{"id":6563,"date":"2012-02-29T15:49:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T20:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=6563"},"modified":"2012-02-29T15:49:59","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T20:49:59","slug":"is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html","title":{"rendered":"Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>\"\"Many news outlets and blogs are talking\u00a0about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated<\/a> and written about in The Jesus Discovery<\/a>\"\"<\/em>. Having recently discussed the subject of Jesus\u2019 burial in my book The Burial of Jesus: What Does History Have to Do with Faith?<\/a>\"\"<\/em>, I have my own thoughts about some of the claims being made<\/a>. Since epigraphers and archaeologists have commented on the claims about the inscriptions and iconography in the second Talpiot tomb<\/a> Tabor and Jacobovici explored, known as the \u201cpatio tomb,\u201d let me offer a perspective from New Testament historical criticism.<\/p>\n

In the scenario Jacobovici and Tabor<\/a> envisage, the plot of land where the Talpiot tombs were found would have belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. Here\u2019s what Tabor writes in The Bible and Interpretation<\/em>:<\/p>\n

If, the burial of Jesus, as all our ancient sources report, was carried out by a wealthy and influential member of the Sanhedrin, namely Joseph of Arimathea, who had the backing of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, might we expect any \u201cJesus family tomb\u201d to be on his property and thus adjacent to other tombs that belonged to his extended clan. The gospel of John indicates that the initial burial of Jesus near the place of crucifixion was a hasty emergency measure in the late afternoon prompted by the nearness of the Sabbath\/Passover holiday at sundown on the day of Jesus\u2019 crucifixion (John 19:41-42). It was a burial of necessity and opportunity. This particular tomb was chosen because it was unused and happened to be near the place of crucifixion. The idea that this tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea makes no sense. What are the chances that Joseph of Arimathea would just happen to have his own new family tomb conveniently located near the Place of the Skull, or Golgotha,where the Romans regularly crucified their victims?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This seems to me to represent a combination of a variety of information from New Testament sources in a manner that is at times insightfully critical, and at others insufficiently critical. The idea that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus\u2019 and buried Jesus in his own tomb (whether immediately after the crucifixion, as some Gospels claim, or at a later point as Tabor believes) is found only in the Gospel of Matthew, and so is of dubious historical value. The Gospel of John, which Tabor cites, has a burial take place in a tomb that is conveniently located nearby, but it also implausibly has Joseph and Nicodemus use an enormous quantity of spices and give Jesus a burial fit for a king, which seems unlikely if Tabor is right that this was a temporary burial, with the aim of Jesus being moved to another tomb once the Sabbath was over. The burial fit for a king described in the Gospel of John also is at odds with the earliest account, in the Gospel of Mark, in which Jesus is not anointed for burial, Joseph of Arimathea is not a disciple of Jesus, and Jesus is simply placed in \u201ca tomb\u201d located near enough to be feasible with the start of the Sabbath approaching. It makes most sense to view that as having been a tomb used for the dishonorable burial of criminals executed on that site.<\/p>\n

To sum up, then, in addition to issues with the interpretation of inscriptions and images on the ossuaries, the interpretation of the Talpiot tombs as the resting place of Jesus and many other Christians is at odds with our earliest historical sources as well.\u00a0Jesus was most likely given a dishonorable burial in a tomb near to the site of his execution.\u00a0The Talpiot neighborhood is some 45 minutes\u2019 walk from the traditional site of Golgotha, and so would not have been used for that purpose.\u00a0Joseph of Arimathea does not seem to have been a disciple of Jesus in historical fact, and so even if he had a tomb in that Talpiot area, it is unlikely that he placed the body of Jesus in it at any point, whether immediately after the crucifixion or subsequently.<\/p>\n

Tabor\u2019s reconstruction seems to require us to believe that at least some of the Gospel authors (1) knew about Jesus\u2019 burial in Talpiot by Joseph of Arimathea, but (2) applied details of that burial to what was in fact only an initial, temporary burial, and (3) denied that Jesus was reburied but instead claimed that he rose from the dead. This seems extremely unlikely, and to combined details from the Gospels with other archaeological data in a manner that pays insufficient attention to the relative date of written source drawn upon and the corresponding likelihood or unlikehood that information contained in them is historical.<\/p>\n

I discuss a lot of these issues in further detail in my book which I already mentioned, The Burial of Jesus<\/a>\"\"<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As a follow-up to yesterday\u2019s collection of links<\/a>, let me add some additional links on this topic:<\/p>\n

James Tabor himself posted on his blog today<\/a>, having published a piece yesterday in The Bible and Interpretation<\/em><\/a> which I mentioned in my own post above. There\u2019s also an excerpt from the book in the Huffington Post<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rogue Classicism offers a detailed treatment of the alleged fish (the orientation on the ossuary suggests otherwise, and the photos have been rotated to give a misleading impression) and also comes up with a plausible reconstruction of the inscription<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bad Archaeology also highlights problems with the way the inscription is being understood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Jim West notes, ASOR\u2019s blog posts have been having an impact<\/a>. Today Robin Jensen added her voice to the posts on that blog yesterday on this topic<\/a>. Bob Cargill posted on whether Absalom\u2019s Tomb is the image in question<\/a> (having also posted twice<\/a> on his own blog<\/a>). Yesterday Eric Meyers<\/a> and Jodi Magness posted.<\/a> Christopher Rollston today posted a shorter treatment on his blog<\/a> of his ASOR post from yesterday<\/a>, and he reposted an earlier article of his on the first Talpiot tomb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mike Heiser wonders why James Tabor still collaborates with Simcha Jacobovici<\/a>. Heiser also posted on this topic yesterday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Goodacre<\/a> (twice<\/a> and thrice<\/a>),\u00a0Mason Slater<\/a>, Richard Carrier<\/a>, Tom Verenna (updated from yesterday)<\/a> and Jim Davila<\/a> are among the others<\/a> to mention it today.<\/p>\n

MSNBC has been impressively more skeptical than some other news outlets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many news outlets and blogs are talking\u00a0about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated and written about in The Jesus Discovery. Having recently discussed the subject of Jesus\u2019 burial in my book The Burial of Jesus: What Does History Have to Do with Faith?, I have my own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,131,30,33,34,39,67],"tags":[777,1140,2302,4047,4110,4643,4646,5555,5677,5920,8064,8792,11301,12250,12722],"class_list":["post-6563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-christianity-religion","category-gospel-of-john","category-gospel-of-mark","category-gospel-of-matthew","category-historical-jesus","category-new-testament-bible","tag-arimathea","tag-bible","tag-critical","tag-golgotha","tag-gospels","tag-historians","tag-historical","tag-james-tabor","tag-jesus","tag-joseph","tag-new-testament","tag-patio","tag-simcha-j","tag-talpiot","tag-tomb"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many news outlets and blogs are talking\u00a0about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many news outlets and blogs are talking\u00a0about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-29T20:49:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ws.assoc-amazon.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0077SP5SU&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&ServiceVersion=20070822\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html\",\"name\":\"Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-29T20:49:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-02-29T20:49:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"Many news outlets and blogs are talking\u00a0about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?","description":"Many news outlets and blogs are talking\u00a0about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?","og_description":"Many news outlets and blogs are talking\u00a0about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2012-02-29T20:49:59+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/ws.assoc-amazon.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0077SP5SU&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&ServiceVersion=20070822"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html","name":"Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-29T20:49:59+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-29T20:49:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"Many news outlets and blogs are talking\u00a0about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/02\/is-the-new-testament-evidence-compatible-with-jesus-having-been-buried-in-talpiot.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}