Jesus Crucifixion Evidence And Revelations - Secrets Of Christianity 103 - Nails Of The Cross

it was the archaeological find of a lifetime the tomb of caithus the high priest of the jewish people who the gospels state sent jesus to the romans to be crucified two nails were found in the tomb could they be the nails that crucified jesus this is one of the secrets of christianity being unearthed by investigative journalist sunka yakubovic from deserts to tombs from rome to the holy land simca tracks down the truth behind historical myths long-held beliefs and some of the greatest biblical stories ever told in 1990 here in jerusalem just a few meters down this hill workers building a park now called the peace park made the most amazing archaeological discovery they found a 2 000 year old burial tomb but it wasn't just the burial tomb of anybody it was the burial tomb of someone mentioned in the gospels the high priest caiphus and he's the man that according to the gospels is partially responsible for sending jesus to the cross for nearly two thousand years caiphus's tomb was left undisturbed then in 1990 construction workers stumbled upon a rather large burial site the israeli antiquities authority or iaa sent out archaeologists to excavate the site what they found was a first century jewish tomb inside there were four kojims or burial niches and inside these there were 12 ossuaries or bone boxes these limestone coffins were the bones of the dead are laid included the ossuary which bears the inscription joseph son of caithus that story made headlines but here's a story that didn't make headlines nobody reports that in fact nobody knows if that tomb still exists archaeologists don't know if it's destroyed when the park was built nobody cares and here's something else that no media no media whatsoever reported inside that tomb they found two roman nails wait a minute they found two nails in the tomb of the man who sent jesus to the cross and nobody reports it why and what's more where are they the first stop in any investigation involving an israeli archaeological site is the rockefeller museum in jerusalem it is headquarters for the israeli antiquities authority these archives house the original reports of every archaeological excavation supervised by the iaa simca locates the 1990 kyphus tomb archeological file in it he discovers the original drawing of the tomb he also finds the final unedited report and this includes detailed drawings measurements and photographs and although the two roman nails are mentioned there are no photographs measurements drawings or any information as to their current whereabouts the main find is the now famous ossuary inscribed with the name joseph son of caiphus the christian gospel simply call him caiphus the first century historian josephus mentions a high priest called joseph caithus what's written on the ossuary however is joseph son of caiphus believing josephus is closer to the truth scholars generally agree that despite the different versions this is the bone box of the man who sent jesus to the cross to understand why caiaphas would do such a thing we have to understand the specific historical context in which the confrontation between jesus and caithus took place the date was 30 a.d and judea was under roman occupation even the jewish religious elite had to answer directly to the roman governor pontius pilate the roman authorities had appointed caiaphas to the high priesthood the most prestigious and powerful position a jew could hold according to the gospels on the jewish holiday of passover jerusalem was bursting with religious fervor and supported by a large gathering of followers jesus came to the temple the holiest sight in all of judaism he drove the cattle herders and dove sellers out overturned the tables of the money changers then he warned the romans destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up talking to the roman authorities in this way was tantamount to a call for revolt there was a near riot and caithus to keep order has jesus arrested and put on trial jesus is hastily convicted of inciting opposition to the romans and turned over to the roman governor pontius pilate the gospels state that pilate sends jesus to the cross and famously washes his hands of the deed caiphus is left to bear the burden we don't know whether he was or wasn't troubled by the outcome of his decision which has a archaeological connection with the gospels was excavated in the 1990s from the promenade in the southern part of jerusalem there is an inscription you can see it on the side of the archery it mentions caiaphas caiaphas was the high priest in the time of jesus and jesus is mentioned to be judged by caiaphas the ossuary has been set around the world and millions of onlookers have had a chance to view it in person witnessing up close what scholars believed to be the first ever discovery of a man who came in contact with jesus but is it really the ossuary of the man who sent jesus to the cross to answer that question simca meets with david mevera a curator at the israel museum here's my question how are you so convinced that this is the kaifus it is a rare name it's a name that we know from both jewish sources and from the new testament and it is good in dating and timing for that period and the most elaborate also area very luckily for us had twice an inscription on it naming joseph son of caiphus the one that we know from the new testament so it's definitely the tomb as all tombs were of a clan it's a priestly clan so the kaifast clan were buried in that tomb scholars generally