Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

Before you make up your mind about the “Lost Tomb of Jesus” you need to see and hear the rest of the evidence.

For a comprehensive and scholarly rebuttal of the film’s evidence please visit ExtremeTheology.com.

Read and hear the evidence for yourself.

Good Day.

You misrepresent the quote by Dr. Andrey Feuerverger. (“The apparent absence of ‘negatives’ in the finding, i.e. of archeological details that would in and of themselves invalidate ‘the hypothesis’ or that would appear to lessen its likelihood.”)

The quote does not mean, as you imply, that contrary evidence was found but discounted or not presented. Instead, the quote is meant to point out that there literally was no evidence found that contradicts the hypothosis.

that is not to say that proves anything in itself, but it’s a point that must be made.

Christians again prove many are blatant enemies of the truth

Hello Matt,

After finally watching the Jesus Tomb documentary and the hour of critical look “debates” following it, I am left with the sad conclusion that a large percentage of Christians will always oppose the truth, regardless of how it is presented. It has been amazing to watch people who regularly oppose critical thought and science hypocritically assert that critical thought and science supports so-called “biblical evidence” in their efforts to debunk this archeological find and associated theories. Though I too have problems with the way this documentary and religion in general have been sold, for profit, I also think this information deserves a much closer examination and consideration than a simple knee jerk defense of New Testament claims. Do Christians really think that the Creator of all knowledge and wisdom wants them to blindly oppose all newly discovered truths?

When finally confronted with the truth about the Messiah, these people will be completely unable to recognize the true Messiah (me) from long-term lies and will fight tooth and nail to cling to the Roman deceptions and strong delusions of the New Testament. Christianity has always been an enemy of science, truth, and justice and recent events strongly reinforce this observation.

Matt,

Thanks for posting this. I wasn’t able to watch the documentary (no TV), so I’m glad to get your perspective on it.

I didn’t watch the documentary either - I don’t watch TV. The problem with most of these documentaries is that they don’t follow the Scientific Method - that is, analyzing data objectively. Instead, they start with what they WANT to prove and only present evidence towards it, more like what lawyers do than what scientists do.

For example, I found the statement “the chances that it’s another group of the same names and NOT ‘the’ group is 1/600″ to be fishy as it presupposes that ‘the’ group exists historically, which is not something that should be taken lightly when doing a scientific study.

Greetings; just wanted to inform you of my own comments on “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” — for a review of the problems in its basic ideas:
http://www.curtisvillechristian.org/TombOne.html and http://www.curtisvillechristian.org/TombTwo.html .

For a Nit-picker’s Guide — pointing out big errors, small errors, half-truths, deliberate obscuring of pertinent data, and so on: http://www.curtisvillechristian.org/LostTomb.html .

Feel free to share these sites with others.

So you found the lost tombof jesus?

wait so….. do you guys believe the scientific beliefs or the religious beliefs?

The clincher for me was something not even mentioned in the documentary. In the normal course of things, if this were just a tomb of a family other than that of the Jesus of the gospels, the ossuary of James would have been have been inscribed with the words “James the son of Joseph” the same way that the ossuary of this Jesus was inscribed with the words “Jesus the son of Joseph.” It is evident from the inscriptions that the Jesus in this tomb was somebody more noteworthy than his father. You don’t need statistics to see that the probability is high that this is indeed to lost tomb of Jesus, regardless of petty squabbles over procedures used in bringing the finding to light.

I’ve been studying this find for years, long before it became public knowledge following the mass media exposure. I believe that it’s a serious find, which warrants further study.

The critics of this find’s magnitude basically argue:

1. That the Jesus family would be buried in Nazareth, not Talpiot;
2. That the ‘Jesus’ ossuary would have been inscribed ‘of Nazareth’;
3. That the Jesus family couldn’t have afforded a tomb like the Talpiot tomb;
4. That the “Jesus son of Joseph” ossuary is not inscribed “Yeshua” (Jesus) at all;
5. That the names inscribed on these ossuaries were supposedly common;
6. That the “Mariamne” ossuary didn’t contain the remains of Mary Magdalene, but of two other women;

I believe the first five of these allegations against the book’s premise don’t carry much water. The sixth argument actually supports the conclusion that this is the real thing. My comments:

1. Talpiot is the right place for Jesus’ family tomb- Per Luke, 2:3-4, the family’s LEGAL residence was Bethlehem, not Nazareth. The fact that Joseph and the pregnant Mary could not take the census in Nazareth but had to take it in Bethlehem indicates that Bethlehem was their DOMICILIUM under Roman Law. That basically means that they had no intention to reside in Nazareth permanently. Therefore it would have made little sense for them to have a family tomb in Nazareth, that they wouldn’t be able to frequently visit at a later stage in their lives. They would have wanted a family tomb close to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, easily accessible also to future generations of the family. The fact is indeed that Mary and her children moved to Jerusalem around 30 AD.

