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Ossuary Update

The Seventh Sample

IAA Report Shows Evidence for Authenticity of “Jesus”

By Hershel Shanks

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) last summer declared the inscription on the James ossuary—which reads, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”—to be a fake.a Since then, however, both the reasoning and the conclusion of the IAA report have been widely attacked by experts.b And the members of the committee have not responded to the criticism. Now there is new reason to believe that at least the word “Jesus” on the ossuary is authentic. 045 The IAA’s conclusion was driven by the findings of the two geologists on the committee, who saw three layers of coatings on the ossuary, […]

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Footnotes

1.

“Summary Report of the Examining Committees for the James Ossuary and Yehoash Inscriptions,” BAR September/October 2003, pp. 27–31.

2.

André Lemaire, “Israel Antiquities Authority’s Report on the James Ossuary Deeply Flawed,” BAR November/December 2003 and James Harrell, “Final Blow to IAA Report: Flawed Geochemistry Used to Condemn James Inscription,” BAR, January/February 2004.