Hello friends! Here we have quite a controversial find, as it was considered to be 100% authentic and proof of Solomon's Temple.
A couple of months after this relic was found, Israeli government claimed Oded Golan had forged The Jehoash Tablet along with the, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus Ossuary".
The Jehoash Tablet is proof of Solomon's Temple. The funny part is that the Israeli government wanted the relic for themselves after claiming for 10 years that it was a forgery.
First i will present the finding and then i will show you the Israeli case. I urge you to do research on this find and come up with your own conclusion :)(Credit given at the bottom of each article :D)
(UPDATE)
Oded Golan has been freed of the charges, the artifacts have been re-examined and they seem to be genuine. You can do research on both the, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" and the, "Jehoash Tablet" to find updated information. Please keep in mind the trial took 10 years, so you'll need to dig around a bit to find updated information on these relics.
I will also post at the bottom the following article, "Ancient James Ossuary and Jehoash Tablet Inscriptions May Be Authentic, Say Experts." This article was published before Oded Golan was declared innocent (Credit given at the bottom of the article :D)
I must also note that the Biblical Archaeological Society and the Discovery Channel announced in Washington, D.C. that the ancient inscription on the 2,000-year-old ossuary with the inscribed Aramaic words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" is genuine.
1 Kings 6
6 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.
2 And the house which king Solomon built for the Lord, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.
3 And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.
4 And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.
5 And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about:
6 The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.
7 And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
8 The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third.
9 So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.
10 And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.
11 And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying,
12 Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father:
13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.
14 So Solomon built the house, and finished it.
15 And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir.
16 And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.
17 And the house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits long.
18 And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.
19 And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
20 And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.
21 So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.
22 And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.
23 And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.
24 And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.
25 And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubims were of one measure and one size.
26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub.
27 And he set the cherubims within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.
28 And he overlaid the cherubims with gold.
29 And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, within and without.
30 And the floors of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without.
31 And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall.
32 The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.
33 So also made he for the door of the temple posts of olive tree, a fourth part of the wall.
34 And the two doors were of fir tree: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
35 And he carved thereon cherubims and palm trees and open flowers: and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work.
36 And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams.
37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the Lord laid, in the month Zif:
38 And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.
Archaeological Evidence for Solomon's Temple
in a Newly Discovered 9th Century B.C. Stone Tablet
Jehoash Tablet
Jehoash Tablet
A second stone inscription revealed within the last three months provides remarkable evidence for the reliability of the biblical texts.
Only a decade ago, skeptics were complaining that there was no archaeological evidence for the Judah Kings of the House of David (1008-586 BC) and the Jerusalem Temple of King David's son Jedidiah (better known as King Solomon). However, in 1993, a tablet was found with an inscription by King Hazael of Aram-Damascus in about 825 B.C., which indicated that his father, Hadad II, was victorious in battle against the "foot soldiers, charioteers and horsemen of the King of the House of David" (against Jehosaphat, c. 860 B.C.).
A second stone tablet, the "Moabite Stone," revealed in 1995, contains 36 lines of Phoenician script that recounts the rebellion of King Mesha of Moab against King Jehoram of Israel and King Jehosaphat of Judah (recorded in 2 Kings 3:5-27).1
The newly revealed sandstone tablet has a 15 line inscription in ancient Hebrew that is similar to the writings found in 2 Kings 12:1-6, 11-17.2 In the inscription, King Joash tells priests to take "holy money ... to buy quarry stones and timber and copper and labor to carry out the duty with faith."
The last part of the inscription indicates that if the work is completed well, "the Lord will protect his people with blessing."
Geologic studies of the stone and inscription by Israel’s Geological Institute, confirmed that it is authentic. Carbon-14 dating confirmed that the writing was completed in the 9th century B.C. Studies at the institute found microscopic flecks of gold that might have been burnt into the stone when the temple containing both the tablet and gold objects was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. According to Amos Bean, director of the institute, "They could be from gold-plated objects in the home of a very rich man, or a temple. ... It’s hard to believe that anyone would know how to do these things to make it look real.”
The new find is significant in that it corroborates the existence of the Temple of Solomon and part of the history of that temple recorded in the book of 2 Kings.
Why is Israel fighting to keep “fake” relic of Solomon’s Temple?
The Jehoash Tablet as it was brought to Israel’s high court on Wednesday. It broke into two pieces while it was in the safekeeping of the Israel Antiquities Authority
There were extraordinary scenes at Israel’s high court on Wednesday as government prosecutors argued that the state should retain possession of an inscribed stone known as the Jehoash Tablet after a 10-year legal battle in which the same prosecutors had branded the item a fake and pursued a 7-year criminal trial against the man they accused of forging it.
The rectangular black stone – about 12 inches long, 10 inches wide and just over 3 inches thick – is inscribed with a chiselled inscription of 15 lines in ancient script similar to a famous passage from the Second Book of Kings recording repairs made by King Jehoash to the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem around 800 BCE. If authentic, it is the only item yet found that may have come from Solomon’s Temple, built around the 9th century BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians 300-400 years later.
In a stunning about-turn, after losing a high-profile forgery prosecutionagainst Oded Golan, an Israeli antiquities collector, Israel’s deputy state attorney begged the high court in Jerusalem on Wednesday to allow the Israeli government to keep the artifact on the grounds that it is “an antiquity.”
Golan said he had offered to loan it to a museum for study and public display, but he would fight the attempts by the state to confiscate it.
The Israeli government is effectively demanding that Golan be punished despite being acquitted by confiscating the Jehoash tablet.
In a scathing departure from his usually cautious comments throughout the case, Judge Farkash accepted that the return of the Jehoash Tablet should await the appeal decision by the high court, but he pointedly dismissed the prosecution argument.
“The state insisted on its view that this was not an antiquity, but a forged antiquity. Since, according to the state, it is not an antiquity, it cannot now contend that it owns the tablet according to the Antiquities Law, and therefore by law it should be returned to Golan,” Farkash wrote in a decision issued on February 12, 2013.
During an appeal hearing in the Israel High Court in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Deputy State Attorney Naomi Katz-Lulav argued that while the state still believed the inscription was fake, the stone itself was “ancient.”
“We say it’s an antiquity,” Katz-Lulav told the three-judge panel. “We want to keep it.”
The words for “ancient” and “antiquity” are the same in Hebrew: atiqa.
“Since, according to the state, it is not an antiquity, it cannot now contend that it owns the tablet according to the Antiquities Law” – Judge Aharon Farkash
The judges pointedly asked how the prosecution could reverse its earlier argument that the tablet was fake, including evidence from its own expert witness that the stone was recently inscribed and came from abroad. They also wondered how the prosecution could argue that the stone came from Israel, and so belonged to the state, when the only evidence attesting to its origins was hearsay defence evidence that the antiquities dealer who sold it to Golan told him it had been discovered in the late 1990s near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Throughout the trial, the prosecution had branded that evidence as manufactured to try and prove the authenticity of the item.
“We understand the situation differently now. It’s ours and we have the right to do whatever we want with our property,” Katz-Lulav said after the hearing “We don’t need to give a reason.”
She suggested that sometime in the future, it may be discovered to be genuine.
“It is unthinkable that such an item should be in private hands,” she told the court.
An archaeologist sitting in the public gallery during the hearing laughed out loud at the prosecution argument, pointing out that all stones are “ancient,” since they were created millions of years ago. It was only the addition of the inscription that transformed an “ancient” stone into an “antiquity” – an inscription that the prosecution continues to denounce as fake.
“The prosecution wants to have their cake and eat it,” said the archaeologist. “Their argument is complete nonsense.”
Source: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-is-israel-fighting-to-keep-fake-relic-of-solomons-temple/
An Israel Antiquities Authority official with the Jehoash Tablet at the Israeli High Court on Wednesday. The tablet was broken in two along an existing crack while in the safekeeping of the IAA (Copyright Photo: Matthew Kalman)
EXCLUSIVE
By MATTHEW KALMAN
JERUSALEM, August 1 - In a stunning about-turn, after losing a 10-year legal effort to prove that an Israeli antiquities collector faked an inscription from Solomon’s Temple, Israel’s deputy state attorney begged the high court in Jerusalem on Wednesday to allow the Israeli government to keep the artifact on the grounds that it is “an antiquity.”
