Old English

Academically, there is a distinction between Modern English and its ancestral forms, Old English and Middle English. Although these three could be roughly defined as types of the same language, English, being different according to the time each one belongs, it would not be easy to bridge directly between Old English, its oldest form, and Modern English, which is spoken today. For instance, in Old English the famous Lord’s Prayer looks like this:

 

Faeder ure,
pu pe eart on heofonum,
si pin nama gehalgod.
Tobecume pin rice.
Gewurpe din willa on ear dan swa swa on heofonum.
Urne gedaeghwamlican hlaf syle us to daeg.
And forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfa durum gyltendum.
And ne gelaed pu us on costnunge,
ac alys us of yfele. Soplice.

Then, how had this form of language developed from what kind of languages and where had it taken place? Following is a summarised history of English as a language:

 

‘The history of (English) language begins a little after A.D. 600. Everything before that is pre-history, which means that we can guess at it but can’t prove much. For a thousand years or so before the birth of Christ our linguistic ancestors were savages wandering through the forests of northern Europe. Their language was a part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European Family.

At the time of the Roman Empire—say, from the beginning of the Christian Era to around A.D. 400—the speakers of what was to become English were scattered along the northern coast of Europe. They spoke a dialect of Low German. More exactly, they spoke several different dialects, since they were several different tribes. The names given to the tribes who got to England are Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. For convenience, we can refer to them as Anglo-Saxons.

Their first contact with civilization was a rather thin acquaintance with the Roman Empire on whose borders they lived. Probably some of the Anglo-Saxons wandered into the Empire occasionally, and certainly Roman merchants and traders traveled among the tribes. At any rate, this period saw the first of our many borrowings from Latin. Such words as kettle, wine, cheese, butter, cheap, plum, gem, bishop, church were borrowed at this time… The Anglo-Saxons were learning, getting their first taste of civilization.

The Romans had been the ruling power in Britain since A.D. 43. They had subjugated the Celts whom they found living there and had succeeded in setting up a Roman administration. The Roman influence did not extend to the outlying parts of the British Isles. In Scotland, Wales, and Ireland the Celts remained free and wild, and they made periodic forays against the Romans in England…Even in England the Roman power was thin. Latin did not become the language of the country as it did in Gaul and Spain. The mass of people continued to speak Celtic, with Latin and the Roman civilization it contained in use as a top dressing.

In the fourth century, troubles multiplied for the Romans in Britain. Not only did the untamed tribes of Scotland and Wales grow more and more restive, but the Anglo-Saxons began to make pirate raids on the eastern coast. Furthermore, there was growing difficulty everywhere in the Empire, and the legions in Britain were siphoned off to fight elsewhere. Finally, in A.D. 410, the last Roman ruler in England, bent on becoming emperor, left the islands and took the last of the legions with him. The Celts were left in possession of Britain but almost defenseless against the impending Anglo-Saxon attack.

Not much is surely known about the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England. According to the best early source, the eighth-century historian Bede, the Jutes came in 449… (and) settled permanently in Kent. Somewhat later the Angles established themselves in eastern England and the Saxons in the south and west. Bede’s account is plausible enough, and these were probably the main lines of the invasion. 

We do know, however, that the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were a long time securing themselves in England. Fighting went on for as long as a hundred years before the Celts in England were all killed, driven into Wales, or reduced to slavery…By 550 or so the Anglo-Saxons were firmly established. English was in England.

All this is pre-history, so far as the language is concerned. We have no record of the English language until after 600, when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and learned the Latin alphabet. The conversion began, to be precise, in the year 597 and was accomplished, within thirty or forty years.

It is customary to divide the history of the English language into three periods: Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. Old English runs from the earliest records—i.e., seventh century—to about 1100; Middle English from 1100 to 1450 or 1500; Modem English from 1500 to the present day. Sometimes Modern English is further divided into Early Modem, 1500-1700, and Late Modem, 1700 to the present.

