O Mar Morto está morrendo

Mar Morto pode desaparecer até 2050, advertem analistas

Local turístico apreciado por suas virtudes terapêuticas, o mar Morto está ameaçado de morte, numa situação ecológica “catastrófica” que pode levar a seu desaparecimento até 2050, advertiram os analistas.

Os “Amigos da Terra”, uma organização não-governamental do Oriente Médio que reúne ecologistas israelenses, palestinos e jordanianos, advertiram nesta semana sobre o perigo de uma “catástrofe ecológica” no mar Morto, onde desemboca o rio Jordão em meio a uma paisagem austera, queimada pelo sol e carregada de história bíblica.

“Em 50 anos, o mar Morto perdeu um terço de sua superfície e seu nível de água continua diminuindo rapidamente”, declarou Gideon Bromberg, do Amigos da Terra.

Situado a 412 metros abaixo do nível do mar Mediterrâneo, o mar Morto –que passou a ser chamado assim a partir do século 2– tem uma extensão de 50 km e 17 km em sua parte mais larga. É famoso por ter as águas mais salgadas do mundo, com uma salinidade de 33%, que equivale dez vezes a dos oceanos, o que permite a vida apenas de seres unicelulares primitivos, os procariontes, que não têm um núcleo definido.

A importante evaporação de água de sua superfície foi compensada até agora pelas águas do Jordão. No entanto, o desvio do caudal do rio por motivos agrícolas, Mar Mortohidroelétricos ou de consumo humano, além da construção de diques de evaporação para a exploração dos sais minerais ocasionaram uma diminuição do nível da superfície em torno de um metro por ano há mais de duas décadas.

“No momento não se estabeleceu nada de concreto para enfrentar a situação”, explicou Bromberg, enfatizando que o mar Morto perdeu 98% da partilha de água doce do Jordão, que se transformou num “verdadeiro conta-gotas”.

As consequências são especialmente graves para a parte costeira de Israel, ao sul do mar Morto, e palestina, concretamente a Cisjordânia, na parte norte.

Anualmente aparecem novas fendas que obrigam às autoridades proibir o acesso a partes inteiras do litoral, enquanto que os centros de cura e bem-estar que exploram as fontes termais, como o de Ein Gedi, sul de Israel, viram como o mar se afastou cerca de dois quilômetros. “Constatamos 1.650 buracos e fendas, algumas deles de várias dezenas de metros de profundidade”, assegurou o geólogo Eli Raz, especialista em mar Morto.

Quase todos os buracos se encontram em zonas de acesso proibido ao público e, em princípio, não ameaçam a segurança das infraestruturas turísticas e hoteleiras da região. Os buracos e as fendas ocorrem por causa da infiltração da água da chuva que dissolve os sais subterrâneos.

A situação política atual tampouco contribui para a colocação em andamento de medidas de vigilância e proteção. Em julho de 2005, o Banco Mundial anunciou que a Jordânia, Israel e a Autoridade Palestina conseguiram o financiamento de um estudo de factibilidade de um gigantesco projeto para construir um canal de união entre o mar Vermelho e o mar Morto.

Com uma duração prevista de 24 meses e um custo de US$ 15,5 milhões, o estudo obteve financiamento do Japão, Estados Unidos e alguns países europeus como a França, Itália, Noruega e Suécia.

No entanto, a vitória eleitoral do grupo radical palestino Hamas nas legislativas de 25 de janeiro implicaram o corte de qualquer relação entre Israel e a Autoridade Palestina, o que torna praticamente impossível a cooperação israelense-palestina no setor do meio ambiente.

O projeto, além disso, não conta com o beneplácito dos ecologistas, que temem uma perturbação do equilíbrio natural do mar Morto, levando em conta que se proporcionaria água salgada ao invés da doce como a do Jordão.

Por isso, se nos próximos anos não forem tomadas medidas sérias, os especialistas asseguram que o mar Morto estará seco em 2050.

