by Rado Vleugel 31 Replies latest jw friends
A stone box touted as the oldest archaeological evidence of Jesus is, in fact, a well-crafted fake, Israeli archaeological experts say. The box, an object known as an ossuary, was said to have contained the bones of Jesus' brother James.
FULL STORY on CNN
Rado Vleugel
http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org
(Click on this link to read the full story: 'Jesus box' exposed as fake. )
"The inscription appears new, written in modernity by someone attempting to reproduce ancient written characters," the officials said in the statement.
Being careful of the liberal media since they publish propagada news to distort facts and truths...
With that said, by what evidence (lacking any evidence in print to disprove of the inscription) does he have to support it?
He said it "appears new", doesn't sound like SOLID convincing to me.
The committee said another indication that the box was not all it was claimed to be was that the stone from which it was hewn was more likely to have originated in Cyprus or northern Syria than ancient Israel.
Sounds like they are unsure of where it came from, so how do they know for sure? Again, I need solid evidence to support their claim.
"I am certain the ossuary is real, I am certain that the committee is wrong regarding its conclusions," he said.
Golan thinks it's real, ok, where's the evidence of that?
I don't want "I think so this" and "I think so that". I want something solid scientifically, not from a personal opinion.
Ossuaries were commonly used by Jewish families between 20 B.C. and A.D. 70 to store the bones of their loved ones.
Ok that is a scientific fact and is well known history and practices of that time. They place the body in a tomb to allow the body to naturally rot over time until there is nothing but bones left. Then they remove the bones from the tomb so it can be used by someone else and place it inside a Ossuaries. Then the family member buries the box inside a family plot that is stacked upon one another to conserve space. Sometimes over generation of time, they'll pull out the boxes and dig a deeper hole and then restack them again to make more room.
It is possible that the box did belong to the brother of Jesus. But problem is someone found it and sold it. This is grave robbing and some people don't care about the historical means of the box or artifacts or anything since some are not very religious other than greed.
Until they provide absolute solid scentific facts and evidence to back up their claim, I'm gonna remain neutral about this box.
Yiz
I agree with Yizuman;
I find it rather strange that after who knows how many Archeologists saying that there is "no evidence" that it is a forgery, and that all evidence points to it being "genuine", that now a whole team of Archeologists have suddenly concluded that it's a fake?
Either someone's not doing their job very well, or these guys just like to contradict one another..........
I've seen the the discovery channel special on this and think it is a fake myself .Right up there with the shroud of turrin .The problem with this kind of evidence is that the people in the middle east area know that they could hood wink the public over religious finds just to make a few bucks .The question of integritiy is always raised as far as how reliable the people involved are and to be honest I don't give them any credit in that area.
Hmm, all media with an axe to grind will distort the facts. It happens on the right as well as the left.
Yizuman,
Being careful of the liberal media since they publish propagada news to distort facts and truths...
This statement you make is very peculiar indeed. It was the same biased "liberal media" who broke the story about the so-called "James" box a year ago. If they were in some sort of propagandistic collusion to debunk this, why did they publish reports that this very well may be an authentic "proof" of Jesus then? Your suspicions just don't add up.
I don't want "I think so this" and "I think so that". I want something solid scientifically, not from a personal opinion.
So then you will not believe that Jesus actually was the son of God and performed miracles since there is no proof he did so. You also should be an agnostic. Hey, great! I agree!
You then go on to question the scholarship of the people who performed the investigation. Although everyone is prone to bias and mistakes, let's keep in mind that there were two teams investigating this piece seperately -- the Israeli Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem police. To have different opinions by groups of proffessionals is good science.
Let me quote an AP article I found on the net to state exactly WHY these two groups feel the inscription is a forgery:
The James inscription cut through the ancient limestone box's patina, a thin coating acquired with age, the experts said, proving the writing was not ancient.
"The inscription appears new, written in modernity by someone attempting to reproduce ancient written characters," the Antiquities Authority statement said.
The officials reached their conclusions after intensive exams by several committees of experts, the authority said.
While I'm sure the entire story is a little more complicated than this, I think this is pretty damning evidence that the inscription is a fake.
As for Oded Golan who is "certain that the committee is wrong regarding it's conclusions" -- do you honestly think that he si going to be unbiased in his appraisel? Duh! He's the OWNER OF THE BOX! Yeah, I'd say he has a LOT at stake here.
Bradley
Until they provide absolute solid scentific facts and evidence to back up their claim, I'm gonna remain neutral about this box.
What a strange position to take. Care to explain why you would remain "neutral" when one claim is clearly several orders of magnitude more likely than the other?
Um hello, but the media is just reporting what the scholarly authorities stance is on the matter. They didn't do the actual investigation or put words in their mouths.
Bradley
yeah and who is the one saying it is a fake ? The ones who don`t even believe that Jesus was the Messiah and also a Catholic who believe that Mary was always a virgin, Now why would they say this is a fake? Because it goes against what they teach and would prove their doctrine a lie.
