In 1990, Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner discovered a tomb in the Jerusalem suburb of Talpiot during the construction boom. This tomb had ten ossuaries and six of them had inscriptions related to the Gospels. No one thought much about it till Film Maker Simcha Jacobovici (of the Exodus Decoded fame) and producer James Cameron (of Titanic) decided to investigate this and two years of their effort was shown on Sunday in the Discovery Channel documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus.
In the documentary, they make the claim that this tomb, was the tomb of Jesus and his family. It is not any Jesus, but the one known as Jesus of Nazereth. The tomb, according to the film makers has markings which says Jesus, son of Joseph, Maria, Mariamene, Matthew, Judas, son of Jesus, and Jose. These are common names of that era and the Kloner thinks that it is a coincidence that the names are similar to the protagonists in the New Testament. Simcha Jacobovici thinks otherwise.
He got motivated to do this story after working on the story of another ossuary which had the inscription, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." This was later found to be a fake. During his investigation he came across the ossuaries which had the names of Jesus and others and he was astonished by it.
The filmmaker rests his case on four main points. First, he says, recent Biblical scholarship argues that Mary Magdalene's real name was Mariamene, a common first-century derivative of Miriam. Second, DNA tests show that microscopic human remains scraped from the Jesus box and the Mariamene box are not related, at least not matrilineally, leaving open the possibility that the two humans whose bones were once in those boxes were married. Third, the patina on the Talpiot ossuaries—that is, the mineral crust accumulated over centuries—matches that of the James box. This "discovery," if provable, is complicated but critical to Jacobovici's argument: the match means, he says, that the James ossuary originally lay in the Talpiot cave, thus answering questions about the James box's provenance. It also increases the probability that the tomb belongs to the Holy Family. Jesus had four brothers, according to the Gospel of Mark; two of their names—Joseph (or Jose) and James—were found in the Talpiot tomb.[Raiders of the Lost Tomb ]
There are no contemporary accounts of Jesus's burial and the ones closest in time are from the Synoptic Gospels dated 60-70 AD. The mythology about Jesus is that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven (Some believe that the heavenly ascension was spiritual). He never married or had an offspring. If the Talpiot tombs are proved to be true, it contradicts the Gospels and the evangelical Christian world has not taken kindly to this.
Still Christian countries did not ask for a ban on the documentary nor did they "request" Discovery Channel not to telecast it. After the documentary was telecast no one was killed. What followed instead was a detailed analysis debunking the documentary. In countless discussion forums and blogs people started finding loop holes in everything from the statistical analysis to historical evidence. The film makers in turn have been debating scholars on forums and on Television.
In India, an organization funnily named Catholic Secular Forum wrote to the Discovery Channel's office in India "requesting" them not to broadcast the documentary. According to CSF General Secretary, Joseph Dias, the documentary trivializes the credibility of the Bible and Christian faith. He also added that the documentary is all mistruth and would hurt sentiments. Guess what. A few people in India were able to prevent a majority of people from seeing this documentary as Discovery Channel postponed the screening. No one stood up and asked, why not let people see the documentary and think for themselves?
There is nothing wrong with critical probes, that is what scholarship is all about, but one does have to be open to where evidence might lead, and I fear that with the matter of the Jesus tomb, such is not the case. The “end” or result is determined beforehand and is absolutely set. [Heat and Light: The Talpiot Tomb]
Postscript: Since Catholic Secular Forum does not control the Internet, here are some links for people interested in this story
- Live Blogging of the show
- Discovery Channel Home Page for the documentary
- Interview with Simcha and James Cameron
- The Book about the movie
- Media Coverage
- Wikipedia Entry
Comments (9)
JK,
Mariamman, is a deity worshipped across Tamil Nadu. Don't you think the name is very similar to Mariam or Mirium etc.
Posted by Nitin | March 7, 2007 11:48 PM
Posted on March 7, 2007 23:48
I don't understand what these CSF guys are doing. I think the last time I heard their name was during Da Vinci Code episode. Da Vinci came and gone and nothing happened than watching just a thriller movie. The documentary must be broadcasted and also the documentary should address all aspects of this finding.
Let the historians find out the truth, but there are a few questions that makes me scratch my head for sometime:
1) How do they get DNA of Jesus who died 2000 years ago?
2) How can Jesus, the carpenter, could afford a 'family tomb' which would have been affordable for only the rich?
Or is this a "hyped-up film which is intellectually and scientifically dishonest." like this guy Joe Zias say here? --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Tomb_of_Jesus#Criticism_of_the_documentary
Thanks you for all the links.
Posted by Jo | March 8, 2007 2:23 AM
Posted on March 8, 2007 02:23
Nitin, They sound alike. There are experts in philology who could trace these words back in history and identify from where it was derived from. So far I have not heard any such connection.
