New bible found in cyprus

reply to post by Byrd

The monks were pretty faithful in copying things exactly, and I'm fairly sure that each page was reviewed by another person in the hierarchy and they were made to scrape the vellum clean and rewrite if they got it wrong (I have read somewhere that this was the usual practice when they were copying religous works.)

Yes this is my understanding also. The problem being though; the manuscripts had already been copied too many times to count by the time the "professional" scribes received them in the 4th Century. Apparently most of the changes and mistakes were made in the 2 and 3rd centuries, before the Church scribes had a real handle on them.

Part of the problem was; there were so many copies often used from other countries (from 2 & 3 Centuries) including Alexandrian/Coptic, Syriac/Syria, which were translated by their local scribes, which couldn't have helped to have been altered, to accommodate their language, and even perhaps customs.

So it will indeed be interesting to see what the Biblical scholars come up with in this edition!! I do believe more will be revealed!

reply to post by Unrealised

Who knows, one day the masses may believe that the N.W.O / Illuminati destroyed the Great Enemy that was once known as Christianity....

I couldn't help but find your post funny!!

Being a former Christian I can appreciate how strong their faith is. When I left it, I didn't leave God behind, though. I had to re-define my relationship and beliefs in him. Wasn't easy, because religion is strong and carries great weight. So I have to buck against a strong stream to get at the truth. But just because it is a strong current of people going against many of us, doesn't translate to being right!

Is it possible for a few to be right and the majority wrong?

I think that there is a time for everything under the sun, and the time is now ripe for finding and revealing truths.

reply to post by MatrixProphet


Thats just not true. The fact is EVERY biblical scholar with an understanding of the ancients has known the similarities between ALL texts from the ancient world - so much so that it is a non point...except in the desperate atheist fringe. A text doesn't have to be different in order to be divine.

reply to post by Amaxium


I'll take that bet. There'll be some news about it come out in a month or so saying it's a fake/forgery, or only 1000 or so years old, then it'll end up in the Vatican archives :/

Shame though, as even if it's nothing extraordinary it should be on display somewhere, so people can see it. Sickening to think if the smuggler's hadn't been raided then it'd have ended up in some rich guy's safe, never to see the light of day.

I've been looking for accounts/images of stolen/looted bibles on vellum and illuminated. Cyprus and Iraq seemed a good start. No joy, but there is this site. It's a far more academic view than that provided by the two Turkish police and Reuters and shares some of the views posted here

“The problem about this description is that a Syriac gospel-book could be from the 4th century, but it could date from several centuries after that, well into the middle ages. Indeed, I think that gospel books may still have been being written in Syriac then. Obviously the smugglers will have wanted to date it as ancient as possible,” Dr Roueche added.

The article also offers more details about the Police bust...

Other details on the bust courtesy of a tiny local Cypriot newspaper which the giant wire service didn’t care to include in their story: the police arrested 9 people at the Famagusta bus station on a tip that the stolen Bible was about to sold. Two men fled the scene and are still being sought. The nine have been charged with smuggling antiquities, carrying out illegal excavations and possession of explosives.

The mention of dynamite reminds me of an International antiquities ring that was almost entirely reliant on the endeavors of one Italian looter. It was 6-7 years ago, but I can't recall enough details to link to. The guy excavated hillsides and graves across Northern Italy and the objects ended up in major Museums. The interesting detail I recall is that the man kept detailed records of where and when he found the artifacts and transactions too. Naturally, he'd made tens of thousands over the years selling artifacts worth millions (collectively).

Ah guys, you CT gentlemen need to to take a deep breath, relax and actually read the article associated with the first message.

This is NOT a new bible or anything remotely unknown, this religion still exists, the language can still be read. If you do a bit of searching you can find this Christian sects material on line.

This is a link to Syriac language materials

www.bl.uk...

The title of this thread is mis-leading

[edit on 9/2/09 by Hanslune]

reply to post by Hanslune


Im sorry if you feel this way

I only wanted to share with the ATS community the book that was just found and be interested in what is has to say?

You dont know what is inside it nore do the rest of us, that why i used the cross refrence part of why i found it interesting

you are asumming it has the same as every other book

you cant do that becouse you have not had the chance to read ANYTHING inside the book?

I understand what you are saying but NO ONE has had the chance to READ THE CONTENCE of this book yet?

unless you know something i dont about "this book"???

Originally posted by Power_Semi


Anyway, the main crux of their argument to Jesus & his amazing powers was that the big J lived 2000 years ago & there were parchments found written "only 130 years after his death, and so they were like - WOW - so important & they were the best evidence you could ask for," etc.

Now, with my interest in human psychology, marketing, etc, I know that our brains like to look for patterns, and that we are more inclined to draw inference to things we can compare, like 130/2000 sounds good.


L

The oldest gospel fragments are from Alexandria and date from the 1st century, potentially within the lifetime of people who actually saw Jesus.

reply to post by theresult


Howdy The result

The thread title is misleading, how can you know its a new bible if YOU haven't read it?

"Ancient" Syriac bible found in Cyprus

This was the original article's title, you changed it to something else, which in my opinion isn't justified.

