In April 2019 a fire broke out in the roof section of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and the Cathedral was almost destroyed. News reports indicate that repairs to the Cathedral are almost complete, and it will soon be open to the public.

   Prior to the fire, among the many things displayed in the Cathedral were a large set of wood carvings depicting events in the life of Christ. They were large carvings, perhaps half-lifesize. They were carefully painted. They depicted people with great expressiveness. And they were old, having been made around 1350.

   Did they somehow survive the fire? Will anyone be able to see them in the future? I do not know.

   Several years ago I visited Notre Dame and photographed the carvings. For the December blog I thought it might be appropriate to show one of these photos: the Magi bringing gifts to the young Jesus (Matt. 2:1-12). This obviously didn't happen on Christmas Day, and it may have happened when Jesus was around two years old, but it has made an impression on many. I might think the visit of the shepherds (Luke 2:8-20) was more important, because if Jesus came for shepherds, clearly Jesus came for everyone. But the ones who carved these scenes gave scant attention to the shepherds and exalted the "kings." We can think of the "kings" as representing the entire world.

   If you have a chance to visit Paris, take time to meditate and pray in the Notre Dame Cathedral, regardless of what your faith tradition may be.

   Please don't use this photo for commercial purposes, and give credit to Richard Davies as the photographer.

The myth of "Jason and the Golden Fleece" is well-known, and sometimes is considered a children's story. Unfortunately the full story is not appropriate for children. Jason was assisted in getting the golden fleece by a witch named Madea, who then ran away with Jason and became his wife. She did unspeakably evil things to help their escape from her home. 

   In the ancient world, magic was considered to be real, and it was never used for good. Myths about witches and their magic told that witchcraft was always bad. Since people expected magic to yield bad results, we are told in Acts 8:9ff about the condemnation of a magician named Simon. In Acts 19:19ff we are told about people destroying expensive writings that gave instructions for performing magic, also because magic was never used for good. 

   This month's picture is from a scholarly book about ancient magic. The book, "The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation," edited by Hans Dieter Betz, gives us thousands of ancient magical spells. The spell shown here is for winning a horse race. You were to inscribe the two strange symbols on the horse's hoof along with an appropriate prayer to the demons.

   It all seems very strange to us, but it was very real and important in the ancient world.

The ancient Psalmists sang lyrics such as, "The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night" and "You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day." (Ps. 121:6 and 91:5.) The promise is that God is with us at all times, both day and night. In day time the ancients had fears about warfare and sunstroke, but the fears at night were worse, because the dangers were unseen. Demons were especially active at night, so the prudent person would work to mollify the night demons.

   Here we see a vase on which a woman is shown in a ritual to mollify the night demons. She is burying some sort of cake to satisfy their cravings. When the ritual is complete, she hopes to be safe for a while.

   Last month we saw an elaborate vase showing the story of Medea, a powerful witch. Witches were important, because they knew the secrets of the demons. Probably a witch had instructed the woman on this month's vase.

   In contrast, the Psalmist sings about the person who meditates on God's law during the day and the night. (Ps. 1:2) The vase is about 2,400 years old, and the Psalm may also be about the same age. They were two entirely different views of how powerful demons are (or are not).

   You can see this vase in Munich, Germany, in the Antikensammlungen, item number 559. Photo by Richard Davies. Please do not use it for commercial purposes and please give credit to the photographer.