Sisters of Sinai

 When I worked in the library at Dallas Theological Seminary, I would hear people mention a codex or manuscript of early Biblical texts. I knew they existed but little else. I also saw the term palimpsest but never took the time to find to what that referred. Now I know thanks to Agnes and Margaret.

I recently read The Sisters of Sinai : how two lady adventurers discovered the hidden Gospels by Janet Soskice. Agnes and Margaret Smith were born in Scotland in 1843. With the death of their mother within weeks of their birth, their father took over their nurture. John Smith's ideas about the raising and educating of girls was quite different from the average home of that time. His daughters received excellent schooling in a coed school. They showed facility for learning languages and studied modern European ones as well as classic ones like Greek. He promised to take them to countries that spoke the languages they learned as an incentive. He soon found himself planning numerous trips.

Mr. Smith died when the twins were 23 years old. He had inherited money and also invested funds that made him a very rich man. This money allowed the women to travel to the Middle East. Margaret became an expert in Arabic; Agnes conquered Syriac. They had no college degrees as most universities would not grant them to females. When they finally lived in Cambridge, they attended some classes with permission but with no hope of a degree. They did become acquainted with scholars of Biblical manuscripts. 

As staunch Presbyterians, they decided to use their riches to explore some manuscripts they had been told were housed at the monastery on Mount Sinai. These manuscripts were purported to be earlier than the ones that had been used to make the Bible editions they read. They wanted to defend the Bible in a time of criticism. They each had married and been widowed; they were in their fifties as they set out on this project. 

Travel to the Ottoman Empire and Egypt was not for the faint-hearted. Reliance on dragoman for providing supplies and personnel had risks. They slept in tents and rode camels through the desert. The scholar who told them about the manuscripts on Mount Sinai had made a good impression on the librarian and monks. This enabled the twins to find gracious reception in their pursuit. It also helped that they spoke modern Greek, the language of Saint Catherine monastery. They hauled with them photographic equipment which they had to learn to use. 

Agnes was the one to recognize that one of the manuscripts she handled that was dirty with the pages stuck together was a palimpsest. The scribes would scrape down vellum that had text to reuse the vellum on another text. The lives of women saints definitely had beneath it Syriac Biblical New Testament text peeking through. It proved to be older than other known existing manuscripts of the New Testament. 

When Agnes returned to England, she shared the photographs of the texts with other academic scholars who specialized in the field and languages. Agnes and Margaret and these scholars and spouses returned to Sinai. There was a lot of jockeying to gain glory and reknown and to leave out the importance and contributions of the sisters to the successful trip. The transcription and translation of the main manuscript was to be a joint effort, but there was secrecy and competition. 

In spite of the challenges, the Codex palimpsestus Sinaiticus was printed and was seen as an important contribution to the understanding of early New Testament texts. 

The twins were a bit eccentric especially as they aged. They lived together as specified in their father's will. They owned an auto but did not use it on Sundays because their chauffeur was to have a day of rest. They could be seen in their fur coats walking to the Presbyterian Church. Presbyterians were considered oddities in the Anglican university town of Cambridge anyway.

 They acknowledged that their travels and findings were due to God's provision of funds they inherited and a gift of grasping and learning languages, but they did want some credit for their work and investments. Little was given in Britain. They did receive some honorary degrees from some European universities.

Reading of the bulky camera equipment and the discovery and use of a smelly reagent that brought out the hidden texts reminded me of our acquaintance Dan Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary. He founded The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. He has very sophisticated digital photographic equipment, but the task of making connections with the guardians of manuscripts and placating their whims is as tricky as it was for the Sinai Sisters.

Pay Attention Before It Is Too Late

 We are having somewhat unusual weather for the end of October. High of 78 today. With the warmth came the wind. By the end of the week, we will have many bare limbs. 

 

 The photo on top (or left depending on your display) was taken October 22nd. The bottom/right photo was taken today October 29th.

We have lots of birds at the feeder now. I tried to sneak up and photograph them through the patio door. Finally, a downy woodpecker sat long enough for me to get a picture, but since this was right after we finished lunch, the dining room lights reflected on the glass.

 

I took a brief walk to snap a picture of the tree with the falling leaves. I noticed bark had fallen off part of the trunk, and there was a "hole". Where the gray-green bark starts again crawled a ladybug.

When I arrived home Friday afternoon from the hospital, I noticed that I had one unopened rose bud on the bush despite several frosty nights. Hope it opens fully inside in the vase.

I had some pelvic organ repair surgery Thursday morning. I had lots of post-op nausea, but once that was under control around 5:30 p.m. I ordered supper via the phone: a glass of milk, a grilled cheese sandwich, and a chocolate chip cookie. I was told I could not have the cookie because of my diet restriction. Turns out that when I visited a gynecologist in July, his nurse added to my allergy list that I was allergic to caffeine. What? The next morning when the supervisory nurse dropped by and asked if she could get me anything, I jokingly mentioned the cookie. She was able to remove the restriction on the computer, but I stuck with the apple crisp I had ordered for lunch. Not being able to eat chocolate would be a catastrophe in my world. 

