Posted on 11/01/2002 7:54:47 PM PST by ex-Texan
Ancient burial box that may be oldest link to Jesus seriously damaged on the way to Canada
By MERITA D. ILO, Associated Press Writer
TORONTO - A limestone burial box that may be the oldest archaeological link to Jesus was badly damaged in transit from Israel to Canada, Royal Ontario Museum officials said Friday.
Dan Rahimi, the museum's director of collections management, said in a telephone interview the box — called an ossuary — had wide cracks but remained whole.
"The box was badly damaged, but still intact. It has not broken," Rahimi said. "It's very serious damage, but not unusual for a limestone box of this age."
He said impact or vibration during the trip from Israel probably widened old cracks and caused new ones. Some of the cracks were a millimeter (0.039 inches) wide, enough to "slip a dime in," Rahimi said.
The limestone box, which is scheduled to go on display Nov. 16, is inscribed in Aramaic with the words "Ya'akov (James), son of Yosef (Joseph), brother of Yeshua (Jesus)."
If, as some scholars maintain, the box and the inscription are authentic, it would be the first physical artifact from the first century related to Jesus.
Israel granted a four-month export license for the ancient burial box, which belongs to a private Israeli collector.
Museum officials said the owner was responsible for the object's transportation to Canada and insurance. Rahimi said the company that handled the packing and shipping was reputable, adding that antiquities such as limestone boxes always presented a risk during transport.
The museum offered two proposals for treating the damage, and the owner had yet to respond, according to Rahimi.
"Both proposals involve injecting adhesive into the cracks with pigment that will fill in parts of the cracks and consolidate the piece," he said.
The box's inscription would fit a New Testament account that Jesus had a brother, James, and the tradition that James was the son of Joseph, husband of Jesus' mother, Mary.
However, the names James, Joseph and Jesus were common in the first century, and it is possible the inscription refers to someone other than Jesus of Nazareth.
The existence of the ossuary was announced last month in the United States by the Biblical Archaeology Review.
The magazine said two scientists from Israel's Geological Survey also examined the ossuary and determined it was from the first century and the inscription had not been tampered with.
Edward Keall, the Royal Ontario Museum's director of Near Eastern and Asian civilizations, called the box "a tangible artifact from a period rather pivotal in the history of our civilizations."
He said that although it almost certainly dates from the time of Jesus, it may never be definitively established whether the ossuary once contained the bones of James, Bishop of Jerusalem and believed by some to be the brother of Jesus.
"It's something very contentious," said Keall. "As I like to say, it won't stand up in a court of law. So in the end, it's a spiritual thing, an act of faith."
There are several other threads which claim that the second half of the inscription "Brother of Jesus" is a hoax or forgery...
My thought is, since the limestone is 2000 years old and very very fragile...It's very serious damage, but not unusual for a limestone box of this age." ... and since the stress fractures were inherent in the piece of limestone, (just made manifest by vibration to the fragile limestone during the flight) isn't it reasonable to assume that if the 2nd half of the inscription was FORGED RECENTLY, the stress from grasping the fragile box and laboriously scratching the words "brother of Jesus" into it, would have caused the box to fracture THEN?
In a way, doesn't the stress factor caused by this week's airplane ride almost AUTHENTICATE that the inscription wsa NOT faked or added recently?
It only occured after the plane flight to Canada THIS WEEK.
Since the limestone was very very fragile, wouldn't the fracture have occured if someone laboriously scratched the "Brother of Jesus" part into the limestone RECENTLY?
Jude 1:1
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved
Compare the following:
Mark 6:3
Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
Does anyone seriously contend that Jesus was the brother of Joseph, Judas and Simon? It's time to get real,
I'm sure they did. The box is worth $2 million. It's just that the box is 2000 years old, and is very, very, very, fragile.
TOO FRAGILE for someone to RECENTLY hack the words "Brother of Jesus" into it without the whole thing crumbling!
Says who? Seems to me it could be a sight more valuable than that.
-ccm
It seemed a bit low to me too.
Something tells me this scholar was already not too happy about the 'brother of Jesus' part.
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