Queries & Comments

008

BAR’s Swimsuit Issue

Uncovered on the Cover

Eeeeeeewwwwwwww! Half-naked woman on the cover of the January/February 2013 issue!

Archaeologist’s Sports Illustrated

I always enjoy the Dig Issue (BAR 39:01), which so many seem to regard, for better or for worse, as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition of the archaeological world.

How the Mother God Got Spayed

The Church as Bride

Over the years I’ve heard many rationalizations for male supremacy. But Msgr. John C. Duncan’s comments (Q&C, BAR 39:01) take the prize. The Church, says he, is theologically a “bride,” so priests, who are spiritually married to the Church, are necessarily “grooms”—that is, males.

Oh, please. Jesus and his circle were no gender egalitarians when it came to leadership, true enough, but not because of this fantasy. They were simply men of their times, when all Mediterranean cultures subordinated women.

Göbekli Tepe

No Evidence for Afterlife

I was fascinated by Ben Witherington III’s description of the surprisingly early evidence of religious life among early humans (“In the Beginning—Religion at the Dawn of Civilization,” BAR 39:01).

Where I take issue with Mr. Witherington, however, is in his assertion that these stones show that ancient people “cared a great deal about … the afterlife.”

Not a scintilla of evidence has been presented regarding afterlife concepts for this early population. Mr. Witherington has brought his personal religious understandings to bear upon evidence that does not support those understandings.

Ben Witherington III responds:

The writer of this letter seems to assume that belief in deities and another realm has nothing to do with belief in an afterlife. In fact, these two ideas are regularly intertwined, even in very early Jewish thinking when we hear about Enoch or Elijah being taken up into the presence of God. But in addition, all of those sorts of ideas can be paralleled in other ancient Near Eastern literature (see Enuma Elish for example). There is also the point that Klaus Schmidt, the lead archaeologist at the site in question, makes in his book, namely that we may have at Göbekli Tepe a site where “excarnation” was practiced, that is, the releasing of the spirits of animals or persons into the afterlife or other world, by means of exposing them to the birds of prey.

ReViews

Alexander to Constantine

What did your reviewer, Morten Jensen, mean by the “termination date of Jewish ritual baths” (ReViews: “Worthy Addition to a Distinguished Series,” January/February 2013)?

Mikva’ot are still installed in most (perhaps all) orthodox synagogues and rabbinical seminaries in the United States and probably worldwide. They are used by all in conversion rituals and by women in connection with childbirth.

Morten Jensen responds:

You are correct. Ritual baths are still in use and as far as we know never went out of use. The discussion about “termination date” in this context, however, is to be understood as the termination of the heavy daily 071 use of ritual baths that was common in the early Roman period, but at some point stops (and the scholarly discussion concerns when exactly this change occurred). Ritual baths are still found in subsequent periods but in general in much smaller numbers and less in private houses. “Termination” thus refers to the cessation of this specific period’s “unusual” heavy use of ritual baths in daily life practices.

Potpourri

Thanks for the Memories

I would like to write to Hershel Shanks, but I am quite sure that he will never see this.

My subscription to your most informative magazine will end in 2013. By that time I will have reached the age of 91 years and I feel that now is the time to say “Thanks for the Memories.” I have been reading your magazines for so many years that I feel that you are a personal friend. Thank you for all the information.

Corrections

Edward Greenstein is a member of the faculty of Bar-Ilan University (not Tel Aviv University, as stated in “Authentic or Forged? What to Do When Experts Disagree,” BAR 38:06).

The photo of the Megiddo dumps in “Wet-Sift the Megiddo Dumps!” of the March/April 2013 issue should have been credited to “David Dorsey/BiblePlaces.com.” BAR regrets the error.

BAR’s Swimsuit Issue
Uncovered on the Cover
Eeeeeeewwwwwwww! Half-naked woman on the cover of the January/February 2013 issue!