̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Bible

World's oldest Korean Bibles at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library

sjr81 — Wed, 22 May 2019 23:25:49 +0000

̽��ֱ��library is home to one of the most significant collections of early Korean bibles anywhere in the world.

Oldest recorded solar eclipse helps date the Egyptian pharaohs

sc604 — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 00:02:49 +0000

Using a combination of the biblical text and an ancient Egyptian text, the researchers were then able to refine the dates of the Egyptian pharaohs, in particular the dates of the reign of Ramesses the Great. ̽��ֱ��results are published in the Royal Astronomical Society journal Astronomy & Geophysics.

̽��ֱ��biblical text in question comes from the Old Testament book of Joshua and has puzzled biblical scholars for centuries. It records that after Joshua led the people of Israel into Canaan – a region of the ancient Near East that covered modern-day Israel and Palestine – he prayed: “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon. And the Sun stood still, and the Moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.”

“If these words are describing a real observation, then a major astronomical event was taking place - the question for us to figure out is what the text actually means,” said paper co-author Professor Sir Colin Humphreys from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, who is also interested in relating scientific knowledge to the Bible.

“Modern English translations, which follow the King James translation of 1611, usually interpret this text to mean that the sun and moon stopped moving,” said Humphreys, who is also a Fellow of Selwyn College. “But going back to the original Hebrew text, we determined that an alternative meaning could be that the sun and moon just stopped doing what they normally do: they stopped shining. In this context, the Hebrew words could be referring to a solar eclipse, when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, and the sun appears to stop shining. This interpretation is supported by the fact that the Hebrew word translated ‘stand still’ has the same root as a Babylonian word used in ancient astronomical texts to describe eclipses.”

Humphreys and his co-author, Graeme Waddington, are not the first to suggest that the biblical text may refer to an eclipse, however, earlier historians claimed that it was not possible to investigate this possibility further due to the laborious calculations that would have been required.

Independent evidence that the Israelites were in Canaan between 1500 and 1050 BC can be found in the Merneptah Stele, an Egyptian text dating from the reign of the Pharaoh Merneptah, son of the well-known Ramesses the Great. ̽��ֱ��large granite block, held in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, says that it was carved in the fifth year of Merneptah’s reign and mentions a campaign in Canaan in which he defeated the people of Israel.

Earlier historians have used these two texts to try to date the possible eclipse, but were not successful as they were only looking at total eclipses, in which the disc of the sun appears to be completely covered by the moon as the moon passes directly between the earth and the sun. What the earlier historians failed to consider was that it was instead an annular eclipse, in which the moon passes directly in front of the sun, but is too far away to cover the disc completely, leading to the characteristic ‘ring of fire’ appearance. In the ancient world, the same word was used for both total and annular eclipses.

̽��ֱ��researchers developed a new eclipse code, which takes into account variations in the Earth’s rotation over time. From their calculations, they determined that the only annular eclipse visible from Canaan between 1500 and 1050 BC was on 30 October 1207 BC, in the afternoon. If their arguments are accepted, it would not only be the oldest solar eclipse yet recorded, it would also enable researchers to date the reigns of Ramesses the Great and his son Merneptah to within a year.

“Solar eclipses are often used as a fixed point to date events in the ancient world,” said Humphreys. Using these new calculations, the reign of Merneptah began in 1210 or 1209 BC. As it is known from Egyptian texts how long he and his father reigned for, it would mean that Ramesses the Great reigned from 1276-1210 BC, with a precision of plus or minus one year, the most accurate dates available. ̽��ֱ��precise dates of the pharaohs have been subject to some uncertainty among Egyptologists, but this new calculation, if accepted, could lead to an adjustment in the dates of several of their reigns and enable us to date them precisely.

Reference
Colin Humphreys and Graeme Waddington. ‘Solar eclipse of 1207 BC helps to date pharaohs.’ Astronomy & Geophysics (2017). DOI: 10.1093/astrogeo/atx178.

Researchers have pinpointed the date of what could be the oldest solar eclipse yet recorded. ̽��ֱ��event, which occurred on 30 October 1207 BC, is mentioned in the Bible and could have consequences for the chronology of the ancient world.

If these words are describing a real observation, then a major astronomical event was taking place - the question for us to figure out is what the text actually means.

Colin Humphreys

Kevin Baird

Annular eclipse photographed at sunset in eastern New Mexico.

