Fake!

Some preliminary analysis has been done on the 70 "ancient Christian books" from Jordan, and it looks like they are indeed forgeries.

In an online article in Live Science, Natalie Wolchover looks at the epigraphical features of the writing on the tablets. She reports that a study of the lettering by a professional Aramaic translator indicates the tablets are an "alphabet soup" of Old Aramaic (from 500 years before the time of Christ) mixed with Nabatean and Palmyrene (from at least a hundred years after the time of Christ). According to the linguist the youngest scripts "date from the second and third centuries, proving the documents could not possibly have been written during the dawn of Christianity."

In the picture to the left you can see some of the writing on the tablet. This is part of the script analyzed by the translator. The article includes a comparative chart that shows the type of epigraphical mistakes made by the translator. In addition to the errors in the script, the article also revealed the origin of the picture seen in the photograph. "The image they are saying is Christ is the sun god Helios from a coin that came from the island of Rhodes."

In my very first post I ended by saying, "So keep following these articles, but use a healthy dose of skepticism until all the details are revealed. As a friend often says, time and truth walk hand in hand!" In this particular case it didn't take a great deal of time before the truth about the tablets being forgeries came to light!