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{{Chronology Entry
{{Chronology Entry
|Headline=Pitching in the Bible?
|Year=-700
|Year=-700
|Year Suffix=c
|Year Suffix=c
|Is in main chronology=yes
|Year Number=1
|Text=<p>"He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die . . . "   <u>Isaiah 22:18.</u></p>
|Headline=Ball-Pitching in the Bible?
<p>The word "ball" appears only twice in the Bible, and the other one refers to the ball of the foot of a beast [Leviticus 11:27]. The Isaiah usage was the inspiration for a January 1905 news article headed, "Played Baseball in Bible Times: The Prophet Isaiah Made the only reference to the Pastime to be Found in the Holy Writ." [The <i>Hamilton [Ont] Spectator</i> - from a clipping in the Origins file at the Giamatti Center in Cooperstown.</p>
|Salience=2
<p>Isaiah's prophesies were written [in Hebrew] late in the eighth century BC.  A compilation of 15 English translations [accessed at <a href="http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm%20on%2012/29/10">http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm on 12/29/10</a>] shows that most of them summon the image of an angry God hurling the miscreant, like a ball, far far away. [One exception, however, cites a wound turban, not a ball.A literal translation is unrevealing: "And thy coverer covering, wrapping round, Wrappeth thee round, O babbler, On a land broad of sides—there thou diest." <b>Caveat:</b> we have little assurance that Isaiah actually referred to a ball, or even to the act of throwing. <b>Query:</b> could a Hebrew reader or a Bible scholar among you clarify this question?</p>
|Location=
|Age of Players=
|Holiday=
|Notables=
|Text=<p>"He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die . . . " <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Isaiah 22:18.</span></p><p>The word "ball" appears only twice in the Bible, and the other one refers to the ball of the foot of a beast (Leviticus 11:27). The Isaiah usage was the inspiration for a January 1905 news article headed, "Isaiah's prophesies were written [in Hebrew] late in the eighth century BC.</p>
|Warning=<p>We have incomplete assurance that Isaiah actually referred to a ball, or even to the act of throwing.</p>
<p>A compilation of 15 English translations [accessed at <a href="http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm%20on%2012/29/10">http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm on 12/29/10</a>] shows that most of them summon the image of an angry God hurling the miscreant, like a ball, far far away. (One exception, however, cites the winding of a turban, not a ball.) A literal translation is unrevealing: "And thy coverer covering, wrapping round, Wrappeth thee round, O babbler, On a land broad of sides&mdash;there thou diest."</p>
|Comment=<p>Protoball user Benjamin Roy has done some further digging in 2014 on the meaning of this text . . . see Supplemental Text, below.</p>
|Query=<p>Can other readers throw any more light on this ancient (and, to Protoball, handsomely <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>obscure</em></span>) text?</p>
|Source Image=
|External Number=
|Submitted by=
|Reviewed=Yes
|Has Supplemental Text=Yes
|Sources=<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Isaiah 22:18.</span></p>
<p>"Played Baseball in Bible Times: The Prophet Isaiah Made the only reference to the Pastime to be Found in the Holy Writ." (The <em>Hamilton [Ont] Spectator</em> - from an unidentified clipping in the Origins file at the Giamatti Center in Cooperstown.)</p>
<p>A compilation of 15 English translations [accessed at <a href="http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm%20on%2012/29/10">http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm on 12/29/10</a>] shows that most of them summon the image of an angry God hurling the miscreant, like a ball, far far away. (One exception, however, cites the winding of a turban, not a ball.) A literal translation is unrevealing: "And thy coverer covering, wrapping round, Wrappeth thee round, O babbler, On a land broad of sides&mdash;there thou diest."</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
}}
}}
<p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">A 2014 Contibution by Benjamin Roy</span> --<br /></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">&nbsp;</span></strong></p>
<p><strong>From:</strong> Benjamin Roy [<a href="mailto:benjamin.m.roy@gmail.com"><span style="color: #0000ff;">mailto:benjamin.m.roy@gmail.com</span></a>] <br /> <strong>Sent:</strong> Sunday, February 02, 2014 11:32 PM<br /> <strong>To:</strong> <a href="mailto:lmccray@mit.edu"><span style="color: #0000ff;">lmccray@mit.edu</span></a><br /> <strong>Subject:</strong> RE: Protoball, Pitching in the Bible</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">Protoball's entry BC700c.1 includes these notes to readers:<br /></span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"Warning:&nbsp; </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">We have little assurance that Isaiah actually referred to a ball, or even to the act of throwing</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Query:&nbsp; </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Could a Hebrew reader or a Bible scholar among you clarify this question?&nbsp; Please?"</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I'm not an expert, so appropriate grain of salt, but I did a little digging into this. &nbsp;I *think* the reference to a ball is pretty solid. The modern hebrew word for ball is&nbsp;כדור, duwr or kaddur. The first letter "כ" (Hebrew is read right to left) appears to at least originally have been a prefix meaning "like a."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The word is definitely there in the Leningrad Codex as&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: medium;">כַּדּ֕וּר&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">(the dots are vowels, and generally only present in texts to be read by non-native speakers).</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2022%3A18&amp;version=NASB;WLC"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman;">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2022%3A18&amp;version=NASB;WLC</span></a></p>
<p><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman;">[Note: the Codex is the earliest known intact manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, dated 1008 AD. -- LMc]<br /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I'm pretty sure it's also in the Great Isaiah Scroll:</span></p>
<p><a href="http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah#22:18"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman;">http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah#22:18</span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">(Column XVII, 8th line from the bottom, 2nd word from the left)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">[Note: the Great Isaiah Scroll is one of the scrolls discovered in the 1940s.&nbsp; - LMc]&nbsp;<br /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I couldn't really find anyone* disputing the translation as ball, despite it only occurring once in the Bible.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><a href="http://lexiconcordance.com/hebrew/1754.html"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman;">http://lexiconcordance.com/hebrew/1754.html</span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">What's more dubious than "ball" is "throw," which is *not* in the text, just implied by the context. Some commentaries take the references to winding as sling imagery, as in David and Goliath.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/ball"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman;">https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/ball</span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">*The one possible exception is entirely in Hebrew, and google translate seems to think it's referencing throwing around sheaves of wheat or somesuch.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%22%D7%92_%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95_%D7%9B%D7%91_%D7%99%D7%97"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%22%D7%92_%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95_%D7%9B%D7%91_%D7%99%D7%97</span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">To really know what that says, you'd have to find someone who actually speaks the language.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">I don't know how much any of this helps, but if you can't find someone who knows what they are talking about, maybe it does.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">Ben</span></p>

