The Jesus Discovery

by James D. Tabor

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  CONTENTS

  MAP: JERUSALEM IN THE TIME OF JESUS

  PREFACE

  CHAPTER 1 THE DISCOVERY

  CHAPTER 2 TWO TALPIOT TOMBS

  CHAPTER 3 DECODING THE MYSTERIOUS SIGN OF JONAH

  CHAPTER 4 RETURNING TO THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB

  CHAPTER 5 JESUS AND MARY MAGDALENE

  CHAPTER 6 THE MYSTERY OF THE JAMES OSSUARY

  CHAPTER 7 RESURRECTION, LOST BONES, AND JESUS’ DNA

  CONCLUSION: THE FIRST CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY TODAY

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT JAMES D. TABOR AND SIMCHA JACOBOVICI

  NOTES

  INDEX

  To the incomparable Morton Smith (1915–1991) who pioneered the way . . .

  PREFACE

  On the morning of Tuesday, June 29, 2010, outside the Old City of Jerusalem, we made an unprecedented archaeological discovery related to Jesus and early Christianity. This discovery adds significantly to our understanding of Jesus, his earliest followers, and the birth of Christianity. In this book we reveal reliable archaeological evidence that is directly connected to Jesus’ first followers—those who knew him personally—and to Jesus himself. The discovery provides the earliest archaeological evidence of faith in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the first witness to a saying of Jesus that predates even the writing of our New Testament gospels, and the earliest example of Christian art—all found in a sealed tomb dated to the 1st century CE.1

  We refer to this tomb as the Patio tomb, since it is now located beneath an apartment patio, eight feet under the basement of a condominium complex. Such juxtapositions of modernity and antiquity are not unusual in Jerusalem, where construction must often be halted to rescue and excavate tombs from ancient times. The Patio tomb was first uncovered by construction work in 1981 in East Talpiot, a suburb of Jerusalem less than two miles south of the Old City.

  Our discoveries also provide precious new evidence for evaluating the “Jesus son of Joseph” tomb, discovered a year earlier, which made international headlines in 2007.2 We refer to this 1980 tomb as the Garden tomb, since it is now situated beneath a garden area in the same condominium complex. These two tombs, both dating to around the time of Jesus, are less than two hundred feet apart. Together with a third tomb nearby that was unfortunately destroyed by the construction blasts, these tombs formed a cluster and most likely belonged to the same clan or extended family. Any interpretation of one tomb has to be made in the light of the other. As a result we believe a compelling argument can be made that the Garden tomb is that of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. We argue in this book that both tombs are most likely located on the rural estate of Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy member of the Sanhedrin who according to all four New Testament gospels took official charge of Jesus’ burial.

  Who was Joseph of Arimathea and how did he enter the historical picture? The Jesus Discovery explores the answers to this and a series of related questions. The recent discoveries in the Patio tomb put the controversy about the Jesus family tomb in new light. We now have new archaeological evidence, literally written in stone, that can guide us in properly understanding what Jesus’ earliest followers meant by their faith in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead—with his earthly remains, and those of his family, peacefully interred just yards away. This might sound like a contradiction, but only because certain theological traditions regarding the meaning of resurrection of the dead have clouded our understanding of what Jesus and his first followers truly believed. When we put together the texts of the gospels with this archaeological evidence, the results are strikingly consistent and stand up to rigorous standards of historical evidence.

  Accessing the sealed Patio tomb was a tremendous challenge. The technological challenge alone was daunting. Our only access to this tomb was through a series of eight-inch drill holes in the basement floor of the condominium. We were not even positive these probes would open into the tomb. We literally had only inches to spare. Investigating the tomb required getting agreements from the owners of the building over the tomb; the Israel Antiquities Authority, which controls permission to carry out any archaeological work in Israel; the Jerusalem police, whose task is to keep the peace and avoid incitements to riot; and the Heredim, the ultra-Orthodox authorities whose mission is to protect all Jewish tombs, ancient or modern, from any kind of disturbance. None of these parties had any particular motivation to assist us and for various reasons they disagreed with one another about their own interests. Any one of them could have stopped us at any point along the way, and there were many anxious times when we thought the exploration would never happen. Ultimately we were able to persuade each group to support the excavation. That we succeeded at all is more than a minor miracle. At the same time we had no evidence that our exploration of this tomb, if it were possible, would yield anything of importance. But we both agreed it was a gamble worth taking.

