Book Review: Unholy Business by Nina Burleigh

A few years ago, Hubby and I were surprised and fascinated to see a flurry of news and interviews featuring a fellow who claimed to have found proof of the physical,historical Jesus, in the form of an inscribed ossuary (a box meant to contain the bones of the dearly departed). Imagine my surprise to open Nina Burleigh's book and find the whole thing was "the fraud of the century!"

Early in the book, Ms. Burleigh says, "When I embarked on this project, I thought of it as an exotic crime story, The Maltese Falcon meets Raiders of the Lost Ark with a little bit of The Da Vinci Code thrown in." Her story is all that and much more.

Israel is a rich source of potential new knowledge for archaeologists and physical anthropologists. With 30,000 known archaeological sites, one can barely take a step without treading on history. And that history is of utmost importance to a wide variety of folks: evangelical (and other) Christians, Muslims, and Jews as well as scientists. And the geopolitical ramifications of some finds can be significant, since Jerusalem contains some sites that are hotly contested among the three major religions.

The James Ossuary, as it is called, is a limestone box where Jews of the time of Christ kept the bones of their dead. This particular box carried an inscription: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." News of the ossuary's discovery spread like wildfire in late 2002, and in 2003 it drew crowds as it toured the United States. There was even a Discovery Channel documentary. But soon the Israeli authorities seized the ossuary, and not long after that, they charged the ossuary's owner with fraud. His trial has been ongoing for years, and doubt has been cast on other artifacts that had previously been thought to be authentic.

In Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land, Ms. Burleigh tells a story of faith and hope, science and sleuthing, corruption and deceit in a fascinating journey through the Middle East and the world of biblical archaeology. Liars and con men, frauds and forgers all work together to take advantage of the faithful who thirst for proof of the events and people in the Bible and the wealthy collectors who seem to need the prestige that such tokens can bestow upon them.

The author traveled extensively, doing her own original research, and she brings us along as she talks to people on all sides of the story. She brings the cities and people of the region to life so that you can almost see and hear the jumble of life in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the book, for me, is how dependable we can be in terms of coloring the facts to fit our own individual interpretations of the world. Christians want to see Christ, atheists want not to see, and both can be depended upon to interpret archaeological findings to support their views.

Unholy Business was a riveting read, proving that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.