Remains Of Mary Magdalene\u2019s Home Town Found<\/b><\/p>\n
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of columns that probably formed part of the tower from which the name of the New Testament town of Magadan, also spelled Magdalene, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, was derived. Magadan or Magdalene is the New Testament spelling of migdal<\/i>, the Hebrew word for tower. It was an important site in the history of Judaism and Christianity.<\/p>\n
In the second century AD, there was a revolt against the Roman occupiers. Many Jews took refuge in Magadan with the result that a great battle was fought there. The fighting raged through the town, onto the shores of the lake and even into the lake itself.<\/p>\n
There are several references to Magadan\/Magdalene in the New Testament. Matthew records the fact that Magadan was visited at least once by Jesus. After He fed the 4,000 somewhere on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He entered a boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan (Mt 15:39; Mk 8:10). There, the Pharisees and Sadducees asked Him for a sign (Mt 16:1\u20134; Mk 8:11\u201313).<\/p>\n
Perhaps that visit was also the occasion of the casting out of seven demons from Mary of Magdalene (Mk 16:9; Lk 8:2), who became a devout follower of our Lord after He healed her (Lk 8:1\u20133). She was present at the Crucifixion (Mt 27:55\u201356; Mk 15:40\u201341; Jn 19:25), burial (Mt 27:61; Mk 15:47) and Resurrection (Mt 28:1\u201311; Mk 16:1\u201310; Lk 24:1\u201311; Jn 20:1\u201318) of Jesus. Mary Magdalene has taken a special place in history, for she was the first to speak to the resurrected Christ (Jn 20:10\u201318).<\/p>\n
(The Jerusalem Post International Edition,<\/i> 3\/23\/91.)<\/p>\n
Dead Sea Scrolls Update: New Technologies For Ancient Manuscripts<\/b><\/p>\n
Young scholars using the latest technology are speeding up the long-awaited publication of the remaining Dead Sea Scrolls. \u201cThere is a new orientation from the point of view of all the people involved in the editing of the documents who decipher, describe and publish the material,\u201d said Emanuel Tov of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tov, a member of the international editorial committee, spoke at a news conference marking the end of the International Congress on the Dead Sea Scrolls, held in Spain last March.<\/p>\n
The congress drew the largest concentration of scroll editors and analysts ever to gather to trade findings, including a large number of unpublished texts from different books of the Bible, numerous apocryphal and other sectarian works. The effort to piece together thousands of fragments of the scrolls, only 60 per cent of which have been published, was speeded up. Tov said, \u201cwhen the international investigative team went from six \u2018older generation\u2019 scholars to 25 whose average age is 40.\u201d<\/p>\n
The young scholars are taking information from the scrolls and programming their interpretations directly into computers set to print the results. All the scrolls could be completed by 1996, according to the <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 4:3 (Summer 1991) p. 83<\/p>\n
editorial committee. In spite of the fact that most of the undamaged texts were published within the first 20 years of discovery, researchers have been accused of preventing other scholars from studying the remaining texts and of drawing out the publication process.<\/p>\n
Although the editorial committee rejects the accusations, claiming careful research is needed in order to publish the most exact texts, it has given researchers the 1996 deadline and has made the scrolls more accessible to interested scholars. In addition, international congresses bringing together scroll scholars are now being held with greater frequency after stagnation from 1967 to 1987.<\/p>\n
New technology has also been put to use to clear up a long-standing issue: confirming the date of the scrolls. This has been a matter of concern since their discovery. Because of the enormity of the find, many scholars were at first skeptical, believing them to be forgeries. The earliest scientific confirmation of the authenticity of the scrolls came with the newly-developed carbon-14 testing of the linen in which they were wrapped. This, however, gave only the approximate date of when the parchments were deposited in the caves, not when they were originally written<\/i>. The documents themselves could not be subjected to such tests because it would have meant destroying parts of the invaluable text.<\/p>\n
The dating of the manuscripts has been based mainly on the study of ancient handwriting. Script evolved in measurable way over time and could be dated with even more precision than early carbon-14 dating, which had a 230-year margin of error. Based on this method, scholars deduced that the scrolls were written over the course of three-and-a-half centuries, from the mid-third century BC to the eve of the Roman conquest of Qumran, where they were written, in AD 68. Of more than 800 scrolls and fragments that have been found, only two mention historical events which suggest a dating.<\/p>\n
The ancient scrolls have now been tested for the first time by the carbon-14 method, proving them to be as old and authentic as scholars claimed. This has been possible thanks to a new method which permits testing with as little as a pin-head-size amount of material. A Swiss laboratory has been examining ten selected scroll samples since last summer. As a method of control, they also examined samples of four other ancient documents found in caves in the Judean Desert. The age of the control documents can be accurately fixed to dates before and after the time of the scrolls by information in their text. The lab did not know which documents were which. Their findings correlate with the known dates of the dated documents and the assumed dates of the scrolls. According to their findings, the Dead Sea Scrolls date to between the second century BC and the beginning of the first century AD, with a margin of error of 30-60 years.<\/p>\n
(The Jerusalem Post International Edition,<\/i> 4\/6&13\/91.)<\/p>\n
Zdzislaw Jan Kapera gives a careful, sagacious review of all work done so far on the Scrolls in Folia Orientalia<\/i> (XXVI: 1989, published in Krakow, Poland.) He is secretary of Folia Orientalia<\/i>.<\/p>\n
He also reviews the progress on the vital Concordance of the Scrolls. In addition, he recommends the writing of a dictionary, updating the bibliographies, and re-editing already published scrolls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Remains Of Mary Magdalene\u2019s Home Town Found Archaeologists have discovered the remains of columns that probably formed part of the tower from which the name of the New Testament town of Magadan, also spelled Magdalene, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, was derived. Magadan or Magdalene is the New Testament spelling of migdal, … Continue reading “ARCHAEOLOGY
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