It is a pleasure for us to present this collection of essays in honor of Jodi Magness—a cherished scholar and teacher whose work over the last forty years has illuminated our understanding of archaeology, early Judaism, and the broader ancient Mediterranean world in ways that will help shape these fields of study for generations to come. By any standard, Jodi’s contributions in these areas have not only been groundbreaking through the new insights and perspectives they have offered to an already formidable body of scholarship, but they have inspired new generations of researchers to refine their approaches to the discipline and have helped a non-specialist public to view the ancient past with an ever-increasing fascination. Although it would be impossible to measure the full impact she has had in these wide-reaching venues, this Festschrift is an opportunity to celebrate Jodi’s distinguished career by bringing together a series of articles produced by friends, students, and colleagues who wish to acknowledge her many contributions as a world-class academic, and who wish to recognize their valued association with her in both personal and professional settings.
The main title of this volume—Pushing Sacred Boundaries in Early Judaism and the Ancient Mediterranean—is an imperfect attempt to capture the extraordinary range of historical and archaeological issues which Jodi has elucidated through her work and which she has regularly encouraged us to approach in new ways, including on the complex nature of early Jewish society, daily life in the time of Jesus, the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the development of ancient synagogues, and the broader material culture of the eastern Mediterranean during the Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic periods. In each of these areas, Jodi’s work has compellingly called into question long-held scholarly conventions, introduced fresh and sometimes provocative viewpoints, and provided innovative interpretations of evidence that often require a thoughtful reassessment of traditional assumptions, all of which she has done with a boundless energy and enthusiasm that constantly reminds us of how exciting our field of study can be. Our hope is that the collection of essays in this Festschrift will serve to both commemorate and celebrate the many remarkable contributions Jodi has made to the interdisciplinary interests she has pursued during her lifetime of devoted scholarship, teaching, and public outreach.
As a way to highlight the need for a Festschrift in Jodi’s honor and to show how its contents pay tribute to her life’s work, this introduction will offer a brief overview of Jodi’s professional career, followed by summaries of articles in the volume’s three thematic sections, each of which reflect her many areas of research: 1) the social history and archaeology of ancient Palestine from the Roman through early Islamic eras; 2) Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls; and 3) the art, architecture, and dating of ancient synagogues. Considering the breadth and depth of these items, neither the overview of Jodi’s career nor the summaries of articles relating to her scholarship can be comprehensive or fully articulate the impact of her academic legacy. However, we hope that this introduction can offer a glimpse of her outstanding accomplishments and why we felt that this celebration of her contributions to the field is so well deserved.
1 Professional Life
Jodi Magness’s fascination with antiquity began in a seventh-grade class on ancient Greece that inspired her at the age of twelve to become an archaeologist. Within a few short years, this dream moved closer to becoming a reality as Jodi left the eastern United States for Israel, finished high school at Midreshet Sde Boker in the Negev desert, learned Hebrew, and started to develop a particular fascination with the history, geography, and cultures of the Middle East.1 After completing her Israeli Bagrut, Jodi enrolled as an undergraduate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1974–1977), where she received her B.A. cum laude in history and archaeology, and had the thrilling opportunity to study the historical context, material culture, and languages of ancient Israel under the tutelage of some of the towering figures of Israeli archaeology, such as Yigael Yadin, Nahman Avigad, Dan Barag, Joseph Naveh, Avraham Negev, Yigal Shiloh, Gideon Foerster, and Yoram Tsafrir. It was during this time that she also began participating as a volunteer in archaeological excavations at a variety of sites that spanned the major periods in the region’s history—including at Tel Kitan, Tel Mevorakh, Avdat, Caesarea, Ruḥeibeh, Gliat, Qadesh Barnea, and Kerem Sigillia—all of which laid an important foundation for the career path she would enthusiastically follow for decades to come. Following her undergraduate studies, Jodi remained in Israel for three years (1977–1980) as a tour guide and naturalist at the ʿEin Gedi field school (Doar Na, Yam Ha-Melaḥ), and then returned to the United States for doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania (1981–1989), where for her dissertation she produced a groundbreaking typology of late Roman and Byzantine pottery in Jerusalem under the supervision of James A. Sauer and Keith de Vries.
While in graduate school, Jodi continued studying and teaching archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean as a member of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (1983–1984) and as an instructor of summer courses at the Hebrew University School for Overseas Students (beginning in 1984). During this time, she was also the recipient of four fellowships from the American Schools of Oriental Research (1984–1988),2 now the American Society of Overseas Research, as well as two Mellon Graduate Fellowships from the University of Pennsylvania (1986–1988). These awards allowed her to spend time in residence at the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem exploring topics that would eventually come to inform her published work on ceramics, settlement patterns, Jewish history, and other aspects of Roman through early Islamic Palestine. All the while, Jodi continued to receive extensive excavation experience and to develop her expertise as a field archaeologist working in volunteer, supervisory, and instructional roles at a wide range of sites that pertain to classical, Jewish, and Roman antiquity, including at the Athenian agora (1982), Khirbet ʿUza (1983), Corinth (1984), Naḥal Zimra (1985), Givʿat Ram (1986), Kefar Ḥananya (1986), and ʿEmek Rephaim (1987–1989).
Following the completion of her Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania, Jodi embarked on the early stages of her prestigious teaching and research career, starting as an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Miami (1988–1989) and in the Department of Visual Arts at Florida International University (1989); as a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in Syro-Palestinian Archaeology with the Center for Old World Archaeology and Art at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island (1990–1992); and subsequently as a visiting scholar at Brown’s Judaic Studies program (1992–1994). In 1992, she accepted a faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology in the Departments of Classics and Art History at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. During the decade she taught at Tufts (1992–2002), Jodi’s talents as a teacher and scholar were recognized as she served as the director of the university’s archaeology program (1999–2002) and was invited to both share and further develop her expertise in other academic settings, including as a summer session director at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (1993); as a Fellow in Byzantine Studies with Dumbarton Oaks (1997–1998); as a participant in the summer school program of the American Academy in Rome (1999); as a visiting scholar at the University of Oklahoma (2000); and as a Skirball Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (2001).
