Bones of Contention
Why I still think the James bone box is likely to be authentic.
By Ben Witherington | posted 09/22/2003
Christianity Today,October 2003
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/010/2.42.html
The press conference of the Israeli Antiquities Authority was announced with much fanfare, and headlines went out around the world—JAMES OSSUARY DECLARED HOAX, INSCRIPTION SAID TO BE CERTAINLY A MODERN FORGERY. Of course, it was not possible in June to critique this finding since the scientific reports that were said to be the basis of it were not released. Two months later, as I am writing this, only a summary of the findings has been released (though it is called a "final report"). One must wonder why the IAA is holding back the data, when the commission finished its work nearly three months ago.
As it is, the summary of findings of the various committees reveals major problems. If the scientific reports that are the basis of these summaries are not more substantial than the summaries, then certainly the headlines were not merely premature, but probably inaccurate as well.
Curiosities
Let us start with a few facts. First, only a few weeks after the IAA's much ballyhooed press conference, careful scholars from Toronto published more of their findings. They concluded that the inscription on the James ossuary is certainly not a modern forgery. Toronto Museum curator Ed Keall could hardly have been clearer in his article that appeared in the July/August
Biblical Archaeology Review. Thus, at a minimum, we have a divided scholarly house in regard to this ossuary, and the attempt by the IAA to close the case on the James ossuary files has failed.
Second, Simcha Jacobovici, the producer of the
Discovery Channel's special on the James ossuary, also held a news conference near the end of June. In it he pointed out various of the problems underlying the IAA's report and the way IAA proceeded with its examination. For example, the head of the Israeli Geological Survey initially silenced his two associates who first authenticated the patina on the ossuary, in effect overruling them. He then stated publicly that if French epigrapher André Lemaire still thinks the inscription is authentic it probably is. Then he retracted this statement. In fact, Lemaire does still believe the inscription is authentic. His detailed refutation of the IAA's findings and his devastating critique of the process will be published this fall in BAR. Something is rotten in Jerusalem, and this whole investigation begins to look more and more political.
Third, at a July panel discussion in Jerusalem after the showing of the
Discovery Channel special
The Brother of Jesus, Ada Yardeni, a leading Israeli authority on Hebrew and Aramaic script, continued to maintain that the inscription was authentic and that nothing the IAA's report had revealed disproved this conclusion.
Fourth, two independent examinations of the IAA's report indicate that it is far from conclusive. A team of scholars at the University of Kentucky has compared the IAA's summaries with the reports from Toronto. This team consists of Dr. Sue Rimmer (an organic petrographer), and Drs. Ana Carmo and Harry Rowe (both isotope geochemists). Their preliminary findings note the "many inconsistencies in the information we have looked at both in terms of data/observations and interpretations" and state that "the issue of whether the inscription cuts the ossuary's primary patina is unresolved" (despite the claims of some in the IAA that its report resolves the matter). The team also asks, "Is it true that only three additional ossuaries were sampled for comparison with the oxygen isotope data? On what basis were these selected?" Obviously a larger sampling is needed before one can draw sweeping conclusions.
In addition, Dr. John Eiler of the California Institute of Technology makes the important point that by its own report, the IAA admits that the film found in the ossuary letters is not identical to the patina on the Yehoash inscription—the other artifact the IAA was accusing collector Oded Golan of faking. This means that these two artifacts should not be treated as a part of a coordinated effort at forgery. Rather, each must be evaluated individually. Eiler insists that we need a double-blind test done by scientists who have no stake in the authenticity of the ossuary.
Fifth, only a few people have noticed that there were no New Testament scholars or New Testament archaeologists on the IAA committee that studied the James ossuary. This is a glaring omission. One would have hoped for at least one specialist who could relate the ossuary and its relevance to the New Testament.
Curiouser and curiouser this becomes: No internationally known scholars on this commission were from anywhere outside Israel. Nor were there any Christian scholars on this commission, even though some outstanding ones live in Jerusalem. Christian participation would have assured us that theological agendas were not at play. The conclusions of the study would have been far more convincing had there been a balanced and internationally represented team of experts on the IAA commission. A scientific inquiry wants to guard against predispositions and biases. There are serious problems with a self-chosen body like the IAA commission, especially when several of the members on the commission spoke publicly against the authenticity of the ossuary inscription before they conducted scientific tests on it.
The IAA, long before the James ossuary came to light, has repeatedly made clear that it has an agenda—to stop looters and forgers—and in the bargain to oppose collectors, who in its view aid and abet looters and forgers. These are basically admirable aims (though I do not think it is necessary to tar all collectors with the same brush), but James and his ossuary should not have been made the poster child of this crusade. It is such a high-profile artifact that it needed to be studied dispassionately. The environment of extreme suspicion that surrounded this investigation, and the attempt to proceed by a process I can only call "justification by doubt" (a process in which one shows one's scholarly acumen by discrediting something), leaves me worried that the conclusions must surely be dubious at best. It is clear that the ossuary must undergo further tests in the wake of this report.
....
Time for some rethinking
One final matter needs attention: What about the fact that the inscription appears less weathered than the rosettes that are only faintly visible on the back of the ossuary? This fact seems to have been decisive in helping Professor Frank Cross of Harvard to conclude the inscription is probably a forgery. But there are a whole series of problems with this conclusion.
First, notice the differences between the rosettes on the Caiaphas ossuary and those on the James ossuary. Those on the Caiaphas ossuary, which dates to the same era, look like they were carved last week. The ones on the James box look very faint and weathered. Wouldn't they have both aged at the same rate, since they are both made of Jerusalem limestone and both from the same era and both were put in caves in Jerusalem to start with? Here is one answer: We know that construction work on and around the Temple and the Temple mount had ground to a halt by the time James died in A.D. 62. This left a lot of stone masons with too much time and limestone on their hands. How did they continue to make a living? One thing many of them did was carve ossuaries, which were apparently becoming increasingly popular in the period between Jesus' burial (A.D. 30) and James's (A.D. 63). Of course, stone masons carved ossuaries well before they were sold. Some ossuaries were not sold for a very long time. Undoubtedly some were left out in the quarry or yard where the stone was being kept, especially modest ones, such as the James ossuary. More elaborately carved ossuaries made of higher quality stone, such as the Caiaphas ossuary, would not be left to the elements.
....
But until all the experts gain access to the IAA's data, I can affirm that André Lemaire and the Toronto scholars and I have not yet found any smoking gun in the IAA's report. I am still convinced the inscription is likely to be genuine, and will be vindicated as even further study and testing is done. In the meantime, let the scholarly debate continue, and let no one think that the IAA report is anything like the definitive word on this issue. Only God has the last word.
The ossuary still cries out to us, as Jesus once said the stones of Jerusalem would do—and what it says is James, and what it says is Joseph, and best of all what it says is Jesus. The ossuary is just possibly the Word made visible.
Ben Witherington is professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary and coauthor, with Hershel Shanks, of
The Brother of Jesus: The Dramatic Story & Meaning of the First Archaeological Link to Jesus & His Family (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003).
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