2. The traditional name of Jesus in Hebrew, as reflected also in the Talmud, is “Yeshu Hanotzri.” This appellation stems from “Netzer” (Shoot or Branch). It alludes clearly to Isaiah 11:1, indicating the Royal birth of Jesus, to substantiate his claim for Jewish messiahship. Not to indicate the place he comes from.

There’s actually no evidence in Jewish sources, such as the Old Testament or the Mishna and Talmud, that a place called “Nazareth” even existed in or before the first century. I’m not disputing the evidence per the NT, that there was indeed a place called Nazareth. But to the best of my knowledge, there’s no mention of Nazareth at all in any ancient writings outside the New Testament. So the place existed, but nobody knew about it. And those in close proximity in Galilee who did know about it, obviously thought derogatorily of it , cf. “can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46.) Therefore there was no reason to call Jesus “of Nazareth.” Either in life or on an ossuary. He was called “Jesus the Branch” (of David) in Hebrew/Aramaic.

The line of argumentation detracting this discovery around the supposed Nazareth origin of Jesus’ family may therefore be based on a very shaky foundation.

3. Talpiot is located about 2.5 miles North of Bethlehem. Jesus’ family, of Davidic descent according to the New Testament, could have held the burial cave there even before it moved to Nazareth. Davidic birth was absolutely the most exalted in Judaism, always. The suggestion that any person of Davidic descent could be of the lowest social echelon, that couldn’t fund or get funding for a burial cave, doesn’t make much sense, if any. There’s substantial evidence to the contrary, e.g. 1. Jesus had some very wealthy active supporters like Joseph of Arimatea and Nicodemus (known as Nakdimon ben Gorion in post biblical Jewish sources-one of the richest Jews in Judea;) 2. Josephus, A.J. XX, 9:1. Note the prominence of James, brother of Jesus.

4. The inscription on the Jesus ossuary does say “Yeshua bar Yehosef” (“Jesus son of Joseph”)to my eye. All letters but one are quite clearly there. The only letter which is somewhat more difficult to discern at first blush is the second letter- “Shin”. That’s because it’s written in a somewhat irregular form (in a regular Shin there are three teeth in the fork, pointing upwards. Here there are two teeth, pointing sideways to the right.) But that particular irregularity appears also on other ossuaries- notably numbers 9 (this one has two “Shin”- one with three teeth pointing to the right, and one with TWO teeth pointing to the right. Exactly like the subject inscription) and 121 in the Rahmani catalogue, which both feature also a “Yeshua.”

Still, the name “Yeshua” on this ossuary is among the most, if not the most, difficult to read names of all ossuaries listed in Rahmani’s catalogue of Jewish ossuaries. It is almost written as a person’s complex signature on a check. Contrast that with the patronymic following the first name. This is written in a simple straightforward fashion, which is very easy to read. There’s no other example in Rahmani’s catalogue of a first name that has to be deciphered, and a patronymic that’s so plain and clear. Is this merely a coincidence?

5. Some critics make the following comment to my post:

“The inscription, Pfann said, is made up of two names inscribed by two different hands: the first, “Mariame,” was inscribed in a formal Greek script, and later, when the bones of another woman were added to the box, another scribe using a different cursive script added the words “kai Mara,” meaning “and Mara.” Mara is a different form of the name Martha.

According to Pfann’s reading, the ossuary did not house the bones of “Mary the teacher,” but rather of two women, “Mary and Martha.’”

Here’s my thought about that:
If the Mariamne ossuary indeed housed the bones of Mary and Martha, these are two sisters of NT fame. One of them could have been married to “Jesus son of Joseph.” -Whether or not she was Mary Magdalene (Maybe the Mary who anointed Jesus’ feet and then dried them with her hair- very intimate scene.) The other sister would than also automatically belong in the family. It still fits. Actually it increases the statistical odds that this is the real thing quite substantially.
This is a very intriguing possibility indeed, fitting perfectly with John 12:3. Intimate contact with a man, as described in this NT passage, was allowed only to a woman who was an immediate blood relative of that man, his wife (…or a working woman.) That’s all. Therefore Mary of Bethany was quite possibly by elimination Jesus’ wife or in the process of becoming his wife. In that context, Margaret Starbird already theorized that similar anointing with spikenard oil was part of pre marriage ritual of a Davidic king, per certain passages in the Song of Songs. Note also that intercourse by itself was sufficient under Jewish Law in certain circumstances to constitute valid marriage. That practice, termed Bi’ah marriage, was abolished in the 6th century, but it was lawful in Jesus’ time.

Mary of Bethany could have become pregnant by Jesus while he stayed at her house, shortly before his crucifixion. In that case it’s quite possible that she bore Jesus’ son posthumously and named him “Judah.” And in that case both she and her sister Martha would have become part of Jesus’ family, which earned them a place in the Talpiot family tomb..

