Tanach Thoughts

Happy to update that Megadim volume 63, dedicated to one of the founders of the journal, Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun, has finally been published and uploaded to the journal's section on the Herzog College website. You can find it here . The journal includes the long-anticipated paper by Gershon Galil and Eli Shukron summarizing some of their new research on inscriptions they associate with King Chizkiyahu. This paper is a reworking of one chapter of their still-anticipated book on the inscriptions, due to come out some time in the near future. Other papers that off the bat look interesting to me (though, knowing myself, boredom and lack of reading material will probably lead me to read most of the rest and discover that others are interesting as well): A paper by Rabbi Prof. Yoel Elitzur on the mentioning of Chiel's building of the wall of Yericho. A paper by Dr. Neriah Klein on Sefer Melachim as a historical reconstruction of biblical history from Beresheet to Shoftim. A paper by Dr. Y...

Prof. Gershon Galil et al have finally published the long-awaited academic publication of the Mt. Ebal amulet . Galil received a lot of heated backlash from the academic world when he first announced last year his reading of the amulet, found during sifting work of the backfill from the 80's excavation of the Mt. Ebal altar in Samaria. Galil hadn't gone through the more acceptable procedure of publishing his research through a peer-reviewed platform. Peer-reviewing has its flaws, but it's also a useful tool for gauging the legitimacy of a person's research. I thought at the time that he must have a good reason for this unorthodox action, and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Not long afterwards he announced the discovery of a similar "curse" inscription, dated to Jebusite/Canaanite Yerushalayim. Once again, nothing on when a peer-reviewed publication will come out. And then he announced the discovery of a series of inscriptions which he associated ...