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Posted on Sun, Nov. 13, 2005 Research on ancient writing linked with modern Mideast conflict BY RON GROSSMAN CHICAGO - Professorial colleagues think Ron Tappy has made a landmark breakthrough in our understanding of the world of the Bible. He himself is waiting for the other shoe to drop. This week, Tappy will formally unveil his discovery at the meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Normally a presentation titled "The 2005 Excavation Season at Tel Zayit, with Special Attention to the Tenth Century BCE" would hardly be noticed beyond the scholars who will gather at the Hyatt Penn's...

Museum abandons Christian year system ROM's display for James ossuary uses CE instead of AD Joseph Brean National Post Wednesday, December 04, 2002 After a long internal debate, the Royal Ontario Museum has switched from marking calendar years on its exhibits with AD and BC to the more "modern and palatable" system of BCE and CE. The new terms, already in scholarly use but often unfamiliar to the public, refer to the time after the birth of Jesus as the "common era," rather than with the religiously toned "anno Domini," which means "year of the Lord." Instead of "before Christ,"...

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS B.C. not P.C. for students Educators' move to change 'Before Christ' to 'Before Common Era' sparking outrage In what's perceived as a case of political correctness trumping history and everyday usage, students in Australia are now seeing the calendar term B.C. – which stands for "Before Christ" – being replaced with BCE, meaning "Before Common Era." "This is political correctness gone mad," Shadow Education Minister Jillian Skinner told the Sydney Daily Telegraph. "You ask the average mum and dad out there how they refer to time and calendars, they will use Before Christ [B.C.]." The change by...

From the news... A limestone burial box, almost 2,000 years old, may provide the oldest archeological record of Jesus of Nazareth. Of interest in the news today, the announcement of an archaeological find of potentially great significance: an ossuary (stone box) bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus". The practice of transferring bones from expensive tombs into ossuaries existed from around 20 B.C. to 70 A.D., and the inscription on the newly recovered ossuary was in a form of written Aramaic used only between about 10 A.D. and 70 A.D. Other scientific tests affirm the antiquity of...

BREAKING: Archaeologists Report 1st Direct Evidence of Jesus

Researchers may have uncovered the first archaeological evidence that refers to Jesus as an actual person and identifies James, the first leader of the Christian church, as his brother. The 2,000-year-old ossuary—a box that held bones—bears the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Until now, all references to the three men have been found only in manuscripts. The ossuary is not quite rectangular, like most burial boxes found so far, but trapezoid in shape. It is about 20 inches long, 10 inches wide, and 12 inches high. The image on top shows the inscription "James, son of Joseph,...

Israel begins investigation into authenticity of Jesus inscription The Associated Press Mar. 5, 2003 The Israeli Antiquities Authority began studying an ancient stone box on Wednesday in an attempt to determine if it was used to bury Jesus' brother James. If authenticated, it could be the oldest archaeological link to the biblical figures. The box arrived in Israel Wednesday from Toronto, Canada, where it had been on display at the Royal Ontario Museum after Israel's Antiquities Authority granted a temporary export permit to the Israeli owner of the box, Oded Golan. The Antiquities Authority set up two commissions of...

As an expert on scripts and an historian of writing systems, I was asked to examine this inscription and make a report. I did. The bone-box is original; the first inscription, which is in Aramaic, "Jacob son of Joseph," is authentic. The second half of the inscription, "brother of Jesus," is a poorly executed fake and a later addition. This report has already been distributed on at least two scholarly lists. Please note that the fraud is so blatant that I did not bother to go into extreme detail on whether the faked addition is supposed to be Hebrew or...

The Jesus Dynasty Excerpt: 'The Jesus Dynasty' by James D. Tabor New Book Challenges Christian Philosophy April 7, 2006 -- James Tabor is the chairman of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His book challenges many of the beliefs that Christians hold dear, maintaining that Jesus is neither the son of God nor the son of Joseph but most likely the child of a Roman soldier named Pantera. Jesus, Tabor maintains, became the head of the household when Joseph died and looked after his six half-brothers and sisters. When Jesus died, his brother James took over...

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...

