While some Jewish families see Halloween as a pagan holiday that should not be observed, the fact is, Jewish tradition is itself no stranger to the otherworldly, with its own history of golem-makers, sorcerers, and demon wranglers, and throughout the centuries Jews have been as afraid of evil spirits as anyone else.I learned much by reading Bebergal’s article. What this article teaches is that the belief in the supernatural has existed throughout human history and is present in almost every culture of the world. The article also demonstrates that religious people are not immune from believing in the supernatural. Religious people believe in the supernatural because they believe in an order of existence that is beyond human understanding and that goes beyond the visible universe.
As early as the Roman period, Jews used amulets as a best defense against evils-both real and supernatural-that lurked outside their doors, a practice that continued into the late 17th and 18th century. The amulets could be made on flattened bits of metal inscribed with the names of angels or on small, encased scrolls, much like the mezuzah. But there were other kinds of magic as well. Medieval Jews called out God's name and those of His angels to smite enemies and to gain affections. In addition, Jews of all ages practiced astrology and looked for omens in the form of animals. Since traditional liturgy made little room for personal prayers, these extra-liturgical means helped people combat what they saw as constant threats.
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As Judaism struggles between assimilation and the preservation of tradition, Jewish magic suggests that Jews are very much like everyone else in so many beliefs. Ghosts, evil spirits, bad luck, and good are a part of a world view that co-exists with an omnipotent God and a complex moral system. And despite how far into the modern world Jews have moved, they continue to hear the echo of Sefer Hasdim, the famous medieval text, which advised, “One should not believe in superstitions, but it is best to be heedful of them.”
“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.’”
The Bible tells the story of the Jewish people—who we are and who we are challenged to be. Our national birth occurs in Chapter 12 of Genesis, when God instructs Abraham to leave his family and pagan Mesopotamian culture and journey to Canaan. Here he will start a new life, a new culture and a new people: the Jewish people in covenant with God.In his article, Korn discusses the universal implications of Abraham’s call and the mission of the Jewish people to bestow God’s blessings upon the nations of the world. He also discusses the reasons “the covenant’s universal dimension has receded into the background of Jewish life.”
Genesis 12 also signals a literary and theological change of direction. Genesis’ first eleven chapters are a narrative of the cosmos and humanity, suffused with the grandeur of God’s universal concern. Yet from chapter 12 onward, the Bible’s focus narrows dramatically, restricting itself to God’s stormy relationship with a small, particular people—Abraham’s descendants. It is the story of two lovers so smitten with each other that they leave the rest of the world behind. The God of the universe has gone ethnic.
Looking closely, we can still detect the universal plan. A critical part of the particularistic covenant with Abraham is a bold challenge: “Be a blessing…. Through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God calls upon the Jewish people to be a partner in creation and to carry the divine blessing to all humanity. It is so essential to the covenant that the Bible repeats it twice more to Abraham, once to Isaac when he inherits the covenant and once more to Jacob when the covenant is passed to the third generation. Jews are not to be an isolated ghetto people, or an insignificant minority relegated to a footnote to the larger human story. The covenant calls on us to be a major player—the major player—in the culture and history of the world.
In my opinion, the Israelite Exodus from Egypt will remain a point of controversy amongst scientists and researchers until the Day of Judgment or until new archaeological evidence is unearthed that is able to settle this issue. However in light of the information currently available to historians and archaeologists, we can do no more than practice moderation and caution.As Stephen wrote in his post, “Dr Zahi Hawass errs on the side of caution with regards to discoveries made at the Aper-al tomb in the Saqqara region, and their relationship to the Exodus, and subsequent archaeological conclusions.”
There have been whispers in the archaeological community following the discovery of the Aper-al tomb in the Saqqara region in the area known as Abwab al-Qotat [Doors of the Cats] by French archaeologist Alain Zivie. Abwab al-Qotat was given its name following the discovery of thousands of mummified cats interred in the tomb. It is well known that ancient Egyptians worshipped the goddess Bastet, which had the head of a cat. The center for the worship of Bastet was located in Tell Basta, which is in the [Egyptian] city of Zagazig, and was formerly known as Bubastis, which was derived from the word ‘Bastet’.
