Tag: Information access

A little web-archaeology of image files on the blog

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Earlier today I happened to notice that the images were not displaying on an old post.  A little investigation revealed others.  Eventually I installed a plugin to locate broken images, and got the results.

In some cases, WordPress had decided to change the how the link was handled.  The file was “somefile.JPG”, but the WordPress link was “somefile.jpg”.  This once worked; now it does not.  I dealt with this by renaming the file extension on my PC and uploading it to the server.

There were some images which had non-ascii characters in their file name.  Once these clearly worked.  But no longer.  I dealt with this by renaming as  before.

In some cases WordPress had decided, sometime, to add “-1” to the image name in the post.  Since it did not change the image file name, that broke the display.  I went through these posts and removed the “-1”.

And then there were the external images.  Links to websites now vanished.  I was able to retrieve most of these using Archive.org, and I stored them safely locally.

It was interesting to see an image from Chris Weimer’s blog, neonostalgia.com, the site on which I originally started to blog, under  the category of “Thoughts on Antiquity”.  The domain name has changed hands several times.  The author has disappeared from the web, engaged in the far better tasks of making a living and bringing up a family.  That might have been my destiny also, had a certain young lady thought differently about me, long ago.

It was interesting to find an image from J.B.Piggin’s site, also now gone.  He was the man who opened up the Vatican LIbrary, when he discovered the vast digitisation of manuscripts which was being obscured by the then wretched Vatican website.  His weekly updates of uploads brought that collection to the millions.

But worst of all, and unfixable, was one page on the 2012 discovery of a Mithraeum at Inveresk in Scotland: the Lewisvale Roman altars.  Unusually I linked all the images to the official site.  And… the site was first moved to another address, with a 301 redirect, but the images cunningly left on the old server.  That meant that Archive.org could not archive them.  Then both sites disappeared also.  Even the writer of the diary entries, conservator Pieta Greaves, had died, aged only 46.  So there is nothing to be done.

I occasionally think that I ought not to hold local copies of material, such as Mithras images.  Ah, if only I had done so!!

Anyway, the blog has been updated, and that particular issue is done.

Long-vanished pre-unicode Greek fonts embedded in PDFs – the problem of “Times Ten Greek”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Back in 2010, I wrote about the problem of Greek text formatted in pre-unicode fonts.  Yes, it was a problem even then.  But the problem is still with us, because we have editions of Greek texts, embedded in older PDFs, which are not in unicode.

A PDF from Byzantinische Zeitschrift 98 (2006) contains the following bit of text:

But when I copy the Greek text from line 1, I get this:

MetÛvra, Monã ^AgÝaw TriÀdow

Yes, the PDF has embedded an old pre-unicode font.  Looking at the file properties, I see which one it is:

It was “Times-TenGreek”.  Whatever that was.

A lot of googling gives little information, and a vast number of fake sites offering “downloads” that are of some random font.  Eventually I stumble across this site by Luc Devroye:

Times Ten (Adobe, 1988-1990) was the house font used by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. It has an Adobe version with Greek, called Times Ten Greek Upright (1988-1991). The full family can be found here.

But sadly Times Ten Greek Upright is not there, although other TimesTenFonts are:

Looking at the file name patterns, I conclude that “TimesTenGreek-Upright.otf” or something like that might be the file name.  Searching for this gives a PDF at https://www.fonts.at/pdf/LT_Originals_OT_Edition_3.pdf, which lists four files.

4584. Times® Ten Greek Upright                        TimesTenGreek-Upright.otf
4585. Times® Ten Greek Inclined                        TimesTenGreek-Inclined.otf
4586. Times® Ten Greek Bold                             TimesTenGreek-Bold.otf
4587. Times® Ten Greek Bold Inclined                TimesTenGreek-BdInclined.otf

So these did exist.  But that’s all I can find.  No source from which to obtain it, and no indication of what the encoding was.  Basically we have an electronic text but no way to use it.

This will become a significant problem, if it is not already so.  What can be done about it?

All the CSEL series PDFs up to 2010 made open-access

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Something wonderful has happened over in Vienna.  We all know of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) series of critical Latin texts of the fathers.  This began back in 1866, and then seemed to dwindle in the 1950s, and was overtaken by other series. Collections of PDFs of the volumes have gone around the web for years.

Some years ago I was pleasantly surprised to learn of new activity there, and many new editions, although of course these were all inaccessible.