For her early accomplishments in these settings—which included her burgeoning work on pottery typology, the archaeology of Qumran, the development of ancient synagogues, and the early Islamic settlement of Palestine—Jodi was also the recipient of several research,3 achievement,4 and citizenship awards, including from the American Schools of Oriental Research (2001) “in recognition of exceptional service contributions on behalf of the ASOR membership and its programs.” Building on these remarkable successes, in 2003, Jodi was appointed as the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, for the last two decades, she has served in multiple interdisciplinary capacities (including in the Department of Classics and with the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies); has received multiple awards for her outstanding teaching and scholarship in the areas of archaeology and early Judaism;5 has been a beloved instructor for thousands of undergraduate students; and has successfully advised numerous graduate students whose dissertation topics have ranged from Herodian architecture, ancient synagogues, and numismatics to Jewish social history, cosmological thought, and diaspora communities in late antiquity.6
Complementing Jodi’s research and teaching career over the last thirty years has been her staggering publication record, which to date consists of nine books, five edited volumes, over one hundred and seventy articles and book chapters, eighteen encyclopedia entries, and sixty-seven book reviews.7 During that time, Jodi has also been internationally recognized for her work as a field archaeologist as she has served as a senior staff member, co-director, or director of five major excavation projects, each of which has made tremendous contributions to our understanding of eastern Mediterranean material culture during the early centuries of the common era. These have included Jodi’s work as the late Roman and Byzantine ceramics specialist for the Combined Caesarea Expedition (1989–1992); as a co-director of excavations in the Roman siege works at Masada (1995); as a co-director of excavations in the Byzantine monastic church at Khirbet Yattir (1997–2000); as a co-director of excavations of the late Roman fort at Yotvata (2003–2007); and as the director of the Ḥuqoq Excavation Project (2011–present), which for the last decade has been uncovering a late Roman-era village and synagogue in Israel’s Galilee region. While each of these projects have produced invaluable finds and data that have informed their relative topics, the excavations at Ḥuqoq have been a fitting crescendo to Jodi’s career with the spectacular discovery of biblically themed mosaics that have already revolutionized the study of ancient Jewish art and synagogue worship. A reflection of the impact her Ḥuqoq discoveries are making can be seen in the many prestigious international grants that have been awarded to support her ongoing excavations at the site, including from the National Geographic Society, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Kenan Charitable Trust, the Yad Hanadiv/Rothschild Foundation, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the International Catacomb Society, and Dumbarton Oaks.
In addition to her work as an archaeologist, historian, and teacher, Jodi has had a long and distinguished record of service within the academy. Since the 1990s, she has served as a reviewer and judge of awards for multiple disciplinary organizations;8 as a member of the editorial boards for many of the leading journals in the field;9 as a member of the Program and Nominating Committees, as well as a steering committee member and co-chair of various sections, for the Society of Biblical Literature; as the chair of various sections for the American School of Oriental Research; as an academic trustee, secretary and vice-president of the Board of Trustees, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem; as a member and chair of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens; as a member of the Board of Directors of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation; as a member of the Advisory Board of the International Catacomb Society; and in many other capacities. Because of her content expertise and administrative abilities, Jodi has also served as vice-president and president of the Boston Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (1996–2000); president of the North Carolina Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (2003–2004); as the vice-president and president for the Southeast Conference for the Study of Religion (2007–2011); and—most recently—as both the vice-president and president of the Archaeological Institute of America (2014–2020).
Along with her remarkable accomplishments within the academy, Jodi has been exemplary in her public outreach and ability to raise awareness of archaeological developments among interested non-specialists through her consultation on a wide range of media productions and her countless appearances on instructional programs. For example, since the late 1980s, Jodi has featured in numerous productions related to archaeology, Jewish history, and the Bible on the National Geographic Channel (“Science of the Bible: The Life of Jesus” and “King Herod’s Tomb”), the History Channel (“Battlefield Detectives: The Siege of Masada”), the Smithsonian Channel (“Siege of Masada” and “The Real Jesus of Nazareth,” featuring Robert Powell), PBS (“NOVA: The Dead Sea Scrolls Detectives,” “The Jewish People: A Story of Survival,” and “The Bible’s Buried Secrets”), CNN (“Jerusalem”), the BBC (“Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls,” “The Dead Sea Scrolls Revisited,” and “Who Was Jesus?”), related programs on major news networks, and for various audio-visual presentations accompanying Dead Sea Scrolls exhibits around the U.S. and Canada. In the last decade, Jodi has also produced two extremely popular lecture series for The Teaching Company’s Great Courses: “Jesus and His Jewish Influences” and “The Holy Land Revealed.” Most recently, Jodi was prominently featured in two major productions by National Geographic: “Jerusalem,” a 3D IMAX film narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch (released in 2013), and “The Story of God with Morgan Freeman” (2016). A reflection of Jodi’s increasing media popularity could be seen while in Israel filming the latter; after several instances of the crew being swamped by onlookers wanting Morgan Freeman’s autograph, during the crew’s visit to Qumran, the leader of a tour group ran past Freeman toward Jodi and enthusiastically declared to his group, “this is Jodi Magness, one of the world’s leading scholars on the Dead Sea Scrolls!” In these extensive outreach efforts, Jodi has been able to share the excitement of archaeological, historical, and biblical studies to a non-specialist public who more than ever needs to understand the value of the humanities.
As a result of these and other achievements, Jodi has understandably been recognized with a wide range of prestigious awards and professional fellowships;10 with membership in the “Who’s Who in Biblical Studies and Archaeology” of the Biblical Archaeology Society (1993), the Marquis “Who’s Who in America,” and the AcademicKeys “Who’s Who in Humanities—Higher Education” (2005); and with an invitation to deliver the distinguished Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology for the British Academy (in 2022). Finally, in 2019 Jodi was recognized for her lifetime of scholarship by the rare honor of becoming a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the category of Philosophy and Religious Studies. Based on this short biographical summary, it is easy to see how Jodi has often been referred to as an “archaeology superstar,”11 and has rightfully been included as one of the pioneering women of archaeology.12
As a modest addition to these recognitions, we hope that this Festschrift can serve as yet another celebration of Jodi’s career and the contributions she has made in so many aspects of the discipline. In the sections that follow, we will build upon this professional biography by describing in more detail some of the areas in which Jodi’s work has refined our understanding of the ancient past—including the history and material culture of Roman through early Islamic Palestine, the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the development of ancient synagogues—and by briefly summarizing how the collection of essays in this volume pay tribute to the various topics that Jodi’s lifetime of scholarship has illuminated. In their own way, each section of this Festschrift and the essays contained within them highlight the many ways Jodi has regularly “pushed sacred boundaries” through her scholarship and archaeological discoveries.
2 History, Archaeology, and Society in Roman through Early Islamic Palestine
Of the three thematic sections of this Festschrift, the first is an attempt to recognize the remarkable breadth of insight Jodi Magness has contributed to scholarship on the history, archaeology, and cultural context of ancient Palestine during the Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic periods. In an era of increasing academic specialization and potential insularity, Jodi’s wide-ranging interests and expertise have allowed her to explore a breathtaking array of topics that span from funerary practices of early Hellenistic dynasts to settlement patterns following the Islamic conquest, as well as to situate these topics within their broader chronological, geographical, and social framework. For each of the issues she explores, Jodi’s mastery of the archaeology, her extensive knowledge of the ancient literature, and her regular attention to the cultural milieu of the larger Mediterranean world has uniquely positioned her to make far-reaching connections, to see deeper implications, and to synthesize the archaeological and textual evidence in a way that challenges prevailing historical narratives, often by highlighting the faulty assumptions or overly narrow vantage points that attend traditional approaches.
This impressive breadth of research interests began early in Jodi’s career. Starting in graduate school, Jodi’s scholarship focused heavily on the pottery of late Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic Palestine,13 with her published doctoral dissertation establishing a groundbreaking ceramic typology for these periods that has remained a standard reference point in the field for almost thirty years.14 Over time, though, the broader historical implications of her work refining pottery chronology began to be reflected in her redating of previously excavated synagogues in Israel and elsewhere (see Section 4 below), clarifying of Christian activity in the Holy Land,15 questioning claims of a Jewish settlement crisis in late Roman Galilee,16 and similarly challenging assumptions of decline in Islamic-era settlement patterns within the region.17 Each of these fresh perspectives have had a significant impact on subsequent scholarship as they used material culture to challenge previously ensconced assumptions and to push against long-held historiographic boundaries, including as they pertained to such important issues as the socio-economic status of Jewish communities in the Christian Byzantine Empire (which may not have been as marginalized as was once thought) and the rise of Islam (which may not have caused settlement decline in the area as was once imagined).
