The Stone Box And Jesus' Brother's Bones

[Klingan]

This is a story about the Bible and truth. More precisely, it's about biblical antiquities and how they can be seen to prove that the stories told in the Bible really happened.

 

Five-and-a-half years ago the world of biblical archaeology was rocked to its foundations, and all because of a box. It was a stone box - called an "ossuary" - that had been discovered in Israel. Ossuaries were used to hold the bones of the dead some 2,000 years ago, in the time of Jesus. And this ossuary was said hold the bones of Jesus' brother, James.

 

As correspondent Bob Simon reports, the discovery created more excitement among Christian scholars than anything since the Shroud of Turin. And like the shroud, no sooner was it unveiled that charges of forgery surfaced. In fact, a trial has been underway in Jerusalem for almost three years.

 

Read more here.

Edited March 24, 2008 by Klingan

[P.Clodius]

But this box has since been deemed to be a forgery perpetrated by the owner!

[caldrail]

Religious fakery is nothing new. In common with fase antiquities the various relics of Jesus, his followers, and anything associated with him have been for sale ever since. It was big business in medieval times. There was one instance during the crusades (AD1098 I think) where the crusaders had laid siege to a town, gotten in, only to find themselves under siege in a town bereft of supplies by an arriving turkish amy. The crusaders were desperate. Then one Peter Bartholomew declared that he'd had a vision and that if thy dug in a certain spt, they would find theverylance tha had pierced te side of christ. Lo and behold a lance was recovered, and the delerious knights sallied forth sending the entire turkish army into full rout.

 

Of couse, despite the experts declaring that the wound on the Shroud of Turin is correct for a rman lance, why was the centurion guarding the execution site not using a standard pilum? Perhaps he was a cavalry officer?

 

But going back to the original point, how could anyone know whose bones are in the box? There's no makers inscription or any bacode available on 1st century, and you would have to view any convenient name on the side with some suspicion. Thre are penty of people out there that want physical evidence of their beliefs and will readily accpt any old rubbish if it fits the bill.

[The Augusta]

Thre are penty of people out there that want physical evidence of their beliefs and will readily accpt any old rubbish if it fits the bill.

 

And at the risk of being inflammatory, I think those same people will be waiting an awfully long, long, long, long time for that physical evidence.

[caldrail]

Perhaps, but then thats what faith does for you. They want to find out their particular holy texts were right all aong and therefore that everyone elses is wrong - it justifies their beliefs in the face of criticism. Its no coincidence that so many archaeologists travel to the holy lands for no other reason than to find evidence for the bible stories. Is that good archaeology? I think not. Surely you need to come to conclusions from what you find, not fit the evidence to fondly held beliefs?

[Northern Neil]

Religious fakery is nothing new. In common with fase antiquities the various relics of Jesus, his followers, and anything associated with him have been for sale ever since.

 

Finger bones are quite popular at the moment. I believe they come in boxes of ten...

[Gladius Hispaniensis]

There was one instance during the crusades (AD1098 I think) where the crusaders had laid siege to a town, gotten in, only to find themselves under siege in a town bereft of supplies by an arriving turkish amy. The crusaders were desperate. Then one Peter Bartholomew declared that he'd had a vision and that if thy dug in a certain spt, they would find theverylance tha had pierced te side of christ. Lo and behold a lance was recovered, and the delerious knights sallied forth sending the entire turkish army into full rout.

Yes, that was the siege of Antioch iirc. Surprisingly enough, there were many prominent Crusaders who considered Bartholomew a phony and later made him undergo a trial by fire - quite literally. According to one source, the fellow even survived the ordeal, only to be torn to pieces by an overenthusiastic mob seeking bits of his clothing to keep as relics. Pathetic.

Edited March 26, 2008 by Gladius Hispaniensis

[caldrail]

To our eyes, but what is forgotten or coveniently overlooked is that during the lead up to that first crusade the christian church had embarked on a mission to create a religious super-state across europe, ruled by the pope from a new cathedral in Cluny, France. These people were playing on the general ignorance of the time and their hold over hearts and minds of the populace was frightening.

 

The current pope had received a letter from Emperor Alexius asking for military aid. The byzantines were suffering raids from turkish tribes and wanted support from the west. The pope called for a meeting, eventually held outside in a field because too many people turned up, and proclaimed that it was their duty as christians to free the holy lands from pagan domination, using the letter as proof they were needed. Worse still, he made the step of declaring that it was less sinful to kill a pagan than a christian, and that going to war in gods name was a penance in its own right.

 

So instead of a few hundred military volunteers, whole villages packed their bags and migrated eastward. Encountering jewish settlements, the religiously motivated warriors recalled that it was a jew, Judas, who had betrayed Jesus, and committed a mini-holocaust all of their own in various places along the way.

 

I'm not sure if pathetic is the right word, but it is very morally and intellectually dubious.

[spittle]

Religious fakery is nothing new. In common with fase antiquities the various relics of Jesus, his followers, and anything associated with him have been for sale ever since.

 

Finger bones are quite popular at the moment. I believe they come in boxes of ten...

 

You have been watching BLACKADDER THE FIRST!

I clearly remember that very line in the episode where Edmund was made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury

 

On a slightly more serious note....every king. prince, duke, aristocrat and knight in Europe appears to have believed they owned a piece of the 'true cross'.

was Jesus nailed to a crucifix roughly the same size as the angel of the north?

[Gladius Hispaniensis]

I think one of the main problems with this "find", as with the other famous one regarding Jesus's DNA, is that it is virtually impossible to prove which Jesus or James the inscription talks about. These were hardly uncommon names in the Palestine of the 1st century.