Uncovering Jesus's Lost Tomb | Absolute History

the most famous death in history is the death of Jesus of Nazareth 2,000 years ago in first century Jerusalem he was crucified by the Romans the Gospels tell us he was buried in a tomb and two days later Mary Magdalene one of his closest disciples found the tomb empty [Music] but according to the Gospel of Matthew there was another story circulating after Jesus's death and though the gospel calls it a lie that was rumoured that Jesus's disciples secretly took their masters body presumably to give him a permanent bury if this is true according to 1st century burial practices in Jerusalem Jesus's body would have been taken to a rock human family - given that he was crucified for insurrection the reburial would have been done in secret by his closest disciples Jesus's body would have been shrouded and left to decompose one year later his disciples would have returned this time joined by his family for the final burial ceremony [Music] marry Jesus's mother would have attended the ceremony Mary Magdalene would also impede his brothers Simon Joseph Judah and James would have prepared Jesus's bones for the final burial placing them in a limestone coffin called an ossuary [Music] Jesus's name would have been inscribed on the side is ossuary but that have been placed in a niche in the inner chamber sealed way forever deep inside his family too now see that's aligned much malakal intelliwhite not to talk but if not i go simply to to muhammad in a mythical nutrastim we all microwave f is a fresh air to be truth Ricola vac Chaka mushy right a beta muhabba right it is America why am i foolish in my Eagle ever they are better masseuse a in the spring of 1980 and help you out South Jerusalem construction blasting exposed the entrance to a burial tomb it was 2,000 years old eventually meyeah will get the visa Becca emma bonino fought similar horse may have a Jewish and Mexico as it went elite casual a convenient Colo game sherry pasty the telephone within Kimmel - mister Hockaday lad saw a tap it to team of demand for beta becomes a jihad under Sunday morning under pressure from contractors a team of archeologists was called in to excavate they had only three days before the tomb was to be sealed and cemented over I could see this large slope with tractors and and bulldozers and trucks trundling in different directions and right in the center of this slope was this gaping hole which turned out to be the entrance to the Tartar tomb above the entrance was a unique facade a carefully crafted Chevron and circle that mystified the archaeologists there's no doubt about it that those symbols which on the facades of the Talpiot tomb meant something it's unlikely that the person or the family that came to carve out the tomb just carved these things at random they had to symbolize something what they symbolize I don't know but it's quite rare to find that kind of ornamentation on a simple tomb Shimon Gibson a young surveyor at the time was one of the first inside it was his job to report the layout it was great it was very exciting me entering into the tomb which has been cut into into rock it has a central chamber it has arcosolia benches in the walls for the laying out of bodies it has these loculi extending in different directions it was incredibly important to get as much archaeological detail as possible onto plans Gibson's detailed plan recorded every inch of the tombs interior extending out from a large inner chamber or six deep cavities called loculi or a Cohiba in Hebrew and inside these Kohi the archaeologists found 10 small limestone coffins also called ossuary the ossuaries were quickly transferred to Jerusalem's Rockefeller Museum under the direction of the Israel Department of Antiquities the bones and remains found inside were bagged and boxed and put aside for reburial certain decisions were made by the Israel Antiquities Authority that they would heed to the requests of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem and give over bone material which had been analyzing and examined by anthropologists fully burial and then they began the process of cataloging the ancient bone boxes by 1980 over 1,000 ossuary had been found but only 20% of them wore the names of the dead here it was discovered that six out of the ten ossuaries had inscriptions they are not monumental inscriptions they're not intended to be seen and viewed by everybody and they're not there to commemorate the dead they are there so that when family members come in and start shifting the boxes around so they can put in UN in they know which one is which and which belongs to who the archaeological record shows that the custom of using a shoe Aries for burial in Jerusalem only lasted for about 100 years ending around 70 of the Common Era when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans and so the discovery of inscriptions on stone coffins like these provide archaeologists with a catalogue of names specific to the time of Jesus and on one of the ossuaries discovered in the Talpiot tomb written in Aramaic was an astonishing name Yeshua Yosef Yeshua or Jesus son of Joseph Yeshua Barre Yosef now when this was found I think the archaeologists weren't too excited about it the public would have been very excited but they didn't hear about it he found that Jesus son of Joseph ossuary but it wasn't really talked to that today that Jesus son of Joseph ossuary is in the hands of the Israel Antiquities Authority or IAA as are the rest of the stone coffins taken from the Tokyo up to most of them have been locked away and stored in this massive warehouse but why we've assembled a team of scientists scholars and journalists to investigate the 10 ancient old boxes and to find out why they've been ignored this is it Felix yeah this one is far far this is it this is this Jesus son of Joseph today it takes an expert in ancient writing like world-renowned Harvard professor Frank Moore across to examine the inscription because even though it is one of the plainest ever found on an ossuary its letters are so informal and it's very difficult to read it's being quite informal and this particular one quite messy academics describe it as a graffiti so cursory it's almost as if it was meant to be read only by intimate family there's an X here before the name and then the name yeshua then the for the father's name is perfectly clear you're all safe the son of Joseph I have no real doubt that this is to be read Yeshua and then the issue of Bar your host faith that is Jesus son of Joseph Jesus son of Joseph professor crosses examination of the photograph has now shown us exactly what to look for on the actual coffin you'd love Sheen I you'd she I am Jesus that resh son of you'd hey valve Sam P Joseph Jesus son of Joseph it's amazing it's amazing is not that's the word for it can this stone coffin be linked to Jesus of Nazareth to answer that question we have to examine all the archaeological evidence uncovered in this family - does it fit with Christian tradition does a challenge certain articles of faith if the bones of Jesus were to be found in an ossuary in Jerusalem tomorrow and without doubt let's say they are definitely agreed to be the bones of Jesus would that destroy Christian faith it certainly would not destroy my Christian faith I leave what happens to bodies up to God it seems that Christians can accept the possibility that the remains of Jesus were transferred to a family - thereafter he could have risen and appeared to his followers as the Gospels report according to Christian faith Jesus then ascended to heaven in theory the Ascension could have been spiritual leaving his body behind in fact those who take a strictly historical approach to the Gospels would expect to find Jesus's remains in his family - when he's first buried at Sinnott temporary tomb and later unless he somehow magically disappears and goes to heaven which is a position of Christian faith but if you're going to be historical and realistic he was put in a would be put in a permanent place a permanent place of burial as a good Jew okay well the tomb you have to have a family tomb the family tomb of Jesus if the ossuary found in the tablet - marked Jesus son of Joseph did at one time contain the mortal remains of Jesus then all the ossuaries in that tomb would have to belong to