Stoicism is about taking the thorn out of your own eye before throwing stones at others.

( ~5:58)

After 24 Years, Scholar Completes 3,000-Page Translation Of The Hebrew Bible by [[Rachel Martin]]

for - publication of the first bible - Yuval Noah Harari

see also: Barnouw, Erik (1993), Documentary a History of the Non-fiction Film (PDF), New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 241–242, retrieved March 30, 2020

for - human exceptionalism - example - the bible

Dr. Steve Boyd keeps to the traditional translation of everything coming into existence from God. He mentions the original Hebrew has no word for "universe" and therefore the creation of the heavens and the earth means eveyrthing.

James Tabor makes the same argument as Dr. Michael S. Heiser.

That Genesis 1:1-3 is a mistranslation, and implies that genesis was not about the creation of the universe.

According to this translation, the earth existed before God started creating in Genesis????

Very fascinating. Substance meaning can change depending on linguistics. For ancient thought, it's best to know the true original language.

( ~ 24:30)

Radiometric dating operates from the wrong assumptions (that all processes remained constant during all of history, which, compared to the Bible is false and therefore foolish).

Different radiometric dating methods give vastly different aging results in a systematically wrong way; according to Dr. Kurt, this is proof that they use wrong assumptions.

( ~ 19:00 )

The primary argument as made by Dr. Kurt with reference to the Bible is that God used processes during the creation that he NEVER used again. So to assume chronological dating methods based on processes that exist now is to be foolish, as you cannot go back to creation itself and use those methods; creation used different processes that do not exist anymore.

Additionally, God created all of existence... He is above it. He can certainly manipulate it. The laws of physics do not apply to Him. He has created creatures and things in an ADULT state of being... So by using dating methods that are used to calculate the age of something you can arrive at a result much older than it is in fact, for God could've created its values in an old state even though it is in fact young.

( ~ 18:00)

Dr. Kurt regurgitates second Peter 3:3-4 where there are "scholars" who knowingly reject creation and the Bible on the merits of the past, absolutism; what happens now is how it has always been.

This is a logical fallacy also described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in "The Black Swan"... Absence of Proof does not mean Proof of Absence. And also the fact that one cannot predict the future based on the past in all situations, especially Black Swan's... The Flood was actually a Black Swan (it was impossible to predict, and had catastrophic consequences)

Dr. Kurt Wise argues that the Bible's claims should be accepted over human's science. As is said, man's Wisdom is but foolishness for God.

There is a degree of truth to this; the Bible (God) should be considered absolute truth.(Christian) Science therefore should assume the truth of the Bible and use science to support it. Or at least try to see if what the Bible says is true; use its claims as the hypothesis.

Perhaps this is some form of confirmation bias, but I think this doesn't matter in this instance.

Not sure if it may help your Typewriter Typefaces Bible project or not, but I'll mention that Marcin Wichary used the Internet Archive to collect a lot of the materials for his massive 3 volume 2023 book "Shift Happens: A Book About Keyboards": https://archive.org/details/wicharytypewriter

In addition to lots of material which he found and collected on the Archive, he added a huge number of resources, catalogs, and books which are either rare or incredibly difficult to find by uploading them to the Archive for others to potentially find and use. You and others may find it valuable and or useful to follow his pattern of uploading and storage there.

syndication link

https://munk.org/typecast/?s=fonts

The Story of Vertical Script (AKA: “Script 46 Ra”, “Oxford Script”) – To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth… by [[Theodore Munk]]

Coogan, Michael David, Marc Zvi Brettler, Carol Ann Newsom, and Pheme Perkins, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, An Ecumenical Study Bible. Fully Revised Fourth. 1962. Reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Annotations URL: urn:x-pdf:d8e0b658bbb0af5343bfb78eec4546f9

Alternate annotations view: https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?user=chrisaldrich&max=100&exactTagSearch=true&expanded=true&url=urn%3Ax-pdf%3Ad8e0b658bbb0af5343bfb78eec4546f9

DeSantis tweaks Florida book challenge law, blames liberal activist who wanted Bible out of schools by [[Brendan Farrington]]

Opinion - Trump’s Bible Misunderstands Christianity by [[Esau McCaulley]]

Trump’s Newest Venture? A $60 Bible. by [[Michael Gold]], [[Maggie Haberman]]

Special Features of Trump’s Bible by [[Andrew Singleton]]

Hugh of Saint-Cher was the first person to produce a concordance of the Bible around 1230.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335219376880

Martin Luther King, Jr. maintained a card index during his Ph.D. studies while he was at Boston University working in the area of systematic theology.

