Burial box of Jesus’ brother? Court cannot decide

The authenticity of a burial box purported to have been for the brother of Jesus Christ remains shrouded in mystery, after a court acquitted an Israeli private collector of charges he forged the artefact.

The Jerusalem court, in finding Oded Golan not guilty yesterday, noted that expert witnesses could not agree on whether an inscription on the 2,000-year-old limestone box which reads: “James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”, was genuine or had been forged.

The authenticity of the so-called “James ossuary” was likely to continue, “and time will tell”, the court said.

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Judge Aharon Farkash, of Jerusalem district court, said extensive expert testimony had served to confuse the issue of whether the ossuary and other artefacts were fakes.

There were so many specialists with conflicting claims, the judge said, that he could not determine beyond a reasonable doubt whether the ossuary and another purported major find – a stone tablet engraved with written instructions by 9th century BC King Yoash on renovating the biblical Jewish Temple – were authentic.

“This topic is likely to continue to be the subject of research in the scientific and archaeological fields, and time will tell,” the judge said.

The Israeli antiquities authority said the inscriptions on the ossuary and the tablet were made to look old by applying a mix of old chalk and charcoal. The indictment also alleged Mr Golan forged other artefacts and traded in stolen items.

The decade-long mystery has haunted archaeologists and religious scholars worldwide. It has focused on what could be the earliest, most concrete evidence of Jesus’s life in Jerusalem and suspicions of the most sophisticated of forgeries.

The saga began in 2002, when Mr Golan, supported by Andre Lemaire, a renowned French scholar of ancient texts, said the ossuary, a limestone box for storing bones of the dead, had on its side the inscription “James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”.

James, believed to have been stoned to death in 62 AD, is mentioned in the Gospels as Jesus’ brother. But the Roman Catholic and other Christian churches believe Jesus had no siblings.

At about the same time, another of Golan’s artifacts surfaced, the Yoash Inscription. Mr Golan said he obtained the ossuary and tablet from Arab traders in East Jerusalem.

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The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which oversees all excavation work in Israel, called it all a hoax, saying the circumstances of the discoveries were never properly documented.

In 2003, two IAA committees, including experts on inscriptions, burial customs, geology and restoration, found that while the ossuary may be genuine, the inscriptions were forgeries.

“I am glad that I was found innocent of all the very serious allegations that I had to face during the last seven years,” Mr Golan said yesterday.

The case marked the first time an Israeli court dealt in suspected antiquities forgery.

Amir Ganor, head of the IAA’s robbery prevention unit, said the high-profile case had led to a steep drop in robberies at archaeological sites in the Holy Land, as museums and universities cast a more critical eye over artefacts they received.

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