SAVING HOLY BOOKS: The latest Commentator (the Yeshiva University student newspaper) has a gripping account of the night in 1966 when YU students helped rescue books damaged in the Jewish Theological Seminary Library fire.

The Library Fire at JTS
By Hillel Goldberg
Published: Wednesday, August 31, 2005

In 1966, in college, it was hard to study, and I can't just blame the times. More than a civil rights revolution, a cultural revolution and the Vietnam War pulled me away from my studies. I.T., my best friend in college, and I, had our own self-created distractions.

We found charity or social work cases to take on. We worked for Soviet Jewry; we helped students struggling with gratuitous bureaucratic sufferings imposed on them by Yeshiva College. We also engaged in more than our share of philosophical discussions, engendered by what we regarded as, alternatively, brilliant or stupid remarks made by our religious studies instructors. We spent way too much time saving the world and far too little time studying.

One day, after a long stretch spending hours each day on all kinds of projects, we had a heart-to-heart. We just had to stop paying attention to the world and start paying attention to school. We reached a solemn agreement. No more cases. No more projects. No more discussions.

This was in the early afternoon. A couple of hours later, I.T. knocked on my door. He was only slightly sheepish, maybe not even that. Basically, it's as if we had never spoken that day and never reached an agreement. He says: A fire has burned down much of the library at the Jewish Theological Seminary. And what wasn't burned, is now about to be lost due to massive water damage. Books are water-logged.

What happened to our previous resolve, only a couple of hours old?

Did we even have that discussion?

We didn't even refer to it.

I.T. looked at me. I looked at him.

We had to save the water-logged, sacred tomes in the library. We had to do it.

[...]

THE PULSA DE-NURA CURSERS will not be charged with a crime:

No charges over Sharon death wish
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz has decided not to press charges against a group of Jewish extremists who carried out an ancient curse ceremony meant to place a death wish on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, since the appeal was to God and not to mankind, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday.

[...]

Actually, it's not an "ancient" ritual; it's only a century old.

JIM WEST is misrepresenting my published views once again, and I'm getting pretty tired of it. Having to put up this post is one of the most unpleasant experiences of my blogging career.

In Jim's post "Washed in the Blood of Peer-Review", in the context of the discussion of "open source" biblical studies, he writes:

A while back Jim Davila and I were discussing things historical concerning the so called "Solomonic Temple". I suggested that we needed hard evidence before we could speak confidently about the existence of said temple and Jim suggested that unless such a suggestion appeared in a "peer reviewed journal" he really didn't have time or interest in discussing it.

Jim's devotion to peer reviewed journals struck me as a bit narrow (for it implies, doesn't it, that unless an idea is found in a peer reviewed journal it is of no value and need not be considered).

The debate came down to whether any evidence apart from the archaeological -- narrowly construed as architectural, apparently excluding epigraphic -- could be admitted to show that there was a First Temple. I'll just refer you to what I subsequently wrote here. Jim's efforts to debunk the First Temple don't add up to much and he doesn't seem to take them very seriously himself.

But that's a side issue. More to the point, I said in the relevant post (after discussing Jim's ideas at some length):

As I said, I've not seen the position Jim is taking here in a specialist peer-reviewed publication, and I'm not inclined to put a lot of my time into debating positions that haven't passed that hurdle.

Jim posted a similarly distorted interpretation of this (followed by some sarcastic comments):

Hence, if a position isn't found in a "specialist peer reviewed publication" it has no merit and isn't worthy of the time it may involve to discuss it until it "passes that hurdle". Okie dokie, fair enough. The matter is thereby summarily concluded.

In response, I expanded on my comment in an update to the same post (emphasis now added):

This, of course, is not what I said and, given the amount of time I've spent this weekend discussing his position, is rather ungracious. Jim either thinks there was no Iron Age II Temple or else wishes to act as devil's advocate for that idea. Fine. But so far he's given me no indication that he is anything but a congregation of one. I have asked for publications on this idea and so far have received no answer. The only argument Jim has produced in favor of the idea is the lack of archaeological evidence, which I have addressed above. Somehow this is transformed into "no evidence" and "no proof." I have pointed out the matter of the Deuteronomistic History. It's certainly a mainstream position (I'm not saying a consensus) that Dtr was published either in the time of Josiah or not long afterward, and this seems to me to be the most persuasive view. Not everyone would agree, and that's fine. It's worth discussing. But Dtr is not "no evidence" and "no proof."

