond Judea, deep into Galilee.
1/10
This appeared in The Mirror, dated January 23, 1923.
Biblical scholars, however, would recognize this as vaticinium ex eventu—prophecy after the event—and downdate it by about 100 years.
This new article (now in proofs stage) is something of a 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗹 to my book, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘮 (Yale 2022).
I’ll share a brief summary in a 🧵 here.
The full article should be online (for free—open access) quite soon!
1/14
There is almost no overlap between the people who have been interacting with my posts this past week and those who have interacted with my previous posts on ancient Judaism.
Apparently colleagues interested in long-dead ancient Jews have zero interest in us live Jews.
Hannukah is a minor Jewish holiday.
But if my hypothesis is correct, and the emergence of Judaism is to be credited to the Hasmonean’s adoption of Torah as law of the land, then perhaps Hannukah should be regarded as more meaningful than we usually think.
Happy Hannukah to all!🕎
Ever since I began translating Tractate Miqva’ot for the new Oxford Annotated Mishnah, I stopped using the term “miqveh”/”miqva’ot” when writing and speaking about the ancient stepped pools we unearth through archaeology.
I now think that this term is inaccurate.
A short🧵
1/8
...a word that does not exist in Hebrew.
There is no word for "religion" anywhere in the Hebrew Bible or any other Jewish literature from ancient times, through the Middle Ages, until the 19th century.
The IAA and the Israeli Ministry of Heritage have invited the media to attend an event on Wednesday, September 6, where "an impressive, important and rare find from the Judean Desert Caves" will be revealed.
Stay tuned...
HT Joseph Lauer
This just in from
@yalepress
:
"I am happy to share that books have just arrived at our warehouse and have begun to ship".
Some of you will get your copies before I do (here in Israel).
If you do, please let me know how it looks! 🙏
It's been a year since 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘮 was published.
Post Oct. 7, I’d like to discuss a topical matter that I left out of the book: how the hypothesis of a Persian-era emergence of Judaism is deeply indebted to various strains of antisemitism.
A🧵
1/16
Traditionally, Jewish scholars have been known by the title of the most outstanding book they've authored.
Think: "the Hafetz Hayim" and "the Hazon Ish".
One has to wonder, then, what the late Prof. Aharon Oppenheimer was thinking when he gave his 1977 book this title:
The time has come to choose which side of history each and every one of us wishes to stand.
A letter of petition to the council of the Society of Biblical Literature
@SBLsite
:
THE IMPERIAL CULT MEETS JUDAISM
What are Jewish ritual immersion pools doing adjacent to the Augusteum (temple dedicated to the cult of
#Augustus
) at Samaria-Sebaste?
The 18-month embargo on this article is over today, so I’ve posted it here:
A 🧵 1/10
Last week: the worst day of Jew-killing since the Holocaust.
Today: blood libels. As we contiue to bury our dead.
It hurts me deeply that people who I thought were my colleagues and friends are now participating in this festival of evil.
The field will never be the same.
Can a deeply religious Christian or Jewish scholar engage in sound archaeological/historical research which relates in one way or another to the Bible?
My answer is a resolute “YES!”
So long as there is no conflict between the scholar’s beliefs and the subject of the study.
🧵1/9
If my colleagues’ critical thinking skills are so fundamentally broken that today they believed and further propagated a 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙗𝙚𝙡 spread by terrorist monsters—how can I ever again take seriously any of their historical “scholarship” about the past?
This new article (now in proofs stage) is something of a 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗹 to my book, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘮 (Yale 2022).
I’ll share a brief summary in a 🧵 here.
The full article should be online (for free—open access) quite soon!
1/14
A bit more context for this:
Mr. Varadkar is the Prime Minister of Ireland.
Emily is a 9-year-old Irish citizen.
She was thought murdered, but miraculously survived the massacre, and was kipnapped by terrorists.
Why the bizarre and grotesque choice of words?
Emily is Jewish.
If a Jew from 2,500 years ago experienced a day of Judaism in 2023, what are some things that would be surprising to them?
