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JMJ
The pressure on Catholics to give up their faith is enormous. Good to see that at the same time, hard evidence that the Bible is true emerges.
P^3
Courtesy of FSSPX.news
The Bible and Modern Discoveries (1): The Hittites
July 29, 2019
Source:
fsspx.news
This title refers to a valuable work by
Fr. Fulcran Grégoire Vigouroux (Nantes, 1837 - Paris, 1915), member of
the Society of Priests of Saint Sulpice (Sulpicians) who taught Holy
Scripture at the Seminary of Saint Sulpice (1860-1895) and then at the
Catholic Institute of Paris (1890-1903). He was then called to Rome to
become secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. A prolific
author, he published numerous articles and volumes.
The Hittite Empire exhibition, which is being held at the Louvre until August 12, 2019, will provide a defense of this first episode.
The Hittites: A Forgotten Civilization Only Mentioned in the Bible
The great Hittite kingdom, whose dynasty uninterruptedly dominated most of Anatolia for more than four centuries, was formed in the last decades of the 17th century BC. A great rival power of ancient Egypt, it extended its influence over the Levant until about 1200 BC. Its fall gave rise to the emergence of the neo-Hittite and Aramaean kingdoms in the territories of modern Turkey and Syria.Unlike the contemporary kingdoms of Babylon, Assyria, or Egypt, memories of which have been preserved by the civilizations that succeeded them, the Hittite kingdom is one of the forgotten civilizations in the history of the ancient Near East, having left almost no trace in the memory of the peoples whose lands they occupied. Around 1880, after the first wave of archeological discoveries concerning mainly Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia, and the deciphering of their writings, new excavations uncovered cities with unknown languages. By following the observations of the English scholar Archibald Henry Sayce, the discoveries of the French mission of Ernest Chantre in 1894, then of the German Orientalist Society directed by Hugo Winckler from 1906, and finally the decipherment of Hittite by the Czech scholar Bedřich Hrozný from 1915, the rediscovery of the importance of this forgotten kingdom was made possible. For centuries, only the Bible mentioned its existence.
Even so, criticism by rationalists, which has attacked the Bible since the end of the 18th century and which has not relaxed its efforts since, has not stopped finding fault with the holy text for referring to absolutely unknown peoples from antiquity, accusing it of fabrication and being unreliable. For example, there is mention of the ḥittîm or bĕnê ḥet (“Son of Heth”), which the French translation often refers to as Héthéens [in Latin and in English, “Heth”]. But it is precisely this major civilization which occupied center stage in the Near East for nearly 500 years, which was so designated in the holy text.
The sacred authors mention this people about 60 times (in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezekiel, and Isaiah). Several times they cite Carchemish, the Hittite capital, one of the fortresses the Hittites built on the bank the Euphrates at the entrance of the fords that led from the Syrian bank to the Mesopotamian bank.
The rediscovery of the Hittites by archeologists and the work of modern orientalists has confirmed the reliability of the Bible.
Royaumes oubliés : de l'empire hittite aux Araméens
[Forgotten Kingdoms : the Hittite to the Aramaean Empires]
Louvre Museum from May 2, 2019 to August 12, 2019
For reservations : (+33) 01 40 20 53 17
The Bible and Modern Discoveries (2): “New Testament” Greek
July 30, 2019
Source:
fsspx.news
Greek is the original language of most
of the books of the New Testament. Only the gospel of St. Matthew is an
exception. According to tradition, it was written in the Hebrew language
and translated into Greek by the Evangelist himself.
In fact, until about 200 years ago, the only Greek texts transmitted since antiquity were those of the great authors: poets like Homer, historians like Herodotus or Thucydides, doctors like Hippocrates, philosophers like Plato or the Cynics. This language is that of a refined culture. It was the only one known in the West in medieval times and the following centuries.
The comparison of that Greek with the language of the New Testament is confusing. In the latter we find words, forms, constructions, and phrases that could be described as vulgarisms, more of a popular style. The scholars of the Renaissance were unfavorable in their judgement of the Greek New Testament. Their opinion is summed up in these words of Claude Saumaise (1588-1653), “Like the men [the authors of the New Testament], so also their language. Their language is the so-called idiotikos [personal], the common and popular language. For it is called idiotai, of the common man without literary education, who employ the language that the people use in their conversation.”
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there was dispute over the quality and nature of the New Testament Greek. This discussion gave rise to the purist, Hebrew, and empiricist systems.
- In the early eighteenth century, the purists defended, against all evidence, the absolute purity and correctness of the New Testament.
- In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Hebrewists believed that the New Testament writers had thought in Hebrew and translated their thoughts into Greek. Their language would be only transposed Hebrew.
- The eighteenth-century empiricists argued that the New Testament writers did not know Greek and wrote it in a haphazard manner. Thus, the New Testament writers could have used one time for another, one mode for another, one case for another, etc.