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̽��ֱ��Bible as a weapon of war

sjr81 — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 12:13:21 +0000

In 2012, one of the world’s most wanted war criminals, Joseph Kony, became one of the most repeated names on the planet thanks to a YouTube documentary (Kony 2012) and a call to action that sought to expose the terror and slaughter he inflicted on thousands of men, women and children in Central Africa.

Indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, Kony is now believed to be in hiding with his followers. He remains the genocidal leader of the murderous Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who claimed to have been sent by God to liberate the people of Northern Uganda from the rival National Resistance Army (NRA). From the start of their insurgency in 1987, Kony’s LRA claimed as their major objective the establishment of a government based on the Ten Commandments.

In the decades since, his army – often made up of thousands of forcibly conscripted child soldiers – have wounded, widowed and orphaned indiscriminately as they prosecuted a campaign of violence with a vigour befitting Kony’s vengeful readings of the Old Testament.

In the process, the LRA are thought to have displaced as many as two million Ugandans, the vast majority from Uganda’s Acholiland, where Kony originally hails from.

Today, Acholiland is a haunted place; haunted by the ghosts and memories of a recent past that has been written in blood rather than ink during nearly two decades of conflict.

But what happens when former LRA soldiers, those who have used the Bible as a weapon of war, return home from the front lines? How do former soldiers – male and female, adults and children – learn to reread and reinterpret scriptures that once spoke to them of fire and brimstone?

Kony says it is God who sent him to kill people so nobody should stop him. You know this thing is very difficult to understand as Kony refers us to the Bible... In Kony’s time, God has sent the Holy Spirit, and it is the one which is doing the work through Kony.
Zacchaeus, a former LRA commander

This is the puzzle facing Dr Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala from Makerere ̽��ֱ�� in Uganda. As a CAPREx fellow, she spent time in Cambridge working with Dr Emma Wild-Wood, from the Faculty of Divinity and the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide.

Nambalirwa Nkabala interviewed returning LRA soldiers in Uganda in order to examine how a positive engagement with biblical texts – especially those that seem to support violence – can help to promote peace instead.

She says: “My project identifies difficult texts in the Old Testament and seeks to identify the means by which they can be used in a constructive and meaningful way – with the central focus being on whether a particular interpretation promotes human dignity or not.

“ ̽��ֱ��way the LRA used the Bible, in a literal sense, to justify their violent actions has caused a complete overturn of the social and generational structures of the Acholi people.

“ ̽��ֱ��former LRA members I interviewed claim that all their actions are in accordance with Bible teachings; obedience to the law meant that anyone considered to have broken the Ten Commandments had to be destroyed.”

Kelly, a former child soldier, told Nambalirwa Nkabala that the Bible teaches that ‘somebody who does not obey must be killed’. This is the level of indoctrination that Cambridge researchers are trying to untangle as they work alongside Acholi leaders of varying denominations to promote peace and reconciliation using texts that were once wielded to justify murder on an industrial scale.

However, their work is complicated by the fact that Acholi cultural beliefs – as well as some readings of the Old Testament – also permit killing in exceptional circumstances, meaning that the LRA may have appropriated elements of Acholi culture to justify their own murderous ideology. For instance, the Achioli Chief and elders can pass ngolo kop me too – or ‘judgement of death’ – where killing is permitted, Likewise, Kony, a former altar boy in the Catholic Church, was brought up by a catechist father whom Nambalirwa Nkabala believes exposed him to Old Testament passages of death and punishment from an early age.

“Former LRA soldiers must be ready to reread the texts they were exposed to in a different way,” adds Nambalirwa Nkabala. “Texts with a violent message should be read with an ethical and nonviolent stance. Rather than passively accept what the text says, we must engage in dialogue with it. It is every Christian’s duty to expose and challenge any textual message which permits violence.

“ ̽��ֱ��Bible must be read contextually. By asking about the role of the text to a particular context, interpreters will automatically be pushed into the habit of checking what implications a particular reading/interpretation could have on a particular community.”

Wild-Wood met with Christian and Muslim leaders of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) during her trip to Uganda in 2015 as she sought to understand how the Bible is now being used to rebuild society. She was struck by the commitment to peace across differing faiths and denominations.

“A great deal of thought has gone into how former combatants can be rehabilitated,” says Wild-Wood. “From my focus groups, the religious leaders were optimistic about the future, but the challenges are many. They are dealing with people who are very traumatised. Some see the LRA soldiers as perpetrators, some see them as victims. But there is a recognition that people have dealt with awful situations – and may fall apart afterwards.”

