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Ossuaries and the Burials of Jesus and JamesAuthor(s): Jodi MagnessReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 124, No. 1 (Spring, 2005), pp. 121-154Published by: The Society of Biblical LiteratureStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30040993 .

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JBL 124/1 (2005) 121-154

OSSUARIES AND THE BURIALSOF JESUS AND JAMES

JODI MAGNESS

[email protected]

Universityf NorthCarolinatChapelHill,ChapelHill,NC27599

In November 2002 the existence of a sensational archaeological artifact

was announced to the world: a small stone box called an ossuary inscribed

"James,son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."' Before this most people had never

heard of an ossuary,and many probablystill do not know what ossuaries are.

But even within the small circle of scholarswho specialize in the history and

archaeologyof Palestine in the late Second Temple period, the reasonsfor the

sudden appearanceand relativelyshortperiod of popularityof ossuaries(from

thelate

firstcentury B.C.E. o

mid-to-latethird century

C.E.)remain poorly

understood.

In the firstpartof this articleI reviewthe archaeologicalevidence forJew-

ish tombs and burialcustoms in the late Second Temple period, focusing espe-

ciallyon Jerusalem.Onlythe wealthiermembers of Jewishsociety could afford

rock-cut tombs, which belonged to families and were used over the course of

severalgenerations.The poorer classeswere buried in simple individual rench

graves dug into the ground. Ossuaries were used in rock-cut tombs as con-

tainers for the collected, decomposed remains (bones) of earlier burials.The

custom of ossilegium apparentlyhas nothing to do with Jewishbeliefs in resur-rection and afterlife and instead is analogous to the use of cineraryurns else-

where the Roman world. Since Jews did not cremate their dead, Judean

1 See AndreLemaire, "BurialBoxof James the Brotherof Jesus,"BAR28 (2002):24-33, 70;

Hershel Shanksand Ben WitheringtonIII, The Brother ofJesus:TheDramaticStory&Meaningof

the FirstArchaeologicalLinktoJesus & His Family (New York:HarperSanFrancisco,2003). I am

not concerned here with the paleographicalandscientific analysesthathaveattemptedto proveor

disprovethe authenticityof allor partof the inscription.Instead, I hope to demonstratethateven if

the inscription s authentic (ancient),this ossuarywould not havecontained the bones of JamestheJust, the brother of Jesus. I am grateful to Andrea Berlin, Bruce Chilton, Karl Donfried, Bart

Ehrman,Paul Flesher, JacobNeusner, andthe two anonymousJBL reviewersfor their comments

on this paper. Their advice does not imply agreement with the contents of this paper, for which I

assume sole responsibility.

121



Journal of BiblicalLiterature

ossuaries were used for the collection of bones, not cremated remains. The

appearanceof ossuaries s one aspect of the adoptionof Hellenistic and Roman

fashionsby Jerusalem's lite duringHerod'sreign.

My review of Jewishtombs andburialcustoms in the late Second Temple

period sets the stage fora reconsiderationof the archaeologicaland literaryevi-

dence for the burialsof Jesus and his brotherJames. In the second part of this

article I discuss the Gospel accounts describingthe removalof Jesus from the

cross and his burial. In my opinion, these accounts are consistent with the

archaeologicalevidence and with Jewishlaw.Jesuscame froma family of mod-

est means that presumablydid not own a rock-cut tomb. Because Jesus died

andwas removed from the cross on the eve of the Sabbath, here was no time to

dig a trench gravefor him. For this reason,Jesus' body was placed in the rock-

cut family tomb of a wealthy follower (named Joseph of Arimathea in theGospel accounts).

In the lastpartof this articleI examinethe evidence forthe burialof Jesus'

brotherJames, includingthe controversial"Jamesossuary."The claim that this

ossuarycontainedthe remainsof Jamesthe Justis inconsistentwith the archae-

ological and literaryevidence. Not only did Jamescome from a familyof mod-

est means, but he was known for his opposition to the accumulationof wealth

andthe lifestyle andvalues of the upper classes.James was executed by stoning

on a charge of violatingJewish awandwas apparentlyburied in a simple trench

grave that would not have contained an ossuary.A second-century C.E.refer-ence by Hegesippus to a tombstone marking he spot of James'sgraveseems topreserve an accuratetraditionconcerningthe mannerof his burial.Therefore I

conclude that even if the inscriptionon the "Jamesossuary" s authenticand is

not a modern forgery,this stone box would not have contained the bones of

Jamesthe Just,the brotherof Jesus.

I. AncientJewishTombsin Jerusalem:

The Late FirstTemple Period

Tounderstandhow the Jewsof the late Second Temple period disposed of

their dead, we must begin with the late First Temple period. In both periods

the wealthyJewishpopulationof ancientJerusalem nterred their dead in rock-

cut tombs. The followingfeaturescharacterizethese tombs:

1. The rock-cut tombs are artificiallyhewn, underground caves that are

cut into the bedrockslopes aroundJerusalem.

2. With few exceptions, the tombs were located outside the walls of thecity.

122



Magness: TheBurialsofJesus and James

3. Each tomb was used by a familyover the course of severalgenerations,

as described by the biblicalexpression"heslept andwas gatheredto his

fathers" e.g., Judg2:10;2 Chr34:28).2

4. When a member of the familydied, the body was wrapped in a shroudand sometimes placed in a coffin;it was then laid in the tomb as an indi-

vidual inhumation, even if the bones were later collected and placed

elsewhere.

5. Because of the expense associated with hewing a burial cave into

bedrock, only the wealthier members of Jerusalem'spopulation-the

upper class and upper middle class-could affordrock-cuttombs. The

poorer members of Jerusalem'spopulation apparentlydisposed of their

dead in a mannerthathas left fewer tracesin the archaeologicalrecord,for example, in individual trench graves or cist graves dug into the

ground.

6. From the earliest periods, the layout and decoration of Jerusalem's

rock-cuttombs exhibited foreign culturalinfluences and fashions.Evi-

dence for such influence-and indeed, for the use of rock-cuttombs-

is attested only in times when Jerusalem's Jewish elite enjoyed an

autonomous or semiautonomousstatus: n the late First Temple period

(eighth and seventh centuries until 586 B.C.E.)and the late SecondTemple period (from the establishment of the Hasmonean kingdom

until 70 C.E.).During these periods the Jerusalemelite adopted foreign

fashionsthatwere introducedby the rulersor governingauthorities.

Rock-cut tombs of the late First Temple period have been discovered to

the west, north,and east of the Old City. They include the tombs at Ketef Hin-

nom, the caves at St. ltienne (the IEcoleBiblique), and the caves in the Silwan

(Siloam)village.3These tombs typicallyconsist of one or more burialchambers

2 Anthropological analyses of human skeletal remains from several burialcaves of the late

Second Temple period have confirmedthat the individuals n each tomb were related andthat the

tombswere family-owned;see YossiNagarand HagitTorgee, "BiologicalCharacteristicsof Jewish

Burial n the Hellenistic and EarlyRomanPeriod,"IEJ53 (2003): 164-71.

3A comprehensivediscussionof tombs from the First Temple period lies outside the scope

of this article. For general information, ncludingthe tombs mentioned here, see Elizabeth Bloch-

Smith,JudahiteBurial Practicesand Beliefsabout the Dead (Sheffield:Sheffield Academic Press,

1992);GabrielBarkay,"BurialCavesand BurialPractices n Judah n the IronAge"(in Hebrew), in

Graves and Burial Practices in Israel in the Ancient Period (ed. I. Singer;Jerusalem:YadIzhak

Ben-Zvi, 1994), 96-164; idem, "The Necropoli of Jerusalem in the First Temple Period" (inHebrew), in The HistoryofJerusalem:TheBiblicalPeriod(ed. S. AhituvandA. Mazar;Jerusalem:

Yad IzhakBen-Zvi,2000), 233-70; GabrielBarkayand Amos Kloner,"JerusalemTombs from the

123



Journalof BiblicalLiterature

which were entered througha small,unadornedopening cut into the bedrock.

Each burial chamber is lined with rock-cut benches around three sides, on

which the bodies of the deceased were laid.Frequentlyapit hewn underone of

the benches was used as a repositoryforthe bones of earlierburials.In thisway,

space was made for new interments when the benches were occupied. An

undisturbed repositoryin the Ketef Hinnom cemetery contained large num-

bers of skeletons as well as the burial gifts that accompanied them, including

ceramic vases and oil lamps, jewelry, seals, a rare early coin, and two silver

amulets.4 Many of the decorative elements in these burial caves, such as the

benches with carved headrests and parapets, and the cornices carved around

the top of the burialchambers (as, for example, at St. Etienne) reflect Phoeni-

cian influence (or Egyptian styles transmitted directly from Egypt or through

Phoenician intermediaries).5Phoenicianinfluence on the tombs of Jerusalem'selite in the First Temple period is hardly surprising in light of the biblical

accounts of Phoenician involvement in the constructionof Solomon'stemple,

as well as later contacts between the Israelites and their neighbors to the

north.6

II. AncientJewishTombsin Jerusalem:

The Late Second Temple Period

After the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's temple in 586 B.C.E.,

archaeological evidence for Jewish burial caves reappears only in the Has-

monean period, when Jerusalemagain came under Jewish rule. Although the

Maccabeeswere renownedfortheir oppositionto the introductionof Hellenis-

tic culture to Judea, the Hasmonean rulers show signs of Hellenization soon

afterthe establishmentof their kingdom.This is perhaps best illustratedby the

monumental familytomb and victorymemorialbuilt by Simon in their home-

town of Modiin, in which he interredthe remainsof his parents and brothers.

Days of the First Temple," BAR 12 (1986): 22-39; Gabriel Barkay,Amihai Mazar, and Amos

Kloner,"TheNorthern Cemetery of Jerusalem in First Temple Times"(in Hebrew), Qadmoniot

30-31 (1975):71-76; DavidUssishkin, TheVillageof Silwan:TheNecropolis rom the Periodof the

Judean Kingdom(Jerusalem:Israel ExplorationSociety, 1993); Nahman Avigad,Ancient Monu-

ments in the Kidron Valley (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem:BialikInstitute, 1954).

4 See GabrielBarkay,"Newsfromthe Field: The Divine Name Found in Jerusalem,"BAR9

(1983): 14-19.

5 See Jodi Magness,"ANear Eastern Ethnic Element among the EtruscanElite?"Etruscan

Studies8 (2001): 79-117.

6 Phoenician influence is evident also in the Proto-Aeoliccapitals,carved ivories, and otherobjects and decorative elements found in the Israelite and Judahitepalaces; see Amihai Mazar,

Archaeologyof the Land of the Bible 10,000-586 B.C.E. (New York:Doubleday, 1990), 408-12,426.

124



Magness: TheBurialsoffesus andJames

Although no remains of this tomb survive, our literary sources leave little doubt

that it was inspired by the tomb of Mausolus of Caria-the so-called Mau-

soleum at Halicarnassus-which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient

world:7

And Simon built a monument over the graveof his father and his brothers,

and made it high so that it could be seen, with polished stone on back and

front. And he erected seven pyramids n a row, for his father and his mother

and his four brothers. And he made devices for these, setting up great tro-

phies of armor for an everlasting memorial, and beside the armor carved

prowsof ships, so that they could be seen by allwho sailed the sea. Suchwas

the monument that he built at Modin, and that still stands today. (1 Mace13:27-30)

However, Simon sent some to the city Basca to bring away his brother'sbones, and buried them in their own city Modin; and all the people made

great lamentation over him. Simon also erected a very large monument for

his father and his brethren, of white and polished stone, and raised it to a

greatheight, and so as to be seen a long way off, and made cloistersaboutit,

andset up pillars,whichwere of one stone apiece;a workit waswonderfulto

see. Moreover,he built seven pyramidsalso for his parentsand his brethren,

one for each of them, which were made very surprising,both for their large-

ness and beauty, andwhich have been preservedto this day. (Josephus,Ant.

13.6.6)8

Like the Mausoleum, the tomb of the Maccabees consisted of a tall podium

with a templelike building surrounded by columns and capped by a pyramidal

roof (or in the case of the tomb of the Maccabees, seven pyramids, one for each

family member). As Andrea Berlin notes, none of these features is found in ear-

lier Jewish or Phoenician tombs in Palestine.9 Pyramidal, conical, or columnar

tomb markers became popular among Jerusalem's elite in the first century

B.C.E. and first century C.E. (as well as among neighboring peoples such as the

Nabateans). The Jews referred to this type of tomb marker as a nepheS

(Hebrew meaning "soul").10It is not surprising that the Hasmoneans adopted elements of Hellenistic

7 See AndreaM. Berlin, "Powerand Its Afterlife:Tombs in Hellenistic Palestine,"NEA 65

(2002): 143-47; Janos Fedak, MonumentalTombsof the Hellenistic Age (Toronto:Universityof

TorontoPress, 1990), 71-74.

8 All translationsof Josephusare from WilliamWhiston,Josephus:CompleteWorks(Grand

Rapids:Kregel, 1984).

9 Berlin,"Powerand Its Afterlife,"145.

10See LotharTriebel,Jenseitshoffnung n Wortund Stein: Nefeschund pyramidalesGrab-mal als Phdnomeneantikenjiidischen Bestattungswesens m Kontextder Nachbarkulturen AGJU

56; Leiden: Brill, 2004); Levy Y. Rahmani,"AncientJerusalem'sFuneraryCustoms and Tombs,

PartThree,"BA44 (1981): 46.

