Lead Tablets Deciphered!

I am delighted to be able to share the breaking news that a group of scholars, led by Prof. Herrmann U. Tichs of the University of Nirgendwo, has managed to crack the code on the lead plates that have recently been in the news, and has offered an initial transcription and translation. The text, if they have deciphered it correctly, reads as follows:

Dear Diary,

This year for my April Fool’s Day prank – wait ’til you get a load of this – I am going to go around pretending that I had a brother named Jesus, that he was crucified by the Romans, and (this is the best part) also say that he was the Messiah.

I am sure that no one will fall for it for long, since the whole idea is so ludicrous. But it will be fun just to irk those pious Pharisees. I am particularly looking forward to that guy Paul from Tarsus fuming over this – he’s such a jerk.

Yours as always,

James son of Joseph

A picture of the lead plates with the inscription highlighted as well as an explanation of the way the code was cracked can be found online.

Those involved in the project to decipher the plates have qualified the translation as slightly uncertain, since using a different decription key, the text reads as an ancient Jewish recipe for matzoh ball soup.