Posted on 05/19/2006 6:28:58 PM PDT by rhema
Oh boy, a Quiz from someone who probably thinks wrestling is real.
1A: Yes
1B: It has been claimed by some that the glass panes in the Louvre Pyramid number exactly 666, "the number of the beast", often associated with Satan. Various conspiracy theorists have ascribed some deeper, sinister meaning to this supposed fact. For instance, Dominique Stezepfandt's book François Mitterrand, Grand Architecte de l'Univers declares that "the pyramid is dedicated to a power described as the Beast in the Book of Revelation (...) The entire structure is based on the number 6."
The story of the "666 panes" originated in the 1980s, when the official brochure published during construction did indeed cite this number (even twice, though a few pages earlier the total number of panes was given as 672 instead). The number 666 was also mentioned in various newspapers. The Louvre museum however states that the finished pyramid contains 673 glass panes (603 rhombi and 70 triangles).[1] A higher figure was obtained by David A. Shugarts, who reports that according to the offices of I.M. Pei, the pyramid contains 698 pieces of glass (Secrets of the Code, edited by Dan Burstein, p. 259). Various attempts to actually count the panes in the pyramid have produced slightly discrepant results, but there are definitely more than 666.
The myth resurfaced in 2003, when Dan Brown incorporated it in his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. Here the protagonist reflects that "this pyramid, at President Mitterrand's explicit demand, had been constructed of exactly 666 panes of glass - a bizarre request that had always been a hot topic among conspiracy buffs who claimed 666 was the number of Satan" (p. 21). However, David A. Shugarts reports that according to a spokeswoman of the offices of I.M. Pei, the French President never specified the number of panes to be used in the pyramid. Noting how the 666 rumor circulated in some French newspapers in the mid-1980s, she commented: "If you only found those old articles and didn't do any deeper fact checking, and were extremely credulous, you might believe the 666 story" (Secrets of the Code, p. 259).
2A: Yes
2B: Identity of the model
[edit]
Lisa Gherardini
Vasari identified the subject to be the wife of socially prominent Francesco del Giocondo. It is known that del Giocondo, a wealthy silk merchant of Florence and a prominent government figure, lived. Until recently, little was known about his wife, Lisa Gherardini, except that she was born in 1479 and raised at the family's Villa Vignamaggio in Tuscany, and that she married del Giocondo in 1495.
However in 2004 the Italian scholar Giuseppe Pallanti published Monna Lisa, Mulier Ingenua (Mona Lisa: Real Woman), a book in which he gathered archival evidence in support of the traditional identification of the model as Lisa Gherardini. According to Pallanti the evidence suggests that Leonardo's father was a friend of Lisa's husband. "The portrait of Mona Lisa, done when Lisa Gherardini was aged about 24, was probably commissioned by Leonardo's father himself for his friends as he is known to have done on at least one other occasion".[3] Pallanti discovered that Lisa and Francesco had five children and that she outlived her husband. She lived at least into her 60s, though no record of her death was located. Most scholars now agree that she was indeed the model.[citation needed]
[edit]
Other suggestions
Despite this theory, various alternatives to the traditional sitter have been proposed. During the last years of his life, Leonardo spoke of a portrait "of a certain Florentine lady done from life at the request of the magnificent Giuliano de' Medici." No evidence has been found that indicates a link between Lisa Gherardini and Giuliano de' Medici, but then the comment could instead refer to one of the two other portraits of women executed by da Vinci. A later anonymous statement created confusion when it linked the Mona Lisa to a portrait of Francesco del Giocondo himself – perhaps the origin of the controversial idea that it is the portrait of a man.
Dr. Lillian Schwartz of Bell Labs suggests that the Mona Lisa is actually a self-portrait. She supports this theory with the results of a digital analysis of the facial features of Leonardo's face and that of the famous painting. When flipping a self-portrait drawing by Leonardo and then merging that with an image of the Mona Lisa using a computer, the features of the faces align perfectly. Claims were made that Leonardo was homosexual and thus wanted to paint himself as a woman. Critics of this theory suggest that the similarities are due to both portraits being painted by the same person using the same style. Additionally, the drawing on which she based the comparison may not be a self-portrait.
