James, Son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus — The Skeptics Howl!
Holocaust deniers have more credibility than those who deny the historicity of Jesus Christ. Many features on GodSaidManSaid declare the fully verifiable record of this only begotten Son of God. It has been said that there is more history certifying the record of Jesus Christ than that of George Washington, the first President of the United States, but that doesn’t satisfy the deniers.Audio Options: | MP3 |
James, Son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus — The Skeptics Howl!
It’s not hard to become disillusioned in this life. Our sights are set too low — set in the temporal. We need something bigger than this life — much bigger.
If your girlfriend or boyfriend is the center of your life, relationships end and hearts are broken. You need something bigger.
If your spouse is the center of your life, American ladies should keep in mind that 90% of them will end their lives as widows. You need something bigger.
If your career or education is the center of your life, these things can change and even end abruptly. You need something bigger.
If my life is everything to me, it will certainly disappear like a vapor rising from a pot of boiling water. I need something bigger — much bigger. This beautiful passage testifies of something bigger. Psalm 63:1-6:
1 ...O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Have you found this something bigger — much bigger? Have you been born again? Have you believed upon and surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Make today your day of salvation. Click onto "Further With Jesus" for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.
GOD SAID, Matthew 1:18-25:
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
MAN SAID: There is not one stitch of evidence that a Jesus Christ ever lived.
Now THE RECORD. Holocaust deniers have more credibility than those who deny the historicity of Jesus Christ. Many features on GodSaidManSaid declare the fully verifiable record of this only begotten Son of God. It has been said that there is more history certifying the record of Jesus Christ than that of George Washington, the first President of the United States, but that doesn’t satisfy the deniers.
This is GodSaidManSaid feature article #505. These features prove the full, inerrant veracity of the Word of God. The features are archived on this site in text and streaming audio. Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. Welcome to GodSaidManSaid. We thank you for taking the time.
On March 13, 2003 we published a feature titled "Jesus and His Brother James" concerning a discovery that shocked three global states of mind:
1.) The field of archaeology
2.) The realm of the Christ deniers
3.) The camp of the joyful righteous
The discovery was a 20-inch long box called an ossuary which held the bones of a dead man dating back to the days of Christ. Between the years of 20 BC and 70 AD, it was a burial custom to place one’s bones in the ossuary for final burial after the flesh was fully decayed. This find was especially electrifying because of the inscription on its side. It reads, "Ya’ akov bar Yosef akkui de Yeshua," which means "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Immediately, the Christ deniers leapt to challenge the authenticity of this find. A special note was attached to the 2003 GodSaidManSaid feature pointing out their contention. Later on, you’ll read the rest of the story.
The apostle James, the son of Joseph and brother of Jesus, has a historical record outside the New Testament. The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, "Jesus and His Brother James:"
In Book XX, chapter IX, of the histories of Josephus, an ancient historian of renown, who wrote shortly after the life of Christ, the following excerpt is found concerning James the brother of Jesus:
Now the report goes, that this elder Ananus proved a most fortunate man; for he had five sons, who had all performed the office of a high priest to God, and he had himself enjoyed that dignity a long time formerly, which had never happened to any other of our high priests; but this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who were very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his authority.] Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of the judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or some of his companions;] and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned:
In an ancient writing from about 330 AD the following excerpt was found:
Now James was so wonderful a person, and was so celebrated by all others for righteousness, that the judicious Jews thought this to have been the occasion of that siege of Jerusalem, which came on presently after his martyrdom; and that it befell them for no other reason than that impious fact they were guilty of against him. Josephus, therefore, did not refuse to attest thereto in writing, by the words following: "These miseries befell the Jews by way of revenge for James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus that was called Christ, on account that they had slain him who was a most righteous person."
The historical record of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his disciples and apostles is monumental. Only the foolish would deny it. [End of quote]
The ancient record does not deny the existence of Jesus Christ nor His brother James, neither does it deny a host of other New Testament personalities. The "holocaust" deniers look very foolish.
This brings us to the 20-inch ossuary with the hotly contested inscription, "James, son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus." The following information is from the October 2010 issue of The International Jerusalem Post, under the title, "Putting the case to rest," with the subhead, "The judge considers his verdict in the five-year Jesus forgery trial." The reporter, Matthew Kalman, writes:
The discovery in 2002 of a limestone burial box with the Hebrew inscription "James son of Joseph brother of Jesus" electrified the world of archeology. If genuine, the burial box, or ossuary, would be the only archeological artifact found with a possible direct link to Jesus of Nazareth.
