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00:00:00The most famous death in history is the death of Jesus of Nazareth.
00:00:20Two thousand years ago, in first century Jerusalem, he was crucified by the Romans.
00:00:32The Gospels tell us he was buried in a tomb, and two days later, Mary Magdalene, one of
00:00:40his closest disciples, found the tomb empty.
00:00:49But according to the Gospel of Matthew, there was another story circulating after Jesus'
00:00:54death.
00:00:56And though the Gospel calls it a lie, it was rumored that Jesus' disciples secretly took
00:01:02their master's body, presumably to give him a permanent burial.
00:01:10If this is true, according to first century burial practices in Jerusalem, Jesus' body
00:01:16would have been taken to a rock-hewn family tomb.
00:01:22Given that he was crucified for insurrection, the reburial would have been done in secret
00:01:28by his closest disciples.
00:01:32Jesus' body would have been shrouded and left to decompose.
00:01:40One year later, his disciples would have returned, this time joined by his family for the final
00:01:47burial ceremony.
00:01:52Mary, Jesus' mother, would have attended the ceremony.
00:01:57Mary Magdalene would also have been there.
00:02:00His brothers, Simon, Joseph, Judah, and James, would have prepared Jesus' bones for the final burial,
00:02:12placing them in a limestone coffin, called an ossuary.
00:02:22Jesus' name would have been inscribed on the side.
00:02:27His ossuary would then have been placed in a niche, in the inner chamber, sealed away forever,
00:02:34deep inside his family tomb.
00:02:41The one who had been waiting for theuma to cancel the好好-to-god
00:02:51The tomb was on the throne, under the tomb of the house,
00:02:53which was remained in place.
00:02:56The tomb was on the throne, under the tomb.
00:02:57The tomb was on the throne, the tomb, where the women went to the tomb.
00:03:01Theyевич their intention was on picking orders.
00:03:05In order to go to the tomb, they had to go to the tomb.
00:03:09In the spring of 1980, in Tel Piot, South Jerusalem,
00:03:23construction blasting exposed the entrance to a burial.
00:03:31In the spring of 1980, in Tel Piot, South Jerusalem,
00:03:36construction blasting exposed the entrance to a burial tomb.
00:03:41It was 2,000 years old.
00:03:45My son came here, he came to the house.
00:03:49My mother, the children, wanted to get the house to the house.
00:03:54So, I stopped talking to all kinds of archaeologists,
00:03:57who had lost their phone,
00:04:01and told them to get the house to the house.
00:04:06I was able to get the house to the house.
00:04:12On the Sunday morning, under pressure from contractors,
00:04:15a team of archaeologists was called in to excavate.
00:04:19They had only three days before the tomb was to be sealed and cemented over.
00:04:24I could see this large slope with tractors and bulldozers
00:04:29and trucks trundling in different directions.
00:04:32And right in the center of this slope was this gaping hole,
00:04:36which turned out to be the entrance to the Tel Piot tomb.
00:04:41Above the entrance was a unique facade,
00:04:44a carefully crafted chevron and circle that mystified the archaeologists.
00:04:49There's no doubt about it that those symbols,
00:04:52which are on the façades of the Tel Piot tomb, meant something.
00:04:55It's unlikely that the person or the family that came to carve out the tomb
00:05:00just carved these things at random.
00:05:02They had to symbolize something.
00:05:05What they symbolized, I don't know.
00:05:08But it's quite rare to find that kind of ornamentation on a simple tomb.
00:05:14Shimon Gibson, a young surveyor at the time,
00:05:17was one of the first inside.
00:05:20It was his job to record the layout.
00:05:23It was great. It was very exciting.
00:05:25Me entering into the tomb, which has been cut into a rock.
00:05:28It has a central chamber.
00:05:30It has archosolia benches in the walls for the laying out of their bodies.
00:05:35It has these loculi extending in different directions.
00:05:39It was incredibly important to get as much archaeological detail as possible onto plans.
00:05:47Gibson's detailed plan recorded every inch of the tomb's interior.
00:05:54Extending out from a large inner chamber were six deep cavities called loculi, or cohim in Hebrew.
00:06:02And inside these cohim, the archaeologists found ten small limestone coffins, also called ossuaries.
00:06:14The ossuaries were quickly transferred to Jerusalem's Rockefeller Museum under the direction of the Israel Department of Antiquities.
00:06:24The bones and remains found inside were bagged and boxed and put aside for reburial.
00:06:36Certain decisions were made by the Israel Antiquities Authority that they would heed to the requests of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem,
00:06:45and give over bone material which had been analyzed and examined by anthropologists for reburial.
00:06:54And then they began the process of cataloguing the ancient bone boxes.
00:07:01By 1980, over 1,000 ossuaries had been found, but only 20% of them bore the names of the dead.
00:07:11Here it was discovered that six out of the ten ossuaries had inscriptions.
00:07:17They are not monumental inscriptions, they are not intended to be seen and viewed by everybody, and they are not there to commemorate the dead.
00:07:27They are there so that when family members come in and start shifting the boxes around so they can put a new one in,
00:07:35they know which one is which and which belongs to who.
00:07:39The archeological record shows that the custom of using ossuaries for burial in Jerusalem only lasted for about 100 years,
00:07:50ending around 70 of the common era when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
00:07:56And so the discovery of inscriptions on stone coffins like these provide archeologists with a catalog of names specific to the time of Jesus.
00:08:06And on one of the ossuaries discovered in the Talpiot tomb, written in Aramaic was an astonishing name, Yeshua bar Yosef.
00:08:23Yeshua or Jesus, son of Joseph. Yeshua bar Yosef.
00:08:31Now, when this was found, I think the archeologists weren't too excited about it.
00:08:39The public would have been very excited, but they didn't hear about it.
00:08:42You found a Jesus, son of Joseph, ossuary?
00:08:45But it wasn't really talked about.
00:08:50Today, the Jesus, son of Joseph, ossuary is in the hands of the Israel Antiquities Authority, or IAA, as are the rest of the stone coffins taken from the Talpiot tomb.
00:09:02Most of them have been locked away and stored in this massive warehouse.
00:09:07But why?
00:09:09We've assembled a team of scientists, scholars, and journalists to investigate the ten ancient bone boxes,
00:09:16and to find out why they've been ignored.
00:09:19This is the last one.
00:09:30This is it.
00:09:31Felix?
00:09:32Yeah.
00:09:33This one is far to see.
00:09:34This is it.
00:09:35This is it.
00:09:36Jesus, son of Joseph.
00:09:39Today, it takes an expert in ancient writing like world-renowned Harvard professor Frank Moore Cross to examine the inscription.
00:09:52Because even though it is one of the plainest ever found on an ossuary, its letters are so informal that it's very difficult to read.
00:10:02This being quite informal, and this particular one quite messy.
00:10:07Academics describe it as a graffiti.
00:10:09So cursory, it's almost as if it was meant to be read only by intimate family.
00:10:15There's an X here before the name.
00:10:20And then the name Yeshua.
00:10:23Then the father's name is perfectly clear.
00:10:27Yehoseph, the son of Joseph.
00:10:30I have no real doubt that this is to be read Yeshua.
00:10:35And then Yeshua bar Yehoseph, that is Jesus, son of Joseph.
00:10:42Jesus, son of Joseph.
00:10:47Professor Cross's examination of the photograph has now shown us exactly what to look for on the actual coffin.
00:10:54Yehoseph, the son of Joseph.
00:10:55Yehoseph, the son of Joseph.
00:10:56Yehoseph, the son of Joseph.
00:10:57That's quite amazing, right?
00:10:58Yehoseph.
00:10:59Amazing, isn't it?
00:11:00Amazing, isn't it?
00:11:04Amazing is not the word for it.
00:11:05Can this stone coffin be linked to Jesus?
00:11:07Jesus, son of Joseph.
00:11:09That's quite amazing, right?
00:11:11Amazing is not the word for it.
00:11:17Can this stone coffin be linked to Jesus of Nazareth?
00:11:24To answer that question, we have to examine all the archaeological evidence uncovered in this family tomb.
00:11:30Does it fit with Christian tradition?
00:11:31Does it challenge certain articles of faith?
00:11:33If the bones of Jesus were to be found in an assuary in Jerusalem tomorrow, and without doubt, let's say, they are definitely agreed to be the bones of Jesus.
00:11:37Would that destroy Christian faith?
