Resurrecting the Brother of Jesus: The James Ossuary Controversy and the Quest for Religious Relics

Christian Artifacts in Documentary Film: The Case of the James Ossuary

73| milton moreland Christian Artifacts in Documentary Film The Case of the James Ossuary introduction On July 4, 2003, I sat in my yard watching fireworks, enjoying food and casual conversation with my neighbors. I had moved into the neighborhood only a week prior, so this block party was a prime occasion for conversations to turn to origins and occupations. ‘‘Where are you from?’’ and ‘‘What do you do?’’ were the inevitable questions. This is a precarious moment . When I answer the occupation question, the ensuing conversation often turns to recent television documentaries about the quest for Noah’s Ark, the ‘‘historical Jesus,’’ or the Shroud of Turin. Despite the acrimonious feelings that arise within me during these discussions of made-for-tv documentaries, on this occasion I let it be known that I am an archaeologist who is interested in the origins of Christianity and early Judaism. Immediately, the conversation turned to the James Ossuary. Some neighbors were more interested than others, but the entire adult crowd was well aware of this ‘‘discovery,’’ and at least two of my new neighbors were convinced that the ossuary was proof that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. I was impressed by the fact that for a brief moment, at least on the minute scale of my personal experience, the ossuary had trumped the ark and the shroud in the public imagination (although I admit to having been asked about both of these topics before the night was through). In the world of ‘‘the top archaeological finds that confirm the Bible,’’ this inscribed burial box made a rapid ascent up the chart in the minds of many milton moreland 74 Christians and in the world of Christian publications and media. I will examine how some media and publishing outlets shaped the scholarly response to this artifact in order to sensationalize this story. The Discovery Channel documentary brought the greatest amount of attention to the ossuary, and thus the content of that film and the scholars who appear in it will be my primary focus. With the instant popularity of the ossuary, the media raised a series of questions: Who was this James? Is this a reference to the Christian Jesus? Did Jesus really have a brother? Inevitably, scholars raised questions about the origins and authenticity of the ossuary and its inscription. These questions found their way to the front pages of newspapers around the globe; in North America, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Miami Herald, and other papers in major cities gave significant coverage to the mysterious ossuary. Readers soon learned that, in fact, the New Testament Gospels mention that Jesus had brothers (and sisters). They also learned that this was likely a reference to Jesus of Nazareth of the Christian tradition, and that this James was very likely the person mentioned in the letters of Paul as a leader in the Christian movement of Jerusalem. After the initial attention given to the ossuary subsided, a second wave of publicity arose in the spring of 2003—in the heart of the Lenten season—when a book and film about the ossuary were released. These projects had a significant impact on how the ossuary was presented to the public, and they claimed to provide a scholarly perspective on the ossuary ’s authenticity (or lack thereof). The Discovery Channel’s documentary, James: Brother of Jesus, Holy Relic or Hoax?, was written, directed, and produced by Simcha Jacobovici. The film aired on Easter Sunday 2003 in America and worldwide in nearly seventy other countries, and over the course of the next month, it aired in eighty more countries.∞ At about the same time, HarperSanFrancisco released The Brother of Jesus: The Dramatic Story and Meaning of the First Archaeological Link to Jesus and His Family, a popular book authored by Hershel Shanks and Ben Witherington III (75,000 hardback copies were printed in the first run). One of the major selling points of the documentary and the book was their portrayal of the ancient ossuary as a tangible link to Jesus. The premise was that this ‘‘physical evidence’’ could prove that Jesus was a historical person. Promotional material for the documentary states that the ossuary is ‘‘possibly the greatest archaeological discovery of modern Christian Artifacts in Documentary Film 75 times,’’ and ‘‘if authentic, it would be the first physical evidence to...