What the Gabriel Revelation Text May Mean
Tuesday July 8, 2008
Biblical archaeology sees its share of hoaxes and inflated claims. Recently debunked is the James Ossuary, a funerary container supposedly holding the remains of Jesus' brother James. Some continue to believe in it. The current hub-bub in the Biblical archaeology field is over a slab known as Gabriel's Vision or Gabriel's Revelation. Its existence has been known for a decade, but it has recently come to public attention through the New York Times.
The text, written in ink that has disintegrated in areas, appears to include information that could alter the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Scott Richert, About.com's Guide to Catholicism, looks at the hype about this large limestone slab in Shaking the Foundations of Christianity. Here is a passage from Scott's blog that captures the essence of what has made people chatter and blog about this messianic "Dead Sea Scroll on stone":
The implication, of course, is that, if the story of Jesus is "nothing new under the sun," then Christ cannot have been what He and His followers have claimed Him to be--the incarnate Son of God. And that's where the laughable part comes in, because at the heart of the Christian claim of Christ's divinity is precisely the point that Christ's coming was foretold.People are looking at the text as a challenge to Christianity or as supporting evidence. This all assumes the document's authenticity is verified. Scott has much more to say about the tablet, so if it interests you, be sure to read his blog. If you'd like to discuss this tablet, please post on the Ancient/Classical History Forum thread on the topic.
Comments
This is very interesting and i cant wait till more information is rleased about the stone. Have they carbon dated the ink and stone yet?
Matt, you can’t carbon date stone! Only organic materials. It’s almost impossible with certainty to date letters written a hundred years or more ago. So someone claiming to be able to date ink on a stone 2,000 years ago with such an exact date bears all the signs of giant fraud.
They didn’t date it that way but by the language, style of writing etc. No one disputes its authenticity, but do dispute it’s meaning, especially since so many words are missing or illegible.
Anyone ever seen this before?
“He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him.”
It’s from a book called the Old Testament. It’s talking about the Kingdom of Israel.
Jesus is a copy-cat, my ass!
If it only talks about someone being raised from the dead, thats nothing new. Even Lazarus was raised before Jesus. The resurrected hero is a common archetype. However, God becoming the hypostatic union between God and Man and taking on the sins of the world and dying in our place and THEN resurrecting HIMSELF…..is a bit different than just a simple resurrection. After all, we are all going to be resurrected, but that doesn’t make us all Messiahs.