The Buried Biblical Mysteries Of The Holy Land | Unearthed | Full Series | Odyssey

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] King Herod was one of the greatest historical figures of all time this preeminent King of Judea fueled by Madness and paranoia became one of the most successful architects of the ancient world nearly 2 000 years after his death King Herod is once again on the world stage with the unearthing of his personal tomb foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] comes a larger than life story the story of King Herod the Great whose tomb has finally been found but why has it taken over 2 000 years [Music] the great Jewish historian Josephus flavius left us detailed accounts of herod's funeral procession according to Josephus he was put on a golden beer like a bed that was studded with fine jewels and was carried by his son organized by his his son archeleus and his other Sons around the beer carrying him from Jericho to Jerusalem Jerusalem through Bethlehem to herodian over an eight day walk in which finally he was placed in the Tomb there and it's there at the rhodium that there's been a search by many people to try to find this wonderful tomb this is where he chose to be buried so why with all this information has the tomb never been found Josephus flavius describes the talent was buried at herodium the problem is that it is much larger than just the monument which is on the mountain itself Professor ahood netzer from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has dedicated 35 years of his life In Search of the Tomb part is this one it to the left and the highest point is is in between the Heywood netzer he was an architect he was a young architect but was very interested in ancient structures as well and egalia Dean had him figure out the water systems and other aspects of architecture at Masada and one thing that he was constantly pursuing that he could never find was This Magnificent tomb of Herod the Great which was said to have come as a beautiful tomb with gold and everything else you can imagine perhaps inside here you're not just looking at architecture looking at two architecture and that of a king and for the past many decades has been his quest to go and find that tomb as well as to excavate it [Music] the political landscape of Israel has had a turbulent past with disputed territory and a surrounding volatile climate the search has been anything but easy yet professor netzer and his team were greatly rewarded for their diligence after a lifetime of searching on May 7 2007 they hit the archaeological jackpot at last the long-lost tomb of Herod the Great was found a week before we started to find the pieces of the sarcophagus so we knew that we are very near to the monument once I was informed about the walls in the right place it was clear both history and the Bible have labeled him Herod the Great but what was so great about Herod after all he executed several of his sons and other close relatives not to mention his favorite of ten wives [Music] with the rumor circulating that the king of the Jews had been born The Book of Matthew in the New Testament tells us that Herod ordered the killing of all Jewish males under the age of two in the town of Bethlehem historians call this horrendous act the massacre of the Innocents in his final fit of Madness shortly before his death Herod decided against two of his sons who were executed in seven and four BCE he had them both put to death for fear that they were plotting against him causing the Emperor Augustus to joke that it was preferable to be herod's Pig than his son he even had one son killed just five days before his own demise Herod committed several acts of unspeakable Terror and violence this is the king history has labeled great it wasn't his benevolence or his righteous life that earned him the title but the great architectural legacies he left behind Herod the Great continually defied nature to accommodate his massive and ambitious building programs his first and most nature-defying project was the building of the Port City caesarea construction of caesarea began in 25 BCE and was completed in 13 BCE caesarea became the civilian and Military capital of Judea and the official residence of the Roman procurators and governors of the time including the infamous Pontius Pilate who put Jesus of Nazareth to death it was built in true herodian style complete with a theater and a hippodrome used for horse racing and Olympic Games King Herod started here at Port unlike anything other in a place even unsuitable for a harbor he built a magnificent one a large one with moles going hundreds of meters into the sea uh so large that it comprised the whole area of two square kilometers Court Rave is a marine archaeologist and has performed extensive research and excavations on the remains of caesarea here he had a long Sunny Coastline with no hard rock underneath once he left the coast and so every structure you built you built on scent so it is of course a problem especially this is Santa comes all the way from Egypt it's like a moving sand and this Coast is also plagued by lots of storms heavy storms in winter time it's an open dangerous Coast so to build an a harbor like this just on a grand scale like this it's in a major major in engineering fit and this became of course the center of trade and administration of all this region in those days and became also the port to which he imported all his building material all the granite and marble uh pillars and stones and slabs that he created this beautiful marble glistering Marvel City in the sunlight here called kesaria it was so magic that it took my colleague after a bun the late afternoon from archive University more than 25 seasons of expeditions just to figure out how they did it I mean if you make an underwater construction of these enormous moles in the water already with a kind of concrete that harness in the water from pozole from volcanic ashes from Italy I mean you talk about a major engineering fit especially with underwater and great depth that is even in these days not in easy things to do herod's ability to build in difficult places still amazes both archaeologists and architects today his structures and Designs are still around more than two thousand years later most of which were destroyed by earthquakes or Wars we always talk about here at the Builder who was able to create his dreams again of course it's a very complex person he's also here at the murderer but another structure that contributed to herod's reputed Greatness is the impressive desert Fortress known as Masada Herod built this Palace on top of an isolated Rock Plateau lying on the Eastern edge of the Judean desert overlooking the Dead Sea according to Josephus the first century historian Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE has a refuge for himself in the event of a Revolt no doubt that Masada the construction of Masada is very defensive imagine a mountain which from all sides has got those Cliffs it is very unusual usually it will be from three sides two sides but four sides is very unusual Masada is almost completely flat on top however at the northern extreme end of The Fortress Herod once again defied nature he built his private Palace into the natural formation on the side of the cliff one could stand on top of the plateau facing north and be completely unaware of the entire Palace built below in 70 A.D at the beginning of the first Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire a group of Jewish extremist Rebels called the Sakari took Masada from the Romans who were stationed there in 73 A.D the zealots at Masada discovered their Refuge was about to be recaptured by the Romans rather than accepting defeat and being taken as slaves the members of the group killed their families and then turned their swords on themselves they chose to die as free men finally the herodian the place that would house herod's tomb for all time but why of all his architectural triumphs did he choose the herodian to bear his name and why would he choose this Desert location to be his final resting place herod's buildings were marvels of the ancient world today Israel's landscape is shaped by several of them but one odd shape structure in the middle of nowhere seems to have been a special one for the king the herodian built originally as a place of Refuge for Herod and his family it would eventually become the site of his burial tomb he was seen as a really uh a tyrant and so the herodian was a place where he could quickly escape to from Jerusalem located just seven miles south of Jerusalem on the Judean desert the herodian stands to this day as a monument to King Herod on the outside it looks like a hollowed out volcano one can only imagine the amount of Labor it took to carve out and create yet another palatial residence although it became the burial site for Herod it lay abandoned for many years after his death after Decades of desolation the herodian would find itself with new occupants the members of the barkoba revolt the Romans who controlled Israel were a brutal occupying Force the Jews were forbidden to carry out the practices that made them a unique people Hadrian the ruling Emperor attempted to root out Judaism which he saw as the cause of continuous rebellions he prohibited the Torah law the Hebrew calendar and executed judaic Scholars in 132 A.D a Revolt led by barkoba quickly spread across the country cutting off the Roman Garrison in Jerusalem the struggle lasted for three years before the Revolt was brutally crushed history records that over 580 000 Jews were killed and 50 fortified towns and 985 Villages were utterly destroyed the herodian became a refuge for the members of the revolt here they carved out tunnels and secret passageways the Unearthed team is given a rare personal tour by Professor ahood netzer the archaeologist who has systematically excavated The herodian Fortress and eventually discovered the tomb of King Herod the Great he shows us how the members of the Revolt use the herodian as a base of operations to