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Ball-Pitching in the Bible?

Salience Noteworthy
Text

"He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die . . . " Isaiah 22:18.

The word "ball" appears only twice in the Bible, and the other one refers to the ball of the foot of a beast (Leviticus 11:27). The Isaiah usage was the inspiration for a January 1905 news article headed, "Isaiah's prophesies were written [in Hebrew] late in the eighth century BC.

Sources

Isaiah 22:18.

"Played Baseball in Bible Times: The Prophet Isaiah Made the only reference to the Pastime to be Found in the Holy Writ." (The Hamilton [Ont] Spectator - from an unidentified clipping in the Origins file at the Giamatti Center in Cooperstown.)

A compilation of 15 English translations [accessed at http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm on 12/29/10] shows that most of them summon the image of an angry God hurling the miscreant, like a ball, far far away. (One exception, however, cites the winding of a turban, not a ball.) A literal translation is unrevealing: "And thy coverer covering, wrapping round, Wrappeth thee round, O babbler, On a land broad of sides—there thou diest."

 

Warning

We have incomplete assurance that Isaiah actually referred to a ball, or even to the act of throwing.

A compilation of 15 English translations [accessed at http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm on 12/29/10] shows that most of them summon the image of an angry God hurling the miscreant, like a ball, far far away. (One exception, however, cites the winding of a turban, not a ball.) A literal translation is unrevealing: "And thy coverer covering, wrapping round, Wrappeth thee round, O babbler, On a land broad of sides—there thou diest."

Comment

Protoball user Benjamin Roy has done some further digging in 2014 on the meaning of this text . . . see Supplemental Text, below.

Edit with form to add a comment
Query

Can other readers throw any more light on this ancient (and, to Protoball, handsomely obscure) text?

Edit with form to add a query
Has Supplemental Text Yes



Comments

<comments voting="Plus" />

Supplemental Text

 

A 2014 Contibution by Benjamin Roy --

 

From: Benjamin Roy [mailto:benjamin.m.roy@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2014 11:32 PM
To: lmccray@mit.edu
Subject: RE: Protoball, Pitching in the Bible

 

Protoball's entry BC700c.1 includes these notes to readers:

"Warning:  We have little assurance that Isaiah actually referred to a ball, or even to the act of throwing

Query:  Could a Hebrew reader or a Bible scholar among you clarify this question?  Please?"

 

I'm not an expert, so appropriate grain of salt, but I did a little digging into this.  I *think* the reference to a ball is pretty solid. The modern hebrew word for ball is כדור, duwr or kaddur. The first letter "כ" (Hebrew is read right to left) appears to at least originally have been a prefix meaning "like a." 

The word is definitely there in the Leningrad Codex as כַּדּ֕וּר (the dots are vowels, and generally only present in texts to be read by non-native speakers).

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2022%3A18&version=NASB;WLC

[Note: the Codex is the earliest known intact manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, dated 1008 AD. -- LMc]

I'm pretty sure it's also in the Great Isaiah Scroll:

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah#22:18

(Column XVII, 8th line from the bottom, 2nd word from the left)

[Note: the Great Isaiah Scroll is one of the scrolls discovered in the 1940s.  - LMc] 

I couldn't really find anyone* disputing the translation as ball, despite it only occurring once in the Bible. 

http://lexiconcordance.com/hebrew/1754.html

What's more dubious than "ball" is "throw," which is *not* in the text, just implied by the context. Some commentaries take the references to winding as sling imagery, as in David and Goliath.

https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/ball

 

*The one possible exception is entirely in Hebrew, and google translate seems to think it's referencing throwing around sheaves of wheat or somesuch.

http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%22%D7%92_%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95_%D7%9B%D7%91_%D7%99%D7%97

To really know what that says, you'd have to find someone who actually speaks the language. 

 I don't know how much any of this helps, but if you can't find someone who knows what they are talking about, maybe it does.

 Ben