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A Scribal Handwriting Tip For Nick

Monday 3/31/2008 11:27 PM

Nick, I would say this is a tip for Nathan as well, but his looks pretty good. Oh, by the way, since you both posted the same thing at the same time, doesn't that mean one of you needs to say "jynx"?

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Filed Under: Greek Greek Handwriting

Comments: 4

Decoding Early Christianity: Truth and Legend in the Early Church is a book I was able to pick up off of the new books shelf at DTS. It looked interesting enough, had a cool cover (even if a bit odd for the subject matter), a great title, was short, and fell within my reading interests, so I decided to check it out. In summary, it is a book of inconsistent quality, and will not be the book I end up recommending for a good introduction to early Christianity (despite its cool name).

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Comments: 2

Crazy Kappa Leo

Sunday 3/30/2008 10:45 PM

So I found out that the scribe for codex Hierosolymitanus actually has a name. This is nice because I can get rid of the name I gave him, TSWAMEMBPOULLACP. It was a good name, obfuscatory as the scribe himself. This post is going to focus on Leo and his writing of the letter κ, "kappa". Can you make out these words? All of them are found in the first chapter of 2 Clement.

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Comments: 2

New Books

Friday 3/28/2008 6:43 PM

This weeks has been rather unpleasant. Working 14 hours on Wed, 12 on Thurs, and spending last night (mostly awake throughout) and today dealing with a tooth infection. But now I have drugs, so the pain should be manageable until the infection heals. However, other than the post the other day about the CSNTM press release, there has been one more bright spot on this otherwise dismal and boring week.

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Filed Under: Books

Comments: 0

Press Release on Albania Manuscripts

Wednesday 3/26/2008 10:45 PM

Long day. 14 hours at work. But, I do have some good news for you! Yes, I always bring you the best. This time it is about manuscripts.

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Filed Under: Textual Criticism

Comments: 2

How Not To Build Good Will

Tuesday 3/25/2008 8:55 AM

I have commented once or twice on the Reclaiming the Mind blogs. I have never signed up for a mailing list with them. Yet, in one day, last week I received nine emails about supporting their ministry, or some newsletter, or blah blah blah.

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Filed Under: General

Comments: 5

Nomina Sacra or Ligature?

Tuesday 3/25/2008 6:19 AM

Here is another piece from codex Hierosolymitanus. Question: Is this one of its Nomina Sacra or is it a ligature?

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Ligature in Codex Hierosolymitanus: ει

Monday 3/24/2008 10:29 PM

Yes, I'm sure you've missed the series. I have as well. How about starting out with a small word?

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Software For Jim West: PawSense

Monday 3/24/2008 10:03 AM

As many in the biblioblogosphere are aware, Jim West's blog was deleted maliciously a little while back. I found some software that Jim should install so this doesn't happen again.

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Filed Under: General

Comments: 1

Authority In Diognetus In Brief

Sunday 3/23/2008 11:21 PM

So what will reading the Epistle to Diognetus (hereafter Diogn as is recommended in the SBL Handbook of Style) tell us about the views of the Apostolic Fathers on authority, revelation, Scripture, etc.? Let's find out.

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As I mentioned in a recent post on Ignatius, I am beginning a new series. This series discusses how the Apostolic Fathers viewed viewed authority, revelation, the New and Old Testament documents, tradition, and other related important things. This is ultimately to bring this data, along with the witness of the New and Old Testament writings, in for a discussion of church authority and Scripture in modern Christianity.

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Comments: 2

Not The Oldest Missing Page

Sunday 3/23/2008 1:47 PM

It is an interesting story, but the title of it is really quite wrong. This hit a few of the blogs recently and just got posted to the biblicalist, in both places debunked. "The Independent" last month put out an article entitled "Found at Last: The World's Oldest Missing Page." The article is interesting, so give it a read.

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Filed Under: General History

Comments: 0

Fearing The Bishop

Saturday 3/22/2008 10:00 PM

We continue with chapter 6 of Ignatius' letter to the Ephesians. The text below is from CCEL, with a couple corrections.

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Distance Greek Education: Answers

Friday 3/21/2008 11:44 PM

The other day I put out a query about distance education for ancient Greek. All I got was crickets, but that is what I expected since I don't have a massive blog readership among classicists (or anybody really...). But I did make a few emails, and got several recommendations to drop a message off to the Classics-L list. So I did. Crickets...for a few days. And then I got a couple answers.

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Filed Under: Education Greek

Comments: 4

Mary The Spinmeister

Monday 3/17/2008 12:22 AM

So I read another chapter of the Protoevangelium of James, chapter 10. I ran into two words in the chapter that I had to go to LSJ for, which is rare for this document. Both were verbs, and this is a good reason why all you Greek-geeks out there need to learn your rules for verb formation. When a word doesn't show up in a Bibleworks search, you're stuck, unless you can crack that nut with your brain.

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Filed Under: Greek NT Apocrypha

Comments: 2

And The Insult Is...

