Kloner was asked about his opinion on the claims made by the documentary; he said, "It makes a great story for a TV film" the professor reportedly told The Jerusalem Post, "but it's completely impossible. It's nonsense. There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb. They were a poor Galilee family with no ties in Jerusalem. The Talpiot tomb belonged to a middle class family from the 1st century CE." He went on to say "The name "Jesus son of Joseph" has been found on three or four ossuaries. These are common names... Give me scientific evidence, and I'll grapple with it. But this is manufactured."
Jacobovici strongly disagrees. An observant Jew with an interest in biblical history, Jacobovici became obsessed with ossuaries in 2002, when he was working on another Discovery programme about another bone box. This one had inscribed, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus". The James box came to light via an antiquities dealer named Oded Golan. Despite its uncertain authenticity, Jacobovici and a number of other scholars claim the James box to be real, the first genuine artifact linking to Jesus of Nazareth. The IAA stepped in, declared the James inscription to be fake and Golan to be a forger. Golan's forgery trial in Israel is ongoing; he still denies the charges.
The film and book suggest that New Testament's Mary Magdalene was buried in the tomb, that she and Jesus were married, and that an ossuary labelled "Judah son of Jesus" belonged to their son. Stephen Pfann, a textual scholar and paleographer at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, said he has released a paper claiming the documentary was mistaken or fudging at best. The inscription, Pfann said, is made up of two names inscribed by two different hands: the first, "Mariame", was inscribed in a formal Greek script, and later, when the bones of another woman were added to the box, another scribe using a different cursive script added the words "kai Mara," meaning "and Mara". Mara is a different form of the name Martha. According to Pfann's reading, the ossuary housed the bones of two women, "Mary and Martha."
Basic deductive reasoning, and the Bible, which is still the best historical record of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, testifies against Jacobovici's claims. The four Gospel writers separately wrote that Jesus was crucified on the eve of the Sabbath and the tomb was empty when the disciples woke on Sunday morning. "The New Testament is very clear on this," says Alan Segal, religion professor at Barnard College. "Jesus was put in a tomb that didn't belong to him and then he rose and there was nothing left." In 93 CE, the Jewish historian Josephus published his work "Antiquities of the Jews" and in a passage called Testimonium Flavianum which states in section 3.3 that Jesus appeared to the disciples alive again the third day. Constantine wrote in 328 that the temporary resting place of Jesus Christ from which he rose lay on the rock at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is not difficult to conclude that Jacobovici is sensationalising an archeological find for the sake of notoriety and financial gain.
Pastor S. E. Ray
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Mr. Ray may be emailed at truth@eternalpath.com or visit the ministry website at www.eternalpath.com to read the unedited version of this column.
