Friday, September 7, 2007
Friday Night Miscellany
Unbelievably, the weekend is here - I love working only 4 days a week! All too soon, though, it will be over, and I'll be back at the desk and the daily grind. How long until retirement???
The weather promises to break tonight. It's been hot and humid, tropical, yucky. The mosquitoes are as big as B-52's and bent on suicide missions - they bite me despite buckets of insect repellent - Deep Woods Off does not work! The wind showed up today - and even through 20 mph this morning on the way to the bus stop at 7:30 a.m. one of the little buggers managed to land on my arm and tried for blood. No go, little bugger, SWAT! Tonight it's supposed to drop down to 54 degrees F - I'll believe it when I feel it - and then, and only then, will turn off the central air.
I got the new issue of Chess Life in the mail yesterday. I haven't opened it yet. The cover is Bobby Fischer. Yesterday's news. Is this what the editorial committee at USCF has been reduced to? With so many up and coming players and events worldwide to write about and give us some analysis of interesting games, they write about Fischer. Boorrriiinnnggg!
Some good news - Hou Yifan has been playing on the Chinese "team" that beat the Russians and is whipping the English and she hasn't been relegated to playing only women. So far at the Liverpool Chess International 2007 (Match Tournament), she as drawn with GM David Howell, lost to GM Gawain Jones, defeated GM Nicholas Pert, and drew with GM Nigel Short, with 2 rounds to go.
I saw this report earlier today:
Zeynab Mammadyarova boycotted Baku chess tournament
[ 07 Sep 2007 17:40 ]
" I refused to attend the second internationals women tournament in Baku", Azerbaijan national chess team member Zeynab Mammadyarova told APA-Sport. She did not attend the women's tournament because of her sister Turkan Mammadyarova. "I did not know that my name was among the tournament participants. Ilaha Kadimova and Nargiz Umudova were among the participants. I protested against Nargiz as my sister Turkan is stronger than Nargiz in rating and has more experience. But the organizers did not accept my protests and I decided not to attend. Strong chess players should be invited to the tournament in Baku. This is the reason for low results of Azerbaijani representatives". /APA-Sport/
That's it - I'm pooped and calling it a night!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Jews Persecuting Jews Over Religious Beliefs
How ironic.
Messianic Jews Under Fire in Israel
By Chris Mitchell
CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau
September 6, 2007
CBNNews.com - ARAD, Israel - The state of Israel promises religious freedom to all faiths.
However, in some Israeli towns, Jews who believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah face persecution.
One of those places is in a town called Arad.
Arad sits in the middle of the Negev Desert, about a two hour drive south of Jerusalem. For most of the nearly 25,000 residents, it's a quiet setting. But for others, it's been the scene of noisy protests and almost daily harassment.
An ultra-orthodox sect called the Gur harasses many of the Messianic Jews in the town.
"We meet at a congregation building," Yakim Figueros, a messianic pastor in Arad, said. "There's a narrow way to go in, I mean the gate. So they have two of their people standing on either side and reading curses against everyone that walks in: 'May his children be orphans. May their wives be widows' and so on. You know it's not nice for the simple people to come in and go through this."
The center of town is another place of harassment, where many retired Jewish immigrants gather.
Most of the men here are retired senior citizens from the former Soviet Union. Some are holocaust survivors. They come here to play their favorite game at this chess club called The King's Men.
Eddie and Laura Beckford established the chess club as a way to serve these men.
"We have books and Bibles in all the languages," Eddie said. "We always keep a stock of Russian Bibles - Old Testament, New Testament. They have a hunger for knowledge, reading and stuff because I guess books…were abandoned behind the Iron Curtain."
Laura added, "And we try to meet their physical needs too. Like there's one man here who needs a hearing aid, so we're working on that. We're trying to get the funds for a hearing aid or other physical things, whatever is needed."
They provide a place to play chess and dominoes which are games these men love. The club set up chess tournaments and also supply used clothing for Bedouins and anyone in the community.
But the chess club has been vandalized and firebombed. Many suspect it is the work of the ultra-orthodox sect. Many of the Messianic Jews have also had their names and faces placed on flyers distributed throughout Arad.
Rebecca Fry is one of those on the flyers. Ironically, she grew up in an ultra-orthodox Gur home. Now she believes in Jesus.
"I know exactly where they're coming from because when I was a child, I was taught the same thing about the Christians," she said. "'The Christians are crazy people, bad people who kidnap children and baptize them and take them to monasteries or convents and lock them up there.' So I know exactly where they're coming from. They actually teach you that all the time when you're growing up - to hate Christians."
Arad's mayor hopes these two groups will find a way to live together.
"I try to make both communities try to figure out how to work together, because this is how I believe. I came to the desert for peace not for fight. My feeling is at the end of the day, they will find ways to live. In the meantime, the situation is not so good," he said.
In the meantime, the Messianic Jews of Arad are relying on and asking for prayer.
"It helped me to pray for them," Laura said. "I feel sorry for them so it helps me to know where to pray for them and where they're coming from. But it's hard when you're standing there in front of someone who's yelling and cursing and shouting. It's hard to see any perspective. But in retrospect, it helps when you pray for them."
"So pray for a revival, pray for His kingdom, for His Name to be glorified here in Arad and not for the persecution to stop," she said. "And pray for people to have the courage and strength to stand firmly in the faith."
