The Book of James

The Book of James, written by James the brother of Jesus.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he talks about his meetings with James and refers to him as a pillar of the church. His first meeting happened in 38 AD, the second in the late 40s AD. Along with Acts 15, which describes the First Council of Jerusalem, we see in the Scriptures just how important James was to the early church.  Paul also lists the people who received personal appearances by Jesus after His Resurrection; a list James was on.

Clement of Alexandria tells us that after the Ascension, Peter, James and John did not think so highly of themselves as to take on the leadership of the church, but elected James, the Lord’s brother, as Overseer.  The Apostolic & Church Fathers are also universal in their belief that James, the Lord’s brother, wrote this book. Later scholars did not.

Now, Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him until after the Resurrection.  He made a special appearance to his brother James during those forty days.  His brothers were there in the Upper Room praying and waiting for the Promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14).  They were there at Pentecost and were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in other languages (Acts 2:1).  So, when James opened his letter, identifying himself as a Servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was proclaiming his transformation.  He had always been a servant of God, but now he was also a servant of Jesus, his own brother, and calls Him the Messiah.

Jesus had said, “before Abraham was, I am.”  They all knew what that meant. God existed from the Beginning, having created everything. The Hebrew people were set apart as God’s special possession. What we call their ‘religion’ was actually God showing the world how he expected people to live.  Jewishness was not the beginning of God nor just some religion. Everything in the Law pointed to the Messiah. This was not news to any Jew. 

In the view of the first believers, there was no ‘us and them’, in the sense of who could know Jesus as Messiah.  All Jews were in the same position; the Messiah had come for them all. The Law had been fulfilled and was now written on their hearts (Jer 31:33).  Living this new life, from the law written on their hearts, was the focus of James’ new church.  They shared their possessions, they actually had no needy persons among them (Acts 4;34). They prayed and worshiped and broke bread together (Acts 2:42-47). Everyone was accepted and included.

But there was certainly ‘us and them’ when it came to who believed and who didn’t. Make no mistake.

And so, quite suddenly, Stephen the Deacon was martyred and the believers were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Only the Apostles were left in Jerusalem. So James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote his epistle.  It is full of wisdom on how to live out this Law that was now in their hearts. And who did he write to?  To the Twelve Tribes of Israel, scattered throughout the world, because the Messiah was for them all.  His job, as the Overseer, was to care for them, teach them sound doctrine and show them how to live in Christ.  The Apostles had their own job, prophets and teachers had theirs. This was James’ role.

There are a group of people called New Testament Scholars. One does not even need to be a believer to be a New Testament scholar. I have come across many of their views in my studies.  I don’t think it’s unfair to say that they are coming from a biased point of view. It seems like their goal is to prove that these books were not written by eyewitnesses, not written by the traditional authors, and not by anyone anywhere near the events they portrayed.  I see endless arguing on who copied from whom, who couldn’t possibly have known Greek, and who could not have traveled to where. In the case of the book of James, they argue about why he sounds so much less Christian than Jewish. 

The New Testament scholars propose that Christianity spread by word of mouth only and much later, things were written down.  But I do not believe that is possible.  The writings of the Apostles and Disciples were instrumental in the growth of the church and the refutation of heresies.

What I see in James is the heart of God to His people. Going from all their outward acts of the Law to the inward presence of the Messiah is a big deal.  They needed the instruction then, from their Overseer, and we need it now in our daily lives. ‘Christian’ was not a thing; everyone was just Jewish. A rabbi’s job was to interpret the Torah so that the people knew how to live. There was no New Testament for James to interpret. What he could do was interpret his brother’s words so that the believers knew how to live.

Among those who do believe that James the Just wrote this book, there is still plenty of division on when he would have written it.  All agree that he wrote it before he died, but that’s as much consensus as we can get. That’s ok.  What I have tried to show here is that the internal evidence points to a very early time.  There is no mention of Gentiles being in the church.  Jewish things are not explained for the benefit of outsiders.  The church structure, in James, is very primitive.  If he had written at a later time, this book would not have fit.  People had traveled and spread the Gospel, there were Overseers in other places, Gentiles were a regular part of the churches and heresies were creeping in.