When England came into history, it was divided into several more or less autonomous kingdoms, some of which at times exercised a certain amount of control over the others. In the century after the conversion the most advanced kingdom was Northumbria, the area between the Humber River and the Scottish border. By A.D. 700 the Northumbrians had developed a respectable civilization… It was in this period that the best of the Old English literature was written, including the epic poem Beowulf.

In the eighth century, Northumbrian power declined, and the center of influence moved southward to Mercia, the kingdom of the Midlands. A century later the center shifted again, and Wessex, the country of the West Saxons, became the leading power. The most famous king of the West Saxons was Alfred the Great, who reigned in the second half of the ninth century, dying in 901. He was famous not only as a military man and administrator but also as a champion of learning. He founded and supported schools and translated or caused to be translated many books from Latin into English. At this time also much of the Northumbrian literature of two centuries earlier was copied in West Saxon. Indeed, the great bulk of Old English writing which has come down to us in the West Saxon dialect of 900 or later.

In the military sphere, Alfred’s great accomplishment was his successful opposition to the Viking invasions. In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Norsemen emerged in their ships from their homelands in Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula…After many years of hit-and-run raids, the Norsemen landed an army on the east coast of England in the year 866. There was nothing much to oppose them except the Wessex power led by Alfred. The long struggle ended in 877 with a treaty by which a line was drawn roughly from the northwest of England to the southeast. On the eastern side of the line Norse rule was to prevail. This was called the Danelaw. The western side was to be governed by Wessex.

The linguistic result of all this was a considerable injection of Norse into the English language. Norse was at this time not so different from English as Norwegian or Danish is now. Probably speakers of English could understand, more or less, the language of the newcomers who had moved into eastern England. At any rate, there was considerable interchange and word borrowing. Examples of Norse words in the English language are sky, give, law, egg, outlaw, leg, ugly, scant, sly, crawl, scowl, take, thrust. There are hundreds more. We have even borrowed some pronouns from Norse—-they, their, and them. These words were borrowed first by the eastern and northern dialects and then in the course of hundreds of years made their way into English generally.’ (http://www.sebsteph.com/Professional/Bart’s%20class/Readings/roberts.htm)

Reference:

Roberts, Paul (year unstated), A Brief History of English, Welcome to the Synthesis Project – Reading Material (accessed 25/04/2010)

http://www.sebsteph.com/Professional/Bart’s%20class/Readings/roberts.htm

Joshua and the conquest of Cannan

According to the Old Testament, Joshua utterly destroyed Canaanites’ cities, as the commander of Israelites, in order to take ‘the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses’ (Joshua 11:23) and divided the whole land to the twelve tribes. Although it is written in the Holy Scripture, it would be more plausible to have a doubt whether this massive conquest including brutal massacres was historical truth or not. On this particular issue, it is widely accepted that there are four major theories historians discuss as possible explanations for the Israelites’ settlement in Canaan.

‘1. Literal Conquest

This perspective basically… assumes that the accounts (written in the Book of Joshua) are basically historically reliable… (Joshua) led the Israelites in a near total conquest of the land in a series of lightning strikes against the Canaanites, successful because God led them into the battles and fought for them…. The entire account is of military battles being fought; there was no peaceful occupation of the land at any time.

2. Conquest Modified by Tradition

This perspective… sees the traditions of a conquest of the land as a valid historical memory of Israel, but one that has been greatly modified by tradition and the retelling of the story within the community over the centuries. While the basic details of the biblical traditions need to be taken seriously as preserving that historical memory, they cannot be taken literally or at face value without some corroborating evidence that would lend support to them. Where archaeology cannot directly support the biblical traditions, they should not be taken as reliable history, although they may still preserve valid historical memory. We simply have no way to know in cases where there is no supporting evidence… This view would see Joshua as a leader in early Israel, but one that become a hero figure in later generations.

