I'll be going to the ROM on Monday, December 23rd. I always enjoy going to that museum. I'll let you know how it is displayed and if there are any new details about the find--developments seem to happen daily.

I wrote this in the BAR forum about my visit to the ROM:

Last week my family went to the Royal Ontario Museum. The James Ossuary display lets you get quite close to the box.

I observed it from several different locations and distances.

The 3-D view that I had first of all allowed me to see that the box itself isn't quite straight in its lines. The lid is much thicker in some portions than others. The writing (carving of the words) seems to be utilitarian through and through. Whoever did the chiseling began ambitiously with deep grooves for the first couple of letter but then seemed to be eager to finish the job. The letters consistently get lighter and even though they're the same size, the rest of it seemes to be done in haste. If the side of the Ossuary was a Christmas card envelope (and we wrote right to left) the inscription starts at a place I would chose for best asthetics. The "brother of Jesus" part looks like it belongs there. If it wasn't the inscriber would look as foolish as someone who addressed a letter near the top and left a huge amount of space at the bottom.

On the opposite side (actually the front, which was meant to be seen) there can plainly be seen a circle with some sort of pattern in the middle. It, again was placed at the "start the envelope graphics/writing here" place (if you're thinking right to left).

Three other ossuaries from the same time period were on display. They were more colourful but they shared the same circle-like design.

From what I know about the man James and his epistle, I could see him being placed in the box that is now on display. James called himself a "slave of God and of Jesus Christ" and he wasn't too keen on ostentation.

The "inconsistensies" in the writing that some have seen are probably the best proof that it is genuine. Someone trying to manufacture a forgery would have found a better box and done a more consistent job.

I heard that this artifact is a fake.

Does anybody know anything about this?

The Israeli team recently declared it a fake, but many archeologists say that their conclusions were wrong.

I looked at the BAR website and saw a long list of arguments why the box is genuine. I can't list all of the reasons here, but they are still enough for me to side with the Royal Ontario Museum (which compared the box to some others that it already has) and say that the same person who wrote the first half of the inscription wrote the whole thing and the writer is a contemporary of James and Jesus.

What concerned the Israeli team was that the box "suddenly appeared" out of no-where and its collector has other peices that are obvious fakes. This could be counteracted by the obvious--the collecter himself doesn't have a clue what he has because he said the box was in a toolshed for many years while he kept "prettier" ossuaries inside his home for display!

I tend to be naturally sceptical about things at first, but after much investigation I have been satisfied that the odds of the box being genuine are better that for it being a fake.