00:11:38It certainly would not destroy my Christian faith.
00:11:39I leave what happens to bodies up.
00:11:40To answer that question, we have to examine all the archaeological evidence uncovered in this family tomb.
00:11:44Does it fit with Christian tradition?
00:11:47Does it challenge certain articles of faith?
00:11:52If the bones of Jesus were to be found in an assuary in Jerusalem tomorrow, and without doubt, let's say, they are definitely agreed to be the bones of Jesus, would that destroy Christian faith?
00:12:02It certainly would not destroy my Christian faith.
00:12:05We leave what happens to bodies up to God.
00:12:10It seems that Christians can accept the possibility that the remains of Jesus were transferred to a family tomb.
00:12:17Thereafter, he could have risen and appeared to his followers as the Gospels report.
00:12:23According to Christian faith, Jesus then ascended to heaven.
00:12:28In theory, the ascension could have been spiritual, leaving his body behind.
00:12:34In fact, those who take a strictly historical approach to the Gospels would expect to find Jesus' remains in his family tomb.
00:12:43When he's first buried, it's in a temporary tomb.
00:12:46And later, unless he somehow magically disappears and goes to heaven, which is a position of Christian faith, but if you're going to be historical and realistic, he would be put in a permanent place, a permanent place of burial as a good Jew.
00:13:04Okay?
00:13:05Well, the tomb, you have to have a family tomb.
00:13:09The family tomb of Jesus.
00:13:14If the ossuary found in the Talpiot tomb marked Jesus, son of Joseph, did at one time contain the mortal remains of Jesus, then all the ossuaries in that tomb would have to belong to members of the Jesus family.
00:13:30On the other five ossuaries reported to have inscriptions, we should only expect to find names from the family tree of Jesus.
00:13:43Jesus was the son of Mary and Joseph.
00:13:46But what many people don't know is that according to Christian tradition, he had two sisters, Miriam and Salome.
00:13:55And the Gospel of Matthew tells us he had four brothers, Simon, Judah, James, and Joseph.
00:14:04His adoptive father, Joseph, was descended from King David.
00:14:09But Joseph most likely died in Nazareth and would have been buried there, not in Jerusalem.
00:14:16Jesus' mother Mary, Maria in antiquity, was also of Davidic descent.
00:14:23But unlike Joseph, according to later Christian tradition, she died in Jerusalem.
00:14:29And within the same tomb as Jesus, son of Joseph, a second name was discovered.
00:14:39The ossuary is now housed in the basement of the Israel Museum.
00:14:46As you can see, the script is very simple.
00:14:48The Hebrew letters that create this name are Mem. Mem is for M.
00:14:55Resh, like R. Yud can be I or Y.
00:15:01And Hey, in Hebrew, it's like H in Latin, English. That makes Maria.
00:15:10Maria.
00:15:12Maria.
00:15:13And it's one of the rare examples of that name on ossuary in Israel.
00:15:19Maria.
00:15:21Mary.
00:15:22Found in the same family tomb as Jesus, son of Joseph.
00:15:27Could this be the Virgin Mary's ossuary?
00:15:30Throughout history, from the first Greek writings of Mark, the earliest Gospel,
00:15:43the Virgin Mary's name has come down to us in only one form, Maria.
00:15:49It is a Latinized version of the Hebrew, Miriam.
00:15:53After Jesus' death, Mary continued with his teachings and must have gathered a large following.
00:16:05In those times of religious transition, Roman converts also began to follow Jesus.
00:16:10And so as her popularity grew amongst his followers, Mary's name was Latinized.
00:16:16That is why the New Testament records her name as Maria.
00:16:21Written in Hebrew, the name Maria is very rare.
00:16:25But it's exactly what was found on the ossuary in the Talpia tomb.
00:16:34If in 1980, archaeologists had considered, even for a moment,
00:16:40that they had discovered the ossuary of the Virgin Mary,
00:16:44what other family members might they have expected to find next to her?
00:16:51Look, Matthew, Matthew.
00:16:53Look here.
00:16:54M-T-Yud-Hay, so Mat-Yah.
00:16:57Mat-Yah, which is a short form, a nickname if you wish.
00:17:04Mat-Yah or Mat-Yah-Hoo, which is where we in English got the name Matthew.
00:17:11Matthew.
00:17:14Matthew.
00:17:15The name, at first, doesn't seem to fit with the Jesus family.
00:17:20The New Testament is made up of the writings of four Gospels,
00:17:24attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
00:17:29Matthew, the evangelist, was a disciple of Jesus.
00:17:34But scholars don't believe he was a blood member of his family.
00:17:37However, there is reason to believe that there were many Matthews within the Jesus family.
00:17:44I'll tell you something very interesting.
00:17:46There are two genealogies of Jesus.
00:17:48Everybody reads the formal genealogy of Joseph, his adoptive father.
00:17:54It's basically all the kings of Israel and on down.
00:17:59Well-known, great historic names.
00:18:02But the other genealogy is embedded in Luke.
00:18:06People don't notice it much.
00:18:07It's Luke chapter 3.
00:18:09You've got to turn a few pages.
00:18:11It's Mary's genealogy, the mother.
00:18:14And in her genealogy, guess what?
00:18:17You have five, six, seven, eight Matthews.
00:18:21Matthias, Matthias.
00:18:23It's a Maccabean, Hashemanean name.
00:18:26It's a fierce name of a sort of a kingly family.
00:18:29It's a priestly name.
00:18:31Remember, Mary is related to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, who's a priest.
00:18:36So she's got some priestly connections there, as well as Judah, which is the tribe of the Davidic Messiah.
00:18:43So I don't think it's odd that we would have a Matthew in this tomb at all.
00:18:48In fact, it's sort of one more congruence and fitting together.
00:18:56In fact, unlike Matthew, many biblical names like Isaac or Jonah would have virtually disqualified the tomb as the Jesus' family tomb.
00:19:06Because they do not appear anywhere in Jesus' genealogy.
00:19:10There isn't a single name that doesn't fit the gospel story.
00:19:13Each name in the same tomb connects.
00:19:16Every single one of these names is gospel related.
00:19:19There isn't like any name like Daniel or something else.
00:19:22It just doesn't fit.
00:19:29On three ossuaries, four names had been uncovered.
00:19:33Joseph, Jesus, Mary, and Matthew.
00:19:39And then on an ossuary found deep within the tomb, another name was discovered.
00:19:44This inscription says, Yossa, with a hey in the end.
00:19:48It's a diminutive of Yosef.
00:19:52There is no question about it.
00:19:54As an ossuary inscription, this would probably be quite unusual.
00:19:59If I'm publishing in English, I say, okay, there's a Joseph.
00:20:03Well, there's not just a Joseph.
00:20:05It's Yosei.
00:20:07Now, in Hebrew, Yosi in Israel today is quite common.
00:20:12Yosi, Yosi, Joseph.
00:20:14Like Joey.
00:20:15But Yosei, you will never hear.
00:20:18And you didn't hear it in the ancient world either.
00:20:21The Yod, the E, becomes an A, Yosei.
00:20:25Guess where we know that name?
00:20:28In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has a brother.
00:20:32People don't all know that Jesus had brothers.
00:20:34Most scholars, you know, the Roman Catholic Church says they were cousins.
00:20:38And other people, they were stepbrothers.
00:20:40But most of the historians and the biblical scholars have pretty well now admitted that Jesus had brothers.
00:20:47They're named in the Gospels, the four brothers.
00:20:49James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon.
00:20:52But the Joseph in Mark, only in Mark, our earliest Gospel.
00:20:57It's not Joseph.
00:20:58It's Yosei.
00:21:03Yosei, or Josi in English, was the brother of Jesus.
00:21:08But the Gospels don't tell us much more than that.
00:21:11He disappears after three brief citations.
00:21:14What happened to Yosei is a mystery.
00:21:18But if the ossuaries from the Talpyat tomb belonged to the Jesus family,
00:21:23then Yosei has finally been found.
00:21:26Of all the ossuary inscriptions ever discovered,
00:21:29there is only one with this unique spelling of the nickname,
00:21:33Yosei.
00:21:36Look.
00:21:37It's clear as name.
00:21:39It's Josi.
00:21:40And that's an incredible thing.
00:21:42Because according to Jewish law, if someone has a nickname,
00:21:45you have to put their nickname on their tombstone or casket.