Saturday 3/15/2008 10:17 PM

This one doesn't strike me as a joke, Michael. Here's my attempt. Thus saith Lucillius:

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Filed Under: Greek

Comments: 4

Separation From The Bishop

Wednesday 3/12/2008 3:07 PM

Because you can never get enough Ignatius, here we go again. This time we are on chapter 5 of Ignatius' letter to the Ephesians. As is the norm, this text is from CCEL's digitization of Lake's text.

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So I'm looking for any online or distance education in ancient Greek. After all, I spend so much time on it, why not :). If anyone knows of any universities that are doing this sort of thing, please drop me a note (you can get my email address on my about page) or leave a comment here. I would greatly appreciate any help!

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Filed Under: Education Greek

Comments: 0

Joseph Is A Woodchopper

Wednesday 3/12/2008 12:57 AM

Well, he had a σκέπαρνον ("axe") anyway. So I read only one more chapter (#9) in the Protoevangelium of James today. My cold/flu/crud pretty much kept me down today.

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Comments: 0

I Should Blog On Constantine More

Wednesday 3/12/2008 12:40 AM

Some of the most common search hits for my blog come from searches about Constantine, and they usually land on my review of Constantine's Bible. Apparently Constantine is all the rage. Sometimes the search terms are pretty normal like "constantine and the bible" or "constantine's influence on christianity". These are very worthy topics of study. Other times I get queries by people who have been told some really silly stuff about Constantine and how he supposedly created Christianity. Here are two. And now I'll answer them here so the next person who searches can get a straight answer.

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More Protoevangelium of James Stuff

Tuesday 3/11/2008 10:59 AM

I stayed home from work yesterday due to illness and continue to do the same today. I managed to keep busy, but only with activities that involved sitting. On top of some (English) reading yesterday I was able to make it through three more chapters of the Protoevangelium of James. I'll begin my chapter 9 reading this morning.

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Filed Under: Greek NT Apocrypha

Comments: 0

Recent Items of Interest

Tuesday 3/11/2008 12:25 AM

There's a few things that have popped up this month that I thought were particularly cool/interesting/thought provoking:

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Filed Under: General

Comments: 2

First Thoughts On JACT Reading Greek

Monday 3/10/2008 12:41 AM

So I took a break today (though technically I guess that was yesterday...it is just past midnight) from reading the Protoevangelium of James to read some in the Reading Greek books (by the JACT) for learning Classical Greek. I've owned them for a while so I thought I would give them a spin.

The text is reading intensive, and I like that. However, I find its explanation a little terse and I found myself thinking that there needed to be more.

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Filed Under: Books Greek

Comments: 0

Protoevangelium Miscellany

Monday 3/10/2008 12:18 AM

Saturday I finished reading through the fifth chapter of the Protoevangelium of James. Just in case you are not familiar with it, it is an apocryphal gospel probably written sometime in the middle to late 2nd century. "Proto" means "first" or "early" and "evangelium" means gospel. "Of James" means..."of James"...obviously. The title given does not claim it is the first written but a reference to the fact that it is a gospel of the birth of Jesus. It actually begins with the birth of Mary.

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Filed Under: Greek NT Apocrypha

Comments: 2

Albanian Manuscript Finds

Saturday 3/8/2008 9:03 AM

I've blogged ever-so-briefly on this before, but more news is starting to come out on one of CSNTM's recent manuscript trips. I'm pretty sure more press releases are to come...

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Filed Under: Textual Criticism

Comments: 0

Some Greek Lectionary Resources

Tuesday 3/4/2008 6:27 AM

I just wanted to point out a few resources that I have found useful for study of lectionary Greek manuscripts. One of them I have not yet read since reading German texts is still a little slow for me, but it looks useful.

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Comments: 2

Alpha and Lambda In Alexandrinus

Monday 3/3/2008 7:43 PM

The letters in and alphabet are not always easy to distinguish. Take the u and v in English. A "u" with an only slightly rounded bottom can look quite a bit like a "v" with a slightly rounded bottom. And when you get into cursive, it can become even harder.

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Comments: 0

To Post Digital Images Or Not To Post?

Sunday 3/2/2008 7:13 PM

So I have Lightfoot's edition of the Apostolic Fathers here at home, checked out from the DTS library. This was originally published towards the end of the 19th century, so it it well out of copyright. The great thing about this edition is that there are photographs of one of the two manuscripts of 1 and 2 Clement in the second volume.

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Filed Under: Apostolic Fathers Greek

Comments: 5

Smarts About The Nomina Sacra

Sunday 3/2/2008 6:13 PM

So here is another bit about scribal practices in Greek manuscripts. Here is the snippet. As always, click to view a larger version.

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Comments: 4

Sweatin' To The Bishop

Saturday 3/1/2008 1:22 AM

And we continue in our series working through the text of Ignatius' letter to the Ephesians. The title is built on the starting imagery, "running with the bishop". When I read that tonight I thought of those really bad "Sweatin' To The Oldies" Richard Simmons tapes...

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Filed Under: Apostolic Fathers Greek

Comments: 2