3. Peaceful Settlement

In this view, based upon logical interpretation and reconstruction of history, a technique common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,… Israel’s movement into the land is seen as a relatively peaceful migration of tribes who gradually settled among the city-states of Palestine. After an extended period of consolidation in the 11th and 10th centuries, the settlement climaxed in a period of expansion under the leadership of David in the 9th and early 8th centuries. The Israelites who first entered the land joined remnants of family units who had not joined the migration to Egypt with Jacob and had remained through the centuries in the central highlands around Shechem. They fought isolated battles as they expanded their territory and encroached into Canaanite controlled areas. But there were no "all Israel" wars, which was a romanticized nationalistic ideal projected back into this period from a much later time, reflected in the book of Joshua. Joshua himself was only a local Ephraimite leader who gradually became associated with the "all Israel" ideal.

4. Peasant Revolt

This perspective…depends on modern social theory to address the historical issues…In this view, the idea of "tribe" should be understood as a social unit, not a family unit. The relationships that appear as family relationships in the traditions are actually ways to describe social relationships and interactions. The conflict present in the accounts between Israelites and Canaanites should be understood as an internal class struggle between peasant villagers (Israelites) and wealthy city dwellers (Canaanites), a struggle between the "haves" and the "have nots." This struggle was precipitated in Canaan by the influx of a small core group of escaped slaves, the original Israelites, who rallied the people to rise up in rebellion against the oppression of the dominant class. The association of all the later Israelites with the early events of the exodus, Sinai, and entry into the land is a projection back into history of the story of the group that emerged as a dominant "tribe" in the area. They simply adopted the story of the small group of escaped slaves that first entered the land and made it a national heritage.’ (http://www.cresourcei.org/conquest.html#Historical Entry)

 

Reference:

l        Book

Ivy Books (1991), The Holy Bible, King James Version

Published by Ballantine Books, New York

 

l        Internet

Bratcher, Dennis (2008), History and Theology in Joshua and Judges – II, D, Historical perspectives on the entry into the Land, The Voice, Biblical and Theological Resources for Growing Christians – Bible Topics – Issues in Biblical Interpretation (last modified 10/12/2008, accessed 08/05/2010)

http://www.cresourcei.org/conquest.html#Historical Entry

Virgil and Reincarnation

Virgil, one of the most prominent Roman poets, wrote in his famous work The Aeneid, Book VI, chapter 27:

 

‘o pater, anne aliquas ad caelum hinc ire putandum est
sublimis animas iterumque ad tarda reuerti
corpora? quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido?’

 

In English translation, above lines mean as following:

 

‘O father, said Aeneas, must I deem 
That from this region souls exalted rise 
To upper air, and shall once more return 
To cumbering flesh? O, wherefore do they feel, 
Unhappy ones, such fatal lust to live?’ (http://www.romansonline.com/Src_Frame.asp?DocID=Vrg_ae06_27)

 

In this chapter, what Virgil describes through his character Aneas concerns to things relating to afterlife, represented by his direct mentioning on the river Lethe, and a notion of reincarnation. Therefore, it is not a coincident that the translator summed up the theme of this chapter and gave it a following subtitle, ‘Aneas wonders about reincarnation.’

 

Reference:

Williams, Theodore C. (trans) (year unstated), Quote of the day: There never was a better slave or a wors, The Aeneid by Virgil, Who was who in Roman times (accessed 07/05/2010)

The Institute in charge of Anne Frank’s manuscripts

It is said that when Otto Frank, father of Anne, the author of her famous diary, died in 1980, ‘he willed his daughter’s manuscripts to the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation in Amsterdam’ (Massotty (tran), 2007, p. vi). Then, what kind of institute did he hand the precious treasure for not only him but for the worldwide readers? Following would be a sufficient answer for this hypothesis question:

 

‘The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) has been in existence for more than fifty years. It is the centre in the Netherlands for information and research on the Netherlands (including the Dutch East Indies) during the Second World War. A few years ago the scope of the Institute was widened and its research field was formulated as the history of the two world wars in their contemporary historical context, including their long-term effects on society. 
The NIOD holds archives of the German occupation of the Netherlands and the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, as well as illegal newspapers and pamphlets, posters and photographs, books and articles. The Institute was established soon after the liberation of the Netherlands, on 8 May 1945, from an awareness of the great importance of the period of occupation. Since 1 January 1999 the Institute has come under the aegis of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
The NIOD has the following tasks: 
* To collect, maintain, catalogue and make accessible archives and collections concerning the Second World War 
* To conduct academic research and to publish the results 
* To provide information to government institutions and to private individuals.’ (http://www.onderzoekinformatie.nl/en/oi/nod/organisatie/ORG1236212/)

