There is a pretty good article on Eilat Mazar’s Jerusalem excavation by The Washington Post writer Scott Wilson (also see here).
The article didn’t say much new (see my previous coverage here, as well as information on the seal discovered in the excavation here), but did have some excellent pictures accompanying it:
OK, being seeker-friendly is one thing, but this is another! Reuters has a story about a German youth group which has produced a 2006 calendar with Bible-inspired erotic images. The images include a bare-breasted Delilah cutting Samson’s hair, a nude Eve offering an apple, Lot’s wife and daughters (!), Bathsheba in her bath, Salome’s dance, as well as some how I am not sure how they could be erotic, such as Jesus’ baptism and the near sacrifice of Isaac. The project is explained online here.
The Fort Wayne News Sentinel has a brief article on William Dever’s recent book, Does God have a Wife? Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel (Eerdmans, 2005; Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com). Actually, the report was more on his SBL session of the same topic. I particularly liked the quote from Dever which concluded the article:
After quoting a number of feminist scholars arguing for a female deity, Dever then quotes his five-year-old stepdaughter explaining why God must be both “a man and a woman.”
It’s because, she said, “half the people in the world are women and God has to be for everybody.”
I came across what looks like a delightful children’s book by Rabbi Marc Gellman and Oscar de Mejo (Illustrator), called Does God Have a Big Toe?: Stories About Stories in the Bible (HarperTrophy, 1993; Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com). This book has been around for a while (it won a number of children book prizes when it was first published in 1989), but I had never heard of it. The back cover describes the book this:
Reflecting Mr. Gellman’s lifelong love for his subject, this witty collection of midrashim provides a wonderful way to learn about and to share the stories of the Bible.
While I can’t recommend it without seeing it; it sure looks like it would be a great Christmas/Hanukkah gift!
I have covered much of the news surrounding Hanan Eshel’s recovery of some scroll fragments of the book of Leviticus (see here) as well as the subsequent investigation into his involvement the purchase (see here and here).
I wanted to clarify that no charges were ever laid against Hanan Eshel, although some news reports suggested otherwise. The reason why Hanan was not able to make it to SBL had nothing to do with the controversy. Hanan had his passport back and a visa was arranged for SBL, though there were some irregularities with his passport and he was advised against traveling.
After a short hiatus, the Review of Biblical Literature Newsleter is back up and running. Today’s issue notes a number of reviews relating to the Hebrew Bible and the Second Temple period. The Campbell Festschrift looks like it has a number of interesting chapters from the likes of Peckham, Lohfink, Sweeney, McEvenue, Knierim, among others. In particular, the chapter by Steven McKenzie on Jonah looks like it is worth a read.
