Biblical Archaeology Review

Matmid refers to a scholar who spends day and night poring over texts.—Ed.

The Jerusalem or Palestinian Talmud.—Ed.

Professor Neusner recently sent us the text of a powerful defense to his critics to be published in the June 1985 issue of Midstream. The article is entitled, “The Mishnah and the Smudgepot—Or Why, Where There’s Smoke, There Isn’t Always Fire.”

In an interview in Publisher’s Weekly, Neusner stated that he wanted to get only about 80% of the text accurately translated in his preliminary translation: “I call it preliminary because I felt that if I could get into English an accurate picture of something like 80% of what I had in front of me, it would be a step forward. Some reviewers are angry because they’ve found errors. I say, ‘You’re right, let’s correct it. At least we have something to work from.’”

Our understanding of Professor Lieberman’s comment was apparently an error in Professor Neusner’s favor. See Morton Smith’s letter in Queries & Comments, in this issue.

“BARview: Annual Meetings Offer Intellectual Bazaar and Moments of High Drama,” BAR 11:02.

A. L. Oppenheim described Babylonian omen-taking in his Ancient Mesopotamia, revised by E. Reiner (University of Chicago Press, 1977) pp. 206–227.

In upharsin the letter “u” is a transliteration of the Hebrew letter vov. When used as a prefix, vov usually means “and.”

With regard to Esdar, Kochavi has incorrectly (in my opinion) separated Strata III and II, assigning the former to the 11th century, the latter to the beginning of the tenth. I contend that they form a single level, and that, together with Masos I and Beer-Sheva VII, they were contemporaneous with the Central Negev strongholds—and that they all subsisted during the period of the United Kingdom.

The fortresses that fit into this fourth category are the two upper fortresses at Kadesh-Barnea and that of Horvat Uza. For more information, see “Did I Excavate Kadesh-Barnea?” BAR 07:03.