These are books made of lead plates, sewn with metal rings. Their age is about 2000 years. They were discovered in 2008 in Jordan by a Bedouin named Hassan Seda. The books attracted attention by the fact that Jesus Christ, as well as the apostles James, Peter and John are mentioned on their pages.
The doubts of skeptics were dispelled by physicists Roger Webb and Chris Haynes.
They conducted a chemical analysis of the lead-based alloy from which these books were made. Its composition turned out to be identical to the composition of an ancient Roman plate discovered by archaeologists in Dorset, England. Its age is also about 2000 years. Researchers claim that the artifacts were made around the same time. This is also indicated by the same traces of corrosion.
Isotopic analysis confirmed that the books were not produced in the 20th or 21st century, as some believe. By the way, the society accepted the lead code ambiguously. Some of the recordings were even considered provocative. For example, the text says that the prophet Jesus believed in a god who was both male and female.
It is also argued that his teachings were just a revival of the ancient Jewish religion. By the way, the books contain a story about the appearance of God to people during the prayer of Jesus in the temple of Solomon, which is provided with an illustration - a portrait of Christ. However, the physicists' task was to determine the authenticity of the artifact, and they recognized it as real.
Where did these books come from?
A collection of about seventy books, each of which consists of 5-15 lead sheets held together by lead rings, was discovered in a remote, waterless area in northern Jordan between 2005 and 2007.
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A flash flood revealed two niches inside the cave, one of which was marked with the sign of the menorah (seven-branched candlestick), an ancient Jewish religious symbol.
A certain Jordanian Bedouin opened the closures of these niches and what he found inside may be an extremely rare monument of early Christianity.
After that, they were taken to Israel. This has sparked an angry response from the Jordanian government, which the BBC reports believes it is an act of smuggling.
The Israeli Bedouin, who now has the books, denies that he smuggled them out of Jordan and claims that they have been in his family's possession for the past 100 years.
According to the Jordanian authorities, it will "make every effort at all levels" to return the relics to their homeland.
The director of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, claims that these books may have been written by Jesus' followers in the decades immediately following His crucifixion.
“They are indeed of great value, and perhaps more than the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls,” says al-Saad.
"It may be necessary to conduct further research and verification of the authenticity of these documents, but the first information is very encouraging, and it seems that we have before us a very important and significant discovery, perhaps the loudest discovery in the history of archeology."
This sounds almost unbelievable - so what is the evidence?
Books made in the form of "codices", that is, in the usual book format, unlike scrolls, were apparently cast in lead molds before they were fastened with lead rings.
The sheets that compose them, about the size of a credit card, contain text in Hebrew, most of it encrypted.
If the monument really belongs to early Christianity, and not to the Jewish tradition, then its value is enormous.
David Elkington, a researcher on ancient archaeological finds associated with religion and leading a British group seeking to return the lead books intact to the Jordanian museum, was one of the few people to see the collection firsthand.
According to him, this may be the most important discovery in Christian history. "The thought that we have at our disposal objects that the first saints of the Church could hold in their hands is breathtaking."
He believes that the most eloquent evidence of the early Christian origins of the monuments may be the images that adorn the covers of books and some of the pages open for viewing to date.
According to Elkington, the distinctive features of the monuments indicate that the early Christian tradition understood the image of Jesus next to other people as a manifestation of God.
“It's about the coming of the Messiah,” the researcher says.
"In the upper part of one of the covers of the book we see the menorah-candlestick, which the Jews categorically forbade to depict, since it was placed in the Holy of Holies of the Temple as a sign of the presence of God."
“So, before us is the coming Messiah coming to the Holy of Holies, in other words, He has the sign of His chosenness by God.”
Philip Davis, professor emeritus in the Department of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University, argues that the most compelling evidence of the monument's early Christian origins is the plate on which a map of the holy city of Jerusalem is cast.
“Seeing this, I was dumbfounded. I was struck by this image, so distinctly Christian,”says the professor.
“In the foreground we see a cross, and behind it is what appears to be the place where Jesus was buried. It is a small building with an open exit, behind which the city walls can be seen. They are present in other images, and undoubtedly these are the walls of Jerusalem."
The cross is the most expressive symbol. It looks like a capital T, and these are the crosses used by the Romans for punishment through crucifixion.
“This is a Christian crucifixion that takes place outside the city walls,” says Davis.
Margaret Barker, an expert on New Testament history, points out that the location of the find in question speaks more of an early Christian than a Jewish origin.
“We know that two groups of Christians fled persecution in Jerusalem, and they crossed the Jordan River near Jericho, and then proceeded eastward very close to where the books were said to have been found,” she says.
“Another circumstance that most likely points to an early Christian origin is that these are not scrolls, but codices. Writing texts in the form of a code, primarily in front of the scrolls, is a hallmark of early Christian culture. Book sealing is also a feature of the secret tradition of early Christianity."
There is evidence of such sealed books in the book of Revelation.
One of the fragments of text from the discovered collection, which was read and translated, also contains a reference to the Bible.
It is placed near the image of the menorah and reads: "I will walk the righteous path." This expression also comes across in the book of Revelation.
If in Jewish texts this is a fairly widespread expression, then here it can refer to the Resurrection of Christ.
Of course, all items in the collection belong to the same historical period.
Research into highly corroded lead by metal experts suggests that book making is not recent.
The archeology of early Christianity hitherto had a very meager number of monuments.
Little is known about what happened after the crucifixion of Jesus until the time of the Epistles of Ap. Paul, dating from several decades later, which describe the spread of Christianity outside the Jewish world in the west.
Until now, there have not been such large-scale discoveries related to the history of early Christianity in its original land and dating back to such an early time.