Harold's Journal, page 3

[RobinClay]

Page 2 is at http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=437669.msg3012579

Can you help with this, please ?

Mine may not be correct; also, the question marks indicate words I can't fathom.

1.   Spoils of war "taboo" because they bore the maledictions pronounced
2.   on enemy:  so true names of divinities lest enemy should invoke them!
3.   One can assume a common source
4.   of inspiration as one sees primitive
5.   "magic" concepts: (jumping to make corn high,)
6.   animals drawn wounded as assistance
7.   -(like pins in waxen image)- to chase:
8.   & all the seasons inv?tly sacred.
9.   Man tries to explain the unknown things of
10.   nature by those he sees before him, &
11.   gives a physical form to ideas suggested,
12.   Fables ? to oriental imagination
13.   so much as the ignorance of primitive man.
14.   As Greeks "assisted" Gods by libations of
15.   blood so Celts helped the sun by
16.   lighting brands in Spring.
17.   His ? of Gospels masterly, & idea that
18.   Jesus crucified not ? but in character of
19.   Barabbas, - the old sacrifice of some criminal.
20.   The cock on our steeples survival of day
21.   when sacred –(to avert thunderbolts)- like geese.
22.   Priests (& profit) ruin of all needs:
23.   But when he says "religion" is "a sum of
24.   scruples which impede the free ? of our
25.   faculties", I venture to think that through
26.   all the foolish fears, horrible irritations, &
27.   cruel persecutions there still shows ....
28.   in man's anxious quest for
29.   some hope of a holy spirit beyond!
30.   Though quite natural phenomena there was "spirit" also!!

[KirstyG]

Here's what I read it as, not promising it makes sense!

line 8:  invariently

line 12: but not

line 17: exam.

line 24: exercises

Kirsty

[Eidde]

Hi all

My suggestions, mostly in line with Kirsty's, are:

line 8: invariably
line 12: due not
line 17: exam.
line 18: instead
line 24: exercise

Eddie

[Tephra]

Agree with Eddie   

8.  Invariably

12  Due not

17  Exam

24  Exercise

Line 18........could it be two words   -  Jesus crucified not in...? ... but in

Barbara

[RobinClay]

line 18: instead

Today, we use underlined superscript e.g. for 1st, and sometimes as a form of shorthand e.g. "Testnt" for "Testament".  Well, I sometimes do !

Victorians made much more use of that, e.g. Harold uses "wh" for "which" in Line 24.

So, in line 18, he has used an underlined superscript for a shorthand term, and then underlined the whole word.

I think   ;-)

So - line 18 again, please - anyone ?

18.   Jesus crucified not ? but in character of Barabbas

[Family Tree Maker]

8. all the seasons invariably sacred?

[Eidde]

At this point I have to confess to getting a little help from Professor Reinach in my attempts at deciphering.  His original text says "... Jesus was put to death, not instead of Barabbas, but in the character of a Barabbas" (emphasis in original). His theory was that the story of Jesus' crucifixion was embellished under the influence of an earlier Babylonian tradition, which involved taking a condemned criminal, dressing him as a king, scourging him, etc, and then executing him in an expiatory ritual.

I agree that the word(s) in line 18 may not look much 'instead', even abbreviated, but I'm pretty sure that was the meaning Thomas intended.

Eddie

[Eidde]

Sorry, Harold, not Thomas!