fight against the Romans one of the things that intrigued me of course is the beauty of these of these tunnels now you had mentioned they were used by the people for the barcobar Revolt were they built by him and his people or were they already from herod's time and then they just used them in Hell's time there's always a systems only the sister okay and what is interesting that these people who build the tunnels they were not interested in the systems as systems but they wanted to avoid the moments to know that they built tunnels in the Hills people sat there they used the systems for all kind of uses not only to to live in but maybe throw that into them maybe to reuse them for any other things this is the biggest assistant in her audio it's not as big as the one that Masada and maybe some other sites but here is the biggest and we found it a a fool with dirt I mean quite full we decided to clear this one to the bottom of this at least in part of the genuine herodian system which is a staircase to go down so even if there's just little water left say you can get it and what is very nice here is the lines of the water you can see that water was standing here that's why the different field levels of the water yes this is a wonderful greetings from the past you can feel the water standing now we're going through this tunnel and this is going to take us to a different area of the palace because the top of the palace so the main building on the top of the hill [Music] we're walking through the tunnels but this is actually this is coming up right through the center of the herodian professor yes it will take us to the top the idea here was to pick water from the systems not going outside so slow the hill to take probably a Skins full of water up to the top of the systems that makes a lot of sense I think so from the brutal crushing of the Revolt in the summer of 135 A.D until May 7 2007. the herodian slipped out of the Limelight and was considered another relic of Jewish history all that changed with an amazing claim the tomb of King Herod the Great had been found [Music] with no inscriptions or documents found at the site is there any clear evidence has the tomb of Herod the Great really been found the herodian is a prominent structure in the midst of mostly flat desert surroundings here in this Desert Palace King Herod decided to be buried and remembered with an ornate tomb in mausoleum there has been much speculation about the cause of herod's demise there were a lot of enemies he had a lot of enemies they continued throughout his life because he kept doing things that created enemies he killed people he extorted people that and it's through that that he's able to to build these big buildings beautiful buildings and a beautiful tomb even at a place like the herodian they didn't get this just by being a good businessman Herod who lived a life full of paranoia died it would seem of natural causes they had these festering pistols on his body and he was suffering so horribly and they didn't the Physicians didn't know what to do he went to the hot springs at Cali Roy with the hope that the the healing mixture of of salts and and water and heat would be able to heal him he wasn't healed the word went out to all of Judea and Judea rejoiced because they thought the word was that hair died when Herod heard that these people rejoiced at his death he was irate he was livid and he had all the males of the aristocracy heard it into the arena at Jericho and they were locked up there and while he was waiting for those last moments those last days those last hours before he would die at his Winter Palace in Jericho at the moment of his death he gave orders that all of those people in the arena would be killed at once he killed many to protect his own life fearing that someone close to him would either poison or betray him but in the end despite all of his wealth and power he could not protect himself from the inevitable death his drive to impress his superiors in Rome propelled him to achieve greatness often at the expense of others he may have had friends in Rome but friends were few and far between a Judea he was despised by many Jews especially the zealots they saw his attempts to rule the Sovereign Jewish Nation as blasphemy and an abomination they fought and sought to kill him while he was alive it's no surprise that after his death they would seek to destroy anything that was erected to honor or remember him here first of all this to Mausoleum which is a different way of of burial that mostly was used by rich people and my Kings and so on so there is a sarcophagus stood in a building that disappeared in we have quite a good idea how he disappeared but anyhow we have evidence especially by the architectural elements uh which are not part of the podium the the foundation so the tube is gone but the evidence is here and clear somebody hated Herod so much that they wouldn't even leave one piece unbroken of his sarcophagus or of his tomb one of the factors that hindered the search for the tomb was the expectation of what archaeologists would find their revisions of grandeur for sure treasures and a beautifully decorated sarcophagus his Stone coffin what many failed to consider was that the tomb would be vandalized and in this case utterly destroyed Professor netzer recounts the moment the tomb was found I was in my car my wife was driving and the only stuff my bill was a dead day it's a field and suddenly I get a phone call from here telling me that we didn't reach the solid walls the that was clear to him and immediately clear to myself that really reached the monument itself that was that I sort of raised by hand in the car King herod's deep desire was to make a difference in his world and to be remembered for all time his barbaric acts of violence perpetuated against so many including members of his own family and his many spectacular architectural wonders have ensured Herod a place in the Eternal spotlight the herodian and herod's tomb are fascinating remnants of Jewish history that have been Unearthed in Israel's ancient soil the caves of qumran were Unearthed in 1947. they are located 13 miles east of Jerusalem along the shores of the Dead Sea here a discovery of biblical proportions was made the caves of qumran a modern Discovery with an ancient past [Music] thank you [Music] in the heart of the Judean desert only one hour southeast of Jerusalem a remarkable Discovery was made a cluster of caves that are now known as the caves of qumran yielded some of the oldest and most ancient copies of several books of the Bible the Scrolls which include fragments of the books of the Old Testament and commentaries on communal living and apocalyptic War have shed important light on Judaism and the origins of Christianity this discovery came at an interesting time in 1947 the world was just beginning to recover from the devastating war against Hitler's Nazis and for the first time in 2000 years Jews from all over the world were returning to the British controlled land of Palestine which one year later would again become the nation of Israel it was during this time a Bedouin Shepherd was tending his flocks near the Dead Sea and stumbled upon what some archaeologists are calling the most important Discovery in archaeological history mid chance that one Shepherd went to look for his Goat Who disappeared and he saw in the cave something which looks like Jaws if it was suspicious that those jaws are a munition or something like that because in World War II and remember it was only two or three years after World War II the Germans sent spies who were opparate rooted in Jericho area and they came with the munition it was the idea of the Germans was to along with the Jews and a Mufti to create a revolt against the British in Palestine when the British were occupied fighting the Germans in Europe so he was suspicious maybe these are arms because they are very long narrow jars they look like bombs he threw stones broke one and he saw the inscriptions and so actually the thing was discovered he brought him to merchants in in Bethlehem and the rest is history Scrolls from this cave began to appear in the hands of Bedouin Antiquities dealers and some even appeared for sale in the Wall Street Journal some were purchased immediately by sukeni who realized the importance Professor the late professor Elizabeth so the seven first goals are now exhibited in the Israel Museum all the other schools came later in all kinds of ways and especially in 67 because it was stored in Rockville in 67 they came to our possession when Jerusalem was reunited today many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display in the Shrine of the book located in Jerusalem this amazing building was designed to keep and preserve Scrolls in its special climate-controlled environment but how did these animal skin and parchment documents survive for 2 000 years in the Judean desert the fact that the Dead Sea skulls were discovered in the Jordan desert is a very simple reason Judean desert is very dry which makes possible for organic materials because you speak about schools remember Mets were discovered all kind of bake of basketry all kind of organic material was discovered like fruits and things which shows that the climate was dry enough to save all the organic material there including skulls today cave won where the first Scrolls were found is off limits to the public Dr Stephen Fawn an archaeologist and one of the editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls takes us as close as we can get by law we're at a very significant archaeological site tell us where we are doctor fun well we're just a little less than a kilometer to the north of the site of qumran and you can actually see up in the cliffs and behind us the that there are many caves in these Cliffs that is cave number one where the Bedouin Shepherd first threw his Rock inside the cave and all of a sudden the biggest discovery of of the century took place the rugged terrain of the Judean desert seems an odd place to find ancient Scrolls who used these Scrolls