Month: December 2012

An anecdote that mentions Solomon Caesar Malan

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Orientalist Solomon Caesar Malan lived in the middle of the 19th century, and his fluency in languages was legendary.  He is mentioned in Tuckwell’s Reminiscences of Oxford,[1] which gives such a picture of the Oxford of the 1830’s.

Last weekend, while reading a book of anecdotes, I came across a story in which he appears.  It would be interesting to know the source of it, as the source given is not going to be the original. Probably it comes from the biography of Malan by his son[2].

One of the greatest evangelistic hymns of all time was written by a woman who knew well the release and peace that come from confessing one’s sins and failures to God.  “Just as I am,” a hymn frequently sung at the close of evangelistic meetings, was written by Charlotte Elliot, who at one time had been very bitter with God about the circumstances in her life.

Charlotte was an invalid from her youth and deeply resented the constraints her handicap placed on her activities.  In an emotional outburst on one occasional, she expressed those feelings to Dr. Caesar Malan, a minister visiting her home.  He listened and was touched by her distress, but he insisted that her problems should not divert her attention from what she most needed to hear.  He challenged her to turn her life over to God, to come to Him just as she was, with all  her bitterness and anger.

She resented what seemed to be an almost callous attitude on his part, but God spoke to her through him, and she committed her life to the Lord.  Each year on the anniversary of that decision, Dr. Malan wrote Charlotte a letter, encouraging her to continue to be strong in the faith.  But even as a Christian she had doubts and struggles.

One particularly sore point was her inability to effectively get out and serve the Lord.  At times she almost resented her brother’s successful preaching and evangelistic ministry.  She longed to be of use to God herself, but she felt that her health and physical condition prevented it.  Then in 1836, on the fourteenth anniversary of her conversion, while she was alone in the evening, the forty-seven-year-old Charlotte Elliot wrote her spiritual autobiography in verse.  Here, in the prayer of confession, she poured out her feelings to God — feelings that countless individuals have identified with in the generations that followed.  The third stanza, perhaps more than the others, described her own pilgrimage.

Just as I am, tho tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Many years later, when reflecting on the impact his sister made in penning this one hymn, the Reverend Henry Venn Elliot said, “In the course of a long ministry I hope I have been permitted to see some fruit of my labours, but I feel far more has been done by a single hymn of my sister’s, ‘Just as I am'” — Ruth A. Tucker, Sacred Stories.[3]

Let us see what Tuckwell says about this excellent man.[4]

Contemporary with these was a genius perhaps more remarkable, certainly more unusual, than any of them. In 1833 Solomon Caesar Malan matriculated at St. Edmund’s Hall, a young man with a young wife, son to a Swiss Pastor, speaking as yet broken English, but fluent Latin, Romaic, French, Spanish, Italian, German ; and a proficient at twenty-two years old in Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit. He won the Boden and the Kennicott Scholarships, took a Second Class, missing his First through the imperfection of his English, was ordained, became Professor in Calcutta, gathered up Chinese, Japanese, the various Indian, Malay, Persian tongues, came home to the valuable living of Broadwinsor, where he lived, when not travelling, through forty years, amassing a library in more than seventy languages, the majority of which he spoke with freedom, read familiarly, wrote with a clearness and beauty rivalling the best native caligraphy. In his frequent Eastern rambles he was able, say his fellow-travellers, to chat in market and bazaar with every one whom he met. On a visit to the Bishop of Innereth he preached a Georgian sermon in the Cathedral. He published twenty – six translations of English theological works, in Chinese and Japanese, Arabic and Syriac, Armenian, Russian, Ethiopic, Coptic. Five-fold outnumbering the fecundity of his royal namesake, he left behind him a collection of 16,000 Proverbs, taken from original Oriental texts, each written in its native character and translated. So unique was the variety of his Pentecostal attainments that experts could not be found even to catalogue the four thousand books which he presented, multa gemens, with pathetic lamentation over their surrender, to the Indian Institute at Oxford.