He created over a thousand notecards with respect to the Old Testament, many containing a mixture of biblical quotations as well as his own thoughts.

I must be diligent in meditating God's Word until I reach the point of identifying its implications in my life.

Gilad, Elon. “In the Bigynnyng: A Brief History of the English Bible.” Haaretz, January 18, 2019. Https://web.archive.org/web/20220809202404/https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2019-01-18/ty-article-magazine/.premium/in-the-bigynnyng-a-brief-history-of-the-english-bible/0000017f-e5d2-dea7-adff-f5fbf0a70000. Internet Archive. https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2019-01-18/ty-article-magazine/.premium/in-the-bigynnyng-a-brief-history-of-the-english-bible/0000017f-e5d2-dea7-adff-f5fbf0a70000.

Steinberg, Avi. “After More Than Two Decades of Work, a New Hebrew Bible to Rival the King James.” The New York Times, December 20, 2018, sec. Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/magazine/hebrew-bible-translation.html.

translation of pakad, an administrative word literally translated as "took account of" as "took note of"

Extended discussion here of the decision to translate nefesh not as "soul" with various examples.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_H._Peterson

Shulevitz, Judith. “‘The Five Books of Moses’: From God’s Mouth to English.” Book Review of The Five Books of Moses: A Translation With Commentary by Robert Alter. The New York Times, October 17, 2004, sec. Books. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/books/review/the-five-books-of-moses-from-gods-mouth-to-english.html.

Goldfajn, Tal. “Thou Shalt Show: On Robert Alter’s Translation of the Hebrew Bible.” Book Review of The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. Los Angeles Review of Books, June 2, 2020. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/thou-shalt-show-on-robert-alters-translation-of-the-hebrew-bible/.

Nice summary of various modern translations of the bible.

clever use of "faith" with respect to translation here

Bruce, James. “The Godless Bible.” Book Review of The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. Law & Liberty, July 15, 2022. https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-godless-bible/.

After such a scathing review, really?? I'd be interested to hear a few paragraphs about why.

!!

Perhaps not "haphazard", but they are definitely written by different authors over a large span of time, often each with their own political point of view. Bruce seems to be playing at the common misconception that the books were written as a cohesive whole supporting only one outcome.

There is some massive historical contextual collapse going on here, particularly in a broader culture in which multiple gods were the norm. Each author certainly had their own idea of what "God" was when writing.

Of course Alter's alternate translation of "son of man" allows one a closer meaning of Jews prior to the first century and Jesus, which adds a lot of undue baggage which may be seen as retconning the Hebrew Bible. It is after all, titled The Hebrew Bible and specifically not The Old Testament, thus placing it into the tradition of Christianity.

Ungenerous to take Alter to task for context which he might not have the background to comment upon.

Does Alter call it a "platitude" from it's historical context, or with respect to the modern context of Donald J. Trump and a wide variety of Republican Party members who are anything but Christian?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hebrew_Bible_(Alter)

Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. 1st edition. New York London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018. https://amzn.to/3QioxiS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Bible_Series

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/anchor-yale-bible-series/

Ran into a copy of the collection at Pasadena City College Shatford Library on Friday 2023-09-09.

https://www.publishepp.com/

Job 38:31 Verse (Click for Chapter) New International Version “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?

New Living Translation “Can you direct the movement of the stars— binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion?

English Standard Version “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?

Berean Standard Bible Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

King James Bible Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

New King James Version “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion?

The Very First Bible 144 A.D. by Marcion of Sinope, A. W. Mitchell.

Randomly ran across the bible from Marcion of Sinope...

odd title if it's meant not as curiosity but as a bible for Marcionites...

If you've not come across the examples, one of the precursors of the slip box tradition was the widespread use of florilegia from the 8th through the 13th centuries and beyond, and they were primarily used for religious study, preaching, and sermon writing.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florilegium
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace_book
• https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich?q=tag%3Aflorilegium

A major example of early use was by Philip Melanchthon, who wrote a very popular handbook on how to keep a commonplace. He's one of the reasons why many Lutheran books are called or have Commonplace in the title.

A fantastic example is that of American preacher Jonathan Edwards which he called by an alternate name of Miscellanies which is now digitized and online, much the way Luhmann's is: http://edwards.yale.edu/research/misc-index Apparently he used to pin slips with notes on his coat jacket!

If I recall, u/TomKluender may have some practical experience in the overlap of theology and zettelkasten.

(Moved this comment to https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/wth5t8/bible_study_and_zettelkasten/ as a better location for the conversation)

Is this an indication of the shift of biblical quotations into what is now modern form?

