How do you feel about burning books?

[Radagast]

Is there such a thing as ancient books?

Law book of Hammurabi, 1754 BC (it also exists on clay tablets):

 

[Robban]

Law book of Hammurabi, 1754 BC (it also exists on clay tablets):

Scrolls and tablets, the Big Ten were given on two tablets, stone.
.

 

[Radagast]

Scrolls and tablets, the Big Ten were given on two tablets, stone.

Stone and clay tablets last. Also gold:

 

[Robban]

Stone and clay tablets last. Also gold:

Golden calf too.

 

[Radagast]

Golden calf too.

You miss my point. That gold thing is an actual book (with writing on pages), from around 550 BC. Being gold, it hasn't rusted.

Gold, stone, and hardened clay last.

Scrolls and codexes, not so much (although there are scraps of Egyptian papyrus going back to 2500 BC or so).

 

[Robban]

You miss my point. That gold thing is an actual book (with writing on pages), from around 550 BC. Being gold, it hasn't rusted.

Gold, stone, and hardened clay last.

Scrolls and codexes, not so much (although there are scraps of Egyptian papyrus going back to 2500 BC or so).

Well, there is a Book and books.

Middle of the night,

middle of Indian ocean,

on watch and bored stiff,

so suddenly I saw a Book being opened and a hand,

I did not get to see what was written.

Just as well, would reckon.

 

[cloudyday2]

Is there such a thing as ancient books?

When the vikings passed by where I live they left their accounts engraved in the rocks and can be seen today, though not exactly ancient, there were no books.

There are the clay tablets from the Mesopotamian cultures. Archaeologists discovered a lot of clay tablets in Ugarit on the northern boundary of Israel. Sometimes words in Hebrew with ambiguous meaning because they only occur once in the Bible can be found in the clay tablets of Ugarit to clarify their meaning. Also many of the Psalms follow the poetic style also found in Ugarit. (Basically a phrase is repeated twice in the beginning of a story, because the stories were oral and the listener's minds might be wandering.)

It's a real shame that Israel didn't use clay tablets. They would have also been good exercise. When the Bible said to wear the Torah on your forehead, those people would have developed strong neck muscles

 

[Robban]

There are the clay tablets from the Mesopotamian cultures. Archaeologists discovered a lot of clay tablets in Ugarit on the northern boundary of Israel. Sometimes words in Hebrew with ambiguous meaning because they only occur once in the Bible can be found in the clay tablets of Ugarit to clarify their meaning. Also many of the Psalms follow the poetic style also found in Ugarit. (Basically a phrase is repeated twice in the beginning of a story, because the stories were oral and the listener's minds might be wandering.)

It's a real shame that Israel didn't use clay tablets. They would have also been good exercise. When the Bible said to wear the Torah on your forehead, those people would have developed strong neck muscles

The Tefillin contains pieces of parchment with texts..

 

[cloudyday2]

The Tefillin contains pieces of parchment with texts..

I had to look up "tefillin" and here is a good link for anybody interested:
What Are Tefillin?

Probably you are already familiar with these silver prayer amulets found in a Jewish tomb. A documentary I watched described them as the oldest surviving quotation from the Torah.
Ketef Hinnom - Wikipedia

 

[Robban]

I had to look up "tefillin" and here is a good link for anybody interested:
What Are Tefillin?

Probably you are already familiar with these silver prayer amulets found in a Jewish tomb. A documentary I watched described them as the oldest surviving quotation from the Torah.
Ketef Hinnom - Wikipedia

No, I have never heard of them.

The texts of the Tefillin are;

Exodus 13:1-10,
Exodus 13:11-16,
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, (Sh'ma)
Deuteronomy 11:13-21.

 

[cloudyday2]

No, I have never heard of them.

The texts of the Tefillin are;

Exodus 13:1-10,
Exodus 13:11-16,
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, (Sh'ma)
Deuteronomy 11:13-21.

It is interesting that some of those verses relate to sacrificing the firstborn and redeeming the first born. There is a pattern in Genesis of firstborn sons losing their inheritance - Cain, Ishmael, and Essau. It seems connected.

According to this article, a husband with several wives must redeem the firstborn son of each wife for five shekels. So both Ishmael and Isaac needed to be redeemed. It seems that Isaac was redeemed for the value of one ram.

FIRST-BORN, REDEMPTION OF - JewishEncyclopedia.com

 

[Caliban]

Imagine you find a huge collection of ancient books from some extinct culture with religious beliefs and practices opposed to your own. There is a lot of new information about that culture in those books, but there is also a lot that disturbs and disgusts you.

Imagine you know that if these books become available to ordinary people then thousands or millions will fall away from your religion and go to hell (or some other bad fate).

(1) How do you feel about burning the books?
(2) How do you feel about not making these books a priority for digitization, preservation, and study?

In other words, you are choosing between preserving history and preserving souls.

I have zero concern about peoples souls--I see no evidence they have one. Burning books is always horrible.

 

[cloudyday2]

I have zero concern about peoples souls--I see no evidence they have one. Burning books is always horrible.

What if you are living in the medieval times, and you manage the copying of manuscripts.
- You can copy 100 books per year.
- You have a library of 100 distinct books of equally ragged condition
- 10 books are popular, 80 are less popular, 10 contain ideas that you find repugnant

Do you create one copy of all 100 books or do you create two copies of the popular books and skip the repugnant books?

 

[Caliban]

What if you are living in the medieval times, and you manage the copying of manuscripts.
- You can copy 100 books per year.
- You have a library of 100 distinct books of equally ragged condition
- 10 books are popular, 80 are less popular, 10 contain ideas that you find repugnant

Do you create one copy of all 100 books or do you create two copies of the popular books and skip the repugnant books?

Then I copy the most rare books.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Where they burn books, they will also burn people.

Heinrich Heine

 

[seeking.IAM]

I think burning books is always wrong. It assumes folks are incapable of considering and evaluating information on their own. I would like to decide on my own what offends my sensibilities rather than having someone else decide for me.

Nonetheless, I can think of two occasions in my life where I read books I considered so dreadful I marched them straight to the trash bin rather than the Goodwill donation box because I didn't want to be complicit in helping another person read such drivel. I have no objection if others found their way their way there on their own, but they weren't going to do it with my help. A wee bit of a double standard? Possibly.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Imagine you find a huge collection of ancient books from some extinct culture with religious beliefs and practices opposed to your own. There is a lot of new information about that culture in those books, but there is also a lot that disturbs and disgusts you.

Imagine you know that if these books become available to ordinary people then thousands or millions will fall away from your religion and go to hell (or some other bad fate).

(1) How do you feel about burning the books?
(2) How do you feel about not making these books a priority for digitization, preservation, and study?

In other words, you are choosing between preserving history and preserving souls.

I love books, generally speaking, and I don't think the presence of a book is a "make it or break it" situation in our society and world.

 

[cloudyday2]

I love books, generally speaking, and I don't think the presence of a book is a "make it or break it" situation in our society and world.

Are you saying you like books, but you don't think it is a big deal if some of them are lost occasionally?

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Are you saying you like books, but you don't think it is a big deal if some of them are lost occasionally?

No, not exactly. What I mean is, so what if there's a copy of Anton Lavey's, The Satanic Bible, lying ( in both senses of the word ) there on the coffee table? Even if I disagree with it, my perusal of it will at least inform me about a few of the ideas driving the mind of Anton Lavey and those like him ...

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Are you saying you like books, but you don't think it is a big deal if some of them are lost occasionally?

...sorry, I had to edit my post above. Please re-read it...............or burn it. Whichever strikes your fancy.