1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²The same was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

 

Burial box may be tied to Jesus' family 'James' inscription seen as crucial find By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff, 10/22/2002 An unadorned limestone burial box apparently bought 15 years ago on the Jerusalem antiquities market may be the oldest archeological evidence of Jesus and the first object ever found that relates to a member of his family, an archeological journal announced yesterday. The box, or ossuary, typical of those used in the first century to bury bones, is inscribed ''James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,'' and dates to around 62 AD, when early texts say that James, one of the first Christian leaders, was stoned to death as punishment for preaching about Jesus. Andre Lemaire, a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris and a specialist in ancient inscriptions, first saw the box last summer after meeting the owner by chance in Jerusalem. Since then, he and other scholars and scientists have checked the lettering style for historical consistency and tested the surface of the carved letters to make sure they were not forged. In an article released yesterday by the nonsectarian Biblical Archaeology Review, Lemaire pronounces both box and inscription genuine - though he concedes there is a small chance the ossuary held not the James of the New Testament, but the bones of a contemporary with the same name. ''It will be extremely important if it's authentic,'' said Lawrence E. Stager, a professor of the archeology of Israel at Harvard University. ''Everything that they've put in this nontechnical article seems to point in that direction.'' Stager said the discovery, if it holds up, would be important in the longstanding debate over how accurately Christian texts depict the life of Jesus - and would remind scholars to take seriously the clues provided in the New Testament. ''Of course you'll never prove or disprove the miracles,'' he said. ''But to give him an actual authentic setting of place and persons is no small accomplishment.'' Attitudes toward the historical Jesus range from ''extreme skepticism that says he never lived at all, it's all a made-up story ... to those that accept practically everything that's written in the New Testament about him,'' Stager added. ''Most archeologists work in between and really don't have a great deal of existential interest in how it turns out. They're more interested in just understanding and recreating the past.'' The few known artifacts connected to biblical figures reflect the lives of government officials. Coins depict King Herod, known in the Bible for trying to kill the infant Jesus; an inscribed stone found 41 years ago mentions Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who presided over Jesus's crucifixion; and in 1990 a similar burial box was found belonging to Caiaphas, a judge also mentioned in Scripture as being present at the trial. James is described in the New Testament as an early church leader who brokered an important compromise that allowed non-Jews to convert to Christianity without following all the Jewish dietary laws. Early historians report that he was martyred in 62 AD. His relationship to Jesus is a matter of debate in Christian theology; some say Mary and Joseph had several children after Jesus; others say that the siblings came from a previous marriage of Joseph's or that James was a cousin. The box is about 20 inches long, 10 inches wide, and 12 inches tall, widening from bottom to top, much like a window box. The 71/2-inch-long inscription is written in Aramaic, the main language spoken in first-century Palestine and Syria. It reads ''Ya'akov bar Yosef akhui diYeshua,'' which translates as ''James [also translated in English as Jacob], son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.'' Such boxes were used in Jewish burials during a relatively short historical period, between 20 and 70 AD. About a year after the body's initial burial, the bones were removed and placed in ossuaries. The Israeli owner, who asked to remain anonymous, told Lemaire he bought the box from an Arab dealer 15 years ago for a few hundred dollars and did not focus on the text of the inscription until Lemaire did - circumstances that argue against forgery, said Stephen Feldman, deputy editor of the magazine. ''Neither the buyer nor the seller knew the significance of what they had on their hands,'' he said. Archeologists are skeptical of objects bought on the private market, which are often looted from tombs rather than found in an academic excavation. Such objects are removed from their geographical contexts and may even be forged. Lemaire and others concluded the writing style was consistent with the period. Scientists at Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructures Geological Survey inspected samples with a scanning electron microscope and reported that the limestone and the soil attached to it were consistent with those used in Jerusalem burials of that period. But their main concern was that a modern forger could have added an inscription to an ancient ossuary. The scientists tested the patina on the outside of the box and on the inside of the carved letters and found they were the same. ''The patina does not contain any modern elements [such as modern pigments] and it adheres firmly to the stone. No signs of the use of a modern tool or instrument was... found,'' wrote Dr. Amnon Rosenfeld and Dr. Shimone Ilani. Several letters are missing the patina, probably because of an attempt to clean the box, Lemaire said. But even if the box is real, it could belong to a different James. James, Joseph, and Jesus were common names; the chances of all three being mentioned in the right order are slim, but not impossible, biblical scholars said. While ossuaries often mention the father of the deceased, they almost never mention the brother - leading some scholars to wonder whether the inscription is too good to be true. On the other hand, the name Jesus could have been mentioned because he was such a well-known figure. Lemaire's article cites another ossuary that mentions a brother but provides no details. For all the questions, the box raises excitement for archeologists and theologians. Lemaire, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, said that from the moment he saw the box, ''I was very excited.'' But he tried to restrain his glee until he was satisfied that it really dated to the second half of the first century. It's one thing to know figures like Jesus and James through religious texts, he said, and another to find a physical object related to them: ''It's like having direct contact with him. It's more living.'' Krister Stendahl, a New Testament theologian and former dean of Harvard Divinity School, said that the importance of the finding would be mainly personal. ''Since I have never had any serious doubts about the existence of Jesus, it doesn't change any scholarly perception,'' he said. ''It's just sort of beautiful, even moving, if it is true. I want it to be true.'' Anne Barnard can be reached at abarnard@globe.com.   This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 10/22/2002. © Copyright 2002 New York Times Co.