An ossuary supposedly linked to Jesus was a windfall for a Canadian museum. Now Israel has declared it a fake and jailed its promoter, and the museum has some explaining to do.The man accused of standing at the centre of the greatest forgery ring of our time, perhaps all time, doesn't appear to be holding up so well. In books and movies, criminal masterminds -- the label Israeli police are freely applying to Oded Golan -- are effortlessly suave, or carelessly brutal, confident in the extreme. In real life, this 54-year-old antiquities collector seems as brittle as the Bible-era vases...

JERUSALEM, Dec. 29 - The Israeli police filed criminal indictments on Wednesday against four antiquities collectors, accusing them of forging biblical artifacts, many so skillfully that they fooled experts. Some were even celebrated briefly as being among the most significant Christian and Jewish relics ever unearthed. The police and the Israel Antiquities Authority said their investigation had focused on several major forgeries, including a limestone burial box, or ossuary, bearing an inscription that suggested that it held the remains of Jesus' brother James. The Antiquities Authority declared the ossuary a forgery last year. The authorities also described as counterfeit a...

AN ISRAELI collector of antiquities who stunned the world with a find that he said was the burial container of Jesus’ “brother”, James, is to be charged with forgery. Justice Ministry officials said last night that Oded Golan would be indicted next week on a range of charges that would include forgery over an inscription on the stone container that carried the script in Aramaic reading: “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”. Six others are also to be charged. The discovery of the ossuary in October 2002 was hailed as one of the great archaeological discoveries of the age...

AN ISRAELI collector of antiquities who stunned the world with a find that he said was the burial container of Jesus’ “brother”, James, is to be charged with forgery. Justice Ministry officials said last night that Oded Golan would be indicted next week on a range of charges that would include forgery over an inscription on the stone container that carried the script in Aramaic reading: “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”. Six others are also to be charged. The discovery of the ossuary in October 2002 was hailed as one of the great archaeological discoveries of the age...

Update—Finds or Fakes?Lying ScholarsRumor, gossip and misinformation swirl around the James ossuary inscriptionHershel ShanksIsraeli Scholars Charge IAA Committee with BiasFitzmyer Calls for Ossuary Re-StudyIntense scholarly disagreements are common in archaeology. Cases of deliberate lying, however, are rare. Is this such a case? If so, what is the motive?When I returned from the Annual Meetings* in Atlanta last November, I penned my customary report for publication in the March/April issue.** (I have been doing this in the March/April issue for 22 years.)For this year’s report, I described a conversation with two scholars who told me that they had seen the...

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Last update - 09:47 21/12/2003 Geologist rebuts claim of forged Jesus inscription on ossuary By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent and AP The disputed ossuary. (Israel Antiquities Authority) The heated controversy over the authenticity of the inscription naming Jesus on an ancient burial box discovered a year ago has flared up again, after claims by an American geologist that the Israeli findings, dismissing the inscription on a small 2,000-year-old limestone ossuary as a forgery, were flawed. James Harrell published his opinion Friday...

Scholars say Jesus box may be genuine Tuesday, November 25, 2003 Posted: 10:26 AM EST (1526 Scientists say that this box dates from A.D. 63. ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A purported first-century inscription naming Jesus may or may not be the real thing, but Israel's labeling of the find as a fake is premature, scientists and scholars said at a panel discussion. At issue is a limestone burial box, or ossuary, with the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," that emerged on Israel's antiquities market last year. If authentic, the ossuary would offer a rare physical link to...

<p>A purported first-century inscription naming Jesus may or may not be the real thing, but Israel's labeling of the find as a fake is premature, scientists and scholars said at a panel discussion.</p> <p>At issue is a limestone burial box, or ossuary, with the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," that emerged on Israel's antiquities market last year.</p>

"Jesus ossuary" owner Oded Golan, recently released on bail after an elaborate antiquities forgery lab was found in his home, was the guest attraction the Israeli premiere of the documentary, James, Brother of Jesus, which traces the story of the ossuary and its disputed inscription, at the Jerusalem Cinematheque on Sunday. A German journalist in the audience asked collector Golan how he failed to notice the intriguing inscription for so many years until he showed it in the fall of 2002 to Andre Lemaire of the Sorbonne, a world expert on Aramaic inscriptions, who first linked inscription to Jesus of...

<p>Police have arrested an Israeli antiquities dealer suspected of creating two forgeries that shook the religious and archaeological world, including a burial box purported to be that of Jesus's brother James.</p> <p>Oded Golan also is suspected in connection with a shoebox-sized tablet inscribed with forged instructions for caring for the Jewish Temple.</p>