I'm willing to spend some time discussing speculative ideas, but there's a limit to how much, which is what I said above. I did not say that such an idea "has no merit and isn't worthy of the time it may involve to discuss it." It depends on the idea and the context of the discussion, doesn't it? Jim is putting words in my mouth that I did not say. He did this to Judith Weiss as well and it is not an appealing rhetorical tactic.

And it still isn't. Of course I discuss ideas on this blog that haven't appeared in peer-review journals. I never said I didn't. I discussed Jim's ideas about the Temple. But, as I did say, there's a limit to how much of my time I'm willing to spend on such things -- especially on a poorly thought-out position that no one has suggested in a serious publication and that no one, including Jim, seems actually to believe. Blogs can be good for discussing the merit of ideas in their early stages, and I do some of that here, but ultimately progress in the field comes from the peer-review system. It's far from perfect, but it's better than anything else anyone has come up with. To assert that "it exists simply for the preservation of power" (by "white boys," no less!) is silly.

To put it very simply: I never said that I "really didn't have time or interest in discussing" ideas not yet published in peer-review venues. I do discuss them sometimes on this blog. Nor did I say that such an idea "has no merit and isn't worthy of the time it may involve to discuss it" or that "it is of no value and need not be considered." What I said (again, after actually discussing one of these ideas) was that I am disinclined to spend a lot of time debating these positions and that how much in any given case depends on the position, how much merit I see in it, and the context of the discussion (e.g., I take time to refute Palestinian Jewish-Temple denial not because it has merit, but because the PA and others use it as a political tool).

Jim West persists in attributing views to me which I do not hold and, this time, which I have explicitly repudiated. Whatever excuse one might find for his misreading of my first, brief comment, there is no excuse for his neglecting my detailed clarification of it. He has ignored what I actually said and insists on saying in public that I hold silly, extreme views that I do not hold. In his latest post he does not even do me the courtesy of linking to my actual comments. If he had, it would have become clear to his readers that what he said was incorrect.

Jim West owes me a retraction and an apology.

I have no more time to waste on this and will not be replying to anything else he says about me. I advise my readers simply to ignore it.

UPDATE (31 August): Ed Cook comments on the issue of peer review.

ANOTHER DA VINCI CODE DEBUNKING, this one in the Scotsman by a doctoral student at the University of Glasgow.

UPDATE: Bad link fixed.

THE CHALDOASSYRIANS object to the language in the Iraqi draft-constitution:

Iraq's Draft Constitution and the ChaldoAssyrians
Posted GMT 8-29-2005 22:2:31 (AINA)

WASHINGTON -- In an unprecedented move, the U.S. administration is attempting to whitewash the division of Iraq's Christian ChaldoAssyrians along sectarian lines in the recently tabled Iraqi constitution. This effort, driven by Kurdish authorities, facilitated in part by the complacence of the Bush administration, only makes the U.S. guilty of aiding and abetting in the perpetuation of a Saddam era program of cultural genocide against this ethno-religious, indigenous group.

Saddam Hussein and previous Iraqi regimes worked to nurture artificial rifts in the indigenous ChaldoAssyrian people of Iraq in order to dilute their ability to assert their religious, political, economic and human rights in the country. The name ChaldoAssyrian is in the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) and reflects a compromise among the representative leadership of this Christian community. In the few remaining hours before the constitutional deadline, behind closed doors, Kurdish officials altered the wording in Article 122 of the constitution from ChaldoAssyrian to "Chaldean, Assyrian" as two separate peoples. This undermines the best intentions of the U.S. in Iraq vis-à-vis the most vulnerable of minorities.

U.S. officials must intercede on this matter and reverse something that will entrench one of Saddam's most heinous human rights abuses, instead of abolishing it. ChaldoAssyrians are neither Arabs nor Kurds. They speak the language of Christ and have kept that language alive despite Saddam's best efforts. They are one ethnic group who are also Christians from an array of denominations. Their values are so aligned with those of Americans and other western societies that they have little trouble assimilating when forced to flee Iraq. They are the most ardent pro-democracy community in Iraq. ChaldoAssyrians are presently slated to be governed as a religious minority in accordance with Islam's principles.

The U.S. must intercede and have the language corrected to reflect the Christians' ethnic unity if it wants to avoid laying the foundations for the exodus of these indigenous people from their homeland.

Chaldeans are simply ChaldoAssyrians who happen to be Catholic. Through its silence, the U.S. is condoning religious-based principles of constitutionalism by identifying a people for being Catholic. This flies in the face of the very core principles the U.S. itself has been ostensibly trying to promote during the deliberations. In this framework, religion does have a place in governing people constitutionally.

