Toto

Another press release, which appears to be an article linked to before, but with some footnotes.David Elkington is into pyramids, the earth's vibrational energy, sacred sounds. . . it's not encouraging if he is the moving force behind this.

DCHindley

So, I was on to something about this David Elkington fellow! To be honest I was over hyping my suspicion on a hunch, almost to satirize the whole promotional/commercial aspect of modern scholarship that we had seen with the Gospel of Judas.

Since the publication info available on the bookseller sites which do list it says it was scheduled for publication 5/10/2010, I think David E. already has a fair idea what these codices could (or "should") signify. Maybe it was supposed to generate controversy about them to steer some grant money their way to conduct excavations at the cave in Jordan where they were said to have been found.

The press release lets out that the person who possesses them, who we previously learned lives in Galilee, has tacitly admitted the find officially belongs to the Kingdom of Jordan, where it was found. The previously revealed fact that the IAA (with authority over finds in Israel, including Galilee), has inspected them and are not impressed, suggests they realized they had no authority over them, and as a result now seek to depreciate their importance. There must be strong evidence that they were found in Jordan.

This legal brew-ha-ha is likely why the book publication has been delayed, as the Galilean farmer who has possession would be negotiating a reasonable "finder's fee". Seems from earlier posts that he was asking for as much as $250,000 US per codex, but since he cannot claim ownership he will be receiving far less, and that will be from controlling access to them for research. Jordan has its own problems at the moment, and is not likely to press too hard for its return from Israel, at least for now. Israel is washing its hands of the matter. If he's lucky, maybe Prof Emeritus Philip Davies might be able to convince the University of Sheffield to invest in some research and cash for negotiations. Jordan certainly will not approve this research unless it results in return of the codices and the other finds (the lamp and "scrolls") to Jordan proper.

I did notice the images previously posted do contain dots perhaps representing fruits and lines perhaps representing palm stems along the edge of the two codice images (these must be 2 different codices, as one has 5 rings and the other 6). The feast of tabernacles (booths) featured rituals involving the ethrog (gr. kitron, a lemon), and the lulabe (gr. fionix, a palm branch).

The only thing that bothers me is that the writing in one of the images looks like it is in bas relief. That could mean it was not inscribed, but produced by a manufacturing process. I'm no expert, but it seems that this could be achieved by use of a wood block which is cut in reverse, and the lead or copper lamellae are laid upon it one at a time, then lightly struck with a padded mallet or a press used to stamp the images and letters onto the sheet. That the two codex images are not identical (they are only similar) means there were multiple cut blocks. The photos I have seen of the cave shows a hearth of some kind with signs of soot deposits, i.e., a forge. What we have there is a manufacturing site where lead ingots were melted in the forge and poured into sheets.

What function could manufactured lead lamellae stamped with tabernacle related images have served? Rabbinic sources clearly indicate that magic talismans and spells were used by Jews in Rabbinic times. These would then be talismans produced for use during the feast of tabernacles, when the folks were inhabiting their "tents". Lead was used possibly because a base metal resonates with a festival about living primitively. The "text" only has to approximate real text, as few would be able to read paleo-Hebrew anyways.

Since function is in the mind of the user, and not necessarily the producer, they may heve been mass produced for any number of reasons. That so many examples were found together, they may have been nothing more than something to hang on doorways to the tents much like a little scroll is hung on the doorways of many Jewish homes then as well as now. If dating from the time of the Bar Kochba revolt, they may have symbolized their intent of recapturing Jerusalem and re-establishing the rituals, much like Ezra did in Neh 8:14-17 or Zerubbabel-Joshua did in Ezra 3:4, with their present existance as guerilla fighters likened to booths in the wilderness.

For maryhelena's enjoyment, I will mention that Alexander Jannaeus as once pelted with lemons for not following Pharisaic tradition when pouring out the libations during tabernacles sacrifices, and when this was followed by shouts that accused him of being a bastard child, he called in the troops and 6,000 were killed in the temple.

DCH

Toto

Latest news story: Jordan fights Israeli Bedouin over ancient texts

Toto

High Resolution Pictures

Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics

The scare quotes should be around "Christian."

stephan huller

Still, Christians have a tendency to see the cross in a way that might not necessarily have reflected the beliefs of ancient people. Ezekiel 9:4 talks about the tau being inscribed on the foreheads of the residents of Jerusalem. The association might have been made by people - Jews - separate from any developed Christian cultus in Palestine. It really all comes down to the question of when we imagine that the details of the gospel narrative were known to the world. If the gospel is agreed to have been developed sometime around the destruction of the Jewish temple the image may well only reflect the circumstances of the Jewish war - which as we remember Josephus says cross were established as some sort of 'sign' to frighten the residents of the population of Jerusalem by Nero.

I have looked at a lot of early Christian art and I am going to wait until someone figures out what the writing says. There is still no explicit image of Jesus that I have heard in any of these reports or Jesus on the cross. No symbols of fish or other early - and very specifically Christian - images. At the same time there are menoroth which - while occasionally present in later Christian art - do not seem to 'jibe' with traditional notions of Christianity.

I know the tendency is to run and assume that because there is a cross it is Christian. I am not ready to concede that yet. It might be a host of things we haven't even considered yet - a historical text of some kind - or even a fake (notice the discrepancy between the date of discovery claimed by the family and the Jordanian government).

Let's wait and see what the transcription reveals.

Toto

Daily Mail: Could this be the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls? Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan could change our view of Biblical history

Jordan fights for return of new "Dead Sea Scrolls"

stephan huller

I thought that an Australian paper I read summed up the fickle nature of news report generally. It had a line which likened the situation to a fashion runway - something like 'the Dead Sea Scrolls are so 20th century ...' This is the nature of the world at the moment. Scholars reduced to fashionistas.

pinkvoy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theloo...istian-history

http://mit.zenfs.com/102/2011/03/ear...iancodices.jpg

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

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.

But tests by metallurgists on the badly corroded lead suggest that the books were not made recently.

The archaeology of early Christianity is particularly sparse.

Little is known of the movement after Jesus' crucifixion until the letters of Paul several decades later, and they illuminate the westward spread of Christianity outside the Jewish world.

Toto

lead code silliness on rogueclassicism

Gawker has Possible Da Vinci code prequel unearthed

Cege

In the high resolution pictures, the 2nd shows what looks like rusted sheets without writing. Are those the backs of pages with writing on them?

I have yet to see a page that depicts a Roman cross with a city behind it. Anybody have a link to that one?