RITE :S

well i'm convinced. Time for a holy war I guess. Or I could just watch the rapture on BBC News 24.

I thought that's what X-Factor was. ZING!

…ahhhh, conspiracy theory, bring it on. For step one in an attempt to disprove a hypothesis, (which for all their ego fueled grandiose self importance, all conspiracy theories are at their lowest common denominator), make a very good study of the origins of the facts of said hypothesis.

The killer 'factoid we just made up and didn't wanna think about because it was SO sexy we wanted to base our frakking lives around it' in this case comes between 0:26 and 0:42, the line "…Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic, which is the most ancient form of Hebrew. As you know the old testament was written in Hebrew. If a modern Jewish Rabbi were to speak these words of Jesus today, he would have spoken them in Hebrew, much the same way that Jesus would have spoken them…" (I love the 'as you know'; as in 'as you know, you're far too wrapped up personally in whatever it is we're discussing to actually need to think about it for five minutes'. It's an ego fluff, 'ain't you clever', etc…)

(With apologies to Wikkipedia n' all…) Aramaic is not exactly a form of Hebrew, nor is it the precursor language. Hebrew is a form of the Canaanite group of languages, which bore similarities to Aramaic. Around the 6th century BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the ancient Kingdom of Judah, destroying much of Jerusalem and exiling its population far to the East in Babylon. During the Babylonian captivity, many Israelites were enslaved within the Babylonian Empire and learned the closely related Semitic language of their captors, Aramaic. The Babylonians had taken mainly the governing classes of Israel while leaving behind in Israel presumably more-compliant farmers and laborers to work the land. Thus for a significant period, the Jewish elite became influenced by Aramaic.

After Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, he released the Jewish people from captivity. The King of Kings or Great King of Persia, later gave the Israelites permission to return. Hebrew came to be spoken alongside new dialects of Hebrew and a local version of Aramaic. Yet, Aramaic represented the hated language of slavery, conquest, and occupation, while Hebrew remained the language of Israel's history and national pride. Preserved largely by the remnant in Israel proper, Hebrew continued to be a thriving language until shortly before the Byzantine era.

So, the premise that the one dialect of Aramaic (and they were legion) that Jesus spoke, would have been pronounced in exactly the same way as the modern pronunciation of Classical Hebrew is today, is at best facile, and at worst, yet another typical example of the base hypocrisy of fundamentalist types.

I know when it's time for me to sail away from the sharp end of the toolbox, positing end of the world, anti-life equation dealing, Ragnarök inspired, contra presidential theories, i think there should be something a bit less spurious to hoist the mainsail upon, aye?

(And allegedly, though i didn't have the patience/ time/ braincells left to corroborate this one, the Kenyan name Barack comes from the semitic root for the same word as baruch, or blessed. Not lightning. Oh well….)

More on Ancient Aramaic: http://www.peshitta.org/

Aramaic vs Hebrew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Aramaic

A Bunch of Nutters: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message4…

Wo. Did the internets really deserve this, ZP?

…ahhhh, internets, I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger, rant, rant, rant….

The internets deserve everything they get.

I commend you for your generosity.