What's going on this Fall

It's pretty incredible to think that I'm beyond the half way point of my master's already. My schedule will be quite a bit different this year, though, unfortunately, probably no less challenging. I'll be taking two languages, German and Syriac. Each of these classes is a year long. I've never attempted two languages at once before, so I'm pretty nervous about it. I've never considered myself to be a person that's good at languages, but I realized recently that I've learned a few languages since I've been saying this. German and Syriac couldn't be further apart either, so hopefully that will make it easier to do both at once.

You may be asking, "why take German, and what the heck is Syriac?" German is one of the three standard languages of scholarship, alongside English and French. In order to be competitive for PhD programs I will need to have two done by matriculation (normally in addition to most or all of the required ancient languages). I'm still trying to decide between "German for reading in religious studies," which should be easier, and a regular German class which will actually be useful for studying in German (one option I'm considering).

Syriac is a Semitic language of the Christian East until Arabic became the [i]lingua franca[/i], though it is still in use today by several Christian communities. It's related most closely to Aramaic thought it has some similarity to Hebrew and the script is reminiscent of Arabic in its cursive style.

The Lord's Prayer in Syriac
Syriac is important because most studies on early Christianity in general, and Jewish-Christian interaction in particular, focus on the Christian West, written in Latin and Greek. There has been a push in recent scholarship to recover these voices from the East. Learning Syriac is ideal for my goal of studying material that is useful for contemporary Christian-Jewish-Muslim dialogue. As it turns out, the people behind this Syriac literature often maintained a much greater affinity with what we call Judaism today. The affinity was so great in fact that discerning a distinction between Judaism and Christianity is often difficult and in many ways artificial. The writing of groups deemed heretics by the Church for being "Judaizers" (that is, too "Jewish") is also largely preserved in Syriac (and a couple even more obscure languages). That's the Jewish-Christian part, so how does it pertain to Christian-Muslim interaction? As I said, Syriac was widespread in the East until Arabic gradually, but not entirely, took over because of the Muslim conquest in the 600's or so. Syriac preserves the very earliest literary encounters between Christians and Muslim, especially what they argued about and how they argued. Cool right?!

Apart from the two languages I'll be taking two regular classes each semester. The one I'm looking forward to most is History of Ancient Christianity with the indefatigable juggernaut of a scholar, Helmut Koester. The other Fall course I'm not 100% sold on yet, since the course offerings in the Jewish studies concentration are somewhat sparse this Fall. In all likelihood it will be "Rewriting Scripture in Jewish Antiquity" which will examine how Second Temple communities, and I presume communities shortly afterward, used and interpreted the Bible in various ways. It could be a valuable course for me because, obviously, the religions of Christianity and Judaism emerged from this process.

Finally, in addition to my normal work at the library, I've landed a research assistant position. I'll be sorting through scores of Greek papyri in the bellows of Widener library to help Dr. Giovanni Bazzana prepare a commentary on the New Testament and a monograph on Q.

A thought or two on the media coverage of the latest violence between Israel and Palestine

What a mess. In Hebrew: בלגן. In Arabic (had to look this one up): فوضى. I've expressed my feelings about the reasons for this kind of violence, the pervasive problems and how they might be addressed--I've said it in this blog, or to you publicly, or spoken with you privately. I don't need to repeat any of that, but I do feel like I need to comment on the only way most of us hear about these things, namely, three American news organizations. They typically do a very poor job covering these sorts of things, either because they have a strong bias (there's plenty to go around when it comes to Israel/Palestine), or because reporters simply seem ignorant about what they are reporting on--they take details that their sources collect and add hype words to make things more dramatic, more offensive, or more palatable. Barns become "bunkers" and 15-year-old boys become "militants." Here are a couple stories from this week that I think are pretty significant which I have not seen reported by the big three American news channels:
Five Egyptian Police Killed in Israel Border Clash
81 House Members Enjoy All Expenses Paid Hiatus in Israel

So, what to do? My suggestion, which may require a bit more work and may cause you to be a little more confused, will at least make you better informed. For your news on this stuff, go elsewhere. Here are four (relatively) reputable news outlets, two Israeli (1) (2), one Palestinian, and one more generally Arab. You will be better informed about the events and, by observing how the same stories are treated differently between the sources, see nuances of the opinions and biases of each, perhaps your own.

Random thought during the flight

I always take the window seat of flights during daylight hours, even if I hardly ever peer out. I don't understand how anyone would not want to be close to the window, it's a religious experience for me sometimes when I look out. On my last flight from Germany to Boston at about 40,000 feet we were just above the highest clouds. The view of the clouds from above with the sun hitting them just right was simply stunning to witness. It was a powerful reminder to me of God's majesty in creation. Even when there isn't a soul around to see it, creation can be beautiful for no reason other than just to be. It was only by chance that I happened to be up there to see this beautiful cloudscape and I'm sure all over the planet there is beauty in motion when noone is around. Sometimes it's good to feel small, like humankind isn't the center of everything. Creation at 40,000 feet is a great place for perspective.

The trip home, and the difference a kippah makes?

