It's an improbable story worthy of a Hollywood film.
In what is expected to be a wild and woolly news conference, the makers of a new documentary film claiming to have discovered the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family — and his DNA — will face the media this morning at New York's Public Library.
If their evidence is verified, the film, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and a companion book, would raise profound questions for Christians and their faith.
The filmmakers — Emmy-award winning director Simcha Jacobovici and his executive producer, Oscar-winner James Cameron — suggest ossuaries once containing the bones of Jesus and his family are now stored in a warehouse belonging to the Israel Antiquities Authority in Bet Shemesh, outside Jerusalem.
Although the evidence contained in the film and book is hardly definitive, it is compelling.
Inscribed in Hebrew, Latin or Greek, six boxes — taken from a 2,000-year-old cave discovered in 1980 during excavation for a housing project in Talpiyot, south of Jerusalem — bear the names: Yeshua [Jesus] bar Yosef [son of Joseph]; Maria [the Latin version of Miriam, which is the English Mary]; Matia [the Hebrew equivalent of Matthew, a name common in the lineage of both Mary and Joseph]; Yose [the Gospel of Mark refers to Yose as a brother of Jesus]; Yehuda bar Yeshua, or Judah, son of Jesus; and in Greek, Mariamne e mara, meaning ‘Mariamne, known as the master.' According to Harvard professor François Bovon, interviewed in the film, Mariamne was Mary Magdalene's real name.
The bones contained in the boxes have long since been reburied, according to Jewish custom, in unmarked graves in Israel.
If the evidence adduced is correct, the bone boxes, and microscopic remains of DNA still contained inside, would constitute the first archeological evidence of the existence of the Christian saviour and his family.
Tests on mitochondrial DNA obtained from the Jesus and Mariamne boxes and conducted at Lakehead University's Paleo-DNA laboratory in Thunder Bay, show conclusively that the two individuals were not maternally related. According to Carney Matheson, head of the lab, this likely means they were related by marriage.
Thus, the book and film raise seminal questions, not only about the early movement of Judeo-Christians that Jesus led, but about whether, as some scholars believe, he might have been married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a family.
Nothing in the film or book directly challenges traditional Christian dogma regarding the resurrection. But it could pose a problem for those who believe the ascension of Jesus, 40 days after the resurrection, was both physical and spiritual. And, if further DNA testing were to link Jesus and ‘his brother' Yose with Mary, it would call into question the entire doctrine of the virgin birth — a foundation stone of Christianity.
The $4-million documentary will air on Canada's Vision TV on March 6 and two days earlier on Discovery U.S. The companion book, The Jesus Family Tomb, by Mr. Jacobovici and Dr. Charles Pellegrino, has just been released (HarperCollins).
For this morning's news conference, the Jesus and Mary Magdalene ossuaries, which were flown in from Israel, will be on display.
Meanwhile, security agents have been hired to stand guard outside the Talpiyot apartments beneath which the controversial tomb lies, covered by a large concrete plate.
“I don't think this changes the fundamentals of faith,” Mr. Cameron said in an interview last week. “But the evidence is pretty darn compelling and it definitely bears further study.”
Not everyone agrees. “It's a beautiful story, but without any proof whatsoever,” archeologist Amos Kloner, who wrote the original report on the Talpiyot cave findings, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur last week. “The names ... found on the tombs are names that are similar to the names of the family of Jesus. But those were the most common names found among Jews in the first centuries BCE [before the common era] and CE [common era].”
Yet if the individual names were common, the film and book ask: What is the likelihood that this particular group of names, so resonant of the Jesus story, would appear together, contained in the same family tomb?
