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Ada Yardeni

YA‘AKOV, JACOB AND JAMES. The inscription on the James Ossuary is commonly expressed as “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” Because it’s written in Aramaic, the inscription actually begins with the name “Ya‘akov”—what an Israeli would read as “Jacob.” Would ossuary owner Oded Golan have known that the English names Jacob and James are variants of the same name?