Interesting read. I'm amazed I hadn't found it sooner considering how common this position is among archist Christians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_text

Within the field of semiotic analysis, an open text is one that can be interpreted by readers in a variety of ways. By way of contrast, a closed text prompts the reader to only one interpretation.

Given the definition of an open text (opera aperta), in practice, the Bible may be one of the most open texts ever written despite its more likely original intention of it being a strictly closed text.

What does a spectrum of open to closed look like? Can it be applied to other physical forms that could potentially be open to interpretation? Consider art, for example, which by general nature is far more open to interpretation (an open "text") and rarely are there artworks which are completely closed to a single interpretation.

How does time and changing audiences/publics affect a work? The Bible may have been meant as a closed text in its original historical context, but time and politics have shown it to be one of the most spectacularly open texts ever written.

In a precursor to a full concordance of the Bible in 1247, Peter Comestor and Alan of Lille created their distinctiones in the twelfth century. Used as an aid to preachers looking for potential sermon themes, the compilation didn't include every word from the Bible, but instead listed important words including action words, and abstract and concrete words as well as allegorical meanings of words.

Prior to concordances of the Christian Bible there are examples of Hebrew manuscripts in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that have lists of words and sentences or phrases in which they occurred. They didn't include exact locations with the presumption being that most scholars would know the texts well enough to quickly find them based on the phrases used.

Early concordances were later made unnecessary as tools as digital search could dramatically decrease the load. However these tools might miss the value found in the serendipity of searching through broad word lists.

Has anyone made a concordance search and display tool to automatically generate concordances of any particular texts? Do professional indexers use these? What might be the implications of overlapping concordances of seminal texts within the corpus linguistics space?

Fun tools like the Bible Munger now exist to play around with find and replace functionality. https://biblemunger.micahrl.com/munge

Online tools also have multi-translation versions that will show translational differences between the seemingly ever-growing number of English translations of the Bible.

Through its use, the Dominican concordance of 1247 helped to standardize Stephen Langton's 1203 verse numbering system for the Bible. A more standardized version wasn't seen in printed versions until later in the sixteenth century.

link to https://hypothes.is/a/XF3kMLabEeyVPmOqIwBrDg

Started around 1230 and completed in 1247, a full concordance of the Bible was created by the Dominican house of St. Jacques in Paris. The group was broken up into word groups of one or two beginning letters and each member would then create an indication of the context and exact location of their assigned words as they encountered them. Twenty two small portable copies of the concordance exist from the thirteenth century. Eighty larger manuscript copies of a later version are extant from from roughly 1280 and 1330.

The first concordances of the Bible were created in the middle of the eleventh century independently by groups in England and Paris. The Parisian version became more widespread while there is only one partial extant copy of the English one.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/idle_hands_are_the_devil%27s_workshop

Proverbs 16:27 "Scoundrels concoct evil, and their speech is like a scorching fire." (Oxford, NSRV, 5th Edition) is translated in the King James version as "An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire." The Living Bible (1971) translates this section as "Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece."

The verse may have inspired St. Jerome to write "fac et aliquid operis, ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum" (translation: "engage in some occupation, so that the devil may always find you busy.”) This was repeated in The Canterbury Tales which may have increased its popularity.

An interesting concept.

Is it possible that the delivery of the ten commandments was a moral and ethical ill brought upon Western culture? Was the fact of one person (or God, in this case) creating a hierarchical structure of one commanding another that began the idea of inequality in Western culture?

The format of many "great books" courses is to help students relate the texts to their own lives, not to have a better understanding of the books or to hone methods of interpreting them.

This isn't too dissimilar to the way that many Protestants are taught to apply the Bible to their daily lives.

Are students mis-applying the great books because they don't understand their original ideas and context the way many religious people do with the Bible?

I haven't seen Phil Hughes inscribe Bible verses with his autograph.

Mario Rivera has a very nice autograph, but I haven't ever seen it with a Bible verse inscription.

It appears he does not inscribe Colossians 3:23 with his autograph.

But it doesn't appear he inscribes Psalm 119:105 on any of his autographs.

It appears that he doesn't inscribe Joshua 1:9 on his autographs.

Churches we’re spreading the word in many different ways. The manuscript was most used in a Bible that was Latin.And there was also confession that people had to do said sine against the church. Come to think of it the clergy of men was probably taking notes and creating his own manuscript.

