Thread: WOULD YOU CALL THIS A COINCIDENCE?

Medieval book of psalms unearthed
First millennium manuscript, open to Psalm 83, found in Irish mud


DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.

The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.

"This is really a miracle find," said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration. Researchers will conduct years of painstaking analysis before putting the book on public display.

"There's two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out," Wallace said. "First of all, it's unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing."

He said an engineer was digging up bogland last week to create commercial potting soil somewhere in Ireland's midlands when "just beyond the bucket of his bulldozer, he spotted something." Wallace would not specify where the book was found because a team of archaeologists is still exploring the site.

"The owner of the bog has had dealings with us in past and is very much in favor of archaeological discovery and reporting it," Wallace said.

Crucially, he said, the bog owner covered up the book with damp soil. Had it been left exposed overnight, he said, "it could have dried out and just vanished, blown away."

The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.

Wallace said several experts spent Tuesday analyzing only that page -- the number of letters on each line, lines on each page, size of page -- and the book's binding and cover, which he described as "leather velum, very thick wallet in appearance."

It could take months of study, he said, just to identify the safest way to pry open the pages without damaging or destroying them. He ruled out the use of X-rays to investigate without moving the pages.

Ireland already has several other holy books from the early medieval period, including the ornately illustrated Book of Kells, which has been on display at Trinity College in Dublin since the 19th century.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07 ... ap/index.h


I googled the 83rd Psalms to see what it said,
A Prayer for the Destruction of Israel's Enemies
A Song or Psalm of Asaph.

1 Keep not thou silence, O God:

hold not thy peace,
and be not still, O God.
2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult:

and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people,

and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation;

that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent:

they are confederate against thee:
6 the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ish'maelites;

of Moab, and the Hag'arenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Am'alek;

the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them:

they have helped the children of Lot.
Selah.
9 Do unto them as unto the Mid'i-anites; Judg. 7.1-23

as to Sis'era, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison: Judg. 4.6-22
10 which perished at En–dor:

they became as dung for the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Ze'eb: Judg. 7.25

yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmun'na: Judg. 8.12
12 who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
13 O my God, make them like a wheel;

as the stubble before the wind.
14 As the fire burneth a wood,

and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
15 so persecute them with thy tempest,

and make them afraid with thy storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame;

that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever;

yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
18 that men may know that thou,

whose name alone is JEHOVAH,
art the Most High over all the earth.

Published by The American Bible Society
http://209.10.134.179/108/19/83.html
I am not in any way what you would call a religious fanatic. I don't attend church on any regular basis, though knowing I should. I am a news fanatic, I was checking out fox and cnn news on the net and this was on the front page of CNN news. This just struck me as such an erie, discovery to happen right now with what is going on with Isreal and lebanon, to me, the discovery of this book and for it to be opened at this page was nothing short of extradionary to me! What do you guys think about this?

Pretty wild. You should make an email forward out of it and send it to snopes so they know it is true.

W

I'm glad I'm not on the receiving end of that message. However, we know that "fools rush in, where angles fear to tread".

Dixie

W. I emailed this to snoops, I might get the chance to look around on some archaelogy sites tomorrow and see if they are saying anything about this find!

nitty,

I do know that a pete bog will preserve human skin, I don't see why it woulnd't do the same for leather.

Dixie

I don't see why it wouldn't either Dixie seems to me leather would be that much easier to preserve then human skin!