and why did they leave them in caves two thousand years ago in 1947 mysterious Scrolls were found in the caves of qumran near the Dead Sea excavations began in nearly 900 documents and thousands of fragments were discovered among eleven caves written in Hebrew Aramaic and some Greek archaeologists were able to determine that much of the Scrolls were created and used around 2 000 years ago but by whom although some might say it is still open for debate many experts believe that a thriving community of scribes known as the essenes lived in cumran and made these Scrolls [Music] the essenes were a judaic sect that existed for around 300 years between 200 BC to 100 A.D their emphasis of Purity drove them to find remote location away from the vile sin-filled cities where corruption was a distraction from following the ways of God this was an extremely important center of work for the essene movement where the Priestly essenes met with laocenes and they determined the future of the group based upon the Torah and from what they thought was being passed on to them by the Oracles of God and with the angels all around about them and there they had issues of the heart the circumcision of the heart the impure in body first of all yes but before that entering into the community your heart had to be circumcised and pure out in the desert they built their community qumran and lived a very disciplined and organized way of life following their spiritual leader known as the teacher of righteousness they studied what was right and what was wrong according to the prophets and according to the the Books of Moses and there they met and they felt and believed miraculous things were happening in their midst as they were cutting new grounds preparing the way of the Lord in the wilderness once again accompanied by Dr Stephen Fawn we explore the ruins of an essene complex It is believed by some that the Scrolls from the caves may actually have been written here what are we looking at here Dr fun well here we're standing in what is was probably the most tightly secured building at the site of kumarak because there were some very valuable things that were both happening here and were being stored here okay among those things of course you would have the Scrolls themselves in the library because this was the place where the study of the Scrolls took place the nightly Torah reading sessions took place here decisions were made here on a regular basis with the laity in the larger room on the other side the priests sitting around this room inside and there were layers of acceptability the lay people could not go inside the servants couldn't go inside so that even the washing of the hands that had to take place in order to read from the Torah Scrolls that was done through a hole in the wall with a servant taking a jug from from over here and pouring it through a hole right in through here as servants would be standing out in this area so Joe you can see here even the wash basin that was used by the priests to wash their hands uh this this uh up here was from a later period so we can take that away and remember this is all plastered up to the ceiling with the wash basin here the priests sitting around on the benches here there were seven lamps found on the benches over in this side because they were reading at night they needed Lamplight to read from but you can see here Joe this is where this would have been a plastered bench going across here you could imagine there's a bench right up about this height and each one of these niches right here one two three would have had rows and rows of Scrolls on shelves facing the librarian and when they would call for a scroll then he would have to go through look for a certain passage roll it out until he could find the passage then hand it to the reader and so up above is where uh we know that there were Scrolls written with plastered benches and there were at least 10 inkwells found at this site that is 10 times the amount found in the entire Duty and Wilderness you struggle to find even one fragment of an Inkwell someplace else from this period in the Judean wilderness [Music] the essene's belief in Purity and righteousness was very similar to the message preached by John the Baptist foreign [Music] one of the debates being waged amongst Scholars is whether John the Baptist was in a scene or not we know that the essenes lived a very strict sectarian lifestyle their message heavily emphasized personal Purity which could be achieved by full water immersion a type of baptism we know that John the Baptist came from the Wilderness preaching a message of Purity and repentance through water baptism is this enough evidence what do the experts have to say I don't think John the Baptist wasn't a scene for a number of different reasons Dr Shimon Gibson is a highly respected archaeologist in Israel he is of the mindset that John was not an essene Festival there's no evidence at all that's based on Luke chapter 1 verse 80 that he grew up in desert places I mean the Greek actually indicates that it's a place which is far away from human beings but that can be also in the Judean Hills not the desert the most important thing for me is that John the Baptist is a very uh inclusive person when he's down at the Jordan River and he's saying all of the children of Israel come and be baptized he's saying everyone whereas these scenes were very uh exclusive they were very choosy but who might or might not join their group John the Baptist lived in the sphere of the people of the Dead Sea he was close there the place of baptism all that is he knew them very close to them many ideas are very similar I'll give you about just one example why they are different just small which is very trivial but still it can show one of the important things about both of them was purity baptism the idea of baptism is purity but whereas the dancers called people used to go with white robes which are clean which can be easily washed When you describe John the Baptist what did he wear a Woolen Ferry or whatever it was that's how he's described you can see it also in all the depictions of Christianity in art if it is Byzantine art if it is Renaissance or Baroque whatever you can see them all so you see even such an external thing shows that everybody he did not belong there not all archaeologists dismiss the similarities between John the Baptist and the essenes in fact Dr Stephen Fawn is convinced that he most certainly did belong to the desert group and John the Baptist was a person who Was preparing the way of the Lord and Cave number one was found the Community rule which says that their reason for being out here in the wilderness was to prepare the way of the Lord and many of the teachings of John the Baptist actually are very close to those of the essenes to find out more about John the Baptist we visited Dr Gibson that what some believe to be the Cave used by him for his baptism rituals just outside of Jerusalem there's a flight of steps leading down this fascinating cave has many Engravings which appear to be linked to John the Baptist and early Christianity right be very careful of your head as you come in wow it's amazing isn't it wow so this is the cave of John the Baptist as we call it um to be frank one should call it the tsuba cave and allow the discoveries then to speak out now the earliest domains that we have uh date from the timer John the Baptist and they they uh post-state the original use of the cave as I mentioned before from the Iron Age but uh this Iron Age water system had been abandoned and had been like that for about 600 years or so and then this group of um Jews come and they use the cave for the purposes of baptism people were coming they weren't living in a cave they were coming to be baptized the rituals themselves are divided into two you have people who are conducting rituals in the front of the cave and only when that had been completed are they descending into the back of the cave to be cleansed the flesh to be cleansed in the water now this is remarkably similar to what we know about the baptism process of Jesus in the in the Jordan River John the Baptist receives uh Jesus as well as others there are all sorts of rituals which are performed on the banks of the Jordan River with the remission of sins and this explains perhaps these domains that we have here in front of us the essenes and their community at qumran existed during the time of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth yet of the nearly 900 Scrolls found there is not one mention of either New Testament figure what does this mean for Christianity the caves of qumran yielded one of the most important finds in archaeological history foreign ly 900 Scrolls and thousands of scroll fragments were discovered accidentally by a Shepherd while he tended his flocks near the Dead Sea sixty years later these Dead Sea Scrolls are still catching the world's attention with every new discovery and every new translation but how close are the Dead Sea Scrolls to today's modern Bible we must remember that the Bible which we have today is considerably light there are changes very few but still there are different versions in the Dead Sea Scrolls remember another thing till then we have got till the discovery of that is called the oldest text of the Bible we had was the Greek translation of the Septuagint which is from the 3rd Century BC and there are differences which means the translators into Greece into Greek for in the deception again has got a different version on the other hand many years ago about you know in the late 70s early 80s was discovered the blessing of the priests in Jerusalem this is identical to our Bible which means there must have been few versions of the Bible that this call can be won hours we've got to and already the scholars for years know already that there are some different versions here and there one of the things that the Dead Sea Scrolls does for us of course it confirms the existence of the biblical text and with a a consistency that is really hard to believe the biblical Scholars to see that