B-Ray
11-07-2002, 11:32 PM
By PAUL ADAMS
Thursday, November 7, 2002 – Page A1
TEL AVIV -- The man who owns a box in which the bones of James, brother of Jesus, are thought to have been buried says the discovery has changed his life, and not necessarily for the better.
Somehow Oded Golan imagined he could keep his name out of the public glare. Until a few days ago, even officials at the Royal Ontario Museum, who hope to put the ossuary on display in Toronto later this month, knew him only by a pseudonym, "Joe."
But in the two weeks since biblical scholars revealed the existence of the ossuary, Mr. Golan has seen false reports published that he was interrogated by police and endured thinly veiled suggestions that he is trying to foist a hoax on the world. Then an Israeli newspaper printed his name.
"I don't really know what impact it will have on me, on my private life," he said yesterday in his first extensive interview. "It's something about which I am very concerned."
Mr. Golan lives in a modest block of flats in Tel Aviv. He does not want its location identified any more than that. His medium-sized living room contains an old couch covered with a blanket, a worn wooden desk, a white baby-grand piano and one of the most stunning private collections of Holy Land antiquities in the world.
In glass cases that line every wall are exquisitely sculpted oxen and delicate glass vases, huge elegant pots and tiny oil lamps, ancient menorahs, drinking cups and a large, weirdly sculpted face from a sarcophagus. If that is not enough, there are more in the kitchen, and many, many more, he said, in storage.
"From the age of 8, I began to collect antiquities," he said. With some pride, he recalled discovering a tablet with cuneiform writing in the waste pile of a professional archeological dig when he was just 9 -- a piece that is still regarded as one of the oldest dictionaries in the world.
He said his passion is archeology, not money, and dismissed suggestions he hopes to make a windfall profit.
Once it has completed an exhibit at the ROM, the ossuary will return to Israel, he said. He will not sell it, but neither will he keep it in his home.
"They'd try to turn [my apartment] into a church," he joked. "This sort of finding, this is not a commercial thing. Even from an archeological point of view this is not so important a finding. [But] from a religious and emotional point of view it is a completely different issue."
Mr. Golan, a 51-year-old engineer and entrepreneur, probably made his predicament worse by initially insisting that his identity remain a secret.
He instructed the French archeologist André Lemaire, who first identified the possible significance of the ossuary, that he could reveal its existence so long as he was allowed to remain anonymous.
Officials at the ROM were informed of his true identity only after it was discovered that the ossuary had been damaged in transit from Israel to Toronto.
The secrecy allowed questions to flourish about the provenance of the box, whether the mysterious owner was trying to spirit it out of the country under the noses of Israeli authorities, or if the whole episode was an elaborate bit of fakery.
Mr. Golan called all that "ridiculous." His own account of the ossuary story would seem equally bizarre, except that he related it with such unrestrained enthusiasm and lack of defensiveness.
He said he bought the ossuary for a few hundred dollars from an Arab antiquities dealer in Jerusalem when he was a university student in the mid-1970s. Mr. Golan said he picked out what has now come to be known as the James ossuary because he could afford it.
"Who wants to have an ossuary?" he asked. "Who wants to have a box with bones in it?"
The engraving on the box was what interested him. "Ya'akov bar Yosef," it read. After that, there was some other barely legible script, recently revealed to read, in translation, "brother of." Then, the word, "Yeshua." In English that reads: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
Incredible as it may sound in retrospect, however, nothing in that phrase "rang a bell," in Mr. Golan's words.
"For us, as Israelis, we have never studied the New Testament," he said. "They were Jewish names in my mind. The only thing I knew about Jesus's family was that Maria [Mary], his mother, was a virgin and so even in my wildest imagination, I never thought he had a brother." (There is debate among scholars whether he did.)
To those who question whether he has owned the piece for as long as he says (partly because recent changes in Israeli law might have made it property of the state), he replies that he can easily produce old girlfriends, as well as friends of his parents, who saw it over the years.
