What is the scientific likelihood that the tomb of Jesus and his family
is in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot? Is it possible that the
original nails used in the crucifixion have been discovered in another
cave, in the capital’s Abu Tor neighborhood? The question may be decided in a court in Israel.
Journalist and filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici is suing anthropologist Joe
Zias, who in recent years has been doing his utmost to disprove his
provocative theories on early Christianity.
Jacobovici, known for his TV series “The Naked Archaeologist,” became
famous in recent years for three films he made about the earliest days
of Christianity.
Joseph E. Zias, most commonly cited as Joe Zias, was the Curator of
Archaeology and Anthropology for the Israel Antiquities Authority from
1972 until his retirement in 1997, with responsibility for items such as
the Dead Sea Scrolls, pre-historic human skeletal remains, and
artifacts from archaeological sites such as Jericho, Megiddo, and Gezer.
He has appeared often in film and television documentaries regarding
such artifacts and the subject of the Historical Jesus, including The
Shroud of Turin for CBS, Who Killed Jesus on BBC in 1997 and Son of God
on BBC in 2001, and is a frequent lecturer.
Jacobovici completed a film a year ago, in which he revealed that
ossuaries found in a cave near the first one in Talpiot bore unusual
engravings, which according to him are the first symbols of
Christianity.
In all, he believes that those buried in the tomb were Jesus’ first
followers, which strengthens his theory that the burial cave of Jesus
was nearby.
Regarding the Discovery Channel program The Lost Tomb of Jesus,
produced by director James Cameron and created by Simcha Jacobovici,
which proposed that the Talpiot Tomb site was the actual tomb of Jesus
and his family, Zias has said, “Projects like these make a mockery of
the archeological profession.” Zias also claims that Jacobovici’s good
name could not have been harmed, because he does not have a good name,
at least not in the scientific community.
Jacobovici says “I am not surprised by the quick and personal
attacks by various scholars i.e., accusing us of “hijacking”
archaeology, “sensationalism” etc. We’ve heard it all before and I guess
some people can’t get off that track, including the accusation that we
released our book to coincide with Easter–never mind that it was
released in February and Easter is in April. Frankly, what surprises me
is how quickly the negative tone was diffused and how the discussion is
veering towards scholarly debate instead of ad hominem slander. The
reason I’m surprised is because, generally, there is an iron rule that
applies to Jesus related archaeology:
Everyone is wrong, about
everything, all the time. Some would like to portray the controversy
over the “Jesus Family Tomb” in Talpiot as one between serious scholars
and sensationalists such as myself. But let’s put this into a historical
context.
He further says, “Prof. Tabor and I are not the first people
to connect Jesus to Talpiot. In 1945, Eleazer Sukenik, who was the first
to identify the Dead Sea Scrolls as being authentically from the Second
Temple Period, discovered a tomb off Hebron Road in Talpiot,
approximately 1,000 meters from the now famous “Jesus Family Tomb.” In
the tomb, there were two ossuaries with the word “Jesus” inscribed on
them in charcoal. According to Sukenik, one inscription read “Jesus Woe”
and the other “Jesus Aloth,” which Sukenik interpreted as lamentations
for the crucifixion of Jesus. Immediately, the scholarly and Christian
community was up in arms. It turns out that Sukenik was wrong on both
counts. The ossuaries were not referring to Jesus of Nazareth. Rather,
there were two guys named Jesus buried right next to each other. And the
first ossuary did not say “Woe,” it said “Ju” which was an unfinished
version of “Judah.” Moreover, “Aloth” did not refer to lamentation but
to “Aloe.” Maybe the person interred in the box was in the Aloe
distribution business. As for why a scholar of Sukenik’s stature got it
so wrong, just recently I heard a top scholar say in a room full of
other scholars “Sukenik’s wife needed a refrigerator.” So I guess he
just sensationalized for the purpose of making money.”