125




culture to display their status.11 By the first half of the second century B.C.E.,

Jerusalem's lite, includingthe high priests,were predisposedto embrace Hel-

lenistic culture. These elite families (most prominently, the Tobiads, Simonites,

and Oniads) had allied themselves alternatelywith the Ptolemies, the Seleu-

cids, and/or the Romans.12 In 175 B.C.E.,while the high priest Onias III was in

Antioch, his brother Jason seized the high priesthood for himself. Jason

requested (and received) Antiochus IV's permission to refound Jerusalem as a

Greek polis, and established a gymnasium for the education of the city's Jewish

youth:

But when Seleucus departed this life and Antiochus, who was called

Epiphanes, succeeded to the kingdom, Onias' brother Jason obtained the

high priesthood by corruption, promisingthe king in his petition three hun-

dred and sixty talents of silver, and eighty talents from other revenues.Besides this he promised to pay a hundred and fifty more, if he was given

authorityto set up a gymnasiumand a training place for youth there and to

enroll the people of Jerusalemas citizens of Antioch.When the kinghad con-

sented, and he had taken office, he immediately brought his countrymen

over to the Greekwayof living. (2 Mace4:7-10)

Commenting on this episode, Martin Hengel said, "The initiative here clearly

came from the Hellenists in Jerusalem, who presumably had the majority of the

priests and lay nobility, who in practice held all power in their hands, on their

side."3 2 Maccabees describes how the high priestshurried to finishtheir sac-rifices so they could watch the games:

For he [Jason]willinglyestablisheda gymnasiumrightunderthe citadel, and

he made the finest of the young men wearthe Greek hat.Andto such a pitch

did the cultivationof Greek fashions and the coming-in of foreign customs

rise, because of the excessive wickedness of this godless Jason,who was no

high priest at all, that the priestswere no longer earnestaboutthe servicesof

the altar,but disdaining he sanctuaryand neglecting the sacrifices,they hur-

ried to take part in the unlawful exercises in the wrestling school, after the

summonsto the discus-throwing. 2 Mace4:12-14)

11Theinfluence fHellenisticulture ntheHasmoneanssreflected lsobytheiradoption

of Greeknames,and nfluence s evidenton literaryworkscomposedn thisperiod; ee Lee I.

Levine, Jerusalem: Portrait of the City in the Second Temple Period (538 B.C.E.-70 C.E.)

(Philadelphia:ewishPublicationociety, 002),144-45.12Forpro-Ptolemaicndpro-SeleucidactionsnJerusalem,ee HenkJagersma, History

of Israelfrom Alexanderthe Great to Bar Kochba (trans.John Bowden; Philadelphia:Fortress,

1986),40-41.Jagersmauggests hatOnias IIhadapro-Ptolemaictance,whereas imon nd he

restoftheTobaidsweremorepro-Seleucid.13MartinHengel,Judaism and Hellenism:Studiesin TheirEncounter n Palestineduringthe

Early HellenisticPeriod(trans.JohnBowden:Philadelphia:Fortress,1981), 277.

126



Magness: TheBurialsoffesus and James

Interestingly,the Maccabeanrevolt was provoked not by Jason'sacts but by a

decree issued by Antiochus IV a number of years later (in 167 B.C.E.),which

resulted in the rededication of the Jerusalem temple to Olympian Zeus (see

1 Mace 1:41-50).14

Berlin attributesthe adoption of Hellenistic material culture by Simon to

the fact that Jonathan, his brother and predecessor, established himself as a

dynast who was involved in international politics. Upon Jonathan's death,

Simon transformedthe "unpretentious amilytomb into a dynastic monument

fit for a king,"modeled after the monuments of the Hellenistic East.15Begin-

ningwith JohnHyrcanusI, Simon'ssuccessorsadopted Greeknames.16 n con-

trast, the Qumran community,which was apparentlyfounded by dispossessed

Zadokite priests,consciouslyrejected Hellenistic and Romanculture.17

Jason'stomb demonstrates that Jerusalem'selite soon imitated the newtomb style introducedby Simon,which itselfwas inspiredby the Mausoleum at

Halicarnassus.Berlin describes Jason's omb as "the earliest surviving display

tomb' in Jerusalem."18 his Hasmonean-periodtomb is located in the western

Jerusalemneighborhoodof Rehavia.19 t is called Jason's omb because a graf-

fito incised on one of the walls asksthe visitor to lament the death of Jason.20

Jason'stomb continues the earlier tradition of rock-cut burial caves in Jeru-

salem but with several innovations.21A large stone pyramidwas constructed

above the tomb. The tomb was approached through a series of long, open

courtyards like a dromos)that gave access to a porch. The porch'sentablature

was supportedby a single Doric column in-antis (a Doric column set between

the thickened, projecting ends of the porch walls). The porch gave access to

two rooms: a burial chamber (A) and a charnel room (B). Instead of having

rock-cut benches like the tombs from the First Temple period, the burial

14The Samaritans eem to havecomplied by requestingthattheir temple on Mount Gerizim

be rededicated to Zeus Hellenios; for sources and a discussion, see Jagersma,History of Israel,

50-51.

'5 Berlin, "Powerand Its Afterlife,"145-47.

16See Hengel,Judaismand Hellenism,64.

17See Jodi Magness, TheArchaeology of Qumranand the Dead Sea Scrolls (GrandRapids:

Eerdmans, 2002), 202-6; but for Hellenistic influence on the Essenes, see Levine,Jerusalem,145.

18Berlin, "Powerand Its Afterlife,"142.

19Levy Y. Rahmani, "Jason'sTomb," IEJ 17 (1967): 61-100; for a recent discussion, see

Berlin,"Powerand Its Afterlife,"142-43.

20See NahmanAvigad,"Aramaic nscriptions n the Tomb of Jason," EJ 17 (1967): 101-11;

Rahmani, "Ancient Jerusalem's Funerary Customs and Tombs, Part Three," 45. Avigad com-

mented, "The name Jason was common among hellenizing Jews as the equivalent for Joshua"

("Aramaic nscriptions n the Tomb of Jason,"103).21See Rahmani,"Jason'sTomb"; dem, "AncientJerusalem'sFuneraryCustomsandTombs,

PartThree," 45.

127




chamber in Jason's omb has loculi (Hebrew kokhim) cut into the walls. Each

loculus was designed to hold an individual inhumation. Like the pyramidal

markerandthe porchwith a column, loculi reflect Hellenistic influence. Loculi

are common in tombs in Hellenistic Alexandriaand make their first recorded

appearance in Palestine at Marisa in Idumaea.22Instead of depositing the

remains of earlierburials in a pit or repository,as in the tombs from the First

Temple period, the bones cleared out of the loculi in Jason's omb were placed

in the charnelroom.23

Most of the featuresthatappear n Jason's omb remainedcharacteristicof

Jewish rock-cuttombs in Jerusalemuntil the end of the Second Templeperiod:

a porch in front of the tomb'sentrance, sometimes with two columns in-antis;

loculi cut into the walls of the burialchambers; and a large pyramidal,conical,

orcolumnar

markerconstructedover the

tomb.The

differences betweenindi-

vidual rock-cut tombs of the late Second Temple period in Jerusalem mostly

concern their size and degree of elaboration; that is, the number of burial

chambers, the decoration on the tomb'sfacade or porch, and the presence of

one or more monumental tomb markers.Rock-cut tombs with these features

surround Jerusalem on the north, east, and south.24Well-known examples

include the tomb of Bene Hezir in the Kidron Valley, the tomb of Queen

Helena of Adiabene (the so-called Tomb of the Kings) near the American

Colony Hotel, the Sanhedria tombs, and Nicanor'sTomb on Mount Scopus.25

Herod'stomb andmemorialto himself-the mountainof Herodium- displaysthe same features but on a much largerscale: an undergroundburialchamber

with a conical markerabove.26

22See MarjorieS. Venit, MonumentalTombsof AncientAlexandria:TheTheaterof the Dead

(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 2002), 175-78; Rahmani,"AncientJerusalem'sFuner-

aryCustomsand Tombs, PartThree,"45; ByronR. McCane,RollBackthe Stone:Death and Burial

in the Worldof Jesus (Harrisburg,PA:TrinityPress International,2003), 7. Berlin notes that the

tombs at Marisa,which were used by the Sidonianpopulationat the site, continue Phoeniciantra-

ditions (such as the lackof outwarddisplay) while incorporatingnew Hellenistic features (such as

loculi) ("Powerand Its Afterlife,"139-41).23For other examples of late-second-century to first-century B.C.E.loculus tombs in

Jerusalemthat antedatethe introductionof ossuaries,see Rahmani,"AncientJerusalem'sFunerary

CustomsandTombs, PartThree,"46.

24See Amos Kloner and Boaz Zissu, The Necropolis of Jerusalem in the Second Temple

Period (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem:YadIzhakBen-Zvi,2003).

25For bibliographyon these tombs, see ibid.;Rahmani,"AncientJerusalem'sFunerary Cus-

toms and Tombs, PartThree";CraigA. Evans,Jesus and the Ossuaries:WhatJewish Burial Prac-

tices Reveal about the Beginningof Christianity(Waco:Baylor UniversityPress,2003), 17-19. For

Nicanor'sTomb, see NahmanAvigad,"JewishRock-CutTombs in Jerusalemandthe JudaeanHill

Country" in Hebrew) El 8 (1967): 119-25.

26See ArthurSegal, "Herodium," EJ 23 (1973):27-29; for a recent discussion with bibliog-

raphy,see Jodi Magness, "TheMausoleaof Augustus,Alexander,and Herod the Great," n Hesed

Ve-Emet, Studies in Honor of Ernest S. Frerichs (ed. J. Magness and S. Gitin;Atlanta:Scholars

Press, 1998), 313-39.

128



Magness: The Burials ofJesus andJames

III. Why Ossuaries?

Sometime in the middle of Herod'sreign, around 20-15 B.C.E.,ossuaries

firstappearedin Jerusalem's ock-cuttombs.27There is no doubt that ossuaries

were used as containers for bones removed from loculi. The question is why

ossuarieswere introduced at this time andwhy they disappearfromJerusalem

after70 C.E.(withevidence for their use on a smallerandmore modest scale in

southernJudeaand Galilee until the thirdcentury).28Most of these smallrect-

angularcontainers are made of stone quarriedin the Jerusalem area, usually

soft chalkand less frequentlyharderlimestone.29They have flat or gabled lids.

27Rahmanisuggests the dateof ca. 20-15 B.C.E.;ee LevyY.Rahmani,A CatalogueofJewish

Ossuaries n the Collectionsof the Stateof Israel (Jerusalem: sraelAntiquitiesAuthority,1994),21.For discussions of the chronology of ossuaries, see Fanny Vitto, "BurialCaves from the Second

Temple Period in Jerusalem(Mount Scopus, Giv'atHamivtar,Neveh Ya'akov),"Atiqot40 (2000):

98; YitzhakMagen, The StoneVesselIndustryin the SecondTemplePeriod: Excavationsat Hizma

and the Jerusalem Temple Mount (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2002), 135; Jane M.

Cahill,"ChalkVessel Assemblagesof the Persian/Hellenisticand Early RomanPeriods," n Exca-

vations at the City of David 1978-1985 Directed by YigalShiloh, vol. 3, Stratigraphical,Environ-

mental, and Other Reports (Qedem 33) (ed. A. de Groot and D. T. Ariel; Jerusalem: Israel

ExplorationSociety, 1992), 218. Vitto's discovery of an undisturbed tomb dating to the reign of

Herod into which ossuarieswere introducedduringthe last phase of use confirmsRahmani'sdat-

ing;see Vitto, "BurialCaves from

theSecond Temple Period

inJerusalem,"

103.Interestingly,

allof the ossuaries from this tomb are undecorated. On p. 119 n. 3, Vitto correctly notes that R.

Hachlili's erminuspost quemof ca. 10 B.C.E.orthe appearanceof ossuaries,which is basedon evi-

dence fromthe Jerichocemetery, is too late forJerusalem.Vitto'sevidence alsocontradictsCahill's

proposed first-centuryC.E.date for the introduction of ossuaries (Cahill, "ChalkVessel Assem-

blages,"233). On the other hand, Hadas'sproposed early-first-centuryB.C.E.date (!), based on the

discoveryof a single stone ossuary n Tomb 4 at Ein Gedi, is much too early and is unsupportedby

the archaeologicalevidence; see Gideon Hadas, Nine Tombsof the Second TemplePeriodat cEn

Gedi ('Atiqot24) (Jerusalem: sraelAntiquitiesAuthority, 1994), 7*:"Inview of the suggested date

of the tomb, the date for the introductionof ossilegium in stone chests may be moved up to the

early first century BCE." The pottery from this tomb includes cooking pots, unguentaria,and a

Judean radial oil lamp, all of which represent types characteristicof the Herodianperiod (that is,the time of Herod the Great,and in some cases continuinglater);compareHadas,22, fig. 32: 8-9

(unguentaria),10 (oil lamp), 12-13 (cookingpots) with Rachel Bar-Nathan,Hasmoneanand Hero-

dian Palaces atJericho:ThePottery(Jerusalem: sraelExplorationSociety,2002), 165-67 (unguen-

taria), 170-72 (cooking pots). Although Judean radial lamps date generally to the first century

B.C.E.,most, if not all,of the specimens fromMasadadate to the reignof Herod the Great;see Dan

Baragand MalkaHershkovitz,"Lamps rom Masada,"n MasadaIV:TheYigaelYadinExcavations

1963-1965: Final Reports (Jerusalem:Israel ExplorationSociety, 1994), 22-24. In other words,

althoughTomb 4 at Ein Gedi might have been used before Herod'stime, burialscertainly contin-

ued duringhis reign. There is thus no basis fordatingthe stone ossuaryfrom this tomb to the early

first century B.C.E.

28For the post-70 examples, see Rahmani,Catalogueof Jewish Ossuaries,23-25; many of

the laterspecimens from Galilee are made of clay.

29Magen, Stone Vessel Industry in the Second TemplePeriod, 133; Rahmani,Catalogueof

Jewish Ossuaries,3.

129




The ossuaries can be plain or decorated (usuallywith incised or chip-carved

designs, rarely in relief, and sometimes with painting).30 Sometimes the

name(s) of the deceased (and infrequentlyother informationsuch as their title

or occupation) were incised on the front, back, side, or lid of the ossuary.31

Most of the inscriptionsare in Aramaic,Hebrew, or Greek (less frequently,in

more than one language),and usuallythey are crudelyexecuted.32There is no

correlation between the relative wealth and status of the deceased and the

ornamentation of the ossuary,since plain or uninscribed ossuaries have been

found in tombs belonging to some of ancient Jerusalem'smost prominentfami-

lies.33This is alsotrue of the tombs themselves, as indicatedby the modest size

and appearanceof the tomb of the Caiaphasfamily.34nterestingly,some of the

largestand most lavishlydecorated tombs belonged to 6migrdfamilies livingin

Jerusalem: the tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene (which was crowned by

30See Rahmani,Catalogueof Jewish Ossuaries, 4-6; Magen, Stone Vessel Industry in the

SecondTemplePeriod, 133-35.