the biblical texts that they found in this cave and other caves around about they in many ways did not really expect that the Scrolls to be so close to the text that we're presently using today in the synagogues and in the churches and also it shows that there was a serious type of spiritual encounter that they believed that they had with God similar to what the priests would have had in the temple but this among both priests and laity taken seriously the idea that the person's heart had to be circumcised that it opened them up to the mysteries of God that could only happen in community with God himself some of the same types of things we find in the communities of the New Testament and other communities that we speak of in and know of in early Judaism yet in spite of the discovery of thousands of Scrolls and fragments there are still many Mysteries surrounding these Infamous Scrolls and caves of qumran what what hasn't been found is quite important and I think one should say that no not one fragment of the gospels has been found hitherto amongst the the writings of uh the the Nazi skull sect and also no writings which could be perhaps associated with John the Baptist that's quite important what isn't there I think with thousands of caves in the qumran region and around the Dead Sea Scholars are hopeful that more Scrolls will be found and that they will reveal greater insight into an important time in history I still think that there's a potential of discovering Scrolls in that region personally I would like to see a a thorough scientific investigation made of the caves and its and the vicinity in order to to look at all the difference of the possibilities of course one hears from time to time rumors of a squirrel that is surfaced somewhere in Bethlehem and but you know it's it's very difficult to to to know what's behind these rumors I've heard these womens from a number of different sources now so it is a possibility that one day some amazing scroll will surface and I'd like to be a the person at the spot when when it surfaces but you know we'll have to see the caves of qumran have given us some amazing Secrets From the Past yet while answering many questions these fascinating writings still hold many Mysteries today the Scrolls and other articles from the qumran caves can be seen at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in the Shrine of the book visitors can see for themselves a piece of Biblical history an experience for a moment the Wonder and the ah that is for the most part been reserved for archaeologists Scholars and Shepherds who have stumbled into mysterious caves looking for their sheep who knows what Secrets May yet be revealed qumran caves and the Dead Sea Scrolls are fascinating remnants of Jewish history that have been Unearthed in Israel's ancient soil the Sea of Galilee two thousand years ago this was the home of Jesus and his disciples fishermen that many would argue change the world today the Sea of Galilee is a major attraction for Christian Pilgrims from all walks of life and every part of the world who have come to see and experience the land of their savior it is also home for two brothers Yuval and Moshe luffin and what some are calling the archaeological find of the century a two thousand year old boat that has been nicknamed the Jesus boat [Music] the Sea of Galilee Israel's largest freshwater lake is the lowest freshwater lake in the world at 209 meters below sea level today the Sea of Galilee or as it's known by Israelis the lake Canary is the main source of water for Israel it is a tourist destination for locals and foreigners who have come to experience the galilee's many historical and spiritual sites [Music] the Sea of Galilee has a rich history from ancient times yet is perhaps most famous because of one of its residents from 2000 years ago it is here that the New Testament of the Bible tells many stories of Jesus and his disciples you Valen Moshe second generation fisherman grew up in the Galilee and spend much of their free time searching the banks of the lake is 1986 the water level in the Sea of Galilee was unusually low Yuval and Moshe who claimed to be amateur archaeologists took the opportunity to do some exploring hoping to find something is foreign foreign [Music] place a call to the office of marine archaeologist Kurt Rave and Shelly Waxman who are busy themselves Excavating shipwrecks off the Mediterranean Coast we came in the office and there was this message from the guys here we found something please come and check it so the next day we would come here and always already going down here from the hill we were joking because on the way you have this note that you go beyond sea level okay so we start already joking well if it's a shipwreck we're going to have a funny excavation because it's going to be the lowest shipwreck uh yeah 240 meters underwater level Mediterranean water level and still in dry land excavation so it's going to be something very unusual how unusually we didn't know by then but it was already we were feeling already that something is going to happen having searched the Sea of Galilee before Kurt was skeptical the brothers had really found anything of importance we met those guys here and they took us to the side before that we had coffee and we drew exactly what we have to look for next time that they just don't call us just like that you know just check if it's really ancient otherwise it's a Pity we come all the way from the Mediterranean and when we came to the site we were flabbergasted you know it's a I thought just what we were drawn in the cafeteria was there laying for us and okay that blew our minds from that moment we knew our life will never be the same the brothers had discovered an ancient boat could these remains be from the time of Jesus extremely low water in the Sea of Galilee gave two brothers an opportunity to explore what is usually hidden by water and mud finding some pieces of wood and what appeared to be ancient Nails Yuval and Moshe called Marine archaeologist Kurt Rave for help we met the two brothers here like the disciples you know the two Jewish fishermen the locals and they took us to the site um foreign [Music] [Music] we suddenly got this double rainbow bow coming on on the side and we just blew our mind because the rain starts pouring after all those years of drought and it was like a blessing you know from Heaven they said you guys go ahead you got it and from that moment became a mad house word quickly spread about this amazing find people from all over began swarming the sight rumors the boat was filled with gold prompted both the police and the military to guard the wreck and Camera Crews from around the globe began to document every aspect of the Dig it's certainly the only excavation that I've ever done which was recorded by dozens of television stations all around the world I think it's the best recorded excavation ever we couldn't move anywhere or do anything there were television comes with it was a tourist site from day one people were crowning around it we needed police and military to keep the people away from the site it was the only excavation with an ice cream Fender and hot dog stands and everything around it I mean never have seen like it and 30 years in this business I've never seen something like with the entire world watching their every move they began their dig without any preparations people from all over began helping doing whatever needed to be done realizing how fragile this boat was they called conservationist Orna Cohen who at first was very skeptical of course I told them no way to find them both at the lake it's of the Sea of Galilee because it's a freshwater lake lot of bacterial activity nothing survived there are more than few years they insisted for some reason so I came and surprisingly it was a boat once we started to excavate the boat immediately we saw it in a big dangerous it was very warm it's the wood starts to dry and once it dried the deformed and Fall to Pieces it crumbled to pieces of course also the strength of the wood it's not like fresh wood it was like sponge it didn't hold its own weight so we had to put supports for the wood so the challenge first to excavate to clear it to record it and then to move it to a new place where the conservation will take place or something like that this was an amazing challenge because all the experts for delicate the shipment and stuff like that that we called an engineer for delicate things also in the timetable you are giving us it's impossible racing against the rising Waters of the lake the team of volunteers and locals work quickly to build dikes around the site it wasn't long before artifacts were recovered that could possibly help identify and date the wreck we found a cooking pot and an oil lamp from the Roman times we got something that exists already for many years but finally here is the proof right what I mean would exist for thousands of years there were depictions of it on mosaics on glass and windows on paint is Michelangelo Dali Rembrandt everyone painted a Galilee boat already and living in the subconscious of all the Christians around the world but there's never one found and it found every Lake air every sea around the world they found shipwrecks just not here okay the holiest sea and so here we got finally a boat from that time exactly on that place where it all happened what the brothers had found in the mud of the Sea of Galilee was a fishing boat just like the boats described in the Bible could Jesus have used this boat working around the clock in the Sea of Galilee the team suspected the boat they were unearthing may be an ancient fishing boat [Music] as more of the boat was uncovered and found intact they realized it resembled an ancient Mosaic that had been discovered at the ruins of the biblical town of migdal which was just a few kilometers away two thousand years ago fishing was a thriving industry in the Galilee region much of what we know today of ancient fishing comes from the New Testament gospels during the time of Jesus many Wooden Boats would have