The Patio Tomb Box and the Fish
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It appears that the fish controversy may have a productive "end". Professor James Charlesworth and Robert Deutsch (an Israeli epigrapher) have found an overlooked inscription in the nose of the fish that reads in Hebrew "JONH" or Jonah. The lines of the stick figure form an inscription according to a new report that can be found HERE.
I continue to agree that the figure on the box is a fish. And now with this inscription and photos of it, I find the evidence convincing that the artist was depicting Jonah. Further, given that this pictorial is on a bone box from first-century Jerusalem, it is plausible that the reference is to resurrection.
With this find, we have some type of Jew in the first century for whom the Jonah story made sense within the context of death. So I am moving in the direction that we may be seeing here evidence of an early Christian-Jewish tomb.
I continue to agree that the figure on the box is a fish. And now with this inscription and photos of it, I find the evidence convincing that the artist was depicting Jonah. Further, given that this pictorial is on a bone box from first-century Jerusalem, it is plausible that the reference is to resurrection.
With this find, we have some type of Jew in the first century for whom the Jonah story made sense within the context of death. So I am moving in the direction that we may be seeing here evidence of an early Christian-Jewish tomb.