@yonatan.bsky.social
Archaeology and Early Judaism Associate Professor @arieluniversity Author of: The Origins of Judaism (Yale 2022) Between Yahwism and Judaism (Cambridge 2025)
Arm-tefillin case. ๐ฅน
02.12.2025 13:48 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Asaf (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 Murabbaสฟat; to the left, Asaf's writing with a reed on the flesh side of the papillary dermis of a goat.
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27.11.2025 14:15 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
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 ๐
My talk (in English) starts at 16:00, following a very kind introduction by Prof. Reinhard Kratz (in German):
youtube.com/watch?v=Qs9d...
โ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ด โ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฒ๐นโ: ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฎ ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐น๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐๐โ
My Julius Wellhausen Lecture is now available on YouTube (link below).
The lecture was presented on October 29, 2025 at the University of Gรถttingen in conjunction with the Gรถttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony.
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 ๐
Prof. Steve Mason's very thoughtful and engaging review of ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช๐ด๐ฎ (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...
2/2
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 fieldโphilosophy (he specializes in Nietzsche).
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13.11.2025 06:57 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
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!
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. Itโs the first review to appear, and I was truly delighted to read it.
Link๐
Last chance to download my new book for free!
Offer ends on November 5.
Download it now, and read it later!๐
Prof. Aren Maeir just published an excellent response to recent pieces in Haaretz by Ofri Ilany and Elon Gilad on when โJudaismโ 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 Gรถttingen tomorrow, you are cordially invited to attend my public lecture, delivered as part of the annual โJulius-Wellhausen-Vorlesungโ series.
The lecture is sponsored by the Gรถttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony and by the University of Gรถttingen.
Shabbat shalom!
(Trying to post weekly on the current Parashah. Let's see how long I can keep this up...)
8/8
It would appear that this letter was meant to answer the acute quandary plaguing first-century communities of Gentile Jesus-followers as to whether they too should be observing the various dietary restrictions commonly adhered to by Jews.
7/8
...Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, [that is,] its blood [ืื ืืฉืจ ืื ืคืฉื ืืื ืื ืชืืืื].โ
This instruction to Noahโs family, as the progenitors of all humanity, was apparently taken as applicable not only to Jews but to Gentiles as well.
6/8
The source for the instruction in Acts seems to be Godโs pronouncement in Gen 9:3โ4 addressed to Noah and his sons: โEvery moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything...
5/8
Thus Philo (Spec. Laws 4:122), who condemned the decadent people who: โdevise novel kinds of pleasure and prepare meat unfit for the altar by strangling and throttling the animals, and entomb in the carcass the blood which is the essence of the soul and should be allowed to run freely away.โ
4/8
...and from blood and from what is strangled [ฯฮฝฮนฮบฯแฟถฮฝ] and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.โ
The meat of a strangled animal was likely regarded as infused with prohibited blood, as strangling kills the animal without shedding any blood.
3/8
...Gentile Jesus-following communities of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.
The end of the letter (verses 28โ29) reads:
โFor it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols...
2/8
The laws thought to have been given to the โchildren of Noahโ seem to make an appearance in the New Testament.
Acts 15:23โ29 cites a letter said to have been addressed by a council of apostles and elders of the Jewish Jesus-following community in Jerusalem to the...
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