Roger Pearse

I thought I would give an update on this project, as I know some readers of the forum have expressed interest in it. But a bit of context first, for newcomers.

Few people today know that Eusebius of Caesarea wrote a work in three books on divergences between the gospels, and how he explained them. The work is lost, but an Abridged Selection was discovered ca. 1820 by Angelo Mai in the Vatican, consisting of 16 'questions' about the start of the gospels and 4 'questions' about differences in the endings. Using this he also discovered large chunks of the work quoted in medieval Greek bible commentaries. These he published as "Quaestiones ad Stephanum" and "Quaestiones ad Marinum", plus "supplementa".

Nearly two centuries later, no modern translation of all this has ever been made, and certainly not into English.

A couple of years ago I hired some translators to make such a translation. This involved Greek, Latin and Syriac; and while doing it I discovered materials also in Coptic and Arabic.

Regular readers will be familiar with all this, I know. But I thought people might like to know that the book is complete, and has been typeset. It comes to about 430 pages, once you include the original text on facing pages, as I have arranged to have done.

My intention is to make the translation freely available online, in the end. But of course it cost several thousand dollars to get this all done. So what I intend to do is make it available in book form first. I'm hoping that sales of the book -- which will include the original languages, which I can't put online for copyright reasons -- will cover this cost. If they do, then I can send the money round again and commission more books (a second one, comprising everything Origen ever wrote on Ezechiel, is nearly done; I have an idea for a third one, if I can hire a translator), which will ultimately end up online, and so on.

So ... progress on this. It is likely that the book will be available for purchase in a month or two.

I hope that is useful, and I encourage everyone to support the project.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

PhilosopherJay

Hi Roger,

This sounds great.

I would be interested in reading it. I hope you can keep the price reasonable, between $10-$25. I'm often disappointed when I find that works I am interested to read come out costing $50-$100. Then, I just have to place them on my wishlist and wait until someone sells a used copy on Amazon.

Warmly,

Philosopher Jay

aa5874

Now, once Jesus did not exist BEFORE the Fall of the Temple then perhaps we have another case of documented perjury.

Surely there could have been no birth records of a man who was born of a virgin and remained or was still was a virgin after the birth.

1. If Mary claimed Joseph was the father of Jesus that would have been a lie.

2. If Mary claimed Jesus had no earthly father that too would have also been a lie.

3. If Mary claimed she had a baby while she was a still virgin that would have been a lie.

Matthew 1.23-25 It is extremely difficult to resolve the problems in the Gospels without LYING. Eusebius can do that?

Roger Pearse

I wish we could print at that price! But I'm sorry to tell you that it costs $13.10 simply to get a book of 430 pages printed at Lulu.com. (P&P is on top of that). Most books of this type are sold to libraries, where the price is not key. My thinking is to do a hardback for them, and a paperback for the rest of us. I'd hoped to price the latter at $45.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Chili

Oh, but that is so easy to do and I do not know much about Eusebius but if I can do it why is it not possible for him to do it. Now, I am sure that from the pulpit he can not say what I do here so he may have to do some fancy footwork that in a roundabout way means the same and call it "the mystery of faith."

I hold and maintain that Jesus was the reborn Joseph and that lines everything up. The footwork you can do yourself as I have no time and If I did you would not believe it anyway. So do yourself a favor and convince yourself.

In "Coriolanus" the three women who accomplish this are [virgin] Virgilia who is Mary, [voluminous] Volumnia is Elizabeth and [valorous] Valeria is Magdalena.

To give you a headstart keep in mind that the woman was never banned from Eden and remains in seclusion 'behind the green wall' (of "WE"), which is the veil in our skull that divides our left and right brain. Oh yes, and she is on the other side, likely singing halleluia's from behind the veil that echo's in our sanctuary so we can dance into the future as responder.

Naturally, each generation will have it's own courage and so Valeria is easy to locate but the most enigmatic Virgin is not so easy. In fact, She is the one who pulls our strings and so it is that she must find us.

stephan huller

Roger deserves to be thanked and praised to the highest degree in getting this project completed. I will certainly buy it. I am also eagerly awaiting the completion of his Origen translation project to. No single individual has done more to advance the dissemination of writings of the earliest writings related to Christianity than Roger. He is a 'true gnostic.' We live in a better world because of him. Thank you Roger.

Chili

I'll second that for sure, but not that i will buy it. It is just not my thing but must at once admit that I like reading about it and am actually surprised that anyone cares about it. Thank you Roger.

Roger Pearse

Stephan, Chili, I appreciate the encouragement, really I do. Of course I don't expect anyone to actually buy copies, but I will do my best to make affordable copies available, and eventually the whole thing will be online. All grist to the mill; these texts contain any amount of tedious gunk, but then you get bits that justify the effort.

At the moment I'm going through the Greek side of the text, applying fixes and it is deathly stuff (which I had to break off for a moment, as I could take no more!)

The Origen book is nearly done, but thankfully the translator is on holiday so I don't have to think about it. I don't think I could cope with both it and the Eusebius just at the moment. It IS very interesting, the process whereby a book is created professionally; but I'm glad I didn't know when I started or I might not have tried!

The translation of all the fragments of Philip of Side is nearly done, and will be given away free. The remains of the commentary of Polychronius (5th century, brother of Theodore of Mopsuestia) on the book of Daniel are in progress; not decided what to do about these. The latter are interesting because Polychronius agrees with Porphyry that Daniel is a Maccabean production, if I understand correctly.

I'm hoping to commission some more texts. The need is translators. If I could commission 10 books, I would.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

avi

Thanks, Roger, I also will purchase the book. I appreciate your effort.

I confess that I do not share your enthusiasm for the old texts, which I find, essentially, fraudulent. But, the caveat is, that one must nevertheless examine the material, to verify that the forgery/interpolation has occurred.

So, while I am philosophically opposed to the concept that one can study post-fourth century manuscripts, and actually learn something from them, I am not deterred from the daunting task of reading the material.

I think we badly underestimate the amount of damage to previous editions, that was accomplished in the centuries following Constantine, as well as the chaos of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, when much of the original myth was propagated.

Roger, you have done, and continue to do, great work. Thanks.

avi

Roger Pearse

Thank you very much for your encouragement!