Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?

Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot?

Last updated on: February 29, 2012 at 3:49 pm by James F. McGrath

Is the New Testament Evidence Compatible with Jesus having been Buried in Talpiot? 2012-02-29T15:49:59-05:00 James F. McGrath

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Many news outlets and blogs are talking about 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’ burial in my book The Burial of Jesus: What Does History Have to Do with Faith?, I have my own thoughts about some of the claims being made. Since epigraphers and archaeologists have commented on the claims about the inscriptions and iconography in the second Talpiot tomb Tabor and Jacobovici explored, known as the “patio tomb,” let me offer a perspective from New Testament historical criticism.

In the scenario Jacobovici and Tabor envisage, the plot of land where the Talpiot tombs were found would have belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. Here’s what Tabor writes in The Bible and Interpretation:

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 “Jesus family tomb” 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’ 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?

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’ 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 “a tomb” 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.

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. Jesus was most likely given a dishonorable burial in a tomb near to the site of his execution. The Talpiot neighborhood is some 45 minutes’ walk from the traditional site of Golgotha, and so would not have been used for that purpose. Joseph 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.

Tabor’s reconstruction seems to require us to believe that at least some of the Gospel authors (1) knew about Jesus’ 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.

I discuss a lot of these issues in further detail in my book which I already mentioned, The Burial of Jesus.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s collection of links, let me add some additional links on this topic:

James Tabor himself posted on his blog today, having published a piece yesterday in The Bible and Interpretation which I mentioned in my own post above. There’s also an excerpt from the book in the Huffington Post.

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.

Bad Archaeology also highlights problems with the way the inscription is being understood.

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

Mike Heiser wonders why James Tabor still collaborates with Simcha Jacobovici. Heiser also posted on this topic yesterday.

Mark Goodacre (twice and thrice), Mason Slater, Richard Carrier, Tom Verenna (updated from yesterday) and Jim Davila are among the others to mention it today.

MSNBC has been impressively more skeptical than some other news outlets.

Previous Post

February 29, 2012

Creationism vs. the Virginal Conception

Next Post

March 1, 2012 Robot at Prayer

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz