Archive for November, 2006

I want to continue my responses to the review of my book, The Jesus Dynasty, by my friend and colleague Prof. James F. Strange published in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (November/December, 2006, pp. 72-76).

In the Introduction to my book titled “A Tale of Two Tombs” I explore the question of the possible provenance of the controversial ossuary that surfaced to public attention in October, 2002 with the inscription “James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” I remain convinced that the evidence for the authenticity of the inscription is strong and I would urge readers to carefully work through the materials, pro and con, archived at the Biblical Archaeology Society Web site rather than accepting the widespread perception that experts have “proven the ossuary inscription a forgery.” I should also point out that even the Israel Antiquities Authority committee concluded only that the words “brother of Jesus” were added by the owner, Oded Golan, not that the ossuary itself, nor the inscription “James son of Joseph,” were forged. Anyway, Dr. Strange writes the following in his review:

In his introduction, Tabor relates an exciting story of how he and his students, working with Israeli archaeologist Shimon Gibson in 2000, discovered a looted tomb with smashed ossuaries (bones boxes) and a burial shroud in Jerusalem’s Hinnon Valley. . . Tabor thinks there is reason to believe that the famous James ossuary… was looted from the Tomb. Furthermore, Tabor links this tomb with the tomb found in Jerusalem’s East Talpiot neighborhood in 1980, because certain names found on ossuaries form the Tomb of the Shroud also occur on ossuaries from the Talpiot tomb…Tabor then asks a sizzling hot question: “Was it possible that we had unknowingly stumbled upon the Jesus family tomb?” This reveals the rather sensational tone of the book.

Now, I have to put on my scholar’s hat and ask why anyone would think that the Jesus family tomb was in Judea and not in Galilee, though I do not mean to imply that this was impossible. Furthermore, why two tombs? (There are three, if we count the 1926 Talpiot tomb found by Eliezar Sukenik, which also featured the name Jesus son of Joseph on an ossuary.) Tabor gives no clear answer, just a simple assertion. This pattern–asserting a proposition, not establishing the truth of the proposition–repeats itself throughout the book (p. 72).

I regret that Prof. Strange has misunderstood the point of my discussion in that chapter on the Two Tombs, so let me clarify things a bit here. The chapter is based on my own view that the James ossuary inscription is authentic and likely held the bones of James brother of Jesus. Since much of my book is about the “Jesus Dynasty,” that is how James and subsequent family members took over the leadership of the Messianic Movement, for his ossuary to have surfaced after nearly 2000 years is truly a remarkable thing, and adds the kind of “material evidence” to the textual evidence for James as the brother of Jesus of which we normally can only dream. Accordingly, the main focus of this introductory chapter was to raise a further question–where did this ossuary come from? It was obviously looted from a tomb somewhere in Jerusalem, but can we know when, and if so, which tomb might it likely have come from?

The Tomb of the Shroud, which we discovered in 2000, and the Talpiot tomb, that was excavated by archaeologists in 1980 are not connected in any way as far as I know, nor are the names found in either tomb linked to one another. Here Dr. Strange has misread what I intended to say. The reason I bring in these two tombs has to do with the matter of the date that the owner of the ossuary, Oded Golan, acquired it–in other words, when did it first surface on the antiquities market? Golan has given a number of dates, but he has consistently maintained he had it in his possession for 15-20 years. On the other hand, the indictment against Mr. Golan claims that he acquired it rather recently, not too long before it came to public view in 2002. The government claims to have good evidence in this regard. What I try to present in my introduction is the circumstantial evidence for either the Tomb of the Shroud (2000) or the Talpiot tomb (1980) being the tomb from which the James ossuary was looted. There is no connection I see between the two, but evidence in both cases, depending on when Golan acquired the ossuary, that points to one or the other.

Strange mentions a “third tomb,” but as far as I know the ossuary published by Sukenik inscribed “Jesus son of Joseph,” he found stored in the basement warehouse of what is now the Rockefeller Museum and it has no known provenance. Since it was discovered sometime before 1926 it is most unlikely that it came from the same tomb as the James ossuary acquired by Golan, and thus no reason, other than a similarity of common names, to connect it to Jesus or anyone in his family.

