Tanach Thoughts

Last night I read a fairly new article by Lorenzo Nigro, whom I gathered directs the Rome La Sapienza University excavation project in Tel es-Sultan (biblical Jericho). I've been vaguely familiar of his work since I tore through Iron Age publications last year trying to find mentions of LMLK stamped handles for a uni project. He was also part of a project in Beit Lechem, as well as other projects in Judea and Samaria. One important thing to note is that all of these projects were undertaken together with the "Palestinian" Ministry of Heritage. The article I'm talking about summarized findings from the 2019-2023 season at Jericho. I was quite surprised to see identifications of many sub-strata, perhaps more than I'd ever seen in an excavation report (Early Bronze IVa and IVb? Who ever heard of splitting the Intermediate Bronze in two?). I skimmed the Bronze Age discussions, though. I'm usually more interested in the Iron Age findings. There I received quite a ...

Fourty years ago, Steven Bowman published an article discussing the possibly meaning of the name of Khirbet Qumran, which gave its name to the famous scrolls found in its vicinity. In the article he raised the likelihood of the word 'qumran' having Syriac-Aramaic origins and coming from the word 'Kumri(a)' (כומרי, כומריא), which means 'priest(s)' (although in Hebrew this root is usually associated with priests of idolatrous religions, and at some point after the rise of Christianity became the common word for Christian priests, Komer (כומר)). He suggested connecting this with a commonly-accepted notion (although I have some doubts) that the ancient Qumran sect(s) was(/were?) a group of priests or had an association with a priestly sect. The exact identification of the ancient settlement that was located at Qumran is debated. Many have suggested Tanachic Sechachah (סככה), others have suggested Tanachic Ir Ha'melach (עיר המלח) as Iron Age remnants were found...

This is part 4 of a series of posts I made shortly after starting the blog (nos. 1 , 2 , 3 ). Back then, I noticed that there were many ties between the Tribe of Yehudah in particular and Egypt. This was most particularly apparent in their personal names, though there were a couple of other connections. I am now in the midst of conducting research for my latest seminar paper, in which I will attempt to propose a link between the Samaria Ostraca and the LMLK handles (more on that in a later post). As researching one fascinating topic goes, my search led me to many other fascinating topics, one being the subject of Egyptian icons in Judahite (i.e., of the Kingdom of Yehudah) material culture. For example, all LMLK handles feature variants of two main Egyptian symbols: A winged disk (many identify it with the Egyptian winged sun disk) or a winged scarab, a sacred Egyptian symbol. Another example are Judahite seals, many of which feature blatant Egyptian symbols, including idolatrous symbo...