the codus sinaiticus
The oldest known version of the New Testament is being put online.
Handwritten in Greek more than 1,600 years ago — it isn’t exactly clear where — the surviving 400 or so pages carry a version of the New Testament that has a few interesting differences from the Bible used by Christians today.
The Gospel of Mark ends abruptly after Jesus’ disciples discover his empty tomb, for example. Mark’s last line has them leaving in fear.
“It cuts out the post-resurrection stories,” said Juan Garces, curator of the Codex Sinaiticus Project. “That’s a very odd way of ending a Gospel.”
James Davila, a professor of early Jewish studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland, said the Codex also includes religious works foreign to the Roman Catholic and Protestant canons — such as the “Epistle of Barnabas” and the “Shepherd of Hermas,” a book packed with visions and parables.
Davila stressed that did not mean the works were necessarily considered Scripture by early Christians: They could have been bound with the Bible to save money.
Which Jesus do they worship?
I found this link at TheCarpetbaggerReport.com.
Dear Jesus
At the beginning of every season of The Wire when I hear the new version of the theme song I think how odd it sounds and how I will never forget the old one. Then I do. Please forgive me.
Your faithful servant,
“Men on a Mission”
The fellow who created this calendar of Mormon missionaries has been ex-communicated for presenting an unbefitting image of the church. (thanks, e)
The Bible, Hobo Standard, 1
Islam and Democracy
T.E. Lawrence’s perspective still has some merit it seems:
There is a powerful rhetoric around today that claims Islam – not just fundamentalist or Wahhabist or Safalist Islam, but Islam itself is a religion hostile to democracy. Hostile not only to liberty, pluralism and the open society, but to modernity itself as it is defined by liberal values. The attitude evident in Samuel Huntington’s discredited notion of a “clash of civilizations” in which the West and the rest are locked in a struggle for survival, so foreign to discussions like our here in Istanbul, in fact remains ubiquitous in Western politics and media.
It is found not only in Bush’s zealous conduct of a disastrous war on the “axis of evil,” or Donald Rumsfeld’s assertion that Islamic fundamentalism is a “new form of fascism;” or in right wing paranoiac events like David Horowitz’s “Islamofascism Awareness Week,” but is reflected also in writings of liberals like Paul Berman who talk about how the West is “beset with terrorists from the Muslim totalitarian movements who have already killed an astounding number of people;” or in scholars like Bernard Lewis who announce in hushed tones of sympathy that “the world of Islam has become poor, weak and ignorant;” or in Muslim apostates like Ali Hirsi who combine a seemingly liberal appeal to feminist values with a total rejection of not just fundamentalism but Islam itself.
The Gabriel Tablets
The release of inscriptions from a three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing quiet a stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it appears to speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days. If this turns out to be an accurate rendering, and the date holds, this turns out to show that the idea of resurrection did not come from Christianity per se, but was part of a larger, Jewish world of anticipation and thought. The Jewishness of early Christianity is more positively confirmed by this extraordinary finding.
Theology is a dirty business, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Pat Pierce was nice enough to post the official response article to the Gospel of Judas article I linked yesterday.:
The points of contention with April DeConick and others concerning the translation have involved little more than the interpretation of the single instance of the term “daimon” and the understanding of a Coptic idiom that is ambiguous and open to interpretation, as well as two passages with extraordinarily difficult Coptic transcriptional issues (the ink traces on the papyrus are hard to decipher). These issues were addressed well before the publication of DeConick’s book, in the critical edition of the translation and in updated materials we distributed to our colleagues.
Why DeConick insists on raising old issues that are long past remains a mystery. She received a revised Coptic text and English translation of the Gospel of Judas at a conference in Paris in the autumn of 2006. To put it in clear terms: She discusses in her book and her public interviews an understanding of the Coptic text of the Gospel of Judas that had been abandoned by the National Geographic team long before the time she entered public discussions of the text.
The problem I have, however, is not concerned with the difficulties of translation but how the whole affair was handled. The secrecy and speed of the whole affair runs contrary to the nature of these sorts of studies, particularly the textual criticism necessary to legitimize authorship and, I think, the non-disclosure agreement deflates the DeConick critique since she could never have seen or heard what the National Geographic Team discussed before public release.
Judas Betrayed
Ah, yes, people always seem to forget the economics of academics:
The loudest and most frequent complaint has been about its secrecy. The members of the team weren’t allowed to reveal what they were working on, much less to share information with fellow scholars. In 1991 the Society of Biblical Literature passed a resolution that said all scholars should be allowed access to a newly found manuscript or, barring that, a facsimile. If that resolution had been followed, critics argue, then the more egregious errors would never have made it to press or been broadcast to millions.
But that simply wasn’t possible given the nature of the project, according to Terry D. Garcia, executive vice president for mission programs at National Geographic. Garcia greenlighted the Judas deal and made the announcement at the news conference when it was released to the world. He was involved at every step, even personally carrying fragments of the manuscript back from Switzerland to the United States to undergo radiocarbon dating. He says the organization was mostly concerned that the Gospel of Judas “is what it purports to be.” As for the much-criticized nondisclosure agreements, Garcia says they are a routine precaution. “The last thing we wanted were multiple voices talking about bits and pieces of this project,” he says. “All that would do was fan speculation and create unsubstantiated claims that might impede the research.”
He notes that National Geographic sunk a lot of money into the Gospel of Judas (he wouldn’t say how much, though he confirmed it was in the low seven figures). That money was used in part to pay for the transcription, translation, and preservation of the manuscript. It was a significant investment of resources and time. Most important, according to Garcia, it put National Geographic’s reputation on the line. He dismisses criticism of the project as inevitable and called the assertions in DeConick’s opinion piece “the height of irresponsibility.”
