Replies

As you know, the Ossuary was damaged pretty badly during the recent flight to Canada...

Here's an intriguing thought.

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 fracture caused by this week's airplane ride almost AUTHENTICATE that the inscription was NOT faked or added recently?

Or how bout this: the owner knew the jig was up and either broke the stone before it left for Canada or made some serious dents in it hoping that it would break en route? That seems more likely.

As you know, the Ossuary was damaged pretty badly during the recent flight to Canada...

Believe it or not, this is the first full article I have read about this, so I'm probably way behind the curve. I heard the basic story about this ossuary, but hadn't paid much attention to it yet.

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 fracture caused by this week's airplane ride almost AUTHENTICATE that the inscription was NOT faked or added recently?

I wouldn't even guess about something like that. I don't know about the dimensions of the ossuary, or where the inscription is on that ossuary, in relation to the places it would be stressed on an airplane flight. I don't know where the cracks are in relation to the inscription. I don't know if the cracks were caused by the removal of the frame, which would seem to be the most stressful thing about the inscription. I think they could study the cracks and basically tell if the removal of the frame itself caused the stress fractures. Also, this article does not claim or require that the later addition was done recently. It could be quite old.

What is your opinion on why the frame was removed?