Posted on 02/24/2007 9:14:06 AM PST by aculeus
In a scene worthy of a Dan Brown novel, archaeologists a quarter of a century ago unearthed a burial chamber near Jerusalem.
Inside they found ossuaries, or boxes of bones, marked with the names of Jesus, Joseph and Mary.
Then one of the ossuaries went missing. The human remains inside were destroyed before any DNA testing could be carried out.
While Middle East academics doubt that the relics belong to the Holy Family, the issue is about to be exposed to a blaze of publicity with the publication next week of a book.
Entitled The Jesus Tomb and co-written by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino, the book promises the inside story of "what may very well be the greatest archaeological find of all time".
Some of the ossuaries will be at the book launch in New York, released by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The story began in March 1980 when Yosef Gat, an archaeologist employed by the IAA, surveyed a burial chamber on the south-eastern approaches of Jerusalem.
The area was being developed into the latest suburb of the city, East Talpiot, and bulldozers had uncovered an archaeological site.
Mr Gat found a standard-looking Jewish tomb dating from the era of King Herod, the Jewish king known for his ambitious building works and for his murder of infants at the time of the birth of Jesus.
After crawling into the necropolis Mr Gat found the main chamber had been silted up with soil and debris, with six "kokhim", coffin shaped spaces leading off the main chamber where human remains were housed.
According to Jewish rites, bodies would be left for a year or so to decompose in the "kokhim" before relatives came back to gather the bones and store them in ossuaries.
Mr Gat found 10 ossuaries bearing inscriptions. Some were in ancient Greek and some were in Hebrew.
One inscription said "Jesus, son of Joseph", another said "Mara", a common form of Mary, and another said "Yose", a common form of Joseph.
The authors were unavailable for comment yesterday but it is understood they base their claim that the burial chamber contained the remains of the Holy Family on their own study carried out inside the structure.
The chamber has been closed for years because a building was constructed on top of it but the authors got permission to break through an apartment block floor.
They claim to have found human material on which they performed DNA testing in a New York laboratory.
"Tests prove the names are genetically of the same family and statistically, there is a one in 10 million chance this is a family other than the Holy Family," the pre-publication publicity for the book said.
However, according to strict Christian teaching, Jesus ascended to heaven, so there would be no bones left behind.
Mr Gat died several years ago. His boss, Prof Amos Kloner said that while the names together had "a certain power" they are standard.
"At least three other ossuaries have been found inscribed with the name Jesus and countless others with Joseph and Mary," he said.
The 10 ossuaries were taken initially to the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Nine were catalogued and stored but the tenth was left outside in a courtyard.
That ossuary has subsequently gone missing.
The story went cold until two accounts of the discovery were published by Israeli academics in the mid 1990s. Prof Kloner wrote the second one in the IAA's in-house magazine Atiquot in 1996.
It sparked publicity, most notably a BBC programme shown that Easter produced by Ray Bruce called The Body In Question. However, Prof Kloner said there was no way the tomb housed the Holy Family.
"It is just not possible that a family who came from Galilee, as the New Testament tells us of Joseph and Mary, would be buried over several generations in Jerusalem."
However, in this Dan Brown era, we can't help wondering.
Have a good life, see you on the other side.
"The Assumption - Catholics believe that at her death, Mary was taken into heaven body and soul".
sw
Actually, I think Dr. Tabor is a doctor of theology and a believer himself.
He doesn't tread on the theological issues, but his work, heavily annotated, fills in some of the 'lost' or overlooked issues of Jesus' early years and his family relations.
But if you aren't interested in books that might reinforce faith with buttressing information from contemporary religious and historical writings and archeological findings, it's OK by me.
Amos Kloner is the main pusher of the James Ossuary and his conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt. It was found to be of modern design and execution.
Assuming the ossuaries are real, they most likely are the remains of a well to do family of Christans who named their family after the family of Jesus. They may have also changed their names to honor the family of Jesus.
The one in ten million statement is utter poppycock. There is no data on which to build any statistic.
