Lying Scholars? - The BAS Library
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Ossuary Update

Lying Scholars?

Rumor, Gossip and Misinformation Swirl around the James Ossuary Inscription

By Hershel Shanks

Intense scholarly disagreements are common in archaeology. Cases of deliberate lying, however, are rare. Is this such a case? If so, what is the motive? When I returned from the Annual Meetingsa in Atlanta last November, I penned my customary report for publication in the March/April issue.b (I have been doing this in the March/ April issue for 22 years.) For this year’s report, I described a conversation with two scholars who told me that they had seen the controversial James ossuary, now inscribed “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,” in the shop of a Jerusalem antiquities […]

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Footnotes

1.

Of ASOR (American Schools of Oriental Research), SBL (Society of Biblical Literature), AAR (American Academy of Religion) and NEAS (Near East Archaeology Society).

2.

Hershel Shanks, “A Tale of Two Meetings, BAR, March/April 2004.

3.

Now called Near Eastern Archaeology.

4.

Eric Meyers, “More Evidence: Ossuary a Fraud?” at www.bibleinterp.com.

5.

“Burial Box of James, the Brother of Jesus.”

Endnotes

1.

Some say this scholar has theological reasons for his position; according to scholars we have spoken to, he believes in the perpetual virginity of Mary, a belief he fears may be undermined if the ossuary inscription is authentic and refers to Jesus of Nazareth. But this is no reason to lie about having previously seen the inscription. In any event, Father Joseph Fitzmyer, who comes from the same religious tradition as the scholar in question, has no such fear. He, too, doubts that the reference to “Jesus” on the ossuary is to Jesus of Nazareth, but notes that the word for “brother” in the New Testament does not necessarily mean blood brother; it can mean cousin and even compatriot, Fitzmyer says.