From the Talpiot Tomb to the Blogosphere

In my class on the historical Jesus yesterday we discussed the burial of Jesus, including some discussion of the Talpiot tomb. Here’s what’s been appearing in the blogosphere since my last round-up on the topic:

Mark Goodacre shows problems with the claim that Jonah’s name appears on an ossuary in the Talpiot patio tomb. He also discusses the transformation of a vase into a fish.

Bob Cargill took Mark’s point further and added additional images analyzing the marks on the ossuary.

Jim Davila also blogged about the subject, as did Edward Cook, and Antonio Lombatti gathered names of scholars and their views on the matter.

James Tabor makes the case on his blog for finding Jonah’s name in the image on the ossuary.

Meanwhile, various sites such as Phys.org, LiveScience and MSNBC are hyping these conclusions. Bob Cargill describes the alleged evidence they are drawing on as a case of “circular citations.”

Michael Heiser posted on the topic, and also on James Tabor’s post about resurrection.

Mike Kok’s round-up of Gospel posts also touches on the Talpiot tombs.

UPDATE: Since I first posted this round-up, several more posts have appeared on blogs I read:

Joel Watts linked to a post at Life’s Little Mysteries suggesting that the alleged inscription of the name Jonah is just random squiggles. Joel also responded to a post by April de Conick, leaning in the direction of seeing Jonah on the ossuary and viewing it as symbolic of the resurrection.

Finally, Steve Caruso has a lengthy post with lots of pictures indicating where images that have been circulating of the ossuaries and inscriptions have been altered in some way.