1. No korbanot
2. Printed Jewish texts
3. Moshiach hasn't come
What's one more you would add?
This is the reverse of a coin minted by Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 BCE).
Until 1968, it was thought that the legend is in Hebrew, written in paleo-Hebrew script.
But because the legend could not be deciphered, coins of this type were regarded as “wretched” or “imitations”.
🧵1/4
Early Judaism is my thing.
It is all that I think and write about.
Terms like "grace", "works" and "better" are completely foreign to my thought and language.
Scholars who employ this jargon are doing Christian theology—not the history of ancient Judaism.
Great work here by Matt Novenson. Sanders, for all his claims to merely be comparing patterns of religions, was still operating on the assumption that a religion of grace was better than one of works!
—𝗬𝗼𝗺 𝗞𝗶𝗽𝗽𝘂𝗿—
The holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Commemorated even by many "non-observant" Jews, through fasting and extensive penitential prayers.
But it wasn’t always this way.
And this text from the Dead Sea Scrolls may be our earliest evidence for it.
A🧵1/15
I cannot fathom what is driving the deafening silence of my colleagues to the intimidation, harassment and threats to Jewish students.
This is happening on your very own campuses.
This is happening today.
Why do you refuse to make your voices heard?
In honor of Shavuot, which begins tonight, I offer an exegetical take on a famous Monty Python scene.
A group of Judeans stands at a distance from a man teaching from atop a mountain, too far to hear clearly.
“What did he say?”
“I think it was: ‘Blessed are the cheesemakers”!
1/9
🚨Calling all colleagues🚨
Planning an online course now—focused on Early Judaism.
It'll be rich in original, on-site archaeological video and more.
I'm thinking about various models of collaboration with universities and other bodies.
Let me know if you might be interested.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝘀 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆
There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about how the Jewish purity laws are observed today.
So I thought I'd post a short 🧵 on the topic.
Here goes...
1/15
—The Jerusalem Temple Willow-Branch Ritual —
With the holiday of Sukkot coming up, I thought I’d post about the willow-branch ritual which took place in the Jerusalem temple and which I believe is depicted on coins minted during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE).
🧵1/17
—Kol Nidrei—
It is perhaps the most iconic parts of the Yom Kippur service, often moving congregants to tears.
The words themselves, however—in stilted Aramaic and which most people don’t understand—are quite banal.
So what is its secret?
🧵1/8
Future historians will have a field day studying how scholars of Judaism—ancient, medieval and modern—dealt in real time with the worst global wave of Jew-hatred since the Holocaust.
Twitter timelines will be a crucial primary source.
Silence cannot be edited out.
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𝗥𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁!
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Restrictions apply. Valid in the U.S./Canada. Visit to learn more.
Official publication date of the paperback version is today.
The hardcover is out of stock
@yalepress
, but still available (at the moment for a 22% discount I can see) over
@amazon
:
And... a stash of ancient Roman swords it is!
Discovered by our very own
@AsafGayer
.
Perhaps 1st or 2nd century CE.
The story just broke with
@nirhasson
in
@haaretzcom
:
(Condolences to all those who were hoping for a new text...)
The IAA and the Israeli Ministry of Heritage have invited the media to attend an event on Wednesday, September 6, where "an impressive, important and rare find from the Judean Desert Caves" will be revealed.
Stay tuned...
HT Joseph Lauer
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝘀 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆
—Part II—
In my previous post, I explained how the Jewish purity laws are, for all intents and purposes, no longer kept today.
Why did Jews cease to observe an entire section of Torah law?
A new 🧵
1/14
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝘀 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆
There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about how the Jewish purity laws are observed today.
So I thought I'd post a short 🧵 on the topic.
Here goes...
1/15
In reading the accounts of the crucifixion in the Synoptic Gospels, it struck me that throughout the New Testament we find references to Jews observing the laws of the Torah.
Something which, ironically, we do not find in the Hebrew Bible.
