Queries & Comments

008

Cartoons

Turn the Page

You ask if you should get rid of the cartoon and the cartoon contest (Q&C, “Offensive Cartoons?” BAR 38:01). Please do. The cartoons generally aren’t funny, don’t add anything to the value of the magazine and probably cost you something to include them. On the other hand, if others like them I won’t be canceling my subscription. I’ll just turn the page. 🙂

Funny Even Without a Caption

Ditra Walsh must not have a sense of humor if she finds your cartoons offensive (Q&C: “Offensive Cartoons?” BAR 38:01). I look forward to them. The cartoonist [Carlton Stoiber] is really great. The cartoons are even funny without a caption.

Hope They Disappear

I take the Holy Scriptures very seriously and object when they’re belittled. I always look forward to the next issue of BAR. I have learned a lot over the years and have used some of the materials in my teaching. However, I do hope the cartoons disappear. Thank you for the chance to share how I feel.

“The Test of a Good Religion”

No! Do not get rid of them. As the Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton said in an essay entitled “Spiritualism”: “It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.”

Is Nothing Sacred?

Is nothing sacred in this worldly age? BAR should focus its work on glorifying Yahweh through illuminating his children’s understanding of the word of God, rather than attempting to entertain readers with such trifles.

Lighten Up!

As for the “offensive cartoons,” keep them coming. It is amazing how many BAR readers have no sense of humor. Lighten up, people. They are cartoons, for heaven’s sake.

Fill ’er Up

Keep them. They’re a gas.

Cartoons Encourage Bible Study

Besides being funny, the cartoons can also serve as an impetus to those of us who are not scholars to read and familiarize ourselves with the Bible.

Cartoons Come First

The first things I look for with each issue of BAR are the cartoons and quizzes. The captions that readers come up with are really humorous, and I haven’t observed any of the cartoons to be in bad taste.

Humor Helps Understanding

Please keep the cartoons. We need humor now and then. I don’t think BAR intends to trivialize religion. Sometimes a touch of humor gives me a glimmer of more understanding.

Ancient Layers of Jerusalem

I am a longtime reader who has learned much from BAR. In “Layers of Ancient Jerusalem” (BAR 38:01), the authors mention “several personal seals bearing Hebrew names.” The seal with the Assyrian archer “belonging to Hagav” has the paleo-Hebrew written in reverse image while the others are inscribed normally. Can this be explained?

Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah responds:

Actually, all the seals were inscribed in reverse, as a mirror image, so that the impression would be read normally. In the photos of the seals, three seals are shown in their correct form—the lion (D), the archer (A), and the Uraeus (E)—while the other two (B and C) are shown in a reverse mode so that they look “normal.”

Prize Find

Looking at the photograph of the two-horned altar reported in “Prize Find: Horned Altar” (sidebar to “Join a Dig: See the World,” BAR 38:01), I could not help but wonder why author Aren Maeir did not consider 009 010 whether there was a possibility that the two other horns might have been broken off. As the photo clearly shows, the side of the altar opposite the horns had sustained much damage. Note that the breakage at the corners on the altar extends down the side as if something had existed there at one time. It seems probable, if not obvious, that the altar had two opposing horns, which either through war or natural disaster had been broken off. I wonder if any fragments that resembled the horns were found nearby.

Aren Maeir responds:

I thank Mr. Hudler for his question. We also entertained the idea because the standard form of Iron Age altars is four horns. But alas, it is not so in this case. Except for the area of the two horns and a small area between them, the entire top of the altar (as well as most of its back and portions of its sides) are still in the “roughed out” state of chiseling, which is the initial stage a stone object is worked while being quarried out. The different surface character of the finished parts (the horns and, for example, the front side) and the “roughed out” parts are quite distinct and simply make it impossible that there were originally two horns that had fallen off or been removed.

While we suggest that the choice of only two horns might have been purposeful (in light of the Aegean/Cypriote roots of the Philistines), we cannot completely deny the possibility that this might have been due to more mundane reasons—such as that the mason who chose and worked this block of stone while still in the quarry did not succeed in choosing a block of the right size, or that the block broke during quarrying. If this was the case, perhaps then the altar was deliberately placed with its back built into a wall—to “hide” the fact that the two back horns were missing.

Good Samaritan Inn

In “Inn of the Good Samaritan Becomes a Museum” (BAR 38:01), a picture of a Greek inscription appears that is translated “Lord Jesus Christ, have pity on Shiloh and its inhabitants. Amen.”

I can see that the inscription says that, except for the “Amen,” which is not the standard Greek “Aµην” of the New Testament. It looks to me like a number 4 symbol followed by a theta with a bar over it. Can you please explain this?

