Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics

Source: BBC News

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.

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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.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12888421

Revelations anybody

and really new -- even the scholars at Crosstalk apparently haven't discovered it yet.

Lead books with pictographs and maps of Jerusalem? Very, very strange. Good chance it might be an Ebionite document, which would be especially revealing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9434000/9434907.stm

For balance, some scepticism.

The writing is reported as some kind of Hebrew but coded. Until the items are competently read, we don’t even know what their contents are. The items are miniature codices, of a size that suggests private usage, and, so far as I know, suggests a date much later than the first century (there seems to have been an upswing in the production of miniature codices from ca. 3rd century CE onward).

Finally, the incidence of the forgery of artefacts is so great that any responsible scholar must express profound hesitation about making any judgement on such items until they have been properly analysed. Especially in light of the “Jesus bone-box” drama, we might all take a few deep breaths and simply call for the items to be put into the public domain for competent study before more rash and pointless claims are proffered.

http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/more-on-the-lead-codices/

and that David Elkington may not be the most reliable judge of authenticity.

On the other hand, *where* the codices were discovered is interesting -- in the Jericho/Qumran area. During the first Jewish Revolt in the 60s and 70s, the Jews hid documents and valuables from the Romans in this area, presumably including the Dead Sea Scrolls. The copper scroll in particular has a whole list of treasures in various hiding places.

The choice of lead is also interesting. The copper was made by people with wealth and resources, so they could use a more expensive metal for preservation. Lead was, I believe, a less expensive medium, more affordable for those with fewer resources. And while Paul had money, the leader of the movement in Jerusalem was Jesus' brother James. Although he was a leading priest, he was not rich and the movement was known as the "poor".

By the third century, the Ebionite movement was serious decline and I wouldn't have expected anyone to have hidden a genuine religious document in this location. Forgeries were common, but they would have been based on the religious mythology of the time, not the first century Roman sieges. The same is even more true of medieval and later forgeries. The only possibility would be for it to be a recent forgery, but the finder doesn't seem capable of it, and the Jordanian government is concerned enough about the artifacts to attempt to repatriate them.

The James ossuary never ran true and was immediately called out as a possible forgery. This one is surprising, but rings true.