Tuesday, August 4, 2009

"Barack Hussein Obama" Mentioned in Ancient Manuscript?


I've seen a lot of oddities come across my desk from individuals looking to have Aramaic identified and translated. Pottery sherds, pottery shards (yes, there is a difference), incantation bowls, old Ketubahs that people find in their attics (my personal favorite), prayer books, jewelry, and even a copper scroll (not "The" Copper Scroll, but *a* copper scroll, no joke); but, when this came to me, I was a bit stunned. This is the very first time I have ever seen an artifact this unique.

It is a rather crumbling piece of papyrus that was once sealed with a wax impression. It is old. The handwriting and dialect unmistakably place the text as Imperial Aramaic.

At the top I can make out "ש[נת] ש[תי]תי ז[י] דריהוש מלכא" == "the si[xt]h [yea]r o[f] King Darius," (placing it during the Persian Administration) and the rest of it seems to be dealing with matters of inheritance within a family.

However, in the meat of the document, I immediately came upon some trouble with the phrase "ברך הסין אובמה" which was sticking out in the middle of the text. It gave me some serious difficulty.

"ברך" is certainly from the root "to bless" and "אובמה" seemed to come from the root "יבם" ("to marry a brother's widow"). Given this, I thought might be able to interpret "הסין" as the name "Hasin" and the context would be that this individual was cause to marry his brother's widow to continue the family line under the blessing of the widow's father.

However, this would require "יבם" to be in the Causitive form, specifically Aphel. Simply put, it couldn't be in Aphel, given the dialect, and given other demonstrated use of the Haphel elsewhere (the Haphel Causitive didn't become Aphel until after Imperal Aramaic).

After relaxing with a hot cup of tea and staring at that bit of text in context, I made the following strange connection:

ברך הסין אובמה
brk hsyn 'wbmh
barak huseyn 'owbamah

Even when writing this I'm still in a bit of shock. Am I seeing things? I feel that I've looked over that blasted YouTube video one too many times and that it's affecting me in a horrible way. I'm going to try and get some photos of this up ASAP so that others can take a closer look before I take the time to properly photograph the document in high resolution.

Peace,
-Steve

PS: Today is his birthday, no? I need some sleep... This day has been too much.

PPS: First photo is up. Not only do I have poor light this time of the evening, but I now feel I need to upgrade my iPhone.

4 comments:

kyph said...

Come on, my dear Mr. Caruso. Do not let me loose the respect I have for you aramaic learning. With all due respect, Hussein in Mr. Obama´s name is arabic and must be written with heth and not hey and Hussein menas "very good" (origin: hassana - with heth not hey- q.i. be good, give forth goodness). So, please, attain to aramaic and give us a good translation.
push bashlomo
Peter Sowmy (Sao Paulo / Brazil)

Steve Caruso said...

Peter,

Thank you for your input. I honestly find it very important to get the opinions of others about such a strange and unusual document such as this.

I do strongly suggest that you take a close look at the entirety of the text that I have posted here:

The Manuscript Revealed!

This resemblance goes deeper than the small examples I have posted here can illustrate. :-)

Peace and thanks!
-Steve

Anonymous said...

Forgive me, I don't know much about you but it seems you are a scientist of sorts, in the art of language. I am not remotely close to being a scholar of language, even though I do find it very fascinating. But I just wanted to point out that the best and most insightful scientists look for and accept the truth they find in their research, even when it means laying down all that they have thought and believed up to this point. If you discover something that challenges you, don't disregard it just because someone else doesn't like it. I didn't like kyph's comment "Don't let me loose respect..." If he/she truly does respect you and thinks highly of your work then that person should also esteem your more challenging discoveries-even if they seem uncomfortable. I'm not saying that what you have found is true or if it is not. I haven't the slightest clue. But don't bow to social criticism.
Does this document show us something unexpected? Sure. Could it mean what you propose it may? Maybe. Maybe not. Would further analysis hurt? Of course not. We underestimate the Master Scientist/Master Artist/Master Linguist and Writer. Is it possible that THE CREATOR of all the beautiful and unfathomable complexities of this life is fully capable of creating a timeless literary document? If yes then, it's possible. If no, then why not? If you are not GOD don't question HIS possibilities and don't doubt the talent HE has given you. Anonymous A

Anonymous said...

Again whether a hey or a chet it is the transliterated sound that we are getting...not perfect spelling of someone's name...I know a woman named Parris...she likes to think in Hebrew her name means Peretz...meaning to break forth to the right or left!!When speaking Hebrew many words loose their syllables...sounds running together so fast like Tzfed...or Shekhem...