Fonte: Marius Schattner, da France Presse, em Israel – Folha Online: 16/04/2006

Evangelho ou Manipulação? Haaretz critica o frufru criado em torno do Evangelho de Judas

O jornal israelense Haaretz, em sua edição online em inglês, faz severa crítica ao artificialismo marqueteiro que foi criado em torno do escrito gnóstico denominado (impropriamente) de Evangelho de Judas.

Graças a Jim West, tomei conhecimento do artigo Gospel or manipulation? By Benny Ziffer – Apr 14, 2006.

 

Americanism in the bad sense of the word means, inter alia, a kind of simple-mindedness verging on stupidity that makes a documentary television program about Christian theology sound identical in tone to a stewardess explaining to airplane passengers how to fasten their seat belts. Americanism in the bad sense of the word is the striving for maximal clarity and the eradication of nuances that interfere with it, even when the issue under discussion necessitates nuances and contains questions that have not been resolved. These prefatory remarks are a delicate way of expressing the disgust I felt at the National Geographic Channel broadcast (Monday, 23:00), which the whole world anticipated expectantly, about the “Gospel According to Judas” that was supposed to overturn the Christian faith and absolve Judas Iscariot of the blame for betraying Jesus.

This expectancy was fed by a public relations mechanism on behalf of National Geographic and ensured that all the headlines in the Israeli newspapers and on the television news broadcasts reported last weekend on the exciting discovery and prepared the audience for the broadcast in which the full details would be revealed. In Europe, incidentally, there was much less excitement about the matter, and what I managed to see of French television was a few scholars who described the text of The Gospel According to Judas as idiotic, in that it depicts Jesus as a psychopath who orders Judas Iscariot to organize his death. This is to say: Not every ancient text on papyrus found in the sands of the desert is necessarily wise, and if the church shunned it in its day, perhaps there was justification for this.

What we had here, then, was to a large extent much ado about nothing. Or at least – the inflation of an issue that should be of interest to a few experts into a thriller with many participants. When all is said and done, this is a Coptic manuscript that was discovered in Egypt, stolen from an archaeological site and passed around the antiquities market until it came into the possession of an American dealer who decided to make a fuss about it and depict it as a document that would change human history. This dealer appears in the National Geographic television film as a savior figure, as someone who has rescued this sensational and important document from the barbarians who did not recognize its importance. She is interviewed at length in the film, bearing the righteous smile of a Christian saint on her face, and she does not hesitate to say that she feels that divine providence wanted her to find the document that would exculpate Judas Iscariot of blame.

In what way is this dealer less barbaric than the Egyptian antiquities dealer who possessed The Gospel According to Judas before her? The main difference is that she is American. It is important to know that the trade in archaeological antiquities is a dubious profession anywhere because by its very nature it feeds off antiquities theft, excavation robbing and museum looting. The National Geographic film presented, in a kind of infantile show, the Egyptian antiquities robber with whom it all started as a kind of terrifying figure taken from the Hasamba books, thrilling adventures for Israeli children two or three generations ago, who purloins from a cave in the desert a stone coffer containing the manuscript. The Egyptian dealer who eventually receives the coffer is also presented as a villainous and obsequious creature, fat and ugly and bearded, just as a Middle Eastern trader is portrayed in the stereotypical American imagination, and perhaps the Western imagination at large.

Alongside the melodramatic and kitschy – and to a large extent also racist – spectacle of the manuscript’s adventures, National Geographic presents the story of the last days of Jesus, the Last Supper and his capture by the Romans. Jesus and the apostles are portrayed by young, bearded actors wearing Bedouin robes and speaking a kind of Arabic-accented Aramaic. For the sake of piquancy and in order to increase the stimulus for the viewer, the producers added a few horror scenes with a plastic depiction of the cruel tortures that the Romans inflicted on the first Christians.