*Originally aired on July 19, 2007
The Book of Enoch and the "Roots" of Divination
The Book of Enoch is one of the "apocryphal" books - those that were left out of the official biblical canon by the Roman Catholic Church. It was one of the "books" re-discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Biblical Archaeology Review (online) has been running a special feature on the Dead Sea Scrolls in honor of their 60th anniversary of "seeing the light of day." Here's a brief look at The Book of Enoch from BAR:
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) is a collection of texts composed between about 350 B.C.E. and the turn of the era. It is the earliest extant example of an apocalyptic blend of Israelite prophetic and wisdom theologies best known from the Book of Daniel, and it witnesses the variety within Israelite religion in the Greco-Roman period.
Two myths shape the Book of Enoch. The first, related to Genesis 6:1–4,* ascribes the origins of evil to the rebellion of certain angels who mated with women and begat a race of giants that devastated the earth and whose demonic spirits continue to produce sin and misery. According to the second myth, Enoch (as said in Genesis 5:21–24) was taken to heaven, where he learned the secrets of the universe and of the coming judgment.
The Enochic texts claim to be Enoch’s revelations transmitted through his son, Methuselah. The various parts of 1 Enoch were composed in Aramaic and translated into Greek, and from Greek into ancient Ethiopic, in which version alone the entire collection has survived.
Qumran Cave 4 yielded fragments of 11 Aramaic manuscripts of parts of 1 Enoch that cover perhaps one fifth of the Ethiopic text, as well as nine Aramaic manuscripts of "the Book of the Giants," a text not included in 1 Enoch.1 The 1 Enoch manuscripts attest both to how closely the Ethiopic text corresponds to its Aramaic prototypes in some places and to where it differs in others. The Giants fragments indicate that the Enochic tradition was richer than 1 Enoch suggests. Missing at Qumran are fragments of the Book of Parables (1 Enoch 37–71), a Jewish text that provides a context for New Testament "Son of Man" christology. The absence of the Book of Parables from Qumran probably indicates that this expression of Enochic theology developed in circles different from those directly ancestral to the group that collected the texts at Qumran. The other Enochic writings were authoritative at Qumran, however, and were popular among early Christian writers as well. The Enochic texts remain a canonical part of the Bible of the Ethiopian Church.
—George W.E. Nickelsburg, The University of Iowa
* This refers to the episode in Genesis when "the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them," thus creating a race of giants called the Nephilim.
1 For the Qumran fragments, see any comprehensive translation of the scrolls. For the whole of 1 Enoch, see George W.E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). For a commentary, see George W.E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of Enoch, Chapters 1–35, 81–108 (Hermeneia: Minneapolis, 2001).
************************************************************************************
You can find the Book of Enoch online here.
There are lots of folks out there who claim that The Book of Enoch proves the existence of aliens and all kinds of other stuff, and that's the real reason it was left out of the Bible (you know, that conspiracy stuff again, sigh). Well, I don't believe in aliens and I don't believe that Enoch was taken up to Heaven without first having died - and I don't believe that the angels came down from Heaven and had children with the daughters of men, either, making a race of giants. Mankind didn't need any help to turn into a bunch of a-holes on their own! We did it ourselves, without any help from aliens/angels.
I do believe that The Book of Enoch is endlessly interesting as an historical document. I'm not going to pretend I've read the entire thing, darlings :) But I did find a few comments in the earliest chapters that caught my interest:
Ch. 7, Verse 10:
Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees.
Ch. 8, Verse 3:
Amazarak taught all the sorcerers, and dividers of roots.
My interest was in the comments about "dividing of roots and trees" and "dividers of roots." What on earth did that mean?
I first considered and then rejected that it had something to do with some sort of farming or agricultural practices, because the practice was mentioned in conjunction with "sorcery," "sorcerers" and "incantations." I thought it might have something to do with divination. I'm interested in ancient divinatory practices because there is research that suggests such practices were often closely-linked to the development of ancient board games and other gambling-type games (such as knuckle-bones and dice). Despite the biblical injunctions against the use of divination and fortune-telling that is a recurrent theme in the history of the ancient Israelites, there were accounts of approved usage of "lots" and in some ancient civilizations lots were made of wood - hence a linkage to "trees" or perhaps "tree roots."
Not much to go on. And, as usual, my research took me all over the place, and I learned some interesting things about subjects not at all related to what I wanted to find out! Not that I did thorough or even logically coherent research - I spent a few hours online only (but may revisit this subject privately at a later time). Do you want to know all the contortions I went through and false trails I followed to track down the little bit of information that led me to believe my initial suspicisions were correct? Nah - I won't bore you with that - this is a blog post, not a scholarly article!!!
I did learn that ancient Taoists practiced "root divination" using the roots of bamboo, and that although its first usage is not recorded, the practice is considered very ancient. Here is a brief description of the practice:
First, pray in front of the god and tell him your problem and ask for his guidance, then cast the two pieces of bamboo root on the ground and make a judgment according to whether the pieces land on the obverse or reverse side. There are three possibilities: two obverse, two reverse, and one obverse and one reverse. Two obverse sides are called positive bamboo roots: this result implies neither good nor bad luck. Two reverse sides are called negative bamboo roots, and are a sign of ill luck. The third possibility is called holy bamboo roots or successive bamboo roots, and indicates good luck, meaning that the god has accepted your request.
The practice may be linked to the "Heavenly Empress" and Guanyin - references to Chinese goddesses.
The practice has continued right into modern times. The photo at the beginning of this article is of "divination blocks" carved from bamboo root from a private collection.
Brief research into the online version of Strong's Hebrew Dictionary yielded some interesting results:
7080
qacamkaw-sam'
a primitive root; properly, to distribute, i.e. determine by lot or magical scroll; by implication, to divine:--divine(-r, -ation), prudent, soothsayer, use (divination).
7081
qecemkeh'-sem
from 'qacam' (7080); a lot: also divination (including its fee), oracle:--(reward of) divination, divine sentence, witchcraft.