Amid international fanfare, the ossuary went on display at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum and swiftly spawned numerous articles, scholarly studies, several documentary movies and at least four books.
But experts at the Israel Antiquities Authority declared it a modern-day forgery. Israeli police seized the burial box and arrested its owner, Tel Aviv collector Oded Golan. In December 2004, he was charged with faking the ossuary and dozens of other items, including an inscribed tablet linked to King Joash, which, if authentic, would be the only physical evidence from the Temple of Solomon.
The indictment leveled 44 charges of forgery, fraud and deception against Golan and 13 lesser counts against a codefendant, antiquities dealer Robert Deutsch. The trial of Golan, Deutsch and three others opened in Jerusalem District Court in September 2005.
Last month, the defense ended its summing-up with just two men left in the dock, bringing to an end five years of court proceedings that spanned 116 sessions, 133 witnesses, 200 exhibits and nearly 12,000 pages of witness testimony. The prosecution summation alone ran to 653 pages.
Yet despite the flood of strong scientific testimony, the feeling in the tiny courtroom, where fewer than a dozen people (including only one reporter) have followed the proceedings, was that the prosecution had failed to prove the items were forgeries, or that Golan and Deutsch had faked them.
Judge Aharon Farkash, the wheelchair-bound polymath who has overseen the marathon trial, wondered aloud on several occasions how he could be expected to deliver a legal ruling on what was essentially a scientific question that the experts themselves could not resolve.
In October 2008, just three years into the proceedings, Farkash pointedly asked whether the trial should continue after the prosecution and Golan had presented their evidence.
"Have you really proved beyond a reasonable doubt that these artifacts are fakes as charged in the indictment? The experts disagreed among themselves," Farkash told the prosecutor.
Summing up last March, lead prosecutor Dan Bahat made a startling admission. "If the ossuary had been the only thing on trial, we probably would not have carried on with the process," he said.
Bahat was not even in court to hear the judge wrap up the trial and retire to consider his verdict.
Scientists and lawyers have spent months arguing over the patina — a thin crust of material formed by microorganisms that covers all ancient objects. The prosecution accuses Golan of creating a fake patina, which he applied to new inscriptions on ancient objects. Defense experts say there is patina inside the grooves of the inscriptions that could not have been formed in the past two centuries.
Golan said he had never faked anything.
"I feel that I succeeded to prove that the most important items should be at least 200 years old.
They could not be forged because there is ancient, authentic, natural patina which has been developed gradually over at least 200 years in both the James ossuary and the Joash tablet," Golan said.
"They lost the case, there’s no question. On the main issues they were completely wrong. They are not forgeries. It’s not only that they could not prove there was a forgery. With the James ossuary and the Joash tablet, I believe that we proved their authenticity with experts in patina, in geology, in stone, in engraving," he said.
At times, the courtroom has seemed more like a doctoral seminar than a legal proceeding. The world’s leading experts on archeology, biblical history, Semitic languages, ancient stones and inscriptions, geology, isotopes (both stable and carbon-14), biology, chemistry, microscopy and glue have participated in an often fascinating and sometimes embarrassing collision of scholarship and criminal law.
Judge Farkash said Sunday he would try to plow through all that material and deliver a verdict as soon as possible. It could take several months. [End of quote]
James is the son of Joseph and the brother of Jesus regardless of the judge’s final verdict, because the Bible tells me so. God’s Word is true and righteous altogether. It is the place to build your life.
GOD SAID, Matthew 1:18-25:
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
MAN SAID: There is not one stitch of evidence that a Jesus Christ ever lived.
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
Authorized King James Version
Kalman, M., "Putting the case to rest," The International Jerusalem Post, Oct. 15-21, 2010
Additional Audios
- Geologists Say Yes To Crucifixion
- Further with Jesus
- The Day Jesus Died
- True & Righteous Altogether (The Historicity of Jesus Christ)
- The Historicity of Jesus Christ Updated
- Da Vinci Code
- Jesus and His Brother James
- Great Drops of Blood
- The Empty Tomb
- The Christ of Calvary: Was He?
- Prelude to Historicity
Power Verse
Acts 1:8 (KJV)
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.