As her career continued to develop, Jodi’s research also reached well beyond the issues of ceramic typology and settlement patterns to a staggering array of topics that have refined our understanding of Jewish history and society (including the rich sectarian diversity that continued long after the destruction of the Second Temple into the period once described as being monolithically “rabbinic”);18 brought to life the material world of Jesus and early Judaism in an unprecedented way (including on issues such as Jewish dining practices, clothing, ritual purity, toilet habits, and funerary customs);19 helped us view Herodian building projects within their larger Graeco-Roman milieu (a valuable reminder to not view Judaean monumental architecture in geographical or cultural isolation, as is often done);20 clarified the urban development of Jerusalem during the early centuries CE (especially as related to the expansion of Aelia Capitolina);21 brought attention to Roman military operations in this part of the Empire (including the siege works at Masada, the subsequent occupation of the Tenth Legion, and the line of late Roman fortresses along the eastern border);22 and elucidated aspects of the Jewish diaspora of the Roman world.23 Taken together, Jodi’s work in these and other topics have challenged much of the rabbino-centric, idealized, and sanitized portrayals of early Judaism that has characterized traditional historiography, and in the process has helped scholars and a fascinated public alike to envision the complicated messiness of Jewish life in the time of Josephus, the New Testament, and beyond.
In recognition of these wide-reaching research interests, the first section of this Festschrift includes eight articles addressing disparate topics that pertain broadly to the history and archaeology of Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic Palestine, all of which intersect in one way or another with Jodi’s scholarship in these areas. For example, in honor of Jodi’s work on the urban landscape of Jerusalem, the volume’s opening article by Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah takes us on a detailed tour of the potential route(s) of the city’s Low-Level Aqueduct during the Hasmonaean and Herodian periods, highlighting remains that may reflect its trajectory towards the Temple Mount and a few modifications it may have experienced while in operation. Based on recent archaeological discoveries, she argues that the route of this aqueduct could have been 1.5 km longer than previously suggested, thus providing valuable new insights into the city’s developing infrastructure.
The next two articles pay homage to Jodi’s interests in Jewish material culture in the time of Jesus by shedding fresh light on facets of the New Testament world by bridging the divide between textual and archaeological evidence. Jürgen Zangenberg, for instance, looks at Jewish funerary culture in the early Roman period—a topic on which Jodi has published extensively. Through a close reading of John 11:1–44 and an assessment of the archaeological evidence concerning burial and mourning rites, Zangenberg demonstrates how the interpretation of a biblical text can greatly benefit from cross-disciplinary reading. In particular, he shows that familiarity with the socio-cultural and material aspects surrounding death and burial in the ancient Jewish world adds new layers of meaning to the story of Jesus’s resurrection of his friend Lazarus. Similarly, Matthew Grey revisits and archaeologically recontextualizes the setting of Jesus’s Last Supper as described in the synoptic gospels. Through a critical rereading of the New Testament text and an awareness of ancient Jewish dining culture (another topic informed by Jodi’s scholarship), Grey deconstructs the prevailing view that Jesus’s Last Supper was held within the framework of an aristocratic banquet in which members of the group reclined on couches as was typical in the Roman-style triclinia and upper rooms of elite households. By contrast, Grey argues, based on the material and social context of the early Jesus movement, that Jesus and his disciples more likely would have dined in a modest above-ground room, sitting on a reed mat that covered the floor, and eating out of shared vessels as was common among non-elite Judaeans of this period.
Shifting to another issue of interest to Jodi (Roman military activities in Judaea), Gwyn Davies casts the spotlight on an often-overlooked facet of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome: the military operations the Romans carried out between 70 and 72 CE prior to their siege of Masada. His analysis includes a thorough reappraisal of the Roman campaign at Masada’s lesser-known counterpart—Machaerus—based in large part on a critical historical reading of Josephus but informed by Roman military strategy deployed elsewhere in the Empire. The article includes an appendix describing the pertinent archaeological evidence at Machaerus. Davies concludes that the Roman field practices at Machaerus were not the product of “mechanical orthodoxy,” but a reflection of the specific tactical and topographical circumstances, which required varied structures and installations to best fit the particular military problem.
The next set of papers celebrate Jodi’s broader research interests by taking us beyond the Second Temple period into the complex interactions of Jews and Christians in late antique Palestine. For example, Maren Niehoff explores a set of recently discovered homilies attributed to Origen and some pertinent rabbinic passages to show how the church father and the rabbis engaged with classical Greek heritage through the prism of athletic competitions to construct unique religious identities in third-century Caesarea. Her case study exemplifies the prevailing process of Palestinian acculturation into the broader eastern Mediterranean world. For both communities, athletic competitions were a rich source of metaphors which they could apply, in different ways, to describe ideal ways of being Christian or Jewish.
Oded Irshai explores another facet of Jewish-Christian relations, this time by reevaluating the common notion that there existed a Constantinian edict prohibiting Jews from entering Jerusalem. Looking at a number of sources such as the Itinerarium Burdigalense, Jerome, Augustine, and the Annales of Eutychius, Irshai mounts a strong argumentum ex silentio that casts doubts on the existence of a Constantinian prohibition against the entry of Jews into Jerusalem. It is his conclusion that Constantine himself, in fact, did not impose a ban on Jewish presence in the Holy City, but that it was initiated by the local Christian bishopric, together with the tacit agreement of the local provincial Roman administrative machinery.
The last two contributions of Section 1 operate on a much larger canvas by considering issues related to Jodi’s scholarship on settlement patterns in late antique and early Islamic Palestine. Shimon Gibson and Rafael Lewis discuss late Roman agricultural field systems in the southern Levant. Theirs is the first overview article published on Roman orthogonal land divisions in the Near East, and thus it represents an important entry point on the subject. Following a definition of coaxial and arterial field systems, they tackle case studies in the Golan Heights (Farj, Mazraʾat Quneiṭra), Galilee (Hattin /Lubya), northern Samaria (Nablus/Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal), and the coastal region (Ashqelon), describing the identified agro-systems, their appearance, and details of their dating, as well as the history of adjoining settlements. They establish a causative link between the appearance of coaxial and arterial field systems in the second–fourth centuries CE, and Roman political and ideological hegemony.
Finally, Gideon Avni looks at changes in settlement patterns in the Negev and southern Palestine during the sixth–eight centuries CE, revealing a complex picture of prosperity and decline. Avni harnesses an impressive amount of recent research based off new excavations in Ḥaluṣa (Elusa), Avdat, Shivta, and Neṣṣana, which, together with environmental studies on the agricultural regime of the Negev Highlands, have refined the settlement history of the Negev. Additional rescue excavations in the hinterlands of Ashqelon and Gaza shed light on the settlement processes and population changes in this region between late antiquity and the early Islamic period. Avni addresses these new findings and evaluates the transformation of settlement and society, concluding that the decline of settlements in southern Palestine could be connected to an overall economic decline in the aftermath of the 542 Justinian plague and its successive outbreaks, which was perhaps the beginning of a prolonged process of economic change that brought an end to the flourishing wine trade, and consequently led to the decline of settlements in the Negev. Thus, the transformations in the settlements of southern Palestine were part of a larger process in Near Eastern and Mediterranean history.
