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.

I find it somewhat amazing that so many freely expressing opinions on the controversial Talpiot “Jesus” tomb and/or the “James ossuary” have not kept up with even the most minimum of the latest research on the topic. I find this is the case even with all too many of my academic colleagues, not to mention a host of others, most with an evangelical Christian bias, who regularly “trash” the idea that this tomb might arguably be that of Jesus of Nazareth. It seems everything but the facts are brought into play here.

I was reminded of this today with the publication of the excellent article by Prof. Kevin Kilty and Mark Elliot of the University of Wyoming, reviewing the latest published views of my colleague Jodi Magness. In her latest book, Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus, Prof. Magness offers a spirited argument that there is little to no likelihood that the Talpiot tomb, or the James ossuary, have any connection with the Jesus movement. The problem is, as Kilty and Elliot so clearly demonstrate, is her argument and even her information is as flawed as it is outdated.

Most of what Prof. Magness argues has been addressed previously, see for example my exchange with her now archived at the SBL Web site: http://sbl-site.org/publications/article.aspx?articleId=651.

No one can keep up with everything in our rich and ever complex field of biblical/archaeological studies but on a subject as controversial and as potentially important as this, it seems a minimum expectation for those wanting to engage in discussion would be to be up to speed on at least the basic research. Lamentably, such is not the case.

Here are a few of the basic articles, all readily available at the Web site bibleinterp.com, that are fundamental to any informed discussion of these subjects. If one is not willing to spend an hour or so reading through these I have to honestly question to what degree such a person is interested in a high level and informed discussion based on facts. As I say to my students on any topic we cover–read, read, please read–then express your views!

M. Elliott and K. Kilty, “Inside the Numbers of the Talpiot Tomb.”  http://www.bibleinterp.com/PDFs/tomb2.pdf

M. Elliott and K. Kilty, “Probability, Statistics, and the Talpiot Tomb.” http://www.lccc.wy.edu/Media/Website%20Resources/documents/Education%20Natural%20and%20Social%20Sciences/tomb.pdf

Jerry Lutgen, “The Talpiot Tomb: What Are the Odds?”http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/tomb357926.shtml

M. Elliott and K. Kilty, “Talpiot Dethroned.” http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/talpiot357921.shtml

Eldad Keynan, “Jewish Burials.” http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/burial357907.shtml

Oded Golan, “The Authenticity of the James Ossuary and the Jehoash Tablet Inscriptions.” http://www.bibleinterp.com/PDFs/Authenticity_Letter.pdf

A. Rosenfeld, C.Pellegrino, H. R. Feldman, and W.E. Krumbein, “The Connection of the James Ossuary to the Talpiot (Jesus Family Tomb) Ossuaries.” http://www.bibleinterp.com/PDFs/JOTalpiot3.pdf

M. Elliott and K. Kilty, “The James Ossuary in Talpiot,”  http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/kilell358029.shtml

Eldad Keynan, “Obscurities Around the Tomb of the Holy Sepulcher” http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/tombs358017.shtml

In 2010, in a sealed tomb in Jerusalem, I was involved, along with Emmy award winning filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and archaeologist Rami Arav, in an unprecedented set of new discoveries. We immediately called in James Charlesworth and a number of other prominent scholars as consultants. This tomb, less than 200 feet away from the controversial Talpiot “Jesus Family tomb,” the subject of the 2007 Discovery television documentary, a best-selling book, The Jesus Family Tomb, and treated in my own 2006 book, The Jesus Dynasty. The trade paperback of The Jesus Dynasty was published in 2007, after the airing of the Discovery film, so that it includes updated material as well as an Epilogue on the Talpiot Jesus tomb. For that reason, if you are interested in this book it is better (and cheaper) to get the paperback.

What we discovered, through a sophisticated remote camera probe, is evidence of the earliest faith in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, but in a family tomb adjacent to one in which the bones of a “Jesus” and his family were put to rest. The Jesus Discovery puts together the entire story of these two Talpiot tombs and the potential implications for our understanding of the earliest days of the Jesus movement. The book is scheduled to come out February 28, 2012 and is now available on Amazon for pre-ordering: The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find that Reveals the Birth of Christianity. The discoveries themselves will also be part of a special two-hour documentary on Discovery Television.

