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A judge is set to throw out charges against experts accused of faking a stone box that claimed to offer the first physical proof of the existence of Christ - raising the possibility once again that it could be genuine. The discovery of the 2,000-year-old ossuary, or bone box, bearing the words, 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus', was regarded as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries when it emerged nearly a decade ago. Fake or genuine: Men accused of forging an inscription of the 'Jesus Box' could be released The disputed inscription on the 'Jesus Box' But other...

A scholar looking into the factual basis of a popular but widely criticized documentary that claims to have located the tomb of Jesus said Tuesday that a crucial piece of evidence filmmakers used to support their claim is a mistake. Stephen Pfann, a textual scholar and paleographer at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, said he has released a paper claiming the makers of "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" were mistaken when they identified an ancient ossuary from the cave as belonging to the New Testament's Mary Magdalene. The film's director, Simcha Jacobovici, responded that other researchers agreed...

John Robson The Ottawa Citizen Friday, March 02, 2007 Well, it's Lent, when Jesus-debunking news stories rise from the dead. This time it's a tomb with the whole family gathered, including his wife and kid. Unless it's just the dusty bones of decency and good sense in those boxes. In a way it's a backhanded tribute that, to the modern mind, Christianity is like a train wreck: gruesome, but they can't look away. Newspapers don't greet major Buddhist festivals with claims that Siddhartha Gautama was a cokehead, or open Ramadan by saying Mohammed was -- (do NOT fill in this...

Talpiot tomb Remember the tale of the Titanic? How it was supposed to be impregnable, and nothing could poke holes in it? How it would never be sunk? Well all I can say is that human hubris knows no bounds, and that hasn’t changed in the last century. On April 15th 1912 the supposedly leak proof Titanic rammed into an iceberg and sank—sank like a giant stone. Sank quickly, with great loss of life. Why do I bring this up? Because in one of the interesting ironies in recent memory, James Cameron the movie director who made the enormously successful...

The ossuary was discovered in 1941 by archaeologists Eliezer L. Sukenik and Nahman Avigad of Jerusalem's Hebrew University and came to light through a systematic survey of tombs in the Kidron Valley, south of Jerusalem's Old City and the Arab village of Silwan. This ossuary and ten others were found as an intact assemblage in a tomb chamber that had survived the centuries untouched by tomb robbers, with its blocking stone still in place. In short, there is absolutely no question about this object's provenance and authenticity... The burial cave was a single, rock-hewn chamber without niches of any sort,...

Update—Finds or Fakes? Forgery Bombshell May 16, 2006 The ossuary inscribed "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" has recently been studied by Professor Wolfgang E. Krumbein, a world-renowned authority. He has reached startling conclusions that will change the debate over this highly controversial artifact. Printed below is a summary of Professor Krumbein's report; click the following links for the full text of the report and the accompanying photographs. As this is being written, Israeli antiquities collector Oded Golan is being tried in criminal court for forging the now-famous James ossuary inscription ("James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus"). A...

<p>JERUSALEM, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Israeli police in riot gear stormed the square outside Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, to disperse stone throwers.</p> <p>The operation followed Palestinians stoning Jewish worshippers at Judaism's Western Wall, which is below the mosque, Ha'aretz reported.</p>

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Not a shard of truth Sensational claims have been made about bonesfound in Qumran, but no, this is not John the Baptist,say the heads of the dig. In August 2002, Time Magazine carried a headline that aroused curiosity: "Digging for the Baptist." The reference was to an archaeological dig being carried out for the past two years or so in Qumran, near the shore of the Dead Sea. The dig is headed by Prof. Hanan Eshel, head of the...

May 16, 2004. 08:48 AM No historical evidence of Jesus TOM HARPUR Ever since the publication of The Pagan Christ, literalist clergy and others have been hammering away at the theme of the alleged historicity of the Gospels. Yet, Bible scholars today know that the Gospels never were historical biographies even though they may appear to be such. Listen to the genius Dr. Albert Schweitzer, in his landmark book The Quest Of The Historical Jesus: "The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of God, who founded the Kingdom of...