When you look at what happened in the north and you go to the Bible and you read from the beginning to the last part you may find that 90 per cent of what happened here is in the Bible. Whatever has happened is exactly how God designed it.
Steve, a former LRA commander

Wild-Wood says that the ARLPI’s initial desire to publicise the atrocities being carried out by the LRA – and to protect civilians where possible – has now refocused to aid the process of reintegrating former combatants, and is working alongside international charities like World Vision to facilitate the transfer of former LRA soldiers from reception centres back to their communities.

“Projects of post-war reconciliation often engage with traditional beliefs and customs in order to effect lasting peace,” adds Wild-Wood. “Acholiland is no exception, and Acholi practices have been ultilised in restoring human relations. However, in the LRA and the wider population there are many Christians and a significant number of Muslims. It is important to engage the beliefs of those religious traditions when working towards long-term solutions to the destruction of society.”

While there may be a distance yet to travel, Nambalirwa Nkabala remains optimistic about Uganda’s future as it seeks to heal the deep scars caused by Kony and the decades of division and war he brought to his country.

“ ̽��ֱ��advantage in all this is that the Acholi have a deep sense of community and solidarity,” she says. “This is exemplified in the various means they use to reincorporate wrongdoers back into their community. If the Acholi communities can be encouraged to maintain their cultural values of healing and reconciliation – even while reading texts that may have a violent message – then they can in the future avoid situations that can lead to the destruction and erosion of these most important of values.”

Dr Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala was funded by the Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx) and ̽��ֱ��ALBORADA Trust, through the Cambridge-Africa Programme.

To keep up to date with the latest stories about Cambridge’s engagement with Africa, follow #CamAfrica on Twitter.

How do former Lord’s Resistance Army soldiers – men, women and children who have used the Bible as a weapon of war – learn to reread the scriptures once they return home? This is the puzzle facing researchers from Uganda and Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��way the LRA used the Bible, in a literal sense, to justify their violent actions has caused a complete overturn of the social and generational structures of the Acholi people."

Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala

Charles Roffey

Kony 2012

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Lines of Thought: Communicating Faith

sjr81 — Fri, 27 May 2016 14:43:49 +0000

As part of its 600th celebrations, the ̽��ֱ�� Library has made a series of six films – one for each of the six themes explored in Lines of Thought – with the latest film: Communicating Faith taking a close look at some iconic religious treasures across all the major faiths including Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

̽��ֱ��oldest item in Communicating Faith is a text for prayer, the so-called Nash Papyrus. Dating from the second century before Christ, the fragments on display in Cambridge contain the Ten Commandments and until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was the oldest surviving manuscript of any part of the Hebrew Bible.

However, one of the oldest and perhaps the most valuable items in the Library’s collections – and perhaps one of the stars of Lines of Thought – is a recovered text called the Codex Zacynthius.

Codex Zacynthius is a parchment book where the leaves have been scraped and rewritten (a palimpsest). What they rewrote was an 11th or 12th century text from the gospels, but underneath it is a very early text of the gospel of St Luke. This very early undertext was first deciphered in the 19th century. It’s now possible, using modern imaging techniques, to get a much more precise image of what this book would have looked like when it was written in the 6th or 7th century. Work will continue on the codex when the exhibition comes to an end in September.

̽��ֱ��translation of religious texts has always been central to the transmission of faith across barriers of religion and culture, but could be a perilous activity. William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament ultimately cost him his life. His pioneering translation survived, however. In 1611, the team of Cambridge scholars and theologians tasked with helping to prepare the text of the authoritative King James Bible drew heavily on Tyndale’s work.

Will Hale, who curated Communicating Faith, said: “Our copy of Tyndale’s New Testament was printed in Antwerp in 1534. Translating the Bible was an act of heresy at the time according to the mainstream church who thought the one true translation was the Vulgate into Latin and only the church had the right to interpret it to the people. Tyndale felt that even the ploughboys at the plough should be able to recite scripture in their own language. And of course, for his pains, he was strangled and burnt as a heretic two years after this translation was published.

“Today’s academics are exploiting digital technology to unearth new secrets from documents penned in antiquity. Cutting-edge multispectral imaging allows us to read texts erased from a seventh-century manuscript of the Gospel of Saint Luke, whilst dispersed collections of fragments of manuscripts from a Cairo synagogue are being painstakingly reunited in the digital realm.”

Some of the world’s most important religious texts are currently on display in Cambridge as part of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library’s 600th anniversary exhibition – Lines of Thought: Discoveries that Changed the World.

