Freethought Nation

Bone-Box No Proof of Jesus

"....The believing argument runs that, because it is unusual to include the name of a brother in one's epitaph, this brother must have been a "well-known figure." There are, in fact, "too many Jesuses" of renown, as Harold Leidner shows in his book The Fabrication of the Christ Myth. These Jesuses, as found in the works of the Jewish historian Josephus and in biblical texts, include the following (list quoted from Leidner, 19-20):

1. Jesus son of Naue

2. Jesus son of Saul

3. Jesus, high priest, son of Phineas

4. Jesus son of the high priest Jozadak

5. Jesus son of Joiada

6. Jesus, high priest, son of Simon

7. Jesus, high priest, son of Phabes

8. Jesus, high priest, son of See

9. Jesus the Christ

10. Jesus son of Damnaeus, became high priest

11. Jesus son of Gamaliel, became high priest

12. Jesus son of Sapphas

13. Jesus, chief priest, probably to be identified with 10 or 11

14. Jesus son of Gamalas, high priest

15. Jesus, brigand chief on borderland of Ptolemais

16. Jesus son of Sapphias

17. Jesus brother of Chares

18. Jesus a Galilean, perhaps to be identified with 15

19. Jesus in ambuscade, perhaps to be identified with 16

20. Jesus, priest, son of Thebuthi

21. Jesus, son of Ananias, rude peasant, prophesies the fall of Jerusalem.

Please read the full article:

http://www.truthbeknown.com/ossuary.htm

Physicians who have examined the Shroud image are unanimous in their belief that the man was dead when he was placed in the Shroud, and that his death was caused by crucifixion and the tortures that preceded it. They also agree that he was dead when the spear pierced his side. They are not as sure about the exact [emphasis in original] cause of Jesus' death, but their opinions are quite similar.

Most experts hold that Jesus died primarily of asphyxiation, the usual cause of death in crucifixion. According to this view, Jesus died more quickly than most victims because scourging and beating had gravely weakened him. He was eventually unable to pull himself up on the cross in order to breathe [the "T" position described above], and he asphyxiated in the "down" position [the bent-knee "Y" position] on the cross. In this case, the muscles around his lungs kept him from exhaling and directly caused his death. Bucklin adds that complications due to congestive heart failure were likely as well.

Sava offers a related alternative. He holds that the internal hemorrhaging in the chest cavity caused by the fierce scourging was a cause of death. The liquids slowly compressed the lungs, causing asphyxiation by pleural effusion.

Davis presents another somewhat similar view. He holds that the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart, filled with fluid under the stress of suffering. This liquid compressed the heart, eventually causing heart failure. After Jesus was dead, the Roman lance pierced both the pericardium and the heart, and released the blood and watery fluid.

A consensus is visible among these views. Most scholars hold that asphyxiation played an important part in Jesus' death. He struggled on the cross to keep breathing. Some scholars hold that he asphyxiated directly when the chest muscles fail to sustain breathing. Others suggest asphyxiation as the blood and fluid also compressed his lungs. But all these scholars agree that the Shroud contains conclusive evidence that Jesus indeed died and that it reveals the general features of his death. [End-note number omitted]