But at the beginning, when they were just learning about Jesus as the Messiah, they were learning the basic lessons on how to live from the Law in their Hearts.  This is the foundation of being a Christian.

Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History, Book VI.II.1 (Eusebius, quoting Clement)

 

Dating the Crucifixion

How do we know?

The date of the crucifixion is a hotly debated topic. There is not a consensus on the year or the day of the week. Recently, however, the Jewish Calendar of the First Century has been reconstructed using Archaeoastronomy and a precise date of a lunar eclipse, that is connected to the crucifixion, has been identified. This evidence points to Friday, April 3rd, 33 AD.

Let’s see how this fits with what we know from the Bible.

Mark 15:42 tells us that it was Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath.  So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the Kingdom of God, boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 

From here we can see that Jesus died on the Friday afternoon.  I know there are further arguments here and I will address them in this post.

According to the Jewish Calendar, Friday, April 3rd, 33 AD was Nisan 14. 

What other clues do we have? Let’s go back and look at the events of what we now call Holy Week.

In John 11, we find the story of Lazarus of Bethany. Jesus came to Bethany four days after Lazarus’ death and asked for someone to roll the stone away from the tomb. Over Martha’s protest, they did so and Jesus called him out and back to life. This did not make the Jewish leaders too happy.  They actually had a plot going to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. So, Jesus and his followers withdrew to the wilderness to a village in the mountains called Ephraim. It was thirteen miles away from Jerusalem.  

In John 12, we learn that Jesus arrived in Bethany, six days before the Passover. The Law forbids travel on the Sabbath of more than ⅔ of a mile, so Jesus would have had to have travelled on the Sunday. It was a little over half a day's journey from Ephraim to Bethany. With Nisan 14 being the Friday, that would make the previous Sunday the 9th.

At Bethany, he went to the house of Simon the Leper and they gave a dinner in his honour.  Not really surprising, being that Jesus had recently brought Lazarus back from the dead. It is also not surprising that Mary of Bethany took a jar of nard, and poured it on Jesus' feet.  It was not actually uncommon to wash your guests feet and put perfume on them when they enter your house as a guest, especially after a journey.  But it was usually a task reserved for the lowest of servants. 

Arriving on the 9th fits in precisely with the requirements of Jewish law. The next day would be Nisan the 10th.  The Jews had much preparation to do for the Passover.  According to Exodus 12, the Passover lambs had to be brought to the temple to be inspected on the 10th of Nisan, and on the 11th and 12th and 13th. On the tenth, there was to be a special procession each year.  The High Priest would bring the lamb that he would slaughter into the temple and it was a big parade. As he came into the city, the people would cheer and shout Hosanna, to the Son of David, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Does this sound familiar? This is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday.  When Jesus rode into town on a donkey the people shouted Hosanna, to the Son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. This basically stole the thunder of Caiaphas.

That story is told in all four Gospels. Each of those four days, Monday to Thursday, Jesus came into the city to teach the people. He was questioned by the Jewish leaders each day and they could find nothing against him.  This is a parallel to the command in Exodus, to bring the Lambs into the temple each day, to be examined. They had to be perfect. No one could find any fault in Jesus, identifying Him as our perfect Passover Lamb.

When Jesus came into the temple that Monday morning, Nisan 10, the blind and lame came to him at the temple and he healed them. After the Chief Priests and Teachers of the Law questioned him, he left and went back to Bethany.

On Tuesday, the 11th, he went back early in the morning.  On the way, he saw a fig tree and cursed it, because it had no fruit on it. This is recorded in Matthew and Mark. Jesus again clears out the temple and teaches the people.  He then goes back to Bethany.

On Wednesday, the 12th, he goes to the city for the third time.  On this day, we learn from Mark that they passed the fig tree that Jesus had cursed and found it to be withered.  On this day the Chief Priests questioned his authority.  He asked them if John’s baptism was from Heaven or of human origin.  They could not answer this, so he refused to answer their original question.  So, they looked for a way to kill him.

I have listed the events that clearly mark the separate days.  When reading the long passages of Jesus teaching on Tuesday and Wednesday, it can be difficult to work out which teachings happened on which days.  It’s not uncommon for writers to do this and does not mean there is a  contradiction. 