For his pains, Tyndale was strangled and burnt as a heretic two years after this translation was published.

Will Hale

Lines of Thought: Communicating Faith

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library

Detail from the Codex Zacynthius

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Reformation ‘recycling’ may have saved rare painting from destruction

sjr81 — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 00:43:23 +0000

Now on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum, ̽��ֱ��Kiss of Judas, is one of the rarest artworks of its type. At the time of the Reformation and during the English Civil War, church paintings were destroyed in their thousands. Few survive across the UK and of those that remain, many have been defaced. It is believed that up to 97% of English religious art was destroyed during and after the Reformation.

̽��ֱ��brightly-painted wooden panel, with details picked out in silver and gold leaf, dates from c.1460, is all the more astonishing as it depicts the moment of Christ’s betrayal, by Judas Iscariot. Devout Catholic parishioners often scratched and gouged at the hated figure of Judas, so the painting would have been at risk from Catholic and Protestant congregations alike during the intervening centuries.

̽��ֱ��remarkable discovery of the painting’s double life was revealed when it was purchased by the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2012 from the Church of St Mary, Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire. ̽��ֱ��church did not have the funds to conserve the work and maintain it in appropriate environmental conditions.

When the panel arrived at the Fitzwilliam’s Hamilton Kerr Institute for conservation, it had a considerable layer of surface dirt, bat faeces and heavily discoloured varnish which made it difficult to see the image.

But, it was a discovery on the back of the boards that revealed the remarkable story of how the painting survived.

̽��ֱ��reverse was covered with a more modern backing board of plywood. When conservator Dr Lucy Wrapson removed this, she found the back of the planks making up the painting had, under close inspection, faint traces of writing. 16th century lettering was revealed using infra-red photography, proving the painting had been recycled at the time of the Reformation, the offending image turned around and the back converted into a painted board. It is thought that it may have listed the Ten Commandments, typical of a Protestant church furnishing.

Dr Wrapson said: “We cannot know for sure why the painting was re-used in this fashion, perhaps it was simple economy, reversed so it could still fit the space for which it was intended. Or perhaps it could have been deliberately saved. ̽��ֱ��painting is fascinating, and conservation and cleaning has revealed the vibrant original medieval colours.”

̽��ֱ��painting was dated by dendrochronologist Ian Tyers. ̽��ֱ��panel is made up of boards imported to England from the eastern Baltic, Ian looked at the growth rings and identified the tree was felled after 1423 and estimated a usage date of c.1437-1469. Further non-invasive X-ray analysis and assessment using infra-red and ultraviolet light identified details, pigments and possible areas of fragility. Cleaning, protection of the wood from further insect damage, and a new layer of modern varnish have preserved the object for generations to come.

̽��ֱ��painting is on display in the Rothschild Gallery of medieval works in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Funds from the sale will now help fix the roof of St Mary’s. Entry to the museum is free.

A rare medieval painting depicting Judas’ betrayal of Christ may have survived destruction at the hands of 16th century iconoclasts after being ‘recycled’ to list the Ten Commandments instead.

We cannot know for sure why the painting was re-used in this fashion.

Lucy Wrapson

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Detail from ̽��ֱ��Kiss of Judas

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A conflict of Biblical proportions: How the Bible was used to turn the First World War into a Holy War

tdk25 — Sun, 08 Nov 2015 06:00:44 +0000

Amid the mud and mechanised slaughter, it is difficult to see how the teachings of the Good Book could have been much more than an afterthought for those who lived and fought through the horrors of the First World War.

Yet as a new research project aims to reveal, the Bible may have done far more to shape popular perception of the war than has previously been appreciated. Starting this week, researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge will embark on a centenary study examining how the Bible played an influential role in the deadliest armed struggle that the world had, at that stage, ever seen.

Over the next two years, an international network of academics in various disciplines including history, literature and theology will attempt to piece together an aspect of the conflict that remains broadly overlooked, showing how the supposed word of God was widely employed both to support and oppose war efforts on both sides.

Among other themes, the research will explore the Bible’s role as inspiration for soldiers, a device for swaying public opinion, a foundation for conscientious objection, and as a text so important that German theologians debated whether the Bible was sufficiently bloodthirsty to be given out to the troops.

