'2,000-year-old Jesus box' may not be a fake, as Jerusalem forgery trial nears collapses

Daily Mail ^ | 30 Oct 2008 | Daily Mail

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I’ve been following this in Biblical Archaeology Review.

The Israeli courts have handled this worse than the US courts have handled Obama’s identity.

[SumProVita]

Let me ask, with whom did Joseph have this supposed brother of Jesus? Therein we find the base for this false information.

[Varda]

The Israel Antiquities Authority doesn’t have the final say about whether this box and inscription are real or not. Also, Biblical Archeaology Review’s experts claimed the IAA did a sloppy job examining the box. The IAA looks like a horse’s ass in all this.

[Varda]

That’s the problem with private interpretation. Everyone does it from their own cultural perspective. But I would have thought most Christians would have caught this one right away. It looks like this is a Christians’ ossuary. If that’s true than the most likely meaning of “brother of Jesus” is what we would call a disciple of Jesus. The early Christians called themselves “brothers”.

[SumProVita]

The term *brother* was also used to refer to cousins in that culture.

[jalisco555]

Actually, the folks at BAR (Biblical Archaeology Review) have continued to put together sources supporting the original claims.

That's one of the reasons I let my BAR subscription lapse a couple of years ago. I got tired of Hershel Shanks defending what I assumed to be a fake. I recently resubscribed but maybe I need to re-examine my original assumption. We'll probably never know for sure if this is authentic. Of course, even if it is 2,000 years old it doesn't mean it refers to THE Jesus, THE James and THE Joseph.

[ShadowAce]

Let me ask, with whom did Joseph have this supposed brother of Jesus?

Ahh, so you're one of them, eh? Joseph and Mary didn't have a normal, happy family life? They were deprived of each other?

I don't believe God would work that way.

[SumProVita]

YES, I am happily one of those Christians. ;-)

[SumProVita]

And I FULLY believe they had a VERY happy and spiritually committed life.

;-)

[SumProVita]

“I don’t believe God would work that way.”

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.
‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

[Buggman]

That's stretching things; the early Jewish believers called themselves Nazerenes (Heb. Netzerim, "Branches") and followers of The Way (presumably HaDerech in Heb). They identified themselves as brothers to each other, not to the Messiah. (Rom. 8:29, which refers to Yeshua being "the firstborn among many brethren," is speaking in an eschatological sense.)

An inscription on an ossuary would be intended to identify the person according to his family, usually by his mother and father. For a Ya'akov ben Yoseph to also be identified as "brother of Yeshua," would indicate that the "Yeshua" in question was a) pretty darn famous, and b) that Ya'akov was a blood-relation to him.

The Bible has always said that Yeshua (Jesus) had brothers: Ya'akov, Yhudah, Shim'on, etc. If this ossuary is real, then its only confirming what the Scriptures have told us for 2000 years in that regard.

Shalom!

[bmwcyle]

Christians knew it was a fake all this time.

[ShadowAce]

There's still no proof in your posts that they did not have physical relations as well as spiritual relations.

Sex is a wonderful gift from God, meant to be enjoyed between a husband and wife. Since there is no mention whatsoever of them being deprived of anything typical couples get, the reader must assume they had the same benefits.

[SumProVita]

Sorry, but I FIRMLY believe that Mary was forever a VIRGIN.
Nothing could sway that belief. God bless you.

[Varda]

True but this is an ossuary and the inscriptions on them are done to fulfill the covenant handed down from father to son. (I’m going on memory here. I took a class in Biblical Archaeology before this ossuary find.) Generally the inscriptions are in two hands. First is script done by the son, naming his father and over that is sometimes the hand of an artisan who may pretty up the inscription. The fact that this inscription includes “brother of Jesus” is very unusual.

[Hegewisch Dupa]

Thank you. It never made a lick of sense to me that M & J couldn't go at it like good, happy married people. Frankly, it would have been a slight at Mary if Joseph didn't bring out his tool set - it would be as though he believed that Mary wasn't a virgin bride, that she was made impure because some other guy (small ‘g’) was Jesus’ dad.

[ShadowAce]

That's fine. It's not a salvific critierion. However, there is no biblical proof for it.

From one Christian to another, God bless you!

[OB1kNOb]

reopening the possibility it might indeed be the only tangible evidence for the life of Jesus.

The written words on an ossuary are considered the only tangible evidence for the life of Jesus? What about the New Testament? Besides being the inspired Word of God to us Christians, is it not a history of the life and deeds of Jesus written by numerous eye witnesses? What am I missing?

[A.A. Cunningham]

You quite obviously aren’t familiar with the writings and teachings of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli, amongst others, on the subject or the Oral Law of Kiddushin for that matter.

[ZULU]

That box, even if not a hoax, would be as certain to be the ossuary of Christ as would a similar box from today labeled
“John, brother of Ted, son of Joe” be certain to be the ossuary of President Kennedy!!!!