Reminds me of the reaction to this find of a BBC reporter in 1996- It seems like all balls in the national lottery coming one by one.

I have no knowledge of Greek, so I can only discuss the two propositions. Assuming that the ossuary does say “Mary and Martha”, here’s what I think the names are:
* 1.”Jesus son of Joseph”(“Yeshua bar Yehosef” in Hebrew/Aramaic script;)
* 2. “Mary” (“Marya” in Hebrew/Aramaic script);
* 3. “Joseph” (“Yose” in Hebrew/Aramaic script. Precise nickname of Jesus’ second brother- cf. Mark 6:3);
* 4. “Mary and Martha” (“Mariame kai Mara” in Greek)-they must have been sisters because Jewish law didn’t allow burial together of two unrelated women;
* 5. “Matthew” (“Matya” in Hebrew/Aramaic script)- Name of Jesus’ first cousin, son of his father’s brother Alphaeus/Clophas. As James Tabor suggests in a different context, Matya could also well have been Jesus’ half brother, considering a certain specific rule of the Torah (Deuteronomy 25:5-10.) This rule was applied in Jesus time- see Matthew 22:24-28;
* 6. “Judah son of Jesus”(“Yehuda bar Yeshua” in Hebrew/Aramaic script.)
* Therefore out of eight names actually inscribed on these ossuaries (including the “Joseph” father of Jesus on the first ossuary) four names undoubtedly relate to Jesus’ immediate family, and three other names relate to the same with a somewhat lower probability. In any event, they all relate to Jesus’ extended family. Note that first century Jewish family tombs were usually a clan thing.
* The eighth name is “Yehuda bar Yeshua”- must have been the son of Jesus and one of the sisters Mary or Martha. More likely Mary, as explained above.

6. While the full versions of all these names were indeed common in Jesus’ time, the derivatives, nicknames and contractions were not. Thus “Yeshua” for Jesus was less common than “YeHOshua;” ditto “YeHOsef” instead of “Yosef” for Joseph; “Marya” for Mary was extremely rare in Hebrew/Aramaic script; “Yose” for Joseph is unique. Therefore out of these eight names, two are irregularities, one is a particularity, and one a singularity.

BOTTOM LINE- Ask yourself inversely a hypothetical question- If the Talpiot tomb hadn’t yet been found, how would Jesus’ family tomb have looked , which ossuaries would it have contained, to when would it have been dated and where would it have been located.

I would have thought of a tomb just like the tomb we’re discussing. It fits perfectly with what I’d have expected Jesus’ family tomb to be. Right place, right period, right names. I therefore believe that this matter, delicate as it obviously is, warrants further investigation. This could include opening and examination of the adjacent tomb, and forensic examination of the skeletal remains found in the Talpiot ossuaries, and apparently reburied back in 1980. These could hopefully be relocated by comparison to the mithochondrial DNA samples already taken from two of these ossuaries.

To the discerning observer, criticism of the documentary `The Lost Tomb of Jesus’ has proven one thing if nothing else about its critics - a profound and immutable absence of intellectual honesty and objective thought, underscored by a near pathologic aversion to empirically based scientific inquiry, opting instead to shamelessly peddle as documentable historical fact, long held personal beliefs, institutional biases, religious and political agendas.

The fact that an `expert’ may have and eloquently articulate an opinion and find their way to the front of a functioning camera renders, neither them objective, nor their opinions authoritatively accurate.

Fraud is revealed in what the perpetrator seeks to obscure from the intended target in order to achieve a net gain at the expense of their victims. Render impermeable the mind of those who seek and are otherwise inclined to accept and be guided by truth and a victim you shall find. Ted’s eclectic assortment of high brow, self anointed biblical scholars who rose in opposition to the substance of what had been revealed proved sensationally feckless and inarticulate in their rhetoric as they sought to return the Genie to its bottle.

Tactics employed by Israeli authorities involving the confiscation and destruction of ancient ruins and `reburial’ of non-Jewish remains under the auspices of adhering to `strict traditional Orthodox Jewish Law’ revealed a level of arrogance more closely associated with its well documented human rights record.

A significant subtext to the program - a naive public is lead to believe that the burial customs of those, both Jewish and early Christian who passed 2,000 years ago were somehow `inherently deficient’ and so inconsistent with `strict traditional Orthodox Jewish Law’ unique to the period in which they were practiced, that their disturbance, mass exhumations, removal, confiscation, and mass disposal in anonymous unmarked graves and pits 2,000 years later were motivated exclusively by some imperative religious duty. As for confiscation, stacking and warehousing of ossuaries (analogous to modern day caskets) in which their loved ones had buried them, in government controlled warehouses, confiscation and leveling of land within which they were entombed, encouragement of private contractors to construct residential high rises and commercial establishments, both above and adjacent to them, amounts to common grave robbing, plunder for profit and by any other definition, an irreparable crime against history. What civilized society on the planet would permit such activities, let alone engages in it as an official government sanctioned enterprise? Collectively, it was these revelations which proved the source of Koppel pronounced discomfort. It should also be noted that Ted is Jewish and a staunch supporter of Israel, warranting heightened scrutiny for the presence of bias in his assessment of, both the documentary and its producers.

