New result on Jesus family ossuaries

[watchamadoodle]

Here is a quote from an article on the controversial Jesus family ossuaries. The ossuary with the inscription "James the son of Joseph and brother of Jesus" was apparently from the Talpiot tomb that contained the ossuaries for other family members.

I'm not familiar with all the details of the debate on these ossuaries, but it is interesting. If the inscription is authentic, it is interesting that it mentions a brother named Jesus. That probably indicates this Jesus was famous.

He found that the Talpiot tomb had a unique chemical signature and that the random samples did not match that signature, but that the James Ossuary did. He also found that the soil that had seeped inside it, perfectly matched the soil that seeped inside the Talpiot ossuaries, including the “Jesus Family tomb,” thus illustrating that the James Ossuary spent most of its existence in the East Talpiot location.

http://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Geol...son-396262

[Minimalist]

Anything involving noted ass-clown, Simcha Jacobovici should be treated with an extreme grain of salt.

[abaris]

As far as I know, this ossuary story has been debunked quite some time ago. Can't remember the details and can't be arsed to look them up right now, but if memory serves they are forgeries. Something about the writing not matching the period, if I remember correctly.

[Minimalist]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Tomb_of_Jesus

Following the March 4, 2007, airing of The Lost Tomb of Jesus on the Discovery Channel, American journalist Ted Koppel aired a program entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus—A Critical Look, whose guests included the director Simcha Jacobovici, James Tabor, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who served as a consultant and advisor on the documentary, Jonathan Reed, Professor of Religion at the University of LaVerne and co-author of Excavating Jesus Beneath the Stones, Behind the Text, and William Dever, an archaeologist with over 50 years experience in Middle Eastern archaeological digs.

Alan Cooperman, writer of The Washington Post article also states this: "Similar assessments came yesterday from two Israeli scholars, Amos Kloner, who originally excavated the tomb, and Joe Zias, former curator of archaeology at the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Kloner told the Jerusalem Post that the documentary is "nonsense." Zias described it in an e-mail to The Washington Post as a "hyped up film which is intellectually and scientifically dishonest."
Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner, who was among the first to examine the tomb when it was first discovered, said the names marked on the coffins were very common at the time. "I don't accept the news that it was used by Jesus or his family," and "The documentary filmmakers are using it to sell their film." he told the BBC News website.[31]

I recall that panel discussion quite well.  It was when Jonathan Reed coined the phrase "archaeoporn" for Jacobovici's work.

Jacobovici had an earlier scam called The Exodus Decoded in which, similar to the comments below, he misquoted scholars he interviewed and reported that they said what he wanted them to say.  This is old news.  Ask Prof. Manfred Bietak who has been excavating Avaris in Egypt for decades.

During Ted Koppel's critique, The Lost Tomb of Jesus—a Critical Look, Koppel revealed he had denials from these three people that Simcha Jacobovici had misquoted in the documentary.

1. Koppel had a written denial from the forensic archaeologist asserting that he had NOT concluded that the remains of Yeshua` and Miriamne showed they were husband and wife. In fact, he had logically stated, "you cannot genetically test for marriage."
   
2. Koppel had a written denial from the Suffolk Crime Lab Director (Robert Genna) asserting that he had NOT stated the James ossuary patina matched that of the Yeshua` ossuary. He denied ever saying they were a match, and said he'd have to do much more comparison testing of other tombs before he could draw any conclusions.[32]
   
3. Koppel had a verbal denial from Professor Amos Kloner, the archaeologist who had supervised the initial 1980 dig of the tomb of Yeshua`, with whom he spoke on 3/4/07, asserting that the ossuary that later turned up missing from the alleged Tomb of 'Jesus' could not have been what is now known as the James ossuary. In fact he indicated there was evidence that it was not the same by saying that the now missing ossuary he had seen and photographed and catalogued in 1980 had been totally unmarked, whereas the James ossuary is marked with the name of James and a rosette.
   

The archaeologist William Dever summed it up when he stated on Koppel's critical analysis, The Lost Tomb of Jesus—A Critical Look, that Jacobovici's and Cameron's "conclusions were already drawn in the beginning" of the inquiry and that their "argument goes far beyond any reasonable interpretation."[33]

[watchamadoodle]

My understanding is that most of their argument rests on statistics. How many families at that time period had this combination of names?

