Queries & Comments

010

BAR May Get There Yet

To the Editor:

While I usually write in to pick a bone or two (!), this time I just want to congratulate you on your latest issue. It was the first BAR I can remember which lived up to its name by concentrating on discoveries from the field—and demoting crackpots and pedants to Queries & Comments.

Thank you. You may get there yet!

Do you consider yourself a crackpot or a pedant?—Ed.

Cutting Across Many Disciplines

To the Editor:

Thank you for the recent issue featuring musical instruments—an excellent and interesting group of articles. They will be useful in the courses I teach on religion and the arts.

I have also shared my copy of BAR with colleagues in classics, theatre and music as an example of the outstanding work of the journal. It certainly demonstrates the ways in which archaeology cuts across various disciplines.

BAR Prepares You

To the Editor:

I just returned from another glorious trip to Israel! This time I was privileged to visit the Rabbinical Tunnel and walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam!

The articles that have appeared in BAR concerning these tunnels certainly “prepared” me aforetime for such a visit! Keep up the good work!

BAR Article on “Sounding Brass” Explains Another Biblical Passage

To the Editor:

Your fine article on “‘Sounding Brass’ and Hellenistic Technology,” BAR 08:01—which was most enlightening—brought to mind that somewhat mystifying episode in Judges 7:16 which relates the account of Gideon’s victory over the Midianites.

Each of his 300 men is given a shofar (horn), an earthen vessel (the JPS translates “pitcher”) and a torch. We are told that the pitchers were “empty,” but that the torches were in the pitchers.

The function of the horns and the torches can be understood—but what about the pitchers? Were the torches placed inside the pitchers to conceal their light? Hardly! The historian perhaps thought so, for he, too, no longer knew the purpose of the pitchers. (He had not read your article: “Sounding Brass”!)

From your article it becomes clear that the pitchers were to serve as “acoustical devices” in two respects: first, to amplify the sound of the shofars, of which there were only 300, and second, to create an additional noise of substantial magnitude with the smashing of the pitchers. The latter noise was also louder than the ordinary shattering of earthenware, for the pitchers probably had narrow necks, and in breaking they may have sounded somewhat like an inflated paper bag, when smashed.

I thank BAR for helping to provide greater understanding of yet another passage in Holy Scripture.

Another Interpretation of Corinthians

To the Editor:

In his search for the “sounding brass” (“‘Sounding Brass’ and Hellenistic Technology,” BAR 08:01), I believe that Professor Harris has found an unnecessarily complex solution.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul constructs a clearly formal and poetic structure describing (1) the hollowness of loveless words, (2) the nothingness of even considerable attributes, and (3) the pointlessness of loveless actions. Consequently, the poetic chalkos is translated with ease “(household) brass(ware)”, because chalkos is a poetic generic for all pots, pans, and urns, much as “silver(ware)” is today the common term for all eating utensils no matter what their composition.

Likewise aechon denotes any sound resounding in an empty space, and so is easily the “echo”—the “clunk”—of an empty pot.

It seems likely that a household pot’s “hollow clunk” (chalkos aechon) would be a more accessible image to Paul’s first-century readers than Prof. Harris’ proposed auditorium device “arranged in niches” in the back of an amphitheater. Paul wrote to be understood.

But the description Professor Harris gives of the devices—“high tech” pre-electronic age amplifiers—is interesting and enlightening (even if they are not the chalkos aechon of 1 Corinthians 13). Please, more articles on ancient technology!

Not Goliath’s Flute

To the Editor:

I enjoyed your article in BAR 08:01 about ancient musical instruments. However, you describe a bone flute with a hole 8 centimeters in diameter. Unless the flute was made for Goliath, I assume you meant 8 millimeters.

BAR May Get There Yet

To the Editor:

While I usually write in to pick a bone or two (!), this time I just want to congratulate you on your latest issue. It was the first BAR I can remember which lived up to its name by concentrating on discoveries from the field—and demoting crackpots and pedants to Queries & Comments.