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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks Paul Ciniraj. |
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Posted on 03/26/2005 2:46:33 AM PST by Paul Ciniraj
From the news... A limestone burial box, almost 2,000 years old, may provide the oldest archeological record of Jesus of Nazareth.
Of interest in the news today, the announcement of an archaeological find of potentially great significance: an ossuary (stone box) bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus".
The practice of transferring bones from expensive tombs into ossuaries existed from around 20 B.C. to 70 A.D., and the inscription on the newly recovered ossuary was in a form of written Aramaic used only between about 10 A.D. and 70 A.D. Other scientific tests affirm the antiquity of the artifact, dating it to approximately 63 A.D. The apostle James was martyred in 62 A.D., and according to the custom, bones were removed from a tomb to an ossuary about a year after death.
Although not conclusively the same James-Joseph-Jesus connection history already knows, the probability is very high. To add to the information provided by dating tests is the fact that it was very unconventional for the brother to be inscribed on an ossuary (there is only one other known case in around 1000), and it strongly implies that this Jesus was well-known and therefore helpful in identifying this particular "James, son of Joseph"!
In a letter written to the early Christian church at the Roman province of Galatia in the middle of the first century, he is identified as "James, the Lord's brother" (Galatians 1:19), and even during the three years Jesus was a public figure he was known by this relationship: "Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" (Matt. 13:54-56)
The ossuary of James is similar to the one found in 1990, belonging to the biblical figure Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest who interrogated his brother Jesus in 29 A.D.: "When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, "As you know, the Passover is two days away - and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him". (Matthew 26:1-4)
Caiaphas handed Jesus over to the Roman official Pontius Pilate, who approved his death by crucifixion, and whose existence was affirmed by an inscription uncovered in 1962 near the Mediterranean Sea.
JAMES of Nazareth, whose relationship to Jesus is variously attested by history (and probably also spectacularly by this recent discovery), knew Jesus better than most. In one of his letters, preserved by history, James considered himself a "servant" of his "Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1a), and defined his spiritual "brothers," as those who were "believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ" (James 2:1).
At some point in his life, this historical figure "James, son of Joseph" drew the startlingly unlikely conclusion that his own brother was the Christ, the Jewish Messiah -- the focal point of all of history.
The early Christian leaders didn't take such a conclusion lightly, for they knew that "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless" (1 Cor 15:14). Yet they believed that "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead" (1 Cor 15:20), and many of them, including James, held to the belief so deeply that they were prepared to be martyred for it: "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some of his companions, and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned." - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (XX:ix)
Such strongly held beliefs require an explanation, and there have never been any historical grounds for doubting the explanation given by the witnesses themselves: "...that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James..." (1 Cor 15:4b-7a)
For hundreds of eyewitnesses, this man Jesus had no need of any such tomb or stone ossuary: they had seen his miracles firsthand, heard him foretell his death and resurrection, and seen him alive again with their own eyes. Christianity was not borne of myth, but of history, and so too is the faith of millions of Christians today based on a rational belief in real people, places and events.
(Courtesy: News, Toongabbie Anglican Church)
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Pastor Paul Ciniraj, Salem Voice, Devalokam (P.O), Kottayam, Kerala-686038, INDIA
Our Ministry (Salem Voice): http://www.geocities.com/salemvoiceministries
Our Charities (Baseelia Foundation): http://www.geocities.com/baseeliafoundation
The ossuary was later proven to be a fake.
This has been so completely debunked that I am surprised it can still be published with a straight face... any cursory Google search would find the facts. The author and the editors have NOT done their homework!
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks Paul Ciniraj. |
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