members of the Jesus family on the other five ossuary is reported to have inscriptions we should only expect to find names from the family tree of Jesus Jesus was the son of Mary and Joseph but what many people don't know is that according to Christian tradition he had two sisters Miriam and Salome a and the Gospel of Matthew tells us he had four brothers Simon Judah James and Joseph his adoptive father Joseph was descended from King David but Joseph most likely died in Nazareth and would have been buried there not in Jerusalem Jesus's mother Mary Maria in antiquity was also of Davidic descent but unlike Joseph according to later Christian tradition she died in Jerusalem and within the same tomb as Jesus son of Joseph a second name was discovered the ossuary is now housed in the basement of the Israel Museum as you can see the script is very simple the Hebrew letters that create this name are mem mem is 4 M flesh like our youth can be I or Y and hae-in Ebru it's like H in nothing English that makes maria maria and it's one of the rare examples of that name uh no sherry in Israel Maria Mary found in the same family tomb as Jesus son of Joseph could this be the Virgin Mary's ossuary [Music] throughout history from the first Greek writings of mark the earliest gospel the Virgin Mary's name has come down to us in only one poem Maria it is a latinized version of the hebrew miriam after Jesus's death Mary continued with his teachings and must have gathered a large following in those times of religious transition Roman converts also began to follow Jesus and so as her popularity grew amongst his followers Mary's name was latinized that is why the New Testament records her name as Maria written in Hebrew the name Maria is very rare but it's exactly what was found on the ossuary in that help you to if in 1980 archaeologists had considered even for a moment that they had discovered the ossuary of the Virgin Mary what other family members might they have expected to find next to her look Matthew messy-looking Mt UDA psalm Atiyah nakiye which is a short form a nickname if you wish of Mattia or Matityahu which is where we and english got the babe Matthew Matthew the name at first doesn't seem to fit with the Jesus family the New Testament is made up of the writings of four Gospels attributed to Matthew Mark Luke and John Matthew the Evangelist was a disciple of Jesus but scholars don't believe he was a blood member of his family however there is reason to believe that there were many Matthews within the Jesus family tell you something very interesting the two genealogies of Jesus everybody rates the formal genealogy of Joseph his adoptive father it's basically a all the kings of Israel and on down well known great historic names but the other genealogy is embedded in Luke people don't notice that much it's Luke chapter 3 he got a turn a few pages it's Mary's genealogy the mother and in her Jenny ology guess what you have five six seven eight Matthews Matea Matthias it's a Maccabean Hasmonean name it's a first name of a sort of a kingly family it's a priestly name remember Mary is related to Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist who's a priest so she's got some freestlye connections there as well as Judah which is the tribe of the Davidic Messiah so I don't think it's odd that we would have a Matthew in this tomb at all in fact it's sort of one more congruence and fitting together in fact unlike Matthew many biblical names like Isaac or Jonah would have virtually disqualified the tomb as the Jesus family tomb because they do not appear anywhere in Jesus's genealogy there isn't a single name that doesn't fit the Gospel story each name in the same tomb connects every single one of these names is gospel related there isn't like any name like Daniel or something else just doesn't fit on three ossuaries four names and be not covered Joseph Jesus Mary and Matthew and then on an ossuary found deep within the tomb another name was discovered this inscription says Yosa with a head in the end and it's a it's a diminutive of yourself there is no question about it as an ossuary inscription this would probably be quite unusual if I'm publishing in English I said okay there's a a Joseph well there's not just the Joseph it's yo say no in Hebrew Yossi and Israel today is quite common yo Co see Joseph like Joey but yo se you will never hear and you didn't hear it in the ancient world either the yo'd the e becomes a a yo say guess where we know that name in the Gospel of Mark Jesus has a brother people don't all know that Jesus had brothers most scholars you know the Roman Catholic Church says they were cousins and other people they were stepbrothers but most of the historians and the biblical scholars had pretty well now admitted Jesus had brothers they're named in the Gospels the four brothers James Joseph Jude and Simon but the Joseph in mark only in mark our earliest gospel is not Joseph it's yo se [Music] you'll say or Josie in English was the brother of Jesus but the Gospels don't tell us much more than that he disappears after three brief citations what happened to you'll say was a mystery but if the ossuaries from the Tau P ought to belong to the Jesus family then yo se has finally been found of all the ossuary inscriptions ever discovered there is only one with this unique spelling of the nickname you'll say okay it's clear as days Josie and that's an incredible thing because according to Jewish law if someone has a nickname you have to put their nickname on their tombstone or casket and it's the nickname that appears here right next to Jesus son of Joseph the brother was known as Josie not Joseph and it's exactly in the same configuration right here Josie Yosa in 1980 archaeologists were cataloging ossuary names and lists of hundreds and from this tomb they now had yo se a rare nickname given to the brother of Jesus Maria a rare latinized version of Mary used in the Gospels to refer to Jesus's mother ma Tia a version of Matthew that as it happens was common Mary's family and Jesus son of Joseph [Music] all found together in a family - all cleaned and catalogued all bone material reburied together here in an especially consecrated grave outside Jerusalem all the ossuaries were then created and stored for decades on warehouse shelves why didn't anyone take notice of these names remember that the 1970s and the early 1980s was the boom period for the excavation of tombs in around Jerusalem so there was suddenly enormous quantities of ash trees being brought back to the Rockefeller Museum the headquarters of the Israel department antiquities and these inscriptions are were deemed to be common these are the most common names among Jews in the first century Common Era these are exceedingly popular names in the period all the facts that we have is that there is a cluster of names that resemble many of the names that we find in the New Testament the other fact is that we find these names in many other places so suggesting that this tomb was the tomb of the family of Jesus is a far-fetched suggestion and we need to be very careful with that you know all the terms around Jerusalem unfortunately with construction are slowly getting exposed and in some cases destroyed so it's not so far-fetched that a construction crew would have uncovered the tomb of Jesus you know I mean it can happen I think we have to consider it while the statistical probabilities have been argued they have never been examined by statistical experts until now Andre Royo Berger is a professor of mathematics and statistics FAMAS you Ares and other sources he's gathered every name known from the time of Jesus by noting how often each name occurs he can statistically evaluate the names discovered in tel Fiat one of the things that's fairly interesting about this particular tomb site is that from a lay point of view if one looks at the specific names that occur in the cluster and if one focuses just on the names individually one can very welcome away with the impression that there is nothing the least bit unusual about this particular cluster but the correct way to analyze this is to look at all of the names in unison according to Statistics if we were on a crowded street in ancient Jerusalem and called out the name Jesus four percent of the men would most probably answer if we were to call out the name