 

Reference:

l        Book

Massotty, Susan (tran.) (2007), Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, the definitive edition (edited by Ottto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler)

Penguin Books, London, England

 

l        Internet

KNAW Onderzoek Informatie (2009), Netherlands Institute for War Documentation NIOD, English- KNAW Research Information – NOD Dutch Research Database – Organisation (last modified 29/10/2009, accessed 04/05/2010)

http://www.onderzoekinformatie.nl/en/oi/nod/organisatie/ORG1236212/

William Caxton, the pioneer of English printing history

Following is a summary of the life and deeds of William Caxton, a pioneer of the history of printing trade in England in the fifteenth century.

 

Caxton ‘was born in Kent between 1415 and 1424. He was apprenticed to Robert Large, a mercer, probably when he was about fourteen or a little older. At some date between 1444 and 1449 he went to Bruges, then a thriving merchant town. Because of its predominance as a market, merchants from all over Europe gathered there and established themselves in national communities ruled by a governor. The English community was known as Merchant Adventurers and Caxton became their governor in 1462. He probably sold cloth and other goods including manuscripts, for Bruges was the centre of a flourishing trade in manuscripts and paintings.
In 1469 or earlier Caxton decided to learn how to print and by using this knowledge to produce books in English for sale in England to the nobility. Having acquired a copy of the French version of the History of Troy, he started to translate it with the intention of printing the finished translation. The outbreak of (the Wars of the Roses) in England led him to postpone his plan. When after two years Edward IV was safely re-established in England he resumed his project, with the patronage of Margaret of Burgundy, Edward’s sister. He quickly finished his translation and went to Cologne to learn the art of printing.
The first book Caxton printed, and the first book to appear in English, was his own translation of the History of Troy. It probably appeared in late 1473 or early 1474. In all he printed six or seven volumes before returning to England; these bear no place or date of printing but were almost certainly printed at Bruges.
At Michaelmas, 29 September, 1476, Caxton’s name was entered on the account roll of John Estency, Sacrist of Westminster Abbey, as paying a year’s rent in advance for the premises – probably a shop – in which he set up his press. The first known piece of printing done in England, a Letter of Indulgence by John Sant, Abbot of Abingdon, with the date of purchase 13 December 1476, issued from this press… The first dated book printed in England, The dictes or sayengis of the philosophres, was completed on 18 November 1477. This book was translated from the French by Caxton’s friend and patron, Earl Rivers. It was followed by nearly one hundred other works before Caxton died in 1491.’ (http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/printing/)

 

Reference:

University of Glasgow (2010), Printing in England from William Caxton to Christopher Baker, An Exhibition: November 1976 – April 1977, Special Collections, Part of the Library and University services (last updated 27/04/2010, accessed 03/05/2010)

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/printing/

Joshua and his Cannan occupation

The Book of Joshua in the Old Testament tells the story how Joshua took over the position of Moses, the great prophet, as the leader of his people, the Israelites, and how he accomplished the occupation of Canaan, the Promised Land. Following is a summary on this enormous story from the ancient history.

 

‘After Moses died, Joshua, his assistant, became the new leader…The distinguishing characteristic of Joshua was that he believed all that God promised, even when most of the Israelites did not…The book of Joshua recounts how God fulfilled what He had promised Abraham long ago when He said to him, "I will give to [you and your descendants] the whole land of Canaan as an everlasting possession!" (Gen. 17:8)

At this point…the Israelites did not yet have a country of their own. They were still wanderers in the desert. Moreover the land of Canaan in which they were to live was full of giants who were mighty warriors. However, the Almighty God planned to expel the inhabitants of Canaan and to exterminate them because of their many repulsive sins, and entrust that abundant land to the Israelites… In the first chapter (of the Book of Joshua), the Scripture says:

… the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses’ assistant: "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them, to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the great river…to the Great Sea on the west. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you."

