Dead Sea Stone

News from the land of the bible:

A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew found near the Dead Sea in Jordan that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is raising eyebrows in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it is believed to speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days, suggesting that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

The tablet, which is similar in style to the Dead Sea Scrolls, is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that much of what it says is open to debate.

From what I've read there were a lot of so-called messiahs running around the Middle East 2000 years ago, so it's no surprise that the mythology surrounding Jesus incorporated a recognized tradition from Jewish folklore. From what I can tell though this isn't exactly earth shattering news; we know no more now about the actual Jesus than we did before this discovery and I don't expect that to change any time soon.