Biblical Archaeology Review Magazine. The issue would be November/December 2002, Vol. 28, No. 6

Also after that I will put an article we already posted showing Yeshua in the Old Testament.

http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/bswbbar2806f1.html

So there it is his name is Yeshua! In Yeshua Messiah's Love and Servcie, Bro. Dan, Pastor of Messiah's Branch

http://www.goodnewsforisrael.org/yeshua.html

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THE NAME JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Arthur E. Glass

A Sketch of the Mashiach, from MessianicArt.com

IN DEALING WITH MY JEWISH BRETHREN for the past many years in Canada, the United States, Argentina, and Uruguay, I had one great difficulty, and it was this: My Jewish people would always fling at me this challenging question, "If Jesus is our Messiah, and the whole Old Testament is about Him, how come His name is never mentioned in it even once?"

I could never answer it satisfactorily to their way of thinking, and I admit I often wondered why His name was not actually written in the Old Bible. Oh, yes, I could show them His divine titles in Isaiah 7:14, 9:6; Jeremiah 23:5, 6, etc., and even the word Messiah (Christ) in several places; but the Hebrew name that would be equal to Jesus, that I could not show. Then one day the Holy Spirit opened my eyes, and I just shouted. There was the very name, Jesus, found in the Old Testament about 100 times all the way from Genesis to Habakkuk! Yes, the very word—the very name—that the angel Gabriel used in Luke 1:31 when he told Mary about the Son she was to have.

"Where do we find that name?" you ask. Here it is, beloved: Every time the Old Testament uses the word SALVATION (especially with the Hebrew suffix meaning "my," "thy," or "his"), with very few exceptions (when the word is impersonal), it is the very same word, Yeshua (Jesus), used in Matthew 1:21. Let us remember that the angel who spoke to Mary and the angel who spoke to Joseph in his dream did not speak in English, Latin, or Greek, but in Hebrew; and neither were Mary or Joseph slow to grasp the meaning and significance of the name of this divine Son and its relation to His character and His work of salvation. For in the Old Testament all great characters were given names with a specific and significant meaning.

For example, in Genesis 5:29, Lamech called his son "Noah [Comfort], saying, This shame shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands." In Genesis 10:25, Eber calls his firstborn son "Peleg [Division]; for in his days was the earth divided." The same is true of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob (changed to Israel—God's Prince), and all of Jacob's sons (see Genesis, chapters 29-32). In Exodus 2:10, Pharaoh's daughter called the baby rescued from the Nile "Moses [Drawn-Forth]; and she said, Because I drew him out of the water." And so we can go on and on to show the deep significance of Hebrew names.

Now then, when the angel spoke to Joseph, husband of Mary, the mother of our Lord, this is what he really said and what Joseph actually understood: "And she shall bring forth a son, and though shall call his name Jesus [Yeshua (Salvation)]; for he shall save [or salvage] his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). This text was so forcibly brought home to my soul soon after I was converted over 24 years ago, that I saw the whole plan of the Old Testament in that one ineffable and blessed name.

