Jonathan Ben-Dov | Tel Aviv University (original) (raw)

Books by Jonathan Ben-Dov

Material and Digital Reconstruction of Fragmentary Dead Sea Scrolls - The Case of 4Q418a, 2022

Scholars working with ancient scrolls seek ways to extract maximum information from the multitude... more Scholars working with ancient scrolls seek ways to extract maximum information from the multitude of fragments. Various methods were applied to that end on the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as on other ancient texts. The present book augments these methods to a full-scale protocol, while adapting them to a new computerized environment. Fundamental methodological issues are illuminated as part of the discussion, and the potential margin of error is provided on an empirical basis, as practiced in the sciences. The method is then exemplified with regard to the scroll 4Q418a, a copy of a wisdom composition from Qumran.

Afterlives of Ancient Rock-cut Monuments in the Near East, 2021

This book concerns ancient rock-cut monuments carved throughout the Near East and pays particular... more This book concerns ancient rock-cut monuments carved throughout the Near East and pays particular attention to the fate of these monuments in the centuries after their initial production. As parts of the landscapes in which they were carved, those carvings acquired new meanings in the cultural memory of the people who lived around them. The volume joins numerous recent studies on the reception of historical texts and artefacts, exploring the peculiar affordances of these long-lasting and often salient monuments. The volume gathers articles by archeologists, art historians, and philologists, covering the entire Near East, from Iran to Lebanon and from Turkey to Egypt. It also analyzes long-lasting textual traditions that aim to explain the origins and meaning of rock-cut monuments and other related carvings.

Mohr Siebeck, 2021

The present volume comprises articles by renowned international scholars in academic dialogue wit... more The present volume comprises articles by renowned international scholars in academic dialogue with the work of Albert Baumgarten. They contextualize ancient Jewish texts not only for their own sake, but also as a way of shedding light on antiquity in general. They address texts taken from the elds of Greco-Roman studies, Hellenistic Judaism, Second Temple sectarianism, rabbinic literature, and various facets of early Christianity. Additionally, there are articles discussing comparative religion, sociology of knowledge, anthropology, and economic history. Together, the articles create an in-depth analysis of the social history of Jews in antiquity.

Why and when did ancient scholars make the enormous effort to understand the principles and maste... more Why and when did ancient scholars make the enormous effort to understand the principles and master the mathematics of foreign astral sciences? This work provides a detailed analysis of the invention, development and transmission of astronomy, astrology, astral religion, magic and medicine, cosmology and cosmography, astral mapping, geography and calendrics and their related mathematics and instrumentation in and between Mesopotamia, Egypt, the West Semitic areas, Greece and Rome, Iran, India and China. It considers the available textual evidence from the most ancient times to the seventh century CE. The author has worked the contributions of eight internationally renowned scholars into what amounts to a new history of the oldest sciences. The result is a challenging read for the layperson and a resource for the expert and includes an extensive index to the entire volume. It provides a new typology of cultural interactions and, by describing their socio-political backdrop, offers a cultural history of the region. In particular, astral science in the Hellenistic period west of the Tigris is completely re-evaluated and a new model of the interactions of Western and Indian and Iranian astral sciences is provided.

The volume may be purchased for 76 Shekels at http://www.bialik-publishing.co.il/ (change ... more The volume may be purchased for 76 Shekels at
http://www.bialik-publishing.co.il/ (change the 'Language' button to English)

The entire set of past volumes of Meghillot may be purchased for the sum of 505 shekels.

Volumes 1-10 are accessible online through JSTOR.

Time has always held a fascination for human beings, who have attempted to relate to it and to ma... more Time has always held a fascination for human beings, who have attempted to relate to it and to make sense of it, constructing and deconstructing it through its various prisms, since time cannot be experienced in an unmediated way. This book answers the needs of a growing community of scholars and readers who are interested in this interaction. It offers a series of innovative studies by both senior and younger experts on various aspects of the construction of time in antiquity. Some articles in this book contain visual material published for the first time, while other studies update the field with new theories or apply new approaches to relevant sources. Within the study of antiquity, the book covers the disciplines of Classics and Ancient History, Assyriology, Egyptology, Ancient Judaism, and Early Christianity, with thematic contributions on rituals, festivals, astronomy, calendars, medicine, art, and narrative.