After this… Joshua sent…two spies (who) went and investigated the city of Jericho and the tall, solid walls which surrounded the city. At night the two spies hid in Jericho, staying in the house of a prostitute named Rahab. However, some people of Jericho saw the Israeli spies enter the house of Rahab. They immediately informed the king, telling him, "Some of the Israelites are in the city to spy." The king sent soldiers to the house of Rahab to arrest them, but Rahab hid them on the roof.

After the soldiers left, Rahab called the spies, saying to them, "I know that the Lord, your God, is the true God. I know too that your God will deliver into your hands my city and all the land of Canaan. All the people of the land are greatly afraid of you, because they have heard how your God opened the Red Sea before you and how He has destroyed all your enemies. I believe that the Lord your God is the true God! Therefore, I ask you to swear to me that when you come and conquer our city, that you will protect me and my family, and deliver us from death!" The two spies answered, "When God delivers your city into our hands, we will protect you and all those who are in the house with you."

In chapter three, the Scriptures recount how the people of Israel cross(ed) the Jordan River to enter the land of Canaan…In chapter five, the Scriptures tell us that, when Joshua was near Jericho, he lifted his head and saw a man with a drawn sword in his hand standing before him… It was the Lord Himself who was making a brief appearance! We have already seen how God appeared to Abraham as a man and spoke with him, and how He appeared to Moses in the flames of a fire in a bush. And now we see how God appeared to Joshua as a mighty commander holding a sword!

Thus, the Lord God told Joshua,

"See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Make seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, make all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the soldiers will go up, every man straight in." (Josh. 6:2-5)

Then the Lord finished speaking to Joshua and left.

Joshua immediately went to the Israelites and told them everything the Lord had commanded him (and on the seventh day)… When the Israelites heard the trumpet sound, they shouted a great shout, and the walls around the city collapsed! The men of Israel then entered the city, every man going straight in. Thus we see how Joshua and the Israelites conquered the first city in the land of Canaan. On that day all the people of Jericho died, except Rahab and her family, just as the two spies had promised her.’ (http://www.injil.org/TWOR/44.html)

Reference:

The Way of Righteousness (1998), Lesson 44, Joshua and the Land of Cannan (accessed 24/04/2010)

Champagne, France in the 1230s

The authorship of one of Arthurian romances titled The Death of King Arthur (La Mort le Roi Artu) has been connected to a contemporary Welshman Walter Map (1140-c. 1210), and has been usually dismissed by scholars. According to James Cable, who translated its original French text into English, ‘it was probably written around 1230-35 in France, possibly in Champagne.’ (Cable, 1971, p. 9) He also points out that the anonymous author ‘shows only a sketchy knowledge of England’ (ibid) unlike ‘any educated Frenchman of the thirteenth century.’ (ibid)

If so, what kind of historical backdrop this real author lived? Following is a brief outline of an article appeared in Journal of Medieval History (volume 29, issue 2, June 2003, p. 95-108), which seems helpful, roughly, to understand the topic.

 

‘A little more than a month before he planned to go on crusade to the Holy Land, Thibaut IV of Champagne (1201–1253) presided over one of the largest burnings of heretics ever to take place in northern France, in which some 180 people were executed. Historians have traditionally portrayed the burning at Mont-Aimé as a particularly egregious example of inquisitorial zeal on the part of northern French ecclesiastical authorities, especially the Dominican friar Robert le Bougre, in the wake of Pope Gregory IX’s introduction of the first papal inquisitorial tribunals into the region in the 1230s… (It may be presumable) that Thibaut’s status as a crusader gave him his own interests in punishing heretics at that time and that the burning helped satisfy the material and devotional demands that planning for a crusade imposed upon powerful magnates who took the cross.’ (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VC1-48KVJ1T-1&_user=10&_coverDate=06/30/2003&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1302341181&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=be8fd714727facd4ce629e862d20e390)

 

