Oct 11 2010

Product Recommendation: Babel Flashcards

Published by under Aramaic,Tools

If you are struggling to learn Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek vocabulary, there is an exciting new flashcard program from Miklal Software which should be helpful to any language student. 

Babel Flashcards works on all computer platforms with Java and includes card decks which are keyed to major grammars (like Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar and more to come) as well as excellent tools to produce card lists based on lexeme frequency, English glosses, part of speech, Biblical passage or any combination thereof!

Several of the other features of this program will be highlighted in future posts, but you can take advantage of a special RELEASE SALE of 20% off with the promo code release1010 for a limited time right now.

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Aug 19 2010

Biblical Hebrew: An Illustrated Introduction

Published by under Grammar

John Cook and Robert Holmstedt have struck again with a new textbook, Biblical Hebrew: An Illustrated Introduction, moving in a completely different pedagogic direction than the majority of competing methods of learning Biblical Hebrew, including their own venture, Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar.  But don't discard your copy of Lambdin just yet, it is presently in draft form only, but looks to have great promise. 

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Jul 19 2010

More Cuneiform News: Hazor

Published by under Archeology

From Sasson's List:

Hazor Law Code Fragments

The Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin have recovered two fragments of a cuneiform tablet preserving portions of a law code at Hazor.

The text parallels portions of the famous Law Code of Hammurabi, and, to a certain extent even the Biblical “tooth for a tooth”. The team is presently working its way down towards a monumental structure dating to the Bronze Age, where more tablets are expected to be found.

The tablet is currently being studied at the Hebrew University. More details to follow as soon as possible.

The excavations are sponsored by the Hebrew university and the Israel Exploration Society, and take place in the Hazor National Park.

 

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Jul 11 2010

14th Century BCE Jerusalem Cuneiform Fragment

Published by under Archeology

The oldest known cuneiform tablet fragment from Jerusalem was recently found in a fill area of the Ophel according to Eliat Mazar, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Hebrew University excavations recently unearthed a clay fragment dating back to the 14th century BCE, said to be the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem.

The tiny fragment is only 2 cm. by 2.8 cm. in surface area and 1 cm. thick and appears to have once been part of a larger tablet. Researchers say the ancient fragment testifies to Jerusalem’s importance as a major city late in the Bronze Age, long before it was conquered by King David.

 Oldest written document ever found

In the article,  Wayne Horowitz indicates that it may have been part of the correspondence between Jerusalem and Egypt known from the Amarna tablets.

According to Horowitz, the high quality of the tablet piece indicates that it was most likely part of a message sent from a then-king of Jerusalem to the pharaoh in Egypt. Horowitz said that the fragment, which is made of Jerusalem clay, indicated that Jerusalem was one of the central cities of the area at the time.

The next part is referring to the Siloam Tunnel Inscription, which is of course a linear inscription in Ancient Hebrew and not a cuneiform tablet as the report indicates:

The most ancient piece of writing found in Jerusalem before the Ophel fragment was a tablet unearthed in the Shiloah water in the City of David, dating back to the eighth century BCE – nearly 600 years “younger” than the Ophel find.

 (HT: Sasson's List)

 

UPDATE 1: See Duane's comments for more on Jerusalem scribal traditions.

UPDATE 2: The AlphaGalileo.org article adds little by way of new information.

UPDATE 3:Christopher Rollston weighs in here (with a short addendum by John Huehnergard about a difficulty with the official reading/interpretation).

UPDATE 4: Seth Sanders clarifies nicely what is known about the situation in Late Bronze Age Jerusalem.

UPDATE 5: Seth strikes again bringing the topic of the Canaanite dialect of the Levantine Amarna Texts back into conversation.

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Jul 08 2010

JSS 2010 Article

Published by under Aramaic

For those interested in such things, the most recent edition (Autumn 2010) of the Journal of Semitic Studies contains an article which I co-authored: "A Revised Reading of a Nabataean Inscription from Umm Al-Jimal"

Happy reading!

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