The Lost Tomb of Jesus, Part 5
Posted on April 16, 2007
Filed Under archaeology, fraud, religion, tomb, jesus |
Finally, we return to Miriamne e Mara, as Jacobovici characterized it. It’s astonishing how much misinformation has spread around the internet about these inscriptions. You really have to look at the original:
This one is in Greek, more carefilly inscribed, and reads left to right, so it’s a lot easier to make out to our Western eyes.
Again, several interpretations have been offered for this inscription. Here’s a few:
- Mary (who is) the Master
- Mary (who is) Martha
- Mary/Martha
- Mary and Martha
To me, this is much easier than the Jesus inscription. If you look at the two M’s in the first part of the inscription, you will see that they are very different than the M in the last part of the inscription. The first two M’s are constructed entirely with straight lines, while the last one has rather attractive curves. I think that this shows they were carved by two different people, indicating that two different sets of bones were deposited in the ossuary at different times. So, the the inscription would read Mariamni kai Mara - Mary and Martha. I really don’t see where Jacobovici got his interpretation.
For one thing, this is a Greek inscription. Mara means master, but not in Greek. Mara means master in Aramaic. So, it’s a stretch (but certainly not impossible) to read a Greek text with an Aramaic transliteration.
Mary, the Master would indeed be a very unusual inscription to find in a 1st century Jewish tomb. Mary and Martha…not so much. It was very common to use the ossuaries to house several sets of bones.
Again, the contention that the inscription of this ossuary said Mary the Master and referred specifically to Mary Magdalene was the linchpin of Jacobovici’s argument that this was the tomb of Jesus Christ. It is not impossible that he was correct, but it’s a long, long way from being proven. Under the most likely interpretation the inscription says Mary and Martha, and again, these are two very common women’s names of the period.
If I may be permitted a curmudgeonly aside, it would have been useful if even one person in the New Testament had any imagination at all when it came to naming their children - where is Frank Zappa when you really need him? I mean, really, if future archaeologists find a tomb inscribed, Dweezil, son of Frank, will anybody doubt that they know who they have found?
Again, credit has to go to real scholars.
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