31See Steven Fine, "ANote on OssuaryBurialand the Resurrectionof the Dead in First-

CenturyJerusalem,"JJS 1 (2000):75.

32Rahmani,CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,11-19; also see Fine, "Note on OssuaryBurial,"

74.

33Rahmaninotes thatrichlydecoratedossuarieswere found togetherwith the much simpler

sarcophagusof Queen Helena:"While t is clearthatonlywealthyfamilieswouldhave been able toaffordthe costlyvarieties of ossuaries,the choice of cheaper types shouldnot be regardedas a sign

of comparativepoverty or of parsimony" Catalogueof Jewish Ossuaries, 11). Of the seven ossu-

aries discovered in Nicanor's tomb, three were plain (Avigad, "Jewish Rock-Cut Tombs in

Jerusalem,"124). In cave 1 of the Akeldamatombs, none of the ossuarieswas inscribed,halfwere

plain, and only three were painted; see TamarShadmi,"The Ossuaries and the Sarcophagus,"n

The Akeldama Tombs, ThreeBurial Caves in the KidronValley,Jerusalem(IAA Reports,No. 1)

(ed. G. Avniand Z. Greenhut;Jerusalem:IsraelAntiquitiesAuthority, 1996), 51. Similarly, here is

no correlation between the statusof the deceased and the qualityof the inscriptionson ossuaries.

Therefore, contrary to Evans (Jesus and the Ossuaries, 107-8), the relative simplicity of the

Caiaphastomb andthe poor qualityof the inscriptionson the ossuariesfound in it do not disprove

its identificationas the tomb of the well-knownhigh priestandhis family.Instead,the archaeologi-

cal and literaryevidence supportsthis identification,althoughit cannot be establishedwith abso-

lute certainty.Rahmanialso makesthe valuableobservationthat the seeminglyhigh proportionof

inscribed ossuariesis misleadingsince manyplain or uninscribed ossuarieswere discardedby the

excavatorsor areunpublished(CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,11).

34See Zvi Greenhut, "BurialCave of the Caiaphas Family," BAR 18 (1992): 28-36, 76;

Levine,Jerusalem,210; McCane,RollBackthe Stone,35; Rahmani,CatalogueofJewishOssuaries,

174. As McCane cautions:"Apoorly constructed tomb might appear to be evidence of a family's

lower socialandeconomic status,but conclusionsof this sort requirecarefulreview,since richfam-

ilies mayhavehadthe meansto build a splendidtomb but simplychose to use theirwealth in other

ways. In fact, there would have been little social incentive for Jewish families in this region andperiod to expend resources on the construction and ornamentation of a tomb's interior. ... A

roughlyhewn burialchamber might therefore be evidence not of a family'spoverty,but ratherof

their inclinationto spendwealth in otherways" RollBack the Stone, 35).

130



Magness: The BurialsofJesus andJames

three pyramidalmarkers),35Nicanor's omb (whichcontainsmore burialcham-

bers than any other Jerusalem tomb),36 and caves 2 and 3 of the Akeldama

tombs (which are unique in the quality and quantityof decoration inside the

burialchambers).37Perhaps these familiesconstructedespecially largeand lav-

ish tombs to establishtheir standingamongthe local elite.

Levy YitzhakRahmanihas suggested that the appearance of ossuaries is

connected with the Pharisaicbelief in the individual,physical resurrectionof

the dead.38Priorto the introductionof ossuaries,the remains of earlier burials

in rock-cut tombs were placed in pits, repositories, or charnel rooms. The

skeletonswere therefore mingled and susceptible to separation,breakage, and

even loss. This means that in the event of a physical resurrection,an individual

would be restoredto life missingvitalbody parts.In addition,Rahmaniargues

that the collection of bones in an ossuarycorrespondsto the Pharisaicnotionthat the decay of the flesh is connected with the expiation of sin.39In other

words,each individual's emainswere preservedintactin anossuary, n a sinless

state, awaitingfuture resurrection.

Many scholarshave pointed to difficulties with Rahmani'sexplanation.40

"3For summaries and bibliography, see Levine, Jerusalem, 211; Rahmani, "Ancient

Jerusalem'sFuneraryCustomsand Tombs, PartThree,"48-49. For the inscribedstone sarcopha-

gus fromthis tomb, which apparentlycontainedthe queen's remains,see Jean-BaptisteFrey, Cor-

pus Inscriptionum ludaicarum, vol. 2, Asie-Afrique (Rome: Pontifico Istituto di Archeologia

Cristiana,1952), 320-21 no. 1388.36Otherunparalleledfeaturesinclude the use of stone masonryrevetment alongthe interior

walls of the tomb and the fact that the two squarepillarsor piers in the porch are constructedof

ashlarsinstead of being hewn out of rock;see Avigad ("JewishRock-Cut Tombs in Jerusalem,"

119-24), who describes Nicanor's tomb as "one of the most monumental tombs in Jerusalem"

(p. 119;my translation romthe Hebrew). Also see Evans,Jesusand the Ossuaries,24, 92-93.

37See Gideon Avni and Zvi Greenhut, "Resting Place of the Rich and Famous,"BAR 20

(1994): 36-46; Avni and Greenhut (AkeldamaTombs,32-33) note, "Apossible clue to the occur-

rence of these decorativeschemes andthe high standardof workmanshipevidenced in ChamberC

of Cave 3 maybe found in the identity of the cave owners-a wealthyJewish familyfrom Syria."

For the Syrianplace-names mentioned on the ossuariesfromthis cave, see Tal Ilan,"TheOssuary

and Sarcophagus Inscriptions,"in Akeldama Tombs, ed. Avni and Greenhut, 68, who notes the

prominentpositionsattainedby some DiasporaJewishfamiliesin HerodianJerusalem.In addition,

only six of the forty ossuaries discovered in the Akeldama tombs lacked ornamentation or an

inscription; see Shadmi, "Ossuariesand the Sarcophagus,"50-51. The archaeological evidence

supportsthe Gospel tradition(Matt27:7-8) thatAkeldama(Potter's Field) was a burialgroundfor

foreigners. For a discussion of how this elite cemetery came to be associated with the poor, see

Leen Ritmeyer and Kathleen Ritmeyer,"Potter'sField or High Priest'sTomb?"BAR 20 (1994):

22-35, 76.

38LevyY. Rahmani,"AncientJerusalem'sFunerary Customs andTombs, PartOne,"BA 44

(1981): 175-76; idem, CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,53-55.

39Rahmani,"AncientJerusalem'sFuneraryCustomsandTombs,PartOne," 175;idem, Cat-alogueofJewish Ossuaries, 53-55; also see McCane,RollBackthe Stone,43.

40See, e.g., McCane, Roll Back the Stone, 43; Evans,Jesus and the Ossuaries,30; Levine,

Jerusalem,264; Fine, "Note on OssuaryBurial,"70-72; Eyal Regev, "TheIndividualisticMeaning

131




For example, ossuariesfrequently containthe bones of more than one individ-

ual, and sometimes parts of the skeleton are missing.41Even in tombs with

ossuaries, skeletons were sometimes deposited in pits or repositories.42 n my

opinion, thegreatest difficulty

with Rahmani'sexplanationisthat

our sources

associate the belief in individual, physical resurrection of the dead with the

Pharisees (see, e.g., Josephus,Ant. 18.1.3). These same sources tell us that the

Sadducees rejected this concept (Josephus,Ant. 18.1.4; Matt22:23). But there

is no doubt that the monumental rock-cut tombs with ossuaries belonged to

Jerusalem's elite, many of whom were Sadducees.43 In fact, some of these

tombs and ossuaries belonged to high priestly families, such as the tomb of

of Jewish Ossuaries:A Socio-AnthropologicalPerspective on Burial Practice," PEQ 133 (2001):

40-42; Eric M. Meyers,JewishOssuaries:Rebirthand Birth (Rome:BiblicalInstitutePress, 1971),

85-86.

41See Magen, Stone Vessel Industry in the Second Temple Period, 137; Fine, "Note on

OssuaryBurial,"75. For example, the Caiaphas ossuarycontained the remainsof six individuals:

two infants,a child between the ages of two and five, a youth aged thirteen to eighteen, an adult

female, anda manaboutsixtyyearsof age;see Greenhut,"BurialCaveof the CaiaphasFamily,"34.

The ossuary with the remainsof Yohanan, he crucified man from Giv'atha-Mivtar,contained the

partialremainsof a second adultaswell asa child;see JosephZiasandEliezer Sekeles, "TheCruci-

fied Manfrom Giv'at ha-Mivtar:A Reappraisal,"EJ35 (1985):23-24. For otherexamples,see the

Akeldamatombs (Avniand Greenhut,AkeldamaTombs,51-52), where nearlyevery ossuarycon-tained the remainsof more than one individual.As Ilan observed, "Usually,bones that were col-

lected into ossuariesincluded remainsof more than one individual,at Akeldamaand elsewhere"

("Ossuary nd Sarcophagus nscriptions," 6). For ossuariescontainingthe bones of dogs andother

animalstogetherwith humanremains,see Rahmani,Catalogue ofJewish Ossuaries,124 no. 200.

42See, e.g., AvniandGreenhut,AkeldamaTombs,34; alsosee Hadas(NineTombsof the Sec-

ond TemplePeriodat 'En Gedi, 7*), who notes that the Ein Gedi caves provide evidence for the

contemporaneousemploymentof differentburialmethods.

43See Regev, "IndividualisticMeaningof JewishOssuaries,"41. Almostthirty-fiveyearsago

Meyers,Jewish Ossuaries, 86, cautioned, "Itwould seem hazardous, therefore, to try to relate

either ossuariesor sarcophagito a particularJewish sect or segment of society in earlierTemple

times." On the other hand, there is no doubt that the rock-cut tombs belonged to members of

Jerusalem'selite, at least some of whom were Sadducees. For example, Jon Davies, discussing a

rock-cuttomb of the late Second Temple period in Jerusalem,noted that "thecost of constructing

the grave[tomb] itself indicatedwealthyownership" Death,Burial, and Rebirth n the Religions of

Antiquity [New York:Routledge, 1999], 82). Joseph Zias notes in his discussionof a tomb of the

late SecondTemple periodthat waspoor in findsthat"thefamilywasapparentlywealthyenoughto

afforda rock-hewntomb"("ARock-CutTomb in Jerusalem,"BASOR 245 [1982]:54). Regarding

the Akeldama ombs, Ziasobservesthat"therelativewealthof the familiesburiedhere, manifested

by tomb architecture and the ossuaries . . ." ("Anthropological Analysis of Human Skeletal

Remains," n AkeldamaTombs, ed. Avni and Greenhut, 118). Peter Richardsonsuggests that the

Sadducees as a religiousentitywere largelyreplacedduringHerod'sreignby a socialelite (Herod:King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans [Minneapolis:Fortress, 1999], 253). Levine supports

the traditionalview that the Sadducees were the most influential group politically, although he

notes that not allpriestsorhigh priestswere necessarilySadducees(Jerusalem,375-76).

132



Magness: The Burials offesus and James

Bene Hezir and the tomb and ossuaries of the Caiaphas family.44Ossuaries

were used by the same members of Jerusalemsocietywho rejected the concept

of individual, physical resurrection of the dead.45Of course, not all of these

tombs and ossuarieswere used by Sadducees. But undoubtedly manywere. It

is not a coincidence that outside of Jerusalem,the largestcemetery with rock-

cut loculus tombs containing ossuaries is at Jericho,which was the site of the

Hasmonean and Herodianwinter palaces and the center of a priestlycommu-

nity.46Rahmaniargues that the Pharisaicbelief in individual,physicalresurrec-

tion was adopted by the Sadducees by the first century C.E.47But our sources

-Josephus and the NT-date to this period, and in factwere composed in the

late firstcentury.Why assumethat they are anachronistic n this regard?

Instead, I prefer a suggestion made by Lee Levine and Gideon Foerster,

who have each attributedthe appearanceof ossuariesto Roman influence on

44For the former, see Rahmani,"AncientJerusalem'sFuneraryCustoms and Tombs, Part

Three"47; for the latter, see Ronny Reich, "CaiaphasName Inscribed on Bone Boxes,"BAR 18

(1992):38-44, 76. For ossuariesinscribedwith names of deceased identified as priests, see Evans

(Jesusand the Ossuaries,53-54), who lists seven specimens, with additional examples on pp. 104-

11;Frey, CorpusInscriptionum udaicarum, 2:250, no. 1221;Rahmani,CatalogueofJewish Ossu-

aries, 85 no. 41 (perhapsbelonging to the priestlyfamilyBoethos), 250-51 no. 829 (inscribedwith

the names Ananiasand Ananas,perhaps the well-knownhigh priests);259 no. 871 (perhapscon-

taining the remainsof the granddaughterof the high priest Theophilos). For ossuaries inscribed

with the names of deceased who are identified as scribes, see Evans,Jesus and the Ossuaries,56(three specimens); Rahmani,Catalogueof Jewish Ossuaries,262-63 no. 893 (inscribed"Yehosef,

son of Hananya, he scribe").

45Cahill made a similarobservationabout stone vessels: "Ifthe use of stone vessels was a

Pharisaic radition,why are they commonly found furnishingthe homes of the wealthy?"("Chalk

Vessel Assemblages,"233).

46See Rachel Hachlili and Ann Killebrew, "JewishFunerary Customs during the Second

Temple Periodin the Lightof the Excavationsatthe JerichoNecropolis,"PEQ 115 (1983): 109-32.