00:21:49And it's the nickname that appears here,
00:21:51right next to Jesus, son of Joseph.
00:21:54The brother was known as Josi, not Joseph.
00:21:56And it's exactly in the same configuration right here.
00:21:59Josi, Yossa.
00:22:00In 1980, archaeologists were cataloging ossuary names in lists of hundreds.
00:22:14And from this tomb, they now had
00:22:17Yosei, a rare nickname given to the brother of Jesus.
00:22:21Maria, a rare Latinized version of Mary used in the Gospels to refer to Jesus' mother.
00:22:28Mattia, a version of Matthew that, as it happens, was common in Mary's family.
00:22:34And Jesus, son of Joseph.
00:22:38All found together in a family tomb.
00:22:48All cleaned and cataloged.
00:22:51All bone material reburied.
00:22:53Together.
00:22:54Here in an especially consecrated grave outside Jerusalem.
00:22:59All the ossuary's were then crated and stored for decades on warehouse shelves.
00:23:10Why didn't anyone take notice of these names?
00:23:17You can remember that the 1970s and the early 1980s was the boom period
00:23:23for the excavation of tombs in and around Jerusalem.
00:23:25So there were suddenly enormous quantities of ossuary's being brought back to the Rockefeller Museum,
00:23:31the headquarters of the Israel Department of Antiquities.
00:23:34And these inscriptions were deemed to be common.
00:23:38These are the most common names among Jews in the first century Common Era.
00:23:44These are exceedingly popular names in the period.
00:23:50All the facts that we have is that there is a cluster of names that resemble
00:23:54many of the names that we find in the New Testament.
00:23:57The other fact is that we find these names in many other places.
00:24:01So suggesting that this tomb was the tomb of the family of Jesus is a far-fetched suggestion,
00:24:09and we need to be very careful with that.
00:24:11You know, all the tombs around Jerusalem, unfortunately, with construction,
00:24:16are slowly getting exposed and, in some cases, destroyed.
00:24:21So it's not so far-fetched that a construction crew would have uncovered the tomb of Jesus.
00:24:27You know? I mean, it can happen. I think we have to consider it.
00:24:31While the statistical probabilities have been argued,
00:24:37they have never been examined by statistical experts, until now.
00:24:42Andre Feuerwerger is a professor of mathematics and statistics.
00:24:46From ossuaries and other sources, he's gathered every name known from the time of Jesus.
00:24:52By noting how often each name occurs, he can statistically evaluate the names discovered in Telpyak.
00:25:02One of the things that's fairly interesting about this particular tomb site is that,
00:25:07from a lay point of view, if one looks at the specific names that occur in the cluster,
00:25:13and if one focuses just on the names individually, one can very well come away with the impression
00:25:20that there is nothing the least bit unusual about this particular cluster.
00:25:25But the correct way to analyze this is to look at all of the names in unison.
00:25:33According to statistics, if we were on a crowded street in ancient Jerusalem and called out the name Jesus,
00:25:40four percent of the men would most probably answer.
00:25:45If we were to call out the name Mary, twenty-five percent of the women would probably respond.
00:25:51They were both common names.
00:25:54But what Feuerwerger explains is that if we were to call out for a Jesus with a father called Joseph,
00:26:01a mother named Mary, and a brother called Jose,
00:26:05the odds that such an individual would respond are quite low.
00:26:11From a statistical point of view, we don't actually look at the incidences of the individual names
00:26:20where we say that each one of them is a very common name.
00:26:24We look at the way in which the factors combine with each other.
00:26:29So, sure, a father by the name of Joseph is not a rare name.
00:26:34A son by the name of Yeshua is not a rare name.
00:26:37But when you combine those two together, it's rarer.
00:26:42So, it really is a possibility that this particular tomb site is in fact the one of the New Testament family.
00:26:50It is a possibility that I think needs to be taken seriously.
00:26:55Taking the possibility seriously means that we must try to uncover more evidence.
00:27:05And one way to do that is to find the Talpian tomb.
00:27:09But more than 25 years ago, the tomb was reburied, sealed, and cemented over.
00:27:17A huge complex of apartments was built on top.
00:27:21Even if the tomb can be located, it may well be impossible to get into it,
00:27:25sitting under meters of concrete and foundation.
00:27:32Pouring over architectural plans decades old and cross-referencing the IAA archaeology reports,
00:27:39our team believes they've discovered the underground location of the Talpian tomb.
00:27:44So, we know that there's a tomb right over here, right?
00:27:46Our research shows that in 1980, two tombs were discovered on the Talpian site.
00:27:52The roof of the second tomb had been partially destroyed by construction,
00:27:57but it was sealed up again and not excavated,
00:28:00because of time constraints and pressure from religious groups to keep it undisturbed.
00:28:05The archaeological reports show that this second tomb is 20 meters north of tomb number one.
00:28:11The apartment blueprints show that tomb number one is located under a patio and beside a bedroom wall.
00:28:21This, we believe, is the tomb we're looking for.
00:28:26Now, we know that one of the tombs is under the patio.
00:28:30We know that there's pipes coming out. That's where you come in.
00:28:34Crude IAA sketches suggest that both tombs may have had access pipes installed.
00:28:39Before building continued above them.
00:28:42It's common for pipes like these to be added at the request of rabbis,
00:28:47in response to the orthodox belief that spirits need a clear passage from a tomb.
00:28:52We're going to go down however many feet it is until we hit bottom.
00:28:57I mean, once we're down there, if the drawing is accurate and we've got that curve in that pipe,
00:29:02the camera's going to go down the curve, we're going to see what's there.
00:29:04My concern is that those pipes are bogus.
00:29:08That whoever built it just built pipes there to make rabbis happy.
00:29:13Oh yeah, the soles can move, and there's nothing there.
00:29:15Ideally, you stick your camera down that thing, confirm that there is a tomb,
00:29:21that there's a space in between the tomb and the bedroom, if you will.
00:29:25I don't know how deep it goes.
00:29:26We cut a hole in the bedroom wall, boom, we're in.
00:29:39Okay, let's do it and let's do it fast.
00:29:42Neighbors getting interested in what we're doing.
00:29:45We've obtained permission from the tenant to give us access to the Telpia department we've pinpointed in the blueprints.
00:29:54Okay, please.
00:29:56You know, I can't believe anybody would live over too many ways.
00:29:59We've only been given two days.
00:30:01Over here.
00:30:03Come on.
00:30:07This is it.
00:30:09This is it.
00:30:10Yeah, this is it.
00:30:11Listen, we need a tape measure.
00:30:14I need that one.
00:30:17This is the real thing.
00:30:19Look at this.
00:30:21We're at seven feet, eight feet.
00:30:23Some resistance, but that's not the bottom.
00:30:25There's more.
00:30:27This isn't a dummy pipe.
00:30:31Bill Tarrant is our expert with probe and remote-operated cameras.
00:30:34Even if the access hole is as small as a quarter of an inch, Bill can get a camera inside.
00:30:50This is the video probe.
00:30:52Very light.
00:30:53And you see your face in it.
00:30:54Look at how clear that is.
00:30:55See, the camera's in the tip.
00:30:56The light's in the tip.
00:30:57We're going to see, wherever this camera's pointed, that's what we're going to see.
00:30:59What can I do?
00:31:00It's articulating.
00:31:01It'll move in all directions.
00:31:02That'll be able to keep us in the center of the pipe so that we can actually look and
00:31:05see what we're doing.
00:31:06Okay?
00:31:07Very good.
00:31:08So I'm going to center it, and I'm going to insert it into the pipe.
00:31:12Okay.
00:31:15Okay.
00:31:17I'm going to take a look, so I'll watch it with you.
00:31:18I'll move the camera as we go down.
00:31:20Try to keep it in the center.
00:31:22See how we're going down?
00:31:23It's still pretty clean.
00:31:24We're moving down.
00:31:25We're down about 10 feet.
00:31:26No debris.
00:31:27What's that color change?
00:31:28It's changing color because it looks like they use different color pipes when they put
00:31:32this thing in.
00:31:33How long is your camera?
00:31:3425 feet.
00:31:36Oh.
00:31:37I see something.
00:31:38Not good.
00:31:39Not good.
00:31:40See that there?
00:31:41It looks like some sticks.
00:31:43I see plastic, and I see some...
00:31:46It's not good.
00:31:47...wooden pieces, some debris or something.
