Christian or...Jewish?

Don't forget to read the P.S.
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From a BBC report: (to be followed by my comments/observations):-

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007. A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity...The director of the Jordan's Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, says the books might have been made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his crucifixion.  "They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than, the Dead Sea Scrolls," says Mr Saad.

...The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before being bound by lead rings.  Their leaves - which are mostly about the size of a credit card - contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.

If the relics are of early Christian origin rather than Jewish, then they are of huge significance.

...David Elkington, a scholar of ancient religious archaeology...believes the most telling evidence for an early Christian origin lies in the images decorating the covers of the books and some of the pages of those which have so far been opened...."In the upper square [of one of the book covers] we have the seven-branch menorah, which Jews were utterly forbidden to represent because it resided in the holiest place in the Temple in the presence of God.

"So we have the coming of the messiah to approach the holy of holies, in other words to get legitimacy from God."

...[says Philip Daviesthere are] plates cast into a picture map of the holy city of Jerusalem...so obviously a Christian image..."There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city. There are walls depicted on other pages of these books too and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem."..."[say Margaret Barker that another] one of the things that is most likely pointing towards a Christian provenance, is that these are not scrolls but books. The Christians were particularly associated with writing in a book form rather than scroll form, and sealed books in particular as part of the secret tradition of early Christianity."

...Another potential link with the Bible is contained in one of the few fragments of text from the collection to have been translated. It appears with the image of the menorah and reads "I shall walk uprightly", a sentence that also appears in the Book of Revelation.  While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism, it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection...

Well, seems there a lot more Jewish elements than Christian. Like the Menorah which surely was niot "utterly forbidden to represent". Like the langauge, Hebrew, rather than Aramaic.
As for that 'upright walk', it appears in another form but using the same Hebrew root זקף in Psalms 146:8:

The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind; the LORD raiseth up them that are bowed down; the LORD loveth the righteous;

As for the cross, well, I guess we'll keep our fingers crossed and wait for an analysis, if the books becmae available for study.


P.S.

A forgery.

^