Yesterday I learned that another friend of mine, the third in the last year, had passed away from Covid-19. Dr. John Pratt had a PhD in Astronomy, another degree in Physics, and another in Mathematics. John was the world’s leading expert in various calendar systems. You can find his work cited at Wikipedia article on “Enoch Calendar”. He was published in academic journals on the topic ( John Pratt, Review of Mapping Time:, The Calendar and Its History, by E. G. Richards, American Mathematical Monthly, volume 107, number 1, January, 2000 ). I had become his go-to guy for information on the inter-workings of the Hebrew calendar as laid out in the Talmuds and Midrashim.
John and I not only shared interests in Astronomy (as some of you know, I worked in a planetarium and a museum when I was a teenager), physics (We talked a lot about relativity and Quantum physics. I once told Dr. Pratt that I “dabble” in physics and he shot me a glance and said “oh, you do more than *dabble*”) calendar systems, chess, logic puzzles and apocryphal/pseudopigraphal literature (especially the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jasher). Although we had to agree to disagree about some matters of religion, we had become good friends.
John and I had occasion to have lunch together back in September, at which he shared with me his latest research in which he believed he had, using traditions found in the Protoevangelion of James, pinpointed the date of the birth of Mary (Miriam). We talked about some research I had on the Protoevangelion and I also shared with him that there was a significant textual relationship between the Protoevangelion and the Hebrew manuscripts of Matthew. I told him I would gather that information for him and email it. I am heartbroken to say that I had not gotten around to emailing it, when I learned that John had passed (on 10/11/21).
Dr. Pratt will be missed dearly.
Dr. John Pratt
(July 4, 1945-October 11, 2021)
