Posted on 07/22/2005 2:22:30 PM PDT by nickcarraway
JERUSALEM, July 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Israeli police have put under house arrest, Oded Golan, the owner of the so-called "James Ossuary", the fake ossuary that attempted to promote the idea that Jesus Christ had brothers casting doubt on the virgin birth of Christ.. The trial has begun. The next session, will be held in Jerusalem, September 4, 2005.
A 27-page indictment in a Jerusalem court was based on a two-year investigation involving the Jerusalem police and the Israel Antiquities Authority. Golan was among the five charged with 17 counts of antiquities forgery and fraud in January 2005.
If they are found guilty they face the possibility of seven years in jail on each count. 100 witnesses are listed in the indictment. Hundreds of other artifacts are named in the indictment; some were in private collections and others exhibited in museums around the world.
Israeli antiquity experts were headlined in The Toronto Star of June 19, 2003 about the "James Ossuary": `It is better to stop this... than to let it travel through the great museums of the world". It took great intestinal fortitude for the Israel experts to admit that they were hoodwinked.
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, was the only museum to be caught up in this forgery and fraud when they displayed the "James Ossuary" in 2002. 95,000 visitors to the ROM were misled into believing that the ossuary was genuine and provided evidence against Judeo-Christian historical accounts. To date, the ROM made no attempt to apologize for the massive error in judgement.
Meg Beckel, Board Secretary of the ROM, said in a letter dated February 24, 2005: "We are all waiting to see definitive evidence regarding the authenticity on the inscription on the James Ossuary. The ROM curators have yet to see any evidence that would change their view."
Beckel insists that curators still have the same point of view and that they have not received information about the `James Ossuary' from what they consider reliable sources. It does not appear that ROM has plans to have their curators go to Jerusalem in September when the court case resumes to "see any evidence that would change their view".
The five suspects, including Golan, alleged that the ossuary was linked to a brother of Jesus. The inscription reads: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus". They were suspected of running a sophisticated forgery ring that operated in various configurations for more than 20 years, according to Shuka Dorfman, the Director-General of the Israel Antiquities Authority
"We have discovered only the tip of the ice berg," said Dorfman, "This spans the globe and has generated millions of dollars. Normally the Authority does not get involved in forgery investigations, but when officials realized these forgeries were an "attempt to change the history of Jewish and Christian people by making forgeries that had significance in the Jewish and Christian world," the Authority felt it had no choices but to investigate.
"We draw the line at the changing of history." Dorfman said.
Golan, an antiquities dealer, denied all charges and said that the charges were an attempt by the Authority to "destroy the local antiquities trade". However, detailed findings by materials and historical experts demonstrate definitively that, while the ossuary is authentic, the inscription was a forgery.
See the report of the Final Report of the Israeli Antiquities Authority Investigation: http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp...
Why should that cast doubt on the Virgin Birth? Protestants have long believed in the Virgin Birth, but believe Christ had brothers and sisters that were conceived by more conventional means after His birth. I think he meant it cast coubt on Mary's perpetual virginity.
For "coubt", substitute "doubt".
"fake ossuary that attempted to promote the idea that Jesus Christ had brothers casting doubt on the virgin birth of Christ."
Sounds like this crook was more interesting stealing money more than making a religious statement.
That said, presuming that James was the younger (half)brother, there would be no doubt "cast" on the issue of the virgin birth.
I think you are correct. Affects Roman Catholic interpretations but not Protestant.
Contemporary Protestants perhaps but not Calvin, Zwingli or Luther, et al. They all believed in and taught of the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
If memory serves, Jesus also had 2 younger sisters- Miriam and Martha- in addition to his younger brother James, who, as I recall was the Bishop of the Jerusalem Church in the years following the Crucifixion.
AFAIK, Roman Catholic interpretations have never insisted that Mary was perpetually virgin. Never the less, the other offspring of Mary would be half-siblings at best in the eyes of the Catholic church.
Incorrect as regards to Catholics. Catholics do not believe Mary remained a virgin all her life. Correct that Catholics, unlike Protestants, don't believe Jesus had younger siblings. The author of the article doesn't really understand Christian dogma, regardless of denomination.
Of course Jesus had (younger) brothers -- it's in the Gospels. This has nothing to do with the virgin birth. It only erodes the Catholic myth that Mary was too "holy" to have had normal sexual relations and other children after Jesus' birth.
I'm a Lutheran and we do not believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary. I don't think Luther believed that either.
See 9 above.
"Why should that cast doubt on the Virgin Birth? Protestants have long believed in the Virgin Birth, but believe Christ had brothers and sisters that were conceived by more conventional means after His birth. I think he meant it cast coubt on Mary's perpetual virginity."
That was my understanding too.
This is far from an open and shut case. The declaration of the ossuary as a forgery was based more on conjecture than on hard facts. Read the background to this case in the back issues of the Biblical Archeological Review (http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/indexBAR.html). There is still a lot to be said about this case and the ossuary may still, in the end, prove to be authentic. There are already a number of very prominent scholars of antiquity who believe the ossuary is authentic.
So if Mary had sex with her husband, after the birth of Jesus, was that "unholy"?
It's in there.
That's because the editor of the Biblical Arch. Review is also complicit. He turns out to be a total huckster.
Incorrect. The belief in the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a tenet of Catholicism and was also shared by Calvin, Luther and Zwingli.
The belief that the Blessed Virgin Mary was not a perpetual virgin is a relatively novel one amongst protestants.
Both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches hold the belief in the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother.
Luther wrote on the Virginity of Mary:
It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a virgin. ... Christ, we believe, came forth from a womb left perfectly intact. (Weimer's The Works of Luther, English translation by Pelikan, Concordia, St. Louis, v. 11, pp. 319-320; v. 6. p. 510.)
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