daily taken to the Sea powered by sails and oars these small crafts could hold 13 to 15 people the Sea of Galilee and fishing are key elements in the accounts of the life of Jesus some of his disciples were fishermen and many of his miracles were performed around the Sea of Galilee the Unearthed team decided to go to mgdal where this ancient Mosaic was recovered and learn more about mgdal's role in the fishing Community two thousand years ago important significant is important El Faro positionato a strategic mental ingresso Del Porto alcui internal device [Music] foreign the shape of the boat was slowly being revealed but this excavation had started so quickly the team was unprepared and were forced to improvise in order to move the boat before the sea reclaimed it all we had was a Jeep a few buckets and a few shuffles and go and excavate the nation boat which is actually 90 more than 99 itself water locked so can't hardly hold his own weight so everything was mission Impossible and that's why those we excavated many shipwrecks even older ones interest more interesting ones but nothing was so special as this one it was mission Impossible from the first day when we needed needles to put the number tax on it because we were sure at one point would this thing disintegrate and we won't know anymore what's connect with what we put on text but we can't do it we need to rest rests near free nails for that so suddenly somebody got an idea to use Cactus needles that were growing few meters from us you know so we were just clipping all day with scissors cuttings and that way we overcame that problem to take the boat out was another problem because the water level Rose in the time so like good Dutch we built dikes around it but in the end we couldn't get it ashore anymore so we're surrounded over an island preserving the wood and moving the boat appeared to be virtually impossible until Orna Cohen came up with an ingenious plan for this we decide to use something very unusual it's called polyurethane foam you blow it to the place it immediately got a strong stiff enough to hold the and support the wood and then you can go on Excavating around it and to move so once we came with this solution the things went very quickly encasing the entire vessel with a spray-on foam polyurethane the team was then able to protect the wood and remove the boat from its muddy grave at this stage another question is how we are going to move it from the side to the museum uh we had been offered an helicopter from the Army we talked about the truck going along the shores things like that but the most obvious thing was to just sail it on the lake the polyurethane shell not only protected the wood it also acted as a float and after two thousand years at the Bottom of the Sea of Galilee the boat sailed again after successfully Excavating the 2 000 year old fishing boat from its grave the team discovered the polyurethane shell they had encased the wreck in would allow it to float for the first time in 2000 years the boat sailed again and even carried a passenger once we finished to pack the boat and to when we start to sail it to move it to the Conservation Area someone had to sit on top of the lobby to stable it to see that all this package won't turn off so I set on it to stay with and then it was moving slowly on the lake it was very exciting of course thinking that I'm probably the only person who sells this boat after 2 000 years and probably the last one too today the boat is on display in the egalilon center on the shores of the Sea of Galilee visitors from all over the world and from all walks of life come to visit the boat and imagine for a moment what life was like during the time of Jesus [Music] it wasn't a time for the Galilee War that we were fighting in Lebanon also me and the brothers just in that period when the whole world only heard about Israel about bad things war and destruction and things like that suddenly we had something positive something good something not connection to the Palestinian problem or army or destruction or politics or that just something good for everyone and either if you're a Christian or not I mean everybody was excited about the discovery about the recovery about the preservation everything in itself as a miracle and so finally there was some good news out of this region okay I think that's one of the if we managed to do that it's good enough for the brothers Moshe and Yuval who discovered the boat more than 20 years ago this is the Fulfillment of a dream [Music] come over [Music] [Music] shalom [Music] share [Music] Canada versus [Music] to the brothers it is the boat of Peace but many people around the world call it the Jesus boat what does this boat do for Christian faith well for biblical archeology is of course is one of the major fights I mean you have we have a lot of archeology here we have very few relics that exactly can be intensified from a certain time or the dead time from that place so here this this became really heretic it's like the Wailing Wall or where we have a few most of the places here or churches that actually built much later on a site that someone decided this must be it but no archaeological evidence and here you again effectual fact this is about from the time from that place from those events and if Jesus used it or not at that period where about 600 of those fishing boats around here so we have a one in 600 chance but it's not important you know this is how they look like it's from the time and this is the only one we got so that's the closest we can get that's enough for science the nickname Jesus but we never come with but it's from the types of Jesus the boat from the time of Jesus gives us a glimpse back into one of the most interesting times in history and helps us imagine what his life was like and reminds us of his message of peace the discovery of this boat has forever changed this region and the lives of those who helped deliver her from her watery tomb Jesus boat is another fascinating remnant of Jewish history that has been Unearthed in Israel's ancient soil [Music] Israel an ancient land of endless ruins which all have stories to tell [Music] of the many Treasures to be found among Israel's Rich historical remains is a tomb that was Unearthed in 1980. in talbit east of Jerusalem inside and ossuary was uncovered which read Jesus Son of Joseph yet the tomb was considered an insignificant find for 27 years until the emergence of a film that put forth an exciting yet controversial Theory because the tomb contained ossuaries that bore inscriptions closely resembling the Holy Family of the New Testament this new film suggests that the telbia tomb is the Lost Tomb of Jesus from approximately 20 BCE until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE the Jewish people observed a unique religious burial practice that was connected to their belief in physical Resurrection when a family member died the body of the deceased was left in the family tomb to Decay for a minimum of one year [Music] a year later when the Flesh of the deceased had fully decayed the family would return to the tomb to gather the bones of their loved one [Music] foreign yet another day of mourning would occur as the bones were placed in a stone box called an ossuary [Music] sometimes the name of the individual was carved on the side of the ossuary for identification purposes [Music] the lid was firmly placed on the ossuary and it was stored away in the Tomb to await a complete Resurrection [Music] foreign there's a tremendous amount of expansion around Jerusalem they were constantly coming into archaeological Remains The most significant remains were normally tombs it all starts on the Thursday the 27th of April 1980 and they're building this new neighborhood it's a it's connecting on to an original part of neighborhood which had been built um five or six years beforehand Dr Shimon Gibson one of Israel's leading archaeologists was one of the few people to enter the Tapia tomb after its discovery its job was to survey and record the dimensions of the talbia Tomb it was a Saturday evening I got a call from Dr Amos cloner he was a district archaeologist at the time for the Jerusalem region and he said hey Shimon a tomb has been discovered it's being excavated by yosuke go out and help record this interesting tomb I participate in excavation we will call to the tomb there were workers there who are clearing out the soil within a cave which indicated to me straight away that this cave had been opened in Antiquity otherwise you wouldn't have an accumulation of soil within the cave itself it was quite shallow in the the kurim in these lokilai which extended off-like tunnels and in different directions from the main chamber walls there one one could have seen those archeries on the day of the discovery and hence they were taken out first foreign was to dig out these archeries bag them put them into boxes and then to convey them to the Rockefeller Museum at the time of its Discovery the talbia tomb was considered to be just one more of the many tombs that have been Unearthed in the Jerusalem area there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about it according to archaeologists it was not a significant Tomb at all however 27 years after its Discovery the talpia tomb finally gained public attention with the release of the film The Lost Tomb of Jesus this film claimed to have found proof that this is the tomb and final resting place of the body of Jesus Christ and his family what are the claims that were made in order to prove this controversial Theory claim number one inscriptions found in the talpia Tomb seem to match the names we might expect to find in a tomb belonging to Jesus and his family the most interesting of the names being Jesus Son of Joseph claim number two Mary Magdalene and Jesus may have been married with a son which explains why her ossuary might be in the Tomb along with an oshawary reading Judah son of Jesus the Lost Tomb of Jesus film claims that DNA testing could support this claim number three the Gable on the telpia tomb could