Hope everyone had a blessed Nativity celebration. In Montreal, we had a mega blizzard from morning till evening. Not sure how much snow fell, but certainly up to 15 cm and more to come until tomorrow. At our potluck at church, the snow was falling and blowing around like a whirlwind, but we were warm inside and looking outside while listening to Russian Christmas carols will always be memorable. Anyway, on to my post.
I borrowed some magazines of Biblical Archeology and was wondering if others have read their articles. Would it be worth paying hard-earned money to subscribe? Just wondering what the staff is all about. I did read a fabulous article about the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest copies of the Holy Bible(in Greek). It featured Mt. Sinai monastery. There's a short interview with Fr. Justin.(November/December 2007).
It is a good magazine, but often disappointingly Protestant. Protestant Bible scholars like Bart Ehrman generally know so little about the history of the true Church that many of them still refer to the the Orthodox Church as "orthodox" or ("proto-orthodox") with a small "o." There is such a wealth of spiritual treasure in the true Church, of course, that extends far beyond the copy of the Codex Sinaiticus from St. Catherine's Monastery. They (the Protestants) are impressed with the Codex because of their "sola scriptura" mindset. Incidentally, there is a fabulous old hard back photo album of St. Catherine's Monastery published some years ago by a group from-- I believe-- Princeton and the University of Michigan. I found a copy on eBay a few years ago for $15. Priceless.
I think that's "Sinai and the Monastery of St Catherine"? It was dedicated to the Mission of Univ. of Michigan and Princeton that went to St Catherine's and the pictures are so well done. If it's the same book, the author was the photographer.
I felt gypped because I missed a special helicopter trip to the Monastery one time, so this book proved a consolation! The photo of St Catherine's tomb, which I had understandably wanted to venerate, is really a good one.
Apparently the large majority of her relics are at the French Cathedral of Rouen, with just St Catherine's head and one of her hands - with a ring on it, interestingly - being retained there at Mt Sinai. Well, maybe someday I will make the trip, but if not, the text and evocative photos of the book have brought it to life almost well enough that I don't feel the inclination that much any more.
The book is a real gem, which also includes many color plates of famous icons from St. Catherine's Monastery. Superb photography of the monastery chapels, grounds, and surrounding views of Mount Sinai. I wish that there were some books of comparable quality for some of the great monasteries of Mount Athos. My wife gave me a photo book of Mount Athos for my birthday a few years ago, but it has almost no color plates of icons.
Thanks for the insight. I do see the Protestant slant. I read the articles more for their archeological information. There was one subscriber response that questioned their view of creation versus evolution and that he wondered if he should discontinue his subscription because the magazine promoted evoluion. The answer was(paraphrased): you will feel more comfortable cancelling the subscription. That made me laugh. I know I'm a hardball, but I also realize that reading these magazines, with their obvious Protestant views, has to be taken into consideration. Pick and choose what we want to learn. There's a lot of information.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)
