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James Ossuary Owner Arrested on Fraud and Forgery Charges

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Christianity Today July 1, 2003

Israeli police arrest owner of the James ossuary and Joash tablet After a six-month investigation, Israeli police on Monday arrested antiques collector Oded Golan on charges of fraud, forgery, using forged documents, and perverting the course of justice. In recent days, investigators searched Golan’s home and storerooms, including a workroom on his roof where they say he forged antiquities. “A number of other ‘antiques’ in various stages of production were uncovered,” reports the Tel Aviv newspaper Ha’aretz.

Also on Golan’s Tel Aviv roof, “without any security or protection from the elements,” was Golan’s most famous possession—an ossuary that apparently once held the bones of “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”

Is this treatment of the ossuary another indication that the ossuary is a fraud, or that Golan is merely careless? After all, when he shipped the ossuary for display and testing at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, he packed it so poorly that it cracked—right in the middle of the inscription.

Now even the ROM’s Ed Keall, who has been one of the main scholars saying the ossuary is authentic, says Golan might have intentionally damaged the bone box to make testing harder. “I’m afraid at this stage I can’t discount anything,” he told The Ottawa Citizen. “The story’s so bizarre.”

Keall said Golan, who was remanded for four days while police continue their investigation, seemed trustworthy: “He really came across as a very innocent, almost gullible person. Aside from all our investigation, scientific analysis…this guy seemed to be a very genuine item. He didn’t come off as a fast car salesman who was trying to deceive you. That’s why it is all the more puzzling to have this notification that the police arrested him.”

But Keall said he still hopes that the ossuary can be proved to be authentic. So do several other scholars, including Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks and Asbury Seminary New Testament professor Ben Witherington III, coauthors of a book about the ossuary. On his magazine’s website, Shanks lays out several problems he has with a report from the Israel Antiquities Authority calling the ossuary a fake.

But even Shanks has called one of Golan’s other major “finds” a forgery. The ninth-century B.C. “Joash (or Jehoash) Tablet,” which corroborates the biblical account of Solomon’s Temple, was also dismissed by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The mountain of evidence against the tablet caused at least some scholars to doubt the authenticity of the James ossuary.

The last nail in the coffin (or bone-box) may be Golan’s explanation. According to Ha’aretz, “Golan said the [rooftop] workroom…is actually used by an Egyptian friend who stays at his home for lengthy periods.” Has the “I was just holding it for a friend” excuse ever worked?

More articles

Persecution:

  • Rape and torture empties the villages | Serious attacks on and persecution of religious minorities by Islamic fundamentalists are increasing, and despite a detailed dossier on 18 months of persecution of religious minorities, and women in particular, the British government calls Bangladesh a “generally safe” country. Amnesty International says this makes “no sense” (The Guardian, London)

Church life:

U.S. politics and law:

  • An extremist judicial nominee | If the nomination of Alabama attorney general William Pryor is confirmed, his rulings would probably do substantial harm to the rights of all Americans (Editorial, The New York Times)

Life ethics:

Bible:

Internet and technology:

  • Cyber sex lures love cheats | Growing numbers of married people are turning to internet chat rooms for sexual thrills, a US study has found (BBC)

Books:

Sex and marriage:

  • Kenya split by wedding row | A controversial wedding between a 67-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man is threatening to tear apart a prominent family and is testing the position of Kenya’s churches on marriage (BBC)
  • Schools stumble over sex education | Two camps have emerged over the years: Teach abstinence only, or teach safer sex. But both these approaches may fall short of what teens need most (The Christian Science Monitor)
  • The swing’s their thing | Change in social attitude leads to more swinger clubs, Court declares Canadians tolerant of the ‘lifestyle’ (The Toronto Star)
  • Gambian freeze on polygamy | President Yahya Jammeh has provoked controversy in Gambia by prohibiting Gambian men from marrying more than three wives for the next three years (BBC)
  • A healthy shot in the arm for marriage | “The State of Our Unions: The Social Health of Marriage in America, 2003,” not only bemoans the state of the American family and but also begs a tantalizingly fundamental question: What do Americans today consider the central purpose of marriage? (The Orlando Sentinel)
  • Also: Encouraging marriage is society’s role | If this society is to fix the criminal justice system and the schools, it has first to fix the broken family. Government can’t do it with $300 million or $300 billion. But it has to try (Jim Wooten, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Same-sex marriage:

  • Churches reject same-sex marriages | Many New Zealand churches say legislation giving same sex and de facto couples the same rights as married people is wrong (Xtra, New Zealand)
  • Religious leaders divided over same-sex marriage | Coalition warns PM of dangers of legalizing homosexual unions (The Ottawa Citizen)
  • A church divided | Anglicans are savagely divided on the issue of same-sex marriage. More than a moral discussion, it’s a clash of ideology that is pitting local parishioners against each other and conservative African churches against the more liberal Western congregations (The Montreal Gazette)
  • City religious leaders not ready to sanction same-sex unions | Edmonton Archbishop Thomas Collins won’t even say the word “/marriage” when he’s asked about Ottawa sanctioning same-sex unions (Edmonton Journal)
  • Stop the wedding! | Why gay marriage isn’t radical enough (Judith Levine, The Village Voice)

Debate over gay clergy in Uniting Church:

Church of England homosexual rift:

New Hampshire’s gay Episcopal bishop:

Clergy sex abuse:

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