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What happened to the Forum?
#1
There is hardly any activity on this forum. Was this only a trend and now things have changed?

Has Paul moved onto other pursuits?
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#2
Your Post has been sitting here without reply for a long time now.

1. Yes, I wish PY would return and take an active part in the Forum as he used to, but I don't understand his situation so I can't comment on that.
Miss you Paul Younan!

2. There is a different matter that is at work here as well.

I will use a bit of short-hand here and it is in NO WAY intended as a Pejorative.  There are some deeply intelligent  people who have studied language all their life and they are True Believers when it comes to the NT.  Jesus walked and talked in the Jewish Culture of his time and the Languages used were Hebrew and Aramaic.

"Wouldn't that imply that the NT was written in the Language Jesus used?"

This Site gives Testimony to this idea and be prepared - really prepared - to argue against it if you will.  (Funny how Latin is seldom brought up...)

2. At some point, some Greekies and others appeared - some with Attitudes - who directed arguments against even the Basic Thesis.  Rather than seek Knowledge, theirs was a "Told-ya'-so", "So's yer old man" type argument.

Their arguments were less than persuasive but it didn't matter.  It became a draining bit-of-a-drag thing.

3. When I came along, there were those who suggested that I just didn't get it.  Thirdwoe complained that I always brought the Mishmarot Service Group "Immer".  I still do but, as elsewhere, when you bring in these Types of ideas eventually people simply don't comment anymore.  There was a diversity of opinion arising that was diverting attention from the Central Point - "Time to move on" was the feeling I guess.

4.  I bring in a problem that I was exploring and was about to Post when the Site slowed down:

https://archive.org/details/literaryoriginof00teep

Howard Teeple, certified Greekie, obtained photographs of "all" the early Manuscripts of John and noticed that, in John, the Greek Definite Article appeared in front of names some of the times but not all.  There were identifiable Patterns in the Text of John that led him to assign Authors to these Sections: an S - "Source", a G - "Gnostic", an E - "Editor" and an R - "Redactor".  There were a few smaller identifiable Patterns.

On examination this is a massive Project.  It leads to the heart of the Thesis.  If the Book of John follows this Outline - and David Ford certainly argues against much of this - then the sheer level of agreement in detail between the Peshitta and the Greek version would argue for Greek Primacy, yes?

No!

There is another alternative but if I'm at the limit of my knowledge here and if no one comments, what good is done?
There may have been a Nicholas of Damascus who could have been an Author of a Greek Story that became the NT.  He was in Herod's Court for decades and could have understood Aramaic.  There were the Priests who survived, who knew what had happened.  Zakkai at Yavneh, given permission to live by Vespasian, as if out of the goodness of Vespasian's heart.

In short, there's a tremendous amount of work left to do.

I hope that interest will increase here again.

CW
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#3
(08-02-2021, 01:02 PM)TruthFinder Wrote: There is hardly any activity on this forum. Was this only a trend and now things have changed?

Has Paul moved onto other pursuits?

So uh... the short answer is just that these days most people use any other social media platform besides old forums. Facebook is probably the most popular. There is a Peshitta.org studies group there, and it was mildly active, but Shamasha deleted his Facebook account several months ago now, so the group has more or less died out there as well. I'm not sure what he's up to. The other reason seems to be that the Hebrew Roots obsession with it has died down (and the movement itself seems to have stagnated online I think).

Now, as I think Charles was alluding to above, there is still a tremendous amount of research and work that can be put into Assyrian Aramaic studies, and the New Testament of the Peshitta. With the recent consecration of His Holiness, Mar Awa III Royel, to the supreme rank of Catholicos-Patriarch in the Assyrian Church of the East, I'm encouraged that there may be a renewed interest in Assyrian Aramaic studies and the Peshitta. H+H Mar Awa III has done a great job in the past with education (a lot in English, like his book on the Sacraments), and if I'm not mistaken, when Shamsha Paul was meeting to discuss the possibility of producing a Peshitta Bible in English comparable to the Orthodox Study Bible of the Greek churches, I think it was H+H Mar Awa III. Of course, that project never came to fruition. But I was still very excited when I saw that he was elected as the new Catholicos-Patriarch, and look forward to what developments may come about for the Assyrian Church of the East under his leadership.

And I mention that because the Eastern Peshitta which many of us have come to love and cherish is the text belonging to the branches of the Church of the East (Assyrian, Ancient, and Chaldean). I know people like Roth and Gorovenko tried to claim it for the modern day Netzarim sect with their extensive commentary and pseudo-Nestorianism (actually, it's probably true Nestorianism, but I say pseudo because it's not what Nestorius believed, nor the Church of the East); but it belongs to those ancient, apostolic churches, and ultimately I think the research depends on them as well. I know Shamsha Paul kept the two relatively separate, but I'm not sure if that was the best choice since it attracted way too many Sacred Namers and Hebrew Roots folks who didn't speak the language and were just trying to "Semitic cosplay". So that kind of pseudo-scholarship I think also killed the work being done around here.

Anyway, just my rant and ramblings. I probably broke several group rules being blunt about a few points... but, with the lack of activity I'm thinking it'll be okay.
ܠܐ ܒܥܒܕܐ ܕܙܕܝܩܘܬܐ ܕܥܒܕܢ ܐܠܐ ܒܪܚܡܘܗܝ ܕܝܠܗ ܐܚܝܢ ܒܣܚܬܐ ܕܡܘܠܕܐ ܕܡܢ ܕܪܝܫ ܘܒܚܘܕܬܐ ܕܪܘܚܐ ܕܩܘܕܫܐ
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