The View from Jerusalem

Jewish Views of the After Life and Burial Practices in Second Temple Judaism
Evaluating the Talpiot Tomb in Context

Jan 13-16, 2008 in Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem

The Third Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins
Steering Committee: J. Charlesworth, D. Mendels, M. Aviam, G. Mazor, S. Gibson, D. Bahat

SUNDAY, JANUARY 13TH, 2008

3:00pm
Registration and check-in

6:00pm - 7:30pm
1) Welcome
2) Opening Address “Jerusalem’s Tombs During the Time of Hillel and Jesus”
Professor James H. Charlesworth

7:30pm – 9:00pm
Reception

MONDAY, JANUARY 14TH, 2008
Brief lectures of ten-twenty minutes each, followed by open discussions.

8:00am - 9:30am
Panel Discussion: Ancient Beliefs About the Afterlife and Burial Customs: Session I
Presiding: Charlesworth

Choon-Leong Seow “Views of the Afterlife in Job”
F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp “Love as Strong as Death”: A Reading of Song 8:5-8,
with Special Attention to the Imagery of Death and the Afterlife”
Geza Vermes “The Afterlife in Jewish Apocryphal Works and the Dead Sea Scrolls”
• What were the major views of death and the afterlife among Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, or “Christians” in these periods?

9:30am – 10:00am
Coffee Break

10:00am - 11:30am
Panel Discussion: Ancient Beliefs About the Afterlife and Burial Customs: Session II
Presiding: Oded Newman
Casey Elledge “Views of the Afterlife and Post-70 Judaism: Josephus”
Alan Segal “Views of the Afterlife and Post-70 Judaism: Rabbinics”
Israel Knohl “By Three Days, Alive: Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent
to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel”
Arye Edrei* “Burial customs and Rabbinic Law”

11:15am
Discussion

11:30 am Amos Kloner, “The Characteristics of the Necropolis of Jerusalem in the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman period”

Sessions:
All participants will present a ten-minute overview of the question raised, the method used to answer it, and the most likely conclusion. When all panelists have presented succinctly their research, the panel will discuss among themselves and then the floor will be open for general discussion. Each participant is to prepare a one-page summary for 50 people.

11:45am-1:30pm
Panel Discussion: Tombs, Ossuaries, and Burial Practices: The Archaeological Evidence
Presiding: Adolfo Roitman
Dan Bahat
Jodi Magness
Eric Meyers
Motti Aviam
• When, where, and why were ossuaries used in Jewish burials?
• To what degree are ossuary and cave burials a sign of wealth and status?
• How typical are ossuaries for the Jews in and near Jerusalem?
• What do we learn from the ossuaries: markings, decorations, inscriptions?
• What are the broad burial and cemetery patterns around Jerusalem?
• What was typical about burial customs in the Galilee?
• What were the different types of Jewish burial in the period?
• What does the Church of the Holy Sepulcher inform us about Jesus’ burial?

1:30pm
Lunch

2:30pm – 4:00pm
Panel Discussion: Burial Beliefs and Practices: The Architectural and Textual Evidence
Presiding: Choon-Leong Seow
Eldad Keynan
Rafi Lewis
Konstantinos Zarras
Eli Shai
Shimon Gibson
• Focus on ideology and texts
• How do texts inform our understanding of material evidence?
• How are Hellenistic burials related to views of the afterlife?
• What do we learn about Jewish burial customs from the classical Jewish sources and from the archaeology of the Shroud Tomb?
• To what extent are burial facades and monuments markers of political ideology, religious belief, and prestige?

4:00pm – 4:30pm
Coffee Break

4:30pm – 6:00pm
Panel Discussion: Onomastics and Prosopography in Second Temple Judaism
Presiding: Emanuel Tov
Christopher Rollston
Rachel Hachlili
André Lemaire
Claude Cohen-Matlofsky
• How and when can we match inscriptional names with known historical figures?
• How representative is our surviving onomastic data?
• Attempting prosopography with the Talpiot inscriptions? What are the issues and potential results?

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15TH, 2008

9:00am – 10:30am
Panel Discussion: The Talpiot Ossuaries and their Epigraphy
Presiding: F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp
Jonathan Price
Stephen Pfann*
Eldad Keynan
James Tabor
Claude Cohen-Matlofsky
• Reading the “Yeshua bar Yehosef” inscription.
• Issues related to the names: Yose, Mariah, Matya, and Judah bar Yeshua
• How is the Greek inscription (Mariamenou/Mara) to be read and understood?
• What is the significance of Greek inscriptions in Jewish tombs?

