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Yonatan Adler
@AdlerYonatan
Archaeology and Early Judaism Associate Professor @arieluniversity Author of: The Origins of Judaism (Yale 2022) Between Yahwism and Judaism (Cambridge 2025)
amazon.com/Origins-Judaisโ€ฆ
Joined April 2022
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Feb 12
    ๐—๐˜‚๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—บ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜‚๐˜€ Torah Law and Everyday Life in First-Century Judea My new course is now available over at Paths in Biblical Studies. Thanks to @BartEhrman and his team for hosting this! Link in the first comment.
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    May 18, 2025
    I am a scholar of Judaism. Judaism has been around for millennia. We can trace its development over time and space, through the archaeological and textual records. The Jewish people of today are the latest link in this long cultural chain. Do you deny this? If so, on what basis?
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    Nassim Nicholas Taleb
    @nntaleb
    May 18, 2025
    What made me such a supporter of Palestinian rights in the past few years? Mostly, when I started studying genetics, I realized they were the Biblical Judeans. Then I spent 3-4 years digging & discovered it was the Z1onists who refused to settle: they wanted the whole thing.
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Nov 20, 2024
    The so-called โ€œPassover papyrusโ€ (419 BCE) opens with a greeting invoking โ€œthe godsโ€ (ืืœื”ื™ื). Years later (257 BCE), a letter sent by another Judean (CPJ 4) opens with the phrase โ€œmany thanks to the gods (ฯ€ฮฟฮปฮปแฝด ฯ‡ฮฌฯฮนฯ‚ ฯ„ฮฟแฟ–ฯ‚ ฮธฮตฮฟแฟ–ฯ‚)โ€. Some "monotheism" I'd say.
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Nov 26, 2024
    This stele is the earliest evidence for a Jewish presence in Europe. It probably predates the beginning of Judaism (i.e., widespread observance of Torah), which likely emerged only a century laterโ€”back in the ancestral homeland of Judea . A ๐Ÿงต1/7
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Oct 31, 2022
    This just landed on my desk.
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Apr 28, 2025
    โ€”On the name โ€œIsraelโ€โ€” In the Hebrew Bible, โ€œIsraelโ€ is the name given to Jacob at Jabbok. Jews today trace their ancestry to Jacob, and thus count themselves among the โ€œChildren of Israelโ€. But from when did Jews/Judeans actually begin to regard themselves as โ€œIsraelโ€? ๐Ÿงต1/17
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Feb 25, 2024
    Pentateuch in Paleo-Hebrew Script. Just discovered this now! A brilliant way for students to practice reading their Paleo-Hebrew.
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Aug 7, 2025
    Between Yahwism and Judaism: Judean Cult and Culture during the Early Hellenistic Period (332โ€“175 BCE) Expected online publication date:ย  October 9th. cambridge.org/core/elements/โ€ฆ
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Dec 2, 2024
    โ€”โ€”The Maccabean Watershed โ€”โ€” Part 1 The Maccabean revolt marks a watershed in world history. It was the catalyst for the emergence of Judaism, and consequently for the birth of Christianity and Islam. In the advent to Hannukah and Christmas, I will post a series on this. ๐Ÿงต1/10
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Sep 6, 2025
    [CL]AVDIA ASTER [H]IEROSOLYMITANA [CA]PTIVA Claudia Aster, captive from Jerusalem. Epitaph, late 1st century CE. National Archaeological Museum, Naples (She was 25 years old when she died. Her Hebrew name was probably Esther).
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Oct 22, 2025
    Free to download for two weeks only! Starting today, you can download for free my new book: Between Yahwism and Judaism: Judean Cult and Culture during the Early Hellenistic Period (332โ€“175 BCE) Download it now, and read it later. And of course, please share and spread the
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Mar 9, 2023
    Food for thought: No surviving texts from the Second Temple period mention any kind of pool used specifically for ritual immersions. We know these existedโ€”in large numbers and everywhere there were Judeansโ€”only from archaeology. What else is missing from our textual record?
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Jun 25, 2022
    I am very pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of my book, The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal, due out with @yalepress in early autumn. Preorders are available today! (Feel free to share and retweet).
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    Yonatan Adler
    @AdlerYonatan
    Jan 24, 2025
    โ€œOne of the rabbis was sitting before Rabbi Samuel b. Naแธฅmani, and he sat and said: โ€˜Job never existed; he was merely an allegory.โ€™โ€ (b. B. Batra 15a) Rabbinic thinkers had no trouble with the notion that an entire Biblical book might be fiction.
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