Publications by James D Moore
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 2024
This article provides a philological assessment of the statement in Ezra 4:12b and offers a new t... more This article provides a philological assessment of the statement in Ezra 4:12b and offers a new translation. We focus on the word יַחִיטוּ. We propose to construe the form as originally *יְחִיטוּ, G-stem prefixing conjugation of חיט, »to inspect«. In order to substantiate our proposal we refer to a series of cognates in Aramaic and other Semitic languages. Two newly edited Aramaic documents from Elephantine are mentioned, as well as texts from Bactria, passages from the Gilgamesh Epic, and the story on the Tower of Babylon.
Social and Historical Observations of Women at Elephantine according to the Administrative Papyri and the Ostraca, 2025
This is a data-driven study on women at Elephantine with special attention to the ostraca.
This ... more This is a data-driven study on women at Elephantine with special attention to the ostraca.
This remains in Publication limbo for the OA publication: Essays on Elephantine, ed. V. Lepper, n.p., Studies on Elephantine, Leiden: Brill, forthcoming. Please site it as such.
Comptes Rendus AIBL, 2023
We’re excited to present a first edition of a number of documents and a statement of the Semitic ... more We’re excited to present a first edition of a number of documents and a statement of the Semitic Papyri in the CIS.
Phoenician Accounts:
This publication brings the total number of known Phoenician papyri up from three to five. Be on the look out for a future expanded/updated English edition with commentary and a discussion of radio carbon dating results.
Late Aramaic Incantation:
For this text see the expanded and detailed edition in
Moore, James D. and Maria Gorea. “AIBL-CIS de Ricci 2: A New Jewish and Aramaic Religious Text from Egypt Dating between the Early 2nd and Early 4th Centuries Ce.” Dead Sea Discoveries 30 (2023): 1–23.
Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires [N.A.B.U.], 2023
texts, seems to be more of an epithet than a divine name; the god's actual name does not appear i... more texts, seems to be more of an epithet than a divine name; the god's actual name does not appear in these texts, nor in any other legal or administrative text from the late Achaemenid period. However, a compilation of esoterica, commonly referred to as the Nippur Compendium (GEORGE 1992: 143-162), will shed some light on the matter. The Nippur Compendium (nibru ki ní.bi.ta dù.a) is known primarily from two late Babylonian manuscripts (IM 44150; IM 76975) with the same structure and content, and three additional, smaller tablets, two of which come from Nineveh (K 2892+ K 8397; K 10062) and the third one is a late Babylonian excerpt tablet (BM 38413, GEORGE 1992: 145-146). 2) The text begins with a listing of the names and titles for the city of Nippur and its main temple, Ekur, followed by a list of deities. This list, in which each deity is represented as 'lord of (my) city + of place name', occurs only in the two late Babylonian manuscripts, and is of particular interest to our case as it contains a series of 'dieux topiques' and their localities. Among the legible place names in the list, we find the lords of Borsippa and Dēr, but also deities of smaller settlements in the region between Uruk and Nippur, such as the lords of Šalammu and Kār-Ninurta (GEORGE 1992: 150: 19'; 21'; 24'). 3) Interestingly, the list happens to mention a deity by the name of Erimabinutuku, who is designated as the 'dieu topique' (bēl-āliya) of a place named uru sá.sá.érim (GEORGE 1992: §7, 22'). We suggest to slightly emend the reading of the toponym to sá.di.érim (sá=di), because this spelling (sá.di.érim) stands for the city of Šāṭir, as demonstrated by the late 5 th century BCE text TÉBR 32 (ll. 11 and 14). As noted earlier, the 'dieux topiques' section in the Nippur Compendium, refers not only to Šāṭir, but also to several other sites in the region between Nippur and Uruk, such as Šalammu and Kār-Ninurta, which, like Šāṭir, were still inhabited in the 5 th century BCE. Thus, our suggestion matches the evidence in the section on 'dieux topiques' in the Nippur Compendium in more than one way: they share the same spelling for Šāṭir (sá.di.érim), the same geographical horizon, and the same chronological framework. If we come back to the question of the identity of Lord-of-Šāṭir, it is now clear that according to the Nippur Compendium the deity Erimabinutuku is the Lord-of-Šāṭir. Despite the scarcity in textual sources regarding Erimabinutuku, the Sumerian composition Angim, allows us a better understanding of his nature. According to Angim, Erimabinutuku, the worshipped entity of Šāṭir, is named after one of Ninurta's divine weapons known 'to have established the people in heaven and earth' (COOPER 1978: 82, 146; GEORGE 1992: 447). Notes 1. See, for example, the case of 'Bēl-ālīya-ša-Šarrabānu'('lord-of-my-city-of-Šarrabānu', Baker 2004: 127:128). The city was also located in Bīt-Amukānu.