Taken together, we hope that the collection of essays in this first section is an appropriate opening to Jodi’s Festschrift, both by highlighting the wide array of topics to which her scholarship has contributed and by furthering several fascinating discussions that have been informed by Jodi’s work.
3 The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
In addition to the broad areas of research interests reflected in Section 1, Jodi has come to be widely known—both within and beyond the academy—as one of the world’s leading experts on the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Not only has Jodi’s landmark monograph on Qumran, now available in its second edition,24 become a standard reference volume for colleagues who seek to weigh in on these complex topics, but the busloads of tourists who visit the site yearly often do so with her online courses and documentary appearances as their main points of reference. Therefore, a volume honoring Jodi’s academic legacy would not be complete without a section dedicated specifically to this theme.
Jodi’s involvement in Qumran and Dead Sea Scrolls studies began in the early 1990s when she was invited to participate in a conference on the relationship between the Scrolls and the archaeological site that was sponsored by the New York Academy of Science and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.25 Choosing to reexamine the Qumran pottery and its implications for the nature of the Qumran settlement—a topic that had been largely ignored since Roland de Vaux’s early excavation reports—Jodi began to develop a fascination with Qumran that would come to partially redefine her career and help reshape Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship going forward. This fascination not only prompted Jodi’s ongoing work on the pottery at Qumran,26 which in turn informed her revision of de Vaux’s chronology of the site,27 but it eventually expanded to include a host of issues pertaining to the sectarian nature of the community, such as its communal meals,28 ritual purity practices,29 toilet habits,30 and possible offering of animal sacrifices as a replacement for participation in the cult of the Jerusalem temple.31
Jodi’s work on these and related issues has resulted in one of her most significant contributions to the field—namely, giving the Qumran-Essene hypothesis a new lease of life.32 This contribution has been especially valuable at a point in Qumran studies, starting from the 1990s onwards, when the so-called “consensus view” was being challenged on various fronts, with different scholars proposing widely divergent interpretations of the site.33 While these challenges were an important phase of Qumran scholarship and forced scholars to reconsider some key issues, they also introduced a postmodern mentality in the field, characterized by the cherry-picking of data to suit one or the other hypothesis. In one of her typically incisive book reviews, Jodi writes how
[t]he archaeology of Qumran has become like a salad bar, with scholars uncritically selecting and using the evidence that best fits their own hypotheses. New interpretations that challenge an accepted consensus can be good if they are based in fact and force us to reexamine our assumptions.34
Using her vast knowledge on the archaeology of ancient Palestine and her critical mindset, Jodi was able to bring some order and clarity to what had become a chaotic scholarly landscape. In the process, she also underlined the need to situate Qumran in the larger context of ancient Palestine, lamenting the tendency to consider Qumran as its own scholarly subfield.
Jodi’s persistent defense of the Qumran-Essene hypothesis should not be mistaken for rigidity, however. In fact, one of Jodi’s best qualities, which also highlights her scholarly integrity, is her readiness to revise her earlier conclusions when warranted by the evidence. In the case of Qumran, for example, Jodi has recently revisited and changed her interpretation concerning aspects of the site’s chronology that she had long championed,35 as well as the notion of a sacrificial cult at Qumran.36 This is a rare trait in the academy, and nothing is more admirable than a scholar whose interest is the pursuit of knowledge above all else. In light of these extraordinary contributions, the essays in the second section of this Festschrift particularly seek to honor the impact of Jodi’s work in the field of Qumran and Dead Sea Scrolls studies.
To begin, Kenneth Atkinson’s paper—which reflects the ramifications of Jodi’s revised Qumran chronology—embeds the Dead Sea Scrolls in their historical milieu, departing from traditional views that perceived the people behind the Scrolls as uninterested in contemporary events. In the process, he draws connections between references to historical figures in the Scrolls, the majority of whom relate to persons active in the mid- to late first century BCE, and the establishment of the Qumran settlement in the first half of the first century BCE. Linking the beginning of occupation at Qumran with the turbulent events that took place in Judaea during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, Atkinson also notes how the political situation following Pompey’s conquest of the Hasmonaean state in 63 BCE forever changed the theology of those who produced and collected the Dead Sea Scrolls, leading them to no longer seek to document their interpretations of present events in writing. In his words, “history ends abruptly in the Scrolls.”
Stephen Goranson presents a complimentary study driven by the premise that “[t]he people behind the Scrolls did not live outside of history.” In this chapter, Goranson explores intersections between the Scrolls and other historical sources (such as Josephus and rabbinic literature), and proposes historical identifications for the Wicked Priest, Absalom (mentioned in the Habakkuk Pesher), and the Teacher of Righteousness—namely, Alexander Jannaeus, Jannaeus’s brother Absalom, and Judah the Essene, respectively.
The following three contributions deal more directly with the archaeology of Qumran and expand upon various aspects of the site’s material culture, many of which have been explored throughout Jodi’s research. For instance, Sidnie White Crawford offers some insights on the economic activities that sustained the local inhabitants. She highlights a variety of small-scale industries such as date farming and the animal economy that may have generated some revenue or brought in foods and materials through bartering, and other industries such as pottery manufacturing that produced goods for local consumption. Her main contribution lies in the analysis of epigraphic and documentary evidence from Qumran, which includes very little evidence attesting to economic activity. Accordingly, she concludes that any economic or industrial activity at the site was carried out on a small scale to complement what was otherwise an autarkic local economy.
Dennis Mizzi revisits an assemblage of sealed jars containing date honey that were discovered in two graves in the Qumran cemetery by Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg during their 1994–2004 excavations at Qumran. This phenomenon has puzzled scholars, and the few explanations that have been proffered remain unconvincing. Mizzi highlights the difficulties with these interpretations and then, using both archaeological and textual evidence, proposes a new explanation—namely, that the burial of sealed jars in the Qumran cemetery can be connected with the disposal of consecrated property. He concludes the article with some brief reflections on the implications of his new interpretation, particularly in the manner this evidence could shed important light not only on the ritual practices of the Qumran inhabitants but also on their attitudes towards the Jerusalem temple and its priesthood.
With Oren Gutfeld’s paper, we shift the focus from the ruins at Qumran to the adjacent caves—more specifically, Cave XII/53. The cave, which is located less than a kilometer south of the Qumran settlement, was first investigated in 1993 as part of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s “Operation Scroll.” Renewed excavations were carried out in 2017 by Gutfeld and Randall Price. In 2018, Gutfeld excavated the cave’s upper chamber, XII/53b, which was discovered in 2017, whereas he investigated the nearby Cave XII/52 (de Vaux’s GQ29) in 2019. In this article, Gutfeld gives an update on these recent excavations, focusing in particular on Cave XII/53, which yielded several fragments of cylindrical storage jars, pieces of linen, and leather straps. The assemblage mirrors the profile of other Qumran caves explored by Roland de Vaux, and may indicate that XII/53 may have once housed scrolls. Gutfeld then casts the spotlight on traces of human activity around Qumran dating to the eighth and ninth centuries reflected in both the textual and archaeological records, and argues that this activity may lie behind some of the disturbances we see in the Qumran caves, including XII/53.
