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:
- Christian priest arrested in Gujarat | Allegedly “damaged” a Ganesh idol, but All-India Christian Council says charge is fabricated and an attempt to harass Christians (The Hindu, India)
- CBI reiterates viewpoint, says court has been misled in Staines case | India’s version of the FBI says witnesses and accused are lying about missionary killing (New India Press)
- Indian court backs common code | The Indian Supreme Court says all citizens should be bound by the same laws in civil issues such as marriage, divorce and property rights (BBC)
- Also: India’s Supreme Court quashed Succession law provision discriminating against Christians | Law put restrictions on Christians from donating their property for religious and charitable purpose by a will (PTI)
- Also: Supreme Court favors uniform civil code (India Express)
- 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:
- Rural megachurches invoke resistance | Counties worried about threat to preservation efforts (The Washington Post)
- Method in the merger | So, it’s third time lucky for the Methodists. They have finally persuaded the Anglicans to enter into a covenant that allows the two churches to live and work together, rather than form a united church (John Vincent, The Guardian, London)
- Panel pushes for safer passenger vans | General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. should add lap-and-shoulder seat belts and other improvements to their 15-passenger vans by 2006 to make them safer in rollover accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday (Associated Press)
- Also: NTSB urges steps to boost safety of vans (Reuters)
- A little too personal | Can you sue the person in the pulpit for preaching hellfire — at least if it gets personal? (Peter Steinfels, The New York Times)
- Women clergy face challenges as their numbers rise | The number of women clergy tripled between 1983 and 1996, from 16,408 to 43,542 (Associated Press)
- Keep church away from airport: city staff | Group wants complex inside noise zone (The Ottawa Citizen)
- One immigrant church yields to another | Belorussian parish closing books (Chicago Tribune)
- Shakers get by with help from their friends | Dying religious sect lives a simple communal, agrarian lifestyle of worship and hard work. Supporters pitch in (Associated Press)
- Lutherans to tackle tough issues at Winnipeg assembly | Lutheran World Federation faces moral division and global needs (Canadian Press)
- Iraqi minority looks towards future | Sabaean Mandeans John the Baptist as savior (Associated Press)
- Experts say Moscow cathedral unstable | St. Basil’s Cathedral, Russia’s most recognizable landmark with its swirling, multicolored onion domes, is on shaky ground (Associated Press)
U.S. politics and law:
- Drug firms gain church group’s aid | Claim about import measure stirs anger (The Washington Post)
- Yesterday: Drug Importation Bill Ignites War Between Religious Conservatives (Weblog, Christianity Today)
- Ken Connor considers running for U.S Senate | Stepped down from Family Research Council earlier this month (Associated Press)
- Holding civic groups accountable | As nongovernmental organizations become part of the established political landscape, they owe it to the public to be accountable and transparent (Editorial, The New York Times)
- Ads claim anti-Catholic bias blocking Bush court nominee | The ads, which appeared in newspapers in Maine and Rhode Island, depict a sign with the words “Catholics Need Not Apply” hanging on a courthouse door (Chicago Tribune)
- Deal offered on child tax credit | Democrats said the Senate Republicans’ compromise offer included benefits for richer families that were too costly to pass (The New York Times)
- Striving in Richmond: faith, hope and charity | Andre Shumake hopes President Bush’s faith-based office and subsequent regulatory changes brought about by an executive order will help stop the killings (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Seeking U.S. help for Calif. missions | Campaign to fund repairs to begin (The Washington Post)
- Groups differ on whether plan will help poor | Governor asks faith leaders for support (The Birmingham News, Ala.)
- 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:
- Head of abortion group, others charged during Charlotte protests | The head of Operation Save America was charged with carelessness with fire as police arrested four people Friday during a series of anti-abortion protests around town (Associated Press)
- Update: All four abortion protesters out of jail (Associated Press)
- Nothing charitable about giving in | Is your corporation now, or has it ever been, a contributor to Planned Parenthood? Most executives have yet to be asked, but if Warren Buffett’s recent tussle with an anti-abortion group is any indication, the era of such litmus tests may not be far behind (Roger Lowenstein, The Washington Post)
- Abortion bill faces conference setbacks | Senate Democrats are slowing the progress of legislation banning partial-birth abortion as Senate Republicans try to bring the measure to conference with the House, Republican officials say (The Washington Times)
- Slovak president vetoes abortion law | Bill had fueled a dispute between ruling liberals and conservatives and threatened to topple the future EU member’s government (Reuters)
- Bills to change fetus’s status gain support | Measures expanding crime victim designation called backdoor curbs on abortion rights (The Washington Post)
Bible:
- Scholars put Bible in layman’s terms | Both the Rev. Oswald C.J. Hoffman and Dr. Paul Maier are scholars who have spent the bulk of their lives explaining the theological and historical foundations of Christianity in language lay people can understand and use (Peoria Journal-Star, Ill.)
