text:
"Exploring Greek Jewish Scribal Practices: The Evidence from the Earliest LXX/OG Fragments" (25 min)
SBL Atlanta 2003
Hellenistic Judaism Section (S 23-9), Sunday morning, MM-Picard
Theme: The Greek Bible and the History of Hellenistic Judaism
An attempt to create "social history" from the evidence of technical practices!
We have a range of Greek texts that probably originated in Jewish contexts, from the 3rd century BCE to perhaps at least the 6th CE. I say "probably" because we really don't know whether the person who copied any given text can be identified with the same person or group with which the text is logically associated. Does a letter or contract that represents a Jewish author or interest necessarily emanate from a Jewish scribe? Did Jews have their own network for copying Jewish (and other) literature, and their own bookstalls in which to sell it? Most of the extant early Jewish literary texts are "biblical," and if we can assume that they were copied in specifically Jewish contexts, they may provide information of value, or at least of interest, about Jewish scribal practices in discussions concerning "hellenistic" (i.e. Greek speaking) Judaism.
I will mention only in passing that the oldest extant Greek materials of possible Jewish provenance are documentary (not "literary"), from the official correspondence of one of the Palestinian Tobiads in the Zenon archive. This includes a neatly inscribed communication to the administrator Apollonios dating to 257 bce. Whether it can tell us anything about specifically Jewish writing practices is problematic, but it is surely "professionally" prepared and has some features that, perhaps only coincidentally, resemble aspects of the presumably Jewish biblical scrolls of the following three centuries. And there are other such examples with Jewish connections among the surviving papyri from Egypt -- details may be found in Tchericover and Fuchs, Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum (CPJ).
On the "literary" side of things, we now know of about 20 different Greek manuscripts that come from Jewish contexts in pre-Christian times, or on other grounds are most likely to be of Jewish origin. About half of these are copies of portions of the Pentateuch, on both papyrus and parchment::
01. Qumran cave 4 LXXDeut 11 (2nd bce, parchment roll)
02. PRyl458 of Deut (2nd bce, papyrus roll),
03. Qumran cave 7 Exod 28 (2nd/1st bce, papyrus roll),
04. Qumran cave 4 Lev\a (2nd/1st bce, parchment roll),
06. PFouad266a [942] Gen (1st bce, papyrus roll),
07. Qumran cave 4 Lev\b (1st bce, papyrus roll; tetragrammaton = IAW),
08. PFouad266b [848] Deut (1st bce, papyrus roll; Hebrew/Aramaic tetragrammaton),
09. PFouad266c [847] Deut (late 1st bce, papyrus roll),
12. Qumran cave 4 Num 3-4 (turn of the era, parchment roll),
The non-pentateuchal fragments are:
05a. Qumran cave 7 EpJer (2nd/1st bce, papyrus roll),
05b. Qumran cave 7 frgs 4, 8, 12 [Epistle of Enoch? = "1 Enoch" 103] (1st bce[?], papyrus roll) -- see also reconstruction notes and frg 8 alone
05c. Qumran cave 7 frg 5 (unidentified controversial "Mark" frg, turn of the era[?], papyrus roll),
10. Qumran cave 4 paraphrase of Exod(?) (late 1st bce, papyrus roll),
11. Qumran cave 4 unidentified Greek [4Q126] (late 1st bce, parchment roll; possible KURIOS),
13. Nahal Hever Minor Prophets (hand A), with example of paleo-Hebrew tetragrammaton and hand B (turn of the era, parchment roll, two different forms of the paleo-Hebrew tetragrammaton!),
14. POxy3522 of Job 42 (1st ce, papyrus roll; paleo-Hebrew tetragrammaton),
15. POxy4443 of Esther (1st/2nd ce, papyrus roll),
16. PFouad 203 prayer/amulet? (1st/2nd ce, papyrus roll) [no image yet]
There are numerous candidates from subsequent times for which the possibility of Jewish origin cannot be ruled out with complete confidence. We will examine the sorts of arguments that are used to assess the possibilities in such instances, but to fill out the picture, here are some of the most ambiguous cases, in two groupings, first scrolls (sometimes suspected of being Jewish for that very reason) and secondly codices (often assumed to be Christian because they are in codex form):
Now it may be that these are all of non-Jewish Christian composition, but I am arguing that the mere use of the codex format should not be the sole evidence on which such an assessment rests. Similarly, the presence of scroll fragments with biblical and related materials from the same period (mainly 2nd through 4th centuries) does not guarantee that they are of Jewish origin. For example:
22. PVindobGr 29828+29456 Jannes and Jambres (early 3rd ce, papyrus roll [reused], nomina sacra uncontracted) [vh1068]
23. PMich 4925 Jannes and Jambres (early 3rd ce, papyrus roll [reused]) [BASP 16 (1979) 114]
25. POxy1166 of Gen 16 (3rd ce, papyrus roll column),
27. POxy1075 of Exod (3rd ce, papyrus roll; end of book, problematic tetragrammaton),
36. PWien Rainer 18 of Pss (3rd/4th ce, parchment roll; Symmachus?) [no image yet]
37. PAlex 203 of Isa 48 (3rd/4th ce, papyrus roll?),
38. PHarris 31 of Ps 43 (3rd/4th ce, papyrus roll/amulet?),
39. POxy2745 Onomasticon of Hebrew Names (3/4th ce, papyrus roll; IAW represents Hebrew YW/YA names) [vh1158]
39a. PHeid1359 Onomasticon of Hebrew Names (3/4th ce, papyrus roll/sheet; IW and IAW represent Hebrew YW/YA names) [vh1136]
40. POxy1225 of Lev 16 (early 4th ce, papyrus roll),
41. PLitLond 211 of Dan 1 "Theodotion" (early 4th ce, vellum roll)
42. POxy2068 (4th ce, papyrus liturgical roll) [vh966]
46. PRanier 4.5 Psalm 9 (5th ce, papyrus amulet?) [#2086 = vh105].
Early codices that for various reasons call for closer attention in this context include:
17. PYale1 of Gen 14, recto, and verso (2nd ce, papyrus codex; number 318 abbreviated),
18. PBodl5 of Pss 48-49 (2nd ce, parchment codex),
19. POxy656 of Gen (2nd/3rd ce, papyrus codex, problematic tetragrammaton),
20. Goettingen # 967 Ezekiel-Daniel-Esther (about 200 ce, papyrus codex); subscriptio and end of Daniel/Susanna (PKoeln Theol 37v, p.196); images of Ezekiel; images of Daniel, etc.
21. POxy4442 Exodus [first side] (early 3rd ce, papyrus codex); [other side]
24. POxy1007 of Gen with its unusual tetragrammaton representation (3rd ce, parchment codex)
26. PBerlin 17213 of Gen (3rd ce) [no image yet; problematic tetragrammaton]
28. POxy1173+1356+2158++ Philo (3rd ce, papyrus codex) [vh696]
29. PAntin 8 Prov-Wisd-Eccl (3rd ce, papyrus codex) [#928 = vh254]
30. PAntin 9 Prov (3rd ce, papyrus codex) [#987 = vh252]
31. Freer Minor Prophets (late 3rd ce, papyrus codex) [vh284];
32. Berlin Genesis (late 3rd ce, papyrus codex) [#911 = vh004];
34. PLond Christ 5 (3-5th ce, liturgical codex) [vh921],
35. PLitLond 202 of Gen (3rd/4th ce, papyrus codex)
43. PChBeat 16 Jannes and Jambres (4th ce, papyrus codex, odd nomina sacra) [Pietersma]
44. PAntin 10 Ezek (4th ce, papyrus codex) [#988 = vh316]
45. POxy 4444 Wisdom of Solomon (4th ce, parchment codex)
45. PSorbonne 2250 Jer 17f & 46 (late 4th ce, papyrus codex; aberrent text) [#817 = vh308];
47. PBerlin 17035 Gen 36 Symmachus? (5/6th ce, parchment codex) [vh022];
48. PGiessen 13+19+22+26 [side 1] Deut 24-29 (5/6th ce; parchment codex; possibly non-Christian provenance; contracted divine names) [side 2]
++. Cambridge University Taylor-Schechter 12.184 + 20.50 1-2 Kings Aquila (5/6th ce; parchment codex palimpsest with paleo-Hebrew tetragrammaton and also abbreviated KY, ISL)
++. Cambridge University Taylor-Schechter 12.186-188 + 78.412 Psalms 90-103 Aquila (5/6 ce; parchment codex palimpsest with paleo-Hebrew tetragrammaton)
++. Cambridge University Taylor-Schechter 12.182 Hexapla Psalm 21(22) (6/7th ce; parchment codex palimpsest with Greek PIPI tetragrammaton and possibly an abbreviated KS)
The primary criteria that have been used for determining whether a text is Jewish or Christian are two: (1) codices must be Christian, and (2) use of nomina sacra indicates Christian origin. A corollary of the nomina sacra argument is that if a MS contains the tetragrammaton in a semitic form (especially in paleo-Hebrew or square-Aramaic/Hebrew letters) it is probably of Jewish origin.
The tetragrammaton argument is perhaps the weakest link in such an approach, and indeed can help to open other doors for our purposes. There is no question that some Jewish scribes and copyists gave special treatment to the tetragrammaton, including not only representation in semitic letters but also abbreviated formulations in Greek transliteration (a "smoking gun" here is the use of "IAW" in 4QLXXLev\b). What is especially striking about these practices is the diversity of representation among our small surviving set. Although in several other regards, surviving evidence of Jewish Greek "scribal practice" tends to show it to be quite routinely professional and sophisticated (see the presentations in my ...), with reference to the tetragrammaton it is anything but "standardized."
