THE BIBLE

The Family Bible with Its Record of Birhts, Deaths and Marriages

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

Did you learn this song in Sunday School or Vacation Bible School? "The B-I-B-L-E...It's the only book for me..." Go ahead, sing the rest. It'll feel good.

Today we’re going to talk about the Bible. A recent survey indicated that 93% of American households own a Bible. As a matter of fact, the average family has between three and four. The secularization of Europe is apparent when we compare that figure with numbers from the European nations. It drops to 85% percent in Poland, 75% in Italy, 74% percent in Germany, 67% in both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, 65 % in Russia, 61% in Spain and just 48% in France.

The complete Bible has been translated into 392 languages; the New Testament into 1,012 languages and an additional 883 languages have at least one book or parts from the Bible. That’s a total of 2,287 languages and dialects into which at least some portion of the Bible has been translated. As we all know, it continues to be a perennial bestseller.

BIBLICAL KNOWLEDGE SADLY LACKING

The George Barna Research Group has documented the level of Biblical knowledge in the United States. Only half of adults interviewed could name any of the four Gospels and just 37% of those interviewed could name all four. Less than half — 42% — of adults were able to name as many as five of the Ten Commandments correctly. Seven in ten (70%) were able to name the town where Jesus was born, but just 42% could identify him as the person who delivered the Sermon on the Mount. It’s hard not to laugh when told that 12% of adults believe Noah's wife was Joan of Arc. And nearly half believe that the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil. How many times have you heard that misquoted?

THE KJV CELEBRATES ITS 400^TH BIRTHDAY

In 2011 the King James Version of the Bible — sometimes known as the Authorized Version —celebrates its 400^th birthday. With this in mind, it seemed like the appropriate time to take an in-depth look at the Bible. True, the King James Bible has little or nothing to do with the Life and Times of the Early Church. However, it has had an enormous impact on our society, language, and the way we as society view the word of God. And the development of the Bible as we know it today is quite an interesting story. So, we’ll be examining various aspects of the Bible in this series.

"How Sweet are your Words..." A Bible Cake

WORKING WITH ONLY THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Bible is not a single book, but a library of books. It was written over a 1500-year period in three languages by forty authors living in ten different countries. Its books contain history, poetry, prose, mystery and romance. It features a cast of nearly three thousand depicted in over 1500 different locations.

From our vantage point it’s easy to forget that Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Christians did not have a good chunk of the Scripture that we take for granted. When Peter, Paul and the rest went abroad preaching, they referenced the sacred writings of the Hebrew Bible…what many people call the Old Testament.

DEVELOPING A CANON OF SCRITPURE

The content of the Bible is defined by the Canon of Scripture. The word Canon is derived from the Greek meaning rule or order. It’s also interesting to realize that in the first centuries of the Church this canon, or standard, was somewhat fluid. The Hebrew Bible also went through a process of canonization and the Dead Sea Scrolls shed light on that process.

What constituted the deposit of sacred writings varied from time to time and place to place. Writings by some of the Early Church Fathers such as Ignatius, Polycarp and others were regularly read alongside the familiar letters of Paul, Peter, John, James and others.

It was only when heresies began to arise within the Church that they recognized the need for a hard and fast definition of what was, and was not, part of Scripture. Surprisingly, Marcion was the first person to make a list of the books he thought were depositories of truth. Now you’re probably saying to yourself, “Wait a minute. Wasn’t Marcion a heretic?” Yes, he was. He’s responsible for what has come to be known as the Gnostic heresy. He believed the God of the Old Testament was evil and so he rejected the entire Hebrew Bible. He accepted parts of Luke’s Gospel and ten of Paul’s epistles as true. In setting out his list of the books he thought were right and those he thought were wrong, he inadvertently performed a great service. He forced the Church Leaders to examine all the books in use to create their own list.

It Took 300 Years to Dvelop a Uniform Canon

CLAIMS AND COUNTER-CLAIMS

Around AD 180, the Church Father, Irenaeus, countered Marcion’s list with one of his own…which included the Hebrew Bible, by the way. Despite his work, the canon continued to vary for the next hundred or so years. Then, in AD 303, Roman Emperor Diocletian began the last Empire-wide persecution of Christians. His edict demanded that churches be burned along with all their sacred writings. A number of Christians died rather than relinquish their sacred writings.

Less than a generation later, Constantine ascended to the throne, legalized Christianity, and eventually made it the official religion of the Roman Empire. He then set about organizing and codifying to bring order to chaos. He also convened the Council of Nicaea which developed the Nicene Creed that is still in use today. Recognizing the need for, and benefit of, a unified cannon, Constantine charged Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, with the task of developing the first one.

We’ll examine the structure and development of the Bible and its various translations in the coming posts. I should mention that the Bible Series, like our serial posts on Foods of the First Century and Ancient Games will be taking a short hiatus in November-December as we turn our attention to Advent and Christmas. However, they’ll all be back in January.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.

EXPLORERS CLAIM TO HAVE DISCOVERED NOAH'S ARK

Yeung Wing-Cheung Examing the Heavy Timbers They Found

 Hello My Friend and Welcome.

File this under even though this isn’t the first time a story like this has run, it’s still interesting…

Did you happen to see the news reports about a group of Chinese and Turkish explorers who say they have discovered the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey? They’re hardly the first to make such a claim and undoubtedly won’t be the last.

The group claims carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft. Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International, the research team that made the discovery, said: "It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it." 

The group has called upon Dutch Ark researcher Gerrit Aalten to verify the legitimacy of its find. “The significance of this find is that for the first time in history the discovery of Noah’s Ark is well documented and revealed to the worldwide community,” Aalten said at a press conference announcing the find. “There’s a tremendous amount of solid evidence that the structure found on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey is the legendary Ark of Noah.”