Now it seems that someone at the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW) has had a brilliant idea.  They’ve placed online at their site PDFs of all the volumes up to 2010 as open-access.  All the volumes of the CSEL series are here.  You click on the link, and it takes you to the page where you can buy a printed copy – some very inexpensive, which was a surprise! – and also the PDF, available free without any messing about.

Here for instance is a screen grab of the relevant part of the site for the very first volume, CSEL 1, from 1883:

The PDFs are all labelled “nicht barrierefrei” which Google renders as “not accessible”, which is strange.  But if you click “add to cart”, it just saves the PDF.

The explanation is at the publisher website here (in German):

The Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, abbreviated CSEL, is a scholarly publication series that publishes critical editions of the works of Latin Christian writers of late antiquity. The series is published by the CSEL research unit at the University of Salzburg.

In 2013, as part of a comprehensive digitization project, 70 previously out-of-print CSEL volumes were reprinted and made accessible.

In 2023, the CSEL volumes that were previously available digitally were made open access , and this is to be extended to all volumes held by the publisher by the beginning of 2024.

Well!

This is actually a very intelligent decision, and done in a clever way.  After all, if I needed to work on a text in a volume, and a reprint is only 20 euros, I think I’d buy a copy, even if I had a PDF.  The fact that the purchase price dangles right there when you do the download may well cause a few impulse buys.  After all, wouldn’t most of us like a shelf-full of CSEL volumes?  They do look good on the shelf.

Likewise it indicates that the CSEL and the ÖAW have grasped that almost all scholars are collecting PDFs.  Likewise lists of the series circulate online, with links attached.  Given the expense of scholarly books, it is not likely that these collections of PDFs cost the publishers much. And aren’t these publishers all funded from tax money anyway?

This availability of material in PDF is why so much work gets done from some editions, and not from others.  Indeed some scholarly work probably never happens purely because an interested scholar simply can’t access a volume without a struggle.  I speak here from knowledge: my own intermittent urge to translate some of Eusebius of Emesa has been foiled by my inability to get hold of Buytaert’s edition without taking a day trip.

The way in which the ÖAW have done this makes instantly obsolete the lists of volumes available elsewhere online.  In a sense, they have taken back control of their own series, and drawn traffic back to their own site.  Likewise the existence of the good official PDF volumes will drive the others out of use.  They will probably sell more books because of the website design.  And… they will bring the CSEL series, and its current activity, right back into the forefront of the minds of patristics scholars.

It is truly very brilliant thinking.  Somebody there is exceedingly clever.  Everyone will benefit.  Well done.

Can we do anything to get British Library manuscripts back online?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still working away at producing an English translation of the “letter 149” attributed falsely to St Jerome, De Solemnitatibus Paschae, (CPL 2278) which probably dates to the 6-7th century.

This evening I ran into trouble with some variations in the Latin text.  Now I don’t have access to Walker’s critical edition.  I have two editions, that of Migne, based on a Vatican manuscript, and that in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, based on a Paris manuscript.  It’s pretty clear that the author knew some Greek, and that he managed to confuse the copyists.  What was the blighter actually trying to say?

Well, the text is preserved in seven medieval manuscripts, dating from the 9-12th centuries.  Six are held in Oxford in the Bodleian Library; in Paris in the Bibliothèque Nationale Français; in Koln, in the Dombibliothek; in Geneva in the university library; in the Vatican; and in Tours in their Bibliothèque Municipale.  To my great surprise, and no little delight, I was able to find digital facsimiles of all of these.  That gives a big clue about the text.

The seventh manuscript is – deep breath – held in the British Library in London.  Which means, of course, that the chances of accessing images online are basically zero.  Their very limited collection of digital manuscripts was zapped back in October 2023, and very little has been done to rectify the position.

This is pretty shameful, when you see the relentless pace of digitisation of medieval manuscripts across Europe.

It made me think of the fire at Notre-Dame in Paris.  This was an attack on a national institution in France, and the French government sprang into action.  I think they’ve more or less completely restored it now.

The attack on the British Library was also an attack on a national institution.  Yet it seems that the British government just shrugged.

In the end, just how hard can it be to photograph pages from medieval books?  I’ve done it myself.  Probably many of us here do it.  Photographers are cheap.  Just hire a few and let them crank it out.

