A name was scratched on a piece of limestone Dr. Eleazar Lipa Sukenik, archeologist of the University of Jerusalem, dug out of the dry soil of the Holy Land last week. When he got it free of dirt, he deciphered it: JESHUA BAR JOHOSEPH (Jesus, Son of Joseph). The limestone proved to be one side of a boxlike ossuary, similar to many found in that district, built to contain the thighbone of the deceased.
Careful was Dr. Sukenik in his report of his find to make clear that he did not believe the ossuary contained the thighbone of Jesus Christ. He said: “The inscription ‘Jeshua Bar Johoseph’ is to be regarded as a mere coincidence, as no further particulars of the time of entombment or of the life of the man are available. . . . The historicity of the New Testament is reinforced in that we have found on this and hundreds of similar ossuaries many names that occur for the first time in the New Testament but of which we hitherto had no proof that they were current.