Representatives of Noah's Ark Ministries said the structure contained several compartments, some with wooden beams that could have been used to house animals. They ruled out human settlements on the grounds none have ever been found above 11,000 feet in the vicinity.

During the press conference, team member Panda Lee described visiting the site. “In October 2008, I climbed the mountain with the Turkish team. At an elevation of more than 4,000 meters, I saw a structure built with plank-like timber. Each plank was about 8 inches wide. I could see tenons, proof of ancient construction which predated the use of metal nails. We walked about 100 meters to another site. I could see broken wood fragments embedded in a glacier, some 20 meters long. I surveyed the landscape and found that the wooden structure was permanently covered by ice and volcanic rocks."

Local Turkish officials intend to ask the central government in Ankara to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status so the site can be protected while a major archaeological dig is conducted. As we said earlier, this is not the first, and probably won’t be the last, time that a group of adventurers claim to have the remains of Noah’s Ark. The subject is apparently too tantalizing to put aside.

Until next time, we  wish you Peace and Blessings.

BEEKEEPING IN ANCIENT ISREAL

Busy Bees Hard at Work Making Sweet Honey

Hello, My Friend and Welcome.

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

A search of the Bible reveals that honey is mentioned 62 times and found from Genesis clear through Revelation. This should not be surprising given that honey was a major source of sweetening in ancient times. Below are just a few of more familiar passages relating to honey.  

And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey.  —Exodus 3:16-18

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.  —Psalm 19:10

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!  —Psalm 119:103

John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. —Matthew 3:3-5

DEMAND FOR LARGE AMOUNTS OF HONEY

Have you ever wondered how they went about gathering all this honey that they needed? Well, it turns out that they accomplished the task not much differently than we do today…with commercial operations dedicated to keeping beehives and collecting the honey they produced. Yes, there organized business enterprises in the ancient holy land that maintained what we would call commercial apiaries. An extensive group of ancient beehives have been discovered in the northern Israeli site of Tel Rehov, in the Jordan Valley.

An Aerial View of the Dig at Tel Rehov

Tel Rehov is the location of the largest ancient Canaanite and Israelite sites in the Beth-Shean Valley and one of the largest tels in the Holy Land.  Nine seasons of excavations have uncovered large and well-preserved buildings from three occupation layers dating to the 10th - 9th centuries BC. This would have been around the time of the United Monarchy of David and Solomon and the Divided Monarchy under Omri and Ahab. Remains of an 8th century BC city that was violently destroyed by the Assyrians in 732 BC included a 24 foot-wide mud brick wall around the acropolis. Evidence of the Assyrian slaughter was found in many of the houses that were destroyed. 

But the most spectacular discovery was the industrial apiary, the only ancient beehives ever discovered in archaeological excavations.  There were more than 30 hives found at the Tel Rehov site, indicating a significant operation. The presence of these hives shouldn’t surprise anyone. Having no refined sugar, people of that era relied upon honey as the primary source of sweetness in their diet. Experts estimate the hives produced up to a half a ton of honey each year.

Examing the Remains of Ancient Beehives

The architecture of the ancient hives is similar to bee farms found in modern-day Israel. Each ceramic hive was fashioned with two holes. On one side was a small hole that acted as a door for the bees. On the opposite end was a clay lid beekeepers used to access, and remove, the honey and wax comb.

Archaeologists found the 3,000-year-old remains of honeybees, including workers, drones, pupae and larvae, inside the 30 clay cylinders. With the aid of high-resolution microscopes, scientists studied the bodies of the long-deceased insects and concluded that the bees appear to belong to a different subspecies altogether from the Apis mellifera syriaca which currently inhabit Israel.

There are two explanations for this phenomenon. Either the range of Apis mellifera anatoliaca (the subspecies found at Tel Rehov) has decreased over the last 3,000 years, or those ancient beekeepers imported this particular species from what is now Turkey for their special characteristics.

Interestingly enough, modern beekeepers in Israel still prefer the anatoliaca; they’re believed to be calmer and easier to manage, making them more desirable for urban farms such as the one found in Tel Rehov. As the Bible says, “…there is nothing new under the sun.” Sometimes, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.

THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Stations Sculpted in Relief Circle the Walls

Hello My Friend and Welcome

We have what I believe will be a very interesting post today. It covers two inter-connected topics…the mostly Catholic practice of honoring and praying the Stations of the Cross as mentioned in the header, but also a particular life-sized representation of those Stations in Texas.

THE HISTORY OF THE STATIONS

The Stations of the Cross grew out of the popularity of pilgrimages during the mediaeval period and earlier in the Church’s history. Jerusalem was a particularly popular destination as it contained all of the places of the Lord’s passion, death and burial so familiar to believers.

The stations and the practice of pilgrimage would be incomplete without a mention of St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. Upon the death of his father, Constantine became Emperor and summoned his mother to the imperial court and conferred the title of Augusta on her as mother of the sovereign. She converted to Christianity after her son’s victory over Maxentius…the battle in which he had a vision telling him he would conquer under the sign of the cross.

As Empress, Helena traveled to Palestine and, with the aid of Eusebius and others, identified the places that played a key role in the life of Christ and constructed churches on those spots. Then, after she “had shown due veneration to the footsteps of the Saviour”, she had two churches erected for the worship of God. One was raised in Bethlehem near the Grotto of the Nativity, the other on the Mount of the Ascension, near Jerusalem.