Monday January 13, 2003 7:10 PM JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli geologists said Monday they have examined a stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon that, if authenticated, would be a rare piece of physical evidence confirming biblical narrative. The find - whose origin is murky - is about the size of a legal pad, with a 15-line inscription in ancient Hebrew that strongly resembles descriptions in the Bible's Book of Kings. It could also strengthen Jewish claims to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem's Old City that is now home to two major mosques. Muslim...

The ruins of the synagogue at Umm al-Umdan. (Alex Levac) The Hasmoneans were here - maybe By Ran Shapira In late 1995, not far from the city of Modi'in, whose construction had begun a short time earlier, several excavated burial caves were found. The find aroused tremendous excitement initially, mainly because on one of the ossuaries an engraved inscription was interpreted to read "Hasmonean." Had they found a burial plot belonging to the family of the Hasmoneans? When the discovery was announced, the archaeologist digging there, Shimon Riklin, explained that this was not the grave built by Simon the son...

Researcher Develops Methods to Test Artifacts' Links to the Bible Newswise — A Purdue University professor has invented a system to judge whether ancient inscriptions refer to people in the Bible. Lawrence Mykytiuk (MICK-ee-took) uses the system to test whether archaeological inscriptions refer to ancient Hebrew kings such as David, Omri, Jeroboam II, Uzziah and other Old Testament personages such as Mesha and the high priest Hilkiah. The system and results are detailed in his new book, "Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E." (Society of Biblical Literature, $42.95). Mykytiuk's work steps outside the conflict between two...

The most remarkable aspect of the discovery of a 1st century ossuary in Jerusalem is the sobriety with which the news of possibly the first non-Biblical attestation of Christ has been greeted. Despite the startling inscription engraved on the limestone box's side -- "James, Son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus" -- international scholars are calmly debating the matter and refusing to get drawn into excited speculation. Good. To this end, the Geological Survey of Israel is microscopically examining the chisel marks (are they authentic?); statisticians are estimating how many of the 40,000 men living in ancient Jerusalem were not only...

"Brother of Jesus" bone-box plot thickens By Ellis Shuman November 5, 2002 An ancient burial box believed to have belonged to James, the Biblical brother of Jesus, was damaged while being sent for display at a Toronto museum. The museum is awaiting word from the ossuary's owner before attempting to repair the box, but the owner is being questioned by police as the burial box may actually belong to the State of Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli scholars insist that the inscription on the box is a fraud. Staff at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto discovered numerous cracks Friday in the...

Jerusalem Burial Cave Reveals:Names, Testimonies of First Christiansby Jean Gilman JERUSALEM, Israel - Does your heart quicken when you hear someone give a personal testimony about Jesus? Do you feel excited when you read about the ways the Lord has worked in someone's life? The first century catacomb, uncovered by archaeologist P. Bagatti on the Mount of Olives, contains inscriptions clearly indicating its use, "by the very first Christians in Jerusalem."If you know the feeling of genuine excitement about the workings of the Lord, then you will be ecstatic to learn that archaeologists have found first-century dedications with the names...

Reprinted from JAMA - The Journal of the American Medical Association March 21, 1986, Volume 256 Copyright 1986, American Medical Association By Permission of Mayo Foundation ON THE PHYSICAL DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST William D. Edwards, MD; Wesley J. Gabel, MDiv; Floyd E Hosmer, MS, AMI From the Departments of Pathology (Dr. Edwards) and Medical Graphics (Mr. Hoamer), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; and the Homestead United Methodist Church, Rochester, Minn., and the West Bethel United Methodist Church, Bethel, Minn. (Pastor Gabel). Reprint requests to Department of Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905 (Dr. Edwards) * Jesus of Nazareth underwent Jewish...

Literacy in the Time of Jesus Could His Words Have Been Recorded in His Lifetime? Sidebar: Writing Tablets Sidebar: Priceless Garbage How likely is it that someone would have written down and collected Jesus’ sayings into a book in Jesus’ lifetime? Several lines of evidence converge to suggest it is quite probable. The first factor to consider is how prevalent literacy was in Jesus’ time. Full literacy means being able to read and write proficiently, but degrees of literacy vary; people who can read, for example, may not be able to write. A common view is that of W.H....

