Sensation: Apostle Jacob’s Coffin Made by Aliens

[kwassa]

The things one can learn on Free Republic

I decided to sample their religion section. This was my first hit.

Posted on 12/19/2006 12:52:21 PM PST by Alex Murphy


Scientists have discovered that the coffin of Jesus Christ’s brother was made of an unknown material

A sensation happened in the world of science. Specialists are certain that they found a stone of nonearthly origin hidden under the coffin of Jeasus Christ’s brother.

The news about the incredible discovery was reported by Western news agencies. They reported that that the coffin of Jacob was found, the brother of Jesus. According to the Bible, Apostle Jacob was the only step-brother of Jesus Christ. Jacob became the first bishop of Jerusalem.

Specialists and archeologists who examined the finding affirmed that it is priceless. They stated that the finding is equivalent to the discovery of Troy. The following Aramaic writings are on the off-color coffin: “Jacob, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” As is well known, the birth of Jesus was accompanied by the birth of the so-called Star of Bethlehem, which pointed the site of his birth. Maybe, it was not a space star, but an alien spaceship?

As far as Jacob’s coffin is concerned, the most incredible theory is as follows. Aliens decided to mark the site of his burial. The coffin was made in the shape of other coffins, but the aliens made it of their own material, from their planet. They wanted the coffin to be preserved for hundreds of years as some sort of sign for us. One could suppose that the coffin plays the role of a radio beacon, transmitting some information, but this is not really believable.

[Goblinmonger]

1. I'll admit that is pretty crazy

but, in the line of god impregnated a virgin, she gave birth to a son, he performed miracles, was killed, and rose from the dead, walked among his followers after his death, and then ascended to heaven--the alien bit only adds a little bit more "unrealism" to the mix.

[Sanity Claws]

2. There was no apostle named Jacob

I remember the 12 apostles but none was named Jacob. I googled to make sure -- yup, no Jacob the apostle. http://www.apostles.com/

[On the Road]

9. Jacob (or James as He is Often Called)

was a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. He was Jesus' blood brother -- there is no reason to think of him as a half-brother unless you feel compelled to believe in the eternal virginity of Mary. James was a real guy -- in fact, probably better authenticated than most of the twelve apostles of the gospels.

The discovery of his tomb, or ossuary, was also a real news item, but the artifact was widely held to be a fake.

This is a frequent pattern in bogus news stories -- reference a real news item that the reader may not have heard of which lends psychological credibility to the rest of the article, no matter how bizarre.

[central scrutinizer]

3. was there a link to the article?

I don't have the stomach to actually go there and look.

[BOSSHOG]

4. Scientists have also discovered that

the heads of free republic members are made of an unknown material. The result is false bravado, feelings of patriotism while having no desire to commit to actually doing anything for your country. The material also causes its owners to not want to know anything but to believe a whole bunch of stuff. People who have such material in their heads act way more brave then they really are and spend an inordinate amount of time posting nonsense on the internet.

[JeffR]

5. BOSSHOG, you've outdone yourself

:rofl:

[BOSSHOG]

12. Thankyou my friend

I also have an eye out for material.

[greyl]

6. Not arguing with your ridicule of freepers, but

that's from pravda, 2002, fwiw.

[kwassa]

15. and "Pravda" means "Truth", does it not?

original article was unlinked, by the way.

[charlie]

16. No, it's linked

On JimRob's handrolled duct tape and baling wire forum, the article link is always at the upper left.

http://www.ufoarea.com/aas_sensation.html

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Too stupid to know the name of Jesus' brother?

The name of Jesus' brother was James, according to every English translation of the bible I've read. If the OP is one of the "Messianic Jews", he should have used Joshua (or, properly, Yeheshua) and not "Jesus," not to mention Yusef rather than Joseph.

And this would be the tomb now proven beyond any reasonable doubt to be a forgery, right?

[htuttle]

11. Yes

Link in reply #10

[deepthought42]

8. That makes about as much sense

As an evil alien overlord (let's call him Xenu) dropping aliens into volcanoes on Earth, brainwashing their souls, yadda yadda....

[htuttle]

10. They must be thinking of 'James', not 'Jacob'...and the ossuary was a fake

They found what was purported to be the 'James ossuary' several years ago which said, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus', but it has since been proven to be a fake:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/06/18/jesus.box/

[Traveling_Home]

13. This sounds like

the Ossuary that was found several years ago with writing like you say but with the name of James. It was later found thet the Ossuary was old but the writing was new.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ossuary

[damntexdem]

14. Well, we're outsourcing so much manufacturing nowadays, ...

why be surprised that they also did back then? ;-)

[madrchsod]

17. that is stupid

really fucking stupid. how can that person be so stupid and hold a job let alone have a computer?

[Igel]

18. James = Jacob.

And there's a good reason for the mistake in the Pravda site mentioned above:

"Translated by Dmitry Sudakov."

Russian has a different tradition of dealing with OT names (and their NT counterparts). Instead of borrowing the Latin versions, they adapted the Greek ones; instead of giving allegiance to the Hebrew OT and its Latin derivatives, they frequently worked from the Septuagint in producing Church Slavonic Bibles. The Psalms are differently numbered, for example, and books in the Bible sometimes have different names: 3rd Kings, 4th Kings, for example. "Joshua" = "Jesus" in Greek, so Joshua son of Nun comes out as Jesus son of Nun.

They didn't have a tradition of Jacob = James (or, rather Yakov = anything other than Yakov ... that Byzantine Greek again, leniting the older stops).

Mr. Sudakov screwed up: He translated "Yakov" not as "James" (as is usually done in a Christian context), but as "Jacob" (the usual translation in a Jewish context). He probably wasn't aware of English-language traditions for Bible names. Of course, having "Jacob" surfacing as a good Xian name doesn't help matters. What's a poor translator to do?

[TechBear_Seattle]

19. Ah, got it. Thanks for the clarification

That explains the incorrect (in English) use of Jacob rather than James. Nonetheless, the tomb (acutally an ossuary, ie a box specifically for holding bones rather than a corpse) still is a proven forgery. I believe the person responsible is now in an Israeli jail, sentenced for several decades because of his history of faking antiquities.

[Zhade]

20. This is no crazier than believing in a man rising from the dead.

Or a Worldwide Flood.

Or Creationism.

Or miracles.

All are outlandish, none are proven, just like this story.