Comment By Torchlight

Israeli Problems

The problem of immigrant absorption is an embarrassing one for Israel at the present time. The policy of the Soviet Union in flooding into Israel thousands of Soviet Jews is proving a serious strain to the Israeli economy. Recently the Israeli Prime Minister, Mrs Golda Meir, stated that the challenge would be faced: "If Israel were ever to ask herself what is the breaking point in the absorption of immigrants, that moment would be the most tragic for Israel and the Jewish people", she said, and added, "Nothing was ever achieved in the Land of the Jews without serious effort, but it should be known that immigrant absorption has a priority second only to defence".

Officers of the Joint Palestine Appeal in London have issued a Manifesto calling on world Jewry to utilize their total resources and manpower to help the immigration of Soviet Jews and their absorption in Israel, and stating: "Today Israel faces the greatest influx of immigrants for twenty years. This increased immigration comes at a time when the people of Israel, who are still carrying the enormous burden of their own security, are confronted with grave social and economic problems. The task of absorbing immigrants, whether those of today or those of previous years, can only be met by world Jewry".

In Israel other internal issues continue to divide the nation. A very strong protest from orthodox Rabbis against the continuing secularizing of the country has provoked heated debate. The deterioration of Sabbath observance in the interests of tourism has become a major flash-point with leading personalities taking sides.

Meanwhile the initiative of King Hussein regarding the territory on the West Bank of Jordan has been coolly received in Israel and violently rejected by President Sadat of Egypt and other Arab leaders. No doubt the present stalemate in the Middle East will be discussed with the Soviet leaders during the proposed visit of President Nixon to Moscow this month. From the Christian point of view the absence of armed conflict in the area is a cause for thankfulness and will continue to be the objective in supplication at the Throne of Grace.

Fragment of Mark's Gospel?

A Spanish Professor claims to have found a fragment from a copy of Mark's Gospel among the Dead Sea Scrolls which were discovered in 1947. He says that a passage in the Gospel can be reconstructed from a previously unidentified fragment which was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and suggests that the fragment dates from the year 50 A.D. He bases his theory on the style of writing and the date of other fragments which have already been identified.

If the claims of the Professor are substantiated this will be the oldest fragment of New Testament writing ever found. The papyrus fragment of John's Gospel which until now has held the 'age record' was found in Egypt and dated early second century; it is on exhibition at the John Rylands Library, Manchester. Of this fragment of John's Gospel Dr H. Guppy, the John Rylands Librarian, said, it was written in the early part of the second century-when the ink of the original autograph can hardly have been dry. This must be regarded as the earliest fragment, by at least fifty years, of the New Testament".

Whatever the result of further research into the claim the Spanish Professor makes for the Mark fragment, and any theories that may be built on it, we can be fully assured, not only of the authenticity of Mark's Gospel but also of the whole of the New Testament. The wealth of manuscript attestation of these books greatly exceeds that of other historical works. Sir Frederick Kenyon, a foremost scholar in the study and evaluation of ancient manuscripts, stated in 1940: "The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established".

"Here may the sons of deepest want

Exhaustless riches find,

Riches above what earth can grant,

And lasting as the mind."

unknown | May 1972
Comment By Torchlight