But as Mr. Golan's collection grew, the importance of the ossuary shrank in his eyes.
"At the age of 23, it was an important piece," he said, "but at the age of 43 it was one of the least important pieces and it went into storage."
It was only when Prof. Lemaire dropped by to look at another piece of his and saw a photograph of the ossuary that it was removed from storage. Since then, the 20-kilogram ossuary has been subjected to extensive testing, which Prof. Lemaire believes proves that it dates from shortly after the time of Jesus.
He believes also that statistical studies of the frequency of names in Palestine at that time suggest that such a combination of names is unlikely, lending further credence to the idea that it might have contained the remains of the brother of the founder of Christianity.
Mr. Golan said there will never be absolute certainty about the origin of the box, but said the scientific basis for its authenticity is growing as more and more tests are conducted.
He said most of the questions being raised about the true age of the engraving, for example, are coming from people who have never themselves examined the ossuary.
The really interesting research may be yet to come, he remarked.
There are what appear to be bone fragments in the ossuary. "That may enable future DNA research. It might be possible to see if someone in the world today is related to James."
Mr. Golan said he watched personally as the ossuary was wrapped in at least 10 layers by one of the most reputable shippers of highly valued artifacts in Israel.
It was then transported by air to New York, Hamilton and Toronto under the authority of Brink's (Israel) Ltd. He wonders now whether the limestone box cracked en route because of changes in temperature in the aircraft holds. (However, there have been reports that the new cracks on the ossuary indicate a point of impact. It was wrapped in bubblepack and cardboard.)
Mr. Golan said specialists at the ROM would repair the ossuary as soon as the insurers give the go-ahead.
Representatives of the insurance company are expected to be in Toronto today or tomorrow.
He is remarkably calm about the damage done to what might be one of the most rare and remarkable objects in the world.
Moses smashed the tablets on which God inscribed the Ten Commandments, he pointed out, jokingly.
"The Ten Commandments were broken. If I could find the pieces, good enough."
Thursday, November 7, 2002 – Page A1
TEL AVIV -- The man who owns a box in which the bones of James, brother of Jesus, are thought to have been buried says the discovery has changed his life, and not necessarily for the better.
Somehow Oded Golan imagined he could keep his name out of the public glare. Until a few days ago, even officials at the Royal Ontario Museum, who hope to put the ossuary on display in Toronto later this month, knew him only by a pseudonym, "Joe."
But in the two weeks since biblical scholars revealed the existence of the ossuary, Mr. Golan has seen false reports published that he was interrogated by police and endured thinly veiled suggestions that he is trying to foist a hoax on the world. Then an Israeli newspaper printed his name.
"I don't really know what impact it will have on me, on my private life," he said yesterday in his first extensive interview. "It's something about which I am very concerned."
Mr. Golan lives in a modest block of flats in Tel Aviv. He does not want its location identified any more than that. His medium-sized living room contains an old couch covered with a blanket, a worn wooden desk, a white baby-grand piano and one of the most stunning private collections of Holy Land antiquities in the world.
In glass cases that line every wall are exquisitely sculpted oxen and delicate glass vases, huge elegant pots and tiny oil lamps, ancient menorahs, drinking cups and a large, weirdly sculpted face from a sarcophagus. If that is not enough, there are more in the kitchen, and many, many more, he said, in storage.
"From the age of 8, I began to collect antiquities," he said. With some pride, he recalled discovering a tablet with cuneiform writing in the waste pile of a professional archeological dig when he was just 9 -- a piece that is still regarded as one of the oldest dictionaries in the world.
He said his passion is archeology, not money, and dismissed suggestions he hopes to make a windfall profit.
Once it has completed an exhibit at the ROM, the ossuary will return to Israel, he said. He will not sell it, but neither will he keep it in his home.
"They'd try to turn [my apartment] into a church," he joked. "This sort of finding, this is not a commercial thing. Even from an archeological point of view this is not so important a finding. [But] from a religious and emotional point of view it is a completely different issue."
