Controversial Biblical artifact with alleged tie to Jesus’ brother comes to Dallas

A pop-up exhibition opening in Dallas today will put a controversial Biblical artifact called the James Ossuary on public display in the United States for the first time.

“Discovering Jesus” contains around 340 artifacts from Israeli collector Oded Golan’s private collection. Almost all of them, he said, date back to the time of Jesus. Alongside the exhibition, an immersive show called “The Nazarene” will bring Biblical scenes to life through holographic and interactive projections superimposed onto sets. Alpine Artists is producing the show, with Robert Bagdasarov as executive producer, and Golan is producing the exhibition.

A building next to Look Dine-in Cinemas in Northwest Dallas houses both the exhibition and show, which includes a replica of an ancient fishing boat and other historical set pieces. Bagdasarov said Alpine Artists is premiering the show in Dallas because, as a major city in the Bible Belt, it is a “central place for all the believers.”

Golan teamed up with Alpine Artists to bring many of his Biblical artifacts to the U.S. “People imagine many things when they are reading the Bible, and once they’re looking at the real ancient items, they get a new view,” he said of the purpose behind his exhibition. “They understand the stories in much better ways. They’re much more realistic.”

One of the exhibition’s main draws is the James Ossuary, a box some believe once contained the bones of Jesus’ brother James. The ossuary was on display in North America only once before, in 2002, when it visited the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

Scholars agree it is ancient, but there are debates surrounding its Aramaic inscription that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”

The legitimacy of the artifact was disputed in an Israel trial beginning in 2005. Israel authorities charged Golan with fraud and forgery of artifacts, including the ossuary. Expert witnesses for the prosecution argued that while the box was ancient, the inscription that tied it to Jesus was forged in modern times.

The trial ended in 2012 with a judge acquitting Golan of fraud and forgery, though he was convicted on charges of selling antiquities without a permit and owning items suspected to be stolen.

“All that has been established is that the tools and the science currently at the disposal of the experts who testified were not sufficient to prove the alleged forgeries beyond a reasonable doubt as is required by criminal law,” the judge wrote in his decision.

Golan was sentenced to one month in jail and given a fine of about $8,000.

Christopher Rollston, an expert witness at the trial and department chair of classical and near Eastern languages and civilizations at George Washington University, is convinced the ossuary is a fake.

Most ossuaries from Biblical times include only the name of the deceased, not their family affiliation, Rollston said, which makes it suspicious that the beginning of the inscription on the box differs from the section that says “the brother of Jesus.”

“The first half looks like it was done by a professional scribe in ancient times. The incisions are deeper; they’re clear. And there’s even kerning,” or decorative ticks, on those letters. The second part “really looks quite different — it’s shallower, it’s not as clear, and there isn’t any kerning present.”

Those details would only be visible to the trained eye, Rollston said, and some scholars disagree with him.

Responding to claims that the James Ossuary is half-forged, Golan called the idea ridiculous.

“It’s much easier to forge a complete item than to forge half an item,” he said. “This ossuary has been tested and examined, I believe more than any other archaeological item ever found in the world by dozens of professionals from very, very different fields.”

He also cited the over-50 witnesses who testified in support of the ossuary’s authenticity at the Israeli trial. Seventy-four witnesses testified against it.

Arguably the most concerning “red flag” about the ossuary, Rollston believes, is that it first surfaced on the antiquities market, not a legal archaeological dig.

When an artifact is discovered as part of a legal dig, it must be registered and extensively documented with photographs and drawings, according to Shelley Wachsmann, professor of Biblical archaeology at Texas A&M University. “Archaeologists don’t sell antiquities to the antiquities market. Anything you find on the antiquities market, in the unlikely event that it’s not a fake, is from a theft.”

Rollston said genuinely ancient objects embellished to seem more sensational are common on the antiquities market. “The James Ossuary was valued at one point at about $2 million when at least some people believed that it was ancient,” he explained. “Because there’s such a massive market for this sort of thing, forgers are meeting that demand.”

Golan had a different perspective on the antiquities market, highlighting the effects of large amounts of construction in Israel. “The construction which has been done in the country revealed thousands and thousands of items, not in official archaeological sites, and most of them came to the antiquities market,” he said.

Wachsmann said ancient objects like ossuaries should be cataloged by archaeologists and housed in museums, not in private collections. “The past belongs to all of us.”

Joy Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America.

Details

Scheduled to continue through Jan. 7. Times vary, 10110 Technology Blvd. E., $34.50-$69, thenazarenexp.com.

CORRECTION, Oct. 6 at 4:47 p.m.: A previous version of this article mischaracterized the location of the exhibition and show. They are in a building next to Look Dine-in Cinemas in Northwest Dallas.