be an early Christian symbol linked to the Tomb of the Apostle Peter claim number four the infamous James oshawari May in fact be the missing ossuary from the Tapia tomb because James was the brother of Jesus they claim this further proves that the talpia tomb contains the Holy Family [Music] if Jesus in fact was not raised then Christian faith is misguided it would have to be seriously modified perhaps abandoned altogether the Lost Tomb of Jesus film has caused a firestorm of controversy between the world's leading Scholars have the bones of Jesus been Unearthed foreign we decided to look into the claims of the Lost Tomb film and interview many of the same experts Dr James Taylor believes the talbia tomb could be the Tomb of Jesus of Nazareth I would argue that it's uh likely from possibly to likely of course one thing obviously it has an ossuary with Jesus Son of Joseph where we wouldn't even be discussing so the real question is what Jesus and can we associate other things in the Tomb with this particular cluster of names however Dr Craig Evans is one of the many who strongly oppose the theory of the Lost Tomb of Jesus film not based on theology or religious convictions but based on serious hard-headed scholarship I conclude that it is highly improbable that the East albeit tomb was the tomb of Jesus's family the custom of preserving the bones of an individual in an ossuary was common in the time and setting of Jesus of Nazareth but what would finding an ossuary that contained his bones mean for Christianity I think it'd be devastating for Christianity one of the main beliefs is that Jesus rose from the dead in bodily form and the account of Luke in Acts the very first chapter is a view of the disciples looking up at the sky because they just finished watching the resurrected Jesus his body Ascend into heaven today Scholars debate whether the resurrection of Christ was spiritual or physical in the early generation they're not looking for an empty tomb with a corpse now become alive walking around to prove he's alive they might be talking more about the spirit of Jesus that they're experiencing Dr James Tabor is one of the few scholars in support of the theory that the Tapia tomb may be the Lost Tomb of Jesus he argues that it is possible that the resurrection referred to in the gospels could simply be spiritual some Jews might believe very literally in Resurrection literally I'm standing in a grave yard and there's hundreds of tombs and one day like a Michael Jackson video you know they're all going to pop open in these corpses in various stages of Decay or totally Decatur going to come up you know sort of can these bones live idea but I think others could have a more I would say sophisticated view or even scientific view I find the suggestion that Jesus wasn't really physically resurrected but instead he appeared to his disciples as a ghost or a phantom or a vision or something like that I find that unconvincing Dr Craig Evans respected author and biblical scholar does not support the idea that the talbia tomb belonged to the family of Jesus he also feels that in the first century those who witnessed the resurrection were convinced it was a physical Resurrection the Jewish people had plenty of traditions that could accommodate ghost stories and so if Jesus was just a spirit that occasionally appeared to somebody and left a comforting thought or word with with them then I think that's exactly what his followers would have believed if the bones of Jesus of Nazareth were suddenly Unearthed the faith of professing Christians around the world would be shaken to its very Foundation the gospel accounts of an empty tomb would be proven false the disciples who were willing to lay down their lives as witnesses to a resurrection would have died in vain the Apostle Paul's confidence in the powerful resurrection of Christ would have been misplaced those Witnesses of the death resurrection and Ascension of Jesus would have had no miraculous or good news to spread if the bones of Jesus were discovered surely Christianity and all that it has stood for and still stands for would be buried never to be resurrected let me see what she says and I'll call you right back okay well let's see what happens here the one thing about Israel filming in Israel is Ever Changing June of 2007 our Unearthed team set out to Israel to take a closer look at the evidence that has led some Scholars to believe that the talbia tomb contained the bones of Jesus of Nazareth and his family our journey of inquiry begins at the Topia tomb that was Unearthed in 1980. today the tomb is covered by a cement box and sealed from further investigation doing well thanks for coming out and joining us here at talpiat at the Box epigrapher Dr Fawn one of the editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been an outspoken critic of the way the evidence has been handled what we have in in front of us is a box that had to be created over an original second temple period tomb wow that was found in the midst of a neighborhood in the outskirts of Jerusalem that they just couldn't leave open like that all we can do is talk about the really interesting set of ossuaries that were found inside let's take a closer look at all the ossuaries that were found in the talbia Tomb in the talbia Tomb ten ossuaries were discovered of the ten sixborn inscriptions the inscriptions are [Music] Maria thought by some to be a rare version of the name Mary connected to the mother of Jesus Yeshua bar Yosef Jesus Son of Joseph the Lost Tomb of Jesus film suggests that this could be the Jesus of the New Testament yosa a short form of the name Joseph and the version used to refer to the brother of Jesus in our oldest Source the gospel of Mark IA Matthew although there is no Matthew recorded in the immediate family of Jesus the film claims that finding this name is not completely unexpected being that there are many Matthews in Mary's genealogy yehudu bar Yeshua Judah son of Jesus indicating that Jesus was married and had a son mariamne kaimara the Lost Tomb of Jesus suggests that this could be Mary Magdalene [Music] there is a debate between Scholars as to whether or not the cluster of names found in the talbia Tomb is unique look there is a cave in July of God Joseph Jesus the son of Joseph and you've got the Mary and you've got Matthew and you've got everybody that the whole Holy Family Dr Dan bahat is the former Chief archaeologist of the city of Jerusalem he is a highly respected figure in the archaeological world we met Dr bahat near the ruins of the Jewish temple he has been familiar with the ossuaries from the telpia tomb since her discovery most of the language of the are very very common name Jesus is very common Joseph is common Judah is common so I won't be surprised at other cancers occur together they don't really go for the argument that uh you know the names are common therefore it means nothing you know the names aren't that common as people imply uh the names that were found in the Topia tomb are common very common Jewish names in fact the uh the names mariame and Maria are among the most common names for women perhaps as many as 25 of all Jewish women in this time were given those names we decide to find out just how common these names are a visit to the Israel Antiquities Authority reveals interesting evidence as the Unearthed team investigates the hundreds of ossuaries in their collection in April 1980 a tomb was discovered near Jerusalem containing 10 ossuaries six of the ossuaries were inscribed with the names of the deceased many of the names bore a striking resemblance to the Holy Family of the New Testament the most interesting and controversial of these ossuaries read Jesus Son of Joseph but does this cluster of names prove that this is the Tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family do these names prove anything we decide to pay a visit to the Israel Antiquities Authority Warehouse accompanied by Dr Stephen Fawn and forensic archaeologist Stephen Cox our unearth team wants to see if the names found in the Tapia tomb are different from the names found on other ossuaries in the iaa's collection Maria so it's one of the ones that they said that how Maria is not is a rare name here's another Maria say just right in front of us the first thing we discover once inside the IAA is the name Maria clearly engraved on an ossuary here's another Maria over here [Music] but here is another Maria another Maria m-a-r-i-a-r-a-f we easily find many Maria's as we explore the seemingly endless shells of ossuaries in the IAA we have so many Mary's here in fact here we have uh IMA Mariam Mother Mary it's where you have Simon this one's very clear actually in Latin letters in this case and then you have uh in the same tomb uh another Mary mariame just like the one on our offshore in the topic tomb this is the most common way that Mary is spelled in Greek taking a look at the IAA catalog we discover that of the 231 inscribed ossuaries 10 of them bear the name Maria and approximately 10 of them read Miriam yet another rendering of the name Mary Maria was one of the most common names in the first century but what does this prove when the Maria ossuary is placed together with the other names in the talbia Tomb we seem to have a perfect family tree from the New Testament family a very striking cluster of names we now turn our attention to the name Jose is it like Maria also a common name that name yosee or yosa it ends with the letter hey is very rare Dr Tabor is one of the few Scholars who consider the presence of the name Jose in the Tapia tomb to be evident that the tomb belonged to the Holy Family it's only once on any ossuary out of the hundreds of ossuaries that are inscribed that name never occurs anywhere but this tomb however a majority of Scholars are of a different opinion the uniqueness of of yossi the uniqueness of Maria is actually not unique at all we find these all over the place both in Greek and Hebrew in the ossuaries that we have in and around Jerusalem now these names are in fact common I know of at least two