[...]

MINUSCULE GREEK SCRIPT: Bryan Cox has an interesting post at Biblaridion. (Via ricoblog.)

UPDATE: Actually, there are lots of good blog posts on various biblioblogs and related blogs. My blogroll is out of date, but you can find much there. If you haven't already, do set up a list of RSS feeds in your personal toolbar and keep track of what the biblioblogs are saying. I try to point out good posts now and then, but I've given up on trying to highlight all the posts I find really interesting. There are just too many of them.

But here's an interesting post on recent publications pertaining to Hebrew manuscripts over at Hagahot, a blog to which I've linked now and again, but which I haven't yet had a chance to put on my blogroll. It's another good one to keep an eye on.

Oh, and by the way, if you had any trouble accessing that radio interview, have a look at the post again. I've added a new link that seems to work better.

ARMENIAN BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPTS are on display at the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, Massachusetts:

Museum preserves history, culture of Armenia
By Mark Pratt / Associated Press
Monday, August 29, 2005

WATERTOWN -- Armenia has been conquered by the Romans, Greeks, Persians, Ottoman Turks and Russians.

Before gaining its independence in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, its people were oppressed, murdered and scattered across the globe.

"It is a rough and bloody history," said Gary Lind-Sinanian, curator of the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown.

The largest Armenian museum in the U.S. preserves and promotes the distinct and vibrant culture of the Armenian people, who have survived and thrived despite their sad history.

It houses a collection of 20,000 artifacts, and continually changing displays of ornate Bibles, Gospels and prayer books; colorful rugs, clothing and iles; antique musical instruments; ancient coins from the time before Christ and dazzling jewelry.

[...]

Through Oct. 30, it features an exhibit called "Monks, Merchants and Missionaries: The Bible in the Armenian Tradition." There are ornate and colorful hand-transcribed and decorated Gospels and prayer books, including one that dates to 1207 and was in the same family for 39 generations before being donated to the museum.

"The book was said to have healing properties," Lind-Sinanian said. "People with sick relatives would travel miles to rub bread on the cover, then bring the bread back for their sick relatives to eat."

[...]

There's also a library containing more than 22,000 books. I wonder if the museum has any manuscripts of Armenian biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Palestinian Authority still wants Yasser Arafat to be buried on the Temple Mount.

PA wants Arafat tomb on Temple Mount
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

The Palestinian Authority will continue to work toward moving Yasser Arafat's tomb to the Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem, Saeb Erekat, head of the PLO Negotiations Department, announced Sunday.

Erekat, who was speaking during a meeting with PA security officers in Jericho, said the issue of transferring the late Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat's grave from Ramallah to Jerusalem was a "trust" deposited with the PA.

"From the Israeli perspective the issue is not on the agenda and neither do I expect it to be on the agenda," said Mark Regev, Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman in response to a query by The Jerusalem Post last night.

[...]

MY RADIO INTERVIEW with Bnai Brith International on the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project is now available online here. It's the segment on "The Translation of Ancient Jewish Texts." For some reason the Mac versions of the shows are are dead, so I haven't listened to it yet. But it seemed to go well in the event.

UPDATE (29 August): If you've had any trouble accessing the interview, try this page. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where it says "B'nai Brith Radio Studio J." There are two buttons at the bottom: the lefthand one is for PCs and the right one for the Mac. Both seem to work fine.

I AM SORRY TO REPORT HARTMUT STEGEMANN'S SUDDEN DEATH on 22 August. The funeral was on Friday. Eileen Schuller, who is currently in Göttingen, e-mailed me with the news today.

Professor Stegemann was a well-known Dead Sea Scrolls scholar. His work included a reconstruction of the Cave One Hymn Scroll and studies pertaining to the origins of the Qumran sectarians. He also worked on the historical Jesus.
Requiescat in pace.

THIS DOESN'T SOUND GOOD:

Filmmaker Jacobovici offers biblical archeology with a twist

By SHELDON KIRSHNER
Staff Reporter (Canadian Jewish News)

When you think of Simcha Jacobovici’s finely wrought documentaries, words like earnest and serious immediately come to mind.

Over the past 15 years, Jacobovici, one of the founders of Associated Producers, has made films running the gamut from Deadly Currents, which dealt with the Arab-Israeli conflict, to The Selling of Innocents, which revolved around child trafficking and prostitution.

