from the site : Real Clear Religion
British Archaeologists Find 70 lead codices (Posted With Caution)
* Posted by _Dawn Marie_
(http://op54rosary.ning.com/profile/DawnMarie) on March 30, 2011 at 2:00pm
* _View Dawn Marie's blog_
(http://op54rosary.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2cdyspzvzg5e6)
Could lead codices prove ‘the major discovery of Christian history’?
By _Chris Lehmann_ (http://news.yahoo.com/bloggers/chris-lehmann)
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."
But the field of biblical archaeology is also prey to plenty of hoaxes and
enterprising fraudsters, so investigators are proceeding with due
empirical caution. Initial metallurgical research indicates that the codices
are
about 2,000 years old--based on the manner of corrosion they have undergone,
which, as Macrae writes, "experts believe would be impossible to achieve
artificially."
Beyond the initial dating tests, however, little is confirmed about the
codices or what they contain. And the saga of their discovery has already
touched off a battle over ownership rights between Israel and Jordan. As the
BBC's Pigott recounts, the cache surfaced when a Jordanian Bedouin saw a
menorah—the Jewish religious candleabra—exposed in the wake of a flash flood.
But the codices somehow passed into the ownership of an Israeli Bedouin
named Hassam Saeda, who claims that they have been in his family's possession
for the past 100 years. The Jordanian government has pledged to "exert all
efforts at every level" to get the potentially priceless relics returned,
Pigott reports.
Meanwhile, biblical scholars who have examined the codices point to
significant textual evidence suggesting their early Christian origin. Philip
Davies, emeritus professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University,
told Pigott he was "dumbstruck" at the sight of plates representing a picture
map of ancient Jerusalem. "There is a cross in the foreground, and behind
it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening,
and behind that the walls of the city," Davies explained. "There are walls
depicted on other pages of these books, too, and they almost certainly
refer to Jerusalem."
David Elkington, an ancient religion scholar who heads the British
research team investigating the find, has likewise pronounced this nothing
less
than "the major discovery of Christian history." Elkington told the Daily
Mail that "it is a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that
might have been held by the early saints of the Church."
Still, other students of early Christian history are urging caution,
citing precedents such as the debunked discovery of an ossuary said to contain
Jesus' bones. New Testament scholar Larry Hurtado observes that since these
codices are miniature, they were likely intended for private, rather than
liturgical, use. This would likely place their date of origin closer to the
3rd century CE. But only further research and full translation of the
codices can fully confirm the nature of the find. The larger lesson here is
likely that of Eccliastes 3:1—be patient, since "to everything there is a
season."
--
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