'Jesus's Wife' papyrus fragment not a forgery, scientists say

[happyslug]

88. I did make one mistake, it appear Josephus wrote in Aramaic NOT Greek

And the Greek Version we have, while done by Josephus, was done under the advise of Greek Literary people. Thus the Slovak version may be a translation from the Aramaic version, that was re-written in Greek after making the changes that are in today's Greek Version of Josephus. Given that Vespasian was a Native Latin Speaker AND probably knew Greek, Vespasian input may have been to the Greek Version, for Vespasian did not care about the Aramaic version (or worse, to the speakers of Aramaic and its related languages, including Egyptians and Arabic, Vespasian wanted those items related to Christ in the book, but he did NOT want them in the Greek Version.

We see the same method used today. I live in Pennsylvania and we in Western Pennsylvania tend to see completely different political commercials from state wide candidates then are seen in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. The reason is the attitude of the population is different, and thus Politician market themselves differently in the Eastern Part of the State then in the Mountains and Western Part of the State. I remember the 1980 Democratic Primary election for President. In that election the State split right down the middle, the Eastern half went for Edward Kennedy, the Western Half for Jimmy Carter. Remember we are talking about Democratic Voters only, but when people looked at who voted for whom, every group that voted for Kennedy in the Eastern Half of the State, voted for Carter in the Western Half. It is the best example I know of showing how people can appear similar, but also be different and thus you have to adjust your campaign for the differences.

This "knowledge" is not knew, and may explain the differences between the Slovak version and the Greek Version, i.e. the Slovak version is NOT a translation of an earlier Greek Version, but the original Aramaic Version. In simple terms it was intended for Arabs, Jews, Syrians, and Egyptians, but NOT Greeks or Latin Speakers. On the other hand the existing Greek version may have been intended for Greek and Latin speakers.

Side note: In the era from Augustus to Constantine, the Empire encouraged Roman and Greek pagan Religions, but NOT Egyptian Pagan religions. Why that was the case, I have never truly found a good reason for this policy, but it appears that it was a continuance of what the Greek Rulers of Egypt had implanted and Rome saw no reason to change the policy. On the other hand, while it was NOT encouraged Rome, appeared NOT to have discriminated against it excessively (When Christians were being persecuted, followers of the Egyptian religions tended to be persecuted also).

This is weird, for the Empire was about 40% Latin Speakers (or speakers of other languages but their local ruling elite spoke Latin), 30 % Greek and 40% close relatives to Egyptian (i.e, Aramaic, Arabic and in addition to Egyptian). It took over 200 years for an Egyptian to become a Senator, something every other conquered area achieved within 20 years (the rationale given was Egyptian were to two faced to be trusted as a Senator). Egypt was also the only province that it was FORBIDDEN for a Senator to go to without express Imperial Permission (The Emperors knew Rome's Grain Supply came from Egypt and was NOT going to have a Senator go to Egypt and lead it into revolt thus tying up the Grain supply for Rome itself). Egypt was ruled by a member of the Equestrian order, not a Patrician or Senator. Thus Egypt had a special place within the Empire, and the Empire looked at Egypt as both an asset and something to be feared.

Just a comment on Egypt within the Roman Empire, it was part, yet it was not.