agree with dr mavra caithus is a rare name and the ossuary is very ornate befitting a high priest but what happened to the nails found inside the tomb a starting point would be to find the location of the tomb itself in search of the nails of the crucifixion semka is on his way to the peace park to look for the tomb he has two clues first according to the archaeological report there should be a playground nearby but even if he finds the playground how does he identify the tomb if it's been covered up the second clue is provided by jewish religious law according to this law before sealing a tomb the archaeologist must insert a nephesh or pipe for the free flow of spirits that once inhabited the tomb the nephesh is somewhere in this park but where okay guys this is it at least i hope it's it there's supposed to be some kind of children's park or something nearby and we're looking for a green pipe sticking out of the ground each one of us grab one of these terraces and let's find the tomb even if they are in the right place what are the odds that the pipe is still accessible and not overgrown with bushes but if the pipe in the playground can be found together then the kaifus tomb would be [Music] look rediscovered the playground hey guys found the pipe looks like this is our pipe that's another pipe by the playground over there look similar another pipe no but then there's two tombs you understand there seems to be two tombs close to one another one of them is the kyphus tomb [Music] given that his intention is to put a camera down the pipe to look for the missing roman nails simka has to ascertain whether the pipe is clear or obstructed something is blocking it we need a gpr we need a ground penetrating radar but the good thing is this is the pipes indicate that the kaifus tomb was not destroyed in 1990 by the people building this park in the original report there is a mention of a second tomb found near the kaifus tomb but the ceiling was collapsed and it was deemed unsafe ground penetrating radar should reveal which tomb is the collapsed one and which is the kaifus tomb susinka has brought in gpr specialists to help determine whether what lies below the pipe may actually be the kaifus tomb first they go to the tomb that is farthest from the playground so it may be quite exciting because we may have an excavated and an unexcavated tomb basically what i'm hoping is that you and your work can throw some light on ground penetrating radar can be used to determine whether areas below the surface hold ancient archaeological sites works by bouncing sound waves through rock okay next line the only tomb ever discovered that scholars generally agree belongs to someone mentioned in the gospels was found in jerusalem in 1990 it was the tomb of caithus the jewish high priest that according to the gospels turned jesus over to the roman authorities who then crucified him [Music] although kyphus's ossuary or bone box was put on display the tomb itself was covered over more than that two roman nails found in the tomb disappeared they were not sketched photographed measured or archived could it be that they were the nails that were used to crucify jesus is it possible that kaifas kept them as some kind of morbid souvenir of the most infamous execution in history although we know that tens of thousands of people were crucified the fact is that there exists only one archaeological artifact attesting to this gruesome practice it was found in 1970 here in jerusalem the artifact is a crucified heel now being kept in a lab at tel aviv university when it was found it made international headlines scholars went out of their way to say that the crucified heel did not belong to jesus but rather to a man called jonathan who lived around jesus's lifetime the heel has never been exhibited in public due to religious sensibilities nonetheless professor hirschkovitz agrees to show it to simcon this is the original this is the only evidence we have for crucifixion in the world in in the world i know it's very popular these days to say that they use some kind of ropes to tie the crucified person to the crossbar but in a way it doesn't make sense because you can't do crucifixion without bloodshed the whole philosophy it's humiliation and punishment i myself i disregard the story of of ropes you know for crucifixion i think they were using nails they were using probably short nails for the palm of the hand and longer nails for the heel gun classic jesus painting one going through the hand is more accurate i believe so according to professor hirschkovitz we learned from the crucified heel bone that there were at least four crucifixion nails used two on the heels on either side of the upright post and at least one or two on each hand and we now know from the heel bone that nails had to be at least 12 centimeters long for the heels but we still don't know how big the hand nils had to be now that simkin knows what a crucifixion nail looks like he heads back to the rockefeller museum archaeology is all about context and clusters of artifacts if simca is ever going to figure out the mystery of the missing nails from the kaifus tomb and whether they might be the nails of the crucifixion he has to find out what other artifacts were found with the nails and here there is no lack of detailed information including the nails the report lists five items all of them have to do with the afterlife the first find mentioned is an oil lamp oil lamps were used to commemorate the dead the second artifact is a glass perfume bottle these expensive bottles were associated with women