The great deception in this kind of pretend documentary is in the dangerous mix of scientific hypotheses and New Testament stories, and of historical facts and religious beliefs. The viewer of the National Geographic film is led to think that there is no doubt that Judas Iscariot and the other apostles were historical figures for whom there is historical proof of their existence. This is not the case, as there is not a scrap of historical evidence that the apostles really existed. Even concerning Jesus himself there is hardly any external evidence of the deeds attributed to him in the New Testament. One could expect that a documentary film with scientific pretensions would distinguish between legend and historical truth. This was not done, so as not to detract from the drama of the story or hurt the feelings of believing Christians.

Another deception in the film, which is in its entirety the fruit of that Americanism in the bad sense, concerns the active role of the Jews in Jesus’ crucifixion, as related in the New Testament. This was completely ignored for the sake of political correctness. After all, every sensible person who has read from the New Testament knows that its “anti-Semitism” is based not on the character of Judas Iscariot, but rather on the scene in which the Jews urge the Roman governor Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus. The Catholic Church has expressed its opinion about this in our own times, when it declared officially a few decades ago that today’s Jews do not share their ancestors’ guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus.

But most ridiculous of all – and here it really does seem to me that the film is making a fool of the viewer – is the way in which it proves the gospel is authentic. It is quite possible that the text is indeed authentic, but the proof that was offered to the viewers is ridiculous: What they showed us was a Carbon-14 dating test performed on a bit of the papyrus on which the gospel was written. This is utter nonsense, because forgers have often used ancient and authentic writing materials, be they papyri or ancient inks, whose antiquity was proven by Carbon-14 dating. Another proof of the antiquity of the Coptic text was provided by scholars – who knows who they are? – who were seen bending over bits of the text and then raised their heads and ruled: “Authentic.”

In short, the discovery of The Gospel According to Judas is a nice curiosity that has been inflated into a big balloon. It is an archaeological finding of dubious origin of a heretical text that was rejected in its day from the church canon. The expectation that it will change the attitude of the church toward the figure of Judas Iscariot is absurd. And from some of the sentences that were read aloud in National Geographic’s English translation, it was also not made clear to the viewer what the poetic beauty of the text is. A lot of stereotypes, a lot of racism and an awful lot of shady commercial interests made the film, which the world watched expectantly on Monday, come off mainly as manipulation.

Minorias jogam lenha na fogueira, apesar dos esforços para o diálogo inter-religioso: publicada nova caricatura de Maomé

Revista italiana publica nova caricatura de Maomé

Folha Online: 15/04/2006 – 15h25
da France Presse, em Roma

Um desenho representando o profeta Maomé no inferno, publicado pela revista italiana “Studi Cattolici”, desatou neste sábado protestos de várias associações muçulmanas na Itália. A “Studi Cattolici” de maio inclui uma caricatura na qual aparecem os poetas italiano Dante Alighieri e latino Virgílio à beira de um círculo em chamas, em cujo centro está o profeta muçulmano cortado pela cintura. “Aquele ali não é o Maomé?”, pergunta Virgílio. “Sim, e ele está dividido em dois porque causou a divisão da sociedade”, responde Dante, segundo transcrição da agência Ansa (…) Apesar de ser identificada como ligada à poderosa instituição conservadora católica Opus Dei, a publicação não tem vínculo com a entidade. “A mim parece algo de muito mau gosto”, comentou Mario Scajola, diretor da seção italiana da Liga Mundial Muçulmana. “Apesar de todos os esforços que são feitos no mundo cristão e muçulmano em favor do diálogo inter-religioso, ainda existem minorias que jogam lenha na fogueira”, lamentou Roberto Piccardo, da União das Comunidades Muçulmanas Italianas.



