Malachi151

I don't understand this James ossuary business, what is that about?

If they test the Mary and the Jesus and they find that the Jesus is the son of the Mary, then I'll start considering this, until then, I doubt it.

In their evidence they say that they take the genealogy from the Gospels are accurate, this to me an absurd. Even if there were a real Jesus, the idea that the writers of Matthew and Luke could actually trace his real genealogy back more than 1 or 2 generations is ridiculous.

I see now that they have only done testing on the Mariamne and Jesus because that claim those were the only two they could get samples from. Boy, what a coincidence there, the two that can't really establish much. Also, they said its only a test for maternal relations, but that still leaves sister by a step father...

lee_merrill

All very true, I only meant that if (this small group then of) Christians began naming their children after these people they admired, the probability that was computed based on commonality of those names would be too low.

Unless Jesus was indeed God. That would mean he was extraordinarily adept?

And it seems we skipped the possibility of a (say second-century) hoax. How are they going to address that?

Blessings,
Lee

mikem

Well if they can only test mitochondrial DNA then that is all they can do. Mariamene could be a sister from a different father, or a stepsister as you say. Or it could be a wife. Which you think it is depends upon how you interpret the other names. If there is a father and son, Jesus and Judah, it is reasonable to assume that Mariamene is the wife of Jesus.

Whether this is the Jesus who inspired the gospels of course depends upon the statistics that are being quoted. In the final analysis, i think that whether this is the tomb of Jesus and his family depends upon the statistics. And I read somewhere that you can use those to prove anything!

Malachi151

Apparently there were bones, which they could analyze and get more DNA from, but they are claiming that the Orthodox Christians forced them to re-bury them.

If this is true, then we need pressure to recover the bones and analyze them.

#1 We could get more DNA to test Jesus vs. Mary the supposed mother.

#2 We could analyze the bones of the Jesus to determine his age at death and if he was crucified.

To me this is an important issue and these Orthodox fools shouldn't be allowed to stand in the way.

If they are sure that its not Jesus then they should allow the bones to be examined to prove that its not Jesus.

If think think it is Jesus, then its pointless anyway, as this is obviously no god.

Ruhan

Malachi,

I am not sure where you are getting your info from but this information is incorrect. According to Tabor the bones were buried by the Orthodox community back in 1980 when these ossuaries were discovered.

This latest study had to use tiny bone fragments that remained in the ossuaries. I would suggest you read Tabor's latest blog as he actually answers most of the objections you raised in this thread thus far.

All the best,

Ruhan

CJD

This has probably been posted somewheres else, so please ignore if that's the case… Archaeologists call lost tomb of Jesus a publicity stunt

douglas

I've read this article, but I'm not convinced. Their major arguments for this being a worthless story are...

1. We've known about these for a long time.
2. The inscriptions are difficult to decyphr.
3. They are all common names.
4. Jesus' was from a poor family from Gallilea, which doesn't fit the scenario.

#4 is a valid point, but doesn't rule out the possibility that Jesus family could have been buried in this fashion. It just makes it less likely. Also, no one has suggested that the ossuaries are fakes.

This quote is telling...

I wonder if a certain amount academic snobbery isn't clouding their objectivity?

CJD

Could be. But, then, the motivation for all this is clearly money, is it not?

As with most instances in archaeology, the case is cumulative. With a probability spread of 1 in 600 to 1 in 2.4 million, I see red flags.

Toto

For whatever it is worth, Robert Eisenman, who correctly identified the James ossuary as forged 2 seconds after hearing about it, has labeled this as "primeval stupidity".

Toto

I don't think so. Oded Golan's motivation was money. But I think that the motivation here is ideology, or pride in ideas. James Tabor has a theory about the historical Jesus that he lays out in the Jesus Dynasty, and he wants to support it.