Jim, who is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Central Arkansas has a theory. Yesterday, April 19, he updated an April 6 blog entry in his blog Deorientation and caught my attention:
I’ve been surprised by the number of people who have expressed doubt about the source of the image on the lead plate discussed here. The evidence so obviously points to one particular photo of the Mona Lisa of the Galilee* as being the source, I saw no need to do more than merely point the way for others to see for themselves.
The importance of discovering a particular photo as the source of the image on the plate gives us the obvious ability to say with certainty that the plate was made within the last couple of decades and also provides indisputable evidence that it is a forgery. This is not speculation, based on resemblances with depictions of various solar deities in styles incongruous with those in vogue during Jesus’ lifetime. This is empirical fact.
* The Mona Lisa of the Galilee is a mosaic in the floor of a banquet hall of a Roman villa in Zippori of the Galilee. It may a portrait of Venus. This villa as built in the 3rd century and was destroyed during an earthquake in A.D. 363.
I encourage you to read his entire updated posting along with the comments and similar postings on his site:
