Friday, March 21, 2008

Aristotle’s Rhetoric Was Written By A Jewish Woman

He went to his student Alexander (who was already Great), who went to King Ptolemy II, who sent to Jerusalem. (Call it the Macedonian Connection). The King commissions a group of 72 Jewish men to translate all their Hebrew writings into Greek so Aristotle could read them.

(An unnamed bilingual, biliterate wife of one of the men has read the following in תּוֹרָה

וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה כִּי־עָשָׂה אֶת־הָאָדָם בָּאָרֶץ

and

וַיִּתְעַצֵּב אֶל־לִבֹּו׃

which starts her making up for the fact that no men--Jew nor Greek--has written anything to account for the power of personal speech. So she writes in Hebrew first and then in Hellene, which comes out something like this:

νυ̂ν μὲν οὐ̂ν οἱ τὰς τέχνας τω̂ν λόγων συντιθέντες οὐδὲν ὡς εἰπει̂ν πεπορίκασιν αὐτη̂ς μόριον ̔αἱ γὰρ πίστεις ἔντεχνόν εἰσι μόνον, τὰ δ' ἄλλα προσθη̂καἰ, οἱ δὲ περὶ μὲν ἐνθυμημάτων οὐδὲν λέγουσιν, ὅπερ ἐστὶ σω̂μα τη̂ς πίστεως , περὶ δὲ τω̂ν ἔξω του̂ πράγματος τὰ πλει̂στα πραγματεύονται).
see verse 3.

Aristotle takes the credit because later on he makes a bunch of revisions (and besides he didn't know how to pronounce the woman's name).

Now, if you have trouble believing that in your body, in your inner passion, then start with this first:

Shakespeare's Plays Were Written By A Jewish Woman

Here's eight kinds of proof Amelia Bassano was the real Bard.



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