So what? What else can we learn from this phenomenon? What does it mean when even professional copyists of Jewish Greek scriptural materials understand themselves to have some degree of calligraphic freedom when it came to the tetragrammaton? Or if these were not actually tradition-minded Jewish copyists, who give them instructions as to how to proceed when the tetragrammaton was encountered? Who actually wrote the letters when non-Greek forms of the name were used?
These are rather thin skates to travel on in our desparate quest for better understanding of ancient Judaism in its Greek garb, but let's try to make the best of the situation. My study of the earliest Jewish fragments has led me to the following probable conclusions: (1) there were some highly trained scribes who produced Greek copies of Jewish literature, generally consistent with normal Greek calligraphic standards of the time; (2) some micro-formatting features in these copies of Jewish literature may have been slightly unusual, in comparison to other known kinds of Greek literature -- here I have in mind the use of spacing and other special indicators (e.g. enlarged letters, marginal markers) to break the consecutive text into smaller sections -- although the mega-format of scroll (for literature) seems universal up to the late first century ce; (3) the fact that special treatments are applied to the tetragrammaton is a unique feature of these preserved fragments of Jewish literature.
Explanations, or perhaps contextualizations, of these generalized phenomena could produce the following picture: (1) on the one hand, scribal activity with reference to surviving Greek Jewish literature suggests a high level of respectability in practice and in production, within the context of contemporary hellenistic literature -- thus there must have been appropriate training of scribes/copyists, and there also must have been sufficient economic prosperity to support the preparation and distribution of quality copies; (2) on the other hand, certain unusual but characteristic features of these copies also suggests that there was a special sort of continuity of practice among these presumably Jewish scribes as well -- thus a sort of Jewish scribal "school tradition" in some ways distinct from general hellenistic scribal formatting practices. The formatting peculiarities in the Jewish literature have sometimes been explained as due to non-literary influences (this is especially true for the discussion of the same features in early Christian manuscripts!), with the implication that the Jewish scribes were less well trained, or even less well off, but even if this might have been true at the origins (I would doubt even that claim), it had become routinized and part of a sophisticated ongoing tradition by the time we encounter it in the surviving fragments. And there are more convincing ways to explain the characteristic features, tracing them back to practices in vogue in the surrounding cultures at an early point of development, not directly related to what came to be viewed as "standard" hellenistic literary practice.
But what about the tetragrammaton? If we have a relatively standardized Jewish literary tradition within hellenistic literary activity at large, why has it not also standardized treatment of the tetragrammaton? Since the same sort of question must also be asked of the one major collection of Hebrew and Aramaic literature that has survived from this period -- the Dead Sea Scrolls -- the answers may be related. Apparently within the ranks of transmitters of Jewish literature there was disagreement, or at least discussion, that supported diversity of approach, as to how to handle this very special type of reference to the special deity of the Jewish tradition. If this problem came into clear focus only after certain general Greek scribal conventions had been established, it could produce the situation described above. [See also Pietersma, who on other grounds argues for the priority in LXX/OG textual tradition of KURIOS, which then became controversial.] Within the context of our present knowledge of the history of Judaism in the hellenistic period, an excellent candidate for producing such a disruptive influence could be the civil strife that contributed to the Maccabean uprising and the results of that "quasi-conservative" development. But as I suggested, we are on very thin ice at this point. Something must have happened to encourage, or at least permit, multiple approaches to representing the tetragrammaton in Greek (and other) texts. Exactly what happened remains a mystery.
Incidentally, our modern world is not without analagous developments. The Authorized "King James" Version [AV or KJV] of the Protestant English Bible from 1611 standardized the then traditional practice of representing the tetragrammaton in the four upper case English letters LORD, despite the fact that those letters had no phonetic or semantic relationship to the Hebrew text being translated. Not everyone agreed with this procedure, although it was not until the 1881 Revised Version [RV] appeared that the challenge to the old KJV practice received wide circulation -- LORD was replaced by "Jehovah"! Whether this disruption was enough in itself to doom general acceptance of the RV, and its American counterpart of 1901, the American Standard Version [ASV], I cannot say, but it is clear that treatments of the tetragrammaton even in subsequent English Bibles that claimed some paternity with the old KJV became diverse -- RSV (1952) and NRSV (1989) rejected their immediate parentage and reverted to LORD (so also NKJV, NLT, ESV, CEV, KJ21,NIV+NIV-UK,JPS). Only the Young's Literal Transaltion [already in 1862] and the Darby versions systematically printed Jehovah, while in certain passages the newer Jerusalem Bible has "Yahweh," while the Amplified Bible [AMP] prints Lord (not upper case) and "The Message" version generalizes to GOD (uppercase). [The problems raised by the New World Translation from the Jehovah's Witnesses perspective add another dimension, of course, but the situation exists even without it.] These quick samplings are largely taken from the "Bible Gateway" resource -- see also the following from the Realms of Faith site (bold type added):
In consideration of the traditional Jewish reticence, most versions translate Yahweh as Lord (GEN,
AMP, LB, NCV)–or more commonly LORD to distinguish from 'adonai (KJV, RV, AAT, Lasma,
RSV, NEB, NKJV, NIV, NAB, NRSV, REB, GNT, KJ21, NASB, GW, NLT, NIrV, NET, ESV). Since the MSG avoids the word Lord altogether, it uses GOD in all capitals. A few translations use
Jehovah: Young, Darby, ASV, NWT, and LITV. Only the JB and NJB use Yahweh. The NWT also
translates the Greek kyrios as Jehovah in the New Testament when the translators judge it to refer to
the Father. (But never when it refers to Jesus.)
/end/
NOTES and for FURTHER EXPLORATION:
Check details of Albert Pietersma "Kyrios or Tetragram: A Renewed Quest for the Original LXX," in De
Septuaginta: Studies in Honour of John William Wevers on His Sixty-fifth Birthday, ed. Albert Pietersma and Claude Cox (Mississauga, Ontario: Benben Publications, 1984), 85-101. [email 19no03 from AP:]
<quote>Sorry to say I don't have an electronic version. As to the circumstances that led to the semiticizing reaction, no I have not gone beyond the nationalism of the Maccabean period. As for pertinent evidence of the semitizing/achaizing reaction I appeal essentially to three pieces: 1) the use of paleo-hebrew at Qumran, 2) the specific interest in the tetragram (-note for example its (secondary insertion) in 11QPs(a)) and 3) the polemics of Aristeas against the hebraica veritas. The appearance of the tetragam in early Greek fragment in three forms I see as confirming 2). Most important for original Kurios is, in my view, the internal evidence of the LXX (Pent) itself.</quote>
On the tetragrammaton more generally, see http://www.ccs-hk.org/DM/JW-YHVH.html (followup on use of IABE, and on KURIOS in Aquila MSS, as well as general Hexapla situation)
[some web excerpts]
Paul Skehan has to say on this issue after reviewing the available evidence:
> "Evidence strongly suggest that the divine name usage in question goes back for some books at least to the beginnings of the Septuagint rendering and antedates .....Later Greek witnesses" (The Qumran Manuscripts and Textual Criticism by P.W. Skehan. Harvard Theological Review, 1977, p.157
> The noted textual critic Dr. Paul Kahle (Skehan's mentor) stated much the same thing some 18 years before:
>"We know that the the Greek Bible text [the Septuagint] as far as it was written by Jews for Jews did not translate the Divine Name by Kyrios, but the Tetragrammaton written with Hebrew or Greek letters was retained in such MSS. It was the Christians who replaced the Tetragrammaton by Kyrios, when the divine name written in Hebrew letters was not understood anymore". (Dr. P. Kahle, The Cairo Geniza, Oxford, 1959, p.222)
>George Howard (1977, The Tetragram in the New Testament, JBL 63-84) has argued convincingly that the tetragrammaton even occurred in the NT. Albert Pietersma (1984, Kyrios or Tetragram. A Renewed Quest for the Original Septuagint, in De Septuaginta Studies in Honour of John William Wevers on his sixty-fifth birthday, eds A Pietersma and C Cox.) also argued convincingly that the tetragrammaton was sunbstituted by KURIOS in the