dozen examples of Jose so that's not a rare form of the name in fact looking at the IAA catalog alone we find variations of the name Joseph including the nickname Jose 19 times it is one of the most common names found on ossuaries from this period Jose on its own does not appear to be enough solid evidence linking the talpia tomb to Jesus of Nazareth but what about the combination of names the Lost Tomb of Jesus Theory claims that when applying statistics to this group of names the probability that this is not the Tomb of the Jesus of the Bible is one in six hundred the so-called odds of 600 to 1 in favor of identifying the East Topia tomb as the tomb of Jesus's family don't impress me because the calculations are based on a series of erroneous identifications and so I claim no expertise in statistics whatsoever but in my view statistics have no validity if they're based on mistakes we traveled to Tel Aviv University to speak with an expert on statistics I really think that it is not unreasonable that this is the tomb site of the New Testament family I really think that that is a possibility and he's a very exciting possibility Professor Camille Fox is a statistician who has carefully reviewed the computations that have been done regarding the hypothetical Tomb of Jesus things that they want us to mention is that the computations that have been made and it's a claim that the chances of this not being the tomb site is one in 600 gives me big concern the Lost Tomb of Jesus claims that when applying statistics to this cluster of names the chances are only one in 600 that the talbia tomb is not the Tomb of Jesus however many experts including Professor Fuchs have questioned the information and the method used to arrive at this number one of the many concerns has been how much this computation relies on the mariame ossuary being the ossuary of Mary Magdalene to the filmmakers her presence in the Tomb could explain the presence of the ossuary which reads Judah son of Jesus is it possible that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene was Judah their son this is a modern fiction this is it what it is in in a word it's poppycock it is not based on any historical evidence I would never think it's Mary Magdalene I I would just think oh maybe it's just another Mary not the sister not the mother it's common name maybe even if it's Jesus tomb could have had the wife of one of his brothers could be a Mary I mean how would we know except there's a son in the Tomb who's the son of Jesus so I'm expecting a mother to be in that tomb who won't be related to him as sister or mother Mary Magdalene was she closer to Jesus than the canonical gospels record recent theories have surfaced in a large part because of films such as The Da Vinci Code and the Lost Tomb of Jesus is there any truth in these films what do we really know about those mysterious woman from 2 000 years ago [Music] talbia II discovered just outside of Jerusalem revealed some amazing finds an ossuary with the inscription Jesus Son of Joseph caught the world's attention but even more surprising was the bone box that read Judah son of Jesus if this was the Tomb of the Jesus from the Bible could this be his son would this mean that he was married and if so to whom recent theories have emerged suggesting that Jesus was secretly married to the woman known as Mary Magdalene but who was Mary Magdalene and why was she so important well Mary Magdalene was uh I think a very interesting character to be remembered by name and to have such prominence in the story of Jesus and I think it's because Jesus was open to having women hear his teaching Jesus in a way you might say was the first feminist and so he allowed women to sit at his feet and hear his teaching Mary also was a witness to the discovery of the empty tomb and saw the Risen Jesus and so her name therefore figures prominently in early church history however there's not a shred of historical evidence of any kind that Mary Magdalene was married to a particular person be that Jesus or someone else our curiosity about Mary Magdalene takes us to her ancient Hometown mgdal where we hope to learn a little more about her since its original excavations over 30 years ago the Unearthed team is one of the very few that have been given permission to film at that location archaeologist father Stefano De Luca meets us here to help answer some of our questions El Faro the information is [Music] as far as miriamne possibly being married to Jesus and the mother of this child that's in the Tomb taking the tomb as a start for asking that question I don't know of any written record that puts Jesus married to to Mary Magdalene with a child with no historical evidence that Jesus was ever married to anyone the filmmakers of the Lost Tomb of Jesus attempted to prove their Theory with the use of DNA testing on the ossuaries they believed to belong to Jesus and Mary Magdalene that DNA was done and it they're not matched uh maternally meaning they're not brother sister or she's not his mother or related to him in that way but what it told you then is of the three intimate Marys in Jesus life that one is not the mother or the sister this means that this Berry should not belong in the family Tomb of Jesus unless she was married to someone in it the Lost Tomb of Jesus film concludes that because the DNA samples from the supposed Jesus and Mary Magdalene ossuaries prove that they did not have the same mother it is possible that they were husband and wife this DNA test proved to be one of the most controversial points of the entire film there's enough DNA information in a single hair to get information that we can actually match from one individual to another Stephen Cox is a professor at the University of the Holy Land in Israel he is a forensic archaeologist and an expert in his field having worked for many years in crime scene investigation for law enforcement and the U.S military he takes us back to the IAA to tell us a bit more of what testing was done on the talbian ossuaries and what that could or could not have proven We Know by studying ossuaries and the burial practices of this time multiple people were put into these boxes Stephen Cox is familiar with the scientific techniques that were used he feels that the Integrity of the scientific world has been compromised in order to promote this far-fetched notion well there is not enough evidence to make any kind of assumption that this bone box contained the bones of a man named Jesus of Nazareth what facts do we know well we've got a stone box it's of a period of time we've got a description on here that says Jesus by Joseph and then there's questions with that can we even say that the bones that were recovered from this box is the person that was originally put into this box no can we say that the bones in here or even animal or human the testing was not done for that there could have been multiple people could have been male or female it could have been animal and human it could have been mixed animal inhuman So based on all of that there is no way that anybody could actually come and say that the material that was recovered here biological material the bones that were recovered from here is the person that's on this and then to make the jump that this name and this material in here is the one and only Jesus of Nazareth is a huge jumping logic huge jumping watching can't be done in fact although only 10 ossuaries were found in the talbia Tomb it has been verified that the tomb contained the skeletons of approximately 35 different individuals as many as four different Generations could have had their DNA in any of the 10 ossuaries this makes it impossible to know for certain who the DNA belonged to adding to the controversy Stephen Cox appeared in the film The Lost Tomb of Jesus and was portrayed collecting the DNA samples for testing he feels he was misrepresented I was upset with it with my portrayal in the documentary speaking specifically there in the fact that I was asked to come in and view the material in these Oscars and the only two of the many Oscars that we see sitting here really had material that was recoverable there was material in the James this so-called Jesus Joshua excuse me there was material in this so-called maryamne ossuary and I did recover it and I preserved it for future testing but I did not send it to the DNA lab in in Canada the mariamne ossuary becomes even more controversial as we look at the inscription what does it really say the film The Lost Tomb of Jesus gained public attention with its suggestion that a tomb near Jerusalem may have belonged to Jesus of Nazareth and his family yet some of the most controversial material in this film had to do with an ossuary that some believe belongs to the biblical character Mary Magdalene suggestions that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had a son have outraged many Christians DNA testing that attempted to prove this theory has drawn severe criticism from many in the scientific Community but what makes the filmmakers believe that this ossuary belonged to Mary Magdalene in the first place the name is very curious mariamne is used in some later second third fourth Century texts for Mary Magdalene as opposed to Maria which is the other form Dr Tabor believes the inscription reads maryamne kaimara meaning Mary the master or lady could this be Mary Magdalene first of all you have to accept is indeed Mary Magdalene but first you've got to sort of accept that this is mariamna not Mariam that alternative views as to the reading of that inscription foreign [Music] takes us to a cold oblique to meet another experienced epigrapher we asked Dr Emil plus to read the inscription on the ossuary which some believe contained the bones of Mary Magdalene set up over here yeah as an epigrapher what do you see what do you what do you think this is here what I see is captioning Greek inclusive Greek by on a soft chalk the stone not very well done but normal in the in that period you have two names how sure are you are you 10 sure that's two names 100 sure Dr Price is convinced