Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

To tell you the truth, I honestly don't know.  I don't read Aramaic.
When we did this back in November, I found that

] the minimum amount was 200 zuz for a virgin and 100 zuz for a
] non-virgin.  A zuz is a quarter of a shekel, so that would be,
] respectively, 50 shekels and 25 shekels.  They give a value of 15
] cents for a zuz, which would be $2.88 today according to the inflation
] calculator at
]
]     http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
]
] so that would be $576 for a virgin and $288 for a non-virgin.  If
] you go by the weight of the silver, a zuz would appear to be about
] forty-five cents, and the prices would be $90 and $45.

I don't recall anybody asking about whether she was a virgin or not,
so I'd guess that it's the larger amount.  Of course those are
minimums; I have no idea what was considered "standard".

} Jim Ward wrote:
}  
}> Robert Lieblich wrote:
}  
}> > The Vatican vigorously denies that the Pope has any opinion about
}> > it.  In his condition, it's probably quite an effort for him to
}> > give a thumbs up.
}
}> I was wondering how you go about getting an Impuratur for a film.
}
} You mean "imprimatur"?  Nihil obstat.

Yeah, but is that the answer or a correction of a putative error?

I think that back in the day you'd first get a censor librorum to check it
over and give you a nihil obstat.  Then you might have to hunt down
someone to give you an imprimi potest.  Only then would you seriously go
about getting an imprimatur from the big dog.  I don't see that the
process would be any different for a film than for a book.

None of it means that it's right; it just means that it's not wrong enough
to block.

For instance, for a Catholic nowadays (which is to say, since 1943) to say
that a film taking a literal interpretation of a conflation of scriptural
accounts of "events" leading up to the death of Jesus of Nazareth "is how
it was" (or something to that effect) would be hard-pressed to get any of
those stamps of approval for the statement.  The sum total of what we know
about them is pretty much stated in the ancient creeds: he died.  It's one
thing to take any one of the accounts as a way of dealing with it.  It's
another to paste it together like newspaper reporting.

Right, Rey?