Mary twenty five percent of the women would probably respond they were both common names but what Fourier Verger explains is that if we were to call out for a Jesus where the father called Joseph a mother named Mary and a brother called yo se the odds that such an individual would respond are quite low from a statistical point of view we don't actually look at the incidences of the individual names where we say that each one of them is a very common name we look at the way in which the factors combine with each other so sure a father by the name of Joseph is not a rare name a son by the name of Yeshua is not a rare name but when you combine those two together it's rarer so it really is a possibility that this particular tomb site is in fact the one of the New Testament family it is a possibility that I think needs to be taken seriously [Music] taking the possibility seriously means that we must try to uncover more evidence and one way to do that is to find the talbiya - but more than 25 years ago the tomb was reburied sealed and cemented over a huge complex of apartments was built on top even if the tomb can be located it may well be impossible to get into it sitting under metres of concrete foundation poring over architectural plans that Cades old and cross-referencing the iaa archaeology reports our team believes they discovered the underground location of the Talpiot tomb the tally outside is perfectly situated halfway between ancient Jerusalem and Bethlehem the two city's most important to Jesus and his family it would have been an ideal location for his family tomb considering that surviving members would have traveled from both cities to visit the burial sanctity if you think about it it's perfect it's right between Jerusalem over there were Titus and Bethlehem is over there this is where if I was a member of the Jesus family this is where I would want to be buried okay so we know that there's a tomb right over here right our research shows that in 1980 the two - yes we've discovered on the top you'd site the roof of the second tomb had been partially destroyed by construction but it was sealed up again and not excavated because of time constraints and pressure from religious groups to keep it undisturbed the archaeological reports showed that the second term is 20 meters north of - number one the apartment blueprints show that - number one is located under the patio and beside a bedroom wall this we believe is the tomb we're looking for now we know that one of the tombs is under the patio we know that there's pipes coming out that's where you come in there's some crude IAA sketches suggest that both tombs may have had access pipes installed before building continued above them it's common for pipes like these to be added at the request of rabbis in response to the Orthodox belief that spirits need a clear passage from a tool we're gonna go down however many feet it is till we hit bottom I mean and once once we're down there if the drawing is accurate and we've got that curve in that pipe the cameras gonna go down the curve we're gonna see what's there my concern is that those pipes are bogus the whoever built it just build pipes there to make rabbis happy oh yeah the souls can move and there's nothing there ideally you stick your camera down that thing yes confirm that there is a tomb but there's a space in between the tomb and the bedroom if you will I don't know how deep it goes we cut a hole in the bedroom wall boom we're in [Music] get its do it and then food fast neighbors getting interested in what we're doing we've obtained permission from the tenant to give us access to the tapia department we pinpointed in the blueprints we've only been given two days this is it this is it yeah this is it listen we need a tape measure this is the real thing look at it we're 17-feet some resistance but that's not the bottom there's more bill Tarrant is our expert with probe and remote operated cameras even if the access hole is as small as a quarter of an inch bill can get a camera inside this is the video problem very light and you see your face in it look how clear that is see the cameras in the tip the lights in the tip you know we're gonna sit we're gonna see what it wherever this cameras pointed that's what we're gonna see what can I do it's articulating I'll move in all directions yeah that'll be able to keep us in the center of the pipe so that we can actually look and see what we're doing okay very good so I'm gonna Center it and I'm gonna insert it into the pipe okay okay take a look so watch it with you I'll move the camera as we go down try to keep in the center see how we're going down it's still pretty clean and we're moving now we're down about ten feet no debris what's that - color change changing color because it looks like they use different color pipes when they put this thing in how long is your karma 25 feet oh I see something not good not good do that there it looks like some sticks I see plastic and they see some not good wooden pieces some debris or something you know what this is a pretty serious blockage about here I think people are reluctant to think that you could come upon the Jesus family tomb and yet there's Caiaphas the priest who had Jesus crucified his tomb was found by a bulldozer south of Jerusalem a few years ago in December of 1990 construction workers uncovered an ancient burial cave from the first century inside there were 12 ossuary x' two of them bore the name Caiaphas this one the most ornate ossuary has the inscription Joseph son of Caiaphas carved into it twice Joseph son of Caiaphas was the high priest of the temple who according to the Gospels prosecuted Jesus from his point of view Jesus was a dangerous false messiah who was leading the Jewish masses into a confrontation with Israel's rulers in role the Caiaphas ashtray was found so it's not as though no famous you know he said well it couldn't be anybody no matter what we find couldn't be anybody important why not it seems to me there's a double standard you said that Caiaphas is in all probability the high priest who prosecuted Jesus according to the Gospels whereas this entire cluster is dismissed well this is just common Jewish names I mean how are you so convinced that this is the Caiaphas you find more Oscars in that same - less fancy with the named Caiaphas not Joseph son of Caiaphas but the named Caiaphas on so it's definitely the tomb as all tombs were of a clan this is the tomb of the Caiphas clan one of them who live green should have been Joseph son of Caiaphas the one that we know from the New Testament and the adornment on the Oscar II shows you very clearly that it is of a different standard so fancy declaration convinces you that this is the Caiaphas tomb of Caiaphas is not that common name it's not a common as common name as Jesus Joseph John or Mary 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 in dating and timing for that period and it could be that one the fact is that we have never found anywhere else in Australia with the name Joseph son of Caiaphas anywhere else on the other hand you have a whole bunch of unique things Yaser which you find in this tomb and that specific variation of the name you only find in the Gospel of Mark as a brother of Jesus only in this tomb no other as rare as Caiaphas in fact rarer because in the Caiaphas family tomb he found several Caiaphas's Yosa appears once period out of all these thousands of Oscars have been found yet nobody says in all probability that's probably the brother of Jesus of Nazareth nobody does that the fact that the probabilities in Caiphas are very high does not say in all certainty that this is the one there was no inscription inside saying I have crucified Jesus we don't know for a hundred percent we never know for a hundred percent in archaeology but the experts do seem 100% comfortable connecting some ossuaries directly to famous names in the Gospels as long as they steer clear of the Jesus family at the 5th station on the Via Dolorosa the path Jesus walked carrying his cross we find a dedication to Simon of Cyrene II [Music] it is here that there was a moment both historic and intimate between Jesus and a man called Simon according to the Gospels Jesus stumbled on route to the crucifixion and Simon was visiting Jerusalem from Cyrene II helped him carry his burden [Music] Simon and his son Alexander became early followers of Jesus experts agree that there are sooo Airi has been found strangely it's it's ignored under an archival shelf in the back of a university building well we have a nice ossuary that was found in 1941 one of the inscriptions clearly says Alexander son of Simon Alexandra's Simo knows that one that's clearly incised is right here shame on you can see it very clearly right Shimon and apparently the chalk which is on the other side and is essentially faded does have the two names Alexander at the top simon below which would indicate that both of these individuals were put in this very on the lid of this ossuary the place name cerini in modern Libya is inscribed Simon of Cyrene is mentioned in the New Testament helping Jesus with his carry his cross if scholars have generally agreed this is his bone box this is it then this is one of the most important artifacts and Christendom why is it sitting under somebody's table part of it is that it was found many years ago in 1941 that was long before there were even popular magazines on Biblical Archaeology for the layman so it escaped the popular attention you have to have a publicist you have to have somebody that says boy this is something let's put this out right ends up sitting in a storeroom it ends up sitting in a storeroom maybe we'll be able to see that chart that charcoal green charcoal if we get the light over here on this and be able to read it too soon okay it's some more low good yeah bring that over oh look at this simcha the mirror look at this forget the green for a minute look this is incised oh my I don't think that's polished it's not published as that's not of any of the publication's on the ossuary of Simon of Cyrene II the man who helped carry Jesus's cross we found the same symbol that is carved over the entrance to the tempie up to the tomb that housed the ossuary inscribed Jesus son of Joseph I mean I've never heard this any book I'm his shot Wow well I didn't expect I was trying to read the green letters it wasn't looking for signs of early Christianity signs of early Christianity is this a symbol that predates the cross is it possible that the symbol marking the Tau peod tomb became the symbol of the Jesus Movement it is if the tomb belongs to Jesus and his family nothing look at nothing this one anywhere given anything and I think it's a plastic [Music] you're nothing crowd oh you're so very scared walking sorry you know we're at the point now I think we got a call on a plumber we're gonna we're gonna break into the tomb with a plumber you got a better idea you die yeah we need a plumber now no nobody will come now it's almost 9 p.m. so call him now and bring him tomorrow this is crazy start with the plumber what else we got a deal [Music] over 25 years ago archaeologists discovered four ossuaries links directly to Jesus and his family then on a fifth ossuary the uncovered another inscription the inscription has two parts the second part reads Mara well the first part is a diminutive of Miriam Lee and although no one had ever seen this name on an ossuary it was translated as just another version of Mary Mary also known as Mara but would it make sense to find in the Jesus family tomb to ossuaries with the name Mary first maria the name used in the gospels to refer to the Virgin Mother and the second a unique spelling of both Mary and the name Mara it might make sense if the second marry this Miriam nee was Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene comes down to us in the New Testament is not just a name but a name and title according to scholars she is Mary from Magdala Mary Magdalene Magdala was an important trade center close to the Sea of Galilee the people from Magdala would have spoken Greek as well as Aramaic Christian traditions suggest that Mary Magdalene and her brother Philip were preachers to the Greek speaking Jews and it's quite likely that Mary Magdalene's family and followers would have written her name in Greek the Mariamne ossuary is the only one found in the Tapia tomb with a Greek inscription let's say in this very tomb of tell peeled the second marry right was clearly identifiable as Mary Magdalene let's say right what would you be reaction then along inside this cluster it would be fascinating and certainly draw much more attention and raise many more questions but it isn't we don't have Mary of Magdala in that tomb if one of the Ospreys had said Mary Magdalene I would say wow and I would be a lot more impressed if it will be written Marya magma Rhea coming from migdal or Maria Magdalena is a very interesting if the Mariamne inscription could be connected to Mary Magdalene it would be more than interesting it would be statistically compelling because we could create a combined probability equation for the tabut cluster that includes Mary amny what happens when you do that is that the individual probability factors even though they're not terribly small in any one particular case when you multiply them all together it actually starts to build up a picture that the overall thing that you've seen is actually very rare event because foyer burger takes a conservative approach he eliminates Mattia altogether since E is not a known member of Jesus's immediate family for Yerger also divides the probability outcome by four so as to compensate for any unintended biases in the historical data and he further divides the number by 1,000 representing all first century Jerusalem tombs by the end his model concludes that there is only one chance in 600 that the Tao Piatt tomb is not the Jesus family tomb if Mariamne can be linked to Mary Magdalene but can she one of the most famous tales associated with Mary Magdalene is in the Gospel of John where Jesus stops the stoning of a woman punished for adultery but there is no indication in the text that the unnamed woman is Magdalene it's a later Christian tradition that has linked the adulteress to Magdalene just as it is linked her to the tale in Luke of another unnamed woman specifically labeled a sinner who anoints the feet of Jesus drying them with her hair [Music] today scholars believe that Mary Magdalene and the two unnamed women in Luke and John are all different women the tradition of linking Mary Magdalene to these so-called sinners can be traced back to a turnaround in the Church of later centuries when women were excluded from being consecrated as religious leaders previous to that time women were ordained and in many early Christian writings Mary Magdalene is highly respected as a missionary I think that Mary Magdalene was an extremely important person in the Jesus Movement so important that I think this is my opinion I know I'm not representing anybody else in this but I think that she actually is the real founder of Christianity Mary of Magdala was a major apostille on a par with Peter at the time of Jesus but later after the New Testament we say she's a prostitute so the opposition to Mary of Magdala inside the New Testament and after the New Testament is the surest proof for me that she was very very important the strong leadership displayed by Magdalene would have been regarded as suspect by an evolving male-dominated church so from the second century when church fathers began suppressing dozens of her early Christian writings the church rejected two texts that held Mary Magdalene and highest regard the gospel of Mary Magdalene and a text describing her brother's ministry the acts of Philip for centuries only fragments of these texts remain and some sections had been considered lost forever [Music] you [Music] in 1974 in an ancient monastery on mount athos in greece a harvard university professor Francoise Bhavan uncovered a 700 year old manuscript it was the most complete copy ever found of the 4th century text the acts of Phillip in it Bommel claims to have discovered an early description of mary magdalene unmarked by later christian tradition in the act of Philip she is completely there is no mention of her previous life she's seen positively as a Christian missionary so she is completely the same level as male missionaries she preaches she teaches she baptized she carries even the title apostle if in the early Christian movement Mary Magdalene was an apostle then the unique alias Mara on Miriam Nazari could be pointing to something extraordinary