The Passover Plot, Gospel of Judas, and the Jesus Ossuary follow 2000 years of attempts to undermine the pillars of the Christian faith: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, the "Gabriel Revelation" can be added to the mix.

What is the Gabriel Revelation? It is a text, written on a stone tablet in the first century B.C., that purportedly refers to a suffering messiah that will die and rise again.

To Christian critics like Israel Knohl, the tablet confirms the theory that a suffering messiah was an established part of Jewish tradition well before the appearance of Jesus. Well, yeah: Genesis 3:15, Psalm 22, Isaiah 52 and 53 and Daniel 9:26 tell us as much, so what’s new?

According to the decipherers, the tablet refers to a messianic figure who is told he will be slain and “in three days you will live.” Such detail, it is argued, means that the Gospel writers penned this prediction in their narratives after the fact. Except that, as I have commented, the Gospels were “written within the lifetime of eyewitnesses, [so that] any fabrication on the part of authors to fudge the facts would have been readily contested by any number of hostile contemporaries.”

So why that added detail should raise eyebrows is more than a little perplexing, considering that there are hundreds of prophecies about Jesus recorded in the Old Testament centuries before His birth, the most astonishing being the precise year of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem predicted by Daniel (chapter 9:25-26) 300 years prior.

Nevertheless, for the better part of two centuries, critics have been citing myths of Olympian deities impregnating human women to sire half-gods, and dying and rising Corn-Kings, as proof that the Christian narrative is one of human invention. C. S. Lewis saw it differently.

To Lewis, myth at its best is a penumbra of divine light that inspires the human imagination about the true nature of things—much of which is stamped onto the design of nature. 

Myths about the Corn-King abound because of the natural pattern of life, death and new life which presages the “real Corn-King who will die once and rise once at Jerusalem.” Lewis writes, “We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical person…under Pontius Pilate.”  He concludes, “We must not be nervous about ‘parallels’ and ‘pagan Christs’: they ought to be there—it would be a stumbling block if they weren’t.”

In the same way, myths -- in the sense of what Lewis might call "true myths," or general revelations -- like those that appear to be contained in the Gabriel Revelation, "ought to be there," as we get closer and closer in time to the "myth that became fact."

Comments

[Steve (SBK)]

Interesting.
For more information, check out Ben Witherington's take:
http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2008/07/death-and-resurrection-of-messiah.html

... and the English translation:
http://bib-arch.org/news/dssinstone_english.pdf

I would also recommend N.T. Wright's book, "The Resurrection of the Son of God", where he talks about this concept of bodily resurrection/anastasis in the ancient world.

Always good/thought provoking stuff Regis.

[Benjamen R. Meyer]

A further note on what you write about C.S. Lewis and the interpretation of myths, and kind of my own take as well...

I very much agree with C.S. Lewis - with respect to the mythologies; and would further it in this:

As Christians we know that from the very beginning - after the fall - the promise of the messiah (Christ) was made to Adam & Eve; it's even in the curses upon the serpent and Eve (Genesis 3:15). Further is the revelation of the people between the fall and the flood, and the unity of humanity in language and culture up until the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 upon which humanity was split into many different factions that were unable to communicate, and the multicultural world we now know started.

In light of that, and the understanding of how myths form (similar to the Telephone Game but to stories and truths over the years) - it is, as C.S. Lewis understood, expected that every culture should have a myth similar to that of the Christ child, and it would be "a stumbling block" if there wasn't - since it would not support what we know to be true as mentioned above.

So the very fact that we find a Hercules/Heracule in Roman/Greek mythology, or a Corn-King, or any number of similar god-man deities is really only further proof of the true history of the prophecy of Christ. It is expected very much because the people prior to the Tower of Babel would have known the truth of the coming Christ, and in the split at the Tower of Babel the truths would have continued to have been told in the newly formed cultures, but become distorted over the years (with key points remaining, highlighting what each found important, or what grains of truth survived in those cultures) into what we know now as the mythologies of those cultures.

It really is quite remarkable how the mythology of every single culture on earth has such a lineage; and they only fully overlap in their hidden truths when compared to the truth God has revealed to us in the Bible.

[Regis Nicoll]

Benjamin--How true that predictions of a suffering messiah thread throughout the fabric of scripture, all the way back to its opening chapters. Why this stone should be held as any threat to Christianity, when its message is widely recognized as a tradtion that precedes "the fact" by millennia, is beyond me.

