Jacob Neusner RIP

Discussion about the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Talmud, Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeology, etc.
Secret Alias
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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And then on top of:

1. remarkable gift of writing in blank tight spaces in straightlines and margins
2. remarkable gift of developing Byzantine script that resembles only one person I've found in hundreds of samples
3. remarkable gift of developing gospel pericopes in Markan style and form
4. remarkable gift of 'harmonizing' gospel passages in a centonized fashion in the manner of the gospel harmonies
5. remarkable gift of developing Clementine style

And we should tentatively add that Smith must also have possessed the remarkable gift of anticipating that Clement's Alexandrian tradition would be recognized as being connected to the gospel harmony tradition by Petersen and others (and me by Origen's Commentary on Matthew).

So there's this genius professor who no one knew mastered:

i. Byzantine scribal habits (writing on blank pages)
ii. unique Byzantine scribal handwriting that took me literally a decade to find
iii Markan gospel writing style
iv the early habit of 'harmonizing' gospel passages (viz Tatian, Irenaeus, Ammonius)
v. Clement's writing style

He has all this ability and spends all this time studying this text with only passing interest in i, ii, iii, iv in v (I don't remember if v was featured prominently in the 1973 tome, ii was a brief appendix, iii was passed over completely, iv was not mentioned) is this meticulous scholar who simultaneously is completely reckless leaving the MS sitting on the shelves even after carbon dating could test the ink and prove him to be a forger and compromise his career and everything he worked to establish.

The only time he goes back to Mar Saba is in 1984 as part of a documentary team. Surely he couldn't have stolen the text then. They won't let him see the text. Instead they give it to another guy who is the most prominent dissenting voice in scholarship who ends up admitting it looks pretty authentic (25 years after the discovery WHICH IS SIMPLY INCREDIBLE THAT IT A FORGERY MADE IN 1958 COULD TAKE ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A WITHERED BROWNED TEXT WHICH WAS 200 YEARS OLD!!). Quesnell does everything to experiment with the text in order to prove his assertion that it's a forgery and ends up never publishing anything about his encounter with the manuscript. It's the most insane thing that can people can persist in this nonsense.

Why is it not reasonable to simply assume it's authentic until something substantive emerges to challenge authenticity? What's the loss?
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Peter Kirby
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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Secret Alias wrote:It seems incredibly unlikely if not impossible that particular human beings have the innate gift to do things that scribes in other age needed artificial 'help' doing.
Makes sense to me. From how the ms. was found, it wasn't as if a forger had unlimited opportunities to practice to get it perfect.
Secret Alias wrote:Why is it not reasonable to simply assume it's authentic until something substantive emerges to challenge authenticity? What's the loss?
I guess some people are waiting for some heavyweight "names" to "take down" the lengthy analyses of Stephen Carlson, etc. Most opinions seem to be formed by means of triangulation on the opinions of others, in this field. Which is to say, it is essentially political in nature, not scientific.
"... almost every critical biblical position was earlier advanced by skeptics." - Raymond Brown
Secret Alias
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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Makes sense to you that Morton Smith had magic powers from the devil to do what scribes in previous ages needed mastara for or it makes sense that Morton Smith did not have magic powers from the devil?
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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Quesnell would have seen that the text looked like it was a recently produced document if - in fact - it was made in 1958. It resembled an ancient text and by his own admission the handwriting looked like a Byzantine handwriting from other documents (as Dourvas attempted to show him by bringing out the other examples while he was there). Most of the critics are still living like it's 2004 and Stephen Carlson was some 'genius' who 'cracked the Da Vinci Code.' Complete and utter nonsense all of it. Get with the times we know Quesnell saw the MS and what he thought of the MS. His omission to publish this encounter is a greater scholarly crime than anything based in fact that can be leveled against Smith. It's not 2004 any longer. Bush lost the election. The neo-conservative movement that put gay marriage bans on every election contest is long gone. Time to move on.
Last edited by Secret Alias on Mon Oct 24, 2016 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Peter Kirby
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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Secret Alias wrote:Makes sense to you that Morton Smith had magic powers from the devil to do what scribes in previous ages needed mastara for
No.
Secret Alias wrote: or it makes sense that Morton Smith did not have magic powers from the devil?
Yes.
"... almost every critical biblical position was earlier advanced by skeptics." - Raymond Brown
Secret Alias
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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My autistic nephew can tell you what the date of your birth was if you tell him your birthday and year. It's quite cool.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
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MrMacSon
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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Secret Alias wrote:My autistic nephew can tell you what the date of your birth was if you tell him your birthday and year. It's quite cool.
You mean the day [of the week]?
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Peter Kirby
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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The trick would be to know day of the week with birthday and guess the year, or to deduce day of the week from birthdate (w/ year).

Unless there is some irony intended here.
"... almost every critical biblical position was earlier advanced by skeptics." - Raymond Brown
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DCHindley
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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MrMacSon wrote:
Secret Alias wrote:My autistic nephew can tell you what the date of your birth was if you tell him your birthday and year. It's quite cool.
You mean the day [of the week]?
I think SA meant that the boy is quite adept at "modulus" arithmetic. This is the European term for "long division" in the USA. The "remainder" tells you things like the day of the week. If you can express it one way, you can also express it in reverse, although most of us just don't do that in regular everyday life. I think computer programmers have developed a large number of ways to "hash" out issues like this.

I suddenly have a hunger for hash & eggs...

DCH
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Peter Kirby
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Re: Jacob Neusner RIP

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DCHindley wrote:I think SA meant that the boy is quite adept at "modulus" arithmetic. This is the European term for "long division" in the USA. The "remainder" tells you things like the day of the week.
Here's (one way) how:

http://commandlinefanatic.com/cgi-bin/s ... cle=art009

There's a little extra work to do if you need to keep track of the years divisible by 100 but not by 400 (the years 1900, 2100, etc.) that are not leap years.
"... almost every critical biblical position was earlier advanced by skeptics." - Raymond Brown
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