A DESIRE TO REPRODUCE THE HOLYLAND FOR THE COMMON MAN

Of course, not everyone had the time and resources of the Empress of the world. The common folk were left to linger at home, yearning to walk in the footsteps of Christ, but not able to afford the trip. To meet this need the monastery of San Stefano at Bologna constructed a group of connected chapels in the fifth century, which were intended to represent the more important shrines of Jerusalem. As a consequence, the monastery became known as Hierusalem — the Latin name for Jerusalem.

These chapels can be regarded as the germ of the concept from which the Stations later developed, though nothing that we have before about the fifteenth century can strictly be called a Way of the Cross in the modern sense. However, several travelers who visited the Holy Land during the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, mention a Via Sacra, a settled route along which pilgrims were conducted. The Via Dolorosa — the Way of Grief or Way of Suffering— for was probably developed by the Franciscans after they were granted administration of the Christian holy places in Jerusalem in 1342.

 THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FIXED NUMBER OF STATIONS

The earliest use of the word stations, as applied to the accustomed halting-places along the Via Sacra at Jerusalem, occurs in the narrative of an English pilgrim, William Wey, who visited the Holy Land in the mid-1400s, and described pilgrims following the footsteps of Christ to the place of crucifixion.

Reminiscent of Earlier Times
Prayer Chapels form the Stations at the
Church of St Casimir in Krakow, Poland

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Franciscans built a series of outdoor shrines in Europe to duplicate their counterparts in the Holy Land. The number of stations varied between eleven and thirty. In 1686, in answer to their petition, Pope Innocent XI granted to the Franciscans the right to erect stations within their churches. In 1731, Pope Clement XII extended the right of all churches to have the stations, provided that a Franciscan father erected them with the consent of the local bishop. At the same time the number was fixed at fourteen. In 1857, the bishops of England were allowed to erect the stations by themselves, without the intervention of a Franciscan priest, and in 1862 this right was extended to bishops throughout the church.

MODERN USAGE OF THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS

The object of the Stations is to help the faithful to make a mini-pilgrimage in spirit, through meditating upon the chief scenes of Christ's sufferings and death. It has become one of the most popular devotions for Roman Catholics, as well as a Good Friday feature in the worship and devotion of other Christian denominations.

Lighted and Inset Along a Wall at the
Church of St. Patrick, Racine, WI.

Today, the Stations themselves are usually a series of 14 pictures or sculptures depicting the events of Christ’s trial, crucifixion and burial. In order, they are: Jesus is condemned to death,  Jesus is given his cross, Jesus falls the first time, Jesus meets His Mother, Simon of Cyrene carries the cross, Veronica wipes the face of Jesus, Jesus falls the second time, Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem, Jesus falls the third time, Jesus is stripped of His garments, Jesus is nailed to the cross, Jesus dies on the cross, Jesus' body is removed from the cross, and Jesus is laid in the tomb.

A group called Cross Ministries has constructed the Stations using life-sized statues set in a circle in a field alongside Interstate 40 in Groom, Texas. The statues form a circular path around a huge cross nineteen stories tall. They also have a representation of the Last Supper among others. Here is a sampling:

Jesus is Condemned to Death

Simon of Cyrene Helps Carry the Cross

Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

Jesus is Removed from the Cross and Placed in His Mother's Arms

If you would like to see the entire set, I encourage you to visit Cross Ministries.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS - DIGITIZED

Hello My Friend and Welcome:

Unquestionably the greatest archaelogical discovery of the Twentieth Century was the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves of Qumran. After the New Year, we plan to do a series of posts about the Scrolls...why and how they were preserved, what they've taught us, the community that created them and so on. However, there is on very exciting development that I want to share with you today.

In an announcement timed to co-incide with Rash HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, the world was told that through a co-operative effort of Google and the Jewish Museum devoted to the Dead Sea Scrolls they have been made  available on-line. That's right. You can now examine digital copies of the scrolls on-line at your convenience. Click below to see a video about the site.

We'll have lots of additional information about the Scrolls and the insights they provide into the Bible and the Early Church after the First of the Year. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit the site and look it over. You can access the Dead Sea Scroll site AT http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/

Until next time, We wish you Peace and Blessings.

BIRDS AS PETS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

A Pair of Rosy Bourkes
David Watches as Bathsheeba Baths in the Sink

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

Today’s post began as a conversation I had with my wife. She breeds small exotic birds — Bourke’s Parakeets and Splendid, or Scarlet-Chested, Parakeets. I mentioned to her that I’d decided to incorporate an African Grey Parrot into my Seeds of Christianity™ Series as a pet for the Emperor Nero. That led to more talk about pet birds in the ancient world, what types of birds they would have had, and so on. Our discussion eventually culminated in a post on her Splendid Bourke Bird Blog about birds in the ancient world. Click here to visit her blog.  

PET BIRDS IN HISTORY

Birds have been popular pets from earliest times. Hieroglyphic records indicate the Egyptians kept them 4,000 or more years ago. The Romans also kept many varieties of birds as pets. Parrots were most popular because of their color, but they also kept crows, magpies and starlings because they, too, could learn to repeat words. Pet birds were so highly prized, that in wealthy Roman households sometimes a slave’s only assignment was to care for the birds and teach them to talk. The common man, without the connections and affluence required to obtain the more exotic specimens, would have made do with native species such as finches, doves, etc.

The ancient Jews clearly kept pet birds. Duet 22:6 warns, “If you come across a bird's nest beside the road…and the mother is sitting on the young…do not take the mother with the young.” Robbing a nest would have been a common way to acquire birds for pets or resale. Job 41:15 asks, “Can you make a pet of him like a bird?” And Jeremiah 5:27 says, “Like cages full of birds…”

WHERE THE BIRDS CAME FROM

A large portion of Europe was under Roman control, but the northern latitudes don’t have the colorful birds most favored as pets. And two modern sources of exotic birds, Australia and South America were both unknown. However, Rome’s influence extended into Africa which is home to a variety of colorful parrot species.

