Hand Signs

I was studying The Church of the East on Wikipedia this morning and came across a portrait of Jesus Christ. I noticed his hand was raised in a gesture with the fore-finger highest, middle finger slightly lower and the ring and pinkie fingers held against the palm by the thumb.



I wondered if the artist had a purpose and the gesture was significant. I have heard that it was a sign of "Peace" but in my jumping from one wikipedia site to another, I found a few interesting things. I'll just randomly enter what I found.

Benediction and blessing. The benediction gesture is a raised right hand with the ring and little finger fingers touching the palm, while the middle and index fingers remain raised. Taken from Ancient Roman iconography for speaking and often called the benediction gesture, is used by the Christian clergy to perform blessings with the sign of the cross; however Christians keep the thumb raised — the three raised fingers (index, middle, and thumb) are frequently allegorically interpreted as representing the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

NEXT, I saw the:
Bellamy salute was used in conjunction with the American Pledge of Allegiance prior to World War II. So of course I had to check out that link.

Children performing the Bellamy salute to the flag of the United States, Hawaii, March 1941.

The Bellamy salute is the hand gesture described by Francis Bellamy (1855-1931) to accompany the American Pledge of Allegiance, which he had authored. During the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance, it was sometimes known as the "flag salute". It was first demonstrated on October 12, 1892 according to Bellamy's published instructions for the "National School Celebration of Columbus Day":

At a signal from the Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag. Another signal is given; every pupil gives the flag the military salute -- right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” At the words, “to my Flag,” the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation; whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side.

The inventor of the saluting gesture was James B. Upham, junior partner and editor of the The Youth's Companion.^[1] Bellamy recalled Upham, upon reading the pledge, came into the posture of the salute, snapped his heels together, and said "Now up there is the flag; I come to salute; as I say 'I pledge allegiance to my flag,' I stretch out my right hand and keep it raised while I say the stirring words that follow."^[1]

The initial civilian salute was replaced with a hand-on-heart gesture, followed by the extension of the arm as described by Bellamy.

In the 1920s, Italian fascists adopted the Roman salute to symbolise their claim to have revitalised Italy on the model of ancient Rome. This was quickly copied by the German Nazis, creating the Nazi salute. The similarity to the Bellamy salute led to confusion, especially during World War II. From 1939 until the attack on Pearl Harbor, detractors of Americans who argued against intervention in World War II produced propaganda using the salute to lessen those Americans' reputations. Among the anti-interventionist Americans was aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh. Supporters of Lindbergh's views would claim that Lindbergh did not support Adolf Hitler, and that pictures of him appearing to do the Nazi salute were actually pictures of him using the Bellamy salute. In his Pulitzer prize winning biography Lindbergh, author A. Scott Berg explains that interventionist propagandists would photograph Lindbergh and other isolationists using this salute from an angle that left out the American flag, so it would be indistinguishable from the Hitler salute to observers.

In order to prevent further confusion or controversy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the salute to be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem in the United States, instead of the Bellamy salute.^[2] This was done when Congress officially amended the Flag Code on 22 December 1942.^[3][4]

That brings us to another Salute :)

The Vulcan salute first appeared in 1967 on the Star Trek second season opening episode, "Amok Time".

In his autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (ש), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the salute. The letter Shin here stands for Shaddai, meaning "Almighty (God)". Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue. There he saw the blessing performed and was very impressed by it.^[1]

The accompanying spoken blessing, "Live long and prosper" (Dif-tor heh smusma in Vulcan language as spoken in Star Trek: The Motion Picture) also appeared for the first time in "Amok Time", scripted by Theodore Sturgeon.^[2] The less-known reply is "Peace and long life." This format is similar to common Middle Eastern greetings (Shalom aleichem in Hebrew and Salaam alaykum in Arabic), meaning "peace be upon you", and its reply, "upon you be peace". Egyptology specialists have found that the Ancient Egyptians used a phrase which, when translated, is an almost perfect representation the phrase, read as "May he live long, prosper, and be in health."

Blessing gesture that was the inspiration for the Vulcan salute.

So THAT's what I LEARNED today!!!!

Aramaic Scriptures offers the BEST Biblical translation

Jesus Christ taught his Good News of the Kingdom of God almost two thousand years ago. Jesus was born and raised a Jew and lived most of his life in the land we now know as the Holy Land. The life of Jesus is the most important life ever lived. His words are the most important words ever spoken. According to the Bible, Jesus spoke a language that is now called Aramaic. This is a very special and important language. Thousands of years ago Aramaic was the most commonly spoken in the world. Now it is still spoken by the Assyrian Christians of Iraq and Iran and in the certain other isolated Christian villages in the Middle East. Aramaic is similar to Hebrew and Arabic but it is a distinct language.