Dr. Leah di Segni at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem responds:

The symbol resembling the digit 4 is the Greek qoppa. It is no longer used in Greek as a letter since archaic times, but it is still used as a number, as are all the letters of the Greek alphabet. The qoppa represents the number 90. The theta represents 9. The horizontal line on it indicates that the letters represent a number, 99. (The horizontal line is not necessary: Letters may represent numbers even without it.) The numerical value of the word “amen” in Greek is 99: alpha is 1, mu is 40, eta is 8 and nu is 50.

The practice of using a number to represent a word is called isopsephism. It is found frequently in Greek papyri and inscriptions, especially with words pertaining to magic or religion. (It is common in Hebrew gematria.) Qoppa-theta for “amen” 011 012 is one of the most common instances of isopsephos (a number for a word) in the Byzantine period, otherwise also referred to as Late Antiquity.

When Did Ancient Israel Begin?

I read your article on the proposed new reading of “Israel” on a monument from the 14th century B.C.E. (“When Did Ancient Israel Begin?” BAR 38:01). I think this identification is a stretch. I would read this inscription as “I-a-sh-i-r” (Iashir) if the inscription is read starting from the direction the bird is pointing, and reading from top to bottom, left to right, which was standard scribal practice.

Also, it is implausible that they would have used a “SH” sign instead of “S” in the name of Israel because on the same monument Ascalon uses the conventional “S.”

Peter van der Veen responds:

Thank you for the points you raised. As we explained in our technical article in the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 2, no. 4 (2010) on which the BAR article is based, we believe that the evidence tips the balance in favor of Israel. Let me explain why. The i- flowering reed (Gardiner M 17) and the ’-vulture (G1) in the top row can represent è or ì when written together. The Papyrus-flower bed (M 8) in the second row represents phon. š3, not simply š. We explained that 3 in š3 represents „r“ as in several other New Kingdom topographical and personal names as for instance in B3-ḏ3-n-3 (= town Buzruna), Q-n-ti-k3-m-r (= town Ginti-Kirmil) and I-k3-ṯ-y (= town Ugarit). The final element, i.e., the i- reed (M 17) + r-mouth (D 21) + vowel sign, is the very standard early New Kingdom rendering for the divine name „Il/El“ as found in multiple Syro-Palestinian place names prior to the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1388–1348 B.C.). The reading `E/I-šar-`Il is therefore compatible with standard writing conventions. Consequently, this rendition can then be compared with the name Israel (not Biblical Israel) as written in Eblaite (I-šar-il) and Ugaritic (Išra`il) inscriptions. Why the Egyptian scribe chose š3 to write Iš/s´ra`el is difficult to say. While the etymology of Israel is not certain, we cannot know how the Egyptians learned about that name (was it through cuneiform writing?) or how it was pronounced at that time. Also, Egyptian scribes did not always use the same sibilant to render even the same name (e.g., we find `šr and `śr for Ashur and swk and š3jwk3 for Socho). One reason for this is that in some West Semitic dialects s and š had merged, while the Egyptians did not have an exact counterpart to represent it (e.g., proto-Semitc *ś was articulated as a voiceless lateral frigative). With so many uncertainties one may of course argue that the reading we give is stretched. But if we look at the context, where the name is found on the pedestal relief, namely following Ascalon [Ashkelon] 070 and Canaan, we conclude that the reading indeed does become an attractive possibility.

A Good Word for Greenspoon

The most delightful writing in BAR is the product of Leonard J. Greenspoon, “The Bible in the News.” The mischievous look in his photograph is matched with the wry commentary he provides in each issue.

Thanks for the Memory

Your story “New Synagogue Excavations In Israel and Beyond” (BAR 37:04) was what you might call a “timely article.” My wife and I visited Israel last September to do some sightseeing. I just happened to tuck my copy of this issue into my luggage. One afternoon while swimming and sunning ourselves on a beach at Nof Ginosar in Galilee, I pulled my BAR out and began to read. To my surprise I discovered the article and I showed it to my wife, explaining to her that we were only about a mile from the very ruins described in this excellent article. Immediately she packed us up and said, “Let’s go find it.” So off we went. The article doesn’t exactly give driving directions to pinpoint the location so we started asking around to see if anyone knew where the ruins 071 are located. No one seemed to know. But using the photos in the article we finally “discovered” this amazing piece of history in a cow pasture! Thanks BAR for such a great article and such a fun memory!

Did Jesus Have Arthritis?

I thought “The Magi’s Gifts—Tribute or Treatment?” (Strata, BAR 38:01) was unconvincing. The fact that modern researchers have shown that frankincense has healing properties proves nothing: We may know this today but that does not mean that its medicinal value was known in antiquity. But even if we blindly speculate that its therapeutic agencies were known to the Magi, why would they give anti-inflammatory medicine to Jesus? Was Jesus born with arthritis?

Correction

On the WorldWide page (BAR 38:01) the article says “More than 3,500 years ago … around 600 B.C.E.” My math suggests that this would be about 2,600 years ago.

Cartoons