Jewish tomb practices under Rome

[caesar novus]

I heard a recognized expert of Roman-era Jewish archeology speak about some of the misconceptions common in TV documentaries. Some comments tread on sensitive ground and won't likely be so blatantly stated in normal channels of print or other media. I'll attempt to pass some on here, while not being specific about the source because I'll probably mangle the points (so judge for yourself).

 

Claims of Christ family tombs and ossuaries (eg James): These were for the rich; in the very unlikely event the Christ family had one, it would not be in Jerusalem but more likely Nazareth. James was poor and hated pretentions of the rich anyway. Ossuaries were used in several regions of the world, but for wealthy Jews it was a fashion specifically borrowed from the Roman crematory urns which were identical in form (although used differently - for non crematory reburial). Similarly, the Jewish rock cut tombs were earlier borrowed from the Greeks, not for reasons of ideology, but as a form of upwardly mobile fashion items. (OK, archeologists can really only guess about "why", but they have suggestive evidence)

 

Jesus resurrection: If Jesus had not risen from divine causes, the body would anyway be very likely to disappear from the tomb in a couple days. The tomb was just provided to solve a temporary catch22 of Jewish law where bodies have to be buried within 24 hours of death, but not during a sabbath. Jesus died a few hours before a 24 hour sabbath, so was was hurriedly lent a tomb by a nonfamily member who had to ask the Romans permission to intervene. These tombs were normally strictly for one family and already had capacity problems that required assembly-line reburial of older remains. So it would be expected that the rich owners of the tomb might rebury a "visitor" in a middle class trench type grave after having done the favor for compliance with those 2 laws.

Edited January 31, 2009 by caesar novus

[Viggen]

...do you have a name of this "expert"?

 

cheers

viggen

[Gaius Julius Camillus]

I would be interested in the name of this expert as well. It may help me in my current research.