Mr. Golan, a 51-year-old engineer and entrepreneur, probably made his predicament worse by initially insisting that his identity remain a secret.
He instructed the French archeologist André Lemaire, who first identified the possible significance of the ossuary, that he could reveal its existence so long as he was allowed to remain anonymous.
Officials at the ROM were informed of his true identity only after it was discovered that the ossuary had been damaged in transit from Israel to Toronto.
The secrecy allowed questions to flourish about the provenance of the box, whether the mysterious owner was trying to spirit it out of the country under the noses of Israeli authorities, or if the whole episode was an elaborate bit of fakery.
Mr. Golan called all that "ridiculous." His own account of the ossuary story would seem equally bizarre, except that he related it with such unrestrained enthusiasm and lack of defensiveness.
He said he bought the ossuary for a few hundred dollars from an Arab antiquities dealer in Jerusalem when he was a university student in the mid-1970s. Mr. Golan said he picked out what has now come to be known as the James ossuary because he could afford it.
"Who wants to have an ossuary?" he asked. "Who wants to have a box with bones in it?"
The engraving on the box was what interested him. "Ya'akov bar Yosef," it read. After that, there was some other barely legible script, recently revealed to read, in translation, "brother of." Then, the word, "Yeshua." In English that reads: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
Incredible as it may sound in retrospect, however, nothing in that phrase "rang a bell," in Mr. Golan's words.
"For us, as Israelis, we have never studied the New Testament," he said. "They were Jewish names in my mind. The only thing I knew about Jesus's family was that Maria [Mary], his mother, was a virgin and so even in my wildest imagination, I never thought he had a brother." (There is debate among scholars whether he did.)
To those who question whether he has owned the piece for as long as he says (partly because recent changes in Israeli law might have made it property of the state), he replies that he can easily produce old girlfriends, as well as friends of his parents, who saw it over the years.
But as Mr. Golan's collection grew, the importance of the ossuary shrank in his eyes.
"At the age of 23, it was an important piece," he said, "but at the age of 43 it was one of the least important pieces and it went into storage."
It was only when Prof. Lemaire dropped by to look at another piece of his and saw a photograph of the ossuary that it was removed from storage. Since then, the 20-kilogram ossuary has been subjected to extensive testing, which Prof. Lemaire believes proves that it dates from shortly after the time of Jesus.
He believes also that statistical studies of the frequency of names in Palestine at that time suggest that such a combination of names is unlikely, lending further credence to the idea that it might have contained the remains of the brother of the founder of Christianity.
Mr. Golan said there will never be absolute certainty about the origin of the box, but said the scientific basis for its authenticity is growing as more and more tests are conducted.
He said most of the questions being raised about the true age of the engraving, for example, are coming from people who have never themselves examined the ossuary.
The really interesting research may be yet to come, he remarked.
There are what appear to be bone fragments in the ossuary. "That may enable future DNA research. It might be possible to see if someone in the world today is related to James."
Mr. Golan said he watched personally as the ossuary was wrapped in at least 10 layers by one of the most reputable shippers of highly valued artifacts in Israel.
It was then transported by air to New York, Hamilton and Toronto under the authority of Brink's (Israel) Ltd. He wonders now whether the limestone box cracked en route because of changes in temperature in the aircraft holds. (However, there have been reports that the new cracks on the ossuary indicate a point of impact. It was wrapped in bubblepack and cardboard.)
Mr. Golan said specialists at the ROM would repair the ossuary as soon as the insurers give the go-ahead.
Representatives of the insurance company are expected to be in Toronto today or tomorrow.
He is remarkably calm about the damage done to what might be one of the most rare and remarkable objects in the world.
Moses smashed the tablets on which God inscribed the Ten Commandments, he pointed out, jokingly.
"The Ten Commandments were broken. If I could find the pieces, good enough."