Every year, surely around Easter and Christmas, the MSM finds new stories disputing the claims of the Bible, Jesus and the truth of Christianity. Then books and movies are made; usually on USA or ABC to keep us awake at night. I can't wait till Jesus does come again and wakes up the NYTimes editorial staff!
I agree.
For one thing, the bones of Jesus Christ would show rather obvious signs of crucifixion. I don't see any mention of that.
Conveniently, this discovery was made "a quarter of a century ago." Also conveniently, the bones disappeared. Sounds like a lame excuse for another church conspiracy theory.
I'll stick with the disciples of Christ. 11 of 12 died gruesomely claiming Christ rose. They were there and they should know.
I don't think or anyone will die for this tale.
Touche! You are correct. His real name was Y'shua. Jesus is the Latinized name of Iesu, the Greek version.
Can't be! They are my gardeners and maid and they are good!
http://time-blog.com/middle_east/"
February 23, 2007 6:55 Jesus: Tales from the Crypt Posted by Tim McGirk | Comments (318) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This Brace yourself. James Cameron, the man who brought you 'The Titanic' is back with another blockbuster. This time, the ship he's sinking is Christianity. In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim that Jesus wasn't resurrected --the cornerstone of Christian faith-- and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem. And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene. No, it's not a re-make of "The Da Vinci Codes'. It's supposed to be true. Let's go back 27 years, when Israeli construction workers were gouging out the foundations for a new building in the industrial park in the Talpiyot, a Jerusalem suburb. of Jerusalem. The earth gave way, revealing a 2,000 year old cave with 10 stone caskets. Archologists were summoned, and the stone caskets carted away for examination. It took 20 years for experts to decipher the names on the ten tombs. They were: Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua. Israel's prominent archeologist Professor Amos Kloner didn't associate the crypt with the New Testament Jesus. His father, after all, was a humble carpenter who couldn't afford a luxury crypt for his family. And all were common Jewish names. There was also this little inconvenience that a few miles away, in the old city of Jerusalem, Christians for centuries had been worshipping the empty tomb of Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Christ's resurrection, after all, is the main foundation of the faith, proof that a boy born to a carpenter's wife in a manger is the Son of God. But film-makers Cameron and Jacobovici claim to have amassed evidence through DNA tests, archeological evidence and Biblical studies, that the 10 coffins belong to Jesus and his family. Ever the showman, (Why does this remind me of the impresario in another movie,"King Kong", whose hubris blinds him to the dangers of an angry and very large ape?) Cameron is holding a New York press conference on Monday at which he will reveal three coffins, supposedly those of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. News about the film, which will be shown soon on Discovery Channel, Britain's Channel 4, Canada's Vision, and Israel's Channel 8, has been a hot blog topic in the Middle East (check out a personal favorite: Israelity Bites) Here in the Holy Land, Biblical Archeology is a dangerous profession. This 90-minute documentary is bound to outrage Christians and stir up a titanic debate between believers and skeptics. Stay tuned. --Tim McGirk/Jerusalem
Enjoy
TS
heh-heh, heh-heh, "titanic debate", oh those clever writers at Time!
Not a myth.
Many other things you won't find in Scripture:
The word Bible.
The word Trinity.
The word Incarnation.
Plus this gem:
"But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written." John 21:25
Any idea what copy of Sacred Scripture Jesus used?
You're on a roll, gomer. No such thing occurred during Pope John Paul II's Papacy.
By the way, Einstein, co-redemptrix is Latin, the English translation being the woman with the Redeemer. In no way does said description of the Blessed Mother elevate her to a level equal to Jesus. However, the facts never get in the way of fools like you with slightly below room temp IQs ignorantly flapping their gums.
We need more of this attitude around.
(Romans 14, eh?)
Cheers!
I doubt you know anything about the theology contained in Munificentissimus Deus.
Thats what we need to do , discredit this "research" on a scientific basis not on a religious one. Do we have any DNA expersts here of FR? This story sound slik ejunk science at best.
Can you provide any Scriptural reference describing the deaths of all the Apostles?
Why bother arguing then? Your salvation or lack thereof has been pre-determined.
It's not in scripture that Jesus ever took a dump. Does that mean he didn't ever take one?
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