The Continuing Mystery Of The Ancient Ossuaries

Friday, June 1, 2012

One of the most intriguing archaeological controversies of modern times is that of the James Ossuary. The James Ossuary is a 2000 year old burial box inscribed with the words in first-century Aramaic/Hebrew - "Yaakov, ben Yosef, ach Yeshua" - "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." The burial box was revealed to the world by a private collector named Oded Golan. Golan allegedly obtained the box from an Arab trader in East Jerusalem about ten years ago. The global uproar was caused by the fact that the inscription matches what appears in the New Testament. The books of Matthew, Mark, and Galatians all refer to James as the brother of Yeshua, Jesus. But the claim was soon followed by controversy. Two committees from the Israel Antiquities Authority, which oversee all of the nation's archaeological finds, ruled in 2003, that the ossuary was in fact genuine, but that the inscriptions were forged. Golan was then charged with forging the inscription to make money. But just recently an Israeli court hearing the case ruled that Oded Golan not guilty. Thus, the question remains, if Oded didn't forget the inscription, then who did. And if no one did, then could this still be the ossuary of the biblical James. Hershel Shanks, founder of the Biblical Archaeology Society and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, disagreed with the verdict that the inscriptions were forged. Shank maintained that the committees were set up to rule that the inscription as a forgery. He believes the inscription to be real. In the recent ruling, the court stated that the 2000 year old ossuary will probably "continue to be investigated in the archaeological and scientific arena, and time will tell.' In other words, the verdict is still out. Modern archaeology is filled with accounts of ancient discoveries upholding the biblical record and silencing critics. For years critics of the Bible challenged the existence of biblical characters. Recently an ancient seal was discovered in Israel bearing the name "Baruch... the Scribe." It was the seal of the prophet Jeremiah's scribe, specifically mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. Another recent find was a Burial box bearing the name "Joseph Caiaphas," the very same as the high priest who presided over Messiah's trial. Before that an inscription was found in Caesarea bearing the name "Pontius Pilate," the Roman governor who presided over Messiahs' execution. At the same time there are attempts from time to time, to claim that an ancient tomb or ossuary was that of Jesus, based on the "evidence" that the name "Yeshua" (Jesus) or "Yosef" (Joseph) appears. But what they won't tell you is that the name Yeshua and Yosef were among the most common names in first-century Judea - sort of like "John" and "Joe" are today - Thus the evidence ends up meaning very little. And as for the James Ossuary - is it real or fake? In the end, it doesn't really matter - for our faith does not rest on the presence of a burial box - but on its absence. The fact is that 2000 years after the death of Messiah, there is still no one who can come up with a tomb or a body - no at the time, and not now. The resurrection of Yeshua, the Messiah, remains among the most stubborn facts of history - it doesn't' go away - Because He lives. Where is Yeshua? He's not in the tomb. He's in us!