Zivie discovered the tomb by travelling deep underground until he reached the burial chamber which was carved into the rock more than 30 meters underground. Zivie was forced to seek the assistance of French engineers working on the Cairo metro project in order to restore the tomb and strengthen its walls to allow him to safely reach the burial chamber. Zivie therefore discovered the first almost untouched Modern Kingdom tomb in Saqqara.
The discovery of this tomb which took place almost 20 years ago remains an important archaeological event. The reason for this is that the person buried in the tomb was known as "Aper-al" and this is an Egyptianized form of a Hebrew name. Aper-al was the vizier for King Amenhotep III, and later for his son King Akhenaten. Pharaoh Akhenaten was the first ruler to institute monotheism represented by the worship of the sun which he called Aten.
Excavations of this tomb continued for almost 10 years, beginning in 1980 and ending in late 1989. Amongst the artefacts discovered here were several portraits entitled "spiritual father of Aten" as well as "the Priest" and "the first servant of Aten." This means that Aper-al served as the chief priest of Aten in the Memphis region during the reign of King Akhenaten.
Of course the effects of the news of the discovery of a Hebrew tomb has raised many questions and controversies amongst archaeologists with regards to whether or not a temple for Aten existed in Memphis or not. The portraits found in the Aper-al tomb indicate that such a temple did in fact exist in Memphis, and this is contrary to the tradition accepted by archaeologists which is that monotheism [Atenism] did not exist beyond the city of Tell el-Amrana in central Egypt. Tel-Amrana was the city founded by Akhenaten for his family. Akhenaten swore never to depart the city so long as he lived, and he named it Akhen-Aten meaning the city faithful and loyal to Aten.
In addition to this, there has been prolonged controversy between Torah scholars and archaeologists over the credibility of Aper-al in fact being a Hebrew name. This creates the impression that Hebrews were present in Egypt during the eighteenth dynasty, and that some Egyptianized Hebrews held senior state positions. It is important to emphasize that all the artefacts discovered in the Aper-al tomb, such as the sarcophagus, the mummies, as well as the carvings on the walls of the tomb, are consistent with the Egyptian style of the time. Even Aper-al’s portrait, his cloths, and his jewellery, are purely ancient Egyptian. This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
One of the most intriguing questions in the Hebrew Bible is what happened to the 10 tribes after the northern kingdom of Israel was sundered and plundered by a succession of Assyrian kings whose names – Sennacherib, Shalmaneser, Sargon and Tiglat-pileser – are attached to the sacking of the territory in the eight century BCE?I have written several posts dealing with the fate of the ten lost tribes of Israel. You can read some of my posts here, here, and here.
Not only did these Assyrian monarchs destroy the infrastructure of the political entity that housed all but the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, they also deported, in successive waves, its entire population base to vaguely identified portions of the Assyrian Empire, some beyond a distant river. According to Zvi Benite, who has studied the question with an almost intimidating thoroughness, the “lostness” of the 10 tribes has become the stuff of mystery, folklore and Messianic speculation.
In proposing an answer to the first conundrum – why deport people in the first place? – Benite suggests that the vastness of the Assyrian realm permitted its rulers to gather conquered peoples into its different spaces and use them to consolidate their hold on the empire while granting the deportees a modicum of independence and identity. This thesis, however, stands on some pretty thin gruel. Conquered and deported nations do not generally blend in and become supporters of the regime or empire that carted them off from their native lands.
Be that as it may, Benite’s study does not rest on the questionable idea that the lost tribes somehow serviced the imperial aims of the Assyrians. The quality of his essay resides in the way in which the idea of the ten lost tribes became part of the religious folklore of the Jewish people. In illustrating this, the author ferrets out every last verse of the Hebrew Bible in alluding to the anticipation with which Biblical authors awaited the return of the tribes. The books of Kings, Isaiah and Ezra are especially targeted to place in relief the contemporary view of the fate of the 10 tribes.
