This fantastic guys, thank you ever so much.

The hermit is actually Christian, of course, not Jewish. I got that wrong! He's exiled on a Greek island, and the letters are to Christian churches in Asia. Aramaic or Greek sounds about right to me, I've been searching for information about this, but your help is brill. The stuff about stilus and parchment, and pointing out the stuff about the Roman Empire - really helpful. Thank you.

Any clue who the hermit is, anyone?

JB

NMott,

The Apocrypha are Jewish texts. They were written before the birth of Jesus. They were excluded from the Jewish Scriptures at the Council of Jamnia in 90AD (on a Tuesday, about tea-time...ahhh, I remember it well...)

Now as for the Dead Sea Scrolls, their textual recension is fascinating. Without them, Biblical Hebrew would have been considered a fixed form. The variants in the DSS show that the Masoretic text of the OT is actually an imposed form. Now that really is exciting!

I'll take my medication now.

Lol! Gulliver.
As they say, you learn something new every day. Whether you can remember it or not is another matter entirely

<Added>

Go on JB, put us out of our misery. Who is it? St Paul? Titus Flavius Clemens? ok, I'm all out of ideas.

Any clue who the hermit is, anyone?

St. John on Patmos, writing the Book of Revelation?..

Thanks again guys.

Yeah, you're spot on. I think for the sequel I'm going to begin at the begin. It won't be easy, as I'm no historian, but I think a little prologue about how Revelations came about in the first place might be interesting, and John certainly led a fascinating and mythical life from what I'm reading.

JB

I've been to Patmos twice and consider it my ideal lanscape (but then, I'm a sucker for craggy hillsides and parched earth dotted with thorn trees and the odd goat - the blue-green sea is nice, too).

Sounds like a fascinating idea you've got going, JB. I can't think of a more exciting text to work with than Revelation! What do you suppose old John was smoking when he wrote it?

Beware the Book of Revelation. It's the only book of the Bible which carries a curse (22:18-19).

There are other curses in the Bible though - the Old Testament/Testament has God's promise of blessings/threat of curses to the Israelites somewhere.

A
xxx

Beware the Book of Revelation. It's the only book of the Bible which carries a curse (22:18-19).

Curses only work if you believe in their sources. In my opinion, the entire bible is an interpretation of events by erstwhile fiction writers. I'm just continuing the tradition, and therefore, I'm perfectly safe.

JB

<Added>

Ever read the Preacher graphic novel series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, Gulliver?

If you think I'm bad...

JB

<Added>

I could explain further why I don't fear messing with this stuff, but I don't understand it myself, and you would probably think I was mad.