Rahmani documents ossuaries up to twenty-five kilometers away from Jerusalem (to Tell en-

Nasbeh and CAio the north;RamatRahel and Beth Nattif to the south and southwest;and Beth

Zayitto the west) (CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,23). Anothergroupof ossuaries s associatedwith

the rock-cut loculus tombs at Jericho(see Hachliliand Killebrew,"JewishFuneraryCustomsdur-

ing the Second Temple Period"),and there is a single stone ossuaryfrom a loculus tomb at Ein

Gedi (see Hadas, Nine Tombsof the Second Temple Period at CEnGedi, 21; this example comes

from the only rock-cuttombwith loculi at Ein Gedi). For an ossuaryfromthe Nabataeancemetery

at Mampsisin the Negev, see n. 56 below. The distributionof rock-cutloculus tombs containing

ossuaries reflects the settlement sphere of Jerusalem's elite, as well as rural elite families who

adoptedthe same displaypractices.Althoughossuaries areusuallyfoundin loculustombs, they can

occur in rock-cut tombs without loculi. For example, four ossuarieswere discovered on a burial

bench in a rock-cut tomb of the late FirstTemple period in Bethlehem that was reused in the late

Second Temple period (see Mikel Dadon, "BurialCaves at Bethlehem" [in Hebrew], 'Atiqot 32

[1997]: 199-201). When the Jewish elite relocated to Galilee in the aftermathof the two Jewishrevolts, they displayed their wealth and status by interring their dead in the catacombs at Beth

Shearim.

47Rahmani,CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,54.

133




Jerusalem'selite.48In the late firstcentury B.C.E.and firstcenturyC.E.crema-

tion was the prevailing burial rite among the Romans.49The ashes of the

deceased were placed in smallstone containerscalledcineraria(cineraryurns).

Like the Judean ossuaries, Roman cinerary urns have lids. The rectangular

cineraryurnsareusuallycasket-shapedandhave gabled lids.50Sometimes they

have carved decoration and/or inscriptions.51Although they are not uncom-

mon, Roman cinerary urns have not been well studied. They are rarely dis-

played or illustrated;only a handfulcan be seen in largermuseums such as the

Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and these

examples tend to be exceptionalin terms of their decoration.52

The presence of cineraryurnson Rhodes and in AsiaMinor indicates that

their use was widespread. Stone cinerary urns still containing cremated

remains are displayed in the Archaeological Museum in Afyon in western-centralAnatolia.53Aside from the fact that they contain cremations,the Afyon

urns are virtually identical to the plain Jerusalem ossuaries: the same size,

shape, and with the same kind of lids. Small stone containers or chests

(ostothekai) used for the secondarycollection of bones are also found in Asia

Minor.54Like their Judean counterparts, these stone boxes can have carved

48Levine,Jerusalem, 264-65; Gideon Foerster, "OssilegiumandOssuaries:The Origins and

Significance of a Jewish BurialPractice in the Last Decades of the 1st Century B.C. and the 1stCentury A.D.," in Abstractsof the XVthInternationalCongress of ClassicalArchaeology(Amster-

dam, 1998);idem, "SarcophagusProductionin Jerusalemfromthe Beginning of the Common Era

up to 70 CE," n Sarkophag-Studien, Band 1, Akten des Symposiums 4125 Jahre Sarcophag-

Corpus,<Marburg,4.-7. Oktober1995 (ed. G. Koch;Mainz:Philipp von Zabern,1998), 303-4 n.

54, 309.

49The basic source is still J. M. C. Toynbee, Death and Burial in the RomanWorld (Ithaca,

NY:Cornell UniversityPress, 1971), 40. Also see JohnR. Patterson, "Livingand Dying in the City

of Rome: Houses andTombs," n AncientRome:TheArchaeologyof the Eternal City (ed. J. Coul-

ston and H. Dodge; Oxford:OxfordUniversitySchoolof Archaeology,2000), 273.

50Toynbee, Death and Burial in the RomanWorld,256; MaxwellL. Anderson,"Rome," n

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greece and Rome (New York:Metropolitan Museum of Art,

2000), 114-15: "Untilthe reign of Hadrian(r. A.D. 117-138), Romanswere more often cremated

than buried, and they were commemoratedby elaboratetombstones, ash urns, or cippi (funerary

altars)."

51Toynbee, Death and Burialin the RomanWorld, 255-56.

52For photos, see Davies, Death, Burial and Rebirthin the Religionsof Antiquity, 124, fig.

14; MarcelloSpanu,"Burial n Asia Minorduringthe Imperialperiod, with a particularreference

to Cilicia andCappadocia," n Burial,Society,and Context n the RomanWorld(ed. J.Pearce,J. M.

Millett, and M. Struck;Oxford:Oxbow,2000), 172, fig. 17.5.

53These cineraryurnsareunpublished.I sawthem duringavisit to the museum in July2003

but was not allowedto photographthem.54See Spanu,"Burial n Asia Minorduring the Imperialperiod,"172, who notes that these

containers are poorly understoodand inadequately published. Some may have contained crema-

tions. For examples from Ephesus, see Selahattin Erdemgil, Ephesus Museum (Istanbul:Do-gu

134



Magness: TheBurialsofJesus andJames

decoration and sometimes contain the remainsof more than one individual.55

Closer to Judea, the Nabatean cemetery at Mampsis in the Negev yielded an

ossuary containing bones wrapped in linen.56 This evidence for the use of

ossuariesin

non-Jewishcontexts supports

thesuggestion

thattheappearance

of

ossilegiumin Judea is relatedto funerarycustomsandfashionsthatwere preva-

lent in the Roman world instead of to Jewish expectations of resurrection.

Finally,the frequent use of the Hebrew or Aramaic erm gelasqma' (fromthe

Greek glossokomon, meaning casket) to refer to Judean ossuaries and the

occurrence on one ossuaryof the word kauka(writtenin Palmyrenescriptand

meaning "amphora"n the sense of a funeraryurn) provide another indication

that Romancineraryurnswere the source of inspiration.57

Rahmaniobjects to Levine'sand Foerster'sproposalon the groundsthat

Jerusalem's lite could not have imitateda practicewith which they were unac-quainted.58However,we have seen that other hellenized featuresin tombs and

burialcustoms were adopted by Jerusalem'selite without personal contact or

familiarity aswere other aspectsof Hellenistic and Romanculture;see below).

Monumentaltombs markedby a pyramidbecame a ragingfashionafterSimon

constructedthe family tomb at Modiin.59The ultimatesource of inspiration or

these tombs was the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,which presumablynone of

Jerusalem's elite in the Hasmonean period-not even Simon-ever saw.

Loculi,which alsooriginated n the Hellenisticworld,quicklybecameuniversalin Jerusalem's ock-cuttombs.60The spreadof these featureshas little or noth-

ing to do with religious beliefs in the afterlife and everythingto do with social

status. Jerusalem'selite were prohibited by Jewish law from cremating their

Press, no date), 78: "Inthe corner just to the right of the Klazomenaisarcophagusis a series of

ossuariesfoundin the cave of the Seven Sleepers."

55Spanu, "Burial n AsiaMinorduringthe Imperialperiod,"172.

56ArchaeologicalEncyclopediaof the Holy Land (ed. A. Negev and S. Gibson; New York:

Continuum, 2001), 99; AvrahamNegev, "Kurnub," n The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological

Excavations n the Holy Land (ed. E. Stem; New York:SimonandSchuster,1993), 892. I amgrate-

ful to Tali Erickson-Gini for pointing out to me this ossuary, which is on display at Mampsis

(Mamshit), andforproviding me with the publishedreferences.

5*See Rahmani, Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries, 3. Magen comes close when he observes

that, "Eventhe name gluskoma,derived from the Greek word meaning a wooden coffin, implies

that the formof the chalkossuarywas not originaland that it was an exactreplicaof a wooden cas-

ket"(StoneVesselIndustryin the SecondTemplePeriod, 134). For the reasonsgivenhere, Regev's

objections to the suggestion that Roman cineraryurns were the source of inspiration for Judean

ossuariesarenot valid;see Regev, "IndividualisticMeaningof Jewish Ossuaries,"48 n. 15.

58Rahmani,CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,58-59.

59As Levine notes, "The tombs that dotted the Jerusalemlandscape are invariablyof Hel-lenistic design but without figuraldepictions. The tholos of Absalom'stomb and the pyramidof

Zechariah's omb areclassicHellenistic architecturalcomponents"(Jerusalem,261).

60Venit,MonumentalTombsof Ancient Alexandria,175-80; McCane,RollBackthe Stone, 7.

135




dead. Instead, they could and did adopt the external trappingsof cremationby

depositing the bones of the deceased in ossuaries (urns).61Like loculi, once

ossuariesappeared,they quicklybecame universal n rock-cuttombs.

The practice of recording name(s) on ossuaries should be understood as

reflecting a concern for recording and preserving the memory of the

deceased.62 The preservation of the names of ancestors was of great impor-

tance to the upper classes and priestly families, and above all the high priestly

families, who based their social standing and claims of legitimacyon their lin-

eage.63An ossuarybearingthe Hebrew inscription"houseof David" llustrates

this concern nicely.64

The disappearance of ossuaries supports the suggestion that they were

inspired by Romancineraryurns.If the use of ossuarieswas connected with the

concept of the individual, physical resurrectionof the dead, they should havebecome even more popularafter70 C.E.,when this belief became normative n

Judaism. In fact, the opposite is true.65After 70 C.E.,ossuaries disappeared

from Jerusalem.This is because the Jewishelite who used the rock-cuttombs

were now dead or dispersed. The appearance of cruder ossuaries in Galilee

after 70 is probablyconnected with the emigrationor displacementof some of

Jerusalem'selite to that region after the First Revolt. By the mid-to-late third

century, the custom of ossilegium died out.66At the largest and most presti-

gious cemetery of this period-Beth Shearim n Lower Galilee-the prevailing

burialrite consists of individual nhumationsin large stone sarcophagior hewn

61As McCane notes (discussingthe appearanceof loculi in Judeantombs andthe placement

of coins on the mouthsof the deceased), "Allof these burialcustoms areof Hellenistic origin,so the

ossuary would certainlynot have been the first aspect of Jewishdeath ritualto be touched by the

interactionof Judaismwith Hellenism" (RollBackthe Stone,45).

62See ibid.,14, 46.

63The names were apparently nscribedon the spot by the relativesof the deceased and are

usuallyexecuted carelesslyandclumsily.This is true even amongprominentandhighpriestlyfam-

ilies; see Rahmani, CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,11-12. Richardsonobserves,"The high priests

were a naturalpart of the religious elite-indeed at the center of it-by virtue of familyassocia-

tions"(Herod,241). Regev notes the social importanceof the inscriptions("IndividualisticMean-

ing of JewishOssuaries,"43). Similarconcernsare evident amongthe Romanaristocracy,as seen in

the late Republicanportraitbusts depictingveryaged men. These may be connected with the wax

ancestral masks that were carried in funerary processions and then displayed in the household

shrinesof aristocratic amilies; see Diana E. E. Kleiner,RomanSculpture(New Haven:YaleUni-

versityPress, 1992), 35-38.

64See Rahmani, Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries, 173-74 no. 430; Evans, Jesus and the

Ossuaries,103-4.

65See Levine, Jerusalem, 264. Rahmani responds to this objection by arguing that "theincreased mobilityof families andindividuals n this period mayhave renderedossilegiumof rela-

tives impossible"(CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,55).

66Rahmani,CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,21.

136




troughs in rock-cut tombs.67Most of the sarcophagiare crude local products

made of limestone, with a few Romanimportsof marble.68Manyof the burial

caves at Beth Shearimbelonged to individualfamilies,but there are also cata-

combs containing burials of different elite families.69The burial customs atBeth Shearim parallelcontemporarydevelopments in Rome and the provinces

during the second and third centuries, when inhumation in large stone sar-

cophagiin catacombssupplantedcremationas the preferredburial rite.70

It is not a coincidence that ossuariesfirst appearedduring Herod'sreign.

Thisperiod is characterizedby a heavydose of Hellenistic-Roman influence on

other aspects of the lifestyle of Jerusalem'selite. Their mansions were deco-

ratedwith Roman-stylewall paintings,stucco, and mosaicsandwere furnished

with locallyproduced stone tables modeled afterRomanprototypes.71As in the

case of the tombs, these featureswere introduced to Judeaby the ruler (in this

case, Herod) and were imitated or adopted by the Jerusalem elite. Nahman

Avigaddescribedthe elite dwellingsin the JewishQuarteras follows:

Constructionin the Upper City was dense, with the houses built quite close

together;butthe individual wellingunitswereextensive, nd nnercourt-

yardsent themthecharacter f luxury illas.Thesehomeswererichly rna-

mentedwithfrescoes,stuccowork,andmosaic loors,andwereequipped

withcomplexbathing acilities,aswell as containing he luxurygoodsand

artisticobjectswhichsignifya highstandard f living.This,then, wasanupperclassquarter,wherethe noblefamiliesof Jerusalemived,withthe

highpriestattheirhead.Heretheybuilt heirhomes naccordance iththe

dominantashionof the Hellenistic-Romaneriod.It is generally ssumed

67Althoughsome ossilegiumwas stillpracticed;see BenjaminMazar,Beth Shecarim:Report

on the Excavations during 1936-1940, vol. 1, Catacombs 1-4 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers

UniversityPress, 1973), 135. NahmanAvigad notes that at Beth Shearim,"Thesmallniches (bone

depositories),so

common inthe

earliercatacombs,are

almostcompletely

absent" n tombs datingto the mid-third century and later (Beth Shecarim, vol. 3, The Excavations 1953-1958 [New

Brunswick,NJ:RutgersUniversityPress, 1976], 267).

68For the stone andmarblesarcophagi rom Beth Shearim,aswell as a smallnumberof lead,

clay,andwood specimens, see Avigad,Beth Shecarim,136-83.

69See Mazar,Beth She'arim,132-33; Avigad,Beth She'arim, 262-65 (compareandcontrast

Catacombs 14 and20).

70See Toynbee, Death and Burial in the RomanWorld,40. McCane,noting the Hellenistic

and Roman elements in the Beth Shearimtombs, describes this cemetery as "acase study in the

ancientconversationbetween Judaismand Hellenism"(RollBackthe Stone,7).

n1See Nahman Avigad,Discovering Jerusalem (Nashville:Thomas Nelson, 1983), 83-203;

for the wall paintings, see Silvia Rozenberg, "WallPainting Fragments from Area A,"in JewishQuarter Excavations n the Old CityofJerusalemconducted by Nahnman vigad, 1969-1982, vol. 2,

TheFinds rom AreasA, W and X-2,FinalReport(ed. H. Geva;Jerusalem: sraelExplorationSoci-

ety, 2003), 302-28.

