I was just listening to Dr. Eric Meyers of Duke University on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR and he had his copy of Tal Ilan’s Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity with him and he was saying to Simcha Jasobovici that he was wrong about the name “Yose” only being found one time in Aramaic on an ossuary, namely from the one in the Talpiot tomb. He cited another instance that Tal Ilan lists as a Yose (Yod, Vav, Samech, Heh) on the Mt. of Offense (p. 154, # 118). He was also making the point that scholars have not ignored the Talpiot tomb in the past (other than Kloner in 1996), because it was included in the comprehensive catalogue of Tal Ilan for all to see (published by the way in 2002).

The problem is the second example Prof. Meyers cited, supposedly from a tomb on the Mt. of Offense, is in fact not from the Mt. of Offense at all, it is the very Talpiot ossuary under discussion. I have pointed this out privately to Tal Ilan, and I noticed it two years ago, and made all the corrections in my copy of the book, but now that all these things are in the public it can be very confusing if anyone wants to do a bit of research, which many want to do. It also shows that scholars of the stature of Dr. Meyers have not focused much on these ossuaries until now, and that is certainly no criticism, but, as Dr. Meyers pointed out, Simcha’s film/book has now caused all of us to take a second look, so maybe the results can be good if people can calm down.

Anway, note the following:

Here are the six ossuaries from Talpiot as listed in Tal Ilan:
1. Yose (p. 154, # 118) is listed as Mt. of Offence, Gath, 1981 when it should be Talpiot, Gath, 1980.

2. Yeshua father of Judah & son of Joseph, actually two ossuaries, (p. 127, # 51) are also listed as Mt. of Offence, Gath, 1981, should be Talpiot, Gath, 1980.

3. Mariamenon/Mara (p. 244, # 52) is listed as Mt. of Offence, Gath, 1980, and should be Talpiot, Gath, 1980. I am not sure Mara is included, see p. 422-423).

4. Yehosef, father of Yeshua (p. 153, #117) is listed Mt. of Offence, Gath, 1981 should be Talpiot, Gath, 1980.

5. Matyah (p. 192, #38) is listed as Mt. of Offence, Gath, 1981, should be Talpiot, Gath, 1980.

How the designation of “Mt. of Offense” was put in for “east Talpiot,” and the dates mixed about I am not sure but Joan Taylor has most helpfully pointed out, as she often does from her wealth of knowledge, that in older publications, before the Gath excavation in 1980, “Mt. of Offense” was the term used for excavations in the area later known as Talpiot. So, for example, Clermont Ganneau’s 30 ossuaries were called “Mount of Offense,” (Bat’n el-Hawa, see C-G in RA 1883. 257-268 and his Archaeolgical Researches i (1899), 381-412, but then Sukenik wrote about them as being from Talpiot when re-found in Sept. 1945 on the Bethlehem road, publ. ‘The Earliest Records of Christianity’ AJA 51, 1947, 351-65. Whether this has anything to do with the confusion I am not sure but we all surely agree that Tal Ilan deserves all possible credit for what she has done for us all.

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