The Daily Mail has picked up the story from Sunday's London Times:
Are lead tablets discovered in a remote cave in Jordan the secret writings about the last years of Jesus?I saw the Times article in hard copy (it's behind a subscription wall online), but recycled the paper and don't have it now. Still, I'm sure it didn't say anything about the plates holding any "contemporary account of the last years of Jesus." This must be some silly misunderstanding by the Mail reporter. Otherwise, the piece looks like a reasonably faithful summary of the Times article.
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:54 PM on 21st March 2011
Artefacts discovered in a remote cave in Jordan could hold a contemporary account of the last years of Jesus.
The find of scrolls and 70 lead codices - tiny credit-card-sized volumes containing ancient Hebrew script talking of the Messiah and the Resurrection - has excited biblical scholars.
Much of the writing is in code, but experts have deciphered images, symbols and a few words and the texts could be 2,000 years old.
Some academics are sceptical about the discovery because there have been numerous hoaxes and sophisticated fakes produced over the years.
Many of the codices are sealed which suggests that they could be secret writings referred to in the apocryphal Book of Ezra - an appendage to some versions of the Bible.
Texts have been written on little sheets of lead bound together with wire.
The treasure trove was found five years ago by an Israeli Bedouin and may have been around since the 1st century, around the time of Jesus's crucifixion and Resurrection.
[...]
The passage referred to in the "Apocryphal Book of Ezra" is 4 Ezra 14:38-48:
[38] And on the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, "Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink."I'm not going to get excited about this supposed discovery until the texts have undergone and passed multiple authentication tests which have been published in peer-reviewed venues. Meanwhile, if the owners are serious about convincing scholars of their authenticity, let them post good photographs of all the plates online.
[39] Then I opened my mouth, and behold, a full cup was offered to me; it was full of something like water, but its color was like fire.
[40] And I took it and drank; and when I had drunk it, my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory;
[41] and my mouth was opened, and was no longer closed.
[42] And the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, in characters which they did not know. They sat forty days, and wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night.
[43] As for me, I spoke in the daytime and was not silent at night.
[44] So during the forty days ninety-four books were written.
[45] And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, "Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them;
[46] but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people.
[47] For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge."
[48] And I did so. (RSV)
Background here, with what is probably a better description of the apparent contents of the plates.
UPDATE (22 March): More here (next post).