In October 2002, an Israeli named Oded Golan produced a limestone box, called an ossuary, that he says he purchased in the mid-1970s from an antiquities dealer in the Old City of Jerusalem for about $200. What makes this box special is that Golan insisted it held the bones of Jesus' brother, James. An ossuary was used in ancient times as a burial box. This box bears the inscription, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Initially thought to be the oldest archeological link to a New Testament figure, the inscription was ruled a forgery by Israel's Antiquities Authority in June. But hold on! Now experts with both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature say the ruling that the box is a fake is premature. While stopping short of saying it's the real deal and the bones are that of James, the Americans are urging Israeli authorities to examine the box more closely before passing final judgment.
Why the dispute? "I don't know for sure whether this is a forged inscription, and I'm sort of cast as a defender of the inscription. I'm not," Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archeology Review, which published the initial findings about the box, told AP. "What I do know is Israeli authorities have badly managed the affair." Although the limestone box itself is authentic and dates from ancient times, the Antiquities Authority determined that the inscription on it was a modern-day forgery. "The box is original; probably we have in our storeroom hundreds of the same or similar ossuaries. The inscription is false," Shuka Dorfman, head of the Antiquities Authority, told AP in June 2003. The Israelis note that the hard, brown patina that covers the rest of the ossuary was not found on the inscription. Instead, it had a soft, grayish chalk-and-water paste that looked as if it were applied to imitate weathering, an indication it was forged.
Or was it? James Harrell, a geologist at the University of Toledo and member of the Association for the Study of Marble and Other Stones in Antiquity, explained to AP that his analysis of the inscription suggests the missing patina could simply be the result of overcleaning and not forgery. In addition, the American Bible experts say that while the oxygen isotope analysis found some of the inscription to have been made in modern times, the last part of it--specifically, the name "Jesus"--is consistent with the ancient patina, notes AP. James, who is referred to as the brother of Jesus in Matthew 13:55, became the head of the church in Jerusalem. Charged with being a Jewish heretic, he was stoned to death in the year 62.
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