Thoughts on Antiquity

Loren Rosson III over at thebusybody has discovered a website which measures the value of one’s blog. I’m quite surprised to see mine worth as much as it is!

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

Indeed! Some Latinist has decided to “translate” Sir Mix A-Lot’s classic ode to the gluteus maximus. Here are some of the lyrics (if a bit verbose, but still surprisingly…well, you decide):
magnae clunes mihi placent, nec possum de hac re mentiri.
(Large buttocks are pleasing to me, nor am I able to lie concerning this matter.)
quis enim, […]

Apparently, some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are unreleased being sold in Israel’s antiquity market. What a shame. This will, as this article points out, undoubtedly lead to even more fakes, and even more claims from Hershel Shanks to their authenticity. (Ok, it’s a joke people.)
According to Eibert Tigchelaar, a theologian from Groningen, at least […]

I wonder why I didn’t hear about this earlier. It’s not like I don’t talk to a certain Korean every day, but oh well. Found this over at Language Log:

Today, October 9th, is Hangul Day (한글날), the celebration of the promulgation of the Korean alphabet Hangul 한글 by King Sejong the Great in 1446.
King Sejong […]

Recently, there has been some debate over the terms “forgery”, “hoax”, and “pseudepigrapha”. Loren Rosson III at the busybody has raised the question here about Carlson’s definition and his disagreement.
For the most part, I recognize that pseudepigraphy ought to be considered forgery, since the primary purpose was to decieve. However, after reading Carlson’s book, I […]

I just received and finished Stephen Carlson’s The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith’s Invention of Secret Mark and I must say, though I was skeptical at first, it has convinced me that Secret Mark was fabricated by Morton Smith. It’s an easy-to-read book, finishing it in only a little bit over an hour, but is clear […]

Andrew Criddle kindly supplied me with extracts from the works of Theodotus for my website as a resource for any curious about Valentinian gnosticism. You can check it out here. It appears that it was scanned from a book and not gone through a good typographical proof first. I ran through it and fixed some […]