Making books using lead was
unusual even then. Yet if they cast the
pages, then it could be done easily by first using clay and writing text first
in the clay. Then a number of copies
could be made. It is still unusual and
plausibly more of a marketing stunt than practical. Besides there was no lack of papyrus in this
part of the world.
We also recall apparent tall
tales of non Christian scriptures make up in leafs of gold reported in various
odd venues. This is the first bit of
hard evidence that such could even be attempted and it is linked to the known
era of interest.
Whatever happens, we will retrieve
perhaps one of the most ancient texts, though I suspect it is from well after
the crucifuiction.
In the event, it is a remarkable
archeological discovery.
By Robert Pigott BBC News religious affairs correspondent
29 March 2011 Last updated at 01:30 ET
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.
A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might
constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.
That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims
they were smuggled into Israel
“Start Quote
As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck”
The Israeli Bedouin who currently holds the books has denied smuggling
them out of Jordan
Incredible claims
The director of the Jordan
"They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than, the
Dead Sea Scrolls," says Mr Saad.
"Maybe it will lead to further interpretation and authenticity
checks of the material, but the initial information is very encouraging, and it
seems that we are looking at a very important and significant discovery, maybe
the most important discovery in the history of archaeology."
The texts might have been written in the decades following the
crucifixion
They seem almost incredible claims - so what is the evidence?
The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before
being bound by lead rings.
Their leaves - which are mostly about the size of a credit card -
contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.
If the relics are of early Christian origin rather than Jewish, then
they are of huge significance.
One of the few people to see the collection is David Elkington, a
scholar of ancient religious archaeology who is heading a British team trying
to get the lead books safely into a Jordanian museum.
He says they could be "the major discovery of Christian
history", adding: "It's a breathtaking thought that we have held
these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the
Church."
He believes the most telling evidence for an early Christian origin
lies in the images decorating the covers of the books and some of the pages of
those which have so far been opened.
Mr Elkington says the relics feature signs that early Christians would
have interpreted as indicating Jesus, shown side-by-side with others they would
have regarded as representing the presence of God.
"It's talking about the coming of the messiah," he says.
"In the upper square [of one of the book covers] we have the
seven-branch menorah, which Jews were utterly forbidden to represent because it
resided in the holiest place in the Temple
"So we have the coming of the messiah to approach the holy of
holies, in other words to get legitimacy from God."
Location clues
Philip Davies, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield
University, says the most powerful evidence for a Christian origin lies in
plates cast into a picture map of the holy city of Jerusalem
"As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck. That struck me as so
obviously a Christian image," he says.
"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. There are walls depicted on other pages of these books too
and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem
The books were bound by lead rings
It is the cross that is the most telling feature, in the shape of a
capital T, as the crosses used by Romans for crucifixion were.
"It is a Christian crucifixion taking place outside the city
walls," says Mr Davies.
Margaret Barker, an authority on New Testament history, points to the
location of the reported discovery as evidence of Christian, rather than purely
Jewish, origin.
"We do know that on two occasions groups of refugees from the
troubles in Jerusalem fled east, they crossed the Jordan near Jericho and then
they fled east to very approximately where these books were said to have been
found," she says.
"[Another] one of the things that is most likely pointing towards
a Christian provenance, is that these are not scrolls but books. The Christians
were particularly associated with writing in a book form rather than scroll
form, and sealed books in particular as part of the secret tradition of early
Christianity."
The Book of Revelation refers to such sealed texts.
Another potential link with the Bible is contained in one of the few
fragments of text from the collection to have been translated.
It appears with the image of the menorah and reads "I shall walk
uprightly", a sentence that also appears in the Book of Revelation.
While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism, it could here
be designed to refer to the resurrection.
It is by no means certain that all of the artefacts in the collection
are from the same period.
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.
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.
The BBC writer seems to have little knowledge of 1st Century history and geography. Paul's letters were written well before the Jewish War of 66-70 caused large numbers of refugees to flee outside the traditional Judean kingdom's boundaries, which included much of modern Jordan - areas known as Perea and Gilead and the Decapolis. I notice he does not attempt to assign a date to these, other than the 1st Century.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your own off-hand remark about "marketing" and the availability of paper; come on! Think about it. Lead was well-known to last far longer than any papyrus or even parchment, and withstand far more handling. If these were precious documents, it would have made perfect sense to use something that would not require frequent replacement - even if just as master documents for use by copyists.