“Do you know the way to San Jose?”
With the ossuary of Mary Magdalene generally accepted as a pipe dream of only a few, certain of the remaining Jesus Tomb theorists are willing to place their bets on this ossuary inscription,”Yoseh/Joseh”.
“Statistical: Even without any a priori inclusion of Mary Magdalene in a Jesus family tomb, just the names we have, based on Kilty’s calculations, endorsed by Fuchs, yields a .48 probability. This is far from random, in fact it means if we had two tombs to look at one of them would probably be the Jesus family tomb. Even one in ten would be interesting but .48 I find quite compelling, given the other evidence of history and epigraphy.” From James Tabor’s statement.
Although the abandonment of the Mary Magdalene for Joseh reduces the odds of the Talpiot Tomb being that of Jesus and his family from 1:1600 (previously 1:600) to 1:2, maybe the world will warm up to Joseh after growing cold on Mary Magdalene! However, if we try to follow the logic of the theorists, we may end up just as lost in the web of their logic as before. To arrive at this 1:2 probability (in other words, a 50-50 chance) that the Talpiot tomb is the “Jesus family tomb”, one must allow for another unfounded, a priori assumption to be introduced as real evidence.
More to come.
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Coming out of the Jerusalem conference, James Charlesworth seems to be the moderating voice of reason. Let’s not jump to any conclusions. Let’s investigate further by reopening the Talpiot tomb as well as any other nearby significant sites. Is there something wrong with working together for everyone’s benefit?
Comment by Edward M. Pond — February 4, 2008 @ 7:19 pm