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Philip
45 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 26 2007 : 12:26:12 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Christi
I assume from all of this though, that you believe that although Jesus represented a power, or a flame of God, which we can all manifest, that you also believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a man who lived at a particular time and will come again in the form of a man? And that that time has not yet come? Are you awaiting this time? And do you know when it will be?
Christi
Perhaps Jesus will give a public teaching again, I don't know. The important second coming is when Jesus is born in one's own heart. |
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2007 : 08:01:47 AM
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The Lost Tomb of Jesus
"Feb. 25, 2007 — New scientific evidence, including DNA analysis conducted at one of the world's foremost molecular genetics laboratories, as well as studies by leading scholars, suggests a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.
The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced a son named Judah.
The DNA findings, alongside statistical conclusions made about the artifacts — originally excavated in 1980 — open a potentially significant chapter in Biblical archaeological history.
A documentary presenting the evidence, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," will premiere on the Discovery Channel on March 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The documentary comes from executive producer James Cameron and director Simcha Jacobovici."
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/...070225073000
Video:
http://dsc.discovery.com/beyond/pla...ik=www_vid_1
VIL
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2007 : 09:42:16 AM
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Oh no, the Sci-Fi screenwriters will have a field day with this -- I can see a Sci-Fi film coming up in which Jesus is cloned from DNA they found in his tomb. 
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2007 : 09:42:30 AM
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And if you believe that, you'll probably enjoy this site as well! 
www.jesus.com.au/html/page/jesus_in_india
And here's the real deal:
www.christiananswers.net/jesus/home.html
www.holyfire.org/eng/history.htm
www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/holyfire.aspx
Do any readers of this forum know where the tombs of their parents, grandparents, siblings, or other close relatives or friends are located? Well, guess what? The immediate family, friends, and disciples of Jesus also knew where Jesus was buried. Knowledge of His tomb's location was preserved in memory by those who loved and revered Jesus, and has never been forgotten! It is beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and can still be viewed there today. 
But never mind that...anything that serves to discredit Jesus and invalidate Traditional Christian beliefs regarding His Death and Resurrection must be true, right?  There is absolutely no chance at all that the historical, eyewitness accounts of these events could possibly be credible, right?  Wake up, people! 
Adonay Yeshua haMashiach racham. Amin!
Doc |
Edited by - Doc on Feb 27 2007 09:54:28 AM |
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Kyman
530 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2007 : 09:45:27 AM
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Oh, god.
Maybe the clone goes haywire, due to human error, and he becomes the anti-christ.
Instead of growing up to save the world, he grows up to be the most successful advocate for safety in eating cloned meat. |
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Balance
USA
967 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2007 : 10:08:26 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by david_obsidian
Oh no, the Sci-Fi screenwriters will have a field day with this -- I can see a Sci-Fi film coming up in which Jesus is cloned from DNA they found in his tomb.
Hey! We could make a Hollyweird movie! "Jerusalem Park". Who could we get to play the clone? Maybe Jonny Depp would be interested.
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2007 : 10:24:37 AM
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Maybe the clone goes haywire, due to human error, and he becomes the anti-christ. ...
Hey! We could make a Hollyweird movie! "Jerusalem Park".
Brad Pitt could do it too. Yes, I can hear the rumbling voice-over in the movie previews -- " Jesus is back! And this time .... he's mad!" Cut to long-haired scowling sweaty bare-chested Pitt/Depp with a semi-automatic.
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2007 : 2:47:33 PM
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I think the program will be interesting to watch, regardless of the controversy surrounding the documentary:
VIL |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Feb 28 2007 : 3:53:28 PM
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Hi VIL:
Agreed! It will no doubt be intriguing 'science fiction', as the following piece strongly suggests. 
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Archaeologists denounce "Lost Tomb"
www.chinaview.cn 2007-02-27 18:56:10
BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- A documentary film produced by Oscar-winning director James Cameron ("Titanic") that questions the basic Christian belief that Jesus Christ died, was resurrected and ascended to heaven has drawn heavy fire from archaeologists and clergymen in the Holy Land.
"The Lost Tomb of Christ," which the Discovery Channel will run on March 4, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries -- small caskets used to store bones -- discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family, according to a press release issued by the Discovery Channel.
One of the caskets even bears the title, "Judah, son of Jesus," raising the possibility Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was devine.
