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¡Que Payaso!
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 108
| Posted 6/18/2003 4:08 PM (GMT -6) |   | | | |
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¡Que Payaso!
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 108
| Posted 6/18/2003 4:45 PM (GMT -6) | | Here are nice photographs of the James Ossuary:
And here is a nice photograph of the Joash Inscription:
For those who haven't heard of the James Ossuary and the Joash Inscription before, here is some background information as provided when the stories first broke by Todd Bolen over at www.bibleplaces.com (WARNING: there is a lot to read here!):
***OSSUARY OF JAMES***
*The story*
You'd have to be pretty unconnected to not know of the new "discovery" of the ossuary of "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" several weeks ago. The ossuary had been in the possession of an antiquities collector in Israel, but he was unaware of the significance of the inscription until recently. For more on the story, see:
www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/bswbbar2806f1.html
www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/141/11.0.html
*Is it authentic?*
This seems to be the ossuary of Jesus' brother, James. Everything published thus far about this find accords with what we know from history. In addition, the author of the article is Andre Lemaire, probably the best scholar in this field in the world. The magazine it is published in, Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR), is also a respected publication. The article quotes several other scholars who are the best in the field, and these do not question the authenticity of the box. The biggest problem with this discovery is that it was not made in a proper archaeological excavation, but was instead purchased from the antiquities market. Thus the location and context cannot help to support or deny the genuineness of this find. It should not be surprising that some are denying the authenticity of the ossuary - most major archaeological discoveries have been deemed frauds at one time or another, including the Dan Inscription, the Ekron Inscription and the Dead Sea Scrolls. For the report of one who claims this inscription is a fraud, see:
www.aish.com/societyWork/sciencenature/The_James_Ossuary_Inscription.asp
*Yes, it cracked!*
Before they knew its significance, Israel gave permission for the ossuary to travel to Toronto ahead of this month's annual meeting of SBL and ASOR. In transit, wide cracks developed in the bone box, badly damaging it. Repairs were scheduled to be made yesterday.
*The latest*
The name of the anonymous owner of the ossuary was recently published in the Israeli press. Oded Golan is a 51-year-old engineer who lives in Tel Aviv. He claims to have one of the largest private collections of antiquities, and he also claims to have purchased the ossuary for $200 before the antiquities law was passed in 1978. An archaeologist in Israel tells us that Golan was arrested and subsequently released last week, ostensibly for another violation of the law. It is possible that because of legal issues the owner may choose not to return the ossuary to Israel.
***FOLLOW-UP ON THE OSSUARY OF JAMES***
Discussion concerning the authenticity of this discovery continues. Everyone agrees that the ossuary itself is ancient, and most agree that at least the first part of the inscription "James, son of Joseph" is original. Some scholars are claiming that the end of the inscription, "brother of Jesus," was written by a later hand and is thus not authentic. While much has been written about this, I would recommend two articles for those interested:
1. James Was Not a Midget!: Observations on a Visit to the James Ossuary Exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum. This is an excellent summary article about the ossuary. It was written by a good friend who has some very helpful insights.
bible.org/docs/soapbox/jamesossuary.htm
2. The Experts and the Ossuary: A Report on the Toronto Sessions about the James Ossuary. You can read Shanks' viewpoint in BAR, but for another perspective, read this scholar's summary of the debate at the Toronto meeting. It will give you a good review of the positions and who is on which side.
www.bibleinterp.com/articles/The_experts.htm
***TEMPLE INSCRIPTION OF JOASH***
This item alone makes sending out this newsletter worthwhile. This morning Ha'Aretz (major Israeli newspaper) published an article on the discovery of an inscription from the time of Joash (aka Jehoash), king of Judah. This ten-line inscription describes repairs to the temple, and apparently quotes parts of 2 Kings 12:15, "They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty." The inscription is written in first person in ancient Phoenician script on a black sandstone tablet that originally came from the region of the Dead Sea, Moab or Edom.
Apparently the inscription was discovered on the Temple Mount in the massive earth-moving projects of the Muslims. The discovery was then acquired by a Jerusalem antiquities dealer who offered to sell it to the Israel Museum. Museum officials questioned the stone's authenticity. The Geological Survey of Israel has since run a series of tests on the stone and insists that it is authentic. Their tests show that the inscription has been buried since the Hellenistic period.
The full story can be found at:
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=251230&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
If it is proved authentic, the significance of this stone is monumental, given the relative lack of inscriptions from Israel durng the Old Testament period, and the almost total lack of inscriptions related to the First Temple. That it is a first person testimony related to the Bible makes it more personal and dramatic. And if it is a quotation from Scripture (or an inscription that Scripture quoted!), it would be the earliest such find ever.
