Tag Archives: manuscript

“Ancient” Syriac Bible found in Cyprus?

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(A picture of the manuscript.)

Fri Feb 6, 2009 7:57am EST

NICOSIA (Reuters Life!) – Authorities in northern Cyprus believe they have found an ancient version of the Bible written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus.

The manuscript was found in a police raid on suspected antiquity smugglers. Turkish Cypriot police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript could be about 2,000 years old.

When I saw images of this relic, they reminded me of something that happened a back in July of last year where I was approached by an individual, who claimed to come from Turkey, trying to sell me a forgery (click the link for pictures). Naturally, such an experience has made me skeptical when I heard about a “manuscript [carrying] excerpts of the Bible written in gold lettering on vellum and loosely strung together” and written in “eastern script.”


(A picture of the manuscript forgery I was offered.)

Given what I have seen of the manuscript thusfar, I’m going to have to tentatively concur with JF Coakley on his analysis. Unless other hard evidence surfaces to the contrary (carbon dating or thorough textual analysis), this is probably either a work no earlier than the 15th century, or a modern forgery.

UPDATE & NOTE (Feb 11th): It seems that I was a bit ambiguous above as to the identity of the manuscript in question. I do not believe the manuscript the police found to be -the- document I was offered, but more that it fits a consistent pattern of forgeries that are showing up in Turkey. All of the defining characteristics look like they match (which both manuscripts seem to share):

  • “Golden letters”
  • Written on leather rather than actual vellum
  • Bound together haphazardly.
  • “Synopses” of New Testament stories rather than full text.
  • Written in Pseudosyriac or modern Syriac.
  • Written in Eastern script.
  • Very characteristic illustrations.
  • Etc.

Peace,
-Steve

Friedberg Genizah Project Online

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Absolutely awesome site makeover employing well-done user-centered design (UCD). 🙂

The only drawback is that it only supports ~shudder~, Internet Explorer. 😛

“The Friedberg Genizah Project was initiated by Mr Albert D Friedberg of Toronto, Canada, who foresaw the fascinating possibilities of harnessing modern information technology in order to advance international research into the riches of the Cairo Genizah. The hundreds of thousands of Genizah fragments around the world include Bible texts and commentaries, rabbinic dictionaries, halakhic works, poetry, liturgical texts, philosophical and polemic treatises, commercial documents and letters. This sea of primary source material – written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Arabic, Judeo-Persian and Yiddish – dates from the 8th century until after the 15th century. The Genizah is a window on nearly 1000 years of Jewish and Middle Eastern history, scholarship and daily life. The FGP will open this window wider than ever before, launching a new era in Genizah scholarship…”

The project can be found here: http://www.genizah.org/

Peace,
-Steve

eBay Travesty: Syriac Manuscript Chopped Up

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Why? Why did this have to happen?

For those who read The Aramaic Blog, do you remember the medical manuscript that I mentioned earlier? Well, a single page of the text came up on eBay just the other day from the same seller, and it seemed very fishy to me. So I emailed them:

To Whom It May Concern,

May I ask why this individual leaf has been sold separately from the rest of this manuscript as listed earlier this month?

Has there been any attempt to preserve the entirety of the text? Have any scholars had time to discern any historical significance from the relic in its original state before these pieces have been separated?

Thank you for your time,
—
Steve Caruso
Aramaic Designs, & The Aramaic Blog

To my dismay, I received the following reply (emphasis mine):

Dear [Steve Caruso],

We have not found a buyer for the entire text, which is why we are auctioning it off 1 page at a time. We are offering the book, which has 27 pages left, and the cover, for $23,000.

– goldrelics

For those of you who know my opinions about manuscript conservation, this has greatly disheartened me.

Below is the contact information for “goldrelics.” I encourage and implore everyone who has similar sentiment about the preservation of ancient texts to contact them and express your displeasure in the strongest terms possible, and pass this information on to others:

Email: ebay@goldrelics.com
eBayStore Listing: http://myworld.ebay.com/goldrelics/

Where I find I lack the finances to preserve this manuscript myself, I am contemplating putting together a fund to salvage what is left of the document. People who would be willing to donate towards this cause please contact me through Information@AramaicDesigns.com. If there is enough interest, I’ll set up an account to handle any funds contributed in a responsible, transparent fashion. If not.. well, I can at least say that I tried.

Peace,
-Steve

Syriac Aramaic Manuscript on eBay

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There’s a new Aramaic relic up for sale on eBay: Part of a manuscript from 1388. I thought about bidding on it, but it suddenly went from $80 up to $1,520. A bit high for my meager budget. 🙂

If I have some free time (hehe… IF.. free time is looking bleak) I might post a translation of the pages.

Peace,
-Steve

Missing Page of Syriac Manuscript Found

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A year after the Romans packed up their shields in AD410 and left Britain to the mercy of the Anglo-Saxons, a scribe in Edessa, in what is modern day Turkey, was preparing a list of martyrs who had perished in defence of the relatively new Christian faith in Persia.

In a margin he dated the list November 411. Unfortunately for the martyrs, history forgot them. At some point, this page became detached from the book it belonged to. Since 1840, the volume has been one of the treasures of the British Library. It is known only by its catalogue code: ADD 12-150

The missing page has always been a fascinating mystery for scholars and historians. Now, after an extraordinary piece of detective work, that page has been rediscovered among ancient fragments in the Deir al-Surian monastery in Egypt. It is, according to Oxford University’s Dr Sebastian Brock, the leading Syriac scholar who identified the fragments, the oldest dated Christian text in existence.

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