First Person: “The Tomb of Jesus”—My Take - The BAS Library
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First Person: “The Tomb of Jesus”—My Take

The backlash from believers is understandable, but why were scholars so outraged?

By Hershel Shanks

For a few months now, people have been asking me (and, more importunately, the BAR staff), “What does Hershel think?” referring to the notorious claim in a TV special that the Tomb of Jesus has been identified in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. I really had nothing to say. Fortunately, I would tell questioners, I was sunning myself in the Caribbean when the news broke and was unavailable for comment. If I had to tell my interlocutors more, I would say that I just don’t have a dog in this fight, so I have no views. With the passage […]

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Footnotes

1.

See Dan Bahat, “Does the Holy Sepulchre Church Mark the Burial of Jesus?” BAR, 12:03, and Hershel Shanks, Jerusalem—An Archaeological Biography (New York: Random House, 1995), pp. 196–213.

2.

Read Jodi Magness’s full article “Has the Tomb of Jesus Been Discovered?” on the Biblical Archaeology Society Web site at www.biblicalarchaeology.org.

3.

See André Lemaire, “Burial Box of James the Brother of Jesus,” BAR 28:06.