MADISON BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY
MONDAY, MAY 5, 2008
AT&T Lounge at The Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St. Theodore J. Lewis, the Blum-Ivry Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University, will present the 52nd Annual Lecture of the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies and the Madison Biblical Archaeology Society. He will be speaking on “The Effective Power of Words: Incantations in Ancient Israel.” Magical incantations were widespread and important throughout the Ancient Near East and rabbinic Judaism, yet very few are quoted in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, archaeology has uncovered magical paraphernalia and inscriptions that show that magical incantations were indeed part of the life of Israel in biblical times. Careful examination of the Biblical text shows that the fundamental magical concept of effective words can indeed be found in the Bible.
Professor Lewis received his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. at Harvard University. His numerous publications on the Bible and the Ancient Near East include Cults of the Dead in Ancient Israel and Ugarit (1989) and the forthcoming Religion of Ancient Israel. The lecture is free and the public is invited.
Professor Leonard Greenspoon of Creighton University presented a lecture on November 5th, entitled "Interpreting the Word: Hope, Hype and Habit in 50 years of Biblical Studies." Professor Greenspoon is well known for evaluating the history of scholarship on the Hebrew Bible, and presented an interesting lecture that looked at scholarly contributions as well as newspaper comic strips that presented a Biblical perspective. Professor Greenspoon has published numerous articles on the Septuagint, the history of biblical scholarship, and the role of the Bible in popular culture. This lecture was sponsored by the Department of Hebrew & Semitic Studies and funded by the Lubar Intitute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions.
Professor Ron E. Tappy of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary presented the 51st Annual Lecture of the Society on Wednesday, May 2, 2007. His topic was "The Origins of our Alphabet: New Evidence for the History of Writing in the Tenth Century BCE."
The ancient Canaanite alphabet is the origin of the later Greek and Roman alphabets, but precisely when alphabetic writing began in ancient Israel is hotly debated. The 2005 discovery of the earliest complete alphabet in Israel dating to the 10th century BCE is undoubtedly an extremely important piece of the history of the origins of writing. More importantly, the discovery fuels a heated argument between historians and archaeologists concerning the historicity of biblical accounts of the regions of David and Solomon in the 10th century BCE. "Minimalists" believe that the biblical accounts of David and Solomon are fictional and were composed later because the Israelites at the time were illiterate. The discovery of this inscription in a small village (not an urban center) suggests that not only was writing in use, but that there was, in fact, a centralized state.
Prof. Tappy is the Project Director and Principal Investigator of the Zeitah Excavations in Tel Zayit, Israel. He is also the G. Albert Shoemaker Professor of Bible and Archaeology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the Director of the James L. Kelso Bible Lands Museum. A report on professor Tappy's talk is on allgodspeople.com.
Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay returned to the Madison Biblical Archaeology Society for the first time since 1991 on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 to speak on "Archaeology and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem."
Professor Barkay is one of the world's leading experts on the archaeology and history of Jerusalem, an archaeologist who has dug at a number of sites in Israel, and the winner of the prestigious Jerusalem Prize for Archaeology in 1996. Over the last two years Professor Barkay has been "re-excavating" tons of dirt dug from the Temple Mount and dumped in the Kidron Valley as part of a mosque renovation in November, 1999. Even though the dirt has been removed from its historical context, a number of important discoveries have been made that add to our knowledge of the history of the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. Professor Barkay received his Ph.D. in 1985 Summa Cum Laude from Tel Aviv University, and taught for over 27 years at Tel Aviv University. He is now teaching at Bar Ilan University, Hebrew University, and Jerusalem University College. In 1979, Professor Barkay discovered the Ketef Hinnom silver amulet, which contains the earliest biblical passage (Numbers 6:24-26) found outside of the Bible, and is now on display in the Israel Museum.
A report on professor Barkay's lecture is on allgodspeople.com. The story of this unusual salvage excavation has also been covered extensively by the Associated Press, Biblical Archaeology Review, Christianity Today, and other media.
Professor O’Connor is a professor in the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at Catholic University of America, where he teaches courses in Hebrew Bible, Biblical Hebrew, Ugaritic and Akkadian. He is one of the leading scholars of Biblical Hebrew and co-author of the classic reference work, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, now in its ninth printing.
"The Cave of John the Baptist" was presented by archaeologist Egon Lass on Tuesday March 28, 2006. The discovery was first reported in the late summer of 2004, a curious cave near Kibbutz Tzuba, just west of Jerusalem, which was tentatively connected with the ministry of John the Baptist. Shimon Gibson, the director of the project, then published the book, Cave of John the Baptist: The Stunning Archaeological Discovery That Has Redefined Christian History (Doubleday, 2004). The project has continued, and an Iron Age water system was discovered but only briefly mentioned and described by the press.
Egon Lass is one of the senior excavators on this project. He spoke to us just after returning from Israel and the latest season of excavation at the Kibbutz Tzuba cave, providing news directly from the field.
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----- REMEMBERING MENAHEM MANSOOR -----
1911-2001
Professor Menahem Mansoor passed away on the evening of Sunday, October 21st, 2001. Professor Mansoor was the founder of the Madison Biblical Archaeology Society, as well as the UW-Madison Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies. He was a very special teacher, tour leader, dedicated scholar and sage, and so much more. For more on Professor Menahem Mansoor, go to the MBAS History page.
If you have questions about MBAS, please Email President Jeff Blakely or call him at 238-2227. For further information on MBAS activities or to become a member of MBAS, contact MBAS Secretary Gordon Govier or MBAS Treasurer Dorothy Whitcomb .
Many MBAS events are held on the campus of Edgewood College in Room 313 of DeRicci Hall. It is located on the third floor at the "1" on this map of Edgewood College. Free parking is available in the parking ramp, "11" on the map.
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