unlike today each woman had her own perfume mixture so it is likely that the scent of a woman was associated with her soul after all perfume is associated with scent and scent in jewish tradition is associated with the afterlife the next item is the most surprising one would not expect to find it in the tomb of a jewish high priest it is a roman coin found in the skull of a woman buried in the tomb a coin in the skull is common to pagan burials not jewish ones coins were placed under the tongue of the deceased so that the soul of the dead could pay the boatmen when crossing the mythical river styx in hades after the flesh rotted the coin fell into the skull the presence of the coin in the skull shows that this family of jewish high priests were influenced by roman burial practices so the coin was also associated with the afterlife and then there were the nails what possible connection could they have with the afterlife as it turns out in first century judaism only one type of nail was associated with the afterlife nails used in crucifixion they were considered to be a powerful talisman protecting their owner in this life and the next taken together the ossuary the lamp the glass bottle and the coin all tell the same story an obsession with the afterlife it seems the only reason that nails would be part of this cluster is that they were used to crucify someone and since caiphus is associated with only one crucifixion could they be the nails that were driven into jesus you're excavating kyphosis too you find iron nails you think ah nails you know you could say look crucifying jesus was a small event in caiaphas is life he's the priest he has many things to do jesus was not important he's important to us but to him he was just one more guy he got rid of i don't think that's the case he might not have known the day it happened this is going to become the biggest thing in my life this is going to haunt me to my grave but i think by the time he died that act was major so if there were crucifixion nails in the caiaphas tomb i don't think most of us would say oh well this is just a coincidence it's a little indication of something much bigger to see if the nails were left in the kaifus tomb simca is attempting to lower cameras into the so-called soul pipe but the soul pipe over the kaifa's tomb is blocked now that the gpr has shown senka where the kaifast tomb is simka has to get around the blockage of the pipe so he calls a pipe expert namely a plumber because there is an elbow at the top of the pipe ezra the plumber can't get his equipment down so he elects to cut a hole in the side of the pipe just above ground level which can later be welded shot it looks like there's just garbage in with the obstruction gone simka might be able to lower a camera down the sole pipe and into the kaifus tomb hopefully revealing the missing nails that's good it looks clear i see the curve it looks empty i didn't expect it simca now gathers his team that includes experts at working robotic cameras after due preparation they're finally ready to put a camera down the pipe bill tarrant is one of these experts all right so go for it all right we're gonna go for it his high-resolution camera once lowered into the tomb may detect the nails if they're still there okay there we go so hopefully you'll have beautiful images for me okay going through one pipe there's the other part of the pipe with these clear high resolution images from the camera arsimka and his team on the verge of finding the nails of the crucifixion simca is investigating a first century jerusalem burial tomb identified as the last resting place of the high priest caiphus who sent jesus to the cross strangely two roman nails found in the cave possibly associated with crucifixion have gone missing and the cave itself has been covered over simca has located the tomb and a pipe that leads into it in the hope of locating the nails a high resolution camera has been lowered into the pipe at first everything looks good there's the other part of the pipe sitting at the elbow the camera can now see into the second pipe i'm zooming in unfortunately spikes used to secure the joints of the pipe prevent the camera from traveling further simca now has to call for a smaller more flexible camera but it has to come from another town so everything has been put on hold okay coffee break okay okay ignored by the majority of scholars is the fact that there wasn't one with two ossuaries with the kyphus inscription found in the tomb a simple ossuary bearing the name kaifus and an ostentatious ossuary bearing the name joseph son of caivis the first century historian josephus mentions a high priest joseph kaifus this is taken by scholars to be one in the same as the joseph son of caithus buried in the fancy ossuary so they have identified this ossuary with the jewish high priest from the time of jesus but the gospels do not call the high priest who sent jesus to the cross joseph kyphus or joseph son of caiphus they simply called that high priest caiphus can it be that although the gospel writers talk about one high priest called caiphus there were actually two two from the same family one was indeed ostentatious but the other one was modest can it be we've been focusing on the wrong caiphas all along to find out more about the real kaifus of the jesus story simca now travels what would have been a 20-day journey at the time of jesus to modern-day turkey and on to a small town called antioch early jesus followers fled here to escape roman persecution and it is here that the christian movement itself was born simca