Islam, Vignetta di Maometto all’inferno su ‘Studi Cattolici’

Ansa.it – 15/04/2006 17:50

Una vignetta satirica pubblicata da “Studi Cattolici” spedisce Maometto dritto dritto all’Inferno. “Ho inaugurato la serie delle vignette politicamente scorrette, ma ogni tanto una vignetta politicamente scorretta fa bene” afferma il direttore Cesare Cavalleri, membro dell’Opus Dei che aggiunge: “si tratta solo della raffigurazione di un passo tratto dalla Divina Commedia, dal canto XXIII”. L’illustrazione satirica firmata da Guido Clericetti mostra Dante e Virgilio sull’orlo di un girone lambito dalle fiamme, mentre tutt’attorno a loro svolazzano diavoli armati di forcone. “Quello là diviso a metà dalla testa alle chiappe non è Maometto?” chiede il Sommo Poeta alla sua guida. Risposta: “Si, ed è diviso perché ha portato la divisione nella società. Mentre invece quella là con le brache calate è la politica italiana riguardo all’Islam”. A chi chiede a Cavalleri se non abbia il timore di provocare il mondo islamico, dopo l’incendio delle ormai famigerate ‘vignette satiriche’ danesi, risponde: “Spero solo che l’aver pubblicato questo disegno non produca attentati, perché se ciò avvenisse confermerebbe solo le posizioni idiote” dell’islam radicale (cont.)

James Tabor, The Jesus Dynasty: mais um polêmico livro sobre o Jesus Histórico

Saiu na semana passada mais um polêmico livro sobre o Jesus Histórico e as origens do cristianismo. Escrito por James D. Tabor, professor da UNC- Charlotte, USA.

TABOR, J. D. The Jesus Dynasty : The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006, 384 p. – ISBN 9780743287241

Veja uma biografia do autor e um post de Mark Goodacre no seu Mark Goodacre’s NT Blog, publicado no dia 11.

 

Diz a apresentação da obra:

TABOR, J. D. The Jesus Dynasty : The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006Based on a careful analysis of the earliest Christian documents and recent archaeological discoveries, The Jesus Dynasty offers a bold new interpretation of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. The story is surprising, controversial, and exciting as only a long-lost history can be when it is at last recovered.In The Jesus Dynasty, biblical scholar James Tabor brings us closer than ever to the historical Jesus. Jesus, as we know, was the son of Mary, a young woman who became pregnant before her marriage to a man named Joseph. The gospels tell us that Jesus had four brothers and two sisters, all of whom probably had a different father than his. He joined a messianic movement begun by his relative John the Baptizer, whom he regarded as his teacher and a great prophet. John and Jesus together filled the roles of the Two Messiahs who were expected at the time: John, as a priestly descendant of Aaron, and Jesus, as a royal descendant of David. Together they preached the coming of the Kingdom of God. Theirs was an apocalyptic movement that expected God to establish his kingdom on earth, as described by the Prophets. The Two Messiahs lived in a time of turmoil as the historical land of Israel was dominated by the powerful Roman Empire. Fierce Jewish rebellions against Rome occurred during Jesus’ lifetime. John and Jesus preached adherence to the Torah, or the Jewish Law. But their mission was changed dramatically when John was arrested and then killed. After a period of uncertainty, Jesus began preaching anew in Galilee and challenged the Roman authorities and their Jewish collaborators in Jerusalem. He appointed a Council of Twelve to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel, and among the Twelve he included his four brothers. After Jesus was crucified by the Romans, his brother James — the “Beloved Disciple” — took over leadership of the Jesus dynasty. James, like John and Jesus before him, saw himself as a faithful Jew. None of them believed that their movement was a new religion. It was Paul who transformed Jesus and his message through his ministry to the Gentiles. Breaking with James and the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, Paul preached a message based on his own revelations, which would become Christianity. Jesus became a figure whose humanity was obscured; John became merely a forerunner of Jesus; and James and the others were all but forgotten. James Tabor has studied the earliest surviving documents of Christianity for more than thirty years and has participated in important archaeological excavations in Israel. Drawing on this background, Tabor reconstructs for us the movement that sought the spiritual, social, and political redemption of the Jews, a movement led by one family. The Jesus Dynasty offers an alternative version of Christian origins, one that takes us closer than ever to Jesus and his family and followers. This is a book that will change our understanding of one of the most crucial moments in history.