A short🧵1/3
This evening marks the start of the 9th of Av, a fast day commemorating the destruction of the Jerusalem temples in 586 BCE and 70 CE.
It is the only day of the year when Torah study is forbidden, as study brings joy.
Only sad texts, like Job, Lamentations, and parts of...
🧵1/2
The preservation of these swords is astonishing:
via
@YouTube
Blades, handles and scabbards.
The Judean Desert caves are the gift that apparently just keeps giving.
Kudos to
@AsafGayer
and to the rest of the team!
My article entitled: “Jewish Ritual Immersion in the Longue Durée: From Earliest Manifestations until Today” has now been published in ‘Atiqot.
It is available for free here:
I recently had a thoroughly enjoyable discussion about 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘮 with Neal Sendlak over at Gnostic Informant.
The video (close to 2 and a half hours!) has just been posted on YouTube:
◼️𝗔𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸◼️
Our new study—published today in PLOS ONE—uses multispectral imaging, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR-ATR and SEM/EDX, to examine ancient tefillin cases for traces of black dye or paint.
🧵1/14
𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘶𝘥𝘢 𝘥𝘦-𝘌𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘻 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭: 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦, ed. S. Fine and A. Koller (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014) is now open access:
For a more convenient PDF...
1/2
There is now a 50% off sale on Yale University Press books, including my 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙅𝙪𝙙𝙖𝙞𝙨𝙢.
The paperback now sells for $14
Shipping is free.
Use coupon code: Y24SAVE50
Sale is until May 17, and applies only in the USA and Canada.
Question for scholars of the Hebrew Bible:
Why are the narratives surrounding Josiah’s “reforms” accepted as more-or-less historically accurate? Why not suspect that these stories reflect the interests of much later writers?
Would love if someone could steelman this for me.
The most brilliant lecture on Maimonides I ever heard was given by Prof. Shamma Friedman in Oxford in 2011.
He explained how one word Maimonides deleted from his autograph of Mishneh Torah shows how he changed his mind—and described both sides of the halakhic matter at hand.
This is an autograph draft of the 'Mishneh Torah' in the hand of its author, Moses Maimonides. The text is Hebrew, but a later hand (or Maimonides?) added Arabic in the margin. It's in a collection that was once nearly burned to save space. It's also in our new book (link in bio)
This is my grandma.
Under the Nazis, “race science” was taught in the schools.
In an act of resistance, her teacher chose her—the blond, blue-eyed Jewish girl—to stand before her class as the model “Aryan”.
We need brave people like this today.
The time to prove ourselves is now.
Why did the Pentateuchal authors write the laws of the Torah?
What were their motives?
Here are some initial thoughts (following yesterday’s tweet and dialogue about the festivals).
I am looking for colleagues’ input, and especially references to others’ work on this.
A 🧵
1/13
This was an excellent essay by
@AnnetteYReed
.
I find it fascinating that Sanders' work has been revolutionary for NT scholars.
Personally, having emerged from a very different intellectual and cultural milieu, I found Sanders' "novel" ideas almost self evident.
1/2
Coins from the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–73/4 CE) found in modern-day Georgia (the country!) would add to a growing list of Roman military sites around the empire where coins from the two Jewish revolts have been uncovered.
A short 🧵
1/4
🚨Hebrew Bible scholars🚨
Why do we think the 3 pilgrimage festivals were commonly celebrated in ancient Israel as agricultural festivals 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 being legislated in Pentateuchal texts?
Is there any evidence for this, or is it just that they “feel” folkish & archaic?
Going through papers in my office, I just discovered this thick stack of mail correspondence I had back in 1992 with scholars in the USA, Europe, and Israel in pursuing my research on identifying the mollusc used in the ancient tekhelet dye.
I was 16 years old at the time.
1/2
This summarizes everything I’ve been posting here since Oct 7.
Many of my colleagues view events—past and present—through the lens:
“Jews are a nasty lot”.
It is this (often unconscious) bias which leads to blaming the Jews as a knee-jerk reaction.