7082
qacackaw-sas'
a primitive root; to lop off:--cut off
See also:
7059
qamatkaw-mat'
a primitive root; to pluck, i.e. destroy:--cut down, fill with wrinkles.
7060
qamalkaw-mal'
a primitive root; to wither:--hew down, wither.
7061
qamatskaw-mats'
a primitive root; to grasp with the hand:--take an handful.
The ancient Hebrew roots (pun!) obviously suggested the cutting down of trees and making blocks to use for divination, or the cutting up of tree roots to use for the same practice.
General information on Daoist bamboo root divination: http://www.eng.taoism.org.hk/religious-activities&rituals/daoist-folk-customs/pg4-8-12.asp
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=342581
Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (online):
http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/kjvstrongs
/FRMSTRHEB70.htm#S7080
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) is a collection of texts composed between about 350 B.C.E. and the turn of the era. It is the earliest extant example of an apocalyptic blend of Israelite prophetic and wisdom theologies best known from the Book of Daniel, and it witnesses the variety within Israelite religion in the Greco-Roman period.
Two myths shape the Book of Enoch. The first, related to Genesis 6:1–4,* ascribes the origins of evil to the rebellion of certain angels who mated with women and begat a race of giants that devastated the earth and whose demonic spirits continue to produce sin and misery. According to the second myth, Enoch (as said in Genesis 5:21–24) was taken to heaven, where he learned the secrets of the universe and of the coming judgment.
The Enochic texts claim to be Enoch’s revelations transmitted through his son, Methuselah. The various parts of 1 Enoch were composed in Aramaic and translated into Greek, and from Greek into ancient Ethiopic, in which version alone the entire collection has survived.
Qumran Cave 4 yielded fragments of 11 Aramaic manuscripts of parts of 1 Enoch that cover perhaps one fifth of the Ethiopic text, as well as nine Aramaic manuscripts of "the Book of the Giants," a text not included in 1 Enoch.1 The 1 Enoch manuscripts attest both to how closely the Ethiopic text corresponds to its Aramaic prototypes in some places and to where it differs in others. The Giants fragments indicate that the Enochic tradition was richer than 1 Enoch suggests. Missing at Qumran are fragments of the Book of Parables (1 Enoch 37–71), a Jewish text that provides a context for New Testament "Son of Man" christology. The absence of the Book of Parables from Qumran probably indicates that this expression of Enochic theology developed in circles different from those directly ancestral to the group that collected the texts at Qumran. The other Enochic writings were authoritative at Qumran, however, and were popular among early Christian writers as well. The Enochic texts remain a canonical part of the Bible of the Ethiopian Church.
—George W.E. Nickelsburg, The University of Iowa
* This refers to the episode in Genesis when "the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them," thus creating a race of giants called the Nephilim.
1 For the Qumran fragments, see any comprehensive translation of the scrolls. For the whole of 1 Enoch, see George W.E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). For a commentary, see George W.E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of Enoch, Chapters 1–35, 81–108 (Hermeneia: Minneapolis, 2001).
************************************************************************************
You can find the Book of Enoch online here.
There are lots of folks out there who claim that The Book of Enoch proves the existence of aliens and all kinds of other stuff, and that's the real reason it was left out of the Bible (you know, that conspiracy stuff again, sigh). Well, I don't believe in aliens and I don't believe that Enoch was taken up to Heaven without first having died - and I don't believe that the angels came down from Heaven and had children with the daughters of men, either, making a race of giants. Mankind didn't need any help to turn into a bunch of a-holes on their own! We did it ourselves, without any help from aliens/angels.
I do believe that The Book of Enoch is endlessly interesting as an historical document. I'm not going to pretend I've read the entire thing, darlings :) But I did find a few comments in the earliest chapters that caught my interest:
Ch. 7, Verse 10:
Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees.
Ch. 8, Verse 3:
Amazarak taught all the sorcerers, and dividers of roots.
My interest was in the comments about "dividing of roots and trees" and "dividers of roots." What on earth did that mean?
I first considered and then rejected that it had something to do with some sort of farming or agricultural practices, because the practice was mentioned in conjunction with "sorcery," "sorcerers" and "incantations." I thought it might have something to do with divination. I'm interested in ancient divinatory practices because there is research that suggests such practices were often closely-linked to the development of ancient board games and other gambling-type games (such as knuckle-bones and dice). Despite the biblical injunctions against the use of divination and fortune-telling that is a recurrent theme in the history of the ancient Israelites, there were accounts of approved usage of "lots" and in some ancient civilizations lots were made of wood - hence a linkage to "trees" or perhaps "tree roots."
Not much to go on. And, as usual, my research took me all over the place, and I learned some interesting things about subjects not at all related to what I wanted to find out! Not that I did thorough or even logically coherent research - I spent a few hours online only (but may revisit this subject privately at a later time). Do you want to know all the contortions I went through and false trails I followed to track down the little bit of information that led me to believe my initial suspicisions were correct? Nah - I won't bore you with that - this is a blog post, not a scholarly article!!!
I did learn that ancient Taoists practiced "root divination" using the roots of bamboo, and that although its first usage is not recorded, the practice is considered very ancient. Here is a brief description of the practice:
First, pray in front of the god and tell him your problem and ask for his guidance, then cast the two pieces of bamboo root on the ground and make a judgment according to whether the pieces land on the obverse or reverse side. There are three possibilities: two obverse, two reverse, and one obverse and one reverse. Two obverse sides are called positive bamboo roots: this result implies neither good nor bad luck. Two reverse sides are called negative bamboo roots, and are a sign of ill luck. The third possibility is called holy bamboo roots or successive bamboo roots, and indicates good luck, meaning that the god has accepted your request.
