I've never heard of this before. From
here:
About the tablet itself
Quote:
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It is made of stone, with a flat polished front surface, and a rough, unfinished back. It might have been intended to be mounted in a wall. It is about 40" tall (1 meter) and 12" (30 cm) wide, with 87 lines of Hebrew written on its surface in two columns. 3 It is now known as "Gabriel's Vision of Revelations" or "Gabriel's Revelation" or "The Vision of Gabriel." 2 Analysis of the lettering and language indicates that the words on the tablet were written sometime in the late first century BCE; i.e. probably before Jesus' birth. Some of the letters on the tablet are now illegible, making a consensus interpretation impossible at this time.
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References to the Messiah
Quote:
"In this pre-Christian Jewish text, he finds references to two different concepts of the messiah—one, the Messiah son of David; and the other, the Messiah son of Joseph (Ephraim)."
"The return of the messiah of David would involve a military victory. Indeed, the Davidic messiah will institute the messianic age with a 'day of battle.' He will make his enemies 'a footstool'.”
"The Messiah son of David is a triumphal messiah. Ephraim, or the Messiah son of Joseph, is a very different kind of messiah and reflects a new kind of messianism. This kind of messianism involves suffering and death. In the new Dead Sea Scroll in stone, Knohl sees a messiah who suffered, died and rose.
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And from a click-through link
here:
Quote:
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"The recent discovery of a tablet with an 80 line inscription in Hebrew, which possibly contains a pre-christian reference to an anointed one who is resurrected by Gabriel after three days has been talked about recently in blogs. I think it should surprise no one that there are mythic precedents to all of the details in the gospel narrative—even the Easter narrative. That's the very nature of human mythology; the symbols used to relay our stories are recycled and assimilated by societies instinctually from decade to decade, epoch to epoch, into the spiritual languages of their own times. ... Nevertheless, if the inscription says what Israel Knohl thinks it says, then it's a very good example of this Jungian principle in action. It's evidence that the motif was an active and contemporaneous one in the very geographical locale where Christianity was to eventually germinate. ..."
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I'm curious as to a) why isn't this tablet more famous and b) does it really indicate an already held view, before Jesus was even born, about a messiah who had come, died, and was resurrected? Is this the scriptures Paul refers to in some of his letters?
12-01-2010, 07:51 AM
A stone Jewish text, predating Jesus, describing a resurrected Messiah?
