Well it did take me a little bit. There was so much out there already on this...but here is my two bits.
The Lost Tomb
Scene opens up with Jesus on the cross
“The most famous death in history”
“Gospels tell us he was buried in a tomb. And 2 day later Mary Magdeline, one of his closest disciples found the tomb empty.”
Now I have no degree or anything. But the last time I checked it was 3 days.
“Brings up the Gospel of Matthew and the mention of the rumors that were spread by Jewish priests. The rumors being that the disciples took the body from the tomb and gave it a second burial.
However something they fail to mention is that the Gospel lets you know where those rumors started and why. They were started by the Jewish priests in order to stop the flow of people converting to Christianity.
And “according to Jewish burial traditions Jesus’ body would have been taken to a rock hewn family tomb. Given that he was crucified for insurrection the reburial would have been done in secret by his closest disciples.”
There is a couple of things with this. Jesus’ “home” was not in Jerusalem. It would have been in Galilee.
Another thing that about Jesus and his trial. He was not tried for insurrection. Remember the Gospels explain that the Jews did not want His blood on their hands. So they turned Jesus over to Pilat. And what did he try him under? Basically tax evasion.
Jesus’ body would have been shrouded and left to decompose. 1 year later his disciples would have returned with his family for the final burial ceremony.
This would have been true. However Mary came back a few days later (3) to finish preparing the body for this time period. And when she came back….the body was gone.
Symbol above the tomb
Chevron and circle
They stated that the symbols meanings is unknown, however it is uncommon for this to be on a tomb because this was a rarity.
Journey to Harvard
Mentions that the writing were informal and messy. And also stating hard to read.
But said that he would say that it says Jesus, Son of Joseph
Now this does make it exciting. But then we also have to realize that not only was Jesus a common name but so was Joseph.
John Dominic Crossman – Professor emeritus De Paul University
“Says that finding Jesus bones would not be detrimental to his faith”
I am still trying to figure out how he thinks this.
Prof James Tabor – University of North Carolina at Charlotte
“If being historical and realistic then Jesus would have been put into a permanent place”
And this is true…since this is not the Jesus of the Bible.
They go into Jesus’ family tree. Showing Joseph and Mary. They state that according to Christian tradition Joseph died earlier and probably in Nazareth. While according to this tradition Mary died later and more than likely in Jerusalem.
I can only assume that they imply Joseph died due to some other documents or oral pass down other than the Bible. Cause again I do not remember it word for word but I do not recall anywhere that Joseph died. I could see where they would think that and it would make sense since we do not see Joseph later on while Jesus was in His ministry. But then it could be that he just did not show up to Jesus’ messages. Or was not as active in his following of Jesus, like Mary was.
They say that after Jesus death Mary continued and grew a following
As her popularity grew among the Roman converts her name became Latinized.
Maria is the Latinized version of the Hebrew Miriam
That is why the new testament records her name as Maria.
They said that it was extremely rare to see the name maria written in Hebrew. But that is what they found on one of the ossuaries in Jesus tomb.
So what we actually have in the tomb is Jesus, son of Joseph, and Maria. At this point we should note that Mary’s name was Miriam in Hebrew. The ossuary was scribed in Greek, and on top of that had a different version of the name Mary.
And let me also note that at this point they start to bring in the Gnostic Gospels. Many many things have been written about the Gnostic Gospels. Most of which pertain to how they were not written by the people they pretend to be, Mary, Philip, etc. They have never been counted as part of Canon and they present ideas and concepts which at times contradict what the Gospels teach.
Frank Moore Cross Professor Emeritus Harvard University
They also found Matthew in the tomb as well. They believe that this could have been because of decendants of Mary.
So here they present that this is either the Apostle Matthew who just so happened to be buried with Jesus or possibly a relative of Mary’s. Her family line had many Matthew’s in it, so this could be a relative. Or in reality it could be that this is not the tomb of Jesus and this Matthew is just another Matthew.
Prof Tal Ilan Free University of Berlin
Jose is shown in Mark to be the brother of Jesus. They said that it is rare to have this name in Hebrew as it would have been a nickname.
Not positive on this as far as it being a rarity. However if one brother was buried with Jesus then where are the other brothers? How about any sisters? Again remember that Jerusalem was not Jesus’ real home. So now they would say that Jose followed Jesus as well and moved to Jerusalem.
Professor Amos Kloner
Bar Ilan Univeristy
“These were common names among jews during 1st century”
The truth is starting to come out. A voice crying out amongst the wilderness so to speak.
Go to University of Toronto
Statistics expert.
Professor Andrey Feuerverger
Dept of Mathmatics and Statistics University of Toronto
If standing on crowded street in Jerusalem. Calling names
Jesus 4% would answer
Mary 25% would answer
Jesus with Father Joseph, Mother mary, etc… no percentage given.
This was to just to show how common some of the names were. You would think though that if you were to shout out for Mary that any spelling of Mary (Miriam/Maria) would be possible.
They said that Joseph son of Ciaphas prosecuted Jesus and that they have found Caiphas’ tomb
A side note that does more to prove the historicity of the Bible.
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