Update on the Codex Climaci Rescriptus

If you like old books- I mean reeeaallly old books- you might remember that last year Westminster College in Cambridge, England auctioned off the Codex Climaci Rescriptus with the help of Sotheby's. I first read the news on Steve Caruso's Aramaic Blog (his post here). The announcement on Forbes can be viewed here. And I posted a frustrated note here.

Just as a reminder, the Codex is a 6th century document and an important manuscript witness to the Greek text of the Gospels. It includes the Palestinian Aramaic Old and New Testament and a Syriac copy of writings by St. John Climacus, one of the most important spiritual authors in the Eastern Church. It is thought by some that the Syriac translation was copied directly from the saint's autograph. Based on the combination of languages (Greek/Syriac/CPA) and its original home (St. Catherines monastery on Mt. Sinai), someone could assume the Codex originates from within the Antiochian patrimony.

Word quickly spread around the blogosphere and academic circles were afraid the lucky buyer would simply separate the leaves and resell them individually to wealthy dilettantes looking to impress their friends with historic wall hangings. You can see a discussion of the Codex at the Hugoye Syriac Studies group here.

Here is the update: Just last week I just came across this online article. Here are some excerpts:

Leaders of the Oklahoma-owned Hobby Lobby retail chain have acquired hundreds of Bible artifacts and are helping to open a museum. Portions of the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, one of the earliest near-complete Bibles, will be featured in the National Bible Museum...

The museum is a nonprofit organization co-founded by historian Scott Carroll, a [former] professor at Cornerstone University in Michigan, along with D. Jonathan Shipman and Daniel Centurione...

Carroll said Wednesday the museum collections will include one of the earliest-known, near-complete Bibles, recently acquired by Hobby Lobby. He said items destined for the museum are being housed in Oklahoma City...

He said Hobby Lobby recently acquired several items for the museum, including portions of the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, which he said is one of the earliest near-complete Bibles in the world.

("Oklahomans help acquire items for Bible museum" BY CARLA HINTON Oklahoman, Published: April 1, 2010)

Notice the article is several months old yet I am just now finding it. So the Codex Climaci Rescriptus is being safely kept somewhere within my home town, Oklahoma City. This relic and icon of the ancient church sits within a small radius of where I now sit, waiting for a museum to be built. I am tempted to go poking around local warehouses. I think of the final scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark

How would someone go about pulling the right strings so that people could view the this Codex? There is a handful of local academics, clergy, and readers of Greek and Syriac that would love to see it.

Reposted from Flow of Consciousness blog

Sixth North American Syriac Symposium

The Sixth North American Syriac Symposium will be organized at Duke University on June 26-29, 2011. Held every four years since 1991, the North American Syriac Symposium brings together university professors, graduate students, and scholars from the United States and Canada (more than half of the participants) as well as from Europe, the Middle East, and India, in particular from the State of Kerala.

Theme: Syriac Encounters
This general theme allows us to highlight various kinds of diachronic and synchronic interaction and dialogue, formation of communal identity, construction of tradition, language contact, and religious conversation both within Syriac Christianity and between Syriac Christianity and other traditions, in particular Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and various forms of Western Christianity. The overall theme is not meant, however, to exclude topics that are not directly related to it.

Sixth North American Syriac Symposium
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
June 26-29, 2011
http://religiondepartment.duke.edu/sixth-north-american-syriac-symposium-2011

A number of sessions will be put together based on papers received. These may include some of the following:

• Syriac Christianity in its Graeco-Roman context.
• Syriac Christianity and Judaism.
• The Syriac Bible: Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha.
• Ephrem and fourth-century Syriac Christianity.
• Aphrahat and fourth-century Syriac Christianity in the Sassanid-Persian Empire.
• Development of separate West-Syrian and East-Syrian traditions.
• Syriac Christianity and Early Islam.
• Syriac Christianity in the 11th-13th centuries and the “Syriac Renaissance”.
• Syriac Christianity in the modern period and its contacts with the West.
• Literary genres/biblical interpretation, historiography, poetry, philosophy.
• Asceticism in the Syriac Christian context.
• Syriac liturgical traditions.
• Syriac in the Aramaic language family.
• The study of Syriac manuscripts.
• Syriac Christianity: continuity and transformation.
• Syriac Computing

Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Jihad

Father John D'Alton has an interesting post on his Syriac Spirituality & History Explorations blog regarding Theodoret of Cyrrhus. Theodoret's use of agona (struggle/war) is translated as "jihad". This is especially interesting given that Theodoret favors metaphors that are martial or physical in nature when describing the great spiritual achievements of the Syrian monks. Read the post here.

Also note the layout of his blog. Very classy!