So early last week I was thinking about what to get my dad for Father’s day (just ruined THAT surprise), and I started playing around with the software at zazzle.com. I had gotten my wife a calendar there for Valentine’s day and it turned out very nicely. So I started looking at their ties and how I could make a custom tie. And I started thinking about all the images, including my fractal art, and my love of ancient manuscripts and textual criticism, and before long…well, you can take a look via the flash panel below, or here.
You will see that about half are my fractal designs, and half are apologetically oriented. For example, the Alexandrinus manuscript’s reading of John 14:26 is for use with Muslims: you can clearly read on the tie the phrase (ὁ δὲ παράκλητος, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον), ho de parakletos to pneuma to hagion, “the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit” (I focused mainly on the term παράκλητος, parakletos). Muslim apologists claim Muhammad is prophesied in the Bible, and like to assert that John 14 and John 16 originally referred to the the exalted one, i.e., Muhammad, suggesting any number of terms like periklutos as the original reading. But here, in Codex Alexandrinus, written more than two full centuries before Muhammad’s birth, you have the proper term clearly presented.
The purple colored tie with the image of Codex Sinaiticus on it (ok, a very small portion of a single page), contains the text of the Carmen Christi, Philippians 2:5-11.
The Granville Sharp tie gives the text of P72, the earliest manuscript of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude, at 2 Peter 1:1. This is where you find the Granville Sharp Construction, “our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” I repeated the text three times so that you have the entire line containing the construction. Great for JW’s and Muslims both!
And the Arabic tie’s background is a page of a manuscript from 1453 containing portions of the crucifixion narratives written in Arabic.
I will donate the proceeds ($3 a tie!) to A&O, so at the very least you can feel like you are supporting the work. This is just a little something I did on a lark. But I wore two of the ties this weekend in Atlanta, and folks really liked them, so, here they are.
Oh, and by the way, today only (Monday) they are $10 off! $20 for a tie like this isn’t half bad! So, don’t forget Father’s Day is Sunday!
