Clues to Early Christianity?

Could 70 lead books hold the key to early Christianity and the Hebrew converts who formed a portion of that community?  The Economist reports:

The fate of the Jews who followed Jesus is one of the puzzles of the history of monotheism. The New Testament has much to say about a related issue: the dilemmas faced by Jesus’s non-Jewish adherents. ... But when it comes to followers of Christ who were Jewish by culture and religious practice, the evidence is hazier. Such people clearly existed: the Epistle to the Hebrews, a deeply enigmatic section of the New Testament, is addressed to those who were steeped in the lore of the Jewish Temple ... Then there is a handful of references in other texts to Christians who fled eastward from Jerusalem before the Roman-Jewish war of 66AD. One account speaks of an exodus towards Jordan, after the Christian bishop, James, was attacked in the Temple courtyard.

... By the fourth century, a ferocious Cypriot bishop was describing a group of people whom he deemed heretics because they kept the Mosaic law—but who were also loathed by fellow Jews because of their belief in Christ. As in so many conflicts, people who straddled the divide upset both sides.

All that helps explain the excitement generated in recent weeks by the emergence of a collection of lead codices, which might, if they are genuine, throw light on the missing links in Christian and Jewish history. Some 70 or so ring-bound “books”, with up to 15 leaves each, are said to have been found, along with other artefacts, in a cave in Jordan, near the place where the Hebrew Christians seemingly took refuge.

They are now in the possession of an Israeli Bedouin, but the government of Jordan has claimed ownership, saying they came to light on Jordanian soil a few years ago. Amid much confusion, the objects’ keeper asserts that they have been in his family for a century. Ziad al-Saad, head of Jordan’s antiquities department, has said this could be the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. David Elkington, who is writing a book about the lead “books”, backs Jordan’s claim, saying it offers the best chance of ensuring the artefacts are open to scholars. An Oxford laboratory, after testing one of the codices, believes the lead might be 2,000 years old.

... But so far, no scientific authority in a position to judge has seen more than a fraction of the objects.

If they are authentic, the lead objects tell a teasing Judeo-Christian story. There is writing in an ancient script, Paleo-Hebrew, which was used by Jews largely for ceremonial purposes. The writing is mostly indecipherable; it may be in code. The imagery features the Jewish feast of Sukkot, which is both a harvest thanksgiving and a celebration of the Jews’ sojourn in Egypt. During this festival, celebrants brandish palm fronds (bound up with willow and myrtle) in one hand and a lemon-like fruit, the etrog, in the other. This is familiar Jewish material, but some may ask what it has to do with Christianity.

A good question. In various forms, most Jewish festivals found their way into the Christian calendar. Imagery and language from Sukkot occur at many moments in the Christian year; in the stories of Christ’s birth, baptism, transfiguration, and most obviously at Palm Sunday, when Christians wave palms (or in Russia, willow twigs) to commemorate Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. In Christian commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures, it is stressed that Sukkot was associated with the advent of the Messiah and with the coming of all nations to worship in Jerusalem. So images of Sukkot would be dear to the heart of Hebrew Christians.

None of that proves a Christian connection. The imagery might also be consistent with an alternative theory which was aired in the Jewish Chronicle, a British weekly: that the codices belonged to forerunners of the mystical tradition which became known as Kabbalah. But by stirring a discussion about the resonance of certain images to Jews and Christians alike, the lead objects have refocused attention on a deep but contentious commonality.

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• Incredible Relics of Early Christianity Discovered

Incredible Relics of Early Christianity Discovered

BBCNews reports on the discovery of a set of approximately 70 lead books thought to have survived approximately 2,000 years and potentially shedding light on the life, death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and the subsequent birth of Christianity:

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.

A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

...

The director of the Jordan's Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, says the books might have been made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his crucifixion.

...

The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before being bound by lead rings.

Their leaves - which are mostly about the size of a credit card - contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.

...

Philip Davies, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University, says the most powerful evidence for a Christian origin lies in plates cast into a picture map of the holy city of Jerusalem.

