The news story coming out today that they have found the tomb of Jesus, that Jesus was married to a woman named Mary (presumed then to be Mary Magdalene), and that they had a son named Judah, will surely raise all kinds of questions and problems. I haven’t seen the evidence, but I will be studying what I can find. Here are my first two questions:
First, how can they say this is Jesus’ DNA? Well, what they may have is the DNA of the person whose bones remained in this ossuary, and that person may have been named “Jesus” (if the names are not forgeries), but there is no way to know if this DNA matches the DNA of Jesus of Nazareth until they’ve got some DNA from the latter to match it with the DNA of the former.
Second, how likely is it that the early Christians built and sustained a tomb of Jesus if they — at the same time — were declaring his resurrection and ascension, and were undergoing persecution for the following him? What this tomb requires is a long-term preservation of the remains of the members of Jesus’ so-called family. Unlikely to the extreme.
I’ll be editing this post as I learn more.
Ben Witherington has already posted on it; he’s been involved with a similar project and has some clear information.