3.06.2007

The scoop.

In case you've missed it:

In the early 1980's, many tombs were excavated in Jerusalem. The thousands of ossuaries found in these were cataloged and warehoused.

Recently, a journalist and an archaeologist realized that one tomb contained 9 ossuaries in which 6 were named (generally only 20% bear names). The names were: Joseph, Mary, Jesus son of Joseph, Matthew, Mariamne e Mara (mara means 'master'), and Judah son of Jesus. This tomb is from the 1st century.

While the other names are somewhat frequent, this is the only Mariamne found, amongst the thousands of ossuaries discovered. In a early book of the Bible, one that was discarded by the church, 'The Acts of Phillip', a woman (Phillip's sister), who is very close to Jesus, and whom many scholars believe is Mary Magdaline, is called 'Mariamne'.

Anyway, considering the frequency of names at the time, a very conservative statistical probability of having Mary, Joseph, Jesus son of Joseph, Jesus' known brother Matthew, and Mariamne in one tomb, has a 600:1 chance of being Jesus and his family.

But then, it's more interesting: A few years ago, an ossuary collector publicly disclosed that he had acquired an ossuary around the early 1980's in Jerusalem, that bore the enscription: James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. (James was killed shortly after Jesus for preaching Christianity). Many people thought this ossuary was a hoax. However, in the tomb containing the 9 other ossuaries, there were 10 alcoves, one of which was empty. And, the original archaeologist that found them said he found 10, although only 9 were cataloged.

So, mass spectrometry was performed on the surface of this 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus' ossuary, and the sediment composition on the top was compared to the nine others, and a random sample of other ossuaries. -It matched the 9, but no others.

Now, if this 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus' ossuary is considered in the statistics, the chance of it being Jesus and his family (very conservatively) is 30000 to 1.

What is more, although the bones inside the ossuaries were reburied upon excavation in the 80's, some mitochondrial DNA was recovered from Jesus and Mariamne. -They were not related.

Hopefully, better techniques can extract DNA from all the ossuaries, and confirm the relationships.

However, all signs strongly point to no divine resurrection. And, a Grandson of God. -Or, maybe even a Grandson of Joseph.

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