Posted on 06/17/2003 2:24:13 PM PDT by Alouette
Israel's Antiquities Authority is to rule Wednesday on the authenticity of an ancient burial box with the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," touted by some scholars as the oldest archaeological link to New Testament figures but dismissed by others as a fake.
Investigators have not disclosed the findings, but one expert from the committee, Uzi Dahari, suggested that many questions arose during the probe.
Oded Golan, the Israeli owner of the "James ossuary," insists the item is authentic, but Dahari told The Associated Press that Golan "spoke to us and didn't convince anyone."
Golan said he had problems with the committee, which he said had "preconceived notions."
Last week the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that the committee would declare the inscription on the box, as well as the "Yoash inscription," another item tied to Golan, to be forgeries. The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem police launched separate investigations into the two items after Golan offered one for sale.
When first disclosed two years ago, the Yoash inscription, a shoebox-sized tablet , inscribed with fifteen lines of ancient Hebrew with instructions for maintaining the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, caused a stir in the archaeological world, with some experts dating the stone to the 9th century BC and calling it a rare confirmation of biblical narrative.
The existence of the ossuary was revealed last November at a news conference in Washington by the Biblical Archaeology Review. At the time, the editor of the magazine, Hershel Shanks, said the owner insisted on not being identified.
The inscription on the limestone box reads "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," leading some scholars to believe it contained the remains of James, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth. Other experts have said the item might be a forgery, or that it might have been the burial box of a different James, unrelated to Jesus.
Golan insists that the box is authentic. "With regard to the ossuary, I am 100 percent certain," he said.
Golan said he bought the James ossuary in the mid-1970s from an antiquities dealer in the Old City of Jerusalem for about US$200, but he said he could remember the dealer's name.
However, antiquities inspectors, who have questioned several Old City dealers, were also checking suspicions Golan bought the ossuary only a few months ago. In such a case, those involved in the sale could be prosecuted for dealing in stolen goods.
The police investigation into how the box was acquired will continue regardless of the committee's findings.
Robert Eisenman, who wrote a book on Jesus' brother, studied the box and said the writing on the box, written in two different hands, along with the artifact's sudden appearance, made its authenticity questionable.
"I always considered the timing of the James ossuary very odd and worrisome. There was a spate of books on James and his importance in 1997 and 1998, then the box appeared," he said.
Unwilling to release the committee's findings, Dahari said that all the experts on the team came to the same conclusion.
"The facts will speak for themselves, and I think that the people there will be impressed with the findings," he said.
Shanks maintained that the specialists he relied on to authenticate the ossuary continue to believe it is authentic.
"The scholars I've been hearing from are likely to question the conclusion that it's a fake," said Shanks, adding that the next issue of his magazine, to be released this Friday, will have an article on the subject.
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