← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Valley Forge
Thread ID: 7485 | Posts: 12 | Started: 2003-06-19
2003-06-19 22:23 | User Profile
*Here is an interesting story that I heard about on NPR this afternoon. Apparently an ancient stone casket purportedly belonging to Jesus' brother James has turned up in Israel. The casket, which dates from the first century, bears an inscription that appears to make an explicit reference to Jesus. If the inscription is authentic, something which Isreal's Jewish authorities are ferverishly denying, it would provide conclusive non-Biblical evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really existed.
Am I the only one who thinks that the Tribe is not above supressing such a finding? It is of course possible that the inscription is a fake; however, if that is indeed the case, I want to hear it from a source more reliable than some Jew professor. The comments in brackets are mine, of course.
Experts prove casket of Jesus's brother is fake
JEANETTE OLDHAM
AN INSCRIPTION on an ancient stone box which suggested it once contained the bones of Jesusââ¬â¢s brother, James, was a forgery, [Jewish] archaeologists said yesterday.
The burial box, adorned with the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus", had prompted speculation that it could be the earliest physical reference to the founder of Christianity outside the New Testament.
But after studying the first- century artefact, Israelââ¬â¢s antiquities authority says that the inscription is not authentic.
The wording says: "Yaââ¬â¢akov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua".
The ossuary, which is about 20 inches long, was revealed to the world last November at a Washington press conference held by the Biblical Archaeology Review.
Thereafter, the small, plain bone box came under the more careful gaze of André Lemaire, a [White Gentile?] scholar in Aramaic at the Sorbonne in Paris. ** Aramaic was the language spoken in the Middle East in the first century AD, and Lemaireââ¬â¢s translation created a sensation. The inscription, [the White Gentile?] Lemaire said, read: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus", and he concluded it was "very probable" that the inscription referred to Jesus of Nazareth.**
A number of experts [presumably Gentile?] who inspected the box at the time said they found no reason to doubt its authenticity. Since then, the box has been subjected to scientific tests which are consistent with it coming from the right place and the right time.
But Israelââ¬â¢s antiquities authority says that the inscription is not authentic.
Its own investigation, carried out by several committees of experts, concluded the inscription was fake.
"The inscription appears new, written in modernity by someone attempting to reproduce ancient written characters," the authority said in a statement released yesterday.
Professor Avigdor Horowitz, a biblical language scholar who served on one of the investigating committees, said not one of the inscribed passages on the tablet was without a linguistic mistake.
"The person who wrote the inscription was a person who thinks in modern Hebrew," he told a news conference in Jerusalem yesterday. "A person thinking in biblical Hebrew would see it as ridiculous."
The box has a hazy provenance - it is thought to have been excavated originally by the British archaeologist James Allegro in 1960.
Israeli authorities are also investigating whether it was looted from a tomb. It is now in the hands of a private Israeli collector, who says he cannot remember who sold it to him.
The casket has revived interest in James, whose major role in early Christianity has been eclipsed by St Peter and St Paul. James, the leader of the Jerusalem church after the Resurrection, is described in two of the Gospels as the brother of Jesus, but in some traditions he is thought of as merely a cousin.
However, some experts say it is still possible that forgers have pulled off a breathtaking stunt, fashioning an artefact that could name its own price on the open market.
Because the ossuary did not come from a controlled excavation, where archaeologists plot every detail and possible clue to a discoveryââ¬â¢s context, scholars said they despaired of ever knowing the inscriptionââ¬â¢s meaning beyond doubt.
[url=http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=673032003]Read the Original Article[/url]
2003-06-19 22:45 | User Profile
But that would contradict the VNN and extreme radical right's belief that the Jews "invented Christianity" to enslave and weaken the white identity.
-Jay
2003-06-19 22:51 | User Profile
Jay, You're absolutely right. This new evidence, if authentic, is bad news for all of the critics of Christianity, including the VNN types.
2003-06-19 23:00 | User Profile
Aren't "anti-communist Jews" coming out of the woodwork nowadays? :blink:
2003-06-19 23:44 | User Profile
*Originally posted by Ruffin@Jun 19 2003, 17:00 * ** Aren't "anti-communist Jews" coming out of the woodwork nowadays? :blink: **
Anti-communist they may be, perhaps even sincerely so, given the fact that the later Soviet Union turned against Zionism, which suddenly proved Marxism wrong, in the eyes of soon-to-be Neoconservatives. :) But all of that wouldnôt remotely keep them from combatting their main enemy -the Western Christian tradition. (Though, according to the VNN types, thatôs all a ruse -Hollywood is creating scores of anti-Christian movies to HELP get out the Christian message, and only VNN is looking through that deception. :lol: Not that I would trust VNN with any piece of evidence that Jesus lived -such evidence is, relatively speaking, probably safer in the hands of an Israeli collector than it would be in the hands of VNN.) :lol:
2003-06-19 23:54 | User Profile
I don't necessarily endorse the idea that the Jews created Christianity with an eye toward corraling the goyim. It's just that it's at least as possible as going from establishing governmental communism in the USSR (and continuing it, still, in the USA) to being "conservative" anti-communists all in the same century.
2003-06-20 01:17 | User Profile
Paleoleftist wrote:
**But all of that wouldnôt remotely keep them from combatting their main enemy -the Western Christian tradition. **
From time immemorial, Jews have hated Christians. Just like many VNNers.
It's amazing how much that sector of the WN movement has in common with our people's mortal foe, the Jew.
2003-06-20 03:25 | User Profile
Jews are also very ethnocentric. Much more than we are, wouldn't you say? I think we know who suffers for that difference.
Contrary to Jewish propaganda, there's a big difference between criticism, including self-criticism, and hatred.
2003-06-20 05:18 | User Profile
No way, Jose. I don't doubt for a minute that a man named Jesus actually existed and did his thing by preaching and teaching. But this stuff about men coming back from the dead and "god" is just as dumb as thinking that spirits live in trees.
2003-06-20 19:16 | User Profile
*Originally posted by Valley Forge@Jun 19 2003, 22:23 * ** The box has a hazy provenance - it is thought to have been excavated originally by the British archaeologist James Allegro in 1960.
**
Beware of all this, Allegro was controversial himself. He (along with a close relative) believed that "Jesus" was the code name of an ancient mystery cult that used magic mushrooms to reach divine consciousness.
For documentation, check out: The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Allegro.
2003-06-21 02:38 | User Profile
WRITOS:just as dumb as thinking that spirits live in trees
But spirits DO live in trees! Where else would they live? :P
2003-06-21 03:43 | User Profile
Wut b all dis hatin on VNN. In dem der words o dat man King: " Cain we all jess git along?" :wub: