The Fake Jordan Lead Codices

The Fake Jordan Lead Codices December 2, 2016

It is distressing to see people blogging and “news” outlets reporting once again about the lead codices from Jordan as though they might conceivably be authentic ancient artifacts. It has been shown that they take text and images from known artifacts and reproduce them over and over again in an attempt to produce something that aims to give a false impression of antiquity, and significance, but making their authenticity less likely rather than more after closer inspection.

That the lead is ancient is as irrelevant as that the papyrus on which the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife is ancient. Modern forgers recycle ancient materials for precisely this purpose, to have the objects date as ancient. And so that is no longer something that provides a basis for the dating of what is written on a particular ossuary, papyrus, or piece of lead.

For the very latest on this, see Jim Davila’s blog post. For more information – available online for the past five years – see the pages, posts, and articles by Steve Caruso, Dan McClellan, David Meadows, Michael Heiser, Tom Verenna, and Jim West.

Dare I hope that Ariel Sabar might do for these objects what he did for the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife?


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