Contents:
1. Introduction Lutz Doering and Jonathan Ben-Dov
2 Time and natural law in Jewish-Hellenistic writings Jonathan Ben-Dov
3. Calendars, politics, and power relations in the Roman Empire Sacha Stern
4. Doubling religion in the Augustan Age: shaping time for an empire Jörg Rüpke
5. Real and constructed time in Babylonian astral medicine John Steele
6. The intellectual background of the Antikythera mechanism Robert Hannah
7. Divine figurations of time in Ancient Egypt Alexandra von Lieven
8. The moon and the power of time reckoning in Ancient Mesopotamia Lorenzo Verderame
9. Toward a phenomenology of time in ancient Greek art SeungJung Kim
10. Women's bodies as metaphors for time in biblical, second temple, and rabbinic literature Sarit Kattan Gribetz
11. The beginning of sabbath and festivals in ancient Jewish sources Lutz Doering
12. Seasoning the bible and biblifying time through fixed liturgical reading systems (lectionaries) Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra
13. The Roman ember days of September and the Jewish New Year Robert Hayward
14. Celebrations and the abstention from celebrations of sacred time in Early Christianity Clemens Leonhard.

Papers by Jonathan Ben-Dov

What’s in a Divine Name. Religious Systems and Human Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean, 2024

Des études précédentes ont montré comment les premiers textes apocalyptiques juifs participent au... more Des études précédentes ont montré comment les premiers textes apocalyptiques juifs participent aux traditions mythologiques du Levant. Cet article suggère une démarche similaire en ce qui concerne un texte central du yaḥad, le Rouleau de la Guerre (1QM). L'article se concentre sur la scène mythologique de l'assemblée divine, qui était typique de la religion levantine depuis le II e millénaire av. n.è. et trouve des prolongements dans la littérature ultérieure. Le monothéisme inclusif de Qumran reflète la centralité de multiples divinités mineures dans la vision du monde du yaḥad, la souveraineté de l'Unique étant mise en évidence face à la soumission du Multiple. Cette vision religieuse du monde fait écho-tant sur le plan lexical que théologique-aux anciennes traditions levantines. Après avoir élucidé le concept d'assemblée divine et discuté de ses implications pour le monothéisme, l'article souligne les parallèles entre la guerre angélique dans 1QM et une théomachie mythique décrite à Ougarit et dans les écrits de Philon de Byblos. L'article appelle ainsi à une compréhension plus large du genre et de la composition du Rouleau de la Guerre.

New Studies in the Archaeology of the Judean Desert Collected Papers (eds.: Ofer Sion Joe Uziel Amir Ganor Eitan Klein), 2023

במרכז - קובץ מחקרים. כרך ג, 2023

A Social History of the Jews. Studies in Dialogue with Albert Baumgarten, 2021

Material and Digital Reconstruction of Fragmentary Dead Sea Scrolls - The Case of 4Q418a, 2022

Afterlives of Ancient Rock-cut Monuments in the Near East, 2021

Mohr Siebeck, 2021

The entire set of past volumes of Meghillot may be purchased for the sum of 505 shekels.

Volumes 1-10 are accessible online through JSTOR.

What’s in a Divine Name. Religious Systems and Human Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean, 2024

New Studies in the Archaeology of the Judean Desert Collected Papers (eds.: Ofer Sion Joe Uziel Amir Ganor Eitan Klein), 2023

במרכז - קובץ מחקרים. כרך ג, 2023

A Social History of the Jews. Studies in Dialogue with Albert Baumgarten, 2021

Administrators in ancient Judah used schematic 30-day months and a 360-day year alongside other a... more Administrators in ancient Judah used schematic 30-day months and a 360-day year alongside other annual frameworks. This year was never practiced as a "calendar" for any cultic or administrative purpose, but rather served as a convenient framework for long-term planning, as well as for literary accounts that were not anchored to a concrete calendar year. Examples for such a usage are attested here from Mesopotamian texts. Material evidence for the 360-day year in Judah comes forth from a series of small perforated bone plaques from various sites in Iron Age Judah. One such item was recently unearthed in the city of David. These objects can reasonably be understood as reflecting a schematic 360-day year, serving as desk calendars for Judahite administrators. Several priestly pentateuchal texts are best understood against this background, such as the dating of some festivals and most notably the dates in the Flood narrative (Gen 7-8). The original dating system is best represented in LXX Gen 7:11, while the reading of MT is a late modification, inserted later, when calendar debates took a central place in the religious discourse. MT is thus a link in a chain of later reworking of this narrative in Second Temple literature. The 360-day year is thus a unique case where material culture dovetails with literary evidence, and may shed light on the material culture of priestly sources. This insight is significant for future studies of biblical time reckoning.

