Showing posts with label The Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Bible. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Rare Torah to Be Auctioned


A rare 15th century Torah volume, the first printed version to unite all five books of the Hebrew Bible, is coming to the auction block next month in Paris.

More, here.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Book The Size of a Ladybug


A library puts one of its tiniest items under a microscope and finds the first chapter of Genesis.

From the Atlantic...

The University of Iowa library contains more than 4,000 miniature books, all measuring fewer than three inches in either height, width, or both. Three inches is not a lot for a book, but three inches is outright capacious when compared with a little red bug of a book, one of the smallest objects in the entire collection, measuring 0.138 inches square and 0.04 inches thick. 

Based on the cover, library staff assumed the little book was a Bible, or at least some part of one, and a photograph taken through a magnifying glass and cleaned up on Photoshop confirmed this suspicion. But everything else about it was unknown. Librarian Colleen Theisen, who found it in a box marked "microminiatures," calls it the "most perplexing" of the miniature collection: a book so small it could not be read by the naked eye. What was it? Who made it and when? Whatever clues its text contained were locked between its tiny binding.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Athiest Books Next to Bibles


A national atheist group said Monday that it will donate its literature for use in cabins and lodges in Georgia's state parks after the governor's recent decision to allow Bibles there.

From a story in the Huffington Post...

"We expect fair treatment, we anticipate fair treatment and we look forward to fair treatment," Silverman said. "If the state is going to put Bibles in the cabins, they must allow alternate points of view – all alternative points of view without taking sides."

But it was not at all clear Monday whether the atheist literature would find a place in the cabins alongside the Protestant Bibles.

Asked if the state would allow it, Brian Robinson, a spokesman for Gov. Nathan Deal, would only say that the governor's office is working on regulations governing the distribution of materials with the Department of Natural Resources and the Attorney General's Office.

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Coping the King James Bible By Hand


That's what a man in New York did. It took him awhile.

From a story on Jacket Copy...

In 2007, Patterson's longtime partner, Mohammed, told him about the Islamic tradition of writing out the Koran by hand. When Patterson said that the Bible was too long for Christianity to have a similar tradition, Mohammed said, well, he should start it. 

"I hadn't counted on the fact that it would be so beautiful," Patterson told the AP. "Or that it would be so exhilarating. And so long."

Although counts disagree, according to most sources, the King James Bible has 788,000 words or more. 

Patterson uses sheets of 19-by-13-inch watercolor paper for his task, which he rules by hand with pencil lines. Sitting at a desk by his bed, he tracks the page of his hardcover Bible with one hand, and writes, using felt-tip pens, with the other. When the page is finished, he erases the pencil lines, leaving black ink on a clear white page.

At first, Patterson used to work 14-hour days on the project, and he still works until he can no longer stay awake, usually about six to eight hours a day. 

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Matching Rock Bands with the Books in the Old Testament


Noisey does it, here.

From the piece...

EXODUS – SLAYER
Exodus was my favorite book of the Bible growing up, mostly because it gave me a weird, semi-schadenfreude glee reading about the increasingly horrific things happening to the Egyptian slavers because of their incessant uncouthness in the face of God. In some ways this is the exact same reaction I have to Slayer.


LEVITICUS – NICKELBACK
Leviticus is the book of the Bible people always point to if they want to make a point of how terrible the Bible is. Not only is it homophobic and sexist, it’s also teeth-grindingly monotonous! So Nickelback is the obvious choice.


NUMBERS – WEEZER
The gist of Numbers is how the incessant moaning and arbitrary disobedience of the Israelites gets them condemned by God to spend an entire generation wandering around in the wilderness. Much like Weezer, who has also spent a generation wandering around in the wilderness.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Queen James Bible


The first gay Bible?

From a piece on Juicy Ecumenism...


Homosexuality was first mentioned in the Bible in 1946 in the Revised Standard Version. There is no mention of or reference to homosexuality in any Bible prior to this – only interpretations have been made. Anti-LGBT Bible interpretations commonly cite only eight verses in the Bible that they interpret to mean homosexuality is a sin; Eight verses in a book of thousands!
The Queen James Bible seeks to resolve interpretive ambiguity in the Bible as it pertains to homosexuality: We edited those eight verses in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible.



Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Book of Common Prayer at 350


James Wood discusses its importance in the New Yorker.

From the article...

The visitor has stumbled upon a service, Evensong, whose roots stretch back at least to the tenth century, and whose liturgy has been in almost continuous use since 1549, the date of the first Book of Common Prayer, which was revised in 1552, and lightly amended in 1662, three hundred and fifty years ago. The Book of Common Prayer was the first compendium of worship in English. The words—many of them, at least—were written by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury between 1533 and 1556. Cranmer did not cut his text from whole cloth: in the ecumenical spirit that characterizes the Book of Common Prayer, he went to the Latin liturgy that the English Catholic Church had used for centuries. In particular, he turned to a book known as the Sarum Missal, which priests at Salisbury Cathedral had long used to conduct services. It contained a calendar of festivals, along with prayers and readings for those festivals; and it held orders of service for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and the Mass. 

