Helpful Resource on Judaism and Christianity

Mary Ann, our librarian, pointed me to this resource.

Dead Sea Scrolls online

Here it is–the official Dead Sea Scrolls site:
http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/

You can look at the five most important scrolls: The great Isaiah Scroll, the War Scroll, the Rule of the Community, the Temple Scroll, and the Commentary on Habakkuk.

Thanks to Kasey Portenier and Karre Schaeffer for giving me the tip.

The Bible Project at Hebrew University

Thanks to Kevin Mace for notifying me of the AP article that accompanies this picture: “Scholars Seek to Correct ‘Mistakes’ in the Bible.”

The article has some interesting information, but is sensationalized as is the title.  Scholars have know–forever, I guess–of variations among hand-written copies of the Bible.  The prophet Jeremiah in the 7th century before Christ complained of deliberate corruptions in the text by “lying scribes.”  The book of Jeremiah’s prophecies  itself testifies to at least three editions within the prophet’s lifetime.

But to be “news” journalists have to make it sound like a bold new discovery.  Nevertheless, the article provides a good introduction to textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.

Solve This Riddle

Crucifix on Charles Bridge in Prague

We saw this statue on the Charles Bridge in Prague. This is not meant to be frivolous, but there are some important lessons from history you can learn. We will do this as a class project next week, but your assignment is to translate the Hebrew and explain the significance of this piece of art. You may want to begin by transcribing the Hebrew letters. That’s just the first step. Here is a close-up of the inscription:

Closeup

Below the crucifixion statue there is an inscription explaining it.

Inscription

Here is a closeup of the inscription:

Explanation of Crucifix

Jewish Sources

Torah Aura Productions has just posted a list of Jewish Websites for Jewish Teachers here.

While BIOT500 is not a class on Judaism, some of the material will be useful to us.

HELP FOR LEARNING THE HEBREW ALPHABET

Akhlah: The Jewish Children’s Learning Network is probably the best site for learning the aleph-bet. The “Script” column is the cursive Hebrew Alphabet. If you plan to travel to Israel or to have an Israeli friend, it would be worth learning the script form.  The “Block” letters are the most commonly used form in print.  You will need to learn the block letters for class.   http://www.akhlah.com/aleph_bet/aleph-bet.php

“Judaism 101″ is a Jewish site that provide lots of information. Make sure you read the article about the alphabet at http://www.jewfaq.org/alephbet.htm and the article on “The Name of G-d” at http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm. There are several other articles you should read, such as “Torah” and “Hebrew Root Words.”  You might also be interested in reading a Jewish perspective on the Messiah at the same web site.

The Online Hebrew Tutorial offers free lessons.

The Wikipedia article is pretty good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_alphabet

Omniglot has lots of links!
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hebrew.htm

Note: Some of the sites show the modern cursive Hebrew alphabet. It is probably worth learning, especially if you want to have an Israeli pen pal. However, it is not the same as the hand-written Hebrew I use.