On this Wednesday evening, it would be the last night He was to stay in Bethany, so they were having dinner again.  A woman came and poured a jar of pure nard on Jesus' head. This is not the same event as the day Mary poured nard on Jesus’ feet. After this dinner, Judas goes to visit the Jewish leaders and agrees to betray Jesus. 

On Thursday, the 13th, the whole group goes to Jerusalem. Now you must remember that the days were counted from twilight to twilight. The first thing you did, when the new day came, would be to have supper. The Passover supper, or the Last Supper, would occur on what we call Thursday Evening (and they would call Friday, Nisan 14, Passover). During the afternoon though, when it was still considered Thursday, Jesus sent his disciples into town to rent a room for Supper and to stay for several days, until the Festival was over.  This is not the meal where they would eat the Passover Lamb, but it was called the Passover meal.

From the time of that infamous meal, the events of the next 24 hours are laid out quite clearly. They eat their meal and in the middle Judas leaves to meet the Jewish leaders. Jesus and the Eleven remaining Disciples go off to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. While they are there, Judas comes with a small army and greets Him with a kiss in betrayal. Jesus allows himself to be arrested and he is taken away to the home of Annas, father-in-law of the High Priest.  They stayed there all night, with various people giving false testimonies against Jesus, but their statements did not agree with each other. This is where Peter famously denies Jesus.

Jesus was then passed around from Annas to Caiaphas to Pilate to Herod and back to Pilate. As all the important people lived in close quarters, near the temple, this did not take long. Jesus was flogged and the people demanded that he be crucified.  And so he was, at about noon. 

At 3:00, the bible clearly records that Jesus shouted, It Is Finished, and then died. At that moment, there was an earthquake.  The veil in the temple was torn in two, from the top to the bottom. Everything was in disarray.  Here is what was supposed to happen. At 9:00 in the morning, the Priests would begin slaughtering the Passover Lambs as the people brought them in. They would enter the temple in up to three groups.  First come, first serve, as we would say.  You were expected to come early.  If you did not make it in time, missing the first two groups of people entering the courts, you had to go in the last group and it was called the Group of the Lazy.  Then, by 3:00 pm, the High Priest would sacrifice the lamb that was for the whole Nation, the last one of the day, and he would shout, It Is Finished. Again, Jesus stole his thunder. 

It is interesting to note that Christians celebrate the Triumphal Entry of Jesus on a Sunday and then, they have officially declared there to be a silent day during the week when nothing happened. There was no silent day, but the Triumphal Entry happened on a Monday. It is not a problem to celebrate this on a Sunday, but just know that there was no silent day.

The Gospels, taken together, lay out the events of six consecutive days. What would happen if we take on the argument that Jesus died on what we call Thursday and not Friday? Well we would have to slide our six day block back one day.  That would put Jesus and his company travelling thirteen miles on the Sabbath.  That would not have happened. For this holiday, they would be required to present their lambs on the 10th, so they would arrive on the 9th, near Jerusalem. In a year where the 9th is a Sabbath, they would arrive earlier. 

Back in 1984, Oxford scientists Colin J. Humphreys and W.G. Waddington, presented evidence that on April 3, 33 AD there was both a lunar eclipse, visible from Jerusalem, and a huge sandstorm that made the sky dark and the eclipse to appear blood red. The science of this day matches with scripture.

So, what happened after that? As we noted earlier, Mark tells us that Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus before it got dark and the Sabbath started. He and Nicodemus took the body to Joseph’ tomb, washed it and placed it inside.  The women of Jesus’ company looked on from outside the tomb. Then they all went home to eat the Passover lamb and rest for the Sabbath. I imagine that was a pretty sombre affair.

The day after Jesus died was Nisan 15th, and it was the First Day of Unleavened Bread and it happened to be a Sabbath. The Jews had to eat unleavened bread for the seven days of the Unleavened Bread festival.  As leaven is a symbol of sin, this was a picture of Jesus’ sinless life.