Of course there is nothing that a civil servant cannot gold-plate, nothing that a greedy contractor cannot inflate.  A massive price could quickly be conjured up by the usual suspects.  But Covid proved that capable people do exist who can get things done very rapidly and efficiently through by-passing the senile British civil service.  Why not let some of these people get to work on this problem?  It is NOT a difficult problem.

I think we’ve all had enough of this collection being essentially offline.  This evening I wrote to my Member of Parliament, Jenny Riddell-Carpenter MP, and asked if anything can be done.  It’s not much, but it’s something that I can do.  She’s a new MP and hopefully not completely ground down by the pressures of parliament.

If any of my readers reside in the UK, perhaps they could write to their MPs also.  It couldn’t hurt.

If you don’t live in the UK, your country probably has an ambassador here.  Would an email serve a purpose?

The opening text of De Solemnitatibus Paschae in the Bodleian manuscript. (MS Bodl. 309, fol. 82v)

UPDATE: It seems that the manuscript I wanted – MS Cotton Caligula A xv – is indeed online already here.  I couldn’t find it because, when I searched, I searched for “Cotton Caligula A”, which gave only one result.  In fact I needed to search for “Cotton MS Caligula A”.  Aargh!  But the general point stands.

The British Library needs to update its search engine handling so we can find these things through Google, but that’s secondary.

Bible Gateway offline in Europe and UK: probably censorship from Ofcom

Posted on by Roger Pearse

British users of BibleGateway.com got an unpleasant surprise last night:

This must be in response to a threat of official action.  And unfortunately, in Britain, such action is a real possibility.

Those in charge of the United Kingdom have passed a law requiring those accessing “adult” material to register their ID and prove their age.  The stated motive is to “protect the children.”

Now I’m all in favour of getting porn off the internet.  But I have never detected the slightest concern about this from those in power, any more than they care about spam.  Nor do I believe that these people care about the children, because the same people have connived at Muslim rape gangs in Rotherham.

So it’s a pretext, and we should ask instead what the likely effect will be.  The effect will be the real motive.

The practical effect of this measure is to end online anonymity, and – importantly – to start a process of state control of who can – and cannot – access the web.  Because if you have to register your ID to access this site or that site, if you have to get approval to use the web for some sites, basically it’s a trivial step, technically, to make this every site.

Who might be responsible?  A little while ago an agency called “Ofcom” wrote a threatening letter to 4Chan, who have applied for protection in the US courts.   So I’d be very suspicious that it was the same people.  Who else would do this?

But who are “Ofcom”?  This was originally a minor department responsible to regulating telecoms companies, but its officials now seem have wide ambitions.  It looks as if Ofcom has sent a threatening letter to Bible Gateway, trying to impose some kind of control on it.  Rather than agree, the US company has simply blocked UK access.  The European Union access seems to be an afterthought here.

But possibly the GDPR regulations come into this.  These were originally an EU measure supposed to ensure big companies did not abuse address and other details of ordinary people.  But I’ve never seen any sign of it being used for that purpose.  Rather it is a means of interference.

We can’t know for sure at this point.  But there seems to be a pattern here of petty bureaucrats trying to do a power grab over the internet.

It won’t work, of course.  There’s no reason why US companies should give some bunch of officials in a foreign country control over their operations.  They will just do what BibleGateway have done, and block the UK and EU, and shove them back into the darkness of the pre-internet era.

Grim stuff.  Why can’t people just leave people alone?

Via Jonathan Black on Twitter.

Updated to rephrase.

Update 26 September 2025: the site has reappeared without explanation.  Let’s hope whatever happened will not recur.

Cheap hand-held multi-spectral imaging for manuscripts?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A very exciting post yesterday on LinkedIn (but visible even if you don’t have an account) from Leonardo Costantini:

Yesterday marked the beginning of a new phase of Digital Humanities applied to manuscript studies.

Imagine a hyperspectral imaging system that weighs 500 grams and gives you instantaneous results, making the post-processing of the images easy and accessible. Its name is ChromaMapper. It’s being developed by PyrOptik Instruments Limited and it will be a gamechanger!

Designed by Dr Mary Stuart, Lecturer at the University of Derby, with the collaboration of Matt Davies and Elizabeth Allen from PyrOptik Instruments Limited, we tested their prototype on the manuscript fragments at the Special Collections of the University of Bristol. Our thanks to Emma Howgill for the kind collaboration.

It has been a mind-blowing experience, and it was so exciting to see the results seconds after the digitisation.

