james is a torah-true jew, and he got along apparently just fine with the jewish authorities, but this jewish following in jesus had really taken on a life of its own. it wasn t just another sector of judaism. it was a movement. james eventually sides with paul. this decision will soon revolutionize christianity, but it will also seal james fate. he is now seen as a threat to the jewish religious order. james was the face of early jewish christianity in jerusalem. he represented all of that, and so of course the authorities are going to take out on him whatever they had heard about the revolutionary beliefs about the followers of jesus. at that point, the jewish authorities knew that they couldn t control this. in spite of james good behavior, they still associated
jerusalem. while the name joseph appears on 7 percent, jesus on 4 and james on 2 percent, fuchs concludes it s improbable that another family combining these three names existed. it is very likely, in my opinion, the james on this ossuary is the james who is the brother of jesus. the likelihood that this could be some other family with those three names, where the father is joseph and the two brothers are james and jesus, seems very unlikely. two thousand years ago, everything changes for the brothers, jesus and james, when joseph dies. we really don t know when
back in 1970s jerusalem, there is a vibrant market for antique ossuaries. i didn t see anything particular in this ossuary. it was sat for many years at my parents apartment together with several other ossuaries that i purchased at that time because i didn t put any special attention to this ossuary. but in april 2002, golan invites andre lemaire, a renowned scholar of ancient aramaic, to examine some items in his collection. lemaire s attention is immediate drawn to the unidentified ossuary golan bought 30 years before. lemaire deciphers the mysterious inscription. it reads, james, son of joseph, brother of jesus. he found that there is a very high probability that it
later arrested in the garden of gethsemane, and the following day is tortured and executed. jesus family have failed to save him. an apocryphal gospel not found in the new testament tells us about james. the gospel of the hebrews portrays james as being in jerusalem in the immediate aftermath of the crucifixion. james has probably found the whole business of jesus being
belonged to james, the brother of jesus christ. frankly, i didn t even know that jesus christ had brothers or sisters. golan immediately sends the ossuary to the geological survey of israel to help with its authentication. using high-power microscopes, they inspect the patina coating the box and the inscriptions. they conclude the lettering has not been made by modern tools. it s not the question of authentic. it s a question, if it belongs to james. intrigued about the probability of finding the names james, jesus and joseph in more than one family in first century jerusalem, golan asks renowned statistician camil fuchs to audit the names on the inscription. we have 168 inscribed ossuaries from that period in