137




that the Jerusalemite nobility was of the Sadducee faction. ... Thus, it can be

assumed that this quarter was occupied chiefly by Sadducees.72

The impactof Hellenistic and Romaninfluence on Jerusalem's lite is evi-

dent in nearly all aspects of Jerusalem'smaterial culture,with a wide range ofimportedandlocally producedconsumergoods appearingaround20-10 B.C.E.

As Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom observed in her discussion of ceramic

importsfrom the JewishQuarterexcavations:"theimportedpotteryfrom Area

A is clear evidence for the substantialchanges in lifestyle, culinary astes, trade

connections, and marketing strategies which took place during the reign of

Herod; yet it was relevantto a minorityonly [the elite]."73For example, East-

ern Sigillata A (ESA), a fine red-slipped ware produced in Syria-Phoenicia,

becomes relativelycommon in Herod'spalaces in Jerichoand Jerusalemand in

the homes of Jerusalem'swealthiest Jews beginning around20-10 B.C.E.74At

the same time, a high-quality, hin-walledtablewarepainted with delicate floral

designs (usually referred to as Jerusalem[ite] painted pottery and consisting

mostly of bowls) began to be produced in Jerusalem.75Other ceramic imports

that appeared in Jerusalem during Herod's reign (albeit in small quantities)

include Italian thin-walled ware, Cypriot Eastern SigillataD, Western Terra

Sigillata,and Pompeian Red Ware.76Rosenthal-Heginbottom concluded that

72Avigad,DiscoveringJerusalem,83.73Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom, "Hellenistic and Early Roman Fine Ware and Lamps

from AreaA," inJewish QuarterExcavations n the Old City of Jerusalemconductedby Nahman

Avigad, 1969-1982, vol. 2, ed. Geva, 220.

74For a recent discussionof the source of ESA, see KathleenW. Slane,who believes thatthe

evidence points to northern Syria("TheFine Wares," n TelAnafaII, i: TheHellenisticand Roman

Pottery [ed. S. C. Herbert;Journalof RomanArchaeologySupplementarySeries 10;Ann Arbor:

KelseyMuseum of Archaeology,1998], 272);alsosee KathleenW. Slane,J.MichaelElam, Michael

D. Glascock,and Hector Neff, "CompositionalAnalysisof Eastern SigillataA and Related Wares

from Tel Anafa (Israel),"Journal of ArchaeologicalScience 21 (1994): 51-64. For examples from

Jerusalem'sJewish Quarter,see Avigad,DiscoveringJerusalem,88. Rosenthal-Heginbottomnotes

that ESA may have already been imported to Jerusalembeginning in the mid-firstcentury B.C.E.

("Hellenisticand Early Roman Fine Ware and Lamps,"214). Even so, most of it dates from the

reign of Herod on. Imported waresalso maketheir firstappearance n the palacesatJerichoin the

middle of Herod'sreign;see Bar-Nathan,Hasmonean and HerodianPalacesatJericho, 197.

75MalkaHershkovitz,"JerusalemitePaintedPotteryfromthe Late Second Temple Period,"

in The Nabataeans in the Negev (ed. R. Rosenthal-Heginbottom;Haifa:Hecht Museum, 2003),

31*; Rosenthal-Heginbottom,"Hellenisticand EarlyRomanFine Wareand Lamps,"212; Isadore

Perlman,JanGunneweg, and JosephYellin,"Pseudo-NabataeanWare and Potteryof Jerusalem,"

BASOR262 (1986): 77-82.

76Rosenthal-Heginbottom, "Hellenistic and Early Roman Fine Ware and Lamps,"209,

214-17. Some of the stone vessels manufactured n the Jerusalemareaimitatedthe shapes of thesefine wares; see Magen, Stone Vessel Industry in the Second Temple Period, 65, 66, 68, 70, 72;

Cahill, "ChalkVessel Assemblages,"202, 204. Monopodialstone tables from the Jewish Quarter

also imitated Romanprototypes(ibid.,217).

138




"[t]heappearanceof Italianpans in the houses of the upper classJewishinhab-

itants in Jerusalem means that . . . Jews were open to Roman culinary influ-

ences and prepared to try and taste new food. Herod the Great could have

become acquaintedwith the dish during his stayin Rome, had it introducedto

his household, whence it was copied by others."77Similarly,Avigadobserved

that the discovery of Italian wine amphorasin the elite houses of Jerusalem's

Jewish Quarter ndicates that "therehave alwaysbeen more and less observant

Jews."78Donald Arielhas noted that we stilldo not knowwhen lawsprohibiting

the eating of Gentile food originatedandbecame common.79The evidence for

the preparationand consumptionof Gentile-style foods andimported wines by

members of Jerusalem's elite supports a suggestion that the Sadducees

restrictedtheir observanceof purityconcerns to the temple cult, in contrastto

the Phariseesand Essenes.8"Steven Fine attributesthe appearanceof ossuariesto the development of

Jerusalem's tone industry.8sAlthoughI do not accept this proposal,Fine is cor-

rect that the production of ossuaries (and other stone vessels) is one aspect of

Jerusalem'seconomy during the late Second Temple period.82The heavydose

of Romanculturalinfluence evident in Jerusalem around 20-10 B.C.E. hould

be understoodwithin the context of contemporaryevents. It was duringthese

years that Herod undertookthe reconstructionof the Jerusalemtemple.83He

established a theater and an amphitheater (or hippodrome) in Jerusalem, in

which athletic competitions, chariot races, and musical and dramaticcontestswere held (Josephus,Ant. 15.8.1).84Herod also maintainedclose contactswith

Augustus. Peter Richardsonpoints out that "Herod developed his friendship

77Rosenthal-Heginbottom, "HellenisticandEarlyRomanFine Wareand Lamps,"217.

7sAvigad,DiscoveringJerusalem,88.

79Donald T. Ariel, "ImportedGreek StampedAmphoraHandles," nJewish QuarterExca-

vations in the Old City ofJerusalemconductedby NahmanAvigad,1969-1982, vol. 1,Architecture

and Stratigraphy:Areas A, W and X-2, Final Report (ed. H. Geva;Jerusalem:Israel Exploration

Society,2000), 277.80See ibid., 278; Magness, Archaeologyof Qumran.This also supportsRichardson's ugges-

tion thatwealth andsocial statusratherthanreligiousviewswere the most obvious featuresof Sad-

duceeism duringHerod'stime (Richardson,Herod,253).

81Fine, "Note on Ossuary Burial," 73-74. On p. 75 Fine notes that only wealthy Jeru-

salemitescould affordsecondaryburial(and,bywayof extension,intermentin rock-cuttombs).

82See ibid., 74. Cahillnotes that the stone vessels andossuariesare contemporary,although

she seems to favor a first-centuryC.E.(insteadof late-first-centuryB.C.E.)date fortheirappearance

("ChalkVessel Assemblages,"231-32).

83See Fine, "Noteon OssuaryBurial,"72. Althoughconstructionon and aroundthe Temple

Mountcontinued fordecades (andwascompleted onlyin 64 C.E.),muchof the work on the temple

building (the Sanctuary)was apparentlycarriedout between ca. 23 and 15 B.C.E.; ee Richardson,Herod, 197, 238, 245. For a discussionof the contradictorydatesprovidedbyJosephusandthe sug-

gestion thatconstructioncommenced in 20/19 B.C.E., ee Levine,Jerusalem,224-26.

84See Richardson,Herod,223; Levine,Jerusalem,201.

139




with Augustusthroughhis children'seducation."85n 22 B.C.E.,Herod sent his

sons Alexander and Aristobulus(by his Hasmoneanwife Mariamme)to Rome

to be educated. Alexanderand Aristobulusremained in Rome for five years,

staying first withPollio

and then withAugustus (Ant.

15.10.1). A couple of

years later (20 B.C.E.),Augustus traveled to Syria, where he was hosted by

Herod.86In 17 B.C.E.,Herod traveled to Rome to visit Augustus,returningto

Judea with his sons, who were now young men about nineteen and eighteen

years of age (Ant. 16.4.4-5). Two years later (15 B.C.E.)Herod entertained

Augustus'sson-in-lawand heir apparent,MarcusAgrippa, akinghim on a tour

of his kingdom (Ant. 16.2.3).87The appearanceof ossuariesand other aspects

of Romanization n Jerusalemshould be understood in the context of the close

contacts and interactions between Augustus and his family, on the one hand,

and Herod and his family, on the other. It is not surprising that beginning

around20 B.C.E., he style of life-and death-of Jerusalem's lite was heavily

influenced by Roman culture.

IV. The Burialof Jesus

The preceding review of Jewish tombs and burial customs has provided

the backgroundnecessary forunderstanding he mannerin which Jesus andhisbrotherJameswere buried. Accordingto the Gospel accounts, Jesus'body was

removed from the cross on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath (Fridayafternoon)

(Matt 27:57-59; 28:1; Mark15:33-34, 42-43; Luke 23:44, 50-54; John 19:31).

Because Jewish law requires immediate burial and there was no time to pre-

pare a grave,Joseph of Arimatheaplaced Jesus'body in a rock-cuttomb.88The

SynopticGospels are in broadagreement in their descriptionof this event:89

85Richardson,Herod,230.

86Our sources mention that Augustusvisited Syria,but it is not clearwhether this included

Judea;see Richardson,Herod,234.

87Referredto in Nicolaus's speech; see Richardson,Herod,232-33, 263-64.

88See McCane,Roll Backthe Stone,95. Accordingto Jewishlaw (Deut 21:22), burial on the

same day is required even for those guilty of the worst crimes, whose bodies were hanged after

death (see below).

89For a discussion of the differences in the Gospel accounts of this episode, see McCane,

Roll Backthe Stone, 101-2. Here I focus on the accountsof Markand Matthew,which are gener-

allyconsidered to be earlierand more accuratethan that of Luke. The differences between Mark

and Matthewinclude that Joseph is described as a member of the council/Sanhedrin(Mark) or arich man (Matthew) (these two statements are complementary,not contradictory),and Matthew

statesthatthiswasJoseph'sfamilytomb,whereas Markdoes not. Since rock-cuttombsbelonged to

families, I believe that Matthewis accurate n this detail.

140



Magness: The Burials of Jesus and James

Although it was now evening,yet since it was the PreparationDay, that is, the

daybefore the Sabbath,Josephof Arimathea,a highly respected member of

the council, who was himself livingin expectationof the reign of God, made

bold to go to Pilate and ask for Jesus' body. . . . And he [Joseph] bought a

linen sheet and took him down fromthe cross andwrappedhim in the sheet,andlaidhim in a tomb thathadbeen hewn out of the rock, androlled a stone

against the doorwayof the tomb. (Mark 15:42-46)

In the evening a rich mannamed Josephof Arimathea,who hadhimself been

a discipleof Jesus,came. He went to Pilateandaskedhim for Jesus'body ..

Then Josephtook the body andwrappedit in a piece of clean linen, and laid

it in a new tomb that belonged to him, that he had cut in the rock, and he

rolled a great stone over the doorway of the tomb, and went away. (Matt

27:57-60)

Hengel argued that Jesus "died a criminal's death on the tree of shame,"

since crucifixion was a sadistic and humiliating form of corporal punishment

reserved by the Romans for the lower classes (including slaves).90 Hengel's

claim that Jesus was buried in disgrace because he was an executed criminal is

now widely accepted and has become entrenched in scholarly literature.91 In

my opinion, this view is based on a misunderstanding of archaeological evi-

dence and Jewish law. Jesus was condemned by the Roman authorities for

crimes against Rome, not by the Sanhedrin for violating Jewish law. The

Romans used crucifixion to punish rebellious provincials for incitement torebellion and acts of treason; they were considered to be common "bandits."92

For this reason, the local (provincial) governor could impose the penalty of cru-

cifixion to maintain peace and order.93Although victims of crucifixion could be

left on their crosses for days, this was not usually the case.94 According to the

Gospel accounts, Pontius Pilate approved Joseph of Arimathea's request to

remove Jesus' body from the cross for burial.95

The capital sentences listed by the Mishnah do not include crucifixion.

This is because after Judea came under direct Roman rule, crucifixion was

90Martin Hengel, Crucifixion n the AncientWorldand the Follyof the Messageof the Cross

(Philadelphia:Fortress, 1977), 19, 83, 90.

91See, e.g., Evans,Jesus and the Ossuaries, 101; McCane, Roll Back the Stone, 89; John

Dominic Crossan, Who KilledJesus? Exposingthe Roots of Anti-Semitismin the Gospel Story of

the Death of Jesus (New York:HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), 160-63; Raymond E. Brown, The

Death of the Messiah:From Gethsemane o the Grave:A Commentaryon the PassionNarrativesin

the Four Gospels (2 vols.;ABRL; New York:Doubleday, 1994), 2:947.

92Hengel, Crucifixion n the AncientWorld,34, 40, 46-47; VassiliosTzaferis,"Crucifixion-

the ArchaeologicalEvidence," BAR 11 (1985):48.

93Hengel, Crucifixion n the AncientWorld,49.94McCane, Roll Back the Stone, 90, 105; Brown, Death of the Messiah, 2:1207; contra

Crossan,WhoKilledJesus, 160-61.

95See McCane,RollBackthe Stone,92-93.

141




imposed onlyby the Romanauthorities.96Those found guiltyby the Sanhedrin

of violating Jewish lawwere executed by stoning (likeJames),or were burned,

decapitated, or strangled:"Fourmodes of execution were given in the court:

stoning, burning, decapitation,and strangulation" m. Sanh. 7:1).97According

to biblical law (Deut 21:22), the bodies of executed criminalscould be hanged

for the purpose of public display only afterthey were alreadydead.98The Has-

monean king AlexanderJanneusviolated biblical law when he had eight hun-

dred Pharisee opponents crucified (hangedwhile they were still alive), dining

with his concubines as his victims writhed in agony (Josephus,J.W 1.4.6;Ant.

