Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics

[joeflow]

This could be some very important stuff:

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.

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.

 

[m8g8]

Wow. Thanks for posting this!

“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 in the presence of God.

“So we have the coming of the messiah to approach the holy of holies, in other words to get legitimacy from God.”

“It is a Christian crucifixion taking place outside the city walls,” says Mr Davies.

I wonder if this will lead any Muslims home.

 

[Windfish]

Catholics need to keep an eye on this. There will definitely be some loony things coming out of thisnews - Da Vinci Code, anyone??? But not even that, opportunists from all sides will have a spin on this - Protestants, Muslims, atheists, and all sorts of people with heterodox views.

Or… this could be a whole lot of nothing.

 

[ChristIsTheWay]

What concerns me is that these relics have not even been conclusively verified as Christian, or even conclusively dated, and yet the article is already proclaiming “they could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born.” I’m not sure what they mean by that but “change” and “new understanding” seem to be highly favored concepts by the heterodox.

 

[AndyP2010]

I have herd it said that the Gospel of Matthew may have been written first in hebrew. If that is what this turns out to be then it is one the most important find ever.