Queries & Comments

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Opening Up a Can of Worms or Performing a Service?

Open Discussion

In opening your pages to a discussion of anti-Semitism (Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04), BAR is performing an important service to the world in general.

Mentality of a Bully

Vernon Holst’s letter (Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04) adds a new, vicious dimension to the discussion. He writes: “How one can read of the early persecution of the Christians by the Jews of that day and not be more or less anti-Semitic is hard to see.” Not anti-Italian or anti-Greek, but only anti-Jew, after 2,000 years of continuous punishment for whatever it is that he reads in his New Testament. Not anti-Arabic or anti-Muslim for 1,300 years of conquest and destruction of the existing Christian nations and churches throughout the Middle and Far East. Not even the Buddhists or Taoists who do not recognize Jehovah as the Creator. This is the mentality of the bully, who speaks bravely when the victim is small and defenseless but shuts up when facing an equally tough opponent.

Mr. Strugnell and Mr. Holst have never met me, yet they know enough about me to condemn me and possibly approve of anything that may be done to me. My God has said, “Vengeance is mine” (Deuteronomy 32:35). What has their God told them?

We Don’t Want This Love

The love for us [Jews] described in so many of the letters published in Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04, is not only unnecessary, it is feared by Jews, who remember those of our ancestors who were forced to convert at sword point and who perished when they refused such conversion. Torquemada, too, we may presume, acted out of such love.

Loving to Death?

Have you opened a can of worms with the responses you printed to Pastor Grenci’s letter (Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04)?

Please, dear Christians, do not love me. As far as I can tell, you would like to love me to death.

Leave Us in Peace

I am not a Christian. I am deeply offended by Christians who profess “love” for the Jewish people while trying to wipe them off the face of the earth by conversion or other methods (Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04).

Jews do not believe in the divinity of Jesus. I don’t believe that he was the son of God, the Messiah. I do not believe that Jesus or Christianity in any way superseded the Jewish covenant with God. I am just as sure and steadfast in my beliefs as the Christians who loudly proclaim their beliefs. I do not shout my beliefs from the rooftops, I do not throw them in anyone’s face and I do not try to convince Christians of the error of their ways. Reasonable people may disagree with my beliefs. I respect their right to believe as they wish, and I expect them to respect my religious beliefs.

I do not care what Christians believe. We will all be judged by God, not by each other; and the acts of a lifetime will speak louder than any particular theism. Religion is very personal. After all, most aspects of religious belief, especially those concerning divinity or the mystical, are accepted on faith alone, and what is accepted on faith cannot be proven, not even by those who claim to have a direct pipeline to God.

Let me say to all who may protest this letter: Keep your religion in your home and place of worship; write to religious publications; stand on a street corner and proudly proclaim your beliefs; or, if you must, try to convert those who may be interested. Live by the tenets of your particular religion, and let others live by theirs. You do not show your “love” for someone by informing them that, in your opinion, their deeply held beliefs are wrong. After all, they probably think the same about your beliefs. Just leave them in peace.

Thanks But No Thanks

As for all those pastors so concerned about the lost Jewish souls, thanks but no thanks for your concern! Two thousand years of Christian anti-Semitism has taught the Jews what Christian “concern” for Jews usually leads to.

May I suggest that these pastors put more energy into getting their flocks to practice a little more of what they preach. Then the world really would be a better place.

Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism

Most sincere Christians are probably not anti-Semitic; they are basically good people who repudiate racial hatred. It is likely, though, that most sincere Christians are anti-Judaic. Anti-Judaism, the “teaching of contempt” described by Dr. Eugene Fisher (“The Church’s Teaching on Supersessionism,” BAR 17:02) is pervasive in the New Testament and the Christian tradition—what one letter referred to as “classic Christianity.” Anti-Judaic statements are legion in the letters in BAR that attack the editor’s position.

It is not love but anti-Judaism that motivates Christians to try to “save” Jews. It is anti-Judaism that keeps Christians from being driven to their knees by the specter of 6,000,000 Jews murdered because they, and generations of their ancestors before them, persisted in their faithfulness to God.