00:31:49It's not good.
00:31:52You know what?
00:31:53This is a pretty serious blockage you've got here.
00:31:55Two?
00:31:56No.
00:31:57I think people are reluctant to think that you could come upon the Jesus family tomb.
00:32:07And yet, there's Caiaphas, the priest who had Jesus crucified.
00:32:14His tomb was found by a bulldozer south of Jerusalem a few years ago.
00:32:18In December of 1990, construction workers uncovered an ancient burial cave from the first century.
00:32:29Inside, there were 12 ossuaries.
00:32:32Two of them bore the name Caiaphas.
00:32:35This one, the most ornate ossuary, has the inscription, Joseph, son of Caiaphas, carved into it twice.
00:32:43Joseph, son of Caiaphas, was the high priest of the temple, who, according to the Gospels, prosecuted Jesus.
00:32:56From his point of view, Jesus was a dangerous false messiah.
00:33:07Who was leading the Jewish masses into a confrontation with Israel's rulers in Rome.
00:33:13Here we go!
00:33:16It seems to me there's a double standard.
00:33:18You said that Caiaphas is, in all probability, the high priest who prosecuted Jesus according to the Gospels.
00:33:26Whereas this entire cluster is dismissed, well, these are just common Jewish names.
00:33:31How are you so convinced that this is the Caiaphas?
00:33:35You find more ossuaries in that same tomb, less fancy, with the name Caiaphas.
00:33:41Not Joseph, son of Caiaphas, but with the name Caiaphas on it.
00:33:44A fancy decoration convinces you that this is the Caiaphas?
00:33:49Caiaphas is not that common name.
00:33:51It's not as common name as Jesus, Joseph, John or Mary.
00:33:56It is a rare name.
00:33:57It's a name that we know from both Jewish sources and from the New Testament.
00:34:02And it is good in dating and timing for that period, and it could be that one.
00:34:09The fact is that we have never found anywhere else an ossuary with the name Joseph, son of Caiaphas.
00:34:17Anywhere else.
00:34:18On the other hand, you have a whole bunch of unique things.
00:34:21Yossa, which you find in this tomb, appears once, period, out of all the thousands of ossuaries that have been found.
00:34:30Yet nobody says, in all probability, that's probably the brother of Jesus of Nazareth.
00:34:35Nobody does that.
00:34:36The fact that the probabilities in Caiaphas are very high does not say, in all certainty, that this is the one.
00:34:43There was no inscription inside saying, I have crucified Jesus.
00:34:47We don't know for 100%.
00:34:49We never know for 100% in archeology.
00:34:53But the experts do seem 100% comfortable connecting some ossuaries directly to famous names in the Gospels.
00:35:00As long as they steer clear of any archeology connected to the Jesus family.
00:35:21The secret, I'll tell you, it's a very serious blockage.
00:35:24You know, we're at the point now, I think we've got to call on a plumber.
00:35:29We're gonna break into the tomb with a plumber.
00:35:34You got a better idea?
00:35:38Itai!
00:35:39Yeah?
00:35:40We need a plumber.
00:35:41Now?
00:35:42No, nobody will come now.
00:35:43It's almost 9 p.m.
00:35:45So call him now and bring him tomorrow.
00:35:48This is crazy.
00:35:50Start with the plumber.
00:35:51What else do we got to do?
00:36:03Over 25 years ago, archeologists discovered four ossuaries linked directly to Jesus and his family.
00:36:12Then, on a fifth ossuary, they uncovered another inscription.
00:36:18The inscription has two parts.
00:36:21The second part reads Mara, while the first part is a diminutive of Mariamne.
00:36:27And although no one had ever seen this name on an ossuary, it was translated as just another
00:36:33version of Mary.
00:36:35Mary, also known as Mara.
00:36:38But would it make sense to find in the Jesus family tomb two ossuaries with the name Mary?
00:36:52First, Maria, the name used in the Gospels to refer to the Virgin Mother.
00:36:57And the second, a unique spelling of both Mary and the name Mara.
00:37:04It might make sense if the second Mary, this Mariamne, was Mary Magdalene.
00:37:10Mary Magdalene comes down to us in the New Testament as not just a name, but a name and title.
00:37:26According to scholars, she is Mary from Magdala.
00:37:30Mary Magdala.
00:37:32Magdala was an important trade center close to the Sea of Galilee.
00:37:36The people from Magdala would have spoken Greek as well as Aramaic.
00:37:41Christian traditions suggest that Mary Magdalene and her brother Philip were preachers to the
00:37:48Greek-speaking Jews.
00:37:49And it's quite likely that Mary Magdalene's family and followers would have written her name
00:37:55in Greek.
00:37:56The Mariamne ossuary is the only one found in the Talpiot tomb with a Greek inscription.
00:38:04Let's say in this very tomb of Talpiot, the second Mary was clearly identifiable as Mary Magdalene,
00:38:15let's say.
00:38:16Right.
00:38:17What would be your reaction then along, inside this cluster?
00:38:21It would be fascinating and certainly draw much more attention and raise many more questions,
00:38:26but it isn't.
00:38:27We don't have Mary of Magdalene in that tomb.
00:38:30If one of the ossuary's had said Mary Magdalene, I would say, wow, and I would be a lot more
00:38:39impressed.
00:38:40If it will be written, Maria coming from Migdal or Maria Magdalena, I would say, very interesting.
00:38:49If the Mariamne inscription could be connected to Mary Magdalene, it would be more than interesting.
00:38:56It would be statistically compelling because we could create a combined probability equation
00:39:02for the Talpiot cluster that includes Mary Magdalene.
00:39:07What happens when you do that is that the individual probability factors, even though they're not terribly
00:39:13small in any one particular case, when you multiply them all together, it actually starts to build up a picture
00:39:22that the overall thing that you've seen is actually a very rare event.
00:39:28Because Feuerwerger takes a conservative approach, he eliminates Mathia altogether, since he is
00:39:35not a known member of Jesus' immediate family.
00:39:39Feuerwerger also divides the probability outcome by four, so as to compensate for any unintended
00:39:45biases in the historical data.
00:39:48And he further divides the number by one thousand, representing all first-century Jerusalem tombs.
00:39:55By the end, his model concludes that there is only one chance in six hundred that the Talpiot tomb
00:40:01is not the Jesus' family tomb, if Mariamne can be linked to Mary Magdalene.
00:40:10But can she?
00:40:13One of the most famous tales associated with Mary Magdalene is in the Gospel of John,
00:40:18where Jesus stops the stoning of a woman punished for adultery.
00:40:23But there is no indication in the text that the unnamed woman is Magdalene.
00:40:41It's a later Christian tradition that has linked the adulteress to Magdalene, just as it has
00:40:50linked her to the tale in Luke of another unnamed woman, specifically labeled a sinner,
00:40:56who anoints the feet of Jesus,
00:41:03drying them with her hair.
00:41:13Today, scholars believe that Mary Magdalene and the two unnamed women in Luke and John
00:41:19are all different women.
00:41:22The tradition of linking Mary Magdalene to these so-called sinners
00:41:26can be traced back to a turnaround in the church of later centuries,
00:41:30when women were excluded from being consecrated as religious leaders.
00:41:35Previous to that time, women were ordained.
00:41:39And in many early Christian writings, Mary Magdalene is highly respected as a missionary.
00:41:46I think that Mary Magdalene was an extremely important person in the Jesus movement.
00:41:52So important that I think, and this is my opinion, I know I'm not representing anybody else in this,
00:41:59but I think that she actually is the real founder of Christianity.
00:42:04The strong leadership displayed by Magdalene would have been regarded as suspect by an evolving, male-dominated church.
00:42:12So from the second century, when church fathers began suppressing dozens of early Christian writings,
00:42:18the church rejected two texts that held Mary Magdalene in highest regard.
00:42:23The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and a text describing her brother's ministry, the Acts of Philip.
00:42:31For centuries, only fragments of these texts remained, and some sections had been considered lost forever.
00:42:44In 1974, in an ancient monastery on Mount Athos in Greece,
00:42:49a Harvard University professor, Francois Beauvain, uncovered a 700-year-old manuscript.
00:42:56It was the most complete copy ever found of the fourth century text, the Acts of Philip.
00:43:03In it, Beaumont claims to have discovered an early description of Mary Magdalene, unmarked by later Christian tradition.
