An Interesting Find
by Anne Barnard
The Boston Globe
An unadorned limestone burial box apparently bought 15 years ago on the
Jerusalem antiquities market may be the oldest archaeological evidence of Jesus
and the first object ever found that relates to a member of his family, an
archaeological journal said yesterday.
The box, or ossuary, typical of those used in the first century to bury bones,
is inscribed "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," and dates to around A.D.
62, when early texts say that James, one of the first Christian leaders, was
stoned to death as punishment for preaching about Jesus.
Andre Lemaire, a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris and a specialist in ancient
inscriptions, first saw the box last summer after meeting the owner by chance in
Jerusalem. Since then, he and other scholars and scientists have checked the
lettering style for historical consistency and tested the surface of the carved
letters to make sure they were not forged.
In an article released yesterday by the non-sectarian Biblical Archaeology
Review, Lemaire pronounces both box and inscription genuine -- though he
concedes there is a small chance the ossuary held not the James of the New
Testament, but the bones of a contemporary with the same name.
"It will be extremely important if it's authentic," said Lawrence Stager, a
professor of the archaeology of Israel at Harvard University. "Everything that
they've put in this non-technical article seems to point in that direction."
Stager said the discovery, if it holds up, would be important in the
long-standing debate over how accurately Christian texts depict the life of
Jesus -- and would remind scholars to take seriously the clues provided in the
New Testament.
Attitudes toward the historical Jesus range from "extreme skepticism that says
he never lived at all, it's all a made-up story ... to those that accept
practically everything that's written in the New Testament about him," Stager
added. "Most archaeologists work in between and really don't have a great deal
of existential interest in how it turns out. They're more interested in just
understanding and re-creating the past."
The few known artifacts connected to biblical figures reflect the lives of
government officials. Coins depict King Herod, known in the Bible for trying to
kill the infant Jesus; an inscribed stone found 41 years ago mentions Pontius
Pilate, who the gospels say sentenced Jesus to crucifixion; and in 1990 a
similar burial box was found belonging to Caiaphas, a judge also mentioned in
scripture as being present at the trial.
James is described in the New Testament as an early church leader who brokered
an important compromise that allowed non-Jews to convert to Christianity without
following all the Jewish dietary laws. Early historians report that he was
martyred in 62 AD. His relationship to Jesus is a matter of debate in Christian
theology; some say Mary and Joseph had several children after Jesus; others say
that the siblings came from a previous marriage of Joseph's or that James was a
cousin.
The box is about 20 inches long, 10 inches wide, and 12 inches tall, widening
from bottom to top, much like a window box. The 7 1/2-inch-long inscription is
written in Aramaic, the main language spoken in first-century Palestine and
Syria. It reads "Ya'akov bar Yosef akhui diYeshua," which translates as "James
(also translated in English as Jacob), son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
Such boxes were used in Jewish burials during a relatively short historical
period, between 20 and 70 AD. About a year after the body's initial burial, the
bones were removed and placed in ossuaries. The Israeli owner, who asked to
remain anonymous, told Lemaire he bought the box from an Arab dealer 15 years
ago for a few hundred dollars and did not focus on the text of the inscription
until Lemaire did -- circumstances that argue against forgery, said Stephen
Feldman, deputy editor of the magazine.
"Neither the buyer nor the seller knew the significance of what they had on
their hands," he said. Archaeologists are skeptical of objects bought on the
private market, which are often looted from tombs rather than found in an
academic excavation. Such objects are removed from their geographical contexts
and may be forged.
Lemaire and others concluded the writing style was consistent with the period.
Scientists at Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructures Geological Survey
inspected samples with a scanning electron microscope and reported that the
limestone and the soil attached to it were consistent with those used in
Jerusalem burials of that period.
But their main concern was that a modern forger could have added an inscription
to an ancient ossuary. The scientists tested the patina on the outside of the
box and on the inside of the carved letters and found they were the same.
"The patina does not contain any modern elements (such as modern pigments) and
it adheres firmly to the stone. No signs of the use of a modern tool or
instrument was found," wrote Dr. Amnon Rosenfeld and Dr. Shimone Ilani.
Several letters are missing the patina, probably because of an attempt to clean
the box, Lemaire said.
But even if the box is real, it could belong to a different James. James, Joseph
and Jesus were common names; the chances of all three being mentioned in the
right order are slim, but not impossible, biblical scholars said.
For all the questions, the box raises excitement for archaeologists and
theologians. Lemaire, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, said that from the
moment he saw the box, "I was very excited." It's one thing to know
figures such as Jesus and James through religious texts, he said, and another to
find a physical object related to them: "It's like having direct contact with
him. It's more living."
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