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Friday, October 16, 2015

This Professor Discovered what in the Pages of This 17th-Century Notebook?

Samuel Ward's draft translation of 1 Esdras for the King James Bible (Reproduced by permission of the Master and Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, photograph by Maria Anna Rogers)

You Won't Believe What This Professor Discovered in the Pages of This 17th-Century Notebook

Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

For about a month after he returned from England last year, a Montclair State University professor did not realize what a treasure he had found in a rare books library at Cambridge University.

While abroad, Jeffrey A. Miller, an assistant professor of English at the New Jersey school, had acquainted himself with some of the 70 pages of a notebook that had belonged to Samuel Ward, a 17th-century biblical scholar. But it wasn't until Miller returned home, and made a more thorough study of photographs he had taken of its pages, that he understood how stunning a discovery he had made.

The notebook held draft portions of the most enduring English translation of the Bible: the King James Version, which was published in 1611 and named for the newly ascended King James I.

"I am not even sure I believed it initially," said Miller, describing the moment when he figured out he had seen draft pages from the most widely read work in all of English, including Shakespeare.

"It seems beyond belief to think you could be looking at a draft of the King James Bible, much less a draft unlike any other draft that we previously had, much less the earliest draft of the King James Bible," he said.

Jonathan Greenberg, graduate director of the English department at Montclair State, said, "One of the most amazing things about the discovery is that in a certain sense this draft was hiding in plain sight."

It is not likely that many scholars had been clamoring to look at Ward's archives, continued Greenberg, who credited Miller's expertise and persistence for bringing the now-prized pages to light. "The draft was there for hundreds of years, but no one had realized exactly what it was."

In the months after the discovery, scholars of the KJV confirmed Miller's find.

Miller, who specializes in early modern literature, history and theology, had set out for Cambridge in hopes of learning more about Ward. The professor had agreed to write an essay on him for a book about the several dozen men the Church of England had grouped into "companies" charged with producing the KJV.

So Miller went to Sidney Sussex College, within Cambridge University, whose archives contain many of Ward's papers.

"I was maximally hoping to find some letter that he had written that seemed relevant," said Miller. "Actually, I did find that."

But he also found the notebook, cataloged in the 1980s as "a verse-by-verse biblical commentary" with "Greek word studies and some Hebrew notes."

"Let's have a look at this," Miller thought of the paperback-size book, whose pages date from 1604 to 1608.

Eventually, Miller came to understand that some of the pages were Ward's draft of a part of the KJV — one complete and one incomplete book from the Apocrypha, writings accepted by some Christian denominations as part of the Bible but considered noncanonical by others. Miller saw an entire draft of 1 Esdras and a partial draft of the book known as the Wisdom of Solomon.

The professor made his findings public Wednesday (Oct. 14) in an article in the Times Literary Supplement, in which he explains that the King James Bible, organized as a group endeavor, may have been more the product of individuals than previously thought.

"It's really the first real solid evidence for that," Miller said.

While very few drafts—and no complete drafts—of the KJV have been found, Miller's discovery is the first that can be attributed to a particular translator. Further study, he said, will shed light on the KJV, but also the English language it helped shape.

"The King James Bible is a monument of English religion, literature and the language itself," he said, and it's important to understand how it got built.

"It didn't just fall out of the sky."

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Thursday, October 1, 2015

What is the Sukkot—and What Does it Mean? - CHARISMA NEWS

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man walks near ritual booths, known as sukkot, in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood. (Reuters)

What is the Sukkot—and What Does it Mean?

Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

Sukkot, also known as the Festival of Booths, began this year at sundown Sunday (Sept. 27). What is this holiday that makes Jews eat their meals al fresco? Let us explain ...

Q. Why are my Jewish neighbors eating in a little house in their yard this week?

A. That's a sukkah they've constructed for Sukkot, a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the harvest and commemorates the Israelites' wandering in the desert for 40 years after their liberation from slavery. Sukkahs approximate the temporary dwellings they lived in before they reached the Promised Land.

"For a seven-day period you shall live in booths," God commands in Leviticus 23:42-43. "In order that your ensuing generations should know that I had the children of Israel live in booths when I took them out of the land of Egypt."

Q. Can a sukkah be your garage, tool shed or sun porch?

A: Nope. There are many specific rules about building a sukkah. Among them: It's got to be outdoors under the open sky and it may not stand so tall that it feels like a house. Sukkah builders have plenty of choices for the wall material. But the ancient rabbis required the roof to be made of something natural, such as bamboo, cornstalks or straw. It's known as "sechach," and it must provide shade, but also allow the stars to be seen at night.

The sukkah is purposefully an impermanent structure that reminds Jews of the fragility of earthly creations, as contrasted with the solidity of faith and tradition. It's also supposed to be a joyous place — many are decorated with children's drawings, and sukkah meals are to be shared with guests.

Q: What if you live in an apartment building? How can you build a sukkah?

A: "People build them on balconies," said Rabbi Deborah Bodin Cohen, director of congregational learning at Congregation Har Shalom in Potomac, Md. "If you're in Israel, you'll see this all over the place." No balcony? Apartment-dwelling Jews often build a communal sukkah on the roof or next to the building. "Or you can go to a synagogue's or a friend's sukkah," Cohen said.

Q: Do you have to sleep in there too?

A: Yes but no. The Talmud, the record of Jewish rabbinic teachings, teaches that a man should dwell in the sukkah during Sukkot, making it his home for the holidays. But the obligation is lifted if sleeping there would be uncomfortable. Most Western Jews sleep in their bedrooms during the holiday.

Q: Now my Jewish neighbors are shaking a long green thing and a giant lemon. What is happening here?

A: The green thing is the "lulav," a palm branch that is grouped with myrtle and willow branches and a yellow citrus fruit called an "etrog." Together they make up the four species mentioned in Leviticus 23:40. During Sukkot prayers, they are gathered in the hands and waved — up and down, left and right, forward and back. "It represents God's presence in all directions," said Cohen.

Q: I don't think they sell etrogs at my supermarket.

They probably don't. Jews around the world usually order them and lulavs from Israel.

Q: How can I learn more?

Online resources for adults on Sukkot include those from the Chabad movement and the Union for Reform Judaism. And you can watch an Israeli film that takes place during Sukkot and illustrates the many aspects of the holiday, called "Ushpizin," or "guests," in Hebrew.

Two fun book for kids are "A Watermelon in the Sukkah" by Sylvia A. Rouss and Shannan Rouss, and "Engineer Ari and the Sukkah Express" by Deborah Bodin Cohen.