Happy New(ish) Year

 Here's a good song to start the year:

Something I need to keep reminding myself.

Caveat: I don't like the line about 'make of your troubles swiftly an end' - he might, but he might not. Though I probably tend to err on the side of assuming he won't.

Fictional cleaning

From Front Runner by Felix Francis

How on earth does one do all of that in 3 hours?

Btw, if you ever do want to remove fingerprint powder, Barkeeper's Friend will do it where nothing else will.

The Hebrew words for clothes are driving me maḏ (pun intended)

Thinking out loud here, for some illustrations I'm doing, but it might be interesting to other people. Sorry I haven't linked the verses - that would be a massive faff.

In 1 Samuel 18v4:

Then Jonathan removed the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his military tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

The clothing words chosen by translators can vary widely, so it's always worth checking out the original Hebrew (While looking up an interlinear is not a substitute for actually knowing Hebrew, I do know about ancient clothes, which, by the word choices they sometimes make, most translators don't. Not their fault - they can't know details of every subject!)

So, what Jonathan gave David was a mᵊʿîl, a maḏ and a ḥăḡôr (plus the sword and bow).

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mᵊʿîl is a fairly clear clothing word. 

• The high priest wore a blue one over his tunic (kutōneṯ), with pomegranates & bells round the hem and an opening in the center. Exodus 39v23-25
• Samuel's mother made him a little one every year 1 Samuel 2v19, and he wore one as an adult too 1 Samuel 15v27 (and as a ghost 1 Samuel 28v14). Saul wore one too - and in both cases they had a corner (or edge) that could be torn/cut off 1 Samuel 24v4.
• The 'long-sleeved/decorated robes' (pas kutōneṯ) that David's daughters wore were a kind of mᵊʿîl 2 Samuel 13v18 - and since Joseph also wore a pas kutōneṯ Genesis 37v3, I'm guessing his was also a kind of mᵊʿîl.  
• David wore a linen one (plus an ephod) to dance before the ark 1 Chronicles 15v27.
• Various people also tore theirs when mourning, but that doesn't really tell us what they're like, except that they're occasionally mentioned in addition to 'beḡeḏ' (clothes)  e.g. Ezra 9v3. And some random princes in a prophecy took them off Ezekiel 26v16.
• It's also used metaphorically for being clothed in joy, wrath or strength.
  

Therefore, I think 'robe' sounds like a good translation. Not a basic everyday tunic, but serving a similar purpose of clothing the whole body. Sometimes (always?) worn over a tunic. And, based on the descriptions, I think a voluminous, belted-poncho type robe, common in many ancient societies, such as Egypt, Persia, Greece & Rome.

Persian guard in the British Museum

My reconstruction. It's just a rectangle with a hole, but gives the impression of long sleeves.

I like to draw their style based (loosely) on the rather unintelligible clothes on this ivory from Megiddo:

This is bronze age, therefore close to David's time.

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ḥăḡôr is definitely a belt, or anything you gird yourself (ḥāḡar) with Genesis 3v7 - sometimes specifically a military belt 2 Samuel 20v8 (and sometimes used as a metonymy for being armed 2 Kings 3v21) . Sometimes not military at all Isaiah 3v24. 

In context, a military belt would make sense.

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And then there's the maḏ. Unfortunately there aren't that many instances of it, and they don't all appear to be referring the the same thing.

• It is once used to refer to a priest's linen robe (usually called a kutōneṯ) Leviticus 6v10.
• Ehud strapped his 18" sword to his right thigh under his maḏ, and was able to access it quickly with his left hand Judges 3v16-21. 
• In a clearly military context, Saul lent his to David, and he strapped his sword over it 1 Samuel 17v38-39. Joab also wore one with a belt and sword over it 2 Samuel 20v8. An unnamed Benjamite fled from battle with a torn one (in mourning?) 1 Samuel 4v12.
  
• People who travel the roads on white donkeys sit on them 🤷‍♀️ Judges 5v10.  
• It's used metaphorically in a Psalm - 'He wore cursing like his maḏ" - which could be any kind of clothing Psalm 109v18.
• And that's it*. 

In three of those instances someone 'puts it on' (lāḇaš), but Joab 'girded himself' (ḥāḡar) with his. So are we talking about a kilt? A military kilt? Kilts certainly were worn in warfare, sometimes with nothing else - see the armed man in the ivory above. 

