Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics

[Melvadius]

This is one of those stories currently being carried by the BBC where there is no easy 'precise' classification as to period or an easy answer to how it will finally end.

 

In my view the jury is currently still out on precisely how old these artefacts are and where they may have been found. There does seem several arguments for an early Christian origin but with Jewish and other groups present in the presumed discovery area and Jewish artefacts possibly found in close proximity to them I wouldn't like to take any bets on who was actually responsible or a precise date for the 'books' manufacture.

 

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 by another Bedouin.

 

The Israeli Bedouin who currently holds the books has denied smuggling them out of Jordan, and claims they have been in his family for 100 years.

 

.....continued

[Melvadius]

Update - the BBC now has some pages with images of the books here