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James' Ossuary Part II

Skeptical Greg

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Skeptical Greg
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Why would the forger be put in jail? Suppose I put a sign up over my bed: "George Washington slept here". Would that be illegal?
 
arcticpenguin said:
Why would the forger be put in jail? Suppose I put a sign up over my bed: "George Washington slept here". Would that be illegal?
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Could be for fraud, but that if the forger is the current owner, meaning he hadn't sold it yet, there's no case. Lawyers?

Actually we could use an Israeli lawyer for this question.
 
hgc said:

Could be for fraud, but that if the forger is the current owner, meaning he hadn't sold it yet, there's no case. Lawyers?

Actually we could use an Israeli lawyer for this question.
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Without going over the news reports again, but it would seem that that if it was a modern forger, then he/she either is the current owner, sold it to the current owner or was somehow further down the "stream of commerce" (e.g.sold it to the person who sold it to the current owner. Fraud was probably involved at some stage. Even if the forger is the current owner, he's probably defrauded the Royal Ontario Museum, which displayed the ossuary.

At common law (not necessarily applicable in Israel), fraud occurs when a person makes a (1) knowing (2) misrepresentation (3) of a material fact (4) on which the victim reasonably relies and (5) which causes damages. Applying these elements, you can see how hanging a "George Washington slept here" sign over your own bed might become fraudulent, if (for example) you rented out your room. If you knew that the sign was false, if we assume that the historical significance of George Washington having slept there would be materially relevant to a person's decision to rent the room at the asking price, if the victim could not reasonably be expected to know you were lying, and if he paid twice the fair rental value of your bedroom because he thought he'd be sleeping in George Washington's old bed, then you would be guilty of fraud.

Anyhow, it looks like the battle of the experts will continue over the ossuary.
 
There's been additional 411 on this. Supposedly, at one point, Greek Orthodox leaders entered Jerusalem once it was taken in the First Crusade, and began marking all these sites they found that supposedly might be connected with the life of Christ. I may be wrong about this, so don't hang everything on this.

This is part of what might have been behind the recent find of the "Tomb of Zacharias."
 
Update...

An arrest

Police have arrested an Israeli antiquities dealer suspected of creating two forgeries that shook the religious and archaeological world, including a burial box purported to be that of Jesus's brother James.
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From CNN.com
 
What will Hershel Shanks say if the dealer is convicted?

You beat me to it, but could you double-check your link please? It didn't work for me.

Thanks,

Edited to add, never mind. I can't reach the Amazon site at all for unknown reasons.

I can use your link now. Must have been a temporary glitch at Amazon.
 
The forger might still "own" the fake bone box, but many thousands of dollars have already been paid to the forger for rights to the story and access to photograph. The museum that put it on display paid for the privilage, and the Discovery channel paid for exclusive rights to do a program about it.

Shanks also got paid an advance, and wouldn't it be a shame if he had to pay that money back?

Jerry
 
If Shanks has a book out on the topic, that means he was not a disinterested party, and that should have been noted more prominently in his commentary.
 
arcticpenguin said:
If Shanks has a book out on the topic, that means he was not a disinterested party, and that should have been noted more prominently in his commentary.
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I think Shanks permanently damaged his reputation by rushing to publish a book in the popular press on this discovery before peer review was completed. It will interesting to see if he keeps his job at BAR after this debacle.

I peeked in on the message boards on the BAS site, and I'm surprised there isn't more discussion about this there. :confused:
 
zakur said:
I think Shanks permanently damaged his reputation by rushing to publish a book in the popular press on this discovery before peer review was completed. It will interesting to see if he keeps his job at BAR after this debacle.

I peeked in on the message boards on the BAS site, and I'm surprised there isn't more discussion about this there. :confused:
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They're probably busy cleaning egg off of their faces and plucking some crows..:D
 
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