The High Priest, Caiaphas, had an interesting job to do. His lamb would have been cooked in the ovens beneath the temple and eaten there as well. He would then go alone out of the city, in secret, to the field owned by the Temple where the barley grew.  He would find the best portion of grain and tie off the chosen section with a cord.  This was to be the official offering of the nation on Sunday morning, the Feast of Firstfruits. Matthew records that when Jesus died, there was an earthquake, the tombs broke open and many holy people were raised to life.  They came out of the tombs on Sunday after Jesus did. Just as the High Priest guarded his offering to the Lord during that Sabbath, Jesus guarded those who had risen from the dead when he died. On Sunday, they would appear in Jerusalem while the Priests were waving the sheafs of the people.  This is why Paul calls Jesus the Firstfruits of those who rose from the dead.

Once the Sabbath was over in the evening, the people would go out of the city, in a big procession to join the High Priest in the barley field for a ceremony.  Caiaphas would ask the people three times if the sacrifice was good and if he should cut the grain. After cutting the grain, everyone would go back to the city and prepare.  The people were required to bring sacrifices from their own fields, or buy some from nearby.  First, they took some of the barley and ground it to make bread.  Then they took a bunch of barley stocks and tied them in a sheaf. These would be waved before the Lord in the temple in the morning.  Along with the bread they would bring wine and a lamb.  This offering was called a Bikkurim.

On the third day was the Feast of Firstfruits. There was a parade through town.  Emissaries from all the cities or districts in Israel would come and bring their offerings. These would be farmers. The artisans that lived in the city lined the streets and welcomed each group that arrived. The point was supposed to be for each group, city folk and country folk, to remember that they each relied on each other.  Welcome to our brothers from Jericho, Welcome to our brothers from Bethlehem.  And so on.  King Herod was known to march in the parade carrying his own offerings to present at the temple. The people would each bring their offering to the Priest, who would wave the offering before the Lord. The temple choir would sing from Psalms 30.  

Read Psalms 30 out loud.  Then realise that this was all happening when Jesus rose from the dead. 

I think that’s a great place to end this article, but it leaves out the big argument of the three days.  How do you get three days from Friday to Sunday?  The first thing to remember is that there was no concept of zero at this time. That is a really hard thing to wrap your mind around.  The day of an event was the first day. 

A second thing to know is how the Jews named their days.  They were literally named One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Sabbath.  When they said, on the third day, it was the same as what we call, the day after tomorrow. 

Another thing to remember is that we are usually trying to reason this out in English, from a modern standpoint.

• In three days

• After three days 

• On the third day

• Three days and three nights. 

The one thing we know, from the scriptures, is that these phrases were all used in regards to the Resurrection.  They all mean the same thing.  Therefore, the argument about what they mean to us, now, in English, is moot. 

So there are our reasons for using April 3, 33 AD in our book.  In later articles, I will talk about how this date matches up with other events in scripture and history.

https://tyndalebulletin.org/article/30487-the-jewish-calendar-a-lunar-eclipse-and-the-date-of-christ-s-crucifixion.pdf

Oxford Scholars Consult the Stars to Date Crucifixion to 33 A.D. - The Washington Post

 

The Jameses and the Marys

The Jameses and the Marys

One of the major problems we came up against was sorting out the many people with the same names.  It may not sound important, but we were up against major theological issues. Our first book contains at least eleven Marys.  We have also included three Jameses, and all three are very prominent.  I have been asked many times how I sorted these out, so here goes.

The three main characters, named James, that we use are James the Lord’s brother, James Zebedee and James Alpheus. 

• James, the brother of Jesus, also called James the Just, was the son of Joseph and Mary. He was the first leader of the church in Jerusalem.

• James Zebedee was an Apostle, one of the three of the inner circle along with his brother John and with Peter.

• James Alpheus was also an Apostle, and was called James the Less in scripture. “The less” can mean younger or shorter.  

It’s very clear that James Zebedee and James Alpheus were two different people. No one has ever proposed that they are the same person. But the discussion of who the leader of the Jerusalem church  was is centered around the mother Jesus. Our first consideration is that John said his brothers did not believe in him. In fact, they thought he was out of his mind. For us, this settles the question. None of Jesus’ brothers were among the twelve apostles.