ORIGINAL LXX manuscripts. He took as his point of departure late manuscripts of the LXX with KURIOS and pointed out that hundreds of times in the Hebrew text we find LYHWH (preposition le (=to)+ tetragrammaton). In the late LXX manuscripts we find KURIWi (dative) in these instances. If KURIOS was a later substitution how would those writing it know when the Hebrew text had le, to the effect that it should be written in the dative case?
In 4QLXXLevb we find IAW with the dative TWi preceding in LEV 3:11,14; 4:3; and in 8HevXIIgr we find TWi before the tetragrammaton in Zech 9:1. The publication of these manuscripts have shown Pietersma's argument
to be wrong because KURIWi could be a substitution for either IAW or the tetragrammaton with TWi.
In the fourth century BC Aramaic-speaking Jews lived in the Nile delta. There is manuscript evidence that they pronounced the tetragrammaton as IAHU or IAHO (See Elephantine Papyrii in The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible). So one century before the translation of the LXX started, in the same area we find something similar to IAW.
BTW, there is absolutely no evidence proving that the tetragrammaton was not pronounced by some or many in the days of Jesus. The Essenes at Qumran did not pronounce it in the first century BC, but they did not use `adonai
(equivalent to KURIOS) in its stead but `el (equivalent to theos).The Pharesees and other groups at the same time pronounced it.
[[But note in CD the references to using "the alef lamed" and "the alef dalet" -- apparently abbreviated forms for Eli/Elohim and Adonai!! -- not preserved in any DSS fragment]]
Rolf Furuli
[from http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/test-archives/html4/1997-08/20277.html ]
[and a couple of posts earlier in that thread, from ...??]
For when Apollo of Claros was asked who among the gods was to be regarded as the god called Iao {perhaps a form of Jah; cf. Diodorus Siculus 1.94}, he replied: [20] Those who have learned the mysteries should hide the
unsearchable secrets, but, if the understanding is small and the mind weak, then ponder this: that Iao is the supreme god of all gods; in winter, Hades; at spring's beginning Zeus; the Sun in summer; and in autumn, the
splendid Iao -Book 1, 18.19-20 Macrobius, The Saturnalia, tr. P. V. Davies (NY: Columbia U. Press, 1969), p. 131.
The one who is first from the Mother is Ialdabaoth; the next, Iao; the next, Sabaoth; the fourth, Adonaios [Adonai]; the fifth Eloeus [Elohim]; the sixth, Oreus; the seventh and most recent of all, Astaphaeus. These heavens and excellences and powers and angels have places in heaven according to their generation, and they invisibly reign over things celestial and terrestrial. -ÒThe Sethian-Ophites,Ó Other Bible, p. 61.
Clement of Alexandria transliterated the name {Yahweh} into Greek in the form Iaoue. - ÒSpelling the Sacred Name: V or W?Ó (Kingdom City, MO: YahwehÕs New Covenant Assembly, 1992), p. 6.
[Valentinian Sys. of Ptolemaeus]
Then the Limit which was hindering her [Sophia seeking the light] in her forward striving said, ÒIao.Ó This is the origin of the name Iao. -ÒValentinus and the Valentinian System of Ptolemaeus,Ó Other Bible, p. 614.
And Iao, the supposed sun-god, was early represented as a golden calf.
-Cook, Zeus, a Study in Ancient Rel., vol. 1, p. 236.
And as Horos thus obstructed her further progress, he exclaimed, IAO, whence they say, this name Iao derived its origin. Iren¾us -ÒIren¾us Against Heresies,Ó The Ante-Nicene Fathers,vol. 2, Ed. A. Roberts, James Donaldson (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ., 1967), p. 321
Archons of Archons of Apocryphon of John Ophites (Origen) Planet Powers
Iaoth Astaphaios (Horaios) Moon Pronoia
Eloaios Horaios (Eloaios) Mercury Divinity
Astaphaios Eloaios (Astaphaios) Venus Goodness
Iao Adonaios [JHWH] Sun Fire
Sabaoth Sabaoth Mars Kingship
Adoni Iao Jupiter Synesis
Sabbataios Ialdabaoth Saturn Sophia
-R. Van Den Broek, ÒThe Creation of AdamÕs Psychic Body in the Apocryphon of John,Ó Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions,Eds. R. Van Den Broek, M.J. Vermaseren (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981), combination of tables on pp. 39, 48.
dunameis - functions, force, powers, mathematical powers, properties, characteristics, effects, capacities. Gnostic: dunameis, e.g. Iaoth, Iao. [dunavmei"]
YHW - the God of the fathers; Iao. [Heb. why]
On the Cairo Geniza palimpsests:
M. Sokoloff and J.Yahalom, "Christian palimpsests from the Cairo Geniza", Revue d'Histoire des Textes 8 (1978), pp. 109-132 [Z/4/R48]: note unidentified Greek underwriting in T-S F 17.4 fol. 1-2.
For more facsimiles, get N.Alloni [in Heb] Geniza Fragments of Rabbinic Literature (1973)
[1] Aquila on Kings (codex, 6 pages, 5-6 century) ed F. C. Burkitt, Fragments of the Books of Kings According to the Translation of Aquila, from a MS. Formerly in the Geniza at Cairo, now in the possession of C.Taylor D.D. Master of S. John's College and S.Schechter M.A. University Reader in Talmudic Literature, Edited for the Syndics of the University Press by F.Crawford Burkitt M.A. with a Preface by C. Taylor D.D. (Cambridge, at the University Press, 1897) [BS 1334.5 A6 B8]
1. Is it a Jewish codex (so Burkitt)? Not necessarily; probably came through Christian hands, at least.
1.1 Found in Jewish setting, Jewish overwriting, uses paleo-Hebrew tetragrammaton (overlined at least once 4 Kg 23.12), from a period compatible with Justinian's Novella.
1.2 But why would a pious Jew overwrite tetragrammaton? Would a Greek MS be considered sufficiently profane? Or a Christian (Greek) MS? Did he/they just not notice? Other palimpsests (about 41 total) in the Geniza seem to be Christian, including Hexaplaric fragments -- see Sokoloff and Yahalom, "Christian Palimpsests from the Cairo Geniza" in Revue d'Historie des Textes 8 (1978), 109-132..
1.3 Ambiguities: size ("nearly 12 in.[tall] x 9 in.[wide]" = 30+ x 22.8 cm; see Turner 27 for grouping), double columned (23-24 lines per col), parchment, large majuscules (for public use?)
But also appearence of ISL (Israel, 3 times), KU (KURIOU once), IOUSALM (Jerusalem ?where?) at line ends -- but note that the copyist does not avoid dividing all proper names (e.g. MO'/AB at 4 Kg 23.14 and IE/ROUSALHM at 23.12).
And, some 'punctuation' marks(after proper names 3 Ki 21.9 ADAD, 12 AAB & ISRAHL, 15 ISL, 16 ADAD; 4 Kg 23.12 OUAAZ, 13 ISRAHL & MW'/AB, 15 BHQHL, 17 BHQHL, 19 ISL & IW/SIAOU & BHQHL, 20 IE/ROUSALHM, 22 ISRAHL [twice], 26 MENASSE [end of verse]; also 4 Kg 23.11 at verse end, 18 after ANHR in mid line, ),
some indentation (3 Kg 21.15; 4 Kg 23.15, 17, 27)
and other spacing (3 Kg 21.8, 9b, 12, 13/14, 17; 4 Kg 23.14b [with end line]),
overline in place of final N (frequently),
dieresis & possible breathing marks,
but mostly scriptio continuo.
2. The overwriting (11th c?) is not continuous in relation to the underwriting. It is upside down to the Aquila text in 3 Kg (one folio), but rightside up in the 4 Kg material (2 folia), indicatting that the reused MS was already dismantled -- further details in Sokoloff and Yahalom..
[Taylor's Preface, on the tetragrammaton (vi): "Questioning the statement of Origen and St Jerome that in the Old Testament in Greek the Name YHWH was sometimes written in archaic Hebrew characters, Gesenius in his Geschichte der hebräischen Sprache und Schrift (1815) gave persuasive reasons for thinking that Origen, "ein mittelmässiger Sprachkenner und whol noch schlechterer Paläograph," and after him "der gelehrtere Hieronymus" mistook pipi in Greek capitals for letters of the Samaritan alphabet; but a Cairo palimpsest now shews the Tetragrammaton written as they had said. It is a result at oncew interesting and not unimportant that a word from the mouth of two such witnesses, which lacked verification, should at length have been established."]
[Burkitt, 15f: The unpronounced Sacred Name is regularly written YHWH [[paleo]] in the Cairo MS; that is to say, YHWH [[square]] is transcribed in Old Hebrew letters similar to those used in the Siloam Inscription and on Jewish coins. This quite unexpected feature is however in full accord with Origen's express statements, who says in the course of his comments on Ps 2.2 (Bened. 2.539 = Lommatzsch 11.36):-- [[Greek text here -- And let's not be unaware about how the name KURIOS is pronounced by the Greeks but by the Hebrews ADONAI ... Now a certain tetragram is unpronounced among them which is even written on the golden petalos of the high priest, but is spoken as ADONAI -- not that this is written for the tetragram -- but among Greeks KURIOS is pronounced. And in the most accurate manuscripts, the name is represented in Hebrew characters, but not in those currently employed but in the archaic Hebrew ones.]]
