Tap

Feb. 25, 2007 ��‚��€� New scientific evidence, including DNA analysis conducted at one of the world's foremost molecular genetics laboratories, as well as studies by leading scholars, suggests a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced a son named Judah.

The DNA findings, alongside statistical conclusions made about the artifacts ��‚��€� originally excavated in 1980 ��‚��€� open a potentially significant chapter in Biblical archaeological history.

A documentary presenting the evidence, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," will premiere on the Discovery Channel on March 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The documentary comes from executive producer James Cameron and director Simcha Jacobovici.

The Talpiot Tomb

On March 28, 1980, a construction crew developing an apartment complex in Talpiot, Jerusalem, uncovered a tomb, which archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority excavated shortly thereafter. Archaeologist Shimon Gibson surveyed the site and drew a layout plan. Scholar L.Y. Rahmani later published "A Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries" that described 10 ossuaries, or limestone bone boxes, found in the tomb.

Scholars know that from 30 B.C. to 70 A.D., many people in Jerusalem would first wrap bodies in shrouds after death. The bodies were then placed in carved rock tombs, where they decomposed for a year before the bones were placed in an ossuary.

Five of the 10 discovered boxes in the Talpiot tomb were inscribed with names believed to be associated with key figures in the New Testament: Jesus, Mary, Matthew, Joseph and Mary Magdalene. A sixth inscription, written in Aramaic, translates to "Judah Son of Jesus."

"Such tombs are very typical for that region," Aaron Brody, associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion and director of California's Bade Museum told Discovery News.

Ossuary Inscriptions

At least four leading epigraphers have corroborated the ossuary inscriptions for the documentary, according to the Discovery Channel.

Frank Moore Cross, a professor emeritus in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, told Discovery News, "The inscriptions are from the Herodian Period (which occurred from around 1 B.C. to 1 A.D.). The use of limestone ossuaries and the varied script styles are characteristic of that time."

Jodi Magness, associate department chair of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Discovery News that, based on the New Testament writings, "Jesus likely lived during the first century A.D."

In addition to the "Judah son of Jesus" inscription, which is written in Aramaic on one of the ossuaries, another limestone burial box is labeled in Aramaic with "Jesus Son of Joseph." Another bears the Hebrew inscription "Maria," a Latin version of "Miriam," or, in English, "Mary." Yet another ossuary inscription, written in Hebrew, reads "Matia," the original Hebrew word for "Matthew." Only one of the inscriptions is written in Greek. It reads, "Mariamene e Mara," which can be translated as, "Mary known as the master."

Francois Bovon, professor of the history of religion at Harvard University, told Discovery News, "Mariamene, or Mariamne, probably was the actual name given to Mary Magdalene."

Bovon explained that he and a colleague discovered a fourteenth century copy in Greek of a fourth century text that contains the most complete version of the "Acts of Philip" ever found. Although not included in the Bible, the "Acts of Philip" mentions the apostles and Mariamne, sister of the apostle Philip.

"When Philip is weak, she is strong," Bovon said. "She likely was a great teacher who even inspired her own sect of followers, called Mariamnists, who existed from around the 2nd to the 3rd century."

DNA Analysis

Jacobovici, director, producer and writer of "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," and his team obtained two sets of samples from the ossuaries for DNA and chemical analysis. The first set consisted of bits of matter taken from the "Jesus Son of Joseph" and "Mariamene e Mara" ossuaries. The second set consisted of patina �€” a chemical film encrustation on one of the limestone boxes.

The human remains were analyzed by Carney Matheson, a scientist at the Paleo-DNA Laboratory at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada. Mitochondrial DNA examination determined the individual in the Jesus ossuary and the person in the ossuary linked to Mary Magdalene were not related.

Since tombs normally contain either blood relations or spouses, Jacobovici and his team suggest it is possible Jesus and Mary Magdalene were a couple. "Judah," whom they indicate may have been their son, could have been the "lad" described in the Gospel of John as sleeping in Jesus' lap at the Last Supper.

Robert Genna, director of the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory in New York, analyzed both the patina taken from the Talpiot Tomb and chemical residue obtained from the "James" ossuary, which was also found around 1980, but subsequently disappeared and resurfaced in the antiquities market. Although controversy surrounds this burial box, Genna found that the two patinas matched.

"The samples were consistent with each other," Genna told Discovery News.

Upon examining the tomb, the filmmakers determined a space exists that would have fit the "James" ossuary. Given the patina match and this observation, Jacobovici theorizes the lost burial box could, in fact, be the "James" ossuary.

Statistical Data

A possible argument against the Talpiot Tomb being the Jesus Family Tomb is that the collection of names on the ossuary inscriptions could be coincidental.

But Andrey Feuerverger, professor of statistics and mathematics at the University of Toronto, recently conducted a study addressing the probabilities that will soon be published in a leading statistican Feuerverger multiplied the instances that each name appeared during the tomb's time period with the instances of every other name. He initially found "Jesus Son of Joseph" appeared once out of 190 times, Mariamne appeared once out of 160 times and so on.

