Could this be the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan could change our view of Biblical history

This discovery by researchers of the history of religion and priceless collection of 70 tiny ancient book consisting of lead pages bound with wire, can shed light on the secrets of some of the early period of Christianity. Academicians opinion is divided on the authenticity of them, but they say that if confirmed originality, then they can just as meaningful, as the 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Credit card sized pages featuring a variety of pictures, symbols and words, that for the Messiah and possibly, death and resurrection. Adds intrigue is the fact that most of the books are printed, which led the researchers to conclude that the books of the Bible, Revelation mentioned in the lost of practice. The books appeared several years ago in a remote region of Jordan, a cave, a hideout of the Christians in AD 70 years after the fall of Jerusalem. At the same time the documents were discovered here in the past. The initial metallurgical tests have found that some of the book can be dated AD First century. This rate is derived from the form of corrosion of the book, which is to receive artificially, according to experts, it is impossible.

Revelation: Experts speculate that the tablets could be the lost collection of codices referred to in the Bible's Book Of Revelation

If this date is confirmed, then enter one of the oldest Christian documents, books, and even the Apostle Paul's works chronologically gadaustsreben. The likelihood that they can be protected by the news of Jesus' life in recent years, researchers stir - but their enthusiasm ganelebulia the fact that the experts recently thanks to a sophisticated forgery was severely disappointed. David elkingtoni, history and archeology of the ancient religion of the few scientists in the British researcher who examined the books and it says that the books "could become a major discovery of Christian history research."

This estimate is based on the form of corrosion which has taken place, which experts believe would be impossible to achieve artificially.

If the dating is verified, the books would be among the earliest Christian documents, predating the writings of St Paul.

The prospect that they could contain contemporary accounts of the final years of Jesus’s life has excited scholars – although their enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that experts have previously been fooled by sophisticated fakes.

David Elkington, a British scholar of ancient religious history and archeology, and one of the few to have examined the books, says they could be ‘the major discovery of Christian history’.

‘It is a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church,’ he said.

But the mysteries between their ancient pages are not the books’ only riddle. Today, their whereabouts are also something of a mystery. After their discovery by a Jordanian Bedouin, the hoard was subsequently acquired by an Israeli Bedouin, who is said to have illegally smuggled them across the border into Israel, where they remain.

Dr Margaret Barker, former president of the Society of Old Testament Studies, said: "The book of Revelation tells of a sealed book, which is open only Messiah." "In this period of the sealed books and other texts to tell the secret tradition of the closest disciples of Christ were given."