In early 2007, Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino released their book, The Jesus Family Tomb, in conjunction with “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” a film produced by Jacobovici and James Cameron. The topic of both book and film was a first-century tomb found in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem in 1980, and ten ossuaries (burial chests) associated with this tomb.Their premise that the Talpiot tomb belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth was based on the ossuary inscriptions, especially three in particular, which they identified as belonging to “Jesus, son of Joseph,” Mary Magdalene, and “Judah, son of Jesus.” Naturally, the idea that Jesus was married and had a son garnered extensive media attention, but numerous archaeologists and statisticians. Prof. Mark Goodacre provides here his skeptic’s perspective, being one of many sober voices involved in thinking through this discovery. Click here to read his article. You may also visit his New Testament Blog here.
