Discovering the lost and forgotten

Imagine a lowly shepherd seeking refuge wanders into an ancient cave on the banks of the River Jordan and notices the symbol of a menorah engraved on the floor. Intrigued, he realises that the image is engraved on a lid.

As he lifts the seal, he unearths potentially one of the most important Christian discoveries of all time.
It sounds almost biblical, but this is the story that hit the headlines last month when a Jordanian Bedouin unearthed new Christian texts, unseen for thousands of years.

More amazingly, these texts, believed to be written around the time Jesus died, were only discovered because a flash flood exposed their hiding place.

This incredible discovery has excited scholars around the world, including a professor here at the University of Sheffield.

Philip Davies, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Studies, is one of only a few who have not only seen the texts but handled them too.

The collection includes around 70 books, or codices, with between 5 and 15 metal pages bound by lead rings. Inside, the pages reveal images of Alexander the Great and detailed faces of crocodiles, as well as classical Jewish images such as a menorah, date-palm, stars, and a bunches of grapes.

The writing in the books appears to be a form of coded Hebrew, which is testing experts who aim to decipher it.

However, it is the possible depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus that has left Professor Davies ‘dumbstruck’.

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.”

A picture map of Jerusalem appears to be the best evidence that the texts are in fact Christian.

The location of the finds is also important, as the caves near the east bank of the River Jordan is near to where early Christian refugees are believed to have fled to after leaving Jerusalem in fear of the Roman army.

David Elkington, a scholar of ancient religious archaeology, also points out that the seven-branch menorah featured on one of the pages is unlikely to have been drawn by Jews. The Old Testament book of Exodus forbids anyone from representing the items found in the holiest part of the temple.

If these texts are genuinely written by early Christians, they would be unique. There are very few records about early Christians or the first stages of the development of the religion, so any light that these texts could shed on the period could potentially be ground breaking.

If they are 2,000 years old, as many experts believe, there is even the possibility that they could contain accounts of the life and death of Jesus.

One suggestion is that the purpose of the books was for personal, devotional use, since they are miniature. Another theory is that one of the books may have been a type of identity card that would have been sewn into the hem of a robe – an extract from the text in ancient Hebrew bares the words ‘congregation of the faith.’

But many of the discoveries still remain a mystery, having been sealed with heavy lead rings.

However, this discovery is of course only of any real value if it is genuine.

The world of biblical scholarship is no stranger to hoaxes and has been fooled recently, with the faked ossuary of Jesus being one well publicised example.

There is a huge amount of money to be made from religious artefacts- already figures of £250,000 have been suggested for just one piece of the collection- so it is no surprise that many forgeries may have been attempted.

Peter Thonemann, University Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Oxford, wrote a piece for The Times claiming that he has proof that the discovery is fake.

After studying photographs of the copper codices, Thonemann translated three lines of Greek text as ‘without grief, farewell! Abgar, also known as Eision.’ He found the same phrase on an early 2nd century Roman tombstone from Jordan, and believes a forger simply copied the letters from the tombstone.

Dr Elkington’s response, sent to The Times, argues against this claim. He says that Thonemann is not qualified to dismiss the entire collection.

As Dr Margaret Barker, an expert in early Christianity, points out: “If they are a forgery, what are they are forgery of? Most fakes are drawn from existing material, but there is nothing like this that I have seen.”

The whole matter becomes more complicated when you consider Professor Davies’ opinion that the books may not have originally belonged together, so even if one is a fake, the others may not be. The authenticity of the each book may have to be determined individually.

He says experts are being cautious about publicly announcing their opinion because of this.

Currently metallurgical tests on the lead of the books and carbon dating of leather found with the books seem to agree that the finds are around 2,000 years old, and experts have stated that the manner of corrosion, which the metal has undergone, would be impossible to achieve artificially.

The only way that any concrete answers about these texts can be gained is through further investigation.

However, to investigate experts need access to it. Here, the drama continues. There is currently a battle taking place concerning who the texts belong to.

Despite the texts apparently being discovered by a Jordanian Bedouin, an Israeli Bedouin called Hassan Saeda currently has possession of some of them.

He denies that they were illegally smuggled from Jordan and claims that they were in fact found by his grandfather in the 1920s and have been passed down through his family ever since.

Although the Israeli Antiquities Authority has denied interest in the books, Saeda is still hanging onto the texts and there is a concern that he will sell them to a private collector. If he does so, it could be almost impossible to answer the questions about the texts, and fill in the gaps of early Christianity.

In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a similar location in Jordan, but they couldn’t be studied for decades because experts were not allowed access.

They were even subjected to well intended but damaging ‘repair’ work, which even included the use of Sellotape and Perspex glue.

Worried that history might repeat itself, several English scholars, including Professor Davies, have joined forces with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities.

They are determined to repatriate the texts so that they may be examined fully, and answers can be found.

The reality is that even if they are proved to be genuine, this presents more questions than answers.

It took the Church hundreds of years to decide which gospels were authentic and allowed into the scriptural canon, and it is unlikely that conclusions are to be drawn any time soon. So what next?

Well instead of calming down, the whole drama appears to be intensifying after it was revealed that Dr Elkington and his wife have received death threats, during their attempts to return some of the texts to Jordan.

As part of an effort to establish the authenticity of the texts, the current owner, Hassan Saeda, gave Dr Elkington some of the books for him to examine on a previous visit to Jordan. However this has now put him in danger.

Dr Elkington explains: “Once Saeda realised that our intention was to have the cache returned to Jordan, he began a series of threatening phone calls.”

Both were shot at when visiting the discovery site. Mrs Elkington says: “We were just emerging from the caves when someone, from up above the ridge, opened fire on us. We knew it was a warning that we were getting too close.”

The couple have even had to go into hiding, to protect themselves and the pieces they currently possess.

Because of this and the limited amount of information available, people are free to interpret and embellish as they wish, but not everyone is as qualified as biblical scholars.

A quick search on Google reveals pages of varying theories about these new texts, including one particularly outlandish claim that these texts contain proof Jesus was openly gay.

If the story of discovery sounded like a biblical one, the recent developments sound more like a Hollywood blockbuster.

It therefore comes as no surprise that a film is in the pipeline, to be produced by Robert Watts, who worked on the Indiana Jones films. What the conclusion will be, nobody knows. In the words of Professor Davies: “We shall see.”

Last updated on May 30, 2011 at 7:56 pm.