Over the centuries, people from many countries and cultures have conflated (combining two or more people into one) many biblical characters.  In Syria, where the Apostle James Alpheus went, they conflated him with James the Just. The Syrian church was very proud of their James, very adamant that he was one of the Apostles, James the Less.  Then they would say that he was the Lord’s brother who also ruled the church from Jerusalem.  It’s not hard to imagine, when you have two leaders ruling over two areas that are adjacent to each other. There is no other country or group who claim James the Less as their apostle. We see no reason to deny their claim.

* * *

The Marys were more challenging.  The first question is whether Jesus’ mother had other children.  This  is a point of disagreement between the Catholics and the Protestants.  I wrote a whole page on this topic. Then, when wanting to check on a certain point, I came across a great explanation at Gotquestions.org, so I went with theirs instead.  Here’s what they say,

It is the official position of the Roman Catholic Church that Jesus’ mother Mary remained a virgin for her entire life. Is this concept biblical? Before we look at specific Scriptures, it is important to understand why the Roman Catholic Church believes in the perpetual virginity of Mary. The Roman Catholic Church views Mary as "the Mother of God" and "Queen of Heaven." Catholics believe Mary to have an exalted place in Heaven, with the closest access to Jesus and God the Father. Such a concept is nowhere taught in Scripture. Further, even if Mary did occupy such an exalted position, her having sexual intercourse would not have prevented her from gaining such a position. Sex in marriage is not sinful. Mary would have in no way defiled herself by having sexual relations with Joseph her husband. The entire concept of the perpetual virginity of Mary is based on an unbiblical teaching, Mary as Queen of Heaven, and on an unbiblical understanding of sex.

So, what does the Bible say about the perpetual virginity of Mary? Using the New American Bible, which is a Catholic translation, we can see that the perpetual virginity of Mary is not taught in the Bible. Matthew 1:25 NAB tells us, "He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus." He, Joseph, did not have sexual relations with her, Mary, UNTIL after she bore a son, Jesus." The meaning of this Scripture is abundantly clear. Joseph and Mary did not have sexual relations until after Jesus was born. Matthew 13:55-56 NAB declares, "Is He not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not His sisters all with us?" Catholics claim, correctly, that the Greek terms for "brothers" and "sisters" in these verses could also refer to male and female relatives, not necessarily literal brothers and sisters. However, the intended meaning is clear: they thought Jesus to be Joseph’s son, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and the brother of the unnamed and unnumbered sisters. Father, mother, brother, sister. It is straining the meaning of the text to interpret “brothers” and “sisters” as "cousins" or "relatives" with the mentioning of Jesus’ mother and father.

The Apocryphal work, The Infancy Gospel of James, in the second century, was the first to say that the brothers of Jesus were actually cousins or other such relatives. Ambrose of Milan promoted the idea of Mary as the Ever Virgin in the 4th century. The lateness of this doctrine was a big reason for us not to include it in our book.

Another reason was that the gospel writers spoke of the brothers and sisters of Jesus.  They also say quite clearly that Joseph kept Mary a virgin UNTIL after Jesus’ birth. 

In order to explain away these verses, and have Mary be an ever-virgin, several solutions were proposed. One solution was that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were from a previous marriage of Joseph, so they were her step children.  One wonders why they were not brought to Bethlehem for the census…..

Another solution involved the husbands.  Some want to have Cleopas and Alpheus be the same man, so that Mary of Cleopas is the same person as Mary Alpheus.  Being that the church father’s report that Cleopas was the brother of Joseph, Mary Cleopas/Alpheus is the sister in law of Mary and the brothers and sisters of Jesus were really his cousins.  In this solution, James, the Lord’s brother, is the same man as James Alpheus. Whether they are brothers or cousins, the scripture is still referring to the same group of people and says that they did not believe Jesus was the Messiah or follow him, until AFTER he was resurrected. Therefore, they cannot be the same person. 

Another solution, involving which Marys were at the cross and tomb. It has three Marys being sisters, all with the same name.

Being that the Cleopas/Alpheus question was first proposed as a solution for the perpetual virginity of Mary, which we reject, we made sure that Mary Cleopas and Mary Alpheus are two different women in our book.

Now we have the question of whether or not Mary Magdala and Mary of Bethany were the same person.  Pope Gregory, in 591 AD, made a claim that Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdala and the sinful woman at the house of Simon the Pharisee, were all the same woman.  However, this is not supported by scripture.  They were three different women.  Mary Magdala was not a prostitute, but she was delivered from demons.  She was a wealthy woman who traveled with Jesus and supported him from her own funds.  Magdala and Bethany were many miles away from each other.