The practice may be linked to the "Heavenly Empress" and Guanyin - references to Chinese goddesses.
The practice has continued right into modern times. The photo at the beginning of this article is of "divination blocks" carved from bamboo root from a private collection.
Brief research into the online version of Strong's Hebrew Dictionary yielded some interesting results:
7080
qacamkaw-sam'
a primitive root; properly, to distribute, i.e. determine by lot or magical scroll; by implication, to divine:--divine(-r, -ation), prudent, soothsayer, use (divination).
7081
qecemkeh'-sem
from 'qacam' (7080); a lot: also divination (including its fee), oracle:--(reward of) divination, divine sentence, witchcraft.
7082
qacackaw-sas'
a primitive root; to lop off:--cut off
See also:
7059
qamatkaw-mat'
a primitive root; to pluck, i.e. destroy:--cut down, fill with wrinkles.
7060
qamalkaw-mal'
a primitive root; to wither:--hew down, wither.
7061
qamatskaw-mats'
a primitive root; to grasp with the hand:--take an handful.
The ancient Hebrew roots (pun!) obviously suggested the cutting down of trees and making blocks to use for divination, or the cutting up of tree roots to use for the same practice.
General information on Daoist bamboo root divination: http://www.eng.taoism.org.hk/religious-activities&rituals/daoist-folk-customs/pg4-8-12.asp
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=342581
Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (online):
http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/kjvstrongs
/FRMSTRHEB70.htm#S7080
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Blast from the Past - Judit and the Alien!
From the partially-restored archives of the one, the only (thank goodness), the original and now defunct The International Chessoid, here's an "interview" (ahem) between Ace Girl Reporter Alpheta Patton and GM Judit Polgar.
February, 2000 Edition
YES! Believing is seeing – here’s the definitive proof. Our lovely Grand Master from Hungary, Judit Polgar, is in thrall to - an alien invader!
And not just ANY alien, but the one, the only, the original G’kar from the planet Narn!
Oh the horror, the horror!
After receiving a tip from Deep Goat, a very highly placed source within THE CHESS WORLD who, unfortunately, tends to hang his queen, this reporter, together with her faithful photographer and sidekick, Donus Felinucus, went undercover in January to the 10th City of Pamplona Invitational, where GM Judit Polgar was playing. This reporter, whose international reputation preceded me, was able to secure an exclusive interview with Polgar at the conclusion of the tournament.
Alpheta: Judit, you’ve recently been seen in the company of a, er, rather peculiar looking fellow.
Polgar: Oh, you mean Cary Grant!
Alpheta: Er, Cary Grant?
Polgar: Oh yes! And I’m so excited. We’re to be married! I’ve always loved him - those roles he played in "The African Queen", "The Maltese Falcon" and of course, "Casablanca", my personal favorite, with all those wonderful scenes of Cary over the chessboard sparring with the evil midget Peter Lorre.
Alpheta: Er...
Polgar: I’m not getting any younger you know, Alph. I’m going to be 24 in July! Both of my sisters are already married! I don’t want to be an old maid!
Alpheta: Er...
Polgar: A woman has to do the best for herself that she can, Alph. Hook up with a nice rich sugar daddy, that’s the ticket. I wouldn’t want to end up an old maid like you! Oh, no offense, Alph! I LOVE how you play chess.
Alpheta: Er...Just a blinking minute! How come you played like a patzer during this tournament, heh? Ha!
Polgar: Patzer, schmatzer. I’m in love! Who cares about chess? You need to get yourself a man, Alph.
Alpheta: [Comment deleted].
So there you have it! Nothing less than an evil inter-stellar plot to highjack the eggs of our lovely Hungarian GM and breed a miniature G’kar who will run for President of the United States in due course and introduce A NEW WORLD ORDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Could this be - oh no, oh the horror, the horror, THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE ORIGINAL ANTICHESS???)
Remember where you read it FIRST!!!!!!!!!!! THE INTERNATIONAL CHESSOID!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alpheta Patton, Old Maid and Proud of It, signing off...
February, 2000 Edition
YES! Believing is seeing – here’s the definitive proof. Our lovely Grand Master from Hungary, Judit Polgar, is in thrall to - an alien invader!
And not just ANY alien, but the one, the only, the original G’kar from the planet Narn!
Oh the horror, the horror!
After receiving a tip from Deep Goat, a very highly placed source within THE CHESS WORLD who, unfortunately, tends to hang his queen, this reporter, together with her faithful photographer and sidekick, Donus Felinucus, went undercover in January to the 10th City of Pamplona Invitational, where GM Judit Polgar was playing. This reporter, whose international reputation preceded me, was able to secure an exclusive interview with Polgar at the conclusion of the tournament.
Alpheta: Judit, you’ve recently been seen in the company of a, er, rather peculiar looking fellow.
Polgar: Oh, you mean Cary Grant!
Alpheta: Er, Cary Grant?
Polgar: Oh yes! And I’m so excited. We’re to be married! I’ve always loved him - those roles he played in "The African Queen", "The Maltese Falcon" and of course, "Casablanca", my personal favorite, with all those wonderful scenes of Cary over the chessboard sparring with the evil midget Peter Lorre.
Alpheta: Er...
Polgar: I’m not getting any younger you know, Alph. I’m going to be 24 in July! Both of my sisters are already married! I don’t want to be an old maid!
Alpheta: Er...
Polgar: A woman has to do the best for herself that she can, Alph. Hook up with a nice rich sugar daddy, that’s the ticket. I wouldn’t want to end up an old maid like you! Oh, no offense, Alph! I LOVE how you play chess.