in aramaic mara means master Mara the master even today if you go to the Armenian Quarter the archbishop or one of the priests would be like Marr Samuel or more whatever Lord master you can still hear it so it's a sign of respect for a rabbi for a teacher related to the Mara the Lord the master it is clear in the acts of Phillip that Mary Magdalene is respected as a preacher Baptizer and apostle strong and faithful and close to Jesus it would make sense then for her followers to refer to her as Mara master but what about the spelling of the first name in the inscription the unique Miriam may never found before or since on any other ossuary in the acts of Phillip Mary Magdalene's name is spelled am a are I am M II Miriam nay Mariamne is the same woman has Mary of Magdala or Mary Magdalene in the synoptic Gospels and in some non canonical texts like the gospel of Mary pista Sophia etc the acts of Phillip seem to explain all the mysteries behind this inscription but if this is really the ossuary belonging to Mary Magdalene then there's one more thing that needs to be investigated the common held belief based on medieval tradition is that after the death of Jesus the disciples were expelled from Judea and scattered to many lands traveling and spreading the word of God after some time Mary Magdalene ended up in France where she spent the last of her days following this later Christian tradition it would be impossible to discover Mary Magdalene's coffin Intel Pia Jerusalem however in the acts of Phillip written in the fourth century the oldest known account of Mary Magdalene's travels she does not die in France according to the acts of Phillip at the end of the story Mariana is said supposed to go home to Israel to the Jordan Valley and the author has an illusion that where she would die and be buried the acts of filler clearly tell us that Mary Magdalene Jesus is most trusted apostle dies here in Jerusalem [Music] would it really be that implausible to find her buried beside Jesus in the tomb of the Jesus family the statistical probabilities are compelling a cluster of names in the Tapia tomb extraordinary the connections to the Gospels too strong to dismiss armed with this new knowledge our team may now be able to uncover new clues inside the tel vo - if we can just get inside let's grab our stuff and see what you get see what we got now that that plumber cleared it all out for us this is this I still dread the idea that maybe the blockage was bottom over 14 feet here's the blockage we're at the point now yeah and it's not the bottom which is good our side the bottom that's good this is deep this is really this you're already 20 feet down you know look at the top that's the bottom Wednesday what is that can you see the button field we hit another blockage or we're at the bottom but what happened to that side supposed to curve the camera let me pan around see if we can find something you should we don't see anything I'm panning laughs oh sorry yeah yeah there is there's an opening absolutely there it is there it is we're there fine then I guess we're in the tomb we got to do we got to where I confronted facade whirring my god there it is yeah that's not that's a that's the tomb you know what that's not it that's not the entrance to the tomb we're in the tomb your end at all yes absolute must we can say that's the it's the tomb all right here it's the tomb man we got the tomb of a found our tomb but where's the gable e time also you know the gable the the sq shoot me Allah what I think that's it isn't it you're not an ossuary we're a that's ossuary those are Oscars yes yes oh my goodness there's good news and there's bad news here the natsu area well what does that mean which means we're in the wrong film our tomb is empty so strong it's all wrong you know what this may be second time right did you say that the one we thought was twenty meters north we're in a second term right our tomb is 20 meters south of here the good news is no one's ever been seen a tomb from the time of Jesus and in pristine condition [Music] although we found ourselves in the wrong tomb perhaps these finely crafted ossuaries so close to the tell Piatt tomb are somehow connected to Jesus or his followers Hey it's nice I'm gonna find the tomb the holy talent oh god I've been looking 20 meters south it's gonna be on the other side of this building [Music] it's this way there you go okay you're going to do this spell that's the parking lot shouldn't be a big deal south is south 20 meters takes us in the garden what do you mean is is not much we're okay [Music] in 1980 the IAA catalogued four of the ten ossuaries from the Talpiot tomb as bearing no names but these ossuary x' were far from plain several displayed ornamental rosettes on their sides and on the rear panel of the ossuary catalogued 80 - 506 they found a large cross mark okay look at this look some kind of market looks like a cross to me it looks like a gross but this cross mark was immediately dismissed as a masons mark it is theorized that Mason marks were scratched onto ossuaries by the coffin carvers as signatures or marks indicating how lids should be aligned to boxes this one is nothing to do with Christianity is just a scratch it's very common it just a sign of the Mason I believe that's because we simply accept that rosser's - ooh the incense it below man any archaeological rain it was even before our 4th century the common belief among archaeologists and historians is that there is almost no archaeological evidence of early Christianity until the fourth century 300 years after the death of Jesus this is when the Roman Emperor Constantine the great legalized Christianity essentially allowing an underground movement acceptance into general civil society its popularity exploded across the Empire and Constantine became known as the first Christian Emperor but it's hard to believe that an early Christian movement strong enough to last 300 years of persecution and then sweep the Roman Empire would have left no archaeological evidence of its existence before its legalization you know what I noticed that a quorum I I yeah a cross inside a circle what is there that's great I love that question because this is not a cross this is four centuries before the cross was established as a Christian symbol this is a rosette the most common design on Oscars of the first century other authors have also crosses on them but there are Masons marks to fit the placement of the lid to the box itself to prove the point that the cross was used as a Christian symbol in first century you need much more evidence than one fully executed process today the cross is immediately associated with crucifixion but that is a reference that would have been horrific during the years directly following Jesus's death for anyone in the first century to wear a cross around their neck would like someone today wearing a little electric chair it was disgusting it was a symbol of torture and his only friend crucifixion was stopped that the human imagination was able to move from the reality to the symbol but perhaps people did use crosses as religious symbols at the time of Jesus crosses that had nothing to do with crucifixion in the Bible Ezekiel there's a place where God says go through the city and put like we would say an X or a cross on the forehead of all the righteous people before this is a cross people are doing X's or crosses but they're not thinking of Jesus the cross at all what they're thinking of is it's the end the idea of finalising right stamp sealed delivered and it took on an apocalyptic meaning then it the last letter means that you're sealed up that you're finished that you're okay that you're waiting maybe for the resurrection you know let's mark the people that are prepared with the X or the Tov the top the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet or tau in Aramaic in the book of Revelation Jesus declares I am the Alpha and Omega the first and the last the beginning and the end Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters in the Greek alphabet Jesus would have declared I am the Aleph and the Tao as he spoke in Aramaic and in his time the symbol tau was drawn as a cross on the ossuary marked Jesus son of Joseph directly before the name Jesus is a deliberate inscription Levittown that cross is absolutely part of the