2. McCarthy, “Letters to God.”
3. Ironically, although Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik commissioned the Dome of the Rock as an Islamic shrine to commemorate the Prophet Muḥammad’s Night Journey (see Qur’an Sura 17) and create an alternate pilgrimage destination closer to his capital in Damascus, he hired the best architects of the time to build it, who just happened to be Byzantine Christians. This is why the Dome of the Rock’s architecture and octagonal floor plan resemble Byzantine churches, and specifically the Byzantine Chapel of St. Mary between Jerusalem and Bethleḥem.
4. Armstrong, Jerusalem, 6.
5. For more on Egyptian execration texts, see Ritner, Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice, 136–53.
6. Interestingly, sympathetic magic shows up in the Bible. In Num. 5:11– 31, we find the odd story of how the Israelites determined if a woman had committed adultery. The solution involved writing down curses, washing the writing off in water that also contained dust from the tabernacle floor, and making the woman drink it. The point of writing down the curses is the same as the execration texts above: the power of the curse lies in the written word, the ink of which is then washed into the potion, activating the curse.
7. Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27.
8. For an excellent discussion on the numinous power of writing, see Schniedewind, How the Bible Became a Book, chap. 2.
9. EA 287, 290. Note that EA 287 and 289 also preserve the name with an s sound instead of an sh sound, yielding U-ru-´sa-lim.
10. Later Jewish works from the third and second centuries BCE, like the Genesis Apocryphon and the still later targumic tradition, demonstrate the late Second Temple–period tradition of associating Shalem with Jerusalem. The book of Hebrews (chaps. 6–7) also appeals to this association. The study of the Melchizedek tradition and the association of Shalem with Jerusalem in the late Second Temple period is the subject of my forthcoming book, Melki-Ṣedeq, King of Sodom.
11. James Hoffmeier, “Exploring David’s Strange Antics After Defeating Goliath,” Biblical Archaeology Society’s Bible and Archaeology Fest Lecture, 2009. See also James Hoffmeier, “The Aftermath of David’s Triumph over Goliath.”
12. The man who would ultimately become the high priest in Jerusalem under Solomon was named Ṣadoq (2 Sam. 8:17, Zadok), whose name is suspiciously close to the names of priests and kings that the biblical tradition says had already lived in Jerusalem prior to the Israelite conquest, namely, Melki-ṣedeq (“My king is Ṣedeq”) and ’Adoni-ṣedeq (“My lord is Ṣedeq”). Because Ṣedeq was a well-known Phoenician deity, the presence of these three individuals with the Ṣedeq theophoric element in their names may suggest that there was a cult (and temple) of Ṣedeq in Jerusalem prior to the arrival of the Israelites.
13. Translation taken from Barkay et al., “Amulets from Ketef Hinnom.”
14. Translation taken from Barkay et al., “Amulets from Ketef Hinnom.”
15. Smoak, Priestly Blessing in Inscription and Scripture, 80–83.
16. Prov. 3:1–14 and 6:20–22 offer evidence that amulets were worn, instructing children to “tie [them] around your neck” the commandments and the teachings of their fathers and mothers.
17. Cf. Matt. 21:1–11, Luke 19:29–40; John 12:12–18.
18. Note how Matt. 21:2 actually has the disciples retrieve two animals instead of just the one—a donkey and a colt—and has Jesus ride them both (like a trick rodeo rider), rather than just the single animal as depicted in Mark 11:2, 7 and Luke 19:31, 35. This is due to Matthew’s misunderstanding of the Hebrew poetic parallelism in Zech. 9:9, which states that Jesus is “riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” While Mark and Luke rightly understand this as a parallel poetic description of the same animal, Matthew mistakenly sees it as two separate animals and tells his story with Jesus riding both animals. It’s the equivalent of my wife, Roslyn, writing me a love poem saying, “I love my husband, I love my broad-shouldered, handsome man,” and a friend asking, “I know your wife loves you, but who is that other handsome man your wife also loves?”
19. Luke states that as a child Jesus visited Jerusalem on the eighth day after his birth, as was the custom for newborn Jewish males (2:22), and at age twelve the lost prepubescent Jesus was discovered by his parents sitting among the teachers in the Temple (2:41–50).
20. Eusebius of Caesarea, Life of Constantine 3:25–41.
21. Cf. Mark. 15:26; Matt. 27:37; Luke 28:38; John 19:19. Note that John 19:20 states that the inscription “was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.” The Latin INRI is actually an acronym standing for Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum, meaning “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.”