Most Christians believe Jesus' body spent three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City. The burial site identified in Cameron's documentary is in a southern Jerusalem neighborhood nowhere near the church.
In 1996, when the BBC aired a short documentary on the same subject, archaeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television.
"They just want to get money for it," Kloner said.
The claims have raised the ire of Christian leaders in the Holy Land.
"The historical, religious and archaeological evidence show that the place where Christ was buried is the Church of the Resurrection," said Attallah Hana, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem. The documentary, he said, "contradicts the religious principles and the historic and spiritual principles that we hold tightly to."
Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film's hypothesis holds little weight.
"I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," Pfann said. "But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."
"How possible is it?" Pfann asked. "On a scale of one through 10 -- 10 being completely possible -- it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half."
Kloner also said the filmmakers' assertions are false.
"It was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave," Kloner said. "The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time."
Archaeologists also doubt the filmmaker's claim that the James Ossuary -- the center of a famous antiquities fraud in Israel -- might have originated from the same cave.
"I don't think the James Ossuary came from the same cave," said Dan Bahat, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University. "If it were found there, the man who made the forgery would have taken something better. He would have taken Jesus."
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In the meantime, the following links show photos of the interior of Jesus's actual tomb, which lies beneath the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
www.sacred-destinations.com/...sepulchre.htm
www.holylight.gr/patria/english/ensepul.html
And here's an interesting article regarding the annual phenomenon of the Holy Paschal Fire:
www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/holyfire.pdf
Light to All ~
Doc |
Edited by - Doc on Feb 28 2007 4:04:14 PM |
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Feb 28 2007 : 4:56:18 PM
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Hey, Doc, I don't presume to know anything about the subject. I do realize, however, that there are many conflicting reports from archaeologists, staticians, religious scholars, pro and con, concerning the authenticity of the Tomb.
To me, it doesn't matter if the tomb were that of Jesus, or not, but understand the sensitivity of belief, that Jesus was physically resurrected, as do the filmmakers - who state that they are not presenting the information from a theological perspective.
As you've said, and I agree; it would seem very probable that people would be fully cognizant of the location of Jesus Tomb. Although, I'm not a historian and am not aware of Jewish atmosphere, possible fear, or secrecy, surrounding the tomb, after Christ's Ascension. I have read an encyclopedia article of The Holy Sepulchre of Jesus, that I found fascinating, wherein there are still many discrepancies theorized, as to its location.
Regardless, I thought I saw "the flower of life" inscribed on the ossuary and would like to get a closer look.
"The Flower of Life (FOL) is a geometrical figure composed of multiple evenly-spaced, overlapping circles, that are arranged so that they form a flower-like pattern with a sixfold symmetry like a hexagon. The center of each circle is on the circumference of six surrounding circles of the same diameter."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_life
http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNe...2_070226.jpg
VIL |
Edited by - VIL on Feb 28 2007 8:07:30 PM |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2007 : 10:59:49 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by VIL:
"....there are many conflicting reports from archaeologists, staticians, religious scholars, pro and con, concerning the authenticity of the Tomb....wherein there are still many discrepancies theorized, as to its location."
Ah, yes...especially from among the ranks of Muslims, Jews, and Agnostics, all of whom are non-Christians, and among some Protestant Western Christian groups who have no control over the ancient Holy Sepulcher, or other religious sites in the Holy Land. As such, the latter groups in particular jealously attempt to cast doubt on the credibility of the Traditional Holy Sites of Blessed Memory, and propose other sites which they do control, such as Gordon's Garden Tomb, as alternative possibilities.
Such sites, however, were NEVER considered authentic by Eastern Christians who live in the Holy Land simply because they are not the locations passed down through previous generations in Holy Tradition as the original sites identified by those who knew Jesus. Again, this includes Jesus's immediate family and disciples, as well as countless others, who were all live, eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus's last days at the locations in question.
Unfortunately, most Western Christians are so totally separated from the places were Jesus lived and taught, that they don't appreciate how deeply revered and loved these Holy Sites have always been, and still are, to the Eastern Christians living in the Holy Land, often in the immediate vacinity of these Sacred Sites!
A trip to the Holy Land gives most Western Christians a whole new perspective on how the Christian people living there have always treasured and guarded these Sacred Sites which are directly related to the events of the life of Christ as described in the Gospels.