I encountered him at three periods of his life. First as a young man at the evening parties of John Hill, Vice-Principal of St. Edmund’s Hall, where prevailed tea and coffee, pietistic Low Church talk, prayer and hymnody of portentous length, yet palliated by the chance of sharing Bible or hymn-book with one of the host’s four charming daughters. Twenty years later I recall him as a guest in Oxford Common Rooms, laying down the law on questions of Scriptural interpretation, his abysmal fund of learning and his dogmatic insistency floated by the rollicking fun of his illustrations and their delightful touches of travelled personal experience. Finally, in his old age I spent a long summer day with him in the Broadwinsor home, enjoying his library, aviary, workshop, drawings; his hospitality stimulated by the discovery that in some of his favourite pursuits I was, longo intervallo, an enthusiast like himself. He was a benevolently autocratic vicar, controlling his parish with patriarchally imperious rule, original, racy, trenchant, in Sunday School and sermons. It was his wont to take into the pulpit his college cap : into it he had pasted words of Scripture which he always read to himself before preaching. They were taken from the story of Balaam : ” And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said …”

He died at eighty-two, to have been admitted, let us hope, in the unknown land to comradeship of no ordinary brotherhood by spirits of every nation, kindred, tongue; to have found there, ranged upon celestial shelves, the Platonic archetypes of the priceless books which it tore his mortal heart to leave.

Tuckwell was no Christian, although quite happy to live and die as an Anglican clergyman, and his discomfort with real Christianity is evident in the portrait that he gives.  Those who have committed themselves to Christ sometimes forget that those who have not done so, good people as they may be, really do have their hearts in a different place.  Indeed this week I read some perceptive words in Raising Kids the World Will Hate:[5]

Reading this, I realized that if God answers my prayer for my son to be a follower of Christ, people will hate him. People will absolutely, unquestionably be repulsed by my son.

If God graciously saves my Oscar, people will call him a bigot and a homophobe. Some will ridicule him as a male chauvinist as they scorn his “sexist” beliefs. He’ll be despised as closed-minded for saying that Jesus Christ is not only God but the only God. He will probably meet a girl who insults his manhood or considers him old fashioned for waiting until marriage to have sex. His peers will think him a prude. Bullies will call him a coward. His integrity will draw insults like “goody two shoes” (I don’t even know what that means).

Teachers will think that that my son ignores scientific facts about our origins, prompting his classmates to mark him an idiot. People will tell him he has been led astray by his parents down an ancient path of misguided morality masked as a relationship with God. Financial advisors will think he’s irresponsibly generous. When he takes a stand, there will be those who will not tolerate his intolerance. He will be judged as judgmental. He will have enemies, and I’ll be asking him to love them, and even for that he’ll look foolish.

This is indeed what it means to be a Christian.  This week I myself encountered a woman who did called a generous impulse of my own as “weird”; and she was a church-goer, but her heart was not centred on Christ.  Malan, evidently, encountered the same incomprehension.

I first encountered Malan’s name attached to a translation from the Armenian of a sermon attributed to Severian of Gabala, but in reality by Eusebius of Emesa.[6]  The sermon is an excellent one.  Interestingly he dedicates his book to his friend Charles Marriot, the unsung labourer who edited and translated so many of the Oxford Library of the Fathers series.

Malan’s book and life deserve more attention than I can give them this evening, however.  Perhaps another time we will return to them.

Share
  1. [1]Archive.org version here, Google books version available in the US only here.↩
  2. [2]A. N. Malan, Solomon Caesar Malan, D.D. : memorials of his life and writings, 1897.  On Google Books in the US (only) here.↩
  3. [3]Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s ultimate book of illustrations & quotes, Nashville:Thomas Nelson, 1998, p.261-2.↩
  4. [4]P.95-98.↩
  5. [5]Via Trevin Wax.↩
  6. [6]On the Sufferings and Death of our Lord, in: S. C. Malan, Meditations for every Wednesday and Friday in Lent on a prayer of S. Ephraim, London (1859), pp.215-231.  Sermon is online here; the whole book at Archive.org here.↩

From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Via AWOL I learn that an edition and translation of Bar Hebraeus’ scholia on the Old Testament is now available in PDF form online from the University of Chicago.  The PDF is here (linked on that page under the red down-arrow next to the text “Terms of Use”.

