Biblical Archaeology Review

The tetragrammaton is the ineffable and unpronounced name of God, consisting of the four consonants YHWH, often transcribed in English literature as Yahweh.

The first five books of the Bible, called in Hebrew translation the Torah of Moses.

The Temple Scroll, edited by Yigael Yadin (The Israel Exploration Society, The Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Shrine of the Book Jerusalem, 1977), 3 volumes. (See review in Books in Brief in this issue.)

“Preserving the Dead Sea Scrolls For the Next 2,000 Years,” BAR 07:04. Shenhav also wrote “Loaves and Fishes Mosaic Near Sea of Galilee Restored,” BAR 10:03.

I am still keeping his confidence, however, by not revealing his name. I want all these people—whether they are robbers or not (and it is a cloak-and-dagger business) to know that as far as I am concerned, if they tell me not to reveal their identities, I won’t. Otherwise, we have no chance of getting more scrolls. And I believe there still might be another scroll or some fragments here or there. For the same reason, I don’t call the dealer by name, even though many know who he is.

Phylacteries, or tefillin (Hebrew), are two small leather boxes containing certain scripture verses on pieces of parchment. Traditional Jewish men bind them by black leather straps on their foreheads and left arms during morning services every day except Sabbaths and certain festivals and other occasions. The practice of putting on phylacteries follows two passages in Deuteronomy and two in Exodus requiring Jews to bind these words of the law for “a sign upon thy hand and a frontlet between thine eyes.”

A metropolitan is a head of an ecclesiastical province of an Eastern Orthodox church who has his headquarters in a large city. Metropolitan Samuel was the Syrian Orthodox metropolitan of the Monastery of St. Mark in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The “firsts” listed here and many others appear in History Begins at Sumer, by Samuel Noah Kramer (Falcon’s Wing Press: 1956; Doubleday Anchor Books: Garden City, New York, 1959).

Innana—Queen of Heaven and Earth, Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer (Harper and Row: New York, 1983), 227 pp., paperback $7.95.

The Sumerian Dictionary will be available in September. Orders and inquiries may be directed to The Sumerian Dictionary, Babylonian Section, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 33rd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104. Telephone: (215) 898–4000.