Can there be any doubt that by "the mosre accurate copies" Origan here means MSS of Aquila's Version, such as our palimpsest?
This passage of Origen is the source of most of the statements of the Christian Fathers concerning the Tetragrammaton. It is also extant in a slightly different form edited by Montfaucon, Hex 1.86 (quoted in Driver's Samuel, p. x), and it reappears in Evagrius and S. Jerome\1/. [[note 1: E.g. at the beginning of the Prologus Galeatus, speaking of the Hebrew Alphabet, he says: Nomen Domini tetragrammaton in quibusdam graecis voluminibus usque hodie antiquis expressum litteris invenimus.]] But until the discovery of this MS of Aquila it had lacked confirmation, for our Hexaplar authorities transcribe the Name by PIPI [[Gk]], i.e. YHWH [[square Heb]] in the Square Character, therein following very probably the usage of Theodotion and Symmachus.
Next to the fact of the Tetragrammaton being in the Old Hebrew characters at all, the most remarkable circumstance connected with its appearance in our MS is that the letters yod and waw are generally identical\2/. [[note 2: The reader is referred in the Photograph especially to fol. 1v, col.a, last line but two; fol. 2r, col. b, line 2. At first I was inclined to read [[paleo]] for [[paleo]], but wrongly. In a good light the extra stroke can be seen even in fol. 1r, col.a, line 11.]] Hitherto confusions between [[yod]] and [[waw]] have been universally assigned to the employment of the Square Character, in which these letters differ only in length, but we now have evidence that confusions were also possible with some forms of the older Alphabet. It must be confessed that [[paleo]] is a corrupted type, both for yod and for waw. As a yod it has lost the characteristic tail at the foot of the right-hand stroke ([[image]]), and in other known forms of the Old Hebrew waw the upper strokes radiate from the top of the main storke (e.g. [[image]]), not as here from the side ([[paleo]]). But it would be idle to expect palaeographical accuracy in our MS. Even in Origen's time, as we learn from the quotation given above, the Old Hebrew character had gone out of use, and the Cairo Palimpsest is some 250 years later still. To the scribe of our MS the Tetragrammaton must have been a mere symbol, blindly copied from the [[16]] model. Yet such as it is, it is the only written specimen that is known to survive of the Old Hebrew script.
The confusion between [[YHWH]] and [[YHYH]] is not by any means confined to our MS. Jacob of Edessa and MSS of the Syro-Hexaplar Version give [[syr]] and IEHIEH as the Sacred Name\1/. [[note 1: See Nestle, ZDMG 32. 466-508; Ceriani, Mon. Sacr. et Prof. 2.110.]] Similar mistakes also occur in the LXX, notably in the last two words of Ezekiel.
The Tetragrammaton in our MS was undoubtedly intended to be pronounced KU/RIOS. Not only does Origen distinctly say [[gk]] but a palaeographical accident has put a piece of direct evidence before us. Contractions are extremely infrequent in our MS. [[etc. (to be continued)]]
[2] Hebrew-Greek Cairo genizah palimpsests from the Taylor-Schechter collection : including a fragment of the twenty-second psalm according to Origen's Hexapla / edited ... by C. Taylor.
Cambridge [Eng.] : University Press, 1900. vi, 96 p., 11 leaves of plates : ill. ; 37 cm.
CAJS BS64 .C36 1900
1. A Hexaplar Fragment of Psalm 22 (pp. 1-50) [PIPI is clear in 2 cols][Rahlfs 2005, 7th c]
2 = Appendix 1. Parts of Some of the Psalms 90-103 in the Greek of Aquila (pp. 51-85)[5-6th c]
3 = Appendix 2. The New Testament --
1. Gospel Lexctionary? Matt 10.2-4 (with superscription)
2. John 20.11-15
3. Acts 24.22-26 (XN IN abbrev), 24.27ff (very difficult to decipher)
4. 1 Peter 2.22-3.7 (contiguous with Acts??) -- no plate [see Alloni 121-124, 143-144?]
4. Plates 1-11
[3] J.H.A.Hart, "The New Septuagint Fragment," JTS 4 (1903) 215-217 [6th c, Geniza palimpsest, Ps 143.1-12, 143.12-144.6 no facsimiles listed in Sokoloff-Yahalom]
[from web site http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/GF/6/] That the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection contains a smattering of Christian texts has long been known. Written mainly in Christian Palestinian Aramaic but also in Coptic, Georgian, Greek, Latin and Syriac, these are all to be found in manuscripts technically known as palimpsests. Such manuscripts consist of parchment leaves whose original writing (in this case containing the Christian texts) was at some stage erased so that the writing material could be re-cycled and used for copying out new texts. [Sebastian Brock: then describes new Christian Syriac Genizah paper discoveries dated 13-14 c, not palimpsests; conjectures that it was scrap paper acquired for book bindings]
[from http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/GF/4/] As he himself has mentioned in this issue, Dr Erwin Rosenthal has been associated with Genizah researchers for many years. It is therefore fitting that the Cambridge Genizah Collection and its Research Unit should have figured prominently in the volume of essays presented to him in August by his friends and colleagues and entitled Interpreting the Hebrew Bible [1982, BS1188 .I57 ].
Professor John Emerton, Honorary Keeper of the Taylor-Schechter (Genizah) Collection, and Dr Stefan Reif, Director of the Research Unit, have edited the fifteen contributions and prepared a bibliography of Dr Rosenthal's many books and articles. Professor Emerton's own study is of the translation and interpretation of Isaiah 6:13.
Two of the essays deal directly with Cambridge Genizah fragments. Dr N. R. M. de Lange makes available for the first time two interesting mediaeval manuscripts containing Greek translations and interpretations of the Biblical books Ecclesiastes and Kings, written in Hebrew characters.
[notes by M. Beit-Arie]
An entire codex dating most likely before the tenth century is Ms Vatican Ebr. 66 of the Sifra with Babylonian vocalization (cf. my Hebrew Codicology, p. 72, n. 135 on its vertical pricking rows which are very close to the written space, and are sometimes concealed in it as in Latin codices prior to 800); on the various opinions concerning its dating and other old manuscripts, particularly literary Geniza fragments, as well as a survey of texts in Hebrew script which have been, or may be ascribed to the first millennium A.D., in addition to my survey in Kirjath Sepher, XLIII (1967-68), pp. 411-413 (in Hebrew) and in Hebrew Codicology, pp. 9-10, see S. Hopkins, "The Oldest Documents in the Geniza?", in Studies in Judaism and Islam Presented to Shelomo Dov Goitein, Jerusalem 1981, pp. 83-98. Findings not in codex form written in the Oriental type of Hebrew script make it possible to follow the evolution and development of this script in a quite consecutive manner from the book hand and documentary script of the Judean Desert up to the tenth century (Edna Engel of the Hebrew Palaeography Project's team in Jerusalem is now completing a doctoral dissertation on this subject). The fragments of literary and documentary texts surviving from the period between the Judean Desert texts and the earliest codices, mostly papyri, have been assembled by the Hebrew Palaeography Project; see C. Sirat (avec la contribution de M. Beit-Arie, M. Dukan et al), Les papyrus en caracteres hebraiques trouves en Egypte, Paris 1985. Seventeen papyri in Judeo-Arabic included there have meanwhile been published; cf. J. Blau and S. Hopkins, "Judeo-Arabic Papyri - Collected, Edited and Analysed", Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, IX (1987), pp. 87-160 [= J. Blau, Studies in Middle Arabic and its Judeo-Arabic Variety, Jerusalem 1988, pp. 401-474]. Among the literary papyri there is not a single fragment which can be proved to have derived from a codex, except for the Cambridge papyrus codex found in the Cairo Geniza, which is constructed from one multi-sheet quire (cf. Les papyrus en caracteres hebraiques, pp. 69-80). It seems that the codex form was adopted for books written in Hebrew much later than for those written in Greek, Latin, Coptic or Syriac. In the Talmudic and Midrashic literature all books are in scroll form, as Rashi already observed in his commentary to TB, Megilla 19a (on the physical form of pinkes in this literature, wrongly seen by S. Lieberman as evidence for an earlier employment of the codex form among the Jews, followed by the early Christians, who adopted and spread this book form, see M. Haran, "The Codex, the Pinax and the Wooden Slats", Tarbiz, [1988], pp. 151-164 [in Hebrew]). Indeed, the earliest occurrence of a specific term for a codex in Hebrew literature dates from late eighth century; see M. Beit-Arie, "How Hebrew Manuscripts Are Made", in A Sign and a Witness: 2000 Years of Hebrew Books and Illuminated Manuscripts (ed. L.S. Gold), New York and Oxford 1988, pp. 35-36; M. Glatzer, Appendix to the study mentioned above, n. 17, pp. 260-261. Therefore, the findings as well as literary testimonies indicate that it is doubtful whether the first Jewish employment of the codex occurred before the eighth century.
//end of notes//


