From: PASAlist@aol.com
Date: Fri Oct 25 2002 - 00:06:16 EDT
Preston wrote,
<< The ossuary in question is supposed to be that of "James the son of
Joseph, the brother of Jesus." In the newspaper account of this, it
was indicated that the Catholic church maintains that "James, the
brother of Jesus" means "cousin." Do any of the language experts here
know if there is any linguistic basis for this claim, or is it just a
doctrinal necessity?>>
It's highly probable that it is influenced by doctrinal necessity since Greek
has another word for "cousin" per se used in Col 4:10 and only RC scholars
opt for that meaning with regard to the "brothers" of Jesus mentioned in the
NT. However, some Catholic scholars have reduced the claim simply to
"kinsmen", which is a possible translation. The Greek word is used in the LXX
to translate the Hebrew word for "brother" (which is directly related to the
Aramaic word used in the inscription on the ossuary) as "masculine relatives
of various degrees" (Arndt and Gingrich), so "kinsmen" is justified
linguistically. The Hebrew word can mean "kinsman" (En 14:16, of Lot his
nephew) or even "cousin" (Gen 29:15 of Laban, his cousin. So, language alone
does not decide the issue.
Paul
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