If you know the paleo-Hebrew script, you can set to work on making a transcription and translation. If this motivates you to learn the paleo-Hebrew script, here's a helpful chart (use the "Moabite" column for closest comparison, third from left)
hebrewresources.com/ancient-Hebrew.html
***TRANSCRIPTION***
If you don't want to bother making a transcription, but want to try to translate the inscription yourself (before reading the translation below), here's a site with the old script transliterated into the modern Hebrew script:
www.orientalisti.net/ioash.htm
***TRANSLATION***
This tentative translation was prepared by a friend, Steven H. Sanchez, who is a PhD student in the Department of Old Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary.
[A]haziah, k[ing … ]
[J]udah. And I made the […]
just as it was accomplished voluntarily,
from the heart in the land and
in the wilderness so in all the cities of Judah to
give great amounts of consecrated silver
in order to buy quarried stone and timber
and red bronze in order to complete
the work faithfully. And I fixed
the damage of the house and the surrounding walls
and the extension and the lattice work
and the steps and the niche and the
doors. And this day is
a testimony. Because the work is successful
Yahweh will send a blessing on his people.
***THE CONTROVERSY***
Scholars are now debating whether the inscription is a forgery or not. Many forgeries exist in the antiquities market (where ignorant people pay big bucks thinking they are real), and these "professionals" have become quite proficient. It is entirely possible that this inscription is a fake.
On the other hand, many ancient inscriptions found in Israel, now believed genuine, have been challenged, including the Dan Inscription (1993), the Ekron Inscription (1995) and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947-56).
To sum up one major argument for each side, those who believe it is a
forgery believe that a phrase in the inscription (bedek habayit) reflects modern Hebrew usage, not biblical Hebrew. Those who believe it is authentic point to the tests of the geologists which determined that the inscription has been buried for more than 2000 years. What will be the conclusion? Only more careful scholarly analysis will tell.
One article that looks at the controversy is:
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=252531&contrassID=2&subContrassID=11&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
***FOLLOW-UP on JEHOASH INSCRIPTION***
More archaeologists and scholars are publicly calling the Jehoash Inscription a forgery, including Joseph Naveh, Amnon Ben-Tor, and Robert Deutsch. Some scholars claim they even know who made the forgery! The Israel Geological Institute maintains that their tests indicate that the inscription is ancient, and one scholar there suggests that five different specialists would have been required to make a forgery so good. This is actually a very interesting discussion: is it a very good forgery with obvious mistakes, or is it a genuine artifact that has unexpected linguistic features?
How could someone make a forgery that might pass for the real thing? An archaeology professor at Tel Aviv University has posted a PowerPoint presentation complete with photographs and text explaining the methods that a forger might use. It's a very illuminating presentation, however as a friend commented to me: "The logic is: it could be faked, therefore it is." We prefer to withhold judgment until more conclusive evidence is presented. You can download the PowerPoint presentation from The Bible and Interpretation website.
www.bibleinterp.com/presentations/index.htm
The now-notorious Rochelle Altman has a lengthy and informative article on why she is certain the inscription is faked. She became prominent as one of the first to reject the authenticity of the inscription on the James Ossuary.
www.bibleinterp.com/articles/report_temple_tablet.htm
www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Official_Report.htm
Follow-Up: The James Ossuary and Jehoash Inscription
The two major finds of the last six months directly related to the Bible have some new developments and interesting parallels:
Both proved to be the possession of the same antiquities collector, Oded Golan. Golan claims that he is merely the representative of the Jehoash Inscription owner, but documents in his house lead police to believe otherwise.
Both objects have been confiscated by the Israeli police.
Both are now being studied by two sets of teams appointed by the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Each object is being studied by a team composed of "hard" scientists (geologists, chemists, etc.), and the other of the social sciences (archaeology, paleography, etc.). The word is that to this point, the scholars on the teams are divided on the authenticity of the objects.
Both were broken since their existence was publicized. The James Ossuary was broken in transit to a Toronto museum for exhibit. The Joash Inscription was broken after police confiscated it from Golan's property.
Both would be among the most significant archaeological discoveries made in Israel, but neither was found in a controlled archaeological excavation.
