Jesus Family Tomb In the News
Experts Remain Divided Over Jesus Tomb Find
01/24/2008
Professor James H. Charlesworth, a chief New Testament expert from Princeton Theology Seminary, led the Third Princeton Symposium – a four-day academic conference that began on Sunday January 13th to evaluate "the Talpiot Tomb in context". This conference bought together over 50 guests including statisticians, archaeologists and biblical experts to discuss the issue Canadian-based journalist Simcha Jacobovici brought to the attention of global headlines last February with this his documentary film The Lost Tomb of Jesus .
The crucial moments at this year's conference unraveled as Ruth Gat, the widow of Yosef Gat, the archeologist who excavated the Talpiot tomb in 1980, explained why her husband kept his discovery of Jesus' family tomb a secret.
After Mrs. Gat accepted a lifetime achievement award on the behalf of her late husband, she said Mr. Gat being a Holocuast survivor, feared the wave of anti-Semitism that would follow if he announced that the Talpoit tomb was actually Jesus'. Since the discovery challenged Christian doctrine.
However, Amos Kloner, the former Jerusalem District archeologist that Mr. Gat reported to said Mrs. Gat was "mistaken about her husband." Since Mr. Gat never mentioned or documented anything about the tomb belonging to Jesus or his family.
After four days of vigorous debate and discussion of whether or not the Talpiot tomb belonged to Jesus and his family, the opinions of the panelists remained divided ranging from "not possible" to "very possible".
Professor Charlesworth dismissed the idea that the tomb at Talpiot belonged to Jesus, because the ossuaries were scribbled on like graffiti and lacked the expected ornamentations. However, he noted that the tomb was from a Jewish family from the time of Jesus. He also said that it was very possible that the tomb could be linked to Jesus' family.
Similarly, Professor Charles Knohl, one of the notable panelists, on the last day of the conference said there was no evidence not to evaluate the tomb in Talpiot as Jesus' family tomb. He also suggested that the surrounding caves should be excavated to gain more evidence.
However, Shimon Gibson, a fellow archaeologist on Mr. Gat's 1980 excavation team, noted that the haredi (most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism) opposition would dispute any effort of reopening the First Century cave in Jerusalem's Talpiot neighborhood for further investigation.
What does Mr. Jacobovici have to say about the conference on his movie?
Mr. Jacobovici felt honor that such a diverse and expert group gathered to discuss the issue at hand. He noted that since the time he made the documentary to now, the public and scientific community's feelings has shifted from "no way" to "perhaps it might be true".
Source: Israel.jpost.com
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