Margaret Walker - MY PREHISTORY

In the Bible, Philistia was the home of the Philistines, the eternal enemies of the Jews. PHILISTIA Step 1: Classical Hebrew is a consonant language which doesn't write vowels. So, let's remove the vowels. PH L S T Step 2: Substitute Hebrew consonants for English, remembering that the consonant sounds 'f/ph' and 'p' are represented in Hebrew by the same letter. ת ש ל פ Step 3: Reverse the consonants because Hebrew is written from right to left, not left to right like English. פ ל ש ת Step 4: Check your work with an interlinear Bible. פ ל ש ת   Psalm 87:4, I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me — Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’ Step 5: Arrange a visit from the famous Greek historian Herodotus who notices that the Hebrew consonants for Philistia are the same as the Greek word for 'wrestler'. παλαιστης P a L ai S T es Step 6: reverse the consonants again because Greek is written f...

The evening we saw the star we were farewelling dinner guests. We had walked them to the top of the driveway shrouded by turpentines and camelias and had just reached the street when Richard pointed out a white starlike object sitting low in the western sky.    Compared with Europe, Australia has very clear skies and when, a night or two later I emerged from the supermarket where the steps descend to the outdoor carpark, I stopped. There it was again, in the same position as we had earlier seen it, a star so large and so radiantly bright that it was impossible, once seen, to yank out the car keys, toss the shopping in the boot and drive thoughtlessly away. This beautiful celestial object was not, in fact, a star but the conjunction of two planets, Jupiter and Saturn that occurs about once every twenty years, in this case 2020. The one I saw was purported to be the best in 800 years (1) and it has been conjectured that such a conjunction produced the Star of Bethlehem that woul...