Jehoash Inscription

The Jehoash Inscription is the name of a controversial artifact rumored to have surfaced in the construction site or in the Muslim cemetery near the Temple Mount of Jerusalem.
The inscription describes repairs made to the temple in Jerusalem by Jehoash, son of King Ahaziah of Judah, and corresponds to the account in 2 Kings chapter 12. While some scholars support the antiquity of the patina, which in turn, strengthens the contention that the inscription is authentic, the Israel Antiquities Authority has reported that the inscription is a modern day forgery.
In February 2016, Professor Ed Greenstein, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, published an update review article, The So-Called Jehoash Inscription: A Post Mortem, commenting on the various scholarly analyses of the tablet and its inscription. Greenstein, a Semitic philologist, contends that the inscription contains "anomalies—spellings and linguistic usages that did not jibe with what we know of ancient Hebrew writing and language." He also quotes paleographer Christopher Rollston for the assertion that the relative height of some letters is incorrect. 
More information on the English Wikipedia page which has a discussion of the issues arising (and has tags for improvement dating back several years). There are many other articles on the inscription.
From the Polish Wikipedia page.
In the press appeared information about the discovery of the object allegedly confirming the biblical events of the ninth century BC However, the mysterious circumstances of the discovery raised doubts of researchers. Despite the opinion of some researchers pointing to the great importance of the object, the Museum of the Land of Israel did not express interest in the purchase of this artifact.
The authenticity of the object was confirmed by geologists Shimon Ilani, Amnon Rosenfeld and Michael Dvorachek of the Geological Survey of Israel in Jerusalem, based on finding on the surface of the slab the particles of gold that supposedly appeared during the fire of the Temple of Solomon damaged by the Babylonians. However, the analysis of the shape of the letters and the vocabulary of the inscription caused that specialists from ancient monuments rated the inscription as falsification. Similar conclusions have been brought by laboratory tests.
The inscription contains 15 lines of text, partly damaged. The text is written in Paleohebrian script and the words are separated by dots. It refers to the content from the Second Book of Kings 12: 15,16, which presents renovation works in the Temple of Solomon, commanded by King Joash.
From the Hebrew Wikipedia page,
The address of Jehoash or the " Beitek inscription" is an inscription in an ancient Hebrew inscription on a black stone that was presented to the public in 2001 after it was discovered in random excavations east of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The inscription was attributed to King Jehoash, the king of Judah in the 9th century BCE, as it is suitable for the event mentioned in the Book of Kings. On June 15, 2003, a professional committee on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that the address was forged and an indictment was filed against the address holder, but the court did not accept the committee's position and acquitted it due to doubt. 
The inscription describes, as it were, the renovation of King Jehoash in the First Temple (Temple of Solomon). It is written in the first person, by the king, and it corresponds to the story of the renovation of the Temple that was commanded by King Jehoash, as told in the Bible in Sefer Melachim. King Jehoash's reign dates back to the 9th century BCE.
The importance attributed by the researchers to the address when it was presented was due to the fact that it was ostensibly the first archaeological finding to confirm the existence of an event exactly as described in the Bible. The inscription "Jehoash" looked like a revelation of similar importance to that of the Mesha monument. The fact that the inscription deals with the First Temple added to the issue of religious and political sensitivity.
Reliability of the address 
According to the report, the inscription was discovered east of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and was brought to the attention of Jerusalem's antiquities dealer Hassan Akilan, who transferred it to the antiquities collector Oded Golan.
In 2001, the tombstone was examined by geologists Shimon Ilani and Amnon Rosenfeld of the Israel Geological Survey and other experts [requiring clarification] that they were original and not fake. Tests conducted later in the Israel Museum laboratories did not lead to conclusive conclusions about the age of the inscription.
On the other hand, Professor Ed Grinstein, an expert on Biblical language at Tel Aviv University who examined the language of the inscription, stated that it was a forgery. Greenstein based his assertion on anachronisms found in the language of the inscription. The most striking anachronism is the use of the term "house check". Jehoash said at the so-called "and Aas the breaches of the house", but the language of the Bible (in contrast to the modern Hebrew ) "housecleaning" means that repaired cracks in the walls, and the repair work itself (see Book of Kings, chapter twelve, verse W. " And they shall strengthen the house of the house for all that it shall find there. "
In 2003, the Antiquities Authority established two expert committees to examine the stone itself and the contents of the inscription on it. One committee consisted of experts in the field of material (geologists, chemists), while a second committee consisted of experts in the field of ancient texts and languages. The committees also examined another controversial finding, an ossuary bearing the name of Jacob, the brother of Jesus. The purpose of the committees was to provide an official opinion regarding the authenticity of the two findings in light of the political sensitivity that arose around them. The stone on which the inscription "Jehoash" was broken during its transfer from Oded Golan to the Antiquities Authority for examination. At the same time the work of the committees reports began to appear in the media indicated that finding a fake.