Entitled “ ̽��ֱ��Book And ̽��ֱ��Sword: ̽��ֱ��Bible in the Experience and Legacy of the Great War”, the project will consist of three workshops being held in Cambridge and Ludwig Maximilian ̽��ֱ�� of Munich as well as events engaging the public and church leaders with various partner organizations including St Paul’s Cathedral and Westcott House, an Anglican Theological College affiliated to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��project is being carried out in the ̽��ֱ��’s Faculty of Divinity by Andrew Mein, a senior researcher at Westcott House and Nathan MacDonald, an Old Testament lecturer at the ̽��ֱ�� and a Fellow of St John's College.

Researchers argue that the Bible represents something of a “blind spot” in academic and popular understanding of the Great War, its legacy, and in particular of the terms in which the war would have been seen at the time. Religious instruction was still a core part of the education of many of those who fought, and soldiers and civilians alike were still widely familiar with scripture. In Britain, Bible Society printing presses went into overdrive in 1914 as efforts were made to satisfy the demand for personal copies among troops departing for the front.

Dr Nathan MacDonald, the project’s co-lead, said: “It is difficult to remember just how suffused the culture of the Edwardian Era was in the language of the Bible. ̽��ֱ��Bible was hidden in plain sight. If you left school at 12 or 14 you probably knew the Bible better than many theology students now. Many people could quote it with ease.

“Politicians and church leaders could appeal to that cultural world and use it to influence popular sentiment. It led to a sense on both sides that the conflict was in some sense a Holy War.”

̽��ֱ��religious resonance with which aspects of the war were fought is perhaps most obvious in the Sinai and Palestine campaign, in which the British ultimately defeated a German-supported Ottoman army. ̽��ֱ��researchers argue that for the Christian nations involved, this was seen as a battle for their own people’s hearts and minds, with both sides keen to present success in the Holy Land as symbolic of a righteous cause.

Germany, for example, sent a battalion to the Middle East charged with protecting monuments and claiming inheritance to the world described in the Bible, including in its number the theologian Albrecht Alt. When, in December 1917 General Edmund Allenby became the first Christian to capture Jerusalem for centuries, he deliberately entered the Old City on foot, taking his cue from the description of Jesus’ humility in the Bible. ̽��ֱ��Prime Minister, David Lloyd George described the victory as “a Christmas present for the British people”.

More broadly, the Bible was an essential tool of the propaganda war. British publications depicted the Germans as “Philistines” and as a modern-day Assyria sweeping down on Israel. ̽��ֱ��Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram, whose jingoism periodically offended leaders on even his own side, proclaimed a “great crusade to defend the weak against the strong”. Motivational sermons by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dean of Westminster, and other religious leaders, were printed in national newspapers.

̽��ֱ��use of the Bible is particularly evident in the German context, however, where a debate erupted over whether soldiers should be allowed access to it at all. Some academics feared that, with its peace-loving message, the text would weaken soldiers’ will, but their opinions were successfully countered by a school of thought which argued that the Bible persuasively encouraged violence for a cause.

As this implies, one of the project’s main contentions is that the Bible was used on both sides as a “mirror” in which any claim (or counter-claim) could be seen reflected. Many conscientious objectors, for example, refused to fight on religious grounds, and often found themselves before tribunals at which they were grilled on their Biblical knowledge by Church officials.

̽��ֱ��project will also examine how the First World War changed the way in which people treated the Bible. For some, the conflict destroyed any belief in God; but for others it represented the apocalypse as foretold. During the war interest in the Book of Revelation and its apocalyptic prophecies soared.

Opinion also evolved within the Church. ̽��ֱ��German-based scholar, Alfred Bertholet, argued that war had enabled Biblical concepts such as divine vengeance to be appreciated with deeper resonance by those who had survived. Meanwhile, Karl Barth, deploring the way his teachers in Berlin had used the Bible to support the war effort released a revised commentary on the Book of Romans, which laid the foundations for what became known as “neo-orthodoxy”, and for much 20th Century Christian thought.

“ ̽��ֱ��Bible is an inescapable part of the cultural and religious landscape of World War I,” Dr Andrew Mein, the project’s leader, said. “It was perhaps the single most widely-read book during the war, offering inspiration, challenge and consolation to soldiers and civilians alike.”

MacDonald added: “In some ways we treat the idea that scripture can be used as the basis of a holy war as primitive and medieval. We like to think that it applies more to fanatical organisations in the Middle East than our own modern history. Actually, it is part of our recent history. ̽��ֱ��Bible was being used for self-justification by opposing sides in Europe just a century ago.”

“ ̽��ֱ��Book And ̽��ֱ��Sword” is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Additional image: Army Chaplain tending British graves, from a Daily Mail Official War Photograph, reproduced via Wikimedia Commons.

