Tuesday, May 03, 2016

The Treatise of the Vessels in the news

REPRINT: Fate of Ark of the Covenant Revealed in Hebrew Text. A new media outfit that calls itself "Seeker" has shown up in the last few days and it seems to have assigned itself the task of reprinting online articles on every story relating to biblical studies over the last few years. Among these is Owen Jarus's January 2014 LiveScience article on the publication of my translation of The Treatise of the Vessels in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 1 (Eerdmans, 2013). The Treaties is a legendary account of the fate of the treasures of Solomon's Temple when it was destroyed by the Babylonians, and it is replete with vast wealth, secret hiding places, angels, and heroic biblical and other characters. And, of course, it mentions the Ark of the Covenant. The LiveScience article produced a brief media feeding frenzy back in 2014. The text has continued to receive attention occasionally since then, and it is nice to see it in the news again.

Background on The Treatise of the Vessels is here (cf. here, here and here) with many links.