original inscription but it's the same depth and style of the inscription plus the mineral vaporization clearly going deep into all the letters if this symbol this tau was a mark of righteousness at the time of Jesus it may very well have been adopted by his earliest followers centuries later it would evolve into the Christian cross it's a terrible thing when a culture is wiped out and yet you know there's a sense in what in which that's happened to Jesus and his followers and that sounds very shocking somebody says what Jesus sent as far as I became Christianity they're not wiped out but that original movement the way they originally were as Jews right here in this area believing in their own version of the Jewish faith but also following Jesus that sort of disappeared and I think it's disappeared for theological reasons even though I think the material evidence is around if we'll just open her eyes and see it could it be that there was a movement made up of Jews who saw Jesus as their Messiah not their God and because this movement largely disappeared from history we are blind to the archaeological evidence they've left behind if there is evidence for this movement of judeo-christians the logical place to look for it is here according to tradition this is the view Jesus had when he walked up the Mount of Olives and gazed upon the Jewish holy temple where the Muslim gold dome of the rock now stands was once the Holy of Holies there the Ark of the Covenant was housed according to Luke Jesus looked at the temple foresaw its destruction and wept where he wept is here dominus flevit a holy site on which Franciscan monks built this monastery in 1891 this spot would have been the perfect place for a judeo-christian cemetery overlooking the temple they were sure Jesus would come back to rebuild in 1953 while renovating the Franciscans discovered a 2000 year old cemetery this ancient necropolis was partially excavated by a well-known archaeologist named Bellamy no Bugatti but God he claimed that these ossuary x' belonged to some of the earliest followers of Jesus if this is a early judeo-christian cemetery and that means that our tomb is not sitting in some kind of archaeological vacuum it's really part of a network of cemeteries this can provide an archaeological context for our tomb in this network of tombs the Franciscans discovered a bone box with an inscription naming one of the most famous early Christians simon barjona I don't know if everybody will recognize that immediately but jesus said to Simon Peter who's venerated later as the Pope in the head of the church you are simon barjona blessed are you Peter see his name is not Peter that's a Greek word name is Shimon Shimon bar you're not today only a piece of the ossuary remains the Franciscans have stored it in a small Museum beside their church it bears an indisputable inscription the only one never found spelling the name Simon bar Jonah Simon was one of the twelve original apostles of Jesus according to the Gospels Jesus renamed him Peter in Aramaic Kepha which means rock he's considered a saint by many Christians and the first Pope at the Roman Catholic Church according to tradition Simon Peter was crucified and buried in Rome so how could his coffin be here in Jerusalem the fact is there has never been any credible archaeological evidence found in Rome underneath the Vatican that points to simon barjona and here sits nausia weary discovered at dominus flevit bearing his name so if this is a judeo-christian Acropolis it is part of a network of cemeteries and tombs that belong to the early followers of Jesus including Jesus's family [Music] okay you're not gonna believe this you're not gonna believe it imagine it can you see no I see it's a it's a symbol symbol from the from the tomb on an ossuary this is incredible because angle and the thing is I danced identical doggin say if the dark is deliberately inside the inverted V with the dot in the middle the symbol from our tomb right on an ossuary from what is suspected an early cemetery of the followers of Jesus to find this symbol displayed on an ossuary here in the Necropolis of dominus flevit directly connects it to what is believed to be some of the earliest evidence of Christianity as to who may have been buried in this ossuary and whether or not he knew the simon of cyrene ii who displays the same markings on his bone box or the Jesus son of Joseph whose tomb has been emblazoned with the same symbol we can only speculate [Music] but when it comes to forensics modern science doesn't allow for much speculation by studying ancient DNA in bone fragments and human residue left behind an ossuary scientists can now determine familial relationships between the various people in the Talpiot tomb Steven Fong is the director of the Center for the Study of early Christianity and he's assisting Stephen Cox a forensic archaeologist from New York State they have discovered valuable material inside the ossuaries inscribed Miriam Nathan and Jesus son of Joseph inside this ossuary we've got some material that's adhering to the surface of the stone and a very interesting circular pattern it's worthy of picking out and taking a taking a look at it and see what its composition is the pattern and/or material could give us a big clue as to who what when and where it seems outlandish that these samples might contain the DNA of Jesus and Mary Magdalene but if there is enough material these tests may shed a new light on Jesus and his family this is sample 8500 the samples have been numbered and sent to this DNA lab in the Thunder Bay Canada one of only five labs in the world that specializes in ancient DNA [Music] the scientists don't know that the samples belong to a Jesus son of Joseph and a woman who might be Mary Magdalene [Music] if these bone samples truly do belong to Mary Magdalene and Jesus of Nazareth we would expect the tests to show that they are not genetically related we would expect to find DNA representing two individuals with no familiar ties and that would be an extremely rare discovery in a family tool unless the individuals were husband and wife [Music] okay so we received the samples that you sent up and when we first examined them they they didn't look very good very dry very desiccated very small and very fragmentary and so for that reason it was going to be very difficult for us to do the analysis we then went on to process we'll start to process the samples and try to understand the quality of the DNA is it going to be viable for analysis in this particular case we found the DNA was fairly degraded fairly damaged and for that reason it limits what type of work we can can do the question now is there enough DNA material to create a significant profile to obtain the maximum amount of information the biologist will try to recover what they call nuclear DNA from the bone cells the extraction analysis showed that nuclear DNA was very difficult to recover we have been focused on the mitochondrial DNA the mitochondrial DNA being inherited from mother to child and maternally inherited means that we can only identify those types of relationships the bone material is too degraded to recover DNA from the nucleus of the cells and so the DNA extraction is now focused on the bone cells mitochondria mitochondrial DNA can only tell us whether or not Jesus son of Joseph had the same mother as Mary Omni whether or not they were brother and sister [Music] if the biologists cannot recover mitochondrial DNA from the bone cells the test will have to be aborted and we will never know the true relationship between Jesus and Mary Omni we have indeed been able to achieve results we got the mitochondrial DNA it was very fragmented very small amounts of DNA we're able to amplify where our sequence that we then went on to clone both sequenced DNA fragments and by cloning the DNA were able to then compare many many copies together and that increases the validity of the work and that way we're able to compare the sequences between that one individual and the other individual and that's essentially what we've done and I can show you the results here today okay so what we have here is we have two sequences just representative sequences one from each individual and what I'm going to show to you here is some of the variations between the two individuals and so we have a polymorphism