̽��ֱ��significance of the Bible in the war, and anti-war efforts, of both Allied and Central powers in the First World War are to be examined in a new research project, which will document ways in which scripture was used to create notions of a Holy War, and how views of the Bible changed as a result of the conflict.

In some ways we treat the idea that scripture can be used as the basis of a holy war as primitive and medieval. Actually, the Bible was being used for self-justification by opposing sides in Europe just a century ago

Nathan MacDonald

A Photographic History of the World War, via Wikimedia Commons

General Sir Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem in December 1917. ̽��ֱ��widely-circulated image of him entering the Old City on foot conjured up images of Christ-like humility in the Bible in a calculated attempt to win over hearts and minds.

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How snake bites could help prevent heart attacks

amb206 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 10:51:31 +0000

Scroll to the end of the article to listen to the podcast.

Recent reports of a world shortage of anti-venom have drawn attention to the dangers of snake bite, especially in rural areas of developing countries where many people work in the fields, often without shoes to protect them.

Although most of the world’s 3,000 or more snake species are not venomous, several hundred species are. Among them is the Australian brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis). Judged to be the world’s second most venomous land snake (the most venomous is the black mamba), it thrives in the populous eastern side of the country. ̽��ֱ��brown snake only attacks humans as a last resort but, if untreated, its bite can prove fatal.

Snakes store venom in glands in their mouths and deliver it into their victims through hollow fangs. For many years, scientists thought that snakes made venom by modifying the proteins present in their spit but not elsewhere in their bodies. This argument made sense because snake spit contains substances that enable them to break down and digest their prey.

Recent research suggests a different picture: the vast majority of the proteins and enzymes found in venoms are very similar to substances found in other parts of snakes’ bodies – such as their livers and digestive organs. ̽��ֱ��genes that control the production of these substances in snakes become activated in the salivary glands where they produce venoms.

“Weaponising is the term we use to describe the way in which snakes like the Australian brown convert a protein utilised for their own biology into a toxin – without poisoning themselves. In some cases snakes hijack their own clotting mechanisms to make venom that, once injected, causes widespread consumption of clotting factors, microthrombosis in organs and systemic bleeding,” says Professor Jim Huntington, a principal investigator at Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR).

“By understanding more about the weaponised proteins, we can learn more about an essential attribute of blood, its ability to clot when needed – in humans as well as snakes.”

̽��ֱ��focus of Huntington’s lab is the development of a detailed understanding of the regulatory mechanisms that determine haemostatic balance – the balance between bleeding and thrombosis. It is expected that such information will inform the development of therapies for the prevention and treatment of diseases such as haemophilia, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, heart attack and stroke – all of which are devastating conditions.

Snake venom offers a route to a better understanding of the haemostatic system. In 2013, Huntington and colleagues published research that revealed the crystal structure of the prothrombinase complex from the venom of the brown snake. This complex is quite similar to human prothrombinase which converts prothrombin to thrombin, the final step in the blood coagulation cascade. An excess production of thrombin causes thrombosis, and insufficient production of thrombin results in bleeding.

̽��ֱ��crystal structure of brown snake venom enabled Huntington’s lab to gain new insights into the architecture and mechanism of the prothrombinase complex. Work is ongoing to determine how the snake’s prothrombinase relates to human prothrombinase and the intrinsic Xase complex (the proteins that activate coagulation factor X). Similar research from the Huntington lab has recently led to the creation of a new drug candidate for the treatment of thrombosis; ‘ichorcumab’ is currently in preclinical development as an antithrombotic agent that does not cause bleeding.

Only in the last 50 years have scientists begun to explore the potentially positive contribution of venoms to medicine. For many hundreds of years, snakes have been numbered among the most dangerous creatures on earth – to be avoided at all costs – and snake venom has long evoked fear and curiosity. Before the development of the first anti-venom at the Pasteur Institute in French Indochina in the 1890s, a bite from a venomous snake could mean death. Even today, the annual global death toll from snake bites is conservatively estimated at 20,000, and could be as high as 94,000.

PhD student James Hall (Department of History and Philosophy of Science) is looking at the serpentine narratives that unfolded during British involvement India from the later 18th century, initially under the rule of the East India Company and then under the Crown Raj from 1858. His research explores the ways in which moral attitudes to snakes informed attempts to describe and categorise them and shaped early attempts to assess the nature and effects of venom on human and other animal bodies.