00:43:10In the Acts of Philip, she is completely, there is no mention of her previous life.
00:43:19She is seen positively as a Christian missionary.
00:43:23So she is completely at the same level as male missionaries.
00:43:28She preaches, she teaches, she baptizes, she carries even the title apostle.
00:43:34If in the early Christian movement, Mary Magdalene was an apostle, then the unique alias Mara on Mariamne's ossuary could be pointing to something extraordinary.
00:43:47In Aramaic, Mara means master.
00:43:54Mara, the master.
00:43:56Even today, if you go to the Armenian quarter, the archbishop or one of the priests would be like,
00:44:03Mar Samuel or Mar whatever, Lord, master, you can still hear it.
00:44:10So it's a sign of respect for a rabbi, for a teacher related to the Mara, the Lord, the master.
00:44:17It is clear in the Acts of Philip that Mary Magdalene is respected as a preacher, baptizer, and apostle, strong and faithful, and close to Jesus.
00:44:31It would make sense then for her followers to refer to her as Mara, master.
00:44:38But what about the spelling of the first name in the inscription, the unique Mariamne, never found before or since on any other ossuary?
00:44:48In the Acts of Philip, Mary Magdalene's name is spelled M-A-R-I-A-M-N-E, Mariamne.
00:45:08Mariamne is the same woman as Mary of Magdala or Mary Magdalene in the Synoptic Gospels and in some non-canonical texts like the Gospel of Mary, Pistis Sophia, etc.
00:45:29The Acts of Philip seem to explain all the mysteries behind this inscription.
00:45:33But if this is really the ossuary belonging to Mary Magdalene, then there's one more thing that needs to be investigated.
00:45:43The common-held belief, based on medieval tradition, is that after the death of Jesus, the disciples were expelled from Judea and scattered to many lands, traveling and spreading the word of God.
00:45:56After some time, Mary Magdalene ended up in France, where she spent the last of her days.
00:46:12Following this later Christian tradition, it would be impossible to discover Mary Magdalene's coffin in Telpia, Jerusalem.
00:46:20However, in the Acts of Philip, written in the fourth century, the oldest known account of Mary Magdalene's travels, she does not die in France.
00:46:32According to the Acts of Philip, at the end of the story, Mary Magdalene is supposed to go home to Israel, to the Jordan Valley, and the author has an allusion that where she would die and be buried.
00:46:54The Acts of Philip clearly tell us that Mary Magdalene, Jesus' most trusted apostle, dies here in Jerusalem.
00:47:11Would it really be that implausible to find her buried beside Jesus in the tomb of the Jesus family?
00:47:17The statistical probabilities are compelling.
00:47:27The cluster of names in the Telpia tomb, extraordinary.
00:47:31The connections to the Gospels, too strong to dismiss.
00:47:36Armed with this new knowledge, our team may now be able to uncover new clues inside the Telpia tomb.
00:47:43If we can just get inside.
00:47:50Let's hook up our stuff and see what he did.
00:47:56Okay, let's see what we got now that we got the plumber cleared it all out for us.
00:48:00This or this?
00:48:02I still dread the idea that maybe the blockage was the bottom of it.
00:48:0614 feet, here's the blockage.
00:48:11We're at the point now where the bottom is closed.
00:48:13Yeah, and it's not the bottom, which is good.
00:48:14No, we're still going now.
00:48:15No, it's not the bottom, that's good.
00:48:16This is deep.
00:48:17This is really deep.
00:48:18It is, it's 20 feet.
00:48:19You're already 20 feet down?
00:48:20That's great.
00:48:21Look, look, look, look, look.
00:48:22That's the bottom, I think.
00:48:24What is that?
00:48:25Can you see the bottom, Felix?
00:48:26Either we hit another blockage or we're at the bottom.
00:48:28I'll move the camera.
00:48:29I thought it's supposed to curve.
00:48:32Let me switch the camera.
00:48:33Let me pan around, see if we can find something.
00:48:34Can you see?
00:48:35We don't see anything.
00:48:36I'm panning left.
00:48:37I saw, I saw.
00:48:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:48:39There it is.
00:48:40There's an opening.
00:48:41There's an opening, absolutely.
00:48:42There it is, there it is.
00:48:43We're there.
00:48:44This is it.
00:48:45We're in the tomb.
00:48:46We got the tomb.
00:48:47We got the tomb.
00:48:48We're right in front of the facade.
00:48:49Oh my God.
00:48:50There it is.
00:48:51That's the facade.
00:48:52That's the tomb.
00:48:56That's not a facade.
00:48:57Wait a minute.
00:48:58Oh my God.
00:49:01You know what?
00:49:02That's not the entrance to the tomb.
00:49:05We're in the tomb.
00:49:06You're in the tomb.
00:49:07No.
00:49:08Yes, absolutely.
00:49:09It's the tomb.
00:49:11All right.
00:49:12Here it is.
00:49:13One sec.
00:49:14It's the tomb, man.
00:49:15We got the tomb.
00:49:16We found our tomb.
00:49:18But where's the gable, Itai?
00:49:20You know the gable, the...
00:49:22I think that's it, isn't it?
00:49:26Is that an ossuary?
00:49:27Wait, wait.
00:49:28That's ossuaries.
00:49:29Those are ossuaries.
00:49:30Yes.
00:49:31Yes.
00:49:32Oh my goodness.
00:49:33There's good news and there's bad news here.
00:49:35There's an ossuary there.
00:49:42Well, what does that mean?
00:49:45It means we're in the wrong tomb.
00:49:47Our tomb is empty.
00:49:50So, what are we gonna do?
00:49:52It's the wrong tomb.
00:49:53We're in the wrong tomb, man.
00:49:54You know what?
00:49:55What?
00:49:56This may be the second tomb.
00:49:57You're right.
00:49:58The one we thought was 20 meters north.
00:49:59We're in the second tomb.
00:50:00Right.
00:50:01Our tomb is 20 meters south of here.
00:50:02The good news is no one's ever been seen a tomb from the time of Jesus in pristine
00:50:03condition.
00:50:05You know what?
00:50:06The good news is that Jesus was in pristine condition.
00:50:07Even the wrong tomb was out in the middle.
00:50:11We are not getting the wrong tomb.
00:50:13So we had a red-fledgian house, and the is now clear.
00:50:28Although we found ourselves in the wrong tomb, perhaps these finely crafted ossuaries, so
00:50:38close to the Talpiot tomb, are somehow connected to Jesus or his followers.
00:50:46So what's next? We've got to find the tomb, the Holy Family tomb.
00:50:57We've got to be looking 20 meters south. It's going to be on the other side of this building.
00:51:03It's this way. Where are you going? Where the hell are you going?
00:51:09The idea of finding Jesus' tomb might not seem so outlandish if we could locate tombs belonging to his followers,
00:51:28the people scholars call the Judeo-Christians.
00:51:33According to tradition, this is the view Jesus had when he walked up the Mount of Olives
00:51:38and gazed upon the Jewish holy temple.
00:51:41Where the Muslim gold dome of the rock now stands was once the Holy of Holies.
00:51:47There the Ark of the Covenant was housed.
00:51:51According to Luke, Jesus looked at the temple, foresaw its destruction, and wept.
00:51:58Where he wept is here, Dominus Flevit, a holy site on which Franciscan monks built this monastery in 1891.
00:52:07That's good.
00:52:10In 1953, while renovating, the Franciscans discovered a 2,000-year-old cemetery.
00:52:17This ancient necropolis was partially excavated by a well-known archaeologist named Bellarmino Bagatti.
00:52:28Bagatti claimed that these ossuaries belonged to some of the earliest followers of Jesus.
00:52:39If this is an early Judeo-Christian cemetery, then that means that our tomb is not sitting in some kind of archaeological vacuum.
00:52:48It's really part of a network of cemeteries.
00:52:52This can provide an archaeological context for our tomb.
00:52:57In this network of tombs, the Franciscans discovered a bone box with an inscription naming one of the most famous early Christians.
00:53:07Simon Bar-Jonah.
00:53:10Now, I don't know if everybody will recognize that immediately, but Jesus said to Simon Peter,
00:53:16who's venerated later as the Pope and the head of the church,
00:53:20You are Simon Bar-Jonah.
00:53:23Blessed are you, Peter.
00:53:24See, his name is not Peter.
00:53:25That's a Greek word.
