[Dean's World] Dean: Ancient Manuscript

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dean:
Ancient Manuscript
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1149233845.shtml


   Quoted:

     A collection of charred scraps kept in a Greek museum's storerooms
     are all that remains of what archaeologists say is Europe's oldest
     surviving book _ which may hold a key to understanding early
     monotheistic beliefs.

     More than four decades after the Derveni papyrus was found in a
     2,400- year-old nobleman's grave in northern Greece, researchers
     said Thursday they are close to uncovering new text _ through
     high-tech digital analysis _ from the blackened fragments left
     after the manuscript was burnt on its owner's funeral pyre.

     Large sections of the mid-4th century B.C. book _ a philosophical
     treatise on ancient religion _ were read years ago, but never
     officially published.

     Now, archaeologist Polyxeni Veleni believes U.S. imaging and
     scanning techniques...will considerably expand and clarify that
     text.

   You can read the rest of the story [1]right here.

   They muddy up the narrative a bit by noting that the software they're
   using to reconstruct the images from these ancient pages was used
   recently to help decode a fragment of the lost "Gospel according to
   Judas." A lot of people get excited when they hear about this or that
   Gospel they've never heard of before being "discovered," but in point
   of fact one of the reasons the early Church back in the years 200-400
   or so felt the need to put together an official "canon" of accepted
   works was because there were so many Gospels and other purported holy
   works floating around, many from sects like the Marcionites and the
   Gnostics who would be considered heretics in the catholic faith as it
   was understood in those days. You can find a bunch of that old stuff
   [2]here at Northwest Nazarene University's web site.

   Far more interesting to me is the manuscript they're talking about in
   this story, for it appears to be the surviving record of a
   monotheistic strain of Greek religion that well pre-dates the time of
   Jesus, and may well have had some influence on early Christian
   thinkers.

   Think of it, it's the world's oldest book, at least that we know of,
   and they're finally going to be able to translate parts of it. That is
   too cool.

   (Thanks, [3]John.)

References

   1. http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/06/01/D8HVEHLO0.html
   2. http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/index.htm
   3. http://www.xrdarabia.org/blog