Alpheta: Er...Just a blinking minute! How come you played like a patzer during this tournament, heh? Ha!
Polgar: Patzer, schmatzer. I’m in love! Who cares about chess? You need to get yourself a man, Alph.
Alpheta: [Comment deleted].
So there you have it! Nothing less than an evil inter-stellar plot to highjack the eggs of our lovely Hungarian GM and breed a miniature G’kar who will run for President of the United States in due course and introduce A NEW WORLD ORDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Could this be - oh no, oh the horror, the horror, THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE ORIGINAL ANTICHESS???)
Remember where you read it FIRST!!!!!!!!!!! THE INTERNATIONAL CHESSOID!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alpheta Patton, Old Maid and Proud of It, signing off...
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The Priestesses of Mary
While doing some research on the serpent-worshippping Ophites, I came across a reference to the Kollyridians - and found out some fascinating information about the now obscure sect.
The name Kollyridians (also Collyridians) comes from Greek collyris, a little cake. Leontius of Byzance had a different name for them. He called them "Philomarianites", meaning Mary-lovers (PG 87, 1364). (Image: Mary in the Notre Dame du Cap, Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada. Crowned in 1904 at the orders of Pope Pius X, it is the only statue of Mary to be crowned in all of Canada. The title of Queen of Heaven can also be found in scripture, but not in reference to Mary).
From Epiphanius we learn the group was composed mainly of women and led by women priestesses. The sect may have originated in Thrace, and had extended to Upper Scythia (roughly to the west and north of the Black Sea) and into Arabia by the fourth century, but it could have roots in Syria (Astarte) or Asia Minor (Ceres).
The sect was perhaps inspired by the Gospel events, combined with an Elias-type legend of Mary's purity and "non-death." Epiphanius states that the "priestesses of Mary" worshipped her as a goddess in her own right, the Queen of Heaven, with rituals far older than Christianity, and "adorn a chair or square throne, spread a cloth over it, and at a certain solemn time, place bread on it and offer it in the name of Mary." The worshippers also partook of the sacred cakes (sounds rather like "Holy Communion" where believing Christians partake of the "bread" of "Christ's body").
Recalling the Jews condemned by the Prophet Jeremiah who made similar offerings to the "Queen of Heaven" (Astarte/Ashtoreth/Asherah/Ceres), Epiphanius warned against the worship of the Virgin. This is the seventy-ninth heresy in a long list, challenged by Epiphanius, a religion harking back to the ancient pagan worship of the Goddess, under her new manifestation: "Mary."
According to Jonathan Kirsch: "[In] the Book of Jeremiah, a community of Jews in Egypt worshipped a goddess that he calls the 'Queen of Heaven,' a deity that scholars identify with Anath or Astarte, both of them goddesses in the pantheon of the ancient Near East. Like other goddess worshippers, the Jewish women in the Egyptian diaspora light altar fires to the Queen of Heaven, bake and eat 'crescent-cakes marked with her image' (Jer. 44.19) (NEB), pour out libations as drink offerings to the goddess, and burn incense or perhaps even sacrificial animals in her honor. They are joined in these rituals by their menfolk--'And is it we that offer to the Queen of Heaven without our husbands?' they taunt the old prophet (Jer. 44:19)--but it is clearly the women who serve as priestesses. And when Jeremiah calls on them to return to orthodoxy at the risk of their lives--'High and low alike will die by sword or by famine,' he quotes God as saying, 'and will be an object of execration and horror, of ridicule and reproach' (Jer. 44:12) (NEB)--they boldly and flatly refuse."
Geoffrey Ashe puts forward in his book The Virgin the opinion that the Collyridians represented a parallel Marian religion to Christianity, founded by first-generation followers of the Virgin Mary, whose doctrines were later subsumed by the Church at the Council of Ephesus in 432.
Like other "heretical" sects, the Kollyridians were stamped out - or, as Ashe argues, subsumed into the Roman Catholic Church as it adopted into its tenets many of the pagan beliefs about the "Mother of God" and the "Queen of Heaven," and pragmatic pagans were baptized and became nominal "Christians."
Today, of course, it is quite acceptable for Roman Catholics, approximately 1 billion strong, to worship their Mother of God, even if they no longer offer her sacred bread from the seat of a "chair or throne."
Information on the Kollyridians compiled from the following sources:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/COLLYRID.TXT Patrick Madrid, October, 1994 issue of "This Rock"
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian church, Vol 4, Ch 3
A dictionary of Christian biography and literature to the end of the sixth century a.d., Henry Wace, Collyridians, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Collyridians
Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyridians
The Woman Who Laughed at God: The Untold History of The Jewish People, by Johnathan Kirsch, http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00CbuJ
Labels:
Collyridians,
Kollyridians,
Mother of God,
Queen of Heaven
Monday, September 3, 2007
700 Historic and Prehistoric Sites Identified in Sistan Plain
News from CAIS.
I've subscribed to this service for the past couple of years. It's become apparent over that time that the Iranian Plateau is a hot spot for ancient civilization. It's really a shame more isn't being done to uncover this heritage. It belongs to us all - we all spring from the same source, after all.
The Chief pointed to ancient Persia as being the possible home of the origins of proto-chess; that is one of the reasons I chose to learn more about Persia/Iran. H.J.R. Murray got it wrong, baby!
02 September 2007
LONDON, (CAIS) -- In pursuing their researching activities in Sistan plain, archaeology team of Sistan va Baluchestan University has succeeded to identify more than 700 historic and prehistoric sites in this part of Sistan va Baluchestan province.