Light to All ~
Doc |
Edited by - Doc on Mar 01 2007 12:00:29 PM |
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2007 : 2:14:23 PM
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quote:
Doc: Ah, yes...especially from among the ranks of Muslims, Jews, and Agnostics, all of whom are non-Christians, and among some Protestant Western Christian groups who have no control over the ancient Holy Sepulcher, or other religious sites in the Holy Land. As such, the latter groups in particular jealously attempt to cast doubt on the credibility of the Traditional Holy Sites of Blessed Memory, and propose other sites which they do control, such as Gordon's Garden Tomb, as alternative possibilities.
I'm sure you are aware that the Prophet Muhammad, Muslims, protected Christian Holy Sites, The Holy Sepulchre, and should not be equated with fanatical individuals, groups or rulers, just as Moses and Christ should not be generalized with extremist Jews or Christians:
"Under the Muslims it remained a Christian church. The early Muslim rulers protected the city's Christian sites, prohibiting their destruction and their use as living quarters, but after a riot in 966, when the doors and roof were burnt, the original building was completely destroyed on October 18, 1009 by the "mad" Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah."
"Clunaic monk Raoul Glaber blamed the Jews, with the result that Jews were expelled from Limoges and other French towns. Ultimately, this destruction provided an impetus to the later Crusades."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Sepulchre
"Doc: A trip to the Holy Land gives most Western Christians a whole new perspective on how the Christian people living there have always treasured and guarded these Sacred Sites which are directly related to the events of the life of Christ as described in the Gospels."
I would love to go and visit the Holy Sepulchre and the many other Holy Sites:
VIL
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Edited by - VIL on Mar 01 2007 2:42:48 PM |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2007 : 02:21:51 AM
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Hi to all ~
With the Season of Great Lent leading up to the Great and Holy Pascha (Easter) already begun, the question of why Western Christians and Eastern Orthodox Christians rarely celebrate this most important of all Christians Holy Days on the same day arises once again.
The answer is really quite simple. The early Christians determined that the Commemoration of the Lord's Day of Resurrection should not be celebrated on any day of the week other than a Sunday, which quickly became known as The Lord's Day, since this was the day of the week on which Jesus's Resurrection originally occured. Thus, fixing the annual date of Easter on the same date as the original Day of Resurrection wasn't workable, as that fixed date would occur on different days of the week every year, and would only periodically fall on a Sunday like the original Holy Day.
In the original, unified Orthodox Church, therefore, it was decided that Pascha or Easter should always be celebrated on The Lord's Day (Sunday) immediately following the concluding Sabbath of the Jewish Pesach (Passover). This most accurately commemorates Jesus's Resurrection as recorded in the New Testament Scriptural accounts of all the Gospels regarding when His Death and Resurrection originally occured.
This year of 2007, for example, the Jewish Passover begins on Monday, April 2 at Sunset. The Passover Sabbath begins on Friday, April 6 at Sunset, and ends the next evening on Saturday, April 7 at Sunset. Thus, Eastern Greek Orthodox Pascha or Easter will be celebrated this year the following day on Sunday, April 8, 2007.
All Christians commemorated the Great and Holy Pascha in this manner for the first 1,500 years of Christian Church History until the era of the Protestant Reformation in the Western Latin or Roman Catholic Church.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity follows the Lunar Phases of the year in determining its Liturgical Calendar, in accordance with the Jewish Tradition from which it came, and also retains many other aspects of Orthodox Judaism, such as viewing Sunset to be the beginning and the end of each day.
This explains the statement of Faith which says "...on the third day He rose again from the dead...". It is recorded from eyewitnesses that Jesus died of crucifixion at mid-afternoon, before the day had ended at Sunset, on a Friday... thus Day 1. He remained in the tomb throughout the period of time from sunset Friday until well after Sunset Saturday, when the Passover Sabbath concluded...thus Day 2. Holy Tradition, established by those who kept watch over the tomb from a discreet distance, has always held that the Resurrection occured shortly after Midnight on Sunday...hence, on the third day from the time of Jesus's death by Jewish reckoning.
In the Western Churches...i.e. Roman Catholic, Anglican Catholic, and Protestant churches...Easter is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the Full Moon following the Vernal Equinox....regardless of when the Jewish Passover Sabbath occurs. Hence, in the Western Churches, Easter is often celebrated before Passover even begins, and is thus only occaisionally celebrated on the same date as the Eastern Churches.
