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Mayflower
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2002
Total Posts : 445
| Posted 10/24/2002 9:37 AM (GMT -6) |   | Greetings:
I received the attached article in the mail, and thought others
might like to read it, also.
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"BURIAL BOX OF JAMES -- THE BROTHER OF JESUS,"
Nov/Dec 2002 issue of 'Biblical Archaeology Review'
Evidence Of Jesus Written In Stone
Ossuary Of Jesus’ Brother Backs Up Biblical Accounts
After nearly 2,000 years, historical evidence for the existence of Jesus has come to light literally written in stone. An inscription has been found on an ancient bone box, called an ossuary, that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” This container provides the only New Testament-era mention of the central figure of Christianity and is the first-ever archaeological discovery to corroborate Biblical references to Jesus.
The Aramaic words etched on the box’s side show a cursive form of writing used only from about 10 to 70 A.D., according to noted paleographer André Lemaire of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (popularly known as the Sorbonne University) in Paris, who verified the inscription’s authenticity. The ossuary has been dated to approximately 63 A.D. Lemaire details his full investigation in the November/December 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, the leading popular publication in its field.
Ancient inscriptions are typically found on royal monuments or on lavish tombs, commemorating rulers and other official figures. But Jesus, who was raised by a carpenter, was a man of the people, so finding documentation of his family is doubly unexpected.
In the first century A.D., Jews followed the custom of transferring the bones of their deceased from burial caves to ossuaries. The practice was largely abandoned after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. No one knows for certain why the practice started or stopped, but it provides a rare period of self-documentation in which commoners as well as leaders left their names carved in stone.
The new find is also significant in that it corroborates the existence of Joseph, Jesus’ father, and James, Jesus’ brother and a leader of the early Christian church in Jerusalem. The family relationships contained on the new find helped experts ascertain that the inscription very likely refers to the Biblical James, brother of Jesus (see, for example, Matthew 13:55-56 and Galatians 1:18-19). Although all three names were common in ancient times, the statistical probability of their appearing in that combination is extremely slim. In addition, the mention of a brother is unusual--indicating that this Jesus must have been a well-known figure.
Laboratory tests performed by the Geological Survey of Israel confirm that the box’s limestone comes from the Jerusalem area. The patina--a thin sheen or covering that forms on stone and other materials over time--has the cauliflower-type shape known to develop in a cave environment; more importantly, it shows no trace of modern elements.
The 20-inch-long box resides in a private collection in Israel. Like many ossuaries obtained on the antiquities market, it is empty. Its history prior to its current ownership is not known.
The container is one of very few ancient artifacts mentioning New Testament figures. One such object is the ossuary of Caiaphas, the high priest who turned Jesus over to the Romans, according to the Biblical account. Caiaphas’s tomb was uncovered in 1990. Also, some 40 years ago, archaeologists discovered an inscription on a monument that mentions Pontius Pilate.
“The James ossuary may be the most important find in the history of New Testament archaeology,” says Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. “It has implications not just for scholarship, but for the world’s understanding of the Bible.”
[end]
Source:
Nov/Dec 2002 issue of B.A.R. ['Biblical Archaeology Review']
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URL:
http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/bswbbar2806f1.html
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Springs
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 636
| Posted 10/24/2002 9:44 AM (GMT -6) | | Welcome Mayflower!!!
Thanks for the article!
Here is the one that was in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
"PIONEER PRESS," St. Paul, Minnesota
Posted on Tue, Oct. 22, 2002
'Jesus' etched on ancient stone box
BY JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
New York Times
An inscription in stone, found in or near Jerusalem and written in a language and script of 2,000 years ago, bears the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
This could well be the earliest artifact relating to the existence of Jesus, according to a French scholar who has completed an analysis of the inscription being published this week in the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review.
If the inscription is authentic and refers to Jesus of Nazareth, it would be the earliest known documentation of Jesus outside the Bible. The magazine, which announced the find Monday, is promoting it as "the first-ever archaeological discovery to corroborate biblical references to Jesus."
Other scholars are reacting with caution, calling the find important and tantalizing but saying it probably will be impossible to confirm a definite link between the inscription and any of the central figures in the founding of Christianity.
Fraud cannot be ruled out, they said, though the cursive style of the script and a microscopic examination of the etched surface seemed to diminish suspicions.
An investigation by the Geological Survey of Israel found no evidence of modern pigments, scratches by modern cutting tools or other signs of tampering.
Biblical scholars said in interviews that the circumstantial evidence supporting a link to Jesus was possibly strong, but circumstantial nonetheless.