Oded Golan, the Israeli antiquities collector who was acquitted of forging the Jehoash Tablet after a seven-year criminal trial, said he had offered to loan it to a museum for study and public display, but he would fight the attempts by the state to confiscate it.
The rectangular black stone Jehoash tablet - about 12 inches long, 10 inches wide and just over 3 inches thick - is inscribed with a chiselled inscription of 15 lines in ancient script similar to a famous passage from the Second Book of Kings recording repairs made by King Jehoash to the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem around 800 BCE. If authentic, it is the only item yet found that may have come from Solomon's Temple, built around the 9th century BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians 300-400 years later.
Golan was acquitted of all forgery charges in March 2012, nine years after he was first arrested on suspicion of forging the inscription. He was also acquitted of forging the words “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” on a stone burial box, and dozens of other items including seal impressions linked to biblical figures, inked inscriptions on pottery sherds and a richly-decorated ancient stone lamp.
“Since, according to the state, it is not an antiquity, it cannot now contend that it owns the tablet”
The Jehoash Tablet has never been displayed in public – except in the Jerusalem District Court of Judge Aharon Farkash. It was seized by Israeli police in 2003 together with hundreds of other items, including the James ossuary, in a series of raids on Golan’s home, office and warehouses.
Following Golan’s arrest, a panel of experts appointed by the Israel Antiquities Authority declared the Jehoash Tablet and the James ossuary fakes. Golan and four others were indicted in December 2004 on multiple counts of forgery and accused of being members of an international antiquities forgery ring. None of the charges held up in court.
A year after Golan’s acquittal, Judge Farkash ordered the prosecution to return the Jehoash Tablet, the James ossuary and the other items to Golan.
But after arguing for a decade that the Jehoash Tablet was a fake, the prosecution has suddenly decided it is an antiquity, and therefore the property of the state under the 1978 Israel Antiquities Law.
EXCLUSIVE
By MATTHEW KALMAN
JERUSALEM, August 1 - In a stunning about-turn, after losing a 10-year legal effort to prove that an Israeli antiquities collector faked an inscription from Solomon’s Temple, Israel’s deputy state attorney begged the high court in Jerusalem on Wednesday to allow the Israeli government to keep the artifact on the grounds that it is “an antiquity.”
Oded Golan, the Israeli antiquities collector who was acquitted of forging the Jehoash Tablet after a seven-year criminal trial, said he had offered to loan it to a museum for study and public display, but he would fight the attempts by the state to confiscate it.
The rectangular black stone Jehoash tablet - about 12 inches long, 10 inches wide and just over 3 inches thick - is inscribed with a chiselled inscription of 15 lines in ancient script similar to a famous passage from the Second Book of Kings recording repairs made by King Jehoash to the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem around 800 BCE. If authentic, it is the only item yet found that may have come from Solomon's Temple, built around the 9th century BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians 300-400 years later.
Golan was acquitted of all forgery charges in March 2012, nine years after he was first arrested on suspicion of forging the inscription. He was also acquitted of forging the words “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” on a stone burial box, and dozens of other items including seal impressions linked to biblical figures, inked inscriptions on pottery sherds and a richly-decorated ancient stone lamp.
“Since, according to the state, it is not an antiquity, it cannot now contend that it owns the tablet”
The Jehoash Tablet has never been displayed in public – except in the Jerusalem District Court of Judge Aharon Farkash. It was seized by Israeli police in 2003 together with hundreds of other items, including the James ossuary, in a series of raids on Golan’s home, office and warehouses.
Following Golan’s arrest, a panel of experts appointed by the Israel Antiquities Authority declared the Jehoash Tablet and the James ossuary fakes. Golan and four others were indicted in December 2004 on multiple counts of forgery and accused of being members of an international antiquities forgery ring. None of the charges held up in court.
A year after Golan’s acquittal, Judge Farkash ordered the prosecution to return the Jehoash Tablet, the James ossuary and the other items to Golan.
But after arguing for a decade that the Jehoash Tablet was a fake, the prosecution has suddenly decided it is an antiquity, and therefore the property of the state under the 1978 Israel Antiquities Law.
