Jesus’ Tomb Found?
by Phil Gons on February 26th, 2007
Film-makers James Cameron (cf. IMDb) and Simcha Jacobovici (cf. Wikipedia and IMDb) are working on a documentary entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which will air on the Discovery Channel on March 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The documentary sets out to prove that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had a son named Judah. These claims are based on a 1980 discovery of a cave in Jerusalem containing 10 stone caskets. Just recently the names on those caskets have been determined: Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua. Some are claiming that this cave contains the remains of Jesus and his family. There is also supposed DNA evidence identifying the body as Jesus’. A book entitled The Jesus Family Tomb by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino will be released tomorrow.
News Coverage: Discovery News, MSNBC, Toronto Star, YNet News, Telegraph, BBC News, This Is London, Times Online, Jerusalem Post (and here), Christian Post (and here), Time’s Middle East Blog, Reuters, New York Times, and Breitbart.
- Richard Bauckham:
03/01: The alleged ‘Jesus family tomb’
03/06: Addenda and Corrigenda on Marian Names
- Tony Beam:
03/03: The Sinking of ‘The Jesus Family Tomb’ Theory - Craig Blomberg:
03/05: Did They Really Find Jesus’ Bones?
- Jon Bloom:
02/27: God’s Unsinkable Ship
03/02: Aren’t All Religions Subject to Attack?
- Darrell Bock:
02/24: No Need to Yell, Only a Challenge for Some who Need to Step Up and Could (expanded) - Feb 24/25
02/26: Hollywood Hype: The Oscars and Jesus’ Family Tomb, What Do They Share? (expanded version)
02/28: The Stats - Feb 28
03/01: More Ideas on the name Mariamne to Come from Europe and Another Opinion - March 1
03/01: Bauckham’s Blog - March 1
03/02: Fun with Numbers, Key Stats Reconsidered - March 2
03/02: One more detail on the Supposed James Ossuary connection - March 2
03/02: Back from DC Interviews, Watch - March 2
03/03: How the Experts Were Used in the Special - March 3
03/03: Jim Tabor’s Blog and Koppel’s Show - March 3
03/04: Reaction of Tal Ilan and Others - March 4
03/04: Is Special’s Stat Man Backing Off? - March 4
03/05: What Do You Think? March 5
03/05: More Stat Talk and a Few Other Points- March 5
03/07: From Jerusalem March 7
03/08: Audio Interviews on the Way March 8
03/08: Talpiot Tomb Visited March 8
03/09: Prof Dr Amos Kloner Interview Coming March 9
03/10: Kloner on DNA and other Issues - March 10
03/12: More stats for you all March 12 (Updated March 15)
03/13: Interview with Prof. Tal Ilan March 13
03/14: Lectures Wrapping Up and The Tomb at Dominus Flevit at the Mount of Olives March 14
03/14: More on Mariamne March 14 from Pfann and Tabor (Updated March 16)
03/15: Thanks to Ben Gurion, Headed Home and More on Stats - March 15
03/16: Audio on a Blog Near You! March 16
03/16: Bauckham To Post on Prosopography or Tying Names in Inscriptions and Ossuaries to Literarily Known Names - March 16
03/18: New Interviews Online with Gibson and Zias and Pfann - March 18
03/19: Things Quieting Down, Finally - March 19
03/22: Joseph Zias on the 10th Ossuary and the James Ossuary March 20 (Expanded March 22)
03/21: And finally Zias on the “Chevron” or Design on the Ossuary and Tomb Entrance - March 21
03/21: Craig Evans on the Chevron - March 21
03/23: Bovon Speaks out on Mariamne - March 23
03/24: Jim Tabor’s Latest Take on the Tomb as He Summarizes His View of the Evidence - March 24
03/24: Tabor Responds to My Earlier March 24 Entry - March 24
03/25: First Response to Tabor’s Summary on Historical Context - March 25
03/26: Response to Tabor’s Remarks on Statistics - March 26 (expanded March 26)
03/27: Response to Tabor’s Remarks on Inscriptions - March 27
03/27: Robert Gundry on the Physicality of Jesus’ Resurrection and the Issue of the Tomb - March 27