Hebrew and Aramaic both evolved out of an earlier language, called Proto-Semitic, that is now extinct. They both evolved separately. Sometimes people get confused about Aramaic and think it is Arabic or Armenian because the names of these languages sound alike. In reality these languages are totally different. We shouldn’t confuse languages because the names of these different languages sounds alike. You may ask, “ If Aramaic is so important then why haven’t I heard of it before?. Well, you have heard of Aramaic, or at least heard Aramaic words if you go to church often or have read the Bible. Words such as “ Abba, Father” "Maranatha" and "Golgotha" are Aramaic. Actually, Thomas, Magdalane, and Barabas are Aramaic names. Also, if you have seen Mel Gibson’s movie “ The Passion of the Christ” you have been exposed to Aramaic since most of the Film is in Aramaic language.

Some people mistakenly assume that Jesus spoke Hebrew, Greek or perhaps even Latin but the Bible says Jesus spoke Aramaic. You might wonder why this is important. Why does it matter what language Jesus spoke? Well, it is important for many reasons. First, historians are on a quest for historical Jesus. If we want to know and understand Christ the man we need to get basic facts about his life. One of these basic facts is his mother tongue.

Another reason that this is important is that sometimes things get lost in translation. Sometimes certain nuances get lost when sayings are transmitted from one language into another. By going back to the Aramaic we can see the words as Jesus originally uttered them. Also, the Bible presents Jesus speaking Aramaic. If Jesus spoke some other language then that would mean that the Bible not a reliable testimony of the life of Jesus Christ. However, archaeological discoveries have confirmed the historical reliability of the New Testament. The Bible specially states that Jesus spoke Aramaic in the Acts of the Apostles. Judas Iscariot committed suicide for his betrayal of Jesus. The place where her died was called Aqel Dema, which is Aramaic and not Hebrew, for “ Field of Blood”. Luke the author of the Acts of Apostles, says in Acts 1:19 “ Every one in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their common language Aqel Dema, that is Field of Blood”. Here Luke says that Aramaic was the common spoken language of the people of the Holy Land at the time of Christ. Luke actually lived in the Holy Land and knew the Apostles personally. Luke is first hand testimony and a reliable source. If you want to see Aramaic in the New Testament and look up these passages:
In the Gospel of Mark 15:34, we find Jesus Christ on the cross of the Golgotha suffering for the sins of all world. “ And at the ninth hour Jesus cried in a laud voice Eloi Eloi Lamana Sabachthani?” which means “ My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” There is no doubt that these words spoken by Jesus from the cross are Aramaic. The question is, for those who refuse to believe what the Bible clearly teaches about Christ speaking Aramaic, why would Jesus speak some other language than his mother tongue, when he is crying out to God in anguish and agony? Jesus spoke these words shortly before he died. Many have been confused at the meaning of these words. Some people wrongly believe that Jesus cried these words in despair as he neared death and realized that his messianic hope was false. The reason why Jesus said this is because he was fulfilling prophecy that the Messiah had to die and rise again. When Jesus said “ My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?. He was quoting Psalm 22 from the cross. This prophetic Psalm was written 1000 years before the birth of our Lord. It perfectly describes everything Christ endured on our behalf upon the cross.
When comparing Psalm 22 with the story of Jesus crucification, amazing parallels appear. Jesus is mocked for his trust in God Psalm 22: 6-8 and Mark 15: 29-32Jesus suffers thirst Psalm 22: 15 and John 19: 28-29aJesus hands and feet are pierced Psalm 22:16 and Luke 23:33Roman soldiers took Christ’s clothes, divided them up and gambled for them Psalm 22:18 and Mathew 27:35
We also have verses of Scripture when Jesus was quoted as speaking Aramaic in the New Testament:
Mark 7: 34 “ Ethpatha” which is “ Be opened”.
Mark 5:41 “ Talitha Koumi” which is translated “ little girl, I say to you get up”.

