Reply #20: About the letter from the Mayor of Tell Afar

[Revenant]

I recently was emailed the letter mentioned in the article. It came to me through my father, who had gotten it from a distant relative who is retired military. Curiously enough, I was reading Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman at the time. Professor Ehrman's book is a critical look at how the Gospels have changed down through the ages with insertions or deletions by scribes in an effort to counter heretical movements. (Great book, highly recommended.) In the book Ehrman outlined some of the techniques used by scholars to assess whether or not a passage has been inserted after the fact.

In this letter there is one paragraph which is the most effusive in praise of American troops. Unlike the other paragraphs, this one makes no reference to Allah. Granted I'm reading a translation, but the vocabulary and meter are wrong as well--though the most notable flaw is the deletion of references to Allah.

I don't doubt that most of the letter is genuine. That one passage, however, just goes clunk.

I guess, when you try to gild a lily, you should actually use gold.

Mike