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Could lead codices prove ‘the major discovery of Christian history’?
Yahoo News ^ | March 30, 2011 | By Chris Lehmann

Posted on 03/30/2011 5:36:35 PM PDT by Islander7

British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus' life. As UK Daily Mail reporter Fiona Macrae writes, some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947.

The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan—a region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The codices are made up of wirebound individual pages, each roughly the size of a credit card. They contain a number of images and textual allusions to the Messiah, as well as some possible references to the crucifixion and resurrection.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: 2006; bible; christianity; codices; epigraphyandlanguage; faithandphilosophy; fake; fraud; godsgravesglyphs; history; hoax; jordan; religion; shroudofturin
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To: BallparkBoys

Quite—very Discovery/History channel. And Dan Brown’s next book subject, no doubt.


21 posted on 03/30/2011 7:48:27 PM PDT by Mach9
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To: PieterCasparzen

All true. I remember when the great Dead Sea Scrolls were rolled out—we kept hearing about how they were going to change the beliefs of Christians, repudiate the Old Testament, negate the whole of western civ. But I think they were just repeating the reviews (pardon me, “scholarly criticism”) of “The Passover Plot.”


22 posted on 03/30/2011 7:56:20 PM PDT by Mach9
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To: Paved Paradise
Are you joking?

The point is that the media always seem to roll out stories like these at Christmas and Easter.

23 posted on 03/30/2011 8:16:24 PM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative (Two blogs for the price of none!)
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To: YHAOS

Thanks for the ping!


24 posted on 03/30/2011 8:22:46 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: BallparkBoys

exactly. These were found 5 yrs. ago but they’re announcing it now right before Easter?
EVERY Easter there is SOMETHING.

Wouldn’t be surprised if they are more gnostic writings about Mary Magdalene having a baby and Judas not being such a bad guy afterall.


25 posted on 03/30/2011 8:23:51 PM PDT by Scotswife
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To: lurp

Yep, that fella Cliff thought he had all the answers,
I had to correct him a number of times, as everyone
knows Cod Ices are a favorite summer treat in the
New England states, in fact I remember seeing our President
gobbling a Cod Ice on his third or forth vacation.

Never could get used to the taste myself.

Cod Akbar!


26 posted on 03/30/2011 8:29:28 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: tet68

Maybe they are children’s books, for the kids to look at so they won’t make noise during the liturgy. Might test them for crayon residue but if they were coloring books, probably too much time has elapsed and none of the crayon residue has survived.


27 posted on 03/30/2011 8:54:39 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: PieterCasparzen
"It’s Anno Domini, or A.D. College boys, or, as I like to call them, the Great Brainwashed, need to give up already, put down the university koolaid(tm) and learn the Bible. "

And which Bible are you speaking of?

28 posted on 03/30/2011 9:06:36 PM PDT by matthew fuller ( A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh glad the life; and money answereth all things.)
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To: Islander7

” The Jordanian government has pledged to “exert all efforts at every level” to get the potentially priceless relics returned, Pigott reports.”

HMMMMMMM, So the head Jordaian Imam can determine their authenticity ?


29 posted on 03/31/2011 3:28:24 AM PDT by Einherjar
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To: lurp

I was too smart to be sucked in on the USPS pension fiasco so I invested all my money with a Barrister from Nigeria. I expect to reap a huge fortune soon but I am having a hard time keeping up with the monthly transfer fees he keeps asking for. It’s great though, I am really getting to be slim and trim since I don’t have money for food.


30 posted on 03/31/2011 5:01:22 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a liberal is like teaching algebra to a tomcat.)
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To: Mach9

It looks like a picture book with captioning. A missionary would use that to illustrate the Scriptures that he would then recite from memory.


31 posted on 03/31/2011 6:17:55 AM PDT by muawiyah (Make America Safe For Amercans)
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To: Verginius Rufus
"Might test them for crayon residue but if they were coloring books, probably too much time has elapsed and none of the crayon residue has survived."

Trivia Time: Encaustic painting, which is done with the pigments suspended in hot beeswax (i.e. old fashioned crayon) is one of the most durable media out there. Here's one from about 100 years before Christ...


32 posted on 03/31/2011 6:26:19 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: muawiyah
"A missionary would use that to illustrate the Scriptures that he would then recite from memory."

And some Freepers would accuse them of worshiping graven images ;-)

33 posted on 03/31/2011 6:29:17 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack
Once you got paper and widespread literacy the Protestant Option, of course, became quite popular.

Memnonic statuary, carvings, architectural forms, drawings, paintings, mosaics ~ were, in their own time, valid forms of conveying information, or assisting the illiterate in receiving it (and using it themselves).

Visual technology is still valid for the use of conveying information ~ even religious information.

Now, a reconciliation of various schools of thought on the matter of the prohibition on "graven images". Some argue that the point in ancient times was to suppress worship of the gods of nature ~ so no more Zeus with lightning bolts. Even in the times of Greek hegemony in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East people continued to mix and match statuary with infanticide. Treatments for infertility were just as primitive and crude so a "graven image" might well be nothing more than a "device" and not a "god" at all ~ maybe a representation of a demigod?

With Islam they went so far as to suppress the drawing of plants. One might suppose desert people thought of jungles as godlike.

So, does the existence of a statue or picture inside a church imply the occupants worship the statue or picture?

I doubt it. After all, if that were the case Chinese could never become Christians ~ even their writing is based on pictures.

34 posted on 03/31/2011 6:43:38 AM PDT by muawiyah (Make America Safe For Amercans)
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To: muawiyah
LOL...you must have missed the thread a few weeks back where this was argued into the ground. I happen to agree with you, and presented some of the very same arguments you did as well as a few others :-)

Some people fail to understand that printing the letters "G-O-D" is merely arranging a few million ink molecules on paper into a visual symbol to communicate a larger concept. They take great umbrage however, when a few million paint molecules are arranged on canvas for the same purpose :-)

35 posted on 03/31/2011 6:51:51 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: YHAOS
Thanks for the beep dear YHAOS!

Fascinating....

36 posted on 03/31/2011 8:01:50 AM PDT by betty boop (Seek truth and beauty together; you will never find them apart. — F. M. Cornford)
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To: PieterCasparzen
CE

Drive 'em batty by calling it the "Christian Era."

They actually get red in the face. They thought they'd fixed that one, and darned if it doesn't actually catch on faster than "Common Era" which really gives no landmark in people's minds.

:>)

37 posted on 03/31/2011 8:42:27 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain & proud of it: Truly Supporting the Troops means praying for their Victory!)
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To: xzins
Drive 'em batty by calling it the "Christian Era."

That's what I do. Great Minds, xzins (^8 }.

38 posted on 03/31/2011 11:41:57 AM PDT by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: PieterCasparzen

So instead of using Anno Domini,

they want to use “Christian Era”?

OK... Latin, English, it matters not.


39 posted on 03/31/2011 11:45:13 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: tet68

Lead codpieces would protect the jubblies from radiation, but the lead might have its own problems.


40 posted on 03/31/2011 11:46:31 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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