There are no further details, except that the hope is that it should be relatively cheap.  The PyrOptik website is here.

This would revolutionise manuscript studies.  There must be acres of unsuspected palimpsests out there, reused parchment with an unsuspected lower text.

Interesting work on searching Migne for themes at scholarios.graeca.org

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve had an email from Evangelos Varthis, telling me about his project at Ionian University.  It’s still very experimental, but there is some very interesting thinking going on here.  Basically he’s making the Greek text of the PG available, in image, and in electronic text, plus a simple way to get an AI translation of it alongside.

Here’s what he says:

I am mainly involved in presenting information about PG Migne and I personally appreciate and understand the value of these texts….

Experimentally, I and others have uploaded a list of patristic texts from various sources, mainly to see how Artificial Intelligence translation can help.

The Greek texts have a decent translation into Greek (I understand Greek and English), although manual editing is required in various places for greater clarity. Here I would say that even human translated material has a degree of ambiguity.

If you have time, visit the following website, i would appreciate any feedback.
https://scholarios.graeca.org/pgworks/

also (select greek text and right click to translate)
https://scholarios.graeca.org/public/pgfront/index.html?vol=1&page=0001

The first link takes you to a list of authors and works.

Clicking on the first of these gives a list of languages, and clicking English gives you this:

However I notice that the AI translation has omitted the title and first sentence, so perhaps a bug there.  All the same, this works fine.

The second link takes you to a presentation of the volumes with parallel transcription, and again an AI translation option.  This is potentially really useful.  Unfortunately there is some work to do here: the only way to change page is to change the URL manually – not a problem – and right-clicking on the text brings up a menu, which, instead of calling the AI translation, prompts for the text to translate!  I’m sure that this did work, but AI can be tricky like that, and changes what response it gives without warning.

All the same, this will be a very useful thing to have when they’ve got a bit further down the line with it.  Well done guys!

Kassel University online manuscripts -a fabulous interface!

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Well here’s something special! (via this twitter post)  The image below (online here) is fairly familiar.  It shows the “serpent column” in Constantinople, as it was in the 16th century before the heads broke off.  The column is still there, in the Hippodrome.  It is, in fact, the ancient Greek monument commemorating the battle of Marathon, where the Greek cities defeated the Persians.  On it are inscribed the names of all the cities that sent soldiers.  But this is not what makes this site special.

Kassel 4° Ms. hist. 31 (Türkisches Manierenbuch / A Book of Turkish Customs), image 33 / f15r

The whole manuscript is there! It’s on folio 15r, which is the 33rd image in the manuscript.  The manuscript itself is a 16th century collection of illustrations of Turks in costume, with a few other things like this.  Such collections of pictures exist at other libraries too.

The interface is actually useful, at least on PC.  You get thumbnails, you get IIIF, you get proper references.  It’s really rather marvellous.  Universität Kassel have excelled!  The platform is something called “Orka”, and frankly this is very nice.

The breadcrumbs at the top make it easy to find the collection, select the Latin manuscripts, display a list of shelfmarks.  Whoever designed this actually talked to people who use these sites.

There are some 474 Latin manuscripts dated before 1500, which is very respectable.  And, blessedly, you can display 100 mss at a time, in various orders.

It’s tremendously useful.  It’s now time to note that the Kassel manuscripts are online, and may be accessible and usable.

Experiments with Amharic and technology (part 5)

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Eighteen months ago, purely for fun, I made my first attempt at seeing whether AI could produce an English translation of a text in Ethiopic, the  otherwise untranslated Homily of Yohannan, bishop of Axum, on Abba Garima, printed by Rossini.  It could not.  A week or so back, I tried again and got a load of rather decent looking results, and I’ve been working on this since.  The output from DeepSeek aligned quite well with Rossini’s summary

Last week I accidentally learned that there was a French translation by Gerard Colin.1  I got hold of that on Friday, and I have compared the first two paragraphs with the AI-generated output from the Ge`ez text.

The results are not positive.  The DeepSeek output is really not good enough.  Here’s Rossini’s text, followed by Colin’s French.  I’ve put the full-stops in red.  Ge`ez uses word separators, which I have kept.

