By: Michael Gryboski

The recent news about an alleged find on the burial place of Jesus Christ is not as original as many would think. Ever since the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ many have claimed he went elsewhere instead. Some stories have Jesus surviving the crucifixion and fleeing to India where he got married, fathered children, and died at age 120. Others have him ending up in the Americas after His resurrection and preaching the Good News. Still others say he ended up in France, or England, or Japan, getting married and fathering children in each of these either after He resurrected or after escaping death at the cross.

So in perfect step with these academically specious claims Oscar-winning director James Cameron and Emmy-winning filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici have collaborated on a new theory that states Jesus Christ was buried in a family tomb in the Talpiyot (also spelled Talpiot) neighborhood of Jerusalem. This groundbreaking discovery is not new, as it was excavated in 1980, but the claim that it is the burial place of Jesus Christ, his wife, son, and parents as well as other family members is.

As with other claims about the “real” life of Jesus, this one is already being denounced by scholars and clergy alike. Before delving too far into the controversy, one can already see problems with this theory proposed by Cameron and Jacobovici.

Important to note is the reason why the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) decided to ignore what was supposed to be such an amazing find that would destroy the foundation of Christianity beyond repair. “Amos Kloner, author of one of the first articles about the tomb, has pointed out that the name Jesus was found 71 times on objects from the some 900 burial caves unearthed in the same general area.”1

Further to note is that as a family tomb, this find in Talpiyot would not have had the remains of just one or two generations, but several. Talpiyot “is a generational tomb that could contain, according to New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham, up to 35 people.”2 This means the odds that this particular family tomb is where Jesus is buried get even higher in unlikelihood than before.

With that noted, enter Jodi Magness of the Biblical Archeological Society. Holding a Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Archaeology and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she is a veteran of more than 20 excavations in Israel and Greece. Magness points out that Cameron and Jacobovici used as historical reference for their opus apocryphal Gospels such as the Gospel of Philip, which was written well after the Four Canonical Gospels.

As Magness writes, “the Gospel accounts of the death and burial of Jesus might not be completely accurate from an historical point of view, they are consistent with our literary and archaeological information about how the Jews of Jerusalem buried their dead in the time of Jesus. The Gospels also show familiarity with Jewish law, conveying Joseph’s concern to bury Jesus before the Sabbath.”3

And what do the Gospel accounts speak of regarding the burial of Jesus? Well, the contradictions between the Canonical Gospels and the Talpiyot theory abound. “Kloner and others have also noted that the crypt in question bore signs of belonging to a comfortable Jerusalem middle-class family—something that Jesus’ humble Nazarene family definitely was not.”1

Jay Cost noted many problems with the Talpiyot theory regarding the historical record. These include the fact that few scholars believe that Jesus remained buried, as the earliest testimony from Christian and unbeliever alike say that the tomb was empty. Be it Resurrection or human removal, there was no body present. Given that finding the body of Jesus Christ would have given the Sanhedrin and the Romans the perfect weapon to destroy that growing cult, it would be foolhardy on the part of the disciples to bury it within the Jerusalem area, where ideological enemies with government assistance could easily locate the body.

Cost also notes that the family tomb’s exterior is ornately decorated, meaning that once again if the authorities can do away with the Christian cult altogether just by showing the populace the corpse of Jesus, why didn’t they simply break open the tomb and end the matter? The ossuary’s inscription ‘Jesus, son of Joseph’ is scratched on the coffin. This method of inscription was even noted by Cameron in the documentary as looking like “graffiti.” Why would a devoted following take so little care for the look of their Teacher’s final burial place?

I have a corollary to this: if it looks like graffiti, is there not a chance that it might actually be graffiti? Maybe some malevolent fellow from some time ancient or modern defaced this property. The allegation of hoax is not too unfeasible given Cameron’s effort to connect the Talpiyot find with the infamous James ossuary found a couple years ago, claiming that it was once in the family tomb but was later removed. The James bone box, however, has a severe credibility gap for “In 2005, Israel charged five suspects with forgery in connection with the infamous bone box.”4

In conclusion, these and other errors abound regarding the supposed findings at Talpiyot. Once again, a small group of people with a minor amount of academics at best claim to have found another burial place of Jesus Christ, but after everyone has recovered from the shock the reality sinks in. As Early Christianity scholar R. Joseph Hoffman of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion commented, “Amazing how evidence falls into place when you begin with the conclusion—and a hammer.”1

1. Tolson, Jay “Who is Entombed in the ‘Jesus Tomb’?”, found in US News and World Report, March 12th, AD 2007 Vol. 142 No. 9, p.34.

2. Cost, Jay “Examining the ‘Jesus Tomb’ Evidence” Yahoo! News, accessed at http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20070305... on March 12th, AD 2007.

3. Magness, Jodi “Has the Tomb of Jesus Been Discovered?” Biblical Archeological Society, accessed at http://www.bib-arch.org/bswbKCtombmagness.html, 03/12/07.

4. CTV.ca News Staff article, found at http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/print/CTVNews/20070226/jesus_tomb_060226/20070226/?hub=TopStories&subhub=PrintStory, accessed 03/12/07.