Scholar says inscription about 'brother' of Jesus may be genuine

Published: 2003-11-17

IRVING, Texas (CNS) -- An ancient Holy Land burial box with the controversial inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" may be authentic, Jesuit Father Joseph Fitzmyer, a noted Scripture scholar, said in a lecture at the University of Dallas. Father Fitzmyer questioned a finding by the Israel Antiquities Authority, a government agency, that the inscription was fake. The Israeli agency known as the IAA has failed to settle the issue, he said Nov. 8 to nearly 300 people at the university located in Irving. Father Fitzmyer sided with Andre Lemaire, a Scripture scholar at the Sorbonne University in Paris, in disputing a conclusion by the antiquities authority that the inscription on the burial box, called an ossuary, is a fake. On June 18, the Israel Antiquities Authority said two archeological committees that it set up concluded that the ossuary was ancient but the inscription fake. The committees' researchers, through chemical and microscopic analyses, said the inscription cut through the patina, a thin coating acquired with age. This finding contradicted an earlier conclusion by the Israel Geological Survey that the inscription was authentic.

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