Queries & Comments

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We’ve learned that readers are not convinced that the “face of God” has been discovered at Qeiyafa. We also note that more letters are coming via email as we now use computers for just about everything. Keep those letters coming, and we’ll try to publish and respond to as many as possible, both here and online (see below). It’s the way you let us know how we’re doing and what you want to see.

Cannot Read This

I want to join the chorus of readers calling for an increase in font size. Please do an analysis of your readers. I am 76 years old, and there are limits on what my reading glasses can accomplish. I have been reduced to looking at the pictures but cannot even read the captions.

We have adjusted the font size throughout the magazine. Thank you for letting us know and for your continued loyalty.—B.C.

Heresy or Curiosity?

It was good to see Bob Cargill’s comments in his editorial of the Winter 2020 issue. He clearly defined the objectives of the magazine as being of interest to general readers and academics alike.

I was amazed that Dan Phillips of Georgia said, “I don’t need to know anything about pagan religions” (Q&C, Winter 2020). To have such a restricted view of biblical archaeology is to suppress everything else that exists. The Bible has influenced almost everything that humankind has ever done. But to understand the Bible, we also need to understand the world in which it was written.

I would like to see BAR look a little further perhaps, to include articles on the development of the monastic world. In the United Kingdom, we have so many monastic sites of interest to archaeologists; their builders and residents were much closer to the biblical texts than we are today. Let’s open up a little, encourage more young people to become interested in biblical archaeology.

I was quite amazed by the letter submitted by Dan Phillips. The letter suggested that BAR stop publishing articles related to non-Israelite religions. I sincerely hope that BAR will continue its reporting on the world of ancient Near Eastern cultures and religions, since the Hebrew scriptures are a product of that cultural environment. I appreciate beyond words the wealth of valuable information provided by your publication. I have not found the solution to how the Bible can be communication from divinity and still be the result of the intersection of Israel and her neighbors, but I have spent the greater part of a lifetime of joyful studies to try to figure it out.

In the Winter 2020 issue, Dan Phillips didn’t appreciate content dealing with “pagan religions.” He summed up his view with the statement that “either it’s from the Bible, or it’s garbage.”

This encapsulates a mindset that I ran into a few weeks ago, when I was accused of heresy after sharing (in one of my Facebook groups) a newspaper story about some pottery found in the traditional burial place of Abraham and Sarah in Hebron. I introduced the story this way: “Was Abraham real? The short answer: It’s hard to say.” The fact is that every effort to find historical evidence has failed, not just for the man himself but also the time period in which he could have lived.

One reader had this response: “Either you believe ALL SCRIPTURE or none of it. This is HERESY.” Another agreed with him, and both indicated they were unsubscribing. Isn’t this symptomatic of a profound intolerance for a deeper understanding of the world we live in—not only in the study of the Bible but also in many other spheres of human experience?

The world is a complicated place. We really shouldn’t expect simple explanations. The Hebrew Bible is an amazing record of the relationship between humanity and the God 009010of Israel. What’s wrong with trying to understand it in its full complexity?

Anatomic Anomaly

Edward P. Miller writes of having a “hang up” with depictions of Adam and Eve with belly buttons (Q&C, Summer 2020). There is no mystery as to why artists painted them with navels. They were not intellectuals; they painted what they knew. Humans of their time had navels, so that’s what they painted. It is for this same reason that Renaissance artists painted figures in biblical scenes wearing Renaissance clothing.

Ankara, not Istanbul

You incorrectly state that “the Republic of Turkey emerged with the glorious city on the Bosporus as its capital” (Strata, Winter 2020). The capital of the new republic was from the start Ankara, not Istanbul.

You are absolutely correct. Ankara (formerly Angora) officially replaced Constantinople (now Istanbul) as the new Turkish capital city on October 13, 1923, 16 days before the Republic of Turkey officially replaced the Ottoman Empire on October 29, 1923.—B.C.

Could It Be a Bee?

Thanks for the ongoing work of BAR. One query: You state that “the only explicit mention of bees’ honey in the Hebrew Bible is in Judges 14:8” (Biblical Bestiary, Fall 2020). Just wondering if Psalm 19:10 falls in that category.

Psalm 19 mentions the honeycomb, but not the bee explicitly.—B.C.

What’s Cooking

Thanks for the great recipe for “Unwinding Stew” (Test Kitchen, Fall 2020). I made it, and my family loved it. I did cheat a little and added chicken for their sake. We will try the soup again. The ancient Babylonians had good taste!

