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Unfaithful Representation: The Second Replica

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Among additional interesting note is that “Jonah” is not as easily read on the first replica, but the first replica has fish in the margins where the second replica has an easy-to-read “Jonah” but no fish in the margins.
It seems as if the props Jacobovici uses change to suit the mood. 🙂
To read more about this messy issue, be sure to check out my previous post here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: “Original Photos” refers to the actual ossuary, not the first replica. Image updated to version 1.1 with less ambiguous language.
UPDATE Sep 18:
Second replica in red, James Tabor’s “yellow inked” outline in yellow.
As pointed out by several others, an examination of the “yellow-lined” version of “Jonah” offered up by James Tabor is not identical to the form found on the second replica, however it does share some interesting features.
  1. The serifed, disconnected “yod.”
  2. The oddly double-curved “waw.”
  3. The connected & exaggerated “Nun.”
  4. The “broken” “he.”
Curious, the similarities, including lines that aren’t there.
Peace,
-Steve

Robert Cargill, The Enforcer

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“Acting like an enforcer, Professor Cargill has assured us that by next week Puech will recant everything.”
– Simcha Jacobovici
So yes, Simcha Jacobovici is once again crying foul after bamboozling a scholar to seemingly endorse his ridiculous theories, when in truth they did not and is trying to lay the blame squarely upon the shoulders of Professor Robert Cargill.
Since I am content in my little bit of satire of Simcha’s overly-dramatic sweeping declarations, apparently elevating Bob to the status of Dirty Harry, I will simply link to the pertinent exposition and critical commentary:

UPDATE: Mark Goodacre over on the NT Blog has brought to light that the “Museum Quality Replica” of the so-called “Jonah Ossuary” has been given a facelift in light of criticism and the shifting claims of Simcha Jacobovici and James Tabor. Strangely enough in Replica 2 the inscription that supposedly says “Jonah” is almost too clear compared to the order of scratches on the first replica (which don’t connect certain “letters”), and more importantly the mess of scratches in the actual photographs of the genuine ossuary.

(This second replica’s all-too-clean inscription, by the way, was what Professor Puech was apparently basing his reading off of.)

Curiouser and curiouser. I wonder what Jacobovici has to say about this?

I have to say that I am disgusted.

It’s all fun and games to have a replica made to show off to the press. Seriously. People enjoy that kind of thing. *I* enjoy that kind of thing.

However, it’s another issue entirely to call something a “replica” that’s demonstrably not faithful or accurate to the original, revise it without noting the changes after criticism has mounted so that it looks more like what you’re trying to prove, and then use that altered representation to apparently deceive someone prominent like Puech.

It’s even a further ethical failure, in my opinion, to then turn around and use that person’s opinion (which one can assume has been misinformed due to the altered inscription; think GIGO) as propaganda for one’s own “crackpot” theories.

I’m with Mark on this one. I believe that Simcha owes not just Prof. Puech, but everyone involved thus far an overdue apology for these tactics.

Peace,
-Steve

Ma’loula Under Attack

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Not that it has hit the news widely, but it has been reported (as a footnote to a BBC article) that, Syrian rebels have launched an assault on the religiously mixed village of Ma’loula, in western Syria, held by government forces.

This is the same Ma’loula that harbors the largest community of modern Western Neo-Aramaic speakers and Ma’loula is the last surviving Western Neo-Aramaic dialect (the same Aramaic language family as Galilean, Samaritan, and Christian Palestinian Aramaic).

A Christian nun in Maaloula told the Associated Press news agency that the rebels had seized a mountain-top hotel and were shelling the community below.

Please keep them in your prayers.

Peace,
-Steve

“The Rule of Creative Completion: Neofiti’s Use of שכלל” now available in Aramaic Studies

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Bob Cargill has an article out in Aramaic Studies about the Aramaic verb שכלל (shaklal , roughly “to complete”) and its unique use in Targum Neofiti. Here’s the abstract he’s shared:

The verb שכלל never appears as the sole verb of a creative process in Targum Neofiti—a practice unique to TgNeof among the Palestinian Targums. Rather, the authors exclusively reserve שכלל for the final position of Aramaic verbal doublets and triplets that complete a creative action initiated by a prior Hebrew verb. This article examines each use of שכלל in TgNeof and demonstrates how its consistent usage—designated as the ‘Rule of Creative Completion’ by the author—can inform contested interpretations elsewhere within the text, and notably its presence in the extant text of TgNeof Gen. 1.1, as well as offer further evidence for an established Aramaic scribal style employed during the composition of Palestinian Targums.

Bob, you are such an Aramaic nerd. 🙂

However, for some reason the whole thing reminds me of a story about a דודא and a קומקמא…

Peace,
-Steve