The saddest thing about anti-Judaism is that Christians become infected with this disease in church and, because of constant exposure, the condition is chronic. Clergy usually cannot help them get over it because many of them are also infected. The disease is curable, but the treatment is extraordinarily painful. It requires prayerful soul-searching and the abandonment of 009010cherished presuppositions. It requires Christians to acknowledge our unmitigated arrogance (1) in assuming that we, and only we, know all of God’s truth; and (2) in denying to God the very freedom He so graciously bestowed on us. It requires us to confess our need to repent of the evil that we have committed, and continue to commit, against the Jewish people in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it requires us to discern the love of God that shows through on the blood- and sweat-stained face of a Jew dying on a Roman cross and beseeching us to love according to God’s standard rather than our own.

In Search of That “Green Place”

“With friends like these—who needs enemies?” Thus my reaction to my brothers-and-sisters-in-Christ who plead the supersessionist cause (Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04).

As for myself, I would be far poorer were it not for the continuing community of Judaism, in which I find roots long blighted in most Christian practice.

May God protect us from our own arrogance; and lead us to that “green place” where we recognize each other as fully-kin in God’s merciful grace.

All the Righteous Have a Share

I must take issue with Lewis Entz’s remark that “almost every major world religion, including Judaism, says the same thing: Either you come to God by our way, or you don’t come” (Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04). While the letters you have printed make it clear that many Christians believe this, that is certainly not the case with Judaism.

Judaism is vague on what, if anything, comes after this world. The Hebrew Scriptures never really address the subject, perhaps considering it to be irrelevant. If there is a life beyond the present one, that will be very nice; if there isn’t, we won’t be there to care.

The proto-rabbinic Judaism of Jesus’ time believed in an afterlife, while the Sadducean Judaism of the Temple priesthood did not. (I’m generalizing, of course.) The definitive statement on who is eligible for that next world, however, was that “the righteous of 011all the nations will have a place in the next world.” It was to be conduct, not belief in a particular faith system, which would determine who was eligible.

For Jews, this remains basic. The good, Jewish, Christian, or whatever, return to God when they die. The evil do not, though punishment is not prescribed. (Judaism is essentially non-dogmatic on everything except the unity of God.)

Judaism Is Not the Only Way to God

I wish to correct a statement in the letter from Lewis Entz in Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04. He writes that Judaism, as well as “almost every major world religion,” says “come to God by our way, or you don’t come.” This is not true of Judaism.

If a non-Jew is a righteous person, and observes seven basic laws of morality (the Noahide laws), he is as entitled to “come to God” as any righteous Jew. The seven rules are not to (1) commit murder, (2) steal, (3) commit illicit intercourse, (4) blaspheme, (5) worship idols, (6) eat the limb of a living creature, and (7) affirmatively, do justice.

It is very sad that other religions do not accept such a concept.

Jewish Teaching

As a Christian it is entirely appropriate for the Reverend Robert A. D. Clancy (Queries & Comments, BAR 17:04) to state his view on Christian doctrine: “Christianity is inherently anti-Judaistic (opposed to the Jewish religion).” Reading the New Testament Gospels confirms his point of view.

However, he then goes on to state: “Judaism is inherently anti-Christian (opposed to the Christian religion).”

The Jewish religion, which is founded upon the Ten Commandments and expanded upon in the Five Books of Moses through the utilization of allegory, tales, sayings and historical fragments, has no such teaching.

This is Jewish teaching and belief regarding non-Jews: “Thou shalt not vex a stranger, nor oppress him; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21, also Exodus 23:9); “Thou shalt love him as thyself” (Leviticus 19:34); “One law shall be to him that is home born and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you” (Exodus 12:49).

Thank the Jews

We should actually thank the Jews for their stumbling because this enabled the opening up of salvation for gentiles. When the rest of the gentiles are brought in, then all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). So stop condemning the Jews, be patient and wait. Meanwhile, create an inviting atmosphere for them in your churches. After all, they are waiting for the Messiah, too!

Religious and Racial Anti-Semitism

The question of whether Pastor Grenci’s remarks (Queries & Comments, BAR 17:02) are anti-Semitic is crucial to Christians as well as to Jews because it touches the heart of the relationship between the two groups.