Reference:

l        Book

Cable, James (tran) (1971), The Death of King Arthur

Penguin Books, London, England

 

l        Internet

Lower, Michael (2003), The burning at Mont-Aimé: Thibaut of Champagne’s preparations for the Barons’ Crusade of 1239, ScienceDirect – Seartch (accessed 20/04/2010)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VC1-48KVJ1T-1&_user=10&_coverDate=06/30/2003&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1302341181&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=be8fd714727facd4ce629e862d20e390

The Daniel Prophecy

‘But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.’ (Daniel 12:4)

 

One of famous prophecies above can be found in the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. It is said that what is written in this book was based on a knowledge revealed to Daniel, a prophet, from one of important angels called Gabriel.

 

Interestingly, although the original text refers to ‘the time of the end’, some seem to have taken the referred time as sometime around present modern days. In such views, a part of the original sentence ‘many shall run to and fro’ is recognised as the development of technologies that has enabled so many people to use international transportation and the following part, saying ‘knowledge shall be increased’ is conceived to be applicable to the development of information technologies, such as the internet.

 

Summing up this sort of views, an anonymous writer of the tyndalearchive.com gives a commentary as following:

 

‘Students are traveling within their own countries and around the world to study. They are finding much on the Internet, which is worldwide. Some people are satisfied with what they have, while others are constantly seeking for something more advanced or what has been hidden for years, or even centuries. The increase in knowledge over the last forty years has been considered to be greater than the accumulated knowledge for centuries prior.’ (http://www.tyndalearchive.com/Scriptures/www.innvista.com/scriptures/compare/before.htm)

 

Furthermore, some dare to proceed attempting to calculate the enigmatic ‘1290 days’ and ‘1335 days’ in Daniel 12:11, and conclude that ‘the time of the end’ is 1798 A. D. ‘Therefore’, one of such arguments says that ‘the book is now unsealed, and we are able to gain a correct interpretation of the prophecies within.’ (http://www.danielbibleprophecy.org/daniel12.html)

 

Reference:

l        Book

Ivy Books (1991), The Holy Bible: King James Version

Published by Ballantine Books, New York

 

l        Internet

Daniel Prophecy (2008), Daniel Chapter 12 (accessed 12/04/2010)

http://www.danielbibleprophecy.org/daniel12.html

 

tyndalearchive.com (year unstated), That Which Will Happen Before the End (accessed 12/04/2010)

http://www.tyndalearchive.com/Scriptures/www.innvista.com/scriptures/compare/before.htm

Moses

Moses is one of the most important prophets referred in the Old Testament. Traditionally, it has been attributed to this prophet who authored the first five books of the holy Bible as well. Following is a summarised story of Moses’ life and deeds from a BBC web page.

 

‘According to the Bible, the descendants of Jacob (and his twelve sons) had lived in Egypt for more than 450 years, during which time they grew into a nation: the nation of Israel. The Egyptians began to see them as a threat and tightened their control on them, forcing them to work as slaves. Eventually, in an attempt to reduce their numbers, newborn Israelite babies were drowned in the River Nile… In order to escape death, Moses’ mother placed him in a basket when he was still a baby and set him adrift on the River Nile. She left his fate up to God’s will. The infant Moses was rescued by the Pharaoh’s daughter and brought up in the palace as a royal prince.

One day Moses (as an adult) saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting. He intervened and killed the Egyptian. But when this became known he fled for his life. In the land of Midian, probably somewhere in the Sinai peninsula, he married the daughter of a priest, had two children, and settled down to life as a shepherd. 

One day (forty years later from his settlement in Midian), when he was in the desert, Moses heard the voice of God speaking to him through a bush which flamed but did not burn. God asked Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Moses was at first reluctant, thinking that the Israelites would not believe he had heard the word of God. God then gave Moses special powers and inspired by this, Moses returned to Egypt and demanded freedom for his people.

At first, the Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave, then God unleashed 10 plagues on the Egyptians. It was the tenth plague – the plague of the firstborn – which eventually persuaded the Pharaoh to let them go. It was announced that the first-born sons in every household would die, but the sons of the Israelites would be saved if they marked their door posts with the blood of a lamb killed in sacrifice… These are the origins of the Jewish Festival: Passover.