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 2020

Much of the sapiential treatise Instruction (=4QInstruction) can be read as a systematic attempt ... more Much of the sapiential treatise Instruction (=4QInstruction) can be read as a systematic attempt to support one basic ideological principle: Each person has a divinely assigned share, and every interaction that requires mixing that share with other agents is a breach of the metaphysical
order. This idea was first formulated with regard to Instruction by Menahem Kister. In the present article, I apply this notion to the prologue (preserved in 4Q416 1) and to the sections on family relations (parents, wife) in 4Q416. These latter cases explore the financial relations within a
family and align them with the overall principle of Instruction. The various sections highlight the person’s spirit as a commodity, intertwined with the life and capital of that person. The literary focus is on the phenomenology of the spirit, as it shifts during various transactions. The biblical allusions in these sections are explained along the same line of argument.

Social History of the Jews within the Ancient World: Studies in Dialogue with Al Baumgarten, Mohr Siebeck, 2021

Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage , 2021

The task of assembling fragments in a puzzle-like manner into a composite picture plays a signifi... more The task of assembling fragments in a puzzle-like manner into a composite picture plays a significant role in the field of archaeology as it supports researchers in their attempt to reconstruct historic artifacts. In this article, we propose a method for matching and assembling pairs of ancient papyrus fragments containing mostly unknown scriptures.

Papyrus paper is manufactured from papyrus plants and therefore portrays typical thread patterns resulting from the plant’s stems. The proposed algorithm is founded on the hypothesis that these thread patterns contain unique local attributes such that nearby fragments show similar patterns reflecting the continuations of the threads. We posit that these patterns can be exploited using image processing and machine learning techniques to identify matching fragments. The algorithm and system which we present support the quick and automated classification of matching pairs of papyrus fragments as well as the geometric alignment of the pairs against each other.

The algorithm consists of a series of steps and is based on deep-learning and machine learning methods. The first step is to deconstruct the problem of matching fragments into a smaller problem of finding thread continuation matches in local edge areas (squares) between pairs of fragments. This phase is solved using a convolutional neural network ingesting raw images of the edge areas and producing local matching scores. The result of this stage yields very high recall but low precision. Thus, we utilize these scores in order to conclude about the matching of entire fragments pairs by establishing an elaborate voting mechanism. We enhance this voting with geometric alignment techniques from which we extract additional spatial information. Eventually, we feed all the data collected from these steps into a Random Forest classifier in order to produce a higher order classifier capable of predicting whether a pair of fragments is a match.

Our algorithm was trained on a batch of fragments which was excavated from the Dead Sea caves and is dated circa the 1st century BCE. The algorithm shows excellent results on a validation set which is of a similar origin and conditions. We then tried to run the algorithm against a real-life set of fragments for which we have no prior knowledge or labeling of matches. This test batch is considered extremely challenging due to its poor condition and the small size of its fragments. Evidently, numerous researchers have tried seeking matches within this batch with very little success. Our algorithm performance on this batch was sub-optimal, returning a relatively large ratio of false positives. However, the algorithm was quite useful by eliminating 98% of the possible matches thus reducing the amount of work needed for manual inspection. Indeed, experts that reviewed the results have identified some positive matches as potentially true and referred them for further investigation.

Revue des études juives, 2019

The present study offers a new edition of Serekh ha-'Edah, the Rule of the Congregation from Cave... more The present study offers a new edition of Serekh ha-'Edah, the Rule of the Congregation from Cave 1 of Qumran (1QSa). Although this text has been the subject of several editions and studies since its original publication in 1955, a new edition is required in light of recent findings. Those include the identification and reconstruction of a copy of the Rule of the Congregation in Cryptic script from Cave 4, as well as new methods for working with the available images. The reconstruction of lacu-nas in this edition has been carried out using digital tools, on the basis of actual letters preserved in the same scroll. We survey previous scholarship on 1QSa and provide a new edition (transliteration, translation and commentary), including several new readings, some changes in the placement of small fragments, as well as several new textual reconstructions. RÉSUMÉ La présente étude offre une nouvelle édition du Serekh ha-'Edah, la Règle de la Congrégation de la grotte 1 de Qumrân (1QSa). Bien que ce texte ait fait l'objet de plusieurs éditions et études depuis sa publication originale en 1955, une nouvelle édition est nécessaire à la lumière des découvertes récentes. Cela comprend l'iden-tification et la reconstruction d'une copie de la Règle de la Congrégation en écriture cryptique de la grotte 4, ainsi que des nouvelles méthodes de travail avec les images disponibles. La reconstruction des lacunes dans cette édition a été réalisée à l'aide d'outils numériques, sur la base de lettres conservées dans ce même rouleau. Nous examinons les études antérieures de 1QSa et fournissons une nouvelle édition (trans-littération, traduction et commentaire), incluant plusieurs nouvelles lectures, quelques changements dans le placement de petits fragments, ainsi que plusieurs nouvelles reconstructions textuelles.