The last three papers in this section deal with select textual themes within the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves, including practices and ideologies that relate to Jodi’s varied interests in the life of this sectarian community. Lawrence Schiffman, for example, takes a comparative approach that investigates the views on purity and impurity preserved in different bodies of texts such as the Scrolls, rabbinic descriptions of the havurah, Josephus’s description of the Essenes, and the New Testament gospels. In the process, he highlights glaring differences between approaches to ritual purity among the people behind the Scrolls and early Christians, demonstrating that previous scholarly comparisons of the two social groups oversimplified their similarities. Schiffman argues that the group behind the Scrolls extended temple purity in such a manner that it structured all facets of daily life and thus purity became a barrier between insiders and outsiders. By contrast, early Christians did away with the purity laws in order to create a more inclusive community.
Joseph Lam explores metaphors of sin in the Dead Sea Scrolls, illustrating elements of continuity with biblical concepts of sin as well as linguistic innovations typical of the late Second Temple period. Lam proposes a typology of metaphorical usages, and then proceeds to illustrate the nuances of metaphorical adoption and adaptation in the Scrolls. He demonstrates evidence of continuity between biblical metaphors and those found in the Scrolls, indicating the influence biblical heritage had on the Scrolls writers. At the same time, there are several instances involving the adaptation of biblical metaphors to reflect the new linguistic realities of the late Second Temple period. Though Lam’s article focuses on metaphors of sin, the methodology and typology he proposes can be used as blueprints for further study on metaphor in the Scrolls and other post-biblical Jewish literature which will no doubt enrich our knowledge and understanding of ancient Hebrew.
Finally, James VanderKam revisits the theme of resurrection in the Scrolls and related Essene beliefs. He surveys the key Qumran texts and concludes that the inhabitants of Qumran maintained a belief in bodily resurrection. Next, he moves to analyze the descriptions of Essene beliefs as preserved in Josephus and Hippolytus, and argues that Hippolytus, who attributes a resurrection doctrine to the Essenes, preserves a more accurate description than that found in Josephus, despite his later date. VanderKam then surveys early Jewish texts such as the Enochic material that describe the location of paradise, and concludes that there are no grounds to situate paradise anywhere in the north, contrary to scholarly suggestions. Accordingly, he goes on to argue against an inherent link between the north–south orientation of tombs in the Qumran cemetery and beliefs about resurrection or other eschatological events, countering previous suggestions made to this effect.
4 The Development of Ancient Synagogues
The third and final section of this volume is dedicated to the study of ancient synagogues—perhaps Jodi’s most treasured academic pursuit and possibly her most controversial endeavor. While first studying archaeology at the Hebrew University in the 1970s, Jodi had been taught the traditional view of synagogue development during the centuries following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE. This view, which remained the standard in archaeological literature for most of the twentieth century, claimed that post-70 synagogue architecture had evolved in a linear manner, with “Galilean-type” synagogues (consisting of a monumental façade and triportal entrance, flagstone floors, and a colonnaded interior divided into a nave and side aisles) dating to the second and third centuries; transitional “broad-house” synagogues (with an elongated hall and modest interior floor decoration) dating to the fourth century; and Byzantine-style synagogues that resembled Christian churches (basilical structures with an apse as the liturgical focus, a chancel screen demarcating the interior space, and elaborate floor mosaics) dating to the fifth and sixth centuries. This model was almost entirely based on stylistic comparisons with contemporary architecture (such as temples in Roman Syria and local Byzantine basilicas), assumed that “the synagogue” was a monolithic institution that developed in a uniformed way, and reflected the rabbino-centric view of post-70 Judaism that had long dominated the study of this period.
In the 1990s, however, Jodi became interested in the recent findings of Franciscan archaeologists excavating the monumental synagogue at Capernaum (the lynchpin often used for dating “Galilean-type” synagogues to the second and third centuries), who discovered pottery and coins from the fourth, fifth, and possibly early sixth centuries sealed under its flagstone floors. As a result of these observations, Jodi began to question the traditional model of synagogue typology and argued—based on stratigraphic excavations rather than on stylistic concerns—for a redating of “Galilean-type” synagogues to the late Roman and Byzantine periods, thus making the diverse forms of synagogue architecture contemporaneous with one another rather than reflections of a linear development over time.37 To support this claim, Jodi began to “push sacred boundaries” in ancient synagogue studies by reexamining the published reports of other synagogues excavated throughout the Galilee region—including at Korazim, Khirbet Shemaʿ, Nabratein, and Wadi Ḥamam—and arguing that each was built at a much later date than previously thought.38
The potential implications of Jodi’s redating of ancient synagogues have been vast. For instance, many scholars have seen Jodi’s work in this area as not only a major (or even fatal) blow to the traditional synagogue typology, but as a significant step toward refining our understanding of the experience of the Jewish communities under the Christian Byzantine Empire (which may not have been as restrictive on the building of new synagogues as previous scholars had claimed) and Jewish settlement patterns in Palestine during the Byzantine period (which may not have been in decline as had long been assumed in the academic literature).39 Beyond issues of dating and settlement implications, however, Jodi’s research on ancient synagogues has also explored the cosmic iconography found on some mosaic floors in the region (including the development of Helios-zodiac iconography) and its significance for the diversity of Jewish thought and practice in the post-temple era, suggesting that such synagogue features may reflect the presence of various non-rabbinic social circles—such as priests and practitioners of hekhalot mysticism—that flourished alongside the rabbis within the larger Jewish community of late antiquity.40
In an extraordinary way, these themes have all converged in Jodi’s most recent excavation project at Ḥuqoq—an ancient Jewish village near the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. As mentioned previously, Jodi began excavating the late Roman synagogue at Ḥuqoq in 2011 in the hopes of finding additional evidence to inform her redating of “Galilean-type” synagogues; as it turned out, however, she unexpectedly found much more than that. During the second excavation season at Ḥuqoq, an exquisite mosaic floor began to be uncovered within the synagogue that, over the subsequent decade, was shown to depict a wide variety of biblical scenes. These stunning mosaics include visual portrayals of Samson, Noah, the Tower of Babel, Jonah, and the beasts of Daniel’s apocalyptic visions, as well as nonbiblical images such as a Helios-zodiac cycle and the now-famous Elephant Mosaic, which Jodi suggests may contain a depiction of Alexander the Great.41 Not only have this synagogue and its mosaic floor continued to inform Jodi’s many research interests (such as synagogue dating and the nature of Jewish diversity in late antiquity), but, as noted earlier, they have served as a fitting crescendo to Jodi’s illustrious career.
To recognize Jodi’s groundbreaking work in these areas, this Festschrift concludes with a third section that features a series of essays on ancient synagogues. Proceeding in a roughly chronological manner, this section opens with Brian Coussens offering a detailed analysis of the relationships between synagogue buildings in the late Second Temple period and the miqwaʾot that are often found in close proximity to them. By using a methodological framework of space syntax, Coussens challenges previous conclusions that connect the location of these pools directly to synagogue practice; while close proximity may suggest a seemingly clear connection between miqwaʾot and Second Temple synagogues, other criteria (such as orientation, accessibility, and architectural links) undermine such a direct association. Coussens also argues that using proximity as the primary criterion for understanding this relationship obscures the realities of how first-century Jews moved through and used their spaces, which often leads to exaggerated or unwarranted conclusions.
