America's
love affair with Christopher Columbus has been a rocky one. Some savor his day
to celebrate Italian-American heritage, while others chafe at the impropriety
of honoring a man who enslaved and killed thousands of native peoples. But our
ubiquitous statues and “Columbias” testify to how passionately most of the
nation once embraced Columbus. . . The history behind Columbus the person,
neither the humanizing Irving portrayal nor the symbolic Columbus square with
the deeds of the man himself. “It's a shock to go back and read the original
documents and see that all the mean things they say about Columbus are true,”
Bushman says. “He was a terrible figure really, who somehow became an idealized
symbol for a nation. It's simply remarkable. Read this great article about
Columbus published by The Smithsonian Magazine at -- http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-christopher-columbus-was-perfect-icon-new-nation-looking-hero-180956887/
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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