The Virgin at the Apocalypse | Troyes Cathedral, window built 1524 | Image source
On AJR
Martha Himmelfarb takes a retrospective look at her own extensive research in ancient Jewish apocalypse
Himmelfarb: "Thus I no longer see the ascent apocalypses as an unbroken tradition emanating from the Book of the Watchers as I did in Ascent to Heaven. I would now suggest that we need to pay careful attention to the distinct historical moments at which ascent apocalypses were written, not only the moment at the end of the third century in which the Book of the Watchers was composed, but also the Parables’ reworking of the Book of the Watchers, still in a single-heaven format, in the service of a more intense collective eschatology sometime on either side of the turn of the era, and the composition in the early centuries of this era by both Jews and Christians of ascents through seven heavens, apparently unrelated to the Parables’ picture."
Book Note: Khodadad Rezakhani, Reorienting the Sasanians: Eastern Iran in Late Antiquity (Edinburgh University Press, 2017)
Gross: "Rezakhani notes that this region has suffered from the confluence of a few trends. First, the Sasanian Empire has been conceptualized as a Western leaning Empire, mostly invested in Iraq and Khuzistan, less of a reflection of the actual history of the empire than the western-centrism of scholars. Second, as a result of the lack of Sasanian or more local contemporary historical or literary works concerning East Iran, the various barriers to accessing this material and the general disinterest in this area by related fields, most of the studies that have appeared are philologically focused, and do not attempt to provide a larger historical narrative of this region. Rezakhani therefore sets out to fill this desiderata by providing a narrative history of East Iran."
Articles and News
- Reminder of the annotated bibliography of Syriac resources online at syri.ac.
- Daniel Boyarin writes on classifying ancient Judaism as "religion."
- Sean Burrus examines what precisely is "Jewish" about "Jewish art."
- Matthew Novenson dissects questions of ancient Jewish messianism and the questions dominated scholarship.
- An upcoming exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
- Program poster for October’s 13th International Autumn Biblical Conference, on the Dead Sea Scrolls Seventy Years later.
- Teaching insights from Michael Satlow on the resonances of the Ten Commandments.
- Sarah Rollens reviews Heidi Wendt’s book on religious expertise and the Greco-Roman religious marketplace at Marginalia.
Happy to receive my copy of Jewish Annotated New Testament with my article on NT & Jewish-Christian Relations pic.twitter.com/n2jPkorEXh
— Edward Kessler (@kessler_ed) 16 September 2017
Thrilled and humbled to announce that Epiphanius of Cyprus has won the 2017 Philip Schaff Book Prize from @ASChurchHistory. pic.twitter.com/6g0wkTGzBJ
— ((Andrew Jacobs)) (@drewjakeprof) 21 September 2017
This shofar blower from Harley MS 5794 looks more jaunty but just as devoted to the task! #HebrewProject #roshhashanah pic.twitter.com/1v5vWBORDs
— BL Hebrew Project (@BL_HebrewMSS) 21 September 2017