The story with the "discovery of the century" made in Israel received a sensational continuation. After years of judicial investigation, the Jerusalem District Court refused to recognize the tomb with the inscription "Jacob, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" as a fake. True, he did not unconditionally confirm its authenticity
The press has already reported that the first material evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ was allegedly found in the Holy Land. Then the collector from Tel Aviv, Oded Golan, presented to the public an ossuary (this is the name of the ark in which the ancient Jews kept the bones of the dead). It is a rectangular box, on one of the sides of which there is an inscription in Aramaic: "Jacob, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
And from the New Testament we know that Christ did have a brother named Jacob. And their earthly father was called Joseph. It turns out that the remains of the Savior's closest earthly relative have been found?
According to Golan, he acquired the ossuary back in 1967, during the Six Day War, from an Arab who was engaged in intermediary activities between "black" archaeologists and collectors. And he was in no hurry to present it to the public because he doubted the authenticity of the ossuary and the inscription on it. Doubts were partly dispelled by the French linguist and paleographer (a specialist who studies the appearance of ancient inscriptions), Professor of the Sorbonne, André Lemaire. At the beginning of this century, he assured that the embossed phrase, both in content and in the nature of the application, corresponds to the way the ancient Jews wrote during the life of Jesus Christ. Then Golan gave the ossuary to archaeologists. And they determined that the box is more than 19 centuries old. In other words, it could well have been made and used in the 1st century AD. The conclusion is obvious: since there was a brother of Christ,then he himself is a real person.
Inscription with a touch of fraud A
worldwide sensation made the staff of the Israel Antiquities Authority jittery. They took the ossuary for examination. It was conducted by Professor of Tel Aviv University Yuval Goren and specialist of the Israel Geological Prospecting Institute Avner Eylon. Their "sentence": the petrified limescale covering the box is by no means as ancient as on other famous artifacts of the 1st century. And the one that is on the walls of the box does not correspond to what is on the inscription.
- It is noticeable that the limestone on the inscription contains the remains of plankton and marine microorganisms, - said Dr. Goren. “But natural limestone deposits that have formed underground, such as in a cave used for burial, cannot contain fossils.
In general, according to Goren, it turned out: either the antique dealer Golan himself, or the one who sold him the ossuary, cheated. They crushed a piece of the first limestone they came across, diluted it with water and covered the artifact with the resulting solution to give it a more ancient look.
Oded Golan was immediately accused of fraud, sent to prison, and the message about the exposure of the "crime of the century" spread throughout the world.
It looks like the ossuary is genuine
The investigation lasted several years. Golan was then released on subscription, then closed again in jail. He denied that he was engaged in counterfeiting. But his house was searched. And a few more suspicious items were found in the collection. Plus some "raw stone blocks" - the police considered them to be the material from which Golan intended to make new "ancient artifacts". Everything went to the fact that the fraudulent collector would be sentenced to ten years - in Israel, those who try to fake history are treated very harshly. Still, Golan managed to insist in court on the need for a new examination of the ossuary. Including on a repeated study by independent experts of the limescale that covered the grave box.
The examination of the ossuary itself was carried out again at the Israel Geological Prospecting Institute. But already other experts - no less respected Amnon Rosenfeld and Shimon Ilani. And the inscription itself was examined by a professor at Johns Hopkins University (USA) Kyle McCarter.
The latter unconditionally confirmed: the peculiarities of the text carved on the tomb still allow us to attribute it to the 1st century AD. And geologists, disagreeing with the conclusions of their predecessor colleagues, admitted that such a limescale on the ossuaries could well have formed in two millennia. They also did not find any microorganisms on the inscription … And the difference between the plaque on the ossuary itself and on the box was explained by the fact that someone once tried to clean the inscription with the help of plant or chemical means.
Now the judge has ruled that the investigation must find new evidence of Golan's guilt within six months, or he will be fully acquitted. This is the way it is under Israeli law. But everyone is sure that no new facts will be revealed. The scientific world is split, and each side has its own weighty arguments.
The Same Jacob
Most people following this story probably don't care if Oded Golan is judged or not. It is much more important to understand: is the first material evidence of the earthly life of Jesus Christ really found, or is it just a coincidence?
Let me remind you that the very first scientist to examine the ossuary was Sorbonne professor André Lemaire. He also tried to approach this issue from the other side. In the 1st century in Jerusalem, where about 40 thousand people then lived, the names Jesus, Joseph and Jacob were quite widespread. Calling on statistics, probability theory and history to help, Lemaire calculated that at that time, about 20 Jacob could have fathers Joseph and brothers Jesus. At the same time, the researcher points out, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of such ossuaries, but only two of them bear the names of the brothers of the deceased. And on this basis, he suggests that the brothers were mentioned only if they were unusual people. For example, like Jesus Christ.
However, Lehmer himself does not claim that his conclusions are 100 percent correct. He speaks only of the "high probability" that the remains of the Savior's brother were once kept in the ossuary.
FROM THE DOSSIER "KP"
The Apostle James is one of 70 members of the Great Apostolic Circle. In two Gospels he is referred to as "the brother of the Lord." But still he was not a brother of Christ. It is believed that he was Joseph's son by another woman, born before his marriage to the Virgin Mary. And Christ was only a half-brother. According to another version, he was the son of the sister of the Virgin Mary, which means he was a cousin of the Savior. James did not believe in the teachings of Jesus. But after death and resurrection, Christ appeared to his brother, and he became a zealous Christian. Subsequently, he was the first head - the bishop of the Christian community of Jerusalem. In 62, the Jews threw him from the roof of the Jerusalem temple, and then threw stones at him. According to the historian Egesippus, Jacob knelt until his death and prayed for his tormentors.
