Big Biblical Studies News
Fake Scrolls and Monasteries Under Siege
Hi friends, some interesting things in biblical studies that I thought I would share with you.
First, over at Ancient Jew Review, Jonathan Klawans writes on The Case for Retraction of Academic Authentications of Forged Fragments.
This position paper issues a call for editors and publishers with oversight over peer-reviewed publications of inauthentic post-2002 Dead Sea Scroll-like fragments to embark on the processes that would consider (and likely result in) retraction. By common consent, findings in the publications identified in this essay are unreliable at best; many present material subsequently deemed falsified. Retraction is the proper and justified measure to take regarding these publications in order to correct the academic record and alert any and all potential readers to the untrustworthy nature of their content.
Harsh, but fair! If a text you’ve published and vouched for gets exposed as a forgery, retraction is the responsible thing to do.
Second, bad news, the Egyptian Government has just announced that it intends to turn St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai into a Museum.
In a drastic and controversial move, Egypt has closed St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, the oldest continuously operating Christian monastery in the world. This decision has drawn strong criticism from Archbishop Ieronymos, who has described it as another historical blow to Hellenism and Orthodoxy. The Greek government was reportedly caught off guard by the action, especially since the issue was discussed recently during a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs is actively handling the matter, viewing it as extremely important.
St. Catherine’s houses very important biblical manuscripts and is a historically important place for the history of Christianity which lived through the Arab conquests and the rise and fall of several empires. Let us hope it does not happen!
I hope so as well!
I remember watching a documentary about the Mt Sinai monetary. To quote the indomitable Sam Gamgee, ‘it was an eye opener, no mistake.’