Number 5: The James Ossuary
Chase March 4th, 2007
The fifth major claim made by the Jesus Tomb crowd is that there is a missing 10th ossuary (stone box used to inter remains) and that this 10th ossuary is likely the famous James, brother of Jesus ossuary found in 2002. If you don’t know much about the James Ossuary, here are two articles that will bring you up to speed: Article 1 (Wikipedia)….Article 2 (Craig A. Evans) Here is what is what the author/filmmakers are contending:
The documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” presents startling new evidence in the ongoing debate concerning the “James Ossuary.” The James ossuary was found around 1980. “The Jesus Family Tomb” was discovered in 1980.One of the ten ossuaries went missing from “The Jesus Family Tomb.” Its hastily scribbled, rounded-out dimensions generally match the James ossuary. And the film documents recent tests conducted at the CSI Suffolk Crime lab in New York which demonstrate that the patina (a chemical film encrustation on the box) from the James ossuary matches the patina from the other ossuaries in the Talpiot tomb. SOURCE
But is there a connection between the James Ossuary (real or not) and the Talpiot tomb? It appears that the answer is a resounding no, which further damages the claims of the Jesus Family Tomb film. There are three important points that work against the connection:
- The archaeologists who found the tomb in 1980 both state that the 10th (missing) ossuary had no markings on it, whereas the James Ossuary is very clearly marked.
- Though the filmmakers claim the James Ossuary and the Talpiot Ossuaries have similar patina’s (click here for the definition of patina), the soil found in each box is markedly different
- The James Ossuary was found in the 1970’s, before the discovery of the Talpiot (supposed Jesus family) tomb.
Here are some more excerpts from the experts debunking this particular connection. As usual, the quotes are followed by a link to their source article so you can read more in depth if you desire.
- From Dr. Ben Witherington: One more thing of importance. The James ossuary, according to the report of the antiquities dealer that Oded Golan got the ossuary from, said that the ossuary came from Silwan, not Talpiot, and had dirt in it that matched up with the soil in that particular spot in Jerusalem. In fact Oded confirmed this to me personally when I spoke with him at an SBL meeting. Why is this important? Well because the ossuaries that came out of Talpiot came out of a rock cave from a different place, and without such soil in it. To theorize that there was a Jesus family tomb, and yet the one member of Jesus’ family who we know was buried in Jerusalem for a long time did not come out of the ground from that locale contradicts this theory. Furthermore, Eusebius reports that the tomb marker for James’ burial was close to where James was martyred near the temple mount, indeed near the famous tombs in the Kidron valley such as the so-called tomb of Absalom. Talpiot is nowhere near this locale. SOURCE
- Former FBI agent Gerald Richard testified that a photo of the James ossuary, showing it in Golan’s home, was taken in the 1970s, based on tests done by the FBI photo lab. The trial resumes tomorrow. Jacobovici conceded in an interview that if the ossuary was photographed in the 1970s, it could not then have been found in a tomb in 1980. SOURCE
- From Joe Zias, the archaeologist who originally cataloged the 10 Tolpiat ossuaries, “Amos Kloner is right as I received and catalogued the objects, the 10th was plain and I put it out in the courtyard with all the rest of the plain ossuaries as was the standard procedure when one has little storage space available. Nothing was stolen nor missing and they were fully aware of this fact, just didn’t fit in with their agenda.” They=the filmmakers. SOURCE
- From an MSNBC article: “I don’t think the James Ossuary came from the same cave,” said Dan Bahat, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University. “If it were found there, the man who made the forgery would have taken something better. He would have taken Jesus.” SOURCE
- Jesus Tomb
- Comments(3)
The Israeli Antiquities Authority decided that the unprovenanced “James” ossuary on which Witherington gambled and loss his credibility was a fake. He is left with spouting conspiracy theories about the IAA in support of the forger and seller of fake antiquities, Oded Golan, and little else.
But Witherington’s words of suport aren’t really about Oded Golan, or even about the so-called James Ossuary. They’re all about Witherington.
He used the so-called “James Ossuary” as a base to launch attacks on some very precious elements of the Faith of both Roman Catholic and Orthodox believers:
“It is possible the inscription on the ossuary — ‘James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus’ — provides us with a challenge in regard to some basic Christian assumptions about James. The Roman Catholic tradition is that Jesus’ brothers and sisters actually were cousins; Orthodox Christians believe they were Joseph’s children by a previous marriage. The inscription conflicts with both of those Christian traditions, in fact, for there certainly was an Aramaic word for ‘cousin’ that could have been used in this inscription but was not. If Jesus was the son of only Mary, and James was the son of only Joseph, then Jesus and James would not literally have been brothers, as this inscription states.” (USA Today Weekend: http://www.usaweekend.com/03_issues/030413/030413jesus.html)
Ambitious to “one up” these confessions, he overreached and is still overreaching. I almost feel sorry for Witherington, he only wanted use the phony James Ossuary to bolster a stock evangelical Protestant teaching that goes against one held by both the RCs and Orthodox and now finds his bone box being used to attack the very resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ!
I was puzzled over Witherington’s singlemindedness until I read that he stated that he will stand by the “authenticity” of the James ossuary REGARDLESS of the outcome of Oded Golan trial. In other words, despite his many protestations, he’s not really interested in proof.
Is it possible that the REAL dog that Witherington has in this Tomb fight is one that he hopes will separate his precious James Ossuary from those of the so-called Jesus Tomb, thereby giving his credibility a chance at restoration?
Let’s not be snowed under by the heroic number of dispatches that have been coming out from Witherington against Cameron & Jacobovici because he does indeed protests too much.
It comes down to this: Witherington doesn’t want us to see that he is reaping what he has sown. One phony ossuary has yielded a crop of ten.
It’s deja vu all over again for those of us who are sick of phony bone boxes being used against the Christian Faith.
If the bones were removed from the ossuaries and studied before reburial, surely they were catalogued with a minimal amount of data: sex, height, and estimated age at death, if not presence of broken bones, arthritic changes etc. where’s the data?
It could be added as another important point to prove that James ossuary is not related to Talpiot Tomb below:
During Ted Koppel’s critique, ‘The Lost Tomb of Jesus - A Critical Look’, Koppel revealed he had denials from three people Simcha Jacobovici had misquoted in the documentary.
Koppel had a written denial from the Suffolk Crime Lab Director 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.
Source: Wikipedia, and you can see the movie above yourself by searching at the Internet