Arhiva forumului

Ce spuneti de aceasta noua descoperire? Unii spun ca e veche de 2000 de ani, altii ca e contrafacere anticariala?

"Ancient" Syriac bible found in Cyprus
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090206/lf_ ... prus_bible

NICOSIA (Reuters Life!) – Authorities in northern Cyprus believe they have found an ancient version of the Bible written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus.

The manuscript was found in a police raid on suspected antiquity smugglers. Turkish Cypriot police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript could be about 2,000 years old.

The manuscript carries excerpts of the Bible written in gold lettering on vellum and loosely strung together, photos provided to Reuters showed. One page carries a drawing of a tree, and another eight lines of Syriac script.

Experts were however divided over the provenance of the manuscript, and whether it was an original, which would render it priceless, or a fake.

Experts said the use of gold lettering on the manuscript was likely to date it later than 2,000 years.

"I'd suspect that it is most likely to be less than 1,000 years old," leading expert Peter Williams, Warden of Tyndale House, University of Cambridge told Reuters.

Turkish Cypriot authorities seized the relic last week and nine individuals are in custody pending further investigations. More individuals are being sought in connection with the find, they said.

Further investigations turned up a prayer statue and a stone carving of Jesus believed to be from a church in the Turkish held north, as well as dynamite.

The police have charged the detainees with smuggling antiquities, illegal excavations and the possession of explosives.

Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic - the native language of Jesus - once spoken across much of the Middle East and Central Asia. It is used wherever there are Syrian Christians and still survives in the Syrian Orthodox Church in India.

Aramaic is still used in religious rituals of Maronite Christians in Cyprus.

"One very likely source (of the manuscript) could be the Tur-Abdin area of Turkey, where there is still a Syriac speaking community," Charlotte Roueche, Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's College London told Reuters.

Stories regarding the antiquity of manuscripts is commonplace. One case would be the Yonan Codex, carbon dated to the 12th century which people tried to pass off as earlier.

After further scrutiny of photographs of the book, manuscripts specialist at the University of Cambridge library and Fellow of Wolfson College JF Coakley suggested that the book could have been written a good deal later.

"The Syriac writing seems to be in the East Syriac script with vowel points, and you do not find such manuscripts before about the 15th century.

"On the basis of the one photo...if I'm not mistaken some words at least seem to be in modern Syriac, a language that was not written down until the mid-19th century," he told Reuters.

(Editing by Michele Kambas and Paul Casciato)

Iata si parerea unui expert roman:
"Nu pot spune dacă e contrafacere. Poate fi autentică, dar nu este de 2000 de ani, în nici un caz. Biblia Siriacă n-a fost tradusă mai devreme de secolul al doilea, iar acest exemplar nu cred că are mai mult de 1000 de ani. Este o copie târzie. În ce priveşte limba, este adevărat că Aramaica a fost limba vorbită de Iisus şi de toţi galileenii, dar Iisus a vorbit dialectul iudeo-aramaic, în timp ce Biblia aceasta este scrisă în dialectul creştino-aramaic, numit şi siriac. Practic este aceeaşi limbă, dar e vorba de variabte dialectale sau mai degrabă graiuri diferite."

Police in northern Cyprus have come across an ancient bible believed to have been written in Syriac, a dialect of Jesus’s native tongue, in a raid last week on suspected antiquity smugglers.

The bible could possibly date back 2,000 years to the time of Christ, though some experts are divided on its true age. This disagreement is due to the fact that the bible contains vellum pages, which are filled with gold lettering.

“I’d suspect that it is most likely to be less than 1,000 years old,” leading expert Peter Williams, Warden of Tyndale House, University of Cambridge told Reuters.

Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic, and it was once a widespread language across the Middle East and Central Asia. Today, the language is mainly spoken by Syrian Christians and in the Syrian Orthodox Church in India.

However, the particular style of Syriac writing lead University of Cambridge library and Fellow of Wolfson College JF Coakley to remark to Yahoo that the bible “seems to be in the East Syriac script with vowel points… you do not find such manuscripts before about the 15th century.”

He then elaborated by saying that, based upon the one photo he had seen “some words at least seem to be in modern Syriac.”

Coakley was quoted by Reuters as saying that Modern Syriac was not written down until the 19th century.
With experts divided, further research will show the books true age.

Meanwhile, the individuals who were in possession of the manuscript are in custody, pending further investigation into their crimes by Turkish Cypriot authorities. The alleged smugglers involved are being charged with smuggling antiques, illegal excavations and possession of explosives.


02/08/09