James Tabor Visited the Pantera Grave in Germany

[DCHindley]

Well,

Like Tabor, I'm finding it impossible to discover ANYTHING about the military unit "coh. I. sagettariorum." It seems Deissmann got his "history" of this unit via a letter from a friend, and everyone repeats it as fact, but there is really zero info available about such a unit active in the early 1st century (Mr Pantera received his Roman citizenship after completing the first 25 years of his 40 years as a soldier when Tiberius was emperor). There are several units with this name but in places like Egypt (4th century CE) and Dacia (3rd century CE). Apparently, he did not feel the need to specify where his unit was recruited. Bummer. That means that we cannot rely on any of the facts that are commonly asserted, that he was from Sidon, that he was stationed in Palestine until 6 CE, when he was transferred to the Danube, then in 9 CE to Bingerbrück.

As for his name "Abdes" the word survives in Arabic meaning "servant" or "slave." Where Isis came into play I am not sure, maybe it was assumed he was a "temple slave" with the temple being dedicated to a god that Romans thought was the ANE equivalent of Egyptian Isis. Temple "slaves" were not really slaves, but peasants whose families were "dedicated" to farm the sacred land owned by the temple. I suppose it was not impossible to escape into the army if that didn't float your boat.

DCH

[Stephan Huller]

It's a common Semitic terminology - עֶ֫בֶד in Hebrew = slave. It's just English translations render it 'servant' for political correctness. Moses is the עֶ֫בֶד of Yahweh (Numbers 12:8, Joshua 1:2 etc).

[Stephan Huller]

My one problem with the Pantera theory is that the term can mean 'spotted' (= as a leopard) and thus a leper.

[DCHindley]

@DCHindley,

I am by no means a scholar and beg forgiveness if it came across that I was pretending to be. I do have great respect for the opinions of those that are and it is obvious your knowledge is vast, apparently more so than Eisenman.

So, if you would be so kind to finish the job of Eisenman and tease out the wheat from the chaff for me?

Did Jesus have a full-brother named James who became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem and was martyred around 62 A.D.?
Respectfully submitted,

John T

I now go by the name "Scowling waggyfinger" to protect my precious identity.

You seemed to have taken umbrage that I had a criticism of Eisenmann. I have his first book James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1996) and have read most all the 1,074 pages. I started paying attention to him back when he published The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (1993), which I liked a lot, and we conversed a bit on a Prodigy discussion board, then many years later when he wrote an op-ed article for the LA Times doubting the authenticity of the James Ossuary in 2002.

This was right about the time I managed to get myself caught up in the debate when someone linked me (yes, under my "real" name, if that is what it really is) to deniers of the authenticity of the ossuary, mainly because I forwarded a picture of the James ossuary to Rochelle Altman that was in my local newspaper (The Cleveland Plain Dealer), which she mistakenly thought showed that the letters were raised and not engraved, and thus nothing more than a "show piece" manufactured for display. She published a "Final Report" paper that called the whole ossuary thingy a hoax.

Well, anyways, I said I agreed with Eisenman's op-ed piece. Me and several other "deniers" were said to be "out for money" or something. Eisenman got my e-mail from Rochelle (I think) and he e-mailed me to say "thanks for the support." It was all very polite and we commiserated about the state of scholarship that reacts so rabidly when matters of faith are questioned. In fact, neither of us had questioned the possibility that Jesus had a flesh and blood brother, although I seem to recall E. was hedging his bets by saying that even if he wasn't, they well could be "brothers" in a sect like that which wrote the Damascus Document and the Manual of Discipline, or just by common ethnic heritage. I think he was big on the idea that Christian traditions about James had many similarities to the Teacher of Righteousness of the DSS peshers.

He also had a lot to say about whether Josephus was describing the "real" Paul (sans his Christian mythos) in parts of his accounts of the Jewish War. Paul's love for gentiles and his exhortation to them that they do not need to circumcise themselves to be lovers of the Judean god in good standing was similar to the message of one of the advisors of queen Helena, mother of the future kings of Adiabene, Monobazus and Izatus. Eisenman postulated that Paul was actually a retainer of queen Helena, sent to Palestine to buy grain during the famine in the 50s CE. However, Helena's sons opted for the advice of another Jewish advisor and had themselves circumcised. Paul was shocked, especially when Helena's grandsons fought with the rebel Jews as generals. Paul ended up fighting on one side or the other, I forget which.

That doesn't mean that I think he sifted the evidence very well. Sometimes the evidence only works with certain textual traditions (Majority text versus Nestle Aland eclectic text) or even certain translations (say, KJV vs RSV), but he really does not tell us that, we have to look it up to figure it out. I'm all for looking things up but I don't want to have to sift through 1,074 pages of suggestions.

Scowling Waggyfinger

[John T]

@Scowling Waggyfinger,

Thank you for giving your background.
I hope you did not feel I was questioning your qualifications to give an expert opinion, I was not.
Please believe me when I say that after reading a sampling of your posts on other topics that I consider you extremely knowledgeable regarding early Christian history.

With that all of the way and out of the search for knowledge, I humbly risk the waving of the finger to ask your expert opinion on the probability that:

1. Jesus had a younger brother named James.
2. That the sibling of Jesus is the same James as spoken about in ACTS 21:18 and Galatians 1:19.
3. That this James is also James the Just as suggested by Hegesippus, Josephus, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius of Caesarea.
4. That James the Just, being the younger brother of Jesus was from the same bloodline of Zadok (The Community Rule) and thus qualified to be High Priest.
5. That James the Just being High Priest for the Church of Jerusalem died a martyr around 62 A.D.

IMHO, based on the research of Tabor and Eisenman and others, the probably is very high regarding a Jesus Dynasty of the 1st century.

Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,

John T

[andrewcriddle]

An interesting study of the Ben Pantera stories from the Talmud (although most probably outdated) is in Did Jesus Live 100 BC? (G. R. S. Mead, 1904 and occasionally reprinted), pages 129-130 (describing the situation in which the Pantera legend is first mentioned by Origen), and 154-155 (a discussion of the origin of the nickname in Jewish traditions). He gives a short bibliography of mainly German works, with English summarization, in the footnotes of page 155.

The entire cycle of Talmud stories is covered in a series of chapters ranging from pages 135 to 242, and the Toledoth Jeschu stories from pages 242 to 323. If you are interested in evidence for early Christian knowledge of these traditions, he traces these in pages 116 to 134 and then 324 to 412.

If the Jewish "Ben Pantera" tradition interests you, R. Travers Herford also discusses them (and provides translations and extracts in the original language from the Talmud and Midrash) in Christianity in Talmud and Midrash (1903 and also reprinted now and then) pages 35ff (especially in footnote 2 on page 39), 103ff, 138, 344ff.

The GRS Mead book is online at various places e.g. Jesus 100 BC
The Herford book is at archive.org Christianity...

Andrew Criddle