Jesus and the Ossuaries
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Published: November 2003
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 168
ISBN-13: 9780918954886
Subjects: Biblical archaeology; The historical Jesus; Sociology; Funeral rites and ceremonies, Jewish; Archaeology; Social Science; Religion - Church History; Ossuaries; Ancient - General; Antiquities & Archaeology; Religion & Spirituality; Antiquities; Excavations (Archaeology); Funeral rites and ceremonies,; Palestine
First sentence: In what must be one of the eeriest stories narrated in the New Testament Gospels, we are told that when Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Kinneret Lake) and entered the country of the Gerasenes, "there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who lived among the tombs," a man no one was able to subdue, a man who "night and day among the tombs" was "crying out, and bruising himself with stones" (Mark 5:1-5).
Description: "The recent discovery and exhibition of an ancient Jewish ossuary (a burial box) that bears the inscription "James the son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" has stunned scholars and the public alike. While the story of the ossuary's authenticity unfolds, what is not shrouded in mystery is that this ossuary is only one of several that shed important archaeological light on the historical Jesus and the origins of Christianity. In Jesus and the Ossuaries Craig A. Evans helps all readers, expert and layperson alike, understand the importance this recent find might have for the quest for the historical Jesus and any historical reconstruction of early Christianity."--Jacket.