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JESUS TOMB CASE CLOSED FOR MOST SCHOLARS
By Katherine T. Phan
Christian Post
January 23, 2008

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080123/30957_Jesus_Tomb_Case_Closed_f
or_Most_Scholars.htm

A group of scholars posted a statement rejecting the identification of the
Talpiot tomb as belonging to Jesus, a week after a conference in Jerusalem
revisited evidence on claims presented in the controversial film "Lost Tomb
of Jesus."

In a statement posted Monday on the Duke University Religion Department's
blog site (see below), key figures in the discovery of the 1980 Talpoit tomb
and other experts who attended the conference agreed that most scholars in
attendance rejected the claims that the tomb belonged to the author of
Christianity, despite the consensus being represented by the media as
otherwise.

"We wish to protest the misrepresentation of the conference proceedings in
the media, and make it clear that the majority of scholars in attendance --
including all of the archaeologists and epigraphers who presented papers
relating to the tomb -- either reject the identification of the Talpiot tomb
as belonging to Jesusı family or find this claim highly unlikely," reads the
statement.

Among the scholars who signed the statement were Shimon Gibson of the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, an archaeologist who participated
in the dig, Amos Kloner, who supervised the dig, and Duke University
professor Eric Meyers, who was among the five panelists in the concluding
session.

"It's very unfortunate that a serious meeting of scholars on Jewish belief
of the afterlife got so mixed up with media spin," Myers told The Christian
Post on Tuesday.

The consensus by the scholars dealt a huge blow to claims made by ³The Lost
Tomb of Jesus" filmmakers, ³Titanic² director James Cameron and Jewish
investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici.

In the film, Cameron and Jacobovici suggested that archaeologists had found
the family tomb of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, challenging most Christiansı
belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The duo went
further to also suggest that Mary Magdalene was buried in the tomb, that she
and Jesus were married, and that an ossuary labeled "Judah son of Jesus"
belonged to their alleged son.

The experts -- which included archaeologists, statisticians and experts in
DNA, ceramics and ancient languages -- arrived at their conclusion after
five days of testimonies and presentations at last week's conference
entitled, ³Third Princeton Theological Seminary Symposium on Jewish Views of
the Afterlife and Burial Practices in Second Temple Judaism: Evaluating the
Talpiot Tomb in Context.²

Myers said he was "unalterably" and "unequivocally" opposed to the
identification of the East Talpoit tomb as belonging to Jesus.

New Testament Language and Literature Professor James Charlesworth of
Princeton Theological Seminary, the conference's organizer, also joined
Myers and Gibson in the concluding panel to reject claims that the tomb
belonged to Jesus.

While there was no formal vote on the matter, the professor said that
virtually all the scholars at the conference held the same views.

Myers, who specializes in archaeology and the history of Second Temple, said
there are two main reasons why he rejected the claims put forth by Cameron
and Jacobovici.

The first dealt with the statistical analysis presented by Andrey
Feuerverger, professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of
Toronto. Feuerverger had calculated that there was a 1 in 600 chance that
the particular cluster of names found on the Talpoit ossuaries would occur
in one of the roughly 1,000 tombs discovered so far.

It wasn't the statistical process he used that flagged the analysis for
Myers, but it was the Feuerverger information used to calculate those odds.

Most of that information centered around the reading of the inscriptions on
the ossuaries which bore the names used in the analysis. One was interpreted
to read "Mariemene e Mara" and in some early Christian texts was believed to
refer to Mary Magdalene.

But epigraphers at the conference, however, contested the reading as
"Mariemene e Mara" -- a crucial part of the calculation.

Among them included Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of
the Holy Land in Jerusalem, who asserted at the conference and in earlier
writings said the reading doesn't read "Mariamene" at all but instead
"Mariame" and "kai Mara." According to a detailed article he published
online last year, he said the ossuary housed the bones of two women, "Mary
and Martha."

Citing inferences drawn by Camil Fuchs, head of Tel Aviv University's
statistics department, Myers said there is almost no probability that the
ossuary belonged to Mary Magdalene.

At the conference, an expert panel of scholars on the subject of Mary in the
early church dismissed the link between "Mariamene" and Mary Magdelene. They
also firmly rejected the suggestion that Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus
and that they had a son.

Pfann also questioned whether the inscription, reportedly reading "Yeshua,
the son of Joseph," could even be read.

"These are common names so it's impossible to equate them with familial
relationships," commented Myers.

In addition to the problems associated the inscriptions and statistical
analysis, Myers also pointed to holes in the analysis of the DNA taken from
the bones found in the ossuaries.

Earlier reports indicated that the DNA taken from the bones of the two
ossuaries were not related. But Christian theologians were quick to point
out there was also no proof that the DNA belonged to Jesus.

In the most recent report, the head of the DNA laboratory at Hebrew
University said that the sampling was invalid and contaminated, thereby
eliminating any inferences that could be drawn between the non-familial
relationship of the bones.