A certain reason for the great preponderance of Marys in the first century has been suggested.  It goes back to Herod the Great.  He had several wives and many children.  One of his wives was the last Jewish Princess, who was named Mary.  She was very much loved by the people.  King Herod, in his madness, had her murdered, and her sons.  This ended the Jewish royal line. In revolt, the Jews in Jerusalem started naming their daughters Mary, en masse. So the story goes.

So, we have:

• Mary the mother of Jesus, whom we call Mother Mary

• Mary Cleopas (which is her sister-in-law)

• Mary Alpheus (mother of James Alpheus)

• Mary Caiaphas (wife of the High Priest, whose name was Joseph)

• Mary of Magdala

• Mary of Bethany

• Mary Marcus, also called Mary of Jerusalem.  This is the mother of John Mark.

• Mary Tolmai, sister of the Apostle Nathaniel (from Apocrypha)

• Mary Philippos. Daughter of the Apostle Philip. (from the church fathers)

• Mary Thaddeus (this is not from history, but we assigned her this name)

• Mary Joses.  Here we had Jesus’ younger brother name his daughter in honour of their mother.

These are our eleven Marys and three Jameses.  Stay tuned for our blog post of the conflation of Philip the Deacon and Philip the Apostle and their famous daughters.

The Site of the Crucifixion

 

The Site of the Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection.

Holy Sites are hot topics, this one more than any. The church has, for centuries, accepted the fact that

Constantine discovered the burial tomb of Christ in the 300s AD and built a church over it, for its

preservation.  He and his mother actually preserved many holy places in this fashion. They also

searched for the burial places of the Apostles and transferred the relics they found to Rome,

installing them in special churches designed for their protection.  These churches then became sites

for pilgrims to visit.  Those visits have never ceased.

In the 1800s though, some Protestant scholars visited Jerusalem and claimed that the Catholics were wrong and they had found the true site of the crucifixion and the tomb.  That place is known today as the Garden Tomb. 

In 1841, Dr Edward Robinson’s work, Biblical Research in Palestine, was considered the standard work on Topography and Archaeology of the Holy Land.  He argued that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and its nearby Golgotha would have been inside the city walls in the time of Jesus, therefore, cannot be authentic.  But he was careful not to suggest a different site, only that it would need to be near the Damascus Gate.

The following year, Otto Thenius, a German Theologian and Biblical Scholar visited Jerusalem and found a hill, just north of the Damascus Gate, that looked like a Skull. Being that Golgotha means skill in Aramaic, he concluded that this must be where Jesus died.  And nearby he found a place called Jeremiah’s Grotto, which he considered to be the tomb of Christ.  This last assertion was never taken seriously.

In 1850, Fisher Howe, one of the founders of Union Theological Seminary in New York, visited the Holy Land.  Claiming that he had never heard of Otto Thenius, he made the same assertians about Jeremiah’s Grotto. Later came HB Tristam, Claude Conder, Selah Merrill, Samuel Gobat, Conrad Schick and Ernest Renan. 

The most famous was General Charles Gordon. He proposed several Theological theories that even he called fanciful.  Although the guidebooks claim that he made the discovery of Skull Hill, he was in fact very much influenced by Condor and Schick.  But the place is now called Gordon’s Golgotha.  In the second half of the 19th century, a number of tombs were discovered near Gordon’s Golgotha, along with an ancient wine press and cistern.  This was taken as evidence that the area had once been a garden.  A tomb alongside the cistern, which had a stone groove where a rock could be slid across, was identified as the Tomb of Christ by Gordon.

Soon a Society was formed in England, and they purchased the spot they believed to be the Tomb of Jesus.  A fund was set up and people were hired to maintain the area. The site soon became a popular spot for Protestants to reflect and worship.

As time went on though, archaeologists dated the tomb to the 7th-8th centuries BC.  The stone groove was dated to the time of the Crusades. As beautiful as the place is, it is no longer considered to be a contender for the burial place of Jesus. In addition, Dr Robinson was incorrect when he said that the Catholic's site would have been inside the city at the time of Jesus.