I have a little less pain today though I am still sitting gingerly. One of my neighbors brought us some homemade beef barley and vegetable soup. I feel up to opening a can and heating soup, but this was delicious and a very caring thing to do. Phone calls, emails, and a get-well-soon card also were encouraging. I am just taking it easy with mostly frozen items to be prepared for supper. My husband is helping out there though I have been able to do some preparation.

I have a lifting restriction so I bought Tide pods so I do not have to use the heavy liquid detergent container. I also was told not to drive for two weeks. I missed Monday Bible study and choir practice, but I did not feel ready to resume those anyway. I think next Monday I will try to attend both. 

My husband is Mr. Fix-It right now. The man who directs the theater productions at Grace College lives in our neighborhood and has asked for help to fix things previously. Now it is a rocking chair used as a prop that needs repair. The Grace Village landscaper also called and needs something built. Handy to have a good woodworker around. 

Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum Train Ride

Another glorious autumn day. The fall foliage in my community is about at its peak. 

Today my husband and I rode the Pumpkin Train of the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, Indiana. This is a small museum with a gift shop in a small Indiana town that at one time had 4 railroad lines operating through it. It has some rolling stock and throughout certain months of the year it offers weekend rides plus special events such as Easter Train, Santa Train, Ice Cream Train, and Pumpkin Train. The train we rode today was powered by a diesel engine though the steam train was also operating. 

The diesel Pumpkin Train ride was for 45 minutes at an average speed of 10-15 miles per hour. It travels to a viewing point of a bridge over the Kankakee River then reverses course back to North Judson. I hoped for some colorful foliage, but there wasn't anything spectacular. It was a pleasant ride climaxed by kids picking out their very own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch set up by the depot. Of course kids gravitated to the biggest pumpkins only to discover they were too heavy to pick up and carry, ending up with an assist from a parent or being directed to a smaller pumpkin by a parent.

When I booked the reservation, I forgot that there would be a time zone difference. I did realize that shortly after booking so we had no problem. We ate a light breakfast this morning at home, then ate at Christos in Knox around 10 a.m. tummy time, 9 a.m. restaurant time.  Our train ride was at 11 a.m. Central Time. I am glad we allowed lots of time because when we arrived in North Judson some kind of walking event was taking place on Main Street and our GPS kept trying for us to use that road even though it was barricaded off. There was a bit of a delay as we tried various ways to reach the museum. 

We did make it to the depot/museum around 10 a.m. CT. Picked up our tickets and looked around the museum some. Our train had 4 cars: a diesel engine, a coach car, an open-air car, and a first-class car. I paid the $5 extra for first-class. I was not sure what the weather would be like so I wanted to be in an enclosed car. The Monon car (our first-class car) had 12 lounge chairs, a few smaller "bedrooms" with chairs and a dining area. Occupancy was limited to 12. One of the museum volunteers rode along with us telling us some history of the car and of the area. This Monon coach was donated to them last year and refurbished. It has only been out about 6 times. It was for the last few decades a private car that the owner would use with Amtrak. 

I thought our gray and red Monan car was at the end of the train, but when we headed west we were at the front as the diesel engine pushed us. On the way back to the depot, we were pulled and thus we were the last car. 

There were 6 lounge chairs on each side of the aisle facing each other. Nice large picture windows on each side. 

It made for a nice autumn outing.

Bonanza of Birds and A Big Stink

Today I sat in my sunroom to eat lunch. My husband put up the bird feeder again about a week ago. We take it down in the summer as there should be plenty for the birds to eat in nature. While eating, I saw house finches, titmice, a nuthatch, and a chickadee. The birds in the last few days have finally discovered the feeder with its sunflower seeds. I felt happy watching them.

 It has been a beautiful sunny autumn day. The sun coming through the patio door warmed my arms after a chilly morning. I put my fall kitchen towels out today, too. 

I am not a fan of the color orange, but this towel has reddish orange and a kind of russet.

I needed some cheerful things around me because I have been battling a big stink. On September 30th I heated a breakfast sandwich wrapped in a paper towel in my microwave oven. I went to another part of the house for a few minutes. When I came back, there was a terrible burnt smell. As I opened the microwave oven, some smoke came out. The paper towel had a round black charred spot. We have not been able to get rid of this bad smell.

We thoroughly washed the microwave oven surfaces. I nuked a cup of water with lemon juice. For 3 days, I had a container with baking soda inside. The baking soda soon smelled like the oven. I changed the baking soda often but the smell remained. Besides those attempts, the internet suggested changing the charcoal filter on the microwave. The what? It turns out the over-the-range microwave has not only a grease filter, but this charcoal filter. In fine print on the papers left with me when Grace Village bought and installed the appliance, it told me about the filter. I could find nothing about a part number or the size of the filter on those papers nor online at Whirlpool.

 Today the replacement I ordered on Amazon arrived and is too big. I finally contacted the Grace Village maintenance scheduler. She said the guys might have a filter; if not, they could at least measure it so the right one could be ordered. I wish I had just turned it over to them from the beginning.

My little raspberry Renuzit cone fights valiantly to counteract the burnt smell, but as soon as I use the microwave the air blowing out of the vent next to the filter stinks it up again.

Have you ever had a successful way to get rid of an odor like this?