00:53:26His name is Shimon.
00:53:27Shimon Bar-Jonah.
00:53:29Today, only a piece of the ossuary remains.
00:53:38The Franciscans have stored it in a small museum beside their church.
00:53:43It bears an indisputable inscription.
00:53:46The only one ever found spelling the name, Simon Bar-Jonah.
00:53:55Simon was one of the twelve original apostles of Jesus.
00:54:00According to the Gospels, Jesus renamed him Peter.
00:54:04In Aramaic, Kepha, which means rock.
00:54:08He's considered a saint by many Christians and the first pope by the Roman Catholic Church.
00:54:14According to tradition, Simon Peter was crucified and buried in Rome.
00:54:20So how could his coffin be here, in Jerusalem?
00:54:25The fact is, there has never been any credible archaeological evidence found in Rome,
00:54:30underneath the Vatican, that points to Simon Bar-Jonah.
00:54:34And here sits an ossuary discovered at Dominus Flevit, bearing his name.
00:54:41좋
00:54:50Leute
00:54:54Okay, you are not going to believe this.
00:54:54Why?
00:54:56You are not going to believe this.
00:54:57I am imagining it...
00:54:59Can you see?
00:55:00Now I see.
00:55:01it's a it's a symbol symbol from the from the tomb on an ossuary this is incredible because
00:55:09the angle and the thing is identical and the dot is deliberately inside the inverted
00:55:16v with a dot in the middle the symbol from our tomb right on an ossuary from what is
00:55:22suspected an early cemetery of the followers of Jesus as to who may have been buried in this
00:55:31ossuary and whether or not he knew the Jesus son of Joseph whose tomb has been emblazoned with the
00:55:37same symbol we can only speculate
00:55:51when it comes to forensics modern science doesn't allow for much speculation by studying ancient
00:55:58DNA in bone fragments and human residue left behind in ossuaries scientists can now determine
00:56:06familial relationships between the various people in the talpyat tomb stephen fan is the
00:56:13director of the center for the study of early christianity and he's assisting stephen cox a
00:56:19forensic archaeologist from new york state they have discovered valuable material inside the
00:56:25ossuaries inscribed mariamne and jesus son of joseph inside this ossuary we've got some material
00:56:33that's adhering to the surface of the stone in a very interesting circular pattern it's worthy of
00:56:39picking out and taking uh taking a look at it and see what its composition is the pattern and or
00:56:45material could give us a big clue as to who what when and where it seems outlandish that these samples
00:56:53might contain the dna of jesus and mary magdalene but if there's enough material these tests may shed a new
00:57:01light on jesus and his family this is sample 80-500 the samples have been numbered and sent to this dna lab in thunder bay canada one of only five labs in the world that specializes in ancient dna
00:57:08the scientists don't know that the samples don't know that the samples belong to a jesus son of joseph
00:57:15and a woman who might be mary magdalene
00:57:22the scientists don't know that the samples belong to a jesus son of joseph
00:57:30and a woman who might be mary magdalene
00:57:34and a woman who might be mary magdalene
00:57:41and a woman who might be mary magdalene
00:57:49and a woman who might be mary magdalene
00:57:56if these bone samples truly do belong to mary magdalene and jesus of nazareth
00:58:03we would expect the tests to show that they are not genetically related
00:58:08we would expect to find dna representing two individuals with no familial ties
00:58:13and that would be an extremely rare discovery in a family tomb
00:58:19unless the individuals were husband and wife
00:58:26ok so we received the samples that you sent up
00:58:31and when we first examined them they didn't look very good very dry very desiccated
00:58:36very small and very fragmentary and so for that reason it was going to be very difficult for us to do the analysis
00:58:42we then went on to process or start to process the samples
00:58:46and try to understand the quality of the dna
00:58:49is it going to be viable for analysis
00:58:52in this particular case we found the dna was fairly degraded fairly damaged
00:58:57and for that reason it limits what type of work we can can do
00:59:04the question now is there enough dna material to create a significant profile
00:59:14to obtain the maximum amount of information
00:59:17the biologists will try to recover what they call nuclear dna from the bone cells
00:59:27the extraction analysis showed that nuclear dna was very difficult to recover
00:59:32we have then focused on the mitochondrial dna
00:59:35the mitochondrial dna being inherited from mother to child and maternally inherited
00:59:40means that we can only identify those types of relationships
00:59:44mitochondrial dna can only tell us whether or not jesus son of joseph had the same mother as mariamne
00:59:51whether or not they were brother and sister
00:59:54if the biologists cannot recover mitochondrial dna from the bone cells
01:00:08the test will have to be aborted
01:00:11and we will never know the true relationship between jesus and mariamne
01:00:16we have indeed been able to achieve results we got the mitochondrial dna
01:00:24it was very fragmented very small amounts of dna
01:00:28we're able to amplify it we're able to sequence it
01:00:30we then went on to clone those sequenced dna fragments
01:00:34and by cloning the dna we're able to then compare many many copies together
01:00:38and that increases the validity of the work
01:00:41and that way we're able to compare the sequences between that one individual
01:00:47and the other individual
01:00:48and that's essentially what we've done
01:00:50and i can show you the results here today
01:00:52okay so what we have here is we have two sequences just representative sequences
01:00:59one from each individual
01:01:00and what i'm going to show to you here is some of the variations between the two individuals
01:01:06and so we have a polymorphism here this g and the a
01:01:11a polymorphism is a variation between this sequence and another sequence
01:01:17or a variation between this sequence and the reference sequence
01:01:20we use a polymorphism to indicate or identify a mitochondrial profile
01:01:26and this polymorphism shows one difference between the two individuals
01:01:31we also have another polymorphism here where we have a t and a c
01:01:36showing another polymorphism difference
01:01:38so we have a number of polymorphisms that show differences between the two sequences
01:01:42we can then conclude that these two individuals
01:01:46they're not related or at least not maternally related
01:01:49they do not share the same mother
01:01:51it can't be mother and child
01:01:53it can't be brother and sister
01:01:55so for these particular samples because they've come from the same tomb
01:01:59and we suspect it to be a familial tomb
01:02:02these two individuals if they were unrelated
01:02:05would most likely be husband and wife
01:02:08for centuries people have speculated on Mary Magdalene's relationship to Jesus
01:02:26Mary Magdalene appears with more frequency than other women in the canonical gospels
01:02:32always a close follower of Jesus
01:02:35her presence at the crucifixion in Jesus' tomb
01:02:40is consistent with the role of a grieving wife and widow
01:02:44and so perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married
01:02:49as the DNA results from the Talpiot Ossuaries suggest
01:02:52and perhaps their union was kept secret to protect a potential dynasty
01:03:06a secret hidden through the ages
01:03:10a secret we may be able to uncover in the Jesus' family tomb
01:03:25we've finally been able to contact one of the original builders of the Talpiot apartments
01:03:30Ephraim remembers the tomb
01:03:33but is a little hazy on its exact location
01:03:37it's between the two buildings?
01:03:43yes, yes
01:03:45do you remember that it's not there and not there?
01:03:48no, it's between the two buildings
01:03:51okay, he says it's right between these two buildings
01:03:54let's try
01:03:55between the apartment complexes is a large garden with high terraces
01:04:00and it's in this area that Ephraim states the tomb is located
01:04:05but on which terrace is the question?
01:04:12the neighbors begin to take an interest in the search
01:04:28and point out an inconspicuous cement slab on the lower terrace
01:04:33what is it? what is it? what is it? could it be under the cement thing?
01:04:50Ephraim explains that the slab has no structural purpose
01:04:54but he's interrupted by an almost prophetic visit from a blind woman
01:04:58who's lived in the apartments since their construction
01:05:01here, here, here
01:05:03this is the roof?
01:05:04yes, that is the roof
01:05:05yes, how did you know it?
01:05:07how did you know it?
01:05:08how could it be very painful?
01:05:09what's it? I remember it
01:05:10she was anxious
01:05:11and the children went here and came here and came and took it
01:05:15did you know if they took it with a stone?
01:05:17or that they took all the stones?
01:05:19or that they took all the stones?
01:05:20or that they took all the stones?
01:05:21I see that they just took all the stones
01:05:24no, you know it's a clear that it's here, right?
