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Wed 18 Jun, 2003 12:48 pm
From Reuter's News Service:
JERUSALEM (June 18) - Israeli archaeological experts said Wednesday an inscription on an ancient stone box suggesting it once contained the bones of Jesus' brother, James, was a forgery.
The burial box and its Aramaic inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" had excited speculation it could be the earliest physical reference to the founder of Christianity outside the New Testament.
But the director of Israel's Antiquities Authority, Shuka Dorfman, called it a hoax.
"The ossuary is real. But the inscription is fake. What this means is that somebody took a real box and forged the writing on it, probably to give it a religious significance," Dorfman told Reuters after a news conference on the matter.
James, who was believed to have been stoned to death in 62 A.D., is mentioned in the Gospels as Jesus' brother. Jews and Protestants accept that, but Catholics -- who believe Christ's mother, Mary, was a virgin all her life -- say he was a cousin.
Dr. Gideon Avni, the archaeologist who chaired a committee of archaeological experts investigating the find's provenance since March, told reporters the conclusion was unanimous.
The committee concluded that "even if the ossuary is authentic, there is no reason to assume the bones of Jesus' brother were inside," and that the stone of the box was more typical of Cyprus and northern Syria than ancient Israel.
The committee's report said the inscription of the "James Ossuary" cut through the stone's patina, or natural fossilized sheen, and appeared to be in modern text, written by someone attempting to reproduce ancient biblical fonts.
The experts could not pinpoint when the inscription was forged.
An Israeli antiquities collector bought the ossuary in the 1970s but had no idea of its significance. Last year, he invited Andre Lemaire, a renowned French scholar of ancient texts, to examine it. Lemaire concluded the inscription was genuine.
Ossuaries were used by Jews in Jerusalem from 10 B.C. to A.D. 70 to hold skeletal remains of bodies near caves. Many believed that once decomposed, the dead could be resurrected with the coming of the Messiah.
Only a few hundred ossuaries of the thousands unearthed contain inscriptions, reserved for the dead of high status.
Sort of sad for the christians who wish to see more proof of their faith. c.i.
cicerone imposter wrote:Sort of sad for the christians who wish to see more proof of their faith. c.i.
Not really. If it's really faith, they'll see what they like.
cicerone imposter wrote:Sort of sad for the christians who wish to see more proof of their faith. c.i.
You are making a poor assumption on needing to see proof. You might expect that judgement from a Jew or Atheist??
husker, You speak for yourself; many, even amongst the faithful, always seek to see more proof. got-cha! c.i.
The fact that the ossuary inscripture was faked does not prove anything except the fact that part of the people dealing with archeology, antiques trade etc. are frauds. It has nothing to do with the verity of the Holy Bible.
Damn! You mean that wasn't James the brother of Jesus in that Box? Does Mary know this? Guess we'll just have to keep looking!
Hi NickFun, WELCOME to A2K. c.i.
steissd wrote:The fact that the ossuary inscripture was faked does not prove anything except the fact that part of the people dealing with archeology, antiques trade etc. are frauds. It has nothing to do with the verity of the Holy Bible.
No one has suggested that it does, Steissd.
Actually, the Bible itself is the most reliable indicator that it (the Bible) is really jsut a self-serving history of the early Hebrew people interspersed with what appears to be a fictional, and almost absurdly ridiculous, mythology which it tries to pass off as a theology.
Hey, a lot of that ridiculous mythology is lifted from a very powerful (and, like the Norse one, very pessimistic) literary tradition passed down through other cultures, particularly the first few chapters of Genesis. Good reading, that.
I tune out when they start the willy-nilly lopping off of the foreskins of the smitten.
How do people get to claim to know stuff like Mary's sexual life after the birth of Jesus? I get so puzzled by these claims to intimate knowledge!
Oh, my. Next they will be saying the holy tortilla was a fake.
Excavated bathroom walls, dlow...
So, does that make this ossuary the original "Jack"-in-the-box?
I thought it was a John when a box was available and a jack when one could not be found.
So much confusion in the world.
(ducking)
(yet smiling)
(getting camera ready)
AND HE SPAKETH, SAYING UNTO THEM, HE SAYETH.,
"THOU SHALT PISSETH ME OFF NOT...
LEST I FINDETH THEE , THY BUTT CHEEK AND PLANTETH THEREON,
WITH GREAT SWIFTNESS, THE CHUCK TAYLORS OF THE ALMIGHTY.."
Inna name a da Daddy-o, da Laddy-o an a Holy Spook, Amen.
Unfortunately this is another pathetic example of the lies and deception some militant Christians will use to con others into believing their religion. This type of behavior has been going on since the creation of Christianity. The Christian religion rests on a foundation of lies, deceit and bloodshed. Today we have advanced past the bloodshed days but the lies and deceit are still with us.
advanced past the bloodshed when?
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