New result on Jesus family ossuaries

[watchamadoodle]

The James ossuary is a great example. Whether it is a forgery or not we just don't know. It's believed that it always contained the name James on it, and also probably "son of Joseph", but that a forger may have added the words "brother of Jesus". It could not be proved in court. It's existence was made known in 2002, as it was in private hands.

IMO, the fact that the owner of the James ossuary had equipment for creating forgeries in his apartment, and had invited somebody to view the James ossuary, makes me think it was a "completed" product from a known forger. Therefore I assume at a minimum that "brother of Jesus" was forged.

With the James ossuary now very likely to belong to the same tomb it makes it very unlikely that this is the tomb of "another Jesus". You have "Jesus, son of Joseph", "James, son of Joseph", "Joseph", and 2x "Mary". His other brothers -  Joseph, Judas, and Simon - weren't found in the tomb (well the Joseph ossuary could belong to Jesus's brother, in which case it would mean Joseph father of Jesus, James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon is missing). But one or more of the "missing brothers" may have been originally buried there represented by the two missing ossuaries.

I don't know what I think about the statistics. One problem is that there is no official list of the family members of Jesus to compare against the names on the ossuaries. To my knowledge, none of the Christians believed that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene. One of the gnostic gospels might mention Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene often on the lips, but some scholars don't agree.

[vorlon13]

'cept the Mormons.

They assert Jesus had at least 3 wives.

[Aractus]

That's not true, the Bible mentions his brothers as I named them: Joseph, Judas, James, and Simon. As far as I know the family connections of the 2x Mary's is not clear - they just say "Mary", which Mary's they are is up for debate as is which Joseph it is. One of them could have been his sister for example.

[watchamadoodle]

'cept the Mormons.

They assert Jesus had at least 3 wives.

Wow, I never heard that one. Jesus was a polygamist. Mormonism is more interesting than I realized.

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That's not true, the Bible mentions his brothers as I named them: Joseph, Judas, James, and Simon. As far as I know the family connections of the 2x Mary's is not clear - they just say "Mary", which Mary's they are is up for debate as is which Joseph it is. One of them could have been his sister for example.

Except an ossuary says "Judas the son of Jesus" which contradicts the standard belief that Jesus was single.

It's like we must invent a family for Jesus by cherry-picking and modifying the Christian traditions, so they match the ossuaries. Then we must apply statistics to say that very few family's had that combination of names, therefore these ossuaries were from the family of gospel Jesus.

Anyway, that is my impression without knowing the facts in detail.

EDIT: If they leave "Judas son of Jesus" out of the statistics, then I suppose it isn't as ridiculous as I stated. They calculate that only N families during that time would have the combination of names (minus Judas), therefore this is probably the family of gospel Jesus, therefore Jesus was married and had a son named Judas. I guess that is what they are arguing?

[Aractus]

You can't conclude that from one ossuary. It could be Joseph had a brother named Jesus and that was his son. But what you do have is Mary, Joseph, Jesus AND (probably) James all in the same tomb.

[Minimalist]

Not so fast there, Skippy.  Jacobovici sees what he wants to see.

http://www.uhl.ac/en/projects/talpiot-to...andmartha/

*The original transcription of the inscription was incorrect.

*The inscription does not read “Mariamene the Master,” nor does the name Mariamene or Mariamne appear on the ossuary at all.

*The inscription reflects the writing of two distinct scribes who wrote in different forms of the Greek script.

*The correct reading of the inscription is “Mariame and Mara,” based on parallels from contemporary inscriptions and documents.

*The ossuary thus contained the bones of at least two different women, interred at two separate times, one named Mariame and the other Mara.

*No support exists for ascribing the ossuary to Mary Magdalene.

Stephen Pfann is a xtian scholar but he has a reputation for integrity ( he excavated at Nazareth and reported finding a first century single-family farm but no "city.)  

[vorlon13]

Yes, watchamadoodle, the Mormons assert that Jesus was subject to God's commandment to be fruitful and multiply. And he did.

They also don't buy into the 'Holy Spirit' thing impregnating Virgin Mary. Adam (the Adam and Eve Adam) with his corporeal actual flesh and blood throbbing veiny uncircumcised penis plugged VM the good old fashioned way and we gets ourselves a Savior as a result.

I think if more 'mainline' Christers knew about this we'd be seeing much more in the way of anti-Mormon sentiment.

[Minimalist]

to be fruit and multiply.

Wait.  Isn't that impossible?

[vorlon13]

Ooops, sorry. I'll fix it.

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Crikey, I'm getting aroused thinking about Adam's clublike throbbing veiny penis now .. . .

Move over Mary, I'll show your baby daddy what a good hole feels like !!!

[watchamadoodle]

to be fruit and multiply.

Wait.  Isn't that impossible?

Nothing is impossible