So the significance of proving the James ossuary came from the Talpiot tomb is that it adds one more name to the existing set of names. Also the reference to "brother of Jesus" was probably uncommon.

I haven't watched the documentaries or read the books on the subject. I only skimmed the Wikipedia articles. I agree that the people involved seem to exaggerate and sensationalize the facts to promote their books and movies.

Probably there is not enough to connect this tomb with Jesus.

[Minimalist]

Also the reference to "brother of Jesus"

Or a forgery.

[watchamadoodle]

Also the reference to "brother of Jesus"

Or a forgery.

Some of the ossuaries in the Talpiot tomb lacked inscriptions, so I imagine Oded Golan might have acquired a blank ossuary and forged the inscription.

The fact that Golan had a workshop for forging antiquities makes my think it had to be a forgery - even though the experts can't decide based on physical evidence alone. The circumstantial evidence is pretty damning:

According to the BBC, when the police took Oded Golan into custody and searched his apartment they discovered a workshop with a range of tools, materials, and half finished 'antiquities'. This was evidence for an operation of a scale far greater than they had suspected. Investigators have established that collectors around the world have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for artefacts that came through Oded Golan's associates. Dozens of these items were examined. Police then suspect that artefacts made by the same team of forgers have found their way into leading museums around the world.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oded_Golan

[Minimalist]

What is always left out of the discussion of the Oded Golan trial is that the Israeli authorities were unable to present the most damning witness.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/fea...y-1.243934

And yet, today, three years after the start of the trial, after more than 70 witnesses for the prosecution have taken the stand, and the defense has started to present its arguments, the state prosecutor's office and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which initiated the indictment, face a problem: Marco Samah Shoukri Ghatas, the Egyptian artist who confessed to manufacturing many items for Golan, including the Jehoash inscription, will not be coming to Israel to testify. According to the IAA, it is the Egyptian authorities that are preventing Ghatas from coming to Israel. Golan's attorney, Lior Bringer, on the other hand, counters that it was the Egyptian's choice not to come.

[Aractus]

Forgeries can be very difficult to prove. There was one document forger who used to take old library books and tear out the blank pages, then he would make his period correct ink manually. Then he would burn paper and mix the ash into the ink, so that later when it is carbon-14 tested the age of the ink will exactly match the age of the paper.

The James ossuary is a great example. Whether it is a forgery or not we just don't know. It's believed that it always contained the name James on it, and also probably "son of Joseph", but that a forger may have added the words "brother of Jesus". It could not be proved in court. It's existence was made known in 2002, as it was in private hands.

Back in 1980, a tomb in Talpiot was discovered containing "Jesus, son of Joseph", "Joseph", 2x "Mary", "Judas the son of Jesus", "Yose", and "Matthew". It originally contained ten ossuaries, but only seven were found. Now it has been established scientifically that the "James ossuary" came from the Talpiot tomb area. So even if the part of the inscription on the James ossuary is a forgery, it came from the Talpiot tomb (or another nearby Talpiot tomb) nonetheless and that makes it authentic. In other words, if "brother of Jesus" is a forgery - and that's an IF - then it read "James, son of Joseph" and was in the same tomb as "Jesus, son of Joseph" and the other six ossuaries mentioned, and another two as yet unknown ossuaries.

With the James ossuary now very likely to belong to the same tomb it makes it very unlikely that this is the tomb of "another Jesus". You have "Jesus, son of Joseph", "James, son of Joseph", "Joseph", and 2x "Mary". His other brothers - Joseph, Judas, and Simon - weren't found in the tomb (well the Joseph ossuary could belong to Jesus's brother, in which case it would mean Joseph father of Jesus, James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon is missing). But one or more of the "missing brothers" may have been originally buried there represented by the two missing ossuaries.

[Minimalist]

It is important to remember what the judge said in his verdict.

In the end, the judge explicitly declined to rule on the authenticity of the objects. "The prosecution failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt what was stated in the indictment: that the ossuary is a forgery and that Mr. Golan or someone acting on his behalf forged it," the judge stated. "This is not to say that the inscription on the ossuary is true and authentic and was written 2,000 years ago.... [T]here is nothing in these findings which necessarily proves that the items were authentic."

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/25/...y-20120325


When you add a sleazebag like Jacobovici to a sleazebag like Golan you are going to get a double sleaze.