01:05:25yes, there, a million people that it's here
01:05:27one million percent certainty
01:05:34that's all we needed
01:05:36if we could remove this inconspicuous cement slab
01:05:42we just might find ourselves staring into the entrance of the Jesus family tomb
01:05:48that's where the house is
01:05:54but the house is located
01:05:56in a place
01:05:58and the house is чистing
01:06:01for us
01:06:03in a place
01:06:05no, we could put it, but it's still a bit
01:06:06that's what we need
01:06:07we need to take in
01:06:08now
01:06:09so
01:06:10we need to take in
01:06:11the house
01:06:12we need to take in
01:06:13this house
01:06:14and get into
01:06:15Okay, now how do we do this?
01:06:39We need everybody to help, right?
01:06:41Felix, do you realize we're rolling a big stone?
01:06:48No, no, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
01:06:56It's unbelievable.
01:07:05This is it.
01:07:07It's the real thing.
01:07:12I mean, I'm pinching myself, I can't believe it.
01:07:14Okay, come on, come on.
01:07:15Take a picture and compare, man.
01:07:17Watch your first step.
01:07:18It's the one step.
01:07:23All right, thank you.
01:07:24It's all right.
01:07:25I can see it.
01:07:26As long as I can see the next scorpion.
01:07:28One step is magic fighter.
01:07:30Okay.
01:07:32Okay.
01:07:36Okay.
01:07:37No, this is definitely it.
01:07:38Look, there's the chevron.
01:07:40It's beautiful.
01:07:41It's just gorgeous.
01:07:42All right.
01:07:47This is it.
01:07:48Look.
01:07:49Just like in the book.
01:07:50Just like in the picture.
01:07:51Look at it.
01:07:52Felix, we found it.
01:07:53We actually found it.
01:07:55I'm going in.
01:08:02Okay.
01:08:03Let's go.
01:08:04The opening of the tomb, 26 years after it was found, coincides with another twist
01:08:27in the story.
01:08:29One of the Talpyid ossuaries has disappeared.
01:08:32Counting these, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
01:08:37We have ten ossuaries here.
01:08:39Each.
01:08:40But the visits to the Bet Shemesh warehouse have turned up a strange error in the records.
01:08:45I went to the, the store rooms of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Bet Shemesh.
01:08:50They provided me with this computer sheet, which indicates that from this tomb, there
01:08:55are nine items, which I say quite clearly, number of items, nine.
01:09:00And it has the description of these, these ossuaries and where they're located in the
01:09:05store rooms.
01:09:06Somehow, somewhere, one of the Talpyid ossuaries went missing.
01:09:11And it is with this missing ossuary that a new mystery begins.
01:09:20Perhaps the ossuary was stolen.
01:09:23Maybe a worker at the site in 1980 had light fingers.
01:09:28Ossuaries can fetch fairly high prices in the antiquities market.
01:09:32And in October 2002, a chalky limestone ossuary surfaced from a private collection.
01:09:41It bore the inscription, James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.
01:09:50Oded Golan, a well-known collector, stated that he had bought the ossuary from an Arab
01:09:55antiquities dealer in the old city of Jerusalem decades before, but had been unaware of the
01:10:01significance of the inscription.
01:10:04It was among the first ossuary that I have in my collection.
01:10:08I didn't put any special attention to this ossuary because the three names which are mentioned
01:10:14on the ossuary, which are Yaakov, Yosef, and Yeshua, are very common names in the first century.
01:10:24And therefore, I couldn't even think that it could belong to the family of Jesus.
01:10:31And at the same time, I never knew that Jesus had a brother or siblings of any kind.
01:10:39After Jesus' death, his brother James took over his ministry and gathered a large following
01:10:44as the undisputed leader of the Jesus movement.
01:10:48Later Christian writings tell us that he was respected by early Christians as well as the
01:10:53Jewish Pharisees.
01:10:56And first century Jewish historian Josephus spends more time on James than on Jesus.
01:11:03But just like his brother Jesus, it was fear of his religious popularity and influence
01:11:08that led to his death.
01:11:12In what was widely viewed as an act of judicial murder, the temple high priest, Ananas, condemned
01:11:18James and had him executed in Jerusalem by stoning.
01:11:23The numerous accounts of James' life show an early Christian of such importance that if it was
01:11:35at all possible, he would most certainly have been laid beside Jesus in death.
01:11:40It wasn't until 2002 that a highly credited scholar viewed Oded Golan's collection and suggested
01:11:59that the James ossuary might belong to the family of Jesus of Nazareth.
01:12:04And so began what is now a famous controversy, a battle of scholars and science over the authenticity
01:12:14of the James ossuary.
01:12:16The James ossuary, where did it come from?
01:12:20The collector who owned it, Oded Golan, well publicized, says he got it around 1980.
01:12:28Sometimes he said before or after, but hey, around 1980.
01:12:32Our tomb was discovered in 1980.
01:12:35There's a missing ossuary.
01:12:37The Israeli antiquities can't find it.
01:12:39Now maybe they'll find it in the back of a warehouse.
01:12:42But I checked the dimensions, I was just curious.
01:12:45The missing ossuary was catalogued, it's just gone.
01:12:48The dimensions of that ossuary are the same as the James ossuary.
01:12:51Now, a lot of people have concluded, experts, that the James ossuary is a forgery.
01:12:59But nobody says it's all a forgery.
01:13:02And the position now of the Israel antiquities authority is that it originally said James,
01:13:07son of Joseph.
01:13:09I would be fine with that.
01:13:11I mean, you think about it.
01:13:12We've got these six names.
01:13:14If the James, son of Joseph, forget brother of Jesus.
01:13:18See, what the ossuary says, James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.
01:13:21Some people say, well, the brother of Jesus, maybe that was added.
01:13:24It wouldn't matter.
01:13:25Obviously, it would be the brother of Jesus.
01:13:27You've got a Jesus, a Joseph, a James, son of Joseph, if it were from this tomb.
01:13:33Now, we're speculating, but the time is right, the name is right,
01:13:37and that, I think, would really make it fairly clear that this is the Jesus family.
01:13:44But what would it take to determine whether the James ossuary originated in the Talpyat tomb?
01:13:51The date and the recorded dimensions are extremely suggestive,
01:13:55but it's the patina that should prove the case one way or another.
01:13:59Over time, in a tomb, minerals and sediment accumulate on ossuaries.
01:14:08This accumulation is called patina, and it could be scientifically analyzed
01:14:14to produce a chemical and mineral fingerprint specific to an ossuary or tomb.
01:14:19Every ossuary discovered in a particular tomb will have the same patina fingerprint.
01:14:29The samples taken from the James ossuary show certain trace materials such as titanium and iron
01:14:36that are unique to the James ossuary.
01:14:39If the James patina matches the ossuaries from the Talpyat tomb,
01:14:44it will be strong evidence that the James ossuary is the missing bone box
01:14:49and belongs to the family of Jesus.
01:14:50Dr. Charles Pellegrino has come to the Bet Shemesh warehouse in Israel
01:15:00to collect patina samples from the Talpyat tomb ossuaries.
01:15:04I can get a lot of the debris from here.
01:15:07That would be good. Yes, excellent.
01:15:10This is 8503, the inscription of Jesus, son of Joseph.
01:15:16It's just one of those moments where you're struck to a kind of silence,
01:15:21knowing that you're holding the chemical history from the ossuary
01:15:26that may actually have contained the remains of Jesus of Nazareth.
01:15:34At Dr. Pellegrino's request, we commissioned a collection of random patina samples
01:15:38to determine whether the Talpyat tomb patina is really distinct.
01:15:45That is plenty for Charlie to work on an electron microscope.
01:15:50If the random samples do not match the Talpyat ossuaries,
01:15:56while the James samples do,
01:15:58then the statistical probabilities that the Jesus family tomb has been found
01:16:03will be overwhelming.
01:16:05If it were possible to obtain evidence
01:16:09that the James ossuary might be this missing ossuary,
01:16:14then this would have a very strong additional degree of evidentiary value.
01:16:23I would say that that would be an absolute slam dunk
01:16:30if that were in fact shown to be the case.
01:16:34The Suffolk Crime Lab is a leading American CSI lab
01:16:39involved in solving modern-day crime mysteries.
01:16:41Today, it will use its forensic expertise to determine how the patina from the James ossuary
01:16:48and the patina from the random samples compare to the Talpyat ossuaries.
01:16:52Did you see that piece?
01:16:56Yes.
01:16:57It had sort of like that tunnel running through it.
