monotheism sweeps the world

should I get my broom?
I went to see a fantastic exhibit yesterday at the NYPL (sometimes they can be so fantastic) on the three Abrahamic religions. I learned a lot! It reminded me that when I was an undergrad, a favorite prof of mine gave me a book on exegesis in the middle ages in Europe (of course). But I learned that many bibles and other religious book (psalters, hymnals, books of hours) had been written in Ethopian...who knew? I'm sure some people knew, though I was not one of them ^..^
Anyway, I plan to go back, as I had only enough patience to get through about the first half of the exhibit and then it got crowded in the library (I hate when that happens). But this little adventure of mine has inspired me to remember to take full advantage of hte city in which I live. I have Friday afternoons free, and well, I should really exploit that time and use it to my advantage; there is so much to do here! I haven't been to the Met in ages....I think it's high time for a return trip.
I also learned of the interesting importance of Gabriel in all three religions (makes me wonder if there isn't some sort of conspiracy going on here....) in Judaism, he apparently was a go-between (but not like Galeotto) for Moses when he received the commandments on Mount Sinai, not to mention the laws and other tuff that G-d told him to do; in Christianity, he told Mary of her virgin birth (pregnancy?) (the Annunciation); in Islam, he was again the go-between for Mohammed when he was talking to G-d. Gabriel's role as messenger in each religion is intriguing to me for several reasons: firstly, I have always had an attraction to the Gabriel, whatever his guise; secondly, when my brother was born, my father gave me the opportunity to give him a middle name....I chose Gabriel; thirdly, I have always been able to pick the guy out of a crowd (no kidding). This certainly requires further research. I wonder why each religion "chose" Gabriel as the messenger...perhaps the Jews did it first, and the other two needed to follow suit (kind of like what the Christians did with the Pagans...but whatever, I say nothing); or perhaps there really is something to it.....maybe I will meditate on this for a time and come back with an answer.
I also learned quite a bit about the various commentaries on each "book" which in the beginning (no pun intended) were scrolls until people (thank you Gutenberg) figured out that the book format is easier to carry. Actuall, it isn't thanks to Gutenberg, as many of the torahs, bibles, qur'ans, psalters, prayer books, etc. were hand-written all the way into the 20th Century in some cases. Judaism mandates that the Torah and the Megillah remain in scroll format when they are used for ritual purposes. In reality, I think it was the Protestants who encouraged education in that they were the first Cristian sect (though I'm not sure about the Orthodox) to require that participants be able to read, and to read the bible as a means of enlightenment.
I learned that sometime between 200 and 500 CE the Talmud was codified and the oral tradition was redacted; sometime between 70 and 120 CE the writing of the Synoptic Gospels took place and by 900 CE, the Qur'an was completely codified with vowels and diacritical marks...
Interesting that by 397 BCE the text of the Torah was finalized and being read (thank you Ezra the Scribe).
I also recently read a really interesting article about Cleopatra in the New Yorker....mental note: find a link to that. The New Yorker keeps trying to get me to renew my subscription and is luring me with the promise of free gifts...perhaps I will exploit their offer and get my free gift for renewing early.
You know what they say; the early bird gets the worm. My big question has always been: who wants worms?