{"id":172,"date":"2008-10-31T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2008\/10\/a-treat-without-a-trick-on-all-hallows-eve--the-james-ossuary-rises-from-the-dead.html"},"modified":"2008-10-31T15:46:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T15:46:00","slug":"a-treat-without-a-trick-on-all-hallows-eve-the-james-ossuary-rises-from-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/10\/a-treat-without-a-trick-on-all-hallows-eve-the-james-ossuary-rises-from-the-dead.html","title":{"rendered":"A Treat without a Trick on All Hallow’s Eve– the James Ossuary Rises from the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps you will remember a little box called the James ossuary I’ve been talking about for a while now. It’s been embroiled in a trial now for years. I was thinking of printing up bumper stickers reading FREE THE JAMES OSSUARY. Well, that may soon happen, as you will be able to deduce below from the BAR story written by my co-author of the book The Brother of Jesus, Hershel Shanks. <\/p>\n

It seems the case of the prosecution against Golan and Deutsch has unraveled, not least because Yuval Goren was forced under oath to testify that there was genuine patina in the word Jesus on the ossuary. You may remember as well that one of the more touted theories was that whilst the first part of the inscription might be genuine the last part, saying ‘brother of Jesus’ was forged. So much for that theory. We are now on the Eve of All Saints Day, or All Hallow’s Eve (from which we get the word Halloween) and James, being one of those celebrated saints, and his ossuary seems to have risen from the dead! Stay tuned for more fun updates. Maybe its the Lazarus Effect! <\/p>\n

BW3 <\/p>\n

Supporters of James Ossuary Inscription\u2019s Authenticity Vindicated
by Hershel Shanks
Updated October 30, 2008<\/p>\n

The \u201cforgery trial of the century\u201d has all but blown up. The trial judge who will decide the case\u2014there are no juries in Israel\u2014has told the prosecution to consider dropping the case. \u201cNot every case ends in the way that you think it will when you start,\u201d Judge Aharon Farkash told prosecutor Adi Damti in open court. \u201cMaybe we can save ourselves the rest,\u201d the judge told her.<\/p>\n

In the most recent embarrassment for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the government\u2019s star witness, Yuval Goren, former chairman of Tel Aviv University\u2019s institute of archaeology, was forced to admit on cross-examination that there is original ancient patina in the word \u201cJesus,\u201d the last word in the inscription that reads \u201cJames, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent events have also proved humiliating for the IAA in connection with the committee it appointed that supposedly came to a unanimous decision that the inscription is a forgery. In fact, several members of the committee expressed no opinion\u2014but the IAA counted them as \u201cyes\u201d votes. Several other members of the committee based their vote not on their own expertise, but on Yuval Goren\u2019s supposed expertise, which they were in no position to evaluate. One member of the committee who would have found the inscription authentic said he was \u201cforced\u201d to change his mind based on Goren\u2019s scientific arguments.<\/p>\n

No paleographer expert in the script of this period has found any paleographical problem with the inscription. And several scientists at the trial have undermined Goren\u2019s scientific arguments. No other scientist has supported Goren\u2019s arguments.<\/p>\n

BAR has consistently supported the authenticity of the inscription, as have leading paleographers Andr\u00e9 Lemaire of the Sorbonne and Ada Yardeni of Hebrew University. All appear now to be vindicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you will remember a little box called the James ossuary I’ve been talking about for a while now. It’s been embroiled in a trial now for years. I was thinking of printing up bumper stickers reading FREE THE JAMES OSSUARY. Well, that may soon happen, as you will be able to deduce below from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nA Treat without a Trick on All Hallow's Eve- the James Ossuary Rises from the Dead - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/10\/a-treat-without-a-trick-on-all-hallows-eve-the-james-ossuary-rises-from-the-dead.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Treat without a Trick on All Hallow's Eve- the James Ossuary Rises from the Dead - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps you will remember a little box called the James ossuary I’ve been talking about for a while now. 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He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. 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