The late James Parkes, the world’s foremost authority on the history of anti-Semitism, noted that the hatred of Jews can take the following two different forms: religious anti-Semitism and racial anti-Semitism. Religious anti-Semitism stems primarily from an interpretation of the New Testament that sees the Jew as stiff-necked or evil for refusing to accept the Christian faith. The hatred manifested by the religious anti-Semite usually vanishes with the conversion of the Jew. Racial anti-Semitism is characterized by hatred of the Jew simply because he was born—theological beliefs are irrelevant to this type of bigot.

Some of your readers objected to the editor’s note preceding Pastor Grenci’s letter which characterized it as anti-Semitic. One such letter actually equated anti-Semitism with Nazism, which is, in fact, racial anti-Semitism. There is no doubt that Pastor Grenci is not a racial anti-Semite. The pertinent question is whether Pastor Grenci’s remarks are an example of religious anti-Semitism. Our reading of his letter strongly suggests that the editor was correct in his assessment. In fact, we believe that this letter presents a classic example of religious anti-Semitism. Phrases like: “the Jewish nation has never been spiritually sensitive enough to accept…[and] has refused to accept the cleansing God has given…” suggest both spiritual inferiority and lack of spiritual cleanliness, which would disappear with the Jews’ acceptance of Jesus.

James Parkes and other experts in the field have shown conclusively that racial Jew-hatred (and the concomitant grotesque evil embodied by the Holocaust) developed as a direct result of religious anti-Semitism. If we have learned anything from the events of this century, it must be that the teaching of hatred (however noble the motive) is the first step toward the destruction of the soul of mankind.

BAR’s Jerusalem Video

I own the two-cassette video, “The Archaeology of Jerusalem” and I plan to have this great material memorized before taking my tour group to Israel in 1992! Thank you for this wonderful contribution to those of us who love Israel and the land of Jesus and the Bible!

To order “The Archaeology of Jerusalem” video set, send $89.95, plus $4.00 shipping and handling, to Biblical Archaeology Society, 3000 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20008, or call toll-free 1–800-221–4644 to order by credit card.—Ed.

The Word of God Will Endure

Being an avid Bible reader and a Christian, I am intensely interested in anything even remotely connected with Biblical research. Your fascinating magazine, I must say is (remotely) connected with Biblical research—the same way science fiction is related to science—there is some scientific truth there.

Real Bible students are never worried by a critical analysis of God’s word. It will still be here when all these (men) are gone.

A Clearer Statement of BAR’s Purpose

I really appreciate BAR and look forward to its arrival. I tried Bible Review [our sister publication—Ed.] and, as a fundamentalist Christian, have no use for it. It would be more properly named “Anti-Bible Review.” BAR, however, does exactly what you advertised and what I expected. Thank you. Your problems with fundamentalists might be avoided if you made a clearer statement that BAR is not a religious publication but an archaeological one dealing with the area of the world which is important to both Jews and Christians.

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Ashkelon—Views and Reviews

Bravo for Ashkelon

I just received my first issue of your magazine—it’s wonderful and I am looking forward to reading the back issues.

The story on Ashkelon is fantastic. What a way to get to understand a lot of things in the Bible about the way people lived.

Our Decadent Society

Reading “Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon,” BAR 17:04, I could not help but be struck by the uncanny, eerie similarities to our modern-day society, where abortion and homosexual practices are legalized and condoned.

I say this as a person who is hardly an anti-abortion zealot—in fact, I have been pro-choice for many years! I wonder if perhaps Yahweh is not using these archaeological discoveries to reach me and others to show us how decadent a society is capable of becoming once they have rejected all faith in a Creator?

Getting It From Both Ends

I am writing to say thank you for printing the photos of the erotic lamps at Ashkelon (Lawrence E. Stager, “Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon,” BAR 17:04). As a gay person, I treasure all reminders of the often suppressed history of my people, and I find these depictions of some homosexual acts beautiful.