But now, in a shift of gears, the award-winning Toronto filmmaker has turned his talents to biblical archeology. He has churned out a 26-part series, The Naked Archaeologist, the first episode of which will be aired on Vision TV on Sept. 5 at 9:30 p.m.

[...]

“I want to serve it up naked, stripped of the bullshit,” he said in a burst of Jacobovician rhetoric. “I bring a kind of simplicity, an outsider’s perspective, the skills of an investigative journalist, to it.”

He gravitated to the subject of archeology after making The Quest for the Lost Tribes in 1996, a film that explored an intriguing dimension of Jewish history.

But what really got him going was his perception that archeologists generally treat chunks of the Bible as fiction rather than fact.

“The received wisdom of academia on biblical archeology is that the earliest parts, from Exodus onward, are mythological stories and fairy tales.”

Archeologists who indulge in such practices are falsifying the truth, somewhat like Holocaust deniers who deny that six million Jews were murdered during World War II.

Someone should tell him that the current fad of dragging the Holocaust into every argument cheapens not only the argument, but also the Holocaust. And this particular comparison is ignorant, offensive (to both archaeologists and Holocaust victims), and just silly.

Jacobovici, who became an Orthodox Jew more than a decade ago, stands firmly in the camp of the believers.

“From a historical aspect, I take the Bible as history, unless someone demonstrates it’s not. I have no reason to believe the stories in the Bible didn’t happen.” He paused, asserting, “If you don’t think it’s true, prove it!”

Here he shows how utterly unqualified he is to be making a program on archaeology. First, you can't prove a negative. Second, archaeologists have been evaluating the biblical text for many decades in light of what they've been digging up and, in certain cases such as those of the patriarchal narratives and the Exodus, the two don't add up. There is a vast scholarly literature on these subjects, much of it readily available to nonspecialists and aimed at them. Have a look at it, Mr. Jacobovici. Then, if you have a problem with it, go learn the ancient languages and read the archaeological reports. But don't say "If you don’t think it’s true, prove it!" as though this contributes something to the discussion.

He argued that some biblical archeologists are motivated by crass politics and a dislike of Jews.

Modern archeology emerged with the rise of fascism, and some archeologists were plainly anti-Semitic, he said.

And in the case of Palestinians seeking to delegitimize Israel’s claim to the land, archeology is merely another tool in their arsenal, he added.

Fascism too? And anti-Semitism? It's all very well to impute vile motives to people with whom one disagrees, but their arguments remain to be considered after the mudslinging is over. Rather than addressing the evidence for archaeological arguments with which he disagrees, he resorts to these generalized and undemonstrated accusations.

Currently, Jacobovici is editing and polishing his next documentary, The Exodus Decoded, which will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel come November and privately screened around the same time.

There is not a single shred of archeological evidence to support the thesis that the events in Exodus occurred, he allowed.

But in his forthcoming 90-minute film, a mix of The Matrix and The Da Vinci Code, he excavates proof that Exodus is not a figment of the imagination.

This doesn't sound very promising either. Why is the Discovery Channel airing this kind of nonsense?

I see that Christopher Heard has already published similar observations over at Higgaion.

UPDATE: Tyler Williams also noted the program some time ago at Codex.

THE IRANIANS seem to be getting in on Jewish-Temple denial, although the source is Palestinian. This article ("Upon Growing Judaization of AI-Qods,
Palestine' Chief Judge Urges Islamic Nations to Defend the Holy City,) from the Iranian Quran News Agency, reports, inter alia, on a Friday sermon by Mohammed Hussein in the Al Aqsa Mosque. The relevant bit is:

As Al-Aqsa mosque is more endangered than ever before, Al-Aqsa preacher headed the attention that the Jewish extremists and settlers do not stop incitement against Al-Aqsa mosque and their overt calls to harm it and destroy it to build the alleged temple mount on its ruins.

This is pretty incoherent, but it seems to be trying to say that the Jewish extremists want to rebuild the "alleged" Temple on the Temple Mount.

More of the usual from the Palestinian Authority. I see now that Al Jazeerah and the PA's International Press Centre are carrying what must be the same press release.