Some additional notes and non-similarities:
The two were revealed to the world within months of each other, but in very different ways. The James Ossuary was seen last summer by a world-leading scholar on the subject, Andre Lemaire, and published by him in Biblical Archaeology Review. The Joash Inscription was brought to Israel Museum authorities under a heavy cloak of secrecy more than a year ago. The ossuary was believed to be genuine by Lemaire and its existence kept secret until a dramatic announcement by Hershel Shanks. The authenticity of the inscription was not clear to Israel Museum officials, and so the owner sought out other scholars seeking legitimacy. The inscription was first published by the Israel Geological Survey, a very unusual place for an archaeological find. The two authors of the report were *paid* for their work by the owner's lawyers, also an unusual move.
Whereas the leading publication of the subject (Biblical Archaeology Review) first publicized the James Ossuary, the Joash Inscription first came to light in early January, so that nearly two months of publicity and discussion had occurred before BAR's next issue came out.
A chief matter of dispute in both objects is the paleography (shape of the letters). The James Ossuary is alleged to have two different writers, a second hand adding the "brother of Jesus" at a later time. How much later this phrase was added (1 minute, 30 years, or 2 millennia) is a key question. The Joash Inscription is alleged to have characters of styles used over two centuries, and thus to be a modern forgery. But geological study of the tablet indicates that if it is a forgery, it is a highly sophisticated one. The question is then raised, if a forger is going to such great lengths and expense on choosing the right stone, attaching an ancient patina, embedding microscopic flecks of gold to fool the geologists, why did he not simply copy letters from the two major inscriptions contemporary to the time of Joash (the Dan Stele and Moabite Stone)?
Those who have seen the inscription first-hand note that the wear on the edges of the letters of the Joash Inscription gives it a very authentic look and would have been very difficult to fake.
Forgery equipment was found in Golan's home when it was raided by police.
A final note:
Determining an object's authenticity can be very difficult. Some of the best and most cautious scholars have been fooled over the years and published what are now known to be forgeries. Though many leading scholars have written off both of these objects as fraudulent, it is too early to make such a final assessment, and both may in fact prove to be genuine.
Payaso 
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo Baggins
Edited by - payaso on 06/18/2003 9:54:32 PM | | Back to Top | | |
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0CT0R0K
Registered Member
Date Joined Dec 2002
Total Posts : 50
| Posted 6/18/2003 7:11 PM (GMT -6) | | when was it found to be a forgery? i was just watching discovery/learning channel (?) the other day and the show about the ossuary was on claiming at the end that it was not a fake. what makes it a forgery?
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¡Que Payaso!
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 108
| Posted 6/18/2003 7:33 PM (GMT -6) | | 0CT0R0K,
Did you read the articles I linked to in the first note I posted? Of course, it has not been definitely, beyond-the-shadow-of-a-doubt, proved that they are fake, but that appears to be the case.
See, at first the geologists said they were authentic (on the basis of examination of the patina) while the epigraphists, for the most part, said they were fakes (on the basis of script, grammar, etc.).
A panel of scientists was convened in Israel to finally determine the authenticity of both inscriptions. Although not all were in agreement, the findings of the panel were that both were forgeries. Apparently, the patina on both exhibited some unusual features. To the best of my knowledge, the panel's conclusions were just announced yesterday, so it would not have been mentioned on the show that you saw.
Read this article for the details:
www.archaeology.org/magazine.php?page=online/features/ossuary/index
Payaso
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo Baggins
Edited by - payaso on 06/19/2003 12:42:38 AM | | Back to Top | | |
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Laika
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
| Posted 6/19/2003 1:42 AM (GMT -6) | | payaso
quote:
Here are nice photographs of the James Ossuary:
Nice summary, thanks.
Edited by - Laika on 06/19/2003 06:43:26 AM | | Back to Top | | |
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0CT0R0K
Registered Member
Date Joined Dec 2002
Total Posts : 50
| Posted 6/21/2003 6:36 AM (GMT -6) | | cool beans, sorry i had only skimmed through most of the article hehe
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GregBoyd
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 1818
| Posted 6/22/2003 2:29 AM (GMT -6) | | I was very disappointed with the James Ossuary. It would have been very advantageous apologetically. RATS.
It seemed to good to be true.
Greg
"The responsibility is with the chooser -- God is blameless." Plato, Republic, 10. | | Back to Top | | |
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¡Que Payaso!
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 108
| Posted 6/25/2003 2:58 PM (GMT -6) | | Doc,
I don't think we've heard the last word on the James' Ossuary just yet. Here are some responses and updates that were written since the IAA "forgery" announcement was made last week.
www.bib-arch.org/bswbbreakingVII.html
Payaso
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo Baggins | | Back to Top | | |
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