In addition, an interesting volume, The Early Text of the New Testament, ed. Charles E. Hill and Michael J. Kruger, Oxford, has appeared and is discussed by Larry Hurtado here.  It has wider interest than merely biblical scholars:

There are cogent discussions of wider issues, including in particular Harry Gamble, “The Book Trade in the Roman Empire” (pp. 23-36), and Kruger (a former PhD student), “Early Christian Attitudes toward the Reproduction of Texts” (pp. 63-80).  …

Charles Hill (“‘In These Very Words’:  Methods and Standards of Literary Brorowing in the Second Century,” pp. 261-81) provides a valuable study showing that pagan and Christian authors followed a different set of conventions in citing texts than used by copyists of texts.  …

This volume (though expensive!) is now probably the most up to date analysis of earliest evidence about the state and transmission of NT writings in the second century CE.  Given the limitations of our evidence, scholars are required to make the best inferences they can.  This volume provides essential resources in doing so, and largely shows that we can with some confidence posit that the NT writings, essentially as we know them, were copied for both ecclesial and private reading.

Which is what we would tend to expect, surely, of any ancient literary text not belonging to the corpus of astrological handbooks or similarly fluid literature?

Michael Kruger adds a note here.

I’d very much like to read this volume: it seems likely to be relevant to classical and patristic scholars.  It’s about $175, tho, which is a bit above my budget!

UPDATE: A corrrespondent writes to point out that I have confused two books in the above.  I referred to The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. Second Edition (eds M.W. Holmes & B.D. Ehrman; NTTSD 42; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2012), which appeared at a ridiculous price ($314).  But the book that I was discussing was actually the Charles Hill volume!  Many thanks for the correction.  Friday night tiredness, I’m afraid, is responsible.

The Holmes volume, however, is also likely to be interesting, as may be seen from the list of chapters given by Peter Head here.  But at $341 is way out of reach.  However I suspect it will be quickly pirated in PDF form, unless students have become wealthy in the last few weeks!

Share

More modern Coptic literature online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

John Rostom has written to tell us of other places where we may find words by the modern Copts:

Should you be interested in other books and publications by modern Coptic Orthodox writers, besides those authored by the late Pope Shenouda III, you can access and freely download these from another valuable online source known as The Alpha. It’s the new website for COePA: Coptic Orthodox Electronic Publishing Australia.

http://www.coepaonline.org/

It’s got a wealth of English publications by the late Pope Shenouda III, other Bishops, members of the Clergy and scholarly Laity. My advice is to click on the link “The Alpha Christian Orthodox Collection Downloads” located under the Main Menu and view the 13 subcategories, each with its own distinct collection. I’m assuming that since they are freely downloadable from a publishing company, therefore copyright shouldn’t really be a concern.

This is really valuable – thank you!

Share

From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A little while ago I mentioned the lexicon of Sextus Pompeius Festus, a rather battered survival of Latin literature, probably from the 2nd century AD.  I also referred to the Festus Lexicon Project, which had set out to try to produce a reliable text and a translation.  The status of this was uncertain, so I wrote to Fay Glinister and asked.  Today an email arrived back, in which she said:

The Festus Lexicon Project continues to edit the Latin text and translate it into English, but it is a slow process, owing to the great complexity and fragmentary nature of the text. … We plan to publish online and in print, but are some years off yet.

The French text online (Savagner) is very outdated, and based on a version of the Latin that is in some ways more the result of Renaissance and early modern tinkering than the original text of Festus. It is is nevertheless helpful in the absence of any other comprehensive modern translation of this very interesting work.

It is very good news to know that this is still in progress, as well as a comment on the edition with French translation that may be found at Remacle.org.