An African Gray in the Wild

Currently, one of the most popular parrots is the African Grey. They are generally acknowledged to be among the smartest of all birds and are known to have vocabularies of up to 500 words. They surely would have been popular in Roman times as well.

Africa is also home to nine species of Poicephalus, or short tailed, parrots. Widely dispersed, several of these species exist in slightly different forms so that they represent a total of 24 varieties when the subspecies are included.

An Abysinnian Parrot

One example in this group is the Abyssinian Parrot. It lives wild in northwest Somalia, across northern Ethiopia and into the Sudan. They generally live in areas that are lightly forested and, though this species generally travels in small groups, they sometimes gather in flocks of over a thousand birds. Abyssinian parrots belong to the ring- necked subspecies and are commonly kept as pets.

Lovebirds, Psittaccidae Agapornis, are also native to Africa. There are nine subspecies of lovebirds, meaning that these beautiful and popular birds can be found in a wide variety of colors and colorations. They are intelligent, affectionate, and playful little birds who form strong bonds with their owners.

THE PARTHIAN CONNECTION

The eastern boundary of the Roman Empire butted up against the realm of the Parthians. This area was once part of Alexander the Great’s Empire. Following the death of Alexander, Parthia became a Seleucid governorate under Nicanor. Their sphere of influence extended from the boundaries of Roman Syria to the Indus River.

The Alexandrine Parakeet or Alexandrian Parrot is named after Alexander the Great, who is credited with exporting the birds from Punjab into various European & Mediterranean countries. Given their relationship with Alexander, they became prized possessions of nobles and royalty. The species name eupatria translates to noble ancestry.

The Ultimate Gift, an Alexandrine Parrot

The Alexandrine Parrot is a larger version of both the Indian and African Ringneck. They look so much like their smaller cousins that they are sometimes accidentally classified as one of their more popular cousins.  All Alexandrine Parrots exhibit the classic ringneck look: dark green bodies, long tails, red beaks, and yellow eyes.  The only difference between them and their smaller relatives are their maroon patched wings and larger bills.  

One of the Alexandrine’s smaller cousins, the Indian Ringneck Parakeet, can speak so clearly that once monks considered them sacred after hearing one repeat their daily prayers. This big talking, medium-sized bird is capable of reciting long and complicated excerpts from books, poetry, and scripture.

Indian Ringnecks can Recite Long Passages of Scripture

By the First Century, Rome had several hundred ships traveling across the Red Sea to India to get pepper. It’s not hard to imagine a bird trader wandering the docks with a cage of birds that he’d trapped and tamed. Who better to sell them to than foreign merchants docked at the harbor?

The merchants would transport the birds to Egypt and resell them to someone heading for Rome or any of the other capitols of the Empire. After all, if Herod the Great were in Rome and happened to see the talking bird Caesar had, wouldn’t he want one too?

And if it were the current fashion, wouldn’t Pontius Pilate’s wife, Claudia Procula, want some lovebirds dangling in a cage from her ceiling? Just because they were out in the sticks, that doesn’t mean she had to live like a peasant. Besides, who did she have to talk to all day? Pontius was always tied up with paperwork and centurions and that high priest, Caiphas…

So were the early Christians familiar with exotic pet birds? The answer is clearly, Yes they were. Did they own them? Maybe, maybe not. Some Christians came from elite families and could have easily afforded to purchase such a pet. Others were poor and would have had to make do with sparrows, wrens, finches, and doves.

Tradition tells us Saint John kept homing pigeons as a hobby. What about the boy Jesus? Did Joseph perhaps construct a cage out of willow branches and wood scraps to house the little desert finch Jesus brought home? It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.

FEASTS AND FESTIVALS OF JUDAISM — SUKKOTH

A Backyard Sukkah Readied for the Feast of Sukkoth

Hello My Fiend and Welcome.

In the Jewish calendar of Feasts and Festivals, we are currently celebrating Sukkoth. Since the Jewish year began just a short while ago with Rosh Hashanah, this seemed like an opportune time to begin our series on the major Feasts and Festivals of Judaism.

The Festival of Sukkoth begins on Tishri 15, the fifth day after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is quite a drastic transition, from one of the most solemn holidays of the year to one of the most joyous. Sukkoth is so unreservedly joyful that it is commonly referred to in Jewish prayer and literature as Z'man Simchateinu , the Season of our Rejoicing. There is a short chapter in my novel WITNESS, in which Shemu’el and Atticus celebrate in the Sukkah of some friends. If you are interested, you can read that chapter here.

THE THREE PILGRIM FESTIVALS

Sukkoth is the last of the Shalosh R'galim (the three pilgrimage festivals). Like Pesach, or Passover, and Shavu'ot, Sukkoth has both historical and agricultural significance. Historically, Sukkoth commemorates the forty-year period which the children of Israel spent wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Agriculturally, Sukkoth is a harvest festival and is sometimes referred to as Chag Ha-Asif, the Festival of Ingathering.

A TENT, NOT A PHONE BOOTH

The word Sukkoth means “booths,” and refers to the temporary dwellings that Jews are commanded to live in during this holiday in memory of their period of wandering. The name of the holiday is frequently translated “Feast of Tabernacles,” which, like many translations of Jewish terms, isn't very useful. This translation is particularly misleading, because the word “Tabernacle” in the Bible refers to the portable Sanctuary in the desert, a precursor to the Temple. The Hebrew word sukkah (plural: Sukkoth) refers to the temporary tent-like booths that people lived in, not to the Tabernacle.

