This volume presents a die study of the provincial silver coinage of Judah in the late Persian, Macedonian, and early Hellenistic periods. It offers correct descriptions of the coins, their designs, and their inscriptions; enumerates the obverse and reverse dies identified for each of the 44 recorded types; and explains the probable sequence of the issues as deduced from iconographic associations and die links. The iconography of the coin types is examined in depth, with comparisons to motifs in Greek, Persian, and ancient Near Eastern art, including other local coinages and sources in Judahite material culture. The monograph also analyzes data relating to the metrology, metal content, and circulation of the coinage. Overall, the study attempts to place the Yehud coinage in its historical context and to define its role in the economy of the ancient province of Judah.

"This volume presents a die study of the provincial silver coinage of Judah, undertaken and completed by Jean-Philippe Fontanille, with commentary by Haim Gitler and Catharine Lorber. Our primary goal is to share the intimate knowledge we gained of this coinage: correct descriptions of the coins and their designs and inscriptions; the number of obverse and reverse dies identified for each issue; and the probable sequence of the issues (here termed "types") as deduced from iconographic associations and die links. The die study was published in preliminary visual form on the website Menorah Coin Project, created by Fontanille, and now maintained by the Israel Numismatic Society.1 The Menorah Coin Project presents the underlying data of the die study, i.e., the coins examined by Fontanille, including a few that could be classified by type, but whose dies could not be identified.2 All the dies are illustrated in the connection tables at the back of this volume, sometimes using composite images created by Fontanille, and the examples of each die combination are listed on the connection tables. These connection tables illustrate an updated version of the Menorah Coin Project die-link study. The most recent and reliable figures for each Yehud coin type are those presented in Chapter VIII, which include specimens added to the corpus in the final stages of our work. ..." -- Preface.

"This book is a catalogue and archaeological and numismatic summary of a coin hoard from the Levant discovered in 1968"--

Although scholars employ pictorial material in biblical exegesis, the question of how images from the Ancient Near East can contribute to a better understanding of the Bible has been left unanswered. This is the first monograph to outline a historical method for iconographic exegesis. The methodological study includes both responses to important theoretical questions such as What is an image? and What is culture? and an interdisciplinary exploration of issues of history, art history, archaeology and cultural anthropology. The three-stage method proposed is embedded in hermeneutical and exegetical reflections. The application of iconographical exegesis to the interpretation of metaphors is also considered. In demonstrating the method and its application, Izaak J. de Hulster focuses on Third Isaiah and develops three iconographical exegetical studies on yad in Isaiah 56:5, light in Isaiah 60 and grape processing in Isaiah 63.

This unique study is the first systematic examination to be undertaken of the high priesthood in ancient Israel, from the earliest local chief priests in the pre-monarchic period down to the Hasmonaean priest-kings in the first century BCE. Dr Rooke argues that, contrary to received scholarly opinion, the high priesthood was fundamentally a religious office which in and of itself bestowed no civil responsibilities upon its holders, and that not until the time of the Maccabean revoltdoes the high priest appear as the sole figure of leadership for the nation. However, even the Maccabean / Hasmonaean high priesthood was effectively a reversion to the monarchic model of sacral kingship which had existed several centuries earlier in the pre-exilic period, rather than being anextension of the powers of the high priesthood itself. The idea that high priesthood per se bestowed the power to rule should therefore be reconsidered.

During the past decade, the period from the 7th century B.C.E. and later has been a major focus because it is thought to be the era when much of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament was formed. As a result, there has also been much interest in the historical developments of that time and specifically in the status of Judah and its neighbors. Three conferences dealing roughly with a century each were organized, and the first conference was held in Tel Aviv in 2001; the proceedings of that conference were published as Judah and the Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period. The second volume was published in early 2006, a report on the conference held in Heidelberg in July 2003: Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period. Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E. is the publication of the proceedings of the third conference, which was held in Muenster, Germany, in August 2005; the essays in it focus on the century during which the Persian Empire fell to Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic kingdoms came to the fore. Participants whose contributions are published here are: R. Achenbach, R. Albertz, B. Becking, E. Ben Zvi, J. Blenkinsopp, E. Eshel, H. Eshel, L. L. Grabbe, A. Kloner, G. N. Knoppers, I. Kottsieper, A. Lemaire, O. Lipschits, Y. Magen, K. Schmid, I. Stern., O. Tal, D. Vanderhooft, J. Wiesehöfer, J. L. Wright, and J. W. Wright.

