Posted on 04/15/2026 5:29:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The papyrus, which contains 133 lines of preserved text, is the longest Greek papyrus ever uncovered in the Judean Desert, although for decades it had been misclassified as a Nabatean text and practically lost in the archives of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)...
Upon translation, the team that Cotton Paltiel put together realized the papyrus preserves an incredible snapshot into the Roman legal system and life between two Jewish revolts against the Romans: the Diaspora Revolt (c. 115–117 CE) and the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (c. 132–136 CE). The papyrus, which pertains to a legal case brought before a Roman court, contains the prosecutor's trial notes and a rapidly drafted transcript of the judicial hearing itself.
The case consists of charges of corrupt dealings against two Jewish men, Gadalias and Saulos. Gadalias had a criminal history involving violence, extortion, counterfeiting, and inciting rebellion. Saulos, his collaborator, orchestrated the fictitious sale and manumission of slaves without paying the requisite Roman taxes. To conceal their activities, the defendants forged documents... It is unclear what the purpose of freeing the slaves was or exactly who the slaves were, but it could have involved human trafficking or possibly reflected the biblical duty to redeem enslaved Jews. As pointed out by Ecker, "freeing slaves does not appear to be a profitable business model."
(Excerpt) Read more at biblicalarchaeology.org ...
Other than the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, aqueducts, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Oh, I didn’t know what that was. 😳
I looked up the script to get a response, and have now decided that Monty Python is a better predictor of the future than even the Babylon Bee:
FRANCIS: Why are you always on about women, Stan?
STAN: I want to be one.
REG: What?
STAN: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me ‘Loretta’.
REG: What?!
LORETTA: It’s my right as a man.
JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
LORETTA: I want to have babies.
REG: You want to have babies?!
LORETTA: It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.
REG: But... you can’t have babies.
LORETTA: Don’t you oppress me.
REG: I’m not oppressing you, Stan. You haven’t got a womb! Where’s the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!
LORETTA: crying
JUDITH: Here! I— I’ve got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can’t actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody’s fault, not even the Romans’, but that he can have the right to have babies.
FRANCIS: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry.
REG: What’s the point?
FRANCIS: What?
REG: What’s the point of fighting for his right to have babies when he can’t have babies?!
FRANCIS: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
REG: Symbolic of his struggle against reality.
Eric Idle decides he’s now a woman and wants to be called Loretta.
Cleese chews him apart.
😆
😆😆😆😆
Thanks.
I can hear Cleese in my head.
Epic.
😆😆😆😆
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