22. Socrates of Constantinople, Ecclesiastical History 1.17.
23. Twain, Innocents Abroad, chap. 35. Read it online at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3176/3176-h/3176-h.htm.
Chapter 9: Qumran
1. For an excellent summary of the discovery of the DSS, see Davies, Brooke, and Callaway, Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls. See also the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library page on the discovery of the scrolls at http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/discovery-and-publication?locale=en_US.
2. Of course, the UN vote was immediately followed by the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, which, following the end of the British Mandate in Palestine on May 15, 1948, immediately led to the full-scale 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which the Israelis refer to as their “War of Independence” and Palestinians refer to as al-Nakba, or “The Catastrophe.”
3. Remember, the caves around Qumran where the scrolls were discovered were considered part of the Kingdom of Transjordan, which had captured the West Bank during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. And because the Director of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan headed the excavations at Qumran, Mar Samuel feared potential interference from the Jordanian government.
4. See Robert Cargill, “The Fortress at Qumran: A History of Interpretation.”
5. See page 35 of New York District Attorney, The People of the State of New York v. Raphael Golb, Indictment No. 2721/2009, “Affirmation in Response to the Defendant’s Motions to Dismiss, Motion to Suppress Evidence Recovered via Search Warrant, and Request for an Advisory Opinion, Exhibit C: Summary of, and Excerpts of, Certain Email Communications,” Jan. 19, 2010.
6. New York District Attorney, The People of the State of New York v. Raphael Golb, Indictment No. 2721/2009, 35.
7. See Leland, “Online Battle Over Sacred Scrolls.”
8. See Steve Kolowich, “Harassment of Dead Sea Scroll Scholars Leads to Arrest of Professor’s Son,” and “The Fall of an Academic Cyberbully.
9. In one e-mail exchange between Raphael Golb (posing as alias “Robert Dworkin”) and his brother, Joel Golb, concerning me, Joel Golb wrote, “Clearly, for all who read this, one of the purposes of Dworkin’s devastating letter will be, precisely, to destroy the career prospects of a really nice guy.” See page 17, §78 of New York District Attorney, The People of the State of New York v. Raphael Golb, Indictment No. 2721/2009, “Affirmation in Response to the Defendant’s Motions to Dismiss, Motion to Suppress Evidence Recovered via Search Warrant, and Request for an Advisory Opinion, Exhibit C: Summary of, and Excerpts of, Certain Email Communications,” Jan. 19, 2010.
10. The Israel Antiquities Authority has recently added interactive digital high-resolution scans of several of the major DSS, which are available for free on your browser at the IAA website, http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/. Pnina Shor and Shai Halevi have done magnificent work overseeing the photography of the scrolls and making them available to the public for study.
Chapter 10: Bethleḥem and Nazareth
1. Justin Martyr, “Dialogue of Justin,” 233–34.
2. Isa. 33:16 in the LXX reads: οὑ̑τος οἰκήσει ἐν ὑψηλῳ̑ σπηλαίῳ πέτρας ἰσχυρα̑ς (houtos oikēsei en hupsēlō spēlaiō petras ischuras), which in English reads: “he shall dwell in a high cave
of a strong rock.”
3. Origen of Alexandria, Contra Celsum 1:51 (Origen, “Contra Celsus,” 395–669 [418–19]).
4. Pummer, Early Christian Authors on Samaritans and Samaritanism, 431.
5. Hamilton, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.
6. Bethleḥem is also called Efrat, which means “fertile” or “fruitful” (cf. Gen. 35:16; 48:7; Ruth 4:11). W. F. Albright suggests that the name Bethleḥem originates from the Cana‘anite version of the fertility deities Lahmu and Lahamu, whose names always appeared together and who were worshipped together. Thus one can see why Lahmu and Lahamu might be worshipped in a place called Bit-Laḥmi in ancient Cana‘an. As Israel and Judah became monotheistic worshippers of YHWH, the etymology of the name was likely altered to Bet Leḥem, thus ridding the name of any connection to a foreign god. For more on the name of Bethleḥem, see Cole, “Bethlehem,” and Cazelles, “Bethlehem.”
7. Levirate marriage laws (Deut. 25:5–6) allow for the protection of childless widows by requiring the brother (or relative) of the dead husband to marry the widow to provide a child for her and a legacy for her dead husband. The offspring is legally considered the child of the dead husband, not of the “redeemer.”