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>

JERUSALEM - Israeli police have arrested an antiquities dealer in connection with two alleged forgeries, including a burial box once thought to belong to the brother of Jesus. Oded Golan appeared in a Jerusalem court Tuesday, a day after police picked him up at his Tel Aviv home. Police allege Golan faked an inscription on the so-called James ossuary to make it appear it belonged to the brother of Jesus. The limestone box is inscribed in Aramaic with the words "Ya'akov (James), son of Yosef (Joseph), brother of Yeshua (Jesus)." Experts later branded the inscription and a tablet as fakes....

<p>JERUSALEM -- A stone box touted as the oldest archaeological evidence of Jesus is, in fact, a well-crafted fake, Israeli archaeological experts say.</p> <p>The box, an object known as an ossuary, was said to have contained the bones of Jesus' brother James. Carved on one side is an inscription in the ancient language of Aramaic bearing the legend: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."</p>

NPR just reported on the fake ossuary of St. James in Toronto--but with a spin that it had been purported to the ossuary "of a brother of Jesus"--thus putting their rather non-orthodox spin on things (i.e., questioning the Virgin Birth, etc.) Nice work again from our government's radio network. NPR--an affront not only to all Christians but to all Americans.

<p>JERUSALEM (AP) — An ancient burial box purported to have held the bones of Jesus' brother, James, is a fake, Israel's Antiquities Authority said Wednesday. The ossuary, which bore the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," had been touted by some scholars as the oldest archaeological link to New Testament figures.</p>

At a press conference held this morning in Jerusalem, officials from the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced that an ancient stone box with the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," was a fake. The authority also determined that the "Joash inscription," a stone tablet with fifteen lines of ancient Hebrew detailing improvements at the Temple, was a forgery. Israel Insider reported details proving the ossuary a fake last November. The inscriptions on both items were made "in the modern era," the Antiquities Authority announced. The stone burial box, known as an ossuary, attracted international attention when the Biblical Archaeological...

The Israeli Antiquities Authority announced today that an ancient stone box with the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," was a fake. The authority also determined that a stone tablet bearing the "Joash inscription," with fifteen lines of ancient Hebrew detailing improvements at the Temple, was a forgery. The inscriptions on both items were made "in the modern era." Click here for this breaking story

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...

A committee of archeologists and geologists commissioned by the Israeli Antiquities Authority is set to declare, perhaps as early as today, that the inscription on the James ossuary is fake.The limestone ossuary, which its supporters say once contained the remains of James, brother of Jesus Christ, has been undergoing tests at the direction of the Antiquities Authority since it was returned in mid-January to Tel Aviv from Toronto. It had been on public display, for the first time anywhere, at the Royal Ontario Museum starting in November of 2002, where it drew 100,000 visitors.Israeli state broadcaster Channel One featured an...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. New studies have backed a suggestion that an inscribed ossuary [bone box] being examined by archaeological authorities in Israel may well be that of St James, the brother of Jesus. Examination of the inscription - potentially the world's first ever archaeological reference to Jesus - by Dr Andre Lemaire, a specialist in Aramaic texts at the Sorbonne in Paris had already suggested, on purely epigraphic grounds, that the inscription was genuine. But now a team of scientists at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, has come to the same conclusion...

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. Stone Artifact Linked to Jesus 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...

There is a show on the History Channel about James the Just, Brother of Jesus. Talking about the ossuary.

keptics in growing number are weighing in with doubts about the authenticity of the inscription on a burial box that may have contained the bones of James, a brother of Jesus, and so could be the earliest surviving archaeological link to Jesus Christ. When the existence of the limestone bone box, or ossuary, was announced five weeks ago, a French scholar asserted that the inscription — "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" — most probably referred to the Jesus of the New Testament. The script, he said, was in the style of the Aramaic language of the first century...

Was Mary perpetually a Virgin? Are Catholics right to challenge people to be virgins for life like nuns and priests? The box of bones is exciting as a "find." But for Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox theologians, it poses a real problem that could take some of the fun out of it. These two branches of Christendom believe that Mary was perpetually a virgin. That is, obviously, she and husband Joseph never enjoyed God’s good gift of sex in marriage. Of course, there is no biblical support for this. In fact, biblical support states that the two had...