New Study Supports Authenticity of Yehoash Inscription

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BAR has defended the authenticity of the James Ossuary inscription (“James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”)^a and the Ivory Pomegranate inscription (“(Belonging) to the Temple of [Yahwe]h; holy to the priests”).^b But we have taken no position regarding the Yehoash (or Jehoash) inscription, a lengthier text on a black stone plaque that records repairs to the Temple. The reason is that distinguished philologists and paleographers of ancient Hebrew have disagreed regarding the authenticity of the Yehoash inscription.^c

Now a team of scientists has weighed in on the Yehoash inscription. In a highly respected, peer-reviewed scientific journal, the Journal of Archaeological Science, the five authors state that “chemical, geologic and petrographic analyses support the antiquity of the patina [on the tablet], which in turn, strengthens the contention that the inscription is authentic.”¹

The authors of the article include two scientists affiliated with the Geological Survey of Israel,² another affiliated with the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences of Tel Aviv University,³ a microbiologist with a German university,⁴ and a paleontologist with the American Museum of Natural History.⁵

The team notes that several lines of the inscription run across a crack in the tablet, which “favors the authenticity of the inscription since a modern engraver would have known that incising across this line of weakness would have jeopardized the structural integrity of the tablet.” Indeed, the tablet subsequently broke, which “revealed that the top half of the fissure exhibits some natural bleaching and incipient patina formation due to weathering whereas the lower part of the tablet exhibits a clearly fresh line of breakage.”

The patina also includes pure gold globules of 1 to 4 micrometers in size (a micro-meter is a millionth of a meter). Gold globules of this size do “not exist in the modern gold market.” The smallest available there is 500 micrometers.

Yuval Goren is the distinguished scientist from Tel Aviv University who originally concluded on scientific grounds that the Yehoash inscription is a forgery. Goren’s basic problem, however, is that he is an expert in clay, not in stone. As a result, he identified the stone on which the inscription was engraved as supposedly greywacke that was unavailable in Israel and was imported from Cyprus. In fact, it is arkosic sandstone widely available in Israel.^d

Goren also used his own oxygen isotope test to unmask the patina on the stone as a forgery. The scientists who wrote the new paper, however, called this “unreliable,” adding that “to our knowledge, this method is not used in any lab in the world.”

At least one prominent paleographer who previously regarded the Yehoash inscription as a forgery stated that he was 015going to take a second look at it in light of the recent scientific article.

As of this writing Professor Goren has not responded to the article. When and if he does so, we will report to our readers.—H.S.

BAR has defended the authenticity of the James Ossuary inscription (“James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”)a and the Ivory Pomegranate inscription (“(Belonging) to the Temple of [Yahwe]h; holy to the priests”).b But we have taken no position regarding the Yehoash (or Jehoash) inscription, a lengthier text on a black stone plaque that records repairs to the Temple. The reason is that distinguished philologists and paleographers of ancient Hebrew have disagreed regarding the authenticity of the Yehoash inscription.c Now a team of scientists has weighed in on the Yehoash inscription. In a highly respected, peer-reviewed scientific journal, the Journal […]