In 1980, and Israeli boy had seen the tomb as it was uncovered by construction crews. He told his mother that the construction crews were going to destroy it. His mother tried to find archaeologists to come but none were available. The construction crew soon went home for the Sabbath.

Jesus would have been put in a permanent tomb, as a good Jew. He would have to be in a family tomb. That said by professor James Tabor from Univ. of No. Carolina. The Hebrew writing on the tomb is exact - Yeshua son of Yosef. Yod, vav, shin, ayn (Yeshua/Jesus); beit, resh (son of); yod, hay, vav, tzamech (Yosef). Clear as day, for those who can read Hebrew.

Looking at the names of the family tree of Jesus: Jesus son of Mary - he had two sisters, Miriam and Salome. He had four brothers, Simon, Judah, James, and Joseph. His adopted father, Joseph, was descended from King David, but he probably died in Nazareth. Mary, Maria (his mother), died in Jerusalem. Hebrew name/the letters mem, resh, yod, hay (Maria), is on the tomb. It is one of the rare examples of that name on an ossuary in Israel. Maria is a Latinized version of the Hebrew Miriam. Roman converts followed Jesus, so her name was Latinized. So, that makes her name Maria a rare one to find.

Matthia (Mattia, or Mattia-Yahu) Matthew - is on the tomb. In Luke chapter 3, Mary's geneology is written, and in hers Jesus has 8 Matthews. (Maccabean name, priestly name). Mary has priestly connections in her. Mary is related to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Judah, is the tribe of Jesus. So it would be expected to have a Matthew in this tomb with Jesus. If there were other names on the tomb, like Isaac, the tomb would have been disqualified because they wouldn't have been gospel-connected.

Matthew is a common name in Mary's family. Mara, Mary, Mariamne. (Mary Magdalene, Mary from Migdal.) Migdal, a famous trade center near Galilee. Mary and her brother Phillip were preachers speaking to the Greek speaking Jews, and it's quite likely her family and followers would have written her name in Greek. This is the only name in the ossuary with a Greek inscription Mariamne. This makes the odds much higher that this is on the right track of being Jesus' tomb.

There were discussions about how those studying this built models and examined all these odds. They have to link Mariamne to Mary Magdalene. In the Gospel of John when Jesus stops the stoning of a woman, there is no indication that the unnamed woman is Magdalene. It's a later Christian tradition that has linked her to that. Same in Luke - called a sinner who annoints the feet of Jesus, and drying them with her hair. Some scholars believe these women are different women. The tradition of linking Mary Magdalene to these sinners can be tracked back to a turnaround in the church of later cenuries when women were excluded from being consecrated leaders. Before that women were ordained. Mary was highly respected as a missionary. She is the real founder of Christianity, according to one of the Israeli women scholars. The strong leadership displayed by her would have been views with suspect by males in a new male-dominated church.

So in the second century when the men suppressed the early writings, the church rejected two texts: the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and the Acts of Phillip (her brother's ministry). For centuries only fragments of these texts remained, and some sections had been considered lost forever. But in 1974, in Greece, a professor uncovered a 700 year old manuscript - the most complete copy of the Acts of Phillip. Also was an early description of Mary Magdalene in it. She was at the same level as male missionaries - she carries the title of apostle. Mara, in Aramaic, means master. That name is on the tomb with Jesus, et al. The spelling of her first name on the inscription (never found before or since) is Mariamne. That is Greek - the same woman as Mary Magdalene. The Acts of Phillip explain the mystery behind the name.

The common held belief is that after Jesus' death his followers spread out talking about him. Mary ended up in France until the end of her days, according to some. In the Acts of Phillip (written in the 4th century) she does not die in France. She is said to have gone home to Israel, to the Jordan Valley, and she would die and be buried in Israel - in Jerusalem. (This is what I personally believe to be the story.)

On three ossuaries four names have been uncovered. Mary, Jesus, Matthew, and Joseph. On the ossuary found deep within the tomb, another name - Yosa, pronounced Yosa or Yosey. That's a brother to Jesus, too. It's a nickname for Joseph (Yosef). Only in Mark it is written - Yosey, or Josey. No one knows what happened to Josey, but if this is the tomb, then we know what happened.

So they are looking at the combined factors, and that means this possibility that it is Jesus' tomb has to be taken seriously. How many people had the name Jesus, and a father named Yosef and a mother named Mary and a brother named Yose? Not that many.