Light to All ~
Doc |
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2007 : 12:34:10 PM
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Great post, Doc, and Happy Easter:
All Spiritual Masters know the significance of the affect of the moon on the spirit and it's something that I've been doing extensive research on for some time. But maybe you could help if you wouldn't mind:
I'm researching the the allegory of Christ being buried in the heart of the earth for three days and was wondering if you could direct me to Biblical References of the three times that Christ was seen after His resurrection in relation to the time that Peter denied Christ three times?
Thank you:
VIL |
Edited by - VIL on Mar 07 2007 12:42:30 PM |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2007 : 7:48:02 PM
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Hi VIL:
To the best of my knowledge, there is no direct correlation between Peter's pre-execution denials of Jesus and the post-Resurrection appearances of Christ. Accounts of the latter can be found at the end of the Gospels.
Doc |
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2007 : 9:25:02 PM
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Thanks, Doc:
Can you tell me what version of the Bible is considered the most accurate translation?
Thanks again:
VIL |
Edited by - VIL on Mar 07 2007 9:35:29 PM |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2007 : 08:48:38 AM
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Hi VIL:
That's a tricky question as new translations appear everytime an older Codex is found. Additionally, many Western Christian church organizations produce and advocate their own proprietary versions.
However, the one version which has been produced by translating and comparing the oldest extant texts still in existence for word to word accuracy is the Revised Standard Version (RSV) with Apocrypha. And since this translation project was undertaken by an ecumenical group of both Christian and Jewish Biblical scholars, it is the only published version to be officially approved by virtually every major Christian and Jewish organization thus far.
There also has been a New Revised Standard Version (NRVS) produced since the publication of the RSV, but due to changes in the language and style of translation, this work hasn't received the broad ecumenical support given to the Revised Standard Version.
You can check out the Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha here:
http://etext.virginia.edu/rsv.browse.html
Light to All ~
Doc |
Edited by - Doc on Mar 08 2007 08:55:18 AM |
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2007 : 09:04:18 AM
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Great. Thanks, Doc, will do:
VIL |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2007 : 1:12:00 PM
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Hi everyone!
This might be of interest as well. Check it out.
Light to All ~
Doc
World's oldest Bible goes global: Historic international digitisation project announced
11 March 2005 :: Posted by Catriona Finlayson
An ambitious international project to reinterpret the oldest Bible in the world, the Codex Sinaiticus, and make it accessible to a global audience using innovative digital technology and drawing on the expertise of leading biblical scholars is officially launched today.
A team of experts from the UK, Europe, Egypt, Russia and the US have joined together to reunite this iconic treasure in virtual form. This unprecedented collaborative approach to achieve reunification involves all four of the institutions at which parts of the manuscript are held : St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai; the British Library, the University of Leipzig, Germany; and the National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg.
The project encompasses four strands: conservation, digitisation, transcription and scholarly commentary to make the Codex available for a worldwide audience of all ages and levels of interest. There are plans for a range of projects including a free to view website, a high quality digital facsimile and CD Rom. It is intended that this project will be a model for future collaborations on other manuscripts.
The Codex is an iconic and historic document which dates from the period when the Roman Empire split and the Emperor Constantine, who ruled the Eastern Empire, adopted Christianity. Greek heritage dominated this Empire and the Codex was produced in response to the wish to gather together Greek versions of the principal Jewish and Christian scriptures. It is the earliest surviving book to encompass in one volume the great wealth of texts that have come to be recognised as forming the Christian Bible. It marks a dramatic shift from a culture in which texts were transmitted in scrolls to the bound book. The Codex Sinaiticus is arranged in eight narrow columns across a double-page and may be modelled on the arrangement of columns on papyrus scrolls.
The Codex is a major resource for scholars working in a range of disciplines, particularly those studying the Christian and Jewish scriptures, the history of the Christian Church, the transmission of texts, Hellenic and Byzantine culture, the history of the book, and codicology - the study of the structure of books.
The project will instigate a major campaign of scholarly research, led by the top specialists in Biblical studies, to transcribe, translate and reinterpret the text and research the Codex's history for both a specialist audience and the general public.
It is also highly important for its rich layering of texts. It was written by three scribes and contains important textual corrections and insertions. The digitisation and work on transcription will make it possible for researchers to identify which corrections and additions were made by which scribe at the click of a button, thus enabling them to uncover the different versions of the text that were used at the time.
