Judah as Thomas the Contender

Did Jesus and Mary have a son, a child whose identity was kept secret to protect his life?

The most explosive ossuary in the Talpiot tomb, incidentally the ossuary of a child, was inscribed “Yehuda bar Yeshua.” Written in Aramaic. Translated, it means “Judah, son of Jesus.”

The Gospel of Mark (6:3) tells us that Jesus had a family, including brothers: “Is this not the carpenter, son of Mary, the brother of James and Jose, and of Judah, and Simon?”

Today, “Saint Jude,” is distinguished from the Judas who betrayed Jesus. The name is repeated in part of the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas called the Book of Thomas the Contender, in which this same brother of Jesus (“Jude”) is called “Didymos Judah Thomas” who became more widely known as “Saint Thomas.” So, as it turns out, “St. Jude” and “St. Thomas” may be one and the same person. “Didymos” was a word, not a name. Quite literally it meant “twin.”

As for “Thomas,” no such name has ever existed in Hebrew. This, too, is a word, and not a name. Thomas - “Te-om,” in Hebrew: “twin.”

The power in the meaning of these two words - one Greek, the other Hebrew – is revealed when we turn to the first sentence of the Gospel of Thomas. Here, we are told that these “secret” teachings of Jesus were written by Didymos Judah Thomas, “Twin Judah Twin.”

The name suggests, strongly suggests, that Judah and Thomas were indeed one and the same person. In the Gospel of Thomas (Saying 11) Jesus says to Thomas, “On the day when you were one, you became two.” That seems to be exactly what happened to Judah. He became both Judah and Thomas: “Twin Judah Twin.”

This strange code would be impossible to break were it not for an ossuary in Talpiot inscribed “Judah son of Jesus.” Can it be that the son became the “twin”—perhaps an ancient code for “junior”—in order to protect him from the Roman authorities? Can it be that Jesus’ son has been hiding—touchingly, like a child—in plain sight all along?