Consider this version of the life of Jesus: Jesus was the illegitimate son of a woman who eventually had two marriages, to Joseph and to his brother Alpheus. She had three more sons and two daughters. Jesus, her first-born, grew up with his mother, his step-fathers and his brothers and sisters in the small town of Nazareth and became a follower of his cousin, known as John the Baptizer. Jesus did not "go public" with his own teachings until after John, whom he regarded as a messiah, was killed.
A New Picture of Jesus
This is the picture we get of Jesus in James D. Tabor's book, The Jesus Dynasty. The author's views are based on his own personal experience with excavations in the Holy Land and knowledge of its geography as well as his expertise with ancient relics and documents. He presents these ideas as likely scenarios based in large part on what he himself has discovered in his trips to Israel.
He begins his book with the story of finding a tomb while hiking with students in the Hinnom Valley, Israel. The tomb had been robbed, but inside remained an amazing discovery: a body still laid out on stone with much of the cloth shroud intact… a body from the time of Jesus. There were also ossuaries (stone cases holding bones) with names inscribed. He then relates what he knows of the "James Ossuary" which was in the news a few years back. It had been in the possession of a collector who claimed to have had it for many years and who said he had attached no significance to the inscription: "James, son of Joseph brother of Jesus. "
But when the ossuary came to light, it electrified the antiquities community. Could these be the bones of the brother of Jesus? Yes, Jesus had a brother named James, and Tabor speculates that this James was "the Beloved Disciple." He also feels the James Ossuary very possibly came from the very tomb he discovered that fateful day in the Hinnom Valley. It may have been the family burial place for Jesus' family. His book is full of such personal connections which fuel the obvious passion he has for his topic.
But this is not another book with wild theories of the Jesus bloodline put forth by egomanic authors. It is not fiction coyly hinting of hidden truths. While Tabor does go where other authors have feared to tread, he also gives us the goods. Some of his ideas are speculation, but he provides his chain of logic for each theory that contradicts accepted ideas about Jesus.
Who Were Jesus' Family?
For example, if Jesus had a human father, who was he? I had never before heard of Pantera, a name given in documents from antiquity as being Jesus' biological father. Tabor suggests he may have been a Roman soldier, but we really know nothing beyond his name and even that is based on flimsy sources. But at least there ARE sources.
Who was the father of Mary's other children? The logical answer is Joseph, but Tabor tells us that Joseph may have died while Mary was still young and in that case, his brother would be required under Jewish law to marry his brother's widow. Who was Joseph's brother? When I read that his name was Alpheus, I remembered reading this theory in another book, The Jesus Scroll by Australian author Donovan Joyce, a controversial book that suggests that Jesus did not die on the cross but survived and died as an old man at Masada. Tabor mentions this book, so I know he has read it too. But Tabor is definite in his belief that Jesus DID die on the cross.
So Jesus' brothers and sisters had a different father. Some may have been from Alpheus.
Apocalyptic Times
The point of the title - The Jesus Dynasty - is that Jesus left his brother James in charge of the movement he led, and James was greatly respected by his peers. He became known as James the Just. Tabor attempts to recreate the thinking of Jesus and James through the use of documents dating to the period close to their lifetimes. He builds a case that Jesus was thoroughly Jewish and never intended to start a new religion. On the contrary, he felt it was his destiny to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies with which he was very familiar. He believed he and John were the "two messiahs" and that the End Times were near; he expected that Yahweh would come down from heaven in glory and kick out the Romans, restoring Israel as an independent nation as Isaiah had prophesied. Tabor makes a strong case that Jesus lived in Apocalyptic times.
The Real Founders of the Christian Religion
I found his re-creation of these times interesting since my own reading has convinced me that the two people who really founded the Christian religion are Paul and Constantine. Tabor acknowledges the contaminating effect of Paul's teachings on our understanding of the life of Jesus. It was Paul who created all the theology around Jesus - that Jesus died for our sins, that he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. It was Paul, "the apostle to the Gentiles," who had downplayed the role of the Romans in the death of Jesus in order to sell the new religion to the non-Jewish population of the Roman empire... Paul, who was himself a Roman citizen. Three hundred years later, the emperor Constantine deified Jesus and carved the Pauline theology into stone at the Council of Nicea.
But to Jesus' brother James it was all about the teachings, not about the person of Jesus. Tabor points out that the New Testament contains one letter from James and that this letter barely mentions Jesus. This sent me to my Bible to read this letter, which is a bit of authentic teaching from someone who knew Jesus intimately, not the ravings of someone who never met Jesus and who knew him only through a vision - of course, I mean Paul.
Still Lots of Questions
I liked this book very much, but was disappointed at what was left out. Okay, I loved The DaVinci Code (and had read Holy Blood, Holy Grail ten years before and found its story of the bloodline of Jesus fascinating) and I kept waiting for at least some speculation on the question posed by these books: was Jesus married? What was his relationship with Mary Magdalene? But Tabor is silent on these issues.
Tabor dismisses the many conflicting stories of what Jesus did during the so-called "missing years" before he began his public ministry. He suggests that, rather than going to India, Tibet or Egypt as other writers have speculated, Jesus stayed close to home, perhaps working alongside his stepfather. Tabor does not think Joseph was a carpenter, as tradition holds, since the Holy Lands have few trees. Instead, Joseph may have worked in the building trades and may have worked on construction of several beautiful cities that were built up during this time and Jesus may have followed the same trade. Jesus may have acquired his love for the poor by being poor. Laborers who built cities like Caesarea and Sepphoris were not held in high esteem or paid very much for their work.
The author sometimes makes leaps that seem a little fanciful, but I think his book is a real contribution to theories about Jesus. Even after two thousand years there are discoveries being made that add to our understanding of those times. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the scrolls found in Egypt in the 1940s are still giving up new facts and the author's own experiences finding an important tomb as well as a cave he feels may have been used by John the Baptist give us a new sense of what life was like when Jesus lived and died in the land now restored to the Jews as the state of Israel. You may be shocked at some of the contents of this book, but if you want to know more about historical Jesus, this book delivers.
The amazon page for The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity
