23-05-2012: At excavations in the surroundings of the ancient walls of Jerusalem a bulla has been found inscribed with the name of Bethlehem. The following lines can be read on the bulla: Beshava'at "on the seventh" - Bethlehem - (mele)ch "king". For an enlarged picture see the website of Associated Press. In a video the excavator Eli Shukron is interviewed, see the website of the Dutch newspaper Reformatorisch Dagblad. A well-worked out article by Diaa Hadid can be found on the site of Associated Press. See also the article in the newspaper Jerusalem Post. Transcription of the text on the bulla and discussions on the find can be read on BiblePlaces blog.

18-05-2012: Excavations at Khirbet Qeijafa discovered artefacts, according to the excavators dating back to the time of David (10th century BCE). The excavators have the opinion that the site once has been an Israelite settlement. Remarkable is the fact that although three sanctuaries have been found neither images of human beings or animals, nor pig bones are attested. In the sanctuaries five standing stones have been found, as well as two altars, two small containers for sacrifices, and two mobile cultic objects, one of clay and one of stone. The clay container features a decorated opening flanked by lions and two pillars that excavator Yossi Garfinkel says recall "Boaz and Yachin", the pillars that flanked Solomon's Temple, according to the Bible. For more information see the articles the Dutch newspaper Reformatorisch Dagblad (with nice pictures), and the article by RD correspondent Alfred Muller (Jerusalem) in Reformatorisch Dagblad, furthermore, the articles in the Israeli newspapers HaAretz and Jerusalem Post and the discussions on the weblogs Serving the Word and Ancient Hebrew Poetry. (Thanks are due to Paul Sanders for providing the information).

07-04-2012: Published by Brill, Leiden, in the series "Jewish and Christian Perspectives", the first monograph by OTW member Hector M. Patmore (Kampen University, The Netherlands). His book is entitled Adam, Satan, and the King of Tyre. The Interpretation of Ezekiel 28:11-19 in Late Antiquity. The book deald with the oracle against the king of Tyreas described in Ezekiel 28:12-19. This is a difficult text that inspired diverse interpretations in Late Antiquity. For example, according to one rabbinic tradition the text spoke of the first man, Adam, while the Church Fathers found in the same text a description of the fall of Satan. The book discusses several interpretations from rabbinic sources, literature from the church fathers, the targum and ancient translations and explains the development of each interpretation.

30-05-2011: With the help of infrared camera's of a NASA satellite 17 pyramids have been found, that are still buried in the sand.The discoveries would date from the New Kingdom. On Monday evening 30 May 2011 a documentary film will be broadcasted by BBC 1 (20.30-22.00 UK time) entitled "Egypt's lost cities". Also Discovery Channel in the US will broadcast this documentary on the spectaculair findings. 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements have also been uncovered with the use of infra-red technology. Initial excavations have already confirmed some of the findings, including two suspected pyramids. See also the reports on the site of the University of Alabama at Birmingham where the US Archaeologist Sarah Parcak has an appointment as archaeologist. See also the reports in the Washington Post, and on the weblog Ferrell Jenkins' weblog. Two days after the BBC press release Dr Zahi Hawass has said that he is disappointed because of the fact that the BBC boradcasts a documentary on discoveries that not yet has been verified by the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA).

14-05-2011: On a block that is stored in the Berlin Museum (Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection) possibly contains the name of Israel, besides the names of Askelon and Canaan. In 1913 the block came into possession of the Berlin Museum. The reading on the stone was translated in 2001 by the Egyptologist Manfred Görg, who dated the inscription much earlier than the Mernephtah stele. He then published the results of his research in the German journal Biblische Notizen. Together with Peter van der Veen and Christoffer Theis he recently published his findings with improved arguments in an article in English in the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections. Yesterday (May 13th 2011) a long article on the findings of Görg and others has been published by SpektrumDirekt. Translated into English it can be best read here. Earlier, the reading "Israel" on the Egytian stone was criticized by James Hoffmeijer in an article in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society ("What is the Biblical Date for the Exodus? A Response to Bryant Wood," JETS 50 (2007), 225-247). See the discussion on the topic on the bible archaeology website. On this website also the response by Görg is presented.After the publication of the article by Van der Veen, Theis and Görg in JAEI (at the end of November 2010) a short note on the new findings appeared on the blog of Jim West, be it without much reactions by readers, and a critical response on the blog of Duane Smith. (Thanks are due to Eric Peels for providing the information).

[Update18-05-2012]: Already in 2009 (Joint Meeting Lincoln) Meindert Dijkstra presented an alternative reading, which in his opinion is more plausible, namely the reading of Esta'ol (the city). See Oudtestamentische Studiën 59 (2011), p. 53 n. 41.

31-03-2011 (updated 18-05-2012): Just published, the study on The Silent God by Marjo Korpel and Johannes de Moor (Brill, Leiden). The silence of God is a recurring theme in modern reflection. It is not only addressed in theology, religious studies and philosophy, but also in literary fiction, film and theatre. This book deals with the emergence of the concept of a silent deity in the ancient Near East (including Greece) and the Bible. What did the scribes mean when they assumed that under circumstances God remained silent? Because divine silence presupposes the possibility of communication between God and man, the authores retrace the ways in which human beings addressed their deities and conversely, how the deities were thought to address them. In an Epilogue, the authors explore the consequences of what they have found and an attempt is made to establish in which way the findings may be relevant for a modern view on the silence of God.

[Update 18-05-2012] In April 2012 a paperback editon of the book appeared, and in Europe it is now available for 60 Euro, in America for 75 dollar.

29-03-2011 (updated 14-04-2011): BBC News Middle East has the following news: "A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007." The findings are thought to be as important as the discovery of the Qumran Scrolls. Pictures can be seen on another BBC-page, and see also the text on the Paleojudaica blogspot and already earlier on Jim West's blog. Robert Deutsch takes the findings as "foolish fakes", just as some other scholars on Jim West's blog. Peter Thonemann (Ancient History, Oxford) argues in The Times online that part of the text on the plates was taken over from a Jordan tomb text and takes the "codex" as a modern forgery, produced by a resident of Amman within the last fifty years or so. The Jordanian government now, nevertheless, claims that the documents were smuggled into Israel by a Bedouin, and wants them back to get them safely in a Jordanian Museum.

25-03-2011: The כלי database has been launched today. The Hebrew word kĕlī can refer to both pottery and utensils. The database describes Hebrew words related to the daily life and is a project of the Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap. By collecting as much information as possible on the described words the authors and editors try to reach traces of the original meaning.

All members of the OTW has been requested to write some of the articles. Finally the database will contain desriptions of more than 200 utensils. If available, also pictures will be added to the articles, that are downloadable as PDF-files on the site. At the moment some twenty articles on utensils have been uploaded to the database, among them a callipers, a sidebag for a donkey, a mirror, tongs, a stewpot, etc. On the RSS-feed of the OTW-website new entries will be announced as soon as they are published.

14-03-2011: Published in the OTS Series:
Volume l 59: Bob Becking & Lester Grabbe (eds), Between Evidence and Ideology Essays on the History of Ancient Israel read at the Joint Meeting of the Society for Old Testament Study and the Oud Testamentisch Werkgezelschap Lincoln, July 2009, OTS 58), Leiden 2011, 264 pp. For an overview of the contents, click on the link of the title.

Volume 58: Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen & Annemarieke van der Woude (eds), "Enlarge the Site of Your Tent": The City as Unifying Theme in Isaiah , (OTS 58), Leiden 2011, 264 pp. Voor een overzicht van de inhoud, klik op de link van de titel.

14-03-2011: Bob Becking and Paul Sanders publisehd an article on the Khirbet Qeiyafa text in the Dutch journal Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift 64/3 (2010). The text of theirarticle can be downloaded here. The authors are preparing also an English version of their article.

11-01-2009: Fall 2008 Israeli archaeologists claimed to have discovered the oldest Hebrew text (dated in the 10th Century BCE). On Saturday January 9th, 2010 the translation of the five lines was published by Prof. Gershon Galil from Haifa University. The difference with other old Hebrew texts is that this text seems to be written by an experienced scribe. The text is not a scribal exercise like previously found texts (Gezer calender, Beit Zayit abecedary, both dated to the 10th Century BCE and the 1976 discovered Izbet Sartah inscription, dated to the 12th Century BCE). The difference with earlier discoveries of written texts is that the text found recently should have been written by an experienced writer. The text is not just a scribal excercise. Also the text is much longer than previous ones. For an overview of the history of the ostracon since its discovery in 2008 until its decipherment, see the overview on the website of the Khirbet Qeiyafa project. The text on the ostracon (see for the original text the drawing of the ostracon) would run as follows:

1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3' [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4' the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5' Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

In verse 4 Galil now suggests to read nqm in stead of šqm. According to Bob Becking one has to read mqm.
In 2008 the question was whether the script was Hebrew or not. According to Galil the text definitely is Hebrew, because of the similarities with other, biblical texts (Galil mentions Jes. 1:17, Ps. 72:3, Exod. 23:3), and the deciphering of the ancient writing testifies to its being Hebrew, based on the use of verbs particular to the Hebrew language, and content specific to Hebrew culture and not adopted by any other cultures in the region. However, Paul Sanders already commented in the Jerusalem Post that also in ancient Ugarit similar utterances were common. See further the description and diverging translation of the text by John Hobbins. Furthermore the articles on websites of the Israeli newspapers Jerusalem Post, and Haaretz, and the website of E!-science.

10-05-2011: Use of anchors on the KLY-site ajusted to use with Safari, Google Chrome and Opera browsers.
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