Clarifying the Record: The Missing Ossuary that is not missing
I do not like to get into personal diatribes on this Blog. It is the nature of the Blogging world it seems that a hot and controversial topic elicits such a storm of confusing responses, and depending on the topic, personal attacks and other unpleasantries. I find it is best to ignore such things and stay with substantive material. I also find it personally unpleasant. But let me speak frankly and plainly here.
I think there are times when one must make exceptions and this is one of those times. My friend Joe Zias, for whom I have great personal regard and a long and warm association, has badly misstated and misrepresented several things about me personally that are now being widely and gleefully circulated in the all-too-triumphant circles of the evangelical Christian Blog world. The subject is, of course, the Talpiot tomb.
Zias is telling the press and anyone else who will listen that he told me plainly when I asked him about the missing 10th ossuary from the Talpiot tomb (IAA 80.509) that it was put in the open courtyard behind the Rockefeller. He is further quoted as saying now that he remembers it, and that he personally received the ossuaries, catalogued them, and since there was not room for them all, and this one was very “plain” (no decorations) it was stacked outside. He then goes on to charge that knowing that I have deliberately chosen to ignore what he told me and gone about my merry way, presumably out for a fast buck.
This account false as well as slanderous. Fortunately I have good notes. I met Joe Zias at the cafe on Kibbutz Suba for coffee last summer, June 30, 2006. He had read my book, The Jesus Dynasty, which I had given him in March, and he told me with concern that he felt I was fast and loose with a lot of the archaeology in that book, and that colleagues were saying it was really substandard in quality. We discussed some of the specifics and I tried to clarify my own perspectives. On the matter of Talpiot and the James ossuary, Joe believes it is a forgery and now, in contrast to 1996, he thinks that the Talpiot tomb and its cluster of names is insignificant, so there was little chance we could agree on those matters. I then asked him–”but Joe, what about the missing 10th ossuary? What can you tell me, what do you know?” He said he had no idea what might have happened to it but it was possible, in those days, that it was put back in the courtyard and just left and forgotten. He also suggested it might have just been misplaced in the IAA warehouse and gave me examples of other things that had just gone missing, or were just misshelved and could not be found. He did not tell me, as he now says, oh yea, I remember that, I put it out in the courtyard. He said quite the opposite, that he had no specific recollection of these ossuaries or this tomb and that in the early 80s dozens were coming in and no one could keep up with them. I still have the notes I took that morning in a page inside my book.
We also discussed what happened to the bones and whether they were buried and he said he was not sure, but he would check his records. In those days Joe was known as the “bone man.” He later told me, after checking, that he did not think he was the one who got them and he suggested another person whose name I will not mention here. I asked him if he thought they might still be around and he said very possibly. Since Joe did not do the bone evaluation one might now ask, and no one has asked, how were Kloner’s numbers determined in his report, i.e., that the number of interments in the tomb may be estimated at 35, with 17 in the ossuaries and 18 outside. Some anthropologist would have to make that determination. Maybe we can learn who that was and we will all know more. As Joe had told me many times, it takes a trained eye to go through piles of bones and figure out individuals, as he has done at Masada for Cave 2000 and totally revised the initial figures reported. So you see, there are things being misstated and also things we don’t know. I feel it best to remain silent on things I don’t know. But I do know what Joe said to me on that Friday morning and I think he does as well.
I do not know whether the missing 10th ossuary from Talpiot is the same as the one acquired by Oded Golan, the so-called “James ossuary.” I have spent three years gathering every bit of evidence I can find on the matter and I did not form my views on Monday after watching a press conference. I do know facts about the matter that I have not yet made public, and after consulting with the proper people who are involved, which I am doing, I will speak. I have, in the meantime, spoken privately to several trusted and respected academic colleagues, who do not share my views on Talpiot, for counsel in how to proceed with this. If it turns out to be the case that the James ossuary does come from the Talpiot tomb, even with the words “James son of Joseph,” I think we can all agree this is important evidence. It would be a worst nightmare for some, so maybe that is why the emotions run so high. I think slandering someone, accusing them of pimping or wanting to make a fast buck, gets us nowhere. I have conducted all my research using the highest standards, I have conducted myself honorably even to those who have slandered me. In time this will all come out. But in the meantime I would say the rumors of the “sinking” of the Talpiot ship are greatly exaggerated. I am this week preparing a formal paper that will offer my own critical evaluation of the evidence. I did not make the “Lost Tomb of Jesus Film” nor determine how it would be presented, nor do I have any official connection with the film or Jacobovici’s book. Since I think the basic thesis it presents is plausible, I support it for what it is in the genre it belongs, a popular documentary made for TV. And I also admire Simcha who facilitated, after 26 years of little to no attention whatsoever, just what Zias called for in 1996–further investigation of these ossuaries by experts in onomastics, epigraphy, DNA, patina properties, statistics, and biblical and historical studies. And besides that, he located the tomb, so it can now be examined more carefully than time allowed in March, 1980. Simcha’s book offers much more than the film and on the whole I think it is a fascinating narrative of his investigation. I also have high regard for Simcha Jacobovici as an Emmy award winning filmmaker, not to mention James Cameron, both of whom I have come to know, like, and respect as professionals and as human beings.
You know, life is full of ironies, but there is one ironic twist to the story that some might have missed. Joe Zias, back in 1996 when the ossuaries surfaced, was the lone voice in the wilderness claiming that the cluster of names was significant and needed to be further investigated. The rest of those who commented, as far as I know, dismissed the whole thing as they do today, with the mantra, “the names are common.” Joe also went on to speculate, in the BBC documentary, when asked about the implications of Jesus and Mary Magdalene being married, that we should not judge by later Christian tradition, since in the Jewish context such things were normal. He was specifically commenting on why having a “Jude son of Jesus” ossuary in a tomb with a “Jesus son of Jospeh” should not surprise one nor necessarily discount this as a tomb belonging to Jesus of Nazareth. So, as fate would have it, it was really Joe who set me on my own study of Talpiot. I trusted his judgment that these names, from a controlled archaeological site, could not be so dismissed. And I still think he was right. Isn’t life strange?
P.S. I might also mention that Joe was interviewed by the BBC crew for the 1996 film that dealt with the Talpiot tomb so there is a record of what he said that he knew from over a decade ago. I have also talked to Ray Bruce, the producer of the film, who interviewed both Kloner and Zias on the day they were “revealed” and what they both said at that time about their knowledge of this tomb and these ossuaries. The story needs to come out, but this is not the place for it. The real hero in all this is that film crew, that noticed what everyone else had missed. I am not interested in personalities or refuting anyone’s recollections but I am interested in the facts and I think I have them in this regard. I have also have a statement from Shimon Gibson, completely separate from what Joe told me, as to what he knew and remembered about the Talpiot ossuaries. For now I will hold these private and stick with what I know directly.