On June 15, 2003 convened two committees and drafted a joint statement according to which two controversial findings, Jehoash address and brother of Jesus ossuary, forged. On June 18, 2003, the Antiquities Authority held a press conference in which it summarized the work of the committees and their conclusions.
After the publication of the conclusions, various experts published a clarification, including Professor Haim Cohen of Ben-Gurion University, who studied the inscription for three years, in which they determined that the original Jehoash inscription.
Following the affair, the Israel Police opened an investigation and indictments were filed against Golan and four other antiquities dealers for falsifying the inscription and other findings (including the ossuary of Jesus' brother ). In March 2012, the court acquitted Golan due to doubt about the charges. Justice Aharon Farkash wrote in his judgment: "In conclusion, it is impossible to determine that the inscription is forged even according to language and language." 
Content writing 
The following is the inscription in contemporary Hebrew writing. Integrations appear between the square brackets:
*[A] His chests from [you] ... [J]
*The Dada and Asah the [...]
*(D) When it was filled [d]
*A heart of fire in the land and in science
*Bar and all the cities of Yehudah
*They gave money to the rabbi
*To stone a stone and a bar
*There and the snakes of Adam do
*In the work of the Covenant and in Assam
*The house inspection and the removal of the SS
*Supply and supply
*And the loophole and the woe
*It was the sea
*You testified that the work would succeed
*The LORD hath blessed his people with a blessing
*Avigdor Victor Horowitz, Address Yehoash under Magnifying Glass, Beit Mikra 49, A, 2003 (2003), pp. 89-102
*David Inbar, "Yehoash Address" - Original or Fake ???, AB; The Samaritans News 830-832, 2003 (2006), pp. 31-43
*David Telshir, Is Yehoash a Real Address? Philological Examination, Our Tongue to the People of Ned, 1 (2006), pp. 3-10
*Ilani, S., Rosenfeld. A., Dvorachek, M., Archaeometry of a stone tablet with Hebrew inscription referring to repair of the House, Israel Geological Survey Current Research 13, 2002, pp. 109-116.
*Sasson, Victor, Philological and Textual Observations on the Controversial King Jehoash Inscription, Ugarit-Forschungen' 35, 2003, pp. 573-87.
*Goren, Y., Ayalon, A., Bar-Mathews, M., Shilman, B., Authenticity examination of the Jehoash inscriptionת Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 31, 2004, pp. 3-16
*Lemaire, A., A re-examination of the inscribed pomegranate: A rejoinder, Israel Exploration Journal 56 (2), 2006, pp. 167-174.
*Rosenfeld, A. and Ilani, S., On the patina and stable-isotope analyses of the Ivory pomegranate (Appendix), Israel Exploration Journal 56 (2), 2006, pp. 175-177
*Ilani, S., Rosenfeld, A., Feldman, H.R., Krumbein, W.E., Kronfeld, J., Archaeometric analysis of the Jehoash Inscription tablet, Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 2008, pp. 2966-2972
*Cohen, Chaim, Biblical Hebrew Philology in the Light of Research on the New Yeho’ash Royal Building Inscription, in New Seals and Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean and Cuneiform, ed. by Meir Lubetski (Hebrew Bible Monographs, 8), Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007, 222-84.
* Cohen Chaim, "'BIBLICAL HEBREW PHILOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF RESEARCH ON THE NEW YEHO’ASH ROYAL BUILDING INSCRIPTION", in Lubetski, Meir, editor, NEW SEALS AND INSCRIPTIONS, HEBREW, IDUMEAN, AND CUNEIFORM, Hebrew Bible Monographs, 8, SHEFFIELD PHOENIX PRESS, 2007
* Gilad Grossman, the Court acquitted Oded Golan of the "Yehoash Address" on Walla! NEWS , March 14, 2012
Judgment , paragraph 453.
Category:Inscriptions of disputed origin