(Israel Antiquities Authority workers prepare ossuaries, found during an excavation in Jerusalem 27 years ago, for display in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh February 27, 2007. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
The authenticity of a burial box purported to have been for the “brother” of Jesus Christ remained shrouded in mystery on Wednesday after a Jerusalem court acquitted an Israeli private collector of charges he forged the artifact.
The court, in finding Oded Golan not guilty, noted that expert witnesses could not agree on whether an inscription on the 2,000-year-old limestone box which reads: “James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”, was genuine or had been forged.
The authenticity of the so-called “James ossuary” will likely “continue to be investigated in the archaeological and scientific arena, and time will tell”, the court said.
The decade-long mystery has haunted archaeologists and religious scholars worldwide. It has focused on what could be the earliest, most concrete evidence of Jesus’s life in Jerusalem and suspicions of the most sophisticated of forgeries.