I also heard back from Francesca Schironi, who wrote that excellent book To mega biblion on the ending-marks of books of Homer in papyrus rolls in antiquity.  I enquired how one might locate papyri with such meta-textual elements.  She kindly replied:

To find this type of data, one should search for  key words (e.g end-titles, titles, colophons, etc.) in the Leuven Database of ancient books (a database with literary papyri: http://www.trismegistos.org/ldab/). For non-papyrologists all the sigla and editions of papyri might be a bit confusing, though.

I must take the time to do this.  There is gold out there, I’m sure.  A first attempt this evening drew blank, however.

Share

Armenian sources online at Robert Bedrosian

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Robert Bedrosian writes to say that he has created a new collection of Armenian patristic materials on his website here.  In this he is rather too modest.  It is a cornucopia of PDF’s of Armenian materials.

Anyone who has ever tried to locate an Armenian edition of an ancient text will know that it is a lesson in pain.  Those of us who are not Armenian-speakers find it impossible to construct useful searches in Google Books.

The page begins with catalogues of Armenian manuscript holdings; in Munich, Paris, Oxford and others.  Much material in this language is unpublished, so these are valuable insights into available materials, all by themselves.

Then we pass to editions of Philo, and then patristic and liturgical texts.  These include many of the publications of the Mechitarist Fathers of Venice, all valuable, often referenced in bibliographies, and dreadfully hard to find online.  I noted two editions of Severian of Gabala, also sermons of John Chrysostom, and material by Timothy Aelurus, Eznik of Kolb, and so on.

After this we pass into editions of the bible in classical Armenian (or Grabar).  Finally there are some very useful reference volumes.

I don’t know of anyone but Robert Bedrosian who could have made such a collection.  But in so doing he has made accessible a world of useful material!

Share

Tufts University: banning Christians is “in keeping with Tufts’ commitment to a diverse and welcoming campus community and to a vibrant spiritual life on campus”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Some time ago I learned that Tufts University in the USA had decided to ban the Christian Union.  The excuses made for such bigotry may amuse the educated reader, but need not concern us.  But today I received an email, under the name of Dr Anthony Monaco, President of the University, of which I give the body here.

I am writing to update you on the status of the recognition of the Tufts Christian Fellowship. The Committee on Student Life has now issued its decision with respect to the derecognition of TCF by the judicial arm of our student government.  A message to the campus community from the Co-Chairs of the Committee on Student Life, announcing the decision, appears below and includes a link to the text of the decision itself.  The Tufts Daily opinion piece by the Committee Co-Chairs further explaining the Committee’s rationale for its decision is now available at http://blogs.tuftsdaily.com/?p=8815/

I believe that the CSL’s thoughtful decision is in keeping with Tufts’ commitment to a diverse and welcoming campus community and to a vibrant spiritual life on campus.

And below is the following, inter alia.  The emphases are mine.

The CSL found that the TCUJ had acted in accordance with available policy, and thus acted appropriately in de-recognizing the TCF. The appeal, however, identified a void in policy which led the CSL to explore the conditions under which Student Religious Groups (SRGs) could select for leadership exemplars of their faith based on characteristics not necessarily shared by all SRG members. The CSL determined that SRGs should be permitted to select leaders based on doctrinal requirements.

In certain cases, criteria for leadership positions may conflict with Tufts University’s nondiscrimination policy. As religion itself is protected under the nondiscrimination policy, conflicts may be unavoidable. The CSL has carefully crafted a policy to support the University’s commitments to safeguarding spiritual life on campus and maintaining an environment that upholds the nondiscrimination policy.

From this point forward, all SRGs must justify on doctrinal grounds any departures from Tufts’ nondiscrimination policy in that their leadership positions require. The University Chaplain will evaluate the justification, and if satisfied that the described criteria for leadership are required by a given religion, will allow the SRG to apply to the TCUJ for recognition.

In evaluating applications for recognition, the TCUJ will ensure that any such approved criteria are explicitly described in easy-to-understand language. This language will be consolidated, summarized, and made available to the community via the University Chaplaincy webpage. The TCF is now welcome to reapply to the TCUJ for recognition in accordance with this new policy.

While the CSL’s jurisdiction extends only to the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, the University’s senior administration will work with the University Chaplain and school leadership to apply this policy University-wide.

