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The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History (ISBN 0061192023) is a controversial book by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino (with a Foreword by James Cameron) published in February 2007. It tells the story of the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb which it argues is the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family.

The book is an in-depth analysis of the movie The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which was released on the Discovery Channel in early March 2007.

The Names in the Tomb

The tomb in Talpiot, excavated in 1980 during salvage archaeology, originally contained ten ossuaries - bone boxes for secondary burial. Of the ten, one disappeared - presumably stolen. Of the other nine, six were inscribed with names:

• Yeshua bar Yosef - inscription in Aramaic, meaning "Jesus son of Joseph." By itself, it does not constitute conclusive evidence, since there must have been over a thousand men named "Yeshua bar Yosef" in first-century Jerusalem. However, the other five names are all allegedly connected with the New Testament Jesus.
• "Mariamne, also known as Mara," an inscription in Greek. Mariamne is another name of Mary Magdalene according to the Acts of Phillip. "Mara" could be the Aramaic word for "Lord" or "Master," the Hebrew name meaning "Bitter" (found in Ruth 1:20), or a nickname, a shortened version of "Mariamne."
• Maria - a name apparently in Latin, but written in Hebrew letters.
• Yosa - believed to be the same as Ioses or Joses, the name of one of the brothers of Jesus listed in Mark 6:3.
• Yehuda bar Yeshua - "Judah, son of Jesus." (Inscription in Aramaic). Otherwise unknown. According to the authors, same as Jude, known also as Thomas, the "Twin." The theory presented in the book is that he was the son of Jesus, but was publicly presented as the brother of Jesus, in order to save him from being executed as a pretender to the throne of Israel. He was known as "Twin" (Thomas, Didymus, etc.) because he looked exactly like Jesus, presumed to be his brother but really his father.
• Matiah - a name in Hebrew, the original form of the names of the apostles Matthew and Matthias. His presence in the family tomb implies he was also a relative of Jesus, as were some of the other apostles.

The Tenth Ossuary

The authors present a case for the ossuary of James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus (Yaakov ben Yosef akhui diYeshua). This controversial relic, accepted as legitimate by some, is believed by others to have been fraudulently altered. These doubts are the result of the ossuary being unprovenanced -that is, not found in a legitimate excavation. The book presents what the authors purport to be firm scientific evidence that the James ossuary is the missing tenth ossuary from the Talpiot tomb. If this is confirmed by scientific scrutiny, the ossuary will have to be accepted as legitimate, and the Talpiot tomb confirmed as belonging to the Holy Family.

Controversy

The authenticity of the nine remaining ossuaries, and of the names inscribed on them, is under no doubt or suspicion. However, the identities of these people are open to much controversy and debate. They are either six otherwise unknown Jewish people from first-century Jerusalem, or Jesus himself and five members of his family. Recently, some of the scholars quoted in the Discovery Channel documentary have issued strong clarifications, backtracking on some of the central claims made in the film and book. Namely, University of Toronto statistician Professor Andrey Feuerverger, whose statistical analysis claimed that the odds were 600:1 in favor of the tomb being the burial site of Jesus' family, has revised his opinion, now saying that these odds relate to the chances that these particular names would be found in one tomb, and not to the particular identification of individuals in the tomb.

References

1. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/25/tomb_arc.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070225073000
2. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1176152766396&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

See also

• The Lost Tomb of Jesus
• Talpiot Tomb

External links

• Official Site for the "Lost Tomb of Jesus": http://www.jesusfamilytomb.com
• Discovery channel aritcle: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/25/tomb_arc_02.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070225073000
• A Paleographer discusses what can and cannot be said about the names on the Jesus Family Tomb ossuaries: http://www.sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleId=649
• A critical review: http://byustudies.byu.edu/Reviews/Pages/reviewdetail.aspx?reviewID=133

• Current events
• 2007 books
• Jesus
• Alleged tomb of Jesus