PSA

[kyburg]

I haven't heard this one, but then again - I doubt I travel in circles that would.

Y'all might have friends who do, though.

To quote my friend nagerj (He's friends-only, but a lovely person nonetheless):

Some of you may have read about an ancient Irish Psalter that's been discovered in a bog recently. What I didn't know until this morning (compliments of orthodixie) was that some folks are taking the find as a sign from God.

Lemme 'splain.

No, there is too much. Lemme sum up.

The Psalter, written in Latin as pretty much any 9th-11th century Irish Psalter would have been, has been reported as found open to Psalm 83. Some industrious apocalyptic zealots apparently pulled their Bibles off the shelf, turned to Psalm 83, and read such colorful lines as "For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." These lines are followed by references to various peoples conspiring against Israel, including "Ishmaelites" and "Philistines," among others. (You can probably see where I'm going with this.) A-ha! This is an omen from God, that those nasty Arabs (Ishmaelites/Muslims) and Palestinians (Philistines) are attacking the chosen people! The end of this Psalm is filled with prayers for God's vengeance against the attackers.

There's a small problem, though. Psalm 83 in modern Protestant and Jewish Bibles does indeed have all these references to the enemies of ancient Israel. But Psalm 83 in a 9th-11th century Latin Psalter is not the same psalm but would rather correspond to Psalm 84 in Protestant and Jewish Bibles, in which one would be hard pressed to find prophecies about the current crisis in the Middle East. You see, when Martin Luther did his translation of the Bible into German, he also chose to revise the Biblical canon. Besides removing some books (and later adding a few back in that he'd removed, such as Hebrews), he also chose to follow the Hebrew numbering for the Psalms rather than the Christian one found in Greek and Latin Psalters (the one found in the Septuagint).

This is why interpreting the Bible and knowledge about religious history matter. No doubt these folks who see a prophecy in the Irish mud are even now using this find as ammunition in their politics. The National Museum of Ireland has issued a reply with a clarification. One hopes that it gets read.

It's nice to know people more intelligent and better read than myself. He's delightful. (You think we agree on a lot of things? Nah. But then again, is that the point of having friends? They all have to be Just Like Yourself?)

Comments

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

One of the many nifty news things I woulda posted about this week if I had breathing room. You know the drill.

[hangingfire.livejournal.com]

Aha. I wondered about that; it just seemed too convenient to be true. Thanks for posting that.

[blukat.livejournal.com]

Interesting, because they are constantly finding ancient scrolls and Scripture at the old garbage dump at Nat Hammadi in Egypt, yet they aren't being touted as a sign from God. It's too bad they don't realize the true importance of such a find, which is that it could show which changes were made in the name of politics.

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

This is a very interesting read, along with the links. Thank you for posting.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

He's a delightful, delightful man I rarely agree with. Thank God for people like him!

[bitpig.livejournal.com]

See, this is one of the main reasons I love being Catholic: we have an Authority (the pope) to whom we can turn for the last word on stuff like this. The Church has always been pretty skeptical of "signs".

In fact, aside the few "approved" apparitions (appearances) of the Virgin to people since her Assumption, almost none of the zillions of "signs", "wonders" and other assorted claims of the miraculous that have appeared every year have been certified as real by Rome. (It took 500 years for them to sign off on the sainthood of St. Juan Diego -- a guy so blessed that the Virgin not only appeared to him in person on several occasions, but she painted a self-portrait on his robe -- a painting that still exists today!)

Freaking out over crop circles, books in bogs, End Times signs, etc. is more of a fundamentalist/superstitious thing than a Christian thing. The way the Church sees it, God sent the ultimate Sign into the world a couple of thousand years ago -- the Passion of His Son -- and that was pretty much enough of a sign for the rest of time. As for miracles, the ultimate miracle happens on the altar of your local Catholic parish every day -- the Miracle of Transubstantiation.

And the End Times? Well, the world will end someday -- maybe tonight, maybe ten thousand years from now -- but the end of the world we ought to be concerned with is our own personal "end of the world -- our own deaths. That's the End of the World that really matters -- and it can come at any time.

Anyway, the bog book is an interesting find, but unless SEELE is squatting on the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls somewhere, it's more an archaeological than an aeschatological event.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Superstitious Xians make up the body of the Christian Coalition - make no bones about it.

They rarely know scripture, they don't get the in jokes and they have no idea about how things actually work with regard to reality.

Ever study anything on the gnostic texts? Fascinating stuff -

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

ya know the facts are not going to stop the nutjobs.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Stop, no. Derail? Yes.