The Tomb Story in Israel
One might wonder how the Jesus Family Tomb story is playing over in Israel. This weekend’s Yediot Achranot, the major newspaper in Israel has a very extensive story (equivalent to Israelis to the Sunday NY Times) titled “Jesus is Dead and Buried in Jerusalem.” Unlike much of the coverage over here this long article does give the reader a sense of what the film actually contains and what the main issues are all about in terms of its accuracy and validity.
Michael Stone is mentioned in this article as having had a positive impression of the film in that it has uncovered certain data and brought to our attention areas that had been overlooked, but he called for the “hard work” of peer reviewed scholarly work on the subject to now begin. Dr. Stone is here at UNC Charlotte this year as our Distinguished Visiting Professor of Ancient Judaism and I have been able to discuss with him most of the evidence on the Talpiot tomb that is behind the production of the film. He has had some very insightful suggestions as to how research might procede. He has also encouraged me to publish a comprehensive academic article on the whole matter as soon as possible, which I do plan to do with Dr. Shimon Gibson.