03/27: Ingermanson on Statistics March 27
03/28: Response to Tabor’s Hypotheticals - March 28
- Sean Boisen:
03/07: The “Jesus Tomb” and Statistical Analysis
- Rick Brannan:
03/05: The Acts of Philip and Mariamne
03/06: Statistics and the “Jesus Family Tomb” - Nathan Busenitz:
02/27: Don’t Lose Any Sleep Over Jesus’ Lost Tomb
03/05: Asking the Experts about Jesus’ Lost Tomb - Ray Comfort:
03/03: James Cameron Discovers Ice on the Sun - Todd Friel:
03/01: Todd Friel on The Lost Tomb of Jesus - Mark Goodacre:
02/25: “The Tomb That Dare not speak its name”
02/26: “Jesus’ family tomb”: how blogging helps
02/27: Blogging the “Jesus’ Family Tomb”: the story so far
02/27: “Jesus’ family tomb” and the James Ossuary
02/27: The Beatles and the Jesus Family Tomb
02/28: Mariamne and the “Jesus Family Tomb”
02/28: Ben Witherington III on the “Jesus family tomb”
02/28: DNA and the “Jesus family tomb”
03/01: Christianity Today on the “Jesus Family Tomb”
03/01: The Statistical Case for the Identity of the “Jesus Family Tomb”
03/02: James Charlesworth on the “Jesus Family Tomb”
03/02: The correct interpretation of Dr. Andrey Feuerverger’s 1:600 odds calculation
03/03: The Jesus Family Tomb: Some Further Thoughts
03/04: Tomb Statistics: Feuerverger Responds
03/04: The “Jesus Family Tomb” Statistics: Further Developments
03/04: The Lost Tomb of Jesus Documentary: Live Blog
03/05: “The Lost Tomb of Jesus: A Critical Look” programme
03/06: “Jesus Family Tomb”: Any further thoughts?
03/07: Peer review and the tomb
03/08: Talpiot Tomb: Assorted Thoughts
03/09: The Numbers Guy on the Talpiot Tomb Calculations
03/09: The “Jesus Family Tomb”: Amy-Jill Levine comments
03/10: Adjustments to Discovery Website Statistics Claims
03/10: James Charlesworth on the “Jesus Family Tomb”: follow-up
03/11: Mariamne, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany
03/12: Jesus Family Tomb Website: Errors and Inaccuracies
03/13: Correction on Discovery Tomb Website
03/13: Talpiot Tomb Various
03/14: Mariamene and Martha, Stephen Pfann
03/15: Talpiot Tomb Statistics Update
03/16: Discovery Website Adjusts Tomb Claims
03/20: Talpiot Tomb: Does it Say Jesus?
03/22: How to decipher the Yeshua inscription
03/22: Further Updates to Discovery Tomb Website
03/25: SBL Forum: Tomb Latest
03/28: Talpiot Tomb Various - Mike Heiser:
The Jesus Ossuary: A Critical Examination
- Andreas Köstenberger:
02/27: The Jesus Tomb
03/04: Viewer’s Guide to Jesus Tomb Special
03/05: Jesus Tomb Post-Game Report
03/08: Jesus Tomb Wrap-Up
03/13: The Alleged Mary Magdalene Inscription
03/16: 12 Lessons from the Jesus Tomb Saga - Scot McKnight:
02/26: Was Jesus Married? One More Time
03/09: Scot McKnight: A Boring Box of Bones - Mark Minnick
The bones of Jesus of critical concern to Christians - Albert Mohler:
02/27: Is This Really “The Lost Tomb of Christ”? - John Piper:
02/28: Eight Reasons Why I Believe That Jesus Rose from the Dead
03/01: Piper on Jesus’ Tomb: Audio Interview - James Tabor: (liberal theologian)
02/26: Update on the Talpiot Tomb
02/26: Joe Zias on the Talpiot Tomb
02/27: Christian Blogging on the Jesus Family Tomb
02/28: Ted Koppel to Moderate Panel Discussion Following the Lost Tomb of Jesus
03/01: Flawed Statistics & Ossuary Names
03/02: The Ted Koppel Show: A Critique of the Jesus Family Tomb
03/02: The Tomb Story in Israel
03/03: Doing the Numbers on Talpiot
03/03: Heat and Light: The Talpiot Tomb
03/04: On Motivations, Methods, and the Evidence
03/05: Methinks Thou Protestest Too Much
03/05: A Note of Caution on Studying the Talpiot Ossuaries: Revised 3/9/07
03/06: Clarifying the Record: The Missing Ossuary that is not missing
03/06: The Ratings
03/07: Q & A on the Talpiot Tomb # 1
03/07: What About Peer Review? Prof. Goodacre Weighs In
03/08: Names and Numbers: Expanded 3/9/07
03/09: The Talpiot Tomb: Yosef Gath’s Preliminary Report
03/09: Clearing the Air on Statistics…please!