It is estimated that the project will take four years to complete and cost £680,000.
A challenge grant of £150,000 has already been pledged by t he Stavros S Niarchos Foundation and the project board needs to raise funds to match this by the 1st December 2005.
Due to the extreme age and fragility of the Codex, none of the four partners holding leaves of the Codex is able to allow access to the manuscript, beyond display in a glass case. All four partners will carry out detailed examination and analysis of the codices and their findings will be documented using the same system to enable the conservation status to be linked to the environment in which the parts have been held. International experts in areas such as parchment identification, multi-spectral imaging and iron gall ink will become involved as the conservation progresses.
Translations of the Codex will be made available in English, and plans will be developed for translations in German, Spanish and modern Greek, using both existing and new translations of the textual variations in the Codex Sinaiticus.
A high quality, case-bound, colour-printed facsimile of the entire Codex Sinaiticus will be produced, to enable scholars and lay enthusiasts full access to a life-like copy of the original. A scholarly volume of commentaries, with contributions by leading scholars, will also be produced.
A range of projects and initiatives are planned for scholars and the general public including a dedicated website, illustrated booklet, CD Rom and the Library's award-winning Turning the Pages technology, to allow people to "turn" the digitised pages of the Codex in a realistic way, using interactive animation.
The Codex Sinaiticus project will also be recorded as a documentary by the television production company, CTVC.
For further information and images please contact Catriona Finlayson at the British Library Press Office, telephone +44 (0)20 7412 7114, email catriona.finlayson@bl.uk.
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2007 : 1:18:27 PM
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Here's a piece on the oldest complete Hebrew Codex:
The Leningrad Codex
The Leningrad Codex, or Leningradensis, is the oldest complete Hebrew bible still preserved. While there are older parts of Bibles, or biblical books, still in existence, there is no older manuscript which contains the whole Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament in Hebrew). The Leningrad Codex is considered one of the best examples of the Masoretic text.
How Old is the Manuscript?
The manuscript was written around the year 1010 C. E. It was probably written in Cairo, and later sold to someone living in Damascus.
Where is the Original Manuscript?
Today it is in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the Russian National Library (Saltykov-Shchedrin), where it has been since the mid-1800's. When the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center and West Semitic Research photographed the Bible in 1990, the city was still called Leningrad. The name of the manuscript continues to be called the Leningrad Codex in order to avoid confusion.
What do we mean when we talk about the Masoretic Text?
This manuscript belongs to a group of Hebrew texts called the Masoretic texts. The Hebrew alphabet itself, which developed from the Phoenician alphabet, has no true vowels, so the oldest Hebrew biblical fragments have only consonants, some of which are used as half-vowels, like our y, w, and h.
Sometime in the Middle Ages a group of scholars called Masoretes became interested in developing a system for marking the vowels. They were concerned that the pronunciation of the words might be lost, since Hebrew was no longer a spoken language. Besides vowels, they also wanted a way of marking punctuation, accents, and the musical notes used when the biblical text was chanted in the synagogue.
The most popular system of signs was developed by the Ben Asher family, and it is their system that is preserved in the Leningrad Codex. If you look carefully at a page you can see that the consonants, or letters, have little marks above and below them. Some of the marks are called "vowel points," and some are called "accents." The accents both act as punctuation and as musical notation.
The Masoretes were also interested in copying the biblical text very carefully so that it would be preserved from generation to generation. The way they tried to ensure this was the use of notes in the margins. In the margins beside the biblical verses they put little letters as symbols.
These symbols told the scribe copying the text information about unusual forms or words that should not be changed. For instance, they might put a circle over a word that occurred nowhere else in the Bible. In the margin they would then put the letter "l" which told the scribe, "yes, this is a unique word, but it is not an error, so just copy it the way it is." The notes at the top or bottom of a page would usually give more information about the symbols in the side margins.
What is a Codex?
The Leningrad Bible is called a "Codex" because it is in the form of a book ("codex" being an old word for "book"). The Bibles in the synagogues were in the form of scrolls, which meant that one never had an entire Bible together in one scroll. The codex would not have been used in the synagogue, but would have been used as a study Bible by students and scholars.
What books of the Bible does the Leningrad Codex contain?
