'Bogus' biblical artifacts continue to confound Israeli courts

A stone ossuary said to have once contained the bones of Jesus' brother James sits in the storerooms of the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) March 27, 2003 in Jerusalem.

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A stone ossuary said to have once contained the bones of Jesus' brother James sits in the storerooms of the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) March 27, 2003 in Jerusalem.

A 10-year legal battle is drawing to a close in the Holy Land over several astounding biblical relics, including a limestone box said to have held the bones of the purported brother of Jesus and the first-ever relic of biblical King Solomon's First Temple.

But are they real or the greatest hoax in a hundred years?

Last year, the Israel Antiquities Authority failed to prove in court that the items were forged by antiquities collector Oded Golan. Now the IAA seems to have changed its tune, and the two parties found themselves in court again in early August. Now Israel wants to own the items it spent a decade calling fake.

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The Jehoash tablet, a stone tablet supposedly carved with Hebrew text that describes renovation work on the first biblical temple by King Jehoash nearly 3,000 years ago. The authenticity of the purported burial box of Jesus's brother and the stone tablet remained shrouded in mystery.

The Solomon-era relic is at the forefront of the battle. Called the Jehoash tablet, it is a rectangular stone about the size of a hardbound book, inscribed with 15 lines of ancient script detailing repairs made to Solomon's temple, which echo a passage from the Old Testament.

The other item is an ossuary, a limestone box built to hold the bones of the dead. Called the James ossuary, the small stone box has an inscription that reads, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." If authentic, it would be considered the first physical link to Jesus.

Makanan Enak