In plain language, this seems to mean, “We will require every Christian group to obtain the approval of the chaplaincy before we will consider whether it may be allowed to operate.  And then we’ll see.”  The newly minted policy is here.  Whether it is constitutional might reasonably be enquired.

It looks to my ignorant eyes as if the university intends to keep the Christian Union over the fire for a good long time while various people with no judicial training (the chaplaincy again appears in this role) scrutinise whether or not the Christians might, or might not, be allowed to operate as a university society.

If so, this is a further evil.  Ezra Levant pithy remarked, of the pseudo-legal proceedings to which he was subjected, “the process is the punishment”.  Likewise in Arthur Bryant’s three volume life of Samuel Pepys, he describes how Pepys, facing politically motivated accusations, was kept from reaching trial for term after term by repeated deferrals.  In one case his political opponents joked that they had kept him “by the heels for another term.”

But, as a foreigner, I am mildly baffled.  In the USA there used to be a constitutional principle called freedom of religion.  As far as I remember, it said nothing about requiring the approval of chaplains, or bishops, or licensers.  Indeed I rather thought that it explicitly prohibited the establishment of such things by the state and its organs?

This process of harassment, remember, has been described by the university president as “thoughtful” and “in keeping with Tufts’ commitment to a diverse and welcoming campus community” — hmm — “and to a vibrant spiritual life on campus”.

Quite so!  And my only feeling on reading those words was one of gratitude.  For I am deeply grateful that the task of feeding my family has never placed me in a position where I am obliged to utter Kafkaesque statements like this.

To any free man, the very idea of having his brains strained for conformity to some arbitrary orthodoxy by minor officials is repugnant.  But the phrases chosen may be read two ways.  This is probably not accidental.  Indeed it often happens in unfree societies, where prolixity and obscurity may be the only security of a slave.  On the one hand the words seem very like the evasions practiced by those who know that they are doing wrong and yet are determind to do it anyway.  But possibly they may be the stock phrases uttered by a slave who is trying to do the right thing, and fears a beating.  It is hard to decide which is the case.  And the answer might vary, day by day.

The Christian Union, at any rate, has no security under these arrangements.  That, no doubt, is intentional; to weary, to wear down, to confuse, delay, harass … all the tricks of the persecutor who knows that what he does is wrong and would not be endorsed by society at large, yet is determined to do it anyway.

What is clear is that Tufts University urgently needs reform, and an external commission of inquiry.  In a free country, a confessional university may reasonably require that those who run it share its ethos; and those who attend it at least do not set out to undermine it.  But that is not the case here; the university professes to welcome everyone.  Yet surely, in a free country, no university of this kind paid for by public funds should be permitted to conduct a religious persecution, or to set up a religious inquisition, or to interfere with the enquiry of young minds into every form of normal or mainstream intellectual life and practice?  Any “non-discrimination policy” that ends in banning mainstream Christian groups is a nonsense, and must be abolished.  May I suggest that the withdrawal of funds by the state would probably be the most desirable immediate aim?

We can see in this that some wretched souls at Tufts — possibly including the president and the chaplain — have set out to do harm to God’s people.  In the process they have revealed that only the Christian Union, on the campus, is actually following in the footsteps of He who said that his followers would be hated.[1]  Those who are to say, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”, in this corrupt age, will be accused of all sorts of things!

God knows those who set out to do harm, even if we do not.  These people, of course, are about to undergo suffering at the hands of God.  For even the unbeliever has heard of karma.  The more educated know that the measure you give is the measure you get.  We should pray for them, that their suffering will bring them to realise their need for a saviour.

In the mean time, let us give thanks to God that the TCF has been found worthy to suffer for His Name, and that those who hate Him have proclaimed so powerfully at Tufts University their faithfulness.  And let us pray for them, and their national body, the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, that God will give them wisdom and grace.

It is, after all, rather a compliment to be endorsed as the only Christian body on site to be faithful to Christ.  For what else, in truth, is alleged against them?!

UPDATE (7/12/12): I see that there is a press-release at the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship site here.