Sukkahs on the Balconies of Apartments in Israel

Sukkoth lasts for seven days. The two days following the festival, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, are separate holidays but are related to Sukkoth and are commonly thought of as part of Sukkoth. The festival of Sukkoth is instituted in Leviticus 23:33. No work is permitted on the first and second days of the holiday. The intermediate days on which work is permitted are referred to as Chol HaMo'ed, as are the intermediate days of Passover.

In Leviticus 23:40, which comes directly after a discussion of Sukkoth, the Torah tells us: “On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before Adonai your God seven days.”

 

The Cirton or Etrog

THE FOUR SPECIES

From this text emerged the Four Species: a citron, a palm branch, three myrtle twigs and two willow branches. During Sukkoth the four species are brought together in the form of an etrog and the lulav. The etrog is a kind of citron, while the lulav is a composed of the three myrtle twigs (hadassim), two willow twigs (aravot) and a palm frond (lulav). Because the palm frond is the largest of these plants, the myrtle and willow are wrapped around it. The Four Species are waved together as part of the synagogue service during Sukkoth. They can also be waved at home or near the sukkah.

BUILDING THE SUKKAH 

Leviticus 23:42 commands, “You will dwell in booths for seven days; all natives of Israel shall dwell in booths.” Building the sukkah can be great fun for children. It satisfies the common childhood fantasy of building a fort, and dwelling in the sukkah fulfills a child's desire to camp out in the backyard. The commandment to “dwell” in a sukkah can be fulfilled by simply eating all of one's meals there; however, if the weather, climate, and one's health permit, many people sleep in them as well.  

The walls of the sukkah do not have to be solid; canvas covering tied or nailed down is quite common. A sukkah may be any size, so long as it is large enough to fulfill the commandment that a person dwell in it. They are intended to be rustic and the roof of the sukkah is made of material referred to as sekhakh (literally, covering). To fulfill the commandment, sekhakh must be something that grew from the ground and was cut down, such as tree branches, corn stalks, bamboo reeds, or sticks.

Sukkahs come as do-it-yourself kits, or they can be built from scratch. It is a common practice to decorate the sukkah. In the northeastern United States, Jews commonly hang dried squash and corn in the sukkah because these vegetables are readily available around the time of the American holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving. Many families hang artwork drawn by the children on the walls. Building and decorating a sukkah is a fun family project, much like decorating the Christmas tree.

Many Americans, upon seeing a sukkah for the first time, remark on how much the sukkah (and the holiday generally) reminds them of Thanksgiving. This may not be entirely coincidental. There is a tradition that the American pilgrims who originated the Thanksgiving holiday borrowed the idea from Sukkoth. It goes something like this: The pilgrims were deeply religious people. When they were trying to find a way to express their thanks for their survival and for the harvest, they looked to the Bible for an appropriate way of celebrating and found Sukkoth.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SUKKOTH AND THANKSGIVING

This, of course, is not the standard story taught in schools today, but the Sukkoth explanation of Thanksgiving fits well with the meticulous research of Mayflower historian Caleb Johnson. He believes that the original Thanksgiving was a harvest festival (as is Sukkoth), that it was observed in October (as Sukkoth usually is), and that Pilgrims would not have celebrated a holiday that was not in the Bible. Although Mr. Johnson claims that the first Thanksgiving was “not a religious holiday or observance,” he apparently means this in a traditional Christian sense. He goes on to say that the first Thanksgiving was instead “a harvest festival that included feasts, sporting events, and other activities.” All of these concepts are very much in keeping with the Jewish observance of Sukkoth.

THE BOOK OF QOHELETH

In modern Judaism, the Book of Qoheleth is read during the Feast of Sukkoth. It is known to most Christians as the Book of Ecclesistes...from its Greek name. The main speaker in the book, identified by the name or title, Qoheleth, (usually translated as teacher or preacher), introduces himself as "son of David, king in Jerusalem. Could it be Solomon, perhaps?

THE GREAT HOSHANAH

The four species are also held and waved during the Hallel prayer in religious services at the Synagogue, and are held during processions around the bimah, the pedestal from which the Torah is read. These processions commemorate similar processions around the altar of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. This part of the service is known as Hoshanot, because while the procession is made, a prayer is recited with the refrain, “Hoshanah!” (Please save us!). On the seventh day of Sukkoth, seven circuits are made. For this reason, the seventh day of Sukkoth is known as Hoshanah Rabbah or the great Hoshanah.

After the circuits on Hoshanah Rabbah, they beat the willow branches against the floor five times, shaking loose some or all of the remaining leaves. A number of explanations are offered for this unusual practice, but the primary reason seems to be agricultural. The rainy season in Israel begins in the fall, and the leaves falling from the willow branch symbolize the desire for beneficial rainfall.

Most Christians immediately recognize the phrase Hoshanah. How did it move from Jewish usage to Christian usage? Certainly part of the answer lies in Christianity’s Jewish roots. Hosanna was an exclamation of joy and triumph. Like all acclamations in frequent use, it lost its primary meaning and became a kind of hurrah of joy, triumph, and exultation. The Gospels seem to indicate that it was in this manner that it was uttered by the crowd on Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donley. It was with this indefinite meaning that the word hosanna passed into the liturgies of the Early Church, a position it has retained ever since. Hosanna is found in some of the Church’s earliest documents such as the Didache and the Apostolic Constitutions.

Until the next time, We wish you Peace and Blessings.

HOUNDS & JACKALS — AN ANCIENT GAME

The Playing Board for the Ancient Game of Hounds and Jackals

Hello My Friend, and Welcome.

HOUNDS CHASING THE JACKALS

Today we begin a series of post on Games of the Ancient World. Board games are among the oldest known games. Extremely popular throughout the Roman Empire, they were played by both children and adults. The game we’re talking about today originated in Egypt around 1,300 BC. Its Egyptian name is lost in antiquity, and is known today by Egyptologists simply as the Hounds & Jackals game because of its unique hound and jackal- headed playing pieces.