MOUNTAINS GET YOU HIGH: Does anoxia explain the high-altitude revelations received by Moses, Jesus and his disciples, and Muhammad? Authors Shahar Arzy, Moshe Idel (the prominent Kabbalah scholar), and Olaf Blanke raise the possibility in an article in Ha'aretz entitled "Magical mystery tours." Excerpt:

The common elements in all three "mountain" divine revelations and the appearance of the same elements in the experiences of climbers suggest that a prolonged stay on a mountain can affect various brain functions in a manner that allows them to have such experiences. One possible explanation is that the feeling of a presence, autoscopy, hearing a presence and emotional manifestations follow deficits in body-processing. The fact that we have a body and that we sense that we are living within a body is not a trivial fact. Our brain processes multisensorial inputs that the body senses, and locates our "self" accordingly. An important role is played by a special brain region, the temporoparietal junction, which integrates the data from the various regions concerned with self-processing. This data include basic perceptions: We situate ourselves in accordance with what we see, hear and feel, but there are also more complex processes at work. We permanently mentally represent ourselves, our movements, our surroundings and what is happening there. A prolonged stay at high altitudes and the shortage of oxygen can impair multisensory integration in the temporoparietal junction.

When we externally stimulate this region of the brain with an electrode or measure a spontaneous (epileptic) activity there, similar sensations of another's presence, autoscopy, hovering and fear have been experienced. In addition, a prolonged stay at high altitudes, especially while in solitude, causes a loss of neural inhibitions: Just as this organ consists of complex systems that stimulate certain processes, it also has others of similar importance that inhibit or prevent certain processes from occurring, to help us create a good picture of the reality we are experiencing, instead of an exaggerated or "disturbed" one.

THE INK AND BLOOD EXHIBITION has done okay in Lexington, but it hasn't been a blockbuster like the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in Mobile.

'Ink & Blood' is mild success for city

HUNDREDS VISIT DAILY, BUT MORE WERE EXPECTED

By Frank E. Lockwood

[LEXINGTON] HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

A heavily advertised exhibit on the Bible hasn't drawn crowds of biblical proportions to downtown Lexington, but it's selling more tickets than local art and basketball museums.

Promoters say more than 1,000 visitors a day have been filing through the exhibit in its final week -- paying up to $16 a person to see a rare collection of sacred writings on paper, parchment and papyrus.

Organizers say they can't accurately estimate how many people have attended. But selling tickets for "Ink & Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to the English Bible" was "a little bit more of a challenge than we originally thought," said chief operating officer Craig Salazar.

[...]

Of course, among other problems, the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Ink and Blood exhibition look like burnt cornflakes.

HERE'S ONE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIAN who is adamantly opposed to the Iraqi draft-constitution. He is especially concerned with women's rights and the rights of minorities. This WorldNetDaily piece is reprinted by AINA. Excerpt:

Iraq's forgotten minorities including the Assyrians from the ancient Assyrian Empire ("The men of Nineveh" referred to by Jesus Christ himself in the Bible and the one remaining people groups on Earth who can watch "The Passion" by Mel Gibson without subtitles since their native tongue is ancient Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.)

Other non-Muslim and non-Arab Iraqi minorities include Mandeans and Yezidis, plus there are the often-forgotten minority Muslim groups such as the Turkoman and Shabak who are oppressed by Barzani Kurds. Although hardly mentioned in the major media, these ancient people have been fleeing Iraq in unprecedented numbers under persecution by Islamic militants and severe discrimination by the Kurdish Muslims, among whom many of these minorities live in northern Iraq.

And this New York Newsday article has more on Islamist persecution of Iraqi minorities and women, with a focus on Basra. Excerpt:

Not just the Christians, but many of the city's minorities - from obscure sects like the ancient Sabeans to the Sunni Muslims who used to run Iraq and still predominate in the rest of the Arab world - live in fear of the hard-line Shia religious parties and their militias that now rule Iraq's second-largest city.

Freedom has been curtailed for women, too. Several decades ago, almost no woman in Basra covered her head. Now, they all do, under fear of harassment or worse. Women working for foreign companies or governments, and those considered to have loose morals, have been marked for death by the militants - two Iraqi sisters who worked in the laundry at the American compound in Basra were assassinated last year.

For more on the Sabaean Mandaeans, go here.

THE LOST ARK -- Now you can buy the t-shirt.