A satirical and ironic take on information theory, but also subtly about cultural memory.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Apparently interleaving blank sheets into texts was a more common practice than I had known! I've seen it in the context of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) using the practice to take notes in his Bible, but not in others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silva_rerum

Presumably these are the same sylvae mentioned by Earle Havens on page 10 of his book Commonplace Books (Yale, 2001).

Where do these fit into a historical commonplace tradition? From a timing and logical perspective they certainly could be a transplant from other parts of Europe in modified forms.

I'll note that some of the pattern is similar to printed bibles in the 1900's (and perhaps going back earlier) in the United States which held pre-printed pages for adding this sort of historical personal family data that would likely be handed down from generation to generation.

Compare and contrast this form to the idea of the Relatio chronicle in Jennifer Paxton's essay Forging Communities: Memory and Identity in Post-Conquest England.

How is this similar to/different from modern Bible readers erasing the original context of the texts and reimagining the words for their lives in a world far removed from the original?

Seems as if Slavitt has translated a lot of modernity into an ancient text which likely didn't have many of our modern references. This seems to be the sort of reading into a text that many moderns do to the Bible. Better would be to read it as the author intended to the audience to which it was intended rather than reading additional meanings into the text.

https://academic.logos.com/jonathan-edwards-organizational-genius/ by Matthew Everhard

Copies of print and digital editions of Jonathan Edwards' blank Bible are available.

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blank-Bible-Works-Jonathan-Edwards/dp/0300109318/
• Online: http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9zZWxlY3QucGw/d2plby4yMw==

Apparently one can buy modern copies of interleaved bibles as well: https://www.amazon.com/Interleaved-Journal-Hardcover-Letter-Comfort/dp/078524316X/

Video review of an interleaved bible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6EAu3nB1vk

What other books can be found in interleaved editions? Ayn Rand perhaps?

If one is serious about annotating a text, then consider making a "blank Bible" version of it.

Jonathan Edwards apparently received bible as a gift. It had a copy of the text of the bible which interspersed blank pages between every page of text thereby allowing massive amounts of space for marginalia!

Interesting to see that Jonathan Edwards cross referenced his commonplace book to his bible as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6EAu3nB1vk

• James did not want anyone to think that God sends trials to break down or destroy our faith; therefore, he will come back to this point in James 1:13-18. -James knew that most people have an evil tendency to blame God when they find themselves in trials. Yet by His very nature, God is unable to either be tempted (in the sense we are tempted, as James will explain), nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

This is freaking hilarious!

Cross reference this with the retranslation of the Temple by In the Footsteps of King David.

The real (open) question is did this memory tradition date back to the time of David, or was it applied (or reapplied) by classical scholars after the first century? Was it transmitted in oral tradition until put back into writing in the new millenium?

And this is almost just what we see in modern religion concerning the bible.　Even though it's written down, people read the words and change their original meaning and intent to make them relevant to their modern lives rather than the older historical context in which they were originally created.

Perhaps it was this craft and the idea of making an ethical product that forced Peter Ramus and others to suspend the arts and crafts of memory since many early practitioners encouraged violent, sexual, and other absurd images as a means of maintaining them. This certainly may not have sat well with Puritans using these mnemotechniques to memorize portions of the Bible and their catechisms.

I'd push back on this a bit by saying that there are huge swaths of people looking at English translations, of Latin translations, of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic translations. Not only is there some detail lost in the multiple levels of translation, but many modern Christians are actively mis-applying the stories in the Bible to apply to their modern lives in radically different ways than was intended.

However, if Welsh does not yet possess a spoken standard, it does possess a literary standard which can be traced back to the translation of the Bible by Bishop WIlliam Morgan in 1588, which in turn is based on the language of the medieval court poets who were the heirs of the Cynfeirdd, the earl poets Aneirin and Taliesin. These lived in the sixth century AD and described battles which took place in today's Scotland and Northern England [...]

Another good example is the built up genealogy of family bibles inscribed with the names of owners and their family tree which are passed from one generation to the next. To some extent this is highlighted by the passages of the bible in which W begat X begat Y begat Z begat... (Genesis chapters 5 & 11).

Miss Clack already seems to be far more religious than Betteredge. I wonder if she is going to cite the Bible similarly to Betteredge with Robinson Crusoe. It also suggests that Clack will be conservative in her views of societal norms and traditions, and may have a strict, judgmental perspective in line with her Christian values.

The reference to Original sin also brings up the classic dichotomy of good vs evil, innocence vs guilt. Does Clack view knowledge of good and evil as a deficiency in human nature? Does she believe in free will? These factors bring may provide a basis for how her narrative may be skewed or unreliable. Even if she does not ponder these questions herself, Collins certainly posits them to the reader by invoking original sin here. Furthermore, this sets up a tension between western Christianity and eastern Hinduism, reinforcing the previously introduced conflict between domestic and foreign values.