It is a race game between a team of five Jackals and a team of five Hounds (originally peg playing pieces) around a palm tree or an oasis along a peculiar shaped 'Track' (originally a series of peg holes in a playing board). The game required strategy in the face of chance, the chance coming from the throw of two knucklebones which were an ancient form of dice. The object of the game was to get your five pieces around the track and onto the Shen hieroglyph. The Shen hieroglyph is typically associated with concepts such as eternal…universal…the infinite.

Hounds & Jackals is probably one of the most easily recognized of ancient games not only because of the distinctive look of the game pieces, but also because Hollywood has immortalized it in movies. For instance, here Pharaoah Seti (Cedric Hardwicke)  and Nefertari (Anne Baxter) - off camera on the right -   are seen playing the game in the Cecile B DeMille classic, The Ten Commandments. The man approaching from the rear is Minister Jannes (Douglas Dumbrille).

HOUND AND JACKAL PETROGLYPHSAll was well until 2003 when a group of archeologists presented an article about some Stone Age rock carvings they found in Azerbaijan. They dated these ancient petroglyphs they’d found to about 2,000 BC and their meaning, or use, remains a mystery.

Some of the rock carvings found were regular in appearance and had repeating geometric patterns. This suggests they had a specific function most likely involving counting, and unlike the other mysterious rock carvings which defy interpretation, it was suspected that meaning could be extracted from the geometric arrays. The first thought was that perhaps they were some sort of calendar. Then someone noticed their horseshoe shape was nearly identical to the board used in Hounds and Jackals.

The Azeri Petroglyph With Its Familiar Horseshoe-Shaped
Hounds and Jackals Playing Surface

The points of similarity between the Egyptian board and the carved arrays at the stone circle are remarkable. Clearly the two are closely related. Inspection of a board found at Thebes shows a larger hole at the top of the board, which is not generally counted with the others. This in effect would give it 58 +1 holes. The Azeri rock carvings have 60+1 holes. Other features in common between the two besides the central enlarged hole are a horseshoe or U-shaped outer series, two parallel straight inner lines, a similar total of dots, and interconnecting channels between the holes.

The exact rules of Hounds and Jackals have been lost to history. However, the presence of the Shen hieroglyph with its implications of eternity seem to imply that the object of the game was to metaphorically achieve some sort of immortality, or higher plain of existence.

FROM HOUNDS TO SNAKES - FROM JACKALS TO LADDERS

This line of reasoning leads us to the ancient race game of India known as Snakes and Ladders.  Interestingly enough, the evil force in this game is represented (Shades of Eden) as a snake. It is a game of morality with the bases of the ladders located on squares representing various types of good. The squares of virtue in the original game are Faith, Reliability, Generosity, Knowledge, and Asceticism. The more numerous snakes coming from these squares represent various forms of evil.  The original squares of evil are Disobedience, Vanity, Vulgarity, Theft, Lying, Drunkenness, Debt, Rage, Greed, Pride, Murder, and Lust.  The game taught Hindu children that the good squares allowed a player to ascend higher in the league of life whereas evil reduced a player back through reincarnation to lower tiers of life. Presumably the last square, 100, represented Nirvana. During the British Raj, the game made its way to England. The morality of the game appealed to Victorians who took to the game when it was published in England in1892.  Still called Snakes and Ladders, the game play was pretty much the same except that the vices and virtues were renamed according to Victorian ideals.  So Penitence, Thrift and Industry elevated a player up a ladder to squares labeled Grace, Fulfillment and Success while Indolence, Indulgence and Disobedience slid a player down to Poverty, Illness and Disgrace.  The number of ladders and snakes on the playing board were now equal. The Modern Version of  Snakes and Ladders THE GAMES COMES TO AMERICA The game was introduced in the United States by Milton Bradley in 1943 with several important modifications. First, the moral overtones of the game disappeared. Now the object was not to achieve moral virtue, but simply to beat your opponents to the top. Without the moral message, the snakes became unnecessary and were replaced with the more kid-friendly image of playground slides, or chutes. So the Christmas favorite, Chtues and Ladders, has its origins in ancient games played by children and adults over 4,000 years ago. Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings

BOADICEA — WARRIOR QUEEN OF BRITANNIA

Thomas Thornycroft Statue of Queen Boadicea in Westminster, London

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NOT A MONOLITHIC POWER

Movies often portray the Romans as an invincible power with absolute control that subjected the peoples of their empire with an iron hand. This, of course, is far from the truth. Revolts and uprisings where constantly breaking out from East to West. One of the greatest, and most successful, was lead by a woman named Boadicea.

BOADICEA IN HISTORY

That was the name given to her by the Roman historian Tacitus, although to Dio Cassius she was Buduica. Whether Boudicca, Boadicea, or Buduica; it would have been the Latinized version of her Brythonic Celtic name, and would probably have been something similar to the name under which she is known in present day Welsh Byddyg, Victory, or a variant of Boudigga, the Celtic Goddess of Victory.

Written histories of Boadicea, and of early Britain in general, are found in two classical manuscripts, which were most likely derived from the same original source. The historian Tacitus wrote his history only fifty years after the events of A.D. 60, and it was said that his father-in-law Agricola was able to give an eyewitness account of the rebellion. Dio Cassius also gave his account of the events. Although both are biased accounts, they provide the basic chronological framework of early Roman Britain. Attempts to turn to archaeological discoveries to help pinpoint the exact events has been unsuccessful, since much of the data was destroyed during pillaging and a significant amount of the land has never been excavated.