According to Benite, the return of the inhabitants of Judea from Babylon and their reconstruction of the Great Temple of Jerusalem sharpened interest in the following question. If Cyrus, the Persian monarch and successor to the Assyrian Empire, decided to return the captives of Judea to their ancestral homeland, how is it that the 10 tribes did not somehow return at the same time as the Judeans? No definitive answer to that question was found.
Lecture
The Sea of Galilee Boat
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Lecturer: Shelley Wachsmann, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A&M University
Where:
Oriental Institute
University of Chicago
1155 East 58th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
Lecturer
Shelley Wachsmann is with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, and the Meadows Professor of Biblical Archaeology with the Nautical Archaeology Program and Texas A& M University. He received his degrees from the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University (M.A. and Ph.D.), and his areas of specialization are Biblical archaeology, nautical archaeology, the Near East, trade, and archery. He has done extensive fieldwork, and his publications include “The Sea of Galilee Boat” (3rd edition 2009) and “Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant” (1998, 2nd printing 2009). He is an active member of the AIA Underwater Archaeology Committee/Interest Group, and is the 2009/2010 Joukowsky Lecturer.
Abstract of the Lecture
In 1986 a 2,000-year-old boat was discovered in Israel on the banks of the Sea of Galilee (Yam Kinneret) near the ancient site of Migdal. In a daring and hair-raising non-stop adventure, directed by the speaker, the boat was excavated, packaged in its entirety, and moved to a specially-prepared conservation pool. The boat lived its life during the first centuries B.C.-A.D. This vessel is apparently representative of the large-type all-purpose fishing boats common on the lake during that time. Research reveals, beyond reasonable doubt, that this is the type of boat mentioned in the Gospels, used by the disciples of Jesus. It is also the type of boat used by the Jews in the brutal nautical Battle of Migdal in A.D. 67, against a makeshift Roman fleet. The lecture describes the adventure of the boat’s discovery and excavation, and then delves into what research has revealed about the boat and its milieu.
In 1958, while searching through the library of the desert monastery of Mar Saba, Biblical scholar Morton Smith made an astounding and controversial discovery: portions of a "secret" gospel of Mark. The handwritten Greek manuscript he found purported to be a copy of a letter by the second-century church leader Clement of Alexandria, in which Clement evidently responds to inquiries about "Secret Mark." Morton's subsequent publication of his discovery incited a maelstrom of controversy and speculation that continues 50 years later.
The first quotation from Secret Mark describes the resuscitation of a young man who had died. The youth’s sister pleads for help from Jesus, and both go to a garden tomb from which a great cry is heard. Jesus rolls away the stone from the door of the tomb, enters and resuscitates the youth. The youth “looking upon [Jesus], loved him.” They go to the youth’s house, “for he was rich.” Jesus remains there for six days, and then advises the young man what he must do. The unnamed youth then comes to Jesus in the evening “wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God.”
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When Smith published the results of his study of the Clement letter 15 years after its discovery, scholarly responses were harshly negative, even caustic. Many of the published reactions were inflammatory personal assaults on Smith himself,7 and in particular at his interpretation of the text, rather than concerned with the question of whether or not the letter was forged. (The forgery issue was first raised by Quentin Quesnell in 1975.8) Smith’s conclusion was that Clement’s letter was a genuine second-century text and that Secret Mark was also genuine—from the late first century. The Secret Gospel of Mark demonstrated that the Jesus movement had begun with a mystery-religion baptismal initiation: Jesus baptized each of his closest disciples into the mystery of the kingdom of God, “singly and at night.” In his larger study Smith wrote: “In this baptism the disciple was united with Jesus. The union may have been physical ... (there is no telling how far symbolism went in Jesus’ rite), but the essential thing was that the disciple was possessed by Jesus’ spirit.” This is how Smith put it in his more popular book: The disciple ecstatically “entered the kingdom of God, and was thereby set free from the laws ordained for and in the lower world. Freedom from the law may have resulted in completion of the spiritual union by physical union.”
