On March 4, 2007, a television movie called The Lost Tomb of Jesus made the startling claim that there is a 99.83 percent chance that an ossuary containing the bones of Jesus of Nazareth had been found in Jerusalem in 1980, along with the ossuaries of Jesus’ mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and his son Judah. This raised a few questions.

What is an ossuary?

An ossuary is a stone chest used to store human bones. Ossuaries were used mainly in Judea (southern Israel) from about 30 B.C. to A.D. 70. When a person died, the corpse was placed in a tomb. After decomposition, family members re-entered the tomb and deposited the bones in an ossuary, which remained in the tomb. Over 1,000 ossuaries have been found in Israel.

What’s unusual about it?

Talpiot is the name of the Jerusalem suburb where a tomb containing 10 ossuaries was found in 1980. Five of the ossuaries were inscribed with Aramaic names: Yeshua bar Yehosef, Marya, Yose, Matya, and Yehudah son of Yeshua. In English, that’s “Jesus son of Joseph,” “Mary,” “Joseph,” “Matthew,” and “Judah son of Jesus.” A sixth inscription, in Greek, is disputed. Initially it was interpreted to mean, “belonging to Mariamene/Mara,” with the “/” meaning “also called.” But more recently, it has been persuasively analyzed by Dr. Stephen Pfann as two inscriptions with two distinct lettering-styles: “Mariame” and “kai Mara” (“and Mara;” “Mara” is a form of “Martha”).

Do these names demonstrate a link to Jesus Christ?

No. It’s natural for Christians to think of Jesus Christ when we hear the names Jesus, Mary, Joseph, another Mary, and Martha. In first-century Jerusalem, however, these names were very common—exceptionally common among ossuary-inscriptions. If 24 inscribed ossuaries were collected at random, forms of all these names likely would be found. The Talpiot tomb belonged to some family that had a member named Jesus, son of Joseph. But dozens of such individuals lived in first-century Jerusalem. It is not so amazing to find one of their family tombs.

Was the name “Mary Magdalene” found at Talpiot?

No. The movie attempted to link the disputed name “Mariamene” to a character named Mariamne in a composition called Acts of Philip. But in that fourth-century text (not second-century, as falsely implied in the movie), Mariamne is called Philip’s sister; she is not identified as Mary Magdalene. Also, Acts of Philip bristles with imaginative embellishments and cannot be taken seriously as a historical guide. The claim that “Mariamne” was Mary Magdalene’s real name is an ungrounded speculation.

What is the “Jesus Equation”?

 “The Jesus Equation” was the name given to Dr. Andrey Feuerverger’s statistical calculation that there is a 99.83 percent chance that the Talpiot tomb belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth. Dr. Feuerverger has written that he relied on several assumptions, and that if just one of those assumptions is false, the statistics are meaningless. Those assumptions include: (1) “Mariamene” is a specially appropriate name for Mary Magdalene, (2) the “Joseph” at Talpiot is not the father of the “Jesus” there, (3) finding an ossuary mentioning a “son of Jesus” does not diminish the chances that this is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth, (4) families outside Jerusalem would not have family-tombs in Jerusalem, and (5) a person from Migdal (Mary Magdalene’s hometown) would be more likely than other people entombed in Jerusalem to have an ossuary inscription in Greek. These assumptions are false, arbitrary, or both. The statistics based on them are worthless.

What impact does this have on Christian faith?

The Talpiot tomb illustrates the popularity of the names of Jesus’ family members, including Jesus’ own Aramaic name, Yeshua. A consideration of ossuary use in general shows how some people in the time of Christ interpreted Deuteronomy 32:43. They thought it meant the land itself would somehow atone for the people; this led to a belief that forgiveness could be obtained by having one’s bones stored in an ossuary in the land of Israel. It may also provide background for Matthew 8:21, 22 and Luke 9:59, 60. Despite extreme exaggerations about the significance of the Talpiot tomb, this is about the full extent of its impact on Christian faith. |L

James Snapp, Jr. is a freelance writer in Tipton, Indiana.

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