Coronel Coleman pede desculpas pela destruição causada pelos invasores americanos à antiga Babilônia

O que se disse para a Babilônia da época de Nabucodonosor (séculos VII-VI a.C.), possivelmente com razão, continua, tristemente, a acontecer, sem razão, com a Babilônia do terceiro milênio d.C.: “A larga muralha da Babilônia será completamente arrasada e atearão fogo em suas altas portas. Assim em vão penam os povos e as nações se cansam para o fogo” (Jr 51,58).

Veja o relato da BBC, mas evite “a biscateação hermenêutica*” (veja no final do post o que é):

EUA pedem ‘desculpas’ pela destruição da Babilônia

Um oficial da marinha americana pediu “desculpas” pela destruição causada pelas tropas nos monumentos arqueológicos da Babilônia, no Iraque. Entre os vários danos, as tropas dos Estados Unidos asfaltaram largas áreas da cidade para fazer estacionamentos e um heliporto, destruíram pavimentos de cerca de dois mil anos com o peso dos veículos militares e fizeram barricadas enchendo sacos com material arqueológico. O teto de um edifício vizinho ao heliporto desmoronou em virtude da vibração causada pelos helicópteros. Os estragos causados pelas forças americanas levarão “décadas” para ser restaurados, segundo Donny George, diretor da entidade iraquiana encarregada de preservar monumentos históricos. Em entrevista à BBC, o coronel John Coleman admitiu os danos e pediu desculpas (cont.)

US marines offer Babylon apology

A senior US marine officer says he is willing to apologise for the damage caused by his troops to the ancient Iraqi site of Babylon. US forces built a helicopter pad on the ancient ruins and filled their sandbags with archaeological material in the months following the 2003 invasion. Colonel Coleman was chief of staff at Babylon when it was occupied by the First Marine Expeditionary Force (…) Col Coleman told the BBC that if the Iraqis wanted an apology for the destruction caused by his men he was willing to give one (cont.)

 

*Biscateação Hermenêutica ou Picaretagem Hermenêutica
“Por biscateação hermenêutica compreendemos a atitude, e a prática que lhe corresponde, consistindo em tirar da Escritura simplesmente o que reflete o próprio interesse, sem outra preocupação que de se servir dos textos bíblicos como peças destinadas a um projeto teórico ou prático preestabelecido”, explica BOFF, C. Teologia e Prática: Teologia do Político e suas mediações. 3. ed. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1993, p. 245.

The Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library já pode ser encomendada na livraria Amazon

Como anunciado aqui, agora em abril sai A Biblioteca Eletrônica dos Manuscritos do Mar Morto. A livraria virtual Amazon.com avisa que esta preciosidade já pode ser encomendada. Mas o preço continua salgado…

Diz o e-mail da Amazon.com, recebido ontem:

Dear Amazon.com Customer: As someone who has purchased books by Emanuel Tov, you might like to know that The Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library will be released soon. You can pre-order your copy by following the link below: The Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library, by Emanuel Tov (Editor). Price: $279.00

Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity, por Ann Killebrew: há novidades neste estudo?

KILLEBREW, A. E. Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel 1300-1100 B.C.E. Atlanta/Leiden: Society of Biblical Literature/Brill, 2005, xx + 362 p.



A apresentação do livro Povos Bíblicos e Etnicidade: Um estudo arqueológico de egípcios, cananeus, filisteus e do Israel primitivo entre 1300 e 1100 a.C. no site da editora Brill, diz o seguinte:

Ancient Israel did not emerge within a vacuum but rather came to exist alongside various peoples, including Canaanites, Egyptians, and Philistines. Indeed, Israel’s very proximity to these groups has made it difficult – until now – to distinguish the archaeological traces of early Israel and other contemporary groups. Through an analysis of the results from recent excavations in light of relevant historical and later biblical texts, this book proposes that it is possible to identify these peoples and trace culturally or ethnically defined boundaries in the archaeological record. Features of late second-millennium B.C.E. culture are critically examined in their historical and biblical contexts in order to define the complex social boundaries of the early Iron Age and reconstruct the diverse material world of these four peoples. Of particular value to scholars, archaeologists, and historians, this volume will also be a standard reference and resource for tudents and other readers interested in the emergence of early Israel.


