Jesus' name is on ancient box
It could be the oldest archaeological link to Christ, scholar says
10/21/2002
WASHINGTON - A burial box that was recently discovered in Israel and dates to the first century could be the oldest archaeological link to Jesus Christ, said a French scholar whose findings were published Monday.
An inscription in the Aramaic language - "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" - appears on an empty ossuary, a limestone burial box for bones.
Andre Lemaire said it's "very probable" that the writing refers to Jesus of Nazareth. He dates the ossuary to A.D. 63, three decades after the crucifixion.
 A detailed view of an inscription in Aramaic reading, 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,' appears on an empty ossuary, or limestone burial box for bones, in this undated handout photo. (AP) |
Style backs theory
The Rev. Joseph Fitzmyer, a Bible professor at the Catholic University of America who studied photos of the box, agrees with Mr. Lemaire that the writing style "fits perfectly" with other first-century examples. The joint appearance of these three famous names is "striking," Mr. Fitzmyer said.
"But the big problem is, you have to show me the Jesus in this text is Jesus of Nazareth, and nobody can show that," he said.
Mr. Lemaire writes that the distinct writing style, and the fact that Jews practiced ossuary burials only between 20 B.C. and A.D. 70, puts the inscription squarely in the time of Jesus and James, who led the early church in Jerusalem.
The names were common, but Mr. Lemaire estimates that only 20 Jameses in Jerusalem during that era would have had a father named Joseph and a brother named Jesus.
Moreover, naming the brother as well as the father on an ossuary was "very unusual," Mr. Lemaire wrote. There's only one other known example in Aramaic. Thus, this Jesus must have had some unusual role or fame - and Jesus of Nazareth certainly qualified, Mr. Lemaire said.
However, Kyle McCarter, a Johns Hopkins University archaeologist, said it's possible the brother was named because he conducted the burial or owned the tomb.
The archaeology magazine said two Israeli government scientists conducted a detailed microscopic examination of the surface and the inscription, reporting last month that nothing undercuts first-century authenticity.
Mr. Lemaire's assertion was attacked by Robert Eisenman of California State University, Long Beach, who, unlike most scholars, thinks that "Jesus' existence is a very shaky thing." Because Mr. Eisenman is highly skeptical about New Testament history, he considers the discovery "just too perfect."
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James is depicted as Jesus' brother in the Gospels and as head of the Jerusalem church in the Book of Acts and Paul's epistles.
First-century Jewish historian Josephus recorded that "the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ, James by name," was stoned to death as a Jewish heretic in A.D. 62. If his bones were placed in an ossuary the inscription would have occurred the next year, about A.D. 63.
Until now, the oldest surviving artifact that mentions Jesus is a fragment of Chapter 18 in John's Gospel from a manuscript dated about A.D. 125. It was discovered in Egypt in 1920.
There are numerous surviving manuscripts of New Testament portions from later in that century. Jesus was mentioned by three pagan authors in Rome in the early second century and by Josephus in the late first century.
Owner stays anonymous
The ossuary's owner required Mr. Lemaire to shield his identity, so the box's location was not revealed. Nor is anything known about its history over the last 19 centuries, one reason for Mr. McCarter's caution.
Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks said skepticism is to be expected. "Something so startling, so earth-shattering, raises questions about its authenticity," he said.
Mr. Shanks said the owner bought the box about 15 years ago from an Arab antiquities dealer in Jerusalem who said it was unearthed south of the Mount of Olives. The owner didn't realize its potential importance until Mr. Lemaire examined it last spring.
Mr. Lemaire, who was raised Roman Catholic, said his faith did not affect his judgment, because he studies inscriptions only "as a historian - that is, comparing them critically with other sources."
The magazine is negotiating to display the box in Toronto during a major convention of religion scholars in late November, and possibly in the United States.
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