meets new testament scholar barry wilson he's hoping to get a better sense of the historical caiphus to determine which ossuary belongs to the high priest who confronted jesus fantastic mountain riddled with tunnels those holes these were the escape routes of early christians when they were fleeing from the romans it's a fantastic network within this mountain this is where they practice christianity before it was an official religion before it was recognized that's right they had to remain underground they used caves as churches here this was the earliest vatican the christians who worshipped here had access to texts that were later suppressed by the western church one of these deals with gyphus there's a very interesting document that dates from the 6th century possibly earlier it's preserved in an arabic source and this is an amazing document because it starts off by saying that this is the book of the high priest the one called caiaphas so it's a book that's allegedly written by the high priest caiaphas he's the bad guy he was the bad guy he was implicated with pontius pilate at the trial of jesus but he says in this document about jesus this is the one whom we adored this is the one who for our sakes became incarnate this is the one who for our sakes redeemed us and who has blessed us with everlasting compassion this is the high priest the jewish high priest the one of the two most powerful leaders in judea of the time presented as speaking with a christian voice this text representing a little-known christian tradition portrays caiphus not as a villain but is a devout follower of jesus but if this text is accurate this means that the gospels distorted the truth about caiphus well you know caithy's tomb has been found yes did you know that there were nails no i didn't know that they've disappeared they've disappeared that's a remarkable absence why would it be so remarkable if an israeli archaeologist said ah it's just nails what would you say to them well i would want to find out what was so significant about these nails that it would be associated with the burial of caiaphas for you this is an important question it's an important question you wouldn't brush it off no you wouldn't lose the nails no no the nails are an important clue to something some link to some other historic person there's only one crucified person that caiphus is linked to and that's linked to jesus [Music] armed with the knowledge that there is an alternative christian tradition depicting kaifas as a good guy and knowing that in the caiphas tomb a modest ossuary was found simca now heads back to jerusalem to see what more he can learn about the real caiphus historian dr helen bond has spent much of her career examining the life of this prominent high priest in her writings she argues that the gospel's portrayal of caiphus is historically inaccurate she now takes simca to a church which according to christian tradition is built where kaivas once lived since caiphus was also a judge one would expect to find holding cells under his home and indeed that's precisely what archaeologists have found here jesus could have been held right here the night he was arrested the gospels tend to caricature the high priest he's shown as jealous of jesus he's completely corrupt the whole trial narrative in mark's gospel for example is a kangaroo court it's a terrible picture of a jewish high priest that comes over it's a long way from historical accuracy and the reason for that i think is that all of the gospels i written at the end of the first century at a time when christians and jews are starting to go their separate ways and so in a way caiaphas is sort of a victim of this he becomes caught up in all of this negativity and betrayed in a very negative way and i think caiaphas has suffered because of that um there's nobody particularly interested in rehabilitating him so what if caith is never meant for jesus to be crucified merely arrested what if as the alternative caiphas tradition suggests he became a follower rather than a persecutor of jesus perhaps by re-examining the limestone coffins simca will be able to determine which caiaphas is the one who confronted jesus we have now located caiphus's tomb by identifying a pipe that leads into it maybe by re-examining the ossuaries that came from that tomb we will be able to determine whether caiphus is really the bad guy of the gospels or whether he was a good guy who took two of the crucifixion nails with him to the grave [Music] to analyze and compare the two ossuaries simca has come to the israel museum where both are currently stored he's first shown the famous ossuary scholars believe once held the bones of the historic caicas remarkably after 2 000 years it's in unbelievably good shape look at this i've seen a lot of ossuaries and this is this is beautiful ever yeah it is one of the most beautiful i've ever seen yeah it's look how elaborate many of the fancier ossuaries are decorated with what scholars call rosettes although their exact meaning is not known many scholars dismissed the design as merely decorative an ostentatious display of wealth and status simca now examines the famous inscription see this is what we couldn't see when it was on the shelf it's so clear it's joseph son of aramaic bar kaifa there it is the evidence seems to support the argument that this ossuary held the bones of the historic kaifas but simka is now shown the second more modest kaifa sassowari the amazing thing about this one is that this one actually is more consistent with what it says in the gospels because there it doesn't