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Parapet

Winter sun on the parapet

2 comments to Parapet

  • Constantin C.

    Hello,
    I would like to know if there, in the Library, does exist a Bible in the Bessi language as some people talk about.
    Thanks and Merry Christmas!
    Constantin C.

    • Father Justin

      When the Piacenza Pilgrim visited Sinai, probably in the 550s, he writes that the monks were versed in several languages, among them Latin and Greek, Syriac, Egyptian, and Bessan (linguas bessas). It seems there is no scholarly consensus on what he meant by Bessan. If it refers to the language spoken by the peoples of Thrace, the area of the Balkan peninsula to the west of Constantinople, it might indicate the native language of the one hundred Roman soldiers who were sent to Sinai at the command of the Emperor Justinian, together with another one hundred soldiers from Egypt, to guard the monastery. Unfortunately, we have no manuscripts in that language in our library.

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