10:30am – 11:00am
Coffee Break

11:00am – 12:30pm
Panel Discussion: Forensic Archaeology, Paleo-DNA and their Archaeological Applications
Presiding: John Hoffmann
Joe Zias
Mark Spigelman
Chuck Greenblatt
• What is the history of the use of DNA on skeletal remains from tombs?
• What are the value and limitations of Mitochondrial and Nuclear results?
• The results from the Akeldama “Tomb of the Shroud” as a test case
• What was learned from the tests on the “Yeshua” and “Mariamene” ossuary remains?

12:30pm - 2:00pm
Lunch

2:00pm – 3:30pm
Panel Discussion: The Landscape of Tombs – New Methods of Research and Archaeological Applications
Presiding:
Boaz Zissu
Motti Aviam
Howard Feldman
Aryeh Shimron
Charles Pellegrino*
What are the scientific methods for the study of a necropolis?
• Patterns of tombs and their significance
• What can we learn from patina on stone surfaces?
• What do preliminary tests tell us about the patina of the Talpiot tomb ossuaries?
• What are future prospects for this area of research?

3:30pm – 4:00pm
Coffee Break

4:00pm – 5:30pm
Panel Discussion: The Talpiot Tomb in March 1980
Presiding: Gabi Mazor
Shimon Gibson “Intrepretation in Archaeology and the Talpiot Tomb”
Gabi Barkay “Reflections on the Talpiot Excavation”
• An overview of the March, 1980 excavation and its wider contexts
• A description of the tomb and its contents
• What records and photographs remain of the excavation?
• What do we know about the skeletal remains?
• How were skeletal remains typically studied and handled in 1980?
• How and when were the finds catalogued and studied?
• What do we not know that we wish we knew?
• What would be done differently today with more time and refined methods?

5:30pm – 7:00pm
Panel Discussion: Mary Magdalene in Early Christian Tradition
Presiding: V. Hemingway
Ann Graham Brock
Jane Schaberg
April DeConick
• What do we know about the historical Mary Magdalene?
• How valuable historically are the later Coptic and other non-canonical traditions?
• What are the arguments pro and con regarding Jesus being married or having children?
• Would early Jesus’ followers have called Mary Magdalene “Master”?
• Was Mary Magdalene a woman of means with a Hellenistic cultural background?
• Does the presence of a “Judah son of Jesus” ossuary in the Talpiot tomb necessarily disqualify it as being the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth?

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16TH, 2008

9:00am – 10:30am
Panel Discussion: Relating Tomb Archaeology with Historical Figures: Possibilities and Problems Discoveries
Presiding: Moshe Zimmerman
Dino Politis “Relating sites to historical figures: Lot’s Cave”
Joe Fitzmyer* “The James Ossuary”
Ehud Netzer “The Discovery of Herod’s Tomb”
André Lemaire “The Ossuary of Simon and Alexander”
• What methodologies help us discern Herod’s Tomb at the Herodium?
• Evaluating the Caiaphus, Shimon bar Jonas, and Alexander/Simon of Cyrene inscriptions: What are the methods and presuppositions involved?

10:30am – 11:00am
Coffee Break

11:00am – 12:30pm
Panel Discussion: The Burial of Jesus, the Empty Tomb, and the Jesus Family
Presiding: Tom Oates
Petr Pokorný
James Tabor
Lee McDonald
• Exploring the Palestinian Jesus Movement and Jesus’ Clan
• A discussion of the family movement, from the Baptizer to James and beyond
• What are the basic theories on the Jesus family: brothers, sisters, paternity
• What is known of the death of Jesus’ brothers?
• The empty tomb and resurrection theology.
• What is our best historical evidence on Who’s Who and what happened in history? James, Shimon bar Clophas, the brothers Yose and Judah
• Are the roles of James and Jesus’ brothers crucial to understanding pre-70 CE Christianity?
• What were the major parties and politics involved: Peter, Paul, James?

12:30pm – 2:00pm
Lunch

2:00pm – 3:30pm
Panel Discussion: Statistics and the Talpiot tomb
Presiding: James Joyner
Andrey Feuerverger
Camil Fuchs
• What can statistics potentially tell us? What are the limitations involved?
• What are some of the different statistical models and methods that might be employed with relation to Talpiot?
• Evaluating Feuerverger’s results
• Statistical methods of evaluating the cluster of names in the Talpiot Tomb
• Are historical identifications crucial to historical analyses?

3:30pm – 4:00pm
Coffee Break

4:00pm – 4:15pm
How to prepare publishable papers: Charlesworth

4:30pm – 6:30pm
Lifetime Achievement Award Joseph Gat

Panel Discussion: Summing Up – What Have We Learned?
Presiding: I. Gruenwald
Panel: James Charlesworth, Eric Meyers, James Tabor, Israel Knohl, and Shimon Gibson

6:30pm
Closing Reception

Sponsored through the generosity of many including George Blumenthal and the Foundation on Judaism and Christian Origins.

* = Scholars who cannot appear but will send a paper.