text:
Distribution debunked to unlock growth
A localized route-to-market approach is the key to success in emerging markets
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Forum Home > REGIONAL HISTORY > Europe > Medieval Europe 476 AD - 1492 AD
ROBIN HOOD: Some reflections
RonPrice
Housecarl
Location: George Town Tas
Quote RonPrice
Quote Reply Topic: ROBIN HOOD: Some reflections
Posted: 11 Dec 2014 at 14:04
and......The Way We Really Were
Last night I watched some, but not all, of the story of Robin Hood, the heroic outlaw found in English folklore. According to legend he was also a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Traditionally depicted as being dressed in Lincoln green, he is often portrayed as "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor" alongside his band of "Merry Men". Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the medieval period, and continues to be widely represented in modern literature, films and television.
Robin Hood is a 2010 British-American epic adventure film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.1 It was released in over 50 countries in the second week of May 2010, just as I was beginning my retirement at the age of 65 on two old-age pensions. This adventure film was the opening film at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
Readers with the interest can access all sorts of sources on the internet to find out a wealth of detail regarding this film. The historicity, that is, the existence and life-narrative of Robin Hood has been debated for centuries. Modern academic opinion maintains that the legend is based in part on a historical person, although there is considerable scholarly debate as to his actual identity. A difficulty with any such historical research is compounded by the fact that "Robert" was, in medieval England, a very common given name, and "Robin", was its very common diminutive, especially in the 13th century.
I don't want to delve into the intricacies associated with either the film or the historical person. I leave that to readers who are also keen movie-goers, as I say, to excavate the accuracy and inaccuracy of the film, how much money it grossed, and some of the reviews now available. -Ron Price with thanks to 1Channel 7 TV, 8:30, 9 December 2014.
I am interested here in exploring my study of the Middle Ages during my 70 year lifespan. I have written extensively on my website at this link: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/HISTORY-medieval.html, and readers can access several dozen pages of my commentary on that period of history. I could only find one prose-poem in my oeuvre that even mentions the Middle Ages and I quote it below:
Part 3.1:
CIRCUMNAVIGATION
Four hundred years(1519 to 1919) after Ferdinand Magellan and 237 men left Seville1 and began the first successful attempt of humankind to circumnavigate the globe, 'Abdu'l-Baha's Tablets of the Divine Plan were unveiled in New York. The early 16th century is generally seen as the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the early modern period.
Those Tablets are generally seen by the Bahá'í community as beginning a new pioneering period. They initiated another attempt to circumnavigate the world but, this time, in spiritual terms. An English edition of all those tablets was published in 1936 just as the North American Baha'is were planning their first formal teaching program, the Seven Year Plan, which began in May 1937. The year I joined the Baha'i Faith, in 1959, those Tablets were published in book form under the title Tablets of the Divine Plan for the first time.2-Ron Price with thanks to 1&2 Wikipedia.
Only 18 men returned to Spain
in that harrowing voyage and
this new voyage was also just
as harrowing and is not for the
timid and the overwrought, not
for the vainly pious, those who
are pusillanimous of spirit, nor
the bloodless prigs among us...
This much is plain: the journey
is not for those wary & in despair
of love------this trip on unvariable
storm-lashed brigs....unreasonable
rains, long waits for salient doves
to bring living twigs....with a lean
provision of devotion, with weeks
& months of never-ending dark.
This is no vacation with unhygienic
perils such as chronic & committed
rapture or incipient dedication; forget
your notions of some luxury cruise.1
It was that way for Magellan, and
circumnavigation still has problems
in this new globalizing-planetization
age we all live in this its new terrors.
1 With thanks to Roger White, "A Parable for the Wrong People," The Witness of Pebbles, George Ronald, Oxford, 1981, pp.69-71.
Ron Price
19/7/ '09 to 10/12/'14.
Until my first two years at university, 1963 to 1965, in Ontario I took no courses in, did no study of, the period known as the Middle Ages. I took one course in the first year of an arts degree, and one in my second year, while studying history and philosophy, courses that covered some part of that period in history. In my years of being a teacher and tutor, a lecturer and adult educator, from 1967 to 2005, I often read about what I always found to be a complex period in history. But, then, I have found that the more I know about a period in history, the more complex it gets.
Historical period drama is a film genre in which stories are based upon historical events and famous people. Some historical dramas are docudramas which attempt an accurate portrayal of a historical event or biography. Of course, it is only accurate to the degree that the available historical research will allow. Other historical dramas are fictionalized tales that are based on an actual person and their deeds, such as Braveheart, which is loosely based on the 13th-century knight William Wallace's fight for Scotland's independence.
There are now dozens of films and docudramas beginning, arguably, in 1937 with Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal. Those involving the Middle Ages include: Alexander Nevsky in 1938; Theodora, Slave Empress in 1954, The Raid of the Aegean in 1946, The Life and Death of King John in 1951, and several others. For more on this genre go to Wikipedia.
I remember well being thrown
information by the truckload
as I went through those first
two years of university back
in those calamitous years of
the 1960s..I remember, too,
those little stories of Robin
Hood on our TV before my
parents sold it to save me
from being inundated by
trivia as the world tried to
forget the terrors of those
war years, the holocaust,
the A-bomb, & at the same
time drown us all in simple,
superficial proprieties, far
removed from genitalia.1
Then rock-'n' roll woke us
up from our day-dream of
Mr Clean, luxury without
stress, Negroes, Indians &
all those Hollywood's icons.
Those docudramas in cinema
would have helped my teaching
of history; beginning about the
time my parents met in the late
1930s, and at the same time as
the Baha'i community launched
its 1st systematic teaching Plans,
they help to bring history alive to
the millions who find it a very dry
graveyard of distant information!!
1 D.T. Miller and M. Nowak, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were, Doubleday & Co. Ltd., N.Y., 1977, p. 302.
10/12/'14.
married for 47 years, a teacher for 32, a student for 18, a writer and editor for 15 and a Baha'i for 55(in 2014)
caldrail
Location: Rushey Platt
Quote caldrail
Quote Reply Posted: 04 Jan 2015 at 21:42
The real Robin Hood was more than likely a right peasant villain. Will Scarlet, one of his colleagues in the romances, is a name derived from 'lockpicker'.
The idea of Robin Hood as a disinherited noble is an invention of the Victorian Age.
http://www.unrv.com/forum/blog/31-caldrails-blog/
Thanks, Caldrail, for your contribution. Whatever the source, robin Hood has certainly caught the imagination of popular culture. Since Robin Hood is a character in the public domain, there is no restriction on his use. Thus, he has often appeared in series that do not necessarily revolve around the legend, particularly in cartoons or a science fiction and fantasy setting. The following are some of the notable adaptations of the Robin Hood story in film and television....at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_and_television_series_featuring_Robin_Hood
Edited by RonPrice - 05 Jan 2015 at 10:19
toyomotor
Location: Tasmania, AUST.
Quote toyomotor
caldrail wrote:
I agree with you. Throughout history, there many examples of outright criminals being portrayed as heroes of the oppressed peasantry.
The uneducated peasantry had only one way to pass on stories, and that was by the telling-over years, this bit was added and that bit was added to spice the story up a bit, and so it passed into time as "fact".
It's not that I was born in Ireland,
It's the Ireland that was born in me.
RonPrice wrote:
something about ROBIN HOOD
Ron:
How about writing some of your own "reflections" as opposed to merely copying a passage of text from someone elses work?
By writing comments of your own you create the opportunity for others to debate or discuss your views, leading to a far more interesting thread.
Being an ex-teacher, I would have expected that you would know that a "forum" is a venue for discussion and debate, not re-publishing another persons work.
Edited by Northman - 07 Jan 2015 at 10:03