THE CELTIC TRIBE KNOWN AS THE ICENI

The Iceni were a Celtic tribe located in an area of southern Britain known as East Anglia. Geographically they were isolated; to the north and east the boundary was the sea and the remainder was covered in dense forest, making invasion from foreigners nearly impossible. The people were of mixed origins. There had been an influx of people from the Hallstat culture, bringing with them a knowledge of iron and pottery, which merged with the skills of those already present from the late Bronze Age.

Sometime between A.D. 43 and A.D. 45, Boadicea was married to Prasutagus, King of the Iceni. It has been said that Boadicea was not of Iceni origin since outside marriages were quite common among the ruling class. It was not unusual for women held positions of prestige and power, in the upper levels of Celtic society. Many took prominent roles in political, religious, and artistic life. Women also owned land, could choose their spouses and initiate divorce.

PRASUTAGUS, THE CLIENT KING

The Iceni had remained passive and watched while the Roman Emperor Claudius and his army conquered large parts of Britain in A.D. 43. Since Claudius was founding strong military colonies all over the island, the Iceni must have realized that they couldn't remain independent of Roman domination forever. In an attempt to avoid conflict, King Prasutagus went to the city of Camulodunum and agreed to become a client-king of Rome. This required him to submit to the Roman ruling class, but it also enabled his tribe and their culture to remain relatively unfettered.

This system worked well for Prasutagus and his subjects until his death. In his last testament, Prasutagus left his kingdom to be shared equally by his two daughters and the new Roman emperor, Nero. He apparently believed that this would buy off the Roman Emperor and thereby ensure tranquility for his family and kingdom. The Romans, however, did not grant right of succession to all client kings. What, if any, promises made to the leader of the Iceni are lost to history. The situation was further complicated by the fact that Roman law did not allow royal inheritance to be passed to daughters, and co-ownership of a kingdom with a woman was unacceptable according to Roman standards.

A Wintery View of the Thornycroft Statue

FORCED TO BECOME A REVOLUTIONARY
Kinsmen of the royal house were enslaved. Boadicea was whipped and forced to witness the public rape and torture of her two daughters, who were believed to have been roughly 12 years old at the time. The Romans clearly sought to break the proud Iceni spirit; however, rather than breaking their spirits, their excesses rallied the people behind their Queen.

Meanwhile, the Romans were experiencing difficulty in the northeast attempting to take the headquarters of Druidism on the Isle of Mona. They feared the Druids because they were apparently the force behind previous rebellions against Caesar. This territory had become the geographical center for anti-Roman and pro-Briton activities.

Though by Roman law Boadicea had no real claim to succession after her husband's death, her people regarded her as their natural leader, and neighboring tribes willingly supported any anti-Roman uprising. The indigenous people had suffered under Roman taxation for years and many were also driven off their own land and enslaved. Sometime before 60 AD, the Temple of Claudius was erected in Colchester to commemorate the life of the Roman emperor who had destroyed the Celtic culture. It immediately became an object of strong hatred by the British tribes and a rallying point. Neighboring tribes quickly joined Boadicea's rebellion. She's said to have gathered between 100,000 and 200,000 people against the Romans. They captured and destroyed the Roman cities of Camulodunum and Colchester then marched on the growing trade center of Londinium, which they also sacked and burned.

A Stained Glass Rendering of Boudicea at the
Colchester Town Hall

The written accounts portray Boadicea and her followers in battle in savage terms, a typical ploy of Roman military writing which portrays the enemy as uncivilized animals as opposed to Roman law, order, and civilization. Regardless, the three principle cities of the province had been captured and their inhabitants brutally massacred. However, Boadicea had an increasingly difficult time keeping order among her troops after these victories with their accompanying looting and burning.

THE REVOLUTION COMES TO AN END

No one is sure exactly when and where the final confrontation took place. This is how Tacitus describes the final battle: The Britons were used to the leadership of women, but she came  before them not as a queen of a distinguished line, but as an ordinary woman, her body cut by the lash avenging the loss of her liberty, and the outrages imposed on her daughters.

He quotes Boadicea as rallying the troops by saying, “The gods were on our side in our quest for vengeance, one legion had already perished, the others are cowering in their forts to escape. They could never face the roar of our thousands, least of all our charge and hand to hand fighting. When the Romans realize their small force and the justice of our cause, they will know it is victory or death. This is my resolve, as a woman: follow me or submit to the Roman yoke.”

The rebel army was immense, but the Romans were at an advantage for the first time with more armor and shorter swords. The Celts had longer slashing swords and little or no armor. Not intimidated by the barbaric chaos, the Roman army advanced rapidly into the Celtic mass. The Roman swords proved to be deadly at close quarters, while the Celts were crushed so close together their longer weapons were rendered useless. Under the command of Seutonius, the Romans massacred the Celts. A few months later fire and the Roman sword ravaged the previously untouched Iceni territory.

LOST TO HISTORY

It was reported that Boadicea survived the battle. Tacitus wrote that she took poison and thus died by her own hand, Cassius Dio tells us she fell sick and died. Sickness caused by poison? No matter, it stands to reason that she did not want to fall into the hands of the Romans again. Did her daughters die with her? They were never mentioned again. Their names, as well as their fate, are another one of the mysteries of history.

Boadicea's story appears to have ended with her death and burial in an unknown grave. Her name faded from memory, her heroic deeds were forgotten until the 14th Century, when Tacitus' manuscripts were discovered in a monastery library. Since then, Boadicea's rebellion has had an established and monumental place in British history. Over time she has come to be seen not so much as a queen, but a mother, wife, and warrior defending her country.