The Discovery of Koine Greek
But all these systems collapsed after the discovery of thousands of Greek writings in the excavations of Egypt, Persia, and the Near East: stone, papyrus, ostraca—fragments of pottery, —clay tablets and parchments, so much evidence spanning a long series of centuries.From the point of view of language, these discoveries made possible the study of the Greek called “koine,” or common Greek, which served as the lingua franca throughout the Mediterranean region, especially after the conquests of Alexander the Great. This common language was less correct than the classical language, often mixed with words or phrases borrowed from the language of the speakers. Thus, Greek spoken in Palestine is marked by Hebrew and Aramaic.
The Apostles naturally spoke the language of their time, koinè, and left their writings in this form so as to be accessible to their contemporaries. Thus, the New Testament and the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, for centuries have been the main witnesses of this common language, before it was rediscovered in the nineteenth century.
The Bible and Modern Discoveries (3): the “P52” Papyrus
All that happens depends on divine
Providence. The discoveries we are talking about are part of it: they
are providential because they illustrate the faith and help unbelievers
to have faith in the Bible and the Church. But some of them are
obviously desired by God to encourage His faithful servants and to
confuse His enemies: this is the case with the P52 papyrus.
What is a papyrus?
By “papyrus” we mean the material on which biblical text was written. In fact, before the use of parchment, which is much stronger and practical, antiquity used papyrus, a reed that grew abundantly in Egypt on the banks of the Nile. The manufacturing principle consists in superimposing thin slices cut from the pith from the stem of the plant, which are crisscrossed and pressed together during the drying process. But this material is fragile and does not age well. It is exceptional to discover something other than mere fragments.Let us add that the papyrus may only consist of a single sheet, to record short texts, or many sheets sewn end to end and rolled to form a cylinder or roll. Then finally, but much later, there were sheets bound together to form a codex, the ancestor of our book.
The biblical papyri of the New Testament are classified in chronological order of discovery and noted by a P followed by an exponent. The P52 was acquired by the John Rylands Library in Manchester in 1920. It probably came from the famous Oxyrhynchus site that has delivered thousands of papyri.
The rationalist criticism
Since the mid-eighteenth century, Christian revelation and especially the Bible have been subjected to intense rationalist criticism. Regarding the Bible, rationalists have systematically refused to accept the traditional dates given by the Church for the writing of the Gospels. The main reason is the rejection of the supernatural and of miracles. For example, since the Synoptic gospels announced the destruction of Jerusalem, they could only have been written subsequent to that event. In general, rationalist critics placed their writing as having been in the second century of our era.Unfortunately, it must be pointed out that today many Catholic exegetes and theologians have followed in the steps of the rationalists. It suffices, for example, to read how Walter Kasper, in his book Jesus, the Christ (1974), drastically reduces the miracles of the Gospel under the most curious pretexts. As for the exegetes, they have often adopted the rationalist dating.
Papyrus P52
This papyrus, about 9 cm by 6 cm (3.5 in. by 2.4 in.), is written on both sides, which indicates that it was very likely part of a codex. It contains a passage from the Gospel of St. John. But the most important question is: when is it dated?For our critics, the Gospel of St. John could only be very late, because its theological elevation necessarily required development, which was spread out over a century or two. This is why they could not place it earlier than 250, or even looked toward placing it in the fourth century.
It is possible to date a papyrus: sometimes by the circumstances of its discovery, but especially by the paleographic method, i.e., by the type of writing studied. Indeed, the methods and requirements of materials or reading, vary with time. By making a comparison with other dated manuscripts, it is possible to obtain a reliable date.
Dr. Colin Roberts, in charge of this scientific work, was surprised to discover that the P52 dated from the first half of the second century. Various specialists also consulted announced the same result, a result that is widely accepted today. This made this papyrus the oldest manuscript of the New Testament ever discovered. Dr. Roberts published his work in 1936.
There was beautiful astonishment among heterodox writers. A few square centimeters, a few grams of papyrus were right for entire libraries. The discovery fully justified the traditional date of the composition of the fourth gospel—towards the end of the first century.
The contents of P52
But what is the passage recorded on P52? It is (Jn. 18:31-33) on the front and (Jn. 18:37-38) on the back: the gospel of Christ the King! It is by this passage that Providence has conquered error. It cannot be the effect of chance.A comparison will well illustrate it. In 1858, the Most Blessed Virgin appeared in Lourdes to St. Bernadette as the Immaculate Conception in order to spread the divine benefits to souls and bodies. This is clearly a reward given to the faith of the militant Church for the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854, four years earlier.
In 1936, Christ the King swept away rationalist criticisms of the authenticity of the Gospel of St. John. It is like a reward given to His earthly children for the proclamation of the dogma of Christ the King by Pope Pius XI on December 11, 1925, in the encyclical Quas Primas. Here is one more reason to be attached to this dogma which has almost disappeared from ecclesial life today.
Christus vincit ! Christus regnat ! Christus imperat !
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