Now, as to the matter of possibly “stumbling upon the Jesus family tomb,” it would all depend on whether or not the Tomb of the Shroud was the tomb from which the James ossuary was looted. The government’s evidence for Golan acquiring the ossuary rather recently has not yet been revealed, but Gibson and I became aware of other evidence, which was subsequently published in Biblical Archaeology Review (November/December, 2004), that pointed rather strongly to our Shroud Tomb as the home of the James ossuary. On the other hand, if Golan is telling the truth, and he did have the James ossuary, intact with its full inscription going back to the 1980s, and he claims to have a photograph proving that, then there is some interesting circumstantial evidence that points to the East Talpiot tomb as its home. What I do in my introduction is survey the evidence for both and in the end I am not able to reach any firm conclusion, since we have not been permitted to carry out DNA tests on the remains in the James ossuary compared to individuals in either of the two tombs. Maybe there is a “third tomb,” but as far as I know there is no evidence linking the James ossuary to any but the two I mention, so those are the ones I consider and discuss.

As for the Jesus family tomb being in Galilee or Jerusalem, unlike Dr. Strange, I would favor Jerusalem. We seem to have pretty firm traditions that James was buried in Jerusalem in 62 A.D., not carried to Galilee. This would seem to indicate that the family has relocated itself by this time in the Holy City, which is the HQ for the growing movement worldwide. I don’t find it at all unlikely that Mary, her other sons, and her daughters, as well as extended relatives, might be put in the same tomb or tombs. Why assume that James was buried in isolation when family burial is the normal practice? There are, of course, several locations for “tombs of Mary” in Jerusalem today, and I think one also in Ephesus as well. Given the burial of James, and now the James ossuary, plus the family exercising its leadership over the movement from Jerusalem, not Galilee, I am convinced that Jerusalem is more likely the place for the family burials.

My intention in my introduction was not to be sensational, but to bring to the public attention the potential implications of an authentic ossuary holding the bones of James the brother of Jesus, and the location of the tomb from which it was looted, as a vivid reminder of the family of Jesus, together in death as in life–and what that can mean for recovering the message of James. Admittedly, if either of the two possibilities I suggest are valid, and I am not aware of any others that have been proposed with any supporting evidence, one can not help but feel a bit of excitement in the discovery. I hope that further research and tests will determine some of these matters to the satisfaction of all of us who care about history and archaeology.

I had planned to write short reports along the way this week while I have been in Europe but unfortunately I had problems with my laptop the third day of my visit here and have just now gotten it running again. It is good to be back on line. It is strange how our computer “worlds” have become so essential to us. I just downloaded about 600 e-mails that had built up over the week, many from readers of the new editions of my book in Dutch, German, and Portuguese. I am now in Vienna for three days after having visited Holland, Belgium, and Germany. So much has happened it will be impossible to relate it all, but here are a few random notes and observations from my trip as related to the reception of The Jesus Dynasty in Dutch and German.

• My first evening in Amsterdam I was able to watch live on cable from Germany the national TV show Aspekte that ran a feature story on my book. Aspekte, which runs every Friday night in Europe, is something like 20/20 or Dateline in the U.S. I had filmed in Charlotte and in Jerusalem with the producer, Frank Vorpahl, earlier this year and this was the second segment they had aired on my book. If you read German there is a summary on their Web site of the show and both programs are archived. Most interesting was the inclusion of reactions and critiques of my work with professors and students from the Catholic University at Eichstatt. As an indication of the power and influence of the media an hour or so after the broadcast the book had climbed into the top 100 ranking on Amazon.de, the German site, where it stayed most of the weekend.

