BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Let the Public See It!

The Yehoash inscription in court

Jehoash Inscription

The Yehoash inscription.

A strange turn of the screw occurred in the Israel Supreme Court last Wednesday. For 10 years the Israel Antiquities Authority has been charging Israeli antiquities collector Oded Golan with forging a 15-line inscription which, if authentic, would be the first and only royal Israelite inscription. It is generally referred to as the Yehoash (Jehoash) inscription. The government eventually charged Golan criminally. A five-year trial ensued in which Golan was charged with forging the Yehoash inscription and numerous other artifacts (including the famous ossuary inscribed “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”).

At the end of the trial, the judge wrote a lengthy opinion acquitting Golan on all forgery charges.
Nevertheless, the government refuses to return Golan’s antiquities collection—more specifically, the Yehoash inscription—to him, which was confiscated for purposes of the trial.

The reason for the government’s refusal is an astounding volte-face: The government now argues that the Yehoash inscription is an antiquity. Therefore the government is entitled to it!

How this will play out is unclear. The Supreme Court has not yet rendered a decision. At the hearing, it suggested that the parties get together and reach some sort of compromise, perhaps giving the government only the Yehoash inscription. (The government has made no claim to the James ossuary; apparently it intends to return this to Golan.) I have spoken to Golan and it seems clear that, after 10 years of making his life a living hell by charging him as a forger and trying him criminally, he will never agree to the settlement the court suggested.

From their remarks from the bench, it seems clear that the judges are sympathetic to the government’s claim, although they obviously find it difficult to reach this conclusion based on legal reasoning.

Whether or not the Yehoash inscription is a forgery is beside the point of the suggestion I would like to make. I would like to make a claim on behalf of the public: ALLOW US TO SEE IT!

All the items confiscated from Oded Golan should be displayed in a museum, such as Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum. Golan told me he would agree to this. Will the Israel Antiquities Authority?-H.S.


For more information on the forgery trial, visit the Bible History Daily James Ossuary Forgery Trial Resources Guide page, featuring over one dozen links on the trial and artifacts.

Read Will the IAA Return the James Ossuary to Oded Golan? in Bible History Daily.

Download the FREE eBook James, Brother of Jesus: The Forgery Trial of the Century, featuring the article “Is It or Isn’t It?” on the Yehoash inscription.


9 Responses

  1. Aantekeningen bij de Bijbel · Livius Nieuwsbrief / September says:

    […] De paradoxen van de handel in vervalste eenheden zijn altijd heerlijk. Een paar jaar geleden kwam een tekst uit de tijd van de Eerste Tempel op de markt, waarvan al snel werd vastgesteld dat ze onecht was. De vervalser werd gearresteerd en berecht. Het voorwerp is dus niet echt – dus waarom legt Israël er beslag op? […]

  2. Livius Nieuwsbrief / September | Mainzer Beobachter says:

    […] De paradoxen van de handel in vervalste eenheden zijn altijd heerlijk. Een paar jaar geleden kwam een tekst uit de tijd van de Eerste Tempel op de markt, waarvan al snel werd vastgesteld dat ze onecht was. De vervalser werd gearresteerd en berecht. Het voorwerp is dus niet echt – dus waarom legt Israël er beslag op? […]

  3. JOHN LOCKWOOD says:

    even suspect documents are of interrest due to the interest of others.

  4. BAR Weighs In | Simcha Jacobovici TV says:

    […] A few days ago I posted my view on the Israeli government’s ridiculous U-turn concerning the “Yehoash” inscription. The inscription is the only temple artifact we have from Solomon’s Temple i.e., the First Temple in Jerusalem, that stood for some 500 years on Mount Zion before being destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE. The rare inscription is owned by antiquities collector Oded Golan. For ten years, the government has been torturing him – accusing him of forging this and other items. For five years they dragged him through the courts. At the end of the trial, Golan was acquitted on all charges. Instead of returning the artifact to him, the government now says that the Yehoash inscription is an “antiquity” and that they should keep it. Yesterday’s forgery is today’s antiquity! Here’s what my friend Hershel Shanks, the editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, has to say on this bizarre turn of events: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/let-the-public-see-it/ […]

  5. Scott I says:

    Off hand, it seems to me that if the IAA can now admit the inscription is authentic, then they should be liable to some law that should punish for misusing and abusing the legal system or insincere or fraudulent purposes, no less. To make a mockery of the legal system should be a very serious crime. But as here in the USA and around the world, justice and courts are a joke, really. A sign of the times, it would seem to me.