Antisemitism distilled.
1/11🧵
🚨Archbishop of Canterbury: Accusing Israel of Hospital Blast is ‘Blood Libel’
Good to see a modicum of moral clarity here.
Still waiting for my colleagues to acknowledge their very own participation in propagating this abhorrent form of Jew hatred.
A new edition of the Hebrew Bible has recently been published by Avi Shveka.
Its novelty lies in its modern punctuation, ignoring the standard verse and chapter format—which lends itself to some novel interpretations.
Interesting.
For a sample, check out:
To be fair, Jews in 4th century BCE Jerusalem did include Athena and her owl on their coins.
But already by the middle of the 2nd century BCE, this would have been a big no-no...
Christians should consider adding just one Greek God to their prayer, Athena perhaps. Buy a statue of Athena and offer sacrifice to Her. You will be rewarded with unimaginable treasures.
— 𝗥𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗝𝘂𝗱𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗺—
Today ends a 12-month embargo on the preliminary report for our excavations at ‘Einot Amitai.
I’ve just uploaded the full article (co-authored with Dennis Mizzi) here:
A short 🧵on the project
1/9
Were the Biblical Authors “Elites”?
Were Biblical writers influential, elite members of the societies within which they lived and wrote? Did ordinary people living in their day know who these authors were, and would they have paid attention to what they had to say?
🧵1/6
I would have loved joing this organized trip to "the State of the Lebanon", "the Alawite State", and the "the State of Syria".
Packed with archaeology and history.
The bus left from Jerusalem, with stops in Haifa and Rosh Haniqra.
Hopefully, one day soon, such tours will return.
I have felt sick to the stomach since watching this three minute clip this morning.
These are the leaders of our top universities in 2023.
Where do we go from here?
🚨🚨🚨Presidents of
@Harvard
@MIT
and
@Penn
REFUSE to say whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” is bullying and harassment according to their codes of conduct. Even going so far to say it needs to turn to “action” first. As in committing genocide.
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND
This “Open Letter from Scholars of Antiquity” in support of Israel was just published.
Reading the list of signees, my eyes landed on the name of one fellow archaeologist—an extraordinarily significant name:
Prof. Dr. Ricardo Eichmann, Berlin.
It is common for epigraphers to squabble over a letter here, a word there.
It is highly unusual for scholars to question whether any inscription is even there in the first place.
I can think of only 4 examples, all involving the same scholar.
And all in the last year.
🤔
#MtEbal
PSA for those in need.
You know how when you are typing a document in Microsoft Word and you've got a section title which appears at the bottom of one page, with the text body underneath appearing only on the next page? Super annoying right?
Well there is a solution. ☝️🙂
1/4
"An Egyptian Deity in Persian Period Judea? On a Locally-Made Bes Vessel from Jerusalem".
A new study by L. Rees, Y. Shalev, A. Cohen-Weinberger & Y. Gadot (in Eretz-Israel 35) which raises interesting questions about cultic practices and beliefs in Persian period Jerusalem.
To all my Christian brothers and sisters who have stood at our side during these very dark times:
Thank you.
Your humanity and support have been crucial to us, both as individuals and as a people.
A very merry Christmas to you and to all your loved ones.
Such stories of ordinary Judeans or Israelites observing Sabbath prohibitions are completely absent from the Hebrew Bible (outside of the Pentateuch).
There is Judaism in the New Testament but not the Hebrew Bible.
How Ironic!
3/3
I question whether this question ever crossed the minds of most ancients.
These were simply “the stories we tell about the past”.
I can think of only one example where ancient rabbis discussed whether a Biblical figure (Job) was “real” or only a “metaphor” (BT Bava Batra 15a).
Question for Assyriologists, Biblical Scholars, and the like: would ancient people have "beleived" their own myths? Creation myths for example.
I've seen claims ancients would have obviously understood they wasn't meant to be "true." That seems counter intuitive to me...
There will be a book review panel for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘮 at this year's SBL.