that there are two names on this ossuary Maria May and Mara Miriam May being a very common form of the name Mary and if if Ishmael is masculine his wife and husband he also tells us that Mara could be either a man or a woman meaning if this form of Mara is masculine then this mariame is most likely buried with her husband this reading of the inscription appears to leave little hope that this is the ossuary of the famed Mary Magdalene the Lost Tomb of Jesus film also presents a conspiracy type theory of the ten ossuaries recorded during the tombs excavation only nine have been located in the possession of the IAA what happened to the 10th missing ossuary there are suggestions which will be made that the James Ashley might have come from this tomb I doubt it the James ossuary is another mystery this ossuary appeared on the archeology scene a few years ago with the inscription James son of Joseph brother of Jesus since its initial appearance it has caused much speculation as to its own authenticity yet the Lost Tomb of Jesus film claims that this could be the missing ossuary from the Tapia tomb adding this inscription to the others of the Tapia tomb appears to increase the odds that this is the family Tomb of Jesus the tool that was used here to try and bring the James ossuary into this cluster of ossuaries was the use of patina Stephen Cox explains that the way the patina was collected from the James ossuary could not have been helpful in this investigation they believed that if we could take patina from the James ossuary and match it to the patina from here and it was a match that came from the same tomb well there's a lot of problems with it scientifically one patina does not have that kind of fingerprint quality to give us unique comparisons to be able to say that it came from that environment to the exclusion of all other environments in addition to this the missing ossuary was reported unimportant and uninscribed according to those who were carefully documenting the telpia Doom excavations believe that the James oshwari most certainly is not from the Topia tomb why because it was discovered and in circulation years before the Topia tomb was discovered in 1980. there is a photograph dated since 1976 of the James ashware which is confirmed by an FBI lab analysis but also because further analysis of the James oshwari by geochemists indicate that the James oshware actually had been in circulation exposed to sunlight outside of a cave environment for perhaps a hundred years or longer the telpia tomb appears to be shrouded with Mysteries and riddles one of the more obvious and visible one is the strange symbol that appears over the door this Chevron and circle appeared to represent something but what the Lost Tomb of Jesus film has an incredible Theory could this be an ancient Christian symbol while investigating this the filmmakers stumble across a first century Tomb at Dominus flevitt traditionally this is where Jesus stopped and wept over Jerusalem on his journey to keep the Jewish Passover feast and ultimately be crucified the film suggests that this tomb is part of a chain of ancient Christian tombs an ossuary that appears to confirm this is from this tomb and is thought to be the ossuary of Simon barjona also known as the Apostle Peter however not everyone believes that this ossuary really belongs to the famous apostle Dr Emil puesh has been studying ancient writing for 40 years and is one of the world's leading experts in epigraphy here is a very important inscription on an ossuary from Dominus flevitt I know okay this has been translated by by everybody as in English Simon barjona what happened [Music] because we know is very short this is and this is an aleph he tells us that this is not the ossuary of Simon Peter but if someone named Simon barzilla Simon son of zela although this is not the ossuary of Peter it did come from the tomb of Dominus flevin where an ancient engraving appears on an ossuary that resembles the facade above the talbia tomb could this engraving be an early Christian symbol and does this prove further that the talpia tomb is the Tomb of Jesus the talpia tomb was discovered in 1980. Shimon Gibson was a young archaeologist who was sent to help excavate and document this tomb when he noticed the strange symbols above the door when I first approached the tomb I noticed these decorations of Adventures now you've got to remember that I was a young student of archeology at that time just barely sorted out my my teens and so it was all new and very interesting and famous to us at the time the Chevron and circle that adorned this fascinating tomb have recently been linked to an ossuary found in a tomb of Dominus Fleming this ossuary has an engraving that appears to match the facade at the tomb Intel pit and is thought by some to be an early Christian symbol the film The Lost Tomb of Jesus first made this connection as they investigated the idea that the Tapia tomb could be the Tomb of Jesus and his family [Music] Dr Stephen Fawn brought us to the Dominus flevitt tomb to show us this very ossuary and explain something that he noticed from the Lost Tomb film after we saw the film we came in and just said you know it's amazing that there's a actual Chevron on the side of one of these oshories and so when we came in we looked for this oshoy without the the lid on it and with the symbol on the side and the producer who was with us at the time pointed out well there it is up there now I looked up and said but there's a lid on it and oh that doesn't have this Mark on the lid well you know I would hope that if this was a stonemason's mark that maybe it would be on the lid as well and I looked and I said well look on the other side and see if there's a symbol like that and he says yeah sure enough there it is I said well why don't you pick it up and turn it around so you take the thing and very carefully turn it around like so and voila it's exactly the same as the one above so that point we realized that this went from being a very important religious symbol to being simply a stone Mason's Mark like all the others that we've seen here Mason marks were extremely common during the use of ossuaries they simply demonstrate which way a lid is to be placed on the ossuary it has been made to fit in fact during our time at the IAA Warehouse we found many examples of Mason marks on ossuaries it becomes clear to us that the Mason marks at Dominus Levitt are most likely not early Christian symbols at all but what about the talbia tomb Shimon Gibson explains that although he was mystified by the Tapia tomb's facade when he first saw it in his youth since then he has noticed many other tombs with a similar motif you have a connoissota repetition of certain motifs one of them is the Gable so you have this kind of Chevron sometimes they have and if you look at the the one in the from the Tapia tomb it's up a part it doesn't end in in a point of the triangle but actually curves around and that is because it's supposed to represent um sometimes it's a burial um or some kind of motif which is at the the angles of the the pediment or the Gable taking a closer look at the original sketches of the Tapia tomb we discover that its facade is different from the mark that was founded Dominus flevitt we also learned that this Motif was a common artistic design in the first century with very little evidence left supporting the Lost Tomb of Jesus Theory we come full circle and decide to take a closer look at the inscriptions that started it all [Music] the inscription that has been the Catalyst for convincing some that the talbia tomb is the family Tomb of Jesus the name which in this context seems to say that Jesus really did not rise from the dead the name Yeshua bar Yosef Jesus Son of Joseph the most important ossuary in the this collection of the this talpio tomb was an oshawari that that reads at least on the surface Yeshua bariosev Jesus Son of Joseph however this one is not so straightforward the original report records the name Yeshua followed by a question mark it is far from certain that the ossuary says Yeshua or Jesus at all many people are reading this as Yeshua bar or Ben Yosef Jesus Son of Joseph again as an epigrapher is that really clear to you about yourself is clear maybe Yeshua maybe you should but no more than that whether it matters to me personally uh if this tomb is or is not the Tomb of Jesus I think I would say yes and no I want the truth so if it isn't the Tomb of Jesus I want to know it and certainly we never want to argue something that has been disproven based on everything we know based on good scholarship proper archeology study of the inscriptions study of Jewish burial Traditions based on everything that credible trained recognized Scholars know I believe that the talpia tomb is not the Tomb of Jesus and his family it is highly improbable that it was the tomb of jesusness family there's a story to tell there we can't from this though tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth and his family with two thousand years between us and the family who own the tomb of Talbot little can be known for certain about them if they were not the Holy Family did they know Jesus of Nazareth did they brush shoulders with him at Jewish festivals or listened to any of his inspiring teachings the true story about the family of talbiot remains a mystery the Tapia tomb is at the very least one more fascinating remnant of Jewish history which continues to be Unearthed in Israel's ancient soil

Channel: Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries

Views: 1,087,656

Keywords: ancient history, classical history, ancient civilisations, classical antiquity, history documentary, classical documentary, classical history documentary, Jesus, talpiot tomb, talpiot tomb location, talpiot tombeau de jesus, King Herod, herod the great death, herod the great mysteries of the bible, herod the great building projects, jesus boat found, sea of galilee, Odyssey, odyssey

Id: pjgaaIXOLt4

Length: 108min 59sec (6539 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 26 2022