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The “Jesus Tomb” March 2007 |
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Standing Strong |
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A Messianic Jewish Congregation with an outreach to Believers in Israel |
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I continue to get requests from people about the new finding of Jesus' tomb in Talpiot Jerusalem.
What is the truth about this finding? Is there reason for concern? Is the Christian claim of the resurrection in danger of being exposed as one of the longest running hoaxes of all time?
The fact that these questions are coming to me shows a need to provide answers from the perspective of one who lives here in Jerusalem and one who studies what is happening with the intent of finding out the truth behind the headlines. Those who are helping support our work in the land of Israel want answers from someone they can trust.
The claim to have found Jesus’ tomb is not a new claim. |
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A web site http://www.tombofjesus.com/2007/home/welcome.html claims that Jesus’ tomb has been found in Srinagar, Kashmir, India. Another site claims his tomb has been found in Japan, http://thiaoouba.com/tomb.htm. So before we start going off the deep end with the questions above, lets look at things to see what we have found without adding hype to it.
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Entrance to the tomb in Talpiot. |
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First off, this archeological find is not a new one. It was first found in 1980 when Yosef Gat, an archaeologist employed by the IAA, (Israeli Antiquities Authority), surveyed a burial chamber on the south-eastern approaches to occupied Jerusalem.
Gat found a standard-looking tomb dating from the era of King Herod, the Jewish king known for his murder of infants at the time of the birth of Jesus.
Gat found 10 ossuaries bearing inscriptions, some in ancient Greek and some in Hebrew. One inscription said "Jesus, son of Joseph," another said "Mara", a common form of Maria or Mary, and another said "Yose", a common form of Joseph.
Gat died several years ago. |
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Why was this not brought up in 1980 with banner headlines as it is now? |
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The chamber has been closed for years because a modern building was constructed on top of it, but the authors got permission to break through the floor of the apartment block and enter the necropolis.
They claim to have found human material on which they performed DNA testing in a New York laboratory. "Tests prove the names are genetically of the same family and statistically, there is a one in 10 million chance this is a family other than the Holy Family," the pre-publication publicity for the book said.
Gat's boss, Professor Amos Kloner, said that while the names together had "a certain power" they are standard for that period. "At least three other ossuaries have been found inscribed with the name Jesus and countless others with Joseph and Mary. It's a beautiful story but without any proof whatsoever," he said.
The 10 ossuaries were taken initially to the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Nine were catalogued and stored but the tenth was left outside in a courtyard along with numerous other relics regarded as having no value. That ossuary has subsequently gone missing.
Prof Kloner said there was no way the tomb housed the family of Jesus. "It is just not possible that a family who came from Galilee, as the New Testament tells us of Joseph and Mary, would be buried over several generations in [Occupied] Jerusalem." |
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The James, brother of Jesus Ossuary found in 2002 was found to be a hoax and the finder is currently facing trial. This piece is ironically one of the pieces sited for proving the authenticity of the Jesus tomb. |
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What did the Archeological authorities in Israel think of the find when it was first discovered? |
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In 1980 a construction crew in the Jerusalem suburb of Talpiot chanced upon a first-century tomb, which are not uncommon in that city. The Israeli Antiquities Authority found 10 bone boxes there, and stored them in a warehouse. Some bore inscribed names: Jesus, son of Joseph; Maria; Mariamene e Mara; Matthew; Judas, son of Jesus; and Jose. Each name with the exception of Mariamene seemed common to their period, and it was only in 1996 that the BBC made a film suggesting that, given the combination, it might be that family. The idea was eventually discounted, however, because, as University of St. Andrews (Scotland) New Testament expert Richard Bauckham asserted in a subsequent book, the names with Biblical resonance are so common that even when you run the probabilities on the group, the odds of it being the famous Jesus's family are "very low." |
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What are the questions that can’t be answered that throw such doubt on this find? |
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If "Jesus" and "Mariamene" weren't related maternally, why jump to the conclusion that they were husband and wife, rather than being related through their fathers? The first use of "Mariamene" for Magdalene dates to a scholar who was born in 185, suggesting that Magdalene wouldn't have been called that at her death. Why is this ossuary attributed to her? Since the custom was to bury the dead in their home town, why would Mary and Joseph’s family tomb be in Jerusalem instead of Nazareth? Middle East researcher and biblical anthropologist Joe Zias states, "It has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus; he was known as Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of Jerusalem, and if the family was wealthy enough to afford a tomb, which they probably weren't, it would have been in Nazareth, not here in Jerusalem.”
Why was the James Ossuary, which has been labeled a forgery, cited by Cameron and Jacobovici as one of the reasons for the tomb‘s validity? CBS News correspondent Mark Philips reports “The archeological establishment has lined up to label this claim as bunk. This is the second time The Discovery Channel has been involved in a disputed claim about an ancient tomb,” reports Phillips. The man at the center of the previous case is now facing trial for forgery.” Asbury Theological Seminary professor Ben Witherington, an early Christianity expert who was deeply involved with the James Ossuary, says “there are physical reasons to believe it couldn't have originated in the Talpiot plot.” St. Andrews' Bauckham defends his probabilities, noting that Jacobovici was comparing his name-cluster to the rather small sampling of names known to have been found on bone boxes, while his own basis for comparison, which adds names from contemporary literature and other sources, makes the combo far less unusual.
Darrell Bock, a professor at the conservative Protestant Dallas Seminary, whom the Discovery Channel had view the film, adds another objection: why would Jesus's family or followers bury his bones in a family plot and "then turn around and preach that he had been physically raised from the dead?"
If that objection smacks secular readers as relying too heavily on scripture, then Bock's larger point is still trenchant: "I told them that there were too many assumptions being claimed as discoveries, and that they were trying to connect dots that didn't belong together."
Stephen Pfann, president of Jerusalem's University of the Holy Land and an expert in Semitic languages, appears in The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Pfann told National Geographic News that he also has doubts about the movie's claims. "I don't think it says Yehoshua [Jesus]. It says Hanun or something," Pfann said, after viewing high-resolution images of the ossuary inscription in question. |
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An ossuary said to have been found in a 2,000-year-old tomb in Talpiot Jerusalem in 1980 that may have held the bones of Mary Magdalene and was found with another that may have held the bones of Jesus. |
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And what do I hear on the street and how is this viewed in Israel? |
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Almost everyone I talk to sees this as a big Joke. There is no one on the ground here that I have met that is taking this claim seriously. The locals are laughing that the Christians of the world are so confused and ignorant of basic knowledge of Jewish customs and history of the time that anyone is taking this seriously.
I think this discussion shows enough to make people realize that there are much more important items in life to draw our attention.
Shalom from Jerusalem, Richard E. Bristol, PhD |
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Partial Bibliography
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/02/25/10106901.html http://y-jesus.com/jesus_tomb.htm?gclid=CPWdz7OE64oCFSB6Zwodjm8Zlw www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254669,00.html www.thiaoouba.com/tomb.htm www.tombofjesus.com www.dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/tomb.h www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17328478/site/newsweek www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1593893,00.html http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03/13/jesus.tomb.ap/ |
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Check out what Dr. Stephen Pfann, President of the University of the Holy Land, has to say about this. |