Paleojudaica

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: Angels in Coptic Magic II: The Twenty-Four Presbyters.In sum, whether they were invoked for healing and protection, as prescribed in the homily attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem, or for more aggressive purposes, it seems that the most important thing was to know the names of the Twenty-Four Presbyters. Due to their holy origin, and for increased ma...

THE "IS THAT IN THE BIBLE?" BLOG: The Jewish and Pagan Mythological Origins of Revelation 13: The Beasts from the Sea and the Earth and the Fear of Nero’s Return (Paul D.).John may claim to have been shown these things in divine visions, but the data shows otherwise. John’s real skill was not that of a seer, but that of a writer who was able to mix and match bits of Jewish and G...

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: A Prophecy of Empire: The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius from Late Antique Mesopotamia to the Global Medieval Imagination (Evan Bradley Schafer).Christopher Bonura’s new monograph, A Prophecy of Empire, offers a comprehensive study of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius within its Syriac literary, theological, and political context. On this foundation, Bonura ...

ANCIENT ECONOMICS: The Art of the Unpaid Denarius: Tax Evasion in Ancient Rome (Terry Madenholm, Haaretz).The cat-and-mouse game intensified as the centuries wore on. The Roman government constantly tried to fight back, introducing a more professional bureaucracy and implementing fixed tax quotas for provinces to reduce the systemic abuse by tax farmers. In certain periods, they...

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike. Notice of a Forthcoming Book: Harding, Phillip (ed.). 2026. Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike: Translation, with Introduction and Notes. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Follow the link for description and publisher link. The volume covers books 16-17 of the Bibliotheke. Diodorus preserv...