This book collects the most complete, current scholarship on the history of known examples of ancient electrum coinage of the Greek world, with text, catalogues, and images. From the Preface The genesis of this volume took place in 2011 when then Numismatic Curator, Haim Gitler, conceived of a unique exhibition to be held at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem that would showcase the earliest coins in the Western tradition, those struck in electrum. Five hundred coins, all from the collections of Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza, and several from the Israel Museum, were displayed in a spectacular exhibition, the first of its kind anywhere that looked at electrum coinage from the seventh to the fourth centuries BCE. Catharine Lorber soon joined Gitler in curating the exhibition, White Gold: Revealing the World's Earliest Coins, a name suggested by Lorber, which opened in June 2012, with an exhibition catalogue of the same name written by Koray Konuk, Lorber, and edited by Gitler. Meanwhile, Gitler organized a conference on electrum coinage that was held at the Israel Museum the week the exhibit opened. Tom Kaplan and Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza, who have been keenly interested in this area of numismatic research, both actively participated in the conference. We are also most grateful for their most generous support, which funded the exhibition and conference, as well as this volume, and also for their help and enthusiasm for this project. Initially, Gitler, Lorber, and Konuk planned to publish the conference proceedings with the Israel Museum's imprimatur, but as many of the conference participants felt a follow-up meeting would be beneficial to address some of the outstanding problematic aspects of early electrum raised in Jerusalem, a second White Gold conference was held in November 2013 at the American Numismatic Society (ANS) in New York City. In 2016, it was decided that publication of the proceedings of the two conferences would be undertaken by the ANS with Ute Wartenberg and Peter van Alfen serving as the volume's editors, who received considerable editorial and other assistance on several of the chapters from Wolfgang Fischer-Bossert. Since 2013, the scope of the volume grew. Scholars, notably Kristin Kleber and Donald Jones, who had not participated in the two original conferences were invited to contribute chapters, and others who had participated offered additional contributions. While the expanded scope of the volume delayed publication, nonetheless we can now offer a fuller and more detailed picture of the evidence at hand for understanding the various contexts in which early electrum coins were produced and used.

Drawing on the most recent, groundbreaking archaeological research, Eric M. Meyers and Mark A. Chancey re-narrate the history of ancient Palestine in this richly illustrated and expertly integrated book. Spanning from the conquest of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE until the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine in the fourth century CE, they synthesize archaeological evidence with ancient literary sources (including the Bible) to offer a sustained overview of the tumultuous intellectual and religious changes that impacted world history during the Greco-Roman period. The authors demonstrate how the transformation of the ancient Near East under the influence of the Greeks and then the Romans led to foundational changes in both the material and intellectual worlds of the Levant. Palestine's subjection to Hellenistic kingdoms, its rule by the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties, the two disastrous Jewish revolts against Rome, and its full incorporation into the Roman Empire provide a background for the emergence of Christianity. The authors observe in the archaeological record how Judaism and Christianity were virtually undistinguishable for centuries, until the rise of imperial Christianity with Emperor Constantine. The only book-length overview available that focuses on the archaeology of Palestine in this period, this comprehensive and powerfully illuminating work sheds new light on the lands of the Bible.

A comprehensive reappraisal of Herod the Great’s coinage is undertaken. Hoard and archaeological evidence, together with iconographic, epigraphic and numismatic observations, contribute to innovative interpretations of the coins, a new relative chronology, and some historical ‘pegs’ towards an absolute chronology

First comparative analysis of the role of local elites and populations in the formation of the two main Hellenistic empires.