JERUSALEM - Oded Golan says he was a teen-ager with an interest in archaeology but little money when he wandered into a shop in the Old City three decades ago, spotted a row of limestone burial vessels and made a purchase that years later would reverberate around the world.

The ossuary he chose was worn and chipped, but had an unusual inscription in ancient Aramaic carved into its side.

"I couldn't afford the good boxes," he said, "so I bought this one."

The message: "James, son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus" wasn't translated until four months ago. Now scholars believe the box might have held the bones of Jesus' brother. If the box is authentic, the inscription would be the earliest archaeological reference to Christ ever found. Golan bought the ossuary for about $200.

With the revelation, however, came unwanted fame and controversy for the reclusive 51- year-old engineer, who doggedly tried to keep his name secret after an archaeological magazine announced the startling news last month.

The mysterious find by the then-anonymous collector entranced people around the world, raising confounding questions not only about the vessel's authenticity, but when and how it was obtained and whether its journey led through an underworld of dealers in Israel's antiquities.

If sold after 1978, the ossuary would be government property.

Police estimate that 90 percent of all artifacts sold in shops in Israel were originally stolen from the more than 30,000 archaeological sites scattered around the country. Though the industry is tightly regulated, unscrupulous elements skirt the law and items are reported stolen from digs every day.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published Golan's name for the first time this week in an article about an investigation of the discovery. Golan then told the paper's weekend magazine that he bought the ossuary as a teen-ager more than 30 years ago.

Israeli antiquities officials summoned Golan to a police station in Tel Aviv last week and questioned him for more than two hours. If Golan had obtained the vessel after 1978, when a law was enacted to protect historic finds, it would be considered an "asset of the state" and he would have to relinquish ownership.

But Golan had already shipped the ossuary to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto for temporary display. That raised further questions for Israeli officials, who said they were misled as to the ossuary's historic value when they issued a permit for it to leave.

Golan said he filled out the proper forms and noted the inscription, though he did not provide a translation. Osnat Goaz, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Antiquities Authority, said she could not comment on the investigation. "We are waiting for the ossuary to come back."

While Golan said he bought it shortly after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, the magazine that announced the find, initially said it was purchased 15 years ago. Israeli authorities say dealers reported seeing the vessel in shops a few months ago.

Yesterday, the editor, Hershel Shanks, said he had misunderstood some of the information from Golan and now believes the item was purchased about three decades ago.

Even if the purchase date is cleared up, other elements of the mystery may never be. Experts say they will likely never know whether the ossuary did in fact hold the bones of James, because no one can be sure where, when or how the vessel was unearthed.

"You have to presume it's fake," said Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, a New Testament scholar at Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. "I find this situation very odd."

Just the same, he said, the vessel is of great religious importance "and should be in the public domain."

Shanks defended Golan, who is a prolific collector.

"I think that he would be quite willing to have [the ossuary] exhibited in Israel, unless they so antagonize the man that he changes his mind," Shanks said. "He's got the largest collection of antiquities of its kind in Israel. ... To the public he is unknown, but to the world of collectors and antiquities officials, he's very well known and cooperates with them."

To make matters worse, the ossuary - insured by Lloyd's of London for $1 million - was damaged in transit. It arrived in New York with cracks in the bottom, front and back. Museum officials said they will make repairs if they get Lloyd's approval.

Before shipping the box, Golan said, he removed fragments of bone and put them in a plastic container. They have not yet been tested or carbon dated to determine their age, and their existence was not mentioned by any of the scholars.

Golan is managing director for two engineering firms in Tel Aviv. He owns thousands of artifacts on ancient Jewish life, with the oldest dating to the fourth century B.C.

He became interested as a young boy, he said, and volunteered for digs around Israel, including at Masada. The ancient fortress, near the Dead Sea, is the most treasured of Jewish archaeological sites. There, unwilling to submit to capture by the advancing Roman army, 73 Jewish men killed their families and then drew lots to kill each other.

After visiting Masada, he began to collect. Golan said the ossuary was among his first purchases. But he told The Sun yesterday that he cannot remember the shop or the dealer he visited so many years ago. He thinks the ossuary was found in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, an Arab community south of the Old City.

Golan said he stored the ossuary in his parents' closet, then moved it to his apartment in Tel Aviv, where glass cases display his collection. The nearly forgotten ossuary was pushed into storage.

Four months ago, Andre Lemaire, a French specialist in ancient scripts, visited Golan to appraise a find relating to Jews in Syria. Golan showed him a photo of the ossuary, and Lemaire immediately grew excited.

The box was hauled out and various tests were done at the Geological Survey of Israel. Lemaire, a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, dated the ossuary based on a linguistic examination of the writing as well as laboratory tests on the box's materials and surface.

The results do not confirm whether Jesus had a brother, a matter debated among theologians. But if authentic, the inscription would be the oldest known reference to Jesus. Other documents are from the second century or later.

Golan, a member of a prominent Israeli family, said that he had underestimated the importance of the find until the news conference.

"I don't know anything about the Christian tradition," he said. "I never knew that Jesus had a brother. I didn't realize what kind of waves this would make, even when they had the press conference, until after I saw it on CNN."

Golan said he is not worried about the investigation. Plenty of people, he said, saw the box in his parents' home and can vouch that it was bought long before 1978. He said he would loan the ossuary to museums or to researchers, but would not sell it.

"I want to build a museum someday," he said. "And this would be its centerpiece."