Daily Archives: 12 Aug 2012

Fun Facts from Church History: Signs of the Times in 1531 Zurich

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S. Jackson relates

[In the Summer of 1531] Zurich was again visited by the plague, though not in severe form. Like others of his time, Zwingli believed in signs and portents …. So he was greatly disturbed at an extraordinary communication from Schenkenberg, near Brugg, in Aargau, some seventeen miles north by west of Zurich, written by the magistrate of the village and dated July 29, 1531, to the effect that on July 24th blood had been seen issuing in a stream from the earth!

Other equally circumstantial reports of uncommon physical phenomena were:

-that at Zug, some fifteen miles south of Zurich, on Lake Zug, a shield had been seen in the air;
-on the river Reuss, which runs into Lake Zug, shots were heard at night;
-on the Bruenig Pass, some twenty-five miles south of Luzern, flags flew in the heavens,
– and on the Lake of Luzern phantom ships sailed filled with ghosts in warriors’ garb.

At Goostow, in the county of Gröningen, belonging to Zurich, a poor peasant woman, Beatrice of Marckelssheim, bore a child that had two heads with faces, three legs, and three arms, but only one body. Two of the arms hung from the sides as usual, but the third came out of the back between the shoulders, and had on the end two hands clasped. Two of the legs were also normal, but the third hung from behind for all the world like a tail! One of the heads died in the birth, the other lived a short time after it.

[Sound like Joel Watts!]

But still more alarming was the comet, of which Zwingli writes, on August 16th: “Some have seen a comet here in Zurich for three nights. I for one only, i. e., August 15th; what we shall see to-day, the 16th, I don’t know.” Bullinger thus relates the incident:

“Upon [St.] Lawrence [day, Thursday, August 10, 1531], appeared at sunset a right fearful comet whose long and broad tail stretched to mid heaven. The colour was pale yellow. And when Zwingli was asked what it meant by George Müller, abbot at Wittengen, as standing in the churchyard of the Great Minster, near the Wettinger House, they contemplated it together, he replied: ‘Dear George, it will cost me and many an honest man his life, and truth and Church will yet suffer; still Christ will not desert us.’ ”

Signs of the times indeed. In our own day we don’t have such amazing portents of disaster. We just have Joel Watts’ blogging and Chris Tilling on vacation… We’re being ripped off in the Portent Department!

If Biblioblogs Had Movie Titles… An Observation

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If biblioblogs had movie titles… the titles of the blogs authored by the people below would be-

Joel Watts: The Expendables.
Mark Goodacre: The Godfather.
Near Emmaus: 12 Angry Men.
James McGrath: Fight Club.
Chris Tilling: Forest Gump.
Aren Maier: Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Rod Thomas: Psycho.
Mark Stevens: The Shining.
Jim West: The Pianist.
Antonio Lombatti: The Great Escape.
James Crossley: The Untouchables.
Michael Barber: Up.
Robert Cargill: Driving Miss Daisy.

The Canaanites and their Land

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Logos users will want to know of this if they already don’t-

Canaanites and Their Land: The Tradition of the Canaanites
http://www.logos.com/product/6644/canaanites-and-their-land-the-tradition-of-the-canaanites

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It’s a very intriguing volume, even now.  And it’s certainly worth $25.

Qumran Science: The Website of Jan Gunneweg

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It’s here, and has been since 2010.

The new Center comprises an overview of present, future as well as past research between the Hebrew University and every scholar on earth who has collaborated, continues or wishes to collaborate in the future.  Qumran is important because it is our sole monotheistic backbone of three religions that comprise two-thirds of the World’s population. This treasure of cultural heritage was found between 1947-1956 at Qumran near the Dead Sea and consists of biblical, apocryphal and sectarian Jewish manuscripts of about 900 scrolls written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek on parchment and papyrus.

I only learned of it today.

“The Family of Man: The Genre and Purpose of Genesis 10”

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A new essay by Yigal Levin in K. Abraham and J. Fleishman (eds.), Looking at the Ancient Near East and the Bible through the Same Eyes – Minha LeAhron, A Tribute to Aharon Skaist, Bethesda, CDL Press, 2012, 291-308, begins

Within the general context of the so-called “Primeval History” of the world that makes up the first eleven chapters of Genesis, “the toledoth of the sons of Noah” recorded in chapter 10 is unique. After the grand universal scope of the first creation narrative (Gen 1:1–2:3) and the more “down-to-earth” second creation and Eden story (2:4–3:24), after the tale of social origins in chapter 4, the linear genealogy of chapter 5, and the elaborate and complex flood narrative of chapters 6–9 comes the no-less complex and elaborate genealogy of the descendants of Noah, often dubbed “The Table of the Nations.” This “table” presents all the peoples of the earth as an extended family group, a collection of mishpahot. The purpose of this paper, respectfully presented to my teacher Professor Aaron Skaist, is to offer some insight as to the background, genre, and purpose of this chapter within the preliminary chapters of the book of Genesis.

Get yourself a copy.

Ten of David Barton’s Most Idiotic Statements

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Given this sort of record, is anyone surprised that a publisher that agreed to print a book written by Barton ultimately had to recall it?

Via.

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