Friday, February 13, 2009

Apocryphote of the Day: 2-13-09


Jesus said, "Love your brother as your soul. Watch over him like the pupil of your eye."

Gospel of Thomas 25.1-2

Image is Syrian, but I know not the date or anything else about it.

8 comments:

Jared Calaway said...

This reminds me of, I think, Aristotle who said a friend is like having one soul in two bodies. It is as if Aristotle or those who repeated him afterward has been fused with "love your neighbor as yourself."

Unknown said...

What is the name of this picture? Where does it come from? How old is it? Signed Curious in Austin

April DeConick said...

Richard, wish I knew. I found it on the web with no attribution. If anyone knows it provenance, please let me know so that I can post it.

Jared, the "your soul" is an idiom in Semitic languages for "yourself". It is one of the signs that the Gospel of Thomas (or the Kernel at least) was not Greek, but Aramaic then Syriac (in my opinion).

Jared Calaway said...

Yes, I figured it reflected Semitic idiom for "self," but when taken in Greek as "soul" it cannot help but evoke the philosophical tradition.

bulbul said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bulbul said...

The word in the top left-hand corner is ܚܫܡܝܬܐ = "supper". The script is estrangela and if I'm not mistaken, there's a vowel point underneath the yod, which would mean that the image is not older than 8th century and probably of Eastern (Nestorian) origin.

Dan said...

Eerdmans used this image for the jacket of Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, identified it as from the 13th century but no further info; credited to The Image Works.

John Shuck said...

That is one of favorites. Thanks!