01:16:59Yes.
01:17:00Do you want to take another sample out of this container, or is that sufficient?
01:17:04Yeah, I think that's enough.
01:17:05All right.
01:17:06Yeah, I think that'll do.
01:17:09Yeah, I meant it just as is.
01:17:11So that piece will be good to look at.
01:17:14Well, right now we're just taking other samples of the accretion from inside the ossuary.
01:17:21Iron is part of the signature that gives the soil that distinctive color.
01:17:25We now have it from this tomb, we have it from the ossuary from this tomb.
01:17:29We're just taking other samples and we're going to look at them under the scanning electron microscope
01:17:36and ping them with the electron microprobe.
01:17:38What we're looking at here now is the spectrum of the patina sample that we just analyzed.
01:17:59This is predominantly a limestone material, correct, Charlie?
01:18:02Yeah.
01:18:03It's what's called the Jerusalem chalk.
01:18:05It's a very soft limestone.
01:18:07But what I find interesting is the small trace materials that we are locating here,
01:18:14as opposed to the general limestone properties that you would expect to find.
01:18:18We're noticing iron, titanium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium.
01:18:24So far the elemental composition that we analyzed with this particular section of patina
01:18:31is consistent with the trace materials that we found in the James ossuary.
01:18:35The signature is the same. It matches.
01:18:40The patina samples from the Talpiot tomb match with the James ossuary.
01:18:45But what about the random samples?
01:18:49As it turns out, none of them match Talpiot.
01:18:53The same chemical and mineral spikes as that of the Talpiot tomb are exhibited only by the James patina.
01:18:59This is key evidence, indicating that the ossuary inscribed James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,
01:19:08is the missing ossuary from the Talpiot tomb.
01:19:11When the James ossuary is included in our statistical model,
01:19:15the probability factor changes from 600 to 1 in favor of the tomb to 30,000 to 1,
01:19:22strongly suggesting that this tomb belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth.
01:19:27In the early 2000s, we will attend the fortress of Nazareth.
01:19:29The fortress of Nazareth.
01:19:34Oh my god, oh my goodness, it's awesome isn't it?
01:20:03It's, look, one, two, three, these niches, the kochim, two here, two here, two here,
01:20:13exactly, six all in all, look, two death niches, where you lay out the body, Jesus' body,
01:20:20Mary's body would have been there, look at this, and then look over here, eh?
01:20:25This is it, this is absolutely a jewel of a tomb.
01:20:32Look at that, it's pretty deep.
01:20:34Yeah, those kochim are very deep, I didn't realize that.
01:20:39Look at that, Felix, what is that?
01:20:42There's an escision, there's an inscription here.
01:20:46This is Greek.
01:20:47That's an M?
01:20:48That's an M.
01:20:49Greek.
01:20:50M.
01:20:51Is it N or M?
01:20:52M.
01:20:53And what's this?
01:20:55We need an epigrapher in here.
01:20:57This is old.
01:20:58Two, three, four, five, six letters.
01:21:01It's either Greek or Latin, but certainly not Hebrew.
01:21:05Looking around, we noticed that we were sitting on mounds of decomposing pages of scripture.
01:21:12What is that?
01:21:13Shine that down?
01:21:14Shine it down?
01:21:15Where, where, where?
01:21:16Look at that, Felix.
01:21:17This is, this is full of holy books, disintegrating holy books.
01:21:22According to Jewish law, biblical books cannot be discarded.
01:21:27They have to be buried like humans.
01:21:30It seems that in the weeks following the removal of the ossuaries and before the tomb
01:21:35was resealed, a local rabbinical school filled the tomb with damaged holy texts.
01:21:41Among them, we found a book that Jesus refers to as the key to his ministry.
01:21:46It's the book of Jonah.
01:21:48Jesus says in the Gospel.
01:21:50If you want to know, his apostles say, what are you up to, Master?
01:21:54And he says, you want to know what I'm up to?
01:21:56Read the book of Jonah.
01:21:59That's, that's the code.
01:22:01And right here, you have the book of Jonah.
01:22:09The Gospels record that Jesus constantly spoke in parables and codes.
01:22:14Not surprising for a leader of what today would be labeled an anti-government movement.
01:22:19A man destined for crucifixion.
01:22:22And those who speak in codes often harbor great secrets.
01:22:32During the rushed excavations in 1980, archaeologists removed from the Talpia tomb
01:22:38the last ossuary with an inscription.
01:22:41The ossuary belonged to a child.
01:22:44At the IAA Rockefeller Museum, the inscription was translated,
01:22:48Yehudah bar Yeshua.
01:22:52Yes, Yehudah bar Yeshua comes into English as Judah, son of Jesus.
01:23:00The New Testament doesn't say that Jesus had a son.
01:23:09But perhaps in this instance, archaeology forces us to throw a different light on the New Testament.
01:23:15Could this bone box have once held the remains of the son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene?
01:23:28If Judah was their son, his existence would most certainly have been kept secret.
01:23:36Since Jesus was perceived to be a pretender to the royal throne,
01:23:40Jesus' son would have been a target of arrest and crucifixion by Roman authorities.
01:23:46It was a time of great persecution.
01:23:53Anyone associated with Jesus' ministry was threatened.
01:23:58His cousin, John the Baptist, beheaded.
01:24:01James, the brother of Jesus, stoned to death.
01:24:06Simon, another brother, crucified.
01:24:13If they were parents, Jesus and Mary would have known
01:24:16that leaking knowledge of the birth of their child
01:24:19would have put the child at terrible risk.
01:24:25So perhaps the unnamed beloved disciple, referred to in the book of John,
01:24:30is actually the son of Jesus.
01:24:34Who remains unnamed in the text to conceal the child's lineage.
01:24:49In John 19, 26, Jesus asks the beloved disciple at the base of the cross
01:24:56to behold his mother.
01:24:59Then says to Mary,
01:25:01Woman, behold your son.
01:25:13Traditionally, this scene has been understood as Jesus addressing Mary, his mother.
01:25:20But can this be later theology?
01:25:25Could it be that Jesus was talking to Mary Magdalene, his wife,
01:25:30asking her to protect their sons?
01:25:34On the other hand, maybe the fact that there was a son in the Talpia tomb,
01:25:43means that the Jesus found in this tomb is not Jesus of Nazareth.
01:25:49Accordingly, we would have to believe that living around the same time,
01:25:57in the same place, there was another Jesus,
01:26:02who also had a father named Joseph,
01:26:05and two close male relatives named James and Yose,
01:26:10and two women in his life,
01:26:13one called Maria,
01:26:15and the other Mary Amne.
01:26:19What is that noise?
01:26:20I think they are getting upset they weren't here.
01:26:21I will go talk to them.
01:26:22What is that noise?
01:26:23I think they are getting upset they weren't here.
01:26:24I will go talk to them.
01:26:25I will go talk to them.
01:26:51One of the tenants in the Talpia departments works for the Israel Antiquities Authority.
01:27:01And even though we have permission from the tenant board, she's called in the IAA.
01:27:06It was the Talpia department owners who, out of concern for their children's safety, arranged for this tomb to be sealed, a tomb that the IAA had left open in 1980.
01:27:30Obtaining permission from the IAA to open a tomb they never sealed seems unnecessary.
01:27:36But despite our pleas, we were asked to cover it again.
01:27:42Okay, let's go. Let's go.
01:27:44The tomb that arguably once held the remains of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
01:27:55Matthew from Mary's family line.
01:27:58Yossi and James, the brothers of Jesus.
01:28:02Mary Magdalene, her husband Jesus.
01:28:06And Judah, their son, is sealed up again.
01:28:19Who knows what secrets are still inside?
01:28:23And for how long they will be kept hidden under the Talpia apartments?
01:28:27Travel the world and explore lost civilizations.
01:28:55Osiris, like Jesus, was the God of Resurrection.
01:29:00Lost Gods, Friday at 10 Eastern.
01:29:03Vision TV. Expect more.
01:29:06Honor tables itu after man, c stranger killed themselves.
01:29:07Will never be self-perte Studies anywhere, c Donc, danne.
01:29:09R și po love.
01:29:13Oratoculis, like Iborough of Israel,
01:29:17The tale of Israel.
01:29:18I think one is seen every day over the Talpia Veronica.
01:29:21B персонаж and the numeroa pincel book.
01:29:23looper.