The Codex includes all of the books in the Jewish Bible, or the Protestant Old Testament. The order of books in the Leningrad Bible is not quite the same as you will usually find in a modern Bible. First of all, the books are in the Jewish order, divided into three main parts: Instruction (Torah), Prophets (Nevi'im) and Writings (Ketuvim). In modern Jewish Bibles the order of the books is:
Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
The Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1&2), Kings (1&2)
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
The Twelve minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi).
The Writings: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations,
Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles (1&2).
The Leningrad Codex contains all these books, plus extensive scholarly notes, and 16 illuminated (decorative) pages. However, the order is a little bit different than what you would find in a modern Jewish Bible.
Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
The Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
The Twelve minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi).
The Writings: Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, The Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah.
Notice that the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah are all one book in this manuscript, which, of course, they were originally. Notice, too, that the Twelve minor prophets make up one book. This is because at one time they were all copied together on one long scroll.
Why is the Leningrad Codex important?
The Leningrad Codex is used today as the basis for most modern printed editions of the Hebrew Bible, together with a few other incomplete Hebrew Bibles. This is because it is the oldest complete manuscript copied with the Masoretic system developed by the Ben Asher family.
Light to All ~
Doc
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Edited by - Doc on Mar 08 2007 9:40:39 PM |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2007 : 1:25:53 PM
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And the oldest Arabic translation here:
The Mt. Sinai Arabic Codex 151 is indeed a most exciting discovery.
It appears to be the oldest Arabic translation of the Bible in existence which was done in 867 AD. Certainly it is the oldest Arabic translation with commentary supplied by the translator. It includes the Biblical text, marginal comments, lectionary notes, and glosses, as found in the manuscript. It was discovered at St. Catherine monastery in Mt. Sinai in the 1800's.
This ancient and important Arabic manuscript is published in one volume by the Institute For Middle Eastern New Testament Studies, edited by Dr. Harvey Staal. The volume is a presentation of the manuscript, preserving all the marginal notes and its intrinsic value as much as possible. Dr. Harvey Staal, a missionary of the Reformed Church in America, labored for years on the transcription and publication of this Arabic manuscript. This discovery is a thrilling discovery for Middle Eastern Christians, because it demonstrates that more than a 1100 years ago, an Arabic Christian translated God's precious word into our Arabic language, complete with notes and comments!
NOTE:
Dr. Staal passed away February 1999. Only a few copies remain from first printing and these are handled by the Bible Society in Beirut, Lebanon. The email address is: bsl@biblesociety.org.lb.
The more requests they get regarding availability, the more need they will realize for a second printing. Please email them, and kindly petition for the re-print of this valuable volume.
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2007 : 7:33:17 PM
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I just finished reading your posts, Doc. Thank you, for providing all of this excellent information. I especially enjoyed the global digitisation process that is set for completion in 2009, if I read it correctly. Thanks again:
VIL |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2007 : 9:51:03 PM
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My pleasure! Perhaps this piece will be of interest to you as well. Enjoy!
Dating the Oldest New Testament Manuscripts
by Peter van Minnen
The New Testament text we read in our English Bibles is based on the original Greek text. We know this text, albeit imperfectly, through a large number of ancient manuscripts. All these manuscripts are mere copies, and the great majority of them are copies of copies, yet ultimately they all derive from the originals. In the process of copying, however, scribal errors are bound to occur. There is not a single copy wholly free from mistakes. A science called textual criticism deals systematically with these mistakes to eliminate as many of them as possible. The most important tools for textual critics are the manuscripts themselves.
In the sixteenth century the Greek New Testament was published for the first time in printed form. The great Dutch philologist Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam had established a text from a handful of manuscripts dating from the later Middle Ages. Unfortunately he used only manuscripts of inferior quality for his edition of 1516. A few verses from the Apocalypse were lacking in the manuscripts at his disposal. He simply re-translated them from the current Latin version! Erasmus' intention with his edition was to provide a basis for a new Latin translation of the New Testament. The Reformers used it to produce vernacular translations of their own.
Until the nineteenth century New Testament scholars and translators availed themselves only sparingly of other manuscripts. Then, within a fairly short period, a number of manuscripts of superior quality became available, mainly thanks to the work of the German scholar Constantin Tischendorf. These manuscripts dated from the fourth and fifth centuries and presented a text that was at least free from the accretions of a later age. We had to wait, however, until the 70's and 80's of the nineteenth century for new critical editions of the New Testament.