Adam Gopnik has a long, fascinating, and witty, New Yorker-style essay on the search for the historical Jesus. As I began reading it I have to confess, modestly of course, that the opening few paragraphs seemed like a pretty accurate summary of my own book, The Jesus Dynasty (Simon & Schuster, 2006) as Gopnik ticked through his points about John the Baptizer, Sepphoris, and the meaning of tekton. I was pleased to see acknowledgment further along, with my treatment of the theories about Jesus’ paternity and the name Pantera briefly touched upon. All in all though it is really a good piece and I recommend it:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/05/24/100524crat_atlarge_gopnik

As chair of a large and thriving Department of Religious Studies in a public/state university (see the recent Profile in our UNC Charlotte magazine) I make every effort to keep my personal religious faith and our enterprise as a faculty in the area of the academic study of religion properly separated. There is some debate in our field on this question with arguments on both sides as to what extent one’s implicit religious or political views should become part of the teaching discourse. Although there is no need to avoid matters of religious faith in the classroom, and indeed such matters are part of our study, my position is that personal theology belongs elsewhere–particularly for those in public education.

That said, like Frank Moore Cross and many others in our field who were raised in Christian contexts, I have found myself more personally drawn toward the complex of ideas, concepts, tensions, and even contradictions, reflected in the Hebrew Bible, as I have noted previously in my Blog post “Reflections on the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.”

Back in 1991 I published a little book titled Restoring Abrahamic Faith with a small non-profit publisher called Genesis 2000. It was more or less in response to questions I was getting from many quarters regarding my own “beliefs.” It was mainly an attempt to save my “breath,” so I could refer it to those who were curious about my own personal faith, or the lack thereof.  Also, in the final chapter of my popular book, The Jesus Dynasty, that was intended for general audiences far beyond my academic arena, I did include, a final “Conclusion” that delved into matters of faith and the consequences of historical Jesus studies–mentioning my view of “Abrahamic Faith.” In 2008 an expanded, 3rd edition, of that 1991 1st edition was released.  It is now available either directly from the publisher (http://genesis2000.org) or through Amazon. And yes, alas, it also has a Facebook Fan page! It is not generally available in bookstores though it can be special ordered but for my Blog readers who order through the publisher, Genesis2000, or through Amazon, copies are autographed at no charge.

I am most pleased and gratified to have received a positive endorsement this 3rd edition of Restoring Abrahamic Faith, from none other than Dr. Barrie Wilson, professor of Religious Studies at York University in Toronto and author of the recent best-seller, How Jesus Became Christian. You can read all about him and his important book at his Web site: http://www.barriewilson.com/. Dr. Wilson’s book, out now in paperback, is in my view the most important book written on Christian origins, and Paul in particular, in the past decade.

Although I did not write Restoring Abrahamic Faith primarily for my academic colleagues it is surely gratifying to have someone of the caliber of Dr. Wilson to write so positively about the book. Here are his personal comments:

Hi James,

You’ve produced a superb manifesto in this book, very similar in many ways to my own personal credo. It is truly a wonderful, inspirational book that should draw people back to the fundamental biblical message, one which puts Jesus, James and John the Baptizer into context. I have added it to my “Recommended Reading” on my Web site. I think the chapter on The Messiahs is especially well done and I’ll direct my students to the book, especially for that chapter. What constitutes a Messiah, as opposed to a Savior, remains a perennial favorite amongst my students.

I personally learned a lot from the chapter on “The Plan” – hadn’t thought of thinking about the future quite that way – and “Turning To God” is very similar to the kind of message I advocate when speaking in churches/synagogues.

This coming summer I’m teaching an honors seminar on early Christianity. We’ll use The Jesus Dynasty and one of the research projects I’ll assign will have to do with what constitutes a Messiah. Those individuals will have to obtain Restoring Abrahamic Faith.

If you are interested I hope you will order a copy and let me know what you think of the ideas I present. As with many such books of this kind, readers tend to either love it or hate it, depending on one’s presuppositions and approach to matters of biblical faith. I welcome the dialog and discussions on the Facebook page are open.