jesus christ had a brother or sisters. golan immediately sends the ossuary to the geological survey of israel to help with its authentication, using high-powered mike scopes they inspect the patina coating the box and the inscriptions. they conclude the lettering has not been made by modern tools. it s not a question of authentic. it s a question of 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, he asks a statistician to audit the names on the inscription. we have 168 inscribed ossuaries from that period in jerusalem. while the name joseph appears on 7%, jesus on 4% and james on 2%, he concludes it s improbable that another family combining
these three names existed. it is very likely, in my opinion, that the james on this ossuary is the james, 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. 2,000 years ago everything changes for the brothers jesus and james when joseph dies. we really don t know when joseph died. but somewhere around 27 a.d.
up learning that mary was a virgin and that he didn t have any siblings, so i think most people would be astonished. the gospels of both matthew and mark name jesus s brothers. as well as james, there s joses, judas and simon alongside at least two unnamed sisters. but exactly whose these offspring these other children are is still the subject of debate. for catholics, there is that emphasis on mary s virginity. she was not only a virgin at the time of jesus s conception and birth but also afterwards. that s why i like to think of james, the brother of jesus, as probably a child from joseph s prior marriage before he married mary. but not all christians are in agreement. protestants would say there are other children that are the biological kids of mary and joseph, in which case, jesus would be the older brother. and perhaps other siblings of jesus would have looked up to him. matthew 1-25 says, literally, joseph was not knowing her in
as well as james, there s joses, judas and simon alongside at least two unnamed sisters. but exactly whose these offspring these other children are is still the subject of debate. for catholics, there is that emphasis on mary s virginity. she was not only a virgin at the time of jesus s conception and birth but also afterwards. that s why i like to think of james, the brother of jesus as probably a child from joseph s prior marriage before he married mary. but not all christians are in agreement. protestants would say there are other children that are the biological kids of mary and joseph, in which case, jesus would be the older brother. and perhaps other siblings of jesus would have looked up to him.
james together as children. joseph sent james into the forest to gather sticks. jesus also went with him. the gospel continues. an abominable snake bit james on the hand, and as he lay dying, the boy jesus ran to james, and did nothing but blow on the bite, and immediately the bite was healed. james is put there with jesus from the very beginning.