The traditional site, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, went through some fascinating changes in 2016/2017.  It was very much in danger of falling down on the pilgrims and the police were threatening to close the site. A Greek team from the National Technical Institution was hired by the Israel Antiquities Authority along with National Geographic, to restore the site.  They were led by Professor Antonia Moropoulou. This can all be seen on the NatGeo channel.

In 2016, in order to complete the restorations, they needed to open up the tomb. According to the church, it had not been opened since Constantine’s time. Permission was given but they had a few surprises. They first dismantled the walls around the bench. What they did not expect was to see the original walls of Jesus’ tomb, as they believed Constantine had removed them. Now they had much more of a tomb than they first believed. 

Next they removed the top slab of marble cladding. Underneath that was a lot of debris.  Once the debris was removed, the original marble bed of the tomb was found, with a cross engraved on it. They were not sure if it was from the Crusader Era or Constantine’s, as both used crosses.  If it were from the Crusader’s time, then this would indicate that this was not the tomb of Christ, but a fraud, because it would contradict the historical accounts.  If it was from Contantine’s time, it would confirm everything that he had reported. 

To test this, the Greek team used Optically Stimulated Luminescence, or OSL.  This technique will indicate to the team the last time this quartz was exposed to sunlight. It was a very tense time as the stakes were pretty high. The results came back to 345 AD, fitting in exactly with the reports from Constantine.

Now we can be sure that the reports through the ages, that the tomb was not opened, were revealed to be true. The reports of how the Crusaders found the tomb were accurate. Is there a way to go back from Constantine’s time?  Before his time, the tomb was covered by the Temple of Venus. 

In the 130s AD, there was another Jewish revolt.  The Church Fathers are unanimous in their opinion that the Roman Governor, Rufus, was responsible for its instigation. It resulted in the Emperor Hadrian wanting to stamp out everything Jewish. He built a Roman Colony on the site of Jerusalem. The Jews were expelled from the city on pain of death and pig’s heads were hung up near the site of the destroyed Temple. Circumcision was banned and any circumcised person was forced to pay taxes to a Roman temple, of which he built three,  where the Jewish Temple had been.  Hadrian had the tomb of Jesus filled in, a foundation laid on top of that and a temple to Venus built. The name Jerusalem was taken off the map and Syria Palestina was used instead.  And so it stayed there, until Constantine tore it down 200 years later.

Can we go back further? Eusebius reports that after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Christians came back and built a church on Mount Zion, outside the city. Between the death of Simeon of Jerusalem in 115 AD or so and the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 130s, there were 13 Jewish Bishops in Jerusalem.  He made a list of their names, but almost no details about the men. At the beginning of the revolt, the Christians supported Bar Kokhba, until he proclaimed himself the Messiah. They ceased their support and a permanent schism was formed between the Jewish Christians and the Greek Christians. All further Bishops of Jerusalem were Greek. 

However, during the sixty years between the two revolts, it’s not hard to imagine that the Jewish Christians wanted to preserve the place of the death and resurrection of Jesus after the Romans destroyed the city. The site would still be in living memory in 70 AD and passed down to those who lived sixty years more. 

Given all this information, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the traditional site is really where Jesus died and rose again.

What do you think?

Anticipation of the Messiah

It all started in Eden: not just life, but the promise of the One who will break the power that Satan had over Adam and Eve. Satan had tricked Eve and she ate the fruit.  Eve had given some to Adam and he ate it. They were both banished from the garden. But God had made a particular pronouncement when speaking to the Serpent.  “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel.” 

The seed of a woman could only have such a name if a man were not involved in the conception. The grammar here also prohibits the word seed from being plural.  It meant one person. After Cain killed Abel, God had sent Adam and Eve another son, Seth. His line became the Godly line from which the Promised Seed would come. Noah’s genealogy showed that he was descended from Seth, not Cain, the murderer. The Godly line then continued through Noah’s son Shem, the son to whom Noah gave his largest blessing. Shem’s line continues down to Abraham, whom all Israelites claim as their father. 

In Genesis 12, the Lord promised that all families of the earth will be blessed through Abraham.  He also gave them the land we now call Israel. 