  At many points the entire operation seemed likely to collapse. We pushed on, however, not because we knew what was inside the tomb, but because we could not bear the thought of never knowing. Since that time we have begun to put the entire story together and a coherent picture is emerging that offers a new understanding of Jesus and his earliest followers in the first decades of the movement.

  Archaeologists who work on the history of ancient Judaism and early Christianity disagree over whether there is any reliable archaeological evidence directly related to Jesus or his early followers.3 Most are convinced that nothing of this sort has survived—not a single site, inscription, artifact, drawing, or text mentioning Jesus or his followers, or witnessing to the beliefs of the earliest Jewish Christians either in Jerusalem or in Galilee.

  Jesus was born, lived, and died in the land of Israel. Most scholars agree he was born around 5 BCE and died around 30 CE. We have abundant archaeological evidence from this period related to Galilee, where he began his preaching and healing campaigns, and Jerusalem, where he was crucified. There is evidence related to Herod Antipas, the high priest Caiaphas, and even Pontius Pilate, who had him crucified, but nothing that would connect us to Jesus himself, or even to his earliest followers—until now. Our hope is that these exciting new discoveries can become the catalyst for reconsidering other archaeological evidence that might well be related to the first Jewish-Christian believers.

  The oldest copies of the New Testament gospels date to the early 4th century CE—well over two hundred years after Jesus’ lifetime. There are a few papyri fragments of New Testament writings that scholars have dated to the 2nd century CE, but nothing so far in the 1st century. The earliest Christian art is found in the catacomb tombs in Rome, dating to the late 2nd or early 3rd centuries CE. Our discovery effectively pushes back the date on early Christian archaeological evidence by two hundred years. More significantly, it takes us back into the lifetime of Jesus himself.

  This has been the most extraordinary adventure of our careers, and we are pleased to be able to share with readers the surprising and profound story of The Jesus Discovery.

  James D. Tabor

  Simcha Jacobovici

  Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem

  June 15, 2011

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  THE DISCOVERY

  It was a bright summer day in Jerusalem. We were crowded together with our film crew in a narrow corridor around a group of camera monitors in the basement o
f the condominium building in East Talpiot. The building had been built over the tomb shortly after its discovery in 1981. The tomb itself had been left sealed and the archaeologists who briefly examined it at the time had apparently missed its precious contents. We never set foot in the tomb. We were able to get an archaeological license to explore it remotely using a set of state-of-the-art cameras at the end of a sophisticated robotic arm that we had lowered into its dark interior through holes drilled into the floor of the basement.

  We had been filming inside the tomb for two days, painstakingly moving our camera probe from one area to another. We had stuffed our equipment, cables, and high-resolution monitors into a small corridor leading to a storage area in the basement. What we had observed so far was fascinating enough. Just the experience of being able to “enter” this ancient tomb and see its contents kept us on the edge of our seats with our eyes focused on the camera monitors for hour after hour. The robotic arm slowly made its way around the tomb. Suddenly something unusual came into focus. Carved into the side of a limestone ossuary, or “bone box,” was a startling image that we recognized, one never before seen on an ossuary or on any other ancient artifact from the 1st century CE. Right next to this ossuary was a second one with a four-line Greek inscription. We stared at the monitor as the image and the Greek letters came into sharper focus, and adjusted the light to get a better look. A shout went up in the cramped corridor when we read the inscription. What we saw was clear evidence of faith in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead from this sealed tomb securely dated to the time of Jesus. The implications struck us immediately. We were gazing at the carved imagery and writing of some of Jesus’ earliest followers. It was very likely that some of those people buried in this tomb had actually seen and known Jesus, maybe even witnessed his death, and were hereby proclaiming their faith in his resurrection as well.

