Implications of the Forgery Trial Verdict on the Authenticity of the James Ossuary
See Also: Essays on the James Ossuary and the Temple Tablet from Bible and Interpretation
By Amnon Rosenfeld
Emeritus, Geological Survey of Israel
Jerusalem, Israel
Howard R. Feldman
Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School, a Division of Touro College
Division of Paleontology (Invertebrates), American Museum of Natural History
New York, NY
Yoel Kronfeld
Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences
Tel-Aviv University
Tel-Aviv, Israel
Wolfgang, E. Krumbein
Department of Geomicrobiology, ICBM
Carl von Ossietzky Universitaet, Oldenburg, Germany
April 2012
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M. Levy
Editors.
So, it appears that the ossuary and the inscription are authentic. Now we must develop an understanding of what this means. As part of that, I look forward to efforts that will seek to determine the relationship, if any, of this ossuary to the so-called Talpiot Tomb.
Therefore the tenth missing ossuary was plain according to the first preliminary report of Amos Kloner and in my judgement, cannot at this point be identified with the so called "James Ossuary".
Hence, your essay above is just confirming that a judge is unable to authenticate an archeological artefact.
Oded Golan was acquitted on a criminal matter, a "non lieu" as we say in French.
Claude Cohen-Matlofsky
This being said, I am not an expert geologist but if I am not mistaken, the patinas on ossuaries of the rock cut tombs in Jerusalem in the time period we are talking about is rather standard.
Claude Cohen-Matlofsky
Claude Cohen-Matlofsky
Claude Cohen-Matlofsky
And, it's the same Divine Providence that created the 90-years of ossuary burial custom, 20 years before Jesus to 30 years after!
I can't imagine that there will ever be a discovery that would conclusively prove that the Talpiot tomb was once that of Christ-Jesus and his physical family. But, there is plenty of compelling evidence to begin logically inducing that it was. The cluster of names from the Talpiot tomb, the substances from the Talpiot and Jonah tombs, the locations of the three tombs (Talpiot, Jonah and the destroyed tomb) in that vicinity, relative to their recognized "landmark" surroundings, as well as to the other tombs throughout Jerusalem and the region, provide a framework for it.
The mtdna of Jesus-son-of-Joseph is already known (JFT book). Aren't the James bone fragments still in Oded's possession? Is it against any law for Oded to release a tiny portion of the bone fragments so that they could be compared with Jesus-son-of-Joseph's mtdna? If it matched, we'd discover the two were related by blood, and that the James ossuary most likely came from the Talpiot tomb. It wouldn't prove that Jesus and James of the Talpiot tomb were the same brothers of the New Testament, but it would probably wake a lot of people up to the awesomeness of its possibility.
"Oded Golan contacted me over ten years ago, introduced himself as an engineer representing a group of investors who renovate historic buildings. He spoke of the Khan at Sha`ar Hagai as a one of the sites they are preparing to renovate. He said he had studied the subject of creating old patina on new stone to set into the building. I showed him a number of related articles and we discussed the subject."
Now, I ask, can anyone prove that the inscription on the James ossuary is authentic? Will Oded Golan ever release the supposed James bone fragments in his possession? If he does, will the outcome make a difference?
Claude Cohen-Matlofsky
After listening to Gabriel Barkay's outline, that points out that credible opinions like André Lemaire's should be given a lot more weight than the rumors of questionable credibility, I feel now that I was mistaken to heed the rumors and that there's a stronger case for the authenticity of the James ossuary than there is for it not being authentic. However, being that the patina of the James ossuary matches that of the Talpiot tomb, I can't help but believe that the James ossuary is the missing ossuary that came from the Talpiot tomb, regardless of the earlier date of possession that was given to the Israeli court. After an RTI test and other high-tech tests are done on it, and published, the convincing will be easier. In the mean time, if the Talpiot tomb wasn't holding the Jesus family of the New Testament, who was this 'other' Jesus of Jerusalem burial that was given such an unusual tomb? I wonder if this other Jesus (son of Joseph) with two forms of 'Mary' in his family ever came across the NT Jesus with the same, named blood/non-blood relatives. When they came for the NT Jesus in the garden, did the 'other' Jesus hide away somewhere so that he wouldn't be mistaken for the NT Jesus? What was this 'other' Jesus about (someone significant enough to have a tomb with a symbol at the head of it looking like a circle (universe?) crowned with a cathedral edged-arch (holy cover?)? Or, maybe the 'other' Jesus wasn't the significant character of the tomb. Maybe one of the Mary's was. (...just brainstorming.)