A TRAVELOGUE ON JORDAN in the Washington Times opens with the supposed site of the baptisim of Jesus:

Jordan's biblical sites

By John McCaslin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 27, 2005

PETRA, Jordan -- Enthusiasm flows from Rustom Mkhjian like the stream of holy water his team of archaeologists christened John the Baptist Spring. What's enlightening about this discovery, hailed as one of the most significant archaeological and religious finds of modern time, is that I am standing in the kingdom of Jordan -- in the long-lost settlement of Bethany Beyond the Jordan where John the Baptist converted untold numbers while preparing for the coming and eventual baptism of Jesus Christ.
"Some people still think Jordan is a small town in Montana," Akel Biltaji, an adviser to King Abdullah II, tells me, "but we share with others the Holy Land."
Giving his trowel a rest, Mr. Mkhjian, a supervisor of archaeological works for the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, leads me into the shade of John's recently resurrected grotto on the banks of Jordan River.
He sifts through considerable biblical text and archaeological discourse before pointing to a specific patch of sandy ground at the base of some newly excavated steps.
"There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind, based on religious records and all the supporting evidence we've uncovered here, that this is the very spot -- right here at the bottom of the steps -- where Jesus was baptized," he says.
That would make this particular excavation -- one of more than a dozen within the grotto that reveal arches and walls, marble and mosaic floors -- the ruins of Bethabara, a church built about 500 years after Jesus' death to commemorate His exact baptismal place.

[...]

The archaeological evidence for identifying the first-century strata of the site so precisely is not discussed. I hope it amounts to more than the testimony of church-builders five hundred years later. It's not clear to me whether it is this site or yet another candidate for the place of Jesus' baptism.

Other ancient sites in Jordan are also discussed, including, of course, Petra.

THRILLERS INVOLVING ANCIENT BOOKS AND ARTIFACTS is the subject of an interesting post over at Hagahot. I've read and enjoyed Foucault's Pendulum and The Rule of Four. I also like H. P. Lovecraft and his wonderful, arcane, and usually evil ancient books such as the Necronomicon. Many years ago I got bogged down in the middle of The Name of the Rose and have never gotten around to finishing it. So far none of the other recent books in this genre (and our local Ottakars has a special shelf devoted to them) have seemed worth the time.

Attempts at this sort of thing in film are often especially dire. That said, Manuscript Boy mentions a Johnny Depp movie that I haven't seen which he seems to think was okay. And some movies in this genre are so much fun that I can't help forgiving -- or at least trying not to think about -- their pathetic attempts to deal with history. I'm thinking, for example, of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Mummy.

I got to thinking about the subject this morning, when I noticed a review of a new movie called The Cave, whose title reminded me of The Cave of Treasures.

"The Cave" (PG-13) A team of scientists, who look more like panelists at a underwear-model convention, explore a cave that is purported to hold ancient secrets but actually holds a hottie-eating creature. These spelunkheads stick around long enough to be picked off, one by one. It's not original, but it delivers a few jolty thrills and a couple of laughs and wraps things up before it starts to get too dumb. îî1/2

But aside from the cave with ancient secrets, the two don't seem to have much in common.

By the way, sort of on the same note, I'm continuing to compile a list of lost Old Testament pseudepigrapha and I've found a number of others since my lost books post. When I get a chance I'll post the additions to the list here.

As you may have guessed, it's a slow news day.

A NEW BOOK by Steven McKenzie is excerpted on the Bible and Interpretation website:

Jonah and Genre

Readers who have misconstrued the genre of Jonah as history have therefore approached it with an erroneous set of expectations and have often tried to force it to fit their expectations. When it is discovered that the book does not fit those expectations, the tendency is often to blame the book, declaring it "untrue" and implying that it is somehow of less significance because it does not describe historical events.

From How to Read the Bible (Oxford University Press, 2005)
Permission Granted from Oxford University Press

By Steven McKenzie,
Professor, Rhodes College
August 2005

IRAQ'S DRAFT CONSTITUTION comes in for some heavy criticism from Iraqi secularists, according to "Iraq secularists denounce "Islamist" constitution" (Reuters). Some of the criticisms, such as those regarding the centrality of Islamic law, seem to me to be well founded. But I'm less happy with this one:

The only minorities ensured specific rights are Kurds, who have a federal region in the north, and speakers of Syriac, who it says are free to educate their children in the language.

That isn't exactly what it says:

"This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people, as well as complete religious rights for all individuals to freedom of beliefs and religious practice."

"Iraq is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country and it is part of the Islamic world, and the Arab people in it are part of the Arab nation."

"The Arabic language and Kurdish language are the two official languages of Iraq, and the right of Iraqis to educate their children in mother tongues such as Turkmen and Syriac in government teaching establishments ... or any other language in private institutions is guaranteed."

The right of religious freedom is guaranteed for all minorities. Also, there is a right to state education in "mother tongue" languages, of which Turkmen and Syriac are given as examples. It is not a comprehensive list.

As I said, this sounds pretty good on paper. But much depends on the fairness of its implementation.