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Subsequent to revelations from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a rather startling discovery was made in 1980.  However, it was not until some decades later that the full significance of this find became evident and made readily available to the general public in the form of a TV broadcast (mysteriously limited in exposure), and in a most informative book.  (See: The Jesus Family Tomb, 2007, by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino, ISBN: 978-0-06-119202-9.)

 

Incredible as it may seem, when a tomb outside the old city walls of Jerusalem (in a hill region called Talpiot) was accidentally uncovered in 1980 by a bulldozer excavating a foundation for a housing development, the inscriptions on some ten bone ossuaries found within were given only a callous glance.  (An ossuary is a small stone coffin in which were placed the bones of one after the deceased had been laid to rest for about a year and the flesh had decayed to dust.  By way of dating the find, it is to be noted that this unique Jewish practice of a “second burial” was just a temporal passing phase over the span of a few generations— namely, from about the time of the birth of Jesus to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and a major dispersal of its inhabitants in 70 A.D.)  Not only did one of the inscriptions read “Jesus, son of Joseph,” but other ossuaries contained such biblical names as two “Marys,” a “Joseph,” a “Matthew,” and one  reading “Judah, son of Jesus!”  Moreover, yet another was even inscribed “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus!”  Who, in the light of such archeological evidence, could not conclude that this tomb was most certainly a Jesus family tomb?

 

One would surely have expected  authorities to look upon this site as as the greatest biblical find  ever.  Instead, it was allowed to pass with little fanfare and dismissed by many so-called “experts” as just a coincidence that the crypt contained so many names associated with Jesus.  Clearly, none are  so blind as those who will not see— for fear of totally undermining their cherished theological dogma!

 

As if to add an aura of mystery and intrigue to the discovery, one of the ten ossuaries found in this Talpiot crypt vanished before they could be transferred to a Jerusalem museum.  Somehow, the ossuary bearing the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” was literally stolen shortly after it was cataloged, but before it could be studied in depth.  When it finally surfaced, some two decades later in the antiquity market, it was actually claimed to be a forgery by a number of supposed experts desperate to preserve the status quo.  Only later was it to be proven legitimate through analysis of its patina.  (A patina is the thin layer of dust and chemical residue that has accumulated over much time— a spectroscopic analysis of which could be almost as exact as a fingerprint.)  In essence, the James patina was a perfect match for the other nine ossuaries found in the Talpiot tomb, and was indeed the missing one stolen years earlier.