Maike Vogt-Lüerssen argues that the woman behind the famous smile is Isabella of Aragon, the Duchess of Milan. Leonardo was the court painter for the Duke Of Milan for 11 years. The pattern on Mona Lisa's dark green dress, Vogt-Lüerssen believes, indicates that she was a member of the house of Visconti-Sforza. Her theory is that the Mona Lisa was the first official portrait of the new Duchess of Milan, which requires that it was painted in spring or summer 1489 (and not 1503).
3A:A single manuscript of the Gospel of Philip, in Coptic, was found in the Nag Hammadi library, a cache of documents that was secreted in a jar and buried in the Egyptian desert at the end of the 4th century, when Gnostic writings and pagan ones were being burned by the official church.
Among the mix of aphorisms, parables, brief polemics, narrative dialogue, biblical exegesis (especially of Genesis), and dogmatic propositions, Wesley Isenberg has enumerated seventeen sayings (logia) attributed to Jesus, nine of which are citations and interpretations of Jesus' words already found in the canonical gospels (55,33-34; 57,3-5; 68,8-12; 68,26-27; 72,33-73,1; 77,18; 83,11-13; 84,7-9; 85,29-31). The new sayings (55,37-56,3; 58,10-14; 59,25-27; 63,29-30; 64,2-9; 64,10-12; 67,30-35; and 74,25-27), "identified by the formula introducing them ('he said', 'the Lord said', or 'the Savior said') are brief and enigmatic and are best interpreted from a gnostic perspective," Isenberg has written in his Introduction to the text (see link).
Philip emphasizes the sacramental nature of the embrace between man and woman in the nuptial chamber. Many of the sayings are identifiably gnostic, and often appear quite mysterious and enigmatic:
Blessed is he who is before he came into being. For he who is, has been and shall be.
He who has knowledge of the truth is a free man, but the free man does not sin, for "He who sins is the slave of sin" (Jn 8:34). Truth is the mother, knowledge the father.
Echamoth is one thing and Echmoth, another. Echamoth is Wisdom simply, but Echmoth is the Wisdom of death, which is the one who knows death, which is called "the little Wisdom".
Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing.
Jesus came to crucify the world.
Jesus took them all by stealth, for he did not appear as he was, but in the manner in which they would be able to see him. He appeared to them all. He appeared to the great as great. He appeared to the small as small. He appeared to the angels as an angel, and to men as a man.
It is not possible for anyone to see anything of the things that actually exist unless he becomes like them... You saw the Spirit, you became spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You saw the Father, you shall become Father. So in this place you see everything and do not see yourself, but in that place you do see yourself - and what you see you shall become.
Adam came into being from two virgins, from the Spirit and from the virgin earth. Christ therefore, was born from a virgin to rectify the Fall which occurred in the beginning.
One in particular appears to identify the levels of initiation in gnosticism, although what exactly the bridal chamber represented in gnostic thought is currently a matter of great debate.
The Lord did everything in a mystery, a baptism and a chrism and a eucharist and a redemption and a bridal chamber. - Gospel of Phillip
Another interpretation of the Gospel of Philip finds Jesus as the central focus of the text. This view is supported by renowned Gnostic scholar, Marvin W. Meyer. Evidence for this belief can be found in the following selection of quotations from the gospel:
Those who receive the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit...[are] no longer a Christian, but [are] Christ.
'My God, My God, why, lord, have you forsaken me?' [Jesus] spoke these words on the cross, for he had left that place.
We are born again through the holy spirit, and we are conceived through Christ in baptism with two elements. We are anointed through the spirit, and when we are conceived, we were united.
Jesus revealed himself at the Jordan River as the fullness of heaven's kingdom.
As Jesus perfected the water of baptism, he poured out death. For this reason we go down into the water but not into death, that we may not be poured out into the spirit of the world.