The following chapter by Joan Taylor contributes to the longstanding debate on gendered uses of space in ancient synagogues, particularly as seen from the literary references to synagogue features and archaeological remains of synagogue complexes from the first century BCE to the third century CE. To do so, Taylor first explores the language for conceptually gendered spaces in Josephus, Philo, and Greek domestic architecture, in which the term
Mordechai Aviam and James R. Strange then present a preliminary report on their excavation of a building at Shiḥin that they identify as a synagogue. Their particular focus is on the dating of the synagogue, and to this end, Aviam and Strange provide a preliminary overview of the ceramics, coins, and architecture discovered at the site. They conclude that this structure could be a unique example of a second-century CE synagogue in Palestine. Chaim Ben-David takes a much broader approach and enumerates all the synagogue buildings that have been found, and still need to be found, in Palaestina Secunda dated to the fifth through seventh centuries. By systematically probing each geographical region, he concludes that thirty-eight Palestinian synagogues have already been dug up, but fifty-two still await excavations.
Finally, the last two articles in this section bring the theme of ancient synagogue studies even closer to home for Jodi by offering possible interpretations of some spectacular features discovered in the synagogue she has been excavating for the last decade at Ḥuqoq. In the first of these, Karen Britt and Raʿanan Boustan explore the use of urban architecture in the so-called Elephant Mosaic panel—one of the most debated mosaic scenes to be uncovered at Ḥuqoq. They argue that the architectural arcade depicted in this panel conjured for the viewer the city of Jerusalem as a renowned setting for momentous events in Jewish history. The Elephant Mosaic thus transported the viewer from the physical site of the synagogue in late Roman Galilee to the imagined urban landscape of Hasmonaean Jerusalem.
Bringing the volume to a close, the chapter by Shana O’Connell focuses not on the floor mosaics, but on fragments of painted plaster that once decorated other elements of the Ḥuqoq synagogue. In particular, O’Connell offers a preliminary interpretation of two plaster layers that covered the synagogue’s interior columns and that seem to have evoked vegetal motifs (such as vines, leaves, and grape clusters) and/or imitation marble. Drawing upon comparanda from other late Roman synagogues in Galilee—as well as contemporary Jewish, Christian, and pagan tomb décor—she shows how both possibilities would have complemented the synagogue’s mosaic floors, wall paintings, and other decorative features. In addition to providing insights into the technique and experience of the ancient artists who constructed these columns, the painted plaster of the Ḥuqoq synagogue reflects the wealth, values, and artistic tastes of the community that worshipped there.
As with the previous two sections on the history and archaeology of ancient Palestine, and on the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, we hope that this Festschrift’s third and final section on ancient synagogues serves as a fitting tribute to the extraordinary insights, discoveries, and boundary pushing Jodi has brought to this fascinating topic throughout her distinguished career.
Acknowledgments
In conclusion, we would like to acknowledge the assistance of those who made this volume possible. These include our contacts at Brill who were eager to help us celebrate Jodi’s career with the publication of essays in her honor; Jodi’s husband Jim Haberman for consulting with us on the project and for helping us present this surprise offering to Jodi during our most recent excavation season at Ḥuqoq; Matthew Adams of the William F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research for providing permission to publish the photograph in the frontmatter (a long forgotten picture of her hopping the gate at the Albright during the 1980s, when she was a graduate student who was already “pushing boundaries” in her work!); and those of Jodi’s longtime friends who provided valuable insights into her professional life for this introduction. We particularly thank our colleagues who contributed articles for the Festschrift, despite the challenges that attended its publication. Because this volume was largely produced under the difficult circumstances related to the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022, access to libraries was often limited, schedules were often unexpectedly rearranged, and unforeseen personal and professional strain sometimes required significant flexibility for those involved. Unfortunately, these circumstances also prohibited several colleagues from participating in the volume, despite their enthusiastic support for the project—we completely understand their situation and still appreciate the desire these colleagues had to honor Jodi through their scholarship. For those who were ultimately able to participate, though, we are very grateful for the patience they showed and the efforts they put forth during this challenging (and occasionally delayed) editing, review, and publication process.
Finally, on a personal note, we want to thank Jodi herself for the many years of mentoring, friendship, and collegiality she has offered us in the early stages of our careers. For Matthew Grey and Tine Rassalle, this included several years of seminar instruction, guidance on exams and dissertations, and an endless supply of inspiration in the development of our academic interests as she patiently served as our Ph.D. advisor; for all three of us, this has included several years of mentoring in the field as part of our work under her direction with the Ḥuqoq Excavation Project; and for Dennis Mizzi and Matthew Grey, this has included several years of ongoing encouragement, collaboration, and wise counsel as she has continued to help foster our own research agendas and contributions to the academy. To quote from the preface to Grey’s 2011 dissertation: “From the beginning of my work as a Ph.D. student, Jodi Magness has been an ideal advisor … She has been consistently attentive, insightful, interested, and helpful throughout my academic journey … Her work has informed and inspired my own research in countless ways, and her constant encouragement has been invaluable. One could not ask for a better guide through the early stages of an academic career.”42 These words are just as true now as they were when they were written over ten years ago.
Thank you, Jodi, for all you have done and continue to do for your students, colleagues, and friends. We are deeply grateful for our ongoing association and look forward to many more years of exploring the ancient world together as we continue to benefit from your scholarship, guidance, and friendship—the entire archaeological community is excited to see what boundaries you will push next!
Bibliography
This bibliography does not include references to Jodi’s works, for which see the list of her publications following this introduction.
“Are Famous Female Archaeologists Equal in Biblical Archaeology?” Bible History Daily. 23 September 2011. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/archaeology-today/archaeologists-biblical-scholars-works/are-famous-female-archaeologists-equal-in-biblical-archaeology/.
Ebeling, Jennie. “Archaeological Views: Missing from the Picture.” BAR 45/5 (2019): 22–24.
Grey, Matthew J. “Jewish Priests and the Social History of Post-70 Palestine.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011.
Kennedy, Hugh. “From Polis to Madina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Early Islamic Syria.” Past and Present 106 (1985): 3–27.
Leibner, Uzi. Settlement and History in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Galilee: An Archaeological Survey of the Eastern Galilee. TSAJ 127. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009.
“Strata: BAR Helps Reveal Archaeology’s Gender Gap.” BAR 37/5 (2011): 16, 18.
White, Ellen. “Jodi Magness Reflects on a Lucky Discovery in Huqoq, Israel.” Bible History Daily. 23 March 2015. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/archaeology-today/archaeologists-biblical-scholars-works/jodi-magness-reflects-on-a-lucky-discovery-in-huqoq-israel/.
In this section, we are only able to briefly summarize the main highlights of Jodi’s career (an exhaustive description would probably require an entire volume in itself!). For a fuller look at her accomplishments, see Jodi’s website (http://www.jodimagness.org/), which includes her Curriculum Vita, lists of her publications, and links to various media interviews, appearances, and reports on different aspects of her professional work.
These included the George A. Barton Fellowship (1984–1985), the James A. Montgomery Fellowship (1985–1986), and the Samuel H. Kress Fellowship (1986–1987).
These included an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (1997–1998) and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2000–2001).
These included awards from the Howard Foundation (1997–1998) and Biblical Archaeology Society of Northern Virginia (2000).
These include the Archaeological Institute of America Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2008), the Spirit of Inquiry Award from the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education (2009), and being named as an ACC Distinguished Lecturer (2016–2018).
