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Bone-box of Jesus' brother found?

The Return Of Rothkoid

00:35 / 22.10.02

Scholars say a nondescript limestone box, looted from a Jerusalem cave and held secretly in a private collection in Israel, could be the first-ever reference to Jesus in the world's archaeological record.

The box is an ossuary, used by Jews at the time of Christ to hold the bones of the deceased. The ossuary has almost no ornamentation except for a simple, yet riveting, Aramaic inscription: Ya'akov bar Yosef akhui diYeshua, it says -- "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."

From here.

How does this affect the apocrypha? Would confirmation of Jesus' brother's existence - I hadn't heard of him, but then, I'm not particularly devout - cause a change in scholarship? Exp?

the Fool

00:54 / 22.10.02

There is nothing conclusively tying it to the christian first family, though. Just names, that were popular at the time. The artifact was discovered out of context with its orginal location so its orgins will always be clouded. It might be, it might not be the box that held the bones of Jesus' brother. No one will ever be really sure.

Saint Keggers

06:25 / 22.10.02

Um..according christian beliefs after 3 days the stone was removed from the burial tomb and it was found to be empty. Now according to some sources i've read, the bones are removed from the tomb and placed into the ossuary one year after the body was laid to rest. Therefore it means that a)it does not refer to the jesus mentioned in the bible
b)it does and the bible was wrong
c)it could refer to the twin of jesus mentioned in ( I cant remeber the name, either The Second Mesiah or The Hyram Key)

Either way its pointless, those who want to belive will find proof just as those who want to see otherwise will find proof to support their cause...

bjacques

06:28 / 22.10.02

James was also one of the Apostles, I
think. The idea was that most Jameses
and Jesii related to Josephs weren't
famous enough to rate a nice tomb.

Too bad it didn't contain a PFJ badge
and a stack of "Romans Go Home" stickers.

Papess

12:25 / 22.10.02

Here is some info on Jesus' brother James/Jacob

Seth

13:25 / 22.10.02

Agreement - sadly, we're talking really common names. It'd be like someone from 4002 finding an torn up school exercise book with the name "David" on it and assumeing it belonged to Mr Beckham. Makes me wonder how many of today's records would survive more than a couple of centuries, though, and which ones are more likely to make it.

grant

14:47 / 22.10.02

Fella at work was saying Aramaic doesn't have a word for "cousin" - they just used "brother" for anyone who was a close relative.

On the other hand, James as brother of Jesus has been a long-held belief by some. He's the one mentioned in the Hiram Key, and he's the one who took Christianity to the Jews, while Paul witnessed to the Gentiles. James' version didn't really catch on with the crowds, while Paul's did. Or so I've read.

SMS

18:44 / 22.10.02

NYT reported that someone calculated there were likely around twenty people named James with a brother named Jesus and a father named Joseph. That would seem to put the probability around 1/20th, but it doesn't take into account the fact that brothers' names are not generally inscribed on these stones unless they were prominent figures. So it could very well be the famed Jesus of Nazareth.

Cubby

20:12 / 22.10.02

As far as I can see the only thing this would effect is Catholic Doctrine (unless you any one else who cares if Mary died a virgin (Joseph, not included)).

Oh, and Bjacques, there were actually two apostles named James (reffered to as James the Greater and James the Lesser)

SMS

00:06 / 23.10.02

As far as I know, Catholic doctrine would still say that "brother" refers to a cousin, Orthodox would still assume it was a half brother (Joseph's son before Mary), and Protestants would still hold that it really means brother. Shouldn't this be in the lab?

Hieronymus

01:39 / 23.10.02

Article from the fairly reputable Biblical Archaeology Review

Hieronymus

16:43 / 07.11.02

Yowza. Looks like someone's weighing in on the possibility the James ossuary might be half legitimate and half-forgery. Guess which half?

Baz Auckland

03:41 / 09.11.02

If there's anyone in the Toronto area who wants to see it, it'll be on display as of Nov.14th at the Royal Ontario Museum. Fun Fun.

iconoplast

17:27 / 17.11.02

The first thing that occured to me after reading, "James, brother of Jesus, son of Joseph" was "Well, yeah. Half the headstones in East L.A. probably say that."

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