Entretanto, duas resenhas publicadas pela Review of Biblical Literature no dia 8 de abril de 2006, escritas por Diana Edelman e Gerald Klingbeil, mostram que o livro de Killebrew, uma arqueóloga bem preparada, não trata, de fato, do caráter ou da qualidade étnica dos povos mencionados…

Mas faz uma síntese histórica bastante didática e… problemática! Pois, como diz Diana Edelman, da Universidade de Sheffield, Reino Unido, em sua resenha, o livro

does not elaborate on points enough to allow the reader to assess the strengths and weaknesses of given theories or textual and archaeological source material independently without going and reading all the original discussions, with the exception of the pottery sections.


Acrescentando que

There is no new contribution visible in this book. Killebrew seems to be unaware that her proposed “mixed multitude” theory for the origin of Israel was already suggested in 1986 by Max Miller in his history co-written with John Hayes, which is cited in the bibliography. The title of the volume suggests that the main focus of the investigation will be on ethnicity, yet this is not the case. The book reads more like a history than a study of ancient ethnicity…


Além disso, sustenta Edelman que

Killebrew has misunderstood the minimalist discussion concerning ancient Israel, incorrectly stating that some deny the existence of a historical Israel. She misses that they are addressing instead the fact that the Israel portrayed in the biblical texts is a literary creation and idealization that provides minimal reliable information about the actual Israel. It is interesting to note that she uses the term “biblical Israel” to designate the historical Israel, not seeing any distinction between the two, and accepts the view of Joshua-Judges as an origin story designed to create ethnic cohesion, yet also thinks such a story only was put into written form in the eighth–seventh century B.C.E. Her position on the amount of older, reliable source material is not developed, although she seems to think that some stories reflect events in the Late Bronze and Iron I period. Yet here again her criteria for dating the exodus tradition to the era of Ramesses II is weak…

O Professor Lawrence Schiffman opina sobre o Evangelho de Judas

Em The Jewish Week, Lawrence H. Schiffman – Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University – escreve sobre o Evangelho Copta de Judas.

 

Judas, Reconsidered

Despite its alleged kosher certification of Judas Iscariot, the Gospel of Judas is part of a literature that represents a sort of alternative anti-Judaism to that which developed in the era of the Church Fathers. Much has been made of the fact that this text describes Judas as having been particularly close to Jesus, who revealed to him esoteric teachings. However, the content of this revelation is a series of Gnostic teachings that are totally at odds with Christianity as we know it (…)

The Gospel of Judas discovery may lead some to read the New Testament in a way that further reduces its anti-Judaism by interpreting Judas role as part of what Christians see as the divine plan. If so, this text will have turned out to be good for the Jews. Texts such as the Gospel of Judas can help to remind us of alternative explanations and guide us towards greater understanding, but they cannot be taken as the basis for any kind of historical understanding of the first century.

Los Libros Hacen Historia: la Feria Internacional del Libro de Buenos Aires

La Feria Internacional del Libro de Buenos Aires es una verdadera ciudad de libros, un catálogo nacional e internacional de industrias editoriales y una fiesta de la cultura. Es la muestra más importante de Latinoamérica y destacado referente a nivel mundial; convocando a más de un millón de asistentes. Del 17 de abril al 8 de mayo de 2006.



Folha Online: 11/04/2006 – 17h31

Brasil expõe 3,5 mil títulos em feira literária na Argentina

Cerca de 26 editoras brasileiras estarão neste ano na 32ª Feira do Livro de Buenos Aires, na Argentina. O evento acontece entre 17 de abril e 8 de maio (…) Com o lema “Os Livros Fazem História”, estima-se que 1,2 milhão de pessoas visitem a feira e participem das atividades culturais oferecidas por expositores de 32 países. Considerado um dos principais acontecimentos do mercado editorial na América Latina, o evento deverá reunir mais de 8 mil profissionais, entre eles editores, livreiros, bibliotecários, distribuidores e educadores de todo o mundo (cont.)