In addition to the Ph.D. dissertations she has directly supervised at UNC-Chapel Hill from 2003 to the present, since 1998, Jodi has also served as an outside reader on several dissertations from other institutions on topics relating to Jewish and Christian art and architecture; pottery and glass vessels; trade and commerce; settlement patterns, apocalyptic thought, and class stratification in Roman Palestine; and daily life and domestic structures of the Judaean elite in Herodian Jerusalem. Other prestigious teaching opportunities during Jodi’s time at UNC-Chapel Hill have included her reception of the Fulbright Lecturing Award to teach courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology (2005); her appointment as a visiting professor (the Morgan Chair of Architectural Design) in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Louisville (2007); her appointment as a lecturer at the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies at Tel Aviv University (2012–2013); and her appointment as the Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America (2013–2014).
See Jodi’s publication list in this volume and the summaries of her scholarship in the following sections of the introduction.
These organizations have included the Biblical Archaeology Society, the American Schools of Oriental Research, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship, the Austrian Archaeological Institute, and the Israel Science Foundation.
These have included the Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research, Dead Sea Discoveries, the Journal of Jewish Studies, the Journal of Ancient Judaism, Biblical Archaeology Review, Near Eastern Archaeology, and the Journal of the Jesus Movement in Its Jewish Setting. In addition to her work on the editorial boards of these journals, she has served as an outside reader for many others, including the Journal of Roman Archaeology, the American Journal of Archaeology, the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Cathedra, the Dumbarton Oaks Papers, and publications of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
These include awards from the Hetty Goldman Membership Fund and School for Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ (2008), and from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2016–2017).
Ellen White, “Jodi Magness Reflects on a Lucky Discovery in Huqoq, Israel,” Bible History Daily, 23 March 2015, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/archaeology-today/archaeologists-biblical-scholars-works/jodi-magness-reflects-on-a-lucky-discovery-in-huqoq-israel/.
See, for example, her inclusion as one of the “women at the helm” in “Strata: BAR Helps Reveal Archaeology’s Gender Gap,” BAR 37/5 (2011): 16, 18; “Are Famous Female Archaeologists Equal in Biblical Archaeology?” Bible History Daily, 23 September 2011, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/archaeology-today/archaeologists-biblical-scholars-works/are-famous-female-archaeologists-equal-in-biblical-archaeology/; Jennie Ebeling, “Archaeological Views: Missing from the Picture,” BAR 45/5 (2019): 22–24.
See, for example, Jodi Magness “Late Roman and Byzantine Pottery from Areas H and K” and “Byzantine and Medieval Pottery from Areas A2 and G,” in Excavations at the City of David 1978–1985 Directed by Yigal Shiloh, Vol. 3: Stratigraphical, Environmental, and Other Reports, ed. Alan DeGroot and Donald T. Ariel, Qedem 33 (Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1992), 149–62, 164–86; eadem, “Late Roman and Byzantine Pottery: Preliminary Report, 1990,” in Caesarea Papers: Straton’s Tower, Herod’s Harbour, and Roman and Byzantine Caesarea, ed. Robert L. Vann, JRASup 5 (Ann Arbor, MI: Journal of Roman Archaeology), 129–53.
Jodi Magness, Jerusalem Ceramic Chronology circa 200–800 C.E. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1993).
See, for example, Jodi Magness, “Blessings from Jerusalem: Evidence for Early Christian Pilgrimage,” EI 25 (1996): 37–45; eadem, “Illuminating Byzantine Jerusalem: Oil Lamps Shed Light on Early Christian Worship,” BAR 24/2: 40–47, 70–71.
Jodi Magness, “Did Galilee Experience a Settlement Crisis in the Mid-Fourth Century?” in Jewish Identities in Late Antiquity: Studies in Memory of Menahem Stern, ed. Lee I. Levine and Daniel R. Schwartz, TSAJ 130 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 296–313; Jodi Magness and Daniel Schindler, “Pottery and Settlement in Late Roman Galilee,” BASOR 374 (2015): 191–207. Pace, for example, Uzi Leibner, Settlement and History in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Galilee: An Archaeological Survey of the Eastern Galilee, TSAJ 127 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009).
Jodi Magness, “The Chronology of Capernaum in the Early Islamic Period,” JAOS 117 (1997): 481–86; eadem, The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003). Pace Hugh Kennedy, “From Polis to Madina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Early Islamic Syria,” Past and Present 106 (1985): 3–27.
Jodi Magness, “Heaven on Earth: Helios and the Zodiac Cycle in Ancient Palestinian Synagogues,” DOP 59 (2005): 1–52; eadem, “Priests and Purity in the Dura Europos Synagogue,” in “Follow the Wise”: Studies in Jewish History and Culture in Honor of Lee I. Levine, ed. Zeev Weiss et al. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2010), 421–33; eadem, “Third Century Jews and Judaism at Beth Shearim and Dura Europus,” in Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity, ed. David M. Gwynn and Susanne Bangert, LAA 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 135–66; eadem, “Sectarianism Before and After 70 CE,” in Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History? On Jews and Judaism Before and After the Destruction of the Second Temple, ed. Daniel R. Schwartz and Zeev Weiss, AJEC 78 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 69–89.
Jodi Magness, “Ossuaries and the Burials of Jesus and James,” JBL 124 (2005): 121–154; eadem, “What Did Jesus’ Tomb Look Like?” BAR 32/1 (2006): 38–49, 70; eadem, Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011); eadem, “Toilet Practices, Purity Concerns, and Sectarianism in the Late Second Temple Period,” in Jewish Identity and Politics between the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba: Groups, Normativity, and Rituals, ed. Benedikt Eckhardt, JSJSup 155 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 51–70; eadem, “‘They Shall See the Glory of the Lord’ (Isa 35:2): Eschatological Perfection and Purity at Qumran and in Jesus’ Movement,” JSHJ 14 (2016): 99–119.
Jodi Magness, “The Mausolea of Augustus, Alexander, and Herod the Great,” in Hesed ve-Emet: Studies in Honor of Ernest S. Frerichs, ed. Jodi Magness and Seymour Gitin, BJS 320 (Atlanta: Scholars Press 1998), 313–29; eadem, “Where is Herod’s Tomb at Herodium?” BASOR 322 (2001): 43–46; eadem, “Herod the Great’s Self-Representation Through his Tomb at Herodium,” JAJ 10 (2019): 258–87.
Jodi Magness, “The North Wall of Aelia Capitolina,” in The Archaeology of Jordan and Beyond: Essays in Honor of James A. Sauer, ed. Lawrence E. Stager, Joseph A. Greene, and Michael D. Coogan, SAHL 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 328–39; eadem, “Aelia Capitolina: A Review of Some Current Debates about Hadrianic Jerusalem,” in Unearthing Jerusalem: 150 Years of Archaeological Research in the Holy City, ed. Katharina Galor and Gideon Avni (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2011), 313–24.
