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This is ancient correspondence from the first century. Its author was talking about stuff so important that people hand-copied it.Īs we’ve said, this is a letter. Paul-one of the earliest Christian leaders-is in prison somewhere in the Roman Empire… with the best guesses being Rome itself or the city of Ephesus. The patterned lines and markings of the ancient Greek have been translated for us and neatly set in Times New Roman… and we forget the miles and centuries that they’ve traveled. Most of us have seen the Bible so much-or at least heard about it so much-that we don’t really recognize what we’re reading. It’s a second-century copy of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. This is one of the earliest complete copies-not bits or fragments-of the ancient letter we just read today. In a world without scanners or copy-machines, the words have been painstakingly preserved-copied by hand. This is called Papyrus 46. An artifact of history-not mythology. You could hop on a plane today and go see it. It’s housed in the Chester Beatty Library and Museum in Dublin. Papyrus 46 | Chester Beatty Library & Museum Now… let’s move from fiction to nonfiction. Mythical dwarves experienced no tragedy there. But it’s fiction. Moria has never existed. Right? Even now-most of us have gotten a little swept up by the strange words. The Watcher in the Water took Óin-we cannot get out. They have taken the bridge and Second Hall… We are still hog… but hope… Óin’s party went five days ago but today only four returned. Gandalf can decipher the markings-the message-the correspondence: We take them for granted, but words-carefully written and preserved-can unlock the mystery of Moria. Words!-we take them for granted, but they’re the most amazing of technology! They’re just these patterned lines and markings… and they can communicate across years or decades or even centuries. It’s tattered and falling apart… but you can still read the words. Something has happened. And in one of the chambers, they find a book. It’s the annuls-the record-of what has happened here in Moria. When they arrive, they realize that the once great underground kingdom of Moria, has become a tomb. There’s this section of The Fellowship of the Ring, where Frodo and Gandalf and the fellowship-in their quest to destroy the Ring of Power-need to cross the Misty Mountains and decide that they will go under them. They dive deep into an elaborate subterranean network of tunnels, chambers, mines, and feasting halls called Moria. They’re expecting to find friends there. But they find only corpses. And this week, as I was preparing, you know what I kept thinking about? That’s right- The Lord of the Rings. This is our third week in our series-Complete Joy-here we’re walking through the letter to the Philippians.