The Pharaoh then changed his mind, and sent his army in pursuit of the Israelites. 600 chariots pursued them, but famously, the waters of the Red Sea parted; the Israelites walked through, then the waters returned and destroyed the Pharaoh’s army…The book of Exodus says that after crossing the Reed Sea, Moses led the Hebrews into the Sinai, where they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

After (further) travelling through the desert for nearly three months, the Israelites camped before Mount Sinai. There, God appeared to Moses and made an agreement or covenant with him. God declared that the Israelites were his own people and that they must listen to God and obey His laws. These laws were the Ten Commandments which were given to Moses on two stone tablets, and they set out the basic principles that would govern the Israelites lives.

But even Moses gets caught up in a failure to heed God. The story of his failure is told in Numbers 20:2-13*. The consequence is that Moses is prohibited from entering the Promised Land with Israel. So he gives a long series of addresses in the book of Deuteronomy, explaining in depth the dynamics of God’s relationship with Israel. Then, he ascends Mount Nebo, east of the river Jordan, from where God gives him a panoramic vision of the whole of the Promised Land; and there he dies, as he had lived, in God’s presence (Deuteronomy 34).’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/moses_1.shtml)

*As for the failure Moses committed, in Numbers 20:12, the Holy Scripture says, ‘And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.’

 

Reference:

Moberly, R. W. L. et al. (2009), Moses, BBC – Religions – Judaism (updated 06/07/2009, accessed 10/04/2010)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/moses_1.shtml

Sir Francis Galton, the founder of “eugenics”

The name of Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) has certain opportunities to be referred due to the results of his peaceful, or at least harmless, researches (i.e., the relative sensitivity of men and women at the nape of the neck, conducted and published in 1894). He is also known as a relative of one of the best known scientists in the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin. However, his interests and points were largely focused on certain topics that enabled the establishment of a controversial genre in biological science; to which, he named "eugenics" in 1883, although what initially inspired him was Darwin’s famous and novel theory on evolution.

Following is a summary about the life of Francis Galton and researches he made, from a web site (see below for reference):

 

‘Galton was inspired by the theory of evolution outlined in Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) to carry out his own investigations in the fields of heredity and biological variation…. A well-travelled Victorian gentleman, schooled in both mathematics and medicine, Galton developed a lifelong interest in studying variations in human ability. He was convinced that these variations were a product of biological inheritance, rather than simply a matter of upbringing. Some of his earliest research was based on the obituary entries in The Times, through which he traced what he saw as superior human qualities being passed down through generations of Europe’s most eminent men. By contrast he suggested that weak, inferior and even dangerous characteristics were also being passed down from parents to children – most obviously, in his eyes, in the poorer sections of society and within certain races.

Galton’s theory was set out in his book Hereditary Genius, published in 1869. These observations were manifested in both positive eugenics, whereby human breeding was manipulated to produce superior people, and negative eugenics, where the quality of the human race was improved by eliminating or excluding biologically inferior people from the breeding population.

This book sparked the beginnings of what became a eugenics movement… Galton himself proposed that limitations should be imposed on breeding amongst those he considered ‘feeble-minded’. However, he may well have been horrified by some of the measures proposed, and in some cases implemented, in the name of eugenics by the worldwide movement that developed in his wake. These included programmes of compulsory sterilisation in some European countries and several states of America in the early 1900s, and the killing of thousands of disabled patients in Nazi Germany from the late 1930s. Many of the latter were gassed in chambers disguised as showers rooms – providing a chilling foretaste of the Holocaust a few years later.’ (http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/francisgalton.aspx)

 

 

Reference:

American Psychology Association (2010), Article Selected, APA PsycNET (accessed 09/04/2010)

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-01676-038&CFID=7902308&CFTOKEN=42897372

 

Science Museum (year unstated), Francis Galton (1822-1911), People (accessed 09/04/2010)

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/francisgalton.aspx