8. Wright, “Establishing Hospitality in the Old Testament,” 177. Cf. Matthews, “Hospitality and Hostility.”
9. John 7:42 does mention Bethleḥem, but it does so in the context of questioning Jesus’s association with Bethleḥem, highlighting the problem that Jesus was from Nazareth when Scripture said the Messiah must come from Bethleḥem.
10. This practice of conflating a series of citations from multiple books of the HB is actually quite common in Second Temple Jewish texts, as well as in the Jewish Talmud. One scroll among the DSS, 4QFlorilegium (4Q174), also referred to as the “Midrash on the Last Days,” is a series of quotations from the HB strung together around a central theme—in this case, the Last Days. This particular scroll strings together citations from 2 Sam. 7, Psa. 1–2, Exod. 15, Ezek. 37, and Isa. 8 and 65 presenting them as a prophetic preview of what the eschatological Last Days will be like. Another scroll, 4QTestimonia (4Q175) or the “Messianic Anthology,” strings together passages that appear to describe a messianic figure that will appear in the Last Days. The texts include passages from Deut. 5:28–29 and 18:18–19 (two texts referring to the prophetfigure who is like Moses); Num. 24:15–17 (a portion of prophecy of Bil‘am about the Messiah-figure, who is similar to David); Deut. 33:8– 11 (a blessing of the Levites, and of the Priest-Messiah who will be a teacher like Levi); and Josh. 6:26, which is then expounded by means of a quotation from the non-canonical Psalms of Joshua (4Q379). Thus, we have evidence that the merging of quotations from the HB isn’t a mistake, or an anomaly, but was actually a widely practiced technique in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods.
11. This episode of infanticide only appears in Matthew’s Gospel. Not only does it not appear in Luke’s account, but it also is never mentioned in any of Josephus’s writings. This has caused several scholars, including Geza Vermes (Nativity, 22) and E. P. Sanders (Historical Figure of Jesus, 85), to suggest that Matthew embellished the story with Herod’s infanticide for the dual purpose of once again citing a prophecy (in this case, Jer. 31:15) that casts events in Jesus’s life as the fulfillment of prophecy, therefore adding support to Matthew’s claim that Jesus is the promised Messiah of David, and to provide a motive for Jesus and his family to go to Egypt (so that he could cite yet another prophecy in support of Jesus’s messiahship, in this case, Hos. 11:1) and ultimately to relocate to Nazareth, in order that he might be raised as “Jesus of Nazareth.”
12. Josephus, Antiquities 17.13.5 (17:354); 18.1.1 (18:1–2).
13. Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, 156. The census edict of Gaius Vibius Maximus of 104 CE from Alexandria is written on papyrus and cataloged as P.London 904 in the British Museum. See also Hunt and Edgar, Select Papyri.
14. Josephus, Antiquities 17.13.5 (17:354); 18.1.1 (18:1–2).
15. Bernegger, “Affirmation of Herod’s Death.”
16. Some scholars conclude that Luke simply made an error in regard to the timing of the census, citing the census of Quirinius instead of a census of either Gaius Sentius Saturninus or Publius Quinctilius Varus, both of whom actually ruled during the reign of Herod the Great. See Fitzmyer, Gospel According to Luke I–IX, 401. A more likely candidate for governor of Syria overseeing a census at the time of Jesus’s birth comes from the early Carthaginian Christian author Tertullian (155–240), who stated that Jesus was born during the time when Gaius Sentius Saturninus (not Quirinius) was the Legatus Augusti pro praetore (or imperial governor) of the Roman province of Syria from 9 to 7 BCE. Publius Quinctilius Varus, who was governor from 6 to 4 BCE is another candidate for governor of Syria during Jesus’s birth. Josephus states that Varus crucified two thousand Jewish rebels following a messianic revolt in Judea following the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE (Antiquities 17.10.10 [17:295]). Quirinius could not have held a census during the reign of Herod the Great.
17. The traditional translation, “in the inn,” is problematic. It suggests that Mary and Joseph were forced to stay in a barn because there was no room in the local hotel in Betḥlehem. The Greek word kataluma actually describes a guest room within a house, which was apparently occupied, forcing Mary and Joseph to stay on the home’s lower level with the animals, explaining the manger. See Carlson, “The Accommodations of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem.”
18. See Lev. 12:1–5 for the rules concerning purification after childbirth. The requirement is 7 days plus 33 days for purification after the birth of male children. (Note that the purification period is twice that for a female child.) For more on the discrepancies between Matthew and Luke’s accounts of Jesus’s birth, see Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 46.
