Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Whoa.

Ancient book of psalms found in Irish bog.

The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.

"This is really a miracle find," said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration and facing years of painstaking analysis before being put on public display.

"There's two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out. First of all, it's unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing."

...Crucially, he said, the bog owner covered up the book with damp soil. Had it been left exposed overnight, he said, "it could have dried out and just vanished, blown away."

The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.



Well. That ought to have the Rapture believers in raptures. A portent!

As portents go I can't say that's one I'm loving too much.

14 comments:

H.M. Lufkin said...

I'm not one for portents, but that's chilling.

belledame222 said...

Well. Could've been worse I suppose; after all that's just pretty much describing what's already happening. Israel feels/is under siege from all sides; fire at will. Synchronicity if you will. sucks that people are gonna take that as vindication (and you know someone will if they haven't already).

all i know is if they find a really old chunk of Revelation next, I'm out of here.

belledame222 said...

o yeah and: ancient shit bubbling to the surface. i believe i have observed (along with others) that this seems to be a theme these days, both micro and macro level.

TheAdequateDer said...

Do you recall the story about an Israeli bioengineering firm that has been tirelessly working for years on creating a genetically-produced "red heifer?" It's a direct ploy to the dispensationalist crowd.

Not to plug "The Name of the Rose" again, but I look at the distribution of any and all edicts concerning orgainzed religion as a means to propaganda. Information must be guarded at all costs and even released on a schedule to infulence the trend of thought at large. In this case it seems mighty convenient such a verse should be highlighted.

belledame222 said...

I thought that too; but how would one fake such a thing? and in Ireland? the book itself is apparently real; although i suppose who knows, right.

Anonymous said...

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has the skinny:

"The Director of the National Museum of Ireland, Dr. Patrick F. Wallace, would like to highlight that the text visible on the manuscript does NOT refer to wiping out Israel but to the 'vale of tears'.

"This is part of verse 7 of Psalm 83 in the old latin translation of the Bible (the Vulgate) which, in turn, was translated from an original Greek text would have been the version used in the medieval period. In the much later King James version the number of the Psalms is different, based on the Hebrew text and the 'vale of tears' occurs in Psalm 84. The text about wiping out Israel occurs in the Vulgate as Psalm 82 = Psalm 83 (King James version).

"It is hoped that this clarification will serve comfort to anyone worried by earlier reports of the content of the text."

So. Different version of the Bible, with different numbering. Of portents we have none. Yay!

Rootietoot said...

Nah...they find stuff in bogs all the time. People, linen clothing, that sort of thing. How different is a leather book from a dessicated mummy? Only that the mummy has bones under all that leather.

I don't believe in portents. God's gonna do what He's gonna do when He's ready to do it. Plus, Revelation and End times is hooey. Christians who get in a lather about it(and I know many) are being fatalistic and superstitious.

This sort of thing has happened all throughout written history.For some reason folk seem to think it's Special when it happens during their time.

H.M. Lufkin said...

"So. Different version of the Bible, with different numbering. Of portents we have none. Yay!"

Well... there goes another wrench in the Armageddic works.

"all i know is if they find a really old chunk of Revelation next, I'm out of here."

You and me both.

belledame222 said...

Portents aside, it is kind of remarkable that they found that book intact; it's apparently dated as being from 800-1000 AD.

Veronica said...

I totally didn't even pick up on the portent thing. I'm just a big fan of debris from bogs. Every once in a while, they'll pull some guy in a funny hat out of the peat moss.

Trouble said...

On the other hand, say all religious conservatives (of every sect, creed, and culture) are raptured/disappeared/disapparated tomorrow.

Can't say I'm going to shed many tears. i hope the first one to go is my ex-husband, but I doubt that if there is a god, that he wants him much.

belledame222 said...

One of my favorite bumper stickers:

"IN CASE OF RAPTURE, CAN I HAVE YOUR CAR?"

Anonymous said...

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