The 20-inch-long limestone ossuary, dated to about 63 A.D., once held human bones and bears an Aramaic inscription which translates, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." The names James, Joseph and Jesus were common in ancient times, but experts say the statistical probability of their appearing in that combination is slim. We may never know for certain if the ossuary did in fact hold the remains of James, relative of Christ, or those of a contemporary, but scholars are calling the find significant nonetheless.
Scholars say the burial box is similar to ones used by Jews during a short window of history, from approximately 20 to 70 A.D. About a year after the burial of a body, the bones were removed from the burial cave and placed in an ossuary.
The following information about James, 'brother' of Christ and central figure in the early church, is condensed with permission from The Christian History Project, Volume I, The Veil Is Torn, p. 234 - 235.
James, brother or stepbrother of Jesus, a man revered as a model of Jewish piety and commitment to God by most Jews, whether followers of Jesus or not, was sentenced to death by an illegally constituted trial. Now an old man, he died, as had Jesus, forgiving the people who had condemned him. He was known as "the Just One."
When the failed attempt to imprison Peter drove the apostles from Jerusalem, they had named James the Just overseer, or bishop, of the Jerusalem church, which was then the founding and central authority of the new faith. James stayed behind, a center of fierce controversy, because he believed and preached Jesus as messiah. At least one attempt may have been made on his life.
But few doubted his devotion to God. Some called him "the Man With the Callused Knees" because, as a priest, he spent whole days in the Temple, praying for the city and for its people.
While some Jews accepted Jesus as a prophet; some merely as a gifted teacher, and the Temple rulers denounced him as "the Great Blasphemer," James persuaded so many to become fully committed to Jesus that he alarmed the Temple authorities. "When many, even the rulers, believed," says (the Christian historian) Hegesippus, "there was a commotion among the Jews and scribes and Pharisees, who said there was a danger the whole people would be looking for Jesus as the Messiah."
The Sanhedrin summoned James to appear before it. They told the old man they knew he had great influence over the people, and they themselves recognized him as a just man. However, too many were "going astray" as regards this Jesus, and they could not let that continue.
Now Passover is coming, they said, and thousands of people would be assembled in Jerusalem. They therefore directed him to stand far above the crowd at the "pinnacle" of the Temple, to publicly repudiate Jesus, and to urge the people not to be led astray by him.
| The 20-inch-long limestone ossuary, dated to about 63 A.D., once held human bones and bears an Aramaic inscription which translates, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." |
Though this is not in the text, historians surmise that the council had reached a further conclusion. If James refused to do this, he stood condemned under a section of the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy that provides the death sentence by stoning for anyone convicted of "leading the people astray." A modification of this penalty allowed the victim to be first cast down from a great height, then be stoned if still alive.
So James knew exactly what was coming. But he also knew that they had provided him, in his last years, with a superb opportunity to bear witness to the whole assembled people on the occasion of their most sacred feast. Thus, he agreed and was taken to the pinnacle above the crowd. "Now tell them," ordered his accusers, "what is the Gate of Jesus" - meaning where Jesus was leading them. James's response rang out to the hushed crowd below:
"Why are you asking me concerning Jesus, the Son of Man? He sits in the Heaven at the right hand of the Great Power, and is about to come upon the clouds of Heaven."
The crowd became frenzied, yelling, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!"
Realizing they had bungled the job, Hegesippus recounts, Ananus's servants hurled James from the parapet. The populace must be shown, they reasoned, that this kind of defiant conduct does not pay. People rushed to the spot where he had crashed to the floor below. They found him still alive, and echoing the prayer of Jesus: "I entreat thee, Lord God our Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." In response, one of his condemners took a club which was used for beating the water out of washed clothes, and bashed him to death. One version says they placed a stone on him, and bore down on it, crushing him.
Thus perished James the Just, kinsman of Christ, who emulated him in life and death.