13.14.2).99Janneus'sactions are described as an atrocity n the Pesher Nahum

from Qumran (4Q169 frags.3-4), where the distinctionbetween the hanging

of a dead body and the crucifixion of a living victim is made explicit: "who

hanged living men [fromthe tree, committing an atrocitywhich had not beencommitted] in Israel since ancient times, for it is [hor]riblefor the one hanged

alive from the tree."100

Hanging (of an alreadyexecuted criminal)is described in m. Sanh. 6:4 as

follows:"Howdo they hanghim?They driveapost into the ground,andabeam

juts out from it, and they tie together his two hands, and thus do they hang

him."This passage describes the handsof the deceased being tied together and

the body danglingfrom a pole. In contrast,Roman crucifixion nvolvedspread-

ing apartthe armsof a live victim, so that he/she could be affixedto the cross-

beam by ropes or nails.101Josephus knew the difference between biblical

96See Hengel, Crucifixion n the Ancient World, 85: "fromthe beginning of direct Roman

rule crucifixionwas taboo as a form of the Jewishdeath penalty."Also see Tzaferis,"Crucifixion-

the ArchaeologicalEvidence," 48: "Amongthe Jews crucifixionwas an anathema. . . . The tradi-

tionalmethod of execution amongthe Jewswasstoning. .. At the end of the firstcenturyB.C., the

Romansadopted crucifixionas an official punishment for non-Romansfor certain legally limited

transgressions."

97All translations rom the Mishnahcited in this paper are fromJacobNeusner, The Mish-

nah:A New Translation(New Haven:YaleUniversityPress, 1988).

98GezaVermes,TheCompleteDead Sea Scrolls n English (New York:Penguin, 1998), 473.

Also see RichardBauckham("ForWhat Offence WasJames Put to Death?"inJamestheJust and

Christian Origins [ed. B. Chilton and C. A. Evans; Leiden: Brill, 1999], 221), who notes that

accordingto Jewishlaw,"hanging s not a method of executionbut the exposureof an alreadydead

corpse.

99See also Hengel, Crucifixion n the AncientWorld,84, with references.

100Florentino GarciaMartinezand Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea ScrollsStudy Edi-

tion (GrandRapids:Eerdmans,2000), 337. Accordingto the Mishnah, hangingwas reserved for

executed criminalswho were alreadydead, asprescribedby the Hebrew Bible. In contrast,accord-

ing to the TempleScroll(11Q19 LXIV.7-8),traitorsareto be put to deathbybeing hangedalive:"If

a manpasseson informationagainsthis people orbetrayshispeople to a foreignnation,ordoes evilagainsthis people, you shallhanghim on a tree andhe will die"(fromMartinezandTigchelaar,The

Dead Sea ScrollsStudyEdition, 1287;alsosee Vermes,CompleteDead Sea Scrolls n English, 473).101Althoughthe exact mannerin which the body was affixedto the cross is debated;for two

142



Magness: TheBurialsof esus andJames

hangingand Romancrucifixion.When referringto the hangingof a deadvictim

in the biblical sense, he employs the verb Kpejgdvvu t ("to hang"), as, for exam-

ple: "He that blasphemeth God let him be stoned, and let him hang (Kpe-

pdoco) [upon a tree] all that day"(Ant.4.8.6).

In contrast,Josephususes

theverb dvacratp6c ("tocrucify")when describingthe crucifixionof live victims

at the handsof the Romanauthoritiesaswell as the Hasmonean kingAlexander

Janneus:"he [AlexanderJanneus]ordered about eight hundred of them to be

crucified(dva~ apocatu)" (Ant.13.14.2);"asI came back,I sawmanycaptives

crucified (dve tavpcoivouS)" (Life 75 §420).102All of these sources (Jose-

phus, the Mishnah, and sectarian literature) clearly distinguish between the

hangingof dead victims (followingbiblical law) and the crucifixion of live vic-

tims.103The following passage from Josephus indicates that the Jews buried

victims of Roman crucifixionby sunset in accordancewith Deut 21:22: "Nay,they proceeded to that degree of impiety, as to cast awaytheir bodies without

burial,althoughthe Jews used to take so much care of the burialof men, that

they took down those thatwere condemned and crucified (ave~TaupoivouS)),

andburied them before the going down of the sun"(J.W 4.5.2).104

The Sanhedrin excluded those executed for violating Jewish law from

burialin familytombs or burialgrounds:"Andthey did not bury [the felon] in

the burialgroundsof his ancestors.But there were two graveyardsmade ready

forthe use of the court,one forthose who were beheaded or strangled,andone

for those who were stoned or burned"(m. Sanh. 6:5). However, the Mishnahattaches no stigma to crucifixionby the Roman authorities and does not pro-

hibitvictimsof crucifixion rombeing buriedwith their families.105 he discov-

different reconstructionssee Tzaferis, "Crucifixion-the ArchaeologicalEvidence," 49; Zias and

Sekeles, "CrucifiedMan, 27). Ziasand Sekeles note that death resulted from asphyxiationandnot

from the traumacaused by nailing the body to the cross ("CrucifiedMan,"26).

102 n light of the questions surrounding he relationshipbetween Luke and Acts, it is inter-

esting that in these two books (but not in Markand Matthew), the distinction between hangingand

crucifixion s blurred,with the Greek terms being used interchangeably.See Luke 23:39:"Oneofthe criminalswho was hanging there (KpeaonG vTcvov)bused him";Acts 5:30: "The God of our

forefathersraisedJesus to life when you had hung him on a cross (KpedcCavegsIeit'6Xo) and

killedhim."I thankBart Ehrmanforbringing this to my attention.

103ContraCrossan,WhoKilledJesus, 166.

104Contra bid., 166, 169. In my opinion,Josephus'srhetoricaluse of this episode to illustrate

the impietyof the rebels (in this case, Idumeans)does not affect the value of his testimonyregard-

ing the burialof crucifixionvictimsin accordancewith Jewishlaw.ForJosephus'scondemnationof

the rebels' lawless and impious behavior, see Shaye J. D. Cohen, Josephus in Galilee and Rome

(Boston: Leiden, 2002), 88, 97; Tessa Rajak,Josephus: The Historian and His Society (London:

Duckworth,1983), 81.

105See Brown, Death of the Messiah,2:1210, although he presents the opposite conclusionon p. 1243. Accordingto Josephus,blasphemers who were stoned andthen hanged were "buried n

anignominiousand obscure manner" Ant.4.8.6). However,Jesuswasnot condemned by the San-

hedrin for violatingJewishlaw, was not executed by stoning, and was alivewhen he was crucified

143




ery of the remains of a crucified man named Yohanan n an ossuarydemon-

stratesthatvictimsof crucifixioncould be interredin rock-cutfamilytombs.106

John Dominic Crossanclaimsthat Yohanan'snterment in a rock-cutfam-

ily tomb is exceptional and extraordinarybecause victims of crucifixionwould

not have received an honorable burial.107However, we have seen that Jewish

law does not prohibit the burial of victims of crucifixion in family tombs.

Crossan argues that "with all those thousands of people crucified around

Jerusalem n the firstcentury alone,we have so farfound onlya single crucified

skeleton, and that, of course, preserved in an ossuary.Was burial then, the

exception rather than the rule, the extraordinary rather than the ordinary

case?"'s0 n fact, the exact opposite is the case: the discoveryof the identifiable

remainsof even a single victim of crucifixion s exceptional.Crossan'sassump-

tion that we should have the physical (archaeological) remains of additionalcrucifiedvictimsis erroneousfor severalreasons. First,with one exception (the

repository n the late Iron Age cemetery at Ketef Hinnom), not a single undis-

turbed tomb in Jerusalemhas ever been discoveredand excavatedby archaeol-

ogists.109This means that even in cases where tombs or ossuariesstill contain

the originalphysical remains, the skeletons are often disturbed, damaged, or

incomplete. Second, the Jerusalemelite who owned rock-cutfamily tombs with

ossuaries favored the preservationof the status quo through accommodation

with the Romans.Presumably,relativelyfew of them were therefore executed

by crucifixion. Instead, the majority of victims crucified by the Romansbelonged to the lower classes110-precisely those who could not affordrock-cut

tombs. Third, and most important, the nail in Yohanan'sheel was preserved

onlybecause of a fluke:

(not hanged after death). Therefore, it is erroneous to applythis passage to Jesus'execution and

burial.On the other hand,this halakahwould have appliedto James,who was apparentlyexecuted

by stoningforviolatingJewishlawandthereforewould havebeen ineligible forburial n a rock-cut

familytomb (see the discussionof James'sburialbelow).

106As Evansnotes (Jesusand the Ossuaries,100-101), contrary o Crossan.Alsosee Tzaferis,

"Crucifixion-the ArchaeologicalEvidence";Rahmani,"AncientJerusalem's FuneraryCustoms

and Tombs, Part Three," 51; idem, Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries, 131 no. 218. According to

McCane, "Dishonorableburialwas reserved for those who had been condemned by the people of

Israel"(RollBackthe Stone,99; emphasisin original).Despite this, McCaneconcursthatJesuswas

buried in shame. The prominence of Yohanan's amilyis indicated by the fact that anotherossuary

fromthis tombwasinscribed"Simon, he builder of the temple,"apparently omeone who hadpar-

ticipatedin the reconstructionof the temple under Herod;see Tzaferis,"Crucifixion-the Archae-

ologicalEvidence," 47, 50; Brown,Death of the Messiah,2:1210.

107Crossan,Who KilledJesus, 168; idem, The HistoricalJesus: TheLife of a Mediterranean

Peasant(New York:HarperSanFrancisco,1991), 391.

10s bid.109For the intact repositoryat Ketef Hinnom, see Barkay,"News from the Field: The Divine

Name Found in Jerusalem."

110As Crossan notes (WhoKilledJesus, 169).

144



Magness: The Burials of Jesus and James

Themost dramatic vidence hatthisyoungmanwascrucifiedwasthe nail

whichpenetrated is heelbones.Butforthisnail,we mightneverhavedis-

covered hat heyoungmanhaddied nthisway.Thenailwaspreserved nlybecause it hit a hard knot when it was pounded into the olive wood upright of

the cross.The olivewood knotwasso hardthat,as the blowson the nailbecameheavier, he endof the nail bentandcurled.We founda bitof the

olivewood(between1and2 cm)onthe tipofthenail.Thiswoodhadproba-blybeenforcedoutoftheknotwhere hecurlednailhookednto t. When t

came imeofthedeadvictim obe removedrom hecross, he executioners

couldnotpulloutthisnail,bentas it waswithin he cross.Theonlywayto

remove hebodywastotakeanaxorhatchetandamputatehefeet.111

In other words, the means by which victims were affixed to crosses usually

leave no discernible traces in the physical remains or archaeological record.

Some victims were bound with ropes, which were untied when the body was

removedfromthe cross.112When victimswere nailedto a cross,the nailshadto

be pulled out so that the body could be taken down. This is exactly how the

Gospel of Peter (6:21) describes Jesus' crucifixion:"Andthen they drew the

nails from the hands of the Lord and placed him on the earth.""3The nail in

Yohanan's nkle was preserved only because it bent after hitting a knot in the

wood andtherefore could not be removed fromthe body.

Jesus came from a family of modest means that presumably could not

afford a rock-cut tomb.114Had Joseph not offered Jesus a spot in his tomb(accordingto the Gospel accounts),Jesuslikely would have been disposedof in

the manner of the poorer classes: in an individual trench grave dug into the

ground. In the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah, non-elite burialscon-

sisted of individual nhumations n simple cist graves.115 his custom continued

through the Second Temple period, when individualswere buried in trench

11 Tzaferis, "Crucifixion-the ArchaeologicalEvidence,"50 (myemphasis). In their reexam-

inationof this skeleton,Ziasand Sekeles foundno evidence foramputation,but confirmedthatthe

nail could not be removed from the heel bone because it was bent: "Oncethe body was removed

from the cross, albeit with some difficultyin removingthe right leg, the condemned man'sfamily

would now find it impossibleto remove the bent nailwithoutcompletely destroyingthe heel bone"

("CrucifiedMan,"24, 27).

112Tzaferis,"Crucifixion-the ArchaeologicalEvidence,"49; also see Crossan, Who Killed

Jesus, 135, for a descriptionfromthe Actsof Andrew.

113From Brown, Death of the Messiah,2:1319.

11"Had Jesus' familyowned a rock-cuttomb, it presumablywould have been located near

theirhome in Nazareth. But in light of what we know of Jesus'familyandhis background,there is

no reason to assume they could afforda rock-cut tomb. See, e.g., Crossan (HistoricalJesus, 29),

who discusses the low socialstandingof carpenters n the Romanworld.1u NormaFranklin,"TheTombs of the Kingsof Israel:Two Recently Identified 9th-Century

Tombs from OmrideSamaria,"ZDPV 119 (2003): 1. I amgratefulto Franklinforgivingme an off-

printof this article.

145




graves. The body of the deceased was wrapped in a shroud and sometimes

placed in a wooden coffin;it was then laid in a hollowed-out space (sometimes

described as a "loculus" n modern literature) at the base of the trench. After

the trench was filled in, a rough headstone was sometimes erected at one end.

The headstones were uninscribed, though some mayhave had painted decora-

tion or inscriptionsthathave not survived.

Because trench graves are poor in finds and are much less conspicuous

and more susceptible to destructionthan rock-cuttombs, relativelyfew exam-

ples are recorded.116The best-known cemetery of this type is at Qumran.117t

is interesting that despite the presence of numerous caves around the settle-

ment, the Qumrancommunitydid not intertheir dead in caves.118 believe this

reflects the ascetic and communal nature of the sect and their rejection of the

Hellenized/Romanized lifestyle (and death style) of the Jerusalem elite.119Instead, the Qumrancommunitychose to burytheir dead in the mannerof the

poorer classes. The gravesat Qumran have headstones (stelae) markingone or

both ends. They differ from trench graves at other sites in being covered with

heaps of stones, as Rolandde Vauxnoted: "Thetombs [graves]are marked by

oval-shapedheaps of stones appearingon the surface,often with a largerstone

at either end."'12 n myopinion, the heaps of stones covering the graves andthe

large stones set up at both ends were intended to make the graves visible to

passersby,so they could avoidthem out of purityconcerns.'21

Other graves of this type have been found at Ein el-Chuweir and in

116See Joseph Patrich, "Graves and Burial Practices in Talmudic Sources," in Graves and

BurialPractices n Israelin the AncientPeriod (ed. I. Singer;Jerusalem:YadIzhakBen-Zvi, 1994),

191-92. In Rome, too, the poor were buried in simple holes dug into the ground; see Davies,

Death, Burial,and Rebirth n the Religionsof Antiquity, 148. The corpsesof paupersandcriminals

were disposedof in mass graves;see John Bodel, "Graveyards ndGroves:A Studyof the Lex Luce-

rina,"AmericanJournalof AncientHistory 11 (1994):38.117See Magness, Archaeology of Qumran, 168-75, with bibliographyon 186-87; Patrich,

"Gravesand BurialPractices n TalmudicSources,"192.

