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Article: Did another hand add Jesus' name to box?(James ossuary inscription controversy)
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- December 18, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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There is a postscript to the James ossuary news story--the announced find of a bone box whose inscription suggests the first-ever archaeological mention of Jesus. The irony of the postscript is that some scholars think that Jesus' name was itself a "postscript" to the first-century engraving.
At a session attended by about 800 persons during the large annual gathering of religion scholars in late November, a prominent biblical archaeologist said that the writing "Jacob (James), son of Joseph" on the limestone box seems authentic. But he also strongly suggested that "brother of Jesus" was added by a second hand at a later time.
Duke University's Eric ...