As a boy, Jean Francois Champollion taught himself or attempted to learn Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Chaldean and Chinese. By the time he was 18, he was appointed to teach history and politics at the University of Grenoble. A year later, he earned a doctorate.
This brilliant young Frenchman also mastered Coptic, Ethiopic, Sanskrit, Zend, Pahlevi and Persian. He is best remembered as an Egyptologist who decoded the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics on the ancient marker known as the Rosetta Stone. In our era, that name has been co-opted by a company that teaches an assortment of modern languages.
Champollion served as the conservator of the Egyptian collection at the Louvre Museum in Paris. He was born on this day, December 23, in 1790. He died at the age of 41 after suffering a stroke.
He broke the code on Egyptian picture language by studying the Rosetta Stone, an archaeological find which contains the same message in three languages: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and demotic or everyday language of ordinary Egyptians. He had found the name of the ancient ruler Ptolemy in the first two languages and then discovered that same name in a hieroglyphic sign. This breakthrough kept Champollion going. Great patience was necessary because he worked on the translation project some three years and, little by little, identified additional hieroglyphics.
Napoleon had discovered the Rosetta Stone in 1799 when he invaded Egypt. The stone, found at Rosette in Egypt, is now on display in the British Museum in London.
The message was written in 196 B. C. by Ptolemy the Fifth, one of a series of 15 kings by that name who ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries. Ptolemy describes some taxes he is repealing, he gives instructions for statutes to be erected in temples, and he instructs that the decree be written in the three languages.
At first glance, Champollion’s work may seem obscure in our modern era, but he advanced our understanding and appreciation of events from a largely forgotten period of history.
Our seasons of Advent and Christmas center on ancient messages which we need to translate into the languages of our hearts. Champollion can be our exemplar in his determination to recover details from the past. If we apply his pattern to the spiritual realm, we can shed new light on the reign of righteousness and judgment, tempered with love and peace, which Christ’s advent ushered in for people in every generation and every language.
Verses for Today
“Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. for there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith” (Habakkuk 2:2-4).
Each day through New Year’s Day, January 1, 2013, inspirational thoughts will appear, in keeping with Advent, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. These are from my book, Reflections for the Festive Seasons. © 2002. All rights reserved.
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