Which Love?

I am pleased to read Ben Witherington’s article on the love of God and the four kinds of love in Greek (Text Arcana: “What ‘God Is Love’ Actually Means,” Fall 2020). He writes, “In the Greek New Testament physical or tangible human love is referred to by the term eros.” Please tell me where! I find only agape and philia as the terms for “love” in the Greek New Testament.

Perhaps you can help me with another pressing question: If agape is “unconditional, self-sacrificial love,” the kind we learn from God, why does Jesus say, “even sinners love (agapontas—a verbal form of agape) those who love them” (Luke 6:32)?

I love (eros?) all the new biblical material I’m finding in the new version of BAR.

Apparently, Ben Witherington has forgotten what most first- or second-year students of Greek are taught: While Greek has at least four terms for love, the New Testament only uses two, philia and agape, and a compound of philiastorge (in Romans 12). It would seem the Septuagint prefers philia and agape (including Song of Songs).

BEN WITHERINGTON RESPONDS:

Thanks for the queries about the word eros. What the sentence in question should say is that eros is the term in Greek literature (not the Greek New Testament) for physical love. I did not catch this error in time to fix it. Interestingly, Eros is the name of the Greek god of passionate love and fertility.

As for Luke 6:32, the author is assuming that even sinners can love self-sacrificially. As Jesus himself reminds us, God sheds his blessings on us all (Matthew 5:45).

Forgotten Pandemics

I’ve been reading BAR for years and want to say how much I enjoy.

I do have a comment on “Pandemics in Perspective,” by Sarah K. Yeomans (Classical Corner, Fall 2020). It was an excellent idea to list the pandemics of the past—a reminder that our current pandemic is not unprecedented. It really isn’t even as severe as those listed. However, one pandemic is missing. It is one that has been overlooked until recent years and is finally being given the attention it deserves. When Columbus arrived on his voyages and was then followed by the conquistadors, they unknowingly brought their diseases with them, 011012especially smallpox. The results were unimaginable devastation. I’ve seen estimates as high as 90 percent fatality. It’s a tragedy that needs to head the list of pandemics.

“Pandemics in Perspective” is an excellent survey, but more could be said. Emerging infectious disease epidemics were identified as a probable cause of the late Neolithic decline in population in the American southwest and northwest Mexico, and probably Europe. The catastrophic effect of diseases unwittingly introduced in the New World by 15th- and 16th-century explorers is well known. Finally, variola virus (smallpox) was identified genetically in northern Europe dating to between 600 and 1050 C.E.—the earliest genetically identified occurrence (although there seem to be archaeological evidence that Rameses V died from a smallpox-like disease).

My only quibble with “Pandemics in Perspective” is the statement that the plague of Justinian was the first occurrence of bubonic plague in Europe. The ancestral clade of Y. pestis was genetically identified at 4,900 years ago in Scandinavia, with connections to central Asia via trade routes. The plague of Justinian was a later occurrence, probably reintroduced from Asia via those same trade routes. All this indicates that epidemic infectious diseases have occurred throughout history and prehistory, generally in situations in which crowding and lack of sanitation encouraged it and in which there was limited immunity. The difference with the coronavirus is that we as a society have become so accustomed to antibiotics that we cannot fathom an infectious disease for which there is no treatment.

I was surprised to read (What’s in a Name? Fall 2020) that Tutankhamun was possibly the earliest practitioner of cancel culture when in your article you wrote, “The name Akhenaten was deleted from official records and systematically chiseled off all monuments.”

Virtual Archaeology

The introduction box of the “Digging Deeper at Tel Hadid” article (Summer 2020) mentioned how a specialized discipline of archaeology includes how some “even reconstruct the site in virtual reality.” What if BAR made arrangements with some of those digs for us to pay a modest fee and go through the BAR website and see some of those? I don’t have much income to spend, but I like BAR and would probably visit the website with electronic access if there were virtual reconstructions of the dig sites.

Great idea. We’ve been planning something similar, and we’ll let you know when it’s ready.—B.C.

Acting Rod

It was very enlightening to read the article “Jesus the Magician? Why Jesus Holds a Wand in Early Christian Art,” by Lee M. Jefferson (Fall 2020). There may be another reason for the appearance of the rod in the hand of Jesus: It may serve as what artists term a “callout.” A callout is usually a short string of text connected by a line, arrow, or similar graphic to a feature of an illustration giving information about that feature. In our case, it would be used much as a “preposition” in a sentence—something functioning to express a relationship between the actor or agent (Jesus) and the object. Without such a marker, how would the uninformed observer understand the scene? A case in point might be the Santa Sabina doors, where Jesus stands beside the multiplied loaves and the water-turned-into-wine—the rod in each case connects, or associates Jesus as the agent responsible for the outcome.