[Henry]

It's funny that Christians refer to the Torah as if they are authorities - most don't even know Hebrew. They merely go by a self-serving loose English translation - that most Jews reject. So, yes, one can find all the references they want for a coming Jesus Mesiah. But, the only true interpretation of what the Torah says comes from Jewish Scholars - NOT CHRISTIAN ONES.

[Steve (SBK)]

Henry,
I assume you are thinking of St. Paul as a Christian/Jewish scholar with authority on the Scriptures re: the "Jesus Mesiah [sic]"?

[Judy Vesely]

I only can think about one thing. Until we as individuals and nations truly accept Christ we are going to keep looking for other substitutes. In what I have read some of these substitutes are way out there. To quote a scrupture that sums up what I believe"As for me and my house we will follow the Lord."

[Charles]

My conclusion from this is that for some Jews the type of the resurrecting Messiah was in the Tanach. Christ pointed to that when he brought up the sign of Jonah - 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the whale.

There must be other passages in the Tanach that typify the resurrection. How else would these people (Jews in Jesus' time) figure that out? I'm going to look for more.

I suppose, too, that those folks who had the guard posted at the tomb were aware of this tradition.

[jj]

That's rediculous, The details of our Lord and Saviour was prophesied in the old testament scriptures (Judaism)hungreds of years before Jesus was born, to include him being born of a Virgin and called Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14), so the tablets would not have revealed anything new to true believers anyway. This is just another ploy and attempted attack, but yet again in-effective one, by the secular world against God's only and true Word accurately revealed in Christianity. Yet another failure by secularism.

[Patricia Burns]

Isa.8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because [there is] no light in them.

Patricia © Bible Prophecy on the Web

[B.L.]

Unfortunately the only people who would be mislead in any way will be those who don't know the scriptures, the lost, the unimformed. Every Christian knows that the Messiah had to first come as the suffering messiah before He could return as the conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Someone, let me quess who, is trying to decive and question God's word as always.

[Perry Lee]

I see the Gabriel Rev as a plus, not a minus! It's as if God was telling the nation of Israel - as it cud not make sense of the book of Isaiah and other realted verses in the OT - that there wud one day be such a Messiah and of cos Christ fulfilled that 'prophecy' in the Gabriel Rev!

[Chris Clukey]

Henry, could you give a specific example of one of the prophecies you're talking about? Show me a prophecy that seems to predict the coming of Jesus in the English translation but has a different meaning in Hebrew.

[John Henderson]

I settled the issue of who Christ is, His Inspired Word (those 66 books of the Bible) and many other matters a long time ago. I do not need extra-biblical "revelations" or even angels from Heaven telling me anything that is not written in His Word for me to read. I am content to wait for His Judgment to tell me what I do not understand here.

[labrialumn]

Regis, regarding your estimate of Jesus' times; Dr. Paul Maier has shown conclusively that the crucifixion was in A. D. 33, not 31. That is based on astronomical records, the earthquake, the darkness in daytime, etc.

However, nowhere is it written that Jesus earthly ministry was 3 years long. When I was in seminary it was pointed out that there is evidence of at least 4 Passovers in the Gospels. It is also possible for there to be an error in dating Artaxerxes, Tiberius' reign (was it when he jointly reigned with Augustus, or after, for instance)and calendric conversions.

The other matter is that you are taking the 62 sevens, which date to Jesus' death and resurrection, and adding another seven, but ignoring the 49 sevens. What is the reasoning there?

We have already be warned before hand that such decieving things will happen

Matthew 24:23-25

23“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.

[Marie Bragdon]

I first read about the Gabriel tablet in a NYT article and quickly realized the bias of the scholars, like Knohl, quoted in it was to explain away that which they refuse to accept. If a person's main premise is that miracles CANNOT occur and that the Bible is not reliable, then they must find another way to account for the evidence they examine. However, not only do these scholars miss the truth, but they lead countless others who have little or no background in what the scriptures actually DO say to spot the gaps and errors in their faulty logic.

[Regis Nicoll]

labrialumn-- Three Passovers are mentioned in John. If you checked out the link I provided, you noticed that 7-sevens plus 62-sevens equals 69-sevens; that is, 69 "weeks" of years, or 483 years. As to the exact date of Jesus' resurrection, in fact, scholars are divided. The important point here is that whether it was 31 or 33 AD, it fell within the precise seven-year period predicted by Daniel three centuries earlier.