"It was not even worth discussion. That should have closed the case," said
Myers of the contaminated DNA.

Myers also denounced a sensationalized remark made by Ruth Gat, the widow of
the archaeologists who discovered the Talpiot tomb.

Upon receiving a lifetime achievement award on behalf of Joseph Gat, Ruth
Gat said that her late husband always thought the tomb he uncovered belonged
to Jesus but never published his opinion from fear of anti-Semitism.

"It's ridiculous," said Myers. "He couldn't read the epigraphy -- the study
of ancient scripts. He was not a scholar; he was just a technical field
archeologist."

-------------

THE TALPIOT TOMB CONTROVERSY REVISITED
Duke University Religion Department Blog
Monday, January 21, 2008

http://dukereligion.blogspot.com/

A firestorm has broken out in Jerusalem following the conclusion of the
³Third Princeton Theological Seminary Symposium on Jewish Views of the
Afterlife and Burial Practices in Second Temple Judaism: Evaluating the
Talpiot Tomb in Context.² Most negative assessments of archaeologists and
other scientists and scholars who attended have been excluded from the final
press reports. Instead the media have presented the views of Simcha
Jaocobovici, who produced the controversial film and book ³The Lost Tomb of
Jesus² with Hollywood director James Cameron, and who claims that his
identification has been vindicated by the conference papers. Nothing further
from the truth can be deduced from the discussion and presentations that
took place on January 13-17, 2008.

A statistical analysis of the relatively common names engraved on the
ossuaries leaves no doubt that the probability of the Talpiot tomb belonging
to Jesusı family is virtually nil if the Mariamene named on one of the
ossuaries is not Mary Magdalene. In fact, epigraphers at the conference
contested the reading of the inscription as ³Mariamene.² Furthermore, Mary
Magdalene is not referred to by the Greek name Mariamene in any literary
sources before the late second-third century AD. An expert panel of scholars
on the subject of Mary in the early church dismissed out of hand the
suggestion that Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus, and no traditions
suggest that Jesus had a son named Judah (another person named on an ossuary
from this tomb). Moreover, the DNA evidence used to suggest that Jesus had a
wife was dismissed by the Hebrew University team that devised such
procedures and who have conducted such research all over the world. Even the
ossuary inscribed with the name ³Jesus son of Joseph² is paralleled by a
find from another Jerusalem tomb, and at least one speaker said the reading
of the name ³Jesus² on the Talpiot tomb ossuary was not certain. Testimony
from archaeologists who were involved in the excavation of the Talpiot tomb
left no doubt that the ³missing² tenth ossuary was plain and uninscribed,
eliminating any possibility that it is the so-called ³James ossuary.²

The identification of the Talpiot tomb as the tomb of Jesusı family flies in
the face the canonical Gospel accounts, which are the earliest traditions
describing Jesusı death and burial. According to these accounts Jesus was
placed in the tomb of a prominent follower named Joseph of Arimathea. Since
at least the early fourth century Christians have venerated the site of
Jesusı burial at the spot marked by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In
contrast, not a single tradition, Christian or otherwise, preserves any
reference to or recollection of a family tomb of Jesus anywhere in
Jerusalem.

The smoking gun at the conference was the surprise appearance of Ruth Gat,
the widow of the archaeologist who excavated the tomb in 1980 and died soon
afterwards. Mrs. Gat announced that her husband had known about the
identification all along but was afraid to tell anyone because of the
possibility of an anti-Semitic reaction. However, Joseph Gat lacked the
expertise to read the inscriptions. His supervisor and other members of the
Israel Antiquities Authority believe that Gat could not have made such a
statement in his lifetime since the inscriptions seem to have been
deciphered only after he had passed away. Jacobovici now claims that Mrs.
Gatıs statement has vindicated his claims about the tomb.

To conclude, we wish to protest the misrepresentation of the conference
proceedings in the media, and make it clear that the majority of scholars in
attendance -- including all of the archaeologists and epigraphers who
presented papers relating to the tomb -- either reject the identification of
the Talpiot tomb as belonging to Jesusı family or find this claim highly
unlikely.

Sincerely,

Professor Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Professor Eric M. Meyers, Duke University
Choon-Leon Seow, Princeton Theological Seminary
F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Princeton Theological Seminary
Lee McDonald, Princeton Theological Seminary, visiting
Rachel Hachlili, Haifa University
Motti Aviam, University of Rochester
Amos Kloner, Bar Ilan University
Christopher Rollston, Emmanuel School of Religion
Shimon Gibson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Joe Zias, Science and Antiquity Group, Jerusalem
Jonathan Price, Tel Aviv University
C.D. Elledge, Gutavus Adolphus College

-------------

NHNE's "Lost Tomb Of Jesus" Resource Page:
http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/jesustomb/

------------

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Published by David Sunfellow
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