In Spanish, Naranja is used for citrus fruits, and it is the same for Lemon in Malayalam. How did this happen? I am not sure :)
Posted by JK | March 8, 2007 1:14 PM
Posted on March 8, 2007 13:14
Jo,
1. The DNA samples were obtained from scrapings of bone fragments from the ossuaries. This point is not in debate among scholars. Even if they found DNA, they don't have anything to compare it against.
2. The burrial of Jesus was done by Joseph of Arimathea, who was a wealthy man. "The body was then conveyed to a new tomb that had been hewn for Joseph himself out of a rock in his garden nearby"
See: Joseph of Arimethia
Posted by JK | March 8, 2007 1:20 PM
Posted on March 8, 2007 13:20
JK
Thanks for the answers.
1) So it looks like the DNA thing doesnt have much credibility to it, right?
2) Yes, now I remember that man Joseph of Arimethia from Bible. But again it leaves a question whether it was a family tomb etc.
Well, let the historians find out the truth. :-)
Posted by Jo | March 12, 2007 6:05 AM
Posted on March 12, 2007 06:05
1. The DNA samples were used to analyze the relationship between the people found in the tomb. For example, Mitochondrial DNA analysis have shown that Mariamne Mara was neither Yeshua bar Yehosef’s sister nor mother. So the film makers made the assumption that she could be Yeshua's wife, which need not be true.
2. The documentaty starts with a title saying that the film makers are presenting whatever they found and they will let historians debate and agree on what is the truth.
The last statement in the documentary is that if this is not the tomb of Jesus and his family, then there existed at the same time a person named Jesus who was son of Joseph, with two women named Mary in his life and two men named Matthew and Joseph.
Posted by JK | March 12, 2007 3:33 PM
Posted on March 12, 2007 15:33
Then it sounds fair good enough.
Posted by Jo | March 15, 2007 1:54 AM
Posted on March 15, 2007 01:54
In fact, the James Ossuary is now thought to be genuine by most of the most serious Scholars. Meanwhile Joe Zias, the archaeologist who has been making accusations agains Simcha and Tabor etc for being dishonest has made several contradictory statements.
So please don't fall into the trap of declaring people to be dishonest before you all know the facts. There is certainly serious evidence in this case that deserved serious study, and Christians are not affraid or concerned about the possibilities, in contrast to what you may have heard on the TV or Radio.
Posted by Dave L | March 25, 2007 4:56 PM
Posted on March 25, 2007 16:56
Christianity or catholicism as I grew up in it is a religian that was exported from the Holy Land to the Romans. It is no secret that St. Paul "edited" the story of Jesus to make it more patatable to the Romans of that era. We know that certain texts were left out, such as the Gospel of Philip, because it was more political in nature and may have caused a counter productive debate within the ranks of the candidate Roman christians. Other texts may well have been destroyed to eliminate evidence to the fact that Jesus may have had his own family.
For the Romans it was necessary to portray a figure who stood alone against the challenges before him, a hero and eventually a martyr of his own cause.
Jesus was a Jew, very much a part of Hebrew society. He conformed in all aspects of that society, at least until the age of thiry when he began his work. It would have been most unusual for a thirty year old man not to have been married then because one could never tell how long a life would last in those times. It is almost a certainty that Jesus was well versed in Kaballah, which is the spiritual understanding of the Jewish faith at the highest level.
It was documented in the gospels that Jesus was a prodegy as a boy who could out quote the highest of religious figures. It would therefore follow that this talent would continue to develop into his adult life. Those who were well versed in Kaballah were revered in Hebrew society for they know the true order of the creation, as do the Sufis in Islam. However, the establishment expected this knowledge to be kept a secret and it was considered dangerous for the masses. Was Jesus showering too much insight to the masses? The establishment always has an interest in keeping the common people as ignorant as possible. That way they are easier to control. Could it be that Jesus was seen as undermining the control that the religious institutions had over the masses? Although this was most likely not the intention that Jesus had, in Hebrew society, even up till this day, things are interpreted in very political and materialistic terms. For obvious reasons.
For me the story of Jesus is still very much in the air. Some say that he was part of a sect that was centered on the banks of the dead sea. Who knows the whole truth. All I know is that there is still a lot more to discover on the issue and I welcome the efforts of the team who are involved in the investigation of the Talpiot site for bringing more statistics to the equasion of who Jesus really was, who was around him, who was he connected to and most importantly, what were his real beliefs?
I suspect that certain vital facts are being withheld by certain religious authorities. To them I would say this. No good is ever gained from withholding the truth. In saying this I believe that very soon so much of the cat will be out of that bag that the arms of all those who are still hiding important parts of this equasion will be twisted to the extent that they will have no alternative other than to disclose what they know and put all the facts into the public domain.
Posted by Andrew Routledge | March 2, 2008 12:45 PM
Posted on March 2, 2008 12:45