But what style of kilt? Why did Saul think it would help David, instead of him just wearing the armour over normal clothes? Were his normal clothes loose and baggy? Or was the kilt reinforced or padded in some way? What would it look like? Was Jonathan wearing it over his mᵊʿîl (certainly a kilt over a robe was sometimes worn by people like Philistines, Syrians, and Kushites)? Or, based on the order the clothes are mentioned, was he at that point only wearing the mᵊʿîl (presumably over a tunic), not any of his military gear, which it doesn't specifically mention him taking off?

Watch this space for my solutions...

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*It also seems to mean 'measure' Jeremiah 13v25, but that doesn't help, as the etymology of clothing words is often weird - in English, 'shirt' and 'skirt' come fom the same root!

Oh yes I am getting old

Was chatting to one of my fellow Sunday School teachers this evening about something we'd done in Sunday School 'quite a few years ago'. 

"It was the year 2000," I said. 

"Oh," she laughed, "I thought you maybe meant 2015 or something."

I have just now realised that she was not even born until 2001. 

A handy giant set square

Perfect for trimming a huge piece of paper.

Stargate mental health

I've been writing this off and on for a loooong time. There's so much more I could add, and so many ways I could rewrite it to flow better. And if I publish it now, I won't be able to keep on and on improving it. Alea jacta est.

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The members of Stargate SG1 really have remarkably robust mental health.

All have had traumatic events in families and relationships: When they were children, Sam's mother and both of Daniel's parents were killed in accidents, and Teal'c's father was murdered.

Daniel lost his wife after three years of her being forcibly married to another man; 

Daniel & Sha're

Jack and Teal'c are both divorced - Teal'c without his wife telling him; every potential romance for Sam ends in the guy dead or presumed dead (except Jack, but that's a no-go as he's her commanding officer, a situation which both of them sometimes find difficult). Daniel was the victim of a serious sexual assault; Sam barely escaped at least one.

Jack's young son accidentally killed himself with Jack's gun (which did lead to him being suicidal for a while); 

Jack with Charlie

Teal'c's relationship with his own son is somewhat rocky, as is Sam's with her dad and brother. Daniel grew up in foster care as his grandfather didn't want him.

Teal'c had to leave his home and culture, and is considered a traitor by many of his people.

The work they do can be dangerous: All have been imprisoned and enslaved multiple times, and been in many other no-way-out situations. All have been near death, both on the battlefield and in hospital beds.

While the other three are military, Daniel is a civilian thrown into combat situations. They have lost close friends. All(?) have had to shoot or kill someone they care about (not to mention countless enemies).

Jack's time with black ops involved him in some 'damned distasteful things'; Teal'c can't forget the atrocities he commited when he served Apophis. 

Teal'c looking pensive

Even some of their well-intentioned actions have had disastrous, unforseen, consequences for people they were trying to help.

As if that wasn't enough, having met several alternative-reality versions of themselves, they have all seen how their lives could easily have been very different - in both positive and negative ways.

On top of all that, the Stargate programme is top secret, so nothing they do in their everyday jobs can be mentioned to friends or family.

Trying to convince her dad that her 'desk job' is way more exciting
than joining NASA and going to space.

And that's just the psychological stuff - there's also the physical assaults on their brains:

Daniel's grandfather lives in a psychiatric hospital - such things can have a genetic element.

Jack took drugs back in the 70s. [Possibly - I got this from a couple of things he said, but somewhere else he implied he didn't 🤷‍♀️]

Daniel was tricked into addiction to an alien device which altered his personality - and then had to come off it cold turkey. 

Another alien technology caused him to experience hallucinations, and brain scans showed signs of schizophrenia, which lead to him briefly being sectioned until they discovered the cause.

 

OK, the padded room was maybe a bit OTT. But the acting was great.

 

Sam's mind was taken over by an alien parasite, and she occasionally has flashbacks of its (sometimes very disturbing) memories.

Between them they have also experienced: minds swapped with someone else;  hallucinations; superpowers (combined with super stupidity); mind taken over by a computer; mind transferred into a computer; false memories, an alien language, or a depository of alien knowledge embedded in their mind; being stuck in a time loop; various mind-control drugs; brainwashing, rapid aging, regressing to a neanderthal state...

And, of course, there's the fact that several times a week their entire body - brain included - is disintegrated into molecules, sent many lightyears through a wormhole, and then reassembled again.

And after many years of this stuff, they're still considered fit for active duty. 

As I say, remarkably robust mental health!

Well, mostly...

Magical glowing trees

They were better in reality