Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics

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BBC News - Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics


They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave. They could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born.

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.

A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin.

The Israeli Bedouin who currently holds the books has denied smuggling them out of Jordan, and claims they have been in his family for 100 years.

Jordan says it will "exert all efforts at every level" to get the relics repatriated.

Incredible claims

The director of the Jordan's Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, says the books might have been made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his crucifixion.

"They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than, the Dead Sea Scrolls," says Mr Saad.

"Maybe it will lead to further interpretation and authenticity checks of the material, but the initial information is very encouraging, and it seems that we are looking at a very important and significant discovery, maybe the most important discovery in the history of archaeology."

They seem almost incredible claims - so what is the evidence?

The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before being bound by lead rings.

Their leaves - which are mostly about the size of a credit card - contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.

If the relics are of early Christian origin rather than Jewish, then they are of huge significance.

One of the few people to see the collection is David Elkington, a scholar of ancient religious archaeology who is heading a British team trying to get the lead books safely into a Jordanian museum.

He says they could be "the major discovery of Christian history", adding: "It's a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church."

He believes the most telling evidence for an early Christian origin lies in the images decorating the covers of the books and some of the pages of those which have so far been opened.

Mr Elkington says the relics feature signs that early Christians would have interpreted as indicating Jesus, shown side-by-side with others they would have regarded as representing the presence of God.

"It's talking about the coming of the messiah," he says.

"In the upper square [of one of the book covers] we have the seven-branch menorah, which Jews were utterly forbidden to represent because it resided in the holiest place in the Temple in the presence of God.

"So we have the coming of the messiah to approach the holy of holies, in other words to get legitimacy from God."
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article continued at link
 
Those books/codices are regarded as fraud my most historicans. Expected better from BBC.
 
flip said:
Those books/codices are regarded as fraud my most historicans. Expected better from BBC.
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Someone should inform the director of Jordan's Department of Antiquities.
 
Regardless of whether or not someone "believes" this is a fascinating find.
 
deafskeptic said:
mm I'd like to know where you got that info cuz I want to read up on it.
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Jordan fights for return of new 'Dead Sea Scrolls'
Israeli archaeological sources have been dismissive of the find, suggesting that Mr Saeda has appeared "every few years" trying to sell the codices. They said examinations had shown them to be forgeries.
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Cache of Ancient Books on Metal Plates Found: But Are They Real? | Heavenly Ascents
Most scholars and experts, including Davila, are skeptical about the authenticity of the plates. Most who have had the opportunity to analyze them have declared them to be forgeries. But, as the article notes, experts tend to be “ultra-cautious” with these things as they have “burned their fingers” being mistaken about previous discoveries.
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A bit different from the sensationalist article from BBC, and this is written by a christian.

My guess it's nothing to see here except a fascinating story from the antique black market in middle east.
 
saywhatkid said:
Regardless of whether or not someone "believes" this is a fascinating find.
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If this is a hoax, then this is a misleading source on how the Bible developed and how early influences affected early Christan thought.
 
deafskeptic said:
If this is a hoax, then this is a misleading source on how the Bible developed and how early influences affected early Christan thought.
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If it's real, it's probably not about christianity at all, but jewish traditions. A bit more on this blog, with links to this and that.

Lead Codices Silliness « rogueclassicism
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), however, has dismissed the idea that the books are of any value. Experts who examined some of them, it said, “absolutely doubted their authenticity”. According to the IAA, the books are a “mixture of incompatible periods and styles…without any connection or logic. Such forged motifs can be found in their thousands in the antiquities markets of Jordan and elsewhere in the Middle East.”

Professor Andre Lemaire, an expert in ancient inscriptions from the Sorbonne, was also dubious, saying the writing on some of the codices he had seen made no sense and it was “a question apparently of sophisticated fakes”.
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