He reasoned the Cohanim should all have a common set of genetic markers at a higher frequency than the general Jewish population. After consulting Dr. Michael Hammer, a geneticist at the University of Arizona and a pioneer in studying the Y chromosome, the two men developed an experiment to test his thesis.Skorecki’s conclusions are controversial because they depend on a new technology that is still in the developmental stages. However, many scientists are using genetical research in historical study and the results are confirming the reliability of the technology. If the genetic evidence shows that Jewish priests today are related to a common ancestor that lived more than three thousand years ago, then this information can have a bearing on information provided by the Biblical record.
Besides determining maleness, the Y chromosome consists almost entirely of non-coding DNA, which is passed from father to son without recombination. Therefore the genetic information on a Y chromosome of a man living today is basically the same as that of his ancient male ancestors, with rare mutations that occur along hereditary lines.
By tracking those neutral mutations or genetic markers scientists can come up with the genetic signature of a man's male ancestry.
Dr. Skorecki's test found an array of six common chromosomal markers in 97 of the 106 Cohens he tested. Calculations based on variations of the mutations rooted the men's shared ancestry 106 generations in the past - 3,300 years ago, or the approximate time of Exodus.
5. Commemorative scarabs
These are scarabs that were commissioned specially to celebrated specific occasions and which date to the New Kingdom, principally during the reign of Amenhotep III. They are an important source of historical information. Wilkinson gives examples of particular scarabs and classes of commemorative scarab. All consist of scarab amulets with hieroglyphic inscriptions on the bases, some texts quite short, others remarkably long. Wilkinson points out some gaps in knowledge. For example, why only some subjects appear to have been commemorated by Amenhotep III, and why commemorative scarabs do not appear to have been produced after the 11th year of Amenhotep's reign but were resumed under the reign of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). Wilkinson highlights the differences between scarabs of Amenhotep III and IV. None are known after the Amarna period.
A massive citadel built atop a 150-foot-tall hill of solid rock looms over Aleppo's old quarter. Fortresses have risen above this northern Syrian city since Roman times. But at the heart of the citadel, amid ruins of Ottoman palaces and hidden behind high walls that date to the Crusader era, a team of German and Syrian archaeologists is clearing debris from a large pit that shows this hilltop was significant long before the Romans arrived. Here, amid clouds of dust, a battered basalt sphinx and a lion--both standing seven feet tall--guard the entrance to one of the great religious centers of ancient times, the sanctuary of the storm god Adda.Read the abstract of the article in its entirety by visiting Archaeology Magazine online.
Kay Kohlmeyer, an archaeologist at Berlin's University of Applied Sciences and the excavation codirector, has spent more than 10 years peeling away the layers of rubble that conceal the rich history of this temple. He's found that it was first constructed by Early Bronze Age peoples, then rebuilt by a succession of cultures, including the Hittites, the Indo-European empire-builders whose domain spread from Anatolia to northern Syria in the 14th century B.C. Through the millennia, as Syrian, Anatolian, and Mesopotamian cultures mixed and blurred at this ancient crossroads, Adda was known variously as Addu, Teshup, Tarhunta, and Hadad. But as artistic styles and languages came and went, the storm god's temple endured.
“Therefore I am against the prophets, is the utterance of Jehovah, who steal My word from one another” (Jeremiah 23:30).These are words that preachers today need to hear.
The sin of plagiarism is impossible to the true prophet, partly because there are no rights of private property in the word of Jehovah. The Old Testament writers make free use of the works of their predecessors. For instance, Isaiah ii. 2-4 is almost identical with Micah iv. 1-3; yet neither author acknowledges his indebtedness to the other or to any third prophet.
Uriah ben Shemaiah prophesied according to all the words of Jeremiah, who himself owes much to Hosea, whom he never mentions. Yet he was not conscious of stealing from his predecessor, and he would have brought no such charge against Isaiah or Micah or Uriah.
In the New Testament 2 Peter and Jude have so much in common that one must have used the other without acknowledgment. Yet the Church has not, on that ground, excluded either Epistle from the Canon.