Israeli prosecutors have reversed a decade-long criminal pursuit of the Jehoash Tablet forgers and now say it is an antiquity that should be in the possession of the state (Copyright Photo: Matthew Kalman)The stunning about-turn – from branding the tablet a fake and pursuing a decade-long witchhunt for its forger, to deciding that it was a valuable antiquity that must only be under control of the Israeli state – has become the central plank of the government appeal now before Israel’s high court.
The Israeli government is effectively demanding that Golan be punished despite being acquitted by confiscating the Jehoash tablet.
In a scathing departure from his usually cautious comments throughout the case, Judge Farkash accepted that the return of the Jehoash Tablet should await the appeal decision by the high court, but he pointedly dismissed the prosecution argument.
The Israeli government is effectively demanding that Golan be punished despite being acquitted by confiscating the Jehoash tablet.
In a scathing departure from his usually cautious comments throughout the case, Judge Farkash accepted that the return of the Jehoash Tablet should await the appeal decision by the high court, but he pointedly dismissed the prosecution argument.
“The state insisted on its view that this was not an antiquity, but a forged antiquity. Since, according to the state, it is not an antiquity, it cannot now contend that it owns the tablet according to the Antiquities Law, and therefore by law it should be returned to Golan,” Farkash wrote in a decision issued on February 12, 2013.
During an appeal hearing in the Israel High Court in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Deputy State Attorney Naomi Katz-Lulav argued that while the state still believed the inscription was fake, the stone itself was “ancient.”
“We say it’s an antiquity,” Katz-Lulav told the three-judge panel. “We want to keep it.”
The words for “ancient” and “antiquity” are the same in Hebrew: atiqa.
“We understand the situation differently now. It’s ours and we have the right to do whatever we want with our property”
The judges pointedly asked how the prosecution could reverse its earlier argument that the tablet was fake, including evidence from its own expert witness that the stone was recently inscribed and came from abroad. They also wondered how the prosecution could argue that the stone came from Israel, and so belonged to the state, when the only evidence attesting to its origins was hearsay defence evidence that the antiquities dealer who sold it to Golan told him it had been discovered in the late 1990s near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Throughout the trial, the prosecution had branded that evidence as manufactured to try and prove the authenticity of the item.
“We understand the situation differently now. It’s ours and we have the right to do whatever we want with our property,” Katz-Lulav said after the hearing “We don’t need to give a reason.”
She suggested that sometime in the future, it may be discovered to be genuine.
“It is unthinkable that such an item should be in private hands,” she told the court.
An archaeologist sitting in the public gallery during the hearing laughed out loud at the prosecution argument, pointing out that all stones are “ancient,” since they were created millions of years ago. It was only the addition of the inscription that transformed an “ancient” stone into an “antiquity” – an inscription that the prosecution continues to denounce as fake.
“The prosecution wants to have their cake and eat it,” said the archaeologist. “Their argument is complete nonsense.”
But the judges were apparently smitten with the tablet and asked for it to be produced in court so they could handle it themselves. The tablet was once offered for sale to the Israel Museum for four million dollars. It was broken in two while in the custody of the Israel Antiquities Authority and was brought to court in a plain wooden box, protected by plastic wrap.
“Today we felt a piece of history, we held it in our hands,” said Justice Yoram Danziger, chairman of the panel, clearly moved after holding the only item known that may have adorned the temple. “Clearly, the Jehoash Tablet must be considered in a separate category to all the other items.”
After adjourning to chambers to discuss the issue, the judges returned and, defying the logic set out in Judge Farkash’s decision, suggested a compromise whereby the state would keep the Jehoash Tablet and negotiate returning more than 250 other items seized from Golan.
“Their position is ridiculous and the suggested compromise is completely unacceptable,” Golan told this reporter after Wednesday’s court hearing. “I should just give it to the state after they put me through this for the past ten years? Why? I already told them I was willing to loan it to a museum and submit it for testing.”
“Now, after they failed to destroy me, they expect me just to give them the very item they said I faked. The offer suggested by the court will not happen. I will negotiate with the prosecution and try to offer some other possibilities and hopefully the high court will accept it,” he said.