Joseph, son of Caiaphus (who prosecuted Jesus), was the name on another ossuary in the same tomb. Caiaphus is not a common name. No where else have they found this combination with Joseph, son of Caiaphus. Even though the probability is very high, we don't know for sure it is THE Caiaphus. The tomb that was found and believed to be Jesus' is also thought to be part of a network of tombs all connected. There is too much to explain here - you have to see the movie. These ossuaries all have the same symbol on them, an inverted V with a dot in the center. These ossuaries extend to the place where Jesus saw the temple in Jerusalem (where the Domb of the Rock now stands) and foresaw its destruction, and he cried. There a monestary was built - these ossuaries that are connected to Jesus' from the other location - all part of the same network. This includes the apostle Simon's, however I think Simon's is no longer there???

The forensic data discovered: Material in a circular pattern adhereing to the surface. If there is enough material this could tell who, what, where, etc. The samples were numbered and sent to Thunder Bay, Canada, one of the only labs in the world that specializes in ancient DNA. The scientists do not know who the DNA samples might belong to. They have to analyze them without any prejudice. In a family tomb it would be very rare to have individuals with DNA not linked, unless they were husband and wife. They created a profile from the nuclear DNA from the bone cells. They focused on the mother's DNA side. Mitochondrial DNA. They did many different analyses.

Two sequences one from each individual. They showed differences between the two and they were not maternally related, did not share the same mother, wasn't mother and child, or brother and sister. These two individuals would most likely be husband and wife. These are the lab's results.

Now this was interesting - Simcha went to Jerusalem to this Talpiot apartment complex and contacted the builder of these apartments - he was the foreman. He remembered the tomb, and Simcha spoke with other people who remember the tomb's location there. They discussed where it could be and found a slab. There was a cement slab that was put over the tomb - between two apartment buildings. So Simcha uncovered it and it was the real thing! Really cool to see it happening! It was a large shaft, all built. There was that chevron sign with the circle in the center - huge. That's it, folks. It is the tomb.

James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus, is clearly written on an ossuary. This was a stolen ossuary, that was missing for a while, but then turned up in a private collection. The owner had no idea of the significance of the ossuary. The owner never knew Jesus had any siblings. He speaks about it in the movie. He got it around 1980, an Israeli.

After Jesus' death, his brother James took over the ministry as a leader. He was respected by the Jewish pharisees as well as the Christians. Josephus spends more time writing about James than he did Jesus. James was executed by stoning in Jerusalem. It would make sense that he would be buried with Jesus. No one says that the James ossuary is an entire forgery. There are six names. If the James son of Joseph is on it, it wouldn't matter. It would be Jesus' brother. They're speculating, but the time is right, the name is right, and that makes it pretty clear that it's the Jesus family.

The petina - the minerals and sediment that accumulate on the tomb - was analyzed, it has its own fingerprint. Every ossuary found in a particular tomb has the same fingerprint. If the petina from the James ossuary matches the Jesus ossuary found in the Talpiot tomb ossuaries, then it has to be the same family. A slam dunk. The Suffolk Crime Lab in NY compared the ossuaries under the scanning electron microscope. It was limestone with trace materials of iron, titanium, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium. There was an EXACT MATCH. The random samples from others - none of them matched Talpiot. James is the missing ossuary from the Talpiot tomb. Odds are 30,000:1 that this belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth.

They showed inside the ossuary and the tomb showing exactly where each person was buried. It is in very good condition. They discovered a Greek inscription. Six letters long. Not Hebrew. They were sitting on decomposing pages of scripture IN this tomb! Biblical Jewish books have to be buried. Seems that a religious school in the area had put these books into the tomb, not realizing what was really there. One of the books in there was what Jesus referred to as the keys to his ministry - the Book of Jonah. That is the code. Jesus spoke in parables and codes. Jonah was his answer to those who asked him what he was up to.

The ossuary that belonged to Yehuda Bar Yeshua - means Judah son of Jesus. This was a child's ossuary. If Jesus had a son, his existence would have been kept secret. Jesus' two brothers were killed. This child had to be protected. In John 19:6, Jesus says to his mother, "behold your son." Maybe Jesus was talking to Mary Magdalene asking her to protect their son? On the other hand, maybe the fact that there was a son in the Talpiot tomb means this tomb is not the one of Jesus. But, we would have to believe that living around the same time and place there was another Jesus who had a father named Joseph, two women in his life named Maria and the other Mariamne, and two men, and so on.

One of the tenants in the Talpiot apartments works for the Israeli board of antiquities. She calls in the authorities. The owners concerned for their children's safety is the reason that tomb was sealed. So they were asked to seal the tomb again. How ridiculous! One of the most important finds in history is sealed up again. Some people are afraid, eh?