Ancient burial box contains earliest reference to Jesus

An ancient burial box claiming to contain the earliest reference to Jesus is set to go on display in Israel after its owner was cleared of forgery.

The modest limestone burial box, known as an ossuary, is typical of first-century Jerusalem, and is owned by Oded Golan, an Israeli antiquities collector.
Chiselled on the side are the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."

Golan, who bought the box in the 1970s but did not realise its significance until Sorbonne professor Andre Lemaire noticed it, said that this is the oldest evidence that mentions the name of Jesus Christ.

www.business-standard.com...

...So, do they know who found this ? ...This guy Golan bought it in 1970 and only now someone notice there is a reference to Jesus on it !!!

...And if this is the real Jesus of Nazareth, there was at least a brother named James !!!

It makes me wonder on how many things that might have been found by "ordinary" people and then got lost, were destroyed or belong to a private person that have not the skills to recognize the importance of what they have.

CosmicDude
It makes me wonder on how many things that might have been found by "ordinary" people and then got lost, were destroyed or belong to a private person that have not the skills to recognize the importance of what they have .

edit on 26-12-2013 by CosmicDude because: (no reason given)

Then there is the Library of Alexandria, which was lost to a flood or sacked by invading armies. The Aztec and Incas archives that the Spanish destroyed, etc, etc.

It's sad. All that history and possible knowledge lost.

But it's nice to see things like this that pop up from time to time.

I saw this ossuary on that tv archaeologists show a couple of years ago. I can't remember his name.
He is an Israeli, I believe.

His brother James wasn't a mystery he was one of the apostles.
I seem to remember that there was also a box for Jesus that contained a body leaving the story of the resurrection as a fairy tale. Less attention is paid to that I guess we know why.

reply to post by CosmicDude


You would be surprised how many people don't realise Jesus had siblings

James, Joseph or Joses, Judas, and a Simon were all his siblings...

apparently he also had a couple sisters who were not named

reply to post by butcherguy


Yes I saw that too. That was where they said they think one body was actually Jesus.

reply to post by TDawgRex


The library at Alexandria burned down. Pharaohs lighthouse another treasure of the later city of Alexandria sank into the sea.
Plineys Alexandria didn't have the library. That was Cleopatrias contribution as well as the light house.

The article says the owner was 'cleared of forgery'.
That doesn't mean the ossuary is authentic.

Information Here

On March 14, 2012, Golan was acquitted of the forgery charges but convicted of illegal trading in antiquities.[9] The judge said this acquittal "does not mean that the inscription on the ossuary is authentic or that it was written 2,000 years ago."

I"m pretty sure the verdict is still out on the ossuary ....

Too bad Jesus' name wasn't Jesus.

And consider the story of the cave; when Mary and the other woman went in after three days, the body was supposed to be gone, the shroud still there empty.

No bones left over, right?

reply to post by signalfire


What was it then ?

AutumnWitch657
reply to post by signalfire

 

What was it then ?

At that time wouldn't the name be Yeshua? That was his Hebrew name.

AutumnWitch657
reply to post by signalfire

 

What was it then ?

I am sure the box does not have the english translation JESUS on it.

It was a common name and so was all the names of the disciples.
yeshuaincontext.com...

The name Yeshua (Jesus, a short form of Joshua that was common at the time rather than the longer Yehoshua) was the sixth most popular name.

He is correct in saying Yeshua is the Hebrew name for the Lord. It means "Yahweh [the Lord] is Salvation." The English spelling of Yeshua is “Joshua.” However, when translated from Hebrew into the Greek language, the name Yeshua becomes Iēsous. The English spelling for Iēsous is “Jesus.”

Basically, what this means is Joshua and Jesus are the same name. One is translated from Hebrew into English, the other from Greek into English. It is also interesting to note, the names "Joshua" and "Isaiah" are essentially the same names as Yeshua in Hebrew. They mean "Savior" and "the salvation of the Lord."

christianity.about.com...

reply to post by Char-Lee


Interesting. Thanks. I'm pretty sure the inscriptions were not in English. LOL.

reply to post by signalfire


The other woman would have also been Mary LOL. Mary Magdellan and Mary mother of Jesus .

AutumnWitch657
reply to post by signalfire

 

The other woman would have also been Mary LOL. Mary Magdellan and Mary mother of Jesus .

If you know anything about Mexico you will get how common names run, in every family without including the Mother's maiden name in the full name everyone will seem the same person. It looks like it was like that in their time also.
yeshuaincontext.com...

The top nine male names were:
1. Simon/Simeon
2. Joseph/Joses
3. Lazarus
4. Judas
5. John
6. Jesus (Yeshua)
7. Ananias
8. Jonathan
9. Matthew/Matthias

The top nine female names were:
1. Mary
2. Salome
3. Shelamzion (related to Salome)
4. Martha
5. Joanna
6. Sapphira
7. Berenice
8. Imma
9. Mara

The tricks for differentiating people (how to tell Simon from Simon, for example) included:
(1) Using variant forms of the name. For example, Yeshua’s brother Joses (Yoses) was known by this short form instead of Joseph (Yosef) to be differentiated from his father.
(2) Patronymic added (father’s name). For example, Levi bar (son of) Alpheus.
(3) Patronymic substituted. For example, Bartimaeus = bar (son of) Timaeus.
(4) Name of husband or son added. For example, Mary of Clopas.
(5) Nicknames added. For example, James (Jacob, Yakov) the Lesser or John the Baptist or Simon the Leper.
(6) Nickname substituted. For example, Cephas (Kefa) for Simon Peter.
(7) Place name added. For example, Judas Iscariot (man of Karyot) or Jesus the Nazarene.
(8) Place name substituted. Rare.
(9) Family name. Caiphas was Joseph bar Caiphas and Caiphas was not his father’s name, but perhaps a family nickname.
(10) A double name in two languages. For example, Simon Peter.
(11) Occupation. For example, Matthew the tax collector.