Hall’s source materials are scientific books and papers, newspapers and periodicals, travelogues, and government archives from Britain and India, as well as the literature of the colonial world. A famous example of the latter is Rudyard Kipling’s short story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi from ̽��ֱ��Jungle Book (1894). It charmingly anthropomorphises the contest between good (in the character of the valiant mongoose Rikki) and evil (the deadly cobras Nag and Nagaina), with the drama taking place in the home of a middle-class British family living in India. Rikki’s bravery saves the innocent boy Teddy from a fatal snake bite.

“Snakes loomed large in the imperial imagination. Kipling’s story is typical of how snakes were typecast as villains in Victorian fiction. ̽��ֱ��cobras embody recurrent fears about the invasion of the supposedly hostile Indian environment into domestic spaces,” says Hall. “Snakes in India actually harmed very few Europeans, but when new statistical data revealed something of the extent of indigenous deaths due to snake bite, the problem became a challenge for a benevolent science as part of the rhetoric of the ‘civilising mission’.”

Humans and other primates are believed to have evolved an instinctive revulsion for snakes. This innate fear is reinforced by key narratives in the Bible, which remained a key authority on animals in the 19th century. In the creation story, the serpent wreaks havoc in the Garden of Eden by craftily tempting Eve to eat an apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Among the hundreds of pictorial representations of this story is German artist Johann König’s painting, Adam and Eve in Paradise (circa 1629), in the Fitzwilliam Museum.

“König’s snake shows some similarity to a European viper or adder. In such scenes the serpent is often seen coiled around the tree, watching on. Earlier depictions sometimes show the serpent in a more humanoid form, with a head, torso and upper limbs.

" ̽��ֱ��original physical form of the serpent in the Garden was a source of debate given that it was only afterwards cursed by God to crawl on its belly,” says Hall.

“ ̽��ֱ��poor biblical reputation of snakes contributed to their unpopularity as objects of scientific study. But there were also practical obstacles to snake science relating to the collection, transportation, and preservation of snakes. Research into the effects of venom involved carrying out technically difficult and controversial experiments.”

From the 1820s, living snakes were collected to exhibit in newly-opened zoos in Britain. They had earlier appeared in travelling menageries. Snake specimens in alcohol, snakeskins and prepared skeletons had been mainstays of natural history collections from much earlier, but the number of species increased dramatically with imperial expansion in the 19th century.

At the Zoological Society’s gardens in Regent’s Park in London, visitors had the opportunity to see venomous snakes face-to-face at the new reptile house, which opened in 1849. Thousands flocked to see the snakes, including men of science such as Charles Darwin, who took the opportunity to carry out research into animal emotions.

̽��ֱ��reptile house was conceived and marketed as an educational resource, but many people visited it for the thrill of seeing (and provoking) dangerous snakes up close, and ended up confirming their own preconceived ideas. Tragedy struck in 1852 when a keeper of reptiles, Edward Gurling, was bitten on the nose by a cobra and killed. ̽��ֱ��Zoological Society moved quickly to reassure the public of the safety of the establishment, and the keeper was described as being drunk from a night of gin drinking and acting with “rashness and indiscretion”.

“ ̽��ֱ��death of Gurling was an important moment for scientific research into venomous snakes,” says Hall. “It led to an upsurge in interest in venomous snakes and renewed efforts to find an antidote to their venom in the colonies. Correspondents wrote to ̽��ֱ��Times offering up their own treatments for snake bite guaranteed by time spent in Africa and on the subcontinent. But it would be another four decades before the first anti-venom was developed.”

Next in the Cambridge Animal Alphabet: W is for an animal that made the journey from a beach in Sussex, to pride of place in the Museum of Zoology.

Have you missed the series so far? Catch up on Medium here.

Inset images: Aboriginal painting of the prothrombinase complex (Tom Murray-Rust); Adam and Eve in Paradise by Johann König (Fitzwilliam Museum); Detail from Adam and Eve in Paradise by Johann König (Fitzwilliam Museum); Illustration of the Zoological Society’s reptile house (Illustrated London News, 2 June 1849).

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, V is for Venomous Snake: an animal that has long evoked fear and curiosity, but is revealing important clues for the development of treatments for some devastating conditions.

Weaponising is the term used describe the way in which snakes convert a substance into venom – without poisoning themselves

Jim Huntington

Museum of Zoology, Cambridge

Skull of Bitus arietans – or Puff Adder – from the family Viperidae

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Historic rivals join forces to save 1,000 years of Jewish history

ljm67 — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:02:58 +0000

̽��ֱ��campaign was officially launched this week at the British Academy in London.

