James, Brother of Jesus, provides our first archeological evidence of Jesus!

By Guy Cramer

It was announced by the Biblical Archaeology Review that a burial box had been found in the possession of a collector with the inscription on the side "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" chiseled in Aramaic on the side of the box. While there are no longer any bones within the box, scientists have dated the box to A.D. 63 and can detect no forgery. The question now remains is the reference to the Jesus of the Bible.

The undisclosed owner bought the box about 15 years ago from an Arab antiquities dealer in Jerusalem who said it was unearthed south of the Mount of Olives. The owner was unaware of the importance of the inscription until an expert examined the box. Laboratory tests performed by the Geological Survey of Israel confirm that the box’s limestone comes from the Jerusalem area. Microscopic examination of the box indicated that no modern elements have been found on it and no tampering has taken place.

They have estimated from the writing style and the fact that these types of ossuaries (burial boxes) were only used from 20 A.D. - 70 A.D. in which the Jews would take the bones from burial caves and transfer them into these ossuaries (box), this practice was abandoned after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. These times fit within the time span James was martyred after he led the early church in Jerusalem.

However, it has also been estimated that these names were commonplace and there were approximately 20 James' with fathers named Joseph and brothers named Jesus living within Jerusalem around this time. Although mentioning the name of a brother usually indicates something extra ordinary about the brother, indicating an unusual role or fame. Even the experts that have stated it could be authentic but they have no way of knowing for certain if it is the correct Jesus.

The Jewish community comes to the rescue;

Awhile back a group of us interested in the Bible codes sought to find the right spelling of Jesus in Hebrew, we turned to a Professor of Hebrew, Dr. James Price, for the answer. This came about as the Jewish community was claiming three letter Yeshu or four letter Yeshua spellings while the five letter Yehoshua spellings of the name was commonplace. (note we discovered the Bible codes are random occurrences that happen in all books)

It turns out that the changing of the spelling of a name to shorten it was considered a sign of divine disapproval, whereas to lengthen a name such as Abram to Abraham was a sign of divine approval.

(From A.D. 200 to 500 ancient rabbis compiled their commentaries on the Bible, Jewish social customs and historical events in the Talmud. Because it was compiled by rabbis who were leaders in rabbinical academies, the Talmud is considered to be very authoritative by Jews, even to this day. [Missler, Chuck, "The Creator Beyond Time and Space", 1996 The Word For Today, p.165] )

The old uncensored editions of the Talmud referred to Jesus as Yeshua censored versions spelled it as Yeshu either way it was not the common Yehoshua spelling.

So how is Jesus spelled on the ossuary (burial box)? Yeshua , confirming the uncensored editions of the Talmud, while eliminating the common Yehoshua spelling which probably belonged to most of the other families in Jerusalem which had fathers named Joseph and brothers named Jesus.

Given that the writing style, the type of burial, the referral to not only a Father named Joseph but also a brother named Jesus and the not so common spelling of Jesus on the Box, represent a great deal of evidence (long disputed by all lack of any physical evidence) that Jesus actually existed. 

References

Evidence Of Jesus Written In Stone http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/bswbbar2806f1.html

Archaeological evidence of Jesus? http://www.msnbc.com/news/823945.asp?pne=msn

#X74.Yehoshua, Yeshua or Yeshu; Which one is the name of Jesus in Hebrew?

#X105 Code Breaker