  6. Avi says:

    Sure, let’s see it. But only if we can see the half-finished “artifacts” that police found when they raided his workshop.

  7. » Strange Twist in the Oded Golan Case: Is The Jehoash Tablet Genuine? TaborBlog says:

    […] Golan case, offers his perspective with a call for action in his editorial today which you can read here. Published: August 1, 2013 Filed Under: Archaeology, Hebrew Bible, History, James Brother of […]

  8. Jim Kilson says:

    As a bible teacher and historian I’m having a hard time understanding how the government of Israel can lay claim to this “artifact.” They spent years trying to convince the world that it was a “fake,” but now their claiming it’s an “antiquity,” which gives them the right to keep it. They lost, and their bitter, and this action is nothing more than the IAA playing the “sore-loser” card. This whole fiasco has severely damaged the IAA’s credibility in the world archeological community, and this latest move isn’t going to make the situation any better, in fact it will only make it worse. I highly doubt that the IAA will “man-up” and do the right thing, I hope they will, but I doubt it.

  9. Aaron Street says:

    I agree

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9 Responses

  1. Aantekeningen bij de Bijbel · Livius Nieuwsbrief / September says:

    […] De paradoxen van de handel in vervalste eenheden zijn altijd heerlijk. Een paar jaar geleden kwam een tekst uit de tijd van de Eerste Tempel op de markt, waarvan al snel werd vastgesteld dat ze onecht was. De vervalser werd gearresteerd en berecht. Het voorwerp is dus niet echt – dus waarom legt Israël er beslag op? […]

  2. Livius Nieuwsbrief / September | Mainzer Beobachter says:

    […] De paradoxen van de handel in vervalste eenheden zijn altijd heerlijk. Een paar jaar geleden kwam een tekst uit de tijd van de Eerste Tempel op de markt, waarvan al snel werd vastgesteld dat ze onecht was. De vervalser werd gearresteerd en berecht. Het voorwerp is dus niet echt – dus waarom legt Israël er beslag op? […]

  3. JOHN LOCKWOOD says:

    even suspect documents are of interrest due to the interest of others.

  4. BAR Weighs In | Simcha Jacobovici TV says:

    […] A few days ago I posted my view on the Israeli government’s ridiculous U-turn concerning the “Yehoash” inscription. The inscription is the only temple artifact we have from Solomon’s Temple i.e., the First Temple in Jerusalem, that stood for some 500 years on Mount Zion before being destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE. The rare inscription is owned by antiquities collector Oded Golan. For ten years, the government has been torturing him – accusing him of forging this and other items. For five years they dragged him through the courts. At the end of the trial, Golan was acquitted on all charges. Instead of returning the artifact to him, the government now says that the Yehoash inscription is an “antiquity” and that they should keep it. Yesterday’s forgery is today’s antiquity! Here’s what my friend Hershel Shanks, the editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, has to say on this bizarre turn of events: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/let-the-public-see-it/ […]

  5. Scott I says:

    Off hand, it seems to me that if the IAA can now admit the inscription is authentic, then they should be liable to some law that should punish for misusing and abusing the legal system or insincere or fraudulent purposes, no less. To make a mockery of the legal system should be a very serious crime. But as here in the USA and around the world, justice and courts are a joke, really. A sign of the times, it would seem to me.

  6. Avi says:

    Sure, let’s see it. But only if we can see the half-finished “artifacts” that police found when they raided his workshop.

  7. » Strange Twist in the Oded Golan Case: Is The Jehoash Tablet Genuine? TaborBlog says:

    […] Golan case, offers his perspective with a call for action in his editorial today which you can read here. Published: August 1, 2013 Filed Under: Archaeology, Hebrew Bible, History, James Brother of […]

  8. Jim Kilson says:

    As a bible teacher and historian I’m having a hard time understanding how the government of Israel can lay claim to this “artifact.” They spent years trying to convince the world that it was a “fake,” but now their claiming it’s an “antiquity,” which gives them the right to keep it. They lost, and their bitter, and this action is nothing more than the IAA playing the “sore-loser” card. This whole fiasco has severely damaged the IAA’s credibility in the world archeological community, and this latest move isn’t going to make the situation any better, in fact it will only make it worse. I highly doubt that the IAA will “man-up” and do the right thing, I hope they will, but I doubt it.

  9. Aaron Street says:

    I agree

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