Share
  1. [1]http://bible.cc/john/15-18.htm↩

More on the Charities Commission and the Brethren

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail today comments:

With what chewing-gum officialdom knots the shoelaces of its masters.

Take a select committee meeting yesterday examining the charities world.

Our witness was William Shawcross, new chairman of the Charity Commission. Mr Shawcross is successor to Dame Suzi Leather. You remember Dame Suzi: Labour’s little Miss Snippety Snoot, one of the shrewd schmoozers of soft socialism’s posh pod.

It took the Tories a while to strap her to the bucket of a catapult, but eventually they managed it and off Suzi ker-jannnnged, despatched to outer space. Cheers from a relieved nation.

[…]

For a third time did the cock fail to crow. This happened during a long, exciting discussion about the commission’s record on religious charities.

Some years ago it recognised druidism as a charity with a public benefit.

And yet now it has refused to grant similar recognition to the Plymouth Brethren (reclusive Christians). Mr Elphicke and his Tory colleagues Robert Halfon  (Harlow) and Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) were not impressed by this decision.

How come the druids got the green light but the Plymouth Brethren were given the elbow?

Mr Halfon attacked hard, saying that he thought the Commission was ‘vindictive’. Mr Cairns, more diplomatic, urged the newly-arrived Mr Shawcross to demand a rethink from his officials.

I may be misreading Mr Shawcross’s body language but I got the impression that he possibly agreed with Messrs Halfon and Cairns.

And yet he ummed and ahhh’d and played things safe. If he disagreed with the MPs, he could (should) have said: ‘What rubbish!’ If he agreed with them, he should have said ‘you’re right, guys’.

Instead we just had an impression of inertia, of a chairman who has been taken hostage by the body politic.

I was not aware that “druidism” had been designated by the state as a religion of public benefit, I must admit. 

But it does sound like the MP’s are on top of this one.  “Vindictive” is precisely the right term for what Dame Suzi Leather and her sidekicks decided to do to the Exclusive Brethren.

Share

Modern Coptic Christian materials online in PDF

Posted on by Roger Pearse

It’s not very easy for non-specialists to find material by modern Coptic authors in Arabic.  Yet it does exist, and much of it is even online.

In a series of comments, John Rostom has very kindly let us know about a bunch of links which are simply too useful to be left only as comments.  Here is a digest.

Firstly, over 40 books by the late Pope Shenouda III are online in PDF form, in English translation.  The URL is http://copticorthodoxy.com/BooksbyPope.aspx, and all the items are downloadable (with the exception of only 2 of the links, i.e. “The Spiritual Man.pdf” and “The Spiritual Means.pdf” which don’t work).

Second, the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria is online in Arabic, compiled and edited by the late Bishop Samuel, Bishop of Shebeen el-Qanter (all published in 1999):

In addition is another book:

This is by the late Father Samuel Tawadros al-Syriani which appears to have been published much earlier (1st ed. 1977), with the 2nd edition being the one presented by the online bookshop (2nd ed. 2002) and revised by Bishop Mattaos, current Bishop and Abbot of Dair al-Sorian (Syrian Monastery). This book covers the History of the Patriarchs from Pope Peter VII (109th Pope) to Pope Cyril VI (116th Pope), thus a bit of an overlap with Bishop Samuel’s books.  Why it is called “part 6” is not clear, but that title only applied to the 2nd edition.

Thirdly, the 4th volume (part) of Bishop Samuel’s edition of Abu’l Makarem’s History Of Churches & Monasteries – Part 4 is online here.  Together with links by Dioscorus Boles, that gives links to the entire Arabic text.  (Can anyone find a copy of the English text that exists somewhere?)

Thank you very much indeed, Mr Rostom – invaluable!

Share

Another Wikipedia murder

Posted on by Roger Pearse

One of the pleasures of reading the Wikipediocracy forum, as I do from time to time, is to see hard evidence of what I experienced myself, that it is very dangerous for ordinary people to attempt to contribute to Wikipedia.