Dead Sea Discoveries, 2023
This article presents a previously unknown Jewish and Aramaic religious literary composition dati... more This article presents a previously unknown Jewish and Aramaic religious literary composition dating between the early second and early fourth centuries CE. The document focuses on a righteous man within the context of angels, demons, and spirits. The manuscript, which is housed in the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Cabinet du Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, has a clear acquisition history and comes from Egypt. The text is edited, translated, and provided with a philological commentary. Discussion of the text’s content is briefly brought into dialogue with the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Jewish texts.
Semitica, 2022
This article edits twenty-five newly discovered jar labels and ostraca written in Phoenician and ... more This article edits twenty-five newly discovered jar labels and ostraca written in Phoenician and Aramaic and dating most likely to the Persian period. Twenty-four of these sherds were found during the Swiss Institute’s digs at Syene (Aswan, Egypt) between 2010–2015. One dated Phoenician jar label from the Swiss Institute’s digs at Elephantine in 2015 is also edited herein. A discussion of the object’s archaeological context, a photograph, a transliteration, a translation, and a philological commentary are provided for each sherd.
Journal for the Study of Judaism, 2022
Essays on Elephantine, 2023
published by AMIÉ-GIRON², which-although difficult to read-indicates that Phoenicians Consider th... more published by AMIÉ-GIRON², which-although difficult to read-indicates that Phoenicians Consider the Eltyna inscription (c. 7th-6th cent. ʙᴄᴇ) in the Crete Archaeological Museum, 6 which is an early reference ascribing the Greek alphabet to the Phoenicians. It generally confirms Herodotus' claims (5.58).
New Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine in Berlin, 2022
The famous German excavations between 1906 and 1908 of Elephantine Island in Egypt produced some ... more The famous German excavations between 1906 and 1908 of Elephantine Island in Egypt produced some of the most important Aramaic sources for understanding the history of Judeans and Arameans living in 5th century BCE Egypt under Persian occupation. Unknown to the world, many papyri fragments from those excavations remained uncatalogued in the Berlin Museum. In New Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine in Berlin James D. Moore edits the remaining legible Aramaic fragments, which belong to letters, contracts, and administrative texts.
H2D Digital Humanities Journal, 2021
This pedagogical article presents an example of how one can teach novice students to build and to... more This pedagogical article presents an example of how one can teach novice students to build and to work with their own digital editions of ancient sources. It discusses modern approaches to digital editions and promotes teaching SQL databases in ancient studies programs. It provides a detailed guide on how one can structure a student database that will be beneficial to students of all levels and disciplines.
This is the first study to compare the allusions to scribal culture found in the Aramaic Story of... more This is the first study to compare the allusions to scribal culture found in the Aramaic Story of Ahiqar and the Hebrew Tale of Jeremiah and Baruch’s Scroll in Jeremiah 36. It is shown that disguised in the royal propagandistic message of Ahiqar is a sophisticated Aramaic critique on the social practices of Akkadian scribal culture. Jeremiah 36, however, uses loci of scribal activity as well as allusions to scribal interactions and the techniques of the scribal craft to construct a subversive tale. When studied from a comparative perspective it is argued that the Story of Ahiqar, which has long been associated with the well-known court tale genre, is an example of a subgenre which is here called the scribal conflict narrative, and Jeremiah 36 is found to be a second example of or a response to it. This observation is arrived at by means of rigorous manuscript examination combined with narrative analysis, which identified, among other things, the development of autobiographical and biographical styles of the same ancient narrative. This study not only provides new perspectives on scribal culture, Ahiqar studies, and Jeremiah studies, but it may have far reaching implications for other ancient sources.
