The New York Times published this article today about Professor Karen King's apparent discovery of a fragment of an ancient text, likely composed a few centuries after the apostolic era, that in part reads, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'” This would be the first...
forgery
The Authenticity of the James Ossuary Inscription: My Opinion is Shifting
I just got done reading this article about the Oded Golan trial. The point of fascination is that Golan mentions a picture taken in the 1970s of some shelves inside the home of Golan's parents. The photograph shows the now-famous James ossuary -- with the complete...
Responses to the James Ossuary Forgery Trial Verdict
A "not guilty" verdict in the seven-year trial of antiquities dealer Oded Golan was announced today. The trial was significant in that it involved the James ossuary (and so, naturally, its inscription, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus"). As I blogged a short...
University of Chicago Analysis: Archaic Mark is a Forgery
Looks like Stephen Carlson was right.[Carlson has also charged that a text known as "Secret Mark" is a forgery - see here.] From this article: The Divinity School’s Margaret M. Mitchell, together with experts in micro-chemical analysis and medieval bookmaking, has...
Secret Gospel of Mark Paper at International SBL
For those interested in the Secret Gospel of Mark (SGM; blogged on this before), check out this link. The remarks are technical, since the blog source is a group of professional New Testament textual critics. But it's useful to show that there are MANY textual...
The Secret Gospel of Mark: Genuine or Hoax?
The Secret Gospel of Mark (also called "Secret Mark") has been controversial for some time (click here for an overview). Aside from purporting to be another gospel, the controversy is primarily about a passage in it that has dialogue between Jesus and an unnamed...