Saturday, April 2, 2011

The earliest Christian writings (probably)

BBC reports that in northern Jordan a substantial amount of writings has been recently found. The collection contains circa 70 items. Since they are (1) in a form of a book, not a scroll, they (2) have an image of Menorah and a cross and (3) they enclose an expression to be found also in the Book of Revelation (I shall walk upright) is has been argued that this writings might have been of the Christian origin.

However, “Christianity” of these writings raises serious questions. Firstly, since menorah is clearly not a Christian symbol, we may ask whether a cross was really Christian symbol in the first century CE. Secondly the text of Revelation is not specific text, everyone can go uprightly, not necessarily a/the Messiah, etc.

Do You think that this discovery may teach us something on the Christianity in times between Jesus’ crucifixion and first writings of the New Testament?

Also see a discussion on Paleojudaica.blogspot.com

1 comment:

  1. It’s simple: we will have to wait, but apparently the owner wants to sell now.
    The photos testify to (1), but (2) and (3) still need to be substantiated.
    By the way: not all early "codices" were Christian. In short, what we have heard up to now does not really suggest it is a first century Christian collection.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...