Tag Archives: Lead Codices?

“Jordan Codices” Proven Fake – Jordan’s Department of Antiquities Concludes

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From the Jordan Times:

AMMAN — The Department of Antiquities (DoA) has announced that the lead codices allegedly found in a northern Jordan cave between 2005-2007 have been proven forged. […]

The DoA Director General Monther Jamhawi said that the codices are a kind of “professional” forgery that was executed skillfully.

“This advanced counterfeit has created confusion as ancient materials were used, such as lead and stones, and inscribing them with ancient look-alike texts and drawings that are hard to be tested,” Jamhawi told The Jordan Times on Saturday. […]

The department formed a committee of researchers and epigraphists, who examined the books and confirmed that they were not authentic.

In its report, the taskforce concluded that the examination from an archaeological point of view proved that the metal books were false and worthless as they contained “irrelevant old letters and images” and that the manufacturer had no background about ancient inscriptions and their technical details or religious significance.

Or in other words, what most of us have been articulating since the beginning. 🙂

Peace,
-Steve

More Lead Codices, More Stamps…

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(Click to enlarge)

So, as you can see above, the Elkingtons have released more pictures of the so-called Lead Codices, and every single one of them seems to have one thing in common.

To misquote Stanley from Terry Pratchett’s ‘Going Postal’:*

Dan McClellan also found another prominent stamp that was used on several other codices.  Surprise surprise.

Every time that we find such stamps, printing the same nonsense characters down to every stroke and detail but staggered and interrupted to make it look as if there is more text than they depict:

It is consistent with forgery.

It’s a cheap way to make something look authentic to unlearned eyes that demonstrably carries no semantic or logical content. Make one set of characters and stamp, stamp, smudge, stamp later you have a paragraph of arcane-looking babble-text.

Or, as my wife observed, quoting Mr. Spools:*

Peace,
-Steve

* Terry Pratchett’s “Going Postal” is a fanciful tale of how con-artist Moist VonLipwig is caught after years of forging bonds and swindling hundreds of people and roped into restoring the Ank Morpork Post Office on pain of death by using his con-artist skills for the side of good rather than the side of selfishness (well, mostly 🙂 ). Acorn Media did an awesome 2-part miniseries which I highly recommend with Richard Coyle as Lipwig and Clare Foy as Adora Belle Dearheart. Pure excellence. 🙂

The Pre-Easter Update – Forgeries & Follies

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Sensationalist Lenten offerings for your enjoyment. 🙂

Sorry for being on hiatus with all things blogging for a long while. Lots of family stuff has been going on (houses selling, people moving), I was sick for nearly all of January (rolling cold, flu and other unpleasantness), catching up on my business backlog nearly all of February, and starting a brand new project with my wife and my sister that will hopefully end in something awesome.


I hope to pick back up in time for the February top blogs list and get things back on the road.

Anyways, it’s Lent!
And do you know what that means?
Sensationalist Biblical news in the run-up to Easter! 😀

So far we’re off to a *great* start with two three things on our plate:

First, the Markan Fragment — the Under Glass Edition! — that looks like a Greek student’s doodle on a piece of mail-order papyrus. And I should know, I’ve done $%^& like that to unsuspecting people for fun and laughs [1][2][3][4]. 🙂

Many bloggers have chimed in with their doubts. I will add my voice to them: “CALL ME THOMAS! (no, not that Thomas; but I’m sure he agrees with me) I’M A DOUBTER!“

Second, another “Golden Letters on Animal Hide” manuscript that supposedly predicts the coming of the Prophet Muhammed, and that some people think might be the lost Gospel of Barnabas, prove one world religion superior to another, solve Rubix cubes by itself, yadda yadda yadda…

Let me put this bluntly: Vellum is expensive. Sharpie markers are cheap. Tourists will buy crap. Put all three of these together and you get your standard “golden letters on leather/animal hide trinket.” I have seen no fewer than 3 of these in the past 5 years (2 in pseudo-Syriac, 1 in copied Hebrew) and I will take a metaphorical bite out of my hat if the writing has no trace of modern (or at the very least seriously anachronistic) ink.