A man named Eusebius is known as “ The Father of Church History”. He wrote his “History of the Church” around the year 325 AD. He studied many ancient writings that we no longer possess, written by those who lived nearest to the apostles, such as Papias, who personally knew some of the elderly apostles. Also Hegissipus, a Christian Jew who wrote accounts of the Apostles (especially of James the just, the Brother of Jesus). In his book Demonstration of the Gospel, Eusebius describes the twelve Apostles as “ quite common men, and barbarians [non-Greeks] with no knowledge of any tongue but Aramaic. Greek was never the language of Palestine. Even though a number of Jews had tried to learn the language of Greeks, hardly any one of them succeeded.
Josephus wrote ( 42 AD) “ I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of Greeks, and understand the elements of the Greek language; although I have to accustomed myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness. For our nation dose not encourage those that learn the language of many nations”. Indeed the teaching of Greek was forbidden by Jewish Rabbis. It was said that it was better for a man to give his child meat of swine than to teach him the language of the Greeks.
The Aramaic scriptures are considered a Peshitta Bible. The term Peshitta means straight, simple, sincere and true, that is, the original. This name was given to the ancient authoritative text to distinguish it from Bible revisions and translation which were introduced into of the churches of the East, after the division at Ephesus and Chalcedon in 431 and 451 AD respectively. This ancient Peshitta is still the only authoritative Bible text of the Old and New Testament for all the Churches of Syriac tradition in the Near East and India. This is because this text was in use for 400 years before the Christian Church was divided into several sects. The Peshitta Old Testament contains what is known as the Books of the Apocrypha, which have been handed down in the Peshitta manuscripts together with the Books of Prophets, and since these Apocryphal books are included in the text they are looked upon as a sacred literature, even though they are not commonly used as the others.
Peshitta text should not be confused with 5th century Bible revisions in Aramaic and new versions which were made from Greek. None of these "new" revisions and versions, made by some bishops in the 5th century, has ever been accepted by the church of the East. More over, these bishops who left their church and joined the Greek church, produced these versions for theological reasons so that their doctrine might agree with the doctrine of the Byzantine Church (which was a powerful Imperial sect). Those versions were expelled by the Patriarch of the East and their works were condemned.
Had the Peshitta been made by order of one of the rival Churches, the others would have rejected it. But since all Christians, even Muslems, in the Middle East accept and revere the Peshitta text, it proves beyond a doubt that it was in use many centuries before the division of the church.
Mar Eshai Shimun ( Assassinated 1975), the Patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East, in his letter dated April 5, 1957, addressed the publishers of the English translation of Peshitta is saying:” With the reference to your letter concerning Lamsa’s translation of the Aramaic Bible, and the originality of the Peshitta text, as the Patriarch and the Head of the Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East we wish to state, that the Church of the East received the scriptures from the hands of the blessed Apostles themselves in the Aramaic original, the language spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and that the Peshitta is the text of the Church of the East which has come down from the Biblical times without any change or revision”.

The originality of the Peshitta text is strongly supported by early evidence. Aphraates quoted it. St. Ephraim wrote a commentary on it, and the doctrine of Addai placed it at the apostolic times.
They are the original Biblical Manuscripts. A very large number of syriac biblical manuscripts survive. The manuscripts vary in size, from the enormous pandects containing the whole OT or whole NT (very rarely both together), to miniature manuscripts written in a tiny script containing single book, or small group of books.

The four earliest manuscripts containing the complete Peshitta Bible (Old and New Testaments) are: The codex Ambrosianus, in the Ambrosian Library, Milan, Italy. In the Paris Bibliotheque Nationale, Syriac ms 341, this is written in Estrangelo script belonging to the 8 century, and it contains some illustrations. At Cambridge, University Library, this is written in Estrangelo script which can be dated to the 12 century, it also contains some illustrations in the form of small portraits of biblical persons. This manuscript has important connections with India. For it was once in Kerala. Although it was written in north Iraq. The manuscript was taken to India, perhaps some time in 18 century.
The first printed edition of the Syriac New Testament was published by Johann Widmanstetter in 1555 at Vienna. In the work of preparing the edition Widmanstetter had been assisted by Syrian Orthodox priest, Moses of Mardin, who spent some time in Europe acting as teacher of Syriac to various scholars. The text of this edition was often reprinted, some times in Hebrew characters.
For the Peshitta Old Testament the earliest printed editions were of the Psalter, the first was prepared by Martin Trostius in 1662, to followed by two other editions both of which were published in 1625 in Leiden prepared by Thomas Erpenius, and the other in Paris prepared by Gabriel Sionita.
Another edition of Peshitta using the East Syriac manuscripts was published by the Domanican Fathers at Mosul 1887 – 1889 in three volumes, prepared by Clement Joseph David, Syrian Catholic Bishop of Damascus and George Abdisho Khayat Chaldean Bishop of Amid.The Beirut edition of the Peshitta (1952) is largely based on the Mosul edition.

There are several Aramaic to English translations available on the web. http://www.v-a.com/bible/


(BLOGGER'S NOTE:
ALL of the previous information was copied from the listed site http://www.v-a.com/bible/ and is credited to the Author, Vic Alexander.)