ወይቤ ፤ ስምፁ ፡ ወልብዉ ፡ ኦአኀውየ፡ ፍቁራንየ ፡ ዘእነግረክሙ ። ርኢኩ ፡ ብእሲተ ፡ እንዘ ፡ ይዘብጥዋ ፡ ዕራቃ ፡ወእንዘ ፡ ይፀርፉ ፡ ላዕሌሃ ፡ ወላዕለ ፡ እግዝእትነ ፡ ማርያም ፡ እንዘ ፡ ይብሉ፡ በእንተ ፡ ወልዳ ፡ ክርስቶስ ፤ እምብእሲት፡ ኪያሁ ፡ ኢተወልደ ፤ ይብሉ እላ ፡ ኢየአምኑ ፡ በክርስቶስ ። ወኮንኩ ፡ እንዘ ፡ እረውጽ ፡ ወአኀዝኩ ፡እስዐም ፡ ታሕተ ፡ እገሪሃ ፡ ለይእቲ ፡ ብእሲት ፡ እንዘ ፡ ትብል ፤ እወ ፡ በዝ ፡ አንቀጽ ፡ ወፅአ ፡ ንጉሠ ፡ ሰማያት ፡ ወምድር ። ወሶበ ፡ ትብል ፡ ከመዝ ፡ ወረደ ፡ ላዕሌየ ፡ አስራበ ፡ መንፈስ ፡ ቅዱስ ።

Ecoutez et méditez, mes frères bien-aimés, ce que je vais vous raconter. J’ai vu une femme, stérile, que l’on fustigeait et injuriait ainsi que Notre Dame Marie, en parlant à propos du Fils de celle-ci, le Christ. « Il n’est pas né d’une femme », disaient ceux qui ne croyaient pas au Christ. Je me mis à courir et entrepris d’embrasser les pieds de cette femme en disant : « Oui, par cette porte est sorti le roi des deux et de la terre ! » Quand j’eus parlé ainsi, les trombes de l’Esprit Saint descen­dirent sur moi.

A quick run of Google Translate on Colin gives this:

Listen and meditate, my beloved brothers, on what I am about to tell you. I saw a barren woman being flogged and insulted, along with Our Lady Mary, speaking of her Son, Christ. “He was not born of woman,” said those who did not believe in Christ. I ran and began to embrace the woman’s feet, saying, “Yes, through this gate has come out the king of heaven and of the earth!” When I had spoken these words, the cloudbursts of the Holy Spirit descended upon me.

Now here’s the Deepseek output.  I’ve highlighted important differences:

Hear and understand, O my beloved brethren, what I declare to you. I saw a woman while they were stoning her and mocking her, and also mocking our Lady Mary, saying concerning her Son Christ, ‘He was not born of a woman.’ These said, ‘We do not believe in Christ.’ And I stood trembling and took refuge beneath the feet of that woman as she said, ‘Yes, by this decree, the King of Heaven and Earth shall come forth.’ And when she spoke thus, the Holy Spirit descended upon me fourteenfold.

These are not small differences.  They obscure what the text is actually saying.  And as ever with AI, the output is not stable.  That was the output a week ago.  Today the same text produced this:

And he said: Listen and understand, O my beloved brothers, what I will tell you.  I saw a woman being accused of adultery, and while they were judging her, they also judged our Lady Mary, saying concerning her Son, Christ: “He was not born of a woman’s womb.” Those who say this do not believe in Christ. And as I stood there, I became angry and struck the ground beneath that woman’s feet while she was saying, “Yes, by this argument, let the King of Heaven and Earth come forth!” And when she spoke thus, the Holy Spirit descended upon me.

These are not small differences either.  I did venture to ask DeepSeek for details, and the grammar and meaning of individual words.  This output also varied uncomfortably.  Which basically means that it is not useful.

In conclusion, AI is still not good enough to translate Ge`ez.

Perhaps I shall come back to this in a year, and see how things look then.

  1. Gérard Colin, Saints Fondateurs du Christianisme Éthiopien: Frumentius, Garimā, Takla-Hāymānot, Ēwostātēwos, Paris: Les Belles Lettres (2017), pp.6-37[↩]

Experiments with Amharic and technology (part 4)

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I now have a corrected electronic text of the homily of Yohanan, bishop of Axum, in honour of St Garima.  I’ve numbered the paragraphs as an aid to myself, since I cannot even read the Ethiopian alphabet.  It probably needs work.  But here it is:

Today I started plugging paragraphs into DeepSeek.  I also tried asking it to interleave the sentences, Ethiopic, then English.  This did work, although curiously DeepSeek had trouble with the Ethiopic alphabet.