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Review: I.O.U.S.A. - America's big debt crisis told through a skewed lens
How much is the Federal Debt as a percentage of GDP? Do you understand why that's a critical problem? What does it mean that China is the worlds biggest exporter, and the U.S. is the worlds biggest importer? What do you think is the real cause for the current economic mess? Just how fiscally irresponsible was George W Bush and the other Republicans since 1980?
I.O.U.S.A. is a movie that goes over these questions and go. It's an excellent movie in many respects that I largely agree with. It is also a partisan movie which means I expect it's presenting a slanted point of view, especially considering the main person, David Walker, was President Bush's Comptroller General. The movie focuses on a nationwide Fiscal Wakeup Tour with David Walker and the Concord Coalition going around the country teaching what they said to be a message of fiscal discipline both for the national government and for individuals.
I.O.U.S.A.
The movie begins with a voice saying "I would argue the biggest threat facing the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility". Of course at the moment I'm writing this is after the death of Osama bin Laden. We know he wasn't hiding in a cave in Afghanistan, but in a well off lifestyle in a fancy home in Pakistan.
Immediately after that quote, with "fiscal irresponsibility" still hanging in your ears, it launches into a series of statements by U.S. Presidents about the need to conquer the national debt. The first being Pres. Reagan, who was one of the most egregious of the national debt builders we've had.
In that series of quotes was Pres. Clinton who, upon signing the first balanced Federal Budget, declared the U.S. was on track for budget surpluses for the next 25 years. Later in the movie they talked with Robert Rubin, Clintons Treasury Secretary, who explained this further. He claimed that they had found a political consensus around fiscal discipline, and when he left office in 1999 he thought it (fiscal discipline) had become a permanent part of Washington. But the next President, GW Bush, threw that all out the window.
The theme of the movie is to discuss four deficits: Budget, Savings, Balance of Payments, Leadership
Budget Deficit: There's a history with federal budget deficits going back to the Revolutionary war, and every war has been funded by running a debt. In the past the government had enough fiscal discipline to pay down the debt after the war was finished. Starting in the 1960's the government stopped that policy. And more egregiously, President Reagan was the first U.S. President to run big deficits for a reason other than war. His theory was the idiotic trickle down give tax cuts to the rich and eventually it'll make us all rich idiocy.
The important measure is the Deficit as a percentage of GDP, or Gross Domestic Product. Essentially that ratio is what determines how sound the economic situation is, and the ability of the country to handle the debt load.
Again the history of Deficit/GDP is that the percentage rose during war-time, and after the war it would drop again. Beginning with Reagan the percentage began climbing, and climbing, with the only pause being the Clinton years. The GW Bush years were a precipitous rise in this percentage.
Low Savings Rate: Much of the movie centers around a low savings rate in the U.S. In the past we were encouraged to have a high savings rate but since WWII the mantra has been to spend, spend, and spend some more. Consumption is what drives the economy today. As a result many people are living paycheck-paycheck with very little savings. Silly people.
David Walker is quoted saying the high rate of foreign ownership of the national debt is because of the low savings rate. Uh... I thought this was because of the high imbalance of trade but I suppose a high savings rate would mean more of the national debt is owned by Americans.
This is a national security issue - the high rate of foreign ownership of the national debt.
Balance of Trade / Payments: This is the ratio of exports and imports. A factoid tossed out during the movie is to list the countries by their trade balance. China exports the most, hence imports the most money, and the U.S. imports the most, hence exports the most money.
A factoid said right after that is: Buying more than you're selling results in your trading partners owning you.
This was demonstrated by an article written by Warren Buffet - Squandersville versus Thriftville. In Squandersville the mantra is spend spend spend, whereas in Thriftville the mantra is Live beneath your means and a high savings rate.
Basically the U.S. is Squandersville and China is Thriftville. The pattern is that Squandersville is exporting money and will eventually run out of money and will have to start selling parts of its hard assets like land and buildings. Eventually Thriftville will end up owning every square inch of Squandersville.
For a practical example they went to a scrap yard showing machines grinding up cars to make scrap metal of the sort used in mills to make new metal. The owner of the scrap yard explained they used to send the metal to domestic (U.S.) mills but nowadays they're sending it to foreign mills in China and elsewhere. In other words, the U.S. has killed off its industrial base and the only export we have is scrap metal.
Another assertion made is the immorality of one generation to spend the next generation's money. That's what happens when the government runs up such a big debt. This generation, us, we who are enjoying the fruits of that debt, we cannot pay off that debt. Who will pay it off? Our children?
Leadership Deficit: The movie talks a lot about the lack of political will to do anything about this. The responsibility lies with everyone involved in government. Earlier I mentioned how it's Republican Presidents who've been the worst about this, and they have, but really it's the whole set of people in Washington. They've become addicted to wasting our money.
The movie was filmed before the crash of 2008.
Given that the main person in the movie, David Walker, was GW Bush's Comptroller General, and hence in charge of the General Accounting Office, it strikes me that this guy has quite a bit of responsibility for the crash of 2008. He spoke a great line of reasoning in the movie about fiscal responsibility, but the GW Bush Administration was anything but fiscally responsible. In fact the movie itself does point a finger at the Bush Administration and while it doesn't outright say they were fiscally irresponsible, it strongly implies this.
Somehow the movie does not lay any blame on David Walker, however. But that could be because the whole thing is an infomercial for the Pete Peterson Foundation and a project which David Walker was hired by the Peterson Foundation to lead. In other words, one slant in the movie is to present the Concord Coalition and the Peterson Foundation and David Walker as saviors of mankind with a mission to educate us on fiscal responsibility.
I personally support having more people educated on fiscal responsibility. I just have a hunch that this movie is slanted towards a partisan message of some sort. In particular I hear in the movie some echo's of some of the Tea Party nonsense.
A recommended movie - just take it with a grain of salt.
Posted by David Herron at 9:23 PM
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text:
Q: Basic syntax question for shared_ptr I am new to the shared_ptr. I have a few questions regarding the syntax of C++0x shared_ptr as below:
//first question
shared_ptr<classA>ptr(new classA()); //works
shared_ptr<classA>ptr;
ptr = ?? //how could I create a new object to assign it to shared pointer?