̽��ֱ��collection comprises more than 1,700 fragments of Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts, originating from the Cairo Genizah, dating from the 9th–19th century. They represent an invaluable record of a thousand years of the religious, social, economic and cultural life of the Mediterranean world.

̽��ֱ��fragments were brought back from Cairo by the intrepid twin sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson in 1896 and deposited at Westminster College. Treasures of the collection include the earliest known example of a Jewish engagement deed (dating from 1119), an eyewitness account of Crusader atrocities, and letters by leading Jewish traders of the 11th and 12th centuries.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Librarian Anne Jarvis said: “In the late 19th century, Oxford’s Bodleian Library and Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library were rivals in trying to acquire materials from the Cairo Genizah. Today we are taking a different stance, seeking to build on our collections while recognising that there would be a greater benefit to scholarship if we joined together to save the Lewis-Gibson Collection from division and dispersal.”

Both libraries are already holders of substantial Genizah collections in their own right. Cambridge is home to the largest collection in the world with some 200,000 fragments out of the estimated 350,000 to be found in public collections worldwide. Meanwhile, the Bodleian holds 25,000 world-class Genizah folios, the size and quality of which rank it among the most important global collections.

A genizah is a sacred storeroom, a room set aside inside a synagogue for the interment of old religious writings, which, because they contain names of God or use the sacred Hebrew alphabet, cannot be simply discarded. For more than 1,000 years the Jewish community of Fustat (now a suburb of Cairo) deposited all manner of writings (not just sacred texts) into the sacred storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue.

̽��ֱ��significance of the manuscripts haphazardly stored in the synagogue was recognised towards the end of the 19th century, and the Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection represents some of the earliest fragments to emerge from it. Given its status as a ‘hand-picked’ collection, the Lewis-Gibson Collection contains perhaps more than its share of rare or unique items compared to its modest size.

Other treasures are a large leaf of Moses Maimonides’ (d. 1204) famous Commentary on the Mishnah in his own hand, an autograph poem by the medieval Spanish Hebrew poet Joseph ibn Abitur, the earliest known example of a Jewish engagement deed (Shtar Shiddukhin, from 1119), showing the complex legal relations that existed around marriage, and a rare, very early (10th-century), copy on vellum of the great Jewish sage Saadya Gaon’s translation of the Bible into Arabic.

̽��ֱ��libraries’ fundraising campaign has received an early, significant and much-welcomed boost with the promise of a £500,000 lead gift from the Polonsky Foundation which in 2010 also gifted £1.5m to Cambridge’s Digital Library Project and £2m to the Bodleian Libraries’ initiative with the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Both libraries are now appealing for donors to come forward and secure the remaining £700,000 necessary to buy the collection outright.

Dr Polonsky, Trustee of the Foundation, said: “I strongly support collaboration and am delighted to give momentum to the joint venture of these two great Universities in acquiring such an important manuscript collection.”

Bodley’s Librarian Dr Sarah Thomas said: “This is a rare and special opportunity to jointly acquire the Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection by Cambridge and Oxford, which combined hold almost 70 per cent of the fragments in public collections. Together, we will share the work of curating, conserving, digitising and presenting the manuscripts, making the best use of the strengths of each institution.”

̽��ֱ��Lewis-Gibson Collection holds a special place in the modern history of the Cairo Genizah. When the twin sisters showed a selection of their fragments to their friend, Cambridge scholar Solomon Schechter, he set off to Egypt to find the source. What followed was the discovery of the Cairo Genizah, changing the study of Judaism – and of the study of the wider history of the Middle East – forever.

Professor David Abulafia, author of the acclaimed ̽��ֱ��Great Sea: a human history of the Mediterranean believes that the Genizah is a unique historical archive. He said: “ ̽��ֱ��Cairo Genizah documents are like a searchlight, illuminating dark corners of the history of the Mediterranean and shedding a bright light on the social, economic and religious life of the Jews not just of medieval Egypt but of lands far away. There is nothing to compare with them as source for the history of the tenth to twelfth centuries, anywhere in Europe or the Islamic world.”

For those who would like to make a donation to the appeal to purchase this fascinating collection of medieval manuscripts, please visit our online giving page.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library and the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries have today announced their first ever joint fundraising campaign to purchase the £1.2 million ‘Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection’, currently owned by the United Reformed Church’s Westminster College.

Governors of Westminster College, Cambridge

Mrs Gibson on a camel in the Sinai, 1893.

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