11sThis despite the factthatthe wealthier(includinghigh priestly)residents of Jericho to the

north and those at Ein Gedi to the south interred their dead in rock-cuttombs (for Jericho, see

Hachlili and Killebrew, "JewishFuneraryCustoms during the Second Temple Period";for Ein

Gedi, see Hadas, Nine Tombsof the SecondTemplePeriodat 'En Gedi.

119Magness, Archaeologyof Qumran, 206.

120Roland de Vaux,Archaeologyand the Dead Sea Scrolls (London:OxfordUniversityPress,

1973), 46.

121Unknowingly walking over a trench grave was common enough to occur in a saying

attributedto Jesus: "Woeto you [Pharisees] for you [are like] indistincttombs (Greek mnemeia),

andpeople walkingon top areunaware" Luke/Q 11:44;see McCane, RollBackthe Stone, 68). This

saying ikelyrefersto trenchgraves,because theywere less visible thanrock-cuttombs,whichweremarkedby pyramidalstructuresor other monumental markers.As McCane notes, unknowingly

walkingover a gravewould havebeen of concernto Jewswho observedpuritylaws(ibid.,70).

146




Jerusalem,where they have been identified as Essene burials.122Althoughit is

possible that some or all of those buried in these cemeteries were Essenes,

there is no archaeologicalevidence to support this assumption.The graves in

Jerusalem and at Ein el-Ghuweir are not associated with identifiable remains of

Essene settlements, and they contain proportionate numbers of men, women,

andchildren.123n addition,the graves arenot markedby heaps of stones or by

headstones at both ends.124 n fact, the presence of thousands of graves of this

type in the first- and second-century C.E. Nabatean cemetery at Khirbet

Qazone demonstratesthat they are not associated only with Essenes.125Some

of the headstones at Khirbet Qazone are engraved with symbols of Nabatean

deities.126

When the Gospels tell us that Joseph of Arimatheaoffered Jesus a spot in

his tomb, it is because Jesus'family did not own a rock-cuttomb and there wasno time to prepare a grave-that is, there was no time to dig a grave, not hew a

rock-cuttomb (!)-before the Sabbath.'27 t is not surprising hat Joseph, who

is described as a wealthy Jew and perhaps even a member of the Sanhedrin,

122See Pesach Bar-Adon,"AnotherSettlement of the Judean Desert Sect at CEnel-Ghuweir

on the Shoresof the Dead Sea,"BASOR227 (1977): 12-17; Patrich,"Gravesand BurialPractices

in TalmudicSources,"192 n. 10;Boaz Zissu,"'QumranType' Gravesin Jerusalem:Archaeological

Evidence of an Essene Community?" DSD 5 (1998): 158-71; idem, "Odd Tomb Out: Has

Jerusalem'sEssene Cemetery Been Found?"BAR25 (1999): 50-55, 62. For anothercemetery of

this type in the Judeandesert, see HananEshel andZvi Greenhut,"HIiaml-Sagha:A Cemeteryof

the QumranType, JudaeanDesert,"RB 100 (1993):252-59. Bar-Adonmentions largeheadstones

at the southern end of each grave at Ein el-Ghuweir, but does not describe the heaps of stones

characteristicof Qumran ("AnotherSettlement of the JudeanDesert Sect,"12). He alsonotes that

at Qumran, argestones markboth ends (northandsouth)of each grave.

123See Magness,Archaeologyof Qumran,220-23; Patrich,"Gravesand BurialPracticesin

TalmudicSources,"192 n. 10.

124Zissu, "'QumranType' Graves n Jerusalem,"160; idem, "OddTomb Out,"52.

125See Hershel Shanks, "Who Lies Here? JordanTombs Match Those at Qumran,"BAR 25

(1999): 48-53, 76; Konstantinos D. Politis, "TheNabataeanCemetery at Khirbet Qazone,"Near

Eastern Archaeology62 (1999): 128.126Shanks, "WhoLies Here?"51.

127As we have seen, the Jewish concern that the deceased be buried on the same day is scrip-

turallybased (Deut 21:22;m. Sanh.6:5;for a discussion, see Davies, Death, Burial,and Rebirthin

the Religionsof Antiquity, 102).Thisexplainsthe haste to buryJesus,since the onset of the Sabbath

would have meant delayingthe burialforovertwenty-fourhours.The Mishnahprovidesguidelines

for quickburialswhen death occurs duringa festival:"Theydo not hew out a tomb niche or tombs

on the intermediatedaysof a festival.But they refashiontomb niches on the intermediatedays of a

festival.They dig a graveon the intermediate daysof a festival,and make a coffin, and while the

corpse is in the same courtyard.R. Judah prohibits, unless there were boards [already sawn and

made readyin advance]" (m. Moed Qat. 1:6).The fact that this halakahrefers to rock-cuttombswith loculi suggests it originatedin the late Second Temple period. Alsonote thatthis passagecon-

tainsan explicitreference to gravesdug into the ground.

147



Journal of Biblical Literature

had a rock-cut familytomb.128The Gospel accounts therefore describe Joseph

placing Jesus' body in one of the loculi in his family'stomb. The "new" omb

mentioned by Matthew apparentlyrefers to a previouslyunused loculus. The

Gospel accounts include an accuratedescriptionof Jesus'body being wrapped

in a linen shroud.129When Josephdeparted, he sealed the entranceto the tomb

by blockingthe doorwaywith a rollingstone.130

This understandingof the Gospel accounts removes at least some of the

groundsfor argumentsthat Joseph of Arimatheawas not a followerof Jesus, or

that he was a completely fictional character (although, of course, it does not

prove that Joseph existed or that this episode occurred).131 n addition, the

tomb must have belonged to Joseph's family,because by definition rock-cut

tombs in Jerusalemwere family tombs.132There is no evidence that the San-

hedrin or the Roman authorities paid for and maintained rock-cut tombs forexecuted criminalsfrom impoverishedfamilies.133nstead, these unfortunates

would have been buried in individual trench graves. This sort of tradition is

preserved in the NT reference to the Potter'sField (Matt27:7-8).134Nor is it

necessary to assume that the Gospel accounts of Joseph of Arimatheaoffering

Jesus a place in his familytomb are legendaryor apologetic.135Unlike Crossan,

who "cannotfind any detailed historical information about the crucifixionof

Jesus,"136 believe that the Gospel accounts of Jesus'burialare largelyconsis-

tent with the archaeologicalevidence.'37In other words, althougharchaeology

128Mark 15:43 describes Joseph as "a highly respected member of the council," apparently

the Sanhedrin; ee Brown,Death of the Messiah, 2:1213-14, 1223.

129For discussions, see Brown, Death of the Messiah, 2:1244-46, 1252.

130For a discussion of the type of rolling stone that sealed the tomb in which Jesus' body was

placed, see Amos Kloner,"Dida RollingStoneClose Jesus'Tomb?"BAR25 (1999): 22-29, 76; also

see Brown,Death of the Messiah,2:1247-48.

131For the suggestionthatJosephof Arimatheawas not a followerof Jesus,see Brown,Death

of the Messiah,2:1216-18, 1223-24, 1246; for the claim thathe was a completely fictionalcharac-

ter, see Crossan,WhoKilledJesus, 172-73, 176.

132Contrary o Brown, Death of the Messiah, 2:1249-50.

133Contrary o ibid., 1249: "Adistinguished member of the Sanhedrin,Joseph may have had

access to tombs that served forthose whom the Sanhedrin udged against.Into one of these tombs

nearbythe cross, then, the MarcanJoseph, acting quite consistentlyas a pious law-observantJew,

could have placed the corpse of Jesus." Two erroneous assumptions underlie this statement:

(1) Jesus was condemned and executed by the Sanhedrin for violating Jewish law, not by the

Romanauthoritiesforcrimesagainst Rome (asindicatedby the reference to "tombs hatservedfor

those whom the Sanhedrin udged against");2) rock-cuttombs were maintainedby the governing

authorities.

134See Ritmeyerand Ritmeyer,"Potter'sField or High Priest'sTomb?"

135Brown,Death of the Messiah,2:1272;Evans,Jesus and the Ossuaries,103;McCane, RollBackthe Stone, 103-4.

136Crossan, Who KilledJesus, 159; also see idem, HistoricalJesus, 393.

137As noted also by Evans,Jesus and the Ossuaries, 15: "what he Gospels depict is consistent

148




does not prove that there was a followerof JesusnamedJosephof Arimatheaor

that Pontius Pilate granted his request for Jesus' body, the Gospel accounts

describingJesus' removal from the cross and burialaccordwell with archaeo-

logical evidence and with Jewish law. The source(s) of these accounts werefamiliarwith how wealthyJewslivingin Jerusalemduringthe time of Jesusdis-

posed of their dead.

V. The "JamesOssuary"

After the death of Jesus, his brother James became the leader of Jeru-

salem's early Christiancommunity.138Although marginalizedin later western

Christiantradition, Jamesis widely regardedas a righteous and observantJew.

His pious and ascetic lifestyle earned him the nickname "theJust."139 ven if

the Letter of Jameswas not composed by James(whichis a matterof disagree-

ment), its attributionto Jamessuggests that he was known for his oppositionto

the accumulationof wealth andthe fate of the wealthy,as illustratedby the fol-

lowingpassages:140

with what is knownfrom archaeologyand from literaryand epigraphical sources."Unlike Brown(Deathof the Messiah,2:1271), I find these accountsto be accurate,not "laconic."

138For the sake of convenience I use the term "earlyChristiancommunity" n this paper to

describethe Jewishfollowers of Jesus duringthe second and thirdquartersof the first centuryC.E.

in Jerusalem.For discussionsof James's role in this community with references, see JohnPainter,

JustJames, TheBrotherofJesus in Historyand Tradition(Minneapolis:Fortress, 1999), 3-5; Ben

WitheringtonIII, "TheStoryof James,Son of Joseph,Brotherof Jesus," n Shanks andWithering-

ton, Brotherof esus, 121.

139See Craig A. Evans, "Jesusand James, Martyrsof the Temple," in James the Just and

Christian Origins, ed. Chilton and Evans, 246-47; Douglas J. Moo, TheLetter of James (Grand

Rapids:Eerdmans,2000), 16;Painter,JustJames, 125;Witherington,"Storyof James,"112. Hege-

sippus (in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.23.4-18) relatesthatJameswas "holyfromhis birth;he drankno

wine or intoxicating iquorand ate no animalfood; no razorcame nearhis head; he did not smear

himself with oil, and he took no baths. He alone was permitted to enter the Holy Place, forhis gar-

ments were not of wool but of linen. He used to enter the Sanctuaryalone, andwasoften found on

his knees beseeching forgivenessforthe people, so thathis knees grewhardlike a camel's."Painter

notes that other early (second century) sources preserve the traditionof James'spious and ascetic

lifestyle (JustJames, 125).

140As Painternotes, "Thevast majorityof modern scholarsquestion the authenticityof the

letter, although its authorshipby James is not without significant defenders" (JustJames, 239).

Witherington believes that James wrote the letter, and he dates it to around 52 C.E. ("Storyof

James," 144, 146); for a similar opinion, see Pedrito U. Maynard-Reid,Poverty and Wealth inJames (Maryknoll,NY:Orbis Books, 1987), 7-8. For discussionsof the argumentsfor and against

James'sauthorship,see David Hutchinson Edgar,Has God Not Chosenthe Poor? The Social Set-

ting of the Epistle of James (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 11, 19-22, 223 (who

149



Journalof Biblical Literature

A brotherof low position ought to be proud of his eminence, but one who is

rich ought to rejoice at being reduced in circumstances,for the richwill dis-

appear like the wild flowers. For the sun comes up with its scorching heat

and dries up the grass,and the flowers wither, and all their beauty is gone.

That is the way rich men will fade and die in the midst of their pursuits.(1:9-11)

Has not God chosen the world'spoor to be rich in faith, and to possess the

kingdom that he promised to those who love him? But you humiliate the

poor. Arenot the rich youroppressors?(2:5-6)

Come now, you rich people! Weep aloud andhowl over the miseries that are

going to overtakeyou! Yourwealth has rotted, your clothes are moth-eaten,

your gold and silver are rusted, and their rustwill testify against you and eat

into your very flesh, for you have stored up fire for the last days.Why, thewages you have withheld from the laborerswho have reaped your harvests

cryaloud,andthe cries of the harvestershave reachedthe earsof the Lordof

Hosts. You have lived luxuriouslyandvoluptuouslyhere on earth. (5:1-5)

John Painter observes, "One of the aspects of James that offers some sup-

port for the view that the epistle has its context in Judaea and Galilee before the

Jewish war is the focus on the exploitation of the poor by the rich."141The neg-

ative views of wealth expressed in the Letter of James are consistent with the

nature of the early Christian community in Jerusalem, which lived a modest,

communal lifestyle although some members came from wealthy families.142 In

this regard the early Christian community in Jerusalem resembled the Qumran

community.143 In 62 or 63, during a hiatus in the office of procurator, the Jew-

believes it is likely a pseudepigraphical composition);Peter H. Davids, "PalestinianTraditionsin

the Epistle of James," nJamestheJustand ChristianOrigins,ed. Chiltonand Evans,33-57 (who

notes on p. 34 that "themost one can demonstratewith a high level of probability s that the mate-

rial in Jamesappearsto come fromthe environmentin which Jameslived andfunctioned andthus

could well stem from James");Moo, Letter of James, 9-22 (who favors authorship by James);

Painter,JustJames,234-48 (whobelieves thatthe letter waswrittenby a Greek-speakingDiaspora

Jewandthat it was"intentionallyattributed"o James). Even if the letter was not writtenby James,

most scholarsseem to agree that it accuratelyreflects his views on wealth; see e.g., Painter,Just

James, 13:"Apart rom the Epistle of James,none of the New Testament texts is written from the

point of view of James."According to Witherington,James'swisdom is intended for the poor and

oppressedversus the rich ("Storyof James,"153).141Painter,JustJames,249. For the theme of wealth andpovertyin the Letter of Jamesand

the modest lifestyleof the earlyChristiancommunity in Jerusalem,see Maynard-Reid,Poverty and

Wealthin James;Edgar, Has GodNot Chosenthe Poor, 133;Moo, LetterofJames,35-36.