//second question
shared_ptr<classA>ptr2; //could be tested for NULL from the if statement below
shared_ptr<classA> ptr3(new classA());
ptr3 = ?? //how could I assign NULL again to ptr3 so that the if statement below becomes true?

if(!ptr3) cout << "ptr equals null";

A: shared_ptr<classA> ptr;
ptr = shared_ptr<classA>(new classA(params));
// or:
ptr.reset(new classA(params));
// or better:
ptr = make_shared<classA>(params);

ptr3 = shared_ptr<classA>();
// or
ptr3.reset();

Edit: Just to summarize why make_shared is preferred to an explicit call to new:

*

*Some (all?) implementation use one memory allocation for the object constructed and the counter/deleter. This increases performance.

*It's exception safe, consider a function taking two shared_ptrs:
f(shared_ptr<A>(new A), shared_ptr<B>(new B));

Since the order of evaluation is not defined, a possible evaluation may be: construct A, construct B, initialize share_ptr<A>, initialize shared_ptr<B>. If B throws, you'll leak A.

*Separation of responsibility. If shared_ptr is responsible for deletion, make it responsible for the allocation too.

A: try ptr3.reset(NULL)

A:
how could I create a new object to
  assign it to shared pointer?

You have to "reset" the shared pointer :
classA* my_pointer = new classA();
shared_ptr<classA>ptr;
ptr.reset( my_pointer );

how could I assign NULL again to ptr3
  so that the if statement below becomes
  true?

Again, by using reset but with no argument( or null)
ptr3.reset();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Q: Why doesn't minimizing the Lagrangian derivative with regards to the multiplier work? Given a typical optimization problem for a scalar function of a vector $x$ with a set of equality constraints
$$
\min_x f(x)\\
\text{s.t.}\quad g(x)=\mathbf{0}
$$
To solve the above, one would define a Lagrangian function with a vector of multipliers for each of the constraints as follows
$$
\mathcal{L}(x,\lambda) = f(x)+g(x)^T\lambda
$$
Using subscripts to denote differentiation, the solution $(x^*,\lambda^*)$ is found when
$$
\mathcal{L}_x(x^*,\lambda^*)=0
$$
When solving using numerical method, one would use the Hessian to solve the following systems of equations to calculate a step
$$
\left(\begin{matrix}\mathcal{L}_{xx} & g_x^T \\ g_x & 0\end{matrix}\right)
\left(\begin{matrix}s_x \\ s_\lambda \end{matrix}\right) =
\left(\begin{matrix}-\mathcal{L}_x \\ -g \end{matrix}\right)
$$
such that the system will proceed to a new point $(x+s_x,\lambda+s_\lambda)$. In my experience with solving this linear system, setting the initial $\lambda$ to be large is usually enough to make it the solver run smoothly.
Now, since the solution requires $\mathcal{L}_x=0$, in order to accelerate the process I am tempted to try solve the following problem
$$
\min_\lambda \frac{1}{2}|\mathcal{L}_x|^2
$$
for which the minimizing $\lambda$ is found at
$$
\lambda = -(g_xg_x^T)^{-1}g_xf_x
$$
So this $\lambda$ would be calculated first, and after that, $\mathcal{L}_{x}$ and $\mathcal{L}_{xx}$. But when I tried this trick, the solver failed miserably. Why is that so?

