What
if ancient religious manuscripts once thought to be lost weren’t lost at all? Professor
Todd Hanneken, Ph.D., is the first scholar to combine two existing imaging
technologies in order to “see” handwritten text that has been indecipherable to
the naked eye for hundreds of years. Until the invention of paper, it was a common practice
to erase the text of a manuscript to make room for new writing. The result is
known as a “palimpsest,” with only ghostlike traces of the original ink
remaining. Palimpsests are valuable for studying the early development of
religions and cultures because they tell the story of how some beliefs fell
from dominance, and how others came to be favored.
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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