I am delighted that
@ProfFrancesca
,
@Malka_Simkovich
, Dennis Mizzi, and Benjamin Wright will be participating.
@LXXandmore
was scheduled to join. He will be sorely missed.
On Eid al-Adha, I am reminded of when the holiday fell during our summer excavation seasons at ‘Einot Amitai.
Jewish, Muslim, and Christian students and volunteers excavating together an ancient Jewish chalk vessel workshop in Galilee and learning about ritual purity halakhah.❤️
Considering historic, centuries-old, systemic antisemitism in Biblical studies, do we as Biblical scholars have a moral obligation to stand up against antisemitism—especially at a time when it runs rampant throughout the world, including on our own university campuses?
Biblical studies friends! I am working with some data folks to put together a survey on the state of the biblical studies field. The goal is to see where scholars stand on a bunch of perennial issues. What questions would you want to see included?
This is my grandma.
Under the Nazis, “race science” was taught in the schools.
In an act of resistance, her teacher chose her—the blond, blue-eyed Jewish girl—to stand before her class as the model “Aryan”.
We need brave people like this today.
The time to prove ourselves is now.
@halfofmw
To be fair, there actually IS an ancient synagogue in Gaza.
It was unearthed in 1966, and features a mosaic with David playing the lyre - and a Hebrew inscription reading: "דויד (David)".
A Greek inscription dates it to 508/9 CE.
This just out, anticipating the publication of three papers soon to be published in the Israel Exploration Journal (Vol 73/2).
I look forward to reading these papers themselves, although it seems like they'll say what we all already knew.
1/4
If you are a Bible/Early Judaism scholar, and if all that you’ve posted, reposted or liked here with regard to Israel over the last two weeks has been critique of Israel... then I’d really love to know exactly what it is that makes you tick.
I welcome your replies.
I have been recognized.
I was at a train station in Israel today, when a young lady came over to me looking a bit starstruck.
“Excuse me… are you... Prof. Adler”?
Turns out she’s seen several of the interviews I’ve done lately, and is “a huge fan”! 🤩
…we are cautioned to recognize unscientific constructs which all too often undergird the study of early Judaism.
Now more than ever, we must take a firm stand against anti-Jewish sentiments in the field.
Antisemitism in Biblical and Jewish studies must never be tolerated.
16/16
I’ve been reading about how the date for Easter is calculated.
Looks a whole lot like Judaism's complex calendrical halakhah.
Quite "legalistic".
Sincere (if perhaps naive) question here:
How do Easter calculations square with the Christian critique against "legalism"?
On the Terms “Qəlāf”, “Dûkhsûsṭôs”, and “Gəwîl” in the Tannaitic Literature in Light of Microscopic and Spectroscopic Analyses of Ancient Tefillin, Mezuzot, and Scrolls from the Judean Desert
Proofs.
Should be out in the coming weeks.
Today wrapped up our second week of archaeological fieldwork at this beautiful site, in the hills west of Jerusalem.
Seeking answers to research questions still left open in the conclusions of my book.
Covered in dirt and scarred everywhere from the thorns.
But very satisfied.🙂
I just listened to this superb interview
@gbarnea
did with
@Gnosticinforman
.
I recommend listening to the entire episode.
I especially enjoyed Gad's take on the persistence of Yahwism (not mediated through Judaism or Christianity) well into the first millenium CE...
1/2
I had a great time sharing my research with Neal (
@Gnosticinforman
) in what turned out to be a very lengthy, enjoyable, and lively discussion... Neal also did an **outstanding** job editing this video! It is now on YouTube.
I understand that a sensational(ist) title is needed
What better way to prepare for a reading group on the Genesis Apocryphon than refreshing my Aramaic by reading Targum Onkelos to Genesis with parallel Hebrew!
I have been arguing this for over a decade.
Nobody seems particularly interested in listening to me about this.
Jews observed the purity laws in thier daily lives because these laws appear in the Torah.
Full stop.
Nothing to do with the temple.