10 Comments

  1. larryco_

    One purely speculative thought that I have – based on the possible 1st century dating, the possible existence of both Christian and Jewish symbols on it, and the fact that it was found in Jordan – is that it may have been produced by the Ebionites. The Ebionites were a Christian sect, located in the Lavant, that accepted Jesus as the Messiah (but not divine) and continued practicing as Jews, combing the teachings of Jesus with the Law of Moses. Obviously there is still much more to be researched concerning these plates.

  2. Yvette

    Does this look like ‘the tree of life’ vision, with people represented as dots, scattered at the edges, but uniform above the tree by the rod of iron and with groups of people higher up, looking down on them from a columned building? Every antiquity is open to interpretation of course, but this bears a striking symilarity. I wish the picture was clearer.

  3. larryco_

    As I’ve read and pondered this find some more, I find one prominent part of the most talked about plate curious: at the forefront of it is the cross. From everything I’ve ever read, the earliest Christians did not feature the cross in their depictions. It doesn’t show up in the earliest Christian catacombs and seems to be a later addition to Christian symbolism, preceeded by the fish symbol (with it’s greek c-x symbolism). If they are authentic, this might move the earliest date to the 3rd century, despite the initial rust analysis, which would still be really cool.

  4. Wow, this is really amazing. If they are a hoax then they’re an amazing hoax! If they’re real, I’d really like to know what they say.

    If they do turn out to be real though, please understand that any similarities to Joseph Smith’s purported ancient metal plates fastened with rings is purely coincidental.

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