here this G and the a a polymorphism is a variation between this sequence and another sequence or a variation between this sequence and the reference sequence we use a polymorphism to indicate or identify a mitochondrial profile and this polymorphism shows one difference between the two individuals we also have another polymorphism here or we have and a/c showing another polymorphism difference so we have a number of polymorphisms that show differences between the two sequences we can then conclude that these two individuals they're not related or at least not maternally related they do not share the same mother it can't be mother and child it can't be brother and sister so for these particular samples because they've come from the same tune and we suspect it to be a familial term these two individuals if they were unrelated would most likely be husband and wife [Music] for centuries people have speculated on Mary Magdalene's relationship to Jesus Mary Magdalene appears with more frequency than other women in the canonical Gospels always a close follower of Jesus her presence at the crucifixion and Jesus's tomb is consistent with the role of a grieving wife widow and so perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married as the DNA results from the Talpiot ossuaries suggests [Music] and perhaps their union was kept secret to protect a potential dynasty a secret hidden through the ages a secret we may be able to uncover in the Jesus family tomb [Music] we finally been able to contact one of the original builders of the tabut apartments Ephraim remembers the tool but is a little hazy on its exact location she has sort of bibliography arts master she wrote the pizza between the two buildings taken today neeyala know something deep inside a bench near banana man okay he says it's right between these two buildings let's try between the apartment complex this is a large garden with high terraces and it's in this area that a Fryman states the tomb is located as well who lipo boob or nip though but on which terrace is the question yes direction along the Revlimid even OMA at silver home the neighbors begin to take an interest in the search and point out an inconspicuous cement slab on the lower Terrace mime mime of caucus is a holy talk of the [ __ ] could it be under the cement thing Ephraim explains if the slab has no structural purpose but he's interrupted by an almost prophetic visit from a blind woman who's lived in the apartments since their construction yet have to have Aladdin point if needs to be a silver bell with a grid I could act Amira lured them but or knows some obviously muster starts ago Amie Riley shamrocks are cruising the Pope can 12 million 1 million percent certainty that's all we needed if we could remove this inconspicuous cement slab we just might find ourselves staring into the entrance of the Jesus family tomb [Music] Felix you realize rolling a big stone [Laughter] it's unbelievable it's the real thing I mean I'm pinching myself I can't believe it okay come on come on fix her and come here to know what you're okay all right I can't see me I don't know if I can see the banks working one Stephanie's not excited okay no this is definitely it look there's the Chevron it's beautiful it's just gorgeous this is Fitz look just like in the book just like in the picture look at it Felix we found it we actually found it I'm gonna okay what's good [Music] the opening of the tool 26 years after it was found coincides with another twist in the story one of the top you toss to Ares has disappeared counting these one two three four five six seven eight nine ten we have ten Audrey's death each at the visits to the Beth Shemesh warehouse have turned up a strange error in the records I went to the store once of there is identical authority in Beth Shemesh they provided me with this computer sheets which indicates that from this tomb there are nine items said quite clearly number of items nine and it has the description of these these are sharees and where they located in the stores somehow somewhere one of the Talpiot ossuaries went missing and it is with this missing ossuary that a new mystery begins perhaps the ossuary was stolen maybe a worker at the site in 1980 had light fingers ossuary scan fetch fairly high prices in the antiquities market and in October 2002 a chalky limestone ossuary surfaced from a private collection it bore the inscription James son of Joseph brother of Jesus Oded Golan a well-known collector stated that he had bought the ossuary from an Arab antiquities dealer in the Old City of Jerusalem decades before but had been unaware of the significance of the inscription it was among the first assures that I have in my collection I didn't put any special attention to this ossuary because the three names which are mentioned on the ossuary which are Yaakov Yosef and Yeshua Yeshua are very common name in the first century and therefore I couldn't even think that it could belong to the family of Jesus and at the same time I never knew that Jesus had a brother or siblings of any kind after Jesus's death his brother James took over his ministry and gathered a large following as the undisputed leader of the Jesus Movement refers to later Christian writings tell us that he was respected by early Christians as well as the Jewish Pharisees and first century Jewish historian Josephus spends more time on James than on Jesus sound just like his brother Jesus it was fear of his religious popularity and influence that led to his death in what was widely viewed as an act of judicial murder the temple high priest animus condemned James and had him executed in Jerusalem by stoning the numerous accounts of James's life show an early Christian of such importance that if it was at all possible he would most certainly have been laid beside Jesus in death [Music] [Music] it wasn't until 2002 that a highly credited scholar viewed Oded Golan's collection and suggested that the James ossuary might belong to the family of Jesus of Nazareth and so began what is now a famous controversy a battle of scholars and science over the authenticity of the James ossuary the James ossuary where did it come from the collector who owned it Oded Golan well-publicised says he got it around 1980 sometimes he said before after but hey around 1980 our tomb was discovered in 1980 there's a missing ossuary the Israeli Antiquities can't find it now maybe they'll find it in the back of a warehouse but I checked the dimensions I was just curious the missing ashtray was catalogue is gone the dimensions of that OSH were the same as the James ossuary no a lot of people have concluded experts that the James ossuary is a forgery but nobody says it's all a forgery and the position now of the Israel Antiquities Authority is that it originally said James son of Joseph I would be fine with that I mean you think about it we've got these six names if the James son of Joseph forget brother of Jesus see what the ashtray says James son of Joseph brother Jesus some people say well the brother Jesus maybe that was a tit it wouldn't matter obviously it'd be the brother of Jesus you got it Jesus a Joseph a James son of Joseph if it were from this tomb now we're speculating but the time is right the name is right and that I think would really make it fairly clear that this is a Jesus family but what would it take to determine whether the James ossuary originated in the Tokyo tooth the date and the recorded dimensions are extremely suggestive but it's the patina that should prove the case one way or another over time in a to minerals and sediment accumulate on ossuaries this accumulation is called patina and it can be scientifically analyzed to produce a chemical and mineral fingerprint specific to an ossuary or two every ossuary discovered in a particular tomb will have the same attina fingerprint the samples taken from the James ossuary shows certain trace materials such as titanium and iron that are unique to the James ossuary if the James patina matches the ossuaries from the Talpiot tomb it will be strong evidence that the James ossuary is the missing bone box and belongs to the family of Jesus dr. Charles Pellegrino has come to the bet Shemesh warehouse in Israel to collect patina samples from the table to marshal Ares I can get a lot of the debris that would be good yes excellent this is 80 503 [Music] Jesus son of Joseph it's just one of those moments were you struck to a kind of silence knowing that you're holding the chemical history from the ossuary that may actually have contained the remains of Jesus of Nazareth a dr. Pellegrino's request we commissioned the collection of random patina samples to determine whether the TEL theater latina is really distinct this mattina and that is plenty for Charlie to work in on the own electron microscope if the random samples do not match the Tapia Darsh works while the James samples do then the statistical probabilities that the Jesus family tomb has been found would be overwhelming if we're possible to obtain evidence that the James ossuary might be this missing ossuary then this would have a very strong additional degree of evidentiary value I would say that that would be an absolute slam dunk if that were in fact shown to be the case the Suffolk Crime Lab is a leading American CSI lab involved in solving modern-day crime mysteries today it will use its forensic expertise to determine how the patina from the James ossuary and the patina from the random selfies compared to the tabut ossuary did you see that piece the head sort of like that tunnel running through it yes do you want to take another sample out of this container or is that so yeah I think that's enough all right yeah I think that'll do yeah mint it just as is so that piece will be good to look at right now we're just taking other samples of the accretion from inside the ossuary iron is part of the signature that gives the soil that distinctive color we now have it from this tomb we have it from the ossuary from this tomb we're just taking other samples and we're going to look at them under the scanning electron microscope and ping them with the electron microprobe [Music] what we're looking at here now is the spectrum of the patina sample that we just analyzed this is predominantly a limestone material correct Charlie yeah that's why it's called The Jerusalem chalk it's a very soft limestone but what I find interesting is the small trace materials that we are locating here as opposed to the general limestone properties that you would expect to find we're noticing iron titanium potassium phosphorus magnesium so far the elemental composition that we analyzed with this particular section of patina is consistent with the trace materials that we found in the James ossuary the signature is the same it matches patina samples from the Tatia to match with the James ossuary but what about the random samples as it turns out none of them matched help yet the same chemical and mineral spikes as that of the talc yep tuned are exhibited only by the James patina this is key evidence indicating that the ossuary inscribed James son of Joseph brother of Jesus is the missing ossuary from the tapia - when the James ossuary is included in our statistical model the probability factor changes from 600 to 1 in favor of the tomb to 30,000 to 1 strongly suggesting that this tomb belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth [Music] oh my god Oh awesomest yes it's like one two three businesses the coffee to here to here to here exactly six Ilana look to death nieces or you lay out the body Jesus's body Mary's body would have been there and then look over here hey this is it this is absolutely a jewel over to look at that's pretty deep yeah does cooking more very deep I didn't realize look at that Felix what is that there's a decision this isn't inscription this is big it's an essay that's an end 3n is it N or M and and what's this we needed a bigger friend this is old two three four five six letters see the Greek or Latin word certainly not Hebrew looking around we noticed that we were sitting on mounds of decomposing pages of Scripture what does that sign that that shut it down look at that Felix this is full of holy books disintegrating holy box according to Jewish law biblical books cannot be discarded they have to be buried like humans it seems that in the weeks following the removal of the ossuaries and before the tomb was resealed a local rabbinical school filled the tomb with damaged holy texts among them we found a book that Jesus refers to as the key to his ministry The Book of Jonah Jesus says in the gospel if you want to know that his apostle say we were you have to master and he says you want to know what I'm up to read the Book of Jonah that's that's the code right here the Gospels record that Jesus constantly spoke in parables and cords not surprising for a leader of what today would be labeled an anti-government movement a man destined for crucifixion and those who speak in codes often Harbor great secrets [Music] during the rush excavations in 1980 archaeologists removed from the tapia to the last ossuary with an inscription the ossuary belonged to a child at the IAA Rockefeller Museum the inscription was translated Yehuda Yeshua yes you heard that bar Yeshua comes into English of Judah son of Jesus Judah son of Jesus the New Testament doesn't say that Jesus had a son but perhaps in this instance archaeology forces us to throw a different light on the New Testament could this bone box have once held the remains of the son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene if Judah was their son his existence would most certainly have been kept secret since Jesus was perceived to be a pretender to the royal throne jesus's son would have been a target of arrest and crucifixion by Roman authorities it was a time of great persecution anyone associated with Jesus's ministry was threatened his cousin John the Baptist beheaded James the brother of Jesus stoned to death Simon another brother crucified if they were parents Jesus and Mary would have known that leaking knowledge of the birth of their child would have put the child at terrible rezident so perhaps the unnamed beloved disciple referred to in the book of John is actually the son of Jesus [Music] who remains unnamed in the text to conceal the child's lineage in John 1926 Jesus asks the Beloved Disciple at the base of the cross to behold his mother he then says to Mary [Music] Mireille may hold your son traditionally this scene has been understood as Jesus addressing Mary his mother can this be later theology could it be that Jesus was talking to Mary Magdalene his wife asking her to protect their son on the other hand maybe the fact that there was a son in the talbiya - means that the Jesus found in this tomb is not Jesus of Nazareth accordingly we would have to believe that living around the same time in the same place there was another Jesus who also had a father named Joseph and two close male relatives named James and yo se and two women in his life one called Maria and the other Mary Omni [Music] what's that noise think they're getting upset there were one of the tenants in the Tokyo departments works for the Israel Antiquities Authority and even though we have permission from the tenant board she's called in the IAA Honda they showed us it here mother Jamaa Anika it was the tapia department owners who had a concern for their children's safety arranged for this tomb to be sealed a tomb that the IAA had left open in 1980 obtaining permission from the IAA to open the tomb they never sealed seems unnecessary but despite our please we were asked to cover it again okay is gold Motley's gonna lift off [Music] the tomb that arguably once held the remains of Mary the mother of Jesus Matthew from Mary's family line they'll say and James the Brothers of Jesus Mary Magdalene her husband Jesus and Judah their son is sealed up again who knows what secrets are still inside her how long they will be kept hidden under the tabut apartments [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 34,424

Keywords: history history documentary funny history fun history school, timeline, jesus, tomb, lost, the lost tomb of jesus, the lost tomb jesus (film), jesus christ, tomb of jesus, the lost tomb of jesus christ movie, debunking lost tomb of jesus christ, of, tomb of christ, the tomb of jesus, debunking lost tomb of christ, jesus of nazareth, tomb of jesus christ in jerusalem, story of jesus, lost tomb, history of jesus, bones of jesus, legend of jesus, travels of jesus

Id: b22zCn7y6SY

Length: 103min 18sec (6198 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 17 2019