Since the excavations in Sistan plain have not been wrapped up yet, Rasoul Mousavi Haji, one of the heads of the archaeology team in Sistan plain gives the possibility for identifying some more historic sites in the area.
“Although discovery of a large number of prehistoric sites shed light into the importance of this area during very ancient times, we have also succeeded in identifying a number of historical sites dating back to the post Achaemenid period (330-248) and Parthian dynasty (248 BCE-224 CE) for the first time in this area. A number of historical sites belonging to 12-15 centuries CE have been also identified in the region, which were never seen before,” said Mousavi to Persian service of CHN.
The archaeology team has also succeeded in identifying of historical sites dating back to Achaemenid (550-330 BCE) and Sasanian (224-651 CE) dynastic eras in the region.
Regarding of tracing civilization, cultural, and artistic evidence in the region, Mousavi Haji explained: “Identifying of historic evidence which is as old as the Burnt City are among the most prominent achievements during these archaeological activities in Sistan plain. These areas enjoyed industrial centres and we have also discovered a large number of decorative semi-precious gems such as lapis and opal.”
These new discoveries bring into light that the industry of using ornamental gems was not limited to the Burnt City (Shahr-e Sukhteh) and the satellite hills of this prehistoric city also enjoyed similar industrial activity.
Mousavi Haji further explained about discovery of a unique piece of earthenware with the design of a human being in one of prehistoric sites contemporary with the Burnt City which was never seen before in Burnt City and its satellite sites.
According to Mousavi, the recent researches show that the number of prehistoric and historic sites in Sistan plain must have surpassed to what was previously assumed and each 6 kilometers of Sistan plain must have contained one historic site. This is while prior to this it was supposed that each 10 kilometres must have hidden a historic site.
Archaeological excavations have been started by a team of archaeologist in 22 areas of Sistan plain which have been divided into two phases. According to Mehrafarin, one of the other heads of the team, discovery of more than 700 historic and prehistoric sites was the result of archaeological efforts during the first phase of activities.
All achieved information in this researching project is due to be gathered and categorized in the archaeological Atlas of Sistan va Baluchestan province.
Backstory About "Zugzwang", A Serial Novel
As his serialised thriller Zugzwang, exclusively written for The Observer, is published as a book, novelist and screenwriter Ronan Bennett reveals the fear and exhilaration of writing to a weekly deadline.
This is a fascinating look at the process of how a novel came to be - first in serial form - now in book form - by author Ronan Bennett.
Sunday September 2, 2007
The Observer
The idea for a novel never comes in one fell swoop, at least not to me. Usually, it's a case of something I read, or see, or something somebody tells me, and my filing it away in a mental 'things of interest that might lead somewhere' folder. It might remain there undisturbed, for months, even years, and then something else I stumble on seems to add enough to make me think I may have the beginnings of a novel.
With Zugzwang, the earliest thing I filed away was the story of Akiba Rubinstein. Before the First World War, Rubinstein was one of the strongest chess players in the world. Born into an impoverished family in a remote settlement in Poland, which was then occupied by Russia, he was raised by his pious Jewish grandparents and spoke only Hebrew and Yiddish until around the age of 20.
Rubinstein was pathologically shy, believing his mere presence to be unbearable to others. A contemporary observed how, immediately after making his move, Rubinstein would leave the chess table and hide, in order not to burden his opponent with his odious presence. This poignant scene stayed in my memory more than 25 years after I first read it. But though I had filed him away, Rubinstein had gathered a lot of mental dust.
It was only when rereading an old biography of Lenin, by David Shub, that I started to think again about him. Shub's book describes the strange career of a protege of Lenin's, Roman Malinowski. With Lenin in exile, Malinowski became the party's leader inside Russia, and in St Petersburg headed the Social Democrat delegation in the Duma. What Lenin didn't know was that Malinowski was a spy for the tsarist secret police, the Okhrana. He unmasked himself in the late spring of 1914 before fleeing to France.
That's interesting, I thought: Rubinstein was also in St Petersburg in the spring of 1914, playing in the strongest chess tournament the world had seen. In those days, chess players were as celebrated as modern footballers, and that tournament was like the World Cup coming to town. Tsar Nicholas contributed 1,000 roubles to the prize fund.
This was fertile territory, surely. There was the glamour and tension of the tournament, the pathos of the mentally flawed chess genius, the betrayal of Malinowski and the approach of war. There were revolutionaries and spies and the drama of St Petersburg itself, monumental and shabby, graceful and malign. There had to be a novel here.
Rest of the story...
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Play Chess Like Michelangelo Painted
I love this man's endless passion for chess.
Chess tournament on today
With Errol Tiwari
Sunday, September 2nd 2007
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
- Martin Luther King Jnr
This is what chess players strive to do every time they face their opponents over the chess board. They strive to play as Michelangelo painted. They strive to become grandmasters. They strive to find the unflawed sequences. They strive to play the perfect moves.
This is why the promotion of chess in our beloved country must never stop. The game builds character. It is anchored to a platform of social development. And it is there over the chess board that people meet, and minds compete.
Chess has not as yet entered into the national consciousness. We are in the pioneering stages of the game's development, but I sincerely believe - and I am fiercely patriotic about this - that chess will become a national pastime in Guyana, and as popular a sport as cricket. Albert Einstein described an idea well when he said: "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on." I am inspired, therefore, that the idea will prevail and the movement for chess promotion will get stronger, more popular and gain momentum. There is no turning back.
Chess is a fair game. It has equality. I have eight pawns and eight pieces, and you have eight pawns and eight pieces. We share the battlefield of 64 squares. Nothing is hidden. Nothing is left to chance. We both have the same opportunities for winning.
