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 Medieval book of psalms unearthed
First millennium manuscript, open to Psalm 83, found in Irish mud

Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.

The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.

"This is really a miracle find," said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration. Researchers will conduct years of painstaking analysis before putting the book on public display.

"There's two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out," Wallace said. "First of all, it's unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing."

He said an engineer was digging up bogland last week to create commercial potting soil somewhere in Ireland's midlands when "just beyond the bucket of his bulldozer, he spotted something." Wallace would not specify where the book was found because a team of archaeologists is still exploring the site.

"The owner of the bog has had dealings with us in past and is very much in favor of archaeological discovery and reporting it," Wallace said.

Crucially, he said, the bog owner covered up the book with damp soil. Had it been left exposed overnight, he said, "it could have dried out and just vanished, blown away."

The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.

Wallace said several experts spent Tuesday analyzing only that page -- the number of letters on each line, lines on each page, size of page -- and the book's binding and cover, which he described as "leather velum, very thick wallet in appearance."

It could take months of study, he said, just to identify the safest way to pry open the pages without damaging or destroying them. He ruled out the use of X-rays to investigate without moving the pages.

Ireland already has several other holy books from the early medieval period, including the ornately illustrated Book of Kells, which has been on display at Trinity College in Dublin since the 19th century.

Bog discovery hailed as Ireland's Dead Sea scrolls

Irish archaeologists are celebrating the discovery of their own Dead Sea scrolls after a bulldozer unearthed fragments of a psalter that may have lain in a bog for more than 1,000 years. The book of psalms was found last Thursday when an engineer excavating bogland in the midlands noticed a bundle near his digger's scoop. It turned out to be the animal skin pages of an early Christian psalter that appears to date back as far as AD800. One psalm - number 89 - was still legible.

 The National Museum of Ireland hailed the discovery as the "Irish equivalent to the Dead Sea scrolls" and the "greatest find ever from a European bog". The Dead Sea scrolls, found in the mid-20th century, contain some of the earliest known surviving biblical documents.

Specialists at the museum said it was impossible to know how the manuscript ended up in the bog, but believe it may have been lost in transit or dumped after a Viking raid, possibly 1,000 to 1,200 years ago.

"It is not so much the fragments themselves, but what they represent, that is of such staggering importance," said Dr Pat Wallace, the museum's director. "In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile and rare as this. It testifies to the incredible richness of the early Christian civilisation of this island and to the greatness of ancient Ireland."

The 20 or so pages, which seem to be those of a slim, large format book with a wraparound vellum cover, were taken to the museum last Friday. After a long and painstaking process of restoration, they will be displayed in its Early Christian gallery alongside such treasures as the Ardagh chalice and the Derrynaflan paten.

More on the Medieval book of psalms that was unearthed in an Irish bog.

Museum plays diplomatic role on psalm's 'warning to Israel'

In a week in which it secured one of its most remarkable artefacts, the National Museum yesterday found itself intervening in an unlikely international quarrel over global geopolitics and Biblical prophecy, writes Ruadhán Mac Cormaic.

As news of the discovery of a 1,000-year-old psalter in a bog in the midlands made its way briskly around the world this week, keen eyes fell on an ostensibly peripheral detail: while most pages had yet to be carefully studied, the museum had said, there was one that was legible. Psalm 83.

nd with that, the news websites and blogs began to hum, each one honing in on Psalm 83 and its supposed reference to "the wiping of Israel from the map".

On Wednesday, under the title An Amazingly Timely Discovery, a writer with one Israeli news magazine devoted an entire column to the find, which he regarded as "nothing short of a phenomenon".

"I don't want to take it any further than I should, but time may show that the discovery of the Irish psalm book was a warning," he wrote.

However yesterday, before it all got out of hand, the director of the National Museum, Dr Patrick Wallace, issued a statement saying the text visible on the manuscript found in the bog does not refer to the wiping out of Israel but to the "vale of tears".

"This is part of Verse 7 of Psalm 83 in the old Latin translation of the Bible [the Vulgate] which....would have been the version used in the medieval period.

"In the much later King James version the number of the psalms is different, based on the Hebrew text and the 'vale of tears' occurs in Psalm 84.

"The text about wiping out Israel occurs in the Vulgate as Psalm 82" which equals Psalm 83 (King James version), he said.

"It is hoped that this clarification will serve comfort to anyone worried by earlier reports of the content of the text," Dr Wallace added.

'Psalm in a bog' linked to Israel's current war
Some say Scripture find in Ireland has meaning with present conflict
Posted: July 26, 2006
8:53 p.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

The "miraculous" find of ancient psalms in an Irish bog has some wondering if there's any special modern relevance, since the discovery dealt with the enemies of Israel attempting to destroy the nation.

Ancient book of psalms found in Irish bog by construction worker was opened to Psalm 83

A construction worker in Ireland came across the ancient 20-page book dated to the years 800-1000 A.D. while driving his backhoe's shovel into the mud last week. Experts say it's impossible to say how the manuscript ended up there, but speculate it may have been lost in transit or dumped after a raid some 1,000 to 1,200 years ago.

The National Museum of Ireland issued a statement saying, "In discovery terms, this Irish equivalent to the Dead Sea Scrolls is being hailed by the museum's experts as the greatest find ever from a European bog."

"It is not so much the fragments themselves, but what they represent, that is of such staggering importance," said the museum's director, Pat Wallace. "In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile and rare as this. It testifies to the incredible richness of the Early Christian civilization of this island and to the greatness of ancient Ireland."

Wallace called it a "miracle find," telling the Associated Press, "it's unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing."

But it's the fact the book was discovered opened to Psalm 83 that is attracting attention across the globe.

The ancient psalm deals with a plea to God not to let the enemies of Israel eradicate God's chosen nation.

   
It then lists a number of Israel's ancient enemies bent on its destruction.

Stan Goodenough, a South African journalist living in Israel for the past 12 years calls the timing of the discovery "incredible."

    For right now Israel's enemies are again united in their desire to "cut Israel off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more." They purpose to take for themselves the "pastures of God for a possession." And that they are in league – or in a confederacy – is clear.

    From Gaza, supported by most of the Arab states, the violence is being directed by the Palestinian Arab terrorist groups: the PLO, Hamas, the Palestine Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine and the popular resistance Committees.

    In the north, the Lebanese group [Hezbollah], supplied and enabled by Syria and the non-Arab but also Islamic Iran, is raining rockets down on Israel.

    This, given the current situation, makes Psalm 83 a fascinating and fitting read, the ancient find nothing short of a phenomenon.

Goodenough points out the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, just as the modern state of Israel was being formed.

The bog find was heralded by the museum on Tuesday, one day after a call for global prayer on behalf of Israel. Psalm 83 was one of three psalms recited at locations worldwide Tuesday at the request of the governing council of Israel's Chief Rabbinate.

In his book, "Israel in Crisis," author David Dolan dedicates an entire chapter to Psalm 83.

"I detail who the protagonists are in the psalm, and then go on to talk about when it might be fulfilled," he told WND.

The website A Christian Witness previously put Psalm 83 into a musical Flash presentation, demonstrating how timely the ancient song is with news images documenting the current threat facing Israel, linking the ancient peoples mentioned in the psalm to modern political states.


Psalm 83 attached to modern images and music in online Flash presentation.

Messageboards are filled with comments of news watchers who feel there's a timely significance to the discovery, while others think it's mere coincidence.

Take note of the post just prior to yours, Brother. The Vulgate version of Psalms has different numbering than the KJV or other modern day Bibles. So it is not the same verses.