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If the Yehoash inscription is authentic, it is our first and only royal Israelite (Judahite) inscription.^a Some of the world’s leading scholars, however, have labeled it a clear forgery. No question. Some scientists, on the other hand, have said it is authentic. And numerous other scholars, while recognizing its peculiarities, say it may well be authentic.

At a recent conference of scholars to consider such matters (see First Person), Ronny Reich of Haifa University admitted he did not know whether the inscription was a forgery or authentic. He then made the following statement:

If the Yehoash inscription is a fake, then the person involved in it (the “brain,” not the artisan) is of extreme interest to me. His interdisciplinary knowledge in Bible, ancient Hebrew (lexicography, syntax, orthography), paleography and some geology, geomorphology and perhaps another subject or two seems to be extraordinary. Add to this the daring to produce such a long text (two lines would have been sufficient) where one can “stumble” so many times ... I can’t imagine that it was a conspiracy of more than one person; if it involved more than one person, something would have leaked.

But nothing has leaked. Yet it seems that, if the Yehoash inscription is a forgery, it must have been produced by more than one person: a conspiracy.