Friday, October 11, 2013

"Vatican Misspells Jesus’ Name on Papal Medal"

Engraved with the Latin phrase that the pope says inspired him to join the priesthood as a young man, Italy’s state mint misspelled the name of Jesus, calling the son of God Lesus instead.

The medals, of which 6,000 were pressed in silver and bronze and another 200 in gold, have now been recalled. The design included a portrait of Pope Francis on the obverse and on the reverse a work by the artist Mariangela Crisciotti.

The phrase it the pope’s motto. It means, “Jesus, therefore, saw the publican, and because he saw by having mercy and by choosing, He said to him, ‘Follow me.’”

ABC News

27 comments:

edutcher said...

Iesus I could understand.

The Dude said...

Lem was their proofreader.

AllenS said...

Heysoos.

ricpic said...

Lesus all getta long?

bagoh20 said...

Satan can be a little mischievous.

It strikes me as odd to honor Jesus in gold coins. There are a lot of people and things that make sense in gold, but Jesus is just not one I would want. I would feel a little blasphemous having such a thing. I don't know much about the subject, but it seems like the antithesis of what I know of him.

chickelit said...

edutcher said...
Iesus I could understand.

Latin didn't have a "J". The Italians call "J" ilunga.

Julius Caeser would be spelled

GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

(1) Nobody seems to have noticed that they fucked up the "U" as well.

(2) Both of those TV announcers are total airheads. I guess that's why they get the big money.

Trooper York said...

This pope seems to be getting a lot of things wrong. Let's hope he grows in the job.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Oh wow, i thought i was going to get jebus from Trooper.

Mumpsimus said...

My theory: Someone at the mint saw "Iesus" in the copy, thought the cap I was a lower-case L, and, while capitalizing the whole word, made it a cap L.

Palladian said...

Latin didn't have a "J". The Italians call "J" ilunga.

Hence INRI

IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDÆORVM

Palladian said...

Ancient Romans had no minuscules. Their emails and online writing must have all read like shouting

TITYRE, TV PATVLÆ RECVBANS SVB TEGMINE FAGI
SILVESTREM TENVI MVSAM MEDITARIS AVENA;
NOS PATRIÆ FINES ET DVLCIA LINQVIMVS ARVA.
NOS PATRIAM FVGIMVS; TV, TITYRE, LENTVS IN VMBRA
FORMOSAM RESONARE DOCES AMARYLLIDA SILVAS.

William said...

It could have been worse. They could have misspelt the word in a the Papal Infallibility decree.

Revenant said...

Mumpsimus's theory seems right to me. Not so much a spelling error as a font error.

AllenS said...

Have you ever looked at early American (English) letters? You'll often see a funny looking, or italic "f" and they mean an "s". What's that all about?

Why does everyone want to make this language shit so hard?

Methadras said...

Save me Jebus, er, I mean Lesus.

Methadras said...

You think Jesus is laughing about this? A chuckle perhaps?

Known Unknown said...

It was supposed to say "Yeezus" in honor of Kanye West.

Mumpsimus said...

Have you ever looked at early American (English) letters? You'll often see a funny looking, or italic "f" and they mean an "s". What's that all about?

Up through the 18th century, the familiar short s (or "terminal s") was used only at the end of a word; the "long s" which looks to us like an f was used for a lower-case s which appeared anywhere other than at the end of a word. Why? Because screw you, that's why.

Palladian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

Have you ever looked at early American (English) letters? You'll often see a funny looking, or italic "f" and they mean an "s". What's that all about

A vestige of a Roman cursive "s". In printing you'll notice upon close inspection that the "long s" character is different than the minuscule "f"; the long "s" has a crossbar that only goes to the left, the lower case "f" has a crossbar that actually crosses the stem of the letter and appears on both sides. Here's an illustration I made. The difficulty is compounded a bit because the long "s" and the lower case "f" are also used in ligatures, which are groups of characters that are joined in a special way. In my example of the word "fisticuffs", there is an "fi" an "st" and an "ff" ligature. In the word "congress" there aren't any ligatures. The long "s" was (almost) never used at the end of a word.

Yes, a bit confusing, but if you read a lot of pre-19th century printing you get used to it.

chickelit said...

Here is what actual Roman script looked like: link. Note the graffiti concerning Titus and pooping.

Paddy O said...

"had no minuscules."

They had them, but there's no remaining evidence of what they looked like because Romans really were yelling all the time.

Lydia said...

It strikes me as odd to honor Jesus in gold coins. There are a lot of people and things that make sense in gold, but Jesus is just not one I would want. I would feel a little blasphemous having such a thing. I don't know much about the subject, but it seems like the antithesis of what I know of him.

It's not a coin, but a medal, like a St. Christopher's medal.

Also Jesus really wasn't against a little luxury, just the worship of wealth. Isn't there something in the New Testament about a woman anointing him with expensive oils and his disciples being upset and he tells them to chill?

Palladian said...

I forgot to include a link to my long "s" illustration...

AllenS said...

Thanks, Palladian. I guess that's as good as an explanation as any, but I'm having one of those WTF moments.

Chip Ahoy said...

They've been recalled. Send them back please.

No! Make me. Watchya gonna do, chase me?

They're way more valuable uckedfay up, your highness, it's all about value out here in Humbleland.