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Issue Date: April 13, 2003
In the name of the Brother
Controversial new "proof" that Jesus had a sibling provides inspiration for two leading biblical scholars -- and, they believe, the world.
By Ben Witherington III and Hershel Shanks
A simple inscription dramatically illustrates our common bonds.
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As we celebrate Easter and Passover, an artifact that dates back 2,000 years provides an extraordinary new source of hope in trying times.
The recent discovery near Jerusalem of the burial box of James, inscribed "brother of Jesus," comes at a propitious time. The simple stone box, or ossuary, provides a tangible, dramatic reason to celebrate the common faith origins of Jews and Christians. It may have arrived at just the right time to remind us of the source of our hope in the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus and James. (Muslims, too, worship the same God and even revere Jesus as a prophet.)
But how can James' ossuary help us do that? When it was placed in a cave, the year was A.D. 62, and the situation was volatile and sometimes violent in the Holy Land and its vicinity, involving wars and rumors of wars. The situation today is no different. The ossuary reminds us of the hope early Jews had in an afterlife. Most considered the stone ossuary a way of safely preserving a person's bones, which they believed were required for resurrection. Thus James' ossuary was a faith statement by his Jewish family that he, too, would experience what Jesus' followers believed Jesus had on Easter morning.
The ossuary also is a potent reminder of the Jewish roots of the Jesus movement. That movement, which led to Christianity, grew out of a very specific form of early Judaism that was founded on the three T's -- Torah, temple and territory -- and James affirmed the Jewish faith in all those things. It was a practice of Jews primarily from 20 B.C. to A.D. 70 to bury a deceased person's bones in an ossuary. The ossuary takes us back in time to the very age in which Jesus and his family lived and, more important, puts us in tangible contact with them.
Then, too, the inscription on the ossuary reminds us that Jesus, James and their family spoke Aramaic, the language adopted by the Jews when they were in exile in Babylon, which includes parts of modern Iraq. (This was true even though the language of the Torah, the Jewish scriptures, was Hebrew, and the common spoken language of the eastern Roman Empire was Greek.)
The James ossuary is a reminder of the strongly Jewish flavor of Christianity in Jerusalem, even as late as three decades after Jesus' death. What we know about James is that he stayed in Jerusalem and led the church founded there. Paul even called him one of the "pillars" of the early church. According to the 21st chapter of the Book of Acts, James was very concerned that even Gentile missionaries like Paul be seen to observe Jewish law and practice rituals in the temple. Furthermore, he wrote a letter to Jewish Christians outside the Holy Land teaching them in the style and with the content his brother Jesus had used -- offering parables, aphorisms, riddles, proverbs and other forms of Jewish wisdom. He believed Jesus was indeed the long-awaited messiah of Israel. Ultimately, in A.D. 62, he died for that belief at the hands of the high priest Ananus, a direct descendant of the high priest Caiaphas, who had turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman official who condemned him to be crucified.
For Christians, the James ossuary serves as a wake-up call that their origins are profoundly Jewish and that they need to affirm the Jewishness of Jesus, James and the Holy Family, because they were Jewish not only in ethnic terms but also in faith and practice.
For Jews, the ossuary provides an opportunity to reclaim James and other early followers of Jesus as one sort of early Jew, a sort that still today can be affirmed as part of a common heritage shared with Christians.
It was amazing to watch some 95,000 people file past the ossuary when it was on display in Canada and watch their eyes light up with fascination. Both Jews and Christians peppered me with questions about the exhibit after I spoke on a panel there. Both Christianity and Judaism are founded on historical persons and events. But today, in an age of widespread biblical illiteracy, many don't know their heritage well, and even fewer really understand the meaning of that heritage. People asked me who this James was, why he was important, what his relationship to Jesus was, and on and on.
It is possible the inscription on the ossuary -- "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" -- provides us with a challenge in regard to some basic Christian assumptions about James. The Roman Catholic tradition is that Jesus' brothers and sisters actually were cousins; Orthodox Christians believe they were Joseph's children by a previous marriage. The inscription conflicts with both of those Christian traditions, in fact, for there certainly was an Aramaic word for "cousin" that could have been used in this inscription but was not. If Jesus was the son of only Mary, and James was the son of only Joseph, then Jesus and James would not literally have been brothers, as this inscription states.
Beyond the debate over James' relationship to Jesus, the ossuary has awakened a new interest in the origins of Christian faith and its Jewish roots. Perhaps it now can spark a rebirth of hope that Jews and Christians can learn from one another about their shared heritage, discover how to affirm and appreciate what they have in common, and open a fresh dialogue about our differences, with love and respect. Such an outcome could only have pleased both James and his more famous brother, Jesus.
Ben Witherington III and Hershel Shanks are co-authors of the new book "The Brother of Jesus: The Dramatic Story & Meaning of the First Archaeological Link to Jesus & His Family" (HarperSanFrancisco, $24.95). Shanks is also editor-in-chief of "Biblical Archaeology Review" and "Bible Review". Witherington is professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary in Lexington, Ky.
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A startling accidental find
By Hershel Shanks
The recent discovery of an ancient burial box bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" raised a scholarly storm and has excited interest around the world. Now there is no question that the stone box comes from the first century. Experts agree that the writing is authentic. Geological examination has shown it cannot be a modern forgery.
But is this James the one the New Testament refers to as "the brother of the Lord"? Is this Jesus the Jesus? All three names -- James, Joseph, Jesus -- were common at the time. But the odds that they would appear in this order would apply to only between four and 20 people in Jerusalem then.
Where is the ossuary now? Following its initial public exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto late last year, the ossuary was shipped back to Jerusalem in March and returned to its owner, Oded Golan.
The ossuary is currently on loan at the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem and is undergoing even more tests by paleographic and linguistic scholars, as well as geologists. Their new findings are expected to be released in June.
Americans may get to see for themselves: The Israeli government is considering allowing the ossuary to come to this country for a museum tour. In the meantime, Golan has said he may allow DNA testing on the bone fragments found in the ossuary.
This remarkable story has just begun.
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