Yonatan Adler

Power to the People: Reverse Engineering the Origins of Judaism GAD BARNEA | It must be realized that, from a critical perspective, the Bible cannot be considered a primary source.

www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/power-t...

This outstanding, programmatic essay by @gbarnea.bsky.social has just appeared in Marginalia Review of Books.

I sense that we are on the verge of a paradigm shift which will see the approach outlined here becoming the norm in the study of Biblical literature and early Judaism.

Link 👇

How Archaeology Rewrote the History of Tefillin - 18Forty From verses in Parshat Bo to desert caves, tefillin emerge as one of Judaism’s earliest embodied practices.

18forty.org/articles/how...

I know it's a bit late for last week’s Torah reading.

But then again, Javier Milei's devar Torah at Davos was a hard act to follow.

Anyway, here’s an essay of mine on “How Archaeology Rewrote the History of Tefillin”, recently shared over @18forty.bsky.social's website.

Link in the first comment.

This is a great opportunity to try crowdsourcing this problem.
Any ideas?

R. Reich, “The Asymmetrical Pottery Flask of the Early Roman (= Late Second Temple) Period in Judea,” RB 132/4 (2025): 578–604.

For the full article (behind a paywall):
poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?...

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They appear in the Hasmonean period and disappear after 70 CE.

Reich tried, but ultimately was unable to suggest a plausible explanation for the strange shape, unique distribution, distinct chronology and ultimate function of these very odd vessels.

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A recent article by Prof. Ronny Reich in the journal Revue Biblique examines the strange pottery flasks common in Early Roman (“Late Second Temple period”) Judea.

These are wonky vessels.
And they are found almost exclusively at Jewish sites in Judea proper (they rarely make it up north).

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Been keeping myself busy recently filming for an online course I’ve created.

I’ll be posting the details on this soon, so... stay tuned!

Arm-tefillin case. 🥹

Asaf (my scribe) has gotten his micrography for the tefillin letters to almost the right size of about 1 mm in height.

To the right is a close-up of one of the tefillin slips from Wadi Murabbaʿat; to the left, Asaf's writing with a reed on the flesh side of the papillary dermis of a goat.

🙏

YouTube video by Kedem The Origins of Jewish Identity: When Did Jews Actually Become Israel? (feat. Prof. Yonatan Adler)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRnX...

If the Julius-Wellhausen-Vorlesung was too formal for your tastes, here I take off the tie and vest and sit down in the lab with Alex for a friendly one-on-one.
Link 👇

YouTube video by Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften Thema „Becoming “Israel”: The Jewish Reception of a Biblical Identity“

My talk (in English) starts at 16:00, following a very kind introduction by Prof. Reinhard Kratz (in German):
youtube.com/watch?v=Qs9d...

“𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 ‘𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗮𝗲𝗹’: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗕𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆”

My Julius Wellhausen Lecture is now available on YouTube (link below).

The lecture was presented on October 29, 2025 at the University of Göttingen in conjunction with the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony.

www.jstor.org/stable/jj.35...

The first volume of the final report on the excavations at Magdala has just been published.
It includes my report on the chalk vessels at the site.
Link below 👇

History as A Science: The Difference of Method STEVE MASON | If historians were to sit at the table with scientists, then history needed to be more scientific (wissenschaftlich). But how?

www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/history...

Prof. Steve Mason's very thoughtful and engaging review of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘮 (Yale 2022) has just been published over at Marginalia Review of Books.

Many thanks to Dr. Samuel Loncar for editing and curating this wonderful forum.

Needless to say, I very much look forward to hearing what he has to say.

To sign up for the (free!) webinar:

www.lockdownuniversity.org/lectures/281...
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Professor Ken Gemes reached out a few weeks ago to inform me that he was planning to give this online lecture, presenting my work in The Origins of Judaism.
This led to a wonderful exchange over email.

Prof. Gemes comes at this from his own field—philosophy (he specializes in Nietzsche).

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Alex Tseitlin just stopped by for a lovely conversation on when Jews began to identify as "Israel".
The interview will appear soon on his Kedem Channel, over at YouTube.
Stay tuned!

www.adrianovirgili.it/un-breve-ana...

Adriano Virgili has just published on his blog (in Italian) an excellent review of my new book, Between Yahwism and Judaism.
He does a superb job distilling the main themes and arguments into a clear and thoughtful summary. It’s the first review to appear, and I was truly delighted to read it.
Link👇

Last chance to download my new book for free!
Offer ends on November 5.

Download it now, and read it later!👇

Shaphan the Scribe and the Jewish Question: Or, how not to find the elephant in the room The Claim Was Made That Shaphan 'Invented' Judaism as We Know It, and That the Only Real Find in Ancient Jerusalem Was a Toilet. An Archaeologist Answers

www.haaretz.com/archaeology/...

Prof. Aren Maeir just published an excellent response to recent pieces in Haaretz by Ofri Ilany and Elon Gilad on when “Judaism” first emerged.

I had considered penning a response myself, but Prof. Maeir beat me to it.

Link in the first comment.

If you are in the area of Göttingen tomorrow, you are cordially invited to attend my public lecture, delivered as part of the annual “Julius-Wellhausen-Vorlesung” series.

The lecture is sponsored by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony and by the University of Göttingen.