The following is an excerpt by James D. Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici,
authors of The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That
Reveals the Birth of Christianity
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| A composite representation of the ossuary image of Jonah and the big fish. |
On the morning of Tuesday, June 29, 2010, outside the Old City of
Jerusalem, we made an unprecedented archaeological discovery related to
Jesus and early Christianity. This discovery adds significantly to our
understanding of Jesus, his earliest followers, and the birth of
Christianity. In this book we reveal reliable archaeological evidence
that is directly connected to Jesus' first followers, those who knew him
personally and to Jesus himself. The discovery provides the earliest
archaeological evidence of faith in Jesus' resurrection from the dead,
the first witness to a saying of Jesus that predates even the writing of
our New Testament gospels, and the earliest example of Christian art,
all found in a sealed tomb dated to the 1st century CE.
We refer to this tomb as the Patio tomb, since it is now located
beneath an apartment patio, eight feet under the basement of a
condominium complex. Such juxtapositions of modernity and antiquity are
not unusual in Jerusalem, where construction must often be halted to
rescue and excavate tombs from ancient times. The Patio tomb was first
uncovered by construction work in 1981 in East Talpiot, a suburb of
Jerusalem less than two miles south of the Old City.
Our discoveries also provide precious new evidence for evaluating the
Jesus son of Joseph's tomb, discovered a year earlier, which made
international headlines in 2007. We refer to this 1980 tomb as the
Garden tomb, since it is now situated beneath a garden area in the same
condominium complex. These two tombs, both dating to around the time of
Jesus, are less than two hundred feet apart. Together with a third tomb
nearby that was unfortunately destroyed by the construction blasts,
these tombs formed a cluster and most likely belonged to the same clan
or extended family. Any interpretation of one tomb has to be made in the
light of the other. As a result we believe a compelling argument can be
made that the Garden tomb is that of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.
We argue in this book that both tombs are most likely located on the
rural estate of Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy member of the Sanhedrin
who according to all four New Testament gospels took official charge of
Jesus' burial.
Who was Joseph of Arimathea and how did he enter the historical
picture? The Jesus Discovery explores the answers to this and a series
of related questions. The recent discoveries in the Patio tomb put the
controversy about the Jesus family tomb in new light. We now have new
archaeological evidence, literally written in stone, that can guide us
in properly understanding what Jesus' earliest followers meant by their
faith in Jesus' resurrection from the dead, with his earthly remains,
and those of his family, peacefully interred just yards away. This might
sound like a contradiction, but only because certain theological
traditions regarding the meaning of resurrection of the dead have
clouded our understanding of what Jesus and his first followers truly
believed. When we put together the texts of the gospels with this
archaeological evidence, the results are strikingly consistent and stand
up to rigorous standards of historical evidence.
Accessing the sealed Patio tomb was a tremendous challenge. The
technological challenge alone was daunting. Our only access to this tomb
was through a series of eight-inch drill holes in the basement floor of
the condominium. We were not even positive these probes would open into
the tomb. We literally had only inches to spare. Investigating the tomb
required getting agreements from the owners of the building over the
tomb; the Israel Antiquities Authority, which controls permission to
carry out any archaeological work in Israel; the Jerusalem police, whose
task is to keep the peace and avoid incitements to riot; and the
Heredim, the ultra-Orthodox authorities whose mission is to protect all
Jewish tombs, ancient or modern, from any kind of disturbance. None of
these parties had any particular motivation to assist us and for various
reasons they disagreed with one another about their own interests. Any
one of them could have stopped us at any point along the way, and there
were many anxious times when we thought the exploration would never
happen. Ultimately we were able to persuade each group to support the
excavation. That we succeeded at all is more than a minor miracle. At
the same time we had no evidence that our exploration of this tomb, if
it were possible, would yield anything of importance. But we both agreed
it was a gamble worth taking.
At many points the entire operation seemed likely to collapse. We
pushed on, however, not because we knew what was inside the tomb, but
because we could not bear the thought of never knowing. Since that time
we have begun to put the entire story together and a coherent picture is
emerging that offers a new understanding of Jesus and his earliest
followers in the first decades of the movement.
Archaeologists who work on the history of ancient Judaism and early
Christianity disagree over whether there is any reliable archaeological
evidence directly related to Jesus or his early followers. Most are
convinced that nothing of this sort has survived, not a single site,
inscription, artifact, drawing, or text mentioning Jesus or his
followers, or witnessing to the beliefs of the earliest Jewish
Christians either in Jerusalem or in Galilee. Jesus was born, lived, and died in the land of Israel. Most scholars
agree he was born around 5 BCE and died around 30 CE. We have abundant
archaeological evidence from this period related to Galilee, where he
began his preaching and healing campaigns, and Jerusalem, where he was
crucified. There is evidence related to Herod Antipas, the high priest
Caiaphas, and even Pontius Pilate, who had him crucified, but nothing
that would connect us to Jesus himself, or even to his earliest
followers -- until now. Our hope is that these exciting new discoveries
can become the catalyst for reconsidering other archaeological evidence
that might well be related to the first Jewish-Christian believers.
The oldest copies of the New Testament gospels date to the early 4th
century CE, well over two hundred years after Jesus' lifetime. There are
a few papyri fragments of New Testament writings that scholars have
dated to the 2nd century CE, but nothing so far in the 1st century. The
earliest Christian art is found in the catacomb tombs in Rome, dating to
the late 2nd or early 3rd centuries CE. Our discovery effectively
pushes back the date on early Christian archaeological evidence by two
hundred years. More significantly, it takes us back into the lifetime of
Jesus himself.
This has been the most extraordinary adventure of our careers, and we
are pleased to be able to share with readers the surprising and
profound story of The Jesus Discovery.
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| Camera shot of the interior of the Patio tomb showing an ossuary in place. |
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