Jim-Davila

Gleanings about Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL) and fires at the Temple Mount and Notre Dame.

The latest issue of the Tyndale Bulletin carries Kim Phillips’s essay, “A New Codex from the Scribe behind the Leningrad Codex: L17.” According to the abstract,

Samuel b. Jacob was the scribe responsible for the production of the so-called Leningrad Codex (Firkowich B19a), currently our earliest complete Masoretic Bible codex. This article demonstrates that another codex from the Firkowich Collection, containing the Former Prophets only, is also the work of Samuel b. Jacob, despite the lack of a colophon to this effect. The argument is based on a combination of eleven textual and para-textual features shared between these two manuscripts, and other manuscripts known to have been produced by the same scribe.

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This Decoded Science article has an interesting treatment of some of the chemical elements of the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly the Copper Scroll. The article’s conclusion provides the reminder that

Archaeology allows us to look into the past. However, in order for scientists to properly examine and maintain artifacts, it’s necessary to preserve them. In many cases, chemistry makes that possible.

For the full article, see Decoded Science. HT: Jim Davila.

In a short interview published by the University of Notre Dame, James VanderKam urges caution about labeling the recent Dead Sea find as “Cave 12.” Comparisons have previously been drawn between the new find and Cave 8, which comes inside the numbering but contained no scrolls.

VanderKam comments,

In 1952, after the earliest scrolls finds, archaeologists made a survey of hundreds of caves and openings in the general vicinity of Khirbet Qumran…. Some 230 of them contained nothing of interest, but 26 housed pottery like that found in the first scrolls cave…. [G]iven the fact that other caves in the district, besides the 11 that held the Dead Sea Scrolls, contained pottery of the same sort as Qumran Cave 1, it seems a bit premature to call [the new find] Qumran Cave 12.

Since my previous post about Qumran Cave 12, a few other noteworthy articles have cropped up, including on:

• FoxNews (HT: Jordan Sekulow via Craig Evans),
• NPR (HT: Andreas Köstenberger), and
• Times of Israel (HT: Douglas Estes).

Much of what is in these articles about the new find is also in other reports. But, the Times piece confirms that

Experts at the Dead Sea Scroll Laboratories in Jerusalem … plan to carry out multispectral imaging of the [apparently blank parchment fragment] to reveal any ink invisible to the naked eye.

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Working under the auspices of Operation Scroll, archaeologists have discovered what is being numbered as the twelfth scroll cave in the vicinity of Khirbet Qumran.

Work in the new cave has produced no new texts, but both linen (characteristic of scroll wrappers found elsewhere) and blank parchment fragments suggest that texts probably were stored in the cave at some point. Since no [scroll-type] texts were found in this cave, as with cave 8, the new cave’s designation will likely be Q12 rather than 12Q. [Updated 15 February 2017. For explanation of this correction, please see Qumran Cave 12: Update 2.]

Jim Davila provides information about a Hezekiah seal impression find.

Jim Davila notes a report of a new German bill that explicitly permits the continued practice of infant male circumcision on religious grounds. The legality of the practice in Germany had been thrown into question by a related decision by the Cologne court earlier this year.

On the web:

• Jim Davila and Hershel Shanks, among others, pay tribute to the fallen titan, Frank Moore Cross.
• Michael Bird joins Joel Watts in reflecting on Justin Martyr, Xenophon, and the Gospels.
• The Cornell University Library has a collection of Eleusinian inscription images available (HT: Charles Jones).

On the web:

• Jim Davila reports the discovery of some previously lost Greek homilies on the Psalms, potentially by Origen ( 1, 2).
• Peter Williams provides a link to a set of images of the manuscript.
• Roger Pearse comments on the press release and quotes Jerome’s catalogue of Origen’s writings.
• Alin Suciu passes along a letter from Lorenzo Perrone, provides several updates on the discussion, and releases a guest post from Mark Bilby.
• Dirk Jongkind comments on a textual variant in the text’s quotation of 1 Corinthians.