Gabriel's Stone and a Suffering Messiah

Ben Witherington and others have drawn our attention to a stone that is raising some discussion in archaeology. Here's the NY Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

Here is a drawing of the inscription.

The stone has been known for some time but is just now hitting the presses because it is now attached to the idea that the stone, which apparently dates to the 1st century BC, might say something about a dying and rising messiah--and after three days none the less.

I'll remain unconvinced until I study it more carefully. Not that I think it disproves Christ's resurrection or anything. Showing that the idea of resurrection had historical precedence disproves nothing.

But we've seen this before. The text has a lot of missing lines and, surprise, the key ones once again turn out to be the reconstructed ones. Usually, the great discovery turns out to be in the mind of the reconstructor.

But whether it turns out to be legit or not, it's not a problem for faith.