Talpiot Tomb

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File:The Talpiot Tomb.jpg
An image of the Talpiot Tomb

The Talpiot Tomb is a tomb discovered in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem, Israel, in 1980. The tomb contained ten ossuaries upon discovery, one of which has since disappeared.

A documentary film produced by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and a book written by Jacobovici, The Jesus Family Tomb, argue that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus, as well as several other biblical figures from the New Testament. This argument is heavily disputed.

Discovery

The tomb was discovered in 1980 by workers constructing an apartment complex in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority initiated an excavation of the site led by archaeologist Amos Kloner. The archaeologists were given three days to document and excavate the tomb.[1] The tomb was determined to be from the Second Temple period, between 538 B.C. and A.D. 70. Typical of the area, the tomb belonged to a middle to upper-class Jewish family. About 900 similar tombs have been unearthed in the same area.[1] Inside the tomb were found three skulls[1] and ten ossuaries, with six [2] bearing the inscriptions of names. Following the discovery, the bones contained in the ossuaries were buried in unmarked graves to accord with Orthodox Jewish beliefs.[2]

Media coverage

The BBC first aired a documentary on the Talpiot Tomb in 1996. At that time, Amos Kroner, the first archaeologist to examine the site said the claims of a connection to Jesus did not hold up archaeologically, adding "They just want to get money for it." Others were similarly skeptical, though another of the archaeologists who discovered the tomb admitted "I’m willing to accept the possibility."[3]

The tomb was featured on the Today Show on February 26, 2007 where it was mentioned that the ossuaries were sent to New York.[citation needed]

The Lost Tomb of Jesus and The Jesus Family Tomb

A second documentary about the tomb, titled The Lost Tomb of Jesus, has been produced by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, and will premiere on The Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007. The documentary is being released in conjunction with Jacobovici's book The Jesus Family Tomb.

With the help of statisticians, archeologists, historians, DNA experts, robot-camera technicians, epigraphers and a forensic expert from New York's Long Island, Jacobovici argued that the bones of Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene, along with some of their lesser-known relatives, were once entombed in this cave. James Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary consulted with Jacobovici on the project and is intrigued: "A very good claim could be made that this was Jesus' clan.". [4]

Inscriptions

Six of the ten names are claimed by Jacobovici and others to be associated with figures from the New Testament. [5] As published, they read as follows:

  • Yeshua` bar Yehosef - "Jesus son of Joseph"
  • It is debated whether this inscription could read Hanun bar Yehosef.[6]
  • Maryah - "Mary"
  • Yoseh - "Joses," short for "Joseph"
  • Mariamene e Mara - "Mary also known as Mara" - (the only inscription in Greek)
  • Mattiah - "Matthew" (no relation ever given of a Matthew as being related to Jesus)
  • Yehudah bar Yeshua` - "Judas son of Jesus"

Epigraphy

Four leading epigraphers have corroborated the ossuary inscriptions for the documentary, according to the Discovery Channel.[7]

Statistical report

On February 25, 2007, a statistical study concluded that the odds are at least 600 to 1 for the Talpiot Tomb actually being Jesus Family Tomb. The methodology of this study is due to be published in a journal soon, but in the meantime a summary can be found on the Discovery Channel website [8][9] as well as the Official Site for the documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus[10]. The study would be helped by several things: first, how common the names were during that period; second, by having a review from an independent source commenting on the methodology employed in the calculation.

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.[11]

Connection to the James Ossuary

In The Jesus Family Tomb, Simicha Jacobovici claims the James Ossuary would have been a part of this tomb, but was removed by artifact dealers, and thus discovered separately.[12] The James Ossuary's authenticity has been called into question, and one of its past owners has been charged with fraud in connection to the artifact.

Ben Witherington, who worked with Jacobovici on a Discovery Channel documentary on the James Ossuary, denies this connection on two grounds:

  • "The James ossuary, according to the report of the antiquities dealer that Oded Golan got the ossuary from, said that the ossuary came from Silwan, not Talpiot, and had dirt in it that matched up with the soil in that particular spot in Jerusalem."
  • "Furthermore, Eusebius reports that the tomb marker for James' burial was close to where James was martyred near the temple mount, indeed near the famous tombs in the Kidron valley such as the so-called tomb of Absalom. Talpiot is nowhere near this locale."[13]

Criticism

Newsweek reports that the archaeologist who personally numbered the ossuaries dismissed any potential connection:

"Simcha has no credibility whatsoever," says Joe Zias, who was the curator for anthropology and archeology at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem from 1972 to 1997 and personally numbered the Talpiot ossuaries. "He's pimping off the Bible... He got this guy Cameron, who made 'Titanic' or something like that—what does this guy know about archeology? I am an archaeologist, but if I were to write a book about brain surgery, you would say, 'Who is this guy?' People want signs and wonders. Projects like these make a mockery of the archaeological profession."[14]

Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, also said the film's hypothesis holds little weight:

"How possible is it?" Pfann said. "On a scale of one through 10 - 10 being completely possible - it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half."[15]

Pfann added that the inscription read as "Jesus" has been misread by suggesting that the name "Hanun" might be a more accurate rendering.[16]

Some theologians have also disputed this claim, with the Israel Museum's Mevorah calling it "a good trick" and Asbury Theological Seminary's Dr. Ben Witherington III saying it was "highly improbable."[17]

References

  1. ^ a b Laidlaw, Stuart (2007-02-26). "Jesus tomb claim sparks furor". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
  2. ^ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070226-jesus-tomb_2.html
  3. ^ "Clergy, scholars assail tomb of Jesus film". The Courier-Journal. 2007-02-27. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
  4. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17328478/site/newsweek/
  5. ^ http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/25/tomb_arc.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070225073000
  6. ^ http://www.nbc11.com/entertainment/11116378/detail.html
  7. ^ http://jeremiahandrews.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/a-response-from-my-christian-origins-professor/
  8. ^ http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/25/tomb_arc_02.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070225073000
  9. ^ http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/explore/explore.html
  10. ^ http://www.jesusfamilytomb.com/evidence/probability/jesus_equation.html
  11. ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-25-2007/0004533923&EDATE=
  12. ^ http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/explore/explore.html
  13. ^ Witherington, Ben (2007-02-26). "The Jesus Tomb? 'Titanic' Talpiot Tomb Theory Sunk From The Start". Retrieved 2007-02-28.
  14. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17328478/site/newsweek/
  15. ^ http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/26/D8NHFDRG3.html
  16. ^ Matthews, Karen (2007-02-27). "Jesus tomb claim derided". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
  17. ^ Jester, Art (2007-02-27). "Asbury scholar assails Jesus film". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved 2007-02-27.

See also

External links

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