Already in Guyana, talent is beginning to emerge. Twenty-year-old Ronuel Greenidge from Lodge is dangerous on the chess board. He is cool and deadly. So is Learie Webster from West Demerara. The two will clash today in a chess tournament at the Carifesta Sports Complex, and in the words of Loris Nathoo, the game represents "a classic confrontation of two local minds." Greenidge trains daily on the computer. In a complicated position on the chess board , if you ask the computer to find the best possible continuations and it gives three moves, Greenidge is going to find and play one of those moves analysing on his own. He is going to be very hard to beat.
Webster, as opposed to Greenidge, is more a self-made player. He relies on his intuition and can see the hidden aspects of a position. His strength lies in the combinations that he plays. He shakes them out of his shirt sleeves. He explodes a quiet position with a sacrificial combination that has everyone running to his chess board and his opponent confused with uncertainty. In addition to Greenidge, he plays me as well in the tournament today.
The Greenidge-Nathoo encounter also promises a lot of violence on the board. Nathoo is just as careful a player as Greenidge. This is his strength. He pounces on the mistakes of his opponents and almost always creates a passed pawn to carry to the Queening square in the endgame.
In the Intermediate Section, Sheriffa Ali is off with flying colours. She is the only female participant in this category and scored three wins from three games last Sunday. She plays quickly and confidently. She finds some of the best continuations very quickly and is extremely sharp in the middlegame. I tell her to develop her pieces quickly and not to embark on adventurous excursions with her Queen. I tell her to wait and combinations would flow naturally. The tournament begins at 9 am and four games will be played.
Indians Sweep Zonal Contest
B Shrikant, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, September 03, 2007
First Published: 00:54 IST(3/9/2007)
Last Updated: 00:56 IST(3/9/2007)
Ganguly, Harika qualify for chess World Cup
Four-time Indian national champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly and women's defending champion D. Harika won the Asian Zone 3.2 chess championship at Dhaka and earned the right to play in the World Cup to be held in Russia in November this year.
Ganguly and Harika won the titles in contrasting styles. Ganguly had to go through a rapid play-off against compatriot G.N. Gopal, winning 2-0 on Saturday, while Harika defeated Swati Ghate of Pune in the 10th round to win by a one-point margin, according to information received here.
India swept all the medals in the zonal championship.
Gopal, who joined Ganguly at the top with nine points after the 11th round, bagged the second spot. G. Rohit of Andhra Pradesh finished third with eight points, while GM J. Deepan Chakkaravarthy took the fourth place with seven.
Gopal, however, had more to cheer as he completed his final GM norm. With 2,480 points, the 17-year-old Gopal from Aluva in Kerala now needs to cross the mark of 2500 to become India's next Grandmaster. Having done well in the last few months, Gopal is expected to achieve the required rating when the ranking list is released in October.
In the women's section, Swati Ghate was placed second while National champion Tania Sachdev took the third place with 5.5 points out of a possible 10.
Ganguly and Harika thus qualified for the World Cup to be held at Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from November 23 to December 16. The winner will meet Vladimir Topalov in the World Championship cycle in 2008.
GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh has been given a direct seeding to the World Cup by the FIDE President as his nominee.
Elliott Avedon Museum of Games
At the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), this online resource is one of our favorite places to visit. New content is added from time to time to keep things fresh and interesting, and as a researcher into ancient board games it is a priceless resource available to us free of charge and with a few mouse-clicks! (Game board discovered at Knossos Palace, circa 1500 BCE).
Established in 1971, the Museum is a public institution dedicated to research and the collection, preservation, and exhibition of games and game-related objects. The Museum Website was first begun in 1993 and continues to evolve. Photographs, other graphics, and pages with new information are periodically added to this site, offering a "virtual visit" to the Museum. The Website includes over 700 pages. Each Webpage is part of a "virtual" Museum exhibit. The Museum collection is extensive and the University offers Web viewers access to as much of its collection as resources will permit. As new "Virtual Exhibits" are added, indices are updated.
The Virtual Exhibits item takes you to a clickable list of collection objects, such as Boxed Games, Playing Cards, Electronic Games, etc. organized as Museum Exhibits. An "exhibit" will have one or more Webpages concerning the games in that particular exhibit. Nevertheless, a viewer can go directly to a Webpage about a specific game of interest by using the Google Tool Bar at the top of each page, inputting the name of the game, and clicking the "search" button.
About Games includes pages dealing with ethnography, origins, and diffusion of games in general. The Archives item contains scanned documents of published papers by game ethnologists and historians. FAQ answers general questions which previous viewers have frequently asked. Web Links is a clickable list for other sites with information about games.
The Museum item includes a number of pages about the "physical" Museum rather than the "virtual" one on the Web. These items include pages about the collection which is cared for by Museum personnel, and about the On-Campus Gallery in which the collection is exhibited. The Museum's resources for researches who come on campus to conduct research on games is explained in this section. Information is provided about where the Museum is housed on the University campus along with the available parking and public transportation facilities.
Unusual Game Piece Discovered in Roman Era Grave
From the Northhampton Chronicle & Echo:
Archaeological dig finds Roman coins and games
Published Date: 08 August 2007
Location: Northampton
By Nicola Shaw
Archaeologists began work excavating the site at Bury Mount in Towcester on July 17 and an initial metal scan of one part of the area has already uncovered a number of Roman pieces, including an unusual carved disc believed to have been used in a board game similar to draughts.
Jim Brown, project officer for Northamptonshire Archaeology, said: "We haven't even started excavating the front section yet but we have carried out a metal scan and retrieved a number of Roman artefacts including some lead cloth seals, a fourth century Roman coin and a small gaming piece."