142See, e.g., Painter,JustJames, 249: "The poverty of the early Jerusalem church is well

attested by Paul and the author of Acts. .... In Jerusalemthe believers experimentedwith an earlyform of 'communism,'that is, of giving up the privateownershipof land and resourcesto provide

resources forall."

143Witherington explicitly compares the early Christiancommunity in Jerusalemwith the

150




ish high priest Ananus took advantageof the opportunity to condemn James

and had him executed by stoning. James'sopposition to the wealthy, who of

course included the high priests, may explain why Ananus had him put to

death.144Josephus provides a contemporary account of this episode: "so he

[Ananusthe high priest] assembled the sanhedrin of the judges, and brought

before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was

James,and some others [orsome of his companions;]andwhen he had formed

an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be

stoned"(Ant.20.9.1).145

According to the second-centuryC.E.church historianHegesippus (cited

in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.23.4-18), James was buried just below the Temple

Mount (presumably n the areaof the KidronValleyor Mountof Olives).Hege-

sippusmentions that in his

time thestele marking he gravecould stillbe

seen:Sotheywentupandthrewdown heJustone.Thentheysaid o eachother"LetusstoneJameshe Just," ndbegan ostonehim,as inspiteofhisfallhewasstillalive. . . Thenoneof them,a fuller, ook heclubwhichhe usedto

beattheclothes,andbroughtt downontheheadof theJustone.Suchwashismartyrdom. e wasburiedon the spot,bythe Sanctuary, ndhis stone

(stele)is still there by the Sanctuary. in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.23.15-18)

Ben Witheringtonargues that the "Jamesossuary" hould be understood

as the stele described by Hegesippus.146However, we have no contemporary

examples of the use of the word stele to describe an ossuary. Ossuaries are

referred to in ancient inscriptions and literary sources by the Greek words

ostophagosand glkssokomon,and in Hebrew andAramaicasgelasqmd', 'ar6n,

or halat.'47The Greek wordstele (Hebrew massbd) denotes a stone such as a

Essenes ("Storyof James,"115). For the suggestionthat the Essenes' negativeattitudetowardthe

accumulationof wealth and glorificationof poverty influenced the Jesus movement, see Magen

Broshi, "Matrimonyand Poverty:Jesus and the Essenes," RevQ 19 (2000): 632-34; idem, "What

JesusLearnedfromthe Essenes,"BAR 30 (2004):32-37, 64; RobertEisenman,Jamesthe Brother

of Jesus: The Key to Unlockingthe Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (New

York:Penguin, 1997), 4.

144See Painter,JustJames, 251, 264. Bauckhamsuggests that Jameswas executed for blas-

phemy or for leadingastray he town ("ForWhatOffence Was JamesPut to Death?"229).

145Unlike in the case of Josephus'smore controversialreference to Jesus (Ant. 18.3.3), most

scholarsdo not believe this passagewas added or substantiallyaltered by later Christiancopyists;

see Bauckham,"ForWhatOffence WasJamesPut to Death?"198; Witherington,"Storyof James,"

168.

146 bid., 187, 188. Witherington incorrectly (and misleadingly)translatesthe Greek word

stele here as "inscribed stone" (my emphasis). Painter renders it more accuratelyas "headstone"

(JustJames, 123).147For discussions of these terms, see Rahmani,Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries, 3; Evans,

Jesus and the Ossuaries, 11. For an ossuaryinscribed twice with the Greek word ostophagos,see

Avigad, "JewishRock-CutTombs in Jerusalem,"141. For an ossuaryreferred to in Palymreneas

151




cippus or headstone. Stelae were used to markindividual trench graves dug

into the ground, whereas monumental columnar, pyramidal, or conical

nephas6twere erected aboveunderground rock-cuttombs.

Jesus was laid in a rock-cuttomb because he was removed from the cross

on the eve of the Sabbath,when there was no time to dig a trench grave for

him, and because a wealthy follower offered a loculus in his own familytomb.

However, none of our sources indicates that James was placed in a rock-cut

tomb. To the contrary,all availableevidence suggests the opposite. As we have

seen, the family of Jesus and James presumably could not afford a rock-cut

tomb.148Even if James's amilyowned a rock-cut tomb, the fact thatJameswas

executed by stoning for violating Jewishlaw means that his remains could not

have been placed in it (m. Sanh. 6:5).149And as we have seen, there is no evi-

dence that the Sanhedrinpaid for and maintainedrock-cuttombs for executedcriminals.Instead, these unfortunatesmust have been buried in trench graves,

in the mannerof the poorer classes. Unlike Jesus,James did not die on the eve

of a Sabbath or holiday, which means there would have been time to dig a

trench grave for him. And finally,James's opposition to the accumulation of

wealth andthe wealthymakesit hardto believe thathe wouldhavebeen buried

in the kind of rock-cut tomb that was a hallmarkof the elite lifestyle. We have

seen that James'sconflict with the Jerusalemelite might even have led to his

execution: "James's onflict with Ananuswas a result of his opposition to the

exploitationof the poorby the richaristocraticrulingclassandin particular heexploitation of the poor rural priesthood by the aristocratic urban chiefpriests."50

Some scholars have suggested that the early Christian community of

Jerusalemchose to "honor"James by preparinga rock-cut tomb for him or by

offering him a spot in one of their familytombs.'15Although I cannot exclude

kauka ("amphora"n the sense of "urn"), ee Frey, CorpusInscriptionumludaicarum, 2:250 no.

1222; Rahmani,Catalogueof Jewish Ossuaries,3. For ossuaries inscribed with the word "tomb"

(probably referring to the ossuary), see Rahmani, Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries, 109 no. 125(kibra);198 no. 561 (topou).

148Accordingto Witherington,Josephwould havepassed the familytradeof carpentryon to

his sons:"Whilecarpentersdid not rankat the high end of the social structureof society, neither

were they atthe low end. ... even awoodworkerwho simplybuilt furnituremightexpect to makea

livingthatcould supportthe family" "Storyof Jesus,"101). Alsosee Crossan,HistoricalJesus, 29.

149Assuming thatthe prohibitiondescribed in the Mishnahwasin effect in the second half of

the firstcentury C.E.

150Painter,Just James, 140.

151See, e.g., Witherington, "Storyof James," 171: "The Jewish Christianswho buried James

evidentlywantedto

honorhim in death, andtheyapparently

expected some would come andvisitthe burial spot and see the inscription written on the side of the box."If the inscription on the

"Jamesossuary"were authenticand referred to Jamesthe Just,we would expect his place of origin

(Nazarethor Galilee) to be indicated,as on other ossuariescontainingthe remains of 6migr6swho

settled or died in Jerusalem.As Rahmanipointed out, "InJerusalem's ombs, the deceased's place

152




this possibility,I believe it is unlikelyfor severalreasons.We have no indication

that the members of the early Christian community of Jerusalem abandoned

the principle that rock-cuttombs were used by families. In Palestine, the cus-

tomof community burial in Jewish (or Christian) catacombs is not attested

before the second to thirdcenturies (e.g., at Beth Shearim).152 here is no rea-

son to assume that Jameswas placed in someone else's tomb, since we have no

testimony that this happened (unlike the case of Jesus). In addition, I find it

hardto believe thatthe earlyChristiancommunity of Jerusalem,which lived an

impoverishedand communal lifestyle,would have honored a manwho suppos-

edly believed that "richesare a markof the ungodly"by burying him in an elite

display tomb.153Even if we assume that the early Christians of Jerusalem

buried their members as a community insteadof as individualswith their fami-

lies,154we should probablyenvisage a practice analogousto the Qumranburi-als. Hegesippus's testimony apparently preserves an accurate tradition that

Jameswas buried in a trench gravedug into the ground,not in a rock-cuttomb.

A stele (headstone) set above a graveidentified asJames'swas stillvisible in the

second century C.E.155 s Painterhas noted, Hegesippus'srelatively earlydate

(within a century of James'sdeath) and the fact that he was apparentlyfrom

Palestine (as Eusebius certainlywas) mean thathis statement aboutthe stele is

probably reliable.156The suggestion made by some scholarsthat all or part of

the inscriptionon the "Jamesossuary" s an ancient forgery-added by a pious

Christian n the fourthto fifth centuries-is anachronistic,since the custom of

of origin was noted [on ossuaries] when someone from outside Jerusalem and its environs was

interred in a local tomb" (Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries, 17). For example, one ossuary from

Nicanor's tomb is inscribed: "[these]bones of [the family]of Nicanorof Alexandriawho made the

gates. Nicanor,the Alexandrian"see Frey, CorpusInscriptionum udaicarum,2:261-62 no. 1256).

For other examples,see Rahmani,CatalogueofJewish Ossuaries,17;Frey, CorpusInscriptionum

ludaicarum, 2:273 no. 1283, which reads "Judah,son of Judah,of Bethel";273 no. 1284, which

reads"Maria,wife of Alexander,of Capua";276 no. 1285, which reads"Joseph he Galilean"; 14-

15, nos. 1372-74, on which "ofScythopolis"s added afterthe names of the deceased.

152Althoughwe have evidence for a community cemetery with individualburials(but not a

catacomb) datingto this period at Qumran;see Magness,Archaeologyof Qumran,168-75.

153See Painter,JustJames,52.

154As suggested by Witherington,"Storyof James,"105, 170 (althoughon p. 170 he notes

that "Jameswas not likelyburied in a graveyard pecificallyfor Christians.He was buriedwith his

fellow Jews").

155Even if the stele thatHegesippus mentions did not markthe authenticlocation of James's

grave, his testimony indicates that Jerusalem'searly Christiancommunitypreserved the tradition

of the mannerin whichJameshadbeen buried. Jerome'stestimonysuggests that by the fourthcen-

turythe stele was no longer visible; see Painter,Just James, 223; Eisenman,James the BrotherofJesus, 454-55.

156Painter, Just James, 129. Also see Bauckham ("ForWhat Offence Was James Put to

Death?"200, 206), who concludes that Hegesippus's testimony indicates that like Josephus, the

Christian raditionaboutthe stoningof James"hadsome access to historicalfact"(p. 206).

153



154 Journalof Biblical Literature

ossilegium had disappearedfrom Jerusalem long before then.157Contempo-

raryChristianswould not have been familiar with the custom of ossilegium.

Those who encountered ossuariesin earliertombswould havehadno reasonto

associatethese objectswith the first centuryC.E.or with James.158

The evidence thatJameswas buried in a trench gravedug into the ground

and not in a rock-cut tomb renders the controversy over the "Jamesossuary"

moot. Even if the inscriptionis authentic, it would not refer to Jamesthe Just,

the brother of Jesus.159By definition, ossuaries and the custom of ossilegium

are associated with rock-cuttombs. The bones of individuals nterredin trench

graveswere not redepositedin ossuaries.Thiswas unnecessarybecause ossuar-

ies held the bones of earlierintermentscollected in rock-cutfamily tombs.160t

would have been a waste of precious time and money (whichthe poorerclasses

lacked) to dig up an old trench grave and place the bones in an ossuary.161Instead, new trench graveswere dug as the need arose.

To conclude, the controversy surroundingthe "Jamesossuary"reflects a

fundamentalandwidespreadmisconception aboutthe functionand socialcon-

text of ossilegium in late Second Temple period Judaism.There should be no

controversy.Even if the inscription is authentic and is not a modern forgery,

this ossuarydid not containthe bones of Jamesthe Just, the brotherof Jesus.

157See Paul V. M. Flesher, "The Story Thus Far ... : A Review Essay of The Brother ofJesus:

The Dramatic Story & Meaning of the First ArchaeologicalLink to Jesus & His Family, HershelShanksand Ben Witherington III, HarperSanFrancisco,New York,2003,"PolishJournalof Bibli-

cal Research2.2(4) (2003):64.

15sBy the fourth andfifth centuries, the figureof James had been marginalized n the West-

ern church;see Painter,JustJames, 178, 220, 271, 274. In contrast,in GnosticChristianityJames

enjoyed a prominent position (ibid., 167). For the Nag Hammaditexts, see James M. Robinson,

ed., The Nag HammadiLibrary, RevisedEdition (San Francisco:Harper& Row, 1988). For the

Byzantine Christianreuse of earlier tombs in Jerusalem,see Gideon Avni, "ChristianSecondary

Use of JewishBurialCaves in Jerusalem n the Lightof New Excavationsat the AceldamaTombs,"

in Early Christianity in Context: Monuments and Documents (ed. F. Manns and E. Alliata;

Jerusalem:StudiumBiblicumFranciscanum, 1993), 265-76.

159 n other words, if the inscriptionis authentic (ancient), it must refer to one of the other

twenty or so first-centuryC.E.Jews in Jerusalemwho could have had this combinationof names;

see Lemaire,"BurialBoxof Jamesthe Brotherof Jesus,"33.

160Ossuaries were frequentlyplaced inside loculi, sometimes alongsideprimaryburials.For

examples, see Vitto, "BurialCaves from the Second Temple Period in Jerusalem," 68-71, figs.

3-11. For a rock-cuttombwith aburialchambercontaining oculi and a second roomthatwasused

as a repositoryfor ossuaries,see ibid., 114.

161A possible exception to this scenario is suggested by m. Sanh. 6:5-6:6, which prescribes

special burialgroundsfor those executed for transgressingJewishlaw and allowstheir bones to be

collected and reburiedin familytombs after the flesh had decayed. Sincewe haveno evidence that

the Sanhedrinpaid for and maintainedrock-cuttombs for executed felons, the deceased presum-ably were inhumed in individual graves dug into the ground. Therefore, this passage probably

refers to cases where the deceased belonged to wealthy familieswith rock-cuttombs who dug up

the remains after the flesh had decayed.