Thus, according to Meyer, it is clear: without Jesus, the rituals and mysteries mentioned within this gospel would have no context. Furthermore, this text seems to follow the beliefs of the Valentinian Christian sect, a group that worshipped the Gnostic Christ, and is often linked to Valentinius' self-written gospel, the Gospel of Truth.
3B See 3A
4A:Found between 1947 & 1956
4B: According to carbon dating, textual analysis, and handwriting analysis the documents were written at various times between the middle of the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD. At least one document has a carbon date range of 21 BC–AD 61. The Nash Papyrus from Egypt, containing a copy of the Ten Commandments, is the only other Hebrew document of comparable antiquity. Similar written materials have been recovered from nearby sites, including the fortress of Masada. While some of the scrolls were written on papyrus, a good portion were written on a brownish animal hide that appears to be gevil. The scrolls were written with feathers from a bird and the ink used was made from carbon black and white pigments. One scroll, appropriately named the Copper Scroll, consisted of thin copper sheets that were incised with text and then joined together.
The fragments span at least 800 texts that represent many diverse viewpoints, ranging from the beliefs of the Essenes to those of other sects. About 30% are fragments from the Hebrew Bible, from all the books except the Book of Esther and the Book of Nehemiah (Abegg et al 2002). About 25% are traditional Israelite religious texts that are not in the canonical Hebrew Bible, such as the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, and the Testament of Levi. Another 30% contain Biblical commentaries or other texts such as the Community Rule (1QS/4QSa-j, also known as "Discipline Scroll" or "Manual of Discipline") and the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness (1QM, also known as the "War Scroll") related to the beliefs, regulations, and membership requirements of a small Jewish sect, which many researchers believe lived in the Qumran area. The rest (about 15%) of the fragments are yet unidentified.
Most of the scrolls are written in one of two dialects of Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew or Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew (on which see Hoffman 2004 or Qimron 1986). Biblical Hebrew dominates in the Biblical documents, and DSS Hebrew in the documents composed in Qumran. Some scrolls are also written in Aramaic and a few in Greek. Only a few of the biblical scrolls were written at Qumran, the majority being copied before the Qumran period and coming into the ownership of the Qumran community (Abegg et al 2002). There is no evidence that the Qumran community altered the biblical texts that they did copy to reflect their own theology (Abegg et al 2002). It is thought that the Qumran community would have viewed the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees as divinely inspired scripture (Abegg et al 2002). The biblical texts cited most often in the nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls are the Psalms, followed by the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Deuteronomy (Abegg et al 2002).
Important texts include the Isaiah Scroll (discovered in 1947), a Commentary on the Habakkuk (1947); the Community Rule (1QS/4QSa-j), which gives much information on the structure and theology of the sect; and the earliest version of the Damascus Document. The so-called Copper Scroll (1952), which lists hidden caches of gold, scrolls, and weapons, is probably the most notorious.
There, Happy now.
Just as a side question Dakara, are you one of these folks who gets themselves all worked up over Harry Potter books and movies as well?
I wouldn't doubt it a bit. This has all ben so incredibly silly and a waste of time. The book has been out for several years, the movie, what, a few days?
Funny, but I do not see Chistendom crumbling around us just yet. A wise man once said, "And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other."
I must admit to using the borderline-cliche character of an American priest working for the Vatican Secretariat of State, but he is one of the good guys. Yes. The Catholic Priest is one of the good guys, imagine that. There are strong conservative themes, which means my book will never be made into a Hollywood movie.
The book has a little of the flavor of "Being There."
You mean there ISN'T?
WHY did you have to tell me that?
But seriously, folks... I once knew a high school girl who believed in Santa Claus... because she saw him on TV...
Amen.
What really astounds me over this entire topic, is the fact that the more the hand wringers keep this alive, the closer they will find themselves to "The Da Vinci Code II / III",
Well, on the bright side of that, they have something to fill their time between Harry Potter movies
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