BEDTIME READING ... Bart Ehrman, Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot This is a very good summary account of the discovery of this ancient Coptic text, what it means, and its contexts. He usefully also has a few chapters on what we know about JUDAS (in the Bible and other sources) - amazingly LITTLE it turns out!! New Agers and other excitable types think they have secret hotlines to God and so they know it all ... but putting that sort of Da Vinci Code mentality to one side, we know almost NOTHING about most of the things scholars would REALLY like to know. I digress - sorry. When I started my Masters degree I did a course on the Crusades, thinking I was still interested in military history - but what fascinated me was not that, rather I lapped up the theological and Church related backgrounds, justifications, etc., and after that went on to tutor in courses on the Reformation, so much more ecclesiastical and Biblical material came my way. From that, for about the last decade I have been very interested in the Gnostics and how Early Christianity (or Christianit-IES - note the PLURAL) formed into a recognisable Orthodoxy that had become ever more sharply defined by having to defend itself from the Heretics (not to mention the Roman torturers) - by about 180 the time there was enough of a definable Othodoxy that its defenders could write vast treatises against the heretics (but this also meant quoting slabs of their ideas). One key figure who attacked them was Bp Irenaeus (of Lyon), who had come from the area of St Johns followers (Ephesus in modern Turkey) his mentor was Polycarp who allegedly knew St John (whether this man was THE St John, Apostle, of was a follower of him is hard to be sure - tradition has it he was THE man himself, the Beloved Disciple. Again I digress ... I am reading this book by Bart Ehrman who seems to be a reputable (but not doctrinally fixated) scholar. Nor is he hare-brained, unlike some of the fringe dwellers (who may, perhaps, be right!! how can we be sure?). Half way through. For anyone interested in this era I can recommend his book as an accessible introduction to this often sprawling and baffling topic! He also details how he was brought in by the National Geographic Society in Dec 2004, to verify that this old papyrus manuscript was indeed ancient, and not some clever forgery. His personal eyewitness story on that is also interesting - I have read other accounts of that from different points of view (but not first hand). I can barely imagine how exciting it must have been to be IN at the start of this saga! For more on that on-line - check the National Geog. site - nationalgeographic/lostgospel/index.html I have just rummaged through a number of Ehrmans books at Fisher Library, University of Sydney - (some seem to be missing from the shelves ... stolen??). One was a hefty detailed work on the New Testament (500 pages, glossy paper) literally too heavy to cart home (I already had about 10 other books I was borrowing) so I borrowed this small book - and also ordered it 2nd hand - awaiting delivery. Also ordered others. It is very convenient to have access to the Uni library as I can sample all sorts of things and not have to buy them. To digress again - it is annoying to have to PAY for access despite having 3 degrees from there, and having taught there on and off 1995-2002. I PAY as an alumni - am not even treated as ex-staff (only retired staff get that), so I have less borrowing rights to use the Uni library - its a bit of an insult after the atrocious NON-pay (rank exploitation) I suffered there. The LEAST the bastard managers could do (which would not cost them anything either) would be to let us exploited Academic Underclass (casuals) use the library FREE!!!
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 04:38:15 +0000
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