Jesus Dynasty Blog

The Talpiot Tomb: Separating Truth from Fiction
04/29/2007

By Dr. James. D. Tabor
April 29, 2007, @ 9:00 am

With the initial airing of the Discovery Channel documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” in the U.S., Canada, and Israel, and the publication of the book, The Jesus Family Tomb by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pelligrino, the Talpiot “Jesus tomb” has generated an avalanche of media coverage and Internet discussion. A simple Google search for the string “Jesus family tomb” generates a million and a half Web sites. The passions and emotions on this topic have been high, and correct and reliable information has been hard to come by. In this post I want to attempt to sort through a list of the “fictions” regarding the Tomb, its discovery, and its investigation, focusing on things that have been reported or written over the past month that are, to my knowledge, in error.

I should also point out that a consideration of the tomb itself as an historical and archaeological site, and a fair and unbiased examination of the evidence thereof, has nothing necessarily to do with the matter of how one might evaluate the film produced by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici. Whether the film is judged convincing or unconvincing, good or bad, as a film, that should remain a separate issue. I personally am quite positive about the film in terms of its genre as a film, but what really matters in the end is what the evidence related to the tomb indicates in terms of its possible or even probable identification with Jesus of Nazareth.

The following is a list of what I judge to be the top twenty “fictions” related to the discussion of the Talpiot tomb.

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