Josefa

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=royals&id...

Roman Emperor Nero ordered the execution of Jesus' sister Josefa. - Sun - 9 Sep 1997.

And it came to pass that in Cirta a certain Roman officer who hated the Christians seized her and bound her in chains and threw her into prison. But Josefa told this officer that she was a Roman citizen, so the officer sent her to Rome for judgement, saying that there was no one in all that province who had the authority to judge a roman citizen. -- Fragment of the lost Gospel of James, found at Har Ramon in southern Israel. - Sun, 9 Sep 1997

At sometime during her loife she became a Roman citizen, which was no easy task for a Jew in the roman Empire. She preached the gospel of Christ throughout Africa, Greece and Egypt.

Marshall Silverman, Bible Scholar, says: "Josefa was sentenced to death in Rome, probably by Nero himself, and was ordered to be crucified in the arena with other Christians - as well as the worst felons. The Gospel of James says that 'a great cry went up from those who were there, saying it was against the law to crucify a Roman citizen.' But Nero cruelly replied: 'Since this woman is a Roman...let her cross be whitewashed and araised higher than the rest.'"

According to Silverman, the Gospel of James says that Josefa "went to her death rejoicing, praising the name of Jesus...her savior and her brother."

-- Sun, 9 Sep 1997.