A Hand Written Bible In Aramaic

Simon Cooper
January 5, 2011

It is good to get out into the community. You will most likely experience hospitality. If I just make the effort to get out there I always find so many wonderful people and interesting things. And I get home feeling spiritually nourished. As Unificationists we are called to get out.

I met John O'Neill in Ealing Broadway this evening to visit a few people we wanted to invite to the Marriage and Family Conference and the Blessing on the 23rd. We just planned to drop in on people village style. We turned up at an Iraqi priest's place and he was just coming out of his home with his wife on the way to visit a sick parishioner. But he looked at his watch and said "come in, I can talk with you for half an hour."

I had a lovely Turkish coffee and we talked about the Aramaic Bible his community uses. He explained how there are several mistakes in the one that is more translated from Hebrew and Greek. And he holds a service in Hanwell all in Aramaic, the language that Jesus and his disciples spoke.

He showed me his own hand written bible passed down to him from his great grandfather. The whole thing, hand written in Aramaic. Just thought that was so cool I had to get a picture:

He told us a nice story about how a Turkish border guard had tried to take it off him saying it was prohibited to take out of the country due to it's age. He retorted that it was his own personal family bible, and would he let anyone confiscate his Koran. Anyhow, when he threatened to call the British consulate the guard backed down.

After Ealing we went onto a mosque in Acton. The Imam we had hoped to meet was not there, but we had a great 'dialogue' with a Jamaican Muslim. He called it a dialogue but it was more him letting us know about the future and the past. His Jamaican brother turned up, the one who had brought him to Islam, and time went on….But again, we had a great fellowship together, and it was uplifting to see people hanging around long after prays were finished, just sitting around, studying, talking, people living a spiritual life. You can tell when people are living a spiritual life -- they are generally relaxed and at ease in a way that creates a natural hospitality.