Up, Up and Away
“This is the strangest thing I’ve seen since I’ve been on the
force,” said Paul Madison, first officer on the scene. Madison
questioned the man who looked like Jesus and discovered that he was
dressed up as Jesus and was on his way to a toga costume party when
the tarp covering the bed of his pickup truck came loose and released
twelve blow up sex dolls filled with helium which floated up into the
air.
Can’t vouch for the source, but a good story any way you look at it.
The strong-willed child?
I think some strong-willed religious folks just announced their independence.
now this is just too far
When our science teachers are not allowed to teach their religious beliefs in class or brand a student with the sign of the cross, the separation of church and state has gone too far!
Oh Heavens
(This is a kind of companion piece to an earlier one — A Few Important Religious Ideas — that appeared in elimae.)
I don’t know much about it, but it’s going to be great!!
I don’t like family visits that last more than a couple of days, but in heaven something will make me like that for eons.
I guess I’ll like the new body they give me. I’m betting they will have food that tastes great but only puts “spiritual” weight on you.
I’m sure I’ll still be “me” and I’ll still know it, since I’m the one who did all the work of arranging to end up there in the first place. I mean, if I turned out to be some other totally different kind of being, why would I give a shit if I saw grandma again—which is a big part of the pitch for going.
Read more
Teach the Controversy
(via boingboing)
Ehrman vs Wright on the Problem of Suffering
Bart Ehrman and N.T. Wright have apparently been dialoguing on the problem of evil. I haven’t had time to read any of it yet but, considering the fellows, I am sure it is great.
- Bart Ehrman: How the Problem of Pain Ruined My Faith
- N.T. Wright: God’s Plan to Rescue Us
- Bart Ehrman: What About the Actual Suffering?
- N.T. Wright: What it Looks Like When God Runs the World
- Bart Ehrman: God’s Kingdom Has Not Come
- N.T. Wright: The Bible Does Answer the Problem–Here’s How
Both of these characters have been talked about before by Flockers.
Letters To Those Who Have Been Left Behind
Here’s a fantastically insane blog hosting letters written by Christians to non-Christians about why all the good people have up and disappeared from Earth and the lowly heathen jerks have been left behind.
Dear Friend,
Are you looking for me? Is the world looking for millions of missing people that have just vanished in an instant? Are all little children around the globe part of the missing group? If so, I can tell you what has happened. Don’t believe the very convincing lies you will hear. Don’t believe UFO’s got us. Don’t believe some cosmic reaction erased us.
The truth is - are you ready for this? - we’re at a wedding. Yup. In fact, we are the “bride.” The “groom” is Jesus, the Messiah, the Promised One from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Hear, O Israel!) He has come to take His cride, the true Church and all little innocent ones, out of this world because of what is coming.
Yes, yes, I know. There are all sorts of Christians running around now insisting that this explanation CANNOT be the correct one because THEY are Left Behind. This may include some very visible Christians, like maybe a Pope or something. What does this tell you? It tells you that any “Christian” left behind was a phony. They may have said they believed, blah blah blah, but God knows the heart of men, and He has seen that they are fakes.
It’s like fan fiction, only 1000x more pathological.
(thx Sean)
Update: The World Ends This Friday, June 12
The incredibly normal, down-to-earth man in the video below says the world will end this coming Friday. Then again, he also said the world would end in 2000, and when that didn’t happen he picked 2006.
Anyway, this sorta sucks. The weather is supposed to be nice, too.
(thx Cyn-C)
Atheist Nightmare
(via kottke)
Do you smell something burning?
Trailer for Bill Maher’s documentary Religulous.
(via coudal)
Hitch
Oh, and I do not “profess” to despise religious extremists. I really do despise them.
From “Just one question,” The Guardian, May 27, 2008. Part of a longer piece in which luminaries at The Guardian Hay festival ask each other questions. The full classic Hitchens comment is after the jump.
Why did they build expensive medieval churches?
A conversation on the possible rationale for expensive religious architecture:
Religious architecture and art were to medieval feudalism what advertising and commercialism are to modern capitalism: A rather effective way to build support for the status quo using aesthetics instead of argument. My claim, in short, is that Notre Dame played the same role during the Middle Ages that fashion magazines play today. Notre Dame was not an argument for feudalism, and Elle is not an argument for capitalism. But both are powerful ways to make regular people buy into the system.
Captain Hook and His Scurvy Christian Pirate Puppet Crew
I stand corrected. The televangelizing, ventriloquizing Captain Hook was not, as I implied, a Texan (though he did release an LP titled “Captain Hook A-live in Texas”). He was a Hoosier. A Hoosier biker who wiped out, lost a leg, and saw the light, which light illuminated a vision of himself as the piratical Christian captain of a piratical Christian puppet crew and host of a Christian television program for children.
The televangelical Captain Hook was no fey Cyril Ritchard pirate dandy nor ambiguous Jack Sparrow. Nosirree. He had him a Mrs. Hook right there on the ship with him (what might Jack Aubrey have said?) along with those puppets, one of whom was named Sharkey. If you listen to this clip, you can pray along with Sharkey: Captain Hook and His Scurvy Christian Pirate Puppet crew.
Ministry Starter Set Puppets
This might help Cindy with her Texas themed puppet ideas.
Little Known Verse from Leviticus
Oh, that Pinky and his Scripture learning.
science in america
A poll conducted by Penn State University shows that one in eight U.S. high school teachers presents creationism as a valid alternative to evolution.