Although James (Jacob or Ya'akov), Joseph (Yosef) and Jesus (Yeshua) were common names of that time and place, several scholars noted, it would have been highly unusual to have them appear in the combination and kinship order found in the inscription.
The words, in Aramaic, "Ya'akov bar Yosef akhui diYeshua," were carved on a
20-inch-long limestone burial box, known as an ossuary, which once presumably held the bones of a man named James who died in the first century.
Several times the New Testament mentions that Jesus had a brother named James, who became leader of the nascent Christian community in Jerusalem after the crucifixion. And the new article noted that the first-century Jewish historian Josephus recorded that James was executed by stoning around 63 A.D.
This James could have been one of many Jameses. But the rest of the inscription significantly narrows the possibilities. First, in the common practice, his father is identified, in this case as Joseph.
Rarely, though, would a brother of the deceased have been added to the inscription, unless the brother was prominent. James the apostle might have wanted to proclaim one last time his kinship with Jesus.
Dr. Andre Lemaire, a researcher at the Sorbonne in Paris and a respected specialist on inscriptions of the biblical period, calculated the statistical probability of the three names' occurring in such a combination as extremely slim. Probably over two generations in first-century Jerusalem, no more than 20 people could have been called "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," and few of them might have been buried in inscribed ossuaries. Other calculations yield an even lower probability.
"It seems very probable that this is the ossuary of the James in the New Testament," Lemaire wrote in the magazine article. "If so, this would also mean that we have here the first epigraphic mention — from about A.D. 63 — of Jesus of Nazareth.
"Elsewhere in his article he acknowledged that "nothing in this ossuary inscription clearly confirms the identification" of this James as the one known in Christian tradition.
Protestants generally read the New Testament to mean that James was the son of Joseph and Mary. In this case, Mary presumably gave birth to Jesus as a virgin and then had James and other children. A second interpretation, dominant in the Eastern Orthodox Church, regards James as a son of Joseph by a previous marriage. Roman Catholics tend to regard the word "brother" to mean any close relative; perhaps James was a cousin, the son of Joseph's brother, which would accord with teachings of Mary's "perpetual virginity."
Before this, Biblical Archaeology Review reported, the earliest mention of Jesus was in a piece of papyrus containing a fragment of the Gospel by John, written in Greek in about A.D. 125. Most of the existing early texts for the New Testament date from 300 or more years after the time of Jesus. The first Gospel, by Mark, is thought to have been composed around the year 70.
Only a few other ancient artifacts mention New Testament figures.
In 1990, the ossuary of Caiaphas, the high priest who turned Jesus over to the Romans, was uncovered. Even earlier, archaeologists discovered an inscription on a monument that bears the name of Pontius Pilate.
Like other biblical scholars, Dr. James C. VanderKam of the University of Notre Dame praised Lemaire as an authoritative epigrapher, or specialist in ancient inscriptions, whose research is thorough and evaluations judicious.
"Since the research comes from Andre Lemaire, I take it very seriously," VanderKam said. "If it is authentic, and it looks like it is, this is helpful non-biblical confirmation of the existence of this man James."
Dr. Eric Meyers, an archaeologist and director of the graduate program in religion at Duke University, said the rarity of this configuration of names occurring, especially the inclusion of a brother's name, "lends a sense of credibility to the claim."
[end]
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Mayflower
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2002
Total Posts : 445
| Posted 10/24/2002 9:52 AM (GMT -6) | |
Unfortunately, I posted this topic "Burial Box of James -- the Brother of Jesus" in the wrong location -- but, haven't yet figured out HOW to delete this post, and re-post it in another forum...
Any suggestions?
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Tom
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 10/24/2002 10:19 AM (GMT -6) | | Hey I saw this article too. Interesting. Hey, it adds up to me. I'm a believer.
What will Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility say about Jesus having a brother?
Tom 
"Every saint has a history and every sinner a future." Oscar Wilde | | Back to Top | | |
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 10/24/2002 11:17 AM (GMT -6) | | I believe that James was Jesus step-brother. But no matter.
What's important is that: Jesus was the only-Son of the Father, begotten without a mother; and born the Son of Man, conceived of a woman without a father.
James is an interesting bird. In some views not considered to be really strong on what God was doing with the Gentiles. But Peter had his failings too. (as do we all)
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Mayflower
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2002
Total Posts : 445
| Posted 10/25/2002 6:30 AM (GMT -6) | | Greetings:
NOTE:
Being rather new at this, I had posted "BURIAL BOX OF JAMES -- THE BROTHER OF JESUS" in the wrong forum.
Therefore, I have now relocated this post to the "Theological Q&A" forum, <http://www.gregboyd.org/gbfront/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=16A > -- where the general title seemed more appropriate.
I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused...
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