Bill Brown
"In fact, a devious hack with an agenda could cherry pick the quotations of Simonides and compile whatever story he wants to believe."
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Steven Avery
This is simply not true. Most of the Simonides account is quite consistent. The dates are locations are severely restricted by the events. The lack of any other provenance is a major support of his story.
The knowledge of Benedict as a Bible scholar was an imperative to accomplish this task. On that point, a review of the Zosimas Bible will help.
The colouring of the 1859 part, and the amazing condition of the manuscript and ink, are amazing "facts on the ground". Plus he was able to point out many details like the 1844 Tischendorf theft.
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Bill Brown
"This, of course, is why nobody trusts a word Simonides says - including Farrer, who basically said Simonides was a lying gas bag."
Steven Avery
The Farrer account is overall excellent. Today we have a ton more collaboration of the Simonides account. And Tischendorf is the major liar in the Sinaiticus accounts. The account of Simonides fits the actual "facts on the ground" in a far superior way.
The Lamprou Mt. Athos catalog, published in the 1890s, was correctly noted by Farrer as a major confirmation of the Simonides-Kallinikos account
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Steven Avery
Benedict had worked on this for years before the Simonides involvement.
Bill Brown
"You were corrected on this claim on Early Church Writings on March 18, 2017. Your claim is false."
Steven Avery
This can be a primary study in our discussion. Presumably this is your "correction".
Bill Brown
Mr Avery ...informs us all:
http://bibleforums.org/showthread.php/2 ... ost3088227
By his own account, Simonides did not collate manuscripts. Any degree of preparation at that stage was Benedict.
As you were informed at that time, Simonides in an alleged 1860 letter (never authenticated as such):
"Dionysus...declined...when he objected...we straightway inspected the oldest manuscripts preserved in Mt Athos...
And the learned Benedict taking in his hands a copy of the Moscow edition of the OT and NT (published at the expense of the illustrious brothers Zosimas, and by them presented to the Greeks), collated it, with my assistance
Steven Avery
The Zosimas edition was almost surely only used for the OT and maybe apocrypha. And I would say there is some minor telescoping in the Simonides sentences above. Simonides was relating events 20+ yeas earlier, when he was younger, and he would tend to emphasize his own contributions and do some embellishment.
And you are the one cherry-picking the quotes here, so when my PureBibleForum is at its new home, hopefully the next day or two, I will add more on this question, especially of when Benedict began the project.
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Bill Brown
First of all, Benedict DIED in the spring of 1840,
Steven Avery
Probably later, I'll plan on pulling that out as well
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Bill Brown
and the idea wasn't even hatched until November 1839 (this giving Simonides the benefit of the doubt he's telling the truth). So Benedict couldn't have written very much in the first place. (And does Avery have some writings of Benedict that he has examined that nobody else has seen?)
Steven Avery
See above on the starting date. We can be fairly certain that Benedict had done lots of study, research and collation in the earlier years. I'll be happy to check the various data and report back.
As for the Benedict textual history and viewpoints, David Daniels has pulled out material directly on that question, which is not in other sources.
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Bill Brown
Dionysius was the calligrapher who said it was too tough a task (according to Simonides) and now we're supposed to believe he wrote some of it (according to Avery).
Steven Avery
Sure, that is possible.
Also there are three Dionysius notes in the text, which I highlight in a section on "palaeographic puzzles".
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Bill Brown
The phony letter from Kallinikos alleges that there was an acrostic saying, "Simonides' entire work."
Steven Avery
Do you have the actual quote?
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Bill Brown
Bear in mind that Simonides never produced a single eyewitness after claiming he had four.
Steven Avery
Each case is unique. e.g. He mentioned a John Prodromus of Galata coffee-house, and nobody bothered to check this up in the debates. If I remember, his lithograph connection in Odesssa was confirmed. The Kallinikos connection got major support in the Lamprou catalog.
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A few interesting questions here, which I will be happy to study
iron sharpeneth.
And I will simply ignore the silly stuff, rants and vulgarity from Bill.
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Steven