- Scientists explain the burning bushes in the Bible | Norwegian geologists found burning layer of turf under soil in Mali (Nettavisen, Norway)
- Gideon Bibles still offered in Las Vegas | In Las Vegas, most major casinos offer Gideon Bibles in rooms but don’t have other holy texts available (Las Vegas Sun)
Internet and technology:
- Texas puts Gutenberg Bible on Internet | Ransom Center edition is not the first to go digital (Associated Press)
- Ancient manuscript on the web | A 12th century manuscript featuring the tale of a liaison between one of Britain’s early feminists and a monk has been reproduced on the internet (BBC)
- 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:
- This evangelist has a ‘Purpose’ | The Rev. Rick Warren — the most influential evangelist you’ve never heard of — has the answer to the meaning of life (USA Today)
- Vicar takes on Harry Potter | Obadiah Demurral is the wicked creation of a priest who has just netted a $500,000 advance from a United States publisher (BBC)
- Also: Motorcycle vicar strikes gold with tale of witchcraft | A vicar who had to sell his beloved Hell’s Angel motorcycle to pay for the publication of his first novel has sold the American rights for $500,000 (The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Is the Babywise method right for you? | What you should know about Babywise and Growing Kids God’s Way (TulsaKids)
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)
- Gay backlash | Some Christians react strongly to Govt’s change in hiring policy (The Straits Times, Singapore)
- Pastor accused of breaking his church’s laws | Complaint spotlights Presbyterian rift on homosexuality, other issues (Austin American-Statesman, Tex.)
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:
- Backlash widens on gay clergy policy | The moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, the Reverend John Wilson, yesterday questioned whether a church that affirmed the practice of homosexuality was still a church (The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
- Presbyterian Church would welcome Uniting members | Conservatives didn’t join Uniting Church in 1970s (AM, Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
- Sermon to a congregation of mixed emotions | Some argued that the church had faced a choice between the interests of gays and indigenous Christians and had chosen the former (The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
- Poor fellow my church | The Uniting Church lacks leadership and direction. None of its original hope and idealism remain (Gordon Moyes, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
- Uniting Church evangelicals call to withhold donations (AM, Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
- Nile to switch camps over church’s gay stand | The Reverend Fred Nile, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has resigned from the Uniting Church over the homosexual clergy controversy (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- The Uniting Church accepts all people. It always has | Engagement with the community is at the core of the church’s beliefs (Alistair Macrae, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
Church of England homosexual rift:
- God ‘wants openly gay priests in Church of England’ | So says Gene Robinson, a gay priest in the Episcopal Church (The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Church in crisis | Schism may be the only answer (Editorial, The Observer, London)
- Archbishop of Canterbury ventures to Africa and the heart of gay bishops row | In his first official overseas trip to a province of the Anglican Communion, he will go to Ghana, Sierra Leone and Gambia, whose bishop, Dr Tilewa Johnson, was one of the most fierce African voices raised against the recent plan to appoint an openly homosexual man to the post of Bishop of Reading (The Independent, London)
- Also: Archbishop starts Africa visit | The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams begins a seven-day pastoral visit to Ghana, Sierra Leone and Gambia on Wednesday (BBC)
New Hampshire’s gay Episcopal bishop:
- Homosexuality issue threatens to break Anglicanism in two | The election last month of an openly gay bishop in the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire is now threatening to crack open the long-existing fault line over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Communion, a global association of churches in 164 countries (The New York Times)
- 24 Episcopal bishops break with diocese | The move is in protest to a Canadian district’s blessing of same-sex couples. The issue has increasingly divided Anglicans worldwide (Los Angeles Times)
- Vote on NH bishop could provoke Anglican split | Canon V. Gene Robinson seems an unlikely man to cause a schism (The Boston Globe)
- Gay bishop-to-be will take on evangelicals | In his first British interview, canon says consecration should not split church (The Guardian, London)
- U.S. gay bishop asks for blessing (BBC)
- The primetime Mover | Human failings and dilemmas are the stuff of soaps – and the church (Cristina Odone, The Guardian, London)
Clergy sex abuse:
- Reverend cleared of sex assault charges | Baptist minister Leon Lowery’s son blamed charges on church dispute over finances (The Times Herald, Norristown, Penn.)
- The Church must support the victims | The leading campaigner on sexual abuse by clergy says that the churches must stop sweeping exploitation under the carpet – and calls for a change in the law to ban clergy involving those in their pastoral care in sexual relationships (Margaret Kennedy, The Observer, London)
- Also: Churches accused of cover-up over sex attacks | An investigation has uncovered more than 60 cases where women have alleged they were abused by clerics from all denominations (The Observer, London)
- Pastor pleads innocent in abuse case | First Evangelical Free Church of Moline is looking for a new pastor (The Dispatch, Moline, Ill.)
- Boston church abuse report to be released | Abuse victims angry that church supervisors overseeing abusive priests might not be charged (Associated Press)
Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere
Suggest links and stories by sending e-mail to weblog@christianitytoday.com
Check out Books & Culture‘s weblog, Content & Context.
See our past Weblog updates:
and more, back to November 1999