  1. Camera shot of the interior of the Patio tomb showing an ossuary in place.

  Reeling from this discovery, we flew to Rome to investigate similar, but much later, images in the catacombs in Rome. The catacombs consist of hundreds of miles of many-leveled tunnels and passageways filled with burial chambers deep beneath the ancient city of Rome. It was here that the ancient Romans, and later the Jews and early Christians, buried their dead. The catacombs belonging to the Christians date to the late 3rd and early 4th centuries CE. On the walls of these family burial chambers one finds what was until now the earliest examples of Christian art—painted frescos, carvings, and inscriptions, many having to do with faith in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as offering hope of eternal life to his followers. In order to provide a wider context for what we had discovered in the Jerusalem Patio tomb we invited Professor Robin Jensen of Vanderbilt University to join us as a guide in the catacombs. She is one of the most distinguished historians of early Christian art in the world.1 We spent hours walking in the deep underground passageways where the pungent odor of damp earth fills the stale air. Jensen took us from chamber to chamber, through the tangled maze of tunnels and levels, offering us a tour of some of the main images and inscriptions in the catacombs of Priscilla and San Sebastiano.

  In the evening at our hotel after our first long day of exploration we showed Robin a photograph of the image carved on the ossuary that we had discovered in Jerusalem. She was completely taken back by what she saw. She instantly recognized the image. She kept saying, you mean this was found in a 1st century tomb in Jerusalem? How is that possible? Nothing like this has ever been found dating earlier than the 3rd century CE—and only in Rome, never in Jerusalem. The date and the location connected this discovery to Jesus’ earliest followers. This discovery left us all a bit stunned. It seemed impossible, but a photograph of the evidence was lying on the table before our eyes.

  JERUSALEM BURIAL CAVES IN THE TIME OF JESUS

  It is against Israeli law to willfully excavate, violate, disturb, or destroy a tomb, whether ancient or modern. Nonetheless, 18th and 19th century explorers, modern tomb robbers, and construction crews have all taken their toll—particularly on ancient Jewish cave burials in Jerusalem. Yet there has been an unexpected positive benefit to these disturbances. Jewish cave tombs in this period contain little of obvious value. Typically Jews did not bury their dead with jewelry, coins, or other items of value. A tomb might contain clay oil lamps and ceramic vessels used for ritual purposes, such as perfume vials and even cooking pots, but little more—except for ossuaries. It is these ossuaries that the thieves want. Carved from soft limestone, these “bone boxes” became the repositories for the bones of loved ones. When a Jew died the corpse was washed and prepared for burial and then laid out in a niche or, in some tombs, on a shelf carved into the walls of the tomb, until the flesh decayed. These burial niches are called kokhim in Hebrew and they served for the initial placement of bodies as well as for the storage of ossuaries. The shelves within the niches are called arcosolia. This initial laying out of the body is referred to as a “primary burial” and was usually followed by a “secondary burial” a year or more later when the flesh had decayed and the bones of the deceased were gathered and placed in an ossuary.

  Typically these ossuaries were wide enough to hold the skull of the deceased and long enough for the femur bone, the largest bone in the human body, to fit diagonally. For an adult that would be an average of 25 inches in length, 12 inches high, and 10 inches wide. In some cases the bones of more than one family member were put in a single ossuary—whether a husband and wife, two sisters, or even children with their parents. Other times wives and children had their own separate ossuaries, depending on the wishes and custom of a given Jewish family. We have an ancient rabbinic text that describes the process quite poignantly:

  Rabbi Eleazar bar Zadok said, “Thus spoke my father at the time of his death, ‘My son, bury me first in a niche [Hebrew kokh]. In the course of time collect my bones and put them in an ossuary; but do not gather them with your own hands.’ And thus I did attend him: Jonathan entered, collected the bones, and spread a sheet over them. I then came in, rent my clothes for them, and sprinkled dried herbs over them. Just as he attended his father so I attended him.” (Semahot 12.9)2

