Friday, April 15, 2011

Fake metal codices watch etc.

FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: LiveScience has another go at the fake codices in Jesus Christ the Man: Does the Physical Evidence Hold Up? by Natalie Wolchover. The article is basically about the problem of evidence for the historical Jesus and it comes to temperate conclusions on that at the end. But along the way it takes effective swipes at Simcha Jacobovici's Easter present of nails from the true cross, the Shroud of Turin, the fake metal codices, dodgy theories about Jesus and the Qumran library's Teacher of Righteousness, and an ancient-but-bogus crown of thorns.

My hat is off to Ms. Wolchover for inserting some much-needed critical scrutiny of the latest rash of ridiculous Easter claims about early Christianity. But I'm still waiting for the mainstream media to take up the important story of the debunking of the fake metal codices. And waiting ...

Mark Goodacre takes apart various claims by Jacobovici here and here.

Background on the metal codices and the nails is here and here.

Some background on the Shroud of Turin is here.