by Craig A. Butler
Daily Lobo Columnist
This week, Andre Lemaire, a paleographer at Sorbonne University, released news of his discovery of an ossuary, a type of coffin common in 1st century Judea, that bears the epitaph, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." The inscription has created revived the age-old debate over whether Jesus Christ had siblings.
Although there is no way to positively link the ossuary with the James mentioned in the Bible, researchers have dated it to approximately the middle of the 1st century A.D. Ossuaries of this kind were uncommon after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the style of the Aramaic script prevents it from having been created too much earlier than that. Since the Biblical James was stoned to death in A.D. 62 and presumably interred in his ossuary in 63, the newly discovered ossuary seems to fit the right time period.
Although the names Jesus, Joseph and James were all common ones in Judea at the time, it is unlikely that all three would be mentioned in this relationship unless they were the biblical figures. Brothers' names were very rarely included in these epitaphs (only one other instance is known) and would have been reserved for cases where the brother was very well known, as Jesus was at the time of James's death.
Whether or not the ossuary can be positively tied to James, the suggestion of archeological evidence in favor of brotherhood between Jesus and James has raised hackles in many religious circles. Catholics have long held that Jesus was the only child of Mary and that she remained a virgin after his birth. The doctrine of the Virgin Birth was established at the Lateran Council of Pope Martin I in A.D. 649 (not to be confused with the later Lateran Councils).
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In early Christian history, interpretations of the gospels varied widely from place to place. The Ecumenical Councils, beginning with the first Nicean Council in 325, helped codify and establish the official dogma of the Christian Church. Before 649, the belief in Mary's Eternal Virginity was not universally accepted.
One of the greatest difficulties in interpreting the original biblical texts is the problem of translation. For example, the word translated into English as 'brother' in the New Testament is the Greek word adelphos. This word is not restricted to sibling relationships but could also mean "half-brother," "cousin" or even "close friend." However, contextual clues can indicate that the specific relationship of brothers is meant, such as in Matthew 13:55, "Is this not the carpenter's son? Is his mother not Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?"
The first mention of Mary as a virgin is in Isaiah 7:14. This book was originally written in Hebrew, and the word now translated as "virgin" was almah. This word actually means "young woman" and does not necessarily connote virginity. The Hebrew word bethulah is much closer to the meaning implied by "virgin".
Even so, this passage is quoted in Matthew 1:23 as being the prophecy of Mary's virgin birth. However, nothing in Matthew specifically states that Mary remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus. When Joseph discovers that his betrothed is pregnant (and not by him), he considers divorcing her (Matthew 1:18-20), but is told not to by an angel.
Then, Matthew 1:25 says that "And [Joseph] knew her [Mary] not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus." This implies that Joseph and Mary probably did have marital relations after the birth of Jesus, and perhaps had other children as well, since Jesus is referred to as their firstborn.
The other principal support for Mary's virginity appears in Luke 1:27, 1:31 and 1:34. While these seem to make clear Mary's virginity at the time Jesus was conceived, they say nothing about her relationship with Joseph afterward. The later references to Jesus' brothers and sisters (such as in Matthew 13:55-56) and specific references to James as a brother of Jesus (Galatians 1:19) strongly implies that Jesus was not an only child.
In addition to Biblical references, the secular Jewish historian Flavius Josephus reported the stoning of James in A.D. 62, referring to him as "the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ, James by name." This is our source for the specific date of James' death, and would agree with the dating of the newly discovered ossuary.
Despite all the circumstantial evidence, we will probably never be able to confirm as fact that this ossuary belonged to the biblical James, or that James was in fact a sibling of Jesus. Even so, it represents a powerful addition to the science of biblical archeology.
If nothing else, it will probably provoke a lot of interesting debates.