In the goodly fellowship of the prophets and the glorious company of the apostles no man says that the things which he utters are his own. But the mere hireling has no part in the spiritual communism wherein each may possess all things because he claims nothing. When a prophet ceases to be the messenger of God, and sinks into the mercenary purveyor of his own clever sayings and brilliant fancies, then he is tempted to become a clerical Autolycus, “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.”
Modern ideas furnish a curious parallel to Jeremiah’s indifference to the borrowings of the true prophet, and his scorn of the literary pilferings of the false. We hear only too often of stolen sermons, but no one complains of plagiarism in prayers. Doubtless among these false prophets charges of plagiarism were bandied to and fro with much personal acrimony. But it is interesting to notice that Jeremiah is not denouncing an injury done to himself; he does not accuse them of thieving from him, but from one another.
Probably assurance and lust of praise and power would have overcome any awe they felt for Jeremiah. He was only free from their depredations, because—from their point of view—his words were not worth stealing. There was nothing to be gained by repeating his stern denunciations, and even his promises were not exactly suited to the popular taste.
“The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (Isaiah 1:3).In a previous post, What Was the Donkey Doing in Its Master’s Crib?, I discussed how the English versions have translated the word “crib” in Isaiah 1:3. In that post, I also discussed how the early church understood Isaiah 1:3 as a prophecy of the Christ child being placed in a crib.
The NLT paraphrases as, “Even the animals — the donkey and the ox — know their owner and appreciate his care, but not my people Israel. No matter what I do for them, they still do not understand.” That’s what the poetry means, but it’s no longer poetry.Joel asked readers what they think about using “dog” and “cat” instead of “ox” and “donkey.” My answer to his question is an emphatic rejection of his proposal. In other words, the change he proposed is not good. There are several reasons why the use of cat and dog in Isaiah 1:3 is not good, better yet, not acceptable.
What’s more important, retaining the technical word eivus — variously “crib” or “manger” — or conveying the point? What’s more important, the point or the poetry?
And if we want to reach the modern reader, maybe we should do away with “ox” and “donkey” (”ass” is surely wrong these days) — animals that most readers no longer own — and translate “dog” and “cat.”
What do you think?
18 They light candles to them, and in great number, of which they cannot see one: but they are like beams in the house. 19 And they say that the creeping things which are of the earth, gnaw their hearts, while they eat them and their garments, and they feel it not. 20 Their faces are black with the smoke that is made in the house. 21 Owls, and swallows, and other birds fly upon their bodies, and upon their heads, and cats in like manner. 22 Whereby you may know that they are no gods. Therefore fear them not (Baruch 6:18-22).
When we turn to the book of Chronicles, Saul’s fate is even worse! All that is left of Saul’s two year reign is a couple geneological [sic] notes (1Chron 8:33; 9:39) and a short chapter detailing his death on Mount Gilboa (1Chron 10:1-14).
The length of Saul’s reign is uncertain since a number is missing in the Hebrew text, which simply says, ‘he reigned . . . and two years’ (13:1). Most scholars would say he ruled about twenty-two years. If one takes the biblical evidence, twelve years might be more logical. The ark was captured by the Philistines some time before Saul began to reign. According to 1 Samuel 7:2, it was kept in Kiriath-jearim ‘some twenty years.’ It was taken to Jerusalem in the early part of David’s reign (2 Sam. 6:1-15), but David reigned for over seven years at Hebron before Jerusalem was captured (2 Sam. 5:5). If this twenty years is to be taken literally or even as meaning around twenty years, it would seem to limit Saul’s reign to no more than twelve years.
Photo: Paul Fryer’s “The Privilege of Dominion” Imagine being in charge of your organization's finances, and learning from your bank one morning that thieves had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from company coffers overnight using your online banking credentials. Now imagine your frustration when you go to log in to your PC to assess the damage, only to find that the computer you typically use to access the account has been kneecapped by the bad guys.
This is precisely what happened to Kathy Dake, office manager for St. Isidore Catholic Church in Danville, Calif. Dake had infected her PC with the Zeus Trojan after opening a malicious e-mail disguised as notice from the IRS about "unreported income."