  Jesus once told a would-be follower “Let the dead bury the dead,” when the man protested that he needed to wait until he had buried his father to join Jesus. The cryptic reference most likely reflects this practice of secondary burial—not that the man was waiting for his father to die, but that his father had recently died and he needed to pass the obligatory first year following his father’s death, when the family would gather his bones and put them in an ossuary. Only then could he leave his family and follow Jesus (Luke 9:59).3

  2. A group of broken and restored ossuaries from a looted Jerusalem tomb.

  Tomb robbers usually dump the bones and take the ossuaries, oil lamps, and other pottery vessels. The ossuaries can be sold through the illegal antiquities market for a few hundred dollars—but they are worth much more if they are inscribed with the names of the deceased. Think of these tombs, with their inscribed ossuaries, as time capsules, preserving a tiny slice of history. Rather than a pile of bones of an unnamed and forgotten family, we have the names and relationships of the family that used a particular tomb—and in rare cases, as we will see, much more. These tombs provide a way for us to peer back into the past and recapture a moment in antiquity.

  Jerusalem has experienced a huge building boom since 1967, when the Israelis unified the city and took down the dividing barriers between east and west. The population, both Jewish and Arab, has skyrocketed. But whenever you dig below a half meter or so in this ancient city or its environs you are more than likely to uncover archaeological antiquities, whether mosaics, ruins of ancient walls and buildings, or, often as not, ancient Jewish tombs. Antiquities are defined as any human-made material remains that can be dated earlier than the year 1700 CE and any zoological or biological remains older than 1300 CE.4 As a result, with the construction of practically every road, highway, bridge,
park, housing unit, or building, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA), responsible for excavating, preserving, and safeguarding historic ancient sites, is called in. This work is called “rescue” or “salvage” archaeology, and it is usually done as quickly as possible so as not to unduly delay the construction project that has been halted.5 It is against Israeli law for anyone to willfully ignore or destroy a site that contains antiquities. One simply never knows what might turn up with the next construction blast or sweep of the bulldozer.

  Jerusalem is ringed with ancient tombs. These burial caves are carved into the limestone bedrock and hidden from modern eyes. The city was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans and nineteen centuries of subsequent building and periodic destruction have obscured the landscape. Most of these tombs date back to the 1st century BCE through the 1st century CE, when the Roman destruction brought a halt to normal Jewish life. Scholars label this time period the Late Second Temple period, and often refer in particular to Herodian Jerusalem, named after Herod the Great, the Roman client king who ruled the country from 37 to 4 BCE. Christians loosely refer to this period as “Jerusalem in the time of Jesus.”6

  The use of ossuaries is a practice that is almost exclusive to Jerusalem and its environs in this period. Only a handful of ossuaries have been found in other parts of the country from this time. Scholars debate the reasons for this custom but the archaeological evidence is clear—this localized use of ossuaries flourished from the end of the 1st century BCE to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman armies in 70 CE and then largely ceased.7

  Approximately 1,000 cave tombs have been opened in the Jerusalem area in the past 150 years with over 2,000 documented ossuaries.8 Thousands more have been lost or sold and scattered into private hands. The latest catalogue of inscriptions from Jerusalem lists nearly 600 inscribed ossuaries, or approximately 30 percent of the total.9 Typically these ossuary inscriptions, written mostly in Hebrew and Aramaic or Greek, preserve the names of the dead.10 For historians and archaeologists these ossuaries represent a different kind of treasure, much more valuable than jewelry or coins. In a very few cases these inscriptions include warnings against opening or violating the tomb, or even more rarely, something about the deceased—perhaps where one was from if outside the land of Israel, how one might have been related to others in the tomb, or what one’s occupation might have been. Many ossuaries are plain, but others are decorated, most often with rosettes, various geometric patterns, architectural façades, and occasionally images of plants such as vines or palms. Images of humans and animals were forbidden as violations of the biblical commandment not to make “graven images”—so when there are exceptions, as is the case with our Patio tomb find, they stand out. Epigrams, in which something is said about the beliefs of the deceased about death and the afterlife, so common on Greek tombs in this period, are virtually nonexistent on Jewish ossuaries. As a result, the newly discovered Greek inscription on a Jewish 1st century CE ossuary is unprecedented in the archaeological record from this period.11