Recently, an apparently ancient codex was found. If you haven't read about it, here is a link to an article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110330/ts_yblog_thelookout/could-lead-codices-prove-the-major-discovery-of-christian-history

I'm a terrible joke teller. So often, I forget everything but the punchline have to go back and try to remember the setup. Aggravating is not the word. But, I want to do something similar to that in this blog in the next couple of blogs. Here's the punchline: although finding of this apparently ancient codex could be an extremely important archaeological, historical, and religious find? All that it will really amount to is an independent verification of some of the facts that we already know from some other ancient artifacts.

The first thing that you have to keep in mind is that this could very well be a hoax. If so, it was certainly not be the first one. For example, there was the hopes of the, "secret Gospel of Mark." Wharton Smith was a professor at Columbia University for years. At a meeting of the Society of Biblical literature in 1960, he announced that two years earlier he had made a historic discovery at an old monastery in the Judean wilderness. In the back of a 15th century book he claimed to have found to a half pages of the letter from an early church father, Clement of Alexandria. In this "letter" Smith claimed that it contains excerpts from a mysterious Gospel called the secret Gospel of Mark. The scholarly world went crazy over this discovery at the time. However, it was later found to be a hoax. Handwriting analysis and other methods were used to determine the professor Smith had fabricated the whole deal.

The same thing is also true for those who are basically nonreligious. For example, the man who produced the blockbuster hit "Titanic" also produced a so-called documentary about finding the grave of Jesus. Actually what he claimed was an archaeologist had discovered the bone box (kind of the equivalent of our coffin) with the inscription on it, "Jesus son of Mary and Joseph." What he didn't tell you was that dozens and dozens of these bone boxes bearing identical inscriptions had been found. Want to know why? Because these three names (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,) were the three most common names in the time when Jesus was born!

So, let's wait only independent scientific verification of the age of this artifact. There will be linguistic analysis done on it as well. Because language changes over time we will be able to tell roughly what time this artifact was made by examining the language.

However! What if it turns out to be real? What if this artifact was produced within a few years of the actual life of Jesus? It would be the archaeological, historical, and religious find of the millennium. Exciting stuff! But listen carefully to this next part. It would not, in any way make the truth about Jesus anymore sure and certain than it already is. That's a pretty bold statement isn't it? Here's the reason that I say it: we are already in possession of four ancient documents that are scientifically and historically proven to be accurate! These documents give us a detailed analysis of both Jesus and the times in which he lived. I'm talking about the four Gospels. And the next blog is going to be an analysis of WHY these documents are so trustworthy that this newly found artifact is not going to change any basic truth found in our Gospels.