[Paul Ernst]

Regius, you seem to use the seventy weeks as the most foolproof prophecy. Others concur. But why do you date Daniel at 300 BC as this is a sop to the higher critics. I personally dont know whether to believe them or not.

[Regis Nicoll]

Paul--According to orthodox scholars, the book of Daniel is included in the Septuagint which was written ca. 270 BC, (see: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13722a.htm, with higher criticisms addressed). It so happens that the LXX was the version of the OT that Jesus quoted, including his direct reference to Daniel in Matthew 24.

[Suzanne Jacobs]

Speaking as a Messianic Jew, it's always been amazing to me that Jesus (His Hebrew name was Yeshua) came to a poeple group with no corn-God myth, only Messianic prophecies. To me, this is one of the convincing proofs of Who He was & is.

[Omar]

The tablet is just another prophecy fulfilled in Christ. It is a fact that our Christian origins are Jewish. The one true God, Jesus and the Holly Spirit is the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. This will help bring in a new harvest of Messianic Jews. The Lord is pouring out his Spirit; the war of Gog and Magog is at hand. Damascus will be no more. These are the headlines of tomorrow. While the world sleeps, Gods plan will be fulfilled.

Read this article from Israel today.

“Gershon Nirel, a prominent Israeli historian and Jewish believer in Jesus, has a different take. He says the tablet is further evidence that Jesus was the kind of messiah Israel was waiting for, even if the rabbis now teach that Jesus failed to meet the biblical messianic criteria.
"Judaism is coming closer to the idea of redemption through the cleansing blood of Messiah, an idea that had been abandoned throughout the last centuries," said Nirel.
Israeli theologian and fellow Messianic Jew Tsvi Sadan added that even if Knohl's conclusions rub some believers in Jesus the wrong way, they still represent a step in the right direction.”
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=16576

[al]

Regis, you said, "So why that added detail should raise eyebrows is more than a little perplexing..." Well, there are (at least) two sides to every issue.

On the one side are the believers who have been born again by the work of God's Spirit, whose understanding has been enlightened to receive the things pertaining to God. We can see clearly the argument you present in your article, and we wonder why it isn't clear to everyone.

But we wonder that because we forget how blind we were when we lay dead in our sins, before God breathed His life into us and enabled us to see the truth and to hear and comprehend His Word. Those who are gaga over this stone are still dead and blind, and are merely grabbing at the nearest flotsam in a vain attempt to buoy up their desire to stay afloat without the God of the Bible.

Keep up the good stuff...

al H.

[Carolyn Spence]

When God does something on earth, he tells those who will hear. He tells them ahead of time. He is excited about what he is going to do here, especially if its good news for us, so he shares it. God is always trying to be heard. He loves us.

So, there may have been many who recorded the words of the coming Messiah. It is a glorious thing that the words were written BEFORE he came. This is one proof that this man was the Messiah, because he fullfilled all prophecy.

There is no doubt that he came, and that he died, and that he rose again. Aside from the usual literary proofs, there is the witness that we have in us.

We, who believe, watch for his return. Those who do not believe do not watch. But they wish, and spend much effort hoping to excuse themselves, and perhaps to prevent His return. Look up, our redemption is nearer than when we first believed.

[Athena]

I think with all the rebuke of the existance of christ that this would just be added to the confirmation that christ did die for the sins of the world and he did rise. Which if the evidence comes to light will the world still be blind to it in denial.

[Shaun Cap]

Will this finding hurt or change Christianity in any way? No. As a matter of fact, it will help it. Do you recall reading about other unnamed prophets in the Bible? It does mention them, and they did exist. There are hundreds of prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament, and to His faithful, God grants many visions and truths. The person who wrote this message was certainly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the fact that someone penned a revelation on stone is no surprise. As a matter of fact, I am surprised that this is the first one that I have heard of, with the exceptions of the writings in the Bible, of course. Many were revealed to the person of Christ, including King David(read the Psalms lately?). I believe people who are afraid of the truth of Jesus will use any argument and any tool against him-including the Bible itself-so why not use this, making the death and resurrection a tradition. In truth, the coming Messiah was a tradition, started as early as the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. This is a wonderful find, and more greatly ties us to the fact that the Bible is the Truth. God be praised He allows us to find artifacts that point to Him!