The “Jesus’ Nephew Family Tomb”?

“The Jesus Tomb” is 30 minutes on, and so far we have had explained ossuaries with these names:

1. Jesus son of Joseph

2. Maria

3. Yose

4. Matia

There are other ossuaries, but at this point these are the only four ossuaries that have been presented. At this point the show has moved on to another angle.

As the show pointed out, the Gospels says that Jesus of Nazareth had a brother named Joseph, whose name is actually recorded in English Bibles as a nickname for Joseph, Jose or Joses. According to Prof. James Tabor, on camera on the show, this particular nickname for Joseph is very rare and matches the spelling of the name on the ossuary found in the Talpiot tomb. But his “given” name was Joseph, as traditionally spelled. Okay, fine.

Let’s do a little stipulation here. Let’s stipulate, just for argument’s sake, that for some reason (just make up one if you wish) the family of Jesus, beginning with his generation, decided not to open a family tomb in Galilee, where Jesus grew up and where the rest of his family would have stayed. Let’s suppose that with the dawn of the Christ-following movement (the term “Christian” came much, much later) that the locus of Jesus’ family activities was in Jerusalem, since it was there that the Christian movement first came into nascense. Jesus’ brother, James, for example, became the main leader of Christ followers in Jerusalem before he was martyred by being hurled off the Temple Mount, then stoned to death.

So that eliminates the “problem” of the Jesus’ family tomb being in Jerusalem. But why c0nclude that the ossuary of “Jesus, son of Joseph” is the ossuary of Jesus, called the Christ?

Why not conclude it was the ossuary of the son of Jesus’ brother, Joseph? That is, Jesus Christ’s ‘ nephew, named Jesus by the brother Joseph?

What buttresses this hypothesis? Well, the fact that Jesus the Christ was never called, “Jesus, son of Joseph.” In fact, one day Jesus went to his hometown synagogue and began to teach there, where, “many who heard him were astounded. They said, “… Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary … ?” (Italics added.)

In the Gospels, Jesus called himself “Son of Man” (a reference to a messianic description in Daniel 7:13-14) but never “son of Joseph.” If - as I said, this is just thought-experiment stipulation - the Talpiot tomb contained the bones of actual family members of Jesus called the Christ, then I think there is a stronger case to be made that the bones of “Jesus, son of Joseph” were of the Christ’s nephew than of the Christ himself.

The DNA testing featured on the show was done only on DNA remnants taken from the Jesus son of Joseph ossuary and the Mariamne ossuary. Only mitochondrial tests were done, which test only for maternal relationships. The only thing the DNA testing showed was the the presumed occupants of the Jesus ossuary and the Mariamne ossuary did not have the same mother, or any other maternal lineage in common. But they might have had the same father. Or Mariamne might have been the daughter of the occupant of the Jesus ossuary. Or a niece through a brother’s line. And so forth. My point is that the leap to assume they were husband and wife is merely one leap of several possible.

It also must be pointed out that Jesus had quite a different idea of whom were his brother or sisters than even his own family did. Mark records that Jesus was preaching to a small crowd one day when,

31Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” 33And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Now the show has moved 45 minutes further along since I started writing. More later on, but not tonight. So far, though, there’s a lot of provocative teasing questions, such as another tomb found (apparently) near the Talpiot tomb, now covered by apartment housing and concrete. The tease? “Could this be the tomb of Jesus’ early followers, or even another part of the Jesus family tomb?” And cut to commercial.

Update: The Beloved Disciple is Judah, the son of Jesus? The Beloved Disciple, so-called in the Gospel of John, would have been almost as old as Jesus. So I guess Jesus got married and had a kid when he was about 10. Gosh, what tripe.

Update: In the “Critical Look” post-show, Ted Koppel is doing a good job pressing Simcha about some of the objections others have raised in the past week. “Archeo-porn”! That’s the term of the night, uttered by Prof. Jonathan Reed, describing his opinion of the show.

If the rocket doesn’t kill you, a heart attack will - video at Strategy Page.

James Arlandson writes it.