Today was a fun day on Twitter. 🙂
Peace,
-Steve
Aramaic! Do You Speak It?
Tag Archives: Uncategorized
The James Ossuary… Sigh
So Oded Golan os now trying his best to nab some of the limelight with the James Ossuary, and is hitting the media.
Where the court ruled that Golan was not guilty of forgery, it was also very careful to state that it did not endorse the ossuary as genuine either. However you can see which portion of the ruling the press doesn’t care about. 🙂
Thank you, Chris, for representing the voice of reason in an otherwise sensationalized and getting-old story.
(HT Christopher Rollston)
Peace,
-Steve
Learn to Write Aramaic — whoops…!
So I noticed that there’s a relatively new book out on the market called “Learn to Write Aramaic” (2011)… and like other book covers I’ve noticed there were some problems…
That lamad needs to be a *bit* higher. In Herodian script that makes it look like a nun, which turns shlama (peace) into shnama (which… isn’t even a word).
Not the best testament to its accuracy, but I’m honestly trying my very best to avoid judging a book by its cover.
Peace,
-Steve
More on the Nuns in Ma’loula
There are differing versions of what happened to the Greek Orthodox nuns of Maaloula, who left their convent north of Damascus earlier this month. Some say the nuns are being held hostage by Islamic radicals. Others say they were under missile assault by the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad and were rescued by rebel fighters.NPR now has a firsthand account from one man who was in Maaloula — and says he helped with the nuns’ passage.
Peace,
-Steve
A Comparison of the First Replica
I’ve taken the time to further illustrate the First Replica next to the Second as well as what I’ve been able to trace from the photographs of the genuine ossuary. Click to enlarge to see the notes.
The first replica does well at reproducing some very strong visual elements of the original ossuary that are very prominent without knowledge of the alleged script. These are features that anyone would notice at a glance, simply because of the pattern the lines make: The prominent “V” shape between the “he” and the “nun” as well as the prominent “lens” shape between the “yod” and the “waw” as well as the “tav tail” on the “he.”
The second replica destroys and filters these features, instead leaning towards forms that better express “Jonah” with little ambiguity.
Additionally, on the first replica, the supposed “nun” is so very widely broken that there is no way to read it as one scratch. It also has some of the “minor” scratches that were prominent.
Thoughts?
Peace,
-Steve