Did the Romans make it? If so, that would probably explain why Jesus's name is spelled in its Latin version. Otherwise, it seems kind of odd, not to mention the modernistically dramatic way the whole thing is written, as in mentioning only one of James's brothers, and the most famous one at that.

The death of James brother of Jesus;

The story about James the brother of Jesus is that he led the church in Jerusalem until he was stoned to death on the orders of the Sanhedrin

I would bet that over half of the oldest artifacts are owned by people. I bet a lot have been discarded as junk because people do not know what they are. How would you know if something you have is two thousand years old, reproductions are made every day and sold cheaply. That old bronze piece of metal you tossed out in the box while sorting through the attic could be an ancient coin. Most people do not know what these things even look like. They see a bronze colored box in the attic and bring it to the scrapyard when it was 80 percent gold. It is melted down and added to faucets.

is set to go on display in Israel after its owner was cleared of forgery.....
Chiselled on the side are the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."

I'm sure it's real
I remember this box from a few years ago and remain highly sceptical of the claim.

On March 14, 2012, Golan was acquitted of the forgery charges but convicted of illegal trading in antiquities.[9] The judge said this acquittal "does not mean that the inscription on the ossuary is authentic or that it was written 2,000 years ago.

On June 18, 2003 the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) published a report concluding that the inscription is a modern forgery based on their analysis of the patina. Specifically, it claimed that the inscription was added in modern times and made to look old by addition of a chalk solution.

In 2006, Wolfgang E. Krumbein, a Professor of Geomicrobiology from Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany, having analyzed the ossuary, concluded that the Israeli Antiquities Authority's conclusion "...originate[s] from a series of errors, biases, mistaken premises, use of inappropriate methodology, mistaken geochemistry, defective error control, reliance on unconfirmed data, disregard of information such as the cleaning and preservation actions performed [on the ossuary], and the use of a comparative isotope methodology despite the fact that the [James ossuary] inscription fail[s] to meet the cumulative prerequisite conditions for such tests and comparisons."
en.wikipedia.org...

As with the Turin Shroud the arguments about authenticity of the ossuary inscription will rumble on all we can do is come to conclusions based on the evidence , in this case the credibility or lack thereof of the owner is a serious red flag in my opinion.

OK – here's the story.

At a very young age (16?*) an Israeli guy named Oded Golan buys an ossuary from an Arab trader. He has no idea of its value but keeps it safe for thirty five years. Then, perchance, he arranges a viewing by a visiting biblical scholar – the Sorbonne's Andre Lemaire – who almost immediately identifies the inscription as referring to Jesus of Nazareth and his brother James. OK, he's a Catholic but he's a scholar, right?

Now, with an artifact literally priceless, and reputed insured for $2 million, Oded ships his ossuary to Canada in a cardboard box lined with bubble wrap, where it arrives in pieces. Are you buying this? Well you better take your mother with you when you next buy a car.

"Golan himself didn't get too excited when he heard about the cracks in his ossuary."

– Ha'aretz April 2003


Alas, for fans of the divine salvation plan, the story of this "priceless artifact" shattered as easily as the bone box itself. In December 2004, Golan was indicted as the mastermind behind an international antiquities forgery ring, operational for twenty years and with many "ancient finds" to its credit. Fakes able to fool biblical experts take a lot of skill but the religious antiquities market is especially lucrative. The world's museums vie with wealthy private collectors for that elusive evidence of "God's hand in history".

Sadly, the religiously gullible will always be with us and there will always be smart criminals ready to feed their addiction.


PS: Israeli law changed in 1978. If an artifact was bought after this date it reverted to the state.
So when did you buy your ossuary, sir?

Marco Ghatas, an Egyptian artist and jeweller, has confessed to manufacturing many items for Golan, based on sketches supplied by him. Other members of the forgery ring have turned state's evidence.

An ossuary bearing the name Jacob, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus, in Aramaic, was, it seems, originally found in the basement of a museum by Prof. E.L. Sukenik of Hebrew University around 1926. Subsequently, it was lost...

1) There are six ossuaries carrying the name Jesus.

2) There are two ossuaries carrying the names Jesus, son of Joseph.


One of those ossuaries - carrying the name Jesus, son of Joseph (in Hebrew, catalogue no. 80.503) - was found in a family cave in March 1980 in southern Jerusalem.

The same cave also contained another nine ossuaries, with the names Joseph (in Hebrew), Mary (of the same period], Mary (in Greek), and Judah, son of Jesus (different date).

June 18, 2003:
Israel Antiquities Authority declares James Ossuary (and Jehoash Inscription) Fake

Well, what a surprise! The scientific panel has reached its verdict: FAKE. Long after the natural processes of a damp cave environment had coated the ossuary with "biovermiculation" and patina, someone carved a series of letters through this natural varnish. He then covered the freshly cut letters with an imitation patina made from hot water and ground chalk – a sort of baked on "soup", microfossils and all.

Only advanced technology saved us from being duped by another foolish relic. If the same scam had been tried just fifty years ago, everyone (well, almost everyone!) would have had no self defense and would have accepted this nonsense as 'real proof' of the god-man.

The warning is clear. Expect ever more sophisticated forgeries as the forgers master new technologies.