I neglected to mention: you can now view the full text of OSV’s interview with the artist Lea Marie Ravotti. It was my privilege and pleasure to have Lea collaborate with me on Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols. Her own website is here.
4 thoughts on “The Art of the Matter”
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Are you familiar with this story concerning the discovery of a (possibly) ancient Syriac manuscript of the Bible?
http://www.americanpapist.com/2009/02/photo-ancient-syriac-bible-found-in.html
I did see it. It doesn’t ring quite right, though. Jim Davila points us to some reasons why, in some recent coverage:
http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html#6974246054364384434
I figured it was too good to be true, thus the “possibly” in my previous comment. I’ve been reading Cornelius a Lapide’s famous, ponderous, and boring commentary on the Gospels, he often refers to the Syriac manuscripts known to him which is why the story caught my attention. Those translation often have a poetical touch about them; at least it seems so to me.
I’m not a manuscript expert, but people who know say this manuscript is probably less than a thousand years old, if it’s not fake in the first place. 1700, 1800 year old manuscripts just don’t come to us in such excellent condition, and they are usually found in extremely dry places like the Egyptian or Judean desert. Sorry!