Posted on 04/03/2011 10:23:10 AM PDT by mandaladon
The incredible story of 70 ancient books hidden in a cave for nearly 2,000 years
The image is eerily familiar: a bearded young man with flowing curly hair. After lying for nearly 2,000 years hidden in a cave in the Holy Land, the fine detail is difficult to determine. But in a certain light it is not difficult to interpret the marks around the figure’s brow as a crown of thorns.
The extraordinary picture of one of the recently discovered hoard of up to 70 lead codices – booklets – found in a cave in the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee is one reason Bible historians are clamouring to get their hands on the ancient artefacts.
If genuine, this could be the first-ever portrait of Jesus Christ, possibly even created in the lifetime of those who knew him. The tiny booklet, a little smaller than a modern credit card, is sealed on all sides and has a three-dimensional representation of a human head on both the front and the back. One appears to have a beard and the other is without. Even the maker’s fingerprint can be seen in the lead impression. Beneath both figures is a line of as-yet undeciphered text in an ancient Hebrew script.
Astonishingly, one of the booklets appears to bear the words ‘Saviour of Israel’ – one of the few phrases so far translated.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
To me it looks like the face of a lion.
Well, Christ is called the “Lion of Judah”. ;^)
First I heard of this so-called find was on Coast-to-Coast last night. For those who don’t know, that’s Art Bell’s old show, hosted by George Noory and assorted fill ins since Bell retired, moved to the Phillipines, and got himself a young wife. Since this is a C-to-C subject, that does not bide well for these metal books to be authentic.
Maybe it’s Azlan.
A metallurgist should be able to determine if the metal is consistent with that from the claimed era?
The process seems to be analogous to wood-cuts of more than a milennium later, and used a less-than-likely medium flat metal, that would have required multiple contemporaneous advances: metal imprinting of a "block at a time," lacing codex imprints together well before individual examples, and "negative engraving" of lettering to produce positives and mass-producible metal stamping. If these practices had existed in the first century or thereabouts, it is beyond curious and bizarre that these advances became "lost to the world," not to be used again by others for many hundreds of years.
HF
The soup Nazi says THESE are the original recipes. After he copied them, grandmama had them securely bound and put in a cave. The soup Nazi remembers it well.
It hasn’t been proven or dis-proven one way or another,it will be years to ascertain,
BTW, I looked up ancient lead tablets and this is nothing unusual, there were similar tablets from Corinth, they had curses written on them.
Regardless of it’s authenticity, is is, much like the “Shroud of Turin” pretty interesting.
It might also be interesting to put a picture of the “Mandilion” or facial portion of the Shroud next to or superimposed over this mysterious (if not somewhat dubious) image for comparison.
Producing such raised / “3-D” images on sheet metal is a very ancient and fairly simple process which can be accomplished with hand tools. IIRC it’s called “Repousse’”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repoussé_and_chasing
I’ve done it; how complicated can it be?
:^D
It’s Scrooge’s lion door knocker with the ghost of Marley. See post 32
Looks to me like one of those dinner rolls I’m supposed to be able to find Jesus’ face in.....yet I never can. But I hear they go for big bucks on e-bay.
I read your link, but is he even talking about the same codices? The photos of this find out of Jordan look and sound very different than the find he posts photos of and writes about—the way the inscriptions are written look nothing alike. They were even discovered in different places, so...
These look and read like possibly two separate finds that are being lumped together.
Time will tell, I guess.
FAKE METAL CODICES: MEDIA FAILThe mainstream press just keeps churning this stuff out, oblivious to the specialist bloggers who have already demonstrated that the inscribed metal plates are forgeries.
Could this couple's Bible 'codices' tell the true story of Christ's life? (The Telegraph)
Is this the first ever portrait of Jesus? The incredible story of 70 ancient books hidden in a cave for nearly 2,000 years (The Daily Mail)
Jordan demands that Israel return ‘stolen artifacts’ (Jerusalem Post)
I can't find anything more from the BBC, which perhaps is to their credit a little. It's possible that they now have a clue and are trying to pretend that the whole thing never happened. But is it too much to hope for coverage of the debunking of the story?
As I've said before: when you read or hear, well, anything in the mainstream media, keep in mind that this is their mode of operation. Seize on a sensationalist story (while frequently ignoring interesting stories that are real but not sensationalist); no problem if the story is generated by an obvious crank, as such things frequently are; be too lazy to check out the crank's credentials or too ignorant to read the "energy vibration" warning signs; distort and sensationalize anything said by actual specialists; fail to make a few phone calls to outside specialists for a view; fail even to Google the story to see if any informed bloggers have a view or better information; and instead repeatedly draw on dubious press releases and earlier media stories, often focusing on and playing up the most lurid elements of the earlier coverage.
Background here and just keep following those links.
UPDATE: Aargh! The AP has been snookered too and the story is now multiplying like maggots on the carcass of the media's credibility.
UPDATE: At Rogue Classicism, David Meadows has a careful analysis of the latest from the Daily Mail and the Telegraph: Lead Codices – Once More into the ‘Reach’.
posted by Jim Davila | 4:50 AM
100% agree.
Maybe you could do one with the “litterbox” picture of the face on Mars.
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