say joseph son of kai-fi just a skaifa incredibly it is this inscription which just states caiaphas that matches the gospels scholars have ignored it because they prefer first century historian josephus as a source and they are dazzled by the fancy ossuary but it is the name inscribed on this simple ossuary that is more consistent with the gospels it's beautiful and it's modest and this one is consistent not with the bad guy kaifus but with the good guy kaifus this second kaifus ossuary also has rosettes though clearly less elaborate still they are consistent with the status of a high priest intriguingly there's also an enigmatic symbol between the two rosettes which has never been decoded it shows five temple-like steps supporting a pillar with seven cornices and between the cornices six arrows pointing heavenward it definitely has here symbolism it has several steps leading up and with arrows pointing heavenward as early as the first century the pillar becomes a symbol for jesus of nazareth and the emerging church later it even makes an appearance in the heart of the vatican in michelangelo's painting in the sistine chapel but there is yet one more curious element to the exterior design two seemingly insignificant circular patterns one on each side of the face of the ossuary interestingly they are not positioned at the four corners of the ossuary's facade as you would expect from something simply ornamental instead there are only two of them and they appear on either side of the pillar according to the authoritative rachmani catalogue of ossuaries the circles represent two nail heads is taken aback by his discovery and realizes that he doesn't know where in the tomb the missing roman nails were found were they found somewhere close to the ostentatious ossuary or were they found closer to the more modest ossuary looking at the initial field report written at the tombs discovery the evidence is inconclusive [Music] one nail was found outside the fancy kyphus ossuary incredibly the other was found inside an ossuary but strangely that ossuary is not identified why could it be that it was the plain caithus ossuary what do you make of a nail in an ossuary at all sites anywhere in jerusalem i've dug right here in jerusalem we find 10 nails a day but we're not in a jewish tomb we're in a residential area like this i'm sure many nails were found right behind me when this was excavated but if there's a nail in the ossuary then it opens another possibility that there's something like the coins in the mouth of the skull some sort of superstition going on here the belief attested in a number of sources that a crucifixion nail has a great magical power to ward off evil to ward off bad luck maybe to help you in the afterlife can it be that it is the simple ossuary that belonged to the high priest and that the secret of the tomb is that caiphus took jesus nails with him to the grave to answer that we need the nails but the nails are missing and there is no photograph of them in the original report in the hope that the photographs do exist simca now tracks down the original photographer of the site the photographer is gary nalbandian he was hired by the archaeologists to photograph all the artifacts found in the tomb so your mission was to shoot all the artifacts yes from the tomb yes okay let's see what you have that's the ossuary yes this is the oil lamp this is the coin and the nails did you shoot the nails uh i no there were no nails they did not give show me the nails but you asked for all the artifacts yes what the artifacts it was there from the tomb they give it to me i photograph it no nails normals i did not see that so the nails mysteriously disappeared before garrow had a chance to photograph them for the final report something doesn't make sense nails just don't disappear israeli archaeologists aren't bad they're good archaeologists these are not simple nails that were found in a wooden coffin or a building site or in a boat these were special roman nails and kyphus's tomb one of them inside one of the ossuaries i just can't believe that they simply disappeared as night falls simka gets back to the business of introducing a small camera in the now covered up tomb of kaifus after hours of waiting the second camera finally arrives it is much smaller and more flexible than the one that got stuck earlier called a push camera it has a better chance of moving past the obstructions in the pipe [Music] working into the night the crew is finally able to maneuver the push camera past the screws that stopped them before oh okay abby fell down more more okay hold it right there there it is [Music] i see what's going on here's the ground the way they found it they went inside and they pulled out the ossuaries and there's the entrance simcoe can now clearly see the outside of the tomb of the high priest kaifus but there's a problem that is cement because they had to put cement here to fortify whatever they were doing the walls are reinforced with concrete if you can get faster can you get past that ivy can you go a little bit more [Music] the camera probe inside the pipe that leads to kyphus tomb has hit another problem that is cement can you go a little bit more can you maneuver it to the side more that's it the camera won't reach all the way inside the kaifus tomb the only way to do that would be to get an excavation license and drill new holes even if that were possible the application process would take years okay so three meters yeah and there's probably another one two meters from what we're looking ahead yeah the opening is around