Analysis for Jan. 13, 2005
By Jeff Robinson
The so-called James Ossuary needs a careful, in-depth examination by a scientific team to determine, once and for all, whether it is an authentic relic in which the brother of Jesus was buried or merely a common first-century burial box with a phony inscription, a Southern Baptist seminary professor says.
The ossuary that made a worldwide splash in 2002 was back in the news Dec. 29 when police in Jerusalem filed criminal indictments against four antiquities collectors, accusing them of forging biblical artifacts, many so skillfully that they fooled experts. One of the artifacts was the James Ossuary.
But not all experts believe the James Ossuary is fake-renowned paleographer Andre Le-maire contends that the Aramaic inscription was penned in the first century.
Steven Ortiz, assistant professor of archaeology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, says that fake items are common among antiques dealers but the James Ossuary needs further scientific analysis before a final verdict is pronounced.
“You have antiquities dealers who sell actual objects and forged objects,” he said. “You have two or three archaeologists who have looked at it and said it is authentic and two who have said it is not. You have the paleologist from the Royal Ontario Museum [in Toronto, Canada] who says it is authentic. So what you need to do is to get scientists in a room, and, like any project, you need a scientific report.
“What is sad about the James Ossuary is the way it hit the news was sensational. With all the hoopla there was not a sober analysis of the ossuary itself. What we have now is people on both sides who have a lot of emotion and careers at stake.”
The ossuary-a stone box that holds the bones of the dead and used by Jews from around 20 B.C. until 70 A.D.-first made worldwide news in 2002 and was authenticated by Lemaire and others.
The ossuary contains an Aramaic inscription on the side reading, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”-leading scholars to speculate it once contained the remains of the Apostle James.
The Israel Antiquities Authority concluded in 2003 that, after studying the weathering process, the ossuary was fake. The Authority determined that the patina, a thin film that covers the stone and is acquired with age, had been broken.
Ortiz pointed out that the Dead Sea Scrolls were at first believed to be counterfeit, but after years of examination and analysis by scholars, they were authenticated.
“Every major find, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, were considered forgeries at first,” Ortiz said. “Eventually, it has the weight of analysis by scholars and eventually [the consensus] will lean toward one way or the other like the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is very common.
“For every major inscription, you have two major epigraphers who claim it is a forgery. And that is why we need more archaeologists and more archaeological research collecting things in the proper scientific method.”
The ossuary's archaeological origins represent a crucial unknown factor. The owner says he purchased the ossuary from an antiques dealer, who is thought to have obtained the object from an Arab laborer, who found it in a cave near Silwan, just outside Jerusalem, according to news reports.
Whether the James Ossuary is ever authenticated or not is a matter of significance for the field of archaeology but is not pivotal in bolstering of the historicity of Christianity, Ortiz said.
“I don't know anybody whose faith because of the James Ossuary was deemed authentic and I don't know anybody's faith that is going to be weakened because it is proven a forgery.”
Baptist Press
Jeff Robinson writes for Baptist Press.