To be conservative, he next divided the resulting numbers by 25 percent, a statistical standard, and further divided the results by 1,000 to attempt to account for all tombs �€” even those that have not been uncovered �€” that could have existed in first century Jerusalem.

The study concludes that the odds are at least 600 to 1 in favor of the Talpiot Tomb being the Jesus Family Tomb. In other words, the conclusion works 599 times out of 600.

Another Tomb?

The researchers discovered a second, as-yet unexplored tomb about 65 1/2 feet from the Talpiot Tomb. During the documentary, they introduced a robotic camera into this second tomb, which captured the first-ever recorded footage of an undisturbed burial cave from Jesus' time. The team speculates that this other tomb could contain the remains of additional family members, or even disciples, though further examination and analysis are needed.

As Academy Award-winner Cameron said in a press release, "It doesn't get bigger than this. We've done our homework; we've made the case; and now it's time for the debate to begin."

SOURCE
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2007/02/...&frame=true

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The Mob

IMO this will reignite the whole debate that Jesus had a son and all of that stuff in The Da Vinci Code...

im just going to steer clear of the ensuring argument that i know will happen in this thread.

my personal opinion? ok, so it is the tomb of jesus.. so what? this one women summed it up nicely. "It will mean our house prices will go up because Christians will want to live here." source

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Mathalamus

what the HELL is that about? religion is ACTUALLY true!!!! noooooos * slams to a wall and dies on the spot*

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a new sig is required.

Pamela

Off Topic: Thanks so much for a spam post that added absolutely NOTHING to this thread ,aside from taking up space.That is why jedi infracted you.

On Topic: I have heard all the contreversy over the subject and my veiw is open mindedness.Nice find btw,as long as it makes people think.

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A Light in your Darkness...always there...and burning!!

Fuggle

DNA evidence? I was unaware someone happened to have a lock of Jesus hair.
Also, as I told you yesterday Tap, my own personal scientific breakthrough was that in fact, Jesus did speak Klingon.

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Nobody can handle the leetness of this sig.

Ares

Im not sure but doesnt it say in the bible that Jesus' body was resurected and when they opened the tomb it was empty?

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Pamela

Yes that is what it said.The tomb was empty of a body but the wrapping were still there.
@Jedi: You are correct I got him for a few other things,my bad.

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A Light in your Darkness...always there...and burning!!

Ares

So then if your christian you shouldnt beilive none of this shit.
and yeah fuggle is right..
I dont beilive none of this crap

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hellsing293

The wrappings might have contained some of his DNA still. Doesn't blood never come out for example? And other sources of DNA could have been on the wrappings too, and they would have been undisturbed too.

I don't believe in religion, and I think these tombs are fake but that's where I believe they get the DNA evidence from. Also, if they had the DNA of Jesus, doesn't that mean they have the DNA of god? Can't they alter DNA? So we could have children with the DNA of god? We could also use the DNA and make Jesus clones.

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As long as darkness flows through my veins, I will never cease, As long as my dreams still haunt me, I will never show mercy, and as long as evil lives I will never die.....

John

this is pretty cool, now they can use the dna and clone jesus, well that would be pretty controversial, but still. he did exist, o my

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i just make this sig recently to teach people not to play with fire.

Fuggle

Most religions say he did exist, they just don't think he's God's Son or any of that shit. They just say he's a regular person like you or me.

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Nobody can handle the leetness of this sig.

John

the popular saying
you would say it, and he would be like "WHAT!?"
I wonder if the tomb is real, that would be cool

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i just make this sig recently to teach people not to play with fire.

DaCougarMech

cloning jesus...
that's an interesting idea
do we currently have his dna or do we just speculate that it's in that tomb?

John

either it his dna, or one of his hooker's dna that was on the wall or something. did jesus have hookers? srry offf topic
i could believe this is real, or someone trying to make a buck.

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i just make this sig recently to teach people not to play with fire.

hellsing293

^^ lol cloning Jesus, that has to be my best idea ever! Rofl I want the gene that lets me walk on water and do magic tricks.

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As long as darkness flows through my veins, I will never cease, As long as my dreams still haunt me, I will never show mercy, and as long as evil lives I will never die.....

Pamela

This is about finding a tomb that is suspected to be that of Jesus,and contraversial at best. It is not about cloning him,so let us get back on topic.
@Hellsing:Unless you want to become female and have Jesus babies,I am not sure I can fathom how you plan to aquire his genes. 0.o
Unless you mean you are wanting IN his JEANS. o.0

@ Tap: I have read a lot of that stuff and mostly scholars and scientists only end up contradicting themselves with so call *evidence*

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A Light in your Darkness...always there...and burning!!

Ragnarhox

If anyone watched the documentary on discover, the dna was to show that the remains in two of the....Damn can't think of the word of it...but the boxes that had the bones/remains/w.e were not blood relatives. So, they could have been Jesus and Mary. The documentary was just that, a look at the possibilities and the scientific evidence could have been viewed as minimal.
The creator said that this was just to get the ball rolling and to encourage more research on the subject.

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