{"id":6023,"date":"2015-03-22T05:25:27","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T09:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2015-03-22T13:39:54","modified_gmt":"2015-03-22T17:39:54","slug":"cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"CNN doc goes in search of &#8220;The Secret Brother of Jesus&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"&#039;James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus&#039;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kh_arpctm-s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"shellcontent\" class=\" no-tabs\">\n<div class=\" no-tabs\"><strong><em>Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact and Forgery<\/em> (Episode 4)<em> \u2013 The Secret Brother of Jesus<\/em> airs Sunday (3\/15) @ 9:00 PM ET on CNN.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\" no-tabs\"><\/div>\n<div class=\" no-tabs\"><strong>Synopsis (from a CNN press release): <\/strong><strong id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14010\"><\/strong><em>In <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14022\">2002<\/span>,<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14023\"> <\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14024\">a<\/span>n <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14025\">a<\/span>ncient burial box <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14009\">i<\/span>s \u00a0unveiled \u00a0to \u00a0an \u00a0astonished \u00a0world. \u00a0The \u00a0casket, \u00a0known \u00a0as \u00a0an \u00a0ossuary, \u00a0bears a tantalizing inscription \u2018James, son of \u00a0Joseph, brother of Jesus.\u2019 It is i<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14026\">mm<\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14027\">ed<\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14028\">i<\/span>at<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14029\">e<\/span>ly hailed as<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14008\"> on<\/span>e of the most important religious relics ever found \u2013 the only material evidence of Jesus\u2019 and his family\u2019s existence on earth. But the ossuary is immediately shrouded in c<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14030\">on<\/span>tr<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14031\">o<\/span>versy: a<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14007\">l<\/span>t<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14006\">hou<\/span>gh it is carbon dated to the 1st \u00a0century, has Jesus\u2019 name been added in later years or is it authentic? The box also triggers another question among those unfamiliar with the l<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14032\">e<\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14033\">ss<\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14034\">e<\/span>r-\u00ad-k<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14005\">now<\/span>n figures in the Bible: Who was James?<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_13967\">\n<div id=\"yiv8053451004yqt37990\" class=\"yiv8053451004yqt1978046758\">\n<div id=\"yiv8053451004yui_3_16_0_1_1426589824248_71865\">\n<div id=\"yiv8053451004yui_3_16_0_1_1426589824248_71864\">\n<div id=\"yiv8053451004yui_3_16_0_1_1426589824248_71863\" class=\"yiv8053451004y_msg_container\">\n<div id=\"yiv8053451004\">\n<div>\n<div id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14003\" class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<div id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14001\" class=\"yiv8053451004MsoBodyText\"><em>Revisiting the pages of the New Testament, we\u2019ll discover the<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14002\"> <\/span>remarkable but largely overlooked story of Jesus\u2019s brother James. Through the eyes of the man who grows up alongside Jesus but who refuses to accept that his brother is the Messiah, we reveal a new perspective on Jesus\u2019s own life, death and Resurrection. Although not one of Jesus\u2019 original twelve Apostles, James himself is transformed into a believer when Jesus<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14035\"> <\/span>appears to him after He has risen. James then emerges as the leader of the fledgling movement in Jerusalem for 30 years, with many now arguing that without him Jesus\u2019 ministry would have died with Him on the cross. James\u2019 devotion to the cause eventually leads him, like his brother, into the hands of the Jewish priesthood, who take matters into their own hands and stone him to death.<\/em><\/div>\n<div id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14000\" class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<div id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_13998\" class=\"yiv8053451004MsoBodyText\"><em>The \u00a0remarkable story \u00a0of \u00a0James, \u00a0and \u00a0how \u00a0he \u00a0came \u00a0to \u00a0be \u00a0hidden <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14036\">\u00a0<\/span>from \u00a0history, \u00a0paints \u00a0a \u00a0wider \u00a0picture \u00a0about \u00a0t<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_13999\">h<\/span>e traumatic evolution of the early Church, whose identity is forged at the dangerous outer margins of the Roman Empire, and subjected to <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14037\">t<\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_14038\">h<\/span>e white-\u00ad-hot heat of imperial rule.<\/em><\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1426983119512_13997\" class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\"><strong>Mini-Review: <\/strong>While the question of whether the ancient box in question is really his casket, the provocative title of this fourth episode of the six-part series more or less matter-of-factly states that James was, in fact, the brother of Jesus. That&#8217;s a belief of many Protestants and it appears to be held by just about all the experts offering insights during the program. An exception being the Jesuit priest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FrJamesMartin\/info?tab=page_info\">Father James Martin<\/a> who suggests that James may have been Joseph&#8217;s son from a previous marriage &#8212; and, therefore, Jesus&#8217; stepbrother. That&#8217;s not surprising since Catholic teaching and many Protestants have disagreed on the question of Mary and Joseph had children together after Jesus was born.<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\">While the documentary makes a pretty good case that it&#8217;s at least possible that Mary had more than one child, as a Catholic who is far from an expert on such things, I&#8217;ll sit out the debate. All I know is that, as believer in Jesus, one way or the other it doesn&#8217;t shake my faith. As for the scientific question of whether James&#8217; alleged burial box is a forgery or not, the evidence is interesting but inconclusive.<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\">Regardless of one&#8217;s opinion on either question, the documentary&#8217;s emphasis on the fact that the early followers of Christ were Jewish makes any historic and\/or modern-day anti-Semitism on the part of Christians seem all the more absurd.<\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"yiv8053451004MsoNormal\">As a whole, the whole program is pretty interesting and is <strong>Recommended.<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact and Forgery (Episode 4) \u2013 The Secret Brother of Jesus airs Sunday (3\/15) @ 9:00 PM ET on CNN. Synopsis (from a CNN press release): In 2002, an ancient burial box is \u00a0unveiled \u00a0to \u00a0an \u00a0astonished \u00a0world. \u00a0The \u00a0casket, \u00a0known&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[619,8,9,10,11,15,20,21,3586,31,1],"tags":[35,757,8102,8101,8012],"class_list":["post-6023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-semitism","category-catholic-church","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-doctrine","category-history","category-journalism","category-judaism","category-religious-liberty-2","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-cnn","tag-fact-and-forgery-episode-4-the-secret-brother-of-jesus","tag-father-james-martin","tag-finding-jesus-faith"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CNN doc goes in search of &quot;The Secret Brother of Jesus&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CNN doc goes in search of &quot;The Secret Brother of Jesus&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact and Forgery (Episode 4) \u2013 The Secret Brother of Jesus airs Sunday (3\/15) @ 9:00 PM ET on CNN. Synopsis (from a CNN press release): In 2002, an ancient burial box is \u00a0unveiled \u00a0to \u00a0an \u00a0astonished \u00a0world. \u00a0The \u00a0casket, \u00a0known&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-22T09:25:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-22T17:39:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Synopsis (from a CNN press release): In 2002, an ancient burial box is \u00a0unveiled \u00a0to \u00a0an \u00a0astonished \u00a0world. \u00a0The \u00a0casket, \u00a0known&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2015-03-22T09:25:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-22T17:39:54+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html","name":"CNN doc goes in search of \"The Secret Brother of Jesus\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-22T09:25:27+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-22T17:39:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/03\/cnn-doc-goes-in-search-of-the-secret-brother-of-jesus.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"CNN doc goes in search of &#8220;The Secret Brother of Jesus&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6023"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6042,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions\/6042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}