Friday, January 10, 2025

Some "Basilidian" lead codices

VARIANT READINGS: A Fake Lead “Codex” in Rome? (Brent Nongbri).

These "Basilidian" codices (one extant, two lost) seem to be unrelated to the Jordanian lead codices. But the Basilidian lead books are developed along similar lines: bound pages inscribed with images and mostly gibberish text. The text is mostly in a mixed Greek script, whereas the texts of the Jordanian codices are in Greek and mixed paleo-Hebrew scripts. And yes, all indications are that the Baslidian codices are fakes of the seventeeth or eighteenth centuries.

The concept has been around for some centuries. Some other inscribed lead books were found in the sixteenth century in Granada (Sacromonte), Spain. They consist of round leaves inscribed in Latin, Arabic, and Castilian. They claimed to be prophecies from the first century CE. They are obscure in various ways, but rather more coherent than the Basilidian and the Jordanian codices. Nevertheless, they are contemporary forgeries.

Brent links to my detailed evaluation of the Jordanian lead codices in a four-post PaleoJudaica series from 2017. I have nothing to add to it. The link is here. Part 4 mentions the lead books from Granada, with links.

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