here the road is under this roadway right here there's no getting into a tomb paved over by a road but simca has learned something now we know it exists the entrance is unobstructed and it's under this this road the point is there's only one set of missing artifacts it's the most important set and that's the nails unfortunately simca and his crew are unable to gain access to the tomb if the nails are still inside we'll never know but can artifacts from tomb sites simply vanish simka has now asked to speak with sv green hut the archaeologist who ran the kaifus tomb dig unfortunately he has refused an interview the iaa has offered up fellow archaeologist gideon avny to speak in his stead in the tomb there's two roman nails okay doesn't someone go wow i've poured through the material but there is no measurement or pictures of the nails you have to realize in this country every year you have 300 excavations the number of artifacts found in this excavation goes to tens of millions and minor elements like nails either they were lost in the stage of processing or storage or they were mixed with some other contacts i'm representing this government institution there was a question asked about this nail we checked all the records relevant to this storm when we discovered that we don't have the nails nails can be either lost or found their way into some other registry or whatever when you said it could be lost or find itself in some other registry i mean like not really lost but internally misfiled in a way it's a possibility meaning it could be sitting in some lab or a shelf maybe gideon avenue has made me think maybe the nails have been under our noses the whole time if my hunch is right and the israeli archaeologists who were involved in the kaifast tomb suspected that the roman nails found there had something to do with crucifixion maybe they sent them to professor herzkovich's lab at tel aviv university now he's a forensic anthropologist he deals with bone not nails but crucifixion is where bone meets nail so maybe someone sent the nails there maybe that's the right address for our investigation we've been tracking two nails that went missing the antiquities authorities they say it's probably misplaced did you ever get two nails together yes we have two nails together yes from jerusalem from jerusalem yeah can we go can we go look sure absolutely so these are the nails yes these are the two nails from jerusalem that arrived to the lab more than 15 years ago from the second temple period could it be 18 years ago yeah could be it's the only example of two nails arriving together yes the fact that they're bent this way would this be consistent with crucifixion it could be why would they bend the nail if you put a nail through the palm of the hand you can you can easily fray the hand but if you put an edge through the palm of the hand and then you stick it to the wood by actually bending the nail the palm of the hands are attached firmly to the crossbar so the fact they're bent is more consistent with crucifixion than if you saw them straight yes i would say so the kyphus nails were found in a specific chemical setting one was outside the limestone ossuaries and one was inside an ossuary if these are the kaifus nails one should have a heavy limestone deposit collected from inside the ossuary and one should be limestone free since it was found outside the ossuaries incredibly that's just what professor herskovitz finds one doesn't have limestone on it but the other one does so what do you see there are remnants of lime on the nail you know limestone most oceans are made of limestone furthermore professor herskovitz finds that the heads of the nails are similar to the only crucifixion nail found anywhere which is also in professor herskovitz's lab so it seems that these are the missing nails the nails which may have come from jesus's cross why is nobody as excited as i am you know crucifixion is a very sensitive issue from the religious point of view i believe that most people prefer to leave it aside so it seems that religious sensitivities not science dictated policy towards these nails if caiphus kept the nails of jesus for whatever reasons he felt bad he felt he would have healing powers he felt that this shows he has power over him whatever this could be the nails of the crucifixion [Music] here on the campus of tel aviv university our investigation is complete the fact is that the world may be looking at the wrong caiphas ossuary the man buried in the modest one may be the high priest who faced jesus at his trial furthermore i think we've made the strongest archaeological argument ever the two of the nails used in the crucifixion have been found was it the ostentatious kaifus who kept them as an amulet for the afterlife or was it modest kaifus who kept them as a sign of devotion we may never know but the fact is that these nails were found in the tomb of the man who sent jesus to the cross

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Keywords: secrets of christianity full series, secrets of christianity, Simcha Jacobovici, selling christianity, decoding the ancients, decoding the ancients full episodes, history documentary, history series, christianity exposed, christianity, christianity explained, christianity documentary, untold history, untold history of christianity, real nails of the cross, wwhere was crucifixion, High Priest Caiaphas, pieces of jesus cross, piece of the true cross, piece of the cross of jesus

Id: G1gSGPg3UQg

Length: 44min 4sec (2644 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 24 2019