James, the Brother of Jesus

It is the riveting contemplation of one of these vessels, an ossuary, a Jewish bone box from antiquity, that drives the hour-long "James: Brother of Jesus," which airs Easter Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel. This well-paced documentary tackles the question: Could this box, with its 20-letter Aramaic inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," have held the remains of the biblical figure who came to be known as "James the Just"? Is the inscription a forgery, or could the box be the first hard archaeology, the first carved-in-stone proof of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth?

I happen to believe Eisenman, one of the most eminent researchers of early Christianity, who produced a study of the historical milieu at the time of Jesus and came to the conclusion that James, rather than Peter, was heir to his teachings. He also came to the conclusion that some of the Dead Seas Scrolls refer to the battle for the future of Christianity between the original followers of Jesus and the usurper Paul.