I would, however, like to take issue with your characterization of Elagabalus as “degenerate.” That he was a “bad emperor” (can a non-democratic ruler be good?) seems clear, if he elevated the sexually competent over the governmentally competent; but the adjective “degenerate” seems aimed at his sexual behavior, which is neither here nor there. Wearing makeup is a morally neutral act, as is sleeping around, unless accompanied by abuse, dishonesty or infidelity.

Having read my opinion, you must feel as though you’re getting it from both ends. But I’d like to make my voice heard against those of the crackpots who will no doubt berate you for printing anything about Elagabalus at all—to say nothing of those charming and amusing lamps.

When Will It All End?

I am dismayed that you went ahead and printed the lamps depicting erotic activities (Lawrence E. Stager, “Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon,” BAR 17:04). I am especially sensitive to this kind of erotica because one of our sons could not stay free of the influence of Playboy magazine. Consequently we wound up with our first grandchild a bastard. I am putting your magazine in our woodstove to burn it.

Nothing New

I, for one, am glad you published the erotic pictures from Ashkelon (Lawrence E. Stager, “Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon,” BAR 17:04). It has renewed my thinking on how infinitesimal is the change in human nature. Pornography was a profitable venture then, and so it is today. The ghastly remains of those poor victims of infanticide are paralleled by the callous treatment of aborted fetuses in abortion clinics. Solomon [sic] said some 3,000 years ago that, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). That is so true, so true.

Serial Killers Affected by Pornography

Regretfully, I did not read the issue that asked us to respond regarding pornography (“Help Us Decide—Cast Your Vote,” BARlines, BAR 16:05). However, I do not understand why you would want to promote something that has been proven to be a detriment to our society.

The FBI and police can show you evidence that the most common interest among serial killers is pornography. Ted Bundy at the age of 12 picked up and read pornography magazines. He says this contributed to his sexual escapades and killings. Pornography fuels the thought process.

Would you want to learn years from now that it was your pictures of ancient pornography that spurred a person into rape or murder?

Pornography can also contribute to divorce. Older men fantasize and seek out younger women to fill out these thoughts.

It is too bad that ancient pornographers could use your magazine to promote their harmful ways.

An Epidemic Accounts for the Dog Burials

Professor Stager’s article, “Why Were Hundreds of Dogs Buried at Ashkelon?” BAR 17:03, brilliantly exemplifies one of the rules A. D. Nock loved to lay down as 013014basic for archaeology “If you don’t understand something, say it’s religious.” In this case Professor Stager had to explain “more than 700 partial or complete dog carcasses” buried in shallow graves in “rubbish-laden fills” of the fifth century B.C.E. The fills were intended to provide a foundation level for a warehouse. They are now partially lost, and many burials may have gone with them, so the original number may have been “in the thousands.”

No evidence of religious use has been found in the area, or in the burials. None of the animals was slaughtered or mummified. They were of all ages, and both sexes. The graves contained no grave goods, and were not lined, nor marked. In shallow pits, the animals were laid on their sides, legs flexed, heads and tails bent towards their feet. They were covered only by earth from the adjacent material.

These data come from Professor Stager’s article. From his map (which does not perfectly agree with his article) it appears that the graves were not arranged in any significant order. They were all made within about 50 years. Why?

Following the rule Nock used to parody, Professor Stager begins with the assumption that the burials must have been religious. Therefore he collects an amazing jumble of references to dogs in ancient Near Eastern religion. Most are irrelevant, so I shall not bother to discuss them. He should have begun with the Iliad, which begins with an account of a plague that spread from dogs and mules to humans (A.50–52). A little after the graves were dug in Ashkelon, Thucydides was writing of the great plague in Athens. He speaks first of human fatalities, but implies that dogs which ate of or touched the dead bodies also died (2.50, end). This implication was made explicit by Lucretius when he retold the Thucydidean account (6.1222–1224). For Near Eastern religion, H. Sigerist, in his classic History of Medicine, vol. 1 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1951, pp. 148, 156, etc.), repeatedly recognizes the ancient understanding of contagion as a factor in epidemics, and the consequent importance of burial to prevent further contacts with the dead bodies. (Cremation was both expensive [see Lucretius 6.1280–1286] and might spread the infection by spreading the fumes and ashes. It also stank.)