The Missal was a handbook for priests and monks, though, not for the laity, and its language was Latin, not English. Cranmer wanted a prayer book in English, one that could be understood by ordinary people, even by those who could not read. To this end, he translated and simplified a good deal of the Sarum Missal: from the monastic services of Matins, Vespers, and Compline he fashioned Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer (commonly known now as Evensong), which are familiar to millions of members of the worldwide Anglican Church. He borrowed elements of the liturgy of the Reformed church in Cologne, and adapted a prayer of St. John Chrysostom from the Byzantine rite. He also wrote dozens of new prayers and collects, in a language at once grand and simple, heightened and practical, archaic and timeless.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

The Testament of Mary


She is the most famous mother in history, yet her story is unknown. A new novel voices the grief-filled thoughts of Mary, as she pieces together the events that led to the death of her son, Jesus. Its writer, Colm Tóibín, describes the origins of the book for the Guardian.

From the piece...

The painting of the crucifixion here is more than 12 metres wide. Its size means that the idea of transcendental space soaring towards the heavens above is replaced with the vast, long, busy world around. Tintoretto shows that while Jesus hung on a cross until he died, many other things happened too. If the sound of the Titian is of angels' unearthly voices, this painting by Tintoretto is filled with the brutal noise of the world.


I think the gap between these two paintings made me wonder about how the imploring, powerless figure of Mary at the foot of the cross as her son was crucified could have become, in Catholic doctrine and Italian painting, the queen of heaven. The more time I spent looking at paintings in Venice the more I came to feel that the story of her transformation fulfilled a pictorial need, or a storyteller's need, as much as it did anything else.

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Drunk Driver Ordered to Give Book Report


Some Biblical punishment has been meted out in South Carolina.

From a story in the New York Daily News...

“Biblical punishment” may conjure images of hellfire and plague, but for a South Carolina woman, it’s been scaled back a bit. Cassandra Tolley, who received eight years in prison and five on probation for driving under the influence, has also been ordered to read the Old Testament book of Job and write a report on it. 

Tolley has struggled with alcohol as a result of a troubled and abusive past, but attended church and declared herself a Christian in court, according to the Rock Hill Herald. Her pastor, Rev. Daggett Duncan, testified on her behalf, and will care for two of her three children while she serves out her sentence (her third will go with the father).



Sunday, May 06, 2012

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Bible Erotica


Big Think discusses the Song of Songs.

From the piece...

It remains a mystery as to how a poem so ardently secular found its way into the Bible at all. Mitchell asks bluntly, “What were the ancient rabbis thinking?” I'd like to believe they weren’t as crazy, or innocent, as they might appear. There is something sacred about young love—sex and all—which the Song has communicated better than anything since. I like to think the ancient rabbis wanted to expurgate the poem, but had the wisdom to act against their better judgment. Their decision speaks finally to the deep humanness of the Bible.

Why not celebrate humanness yourself in the coming weeks, by reading the Song as a rite of spring? It’s already a traditional Passover text, but regardless of your faith or lack thereof, it’s the ideal accompaniment to wine-drinking, flirtation, outdoor lovemaking, drives in the countryside, and just about anything else that makes warm weather preferable to cold and being in love a hell of a lot better than being dead.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Be Illuminated


AbeBooks revels in illuminated manuscripts.

Oh, if I only had $7500. I'd totally go for the arta Executoria de Hidalguia in favor of Juan Francisco Rodriguez.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

The Hunger Games and the Book of Esther


Are there similarities between the two?

From a piece in Tablet...

Once upon a time, a young girl from an oppressed minority was summoned to the capital. The nation watched as she competed against her peers, and won. She could have done the thing that was expected of her and lived happily ever after. But instead she risked everything—not just her newly won riches and standing, but her life—to stand up for her people. And these people, with her as their heroine and figurehead, rose up violently. We would like to say that then they all lived happily ever after, but the text doesn’t quite permit us that luxury. Still, the war was epic, and the story became beloved, the bitterness of the ending often skipped over. Its legend is considered myth, fairy tale, or fantasy, even though the supernatural is notably absent.

Sound familiar? This is the story of the Book of Esther—and of the Hunger Games, a trilogy of young-adult novels by Suzanne Collins with an eagerly anticipated movie adaptation coming out March 23.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

The Oldest Surviving Writings of the Gospel Found?


Quite possible.

From a piece in Forbes...

The jury is out on this for a while, but a recent archaeological discovery could represent the oldest surviving copy of the Gospels.

According to Bible scholar Daniel B. Wallace of the Dallas Theological Seminary, fragments from the Gospel of Mark may date to as early as the late first century.

The claim comes well in advance of the official report to be published next year.