The Jesus Discovery: The Resurrection Tomb that Reveals the Birth of Christianity
In 1981, a tomb was discovered under a condominium in Jerusalem that held ossuaries inscribed with such names as Jesus, son of Joseph; Mary; and Mariamene Mara. Although the bone boxes were ignored for more than 20 years, when they were finally examined, the case was made that they held the bones of Jesus, mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ brother, and a son of Jesus (!). This theory was largely rejected due to the commonality of the names. Now, another tomb under the same condo building has been examined using specialized robotic cameras. Untouched for more than 2,000 years, two of these newly discovered bone boxes contain further references to Jesus, according to the authors. One, they claim, is inscribed with a large fish, symbolic of Jonah, whose story is mentioned by Jesus in Matthew and Luke. The other has words scratched upon it that say, “The Divine Jehovah raises up from the dead.” Tabor, a religious studies professor, and filmmaker Jacobovici do an excellent job of walking readers through the discoveries, framing the history; explaining the what, why, and how of ancient ossuaries; and taking another look at the statistical evidence surrounding the names in the first tomb. For readers, however, the book’s problem is the photographs. Printed on dull stock, they are difficult to make out. The fish looks like a decorative urn, and it’s almost impossible to see the stick figure of Jonah often mentioned in the text. Considering the conditions under which the photos were obtained, the poor quality may be understandable, but why not at least have labels to show what is being discussed? Will this discovery cause heated debate? It already has. And a Discovery Channel television program coming soon will turn up the temperature still higher. --Ilene Cooper