Lead codices="the major discovery of Christian history"?

[tinythinker]

British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus' life. As UK Daily Mail reporter Fiona Macrae writes, some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947.

The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan—a region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The codices are made up of wirebound individual pages, each roughly the size of a credit card. They contain a number of images and textual allusions to the Messiah, as well as some possible references to the crucifixion and resurrection. Some of the codices were sealed, prompting yet more breathless speculation that they could include the sealed book, shown only to the Messiah, mentioned in the Book of Revelation. One of the few sentences translated thus far from the texts, according to the BBC, reads, "I shall walk uprightly"--a phrase that also appears in Revelation. "While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism," BBC writer Robert Pigott notes, "it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... an-history

[Metacrock]

that's neat. It's already being misused on atheist message boards.

That provides some good extra biblical coverage on the early circulation of the resurrection doctrine. Although not that good. it's still neat for a lot of reasons.

[mdsimpson92]

Ok, that's pretty cool.

[KR Wordgazer]

Wow, that's fascinating. I can't wait to hear more, as the tablets are translated.

[URBILD]

This could be a major find or just a major hoax.

[tinythinker]

This could be a major find or just a major hoax.

Could be...

• As we told you last month, some biblical scholars believe a trove of 70 lead codices that turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan may date from the 1st Century C.E. They say that references to the Messiah in the codices--which are made up of wirebound individual pages, roughly the size of a credit card--could bear invaluable testimony to the last days of Jesus' life. Much of the media ate the story up. "Never has there been a discovery of relics on this scale from the early Christian movement, in its homeland and so early in its history," reported the BBC.
  
  But it's looking more and more like the codices are fakes. The "expert" who helped convince the media of that the codices might be authentic turns out to be a fringe figure at best. Meanwhile, Peter Thonemann, a prominent scholar of ancient history at Oxford University, found that two phrases of text in the codices came from an ordinary Roman tombstone on display in a museum in Jordan, suggesting that a forger had simply copied the lines from the tombstone. Thonemann pronounced the codices "a modern forgery, produced by a resident of Amman within the last fifty years or so." Other scholars have also cast serious doubt on the codices' authenticity.
  
  In short, we can't say with absolute certainty that the codices are forgeries--but that's certainly what the balance of evidence suggests. So we've assigned the claim that the codices are an important new archaeological find to the second lowest level on our gauge--one step above flat-out bogus.
  
  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... it-problem

[URBILD]

This could be a major find or just a major hoax.

Could be...

• As we told you last month, some biblical scholars believe a trove of 70 lead codices that turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan may date from the 1st Century C.E. They say that references to the Messiah in the codices--which are made up of wirebound individual pages, roughly the size of a credit card--could bear invaluable testimony to the last days of Jesus' life. Much of the media ate the story up. "Never has there been a discovery of relics on this scale from the early Christian movement, in its homeland and so early in its history," reported the BBC.
  
  But it's looking more and more like the codices are fakes. The "expert" who helped convince the media of that the codices might be authentic turns out to be a fringe figure at best. Meanwhile, Peter Thonemann, a prominent scholar of ancient history at Oxford University, found that two phrases of text in the codices came from an ordinary Roman tombstone on display in a museum in Jordan, suggesting that a forger had simply copied the lines from the tombstone. Thonemann pronounced the codices "a modern forgery, produced by a resident of Amman within the last fifty years or so." Other scholars have also cast serious doubt on the codices' authenticity.
  
  In short, we can't say with absolute certainty that the codices are forgeries--but that's certainly what the balance of evidence suggests. So we've assigned the claim that the codices are an important new archaeological find to the second lowest level on our gauge--one step above flat-out bogus.
  
  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... it-problem

yeah, I told ya they were crap.

[Metacrock]

way to go urbie. thanks for screwing up our new find.

[Metacrock]

I just joined the forum and this is my first comment, so forgive me if I'm late in responding, but I have a lot to catch up with.

This particular thing caught my eye. I think there's an interesting thing going on with relics that either confirm or cast doubt on the veracity of Christian claims. Some might be motivated by proving that "Jesus never lived" or they might try to cash in or crash in on the whole frenzy over this type of discovery. I doubt if any true believer would try to forge a relic to support faith, but that is a possibility. There have been lots of relics over the years that have proved to be forged - the James ossuary to name one.

Someone mentioned that the atheist forums have already begun to discuss this, and I can imagine what assumptions have arisen.

It just goes to show that the historicity of the claims of Christianity are so important in peoples' minds; both believers and non-believers. I personally believe that we have enough historical evidence for the claims of Christianity, but would of course be delighted with more; but not at the expense of something being proven fake - or at least something that has questionable roots.

And that's something very peculiar about Christianity. It stands on it's historicity. The very fact that atheists would attempt to cast aspersions on such relics in order to defeat the strength of Christianity's historicity is a testament to that peculiarity. We don't often find some lost Buddhist relic as being all that important to Buddhism for example, because Buddhist belief does not depend on an historic event such as a resurrection.

I haven't seen anything on it since the brief discussion at the beginning of this thread. Then I haven't been looking.