The supposition of an epidemic of a disease which hung on in the neighborhood for half a century will explain the data: the great number of the dead animals; their burials as they died, one by one, in the smallest holes that would, with the least work, get them out of the way (the burying was probably assigned to slaves who did nothing more than they had to); the fact that none of the animals was sacrificed or used for food; the lack of grave gifts or commemorations; the burials in a public dump; and the fact that the bodies were buried at all.

The find gives us a remarkable glimpse of ancient medical knowledge and sanitary practice—and one of the most important things to be seen is the total separation of these practical measures from religion.

Lawrence E. Stager replies:

The late professor Smith has attempted to explain the hundreds of dog burials at Ashkelon as the result of an epidemic that swept through the dog population there. This was one of the explanations we considered when the first dogs were unearthed seven seasons ago. We soon abandoned this hypothesis in the light of the archaeological and osteological evidence.

We have always been impressed by the care with which each dog, whether an adult, subadult, or puppy (some no more than a few days old), was placed in its own individual grave: positioned on its side, head facing forward, legs flexed, and tail tucked in around the hindlegs. This contrasts sharply with other dead animals found in pits of various periods, where they had been unceremoniously discarded, often with head thrown back, neck broken, and legs akimbo. Had an epidemic taken its toll among the dog population of Ashkelon, I would expect more efficient and effective methods of disposing of the infected carcasses than the individual dog interments would indicate. The diseased dogs could have been burned or thrown into the nearby sea or buried in mass graves. Surely the dogs would not have been buried inside the city on prime real estate had they died of an epidemic. Or if they had, they would indeed provide us with a “remarkable glimpse of ancient medical knowledge and sanitary practice” (to quote Professor Smith)—remarkable for its ignorance and stupidity.

Probably the most telling evidence against Professor Smith’s purported epidemic is the mortality profile of the now more than 1,000 dogs buried during the Persian period at Ashkelon. Drs. Paula Wapnish and Brian Hesse, staff zooarchaeologists, have analyzed most of the canine data and concluded that the proporaon of puppies to subadults and adults corresponds almost exactly with that of an unmanaged urban dog population. According to them the mortality pattern is attritional, not catastrophic.

Of course epidemics that infect dogs, including rabies, also infect and kill other animals. If the Ashkelon dogs were buried for sanitary reasons only, as Professor Smith declaims, then where were all the other diseased animals buried and why were they separated from the dogs?

Although there may be better explanations than I have offered for the mystenous dog burials of Ashkelon, the epidemic hypothesis is not one of them. At this stage there is already enough evidence to suggest that its proponents are simply barking up the wrong tree.

Professor Morton Smith died on July 11, 1991. See obituary in BARlines.—Ed.

Dogs and Healing

Professor Stager’s recent article in BAR, “Why Were Hundreds of Dogs Buried at Ashkelon?” BAR 17:03, raises a number of important questions concerning the role of dogs in ancient Near Eastern society. Most intriguing is the case made for the association between dogs and a healing cult in the ancient world.

Several weeks ago, the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology of the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem carried out excavations at Gilat, one of the oldest sanctuary sites in Israel and made a startling discovery—two dog burials! The Gilat sanctuary¹ dates to the Chalcolithic period (c. 4500–3500 B.C.E.), the time span which precedes the rise of the first cities in Israel. Consequently, Gilat provides an important key for helping to understand the growth of early complex societies in the Southern Levant.

The dog burials were located in a pit associated with stratum IIIb at Gilat. One of the burials had been disturbed by rodent activity; however, the other was untouched and in a perfect state of preservation. The animal was carefully placed on its right side, facing south, with the tail tucked between the legs. Most surprising was the discovery of an offering with the dog grave. This was a slim-line cylindric vessel with two handles, shaped much like some examples of predynastic Egyptian pottery. There can be no doubt that these dogs were carefully interred in a symbolic context. The lack of evidence for trash deposits in the grave, the careful placing of two dogs in the same pit and the inclusion of a burial offering support this conclusion.