UPDATE:  Number 3! James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici are also gearing up for another Lent release (last year it was the real nails of Jesus, remember?). James McGrath reports on Simcha’s latest grab for attention: “The Jesus Discovery.”

“This book documents a new archaeological discovery in a 1st century Jewish tomb in Jerusalem that relates to the earliest faith of Jesus’ followers. The tomb is located less than 200 feet away from the controversial Talpiot “Jesus family tomb,” raising the question of their relationship. Authors James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici analyze the new discovery as well as its implications for understanding the Jesus tomb. Expect to be surprised at the conclusions.”

Really? … Really? …. *sigh*…

Then there is the old business of the Jordan Lead Codices — now with ugly leather covers! — which first appeared in full force a few Easters ago. As expected, nothing really new has happened. No earth-shattering revelations. No examples of anything to show they’re authentic (in fact, many examples that show how they’ve biffed it royally with these fakes; read all the back posts on this blog).

Just keep an eye out. I’d guarantee there will be another “tidbit” on these in the near future to try and grab some “Easter-share” away from the two three others I’ve mentioned.

In any case, I hope to be back to blogging soon. Until then!

Peace,
-Steve

David Elkington and the Lead Codices… More Rubbish…

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Sorry for the hiatus. Moved into a new apartment, and now the whole family has come down with a sniffle. 😛 It has been madness, but more on that later…

Anyways!

So, Elkington has posted a new video that shows the codices being tested at a lab.

However, taking a close look at the codex that’s being tested, it’s one of those babble-text examples with little doubt.

These have been turning up in the markets of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and other places throughout the world, each with a different absolute claim of origins and antiquity.

But here’s another kicker. Elkington claims the following on his Facebook page:

Thanks to certain critics of this page, we would like to highlight a correction to a small portion of text found within a transcription of the Oxford (OMCS) metallurgical report. Whilst typing from the original copy (the scanned original is also posted on this site ) a sentence was unintentionally omitted, which has since been corrected. Please note that this has no bearing on the final conclusions of the report.

“Unintentionally” my big toe.

Dan McClellan I think put it best a long while ago:

Will Elkington argue for haplography as a result of homoioarcton? [[my note: YEP!]]Possibly, but it can be no coincidence that the edited text supports a fundamental claim that Elkington highlights and emphasizes elsewhere. Elkington has demonstrably altered the report to support his assertions. This is flagrant and egregious deception, and it shows quite conclusively that Elkington is willing to lie and to openly and transparently manipulate scientific data to make his codices appear ancient. They simply are not.

I have no doubt that this set of lab tests will say that the lead is old, as every example is made of ancient lead. However (as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before) ancient lead is so common that the quantity necessary to make a codex can purchased on eBay for $5. (Here’s some more, too.)

However, the report is very clear that the corrosion is not ancient, and the researcher behind the Oxford report (which was the one that was altered), when asked *specifically* what he meant, he pegged the window of construction at a few decades to about 100 years.

Hardly the 2,000 years Elkington claims.

In any case, the academics are fairly unanimous (including those who are on Elkington’s supposed “team”): These codices are bogus.

Peace,
-Steve

Jordan Lead Codices Page on The Biblioblog Reference Library

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On The Biblioblog Reference Library:

In early March 2011 the media reported upon an amazing discovery: Twenty to seventy codices, cast in lead, that potentially held untold secrets about early Christianity. However, from the very beginning something about the discovery appeared improper. Over the course of seven months, an informal group of Bibliobloggers (scholars and students who blog about Biblical Studies) took the time to form a private email list to investigate and discuss the objects and the people behind them. This page serves as a place to showcase their collective insights.

The current consensus is that the Jordan Codices released to date are not authentic.

Read more here. 🙂

Peace,
-Steve