Tischendorf himself and the British scholars Westcott and Hort produced two rival editions of the Greek text. They believed that their text reflected the original as well as possible, even if it was based on manuscripts dating from at least three centuries after the New Testament was written. Gradually the new critical texts replaced Erasmus' text, which has not received much attention from serious scholars anymore. Thousands more ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament have become known in the past 100 years. Monastery libraries in countries around the Mediterranean have yielded most of the manuscripts. The textual critics of the Greek New Testament have been able to come to terms with only a few of them. Most of them are not very old manuscripts anyhow, and in textual criticism it is age and quality that counts, not mere quantity.
In the 30's and 60's of the twentieth century a number of other, very important manuscripts have become available. We owe this to the efforts of two wealthy book collectors, Chester Beatty and Martin Bodmer. These manuscripts are of a special class for two reasons. They are written on papyrus and date from well before the fourth century. The earliest papyrus manuscripts come very close to the time when the New Testament was written. Of course, manuscripts on papyrus were known before, but these dated from a much later period and tended to be rather fragmentary. For almost all New Testament books we now have manuscripts earlier than the fourth century.
How do we know these manuscripts are so very early? How do we know their dates for certain? Some of you may think "scientific" tests on the physical structure of the papyrus may yield such dates. In fact they cannot, because such tests are very inaccurate. No, we can date papyrus manuscripts, any manuscript for that matter, simply by looking at the way it is written. Handwriting is a product of human culture and as such it is always developing. Differences in handwriting are bound to appear within one generation. Just compare the handwriting of your parents with your own. Or look at your own scribblings of a few years ago. It is the same handwriting as today but an expert, a paleographer, can distinguish not unimportant differences. He cannot establish the exact date but he can confidently place one handwriting in the 30's and another in the 80's. Even printed texts can easily be dated according to the outward appearance of the type or font used by the printer.
For such an ancient period as that between A.D. 100 and 300 it is of course much more difficult to be confident about the date of a manuscript. There is infinitely less comparative material. Nevertheless we are now in a fairly comfortable position to date papyrus manuscripts according to their handwriting. We do not have to rely on manuscripts of the New Testament only. We have hundreds of papyrus manuscripts of Greek pagan literary texts from this period and again hundreds of carefully written papyrus documents that show the same types of handwriting. These documents are very important for paleographers because they are often exactly dated. As a rule New Testament manuscripts on papyrus are not. A careful comparison of the papyrus documents and manuscripts of the second and third centuries has established beyond doubt that about forty Greek papyrus manuscripts of the New Testament date from this very period. Unfortunately only six of them are extensively preserved.
Even within the period that runs from c. A.D. 100-300 it is possible for paleographers to be more specific on the relative date of the papyrus manuscripts of the New Testament. For about sixty years now a tiny papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John has been the oldest "manuscript" of the New Testament. This manuscript (P52) has generally been dated to ca. A.D. 125. This fact alone proved that the original Gospel of John was written earlier, viz. in the first century A.D., as had always been upheld by conservative scholars.
We now have early and very early evidence for the text of the New Testament. A classified list of the most important manuscripts will make this clear. Numbers preceded by a P refer to papyri, the letters refer to parchment manuscripts.
ca. A.D. 200 250 300 350 450
Matthew P45 B Sin.
Mark P45 B Sin. A
Luke P4,P45,P75 B Sin. A
John P66 P45,P75 B Sin. A
Acts P45 B Sin. A
Romans-Hebrews P46 B Sin. A
James-Jude P72,B Sin. A
Apocalypse P47 Sin. A
As you can see, from the fourth century onwards the material base for establishing the text of the Greek New Testament is very good indeed. The manuscripts Sin. (Sinaiticus), A (Alexandrinus) and B (Vaticanus) are almost complete parchment manuscripts. With the help of the earlier papyrus manuscripts we have been able to establish that the text of these three great manuscripts is to a large extent reliable. The papyrus manuscript P75 was the latest to be published, but it showed a virtually identical text to manuscript B. This settled the vexed question whether we have in the parchment manuscripts of the fourth and fifth centuries a safe guide to the original text of the New Testament. We have.
That is not to say that we can dispense with later manuscripts of the New Testament. With the exception of Sin. the oldest manuscripts are not complete. Moreover they contain scribal errors of all sorts. P46 is a case in point: it is the manuscript with the largest percentage of blunders on record! Most of this kind of errors can, however, be removed by comparing the readings of the oldest manuscripts. The remaining puzzles can only be solved by taking later manuscripts into account. Most of the work in textual criticism in the past forty years has been done by Kurt Aland in Münster and Bruce Metzger in Princeton. The latest translations of the New Testament are based on their work.