The thieves used Zeus to steal the credentials Dake uses to administer the church's bank account, and a week ago Friday she came in to work to find her computer would not boot up; Windows complained that key files had been corrupted. That same day, she also found out from her bank that in the wee hours of the morning someone had tried to transfer $87,000 out of St. Isidore's account. The attackers had instructed the bank to send the funds to more than a half dozen money mules, willing or unwitting accomplices across the country hired through work-at-home job scams.
Since archaeologists first began to suit up in scuba gear in the 1960s, the excavation of underwater sites has transformed how we understand our past. We recently highlighted some of the most intriguing ongoing underwater projects, which got us thinking about all the amazing underwater sites that have come to light in the past half-century. With thousands of sites to choose from, we no doubt missed a favorite of yours, but for our doubloons, these 12 are the most exciting and surprising discoveries made during the age of underwater archaeology.
New finds unearthed at Qesem Cave in Israel suggest that during the late Lower Paleolithic period (between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago), people hunted and shared meat differently than they did in later times. Instead of a prey's carcass being prepared by just one or two persons resulting in clear and repeated cutting marks — the forefathers of the modern butcher — cut marks on ancient animal bones suggest something else.
"The cut marks we are finding are both more abundant and more randomly oriented than those observed in later times, such as the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods," says Prof. Avi Gopher of TAU's Department of Archaeology. "What this could mean is that either one person from the clan butchered the group's meat in a few episodes over time, or multiple persons hacked away at it in tandem," he interprets. This finding provides clues as to social organization and structures in these early groups of hunters and gatherers, he adds.
Qesem, which means "magic" in Hebrew, was discovered seven miles east of Tel Aviv about nine years ago during highway construction. It is being excavated on behalf of TAU's Department of Archaeology by Prof. Avi Gopher and Dr. Ran Barkai in collaboration with an international group of experts. The cave contains the remains of animal bones dating back to 400,000 years ago. Most of the remains are from fallow deer, others from wild ancestors of horse, cattle, pig, and even some tortoise. The data that this dig provides has been invaluable: Until now there was considerable speculation as to whether or not people from the late Lower Paleolithic era were able to hunt at all, or whether they were reduced to scavenging, the researchers say.
The pastor of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina plans to celebrate Halloween by leading his fourteen member congregation by burning Bibles. Pastor Marc Grizzard is not a Satan worshiper or a militant atheist.
Pastor Grizzard says that he is a Christian. However it seems that the Amazing Grace Baptist Church believes that only the King James Version of the Bible is the true word of God and that all other versions of "perversions" and "Satanic." Along those same principles, Pastor Grizzard intends to burn books written by Christian authors such as Billy Graham and Rick Warren.
DELTONA, Fla. (ABP) -- Two Cuban Baptist leaders arrested Oct. 3 in the city of Santiago de Cuba remain in jail, reportedly without formal charge and with few details of why they are being held.Rubén Ortiz-Columbié, coordinator for special projects of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention, and Francisco "Pancho" Garcia, director of the convention's teen department, were reportedly carrying out church work when nabbed by authorities.Ortiz' son, also named Ruben, is a pastor in Florida. He said the two men were on their way to distribute money donated for Baptist work. He said his church, Primera Iglesia Bautista in Deltona, Fla., regularly sends funds to the convention for mission projects in Cuba.Observers in the United States familiar with the situation said they don't know why police targeted Ortiz and Garcia. Ortiz is a well known Baptist leader in Cuba and worldwide. He served as executive director of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention until his retirement. Since then he has continued to visit churches to determine project needs and help them to secure necessary funds and labor to get the jobs done in a volunteer capacity.Jose Norat-Rodriguez, area director of Iberoamerica and the Caribbean for ABCUSA International Ministries, said Ortiz and Garcia were allowed to see their wives Oct. 9, but the women were not told why their husbands were being detained. He compared the two Baptists to Paul and Silas, two missionaries delivered from prison though the power of prayer in the Book of Acts, and asked fellow Baptists to pray both for their release and for their families.
