By Marney Blom
It is being heralded as the greatest archaeological find of all times – the first physical evidence of the existence of Jesus.
This simple limestone box, with its ancient Aramaic inscription, is believed to be the 2000-year-old ossuary – or bone box – of the brother of Jesus of Nazareth.
The ancient inscription, which clearly reads: James, the son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus, has captivated the imagination of the world.
When the news of the James Ossuary broke in October of 2002, the ancient artefact rapidly became the focus of international interest and debate. Where did it come from? Was James really the brother of Jesus? And the biggest question of all – is the bone box genuine or a fraud?
Two-time Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici landed the world exclusive to the story. Although most of his films have focused on Jewish themes, Jacobovici – an orthodox Jew – found the topic fascinating. “As a filmmaker I was very privileged to have something that the whole world wanted – and I had unique access.”
Jacobovici’s well-paced investigative documentary entitled, James the Brother of Jesus, clearly answers the question of the authenticity of the find. “I give time to everybody,” said Jacobovici, “the people who say it is a forgery and the people who say it is authentic. However, I think that at the end of the day, I think people who watch the film will be convinced as I was making it – that this thing is the real thing.”
In the fall of 2002, the world had a chance to view the ancient burial box at the Royal Ontario Museum. Its arrival in Toronto, Ontario, however, was not without incident. Damaged en-route from Israel, the ancient priceless artefact was cracked in a number of places – including the text Yeshua – the Aramaic name for Jesus. Once restored, the James Ossuary drew record-breaking crowds.
“If this is real,” said California State University professor Robert Eisenman, “then this is the find of the millennium, maybe the two millennia. This is an artefact that overarches all other artefacts. This is not just someone’s tongue, finger, head, ankle, or vertebrate. This is an inscription saying, “Jesus existed in the first century”.”
Why would an archaeological discovery potentially authenticating the existence of the central figure in Christianity be of significance to Jacobovici? “As an orthodox Jew, I believe Jesus is a historical figure,” said Jacobovici. “There is no question of that. Talmudic sources and rabbinic sources speak of Jesus as a historic figure. Finding something that attested to that is very exciting.”
Aside from authenticating the existence of Jesus, Rev. Richard Long of Together Ministries suggests that the James Ossuary points Christians back to their Jewish roots. “There is generally a consensus that the Christian church has left behind its Jewishness. The James Ossuary helps us rediscover what our Jewish roots mean to us as a Christian church.”
Jacobovici said the very ritual of ossuaries opened up a whole chapter in Jewish Christian and world history that he was totally unaware of. “I always wondered just on the plain surface of the story of Jesus – if he was dead and they thought he was dead for three days – why didn’t they bury him in the ground?” The James Ossuary has brought to light the practice of burying the deceased in a cave for one year before collecting the bones and storing them in a limestone box. This, in fact, would be the reason why Jesus was not buried in the ground. For some the ossuary practice re-enforces the credibility of the resurrection account.
Jacobovici’s documentary, James the brother of Jesus, aired in more than 150 nations on Discovery channel last Easter. However, by mid June, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) had declared the artefact a fraud. However, some close to the source warn that the James Ossuary is being purposely delegitimized.
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