Later, God established an everlasting covenant with Isaac. Genesis 17:19. He promised that the redeemer would come from his line (Genesis 26:2-5).

After him was his son Jacob, (Genesis 28:14) and Jacob’s son Judah (Genesis 49:10).

After Judah, the next promise was that the Messiah’s line would go through King David. 

(2 Samuel 7:12, 1 Chronicles 17:11).

And so all Israel knew where the Messiah should be descended from.  They guarded their family histories very carefully.

But when?  It had been a long time since Eden. Israel had her time of kingship, from Saul to David and Solomon.  The kingdom divided then into Israel and Judah. One after the other, the two kingdoms were conquered and the people shipped off to other nations.  But God chose two men, Ezra the Priest and Nehemiah the Governor, to rebuild the temple and the country. When they did so, people had to provide their lineage; prove what tribe they were from. 

Later still, Daniel gave a prophecy about when the Messiah would come. They Jews understood that they were waiting about 483 years from the time the decree went out to rebuild Jerusalem.  A little more than a century after Daniel, God stopped speaking and waited.

Four hundred years of silence followed. The Greeks and Romans came; but the Jews were counting.  About half way through this time period, they started to speak more about the coming Messiah.

There was not a universal idea of what the Messiah would be like.  Some imagined him more priestly, some more kingly, some more heavenly. There were some people who just didn’t care.  But for the most part, everyone was waiting for something.  By the first century, everyone hoped that he would come and overthrow the Roman oppressors. 

The writers of the New Testament, especially the Gospels are faithful to record the anticipation of many.  Being that their point is to show that Jesus is the Messiah, according to the scriptures, that is not surprising. Zechariah, Elisabeth, Mary, the Shepherds, Anna and Simeon in the Temple.  King Herod did not know the exact answers, but when he was asked by the Magi about the King of the Jews, he knew enough to ask about the Messiah.  He was so scared that the Messiah would take his kingdom that he murdered all the baby boys in Bethlehem. 

When John announced himself as the one who cries in the wilderness, the people knew who he was. They flocked to him in the desert, willing to repent, wanting to hear any message from God.  The Jewish leaders, therefore, came and asked him flat out if he was the Messiah. He told them he was not, but that he was the forerunner. He identified Jesus as the Messiah and some of his followers immediately left to follow Jesus. They told their families. One of those men was Andrew, who went to find his brother Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” Peter went with him to meet Jesus.  Philip did the same; he found Nethaniel and told him that he had found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote!” 

Even the woman at the well who said, “When the Messiah comes, he will show us all things.”

So when Jesus did come, He was not what everyone thought. He did not throw off Roman oppression. He didn’t proclaim himself King. He said hard things. He told the rich, important people that they were hypocrites and spent time with prostitutes and sinners instead. He reasoned that a widow who threw her pennies into the offering had given more than the rich man. He allowed women to sit at his feet and learn from Him.  This posture identified them as disciples.  He survived off the money of rich women. He told old men to be born again. He told the Jews to pay taxes to Caesar. He told men that if they even looked at a woman lustfully, they were guilty of adultery. He confounded the most educated and said we must believe like little children. He even said that he would tear the temple down. He became so outrageous that all his followers, except the twelve, left him. He asked them if they wanted to leave too.  Peter famously said, “where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to know and we believe that you are the Holy One of God!” Jesus' response was that one of them was a devil. For those who just wanted to see Jesus do miracles, it was too much.  

But there was so much more to the story than that. Did Jesus say hard things?  Yes, for sure. But he also made the blind to see, the lame to walk and the dumb to speak. He freed those oppressed. He healed and saved and cared.  He praised people when they showed their faith. 

He saw past the failures into the heart. He cared for those who were rejected. He walked on water and controlled nature. His wisdom was beyond anything that anyone had ever heard. He showed them the heart of God, which is love. There was one whom Jesus loved more than the others. When he wrote about Jesus he said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” 

We all know this was John.  It is one of the most well known verses in all of the bible.  At the end of John’s long life, he always told his people to love one another.  When they asked why he always said that, he answered, “because if that is the only teaching of mine that you remember, it is enough!”

And that is the ultimate anticipation.  To wait for God and discover His heart.  

His heart, His Messiah, is love.