About ten years ago, the Biblical Archaeology Society announced the
oldest known object relating to the life of Jesus Christ. A 2,000 year
old ossuary, or “bone box,” turned up in an antiquities shop on the Via
Dolorosa in Jerusalem. This “James Ossuary” carried these words, in
ancient Aramaic, on its side: James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.
The find led to a criminal investigation, charges of forgery, and a
sensational trial in Israel. A court ruled there was no forgery and the
James Ossuary was genuine.
The existence of the ossuary was announced at an October 21, 2002
Washington press conference co-hosted by the Discovery Channel and the
Biblical Archaeology Society. The initial translation of the inscription
was done by André Lemaire, a Semitic epigrapher, whose article claiming
that the ossuary and its inscription were authentic was published in
the November/December 2002 Biblical Archaeology Review. Authenticity of
the inscription has been challenged. The Israeli Antiquities Authority
determined in 2003 that the inscriptions were forged at a much later
date.
The owner of the ossuary is Oded Golan, an Israeli engineer and
antiquities collector. In December 2004, Golan was charged with 44
counts of forgery, fraud and deception, including forgery of the Ossuary
inscription. On October 3, 2010 court proceedings for the trial of
Golan and a co-defendant concluded. Numerous expert witnesses were
subpoenaed to testify and the outcome of this trial is considered
important by many Biblical scholars, including James Tabor, of
UNC-Charlotte, who discusses the case in his book “The Jesus Dynasty.”
On March 14, 2012, Golan was acquitted of the forgery charges but
convicted of illegal trading in antiquities. The judge said this
acquittal “does not mean that the inscription on the ossuary is
authentic or that it was written 2,000 years ago.
Four guests in this DiscloseTruth TV episode reacted to the claim
that Jesus’ tomb may have been found. During the first 90 minutes,
ancient language scholar Mike Heiser and theological researcher Darrell
Bock shared their thoughts. The finding of ossuary boxes from a 1st
century tomb is actually “old news,” dating back to a 1980 discovery,
Heiser pointed out. Bock concurred, calling it old evidence being given a
fresh spin. The theory that the boxes once contained the bones of
Jesus, Mary and Joseph is “a lot of hype,” he said, and though their
names were inscribed on the boxes, those names were very common in the
population of that era. If it was truly Jesus’ family tomb wouldn’t it
be found in Galilee, he asked. Heiser noted that even the archeologist
who made the original discovery was skeptical of the current claims.
Mike Heiser received his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and ancient Semitic
Languages from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently
Academic Editor for Logos Bible Software, a company that creates ancient
language research software and digital resources for studying the
ancient and biblical world. Mike is a member of the Society of Biblical
Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, the International
Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, the American Academy of
Religion, and the Evangelical Theological Society. In 2005, Mike was
named by Fate Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in
Ufology.
Glenn Kimball has a B.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in Communications.
In addition he has successfully completed all course work for a Ph.D.
in Communications and passed his doctoral exams, lacking his
dissertation. He was the former president of International Exchange
School and vice president of two cellular phone companies. Glenn has
taught school at Southern Illinois University and was ranked by student
evaluations in the top ten instructors at the university. He has been
collecting ancient texts since the age of fifteen and is famous for
being able to integrate very diverse texts into a contiguous story line.
Due to the censorship of time and doubt, most of the documents and
oral stories chronicling the early life of Jesus were destroyed, lost,
or forgotten. After 25 years of research, during which Kimball visited
museums, Indian tribes, medicine men, and universities, he assembled
some of the missing links and unsolved mysteries of Christianity.
William Henry is an investigative mythologist and author of ten books
on ancient mythology and neo-archaeology with a Stargate twist. By
applying the latest theories in science and consciousness to ancient
myths of the gates of the illumined gods, including Sumerian, Egyptian
and Holy Grail gateway myths, he hopes to uncover the secrets of the
guarded, by such groups as the Illuminati. His latest book, Oracle of
the Illuminati, states that we are on the verge of rediscovering the
sacred science of creating peace on Earth.
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