Tomorrow I will be opening up a new web site and launching what I hope will be a new career, as the founder of 24/7 Scrolls and the curator of its first Reference Hall. You will be able to read up on it at 247scrolls.org so I don't need to say too much about it here except to say that I will be encouraging those who use the Reference Halls or donate to them to link up their blogs to the site as a good way of getting to know one other.
I've not been much of a blogger in the past. And I don't use MySpace or FaceBook or Twitter. No time for chit chat. But discussions of substance are another matter.
The picture I've chosen at the top is of me and my father-in-law, "Grandpa George" and my son. It was taken in a corn field like the one on the farm Grandpa George grew up on. Corn kernels become the seeds for future generations. The past rises up taking new forms, yet ever-recapitulating. Meanwhile we anticipate moving from glory to glory in the image of Divinity.
The past has a way of drawing us in as we consider its meaning for the present. Here is a photo of a papyrus fragment from Pompei, the place where papayrus was grown and scrolls were made up until 78 CE and the destruction of Mt. Vesuvius. One litte house amidst the molten ash contained something of a library that was miraculously preserved.
History is buried, but there are fragments that survive, fragments that become the stuff of meaning and emotion for today and for tomorrow.
The Creator of the Universe is writing a church family theme song and I can hear its harmony in that corn field, the stuff my life is springing from.
- I placed bushes around the walls of the castle theme at 24/7 Scrolls.
- 24 is the number of elders who worship the King.
- 7 is the number of eyes belonging to the lamb, the number of spirits of the churches, the number of oil lanterns in the heavenly temple.
- And it was out of the wood that the truth was made known. This is the theme that resonates in 24/7 Scrolls, scrolls being made of a type of wood, the wood of truth, the papyrus on which the word is written.
Funny that the words "from the wood" were disputed by Justin with Trypho (Dialog with Trypho, Chp. 73) and again with his disciple Tertullian (An Answer to the Jews 10:7). It was because of details like that that I took interest in the inventory of knowledge - the scrolls, the proof. I wanted to know for myself which was more reliable the Hebrew or the Greek. The cross puts flesh to the wood that preceded it like children growing in a corn field.
The task would be to look up Psalm 95/96 in the Hebrew now finally made available in a pre-Christian version - the Dead Sea Scrolls. Did either the Hebrew or the Greek contain this? Well, from what I have been able to find, starting with Psalm 90 the Psalms are numbered differently and vary greatly from what is found in the Hebrew Scriptures of today - the Tenakh of the Masorites, known as the MT. Cave 1 contained only fragmentary copies. Cave 2 had only parts of Psalms 103 and 104. Cave 3 had just a piece of Psalm 2. Cave 4 had more than any other cave but I can't seem to find the published results. Cave 8 has a few parts of Psalms 17-18. Finally cave 11 seems to hit the jackpot on Psalms, but the experts still haven't given me what I'm looking for.
Without direct access to the 40 volume series known as the DJD, (that those experts wrote), I may never have my answer. But I have determined that that is not going to be a problem. The answer is coming from the wood - paper money this time, at about $200/volume x 40 = something like $10,000 I need to raise to get a set.
