Hey, they spelled Elvis’ name wrong on his tombstone and that set off a generation of conspiracy kooks. Spelling Jesus’ name wrong on a Vatican coin will likely create more. Someone send for the albino monks to quiet them.
ABC News reports:
A medal issued by the Vatican commemorating Pope Francis’ first year as the Bishop of Rome included a rather glaring spelling error, a typo of Biblical proportions.
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 medals were to go on sale Tuesday and include the Latin inscription: “Vidit ergo Jesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi sequere me,” according to the Vatican press office.
Mistakenly, however, the word “Lesus” was printed instead.
This whole thing is actually kinda’ funny.
To err is human, and to forgive divine. But hey, that doesn’t mean we can’t point and laugh for a little while, right?
October 11, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Actually, from what I understand stuff like that becomes very valuable collectors items.
October 11, 2013 at 2:02 pm
The very superior fellow on CBS News ah-ha'd because the Latin "Iesus" had not been spelled with a J. Purists might question why the Name had not been spelled "Iesvs."
Life is good.
October 11, 2013 at 5:53 pm
And it's Rome. stuff happens. Eh, shrugging shoulders and hands in air.
October 11, 2013 at 7:29 pm
RE: "IESVS", in case you wondered, J was definitively distinguished from I by the early 1500s, and U from V by the middle 1500s, so "JESUS" would be entirely appropriate from Trent onward. Good luck explaining to a journalist that Latin does not always use the orthography of Classical Latin, though (they also struggle mightily with the distinction between Ancient, Koine, and Modern Greek—and "Classical Chinese was not pronounced like Mandarin" is a revelation that topples their fragile minds).
October 11, 2013 at 9:59 pm
Thanks, Sophia's Favorite. I'm still struggling with English! 🙂
Or perhaps "Gratia a me?" May God be pleased to restore Latin (whether of the "Kai-zar" or "Cheh-zer" variants) to the Mass soon.
October 12, 2013 at 1:36 am
@Mack Hall, HSG: "May God be pleased to restore Latin (whether of the "Kai-zar" or "Cheh-zer" variants) to the Mass soon." Yes. There are so many mistranslations in the missalettes. People say it is only bad grammar, but it is the Word of God. That ought to mean something.