by Miceal Ledwith
A controversial documentary on the Discovery Channel this month, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” claimed that two ancient stone burial boxes displayed during a press conference in New York on February 26 th may have contained the bones of Jesus of Nazareth and his wife Mary Magdalene.

Let’s assess the claims of the documentary. It is now almost 27 years since these ten bone boxes or “ossuaries” were discovered at East Talpiot, three miles south of the old city of Jerusalem. The archeologists assessed the ossuaries as having little importance. One of the ossuaries disappeared early on and the nine that remained were stored in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem . More than 900 such ossuaries have been found in the vicinity of Jerusalem .

I know of five other tombs in Kashmir, Pakistan, Tibet, England, and in northern Israel in Galilee that claim, probably with greater reason than Talpiot, to be the last resting place of Jesus. I noted in Professor James Tabor’s new book The Jesus Dynasty that while he fully discussed the Talpiot Tomb, he also made a very convincing case for the tomb of Jesus being, not at Jerusalem at all, but in Galilee, outside the city of Tsfar .

The makers of the documentary used three new tools in their investigation: examination of patina, statistical analysis of names, and DNA analysis: major problems arise.

1. The first new tool used was a comparison of the chemical residue or “patina” on the Talpiot ossuaries with the patina on the “James” Ossuary found in Israel in 2002. The documentary claims that this was the Ossuary stolen from the Talpiot Tomb in 1980. Obviously if this were truly the ossuary of James the brother of Jesus it would greatly strengthen the claim that this was the tomb of Jesus. The filmmakers claim the patinas of both ossuaries “match,” and that that means they came from the same tomb. Experts deny the testing was adequate.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority on 18 June 2003 concluded that the “James” Ossuary was authentic, but the inscription was a modern forgery made to look ancient by washing with a chalk solution.

But of course the final nail in the coffin of the “James” Ossuary must be that in February of this year a photograph of the “James” Ossuary was discovered that was taken before the Talpiot discovery in 1980.

2. By a statistical analysis of the names found in the Talpiot Tomb the filmmakers tried to show only the family of Jesus could have that precise combination of names Joseph, Jeshua, Mariamne, Maria, Matthew, Jude son of Jesus, and Jesus son of Joseph.

It is likely that between 2,500 to 3,000 individuals in the city of Jerusalem at that time would have been named “Jesus.” More than 1,000 ancient ossuaries are preserved in Israeli collections. Six of the ossuaries bear the name “Jesus” and two of the six have the inscription “Jesus son of Joseph.” All of the names found in the Talpiot tomb were as common as water. And it is not even agreed the name inscribed in the Talpiot Tomb was “Jesus” since the inscription is “chicken scratch.”

3. Analysis was made of the DNA traces found in the boxes bearing the names of Jesus and of Mariamne, which the filmmakers contest is the ossuary of Mary Magdalene. It proved impossible to recover nuclear DNA from the ossuaries, but mitochondrial DNA was recovered. The conclusion of the test proved these two individuals were not related through their mother. It is a very large leap indeed to jump from that fact alone to say they were husband and wife.

There was no DNA in the other ossuaries. The bones the ossuaries contained when they were discovered in 1980 were re-buried in an unmarked grave so no further DNA confirmation can be done.

So, is the Talpiot Tomb that of Jesus and of Mary Magdalene? The evidence is far indeed from compelling The reality of Jesus is undoubtedly far more radical in terms of confronting conventional belief than even finding his bones rotting in a tomb beside his wife could ever be. We would be far better off taking the time and talent invested in such investigations and apply them to discovering how Jesus became a Christ in the first place, and understanding what that really means. If we pay more attention to what he really taught and what he really did, we stand a far greater chance of knowing how to imitate and become what he was.

Dr. Miceal Ledwith, L.Ph., L.D., D.D., LL.D. (h.c.) has been a Professor of Theology and University President of Maynooth College in Ireland, a member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, and a member of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. He has lectured extensively throughout Europe and North America . He can be reached at hamburgeruniverse.com