The gaming piece is like a draught piece, and it is quite unusual, whereas you can expect to find musket balls all over the place.
"We are going to get an expert to examine it and give us an idea of what period it is from."
During a previous dig in October 2006, archaeologists found that there was more to the Mount than they had previously thought when they located a ditch, thought to be a moat, around the castle motte.
The second phase of the dig is to find out more about how the area was used, before work to regenerate the site begins.Mr Brown said: "Ideally, we would really like to find remnants of any structure that was on top of the motte, get a good secure date on the ditch and work out what was going on in the civil war, but it is still early days."
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Political Chess - Fred Thompson's Way
From the September 1, 2007 online version of the Post Chronicle:
Fred Thompson's Way
A Commentary by Don Jones
The idea behind the 6th of September as announcement day for Fred Thompson declaring his decision to run for President of The United States, is the hope that David H. Petraeus' report on Iraq will be presented on the 5th. It also would be great if the report is of a positive nature, which all signs point to such a case.
If that anticipated event does not take place, it still was proper for Fred to make another move on the game board. It is a game board he will master. He may already have done so.
One must say he has been patient with himself. There were often times that the comments about the delay were getting a bit tiresome in the Thompson Camp. Many comments were less than courteous in their criticism of Fred. He stayed the course however and now he is the top news out there. This is one of the best political chess games ever made. Not too long ago we had a major political maneuver with Ross Perot, who spent millions.
There is no comparison to Fred Thompson's skill in planning his event. Foreign leaders are not missing what is happening, so they may get a read on our next President. They have to respect the manner in which Fred Thompson has handled the entire campaign so far.
The man knows people and how to make his moves with them. He practiced law with skill. He did such a good job it landed him in the movies. He lobbied, which requires skill with people and planning. He also threaded his way around Capital Hill, getting most of the things he sought. He has worked with the top movie stars, top political heads and top business people. Actually he has a better resume than Ronald Reagan with whom he is often compared.
Rudy knows New York. Hillary knows whatever she knows, but it is a very narrow focus. None of the close rivals have as good a base of hands on knowledge as Fred Thompson. Romney has a pretty good base, but he and family are like dolls in a glass case.
There is a song in the back of the mind that goes something like, "I'd hammer out danger.. I'd hammer out a warning.. I'd hammer out love between my brothers and sisters ..all over this land.." Fred is the first to hammer out danger. By rights he should have been last; however, the tepid competition can't seem to get worked up about the real things that worry us.
Fred worries about radiation and hair falling out of his children's head as they grow cancer inside. He worries about not having an American identity in the schools. He worries about the load on the next generation and the one after that, which we have placed upon their heads.
One of the few real men of iron gonads and keen perception.
Chess Queen on Cloud Nine!
From the Goa (India) Herald online edition, September 1, 2007:
Ivana Furtado could not stop smiling late on Friday evening.
Goa’s chess queen, who won the under-8 Asian Youth chess championship title in Al Ain (UAE) a couple of days ago, arrived at the Karmali station this evening and was besieged by a battery of journalists, both from the print and electronic media.
Ivana, India’s youngest World Champion, smiled all along and seemed to bask in the attention. But amidst all the congratulatory notes, Ivana could not say much.
“I am very, very happy,” was all that Ivana told waiting reporters after much prodding.
“She speaks very little,” Ivana’s father Eli later told Herald even as the electronic media pressed for a sound byte.
In Al Ain, Ivana was at her best as she worked her way to the top. Even a second round upset at the hands of Mongolian girl Uran-Erdene in just 22 moves did not deter her.
Ivana’s next assignment is the World Youth Chess Championship in Turkey, starting November 17. And the chess prodigy has set her eyes firmly on retaining the title she won last year in Georgia.
“Now it gets more and more difficult,” Eli told this paper. “Ivana’s games are on the internet. Her moves are well documented and opponents can plan games against her,” he continued.
Sameer Salgaoncar, president of the Goa State Chess Association, has no doubts that Ivana can snatch the world title from right under everyone’s nose. “She is dedication personified putting in seven to eight hours of training everyday. Her coach Raghunath Gokhale is a Dronacharya awardee and among the best brains in the business,” disclosed Sameer.
Ivana has now won a record eight international titles since December, 2005.
Amongst others, Sports Authority of Goa Executive Director V M Prabhudessai, Director of Coaching Brahmanand Shankwalkar and GSCA secretary Suhas Asnodkar were present at the station.
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Good luck to Ivana. What an interesting name - "Ivana" sounds Russian or Eastern European; "Furtado" sounds Spanish or Portuguese. And she lives in and plays for India. Wow!
Reshevsky Memorial International Invitational
Is there anyone out there who doesn't read Susan Polgar's popular chess blog? If you haven't already seen the news, she posted that Texas Tech University, the home of SPICE, will be hosting the Reshevsky Memorial International Invitational from November 9 - 16, 2007. Dr. Eric Moskow has provided financial support for the event.
In his quest to achieve his IM title (read more here), Dr. Moskow will be participating in this event. In addition to Dr. Moskow, confirmed players thus far are GM Boris Gulko (alright!) and GM Gilberto Hernandez.
I found Dr. Moskow's posted suggestion under the Saturday Open Forum at Polgar's blog (September 1, 2007) of issuing invitations to some "senior" players delightful:
susan. lets offer 3 spots to american vets in our tournament, lombardy, byrne, benko, soltis, bisquier, tarjan, commons, zuckerman, come to mind would be interesting all are friends of reshevsky im told or remember??? eric moskow
I look forward to reading more about how this event develops and the final list of players. Good luck, Dr. Moskow, I expect this will be a tough event and a worthy test of your chess acumen.
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