God’s Controversial Portrait

Nowhere in the article “The Face of Yahweh” did I see the basis for the assertion that the heads are male. As an interested and long-standing reader, I can’t see any indications of gender in the illustrations and would appreciate a glimpse of the reasoning.

Thanks for the enjoyment and knowledge I get from BAR, enhanced by being able to read through an article rather than searching for a continuation page.

As usual, your publication stirs up lots of questions and research journeys. I was intrigued by the article “The Face of Yahweh” (Fall 2020). I am curious how it was ascertained (and repeatedly stated) that these figurine heads were male. You mention the facial features and the provenance led to this conclusion. But did the female pharaohs not don beards and male appearances? Or maybe it is the head of a ram or bighorn sheep? I assume that depictions of Yahweh were not permitted even early in the Israelite history. If some of these heads were discovered in a “cult” setting (the site of Moẓa), is it possible that the items discovered there are unique and not along the same cultural patterns as documented in the biblical tradition or other reference points?

I love BAR. It’s the only magazine I’ve ever awaited with anticipation and consistently read cover to cover.

I’m curious why the leap in the “Face of Yahweh” article to assume the figurines are depictions of Yahweh. I appreciate the caveat “may represent,” but it seems like a stretch. What other options were considered? Given the dispersion of these artifacts across multiple sites, could they not just as well be the equivalent of toy soldiers: a representation of 013warriors of the day for children to play with, especially given the child-like construction of the items? On what basis is it assumed that every item fashioned to look like a human face should be the representation of a god? With that assumption, Garfinkel runs down the rabbit hole that it must be Yahweh and iconoclasty against the Second Commandment. This seems wild speculation not worthy of BAR.

The Rebellious Son

I have read your magazine since I was in graduate school for theology. Today, as I began to read the Winter 2020 issue, I started with the letters and noticed something: all men—no letters by women! Can it be? Do no letters come from women? So, I sat down to write one.

In “Gluttony and Drunkenness in Ancient Israel,” by Rebekah Welton, she begins with the passage from Deuteronomy 21, and I was intrigued by her question, what did the English rendering “a glutton and a drunkard” mean in biblical days? As I read about ancient food practices, in the back of my mind was another question: In Matthew 11:18-19, Jesus is called “a glutton and a drunkard.”

As Dr. Welton says, in both cases the criticized activity was not eating and drinking to excess but being religiously deviant. It is obvious that the criticism of Jesus concerns with whom he eats (tax collectors and sinners).

Thanks for all the years of learning and fun.

Herod’s Unlikely Throne

Your Winter 2020 cover places Herod’s throne in the niche. At the same time, it makes a good case that is improbable. The space between the aligned stones is clearly a walkway, or hall. The steps narrow that hallway and would diminish the size of any group in front of the throne. I know of no place where a monarch wants to use architecture to diminish the crowd of admirers. This supposed placement also means that their view from the niche is obscured by the large stone pillars—both for anyone seated on the throne, and for those looking at the throne. The result is that this architectural reconstruction seems to place the throne in an unlikely place.

Superman and Scripture

I enjoy BAR, and I especially appreciated the column by Nicholaus Pumphrey titled “Superheroes and the Bible” (Fall 2020). As a bit of a comic geek myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this comparison of the Superman story to how we may read Scripture. I noticed, however, a slight mistake in the dating of one of the movies mentioned. Donner’s film Superman premiered in 1978, not 1970.

CORRECTION

Istanbul was incorrectly called the capital of modern Turkey in our reporting about Hagia Sophia (Winter 2020, p. 14). In fact, the capital of Turkey moved from Istanbul to Ankara 16 days before the Republic of Turkey had officially been established.

We’ve learned that readers are not convinced that the “face of God” has been discovered at Qeiyafa. We also note that more letters are coming via email as we now use computers for just about everything. Keep those letters coming, and we’ll try to publish and respond to as many as possible, both here and online (see below). It’s the way you let us know how we’re doing and what you want to see. Cannot Read This I want to join the chorus of readers calling for an increase in font size. Please do an analysis of your readers. […]