Discovered: a picture of the Crucifixion from the time of Jesus?

Seventy ring-bound books from the Holy Land, with leaves made of lead, little more than the size of credit-cards, have been called “the major discovery of Christian history”.

They are said to have been found in a cave in Jordan. “They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Ziad al-Saad, the director of Jordan’s Department of Antiquities, told the BBC.

They have not been dated, but a piece of leather said to have been found with them is apparently 2,000 years old. One leaf shows an image of a cross outside a city wall. No written words have been deciphered.

It’s all very rum, for an Israeli archeological source has dismissed them as known forgeries.

Even if they are genuine, it is hard to see what they tell us, unless the contents of the four Gospels and St Paul’s letters are accepted, which is something many scholars are peculiarly reluctant to do. It’s as if biblical history has fallen into the clutches of conspiracy theorists who believe anything, apart from the evidence.