Ancient James Ossuary and Jehoash Tablet Inscriptions May Be Authentic, Say Experts
By Michael Gordon Wed, Aug 31, 2011
The famous forgery trial in Israel has produced strong testimony supporting the possible authenticity of the ancient James Ossuary and Jehoash Tablet inscriptions.
After five long years, the high profile trial of accused Israeli forgers Oded Golan and Robert Deutsch was finally over, but not without raising a multitude of testimony statements from expert witnesses for both prosecution and defense concerning the innocence or guilt of the two defenders and the authenticity of the two famous ancient antiquities that made headlines in newspapers and journals during the first decade of the 21st century. The expert opinion of most of the scientists who have examined the inscriptions on the James Ossuary and the Jehoash Tablet : They may be real, after all. But the final decision on the case has yet to be made by the court, which concluded on October 3, 2010 with a pending verdict.
Hanging in the balance are a number of other issues and interests, including the credibility of certain expert members of the Israel Antiquities Authority and officials who had conducted initial investigations, certain members of the Israel Geological Survey, the Israel antiquities market, and the conduct or process of determining the authenticity of ancient artifacts.
The story began at an October 21, 2002 Washington press conference co-hosted by the Discovery Channel and the Biblical Archaeology Society, when the existence of a 2,000-year-old ossuary was announced, featuring on its side an inscription that provided the oldest known archaeological record ofJesus of Nazareth. (An ossuary is a stone box, often made of limestone, that was used by the Jewish inhabitants of 1st century B.C.-1st century A.D. Jerusalem to inter the bones of deceased family members). The inscription on this box read Ya'akov bar-Yosef akhui diYeshua, which in English translates as "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus", originally translated by André Lemaire, a renowned Semitic epigrapher. The announcement created a media stir that reverberated worldwide and set in motion a chain of events which, like opening Pandora's box, became a story that acquired far greater proportions than the initial players had initially intended.
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The "James Ossuary", showing the inscription on its side. This bone box was purportedly found near Silwan in the Kidron Valley of Jerusalem and later purchased by Oded Golan. The bones of the deceased were typically interned in such stone boxes during the 1st century B.C. through most of the 1st century A.D. by Jewish families who lived in the Jerusalem area during that time. In 62 AD, James, the brother of Jesus, was stoned and thrown from the Temple Mount walls by opponents. Based on Christian tradition, his body was laid in a rock-cut tomb in the Kidron valley and then one year later re-interned in an ossuary. A monastery and chapel were built above his burial location and then, during a Muslim invasion in the 7th century, Armenian monks removed his bones and placed them under an alter at the Cathedral of St. James in Jerusalem on Mt. Zion. Courtesy Paradiso, Wikimedia Commons.
(Above and below) The inscription on the side of the ossuary which reads "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus". Courtesy Paradiso, Wikimedia Commons. Below is derivative work from above, courtesy AnthonyonStilts, Wikimedia Commons.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After a series of initial investigations by the Israel Antiquities Authority in 2003 that led to a determination that the James Ossuary was a forgery, including other investigations, Oded Golan, collector and owner of the box, was charged with 44 counts of forgery, fraud and deception. Four other antiquities dealers were also charged, including well-known collector and antiquities dealer Robert Deutsch. Proceedings began in the Jerusalem District Court in 2005. Three of the accused were dismissed during the early days of the trial, while Oded Golan and Robert Deutsch continued on as defendants. Along with the James Ossuary, the Jehoash Tablet (pictured left) , another famous artifact owned by Golan, was included in evidence. The Jehoash Tablet is an ancient stone tablet purportedly dated to the 9th century and containing an inscription claimed to document renovations of the First Temple (built by Solomon) under the auspices of the Judean King Jehoash, also known from the biblical historical account.
Recently, a March, 2011 statement written by Oded Golan summarizing the testimonies and opinions of experts and scientists who testified at the trial was released by the Biblical Archaeology Society to the readership of the Biblical Archaeology Review, the organization's trademark publication. The document summarized statements made in proceedings that included 116 hearings, 138 witness testimonies, and over 12,000 pages of transcripts. The witness list from which the summary draws its information consists of 52 experts in fields such as archaeology, epigraphy, Semitic languages, forensic science, stone patina, archaeometry, geology, geochemistry, bio-geology, and carbon-dating. According to Golan's summary, the vast majority of the expert witness testimonies support or at least do not refute the authenticity of both the James Ossuary and the Jehoash Tablet.
