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In the Iron Age IIA Philistine cemetery at Ashkelon (modern Israel), roughly 11% of individuals exhibit severe and highly variable dental wear, which we explore here at two timescales: wear that accumulates over days and weeks (microwear) and wear that accumulates over months and years (macrowear). Using teeth from both adult and nonadult individuals, we first established categories of dental macrowear patterns and sorted individuals within them. We then made replicas of the teeth from 27 individuals having both typical and atypical dental wear and performed metrology by noncontact profilometry on a reflected light microscope. We then calculated each tooth's surface roughness (Sa) and collected qualitative observations of teeth within each macrowear category. Our findings show no macrowear or microwear pattern exclusive to sex or age group. Likewise, there are no statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in Sa between adult males and females, and sampled nonadults fall within two standard deviations of the pooled adult means. The microscopic surfaces of all teeth show a wide variety of textures on the occlusal surfaces, including wavy striations, deep parallel striations, globular pitting, and newly described rectangular pits. These results indicate that individuals used their teeth as a third hand while manipulating objects and that children also participated in these activities. Due to the similarities in dental wear between Ashkelon and other coastal populations, we conclude that the observed wear patterns arose from the performance of specialized tasks for a marine‐based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article represents the first section of the second part of the study Gods and Idols. Representations and Symbolizations of the Divinity in the Religions of Ancient Israel. The subjects addressed for analysis are idolatry and iconoclasm in the context of Levantine iconography, seen from the perspective of the biblical authors, a totally tendentious, aggressive and contrary vision, in particular, to the archaeological discoveries. The Hebrew lexical fund of the MT was very rich and, later, almost doubled by the Greek version of the Old Testament text translated into the LXX (Septuagint) translation, regarding the denomination of foreign gods, idols and other representations. However, the “de facto tradition” of the Israelites contained a plastic iconography, idolatry and iconoclasm being phenomena that appeared in the post-exile period and called by scientific research “programmatic tradition”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article is a prolegomenon for an extensive study of iconography (representations and symbolization) and iconology (reception and explanation) manifested in the religions of Ancient Israel. Thus, this first part presents an analytical contextualization of the primary sources, like references from the Old Testament, epigraphic records and archaeological data. All these are seen from the perspective of specialized literature with the specificity of the subject areas involved in such a hermeneutic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article presents a survey of the recent research which has been making significant progress in examining scribal schools and education in ancient Israel. It specifically treats scholarly recourse to the extra-biblical data provided by epigraphic remains, and discusses the comparative potentials of the wider ancient world itself. Several monograph-length treatments have added substantially to the literature. A brief critical examination of all these works is provided, in order to facilitate the reader’s keeping up with the latest views and opinions concerning such studies. The literature will be treated chronologically, and the most substantial recent contribution by Carr (2011) will be subject to an extensive review, testing Carr’s conclusions against the cumulative weight of earlier findings. Finally, ways of moving forward in treating this subject will be suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At the heart of the biblical prophetic books is scribal reinterpretation of earlier prophetic legacies. These legacies testify to prophetic activity in Israel and Judah-kinds of prophecy which in essence resembled prophetic and other divinatory activity found elsewhere in the ancient Near East. It was however the scribal reception, revision, and elaboration of these earlier legacies that gave rise to 'biblical prophecy' and prompted the development of the prophetic books. In this process of reinterpretation the 'prophets' were removed from the realm of divination. They became to be portrayed as isolated figures, contra society, commissioned by Yahweh to declare his message of unconditional and total destruction. Through their 'message' the disastrous events that had befallen the states of Israel and Judah were explained (ex eventu) as being due to divine anger. This was in fact the common explanation for calamities, used throughout the ancient Near Eastern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With improvements in archaeological methodology, new discoveries in Syria-Palestine, as well as tremendous progress of knowledge about the Ancient Near East in the past several decades, we have never understood Israelite religion as reflected in the geographical and chronological scope of the Hebrew Bible better than now. However, today the most widely distributed and utilized Chinese translation of the Bible is the Union Version, which was produced more than 100 years ago. At the dawn of the 21st century, the preparation of an improved translation of the Bible based on our better understanding of Israelite religion is brought to the agenda. However, in order not to produce yet another paraphrased Chinese version of one or a combination of several existing English versions that most probably would not outlast the one hundred year old Union Version, a group effort of seminary-trained theologians, scholars in the Ancient Near East fields, as well as different sectarians among Christians, is called for. Never before in the history of China is this country more ready than today to execute such a plan, and the general public to embrace a translation reflecting Israelite religion as recorded in the Bible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the main directions that scholarly research on the biblical prophetic literature has taken in the last twenty years. First, it provides an overview of current studies that, benefiting from the insights of sociology, anthropology and Ancient Near Eastern studies, enhance our understanding of the prophetic roles in Ancient Israel. Secondly, it gives examples of recent developments in the areas of rhetorical criticism, source criticism and redaction criticism pertaining to the prophetic literature. Lastly, it offers a glimpse of some of the currently hotly debated issues arising from the prophetic literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]