The Jordinian Lead Codices... Again...


(Kudos to Jim West for the photos.)

I have been holding back on commenting because I am getting a bit more than irked about this story and the gross oversights by both the press and the "authorities" who are handling it. Now the Jordinian Department of Antiquities has announced that, via carbon dating, they believe that the codices they have date back to the early 1st century.

Here's quick list of prominent voices over the Biblioblogosphere:

  1. Jim Davila
  2. Jim West (x2)
  3. Mike Heiser
  4. Tom Verenna (x2)

And here's my two cents, some of which I repeat and endorse from other Bloggers, and some of my own observations:

Obviously they weren't dating the plates, themselves, as you cannot carbon date lead. Why did they not use lead isotope dating? The plates are made of lead. Lead isotope dating is perfect for dating lead. Where is the disconnect?

Secondly, the more images I see of the script on the plates, the more I am convinced that it is not Hebrew or Aramaic. I'm still waiting to hear back from a few scholars who study Coptic. Perhaps now is the time to give them a poke.

UPDATE: Tom Verena has done a character chart of his own on the new images as well as analyzed the coin iconography.

Peace,
-Steve

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