I would recommend that you read the actual article you attached to the message.

After further scrutiny of photographs of the book, manuscripts specialist at the University of Cambridge library and Fellow of Wolfson College JF Coakley suggested that the book could have been written a good deal later.

"The Syriac writing seems to be in the East Syriac script with vowel points, and you do not find such manuscripts before about the 15th century.

"On the basis of the one photo...if I'm not mistaken some words at least seem to be in modern Syriac, a language that was not written down until the mid-19th century,"

My last post was not directed at you but to the CT'ers coming up with all kinds of nonsense based on ...... nothing but the misleading title.

When did hotels start putting bibles in the dresser drawer? maybe we could find more bibles looking at hotels in archeological sites.

reply to post by Toadmund


I agree that ancient manuscripts help us understand the evolution of ideas, but the article linked to says some of the words in the book werent in use til fairly modern times;

news.yahoo.com...

"The Syriac writing seems to be in the East Syriac script with vowel points, and you do not find such manuscripts before about the 15th century.

"On the basis of the one photo...if I'm not mistaken some words at least seem to be in modern Syriac, a language that was not written down until the mid-19th century," he told Reuters.

If it were written in the mid-19th century, it probably will not give us much new information on the evolution of Christianity. Most of the dramatic changes to Christianity occurred in the first 100 years after Jesus' death. (The additions of Paul) What would be fantastic is to find any writing that predated what we currently have, something written while Jesus was still alive or in the first year or two after he died.

has anyone been able to find a few credible online sources we can visit to learn more, see more, read more, etc., etc.....

this is an intriguing find....but then again, what finds aren't?

reply to post by Hanslune


hey matey i did put that in comments i made befor.. I know what you are saying but the title on huffington post where i found the link said "bibile" becouse its a biblical book?

I don think the thread topic is missleading..

Im aware of the dates and im open to other view points who have more to offer "hence why i posted it with intrest" on ATS

I was just amazed that it was done with gold and that it was found in swoop..

the biblical refrences in this "book" or little book as i like to call it is interesting becouse no one has read this book

not you nore I have had the chance to read any translation on its subject matter... and yes it could be the same old same old.. but is it not interesting that you have never heard of this book untill i posted it much like the rest of the planet as it was "hidden"/stolen" to be sold on the black market regardless of its DATE..

im more interested in its contence.. tho i can understand why you say the thread is missleading

a bible is a book someone will read and have "belife in" correct? so therefor its a bible as it relates to the story of jesus?

or am i missing what the understanding of the word bible means?



just trying to clarify i did not misslead anyone nore would i

reply to post by prjct


i have been trying myself.. all we can go on for now is conjecture.. becouse we have no offical translation of what the contense is regardless of what and when it was made..

for now its just a crappy waiting game untill we can find out more..

trust me if i or anyone comes up with more details about this lil book then im sure it will be posted here asap by fellow ats members

reply to post by theresult


Hmmmm if as you say you don't know what the contents are how can you state that it is a "new" Bible? Where or how did you decide to use the word "new"?

No one is going to 'translate' it if its just a Syriac bible. It will probably be turned over to a representative of the Assyrian church.

Originally posted by UMayBRite!

The oldest gospel fragments are from Alexandria and date from the 1st century, potentially within the lifetime of people who actually saw Jesus.

Not saying you're wrong but my understanding is that the 4 canonical Gospels are thought to have been compose no earlier than 75 AD and more likely decades later, based on internal evidence.

I think the case has been made that although they assume a witness account point of view, they are actually based on oral accounts or written ones now lost or destroyed.

The thinking of many scholars is that the actual figure, the historical Yeshua, was enhanced and had the attributes of the Greek "Christos" imposed onto him many years after his death. The back story was incorporated and blended around 150 AD.

Still much controversy over this. New information is still coming to lihght as the Dead Sea Scrolls are translated and incorporated into the overall picture.


Mike F

I'm waiting for more to be published in the news about this to make my opinion...

but it is interesting that they are saying the text is showing somewhere around 15th century and on, rather than earlier.

reply to post by mmiichael

Still much controversy over this. New information is still coming to lihght as the Dead Sea Scrolls are translated and incorporated into the overall picture.

There has been much controversy over the Dead Sea Scrolls which has been allowed to die off in the public eye without much comment from "Experts."

Two of the "Experts " of note ..Robert Eisenman and Barbara Thiering published works on the Scrolls and pushed thier theories which were accepted as Gospel by many until new discoveries put their theories to rest.

To my limited knowledge one of the earliest pieces of the New Testament found and dated is a fragment from the book of Matthew dated some 50 to 60 AD. I believe this is part of the fragments or fragment known as the Magdalen papyrus.

Nonetheless much of the hoopla about the Dead Sea Scrolls has died out not becaue of the translations coming out per se. But because the new and revealing informations expected from them did not come out as expected and awaited. Just as in the case of this Syriac Bible.. so many are waiting with baited breath to find some new and revealing insight to the New Testament or even the Olde.

Barbara Thiering and Robert Eisenmans theories turned out to be just that ..theories. THere will be others to replace them over time...and more baited breath.

Thanks,
Orangetom