19. If you really want to have fun, read the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which recounts some disturbing tales of Jesus’s childhood.
Chapter 11: Rome
1. See Pliny, Natural History 3.66.
2. Woodpeckers are sacred to the god of war because their tenacity and powerful beaks are capable of toppling mighty oaks. Regarding the woodpecker, see Plutarch, Roman Questions 21; Plutarch, Life of Romulus 4.2; Ovid, Fasti 3.37. Regarding the wolf, see Livy, History of Rome 10.27.9.
3. Livy, History of Rome 1.4.1–2.
4. Livy, History of Rome 1.7.2.
5. Livy, History of Rome 1.13.
6. The celebration of the Feast of the Most Holy Saints Peter and Paul takes place in Rome annually on June 29. Cf. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.2.
7. See Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; 1 Macc. 1:54; 6:7.
8. See Mark 13:14; Matt. 24:15–16; Luke 21:20–21.
9. Josephus, Jewish War 1.14.4 (1:282–85).
10. For instance, when he took the throne in Jerusalem, he did not defile the Temple as Antiochus IV and Pompey had done prior to him. In fact, when Herod announced that he would be refurbishing and doubling the size of the Jerusalem Temple and building the massive retaining walls and platform around it known today as the Temple Mount, he had members of the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe, trained as carpenters and masons so that only those religiously eligible individuals would operate in and around the Temple, and so that no one could accuse Herod of profaning the Temple. Herod also allowed the Jewish religious establishment to select its own High Priest (subject to his preliminary approval, of course). Herod offered generous tax relief and distributed grain during a time of famine in 25 BCE. He avoided erecting pagan temples and statues in heavily populated Jewish areas in and around Jerusalem, although he built them freely in less Jewish-populated areas, including three Augusteums (or Temples to Augustus) in the northern parts of his kingdom. Josephus, Jewish War 1.21.2 (1:403) mentions the Augusteum in Samaria. Jewish War 1.21.3 (1:404) describes the Augusteum in the region of the Panion (Caesarea Philippi). Jewish War 1.21.7 (1:414) mentions the Augusteum and a Colossus of Caesar at Caesarea Maritima. And when he minted coins, h
e avoided putting his portrait on the coins in order to comply with the command not to make graven images (cf. Lev. 19:4; 26:1; Exod. 20:4; Deut. 5:8).
11. View the Pilate Stone at http://www.english.imjnet.org.il/popup?c0=13142.
12. Byrne, Romans.
13. In the first three chapters alone, for example, Rom. 1:17 cites Hab. 2:4; Rom. 2:24 cites Isa. 52:5; Rom. 3:4 cites Ps. 51:4 (51:6 HB); and Rom. 3:10–12 cites Ps. 14:2–3. Of the fifty-seven citations of or allusions to the HB, the majority come from Isaiah, Genesis, and Psalms.
14. Note that Paul says in Romans that he is raising funds for the “poor in Jerusalem” (15:26) and hopes to stop in Rome when he goes to Spain, asking that they assist him on his journey there (15:24).
15. Barber, “Loose Canons (Part 1)”; “Loose Canons (Part 2)”; “Loose Canons (Part 3).”
16. Scholars believed that Yavne (Jamnia) was chosen as the place for the council, because the Jewish Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 56a–b) relates that Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Zakk’ai had relocated to the city of Yavne just prior to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE and had received permission from Rome to establish a school of Jewish religious law (halakha).
17. Ḥagigah 13a; Yebamoth 63b; cf. Erubin 54a.
18. Baba Kamma 92b.
19. Joshua, Judges, 1–2 Samuel, and 1–2 Kings are considered books of the prophets, because, although they are written as histories more closely related to the Torah, they mention the names and works of prophets like Deborah (Judg. 4–5), Samuel (1–2 Sam.) Nathan (2 Sam. 7–1 Kings 1), Elijah (1–2 Kings), Elisha (1–2 Kings), and others and are thus counted among the prophetic books.
20. Bart Ehrman has written an excellent introduction to the world of the Apocrypha, including summaries of many of the books that did not make it into the canon; see Ehrman, Lost Scriptures. For a look at the phenomenon of writing books in the names of the apostles and others close to Jesus, including letters written in the name of Paul, see Ehrman, Forged.
21. For the text of the Muratorian Fragment, see http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/christopher.haas/muratorian_fragment.htm.
The Cities That Built the Bible Page 30
