Over the July 4th weekend, the media was abuzz with a story about a stone—specifically, a “three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew” that dated to the decades just prior to Jesus’ birth.

According to the New York Times front-page story, the discovery is “causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles . . .” Why? Because, the Times says, “it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.”