As the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife”[1] recently demonstrated, interest in the possibility that Jesus was married remains high. The reasons for this are not entirely clear to me, but I suspect several factors are in-play: Modern culture loves a good conspiracy and anything which claims that a powerful organization covered up something about its…
Ok, that sounds like the beginning of a cheesy joke, but the truth is no laughing matter. The recently revealed “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife”, as some media outlets took to calling it, is yet another example of modern skepticism about the reliability of the canonical Gospels. It’s hard to get anyone to pay attention to…
In 2002, a remarkable find was announced to the world: an ossuary or bone-box with the Aramaic inscription translating to “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” Given that the box itself dates back 2000 years and that it was very unusual to put a brother’s name on a funerary inscription unless the brother was…
by Craig A. Smith, Ph.D. So here’s an interesting set of observations to mull over. According to Tal Ilan, who studied Jewish inscriptions from 330 BC to 200 AD, the most popular names for Jewish men in first century Palestine were as follows (with the number of individuals known to have had that name): 243…
The Lost Tomb of Jesus – A Reasonable Response Craig A. Smith 3/5/2007 On March 4, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary entitled “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” Produced by James Cameron (of Titanic fame) and directed by documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, the program suggests that “the 2,000-year old ‘Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries’…