Metal Plates in Dire Straits

From the latest updates I’ve seen, things aren’t looking good for our Jordanian lead plates. As more scholars gain access to photos of the plates and are beginning to be able to evaluate the inscriptions and images, there are some who are quite certain that they are forgeries.  I think it will still be some time before we can know that conclusively, but that is the growing suspicion.

Bryce Haymond has put together a great summary of some of the most recent findings and opinions, organized into evidence supporting their authenticity vs. evidence of forgery.  There seems to be more evidence for them being forgeries. Please see his post at TempleStudy.com here: http://www.templestudy.com/2011/03/31/jordanian-lead-plates-authentic-forgery/#more-2396

Daniel McClellin has the content of an email that was sent by Peter Thonemann at Oxford to David Elkington (the archaeologist who is leading the investigation into the plates) in which Thonemann demonstrates how the (one) bronze tablet that he was shown was apparently made rather recently by someone who did not know Greek, as there are errors in the writing that suggest to Thonemann that the writer didn’t even know the Greek alphabet. Furthermore, the writings don’t make sense as they stand and appear to have been copied from known Greek inscriptions. You can read the full email at Daniel’s site: http://danielomcclellan.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/peter-thonemann-on-the-lead-codices/

Rice University Professor April DeConick gives her opinion (not positive) on the plates: http://forbiddengospels.blogspot.com/2011/03/lead-tablets-come-on.html

It’s beginning to look like the plates, despite all the fun hype, may be too good to be true.

UPDATE: Jim Davila, at PaleoJudaica, has further information on and discussion of the Thonemann email. See here: http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2011_03_27_archive.html#7454369078247746754

As Professor Davila notes, the Deseret News now has a good article up about the plates as well: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700123230/Ancient-metal-plates-found-in-Middle-East.html?pg=1

April DeConick: Seminar on "Mapping Death:Religious Preparation for the Afterlife Journey"

Looking back, I probably should have spaced these posts out over a few days to prevent you all from developing “information overload” syndrome.  But this last post today is a good one (at least I think so).

It has come to my attention (via her blog Forbidden Gospels) that Rice University Professor of Biblical Studies, April DeConick, will be a part of an extended research seminar that will be studying how different religions/cultures have prepared themselves for the “afterlife journey” that they anticipate having to traverse at death, including religious teachings and practices.

From her blog:

The semester is a week advanced and this year I am facilitating a Mellon Seminar. The topic? Mapping Death: Religious Preparations for the Afterlife Journey. The Seminar consists of myself, five graduate students from various departments (Religious Studies, French Studies, and Anthropology) and a webmaster. We are in the process of developing a webpage for the Seminar, so if you are interested you can track our progress.

Each student has an individual research project to work on, and then we are collaborating in terms of method and theory, sharing our approaches with each other. It is an exciting seminar and I am so pleased to be part of it. My own individual research project involves mapping ancient Gnostic metaphysics and praxis.

Here is a short description of the seminar:

This is a collaborative research seminar consisting of fellows working on cross-culturally mapping death journeys and religious preparations for them in order to investigate the relationship between the anticipated afterlife journey and the group’s metaphysics and praxis. The fellows will be engaged in the creation and cultivation of a rich interdisciplinary approach to the comparative study of traditions, a ‘new’ history-of-traditions approach that is conscious of the historical contexture of traditions, their referentiality, confluence, communal generation and conveyance, responsiveness, changeability, accumulative nature, and variability in transmission. Members will be working on individual research projects related to the seminar’s mission and their dissertations. At the end of the year, they will present their final projects in a roundtable symposium that also will feature invited papers from three external scholars who will visit the seminar at various sessions during the Spring semester. The papers from the symposium will be edited for publication in a volume.

I will be keeping a close eye on this seminar to see what they up with and look forward to the subsequent publication. This is an important topic and the research done will be significant for anyone interested in Temple studies (and Heavenly Ascents!) — preparation for the “afterlife journey” is one of the main purposes of the Temple, both ancient and modern.

I have met April DeConick and some of her graduate students and I highly respect the work that they do there at Rice University. You can expect it to be very professional and methodologically sound.

SBL Notes 2009: April DeConick — Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism

My notes on:

Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism – Sunday 4pm

April De Conick

Star Gates: What Were the Gnostics Doing?

The Peratics (perasai, Greek for “Transcendentalists”) say:

We alone have known that genesis is necessary and (we alone have known) have know the roads by which humans have entered into the cosmos. We have been instructed precisely so we alone can pass through and treverse over the perishable. Hip. Ref. 5:16.1

We generally think that Gnostics didn’t know astrology, that it wasn’t a scientific knowledge – W. Forester (in his collection of Gnostic texts) failed to translate the chapter on astrological statements – he evidently considered them not relevant to Gnosticism.

We must become acquainted with ancient cosmology (cosmic architecture) to understand what the Gnostics were doing.

Religious Scholars on the Web

First of all, I would like to apologize for the paucity of posts recently.  I have been very busy with school, as it is the last semester of my MA program and there is a lot of extra work required for graduation.

I wanted to share with you some links to some great religious scholars that I have found on the internet.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor my official opinion of who is a good scholar and who is not, but it is a sampling of some sites that I have come across, especially some that I’ve been made aware of just recently.  I hope their sites/blogs will be as helpful to you as they have been to me.

Dr. James R. Davila — www.paleojudaica.blogspot.com

I mentioned Dr. Davila’s blog in my last post.  Again, Dr. Davila is the head of the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland.  Dr. Davila is at the very forefront of research on early Judaism, the Second Temple period, Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Jewish Mysticism, and related topics.  I have known of his research in this area for quite some time, but have only recently become acquainted with his blog.  The blog is updated almost every day and contains news, links, insights, and other items of interest for those who enjoy learning about ancient Jewish history, religion, mysticism, and related topics in Christianity, as well.  His site is a great way to keep up on what is going on in the academic world regarding these areas of interest.

His own stated research interests (according to his faculty profile at St. Andrews) include: 

• Judaism from the second temple period through late antiquity
• The Dead Sea Scrolls
• The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
• Early Jewish mysticism (Merkavah mysticism and Hekhalot literature)
• The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
• Ancient divine mediator figures and Christian origins
• Ancient Near Eastern literature and mythology

A small sampling of his recent publications: