Prophetic Stone tablet links Judaism, Christianity*

By Marius Schattner in Jerusalem

July 08, 2008 10:23am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

A PROPHETIC STONE tablet said to date back to the first century BC could
redefine ties between the Christian and Jewish religions by predicting a
messiah who would rise again after three days.

Israel Knohl, a biblical studies professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew
University, said his interpretation of the Hebrew text on the tablet
could "overturn the vision we have of the historic personality of
Jesus'' Christ.

"This prophetic text could be the missing link between Judaism and
Christianity in so far as it roots the Christian belief in the
resurrection of the Messiah in Jewish tradition,'' he said.

The prophecy tablet belongs to a collector living in Zurich who said he
acquired the object from an antiquities dealer in Jordan.

It is believed to orginate from the Jordanian bank of the Dead Sea.

The text is described as "the revelation of the Angel Gabriel'' and is
inscribed in ink on rock, over 87 lines, with some letters or entire
words wiped out by the passage of time.

The Israeli researcher said line 80 referred to a "three-day'' period
and a faded word which uses a part of the verb "to live.''

Christians celebrate Easter as the resurrection of Jesus who rose from
the dead three days after his crucifixion.

The text declared that the Angel Gabriel was to awaken "the prince of
princes'' three days after his death, in an echo of the Jewish tradition
which applied to the Messiah, according to the Israeli professor.

Some researchers have cast doubts over the authenticity of the tablet
and over Prof Knohl's conclusions.

Ada Yardeni, a specialist in ancient languages, did not accept Prof
Knohl's conclusions although he said the faded word in the tablet could
mean "lives.''

Prof Knohl's "interpretation is plausible even though its spelling is
rare", said Mr Yardeni, who was the first to describe the prophetic  
tablet and its text last year in the Israeli historical and
archaeological review Cathedra.

An Israeli archeologist who asked not to be named doubted the authenticity.

"It's very strange that such a text was written in ink on a tablet and
was preserved until now. To determine whether it is authentic one would
have to know in which condition and exactly where the tablet was
discovered, which we do not,'' she said.

But Yuval Goren, director of the archeology department at Tel Aviv
university and a specialist in identifying forgeries, said he could not
detect any sign of forgery in the text on the tablet.

Prof Knohl is to present his reading today at a seminar in Jerusalem as
part of events to mark the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead
Sea Scrolls, a landmark find that had a huge influence on biblical studies.

The prophetic tablet itself has been described as a "Dead Sea Scroll on
stone".

"If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to
a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of
Jesus,'' The New York Times said.

"It suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique
but part of a recognised Jewish tradition at the time.''