• A definite highlight of this trip was the Belgium Book Fair in Antwerp, my first visit to that historic city. Unlike the world famous Frankfurt Book Fair, which is more for publishers and professionals in the book business, this fair is for the people. Only Dutch books are on display with authors who either write in Dutch or are published in Dutch in attendance. I was one of thirty authors featured. De Jezus Dynastie in Belgium is published by Manteau. Over 175 thousand people crowd into the event. It was quite amazing to see the energy and excitement evident all around. I think the Dutch, along with the Swedes and Israelis, buy more books per person than any country in the world. Authors are interviewed by professional journalists in public sessions. I had the good fortune to be assigned to Joel de Ceulaer, a writer for the weekly magazine Knack, which is something like Time or Newsweek in Belgium. The room was packed and the interview was conducted in English, a third language after French in northern Belgium. Mr. Ceulaer had carefully read my book and his questions were probing but fair and intelligent. The audience seemed quite rapt with attention and I had a chance to carry on conversations afterward. Belgium is a traditionally Catholic country but these nortern Dutch speaking citizens of Belgium are educated and enlightened, and apparently quite interested in my topic–the historical quest for Jesus. The interest in the press was extensive and I did a full day of one hour interviews with various papers. I also had time to squeeze in a visit to the world-famous Cathedral of our Lady, where three of Rubens’s most famous paintings are magnificantly displayed, including the “Assumption of Maria.” I stood a long time in front of it, awed by the obvious power of artistic expression in the service of religious imagination. In Antwerp one sees shrines to Mary on corners of buildings all over town. I could not help feeling the irony of my attempts to bring back to our historical memory an understanding of Jesus’ mother Miriam as a Jewish mother of seven children.

• In Germany and Austria The Jesus Dynasty continues to draw lots of attention and varied reactions, heralded by the extraordinary TV and press coverage. Whereever I have spoken I have emphasized the connection of my own approach to Jesus with the pioneering work of Albert Schweitzer, to whom I dedicated my book. There is an serious and thorough Blog review by Gerhard Beckmann at Die Welt website that picks up on this point. While in Munich I did a long and in depth interview with a correspondent with Die Zeit, which is arguably the most serious weekly newspaper in Germany. Here in Vienna I spent half a day with a feature writer Gerhard Hertenberger for the national magazine Profil, which is like Time in the US or Der Spiegel in Germany. Their plan is to run a nine-page cover story on Die Jesus Dynastie the first week of December. Mr. Hertenberger read me the formal responses to the book by two scholars, one Catholic, the other Protestant, that he had solicited to evaluate my book. I am honored and pleased at the serious consideration.

• Yesterday I visited the Roman ruins here in Vienna under the present street level. Here, at what is now the center of the city, was a full Roman military camp, the settlement known as Vindobona, the northern border of the Roman empire on the Danube for several centuries. The Romans under Augustus and Tiberius had finally managed to conquer the German tribes of the area. I could not help think about how Abdes Pantera had come with his cohort from Roman Syria-Palestine to Dalmatia (Croatia), not far from here, in 6 A.D. This was the height of the fighting on the German frontier. It is surley likely that during his 40 years of service he would have been at Vindobona at one time or another. He ended up in the north, on the Nahe river in Germany where he died and was buried. Among the ruins here at Vindobona were found several gravestones that reminded me of Pantera’s.

More later…

I am in Europe this week giving lectures and interviews in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. I just arrived in Amsterdam a couple of hours ago. I have not been here since 1962 when I was in H.S. in France and I came here over Easter vacation with my roommate. Amsterdam is lovely, a city of parks, museums, and deep history. The Dutch version of my book came out this week, published by Spectrum Publishers and it seems to be attracting lots of attention. It is very satisfying to me to see the book come out in Dutch, given the rich history in this country for free thinking, scientific and cultural advancement, and Enlightenment thinking. The German version continues to do well and seems to be attracting major attention. Tonight a second segment airs on the German program Aspekte, which I filmed in Israel back in June. This program is something like 60 Minutes over here and it gets carried via cable all over Europe. In fact I will be able to watch it live here in the hotel room this evening. The Austrian magazine Profil, which is like Newsweek over here, is planning a nine page story on Die Jesus Dynastie. I will be meeting their writers while in Vienna. I will be writing further reports on my trip all through next week, so stay tuned. I also plan on continuing my reponses to Dr. Jame Strange’s review of my book in Biblical Archaeology Review.