God curses the serpent after deceiving Eve in the garden, and creates "enmity between [the serpent] and the woman." In the "Harry Potter" series by JK Rowling, the serpent is a symbol of evil, and near the end of the books, is the only piece of evil left to destroy before good can truly be restored.

This is evocative wording; a reference to "city on a hill"? A phrasing originally from Matthew 5:4.

John Winthrop used this phrase to describe a new Puritan community on the American continent, and the phrase more recently has been used to refer to ideas of American exceptionalism.

https://www.winthropsociety.com/doc_charity.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_upon_a_Hill

More translations: New International Version "See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.

New Living Translation Look now; I myself am he! There is no other god but me! I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals; no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!

English Standard Version “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

New American Standard Bible 'See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

King James Bible See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

From https://biblehub.com/multi/deuteronomy/32-39.htm

Psychiatry, T. L. (2020). Mental health and COVID-19: Change the conversation. The Lancet Psychiatry, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30194-2

Here, Crusoe parallels “God” and his “Father”. This hints at him holding them up to similar pedestals.This peculiar way of comparing them is also evidently seen in the bible, where Jesus- being crucified- exclaims out to his Father (who is also “god”) “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” In another passage he similarly shouts”My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”, while being crucified. Here, Jesus uses both “God” and “Father” interchangeably. This parallel between crusoe and Jesus demonstrates how Crusoe’s character is mirroring Jesus. This shows us how, although an early novel, the narrative still contains similar plots and characters to traditional pre-novel pieces of literature- in this case being the bible.

“BibleGateway.” Mark 4:35-41 NIV - - Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+4:35-41&version=NIV. “BibleGateway.” Luke 23:46 NIV - - Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+23:46&version=NIV. Mowat, Diane, and Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford University Press Canada, 2008.

This reminds me of the story in the bible of the prodigal son. In this story, a young man leaves his family and completely wastes his inheritance. Ultimately, he returns home and his father accepts him with open arms, throwing him a huge welcome back party. Saying ”For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”. When crusoe says he feels guilty for having left his “duty” to God and his father, it almost sounds exactly like the prodigal son apologizing to his father upon returning home:‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son”. This illustrates how Robinson crusoe indeed mirrors the bible, which considered a traditional text, although it is still considered one of the earliest novels.

Luke 15 NIV, biblehub.com/niv/luke/15.htm. Mowat, Diane, and Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford University Press Canada, 2008.

This phrase really mirrors the story in the bible of Jesus calming the storm while on a boat. That story can be found in Mark 4:35-41 New International Version (NIV).The story consists of Jesus on a boat with his disciples, and while on a boat, a raging storm develops. The storm persists until the disciple wakes Jesus and he calms the storm saying, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”. The fact that both of these excerpts are so similar in plot demonstrates how prevalent traditional literatures, in this case the bible, heavily influence emerging novels of the time.

“BibleGateway.” Mark 4:35-41 NIV - - Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+4:35-41&version=NIV. Mowat, Diane, and Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford University Press Canada, 2008.

Victor implies that life can be renewed from death, a theme present in biblical scripture. See Gen. 3:19, 18:27; Job 30:19; Eccl. 3:20) and in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (Burial Rite 1:485, 2:501).

The religious connotations of the passage connect Victor to the human project of playing God, much as Adam was said to be formed of clay. Historically, Jewish rabbis were also thought to have created golems from clay to seek revenge on enemies. However, following orders literally, the golems inevitably became destructive. Cautionary tales about technology and hubris were not only frequent in Shelley's time but have proliferated. In Karel Čapek's R.U.R (1920), for example, robots confound expectations by violently rebelling against their creators. Cadavers for anatomical training in this period were scarce, and thus a medical education meant to study and extend life also fostered serial killers who committed murders for the sake of selling fresh corpses. Such killing sprees were ended by the Anatomical Act of 1832 in England, which made corpses legally available for medical research.

"Creation" points toward popular literary themes, and to the Bible. It also calls into question property rights. John Locke (1632-1704) argued in Two Treatises of Government that applying one's labor to nature made that creation one's property. Shelley seems to call into question the relation of scientific research to the idea of ownership.

At this moment, the Creature appears more strongly associated with Adam than with Satan, apparently born into a "paradise." However, Shelley's allusion might be to that of the serpent or snake, as in Revelation: "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him . . . He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years (Rev. 12:9; 20:2).