03/10: The Jesus Family Tomb–The Book
03/12: Presuppositions, Methods, and Assumptions: The Tomb
03/13: DNA and the Talpiot Ossuaries
03/13: Is Mariamene Mara one person or two? A New Proposal
03/14: Note on Mariamne [stroke] Mara
03/15: Welcome Academic Exchanges on The Talpiot Tomb
03/15: Double Names on Ossuaries
03/15: Mariamenou e Mara
03/15: Leah Di Segni on the Pfann “Correction” of Rahmani
03/16: Reading the Names on the Mariamene Ossuary
03/17: Clearing the Air: Rational Thinking on the Talpiot Tomb
03/18: Reading Ossuary Inscriptions: A Note of Caution
03/18: The James and the Jesus Ossuaries: Visual and Chemical Comparisons
03/19: Probabilities, Statistical Theory, and the Talpiot Tomb
03/21: A Passover in 1980
03/22: Tomb Mantras
03/23: James Ossuary: Plain or Decorated
03/24: The Talpiot Jesus Tomb: An Overview
03/25: Statistical Clouds, Fuzziness, and Ockham’s Razor
03/26: Robert Gundry’s Post and “Resurrection of the Dead”
03/27: Nonsense and the Academic Study of Religion
03/29: Tis the Season: 27 Years Ago Today - James White:
02/24: Oh Brother, Here We Go Again—or Do We?
02/24: A Couple of Links on the Cameron Film
02/26: The Lost Tomb of Jesus
02/26: Joining the Freakishly Tall Todd Friel…
02/26: More Outlandish Discovery Channel Claims
02/26: What To Say
02/26: Tomorrow On the DL
02/26: Live Blogging Larry King
02/26: If There Was Ever An Unfair Fight, This Is It
02/27: Today on the DL
02/27: Oh My Goodness
02/27: Cameron’s Preface To The Jesus Family Tomb
03/01: Ben Witherington’s Preliminary Conclusions
03/01: Quick Notice: Update
03/02: A Few Items from the Conclusion of The Jesus Family Tomb (Updated)
03/02: Quick Additional Information (With Link Update)
03/02: Dr. Carney Matheson Responds
03/05: Making Lemonade Out of Lemons: Using the Talpiot Tomb as a Witness
03/05: The Tomb Story on Iron Sharpens Iron Today and Tomorrow
03/06: Some E-Mail, More Links
03/07: Another Commentator on the Tomb Story
03/10: A Reason for Concern
03/11: An Excellent Example of the Scholarship of The Tomb
03/11: Hey, I Even Suggested This!
03/12: More on the Abuse of Truth in The Lost Tomb of Jesus
03/13: Making It Up Out of Whole Cloth
03/13: For Use on Today’s DL: More Tomb Errors
03/14: Parallel Methodology: The Tomb of Jesus and Roman Catholic Apologetics
03/14: The Final Nail in the…Ossuary
03/15: An Insight into the Mindset of “Tomb Believers”
03/16: Evidence of Progress
03/18: Darrell Bock Interviews Amos Kloner
03/19: Interpreter of Gnostic Texts: Simcha Jacobovici
03/20: As a Traveler Rejoices Upon Arriving at His Destination…
03/22: Prejudging and Missing the Point
03/28: An Incredible Turn Around! - James Emery White:
03/02: The Real Challenge from Cameron
- Ben Witherington:
02/26: The Jesus Tomb? ‘Titanic’ Talpiot Tomb Theory Sunk from the Start
02/28: Problems Multiply for Jesus Tomb Theory
03/01: The Smoking Gun—Tenth Talpiot Ossuary Proved to Be Blank
03/02: Tomb of the (Still) Unknown Ancients
03/05: The Jesus Tomb Show–Biblical Archaeologists Reject Discovery Channel Show’s Claims
03/12: Stephen Pfann Rules Out Mary Magdalene Ossuary
03/13: British Radio Interview on the Jesus Tomb
Other Resources:
- FaithMaps.org collection of links: The Talpiot Tomb
- Jeff Downs’s collection of links: The Lost Tomb of Jesus (Updated)
- Tyler Williams’s collection of links:
02/26: The Jesus/Talpiot Tomb: Around the Blogosphere
03/05: Jesus/Talpiot Tomb Monday Update - Theopedia: Family Tomb of Jesus Story
- Wikipedia:
Talpiot Tomb
The Lost Tomb of Jesus
The Jesus Family Tomb
Related Posts:
- Al Mohler, Larry King, and the Tomb of Jesus
- Tabor Responds to Witherington on The Lost Tomb of Jesus
- Witherington on The Jesus Family Tomb
- Piper on the Resurrection of Jesus (Audio Interview)
- Todd Friel on The Lost Tomb of Jesus
- The Truth About the Tenth Talpiot Ossuary
- The Lost Tomb of Jesus in Retrospect
This entry was last updated on March 29, 2007.