The first six chapters went fairly well.  Here they are:

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God. I have placed my trust in Him and believed in Him forever and ever. Amen.

1. The Homily delivered by Saint John, Bishop and Archbishop of Aksum, concerning the greatness and glory of Saint Isaac. And he said: Listen and understand, O my beloved brothers, what I will tell you. I saw a woman being mocked by a crowd, and as they were laughing at her and at our Lady Mary, they were saying concerning her Son, Christ: “He was not born of a woman; His birth is impossible.” These people did not believe in Christ. And as I stood there, I grew angry and stomped my foot upon the ground where that woman was standing while she spoke. And behold, at that very moment, the King of Heaven and Earth came forth. And when she spoke thus, the Holy Spirit descended upon me.

2. I tell you, I saw a man and a woman who came to me with wealth that my Lord had given me for the nourishment of your souls, the greatness and struggle of this righteous man. There was a man whose name was Mesfiyanos, king of Rome, and his wife’s name was Kefngya. For she was barren and childless, having nothing. And the two of them lived grieving for twelve years. These were righteous people who gave alms to the poor and needy and to churches. One day she went to offer sacrifice and entered the church where there were images of Peter and Paul and our Lady Mary. She stood between the three images and prayed before Mary, saying: “Give me a son who will glorify you and glorify your Son, and if he does not glorify your Son, let my womb be cursed.” And that image responded as if saying “Oh!” She offered her sacrifice and returned home. From that time she conceived and bore a son and gave thanks to God. They named him Isaac; Isaac, the joy of his mother, the splendor of his father. When he was forty days old, they took him to the church and baptized him according to Christian tradition. All the people gathered in the church of Peter and Paul. The chief bishop stood before the Ark of the Covenant and blessed him, saying: “May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who blessed our holy forefathers bless you.” When the chief bishop blessed the child, a great light shone upon him, bright as the sun, moon, and stars. All who saw this marveled and glorified God, then offered sacrifices in their churches. The queen returned home with her child, and they celebrated a feast with great joy. When he turned twelve years old, they brought him to a teacher who instructed him in the Law, the Prophets, the Apostolic books, and their commentaries. They ordained him as a deacon. He further learned church canons, admonitions, plants, and animals. His parents consulted one another, saying: “Let us arrange a marriage for our son while we still live, that we may rejoice in his offspring.” As they were making these plans, an angel of God appeared to Mesfiyanos in a dream saying: “Many souls perish—will you not save them? A great church shall be built through him.” The king awoke and went to his wife, saying: “Last night an angel of God came to me and told me that through him miracles and wonders shall be performed.” The angel said to the queen: “I have come to command you to build and establish a church, that you may rejoice in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

3. When his father died, the nobles and dignitaries of Rome gathered and mourned for Isaac as he wept bitter tears. They enthroned him in the royal seat, and he reigned for seven years. During his days there was joy and peace. Afterwards, Saint Pantaleon came to him and said: “O my beloved Isaac, your earthly kingdom is temporary, but the kingdom of heaven is everlasting. The earthly kingdom will perish and pass away, but the heavenly kingdom will not pass away. Have you not heard what our Lord said in the Gospel: ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away’? Or what Paul said about this world: ‘It is passing away, and those who weep should live as though they were not weeping, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who use the world as though they were not using it, for the form of this world is passing away’? My son Isaac, do not neglect the love of God.”

When the message arrived, Isaac saw it and wept bitterly. He rose at night and prayed, saying: “O my Lord Jesus Christ, I beg and implore You to hear my prayer and grant the request of Your servant Isaac. Show me the straight path that I should walk.” He rose at night from his chamber and went to a secret place outside the palace, departing by night. The angel Gabriel appeared to him, prepared a chariot and canopy for him with shining wings, and brought him from Rome to Aksum in ninety days, traveling by night on the back of an eagle, arriving at the third hour.

4. When the messengers of Father Pantaleon arrived after ten months and four days, they told the man of God, who marveled and trembled, saying: “O my son Isaac, have you not heard what David the prophet said: ‘Your works and my soul will be satisfied when I awake with Your likeness’? What I have done secretly, do not hide from me under the earth. What I have seen with your eyes, write it all in your book. Listen, my son, to the greatness of God who has called us from all things, just as He called you under the wing of the eagle.” As they spoke of God’s greatness, they remained until daybreak.

