The burial box (ossuary) that might have held the bones of James, the brother of Jesus, is in the news again. We first wrote about it in 2002, soon after it was announced that an ossuary found near Jerusalem had the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" cut into the side of the box. The inscription was doubted, then in 2003 it was ruled a forgery. The owner of the ossuary, Oded Golan, an Israeli collector, was charged with forgery in 2004. It wasn't until 2010 that the case against him went to trial. In March 2012, a 475-page verdict was reached. The judge acquitted Golan of forgery but convicted him of other crimes involving selling and owning real and forged antiquities. This ruling did not solve the mystery of the box. The judge said the experts disagreed with each other and he can't tell which is right. Most of the information concerned the ossuary's patina. One prosecutor even made fake patina from chalk. More uncertainty was caused by Golan's conviction for selling forged items. The Israel Museum and others are now re-examining their collections to remove forged pieces.

Photo: Creationrevolution.com