The Qumran Psalter and the Medieval Palestinian Tefillat ha-Shir, 2019

This article investigates the linkage between two Jewish Palestinian liturgical customs, a millen... more This article investigates the linkage between two Jewish Palestinian liturgical customs, a millennium apart: a collection of psalms attested among the Dead Sea Scrolls, best preserved in the scroll 11Q5 or 11QPs a ; and the practice of Tefillat ha-Shir ("the Song"), added to Pesukei deZimrah in the Palestinian prayer books from the Cairo Genizah. Two main elements are examined: the use of the Songs of Ascent, and the emphasis on the Davidic authorship. We conclude that there is no genetic link between the two collections. Their typological resemblance, however, demonstrates the shared themes and motifs of Qumran and rabbinic prayer.

The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Peeters, 2019), 2019

This article works on both the temporal and spatial axes. In the spatial axis, it is shown how Ne... more This article works on both the temporal and spatial axes. In the spatial axis, it is shown how Nebuchadnezzar, a 6th century BCE prominent Babylonian king, created for himself a slightly different image in the Levant, as reflected in his monuments and in biblical prophetic literature. On the temporal axis, Nebuchadnezzar’s image won renewed attention in the Hellenistic period, both in Babylonia and the Levant. The article traces these twice-double reflections of Nebuchadnezzar, especially as reflected in the pair of monuments at Brisa, and uses them to explain some details in Daniel chapter 4 and in the Book of Giants.

Online versions (YouTube files) of the Lectures presented at the 2nd day of the 2nd Annual Confer... more Online versions (YouTube files) of the Lectures presented at the 2nd day of the 2nd Annual Conference of the RIAB Minerva Center, which took place at the Israel Institute of Advanced Studies (on the Givat Ram Campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on March 2nd, 2017), can now be watched online.

Rock-cut monuments are a unique type of archaeological object. From the moment those monuments we... more Rock-cut monuments are a unique type of archaeological object. From the moment those monuments were carved people have asked themselves who made them, when, and why? Often highly visible and long-lasting, they demand attention. They are part of the natural landscape, yet are conspicuously anthropogenic. Many of them became part of the regional and cultural memory of their environs. They almost invariably remain in the exact place where they were first designed to be, allowing generations of people to interact with them in their original context. They traverse cultural and chronological boundaries. Texts regularly accompany their carved images spurring in observers the desire to understand the precise motives of their makers. (In fact, many such texts have been crucial in the decipherment of ancient writing systems.)

Much scholarly attention has been paid to the moment of production of rock-cut monuments. Our purpose, by contrast, is to study their successive re-interpretations and manipulations, their cultural recycling. Rock-cut monuments incite passions: many rulers have been inspired by the endeavors of their predecessors to engage in monumental dialogues on cliff faces, sometimes doing so across centuries or even millennia. Others have sought to deface or obliterate them, outraged by what they imagine their images and texts to represent. Travelers and scholars have been drawn to them repeatedly, often leaving behind traces of themselves, their inquiries, and their interpretations. The history of their re-interpretations exemplifies the intricate interaction of ancient cultures with their own, even more ancient, past. The result is a layered landscape of cultural meaning and natural transformations (e.g. erosion) that can furnish precious evidence about the pre-modern archaeological imagination.

We aim to bring diverse specialists on the ancient world to Brown University to tackle the following questions: who in the pre-modern period was interested in rock-cut monuments? How did ancient interpreters make sense of their images and texts? What did those people think the monuments represented? In what way were conflicts resolved between conflicting interpretations? And, finally, how can we as contemporary scholars, begin to address such questions?

Felipe Rojas (Brown University)
Jonathan Ben Dov (University of Haifa)

The project studies the myth of the Watchers (Fallen Angels) in early enochic compositions and th... more The project studies the myth of the Watchers (Fallen Angels) in early enochic compositions and the Book of Giants, with special emphasis on comparative mythology and on the setting in the early Hellenistic period. The researcher will study any aspect of the myth with relation to the project's guidelines, including for example: comparative mythology, esp. The Phoenician History by Philo of Byblos but also Babylonian or Greek sources; divine epithets in the enochic corpus; textual history of 1 Enoch; archeology and history of the upper Galilee in the early Hellenistic period; related Aramaic writings; afterlives of Mesopotamian mythology in the West; Greek mythology in the eastern Mediterranean; and more. The project cooperates with the "Mapping Ancient Polytheisms" group at the University of Jean Jorrès, Toulouse.

A conference of the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics, University of Münster, in cooper... more A conference of the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics, University of Münster, in cooperation with the School of Jewish Studies and Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, 23–25 September 2024.

Registration for in-person or Zoom participation until 13 September (see flyer).