It is to be noticed that all the manuscripts listed above come from Egypt. The papyri were found there in the twentieth century. They are now in Dublin, Ann Arbor, Cologny (in Switzerland), the Vatican and Vienna. Sin. was found in a monastery library on the slopes of Mount Sinai in the nineteenth century and brought to St. Petersburg. In 1933 it was sold to the British Museum in London for a mere 100,000 pounds. A was transferred from the patriarchal library at Alexandria in the seventeenth century and is now also in the British Library. B has been in the Vatican since the Middle Ages. We owe the early Egyptian Christians an immense debt. Those who are fortunate enough to be able to work with part of their heritage count their blessings every day.
Light to All !
Doc
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VIL
USA
586 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2007 : 4:46:08 PM
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Thanks, Doc:
VIL |
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Doc
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2007 : 11:08:39 AM
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Hi VIL:
I thought that this information would be better placed in this thread, even though your inquiry was made in another thread. so here it is. Doc
Hebrew Months and the Zodiac
Hebrew Month * Zodiac Sign * Dates * Hebrew Name
Nisan = Aries = March 21-April 20 = Taleh
Iyar = Taurus = April 21-May 20 = Shor
Sivan = Gemini = May 21-June 20 = Teomim
Tammuz = Cancer = June 21-July 21 = Sartan
Av = Leo = July 22-August 22 = Aryeh
Elul = Virgo = August 23-September 22 = Betulah
Tishre = Libra = September 23-October 22 = Moznayim
Cheshvan = Scorpio = October 23-November 21 = Akrav
Kislev = Sagittarius = November 22-December 20 = Keshet
Tevet = Capricorn = December 21-January 20 = G'di
Shvat = Aquarius = January 21-February 18 = D'li
Adar = Pisces = February 19-March 20 = Dagim
Moses had a special formula. This formula is called the 72 Names of God. The 72 Names are not really names, as human names are. The 72 Names are 72 three-letter sequences composed of Hebrew letters that have the extraordinary power to overcome the laws of both mother and human nature. These 72 sequences are actually encoded into the Bible story that tells of the parting of the Red Sea as described at Exodus 14:19-21. They are like conduits that transmit various blends of energy from the Light into our physical world. By using the power of the 72 Names and overcoming their reactive natures, Moses and the Jews were able to accomplish the miracle of the Red Sea.
The shapes, sounds, sequences, and vibrations of the 72 names radiate a wide range of energy forces. The Light they emit purifies our hearts. Their spiritual influence cleanses destructive impulses from our natures. Their sacred energy removes rash and intolerant emotions, fear, and anxiety from our beings. The Hebrew letters are instruments of power. In fact, the Hebrew word for “letter” actually means pulse or vibration, indicating a flow of energy. The Hebrew alphabet transcends religion, race, geography, and the very concept of language. The three letters signify three spiritual forces—a positive charge, a negative charge, and a ground wire—to create a circuit of energy.
The 72 names are derived from Exodus 14:19-21, which in the original Hebrew have 72 letters each:
http://altreligion.about.com/librar...agick/72.jpg
Here are the English translation equivalents:
Vehuiah Jeliel Sitael Elemiah Mahasiah Lelahel Achaiah Cahetel Aziel Alaoiah Lauviah Hahaiah Iezalel Mebahel Hariel Hakamiah Lauviah Caliel Leuviah Pahaliah Nelehael Ieiaiel Melahel Hahuiah Nith Haaiah Jerathel Seeiah Reiiel Omael Lecabel Vasariah Iehuiah Lehahiah Chevakiah Menadel Aniel Haamiah Rehael Ieiazel Hahahel Mikael Veuahiah Ielahiah Sealiah Ariel Asaliah Michael Vehuel Daniel Hahasiah Imamiah Nanael Nitael Mebaiah Poiel Nemmamiah Ieialel Harakel Mizrael Umabel Iah Anianuel Mehiel Damabiah Manakel Etaiel Xabuiah Rochel Jabamiah Haiel Mumiah
Baruch atah Adonai Elohaynu melech ha-olam. Amin.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, both now and ever. Amen.
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Kabbalah, Gnosticism and Christianity
