Jerusalem — Is an inscription linked to James, the brother of Jesus, authentic or fake? Tempers flared over the question at the showing of a documentary about the case and a new interview dismissing an Israeli finding that led to the arrest of an antiquities dealer on suspicion of forging sacred artifacts.
Dealer Oded Golan, out on bail, was at the Jerusalem Cinematheque on Sunday night, defending his relics and his honour. Toronto filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici was there to back him up.
But Israeli experts dismissed the show with a wave of the hand, pointing to their own findings that indicated that someone forged the James inscription for profit.
The ill will between the two sides overflowed several times, as each blamed the other of conspiracy, misdeed and bad faith.
The Jerusalem screening of the Discovery Channel documentary James, Brother of Jesus and the heated panel discussion that followed provided plenty of fireworks but no clear answers.
Mr. Golan was arrested last week. Police showed items they said they found at his house, including stencils, stones and utensils.
Mr. Golan said the items weren't his. He also said that the burial box, or ossuary, that carried the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," had been in his house since the 70s, when he acquired it, and claimed he didn't know how important it was.
In June, a 14-member panel from the Israeli Antiquities Authority declared the inscription on the ossuary a clever modern day forgery. The body also labelled as fake a tablet purporting to contain instructions for maintaining the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and police suspect Golan crafted both artifacts. No charges have been filed.
The ossuary was exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in November and December 2002. It developed cracks en route to Toronto from Israel. The cracks extended through the latter parts of the inscription. Museum staff made efforts to redress the damage.
Despite the IAA ruling, a spokesman for ROM said the museum believed the box was authentic.
"I still stand behind the fact that it is a genuine ossuary with a genuine inscription," the museum's Ed Keall told CBC-TV's The National in June.
"We believe that fairly recently the first part of the inscription was cleaned, which is what gives it the different look."
The IAA ruling was based on a technical point about oxygen isotopes that led to the conclusion that the patina, or surface film, on the burial box was a water-and-chalk paste, applied to imitate ancient weathering.
Mr. Golan contends his mother partly cleaned and scrubbed the inscription, perhaps with hot water, something that could explain the oxygen isotopes.
To support Mr. Golan, Mr. Jacobovici screened for the first time an interview with Amos Bein, the director of the Israel Geological Survey — the research institute that provided the IAA with the patina proof — in which Mr. Bein says Mr. Golan's explanation is plausible.
"When I hear the owner saying that people had tried to beautify the object by cleaning it or carrying out other actions, it is possible that by carrying out these actions we would get the same results," Mr. Bein said.
"If you ask me how this film could artificially appear, if someone deliberately or wanting to clean it were to clean it and then scrub it with hot water and add lots of hot water and then give it enough time for the chalk to settle into the patina, you would see the same results," Mr. Bein said.
Neither Mr. Bein nor a representative of the IGS agreed to participate in the panel discussion.
Gideon Avni, a senior member of the IAA panel said that all 14 members had reviewed the evidence and independently arrived at the conclusion — the inscription was a forgery.
"After seeing all the facts I have no doubts we are dealing with a forgery, unfortunately someone is going to lose a lot of money. There is a film to sell, a book to sell, but what can you do? It is a forgery," said Mr. Avni.
Mr. Jacobovici questioned the motives of the IAA panel, asking why there were no Christians or New Testament scholars on the panel.
"You are so determined for your own little reasons to disqualify it, you were not sensitive to the fact that it is very important to so many billions of people," Mr. Jacobovici said.
Ronny Reich, another IAA panel member dismissed Mr. Jacobovici derisively, saying, "with all respect this is probably the first ossuary you have ever seen."
However, two other leading experts who were not on the IAA committee also told the audience they remain convinced that the inscription is authentic.
The original revelation of the ossuary had stunned the archeological world and was hailed by some as one of the greatest archeological finds in modern times, as rare physical evidence of the life of Jesus.
The emotions the ossuary provokes erupted during the discussion. Panelists grabbed the microphone from each other, and members of the partisan audience, packing the auditorium, cheered each time a telling point was made.
