Scientists
have succeeded in reading parts of an ancient scroll that was buried in a
volcanic eruption almost 2,000 years ago, holding out the promise that the
world's oldest surviving library may one day reveal all of its secrets. The
scroll is among hundreds retrieved from the remains of a lavish villa at
Herculaneum, which along with Pompeii was one of several Roman towns that were
destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. “The papyri were completely
covered in blazing-hot volcanic material," said Vito Mocella, a
theoretical scientist at the Institute of Microelectronics and Microsystems
(CNR) in Naples who led the latest project. Mocella and his colleagues decided
to try a method called X-ray phase contrast tomography that had previously been
used to examine fossils without damaging them. See picture and read article at
-- http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article7716425.html
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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