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Joe
The Witherington protests too much, methinks!
Was it only 5 years ago when Ben Witherington claimed the “James Ossuary” as proof of the existence of Jesus Christ and as PROOF AGAINST the Ever-Virginity of the Mother of God? Was it only 5 years ago when BW was all over the news breathlessly arguing for the authenticity of his bone-box and revealing his humble belief that he was somehow chosen (like some Holy Prophet) to deliver this good news to the world and the bad news to the poor, benighted Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians?
Surely Witherington must realize by now, even as he is being used anew by the enemies of the Faith (Cameron & Co. are linking the Witherington’s “James Ossuary” to the “Jesus Tomb!”), that he was never a Prophet but always just a pawn.
Witherington uses his “James Ossuary” against the Ever Virgin, Theotokos, Mary:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Bad_Aramaic_Made_Easy.asp
Witherington never disavowed his own ship (ossuary) full-o-holes, and now that fraud is being tied to an even greater and possibly more dangerous fraud.
Feb 26th, 2007 7:22 pm
Phil Gons
Joe,
I don’t think Witherington’s objections to the current nonsense are as connected to the James Ossuary issue as you would like to think. In fact, the two issues are virtually independent. Witherington’s reasoning is sound, and the theory is nothing short of ludicrous. I fail to see what point you are trying to make other than your disagreement with a debate that took place five years ago.
Phil
Feb 26th, 2007 9:16 pm
Rev. Donald Sensing, UMC
Any objective reader of the mainstream of Catholic theology over the centuries must always be impressed with its force and reasoning. I frequently use RCC theological inquiries in my weekly sermons.
But the “Ever-Virginity” of Mary, mother of Jesus, is simply absurd and has no biblical basis whatsoever. And asserting so does not mark one as anti-Catholic. I find a lot to fault in my own denomination’s theology, here and there, but I certainly am not anti-Methodist!
If you read BW’s posts on the James box re. the so-called Jesus tomb, you find he uses Cameron’s claims about the James box to debunk the family tomb. Cameron says the James box came from the “Jesus” tomb at Talpiot, miles from the Temple mount. BW points out that there is solid historical record that James was interred practically at the foot of the Temple Mount. So what BW is arguing is
1. If the James box is indeed fraudulent, as the Israeli government holds, then it cannot be used to buttress Cameron’s claims about the Talpiot tomb.
2. If the James box is actually authentic, as a minority of archeologists aver, it still cannot be used to buttress Cameron’s claims because it cannot have come from the Talpiot tomb since James was inarguably buried miles away.
Mar 1st, 2007 9:19 am
Jenni
Here’s my take on the Tomb claims.
http://tinyurl.com/38yj27
Mar 2nd, 2007 3:28 pm
Tom G
A boilerplate article on the Jesus Tomb was published by the Charlotte Observer yesterday. This article parroted the Jesus Tomb Movie people’s claim that the James ossuary came from the same tomb. Early Sunday morning I fired off an email to the writer pointing him to a Jerusalem Post article citing a Daily Telegraph report indicating that the archeologists of the Jesus Tomb deny the possibility of the James Ossuary having come from the same tomb. The archeologist said the 10th ossuary had no inscription and was a different size. The reporter that I emailed at the Observer then contacted the museum officials from the Jerusalem Post article and one of the experts lending their name to the Jesus Tomb movie. The result is some original reporting today on this important story. http://charlotte.com/115/story/40361.html
Mar 5th, 2007 8:38 am
Aaron
Of interest:
http://www.theopedia.com/Family_Tomb_of_Jesus_story
Mar 6th, 2007 4:48 pm