Gabriel's revelation

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As Gabriel's Revelation ( Hebrew. חזון גבריאל, Hazon Gabriel or disclosure of the angel Gabriel ) an approximately one meter high stone tablet with 87 lines of text is referred to in Hebrew. The passages in the text contain a few short prophecies and are believed to date from the first century BC. One of the prophecies may describe a man who was killed by the Romans and is said to have been resurrected after three days .

The Annunciation Angel (Byzanine fresco from the 7th century)

origin

The stone tablet is said to have been found near the Dead Sea in Jordan . It is currently the only stone inscription of this kind. In 2000, a Jordanian traders sold the stone tablet at the in Zurich living antique collector David Jeselsohn. According to Jeselsohn, neither of them were aware of the possible significance of the find at the time. Jeselsohn dated the stone tablet to the year 1000 AD and did not care about the stone after buying it.

Examination of the stone tablet

The palaeographer Ada Yardeni, who translated the text together with Benjamin Elitzur, recognized from the writing that the tablet could be much older and could date from the time around the birth of Christ. In April 2007 the Israeli magazine cathedra reported on the stone tablet for the first time. An article in the New York Times made the find more widely known.

On the limestone, about one meter high and wide, there is an ink inscription of 87 lines. The lines of text are arranged in two columns. Yellowish clay from the area of ​​the headland by the Dead Sea, directly opposite the Masada fortress, is said to have been found on the stone tablet . According to Israel Knohl, biblical scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , letter shapes and the linguistic style of the Gabriel Revelation indicate the authenticity of the inscription.

Decipherment and translation of the inscription

The first translators of the text, Ada Yardeni and Benjamin Elitzur, had a. a. a certain word stand as undeciphered. At a conference in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem from July 6th to 8th, 2008, on the occasion of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls sixty years ago, Knohl presented his interpretation of the inscription. He claims to recognize a special spelling of " Lebe " in the word previously considered indecipherable , which goes back to an ancient grammatical form and refers to the prophet Ezekiel , who uses the word in the same form and with a striking content reference : " In your Blood live. “The Isaiah scroll from the Dead Sea is said to use the verb with the unusual Hebrew letter Aleph . Knohl is convinced that it means “ Get up in life! ».

In context, Knohl reads the line like this: « Live in three days. I, Gabriel, command you, Prince of Princes. "For Knohl it is therefore clear (see the following section):" Jesus was not the first to be resurrected "; he connects with the thesis that biblical historiography must be reassessed.

Knohl's interpretation is not undisputed. Victor Sassen, an expert on Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions, considers Knohl's translation to be biased, far beyond the evidence and flawed in terms of content. The decisive word that could refer to a possible resurrection is very difficult to decipher. He thinks it is more likely that it is a reference to the word “sign”. Ben Witherington III, Professor of New Testament Biblical Exegesis at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, believes that the word “ Live! "As good as" look up! »Could be interpreted.

Background to the interpretation of Knohl

In 2001 Knohl published the book The Forgotten Messiah . Knohl writes there that there were already myths in the generations before Jesus of Nazareth about a Messiah who had to shed his blood in order to rise again after three days. Knohl sees the first tangible proof of his thesis in line 80 of the stone tablet.

In his book Knohl refers on the one hand to " Messiah Son of David " (Jesus Christ) and on the other hand to " Messiah Son of Joseph " based on various passages in the Talmud . Knohl identifies this son of Joseph as the historical figure of Simon of Perea . In the year 4 BC After the death of Herod the Great (* around 73 BC; † 4 BC), Simon proclaimed himself King and Messiah. The Roman occupiers bloodily suppressed the uprising and killed Simon. But Simon's followers claimed that he was resurrected after three days.

In the Gabriel Revelation the proclamations refer to a certain Ephraim (Efraim), in the Old Testament the name of the son of the patriarch Joseph, Jacob's favorite son . In the Gabriel text, Knohl found further allusions to a Messiah Josefsohn , who was killed and brought to life. According to Knohl, this reading gives the sentence in question a new meaning: « In three days I, Gabriel, I command you, the Prince of Princes. »The title« Prince of Princes »is known from the Book of Daniel (8, 24-25), where it denotes the ruler of the« People of the Saints »who is killed by« the ruler with cheeky faces and wicked schemes ». Knohl sees this title as an allusion to the historical rival king Simon and the Roman emperor Augustus : an interpretation that would be reinforced by the mention of a rocky canyon of death . The Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus is supposed to report how Simon, who was 4 BC. Chr. Appointed King of Judea, was beheaded in a rock chimney by the Roman commander Gratus. Other passages in the stone tablet refer to the “ blood of the killed ”, in particular “ Tell him about the blood. It is their sky car. »

Knohl sees his thesis as the answer to previously open questions about the emergence of Christianity from Judaism : « Jesus loses something of his uniqueness, but instead gains in historical presence and probably also in Jewish national identity. »

Further media reception

The New York Times speaks of a possible revolution of the previous view: If the tablet does not turn out to be a forgery, it would be an indication that the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ after three days was by no means unique , but was already part of Jewish tradition.

Whereabouts of the stone tablet

In mid-July 2008 the stone tablet was in the possession of David Jeselsohn, who wanted to hand it over to the Israel Museum in the same year .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Israel Knohl: By Three Days, Live: Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel . In: Journal of Religion 88 (2008), pp. 147–158
  2. ↑ A new Dead Sea Scroll in Stone? ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bib-arch.org archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Biblical Archeology Review 34, No. 1, Jan./Febr. 2008
  3. ↑ a b c d David van Beima, Tim McGirk: Was Jesus' Resurrection a Sequel? , Time magazine (July 7, 2008)
  4. ↑ a b Ethan Bronner: ignites debate on messiah and resurrection , International Herald Tribune (July 5, 2008)
  5. ↑ a b c Jesus wasn't the first , 20 minutes (July 18, 2008)
  6. ↑ a b Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection , New York Times (July 6, 2008)
  7. ^ Website Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Profile of Israel Knohl (English)
  8. ↑ a b Ulrich W. Sahm: The Messiah came before Jesus , HaGalil website, focus on Israel and the Middle East (July 10, 2008)
  9. ↑ Norbert Jessen: Jesus is only supposed to have risen as No. 2 , Die Welt (July 8, 2008)
  10. ↑ Israel Knohl: In three days, you shall live , Haaretz Iyyar 1, 5767 (April 19, 2007)
  11. ↑ http://victorsasson.blogspot.com/2009/09/vision-of-gabriel-and-messiah-in.html V. Sassen (2009) The Vision of Gabriel and Messiah in Mainstream Judaism and in Christianity: Textual, Philological , and Theological Comments. Retrieved January 23, 2011
  12. ^ Original edition: The Messiah Before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls . S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000. ISBN 0-520-23400-6
  13. ↑ Resurrection of Christ - The Borrowed Idea ( Memento of July 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , Kurier (July 9, 2008)
  14. ↑ Jesus is not said to have been resurrected first , 20 minutes (July 17, 2008)

literature

  • Israel Knohl: The forgotten Messiah. The man who was Jesus' example. Ullstein, Munich 2001. ISBN 3-550-07173-6

Movie

  • Friedrich Klütsch : The Archangel's Order. On the trail of the "Gabriel Revelation". ZDF, April 12, 2009

Web links