[Physicist]

No, but I think the archaeologist who dug them up already described them as completely mundane. He also explained that there were at least 70 other tombs in Jerusalem that bore the name Jesus. It was a fairly common first name in the era.

If that were all there was to it, it wouldn't be worth calling attention to it. My belief is that this is a different family, but the combination of names does seem unlikely enough to justify the attention.

Very few people doubt that Jesus was a historical person, and nobody can discount his importance, so if these are relics of the man and his family, they deserve close scrutiny. Look at the attention the Shroud of Turin has received over the centuries.

While we're on the subject, does the "Jesus" ossuary actually contain any bones? If there's one historical fact about Jesus that almost everyone can agree upon, it's that he was crucified by the Romans. The bones ought to show evidence of that, if they're for the right man.

And if the box is empty...

[AnAmericanMother]

Miriam/Mariam/Mary, Iusuf/Joseph, and Yeshua/Joshua/Jesus were about the most common names around at that time. We don't have very many given names in English (as long as you eliminate the trendy silly names and the Southern custom of giving people last names as a given name), and they had even fewer.

It's like thinking that a set of modern gravestones with John, Mary, and James on them are related to any particular individual within the same century named John, Mary, or James. Or assuming two people named Smith are related. Highly unlikely.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>it's that he was crucified by the Romans. The bones ought to show evidence of that, if they're for the right man.


Actually, Crucifixion was a common punishment. Also, it was a punishment for the poor and the working class. People, who by most standards of the day never could have afforded a family plot. More than one guy named Jesus could have been believed guilty of a capital offense and punished that way.

Someone who was poor enough to crucify, rather than punishing in a more dignified manner, would not have been able to afford a box to be buried in. Those things cost a lot more, proportionally, than they do now.

[highlander_UW]

And if the box is empty...

The only thing that is empty is the head of anyone who buys this fabrication. I saw one story that said DNA evidence proves they were married. Oh, really? Unrelated people have a DNA match once they become married? This isn't even good faux-science.