A: If there are fewer constraints than variables, then $g: \mathbb{R}^K \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^J$ with $J<K$. If the constraints are not redundant then $rk(g_x(x))=J$.
The optimal values satisfy the first order conditions
$$ f_x(x)+g_x(x)^T\lambda=0,$$
a system of $K$ equations with $K+J$ unknown $(x,\lambda)$.
After inserting your expression for $\lambda$ into the first order conditions, you obtain the reduced system of $K$ equations and $K$ unknown:
\begin{equation} \tag{1}
(I_K-g_x^T(g_xg_x^T)^{-1}g_x)f_x(x)=0.
\end{equation}
This system has an infinite number of solutions. Indeed, the matrix $P:=g_x^T(g_xg_x^T)^{-1}g_x$ is an orthogonal projector onto $col(g^T_x)$, and $rk(P)=J<K$. The matrix $I_K-g_x^T(g_xg_x^T)^{-1}g_x$ is an orthogonal projector onto $col^\perp (g^T_x)$ and the rank of this matrix is $K-J$.
If you consider only the system (1), your solution is undetermined, but if you exploit the information comprised in the $J$ constraints $g(x)=0$ and include them to the system (1) of $K-J$ independent equations, this would be helpful to reduce the indeterminatness of the solution, and to find possibly a finite number of solutions.


text:
Shell's Alaska return shows Arctic drilling defies oil price slump
Royal Dutch Shell's plan to return to the Arctic this year shows exploration in one of the world's most remote regions is proving resilient against the slide in crude prices.
Environmental activists took to the harbor at Port Angeles protesting Shell's massive Arctic drill rig arrival on Friday April 17, 2015 Alan Berner / AP
By Rakteem Katakey and Mark Drajem
Royal Dutch Shell's plan to return to the Arctic this year shows exploration in one of the world's most remote regions is proving resilient against the slide in crude prices.
The U.S. Interior Department on Monday endorsed Shell's plan to have two rigs drill as many as six exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. Shell wants to resume work halted in 2012 when its main drilling rig ran aground and was lost. It also was fined for air pollution violations.
Shell, which has already committed $6 billion to the Arctic project, is seeking to unlock Arctic resources that may total 10 times the amount of oil and gas produced from the North Sea so far, according to its website. Arctic oil is also being chased by Russia, though drilling has been slowed by sanctions. While exploration drilling in Norway's Arctic will slow in 2015 to half last year's level, at least seven wells are planned in the Barents Sea.
The activity shows the long-term opportunity of Arctic oil trumping the drop in oil prices in a world where few large fields remain to be discovered.
"The Arctic is the next big frontier," said Ahmed Ben Salem, a Paris-based analyst with Oddo & Cie, which has a buy rating on Shell. "It's also an expensive place to drill, even as Shell and other oil companies are looking to cut drilling expenditures because of lower oil prices."
Two Rigs
Shell is planning a two-year drilling program in the Arctic starting this year if all approvals come through, Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said April 30. It plans to use two rigs in the program to explore about 70 miles (112 kilometers) from the village of Wainwright. The drilling will take place in 140 feet (43 meters) of water.
Shell, which discovered oil in the same part of the ocean in 1986, is the first major explorer to return to the region since the last offshore Arctic drilling boom fizzled almost 30 years ago amid slumping crude prices.
Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and other producers have discovered more than 10 billion barrels of oil in North American Arctic seas since the early 1970s. Those resources remain locked beneath the sea floor because of a lack of pipeline capacity to haul them to markets.
Oil exploration and production companies in the past decade stepped up plans to drill in the Arctic, using technology that may let them reach the reserves trapped in the sea floor beneath ice. The Arctic seas contain an estimated 24 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Step Foward
Abigail Ross Hopper, director at the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Management, said on Bloomberg Television on Monday that other companies probably will "wait and see how Shell prevails" in the region. The U.S. approval is "an important step forward for Shell," she said in the interview.
Shell's plan to return to the Arctic and the U.S. approval itself are being resisted by the environmental groups. Greenpeace activists occupied Shell's oil rig in the Pacific last month in their latest effort to stop drilling in Alaska.
"British shareholders should be very concerned about Shell's irresponsible plans to drill in Alaskan waters," Rod Downie, Polar Programmes Manager at WWF U.K., said in an e-mail. "Arctic wildlife is already threatened by warming temperatures and loss of sea ice.
Test Wells
Shell drilled two test wells in 2012 after spending about $6 billion over almost a decade in preparation.
In its review, the Interior Department found that drilling at in site in the Chukchi Sea would have no significant environmental impact. In approving Shell's plan, the government listed 18 conditions, including a requirement that the company get other needed permits and that it comply with endangered species protections.
"The approval of our revised Chukchi Sea Exploration Plan is an important milestone and signals the confidence regulators have in our plan," Curtis Smith, a spokesman for Shell, said in an e-mail. "However, before operations can begin this summer, it's imperative that the remainder of our permits be practical, and delivered in a timely manner."
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Holiday to celebrate dragon-slaying or death of 2,000 Frenchmen
ENGLAND faces the tantalising choice of a national holiday that celebrates either the slaying of a fictional animal by a made-up saint or the violent deaths of a great many French people.
Ministers believe the May Day bank holiday has become bloated and inefficient while also failing to give people 24 hours off work in a sufficiently English manner.
They now want a national debate on whether England should have a holiday on April 23, in commemoration of a legendary Syrian for whom there is not a shred of historical evidence, or October 21, marking the day when undereducated men from across Europe died to satisfy the armchair whims of a handful of egomaniacal sociopaths.
The government said Trafalgar Day could also be a 'British celebration' based on the assumption that Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh people enjoy the death of a Frenchman as much as anyone.
But Julian Cook, professor of French suffering at Reading University, said: "If we just want to celebrate a large number of French deaths then what about October 2, a key moment in the Battle of Alesia in 52BC which ultimately claimed the lives of up to 90,000 Frenchmen?
"Or, if we really want to do it properly, we should go for February 21, marking the beginning of the Battle of Verdun which saw 163,000 greasy frog-munchers die in a ditch."
Meanwhile, campaigners who said the new holiday could mark Shakespeare's birthday, the release of Sergeant Pepper or the discovery of penicillin by a Scottish person in an English laboratory have been dismissed as communists and homosexuals.
Tom Logan, a leading theologian and assistant dean of Winchester cathedral, said: "I tend to favour celebrating the fictional deaths of giant monsters, so I'd like a day off to commemorate Luke Skywalker killing the Rancor in Return of the Jedi.
"By the time they get to the Sarlacc pit you can see that it's actually quite sunny outside so I reckon it was probably early May."
Cupcakes will not plug gaping chasm where your soul used to be, say experts
SMALL cakes with brightly-coloured icing will not bring boundless childish glee to your meaningless existence, it has been confirmed.
The Institute for Studies has spent the last two years studying the lingering trend for cupcakes as an adult food, at a self-consciously quirky tea shop called something like 'Little Missy Yum Yum' or 'Alice's Adventures in Cakeland' where every purchase somehow always comes to at least a tenner.
Professor Henry Brubaker said: "One of our key findings is that cupcakes are actually for children.
"We also found that the adult cupcake eaters were predominantly females with too much disposable income who are either trapped in damaging relationships, have recently had their heart shattered into a million tiny pieces or who simply hate themselves because of who they really are.
"Whatever the problem, the cupcake, be it 'Scrummy Strawbie', 'Banana Baby Bear' or 'Nanna Noo-Noo's Nougat Nicie', is not the answer, it's actually the question."
Trend analyst Nikki Hollis said: "For many grown-ups cupcakes offer a portal to the halcyon days of childhood, when the world was full of wonder, colour and excitement. It's pathetic.
"You should eat your cupcake while riding a skateboard and wearing jeans with little loops to hang pretend tools off of.
"Then you can go back home and cry yourself to sleep or read yet another leaflet about erectile dysfunction.
"Oh, and before I forget, men who like cupcakes are obviously paedophiles and you should tell the police to confiscate their laptops."
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