Much of the testimony centered on the analysis of the ancient patina covering the surfaces of the subject artifacts, including that found within the grooves of the inscriptions made on the artifacts. Thepatina in the case of these stone artifacts refers to a discoloring or tarnish that occurs on the surface of the stone due to bio-organic and/or chemical processes that naturally take place on the stone when it is exposed over long periods of time. It is what causes the "aged" appearance of the artifact. Regarding the James Ossuary, a number of the world's leading authorities on patina analysis concluded in testimony that there was no basis to doubt the authenticity of the artifact or the inscription made on it. Summarizes Golan:
"Neither the prosecution nor the IAA presented even a single witness who was an expert on ancient stone items, or patina on antiquities and who ruled out the authenticity of the inscription or any part of it. On the contrary, the findings of all the tests, including those of prosecution witnesses [Yuval] Goren and [Avner] Ayalon, support the argument that the entire inscription is ancient, the inscription was engraved by a single person, and that several letter grooves contain traces of detergent/s that covers the natural varnish patina that developed there over centuries, and was partially cleaned (mainly the first section), many years ago."[1]
Moreover, Orna Cohen, a well-known archaeologist and chemist and senior antiquities conservator for the IAA and Israeli museums who was initially assigned by the IAA to examine the inscription in 2003, "testified that she found natural bio-patina in several letter grooves of the words "brother of Jesus" (het, yod, shin, ayin"ח", "י", "ש" "ע "), which had developed at the bottom or on the sides of the grooves over centuries, and in some of these letters she found that the bio-patina that appeared continuously gliding down from the surface of the ossuary into the depths of the grooves. She stated that it was consequently possible to determine with certainty that the words "brother of Jesus" had been engraved in ancient times".[1]
Regarding the Jehoash Tablet and inscription, the findings of various leading experts show that the "patina of this kind could not have developed on the Tablet and inside the groove letters in a period of less than 100 years, and it more probably developed over a period of several thousand years".[1] A particularly revealing development arose as it also became clear at the trial that after the IAA received the Tablet, it became broken along a diagonal fracture because of negligent handling by police officers, making it possible for experts to examine the inner section of the stone and along the break. After examining this section of the inscription, the patina and the fracture line itself, the stone experts all "unequivocally indicated that the inscription is covered in original varnish patina (biogenic patina of a biological origin, resulting from the extensive activities of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, yeast, etc., on the Table and in the letter grooves). The patina is of varying thicknesses (very thin in some parts and very thick in other parts) and there is no doubt that the patina that envelopes the Tablet and its lowered frame and also penetrates into many of the letter grooves – developed slowly over a period of no less than 100 years, and possibly several thousands of years".[1] The case for the Jehoash Tablet inscription's authenticity was becoming more and more defensible.
Examining the two artifacts from a paleographic, linguistic, and philological perspective, prominent scholars with expertise in ancient script and language have also come forward with statements that support the authenticity of the artifacts and their inscriptions, or at least support the contention that they cannot be solidly proven to be forgeries. Testimonies to this effect were heard from well-known and highly regarded scientists and scholars such as Roni Reich, Gabriel Barkay, André Lemaire, Hagai Misgav, Shmuel Ahituv, Yosef Naveh, and Esther Eshel. Indeed, speaking about the James Ossuary inscription, among the testimonies was that of Ada Yardeni, a paleographer and researcher at the Hebrew University and considered a household name in the field. Even as she served as a witness for the prosecution at the trial, she stated that her examination of the inscription in 2002 left her with no doubt that it was of ancient origin, and that it was inscribed by a single individual. "If this is a forgery," she said, "I quit."[1]
The authenticity of the James Ossuary and Jehoash Tablet aside, the verdict on Oded Golan and Robert Deutsch still remains to be decided. But it seems clear, assuming the summary of Oded Golan is accurate, that the two artifacts may possibly have redeemed their place in the archaeological record as tangible evidence of times, people, and places that most of us have only read about in texts that are to this day still regarded by three major world religions as sacred.
Details of Oded Golan's commentary on the expert witnesses of the case can be read at the Biblical Archaeology Review website.
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