Alex Kingston as Boadicea in the movie Warrior Queen

Boadicea has been the subject of two feature films, the 1928 film Boadicea, where she was portrayed by Phyllis Neilson-Terry, and 2003's Boudica — released as Warrior Queen in the US, a UK TV film starring Alex Kingston as Boudica. She has also been the subject of a 1978 British TV series, Warrior Queen, starring Siân Phillips as Boudica.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.

THE GLADIATOR’S DIET – A BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

Russell Crowe from the Movie Gladiator

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THE HISTORY OF EPHESUS

When I say Ephesus what does it call to mind? Perhaps you envision Paul being greeted by Priscilla and Aquila when he arrives. You might imagine John the Apostle sitting in a garden instructing his disciples Polycarp and Ignatius. Ephesus may bring the Blessed Virgin to mind as she lives out her life in the care of the Beloved Disciple. Experts believe that most of Paul’s letter to his nascent congregations scattered about Asia Minor were written from Ephesus. And last, but certainly not least, in Revelation there is the warning to the wayward Church at Ephesus from him who holds the seven stars in his right hand.

For Christians, especially those with an interest in the early Church, the mention of Ephesus evokes myriad thoughts and images. One thing that doesn’t immediately come to mind is gladiators doing battle.

A Relief of Gladiatorial Combat, Note Trident

GLADIATORIAL CEMETERY

And yet they lived, fought, and died more than 1,800 years ago in the arenas of this famous city. We know this because of the discovery of the world’s only known gladiatorial cemetery. Situated along the road that led from the city center to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, this small graveyard contains the remains of over 60 fighters. Study of these skeletons is filling in the gaps in the literary sources and archaeological record, and providing insight into how gladiators lived…and died.

Gladiator in Jean-Léon Gérồme's Pollice Verso

WHAT DID THE AVERAGE GLADIATOR LOOK LIKE? 

I’d like you take a test. I’ve inserted two pictures. The first, at the top of this post, is an outtake of Russell Crowe as he appeared in the movie Gladiator. The one above is taken from the painting, Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down), by 19th Century painter Jean-Léon Gérồme. Which of these two seems closer to reality? The man in the painting appears more than a little beefy. He couldn’t have been much of a fighter with that beer gut he’s sporting. After all, hasn’t Hollywood always taught us that gladiators were lean, mean, fighting machines, swift of foot and quick of hand…able to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. As you will soon see, what’s been portrayed on the screen is more fantasy than reality.

THE BENEFITS OF A VEGETARIAN DIET 

The most surprising fact to come out of the Ephesus cemetery is the gladiators’ diet. Surprisingly enough, they were vegetarians who consumed a diet rich in carbohydrates, with the occasional calcium supplement. Ancient accounts of the gladiator life sometimes refer to them as hordearii — literally, barley men. Researchers Grossschmidt and Kanz subjected bits of bone to isotopic analysis, a technique that measures trace chemical elements such as calcium, strontium, and zinc. They came up with some surprising conclusions. Compared to the average inhabitant of Ephesus, gladiators ate more plants and very little animal protein.

So it seems that Gérồme must have done his homework since his is the more accurate portrayal. The gladiatorial diet had nothing to do with poverty, religious beliefs, or sensitivity to animal rights. Gladiators, it seems, were deliberately fat. Consuming lots of simple carbohydrates, such as barley and legumes, like beans, became a way of surviving in the arena. Packing in the carbs, packed on the pounds. Gladiators wanted, and needed, that subcutaneous fat. A fat cushion protected them from cut wounds and shielded nerves and blood vessels during a fight. A lean gladiator would not only have been dead meat in the ring, but he would have made for a bad show.

“Surface wounds appeared more spectacular,” explains Grossschmidt. “If I get wounded but just in the fatty layer, I can fight on,” he adds. “It doesn't hurt much, and the blood looks great for the spectators.”

AND YOU THOUGHT TUMS TASTED BAD

Wouldn’t a diet of barley and vegetables have left the fighters with a serious calcium deficit? To keep their bones strong, historical accounts say they downed a vile brew of charred wood or bone ash, both of which are rich in calcium. Whatever the exact formula, the stuff apparently worked. Grossschmidt termed the calcium levels in the gladiator bones as “exorbitant” compared to the general population. “Many athletes today have to take calcium supplements,” he says. “They knew that then, too.”

DEATH – AN EVER-PRESENT REALITY

That's not to say life, or death, as a gladiator was pleasant. Many of the men they studied died only after surviving multiple blows to the head. The proportion of wounds to the skull seems surprising, since all but one of the gladiatorial types wore helmets. Gladiators typically fought one-on-one, with their armor and weaponry designed to give them opposite advantages. For example, a nimble, lightly armored and helmetless retiarus with a net and trident would be pitted against a plodding murmillo wearing a massive helmet with tiny eye slits and carrying a thick, long shield.

A Reconstructed Skull Showing Impact of a Trident

Three of the skulls of the Ephesian gladiators had been punctured by tridents, a weapon only used by gladiators. (See the reconstruction of a gladiator’s skull above.) Ten had been bashed in with blunt objects, perhaps mercy blows with a hammer. Other injuries illustrate the gladiator's ideal death, finally accepting the coup de grâce. Cut marks on four of the men were evidence of a dramatic end.

“When they lost and were lying on their stomachs, their opponent stabbed them through the shoulder blade into the heart,” Grossschmidt says. “We also found vertebrae with cut marks. They would have been from a downward stabbing sword wound through the throat into the heart.”

 It’s hard to imagine people enjoying such an event, much less even wanting to witness it. The early Christians boycotted the Roman festivals and games…one of several reasons they came under suspicion from their neighbors. As Christianity expanded across the Empire its civilizing influence led to a new ethic and mortal combat gradually passed into history.

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.