The tomb of Jesus and his family?

Information about the tomb

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This image was supplied by the Discovery Channel to the Toronto Star

About the tomb:

According to Amazon.com:

In 1980 [-MAR-28], workers at a Jerusalem construction site accidentally uncovered a cache of bone boxes from early Christian times. When reports about the crypt discovery leaked out 16 years later, the London Sunday Times headlined the story as "The Tomb That Dare Not Speak Its Name." _1,2

Archeologists were given three days to document the tomb. They found ten limestone ossuaries and three skulls. Six of the ossuaries have names etched into them:

These are all names in Jesus' family. Maria is the Latin form of Mary; Mary, the mother of Jesus, was referred to as Maria after the crucifixion by Pagans in the Roman Empire who had became Christians. Mariamne is the Greek form of Mary -- the name that she would have used during her preaching. Jose was the nick name used for Jesus' little brother Joseph.

In 1995, a crew from the British Broadcasting Corporation was researching an Easter TV special in Jerusalem. They found the collection of nine ossuaries in an Israeli Antiquities Authority store room; one of the ossuaries had disappeared. The resulting program appeared on a BBC Heart of the Matter newsmagazine 1996.

Further discoveries:

Since the BBC documentary:

"Since tombs normally contain either blood relations or spouses, Jacobovici and his team suggest it is possible Jesus and Mary Magdalene were a couple. "Judah," whom they indicate may have been their son, could have been the "lad" described in the Gospel of John as sleeping in Jesus' lap at the Last Supper." ₂

The DNA residue in the remaining ossuaries were not tested for the documentary.

"The inscriptions are from the Herodian Period. The use of limestone ossuaries and the varied script styles are characteristic of that time."

"Andrey Feuerverger, professor of statistics and mathematics at the University of Toronto, recently conducted a study addressing the probabilities that will soon be published in a leading statistical journal."

"Feuerverger multiplied the instances that each name appeared during the tomb's time period with the instances of every other name. He initially found "Jesus Son of Joseph" appeared once out of 190 times, Mariamne appeared once out of 160 times and so on."

"To be conservative, he next divided the resulting numbers by 25 percent, a statistical standard, and further divided the results by 1,000 to attempt to account for all tombs — even those that have not been uncovered — that could have existed in first century Jerusalem."

"The study concludes that the odds are at least 600 to 1 in favor of the Talpiot Tomb being the Jesus Family Tomb. In other words, the conclusion works 599 times out of 600." ₂

A related tomb?

Discovery News also reported that:

"The researchers discovered a second, as-yet unexplored tomb about 65 1/2 feet [20 meters] from the Talpiot Tomb. During the documentary, they introduced a robotic camera into this second tomb, which captured the first-ever recorded footage of an undisturbed burial cave from Jesus' time. The team speculates that this other tomb could contain the remains of additional family members, or even disciples, though further examination and analysis are needed. ₂

References used:

1. Jennifer Viegas, "Jesus Family Tomb Believed Found," Discovery News, at: http://dsc.discovery.com/
2. Pope Pius Xii, "Munificentissiumus Deus," Vatican, 1950-NOV-01, at: http://www.ewtn.com/
3. Laurie Goodstein, "Crypt Held Bodies of Jesus and Family, Film Says,"  New York Times, 2007-FEB-27
4. "Jesus' tomb: Fact or fiction," Y-Zine, at: http://www.y-zine.com/

Copyright © 2007 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2007-FEB-26
Latest update: 2007-FEB-28
Author: B.A. Robinson