Religion played an important role in the evolution of societies in the Holy Land. The discovery of intentional dog burials in 015016017018the sanctuary complex at Gilat may foreshadow the more developed dog cults associated with healing in the ancient world, such as the temple of the goddess Gula found at Isin in modern Iraq, dating to about 1860–1837 B.C., which is sometimes called the Dog House.² Although some 1,000 years earlier than the Isin Dog House, the discovery of the Gilat dog burials in close association with the sanctuary area points to the ritual significance of dogs and cult at this formative period in the evolution of society in this part of the world. Our study is just beginning, and we hope to offer BAR readers more insights concerning Gilat later this year.

Just the Largest Dog Cemetery

As usual, your magazine has provided interesting, pleasant and informative reading. Many’s the time I have managed to suppress the urge to write a comment or two, but this time I’m overcome.

In your BAR 17:03 issue, in his excellent survey of the Persian period remains (“Why Were Hundreds of Dogs Buried at Ashkelon?”), Larry Stager writes that the dog cemetery at Ashkelon “is by far the largest animal cemetery of any kind known in the ancient world.”

Although (to my knowledge) there has been no reliable count of the individual animals interred in the large number of animal necropoli known from ancient Egypt, even a cursory survey of the pertinent literature leads one to the conclusion that the number must be in the scores or hundreds of thousands. Indeed, as John Ray states, “It is difficult to estimate the number of ibises alone buried at North Saqqara at under four million, and if four centuries are allotted for their accumulation, we are still forced to admit a burial rate of ten thousand birds a year.”³

Resting on less ambiguous documentary sources, K.A.D. Smith points out that “There was a cultic company or association in Ombos…which was responsible for the interment of the ibises. The number of ibises interred at the same time is indicated on some of the ostraca. The lowest number is 357 and the highest 4507.”⁴

Lawrence E. Stager replies:

I’m grateful for Mr. Jones’ correction; I had intended to say the Ashkelon cemetery “is by far the largest dog cemetery known in the ancient world.” Of course there are larger animal necropoleis in Egypt, but the actual body counts are difficult to ascertain from most of the published reports, as Mr. Jones points out.

Scapulas and Clavicles

I am writing to say how much I enjoyed the article by Lawrence E. Stager on the dogs of Ashkelon (“Why Were Hundreds of Dogs Buried at Ashkelon?” BAR 17:03). With all of the non-literal references to dogs in the Bible, this discovery should provide us all with some fresh insight into their meanings and implications. For three years now I’ve been trying to get away to participate on a dig (and Ashkelon is my first choice), but so far without success. Now my appetite has been once again whetted by your excellent publication.

One small detail: In the article there is a reference to the “scapula (collarbone) of a camel.” The scapula is the shoulder bone; that bone commonly called the collarbone is the clavicle.

Lawrence E. Stager replies:

The bone found was the scapula of a camel and should have been referred to as a “shoulder blade,” not a collarbone. The scapula as well as the femur and other large bones of medium to large ungulates was frequently used in the manufacture of bone artifacts in ancient Ashkelon.

Dogs Used for Parchment

Lawrence E. Stager asks, “Why Were Hundreds of Dogs Buried at Ashkelon?” BAR 17:03. “The best explanation,” he says, “seems to be that the Ashkelon dogs were revered as sacred animals. As such they were probably associated with a particular deity and with that god’s sacred precinct, about which the dogs were free to roam.

“If anyone has a better explanation for the immense dog cemetery at Ashkelon, I would like to hear it.”

This dog cemetery was found in the midst of a commercial district (warehouses) and the burial sites are situated in a haphazard manner. In some places as many as three burials were found superimposed, one on the other. The huge number of these dog burials suggests that these dogs were killed for commercial purposes, perhaps for the production of parchment. Parchment was used as early as 1500 B.C.E. (Dard Hunter, Papermaking (New York: Dover, 1978).)

In Hungary, persons who were elevated to nobility received confirmation of their title written on dog-skin parchment. This custom exists to this very day in Hungary, and the people will indicate that someone is a nobleman by saying, “he has a dog skin.”