When I flew back from Israel earlier this month my journey was a gauntlet as usual; long layover, long flights, however one part was much easier than normal--the security. Whenever I've explained what the Tel Aviv airport security is like to an Israeli they always respond with looks of disbelief, because they aren't treated the same when they leave. One of my instructors this summer was herself a security worker at the airport during her military service. She said that part of her job was explicitly to profile people by their race and religion, and she disliked her job a great deal for this reason. People that have read my older blogs will recall that I've had some pretty rough encounters at Israel's airport security in the past. So this time I thought I would try an experiment. This time when I left I decided I would do exactly as I had in the past, pack the same way, and answer the questions in the security interview with same candor that in the past resulted in this. This time however, I put on a kippah (yarmulke in America), nothing flashy, just a little doily size piece of cloth. In America it's common for religious Jews not to wear one, but in Israel it serves as a strong indicator of whether or not someone is a religious Jew. There are actually not a few Christian orders that also wear a skullcap, called a pileolus or a zucchetto. I also like to wear strange objects as hats as a matter of habit. At any rate, when I came to the security interview I answered the same questions with complete honesty, regarding why I was in Israel, who I knew, how much Hebrew I knew, etc. and after about sixty seconds I was waved through every line. I didn't so much as have to open a single bag or send my checked bags through the x-ray. Exiting customs was equally fast, and the security officer behind the desk, rather than the usual stern attitude was, frankly, flirtatious. I get searched leaving the Harvard libraries more thoroughly than I experienced this time around at the airport. The airport security which had taken two to three hours in the past, took me all of twenty minutes from the first interview to sitting at my gate. Though I know this is but one experience, and only anecdotal evidence, I can't help but presume that I was treated so differently and presumed to be nonthreatening because I wore a piece of fabric on my head which served as a symbol of Jewishness. I'm not sure which part I find more interesting, that Israel's famously extreme security measures which take advantage of the most advanced technology available can be thwarted by a three inch diameter piece of knitted yarn, or that Justin the religious Jew would, because of that religion, be waved through, while Justin the Christian would be held and searched from top to bottom and interrogated.

Summer Time in Israel, Archaeology Fun, and Not Quite Arrested!

My summer program finished at the beginning of the month, but I've been so tired since I've been back that it's been hard to write much of anything. I certainly have some interesting stories from the program though. Overall it was a very satisfying experience, and I did indeed get to see so much of the country I hadn't when last I lived there. In addition to the main course on Jewish-Christian encounters and the Mishnaic Hebrew course I was pleasantly surprised to find the archaeology portion more in depth than I expected. It was led by one of the head archaeologists at Sepphoris, a very important archaeological site that many people miss when they visit Israel (seriously go).

Just a couple examples of the incredible mosaics at Sepphoris.
We saw nearly all of the ancient churches and synagogues in the Galilee whether they were open to the public or not (lots of fascinating epigraphy). We also got to dig at Khirbeit Wadi Hamam, a relatively new site just north of Tiberius where they’ve found a 2nd century synagogue. I happened to make “the discovery of the season” when I found a piece of a Corinthian capital from said synagogue! Most interestingly, the fact that it is rather homely suggests it was locally produced.

I made sure to have a few adventures. I took a small group to Palestine to show them the sites there and let them be exposed to a bit of the situation the Palestinians are in. While there, we visiting the Herodian, one of King Herod's palaces, where he was buried and later where rebels fighting against the Romans hid out. I went around to the back side of the site and spelunked around in the ancient caves where the rebels lived. Many of them were only a few feet high from floor to ceiling and were pretty steep and slick because they had not been fully excavated. I felt very claustrophobic and I'm sure it was pretty dangerous, but when I emerged covered in that ancient dust back on the tourist side of the cave I felt very accomplished in my little adventure.

Looking rather pale on the tourist side of the Herodian
The other big adventure was at Tel Dan in the far north of Israel, a First Temple era ruin. When the group I was with arrived, the gates were locked and the park was closed. We had driven pretty far to get there so I had the bright idea to jump the ten foot fence. As soon as I landed on the other side, a park ranger emerged from a nearby bush and confronted me, and he showed me that he had taken photos of me climbing over the fence. His English wasn't terrific, and my Hebrew is horrible, but he promptly got on his walky talky and said "police" a few times to whoever was on the other end. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to an encounter with Israeli police. He asked for me to hand over my passport, and I did my best to avoid doing so. Of course by this point I was trying to appear as naive as possible about the rules and as much of an expert about Tel Dan as I could to win him over and not end up arrested (which would not have been a pleasant situation for my three traveling companions either). Well, as it turns out, my finagling had already paid off by the time he asked for my passport. He wasn't asking for it for the police, he was asking for it as collateral so that I could go run around the park! After I realized this is what he meant, I brought the three others in with me. The ranger saw that all of us were innocuous foreigners and said we could come in for a quick look around. After we were in the gate, I asked him enthusiastically in Hebrew where a few things I wanted to see were. As it turns out, Tel Dan is pretty spread out, so he invited us to ride in his 4x4 for a private tour of the site. For the next half hour or so he drove us around the park showing us all the archaeological goodness. All in all, a pretty different outcome than I was expecting.

Sitting on the kings throne at the gate to Tel Dan doing the gesture of judgement

Oh, also, there were a lot of mine fields in the Golan Heights area, fun! Only slightly tempting to blithely jump out into them.