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UNHOLY BUSINESS: A True Tale of Faith, Greed & Forgery in the Holy Land
by Nina Burleigh
Reviewed by John R. Guthrie
There are two different types
of people in the world,
those who want to know,
and those who want to believe.
--Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche
Quite possibly the James Ossuary had a bigger audience that first day at the Toronto Museum than Jesus himself on his triumphal return to Jerusalem for that long ago pass over. Ossuaries, stone boxes, were used to contain the bones of the Hebrew dead from about 30 C.E. to 70 C.E. Corpses were allowed a year in a cave or sepulcher to allow soft tissues to decay, then the bones placed in an ossuary for economy of storage space. This ossuary was touted as being that of Jesus’ brother, James. The inscription on the side of the box reads, in Aramaic, “Ya'akov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua” (“James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”). If genuine, it would have been the only material relic from the time of Jesus that mentions him.(References to Jesus by Flavius Josephus, for instance, are known to be forgeries, written by Christian redactors around 400 A.D.)
Carved of limestone, the James Ossuary arrived at the Canadian Museum on October 31 2002. It was packed “like a discount toaster oven.” (131). Wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in a cardboard box, it was, not surprisingly, badly broken. It was also insured with Lloyds of London for a million dollars, leading Canadian authorities to suspect insurance fraud on the part of shipper, antiquities dealer Oded Golan, now on trial for antiquities fraud in Israel.. Emergency repairs were made, and the stone box went on display. The ossuary was on display from November 15, 2002 to January 5, 2003. “On the first day, ten thousand people filed past, some in silent prayer” (132).
Yet even before the display began, experts knowledgeable in the field were denouncing the ossuary as a fraud. Epigrapher Rochelle Altman published a devastating critique, stating the first half of the inscription was in a different hand than of the last half and that “of” in “brother of” (Jesus) was in a form not used until the 9th century CE (132). Altman was not alone in her critique. Israeli Antiquities Authorities called it "the fraud of the century." It was one among many fakes passed off as archaeological finds with biblical ties.
Since at least the mid eighteenth century, higher criticism had been applied to Bible texts. This involved comparison with known documents from blical times, word frequency analysis and related techniques. The growth of scientific analysis often evoked dismaying results for true believers. Perhaps because of this, higher criticism has been paralleled by a curious determination among some people of faith to validate Bible stories through scientific investigation; paradoxical because they are people of faith, not of reason.
Nina Burleigh traces the story of the James Ossuary and two other purported relics, the so called Jehoash tablet and an ivory pomegranate “from the Temple of Solomon” starting with their origin, eventual celebration and eventual dismissal as frauds.
The manufacture of fake patinas proved to be remarkably creative. Archeologist/chemist Yuval Goren noted that, “The fake inscription of both the ossuary inscription and the Jehoash Tablet were similar. ‘ (It) appears to be an artificial mixtureof feruginous clay powdered chalk, carbonized matter and particles of metal (gold?). It appears that this mixture was first dissolved in hot water before the inscribed surface was heated in an oven in order to solidify the inscription coating….” Goren characterized the mixture, whimsically enough, as, ”James Bond” (185).
Masada, the ancient desert fortress where legend has it the ancient Jewish garrison committed suicide rather than surrender to the Roman legions, is of importance to Israeli politics and national identity. It was shown to be false, visiting an exceptionally vicious organized letter writing attack on youthful Barnard College Ph. D. candidate, American citizen Nadia Abu Al-Haj. Her doctoral thesis presented evidence that the Masada story was false (148).
Billionaire Shlmo Moussaieff, jeweler and collector of antiquities, had funded archeological digs, though his funding was contingent on the digs providing biblical results.
“Among Holy Land diggers, there is a long and proud tradition of religious ‘Indiana Joneses’ who leave the pastoral safety of their parsonages in rural Texas or Tennessee and, with wallets bulging from targeted colletions, head over to the Holy Land to do their own digging” (73). They discover such wonders as the Ark of the Covenant or the DNA of the red heifer used in ancienty Jewish sacrifices) with surprising regularity.
Joe Zias, Israeli forensic pathologist and exposer of hoaxes. “Obsessed with ferreting out and exposing the myriad shady characters digging in the Holy Land whom he calls ‘Ark-eologists’” (75). Zias proved to be”Eager to expose the 'moneymaking juggernaut'" of those who searched for antiquities (77).
One such character called out by Zias is the late Ron Wyatt. Trained as a nurse, he is a self-anointed antiquities expert. The founder of Wyatt Archeological Research, he discovered not only the Ark of the Covenant, but the blood of Jesus (!). “Jesus’ blood” exhibited only 24 chromosomes, 23 from mom and one from his heavenly father. His findings were originally put on display in a museum/gas station in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. (Reviewer’s note: While in Gatlinburg, those who enjoy Ron Wyatt’s museum, now housed in a more propitious building, may also wish to tour the original Grimsby and Streaper Casket Company. There one is guaranteed to experience the screams of the dead and smell rotting flesh as one feels their way through dark and convoluted corridors. ) Wyatt-type projects and other similar ones are supported through the donations of the faithful. Holy Land antiquities have been the wellspring of massive fraud since the time of Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad and before. All too often, the victims have often been those who could least afford it, the parishioners of Televangelists and now online, ministers who solicit funds to finance and perpetuate their abuses.
(Left): Oded Golan with the James Ossuary. (Right): The James Ossuary as found by Israeli Antiquities Authority policemen, on a toilet in Golan’s rooftop laundry chamber/forgery shop. “The ossuary was the most famous, but not the most startling in the little laundry chamber. (203)” Source of images: Google images.) Oded Golan, the middleman collector/dealer, called archeologist/chemist Orna Cohen at Hebrew University in 1993 on how to add patina to stone (143).
André Lemaire, Sorbonne epigrapher/paleontologist, once a priest, now a scholar whose religiomania apparently exceeds his objectivity. (Google Images)
Burleigh handles numerous complex characters deftly in her narrative: Amir Ganor, Israeli Antiquities Authority agent; Robert Deutsch, Romanian-born antiquities dealer. Hershel Shanks the publisher "lawyer, crank, P.T. Barnum and
Indiana Jones all rolled into one" (p.33). Said to be responsible for much of the current Biblical hype in general, he referred to debunking scholars as “Lying scholars” (133).
Author Nina Burleigh was raised in a religion-free home in Michigan, yet also “… learned that there are some very decent people who live every waking minute in a state of unshakable faith in an otherworldly power (19).”
Whether one love or hates “Unholy Business” often seems to depend on their belief system. But like what she says or not, there’s no denying she says it well, telling a complex story with numerous multi-faceted characters in an understandable and interesting way. She proves to be that rara avis among journalists who purchases the intellectual chops, the willingness and the independence to pursue a story to its logical conclusion.
Nina Burleigh has traveled to the Middle East many times during her writing career. She has written for the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, and Time. Previous books include: The Stranger and the Statesman, A Very Private Woman and Mirage. She resides in New York City and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
UNHOLY BUSINESS: A True Tale of Faith, Greed & Forgery in the Holy Land
Nina Burleigh
Smithsonian Books (an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers)
260 Pages. Hardcover, $27.50 (Less on Amazon)
2008, ISBN: 9780345495143
The Chickasaw Plum - Volume VI - Number 6 - June 2009
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