Elephantine in Context Studies on the History, Religion and Literature of the Judeans in Persian Period Egypt, 2022
Journal of Biblical Literature, 2021
The question that Tattenai, the governor, poses to those attempting to rebuild the Jerusalem temp... more The question that Tattenai, the governor, poses to those attempting to rebuild the Jerusalem temple in Ezra 5 appears twice in the chapter, though scholarship has paid little attention to it. This study lays out the relevant surviving documentary data (Persian-period decrees and administrative documents) and uses them as a sociohistorical lens through which the importance of Tattenai's question might be seen. The data suggest that, for ideological reasons, the narrative conceals the name of the person responsible for rebuilding Jerusalem's Second Temple as well as provides insights into the compositional history of the chapter.
Semitica et Classica, 2020
This article begins with a study on the meaning of ṬʿM "decree" in Persian period Aramaic documen... more This article begins with a study on the meaning of ṬʿM "decree" in Persian period Aramaic documentary sources from Egypt and on the format of the official decree genre. The article then turns to a study on the manuscript features of an ʾAršāma decree known from Elephantine, EM Pap. no. 3432 = J. 43469 (TAD A6.2). The goal is to shed light on the opaque processes of the Persian administration. It is argued that the various signatories on the manuscript provide evidence of the various administrative levels present in the Egyptian province, and a reconstruction of the transmission of the document through the various levels of administration is proposed. This social and historical study ends with implications for reconsidering the function of other high level administrative documents.
ZAW, 2020
This paper is a case study that discusses Judean rights and tenancy in Egypt under the Persian ad... more This paper is a case study that discusses Judean rights and tenancy in Egypt under the Persian administration. It uses TAD A6.11, a Persian Aramaic decree about farmland rights in Egypt, as an example of an imperial document to mediate a comparison between the Babylonian Judean experience in farmlands and Egyptian Judean experience on the (sub-)urban island of Elephantine under Persian rule. First a Babylonian Judean document, CUSAS 28 no. 69 is used to interpret the enigmatic, yet central legal claim about crushing the ilku-tax in TAD A6.11. The two sources are then compared, and the implications of the findings are studied by referring to documents of Elephantine Judeans regarding tenancy rights (mhḥsn-status). The findings demonstrate that the two communities are socially comparable, so long as the Persian administrative system is considered in a comparison of the communities’ surviving documents.
In a box of unpublished Aramaic papyri from the 1906–1907 German excavations of Elephantine there... more In a box of unpublished Aramaic papyri from the 1906–1907 German excavations of Elephantine there is a small fragment (p. 23141) that uses scribal marks in a margin or vacat to identify a textual edit. This is the first example of Aramaic editorial marks of this type from the Persian period, and demonstrates a previously unidentified scribal practice.
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Publications by James D Moore
This remains in Publication limbo for the OA publication: Essays on Elephantine, ed. V. Lepper, n.p., Studies on Elephantine, Leiden: Brill, forthcoming. Please site it as such.
Phoenician Accounts:
This publication brings the total number of known Phoenician papyri up from three to five. Be on the look out for a future expanded/updated English edition with commentary and a discussion of radio carbon dating results.
Late Aramaic Incantation:
For this text see the expanded and detailed edition in
Moore, James D. and Maria Gorea. “AIBL-CIS de Ricci 2: A New Jewish and Aramaic Religious Text from Egypt Dating between the Early 2nd and Early 4th Centuries Ce.” Dead Sea Discoveries 30 (2023): 1–23.
This remains in Publication limbo for the OA publication: Essays on Elephantine, ed. V. Lepper, n.p., Studies on Elephantine, Leiden: Brill, forthcoming. Please site it as such.
Phoenician Accounts:
This publication brings the total number of known Phoenician papyri up from three to five. Be on the look out for a future expanded/updated English edition with commentary and a discussion of radio carbon dating results.
Late Aramaic Incantation:
For this text see the expanded and detailed edition in
Moore, James D. and Maria Gorea. “AIBL-CIS de Ricci 2: A New Jewish and Aramaic Religious Text from Egypt Dating between the Early 2nd and Early 4th Centuries Ce.” Dead Sea Discoveries 30 (2023): 1–23.
fragments in Berlin’s Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung. The
German excavations of Elephantine by Otto Rubensohn and Friedrich
Zucker between 1906–1907 yielded many papyri, the most famous of which are the Aramaic documents of the Judeans on the island. While the best preserved pieces were quickly published by Eduard Sachau in 1908 and 1911, other fragments from the excavation have come to light over the last century. The latest of these rediscoveries is the—yet to be published—“Aramaic Box.” This paper provides a survey of the new papyri found in this box. SBL 2018 [invited]