5. Saint Isaac said to Father Pantaleon: “Father, clothe me in the monastic garb.” Father Pantaleon replied: “Do you know, my son, what the monastic garb means?” Saint Isaac answered: “Yes, I know, father. Have you not heard what our Lord said in the Gospel: ‘What is exalted among men is an abomination before God’? As Paul said: ‘What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword? Neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.’ I desire to be bound to Christ and to be bound tightly.”

When Father Pantaleon heard these words from Saint Isaac’s mouth, he prostrated himself and blessed God, saying to Isaac: “May God strengthen you in keeping His commandments.” Then he took the monastic garb and clothed him, blessing him with these words: “May our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed Anthony and placed upon his head the crown of monasticism, sanctify your garb. May God who blessed Father Macarius and Father Synoda bless your garb. May He who gave Elijah’s mantle to Elisha when he ascended to heaven and brought down the cloak for him—and with that cloak Elisha struck the waters and crossed over, raised the dead, and cleansed lepers—likewise sanctify your garb. May God who sanctified the priesthood of Melchizedek sanctify your priesthood.” They remained together for one year.

6. When the other saints heard that Saint Isaac had renounced the kingdom and embraced monastic life, they came to him. Among them were Abba Likanos from Qusṭinṭinya (Constantinople), Abba Yima’ata from Qosya, Abba Ṣəḥma from Antioch, Abba Guba from Cilicia, Abba Afṣe from Isya, Abba Maṭa‘ from Rome, and Abba ‘Oṣe from Caesarea. When the saints gathered, they met with Abba Pantaleon and Saint Isaac, and they were united in spiritual love. They lived together in one house, devoted to prayer. Among them, there was no one who sought personal gain, nor anyone who desired material possessions or the pleasures of the world. They remained for a period of one year.

The first 5 chapters are from DeepSeek.  I then asked it to do chapter 6, and the monstrously long chapter 7.  The results were weird, and then DeepSeek crashed.  I then tried ChatGPT on chapter 6, which is what you have above.  The DeepSeek version was about the same.

The ChatGPT version of chapter 7 was quite different in every way from that produced by DeepSeek.  Here’s DeepSeek, the opening bits:

7.  While they lived in this way, a governor of Aksum came to them and said: “There is a great beast, a king of the land of Ethiopia, to whom all the nobles bow down and offer gifts. They bring him a beautiful maiden of good appearance, and they perform sacrifices and offerings. When she is brought before this beast, he defiles her and then devours her. This beast has reigned in this manner for fifteen years.”

This beast was 170 cubits long and 4 cubits wide, with one cubit for its tail. Its eyes were like fiery coals, and the pupils of its eyes were like black pots. Its entire body was like a serpent and a dragon. When it ate, it would consume 17 oxen, and they would bring before it 10 sheep, 10 goats, 1000 chickens, 100 lambs, and countless birds. Upon its head were horns measuring three cubits. When it moved, its voice could be heard from a distance of eighty days’ journey.

When the brothers heard this, they marveled and were astonished. They trembled and said to the governor: “Do you truly speak the truth?” He replied: “Yes, truly. If you do not believe me, let one of you come and see.” Father Pantaleon said to Saint Isaac: “My son, what shall we do?” Saint Isaac replied: “Let my brother Oz go and observe this beast. If it is as he says, then you too must rise and pray.” …

Here’s ChatGPT:

7.  And when they came and reached him, a certain nobleman from Aksum spoke to them and said: “Hail, great king, the ruler of the nation of Ethiopia!” And they all bowed before him, the nobles, and presented to him the honorable and righteous virgin of the Lord. And they performed hymns and praises, and she came before him, the king, and prostrated herself. And she continued to remain pure. And the king was astonished.

And they stayed there for fifteen years. And the king stood in honor of her for one hundred and eighty days. And he prepared four feasts in her honor. And one of these feasts was the greatest. And his eyes shone like flames of fire, and his pupils were as bright as polished metal. His appearance was as dazzling as the sun and lightning. And when he spoke, seventeen scribes recorded his words. And they made a proclamation across the land.

There were ten thousand warriors, and one hundred thousand men armed with shields and spears. And they gathered before him in great numbers. And his voice was heard from afar, resounding like thunder. And the land trembled at his voice. And his presence was mighty, and all the nobles fell before him.

The DeepSeek text is at least plausible.  The ChatGPT is not.

What I will try doing is getting each to translate it, sentence by sentence, interleaved with the Ethiopic.  I’ll see what that does.