Fic rec (Doctor Who)

I just have to rec Branwyn/ cesario's delightful gen story Moment of Grace, in which Martha, during the Year That Never Was, runs into Two. It has its dark moments, but it's really moving because of the relationship that Branwyn creates between Martha and Two. May require hanky warning.

Stop press: Judas still evil, say Sethians

Fascinating blog entry by April DeConick, a religious studies scholar working on Gnostic texts. Remember the National Geographic article about the "Gospel of Judas", which they translated to suggest that Jesus asked Judas to betray him and he was rewarded for this with a place of honour in heaven?

Well... the problem is, apparently it didn't. The main mistake they seem to have made is to have translated daimon, used to refer to Judas, as if it meant 'spirit' (morally neutral/ positive). Now this would be fine in classical Greek, but if you examine the corpora of Gnostic texts, then you find that in this period/ genre daimon invariably means "demon" (morally negative). The other problem is that the passage where Jesus promises Judas heaven says the exact opposite - it's Gnostic! Jesus telling Judas that he's going to betray him, it's not going to work out how he thinks, and Judas will never go to heaven, so yah boo sucks, demonspawn, and go burn in the fires of Hell.† I imagine National Geographic is rather embarrassed, but it sounds as if they ought to be, as they apparently haven't behaved in a very scholarly manner thus far.

In other exciting news, I see that the Baptist Times web bookshop sells incense (including quick-lighting charcoal, and incense nails for your paschal candle related needs). While I think this is a great step forward for spikes who want to take over the world ecumenism, I do wonder how much of it they actually sell. Though they are undercutting the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham on Rosa Mystica, so you never know...

† I paraphrase, but you get the idea. The Gnostic God generally comes over as a bit of a git, I think.

Another meme, from dolorous_ett and ms_wanderlust

Give me two characters from different fandoms you know I'm familiar with, and I'll give you a dialogue happening between the two of them. Without justifying how the crossover would work, how their worlds clashed, or how they could even meet each other. Just a silly crossover conversation with no backstory, for fun.

For fandoms, see my interests, but obvious candidates are Potter, Who, Tolkien, Star Trek (I'm not confident about being able to write most of the cast of Enterprise, though), and I'd also have a bash at the Archers, the Chalet School, and .... there must be more than that?

Also, for German readers out there, I recommend the TU Chemnitz Advent calendar - full of photographs, interesting stories about the Erzgebirge, and recipies (last year there was an utterly brilliant one for chocolate wine cake): http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/advent/2007/