Is the purported burial box of Jesus' brother James fake or authentic? Seven years of trial, testimony from dozens of experts and a 475-page verdict Wednesday failed to come up with an answer. A Jerusalem judge, citing reasonable doubt, acquitted Israeli collector Oded Golan, who was charged with forging the inscription on the box once hailed as the first physical link to Christ. Golan said the ruling put an end to what he portrayed as a 10-year smear campaign against him. Hershel Shanks, editor of the Washington-based Biblical Archaeology, said he was delighted, insisting the burial box, or ossuary, is authentic and a "prized artifact to the world of Christianity." The Israel Antiquities Authority, which believes Golan's most high-profile items are forged, said the case shows the limits of science in proving forgeries, but it also prompted museums and universities around the world to be more suspicious of finds of uncertain origin. In his ruling, Judge Aharon Farkash of the Jerusalem District Court said Wednesday that he heard so many specialists with conflicting claims that he could not determine whether the ossuary was forged. "This topic is likely to continue to be the subject of research in the scientific and archaeological worlds, and time will tell," Farkash wrote. The case of the burial box is likely to be irrelevant to believers. Stephen Pfann, an archaeologist and president of the Christian Holy Land University, said Christians don't need objects to prop up their faith. "In a way, there will always be that necessity of faith to be involved in a person's convictions, whether or not we find artifacts associated with the story," he said. Much of the trial focused on the patina over the inscriptions of the ossuary and a second find, a stone tablet purportedly carrying instructions by King Yoash of the 9th century B.C. on maintenance at the Jewish Temple. The patina is a thin layer of grime that can attest to the age of engravings. At one point, the prosecutor brought a camp stove, chalk, beaker and other ingredients to show how easy it is to make fake patina, said journalist Matthew Kalman, a frequent trial observer. The defense then used the same technique to show that fake patina doesn't stick to stone. "It began to look like a high school chemistry class," said Kalman, editor of The Jerusalem Report magazine. The saga began in 2002 when Golan sent the ossuary with the Aramaic inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. Shanks was among its early enthusiasts, publishing the first report on it in 2002. Golan has said he's owned the ossuary since the late 1970s and never paid much attention until a visiting French expert suggested the inscription might refer to the brother of Jesus. After the Toronto exhibit, he started facing questions at home. At first, the antiquities authority investigated whether he had transferred the box abroad with the proper license. It also questioned where the Yoash tablet, inscribed with 15 lines in Hebrew, came from. Eventually, IAA experts concluded both were forgeries, and police began to investigate. Golan was indicted in late 2004, along with four other defendants, charged with forging and trading in dozens of stolen items. His trial began in 2005. Witnesses in the trial — more than 100 hearings transcribed in 12,000 pages — described a dark underside to the Holy Land antiquities trade, including grave robbing and shadowy exchanges of fistfuls of cash on West Bank roads. Shanks said finds should not be automatically dismissed because of uncertain origin. "You have much looted material coming out of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)," he said. "It has died down now but was once great. These finds can be important. Are you going to rescue them, or are you going to say you aren't going to learn from them because they were looted?" Archaeologist and biblical historian Eric Meyers of Duke University said questions about where Golan obtained the ossuary make it all the more important to regulate the antiquities trade in Israel. "Israel is unique in the Middle East for allowing antiquities dealers to operate under official government licensing," he said. "This is a dirty business ... and the Israeli police and antiquities authority have trouble dealing with all this chicanery." During the trial, the Israel Museum re-examined its collection to remove forged items, and museums and universities have grown more suspicious of undocumented finds, said Shai Bartura, an IAA official. "People just do not want to take chances," he said. "If it's not absolutely legitimate, if it doesn't have an archaeological context, then most serious facilities of display or research simply will not touch it." Golan was convicted Wednesday on four other charges, including trading unlicensed antiquities, possessing stolen artifacts and selling artifacts without a license. The court will consider Golan's sentencing in April. Robert Deutsch, an inscriptions expert, was acquitted Wednesday of all charges. He was accused of forgery, but not in connection with the ossuary and the tablet. In earlier proceedings, one defendant reached a plea bargain, while charges against the remaining two were dropped.

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Farewell .

The possibility of another

1.James,
2. son of joseph ,
3.brother of Jesus
4. dated to the same time when James, brother of Jesus , was martyred

Is slim to none, making the ossuary 99.9% biblical .

Even if we find an ossuary, or mausoleum, or coffin, or whatever, that contains Caligula's body, and even if it includes his aforementioned claim to be the brother of Zeus, such an artifact would not serve as any evidence for the existence of a historical Zeus.

Caligula's claim is no more or less valid than James'.

You're forgetting that Caligula was batshit crazy...