So let us proceed to show clearly the Hebrew name Yeshua (Greek, Iesus; English, Jesus) in the Old Testament.

When the great Patriarch Jacob was ready to depart from this world, he by the Holy Spirit was blessing his sons and prophetically foretelling their future experiences in those blessings. In verse 18 of Genesis 49 he exclaims, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!" What he really did say and mean was, "To thy Yeshua (Jesus) I am looking, O Lord"; or, "In thy Yeshua (Jesus) I am hoping (trusting), Lord!" That make much better sense.

Of course Yeshua (Jesus) was the One in Whom Jacob was trusting to carry him safely of the chilly waters of the river of death. Jacob was a saved man, and did not wait until his dying moments to start trusting in the Lord. He just reminded God that he was at the same time comforting his own soul.

Yeshua, The name of Jesus in Hebrew

In Psalm 9:14, David bursts forth, "I will rejoice in thy salvation!" What he actually did say and mean was, "I will rejoice in (with) thy Yeshua (Jesus)."

In psalm 91:14-16 God Says, "Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high [raise him above circumstances], because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life [eternal life] will I satisfy him, and show him my [Yeshua (Jesus)] salvation." Of course. That promise is realized in Revelation 22:3, 4: "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it: and his servants shall serve him: And the shall see His face."

In Isaiah 12:2, 3 we have something wonderful. Here Salvation is mentioned three times. the reader will be much blessed by reading these glorious verses in his Bible, but let me give them as they actually read in the original Hebrew with Jesus as the embodiment and personification of the word Salvation: "Behold, mighty (or, God the mighty One) is my Yeshua (Jesus—in His pre-incarnation and eternal existence); I will trust and not be afraid; for Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also has become my Yeshua (Jesus)." "And the Word [Jesus incarnate] became flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of Yeshua [Jesus crucified—waters of salvation flowing forth from Calvary]."

Something very interesting occurred one spring in St. Louis. I was visiting in the home of our friends, Brother and Mrs. Charles Siegelman, and another Jew was present there. He claimed Jewish orthodoxy for his creed. Of course the conversation centered around Him Who is the Center of all things—Jesus. This good Jewish brother opposed the claims of Christ in the Old Testament verbally, and in a friendly fashion, most violently. His best offensive weapon, he thought, was to fling at me and at all of us there the well-known challenge: "You can't find the name 'Jesus' in the Old Testament"; and this he did.

I did not answer him directly, but asked him to translate for us from my Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 62:11. Being a Hebrew scholar, he did so with utmost ease, rapidity, and correctness; and here is what and how he translated that text verbatim: "Behold, Jehovah has proclaimed unto the end of the world. Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy Yeshua [Jesus] cometh; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." Just then he crimsoned as he realized what he had done and how he had played into my hands, and he just fairly screamed out, "No! no! You made me read it 'thy Yeshua' [Jesus], Mr. Glass! You tricked me!" I said, "No, I did not trick you. I just had you read the Word of God for yourself. Can't you see that here Salvation is a Person and not a thing or an event? He comes, 'His reward is with Him, and His work before him.'" Then he rushed at his own Old Testament, talking away frantically, saying, "I'm sure mine is different from yours." And when he found the passage, he just dropped like a deflated balloon. His Old Testament was, of course, identical. All he could use as an escape from admitting defeat was to deny the divine inspiration of the book of Isaiah.

Then skipping on to Habakkuk, we have the greatest demonstration of the Name "Jesus" in the Old Testament; for here we have both the name as well as the title of the Savior. In 3:13 we read literally from the original Hebrew: "Thou wentest forth with the Yesha [variant of Yeshua—Jesus] of [or for] thy people; with Yeshua thy Messiah [thine Anointed One: i.e., with Jesus thy Christ]; though woundest the head of the house of the wicked one [Satan]." Here you have it! The very Name given to our Lord in the New Testament—Jesus Christ! So don't let anyone—Jew or Gentile—tell you that the Name Jesus is not found in the Old Testament.