"As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck. That struck me as so obviously a Christian image," 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."

...

Margaret Barker, an authority on New Testament history, points to the location of the reported discovery as evidence of Christian, rather than purely Jewish, origin.

"We do know that on two occasions groups of refugees from the troubles in Jerusalem fled east, they crossed the Jordan near Jericho and then they fled east to very approximately where these books were said to have been found," she says.

"[Another] one of the things that is most likely pointing towards a Christian provenance, is that these are not scrolls but books. The Christians were particularly associated with writing in a book form rather than scroll form, and sealed books in particular as part of the secret tradition of early Christianity."

...

The archaeology of early Christianity is particularly sparse.

Little is known of the movement after Jesus' crucifixion until the letters of Paul several decades later, and they illuminate the westward spread of Christianity outside the Jewish world.

Never has there been a discovery of relics on this scale from the early Christian movement, in its homeland and so early in its history.

Pope Inaugurates St. Maron Statue in Vatican City

Two women wave the Lebanese flag in front of a statue of Saint Maron, a 5th century Syrian monk, earlier inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI and Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011. President Suleiman is scheduled to meet with the pontiff on Thursday for a private audience. (AP Photo via Daylife)

Religion and Economics

Via the New York Times Op-Ed Section

The Pre-Ground Zero Ground Zero Mosque

Check out the article (and source of the above pic) at War in Context

Our Lady of Naya Church

Top: A general view shows the rock-carved Saydet Naya Church (Our Lady of Naya Church) in the northern Lebanese mountain village of Kfarchleiman on August 26, 2010. The church is beleived to date back to the medevial age around 12th century A.D. when early Christians transformed a rocky reservoir of water into a monastic complex in the rugged mountains of north Lebanon. Second: The face of Christ is painted on the ceiling and walls of the Saydet Naya Church. Third: The face of Christ is painted on the wall of the Saydet Naya Church. Fourth: The face of Christ is painted on the ceiling of the Saydet Naya Church. Bottom: An ancient water reservoir is carved in the rock near the 12th century Saydet Naya Church. (All images - Getty Images via Daylife)

Coptic Church vs Azazel

The UK's Guardian reports:

...

Youssef Ziedan's Azazeel (Beelzebub) is set in fifth-century Egypt, Alexandria and northern Syria, and looks at the turbulent period following the Roman Empire's adoption of Christianity and the internal doctrinal conflicts that arose between Church elders, as well as the clash between new believers and receding "paganism". Purporting to be the autobiography of an Egyptian-born monk and lover Hypa, who witnesses disputes in Alexandria as the city adopts Christianity, it is a bestseller in Egypt and last year won the $60,000 (£40,000) International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which is run in association with the Man Booker prize foundation.

Azazeel has provoked controversy in Egypt ever since its publication. The Coptic church denounced it as offensive for its violent portrait of Coptic church father St Cyril, and one critic said it "tries to Islamise Christian beliefs and takes the side of heretics". Now a group of Egyptian and international Coptic organisations have filed a complaint with the country's public prosecutor against Ziedan, a philosophy professor, accusing him of insulting Christianity. If he is found guilty, he faces up to five years' imprisonment.

...

The author said that there had been many calls to ban Azazeel, with four books written attacking his novel, but so far the Egyptian government has not complied with the demands. "Other books have been published to defend the novel, not to mention hundreds of pro-Azazeel articles," he added. "Azazeel has kept on its wide circulation; 18 editions have been published within two years – an unprecedented incident in the history of Arab literature. All such events have increased the ire of the church, which resorted to a new technique last week."

...

"Many Orthodox bishops and monks welcomed the novel, and some of them wrote positively of Azazeel, whether in Egypt, Syria or Lebanon," said Ziedan, who has described his novel in the past as "not against Christianity but against violence, especially violence in the name of the sacred". "All in all, I did not expect - nor did anyone - that the novel would be used politically as it is used today."

Azazeel has already been published in Italy, where the author says it sold 20,000 copies in its first month on sale, and is lined up for publication in the UK by Atlantic Books in July next year.