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Religion News Blog This web log highlights news items, articles and web sites of interest to Christian apologists, countercult professionals, researchers and others.
The 20 by 11- inch box, known as the James ossuary, has an inscription that reads, from right to left, ``James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.''
Museum officials unveiled the repaired ossuary Thursday, giving journalists a view of the artifact that drew global attention when its existence was made public last month Biblical Archaeology Review.
A beige box sits in a glass case in the center of a red-painted room on the third floor of the museum. A crack that runs through ``brother'' and ``of'' in the inscription is visible by the lighter beige filling.
Informational text written in black on the walls contains historical, biblical and archaeological details. For example, the text notes an inventory of almost 900 ossuaries showed 19 have the name of a Joseph and 10 of a Jesus, with one known to have the name of Jesus, son of Joseph, inscribed on it.
``Statistically, the combination of the three names in the James ossuary increases considerably the possibility that this was James, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth,'' the text reads.
Dan Rahimi, the museum's director of collections management, said extensive work on the ossuary left it in ``great shape'' for the public exhibition scheduled to run until Dec. 29.
He said the repairs were left unpainted so that viewers could see them, and were reversible.
Curators said they saw what they believed were fossils of plant roots and bacterial staining during the repair. They also discovered an incised star-circle and minute flecks of red paint on the back of the box, common decorations on ossuaries dating between 50-70 A.D.
``It was very exciting to make this discovery when the ossuary had already received such intense scrutiny because of the inscription,'' said Edward Keall, the museum's director of Near Eastern and Asian civilizations. ``Others did not see it because they were mesmerized by the inscription and did not look at the back side.''
Experts date the ossuary, a Latin word for bone box, to 63 A.D. If, as some scholars maintain, the box and the inscription are authentic, it would be the first physical artifact from the first century related to Jesus.
Keall said it was unlikely anyone will ever prove scientifically it held the bones of the brother of Jesus.
``It won't stand up in a court of law,'' he said. ``Believing is an act of faith.''
Some experts have said the box might be a forgery, or that it might have been the burial box of a different James, unrelated to Jesus Christ. The names James, Joseph and Jesus were popular during the period.
Museum officials said they expected the ossuary to be a popular attraction, and additional security was in place. The museum paid US$25,000 for the exhibition.
The owner of the artifact, a 51-year-old engineer from Tel Aviv, said he bought the ossuary in the mid-1970s from an antiquities dealer in the Old City of Jerusalem for several hundred dollars. It's now estimated by some to be worth millions.
Also on this page is the entire article on archeology from the 1992 Encyclopedia on Mormonism. The question everyone is asking is why do LDS scholars never make such finds in support of the Book of Mormon?
Sisters sue local priest, LDS church
10/03/2002
Associated Press
REPORTED ON PORTLAND CHANNEL 8 NEWS
Two sisters have filed a $10 million lawsuit, accusing a Mormon high priest of abusing them in their home, his truck and a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Portland.
Sheryl Siatunuu-Larrison and Patricia Nebergall say Manuel Ulibarri repeatedly molested them from the early 1970s until the early 1980s.
The sisters say their parents reported the allegations to the ward bishop, who told them not to report it to the police while church officials investigated. The sisters say the church did not act.
The suit was filed Wednesday in Multnomah County circuit court against both Ulibarri and the LDS church.
David Ernst, an attorney who represents the church, said Ulibarri was not a church clergy member and that "high priest" is a title given to virtually any Mormon man older than 40.
Ernst denied that church officials were told of any abuse allegations until the mid-1990s, when they put a note in Ulibarri's file that he not be given any assignments that put him in contact with children.
"This church unequivocally condemns (child abuse)," Ernst said. "And if he did it, we are saddened to learn of the allegations that these girls were abused a quarter-century ago."
According to the sisters, their family joined the Mormon church in 1973 and Ulibarri was assigned to be the family's home teacher. He started abusing them almost immediately, they said.
Neither was aware that the other was being abused nor that Ulibarri was molesting other children in the family, said Michael Morey, the Lake Oswego-based attorney who represents Nebergall.
In 1977, another sister reported being abused to Bishop Guy Piersall, who responded by telling her she was dressing inappropriately, Morey said.
Four years later, Nebergall, who was 18, told her parents what had been happening.
The parents arranged a meeting with Bishop Gary Larsen, who talked to the children, Siatunuu-Larrison said.
"He asked us questions about what had happened. He acted like we were lying. He (told) us not to say anything," Siatunuu-Larrison said.
Stephen English, another attorney representing the church, said his client abhors child abuse, but cannot be held responsible for abuse committed by one member against another.
"This appears to be a blatant attempt to ride the coattails of the recent (Catholic) clergy abuse situation," English said.
http://www.kgw.com/news-
local/stories/kgw_1003_news_mormon_abuse.8151cc50.html 10/3/02 7:08 PM