LABORATORY TESTING OF ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS: Christopher A.
Rollston Visiting Professor of Northwest Semitic Languages and
Literatures George Washington University One of the most
auspicious developments in “forgery detection” during recent
years has been the development and usage of laboratory methods
to attempt to determine deauthenticity. Most welcome, therefore,
is the recent report (e.g., the article by Stephanie Pappas on
the Huffington Post) which discusses the laboratory tests on the
Gospel of Judas. It seems to me that this is very useful and I
think that these results bode well for that particular document
(especially because National Geographic’s “Standards and
Practices” people are among the very best, and they clearly
maintained strict protocols with regard to the laboratory
analyses of the Gospel of Judas). Moreover, it has also been
reported that the “Jesus Wife Papyrus” has been sent off for
laboratory tests. I applaud this as well (I should hasten to
add, as discussed below, that it would be p