For Christian archeologists and theologians, the documentary presents a profound dilemma. The universally recognized eleventh commandment - possession being 9/10ths of the law, applies to and is aggressively observed in Israel in the context of Palestinians land, personal property, and its unfortunate human rights record toward them. Criticism of official Israeli government policy, particularly regarding the exhumations, reburial, and destruction of ancient human remains, confiscation, warehousing and sale of ossuaries, destruction of ancient tombs and significant Christian archaeology sites, confiscation of land directly above and adjacent to them for profit, are understandably awkward issues, subject to extraordinarily aggressive government censorship as memorialized in the program. Criticism limits access to the country, prohibition from access to certain sites, denial and revocation of licenses for engaging in archaeological activities, accelerated government confiscations, plundering and destruction of site contents by private contractors with the acquiescence and encouragement of Israeli authorities. Construction on these sites is intended to obscure, if not actually prevent access to them, averting subsequent claims, both to the land and their archaeological content, both by Christians, and Muslims.

In the end, it was not merely the reputation of Israel which lay in ruin. Koppel, heretofore recognized and embraced for decades as the consummate, objective, unbiased, honest, fact finding inquisitor (Walter Cronkite of his time), revealed several unflattering things about himself in the post-script debate which he moderated - what was clearly a religious and politically motivated bias and hostility, both toward the documentary resultant from what it revealed and, by extension its producers for what they failed to edit out regarding the Israeli Government’s disturbance and destruction of significant Christian artifacts and archaeological sites, his extraordinary ineptitude in the selection of rebuttal `experts,’ and the fact that there remains something to be said for timely retirement.

By the time ABC pulled the plug on him, and/or he exited the building of his own free will for the last time, he had accrued more than ample empirical evidence regarding sequels – always compared against, more often diminish, seldom an enhancement of the original, destined to be dismissed as a second act in what was essentially a one act play. This documentary proved one too many sequels for Ted who became the story within the story. The corrosive effect of this performance invited an overwhelmingly negative public impression of his work, not merely for the future, but through this misstep, the past.

Wow where to start.
- hmm… really? really. I was raised catholic… was glad to GTFO as soon as I got past the brainwashing. Around 12 I think i remember sitting in church and thinking… wow these people are idiots. They stare at this guy, mouths agape, drooling like tools apparently praying to the lord while wearing clothes that were way too tight on some of those knockers for a 12 year old boy to be seeing. The guy on stage probably just finished up [deleted] a boy around my age and [deleted] him in the ass till his [deleted] [deleted] bled. On the way out of the parking lot, chaos would ensue because everyone is, of course an [deleted], giving the finger to anyone else while cursing their name and calling them a retard. Very [deleted] enlightened you god damned tool. The stories are nice and all but you cannot deny the ignorance, oppression and represion of science and technology, human values and consciousness. WHY THE [deleted] was Copernicus (who was polish btw, and so am I) excommunicated for his views? Because it threatened their control. Not to mention that most catholics I know are some of the most ignorant, rude and immoral [deleted] I know. I’m glad I got away… at least I turned out to be a decent human being. Forgive the language but i really wanted to show my distaste with religion, this one in perticular.

There is nothing wrong with beliefs… as long as you KEEP THEM TO YOUR [deleted] SELF and not force them on others and get them entrapped in the safety net you need because your too afraid of the truth, the unknown and too afraid to die alone.

Religion has its uses but it should be limited to telling moral stories, designed to educate young children who have no parents to teach them morals and values or they work too much to spend time with them so that the child doesn’t become a social jackass. Religion, first and foremost teaches patience, peace and love towards your brothers and sisters. Once I realized how hypocritical the church was… it was all quite evident to be a huge scam on a grand scheme. Then I got older and realized.. guess what… one religion is killing people of another religion? How [deleted] hypocritical.

I believe in a greater power… a power that cannot be explained by mere mortals EVER. Once we become gods, we will all understand who they are… us.

Death is just the beginning… but if you believe in the vision of heaven as spelled out to you in the bible and church teachings, you are seriously deluded. We would like you to come back to us our lost brothers and sisters. It has been too long since the forces of evil have kept us sepperated, terrified and depressed to finally unite and do something ABOUT THIS [deleted] UP WORLD WE LIVE IN.