Standing Strong

What’s all this about the Jesus tomb being found?

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. 

 

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.

 

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.

The area was being developed into the latest suburb of the city, East Talpiot, and bulldozers had uncovered an archaeological site.

 

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.

After crawling into the necropolis, Gat found the main chamber had been silted up with soil and debris, with six "kokhim," coffin shaped spaces leading off the main chamber where human remains were housed.

 

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.

 

Why was this not brought up in 1980 with banner headlines as it is now?

 

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."

 

What did the Archeological authorities in Israel think of the find when it was first discovered?

 

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' family are "very low."

Isaiah 11:6

2 Thessalonians 2:15

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