The Jesus Discovery
Yesterday was the official release date of my new book, coauthored with Simcha Jacobovici, The Jesus Discovery. It has burst on the public scene with a flash of media attention and a flurry of initial academic responses–all in less than 24 hours. As is often the case with topics involving “biblical archaeology,” responses are often heated and controversial–all the more so since this book summarizes for a non-specialist audience the results of a decade of research on two 1st century CE Jerusalem tombs that we have identified as likely associated with Jesus of Nazareth and his earliest Jerusalem followers. After all, the very notion of “finding the tomb of Jesus” rightly smacks of cheap sensationalism to most academics–akin to bogus claims of locating the ark of the covenant, the holy grail, pieces of the true cross, or Noah’s ark. It simply fails the “too good to be true” test. At the same time, those Christians of a more theological persuasion are of the view that such a claim is impossible on the face of it since Jesus ascended bodily to heaven, precluding the possibility of his earthly remains ever turning up.
Most archaeologists and historians have maintained there is no material evidence related to the Jesus movement whatsoever–whether tomb, text, artifact, or inscription until at least well into the 2nd century CE. What we argue, based on our recent remote camera exploration of a sealed Jerusalem tomb in East Talpiot, a suburb of Jerusalem, is that such evidence has been found–and even more controversial, that it is related to the so-called Talpiot “Jesus” family tomb of 2007 fame, less than 200 feet away. The two tombs were discovered in 1980 and 1981 respectively. The “Jesus” tomb was excavated and the second tomb, that we recently surveyed, was sealed up and covered over by a modern condominium building.
I have just published an academic article detailing these recent discoveries at bibleinterp.com. There is also a web site that has a wealth of additional information: thejesusdiscovery.org, and the Huffington Post has posted the Preface of the book which offers an overview of its scope and contents. The book itself is broader than these new discoveries and correlates what we believe we have found with the nearby “Jesus” tomb and its unique contents.
What I hope to do over the next few days on this blog is try to sort through some of the media hype as well as the critical responses of my esteemed academic colleagues–especially those posted yesterday at the American Schools of Oriental Research blog site. After all, ASOR, with its flagship publication Near Eastern Archaeology (formerly The Biblical Archaeologist) is the primary professional organization devoted to the ancient Levant, and many of its members, of which I am one, work directly in the areas of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. I am neither an archaeologist nor the son of an archaeologist. My professional training has been as an historian of ancient Mediterranean Religions (University of Chicago, Ph.D. with Jonathan Z. Smith and Robert M. Grant) but for the past 20 years I have involved myself in a half dozen archaeological excavations in Israel, all related to the focus of my study–namely late 2nd Temple Judaism and the early Jesus movement. Since even the executive director of ASOR, my friend Andy Vaughn, declared yesterday that the claims of our book had a “zero percent chance of being correct,” it seems, from my standpoint at least, there is a lot that needs to be said. Dr. Vaughn has announced that through the entire month of March the ASOR blog will consider the claims made in our book and invites scholarly response thereto. I am honored that he and his staff are willing to devote such attention to our findings and their proper interpretation. I truly look forward to a profitable discussion.