Jodi Magness, “Redating the Forts at Ein Boqeq, Upper Zohar, and Other Sites in SE Judaea, and the Implications for the Nature of the Limes Palestinae,” in The Roman and Byzantine Near East, Vol. 2: Some Recent Archaeological Research, ed. John H. Humphrey, JRASup 31 (Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1999), 189–206; eadem, “In the Footsteps of the Tenth Roman Legion in Judea,” in The First Jewish Revolt: Archaeology, History, and Ideology, ed. Andrea M. Berlin and J. Andrew Overman (London: Routledge, 2002), 189–212; Jodi Magness and Gwyn Davies, ed., The 2003–2007 Excavations in the Late Roman Fort at Yotvata (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015); Jodi Magness, Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019).
Jodi Magness, “The Arch of Titus at Rome and the Fate of the God of Israel,” JJS 59 (2008): 201–17; eadem, “Purity Observance among Diaspora Jews in the Roman World,” Archaeology and Text 1 (2017): 39–65.
Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, SDSSRL (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002); eadem, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2021).
For Jodi’s contribution to this conference (and her earliest reflections on Qumran), see Jodi Magness, “The Community at Qumran in Light of Its Pottery,” in Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects, ed. Michael O. Wise et al., ANYAS 722 (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1994), 39–50.
See, for example, Jodi Magness, “Why Scroll Jars?” in Religion and Society in Ancient Palestine: Old Questions, New Approaches, ed. Douglas E. Edwards (New York: Routledge, 2004), 146–61; eadem, “The Connection between the Site of Qumran and the Scroll Caves in Light of the Ceramic Evidence,” in The Caves of Qumran: Proceedings of the International Conference, Lugano 2014, ed. Marcello Fidanzio, STDJ 118 (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 184–94.
See, for example, Jodi Magness, “The Chronology of the Settlement at Qumran in the Herodian Period,” DSD 2 (1995): 58–65, repr. in eadem, Debating Qumran: Collected Essays on Its Archaeology, ISACR 4 (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), 41–48; eadem, “The Chronology of Qumran, Ein Feshkha, and Ein el-Ghuweir,” in Mogilany 1995: Papers on the Dead Sea Scrolls Offered in Memory of Aleksy Klawek, ed. Zdzisław J. Kapera (Krakow: Enigma Press, 1998), 55–76.
Jodi Magness, “Communal Meals and Sacred Space at Qumran,” in Shaping Community: The Art and Archaeology of Monasticism; Papers from a Symposium Held at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum, University of Minnesota, March 10–12, 2000, ed. Sheila McNally, BAR.IS 941 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2001), 15–28.
Jodi Magness, “Scrolls and Hand Impurity,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Texts and Context, ed. Charlotte Hempel, STDJ 90 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 89–97; eadem, “The Impurity of Oil and Spit among the Qumran Sectarians,” in With Letters of Light: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Jewish Apocalypticism, Magic, and Mysticism in Honor of Rachel Elior, ed. Daphna V. Arbel and Andrei A. Orlov, Ekstasis 2 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011), 223–31; eadem, “‘They Shall See the Glory of the Lord’ (Isa 35:2): Eschatological Perfection and Purity at Qumran and in Jesus’ Movement,” JSHJ 14 (2016): 99–119.
Jodi Magness, “Integrating Archaeology and Texts: The Example of the Qumran Toilet,” in Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future: The New Pragmatism, ed. Thomas E. Levy (London: Equinox, 2010), 285–92.
Jodi Magness, “Were Sacrifices Offered at Qumran? The Animal Bone Deposits Reconsidered,” JAJ 7 (2016): 5–34; eadem, “Were Sacrifices Offered at Qumran? The Animal Bone Deposits Reconsidered,” in The Eucharist—Its Origins and Contexts: Sacred Meal, Communal Meal, Table Fellowship in Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity, Vol. 1: Old Testament, Early Judaism, New Testament, ed. David Hellholm and Dieter Sänger, WUNT 376 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 131–55.
See, for example, Jodi Magness and Kenneth G. Atkinson. “Josephus’ Essenes and the Qumran Community,” JBL 129 (2010): 317–42.
See, for example, Jodi Magness, “A Villa at Khirbet Qumran?” RevQ 63 (1994): 397–419; eadem, “Qumran: Not a Country Villa,” BAR 22/6 (1996): 38–47, 72–73; eadem, “Was Qumran a Fort in the Hasmonean Period?” JJS 64 (2013): 228–41.
Jodi Magness, Review of Qumran and the Essenes: A Re-Evaluation of the Evidence, by Lena Cansdale, DSD 5 (1998): 99–104 (104).
See Dennis Mizzi and Jodi Magness, “Was Qumran Abandoned at the End of the First Century BCE?” JBL 135 (2016): 301–20. This revises Jodi’s earlier stance in eadem, “Chronology of the Settlement at Qumran,” 58–65; eadem, Archaeology of Qumran, 66–68.
Magness, “Were Sacrifices Offered at Qumran?”
Jodi Magness, “The Question of the Synagogue: The Problem of Typology” and “A Response to Eric M. Meyers and James F. Strange,” in Judaism in Late Antiquity, Part III: Where We Stand; Issues and Debates in Ancient Judaism, Vol. 4: The Special Problem of the Synagogue, ed. Alan J. Avery-Peck and Jacob Neusner, HdO 55 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 1–48, 79–91; eadem, “When Were the Galilean-Type Synagogues Built?” Cathedra 101 (2001): 39–70 [Hebrew, with English summary on pp. 204–5].
Jodi Magness, “Synagogue Typology and Earthquake Chronology at Khirbet Shemaʿ, Israel,” JFA 24 (1997): 211–20; eadem, “The Date of the Synagogue at Chorazin,” Michmanim 20 (2007): 7–18; eadem, “Review Article: The Ancient Synagogue at Nabratein,” BASOR 358 (2010): 61–68; cf. eadem, “The Dating of the Black Ceramic Bowl with a Depiction of the Torah Shrine from Nabratein,” Levant 26 (1994): 199–206; eadem, review of Khirbet Wadi Ḥamam: A Roman-Period Village and Synagogue in the Lower Galilee, edited by Uzi Leibner, JSJ 50 (2019): 427–30.
For consideration of some of these implications in Jodi’s own research, see eadem, “Did Galilee Decline in the Fifth Century? The Synagogue at Chorazin Reconsidered,” in Religion, Ethnicity, and Identity in Ancient Galilee: A Region in Transition, ed. Jürgen K. Zangenberg, Harold W. Attridge, and Dale B. Martin, WUNT 210 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck), 259–74; eadem, “Did Galilee Experience a Settlement Crisis in the Mid-Fourth Century?”
Jodi Magness, “Helios and the Zodiac Cycle in Ancient Palestinian Synagogues,” in Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past: Canaan, Ancient Israel, and Their Neighbors from the Late Bronze Age through Roman Palaestina; Proceedings of the Centennial Symposium of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and American Schools of Oriental Research, Jerusalem, May 29–31, 2000, ed. William G. Dever and Seymour Gitin (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003), 363–89; eadem, “Heaven on Earth”; eadem, “Priests and Purity in the Dura Europos Synagogue.”
For the most complete excavation reports of the Ḥuqoq synagogue to date, see Jodi Magness et al., “Huqoq (Lower Galilee) and Its Synagogue Mosaics: Preliminary Report on the Excavations of 2011–2013,” JRA 27 (2014): 327–55; Jodi Magness et al., “The Huqoq Excavation Project: 2014–2017 Interim Report,” BASOR 380 (2018): 61–131.
Matthew J. Grey, “Jewish Priests and the Social History of Post-70 Palestine” (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011), vi.