Today’s thread discusses a long term editor hiding behind the name “MaterialScientist”.  This post comments:

You should talk to Artem R. Oganov about his long running dispute with Materialscientist. He got indefinitely blocked, then unblocked on the condition he didn’t edit subjects of his expertise. He decided to wash his hands and walk away.

“Some time ago I entered Wikipedia using my own name, which was a mistake. Now, due to the continuing smear campaign by the user Materialscientist, I want to completely withdraw from Wikipedia both my account an any mentions of my former relations to it. Now I know the identity of the user Materialscientist, and have proofs that he does not act as an impartial editor, but instead is involved in a conflict of interest with my group. Moreover, he uses every opportunity to attack my real name …”

Dr Oganov is a professor of Geosciences at Stony Brook University, and is responsible for breakthrough discoveries in Boron science (link to New York Times article).  “MaterialScientist” is … well, someone who doesn’t care to put his name to his work.

Dr Oganov was accused of “sock-puppeting”.  The real meaning of this term is someone who uses several accounts to give the false impression of multiple people.  However in Wikipedia it gets used for anyone who someone doesn’t like who has used more than one account on the system; say, perhaps, if he has edited under his own name and then found himself the target of a vicious campaign of personal attacks designed to ruin his real-world reputation. 

The disgusting “trial” is here.  The accusation was made by “MaterialScientist”, who submitted “evidence” under his alternative account “NIMSOffice”.  Likewise it is fairly obvious that “Uncle G” is a pawn of “MaterialScientist”, rather than an unbiased bystander; using one minor account to shriek accusations, and the main account to pretend to be calm and unbiased.  I have myself been the victim of just this techniqe.

No doubt MaterialScientist maneouvred cleverly, and played the game to win.  Bait your foe into hiding behind a false identity, use obvious socks and tempt him to respond in kind; and then accuse him of sock-puppeting with some pre-warned friends to implement a ban … nice.  

I have no doubt that Dr Oganov was very hurt by the treatment he received.  And … what kind of morons, finding that they have a world-expert on hand, issue him a  ban from editing on the topic of his expertise?!  You couldn’t make it up.

The end result was that one of the major scientists in Boron studies was forced out of Wikipedia.  And I suspect that this happens quite a lot.

Don’t contribute to Wikipedia.  The owners do not care what happens to any of the contributors, while the place is overrun with low-lifes, who will, coldly and deliberately, do you an injury while remaining anonymous themselves.

Share

From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve been trying to think of an Arabic text which would be suitable for a beginner to translate.  No luck so far, mainly because I am so busy.

An email tells me that the old translation of Macrobius, Saturnalia has arrived at my local library.  I look forward to perusing that!

I’ve written to Francesca Schironi, author of To Mega Biblion, which I discussed last week, asking if she has any ideas about papyri that preserve the start and end of books of the multi-volume Greek histories.  Those would surely be interesting to see.

A little time this evening I spent reading chunks of the Fabulae of Hyginus (late 1st century BC), a schoolboy abbreviation of the original, which gives us much on Greek myth.  An English translation may be found here, although the level of interest is low.  One of the more interesting entries is 221, on the Seven Sages:

[221] CCXXI. SEVEN WISE MEN

Pittacus of Mitylene, Periander of Corinth, Thales of Miletus, Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Cleobulus of Lindus, Bias of Priene. Their sayings are as follows:
Moderation is best, says Cleobulus of Lindus;
Everything should be carefully studied, comes from Periander of Ephyre;
Know thy opportunity, says Pittacus of Mitylene;
Bias, he of Priene, avers that most men are bad:
and Thales of Miletus says: Suretyship is the precursor of ruin;
Know thyself, says Chilon, sprung from Lacedaemon;
and Cecropian Solon enjoins: Nothing in excess.

The association of these people with sayings, even at this date, is interesting.  Sayings literature blossoms during the imperial and Byzantine periods, and legends of the Seven Sages with it.

I gather that this text is yet another one that only just survived.  Apparently a single manuscript made it to the renaissance, only to be dismembered at the printer.

It’s a busy time of year.  Expect sporadic posting!

Share