Joan E. Taylor

Pontius Pilate and the Imperial Cult in Roman Judaea

While Pontius Pilate is often seen as agnostic, in modern terms, the material evidence of his coinage and the Pilate inscription from Caesarea indicate a prefect determined to promote a form of Roman religion in Judaea. Unlike his predecessors, in the coinage Pilate used peculiarly Roman iconographic elements appropriate to the imperial cult. In the inscription Pilate was evidently responsible for dedicating a Tiberieum to the Dis Augustis . This material evidence may be placed alongside the report in Philo Legatio ad Gaium (299–305) where Pilate sets up shields – likewise associated with the Roman imperial cult –honouring Tiberius in Jerusalem.

The So-Called Therapeutae of De Vita Contemplativa : Identity and Character

It has become quite common in scholarship to consider the community described by Philo in De vita contemplativa as a specific Jewish group comprising contemplative Essenes or people somehow related to the Essenes. In this study, we shall explore the meaning of Philos masculine and feminine designations, θeραπeυταί and θeραπeυτρίδeς, and consider the possibility that these words referred not to the male and female members of one group that was part of a Therapeutae sect, but to individuals whom Philo understood as exemplary devotees of God. We shall also consider a few matters concerning the character of the group. Overall, this study seeks to call into question the assumption that, in his De vita contemplativa , Philo is describing an Essene community in Egypt.

Date Palms and Opobalsam in the Madaba Mosaic Map

Abstract The Madaba mosaic map shows two main vegetal motifs: the date palm and a mysterious bush. The inclusion of the date palm testifies to its economic importance in the region, and it would follow that the bush should also have a similar importance. This bush is best identified as the Judaean balsam or opobalsam, which we know from literary sources to have been grown in the lower Jordan Valley, and elsewhere, in the Roman period. This was a lucrative product. In the Madaba mosaic map, the bush is situated on both sides of the Jordan, which gives us an indication of the extent of its cultivation in the sixth century C.E.

Qumran Textiles in the Palestine Exploration Fund, London : Radiocarbon Dating Results

Abstract Three pieces of fabric from Qumrans Cave 1 have been stored in the Palestine Exploration Fund collection since the 1960s but have hitherto never been tested or re-examined. The fabric is made of linen, and was probably used for wrapping or packing scrolls, or sealing jars. New radiocarbon dating on one piece of fabric indicated a probability of 55% for it being made between 1 and 55 A.D., and a probability of 95.4% that it was made between 50 cal B.C.–80 cal A.D.

The Asherah, the Menorah and the Sacred Tree

Asherim were the cultic representations of the goddess Asherah found in association with mass ebôt at Canaanite high places. They are usually thought to have been wooden objects. However, new evidence may indicate that asherim were in fact living trees, cut and pruned into a particular cultic form. They were therefore both natural and artificial, both planted and made. If asherim were living trees they would have been fitting symbols for a goddess who personified the life principle. The shape of the Temple menorah, which appeared like a cut and pruned almond tree, may have been based on the form of an asherah, perhaps one associated in particular with Bethel.

Missing Magdala and the Name of Mary 'Magdalene'

Abstract Traditionally, Mary Magdalenes name is assumed to indicate the place she came from: Magdala, meaning ‘the Tower’. However, no place named Magdala is mentioned in the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament or in other contemporaneous writing. The site called ‘Magdala’ in Israel today, some 5 km north of Tiberias and just north of Mount Arbel, continues a Byzantine identification, from the 5th or 6th centuries CE. It is often assumed that the sizeable town now coming to light here was more commonly called by the Greek name Tarichaea. However, questions may be asked about evidence. There was a village attested in rabbinic literature as Migdal Nuniya (‘Tower of Fish’), lying about one mile north of Tiberias, which was probably called ‘Magdala’ locally, but this Magdala lay south of Mount Arbel. It is suggested in this article that the town known from the Byzantine period through to today as Magdala was in the early Roman period called Magadan (Matt 15.39), with Dalmanoutha (Mark 8.10) being a possible sister town or additional name. Homonoia is an attested Greek name for a town here, but the location of Tarichaea is unclear. Magadan became Magdala for the Byzantine pilgrimage route, as also in later manuscripts of the New Testament, to conform to the expectation that there was a town of this name here, and Migdal Nuniya was side-lined. While Mary may well have come from Migdal Nuniya, referred to as Magdala by people of the lake, the epithet ‘the Magdalene’ may be understood as meaning ‘the Tower-ess’: a nickname like others Jesus gave to his closest apostles.

Golgotha: A Reconsideration of the Evidence for the Sites of Jesus' Crucifixion and Burial

In this study Golgotha is defined as the area of a disused quarry, west of first-century Jerusalem. The site of the crucifixion of Jesus and the. site of his entombment are distinguished as separate localities within this region. It is proposed that while Jesus was executed close to Gennath Gate and two main roads, he was buried some 200 m. further north in a more isolated area. Addressing archaeological and historical evidence, the author reconsiders her previous scepticism regarding the traditional tomb of Jesus, and proposes instead that it may well be authentic, though she renews her argument for the localisation of the crucifixion further south.

Revisiting Qumran Cave 1Q and its Archaeological Assemblage

Qumran Cave 1Q was the first site of Dead Sea scroll discoveries. Found and partly emptied by local Bedouin, the cave was excavated officially in 1949 and published in the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (Volume 1) in 1955. Contents of the cave are found in collections worldwide, and in different institutions in Jerusalem and Amman. While the scrolls are the most highly prized artefacts from this cave, in archaeological terms they are part of an assemblage that needs to be understood holistically in order to make conclusions about its character and dating. This study presents all of the known items retrieved from the cave, including those that are currently lost, in order to consider what we might know about the cave prior to its emptying and the changes to its form. It constitutes preliminary work done as part of the Leverhulme funded International Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Caves Artefacts and Archival Sources [IN-2015-067].

John the Baptist and Jesus the Baptist: A Narrative Critical Approach

Narrative criticism is not usually employed as a means of exploring historical knowledge. However, in this article it is argued that narrative patterns can be indicative of history masked by overt rhetoric. In the narrative of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee the Gospel of Mark includes the persistent presence of water, often in combination with wilderness places and crowds. This pattern replicates the same features associated with John the Baptist, creating a narrative template for Jesus continuing John’s baptism, which Mark knew to be concerned with ritual purity, and yet explicit mention of Jesus’ baptizing is avoided. Mark focuses instead on Jesus as the promised immerser in Holy Spirit, proven by his healings and exorcisms, in which purification flows outwards from him. Mark points to a historical scenario in which Jesus’ healings and exorcisms are understandable within the same purity framework that governed water immersions: they were remedies for the most stubborn cases of people who, because of their chronic ailments and disabilities, were unable to obtain the inner purity that was normally established by repentance and forgiveness of sins. Jesus then fulfils John’s prediction and continues John’s work.